People who scoff at the suggestion that the government might restrict private gold ownership should remember that many other countries have restrictions on (or absolute prohibitions against) private gold ownership. They should also remember that, in 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt dealt with a monetary and banking crisis by confiscating all privately owned gold; paying for the gold at $20.67 per ounce; immediately devaluing the dollar by 40 percent; and setting the price of gold at $35.00 per ounce. At a single stroke, Roosevelt increased the government's gold assets, stabilized the monetary system and increased wholesale prices by more than 33 percent. However, he also inflicted losses of 40 percent on gold owners and stripped them of the gold that they saved to insure their financial futures.
RE: Kaguya (Selene) Images of Earth-Rise Over the Moon | SpaceRef - Space News as it Happens
Topic: Miscellaneous
4:54 pm EST, Nov 14, 2007
bucy wrote:
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) have successfully performed the world's first high-definition image taking of an Earth-rise* by the lunar explorer "KAGUYA" (SELENE,) which was injected into a lunar orbit at an altitude of about 100 km on October 18, 2007 (Japan Standard Time. Following times and dates are all JST.)
Have they released any true HD video or pictures yet? They list the camera's capabilities as 2.2 megapixel yet all I have been able to locate aren't even 0.5 megapixel.
Still cool. I was hoping they would have enough resolution to take pictures/video of the Apollo sites but no luck this round.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed on Thursday reducing the flow of water from Georgia rivers into Alabama and Florida in a bid to resolve a tussle among the three states over water use during a drought.
The states will also work on a fresh plan for the corps on how to respond to the drought, U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne told a news conference that followed a meeting of the governors of the three southeastern states.
"This is the best opportunity for us to find a solution with regard to water and its allocation," Kempthorne said.
"It's no longer theory. There is a drought in the South. It is also important to recognize that the solution can and will come from the governors," he told a Washington news conference relayed via telephone.
Blade Runner: The Final Cut, Sat Jan 4 and Sun Jan 5, Midnight, Belcourt Nashville
Topic: Movies
3:26 pm EDT, Oct 30, 2007
For the Nashville folks, Blade Runner: The Final Cut will be playing at the Belcourt in January.
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Blade Runner: The Final Cut
Sat & Sun, Jan 4th & 5th @ Midnight
Dir. Ridley Scott, 1982, USA, 2hrs 18min, R.
Twenty-five years after the initial release of BLADE RUNNER, director Ridley Scott uses archival footage to re-create his original vision for the sci-fi classic. Based on a story by Philip K. Dick, the film is set in Los Angeles in 2019. Earth has become a polluted and miserable dystopia, and many people have fled to live "Off World" on other planets. This dreary vision of the future features replicants: lifelike robots built as slaves for human use. When a replicant escapes his owner, a "blade runner" is called in to hunt him down and kill him. Enter Harrison Ford as the retired blade runner Rick Deckard. He is pulled out of retirement to help catch four escaped replicants: Batty (Rutger Hauer), Leon (Brion James), Pris (Darryl Hannah), and Zhora (Joanna Cassidy.) Despite his distaste for the job, Deckard is soon hot on their heels, tracking them down one by one through the over-crowded, crumbling city streets. In the midst of his hunt, Deckard becomes involved with a beautiful replicant named Rachael (Sean Young). Rachel has fled her owner, and Deckard rightfully should kill her. However, the two fall in love, and after some startling revelations, they are both soon on the run from the very authorities that once employed Deckard. This final cut is a bleaker, more cynical version of an already dark film, which might explain why the studio insisted on a softer, more optimistic ending when it was first released. While some superfans might take issue with some of the revelatory new twists, they will no doubt delight in the quality of the digital restoration. The special effects were already impressive for 1982, but these new touch-ups give them a look that appears just as sharp and imaginative as the sci-fi films of today.
Re-memeing this because this is the project used at Phreaknic this year (Friday night) out on the balcony. Neat stuff!
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This is truly awesome. The folks at Graffiti Research Labs created a rig that facilitates painting with light on the side of a building. It uses a high lumens projector to project the light, a green laser pointer to do the writing, and a security/astrononmy camera to detect where the green laser was pointed. They have made all the code available under the GPL.
Boundary Functions is realized as a set of lines projected from overhead onto the floor which divide each person in the gallery from one another. With one person in the gallery there is no response. When two are present, there is a single line drawn halfway between them segmenting the room into two regions. As each person moves, this line dynamically changes, maintaining an even distance between the two. With more than two people, the floor becomes divided into cellular regions, each with the mathematical quality that all space within the region is closer to the person inside than any other.
The title of the piece, Boundary Functions, refers to Theodore Kaczynski's 1967 Phd thesis at the University of Michigan. Better known as the Unabomber, Kaczynski is a pathological example of the conflict between the individual and society - the conflict and compromise of engaging in society versus solitude and individuality uncompromised by the thoughts or presence of others. The thesis itself is an example of the implicit antisocial quality of some scientific discourse, mired in language and symbols impenetrable to the vast majority of society. In this installation, a mathematical abstraction is made instantly knowable by dynamic visual representation.
Nanochick wrote: So, for many years, I have been into playing games on my computer. One of my favorite games is Myst...I am really interested in games where I am solving puzzles/figuring things out, etc. However, lately, I have found it quite challenging to find similar games as Myst...and at the moment, I have no game that I am working on, which is driving me crazy. Thus, I am wondering if anyone around Memestreams knows of any good computer games that are Myst-esque. I am mostly interested in puzzle/adventure games. I really am horrible at playing games involving me having to kill something before it kills me (too stressful) but if you know of any good game, even if it isn't an adventure/puzzle game, let me know about it.
And no...I am not interested in getting sucked into WOW or anything...I do have a PhD to work on after all (which requires actually going to work):)
Here's a review of Portal. I finished it this weekend. It's a quick game, you can run through it in about 4 hours. But it's fairly mind bending. When you finish, there are advanced bonus and challenge levels you can play as well.
Not technically a first person shooter because you don't actually have a weapon, just a device that shoots portals. But it's a slick puzzle game with an interesting story that unfolds. You're basically cast as a lab rat in a testing facility with a H.A.L. like computer guiding you through. Hard to explain, just gotta see it in action.
RE: Students Suspended For Gang-Related Chanting....
Topic: Current Events
10:13 am EDT, Sep 6, 2007
unmanaged wrote: I am not sure what is more ridiculous, the fact that they were suspended for chanting the letter E or that they are abusing the vowels. I had no clue you could abuse a letter... Is that a felony?
Decius wrote: Words like pwn and w00t are so obviously hacking related that its hard to understand why gamers would rationalize that they have something to do with quake. However, it is really interesting that these words have been appropriated by that scene and become extremely mainstream. When I saw Cartman say pwn on national television a few months ago I almost jumped out of my seat. I don't really know who invented the term, but that person is likely only one degree of separation from the folks who hang out at summercon.
I love that South Park episode. Best one ever.
What does pwn anyway? I've never understood that one. I had to have someone explain FTW recently. It still didn't make any sense to me.
Disclaimer: I have been "on-line" since 1983, so go easy on me hahaha... I just really don't get a lot of the lingo sometimes.
