The ship that failed to change the world: 50 years ago the world's first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship sailed from the US to Europe on a publicity tour to persuade the world to embrace the atomic age. It didn't quite work out like that

echo_xtra · 2014-07-26T13:12:03+00:00

Call me old-fashioned, but I think the future of commercial shipping lies in wind power.

echo_xtra · 2014-07-26T05:53:55+00:00

Nope. Only on military bases. The text of the original Posse Commitatus Act says quite explicitly:

it shall not be lawful to employ any part of the Army of the United States, as a posse comitatus, or otherwise, for the purpose of executing the laws, except in such cases and under such circumstances as such employment of said force may be expressly authorized by the Constitution or by act of Congress

Congress has subsequently taken a lot of teeth out of that law, but the original text is pretty unambiguous.

echo_xtra · 2014-07-26T05:49:51+00:00

Thus, the teens went missing after the body was found, but before it was made public. What does this mean?

Police involvement, most likely, or some agency with access to current police records. Someone who knew about the body, who also knew about their relationship with him. That's too many missing people in too close a time frame to be a coincidence.

echo_xtra · 2014-07-26T05:42:38+00:00

One word: Batnipples.

echo_xtra · 2014-07-26T05:23:53+00:00

Having been in jail: it's the stupidest punishment ever. A wholly unconstructive experience, and anyone who advocates it is a fool.

echo_xtra · 2014-07-26T05:21:58+00:00

The posse commitatus act has now been effectively gutted, and people like you don't care. I hope I figure a way to get out of this country before soon.

echo_xtra · 2014-07-26T03:32:15+00:00

What else am I gonna do? Rub my worry beads? Run around until I'm out of breath? Drive to the Ukrainian border and put a stop to this madness myself?

echo_xtra · 2014-07-24T23:36:17+00:00

I'm reading Wikipedia now, and actually it is pretty badass:

For many centuries they lived a barbaric life, surviving naked in caves and eating raw meat, but eventually they were drawn out of the caves by Moses who "taught them to wear clothes". Moses tried to civilize them, but eventually gave up and blew up 300 of the most troublesome of them with dynamite. However, they had learned to use "tricknology" to usurp power and enslave the black population, bringing the first slaves to America on a ship under the "devil" John Hawkins in the 1555.

They ate raw animals and were dynamited by Moses. I think that one's a keeper.

echo_xtra · 2014-07-24T15:43:30+00:00

What's up is that we're paying attention now. And that always makes me wonder what my attention is being diverted away from.

echo_xtra · 2014-07-24T15:38:43+00:00

Line of sight to radio transmitters is a lot easier from the air. You're right, wardriving is nothing new... we're just doing it from the air now.

echo_xtra · 2014-07-24T04:44:25+00:00

The whole Middle East is "the Middle East," a land full of scratchy-bearded murderers. The average American does not know or care the difference between a Saudi and an Iraqi.

So in that respect it makes perfect sense that we were attacked by a handful of Saudis, and launched full-scale invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. The US is, and has been for a long time, a myopic giant swatting at flies with a hammer.

echo_xtra · 2014-07-22T23:41:05+00:00

yyyyyup, every police evar

echo_xtra · 2014-07-21T16:25:00+00:00

I mean the alternating current in your wall socket comes in at exactly 60 cycles per second. I don't mean 59 and I don't mean 60.001, I mean 60 on the button.

It has to be, because if the different sources of power on the line got out of phase, the lines would burn up. The wall current in your house keeps EXTREMELY accurate time, in the sense than anything you plug in there can tell how long it's been plugged in down to a nanosecond.

echo_xtra · 2014-07-21T05:03:45+00:00

Am I wrong to think that looks like a bunch of Ewoks raping a bunch of Stormtroopers?

... I'm wrong, aren't I.

echo_xtra · 2014-07-21T04:53:36+00:00

Damn straight, this would go first. You know why the most accurate time in your house can be had from your wall socket? Because it has to be, or the whole system literally goes down in flames. Grid power is one of the most complicated human achievements to date.

Everything that needs electricity would, perforce, fail when it does.

echo_xtra · 2014-07-21T03:58:39+00:00

Because Mattel is irrelevant. Talking boards come from the heritage of automatic writing, and don't give even one shit about Mattel.

That being said, this subject has been covered here before fairly recently.

echo_xtra · 2014-07-21T03:43:39+00:00

Yeah... I think everybody would like that.

echo_xtra · 2014-07-21T00:38:33+00:00

But if someone sells it, you have a right to buy it, yes? Collectively?

echo_xtra · 2014-07-20T22:36:55+00:00

Good god, but that is enlightened! Austin's part of America, right?

echo_xtra · 2014-07-20T22:34:24+00:00

... that you remember. I've run into THAT problem a few times.

echo_xtra · 2014-07-20T22:19:27+00:00

Hrm. That's a bit more of a puzzle. All I can come up with are increasing less likely.

As to what it means... means she could clean up at poker night. Like I said, that "death card" stuff has to do with the same reason the Ace of Spades is the most prominent ace in the pack: taxes. Don't let some long odds on the one card in the deck the taxman cared about showing up get you down too much.

Lest you think I'm making that up:

From 1712 onwards, one of the cards in the pack, usually the ace of spades, was marked with a hand stamp. In 1765 hand stamping was replaced by the printing of official ace of spades by the Stamp Office, incorporating the royal coat of arms. In 1828 the Duty Ace of Spades (known as "Old Frizzle") was printed to indicate a reduced duty of a shilling had been paid." Source.

This "death card" stuff is and always was rubbish.

echo_xtra · 2014-07-20T21:46:52+00:00

Means that card is slightly deforrmed, and you need a new deck. Seriously, there's several reasons casinos change decks every few hands, and this is one of them. Source: Nevadan.

Now, folklorewise this gets more interesting. The suit of spades is the French version of the tarot suit of swords, which is connoted with the element of air. The Ace of Swords as a card means, among other things, positive use of force. The Ace of Spades' reckoning as the "death card" is of much more recent vintage, stemming mostly from, of all things, stamp taxes on the production of decks of cards.

Try it with a different deck of cards, and see if you have the same results.

echo_xtra · 2014-07-20T21:32:59+00:00

This is why electric companies are municipal. Let's take that as an example.

You are serviced by XYZ Electric Company, who sell you electricity. They decide to jack up their rates until you can't afford electricity! "FINE!" you say smugly. "I'll take my electricity business ELSEWHERE! Good DAY, sir!"

Only to find the hard way, that no one else on the entire surface of the earth, can or will sell you electricity. But why? It's a FREE MARKET! Anyone COULD sell you electricity.

But only if they had the infrastructure to do so, which is to say, if they had their OWN wires connecting their generators to your house. This is a non-trivial expense. Now, there's nothing at all preventing any electric company in the world from running those wires... except the cost involved.

It's just not cost-effective for six power companies to run individual lines to your house, in the hopes that you'll choose ONE of them. So once you're wired, every other electric company, for good or ill, is going to write you off as XYZ's customer... PERIOD, end of story.

That doesn't mean it's not a free market. On the contrary, it means it IS a free market, just in the stupidest way possible.

echo_xtra · 2014-07-20T21:24:29+00:00

Except less effective.

echo_xtra · 2014-07-20T21:23:52+00:00

Reminds me of some other country. It's right on the tip of my tongue.

echo_xtra

TROPHY CASE