The life of a congressman is always intense.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 10:27 PM on July 14, 2008

When divorced, they got, and reasons I learned. Understand, I did not; but worn off, illusions were.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 11:15 PM on May 20, 2008

joes.towing.springfield.il.us

If I typed just towing.springfield.il.us, I could get a list.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 12:16 PM on May 11, 2008

Burma has air defenses. They have made clear that they will consider unauthorized entry to their country a national security threat.

Can you imagine the big stink that would cause, if they shot down an aid plane? Would we have to then go stomp the crap out of them? Do we want to get caught in that mess? Furthermore, would that help the Burmese people any?

I suppose we could force them to allow foreign help. If they insist on seeing it as a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 1:10 AM on May 10, 2008

You know some celebrities who can convince the Myanmar junta to not shoot down aid planes? Or that can sneak aid in without them knowing about it? 'Cause that's the big problem here. It's not that nobody cares, it's that you can't help someone who actively refuses to be helped.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 1:49 PM on May 10, 2008

Having your friends waterboard you isn't as torturous as having some sinister strangers do it. You always know your friends will quit after a while, and will try not to kill you. All you have to do is fight instinct and trust them.

The bad guys might let you die, and you know it. In fact, eventually, they probably will. That's the torture part.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 6:03 PM on May 1, 2008

Having been stationed on a carrier for five years, I'll say that they didn't do anything for the cameras that they didn't do 'most every day anyway. They really do fly every day. They really do shoot guns into the water for training. They burn ass-tons of jet fuel.

That TAL episode cracked me up at the point where they picked the wrong guy to interview (and the PAO let them.) They actually used to tell us in Reactor Department when we had journalists on board not to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 12:37 AM on April 28, 2008

It's because of peak oil. They know their cash cow is going to go away some day. What else can they do to keep rolling in the money? Hm. Who else needs a tractor to rake in all the cash... Las Vegas! That's an arid desert, too.

They're trying to shift the economy to a tourism/playground basis while they have the money to build it before the oil runs out.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 11:58 AM on April 27, 2008

You're probably right about the stability part, but I haven't noticed the oppressive "strict and barbaric book of law" being much of a problem when I've been there (10-ish times). It seems like they save that for the locals, and let the visitors do whatever-TF they want. Kind of like cruise ships that have strict rules for crew that the passengers never see.

Or, I've been very lucky not to get caught, or know anyone who has (one sensational news story... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 1:30 PM on April 27, 2008

I recently discovered that the calculator app on the mac will do RPN and show the stack. Happy day! I have a hell of a time using a hand-held calculator that requires me to use paren buttons. RPN just makes so much sense.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 9:36 PM on April 25, 2008

By the way, does anyone still have the book of games you could progam into the 41C? I spent many an hour of long car trips playing Hunt the Wumpus and Moon Lander.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 9:39 PM on April 25, 2008

lostburner: RPN calculators remember numbers in the stack and do calculations on them.
Example: 270 ( 5 + 3 )
You type: 270 (enter) Shows: 270
You type 5 (enter) Shows: 5
You type 3 + Shows: 8
You type * Shows 2160, the answer.

It's not that much different for simple problems, but for big ones with nested parens, it's much simpler to start at the beginning and just type right through.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 11:18 AM on April 26, 2008

Mr. A: why not? Why would you sit there typing a report in word or something, then say ah, crap, what's this value, open a drawer - crap, not in there. Open another drawer, nope. Who stole my calculator? Try to do it by hand. Is that right? do it again to check, etc.

When you have a big expensive calculator under your fingertips? cmd-(space) "cal" (enter). Bam. Instant calculator.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 11:26 AM on April 26, 2008

It makes no sense. Where are people supposed to have gotten their 100 grams? From 4 other people, 25 grams each? Then those 4 people could legally replace the 25 grams from someone else closer to the origin?

They're trying to make the dealers easier to find, by making the buyers not be as careful to keep under the radar. Some of the buyers are going to figure they have nothing to worry about, since what they're doing is legal, and stupidly lead the DEA (or whatever... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 9:02 PM on April 20, 2008

I disagree. I can watch Comedy Central ads for more than 1:48. Too bad, I like(d) Portishead a lot - still listen in my car sometimes. Willing to listen to another track, but not that one again.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 12:24 PM on April 14, 2008

Aha. I'm going to try the pencil trick to turn my guitar temporarily into a, well, a banjo-tuned guitar. Neat.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 8:48 PM on April 3, 2008

2 tips from someone who takes all kinds of computer gear underwater all the time: windows in the room = no good; pumps in the room = good.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 2:37 AM on April 3, 2008

I see demanding (or requesting, whatever) evidence to back up a statement in a polite conversation as either: calling bullshit on something, or saying "wow, that sounds interesting, tell me more." I may do either in an actual conversation face-to-face with someone, but not often. I don't call bullshit on someone every time I think they're bullshitting.

When someone does that to me on the Internet, I take it in that sense. Calling bullshit on me? Well,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 2:24 PM on March 30, 2008

I hate the word ma'am so much that I catch myself awkwardly not using it when addressing female military officers senior to me, when it would be the appropriate thing to say. I don't know what else to say, though.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 12:43 AM on March 29, 2008

He's very good at teaching on these videos. He manages to explain what he's doing, but not belabor it, like some piano videos I've seen. His excitement about his own topic and the mixing in of the history with the technical lesson is what makes the whole thing. He should get his own show on PBS.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 3:21 PM on March 8, 2008

And then the crows train other crows. Hm. If we could train the first crows to distribute boxes and take a cut, we could have a crow MLM scheme. Except that they're probably too smart to fall for MLM.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 6:20 PM on March 5, 2008

The missed the two songs I thought were decent on the album.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 9:28 PM on February 13, 2008

You dropped the bomb on me. Gap Band. Oh yeah. Does that count as disco?
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 11:34 PM on February 3, 2008

ABBA.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 11:43 PM on February 3, 2008

The whole thing depends on how you read the wording of the question. What does "speed" of the conveyor belt mean? And does it match the plane's airspeed, ground speed (by GPS), or wheel speed?

If it's supposed to match wheel speed, in RPM, then friction of the wheels can't be ignored. Otherwise, the treadmill has no way of reaching that given. As the treadmill speeds up, the wheel speeds up ahead of it.

But, if it has to match wheel... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 9:41 PM on September 30, 2007

I take part of that back. The treadmill speed won't match the wheel speed in RPM unless they're the same radius.

I guess this is further complicated by WTF does "wheel speed" really mean, if not in RPM? And how can a treadmill linear speed match an RPM?

Anyway, it still turns out that if wheel speed is the reference, friction has to be included to satisfy the conditions. You would still need either a ridiculously fast treadmill or... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 10:05 PM on September 30, 2007

It's probably not meant to be answered at all. It's probably meant to be a very frustrating group exercise to impress upon students what kind of confusion happens when you allow yourself to use non-technical, imprecise terminology. If so, it's a good one, but only if the point is explained at the end.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 10:14 PM on September 30, 2007

Malor: That's what I said. It only works if you allow frictional forces, so that speeding up the treadmill slows the plane (however little) until the plane is again at speed zero.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 10:16 PM on September 30, 2007

So, you'd need both ideal and non ideal wheel bearings at the same time. Wheel bearings that had friction, but also can go infinitely fast without eating themselves.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 10:22 PM on September 30, 2007

The school couldn't have been that competitive, or the burglars wouldn't have shared the exams with fifty-odd other people. That would defeat the purpose.

The cheating problem didn't get that way over night. They must have had a slow buildup of what level of cheating was acceptable and what was beyond considering. There always is.

I like the Heinrich Pyramid theory. The possible problems you can have lie in a triangle... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 6:10 PM on September 19, 2007

If there were 60+ students involved in the theft, and 9 who are going to get punished, far from being a lesson against cheating, what it really says is that you can cheat and have a roughly 85% chance of getting away with it.

Consider risk the combination of probability of getting caught and acceptability of punishment. I'm not willing to accept even a 15% chance of getting shot, say, or expelled. I might accept a 75% chance of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 10:42 PM on September 19, 2007

I have no experience with bombers, only with Trident submarines, but:

Nuclear weapons are not moved around by a couple of guys in coveralls. There is no "oops, shit, I grabbed the wrong missile!" Missile moves are accompanied by marine squads with armored personnel carriers and high-caliber chain guns. The security is good enough that I have not seen with my eyeballs a nuclear weapon in my years of being on the crew of the delivery platform.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 9:20 PM on September 12, 2007

squalor:
...(healthcare, military, etc.). These vendors produce ridiculously expensive and unusable crap...

+1 for mentioning military. I'll name some for you.
sked
soms
omms-ng[pdf] [no screenshots - too ashamed, I guess]
atis
Reactor plant chemistry logging software

Trying to work in today's Navy (at least shipboard) consists... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 9:48 PM on August 16, 2007

Hincandenza: couldn't you just invert it about any depth point, and then adjust the average earth diameter in or out until the volume of water fell back to the same sea level?

I think it would be neat to see the land shapes if you adjusted sea level until the same 70/30 water/land area ratio resulted.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 1:17 AM on August 15, 2007

This has been one of my favorite kind of MeFi posts. The kind that force me to spawn legions of tabs in my browser and explore. Thanks!

A longer version of the chico buarque song, without video. Oh yeah. This one's going on my "learn to play" list.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 12:19 PM on August 11, 2007

That second chick has a wicked slap. I only got whacked two or three times and I was done. Fun game.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 1:38 AM on July 20, 2007

I think it's a good thing that they acted immediately to get the word out. Family members, probably not so keen on that kind of call at 4am, though.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 10:12 PM on March 15, 2007

They were blinded by science?
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 10:32 PM on March 15, 2007

LA's don't have to surface to fire TLAMs. They fire them from canisters out the torpedo tubes from a middle-ish depth, or from the VLS (improved boats, which 751 is), also not surfaced. That wasn't a concern in this case, though. The Navy just thought maybe something catastrophic had happened on board.

ELF was in use for quite a long time, but mostly by the missile boats, who had to be in 100% communication while on alert. The bandwidth of ELF is so low, they... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 6:34 PM on March 16, 2007

Interesting bit on ELF, scroll down to "ZEVS SIGNAL CODING AND DECODING"
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 6:53 PM on March 16, 2007

Well, 'most everything has been said. I'd like to point out though, in some fairness to the command element, that it isn't as easy as some seem to think to be all hardass zero-tolerance about anything. It takes extraordinary leaders to consistently do the hard thing.

You're already using 15 people to do 25 people-worth of work, and the price of doing a poor job is someone's death. Now you have to get rid of ten of them for... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 10:13 PM on March 8, 2007

The first bike (the actual sideways-driven one) is dumb. I kind of want one of the little ones in clips #2 and #3 on the second linked site, though. You drive forward, with independent front/rear wheel steering. That looks damn fun, actually.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 11:53 AM on February 19, 2007

Wouldn't it be better to just silently spy on chats with real minors, then follow them and bust them at the same point? (Well, how are you going to do that, then?)
Problem is this: it seems to be very easy for these bait-minors to get dates. Does that mean there are bajillions of predators out there, or are there just a few (relatively) that try over and over again until they hit the bait, who then sucks them in? They're still scumbags, but it would be interesting to know that... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 12:16 PM on February 11, 2007

Well, I'm no scientologist, but in re: the whole Xenu thing -
Could it be that they don't literally believe any of that stuff? That it's just a teaching device? I know much of the Masonic ritual is based on storytelling and theater-like plays, and the lessons are more effective in that format. I don't know many (well, any that I know of) people who literally believe the stories, though. Plenty of things to dislike scientology for, but embarrasing stories... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 11:46 AM on February 11, 2007

I would have liked more detail on the sinkings. Like, why did they sink? Did they screw up, run into some bad weather, is the design not quite as safe as it should be? I imagine some of those loads are quite expensive, not to mention the cost of the ship in the first place. Marked for googling later.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 12:31 AM on February 10, 2007

1) add the phrase, “who are capable of having children with one another” to the legal definition of marriage;
2) require that couples married in Washington file proof of procreation within three years of the date of marriage or have their marriage automatically annulled;
3) require that couples married out of state file proof of procreation within three years of the date of marriage or have their marriage classed as “unrecognized;”
4) establish a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 2:49 PM on February 4, 2007

I didn't miss the point*. I made another one, and that is that this proposed legislation 1) is easy to sidestep while it's under consideration, and 2) could leave the good guys worse off than before, while not bothering the other side any. If you *help* them define marriage as primarily for procreation, you're then demoted to whether or not you deserve an exception. Better to keep the argument about what marriage *is*. I understand that this is sort of a way to do that, but the backhanded... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 9:51 PM on February 4, 2007

The depressing thing here is that if even on metafilter so many people are able to completely miss the point, then maybe this isn't such a good idea.

Yes, exactly, a thousand times.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 10:03 PM on February 4, 2007

mountain_william: the problem isn't the reductio ad absurdum, which I'm familiar with. The problem is when you "cleverly" and smugly pretend to propose it in such a smartass way. A implies B, which implies C, which then has to mean D (which is ridiculous). So I propose we do D then! Ha ha, take that! To which I can say well, maybe we aren't ready for D, but I can certainly compromise with C. Yay! you got most of what you want. Why are you holding your head like that? You... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 9:11 AM on February 5, 2007

Sounds like a submarine junior officer to me, except for the technical expertise part.
posted to MetaFilter by ctmf at 12:29 AM on January 31, 2007