Since NASA's not going to be allowed to go ahead with Constellation/Ares, they have to do something. I mean, we can't do away with a superfluous federal organization when we can repurpose it to effect some politically correct nonsense, right?
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The fail here is the parents who taught their daughter to drive but didn't bother to teach her how to change a tire.
If you don't know how to change a tire, you shouldn't drive.
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I got on WoW long enough to do the daily quests I've got Amaleni doing. Three I do for reputation with the Kalu'ak; one is the jewelcrafting daily and it gets you a "Dalaran Jewelcrafter's Token" which can be used to buy gems and recipes.
If I keep up the Kalu'ak rep dailies long enough (about nine days) I'll hit "exalted" with them.
...but that was all I had the energy for, and I shut down after I finished them. I have more energy now than I did this morning, so that's good, but I'm still feeling wiped out.
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I've been looking over the desk here and wondering if there was a way I could put a small computer here strictly for chat and stuff. I think if I were to find a way to move the laser printer off the desk, I could put a small monitor up where it now sits, and with a small enough box I could put it under the hutch and have it fit.
But WTF I haven't got any money, anyway. Particularly not for computer hardware.
If I could find another place for the stereo, then I could put a laptop where the stereo is. But there isn't anywhere it can go unless I build a new TV stand, and I'm terrible at carpentry.
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Fred's analysis of feminism hits the nail on the head:
I see where women, or college girls anyway, are honking and blowing most fierce about how they don’t like the way sex works nowadays. Yeah. It seems that the hook-up is in flower. This means that the girl meets some guy on a bus or in a remedial-reading class in college or finds herself in the same elevator, and he says, “Let’s screw,” and she does, maybe right there in the elevator, and then she’s all mad because she did, and because he did, men, the bastards.The entire sexual revolution was a mistake.
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Here at Jerry Pournelle's site he posts a polemic from a reader on theories of sexual politicsand refers to sites which discuss "game" and other pickup artist techniques. I thought this was interesting:
Some essential points:Speaking purely for myself, I find these points to be pretty damn accurate when applied to women my own age or younger. At least, I haven't met any nubile females that these didn't apply to.
- Women are hypergamous. A woman wants a man of higher status than she is. If she perceives the man to be of equal or lesser status, her desire fades, and in the absence of strong restraining factors she will abandon him and move to another.
- A woman wants a man other women want, because all those other women can't be wrong. A woman doesn't want a man other women don't want, because all those other women can't be wrong. The analysis hardly ever goes past that level.
- Women not subject to traditional restrictions imposed by society - in short, women such as the feminists and women's libbers aim for - are utterly amoral and cruel. They have, on balance, no concept of objective justice or ethics; it is always defined subjectively.
- For a woman, everything is derived from and dependent on her emotions. Anything a woman does can be traced back to emotion, not reason. There are exceptions, but not many. Whatever a woman says, if you assume she is motivated by emotions and act to manipulate her on that basis rather than appealing to reason, the odds of a positive outcome are much higher.
- A matriarchal society is incapable of accomplishing complicated things or maintaining a technological civilization. It depends on the focused energy of men, which in turn depends on those men being invested in children they know, without a doubt, are theirs. Sexual "freedom" destroys the point on which it all rests, and recreates the black ghetto for everyone.
- What women say doesn't matter. NEVER matters. What matters is what women do. Usually this is the exact opposite of what they say.
I suppose I shouldn't be so cynical, but I can't help myself.
This is apparently the article which prompted the anonymous sender to write Mr. Pournelle. "Subscription required", and I can't get at it, so F it.
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People who think China is going to overtake everyone as the world's economic powerhouse don't understand that China's economy is built on a house of cards. China's industry is unsustainable.
The article is in fine print, of course, but worth reading.
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Another data point favoring the "Obama is really thin-skinned" meme.
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So now there are only 13 days until my Aluratek eBook reader ships. Not that I'm counting.