Hi there – I hate to steal the remote back, but would you mind switching the, err, channel back to something more related to cars? Thank you!
“they sure didn t sound like…”
Since we’re officially “off the rails” now’s a good time to ask. Am I the only one not getting wes’s apostrophes?
Oh yeah. I forgot to mention I was listening to Car Talk on my local NPR affiliate…
I listened to car talk yesterday too and I think I had a problem with something they said but can’t for the life of me remember what it was. Oh yeah, maybe it was the starter click where they said to replace the switch again.
In our neighborhood, they actually were doing sweeps with some kind of equipment (prolly like the Germans during the war) to see who had cable and number of TVs and not paying for it. When the kid was in England, you had to pay 50# for TV service and they would run up and down the street checking who was watching TV and had paid and who didn’t. Those crazy Brits.
For those unbelievers, some years ago our mayor lived in a house sworn to be haunted. Outside of an alcohol problem, he was quite intelligent and sane. His wife was a high school teacher that taught with my wife. She confirmed everything that had been rumored about that house for years. I don’t understand it but there really was activity in that house. They were friendly spirits and don’t know the history. I only buy houses that haven’t been lived in before and make sure I don’t build on a burial grounds.
Back to cars. I noticed a little rust forming on the pinch welds under the rockers of my G6. I picked up some POR 15 and the top coat to give that a try. I’ve used the stuff before and there just isn’t anything that compares. I had planned to trade by the time any rust formed but just don’t see much out there I’m interested in paying for.
Speaking of cars . . .
What about those families driving the SUV or van, where the kids are watching TV or a movie in the backseat . . . and you’re driving next to them, with a clear view of the screen
Depending on what’s on, it can be mighty distracting
my computer s haunted by the apostrophe eating monster.
My step dad says he doesn’t like Counting Cars because the guy talks too much and doesn’t show the build enough.
It’s nice they got that Scott guy off the show, though, he was a blowhard that seemed like he was trying to be like the other build shows
@MikeinNH: pseudo-science?!? Ever heard of SETI? I had the pleasure of flying a GA craft close to it.
There is a lot of scientific effort invested into whether or not a) any living organism exists in the universe b) whether or not intelligent life exists c) the odds of such life actually contacting us…via radio, or visitation.
It all depends on 1) how many earth-like planets exist 2) the probability of life spontaneously generating (and/or being seeded) on such a planet 3) the probability of life evolving to human-level intelligence and 4) the odds of such life detecting us/being detected by us.
Obviously, the odds of all of this isn’t exactly known to high degree…but I would say it’s probable that extra-terrestial life (most likely something like slime mold) existing somewhere. Heck, it’s an open question if life ever existed on Mars…look into the Martian meteor that landed in Antarctica.
And to tie this in to driving/ transportation, the Mars rover Curiosity has spent two years driving on Mars! I would have to imagine it’s operating semi-autonomously, as light speed would have you reacting about 30 minutes behind “real time.” I remember CMU driving the rover prototypes on the slag pile across the Monongahela river from the old Homestead works…apparently steel slag closely resembles Martian terrain.
(Of course, today the Homestead works is now a mall, and the slag heap has been turned into luxury housing! Can’t imagine many “legacy” 'Burghers wanting to live on the slag heap…or Herr’s island, for that matter.)
@MikeinNH: pseudo-science?!? Ever heard of SETI? I had the pleasure of flying a GA craft close to it.
SETI IS science…based on a lot of scientific FACTS. Not something like Ghosts…which is based on…well NOTHING but conjecture. SETI IS science in action. It’s the way to test a scientific theory. Ghost hunting is NOT about science…just people UNSCIENTIFICALLY looking for something they don’t understand. No scientific theory at all to back up any of their conjectures. Just total hokum.
And SETI is NOT about finding aliens. NOT finding them is science too.
I would have to imagine it's operating semi-autonomously
While some of the craft is autonomous…most of it isn’t. For each move…it’s mapped out exactly where the mars rover will go. Then a person (actually a team) will spend hours (if not days) inputting the course into a program the rover will take. Then the instructions are uploaded to the rover for it to follow. This is repeated over and over and over again.
Joe:
It’d also have to depend on the aliens using radio waves at the exact time that we’d be searching their spot in the sky. If the aliens lived 500 light years away, then they’d have had to have sent the message 500 years ago using radio waves, pointed in our direction, to be picked up by their antennae at that exact time that the waves passed by/through Earth