Actor Michael McKean of Spinal Tap struck by car.

Phssthpok · 1 day

Don't forget Clue. He told you he didn't do it!

OliverQueen187 · 1 day

I was surprised by how quickly it went to being a mature series. It took the first series a couple seasons to have the depth the new show has.

I also very much enjoyed Not my Cabbage Corp! in the last episode. :p

rainmanj9 · 2 days

But can you take a taser like a Chang?

pyrocat · 2 days

Press right on the joystick, Pierce!

vajav · 2 days

It does, at a rate of one second per second.

vajav · 2 days

I only watched the video and I want to vomit. I can't imagine riding this thing.

NoyzMaker · 3 days

I can't help but be reminded of this scene from Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

A loud clatter of gunk music flooded through the Heart of Gold cabin as Zaphod searched the sub-etha radio wavebands for news of himself. The machine was rather difficult to operate. For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive - you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you had to do was wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope. It saved a lot of muscular expenditure of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriatingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same programme.

Zaphod waved a hand and the channel switched again. More gunk music, but this time it was a background to a news announcement. The news was always heavily edited to fit the rhythms of the music.

"... and news brought to you here on the sub-etha wave band, broadcasting around the galaxy around the clock," squawked a voice, "and we'll be saying a big hello to all intelligent life forms everywhere ... and to everyone else out there, the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys. And of course, the big news story tonight is the sensational theft of the new Improbability Drive prototype ship by none other than Galactic President Zaphod Beeblebrox. And the question everyone's asking is ... has the big Z finally flipped? Beeblebrox, the man who invented the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, ex-confidence trickster, once described by Eccentrica Gallumbits as the Best Bang since the Big One, and recently voted the Wort Dressed Sentinent Being in the Known Universe for the seventh time ... has he got an answer this time? We asked his private brain care specialist Gag Halfrunt ..."

The music swirled and dived for a moment. Another voice broke in, presumably Halfrunt. He said: "Vell, Zaphod's jist zis guy you know?" but got no further because an electric pencil flew across the cabin and through the radio's on/off sensitive airspace. Zaphod turned and glared at Trillian - she had thrown the pencil.

nomdeweb · 3 days

There's always a catch. :)

I assumed it would be possible to go back to the lithium nitride and carbon dioxide originally. I was wondering if it might be possible to go from lithium cyanamide to, say, silicon dioxide.

nomdeweb · 3 days

I barely qualify as an armchair chemist, but if the lithium cyanamide can be safely recycled somehow back into lithium nitride, the process could form a closed loop, greatly reducing the amount of lithium required.

Randolpho · 6 days

Additional reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moai

blacky777 · 7 days

He really needed to keep his glasses on.

RedHeadZedGirl · 9 days

Pun intended?

Rick___ · 9 days

I apologize that I have utterly failed to communicate with you. The fault must be mine; I shall review what I have written and hopefully improve my ability to express myself in the future.

For now, I will attempt to summarize; hopefully it will bring some form of elucidation:

As I mentioned in my original post, the biggest problem with the FSL program is the fact that it's even necessary -- education should be freely available to all citizens, provided by the government. I assumed that any person reading that would realize that there a cost was associated with that provision -- for the case of on-site learning teachers must be hired, materials must be purchased or manufactured, facilities must be built, etc -- and that I was arguing in favor of the government using tax revenue to pay for this. Clearly I made a mistake in my assumption.

What I meant was: no citizen should be forced to pay a fee to the educational facility in order to receive an education. The cost of the education should come entirely from tax dollars. Furthermore, the option of free education should not be limited to the young -- all citizens should have the ability to obtain an accredited education at any time in their life without having to pay any additional educational fees. The cost of the education should come entirely from tax dollars. If that means we have to cut spending on defense, so be it. If that means we have to raise taxes, so be it. And yes, I am talking about socialism.

Although I attempted to explain a corollary to this elsewhere, I shall reiterate: just because the government is footing the bill doesn't mean we should keep the current corporatist educational system. I'm not talking about government subsidies here. What I envision is a complete federal system, with federal schools, teachers who are federal employees, and a crap-ton of online content hosted on federal web servers. And yes, I am talking about federal socialism.

There, was that clear enough? I expect your next post will be a rant about socialism and redistribution of wealth, but then I am a cynic. And no, I don't mean the classical philosophy, either.

Just to be clear. :)

culby · 9 days

That's a great way to make sure it never happens. Thanks!

Rick___ · 9 days

Why is it a false analogy? If you don't believe individual vs collective benefits matter, why should the government buy me education but not candy? I would love to have some candy right now, much more than I want a masters degree.

Feel free to read up on the subject, I'll say no more.

It is not having it both ways to support free highschool and not free college. It is generally my policy to have different beliefs about different things.

Cognitive dissonance is a great way to a splitting headache.

Rick___ · 9 days

Thank goodness for the Internet.

Ain't that the truth. I love me some Khan Academy.

Rick___ · 9 days

[Y]ou haven't explained why the government shouldn't buy me candy.

You were making a false analogy. I saw no reason to bother acknowledging it.

I disagree with this. after about 8th grade, certainly after highschool, education is a personal benefit.

You can't have it both ways.

Rick___ · 9 days

So should the government buy people candy? why not? The standard justification for government provision of a good is either that it is a public good, or has positive externalities. Individual benefit is essential to both those cases.

Who says I have any sort of standard justification for anything? You're making inappropriate assumptions.

So now it IS a question of individual vs collective benefit? I thought you said it wasn't?

I don't agree that it is a question of individual vs collective benefit. I was merely mentioning the fact that your belief that it is a question of individual vs collective benefit was flawed because public education is not an individual benefit.

Rick___ · 9 days

I disagree wholeheartedly that whether or not a benefit is "individual" should determine whether or not that benefit is provided free of charge by the government. I also never claimed that education creates jobs, but I do believe that educated people are better suited to jobs that require higher cognitive ability. This has nothing to do with vocational skill training and everything to do with experience -- the more we are exposed to ideas that challenge our uninformed opinions, the more adaptable and capable we are.

That having been said, your stance does not fit your philosophy. Society as a whole benefits from an educated populace. An educated populace is a more effective populace.

Rick___ · 10 days

Support for higher education isn't the largest item on the budget, but it is still hundreds of billions a year, hardly chump change.

150 Billion this year, compared with 900 on defense. I think we can afford a little more there.

And as I said, the bigger cost is the opportunity cost of forcing the best and brightest in the country to spend 4 years of their lives memorizing nonsense to get a piece of parchment. the cost of that expense must run to the trillions.

"Forcing"? I never said anything about requiring citizens to obtain education.

Rick___ · 10 days

There is more to education than employment.

Rick___ · 10 days

Why are you arguing about cost per credit when I just stated that my position is that there should be no cost to citizens for education?

Why must education be an industry that turns a profit? Education should be a service provided by the government in the same manner as roads and security.

Rick___ · 10 days

More skills lead to these things, not more education. Modern education largely fails to teach people any valuable skills.

Your statement is contrary to reality.

Randolpho

TROPHY CASE

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