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Lightning Rod Gets The Zot
The Poet's Eye ^ | Lightning Rod

Posted on 10/23/2010 5:17:52 PM PDT by Lrod

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To: Tax-chick; Monkey Face

Sorry to hear that ‘Face lost her hard drive. Any info on what kind of machine she’s got? Brand spankin’ new 250GB drives are out there for less than $30. If she’s got her Windows operating system CD on-hand she could be resurrected by this evening. At that point, the “dead” drive could be connected as a “slave” so an attempt at data recovery could be made.


1,661 posted on 11/23/2010 1:50:21 PM PST by HKMk23 (Quit worryin' what other folks think; they don't do it all that much anyway.)
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To: Tax-chick

Driving is all kinds of fun.4 wheel drive was a good choice.


1,662 posted on 11/23/2010 2:07:49 PM PST by Anoreth (....a fetid behemoth of toxic pustules oozing all over the basement....)
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To: Anoreth

Yeah, I guess it was.


1,663 posted on 11/23/2010 2:19:30 PM PST by Tax-chick (Five more days to clean your ceiling fan blades. Don't put it off until the last minute!)
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To: HKMk23

I texted your info to ‘Face. And the Teaching Textbook looks interesting. Tom’s having a time with algebra, although that’s mainly a lack of effort on his part.


1,664 posted on 11/23/2010 2:26:38 PM PST by Tax-chick (Five more days to clean your ceiling fan blades. Don't put it off until the last minute!)
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To: HKMk23

I texted your info to ‘Face. And the Teaching Textbook looks interesting. Tom’s having a time with algebra, although that’s mainly a lack of effort on his part.


1,665 posted on 11/23/2010 2:26:48 PM PST by Tax-chick (Five more days to clean your ceiling fan blades. Don't put it off until the last minute!)
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To: Tax-chick

Son #1 was in that same position; trying to learn Algebra from a text-based curriculum, and not making the kind of progress we’d hoped he would. We found the teaching Textbooks Algebra 1 at a local homeschool curriculum fair, and set him up with it on a trial basis. That added in a “missing” component that we found indispensable: computer-based lectures. Having those lectures explain in detail (and repeat as many times as may be necessary) the material presented in the text was just the added help my son needed to get him down the road. That “trial” was made permanent in short order, and the textbook totally abandoned. He’s since completed Algebra I, and carried right on into Algebra II without interruption.

We have added the motivation of reward by agreeing that, when a member of the family finishes an entire math level, the whole family celebrates with them by going to dinner at the venue of their choosing.


1,666 posted on 11/23/2010 2:40:27 PM PST by HKMk23 (Quit worryin' what other folks think; they don't do it all that much anyway.)
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To: nicmarlo

My voice has been described as between geeky and what the heck was that.


1,667 posted on 11/23/2010 2:43:05 PM PST by Darksheare (I shook hands with Sheryl Crow and all I got was Typhus and a single sheet of toilet paper.)
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To: Darksheare

I don’t recall how mine’s been described, only the instructions given: only sing in the car with the windows rolled up while no one is in it with me. :))


1,668 posted on 11/23/2010 3:24:56 PM PST by nicmarlo
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To: nicmarlo

I’ve been beged to stop singing.
So I don’t, unless it is a weird song.


1,669 posted on 11/23/2010 3:28:47 PM PST by Darksheare (I shook hands with Sheryl Crow and all I got was Typhus and a single sheet of toilet paper.)
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To: Darksheare

poor you. lol


1,670 posted on 11/23/2010 3:29:54 PM PST by nicmarlo
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To: Darksheare
...unless it is a weird song.
1,671 posted on 11/23/2010 3:49:28 PM PST by HKMk23 (Quit worryin' what other folks think; they don't do it all that much anyway.)
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To: Darksheare
Or, perhaps...
THE GREAT BELL
(Denis King, John Junkin)

In an old village called Churdling-Cum-Strando
Whack, Whack, go kick a neighbour
They did have a church with a steeple so grand-o
Fol diddle diddle di doh I hate my old mum
For hundreds of years now the bell in that steeple
Whack, Whack, spreading the muck round.
Had never been heard by the village's people
Fol diddle diddle di doh may I leave the room
CHORUS
Rum tiddle tiddle tum tiddle tiddle scum on the water
Lint in your navel and sand in your tea

In old days the squire had a beautiful daughter
Whack, Whack, Nina and Fredrick
She loved the poor verger and one night dad caught her
Fol diddle diddle di doh I just hurt my foot
I love him dear dad she said, tears she was shedding
Whack, Whack, half-day on Thursday
Quite likely said father and battered her head in
Fol diddle diddle di doh superfluous hair
Rum tiddle tiddle tum tiddle tiddle scum on the water
Lint in your navel and sand in your tea

(minor key?)And then as she lay there all dead-like and messy
Whack, Whack, go burst your ulcer
The bell stopped its ringing to mourn for poor Bessie
Fol diddle diddle di doh I think I feel sick
Then (upbeat again) just yesterday a young couple went walking
Whack, Whack, go stand on your head now
Beneath that same bell of which I have been talking
Fol diddle diddle di doh and one for his nob
Rum tiddle tiddle tum tiddle tiddle scum on the water
Lint in your navel and sand in your tea

They stopped and he cuddled her waist young and supple
Whack, Whack, Lord Baden-Powell
And down fell the bell right onto the young couple
Fol diddle diddle di doh Here's mud in your eye
The moral I give more in sorrow than anger
Whack, Whack, egg, beans and sausage
Make love 'neath a bell and you might drop a clanger
Fol diddle diddle di doh and that's your damn lot
Rum tiddle tiddle tum tiddle tiddle scum on the water
Lint in your navel and sand in your tea
Lint in your navel and sand in your tea

(spoken) Can you take your hand off me knee vicar? I'm trying to play the piano.

Performed by Marty Feldman on "The Crazy World of Marty Feldman" (Decca SPA 134) previously released as "I Feel A Song Going Off" 

1,672 posted on 11/23/2010 3:53:55 PM PST by HKMk23 (Quit worryin' what other folks think; they don't do it all that much anyway.)
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To: Tax-chick
Well, 'tain't my first choice, but there's a Fry's Electronics in Vegas that'd VERY likely have a cost-effective replacement available on a "come 'n' get it" basis.
Las Vegas 	6845 Las Vegas Blvd 	(702) 932-1400

1,673 posted on 11/23/2010 3:58:05 PM PST by HKMk23 (Quit worryin' what other folks think; they don't do it all that much anyway.)
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To: HKMk23; Darksheare; Dead Corpse; fanfan; Monkey Face; sionnsar; Tax-chick; tuliptree76
"These guys here appear to be working on some really interesting technology we could tap into to get the castle resupplied from low Earth orbit."

I read about that system a few months ago. It's an interesting idea. Basically, you build a big gun. In this case, the extra long barrel is supported by mid-ocean deep waters.

Pump the barrel full of hydrogen and air, or hydrogen and oxygen, or propane and air, (and so forth), put in a launch capsule, and light it off.

The acceleration is tremendous, and the g forces on the capsule are quite extreme. That's why the proponents suggest using it to send fuel and other substances that would not be crushed in the acceleration.

It reminds me of my suggestion about using an extremely long launch rail and magnetic coils to launch at a more moderate acceleration.

My proposal was to use Antarctica as the launch point, and to use ice as an ablative material, because this type of launch hits maximum resistance as soon as it clears the muzzle. Many people have suggested that my scheme would be impractical, but I simply respond that you have to think big.

If you scale it big enough, it has to work.

One aspect of my suggestion may well be impractical, though not necessarily impossible. I also proposed to send large chunks of relatively pure ice into suborbital trajectories, and disintegrate them with onboard demolition charges at the appropriate re-entry altitude. My purpose for this was to be able to deliver rainfall at any location on Earth, on time and on schedule. We could make deserts into food-producing regions without any land-based infrastructure.

It appears that my rather ambitious ideas may have to wait for a new generation of ambitious people unafraid to dare large dreams.

1,674 posted on 11/23/2010 4:42:17 PM PST by NicknamedBob (Maybe I can become a were-spork-weasel. It is good to have aspirations. Essential, actually.)
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To: NicknamedBob

TeleFRAG as propulsion.


1,675 posted on 11/23/2010 4:56:07 PM PST by Darksheare (I shook hands with Sheryl Crow and all I got was Typhus and a single sheet of toilet paper.)
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To: NicknamedBob
I also proposed to send large chunks of relatively pure ice into suborbital trajectories, and disintegrate them with onboard demolition charges at the appropriate re-entry altitude.

What about a process to just "machine-gun" thousands -- perhaps millions -- of ice chunks into doomed sub-orbital paths to seed the upper atmosphere with excess water vapor?

There's no guarantee that a given mini-berg detonated into fragments on return to atmosphere would produce rain at the Earth's surface, but hyper-hydrating the upper atmosphere by a rapid-repeat version of your suggested process (albeit sans explosives), might get us a more globally distributed effect.

1,676 posted on 11/23/2010 5:01:11 PM PST by HKMk23 (Quit worryin' what other folks think; they don't do it all that much anyway.)
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To: HKMk23

Such a process could be used as a quick cool-down for an overheating Earth.

Unfortunately, building the infrastructure for such a launch facility would take many decades, so it becomes the least likely device for a quick solution to anything.

My idea in devising it was that we would be able to substitute electricity, (no doubt nuclear generated), for the rocket fuel currently used.

A really big facility could launch hundreds or thousands of loads to all destinations. It would open a window into space through which you could almost walk.


1,677 posted on 11/23/2010 5:13:04 PM PST by NicknamedBob (Maybe I can become a were-spork-weasel. It is good to have aspirations. Essential, actually.)
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To: ColdOne
Where are you? It is 11F right now for us.

Seattle area. (Redmond WA) Cold all day, still below freezing tomorrow.

1,678 posted on 11/23/2010 5:37:42 PM PST by sionnsar (IranAzadi|5yst3m 0wn3d-it's N0t Y0ur5:SONY|Why are TSA exempt from their own searches?)
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To: Darksheare; nicmarlo
I’ve been beged to stop singing

As a longtime piper, I recognize there is money to be made at this. "Will be silent for money."

1,679 posted on 11/23/2010 5:40:25 PM PST by sionnsar (IranAzadi|5yst3m 0wn3d-it's N0t Y0ur5:SONY|Why are TSA exempt from their own searches?)
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To: HKMk23; LibreOuMort
Fol diddle diddle di doh

An ancient Gaelic tradition relatively recently contributed to the English language: song syllables with no meaning at all. (The Irish were the main promoters of this.) In English today they're called "vocables."

You'll find them in Gaelic songs older than the English language -- and so formally established one can instantly identify the song by its vocables.

1,680 posted on 11/23/2010 5:47:21 PM PST by sionnsar (IranAzadi|5yst3m 0wn3d-it's N0t Y0ur5:SONY|Why are TSA exempt from their own searches?)
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