Posted on 07/31/2005 1:19:25 PM PDT by KMB
An hour? A WHOLE hour????
That's not acceptible.
*snort*
What a day. A day taken off from work, an early morning drive to the Capitol to sit in on a three-hour legislative "joint task force" (House & Senate) meeting just to be sure they weren't going to do smething stupid, then on the way back the "Check Engine" light came on so she diverted to the mechanic. $400+ today, with a followup $400 visit. Sigh.
I've never had an under-100k-mile car with so many problems. (They're really not all that many, but most of my Japanese vehicles have gone to 150k+ with less trouble and the only one that didn't get to 250k was stolen at 169k.)
Yep! It was the beginning two-parter for the "Next Generation" series. "Journey to Farpoint"
But the "cow" was a space traveling entity as big as a city, and the ditch was a planetary gravity well.
Scotty used the transporter beam for the Humpbacks, not the tractor beam.
I had a 1979 Toyota Celica Lift-Back that I got for $350 and it was the most forgiving car I have ever had. I had to replace a lot of parts, but they were all original, and every single one, without fail, let go in my apartment parking lot.
I'd kill to have that car back! (NOT!)
*curtesying low* I stand corrected.
Star Trek tractor beams, and their equivalent "repulsor beams," developed by Wesley Crusher, would be an outgrowth of controlled gravity wave emanations.
I suspect that this is the basis of their slow speed sub-light engines, the "impulse engines."
Warp drive is more closely related to transporter technology.
In a similar vein, our food replicators will eventually lead us to the possibility of my so-called "FAX" transmission, where living entities can be moved through space on communication pathways. It will take a lot of research, and most likely a few gullible volunteers.
Sorry! I needed it for the regional meeting today. It..uh.. acquired a few dents. I'll get you a new one.
Is it Labor Day yet?
Count your blessings. My first (operational) car was a '59 Nash Metropolitan (the size of a Volks bug but much tougher), bought for $85. The dash-mounted ball-and-socket joint for the shifter was so worn through it took me two days to learn to shift it well enough to drive on the streets. The gyrations I had to go through to shift from 1st to 2nd gear (sweep it in an arc just so, shove it into the dash just so much, move it a from here to there, pop it back out, sweep another short arc) once in a while left other drivers gasping in laughter.
But for $85, it got me around.
Usually.
Its biggest weakness was its Lucas electrical system (that's as in "Joe Lucas, Prince of Darkness" -- "Why do Brits drink warm beer? Lucas refrigeration"), which loved to fail long ways from home. I learned how long I could drive on battery in: a) daylight, no headlights, and b) nighttime, with headlights.
But it kept me alive through a really bad rear-end smashup caused by a '57 Chev (a friend drove my Metro away as I went to the hospital; the Chev was totaled).
I replaced it with another Metro, a '61, and with that I got a great exercise in navigation the fateful day part of the suspension system broke and I had to figure out a route home with NO LEFT TURNS. (I made it!)
"...In a similar vein, our food replicators will eventually lead us to the possibility of my so-called "FAX" transmission, where living entities can be moved through space on communication pathways. It will take a lot of research, and most likely a few gullible volunteers."
Dang, NnB...I don't wanna be a cannibal...
Hm. And here I'd always sort of (never really thought about it) consideed "impulse engines" to be highly refined versions of the Orion "rockets." Cutely contrasted in Niven & Pournelle's book "Footfall".
ERK!!! The car I was in at the time of my accident (which altered my face) was a Nash...
We seem to always remember the car we had the most fun in, or had the most trouble in. Go figger. ;o]
Reminds me of the short but agonizing trip I made driving a standard transmission without a functioning clutch.
I think that's what I have...
That's when you have to learn to "speed shift."
I meant that the technology of food replicators would lead into FAX transmission. Not that people would be consumed.
The problem I have with the FAX process is the "deconstruction" that is needed at the beginning of it. That seems kinda ... destructive. ... and painful.
It seems that they are actually impulse synthesizing engines. Synthetic impulses, eh?
I hope this can be developed. It seems more likely than warp drive, even if it would be slower.
That Nash Metro saved my life! I had installed seatbelts just the week before, which kept me from sailing out the back window AND in place to pull myself and regain control to avoid a subsequent head-on. (He was going 35-50 MPH at collision.)
The dashboard emptied itself of half its "contents" on impact, the seatback collapsed to horizontal, I do not know where the right-angle bend in the steering wheel came from... But in a car with a lesser frame (such as a VW bug), I would have been crushed.
You've never mentioned your accident, and I'm not going to ask. I spent a headache-filled year in a neck brace as a result of mine, and a hypersensitivity to my neck that I only conquered through two years of judo (ended just short of a brown belt due to a move far from my dojo).
I'd love to have a Metro again... a car so ugly, ungainly, awkward-looking and thoroughly lacking in amenities (other than a totally inadequate --in California!-- heater, and a vacuum-tube AM radio) that only a geek could love it. (Did I mention my "camper conversions"? *\;-)
But it would have to be one without Lucas ("Prince of Darkness") electrical systems.
I know about the concept, but here is the problem. Without a clutch, how do you start moving in the first place?
The truck was started, in second gear, lurching forward drunkenly as the engine sputtered to life.
I stayed in second until I could get it to my repair facility, except for the occasional necessary full stop!
It seems to me that the "deconstruction" process would affect the central nervous system in much the same way as a deluge of sulfuric acid. The only way to avoid it wuold be to have the bandwidth to de-res the entire body all at once, and nearly instantaneously. And that's ALOTTA bandwidth!
ERK!
Do I REALLY want to be here????
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