Is Al still around?

Hi! I don't know if you're still around, but I wanted to let you know that this video is dead. I believe the same clip is available here.

As cool as Carl Sagan was, and as cool it would be if he were still around - I don't think the problem is that he was so unique. He was 1-in-a-million - which means there are 300 of him in the U.S. today.

I think the problem is that the broader culture has shifted - from a more innocent time and a fascination with space to American Idol and lolcats.

There's plenty around like him - they're just finding it harder to find the recognition they rightfully deserve.

@Constitutional_Patriot. Checking in to see if you're still around.

Luckily, some of those good old noisy indie rock guitar bands are still around, i'm seeing Pavement live in 2 weeks, wooh!

Probably not to your surprise i can't think of many recent grunge bands to recommend. Maybe bands like 'future leaders of the world' ?

Half of my now 'favorite' bands are bands i've seen live before i knew em. I think concerts & especially good festivals are still the best way to find good music. Finding good music on the internet is never easy, and takes a lot of patience and sifting work, there's too much crap (for me Spotify's playlist's and last.fm recommendations are a great help). It's possible though, I'd say there's more good new music than 15 years ago. I'll try and check your music submissions to see if i can think of anything to recommend.

I would have liked all those examples in a *skills, tbh. Sort of the opposite of fail - *win

>> ^Hybrid:

Well I'd take over video games, but I think the owner is still around in some capacity.
I do also like the idea of "skills", but I'm concerned that it would end up getting all sorts of videos that aren't necessarily skills... for example...
Flukey, half court basketball shots.
Kevin Costner explaining his oil from water extraction system.
A skateboarder performing a one-off trick etc.
A gamer throwing performing an amazing 5 person grenade kill in Modern Warfare 2.
etc.

Well I'd take over video games, but I think the owner is still around in some capacity.

I do also like the idea of "skills", but I'm concerned that it would end up getting all sorts of videos that aren't necessarily skills... for example...

* Flukey, half court basketball shots.
* Kevin Costner explaining his oil from water extraction system.
* A skateboarder performing a one-off trick etc.
* A gamer throwing performing an amazing 5 person grenade kill in Modern Warfare 2.
* etc.

How it has managed to survive so long?

It's sad that these days it is expected for species of animals to wipe out so fast we're actually amazed how this bugger is still around.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Good points - but I'm saying there is a collective feeling of vindication and "rightness" to capitalism now - it is unfettered and unchecked - without any competing system on a world stage.

Before communism's fall - there was a pressure on Western governments to prove that they could do a better job at the issues that Communist countries boasted of - a safety net for the poor, social services and massive projects like the space program.

For the past 20 years though, those kinds of programs have been slashed, privatised or done away with- it's no mistake that the last redoubt of communism - the tiny, poor country of Cuba, has better health care for its citizens than the US - with all its HMOs and private hospitals.

Here's the claim that I'm going make: if the Soviet Union was still around - We would have a better healthcare system in the US.

>> ^jonny:
The problems of the "last 20 years" that you're talking about were in fact problems long before the 1990s, and thus not a consequence of the fall of the Soviet Republics. The recent excesses of capitalism are nothing new - they've been happening since it was first created and in fact long before that. The basic problem is much broader than capitalism or communism or any other "ism" you care to name. The basic problem is concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few. But that problem is not unique to any particular economic or political model. It's a fact of human nature. Communism was probably the best ideology to handle that, but every communist country that ever existed was stuck in the "revolutionary" mind set - The Revolution must continue until everyone is on board, and until then we'll keep complete control in, uh, the hand of a few, uh, party members that understand the, uh, revolution.
Good luck breeding human nature out of humans. Haven't you seen the same concentration of power and "wealth" here in your own social experiment? Same old story. You can build as many roads and access ramps as you want, but there will always be gate keepers and toll collectors.

Shouldn't be terribly long now. The work is interesting... at least in my little world. I hope to get a teaching position at some small college somewhere in the end. Postdoc before that though... probably in the same or a similar field.

In reply to this comment by gwiz665:
Ah, interesting work, no doubt?

Are you finishing up the phd? Gonna continue researching in the same field?

In reply to this comment by Doc_M:
Sorta. Working in the lab almost all day every day now... finishing things up, meetings, etc... ya know.

In reply to this comment by gwiz665:
You still around, science-man?

This is funny and sad all at the same time. When I first clicked on this video I said to myself "damn how are these guys are still around?" Then I see the inbred rednecks that they can still convince to buy into this garbage and then the answer to the question is clear.

Ah, interesting work, no doubt?

Are you finishing up the phd? Gonna continue researching in the same field?

In reply to this comment by Doc_M:
Sorta. Working in the lab almost all day every day now... finishing things up, meetings, etc... ya know.

In reply to this comment by gwiz665:
You still around, science-man?

Sorta. Working in the lab almost all day every day now... finishing things up, meetings, etc... ya know.

In reply to this comment by gwiz665:
You still around, science-man?

You still around, science-man?

This goes along the lines of On Star being able to kill the fuel to your engine when it's stolen. They are intentionally disabling the vehicle, which COULD cause an accident and harm the thief in the vehicle. Not going to bother looking it up, but the system is still around so I'll just assume they haven't been sued because the thief could have been harmed.

What if the thief steals a car with one of the tiny spare tires vehicles have? The ones where you shouldn't drive over X miles or go over Y MPH. Thief could steal it, drive down the road at 100+ mph, tire blows, accident ensues. He'd be laughed out of court. But the driver intentionally put the spare tire on it.

Or better yet, I have a bicycle and the brake pads aren't adjusted properly and are rubbing, so I back them off to where they don't rub. I go inside to get the tools to fix it, or make a call for someone to come get me and the bike.......and it's stolen. Guy gets hurt, good luck suing. Or........maybe we have one of those anti-theft systems to remove the front wheel and we didn't reattach it properly. Guy steals it, wheel comes off.

Stealing shit you know nothing about is a situation you get yourself in, the circumstances change if you ask to borrow it and the guy forgets to tell you that it's broken/defective/unsafe.

It's the equivalent of climbing a fence in the black of night, get up into some barbwire at the top and tear yourself up. The owner did it with the intention of hurting you if you climb it, because he doesn't want you in his fenced area stealing. Or electrified fencing......