Jump to content

The even randomer thread


Stoner

Recommended Posts

In the book I read, it said that each time a region was conquered, the conquering state would use various methods to control/make allies of the local population.  The Ottomans basically had either a "baby tax" where 1 in 10 infants born in the town were given over to the state (often castrated- they became administrators; the civil service was populated with eunuchs under the assumption that men with no chance to pass on a legacy to their own children would not overthrow the government), or, the town could declare as Muslim and no baby tax but they'd have to stand up a militia that would be responsible for protecting their territory, under command of the sultan.  The Ottomans didn't really care which they chose, but many towns chose to convert to Islam.  The Christian conquerors would also encourage towns to convert to their sect but were more likely to use force, coercion, even torture.


(disclaimer:  I read this book over 10 years ago so my memory of this might be a bit off)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Uhhmmmm.

In my quest to understand why in general, I’ve been focusing on ego. It’s a funny thing to me because I’m sure it evolves as a survival technique. Makes perfect sense when you look at “you kill me” vs “I kill you”, but it seems that an advanced race wouldn’t have the room for ego. It’s fine for the bugs and the critters, the biblical “meek”. We all have ego though. What service does it provide for society? I’ve been super aware of it since my parents died. I find comfort, somehow, realizing that what you see of me is nothing more than the reflection of light off of me. I’m more than what you see, and what I see. Logic then follows that you are more than what I see, and what you see. If I could set aside my ego and you could do the same, would we see even more of who/what we are?

I think so.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just placed my first order on Grub Hub. Exciting times we live in!

Out of curiosity I checked Grub Hub for my little area south of 5/20. A Mediterranean place, BK, India House, Six50 and Denny’s. I can get a big/greasy/hungover Denny’s breakfast delivered to the middle of nowhere?! Holy in !!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Out of curiosity I checked Grub Hub for my little area south of 5/20. A Mediterranean place, BK, India House, Six50 and Denny’s. I can get a big/greasy/hungover Denny’s breakfast delivered to the middle of nowhere?! Holy ######in ######!!

Thanks pretty amazing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why can I see more land the higher I go up? Thought that occurred to me when watching a sniper in a movie and I wondered why the height gives him a vision advantage 

 

There's an interesting place over in Amish Country that looks like Nebraska. When I'm there, all I can see in any direction is flat fields. I'm pretty sure it's actually a very shallow bowl, as the area around that is pretty hilly. Because I'm at ground level I can't see over the slight rise that surrounds me. If I were probably 10 or 20 feet up, I'd see over the rise and see the mountains, farms, and everything else around me.

 

If you're at ground level, anything more than 6 feet tall is going to block your sight line past that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's an interesting place over in Amish Country that looks like Nebraska. When I'm there, all I can see in any direction is flat fields. I'm pretty sure it's actually a very shallow bowl, as the area around that is pretty hilly. Because I'm at ground level I can't see over the slight rise that surrounds me. If I were probably 10 or 20 feet up, I'd see over the rise and see the mountains, farms, and everything else around me.

 

If you're at ground level, anything more than 6 feet tall is going to block your sight line past that.

Does the curvature of the earth affect this then? Higher up I am, the more over the curve I can see

Cringe worthy game of tic-tac-toe at a recent Blazers game...

Saw this, it was incredible 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Does the curvature of the earth affect this then? Higher up I am, the more over the curve I can see

Saw this, it was incredible 

 

I think at even sniper distances it's minimal.

http://dizzib.github.io/earth/curve-calc/index.html?d0=3&h0=6&unit=imperial

 

If that's accurate, standing at 4 miles (6 feet tall), you'd be able to see all but a person's boots. It goes downhill (figuratively and literally!) quickly though, at 5 miles you'd miss anything below the groin, and at 6 miles, you'd miss an entire 6 foot person entirely. I really think getting up high is about getting over ground clutter and hills.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My work computer died on the 2nd and it turned into this big fiasco, but I had known this might happen so I had all of my CAD files and important stuff backed up on our server and a flash drive. I was able to get the old computer running but it wasn't quite right so we bought me a new computer and everything is zen. But it finally set off alarm bells with the higher ups that maybe it was time we upgraded how we do things here at our company. One of my major points of emphasis is that my boss doesn't have his PC backed up anywhere and it is getting long in the tooth. If it dies we could lose a lot of inventor files and whatnot.

Today that has happened. And now I get to try to fix it.

None of this would be an issue if anyone here had bothered to heed my warnings for the last two years that we were living on borrowed time with the way we are doing IT and data management. 

 

:rolleyes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't want to ever see you mentions someone's birthday in this thread again.  ;)

 

 

Seeing as my wife has creeky knees, stairs are not a desired feature in a house for us.

 

Well, Mr. Smarty Pants, I have never wished anyone a happy birthday in this thread.  Only in the awesome thread, or that other one that 11 created in some kind of rage against the machine.

 

And don't worry it seems that there has been a bit of re-programming and birth dates are not displayed anymore even if that bit of info is revealed.

 

+++++

 

On your second point.  I get it.  Ageing is wonderful, but it beats the alternative, so far anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...