Coss

Yes, makes me wonder if we will be the cosseted pets, of future AI or removed, as impediments, by a Skynet from Terminator.

The reason I ask about having read this article, is that it's a well written and researched, if long, missive on Musk and why he's going to get people to Mars. This is not me saying this, this is Musk saying this. This is also noting the importance of re-usable space craft in the cost of all this. I'm not arguing with you. I'm pointing out what others, including Musk, have said. This is notable news. The article is written by an intelligent chap who has been corresponding with Musk. So if he is wrong, then Mr Musk is wrong and must be barking up the wrong tree.

Sicario 2015 - as noted previously, very good, well worth a watch. Control 2007 - If you know who Joy Division are and like 'em, well worth a watch, if you don't, not so much. Mekong makes a cameo at about the 18 min mark, reciting poetry in a pub.

From wikiwoo - "However, as larger programs were built, the flaws of the approach became more apparent. It turns out that, given a set of constraints defining a particular problem, deriving an efficient algorithm to solve it is a very difficult problem in itself. This crucial step cannot yet be automated and still requires the insight of a human programmer." I didn't know much about this, thanks for the tip.

Find out what Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI), Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI) are and why, within most of our lifetimes, we will have cause, to have wanted to think about them now. Some seriously good reading, here: http://waitbutwhy.co...volution-1.html and here: http://waitbutwhy.co...volution-2.html with another good essay here: https://www-rohan.sd...ingularity.html

And: Saudi Arabia severs diplomatic relations with Iran Foreign ministry's decision follows storming of the kingdom's embassy in Tehran during protests on Saturday. Saudi Arabia has announced that it is severing diplomatic ties with Iran following Saturday's attack of its embassy in Tehran during protests. Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi foreign minister, made the announcement on Sunday as the foreign ministry announced that it would ask the Iranian diplomatic mission to leave the kingdom within 48 hours. The Saudi foreign ministry has also announced that the staff of its diplomatic mission have been evacuated. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/01/saudi-arabia-severs-diplomatic-relations-iran-160103202137679.html

Meanwhile the Daesh have no qualms - Young boy with UK accent warns of attacks in Isis execution video. A young boy with a British accent has threatened the UK with new atrocities in a depraved Isis execution video in which five spies are killed. Dressed in military fatigues and a black bandanna bearing the white mark of Isis, he pointed to the distance and declared: "We will kill kuffar [non believers] over there." In the ten-minute-long propaganda video, five shackled men dressed in orange jumpsuits "confessed" to spying for British security services. more at - http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11568943

Hands up who has actually read this: how-and-why-spacex-will-colonize-mars ?

Except for cost to the rest of society. Incarceration is expensive. I can see a reason for a death sentence where the criminal is incontrovertibly guilty, i.e video footage of man killing children, 100 witnesses and a confession. Chop him up make him into fertiliser.

That's a good one, I've always wondered why they've got all our money and I can barely afford to fill my car with petrol.

As you know, it was only the command module, that made it back from the moon, the other components were discarded. The key with this, is that the rocket's fuel stage managed to land and ergo, can be reused. This will bring the cost of Mars travel down to a level that is achievable for organisations other than governments. As has been pointed out, if you had to build another Boeing 747 for every air journey, then air travel would be prohibitive to us mere mortals. Cheaper rockets mean that the colonisation of Mars is now almost a given. Not just making it cheaper to launch satellites. The second post in this thread http://t2.thai360.com/index.php?/topic/63338-eion-musk/ and here for easy reference : how-and-why-spacex-will-colonize-mars, lays it all out in convincing form, that has me a believer.

Beige with pink straps, the height of fashion.

Farangs are the root cause of all evil in LOS. * For Knobs, this response contains 1/ Sarcasm 2/ Cynicism 3/ A deep, well founded, disregard for the intellect of those less well educated and subsumed into 'popular culture'.

So I guess, thanks are in order... Saudi Arabia executed a prominent Shi'ite Muslim cleric and dozens of al Qaeda members on Saturday, signaling that it would not tolerate attacks, whether by Sunni jihadists or minority Shi'ites, and stirring sectarian anger across the region. Hundreds of Shi'ite Muslims marched through Qatif district in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province in protest at the execution of cleric Nimr al-Nimr, an eyewitness said. They chanted "Down with the Al Saud!", the name of the ruling Saudi royal family. Nimr, the most vocal critic of the dynasty among the Shi'ite minority, had come to be seen as a leader of the sect's younger activists, who rejected the quiet approach of older community leaders for failing to achieve equality with Sunnis. Most of the 47 killed in the kingdom's biggest mass execution for decades were Sunnis convicted of al Qaeda attacks in Saudi Arabia a decade ago. Four, including Nimr, were Shi'ites accused of involvement in shooting policemen. The executions took place in 12 cities, four prisons using firing squads and the others beheading. In December, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula threatened to retaliate against Saudi Arabia for any execution of its members. The move further soured relations between Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and its Shi'ite regional rival, Iran, which had hailed Nimr as the champion of a marginalized Shi'ite minority. ... continues at http://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-security-idUSKBN0UG03B20160102

History is made! Eion's boys just successfully re-landed a rocket, this gig of going to Mars is going to get real in my lifetime (Circa 30 yrs left). In case the duller members of the species didn't catch that, History is made! From the Wait but Why guy: On December 21, SpaceX did something historic—they launched 11 satellites into orbit and then brought the rocket back down to Earth and landed it vertically. It's a game-changing breakthrough in the aerospace industry. If you missed it, you can watch the entire thing here on the webcast, which includes me as the freaked-out outsider co-host. Launch happens at about 23:00 and the excitement with the landing starts at about 31:00. Worth watching the bit from 31:00

As I Lay Dying (2013) - Directed - James Franco, Written - James Franco (based on a William Faulkner novel) Starring - James Franco. Engrossing movie once I got my ear around the hillbilly accents. Tim Blake Nelson does the best rendition of a slack jawed Yokel I have ever seen and this movie is worth watching, for this Yokel alone. The story is one of a family of hillbillies, whose mother dies and has to be taken on a journey of some days to be buried elsewhere. Suffering calamities that only the ignorant can suffer, they eventually achieve the objective. A great twist at the end, some very good acting (Sister, Father). Well worth a watch. Somewhat of a vanity project for Franco, but a good one.

Once Upon a Time in America (1984) - Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Tuesday Weld, mmmmm.... Tuesday Weld... Very good movie, well worth a watch, nearly 4 hours, which allows Sergio Leone to let you drink in the excellent scenes...

Girl, boy, boygirl, I'm with Bust, you're definitely a knob. When you can't argue an argument on it's merits, you pick a similar situation somewhere else and say "see?" - this is undisciplined and shabby thinking, you would be better, to get yourself an education, in anything other than popular culture. Try this: Someone once said, that the answer to a mystery or a problem, is likely to be the most simple of the answers available once other possibilities are excluded. This is not so. This is a pithy, popular culture saying attributed to a fictional character, Sherlock Holmes. What you may find elucidatory, when addressing a mystery or a problem, is the thought that all possible explanations should be examined, and that even one solution, which is least popular or likely, will have just as much of a chance, of being the correct one as any other. This is the way the truth is arrived at. Please note that I didn't couch my post, in terms of a modern music (and I use the term advisedly) video, excrescence.

I thought that Brucie had lost his weiner, I thought that was the point, or lack of it, if you see it, or not.

I always thought that there was a difference between driving after consuming two beers and driving after consuming two bottles of whiskey. I resent being criminalised for the former.

I too like this... Unfortunately it doesn't really help, when faced with a Munter in Manchester, intent on inserting a bottle in your face, or a Mustaffa in Mumbai with a kilo of plastic wired to his twitchy finger. But as a general guide to getting about, like Buddhism, it's a good start.

You're, as someone noted above, a knob.

I don't have time now, but this Kodi is a great thing, look for a chap on youtube called Soloman, he's full of tricks and tips and info and such.

In Nong Khai, on the way to Udon Thani, they have a checkpoint set up and stop the cars with Lao Number plates, who over for a day's shopping, to extract a "fine for speeding" where there is no radar, no check no nothing. It's known as the Lao shopping tax. I got off it once by denying that I'd been speeding, adamant I was, they couldn't prove that I had been, and let me go they did. I've paid many other times though.

Jack " I know and trust the maids at Nana Hotel." Under the influence aside, this is not a good thing to do.