Stopped me in my tracks both times!
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Stopped me in my tracks both times!
Attachment 500828
However, Douglas Adams certainly had the idea with Babblefish. .
That's what the lords of private equity would like you to believe.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dantheman
https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebat...ximize-profits
(That's an old article and I think not paywalled. Somebody tell me if it is and I'll cut and paste it in a different thread.)
This is up there on the list.Quote:
Originally Posted by KQ
That Christianity writ large in America would be playing victim and claiming they are being unjustly persecuted whilst simultaneously tearing down the division of church and state and attempting to steer America toward a white Christian ethnostate.
That anyone would still believe that deregulation and tax cuts for corporations would somehow make everyone more prosperous.
That the Supreme Court would be taking constitutional rights away from Americans.
That people would still vote for fucking celebrities.
I was just a kid in the 80s. The 90s are more my jam. So the idea of the Cold War ending and thirty years later motherfuckers in Russia, China and Iran would get the band back together isn't something I imagined. Just playing the greatest hits from the year of our lord 1984 over and over again.
Laughing to keep from crying.Quote:
Originally Posted by MultiVerse
A car that runs for 16 years! With no problems or maintenance besides oil and filters. And then when it has problems, there's reams of OBD data I can download to my mini-pocket computer. And thousands of free websites and videos to help educate myself, troubleshoot, and repair.
As did Gene Roddenberry - though like many things on the OG Star Trek, it was a workaround for not having the budget.Quote:
Originally Posted by rideit
From one of the writers: "We were originally going to have [each crew member] carry a language translator, which would fit on the wrist like a beeper, and no matter what area of the universe they were in, the thoughts that the people were thinking would automatically be translated into English as they spoke."
But they had already blown the budget with communicators, tricorders, and phasers, so they just said everyone speaks English in the future, and when we get called out on it we'll make something up then.
I'm still amazed that a deeply self centered, coke fueled, club hopping, narcissistic, NYC playboy turned into such a big deal that he could become the President.
Something I'm looking forward to seeing in the future is robotic mechanical weed and pest control instead of chemical herbicides and pesticides. A few years ago there was a big controversy about Roundup. Followed by push back from the industry and the story kind of went away. But research continued. And the evidence shows these chemicals travel from the food we eat into our bodies causing long term damage . A good speech by dr. Marty Makary:Quote:
Originally Posted by cinnepa
https://x.com/newstart_2024/status/1838665564648280274
Today's science fiction, tomorrow's reality:
https://x.com/ai_for_success/status/1837472679906947324
Unrelated, did anyone imagine the Concorde would be peak fast air travel? There was a time when a person could travel from New York to London in 2 hours 52 minutes.
Sooooo ...
40 years from now ........?
Computer chip implants sold retail?
Colony on Mars?
Population reduced to 500 million due to multiple pandemics and drug resistant superbugs?
Or just voice controlled dishwashers?
Tell that to my next door neighbor who's been trying all day to get to the socket he dropped into the engine compartment of his old 4Runner.Quote:
Originally Posted by LongShortLong
10mm strikes again!
I could never, ever have imagined that there were so many deposed Nigerian royal families that couldn’t repatriate their inheretences. Or blonde Russian women that really, really wanted to meet me.
Heh. My ‘85 22RE lasted 20yrs, my ‘03 going on 22. Worth buying 10mm sockets and wrenches in bulk.
Double heh. I’ve got an 03 4Runner, and got this.Quote:
Originally Posted by BCMtnHound
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/..._AC_SX679_.jpg
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LH7DM14/
This reminds me that 40 years ago I would never have thought I’d have a vehicle that didn’t have an oil dipstick - ‘21 Audi.
Then there’s Elon - didn’t see that coming.
I honestly am dumbfounded that anyone still manufactures ANYTHING with Imperial measurement besides vintage or repair stuff. It’s insane.
If you're saying Elon is a dipstick, I can't argue with you.Quote:
Originally Posted by Meadow Skipper
I heard Rick James Super Freak the other day WTF?Quote:
Originally Posted by GSinister
I'm still waiting for the food replicator to become a realityQuote:
Originally Posted by Ted Striker
Don’t forget hoverboards. Where the fuck are the hoverboards!
For real, they used to only play geezer music in the supermarkets! When did that change?!?! ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by KQ
When we became geezers.Quote:
Originally Posted by mcski
I could see legal weed, even the innert00bs, given a little exposure to telnet back in the 70s.
But what I never imagined are the new Rethuglicans aversion to Democracy and the unbridled, unabashed, unashamed conduct of modern American fascists.
I am thankful for the demise of MTV.
(Plus I always thought EW's Frankenstein was an unrecognized masterpiece...)
That socket, it's gone. Forget about it.Quote:
Originally Posted by old goat
Mmmmm, Superfreaks on hoverboards ...
Where is my Future?!?!
That so many can't figure out how to get from "a" to "b" without a nav device to tell them.
I see my new mail delivery people at 10 at night trying to deliver the mail.. maybe one envelope at a time.. using nav bs.. ..how hard is: a,b,c..1,2,3???
People can't read, let alone write cursive??!?
Robotics combined with Artificial Intelligence. Some people have been thinking of that for a long time now, but we're very close to real weaponized versions being unleashed on the world in a variety of ways.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDP9jA6k_UE
Drones are maybe even scarier in that regard, although there is some pretty amazing stuff you can do with a swarm of mobile pixels...
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Growing up overseas, chile etc. I never thought I’d see people in the USA rushing the airplane aisle right after we land and fucking up everything.
I can't imagine how only 48% of Americans approved of interracial marriage back in 1991!?!? Today, U.S. approval of interracial marriage is at a new high of 94%. 'merica!
https://news.gallup.com/poll/354638/...-new-high.aspx
Id actually like to see mag-lev trains running coast to coast and people who have no idea what single use plastic was. Fuck Mars and talking dishwashers.Quote:
Originally Posted by PB
Think about it this way, 1991 is less than 30 years out from the end of segregation.Quote:
Originally Posted by MultiVerse
I was born in 1965. Just one hundred years before I was born, Native Americans were still living free in the West. That blows my mind. One hundred years is not that long.
If you've never read Fools Crow by James Welch I highly recommend it.
Also Black Elk Speaks.
Great book. I highly recommend reading anything/everything James Welch wrote.Quote:
Originally Posted by yeahman
Speaking of how things change.....
Those of you who are old enough: remember when we only had 3 channels (4 if you got PBS), the stations quit broadcasting at midnight and we were good with it?
DIdn't read the whole thread, but I never could have imagined EVERYBODY constantly staring at their own tiny little personal computers/communication devices
Ya. Big markets also had some independents that showed a lot of syndicated reruns. Slowly those moved into smaller places. And then Fox and CW and WB and UPI, and some others came along. And cable expanded further into the sticks.Quote:
Originally Posted by KQ
PBS started broadcasting in Detroit in 1955 but we couldn't watch it until years later when we got our first UHF capable TV.Quote:
Originally Posted by KQ
Back in the day TV's were pieces of furniture too heavy and bulky to take to a shop; the repairman came to the house. I still remember ours--mostly to change the tubes. That stopped when TV's became appliances. I never imagined that they would get big enough for repair people to come to the house (if the thing was still under warranty)
Speaking of tubes--I have a 65 Fender amp that still has some original tubes. When the amp crashed I went to the drugstore where there was a tube testing machine and when you figured out which one was bad there was a selection under the tester. Nowadays you get them from guitar stores and online and they all come from Russia, China, or one Slovakian maker. There is still some NOS (new old stock) available, for a price. Niche audio and guitar amps are the only tech that still uses tubes AFAIK.
^ tube tester - now there’s a blast from the past.
My last crt tv required two people to pick it up.