| Old Computers | Computing before it sucked: pre-1981 (release of MS-DOS) |
| Science Fiction | Harlan Ellison, Lois McMaster Bujold |
| History | Ancient Engineering |
@mms The definition of "war crime" is tricky. Destroy a desalinization plant? Depends on whether the military advantage outweighs the harm to civilians. That's the test under international law, and the expectation is that you will actually do that comparison.
But merely threatening intentional killing of civilians is a war crime. So is "no quarter, no mercy" as our Sec Def pronounced. (Even that depends on whether that was an order or not.)
The USA has nuked entire cities. twice.
"Automatic Beyond Belief"
It surely is. And so much great engineering went into such a simple appliance. In production from 1949 until 1997, with a brief reboot in Australia in the early 2000's.
The phrase, "they don't make 'em like they used to" is an understatement for this humble toaster.
People will think I'm weird for enthusing over the design of a toaster. But let them. Designed by the son of Czech immigrants, the Sunbeam T-20 is a marvel. You have to heat the bread, right? He harnessed that heating element to move the toast in and out of the machine. Then he used a thermostat so it toasted to a specified _temperature_, not a specified time (as modern ones do).
So simple that the only things which can go wrong have adjustments so you can correct them. Genius!
@mms His father was the greatest swordsman in all of France. General of the Army. Known as "The Black Count". And subject to the French "Code Noir", because black people were starting to be seen as equals to the whites. So they made a rule.
Fascinating family. The Dumas museum has sections for each of them. I seem to recall reading that the section for Dumas Pere is the _smallest_ of the three. Despite him being the one known today, while the others are footnotes.
@filippo @robpike Here's an NSA publication on this topic, from 10 years ago. What I love about this is how they describe their requirements: they have to field systems and guarantee their security for 30 years into the future.
https://archive.org/details/cnsa-suite-and-quantum-computing-faq/mode/2up
@lauren Here's someone who has done a bit of research on the "ballroom" and found oddities in the list of contractors. I.e., they are all cloud computing vendors, not construction companies:
@screwturn @janeishly My grandmother taught me to crochet. In the USA, these things are often done in rural areas during the looong Winters. If burly farmers can enjoy stitchwork, anyone can.
I used to carry my mother's old, unused purses around. They were perfect for carrying my toys and other small bits in, especially on vacations.
These things are all learned behaviors. What's the modern phrase? "Don't start no trouble; won't be no trouble." Teach your children better.
