Cecil article about caffine and yadda ya

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
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:smack:

Cecil may harbor some misconceptions as illustrated in the above quotation. Instead, I’ figure he was just pulling that woman’s chain, but just in case…

“nonlinear” - the term is used in hacker culture to describe someone or something that works kinda crazy or is unstable. And only the Wired, wannabe computer kiddies and other posers are nonlinear thinkers. Old school computer hackers are extremely linear. Part of the job description. Fuzzy thinkers weren’t very successful interacting with a computer when you had to toggle in the system bootstrap from the console switches. Programming computers thirty years ago, you noticed that artsy intellectual types were not exactly the kinda folks that hung out in the data center at 3AM. Just the people with the dull linear minds that could think algorithmically and possessed extreme tolerance to frustration became serious geeks.

“Postindustrial children of the Information Age” - to quality you must of had your email address on your business card back in the days of the “bang notation”.( Where you had to list the mail handlers between your mailer and one of the well known network machines like ‘ucbvax’.) Otherwise you are in the same category as pop culture icon Marshall McLuhan - talk the talk but that’s about it. Compare him to Donald Knuth. No that guy’s the real thing. This phrase should only be used by “post modern deconstructionist literary editors” And we’ve seen how easy it is to blow off those dudes.
“Chevy Impala” - This wisecrack means old Cecil didn’t realize that GM brought back the venerable old name plate for a bad ass four-door sedan in the 1990’s that was powered by the same V8 in the Corvette and Z28, the LT1. The 90’s Impala was built on the same platform as the Caprice but with serious suspension tweaks like a highway patrol car. It was the automotive equivalent to a pair of real leather WingTips. And the Impala only came in one color - black. A totally bitchin’ car.

“Low tech” - don’t be knocking low tech approaches. Walk around the our factories where high tech American fighter planes are built. You notice that they gotta be real careful that there are no stray washers or little tiny nuts and bolts sitting around on the floor. Our multi zillion buck fighter jets are too delicate. They would crash and burn if a lousy one cent washer got in it. Compare that to the Russian built fighters that can land and take off in a pig farmer’s septic field and have equal performance to their US counterparts. Sometime brute force is the best technology to use. Like with the AK-47. Or the engines used on the new Atlas-V booster.

best regards,

buck

“I’m taking Viagra and drinking prune juice -
I don’t know if I’m coming or going” - Rodney Dangerfield

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Except that Russkie planes aren’t equal to US combat aircraft, & haven’t been since the days of MIG vs. Sabrejet–a.k.a the “Korean War”.

But HEY! As a consolation prize, here’s a copy of our home game! :smiley: :stuck_out_tongue:

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A link to the Cecil Adams article under discussion in this thread:

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_273.html

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You stated that *"Russkie planes aren’t equal to US combat aircraft *

huh?? So those tricky commie bastards in the Pentagon are lying to us??

Nawww.

The Su-33, Su-35, MiG 29 and MiG-31 are modern aircraft by any metric I can think of, so could you explain your reasons for your statement.

The Su-37 with its demonstrated ‘superagility’ could be the most advanced fighter on the planet but it will never go into production.

And appearently the Pentagon doesn’t agree with you…

“May 1998 - So when the Republic of Moldova put 21 MiG-29 dual-role fighters - capable of carrying nuclear weapons - on the auction block , the Pentagon snatched them up before bargain hunters from unfriendly countries could get their paws on them.”

From the FAS web site

best regards,

buck

''And these atomic bombs which science burst upon the world
that night were strange even to the men who used them."
- H. G. Wells, in “The World Set Free”, 1914

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Um … check out the date on the Cecil Adams article.

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This doesn’t mean the Pentagon thought the MiG-29 was the equal of modern U.S. fighters, merely that MiG-29s posed a threat due to its ability to carry nuclear ordnance. (No one was saying that Soviet fighters didn’t pose a threat. Just because U.S. fighters are superior to former-Soviet fighters doesn’t mean former-Soviet fighters aren’t a threat.)