@tomsdesk said:

"...down and down we go..."

Jimi Hendrix?

You don't need the "greed gene", Mike, to have these human hangups. Can you say a dog knows he or his mate will die? (One might say "we can't know what a dog knows". C'mon use your head and observation. What do you think?) Every human understands this--at least somewheres after 25 years. Possibly elephants and some others ponder this, but I think this knowledge of death is essential to the humans asking these questions, which lead to the "free will" question.

And for some, it is not the simple desire to live longer, but the question of why am I "conscious" only to suffer and die? The "desire" to keep alive is essential to being alive, it is hard-wired to the simplest organism. Like sex, we wouldn't be here without it.

Note that burial customs are central to human life, the longest-lived culture in the world was based on them. And of course religion itself seeks to manipulate the questions people have.

Still one can choose to be donkey, only looking for the feedbag and occasionally singing a song at night. (Did i just go political with this?)

Sometimes the question is enough. Asked of every generation. Answered many times over. "I am That I am." "That thou art." "To be or not to be." "I think therefore I am." "Do be do be do." And what you say you?

David,

Obviously the person who put together the second video wasn't able to follow the discussion and/or twisted the words intentionally.

Peter

Hi,

I had an idea to concentrate on a favorite archaeological site in Mexico, on my own--model the extant ruins and recreate according to archaeological evidence. Then I thought, based on programs others are doing, that it would be best if the children / young adults of the area did this, with help from SU professionals. The resulting production could be much bigger than I could do alone, and could be used in education, tourism etc. for the local community. I think it would need boots (or sandals) on the ground and coordination with local and donor organizations.

Your ideas are right in the same vein. I haven't embarked on anything yet, but would like to help in some way on projects.

Peter

Yep. I laid myself off this week. Actually I'm going on vacation, but the slowdown is here. I've some projects but nothing active.

Phil for President!

Actually you've said so much, I can't say I agree with everything.

I have usually sided with the Income progressive tax idea but I am interested in thinking the other way. Would be nice if everyone paid taxes, anyway and sales taxes would get most of it? (I have no idea how much commerce goes on, untaxed, today.) I would just throw out these ideas. No tax on food and medicine.

What will happen to all the loopholes we've created to get out of paying taxes? I wonder about the mortgage interest break. That's a big one. Where does that fit in? Is it bad idea anyway?

On the other hand, if you look at tax code (at least at what's on the form) we have all sorts of breaks for people like farmers who take risks each year, railroad workers(?), priests, breaks for having dependents (another big one), for blind people etc.(big too--not to be unfair). Will social programs have to be developed to provide those breaks or would a sales tax be somehow automatically equitable to those with impediments. What about other itemized tax deductions. Not required?

I think we will still have social programs. And incentives for some industries etc. Society needs dependable ways to help some people. I guess some would rather go back to the times of the workhouses and Oliver Twist. Send all the losers to Australia. But that notion aside, perhaps some of these "breaks" will then become programs, and be more out in the open to be determined by the people, not forever entitlements built into the tax code.

Another aside on that aside. Some people think government shouldn't help out people like Katrina victims. Or maybe shouldn't be involved at all in the "free" market free-fall. I think one of the basic reasons we have government, after security from attack and defending rights, is the ability to help in times of crisis. Some of the most basic societies were centered on granaries for the hard years, and taboos for sustaining the harvests. Of course there was a lot of priestly mumbo-jumbo going on as well.

We certainly got our share of that, but the politicians kicked the priests out.

Beat me to it Boof. KUDOS! on the idea anyway.

Me too. It's a conspiracy! I have settings pretty well set, I thought, and just recently had pop-ups that would not stop. For one I had to force quit Firefox from the finder (Mac OS Firefox 2).

You want to know how big a pyramid you can make with a 4'x4' piece of copper?
I would take the shape you made, if its proportions are good. flatten out all the faces that need to be made, arrange the pieces in the most compact square, and proportionally reduce the size of all until it fits in a 4'x 4' square. Then you can make measurements.

However, you will find people hereabouts who are really into this folding business, as well as woodworkers who do a lot of pattern making using SU. (Not me.)

Good luck.
Peter

That's what a vote for McCain means.

Does anyone take a good look at him. I just listened to the debates on the radio. He's beginning to slur his speech.

Great, thanks. I've only been importing images as texture.

Peter

@ridix said:

I don’t understand why you are not just projecting logo on the wall??

Exploding image? That’s new to me. So, I tested it and it works! Here is my test. And by the way once image is converted into regular surface, you can just cut your image out as I started here.

What is this? Can you explain the process step by step. It would seem that you can import shapes from images for use in modeling this way. I don't see any way to "explode" an image.

Peter

Damn fast. What is your secret(s)? Houses are pretty neat too.

As for the development design, I like the huge expanse of lawn and the poor guy out there with his little mower. I know, it's just for a simple / fast presentation.

Miss WFB too and I didn't really agree with him. Heard a great interview with his son. The words he used were so great. The language is wasting away without speakers like him. He certainly didn't feel a need to dumb it down for the rest of us. But he spoke so deliberately, you could read along if you had the right dictionary handy.

But Ron, the conservatives hear more leftist media and the liberals hear more right-wing media. Depends where you sit.

Passive solar was bigger it seems, in the 70's. Most designs make for an unusual house type and living styles, but some common sense will help any design. Problems include control of glare and overheating, and providing clear surfaces for absorption (if you are trying to have direct solar gain through windows). I recently saw a trombe wall in a new upscale house. Pretty unusual.

So on my second comment above, the obstacle is: are you going to sell a client who already just wants a conventional house with a good floor plan. I think it's a gradual process of acceptance. That's why we have green building tours, to show some great houses that have various features, if not extensive direct passive solar.

Yep you did, Thanks, though. A lot there. I think SU needs an online repository for such sustainable links, models, and methodology.

Keep it up Durant. Some art at the MOMA, I don't know what it is and I say "hmmmm."
But this I don't know what it is and say "All Right!"

Great rendering. I like this image. I think the edge pattern is a little distracting at the bottom.
What is this style you talk about?

Seems like it should be doable (for Google to fix this). Most Mac applications print to pdf every page. Scenes are like pages, although I notice that what you get depends on your window. Change your window and the scenes will look different, unlike other applications printing pages. I have not yet found the pdf output to be good. I use .png.