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Once more...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2414
Covered in insect bites that are beginning to itch, it's once more into the Breach. A 2 month contract in hell, day one, the owner friendly, this is to be a temporary arrangement until the summer vacation, but if I know them they'll try to extend it...
The owner, he's a lot of opining to do, opinions on the new NDP government and how the conservatives could be so stupid (he blames Jim Prentice, an occasional customer.). Opinions on the TFW laws, which are going to make it impossible for him to stay in business, they're all being sent back, he's losing his sous-chef, returning to the Philippines, he can't find Canadians to work, he's brought in a journalist for lunch so he can stand and tell him how these laws will be closing down all the restaurants in the city...
I keep my opinions to myself. Read between the lines and his every argument for foreign workers is an argument against them, while I like them all they represent the vicious underbelly of exploitation: intolerable work conditions, long hours and low pay.
The nephew, when they talked me into it, he began to laugh, it's like giving you the monkeys paw, good luck getting rid of it, and while he's away to renew his temporary work permit I have a feeling he won't be trying to hard to come back, the boom days are over....
The days off have disappeared, they forgot to mention it, we're a server short, the three of us can man the restaurant, day and night, every open shift, until the vacation. G reassures me that we need the money, and then in the same breath mutters he wouldn't mind a day off so he can take out his girlfriend...No job deserves a day off more than this, but it's not going to happen...
And there are the customers, all the regulars comment on your return, surprise, some pleased, some dismayed, my pleasant attitude was wearing a little thin towards the end, my infinite patience now renewed for another 2 month contract, and then?
Discarded Apple 1 to fetch $200,000 at Auction
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Found
- Hits: 1968
A lady takes an old computer to be recycled. Only in this instance it's an Apple 1, worth about $200,000, and the person who took the computer is looking to reach the donor to split the profits. Nice.
Link: http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_28221648/apple-i-sells-200000-discarded-junk-mystery
Nelson - Prospecting 2
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Images
- Hits: 2238
Merely a few of the unrelated images I collected on the way to the second prospecting course in Nelson.
I had to go, of course, having paid for it and all, but everywhere in Calgary there were signs to encourage me...
First stop was the barber in Creston, last chance to look semi presentable (and as the course went on my presentability dropped off substantially....fortunately we're all prospectors here and everyone was too courteous to comment...)
Quantum Interstellar Relay
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 2492
Now this is an idea I've been tossing around for a while, and as it seems a bit premature to patent it it does seem to explain a few things.
The idea is this: A Quantum Interstellar Relay. As that probably doesn't help you, allow me to explain. Using the principles of Quantum Entanglement a beacon or relay is set up at a point equidistant between two stars. Probably this would be near a star that happens to be close to midpoint between earth and the star or quadrant we wished to be communicating with, the star serving to provide a ready source of energy for the beacon.
Now if you've watched any science fiction you're probably aware of the trope where communications are hampered by the speed of light - distant colonies and spacemen waiting years for messages from earth. The quantum relay would solve this. From the midway point or beacon/relay two or more streams of entangled particles are directed both at Earth and at the colonies. While the initial stream of entangled photons or particles would take X number of light years to reach both the colonists and Earth, communications between them afterwards will be near instant - changes in the entangled quanta beam arriving at earth will be exactly mirrored to the colonists/spacemen, software could be used to decrypt images, video, holograms, or even just text. Instant communication (I expect that it won't be instant, the point nearest to "equidistant" that we find might be a few light-minutes or hours away from "center", but it sure as heck beats waiting years...).
This is an easy solution, and as far as I can tell, reasonable. The galaxy and even universe could eventually be populated with these relays or beacons, a communication network of sorts, that would allow for (relatively) instant communications between all the stars, without the wait or restrictions imposed by the speed of light.
Taking this one step further, lets look at SETI, scanning the sky for radio signals that might indicate intelligent life somewhere else in the Galaxy. This might not be the best way to go about it. On Earth, we've used radio loosely for less than 100 years, and detecting those signals that have leaked into space would be a major task. With the increased advent of Satellite communications very few of our signals have been "leaking" into space, and our electromagnetic "footprint" has become almost invisible.
What advanced civilization would choose, given the limitations of time and energy, to communicate via radio waves? I'm guessing none. For the fifty or hundred years that they represented the zenith of technology, maybe; but once they've moved on they'll probably choose the more instant methods suggested by quantum entanglement. Which suggests that instead of radio waves, we should be probably looking for entangled photons, or other, more instant, signatures of intelligent life, and hope that somewhere out there there's a beacon or relay directed at us...
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