Humor Random Comments Thread

[Andy44]

In other news, you know a band is good when you hear a new song of theirs and you think it's from their early albums and start wondering how the hell you haven't heard it before . yup, The Red and Black from Maiden. Though I'm subjective here, they were the first metal band I ever listened to (more like devoured any album of theirs that I could get my hands on) .Sure, they've had style changes, but they still manage to sound unmistakable.

I hear you.

Steve Harris was/is one my bass gods going way back to my teenage days when I first started picking up an instrument.

And my vinyl copy of Powerslave is one of my cherished music possessions. I pity those who own only digital copies. I vividly remember bringing that record home from the store and hanging out with my buddy listening to it together and looking at the lyrics and cover art. I even remember how it smelled when it was new. 2 Minutes to Midnight remains one of the great metal/rock songs of all time.

 

[Andy44]

Okay, SF fans, are any of you fans of Michael Moorcock, and if so, can you recommend me some of his better stuff? I was listening to some Hawkwind the other day, which is a psychedelic/space rock band that have done a lot of collaboration with Moorcock over the years for concepts, lyrics, I think he even does some spoken word on some of their albums, and it makes me want to check out his writing but I don't know where to start.

 

[Notebook]

I think I read his stuff, was he more fantasy than sci-fi, bad tempered Hobbit?

Edit:
Not sure its the same author, just had a look at wiki thing, and doesn't ring a bell. Sorry.

N.

 

[Andy44]

This is who I am talking about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Moorcock

 

[Urwumpe]

This is who I am talking about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Moorcock

Yeah. Which also brings us to this band a few times:

 

[Andy44]

Yeah. Which also brings us to this band a few times:

Blind Guardian - The Quest For Tanelorn - YouTube

Also this awesome song gets mentioned, it has a reference to the Hawkwind album above:

 

[Notebook]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-43452626/us-army-st-patrick-s-day-video-splits-opinion

Interesting.

N.

 

[jedidia]

Not getting it. But then again, I have no idea about the significance of St.Patricks day either.

 

[Urwumpe]

Not getting it. But then again, I have no idea about the significance of St.Patricks day either.

Its a reason to get drunk in public. :lol:

 

[Notebook]

Patron Saint of Eire.

In the UK as Urwumpe says, a busy time for pubs. Don't think its as big as it used to be.
Or maybe I'm not in pubs in the evenings anymore...

Big in New York I think. No idea why the US Army would make a big deal of it?

N.

 

[Andy44]

In the US the saying goes that on St. Patrick's Day everyone is Irish for one day.

The US has a large ethnic Irish population and so this was a way to celebrate their heritage, especially in cities like Boston, New York, and Chicago, where they have parades with kilts and bagpipes and so on. It's become a big marketing deal, an excuse to get people to hit the pubs and spend lots of money on drinks, green everything gets sold, including candy, hats, clothes, etc.

You can be cynical about it or you can just relax and enjoy it. And all y'all outside the US and Ireland are invited to throw one back along with us.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

From where I stand, it's an alcoholiday, like Drinko de Mayo. :lol:

 

[PhantomCruiser]

In the US the saying goes that on St. Patrick's Day everyone is Irish for one day.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

In the US the saying goes that on St. Patrick's Day everyone is Irish for one day.

Well, not everybody

 

[jedidia]

Today I learned: Bytes in Java are signed.
I wasn't aware that Sun had Loki on the payroll... :facepalm:

 

[Urwumpe]

Today I learned: Bytes in Java are signed.
I wasn't aware that Sun had Loki on the payroll... :facepalm:

Is there anything unsigned in Java? :lol: You can do unsigned calculations BTW since Java 8 with signed integers.

---------- Post added at 20:41 ---------- Previous post was at 10:11 ----------

#gameofthrones

Just noticed that the current most likely heir to the throne of Saudi-Arabia is a former shuttle astronaut now. Was already surprised that Zalman became king, but I did not know that his oldest son had died due to a heart attack in 2001. While succession in Saudi-Arabia is not always linear, the chances of Prince Sultan are pretty high now. Also, his eldest son married a granddaughter of the brother of the first Saudi king - which might fix some bloody family conflict from 100 years ago.

So, while it is still doubtful to happen in the USA, there is a pretty good chance an astronaut might become head of state somewhere.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Another nor'easter playing with us. The campus cancelled today's classes yesterday in anticipation. The weather service forecasting has gone something like this:

Yesterday: "Be prepared for 17 to 21 inches of snow, starting Wednesday morning!"
9AM Today: "Definitely 12 inches, starting around 10AM!"
10AM Today: "Get ready for 7 inches starting around noon!"
12PM Today: "3 to 7 inches, definitely starting around 2PM!"
2PM Today: "Make that 4PM."
4PM Today: A few flakes of snow flutter around, then stops.
6PM Today: "Maybe snow tonight?"

Meh, a day off and probably not a lot of shoveling ahead, I'll take it. I just wish I could be a weather forecaster and keep changing my answer until it is correct.

 

[Fabri91]

So, today I got to hear a sonic boom live for the first time! :woohoo:

Around 1115 at work we heard two very loud bangs, separated by a few seconds, and at first I thought some sort of accident had occured, such as a compressed air tank rupture or similar. Out I went and I managed to get a glimpse of two nearby fast-moving contrails heading roughly north-west at altitude.

This was heard from Milan to nearby the Swiss border where I live and work.

Turns out that two Eurofighter Typhoons went supersonic to reach an Air France 777 that had lost radio contact.

Google transaltion of the official Air Force statement.

Since the aircraft took off from Istrana they crossed the entirety of Northern Italy to reach the interception point over the Aosta Valley region.

 

[Linguofreak]

New conspiracy theory:

The moon is an ancient alien soundstage in high Earth orbit. NASA used it to fake a moon landing because there wasn't a big enough soundstage available on Earth.

 

[Notebook]

Clocks are going forward here, anyone else?

N.