Re: [OT] Re: shuttle disaster
On Tue, Feb 04, 2003 at 10:02:09AM -0800, Paul E Condon wrote:
> Hal Vaughan wrote: Alchemists had three generally accepted
> goals: the transformation of base metals into gold, the
> discovery of a universal solvent, and the discovery of 'the
> elixir of life' . Like scientists today, they looked to the
> sovereign (the government of the time) for funding for their
> research. In their search for funds, they would let the
> sovereign believe that there was some possibility that their
> research would yield practical results, such as changing real
> lead into real gold. They did not find an exlixir of life.
> They did not find the universal solvent. They did not change
> real lead into real gold. They lost their funding.
>
> Is there a parallel to alchemy in the modern world?
aids research, and cancer research, to name a few. the moment
anybody thinks they've got a cure, they'll disappear so their
bosses will be able to keep the house in the hamptons. too big a
business, by now, to be shut down by actual success.
--
I use Debian/GNU Linux version 3.0;
Linux server 2.4.20-k6 #1 Mon Jan 13 23:49:14 EST 2003 i586 unknown
DEBIAN NEWBIE TIP #115 from Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com>
:
Wondering WHAT'S TAKING UP SPACE ON YOUR SYSTEM? You can get a
good idea of system space utilization with the incantation:
$ du -s * | sort -nr | cat -n
...which will rank all files and directories in the current directory by
space utilization. Pipe to pager, file, or 'head' if it scrolls off
screen. Descend through larger trees for more details.
Also see http://newbieDoc.sourceForge.net/ ...
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