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Sorry no camera?

Also you can get a GPS but you may be right, it is japan-only. Yeah, shame the potential of the system wasn't used properly. I'd have bought up all this stuff in a second a few years back.

I'm pretty sure China forces abortion or something.

Last I heard, China forced abortion of females (although, the policy may have changed by now -- I don't know). Certainly, that's not a policy either of us would want, but if you justify abortion on population grounds, that's the road you're ultimately going to end up going down.

That is not what I desire, as that would definitely be a breach of freedom. However, I just said that the desire to want every single child conceived to be born is unrealistic.

Every single child conceived now isn't born -- even if you ignore aborted fetuses. Women miscarry, and sometimes the fertilized egg simply fails to implant in the woman's uterus.

I'm pretty sure you have the option of adopting them out.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. In order to be adopted, children first have to be put up for adoption, but pro-choice people often act as if this is a fate worse than death.

These "pro-life" people take no consideration of people who simply can't afford the child or perhaps it was a complete accident in the first place.

If you're having trouble taking care of your child, there are social services to assist with this. In fact, that's why people are given money for children in public assistance. Second, "unplanned" and "unwanted" aren't necessarily synonyms. Many couples have children sooner than they planned for, but love the children nonetheless. In cases where this isn't true, it's a character defect in the parents, not a problem with the child. Third, if the child is made to suffer by the parents, by all means, the children should be taken away from them. I'm 100% in favor of harsher punishments for abusive parents. A parent's frustration at having a child shouldn't be taken out on the child.

These children will just end up adding to the overpopulation problem while rotting in an orphanage.

The solution is encouraging adoption, not abortion. As far as overpopulation goes, that's a bell people have been ringing since at least the 1960's. If you'd asked Harry Harrison in 1966, he'd've said we'd all be cannibals by now. The overpopulation doomsayers don't have a great track record.

It's actually education that's correlated to a lower birthrate. If someone is determined to stay in school and make something of themselves, they tend to be more careful sexually when they're younger, and wait longer to have children (thus, having fewer children). If the plan is just to let the uneducated have abortions if they want them, you don't really solve the problem. What you have to do is give them a reason not to use their genitals as a cheap form of soma.

Facts about Brazil:

Brazil is energy self-sufficient! It still exports some oil it cannot refine, and imports some oil it can refine, but, overall, it is energy independent.

Brazil has real banking laws. The world-wide economic downturn caused by corruption in the U.S. financial system lasted only a few months in Brazil.

Brazil only recently passed laws that everyone must be educated through high school. There are a lot of adults in Brazil who, sadly, have little education. Little education usually means they will be poor all their lives.

Compared to the United States, Brazil has poor libraries. Andrew Carnegie made it fashionable for U.S. cities and towns to have good libraries. Because of limited libraries, it is difficult for someone in Brazil to educate himself or herself.

The best book in English about Brazil and the history of Brazilian politics is The Accidental President of Brazil: A Memoir by Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who was president of Brazil for two consecutive terms, from January 1995 to December 2002.

Brazilians feel a lot of social pressure. They often compare themselves with other people in an unhealthy way. The culture of individuality in the U.S. tends to cause people in the U.S. to just be themselves, which is healthier.

However, people in the U.S. seem relatively unhappy. Brazilians in general seem much happier with life.

Judging from numerous shocking news stories about the ease of modifying the results, the electronic voting booths in the U.S. are corrupt. Brazilian electronic voting seems accurate.

I got one of these when I went back to work and then I just call my wife on the phone. http://www.amazon.com/Cisco-Linksys-Wireless-N-Internet-Monitoring-Camera/dp/B002OHDFOA

This is a bit more expensive, but solves the problem.

http://www.amazon.com/D-Link-DCS-5300-Network-Internet-Camera/dp/B0001AU9B4

It's a standalone device, so no computer to run, and probably a minimal power draw.

You'd need to run ethernet or a wireless to ethernet adapter for each device.

You do, however, get remote pan and tilt functionality. That should be a boon if you're changing between talking to kids and adults.

Some criticism as to durability, but those folk were running them for a couple of years. Low light problems are always an issue for webcams, I'd highly recommend visiting Ikea or similar and adding several lights to the kitchen to make it really bright if it's not already.

George Eastman House can be found at http://www.eastmanhouse.org.

You can also read an essay by about the Sasson camera and more in the book Camera: A History of Photography from Daguerreotype to Digital (Todd Gustavson)

Disclaimer: I work there, but the book really is good!

-Ryan Donahue
Manager of Information Systems, George Eastman House

Presentation Zen http://www.amazon.com/Presentation-Zen-Simple-Design-Delivery/dp/0321525655/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1282964615&sr=8-1 Having been in large corporations most of my career, I completely understand his sheer frustration at his environment around him.

And plugging in is easier, as the plug will "find" its way in.

Definitely. I got a pair of these video players for the kids and was relieved to see they came with Mini-USB. I have Micro- on my cell phone, and it's a total pain in the ass to plug in to charge. My wife's too, it's not just my phone.

They're so hard to put in I regularly found myself thinking I had it in backwards, and trying the other way (but 50/50 that was a wrong assumption). I just put silver marker on one side of the USB cable so I'd know to keep trying until it goes in right.

I heard something about the EU dictating Micro-USB as a standard, so we're probably screwed on this one.

Do not play this record with a system that contains the Denon AKDL1.

http://www.amazon.com/Denon-AKDL1-Dedicated-Link-Cable/product-reviews/B000I1X6PM

If you're really interested in learning to write the characters, check out Remembering Traditional Hanzi. You'll be able to figure it out in 6 months without too much trouble.

That's not true. Check out Remembering Traditional Hanzi. You should have no problem remembering how to write 3000 characters with 6 months of work, or less if you want to focus on learning them.

I didn't realize that Amazon was selling Chinatown bootlegs.

There's lots of rocks out there. I wonder how much mass they all add up to. The theory in The Twelfth Planet ( http://www.amazon.com/12th-Planet-Earth-Chronicles-Book/dp/038039362X ), which sounds a bit farfetched since the author states it is gathered from ancient tablets that were dictated to us by aliens, is something like: There was a big planet around where Earth is now. This 12th planet (Moon, Sun + Pluto also being 'planets') with a 3600-year orbit came into our solar system and came really close to it. I think the moon split off from it, then another moon, which shattered to become this asteroid belt, and what was left (with the modified orbit) was Earth. Other pieces that broke off from the planet were flung away and became comets. This is all from memory, so it might not be accurate. Interesting theory, though.

Start a private setchicks@thefarm project Get inspiration here. You can at least not do any worse than they have, even though three meters is a little smaller than the Arecibo. You won't be looking for any non-random signals, you can be more specific and look for chick music only, and remember size doesn't matter!

Over 2000 years ago said (in the translation on Wikiquote);

"It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles;
if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one;
if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle."

If you have not read it, "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu. His words are as applicable today as they were when they were written and are valid in all levels of conflict.

Another great thing about Sun Tzu, he also said "To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.". Pity more of today's National leaders don't take that more to heart.

For me, the fact that a treatment that gives a 60% survival rate is considered a major breakthrough only underscores the fact that Ebola is terrifyingly dangerous, and it's just a few mutations from being real trouble.

If you enjoy being frightened, give Richard Preston's The Hot Zone a read.

You've been able to buy DRM'd episodes from Amazon since 2006, this is only news because it's itunes.

mm, no, I don't buy it. An inexpensive HD video camera is $100; They're all over the place. Methinks you're figuring things using preconceptions picked up years ago.

As for "normal" hard drive use, I think the people who sell Aperture, Lightroom, Photoshop, WinImages, Finalcut, and all the plug-in people who write functions to extend those products... yeah, I think they'd just laugh at you. I know at least one of 'em is. :)

The question of "How did I cope" opens a very huge discussion that will get me modded to hell on Slashdot. At first I simply had other academic endeavors to occupy me. Everything from reading to writing to computer programming to porn. I studied until I burned out; I whacked it until I was sick of porn (hell, I've had it bleed a few times in my life from being rubbed raw). It was as destructive as drinking and drinking until you cannot see or care about your problems anymore.

My current fancy is a more spiritual path, and to that end I've peeled some things out of older religions. Skip the gods, look at the world views and philosophy. It's actually helped me straighten myself out quite a bit... puts you at peace.

Taoism for example relies on balance. Let's say you want to stay in shape: maybe just tone your body up some, maybe lose your blubber form. A lot of people take up hard exercise 2-3 hours a day; or they stay lazy but pick up a diet of rabbit food and supplements they NEED to survive on their broken diet. Taoist philosophy would say these are unbalanced: instead, take interest in a physical recreation (sports, martial arts, bike riding) and moderate your diet (eat what you want, but don't overeat to excess and don't eat a LOT of unhealthy garbage). In this way, you become physically AND mentally healthy: you don't suffer at the gym torturing yourself to get better abs, and you center your eating habits away from uncontrolled gluttony or neurotic dietary fascism.

One thing this lead me to was a lot of interest in meditation. There are many forms of meditation with different goals. For me, I have taken to physical and spiritual forms to help settle my mind. I always wanted to learn martial arts, and this lead me to Aikido; while I do Yoga (for 10-15 minutes twice a day) mainly because it's a form of meditation, and also because it turns that "2 hours before I've fully woken up" into "10 minutes in the morning." As for spirituality, I engage in breathing and mental ("spiritual") exercises proscribed in some hippie newage book to help me feel out what my mind and body are having trouble with. This lets me find my own center and understand my problems better; often I can deal with them simply by recognizing them, since stress comes from the unknown.

I only spend a few minutes at once meditating typically. I show up at my dojo early, though; so I have a good 10-20 minutes of waiting to do. I take the time before training to perform a rather complete Kundalini and Zazen meditation (one seems to lead to the other, so this works excellently), since I have nothing better to do besides He-Man push-ups.

It hasn't got me laid; but it has got me socializing better, because taking the time to stop being such a nervous tit and put some introspection into my life has settled my mind and given me much more confidence. I'm also much less concerned with the fact that I'm NOT getting laid: I have one hell of a drive (in fact it's increased), but I only see it as a strong sex drive and not a horrible calamity that I'm totally fucking up because I can't get it in. In other words, not getting laid has become not so terrible.

One leads to the other, does it not...

As to the relevance of this advice, I'll tell you this straight out: Don't get up and go become The Guru of the Mountain just 'cause it worked for someone. Read some stuff, by all means. Knowledge is the absolute best tool you have. But find your own path. Maybe all that stuff isn't for you; but after a look over it, you realize the philosophy is right and you take a glance at your life and sort things out in a less hippie-newage kind of way. Maybe you follow a totally different branch of the same path-- board games are meditative, and you can contemplate very deep philosophy in the games of Go and

The question of "How did I cope" opens a very huge discussion that will get me modded to hell on Slashdot. At first I simply had other academic endeavors to occupy me. Everything from reading to writing to computer programming to porn. I studied until I burned out; I whacked it until I was sick of porn (hell, I've had it bleed a few times in my life from being rubbed raw). It was as destructive as drinking and drinking until you cannot see or care about your problems anymore.

My current fancy is a more spiritual path, and to that end I've peeled some things out of older religions. Skip the gods, look at the world views and philosophy. It's actually helped me straighten myself out quite a bit... puts you at peace.

Taoism for example relies on balance. Let's say you want to stay in shape: maybe just tone your body up some, maybe lose your blubber form. A lot of people take up hard exercise 2-3 hours a day; or they stay lazy but pick up a diet of rabbit food and supplements they NEED to survive on their broken diet. Taoist philosophy would say these are unbalanced: instead, take interest in a physical recreation (sports, martial arts, bike riding) and moderate your diet (eat what you want, but don't overeat to excess and don't eat a LOT of unhealthy garbage). In this way, you become physically AND mentally healthy: you don't suffer at the gym torturing yourself to get better abs, and you center your eating habits away from uncontrolled gluttony or neurotic dietary fascism.

One thing this lead me to was a lot of interest in meditation. There are many forms of meditation with different goals. For me, I have taken to physical and spiritual forms to help settle my mind. I always wanted to learn martial arts, and this lead me to Aikido; while I do Yoga (for 10-15 minutes twice a day) mainly because it's a form of meditation, and also because it turns that "2 hours before I've fully woken up" into "10 minutes in the morning." As for spirituality, I engage in breathing and mental ("spiritual") exercises proscribed in some hippie newage book to help me feel out what my mind and body are having trouble with. This lets me find my own center and understand my problems better; often I can deal with them simply by recognizing them, since stress comes from the unknown.

I only spend a few minutes at once meditating typically. I show up at my dojo early, though; so I have a good 10-20 minutes of waiting to do. I take the time before training to perform a rather complete Kundalini and Zazen meditation (one seems to lead to the other, so this works excellently), since I have nothing better to do besides He-Man push-ups.

It hasn't got me laid; but it has got me socializing better, because taking the time to stop being such a nervous tit and put some introspection into my life has settled my mind and given me much more confidence. I'm also much less concerned with the fact that I'm NOT getting laid: I have one hell of a drive (in fact it's increased), but I only see it as a strong sex drive and not a horrible calamity that I'm totally fucking up because I can't get it in. In other words, not getting laid has become not so terrible.

One leads to the other, does it not...

As to the relevance of this advice, I'll tell you this straight out: Don't get up and go become The Guru of the Mountain just 'cause it worked for someone. Read some stuff, by all means. Knowledge is the absolute best tool you have. But find your own path. Maybe all that stuff isn't for you; but after a look over it, you realize the philosophy is right and you take a glance at your life and sort things out in a less hippie-newage kind of way. Maybe you follow a totally different branch of the same path-- board games are meditative, and you can contemplate very deep philosophy in the games of Go and

If you're connecting an air hose to an IV, there is something really wrong. Any nurse who does something like this is purely incompetent. I know several RNs and talk to a few on a daily basis. It is a somewhat stressful and fast-paced job, but you cannot ethically exceed your working pace. Every nurse should physically trace each tube to its receptacle. If there are two tubes in the vicinity but not even in proximity, extra care should be taken to trace the tube tactilely. The government-protectionist tone here ("Critics say the tubing problem, which has gone on for decades, is an example of how the FDA fails to protect the public.") is absurd and gives you NO excuse to shed the responsibility for your actions.

If these devices can be designed so this can't happen, then designers, manufacturers, etc. are also not taking responsibility for their actions. It's all well and good to point fingers at the end user, but if you built this stuff and you could have made it more foolproof and didn't, you failed too. It is not necessary of even advisable to have a device with only one layer of defense against misuse. This is a design flaw.

For an excellent example of this sort of design failure, see the Therac-25 case. Therac-25 case used to be taught in just about every system design class for a while. Unfortunately, this happened so long ago that programmers and s/w engineers forgot the lesson and a similar problems have happened again.

Everyone who designs anything that gets used by anyone should read The Design of Everyday Things to disabuse themselves of the notion that it's always the fault of the stupid, incompetent, careless, rushing, undertrained user.

Yes, it's harder. No, you can't anticipate everything. But every problem you can prevent is a person not frustrated, something not broken, money not wasted or even a life saved. So even if you can't do it 100% foolproof, it doesn't mean you don't try your damnedest. Because real users are human, frail, imperfect and subject to many, many pressures.

The new blu-ray set of LOST is supposed to have a 12 minute "epilogue" that at least answers where the food was coming from.

When the Republicans got a majority in the Supreme Court and the first thing these supposedly "originalists" do is overturn a century worth of precedent and come up with an entirely new definition of what a "person" is, creating an entirely new category of rights for corporations

[...]

The Citizens United case was designed for the current election alone.

So we're speaking of the Citizens United v. FEC case? Then I'll need to correct your gross error here. First, the case upheld the "century worth of precedent". McCain-Feingold was bad law and the abridgment of freedom of speech for groups of people was one of the reasons why. Second, why shouldn't a group of people have freedom of speech just like individuals? An individual could have done what Citizens United was brought into court for.

I don't know why this stupidity is so popular. Keep in mind that we had corporate personhood for more than a century (the earliest cases go back almost to the dawn of the Republic). It hasn't been a problem until someone needed to sell a book on it.

Of course, I've always wanted an option that wasn't quite horn, but wasn't just sitting-politely-waiting either.

I have just the product for you. Put this on your car's hood:

http://www.amazon.com/Nirve-Hello-Kitty-Bike-Bell/dp/B000QFOOU6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=cycling&qid=1282688405&sr=1-2

You should read "The Emperor Wears No Clothes" by Jack Herer. Available to read online here or get a hardcopy.

Biased, yeah, more than a bit.

Interesting, full of real information and worth reading, definitely.

Totally changed my view point on Cannabis Sativa.

Easy. Here's a book cover and it doesn't have a picture of someone cooking numbers next to a space dog.

It is better to the things that make the most difference rather than doing just more things.

The Union Of Concerned Scientists published this book for consumers, on the top 11 things they could do....all within their reach. The nice thing about this book is that it simplifies things. You can go through that list of 11 things and forget the rest, knowing you are doing the best things.

http://www.amazon.com/Consumers-Guide-Effective-Environmental-Choices/dp/060980281X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1282653393&sr=8-1

To believe 0.5% of the alarmist anti-Gore propaganda, you'd have to have zero education in the sciences, or be so completely partisan as to turn a blind eye to the most blatant Machiavellian politics.

The sad thing is, your cult has to constantly be corrected at every turn. It's not enough to simply fabricate data about global warming, but your vapid cult insists that all against them must be ignorant because, well, they are against what he Group thinks!

The truth is there are Many Scientists who are outspoken about the religion of global warming. Far too many issues these days are attempted to being advanced through fear, intimidation, and as we see in your case outright dismissal of facts that do not fit a particular world-view you are trying to impose.

The earth may indeed be warming, but we simply lack the understanding to say it's us responsible if so - and the really sad thing is that in your haste to prove something you "know" is true without solid science to back it up, you and people like you horribly trod on the reputation of science with the general public just like the boy that cried wolf. If there is a wolf we may never know because who would believe you now?

100-250 years. US survived the Civil War, Great Depression.

The same forces that destroyed the Soviet Union, Roman Empire, Eastern Empire won't wreck the US.

The US will lash out and do a run on North America before it collapses, that'll buy it another 20-75 years.

When it does collapse, it'll fall into city states bickering over resources, like Kaplan talked about. Oregon, Washington and BC won't unite, they'll fight over energy and water. Rather than a grand unification of Cascadia, you'll see the Vancouver-Portland-Eugene metroplex fighting with Seattle-Vancouver over control of the Columbia basin.

http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Anarchy-Shattering-Dreams-Post/dp/037570759

Someone wrote a book about it: The Confederate Dirty War

A short review.

The book details how elements within the Confederacy, acting officially or otherwise, developed and attempted numerous plans to inflict terror and death on the Union populace and bring down the government. Singer introduces the reader to such shadowy characters as Professor Richard Sears McCulloch, who resigned a faculty chair at Columbia College to assist the Confederacy in making a chemical weapon; Luke Pryor Blackburn, a physician and, later, governor of Kentucky, who allegedly spread smallpox and yellow fever throughout the North.

This is a war against other Christians and fellow countrymen. Imagine if South Carolinians were under the thumb of Muslim or Chinese forces.

The good news is that YEC is not the only, or even the best reading of Genesis. See this FAQ for a brief overview, this book for a much more complete overview, and this book if you want a really good, in-depth study of the book of Genesis from a conservative scholar. It's a bit dry, and doesn't give you conclusions as much as really dig into the text, but it's highly recommended if you're serious about approaching the issue rigorously.

It's too hard to make sure I read the Bible 'the right way.' I think I'll just stick to these experimental reports.

The good news is that YEC is not the only, or even the best reading of Genesis. See this FAQ for a brief overview, this book for a much more complete overview, and this book if you want a really good, in-depth study of the book of Genesis from a conservative scholar. It's a bit dry, and doesn't give you conclusions as much as really dig into the text, but it's highly recommended if you're serious about approaching the issue rigorously.

It's too hard to make sure I read the Bible 'the right way.' I think I'll just stick to these experimental reports.

While you're at it get 'Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite', I read it during my stay there over the summer and it will give you chills.
Mostly about people falling off the cliffs or going over the falls trying to get that 'perfect photo'.
http://www.amazon.com/Off-Wall-Yosemite-Michael-Ghiglieri/dp/0970097360/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282587916&sr=1-1

Some of the ones that got me were when the woman was taking a picture of her boyfriend by the Nevada Falls and he slipped on the rocks falling into the river, the girlfriend not knowing any better jumps in to try to get him and they both end up going over the Nevada Falls (600ft to the bottom).

The young guys who think they can tough it out in the weather and try to go for Half Dome in a thunderstorm, only to try to seek shelter on the side rocks and than be struck and killed by lightning.

I was thinking it reminded me of a Jonathan Lethem story "Access Fantasy" wherein people live in their cars due to a city wide traffic jam. Link to book

Personally, as a Christian I'd like to see the line that says the earth isn't ~4.5 billion years old, because I can't find it...

Young Earth Creationism (hence YEC) is a hyper-literalistic reading of the book of Genesis that has been always somewhat rare in Judaism, and not always supported by even those considered mainline Christian fathers.

For YEC to be true, pretty much everything we think we know about physics, astronomy, cosmology, molecular biology and genomics must be wrong.

The good news is that YEC is not the only, or even the best reading of Genesis. See this FAQ for a brief overview, this book for a much more complete overview, and this book if you want a really good, in-depth study of the book of Genesis from a conservative scholar. It's a bit dry, and doesn't give you conclusions as much as really dig into the text, but it's highly recommended if you're serious about approaching the issue rigorously.

I've read many books on the topic, and in my opinion these are the best of the lot. Especially Beyond The Firmament, which is fairly easy read and the best introduction to the issues I've seen.

Perhaps obviously, these books are geared more towards Christians and showing them how to deal with what we believe is an important book, and not towards convincing others that Christianity and the Bible are true. Except perhaps that they might show that not all Christians are (complete) loonies...

Personally, as a Christian I'd like to see the line that says the earth isn't ~4.5 billion years old, because I can't find it...

Young Earth Creationism (hence YEC) is a hyper-literalistic reading of the book of Genesis that has been always somewhat rare in Judaism, and not always supported by even those considered mainline Christian fathers.

For YEC to be true, pretty much everything we think we know about physics, astronomy, cosmology, molecular biology and genomics must be wrong.

The good news is that YEC is not the only, or even the best reading of Genesis. See this FAQ for a brief overview, this book for a much more complete overview, and this book if you want a really good, in-depth study of the book of Genesis from a conservative scholar. It's a bit dry, and doesn't give you conclusions as much as really dig into the text, but it's highly recommended if you're serious about approaching the issue rigorously.

I've read many books on the topic, and in my opinion these are the best of the lot. Especially Beyond The Firmament, which is fairly easy read and the best introduction to the issues I've seen.

Perhaps obviously, these books are geared more towards Christians and showing them how to deal with what we believe is an important book, and not towards convincing others that Christianity and the Bible are true. Except perhaps that they might show that not all Christians are (complete) loonies...

As others have said, yes, there are excellent maps for this in the US. The problem is most of the sorts of people mentioned in this article don't want to learn how to use a map and compas, over rely on their GPS and cell phones, and generally do things they're not equipped to do.

In my opinion, going hiking on anything larger then a few mile loop in a park without a map and compass and the skills to use them is almost criminal. (Most) people wouldn't go climbing without being properly trained, but somehow hiking seems overly accessible I guess, and too many people do put themselves in spots they shouldn't. Basic backcountry skills are easy to learn, even a few hours with a book like the Backpacker's Handbook will teach you what you really need to know.

Actually, the NPS has dealt with this before. A lot. For a series of examples of REALLY stupid people, go check out Death in Yellowstone. Here's the oblig Amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/Death-Yellowstone-Accidents-Foolhardiness-National/dp/1570980217

My wife picked this up when we were there on our Honeymoon (there, Grand Teton, and RMNP). There are countless examples of reeeeeally stupid people. The lady who fed a black bear and got her t*ts ripped off when the bear used her as an accidental scratching post? Check. The guy who jumped into the boiling hot geothermal pool to save his dog and his skin fell off after he got out? Check. The countless people who go hiking through grizzly country, forget to wear bear bells, don't take pepper spray with them, don't walk and talk loudly with a partner, and keep their smelly food in an unsealed cooler inside their tent not only get themselves et, but get bears killed too, whose only crime was responding to instinct (okay, okay... there are plenty of examples of bears gone wild who attacked when people did everything right, and just have to be put down).

Accidents happen, and the tech is there for a reason. There are also plenty of cases where natural selection does its job. The NPS isn't going to stop every case of natural selection, simply because it can't. They'll try, because the park rangers do NOT want anyone to die on their watch. They deal with stupidity a lot, but they're not going to let someone die just because they didn't know what they were doing. It's exasperating to them, I'm sure, but they are dedicated to saving lives and preventing injuries.

Because he's unfortunately right. Women's groups chose to make an extremist example out of those crimes rather than the more accurate version of what really goes on. Consequently, good luck if you've been so abused, because it's unlikely to say the least that anybody's going to believe what really happened, let alone consider what you want out of all that if it doesn't involve extremely harsh punishment of the accused.

If you're really curious, The Trauma Myth: The Truth About the Sexual Abuse of Children--and its Aftermath. Excellent book, if a bit depressing.

An embassy which was run basically as a CIA safe house plotting to sabotage the Iranian government. Citation: Legacy of Ashes

That was from an album called "Snowflakes are Dancing" by Isao Tomita. It's music by Debussey performed on synthesizers ('70s vintage synthesizers). Here's a link to Amazon, where you can listen to samples from the album http://www.amazon.com/Debussy-Snowflakes-Dancing-Prelude-Tomita/dp/B00003OP6X

How would you determine if there really was consciousness in there ?

You earlier said that we should look at behavior, and I think that won't work since we don't know what's going on inside. Consciousness could be 'faked'.

You couldn't hope to look inside their brains and see if there's consciousness in there, if you have no idea what to look for. And learning what to look for is basically impossible, if you can't even say whether something/somebody has consciousness or not.

This is the crux of the issue. We don't know what to look for inside the brain. I don't think that we can look at behavior either. So, we're stuck. The only viable solution is to keep working at it until we can eventually agree on what consciousness is and then test for it. I think that Edelman is making (slow) progress towards this in "A Universe of Consciousness" , where he at least puts forward a hypothesis on the neural correlates of consciousness, and tries to explain how it works (qualia, unity of experience, etc.). Eventually, someone is going to figure out how it works, and we'll have a physical theory of consciousness (implemented in a particular way). At that point, we can test people to see if they are zombies, and we can look at a system and say, "Does it do X?" and if yes, then its conscious.

First of all, it's 2680GB, so it's more like 2.6TB. Second of all, where are you getting your data transfer prices? Amazon has some of the lowest prices around (unless you count the "unlimited" bullshit on dreamhost or something), and even with the >150TB discount it's $0.08/GB, bringing the bill to $214. Of course AWS's pricing isn't directly comparable to an ISP's but that's the best I could find. Finally, Telenet's most expensive offering is 99 Euro, so effectively everybody else is subsidizing this guy.

Interestingly, Telenet says that they are not complaining, but are showing this to encourage users to switch from the capped plans to the more expensive ones. The trick is that the expensive ones have a "fair use" policy, and they can slow your connection down to 512 Kbps until the next billing if you download twice as much as the average user.

A hardcover volume filled with blank pages is going to sell for substantially less than the same volume with a popular novel inside it, let alone a textbook of the type the original post talks about.

This just isn't true at all. Many popular novels can be had for a penny or so; and there are "blank books" you can spend a hundred dollars on. I'm not saying the content is meaningless, just that it does not determine value, certainly not on its own. You're focused more on what motivates someone to want the book rather than what determines its economic value.

When you talk about a popular novel being sold for a penny or so, are you talking about a new, hardbound novel? I could see if it was a used hardbound or paperback, but not anything new. It's not that I doubt you. It's just that I've never seen that before. How could a publisher hope to make anything selling a book for that price? How could even a used bookstore make any money that way?

and a simple search on amazon will find many popular books that can be had for pennies. You can't infer a rule from a few examples you pick and choose, especially when it's so damn easy to find counter examples that upset such a rule.

I'm not saying you can't find used paperbacks for pennies. Obviously, you can. But that's an apples to oranges comparison, at best. For one thing, a used book has no stakeholders any longer. The publisher and author are only entitled to the first sale profits. That's one of the reasons publishers like DRM: After the first sale, a DRM'd book is useless (unless, of course, it's cracked).

Again, you're right but you're confusing things. The content is what makes you want the book but it is simply not the sole determinant (or even the most significant determinant) of the book's value. To offer an extreme example, this very popular book can be had brand new for four bucks whereas this book which you've probably never heard of will set you back about a thousand dollars, even used.

In the example above, you compare a used mass market paperback of a popular novel with (what looks like) a specialized textbook. Textbooks almost always cost more, because publishers -- once they convince a school to carry a title -- have a captive audience. And to be fair, the knowledge is specialized enough to where not just anyone could write it (which isn't the case with the Twilight novels). With a textbook, you're absolutely paying for the content.

If you take a look at the Twilight saga in

A hardcover volume filled with blank pages is going to sell for substantially less than the same volume with a popular novel inside it, let alone a textbook of the type the original post talks about.

This just isn't true at all. Many popular novels can be had for a penny or so; and there are "blank books" you can spend a hundred dollars on. I'm not saying the content is meaningless, just that it does not determine value, certainly not on its own. You're focused more on what motivates someone to want the book rather than what determines its economic value.

When you talk about a popular novel being sold for a penny or so, are you talking about a new, hardbound novel? I could see if it was a used hardbound or paperback, but not anything new. It's not that I doubt you. It's just that I've never seen that before. How could a publisher hope to make anything selling a book for that price? How could even a used bookstore make any money that way?

and a simple search on amazon will find many popular books that can be had for pennies. You can't infer a rule from a few examples you pick and choose, especially when it's so damn easy to find counter examples that upset such a rule.

I'm not saying you can't find used paperbacks for pennies. Obviously, you can. But that's an apples to oranges comparison, at best. For one thing, a used book has no stakeholders any longer. The publisher and author are only entitled to the first sale profits. That's one of the reasons publishers like DRM: After the first sale, a DRM'd book is useless (unless, of course, it's cracked).

Again, you're right but you're confusing things. The content is what makes you want the book but it is simply not the sole determinant (or even the most significant determinant) of the book's value. To offer an extreme example, this very popular book can be had brand new for four bucks whereas this book which you've probably never heard of will set you back about a thousand dollars, even used.

In the example above, you compare a used mass market paperback of a popular novel with (what looks like) a specialized textbook. Textbooks almost always cost more, because publishers -- once they convince a school to carry a title -- have a captive audience. And to be fair, the knowledge is specialized enough to where not just anyone could write it (which isn't the case with the Twilight novels). With a textbook, you're absolutely paying for the content.

If you take a look at the Twilight saga in

That story - or one very similar - is in the book "How the Irish saved civilization" by Thomas Cahill (chapter 6), where a monk named Columcille made an unauthorized copy of a psalter that belonged to the Bishop Finian of Clonard. The dispute as to whether he could keep the unauthorized copy was resolved by the King Diarmait, whose decision in history’s first copyright case was logical: "To every cow her calf; to every book its copy". However, for some reason the RIAA must have existed in some medieval variant, and Columcille was forced to return the copy to Finian, and the story ends with Columcille's not-so-pacifistic followers defeating Diarmait’s soldiers in battle, and the copied psalter, henceforth known as the “Cathach” or Warrior, returning to Columcille, which I guess is one way to resolve copyright disputes!

Yup, this sounds like a clear case of jumping to solutions. The problem is stated as a solution, rather than the difference between the way things are and the way you would like them to be.

On the other hand, getting rich off reckless drivers sounds like a classic case of privatization of law enforcement. Good entrepeneurial thinking.

Which is more important to you?

If you are interested in actually improving driving conditions, try analysing the problem using a reliable problem-solving/troubleshooting approach. I recommend "The Thinker's Toolkit" by Mason Jones http://www.amazon.com/Thinkers-Toolkit-Powerful-Techniques-Problem/dp/0812928083 . If you are interested in making money off the enforcement of public safety, this book may still be a great help.

A hardcover volume filled with blank pages is going to sell for substantially less than the same volume with a popular novel inside it, let alone a textbook of the type the original post talks about.

This just isn't true at all. Many popular novels can be had for a penny or so; and there are "blank books" you can spend a hundred dollars on. I'm not saying the content is meaningless, just that it does not determine value, certainly not on its own. You're focused more on what motivates someone to want the book rather than what determines its economic value.

And bestsellers in hardcover are going to sell for more than unpopular books in hardcover. Compare the price of Stephen King novels in a given format to those of other suspense writers in the same format. (A simple search on Amazon will do the trick.)

and a simple search on amazon will find many popular books that can be had for pennies. You can't infer a rule from a few examples you pick and choose, especially when it's so damn easy to find counter examples that upset such a rule.

What I'm fighting against is the insane idea that when you buy a book, you're paying mostly for its format. You're not. You're paying for the content of the book. Without the content, there'd be no reason to buy it. Does the physical makeup of a paper book have value? Yes, it has some. But without the content, all you're buying is a notebook, and that's worth substantially less.

Again, you're right but you're confusing things. The content is what makes you want the book but it is simply not the sole determinant (or even the most significant determinant) of the book's value. To offer an extreme example, this very popular book can be had brand new for four bucks whereas this book which you've probably never heard of will set you back about a thousand dollars, even used.

A hardcover volume filled with blank pages is going to sell for substantially less than the same volume with a popular novel inside it, let alone a textbook of the type the original post talks about.

This just isn't true at all. Many popular novels can be had for a penny or so; and there are "blank books" you can spend a hundred dollars on. I'm not saying the content is meaningless, just that it does not determine value, certainly not on its own. You're focused more on what motivates someone to want the book rather than what determines its economic value.

And bestsellers in hardcover are going to sell for more than unpopular books in hardcover. Compare the price of Stephen King novels in a given format to those of other suspense writers in the same format. (A simple search on Amazon will do the trick.)

and a simple search on amazon will find many popular books that can be had for pennies. You can't infer a rule from a few examples you pick and choose, especially when it's so damn easy to find counter examples that upset such a rule.

What I'm fighting against is the insane idea that when you buy a book, you're paying mostly for its format. You're not. You're paying for the content of the book. Without the content, there'd be no reason to buy it. Does the physical makeup of a paper book have value? Yes, it has some. But without the content, all you're buying is a notebook, and that's worth substantially less.

Again, you're right but you're confusing things. The content is what makes you want the book but it is simply not the sole determinant (or even the most significant determinant) of the book's value. To offer an extreme example, this very popular book can be had brand new for four bucks whereas this book which you've probably never heard of will set you back about a thousand dollars, even used.

Just a small nit. If the "they" in your statement is Amazon then you need to revise how you think about this. Amazon is no longer setting the prices for the majority of their ebook sales - the publishers are! That is why 6months ago prices jumped $4 or mroe per book overnight. Here's the latest example of a book that I WAS going to buy for my Kindle and am now going to look for in the used book store if I buy it at all http://www.amazon.com/Science-Fear-Culture-Manipulates-ebook/dp/B001AO0GOK/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

Note where it says "This price was set by the publisher". That wasn't Amazon's idea. In fact you can thank Apple for setting the precedent in this arena when the iPad was released. Amazon tried to stop this and drop those books from their catalog but all of the publishers banded together on it. MacMillen led the charge -> http://blog.macmillanspeaks.com/

Those be the asshole you're looking for not Amazon. I do agree that ads would suck, when I see one I'll get upset about it. Right now I want reasonably priced ebooks back - not ebooks that cost MORE than hardcover!!!