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There was an HD-DVD add-on drive for the 360, but MS (foolishly, IMHO) restricted it to playing HD-DVD movies and didn't allow developers to use it for games.

".....The sharing of family wealth has been a critical component in maintaining the semblance of a united front within the royal family. An essential part of family wealth is the Kingdom in its physical entirety, which the Al Saud view as a totally owned family asset. Whether through the co-mingling of personal & state funds from lucrative government positions, huge land allocations, direct allotments of crude oil to sell in the open market, segmental controls in the economy, special preferences for the award of major contracts, outright cash handouts, and astronomical monthly allowances, - all billed to the national exchequer - all told, the financial impact may have exceeded 40% of the Kingdom's annual budget during the reign of King Fahd. Over decades of oil revenue-generated expansion, estimates of royal receipts have varied, ranging as low as an unlikely $50 billion and as high as well over $1 trillion. [5]. This method of wealth distribution has allowed many of the senior princes & princesses to accumulate largely unauditable wealth and, in turn, pay out, in cash or kind, to lesser royals and commoners, and thereby gaining political influence through their own largesse.
During periods of high oil prices as were the late 70s, early 80s, and again, immediately after the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, national income has outpaced the developmental needs & social obligations of the Saudi government and the effects of royal skimming were diminished. From the mid 80s through the 90s, when international crude oil prices dropped to the teens and below, the subsequent shortfall in income, and the availability of surprisingly limited financial reserves (when compared to such countries as Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates which continued to grow during crude price droughts because of dividends generated from years of prudent investments.)[6]. According to well-publicized but unsubstantiated reports, King Abdullah has intentions to reduce the Al Saud share of the budget, an act which may sow discontent within the royal family, but would be popular with the Kingdom's citizenry."

Fact is no one knows really how much the Royal family keep and how much gets shared.

Saudi Arabia has the wealth to never export oil but to process it all on shore. INstead that potential excess to invest in expensive downstream processing goes in to the royal family.

Afghanistan will be the same.

Have a read of :

http://www.amazon.com/Plowing-Sea-Nurturing-Sources-Developing/dp/0875847617

This whole thing sounds more and more like Neal Stephenson's Zodiac as time goes by. And that story included a nuclear option as well (I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it; it's a great book. In fact if Stephenson was too pie in the sky for you before, this is the one to read. It would make a much better movie than the pile of shit that came out which is called "Zodiac", too. Who keeps putting the Gyllenhalls in movies?)

You might end up with this: http://www.amazon.com/Ill-Wind-Kevin-J-Anderson/dp/0312857608

Your Comment ...

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Eee-PC-1005PE-Seashell/dp/B00322PYZO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1276424549&sr=8-1

My comment ...

IMHO if it was half the price, I would of purchased it for what it was but for its current price and feature list, its just not a smart buy.

Well gee thanks for reinforcing my point further! :)

However you got up to +5 insightful is beyond me. The big iPod Touch criticism has been out there since the beginning and your first point:

The crappy res (nearly a decade out of date),

is extremely dubious. This current netbook

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Eee-PC-1005PE-Seashell/dp/B00322PYZO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1276424549&sr=8-1

has 1024x600 resolution. iPad has 1024x768. So, out of date by nearly a decade... for what? A big screen TV? Also, the IPS screen is rather nicer than the ordinary screen. The rest of your points, someone else may debate, buy it or not, it's no matter to me.

Seriously, I could've guessed this after reading this
http://www.amazon.com/Watching-English-Hidden-Rules-Behaviour/dp/0340818867
This is essentially a birdwatching guide fort the English, which the author finds horrifying, but there it is.

Hint, take some introductory level text on markets and read it.

I suggest you do the same about economics, for instance Adam Smith's On Wealth of Nations, some of Milton Friedman's, or Amity Shlaes books. Also try books by Ludwig von Mises. It's my guess you'll poo poo them as well as Ayn Rand though.

Reading the rest of your reply it's my guess you didn't even bother to read all of my post otherwise you would not have asked the following questions. So I'm ending here, it's no use trying to debate with someone would will not read what I say and instead make things up.

Falcon

Hint, take some introductory level text on markets and read it.

I suggest you do the same about economics, for instance Adam Smith's On Wealth of Nations, some of Milton Friedman's, or Amity Shlaes books. Also try books by Ludwig von Mises. It's my guess you'll poo poo them as well as Ayn Rand though.

Reading the rest of your reply it's my guess you didn't even bother to read all of my post otherwise you would not have asked the following questions. So I'm ending here, it's no use trying to debate with someone would will not read what I say and instead make things up.

Falcon

Hint, take some introductory level text on markets and read it.

I suggest you do the same about economics, for instance Adam Smith's On Wealth of Nations, some of Milton Friedman's, or Amity Shlaes books. Also try books by Ludwig von Mises. It's my guess you'll poo poo them as well as Ayn Rand though.

Reading the rest of your reply it's my guess you didn't even bother to read all of my post otherwise you would not have asked the following questions. So I'm ending here, it's no use trying to debate with someone would will not read what I say and instead make things up.

Falcon

Hint, take some introductory level text on markets and read it.

I suggest you do the same about economics, for instance Adam Smith's On Wealth of Nations, some of Milton Friedman's, or Amity Shlaes books. Also try books by Ludwig von Mises. It's my guess you'll poo poo them as well as Ayn Rand though.

Reading the rest of your reply it's my guess you didn't even bother to read all of my post otherwise you would not have asked the following questions. So I'm ending here, it's no use trying to debate with someone would will not read what I say and instead make things up.

Falcon

The only real solution is like from The Company. http://www.amazon.com/Company-Max-Barry/dp/1400079373/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_2

Have you ever noticed that under that paradigm, businesses get more and more evil?

You keep using that word. I do not believe you know what it means.

For a more entertaining look at a naked black hole see http://www.amazon.com/Compleat-McAndrew-Charles-Sheffield/dp/067157857X "The Compleat McAndrew" by Charles Sheffield Good read on how to use and abuse a black hole for fun and profit.

Given that power laws are so incredibly prevalent in distributions for natural phenomena (see Benford's law and Linked: The New Science of Networks) this does not surprise me in the least. In fact, it would surprise me if it weren't the case.

The question remains, is charging on a per-byte basis the right way to handle this? I think this is a natural phenomena that will arise in any network, and that by reducing the bandwidth usage of these small number of people you stand a chance of reducing everybody's bandwidth usage and thereby reducing the network's utility for everybody.

It seems much more sensible to me to prioritize heavy users traffic so that they are at a low priority compared to everybody else. The ideal way to run your network from a cost/benefit standpoint is at the maximum capacity at which your network is efficient (i.e. not at 100% if your network falls down at 100%). I have a guess that deprioritizing heavy users has more of a chance of getting making that happen than trying to use economic incentives for them to reduce their usage.

And on a different note, it really disturbs me that telecom companies are considering a segment of their customer base to be the enemy instead of looking at it as a phenomena to be managed.

Also it doesn't make copies for some reason.

It does if you use carbon paper.

1. Would need to be able to withstand multiple wash cycles. Washing machines are very hard on electronics and sensors.

I'm sure they can either make it machine wash proof, or just make the electronic part removable. I have an HRM that has a removable/washable strap and I've heard of washable HRM sports bras.

2. Each person would require multiple pairs of underwear as very few people wash cloths every day.

Multiple pairs of underwear, one sensor module that snaps onto the underwear. Problem solved.

3. Difficult to replace medications. (Take off your pants. I need to add insulin.)

Or hey, just have a refill port that's easily accessible.

4. Trans dermal meds are generally low dose. If a soldier needs pain meds I doubt that enough could be administered.

They already have insulin pumps; this underwear combined with that and a few other advances will bring us juicers faster than you think.

True...after all, if people are willing to buy something like this...

In an inexact analogy, Kanji is an assembly language system with thousands of opcodes (~50,000); it's added to your tool-belt as you master the other 2 short alphabets.

The alphabets lacking Kanji are only about 50 symbols each. By the time you hit first grade and Kanjis begin to be instructed (at a pace of ONLY a few per year,) kids have already mastered these basic 100 symbols.

While it is true that Anime is as big a time sink as watching hour-long live action on Hulu, you can benefit from children's anime (like Fairy Tail and Mahoujin Guru Guru) and blind rerunning where you try to make out words and grammar patterns without relying on the subtitles. Speech in kid's shows is always clearer, and written signs have plenty of non-kanji writings.

You can look for an American language learning show called "Let's Learn Japanese" (Public television) on Youtube, try flashcards Anki (PC flashcard system) and play Slime Forest for fun recall speed of Kana and Kanjis.

Eventually you'll find too many vectors to tackle, from college grammar books (pick one with plenty of Hiragana learning on it), a small physical dictionaries, western alphabet-based translators offline or online.

At some point of your trying vectors in parallel and listening to the language, many symbols and expressions start to show patterns and meanings beyond "it's too complicated to explain this untranslatable greeting in chapter 1 but essential to expose you to it." Have fun!

In an inexact analogy, Kanji is an assembly language system with thousands of opcodes (~50,000); it's added to your tool-belt as you master the other 2 short alphabets.

The alphabets lacking Kanji are only about 50 symbols each. By the time you hit first grade and Kanjis begin to be instructed (at a pace of ONLY a few per year,) kids have already mastered these basic 100 symbols.

While it is true that Anime is as big a time sink as watching hour-long live action on Hulu, you can benefit from children's anime (like Fairy Tail and Mahoujin Guru Guru) and blind rerunning where you try to make out words and grammar patterns without relying on the subtitles. Speech in kid's shows is always clearer, and written signs have plenty of non-kanji writings.

You can look for an American language learning show called "Let's Learn Japanese" (Public television) on Youtube, try flashcards Anki (PC flashcard system) and play Slime Forest for fun recall speed of Kana and Kanjis.

Eventually you'll find too many vectors to tackle, from college grammar books (pick one with plenty of Hiragana learning on it), a small physical dictionaries, western alphabet-based translators offline or online.

At some point of your trying vectors in parallel and listening to the language, many symbols and expressions start to show patterns and meanings beyond "it's too complicated to explain this untranslatable greeting in chapter 1 but essential to expose you to it." Have fun!

Mother Theresa who took 1.4m stolen dollars from Charles Keating? Mother Theresa gave a hell of a fuck about money, mainly by fetishizing the suffering of those without it....

Read up.

Otherwise I agree.

I must confess that I have only briefly looked at the convention. What I wrote was what our captain told us in 1984, quite officially, so that would be the Swedish official point of view.

To me, the finer points of the convention are the kind of stuff that lawyers and judges in peace time give a "sitting in my library" kind of interpretation. If they personally felt that vital interests were threatened, or felt to be threatened themselves, they would look at it in another way. That the US has several times as many lawyers per inhabitant than almost any other nation on earth is most likely also a reason.

In WWII, the soldiers were "us" to the US public, all 12 million of them. Now, ever since the Vietnam war, it is "them" to the left. It is a bit as if the Americans would support the Ukraine in the Hockey World championships.

The perspectives and interpretations of the finer points of laws also changes when you are faced with opponents that do not follow any conventions. My father was at the head of a small brewery. As such he had a role in civil defense (food industry). As with Swedish fighter pilots, our home was visited by Polish "art salesmen" trying to sell paintings. This was to have a look at the house so that in case of a war (where Sweden as we now know was a Soviet first strike target), key personnel could the assassinated by the Spetznas. This was in the early eighties.

The script that Bush I and II were following for Iraq was written by Churchill. "How to deal with a dictator before the threat becomes large". The Gathering Storm is highly recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/Second-World-War-Gathering-Storm/dp/039541055X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276066898&sr=1-3

And I will take time to look at the Geneva conventions.

Unless you happen to live in an area with an excellent public transportation system, and also happen to work somewhere with one, it seems like driving is positively necessary to, you know, pay the bills and all.

You might argue that one could walk or ride a bicycle or something, but that simply does not reflect the way that the vast majority of people get around. The average commute in the US is 16 miles. That is a distance that is not casually covered in anything but a motor vehicle.

kklein, for English faculty, you let your language run away with you. "Better" is a purely subjective value judgment. Define your terms -- what does "better" mean here? I'm sure the Lakota don't agree -- does this make your underlying argument "might makes right"? Or is it simply "what helps me and mine is right"? That's what it sounds like, which isn't a very extensible or defensible position. If you'd care to clarify, I'm curious.

Then there's the historical confusion. Have a look at 1491, among other books and publications taking a second look at the archaeology of the New World. It sounds increasingly like the Mississippi basin was home to sizable urban cultures, such as the Caddoan. And while the drier areas closer to the Rockies were indeed less densely populated, people have known how to smoke meat for time out of mind -- even assuming the pre-horse cultures of the prairie would slaughter a whole herd of buffalo at a time, proper preparation would allow them to harvest far more meat than just one or two animals' worth. There's also a growing consensus that human-set prairie fires weren't some sort of dangerous mistake or unwieldy hunting method, but rather a deliberate way of managing what grew where, to maintain the prairie as prairie and ensure proper pasture for the herds, and of managing when the fires happened -- the lack of deliberate controlled fire-setting allows a build-up of fuel in many areas of the western US, which then goes destructively all at once and of a sudden when things finally catch, due to a lightning strike or cigarette butt or what have you.

Cheers,

I have only a most basic grasp of cosmology but it's an interest of mine and I recall watching something on documentary heaven to the effect that black holes may well be a universe of their own

One of my most favorite books on the subject is called The Five Ages of the Universe by Adams and Laughlin. If you like reading books about the subject but don't care about or can't comprehend the math, I seriously recommend it. That said (and I think it's in the book I linked), there's an evolutionary theory about universes that contends each time a black hole is created, it splits off a unique instance of spacetime creating a "new" universe with its own laws of physics. Universes created in this manner that contain laws of physics favorable to the creation of black holes will go on to evolve new "child universes" of their own; a sort of cosmic equivalent of Darwin's natural selection.

One more thing, should you find yourself occasionally staring at the TV and wanting to feel educated and entertained, then you should, uh, "acquire" a copy of Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking. It's a very well written and well narrated version of how Hawking explains the workings of the universe, but unfortunately isn't available on DVD yet. However, the trusty folks on the web that don't make any money from TV and movie distribution should have a copy you can pick up today ;)

The extremely fun thing about physics from a layman's point of view is that there are so many theories about how the same things work, and getting them presented to you in a manner you can understand without knowing the math behind it is a wonderful thing. From there, you can theorize and come to your own conclusions about which you like best, because if Planck has anything to say about it, we'll never truly know which of them is right.

It's kind of like going to a trade show, only instead of the place being full of vendors, it's full of missionaries from every major religion on the planet, and you get to objectively pick the one you like the best. I'm sure most Slashdotters would be drinking the free coffee at the Atheists' booth or ignoring everyone and speculating what the giant bundle of Cat5 on the wall goes to, but regardless of whether your God is supernatural or nonexistant, to glimpse into the very fabric and inner workings of the cosmos is the only true way to see into that mind.

Still, even if that's not the way you see it, I do feel that it's also the only way to even begin to fathom what we all really are.

Yes, I've been to San Fran (I lived there and the Bay Area for 2 years back in the '90s). Apart from the Castro area, I found it pretty much like any other city. And although the Castro area is predominantly gay, I don't feel the need to put that in an unrelated Slashdot post. Who cares?

And as for your comments on Islam: let's not dwell on the fact you don't address criticism of your melodramatic claims that it is a "death cult" but let's instead look at your case concerning Mohammed's child bride. I was aware of this part of the Qu'ran. But you have to bear in mind that marriage of pre-pubescent girls was typical for its time and that the same was probably true of Mary and Joseph (see the BBC's documentary on what typical life in Palestine would have been like at the time of Jesus).

I'm not saying one religion is better than another (I'm an atheist) but you have to judge both by the same standards.

I'll admit that I've never been to a live auction, but I don't think the auctioneer is using an imaging element of a portable computing device to obtain multiple images and then analyzing a change in position of a facial feature.

Not only is he doing it, he's doing it in real time.

But if you're looking for prior art, look no further than Rainbows End, which envisions a world of crap like this.

You are sipping a delicious coffee, sitting outside your favorite cafe. "Man," you say to yourself, "who would buy a set of bleachers on Amazon? $10,000! Hah!"

Presently, your friend Bob comes walking down the street. "Hey Bob!" you say, waving and nodding. Your browser starts loading a new page. "Purchase confirmed." DOH!!

No need for Bob. Some offers are so unreasonable that they make you smile ...

You are sipping a delicious coffee, sitting outside your favorite cafe. "Man," you say to yourself, "who would buy a set of bleachers on Amazon? $10,000! Hah!"

Presently, your friend Bob comes walking down the street. "Hey Bob!" you say, waving and nodding. Your browser starts loading a new page. "Purchase confirmed." DOH!!

Why is that? It is on flash memory, and has USB ports, so I don't see any reason why you simply couldn't put on your ARM distro of choice. There are also Linux and Android based ARM netbooks selling now, so it isn't like you can't just go with whatever floats your boat anyway, I just pointed out the WinCE version simply because they seem to be a little easier to get ATM.

But nearly all of them come with an SD card slot, so I don't see why you could just leave the WinCE on and boot from the SD if you want to run Linux. It isn't like large SD cards aren't cheap right now, and the (usually) 2Gb of onboard memory often isn't worth the trouble to hack anyway. So if you are wanting cheap and hackable the ARM based netbooks just seem like the way to go, and unlike this device most come with 128-256Mb of RAM, better expansion possibilities thanks to the SD slot and USB ports, better screen resolution, better CPU, and unlike this device has Wifi G and Ethernet built in, so you don't have to waste you expansion slot on connectivity. Seems like a no brainer to me.

I mean hell you can even get them at Amazon now, and for a whole $20 more than this device you get 64Mb of RAM, Wifi and Ethernet, plus an 840x480 screen. Maybe if this device was $50 it'd be good for pisslefarting around on, but at $100 it is just too limited compared to what you can get.

What the fuck? What drugs are you on dude? The Oxford English Dictionary is the most complete dictionary of the English language available, bar none.

Available in a mere 20 volume set:
http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-English-Dictionary-Vols-1-20/dp/0198611862

Yes, there are abridged versions, but to quote the above:
"The Oxford English Dictionary has long been considered the ultimate reference work in English lexicography"

From the OED website:
"The Oxford English Dictionary is the accepted authority on the evolution of the English language over the last millennium. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both present and past. It traces the usage of words through 2.5 million quotations from a wide range of international English language sources, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts and cookery book"

I don't know how you could possibly claim that there is a better or more complete dictionary of the English language. It might not be the best option for speakers of the American dialects of English because they use unusual spelling conventions, but it is the most complete dictionary possible. And it is available in an Unabridged form as the Amazon link shows.

The $995 US cost might be a barrier for the average user, I admit. I myself only have the 2 volume abridged version, which is more than enough for every day use of course.

As for your post, I suspect "sinked" is merely a dialectally accepted version in your area. "Sunk" is the generally accepted version for standard English I am sure. Its like "waked" versus "woke" etc. There are some dialects of English that have lost the old Anglo-Saxon irregular past tense formations, and have applied the regular formations instead. I myself would never say "sinked". That doesn't make it incorrect, just not the standardly accepted version for English.

many works these days aren't the work of individuals, but corporations, and cost a LOT of money to make (i.e., movies).

That's true of movies but not other art work, and it is not necessary for movies to cost a lot to make, even in recent history. Made in 1999 The Blair Witch Project the "final budget was somewhere between $500,000 and $750,000." Yet it's world wide gross was almost $250 Million. The cost to write a book or write and compose music is even cheaper. It's not expensive to paint either. People with pocket cameras costing only a few hundred dollars make hundreds of dollars a week, well maybe not now but before the recession. With the recession now, pro photographers complain those amateurs taking away their clients. Microstock agencies like iStockphoto as well as photo sharing websites like Flickr are even taking sales away from venerable stock agencies.

They're not going to make as many blockbuster movies if their distribution rights disappear after only 5 years.

One, if they want money to keep coming in they'll make even more. But two, even if so so what? People can go back to how it used to be, and still is in some local scenes, producing art for local consumption. Almost every hit artist now started small. I recall years ago going to parties where people would bring their own instruments, get together, and play music. Others may stage a skit. Though it was too long ago for me, I used to dance on stage as well as work behind the scenes on plays. I have a flute from David Nighteagle I want to learn to play. I used to play the clarinet but that was more than 30 years ago.

Many companies would gladly pay a few million to secure distribution rights for another decade, and then this money would finance the system, so that the government doesn't need to tax anyone.

If government were small it wouldn't need much taxes.

You're no liberal if you believe in small government (if you're in the USA). That's a libertarian viewpoint.

Again you're wrong, you didn't even read the wiki article I linked to: "Classical liberalism is a political ideology that developed in the 19th century in England, Western Europe, and the Americas. It is committed to the ideal of limited government and liberty of individuals including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and free markets." Notice "and the Americas". In the USA two of those liberals were Thomas Jefferson and his friend James Madison. Today's libertarian is yesteryear's liberal.

I don't care how small the government is, it still needs money to administer the copyright office (not to mention the patent and trademark office). Why not fund it from companies wanting longer copyright terms on their works?

As I hinted at in the post above I'd abolish the patent office. It already costs money to register trademarks and it's the responsibility of the holder to defend it not the government. The same with copyrights. All the copyright and trademark offices need do is put them in the registery, for what's copyrighted in the Library of Congress (LoC) and for trademarks I don't know where those go, perhaps they can be put in the LoC too.

Falcon

I agree that Frank was one of the first people to really embrace the Synclavier. As a pretty big Zappa fan myself, it certainly isn't lost on me his penchant for embracing technology. For crying out loud, the entire "Perfect Stranger" and "Jazz From Hell" albums wouldn't have existed if it weren't for his efforts on digital instruments (although, as an aside, there is a really good version of G-Spot Tornado played by a live orchestra on The Yellow Shark).

In his book, he extolled the virtues of the Synclavier, and certainly recognized the technology's ability as it evolved. With that said, it seems that for recording, he preferred analog (as did a lot of artists at the time). Keep in mind, Frank died in 1994, and the first "real" version of Pro Tools didn't hit the market until 1991 (and it was a 4 track version......I ASSURE you, Frank wasn't going to be limited to 4 tracks).

I'd need to see some citation regarding Gail or Dweez sending cease and desist letters to bands covering Frank's stuff...sounds like baloney to me. However, I do agree with his (and subsequently their) right to protect what is done with his music and his name.

Actually, I think a restaurant would be a quite acceptable end (or middle) for a retired Space Shuttle. Not-quite-parallel: a restaurant I had the chance to eat at just a few times in my life (too bad) is Haussner's, which dissolved as a business more than a decade ago when the next generation didn't want to run it, and squabbled.

http://everything2.com/title/Haussner%2527s
Hassner's http://www.boomzer.com/dx/haus.html

(The 2nd link also has an amusing list of Bawlmorese words.)

The point is, Haussner's was essentially an art gallery as much as a restaurant; not necessarily all to my taste, but a sort of happy shrine to the art. (And delicious spaetzle, too, and raw cherrystone clams, and and and.)

Also like the Space Needle in Seattle, or the (also now departed) cafeteria deep underground in Carlsbad Caverns; eating is an important thing in our lives, and IMO eating in interesting places helps amplify and deepen the experience. I would really enjoy eating in a space shuttle, with the chance to examine its living spaces and architecture. (At least, far more than eating in the baroque (rococo? - can't keep straight, and might be wrong anyhow) fancy-plasterwork-and-punchwork-ceilinged restaurants that are often held out as beautiful but to me seem like bad dreams, wrt decoration.)

Closer parallel: the 747-as-house http://slashdot.org/articles/99/11/02/1057201.shtml -- the engineering is solid, why shouldn't it continue in a new and useful life, rather than only get pickled? (If there were only one, I might favor the pickling approach, it's true.)

Also, I would probably be happy to pay a premium to eat in a Space Shuttle, if I knew that part of the money thus raised was going to various Worthy Causes (in my estimation) related to space exploration, etc. For instance, I'd like to see John Carmack's private space ventures partly underwritten by a revenue stream based on the already-sunk tax-dollar-based engineering effort of the shuttle program ;) Such a restaurant could also go a great business in patches, commemorative pictures, etc.

Also also: http://www.amazon.com/How-Buildings-Learn-Happens-Theyre/dp/0140139966

Cheers,

timothy

The show was set "20 minutes into the future" because it was 20 years ahead of its time.

You might be interested to know that the complete series of Max is soon to be available on DVD. I've had bootlegs from a Kansas TV station for over 10 years (which I paid good money for, since they weren't available any other way), but I am very tempted to put up my dollars for a better quality version.

If any of you are seriously interested on the topic of the boom/bust cycle and why it happens, you really need to read George Soros's latest book. This is the definitive book on the topic. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

It astounds me that people are willing to work every day on learning words when they will only use 20-30 thousand of them on a normal basis.

You don't have to work on it every day, but interesting words enrich your communication, and indeed, your life. I hope I can interest you in this: The Superior Person's Book of Words.

Don't worry, it's a short book, and it's funny.

Two books on this theme of diminishing returns for addictions to extremes:
    "The Pleasure Trap: Mastering the Hidden Force That Undermines Health & Happiness"
        http://www.amazon.com/Pleasure-Trap-Mastering-Undermines-Happiness/dp/1570671508
    "Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose"
        http://www.amazon.com/Supernormal-Stimuli-Overran-Evolutionary-Purpose/dp/039306848X
We can resensitize our taste buds in a few weeks by eating differently, as Joel Fuhrman suggests:
    http://www.drfuhrman.com/
And adequate vitamin D can also help end depression that leads us to craving escape and stimulants:
    http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/treatment.shtml
And we can change our physical infrastructure to be more life-affirming:
    http://www.bluezones.com/makeover-about
Or our social infrastructure:
    http://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Americas-Depression-Epidemic-Community/dp/1933392711
Or our mental infrastructure:
    http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Nights-Soul-Finding-Through/dp/1592400671
Put that knowledge all together, and put in in practice, and it is help for breaking out of some harmful feedback cycles.
   

Two books on this theme of diminishing returns for addictions to extremes:
    "The Pleasure Trap: Mastering the Hidden Force That Undermines Health & Happiness"
        http://www.amazon.com/Pleasure-Trap-Mastering-Undermines-Happiness/dp/1570671508
    "Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose"
        http://www.amazon.com/Supernormal-Stimuli-Overran-Evolutionary-Purpose/dp/039306848X
We can resensitize our taste buds in a few weeks by eating differently, as Joel Fuhrman suggests:
    http://www.drfuhrman.com/
And adequate vitamin D can also help end depression that leads us to craving escape and stimulants:
    http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/treatment.shtml
And we can change our physical infrastructure to be more life-affirming:
    http://www.bluezones.com/makeover-about
Or our social infrastructure:
    http://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Americas-Depression-Epidemic-Community/dp/1933392711
Or our mental infrastructure:
    http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Nights-Soul-Finding-Through/dp/1592400671
Put that knowledge all together, and put in in practice, and it is help for breaking out of some harmful feedback cycles.
   

Two books on this theme of diminishing returns for addictions to extremes:
    "The Pleasure Trap: Mastering the Hidden Force That Undermines Health & Happiness"
        http://www.amazon.com/Pleasure-Trap-Mastering-Undermines-Happiness/dp/1570671508
    "Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose"
        http://www.amazon.com/Supernormal-Stimuli-Overran-Evolutionary-Purpose/dp/039306848X
We can resensitize our taste buds in a few weeks by eating differently, as Joel Fuhrman suggests:
    http://www.drfuhrman.com/
And adequate vitamin D can also help end depression that leads us to craving escape and stimulants:
    http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/treatment.shtml
And we can change our physical infrastructure to be more life-affirming:
    http://www.bluezones.com/makeover-about
Or our social infrastructure:
    http://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Americas-Depression-Epidemic-Community/dp/1933392711
Or our mental infrastructure:
    http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Nights-Soul-Finding-Through/dp/1592400671
Put that knowledge all together, and put in in practice, and it is help for breaking out of some harmful feedback cycles.
   

Two books on this theme of diminishing returns for addictions to extremes:
    "The Pleasure Trap: Mastering the Hidden Force That Undermines Health & Happiness"
        http://www.amazon.com/Pleasure-Trap-Mastering-Undermines-Happiness/dp/1570671508
    "Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose"
        http://www.amazon.com/Supernormal-Stimuli-Overran-Evolutionary-Purpose/dp/039306848X
We can resensitize our taste buds in a few weeks by eating differently, as Joel Fuhrman suggests:
    http://www.drfuhrman.com/
And adequate vitamin D can also help end depression that leads us to craving escape and stimulants:
    http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/treatment.shtml
And we can change our physical infrastructure to be more life-affirming:
    http://www.bluezones.com/makeover-about
Or our social infrastructure:
    http://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Americas-Depression-Epidemic-Community/dp/1933392711
Or our mental infrastructure:
    http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Nights-Soul-Finding-Through/dp/1592400671
Put that knowledge all together, and put in in practice, and it is help for breaking out of some harmful feedback cycles.
   

this time, it's different

There's a good recent book on this topic: This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly

Soil depletion was a critical economic and political problem in Marx's day, and influenced Marx and Engels significantly. They understood nature as cyclical processes, and the relation between culture and environment as dialectical processes. Changes in one changed the other, as parts of a larger whole.

One of the best accounts of materialist thought, on this very subject, and one of the best books I've ever read, is Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature, by John Bellamy Foster.

Maybe we can get that good 'ol aussie Ian Plimer to do good instead of evil like he used to.

You are arguing that it is OK to steal software and break licenses but to download a movie is a crime?

I think he's saying he can use Linux to order a DVD from Netflix and stick the disc in one of these.

The interesting thing is that "Intelligent Design Engineer/Scientist" was the most common Christian response to Darwin's theories soon after they were presented.

It wasn't until the 1920s when "liberal" or "modernist" theology started to cause large amounts of controversy that the fundamentalist movement started to gravitate to a very literal reading of the bible, including Genesis.

The whole "science vs religion" thing is just an unfortunate side effect of fundamentalists becoming overzealous in their defenses against liberal theology.

The whole thing is rather fascinating really. As a practicing Christian in fundamentalist circles, I hate that fundamentalism has moved from its beginnings (Focus on Christ) to over-claiming on lots of things they don't really understand and aren't qualified to speak on.

For more, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation-evolution_controversy or for some dead tree reading: http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Firmament-Understanding-Theology-Creation/dp/0978718615

Granted the inevitable human rebellion will have a surprisingly easy time fighting these things, I mean just hide up a sufficiently steep slope and the apparently top heavy ting will tumble over backwards.

If it's as smart as the Roomba (from the same company) I can see a huge increase in popularity used couches in Afghanistan and Iraq. Maybe some fake stair cases or virtual walls

Peter Hessler covers this very well in Country Driving. Young migrant workers flock from the poor inland regions to the coasts looking for factory work. They want to work as much overtime as possible 1) because they want to earn as much money as possible as quickly as possible, and 2) because they are far from home and aren't interested in spending time or money on leisure (their "real lives" are back home, and they've come out solely to work).

Because of this, jobs offering more working hours and less vacation are desirable from the workers' point of view.

You can argue that this situation is problematic; it exists because wages are too low and there's an oversupply of labor; without these issues, individual workers would have more leverage to secure a decent living wage without having to work ridiculous hours. But given the current reality, the fact is that massive overtime is not only common, it's sought after.

Nope. All the bees in a single field could be impacted by a nearby external uncontrolled stimulus.

Now that was my first thought in regard to his experimental design. Why have the four conditions separated into four fields, much better to mix them up. But that's not what I was responding to. I was responding to someone talking about "individual hives" who concluded by telling us that "[f]our samples would yield nothing more significant that the current article."

I seriously doubt that a hundred fields would provide enough samples.

You're just pulling that figure out of a hat. How many hives per field for a start? Beyond that we'd need some measure of variance in the data before we could go about calculating the required sample size. It seems unlikely to require thousands of hives (assuming >10 hives per field) for each condition though.

Even as late as the 70s they made us read this the bastards. I just wish I could remember more so I could cut you down with my astounding knowledge of experimental design. ;)

I tend to think that CCD is a combination of several accumulated stress vectors, including pesticides and ticks and the fact that many bees are trucked around the countryside.

But this does show that cell phones can disrupt living systems. That cell phone radiation can disrupt cellular activity is well established (well, among those anyway, who aren't living in denial due to reality being hard to live with re their cell phone usage. "It can't be true, because if it is then I would be both inconvenienced and wrong, and neither condition is acceptable, so I will argue until I am blue in the face!") A profound truth is that many people stop developing mentally by around the age of about ten.

Here's a study which details a fair bit of what was known a few years ago. . .

http://www.scribd.com/doc/12893533/The-Ecolog-Study

Also, Robert O. Becker's book, Cross Currents is a good collection and summary of what is known about the subject. You can pick up a used copy on Amazon for about four dollars plus postage.

-FL