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It's not a poll, and I'm certainly not trying to defend someone else's statistics, but I found this to be an interesting listen a couple weeks ago: http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2011/12/09/143398685/gop-objects-to-millionaires-surtax-millionaires-we-found-not-so-much

What, pray tell, is a "semi-expendable person"? You sound like the folks who owned the Upper Big Branch coal mine.

There is no such thing as a semi-expendable person unless you're some kind of damned monster.

Didn't think I saw it above...
Tons of gems here.

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books

If you're into Scifi or Fantasy check out this link:
http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books

Having trouble choosing a book from the list? Try this:
http://www.box.com/shared/static/a6omcl2la0ivlxsn3o8m.jpg

Owning a mutual fund is now equivalent to ordering a murder?

It certainly can be.

A third-party tool that was horrible, to be sure, but again, where's your citation that they blamed the users and ever said what you put in quotes?

Unfortunately, hes NOT lying, and that quote was from a fairly high up executive...
Mr. THOMAS HESSE (President, Sony BMG Global Digital Business): Most people, I think, don't even know what a Rootkit is, so why should they care about it?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4989260

That quote isnt itself a crime, but it certainly is a poor attempt to defend their actions, and kind of indicates Sony's relationship with its customers.

If you want to know the reasons basically everyone on the internet hates sony, you can start by reading Maddox's take on it (which is pretty spot on, despite the crudity of it). Long story short,

1. They shut down Lik-Sang. Wonderful, now I cant buy Hori controllers anymore. The irony of it is that apparently even Sony employees were importing thru LikSang
2. They had the whole rootkit debacle mentioned above, which they handled with the grace of an elephant and about as much tact as Maddox. I think they eventually released a tool to remove the kit, which ended up either causing further problems or not actually fixing the broken CD drives it created. (Windows reinstall necessary). Mark Russinovich has a writeup on the whole thing, but the NPR link above summarizes it pretty well.
3. Part of Sony is Sony BMG, which is part of the RIAA that everyone on the internet loves so much.
4. They started removing features from the PS3 from iteration 2 on (USB ports, etc), which is always a way to make your customers love you.
5. They got the crap hacked out of them, and then denied the severity of it, resulting in two rather spot (and hillarious) on Penny Arcade comics. They also posted a...post... on it which basically sums it up: They lack the ability to communicate in a meaningful way with their customers.
6. Theyre behind Blu-Ray, and its encryption, which again is super duper popular with normal slashdot folks.

Not all of those are crimes (blu-ray), but when you add them together you get the impression that Sony doesnt even really pretend to care about its customers, and really is your stereotypical faceless monster of a corporation. They barely even have a cool-factor to offset it, like Nintendo can pull off.

There's this 1987 EPA report. And there's this report saying fracking likely caused ground water contamination in Wyoming. And then there are the storage ponds that leak. And what about Dimmock, PA? Industry claims that there are no documented instances of groundwater pollution from fracking are a bit like cigarette companies claiming that cigarettes don't cause cancer in the 1950s and 1960s.

Louis CK said in an NPR interview earlier this week:

"And a friend of mine who does torrent stuff a lot says that when torrent users do buy something, they act like they're doing the greatest thing ever. ... They're saying, 'I bought something today. I paid for it. And I didn't steal it. I'm the greatest person alive.' "

I've noticed this attitude as well. It's really, really annoying.

So far, the only thing you've done is claimed a point.

No, I posted their "advertise with us" marketing page, catering to corporate sponsors just like any other media conglomerate, and I posted the "story" that was basically nothing but an advertisement for a corporate sponsor. There are many other similar examples, but if you're just going to ignore everything, not much point in posting more links, is there?

There's no need to believe. http://issuu.com/kqed/docs/kqed_annual_report_2010 [issuu.com] The report is in an obnoxious format, but check near the graph near the end.

"obnoxious format" is putting it mildly. But, it tells nothing. They lump "contributions and membership fees" all in one big category, no telling where any of it is coming from. Besides which, that's only for a single affiliate, not for the "national treasure" we were talking about. this one is a little better, and perusing the IRS filings is quite enlightening.

If donors stop donating, public radio goes under. Donors stop donating when programs don't appeal to them. Therefore, public radio has to cater to what the donors want to hear. Especially since no public radio station can survive on ads alone. The donation comes with the string of "if you don't keep providing the content I want, I will stop donating."

That's entirely irrelevant, and, again exactly the same model as the other media outlets. Fox News will not remain on the air if people stop watching. So Fox News is full of honest integrity because they have an audience that watches them? NPR's model only asks for donations because they provide less air time for their sponsored messages. Otherwise - same - same.

Glass houses, first stones, and all that. You're the one who thinks that the group contributing 30% to an organizations bottom line has more pull than the one contributing 60%.

You keep making that claim, but, quite simply, they whatever-percent-you-claim-it's-60 that contributes is only influencing ONE thing: keep running the programming. What goes INTO the programming, they don't have a say in, are never asked, and cannot influence. Instead, that comes from the corporate sponsors, advertisers, benefactors and foundation contributors. It's really simple. Kind of like how there are millions of people voting for representatives in the US congress, AND providing small contributions to campaigns, but somehow the only ones influencing legislation are the 1% with access and BIG contributions.

You want NPR to be less compromised? Contribute more. The Public radio stations make it easy to donate whatever you want.

That would be pretty self-defeating, since they'll take my money and simply use it to create programming full of lies and corporate propaganda. I don't have enough money to buy air time like the corporations they are catering to. And I certainly don't have the kind of money to buy advertising presented as news stories like this.

I've never used marijuana, but at this point I don't see its' continued illegality being beneficial. Legalize it [..] Do that and you just gutted much of the business of the cartels, put many of the street gangs and lowlife dealers out of business, and would prevent it from being cut with dangerous chemicals.

You're going to have to add in cocaine, too: Forget Taxing Marijuana; The Real Money's In Cocaine

These young girls are imitating the voice of NPR's ultra-hip Diane Rehm.

I've thus far stayed out of the privacy debate, but this is starting to scare me. Where is our right to oblivion, as Jeffrey Rosen put it (see this article). We call it a right because it represents a fundamental part of the human psyche. Thusly, we can either adapt our system to account for it or face the consequences later when the system breaks down. I have to put in a dissenting vote for this idea.

So you're supposed to have a tag line at the end of the call explicitly stating who paid for the call. Maryland, today, convicted someone for illegal political robocalls designed to suppress votes. Among the critical points was the lack of the tag line. I don't think he's been sentenced yet, but looks like jail time is expected. (Personally, I think stocks would be much more appropriate in cases like this, but you have to take what you can get, I guess.)

Google errs on the other side, empowering handset providers, allowing them to indulge their baser instincts when it comes to how they view customers on their networks. For telcos, the customer is the commodity.

I am not saying that is impossible but an NPR story on this concluded that:

"So when Siri goes out into the Internet looking for what an abortion center is or what an abortion provider is, it hits on these non-abortion-providing organizations because they're the ones who use the word to underlie their websites," [Damon Poeter, a reporter for PC Magazine] says.

The loss of government funding wouldn't dramatically affect NPR itself (about 7% comes from "grants and contributions"). The largest single source (34%) of their funding comes from station programming fees.

However, it would affect many of the local public radio stations that re-broadcast NPR (and which, in turn, pay NPR for programming fees). According to this site, 16.4% of the average public radio station's funding comes from government funding and grants from the Corporation from Public Broadcasting. About 14.3% of a public radio station's funding comes from universities, which frequently get income from the feds.

Without funding from the government, many public radio stations would have insufficient funds to continue to operate and would need to close down. NPR would likely be able to continue without much trouble, but local radio stations that actually provide services to their local community would be shut down.

Many of the pledge weeks are for the local stations to raise funding, not for NPR itself (though the NPR radio staff often record "Give $local_station_name money!" ads for the stations).

It doesn't matter how hard you try the vast majority of the world's books, music, films, television and art, you will never see.[1]

Consider books alone.

If you read two books a week for your whole life, that's about 6500 books.

Two full Kindles worth.

The number of book titles on Amazon.com is: 1,748,230 [2]

[1] http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2011/04/21/135508305/the-sad-beautiful-fact-that-were-all-going-to-miss-almost-everything
[2] http://askville.amazon.com/book-titles-amazon/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=7298162

Thank goodness we still have Manos Hands of Fate instead of this garbage

Some of this work is already been done. Turns out 7 is one of (possibly the most). Other primes (like, say, 3) are also popular. Easily digestible link.

Well said.

I was listening to NPR recently and they played a bit of a Mike Wallace interview with Ayn Rand in 1959 or so. I was struck by how Wallace phrased a question to her regarding her philosophy.

"One of the principal achievements of this country in the past 20 years, particularly — I think most people agree — is the gradual growth of social, protective legislation, based on the principle that we are our brothers' keepers. Like welfare. Social Security. Fair labor standards. Public health programs. How do you feel about the political trends of the United States?" Wallace asks.

Disregarding political philosophies and who's right and who's wrong and where we're headed and all that, I was struck by how proud we were of the way we took care of each other.

http://www.npr.org/2011/11/14/142245517/on-capitol-hill-rands-atlas-cant-be-shrugged-off

IIRC the team at Planet Money pointed out that, in general, groupon keeps about half of what money they do collect. There is negotiation involved and Groupon tries to make the most astounding deal possible. She obviously failed at using any negotiation skills. If she offered her cupcakes at a 75% discount 26*(1-0.75) she was only pocketing around 3.25 after groupon took its cut. The Planet Money story is actually a really interesting discussion on price discrimination and the origins of couponing in general. http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/04/08/135244697/groupons-secret-everybody-has-their-price

The Associated Press contacted Curry on Sunday afternoon and she said in an email that Muller and colleagues "are not hiding any data or otherwise engaging in any scientifically questionable practice."

The Muller "results unambiguously show an increase in surface temperature since 1960," Curry wrote Sunday. She said she disagreed with Muller's public relations efforts and some public comments from Muller about there no longer being a need for skepticism.

You must know she retracted/clarified her statements, yet you leave that tidbit out of your post. Laaaaaaame.

India is working on a space program and planning moon exploration, they have a nuclear weapons program. They send foreign aid to Africa. If you consider the state of their infrastructure and levels of poverty throughout the country - go figure. Welcome to government spending - its not just for the US anymore.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106876605
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/pm-announces-five-billion-dollars-aid-for-africa/1/139212.html
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/india/nuke/

>>Except that the real wage minimum wage hasn't gone up at all in the last 50 years while the real gdp per capita has gone up by 170%.

Wages for all quintiles have gone up over time. From that conservative bastion, NPR:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/10/26/141716961/why-has-income-gone-up-so-much-for-top-earners

But don't let facts hurt your crack-addled brain.

... Damn I wish I had some mod points to give you. This comment is AMAZING. Well stated - I've often been at odds with some of my friends who insist that one "brand" of something is better than another - especially when you look at some of the food products, where 4 different "brands" literally come right from the same factory.

Similar link over here for those who don't want to listen to a recorded audio feed.

Oh and don't forget this one - it may be a Cracked.com article, but it's actually a great read.

Unfortunately, no one really knows what that point is. All I've gotten from them is "Wah! Rich people have more than we do!"

Then you obviously haven't been paying attention.

Really kinda sad considering that they are the 1% themselves when looked at from a worldly point of view.

The preacher at my church tried to make the same point, and he was wrong, too. I'm twice as rich as someone in Chicago who earns the same wage as me, because prices are twice as high there. When I was in Thailand in the USAF in 1974, it was a third world country with a median income of $1000 per year. But you could feed four in a nice restaraunt for less than a dollar, take a bus anywhere in the country for a nickle, rent a bungalow (woman included) for thirty bucks a month. In the US, my airman's salary made me a pauper, but if I'd had a year's worth of that salary in Thailand, I could have retired. If you made $1000 per year in Thailand you weren't poor, $1000 per year in the US and you were destitute. You simply can't determine wealth by the amount of dollars one has, because a dollar is worth different amounts in different places.

Simply being able to eat without working puts them there.

Boy, you sure swallow these 1%er tea party lies hook, line, and sinker, don't you? One in six Americans have problems with hunger. I went without food when I was young and poor. And you're going to blame the 9% unemployment rate on the people who can't find jobs? Son, that's close to insanity. It's Washington and Wall Street that keep people poor -- jobs are their job, and they're both falling down on that job.

You might want to educate yourself.

The resolution number was actually S.J.Res.6, and the vote on the motion to proceed to consideration of it failed on a not quite party line vote 54-46 just now. DOA in the Senate.

http://www.npr.org/2011/11/10/142213971/senate-halts-gop-bid-to-repeal-net-neutrality-rules [npr.org]
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/10/idUS211494328220111110

You remind me of my dad. I remember how he used to get angry at my mother for "spending all of his money".. and she did.. she paid the mortgage, the electrical bill the water bill. He could never seem to reconcile that.

But communities are deciding to spend less based on those primitive beliefs that the government is just driving down the street throwing cash out the window.. http://www.npr.org/2011/11/08/142021646/in-indiana-some-buses-stop-shuttling-kids-for-free

You got modded troll, but you made me curious, because I seemed to remember hearing these before, too. Doing a google search of "global warming irreversible YYYY" I came up with these:

From 2009, Obama has 4 years to save the world

From 2009, global warming is now irreversible, study says(also discussed on slashdot)

From 2006, The End of the World As We Know It; THE world has already passed the point of no return on global warming.

From 2005, past the point of no return.

Also from 2005, Global warming irreversible.

From 2004, Damage from warming becoming irreversible.

From 1989, We have a 10 year window to fix the problem.

What do you think of that?

odd I hear crickets.......

You got modded troll, but you made me curious, because I seemed to remember hearing these before, too. Doing a google search of "global warming irreversible YYYY" I came up with these:

From 2009, Obama has 4 years to save the world
From 2009, global warming is now irreversible, study says(also discussed on slashdot)
From 2006, The End of the World As We Know It; THE world has already passed the point of no return on global warming.
From 2005, past the point of no return.
Also from 2005, Global warming irreversible.
From 2004, Damage from warming becoming irreversible.
From 1989, We have a 10 year window to fix the problem.

What do you think of that?

Here's the NPR story about the Supreme Court argument today. I think the full transcript will be on the Supreme Court web site.

http://www.npr.org/2011/11/08/142143552/justices-weigh-technology-and-privacy-in-gps-case
Justices Invoke '1984' During GPS Case Arguments
by Nina Totenberg
....

Dreeben, in his argument, urged the court to stick to the line it has drawn in the past — no warrant is needed for surveillance of activities conducted on public roads.

Chief Justice John Roberts, however, seemed skeptical about applying that rationale to new technologies, asking if the government could "put a GPS device on our cars and monitor us?"

Dreeben responded that under the government's theory and the court's precedents, "the justices of this court, when driving on the streets, have no greater expectation of privacy" against a GPS device attached to the car "than they would if the FBI followed them around the clock."

Justice Stephen Breyer struck a more ominous tone, asserting that "if you win this case, then there is nothing to prevent the police or the government from monitoring 24 hours a day the public movements of every citizen in the United States," a scenario that "sounds like 1984." Discussion of Orwell's dystopic novel arose five times during the argument.
Related NPR Stories
Do Police Need Warrants For GPS Tracking Devices? Nov. 8, 2011

Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked Dreeban to explain the difference between the warrantless use of GPS devices and the general search authority that outraged the Founding Fathers and inspired the Fourth Amendment ban on searches without court authorization. Dreeben maintained, however, that putting a GPS device on a car is not a search. And he seemed to suggest that people have different expectations of privacy in an era of technological advances.

That is "too much for me," interjected Justice Elena Kagan, suggesting that people would think their privacy interests are violated by having a robotic device monitoring their movements 24 hours a day.

Seeking to frame the issue differently, Justice Samuel Alito said that the "heart of the problem" is that until the Internet and computer age, it was very difficult to gather private information about an individual. "But with computers, it's now so simple to amass an enormous amount of information about people. ... So how do we deal with this?"

But Chief Justice Roberts focused more narrowly on the government's position that no warrant is required. "Your argument is, it doesn't depend how much suspicion you have, it doesn't depend on how urgent it is. Your argument is you can do it, period. It doesn't have to be limited in any way, right?" Replied Dreeben, "That is correct."

So just how difficult is it to get a warrant? Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg put that question to the government's lawyer. Dreeben conceded it would not have been difficult in this case, but, he noted, a warrant requires a showing that there is probable cause to believe a crime has occurred, and he said police most often use GPS devices at the early stages of an investigation, before there is evidence of a crime.

Sotomayor asked how many GPS devices are used this way. Dreeben said he didn't know about local and state use, but the number used by federal law enforcement was "in the low thousands" each year.

Following Dreeben to the lectern, attorney Leckar contended that because the GPS was placed on Jones' car, it was a trespass on his property and amounted to an unconstitutional seizure, a commandeering of his car to provide data. The justices, however, were looking for how to address a broader question.

Justice Anthony Kennedy asked what the difference is between putting a GPS device on a car and placing 30 deputies along a route to conduct surveillance. "It seems to me what you're saying is that the police have to use the most inefficient me

Policy don't need a warrant to put a GPS tracker on a car. There's a case being heard by the Supreme Court today that is directly about this. Thanks NPR for the heads up! http://www.npr.org/2011/11/08/142032419/do-police-need-warrants-for-gps-tracking-devices

There is no connection between oil and electricity pricing. Less than a tenth of one percent of US power generation is done with oil-fired generation facilities: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=110997398

The price of electricity is easier to manage and properly plan for than the price of crude, based on current producers and global demand. Electric still ends up being the way of the future.

NPR has a segment called "Lizard Study May Create Super-Strong 'Gecko' Tape". It sounds like the idea has gone from concept to proof-of-concept. It's good to know some these ideas do eventually lead to prototypes.

Here is the link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1290473

by Industry.

Yours In Minsk,
K. Trout, Epidemiologist

I found the music interesting and somewhat emotional, and thought it would make a nice sparse soundtrack piece. Sounds similar to serial music, related to Schoenberg who he mentioned. I'm only slightly familiar with this music, but it reminds me of some pieces by Babbitt. Here's a sample: http://www.npr.org/2006/05/10/5396502/a-difficult-composer-milton-babbitt-at-90. Definitely not ugly. If you're going to compare this "perfect sonar ping" to music at all, it seems like it might be worth doing a more serious comparison to previous composers who worked towards a similar goal.

The most optimal one for years has been the one that Bill Gates devised, which would result in 5/3 N number of flips, but now the best solution is only 1% more optimal than his solution.

And funnily, that's really the only known contribution that Bill Gates has done to the field of computer science, well, and a tad bit of programming in Windows 1.0 and the editions of DOS that came before that. After that, he didn't do anything anymore, or at least acknowledge that he did, since he became more occupied with managing Microsoft than coding.

NPR had a report this morning about countries paying mothers to have kids because of declining fertility rates. It was all in the name of economics and not having your country die out. Silly Jingoism!

You really are drinking the Kool-Aide, Look *IF* it was the GOPs fault then Reid would have put the Jobs bill to the senate floor, let it fail in the House.

Check your facts. Reid did introduce the bill; it was filibustered. Sound familiar? Ever since 2008 the Republicans have been circling the wagons and killing anything that crosses their desk, even routine appointments to mid-level executive departments. That's why the public option was trashed, why meaningful banking reform was replaced by useless drivel, and why we can't have nice things like a AAA credit rating or disclosure of campaign donors (another bill killed by Republican opposition).

I'm not a huge fan of Obama, although I have to admit he has been right about much of his foreign policy decisions, but the Republicans in Congress/Senate these days deserve nothing but contempt. The first step in truly reforming Washington is to get rid of everyone with an (R) in front of his name (the second is to get rid of almost everyone with a (D) in front of their name).

They are, and green tech may be too : http://www.npr.org/2010/12/03/131785448/Military-Goes-Green-For-An-Edge-On-The-Battlefield

There is only one way to punish a cop in the US where the courts don't punish them. You have to kill them.

That's BS. They can lose vacation time!

This is not exactly the first online community that has been victimized by the Mexican drug cartels lately. ...So if Anonymous has the muy macho cajones, and it seems they do... I wish them well in their endeavors. http://www.npr.org/2011/09/23/140745739/mexican-drug-cartels-now-menace-social-media

Ah, pretty much the same conclusion NPR came up with. And, coincidentally, they came up with an answer to your question

"... While these things have temporary effects on the movements of money, in the long run we benefit from having other people making discoveries alongside us, rather than continuing to scrabble in rice paddies."

I think you're somewhat right but I get the feeling that this model is wrong when one side is nobbling currency rates and locally incentivising the newly arrived industries to the point where, for instance, nearly all Vitamin C worldwide is produced in the country that gave us melanine-laced milk and automotive-exhaust-dried tea. Is that smart for any of us? The only safeguard is that QA for export-bound products are stricter because other countries' regulators are more transparent, therefore more accountable and reliable. But market forces only work well when there are no well-established bullies (especially not 147 colluding ones) or even determined alternative rule-set writers.

And lest anyone think I'm fear-mongering, what about solar panels? The markets are only fair when the rules are all becoming more stringent on all players regardless of source and buyer and where the measures used for exchange are equitable. My hope is that greater public wealth will lead to greater openness and accountability, but it hasn't always panned out very well.

Still, I also look forward to the day when some kind of abundance is available to everyone, when we all get much better at use and re-use as opposed to use and using up. Science and technology can get us there if the greed of the few doesn't prevent it. I think our vision as a race tends not to be big enough (worrying about our own rice bowls, all too often, all too appropriately) and we're way too short-sighted and too prone to getting into shouting matches over individual issues in the larger overall programs available to our imagination.

cheers...ank

Why don't we see a drugs manufacturers killing themselves with an 'oval shaped pills' (or as they would put it 'an anatomically efficient vessel for introduction of effective chemicals into the gastro-intestinal system') patent?

What the hell is the department of the Patent Office responsible for SW doing?!

It may not be quite as bad as "oval shaped pills," but bad drug patents are common. It is the entire UPTO that's broken.

You do realize that we already pipe energy from one side of the country to the other right? The "Long Wires" are for the most part already there. Upgrade, enhancements will be need but the framework is in place.
 

Actually, we don't. At least not significant amounts.

The USA is essentially 3 main power grids without much interconnection between them (but it's planned).

Check out this map:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=110997398

(turn off the "proposed" lines to see what the grid looks like today)

What a great talking point. Do you have any evidence of this whatsoever? Because there are actual laws, regulations, and all sorts of other fun things (like the fact that this money has to be paid back and can't be wiped out by bankruptcy) that make what you're suggesting completely implausible.

It's a bit like the old "Don't help the homeless, they're really all rich and slumming it" meme that was going around when I was in high school. A fun way to distract ourselves from real problems.

Sorry, I really should have provided my source. NPR ran a story less than 2 months ago about people doing this exact thing.

No there are not.

1: grant money takes time, you don't get it until half way through the semester. Long after nearly every school closes its late registration. 2: You can't get the same grant at multiple schools at the same time. 3: It is illegal to be enrolled in more than one school at a time (at least where I went).

Sorry, I really should have provided my source. NPR ran a story less than 2 months ago about people doing this exact thing.

2: That's why they dropped out of the first school.

3: These people aren't enrolled at multiple schools at once, they drop out of one and enroll in another. And the fact that stealing is illegal isn't bothering them.

The cancer bit is a little weird, but their view on playing during preschool may not be so far off. Planet Money did a story on this a little while back:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/06/13/137109349/the-friday-podcast-the-case-for-preschool

The child-child interactions that they talk about in the story would presumably happen more often in a play environment than in one where they have to sit and pay attention. Also, anecdotally, what I recall of the actual lessons that I had during preschool and kindergarten is that they weren't terribly valuable. "What sound does a 'K' make?" etc.