Slashdot Mirror

If you learn political ideology from the Daily Show, you are an idiot.

I used to joke that I got all my news from The Daily Show, Doonesbury, and The Onion, but it's not really true. I actually do learn things from these, but mainly I like them because I am well informed about the news.

My alarm clock is set to NPR at 6:00 a.m., and I continue to listen to it during my commute. I read at least the headlines in my local paper and the New York Times every day, and of course, I read Slashdot obsessively. At least for me, the reason I love shows that make fun of the news, like The Daily Show, and Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me is because I am liberal, intelligent, educated, and informed.

On a side note, and totally seriously, I'm not trying to troll, can you recommend a conservative pundit that isn't an idiot? For instance, I read the comic strip Prickly City which seems to me to have a conservative slant. Sometimes it aggravates me, but I keep reading it because sometimes I agree with it, and sometimes it's worth it to see another person's point of view. All I know about conservative pundits is O'Reilly, and Limbaugh. I agree that it's not worth it to listen to idiots. I think Al Franken took the wrong tack by trying to bring his views to their level. So, I would like to see conservative arguments presented intelligently, even humorously. Maybe I would enjoy them too.

If you learn political ideology from the Daily Show, you are an idiot.

I used to joke that I got all my news from The Daily Show, Doonesbury, and The Onion, but it's not really true. I actually do learn things from these, but mainly I like them because I am well informed about the news.

My alarm clock is set to NPR at 6:00 a.m., and I continue to listen to it during my commute. I read at least the headlines in my local paper and the New York Times every day, and of course, I read Slashdot obsessively. At least for me, the reason I love shows that make fun of the news, like The Daily Show, and Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me is because I am liberal, intelligent, educated, and informed.

On a side note, and totally seriously, I'm not trying to troll, can you recommend a conservative pundit that isn't an idiot? For instance, I read the comic strip Prickly City which seems to me to have a conservative slant. Sometimes it aggravates me, but I keep reading it because sometimes I agree with it, and sometimes it's worth it to see another person's point of view. All I know about conservative pundits is O'Reilly, and Limbaugh. I agree that it's not worth it to listen to idiots. I think Al Franken took the wrong tack by trying to bring his views to their level. So, I would like to see conservative arguments presented intelligently, even humorously. Maybe I would enjoy them too.

The state may not have much else, but they do have lots of wireless broadband. I've backpacked through the state and it's incredible to be in the middle of nowhere and pull out a PDA or laptop and sit on a rock on a mountaintop and link in to the megabits from the town's public broadband system. National Public Radio did a story about it around Christmas, several months after I had been there.

"Please explain how this affects your theories. :)

Do you actually believe the crap at that link? You seemed smarter in your postings.

If crime was not on a major rise in this country, then explane why we had bills passed in congress (during the clinton Administration, a 30 billion dollar 1994 crime bill)
See http://www.cato.org/testimony/ct-mr-3.html) that increased law enforcement budgets across this country in astronomical amounts?(because people were afraid, thats why)

And why did almost every major police force across America go to a "no-tollerance" stance? (because people were afraid, thats why. Do a google on "no-tolerance + law enforcement")

And why do we have a trillion dollar budget to deal with drug enforcement?(because kids are unsupervised after school and latter become adult offenders. And, what does that do?? --Come-on...You should know by now... It makes people afraid, thats what it does.)
See http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=4503555

And finally,..Why have most prisons been privatized?(its a multi-billion dollar industry today because the government could no longer justify the expense of building more prisons and still please the --afraid-- people-- by not raising taxes.) http://nicic.org/Library/017518

Movies, Video games and the Mass Media are partly responsible for this mess. I do not recall there being an such an urgency to respond to crime in America when Ms.Pac-Man was the video game of choice or when the best movie around was Star Wars. But dont ask me,
Ask any qualified and truly concerned psychologist.

BY THE WAY,
Please explain how this affects your link :)

Or is your link just more of the PoP-Media's propaganda and bullshit that we have become so use to in America today?



--------

And I remember when covertly distilling Moonshine was a problem!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=5029896

Moonshining is still an issue . . . (and yes, the pun was deliberate!)

The entry of satellite and digital radio into the technological mainstream is increasing tension with the record industry, which wants new rules governing how consumers can make digital copies of songs from the airwaves.

Can't they just get a classified warrant?

There's a good explanation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court here, as well as more information on George W. illegally bypassing said court here.

I was listening to the radio this morning and they had a story on NPR about this fraud. They said it not only hurt the reputation of the S. Korean lab, but also when it was reported that they had 'cloned' a human embryo, funding dried up for other similar legitimate research labs (such as Massachusetts' Advanced Cell Technology) as well.

Story is here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=5147015
Legitimate research lab: http://www.advancedcell.com/

From a story three years back on National Public Radio:

"The whole history of recorded sound has been a case of one technology leapfrogging over a previous one," Karr says. "But in the last few decades, the changes from vinyl to tape cassette to CD to MP3 have shortened the life span of most music collections."

But thanks to a grant from the Smolian-Giovannoni Foundation, all of these audio formats are being transferred onto 10-inch wide, 78 rpm shellac disks -- the one rock-solid format archivists have identified that works every time.

See complete article at Shellac, the Sound of the Future

I am not a physicist, but it appears that Hawking has changed his tune on "nothing comes out of a black hole". He now agrees with Preskill that information can come out of a black hole, riding as a signal on the Hawking radiation. In fact, he paid up a bet he made back in the late 90s.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=3607084

There are several different sites that report the numbers of birds killed by wind turbines in the US and around the world.

• http://web.syr.edu/~bpburtt/Birds/Aug08-04.htm
• http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-01-04-win dmills-usat_x.htm
• DOE.gov
• http://www.njaudubon.org/conservation/Opinions/07- 03.html

Disclaimer: I used to work for GE Energy, which makes wind turbines.

It doesn't HAVE to be bad, especially once you aren't trying to attract advertisers.

Try Science Friday on NPR. It'll open your eyes.

m-

In case it hasn't already been mentioned...

If you have any sort of interest in unique local versus standardized global products the documentary film Monovino will be of interest.

The documentary film interviews both small and large wine vinters regarding the art and/or business of making wine. As a geek, the interviews with the individuals and families of independent producers who took personal pride in their product were of interest. (As a side note, the extras on the USA DVDs were great.)

The film actually made me curious enough to want to discuss the wine biz (looking for a slashdot for wine), but the only decent wine geek discussions I found were on the wine spectator's web site. Which is ironic since the wine spectator is a key player in the globalization of wine by providing a standard rating scale.

My question, what will happen to the Robert Parker's and the Wine Spectators and every other player in the global wine industry once a 100 point wine can be bought at WalMart for $2. On npr.org, there is an article covering a recent tasting where a wine, nicknamed 2 Buck Chuck, won the top prize. From the article:

When it comes to wine, some consumers still equate quality with price. But at the 28th Annual International Eastern Wine Competition, a $1.99 bottle of California Wine, the 2002 Charles Shaw Shiraz, beat out 2,300 wines to win a prestigious double gold medal. Hear NPR's Steve Inkseep.

So, you want links - here is the main site that is trying to coordinate the fight to legalize dancing: http://www.legalizedancingnyc.com/

There was a great story on NPR some weeks ago (months) about this problem. Bar owners being fined a lot of money due to patrons "swaying and moving to background music"! (Warning, you need to listen to the story)

The amazing thing is the link to the Footloose movie - there are some people from that movie that are now working to address this law in New York. Some of them even claimed that when they first saw the script for the movie that they thought it was "too unbelievable" until they did the research.

So you're saying they should have published this a year ago, when they first learned of it. Hey, I agree!

I realize I'm not being PC here, but enough is enough. It's bad enough that we're paying for all his living expenses and in-home nursing, now he wants video games tailored to him?

I'd like to be able to simultaneously write a report, masturbate, and play Star Wars Galaxies. I'd also like to have sexual intercourse occasionally, but due to a genetic defect (Geekarheanerdititus) I am unable to do so. What about my needs/desires?

Non-military discretionary spending has increased under Bush and his Republican congress by more than twice the rate that it did under the Clinton administration, so it seems that they're not serious about spending restraint. To make matters worse, even in the face of some of the largest deficits in our nation's history, they're still looking to push through more tax cuts ( primarily for those who least need anything of the sort, but I digress...). There's absolutely nothing "fiscally responsible" about it and those who permit it.

2) The reduction in the size of government that Clinton likes to take credit for consists almost entirely of military base closings that were voted into place during the previous Bush administration. How about we do the same thing for domestic departments that have long since outlived their function? I don't hear any of these responsible Democrats calling for such things. If they did, I'd vote for them.

Do you hear 'responsible' Republicans doing so? They have been running things for awhile now and I've not heard anything serious in this regard. Clinton did cut about 400k civilian government jobs over his term, though some were just outsourced to private contractors. I'm curious, which departments are you thinking of in this regard?

(3) Most Republican voters as well as Democrats are "good" people. What confuses you is that you have been told that all Republicans are evil when in reality most Republicans have a distrust, that is well founded in history of governments that get too big and try to live people's lives for them. There is no instance of government "giving" money to individuals that does not come with strings attached. As "kind hearted" as many of those programs sound, they will, and have largely already, produce a population unable to think for themselves and such a society cannot sustain itself. Never has, never will.

I agree that most voters and citizens are good, well meaning people regardless of their political affiliation. I do think that there's a tremendous disconnect between what you view the Republican party as and what they actually are today. They seem have no problem in legislating personal behavior. It's the Democratic party which seems to be the one which allows individuals to choose for themselves what is right for them.

If there were a "Leave me the Hell Alone" party that had electable candidates I would vote for them. Until then, I will continue to vote for the party that comes closest to that philosophy, even if there is only a hairs breadth of difference between the two existing parties.

I think that while there are certainly a good number of shared views, there is a good bit more than a 'hairs breadth' between them.

Here is a quote from Jimmy Carter's new book "Our Endangered Values":

"Soon after arriving in Washington, I was surprised and disappointed when no Democratic member of Congress would sponsor my first series of legislative proposals -- to reorganize parts of the federal bureaucracy -- and I had to get Republicans to take the initiative. Thereafter, my shifting coalitions of support comprised the available members of both parties who agreed with me on specific issues, with my most intense and mounting opposition coming from the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. (One reason for this was the ambition of Senator Ted Kennedy to replace me as president.)"

(http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?stor yId=4984885)

When Carter took office, even though I hadn't voted for him, I thought he was a nice guy, and his statements on ref

Well, in the event that your curiosity is sincere, here are some points:

(1) I don't consider just raising taxes to cover every spending spree you go on to be "financial responsibility". Republicans regularly vote for smaller spending increases than Dems. And I can't think of the last time a departments budget was actually cut. ("cut" means CUT, not just reduce the increase).

(2) The reduction in the size of government that Clinton likes to take credit for consists almost entirely of military base closings that were voted into place during the previous Bush administration. How about we do the same thing for domestic departments that have long since outlived their function? I don't hear any of these responsible Democrats calling for such things. If they did, I'd vote for them.

(3) Most Republican voters as well as Democrats are "good" people. What confuses you is that you have been told that all Republicans are evil when in reality most Republicans have a distrust, that is well founded in history of governments that get too big and try to live people's lives for them. There is no instance of government "giving" money to individuals that does not come with strings attached. As "kind hearted" as many of those programs sound, they will, and have largely already, produce a population unable to think for themselves and such a society cannot sustain itself. Never has, never will.

If there were a "Leave me the Hell Alone" party that had electable candidates I would vote for them. Until then, I will continue to vote for the party that comes closest to that philosophy, even if there is only a hairs breadth of difference between the two existing parties.

Here is a quote from Jimmy Carter's new book "Our Endangered Values":

"Soon after arriving in Washington, I was surprised and disappointed when no Democratic member of Congress would sponsor my first series of legislative proposals -- to reorganize parts of the federal bureaucracy -- and I had to get Republicans to take the initiative. Thereafter, my shifting coalitions of support comprised the available members of both parties who agreed with me on specific issues, with my most intense and mounting opposition coming from the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. (One reason for this was the ambition of Senator Ted Kennedy to replace me as president.)"

(http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?stor yId=4984885)

When Carter took office, even though I hadn't voted for him, I thought he was a nice guy, and his statements on reforming government gave me hope that he would do the right thing. His presidency was one disaster after another, some probably beyond his control (the gas crisis), but his own party sabotaging him is not a reason for me to consider voting for another Democrat until the Democrat party does more to distance itself from people who for all practical purposes are extreme socialists. Again, the problem with the socialist philosophy isn't that the intentions are bad, it is that the system does not work.

As they say, "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions." Maybe that should be the motto for the Democrat party.

You are absolutely correct - a laptop with a web-browser does you little or no good if you can't actually reach the web. I do wonder, though, if this effort will encourage other efforts. I heard a story on NPR last night about someone who took the time to get free, wireless broadband to the community where he grew up rural West Virginia (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?stor yId=5053488).

It was an interesting story, especially when they explain how little it cost to set up or run. Is it likely this kind of thing will occur in the countries where these laptops will be distributed? Probably not as likely, but after hearing this, it seems possible to me. It would still need someone to champion the effort, like Negroponte is for the laptops.

My opinion is still that giving these countries access to information is a step in the right direction. The question still remains with access...

AnswerIs42 seems to have covered most of your concerns, but you might want to hear some locals actually talking about it. These questions all came up on the NPR broadcast this week. To hear NPR tell it, the local populace is excited about the tourism possibilities, reasoning that since these guys have shelled out hundreds of thousands of dollars, they may have a few bucks to throw around on snowglobes and stuffed jackalopes. They were even excited that one of their streets (the one to the launch site) is going to get paved after decades of just being a gravel road. Now I'm sure there are some hold outs who aren't interested in this kind of tourism, but I'll bet that most people will welcome this influx of people and cash into their community.

NPR did a story on this yesterday morning.

Summary:

A Harvard dental researcher says he's figured out the purpose of the giant, unicorn-like tusk seen on narwhal whales: It acts like an antenna that allows the narwhal to sense food and sea conditions. The dentist says the tusks are a giant tooth that grows inside out, with hard tissue inside and sensitive nerves on the outside.

The prospect of a tiered Internet with ''regular" and ''premium" broadband services is spawning fierce debate as Congress takes up a major overhaul of telecom regulations. The House of Representatives last month held hearings on a preliminary draft by two GOP congressmen, Joe Barton of Texas and Fred Upton of Michigan, that would give the telecom companies the freedom to establish premium broadband services. The telecom bill is due for action early next year.

Hmmm...I think I will do a search of these guys just to see what else they are involved with.

http://www.dccc.org/houseofscandal/members/JoeBa rtonTX-6.html
"Joe Barton voted to weaken the ethics rules in a move that many say served only to protect Tom DeLay."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=4497035
"All Things Considered, February 12, 2005 U.S. Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) has sponsored a bill in the House that would increase Federal Communication Commission fines for "indecent" broadcasts. He talks about the bill, which goes to the full House in the coming week."

I can see where this 2-tiered internet is heading, more political scandals and tighter regulations of the internet. No thanks.

Look for the yellow cap:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=1832301

Available from about a week before to a week after Passover, at least here ( NYC ).

For areas without a large Jewish community...yer fucked.

THE SINGULARITY

Throughout history, we championed the content creator. Only a tiny fraction of the population could write or understood math or science. Only a tiny fraction could dedicate themselves to the arts.

Most individuals' time was consumed by being agrarian generalists: they owned a farm, and they were constantly occupied by all the repairs and maintenance of their property. It wasn't a job, it was a way of life. But now, more and more, our economy makes us all incredible specialists. We're confined not only to a literal cubicle, but to a cubicle of tasks, often only seeing one tiny part of our contribution to social welfare. But as a result, we end up with leisure time. (Cf. Judge Skelly Wright's opinion in Javins v. First National Realty Corporation). While those reading /. while at work might quibble, the fact is that we all now have meaningful leisure time in some sense, we're not dedicated 100% to our livelihood.

In addition, current technology is allowing us to collaborate and share information as a global community like it never has before.

What does all this mean? For one, it means that techies can have bands, and even get national coverage, without giving up their day jobs. In fact, if MySpace is any evidence, anyone can have a band... and a lot of us already do. Also, given that 80,000 blogs are created each day (though 40,000 are probably also abandoned each day), huge throngs of people have something to say and are able to say it to huge, unrelated throngs of people.

The singularity is similar to the way other areas of economics have evolved. It used to be that 90% of the population made 100% of the food, and now only 10% of the population provides 100% of the food. It's the opposite for art and science (naturally, as we're freed from producing necessities, we can devote more time to producing luxuries, improving general quality of life, and solving more complex problems). Traditionally, 1% of the population made all the cultural content. The singularity? Soon, 99% of the population will be making 100% of the content.

For the first time in history, we are the captains not only of our personal destiny, but of our cultural destiny. However, as cultural creativity becomes so democratized, our contribution will become less and less controlling. Like Warhol said, it's not that we're all going to be famous, it's that we each only get 15 minutes.

THE DOWNSIDE OF A CULTURE OF CREATIVES, AND A SILVER LINING FOR SEARCH

A professor once said to me, "No one cares how much you know anymore, that's why we have the Internet. The important thing is creating new ideas." The formidible aspect of the new society of cultural creatives is that soon, no one will really need you to create ideas anymore either. Your drop in the cultural bucket is less and less meaningful every day. Content is easier and easier to make and share, and everyone wants to play, so as a corrolary, it will become harder and harder to find compensation as a cultural creative.

So what's the new valuable thing, in this storm of data/content? Maybe not making worthwhile contributions to the arts, science, knowledge, (which is important, but self sustaining). However, finding the worthwhile signal amidst all cultural noise is becoming more and more valuable. Someone needs to be a sieve for all the content being thrown around right now. Technologies of search and sort are the ways to do it. Google is not prospering because it learned something about advertising. Google is prospering because it precociously encapsulates the spirit of the dawning age, while most of us are still trying to figure out just what the hell I'm talking about.

I am glad this guy made this comment and wanted to have this class. Intelligent design is not backed by any biologists. It is only so we can have creationism taught in our schools. What a bunch of shit. bunch of shit.

In making this claim, Muller and Newman are careful to affirm that evolutionary biology has succeeded in explaining how preexisting forms diversify under the twin influences of natural selection and variation of genetic traits.[...]Central to their concern is what they see as the inadequacy of the variation of genetic traits as a source of new form and structure. They note, following Darwin himself, that the sources of new form and structure must precede the action of natural selection (2003:3)--that selection must act on what already exists. Yet, in their view, the "genocentricity" and "incrementalism" of the neo-Darwinian mechanism has meant that an adequate source of new form and structure has yet to be identified by theoretical biologists.

If they worked with biologists to understand organisms and all of the stuff already studied, then maybe it could be considered.

If they didn't just deride evolution instead of studying real things and relating them to the world, then maybe there could be a discussion considered.

And I'm just getting motion sickness from all the spin on this story. Ow, and this is just so painfully liberal, it hurts.

Although, this article does seem to be lacking a little, when they claim that most school districts in the United States are performing below the national average under No Child Left Behind. Now, I'm not supporting No Child Left Behind as it pretty much does nothing to solve any educational problems, but merely promotes teaching children how to take tests and punishes school districts which teach disadvantaged children, bit I'd be willing to bet that slightly under half the districts are under the national average, not the majority. In fact, the number of districts under the national average is probably pretty close to the number ABOVE the national average.

And I'm just getting motion sickness from all the spin on this story. Ow, and this is just so painfully liberal, it hurts.

Although, this article does seem to be lacking a little, when they claim that most school districts in the United States are performing below the national average under No Child Left Behind. Now, I'm not supporting No Child Left Behind as it pretty much does nothing to solve any educational problems, but merely promotes teaching children how to take tests and punishes school districts which teach disadvantaged children, bit I'd be willing to bet that slightly under half the districts are under the national average, not the majority. In fact, the number of districts under the national average is probably pretty close to the number ABOVE the national average.

And I'm just getting motion sickness from all the spin on this story. Ow, and this is just so painfully liberal, it hurts.

Although, this article does seem to be lacking a little, when they claim that most school districts in the United States are performing below the national average under No Child Left Behind. Now, I'm not supporting No Child Left Behind as it pretty much does nothing to solve any educational problems, but merely promotes teaching children how to take tests and punishes school districts which teach disadvantaged children, bit I'd be willing to bet that slightly under half the districts are under the national average, not the majority. In fact, the number of districts under the national average is probably pretty close to the number ABOVE the national average.

Mussels Made Easy? Damn those Libruls, are there no depths to which they will not sink?

You want evidence that NPR is liberally biased?

Ok, try this website. Tons of examples.

Not all newspapers are behind the times. I'm fortunate to have worked for the Web sites of two news companies that really "get it" -- the Lawrence Journal-World in Lawrence, Kansas, and the Washington Post.

The Journal-World's Web sites (including http://www.ljworld.com/ and http://www.lawrence.com/ allow comments on every story. Readers can have their own weblogs, and the site makes intensive database apps, on deadline, for all sorts of stuff -- like a database of every little-league game (e.g. http://www2.ljworld.com/game/2005/fields/langston_ hughes/). FWIW, the operation has been covered by the New York Times and NPR.

Similarly, washingtonpost.com is quite good. We just launched Post Remix, which encourages developers to put together apps with our RSS feeds. Check it out.

It might be a good idea to sell that beachfront property and start shopping for property further north

All components of the cryosphere (the frozen portions of the Earth) in the Arctic are experiencing change, including snow cover, mountain and continental glaciers, permafrost, sea ice, and lake and river ice. For example, glaciers in Alaska, as throughout the Arctic, have retreated through most of the 20th century. Estimated losses in Alaskan glaciers are of the order of 30 feet in thickness over the past 40 years, even while some have gained thickness in their upper regions.

In fact, there are already numerous ecosystem changes observed due to permafrost thawing. They include: ... increased coastal and riverine (along the banks of rivers) erosion

In the longer term, longer ice-free seasons are likely to bring substantial benefits to marine transport and offshore operations in the petroleum industry

You can listen to the audio of NPR's coverage here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=5024153

Yesterday NPR had a segment on Paul English, which included him phoning into support lines of several companies including Apple Computer. A friend of mine works at Apple in the AppleCare department, and I pointed him at the program. After listening, his reaction was, "No, they are only making their call take longer by bypassing the menu!" The human that you reach when you bypass the menu is not set up to help you. All she can do is direct you to an agent who can provide actual help, which is exactly what the IVR menu was doing before you bailed out.

I agree that most IVR systems have serious usability problems. One of my pet peeves is that after I've gone to the trouble of keying in my account number, the human agent makes me recite it, instead of just reading it off her screen. But it gets far worse: if there is a problem with your account balance, some companies won't even let you talk to a human until you've made an automated payment, even if you are calling to sort out that you've already paid and they made an error! There does need to be an escape hatch for issues the IVR isn't set up to handle. But in many cases, using the IVR and getting routed to the right agent is going to be faster than bypassing.

NPR's Morning Edition did a story on this guy yesterday (listen linky). They had a few on air examples of this, then also had some interns do some more tests. They said average time to get an operator was something like 56 seconds from the time they dialed. Good stuff to know...

"You cannot prove or disprove God's existence. Of course, if one pays attention in Philosophy 101 nothing can be proved or disproved."

Perhaps, but logically it only makes sense to begin with the assumption that God doesn't exist. Going from there, the challenge is to find evidence which supports God's existence.

see also.

It strikes me that, of the people who are wholly negative of the UN, the vasty majority are from the USA. It's not surprising, given that the UN are criticising the USA for blocking their torture investigations at the moment.

Simply wrong. It's not surprising, given that the vast majority of the people who are wholly negative of (sic) the UN are from the USA and were wholly negative of (sic) the UN from times long before the torture investigations.

You have mistaken a correlation with causation. It's not surprising, given that you support the corrupt oil for food program.

Thank you for playing the strawman game. Construct all you want, we'll make more.

"...Most people, I think, do not even know what a Rootkit is, so why should they care about it?.."

Sony Music CDs Under Fire from Privacy Advocates http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=4989260

(Click on the the LISTEN button)

I have arguments for pricing to go both ways.

Argument 1 - The price should be variable by size of the file. It costs more bandwidth to download a longer file. $0.99 for a 4 minute song is a rip off though. We all know that is not almost a dollar of bandwidth.
Argument 2 - The price should be variable based on the cost of the recording. Cost of recording is coming down, especially with the advent of non linear editing jumping to a new level in recording. BFD and drumagog as drum replacers are ubiquitous across all spectrums of the recording industry. D.I.Y. to professional. Pitch correction saves time in the studio trying to hit the take. Software interfaces literally lets bands record a song by copying and pasting a bar over and over. No need to hit the take straight through. I don't agree with these as a musician or when I'm engineering but it would be naive to say that they aren't used on 99% of the recordings you hear on iTunes or that EMI wants to sell.
Argument 3 - The price should reflect the quality. As was stated in the story, all industries have flexible pricing. When you go into HEB to buy cereal you have Hill Country Fair Fruit Os or Kellogg's Fruit Loops. I can tell you which is pricier, the brand name. So which is brand name and which is independent label, Fruit Os or Fruit Loops. I see the major label as being generic, sometimes Hill County Fair makes a better tasting cereal just like the major labels do sometimes. But I highly doubt the majors would take any one seriously if they told them that the song was of low quality price it cheaply.

Don't forget, some bands just copy themselves. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=4258547 Shocking.

Very plausible -- thats the first thing I thought of when I saw this story. NPR did a story on this a few months ago, about how movie marketers are working with scientists to time the release of their stories to coincide with movie releases:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=4647581

For example, they made sure that for each of the three jurassic park movies, there was a major dinosaur discovery in the news a few weeks before.

I have to agree, this is a very serious problem in Africa and not to be laughed at, many children are raped by HIV infected adults because of the same belief you have joked about.

There is a well know comedian called Pieter-Dirk Uys who campaigns against this horror:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=845521

I saw him when he played in London and it was heartbreaking, makes you think how lucky you really are.

Anyway, she says -- echoing the comments of a Smithsonian official -- Sternberg did not really suffer.

"He didn't lose his job, he didn't get his pay cut, he still has his research privileges, he still has his office," Scott says. "You know, what's his complaint? People weren't nice to him. Well, life is not fair."

Please, grandparent, do not listen to people like the parent poster, who still believes that somehow President Bush "stole" the election. Our President's administration is not a "regime," and his mismatched recollection of history implying that President Bush used September 11th to go to war is at the height of idiocy.

Then the parent poster goes on to criticize Arizona's Prop 200, which says you must present proof of US Citizenship in order to vote. I'd love for anyone to point out how this would "create a problem" if you are a "USA citizen in good standing." In fact, it is doing exactly what he wants - eliminating voter fraud! Please don't think that Slashdot is representative of American politics and beliefs. It's much, much different, and the parent's poster's idea that our President ordered Al Qaeda to attack us and kill 3,000 of our own people so we could attack Iraq is absolutely ridiculous, and I hope anyone who is impartial (or even a Democrat) can see how outside the mainstream his "belief" is.

It is, however, one of many times the quote has been, erm, quoted.

The Quote comes from an interview with Thomans Hesse, conducted by NPR radio.
I'm not sure on the exact link, but i believe it may be this interview. (current machine has no sound, can't confirm).

I was listening to this interview with a Mr. Jaques Myard by NPR's Renee Montagne, and I was absolutely apalled to hear how some in France view this situation. The primary point that Mr. Myard tries to get across - in a manner that would scare the American Right Wingers - that the problem is not one of unemployment or race, but rather an issue of order and respect. It is absolutely frightening that these people are in power, if you ask me.

The 1000 or so wind turbines on the North Sea coast of Germany near Holtgast have driven the water birds completely out of the area. The problem was not strikes, but the noise and perhaps visual disorientation. In any event over the last 10 years since the installation of the turbines the birds have abandoned the area.

There is a recent NPR story on this here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=4975147

I like to think about it this way... In America's Army if you frag your CO during training you get thrown in jail, effectively losing your account. If WoW, for example, was to implement a policy like this it would fit with their goal to present a sense of realism and demographics. ( http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=4946772 for an example of this) Just think about how satisfying it would be if those stupid farmers got brought up on Digital Common Law charges for crimes against the game, their accounts get changed so they autospawn in an Ironforge Prison. And how interesting would the escape attempts be?

The book raises interesting questions, but in the end is a lightweight analysis that is better for engendering sound bites on NPR and The Daily Show than for convincing serious readers.

Hmm... sound bites on NPR... That's interesting, it sounds like you probably never listen to NPR. The breadth and depth of their coverage far surpasses any other news source I've found. For example On Point is a two hour program, each hour consists of:

• An opening news debrief from a reporter or journalist on the biggest stories of the day.
• An in-depth conversation on a single topic with newsmakers, thinkers and callers.
• And the end of the hour segment that allows for more personal reactions to news and important issues, including radio diaries, excerpts from speeches, or special series segments.

They almost always have two or three experts in the relevant field during the discussion segment. Topics are explained and discussed with logic and level-headedness. Most of the time the topics are shown to be complicated with more sides than just the conservative vs. liberal slant you get from other news sources.

In fact I was listening when Morning Edition held a seven minute interview with the author of "Everything Bad is Good for You" back in May. I just googled for it now and it's available to listen to for free on their website: Morning Edition, May 24, 2005: Everything Bad is Good for You.

The book raises interesting questions, but in the end is a lightweight analysis that is better for engendering sound bites on NPR and The Daily Show than for convincing serious readers.

Hmm... sound bites on NPR... That's interesting, it sounds like you probably never listen to NPR. The breadth and depth of their coverage far surpasses any other news source I've found. For example On Point is a two hour program, each hour consists of:

• An opening news debrief from a reporter or journalist on the biggest stories of the day.
• An in-depth conversation on a single topic with newsmakers, thinkers and callers.
• And the end of the hour segment that allows for more personal reactions to news and important issues, including radio diaries, excerpts from speeches, or special series segments.

They almost always have two or three experts in the relevant field during the discussion segment. Topics are explained and discussed with logic and level-headedness. Most of the time the topics are shown to be complicated with more sides than just the conservative vs. liberal slant you get from other news sources.

In fact I was listening when Morning Edition held a seven minute interview with the author of "Everything Bad is Good for You" back in May. I just googled for it now and it's available to listen to for free on their website: Morning Edition, May 24, 2005: Everything Bad is Good for You.

I hear you. To make my point clearer: how many people do you think would have bought the theatrical release if the extended version had been released first? I got both, but only because I wasn't aware of the extended version; I figured they'd use the same release schedule for the other two movies, and only bought the (later) extended versions of those. By releasing two versions for each movie, they created an opportunity to squeeze a bit more money out of the market by counting on die-hard fans to purchase both instead of just one. At the very least, what they did was produce two slightly different products from the same source material to appeal to slightly different but overlapping markets; in providing a choice they ended up selling more boxes than if they hadn't.

On a related note, check out this article, which kind of undercuts my argument since that bastard won't release the original trilogy as seen in theaters. On the other hand, I'm sure he made an awful lot of money on that re-re-release.