Quick, call Fox! Don't tell them it's a fictional planet and tomorrow all Republicans will support the petition for building the Death Star! Proper motivation is everything...
Seems to me that the usefulness of an e-reader/book was spoiled by the industry - both hardware and content. Locking, removing content remotely, DRM books, price of e-books (!!?)....add to that that most readers suck at displaying technical info (most, not all).
As as consumer I just know how I fell about all those recent "revolutions" - the smart phone, the tablet and the e-reader. They suck, big time, even though the idea is brilliant. I never expected that the phone and the tablet would not be just small computer, fully compatible with your PC. Never expected the price of an e-book to be the same as a paper one. Never expected.the Spanish inquisition..... Our socioeconomic model sucks, people! Even when we have fantastic technologies we make crappy, annoying products that do not expand our horizon but rather lock us in a box and hinder us. No second hand selling, no lending of e-books, cameras from the TV watching if you are not "breaking" the license....just read any random page of news on/. and you will come with at least one example of industry idiocy labeled "for your convenience and enhanced consumer experience"....
So, give me back my paper book that I can buy without telling what I had for breakfast and how did my mother's milk taste like. It cost the same as e-book, I can browse through it faster, it is more robust (do you think your files will survive 50-100 years and if they did that there will be compatible device to read them on?), I can give to anyone I like, does not have tracking device that calls home and says what and when I read....thank you!
To legislators and authorities east, west north and south - we don't want to be squeezed anymore. There will never be "enough" money, ever. It's a property of our system - to fill all gaps like an ideal gas. Some genius, for instance, suggested recently to tax the bicycles in Amsterdam because the city hall needs more money. I'll not try to explain why this is the stupidest idea of the century, so here comes my greeting:
Let me tell you how it will be There's one for you, nineteen for me 'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman
Should five per cent appear too small Be thankful I don't take it all 'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah I'm the taxman
If you drive a car, I'll tax the street, If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat. If you get too cold I'll tax the heat, If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet.
Don't ask me what I want it for If you don't want to pay some more 'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman
Now my advice for those who die Declare the pennies on your eyes 'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman And you're working for no one but me.
Yhea, same in the Netherlands. 1 job application per week or no welfare. Problem is you are not allowed to apply/take just any job. If you are let's say nuclear physicist and you apply to work as auto-mechanic, they tell you "you should find a job suited for you background, money has been invested in your education" Which is fine and dandy but there are NO 4 open positions per month for nuclear physicist. So?
From free market point of view I do not understand this at all. If a company X can get overqualified person for the announced salary, isn't that good for the company? There are no laws that regulate the salaries in the private sector. You get more performance for the same buck! Maybe that person wants to stop doing nuclear physics. Maybe there are really no jobs and he/she is so desperate that they want that job never mind the over qualification..also the tech jobs went East but we are not allowed to work anything else. So become permanently unemployed or die (the former eventually leads to the latter anyway)? What other options are there?
This whole shit has to stop but the only way I see is total rebuild of the socioeconomic model of Homo Sapiens. Fat chance...
The most wasteful system ever devised by human is suggested as a "tool we invented to understand and control how limited resources are used"? The system that burns hydrocarbons instead of using them only for organic synthesis (plastics, medicine). The system that resulted in planned obsolesce? The system that...I am lost for words. There is only one sensible thing in your post - the word "believe" There is no other way to support this inhuman, irrational, wasteful socioeconomic system that to accept it is faith....
There are about a million good reasons why the banks should be attacked if not completely destroyed. That blasted movie is NOT one of them. I wonder if the attackers are aware that their actions in this case work exactly against their interests.
The Netherlands is sliding at an ever accelerating rate towards inhuman capitalism a la USA. In the last 5 years the average salary increase for 85% of all employees was less than the official inflation which is, as usual, significantly lower than the real inflation.
Vast portion of the employers used the crisis to get rid of people and keep wages down even if the crisis did not affect their businesses. The national pride of the NL - the "polder model" is declared dead because it cannot generate enough profit. Only.....it does generate huge profit but it is hidden in the form of content workers, decent relations at the working place, calm and polite society, general happiness and wealth. But it does not generate profits for the 1% comparable to those in inhuman capitalist societies, only the governments of lately are listening with the two ears to the 1% only.
The Medical system has become utter crap, they made me an invalid due to negligence which was due to the doctors being pressured to give the cheapest treatment. 5 years later I am forced to go private and pay handsomely while at the same time I am forced to keep paying the insurance system.
The trains have become crap after the company was privatized. They are now "profitable" by no delivering millions of people on time to work every day. So they cost billions to the country in order to make millions of profits. What is the government doing - they craft financial mechanisms to force people to move close to their work, so that we do not have to rely so heavily on the railroads.
The list goes forever.....I came from a former communist state to witness the self-destruction of the so-called free world. Check when the west started sliding to good old "shot the strikers" days of capitalism. Yhea, when the wall collapsed. NO need to pretend anymore that the little person matters. No fear from workers revolution - this is "red" and it failed , right? The last straw - the feudal masters managed to convince the people that it is again those former red countries that are guilty for it all (took our jobs, fucking immigrants). Whereas the workers in the west instead of believing this shit should thank us for living in hell so that their fathers and grandfathers could have decent life......
What do you call it then? Ahh yes, even shallow, commercial entertainment gets it right - "you are not mammals, you are a virus" - as opposed to free market gurus.
To me it is highly symptomatic and very worrying that even such pop-culture items as the Matrix or Star Wars (the bad guy plays “both sides” against each other – that was a stab on GWB/Taliban if I ever saw one). That means that it is common in our culture to expect such behavior from humans. Art, even such commercial art is a reflection of society. Meditate on this you should!
Well, the question you gotta ask is the opposite. What if the physics of a distant galaxy is different from the one around here?
Well then I guess that its spectral lines might be different. And its movement in space might be different.
We can now see more or less to the edge of the observable Universe which happens to be also a picture form the very distant past. Yes, the Universe looked different back then, of course it does, but the light we see is still the same. The nature of light includes in itself quite a lot of fundamental physics (e.g. electro-magnetism, quantum physics) it also carries information about the objects it came in contact with or originated from (atomic physics, chemistry). We can also see how things move around and judge if gravity behaves in the same way there as here.
Oh yhea, and if you assume that the physics is different you got to explain a hell of a lot more and predict an observable effect. Like what happens at the borders between worlds with different physics? Are there borders at all? How does it work? Can you make a model? Does the model predicts effects that can be observed? If yes, why are we not seeing them? And so on and so forth...
Compare to the Universe we are and always will be infinitely small. Unless we discover infinite speeds and infinitely fast terraforming capabilities - then we would fill it in a few millennia - but if that was possible odds are someone else would have done it already. So we will forever know (through observation and direct contact) only very, very small part of the Universe. But it does not mean we are absolutely powerless to comprehend it. You underestimate the amount of thought that was,is and will be spent on the assumption in question. So far the answer is indeed "Probably the physics as we know it is the same throughout the Universe"
"Things tend to become balls and balls tend to move in ellipses. Once you figured that out everything else falls into place. In curved motion of course!"
Ponder Stibbons thought process while observing our universe (see Science of Discworld part I)
What you describe seems to fit the description of the Ankh-Morpork city watch by the times of young Sam Vimes (see "Night Watch"). Bullies for hire...with some outsourcing (the Unmentionables) going on and privileges for the wealthy individuals or Guilds (corporations).
I am not so sure about all this. And my uncertainty has nothing to do with political correctness.
First - who guarantees that the least intelligent people on this planet do not carry by accident the most important genes? What if a super-killer disease sweeps above us and a random beggar on the streets of Bangladesh has the genes to fight it? Who says intelligence is the most important quality ? Sure, from where I am standing it seems that it is, but the conditions may change...
Second - why mistake collective intelligence for individual one. Our technological/scientific success (notice that I do no claim success on any other level, like making stable society , improving happiness and human dignity) is a result of the system we build for sharing, accumulating and storage of knowledge. It is not surprising then that the individual scientist , say , is on average less intelligent than Greek philosopher but now we have millions of scientist sharing and checking their findings via the established mechanisms.
Third - this is not news as such. One of the more famous books on the subject by Jared Diamond already claimed that smaller "primitive" societies had to fight different set of challenges which likely make then more intelligent, whereas the civilized folks had to mostly fight with illnesses spreading quickly because we live(d) so cramped together.That is why our diseases were so devastating for them...
Fourth - just an example I stumbled upon last week. A documentary on the BBC showed that what the might of the civilization could not achieve in the 1970 ies indigenous people achieved millennia ago - namely to successfully develop agriculture on one of the most infertile soils on the planet turning it into one of the most fertile and stable soils. You will never guess for which region I am talking about. The Amazonian rainforest. It was amazing revelation - check it out - it's called "Unnatural history - the Amazon". Estimated 5.5 million people living along the river by the time the first Europeans arrived! With cities, roads, education, craftsmanship that rivaled European quality and organized religion. Simple people they were not!
And the most hilarious thing is that every white supremacist I have talked with claims that WE had the more difficult challenges than the "darkies" who just had to sit beneath a tree waiting for the banana to fall, therefore we are genetically more intelligent! I tend to become a tad uncivilized (pun intended) in such discussions.
Listen, I am also tired of all this. Anecdotal evidence bla, bla, bla....
OK, so I just read a political news where a survey was performed in a certain country and the results are making quite a noise in the media and political circles. What was the number of people surveyed? 570.
Now then, my "anecdotal evidence" about the statement of Waltrek that you object of is based on approx. 300-350 people I have personally investigated (colleges, friends, relatives and acquaintances). YES, the biggest pirates are the biggest purchasers (myself included).
I suspect that the people at/. who make those statements also have some "anecdotal" evidence. It might turn out at the end that the sum of such evidence might amass thousands upon thousands of people - much better than the political survey I mentioned above.
So, yes, you should be convinced...
BTW, the other correlation I noticed is that the higher the salary of a person the LESS legitimate content they download. The former CEO of my company was a bigger pirate than me and had 20 legal DVD's in comparison of my 500 (and counting). Something about psychopaths in positions of power in our economic paradigm comes to mind....
If we talk about books that really changed my life, many of those were not fiction:
"Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn and "Guns, germs and steel" by Jared Diamond - anthropology is an eye opener!
"Cosmos" and "Contact" by Carl Sagan - Cosmos made me a scientist and Contact is one of the best reads on the subject "Science and Religion" (this one is fiction, I know)
All the books of Oliver Sacks - wow, just wow!
Hofstadter - "The mind's I" and "GEB"
"48 laws of power" and "33 laws of war" - the real-life examples in those books are amazing, instructive and fascinating.
"Bulgarian Chronicles" - this one is very specific - for Bulgarians only (not translated) - it is the first sincere attempt to give my countrymen their real history, as unbiased as possible. Absolutely ground shaking! I hear that Oliver Stone is trying to do this as a series of documentary movies about USA's modern history (last 100 years). I bet massive controversy will ensue...
And fiction:
Sci-fi/fantasy - the absolutely stellar D.Adams and T.Pratchett, The Dune saga, (most of) Asimov, the Strugatski brothers and the godlike Stanislaw Lem (a philosopher who writes sci-fi - unbeatable combo. Hofstadter uses his writings to illustrate many of his scientific concepts about consciousness)
Victor Pelevin (available in English), check this two out - Buddha's Little Finger (aka Clay Machine-Gun) / (Chapayev and Void) (1996) and Babylon (aka Generation , Homo Zapiens) / Generation "" (1999)
"Master and Margarita" by Bulgakov - the best gospel there is. One of the story lines in the book is the trial and crucifixion of Jesus; people like it so much that they call it the gospel of Bulgakov (I heartily agree)
My first and so far last smartphone is HTC Desire. What a piece of @#$%#!
First, the menu buttons on the bottom stop working after 1 year regular use (3 out of 3 - the phones of myself, my wife and a friend)
Second, and much more frustrating - no system updates. Zero, nada,zip! I am still running Android 2.2 ?!? Their proprietary overlay of Android is utter crap, I have no control over the device (unless I root, but damn it why bother - I should get unlocked phone from the start), I cannot remove shit like Facebook applications, stock market update (WTF?!?) and so on....sometimes the phone just stops responding because it is busy running....itself
Now, I'll admit the above is not necessarily a flaw of HTC only, but come on...Overall I am utterly disappointed by the whole smartphone thingy. I expected a small PC in my pocket and all I got is locked, slow, power hungry piece of shit, that spends 80% of its power running itself... and no, I am not going Apple because of this (different set of crap IMO) but I just might "devolve" to dumb phone again.
New slogan - "dumb phones are for smart people, smart phones are for dummies". Please, spread it around - we just might convince enough people to stop falling for the hype and get those companies in line...oh, forgot boycott does not work in our economic paradigm. Well, forget it...
I believe life, particularly intelligent life, gives the universe meaning.
Whoaaa, arrogant much?!? This sentiment, my friend, is what a number of anthropologist have called "The most dangerous idea". Because naturally, you don't really mean "intelligent life" - you mean humans in general and you in particular. Yhea, the whole universe would be nothing , nothing I tell you, without some self-righteous intelligent life to give it a "meaning". From that sentiment follows the other one - that we, in fact OWN the Universe (Earth in particular); it is OURS and we can do with it whatever we damn well please...it is just a decor, a theater set for us, the pinnacles of creation!
I think someone needs a peep in the Total Perspective Vortex:)
The unrealistic assumption in the book is that you can stay anonymous on the NET once your voice starts to matter. That would never happen in reality - the moment you gain enough influence to show on the radar you are toast (metaphorically or even literally).
The bicycle culture in the Netherlands would die miserable death the moment they make the helmets obligatory...for kids, I agree and moreover it is the responsibility of the parents but for adults...Just as example - in a humid climate like the Dutch do you know what will happen to your scalp if you wear a helmet...I am having already a hell of lot skin issues due to the humidity; I will never, ever wear a helmet. I have no car, so I am spending lots of time on a bike - 10 years now and not a single accident let alone something where a helmet would help me. Count 5km per day, every day and see the mileage I did without any safety issues...
Much more important than helmets is INFRASTRUCTURE!!!
Do you guys remember the Top Gear episode where the guys raced from one end of London to the other? Richard went on a bike. Full professional gear with helmet, all kinds of warning lights and reflecting surfaces, the bike was super doper carbon whatever stuff for thousands of pounds. All in vain, utterly in vain...I was horrified by the lack of infrastructure...when he went on the streets I was genuinely worried about his life and health. Skimming around buses by few millimeters, barely avoiding cars and pedestrians....What would a helmet do if you get hit by a bus because there are no proper bicycle lanes?
The whole helmet thing is absurd, frankly. Build lanes, put traffic lights and generally SEPARATE the car stream from the bicycle stream whenever possible - that is the way to do it. Not to mention that all this "safety gear" is expensive and can have detrimental effects on your health (see above).
Are we seeing again the good old strategy - "Pass a law, make a business"? Colour me cynic but most of the time that is what it is all about in the business of "safety"...
When are we going to grow up and actually concentrate on the message instead of the manner of delivery? Gosh, sorry to say it, but seeing how people react on politics and politicians I cannot restrain myself from stating that 90% of the population is composed of morons. Not necessarily stupid in other walks of life, but stupid as hell when it comes to politics...must be all those cognitive biases to which we are all susceptible. Why are we so fucked by our evolutionary path; what a bad luck!
This is no cynicism. There are two types of people in the world - realists and deluded. The deluded are the happy ones. Because they really hate the other type's attitude as they don't want to see their delusions gone, the have invented many terms to substitute "realism" and smear the issue. Some of those terms are "pessimist" and "cynic". There you go....
Don't believe me? There was a/. discussion over scientific investigation showing that "depressed" people have more accurate perception of reality. Moral: of you want to be happy, hold delusions.... that explains a lot about the human condition don't you think?
Slashdot Mirror
Science and religion. Bhaa..
What was that quote from Asimov - "Science won over religion in the 17th century when churches started erecting lightning conductors"
'Nuff said
Quick, call Fox! Don't tell them it's a fictional planet and tomorrow all Republicans will support the petition for building the Death Star! Proper motivation is everything...
Seems to me that the usefulness of an e-reader/book was spoiled by the industry - both hardware and content. Locking, removing content remotely, DRM books, price of e-books (!!?)....add to that that most readers suck at displaying technical info (most, not all).
As as consumer I just know how I fell about all those recent "revolutions" - the smart phone, the tablet and the e-reader. They suck, big time, even though the idea is brilliant. I never expected that the phone and the tablet would not be just small computer, fully compatible with your PC. Never expected the price of an e-book to be the same as a paper one. Never expected .the Spanish inquisition..... Our socioeconomic model sucks, people! Even when we have fantastic technologies we make crappy, annoying products that do not expand our horizon but rather lock us in a box and hinder us. No second hand selling, no lending of e-books, cameras from the TV watching if you are not "breaking" the license....just read any random page of news on /. and you will come with at least one example of industry idiocy labeled "for your convenience and enhanced consumer experience" ....
So, give me back my paper book that I can buy without telling what I had for breakfast and how did my mother's milk taste like. It cost the same as e-book, I can browse through it faster, it is more robust (do you think your files will survive 50-100 years and if they did that there will be compatible device to read them on?), I can give to anyone I like, does not have tracking device that calls home and says what and when I read....thank you!
To legislators and authorities east, west north and south - we don't want to be squeezed anymore. There will never be "enough" money, ever. It's a property of our system - to fill all gaps like an ideal gas. Some genius, for instance, suggested recently to tax the bicycles in Amsterdam because the city hall needs more money. I'll not try to explain why this is the stupidest idea of the century, so here comes my greeting:
Let me tell you how it will be
There's one for you, nineteen for me
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman
Should five per cent appear too small
Be thankful I don't take it all
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah I'm the taxman
If you drive a car, I'll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat.
If you get too cold I'll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet.
Don't ask me what I want it for
If you don't want to pay some more
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman
Now my advice for those who die
Declare the pennies on your eyes
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman
And you're working for no one but me.
The Beatles
Poking silliness should never stop, otherwise the silly might decide they got it right...
Yhea, same in the Netherlands. 1 job application per week or no welfare. Problem is you are not allowed to apply/take just any job. If you are let's say nuclear physicist and you apply to work as auto-mechanic, they tell you "you should find a job suited for you background, money has been invested in your education" Which is fine and dandy but there are NO 4 open positions per month for nuclear physicist. So?
From free market point of view I do not understand this at all. If a company X can get overqualified person for the announced salary, isn't that good for the company? There are no laws that regulate the salaries in the private sector. You get more performance for the same buck! Maybe that person wants to stop doing nuclear physics. Maybe there are really no jobs and he/she is so desperate that they want that job never mind the over qualification..also the tech jobs went East but we are not allowed to work anything else. So become permanently unemployed or die (the former eventually leads to the latter anyway)? What other options are there?
This whole shit has to stop but the only way I see is total rebuild of the socioeconomic model of Homo Sapiens. Fat chance...
Orwell was a brit. Stands to reason....
The most wasteful system ever devised by human is suggested as a "tool we invented to understand and control how limited resources are used"?
The system that burns hydrocarbons instead of using them only for organic synthesis (plastics, medicine). The system that resulted in planned obsolesce? The system that...I am lost for words.
There is only one sensible thing in your post - the word "believe" There is no other way to support this inhuman, irrational, wasteful socioeconomic system that to accept it is faith....
There are about a million good reasons why the banks should be attacked if not completely destroyed. That blasted movie is NOT one of them.
I wonder if the attackers are aware that their actions in this case work exactly against their interests.
Bull! (resident of NL here)
The Netherlands is sliding at an ever accelerating rate towards inhuman capitalism a la USA. In the last 5 years the average salary increase for 85% of all employees was less than the official inflation which is, as usual, significantly lower than the real inflation.
Vast portion of the employers used the crisis to get rid of people and keep wages down even if the crisis did not affect their businesses. The national pride of the NL - the "polder model" is declared dead because it cannot generate enough profit. Only.....it does generate huge profit but it is hidden in the form of content workers, decent relations at the working place, calm and polite society, general happiness and wealth. But it does not generate profits for the 1% comparable to those in inhuman capitalist societies, only the governments of lately are listening with the two ears to the 1% only.
The Medical system has become utter crap, they made me an invalid due to negligence which was due to the doctors being pressured to give the cheapest treatment. 5 years later I am forced to go private and pay handsomely while at the same time I am forced to keep paying the insurance system.
The trains have become crap after the company was privatized. They are now "profitable" by no delivering millions of people on time to work every day. So they cost billions to the country in order to make millions of profits. What is the government doing - they craft financial mechanisms to force people to move close to their work, so that we do not have to rely so heavily on the railroads.
The list goes forever.....I came from a former communist state to witness the self-destruction of the so-called free world. Check when the west started sliding to good old "shot the strikers" days of capitalism. Yhea, when the wall collapsed. NO need to pretend anymore that the little person matters. No fear from workers revolution - this is "red" and it failed , right? The last straw - the feudal masters managed to convince the people that it is again those former red countries that are guilty for it all (took our jobs, fucking immigrants). Whereas the workers in the west instead of believing this shit should thank us for living in hell so that their fathers and grandfathers could have decent life......
What do you call it then? Ahh yes, even shallow, commercial entertainment gets it right - "you are not mammals, you are a virus" - as opposed to free market gurus.
To me it is highly symptomatic and very worrying that even such pop-culture items as the Matrix or Star Wars (the bad guy plays “both sides” against each other – that was a stab on GWB/Taliban if I ever saw one). That means that it is common in our culture to expect such behavior from humans. Art, even such commercial art is a reflection of society. Meditate on this you should!
And those who do not want to volunteer are the most stable and responsible citizens - clearly ideal candidates for such an important mission.
captcha: Catch 22
Well, the question you gotta ask is the opposite. What if the physics of a distant galaxy is different from the one around here?
Well then I guess that its spectral lines might be different. And its movement in space might be different.
We can now see more or less to the edge of the observable Universe which happens to be also a picture form the very distant past. Yes, the Universe looked different back then, of course it does, but the light we see is still the same. The nature of light includes in itself quite a lot of fundamental physics (e.g. electro-magnetism, quantum physics) it also carries information about the objects it came in contact with or originated from (atomic physics, chemistry). We can also see how things move around and judge if gravity behaves in the same way there as here.
Oh yhea, and if you assume that the physics is different you got to explain a hell of a lot more and predict an observable effect. Like what happens at the borders between worlds with different physics? Are there borders at all? How does it work? Can you make a model? Does the model predicts effects that can be observed? If yes, why are we not seeing them? And so on and so forth...
Compare to the Universe we are and always will be infinitely small. Unless we discover infinite speeds and infinitely fast terraforming capabilities - then we would fill it in a few millennia - but if that was possible odds are someone else would have done it already. So we will forever know (through observation and direct contact) only very, very small part of the Universe. But it does not mean we are absolutely powerless to comprehend it. You underestimate the amount of thought that was,is and will be spent on the assumption in question. So far the answer is indeed "Probably the physics as we know it is the same throughout the Universe"
"Things tend to become balls and balls tend to move in ellipses. Once you figured that out everything else falls into place. In curved motion of course!"
Ponder Stibbons thought process while observing our universe (see Science of Discworld part I)
What you describe seems to fit the description of the Ankh-Morpork city watch by the times of young Sam Vimes (see "Night Watch"). Bullies for hire...with some outsourcing (the Unmentionables) going on and privileges for the wealthy individuals or Guilds (corporations).
I am not so sure about all this. And my uncertainty has nothing to do with political correctness.
First - who guarantees that the least intelligent people on this planet do not carry by accident the most important genes? What if a super-killer disease sweeps above us and a random beggar on the streets of Bangladesh has the genes to fight it? Who says intelligence is the most important quality ? Sure, from where I am standing it seems that it is, but the conditions may change...
Second - why mistake collective intelligence for individual one. Our technological/scientific success (notice that I do no claim success on any other level, like making stable society , improving happiness and human dignity) is a result of the system we build for sharing, accumulating and storage of knowledge. It is not surprising then that the individual scientist , say , is on average less intelligent than Greek philosopher but now we have millions of scientist sharing and checking their findings via the established mechanisms.
Third - this is not news as such. One of the more famous books on the subject by Jared Diamond already claimed that smaller "primitive" societies had to fight different set of challenges which likely make then more intelligent, whereas the civilized folks had to mostly fight with illnesses spreading quickly because we live(d) so cramped together.That is why our diseases were so devastating for them...
Fourth - just an example I stumbled upon last week. A documentary on the BBC showed that what the might of the civilization could not achieve in the 1970 ies indigenous people achieved millennia ago - namely to successfully develop agriculture on one of the most infertile soils on the planet turning it into one of the most fertile and stable soils. You will never guess for which region I am talking about. The Amazonian rainforest. It was amazing revelation - check it out - it's called "Unnatural history - the Amazon". Estimated 5.5 million people living along the river by the time the first Europeans arrived! With cities, roads, education, craftsmanship that rivaled European quality and organized religion. Simple people they were not!
And the most hilarious thing is that every white supremacist I have talked with claims that WE had the more difficult challenges than the "darkies" who just had to sit beneath a tree waiting for the banana to fall, therefore we are genetically more intelligent! I tend to become a tad uncivilized (pun intended) in such discussions.
Listen, I am also tired of all this. Anecdotal evidence bla, bla, bla....
OK, so I just read a political news where a survey was performed in a certain country and the results are making quite a noise in the media and political circles. What was the number of people surveyed? 570.
Now then, my "anecdotal evidence" about the statement of Waltrek that you object of is based on approx. 300-350 people I have personally investigated (colleges, friends, relatives and acquaintances). YES, the biggest pirates are the biggest purchasers (myself included).
I suspect that the people at /. who make those statements also have some "anecdotal" evidence. It might turn out at the end that the sum of such evidence might amass thousands upon thousands of people - much better than the political survey I mentioned above.
So, yes, you should be convinced...
BTW, the other correlation I noticed is that the higher the salary of a person the LESS legitimate content they download. The former CEO of my company was a bigger pirate than me and had 20 legal DVD's in comparison of my 500 (and counting). Something about psychopaths in positions of power in our economic paradigm comes to mind....
If we talk about books that really changed my life, many of those were not fiction:
"Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn and "Guns, germs and steel" by Jared Diamond - anthropology is an eye opener!
"Cosmos" and "Contact" by Carl Sagan - Cosmos made me a scientist and Contact is one of the best reads on the subject "Science and Religion" (this one is fiction, I know)
All the books of Oliver Sacks - wow, just wow!
Hofstadter - "The mind's I" and "GEB"
"48 laws of power" and "33 laws of war" - the real-life examples in those books are amazing, instructive and fascinating.
"Bulgarian Chronicles" - this one is very specific - for Bulgarians only (not translated) - it is the first sincere attempt to give my countrymen their real history, as unbiased as possible. Absolutely ground shaking! I hear that Oliver Stone is trying to do this as a series of documentary movies about USA's modern history (last 100 years). I bet massive controversy will ensue...
And fiction:
Sci-fi/fantasy - the absolutely stellar D.Adams and T.Pratchett, The Dune saga, (most of) Asimov, the Strugatski brothers and the godlike Stanislaw Lem (a philosopher who writes sci-fi - unbeatable combo. Hofstadter uses his writings to illustrate many of his scientific concepts about consciousness)
Victor Pelevin (available in English), check this two out - Buddha's Little Finger (aka Clay Machine-Gun) / (Chapayev and Void) (1996) and
Babylon (aka Generation , Homo Zapiens) / Generation "" (1999)
"Master and Margarita" by Bulgakov - the best gospel there is. One of the story lines in the book is the trial and crucifixion of Jesus; people like it so much that they call it the gospel of Bulgakov (I heartily agree)
"The gospel of Jesus Christ" by J. Saramago
My first and so far last smartphone is HTC Desire. What a piece of @#$%#!
First, the menu buttons on the bottom stop working after 1 year regular use (3 out of 3 - the phones of myself, my wife and a friend)
Second, and much more frustrating - no system updates. Zero, nada,zip! I am still running Android 2.2 ?!? Their proprietary overlay of Android is utter crap, I have no control over the device (unless I root, but damn it why bother - I should get unlocked phone from the start), I cannot remove shit like Facebook applications, stock market update (WTF?!?) and so on....sometimes the phone just stops responding because it is busy running....itself
Now, I'll admit the above is not necessarily a flaw of HTC only, but come on...Overall I am utterly disappointed by the whole smartphone thingy. I expected a small PC in my pocket and all I got is locked, slow, power hungry piece of shit, that spends 80% of its power running itself... and no, I am not going Apple because of this (different set of crap IMO) but I just might "devolve" to dumb phone again.
New slogan - "dumb phones are for smart people, smart phones are for dummies". Please, spread it around - we just might convince enough people to stop falling for the hype and get those companies in line...oh, forgot boycott does not work in our economic paradigm. Well, forget it...
"No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up."
Lily Tomlin
I believe life, particularly intelligent life, gives the universe meaning.
Whoaaa, arrogant much?!? This sentiment, my friend, is what a number of anthropologist have called "The most dangerous idea". Because naturally, you don't really mean "intelligent life" - you mean humans in general and you in particular. Yhea, the whole universe would be nothing , nothing I tell you, without some self-righteous intelligent life to give it a "meaning". From that sentiment follows the other one - that we, in fact OWN the Universe (Earth in particular); it is OURS and we can do with it whatever we damn well please...it is just a decor, a theater set for us, the pinnacles of creation!
I think someone needs a peep in the Total Perspective Vortex :)
The unrealistic assumption in the book is that you can stay anonymous on the NET once your voice starts to matter. That would never happen in reality - the moment you gain enough influence to show on the radar you are toast (metaphorically or even literally).
Damn right!
The bicycle culture in the Netherlands would die miserable death the moment they make the helmets obligatory...for kids, I agree and moreover it is the responsibility of the parents but for adults...Just as example - in a humid climate like the Dutch do you know what will happen to your scalp if you wear a helmet...I am having already a hell of lot skin issues due to the humidity; I will never, ever wear a helmet. I have no car, so I am spending lots of time on a bike - 10 years now and not a single accident let alone something where a helmet would help me. Count 5km per day, every day and see the mileage I did without any safety issues...
Much more important than helmets is INFRASTRUCTURE!!!
Do you guys remember the Top Gear episode where the guys raced from one end of London to the other? Richard went on a bike. Full professional gear with helmet, all kinds of warning lights and reflecting surfaces, the bike was super doper carbon whatever stuff for thousands of pounds. All in vain, utterly in vain...I was horrified by the lack of infrastructure...when he went on the streets I was genuinely worried about his life and health. Skimming around buses by few millimeters, barely avoiding cars and pedestrians....What would a helmet do if you get hit by a bus because there are no proper bicycle lanes?
The whole helmet thing is absurd, frankly. Build lanes, put traffic lights and generally SEPARATE the car stream from the bicycle stream whenever possible - that is the way to do it. Not to mention that all this "safety gear" is expensive and can have detrimental effects on your health (see above).
Are we seeing again the good old strategy - "Pass a law, make a business"? Colour me cynic but most of the time that is what it is all about in the business of "safety"...
"What's "sad" about that?"
The Joker also laughs a lot, doesn't he?
When are we going to grow up and actually concentrate on the message instead of the manner of delivery? Gosh, sorry to say it, but seeing how people react on politics and politicians I cannot restrain myself from stating that 90% of the population is composed of morons. Not necessarily stupid in other walks of life, but stupid as hell when it comes to politics...must be all those cognitive biases to which we are all susceptible. Why are we so fucked by our evolutionary path; what a bad luck!
This is no cynicism. There are two types of people in the world - realists and deluded. The deluded are the happy ones. Because they really hate the other type's attitude as they don't want to see their delusions gone, the have invented many terms to substitute "realism" and smear the issue. Some of those terms are "pessimist" and "cynic". There you go....
Don't believe me? There was a /. discussion over scientific investigation showing that "depressed" people have more accurate perception of reality. Moral: of you want to be happy, hold delusions.... that explains a lot about the human condition don't you think?