I can understand why you don't want to burn 1 terabyte worth of DVDs. But why can't you buy DVDs that have the films already on them? I know, they aren't as useful as large HDs of films, what with all the FBI/Interpol warnings. But if you live anywhere near a store that sells DVDs, they should be cheaper and faster to get than downloading through bandwidth.
Or are you using "mpaaradar"?
Amendments 1, 9, and 10?
(I recommend that, if you must copy DVDs, you save the secret css-smasher for movies over 28 years old. Pretend you're working under a semi-reasonable copyright law--14+14 or 28+28. There aren't as many originals of the 28-year-old films, and the MPAA gets angriest at people copying hot hits.)
"...will $20 external EVD players be cheap enough that anybody who wants to play EVDs will buy a player along with their first EVD discs?" (emphasis mine)
If not, I'm sure those people can still get an EVD player at Rent-A-Center for $1 a month. Or they'll wait for the clearance sale--"75% off!"
Let me get this straight: Weapons fallout is a minor source of radiation in Albequerque?
Oh, dear...
I hope that's an old article. Surely they aren't still testing nukes in Nevada? Or does Los Alamos have a private, classified nuclear weapon test site?
Yep. I, for one, decorate the walls with posters of Paul McCartney from when he was young and beautiful. Or for that matter, from when he was middle-aged and beautiful.;)
If I'm really feeling daring, I buy his albums: darn the recording industry, full speed ahead! Trust me, there are a lot of McCartney albums even if you don't count Beatles releases. Some of them are hard to find now, I warn you...
DC rebooted its universe again last February or thereabouts. It was the 20th anniv. of their Crisis of Infinite Worlds, and somehow they found some loose ends. Thus, "poof." (Glad to hear Kyle Raner wasn't simply killed...)
Disclaimer: I am not a true fanboy of DC. But I followed the DC universe for several months, maybe a year, until right before the reboot. This included reading the DC website.
Have you heard of Marie Curie?
Grandma Moses? Georgia O'Keefe? Frida Kahle?
Jane Austen? Emily Dickenson? Maya Angelou? Mary Shelley?
Harriet Tubman? Susan B. Anthony? Sacajawea? Florence Nightingale?
Women have not been repressed, but they have been suppressed at times.
...as far as I know there isnt another word for "unfortunate coincidence that is self-referring/self-generating"
Maybe if we could extend the meaning of "catch-22," that'll help.
(A catch-22 is an unfortunate effect, which may or may not be intended, that is self-referring and self-generating, usually in a paradoxical fashion.)
The DVD format was created and supported by some of America's favorite content providers; they are getting the royalties. The HD-DVD and Blu-ray formats are also supported by content providers. (Blu-ray very much so.) It is already known that the MPAA has more influence over politicians than one might expect. This might be another area for them to influence.
On the bright side, maybe some companies will move manufacturing jobs back into this country to make DVD and hi-def players. Or at least the makers of DVD players might outsource to countries that are known to pay their workers.
Good idea. 8-)
The problem is, Christianity's moral code is possibly the most difficult of all moral codes; Christians believe it's impossible to follow unaided. And Christian salvation doesn't depend solely on keeping the moral code. These partially explain the behavior of the average church-goer.
Actually, some religions have taken hold of the theory of evolution, including modern Catholicism.
Evolution cannot disprove God's existence. God's existence cannot be disproven. Modern scientists only want to work with things that, in theory, can be disproven, and so they have to razor God out of their theories.
I like to think we are created in the image of a Deity. Unfortunately, we're mostly broken images.
Okay. I am not a scientist. I will never be a scientist for reasons that will soon be clear.
I was taught creationism long ago, before Intelligent Design was acceptable to creationists. For this reason, I consider Intelligent Design ridiculous.
But I am fascinated by biology. I am fascinated by the theory of evolution and the world that this theory depicts. I am fascinated by self-building watches. I have accepted that biology as currently practiced and evolution as currently theorized are inextricably entwined.
I now accept that natural selection is mostly proven. It, or something very like it, has been seen to happen.
I now accept that speciation is a reasonable theory. It, or something very like it, has been seen to happen.
I accept that, given one suitable single-celled organism, suitable conditions, and sufficient time, natural selection can lead to any number of plants, invertebrates, fish, amphibians, extinct taxa, and reptiles, right up to snakes, mammal-like reptiles, and early dinosaurs. Unfortunately, I am undecided about the accepted geologic timescale, which is one reason I'll never be a scientist.
I am not certain how speciation could work with any speed, even at accepted geologic time, for species which have fixed sex chromosomes and do not have parthenogenesis. Any mutation that would turn something from an Archaeopteryx to another species of avian dinosaur would have to hit at least two different individuals, one of each sex, at the same time. Same with mammals.
Then again, the lines between species seem to blur among mammals and birds. Bird subspecies A can mate with Bird subspecies B, which can mate with Bird subspecies C, which can mate with Bird subspecies D--which cannot mate with subspecies A. Bison bison bison can mate with Bos primagenituri taurus, which isn't even the same genus, until almost all the American bison in the world are part cow. So clearly, I don't understand that part of biology.
I will admit to being disappointed that Hominidae now contains (other) great apes; I'll also admit to being relieved that zoological nomenclature made sure that the reorganized family was Hominidae and not Pongidae. (Yes, I have read S. J. Gould.) Another reason I cannot be a scientist. After all, who would want to lower a great ape to the average human's level?
Try an Atari 2600 joystick--or paddles, they're multi-player--or one of the NAMCO/Pacman joysticks. Or maybe a plug-in pinball controller. Jaxx/Pacific makes them. You can finish an individual game in less than 15 minutes until you actually get good at it.
It's possible to pause those games, too--at the least for NAMCO and pinball.
Disclaimer: I do not work for Jaxx/Pacific, but I've had fun with the games.
Funny you should ask. The same "law" that bans melting pennies bans exporting pennies for any use but currency. In other words, no shipping pennies for more than one cent a US penny.
The Mint has ruled that idea out. The Mint claims that they've banned melting pennies because all the pennies are needed for currency. (Same with nickels.)
The Mint has also banned exporting pennies and nickels for any reasons not related to spending pennies and nickels.
I wouldn't be surprised if all the penny-sculpting machines suddenly disappear. Those machines seem to melt pennies, if only a little.
I recommend that anyone hoarding zinc pennies in jars reconsider his position soon...
The things humans have learned over centuries include the scientific method. Science can be part of received wisdom. Forcibly preventing new and valid science from being received by ensuring no one ever hears of it is wrong.
I'm afraid I didn't see that broadcast. Reid's doom-laden speech has been recorded for posterity in various places on the 'Net, though. Man, was it doom-laden; I got chills just reading it.
No, none of the British mainstream media questioned the "liquid bomb" idea. But they could not print the idea unless the government made it explicitly clear that it was okay, since it's illegal for British papers to leak national secrets. After all, it would've been easier for the British government to collect the bombers, if there were any, if/when they were actually trying to carry "bombs"; and it would've been easier to collect them if they didn't let the terrorists, if any, know there had been a sting going on.
I'll admit that it would be hard to get more explicit about that particular "terror threat" than Reid's doom-laden speech got. But the impact would have been almost as great, and the papering over of ID cards and immigrants running loose for four months almost as good, if the Brits had actually arrested someone before Reid spoke.
Let's just say that, left to themselves without pressure from America, the British government might've waited until Tony Blair was back in England before issuing the doom-laden speech and locking down the airports. Then Blair himself could have made that speech, and he wouldn't have risked being locked out when Heathrow was all but shut down.
Okay. Yes, McCartney does realize that he doesn't have the technical ability to write classical music unaided. Yes, he made some boners trying to write Ecce Cor Meum. But that wasn't because he was missing the skills you listed, per se. I know that he was taught the theory of harmony as a kid--we have his testimony. I know that by the time he was thirty he did have a good, if informal, background in musical culture. He dictated this work to a music-transcription program, so I'd like to think that the flaws in it aren't from his inability to read music; besides, after four attempts to learn to read music, I'd like to think he was at least musically semi-literate by now. The biggest snafu when he wrote this (aside from deliberate "errors") was that he didn't originally know the musical limits of a children's choir. Do they teach that in musical culture? (Seriously. I don't know if they do.)
"Skilled" and "unskilled" do have connotations of value. If you are told that someone is unskilled as an auto mechanic, you don't let him fix your car.
The skill of a musician is not directly related to the artistic value of what he produces, no. But the skills of a musician do set technical limits. If I am told that someone is unskilled at playing guitar, I don't expect him to play like Eric Clapton or Jimi Hendrix, and I would likely cover my ears if he tried. If I am told that someone is unskilled at drums, I would not expect a five-minute drum solo from him even if he is talented enough to drum decently without skill. Similarly, many readers, on reading that the piece in the story was by an unskilled musician, were surprised when they listened and found that the piece sounded musical.
The skills you listed in your original post are the skills of a music theorist. They are helpful skills for all musicians, yes, and most musicians would be better if they knew them. They might even be essential for classical composers. They are not essential for popular composers or for people who actually sing or play music. Music and musicians predate musical notation by millenia. Music and musicians even predate Pythagorus.
And being skilled at music theory is not sufficient to make you skilled as a musician by itself. Being able to read music and knowing the theory of harmony is cold comfort if you are tone-deaf and trying to sing with precision to an audience that cares about such things.
I hope that my position is clearer now. I will try to think my positions through more carefully in the future.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14278216/ "...British authorities had asked that no information be released."--from NBC http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14320452/Disagreement over timing of arrests also from NBC
If you want more sources, I'll try to hunt them down. There was a Guardian article about Tony Blair notifying GW Bush that began, "Downing Street admitted Tony Blair would not have left the country on Monday for his Caribbean holiday if he had known the police would need to swoop so quickly to disrupt a terrorist plot."
Slashdot Mirror
I can understand why you don't want to burn 1 terabyte worth of DVDs. But why can't you buy DVDs that have the films already on them? I know, they aren't as useful as large HDs of films, what with all the FBI/Interpol warnings. But if you live anywhere near a store that sells DVDs, they should be cheaper and faster to get than downloading through bandwidth.
Or are you using "mpaaradar"?
And no, I do not possess a secret css-smasher!
Amendments 1, 9, and 10?
(I recommend that, if you must copy DVDs, you save the secret css-smasher for movies over 28 years old. Pretend you're working under a semi-reasonable copyright law--14+14 or 28+28. There aren't as many originals of the 28-year-old films, and the MPAA gets angriest at people copying hot hits.)
"...will $20 external EVD players be cheap enough that anybody who wants to play EVDs will buy a player along with their first EVD discs?" (emphasis mine)
If not, I'm sure those people can still get an EVD player at Rent-A-Center for $1 a month. Or they'll wait for the clearance sale--"75% off!"
Let me get this straight:
Weapons fallout is a minor source of radiation in Albequerque?
Oh, dear...
I hope that's an old article. Surely they aren't still testing nukes in Nevada? Or does Los Alamos have a private, classified nuclear weapon test site?
Yep. I, for one, decorate the walls with posters of Paul McCartney from when he was young and beautiful. Or for that matter, from when he was middle-aged and beautiful.;)
If I'm really feeling daring, I buy his albums: darn the recording industry, full speed ahead! Trust me, there are a lot of McCartney albums even if you don't count Beatles releases. Some of them are hard to find now, I warn you...
DC rebooted its universe again last February or thereabouts. It was the 20th anniv. of their Crisis of Infinite Worlds, and somehow they found some loose ends. Thus, "poof." (Glad to hear Kyle Raner wasn't simply killed...)
Disclaimer: I am not a true fanboy of DC. But I followed the DC universe for several months, maybe a year, until right before the reboot. This included reading the DC website.
Have you heard of Marie Curie?
Grandma Moses? Georgia O'Keefe? Frida Kahle?
Jane Austen? Emily Dickenson? Maya Angelou? Mary Shelley?
Harriet Tubman? Susan B. Anthony? Sacajawea? Florence Nightingale?
Women have not been repressed, but they have been suppressed at times.
...as far as I know there isnt another word for "unfortunate coincidence that is self-referring/self-generating"
Maybe if we could extend the meaning of "catch-22," that'll help.
(A catch-22 is an unfortunate effect, which may or may not be intended, that is self-referring and self-generating, usually in a paradoxical fashion.)
The DVD format was created and supported by some of America's favorite content providers; they are getting the royalties. The HD-DVD and Blu-ray formats are also supported by content providers. (Blu-ray very much so.) It is already known that the MPAA has more influence over politicians than one might expect. This might be another area for them to influence.
On the bright side, maybe some companies will move manufacturing jobs back into this country to make DVD and hi-def players. Or at least the makers of DVD players might outsource to countries that are known to pay their workers.
Good idea. 8-)
The problem is, Christianity's moral code is possibly the most difficult of all moral codes; Christians believe it's impossible to follow unaided. And Christian salvation doesn't depend solely on keeping the moral code. These partially explain the behavior of the average church-goer.
Actually, some religions have taken hold of the theory of evolution, including modern Catholicism.
Evolution cannot disprove God's existence. God's existence cannot be disproven. Modern scientists only want to work with things that, in theory, can be disproven, and so they have to razor God out of their theories.
I like to think we are created in the image of a Deity. Unfortunately, we're mostly broken images.
Okay. I am not a scientist. I will never be a scientist for reasons that will soon be clear.
I was taught creationism long ago, before Intelligent Design was acceptable to creationists. For this reason, I consider Intelligent Design ridiculous.
But I am fascinated by biology. I am fascinated by the theory of evolution and the world that this theory depicts. I am fascinated by self-building watches. I have accepted that biology as currently practiced and evolution as currently theorized are inextricably entwined.
I now accept that natural selection is mostly proven. It, or something very like it, has been seen to happen.
I now accept that speciation is a reasonable theory. It, or something very like it, has been seen to happen.
I accept that, given one suitable single-celled organism, suitable conditions, and sufficient time, natural selection can lead to any number of plants, invertebrates, fish, amphibians, extinct taxa, and reptiles, right up to snakes, mammal-like reptiles, and early dinosaurs. Unfortunately, I am undecided about the accepted geologic timescale, which is one reason I'll never be a scientist.
I am not certain how speciation could work with any speed, even at accepted geologic time, for species which have fixed sex chromosomes and do not have parthenogenesis. Any mutation that would turn something from an Archaeopteryx to another species of avian dinosaur would have to hit at least two different individuals, one of each sex, at the same time. Same with mammals.
Then again, the lines between species seem to blur among mammals and birds. Bird subspecies A can mate with Bird subspecies B, which can mate with Bird subspecies C, which can mate with Bird subspecies D--which cannot mate with subspecies A. Bison bison bison can mate with Bos primagenituri taurus, which isn't even the same genus, until almost all the American bison in the world are part cow. So clearly, I don't understand that part of biology.
I will admit to being disappointed that Hominidae now contains (other) great apes; I'll also admit to being relieved that zoological nomenclature made sure that the reorganized family was Hominidae and not Pongidae. (Yes, I have read S. J. Gould.) Another reason I cannot be a scientist. After all, who would want to lower a great ape to the average human's level?
Funny, I thought that the core of Christ-oriented Christianity was Christ...
You mean metallic ores can't evolve into gears, springs, struts, or rivets? Or sand into watch crystals?
Awww...
Try an Atari 2600 joystick--or paddles, they're multi-player--or one of the NAMCO/Pacman joysticks. Or maybe a plug-in pinball controller. Jaxx/Pacific makes them. You can finish an individual game in less than 15 minutes until you actually get good at it.
It's possible to pause those games, too--at the least for NAMCO and pinball.
Disclaimer: I do not work for Jaxx/Pacific, but I've had fun with the games.
Funny you should ask. The same "law" that bans melting pennies bans exporting pennies for any use but currency. In other words, no shipping pennies for more than one cent a US penny.
The Mint has ruled that idea out. The Mint claims that they've banned melting pennies because all the pennies are needed for currency. (Same with nickels.)
The Mint has also banned exporting pennies and nickels for any reasons not related to spending pennies and nickels.
I wouldn't be surprised if all the penny-sculpting machines suddenly disappear. Those machines seem to melt pennies, if only a little.
I recommend that anyone hoarding zinc pennies in jars reconsider his position soon...
I propose that America use wood for the new nickels.
Really?
In that case, America will really be in trouble when we regularly see nickels in the penny dishes.
If coins are not legal tender, then why does the US Post Office sell 43 cent stamps?
The things humans have learned over centuries include the scientific method. Science can be part of received wisdom. Forcibly preventing new and valid science from being received by ensuring no one ever hears of it is wrong.
I'm afraid I didn't see that broadcast. Reid's doom-laden speech has been recorded for posterity in various places on the 'Net, though. Man, was it doom-laden; I got chills just reading it.
No, none of the British mainstream media questioned the "liquid bomb" idea. But they could not print the idea unless the government made it explicitly clear that it was okay, since it's illegal for British papers to leak national secrets. After all, it would've been easier for the British government to collect the bombers, if there were any, if/when they were actually trying to carry "bombs"; and it would've been easier to collect them if they didn't let the terrorists, if any, know there had been a sting going on.
I'll admit that it would be hard to get more explicit about that particular "terror threat" than Reid's doom-laden speech got. But the impact would have been almost as great, and the papering over of ID cards and immigrants running loose for four months almost as good, if the Brits had actually arrested someone before Reid spoke.
Let's just say that, left to themselves without pressure from America, the British government might've waited until Tony Blair was back in England before issuing the doom-laden speech and locking down the airports. Then Blair himself could have made that speech, and he wouldn't have risked being locked out when Heathrow was all but shut down.
Okay. Yes, McCartney does realize that he doesn't have the technical ability to write classical music unaided. Yes, he made some boners trying to write Ecce Cor Meum. But that wasn't because he was missing the skills you listed, per se. I know that he was taught the theory of harmony as a kid--we have his testimony. I know that by the time he was thirty he did have a good, if informal, background in musical culture. He dictated this work to a music-transcription program, so I'd like to think that the flaws in it aren't from his inability to read music; besides, after four attempts to learn to read music, I'd like to think he was at least musically semi-literate by now. The biggest snafu when he wrote this (aside from deliberate "errors") was that he didn't originally know the musical limits of a children's choir. Do they teach that in musical culture? (Seriously. I don't know if they do.)
"Skilled" and "unskilled" do have connotations of value. If you are told that someone is unskilled as an auto mechanic, you don't let him fix your car.
The skill of a musician is not directly related to the artistic value of what he produces, no. But the skills of a musician do set technical limits. If I am told that someone is unskilled at playing guitar, I don't expect him to play like Eric Clapton or Jimi Hendrix, and I would likely cover my ears if he tried. If I am told that someone is unskilled at drums, I would not expect a five-minute drum solo from him even if he is talented enough to drum decently without skill. Similarly, many readers, on reading that the piece in the story was by an unskilled musician, were surprised when they listened and found that the piece sounded musical.
The skills you listed in your original post are the skills of a music theorist. They are helpful skills for all musicians, yes, and most musicians would be better if they knew them. They might even be essential for classical composers. They are not essential for popular composers or for people who actually sing or play music. Music and musicians predate musical notation by millenia. Music and musicians even predate Pythagorus.
And being skilled at music theory is not sufficient to make you skilled as a musician by itself. Being able to read music and knowing the theory of harmony is cold comfort if you are tone-deaf and trying to sing with precision to an audience that cares about such things.
I hope that my position is clearer now. I will try to think my positions through more carefully in the future.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14278216/ "...British authorities had asked that no information be released."--from NBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14320452/ Disagreement over timing of arrests also from NBC
If you want more sources, I'll try to hunt them down. There was a Guardian article about Tony Blair notifying GW Bush that began, "Downing Street admitted Tony Blair would not have left the country on Monday for his Caribbean holiday if he had known the police would need to swoop so quickly to disrupt a terrorist plot."