Yeah, I've never understood the libertarian delusion about free markets and small government. If you want to know what a free market actually looks like, look at the drug trade on the Mexican-US border. This is what lucrative, completely unregulated markets look like. Sane people don't want to participate in that shit.
Libertarians are not anarchists. They do believe government has some specific, focused roles. One of those is peacekeeping (criminal law) and contract enforcement (civil law).
You do believe in competition as a market force, don't you?
I certainly do believe that.... The proposed reclassification of Internet-service as "public utility
I do not think Internet ISP per se should be a public utility. However, the lines those Internet service providers require to get the information to the end point absolutely must be a public utility. ISPs should not own the lines, as all we get at that point are government granted/allowed monopolies, like olde Bell, and whatever DSL/Cable provider the town decides to contract with. Your upstart ISP cannot tear up the roads to lay more cables, or tear up peoples' backyards for that matter, and why should they have to? Have high-speed connections to the houses and let the homeowner choose from an array of competing options.
Are you talking about... the President? Congressmen? Or every single person who is a member of the Democratic Party? I'd think there'd be a number of socialists in the party who are in it pragmatically.
I lived during the Vietnam war, I opposed the war, I had friends who were in the armed forces, and I didn't hate them.
Maybe not, but the notion of Vietnam veterans being spit on, harassed, etc when they came home was certainly a popular tale when I was growing up, enough that people were very vocal during the early 90s Gulf War that, even if they opposed the war itself, that they still supported the troops and wanted to note that the anti-war crowd wouldn't make the mistakes of the Vietnam era. Many a news station ran reports that soldiers from engagements in the 90s and 00s were better treated than those from the 70s, enough that "support our troops" has become a very popular battlecry on both sides of the aisle.
The idea of 'jurisdictions' and geographical nexus requirements for digital data is stupid, but blame the 12th-century concept of laws still being applied to the Internet if you want a root cause.
It doesn't really have much to do with the Internet, other than the Internet is the easiest way for anyone to show content to a global audience. The two biggest reasons (there are others) for geographical restrictions:
1) Different purchasing powers in different countries and different currency exchange rates. Folks in especially poor countries can't afford US$15 for a DVD, and since the reproduction costs are so low, a media company can set what they'd consider a "fair price" related to wealth of the area. Of course, because of that, they can't have US folks buying the "cheap" versions in other countries, otherwise the whole concept of offering lower prices to different zones falls apart.
2) Control. Some people are just... control freaks and have to control exactly how their content is presented. That leads to foreign releases where a movie is edited for content or regional bias, given localized dubs, etc. It used to be more common on American TV as you couldn't POSSIBLY air a cartoon that had any Japanese influence, the local dub would Americanize all the names and cut out anything controversial. Part of the fault is the content company, part is the fault of the viewers who can't stand subtitles and hearing a foreign language.
Um, they just want to use Netflix. It adds value to the media by making it easy to browse through, search, access, and stream.
I'd counter that you're not getting what you paid for when it comes to Netflix streaming, as Netflix's streaming selection is absolutely horrible and gets smaller thanks to media company shenanigans.
The one exception being Netflix's original content available only through Netflix streaming. Supposedly they're high-quality, and available only through Netflix, so I could see a number of people trying to access it through VPNs for that reason. Do House of Cards or Orange is the New Black have any region restrictions? I would guess no, it would be dumb for Netflix to do it, but nothing surprises me anymore.
Pirating implies that a person "use[s] or reproduce[s] (another's work) for profit without permission, usually in contravention of patent or copyright."
That is... not the definition of piracy that almost anyone uses. No profit needs be involved with content piracy/unauthorized sharing/copyright infringement/whathaveyou.
Unless you're counting "not giving money to the owners of the media you use" as personal profit, a definition that most content sharers would not want to embrace.
Rejecting ideas from personal incredulity is far less scientific than pursuing a plausible hypothesis.
Certainly has a historical basis, though. Descartes is one of Christianity's better philosophers (and mathematicians), but he did one incredibly flawed philosophical experiment, which was to try to logically prove the existence of God. It's been a few decades, but I remember being a bit shocked when it mostly boiled down to: "By definition, God is the only thing that is perfect. Existence is a requirement of perfection, and therefore, God must exist." There were all sorts of supporting axioms, and it couched it up in more flowery language, but that's sort of the jist of it. It was not one of Descartes's better days.
Btw, The Hobbit's Gandalf didn't know of any upcoming War of The Ring,
He didn't know whether the One Ring would be found again, but he certainly knew of an upcoming war. He discovered that it was Sauron who was the dark force behind those changes of the world, and he found that out at least a hundred years before the events of the Hobbit. He aided the dwarves because he feared that with Smaug active, Sauron would be able to regain the northern passes, re-establish Angmar, and then have the kingdoms of men encircled.
Ok, granted. But how did Gandalf think unassuming Bilbo, a rather hapless Hobbit who had never been far from home, would make an excellent burglar?
Because he'd been fascinated with Hobbits before, and the disaster of the Long Winter (pre-Hobbit) and the orc attacks made it clear to Gandalf that hobbits had an inner strength to them. He befriended the Bagginses at that point.
Tauriel being a good little damsel straight from Peter Jackson's imagination?
While Tauriel doesn't seem to have a point besides speaking the most banal of lines... most people who read the Hobbit later in life and aren't used to its eccentricities will reach a moment when they realize "wait a minute. I've read a few hundred pages and I don't think I've even heard a mention of a female, even in passing. Hey, all these characters are single dudes, do woman even exist in Middle Earth?"
Thus very gifted directors should only work with very gifted editors. Look what George Lucas did when he didn't have enough editing.
That was my assumption for awhile, though I surprised to see that Jamie Selkirk, editor on Return of the King and supervising editor on the other two films, was also the editor on Jackson's way-too-long, needed-far-bigger-edits King Kong remake.
The editor of all three Hobbit films was Jabez Olssen, who really hadn't done any editing outside of Cleopatra 2525 and the Lovely Bones.
Where? I am hard pressed to think of something for the 1st movie
I think the last 45 minutes were extremely good. Riddles in the dark, Thorin's stand against the orcs, and the rescue of the eagles (The Flight to the Carrock in particular fits in well with the majestic portions of LoTR). Unfortunately I had to sit through 100 minutes of pretty bad movie to get there, so maybe it doesn't make as good an impression as it should.
and I haven't seen a single good scene anywhere in the 2nd Hobbit movie
I think you're right, there. The second movie didn't actually anger me like the first did, but it didn't impress.
How about not inventing an entire 45 minute scenario with the Dwarves in the mountain running from Smaug?
I thought it was ok.. but Jackson, who has always been a bit over-the-top, seems to have absolutely no restraint anymore. A scene that should have been short ended up dragging on and on...
Slashdot Mirror
and admonished fellow politicians to 'never let a crisis go to waste'?
Do you really think there is a single politician on Capital Hill who does not fervently believe in the doctrine "never let a crisis go to waste?"
It's damned good advice for one thing.
Yeah, I've never understood the libertarian delusion about free markets and small government. If you want to know what a free market actually looks like, look at the drug trade on the Mexican-US border. This is what lucrative, completely unregulated markets look like. Sane people don't want to participate in that shit.
Libertarians are not anarchists. They do believe government has some specific, focused roles. One of those is peacekeeping (criminal law) and contract enforcement (civil law).
I certainly do believe that. ...
The proposed reclassification of Internet-service as "public utility
I do not think Internet ISP per se should be a public utility. However, the lines those Internet service providers require to get the information to the end point absolutely must be a public utility. ISPs should not own the lines, as all we get at that point are government granted/allowed monopolies, like olde Bell, and whatever DSL/Cable provider the town decides to contract with. Your upstart ISP cannot tear up the roads to lay more cables, or tear up peoples' backyards for that matter, and why should they have to? Have high-speed connections to the houses and let the homeowner choose from an array of competing options.
No current US Democrat supports such a notion.
Are you talking about... the President? Congressmen? Or every single person who is a member of the Democratic Party? I'd think there'd be a number of socialists in the party who are in it pragmatically.
The AC deniers are out in force tonight. Or is this all the work of one very active idiot?
I lived during the Vietnam war, I opposed the war, I had friends who were in the armed forces, and I didn't hate them.
Maybe not, but the notion of Vietnam veterans being spit on, harassed, etc when they came home was certainly a popular tale when I was growing up, enough that people were very vocal during the early 90s Gulf War that, even if they opposed the war itself, that they still supported the troops and wanted to note that the anti-war crowd wouldn't make the mistakes of the Vietnam era. Many a news station ran reports that soldiers from engagements in the 90s and 00s were better treated than those from the 70s, enough that "support our troops" has become a very popular battlecry on both sides of the aisle.
What are you trollboating?
You know trolling is already something you do with a boat right?
I thought trolls were more associated with travelling over a bridge, something you rarely do with a boat unless it's being towed by your pickup truck.
The idea of 'jurisdictions' and geographical nexus requirements for digital data is stupid, but blame the 12th-century concept of laws still being applied to the Internet if you want a root cause.
It doesn't really have much to do with the Internet, other than the Internet is the easiest way for anyone to show content to a global audience. The two biggest reasons (there are others) for geographical restrictions:
1) Different purchasing powers in different countries and different currency exchange rates. Folks in especially poor countries can't afford US$15 for a DVD, and since the reproduction costs are so low, a media company can set what they'd consider a "fair price" related to wealth of the area. Of course, because of that, they can't have US folks buying the "cheap" versions in other countries, otherwise the whole concept of offering lower prices to different zones falls apart.
2) Control. Some people are just... control freaks and have to control exactly how their content is presented. That leads to foreign releases where a movie is edited for content or regional bias, given localized dubs, etc. It used to be more common on American TV as you couldn't POSSIBLY air a cartoon that had any Japanese influence, the local dub would Americanize all the names and cut out anything controversial. Part of the fault is the content company, part is the fault of the viewers who can't stand subtitles and hearing a foreign language.
Um, they just want to use Netflix. It adds value to the media by making it easy to browse through, search, access, and stream.
I'd counter that you're not getting what you paid for when it comes to Netflix streaming, as Netflix's streaming selection is absolutely horrible and gets smaller thanks to media company shenanigans.
The one exception being Netflix's original content available only through Netflix streaming. Supposedly they're high-quality, and available only through Netflix, so I could see a number of people trying to access it through VPNs for that reason. Do House of Cards or Orange is the New Black have any region restrictions? I would guess no, it would be dumb for Netflix to do it, but nothing surprises me anymore.
Pirating implies that a person "use[s] or reproduce[s] (another's work) for profit without permission, usually in contravention of patent or copyright."
That is... not the definition of piracy that almost anyone uses. No profit needs be involved with content piracy/unauthorized sharing/copyright infringement/whathaveyou.
Unless you're counting "not giving money to the owners of the media you use" as personal profit, a definition that most content sharers would not want to embrace.
That just means you've never heard of Lourdes.
Of course I have. She's a 45-year old male geologist.
It is unlikely that a journalist would be around to witness the miracle, much less record it for posterity
That seems especially convenient. Rather odd for a god who wants his presence known to hide in the shadows so much.
Rejecting ideas from personal incredulity is far less scientific than pursuing a plausible hypothesis.
Certainly has a historical basis, though. Descartes is one of Christianity's better philosophers (and mathematicians), but he did one incredibly flawed philosophical experiment, which was to try to logically prove the existence of God. It's been a few decades, but I remember being a bit shocked when it mostly boiled down to: "By definition, God is the only thing that is perfect. Existence is a requirement of perfection, and therefore, God must exist." There were all sorts of supporting axioms, and it couched it up in more flowery language, but that's sort of the jist of it. It was not one of Descartes's better days.
You are saying Jobs = Apple, which is not true.
Perhaps, but Apple without Jobs in the 80s and 90s was not a pretty sight. Apple right now is stagnating, riding upon past accomplishments.
There's not much nerdier than fantasy movies.
Btw, The Hobbit's Gandalf didn't know of any upcoming War of The Ring,
He didn't know whether the One Ring would be found again, but he certainly knew of an upcoming war. He discovered that it was Sauron who was the dark force behind those changes of the world, and he found that out at least a hundred years before the events of the Hobbit. He aided the dwarves because he feared that with Smaug active, Sauron would be able to regain the northern passes, re-establish Angmar, and then have the kingdoms of men encircled.
Ok, granted. But how did Gandalf think unassuming Bilbo, a rather hapless Hobbit who had never been far from home, would make an excellent burglar?
Because he'd been fascinated with Hobbits before, and the disaster of the Long Winter (pre-Hobbit) and the orc attacks made it clear to Gandalf that hobbits had an inner strength to them. He befriended the Bagginses at that point.
Starship Troopers was great satire.
+1 to that.
Dude, you've been listening to Christopher Tolkien too much. He's far more purist and hardcore than his father was.
Tauriel being a good little damsel straight from Peter Jackson's imagination?
While Tauriel doesn't seem to have a point besides speaking the most banal of lines... most people who read the Hobbit later in life and aren't used to its eccentricities will reach a moment when they realize "wait a minute. I've read a few hundred pages and I don't think I've even heard a mention of a female, even in passing. Hey, all these characters are single dudes, do woman even exist in Middle Earth?"
Over Christopher Tolkien's dead body
Might be sooner than you think, he's over 90 years old.
Silmarillion covers fascinating material, but it's an encyclopedia.
The better the visual, the more time on screen.
Thus very gifted directors should only work with very gifted editors. Look what George Lucas did when he didn't have enough editing.
That was my assumption for awhile, though I surprised to see that Jamie Selkirk, editor on Return of the King and supervising editor on the other two films, was also the editor on Jackson's way-too-long, needed-far-bigger-edits King Kong remake.
The editor of all three Hobbit films was Jabez Olssen, who really hadn't done any editing outside of Cleopatra 2525 and the Lovely Bones.
Where? I am hard pressed to think of something for the 1st movie
I think the last 45 minutes were extremely good. Riddles in the dark, Thorin's stand against the orcs, and the rescue of the eagles (The Flight to the Carrock in particular fits in well with the majestic portions of LoTR). Unfortunately I had to sit through 100 minutes of pretty bad movie to get there, so maybe it doesn't make as good an impression as it should.
and I haven't seen a single good scene anywhere in the 2nd Hobbit movie
I think you're right, there. The second movie didn't actually anger me like the first did, but it didn't impress.
How about not inventing an entire 45 minute scenario with the Dwarves in the mountain running from Smaug?
I thought it was ok.. but Jackson, who has always been a bit over-the-top, seems to have absolutely no restraint anymore. A scene that should have been short ended up dragging on and on...
It's like someone in a film about King Arthur's knights turning out to be a cyborg,
Alas there is such a film
Based on a Mark Twain novel, no less.