News for free doesn't work. Reporters and editors don't work for free, and online ads don't generate all that much revenue.
I don't mind paying for what I want, just don't make it hard to pay. Maybe I find some stories worth 0.5 cents, others 1 cent, others 2 cents, some 5, 10 or even 25 cents each. Give me the first paragraph, tell me the price, give me a button to click, and the money can be transferred from my account to the news site. Maybe it means 10 times as many secure websites, but that is possible.
Reuters does not give away news, the AP and Agence France do not give away news. Maybe NPR does, but I do not want public radio as my only source of news.
Murdoch's plan may sound crazy, but it could put him in the driver's seat. If he is the first and only news mogul making megabucks off the Internet, the others will disappear rapidly.
Will this office be staffed only by people who drank the koolaid and can prove it? Can a skeptic work there and not be tagged as an anti-science denier?
I don't know which will kill the most jobs: raising the taxes on American-based multinationals, so they relocate to friendlier nations? or unilaterally changing the bankruptcy laws so that holders of senior debt get ripped off?
There's not a lot of money left in my 401K, but with what is left I'll be cutting the share in US stocks and bonds from 80% to 0%. I never thought it would come to this.
OT I know but, one I would dearly love to see is a movie version of Glen Cook's "Passage At Arms". Sort of U-boat warfare in the North Atlantic, with convoys and everything, set in a deep-space war against a species no one has ever seen. Sort of "Das Boot" set in a "Space: Above and Beyond" universe, There's even drunken rowdiness and sex during shore leave on a planet under constant bombardment.
But if you want "The Forever War", then Peterson could do it better than Ridley Scott.
The original Star Wars, A New Hope, was largely based on Kurosawa's HIdden Fortress (Toshiro Mifune delivers a princess through enemy territory, accompanied by two lovable but trouble-prone droids, er, peasants.)
Kurosawa was hugely influenced by American westerns and American detective stories.
However, just because Star Wars COULD be remade as a Western, does not mean it should be. Ask Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson.
A few facts, first. The entire city was surrounded, then leaflets were dumped on it for several days. Everyone who wanted out had an opportunity to leave, via designated checkpoints. If the insurgents prevented some people from leaving, then the blame falls on them.
Then the Marines went door-to-door through the city, cutting it in half, then in quarters, boxing the insurgents into smaller and smaller blocks of buildings.
It was a classic battle, one that will be studied endlessly because this is the kind of war the US Army and Marines will be fighting in the 21st century. It is the toughest kind of warfare -- block by block, house by block, sometimes room by room. It take a lot of training, it takes tremendous leaders who can recognize traps and keep their squads from getting sucked into traps. Sometimes it just makes sense to call in an air strike, but most of the time that just isn't possible because of too much collateral damage.
I'm sure that some folks will say they don't want to fight this kind of war. Either drop bombs from 30,000 feet or just let the insurgents take over the country.
Some would say that those folks are ignorant or misguided, but I prefer to think that they are idiots.
But Mussolini was a socialist, the son of a socialist, and the editor-in-chief of socialist newspapers. Only after 1918 did he create the fascist movement, thereby earning the enmity of socialists and communists. They have a special hatred for those who have left the movement, or who are not as radical. For a modern example, see how they treat neocons, former leftists who have joined the conservatives.
RE: "If someone has a thousand albums on Vinyl, it's a different story. You think something of him. Maybe good, maybe bad, but you can expect him to rather deeply identify himself by his music. Each record was individually chosen, to the exclusion of others. Time was invested, thought was expressed, identity is reflected."
I am reminded of a friend I had 30+ years ago, who had a wall filled with shelves holding blues albums. Thousands of blues albums, including works from artists dating back to the 1920s and 1930s. It took a lot of time and money to accumulate a collection like that, and I was impressed that a 20-something white boy would appreciate the blues so much that he put that much effort into preserving it.
Also, folks back then owned books, and they kept on shelves as well. So when you visited someone's home, you'd be able to browse through their books and albums and learn more about that person.
Now you'd have to scan their hard drive, and even then you'd find a lot of junk that the person stored, but which really didn't indicate that person's likes and dislikes.
What makes greenhouses hot is a barrier to hold in heat from the sun. What makes greenhouses seem even hotter is humidity, and water vapor is a far more common "greenhouse gas" than carbon dioxide. Or rather, the concentration of H2O in the atmosphere varies much more widely. So assuming that CO2 is the be-all and end-all seems rather narrow-minded.
While it might be a good idea to have a run-off election when no candidate receives a majority of votes, that's not the system we have. Furthermore, our system combines representative democracy with federalism.. it's not "America", it's "the United States of America". The states count. you can't discount them, you can't make them go away, and you can't change the rules of the Electoral College. So from time to time we will elect presidents who win a majority of electoral votes, but less than a majority of individual votes. It does not intrinsically favor either party, but it does give power to voters in smaller states who would otherwise be overwhelmed by the big states.
History is replete with examples of minor parties that disappeared when their ideas were adopted by the major parties. The Whigs became the Republicans by incorporating the ideas of the Free Soil Party. The Peoples Party (the original Populists) were coopted by the Democrats, so lost all their strength between 1892 and 1896.
The present-day Democrats have adopted most of the Green Party platform.
Re:NYC in 100 years will be similar but different
on
The City of the Future
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· Score: 1
Unless the politicians screw it up, NYC will always be a place too expensive for really poor people to live. Yes, for a couple decades various state and municipal governments made it easier for folks to live on the dole in rat-infested tenements, but property is too valuable to allow this in the future.
Federal regulations regarding infant and child carseats have pushed families into much larger vehicles than they would have needed 20 years ago. Now if you have more than two children, with one of them still in an infant seat, you almost need a vehicle with third-row seating. Given the choice between a 20-mpg minivan or a 17-mpg SUV, is it no wonder that so many families choose SUV's?
Turbo-diesels are the perfect power source for SUV's, minivans, pickups, and many sedans and hatchbacks. Yet the federal government and those states following the CARB rules continue to make it as difficult as possible for automakers to offer diesel engines in the US. No new VW TDI has been sold in California since I bought mine in 2003. Unless the government starts to make it possible for automakers to actually produce and sell desirable fuel-efficient vehicles, my next new car will be a used 2002-2003 VW TDI. And for many families, their next new car will also be a used car. I don't think this will be good for domestic or foreign auto brands.
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News for free doesn't work. Reporters and editors don't work for free, and online ads don't generate all that much revenue.
I don't mind paying for what I want, just don't make it hard to pay. Maybe I find some stories worth 0.5 cents, others 1 cent, others 2 cents, some 5, 10 or even 25 cents each. Give me the first paragraph, tell me the price, give me a button to click, and the money can be transferred from my account to the news site. Maybe it means 10 times as many secure websites, but that is possible.
Reuters does not give away news, the AP and Agence France do not give away news. Maybe NPR does, but I do not want public radio as my only source of news.
Murdoch's plan may sound crazy, but it could put him in the driver's seat. If he is the first and only news mogul making megabucks off the Internet, the others will disappear rapidly.
Will this office be staffed only by people who drank the koolaid and can prove it? Can a skeptic work there and not be tagged as an anti-science denier?
I don't know which will kill the most jobs: raising the taxes on American-based multinationals, so they relocate to friendlier nations? or unilaterally changing the bankruptcy laws so that holders of senior debt get ripped off?
There's not a lot of money left in my 401K, but with what is left I'll be cutting the share in US stocks and bonds from 80% to 0%. I never thought it would come to this.
Someday we are going to need this technology, so let's keep the criticisms constructive.
OT I know but, one I would dearly love to see is a movie version of Glen Cook's "Passage At Arms". Sort of U-boat warfare in the North Atlantic, with convoys and everything, set in a deep-space war against a species no one has ever seen. Sort of "Das Boot" set in a "Space: Above and Beyond" universe, There's even drunken rowdiness and sex during shore leave on a planet under constant bombardment.
But if you want "The Forever War", then Peterson could do it better than Ridley Scott.
How about email addresses that cost 5 cents to register?
Would it really be that easy for bots to register 100,000 Gmail addresses?
The original Star Wars, A New Hope, was largely based on Kurosawa's HIdden Fortress (Toshiro Mifune delivers a princess through enemy territory, accompanied by two lovable but trouble-prone droids, er, peasants.)
Kurosawa was hugely influenced by American westerns and American detective stories.
However, just because Star Wars COULD be remade as a Western, does not mean it should be. Ask Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson.
A few facts, first. The entire city was surrounded, then leaflets were dumped on it for several days. Everyone who wanted out had an opportunity to leave, via designated checkpoints. If the insurgents prevented some people from leaving, then the blame falls on them.
Then the Marines went door-to-door through the city, cutting it in half, then in quarters, boxing the insurgents into smaller and smaller blocks of buildings.
It was a classic battle, one that will be studied endlessly because this is the kind of war the US Army and Marines will be fighting in the 21st century. It is the toughest kind of warfare -- block by block, house by block, sometimes room by room. It take a lot of training, it takes tremendous leaders who can recognize traps and keep their squads from getting sucked into traps. Sometimes it just makes sense to call in an air strike, but most of the time that just isn't possible because of too much collateral damage.
I'm sure that some folks will say they don't want to fight this kind of war. Either drop bombs from 30,000 feet or just let the insurgents take over the country.
Some would say that those folks are ignorant or misguided, but I prefer to think that they are idiots.
But Mussolini was a socialist, the son of a socialist, and the editor-in-chief of socialist newspapers. Only after 1918 did he create the fascist movement, thereby earning the enmity of socialists and communists. They have a special hatred for those who have left the movement, or who are not as radical. For a modern example, see how they treat neocons, former leftists who have joined the conservatives.
RE: "If someone has a thousand albums on Vinyl, it's a different story. You think something of him. Maybe good, maybe bad, but you can expect him to rather deeply identify himself by his music. Each record was individually chosen, to the exclusion of others. Time was invested, thought was expressed, identity is reflected."
I am reminded of a friend I had 30+ years ago, who had a wall filled with shelves holding blues albums. Thousands of blues albums, including works from artists dating back to the 1920s and 1930s. It took a lot of time and money to accumulate a collection like that, and I was impressed that a 20-something white boy would appreciate the blues so much that he put that much effort into preserving it.
Also, folks back then owned books, and they kept on shelves as well. So when you visited someone's home, you'd be able to browse through their books and albums and learn more about that person.
Now you'd have to scan their hard drive, and even then you'd find a lot of junk that the person stored, but which really didn't indicate that person's likes and dislikes.
What makes greenhouses hot is a barrier to hold in heat from the sun. What makes greenhouses seem even hotter is humidity, and water vapor is a far more common "greenhouse gas" than carbon dioxide. Or rather, the concentration of H2O in the atmosphere varies much more widely. So assuming that CO2 is the be-all and end-all seems rather narrow-minded.
While it might be a good idea to have a run-off election when no candidate receives a majority of votes, that's not the system we have. Furthermore, our system combines representative democracy with federalism.. it's not "America", it's "the United States of America". The states count. you can't discount them, you can't make them go away, and you can't change the rules of the Electoral College. So from time to time we will elect presidents who win a majority of electoral votes, but less than a majority of individual votes. It does not intrinsically favor either party, but it does give power to voters in smaller states who would otherwise be overwhelmed by the big states. History is replete with examples of minor parties that disappeared when their ideas were adopted by the major parties. The Whigs became the Republicans by incorporating the ideas of the Free Soil Party. The Peoples Party (the original Populists) were coopted by the Democrats, so lost all their strength between 1892 and 1896. The present-day Democrats have adopted most of the Green Party platform.
Unless the politicians screw it up, NYC will always be a place too expensive for really poor people to live. Yes, for a couple decades various state and municipal governments made it easier for folks to live on the dole in rat-infested tenements, but property is too valuable to allow this in the future.
IMac = $1199 Mac Mini = $599 22" Samsung LCD = $300 Klipsch Speaker system = $125 Total = ~$1025
Federal regulations regarding infant and child carseats have pushed families into much larger vehicles than they would have needed 20 years ago. Now if you have more than two children, with one of them still in an infant seat, you almost need a vehicle with third-row seating. Given the choice between a 20-mpg minivan or a 17-mpg SUV, is it no wonder that so many families choose SUV's? Turbo-diesels are the perfect power source for SUV's, minivans, pickups, and many sedans and hatchbacks. Yet the federal government and those states following the CARB rules continue to make it as difficult as possible for automakers to offer diesel engines in the US. No new VW TDI has been sold in California since I bought mine in 2003. Unless the government starts to make it possible for automakers to actually produce and sell desirable fuel-efficient vehicles, my next new car will be a used 2002-2003 VW TDI. And for many families, their next new car will also be a used car. I don't think this will be good for domestic or foreign auto brands.