Not a wooded area. The area I am referring to is at best wild grassland with interspersed marginal areas with small surface depressions that seasonally collect water that is not potable.
It is far from hospitable, and most people would die in days from exposure as there is no shade.
I can live here for months at a time, including the winter.
A) Dugouts dont burn, They are not directly visible from the surface either. My area does not flood. I know my area very well, and I live far from a population center. There is nothing here that people in a population center that are displaced would want. There is no reason for them to come here.
B) Particulate fallout in the air from fires can be combated reasonably effectively with a wetted cloth tied around the nose and mouth. I know how to create cloth. There are wild plants from which cloth was routinely made by native peoples. I know how to make this cloth, from these plants.
C) Influenza is only treated with NSAIDS, since no other form of medicine is really effective. (Specifically, over the counter flu remedies contain a cough suppressant and acetamenophen, an NSAID.) A very common NSAID that I am able to use, since I dont have ulcers or Reye's disease, is salicylic acid. It is commonly found in the bark of the common willow tree. Pandemic influenza migrating through wild vectors, such as birds, passing through devistated population centers and spreading the pathogen my way can be combated by oral administration of this compound. Its deleterious effects on stomach lining can be mitigated by combination of the compound with anhydrous acetic acid (vinegar, itself a biproduct of alcohol production which is also required as a carrier for refinement of the salicylic acid), and calcium carbonate, which is in ready abundance. A pensylvania limestone deposit runs approximately 6 feet below the topsoil.
D) water that is free of giardia parasites and amoebas can be freely obtained by simple cutting of a thick sucker on a common vulpis species grape vine. Several liters can be collected this way per vine, per day. They grow wild. I know where they grow.
Which leads me to:
E) dont presume you know anything about me, or my abilities. You dont.
Trained, in that I received instruction from elders, yes.
I am not a granolabar packer. Far too much sugar, too dehydrating.:D
Rather, I know what wild plants are edible, how to tie, use, and check snares. How to track game, and their habitats and behaviors.
More notably, I know how to sustainably harvest wild foodstuffs, and proactively encourage later regrowth.
The order of necessity is shelter, water, then food.
I used to actively enjoy "disappearing" for weeks and months on end as a child. Increased property rights restrictions and officiousness from the BLM has severely dampened my ability to do that in my later life.
This does not discount my being able to do so outside of artificial constraints, however.
Most of the reason for my desire for such an event is to spur investment in better infrastructure than the horribly inefficient and unreliable networks we have in place right now.
The power grids we have are well documented as being vulnerable, and are horribly inefficient compared to more modern technologies, but have the benefit of already being in place, and therefor "cheap".
A good sized CME impacting the magnetosphere would disrupt the powergrids in a cascade failure, causing global power outages, and the necessity to rebuild the power distribution networks.
Contrary to the opinions on the matter of many ACs here, the intent behind the desire is not simply to cause chaos for the sake of chaos, but to cause that chaos to spur positive innovation and better decison making on the part of mankind.
It is important to note that I cannot and would not *cause* a large CME for this purpose. I am merely disheartened that this NATURAL one is not sufficiently strong enough to case such a disturbance.
I don't, explicitly, 'require' modern technology. I *do* know how to live without it. It would be significantly harder, and I wouldn't have access to exotic resources and educational sources like I do now, but I can live without those.
Is it wrong of me to be disheartened that this CME isn't stronger?
I won't lie, a fairly large part of me (the part where the evil genius lives) wants a very very powerful geomagnetic storm to devistate our powergrids, knock out communications, fry satelites, and cause general chaos and havok.
I understand that engineers often have antisocial tendencies, and I fully comprehend the ramifications of this unusual desire, but I still retain it.
First. Its "Fluorine", not "flourine". No ground up wheat is involved.:D (sorry for the nitpick. Its an honest mistake.)
Second, "fluorine" is the elementary pure form. Pure fluorine is a covelently bound pair of fluorine atoms, much like pure oxygen is.
Fluoride is a salt made with fluorine that does not contain oxygen. Eg, "sodium fluoride": a sodium atom ionically attracted to a fluorine atom.
When oxygen is involved, you get "fluorite", and "fluorate", depending on the number of oxygen atoms involved.
Natural fluorites and fluorides occur in groundwater in far higher concentrations than are medicinally useful. Typically, the concentration of fluoride ion required to help stabilize the calcium phosphate complex found in teeth against acid breakdown is less than 1% in solution. (Toothpastes are usually sufficient to get the primary benefit of topical fluoride use, and usually contain.2% fluoride ion in the form of sodium fluoride by weight. Fluoridated water is higher, because the time the water is in contact with teeth while drinking is considerably shorter.) You can have way higher than this in naturally fluoride contaminated water supplies.
High levels of fluoride in drinking water causes abnormal tooth and bone formation, in a condition known as fluorisis. It causes discolored, and fragile teeth, as well as brittle bones that are especially prone to osteoporosis and other bone disorders. As such, the danger of overfluoridation is indeed quite real. However, you would have to regularly eat your toothpaste to have this condition. It is argued that children, the primary reported benefactors to fluoridated water operations, are notoriously bad at proper use of brushing and toothpaste use, and are at significantly higher risk of ingesting the toothpaste instead of spitting it out. In conjunction with fluoridated water, this results in a higher risk of permanent tooth deformities in adult tooth formation from the excess fluoride.
In areas with already dangerous levels of fluoride present in the drinking water from natural sources, the use of a filter to remove the excessive ion concentration is not only beneficial, but highly recommended, as it can indeed cause severe and debilitating tooth and bone problems.
[Sarcasm] you don't seem to understand! The *studio* that made the movie got permission to use that track, but the *theatre* that wants to play the movie wasn't involved in the contract process! The theatre wants to get free performance rights to some poor artist's work! How dare you call our attempts at seeking reimbursement for flagrant distribution of our client's works 'double dipping' and other pejorative terms! [/sarcasm]
This is what happens when you let lawyers run free and wild, and let them take everyone for a ride.
As much as it sounds like a tinfoil hat conspiracy theory, the actions of BoA, Chase, and pals actively forclosing on people IN GOOD STANDING, and in some cases, WHO DIDN'T HAVE LOANS to begin with, are quite suspicious.
I understand that one shouldn't attribute to malic what can be explained by incompetence, but the "incompetence" defense doesn't mesh with the "leading experts" line of thought behind the bailouts.
What the banking industry and the US govt. Plan to gain by taking the foundation out from under the house of cards like that, I have no clue.
I suppose it is entirely possible that both the banking industry AND the US govt. Are completely incompetent in these matters, and this is the result of a trainwreck double-fail, but that seems highly unlikely when you examine how the bank and loan industry has managed to nearly dominte the world economy, and the US Govt does all manner of complex legal and economic wrangling.
So far though, it seems as if the banks and the world govts have been operating on this plan:
1) treat low quality debt like an asset. 2) sell debts as if they were assets, and amass too much debt. 3) cause a financial crisis. 4) get lots of interest free taxpayer money. 5) forclose on everyone, including people without debts 6) ??????? 7) Profit!
From the bank and loan side, the one-time injecton of huge amounts of capitol allows them to make a boom-growth of high interest investments, at leas it does here in the US. (A bank can inflate its hard currency store 900% in loans and investments per the fractional reserve rules.) The banks can quickly return the hard injected cash, because they can treat their interest payments as the new hard currency reserve, and keep their inflation. For the banks, this is clearly candy on a plate, and returning the injected money is easy.
[Analogy: the fed gives the bank a 100$ bill. They pop it in the copier and make 9 copies of that note, which they then loan out to people. People make payments with real notes on the debts, and the bank uses those payments to replace the injected bill. It then returns the injected bill, and keeps the loan income.]
As such, arguments that the banks "paid the money back" are a red herring. The exact same outcome would have happened in terms of banking power increase and currency inflation if the fed had just printed trucks of money and dropped it into the economy. The value of the "loaned" money was inflated 900% before being returned, with the banks keeping the inflated portion.
This is one of the (many!) Reasons that the dollar tanked obscenely in the world currency market.
The banks are then left with inflated notes, and new debts that should be better quality ones to improve their revinue stream, but they need to consolodate assets, so they start forclosures. They need hard assets quickly, because the cash injection was just a temporary high in the face of the real problem, which was outstanding and un-collectable debts. The banks conveniently sell a lot of this bogus debt to the government, but also embark on a radical spree of foreclosure frenzy. I would hazard that this was not accidental, and that they looked for every opportunity to acquire hard assets, including cooking payment histories to make otherwise profitable debtors default on their properties. With the huge size of the cash injection propping them up, they can afford to deflate their holdings by doing so. By selling the forclosed properties, they can rapidly regrow their loan industries, bigger and stronger than before.
The problem is the collateral damage.
People are now disrupted from equitable banking relationships, now have bogus credit ratings, have outstanding bills to pay because of new bankruptcy laws, and are still getting a payrate proportioned for the old level of currency inflation. Essentially, the US govt (and any govts that followed our example
This is why in the last thread I suggested implementing alternative game marketplaces to PSN store and Xbox Live! Store.
What is really needed is something like "son of BNetD" for consoles, accessed by telling the console to connect through the service's special proxy portal. It tries to call the mothership, but gets the replacement service instead.
As far as I know, the container format and cryptographic mechanisms used on the 360 to sign packages has been known for awhile, and the ps3's loss of cryptographic integrity is legendary. Other than the inevitable lawsuits from MS and Sony, the only obstacle is in reverse engineering the protocols used.
If the service only advertises for already banned consoles due to their being modified, and doesn't overtly encourage piracy, just alternative game markets, I don't really see the problem with it, and would gladly fund a kickstarter project that was suitably located in a country with appropriately sensible copyright laws.
If the complaint is that the console makers are officiously controlling the experience, then make an alternative experience for use with the console.
Interesting. But from their own site "ensure that your recycling is done here in NA, and not in developing countries!", indicating that the standard operating procedure is exactly what I described.
It's nice to know apple has such a proactive stance. Thank you for the correction, though the hostile tone is disgraceful and you should be ashamed.
I am curious to know, since you seem so well informed, how much does SIMS charge apple for this service, and does apple have to subsidise the battery removal process? If so, how much margin has apple set aside for this process, and is their business model able to handle widespread employmet of their applecare recycling program?
(Or, is it more like I suspect, and more a numbers game betting that most apple purchasers won't make use of this "free" service, and that the added costs of recycling in NA are recouped with a higher sales price?)
(Also, many of the removed components can *only* be recycled in developing countries, or be hugely subsidised due to environmental protection laws. Things like the LiON battery itself.)
Be sure to include that apple then sends the unit to a 3rd world country, where it is disassembled using hazardous but cheap methods, in order to overcome their own design problem, rather than fix their PLM mistake, and completely negate any and all environmental benefit of said recycling in the process.
Do the words "hazmat", and "lawsuit" mean anything?
Lion battery packs are sensitive to heat and rupture. Manhandling with a putty knife greatly increases the risk of rupturing the battery, which increases the risk that process employees will come into contact with dangerous lithium salts. Heating the pack sufficiently to dislodge the glue means heating the pack above the electrolyte boiling temp, and potentially exploding the battery, or otherwise destabilizing the cell in a dangerous way.
Either practice opens the door to litigation.
Its just better if apple has more forethought on their PLM strategy. (Product Lifecycle Managment.) They keep thir certifications, recycling plants make money, and recycled materials handlers don't get exposed to nasty things and sue people. Win, win, win.
The issue here is that in order for a recycling program to be effective, it has to be sufficiently easy for things to be recycled, that there is a financial benefit for said recycling. Otherwise, recycling has no incentive.
The design choices at apple make it too difficult to properly seperate the battery from the housing.
From an engineering standpoint, this is ideal! You don't want the battery falling out!
From a recycling standpoint, this is deplorable! You can't recycle the LiON battery pack without incuring a significant loss!
Rather than accept that they need to implement a less ideal retainer mechanism for their batteries, apple has thumbed their nose at regulators.
The deal with the glue is that it makes the recycling effort cost prohibitive, and removes the already small margin for fiscal incentive for said recycling. The glued features cannot be easily seperated, increasing the cost to recycle above a critical metric.
Apple says it won't stop this practice, because finding an alternative means they would have to make thicker devices, or devices more likely to come apart on their own.
The consequence of this decision is that they are no longer EPEAT certified, and now their products are less salable.
Or obliviously blinding? (Gotta be one of the two!:D )
Anyway, the deal is that apple is used to living in the reality distortion bubble.
The reality that their design choices have political consequences, and that these consequences should and will have effects on the salability of their offerings is not respected, because they are used to altered reality where their design choices are fawned over and lauded as innovative and amazing.
In this case, we have a clearly foolish decision (ignore the EPEAT requirements for service and recycling), so that they can enforce an ideological position (our way is best, and we won't compromise. You should just change your requirements, because our products are just so awesome that they floor the competiton in every imaginable metric, including environmental friendliness!) that is sure to come back to haunt them. (Strict fed reqs regarding EPEAT compliance means no apple products purchased, and existing ones are phased out for compliant replacements.)
I am actually enjoying the spectacle of reality creeping into the fantasyland antics at apple. Hopefully they will learn their lesson that projecting a false reality hs consequences that they can't just wish away, and come away wiser for it.
Just wait. Instead of "neglicence" charges, it will be "failure to do due dilligence" or some other shit, which attempts to push the burden of enforcement through loaded charges.
"Oh, No Mr congressman! We don't want that dildo!"
"Well, little voter, don't worry your little head off. We see you can't possibly handle that dildo legislation.. so, how about THIS one?"
"Oh gosh Mr Congressman! That one's even bigger than the last one!"
(Repeat ad nauseum until little voter gets so shocked about what Mr Congressman can pull out of his rape kit that he accepts a "smaller" dildo, but still gets fucked.)
Agreed. Personally though, the way I would *try* to do it (since it probably wouldn't work) would be to segregate the marketplace.
Eg, "Android Powered!"(tm) casual games in the 99 cent range.
Independant but quality titles (like those sponsored by the humble bundle) in the 10 to 30$ range
Commercial publishing house titles in the 35 to 60$ range. (Probably will be very small, because the open console specs would be very unattractive to them, since they couldn't have even lipservice garantees that their games won't be easily pirated and/or their game communities won't be drenched in hacks and mods.)
This would make it easier for the user to get what they are looking for, and would eliminate the pricecurve shock psychological issues at the same time.
A quality game requires a higher pricing point. Perhaps not the collusion based MSRP of 60$, but definately more than 99 cents. Further, the openness of the console will permit cheats and hacks, which are known to be deleterious to online game communities.
Underpowered hardware (comparably.)
The console will be more anemic than even the wii is. A Tegra based system is chumpchange compared to what's inside CURRENT gen consoles, let along a next-gen lineup. It will be a real hard sell, and even then will be the generic also-ran offering. A simple software tweak, and those nextgen consoles would be able to more than emulate the proper environment for the android console's titles, and since the android box's specs are to be open, there's shit all that could be done about it.
No, an open android console would likely sink like a lead brick.
A better solution would be to make rival game marketplaces for existing consoles.
In the city of old Detroit, the Overpriced Consumer Products corporation had fallen on hard times. Unable to retain a lucrative telephone marketing plan in the face of rising minimum wage and more stringent employment laws, they created: ROBOCALL.
Robocall, the ultimate telphone marketing system: part man, part machine, RoboCall could dial thousands of potential customers in minutes. All over the country, robocall interrupted dinner, meetings, classrooms, selling timeshares and discount viagra supplies. The board of OCP celebrated their victory over looming insolvency by giving themselves healthy raises, and firing the team responsible for RoboCall's creation. But the residents of Old Detroit wouldn't go down easy....
"He is not the right man for the job. It is quite aparent by the types and methods of press coverage supporting him that he is being elected because of his race. The last time I checked, your racial heritage has no bearing on your qualification for presidency. The man's campaign messages are contradictory when taken in the whole, and promise things that the executive doesn't have the power to provide. If he honestly thinks he can deliver on those promises, he has no clue how our government is meant to run, and has no business being president. If he is blowing smoke up our asses to get elected, he's a crooked, dirty dealer, and has no business running for office. Either way, it is clear he isn't the right man for the job."
This caused me to become the brunt of ad-hominems by many in the left wing with blinders on, calling me a neocon conservative at best, and a hateful racist biggot at worst.
I am still waiting for my apology, but clearly I will never get one.
Slashdot Mirror
also note:
Not a wooded area. The area I am referring to is at best wild grassland with interspersed marginal areas with small surface depressions that seasonally collect water that is not potable.
It is far from hospitable, and most people would die in days from exposure as there is no shade.
I can live here for months at a time, including the winter.
A) Dugouts dont burn, They are not directly visible from the surface either. My area does not flood. I know my area very well, and I live far from a population center. There is nothing here that people in a population center that are displaced would want. There is no reason for them to come here.
B) Particulate fallout in the air from fires can be combated reasonably effectively with a wetted cloth tied around the nose and mouth. I know how to create cloth. There are wild plants from which cloth was routinely made by native peoples. I know how to make this cloth, from these plants.
C) Influenza is only treated with NSAIDS, since no other form of medicine is really effective. (Specifically, over the counter flu remedies contain a cough suppressant and acetamenophen, an NSAID.) A very common NSAID that I am able to use, since I dont have ulcers or Reye's disease, is salicylic acid. It is commonly found in the bark of the common willow tree. Pandemic influenza migrating through wild vectors, such as birds, passing through devistated population centers and spreading the pathogen my way can be combated by oral administration of this compound. Its deleterious effects on stomach lining can be mitigated by combination of the compound with anhydrous acetic acid (vinegar, itself a biproduct of alcohol production which is also required as a carrier for refinement of the salicylic acid), and calcium carbonate, which is in ready abundance. A pensylvania limestone deposit runs approximately 6 feet below the topsoil.
D) water that is free of giardia parasites and amoebas can be freely obtained by simple cutting of a thick sucker on a common vulpis species grape vine. Several liters can be collected this way per vine, per day. They grow wild. I know where they grow.
Which leads me to:
E) dont presume you know anything about me, or my abilities. You dont.
Trained, in that I received instruction from elders, yes.
I am not a granolabar packer. Far too much sugar, too dehydrating. :D
Rather, I know what wild plants are edible, how to tie, use, and check snares. How to track game, and their habitats and behaviors.
More notably, I know how to sustainably harvest wild foodstuffs, and proactively encourage later regrowth.
The order of necessity is shelter, water, then food.
I used to actively enjoy "disappearing" for weeks and months on end as a child. Increased property rights restrictions and officiousness from the BLM has severely dampened my ability to do that in my later life.
This does not discount my being able to do so outside of artificial constraints, however.
But thanks for asking.
Same here actually.
Quite right!
Most of the reason for my desire for such an event is to spur investment in better infrastructure than the horribly inefficient and unreliable networks we have in place right now.
The power grids we have are well documented as being vulnerable, and are horribly inefficient compared to more modern technologies, but have the benefit of already being in place, and therefor "cheap".
A good sized CME impacting the magnetosphere would disrupt the powergrids in a cascade failure, causing global power outages, and the necessity to rebuild the power distribution networks.
Contrary to the opinions on the matter of many ACs here, the intent behind the desire is not simply to cause chaos for the sake of chaos, but to cause that chaos to spur positive innovation and better decison making on the part of mankind.
It is important to note that I cannot and would not *cause* a large CME for this purpose. I am merely disheartened that this NATURAL one is not sufficiently strong enough to case such a disturbance.
Thanks for being honest.
Hmm..
You know, I actually *am* a trained survivalist.
I don't, explicitly, 'require' modern technology. I *do* know how to live without it. It would be significantly harder, and I wouldn't have access to exotic resources and educational sources like I do now, but I can live without those.
Just saying.
While the compounds in the chocolate might help calm raw nerves, might I suggest getting reynolds nonstick pan liner instead?
It is essentially a huge roll of paper backed aluminum foil.
http://bakingbites.com/2012/02/reynolds-wrap-nonstick-pan-lining-paper-reviewed/
Shit's awesome!
Is it wrong of me to be disheartened that this CME isn't stronger?
I won't lie, a fairly large part of me (the part where the evil genius lives) wants a very very powerful geomagnetic storm to devistate our powergrids, knock out communications, fry satelites, and cause general chaos and havok.
I understand that engineers often have antisocial tendencies, and I fully comprehend the ramifications of this unusual desire, but I still retain it.
Is it so wrong?
Not a chemist either, just a chemistry nerd, but:
First. Its "Fluorine", not "flourine". No ground up wheat is involved. :D (sorry for the nitpick. Its an honest mistake.)
Second, "fluorine" is the elementary pure form. Pure fluorine is a covelently bound pair of fluorine atoms, much like pure oxygen is.
Fluoride is a salt made with fluorine that does not contain oxygen. Eg, "sodium fluoride": a sodium atom ionically attracted to a fluorine atom.
When oxygen is involved, you get "fluorite", and "fluorate", depending on the number of oxygen atoms involved.
Natural fluorites and fluorides occur in groundwater in far higher concentrations than are medicinally useful. Typically, the concentration of fluoride ion required to help stabilize the calcium phosphate complex found in teeth against acid breakdown is less than 1% in solution. (Toothpastes are usually sufficient to get the primary benefit of topical fluoride use, and usually contain .2% fluoride ion in the form of sodium fluoride by weight. Fluoridated water is higher, because the time the water is in contact with teeth while drinking is considerably shorter.) You can have way higher than this in naturally fluoride contaminated water supplies.
High levels of fluoride in drinking water causes abnormal tooth and bone formation, in a condition known as fluorisis. It causes discolored, and fragile teeth, as well as brittle bones that are especially prone to osteoporosis and other bone disorders. As such, the danger of overfluoridation is indeed quite real. However, you would have to regularly eat your toothpaste to have this condition. It is argued that children, the primary reported benefactors to fluoridated water operations, are notoriously bad at proper use of brushing and toothpaste use, and are at significantly higher risk of ingesting the toothpaste instead of spitting it out. In conjunction with fluoridated water, this results in a higher risk of permanent tooth deformities in adult tooth formation from the excess fluoride.
In areas with already dangerous levels of fluoride present in the drinking water from natural sources, the use of a filter to remove the excessive ion concentration is not only beneficial, but highly recommended, as it can indeed cause severe and debilitating tooth and bone problems.
The more you know!
[Sarcasm] you don't seem to understand! The *studio* that made the movie got permission to use that track, but the *theatre* that wants to play the movie wasn't involved in the contract process! The theatre wants to get free performance rights to some poor artist's work! How dare you call our attempts at seeking reimbursement for flagrant distribution of our client's works 'double dipping' and other pejorative terms! [/sarcasm]
This is what happens when you let lawyers run free and wild, and let them take everyone for a ride.
Seriously.
As much as it sounds like a tinfoil hat conspiracy theory, the actions of BoA, Chase, and pals actively forclosing on people IN GOOD STANDING, and in some cases, WHO DIDN'T HAVE LOANS to begin with, are quite suspicious.
I understand that one shouldn't attribute to malic what can be explained by incompetence, but the "incompetence" defense doesn't mesh with the "leading experts" line of thought behind the bailouts.
What the banking industry and the US govt. Plan to gain by taking the foundation out from under the house of cards like that, I have no clue.
I suppose it is entirely possible that both the banking industry AND the US govt. Are completely incompetent in these matters, and this is the result of a trainwreck double-fail, but that seems highly unlikely when you examine how the bank and loan industry has managed to nearly dominte the world economy, and the US Govt does all manner of complex legal and economic wrangling.
So far though, it seems as if the banks and the world govts have been operating on this plan:
1) treat low quality debt like an asset.
2) sell debts as if they were assets, and amass too much debt.
3) cause a financial crisis.
4) get lots of interest free taxpayer money.
5) forclose on everyone, including people without debts
6) ???????
7) Profit!
From the bank and loan side, the one-time injecton of huge amounts of capitol allows them to make a boom-growth of high interest investments, at leas it does here in the US. (A bank can inflate its hard currency store 900% in loans and investments per the fractional reserve rules.) The banks can quickly return the hard injected cash, because they can treat their interest payments as the new hard currency reserve, and keep their inflation. For the banks, this is clearly candy on a plate, and returning the injected money is easy.
[Analogy: the fed gives the bank a 100$ bill. They pop it in the copier and make 9 copies of that note, which they then loan out to people. People make payments with real notes on the debts, and the bank uses those payments to replace the injected bill. It then returns the injected bill, and keeps the loan income.]
As such, arguments that the banks "paid the money back" are a red herring. The exact same outcome would have happened in terms of banking power increase and currency inflation if the fed had just printed trucks of money and dropped it into the economy. The value of the "loaned" money was inflated 900% before being returned, with the banks keeping the inflated portion.
This is one of the (many!) Reasons that the dollar tanked obscenely in the world currency market.
The banks are then left with inflated notes, and new debts that should be better quality ones to improve their revinue stream, but they need to consolodate assets, so they start forclosures. They need hard assets quickly, because the cash injection was just a temporary high in the face of the real problem, which was outstanding and un-collectable debts. The banks conveniently sell a lot of this bogus debt to the government, but also embark on a radical spree of foreclosure frenzy. I would hazard that this was not accidental, and that they looked for every opportunity to acquire hard assets, including cooking payment histories to make otherwise profitable debtors default on their properties. With the huge size of the cash injection propping them up, they can afford to deflate their holdings by doing so. By selling the forclosed properties, they can rapidly regrow their loan industries, bigger and stronger than before.
The problem is the collateral damage.
People are now disrupted from equitable banking relationships, now have bogus credit ratings, have outstanding bills to pay because of new bankruptcy laws, and are still getting a payrate proportioned for the old level of currency inflation. Essentially, the US govt (and any govts that followed our example
This is why in the last thread I suggested implementing alternative game marketplaces to PSN store and Xbox Live! Store.
What is really needed is something like "son of BNetD" for consoles, accessed by telling the console to connect through the service's special proxy portal. It tries to call the mothership, but gets the replacement service instead.
As far as I know, the container format and cryptographic mechanisms used on the 360 to sign packages has been known for awhile, and the ps3's loss of cryptographic integrity is legendary. Other than the inevitable lawsuits from MS and Sony, the only obstacle is in reverse engineering the protocols used.
If the service only advertises for already banned consoles due to their being modified, and doesn't overtly encourage piracy, just alternative game markets, I don't really see the problem with it, and would gladly fund a kickstarter project that was suitably located in a country with appropriately sensible copyright laws.
If the complaint is that the console makers are officiously controlling the experience, then make an alternative experience for use with the console.
Heaven forbid somebody replace their stock 500gb drive with a 1.5TB one!
Interesting. But from their own site "ensure that your recycling is done here in NA, and not in developing countries!", indicating that the standard operating procedure is exactly what I described.
It's nice to know apple has such a proactive stance. Thank you for the correction, though the hostile tone is disgraceful and you should be ashamed.
I am curious to know, since you seem so well informed, how much does SIMS charge apple for this service, and does apple have to subsidise the battery removal process? If so, how much margin has apple set aside for this process, and is their business model able to handle widespread employmet of their applecare recycling program?
(Or, is it more like I suspect, and more a numbers game betting that most apple purchasers won't make use of this "free" service, and that the added costs of recycling in NA are recouped with a higher sales price?)
(Also, many of the removed components can *only* be recycled in developing countries, or be hugely subsidised due to environmental protection laws. Things like the LiON battery itself.)
I look forward to your insightful answer!
Be sure to include that apple then sends the unit to a 3rd world country, where it is disassembled using hazardous but cheap methods, in order to overcome their own design problem, rather than fix their PLM mistake, and completely negate any and all environmental benefit of said recycling in the process.
Do the words "hazmat", and "lawsuit" mean anything?
Lion battery packs are sensitive to heat and rupture. Manhandling with a putty knife greatly increases the risk of rupturing the battery, which increases the risk that process employees will come into contact with dangerous lithium salts. Heating the pack sufficiently to dislodge the glue means heating the pack above the electrolyte boiling temp, and potentially exploding the battery, or otherwise destabilizing the cell in a dangerous way.
Either practice opens the door to litigation.
Its just better if apple has more forethought on their PLM strategy. (Product Lifecycle Managment.) They keep thir certifications, recycling plants make money, and recycled materials handlers don't get exposed to nasty things and sue people. Win, win, win.
Not exactly.
The issue here is that in order for a recycling program to be effective, it has to be sufficiently easy for things to be recycled, that there is a financial benefit for said recycling. Otherwise, recycling has no incentive.
The design choices at apple make it too difficult to properly seperate the battery from the housing.
From an engineering standpoint, this is ideal! You don't want the battery falling out!
From a recycling standpoint, this is deplorable! You can't recycle the LiON battery pack without incuring a significant loss!
Rather than accept that they need to implement a less ideal retainer mechanism for their batteries, apple has thumbed their nose at regulators.
There will be consequences.
Case closed.
The deal with the glue is that it makes the recycling effort cost prohibitive, and removes the already small margin for fiscal incentive for said recycling. The glued features cannot be easily seperated, increasing the cost to recycle above a critical metric.
Apple says it won't stop this practice, because finding an alternative means they would have to make thicker devices, or devices more likely to come apart on their own.
The consequence of this decision is that they are no longer EPEAT certified, and now their products are less salable.
What is so hard to comprehend here?
Or obliviously blinding? (Gotta be one of the two! :D )
Anyway, the deal is that apple is used to living in the reality distortion bubble.
The reality that their design choices have political consequences, and that these consequences should and will have effects on the salability of their offerings is not respected, because they are used to altered reality where their design choices are fawned over and lauded as innovative and amazing.
In this case, we have a clearly foolish decision (ignore the EPEAT requirements for service and recycling), so that they can enforce an ideological position (our way is best, and we won't compromise. You should just change your requirements, because our products are just so awesome that they floor the competiton in every imaginable metric, including environmental friendliness!) that is sure to come back to haunt them. (Strict fed reqs regarding EPEAT compliance means no apple products purchased, and existing ones are phased out for compliant replacements.)
I am actually enjoying the spectacle of reality creeping into the fantasyland antics at apple. Hopefully they will learn their lesson that projecting a false reality hs consequences that they can't just wish away, and come away wiser for it.
Just wait. Instead of "neglicence" charges, it will be "failure to do due dilligence" or some other shit, which attempts to push the burden of enforcement through loaded charges.
"Oh, No Mr congressman! We don't want that dildo!"
"Well, little voter, don't worry your little head off. We see you can't possibly handle that dildo legislation.. so, how about THIS one?"
"Oh gosh Mr Congressman! That one's even bigger than the last one!"
(Repeat ad nauseum until little voter gets so shocked about what Mr Congressman can pull out of his rape kit that he accepts a "smaller" dildo, but still gets fucked.)
Agreed. Personally though, the way I would *try* to do it (since it probably wouldn't work) would be to segregate the marketplace.
Eg, "Android Powered!"(tm) casual games in the 99 cent range.
Independant but quality titles (like those sponsored by the humble bundle) in the 10 to 30$ range
Commercial publishing house titles in the 35 to 60$ range. (Probably will be very small, because the open console specs would be very unattractive to them, since they couldn't have even lipservice garantees that their games won't be easily pirated and/or their game communities won't be drenched in hacks and mods.)
This would make it easier for the user to get what they are looking for, and would eliminate the pricecurve shock psychological issues at the same time.
It will die on the vine, or be a dismal flop.
Reasons:
Lack of quality game titles.
A quality game requires a higher pricing point. Perhaps not the collusion based MSRP of 60$, but definately more than 99 cents. Further, the openness of the console will permit cheats and hacks, which are known to be deleterious to online game communities.
Underpowered hardware (comparably.)
The console will be more anemic than even the wii is. A Tegra based system is chumpchange compared to what's inside CURRENT gen consoles, let along a next-gen lineup. It will be a real hard sell, and even then will be the generic also-ran offering. A simple software tweak, and those nextgen consoles would be able to more than emulate the proper environment for the android console's titles, and since the android box's specs are to be open, there's shit all that could be done about it.
No, an open android console would likely sink like a lead brick.
A better solution would be to make rival game marketplaces for existing consoles.
[Stern, 1980s announcer voice]
In the city of old Detroit, the Overpriced Consumer Products corporation had fallen on hard times. Unable to retain a lucrative telephone marketing plan in the face of rising minimum wage and more stringent employment laws, they created: ROBOCALL.
Robocall, the ultimate telphone marketing system: part man, part machine, RoboCall could dial thousands of potential customers in minutes. All over the country, robocall interrupted dinner, meetings, classrooms, selling timeshares and discount viagra supplies. The board of OCP celebrated their victory over looming insolvency by giving themselves healthy raises, and firing the team responsible for RoboCall's creation. But the residents of Old Detroit wouldn't go down easy....
Actually, I *did*.
My exact argument against the man was:
"He is not the right man for the job. It is quite aparent by the types and methods of press coverage supporting him that he is being elected because of his race. The last time I checked, your racial heritage has no bearing on your qualification for presidency. The man's campaign messages are contradictory when taken in the whole, and promise things that the executive doesn't have the power to provide. If he honestly thinks he can deliver on those promises, he has no clue how our government is meant to run, and has no business being president. If he is blowing smoke up our asses to get elected, he's a crooked, dirty dealer, and has no business running for office. Either way, it is clear he isn't the right man for the job."
This caused me to become the brunt of ad-hominems by many in the left wing with blinders on, calling me a neocon conservative at best, and a hateful racist biggot at worst.
I am still waiting for my apology, but clearly I will never get one.
Culpability swings both ways.