prolly right. While LCD is probably THE ideal technology for the iMac "design philosophy", there is one element of LCD which is counter to that - price.
LCD is still the denizen of the extremely well-to-do computer hobbyist, or the graphics professional. Until someone can figure out how to really mass produce these things, forget it.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
I think you're taking this whole bru-ha-ha the wrong way (Rob).
I don't see this as a collapse or a disaster of the previous moderation. I see it as a fine tuning. I think anyone else who's been around since before moderation came into effect will agree that even with the latest abuses, (someone was bound to exploit them eventually), the moderation system is WAY better than no moderation at all was. Just/. growing pains I think. I know AC posting isn't in jeopardy, but this latest issue shouldn't be used as an excuse to eliminate AC posting altogether. (though I think the "post anonymously" box isn't a great idea - it just makes it MORE convenient to do a bad thing - if one's tempted).
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Shpeil-berg: "okay, so first, we make a few minor changes. The kid's a robot, right? so we make him super-smart. He builds a radio that detects alien life, and he finds out that they're going to invade earth, so, he also builds a small space-fighter ship, out of an old junker project-car his dad left in the garage, but abandoned because he got depressed about not being able to have any kids, then, the kid flies the car into space, and beats the alien armada, except for the mother ship, that has a death-ray aimed at his family's house. Well, this kid lands in the fighter bay of the mother ship, and gets out, and goes hand-to-hand with the alien soldiers (because he has super-powers too! he's a robot!), and we'll have like 10 different varieties of aliens, so we'll have collectable action figures, plus alien space fighter toys, and of course, the converted mustang-spaceship (get our CGI guys working on that right away), . .."
no thanks.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
ah, this movie doesn't need a human element, it needs a machine element. The whole point is to give the audience the point of view of a machine, right? IMHO, only Kubrick could do this, and since he's no longer available, it ought to be scrapped, not raped. But, my opinion doesn't count for shit in Hollywood.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
It's not just computers that they'll control. The future. The whole enchilada.
Unless they (and everyone who wants to be like them, and there are a LOT out there) can be stopped, we're looking at a rather soulless world in centuries to come, with almost no chance of humanity ever escaping.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
"Wired reports MS's denial at http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/21 577.html. They say the key is only used to verify compliance with US export control laws."
well then, it looks like the NSA in "NSAKEY" DOES stand for "No Such Agency". Not a joke, and not an acronym for "Network Service Address" (or whatever).
So, how likely then is MS's explanation to be true - if the worst that is suspected (MS-NSA collusion) is true?
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
or, perhaps dump the formula of "a tv show that has a number of familliar faces (usually no more than 6 or so, because audiences can't handle much more than that) that are in every episode".
I'd like to see that, and I'd like to see other shows that actually apply real astrophysics to the flight of spacecraft (B5, Crusade), and shows that don't have painfully trite dialog (B5, Crusade), and shows that don't use stupid misconceptions/stereotypes about science, scientists, computers, computer scientists, but then, I guess I'm asking too much.
How about a sci fi sitcom?:
It's like, you glow.
A man from Earth, travels to a uranium mining colony on Mars, and moves in with an old college buddy, to write a book about how much Mars, and Martians suck.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
I guess that's where I'm confused, and since others read the article and were similarly boffed, is the line this guy came up with mathematical, or simply an overlay of statistics? I mean, there's a formula for the gaussian curve, right (assuming you have "random" numbers). Is there a formula for this new beast (the beanie-baby curve)?
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
I wonder about that too, but there's a difference between a statistical graph, and a graph of a mathematical function, and there's a disconnect between the two - it doesn't give you a model for the underlying mechanism that causes the behavior, so you may have a more accurate way to predict what the statistic is going to be, you still can't use this to predict the moment the earth starts shaking.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
1) sorry, I did ramble on for what should have been a brief example - the point goes on to #2 2) All I originally said was, that if science is not 100% sure, then it should not be "sold" as such. Philosophically speaking, the only way one can be 100% sure of something is with faith. Not science. God, of course, does not corner the market on faith. Folks are perfectly able to have 100% faith in science, but that's when science stops being science and starts being a religion. That's what I object to. I didn't say scientific method was wrong, or that there was a better method. I'm just saying that it has limitations. Less limitations than anything else, but still, has limits. 3) please. non-issue. The point was made above in #2. 4) No, you did not say you want to control minds, but by saying "your ideas are dangerous", and blaming the loss of human lives on them, starts to sound a little like some other friends we've heard of like Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot (and quite a few Popes too). You may be happy to know that I agree 100% on faith=irrational. It's good stuff, you should try it some time, but I see you already have. Best taken in small doses, with salt. Kind of like Tequilla.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
"Newton's theory is used to guide spacecraft to Saturn. The theory works, and is accepted and proven to be a truthful description of how the universe works. There is no way that Newton's theory will ever be falsified. Not even Einstein's theory did that! "
come now, come now, Newton's theory doesn't apply on the quantum scale now, does it? There have even been measurements made of spacecraft (travelling BEYOND Saturn *snicker*) showing object accellerating faster than they ought to be. There are some theories for why this is happening, but I think there hasn't been a consensus yet on what's going on. The fact is, we don't know. Nobody is out there looking at these space probes, seeing if there is a tiny propellant leak, or whatever. I'm not saying Newtons theories are false, they're great, and they've proven to be about the most useful tools mankind has ever devised.
Likewise, no human was alive 65 million years ago, to SEE dinosaurs walk the earth. What we accept as truth, is what we rationalize. True, science is the best systematic way to rationalize our reality based on our observations, but the fact is, no matter what is observed, no matter what evidence you have, you can't possibly know any thing 100% for sure. It's a philosophical question, yes, but that is the root of human experience.
And I would likewise tell you that if God himself came down in front of me and said, "Yo, dude, you got a buger hanging out of your nose", I still, scientifically can't say that I 100% believe in God, because it could have been a hallucination, right? Even if I DID have a buger hanging out of my nose. But spiritually, I DO believe that God exists, because I take that on faith, which is not a rationalization based on the scientific method, nor is it some lame sense of obligation to parents or religious leaders. It is NOT my faith (or anyone's faith) in God that endangers or costs humans their lives, it's when I justify certain actions based on this faith: I must kill you and invade your country because you are infidels. Well, let me tell you, even the officially "atheist" countries out there have killed folks based on ideology, or what usually turns out to be a personal lust for power justified by a framework of rationalizations. Whether this framework of rationalizations is the Catholic religion, or Godless communism, it's still all a sham. Does that make the FAITH wrong? No, it makes the ACTIONS of killing (or whatever you're trying to assert) wrong. Faith isn't the problem, it's human greed, and human selfishness, and these things will never go away, no matter what dictator comes along with weapons of mass destruction, and chemicals and mass hypnosis - humans will always be the way they are, of course until they destroy themselves.
By induction, you extend your evidence to a tentative statement "There is no god". Well, be as tentative as you like. I'm sorry that you can't have 100% faith in the truth of a matter. But when you rely on science, that is going to be the case, 100% of the time, because that's what science is all about, and thankfully, you state it truthfully by saying "tentative statement" (and by saying "by induction" - which is a method that, by nature, cannot 100% prove something, only deduction can).
Personally, I'm more comfortable making the the DEFINATE statement "I believe there IS a God". Existance just feels better for me that way. Not because of my comfort about (how did someone put this a couple of days back?) "being whisked away to some fantasyland after I die". But rather, that there's a reason for it all, that it's not all just some cosmic accident that may as well not have happened at all.
Ideas don't kill people. People kill people. When you start saying that ideas are dangerous (and I know, yes, it was religious people who first made this kind of thing popular), then you start saying you want to control people's minds. I don't know about you, but mind control makes me kind of uncomfortable.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Actually, in my Home Economics class in HS, we were taught some very useful techniques for not getting screwed by false advertising, how to be skeptical about wild claims, and how to make sure companies follow through on rebates and warranties, and stuff like that.
This was among the MOST useful information I took with me out of HS. Far more useful than 4 state mandatory years of Phys. Ed. watching the lesbian gym teacher ogle the cheerleader squad.
And don't even get me started on that stupid TYPING class. I spent more time trying to get the paper lined up in the damn crappy typewriter. After I failed that class (for non attendance), and my parents got me my first computer (TI 99/4a) my typing improved so much in one week that I was able to test out of the requirement and not have to re take the class.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
It's really just a question of fundamentallists, who argue that the bible is 100% pure, accurate, the word of God, unaltered, the truth, no questions asked.
Now, to reconcile that belief, they need to crowbar reality into that mold. Unfortunately, the rest of us have to be dragged kicking and screaming along with them.
Then there's the poor fallibists, who believe in God, but have reservations about the whole validity of the bible. Faith-wise, that is a slippery slope indeed, because you lose a material connection to God, which is supposed to be an anchor for your faith, and is instead, being used as a crutch. Us fallibists (or Christian Liberals) are caught in the middle, being perceived as zealots when we admit that we believe in God, or want our kids to learn creationism (in church, not public school), or even that we'd prefer it if evolution not be portrayed as some absolute unchangeable truth.
The fundamentallist zealots hate us, and the athiest secular humanists hate us.
There's an excellent article in this month's Scientific American on this topic.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Yes, true, but when science is taught as dogma, pursuit of the truth is also in jeopardy.
A scientist should alway have an open mind that even their most beloved and trusted theories may one day be proven false, or be replaced by another theory. And NO scientist should support any theory for which there is no evidence. (is there any evidence at all that there is definately NO god?). If you can't disprove His existence, then shut the hell up and leave those of who DO believe alone. And don't blame ALL believers for the few zealots who try to force nonbelievers to believe. Some of us just don't give a rat's ass who doesn't believe.
And yes, I do want my children taught about evolution in school. I just don't want the teacher to say that Darwin's evolution is the only possible explanation, and that it proves that there is no god, because neither of those assertions are true.
On the other hand, I sure as hell don't want my tax dollars going to pay to educate my child for someone else's version of biblical creation. My church is perfectly capable of conveying that story. So again, I don't understand why honesty can't be brought back into the science classroom (um, class, it's a THEORY - it's the best one we have today, not the only one, just the best one, it may not be true, but "officially" this is what we're going with), and I can't understand why some folks think religion has any business being taught in public schools.
Gosh, I guess I'm just too level-headed to be a true American.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
The gummint didn't dump gasoline all over the compound, the nutty religious zealots did.
They broke the law and resisted arrest. If Koresh had given a rat's ass about his followers, he had ample opportunity to turn himself in and have his day in court. By taking the Jim Jones way out, he only proved that he was nothing but a lying coward, who didn't believe in the truth of what he was preaching.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
The Collapse of the Berlin Wall == the breakup of the former Soviet Union, and the eventual sale of cheap weapons of mass destruction to every tin-pot despot in the world, along with the economic decay causing the death or economic enslavement (by the Russian Mafia) of millions, and the fallout being dozens of bloody ethnic conflicts: Chechnya, Bosnia, Kazakastan, the aftermath in Afganistan, etc. And now China's getting punchy. Beginnings of a new space station == Reagan declared that we'd do this Kennedy-esque "within a decade", back in 1984. With the problems with our partnership with Russia, I would bet you a dollar that this new space station will not be completed by the schedule they have today. And the original schedule was 1994, and it was supposed to be much, much larger. Mir was abandonded last week. NASA's budget is being destroyed. Humanity's destination is not going to be the stars, unless we end up hitching a ride on some extraterrestrial slave-ship or something. End of the Cold War == (see above statements about the berlin wall) Cloning == rich people get to take over the world boom of the Internet == (see above statement on cloning)
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Slashdot Mirror
prolly right. While LCD is probably THE ideal technology for the iMac "design philosophy", there is one element of LCD which is counter to that - price.
LCD is still the denizen of the extremely well-to-do computer hobbyist, or the graphics professional. Until someone can figure out how to really mass produce these things, forget it.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
apparently, the prospect of a new iMac isn't enough to keep our brief attentions focussed.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
I think you're taking this whole bru-ha-ha the wrong way (Rob).
/. growing pains I think. I know AC posting isn't in jeopardy, but this latest issue shouldn't be used as an excuse to eliminate AC posting altogether. (though I think the "post anonymously" box isn't a great idea - it just makes it MORE convenient to do a bad thing - if one's tempted).
I don't see this as a collapse or a disaster of the previous moderation. I see it as a fine tuning. I think anyone else who's been around since before moderation came into effect will agree that even with the latest abuses, (someone was bound to exploit them eventually), the moderation system is WAY better than no moderation at all was. Just
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Shpeil-berg: ."
"okay, so first, we make a few minor changes. The kid's a robot, right? so we make him super-smart. He builds a radio that detects alien life, and he finds out that they're going to invade earth, so, he also builds a small space-fighter ship, out of an old junker project-car his dad left in the garage, but abandoned because he got depressed about not being able to have any kids, then, the kid flies the car into space, and beats the alien armada, except for the mother ship, that has a death-ray aimed at his family's house. Well, this kid lands in the fighter bay of the mother ship, and gets out, and goes hand-to-hand with the alien soldiers (because he has super-powers too! he's a robot!), and we'll have like 10 different varieties of aliens, so we'll have collectable action figures, plus alien space fighter toys, and of course, the converted mustang-spaceship (get our CGI guys working on that right away), . .
no thanks.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
ah, this movie doesn't need a human element, it needs a machine element. The whole point is to give the audience the point of view of a machine, right?
IMHO, only Kubrick could do this, and since he's no longer available, it ought to be scrapped, not raped. But, my opinion doesn't count for shit in Hollywood.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
heh, too bad DIVX is dead, otherwise MS would have THAT monstrosity on board. Search your feelings, you know it to be true.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
It's not just computers that they'll control. The future. The whole enchilada.
Unless they (and everyone who wants to be like them, and there are a LOT out there) can be stopped, we're looking at a rather soulless world in centuries to come, with almost no chance of humanity ever escaping.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
"Wired reports MS's denial at http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/21 577.html. They
say the key is only used to verify compliance with US export control laws."
well then, it looks like the NSA in "NSAKEY" DOES stand for "No Such Agency".
Not a joke, and not an acronym for "Network Service Address" (or whatever).
So, how likely then is MS's explanation to be true - if the worst that is suspected (MS-NSA collusion) is true?
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Airbus is already suing because they claim their secrets were Echelon-ed and leaked to Boeing.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
grep "NSAKEY" msnt128.exe
.
...
nothing.
Not in MY SP5. .
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
I don't know about y'all, but ever since MSG, I haven't trusted any chemical known by an acronym.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
or, perhaps dump the formula of "a tv show that has a number of familliar faces (usually no more than 6 or so, because audiences can't handle much more than that) that are in every episode".
I'd like to see that, and I'd like to see other shows that actually apply real astrophysics to the flight of spacecraft (B5, Crusade), and shows that don't have painfully trite dialog (B5, Crusade), and shows that don't use stupid misconceptions/stereotypes about science, scientists, computers, computer scientists, but then, I guess I'm asking too much.
How about a sci fi sitcom?:
It's like, you glow.
A man from Earth, travels to a uranium mining colony on Mars, and moves in with an old college buddy, to write a book about how much Mars, and Martians suck.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
I guess that's where I'm confused, and since others read the article and were similarly boffed, is the line this guy came up with mathematical, or simply an overlay of statistics? I mean, there's a formula for the gaussian curve, right (assuming you have "random" numbers). Is there a formula for this new beast (the beanie-baby curve)?
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
you're suggesting we call this the beanie-baby curve?
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
I wonder about that too, but there's a difference between a statistical graph, and a graph of a mathematical function, and there's a disconnect between the two - it doesn't give you a model for the underlying mechanism that causes the behavior, so you may have a more accurate way to predict what the statistic is going to be, you still can't use this to predict the moment the earth starts shaking.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Isn't this just Murphy's Law?
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
1) sorry, I did ramble on for what should have been a brief example - the point goes on to #2
2) All I originally said was, that if science is not 100% sure, then it should not be "sold" as such. Philosophically speaking, the only way one can be 100% sure of something is with faith. Not science. God, of course, does not corner the market on faith. Folks are perfectly able to have 100% faith in science, but that's when science stops being science and starts being a religion. That's what I object to. I didn't say scientific method was wrong, or that there was a better method. I'm just saying that it has limitations. Less limitations than anything else, but still, has limits.
3) please. non-issue. The point was made above in #2.
4) No, you did not say you want to control minds, but by saying "your ideas are dangerous", and blaming the loss of human lives on them, starts to sound a little like some other friends we've heard of like Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot (and quite a few Popes too).
You may be happy to know that I agree 100% on faith=irrational. It's good stuff, you should try it some time, but I see you already have. Best taken in small doses, with salt. Kind of like Tequilla.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
"Newton's theory is used to guide spacecraft to Saturn. The theory works, and is
accepted and proven to be a truthful description of how the universe works. There is no way that
Newton's theory will ever be falsified. Not even Einstein's theory did that! "
come now, come now, Newton's theory doesn't apply on the quantum scale now, does it? There have even been measurements made of spacecraft (travelling BEYOND Saturn *snicker*) showing object accellerating faster than they ought to be. There are some theories for why this is happening, but I think there hasn't been a consensus yet on what's going on. The fact is, we don't know. Nobody is out there looking at these space probes, seeing if there is a tiny propellant leak, or whatever. I'm not saying Newtons theories are false, they're great, and they've proven to be about the most useful tools mankind has ever devised.
Likewise, no human was alive 65 million years ago, to SEE dinosaurs walk the earth. What we accept as truth, is what we rationalize. True, science is the best systematic way to rationalize our reality based on our observations, but the fact is, no matter what is observed, no matter what evidence you have, you can't possibly know any thing 100% for sure. It's a philosophical question, yes, but that is the root of human experience.
And I would likewise tell you that if God himself came down in front of me and said, "Yo, dude, you got a buger hanging out of your nose", I still, scientifically can't say that I 100% believe in God, because it could have been a hallucination, right? Even if I DID have a buger hanging out of my nose.
But spiritually, I DO believe that God exists, because I take that on faith, which is not a rationalization based on the scientific method, nor is it some lame sense of obligation to parents or religious leaders. It is NOT my faith (or anyone's faith) in God that endangers or costs humans their lives, it's when I justify certain actions based on this faith: I must kill you and invade your country because you are infidels. Well, let me tell you, even the officially "atheist" countries out there have killed folks based on ideology, or what usually turns out to be a personal lust for power justified by a framework of rationalizations. Whether this framework of rationalizations is the Catholic religion, or Godless communism, it's still all a sham. Does that make the FAITH wrong? No, it makes the ACTIONS of killing (or whatever you're trying to assert) wrong. Faith isn't the problem, it's human greed, and human selfishness, and these things will never go away, no matter what dictator comes along with weapons of mass destruction, and chemicals and mass hypnosis - humans will always be the way they are, of course until they destroy themselves.
By induction, you extend your evidence to a tentative statement "There is no god". Well, be as tentative as you like. I'm sorry that you can't have 100% faith in the truth of a matter. But when you rely on science, that is going to be the case, 100% of the time, because that's what science is all about, and thankfully, you state it truthfully by saying "tentative statement" (and by saying "by induction" - which is a method that, by nature, cannot 100% prove something, only deduction can).
Personally, I'm more comfortable making the the DEFINATE statement "I believe there IS a God". Existance just feels better for me that way. Not because of my comfort about (how did someone put this a couple of days back?) "being whisked away to some fantasyland after I die". But rather, that there's a reason for it all, that it's not all just some cosmic accident that may as well not have happened at all.
Ideas don't kill people. People kill people. When you start saying that ideas are dangerous (and I know, yes, it was religious people who first made this kind of thing popular), then you start saying you want to control people's minds. I don't know about you, but mind control makes me kind of uncomfortable.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
I didn't say they deserved it. I just said it was not the Government's fault. It was Koresh and his cronies' fault.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Actually, in my Home Economics class in HS, we were taught some very useful techniques for not getting screwed by false advertising, how to be skeptical about wild claims, and how to make sure companies follow through on rebates and warranties, and stuff like that.
This was among the MOST useful information I took with me out of HS. Far more useful than 4 state mandatory years of Phys. Ed. watching the lesbian gym teacher ogle the cheerleader squad.
And don't even get me started on that stupid TYPING class. I spent more time trying to get the paper lined up in the damn crappy typewriter. After I failed that class (for non attendance), and my parents got me my first computer (TI 99/4a) my typing improved so much in one week that I was able to test out of the requirement and not have to re take the class.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
It's really just a question of fundamentallists, who argue that the bible is 100% pure, accurate, the word of God, unaltered, the truth, no questions asked.
Now, to reconcile that belief, they need to crowbar reality into that mold. Unfortunately, the rest of us have to be dragged kicking and screaming along with them.
Then there's the poor fallibists, who believe in God, but have reservations about the whole validity of the bible. Faith-wise, that is a slippery slope indeed, because you lose a material connection to God, which is supposed to be an anchor for your faith, and is instead, being used as a crutch. Us fallibists (or Christian Liberals) are caught in the middle, being perceived as zealots when we admit that we believe in God, or want our kids to learn creationism (in church, not public school), or even that we'd prefer it if evolution not be portrayed as some absolute unchangeable truth.
The fundamentallist zealots hate us, and the athiest secular humanists hate us.
There's an excellent article in this month's Scientific American on this topic.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Yes, true, but when science is taught as dogma, pursuit of the truth is also in jeopardy.
A scientist should alway have an open mind that even their most beloved and trusted theories may one day be proven false, or be replaced by another theory. And NO scientist should support any theory for which there is no evidence. (is there any evidence at all that there is definately NO god?).
If you can't disprove His existence, then shut the hell up and leave those of who DO believe alone. And don't blame ALL believers for the few zealots who try to force nonbelievers to believe. Some of us just don't give a rat's ass who doesn't believe.
And yes, I do want my children taught about evolution in school. I just don't want the teacher to say that Darwin's evolution is the only possible explanation, and that it proves that there is no god, because neither of those assertions are true.
On the other hand, I sure as hell don't want my tax dollars going to pay to educate my child for someone else's version of biblical creation. My church is perfectly capable of conveying that story.
So again, I don't understand why honesty can't be brought back into the science classroom (um, class, it's a THEORY - it's the best one we have today, not the only one, just the best one, it may not be true, but "officially" this is what we're going with), and I can't understand why some folks think religion has any business being taught in public schools.
Gosh, I guess I'm just too level-headed to be a true American.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
It's a dumb checklist.
It's the same method used by PHBs to buy software, and hire engineers.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Who gives a crap about Waco.
They were stockpiling guns, military weapons.
The gummint didn't dump gasoline all over the compound, the nutty religious zealots did.
They broke the law and resisted arrest. If Koresh had given a rat's ass about his followers, he had ample opportunity to turn himself in and have his day in court. By taking the Jim Jones way out, he only proved that he was nothing but a lying coward, who didn't believe in the truth of what he was preaching.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
The Collapse of the Berlin Wall == the breakup of the former Soviet Union, and the eventual sale of cheap weapons of mass destruction to every tin-pot despot in the world, along with the economic decay causing the death or economic enslavement (by the Russian Mafia) of millions, and the fallout being dozens of bloody ethnic conflicts: Chechnya, Bosnia, Kazakastan, the aftermath in Afganistan, etc. And now China's getting punchy.
Beginnings of a new space station == Reagan declared that we'd do this Kennedy-esque "within a decade", back in 1984. With the problems with our partnership with Russia, I would bet you a dollar that this new space station will not be completed by the schedule they have today. And the original schedule was 1994, and it was supposed to be much, much larger. Mir was abandonded last week. NASA's budget is being destroyed. Humanity's destination is not going to be the stars, unless we end up hitching a ride on some extraterrestrial slave-ship or something.
End of the Cold War == (see above statements about the berlin wall)
Cloning == rich people get to take over the world
boom of the Internet == (see above statement on cloning)
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."