Second, we shouldn't glamorize minimalism which relies on having great families, great jobs, trust funds, and social networks to work. Pretentious yoga types, don't preach. It's not minimalism if you're just externalizing privilege.
Could you clarify what you mean here? I feel as though you're making a rather profound point but I'm missing all the cultural references. I'd like to understand this.
Sure, there are a lot of Jason Levine's (138 according to HowManyOfMe.com), but a read through my comment history on Reddit or other sites could easily narrow that down.
Interesting resource! I get 47,994 people in the US with my name;-) but I'm not in the US so I suppose that complicates things a bit.
I'm actually kind of curious as to what this unique name of yours might be, though I realise it's futile to ask...;-)
I on the other hand, have been informed multiple times (by none less than the Guiness book of records) that my name / surname combination is the most common one (I forget if it's in the world or just in the English-speaking world), so if I want to be anonymous on the internet, I just use my real name...
I'm going to be pedantic here and point out that there's a difference between the Fermi paradox and the Drake equation, I think you're referring to the latter. Fermi simply asked the question - if the universe is so big and so old, where is everyone else? Frank Drake came up with the equation and the variables to which you're referring, and Carl Sagan popularised it by estimating these probabilities quite optimistically high.
1Gbps fibre is available from most providers but if you don't need it, why pay for it? 40 Mbps is cheaper. Most people have gladly jumped over to fibre when it's become available (though coverage areas are still small and limited to main cities), because then you can say goodbye to the aforementioned Telkom and their aging copper infrastructure.
FWIW, our internet certainly isn't the cheapest in the world, but for the past couple of years it's reached the point where it's not *that* expensive anymore. Gone are the days where we'd have to pay a week's wages for 3 GB per month at 384 kbps over copper ADSL...
Our cables going to Europe / the Americas / Asia tend to run in the sea. Telecoms doesn't go over those mountains / deserts / sovereign nations that you mentioned.
No idea why this is modded insightful. Yes, South Africa has its problems, but point me to the country that doesn't? The crime rates are kind of going down if you squint at the graphs, poverty is reducing (granted not very fast), there's food enough.There are lots of things that can improve but it's not a free-for-all.
I might be a bit naive here, but isn't using the captured CO2 as an alternative fuel just going to end up with it in the atmosphere again? I mean the fuel will need to be burned and then it'll go right back where it came from so you end up with the same problem. In my mind the only sustainable solution would be to bury the stuff underground, or somewhere that it can't go back into the atmosphere.
To be fair, the person to whom you're replying may be in a different city from what you are. Chicago is not necessarily representative of all cities.
I live in Cape Town, and the word "taxi" here has two meanings - it could be an informal, minibus which operates like a bus, they have fairly set routes and are used as mass transit. These are a bit more convenient than normal busses or rail, but they're dangerous and the drivers are famously lawless. Regular metered taxis are a whole spectrum. I've been in some awful ones with none of the advantages you describe, most notably having to pay in cash. There are high-end professional ones, but they're expensive.
Uber, on the other hand, has been a remarkably consistent, convenient experience. I cycle and use trains where I can, but when that's not an option I much prefer Uber over regular metered taxis.
6 months in prison only looks lenient if you think that 35 years is just.
I suspect the touted 35 years is just a symptom of a trend towards potential sentences that are far too harsh to bully Americans into accepting these plea deals and not actually getting a fair trial.
There's something to what you say, but removing a language accompanies a great loss of culture. Sure, probably everyone in the world should try to speak at least one of the four you mentioned, but it would be a crime (IMO) to forget your heritage and make the world a homogeneous mush. I love the richness of the world with all the different cultures, and language makes up a big part of that.
Zamenhof was originally an idealist who wanted to make a universal second language, but more recently conlangs as I believe they are called, are exercises just for the sake of it, for students of linguistics. There's value to this as well, I think.
And seriously, who even remembers the animal name? If I'm googling a specific release I almost always use the number, but if not then I use "Trusty" or "Precise" or whatever. I seldom even remember what the animal was.
1. Even though you can recycle the batteries, no one does. It's cheaper, easier and quicker to mine fresh minerals, so the batteries mostly end up on landfills. Mining always causes pollution.
2. There's no such thing as a non-polluting energy source. Solar panels need to be made in polluting factories from materials gotten from polluting mines, same thing goes for wind turbines or hydro turbines or whatever your flavour-of-the-day renewable energy source is.
The short version? Buying a Tesla doesn't wave a magic wand and remove pollution. Sure, in ideal circumstances it may have an overall reduction in pollution, but in many practical cases it's just going to be a NIMBY issue, taking the pollution somewhere else.
Sure, if you can afford to, go ahead. I have no hassles with that.
I have concerns though that high-end stuff like this is marketed ultra-aggressively. If you want to be trendy you have to have the latest iPhone. Oh, you have a 5S? Why are you living in the stone age? Same thing goes for the Samsungs. I know too many people who take out 3-year contracts that they can barely afford, in order to get the latest phone that they don't really need.
Granted, this isn't Apple's fault, it's entirely the idiot consumer's choice to do that, but it bothers me a lot.
Yeah fair, they are providing very good value.
But I think the point that TFA was making is that a $200 smartphone can do 99% of what the $1000 one can. Does it really add the extra $800 worth of value?
I have a $180 (2.5 years ago) Moto G2, compared with my friend who has an iPhone 6+ (too lazy to look how much it cost last year). Can hers do that much more than mine? Nope.
Granted the pictures are nicer, but to me that's not worth it because I'm not heavily into smartphone photography. That's the only advantage to the iPhone that I could see really, and if it were important I could see myself spending up to $500 on it maybe? But definitely not $1k.
Slashdot Mirror
Obligatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/768/
Second, we shouldn't glamorize minimalism which relies on having great families, great jobs, trust funds, and social networks to work. Pretentious yoga types, don't preach. It's not minimalism if you're just externalizing privilege.
Could you clarify what you mean here? I feel as though you're making a rather profound point but I'm missing all the cultural references. I'd like to understand this.
And me without mod points. +1 to you sir.
Wealthier people more likely to be able to afford expensive product than non-wealthy ones, hence more likely to buy it.
Film at 11...
they mostly have iPhones because they're tired of ... every vendor trying to lock you into their ecosystem.
....
tied you into their store
While I don't disagree with most of what you said, you complain about vendor lock-in from Android and then you present Apple as the alternative?
I wonder if you realise the irony of that.
Sure, there are a lot of Jason Levine's (138 according to HowManyOfMe.com), but a read through my comment history on Reddit or other sites could easily narrow that down.
Interesting resource! I get 47,994 people in the US with my name ;-) but I'm not in the US so I suppose that complicates things a bit.
I'm actually kind of curious as to what this unique name of yours might be, though I realise it's futile to ask... ;-)
I on the other hand, have been informed multiple times (by none less than the Guiness book of records) that my name / surname combination is the most common one (I forget if it's in the world or just in the English-speaking world), so if I want to be anonymous on the internet, I just use my real name...
I'm going to be pedantic here and point out that there's a difference between the Fermi paradox and the Drake equation, I think you're referring to the latter. Fermi simply asked the question - if the universe is so big and so old, where is everyone else? Frank Drake came up with the equation and the variables to which you're referring, and Carl Sagan popularised it by estimating these probabilities quite optimistically high.
1Gbps fibre is available from most providers but if you don't need it, why pay for it? 40 Mbps is cheaper. Most people have gladly jumped over to fibre when it's become available (though coverage areas are still small and limited to main cities), because then you can say goodbye to the aforementioned Telkom and their aging copper infrastructure.
FWIW, our internet certainly isn't the cheapest in the world, but for the past couple of years it's reached the point where it's not *that* expensive anymore. Gone are the days where we'd have to pay a week's wages for 3 GB per month at 384 kbps over copper ADSL...
Our cables going to Europe / the Americas / Asia tend to run in the sea. Telecoms doesn't go over those mountains / deserts / sovereign nations that you mentioned.
No idea why this is modded insightful. Yes, South Africa has its problems, but point me to the country that doesn't? The crime rates are kind of going down if you squint at the graphs, poverty is reducing (granted not very fast), there's food enough.There are lots of things that can improve but it's not a free-for-all.
The accepted word is Capetonian. ;-)
I might be a bit naive here, but isn't using the captured CO2 as an alternative fuel just going to end up with it in the atmosphere again? I mean the fuel will need to be burned and then it'll go right back where it came from so you end up with the same problem. In my mind the only sustainable solution would be to bury the stuff underground, or somewhere that it can't go back into the atmosphere.
To be fair, the person to whom you're replying may be in a different city from what you are. Chicago is not necessarily representative of all cities.
I live in Cape Town, and the word "taxi" here has two meanings - it could be an informal, minibus which operates like a bus, they have fairly set routes and are used as mass transit. These are a bit more convenient than normal busses or rail, but they're dangerous and the drivers are famously lawless. Regular metered taxis are a whole spectrum. I've been in some awful ones with none of the advantages you describe, most notably having to pay in cash. There are high-end professional ones, but they're expensive.
Uber, on the other hand, has been a remarkably consistent, convenient experience. I cycle and use trains where I can, but when that's not an option I much prefer Uber over regular metered taxis.
6 months in prison only looks lenient if you think that 35 years is just. I suspect the touted 35 years is just a symptom of a trend towards potential sentences that are far too harsh to bully Americans into accepting these plea deals and not actually getting a fair trial.
Haha - except the Germans didn't really start the first one, they just became the main force on the side that eventually lost.
It didn't even really catch on in Europe though, never mind the rest of the world.
There's something to what you say, but removing a language accompanies a great loss of culture. Sure, probably everyone in the world should try to speak at least one of the four you mentioned, but it would be a crime (IMO) to forget your heritage and make the world a homogeneous mush. I love the richness of the world with all the different cultures, and language makes up a big part of that.
Zamenhof was originally an idealist who wanted to make a universal second language, but more recently conlangs as I believe they are called, are exercises just for the sake of it, for students of linguistics. There's value to this as well, I think.
Aardvarks are cool animals though.
And seriously, who even remembers the animal name? If I'm googling a specific release I almost always use the number, but if not then I use "Trusty" or "Precise" or whatever. I seldom even remember what the animal was.
Two things.
1. Even though you can recycle the batteries, no one does. It's cheaper, easier and quicker to mine fresh minerals, so the batteries mostly end up on landfills. Mining always causes pollution.
2. There's no such thing as a non-polluting energy source. Solar panels need to be made in polluting factories from materials gotten from polluting mines, same thing goes for wind turbines or hydro turbines or whatever your flavour-of-the-day renewable energy source is.
The short version? Buying a Tesla doesn't wave a magic wand and remove pollution. Sure, in ideal circumstances it may have an overall reduction in pollution, but in many practical cases it's just going to be a NIMBY issue, taking the pollution somewhere else.
$25k watches are definitely not mainstream though. iPhones are ending up in a lot more hands than other expensive lifestyle things.
Because I'm tired of polluting my planet and am too lazy to bike everywhere.
Someone should have told you how those batteries in your Tesla were made... Also the electricity that recharges it.
(Hint: some pollution may have been involved.)
I'd argue though that the work-related points kind of imply that your phone in fact does generate an income for you. In a way.
Sure, if you can afford to, go ahead. I have no hassles with that.
I have concerns though that high-end stuff like this is marketed ultra-aggressively. If you want to be trendy you have to have the latest iPhone. Oh, you have a 5S? Why are you living in the stone age? Same thing goes for the Samsungs. I know too many people who take out 3-year contracts that they can barely afford, in order to get the latest phone that they don't really need.
Granted, this isn't Apple's fault, it's entirely the idiot consumer's choice to do that, but it bothers me a lot.
Yeah fair, they are providing very good value. But I think the point that TFA was making is that a $200 smartphone can do 99% of what the $1000 one can. Does it really add the extra $800 worth of value? I have a $180 (2.5 years ago) Moto G2, compared with my friend who has an iPhone 6+ (too lazy to look how much it cost last year). Can hers do that much more than mine? Nope. Granted the pictures are nicer, but to me that's not worth it because I'm not heavily into smartphone photography. That's the only advantage to the iPhone that I could see really, and if it were important I could see myself spending up to $500 on it maybe? But definitely not $1k.