Just to be pedantic: some Christian scholars believe that spirits of babies that die before baptism go to Limbo, not Heaven. However, the idea is controversial; some 'hope' they go to Heaven, others believe they go to Hell by default.
When I was in college, my English professor insisted that the official bodies which have vise-like control over the French language will inadvertently make it a dead language by the end of this century.
I imagine polling people in the '00s they would say that the pop music from the same decade was the worst ever produced. If anything, pop music since 2000 has had no identity. If the 80s was the decade of New Wave, and the 90s the decade of Alternative Rock, the 00s was an eclectic mix. There was the Nu Metal movement, which turned out to be short-lived; a resurgence in some 90s acts like Green Day/Gwen Stefani; and a growing broader interest in rap/hiphop thanks mostly to Eminem.
However, the biggest influences were the double-whammy of American Idol and Britney Spears causing Idol singers to be the primary marketed form of pop music. Many of these Idols even write their own music; however, the likelihood of being beautiful, marketable, skilled at singing/playing an instrument, AND being a talented songwriter is very low, causing song quality to fall low on the priority list. People will buy anything if it's marketed right, ya? In the old days, Idols like Elvis had their songs written by other people who were actually good at doing so; sure, many of the British Invasion bands wrote their own songs, but not all. Artists back then had more raw skill, so their songs had more complex compositions to show it off. On the flipside, recent music tends to be overproduced, with too many studio musicians, and editors inserting synthesized sounds with computer software (as opposed to standing at a synthesizer keyboard, pressing keys in realtime.)
Thanks to the Internet, there's better awareness of older music. If you want to listen to some obscure song by some obscure band from 40+ years ago, a quick trip to Youtube and you can hear it in seconds. As opposed to scrounging through used record stores for hours to find a song you've never heard before. That means current acts have to compete for mindshare with all this older music. It's also much easier to listen to music produced in other countries; I never even heard of J-Pop until the Internet put it at my fingertips (although if you check Amazon Japan, much of it is crap that sounds suspiciously like American pop.)
Considering how many more ballads were aired on radio in the past, I'm surprised songs have slower tempo nowadays on average. Perhaps that's due to increased prevalence of rap and hiphop, which tend to be more down-tempo. Dance tracks are probably more common, and seem about the same tempo as they were. The Loudness War has been well-documented. I imagine songs have lyrics that are sadder and more focused on self due to end of the civil rights era and increased wealth stratification leading to increased individualism, and more prevalence of rap/hiphop which tend to have a more negative tone.
Lyrics are more repetitive, I predict, because the hook is repeated more. More often lately, it's just repeated over and over and over, the song having an A-B-B-B... ad nauseum structure. Ok I got it, you want a catchy hook to easily market the song. But you know what songs I like most? The ones WITHOUT any identifiable hook... because the entire song is amazing despite it having multiple differing sections.
But wait, it gets worse! Major music labels decide what acts to pick up based not only on subjective listening, but also by algorithm. They now use algorithms that compare their songs to existing hit songs. If it's close enough to what sold before, then they get a second chance. In other words, they're (at least sometimes) selecting for musicians that ape what came before, ensuring it sounds same-y and not original. With the steadily decreasing music sales, the labels are likely getting increasingly conservative, even less likely to sponsor acts that break the mold (i.e. established genres) too much. That's why this decade has the same Idol domination of last decade; airbrushed airheads and smooth douches singing love songs. Every time I hear a new song I like that I hadn't heard before... it turns out it was from last decade, or a cover of one. Go figure.
It's completely possible to: a) steal cryptocurrency b) sit on it c) wait for statute of limitations for relevant crimes to run out d) then transfer it safely, knowing noone is paying attention any more or can do anything. if you stole enough, it's POSSIBLE the blockchain would get forked just to spite you... but probably not
I wonder how many thieves have made a fortune doing this, by virtue of the cryptocurrency exploding in value after the theft
I'm curious. Ice has been found on Luna's poles (it may need some processing but it's there), so why does Mars seem to be the go-to place for human colonization? Luna would be far faster/easier to get shipments to/from Earth, much faster communication times, no waiting for optimal interplanetary distance windows etc. The ice being on the poles shouldn't be as much of a problem. Maneuvering a spacecraft to land on Luna's pole should be far less delta-V than landing it on Mars (I presume). The ice could be pipelined (~1,500 mile pipe, world's longest is ~2,350 miles) to an equator outpost, although given it's ~27kelvin at the poles, heating it to liquid and pumping it would likely be infeasible. However, ice could be electrolyzed into hydrogen and oxygen and those could be easily pumped, then separated or burned for water as needed. I'll let someone else do the math on which of electrolysis or melting would require less energy (although presumably we'd use most of the water for electrolysis into rocket fuel anyway, as water recyclers are reasonably (~85%) efficient.)
Many seniors also engage in blatantly prejudicial and biased reasoning. Ask a WW2 vet who swallowed the anti-Japanese propaganda how they feel about Sony or Toyota, 75+ years after the war and the occupation and the rewritten constitution and all the new generations of Japanese born after the war who were raised on Western ideas. As one example. There's also "this is the way I've always done it, so I'll do it this way until I die" stubbornness. There are TONS of people, seniors or no, who feel safer driving than flying in a large commercial aircraft despite the statistics being very clear that the latter is far safer.
Ssh don't give it away. Florida retirement communities are secretly a solution for our country's ageing population. Come for the weather (warm, sunny, beaches everywhere), stay for the weather (sweeping you out to sea).
Smartphone payment app, once authenticated via server, connects to bike via NFC/bluetooth, sending server-obtained bike-unique unlock code to bike's internal electronic system to deactivate solenoid/servo that otherwise engages the brakes. Press a button to activate the bike electronics when locked, so the battery will last for years. You worked at Google and you couldn't think up something like that?
What's happening to Google's 1,100 Gbikes? [snip]100 to 250 Google bikes go missing every week [snip] they eventually recover about two-thirds of the missing bikes
So ~175 bikes go missing each week, of which ~120 are recovered. So ~55 go permanently missing each week. If there's 1,100 total, that means they'll all be gone after 5 months. Presumably they're being reordered to replace the ones that disappear. Also, hiring 30 contractors to track these down? Surely there's a more efficient way of doing this. Getting people to pay a nominal security deposit for use of the bikes would encourage people to return them ($1 would work surprisingly well, even for people making 6 figures. Psychology, bitches!). There are other, stick-based methods, but then more people will just dump them in creeks.
You're neglecting the fact that he made a comparison. It may have been a factual comparison, but what one chooses to compare can be considered a meaningful statement. The subtext was showy if not threatening.
In the sense that sabre-rattling is not a threat. The implicit message is 'we can nuke you more effectively than you can us' which is a warning at best.
Yeah, nuclear war threats should be issued via SoundCloud or Tindr. Accusations of crossed boundaries via MySpace, and threats of suicide via Diaspora. Too soon?
My understanding is that creativity is like tree sap. You can tap into it periodically, draining it, but you can't do anything to speed up its production.
My mom was having strange problems with her Echo Dot. Among other problems, the Alexa shopping list was full of items she never put in it. Scrolling through the Alexa voice search history (yes, you can read a transcript and hear a sound clip of everything ever said to Alexa on your account, creepy as hell), I found and was able to replay a voice clip of someone else speaking to Alexa on a different account, putting an item in the shopping list. Somehow the accounts got crossed temporarily, and we were able to listen to the voice of this other unrelated person. According to Amazon customer support, this happens sometimes, oops, nothing they can do. I wonder if my mom's voice ended up on someone else's account's history. Stuff like this is why I'm not allowing such a device in my living space.
Slashdot Mirror
So... humans are the REAL rats?!
What're you talking about? Slashdot readers are MASTERS of not reproducing.
All I know is, they'd rather take the Android or the Apple than the Blackberry or the Microsoft.
Just to be pedantic: some Christian scholars believe that spirits of babies that die before baptism go to Limbo, not Heaven. However, the idea is controversial; some 'hope' they go to Heaven, others believe they go to Hell by default.
When I was in college, my English professor insisted that the official bodies which have vise-like control over the French language will inadvertently make it a dead language by the end of this century.
I imagine polling people in the '00s they would say that the pop music from the same decade was the worst ever produced. If anything, pop music since 2000 has had no identity. If the 80s was the decade of New Wave, and the 90s the decade of Alternative Rock, the 00s was an eclectic mix. There was the Nu Metal movement, which turned out to be short-lived; a resurgence in some 90s acts like Green Day/Gwen Stefani; and a growing broader interest in rap/hiphop thanks mostly to Eminem.
However, the biggest influences were the double-whammy of American Idol and Britney Spears causing Idol singers to be the primary marketed form of pop music. Many of these Idols even write their own music; however, the likelihood of being beautiful, marketable, skilled at singing/playing an instrument, AND being a talented songwriter is very low, causing song quality to fall low on the priority list. People will buy anything if it's marketed right, ya? In the old days, Idols like Elvis had their songs written by other people who were actually good at doing so; sure, many of the British Invasion bands wrote their own songs, but not all. Artists back then had more raw skill, so their songs had more complex compositions to show it off. On the flipside, recent music tends to be overproduced, with too many studio musicians, and editors inserting synthesized sounds with computer software (as opposed to standing at a synthesizer keyboard, pressing keys in realtime.)
Thanks to the Internet, there's better awareness of older music. If you want to listen to some obscure song by some obscure band from 40+ years ago, a quick trip to Youtube and you can hear it in seconds. As opposed to scrounging through used record stores for hours to find a song you've never heard before. That means current acts have to compete for mindshare with all this older music. It's also much easier to listen to music produced in other countries; I never even heard of J-Pop until the Internet put it at my fingertips (although if you check Amazon Japan, much of it is crap that sounds suspiciously like American pop.)
Considering how many more ballads were aired on radio in the past, I'm surprised songs have slower tempo nowadays on average. Perhaps that's due to increased prevalence of rap and hiphop, which tend to be more down-tempo. Dance tracks are probably more common, and seem about the same tempo as they were. The Loudness War has been well-documented. I imagine songs have lyrics that are sadder and more focused on self due to end of the civil rights era and increased wealth stratification leading to increased individualism, and more prevalence of rap/hiphop which tend to have a more negative tone.
Lyrics are more repetitive, I predict, because the hook is repeated more. More often lately, it's just repeated over and over and over, the song having an A-B-B-B... ad nauseum structure. Ok I got it, you want a catchy hook to easily market the song. But you know what songs I like most? The ones WITHOUT any identifiable hook... because the entire song is amazing despite it having multiple differing sections.
But wait, it gets worse! Major music labels decide what acts to pick up based not only on subjective listening, but also by algorithm. They now use algorithms that compare their songs to existing hit songs. If it's close enough to what sold before, then they get a second chance. In other words, they're (at least sometimes) selecting for musicians that ape what came before, ensuring it sounds same-y and not original. With the steadily decreasing music sales, the labels are likely getting increasingly conservative, even less likely to sponsor acts that break the mold (i.e. established genres) too much. That's why this decade has the same Idol domination of last decade; airbrushed airheads and smooth douches singing love songs. Every time I hear a new song I like that I hadn't heard before... it turns out it was from last decade, or a cover of one. Go figure.
4chan ops? Can you elaborate?
It's completely possible to:
a) steal cryptocurrency
b) sit on it
c) wait for statute of limitations for relevant crimes to run out
d) then transfer it safely, knowing noone is paying attention any more or can do anything. if you stole enough, it's POSSIBLE the blockchain would get forked just to spite you... but probably not
I wonder how many thieves have made a fortune doing this, by virtue of the cryptocurrency exploding in value after the theft
I don't care if this is porn, IoT, finance, or anything else: this is a sign of many deeper problems.
Not to worry, porn is ALL ABOUT solving 'deeper' problems.
Thanks for the informative reply
I don't often test my code; but when I do, I do it on production server.
I'm curious. Ice has been found on Luna's poles (it may need some processing but it's there), so why does Mars seem to be the go-to place for human colonization? Luna would be far faster/easier to get shipments to/from Earth, much faster communication times, no waiting for optimal interplanetary distance windows etc.
The ice being on the poles shouldn't be as much of a problem. Maneuvering a spacecraft to land on Luna's pole should be far less delta-V than landing it on Mars (I presume). The ice could be pipelined (~1,500 mile pipe, world's longest is ~2,350 miles) to an equator outpost, although given it's ~27kelvin at the poles, heating it to liquid and pumping it would likely be infeasible. However, ice could be electrolyzed into hydrogen and oxygen and those could be easily pumped, then separated or burned for water as needed. I'll let someone else do the math on which of electrolysis or melting would require less energy (although presumably we'd use most of the water for electrolysis into rocket fuel anyway, as water recyclers are reasonably (~85%) efficient.)
Many seniors also engage in blatantly prejudicial and biased reasoning. Ask a WW2 vet who swallowed the anti-Japanese propaganda how they feel about Sony or Toyota, 75+ years after the war and the occupation and the rewritten constitution and all the new generations of Japanese born after the war who were raised on Western ideas. As one example. There's also "this is the way I've always done it, so I'll do it this way until I die" stubbornness. There are TONS of people, seniors or no, who feel safer driving than flying in a large commercial aircraft despite the statistics being very clear that the latter is far safer.
Ssh don't give it away. Florida retirement communities are secretly a solution for our country's ageing population. Come for the weather (warm, sunny, beaches everywhere), stay for the weather (sweeping you out to sea).
The price of everything is going up, from real estate to building materials to labor.
The real question is: is thermal expansion outpacing economic expansion?
Smartphone payment app, once authenticated via server, connects to bike via NFC/bluetooth, sending server-obtained bike-unique unlock code to bike's internal electronic system to deactivate solenoid/servo that otherwise engages the brakes. Press a button to activate the bike electronics when locked, so the battery will last for years. You worked at Google and you couldn't think up something like that?
What's happening to Google's 1,100 Gbikes? [snip]100 to 250 Google bikes go missing every week [snip] they eventually recover about two-thirds of the missing bikes
So ~175 bikes go missing each week, of which ~120 are recovered. So ~55 go permanently missing each week. If there's 1,100 total, that means they'll all be gone after 5 months. Presumably they're being reordered to replace the ones that disappear.
Also, hiring 30 contractors to track these down? Surely there's a more efficient way of doing this. Getting people to pay a nominal security deposit for use of the bikes would encourage people to return them ($1 would work surprisingly well, even for people making 6 figures. Psychology, bitches!). There are other, stick-based methods, but then more people will just dump them in creeks.
Those 1,100 Gbikes are actually 1,024 Gbikes after formatting. It's in the fine print.
two recognized branches of early Native Americans (referred to as Northern and Southern)
North American is best American!
You're neglecting the fact that he made a comparison. It may have been a factual comparison, but what one chooses to compare can be considered a meaningful statement. The subtext was showy if not threatening.
In the sense that sabre-rattling is not a threat. The implicit message is 'we can nuke you more effectively than you can us' which is a warning at best.
Yeah, nuclear war threats should be issued via SoundCloud or Tindr. Accusations of crossed boundaries via MySpace, and threats of suicide via Diaspora.
Too soon?
If the President does it, it's not against Twitter's rules. By definition.
My understanding is that creativity is like tree sap. You can tap into it periodically, draining it, but you can't do anything to speed up its production.
My mom was having strange problems with her Echo Dot. Among other problems, the Alexa shopping list was full of items she never put in it. Scrolling through the Alexa voice search history (yes, you can read a transcript and hear a sound clip of everything ever said to Alexa on your account, creepy as hell), I found and was able to replay a voice clip of someone else speaking to Alexa on a different account, putting an item in the shopping list. Somehow the accounts got crossed temporarily, and we were able to listen to the voice of this other unrelated person. According to Amazon customer support, this happens sometimes, oops, nothing they can do. I wonder if my mom's voice ended up on someone else's account's history. Stuff like this is why I'm not allowing such a device in my living space.