What makes you think the iphone's frontend will be "nice"? It really seems to me that its going to requrie juggling of the highest order just to perform simple task.
I'm waiting to see how it pans out, but the irrational exuberance surrounding the iphone is probably leading to one of the biggest tech let-downs of the year.
Outside of the 'must-have' cache it has in some circles, I just dont see it hitting like the ipod. There are a dozen cell manufacturers that can eat Apple's lunch overnight -- trying to bring emotion based branding to the technology market isnt the recipe for long term technology-industry success.
Are you serious? "they still dont get it"? "Binary choice"? Telephones need buttons. Smartphones, meant to be calendars/emails/sms messengers need buttons.
The review I read of this HTC device complained, "it soon became smugged and a little greasy", exactly why Smartphone users dont like to touch their screens but use a stylus instead. I dont want to clean the screen 3 times daily.
Im sure you'll be front and center when the iphone ships and the rest of the world reviews its poor new magic UI, your response will be "they just dont get it".
Seeing this story makes me think of Aqua Teen Hunger Force LED-pranksters and the Boston Police. The ATHF-pranksters are being held to task because of the over-reation of the Boston authorities. The same hysteria that brings the Boston Authorities to react in the way they did has informed these Tennessee teachers.
They (thought) it was a correct behaviour in this "post 9/11 world" (whatver that is), and were made to look extremely foolish. But now we have an ACTUAL case of terrorism. In this case, these teachers *actually* terrorized these students. There motivation matters not. They have *actually* done to these children what the Boston Authorities (B.A.) did to Boston (but, then, pinned the blame on the ATHF, who had no reason to think anyone could react in the ridiculous manner of the B.A.
These teachers should be drawn and quartered for their ACTUAL act of abuse of these children.
First thing you do when you buy a new PC is remove all the terrible software installed by these OEMs. Same goes for the damn 'extras' CDROM shipped to people from their ISP.
Microsoft is dead correct, this software is virtually always terrible.
Not everyone hates Microsoft. MS makes MANY terrific products. Hardware and Software.
I dont really understand it at all. If I had to guess, its tribal types stuck in an us-vs-them mentality. Marketing today is so emotion/self-identity based, people view themselves through the products they purchase. Its an emotionally weak perpective, but much of the public falls prey to this perspective and discourse....I fell a little like Tyler Durden when i say "You are not the software you use".
My favorite Spaghetti-Monster-ism (did i just coin that..?) is Miniture Pink Unicorns Inside my chest. Usually comes up in the "you must repsect faith" stream of debate. The 'setup' is "Do you feel it is necessary to respect my deeply held faith that my body cavity/chest is filled with tiny pink unicorns. That if you pull my ribcage open, they'll spill out no the floor. I deeply believe this. I have tremendous faith that this is the case. I demand you respect my faith."
Clearly it is nonsense... but I always love the look on their faces when i say "rip my ribcage open and watch the unicors spill out".
"You got infected from all those lesbian porn sites you've been visiting."
Hey thats not fair and you know it.
He "got infected" because he had a hole in his browser, cant tell the difference between a system dialoge and a IE window masquerading as one, or volunteered to install an exe,...., or xxxx.
he wasnt infected because the.jpgs and.pngs had nude women on them.
While it is affective to blackmail your brother, its a lie.
Tell them how the bible is actually a product of slection. That the current books of the bible were 'chosen' amoungst many from the New Testament Apocrypha (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Testament_apocry pha).
Tell them of the recent discoveries of the Gospels of Mary and Gospel of Judas.
Tell them of Gnosticism.
Its fine to use the Bible as a source of contradition, to show it is fallable. Its another thing for them to recognize the Bible *isnt the word of god*. There is nothing "holy or authoritative" about the book itself.
It discusses (biased) that they are, and talks briefly about where in the body you'll find stem cells
You may be using the term 'biased' in research/journalist form that I am unfarmiliar with. Im not sure the article is really biased on the concept -- but again, perhaps your meaning 'biased' in a nuanced way Im not appreciating. Anywho, hmm, near the bottom of the article:
a surgeon with Toronto's University Health Network, studied cells from the freshly removed colon tumours of 17 patients...From these, the researchers sorted two batches of cell samples. One contained the cancer stem cells found in the tumours, the other was ordinary cancer cells.
Even at doses as high as 250,000 cells, the ordinary cells failed to grow tumours in 46 of 47 mice (which were immune-deficient models to prevent rejection). Dr. Dick suspects that the one high-dose transplant that led to a tumour had been contaminated with stem cells.
In contrast, just a thousand cancer stem cells implanted into the mouse model could generate and regenerate a replica of the tumour from which it had originally come, complete with the varied cells it had contained -- the gold standard for proving the seed role of cancer stem cells."
I think this bit should have been at the top of the article. The article really discusses the implication of this concept; if you divide the cancer-stem-cells out, you find *they* can give/cause cancer. The other normal cancer cells cannot. Thats pretty profound research/realization.
Kill the cancer-stem-cells and youve killed the cancer's ability to grow (which causes the real problem (a useless, out-of-control mass)). Its not "bias" as far as i can tell but discussing the implications of that research.
"What I'm also really curious about is why so many are so adamant about refusing to acknowledge what seems to be obvious, but that's a task for psychologists and philosophers I suppose"
Ill take a stab at it from an arm-chair philosophers perspective.
The conecpt assaults two sacred cows from the USofAmerican worldview:
1) Capitalism is good. 2) Religion (Christianity) is good.
If you acccept Anthropogenic Climate Change, you have to recognize that it is (literally) being caused by behaviours encouraged and enabled by the free market (Hyper Consumerism). To *stop* emmitting CO2 would require a curb in the marketplace.
People being happy, making love to their partners, singing, reading -- just existing isnt causing this problem. People's overconsumption of Oil (in the West) is causing this. Where is this oil being consumed? By our over-producing, unnecessary economies.
In my opinion, our Governments should tax the heck out of the worst abusers (automobiles / sprawl (development) / ?). But the Gov. cannot be a tool to pick winners and losers in the marketplace, thats a job for the invisible hand, anything else is COMMUNISM. And we know how we feel about that dont we. Totally Un-American.
The USA Government can not be trusted because it is corrupt plutocratic body. Its power is derived from monied interests, not the people.
2) The earth was created in 7 days to be the posession and playground for God's favorite playthings: Humanity. If God had wanted us to Save The Planet, he would have included it in the Commandments. The planet is outside of our control, as God controls everything, from the planets' natural disasters to its seemingly man-made ones. That the planet appears to be undergoing human-caused ills it is untrue, its really human arrogance denying that God is truely the master of our destiny... and on and on and on. Any manner of empty-headed foolishness can be justified when you accept the supernatural.
Accepting (or taking precautionary actions) on Anthropogenic Climate Change require that USofAmericans question the foundations of their self-percieved greatness.
As long as A) The USA Gov. is corrupt and B) Fundemental Religosity reign, the American People will not be ready to address the externalities of their behaviour (Global Warming).
considering for a moment that $10,000 will never be recouped in the peak vs. trough price fluctuations, is this a "hide the weenie" idea?
This device represents energy usage itself. Embodied energy in the form of this device. Building these devices in the first place creates the demand that they will later be used to ride through blackouts?
We need to start talking about conservation. People involved in the Local Economies, New Urbanism, Maker/Crafter/D-I-Y, 100 Mile Diet and Slowness are into addressing the real root of this "problem".
We live in a world of instant gratification - and it isnt fast enough. Fast food and speed dating. Hell, people are actually doing speed yoga!
Does it really make sense that you'd spend $10,000 (which takes time/energy to 'create') and the 10,000KW/h of energy just so you can 'ride out a brownout'? Sounds to me like our solution is actually the problem: Over consumption.
Now, if you run a datacenter or some other 'must have' kind of thing, I'd say sure, ok, that makes sense. But if you'd ever consider this for your home? Your insane.
Windmill yes. Solar panel yes. Personal-UPS to maintain the leisure lifestyle? Insane.
You should move closer to work. I did. Its just that easy. I still hold that you do not *NEED* a car. You -- like many others -- falsely hold this notion. Move.
Oh, and this isnt "anti-technology" ranting my friend. This is anti capitalist-driven-consumption-insantiy. Henry Ford had no idea what this would lead to. ever person owning a car? EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON? Its not the car itself, its our degree of dependance.
People are listening. Dont be dismissive, Auto Culture *IS* the root problem of our time. I know it. As do many many others.
how about this; The problem is* Auto obsessed culture in a Hyper convenience culture driven by capitalists and marketers with a compliant corporate media who would NEVER jeopardize the industrial status-quo.
The problem is* that auto manufacutre is the largest industrial activity on the planet. Auto culture causes sprawl, sprawl necessitates automobile ownership, building policies enable/encourages sprawl...
From a Quality-of-Life perspective, what good is your auto? Enable you to cart junk home (delivery should be a service)? Good luck with buying happiness. Enable to you to commute to work? Why? Couldnt walking and saving the commute time justify the savings vs. increased salary at that next job you chased across the city?
This period in our planet's history will be remembered(if at all) as a time when we simply burned up the planet's energy because we could. Its insanity.
I work for one of the Big 5 Auto Companies. Every "new revolutionary automobile" makes me chuckle. The problem is AUTO-CULTURE not automobile technology.
I think Automobiles are the greatest folly in the history of mankind. As soon modern culture recognizes that consuming automobiles like its necessary is the ROOT of the problem, we'll be much better off.
You *JUST DONT NEED A CAR*. You dont need it at all. Dont listen to the ads. Automobiles are not 'fun, exciting or sexy'. They are not status symbols. They do not project your character. They are machines. Hulking, dirty, expensive, wasteful piles of every concievable ill. The emobied energy, the dirty air and streams, fitlhy wintertime snow covered in road grime, petrochemical sludges, Mid-East Oil Wars, paint spills, oil dumped in sewer drains, etc etc over and over, the *AUTOMOBILE* itself is the problem. Not the 15% MPG issue.
Automobiles are destroying civilization (and I mean that literally).
The solution? Pro pedestrian policies, bylaws and legislation. From tax-hikes on gas at the pump, per-KM taxes, CO2 emmission charges, car-free zones, parking rate hikes, congestion charges (London), toll roads, bridge tolls, car free days, road paving levies, highway levies, CO2 health-impact levies, snow removal levies, etc etc etc.
The Government needs to get out of the habit of HIDING automobile-support costs and making the autoowners more aware of how/what they cost us directly and indirectly.
We have to stop enabling / subsizing auto culture and start a whole-cost-accounting tax shift ONTO automobile ownership.
*I love it when people say that... as if they alone have the insight. Ive added it here for the irony.
Wow. I'll make you a deal. Global Warming is real. And Global Warming is going to cause increased hurrican activity. You stop the reactionary rhetoric and I'll not suggest you are not paying attention, insane, myopic to reality outside your worldview, or someother cause of your ignoring clear information. Deal?
Surface Heat on the ocean causes storms to be more intense. Global Warming -- regardless of the cause (anthropogenic or otherwise) will increase surface heat.
To wit "The strongest hurricanes in the present climate may be upstaged by even more intense hurricanes over the next century as the earth's climate is warmed by increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. ".
And, just for clarity, the page concludes "An implication of these studies is that if the frequency of tropical cyclones remains the same over the coming century, a greenhouse-gas induced warming may lead to an increasing risk in the occurrence of highly destructive category-5 storms."
This is why it's important not to have Capitalist control over funding; anything unprofitable - which is of course entirely orthagonal to truth or falsehood - naturally, to a lesser or greater extent, tends to be suppressed...
Capitalists inherently controls capital; to give the Capitalist democratic power is to provide it with a forceful means to implement its own ends. This is one of the reasons why its so vital to keep the Capitalists out of democratic activity; because of the danger of the abuse of that democratic power.
There. If fixed it for you.
Your monster has nothing to do with Democratic freedom and everything to do with capital. Including this muddling of politics with science. A true Government of the People for the People will pursue science with indifference to the results. On the other hand, a plutocratic state (the present state of USA) will supress any idea, science, movemnet or opinion that threatens capitalist status quo.
Since this thread is a collection of conjecture, I'll plow right in. I think clearly RIM has it dead on with the trajectory of its BlackBerry devices. They are tunned primarily to act excel in PIM functionality. I dont think a NON network connected (that means smartphone) device has any future.
The PDA idea is a dead end -- its life blood is non-regualar connections to its master (PC) to recieve updates in data. Isnt life with a constant network connection much more appealing?
Look at RIM's 7100 Series for the most perfect implementation of a Smartphone to date.
Its funny, the demographic that uses crichton's narrative to bolster their disbelief in anthropogenic climate change are the same demographic who clearly understand that the Da Vinci Code is a monsterous work of pure fiction.
uuummmm, except that the USA is extending IP law into places and visions its never seen before.
I do appreciate your point, you are correct. but, my point is that the USA is playing "dirty pool" with its IP law. Any product / business that arrives in the USA is going to be subject to this domestic IP squating.
The market isnt "Free" for us to business if you allow IP squaters to extort us. This is legal harrasment, covered and aided by a corrupted IP regime.
Given the present state of your markets, no foreign company can work there without fearing that someone will put up a hand claiming to own some element of your product. Get your IP house in order.
Where has the Neo Liberal Canadian Government been in all this?
Canada's breakout convergence darling, our future NOKIA gets beaten with some BULLCRAP legal play by a collection of yankee lawyers -- forcing the company to hold still for years (customers doubt their viability, causing them to divert attention from conquering the world).
Where was our government in all this? Why was a Canadian company being brow beaten by a housefull of lawyers? One reason: If RIM was AMERICAN, some in-house politico would have stopped it Pretty Darn Quick.
$650 million was EXTORTED from RIM. Ive been pissed about this (i dont work for RIM or hold shares), but my vote is we burn NAFTA. It really blows getting burnt by your money grubbing patent laws (America to world: "we own IDEAS(!)). Stuff it.
1 - You can be devoutly religious and also logical/rational/scientific.
No, you cant. Religion is the belief in in the supernatural. Science only only concerns itself with demonstratable conjecture to describe a natural phenomenon.
Most people who construct the "Choose religion or science" frame do so (as I do) because I believe that once someone accepts that a supernatural world exists, they abandon their ability to pursue science. If your willing to accept the supernatural -- what purpose does reason and logic have in the pursuit of science (that which is natural)?
2 - Some "scientific" and anti-religious people are just as bigotted, and illogical as the religious nuts.
This is essentially the "science is a religion" argument, and I will have nothing to add beyond Richard Dawkins excellent article you can read here.
As for the anti-religious being 'bigotted', yes, I can assume some are. I will admit to it myself. I will not apologize that I agree with Denis Diderot when he said "Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest."
Destroying religion as necessary to civilization as plumbing and not cohabitating with one's livestock.
Religion is (to put it mildly) a bother and a bore, and Im tired of a world populated by masses who believe their supernatural deity is The Most Great. Religion keeps us from taking ownership of Humanity's OUR OWN PROBLEMS. Keeps us from realizing that WE ALONE are responsible for the state of our community. Religion is a manner of absolving oneself of responsiblity ("I give myself to you oh lord").
This life is all we have. There is no second chance to get things right "next time", or reward in an afterlife. Please consign these fantasies to ancient history where they belong.
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What makes you think the iphone's frontend will be "nice"? It really seems to me that its going to requrie juggling of the highest order just to perform simple task.
I'm waiting to see how it pans out, but the irrational exuberance surrounding the iphone is probably leading to one of the biggest tech let-downs of the year.
Outside of the 'must-have' cache it has in some circles, I just dont see it hitting like the ipod. There are a dozen cell manufacturers that can eat Apple's lunch overnight -- trying to bring emotion based branding to the technology market isnt the recipe for long term technology-industry success.
Are you serious? "they still dont get it"? "Binary choice"? Telephones need buttons. Smartphones, meant to be calendars/emails/sms messengers need buttons.
The review I read of this HTC device complained, "it soon became smugged and a little greasy", exactly why Smartphone users dont like to touch their screens but use a stylus instead. I dont want to clean the screen 3 times daily.
Im sure you'll be front and center when the iphone ships and the rest of the world reviews its poor new magic UI, your response will be "they just dont get it".
Seeing this story makes me think of Aqua Teen Hunger Force LED-pranksters and the Boston Police. The ATHF-pranksters are being held to task because of the over-reation of the Boston authorities. The same hysteria that brings the Boston Authorities to react in the way they did has informed these Tennessee teachers.
They (thought) it was a correct behaviour in this "post 9/11 world" (whatver that is), and were made to look extremely foolish. But now we have an ACTUAL case of terrorism. In this case, these teachers *actually* terrorized these students. There motivation matters not. They have *actually* done to these children what the Boston Authorities (B.A.) did to Boston (but, then, pinned the blame on the ATHF, who had no reason to think anyone could react in the ridiculous manner of the B.A.
These teachers should be drawn and quartered for their ACTUAL act of abuse of these children.
First thing you do when you buy a new PC is remove all the terrible software installed by these OEMs. Same goes for the damn 'extras' CDROM shipped to people from their ISP.
Microsoft is dead correct, this software is virtually always terrible.
Not everyone hates Microsoft. MS makes MANY terrific products. Hardware and Software.
...I fell a little like Tyler Durden when i say "You are not the software you use".
I dont really understand it at all. If I had to guess, its tribal types stuck in an us-vs-them mentality. Marketing today is so emotion/self-identity based, people view themselves through the products they purchase. Its an emotionally weak perpective, but much of the public falls prey to this perspective and discourse.
hey jim, are you the James_Sager that wrote that webpage in your .sig?
ah, the ol' macro/micro evolution loophole eh?
it is creationist nonsense about splitting hairs and moving goal-posts.
utter. total. worthless. drivel.
Nothing to see there. Move along.
My favorite Spaghetti-Monster-ism (did i just coin that..?) is Miniture Pink Unicorns Inside my chest. Usually comes up in the "you must repsect faith" stream of debate. The 'setup' is "Do you feel it is necessary to respect my deeply held faith that my body cavity/chest is filled with tiny pink unicorns. That if you pull my ribcage open, they'll spill out no the floor. I deeply believe this. I have tremendous faith that this is the case. I demand you respect my faith."
Clearly it is nonsense... but I always love the look on their faces when i say "rip my ribcage open and watch the unicors spill out".
It just too funny.
"You got infected from all those lesbian porn sites you've been visiting."
...., or xxxx.
.jpgs and .pngs had nude women on them.
Hey thats not fair and you know it.
He "got infected" because he had a hole in his browser, cant tell the difference between a system dialoge and a IE window masquerading as one, or volunteered to install an exe,
he wasnt infected because the
While it is affective to blackmail your brother, its a lie.
shame on you.
This article at RealClimate.com discuss this very topic.
Climate change is going to dump a whack of methane into the atmosphere.
You want to blow their minds?
y pha).
Tell them how the bible is actually a product of slection. That the current books of the bible were 'chosen' amoungst many from the New Testament Apocrypha (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Testament_apocr
Tell them of the recent discoveries of the Gospels of Mary and Gospel of Judas.
Tell them of Gnosticism.
Its fine to use the Bible as a source of contradition, to show it is fallable. Its another thing for them to recognize the Bible *isnt the word of god*. There is nothing "holy or authoritative" about the book itself.
A good start to getting people to realize is this Straight Dope article "Who Wrote The Bible". That should get them thinking about the Bible's presumed "authority".
It discusses (biased) that they are, and talks briefly about where in the body you'll find stem cells
You may be using the term 'biased' in research/journalist form that I am unfarmiliar with. Im not sure the article is really biased on the concept -- but again, perhaps your meaning 'biased' in a nuanced way Im not appreciating. Anywho, hmm, near the bottom of the article:
a surgeon with Toronto's University Health Network, studied cells from the freshly removed colon tumours of 17 patients...From these, the researchers sorted two batches of cell samples. One contained the cancer stem cells found in the tumours, the other was ordinary cancer cells.
Even at doses as high as 250,000 cells, the ordinary cells failed to grow tumours in 46 of 47 mice (which were immune-deficient models to prevent rejection). Dr. Dick suspects that the one high-dose transplant that led to a tumour had been contaminated with stem cells.
In contrast, just a thousand cancer stem cells implanted into the mouse model could generate and regenerate a replica of the tumour from which it had originally come, complete with the varied cells it had contained -- the gold standard for proving the seed role of cancer stem cells."
I think this bit should have been at the top of the article. The article really discusses the implication of this concept; if you divide the cancer-stem-cells out, you find *they* can give/cause cancer. The other normal cancer cells cannot. Thats pretty profound research/realization.
Kill the cancer-stem-cells and youve killed the cancer's ability to grow (which causes the real problem (a useless, out-of-control mass)). Its not "bias" as far as i can tell but discussing the implications of that research.
"What I'm also really curious about is why so many are so adamant about refusing to acknowledge what seems to be obvious, but that's a task for psychologists and philosophers I suppose"
Ill take a stab at it from an arm-chair philosophers perspective.
The conecpt assaults two sacred cows from the USofAmerican worldview:
1) Capitalism is good.
2) Religion (Christianity) is good.
If you acccept Anthropogenic Climate Change, you have to recognize that it is (literally) being caused by behaviours encouraged and enabled by the free market (Hyper Consumerism). To *stop* emmitting CO2 would require a curb in the marketplace.
People being happy, making love to their partners, singing, reading -- just existing isnt causing this problem. People's overconsumption of Oil (in the West) is causing this. Where is this oil being consumed? By our over-producing, unnecessary economies.
In my opinion, our Governments should tax the heck out of the worst abusers (automobiles / sprawl (development) / ?). But the Gov. cannot be a tool to pick winners and losers in the marketplace, thats a job for the invisible hand, anything else is COMMUNISM. And we know how we feel about that dont we. Totally Un-American.
The USA Government can not be trusted because it is corrupt plutocratic body. Its power is derived from monied interests, not the people.
2) The earth was created in 7 days to be the posession and playground for God's favorite playthings: Humanity. If God had wanted us to Save The Planet, he would have included it in the Commandments. The planet is outside of our control, as God controls everything, from the planets' natural disasters to its seemingly man-made ones. That the planet appears to be undergoing human-caused ills it is untrue, its really human arrogance denying that God is truely the master of our destiny... and on and on and on. Any manner of empty-headed foolishness can be justified when you accept the supernatural.
Accepting (or taking precautionary actions) on Anthropogenic Climate Change require that USofAmericans question the foundations of their self-percieved greatness.
As long as A) The USA Gov. is corrupt and B) Fundemental Religosity reign, the American People will not be ready to address the externalities of their behaviour (Global Warming).
by "global warming nuts" you mean National Academy of Sciences right?
Joking aside, I think this is a terrible idea.
considering for a moment that $10,000 will never be recouped in the peak vs. trough price fluctuations, is this a "hide the weenie" idea?
This device represents energy usage itself. Embodied energy in the form of this device. Building these devices in the first place creates the demand that they will later be used to ride through blackouts?
We need to start talking about conservation. People involved in the Local Economies, New Urbanism, Maker/Crafter/D-I-Y, 100 Mile Diet and Slowness are into addressing the real root of this "problem".
We live in a world of instant gratification - and it isnt fast enough. Fast food and speed dating. Hell, people are actually doing speed yoga!
Does it really make sense that you'd spend $10,000 (which takes time/energy to 'create') and the 10,000KW/h of energy just so you can 'ride out a brownout'? Sounds to me like our solution is actually the problem: Over consumption.
Now, if you run a datacenter or some other 'must have' kind of thing, I'd say sure, ok, that makes sense. But if you'd ever consider this for your home? Your insane.
Windmill yes. Solar panel yes. Personal-UPS to maintain the leisure lifestyle? Insane.
You should move closer to work. I did. Its just that easy. I still hold that you do not *NEED* a car. You -- like many others -- falsely hold this notion. Move.
Oh, and this isnt "anti-technology" ranting my friend. This is anti capitalist-driven-consumption-insantiy. Henry Ford had no idea what this would lead to. ever person owning a car? EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON? Its not the car itself, its our degree of dependance.
People are listening. Dont be dismissive, Auto Culture *IS* the root problem of our time. I know it. As do many many others.
Your just afraid of the scale of the problem.
--
Can I ask you a question? Are you a theist?
how about this; The problem is* Auto obsessed culture in a Hyper convenience culture driven by capitalists and marketers with a compliant corporate media who would NEVER jeopardize the industrial status-quo.
The problem is* that auto manufacutre is the largest industrial activity on the planet. Auto culture causes sprawl, sprawl necessitates automobile ownership, building policies enable/encourages sprawl...
From a Quality-of-Life perspective, what good is your auto? Enable you to cart junk home (delivery should be a service)? Good luck with buying happiness. Enable to you to commute to work? Why? Couldnt walking and saving the commute time justify the savings vs. increased salary at that next job you chased across the city?
This period in our planet's history will be remembered(if at all) as a time when we simply burned up the planet's energy because we could. Its insanity.
I work for one of the Big 5 Auto Companies. Every "new revolutionary automobile" makes me chuckle. The problem is AUTO-CULTURE not automobile technology.
I think Automobiles are the greatest folly in the history of mankind. As soon modern culture recognizes that consuming automobiles like its necessary is the ROOT of the problem, we'll be much better off.
You *JUST DONT NEED A CAR*. You dont need it at all. Dont listen to the ads. Automobiles are not 'fun, exciting or sexy'. They are not status symbols. They do not project your character. They are machines. Hulking, dirty, expensive, wasteful piles of every concievable ill. The emobied energy, the dirty air and streams, fitlhy wintertime snow covered in road grime, petrochemical sludges, Mid-East Oil Wars, paint spills, oil dumped in sewer drains, etc etc over and over, the *AUTOMOBILE* itself is the problem. Not the 15% MPG issue.
Automobiles are destroying civilization (and I mean that literally).
The solution? Pro pedestrian policies, bylaws and legislation. From tax-hikes on gas at the pump, per-KM taxes, CO2 emmission charges, car-free zones, parking rate hikes, congestion charges (London), toll roads, bridge tolls, car free days, road paving levies, highway levies, CO2 health-impact levies, snow removal levies, etc etc etc.
The Government needs to get out of the habit of HIDING automobile-support costs and making the autoowners more aware of how/what they cost us directly and indirectly.
We have to stop enabling / subsizing auto culture and start a whole-cost-accounting tax shift ONTO automobile ownership.
*I love it when people say that... as if they alone have the insight. Ive added it here for the irony.
Wow. I'll make you a deal. Global Warming is real. And Global Warming is going to cause increased hurrican activity. You stop the reactionary rhetoric and I'll not suggest you are not paying attention, insane, myopic to reality outside your worldview, or someother cause of your ignoring clear information. Deal?
Surface Heat on the ocean causes storms to be more intense. Global Warming -- regardless of the cause (anthropogenic or otherwise) will increase surface heat.
To wit "The strongest hurricanes in the present climate may be upstaged by even more intense hurricanes over the next century as the earth's climate is warmed by increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. ".
From this article at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration's Geophysical Fludi Dynamics Laboratory at Princeton
And, just for clarity, the page concludes "An implication of these studies is that if the frequency of tropical cyclones remains the same over the coming century, a greenhouse-gas induced warming may lead to an increasing risk in the occurrence of highly destructive category-5 storms."
So, deal?
This is why it's important not to have Capitalist control over funding; anything unprofitable - which is of course entirely orthagonal to truth or falsehood - naturally, to a lesser or greater extent, tends to be suppressed. ..
Capitalists inherently controls capital; to give the Capitalist democratic power is to provide it with a forceful means to implement its own ends. This is one of the reasons why its so vital to keep the Capitalists out of democratic activity; because of the danger of the abuse of that democratic power.
There. If fixed it for you.
Your monster has nothing to do with Democratic freedom and everything to do with capital. Including this muddling of politics with science. A true Government of the People for the People will pursue science with indifference to the results. On the other hand, a plutocratic state (the present state of USA) will supress any idea, science, movemnet or opinion that threatens capitalist status quo.
Since this thread is a collection of conjecture, I'll plow right in. I think clearly RIM has it dead on with the trajectory of its BlackBerry devices. They are tunned primarily to act excel in PIM functionality. I dont think a NON network connected (that means smartphone) device has any future.
The PDA idea is a dead end -- its life blood is non-regualar connections to its master (PC) to recieve updates in data. Isnt life with a constant network connection much more appealing?
Look at RIM's 7100 Series for the most perfect implementation of a Smartphone to date.
Its funny, the demographic that uses crichton's narrative to bolster their disbelief in anthropogenic climate change are the same demographic who clearly understand that the Da Vinci Code is a monsterous work of pure fiction.
uuummmm, except that the USA is extending IP law into places and visions its never seen before.
I do appreciate your point, you are correct. but, my point is that the USA is playing "dirty pool" with its IP law. Any product / business that arrives in the USA is going to be subject to this domestic IP squating.
The market isnt "Free" for us to business if you allow IP squaters to extort us. This is legal harrasment, covered and aided by a corrupted IP regime.
Given the present state of your markets, no foreign company can work there without fearing that someone will put up a hand claiming to own some element of your product. Get your IP house in order.
Where has the Neo Liberal Canadian Government been in all this?
Canada's breakout convergence darling, our future NOKIA gets beaten with some BULLCRAP legal play by a collection of yankee lawyers -- forcing the company to hold still for years (customers doubt their viability, causing them to divert attention from conquering the world).
Where was our government in all this? Why was a Canadian company being brow beaten by a housefull of lawyers? One reason: If RIM was AMERICAN, some in-house politico would have stopped it Pretty Darn Quick.
$650 million was EXTORTED from RIM. Ive been pissed about this (i dont work for RIM or hold shares), but my vote is we burn NAFTA. It really blows getting burnt by your money grubbing patent laws (America to world: "we own IDEAS(!)). Stuff it.
1 - You can be devoutly religious and also logical/rational/scientific.
No, you cant. Religion is the belief in in the supernatural.
Science only only concerns itself with demonstratable conjecture to describe a natural phenomenon.
Most people who construct the "Choose religion or science" frame do so (as I do) because I believe that once someone accepts that a supernatural world exists, they abandon their ability to pursue science. If your willing to accept the supernatural -- what purpose does reason and logic have in the pursuit of science (that which is natural)?
2 - Some "scientific" and anti-religious people are just as bigotted, and illogical as the religious nuts.
This is essentially the "science is a religion" argument, and I will have nothing to add beyond Richard Dawkins excellent article you can read here.
As for the anti-religious being 'bigotted', yes, I can assume some are. I will admit to it myself. I will not apologize that I agree with Denis Diderot when he said "Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest."
Destroying religion as necessary to civilization as plumbing and not cohabitating with one's livestock.
Religion is (to put it mildly) a bother and a bore, and Im tired of a world populated by masses who believe their supernatural deity is The Most Great. Religion keeps us from taking ownership of Humanity's OUR OWN PROBLEMS. Keeps us from realizing that WE ALONE are responsible for the state of our community. Religion is a manner of absolving oneself of responsiblity ("I give myself to you oh lord").
This life is all we have. There is no second chance to get things right "next time", or reward in an afterlife. Please consign these fantasies to ancient history where they belong.
Hahah. You know the American Dollar is in the tank eh? That the Canadian dollar last week finished at a 15 year high eh?
I'll bet the Canadian dollar is at par in less than 24 months. Wanna take that bet?