Actually, there's quite a few people out there who aren't loved by anyone. Some are complete bastards who have alienated everyone who ever loved them, some have simply outlived everyone who cared about, let alone loved, them.
I didn't mention one peculiar fact; Not everybody has a soul. There is a creature called the 'psychopath', which is basically the malfunctioning cousin to the soulless but better adapted machine human type. Typically, such individuals really are the Darwin machines many engineers insist make up the entire population, but really it's only about half. I was not writing for the benefit of those humans. They're basically just awesome reaction machines which have bamboozled everybody on the Turing test. No real way to tell which are which, except that soulless people generally are the ones are more capable of hurting others since that's a necessary component in their energetic feeding process. But it's a VERY bad idea to spend much time playing 'Spot the Cylon', because souled individuals can go through troubled periods, get lost, and steal energy as well. Best to focus on your own development and learn how not to get burned by anybody while still being a loving person. --A seemingly paradoxical challenge, like all the ones that count.
How can you tell if you are an organic machine?
Have you ever hurt for somebody else? Machines only hurt when their energy supply is threatened or they don't get what they want.
(I'm always curious what people will make of that one. It is suggested that the Gnostics were wiped out specifically for entertaining a variation of this philosophy.)
To those who take the heartless Darwinist approach. . .
You are over-simplifying. It's immature and mean-spirited. You have a lot to learn, and chances are you will learn it the hard way; you will lose somebody close to you, or you will be debilitated by depression or sickness and knowing your own attitude towards those who have made this impossibly difficult choice, there is a good chance that you will despise yourself thus diminishing your own ability to cope. --You can resolutely declare now from a position of strength that your attitude will never change, and that you will not lose the emotional filters which keep you safe from feeling, and you probably even believe this, but I can guarantee that if you are a thinking person who allows yourself to grow and learn, then at some point in the future you will find yourself stripped of that certainty and strength. I've seen it happen many times, and you are not special in this regard. --And if you are not a thinking person who allows yourself to grow and learn, then you are worse than dead already. Tough times ahead. Good luck.
To those who whole-heartedly support suicide or who are considering it, consider this:
Your spot on this planet at this time was hard won. There were many others who wanted it, but you made the arguments and you fought because we are in an age of tremendous change and possibility; this is a special place and time, and you came here either to make a difference or because you hoped to be caught up in the current created by those who have true courage. In any case, the souls around you believed in you and stepped aside so that you could have the chance to show us all what you are made of. Those who have the most chance of doing something worthy are often those who get hit hardest by the machine, trying to crush your spirit and make you concede the game. The ways of attack are many, but knowledge of how they work offers a solid measure of protection.
To those who really cannot go on. . .
It's okay to hit the reset switch. There is no judgment beyond this reality, but there is a karmic price. You basically have to come back and finish what you started, and it can be more difficult the next time around. Better to work through it as best you can this time if at all possible while remembering that you are always, always loved and that help is available if you need and request it.
It pays to read the judgment before accusing other of not being informative.
The poster was not informative. There was no information, just accusation. There is a difference. You have provided information, (albeit, in the form of half-baked and misleading questions), so you might be considered informative after a fashion, (a fashion which the moderators today appear to be willing to reward. Sigh.) But the parent poster offered nothing. I don't really know how to make this any more clear. The fact that so many don't grasp this is a clear illustration of why the world is so screwed up. But I digress. ..
Furthermore after 2001 , NO REDUCTION in autism was observed despite lessened to null use of thiomersal. And study were made it has no autism impact. How many more evidence you need ?
First of all, you're not offering evidence. You're just spouting. Attempts to offer evidence in a post often includes little words with lines underneath them. Look into it. Secondly, you're making the assumption that I think Thiomersal causes autism. I don't recall saying that. Indeed, I am not convinced that there is a correlation, and I do find the OH NO contingent to often be claiming more than is evident. However, this does not mean that swinging just as far in the opposite direction is the right answer. It's not. It's foolish and predictable and just as hysterical as those you are complaining about. Why can't people get a grip on this? Is it really so easy to corral people into such predictable behavior patterns? The world is never going to survive if people don't figure out this really, really basic stuff.
Finally you are omitting a very important fact from your "ethyl mercury is toxic" meme.
Case in point; Ethyl Mercury being toxic is not a "meme". Ethyl Mercury IS toxic. Type, "Ethyl Mercury MSDS" into a Google search bar to read what every university and private company on the planet with a chemistry department dealing with Ethyl Mercury has to say about it.
1) how long does it take to metabolise from thiomersal to ethyl mercury 2) how does it relate to ethyl mercury half life in the body 3) how does it relate to the minimal quantity of thiomersal in vaccine ? 4) how is the quantity of ethyl mercury due to vaccine at ANY time in comparison to the dosis at which it starts affecting the body (and yes there are quantity which are perfectly tolerable, and even quantity of Eth-Hg which can be totally ignored).
More Google for you. --You will find that the claims are not unified on these subjects, that by and large there has not been enough testing to determine conclusively the level of toxicity experienced by the subject. That being said, however, I did find from all the various articles, and you will find this as well upon review, that there IS absolute agreement that Ethyl Mercury, a known poison, IS released in some quantity into the body after a Thiomersal injection.
and more importantly 5) how does it relate to parents saying that within 24 hours their kids got autism !!!!
Not that it really matters since such a claim would probably just be more hysteria, but has anybody actually said that? Source please. --And fewer exclamation points if you can manage it.
This is what I have determined thus far: 1. Thiomersal is a product brought to us by an industry known for sickening and even killing people with improperly tested drugs and then telling lies about it after the fact. 2. Thiomersal is an effective, mercury-based poison; this is why it is used as a preservative.
Upon the finer points of quantity of poison and the length of time before the body expunges it, there remains debate. With this information we can proceed in one of two things:
1. We can trust an industry which has proven countless times to be untrustworthy and march into the doctor's office and roll up our sleeve while quivering with a variety of emotionally-driven verve which is almost indistinguishable from the nati
that is NOT what happened, stop it. You ahve completely misunderstood it.
That gets modded informative? A note to the wise moderator: "Informative" presupposes the contribution of information. Whereas what we have here amounts to an authoritative-sounding chin-jutting, "Is Not!" with nothing of any material to back it up. Children argue like this, and it should be pointed out that an adult who argues like this is likely to maintain other over-simplified thought patterns which will naturally extend to their belief systems.
No it's the wrong kind of mercury. It is NOT the same stuff that comes in thermometers.
Metallic Mercury doesn't dissolve in water and is not useful in pharmaceuticals, so it is bonded into an organic molecule, C9H9HgNaO2S, (Thiomersal), which metabolizes in the human body into C2H5ClHg (Ethyl Mercury). Ethyl Mercury, however, is indeed toxic.
# Very toxic by inhalation, in contact with skin and if swallowed. # Danger of cumulative effects. # Very toxic to aquatic organisms, may cause long-term adverse effects in the aquatic environment.
(It's worth adding that these material safety data sheets generally assume that the substance isn't going to be injected into the subject.)
--There has been a study reported by those who champion the medical establishment which demonstrate that Ethyl Mercury clears from the human body about three times more quickly than its cousin, Methyl Mercury. But Methyl Mercury is also not the "stuff that comes in thermometers", which for the most part isn't terribly dangerous unless inhaled in a vapor form which allows it entry through the lungs and into the blood stream where the problems begin. The relevance of this study stems from recent regulatory limitations placed on Thiomersal use having been based on health-safety studies of Methyl Mercury and it's longer half-life in the human body.
However, complaining that Ethyl Mercury is not the same as the stuff in thermometers when its toxicity is in fact very well established seems both irrelevant and a bit weird.
As it turns out, Thiomersal use has been reduced in most vaccines as a result of these recent health regulations, (from about 2001). The one exception is the flu-shot.
really? I find it to be favoring the truth. as it turns out many corporation are actually telling the truth.
A lot of spin is indeed true in a "letter of the law" kind of way. That's why it's called 'spin'.
But it's also true that corporations tell lots of baldfaced lies, both directly and through omission. They do this because it is very profitable to not have to clean up after yourself or behave responsibly. It's forgivable to be fooled by the corporate spin-doctor; the point of spin, silence and lies is to deceive, but once a person has seen the mountains of evidence of moral bankruptcy, to continue insisting that problems are not there seems very strange to me. It's almost as though this poster has tied strongly his ego and sense of self-worth to the idea that he stands against those who over-react, and has through this allowed the area he defends to grow larger than is truly deserving. That is, if he concedes that the people he opposes might be a little bit right, it would mean that he is a little bit wrong, which the ego finds utterly unacceptable. I find it is important to regularly watch out for these kinds of thought patterns so that they don't creep in and infect one's mind. Egotism can be seductive to the best of us.
Wow. I didn't see that one coming. --I felt that there was something fishy; you don't make a big announcement about oil you've known was there for decades for no reason. And particularly in light of the whole Tibet thing, the timing is a bit curious. I wonder whose agenda would be best served by an internal, violent struggle over territory and oil rights in the U.S., and so close to election time, too? Hmm.
But like any quantum problem, paying attention has an effect upon what the probability wave collapses into. Hopefully, by keeping one's eyes peeled, the world can avoid unwarranted disasters. Good job!
Hi. Me again. After blathering on about writing, I simply MUST apologize for typing "your" instead of "you're", and in such a line as the one I used it in!
Ha ha. I'll take my humble pie with a side of irony, please.
You can pick that particular one up on eBay for about $100 after shipping.
It's not very pretty, and it doesn't have much memory, but with 16 Megs and a flashcard slot, it's more than enough if your serious about dedicated word processing. I often have ten or more live documents open at once, which is really great. Whatever I feel like working on is instantly at my finger tips. You cannot, however, use this device for web browsing, even though it comes with internet options. The little processor was lightweight even back in 1998 when this computer was first made available; it really has to chug to get through graphics-heavy HTML.
But there are some features which have not since been matched. The keyboard is very comfortable and I've used it with no complaints for hours at a stretch, but the best feature, (and one which I wasn't even looking for before I bought it), is that the Jornada performs an 'instant-on' power up. That is, in a couple of seconds, you can go from the tickle of inspiration to full-speed keyboarding. The battery is a lith-ion, and generally lasts me for about 3 hours with all the power-saving features shut off. You can supposedly get a bigger battery if you hunt around, but I've never bothered. In any case, the Jornada isn't a traveler's word processor. (I'd probably get one of those Alphasmarts if I was heading into darkest Peru, and probably be griping about screen size and keyboard angles there and back.)
The screen is old tech, only 256 colors and it's sometimes easy to lose your cursor if you don't remember where you left it since the refresh rate isn't spectacular. Also it doesn't cut it with outdoor sunlight conditions. But for straight writing indoors, it's comfortable and responsive with no reflection problems at all; easy on the eyes. I also use it as an eReader sometimes.
The cursor works by touch-pad, and the machine has a USB port, so you can swap in a mouse if you like. The screen is 8.9", which is JUST this side of big enough; any smaller and I'd have been looking for something else. The 7" Asus Eee screen was a big turn off for me.
The two hinges aren't well constructed, so you can't be rough with it. When I bought mine from eBay, it came with a couple of hair-line cracks which blossomed over the last couple of years into a fully busted hinge. But the other hinge is holding fast, so my suspicion is that if you treat these things with a bit of care, they should last indefinitely.
I've often, when using it in a public place, been asked by people what it is and where I got it. A big screen and a proper keyboard on such a small item is obviously something people are impressed by, and who can blame them?
I'm considering getting another one or perhaps some kind of other replacement, but because mine is still working with a single hinge, I don't need to just yet. And also, NOBODY has made a decent writing tool on par with the Jornada 820. The new line of Asus Eee's due this month which will have bigger screens, are sexy and the web-surfing ability is tempting, but that small keyboard makes me leery, plus the price-tag is just insulting. $750 for an item which was supposed to be under $200. . ? Lame. --And even with the Eee's famous 20-second boot time, having to give up the Jornada's instant-on feature would be a major bummer.
I've written hundreds of pages on the Jornada, so when I see stories like this one from HP, (who also produced the Jornada series as it happens), I get quite excited. But you're right. Nobody's produced the holy grail of digital writing tools yet, despite the fact that all the technology is available and just waiting for some inspired company to put the pieces together.
Theists do better in society, so that's what he should remind people of, "survival of the fittest".
Since nearly the entire human sphere is made up of theists of one stripe or another, this is rather like saying, "People do better in society". Though, I can't help but think that society might be a whole lot better off if those people would stop sacking one another's cities over matters of religious difference.
Those who 'embrace god' are usually and typically really just embracing whatever nonsense and demonstrably false religious text has been provided them by their local equally lost-in-the-woods cult leader, usually spoon fed to them from a young enough age that the brainwashing is so deep they would rather spin forever in denial and a broad application of the most ludicrous arguments rather than consider the possibility that they are in fact psychological abuse victims.
God is certainly real; it's you and me and the earth under your feet and yeah, it's even the concept of a bearded maniac in the sky which so many people build churches and temples and mosques to sing euphoric praise to. God is everything under the Sun. And above the Sun. And the Sun too, while we're at it. --But the Spanish Inquisition would have cut my nuts off for suggesting such a thing, which is why the following is worth repeating. . .
Religion as it stands and as it has stood since its dawn is a crippling disease of the mind perpetrated by fools and villains designed to keep humanity stupid, depraved and forever blind to their own true history and potential.
But that's just my take. Maybe the current war in the Middle East has absolutely nothing to do with whose god is bestest.
I don't get why all companies don't have a mandatory training session new employees must pass through before they sit down to work on their first day; you know, general company policies, how the washroom key needs to be jiggled, where the coffee cupboard is. And how email attachments ought to be dealt with.
Seems like a forty minute mandatory, "How to not screw up" tour could fix a lot of these bot problems.
I've always said, "Kray-Ken". I think that's because that's how my mother used to say it. She knew cool things, but I suspect the word is old enough and spread widely enough that there's probably not an actual 'right way'. I haven't honestly wondered since seventh grade when I was reading John Wyndham. "Wake the Kraken".
I was thinking about how words evolve just yesterday when I was unable to look up the pronunciation of something online or anywhere. Can't recall the word or name or whatever, but while thinking about it, I thought about Newfoundland in Canada's Atlantic provinces. Pronounced variously as "New-Found-Land", "Nooh-Fund-Land" and my personal preference because it seems the most honest and salt-of-the-earthy, "Noohfun-Lan", home of the affable "Noofie". Dear me, and all silly national pride nonsense aside, but I do love this country to bits! The whole place is teaming with hobbits and wizards.
Anyway, I think what I'm saying is that words move and we shouldn't try to stop them.
I doubt if it can be tagged to a single gene, but certain traits which make up the basket deal of psychopathy certainly results from differently-functioning brains.
"But for psychopaths, the word 'cancer' and the word 'table' had the same emotional connotations - which is to say, not very many. It's as if they're emotionally color-blind."
Even more staggering were the findings of a study conducted by New York City psychiatrist Joanne Intrator, with Hare's collaboration, at the Bronx Veterans Administration hospital in 1993. The investigators employed the same language test, this time injecting the subjects with a radioactive tracer and scanning color images of their brains. As normal subjects processed the emotion-laden words, their brains lit up with activity, particularly in the areas around the ventromedial frontal cortex and amygdala. The former plays a crucial role in controlling impulses and long-term planning, while the amygdala is often described as "the seat of emotion." But in the psychopaths, those parts of the brain appeared to remain inactive while processing the emotion-laden words. That, says Hare, helps explain why a psychopath's conscience is only half-formed. "I showed the scans to several neurologists," recalls Hare. "They said that it did not even look like a human brain. One of them asked, 'Is this person from Mars?' "
According to Scientific American. Not surprisingly, psychopaths are overrepresented in prisons; studies indicate that about 25 percent of inmates meet diagnostic criteria for psychopathy. Nevertheless, research also suggests that a sizable number of psychopaths may be walking among us in everyday life. Some investigators have even speculated that "successful psychopaths" - those who attain prominent positions in society - may be overrepresented in certain occupations, such as politics, business and entertainment. Yet the scientific evidence for this intriguing conjecture is preliminary.
One in 100. One person in 100 is a psychopath, meaning that they lack a moral compass, sense of responsibility or empathy (this is a personality disorder, not a mental illness). And although they are overrepresented in the prison system, according to research by American psychologist Dr. Paul Babiak, and his Canadian counterpart Dr. Robert Hare, psychopaths are also well-represented in corporate environments.
here's a story about what I'd say is a very black & white likely case of psychopathy, and one at its worst, at least on a small scale.
The above link being pretty heavy, I thought I'd offer this lighter fare; A pseudo-scientific test to measure yourself on the psychopath-meter.
If you're going to navigate your pathway through reality, (down the river of life), you need to know where the rocks are if you're going to be able to avoid crashing into them. Christianity and the like has programmed all kinds of self-destructive behavior into human-kind. "Turn the other cheek" is an example of social programming which makes us food for the psychopathic human-type, --the type which I would guess is generally in charge of countries and most of the most powerful organizations which shape our lives; the psychopath recognizes its own and shapes the rules of the world to benefit itself, and study of the power structures over the centuries, doesn't really ever let go once the seat of power is attained. --Christ's supposed dying on the cross, (which I am doubtful actually happened for a variety of reasons, not the l
What do you think it is when you imply that everyone who does not agree with you, or is not against what is being talked about is a fascist?
You're shooting at shadows because I was not implying anything. Why imply when I have no qualms about simply saying plainly what I mean? Your brain is still revving a little on the over-active side methinks.
You can not support that this has anything to do with fascism. You are, in fact, a lying hypocrite.
Well, it's hard to tell from your posting style what the 'this' is that you are referring to, but if I am to take it that you are saying that I cannot support that covert military funding of propaganda through supposedly independent bloggers with public tax dollars has anything to do with fascism, I think that you are entirely mistaken. Do a little research on 'Fascism' and see what you find. --Though I suspect that the real challenge in your case might be in looking squarely at the facts you come across and not in the finding of the facts themselves.
Actually, when I refer to anti-fascists, that's exactly what I mean. People who are opposed to fascism. --For you to call everybody who is opposed to fascism a "totalitarian Leninist" is both unsupportable and rather hysterical-sounding.
Why shouldn't they be allowed to use the same tactics that the military-haters and anti-war crowd use?
The tactics are not the same.
Bloggers who are anti-fascist aren't airing their opinions for a paycheck, nor are they pretending that they are broadcasting their opinions of their own volition when really there is a man behind the curtain giving direction. One system is honest while the other is structured on an attempt to deceive. There's a big difference. If you align yourself with falsehoods, then that is the kind of world you will inherit.
It would be different if members of the military were blogging their opinions and were open about their affiliations. --Of course, that actually does happen; there are certainly military professionals who post their opinions on line, but while many disagree with those opinions, nobody is accusing them of propaganda since they are not being dishonest about who they really are.
I think it's just a case of one size does not fit all.
I really enjoyed Cryptonomicon, (though I thought the ending was a little weak). --Also, I don't really understand why people complain about the lack of well-studied female characters; it's a geek novel for goodness sake, and it seemed quite accurate when compared to my experiences with women; they generally don't appreciate a good story about D&D and packet routing. So what? I don't ask for well-studied male characters in romance novels. You want well-balanced and truly insightful humanist story-telling? Don't read a book dedicated to geeks and geek technology.
OTOH I couldn't stand Snowcrash because it felt like MTV wrote it, and while I don't exactly know how to quantify this, it also felt like he a Mac-user at the time.
And J.R.R.Martin? Ugh. That fellow is just another cult-of-science-cum-writer who lives his life convinced that "Bad Things Happen To Good People", and he made an endless effort to illustrate this dreary philosophy in his Game of Thrones stuff, proving of course nothing at all since being the god of his world makes his representation of reality on paper rather biased. I think he could benefit from learning how to live with a little grace before inflicting his words upon the world, but that's just my humble opinion. --Which can't be worth much since his stuff seems to ring a sympathetic chord with enough readers, --the biggest fans of which also happen to be enormously miserable sob-story people. (Which may be a coincidence or simply the result of a limited sample. I don't know for sure, but I certainly know which I'd bet on.) --I will admit that he knows how to tell an otherwise snappy page-turner, although I found his obsession with pre-pubescent girls tiresome. So no-thanks. And Martin, tell your publicist to stop insisting on including those two Rs in your name when it comes time to do cover design. That's just gaudy and cheep and all by itself should prevent you from sleeping at night. Ever.
Hm. Seven years seems to be the average time-span of my computer gear between replacements.
Back in 2001, (seven years ago), I replaced my trusty 14" Samsung flat screen with a flashy new 21.5" Samsung. --For which, I'll mention for no particular reason, I paid about half the price I did for the old 14", which was about $650 at the time. --The old one, btw, still works perfectly, so I donated it to a friend of mine who was still glaring at a blurry old CRT.
I originally bought that cute 14" to replace my gimungus 17" CRT monitor for which I paid almost $1200 for back in 1994, (another 7-year gap, and as I consider it now, another price-drop of 50%). That old CRT beast always frightened me a little; it made this huge "BZZZONG!" sound when I turned it on, and it did that high-pitch whine thing which drove me crazy for the 7 years I had it in use. It wasn't working quite perfectly on the day I finally replaced it; the colors were no longer consistent across the screen. In any case, I was happy to give up three inches of screen real-estate in favor of the new flat screen just to MAKE THAT &#$@# HIGH PITCH WHINE GO AWAY. I'd been waiting years for that day, and honestly, I don't know why it didn't arrive sooner.
Nonetheless, some technology I have is well over seven years old. --I currently still regularly use a little portable word-processor/PDA thing with a full laptop keyboard and an 8.5" screen, an (HP Jornada 820), which was built back in 1998, making it 10 years old today. It's slow and has very little memory, and the screen isn't so great with only 256 shakey colors, but since I use it as a dedicated word processor, it does its job exceptionally well. --Unfortunately, it has a cracked hinge which keeps getting worse even after a makeshift repair job, and I wonder how much longer it's going to last before the screen breaks off altogether. Still, the remaining hinge seems to be holding fast, so we'll see. If I treat it gingerly, maybe it will last until 2015.
If Asus ever makes their little "eee" series with screens larger than 7", (which is a tad too small for my taste; the 8.5" Jornada screen feels limiting enough as it is), I might consider picking one of them up, though the boot and muck around time is still slow compared to the instant-on my Jornada offers. (It's great being able to flip open the Jornada, hit "On" and have the document I'm working on right there with the cursor flashing in anticipation. Total luxury, and it came from 1998, for crying out loud! I can't stand it when industry abandons good ideas.) --Though, I hear Asus is planning to put out a version with a larger screen sometime this year. I'd like to try out the keyboard, but none of the dealers around here carry the eee, (or even know what I'm talking about when I ask, weirdly enough). My Jornada's keyboard is a perfect size, and the eee's is a little less than an inch smaller, which concerns me somewhat. I'd really like to like the eee, but it just doesn't quite make the grade.
Maybe I'll just buy a plastic-welding unit to fix that hinge. . .
Okay, I'm rambling now. My two points I started out trying to make are these; 1. Seven years is in my experience a logical break-point with regard to computer hardware. And 2. Based on experience, I don't expect a whole lot of advancement from the industry between now and 2015.
Going from CRT to flatscreen was huge, but that was longer than 7 years in the brewing and everybody could see it coming. I can't really see anything new coming down the pike at the moment. I guess the only thing I'd ask is for somebody to make another portable word processor with a lap-top sized keyboard and a decent-sized screen, and with as few moving parts as possible. --Oh, and a loooong battery life. The Asus eee is almost it, but not quite. Maybe another 7 years will do the trick. Here's to hoping!
Oh, and non-tactile keyboards suck. I bet everybody on the bridge of the next-gen Enterprise had sore finger tips and cringes at the smears all over their workstations. Yuk!
For some reason people in the Fifties and Sixties imagining these future scenarios, often tended to see a very cooperative society where somehow greed and corruption and general selfishness had been left behind by history.
We'd probably have more of that cool stuff if people could learn to get along a little better. But as it stands, they failed to mention that people today still lock their doors, have automatic car alarms, and that nine tenths of the world's population not only don't have flying cars, but live in mud huts while working for some cruddy manufacturing company for pennies a day. --With unexploded cluster bomb ordinance scattered outdoors.
Neal Stephenson, were he born in the Forties, could have put a more realistic spin on this article. Too bad.
I predict that by 2015 or thereabouts, and probably a bit sooner, the earth will be a meteor pock-marked hell dealing with super-fast glacial rebound where there really is no more paper money, and the only domed cities will have George W. Bush and/or Vladimir Putin living insidethem.
Okay. I've bolded all the amounts which basically belong under the heading "Money collected by the Record Label for the Record Label". That total is, $7.83. --50% of the price of any product generally goes to the retail/distribution system, and 50% to the supplier, so insofar as that goes, this chart is probably accurate.
The other thing I will say for this cost breakdown is that the distribution fee looks accurate. A box of CD's contains 50 units, and at 90 cents per CD, this works out to $45 dollars. For shipping and sorting a box of 50 CD's, $45 is about right.
But the Artists' royalty is $1.60?
Heh. --I've known several band members, some quite successful, and after they've paid off their debt for the production of their CD, (yes, THEY pay for that little privilege), the average amount they received from the sale price of a CD was about 12 cents per unit. So this little price break-down is a little misleading in that respect; if they're going to itemize all the costs in a way which makes the reader think, "Oh, well, look at how our $16 dollars is being divided up by legitimate takers", then why not include the music production cost? As usual, the artist gets the short end. And who exactly is this market-research firm, "Almighty Institute of Music Retail" which provided this list anyway? I bet their research invoices are not paid for by the bands but rather by the labels.
We love free market, because eventually it kills the old ugly fat bastards - even if they used to be the rich and famous in town.
Speak for yourself. Short term thinking based on so-called 'Free Market' philosophy not only created the very villains featured in your story, but also the stupid rules by which they were forced to self-destruct.
The Free Market, as I understand things, is basically the tag-line in the philosophy whereby one takes no personal responsibility for anything except the short-term pursuit of money while blissfully believing that nature will clean up all our messes for us. Perhaps I'm wrong. --After all, when it boils right down to it, the Free-Market is about as followable a 'philosophy' as Evolution or Gravity. I don't really get what the big deal is. --Except, of course, that it is used as a means to whip people into an emotional fervor so that they ignore fiscal improprieties and criminal activities of very rich people.
I prefer to think that we were gifted with intelligence so that we can take the time to measure the landscape and make plans so that we might more rationally navigate the socio-economic realities which make up our world. Market forces are going to have their effect no matter what you do, so why do people trumpet them as though it were some sort of religion? I find it baffling that people often make this mistake with regard to evolutionary forces; Just because we see such forces functioning in the natural world does not mean that we should abandon our higher intelligence and run back to the jungle. Our higher intelligence gives us the ability to project possible future outcomes and attempt to work toward those which promise greater collective satisfaction and community health.
The Jungle really is an excellent example of a free market system which rewards and compensates with great efficiency, and that's fine, but I would prefer to use a bit of planning and human ingenuity and social conscience in order to find collective solutions. --Solutions which are a little more beneficial than those which would have us living naked in the trees while the fiercest tiger hunts us with impunity and tells us that this is the way it should be because the Free Market decided it so. Selfless collective community planning is considered highly offensive to the greedy, (the tigers), who use the idea of the so-called 'Free Market' and its links to evolutionary theory to champion their greed, but in the end, they're just using key-words to push everybody's 'stop-thinking' buttons. Selfless collectivist thinking is where tiger-killer software like Linux came from, so I think perhaps there is a flaw in the cultish ardor of the Free Market proponents.
Singing the praises of the Free Market is rather like singing the praises of Gravity. Yes, we Get It, but it shouldn't stop people from thinking rationally.
Primaries? Don't give me that. The man's name is being discussed seriously and often as though he represented a real possibility. That MAKES him a real possibility. That's astonishing.
Is that a biased comment? Of course it's biased. The world just suffered enormously under 8 years of bank-breaking war-hawk rule. I'm guessing you were living on the same planet as the rest of us, so I find it, yes, astonishing, that people of your nature still don't get it.
You're trying to pretend no one was talking about McCain in the middle of the Republican primaries.
I'm not trying to pretend anything. The tenor and emotional involvement of the population didn't include today's level of love and attention for the Republican senator. I don't know how to quantify this statistically, but that was certainly the impression I lived with day to day for the past year up until it changed in just the past couple of weeks. The fastest runner of a bunch of losers doesn't deserve the kind of attention he's been getting. It's insane, as are any who are demonstrating the ability to be swayed so effectively into considering him an actual, valid choice "Sane" would be a vast quiet, but actually seeing people consider and argue for this dangerous idiot is, well, the result of limited brain capabilities. But then, that's actually been demonstrated scientifically, hasn't it? Republicans are just as likely to pick an M as they are a W.
If enough people like you act like fools and willingly dive into more hell, then please remember, the rest of the world is going to have to pay for your extreme gullibility. Are you one of those who would like to see war with Iran? Are you one of those who thinks that Iran and Al Qaeda are linked despite their radical religious animosity?
I doubt they'd have been able to "feed him to the lions" if he wasn't paying for whores.
Yes, that was exactly my point. I'm not sure what you're objecting to.
What's really sick is that even in the face of your overwhelming bias and ignorance, you get the same vote I do. THAT is sick.
No, sick is voting for murder through ignorance. There is nothing more frightening than an adult with a machine gun who has a child's perception of the world and who is easily lied to.
Nobody was talking about McCain a month ago. Why has this changed? Has the constant Fox bashing of Obama actually begun to affect people? Has the media free pass on McCain's total illiteracy about the most basic facts of the Middle East. (re: his mistaking several times Sunni and Shiite, Iran and Al Qaeda). The man is a menace. Bill Maher put it well.
I find it astonishing that this McCain guy is even being talked about. Is everybody really so easily led by the nose?
That is, of course, a rhetorical question. American politics is like watching a bloody car accident in slow motion.
Not that any of it really matters. --With the totally ignored cries that the call girl agency which did Spitzer in was long known by U.S. Intelligence to be a Mossad front, and that he was fed to the lions to get a wall-street watchdog like Spitzer out of the way before the shenanigans with the Fed and JP Morgan and Bear Stearns which broke a week later, shows again that if you are clean, you aren't allowed to come to power of any sort. They must have some impressive dirt on Obama, (either that, or they'll just shoot him if Fox fails to do its job.) The Clintons are dirty as hell. But McCain? COME ON PEOPLE! That's just sick.
So long as they can speak, there will always be some argument trying to raise a reasonable doubt, and while we waste time beating our heads against the Bill'Os and Rushes of the world, the world continues to burn and disintegrate. Look at how much damage one smiling, soft-shoe psychopath can inflict upon the world in under eight years. Hundreds of thousands of war dead (for no good reason), an economy brought to the verge of total collapse, and all the works in place to start rounding people into barbed wire enclosures. And people are still arguing in defense of this president! Those same people will be blaming communism and hippies even if it is discovered that we are killing our minorities in gas chambers. You know I'm right.
But here's the thing I'm seeing over and over again in all of this; It doesn't matter what the politicos do, there simply isn't any agency through which the public can enact a change. How do you impeach a president? How do you put a Cheney in prison? Which government agency do you call to arrest the government? Only the densest and/or most deeply committed evil-doers will defend this government, so why is it still in power?
The congress does nothing, which implies that they either don't want to do anything, or they cannot. There are many reasons for this, but the fact that we've watched a fraudulent election take place, among numerous other crimes suggests that they are locked up. Black mail. Stupidity. Evil. Whatever, that avenue clearly doesn't work.
Which leaves what? A Washington city cop making an arrest on Whitehouse property?
In the end, we're talking about a government which is little different than some tin pot dictatorship. People keep waiting for somebody to do something and it keeps not happening.
And everybody is too scared to pick up a rifle and start shooting politicians because they know what will happen after that. --All semblance of order instantly lost, and what remains of society catching fire. Nobody wants that. Anything but that. And so we keep hoping that somebody will do something. --And look! We have a promising election coming up! We can focus on that, and ignore the FACT that we KNOW the electoral process is corrupt. We KNOW that the military industrial complex still holds power over everything, and we KNOW that the same people and agencies who killed Kennedy are moving in the bushes. But we'll put up with that false hope because anything is better than the alternative.
I hate to be the one to break it to you, but I have to tell you that your incandescents are already running at 3000K. If you are so into lighting technology perhaps you might try to find time to actually study up on the subject.
Well now! That just goes to show you can always count on a nerd to get miss a chance to share interesting details with others in the spirit of enthusiasm and instead use knowledge as a means of strutting feathers in some kind of penis-measuring contest.
You'll pardon me for still finding joy in this technology even though my knowledge of its details may remain be somewhat less than perfect.
Yes, it was just a little video bite, but the demo was wild!
I realize that for some reason, lighting technology punches one of my geek buttons. I was super-pumped about white LED technology, and this just blew me away. The bulb was the size of a Jelly-Belly jelly bean, and it out-shone a street lamp fixture the size of a jumbo hot-dog while burning a whole lot less power. How gee-whiz is that?
At 6000K, though, it's not going to be in my living room, but I'll be really happy to see this in street lamps. And it looks like the parts are going to cost pennies per unit. I love lighting technology. What a super-geek I am!
Slashdot Mirror
I didn't mention one peculiar fact; Not everybody has a soul. There is a creature called the 'psychopath', which is basically the malfunctioning cousin to the soulless but better adapted machine human type. Typically, such individuals really are the Darwin machines many engineers insist make up the entire population, but really it's only about half. I was not writing for the benefit of those humans. They're basically just awesome reaction machines which have bamboozled everybody on the Turing test. No real way to tell which are which, except that soulless people generally are the ones are more capable of hurting others since that's a necessary component in their energetic feeding process. But it's a VERY bad idea to spend much time playing 'Spot the Cylon', because souled individuals can go through troubled periods, get lost, and steal energy as well. Best to focus on your own development and learn how not to get burned by anybody while still being a loving person. --A seemingly paradoxical challenge, like all the ones that count.
How can you tell if you are an organic machine?
Have you ever hurt for somebody else? Machines only hurt when their energy supply is threatened or they don't get what they want.
(I'm always curious what people will make of that one. It is suggested that the Gnostics were wiped out specifically for entertaining a variation of this philosophy.)
-FL
-FL
You are over-simplifying. It's immature and mean-spirited. You have a lot to learn, and chances are you will learn it the hard way; you will lose somebody close to you, or you will be debilitated by depression or sickness and knowing your own attitude towards those who have made this impossibly difficult choice, there is a good chance that you will despise yourself thus diminishing your own ability to cope. --You can resolutely declare now from a position of strength that your attitude will never change, and that you will not lose the emotional filters which keep you safe from feeling, and you probably even believe this, but I can guarantee that if you are a thinking person who allows yourself to grow and learn, then at some point in the future you will find yourself stripped of that certainty and strength. I've seen it happen many times, and you are not special in this regard. --And if you are not a thinking person who allows yourself to grow and learn, then you are worse than dead already. Tough times ahead. Good luck.
To those who whole-heartedly support suicide or who are considering it, consider this:
Your spot on this planet at this time was hard won. There were many others who wanted it, but you made the arguments and you fought because we are in an age of tremendous change and possibility; this is a special place and time, and you came here either to make a difference or because you hoped to be caught up in the current created by those who have true courage. In any case, the souls around you believed in you and stepped aside so that you could have the chance to show us all what you are made of. Those who have the most chance of doing something worthy are often those who get hit hardest by the machine, trying to crush your spirit and make you concede the game. The ways of attack are many, but knowledge of how they work offers a solid measure of protection.
To those who really cannot go on. . .
It's okay to hit the reset switch. There is no judgment beyond this reality, but there is a karmic price. You basically have to come back and finish what you started, and it can be more difficult the next time around. Better to work through it as best you can this time if at all possible while remembering that you are always, always loved and that help is available if you need and request it.
-FL
The poster was not informative. There was no information, just accusation. There is a difference. You have provided information, (albeit, in the form of half-baked and misleading questions), so you might be considered informative after a fashion, (a fashion which the moderators today appear to be willing to reward. Sigh.) But the parent poster offered nothing. I don't really know how to make this any more clear. The fact that so many don't grasp this is a clear illustration of why the world is so screwed up. But I digress. . .
Furthermore after 2001 , NO REDUCTION in autism was observed despite lessened to null use of thiomersal. And study were made it has no autism impact. How many more evidence you need ?
First of all, you're not offering evidence. You're just spouting. Attempts to offer evidence in a post often includes little words with lines underneath them. Look into it. Secondly, you're making the assumption that I think Thiomersal causes autism. I don't recall saying that. Indeed, I am not convinced that there is a correlation, and I do find the OH NO contingent to often be claiming more than is evident. However, this does not mean that swinging just as far in the opposite direction is the right answer. It's not. It's foolish and predictable and just as hysterical as those you are complaining about. Why can't people get a grip on this? Is it really so easy to corral people into such predictable behavior patterns? The world is never going to survive if people don't figure out this really, really basic stuff.
Finally you are omitting a very important fact from your "ethyl mercury is toxic" meme.
Case in point; Ethyl Mercury being toxic is not a "meme". Ethyl Mercury IS toxic. Type, "Ethyl Mercury MSDS" into a Google search bar to read what every university and private company on the planet with a chemistry department dealing with Ethyl Mercury has to say about it.
1) how long does it take to metabolise from thiomersal to ethyl mercury 2) how does it relate to ethyl mercury half life in the body 3) how does it relate to the minimal quantity of thiomersal in vaccine ? 4) how is the quantity of ethyl mercury due to vaccine at ANY time in comparison to the dosis at which it starts affecting the body (and yes there are quantity which are perfectly tolerable, and even quantity of Eth-Hg which can be totally ignored).
More Google for you. --You will find that the claims are not unified on these subjects, that by and large there has not been enough testing to determine conclusively the level of toxicity experienced by the subject. That being said, however, I did find from all the various articles, and you will find this as well upon review, that there IS absolute agreement that Ethyl Mercury, a known poison, IS released in some quantity into the body after a Thiomersal injection.
and more importantly 5) how does it relate to parents saying that within 24 hours their kids got autism !!!!
Not that it really matters since such a claim would probably just be more hysteria, but has anybody actually said that? Source please. --And fewer exclamation points if you can manage it.
This is what I have determined thus far: 1. Thiomersal is a product brought to us by an industry known for sickening and even killing people with improperly tested drugs and then telling lies about it after the fact. 2. Thiomersal is an effective, mercury-based poison; this is why it is used as a preservative.
Upon the finer points of quantity of poison and the length of time before the body expunges it, there remains debate. With this information we can proceed in one of two things:
1. We can trust an industry which has proven countless times to be untrustworthy and march into the doctor's office and roll up our sleeve while quivering with a variety of emotionally-driven verve which is almost indistinguishable from the nati
That gets modded informative? A note to the wise moderator: "Informative" presupposes the contribution of information. Whereas what we have here amounts to an authoritative-sounding chin-jutting, "Is Not!" with nothing of any material to back it up. Children argue like this, and it should be pointed out that an adult who argues like this is likely to maintain other over-simplified thought patterns which will naturally extend to their belief systems.
No it's the wrong kind of mercury. It is NOT the same stuff that comes in thermometers.
Metallic Mercury doesn't dissolve in water and is not useful in pharmaceuticals, so it is bonded into an organic molecule, C9H9HgNaO2S, (Thiomersal), which metabolizes in the human body into C2H5ClHg (Ethyl Mercury). Ethyl Mercury, however, is indeed toxic.
(It's worth adding that these material safety data sheets generally assume that the substance isn't going to be injected into the subject.)
--There has been a study reported by those who champion the medical establishment which demonstrate that Ethyl Mercury clears from the human body about three times more quickly than its cousin, Methyl Mercury. But Methyl Mercury is also not the "stuff that comes in thermometers", which for the most part isn't terribly dangerous unless inhaled in a vapor form which allows it entry through the lungs and into the blood stream where the problems begin. The relevance of this study stems from recent regulatory limitations placed on Thiomersal use having been based on health-safety studies of Methyl Mercury and it's longer half-life in the human body.
However, complaining that Ethyl Mercury is not the same as the stuff in thermometers when its toxicity is in fact very well established seems both irrelevant and a bit weird.
As it turns out, Thiomersal use has been reduced in most vaccines as a result of these recent health regulations, (from about 2001). The one exception is the flu-shot.
really? I find it to be favoring the truth. as it turns out many corporation are actually telling the truth.
A lot of spin is indeed true in a "letter of the law" kind of way. That's why it's called 'spin'.
But it's also true that corporations tell lots of baldfaced lies, both directly and through omission. They do this because it is very profitable to not have to clean up after yourself or behave responsibly. It's forgivable to be fooled by the corporate spin-doctor; the point of spin, silence and lies is to deceive, but once a person has seen the mountains of evidence of moral bankruptcy, to continue insisting that problems are not there seems very strange to me. It's almost as though this poster has tied strongly his ego and sense of self-worth to the idea that he stands against those who over-react, and has through this allowed the area he defends to grow larger than is truly deserving. That is, if he concedes that the people he opposes might be a little bit right, it would mean that he is a little bit wrong, which the ego finds utterly unacceptable. I find it is important to regularly watch out for these kinds of thought patterns so that they don't creep in and infect one's mind. Egotism can be seductive to the best of us.
-FL
But like any quantum problem, paying attention has an effect upon what the probability wave collapses into. Hopefully, by keeping one's eyes peeled, the world can avoid unwarranted disasters. Good job!
-FL
Ha ha. I'll take my humble pie with a side of irony, please.
-FL
You can pick that particular one up on eBay for about $100 after shipping.
It's not very pretty, and it doesn't have much memory, but with 16 Megs and a flashcard slot, it's more than enough if your serious about dedicated word processing. I often have ten or more live documents open at once, which is really great. Whatever I feel like working on is instantly at my finger tips. You cannot, however, use this device for web browsing, even though it comes with internet options. The little processor was lightweight even back in 1998 when this computer was first made available; it really has to chug to get through graphics-heavy HTML.
But there are some features which have not since been matched. The keyboard is very comfortable and I've used it with no complaints for hours at a stretch, but the best feature, (and one which I wasn't even looking for before I bought it), is that the Jornada performs an 'instant-on' power up. That is, in a couple of seconds, you can go from the tickle of inspiration to full-speed keyboarding. The battery is a lith-ion, and generally lasts me for about 3 hours with all the power-saving features shut off. You can supposedly get a bigger battery if you hunt around, but I've never bothered. In any case, the Jornada isn't a traveler's word processor. (I'd probably get one of those Alphasmarts if I was heading into darkest Peru, and probably be griping about screen size and keyboard angles there and back.)
The screen is old tech, only 256 colors and it's sometimes easy to lose your cursor if you don't remember where you left it since the refresh rate isn't spectacular. Also it doesn't cut it with outdoor sunlight conditions. But for straight writing indoors, it's comfortable and responsive with no reflection problems at all; easy on the eyes. I also use it as an eReader sometimes.
The cursor works by touch-pad, and the machine has a USB port, so you can swap in a mouse if you like. The screen is 8.9", which is JUST this side of big enough; any smaller and I'd have been looking for something else. The 7" Asus Eee screen was a big turn off for me.
The two hinges aren't well constructed, so you can't be rough with it. When I bought mine from eBay, it came with a couple of hair-line cracks which blossomed over the last couple of years into a fully busted hinge. But the other hinge is holding fast, so my suspicion is that if you treat these things with a bit of care, they should last indefinitely.
I've often, when using it in a public place, been asked by people what it is and where I got it. A big screen and a proper keyboard on such a small item is obviously something people are impressed by, and who can blame them?
I'm considering getting another one or perhaps some kind of other replacement, but because mine is still working with a single hinge, I don't need to just yet. And also, NOBODY has made a decent writing tool on par with the Jornada 820. The new line of Asus Eee's due this month which will have bigger screens, are sexy and the web-surfing ability is tempting, but that small keyboard makes me leery, plus the price-tag is just insulting. $750 for an item which was supposed to be under $200. . ? Lame. --And even with the Eee's famous 20-second boot time, having to give up the Jornada's instant-on feature would be a major bummer.
I've written hundreds of pages on the Jornada, so when I see stories like this one from HP, (who also produced the Jornada series as it happens), I get quite excited. But you're right. Nobody's produced the holy grail of digital writing tools yet, despite the fact that all the technology is available and just waiting for some inspired company to put the pieces together.
Maybe next year.
-FL
Since nearly the entire human sphere is made up of theists of one stripe or another, this is rather like saying, "People do better in society". Though, I can't help but think that society might be a whole lot better off if those people would stop sacking one another's cities over matters of religious difference.
Those who 'embrace god' are usually and typically really just embracing whatever nonsense and demonstrably false religious text has been provided them by their local equally lost-in-the-woods cult leader, usually spoon fed to them from a young enough age that the brainwashing is so deep they would rather spin forever in denial and a broad application of the most ludicrous arguments rather than consider the possibility that they are in fact psychological abuse victims.
God is certainly real; it's you and me and the earth under your feet and yeah, it's even the concept of a bearded maniac in the sky which so many people build churches and temples and mosques to sing euphoric praise to. God is everything under the Sun. And above the Sun. And the Sun too, while we're at it. --But the Spanish Inquisition would have cut my nuts off for suggesting such a thing, which is why the following is worth repeating. . .
Religion as it stands and as it has stood since its dawn is a crippling disease of the mind perpetrated by fools and villains designed to keep humanity stupid, depraved and forever blind to their own true history and potential.
But that's just my take. Maybe the current war in the Middle East has absolutely nothing to do with whose god is bestest.
-FL
Seems like a forty minute mandatory, "How to not screw up" tour could fix a lot of these bot problems.
-FL
I've always said, "Kray-Ken". I think that's because that's how my mother used to say it. She knew cool things, but I suspect the word is old enough and spread widely enough that there's probably not an actual 'right way'. I haven't honestly wondered since seventh grade when I was reading John Wyndham. "Wake the Kraken".
I was thinking about how words evolve just yesterday when I was unable to look up the pronunciation of something online or anywhere. Can't recall the word or name or whatever, but while thinking about it, I thought about Newfoundland in Canada's Atlantic provinces. Pronounced variously as "New-Found-Land", "Nooh-Fund-Land" and my personal preference because it seems the most honest and salt-of-the-earthy, "Noohfun-Lan", home of the affable "Noofie". Dear me, and all silly national pride nonsense aside, but I do love this country to bits! The whole place is teaming with hobbits and wizards.
Anyway, I think what I'm saying is that words move and we shouldn't try to stop them.
-FL
here's a story about what I'd say is a very black & white likely case of psychopathy, and one at its worst, at least on a small scale.
The above link being pretty heavy, I thought I'd offer this lighter fare; A pseudo-scientific test to measure yourself on the psychopath-meter.
If you're going to navigate your pathway through reality, (down the river of life), you need to know where the rocks are if you're going to be able to avoid crashing into them. Christianity and the like has programmed all kinds of self-destructive behavior into human-kind. "Turn the other cheek" is an example of social programming which makes us food for the psychopathic human-type, --the type which I would guess is generally in charge of countries and most of the most powerful organizations which shape our lives; the psychopath recognizes its own and shapes the rules of the world to benefit itself, and study of the power structures over the centuries, doesn't really ever let go once the seat of power is attained. --Christ's supposed dying on the cross, (which I am doubtful actually happened for a variety of reasons, not the l
You're shooting at shadows because I was not implying anything. Why imply when I have no qualms about simply saying plainly what I mean? Your brain is still revving a little on the over-active side methinks.
You can not support that this has anything to do with fascism. You are, in fact, a lying hypocrite.
Well, it's hard to tell from your posting style what the 'this' is that you are referring to, but if I am to take it that you are saying that I cannot support that covert military funding of propaganda through supposedly independent bloggers with public tax dollars has anything to do with fascism, I think that you are entirely mistaken. Do a little research on 'Fascism' and see what you find. --Though I suspect that the real challenge in your case might be in looking squarely at the facts you come across and not in the finding of the facts themselves.
-FL
Actually, when I refer to anti-fascists, that's exactly what I mean. People who are opposed to fascism. --For you to call everybody who is opposed to fascism a "totalitarian Leninist" is both unsupportable and rather hysterical-sounding.
-FL
The tactics are not the same.
Bloggers who are anti-fascist aren't airing their opinions for a paycheck, nor are they pretending that they are broadcasting their opinions of their own volition when really there is a man behind the curtain giving direction. One system is honest while the other is structured on an attempt to deceive. There's a big difference. If you align yourself with falsehoods, then that is the kind of world you will inherit.
It would be different if members of the military were blogging their opinions and were open about their affiliations. --Of course, that actually does happen; there are certainly military professionals who post their opinions on line, but while many disagree with those opinions, nobody is accusing them of propaganda since they are not being dishonest about who they really are.
-FL
I really enjoyed Cryptonomicon, (though I thought the ending was a little weak). --Also, I don't really understand why people complain about the lack of well-studied female characters; it's a geek novel for goodness sake, and it seemed quite accurate when compared to my experiences with women; they generally don't appreciate a good story about D&D and packet routing. So what? I don't ask for well-studied male characters in romance novels. You want well-balanced and truly insightful humanist story-telling? Don't read a book dedicated to geeks and geek technology.
OTOH I couldn't stand Snowcrash because it felt like MTV wrote it, and while I don't exactly know how to quantify this, it also felt like he a Mac-user at the time.
And J.R.R.Martin? Ugh. That fellow is just another cult-of-science-cum-writer who lives his life convinced that "Bad Things Happen To Good People", and he made an endless effort to illustrate this dreary philosophy in his Game of Thrones stuff, proving of course nothing at all since being the god of his world makes his representation of reality on paper rather biased. I think he could benefit from learning how to live with a little grace before inflicting his words upon the world, but that's just my humble opinion. --Which can't be worth much since his stuff seems to ring a sympathetic chord with enough readers, --the biggest fans of which also happen to be enormously miserable sob-story people. (Which may be a coincidence or simply the result of a limited sample. I don't know for sure, but I certainly know which I'd bet on.) --I will admit that he knows how to tell an otherwise snappy page-turner, although I found his obsession with pre-pubescent girls tiresome. So no-thanks. And Martin, tell your publicist to stop insisting on including those two Rs in your name when it comes time to do cover design. That's just gaudy and cheep and all by itself should prevent you from sleeping at night. Ever.
But whatever makes your soul marketable, I guess.
-FL
Back in 2001, (seven years ago), I replaced my trusty 14" Samsung flat screen with a flashy new 21.5" Samsung. --For which, I'll mention for no particular reason, I paid about half the price I did for the old 14", which was about $650 at the time. --The old one, btw, still works perfectly, so I donated it to a friend of mine who was still glaring at a blurry old CRT.
I originally bought that cute 14" to replace my gimungus 17" CRT monitor for which I paid almost $1200 for back in 1994, (another 7-year gap, and as I consider it now, another price-drop of 50%). That old CRT beast always frightened me a little; it made this huge "BZZZONG!" sound when I turned it on, and it did that high-pitch whine thing which drove me crazy for the 7 years I had it in use. It wasn't working quite perfectly on the day I finally replaced it; the colors were no longer consistent across the screen. In any case, I was happy to give up three inches of screen real-estate in favor of the new flat screen just to MAKE THAT &#$@# HIGH PITCH WHINE GO AWAY. I'd been waiting years for that day, and honestly, I don't know why it didn't arrive sooner.
Nonetheless, some technology I have is well over seven years old. --I currently still regularly use a little portable word-processor/PDA thing with a full laptop keyboard and an 8.5" screen, an (HP Jornada 820), which was built back in 1998, making it 10 years old today. It's slow and has very little memory, and the screen isn't so great with only 256 shakey colors, but since I use it as a dedicated word processor, it does its job exceptionally well. --Unfortunately, it has a cracked hinge which keeps getting worse even after a makeshift repair job, and I wonder how much longer it's going to last before the screen breaks off altogether. Still, the remaining hinge seems to be holding fast, so we'll see. If I treat it gingerly, maybe it will last until 2015.
If Asus ever makes their little "eee" series with screens larger than 7", (which is a tad too small for my taste; the 8.5" Jornada screen feels limiting enough as it is), I might consider picking one of them up, though the boot and muck around time is still slow compared to the instant-on my Jornada offers. (It's great being able to flip open the Jornada, hit "On" and have the document I'm working on right there with the cursor flashing in anticipation. Total luxury, and it came from 1998, for crying out loud! I can't stand it when industry abandons good ideas.) --Though, I hear Asus is planning to put out a version with a larger screen sometime this year. I'd like to try out the keyboard, but none of the dealers around here carry the eee, (or even know what I'm talking about when I ask, weirdly enough). My Jornada's keyboard is a perfect size, and the eee's is a little less than an inch smaller, which concerns me somewhat. I'd really like to like the eee, but it just doesn't quite make the grade.
Maybe I'll just buy a plastic-welding unit to fix that hinge. . .
Okay, I'm rambling now. My two points I started out trying to make are these; 1. Seven years is in my experience a logical break-point with regard to computer hardware. And 2. Based on experience, I don't expect a whole lot of advancement from the industry between now and 2015.
Going from CRT to flatscreen was huge, but that was longer than 7 years in the brewing and everybody could see it coming. I can't really see anything new coming down the pike at the moment. I guess the only thing I'd ask is for somebody to make another portable word processor with a lap-top sized keyboard and a decent-sized screen, and with as few moving parts as possible. --Oh, and a loooong battery life. The Asus eee is almost it, but not quite. Maybe another 7 years will do the trick. Here's to hoping!
Oh, and non-tactile keyboards suck. I bet everybody on the bridge of the next-gen Enterprise had sore finger tips and cringes at the smears all over their workstations. Yuk!
-FL
We'd probably have more of that cool stuff if people could learn to get along a little better. But as it stands, they failed to mention that people today still lock their doors, have automatic car alarms, and that nine tenths of the world's population not only don't have flying cars, but live in mud huts while working for some cruddy manufacturing company for pennies a day. --With unexploded cluster bomb ordinance scattered outdoors.
Neal Stephenson, were he born in the Forties, could have put a more realistic spin on this article. Too bad.
I predict that by 2015 or thereabouts, and probably a bit sooner, the earth will be a meteor pock-marked hell dealing with super-fast glacial rebound where there really is no more paper money, and the only domed cities will have George W. Bush and/or Vladimir Putin living inside them.
-FL
$0.80 Packaging/manufacturing
$0.82 Publishing royalties
$0.80 Retail profit
$0.90 Distribution
$1.60 Artists' royalties
$1.70 Label profit
$2.40 Marketing/promotion
$2.91 Label overhead
$3.89 Retail overhead
Okay. I've bolded all the amounts which basically belong under the heading "Money collected by the Record Label for the Record Label". That total is, $7.83. --50% of the price of any product generally goes to the retail/distribution system, and 50% to the supplier, so insofar as that goes, this chart is probably accurate.
The other thing I will say for this cost breakdown is that the distribution fee looks accurate. A box of CD's contains 50 units, and at 90 cents per CD, this works out to $45 dollars. For shipping and sorting a box of 50 CD's, $45 is about right.
But the Artists' royalty is $1.60?
Heh. --I've known several band members, some quite successful, and after they've paid off their debt for the production of their CD, (yes, THEY pay for that little privilege), the average amount they received from the sale price of a CD was about 12 cents per unit. So this little price break-down is a little misleading in that respect; if they're going to itemize all the costs in a way which makes the reader think, "Oh, well, look at how our $16 dollars is being divided up by legitimate takers", then why not include the music production cost? As usual, the artist gets the short end. And who exactly is this market-research firm, "Almighty Institute of Music Retail" which provided this list anyway? I bet their research invoices are not paid for by the bands but rather by the labels.
Okay. Enough of this nonsense. Ciao for now.
-FL
Speak for yourself. Short term thinking based on so-called 'Free Market' philosophy not only created the very villains featured in your story, but also the stupid rules by which they were forced to self-destruct.
The Free Market, as I understand things, is basically the tag-line in the philosophy whereby one takes no personal responsibility for anything except the short-term pursuit of money while blissfully believing that nature will clean up all our messes for us. Perhaps I'm wrong. --After all, when it boils right down to it, the Free-Market is about as followable a 'philosophy' as Evolution or Gravity. I don't really get what the big deal is. --Except, of course, that it is used as a means to whip people into an emotional fervor so that they ignore fiscal improprieties and criminal activities of very rich people.
I prefer to think that we were gifted with intelligence so that we can take the time to measure the landscape and make plans so that we might more rationally navigate the socio-economic realities which make up our world. Market forces are going to have their effect no matter what you do, so why do people trumpet them as though it were some sort of religion? I find it baffling that people often make this mistake with regard to evolutionary forces; Just because we see such forces functioning in the natural world does not mean that we should abandon our higher intelligence and run back to the jungle. Our higher intelligence gives us the ability to project possible future outcomes and attempt to work toward those which promise greater collective satisfaction and community health.
The Jungle really is an excellent example of a free market system which rewards and compensates with great efficiency, and that's fine, but I would prefer to use a bit of planning and human ingenuity and social conscience in order to find collective solutions. --Solutions which are a little more beneficial than those which would have us living naked in the trees while the fiercest tiger hunts us with impunity and tells us that this is the way it should be because the Free Market decided it so. Selfless collective community planning is considered highly offensive to the greedy, (the tigers), who use the idea of the so-called 'Free Market' and its links to evolutionary theory to champion their greed, but in the end, they're just using key-words to push everybody's 'stop-thinking' buttons. Selfless collectivist thinking is where tiger-killer software like Linux came from, so I think perhaps there is a flaw in the cultish ardor of the Free Market proponents.
Singing the praises of the Free Market is rather like singing the praises of Gravity. Yes, we Get It, but it shouldn't stop people from thinking rationally.
-FL
Is that a biased comment? Of course it's biased. The world just suffered enormously under 8 years of bank-breaking war-hawk rule. I'm guessing you were living on the same planet as the rest of us, so I find it, yes, astonishing, that people of your nature still don't get it.
You're trying to pretend no one was talking about McCain in the middle of the Republican primaries.
I'm not trying to pretend anything. The tenor and emotional involvement of the population didn't include today's level of love and attention for the Republican senator. I don't know how to quantify this statistically, but that was certainly the impression I lived with day to day for the past year up until it changed in just the past couple of weeks. The fastest runner of a bunch of losers doesn't deserve the kind of attention he's been getting. It's insane, as are any who are demonstrating the ability to be swayed so effectively into considering him an actual, valid choice "Sane" would be a vast quiet, but actually seeing people consider and argue for this dangerous idiot is, well, the result of limited brain capabilities. But then, that's actually been demonstrated scientifically, hasn't it? Republicans are just as likely to pick an M as they are a W.
If enough people like you act like fools and willingly dive into more hell, then please remember, the rest of the world is going to have to pay for your extreme gullibility. Are you one of those who would like to see war with Iran? Are you one of those who thinks that Iran and Al Qaeda are linked despite their radical religious animosity?
I doubt they'd have been able to "feed him to the lions" if he wasn't paying for whores.
Yes, that was exactly my point. I'm not sure what you're objecting to.
What's really sick is that even in the face of your overwhelming bias and ignorance, you get the same vote I do. THAT is sick.
No, sick is voting for murder through ignorance. There is nothing more frightening than an adult with a machine gun who has a child's perception of the world and who is easily lied to.
-FL
I find it astonishing that this McCain guy is even being talked about. Is everybody really so easily led by the nose?
That is, of course, a rhetorical question. American politics is like watching a bloody car accident in slow motion.
Not that any of it really matters. --With the totally ignored cries that the call girl agency which did Spitzer in was long known by U.S. Intelligence to be a Mossad front, and that he was fed to the lions to get a wall-street watchdog like Spitzer out of the way before the shenanigans with the Fed and JP Morgan and Bear Stearns which broke a week later, shows again that if you are clean, you aren't allowed to come to power of any sort. They must have some impressive dirt on Obama, (either that, or they'll just shoot him if Fox fails to do its job.) The Clintons are dirty as hell. But McCain? COME ON PEOPLE! That's just sick.
-FL
But here's the thing I'm seeing over and over again in all of this; It doesn't matter what the politicos do, there simply isn't any agency through which the public can enact a change. How do you impeach a president? How do you put a Cheney in prison? Which government agency do you call to arrest the government? Only the densest and/or most deeply committed evil-doers will defend this government, so why is it still in power?
The congress does nothing, which implies that they either don't want to do anything, or they cannot. There are many reasons for this, but the fact that we've watched a fraudulent election take place, among numerous other crimes suggests that they are locked up. Black mail. Stupidity. Evil. Whatever, that avenue clearly doesn't work.
Which leaves what? A Washington city cop making an arrest on Whitehouse property?
In the end, we're talking about a government which is little different than some tin pot dictatorship. People keep waiting for somebody to do something and it keeps not happening.
And everybody is too scared to pick up a rifle and start shooting politicians because they know what will happen after that. --All semblance of order instantly lost, and what remains of society catching fire. Nobody wants that. Anything but that. And so we keep hoping that somebody will do something. --And look! We have a promising election coming up! We can focus on that, and ignore the FACT that we KNOW the electoral process is corrupt. We KNOW that the military industrial complex still holds power over everything, and we KNOW that the same people and agencies who killed Kennedy are moving in the bushes. But we'll put up with that false hope because anything is better than the alternative.
Maybe this time. Maybe!
-FL
Well now! That just goes to show you can always count on a nerd to get miss a chance to share interesting details with others in the spirit of enthusiasm and instead use knowledge as a means of strutting feathers in some kind of penis-measuring contest.
You'll pardon me for still finding joy in this technology even though my knowledge of its details may remain be somewhat less than perfect.
-FL
I realize that for some reason, lighting technology punches one of my geek buttons. I was super-pumped about white LED technology, and this just blew me away. The bulb was the size of a Jelly-Belly jelly bean, and it out-shone a street lamp fixture the size of a jumbo hot-dog while burning a whole lot less power. How gee-whiz is that?
At 6000K, though, it's not going to be in my living room, but I'll be really happy to see this in street lamps. And it looks like the parts are going to cost pennies per unit. I love lighting technology. What a super-geek I am!
-FL