Well, I saw this as a possibility when I'd discovered they'd shuttered the 29th Street shops location in Boulder. High profile, anchor store location. Easy to get to, etc. Didn't make much sense to close that location like they did- unless they were hurting quite a bit more than they let on when they filed their 13 filing.
There's some still in business (though apparently not for much longer...:-D) in Texas and Colorado (Nearest bookstore while I was in the Longmont area was the Borders in Longmont. Guess if I'm back up there on a contract, I'll have to drive into Boulder or down into Thornton...)
I will agree with the going to seed part on the tech books. Borders, and to a lesser extent Barnes and Noble, have taken to carrying just the popular stuff with the occasional random exceptions that don't always make sense. They forgot who their customer base was- it's not all the people buying the popular stuff (though you need to carry it all the same...), it's the people that look for the odd book or the serious technical book.
And, if power's the concern, solar panels and wind gensets typically do a decent enough job providing sufficient juice for most e-readers and even Android/iOS tablets. The DRM's going to be a concern- but fortunately for me, most of my e-Book fixes seem to be from Baen, and they don't do DRM.:-D
Actually...they don't arbitrarily rubber-stamp it. If you're a big company, they do that- if you're a little player, they flip a coin and call it and then rubber-stamp or reject based on the results.
It's not a Democracy that the people of the United States currently enjoy. We don't vote on every issue of governance. You choose those whom represent your interests in Government and they make those decisions for you. As such, we have a democratically chosen republic- which the distinction is actually rather important and the failing to understand the distinction is part of the source of the problems we face inside the borders these days.
As it stands, there's several things going on that the Founding Fathers had not envisioned (or even intended)- and some of it is due to the Government clearly not abiding by the laws that restrict it's actions, and some of it is due to structural changes made by Amendments by people that plain flat didn't understand the why of things like the Senate (Official representation chosen by the States FOR the States, not by popular vote like the Representatives were- which were the people's representation within the system, hence the name of the segment in question...). In all cases, it's been because people just don't understand what their requirements and obligations are.
Gotu Kola has been shown to pretty much be one of the highest natural sources of B1, B2, and B6 vitamins- which would be brain/memory boosting.
Ginko's been claimed to be memory loss/dementia preventing. Mixed bag there on the research (some research indicating so, some not...)- but they DO know it has an impact on healthy individuals by boosting attentiveness considerably through it's ability to inhibit norepinephrine uptake. I'd say it'd help in remembering things because of that aspect.
Not sure about the other herbals in the tea, but Firmoss happens to supply a known fairly potent nootropic. Research has shown that it's roughly as effective at dealing with Alzheimers as the current drugs on the market with quite a bit less side effects. Other research on the nootropic aspects are currently ongoing but they're in the process of producing a highly refined and concentrated version of this substance to treat Alzheimers right at the moment.
So...saying that they were just sold snake oil...not as such. Where do you think asprin came from? It was by researching the effect of salicylic acid and trying to find a "better" answer for the stuff that already largely worked- from plant extracts, much like this herbal medicine you're calling "snake oil". Yes, much of this stuff is that- but to dismiss it like you did is to ignore where your medicines at least initially came from.
It's trivia that I tend to forget...that and numbers. But then, I had problems with the numbers anyhow.:-D
The trivia, I seem to still be doing okay, but it's hazier- I have to resort to Googling it occasionally with my phone or other computer to verify my recollections.
Sadly... There's NOTHING in the Bible that would lead anyone to think that you're going to Hell because you're wearing shorts- save that maybe they feel that it's "seductive". They didn't say that, only that she was risking her immortal soul to wearing shorts. I suggest that those folks quit speaking of the splinter in their brother's eye and pluck out the plank in theirs first- they're not following what he taught by doing it the way they did it, regardless of the thinking you're talking to.
Are Christians required to be judgmental assholes?
Those distant relatives claim to be Christians- but sadly, they're following Doctrine instead of the Son.
Tell me where in the Bible it says anything about "shorts" as an instance of what I'm speaking to. Much like the Sam Kinnison joke (God going through whole of the the Bible, muttering, "Where in here does it say, 'Build a waterslide'?") there's nothing in there about that. That's them and those within their "Church" failing to pay attention to the one and really only thing Jesus warned his Disciples to "beware" of. (Matthew 16:6 - "Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees and Saducees") Which is to say that those groups did all sorts of pretentious things of Doctrine to make them look "holy" amongst the others and made up all sorts of "laws" that were intended on ensuring that you never got even remotely close to committing an act of sin. In short, they took a position of "holier than thou" and lorded it over the other people around them- and were guilty of all sorts of hypocrisy.
I try my level best to NOT do that sort of thing.:-D
I contend that most of that you're shrugging off was wasted (I'm sorry, I'm supposed to shoulder the fiscal irresponsibility of a bank that should have known better, whose executives should have done a perp-walk, and the like - just because the SOB is "too big to fail"? Not buying it. We got NOTHING from the Stimulus spending- while many lined their pockets with it for all intents and purposes...not just the "damn Saudis". At least when FDR did idiot things that prolonged the Great Depression (he didn't fix it...they know this for certain now...and that we'd have been out of it quicker had he not done the WPA stuff...) we got a lot of AWESOME infrastructure out of the deal. This? NOTHING. Seriously. Nothing.
Really? Wait until a 2000-3000 pound bull steps on your cables when it's out on a walkabout from it's normal pasture....
That does happen from time to time- especially out in the rural areas since fences don't always work, some farmers don't worry so much about keeping them in the pasture per se and run single strands of barbed, etc...
Nice stereotyping around the rural US, but in the areas they are talking about generally it's farm and ranch country very far from traditional telecom and railroad right of ways.
It might be far away from those right of ways...but not the POWER ones. More to the point, many of those selfsame power companies have dark fiber along their high and medium tension runs that were laid down during the dot-com boom, with them thinking that they could scoop up their own ISP type services in many cases.
Heh... It MIGHT be more cost effective- but with the notions that most of these jokers have on pricing, etc. they're not much better right at the moment, really.
Let me give everyone a bit of thinking I've had to undergo trying to ensure that a horse farm in Northeast Texas between Sherman and Paris has something resembling broadband.
3G is available in many locations- though not all. Depends on whether the telco has opted to ensure mostly statewide coverage or if you're near a main highway corridor. 3G's problem is billing and bandwidth, past the availability. This is what I've opted to use for now out at the farm. The business partner's doing it w/AT&T, I'm doing mine through Verizon. Kind of hit-or-miss where we're at- I'm looking for getting a repeater or a boost antenna/amp for at least one of the dongles and pairing it with a Cradlepoint router. 1-3 Mbits down,.7-1.5Mbits up is the best you can expect, coupled with usable latencies. Bandwidth depends on signal quality with the tower, combined with the current load on the tower. However, if there's something screwed up on the backhaul, you're hosed (duh...). You could be on top of the tower with a solid signal and get little to nothing in the way of bandwidth or good latency. For many, right now, this is your only realistic option- just don't expect to be streaming Netflix very much with it...it'd be expensive. VERY expensive.
WiMax coverage is a joke. It's a bit of a source of disappointment as it could have been vastly more and Clear and Sprint pretty much dropped the ball there. WHEN it works, it's got decent bandwidth and latency. Just don't expect it to be available in most cases outside of a major metro area. Small players have built up their own WiMax network in varying areas, including North-Central Texas and the Longmont-Greely-Ft. Collins areas up in Colorado. Word is on those services that they're crippling the bandwidth to 3G speeds and the latencies are...heh...craptastic.
LTE coverage is even more of a joke right at the moment (But might change if they're all telling the truth on what they're doing...). AT&T? Not there yet- they're playing catch up with Verizon. Sprint? They're trying to decide to do their own rollout and jettison Clear- or keep 'em. How many towns and how much actual coverage does Verizon have there? They're claiming by end of 2012 most of the 3G plat being covered and 2014 the whole plat being covered. I'll believe it when I see it. It's a more compelling story bandwidth-wise than WiMax and it's got better propagation characteristics in most cases. But...it's not there right now. It probably won't be "there" for at least another year for many and possibly two to three. And, we won't get into what Verizon has taken upon themselves for pricing for it. While tolerable as a mobile/nomadic solution- it's less optimal for a fixed solution for a rural setting- $50/5GB and $80/10GB with a $10/GB overage charge...it's better than it used to be, but that's not saying all too much. Maybe someone will field a better structured LTE answer for this stuff. I'd have thought they'd have done this or a WiMax answer with all of that stimulus money- but it looks like the money was wasted, much like all the other Stimulus funding.
HDSPA+ coverage is...heh...as decent as T-Mobile's voice coverage. Mixed bag on that- but where you have good coverage, you've got the currently highest download speed for wireless, a weak upload speed and latencies that're just like WiMax or LTE (Adequate...). The problems are: T-Mobile's got this evil softcap that you can't really change from 5GB/mo and if you exceed it, you run the risk of being throttled back to 2.5G speeds for the rest of the month. The other problem is that AT&T has bought them and this will eventually go away in exchange for AT&T's planned LTE rollout.
Some areas nearby a township might have Time Warner or Cablevision or one of their affiliates around. In at least some of the cas
I think it'd be the complexity. You're going to have to extract the liquid from the waste to do that- and unless he's focusing on efficient water purification systems that don't require much or any power, that's not going to be happening.
Heh... No...don't need to do that... A composting toilet breaks it down and renders the hazardous bacterial aspects of it largely harmless over time- typically a shorter period than the bulk wastewater treatment systems take to do it.
The rub's in the "low-cost" territory. They've got systems that'll do this sort of thing- but you're talking about a $2-4k investment per system install.
Heh... One doesn't make up for decades of bad actions that quickly. Moreover...he might have "turned over a new leaf", but from decades of personal experience, that's not so easily done by ANYONE. It's possible- but it's a herculean feat in and of itself. In short, until he's proven himself having changed his tune...he's still got the same inclinations he had when he was at Microsoft's helm. Do keep in mind...he's still Chairman of the BoD.
In some locations, it's not QUITE that simple. As for contaminating the drinking water...heh...a composting system can actually fill the bill without needing a classic outhouse, fill the same role, and do it for decades while being able to be placed in locations that would be otherwise impossible for an outhouse.
Sancor has one of the very answers that Bill and Melinda envision. No, it can't scale to large communities- but the thing is...they're not trying to do large communities.
You can do waterless self-contained, remote, very low flush (~0.5l), and if there's enough power via solar/wind/etc. you can do vacuum flush (~0.2l) systems that can run without much in the way of maintenance for years and years. In the case of the low-flush and waterless systems, the system's capable of handling 10 people continuously with a 12v solar-cell or similar setup.
Now, if the Gates Foundation can improve upon that...more power to them.
Actually, NO, they are not allowed the privilege to "not agree".
If you invoke the Fifth in a criminal case, discussion STOPS. On the spot and there is NO further questioning allowed. Regardless of whether it's a State or Federal Court, per the Fourteenth Amendment and the Fifth.
If you invoke the Fourth and can PROVE that they violated that one, Case DIES on the spot. No further discussion, all evidence that stems from the improper warrant action must be discarded and is forever usable. Again, this is regardless of whether it's a State or Federal Court.
Now...what remains is whether this court deems the forcing you to decrypt things is a violation of the Fifth. Personally, I see it as being so. It's making you potentially incriminate yourself- which is PRECISELY what the Amendment was intended to prevent. It's irrelevant what form that self-incrimination takes. If they don't "see" it that way, you can bet your bottom dollar it'll be appealed right up to the Supreme Court because it's just that- a direct violation of the Fifth as much as forcing testimony out of you on the stand or in a police interrogation room.
Which isn't much different unless you're a total superstar band (and even then, it's not a foregone conclusion...) when you consider what the Labels do.
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Well, I saw this as a possibility when I'd discovered they'd shuttered the 29th Street shops location in Boulder. High profile, anchor store location. Easy to get to, etc. Didn't make much sense to close that location like they did- unless they were hurting quite a bit more than they let on when they filed their 13 filing.
There's some still in business (though apparently not for much longer... :-D) in Texas and Colorado (Nearest bookstore while I was in the Longmont area was the Borders in Longmont. Guess if I'm back up there on a contract, I'll have to drive into Boulder or down into Thornton...)
I will agree with the going to seed part on the tech books. Borders, and to a lesser extent Barnes and Noble, have taken to carrying just the popular stuff with the occasional random exceptions that don't always make sense. They forgot who their customer base was- it's not all the people buying the popular stuff (though you need to carry it all the same...), it's the people that look for the odd book or the serious technical book.
And, if power's the concern, solar panels and wind gensets typically do a decent enough job providing sufficient juice for most e-readers and even Android/iOS tablets. The DRM's going to be a concern- but fortunately for me, most of my e-Book fixes seem to be from Baen, and they don't do DRM. :-D
That depends on how well they discount the liquidation, really.
Actually...they don't arbitrarily rubber-stamp it. If you're a big company, they do that- if you're a little player, they flip a coin and call it and then rubber-stamp or reject based on the results.
It's not a Democracy that the people of the United States currently enjoy. We don't vote on every issue of governance. You choose those whom represent your interests in Government and they make those decisions for you. As such, we have a democratically chosen republic - which the distinction is actually rather important and the failing to understand the distinction is part of the source of the problems we face inside the borders these days.
As it stands, there's several things going on that the Founding Fathers had not envisioned (or even intended)- and some of it is due to the Government clearly not abiding by the laws that restrict it's actions, and some of it is due to structural changes made by Amendments by people that plain flat didn't understand the why of things like the Senate (Official representation chosen by the States FOR the States, not by popular vote like the Representatives were- which were the people's representation within the system, hence the name of the segment in question...). In all cases, it's been because people just don't understand what their requirements and obligations are.
Heh... Actually...
Gotu Kola has been shown to pretty much be one of the highest natural sources of B1, B2, and B6 vitamins- which would be brain/memory boosting.
Ginko's been claimed to be memory loss/dementia preventing. Mixed bag there on the research (some research indicating so, some not...)- but they DO know it has an impact on healthy individuals by boosting attentiveness considerably through it's ability to inhibit norepinephrine uptake. I'd say it'd help in remembering things because of that aspect.
Not sure about the other herbals in the tea, but Firmoss happens to supply a known fairly potent nootropic. Research has shown that it's roughly as effective at dealing with Alzheimers as the current drugs on the market with quite a bit less side effects. Other research on the nootropic aspects are currently ongoing but they're in the process of producing a highly refined and concentrated version of this substance to treat Alzheimers right at the moment.
So...saying that they were just sold snake oil...not as such. Where do you think asprin came from? It was by researching the effect of salicylic acid and trying to find a "better" answer for the stuff that already largely worked- from plant extracts, much like this herbal medicine you're calling "snake oil". Yes, much of this stuff is that- but to dismiss it like you did is to ignore where your medicines at least initially came from.
It's trivia that I tend to forget...that and numbers. But then, I had problems with the numbers anyhow. :-D
The trivia, I seem to still be doing okay, but it's hazier- I have to resort to Googling it occasionally with my phone or other computer to verify my recollections.
Don't you mean "pasta" in this case? >:-D
Sadly... There's NOTHING in the Bible that would lead anyone to think that you're going to Hell because you're wearing shorts- save that maybe they feel that it's "seductive". They didn't say that, only that she was risking her immortal soul to wearing shorts. I suggest that those folks quit speaking of the splinter in their brother's eye and pluck out the plank in theirs first- they're not following what he taught by doing it the way they did it, regardless of the thinking you're talking to.
Those distant relatives claim to be Christians- but sadly, they're following Doctrine instead of the Son.
Tell me where in the Bible it says anything about "shorts" as an instance of what I'm speaking to. Much like the Sam Kinnison joke (God going through whole of the the Bible, muttering, "Where in here does it say, 'Build a waterslide'?") there's nothing in there about that. That's them and those within their "Church" failing to pay attention to the one and really only thing Jesus warned his Disciples to "beware" of. (Matthew 16:6 - "Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees and Saducees") Which is to say that those groups did all sorts of pretentious things of Doctrine to make them look "holy" amongst the others and made up all sorts of "laws" that were intended on ensuring that you never got even remotely close to committing an act of sin. In short, they took a position of "holier than thou" and lorded it over the other people around them- and were guilty of all sorts of hypocrisy.
I try my level best to NOT do that sort of thing. :-D
I contend that most of that you're shrugging off was wasted (I'm sorry, I'm supposed to shoulder the fiscal irresponsibility of a bank that should have known better, whose executives should have done a perp-walk, and the like - just because the SOB is "too big to fail"? Not buying it. We got NOTHING from the Stimulus spending- while many lined their pockets with it for all intents and purposes...not just the "damn Saudis". At least when FDR did idiot things that prolonged the Great Depression (he didn't fix it...they know this for certain now...and that we'd have been out of it quicker had he not done the WPA stuff...) we got a lot of AWESOME infrastructure out of the deal. This? NOTHING. Seriously. Nothing.
Really? Wait until a 2000-3000 pound bull steps on your cables when it's out on a walkabout from it's normal pasture....
That does happen from time to time- especially out in the rural areas since fences don't always work, some farmers don't worry so much about keeping them in the pasture per se and run single strands of barbed, etc...
It might be far away from those right of ways...but not the POWER ones. More to the point, many of those selfsame power companies have dark fiber along their high and medium tension runs that were laid down during the dot-com boom, with them thinking that they could scoop up their own ISP type services in many cases.
Sorry...NOT buying that line. :-D
Heh... One would've thought that this would be what they did with those Stimulus funds... But noooo....
Heh... It MIGHT be more cost effective- but with the notions that most of these jokers have on pricing, etc. they're not much better right at the moment, really.
Let me give everyone a bit of thinking I've had to undergo trying to ensure that a horse farm in Northeast Texas between Sherman and Paris has something resembling broadband.
3G is available in many locations- though not all. Depends on whether the telco has opted to ensure mostly statewide coverage or if you're near a main highway corridor. 3G's problem is billing and bandwidth, past the availability. This is what I've opted to use for now out at the farm. The business partner's doing it w/AT&T, I'm doing mine through Verizon. Kind of hit-or-miss where we're at- I'm looking for getting a repeater or a boost antenna/amp for at least one of the dongles and pairing it with a Cradlepoint router. 1-3 Mbits down, .7-1.5Mbits up is the best you can expect, coupled with usable latencies. Bandwidth depends on signal quality with the tower, combined with the current load on the tower. However, if there's something screwed up on the backhaul, you're hosed (duh...). You could be on top of the tower with a solid signal and get little to nothing in the way of bandwidth or good latency. For many, right now, this is your only realistic option- just don't expect to be streaming Netflix very much with it...it'd be expensive. VERY expensive.
WiMax coverage is a joke. It's a bit of a source of disappointment as it could have been vastly more and Clear and Sprint pretty much dropped the ball there. WHEN it works, it's got decent bandwidth and latency. Just don't expect it to be available in most cases outside of a major metro area. Small players have built up their own WiMax network in varying areas, including North-Central Texas and the Longmont-Greely-Ft. Collins areas up in Colorado. Word is on those services that they're crippling the bandwidth to 3G speeds and the latencies are...heh...craptastic.
LTE coverage is even more of a joke right at the moment (But might change if they're all telling the truth on what they're doing...). AT&T? Not there yet- they're playing catch up with Verizon. Sprint? They're trying to decide to do their own rollout and jettison Clear- or keep 'em. How many towns and how much actual coverage does Verizon have there? They're claiming by end of 2012 most of the 3G plat being covered and 2014 the whole plat being covered. I'll believe it when I see it. It's a more compelling story bandwidth-wise than WiMax and it's got better propagation characteristics in most cases. But...it's not there right now. It probably won't be "there" for at least another year for many and possibly two to three. And, we won't get into what Verizon has taken upon themselves for pricing for it. While tolerable as a mobile/nomadic solution- it's less optimal for a fixed solution for a rural setting- $50/5GB and $80/10GB with a $10/GB overage charge...it's better than it used to be, but that's not saying all too much. Maybe someone will field a better structured LTE answer for this stuff. I'd have thought they'd have done this or a WiMax answer with all of that stimulus money- but it looks like the money was wasted, much like all the other Stimulus funding.
HDSPA+ coverage is...heh...as decent as T-Mobile's voice coverage. Mixed bag on that- but where you have good coverage, you've got the currently highest download speed for wireless, a weak upload speed and latencies that're just like WiMax or LTE (Adequate...). The problems are: T-Mobile's got this evil softcap that you can't really change from 5GB/mo and if you exceed it, you run the risk of being throttled back to 2.5G speeds for the rest of the month. The other problem is that AT&T has bought them and this will eventually go away in exchange for AT&T's planned LTE rollout.
Some areas nearby a township might have Time Warner or Cablevision or one of their affiliates around. In at least some of the cas
I think it'd be the complexity. You're going to have to extract the liquid from the waste to do that- and unless he's focusing on efficient water purification systems that don't require much or any power, that's not going to be happening.
Heh... No...don't need to do that... A composting toilet breaks it down and renders the hazardous bacterial aspects of it largely harmless over time- typically a shorter period than the bulk wastewater treatment systems take to do it.
The rub's in the "low-cost" territory. They've got systems that'll do this sort of thing- but you're talking about a $2-4k investment per system install.
Heh... One doesn't make up for decades of bad actions that quickly. Moreover...he might have "turned over a new leaf", but from decades of personal experience, that's not so easily done by ANYONE. It's possible- but it's a herculean feat in and of itself. In short, until he's proven himself having changed his tune...he's still got the same inclinations he had when he was at Microsoft's helm. Do keep in mind...he's still Chairman of the BoD.
In some locations, it's not QUITE that simple. As for contaminating the drinking water...heh...a composting system can actually fill the bill without needing a classic outhouse, fill the same role, and do it for decades while being able to be placed in locations that would be otherwise impossible for an outhouse.
Doesn't have to waste water...
Sancor has one of the very answers that Bill and Melinda envision. No, it can't scale to large communities- but the thing is...they're not trying to do large communities.
You can do waterless self-contained, remote, very low flush (~0.5l), and if there's enough power via solar/wind/etc. you can do vacuum flush (~0.2l) systems that can run without much in the way of maintenance for years and years. In the case of the low-flush and waterless systems, the system's capable of handling 10 people continuously with a 12v solar-cell or similar setup.
Now, if the Gates Foundation can improve upon that...more power to them.
Indeed. If they DON'T have a case otherwise...they DON'T have one and should be barred from any further prosecution thereof.
Actually, NO, they are not allowed the privilege to "not agree".
If you invoke the Fifth in a criminal case, discussion STOPS. On the spot and there is NO further questioning allowed. Regardless of whether it's a State or Federal Court, per the Fourteenth Amendment and the Fifth.
If you invoke the Fourth and can PROVE that they violated that one, Case DIES on the spot. No further discussion, all evidence that stems from the improper warrant action must be discarded and is forever usable. Again, this is regardless of whether it's a State or Federal Court.
Now...what remains is whether this court deems the forcing you to decrypt things is a violation of the Fifth. Personally, I see it as being so. It's making you potentially incriminate yourself- which is PRECISELY what the Amendment was intended to prevent. It's irrelevant what form that self-incrimination takes. If they don't "see" it that way, you can bet your bottom dollar it'll be appealed right up to the Supreme Court because it's just that- a direct violation of the Fifth as much as forcing testimony out of you on the stand or in a police interrogation room.
Which isn't much different unless you're a total superstar band (and even then, it's not a foregone conclusion...) when you consider what the Labels do.