Dear Virgin Media. You (try to) charge me approximately £4-£5 for a 24 hour window of opportunity to stream a bunch of bits to the cable box over there. Or I can use the exact same cable to stream much the same bunch of bits to the network card and hard drive over here, and then I can decode them as many times as I like, indefinitely, at an extra cost of £0.
I'm not saying that I'd actually do either of these things, but you really aren't making it easy for me to pick the former.
To illustrate directly: each JDAM costs $35,000 - $70,000. We might as well ship out crates of luxury automobiles and push them out the back of transport planes.
For every Harry Hardluck with a genuine grievance against Goliath Megacorp, there are dozens, hundreds, of Deborah Dickburgers signing their names on to pro-forma blackmail demands from the firm of Shark, Shyster and Slitpurse. The real solution is for courts and bar associations to sanction the most egregious hustlers, but making Debbie think twice before being party to their antics would be a good first step.
They you're a fool, and easily parted from your money.
If you want legal representation to be either prohibited or court appointed in order to level the playing field, then fair enough, but that's a very different argument.
Ooh, ooh, and some way to simulate jumping onto the pavement at speed and then running down an old lady. Exervise the skills we'll actually use in the real world!
I'm going to say that again, and I'm afraid I'm going to have shout it, because I am pretty tired of reading about how much extra energy we're apparently getting from burning the renewable strawman: fossil use is the only number that matters.
Jan-Feb-Mar 3 months totals for fossil use:
2009: 14.317
2010: 14.238
2011: 14.767
When that number starts to come down, then we can talk about how great renewables are doing. Until then, they're just expensive greenwashing for the coal plant hidden over the next hill that's keeping the lights on 24/7.
In the past decade, all of the high traffic ones have had, wait for it, traffic lights installed. Roundabouts are fine if the flow remains below a certain threshold, but once it gets too busy, some entrances and exits start backing up solid, people get frustrated, take chances, WHAM, BAM, and that's everybody's day ruined, and in go the lights.
Heh, we were told that the lights would only be "part time" during peak traffic. As it turns out though, not so much. So in effect we now have a lot un-necessarily big, un-necessarily complex light controlled junctions, got to pay the high roundabout fee up front, and the high light maintenance fee indefinitely.
So here you go, and enjoy your Independence Day - you always knew we'd get our revenge on you uppity Colonials somehow.
Here's the science: no amount of watching the watchmen is going to give a result that is "verifiable" to the people who cast their secret votes. At some point, you have to choose between "open, verifiable" or "secret, trusted". That applies regardless of the means of voting.
How does one "cheat" elections using Twitter or Facebook? Could you elaborate?
People (you're familiar with them?) are essentially lazy and reactionary. Get a good whispering campaign going that Sock Puppet X is already heading for a landslide victory, and people either won't bother turning out to vote for them, or will vote for Sock Puppet Y just out of contrariness.
You're discomprehending their point. It doesn't have to be a choice between TSA or nothing.
TSA theatre is already ineffective as security at the point where it's applied. Guns have been smuggled past them. Adam Savage (of Mythbusters) accidentally took some 12" razorblades on to a plane in his hand luggage.
However, it may (conjecturally) have some effect as a deterrent, stopping The Terrorists from even making an attempt - they're demonstrably not very bright. It also makes some passengers feel safer because they're willing to sacrifice liberty to gain an appearance of security.
Security theatre that has the same effects but without the abusive excesses of the TSA would have exactly the same benefits. For example, walk passengers though a big plastic Stargate, or wave a magic wand at them. Every so often, have a plain clothes security employee go through, set off a klaxon, and drag them behind a screen to give them a "Freedom probe" (screams optional). If you're going to do security theatre, you might as well make it entertaining, without inconveniencing your paying passengers.
Alternatively, some airlines or airports could offer actual security, properly invasive, and people who want to fly with that level of protection can choose to do so.
There are a whole range of options which would give equal or better protection to TSA theatre, and I'd love to have a choice as to which show I watch while I wait for the plane.
And then comes the research grants and tenure from Rainbow Hug Community College, the book deal, the lecture circuits, it's all gravy.
Extremes attract extremists. The only voices that get heard now are those screaming "We all gonna die!" and "Nothing is happening!". Easily excitable people pick the extreme that excites them, and treat the subject like Jerry Springer. And the world keep turning.
+1000 insightful. All of us (men, there are no women on the Intartubes) game while we're driving. Speed and time if we don't have a choice. A mpg readout is the best way to give a better target, and any government serious about the environment would mandate the permanent display of one in all new vehicles. SUV owners can put tape over theirs.
Non sequitur. "Generation" isn't the point. How much less fossil fuels are being burned now that we have all this extra "generation"? Can you find a report that covers that?
Slashdot Mirror
Dear Virgin Media. You (try to) charge me approximately £4-£5 for a 24 hour window of opportunity to stream a bunch of bits to the cable box over there. Or I can use the exact same cable to stream much the same bunch of bits to the network card and hard drive over here, and then I can decode them as many times as I like, indefinitely, at an extra cost of £0.
I'm not saying that I'd actually do either of these things, but you really aren't making it easy for me to pick the former.
To illustrate directly: each JDAM costs $35,000 - $70,000. We might as well ship out crates of luxury automobiles and push them out the back of transport planes.
Your technointerpretive presentations of simufactual infotainment never fails to edutroll me.
I totally invented the rubber stamp. In 2009.
For every Harry Hardluck with a genuine grievance against Goliath Megacorp, there are dozens, hundreds, of Deborah Dickburgers signing their names on to pro-forma blackmail demands from the firm of Shark, Shyster and Slitpurse. The real solution is for courts and bar associations to sanction the most egregious hustlers, but making Debbie think twice before being party to their antics would be a good first step.
They you're a fool, and easily parted from your money.
If you want legal representation to be either prohibited or court appointed in order to level the playing field, then fair enough, but that's a very different argument.
Ooh, ooh, and some way to simulate jumping onto the pavement at speed and then running down an old lady. Exervise the skills we'll actually use in the real world!
I'm going to say that again, and I'm afraid I'm going to have shout it, because I am pretty tired of reading about how much extra energy we're apparently getting from burning the renewable strawman: fossil use is the only number that matters.
Jan-Feb-Mar 3 months totals for fossil use:
When that number starts to come down, then we can talk about how great renewables are doing. Until then, they're just expensive greenwashing for the coal plant hidden over the next hill that's keeping the lights on 24/7.
In the past decade, all of the high traffic ones have had, wait for it, traffic lights installed. Roundabouts are fine if the flow remains below a certain threshold, but once it gets too busy, some entrances and exits start backing up solid, people get frustrated, take chances, WHAM, BAM, and that's everybody's day ruined, and in go the lights.
Heh, we were told that the lights would only be "part time" during peak traffic. As it turns out though, not so much. So in effect we now have a lot un-necessarily big, un-necessarily complex light controlled junctions, got to pay the high roundabout fee up front, and the high light maintenance fee indefinitely.
So here you go, and enjoy your Independence Day - you always knew we'd get our revenge on you uppity Colonials somehow.
Historically, Americans driving in Europe tend to just go in straight lines across the countryside, directly towards Berlin.
JUMBO SHRIMP.
Here's the science: no amount of watching the watchmen is going to give a result that is "verifiable" to the people who cast their secret votes. At some point, you have to choose between "open, verifiable" or "secret, trusted". That applies regardless of the means of voting.
Big words, small view. Diversity and competition are doing just fine in the international market, rather than inside isolated states.
I did not do my homework because the publisher revoked a book that I foolishly thought that I owned.
People (you're familiar with them?) are essentially lazy and reactionary. Get a good whispering campaign going that Sock Puppet X is already heading for a landslide victory, and people either won't bother turning out to vote for them, or will vote for Sock Puppet Y just out of contrariness.
They don't, but there's a lot more of them, so when snouts are counted, the "consensus" is that WE ALL GONNA DIE.
You're discomprehending their point. It doesn't have to be a choice between TSA or nothing.
TSA theatre is already ineffective as security at the point where it's applied. Guns have been smuggled past them. Adam Savage (of Mythbusters) accidentally took some 12" razorblades on to a plane in his hand luggage.
However, it may (conjecturally) have some effect as a deterrent, stopping The Terrorists from even making an attempt - they're demonstrably not very bright. It also makes some passengers feel safer because they're willing to sacrifice liberty to gain an appearance of security.
Security theatre that has the same effects but without the abusive excesses of the TSA would have exactly the same benefits. For example, walk passengers though a big plastic Stargate, or wave a magic wand at them. Every so often, have a plain clothes security employee go through, set off a klaxon, and drag them behind a screen to give them a "Freedom probe" (screams optional). If you're going to do security theatre, you might as well make it entertaining, without inconveniencing your paying passengers.
Alternatively, some airlines or airports could offer actual security, properly invasive, and people who want to fly with that level of protection can choose to do so.
There are a whole range of options which would give equal or better protection to TSA theatre, and I'd love to have a choice as to which show I watch while I wait for the plane.
And then comes the research grants and tenure from Rainbow Hug Community College, the book deal, the lecture circuits, it's all gravy.
Extremes attract extremists. The only voices that get heard now are those screaming "We all gonna die!" and "Nothing is happening!". Easily excitable people pick the extreme that excites them, and treat the subject like Jerry Springer. And the world keep turning.
Oh, or a pack of rabid hyenas.
Hands up everybody who just posted that.
Now, put your hand down if you said exactly the same about the Wii.
Anyone still got their hand up? Didn't think so.
Sure, you might be right this time, but Nintendo's massive gold swimming pool chock full of million Yen bills, hookers and blow says otherwise.
When the economy grinds to a halt, and the only people making a living are lawyers, maybe - maybe - we'll get change.
So they punish real humans because they can't deal with robots and Chinese? Epic Fail.
+1000 insightful. All of us (men, there are no women on the Intartubes) game while we're driving. Speed and time if we don't have a choice. A mpg readout is the best way to give a better target, and any government serious about the environment would mandate the permanent display of one in all new vehicles. SUV owners can put tape over theirs.
Ooh, downmods from the stockbroker chapter of the Hells Angels.
Sure, who wouldn't want to hook up with a bunch of fat middle-aged bankers and accountants?
Non sequitur. "Generation" isn't the point. How much less fossil fuels are being burned now that we have all this extra "generation"? Can you find a report that covers that?