At that point I found it to be a lot less funny. Because let's face it: a lot of the stupidies of the workplace are caused by the worker bees themselves, not just the evil bosses. And when Dilbert lost the balance that recognized that fact it started to slide (a slide which got worse when Scott Adams was fired from his real technical job).
I agree that the nature of Dilbert has changed over the years. Both bosses and workers are more exaggerated now. Scott Adams was sad to see one of his best sources of material go when he left PacBell (now SBC) -- many of the incidents in Dilbert have been based on real-life events.
But while I disagree that it's a lot less funny, I have to admit your misspelling stupidities as 'stupidies' was a lot funnier than today's Dilbert:-)
Re:Jumping in on the discussion early.
on
A Game of Thrones
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
A good point. And unlike, say, the The Brothers Karamazov where you're struggling to keep the characters, their nicknames, their petnames, and everything else straight, the characters in Game of Thrones and Clash of Kings are developed quickly, drawing you into their story. Even the 'bad guys' (and there's a lot of those) are interesting, compelling figures.
And while there isn't a main character, GRRM definitely has central figures in different parts of the story: Tyrion, Jon Snow, Bran, Daenerys, Arya. But best not to get too attached to any character:-)
I highly recommend the series. I've only read the first two so far, but this is outstanding stuff. To use a trite phrase, a "must read" for fantasy fans. It's a fun ride, with twists and turns to keep the story humming.
It was the poster, not Timothy who wrote that. And in any event, he's merely embiggening the meaning of the word. It's a perfectly cromulent use of the word:-)
...the guerrilla-style resistance of Iraqi militia groups made for an enemy that was "different from the one we war-gamed against.
This is likely to be a problem, regardless of whether it's 'muddy boots' training or a computer simulation. If you train wrong, and haven't learned how to adapt, you're in for a world of hurt.
Another problem is that war games/simulations can be rigged to provide the desired result. This is likely to be a problem with either 'muddy boots' training or computer simulations, too.
But it seems like it would be easier to secretly rig a computer simulation to accomplish this. Read more about recent rigging of war games: General says Millennium Challenge 02 'was almost entirely scripted'. This had real people giving orders, and the general in charge of the OPFOR found out about it. But if it had all been computer-based, how hard would it be to stack the deck in secret?
Having just been to the Mobile Game Developer's Conference the other week, I'd have to agree. And it fits some of the other requirements, too: easy to learn, fairly short games, for the casual player, and most importantly, a good game. Cellphone network latency might be a bit of an issue for those auction chases, but...
Regrettably I don't know how Capitol Hill works well enough to flesh out any details.
Nor do I. I just know what's there now doesn't work very well. And it doesn't seem quite like what I learned it was supposed to be back in school, i.e., what the founding fathers envisioned:-( "I'm just a bill, on Capitol Hill, and oh, look, here's a rider, and another one, and..."
Ironically, the actual difference in the U.S. between Republicans and Democrats when they get into office is frightfully small.
"Conservative" and "liberal" are simply two directions on a scale, not absolutes. The Republican party is more towards the conservative side, and the Democrats more towards the liberal side, but they're closer together than they'd care to admit at a national level. It's all about getting re-elected and that means getting power and getting spending in your area.
What the U.S. needs is campaign finance reform, and reform of how bills are created and passed. No more massive pork-barrel laden bills, with random riders that have nothing to do with the bill in question. One bill, one law. And get making laws back into the hands of people who give a darn, not ones who are doing it because some donor or PAC says it, or some stupid "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine" deals.
Back on topic: Salon has had myriad problems. Too much spending on rent, etc. is a symptom of the times they were launched in, the internet boom of the 90's, and the money-is-no-object attitude that engendered. Salon was once a decent magazine, with interesting writers, both liberal and conservative (admittedly more towards the liberal side but not exclusively). As they cut back, those interesting writers disappeared, replaced with more mundane ones, and more ads, and more borrowed content than original, and...
They should have cut it off a long time before $80 mil. was spent, or made fundemental changes in their burn rate of money, not the nature of the content. But whatever...I doubt they'll survive even with 50,000 more subscribers.
A demo version of GEOS, aka PC-GEOS, is available here. The original version was created by the same people who made Commodore GEOS over at (the soon to be defunct) Geoworks. My co-op project back in '89 was done on GeoProgrammer, as part of in-house testing for that environment.
Four color? Many were two color...Hercules and CGA (in glorious 640x200mode). Most all the UI widgets had two or three sets of code, one for drawing in B&W, one for drawing in color (a mighty 16 VGA colors), and one for drawing on squished displays like CGA.
You can still try it out, there's a demo/light version at Breadbox.
GEOS, developed at the soon to be defunct Geoworks is some beautifully designed 80x86 assembler. Its future is uncertain post-Geoworks because of Geoworks' flexible UI patents, and parts are dated because it was designed to work on an IBM XT (yes, pre-emptive multi-tasking and a single Postscript-like imaging model on a 4.77MHz XT), but the OS contains some very elegant code. The version 1.X kernel (task management, memory, file system, basic graphics, etc.) fit in a single 64K segment.
Of course, it also contains some scary code like the self-modifying code in the video drivers, and the specific UI code wasn't the prettiest, either...
As hybrid vehicles go, the Gas/Electric hybrids like Toyota's Prius are cool. They also feel like you're driving a cardboard box.
Our Prius is the most comfortable car we've ever owned. Yes, my old VW Golf can out accelerate it. Yes my old, long-gone VW Rabbit Diesel got almost as good of mileage (though not nearly as low of emissions). You must have driven some pretty nice cardboard boxes:-)
Diesel has made much more progress in the past few years as far as an efficient fuel than gas. Try on the Turbo-charged VW Diesel Jetta for a great drive w/ superb miles to the gallon.
One thing I've wondered about with diesels. I'm not adverse to them, having owned and driven one 10 years, but I was comparing fuel economy and emissions for various cars at the DOE's website, and while diesels do much better in mileage than traditional gas engines, they're about the same as hybrids, and aren't quite as good in greenhouse gas emissions, and are frankly pretty bad in the Pounds of Smog-Forming Pollution category.
It wasn't what was taken out, it's what was added.
I didn't mind surfer-dude Legolas, but the "Mr. Frodo, we shouldn't even be here!" line from Sam when they're taken to Osgiliath makes my wife and I chuckle each of the times we've seen Two Towers. And we missed the huorns taking out the orcs at Helm's Deep. The extra footage on the DVD for Fellowship says a lot of the changes they made there were to 'keep the ring moving towards Mordor', and I could apprecitate them. But in Two Towers, the side trip to Osgiliath / making Farimir into a Boromir clone in terms of ring-lust, and Aragorn's tumble over the cliff just made no sense to us.
But back on topic, I'm happy to see more fantasy films inspired by Tolkien's work. I just hope (as an earlier poster said) that it's not like Red Sonja or some of the other action-fantasy movies of the 70's and 80's.
Every star might have a comfort region, but not every star has (a) any planets (b) earth-size planets in that region in a stable orbit. Life as we know it isn't going to develop on a gas giant, or outside that 'region'. The 1 in 4 number is of stars that have been determined to have planets, i.e., 1 in 4 of those stars has earth-size planets in that region.
I have a similar record of times called for jury duty and not being on a trial (~8 times in 15 years). The last time was in the county superior court for a murder trial. Was I not selected because I'm a techie? Probably more likely because I'm against the death penalty or because I have a sister-in-law who's a lawyer for the state of CA.
Several hundred people were called for this one trial alone, but it takes that many to get a jury of 12 people plus 12 alternates. Some are eliminated because they've heard too much news about the case. Some because of their feelings about the laws concerning the case (e.g., the death penalty). Some because they have family in law enforcement. Some because lost work time would be a financial hardship. Some for health reasons. We filled out a lengthy questionnaire, and many people were doubtless automatically eliminated because of answers to various questions.
But eliminated because they're a techie? I don't think so. Several years ago a co-worker (one of the seniormost programmers) was called for a kidnap and rape case, and ended up serving on the jury. He ended up being jury foreman as well. He said at the time that many of the jurors selected were older, retired folks.
We were using less than average before, but we still managed to cut our usage by half. We made a number of changes:
switched the commonly used lights to compact fluorescents
unplugged the TV and stereo when not in use (which is most of the time)
turned off the hot tub
got a new, front loading washer (planned, but we moved up our purchase)
got a folding clothes drying rack for the yard
got a new refrigerator
started shutting down my PC when I'm gone for any length of time
State-wide, the government has been encouraging people to use less power by offering rebates for people who use less, purchase incentives for EnergyStar appliances, and various commercials.
Some of the commercials are geared towards getting people to watch when they use electricity. California has plenty of generating capacity...on average. It's when the weather gets really hot (like the last couple of days) and power usage spikes that we run into problems. But even on hot days, we have plenty of power in the morning and at night. It's during they day when all the businesses, schools, and homes are running ACs and everything else that we hit a crunch. I've taken to checking the system conditions on really warm days to know when to power more stuff down if I can.
Somewhat of a side note: A bit of praise for the front-loading washer. Not only does it use less electricty than the old one, but it uses less water, gets the clothes cleaner, and leaves them dryer after the spin cycle, meaning the dryer doesn't work as hard, too. (or the clothes dry faster on the line when we can use that option). Not big news to most Europeans, but Americans should buy front-loaders when getting a new washer.
Am I the only one who might think that a field of well, windmills, more or less, might actually not be the worst thing in the world to look at? Heck, if anyone wants to put one of those, or a nice radio telescope array right next to me, go right ahead.
If you're ever in the SF Bay Area, check out the area around the Altamont Pass on I-580, east of Livermore. There are hundreds of windmills of a couple different types dotting the hillsides. It's actually kind of cool looking, makes for an interesting abstract image. I have heard they're somewhat noisy when all in action, but doubtless no noiser than a natural gas or coal power plant, and lot nicer to look at.
Another vote for the Prius. My wife and I love ours -- best car either of us has ever owned. We also get somewhat better mileage than the manufacturer's numbers. As part of a caravan of vehicles taking a youth group to Mexico to build a house, I got 53 MPG over a 600 mile trip down there, with 4 adult-sized people and a trunkful of camping gear and construction equipment.
Not only does the car get better mileage, but it's SULEV (Super Ultra Low Emission Vehicle) meaning it pollutes a lot less, too. It's safer and more reliable than the old car it replaced, so I don't worry as much about my wife and her carpool partners out on the road.
From an evironmental standpoint, no car would be even better, but mass transit isn't really an option 100% of the time. Everytime we vote for more mass transit around here, it seems they just build more freeways instead. And they can't seem to fathom that the transit systems need to work together for people to get from point A to point B in non-geologic time.
The Prius also has a cool factor, with geeks because of the in-dash display to play with and hack, with the environmentally-concious set here in the SF Bay Area, and with kids because of all of the above.
There isn't an equivalent non-hybrid Toyota to compare with the Prius, but the number I was told is the hybrid is basically a $2,000 premium (with the base price at around $20,000, so vs. $18,000). No bargaining since they're in such demand, but Toyota is making money on them now which is a good sign.
Your math looks right (at least to my cold-addled brain:-) Hybrids make both economic and environmental sense here in California. Depending on whether the governor signs the upcoming bill or not, they may even be required for auto makers to meet the new standards.
Gas is around $1.75-$1.85 a gallon (for the cheap stuff) in the SF Bay Area right now, and has been much worse. There's also enough traffic on the roads that our Prius does a bit better than the manufacturer's numbers (45 MPG highway, 52 MPG city) because speeds are lower. Between my wife's twice a week commute and other driving, and the car it replaced (at ~30 MPG), we figure it will take 5-7 years to pay for the difference. But we plan to have the car at least that long.
It's also a lot safer than the car it replaced (front and side airbags, anti-lock brakes, does well in crash tests), and much more reliable, too. I don't worry about my wife and her carpool partners like I did with the old car.
Add all that to the SULEV (Super Ultra Low Emission Vehicle) status (ZEV = Zero Emission Vehicle = electric is the only better rating), and it makes a lot of environmental sense, too. Yes, no car would be even better, but this is a good practical choice that's available if you have to have a car.
America's consumption 'footprint' is 12.2 hectares per head of population compared to the UK's 6.29ha while Western Europe as a whole stands at 6.28ha. In Ethiopia the figure is 2ha, falling to just half a hectare for Burundi, the country that consumes least resources.
Whether it's 50 years or 500, we are currently using resources faster than they are replenished. And the U.S. does consume a disproportionate amount of the resources in the world.
100% accurate or not, reports like this aren't going to change the way the U.S. lives -- we're too comfortable in our lifestyles to make big changes. It's going to take some catastrophic change that impacts the U.S. directly to get us to wake up. Unfortunately it's developing countries which are going to feel those changes first.
We had similar buttons for an old alarm system in our office. My cube was near one. An engineer made little sign and posted it underneath the button saying "Eject Executive Wing". Many people would look around a bit, push the button, then look a little disappointed when they opened the door and realized it hadn't worked:-)
For digital images, whether scanned from film or pure digital, there are two good options for making prints.
Epson Photo printers like the 1280 or 2000p give photo-quality output with longevity comparable to most color prints. I know a number of pro photographers (including me) that sell images output from these. A few people have had problems with color-shift due to ozone, but properly framed and cared for (e.g., not left hanging in the sun, same as with a regular photographic print) they will last.
For really important digital images, get a LightJet print. Starting with a digital image (whether scanned or pure digital), it uses lasers to expose the image on normal photographic paper like Fuji Crystal Archive. At that point it is a regular photographic print, with the same longevity. The process isn't cheap, though, but the quality is unbeatable. Some big-name pros sell their images only in this format.
One thing to consider though is that no color images have the longevity of those old B&W prints. For current photo albums, having digital copies of important images made *before* the images degrade is important -- they aren't going to last.
The greatest recorded earthquake in the contiguous United States was located in Missouri, not a place that usually comes to mind when one thinks "earthquake."
New Madrid quake, estimated to be an 8.0. It apparently rang church bells as far away as Boston, MA. Read more about it here.
As far as this one went, it rattled the house a bit here in Oakland (~60 miles NNE of Gilroy), which rattled the cats more than a little.
My parents' house (circa 1910-1920, I believe) had a smaller version of something like this. There were small metal brackets around the basement, each holding a glass globe (an inverted pear shape) with the narrow part resting in the bracket.
I think my dad eventually took them down once he realized that they were somewhat toxic and potentially life-threatening (they work by removing the oxygen).
The old line about the news is "if it bleeds, it leads". It's true -- stories of disaster or impending disaster are way more prevelant on the news that positive stories.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree that the nature of Dilbert has changed over the years. Both bosses and workers are more exaggerated now. Scott Adams was sad to see one of his best sources of material go when he left PacBell (now SBC) -- many of the incidents in Dilbert have been based on real-life events.
But while I disagree that it's a lot less funny, I have to admit your misspelling stupidities as 'stupidies' was a lot funnier than today's Dilbert :-)
A good point. And unlike, say, the The Brothers Karamazov where you're struggling to keep the characters, their nicknames, their petnames, and everything else straight, the characters in Game of Thrones and Clash of Kings are developed quickly, drawing you into their story. Even the 'bad guys' (and there's a lot of those) are interesting, compelling figures.
And while there isn't a main character, GRRM definitely has central figures in different parts of the story: Tyrion, Jon Snow, Bran, Daenerys, Arya. But best not to get too attached to any character :-)
I highly recommend the series. I've only read the first two so far, but this is outstanding stuff. To use a trite phrase, a "must read" for fantasy fans. It's a fun ride, with twists and turns to keep the story humming.
It was the poster, not Timothy who wrote that. And in any event, he's merely embiggening the meaning of the word. It's a perfectly cromulent use of the word :-)
This is likely to be a problem, regardless of whether it's 'muddy boots' training or a computer simulation. If you train wrong, and haven't learned how to adapt, you're in for a world of hurt.
Another problem is that war games/simulations can be rigged to provide the desired result. This is likely to be a problem with either 'muddy boots' training or computer simulations, too.
But it seems like it would be easier to secretly rig a computer simulation to accomplish this. Read more about recent rigging of war games: General says Millennium Challenge 02 'was almost entirely scripted'. This had real people giving orders, and the general in charge of the OPFOR found out about it. But if it had all been computer-based, how hard would it be to stack the deck in secret?
Having just been to the Mobile Game Developer's Conference the other week, I'd have to agree. And it fits some of the other requirements, too: easy to learn, fairly short games, for the casual player, and most importantly, a good game. Cellphone network latency might be a bit of an issue for those auction chases, but...
Ironically, the actual difference in the U.S. between Republicans and Democrats when they get into office is frightfully small.
"Conservative" and "liberal" are simply two directions on a scale, not absolutes. The Republican party is more towards the conservative side, and the Democrats more towards the liberal side, but they're closer together than they'd care to admit at a national level. It's all about getting re-elected and that means getting power and getting spending in your area.
What the U.S. needs is campaign finance reform, and reform of how bills are created and passed. No more massive pork-barrel laden bills, with random riders that have nothing to do with the bill in question. One bill, one law. And get making laws back into the hands of people who give a darn, not ones who are doing it because some donor or PAC says it, or some stupid "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine" deals.
Back on topic: Salon has had myriad problems. Too much spending on rent, etc. is a symptom of the times they were launched in, the internet boom of the 90's, and the money-is-no-object attitude that engendered. Salon was once a decent magazine, with interesting writers, both liberal and conservative (admittedly more towards the liberal side but not exclusively). As they cut back, those interesting writers disappeared, replaced with more mundane ones, and more ads, and more borrowed content than original, and...
They should have cut it off a long time before $80 mil. was spent, or made fundemental changes in their burn rate of money, not the nature of the content. But whatever...I doubt they'll survive even with 50,000 more subscribers.
A demo version of GEOS, aka PC-GEOS, is available here. The original version was created by the same people who made Commodore GEOS over at (the soon to be defunct) Geoworks. My co-op project back in '89 was done on GeoProgrammer, as part of in-house testing for that environment.
You can still try it out, there's a demo/light version at Breadbox.
Of course, it also contains some scary code like the self-modifying code in the video drivers, and the specific UI code wasn't the prettiest, either...
Our Prius is the most comfortable car we've ever owned. Yes, my old VW Golf can out accelerate it. Yes my old, long-gone VW Rabbit Diesel got almost as good of mileage (though not nearly as low of emissions). You must have driven some pretty nice cardboard boxes
Diesel has made much more progress in the past few years as far as an efficient fuel than gas. Try on the Turbo-charged VW Diesel Jetta for a great drive w/ superb miles to the gallon.
values are for 2003 Jetta and CA Prius (since that's where I live)One thing I've wondered about with diesels. I'm not adverse to them, having owned and driven one 10 years, but I was comparing fuel economy and emissions for various cars at the DOE's website, and while diesels do much better in mileage than traditional gas engines, they're about the same as hybrids, and aren't quite as good in greenhouse gas emissions, and are frankly pretty bad in the Pounds of Smog-Forming Pollution category.
Is the smog-forming pollution something inherent in diesel? Or is it better with biodiesel? Or something that can be fixed with better engineering?
It wasn't what was taken out, it's what was added.
I didn't mind surfer-dude Legolas, but the "Mr. Frodo, we shouldn't even be here!" line from Sam when they're taken to Osgiliath makes my wife and I chuckle each of the times we've seen Two Towers. And we missed the huorns taking out the orcs at Helm's Deep. The extra footage on the DVD for Fellowship says a lot of the changes they made there were to 'keep the ring moving towards Mordor', and I could apprecitate them. But in Two Towers, the side trip to Osgiliath / making Farimir into a Boromir clone in terms of ring-lust, and Aragorn's tumble over the cliff just made no sense to us.
But back on topic, I'm happy to see more fantasy films inspired by Tolkien's work. I just hope (as an earlier poster said) that it's not like Red Sonja or some of the other action-fantasy movies of the 70's and 80's.
Every star might have a comfort region, but not every star has (a) any planets (b) earth-size planets in that region in a stable orbit. Life as we know it isn't going to develop on a gas giant, or outside that 'region'. The 1 in 4 number is of stars that have been determined to have planets, i.e., 1 in 4 of those stars has earth-size planets in that region.
I have a similar record of times called for jury duty and not being on a trial (~8 times in 15 years). The last time was in the county superior court for a murder trial. Was I not selected because I'm a techie? Probably more likely because I'm against the death penalty or because I have a sister-in-law who's a lawyer for the state of CA.
Several hundred people were called for this one trial alone, but it takes that many to get a jury of 12 people plus 12 alternates. Some are eliminated because they've heard too much news about the case. Some because of their feelings about the laws concerning the case (e.g., the death penalty). Some because they have family in law enforcement. Some because lost work time would be a financial hardship. Some for health reasons. We filled out a lengthy questionnaire, and many people were doubtless automatically eliminated because of answers to various questions.
But eliminated because they're a techie? I don't think so. Several years ago a co-worker (one of the seniormost programmers) was called for a kidnap and rape case, and ended up serving on the jury. He ended up being jury foreman as well. He said at the time that many of the jurors selected were older, retired folks.
No, that's a much more advanced car, something right out of science fiction books. It's a gravity powered car :-)
- switched the commonly used lights to compact fluorescents
- unplugged the TV and stereo when not in use (which is most of the time)
- turned off the hot tub
- got a new, front loading washer (planned, but we moved up our purchase)
- got a folding clothes drying rack for the yard
- got a new refrigerator
- started shutting down my PC when I'm gone for any length of time
State-wide, the government has been encouraging people to use less power by offering rebates for people who use less, purchase incentives for EnergyStar appliances, and various commercials.Some of the commercials are geared towards getting people to watch when they use electricity. California has plenty of generating capacity...on average. It's when the weather gets really hot (like the last couple of days) and power usage spikes that we run into problems. But even on hot days, we have plenty of power in the morning and at night. It's during they day when all the businesses, schools, and homes are running ACs and everything else that we hit a crunch. I've taken to checking the system conditions on really warm days to know when to power more stuff down if I can.
Somewhat of a side note: A bit of praise for the front-loading washer. Not only does it use less electricty than the old one, but it uses less water, gets the clothes cleaner, and leaves them dryer after the spin cycle, meaning the dryer doesn't work as hard, too. (or the clothes dry faster on the line when we can use that option). Not big news to most Europeans, but Americans should buy front-loaders when getting a new washer.
If you're ever in the SF Bay Area, check out the area around the Altamont Pass on I-580, east of Livermore. There are hundreds of windmills of a couple different types dotting the hillsides. It's actually kind of cool looking, makes for an interesting abstract image. I have heard they're somewhat noisy when all in action, but doubtless no noiser than a natural gas or coal power plant, and lot nicer to look at.
Another vote for the Prius. My wife and I love ours -- best car either of us has ever owned. We also get somewhat better mileage than the manufacturer's numbers. As part of a caravan of vehicles taking a youth group to Mexico to build a house, I got 53 MPG over a 600 mile trip down there, with 4 adult-sized people and a trunkful of camping gear and construction equipment.
Not only does the car get better mileage, but it's SULEV (Super Ultra Low Emission Vehicle) meaning it pollutes a lot less, too. It's safer and more reliable than the old car it replaced, so I don't worry as much about my wife and her carpool partners out on the road.
From an evironmental standpoint, no car would be even better, but mass transit isn't really an option 100% of the time. Everytime we vote for more mass transit around here, it seems they just build more freeways instead. And they can't seem to fathom that the transit systems need to work together for people to get from point A to point B in non-geologic time.
The Prius also has a cool factor, with geeks because of the in-dash display to play with and hack, with the environmentally-concious set here in the SF Bay Area, and with kids because of all of the above.
There isn't an equivalent non-hybrid Toyota to compare with the Prius, but the number I was told is the hybrid is basically a $2,000 premium (with the base price at around $20,000, so vs. $18,000). No bargaining since they're in such demand, but Toyota is making money on them now which is a good sign.
Your math looks right (at least to my cold-addled brain :-) Hybrids make both economic and environmental sense here in California. Depending on whether the governor signs the upcoming bill or not, they may even be required for auto makers to meet the new standards.
Gas is around $1.75-$1.85 a gallon (for the cheap stuff) in the SF Bay Area right now, and has been much worse. There's also enough traffic on the roads that our Prius does a bit better than the manufacturer's numbers (45 MPG highway, 52 MPG city) because speeds are lower. Between my wife's twice a week commute and other driving, and the car it replaced (at ~30 MPG), we figure it will take 5-7 years to pay for the difference. But we plan to have the car at least that long.
It's also a lot safer than the car it replaced (front and side airbags, anti-lock brakes, does well in crash tests), and much more reliable, too. I don't worry about my wife and her carpool partners like I did with the old car.
Add all that to the SULEV (Super Ultra Low Emission Vehicle) status (ZEV = Zero Emission Vehicle = electric is the only better rating), and it makes a lot of environmental sense, too. Yes, no car would be even better, but this is a good practical choice that's available if you have to have a car.
Whether it's 50 years or 500, we are currently using resources faster than they are replenished. And the U.S. does consume a disproportionate amount of the resources in the world.
100% accurate or not, reports like this aren't going to change the way the U.S. lives -- we're too comfortable in our lifestyles to make big changes. It's going to take some catastrophic change that impacts the U.S. directly to get us to wake up. Unfortunately it's developing countries which are going to feel those changes first.
We had similar buttons for an old alarm system in our office. My cube was near one. An engineer made little sign and posted it underneath the button saying "Eject Executive Wing". Many people would look around a bit, push the button, then look a little disappointed when they opened the door and realized it hadn't worked :-)
For digital images, whether scanned from film or pure digital, there are two good options for making prints.
Epson Photo printers like the 1280 or 2000p give photo-quality output with longevity comparable to most color prints. I know a number of pro photographers (including me) that sell images output from these. A few people have had problems with color-shift due to ozone, but properly framed and cared for (e.g., not left hanging in the sun, same as with a regular photographic print) they will last.
For really important digital images, get a LightJet print. Starting with a digital image (whether scanned or pure digital), it uses lasers to expose the image on normal photographic paper like Fuji Crystal Archive. At that point it is a regular photographic print, with the same longevity. The process isn't cheap, though, but the quality is unbeatable. Some big-name pros sell their images only in this format.
One thing to consider though is that no color images have the longevity of those old B&W prints. For current photo albums, having digital copies of important images made *before* the images degrade is important -- they aren't going to last.
The greatest recorded earthquake in the contiguous United States was located in Missouri, not a place that usually comes to mind when one thinks "earthquake."
New Madrid quake, estimated to be an 8.0. It apparently rang church bells as far away as Boston, MA. Read more about it here.
As far as this one went, it rattled the house a bit here in Oakland (~60 miles NNE of Gilroy), which rattled the cats more than a little.
My parents' house (circa 1910-1920, I believe) had a smaller version of something like this. There were small metal brackets around the basement, each holding a glass globe (an inverted pear shape) with the narrow part resting in the bracket.
I think my dad eventually took them down once he realized that they were somewhat toxic and potentially life-threatening (they work by removing the oxygen).
The old line about the news is "if it bleeds, it leads". It's true -- stories of disaster or impending disaster are way more prevelant on the news that positive stories.