Assuming that you were married for an extended period of time (5-10-15 years?) after you first met her, I'd argue that you probably had the biggest influence over her character and personality during that timespan. So if she turned into a b*tch, you might want to look into the mirror. If she was nice before you met her, and she was a b*tch when you left her, what's the variable?
Computers are a tool that require formal training and strict adherence to accepted inputs/outputs.
IMHO introducing children to computers too early and too much ~restricts~ their learning by enforcing artificial constraints upon their creativity and learning. A solid foundation in communication skills (language, writing), qualitative thinking (social sciences), and quantitative thinking (math, science) are all prerequisites for being able to use a computer effectively.
Of course, I'll provide a caveat -- you will want to gradually introduce computers to your children's lives as they become more independent. You don't want to raise luddites who have a internal distrust of technology... rather, you want them to understand the strengths and weaknesses of technology, and when and where to use an appropriate tool.
You're obviously at the wrong site. This is the site where people overclocking their TV remotes, or installing Linux on their Fridge, or reverse-engineering their thermostats so that they can install Nethack on the LCD panel, is considered cool.
Rarely are such activities (including forcing linux on a mac-mini) very practical, but they shed light on how devices are engineered, and serve as learning opportunities for gear-heads. For all intents and purposes, there was no pragmatic reason to climb to the top of Mt Everest either.;)
In principle, I agree with you. You reap what you sow. In reality, though, I realise that some people have not had the opportunity to get my quality of education, had a supportive family when growing up, nor live in a neighbhourhood or environment of job opportunity. Also, those in the 'free and clear' have crap happen to them too -- e.g. "I worked for Enron for 10 years, they just entered Chapter 11, my pension is seized via receivership and I'm back-due several paycheques... and because of corporate malfeasance my reputation is mud on a resume even though I was an honest and loyal employee..." Its not always someone's fault.
Also, if people don't have social security and get REALLY desperate it might get ugly. Crime goes up, riots, neighbourhoods get depressed and real estate prices drop. Think of social security as a 'tax to maintain my lifestyle, not theirs'. Its self-serving, but a realistic perspective. Also, its an insurance policy you never, ever hope to collect upon.
I don't consider Social Security idealistic -- I consider the Horotia Alger myth that anyone can become anything to be idealistic. Social Security is pragmatic, and I think does more for the rich than it does for the poor.
Intelligent design cannot be subjected to any elements of the scientific method; it is a totalogy, a truisim, it is all based on faith w/o evidence.
For this reason, it cannot be considered an alternative theory to evolution. Evolution is a theory, yes -- but creationism is not.
Here in Ontario at least we keep science out of the religion classes, and religion out of the science classes -- its like keeping geography out of gym, or mathematics out of english literature. Separate fields of study.
I've been an Apple non-believer for most of my life. Since day one I considered the Apple IIe to be overrated (Commodores were better), Mac's lacked the flexibility and software that the IBM PC/AT/XT/386/486+ did. For the 1990s, Macs were overpriced and lacked software to compete realistically for an PC market share. And don't get me started on games.
I also figured iPods would be doomed to failure. Why would people spend $400-600 on harddrive mp3 player, instead of say $150 on a flash mp3 player? How small could they get those disks anyways? As for Mac OS/X, come on...if someone could put an elegant GUI on a robust unix kernel don't you think Microsoft or IBM would have done it already??? And Apple was clearly doomed financially...has any company ever lasted long after a Microsoft payoff?
Now, in 2005, 20 years after I gave up on Apple, everything is falling into place. They finally have production costs under control, and long term strategic chip partnership with IBM. iPods are more popular than Sony Walkman's in the day. Mac OS/X is perhaps the best operating system in the market.
And now this. Although there's alot of Mini-ITX cases available for the PC (Apple appears to be copying the PC market), this one DOES IT RIGHT. OS is included; several very good tools and software are included. You won't be using this mini-Mac for gaming, but for internet/digital photos/word processing its an awesome setup.
Kudos Mr Jobs. I finally consider Apple a true market player once again.
Re:Nyko's iPod movie player
on
CES Tidbits
·
· Score: 2, Funny
My wife and I have been talking about getting a pair of portable DVD players for the kids - or, as I call it, "sanity preservers" so during the 10-12 hour drive to Grandma's house, Dad doesn't kill them after the 6000th "Are we there yet? I'm bored!"
I believe a single Taser is more cost effective than individual DVD players, especially once you get past 2 kids.
Or you can resort to my technique of "NyQuil" in the juice container...
Do you mean multi-core CPUs, multi-cpu board architectures, or both?
I've noticed that pretty much any RISC chip at this point is multi-core, or will be in the next year. I can only assume that the desktop PC will be headed in that direction as well in the next 18-24 months.
Great, stressed out, virtually canatonic coders patching an online game. You'll see people dining out of Stanley Cups, Gordon Freeman lounging on the couch too lazy to change the channel, and Paul Tagliabue running around taping up Sim's breasts in case of wardrobe malfunctions.
This is probably a good example of how the Y2k fever got out of control, and paranoia resulted in alot of unnecessary effort.
Banks, government offices, airtraffic control, medical instrumentation... large, multinational industries that were early adopters of IT systems(e.g. 1960s/70s) were most at risk. Their systems were old, mostly mainframe based (at least in the back-end), and had a heavy dependency upon date calculations. Also, the original coders were long since gone, resulting in extra effort to refamiliarise the organisation with these systems.
The bank I work at started working on y2k in 1995...we were recognised as early adopters of y2k thinking although the majority of our competition were well underway in 1996.
The bigger you were, the older you were, the earlier you needed to start and the more money you needed to spend. Small to mid-sized companies, or companies that started in the 1990s, never had to worry about y2k. PCs have a shelf-life of about 3-5 years; Windows 95/NT were Y2k compliant so if you were running a 'modern' PC you were not at risk. And most embedded electronic components did NOT have a date dependency.
Donating money is the BEST thing that Europeans/North Americans can do at this point. There are numerous, experienced aid agencies on the scene who can evaluate and deploy resources as needed.
Donating goods (food, clothing) just gives these agencies an inventory management headache... volunteering to assist is a waste of time (unless you're previously trained) as it will take months to prepare you to be effective. And forming your own support group/charity actually is counter productive, as it adds to the chaos and your organisation would lack the economy-of-scale to be effective.
Oxfam - Red Cross - Unicef - Doctors without Borders
Privacy has nothing to do with it. CNN, CBS, FoxNews would film their own mothers being raped if it meant better ratings.
They're afraid of press-corps blacklisting by the Whitehouse, for circumventing 'unofficial' policy.
I am of the believe that the truth can only make you stronger. As horrific as it is for me to sit looking at this picture, I still cannot imagine how painful and terrible it would be to experience this in person.
Don't forget about illegal bombing campaigns in Laos and Cambodia, which destablisied the governments in those regions, which led to the Khmer Rouge being able to take power and kill a couple of million just for kicks.
In fairness though, there's an alternative interpretation of Vietman (I don't subscribe to it, but you have to consider it) -- it was a 'saftey valve' for the USSR/China and the US to fight a proxy war... limited scale, convential weapons. No sense in igniting the east/west powderkeg in europe which would devolve into nukes fairly quickly. So the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few...or the Vietnamese.:(
In fairness, I figure any question regarding American politics in the 1970s is a freebie given that Mr Stein was a white house insider. I mean, like, come on!
Stein's also shows a distinct weakness for non-European/American history. I've seen him miss obvious questions based on Canadian, African, Australian, and South American history.
Don't get me wrong, Stein's knowledge is encyclopedic and deeper than Jenning's. But Jenning would still win head-to-head on Jeopardy.
I would suggest that many Americans would benefit from a more thorough study of history. Napoleon offers a good example -- you can't free people who don't want to be free, or who don't consider themselves captive to begin with.
It will take a decade to determine whether Iraqis were better off with Saddam vs the US 'liberation' effort. I'm cynically guesing the result will be a wash...
Re:MMV and MMVI = The Miller Years ?
on
Sin City Trailer
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Don't forget that Batman Begins is based on Batman: Year One, also written by Frank Miller.
I think Elektra will be crap (given that Daredevil was crap). Have no idea about 300. Batman Begins has a good director (Nolan) and strong casting...I have high hopes for that one.
Although Rodriguez work has been uninspiring to present, the fact that this is his 'dream project' may inspire him to greatness -- the trailer looks promising, and I couldn't pick better casting myself.
Atmosphere, costume and set design, cinematrography...all are top notch for this triology. Brilliant adaptations of LOTR, perfectly visualised -- a very difficult task indeed.
However...characterisations, plot development and pacing, and dialogue to a large extent are typical hollywood fare, losing alot of the subtley and nuance of the novels.
I couldn't understand why my parents and sister didn't enjoy the movies...they felt it was all noise and action, and a 'typical fantasy hackneyed plot'. I was incredulous, until I rewatched the movies while conciously ignoring what I knew from the novels...and then I realised they were right -- it WAS just another noisy, loud, action-packed, paper-thin plot turned into big-budget spectacle. All the subtley of the novels were not translated to screen. This is particularly apparent in ROTK which moves from action sequence to action sequence for 3+ hours...
I don't blame Jackson too much. At 12+ hours it already is perhaps the longest trilogy filmed by Hollywood. And yet there's so much lost in the film translation... I suspect only an extended 30-60 episode TV series, not worrying about ratings or demographics, could give the novels justice. And the chances of that happening are negligible.
Appreciate the movies for what Jackson contributed to LOTR lore, but recongise its still a minor effort in comparison to the brilliance of the source material.
Just as an FYI... here's a short list of 'prominent' Canadian IT companies.
Research in Motion (RIM)
Nortel
Corel
ATI
Matrox
Celestica
OpenText
Hummingbird
Generally speaking Canadian companies that have software offerings tied to hardware sales do better than pure software plays (e.g. Corel). For a country roughly the size of California population-wise, its has a fairly decent domestic industry.
Since Canada does the vast majority of its trade with the US though, more progressive software patent laws domesitcally aren't as big a factor as they might be in the EU... you compete in the US market, you play by their rules.
You're still supporting Blockbuster's business model.
1. Editing or forcing producers to make Blockbuster-friendly versions of films.
2. Reinforcing the encrypted DVD business model...Blockbuster still pays for the rental DVDs, MPAA keeps producing them.
3. Reinforcing Hollywood's trend of making Bruckheimer-esque crapulescant action films with recycled plots and oneliners.
So even if I could condone a campaign of blatant copyright infringement, I would still oppose your behaviour as it reinforces existing business models which produce CRAP.
This is easy... because the auto magazines are too dependant upon advertising revenue from these companies -- invariably some of the worst cars come from manufacturers that advertise the most.
If you want to get honest car reviews, I'd recommend Edmondston's Lemon Aid Car Guide...100% independent, uses public access to information through safety councils, etc. Its Canadian based, but should be very applicable to all North American-available automobiles.
You'll find this same experience with most stereo magazines, and also to a great extend with video game and photography enthusiast publications.
That's funny, I was thinking that ALL of your topics have improved dramatically over the past 100, and 50, and even 25 year periods.
1. Starvation - It has pretty much been conclusively proven that we have FAR MORE than enough food to feed everyone on the planet. The issue is market dynamics, and governmental control. We can feed the people in Bangladesh, Somalia, Haiti, etc... if there were a stable environment to deliver food in. This is a human-created problem. Food supply is NOT the problem.
2. Disease. AIDS is a plague scouring over Africa it is true. But it is no different than Syphilis in its day, or Typhoid, or Scarlet Fever. AIDS is the disease we can't immediately cure in our day and age. 100 years ago you could die from a paper cut (infection). We're MUCH father ahead. We know how AIDS is transmitted, how to avoid it, and therapies allow for extension of lives by substantial amounts. DISEASE is NOT a significant problem, nor an effective population control.
3. Fertility. In the first world, economics has modified the trend towards smaller family through a rationalisation process. China has control over its population size now, albeit through inhumane methods. AIDS is limiting family sizes in Africa, and soon India and the Pacific-rim. The world will balance itself out, one way or another. FERTILITY IS NOT A PROBLEM -- economies and cultures have ways of managing their population sizes without cataclysmic events being required.
4. Homosexuality is a rounding error. It is not even statistically significant as a population control, its existed for millenia and even exists in nature. This is a non-factor. HOMOSEXUALITY is a NON-FACTOR.
I think the world's population is doing very well for itself thank you very much. The UN suggests we could -- with current economic systems and technology -- continue to support up to 10-12 Billion before any meaningful change in civilisation is required. I agree.
Just note that there's nothing to say that compensation is Canadian artist-centric. Beyonce' and Britney also get their fair share too. An infinitesmal amount to be sure, but they get a cut.
Slashdot Mirror
Don't worry, there'll be NO major league for hockey soon.
\it was as if millions of Canadians' voices cried out in anguish, then was suddenly silenced....
Assuming that you were married for an extended period of time (5-10-15 years?) after you first met her, I'd argue that you probably had the biggest influence over her character and personality during that timespan. So if she turned into a b*tch, you might want to look into the mirror. If she was nice before you met her, and she was a b*tch when you left her, what's the variable?
Computers are a tool that require formal training and strict adherence to accepted inputs/outputs.
IMHO introducing children to computers too early and too much ~restricts~ their learning by enforcing artificial constraints upon their creativity and learning. A solid foundation in communication skills (language, writing), qualitative thinking (social sciences), and quantitative thinking (math, science) are all prerequisites for being able to use a computer effectively.
Of course, I'll provide a caveat -- you will want to gradually introduce computers to your children's lives as they become more independent. You don't want to raise luddites who have a internal distrust of technology... rather, you want them to understand the strengths and weaknesses of technology, and when and where to use an appropriate tool.
You're obviously at the wrong site. This is the site where people overclocking their TV remotes, or installing Linux on their Fridge, or reverse-engineering their thermostats so that they can install Nethack on the LCD panel, is considered cool.
;)
Rarely are such activities (including forcing linux on a mac-mini) very practical, but they shed light on how devices are engineered, and serve as learning opportunities for gear-heads. For all intents and purposes, there was no pragmatic reason to climb to the top of Mt Everest either.
In principle, I agree with you. You reap what you sow. In reality, though, I realise that some people have not had the opportunity to get my quality of education, had a supportive family when growing up, nor live in a neighbhourhood or environment of job opportunity. Also, those in the 'free and clear' have crap happen to them too -- e.g. "I worked for Enron for 10 years, they just entered Chapter 11, my pension is seized via receivership and I'm back-due several paycheques... and because of corporate malfeasance my reputation is mud on a resume even though I was an honest and loyal employee..." Its not always someone's fault.
Also, if people don't have social security and get REALLY desperate it might get ugly. Crime goes up, riots, neighbourhoods get depressed and real estate prices drop. Think of social security as a 'tax to maintain my lifestyle, not theirs'. Its self-serving, but a realistic perspective. Also, its an insurance policy you never, ever hope to collect upon.
I don't consider Social Security idealistic -- I consider the Horotia Alger myth that anyone can become anything to be idealistic. Social Security is pragmatic, and I think does more for the rich than it does for the poor.
Intelligent design cannot be subjected to any elements of the scientific method; it is a totalogy, a truisim, it is all based on faith w/o evidence.
For this reason, it cannot be considered an alternative theory to evolution. Evolution is a theory, yes -- but creationism is not.
Here in Ontario at least we keep science out of the religion classes, and religion out of the science classes -- its like keeping geography out of gym, or mathematics out of english literature. Separate fields of study.
WooHoo, I bet Steve Jobs is relieved, now that YOU think Apple is doing it right he can relax!
And unfortunately despite all of Apple's successes that have finally won me over, they're still stuck with a uber-elitist clientel base like yourself.
Question: do you wear your black turtleneck collar up or down?
I've been an Apple non-believer for most of my life. Since day one I considered the Apple IIe to be overrated (Commodores were better), Mac's lacked the flexibility and software that the IBM PC/AT/XT/386/486+ did. For the 1990s, Macs were overpriced and lacked software to compete realistically for an PC market share. And don't get me started on games.
I also figured iPods would be doomed to failure. Why would people spend $400-600 on harddrive mp3 player, instead of say $150 on a flash mp3 player? How small could they get those disks anyways? As for Mac OS/X, come on...if someone could put an elegant GUI on a robust unix kernel don't you think Microsoft or IBM would have done it already??? And Apple was clearly doomed financially...has any company ever lasted long after a Microsoft payoff?
Now, in 2005, 20 years after I gave up on Apple, everything is falling into place. They finally have production costs under control, and long term strategic chip partnership with IBM. iPods are more popular than Sony Walkman's in the day. Mac OS/X is perhaps the best operating system in the market.
And now this. Although there's alot of Mini-ITX cases available for the PC (Apple appears to be copying the PC market), this one DOES IT RIGHT. OS is included; several very good tools and software are included. You won't be using this mini-Mac for gaming, but for internet/digital photos/word processing its an awesome setup.
Kudos Mr Jobs. I finally consider Apple a true market player once again.
My wife and I have been talking about getting a pair of portable DVD players for the kids - or, as I call it, "sanity preservers" so during the 10-12 hour drive to Grandma's house, Dad doesn't kill them after the 6000th "Are we there yet? I'm bored!"
I believe a single Taser is more cost effective than individual DVD players, especially once you get past 2 kids.
Or you can resort to my technique of "NyQuil" in the juice container...
Do you mean multi-core CPUs, multi-cpu board architectures, or both?
I've noticed that pretty much any RISC chip at this point is multi-core, or will be in the next year. I can only assume that the desktop PC will be headed in that direction as well in the next 18-24 months.
..and Tuor.
Probably the most confusing the first time through reading the Silmarillion was remember the differences between Tuor, Turin, and Turgon.
Great, stressed out, virtually canatonic coders patching an online game. You'll see people dining out of Stanley Cups, Gordon Freeman lounging on the couch too lazy to change the channel, and Paul Tagliabue running around taping up Sim's breasts in case of wardrobe malfunctions.
This is probably a good example of how the Y2k fever got out of control, and paranoia resulted in alot of unnecessary effort.
... large, multinational industries that were early adopters of IT systems(e.g. 1960s/70s) were most at risk. Their systems were old, mostly mainframe based (at least in the back-end), and had a heavy dependency upon date calculations. Also, the original coders were long since gone, resulting in extra effort to refamiliarise the organisation with these systems.
Banks, government offices, airtraffic control, medical instrumentation
The bank I work at started working on y2k in 1995...we were recognised as early adopters of y2k thinking although the majority of our competition were well underway in 1996.
The bigger you were, the older you were, the earlier you needed to start and the more money you needed to spend. Small to mid-sized companies, or companies that started in the 1990s, never had to worry about y2k. PCs have a shelf-life of about 3-5 years; Windows 95/NT were Y2k compliant so if you were running a 'modern' PC you were not at risk. And most embedded electronic components did NOT have a date dependency.
Donating money is the BEST thing that Europeans/North Americans can do at this point. There are numerous, experienced aid agencies on the scene who can evaluate and deploy resources as needed.
Donating goods (food, clothing) just gives these agencies an inventory management headache... volunteering to assist is a waste of time (unless you're previously trained) as it will take months to prepare you to be effective. And forming your own support group/charity actually is counter productive, as it adds to the chaos and your organisation would lack the economy-of-scale to be effective.
Oxfam - Red Cross - Unicef - Doctors without Borders
Those are your best choices.
Privacy has nothing to do with it. CNN, CBS, FoxNews would film their own mothers being raped if it meant better ratings.
They're afraid of press-corps blacklisting by the Whitehouse, for circumventing 'unofficial' policy.
I am of the believe that the truth can only make you stronger. As horrific as it is for me to sit looking at this picture, I still cannot imagine how painful and terrible it would be to experience this in person.
Don't forget about illegal bombing campaigns in Laos and Cambodia, which destablisied the governments in those regions, which led to the Khmer Rouge being able to take power and kill a couple of million just for kicks.
:(
In fairness though, there's an alternative interpretation of Vietman (I don't subscribe to it, but you have to consider it) -- it was a 'saftey valve' for the USSR/China and the US to fight a proxy war... limited scale, convential weapons. No sense in igniting the east/west powderkeg in europe which would devolve into nukes fairly quickly. So the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few...or the Vietnamese.
In fairness, I figure any question regarding American politics in the 1970s is a freebie given that Mr Stein was a white house insider. I mean, like, come on!
Stein's also shows a distinct weakness for non-European/American history. I've seen him miss obvious questions based on Canadian, African, Australian, and South American history.
Don't get me wrong, Stein's knowledge is encyclopedic and deeper than Jenning's. But Jenning would still win head-to-head on Jeopardy.
I would suggest that many Americans would benefit from a more thorough study of history. Napoleon offers a good example -- you can't free people who don't want to be free, or who don't consider themselves captive to begin with.
It will take a decade to determine whether Iraqis were better off with Saddam vs the US 'liberation' effort. I'm cynically guesing the result will be a wash...
Don't forget that Batman Begins is based on Batman: Year One, also written by Frank Miller.
I think Elektra will be crap (given that Daredevil was crap). Have no idea about 300. Batman Begins has a good director (Nolan) and strong casting...I have high hopes for that one.
Although Rodriguez work has been uninspiring to present, the fact that this is his 'dream project' may inspire him to greatness -- the trailer looks promising, and I couldn't pick better casting myself.
Atmosphere, costume and set design, cinematrography...all are top notch for this triology. Brilliant adaptations of LOTR, perfectly visualised -- a very difficult task indeed.
However...characterisations, plot development and pacing, and dialogue to a large extent are typical hollywood fare, losing alot of the subtley and nuance of the novels.
I couldn't understand why my parents and sister didn't enjoy the movies...they felt it was all noise and action, and a 'typical fantasy hackneyed plot'. I was incredulous, until I rewatched the movies while conciously ignoring what I knew from the novels...and then I realised they were right -- it WAS just another noisy, loud, action-packed, paper-thin plot turned into big-budget spectacle. All the subtley of the novels were not translated to screen. This is particularly apparent in ROTK which moves from action sequence to action sequence for 3+ hours...
I don't blame Jackson too much. At 12+ hours it already is perhaps the longest trilogy filmed by Hollywood. And yet there's so much lost in the film translation... I suspect only an extended 30-60 episode TV series, not worrying about ratings or demographics, could give the novels justice. And the chances of that happening are negligible.
Appreciate the movies for what Jackson contributed to LOTR lore, but recongise its still a minor effort in comparison to the brilliance of the source material.
Just as an FYI... here's a short list of 'prominent' Canadian IT companies.
Research in Motion (RIM)
Nortel
Corel
ATI
Matrox
Celestica
OpenText
Hummingbird
Generally speaking Canadian companies that have software offerings tied to hardware sales do better than pure software plays (e.g. Corel). For a country roughly the size of California population-wise, its has a fairly decent domestic industry.
Since Canada does the vast majority of its trade with the US though, more progressive software patent laws domesitcally aren't as big a factor as they might be in the EU... you compete in the US market, you play by their rules.
You're still supporting Blockbuster's business model.
1. Editing or forcing producers to make Blockbuster-friendly versions of films.
2. Reinforcing the encrypted DVD business model...Blockbuster still pays for the rental DVDs, MPAA keeps producing them.
3. Reinforcing Hollywood's trend of making Bruckheimer-esque crapulescant action films with recycled plots and oneliners.
So even if I could condone a campaign of blatant copyright infringement, I would still oppose your behaviour as it reinforces existing business models which produce CRAP.
This is easy... because the auto magazines are too dependant upon advertising revenue from these companies -- invariably some of the worst cars come from manufacturers that advertise the most.
If you want to get honest car reviews, I'd recommend Edmondston's Lemon Aid Car Guide...100% independent, uses public access to information through safety councils, etc. Its Canadian based, but should be very applicable to all North American-available automobiles.
You'll find this same experience with most stereo magazines, and also to a great extend with video game and photography enthusiast publications.
That's funny, I was thinking that ALL of your topics have improved dramatically over the past 100, and 50, and even 25 year periods.
1. Starvation - It has pretty much been conclusively proven that we have FAR MORE than enough food to feed everyone on the planet. The issue is market dynamics, and governmental control. We can feed the people in Bangladesh, Somalia, Haiti, etc... if there were a stable environment to deliver food in. This is a human-created problem. Food supply is NOT the problem.
2. Disease. AIDS is a plague scouring over Africa it is true. But it is no different than Syphilis in its day, or Typhoid, or Scarlet Fever. AIDS is the disease we can't immediately cure in our day and age. 100 years ago you could die from a paper cut (infection). We're MUCH father ahead. We know how AIDS is transmitted, how to avoid it, and therapies allow for extension of lives by substantial amounts. DISEASE is NOT a significant problem, nor an effective population control.
3. Fertility. In the first world, economics has modified the trend towards smaller family through a rationalisation process. China has control over its population size now, albeit through inhumane methods. AIDS is limiting family sizes in Africa, and soon India and the Pacific-rim. The world will balance itself out, one way or another. FERTILITY IS NOT A PROBLEM -- economies and cultures have ways of managing their population sizes without cataclysmic events being required.
4. Homosexuality is a rounding error. It is not even statistically significant as a population control, its existed for millenia and even exists in nature. This is a non-factor. HOMOSEXUALITY is a NON-FACTOR.
I think the world's population is doing very well for itself thank you very much. The UN suggests we could -- with current economic systems and technology -- continue to support up to 10-12 Billion before any meaningful change in civilisation is required. I agree.
Just note that there's nothing to say that compensation is Canadian artist-centric. Beyonce' and Britney also get their fair share too. An infinitesmal amount to be sure, but they get a cut.