I realize that, but since political donations are public information, he could easily look up who did/did not donate as he "suggested." I don't think it'd hold up in court.
That's illegal, I believe. You're not allowed to give money to other people to give to a political campaign. Even a hint of telling them to do so. Pretty much, you go to jail for this shit.
It reminds me of a guy at work (non-management) who said, "I don't know why [our company] and [main rivalry company] don't just say to each other let's not bid against each other." That sounds good too, but it'd also be collusion, and highly illegal.
Alas, it'd be nice if companies could not donate at all, but that still would not solve the problem. Although I'd say that wealthy CEOs and Presidents of companies might not have as much of an impact, or have much sway as the corporation as a whole.
Did those millions donate to him for that expressed purpose? No, they donated because of his "change" appearance. There were no strings attached. Besides, I think he'll lose many voters over that issue anyway.
What I'm talking about isn't just the President, as that position is so mired in politics that it's impossible to know what's going on anymore, but having a real influence on those with lower positions in government, but in some ways just as much power. There's 435 members of the House, 100 of the Senate. If people assert their opinion during the entire term of the Rep, and not just during the blow-smoke-up-my-ass election year, with an asserted promise that they will receive both money and a better consideration come election time, they will actually think about what they are doing.
I looked at my 4 month old daughter this morning and thought, "There are patents made before she was born that will not expire until after her average life expectancy is up." This is how broken the system is, slanted away from the rights of individuals. The US is still better in most respects than any other country, but it's still been slipping in the wrong direction. This can be our real chance to make a difference.
Obviously we need another way to fun politicians then. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court gave businesses the rights of citizens, which in this case facilitates a de facto oligarchy.
The only solution, in my mind, would be for individuals to outnumber the businesses in their influence on Washington. There are only a few ways we have of influencing our representitives: Vote, Send money, campaign. What we need is a solution that combines those traits and organizes the real populace. I.E. a popular PAC.
What I'd like to see someone create is a website where an individual could in essence bribe their own representative by promising to donate $xx.xx if they vote correctly on a certain issue, promise that they will remember that vote (reminded by said website when election time comes), and that the general issue will be talked about/watched by that individual in the future. Imagine a House member receiving a message that they would receive $50,000 for their campaign in 3 years and that 5000 people will remember this particular vote when election times come around. Normally, they'd expect everyone to have forgotten the issue by that time, and not vote according to how the people think is best. Of course the site/PAC/whatever would have to be independent of party affiliation and open to both sides of every issue. Individuals can't be expected to watch every bill, so they'd have to be able to filter out what to watch for, and how votes are handled. Also, other PACs could use the site's infrastructure for payments or subscribing their own reviews of bills (a gargantuan effort as it is).
This would all be akin to the Ron Paul effort, where individuals showed a great resolve. On the presidential level, perhaps that effort wasn't great enough. But imagine influencing Representatives in the House or on State levels. Truly, some gains could be made there.
There may be something already like this, and it'd be difficult to manage, but it's the best idea I've had to correct many wrongs we've seen recently.
Thank you for telling people their idea is stupid. Sometimes they need it, the uneducated louts.
Now, I think NASA is overlooking a completely obvious and fooldproof solution. Problem: they have frozen pipes. They're also near the Sun. A quick flyby of the sun for some warmth, and they're good to go! However, if I remember my science classes correctly, they have to keep the pass under a certain speed, or they run into problems with humpback whales.
I too have been pissed at what Congressmen, Senators, and the President to to sell their votes, compromise their ethics and other ballyhoo. Lobbyists in my opinion have too much power in governments. Even businesses can donate to campaigns, as they're considered a "personage" these days. Which is precisely why we need something to directly counter them, step by step, for every bill and law.
We need a site, call it BribeCongress.com, where individuals using Paypal or other accounts can effectively tell their Congressman, "If you vote for this bill the way I agree with, I will donate $X.XX to your campaign fund. I will also remember this exact vote when election time comes around." This would impact the representative in three distinct ways. 1.) He would have a financial incentive, which could be substantial depending on the amount pledged among all people, 2.) He would have a financial backing from someone other than himself, lobbyists' friends, and the rich, and 3.) He will know that the voter will be reminded and remember his vote on that bill, even if it's 5 years until the elections.
I'm a big fan of putting power back into the hands of the people, but alas like many others, I just don't have the time to implement something like this. IANAL, but I'm thinking that it'd at least be legal if it's non-profit and the individuals who contribute meet campaign finance rules.
My DRM was coincidence, sort of. It looks like they send a batch of plates to each area, which means that I see a lot of DRM #### plates in the area, along with another letter combination or two.
My license place has DRM on it, which offends me almost as much as the real stuff. Thankfully it's sitting in my garage where my house number is 404, so no one sees it anyway.
Exactly. The only ways this could possibly work is not if they're introducing energy, but changing the air/fuel mixture or changing the way combustion occurs with different fuels.
The only problem is when you start looking at your emissions. A leaner mixture will provide more NOx, for example. It's something that requires scientific evaluation, which is why I tried to find patents and scholarly investigations.
For replying this high. But, I have people at work who aren't complete idiots who use a similar method and have claimed mpg benefits. Being the geek I am, I claimed hogwash at first, then thought through it. BTW, the site he used was Water4gas.com which is only pawning a book, not an actual product (genius!)
The basic premise is that by pulling "free" energy from the alternator, you crack H20 into H2 and O2, then reintroduce them together back into the air intake via a crude nozzle. The site/book's author does not understand why this "works" but claims that the gasoline is "more potent" in some way. This is apparently the "new science." Ugh.
So anyway, I did some looking around and first found out that all the sites found with "water4gas scam" are scripted posts about how it could be a scam, but "you should buy the book anyway to figure it out!" Is this fraud I thought? Maybe, but I decided to look further anyway, and found a patent! and found a patent! Holy crapola! However, the cynic in me knows that a patent doesn't mean that something works, so I looked further. Then I found there is some actual research on the subject of H introduction to gasoline environments. However, I can't look at it because I'm not willing to pay money.
Class of '99, but I think this was taught in 6th grade history. My teacher had a few scraggly hairs hanging from her chin, but damn did I absorb a lot that year.
I think most of what's taught now is how the mills were so dangerous and demeaning to women and children who worked there. Oh society, how I loathe thy fickle nature!
They're trying to not spend as much on bandwidth. It's basic business: their bandwidth is a cost and they want to lower that cost.
What I don't understand is why they don't go to an individually tiered model. Your first 5 or 10GB are at their normal, or even higher, speed, (5Mb/512kb here) and the rest after that are at a fraction of that, but still high speed. Perhaps 1Mb/256kb. Those speeds alone would limit egregious down/uploaders to a more reasonable level, while still being able to operate normally.
When I was in school, we were taught about Francis Cabot Lowell, who heroically copied machine plans in England to use in the US for textile mills.
England was so worried that their monopoly on their mill technology would be taken that they would search ships, cargo and passenger for hidden plans.
Fortunately for the US, Lowell memorized the plans and was able to build his own plants in the New World. His business was the beginning of the industrialization of the New World. Without which, the United States would have continued to be merely agrarian in nature.
Does anyone know if they still teach this lesson in gradeschools, or was it killed when they started teaching kids to respect copyrights more?
Christianity isn't a race, if you didn't already know. When I go to church, I see caucasians, blacks, hispanics, asians, Indians, and more. To not believe in other religions isn't racism, it's just believing in your own.
By your logic, a Communist preaching that they will conquer and rule the entire world is also racist.
Exactly. If you were to continue on Lastminute.com's train of thought, they own how their trademark is used in the wild public, and in information conglomeration (search engines, phone books, dictionaries, etc). As such, Google should blank out any trademarked search outright, unless the trademarkee pays up.
So, if you were to search for "Coke", no results should come up unless Coca-Cola bought that search space. If that were the case, I'm thinking they'd stop bitching so much real quick.
I propose that we call this bill the "Anti-Consumer" bill. Maybe the media would pick up on something that seems a bit more sinister and threatening. After all fear seems to be their calling card these days.
First, that post was one of the best I've seen in a while about ethanol. However..
and it doesn't factor in energy used for the planting, care, or harvest
It does, as that energy is already included in the entire country's energy usage. I also agree that other forms of ethanol production can possibly be much better than this corn-derived method. At least the corn method creates some real world distribution and usage, possibly leading to wider usage.
How is that different from straws and containers with lots of surface area?
Meh, nevertheless, my wife still leaves the wet sponge laying in the sink. Absolutely disgusting. However, we've never gotten sick from it, it just smells bad.
Every time this kind of discussion comes up, people tend to favor, mention, or joke about in frighteningly large numbers what is practically eugenics.
Also, in the last 10,000 years, people have generally not reproduced outside of their own race, due to long distance constraints. As such, some racist groups will obviously use this report to show that their group is "superior" in some fashion, with this "science" to prove it.
It's not that we should curtail research because of those problems, but it's something to think about a little more when we start having ideas that coincide with them.
Slashdot Mirror
D'oh, you are correct sir! Still, it's ridiculous.
I realize that, but since political donations are public information, he could easily look up who did/did not donate as he "suggested." I don't think it'd hold up in court.
That's illegal, I believe. You're not allowed to give money to other people to give to a political campaign. Even a hint of telling them to do so. Pretty much, you go to jail for this shit.
It reminds me of a guy at work (non-management) who said, "I don't know why [our company] and [main rivalry company] don't just say to each other let's not bid against each other." That sounds good too, but it'd also be collusion, and highly illegal.
Alas, it'd be nice if companies could not donate at all, but that still would not solve the problem. Although I'd say that wealthy CEOs and Presidents of companies might not have as much of an impact, or have much sway as the corporation as a whole.
Did those millions donate to him for that expressed purpose? No, they donated because of his "change" appearance. There were no strings attached. Besides, I think he'll lose many voters over that issue anyway.
What I'm talking about isn't just the President, as that position is so mired in politics that it's impossible to know what's going on anymore, but having a real influence on those with lower positions in government, but in some ways just as much power. There's 435 members of the House, 100 of the Senate. If people assert their opinion during the entire term of the Rep, and not just during the blow-smoke-up-my-ass election year, with an asserted promise that they will receive both money and a better consideration come election time, they will actually think about what they are doing.
I looked at my 4 month old daughter this morning and thought, "There are patents made before she was born that will not expire until after her average life expectancy is up." This is how broken the system is, slanted away from the rights of individuals. The US is still better in most respects than any other country, but it's still been slipping in the wrong direction. This can be our real chance to make a difference.
Obviously we need another way to fun politicians then. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court gave businesses the rights of citizens, which in this case facilitates a de facto oligarchy.
The only solution, in my mind, would be for individuals to outnumber the businesses in their influence on Washington. There are only a few ways we have of influencing our representitives: Vote, Send money, campaign. What we need is a solution that combines those traits and organizes the real populace. I.E. a popular PAC.
What I'd like to see someone create is a website where an individual could in essence bribe their own representative by promising to donate $xx.xx if they vote correctly on a certain issue, promise that they will remember that vote (reminded by said website when election time comes), and that the general issue will be talked about/watched by that individual in the future. Imagine a House member receiving a message that they would receive $50,000 for their campaign in 3 years and that 5000 people will remember this particular vote when election times come around. Normally, they'd expect everyone to have forgotten the issue by that time, and not vote according to how the people think is best. Of course the site/PAC/whatever would have to be independent of party affiliation and open to both sides of every issue. Individuals can't be expected to watch every bill, so they'd have to be able to filter out what to watch for, and how votes are handled. Also, other PACs could use the site's infrastructure for payments or subscribing their own reviews of bills (a gargantuan effort as it is).
This would all be akin to the Ron Paul effort, where individuals showed a great resolve. On the presidential level, perhaps that effort wasn't great enough. But imagine influencing Representatives in the House or on State levels. Truly, some gains could be made there.
There may be something already like this, and it'd be difficult to manage, but it's the best idea I've had to correct many wrongs we've seen recently.
Thank you for telling people their idea is stupid. Sometimes they need it, the uneducated louts.
Now, I think NASA is overlooking a completely obvious and fooldproof solution. Problem: they have frozen pipes. They're also near the Sun. A quick flyby of the sun for some warmth, and they're good to go! However, if I remember my science classes correctly, they have to keep the pass under a certain speed, or they run into problems with humpback whales.
I only recently switched to 2.x, and then tried 3.x. Seriously, you'll think it's being Vistafied/KDE 4.0'd. Blech.
I too have been pissed at what Congressmen, Senators, and the President to to sell their votes, compromise their ethics and other ballyhoo. Lobbyists in my opinion have too much power in governments. Even businesses can donate to campaigns, as they're considered a "personage" these days. Which is precisely why we need something to directly counter them, step by step, for every bill and law.
We need a site, call it BribeCongress.com, where individuals using Paypal or other accounts can effectively tell their Congressman, "If you vote for this bill the way I agree with, I will donate $X.XX to your campaign fund. I will also remember this exact vote when election time comes around." This would impact the representative in three distinct ways. 1.) He would have a financial incentive, which could be substantial depending on the amount pledged among all people, 2.) He would have a financial backing from someone other than himself, lobbyists' friends, and the rich, and 3.) He will know that the voter will be reminded and remember his vote on that bill, even if it's 5 years until the elections.
I'm a big fan of putting power back into the hands of the people, but alas like many others, I just don't have the time to implement something like this. IANAL, but I'm thinking that it'd at least be legal if it's non-profit and the individuals who contribute meet campaign finance rules.
I understand, my in-laws often watch for vanity plate humor. If we saw "IT DRM" they wouldn't understand, and I'd probably rotfl.
So your beemer buddy sounds like a total winner to boot.
My DRM was coincidence, sort of. It looks like they send a batch of plates to each area, which means that I see a lot of DRM #### plates in the area, along with another letter combination or two.
My license place has DRM on it, which offends me almost as much as the real stuff. Thankfully it's sitting in my garage where my house number is 404, so no one sees it anyway.
Exactly. The only ways this could possibly work is not if they're introducing energy, but changing the air/fuel mixture or changing the way combustion occurs with different fuels.
The only problem is when you start looking at your emissions. A leaner mixture will provide more NOx, for example. It's something that requires scientific evaluation, which is why I tried to find patents and scholarly investigations.
For replying this high. But, I have people at work who aren't complete idiots who use a similar method and have claimed mpg benefits. Being the geek I am, I claimed hogwash at first, then thought through it. BTW, the site he used was Water4gas.com which is only pawning a book, not an actual product (genius!)
The basic premise is that by pulling "free" energy from the alternator, you crack H20 into H2 and O2, then reintroduce them together back into the air intake via a crude nozzle. The site/book's author does not understand why this "works" but claims that the gasoline is "more potent" in some way. This is apparently the "new science." Ugh.
So anyway, I did some looking around and first found out that all the sites found with "water4gas scam" are scripted posts about how it could be a scam, but "you should buy the book anyway to figure it out!" Is this fraud I thought? Maybe, but I decided to look further anyway, and found a patent! and found a patent! Holy crapola! However, the cynic in me knows that a patent doesn't mean that something works, so I looked further. Then I found there is some actual research on the subject of H introduction to gasoline environments. However, I can't look at it because I'm not willing to pay money.
So can anyone figure out if this is a bunch of crap as I suspect (initiating my gloating), or are my gullible co-workers correct (initiating my apologies).
Class of '99, but I think this was taught in 6th grade history. My teacher had a few scraggly hairs hanging from her chin, but damn did I absorb a lot that year.
I think most of what's taught now is how the mills were so dangerous and demeaning to women and children who worked there. Oh society, how I loathe thy fickle nature!
They're trying to not spend as much on bandwidth. It's basic business: their bandwidth is a cost and they want to lower that cost.
What I don't understand is why they don't go to an individually tiered model. Your first 5 or 10GB are at their normal, or even higher, speed, (5Mb/512kb here) and the rest after that are at a fraction of that, but still high speed. Perhaps 1Mb/256kb. Those speeds alone would limit egregious down/uploaders to a more reasonable level, while still being able to operate normally.
When I was in school, we were taught about Francis Cabot Lowell, who heroically copied machine plans in England to use in the US for textile mills.
England was so worried that their monopoly on their mill technology would be taken that they would search ships, cargo and passenger for hidden plans.
Fortunately for the US, Lowell memorized the plans and was able to build his own plants in the New World. His business was the beginning of the industrialization of the New World. Without which, the United States would have continued to be merely agrarian in nature. Does anyone know if they still teach this lesson in gradeschools, or was it killed when they started teaching kids to respect copyrights more?
"Um, aren't Atoms all single core?"
Christianity isn't a race, if you didn't already know. When I go to church, I see caucasians, blacks, hispanics, asians, Indians, and more. To not believe in other religions isn't racism, it's just believing in your own.
By your logic, a Communist preaching that they will conquer and rule the entire world is also racist.
Exactly. If you were to continue on Lastminute.com's train of thought, they own how their trademark is used in the wild public, and in information conglomeration (search engines, phone books, dictionaries, etc). As such, Google should blank out any trademarked search outright, unless the trademarkee pays up. So, if you were to search for "Coke", no results should come up unless Coca-Cola bought that search space. If that were the case, I'm thinking they'd stop bitching so much real quick.
I propose that we call this bill the "Anti-Consumer" bill. Maybe the media would pick up on something that seems a bit more sinister and threatening. After all fear seems to be their calling card these days.
A Domestic Passport. Calling it that seems to get peoples' attention more when debating the topic.
So far, I've actually met a couple people who are big fans of Real ID, and it frankly scares me.
We'll use soybeans for diesel, silly!
First, that post was one of the best I've seen in a while about ethanol. However..
and it doesn't factor in energy used for the planting, care, or harvest
It does, as that energy is already included in the entire country's energy usage. I also agree that other forms of ethanol production can possibly be much better than this corn-derived method. At least the corn method creates some real world distribution and usage, possibly leading to wider usage.
How is that different from straws and containers with lots of surface area?
Meh, nevertheless, my wife still leaves the wet sponge laying in the sink. Absolutely disgusting. However, we've never gotten sick from it, it just smells bad.
Every time this kind of discussion comes up, people tend to favor, mention, or joke about in frighteningly large numbers what is practically eugenics.
Also, in the last 10,000 years, people have generally not reproduced outside of their own race, due to long distance constraints. As such, some racist groups will obviously use this report to show that their group is "superior" in some fashion, with this "science" to prove it.
It's not that we should curtail research because of those problems, but it's something to think about a little more when we start having ideas that coincide with them.