Anyone offered dot-com style money for what is purely and simply a dot-com business should take it and run. Period.
Just like all the old dot-com bankrupts who no-one ever speaks of these days, facebook (and friends) have no real business model (advertising offers only a pitifully small revenue stream) and no guarentee that someone else isn't going to come along and steal all there users away long before the company starts actually making a profit.
Like the guy's letter says, it is amazing how the dot.com bubble is forming again so soon and looks so identical. I bet it's even the same secretive stockbrokers and equity fund managers making the money before it all crashes again.
Besides, what I think is funny is that people buy the crap printed on some of those urban legends websites. I'm not denying the reality behind the NASA pen story but it's a bit like that "Bullshit" program, in the quest to deny everything, many truths are over-simplistically stated as myths.
"Correlation does not equal causation. [...] There may be some kind of link there, but I bet that other factors are more influential." yada yada yada, I think I know everything!
I can't stand posts like this. You obviously have not read the academic report and therefor your conclusion about its fallacy are completely worthless. I have not read the actual report either but to hear you make an instant "it's probably due to this other factor" summary about something you have obviously not even read is infuriating!
The primary task of academic studies is to identify the true reason for an observed correlation. Every researcher knows that "Correlation does not equal causation" and the fact that the report has been published in a respected journal means for definate that the researchers have taken steps to ensure other obvious factors - like the ones you mention - are accounted for.
It is slightly beside the point though because the study noticed a drop in 'cognitive function' in obese people, not IQ. Cognitive function most certainly is significant, albeit specifically to the function measured (which in this case was primarily arthmimetic and vocabulary). It was only the reporting newspaper which introduced IQ, probably for the benefit of dumber/fatter readers.
"Noting that ball-point pens rely on gravity in order to function, the USA spent over 12 million dollars on developing a range of Nitrogen-pressurized ball-point pens which would work in a zero gravity enviroment. The Russians on the other-hand just spent 50 cents on a box of pencils"
I knew there was something behind all those "dumb American" jokes. Please reply with your best ones!
I think it's fine for the prospective parent to establish such a strong bond with their hopefully soon to be born child, if they want to informally call it their son or daugther then it's up to them. But when the media and in particular the law start refering (often through implication) to unborn fetus's as if they're living, breathing, sentinent children then the emotional bond has been taken way too far.
Millions of people have strong emotional bonds with their dog, but if someone killed them virtually no-one would claim that was murder despite many people (especially childless couples) refering to their dogs as their "children". The law is meant to be totally rational and to not be bullied by emotion, lately though it seems, in the battle for votes, many DA's and politicians are willing to ignore the barrier.
Sure it is all circumstancial evidence that probably wouldn't stand up in court, but the statistics simply show that, given the situation, it is an almost certainty that he was involved (particuarly considering some of the details). The Police would be irresponsable not to arrest him.
Ofcourse, he could always try chuck an OJ Simpson and hope all the jury are opens source software users!
Do you actually know what cluster bombs are? They are bombs which - while high up in the air - detonate a small charge which shoot out hundreds of even thousands of smaller bombs which reign down over a large area. Yes they are carried by the wind somewhat and they definatly will kill "friend, foe, and neutral alike" but then so will any bomb so I don't understand what you mean by that. They are called "cluster" bombs because they contain a "cluster" of bomblets, not because they detonate close by each other, they are specifically designed to do the exact opposite with many capable of dispersing over an area of several thousand feet, which is greater than the predicted area of effect of the chemical weapons that were likely used during the Iran-Iraq war.
Although it's well known he had chemical weapons back in the 1980's I don't think they can really be called Weapons of Mass Destruction. Sure, theres a ton of evidence that he killed many tens of thousands with them, but individually, the chemical shells probably didn't kill as many as our own daisy-cutters and cluster bombs can kill. So if you call Saddam's old chemical weapons WMDS, then it means we have been dropping hundreds of WMDS in Afghanistan and Iraq which kind of makes a mockery of any ethical arguement for the wars (if there even was one).
It is all about the exchange rate. 1 British pound = 2 U.S. Dollars, 1 Euro = 1.5 U.S. Dollars. My measily £20,000 salary in London (which is pretty damn low for a graduate in London) = $40,000 in U.S. dollars, I don't know a single recently graduated mate back in Florida on anything near that (and most of them have far better jobs than I).
To over-simplify things somewhat, the exchange rate disparity is largely due to the high minimum wages of European countries. But this also obviously means that people in the 'decent' European countries on average get paid far more (equivilantly) than any other nation.
Those currency exchanged prices are pretty misleading though.
Here in Europe we tend to get paid a heck of a lot more than in the US and Japan which is why the exchange rate schews the figures so much. I remember moving to London from florida and thinking everything was soo expensive while I still converted everything back into U.S. dollars (1 British Pound = almost 2 U.S. dollars). Then I got my first paycheck and when I converted that back into U.S. dollars I felt like a very rich man!
Although with winter approaching, I'm kind of missing Florida a bit atm.
"From what I understand, DNA testing labs are already at/near max capacity." Here in the UK where the research is being pioneered (but I persume it is the same for everywhere,) a large part of the reason for this is that so many DNA sources are contaminated, which means lots more testing for labs, which means capacity is reached sooner.
So yes, it could make a huge difference. It is not expensive to test for DNA, it is expensive to test every single item possibly touched by the offender. If this technique means fewer items need testing then effectively it is a cheaper DNA testing method.
Then again, DNA testing labs will still be at max. capacity, it just means they will be able to use the techniques on crimes of lesser severity.
The issue is complicated though by the fact that, like pretty much all countries, the UK does not have an even population distribution but rather it has some extremely densely populated areas (e.g. London and the South East) and some extremely sparsely populated areas (like North Wales and North Scotland, where the pop. density is well below the U.S. average).
I don't know where abouts you live, but in the south-east the country is definatly over-populated. Traditional small villages and the inhabitants' way of life is being destroyed by the constant demand for new houses. Local people are being pushed out of the small villages by the millions of high earning London'ers whose high saleries enable them to out-purchase locals for that 'quaint country lifestyle' while they commute 30 miles a day to work. It is a real issue here that the country way of life in the South-east of England is being destroyed and turned into American sytle Suburbia rather than collections of small communities as has existed for thousands of years.
I just pray that this doesn't happen to the rest of the country. I know that not all Americans want to live in Suburbia also, I spent a great 6 months living in a small country town, surrounded by people who hated the idea amongst millions of identical houses. The risk always remains for everywhere though that with increasing population coupled with increasing standards of living, that large patches of a country can be easily turned into suburbia, forever destroying the enviroment and the way of life that once existed there.
Their website does not list it because it is not available yet! The BBC has a story on it citing a Tesco public statement.
From the bbc article http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5396488.stm "Tesco is to launch a range of budget own-brand PC software, in a move that will pitch the grocery giant against the likes of Microsoft and Symantec."
i.e. They will soon be releasing it, when it's released, I'm sure it will be on their website.
Sacrifice was an amazing game due largely to its originality. It had obviously been developed along a "this would be a really cool feature, lets put it in" and "no-ones done that before, so lets try it", rather than the usual corporate, EA Games style "we wan't a game for genre X, if the feature isn't symbolic of genre X, chuck it out!" and "this won't port well to the X-Box/Playstation so chuck it out!".
All their games had a strong element of creativity and originality in them. Surprisingly, they were all quite bug-free and featured pretty cutting-edge (although thankfully scalable) graphics also.
If only they had a large marketing budget, then I think millions of people would have a lot more favourable view on computer games.
Your ignoring all the signals that Microsoft are keen to themselves become a mainstream media content provider. They already are to some extent with MSNBC. But there are many signals that they want to expand more into the media producing content over the next decade (in a manner reminiscant of SONY), which will mean they have a direct incentive (let alone the ample indirect incentive already mentioned of wanting to appease current media companies) to place DRM over that of consumers' statutory rights.
Sweden also have amongst the highest HDI (Human Development Index) in the world. HDI is basically the U.N.'s measure of wuality of life based on Health, Education, lack of Crime, lack of poverty etc. Sweden and it's North European neighbours are always jostling for the top spot.
I suppose your right. Most of the fundamentalist style decisions made that I can think of off the top of my head do seem opportunistic rather than idealistic.
"Realistically, taxation itself discourages hard work, education and wise investing, if we follow your line of thought."
This neo-con line is kind of disproven though by the fact that the Scandinavian countries (along with much of northern Europe) are always at the very top end of producitvity per capita and GDP per capita indexes despite having amongst the proportionally highest taxation rates in the world (often around 50% for many). As a result of the high taxation though they also get to be at the very top of the living standard's indexes.
"Alcohol, tobacco & gambling are the trifecta of 'sin' activities that are taxed."
Whatever happened to the USA being a secular government? The way the entire online gambling discussion is given such a priority in the federal government, despite being extremely trivial compared to the many more important issues facing the USA, shows that the fundamentalists are still in control.
"I don't think gambling needs to be abolished because it is, in fact, fun for people. In moderation, it probably makes you feel good -- just like drinking or tobacco."
The Alcohol and Tobacco industries arn't built on a central pillar of trying to effectively con people out of money though. Sure, it can make people happier but to sustain the industry it is a simple fact that far more people must be made unhappy to make those few happy.
Also, as tobacco is bad, it come with a large amount of health warnings, alcohol should only be drunk in moderation, so tens of millions is spent telling people this. However, I've never seen a poster near or inside a casino saying "despite all our advertising, the chances of you walking out of here with more money than when you came in are extremely small and we will do everything we can to prevent it".
I have never understood why the USA government is so against online gambling. I'm not saying they should or shouldn't allow it but it has always seemed odd to me that when some of the US states have amongst the most liberal gambling laws in the world, the federal government should be so keen on stopping internet gambling.
The sceptic in me wonders if some of the rich US casino owners don't have a hand in this, my only guess is that the casino owners are worried about gamblers using overseas websites in tax-haven countries that offer better odds maybe?
Given the amount of crap on Youtube I think he has a point!
From my many, many hours spent wasting time on youtube I would honestly declare that at least half the clips on Youtube must be of chubby American wanna-be-famous kids looking like idiots while they dance around infront of their webcam to pop songs.
Slashdot Mirror
Anyone offered dot-com style money for what is purely and simply a dot-com business should take it and run. Period.
Just like all the old dot-com bankrupts who no-one ever speaks of these days, facebook (and friends) have no real business model (advertising offers only a pitifully small revenue stream) and no guarentee that someone else isn't going to come along and steal all there users away long before the company starts actually making a profit.
Like the guy's letter says, it is amazing how the dot.com bubble is forming again so soon and looks so identical. I bet it's even the same secretive stockbrokers and equity fund managers making the money before it all crashes again.
Well duh.
It's a joke!!!
God damn, nobody here has any sense of humour.
Besides, what I think is funny is that people buy the crap printed on some of those urban legends websites. I'm not denying the reality behind the NASA pen story but it's a bit like that "Bullshit" program, in the quest to deny everything, many truths are over-simplistically stated as myths.
"Correlation does not equal causation. [...] There may be some kind of link there, but I bet that other factors are more influential." yada yada yada, I think I know everything!
I can't stand posts like this. You obviously have not read the academic report and therefor your conclusion about its fallacy are completely worthless. I have not read the actual report either but to hear you make an instant "it's probably due to this other factor" summary about something you have obviously not even read is infuriating!
The primary task of academic studies is to identify the true reason for an observed correlation. Every researcher knows that "Correlation does not equal causation" and the fact that the report has been published in a respected journal means for definate that the researchers have taken steps to ensure other obvious factors - like the ones you mention - are accounted for.
Indeed, Timothy does oversimplify the matter.
It is slightly beside the point though because the study noticed a drop in 'cognitive function' in obese people, not IQ. Cognitive function most certainly is significant, albeit specifically to the function measured (which in this case was primarily arthmimetic and vocabulary). It was only the reporting newspaper which introduced IQ, probably for the benefit of dumber/fatter readers.
Reminds me of the classic:
"Noting that ball-point pens rely on gravity in order to function, the USA spent over 12 million dollars on developing a range of Nitrogen-pressurized ball-point pens which would work in a zero gravity enviroment. The Russians on the other-hand just spent 50 cents on a box of pencils"
I knew there was something behind all those "dumb American" jokes.
Please reply with your best ones!
"What's a tardis?"
It's obvious why your posting this as an anonymous coward. Everyone knows that such blasphemy would carry an immediate ban for any registered user.
It's like applying for a job at ford and then at the end of the interview asking "what's a car?"
I think it's fine for the prospective parent to establish such a strong bond with their hopefully soon to be born child, if they want to informally call it their son or daugther then it's up to them. But when the media and in particular the law start refering (often through implication) to unborn fetus's as if they're living, breathing, sentinent children then the emotional bond has been taken way too far.
Millions of people have strong emotional bonds with their dog, but if someone killed them virtually no-one would claim that was murder despite many people (especially childless couples) refering to their dogs as their "children". The law is meant to be totally rational and to not be bullied by emotion, lately though it seems, in the battle for votes, many DA's and politicians are willing to ignore the barrier.
"What evidence do they have?"
Sure it is all circumstancial evidence that probably wouldn't stand up in court, but the statistics simply show that, given the situation, it is an almost certainty that he was involved (particuarly considering some of the details). The Police would be irresponsable not to arrest him.
Ofcourse, he could always try chuck an OJ Simpson and hope all the jury are opens source software users!
Do you actually know what cluster bombs are?
They are bombs which - while high up in the air - detonate a small charge which shoot out hundreds of even thousands of smaller bombs which reign down over a large area. Yes they are carried by the wind somewhat and they definatly will kill "friend, foe, and neutral alike" but then so will any bomb so I don't understand what you mean by that. They are called "cluster" bombs because they contain a "cluster" of bomblets, not because they detonate close by each other, they are specifically designed to do the exact opposite with many capable of dispersing over an area of several thousand feet, which is greater than the predicted area of effect of the chemical weapons that were likely used during the Iran-Iraq war.
Although it's well known he had chemical weapons back in the 1980's I don't think they can really be called Weapons of Mass Destruction. Sure, theres a ton of evidence that he killed many tens of thousands with them, but individually, the chemical shells probably didn't kill as many as our own daisy-cutters and cluster bombs can kill. So if you call Saddam's old chemical weapons WMDS, then it means we have been dropping hundreds of WMDS in Afghanistan and Iraq which kind of makes a mockery of any ethical arguement for the wars (if there even was one).
Did you even read my post?
It is all about the exchange rate. 1 British pound = 2 U.S. Dollars, 1 Euro = 1.5 U.S. Dollars. My measily £20,000 salary in London (which is pretty damn low for a graduate in London) = $40,000 in U.S. dollars, I don't know a single recently graduated mate back in Florida on anything near that (and most of them have far better jobs than I).
To over-simplify things somewhat, the exchange rate disparity is largely due to the high minimum wages of European countries. But this also obviously means that people in the 'decent' European countries on average get paid far more (equivilantly) than any other nation.
Those currency exchanged prices are pretty misleading though.
Here in Europe we tend to get paid a heck of a lot more than in the US and Japan which is why the exchange rate schews the figures so much. I remember moving to London from florida and thinking everything was soo expensive while I still converted everything back into U.S. dollars (1 British Pound = almost 2 U.S. dollars). Then I got my first paycheck and when I converted that back into U.S. dollars I felt like a very rich man!
Although with winter approaching, I'm kind of missing Florida a bit atm.
"From what I understand, DNA testing labs are already at/near max capacity."
Here in the UK where the research is being pioneered (but I persume it is the same for everywhere,) a large part of the reason for this is that so many DNA sources are contaminated, which means lots more testing for labs, which means capacity is reached sooner.
So yes, it could make a huge difference. It is not expensive to test for DNA, it is expensive to test every single item possibly touched by the offender. If this technique means fewer items need testing then effectively it is a cheaper DNA testing method.
Then again, DNA testing labs will still be at max. capacity, it just means they will be able to use the techniques on crimes of lesser severity.
The issue is complicated though by the fact that, like pretty much all countries, the UK does not have an even population distribution but rather it has some extremely densely populated areas (e.g. London and the South East) and some extremely sparsely populated areas (like North Wales and North Scotland, where the pop. density is well below the U.S. average).
I don't know where abouts you live, but in the south-east the country is definatly over-populated. Traditional small villages and the inhabitants' way of life is being destroyed by the constant demand for new houses. Local people are being pushed out of the small villages by the millions of high earning London'ers whose high saleries enable them to out-purchase locals for that 'quaint country lifestyle' while they commute 30 miles a day to work. It is a real issue here that the country way of life in the South-east of England is being destroyed and turned into American sytle Suburbia rather than collections of small communities as has existed for thousands of years.
I just pray that this doesn't happen to the rest of the country. I know that not all Americans want to live in Suburbia also, I spent a great 6 months living in a small country town, surrounded by people who hated the idea amongst millions of identical houses. The risk always remains for everywhere though that with increasing population coupled with increasing standards of living, that large patches of a country can be easily turned into suburbia, forever destroying the enviroment and the way of life that once existed there.
Their website does not list it because it is not available yet!
The BBC has a story on it citing a Tesco public statement.
From the bbc article http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5396488.stm
"Tesco is to launch a range of budget own-brand PC software, in a move that will pitch the grocery giant against the likes of Microsoft and Symantec."
i.e. They will soon be releasing it, when it's released, I'm sure it will be on their website.
I'd have to agree 100%
/Playstation so chuck it out!".
Sacrifice was an amazing game due largely to its originality. It had obviously been developed along a "this would be a really cool feature, lets put it in" and "no-ones done that before, so lets try it", rather than the usual corporate, EA Games style "we wan't a game for genre X, if the feature isn't symbolic of genre X, chuck it out!" and "this won't port well to the X-Box
All their games had a strong element of creativity and originality in them. Surprisingly, they were all quite bug-free and featured pretty cutting-edge (although thankfully scalable) graphics also.
If only they had a large marketing budget, then I think millions of people would have a lot more favourable view on computer games.
Your ignoring all the signals that Microsoft are keen to themselves become a mainstream media content provider. They already are to some extent with MSNBC. But there are many signals that they want to expand more into the media producing content over the next decade (in a manner reminiscant of SONY), which will mean they have a direct incentive (let alone the ample indirect incentive already mentioned of wanting to appease current media companies) to place DRM over that of consumers' statutory rights.
"Unless this is a feature that works via IMEI number and uses some specialist software at the service provider's end..."
Which it does...
Sweden also have amongst the highest HDI (Human Development Index) in the world. HDI is basically the U.N.'s measure of wuality of life based on Health, Education, lack of Crime, lack of poverty etc. Sweden and it's North European neighbours are always jostling for the top spot.
_ Human_Development_Index (UN HDI Rankings)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by
I suppose your right. Most of the fundamentalist style decisions made that I can think of off the top of my head do seem opportunistic rather than idealistic.
I guess thats a good thing. Just.
"Realistically, taxation itself discourages hard work, education and wise investing, if we follow your line of thought."
_ GDP_(nominal)_per_capita - GDP (nominal) index per capita_ Human_Development_Index - HDI index (standard of living)
:)
This neo-con line is kind of disproven though by the fact that the Scandinavian countries (along with much of northern Europe) are always at the very top end of producitvity per capita and GDP per capita indexes despite having amongst the proportionally highest taxation rates in the world (often around 50% for many). As a result of the high taxation though they also get to be at the very top of the living standard's indexes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by
It's just a pity they all have such crappy climates!
"Alcohol, tobacco & gambling are the trifecta of 'sin' activities that are taxed."
Whatever happened to the USA being a secular government?
The way the entire online gambling discussion is given such a priority in the federal government, despite being extremely trivial compared to the many more important issues facing the USA, shows that the fundamentalists are still in control.
"I don't think gambling needs to be abolished because it is, in fact, fun for people. In moderation, it probably makes you feel good -- just like drinking or tobacco."
The Alcohol and Tobacco industries arn't built on a central pillar of trying to effectively con people out of money though. Sure, it can make people happier but to sustain the industry it is a simple fact that far more people must be made unhappy to make those few happy.
Also, as tobacco is bad, it come with a large amount of health warnings, alcohol should only be drunk in moderation, so tens of millions is spent telling people this. However, I've never seen a poster near or inside a casino saying "despite all our advertising, the chances of you walking out of here with more money than when you came in are extremely small and we will do everything we can to prevent it".
I have never understood why the USA government is so against online gambling. I'm not saying they should or shouldn't allow it but it has always seemed odd to me that when some of the US states have amongst the most liberal gambling laws in the world, the federal government should be so keen on stopping internet gambling.
The sceptic in me wonders if some of the rich US casino owners don't have a hand in this, my only guess is that the casino owners are worried about gamblers using overseas websites in tax-haven countries that offer better odds maybe?
Given the amount of crap on Youtube I think he has a point!
From my many, many hours spent wasting time on youtube I would honestly declare that at least half the clips on Youtube must be of chubby American wanna-be-famous kids looking like idiots while they dance around infront of their webcam to pop songs.