What are truly ridiculous are your examples. I grant that these scenarios may be possible, and perhaps all of them have occurred at some point in time, but you've covered about 0.001% of all artists there. I have 2 CDs from a band consisting of 2 people who essentially recorded the CDs in a basement studio, then released the MP3s on MP3.com back when it was free and interesting. http://www.fnpmusic.com/
You're missing the point. Some bands just aren't touring bands, like the Beatles post 1966. They continued to produce great music after they stopped touring (Sgt Pepper, Abbey Road, Let It Be...).
A more modern band may not tour for several reasons. Perhaps they don't gig because he lives in New Zealand, the singer's in London, and the guitarist lives in LA. To make a track, each musician lays down a track and FTPs it to their server, where the next guy downloads it to add his part. Should they be denied the right to make money for their music?
Another example is one or two guys hanging out in a basement studio who lay down six or seven instruments worth of music. Yeah, they could go on tour and play their one or two instruments live while flying in the rest, but I'd feel robbed if that's what I saw for a $20 dollar ticket. Plus, many audiences want to see same band live as they hear on the CD. They could take the huge financial risk of hiring a band, teaching them the music, quitting their day jobs, and doing everything live, but why not just sell the CDs, keep their day jobs, and make enough money to cover the cost of the studio?
Another example is a supergroup or a collaboration where the various members only have enough availability to be in the same place at the same time for one week to create the album, then they have to go to their regular bands.
There is no shortage of reasons that a band may not tour.
I'm not talking about a 95 year copyright being reasonable (it's not), but to say that a band should make all its money by gigging is ridiculous.
musical artists make their scratch from concerts, not album sales. So the Beatles didn't make a dime after their last concert in 1966?
Album sales are the sole source of income for many bands that don't tour. Lots of bands and artists that rely on heavy studio production can't effectively take their show on the road and live on album sales alone.
There are a few thing to consider before dismissing biofuels entirely.
First, this study states that the break even point is 93 years. That's a reasonable timeframe when assessing anthropogenic global warming. Most of the time, the warming potential of gasses is measured using a 100 year potential. As a long term investment, biofuels still pay off.
Second, the study looks at corn as a fuel. Nobody except Iowans and pandering politicians think corn is a good biofuel. The technology for cellulosic ethanol is just around the corner. Biodiesel far more energy efficient than ethanol. Sugar is a far more viable alternative than corn, where it will grow.
Finally, it looks like the study considers only a monoculture. Multiple crops on the same area of land is more efficient. Of course, far too much of our agriculture is monoculture.
MTBE really took off when the Clean Air Act mandated a certain oxygen content in gasoline. It's primarily known as an oxygenate, not an anti-knock agent. Six of one, half a dozen of another, I know, but it's referred to as an oxygenate more than as an octane enhancer.
There are other oxygenates I used to analyze for in a lab: tert-butanol (TBA), diisopropyl ether (DIPE), ethyl tert butyl ether (ETBE), tert amyl methyl ether (TAME), methanol, and ethanol.
What you'll notice is that there is no lack of other potential oxygenates, including methanol. We don't have to have ethanol as an oxygenate, but it is an option.
Another minor nitpick is that MTBE doesn't concentrate in water. It's very soluble in water, but it's even more soluble in gasoline, meaning you can't extract (concentrate) it with water. The real environmental threat of MTBE is its mobility. It's far more soluble in water than benzene, the most hazardous component of gasoline. It also moves through groundwater faster, meaning the MTBE plume will move ahead of the benzene plume even if they start in the same place at the same concentration.
There are several reasons for corn subsidies. Some are better than others.
A good reason is that subsidies insure a stable food supply. This is part of the reason the grain crops like corn and wheat receive large subsidies while "specialty" agriculture like fruits and vegetables don't receive a proportional share. The nation could feed itself without the fruits and vegetables of California and Florida, but we wouldn't last long without the bread from the breadbasket. The current subsidy system could be better managed in this respect, but it is a good reason.
A bad reason is the perceived importance of Iowa in the presidential primaries. Even GW "Big Oil" Bush is pro corn ethanol. No presidential nominee would dare say that we should cut back on corn subsidies.
What I'm saying is that chelation is at least build on a proven idea. It may not be the best treatment for ethyl mercury poisoning (I'm not a doctor), but it's not complete quackery.
Colloidal silver is complete quackery. Bunk. Garbage.
And Smurfy, apparently.
Given that the folks shrieking the loudest about the thimerosal-autism 'link' (as if a single study that's since been discredited many, many times can be called a 'link') tend to be parents of autistic children who also tend to go in for bogus new-age nonsense like 'chelation' and 'collodial silver' treatments, I don't think the whole nonsense is quite over yet. While colloidal silver is bunk, there is some reason to think http://www.webmd.com/balance/tc/chelation-therapy-topic-overviewchelation has some value. It's only proven effective for lead, and may have been useful in a case of americanium poisoning, but at least it's not complete snake oil.
Agreed on the Ys. I still remember a lot of the tracks from Ys the Vanished Omens. It's amazing what they managed on the 8-bit Sega Master System. It's too bad not more than three people in the USA owned that game.
We (Nevadans) have been proposing better solutions for a long time: store it somewhere else. Yucca is a bad site. The only reason waste it was chosen for the waste site is that we were politically impotent in 1987 when the "Screw Nevada" bill passed, virtually guaranteeing that Yucca would be the disposal site no matter what the evaluations said. Four other potential sites (granite formations in the northeast, salt formations in the southwest, Hanford Washington, and Deaf Smith Texas) were removed from consideration for political reasons.
Negative evaluations by the EPA have been ignored and the DOE and NRC are in charge of the evaluation. The DOE and NRC will directly benefit when a site is chosen. The fox is watching the henhouse.
Most of Nevada, including Yucca, is a geologically active area. Scientist can't determine conclusively if the water table at Yucca has always been lower than the planned storage depth.
My constructive solution: evaluate other locations. In 1987, Congress handed the DOE a list of potential storage locations and told them to pick the best one. That list:
1) Yucca Mountain, NV- 4 paltry electoral votes and two inexperienced senators
I'm in Nevada, and you are not required to choose a political party. If you are non-affiliated, you cannot vote in the party primaries, but are allowed to participate in non-partisan primaries.
I don't think Slashdot is entirley responsible for this test being slashdotted. I checked it a few hours ago, before it was linked on Slashdot, after listening to the story on NPR and it was having trouble then.
Very good points. I sometimes forget just how regulated the industry can be, even through I know an engineer there.
You say Nevada might not allow a Nevada company to make its voting machines, but is there such a law on the books in any state? It's ridiculous that slot machines are more regulated than voting machines, though I find some comfort that voting machines can be done correctly.
The strange things is that the biggest slot machine manufacturer (IGT) isn't involved in the design of the system. That's acomforting as a Nevada resident because of the pull IGT has.
It's good to know my vote will be handled correctly.
The FBI doesn't have to justify searches under the PATRIOT ACT with terrorism. If they can apply it to a corruption probe into a strip club owner in Vegas, a gurantee in the Intelligence Authorization Act that it would only be used to combat terrorism wouldn't make me feel any better.
They may have actually been attacked, but at least they still look like the news grubbing idiots they are. As the Cadia article points out, it was a SYN attack. From earlier today, SYN attacks are very easy to defend with even the most basic systems.
Again, even when SCO shows a shred of the truth, it only reveals they're either incompetent or unethical.
I'm a huge fan, but I thought the show was great because it capitalized on innovations of previous shows. It took old ideas and made them better, like Blizzard does for computer games.
The one big innovation I noticed was the heavy use of handheld cameras and the way they were able to move through the sets.
Of course, as I read through the hype of the Battlestar Galactiga remake, I couldn't help but think that almost every one of their innovations appeared in Firefly.
I was going through the list. I've heard of most of these games and played more than a few of them. Then I got to this:
HOBBY GAMES--RPGs
My Life with Master
As An RPG fan, let me say one thing: What the fuck? I hadn't even heard of this game until today. I've gone and looked at a couple sources and I can't find much of a following. The mechanics look a little different, but they're hardly as groundbreaking as something like Amber, which uses no dice at all. It may be a good take on a specific genre, but My Life With Master shouldn't be on the list.
You're probably correct; the bugs are there to get rid of U because it's toxic. I did my senior design project on U removal from drinking water. The stuff poses a much greater threat as a heavy metal than as a radioactive atom when injected. The microbes wouldn't do anything to the atomic structure of the atoms, and hence do nothing to reduce radiation, but making it insoluble removes it from drinking water and makes it less mobile.
This is still the antichrist, though. Definitionally, it eradicates blue notes, bends, and fun pitch effects -- what does it do to glissandos?
Good point. I'm also interested if the technology is or can be programed for non-standard scales (i.e. whole note scale, chromatic, etc.).
Additionaly, this technology will play the incorrect note if the input is more than a quarter step off. Granted, that's pretty bad for a pro musician, but I can see it happen in a concert setting. Any stray noise picked up by the mic can realy screw with the sound and make the proper note dificult to determine.
On the other hand, this type of technology had been around for a while. Guitar synths have been around a while, and they do similar things for a guitar. They're now advanced enough that they're built into pocket sized multi effects boxes. They can be a lot of fun and sound good in music.
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I also own 2 CDs by a supergroup who have never toured together. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_Tension_Experiment
While these bands may be the minority, these are just 2 examples in the very small genre of progressive rock.
A more modern band may not tour for several reasons. Perhaps they don't gig because he lives in New Zealand, the singer's in London, and the guitarist lives in LA. To make a track, each musician lays down a track and FTPs it to their server, where the next guy downloads it to add his part. Should they be denied the right to make money for their music?
Another example is one or two guys hanging out in a basement studio who lay down six or seven instruments worth of music. Yeah, they could go on tour and play their one or two instruments live while flying in the rest, but I'd feel robbed if that's what I saw for a $20 dollar ticket. Plus, many audiences want to see same band live as they hear on the CD. They could take the huge financial risk of hiring a band, teaching them the music, quitting their day jobs, and doing everything live, but why not just sell the CDs, keep their day jobs, and make enough money to cover the cost of the studio?
Another example is a supergroup or a collaboration where the various members only have enough availability to be in the same place at the same time for one week to create the album, then they have to go to their regular bands.
There is no shortage of reasons that a band may not tour.
I'm not talking about a 95 year copyright being reasonable (it's not), but to say that a band should make all its money by gigging is ridiculous.
Album sales are the sole source of income for many bands that don't tour. Lots of bands and artists that rely on heavy studio production can't effectively take their show on the road and live on album sales alone.
There are a few thing to consider before dismissing biofuels entirely.
First, this study states that the break even point is 93 years. That's a reasonable timeframe when assessing anthropogenic global warming. Most of the time, the warming potential of gasses is measured using a 100 year potential. As a long term investment, biofuels still pay off.
Second, the study looks at corn as a fuel. Nobody except Iowans and pandering politicians think corn is a good biofuel. The technology for cellulosic ethanol is just around the corner. Biodiesel far more energy efficient than ethanol. Sugar is a far more viable alternative than corn, where it will grow.
Finally, it looks like the study considers only a monoculture. Multiple crops on the same area of land is more efficient. Of course, far too much of our agriculture is monoculture.
I loved System Shock 2, so it's no surprise I liked Bioshock. Nearly every element of Bioshock was the direct descendant of an aspect of System Shock.
Like I said, I liked Bioshock, but it's hardly innovative.
There are other oxygenates I used to analyze for in a lab: tert-butanol (TBA), diisopropyl ether (DIPE), ethyl tert butyl ether (ETBE), tert amyl methyl ether (TAME), methanol, and ethanol.
What you'll notice is that there is no lack of other potential oxygenates, including methanol. We don't have to have ethanol as an oxygenate, but it is an option.
Another minor nitpick is that MTBE doesn't concentrate in water. It's very soluble in water, but it's even more soluble in gasoline, meaning you can't extract (concentrate) it with water. The real environmental threat of MTBE is its mobility. It's far more soluble in water than benzene, the most hazardous component of gasoline. It also moves through groundwater faster, meaning the MTBE plume will move ahead of the benzene plume even if they start in the same place at the same concentration.
There are several reasons for corn subsidies. Some are better than others. A good reason is that subsidies insure a stable food supply. This is part of the reason the grain crops like corn and wheat receive large subsidies while "specialty" agriculture like fruits and vegetables don't receive a proportional share. The nation could feed itself without the fruits and vegetables of California and Florida, but we wouldn't last long without the bread from the breadbasket. The current subsidy system could be better managed in this respect, but it is a good reason. A bad reason is the perceived importance of Iowa in the presidential primaries. Even GW "Big Oil" Bush is pro corn ethanol. No presidential nominee would dare say that we should cut back on corn subsidies.
What I'm saying is that chelation is at least build on a proven idea. It may not be the best treatment for ethyl mercury poisoning (I'm not a doctor), but it's not complete quackery. Colloidal silver is complete quackery. Bunk. Garbage. And Smurfy, apparently.
Agreed on the Ys. I still remember a lot of the tracks from Ys the Vanished Omens. It's amazing what they managed on the 8-bit Sega Master System. It's too bad not more than three people in the USA owned that game.
Negative evaluations by the EPA have been ignored and the DOE and NRC are in charge of the evaluation. The DOE and NRC will directly benefit when a site is chosen. The fox is watching the henhouse.
Most of Nevada, including Yucca, is a geologically active area. Scientist can't determine conclusively if the water table at Yucca has always been lower than the planned storage depth.
My constructive solution: evaluate other locations. In 1987, Congress handed the DOE a list of potential storage locations and told them to pick the best one. That list:
1) Yucca Mountain, NV- 4 paltry electoral votes and two inexperienced senators
That's no method to choose the best solution.
I'm in Nevada, and you are not required to choose a political party. If you are non-affiliated, you cannot vote in the party primaries, but are allowed to participate in non-partisan primaries.
I don't think Slashdot is entirley responsible for this test being slashdotted. I checked it a few hours ago, before it was linked on Slashdot, after listening to the story on NPR and it was having trouble then.
If you rule out non-participating candidates, you will get a list that will show candidates that you don't agree with.
You say Nevada might not allow a Nevada company to make its voting machines, but is there such a law on the books in any state? It's ridiculous that slot machines are more regulated than voting machines, though I find some comfort that voting machines can be done correctly.
It's good to know my vote will be handled correctly.
The FBI doesn't have to justify searches under the PATRIOT ACT with terrorism. If they can apply it to a corruption probe into a strip club owner in Vegas, a gurantee in the Intelligence Authorization Act that it would only be used to combat terrorism wouldn't make me feel any better.
Again, even when SCO shows a shred of the truth, it only reveals they're either incompetent or unethical.
I told Darl to put a leash on that thing, but he thought it was fine to just let it wander around the computers and chew on the cords.
The one big innovation I noticed was the heavy use of handheld cameras and the way they were able to move through the sets.
Of course, as I read through the hype of the Battlestar Galactiga remake, I couldn't help but think that almost every one of their innovations appeared in Firefly.
To open the safe in the pilot episode, they used a substance called "sticky."
As An RPG fan, let me say one thing: What the fuck? I hadn't even heard of this game until today. I've gone and looked at a couple sources and I can't find much of a following. The mechanics look a little different, but they're hardly as groundbreaking as something like Amber, which uses no dice at all. It may be a good take on a specific genre, but My Life With Master shouldn't be on the list.
Of course, I said pretty much the same thing when the story was run two months ago.
Good point. I'm also interested if the technology is or can be programed for non-standard scales (i.e. whole note scale, chromatic, etc.).
Additionaly, this technology will play the incorrect note if the input is more than a quarter step off. Granted, that's pretty bad for a pro musician, but I can see it happen in a concert setting. Any stray noise picked up by the mic can realy screw with the sound and make the proper note dificult to determine.
On the other hand, this type of technology had been around for a while. Guitar synths have been around a while, and they do similar things for a guitar. They're now advanced enough that they're built into pocket sized multi effects boxes. They can be a lot of fun and sound good in music.
It seems that finding an image of the HIV virus wasn't all that difficult.