In 1943, Dr. Bonhoeffer was arrested by the Gestapo after his opposition to Hitler's racial policies and attempt to take over the German Church lead him to join a plot to assassinate Hitler.
Bonhoeffer certainly did have something to hide: a plot to assassinate Hitler.
We might defend Bonhoeffer because we approve of the plot, but there's no denying that the Gestapo picked him up for what it considered the best of reasons -- reasons which Bonhoeffer must have anticipated.
I don't think there was a dispute that all 4 hoofs are off the ground at one time in the canter/gallop.... The problem would have been one of determining if all 4 hoofs were off the ground at one time at the trot.
[Muybridge] was asked to settle a bet on whether all four of a galloping horse's feet are ever all off the ground at the same time.
He did settle the bet.
Yes, all four of a galloping horse's feet are off the ground at the same time -- at the moment when all four hooves are underneath the horse, in their most-inward position.
Environmentalists have long opposed bioengineered crops of any kind, and fear that '...if it was to escape onto public land, we wouldn't know how to control it.'
Of course we know how to control escape organisms.
Kill them all -- burn everything to the ground.
Fuel-Air bombs for lesser evils; nuclear bombs for extreme evils.
It would be really cool if it could grok the movements of the fighters and say things like "Kilik delivers a fierce scissor-kick to an uppercut combo!".. But you cant have everything.
Actually, you can have everything. But it won't arrive until approximately the heat death of the universe.
Taxation is a good and necessary thing. Without taxation, civilization does not get built.
The main alternative is slave labor. I much prefer taxation.
Defending taxation is not a popular position to take. I know this, because every time I announce that taxes are good, people go into various states of astonishment and outrage.
The problem with taxation is not the basic principle. The real problem is two-fold:
1) Who pays how much?
2) Who spends, on what?
I don't mind paying my taxes. But I sure as hell do mind how the money gets wasted.
automonous humanoid robot Robovie-M can... even demonstrate shame
Is shame *really* what we want in a robot?
After all, there's no shame liking wetting oneself... it's bad enough when a child wets his/her pants or bed, but when a robot does it, the result could be short circuits or worse.
The problem that Peak Oil poses for biodiesel is this: when the oil spree collapses, we won't be able to continue our current petro-energy-intensive agriculture (fertilizers, herbicides, mega-tractors, etc.).
This in itself doesn't stop biodiesel: agriculture can continue without petro-energy inputs. But it can't continue on the current scale without the petro-energy.
Furthermore, as petrofuels become much more expensive -- or altogether unavailable -- fuel distribution systems will falter: can't deliver fuel by truck if the trucks aren't running. (Another possibility: hijacking by road gangs. Not to get all Mad Max about it, but it's not far-fetched: let the price of fuel go up enough, and hijackings will happen.)
In addition to the question of having enough petro-energy to run biodiesel farms... there's the question of simply raising enough food to feed people.
I live in Minnesota, where agriculture is a major chunk of the economy. The state has made significant investment in gasohol. It's a big deal here -- could really make or break the regional economy.
Whatever happens, I predict we're in for one hell of a ride....
... it seriously frustrates me how many people are willing to admit that oil is a finite resource but aren't willing to admit that finite means we'll run out eventually.
I suspect that large numbers of people -- a majority -- understand perfectly well that oil is finite, and that we're rapidly consuming the ready reserves, and that crisis awaits us.
The sense that "people aren't willing to admit our situation" is an illusion. How is anyone to know what The Public thinks? Why, through the Mass Media, of course.
If the news media (and governments) elevated our energy crisis to the stature, of, say, the Apollo program, then we'd realize that a great many people really do understand the situation. Hell, maybe we'd even take action, while there's still time....
First, it means we can't predict when oil production will start shrinking. Second, it means that when it does, we're immediately fucked.
You are so right.
When I saw this item on SlashDot's front page, my first thoughts were:
(1) How many of the posts will wax poetical (or, alternately, rant and rave) about scramjets and rocket backpacks and automated slidewalks of the future;
(2) Will anyone bring up peak oil and how fucked we're gonna be?
You did a fine job of addressing item (2). Thanks for spelling out the issues in your thoughtful post.
Interested readers might want to check out The Party's Over by Richard Heinberg.
And: Clusterfuck Nation by Jim Kunstler (scroll down to March 25 entry).
It's not even a case of being a great dancer, or takeing someone home with you, it's just a case of doing something together, and having fun. And that's one of the first steps towards a social life.
Good points.
You make friends, you have fun.
Sure, it can be part of a courtship ritual -- yes, you might get laid -- hell, you might even get married: I did! -- but all that stuff can seem very secondary, when the dance is swinging just right... it's a joyous thing to do.
-kgj
PS - Note to newbie dancers: stop worrying about it, nobody is staring and judging. It's not that you're invisible... but in my experience, people go dancing to have a good time, not to be "better" than other dancers. Even really good dancers! Some of the best dances I ever danced, my partner was a professional dancer, way more experienced than my amateur self... and she made me feel like I had all the right moves. Go on, try it -- you'll like it.
PPS - THE BIG SECRET: learn to lead. (Talking ballroom dance here -- it's different in some other forms of dance.) It's not really about steps! It's about leading... which means, the leader decides what to do, and the follower follows. Yes yes, the way a follower follows does influence how a leader leads... but there's the mystery, my friend: there's no way to explain leading a priori... you simply have to do it until you get it. And when you do, the world's your oyster, mate!
What ever happened to people meeting at the mall, bars, concerts, school, etc...??
I'll second this.
I'm a nerdy, basically shy person myself.
Learning to dance saved my social life -- talking ballroom dance here, swing and waltz and foxtrot.
Women go for that stuff, trust me on this one. The fellow who knows how to waltz has got it made. You get to approach strangers, make conversation with them, lead them onto the dance floor, put your hands on them, your arms around them... move them rhymthmically around the dance floor... and they love it.
staffed at the top almost completely with ruthless thugs who would do anything to maintain high profits, including propaganda tactics using government officials as mouthpieces, cutthroat 'acquire and discard'-style patent terrorism and other miscellaneous sabotage.
No shit. And it's not just nuclear power....
Enron, for example. One gets the impression that it was:
(a) a CIA front company
(b) a criminal syndicate front company
(c) both.
Energy market manipulation, massive and sophisticated theft... the, ah, questionable activities of Herbert 'Pug' Winokur and DynCorp ... the quote/unquote suicide of Clifford Baxter... some hard core shit going down.
Slashdot Mirror
Parent = excellent post: informed, informative, outspoken, passionate.
However, a quibble:
In 1943, Dr. Bonhoeffer was arrested by the Gestapo after his opposition to Hitler's racial policies and attempt to take over the German Church lead him to join a plot to assassinate Hitler.
Bonhoeffer certainly did have something to hide: a plot to assassinate Hitler.
We might defend Bonhoeffer because we approve of the plot, but there's no denying that the Gestapo picked him up for what it considered the best of reasons -- reasons which Bonhoeffer must have anticipated.
-kgj
I don't think there was a dispute that all 4 hoofs are off the ground at one time in the canter/gallop .... The problem would have been one of determining if all 4 hoofs were off the ground at one time at the trot.
I didn't know that. Thanks for the info.
-kgj
The claim that the extra energy is coming 'from permanent magnets' is risible.
Risible? I thought it was laughable.
You must be trying to get a rise out of slashdotters.
-kgj
Will systems like this ever become commonplace, or will they be reserved for sensitive financial transactions and military applications?
Quantum crypto will be very useful for insensitive financial/military applications. Example:
"All right, you worthless son-of-a-bitch -- pay your goddamned taxes, or we blow you away!"
-kgj
(as opposed to relying on magical network security elves that secure your network while you sleep and provide freshly made footware in the morning)
... and a pony.
-kgj
So like bullet time then? So the Matrix is sort of Muybridge Reloaded?
Exactly.
Now all we need is a time machine that can go back to Muybridge's era, so we can kill Keanu Reeves' great-grandfather.
No, wait -- wrong time-slip, I'm thinking of the Terminator -- okay, we go back in time and kill Schwartzenegger's grandfather.
-kgj
[Muybridge] was asked to settle a bet on whether all four of a galloping horse's feet are ever all off the ground at the same time.
He did settle the bet.
Yes, all four of a galloping horse's feet are off the ground at the same time -- at the moment when all four hooves are underneath the horse, in their most-inward position.
For more info, see my page of Muybridge trivia and links.
-kgj
Environmentalists have long opposed bioengineered crops of any kind, and fear that '...if it was to escape onto public land, we wouldn't know how to control it.'
Of course we know how to control escape organisms.
Kill them all -- burn everything to the ground.
Fuel-Air bombs for lesser evils; nuclear bombs for extreme evils.
-kgj
It would be really cool if it could grok the movements of the fighters and say things like "Kilik delivers a fierce scissor-kick to an uppercut combo!".. But you cant have everything.
Actually, you can have everything. But it won't arrive until approximately the heat death of the universe.
-kgj
The Zoological Society of London are looking for volunteers who are willing to 'talk chimp' in everyday life.
...?
This is too rich: parody that writes itself.
Are we sure that April 7 isn't All Fool's Day
-kgj
-In a world where wars are settled on a rudimentary tennis court, one man must struggle to beat right paddle.
Made me laugh!
-kgj
Let's get back to basics.
Pong: the Movie.
-kgj
Ashcroft, a religious man who does not drink alcohol or caffeine, smoke, gamble or dance ...
-from the article
I don't care if he avoids alcohol, caffeine, smoking, or gambling
But I don't trust a man who won't dance. He can dance badly, I don't care -- but if he wants my trust, he's got to dance.
-kgj
Taxation is a good and necessary thing. Without taxation, civilization does not get built.
The main alternative is slave labor. I much prefer taxation.
Defending taxation is not a popular position to take. I know this, because every time I announce that taxes are good, people go into various states of astonishment and outrage.
The problem with taxation is not the basic principle. The real problem is two-fold:
1) Who pays how much?
2) Who spends, on what?
I don't mind paying my taxes. But I sure as hell do mind how the money gets wasted.
-kgj
automonous humanoid robot Robovie-M can ... even demonstrate shame
... it's bad enough when a child wets his/her pants or bed, but when a robot does it, the result could be short circuits or worse.
Is shame *really* what we want in a robot?
After all, there's no shame liking wetting oneself
-kgj
Imagine hacking this system for evil deeds.
Steer an innocent guy to the wrong place at the wrong time -- he takes the fall for a bank robbery.
Maybe use the innocent guy as an unwitting drug mule?
-kgj
The miniscule RFID tags are no larger than a matchstick and will be implanted subdermally, meaning under the skin
... but the kind I use are known as "Farmer's Matches", and they're huge!
Dude, I don't know about your matchsticks
-kgj
"These four days I have lived mainly on 23 cups of coffee, with bread which I still have to pay for."
- Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (8 October 1888)
Link
I'm all for biodiesel, too.
... there's the question of simply raising enough food to feed people.
....
The problem that Peak Oil poses for biodiesel is this: when the oil spree collapses, we won't be able to continue our current petro-energy-intensive agriculture (fertilizers, herbicides, mega-tractors, etc.).
This in itself doesn't stop biodiesel: agriculture can continue without petro-energy inputs. But it can't continue on the current scale without the petro-energy.
Furthermore, as petrofuels become much more expensive -- or altogether unavailable -- fuel distribution systems will falter: can't deliver fuel by truck if the trucks aren't running. (Another possibility: hijacking by road gangs. Not to get all Mad Max about it, but it's not far-fetched: let the price of fuel go up enough, and hijackings will happen.)
In addition to the question of having enough petro-energy to run biodiesel farms
I live in Minnesota, where agriculture is a major chunk of the economy. The state has made significant investment in gasohol. It's a big deal here -- could really make or break the regional economy.
Whatever happens, I predict we're in for one hell of a ride
-kgj
... it seriously frustrates me how many people are willing to admit that oil is a finite resource but aren't willing to admit that finite means we'll run out eventually.
....
I suspect that large numbers of people -- a majority -- understand perfectly well that oil is finite, and that we're rapidly consuming the ready reserves, and that crisis awaits us.
The sense that "people aren't willing to admit our situation" is an illusion. How is anyone to know what The Public thinks? Why, through the Mass Media, of course.
If the news media (and governments) elevated our energy crisis to the stature, of, say, the Apollo program, then we'd realize that a great many people really do understand the situation. Hell, maybe we'd even take action, while there's still time
-kgj
You are so right.
When I saw this item on SlashDot's front page, my first thoughts were: You did a fine job of addressing item (2). Thanks for spelling out the issues in your thoughtful post.
Interested readers might want to check out The Party's Over by Richard Heinberg.
And: Clusterfuck Nation by Jim Kunstler (scroll down to March 25 entry).
Or simply search for "peak oil".
-kgj
It's not even a case of being a great dancer, or takeing someone home with you, it's just a case of doing something together, and having fun. And that's one of the first steps towards a social life.
... it's a joyous thing to do.
... but in my experience, people go dancing to have a good time, not to be "better" than other dancers. Even really good dancers! Some of the best dances I ever danced, my partner was a professional dancer, way more experienced than my amateur self ... and she made me feel like I had all the right moves. Go on, try it -- you'll like it.
... which means, the leader decides what to do, and the follower follows. Yes yes, the way a follower follows does influence how a leader leads ... but there's the mystery, my friend: there's no way to explain leading a priori ... you simply have to do it until you get it. And when you do, the world's your oyster, mate!
Good points.
You make friends, you have fun.
Sure, it can be part of a courtship ritual -- yes, you might get laid -- hell, you might even get married: I did! -- but all that stuff can seem very secondary, when the dance is swinging just right
-kgj
PS - Note to newbie dancers: stop worrying about it, nobody is staring and judging. It's not that you're invisible
PPS - THE BIG SECRET: learn to lead. (Talking ballroom dance here -- it's different in some other forms of dance.) It's not really about steps! It's about leading
What ever happened to people meeting at the mall, bars, concerts, school, etc...??
... move them rhymthmically around the dance floor ... and they love it.
I'll second this.
I'm a nerdy, basically shy person myself.
Learning to dance saved my social life -- talking ballroom dance here, swing and waltz and foxtrot.
Women go for that stuff, trust me on this one. The fellow who knows how to waltz has got it made. You get to approach strangers, make conversation with them, lead them onto the dance floor, put your hands on them, your arms around them
Paradise!
-kgj
staffed at the top almost completely with ruthless thugs who would do anything to maintain high profits, including propaganda tactics using government officials as mouthpieces, cutthroat 'acquire and discard'-style patent terrorism and other miscellaneous sabotage.
....
... the, ah, questionable activities of Herbert 'Pug' Winokur and DynCorp ... the quote/unquote suicide of Clifford Baxter ... some hard core shit going down.
No shit. And it's not just nuclear power
Enron, for example. One gets the impression that it was:
(a) a CIA front company
(b) a criminal syndicate front company
(c) both.
Energy market manipulation, massive and sophisticated theft
-kgj
"Our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy too cheap to meter."
This more or less describes The Matrix:
* People enjoy electrical energy
* They enjoy it in their "homes"
* It's too cheap to meter (the Matrix takes care of everything, baby).
Weird.
-kgj