If I had mod points and if mod points could buy beer your jaw teeth would be floating in less time than it will take for your blood pressure to come down.
Wabi-Sabi --- remember this when you think of Dvorak, it'll help take the edge off. Matthew
"The only fly in the ointment is that customers want to see improvements"
Most I know do not like change where a computer is involved. Of course many do like a specific new toy, whether it is a web cam or a game. But they do not tolerate changes to how they have learned to do things even if it means improvements, unless it comes with a new toy or treat. If you could somehow give them a cookie or sucker, real ones that is, when they learned something new that they needed to know it might actually happen.
They would like problems fixed IF that is they were aware that a fix was possible. Unfortunately the vast majority do not realize there is a problem, much less a fix for it. For instance most are resigned to reinstalling the OS, or even replacing a infested box, and losing a lot of data as part of a 'normal' life with computers. They do not know anything else somewhat because of what has been presented to them by the industry and somewhat of their own doing. Mostly this is due to lack of interest but it is also somewhat due to intellectual laziness.
Many I know are not knowledgeable enough, and don't want to be bothered to learn, or simply too paranoid about computers in general or the internet to make full use of them. Many others stick their heads in the sand and trust that Windows Update and a $29.99 AV subscription will magically protect from all dangers, as they tell Internet Exploder to save their banks password then proceed open every VBX or EXE loaded email joke they get.
"If you can take over the whole market, stifle competition so there's minimal expectations of change, you can keep gouging those 85-90% profit margins forever."
I agree, with the current crop of colluded and entrenched monopolies enjoying insane copyright and patent protection progress gets bogged down. It seems to me that there is a gross lack of vision in much, not all, but probably most of the business community these days. Other than the outright fraud and simple dumbass mismanagement presented as neo-fiducial science there is a lot of fighting over chump change, and few real innovations in business practice. Indeed it seems to me that the bean counters are the primary restraint on technological innovation. Kind of like local chambers of commerce work their collective asses off to exclude or coerce a new business from inflating local wages. So scared they might have to pay higher wages that they miss the point that these employees will have more money to spend.
My only hope is that technology can some how continue evade the yoke of the patents well enough to compensate for the ignorance and greed so prevalent today. If it can't I am afraid the system is gonna break, and things are gonna get really ugly really fast. This has happened before, many times, and will again. And so it goes...
I heard that Sony had issues with adult content and refused to license the Betamax media to adult studios at one time. I don't know if this is true or even if it is the main reason for the eventual consumer choice. VHS media and devices were considerably cheaper and had a higher capacity than Betamax so these issues may have been enough to make the decision. I am old enough to have been around both at the time and from what I remember Betamax was smaller and the picture had a little better quality, especially on tracking issues. The problem was you could not find much content and it was expensive when you did. I remember hearing of individuals that were media shifting content, for a fee of course, from VHS to Betamax in their basements, I never bought any of it though.
I just Googled the topic and it seems like it is going to be "deja vue all over again". There are accusations about that Sony is discreetly pressuring the pressing houses not to do adult titles in BlueRay. I don't think such would have the impact that it did before what with the internet and all. Still the bandwith for distributed HD content is just not available to most people. Another issue that has weight is in the Microsoft choice of HDDVD for the XBox. They don't always pick the winner themselves but they do have a lot of influence.
I had heard the main stream actors were not wild about HD content for the same reasons, it is just too damn revealing. I guess these could still be cleaned up in the editing room, but the costs to do so in a effective manner will most likely be huge.
Sure your not just ticked because you haven't found a twisted way to blame Clinton yet? I would have bet some nut like you would have connected it to the BJ by now.
Wabi-Sabi
Matthew
What is the porn industry backing? Will the major porn houses pick one instead of hedging bets by supporting both? This sounds expensive to me. If they do I suspect the one they pick may be the winner. From what I understand this is a big part of what sealed BetaMax's fate and made VHS the success it was.
As for my plans, I intend to wait. Heck I am still HDTV shopping right now. I suspect I will buy a HDTV in late winter or early spring (after football season). As for the topic at hand, well what with all the DRM crap on top of the technology war I just cannot see a reason why I would want to pay through the nose to be stuck in the ass. I think my DVD will suffice for a while, though I can see a DVR system on the horizon as well. I am not even sure if I will upgrade my SAT service to HD very soon. I will have to check the HD and DVR combo packages available when my contract with DirectTV runs out next summer.
Naw I don't think such is evidence that you have gotten cynical, not at all. I think you have simply managed to absorb, retain and apply some important ideals presented by a truly great writer. The observation you make most certainly applies here. If I would have had mod points you would have gotten some. Since I don't have any my mind started playing with you observation and I expounded upon it somewhat, just for fun of course.:)
Ahh but alas some writers will surely end being more equal than others. I am sure there are many among this lot who do not yet know they are greedy pigs but will find it out when the time comes. The less equal will strike in revolt and the whole process starts again. Then there will be new heroes, new villains and of course new sacrifices from the less equal among them.
Meanwhile in the pretense of setting things right the political equivalents of two fat little men agree to have a battle, but never have one. Ask not though for whom the laws of copyright, first sale or fair use applies, as it applies everyone yet to no one at all. How can that be you ask, how can the law apply to things in two different ways? The question is, which is to be master of the law, that's all. They've a temper, some of them, particularly them ideals, they're the proudest of all, pragmatisms we can deal with, but not ideals. However we manage the whole lot with simple impenetrability, that's what we say!
And so it goes....
Now I ask you how many of my favorite dead authors fix their dark gaze upon my soul tonight for this sin worse than simple plagiarism? For extra points who are they, for even more credit what characters words did I so hideously paraphrase in some cases.:)
My next space will be a 60x84 quonset style metal building - aircraft hanger type. A bit past planning right now, I have the excavation, a mostly sand rock ledge bulldozed into a south facing hillside, and plan to install the foundation this spring/summer. Actually it will be my home as well, I intend to build a 48x84 loft to live in, while the entire lower area will be a mostly unpartitioned combination office-study-shop-garage.
"However deplorable such tactics are, neither the fiducial damage, nor "exposure", nor -- certainly -- "discomfort" compare with violence, especially, the deadly violence, which, really, is required to qualify for a terrorist these days."
"Required to qualify for a terrorist these days" Well you are allowed to have a personal opinion I guess, well maybe not, it depends, it seems I don't have that right in your view. I guess the old euphemism may apply here, you know where opinions are like assholes... Look physical violence is far from the only tool historically used to install terror in an individual or a population. It is not even the preferred method of those in powerful positions as it is inflexible and kind of hard to back out of. Physical violence, like ad hominem attacks in an argument, is usually the last resort of the desperate, ie: the one with the weakest position. This is regardless of who may or may not be the most powerful physical force at the time.
"I have, actually. A team of lawyers and the computer-forensics experts they hired were right here in this room searching through my hard-drives... But not for a second was I afraid for my life or limb. May lawyers be your biggest problem ever."
Really a team of computer-forensics experts were hired to examine your systems and they did so without removing them from your room? Nice bit of luck there you had huh? Good thing they did not want to find something bad enough or some 300 lb brother or bubba might be changing your mind about the possibility of being terrorized due to legal woes, as well as some amusing definitions of discomfort.
"Yawn... There you go, using the term with very specific definition as a general-purpose derogatory word. I'll finish this by calling you a cretin -- purely as another example of same."
Aww how cute of you insinuate that am below your level of intellectual discourse with the implication that you are bored with my arguments. If you feel the need to resort to ad hominem attacks with inferences like this or "as an example of the same" to indirectly call me a cretin, go ahead and do it outright. Trying so hard to sound aloof and smug about it defeats your attempt to sound witty.
As for the specific definition of terror. There are a lot of very broad definitions being thrown about today that have little or nothing to do with direct acts of physical violence. Since I am not "with them" I must be "against them" and thus in support of terrorists because I refuse to shut up and sit down as they take my liberty.
"Car radar and inter-car communication comprise near-term information for a lot of capability with respect to discouraging bad habits (i.e. tailgating)."
I have found that a good old flash of the brake lights usually does wonders for tailgating issues.
"The problem with that is the critters who decided to nest on said furnace, or the broken gas hose, etc. so when Mr. and Mrs. tech get home they are greeted by the smoldering remains."
Uh, I think I would prefer that to being home when it goes up and becoming part of the "smoldering remains". Point is moot anyway since such can happen anytime if the systems are not maintained properly. I live in the middle of nowhere, I use a simple stand alone programmable t-stat, though my wife pretty much negates it by keeping it in manual mode and running it up-down-up-down-etc.
"So, it is your understanding, that police law-enforcement and private lawsuits are Acts of Terror? Wow..."
I'll bite on that one, yes quite often some persons and/or agency's ie:"police law-enforcement" AND certain legal whores who allow or act to bring certain types of "private lawsuit" INTENTIONALLY act in ways to instill terror in individuals they know have done nothing morally wrong with the intent of causing a third party fiducial damage, exposure or discomfort. Happens all the time, just because YOU have not been a victim YET does not mean it does not happen. Personally I consider the premeditated, calculated and wanton destruction of the Constitution and thus our liberty an act of terrorism, and so I think will history, at university level analysis, if they survive the next fifty years. Chew on that.
"It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own." Thomas Jefferson
Main Entry:
terror Listen to the pronunciation of terror Pronunciation:
\ter-r, te-rr\ Function:
noun Etymology:
Middle English, from Anglo-French terrour, from Latin terror, from terrre to frighten; akin to Greek trein to be afraid, flee, tremein to tremble -- more at tremble Date:
14th century
1: a state of intense fear2 a: one that inspires fear : scourge b: a frightening aspect c: a cause of anxiety : worry d: an appalling person or thing; especially : brat3: reign of terror4: violent or destructive acts (as bombing) committed by groups in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands synonyms see fear -- terrorless Listen to the pronunciation of terrorless \-ls\ adjective
Have you seen the movie "Heavens Burning" with R.Crowe and that cute little Japanese chick Youki Kudoh. There is a piece of music on it I have been trying to find, full length not just a DVD rip of the audio as it was mixed with other stuff of course. Since there was no CD audio volume released I have as of yet to find the piece. I believe the music was a Spanish style guitar interpretation of a Mozart composition by the name of "Solus Solique" of something close to that, I could not get a clear view because IFC screws up the credits on most all movies. I keep meaning to pickup the DVD but since the info I have seen on it says it does not include a separate audio volume of the sound track titles it is probably pointless. The piece Solus Solique, (latin: One Day, In A Single Day, The Only Day?) appears in its longest example during the love scene at Crowes pops house. Great music, gives me the shivers, and that is unusual for something that I did not listen to as a teen and thus come encumbered with emotional bonds to angst ridden stuff.
I have been taking very large doses of various vitamin B's (100mg+ of B6, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, etc)and 1000mg of vitamin C somewhat regularly for nearly forty years. A family physician prescribed these for me at about age ten to counter ADD type symptoms. I don't know how they stack up against modern ADD drugs. I do know I long ago found the B vitamins vastly superior over amphetamines over the long haul.
Back in the seventies amphetamines with street names like black beauties, yellow jackets and speckled pups were everywhere. I can attest to the dramatic positive effects these drugs have on ones short term abilities. I can also attest to the negative effects with longer term regular use. Mis/Overuse them and they will act to severely degrade your abilities and simply make you nuts or at least that was my experience and what had I seen in those around me. And of course the drop of abilities is precipitous when you come down, expect to lose several times the gain for several times the time you were 'up'. As a smoker and coffee/tea drinker I can also of course tell you that these these have similar short and long term effects and consequences though of course not as severe or pronounced. Though I am convinced nicotine is the most addictive drug I have personally encountered.
I have a job that requires I often have to keep several fast paced crisis type of events and longer term projects in the air much of the time, and coordinate conflicts between the differing agendas and deadlines. It is also a job that requires extreme focus on technical issues often with several suits breathing down my neck. Needless to say both short term and learned memory plus mental clarity are important to me. Damn1 I am underpaid!
I can tell if I have been off the vitamin B complex for several days or so, I get slow or thick in my mental abilities. The recovery is pretty quick, a daily dose and a few hours sleep and I am mostly back on track, in few days all is very clear again. I have tried various items like ginko, ginsing and melatonin, and I have seen some clearly positive effects especially with ginko, but none that compare to vitamin B. Like many other children of the 60's and 70's I had some limited experience with other items I won't go into here in depth. While some of these encounters defiantly affect my id or world views even today, none had the dramatic short term AND positive/harmless long term effect of vitamins on my information retention and mental clarity.
I don't know how they work or if they work as well o others. It could very well be that they address a deficiency of my system that is not common to most folks. I tend to think that other stuff like nicotine, caffeine and various legal and illegal drugs many be so attractive to many people because they address a similar physical deficiency.
"No one in the US goes without treatment. Hell, even illegal aliens get treated. It may bankrupt you, but if you are in need of treatment in the US, you will get treated."
You must have been watching FOX news again, because you are full of shit. People are routinely refused treatment or medication because they cannot pay for it. I guess you are referring to the required MINIMUM treatment at certain emergency rooms. Such treatment options suck because A: If your symptoms do not meet the definition of immediately life threating or subject to causing severe permanent disability you will be refused treatment. B: The law requires a MINIMAL level of treatment only mostly focused on stabilization. C: They are horrendously expensive to us all since only the worst cases go through them, cases that could have been managed at much lower cost in a normal clinical setting. Quit spreading lies misinformation.
Wabi-Sabi Matthew
Go ahead people mod me down or ignore me yet again because I take an unpopular stand. I can take it because while I do care about how the spread of ignorance, misinformation or plain old FUD screws up our world, I don't care what idiots think about me personally.
The Precolumbian native cultures of North America, the Scots, the Greeks, the Chinese, the Japanese, and probably pretty much most other cultures had used fires, smoke and signal mirrors made of shiny metals like silver centuries before this.
"The Supreme Court also has a long history of inventing rights not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, which are later overturned."
SCOTUS nor any other government entity has EVER invented a right. All rights not explicitly defined or disallowed in the constitution are retained by the people. The fact that a specific SCOTUS, POTUS, COTUS or other butthead(s) chooses to misinterpret, misapply or outright ignore or violate the constitution has no bearing on what it is or what rights it defines. The example you specified for instance on the minimum wage laws was simply a dirty attempt to thwart constitutional granted congressional power to regulate commerce and contract law by misdirection and misapplication of the constitution. The conservatives had a much larger agenda than the minimum wage law, it was just a tool. They intended to muckup several areas of government relations with business in the regulation of commerce and in contract law. Hell they have been at that same mud hole for the better part of at least the last 150 years or so. An economic survival of the slickest. The belief that government should not interfere with ones ability to take any advantage of any opportunity one has to increase ones holdings, regardless of the harm it could cause to the knaves.
Why do so many have trouble understanding this article of the document? It is so damn simple and should be honored as the most hallowed writ in the constitution. Most of the first eight articles of the Bill Of Rights could have actually been left out and article nine would have covered them anyways. The only reason they were explicitly defined is that those were where the framers had seen the most onerous abuse from the crown and thus they wanted to make a especially strong statements on those issues. Yes I wish they would have had the foresight to explicitly define a few more rights, but overall I think they did an amazing job. What would it matter anyways when you have so many willing to ignore or violate it outright, with so many others apparently willing to support or ignore the transgressions.
Article ten has a similar nature but is more targeted to the greater body of the constitution and thus on issues like congressional powers to regulate commerce and contract law rather than mostly focused on the Bill Of Rights as nine is. This elegant document has been a great inspiration for so many across the world in the last couple of century's. It is a shame than so many in this nation have such a shallow understanding of it and so little respect for it. But then again we have a sitting president that has the gall to say:
"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face," Bush screamed back. "It's just a god damned piece of paper!"
The situation in America is a frackin shameful mess. I think the people that penned that wonderful document would be appalled and very ticked off as well. I think Franklin would tell us all to grow some hairy ones before we piss it all away.
Wabi-Sabi Matthew
Amendment 9 - Construction of Constitution. Ratified 12/15/1791. The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment 10 - Powers of the States and People. Ratified 12/15/1791. Note The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
You are simply confused as to what is behind the obsessive interest this bunch has with the communications and other private affairs of American citizens. The target is not international terrorist groups or drug cartels. What this is all about is getting as much data as possible on domestic malcontents. These include, but are not limited to, some pretty radical and well heeled militia groups that operate far enough within the law to prevent monitoring by normal (ie:legal unconstitutionally sanctioned) methods.
The misuse of the FISA court to enable the NSA wiretapping agenda, the Patriot Act I and II and other such provide a means to circumvent the public face of the judicial system to allow the secret operation of unconstitutional programs. Of course there is also the advantage that via the same methods they could also generate enough fear quiet other citizens like journalists. Taken far enough these programs are bound to stir up the more radical, and usually well armed factions. I cannot not help to think that the current bunch of nitwits is trying to stir the stink and cause an event that will allow them to take even more radical steps to consolidate power.
The big picture is rather chilling. This nation has had problems from the start with things like the slavery and segregation of blacks, genocide and apartheid of native peoples, bondage and serfdom of Irish, Asian and other later immigrants, and the more recent abuses of Hispanics. It has serious problems with wealth distribution and it is getting worse all the time. It has a judicial system that operates in relation to the $$ one has to spend on bribes, oops sorry "on qualified representation". The methods we have used over the years to elect representatives has always been far from perfect, but seems to be on the brink of collapse lately. The horrendous laws that have been passed in recent years, combined with the total lack of respect for that "god-damned piece of paper" by a bunch of nitwits, well I see a storm on the horizon.
Yet YOU STILL believe what that chicken hawk and some right wing blog says, you poor thing. Just be careful where you stand when the storm arrives. Quit reading and listening to the same old shit, dig around some. Things are not the way BillO says they are, not at all.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety" Benjamin Franklin
"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last." Winston Churchill
When the people fear their Government, there is tyranny. When the Government fears it's people, there is liberty.." Thomas Paine
Thanks for the bit of history lesson concerning the original UN plans for the city. I thought my idea was original but who knows where we get the basis for some of the ideas that we form. I have read some Clancy, but not much and I don't remember that one, I have a friend that reads everything he writes I ask about the novel.
Yea well emperors usually were not too worried about keeping everyone happy, just enough of the right ones. Then again the most successful ones managed to keep the majority pretty satisfied. There is a lesson there somewhere for those elected or appointed. Boldness and dogged persistence are admirable traits in a leader, but only in those studious enough to make wise and rational decisions.
Most, that is the majority of people everywhere I have lived or visited have been reasonable people with moderate views on life unless you outright harass them on one or another touchy topic. Its the 1% rule, or one bad apple rule, wherein a selected few messes things up for everyone. Thankfully there is usually the same percentage or better of folk out there that are willing to shoulder the extra burden or make the necessary sacrifice, while the majority in the middle continue to slug away at their lives often blissfully ignorant that there was a problem at all. As for the topic at hand, Jerusalem, there are third party players that are consistently mucking things up as well. And so it goes...
" make Jerusalem a UN-administered city (the whole thing), and tell Israel to get over it."
And everyone else can get over it as well. You are first person besides myself I have heard this from. I came to this conclusion years ago. Don't know how workable it is though. Just because the idea appeals to someone of reason, well you know the rest. Near as I can tell all the religions of the descendants of Abraham have insistent and powerful radical factions intent upon using this land to facilitate one or another horrendously bloody prophecy, and they see such as a good thing.
Most modern autos not only have the electronic fuel sending unit inside the tank but also the electric pump and with multiple tanks the electric diverting valve as well. All the components are simply very well insulated and sealed.
So how long before the service packs break and bog down XP to the point Vista with a few good service pack fixes under its belt sucks less than your up to date XP? Tune up the new, detune the old. I don't think they can afford to have Vista be seen as a flop by the average person or the industry at large. It does not matter what this crowd thinks, it is irrelevant to them, what matters is the mass perception. Would they do it? Remember who we are talking about here.
"Uh, yeah, possibly, unless they're either (a) planning to replace the ablative shield once for every two hour cross-continental flight"
The issue of whether materials science is able to deliver goods that can handle the heat generated by friction and compression at these speeds has nothing to do with the intrinsic nature of the engines fuel requirements ie:one being air. Though sacrificial shields may actually be a intern solution to some extent.
"or (b) will also be equipping this bird with frictionless force fields"
Something like electrostatic force fields could be a partial solution, but of course controllable fields that could be used to counter this much energy are still a pipe dream. Even more so considering that such fields generate significant thermal energy themselves as a byproduct, especially when used near certain materials like metals, especially ferrous metals.
There is going to be a limit to just how much good materials stability at high temps will do anyway. If the payload/occupants arrive roasted what is the point. I doubt the technology to insulated from or remove/relocate this amount of heat energy exists at this time in a package size/weight that would be acceptable at the highest speeds this engine is capable of. It seems to me that the ideal solution will be to somehow use the energy of the thermal load to negate its own effects, at as high an efficiency as possible.
GNU == GNU is Not Unix. Since most all Linux OS distros are compromised of 80% GNU code, the OS part anyway, yes what you use and call Linux is more correctly referred to as GNU/Linux and GNU is Not Unix.
Slashdot Mirror
If I had mod points and if mod points could buy beer your jaw teeth would be floating in less time than it will take for your blood pressure to come down.
Wabi-Sabi --- remember this when you think of Dvorak, it'll help take the edge off.
Matthew
"The only fly in the ointment is that customers want to see improvements"
Most I know do not like change where a computer is involved. Of course many do like a specific new toy, whether it is a web cam or a game. But they do not tolerate changes to how they have learned to do things even if it means improvements, unless it comes with a new toy or treat. If you could somehow give them a cookie or sucker, real ones that is, when they learned something new that they needed to know it might actually happen.
They would like problems fixed IF that is they were aware that a fix was possible. Unfortunately the vast majority do not realize there is a problem, much less a fix for it. For instance most are resigned to reinstalling the OS, or even replacing a infested box, and losing a lot of data as part of a 'normal' life with computers. They do not know anything else somewhat because of what has been presented to them by the industry and somewhat of their own doing. Mostly this is due to lack of interest but it is also somewhat due to intellectual laziness.
Many I know are not knowledgeable enough, and don't want to be bothered to learn, or simply too paranoid about computers in general or the internet to make full use of them. Many others stick their heads in the sand and trust that Windows Update and a $29.99 AV subscription will magically protect from all dangers, as they tell Internet Exploder to save their banks password then proceed open every VBX or EXE loaded email joke they get.
"If you can take over the whole market, stifle competition so there's minimal expectations of change, you can keep gouging those 85-90% profit margins forever."
I agree, with the current crop of colluded and entrenched monopolies enjoying insane copyright and patent protection progress gets bogged down. It seems to me that there is a gross lack of vision in much, not all, but probably most of the business community these days. Other than the outright fraud and simple dumbass mismanagement presented as neo-fiducial science there is a lot of fighting over chump change, and few real innovations in business practice. Indeed it seems to me that the bean counters are the primary restraint on technological innovation. Kind of like local chambers of commerce work their collective asses off to exclude or coerce a new business from inflating local wages. So scared they might have to pay higher wages that they miss the point that these employees will have more money to spend.
My only hope is that technology can some how continue evade the yoke of the patents well enough to compensate for the ignorance and greed so prevalent today. If it can't I am afraid the system is gonna break, and things are gonna get really ugly really fast. This has happened before, many times, and will again. And so it goes...
Wabi-Sabi
Matthew
I heard that Sony had issues with adult content and refused to license the Betamax media to adult studios at one time. I don't know if this is true or even if it is the main reason for the eventual consumer choice. VHS media and devices were considerably cheaper and had a higher capacity than Betamax so these issues may have been enough to make the decision. I am old enough to have been around both at the time and from what I remember Betamax was smaller and the picture had a little better quality, especially on tracking issues. The problem was you could not find much content and it was expensive when you did. I remember hearing of individuals that were media shifting content, for a fee of course, from VHS to Betamax in their basements, I never bought any of it though.
I just Googled the topic and it seems like it is going to be "deja vue all over again". There are accusations about that Sony is discreetly pressuring the pressing houses not to do adult titles in BlueRay. I don't think such would have the impact that it did before what with the internet and all. Still the bandwith for distributed HD content is just not available to most people. Another issue that has weight is in the Microsoft choice of HDDVD for the XBox. They don't always pick the winner themselves but they do have a lot of influence.
I had heard the main stream actors were not wild about HD content for the same reasons, it is just too damn revealing. I guess these could still be cleaned up in the editing room, but the costs to do so in a effective manner will most likely be huge.
Wabi-Sabi
Matthew
Sure your not just ticked because you haven't found a twisted way to blame Clinton yet? I would have bet some nut like you would have connected it to the BJ by now. Wabi-Sabi Matthew
What is the porn industry backing? Will the major porn houses pick one instead of hedging bets by supporting both? This sounds expensive to me. If they do I suspect the one they pick may be the winner. From what I understand this is a big part of what sealed BetaMax's fate and made VHS the success it was.
As for my plans, I intend to wait. Heck I am still HDTV shopping right now. I suspect I will buy a HDTV in late winter or early spring (after football season). As for the topic at hand, well what with all the DRM crap on top of the technology war I just cannot see a reason why I would want to pay through the nose to be stuck in the ass. I think my DVD will suffice for a while, though I can see a DVR system on the horizon as well. I am not even sure if I will upgrade my SAT service to HD very soon. I will have to check the HD and DVR combo packages available when my contract with DirectTV runs out next summer.
Wabi-Sabi
Matthew
Naw I don't think such is evidence that you have gotten cynical, not at all. I think you have simply managed to absorb, retain and apply some important ideals presented by a truly great writer. The observation you make most certainly applies here. If I would have had mod points you would have gotten some. Since I don't have any my mind started playing with you observation and I expounded upon it somewhat, just for fun of course. :)
:)
Ahh but alas some writers will surely end being more equal than others. I am sure there are many among this lot who do not yet know they are greedy pigs but will find it out when the time comes. The less equal will strike in revolt and the whole process starts again. Then there will be new heroes, new villains and of course new sacrifices from the less equal among them.
Meanwhile in the pretense of setting things right the political equivalents of two fat little men agree to have a battle, but never have one. Ask not though for whom the laws of copyright, first sale or fair use applies, as it applies everyone yet to no one at all. How can that be you ask, how can the law apply to things in two different ways? The question is, which is to be master of the law, that's all. They've a temper, some of them, particularly them ideals, they're the proudest of all, pragmatisms we can deal with, but not ideals. However we manage the whole lot with simple impenetrability, that's what we say!
And so it goes....
Now I ask you how many of my favorite dead authors fix their dark gaze upon my soul tonight for this sin worse than simple plagiarism? For extra points who are they, for even more credit what characters words did I so hideously paraphrase in some cases.
Wabi-Sabi
Matthew
My next space will be a 60x84 quonset style metal building - aircraft hanger type. A bit past planning right now, I have the excavation, a mostly sand rock ledge bulldozed into a south facing hillside, and plan to install the foundation this spring/summer. Actually it will be my home as well, I intend to build a 48x84 loft to live in, while the entire lower area will be a mostly unpartitioned combination office-study-shop-garage.
Wabi-Sabi
Matthew
"Required to qualify for a terrorist these days" Well you are allowed to have a personal opinion I guess, well maybe not, it depends, it seems I don't have that right in your view. I guess the old euphemism may apply here, you know where opinions are like assholes... Look physical violence is far from the only tool historically used to install terror in an individual or a population. It is not even the preferred method of those in powerful positions as it is inflexible and kind of hard to back out of. Physical violence, like ad hominem attacks in an argument, is usually the last resort of the desperate, ie: the one with the weakest position. This is regardless of who may or may not be the most powerful physical force at the time.
Really a team of computer-forensics experts were hired to examine your systems and they did so without removing them from your room? Nice bit of luck there you had huh? Good thing they did not want to find something bad enough or some 300 lb brother or bubba might be changing your mind about the possibility of being terrorized due to legal woes, as well as some amusing definitions of discomfort.
Aww how cute of you insinuate that am below your level of intellectual discourse with the implication that you are bored with my arguments. If you feel the need to resort to ad hominem attacks with inferences like this or "as an example of the same" to indirectly call me a cretin, go ahead and do it outright. Trying so hard to sound aloof and smug about it defeats your attempt to sound witty.
As for the specific definition of terror. There are a lot of very broad definitions being thrown about today that have little or nothing to do with direct acts of physical violence. Since I am not "with them" I must be "against them" and thus in support of terrorists because I refuse to shut up and sit down as they take my liberty.If you insist on a current non topical and unbiased definition of terror/terrorism I think a dictionary is a decent place to get a definition, even today. Again I submit:
http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/terror
http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/terrorism
Wabi-Sabi
Matthew
"Car radar and inter-car communication comprise near-term information for a lot of capability with respect to discouraging bad habits (i.e. tailgating)."
I have found that a good old flash of the brake lights usually does wonders for tailgating issues.
Wabi-Sabi
Matthew
"The problem with that is the critters who decided to nest on said furnace, or the broken gas hose, etc. so when Mr. and Mrs. tech get home they are greeted by the smoldering remains."
Uh, I think I would prefer that to being home when it goes up and becoming part of the "smoldering remains". Point is moot anyway since such can happen anytime if the systems are not maintained properly. I live in the middle of nowhere, I use a simple stand alone programmable t-stat, though my wife pretty much negates it by keeping it in manual mode and running it up-down-up-down-etc.
Wabi-Sabi
Matthew
"So, it is your understanding, that police law-enforcement and private lawsuits are Acts of Terror? Wow..."
I'll bite on that one, yes quite often some persons and/or agency's ie:"police law-enforcement" AND certain legal whores who allow or act to bring certain types of "private lawsuit" INTENTIONALLY act in ways to instill terror in individuals they know have done nothing morally wrong with the intent of causing a third party fiducial damage, exposure or discomfort. Happens all the time, just because YOU have not been a victim YET does not mean it does not happen. Personally I consider the premeditated, calculated and wanton destruction of the Constitution and thus our liberty an act of terrorism, and so I think will history, at university level analysis, if they survive the next fifty years. Chew on that.
"It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own." Thomas Jefferson
Wabi-Sabi
Matthew
http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/terror
terror
3 entries found.
Main Entry:
terror Listen to the pronunciation of terror
Pronunciation:
\ter-r, te-rr\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Middle English, from Anglo-French terrour, from Latin terror, from terrre to frighten; akin to Greek trein to be afraid, flee, tremein to tremble -- more at tremble
Date:
14th century
1: a state of intense fear2 a: one that inspires fear : scourge b: a frightening aspect c: a cause of anxiety : worry d: an appalling person or thing; especially : brat3: reign of terror4: violent or destructive acts (as bombing) committed by groups in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands
synonyms see fear
-- terrorless Listen to the pronunciation of terrorless \-ls\ adjective
"I guess someone somewhere prefers old-fashioned crime family style organized crime for profit be kept as a separate matter."
Maybe a few descendants of a family of filthy rich Cuba based sugar plantation owners and rum runners? And so it goes...
Wabi-Sabi
Matthew
Have you seen the movie "Heavens Burning" with R.Crowe and that cute little Japanese chick Youki Kudoh. There is a piece of music on it I have been trying to find, full length not just a DVD rip of the audio as it was mixed with other stuff of course. Since there was no CD audio volume released I have as of yet to find the piece. I believe the music was a Spanish style guitar interpretation of a Mozart composition by the name of "Solus Solique" of something close to that, I could not get a clear view because IFC screws up the credits on most all movies. I keep meaning to pickup the DVD but since the info I have seen on it says it does not include a separate audio volume of the sound track titles it is probably pointless. The piece Solus Solique, (latin: One Day, In A Single Day, The Only Day?) appears in its longest example during the love scene at Crowes pops house. Great music, gives me the shivers, and that is unusual for something that I did not listen to as a teen and thus come encumbered with emotional bonds to angst ridden stuff.
Wabi-Sabi
Matthew
http://www.amazon.com/Heavens-Burning-Russell-Crowe/dp/B00004YA78/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1198732542&sr=8-1
I have been taking very large doses of various vitamin B's (100mg+ of B6, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, etc)and 1000mg of vitamin C somewhat regularly for nearly forty years. A family physician prescribed these for me at about age ten to counter ADD type symptoms. I don't know how they stack up against modern ADD drugs. I do know I long ago found the B vitamins vastly superior over amphetamines over the long haul.
Back in the seventies amphetamines with street names like black beauties, yellow jackets and speckled pups were everywhere. I can attest to the dramatic positive effects these drugs have on ones short term abilities. I can also attest to the negative effects with longer term regular use. Mis/Overuse them and they will act to severely degrade your abilities and simply make you nuts or at least that was my experience and what had I seen in those around me. And of course the drop of abilities is precipitous when you come down, expect to lose several times the gain for several times the time you were 'up'. As a smoker and coffee/tea drinker I can also of course tell you that these these have similar short and long term effects and consequences though of course not as severe or pronounced. Though I am convinced nicotine is the most addictive drug I have personally encountered.
I have a job that requires I often have to keep several fast paced crisis type of events and longer term projects in the air much of the time, and coordinate conflicts between the differing agendas and deadlines. It is also a job that requires extreme focus on technical issues often with several suits breathing down my neck. Needless to say both short term and learned memory plus mental clarity are important to me. Damn1 I am underpaid!
I can tell if I have been off the vitamin B complex for several days or so, I get slow or thick in my mental abilities. The recovery is pretty quick, a daily dose and a few hours sleep and I am mostly back on track, in few days all is very clear again. I have tried various items like ginko, ginsing and melatonin, and I have seen some clearly positive effects especially with ginko, but none that compare to vitamin B. Like many other children of the 60's and 70's I had some limited experience with other items I won't go into here in depth. While some of these encounters defiantly affect my id or world views even today, none had the dramatic short term AND positive/harmless long term effect of vitamins on my information retention and mental clarity.
I don't know how they work or if they work as well o others. It could very well be that they address a deficiency of my system that is not common to most folks. I tend to think that other stuff like nicotine, caffeine and various legal and illegal drugs many be so attractive to many people because they address a similar physical deficiency.
Wabi-Sabi
Matthew
"No one in the US goes without treatment. Hell, even illegal aliens get treated. It may bankrupt you, but if you are in need of treatment in the US, you will get treated."
You must have been watching FOX news again, because you are full of shit. People are routinely refused treatment or medication because they cannot pay for it. I guess you are referring to the required MINIMUM treatment at certain emergency rooms. Such treatment options suck because A: If your symptoms do not meet the definition of immediately life threating or subject to causing severe permanent disability you will be refused treatment. B: The law requires a MINIMAL level of treatment only mostly focused on stabilization. C: They are horrendously expensive to us all since only the worst cases go through them, cases that could have been managed at much lower cost in a normal clinical setting. Quit spreading lies misinformation.
Wabi-Sabi
Matthew
Go ahead people mod me down or ignore me yet again because I take an unpopular stand. I can take it because while I do care about how the spread of ignorance, misinformation or plain old FUD screws up our world, I don't care what idiots think about me personally.
The Precolumbian native cultures of North America, the Scots, the Greeks, the Chinese, the Japanese, and probably pretty much most other cultures had used fires, smoke and signal mirrors made of shiny metals like silver centuries before this.
Wabi-Sabi
Matthew
Thats ok Gary, you folks more than made up for it with the Australian Cattle Dogs like my http://hypersynergy.com/home/matt/pics/Daisy_Jane/Daisy3-big.jpgDaisy Jane .
I am very, very grateful.
Wabi-Sabi Matthew
"The Supreme Court also has a long history of inventing rights not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, which are later overturned."
SCOTUS nor any other government entity has EVER invented a right. All rights not explicitly defined or disallowed in the constitution are retained by the people. The fact that a specific SCOTUS, POTUS, COTUS or other butthead(s) chooses to misinterpret, misapply or outright ignore or violate the constitution has no bearing on what it is or what rights it defines. The example you specified for instance on the minimum wage laws was simply a dirty attempt to thwart constitutional granted congressional power to regulate commerce and contract law by misdirection and misapplication of the constitution. The conservatives had a much larger agenda than the minimum wage law, it was just a tool. They intended to muckup several areas of government relations with business in the regulation of commerce and in contract law. Hell they have been at that same mud hole for the better part of at least the last 150 years or so. An economic survival of the slickest. The belief that government should not interfere with ones ability to take any advantage of any opportunity one has to increase ones holdings, regardless of the harm it could cause to the knaves.
Why do so many have trouble understanding this article of the document? It is so damn simple and should be honored as the most hallowed writ in the constitution. Most of the first eight articles of the Bill Of Rights could have actually been left out and article nine would have covered them anyways. The only reason they were explicitly defined is that those were where the framers had seen the most onerous abuse from the crown and thus they wanted to make a especially strong statements on those issues. Yes I wish they would have had the foresight to explicitly define a few more rights, but overall I think they did an amazing job. What would it matter anyways when you have so many willing to ignore or violate it outright, with so many others apparently willing to support or ignore the transgressions.
Article ten has a similar nature but is more targeted to the greater body of the constitution and thus on issues like congressional powers to regulate commerce and contract law rather than mostly focused on the Bill Of Rights as nine is. This elegant document has been a great inspiration for so many across the world in the last couple of century's. It is a shame than so many in this nation have such a shallow understanding of it and so little respect for it. But then again we have a sitting president that has the gall to say:
"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face," Bush screamed back. "It's just a god damned piece of paper!"
The situation in America is a frackin shameful mess. I think the people that penned that wonderful document would be appalled and very ticked off as well. I think Franklin would tell us all to grow some hairy ones before we piss it all away.
Wabi-Sabi
Matthew
Amendment 9 - Construction of Constitution. Ratified 12/15/1791.
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment 10 - Powers of the States and People. Ratified 12/15/1791. Note
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
You are simply confused as to what is behind the obsessive interest this bunch has with the communications and other private affairs of American citizens. The target is not international terrorist groups or drug cartels. What this is all about is getting as much data as possible on domestic malcontents. These include, but are not limited to, some pretty radical and well heeled militia groups that operate far enough within the law to prevent monitoring by normal (ie:legal unconstitutionally sanctioned) methods.
The misuse of the FISA court to enable the NSA wiretapping agenda, the Patriot Act I and II and other such provide a means to circumvent the public face of the judicial system to allow the secret operation of unconstitutional programs. Of course there is also the advantage that via the same methods they could also generate enough fear quiet other citizens like journalists. Taken far enough these programs are bound to stir up the more radical, and usually well armed factions. I cannot not help to think that the current bunch of nitwits is trying to stir the stink and cause an event that will allow them to take even more radical steps to consolidate power.
The big picture is rather chilling. This nation has had problems from the start with things like the slavery and segregation of blacks, genocide and apartheid of native peoples, bondage and serfdom of Irish, Asian and other later immigrants, and the more recent abuses of Hispanics. It has serious problems with wealth distribution and it is getting worse all the time. It has a judicial system that operates in relation to the $$ one has to spend on bribes, oops sorry "on qualified representation". The methods we have used over the years to elect representatives has always been far from perfect, but seems to be on the brink of collapse lately. The horrendous laws that have been passed in recent years, combined with the total lack of respect for that "god-damned piece of paper" by a bunch of nitwits, well I see a storm on the horizon.
Yet YOU STILL believe what that chicken hawk and some right wing blog says, you poor thing. Just be careful where you stand when the storm arrives. Quit reading and listening to the same old shit, dig around some. Things are not the way BillO says they are, not at all.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety" Benjamin Franklin
"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last." Winston Churchill
When the people fear their Government, there is tyranny. When the Government fears it's people, there is liberty.." Thomas Paine
Wabi-Sabi
Matthew
Thanks for the bit of history lesson concerning the original UN plans for the city. I thought my idea was original but who knows where we get the basis for some of the ideas that we form. I have read some Clancy, but not much and I don't remember that one, I have a friend that reads everything he writes I ask about the novel.
Yea well emperors usually were not too worried about keeping everyone happy, just enough of the right ones. Then again the most successful ones managed to keep the majority pretty satisfied. There is a lesson there somewhere for those elected or appointed. Boldness and dogged persistence are admirable traits in a leader, but only in those studious enough to make wise and rational decisions.
Most, that is the majority of people everywhere I have lived or visited have been reasonable people with moderate views on life unless you outright harass them on one or another touchy topic. Its the 1% rule, or one bad apple rule, wherein a selected few messes things up for everyone. Thankfully there is usually the same percentage or better of folk out there that are willing to shoulder the extra burden or make the necessary sacrifice, while the majority in the middle continue to slug away at their lives often blissfully ignorant that there was a problem at all. As for the topic at hand, Jerusalem, there are third party players that are consistently mucking things up as well. And so it goes...
Wabi-Sabi
Matthew
" make Jerusalem a UN-administered city (the whole thing), and tell Israel to get over it."
And everyone else can get over it as well. You are first person besides myself I have heard this from. I came to this conclusion years ago. Don't know how workable it is though. Just because the idea appeals to someone of reason, well you know the rest. Near as I can tell all the religions of the descendants of Abraham have insistent and powerful radical factions intent upon using this land to facilitate one or another horrendously bloody prophecy, and they see such as a good thing.
Wabi-Sabi
Matthew
Most modern autos not only have the electronic fuel sending unit inside the tank but also the electric pump and with multiple tanks the electric diverting valve as well. All the components are simply very well insulated and sealed.
Wabi-Sabi
Matthew
So how long before the service packs break and bog down XP to the point Vista with a few good service pack fixes under its belt sucks less than your up to date XP? Tune up the new, detune the old. I don't think they can afford to have Vista be seen as a flop by the average person or the industry at large. It does not matter what this crowd thinks, it is irrelevant to them, what matters is the mass perception. Would they do it? Remember who we are talking about here.
Wabi-Sabi
Matthew
"Uh, yeah, possibly, unless they're either (a) planning to replace the ablative shield once for every two hour cross-continental flight"
The issue of whether materials science is able to deliver goods that can handle the heat generated by friction and compression at these speeds has nothing to do with the intrinsic nature of the engines fuel requirements ie:one being air. Though sacrificial shields may actually be a intern solution to some extent.
"or (b) will also be equipping this bird with frictionless force fields"
Something like electrostatic force fields could be a partial solution, but of course controllable fields that could be used to counter this much energy are still a pipe dream. Even more so considering that such fields generate significant thermal energy themselves as a byproduct, especially when used near certain materials like metals, especially ferrous metals.
There is going to be a limit to just how much good materials stability at high temps will do anyway. If the payload/occupants arrive roasted what is the point. I doubt the technology to insulated from or remove/relocate this amount of heat energy exists at this time in a package size/weight that would be acceptable at the highest speeds this engine is capable of. It seems to me that the ideal solution will be to somehow use the energy of the thermal load to negate its own effects, at as high an efficiency as possible.
Wabi-Sabi
Matthew
GNU == GNU is Not Unix. Since most all Linux OS distros are compromised of 80% GNU code, the OS part anyway, yes what you use and call Linux is more correctly referred to as GNU/Linux and GNU is Not Unix.
Wabi-Sabi
Matthew