...probably lame, but I'll ask them anyway. If the copyright is somehow wrong, and it allegedly has all these patent infringements, where's the lawsuits besides from SCO? It's not like it's any big secret. IBM has stated they don't intend to sue, I don't know what if anything Microsoft has said, but seeing as how this alleged infringement is widely known now, and there's no lawsuits, how could any company in the future claim "golly gee, lookee there, they are infringing on our patent?" Is it legal to sue well after the fact of finding out about it?
I don't know the nuances here, I admit.
And I have another question, are entire operating systems patentable? Seems like they would be, given that individual snippets of code seem to be patentable, so maybe there's no "lines of code required" size limit.. Are any operating systems patented in their totality?
we do other stuff for fun. She doesn't like going to the movies all that much either, just that one particular one she wanted to see. We watch a few videos now and then, but really, I only get them used and cheap, whicvh is the price I think those sorts of mass produced copies are worth, a dollar or two. there's no reason for the prices they charge anymore, mass production being what it is. The "industry" could have saved themselves a lot of grief if they had just kept dropping prices as the technology improved, and made it on a higher sales volume. Instead they stuck with absurdly high prices, and file sharing took over as a counter protest of a sorts from that primary reason-because today, making copies is absurdly cheap, whichever format you might mean, a CD or DVD or downloaded. All the industry is trying to do is monopolise technology to keep their profits up artificially, IMO. They want to be able to use the most advanced technology, but they don't want you to be able to do that. According to the way copyright is still realised and enforced, that's the current model, but eventually it will be supplanted, we are in roughly -a poor but adequate analogy- like back during the period of alcohol prohibition. A law on the books and people still getting busted for it, but also violated to such an extent and work arounds developed that eventually it will be removed as a bad idea. Not sure when that will happen but it most likely will.
As to the boycott, it's what an individual can do, and for me it was more or less spend my extra loot elsewheres, I just don't think those particular entertainments are worth the cost. When I was younger I did, but now I don't, and I outlined my reasons. That industry cartel is too crooked and greedy for my taste, and their products are way over priced-to me-for what they are. I'm just as happy reading a cheap used book or borrowed book from the library for instance.
As for your teeny-boppers, they are the ones primarily doing the file sharing, not me, never downloaded a single movie,and only downloaded one free-to-copy MP3 once, but it's no longer on my drive. So I don't see that as exactly them "taking up the RIAA cause", they seem to be doing both, spending a lot of money with that industry, and also sharing copies of what they.... I guess "lease to use" from the industry. You can't own it so you can't really call it buying.
Just in from a very reliable source - more on the rumored cover-up of the Hurricane Charley death toll:
"A buddy of mine lives in ********, FL. He lives on the leeward side of a hill and had little more than a nice breeze when the 'cane went over.
To the point, though, is that he works in video/film and has a number of friends who work in news in and around Punta Gorda. He has viewed raw footage of the destruction that blows away anything we are getting on the feeds. He reports tractor-trailer reefers full of body bags. No counts, but he is told there are hundreds. Every time a cameraman gets near the bodies, they are firmly "dissuaded" from shooting. Most of the stuff he is seeing is shot from a distance using 2x and 4x extenders. I am working on getting him to send me a broadcast quality raw tape dub. If nothing else, I will be out there in October. More as I get it.
One reason for the hidden count might be that a large count would lessen the impact of the 2,800 lives at the WTC just before *** plans to exploit them at the RNC. Another would be to hide the severely depleted National Guard there in Florida.
Interesting: many calls to the region are being intercepted by FEMA recorded message. Look up a number in Punta Gorda and give it a call. See what you get..."
Hijacking phone calls to keep the lid on? "Dissuading" reporters & cameramen? Does this sound like the the America we love and its Constitution to you? All hail the Emperor's Brother!
What's that suborbital 90 minute flight you want going to cost? any idea? I seem to remember concorde flights were like 1500$, but I could be wrong on that.
Yesterday, crude went to what, 48$ and change? What will it be in ten years time with quadruple the demand, which is what most of the projections I have read indicate, and after ten years more extraction of what we have left now?
My point is, it might be technically possible, but outside of a few rich people, who's going to be taking these flights in ten years or twenty years?
Personally, I think they should put all this higher/faster stuff on the back burner and work instead on where the next centuries worth of cleaner burning fuel is going to come from. I'm as much of a proponent of alternative energy as the next guy, but people just mumbling "hydrogen" ain't making it happen. And frankly, I don't see any plane carrying a compressed hydrogen tank, or being able to carry much if they need two or three kinds of engines in order to travel.
It's like...hmm, to be a bit whacky about it but "the personal submarine". Sure it's technologically possible and there's a limited small market for them now, but it's still a rich guys toy or only for a niche industry. Hypersonic transport I don't really see being as adopted as normal jet transport is now, it's just going to be way too expensive. I think they could build the machines, but they won't be affordable for 99.99999% of the human race to be able to use, so then you have to ask yourself why would they develop them, and why should everyone else pay to subsidise the devlopment and implementation. My thought in a nutshell is fuel first, then figure out new exciting ways to use the fuel. Right now we are only one generation away from *severe* global reduction in quality of life from the sheer lack of petroleum that is coming. I think we as humans need a better list of priorities.
...or did they just say that and transfer it to black projects? There's too much scuttlebutt out there over Aurora and Brilliant Buzzard to ignore it, IMO. Andf I also just plain don't believe they aren't (or haven't already) developing successors to the SR71 and the B2. I don't think there's ever been a time they WEREN'T always a generation or two ahead of what they admit to publically. But maybe they just...stopped, and nothing is secret anymore. That's more or less what they want us to believe, the only thing lately they admit to with some decent info is unmanned aircraft of various kinds mostly and this nasa stuff.
Basically, I have always considered NASA to be a military program gussied up to make it look civilian, I think the space race has always been of a primary military interest for them. Just my opinion on it.
I started boycotting way back when they got re-busted for I think the third time for industry collusion and driving up prices, etc on cheap recorded media and were engaging in payola (again) to the broadcasters and DJ's. I also got annoyed once albums starting costing more than one hours pay for me, and live concerts went up to three hours pay for me. I just thought "nope, not going to support these millionaires anymore, their crap ain't worth it". I like music, but not enough to make them people multi millionaires. Just like professional sports, enough's enough, they can pay players multi millions per year, but need to use city bond money to pay for stadiums and local property taxes to get kids addicted to professional team sports with the public school farm teams. It don't compute, hence, boycott.
As another point, I thought the blank media tax was supposed to cover copying anyway, or maybe I am remembering that incorrectly.
These guys claimed reel to reel would wreck the industry, I read that way back real time when it was happening. Then cassettes would put them all into poverty, just like VCRs would put movies and television into poverty. Funny, it didn't happen, they make more than ever. Seems the courts always forget that.
anyway, I went from dropping a few hundred a year back in the 60's on concerts and records, to maybe 100 or so in the 70's, then when it hit the 80's I just *stopped*. I've bought some used since then,and some really reduced bargain bin tapes and CDs, and that's it. If I see something at a yardsale for a dollar I might buy it now, but zero new, movies or music. And last pay-to-see anything was girlfriend and made me take her to see Titanic, so that's what, two years now, since last movie at the theater and live concert...sheesh, can't remember, maybe 11 years ago now besides two I worked at, which was enough to make me not want to work them again. A rolling stones gig and a guns n roses gig. I saw what they spent money on, then compared it to what us grunts were getting...buncha elite hosers. screw 'em.
the death count dealie is on smallish servers and blogs, google for "hurricane charley, 400 victims", you might find it, or goto rense.com and scroll down and look for the various hurricane stories
I'm not down there myself so it's the same as any other not-covered-much story, I was just reporting that a lot of times stories aren't covered and there was two I could think of lately. As to veracity, don't know, it's the same as any other stuff you see on the net. I do know in the past, twice, when I went to help myself I've been turned away by the red cross and fema, after hurricane andrew hit I organized a local (I was living in west atlanta at the time) convoy of contractor friends of mine with truckloads of building materiels and tools, etc, then I called the authorities, said we were heading down, and where should we go when we got there. I was told to NOT COME, that we would be turned away as we neared the destruction zone. Go figger, we didn't go then, that's a long drive and a lotta time and gas, so, screw it. Next time was during hurricane opal when it came all the way to atlanta, again, told to not enter the (one of the) destruction zone, I was trying to get to my landladys house to help with a huge tree that had smashed her roof, I was talking to her on the phone, said I would come overm but I wasn't official enough for them to be allowed to enter, got turned back. Only official previously registered red cross volunteers were allowed in.
Drudge had one story on the death toll being in somewhat of an uncertainty, that was a few days ago, it came and went, I remember that now. It might be in his archive of past headlines.That went to a news org down there. If I find a better source I will re post it to you , but I have to go to work now, late already, so it might not be until much later when I get a chance to look.
..I've seen coverage on a variety of pages so far. No idea on broadcast TV, though, I only watch local weather mostly. From what I read as of late last night it was a general broadcast threat, but no actual roadblocks set up, as a bus convoy went out the main drag over there and saw nothing.
See kids, pays to own your own high velocity hardware, then threats might not be as threatening.......well... OK, I fudged a little on the televiewing, I admit I've watched womens beach volleyball and the jumping cutie pie elfling grrls on the toob this week... %^)
more lost news stories not well known this week, but available if you look
--the actual death toll from hurricane charley is much higher than official figures.
--FEMA is blocking truck convoys of water and food going in, because they don't have an intact "handicap assessible" warehouse in the immediate area, so to distribute from some other place not so equipped they say would be "illegal". Some trucks have been sitting for three days being told they cannot enter to distribute.
... I do SO know. Supercomputers are mainframes that have radioactive spiders building webs inside them, and the cooties slop over and give them SUPAH POWAHZ.
neener neener
Unions do this already...
on
IT Myths
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Do an IT union instead of just "an organization". They establish their own credentials,which are, apprentice, journeyman, master. Then you negotiate from a position of strength in numbers as well. You get cred from your peers, and the PHB class has to deal with it, make 'em eat it. Any "workers" organization that isn't a union is just a lobbying effort, one that will never have the cash resources of the industry organizations, a union though, is an entity they HAVE to deal with if it's strong enough and you are smart enough, and isn't the point in being an IT guy being "smart enough"?
And you also have the benefit of a solid century plus in hindsight to see what to do and what not to do with your union. You can look at the past, see where unions have been doofus tards, and where they have been strong and useful, both for themselves and for society in general, then, use your collective brains and "do it better".
"(BTW, if you want to rant, fine. If you want to try to improve things, you should be a little more balanced, and try to offer suggestions for how to make it better.)"
You claim we can change the politicians every few years. Well, I say we can't, those politicians are just puppets and TV script readerts now, because it doesn't matter if we can't change the two cooperating criminal cartels who have hijacked government generations ago and run it as a perpetual jobs market to the almost total exclusion of anyone else. We don't have a government "of the people" we have a corporation that is run by the republican and democratic for-maximum- profit parties. You get an illusion of choice and an illusion of representative government, it doesn't exist in fact. They pass "laws" that say it is OK for them to be...bribed off. All they have to do is call it something other than bribery. They stick their own partisan political appointees into the supposedly non partisan "supreme court". Tell me, when's the last time a truly independent person with no major party affiliation or without personal and extensive international corporate holdings was appointed and confirmed to "judge our laws" that the R's and D's pass? Oh, it never happens, they are always D or R party functionaries?
Sorry, the system is rigged and it's just a large example of corporate monopoly, and I consider it to be an ongoing criminal eneterpise now. And I'm sorry about any still honest people inside government, but it ain't my call, it's the sum total of all their personal efforts that allows this criminal eneterprise to function day after day after year after generation. You either are part of that system,and personally profit from it, or you are a victime of it,and them's the two choices our society has now.
I'm not cynical about it, I am realistic about it. I can look, see, say what I see, and what I see is what I have described, and I have offered alternatives before here, everything from ending the support to the two criminal gangs that conspire to rule over us, to all the way to a new monetary system that isn't counterfeit perpetual slavery debt notes, and all the aspects in between. I'm not going to rehash a lot of that in a single post, it's almost impossible.
As to patents specifically, here ya go --> NO PATENTS FOR INTANGIBLES. That'll fix that pronto. That should be clear enough and simple enough as an alternative. Copyright for an intangible "product", swell, no probs, a PATENT???? No freekin way! You want a "patent" for an original work that consists of symbols electronically recorded on paper somehow, typed up crap! Hey, why don't we patent NOVELS then, it's the same deal? If all it takes is a rearrangment of typed up stuff to call something so new and improved that's it's patentable, then new music, visual art and written art should be patentable as well, as long as it isn't a copy of someone else. Oh, that would be lame, someone could patent the "murder mystery" or the "three chord rock song", right?
Ya, it WOULD be stupid, and that's exactly why SOFTWARE patents consisting of typed up stuff are stupid. Variations on an intangible theme are NOT innovative enough to be considered for "patenting", IMO. Copyright-OK, go for it if that's what you want.
... or do you mean the actual laws that reflect an actual crime aren't tough enough, or the sentences aren't tough enough? If it's the latter, I agree with you. There isn't a vehicular law out there that can't already address *any* of the crimes associated with DUI, except for the added-on specific DUI laws. Vehicular manslaughter, driving to endanger, speeding, etc, were all in existence previously, and if they had been vigorously enforced, no DUI "laws" would be necessary. Try to think of any potentialy harmful situation that can't be covered without resorting to DUI itself when it's comes to driving. Impaired driving in any form is just that, adding on "DUI" is just a revenue enhancement for the state. I can't think of any, there appears to be enough laws to cover all the various harmful-like driving situations. Those cases you mention, I would bet there were other actual laws involved besides DUI, take away the DUI, there'd still be enough to charge people for specific driving crimes.
Someone is weaving, swerving around, sliding stop signs, speeding up outrageously then slowing up to absurd slow, etc, all that, more than adequately covered under "driving to endanger". Crashing into something or someone, that's coered under various laws already. Dui= enhanced command and control and revenue for the state, plus get everyone used to "random checkpoints".
I refuse to be conditioned into it, I can see a police state tactic when I see one. I can remember when we didn't have those sorts of things, because they were considered abhorrent to a free people, and they seemed to still have adequate traffic laws. Now if they need to toughen those previous laws, swell, I have no problem with that.
...1/2 wrong. Supercomputers, and before they were called that, just whopper mainframes, used to do "all of the above" computing tasks because that's all there was. Now, stand alone PCs and clusters of them can probably do at least 1/2 the jobs out there, and maybe even a higher percentage. So, of course they (Cray and the others) are concerned for their market, losing half your market has to hurt, and daily the ways you can use smallish commodity hardware computers increases, both in complexity of job and in numbers of jobs. It's also a function of cost. If I can mangle some negatives here, PCs are not getting worse, nor more expensive, nor able to handle less tasks of less complexity. If that was true, so called "super" conmputers would not be in any threat, but they are, because it's happening. PCs and clusters are getting much mo bettah, at a fantastic rate. There is not a 100% replacement for "super" computers yet, but just in the last ten years I would bet a LOT of jobs previously only possible on "super" computers are now being handled easier/better/cheaper on "normal" PCs and clusters of them, and that trend will only continue, and there's only one place that market can come from, and that is the mainframe-stand alone "super" comnputer of yesteryear.
... for the government. Just like DUI laws and war on some drugs laws, etc, all the way to the criminal justice "system". Allow even the most ridiculous things to be patented or be applied for. Charge large sums of money for this. Legislate it so it's all "law". Mass profit. It's pretty easy to see, that and the very large corporations want it that way. There are NO laws passed that large international corporations DON'T want. There is no difference between high level politicians and judges and large corporations, they all are major stockholders and etc in various large corps, Demoncrap or Repugnicant, elected or appointed. Even if they cry crocdile tears about this or that in public, if you look closer, they profit, government profits in the gestalt.
Government is the largest corporation, and has the monopoly on that "business". Look at it that way, and it all becomes clearer.
And you always have to think of "government" as a for-profit institution, no different from any other corporation, with the added bonus of they got guys with guns to "enforce" their dictates and to enforce their monopoly, and this monopoly is worth trillions and a ton of command and control they dig on.
Just like the mafia.
And you'll never "vote" it out, either, just won't happen, there's nothing in it, zero, nada, zilch for the politicians or the employees to get "voted" out of artificially created necessity, hence, it never happens, no place.
At least in olden tymes they called a spade a spade, those goofs were called "rulers". We got the same doods and the same apparati now, just they call it something else, but it looks, and acts exactly the same.
think about it, a do not fly list is in effect creating a sub classification of untermenschen, who are treated as non citizens with no rights, automatically. Not charged with a crime, charged for being who they are. When will they be required to wear the official symbol at all times, so that other "real" citizens can avoid them or further persecute them? Didn't we already go through this in ww2? Classifications of humans based on some government list? It's easy to see, too, as soon as any human is referred to in a non standard way that suggest or implies they are "not really human", but different somehow. Why those people over there aren't human, they are monkeys, niggers, so we don't have to treat them like humans. They are slopes, gooks, slants, huns, beaners, japs, filthy injuns, bloody wogs, commies, liberals, ragheads, camel jockeys, unionists, rebels, terrorists, insurgents, persons of interest, or todays favorite "detainees". Nothing like getting "detained" for years or life. Makes it sound so righteous, as soon as you are a detainee your captors can think-say-do anything, because you cease being a human so anything goes. First you need the list, then the de humanising term, then mass feudalistic profit. It was the same 3,000 years ago, 300 years ago, 30 years ago. It's always been that way you untermenschen, obey your "superiors", bow and kneel before them as they are gods walking before you, grovel knave, the bluebloods demand it.
It's not the main politicians who are pushing these fascist agendas who are at main fault. They are actually small in number and almost pitifully impotent in their own right. If it was *just* them we wouldn't have much problems with it, they could be rubber roomed like any other legitimate nutjob. Nope, it's their nature to be fascist pigs, it's literally bred and inbred and brainwashed into them with their feudalistic backgrounds and inclinations and social structure. It's the legions of bureaucratic drones and brainwashed seig heiling gun toting order followers who implement these fascist decisions masquerading as laws, with no questions asked, who are the enemies of freedom. The biggest flag wavers always turn out to be the ones who *implement* these decisions by the autocrats, using every excuse in the book to justify their blind obedience and order following. They are always the first to implement thoroughly bogus actions, and the last to recognize that what they are doing is wrong.
Sucks, but there ya go. It's your friends, neighbors, relatives-even this guy "you" who is at fault, because he she them they you or me will "follow orders" that are clearly *wrong*. Pick an excuse, that's all that's needed, one single excuse, poof, totalitarianism reigns, no matter what it's called-communist dictatorship, fascist dictatorship, monarchial dictatorship, etc. That name doesn't matter, and people waste a lot of thought and energy fighting over a stupid name, when it's the actions that are important.
9-11 was an exact implementation of a reichstagg fire-like event. It was designed to implement a police state, to be used as an excuse to implement things such as this, and others such as the concept of "detainees" and secret military tribunals and internal checkpoints and expanded paramilitary surveillence and command and control. Same old crap with "ohh, new-shiny!" plastered on it. Then all they have to do is mutter "terrorist" or "security" to excuse any actions. And it happens on all the sides involved, I am not picking on any one grouping here, folks all over are just as guilty of it.
The "why" of it is easy to understand, the worlds elite have always been feudalistic in nature. Very very few are not. And in order for them to be and remain topdogs, they have to create targets so that the vast middle can have anyone but the top to look at as "the enemy", to keep attention focused there, to keep sub groups of serfs willing to remain serfs and to keep them suspicious and fighting with each other while *all* of them are be
...what I thought. and they had the acronym first, the new guys need to get a different one. I was hoping it was some new whizzbang release, like a full desktop GUI distro on a single floppy, that would have been cool...if possible.....
I think it's because everyone can see that there's not only something screwy going on, but there's a variety of somethings screwy going on. Bering practically prepared for an uncertain future is just prudent. I've always been what is now called a prepper or survivalist, and daily I can see where it comes in handy. Look at those poor folks in florida now with the hurricane damage. those that had a generator and some stored food and canned water had a leg up on everyone else.
I've already been through two factories closing up and moving offshore, then I went through the invasion of the illegals. I can smell what's happening with the economy. I've seen, like I related, what's happening with energy in the future. and anyone can see that warfarte hasn't gone away, and that living in the US is no guarantee it won't touch you. I can read the economic reports and cut through the stock shills BS and see what's happening. I've read the latest figures-it's bad. Record deficits, record bankruptices. The pension inusrance dealie is almost bankrupt itself. Lowest interest rates for two generations have failed to do anything but pluf a crack in the leaking dike, they haven't "fixed" anything. I read the anecdotals here on slashdot, quite a few people with decent college degrees in the "new economy" type pursuits still struggling to get employment, even undergoing the indignity of training foreign replacement workers.
On and on.
man is a carbon based thinking being. We all need water-food-shelter-security. As much as you can become independent on those four critical areas, the better off you are-and it helps to be hip to technology. Old technology, not so old, and brand new, because it's all useful.
Basically I am living the same as most people lived right up to world war 2, it's not that long ago either. People used to think it normal to have a very large pantry, it was the rule, not the exception. Being out of debt was a virtue, now to be decades in debt is considered "cool" for some reason, even though you can see the evidence how that is biting people. I remember when ten year home notes were common, now they are 30 years. Car notes-12 months, now 60 months.
That is not evidence of an improved economy, it's the opposite. It really started getting bad when they pushed unfair and grossly mis-labeled globalist "free trade" on us. all that has done is make millioniares billionaires and put almost everyone else into serious long term debt, and to make it worse, the globalists keep calling that a "good thing".
It's nuts. No law says anyone has to go along with nuttiness. The herd can, but I don't have to. And being an old time geek and nerd, I'm pretty used to being "different", I just never lost sight of physical realities. And it helps to have had a rural upbringing, great skills, still useful today. As to being a luddite, which is more useful modern tech to adopt, solar panels or a video game console? A wind charger and some transceivers, or a home theater and the latest throw away cell phone complete with games and ringtones?
I just pick and choose my technological interests differently than most people. I embrace the new that is useful to me, but I don't have to abandon the old that is still working *fine*.
... still cheap manufactured items and using my analysis and projections to plan for the future. I've gotten some alternative energy and I'm gettimg more now while it's still cheap. My solar panels are up and running well, they work, and no matter how expensive elctricity gets, or how weird the availability, I know my girlfriend and I will always have *some* to use that isn't tied to global geopolitics and market shenanigans. I don't buy big screen home theaters and then sit back and think everything is gonna be rosy for the next 30 years. Also have been expanding the garden,including this winter more of a real greenhouse and not just the single bed hoop houses we have been using, and we just this week got our first small cattle herd, to expand our farming efforts-as no matter how borked the economy gets, people will still need to eat. I'm also thinking of converting an old junker little car I have to all electric, some place to dump the solar power we are getting. In addition to that, I think I'm gonna get some horses. May sound weird to city folks, but they still work and you can easily grow your own fuel and also your own replacement vehicles. a horse with the right equipment is a car, a truck and a tractor. cool beans.
I think of the future as an amish like existence with some advanced technology mixed in. A good blend of the old tried and true and cheap with what good technology we have developed over the last 50 years up to today. I remember filling my first tanks of gas for 2-3$. Not a gallon, a TANK of gas, and it hasn't been that long ago in historical terms.
In the entire history of airline travel it was totally legal for pilots (in the US anyway)to be armed, although they didn't advertise it much, and it was up to the airlines and pilkots themselves how to deal with it. That policy was *changed* a short period before 9-11. To date there has been no credible explanation from the government why they ordered that. People like to think it was always like that-unarmed pilots-but it isn't so.
You are correct. Thinking there's still going to be anything but mostly governmental flights and extremely rich people flying decades from now is beyond wishful thinking. The airlines are right now scrambling to stay operational. And 46$ a barrel oil hasn't trickled down to increased refined fuel costs yet.
I don't even give it five years, try two years maybe before it starts dropping off severely. And it's not only in terms of money, it's in terms of physics and energy conversion. Once it gets to the point that it takes a BTU to transfer another BTU, by drilling, pumping, shipping, refining, re shipping, then burning, you could have a lake of oil and it wouldn't matter. We've only had cheap flying "for the masses" from the phenomenon of really cheap energy conversion, and as fields peak and fall off it just ain't cheap no mo.
I honestly don't think many people or governments have bingoed to this yet. They just aren't finding exploitable fields at the same rate they used to, in fact, they have busted some oil companies for purposely over-estimating what they are currently sitting on. We are currently in the "good old days" of a semi robust global economy, it is unsustainable once demand quadruples-which it is with china and india and some others really modernizing- while available supplies are falling off.
I am a big proponent of alternative energy, and I'm also the first one to concede-and warn people-that there's no credible replacement for the really cheap (money + BTU conversion rate) oil of the 50s to the 70's which is the main reason for the planets manufacturing boom and wealth creation during that period.
One of the major costs of living is housing, renting or buying. The housing market is kept massively over priced by speculation encouraged by the federal reserve system and it's legions of busywork middlemen skimmers and shillers introducing new, unearned artifically created capital into the market place and encouraging speculation by lower interest rates. "Here kid, borrow some more on what you already borrowed-no need to work for it, and you'll *make money* on it". Nutso. Buncoism. Keynesian Kartoon Kapers. It's acting as an "enabler" for postponing-but not stopping- the much needed correction in the market place. We would have a much lower cost of living if that practice was stopped. Telling people they can keep borrowing more and 'everyone will be a winner' is casino shilling hucksterism of the highest order. The current economy is akin to trying to build a rube goldberg mechanical gee-gaw contraption of springs and weights and flywheels perpetual motion machine-some of the schemes look really spiffy on paper, and fail miserably in practice. If their schemes of inflated debt, encouraging trading wealth production for wealth re arrangement, and inducing unsustainable expectations that you need do nothing but sit around and "make money" by borrowing then selling debt based paper then borrowing again on that really worked, we wouldn't have the highest rate of government deficits, the highest rate of trade imbalance, nor the highest rate of personal and corporate bankruptcy in two generations, if not longer. Even lowering interest rates has only slowed the crash coming, it hasn't stopped it. People finally "got it" on "irrational exuberance" with stocks, they have yet to get it with real estate and housing, although it's getting closer now. "Cost of living" is a function of expectations versus realities, and you can only keep borrowing so long before you actually have to work and produce. Designing an economy that denigrates wealth production in favor of wealth rearrangement is doomed to eventual collapse, and it will start happening once we can no longer suck in foreign capital. Right now they are dumping previously exported petrodllars back into US paper, but even that won't help much in the long run, as eventually it has to be recognized that debt purchasing debt can only lead to...more debt.
if the samples are not tied to a named human it shouldn't be that much of a problem. And the test subjects could scramble them around amongst themselves before they turn them in.
Slashdot Mirror
...probably lame, but I'll ask them anyway. If the copyright is somehow wrong, and it allegedly has all these patent infringements, where's the lawsuits besides from SCO? It's not like it's any big secret. IBM has stated they don't intend to sue, I don't know what if anything Microsoft has said, but seeing as how this alleged infringement is widely known now, and there's no lawsuits, how could any company in the future claim "golly gee, lookee there, they are infringing on our patent?" Is it legal to sue well after the fact of finding out about it?
I don't know the nuances here, I admit.
And I have another question, are entire operating systems patentable? Seems like they would be, given that individual snippets of code seem to be patentable, so maybe there's no "lines of code required" size limit.. Are any operating systems patented in their totality?
we do other stuff for fun. She doesn't like going to the movies all that much either, just that one particular one she wanted to see. We watch a few videos now and then, but really, I only get them used and cheap, whicvh is the price I think those sorts of mass produced copies are worth, a dollar or two. there's no reason for the prices they charge anymore, mass production being what it is. The "industry" could have saved themselves a lot of grief if they had just kept dropping prices as the technology improved, and made it on a higher sales volume. Instead they stuck with absurdly high prices, and file sharing took over as a counter protest of a sorts from that primary reason-because today, making copies is absurdly cheap, whichever format you might mean, a CD or DVD or downloaded. All the industry is trying to do is monopolise technology to keep their profits up artificially, IMO. They want to be able to use the most advanced technology, but they don't want you to be able to do that. According to the way copyright is still realised and enforced, that's the current model, but eventually it will be supplanted, we are in roughly -a poor but adequate analogy- like back during the period of alcohol prohibition. A law on the books and people still getting busted for it, but also violated to such an extent and work arounds developed that eventually it will be removed as a bad idea. Not sure when that will happen but it most likely will.
.... I guess "lease to use" from the industry. You can't own it so you can't really call it buying.
As to the boycott, it's what an individual can do, and for me it was more or less spend my extra loot elsewheres, I just don't think those particular entertainments are worth the cost. When I was younger I did, but now I don't, and I outlined my reasons. That industry cartel is too crooked and greedy for my taste, and their products are way over priced-to me-for what they are. I'm just as happy reading a cheap used book or borrowed book from the library for instance.
As for your teeny-boppers, they are the ones primarily doing the file sharing, not me, never downloaded a single movie,and only downloaded one free-to-copy MP3 once, but it's no longer on my drive. So I don't see that as exactly them "taking up the RIAA cause", they seem to be doing both, spending a lot of money with that industry, and also sharing copies of what they
--this is from economist george ure's website
http://urbansurvival.com/week.htm
Friday
10:30 A Friday Special Update
Charley Cover-up
Just in from a very reliable source - more on the rumored cover-up of the Hurricane Charley death toll:
"A buddy of mine lives in ********, FL. He lives on the leeward side of a hill and had little more than a nice breeze when the 'cane went over.
To the point, though, is that he works in video/film and has a number of friends who work in news in and around Punta Gorda. He has viewed raw footage of the destruction that blows away anything we are getting on the feeds. He reports tractor-trailer reefers full of body bags. No counts, but he is told there are hundreds. Every time a cameraman gets near the bodies, they are firmly "dissuaded" from shooting. Most of the stuff he is seeing is shot from a distance using 2x and 4x extenders. I am working on getting him to send me a broadcast quality raw tape dub. If nothing else, I will be out there in October. More as I get it.
One reason for the hidden count might be that a large count would lessen the impact of the 2,800 lives at the WTC just before *** plans to exploit them at the RNC. Another would be to hide the severely depleted National Guard there in Florida.
Interesting: many calls to the region are being intercepted by FEMA recorded message. Look up a number in Punta Gorda and give it a call. See what you get..."
Hijacking phone calls to keep the lid on? "Dissuading" reporters & cameramen? Does this sound like the the America we love and its Constitution to you? All hail the Emperor's Brother!
What's that suborbital 90 minute flight you want going to cost? any idea? I seem to remember concorde flights were like 1500$, but I could be wrong on that.
...hmm, to be a bit whacky about it but "the personal submarine". Sure it's technologically possible and there's a limited small market for them now, but it's still a rich guys toy or only for a niche industry. Hypersonic transport I don't really see being as adopted as normal jet transport is now, it's just going to be way too expensive. I think they could build the machines, but they won't be affordable for 99.99999% of the human race to be able to use, so then you have to ask yourself why would they develop them, and why should everyone else pay to subsidise the devlopment and implementation. My thought in a nutshell is fuel first, then figure out new exciting ways to use the fuel. Right now we are only one generation away from *severe* global reduction in quality of life from the sheer lack of petroleum that is coming. I think we as humans need a better list of priorities.
Yesterday, crude went to what, 48$ and change? What will it be in ten years time with quadruple the demand, which is what most of the projections I have read indicate, and after ten years more extraction of what we have left now?
My point is, it might be technically possible, but outside of a few rich people, who's going to be taking these flights in ten years or twenty years?
Personally, I think they should put all this higher/faster stuff on the back burner and work instead on where the next centuries worth of cleaner burning fuel is going to come from. I'm as much of a proponent of alternative energy as the next guy, but people just mumbling "hydrogen" ain't making it happen. And frankly, I don't see any plane carrying a compressed hydrogen tank, or being able to carry much if they need two or three kinds of engines in order to travel.
It's like
...or did they just say that and transfer it to black projects? There's too much scuttlebutt out there over Aurora and Brilliant Buzzard to ignore it, IMO. Andf I also just plain don't believe they aren't (or haven't already) developing successors to the SR71 and the B2. I don't think there's ever been a time they WEREN'T always a generation or two ahead of what they admit to publically. But maybe they just ...stopped, and nothing is secret anymore. That's more or less what they want us to believe, the only thing lately they admit to with some decent info is unmanned aircraft of various kinds mostly and this nasa stuff.
Basically, I have always considered NASA to be a military program gussied up to make it look civilian, I think the space race has always been of a primary military interest for them. Just my opinion on it.
I started boycotting way back when they got re-busted for I think the third time for industry collusion and driving up prices, etc on cheap recorded media and were engaging in payola (again) to the broadcasters and DJ's. I also got annoyed once albums starting costing more than one hours pay for me, and live concerts went up to three hours pay for me. I just thought "nope, not going to support these millionaires anymore, their crap ain't worth it". I like music, but not enough to make them people multi millionaires. Just like professional sports, enough's enough, they can pay players multi millions per year, but need to use city bond money to pay for stadiums and local property taxes to get kids addicted to professional team sports with the public school farm teams. It don't compute, hence, boycott.
As another point, I thought the blank media tax was supposed to cover copying anyway, or maybe I am remembering that incorrectly.
These guys claimed reel to reel would wreck the industry, I read that way back real time when it was happening. Then cassettes would put them all into poverty, just like VCRs would put movies and television into poverty. Funny, it didn't happen, they make more than ever. Seems the courts always forget that.
anyway, I went from dropping a few hundred a year back in the 60's on concerts and records, to maybe 100 or so in the 70's, then when it hit the 80's I just *stopped*. I've bought some used since then,and some really reduced bargain bin tapes and CDs, and that's it. If I see something at a yardsale for a dollar I might buy it now, but zero new, movies or music. And last pay-to-see anything was girlfriend and made me take her to see Titanic, so that's what, two years now, since last movie at the theater and live concert...sheesh, can't remember, maybe 11 years ago now besides two I worked at, which was enough to make me not want to work them again. A rolling stones gig and a guns n roses gig. I saw what they spent money on, then compared it to what us grunts were getting...buncha elite hosers. screw 'em.
fema blocking water deliveries for political correctness
k pr obs.shtml
a l/ 9411262.htm
http://www.28news.com/stories/2004/08/040819pol
the death count dealie is on smallish servers and blogs, google for "hurricane charley, 400 victims", you might find it, or goto rense.com and scroll down and look for the various hurricane stories
I'm not down there myself so it's the same as any other not-covered-much story, I was just reporting that a lot of times stories aren't covered and there was two I could think of lately. As to veracity, don't know, it's the same as any other stuff you see on the net. I do know in the past, twice, when I went to help myself I've been turned away by the red cross and fema, after hurricane andrew hit I organized a local (I was living in west atlanta at the time) convoy of contractor friends of mine with truckloads of building materiels and tools, etc, then I called the authorities, said we were heading down, and where should we go when we got there. I was told to NOT COME, that we would be turned away as we neared the destruction zone. Go figger, we didn't go then, that's a long drive and a lotta time and gas, so, screw it. Next time was during hurricane opal when it came all the way to atlanta, again, told to not enter the (one of the) destruction zone, I was trying to get to my landladys house to help with a huge tree that had smashed her roof, I was talking to her on the phone, said I would come overm but I wasn't official enough for them to be allowed to enter, got turned back. Only official previously registered red cross volunteers were allowed in.
Drudge had one story on the death toll being in somewhat of an uncertainty, that was a few days ago, it came and went, I remember that now. It might be in his archive of past headlines.That went to a news org down there. If I find a better source I will re post it to you , but I have to go to work now, late already, so it might not be until much later when I get a chance to look.
wait, this one was easy to re-find
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/loc
the more detailed ones from some folks down at the scene are linked off of rense's site
..I've seen coverage on a variety of pages so far. No idea on broadcast TV, though, I only watch local weather mostly. From what I read as of late last night it was a general broadcast threat, but no actual roadblocks set up, as a bus convoy went out the main drag over there and saw nothing.
...well... OK, I fudged a little on the televiewing, I admit I've watched womens beach volleyball and the jumping cutie pie elfling grrls on the toob this week... %^)
See kids, pays to own your own high velocity hardware, then threats might not be as threatening....
more lost news stories not well known this week, but available if you look
--the actual death toll from hurricane charley is much higher than official figures.
--FEMA is blocking truck convoys of water and food going in, because they don't have an intact "handicap assessible" warehouse in the immediate area, so to distribute from some other place not so equipped they say would be "illegal". Some trucks have been sitting for three days being told they cannot enter to distribute.
... I do SO know. Supercomputers are mainframes that have radioactive spiders building webs inside them, and the cooties slop over and give them SUPAH POWAHZ.
neener neener
Do an IT union instead of just "an organization". They establish their own credentials,which are, apprentice, journeyman, master. Then you negotiate from a position of strength in numbers as well. You get cred from your peers, and the PHB class has to deal with it, make 'em eat it. Any "workers" organization that isn't a union is just a lobbying effort, one that will never have the cash resources of the industry organizations, a union though, is an entity they HAVE to deal with if it's strong enough and you are smart enough, and isn't the point in being an IT guy being "smart enough"?
And you also have the benefit of a solid century plus in hindsight to see what to do and what not to do with your union. You can look at the past, see where unions have been doofus tards, and where they have been strong and useful, both for themselves and for society in general, then, use your collective brains and "do it better".
... dozens and hundreds of posts I have.
"(BTW, if you want to rant, fine. If you want to try to improve things, you should be a little more balanced, and try to offer suggestions for how to make it better.)"
You claim we can change the politicians every few years. Well, I say we can't, those politicians are just puppets and TV script readerts now, because it doesn't matter if we can't change the two cooperating criminal cartels who have hijacked government generations ago and run it as a perpetual jobs market to the almost total exclusion of anyone else. We don't have a government "of the people" we have a corporation that is run by the republican and democratic for-maximum- profit parties. You get an illusion of choice and an illusion of representative government, it doesn't exist in fact. They pass "laws" that say it is OK for them to be...bribed off. All they have to do is call it something other than bribery. They stick their own partisan political appointees into the supposedly non partisan "supreme court". Tell me, when's the last time a truly independent person with no major party affiliation or without personal and extensive international corporate holdings was appointed and confirmed to "judge our laws" that the R's and D's pass? Oh, it never happens, they are always D or R party functionaries?
Sorry, the system is rigged and it's just a large example of corporate monopoly, and I consider it to be an ongoing criminal eneterpise now. And I'm sorry about any still honest people inside government, but it ain't my call, it's the sum total of all their personal efforts that allows this criminal eneterprise to function day after day after year after generation. You either are part of that system,and personally profit from it, or you are a victime of it,and them's the two choices our society has now.
I'm not cynical about it, I am realistic about it. I can look, see, say what I see, and what I see is what I have described, and I have offered alternatives before here, everything from ending the support to the two criminal gangs that conspire to rule over us, to all the way to a new monetary system that isn't counterfeit perpetual slavery debt notes, and all the aspects in between. I'm not going to rehash a lot of that in a single post, it's almost impossible.
As to patents specifically, here ya go --> NO PATENTS FOR INTANGIBLES. That'll fix that pronto. That should be clear enough and simple enough as an alternative. Copyright for an intangible "product", swell, no probs, a PATENT???? No freekin way! You want a "patent" for an original work that consists of symbols electronically recorded on paper somehow, typed up crap! Hey, why don't we patent NOVELS then, it's the same deal? If all it takes is a rearrangment of typed up stuff to call something so new and improved that's it's patentable, then new music, visual art and written art should be patentable as well, as long as it isn't a copy of someone else.
Oh, that would be lame, someone could patent the "murder mystery" or the "three chord rock song", right?
Ya, it WOULD be stupid, and that's exactly why SOFTWARE patents consisting of typed up stuff are stupid. Variations on an intangible theme are NOT innovative enough to be considered for "patenting", IMO. Copyright-OK, go for it if that's what you want.
... or do you mean the actual laws that reflect an actual crime aren't tough enough, or the sentences aren't tough enough? If it's the latter, I agree with you. There isn't a vehicular law out there that can't already address *any* of the crimes associated with DUI, except for the added-on specific DUI laws. Vehicular manslaughter, driving to endanger, speeding, etc, were all in existence previously, and if they had been vigorously enforced, no DUI "laws" would be necessary. Try to think of any potentialy harmful situation that can't be covered without resorting to DUI itself when it's comes to driving. Impaired driving in any form is just that, adding on "DUI" is just a revenue enhancement for the state. I can't think of any, there appears to be enough laws to cover all the various harmful-like driving situations. Those cases you mention, I would bet there were other actual laws involved besides DUI, take away the DUI, there'd still be enough to charge people for specific driving crimes.
Someone is weaving, swerving around, sliding stop signs, speeding up outrageously then slowing up to absurd slow, etc, all that, more than adequately covered under "driving to endanger". Crashing into something or someone, that's coered under various laws already. Dui= enhanced command and control and revenue for the state, plus get everyone used to "random checkpoints".
I refuse to be conditioned into it, I can see a police state tactic when I see one. I can remember when we didn't have those sorts of things, because they were considered abhorrent to a free people, and they seemed to still have adequate traffic laws. Now if they need to toughen those previous laws, swell, I have no problem with that.
That's the difference.
...1/2 wrong. Supercomputers, and before they were called that, just whopper mainframes, used to do "all of the above" computing tasks because that's all there was. Now, stand alone PCs and clusters of them can probably do at least 1/2 the jobs out there, and maybe even a higher percentage. So, of course they (Cray and the others) are concerned for their market, losing half your market has to hurt, and daily the ways you can use smallish commodity hardware computers increases, both in complexity of job and in numbers of jobs. It's also a function of cost. If I can mangle some negatives here, PCs are not getting worse, nor more expensive, nor able to handle less tasks of less complexity. If that was true, so called "super" conmputers would not be in any threat, but they are, because it's happening. PCs and clusters are getting much mo bettah, at a fantastic rate. There is not a 100% replacement for "super" computers yet, but just in the last ten years I would bet a LOT of jobs previously only possible on "super" computers are now being handled easier/better/cheaper on "normal" PCs and clusters of them, and that trend will only continue, and there's only one place that market can come from, and that is the mainframe-stand alone "super" comnputer of yesteryear.
... for the government. Just like DUI laws and war on some drugs laws, etc, all the way to the criminal justice "system". Allow even the most ridiculous things to be patented or be applied for. Charge large sums of money for this. Legislate it so it's all "law". Mass profit. It's pretty easy to see, that and the very large corporations want it that way. There are NO laws passed that large international corporations DON'T want. There is no difference between high level politicians and judges and large corporations, they all are major stockholders and etc in various large corps, Demoncrap or Repugnicant, elected or appointed. Even if they cry crocdile tears about this or that in public, if you look closer, they profit, government profits in the gestalt.
Government is the largest corporation, and has the monopoly on that "business". Look at it that way, and it all becomes clearer.
And you always have to think of "government" as a for-profit institution, no different from any other corporation, with the added bonus of they got guys with guns to "enforce" their dictates and to enforce their monopoly, and this monopoly is worth trillions and a ton of command and control they dig on.
Just like the mafia.
And you'll never "vote" it out, either, just won't happen, there's nothing in it, zero, nada, zilch for the politicians or the employees to get "voted" out of artificially created necessity, hence, it never happens, no place.
At least in olden tymes they called a spade a spade, those goofs were called "rulers". We got the same doods and the same apparati now, just they call it something else, but it looks, and acts exactly the same.
think about it, a do not fly list is in effect creating a sub classification of untermenschen, who are treated as non citizens with no rights, automatically. Not charged with a crime, charged for being who they are. When will they be required to wear the official symbol at all times, so that other "real" citizens can avoid them or further persecute them? Didn't we already go through this in ww2? Classifications of humans based on some government list? It's easy to see, too, as soon as any human is referred to in a non standard way that suggest or implies they are "not really human", but different somehow. Why those people over there aren't human, they are monkeys, niggers, so we don't have to treat them like humans. They are slopes, gooks, slants, huns, beaners, japs, filthy injuns, bloody wogs, commies, liberals, ragheads, camel jockeys, unionists, rebels, terrorists, insurgents, persons of interest, or todays favorite "detainees". Nothing like getting "detained" for years or life. Makes it sound so righteous, as soon as you are a detainee your captors can think-say-do anything, because you cease being a human so anything goes. First you need the list, then the de humanising term, then mass feudalistic profit. It was the same 3,000 years ago, 300 years ago, 30 years ago. It's always been that way you untermenschen, obey your "superiors", bow and kneel before them as they are gods walking before you, grovel knave, the bluebloods demand it.
It's not the main politicians who are pushing these fascist agendas who are at main fault. They are actually small in number and almost pitifully impotent in their own right. If it was *just* them we wouldn't have much problems with it, they could be rubber roomed like any other legitimate nutjob. Nope, it's their nature to be fascist pigs, it's literally bred and inbred and brainwashed into them with their feudalistic backgrounds and inclinations and social structure. It's the legions of bureaucratic drones and brainwashed seig heiling gun toting order followers who implement these fascist decisions masquerading as laws, with no questions asked, who are the enemies of freedom. The biggest flag wavers always turn out to be the ones who *implement* these decisions by the autocrats, using every excuse in the book to justify their blind obedience and order following. They are always the first to implement thoroughly bogus actions, and the last to recognize that what they are doing is wrong.
Sucks, but there ya go. It's your friends, neighbors, relatives-even this guy "you" who is at fault, because he she them they you or me will "follow orders" that are clearly *wrong*. Pick an excuse, that's all that's needed, one single excuse, poof, totalitarianism reigns, no matter what it's called-communist dictatorship, fascist dictatorship, monarchial dictatorship, etc. That name doesn't matter, and people waste a lot of thought and energy fighting over a stupid name, when it's the actions that are important.
9-11 was an exact implementation of a reichstagg fire-like event. It was designed to implement a police state, to be used as an excuse to implement things such as this, and others such as the concept of "detainees" and secret military tribunals and internal checkpoints and expanded paramilitary surveillence and command and control. Same old crap with "ohh, new-shiny!" plastered on it. Then all they have to do is mutter "terrorist" or "security" to excuse any actions. And it happens on all the sides involved, I am not picking on any one grouping here, folks all over are just as guilty of it.
The "why" of it is easy to understand, the worlds elite have always been feudalistic in nature. Very very few are not. And in order for them to be and remain topdogs, they have to create targets so that the vast middle can have anyone but the top to look at as "the enemy", to keep attention focused there, to keep sub groups of serfs willing to remain serfs and to keep them suspicious and fighting with each other while *all* of them are be
one of the best acronyms evah score +1 insightfully funny
...what I thought. and they had the acronym first, the new guys need to get a different one. I was hoping it was some new whizzbang release, like a full desktop GUI distro on a single floppy, that would have been cool...if possible.....
I think it's because everyone can see that there's not only something screwy going on, but there's a variety of somethings screwy going on. Bering practically prepared for an uncertain future is just prudent. I've always been what is now called a prepper or survivalist, and daily I can see where it comes in handy. Look at those poor folks in florida now with the hurricane damage. those that had a generator and some stored food and canned water had a leg up on everyone else.
I've already been through two factories closing up and moving offshore, then I went through the invasion of the illegals. I can smell what's happening with the economy. I've seen, like I related, what's happening with energy in the future. and anyone can see that warfarte hasn't gone away, and that living in the US is no guarantee it won't touch you. I can read the economic reports and cut through the stock shills BS and see what's happening. I've read the latest figures-it's bad. Record deficits, record bankruptices. The pension inusrance dealie is almost bankrupt itself. Lowest interest rates for two generations have failed to do anything but pluf a crack in the leaking dike, they haven't "fixed" anything. I read the anecdotals here on slashdot, quite a few people with decent college degrees in the "new economy" type pursuits still struggling to get employment, even undergoing the indignity of training foreign replacement workers.
On and on.
man is a carbon based thinking being. We all need water-food-shelter-security. As much as you can become independent on those four critical areas, the better off you are-and it helps to be hip to technology. Old technology, not so old, and brand new, because it's all useful.
Basically I am living the same as most people lived right up to world war 2, it's not that long ago either. People used to think it normal to have a very large pantry, it was the rule, not the exception. Being out of debt was a virtue, now to be decades in debt is considered "cool" for some reason, even though you can see the evidence how that is biting people. I remember when ten year home notes were common, now they are 30 years. Car notes-12 months, now 60 months.
That is not evidence of an improved economy, it's the opposite. It really started getting bad when they pushed unfair and grossly mis-labeled globalist "free trade" on us. all that has done is make millioniares billionaires and put almost everyone else into serious long term debt, and to make it worse, the globalists keep calling that a "good thing".
It's nuts. No law says anyone has to go along with nuttiness. The herd can, but I don't have to. And being an old time geek and nerd, I'm pretty used to being "different", I just never lost sight of physical realities. And it helps to have had a rural upbringing, great skills, still useful today. As to being a luddite, which is more useful modern tech to adopt, solar panels or a video game console? A wind charger and some transceivers, or a home theater and the latest throw away cell phone complete with games and ringtones?
I just pick and choose my technological interests differently than most people. I embrace the new that is useful to me, but I don't have to abandon the old that is still working *fine*.
what? complain about free target shooting?!?
MUAAA HA HAHAHAHAHAHA!
... still cheap manufactured items and using my analysis and projections to plan for the future. I've gotten some alternative energy and I'm gettimg more now while it's still cheap. My solar panels are up and running well, they work, and no matter how expensive elctricity gets, or how weird the availability, I know my girlfriend and I will always have *some* to use that isn't tied to global geopolitics and market shenanigans. I don't buy big screen home theaters and then sit back and think everything is gonna be rosy for the next 30 years. Also have been expanding the garden,including this winter more of a real greenhouse and not just the single bed hoop houses we have been using, and we just this week got our first small cattle herd, to expand our farming efforts-as no matter how borked the economy gets, people will still need to eat. I'm also thinking of converting an old junker little car I have to all electric, some place to dump the solar power we are getting. In addition to that, I think I'm gonna get some horses. May sound weird to city folks, but they still work and you can easily grow your own fuel and also your own replacement vehicles. a horse with the right equipment is a car, a truck and a tractor. cool beans.
I think of the future as an amish like existence with some advanced technology mixed in. A good blend of the old tried and true and cheap with what good technology we have developed over the last 50 years up to today. I remember filling my first tanks of gas for 2-3$. Not a gallon, a TANK of gas, and it hasn't been that long ago in historical terms.
....duelling.
In the entire history of airline travel it was totally legal for pilots (in the US anyway)to be armed, although they didn't advertise it much, and it was up to the airlines and pilkots themselves how to deal with it. That policy was *changed* a short period before 9-11. To date there has been no credible explanation from the government why they ordered that. People like to think it was always like that-unarmed pilots-but it isn't so.
You are correct. Thinking there's still going to be anything but mostly governmental flights and extremely rich people flying decades from now is beyond wishful thinking. The airlines are right now scrambling to stay operational. And 46$ a barrel oil hasn't trickled down to increased refined fuel costs yet.
I don't even give it five years, try two years maybe before it starts dropping off severely. And it's not only in terms of money, it's in terms of physics and energy conversion. Once it gets to the point that it takes a BTU to transfer another BTU, by drilling, pumping, shipping, refining, re shipping, then burning, you could have a lake of oil and it wouldn't matter. We've only had cheap flying "for the masses" from the phenomenon of really cheap energy conversion, and as fields peak and fall off it just ain't cheap no mo.
I honestly don't think many people or governments have bingoed to this yet. They just aren't finding exploitable fields at the same rate they used to, in fact, they have busted some oil companies for purposely over-estimating what they are currently sitting on. We are currently in the "good old days" of a semi robust global economy, it is unsustainable once demand quadruples-which it is with china and india and some others really modernizing- while available supplies are falling off.
I am a big proponent of alternative energy, and I'm also the first one to concede-and warn people-that there's no credible replacement for the really cheap (money + BTU conversion rate) oil of the 50s to the 70's which is the main reason for the planets manufacturing boom and wealth creation during that period.
One of the major costs of living is housing, renting or buying. The housing market is kept massively over priced by speculation encouraged by the federal reserve system and it's legions of busywork middlemen skimmers and shillers introducing new, unearned artifically created capital into the market place and encouraging speculation by lower interest rates. "Here kid, borrow some more on what you already borrowed-no need to work for it, and you'll *make money* on it". Nutso. Buncoism. Keynesian Kartoon Kapers. It's acting as an "enabler" for postponing-but not stopping- the much needed correction in the market place. We would have a much lower cost of living if that practice was stopped. Telling people they can keep borrowing more and 'everyone will be a winner' is casino shilling hucksterism of the highest order. The current economy is akin to trying to build a rube goldberg mechanical gee-gaw contraption of springs and weights and flywheels perpetual motion machine-some of the schemes look really spiffy on paper, and fail miserably in practice. If their schemes of inflated debt, encouraging trading wealth production for wealth re arrangement, and inducing unsustainable expectations that you need do nothing but sit around and "make money" by borrowing then selling debt based paper then borrowing again on that really worked, we wouldn't have the highest rate of government deficits, the highest rate of trade imbalance, nor the highest rate of personal and corporate bankruptcy in two generations, if not longer. Even lowering interest rates has only slowed the crash coming, it hasn't stopped it. People finally "got it" on "irrational exuberance" with stocks, they have yet to get it with real estate and housing, although it's getting closer now. "Cost of living" is a function of expectations versus realities, and you can only keep borrowing so long before you actually have to work and produce. Designing an economy that denigrates wealth production in favor of wealth rearrangement is doomed to eventual collapse, and it will start happening once we can no longer suck in foreign capital. Right now they are dumping previously exported petrodllars back into US paper, but even that won't help much in the long run, as eventually it has to be recognized that debt purchasing debt can only lead to...more debt.
if the samples are not tied to a named human it shouldn't be that much of a problem. And the test subjects could scramble them around amongst themselves before they turn them in.