I guess what I was more referring to was when some corp trots out it's scientific spokes model and then they tend to fib quite regularly. But, that's usually the only scientist the end users/public get to see or hear about. I am sure you are correct in that privately it could easily be a different story.
Yes, concerned about cell phone use as well. I think it changes DNA pretty qucikly when that sort of radiation is used at close range for long periods.
you would think so, that they would license it, dual license perhaps. Yes, it could be sold to cover some bills. Maybe fund the patent office, get more examiners and hand each a bucket of clues. That would sure help! I guess it would depend on the patent how I would feel about it. I think if it had the possibility to be of serious major public good they should just release it to qualified entrepeneurs inside the US for the patent period, see what new jobs could come out of it. It IS tax payer funded after all.
Thanks for the reply, I actually never thought of them getting patents, just sorta slipped by my radar there.
Shows what you can do if you play fair, but tough. They are apparently taking a raise that is under inflation rate-good for the econony, inflation must slow down to keep a strong buck. If everyone did that, we could completely beat inflation. They made an issue of outsourcing and won, good. We already have a 50 state common economic market, it's called the "united" states, every buck saved and spent here gets recirculated many times, another plus for the economy as a whole and maintaining a strong middle class. And SBC re looked at the figures and realised by golly they could still stay in business, and not play follow the leader to some globalism miasma-con that is only believed in by international mega-profit skimmers. I hope many other unions follow suit, and I keep hoping for an ever larger uber-union that would possibly include almost all IT-type workers, nation wide. You CAN win, just takes strength in numbers and being realistic in your negotiations. Ask for only what's fair, and work hard once you get what you want. win/win overall.
... I was an AH & L guy for about 1.5 years, one of only two white collar jobs I ever had. We had pretty decent A/H policies ( looked at almost all the competition, most out there are crapola), but the company lost money on every one of those sold. they were a great deal to the consumer. Accident and health policies are (basically) industry loss leaders, they want a foot in the door to sell you stuff like term life, whole life, and annuities, and even the money from those gets invested else wheres. And the first year any policy is sold, almost all of it goes for commissions and bureaucratic administrative overhead.
Now a LONG time ago insurance was almost all funded from policy premiums (so called shared risk), but that is true ancient history, it's unsustainable like that now. they would have to charge people their entire paychecks, and then some.. They still run demographics in convulted actuarial science, but it's bickering over peanuts,mostly there they look for total wipeouts they shouldn't even deal with, and they make the bulk of their black-ink loot elsewheres, just using the cash flow from premiums for investments. Some other types of policies they are stuck with, that they'd really rather just dump and forget about, for instance, hardly any insurance companies *want* to give homeowners in hurricane prone areas, but the government has mandated they do so, as a condition for selling other insurance in that area. A lot of the insurance companies are in dismal straights now, even though in public they still "look" semi OK. And the quasi governmental and large corporate insurers are toast, just a matter of time now, especially those behind some big pensions and mortgages in general. They got into using derivatives and calling that an asset in hand, among some other shenanigans. They get away with it too, and 999 out of 1000 people got NO clue what is going on there right this second. Makes the dot com bubble look like a lemonade stand stickup. MAN 0 MAN is that a can o wurms gonna rock the world when that one busts.
good links and articles!
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thanks! I certainly HOPE oil is self renewing, and/or there is enough of it to insure we have a good chance of continual energy useage and not getting into any weird global "dieoffs" or world wars over it. And also perhaps we might be able to figure out a much better way to use it or burn it better, so as to reduce pollution.
you could get totally anon cards from some banks in the caribbean. I've seen them (well, one), they were blank on the back. Number on the front, zero name on them. The US feds got them busted,or outlawed or something, too many people were using them to hide money they claim. Or so I recall from the noooze. Sorry, can't remember an exact name of one of them right now, but I guy I met had one (it was a Visa) and showed it to me, tried to get me interested in them, but I passed, not a high roller here, they are welcome to inspect my dozenaire account any time they want to..
I can "hide" my entire account in one pocket....
%^(
hmm, glad I waited before mashing "submit" I just checked Google apparently they still exist! Good luck!
...forums so much. You get every POV imaginable, and if it's a good forum, links-a-plenty to go check out. Keeps you from becoming stilted and narrow minded. It's MUCH better to at least be talking *with* someone, even arguing, then to be in a "me-too" only place where all you do is talk *about* "the other guys". Politics in particular, with news being a sub class of that obviously.
sucks for that lady--good point. Email or phone that mom, who doesn't have a lawyer,who's not going to be able to afford a lawyer, and is scared out of her wits right now, and turn her on to it. Make the RIAA reveal how they did it, in exquisite detail, because if THEY were offering it for download, then it is FREE to download. Just like if SCO released a linux with their alleged IP in it, under the GPL, then it is FREE for anyone. Use their own lameness right back at them.
Being up against government or some filthy rich corporation is scary. I've done it-twice-without a lawyer,representing myself, but I spent months learning the laws, court procedures, etc. Won both times too, out of court settlements, bercause they realised I had them and wasn't going to rollover for them. Cretins.. Obnoxious cretins.. Anyway, not many people have the time or mindset to do that. I wish more did, because it's totally legal to represent yourself, and one of the things we need to do is take back "law" from the lawyer-legislators/lawyers/judges axis of mega-profits guild. Talk about your true lucrative monopolies... if MORE people would just file their own suits against government and big corporations, and if they were really hip if they get called to jury duty, and if more ethics complaints were filed against government employees, hired, appointed or elected, we could go a long ways to re establishing the republic like it was designed as, not as it has been changed into, mostly illegally, too, IMO.
basically what I do. I rarely even use my printer for that matter. all I would use a pda for really is if I am out and about working is a glorified internet radio, so I can feed the netstreams I want to my pda, then to some serious headphones. I've found that good totally over the ears audio headphones work about as well as the "quiet" do nothing but sit there headphones I use when I'm running loud equipment.
And most of the netstreams/radio I listen to are on shortwave, which is dismall for a mobile device where you can't be tethered to a long line antenna for decent reception. I've tried it, it doesn't work very well, one direction you can hear it, turn 90 degrees and you lose the signal, etc. Normal commercial am/fm is ok with a portable radio, just not the commercial shortwave. And I'd like to be able to surf occassionaly from outside wirelessly, say when I'm way off yonder with a piece of busted equipment,. with a small PDA that had net capability, I can go to the manufacturers website and look for some info I might need, or even just use google to look for help on something I might be stumped on, or even just have the manual all there on the pda to look at, sometimes just a good visual/tech specs is enough to get something fixed. And a lot of times big ole heavy crap just has a habit of breaking down way over yonder where your tools and shop *ain't*.
Insurance companies are in no way totally funded by what you pay for an insurance premium. Not even close, in the vast majority of cases. Most of them are part of conglomerates, and make their real money in diverse ways, large wall street trading, mortgage brokering and so on. All of them are seeing their businesses go south in this economny, at the same time that risks are being better analysed. In addition, they have suffered some pretty significant losses in the past, after first being "assured" by scientists and whatnot that such and such was "completely safe", asbestos being mentioned in the opening blurb being a very good example. Here's a clue: scientists are just as often wrong in their future predictions as they are right. Hmm, another one. I can distinctly remember any number of "scientists" and "government spokes people" assuring the US and the military that "agent orange" was perfectly harmless and safe.
Turns out they were wrong, wrong on asbestos, wrong on agent orange, but... you get the same amount of "scientists" now as back then still pulling the same thing-they invent something, and almost immediately say it's "safe" if there's an immediate or close to immediate mega profit angle that can be garnered.
With nano-they do NOT know what is going to be safe and what isn't, so from the insurance companies POV it's "waitaminnit fellas, you gave us this song and dance before,so let's just think on this again, or you guys underwrite it yourselves".
That's all that's going on now, and the insurance guys would be total fools to not be professional skeptics of "scientists" or "industrys" claims on this or that. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me 2983 times, well shame on me. Even the dullest wits eventually bingo to what is a good deal or not. That's the position they are in now. for some things, there's no amount of money available to cover some of the potential risks, so it's uninsurable. Just the way things are I guess. If it costs as much to insure some piece of tech as you would hope to benefit from it, then it's a better idea to just skip it, go on to something else.
... technology itself. and I've seen this distinction to be failed to be seen over and over again here on slashdot. Why is it if someone just doesn't like "A" piece of technology, then it automagically means they don't like - "fear and mistrust"- ALL technology? Why is that? Where ever did you (generic you really, not personal) get that idea?
From my POV, the idea of getting microchipped, or handing "them" the ability to track me/surveil me/ whatever in every single thing I do by putting RFID tags in every conceivable place and for every conceivable situation is totally abhorrent. Totally. It's disgusting, and I've been speaking out against it as long as I have been aware of it, because it's incredibly easy to do a logical progression and see what is going to happen. I am almost completely against the entire concept of RFID, and certainly don't want my life to revolve around that technology, although I thoroughly enjoy and use many other aspects of modern technology. I'm as much a gadget freak and tool user as anyone else here, but some things are just better left alone, not to be used, IMO. You see it's called "choice", and millions of us choose privacy, and not turning over our lives and our souls to some corporate profits at any cost technofeudalistic society. We don't want the borg to win, in other words. We've seen what just implicitly "trusting" them has caused. It's not all good, far from it. blindly just adopting technoloyg just because it's new and shiny is not all that smart. sometinmes it turns out whatever was created was a pretty bad idea. Socially, we are still millenia behind where we need to be, technology is just "out there" but it is not being used *wisely* in any manner of ways or places.
In fact, that's a public line in the sand for me, anyone trying to force a microchip, for ANY reason they concoct,iiregardless of any authority they purport to be or represent, on me, against my will, is going to be met with instant ultra violent force from me TO them, in the most efficient and technologically advanced manner I am capable of at the moment. In addition, I will personally shun any human I am aware of that has accepted any sort of embedded "chip" no matter the stated purpose. I would literally harangue, yell at, cuss out, and spit in the face anyone who wanted to microchip "shake hands" with me. And I encourage others to do the same.
A lot of us out here are not in any way, manner, shape or form interested in becoming cyborgs, or being part of some hive mentality-termite society, which is the obvious direction this technology is leading us to, along with some other technologies.
Others will choose differently, and so it goes. Guess what, men will win, machine men will eventually lose. It will be a big fight, but pure humans who value "human-ness" over all else will win. Call that a prediction.
This microchip crap and tagging, etc, is just *wrong* and SO wrong that it can and will cause a lot of violent revolutionary action against it. Eventually. Not sure when, but I am fully confident it *will*. It is also wrong to assume people who value their privacy/indivdulaity/personal soverignty and who think that this complete fascist blend of government and international business that all of us are currently serfing away under are in any way "luddites", far from it, we just think "they" have enough power/control/information about us and over us already, they certainly don't need more than what they have now, and we don't care how "convenient" it makes it for them, or how much more "profitable" it is for them to use this technology. SCREW em basically, enough's enough.
And THAT is why you see more people at the cash line, and less at the borg line. One of the reasons anyway. Another is, is that for casual purchases, CCs are stoopid. People all over are using CCs less, because they got burned so bad in the dot com alleged "boom" years. That's why they keep having to drop interest rates, people noticed it is more "interesting" to stay within a budget,to hang on t
can't really do it in a small post, but here's a generic scenario. This is VERY simplistic. Say it's getting warmer. The reasons are a totality, not one or the other. Greenhouse gases accumulating, not allowing heat to escape, etc. That's why they are called greenhouse gasses, they mimic what happens inside a greenhouse. The gasses come from both man made (various civilisation *things* that cause heat) and natural sources, like volcanoes, big forest fires, etc,etc. Part of the gasses are also just water vapor. Partly it also the particulate matter suspeneded in the atmosphere, blocking sunlight/heat, a disruption that effects plants in general, they won't grow as well, and therefore can't help mitigate the climate like they do now.
As it gets warmer, ice that is non floating, the ice that's on land in the arctic and antaractic melts, dumping huge quantities of cold fresh water into slightly warmer salt water. And the more that melts the faster it melts, because the white ice reflected heat, now it's bare rock and dirt, which is darker and absorbs heat, accelerating the melting. This also adds to the overall depth of the oceans, it rises. Floating ice is neutral, but land locked ice adds to the depth after it melts. OK, this new free flowing water up in the arctic (and off antarctica, but we'll just look at the arctic) sinks, causing changes in the global sea currents. One of the important ones is the gulf stream, which cycles around the atlantic as it gets heated in the tropics, flows north up the east coast of north america, dumps heat across northern europe, etc, then sinks back down, flows back across down to the gulf again. If the newly melting arctic ice is injected into this current from melting, it slows this gulf stream down, tremendously. You can see pics now, BTW, that shows this is happening to a large degree in the arctic. Without that warm gulf stream water constantly hitting the northern latitudes, well, it gets a LOT colder there. And the more the gulf stream slows down, the colder it gets up in the northern latitutdes, until such a time as a near- stasis is re established, where the conflicting events cancel each other, then it just hangs as an "ice age" for quite a long time as the smaller events start to accumulate and it reverses. Back and forth and forth and back it goes.. You get your localised "ice age". Hundreds of millions of people live up there, but it's become a lot more un-liveable,all the way to near-impossible, plus the water has risen to the point that coastal communities become flooded, and coastal communites have a huyge % of the populations, because mankind has accumulated itself to a great degree near oceans, and near where rivers enter oceans.
Basically hilarity and chaos ensue. "social unrest*" and "economic re adjustments**" and so on.
The only real debate is how fast and how much it can happen. That it DOES happen is just historical record. We do have evidence now that it can happen in a time span much less than millenia. Beyond that, "they" are only guessing.
I hope this is close enough, it is the cliff notes version as far as I understand it.
*social unrest = buncha them canuckians all move down here to georgia after they get theyselves all frozen out, where they drink up all the beer and get to eyeballin all our big hair gals-well, we gonna have a faht then, surely
**economic re-adjustments = "whatchoo mean a loaf of bread is now 19.89$, and a gallon 0 gas is 142.999$.... !!??1!!"
pretty obvious too. Look just one single step above file sharing. See it? It's got little to do with file sharing, it's to get another point of entry for the federal government to snoop in and regulate the internet, especially P2P networks in general. Those programs scare the snot out of governments all over, because they are uncontrollable, and allow real time exchange of information in a wide area, to thousands/millions of people. Governments have a track record of regulation and control, whatever they find that is UNregulated and OUT of their control, they pass laws against. They do it all the time. If fits all their other actions the past few years, chip away here, chip away there. Simultaneously pass enough laws to make everyone a potential criminal,in some form or another, then create and promote crises so they can go "see, we need this additional power".
It pays to never lose track of the larger picture, and not get bogged down in minutiae.
really good tip! Thanks, appreciate that. I'm gonna go exploring sometime soon see what my terrain really is. I know there's one big hill between here and there, maybe just from that point it might work. And heck ya, the cost looks to be in the budget, not to mention the complexity of it, simpler is better.
I understand what you are saying, yes, laptops can't be stuck in your pocket. Wasn't really my point though. It's just fairly expensive for what it does, IMO anyway. If I got one it would have to be rugged/weatherised as all get out, I destroy just normal wristwatches while I am working. Don't want to risk it with anything really expensive. I've destroyed clip on the belt walkman like things before, radio/cassette devices. I don't do the urban/office/student thing, I work outside. And weight doesn't bother me, I am always amazed that the obvious solution to laptop battery life isn't taken-just use dual or triple batteries built in, and "struggle" with an extra pound or two weight. That's a side issue though, the wimperization of our society.....
I don't even carry my cellphone, it would be destroyed or horribly grunged out within a week if I did. When beepers first came out, same deal, kept smashing them. I tried it before with my cell, lasted about three days and it got dropped from around 15 foot up. Still worked, it fell on a lawn,but still...I keep it in the ride or whatever or if I go out "to town" with GF she carries it in her purse. I run chainsaws, tractors, hand tools like picks and shovels and axes and machetes and brushhooks, sometimes in some pretty rough terrain, etc and always got to stop and fix stuff as well, it's just too impractical for me to have an easily broken device hanging on my belt or even in like a cargo pants pocket. I could *probably* do it, but it would limit me as instead of working and concentrating on the task at hand I'd be constantly worrying about the doo-dad and having to adjust what I am doing in order not to break the thing. Now, if they built a PDA/phone combo with all the bells and whistles into a ruggedized normal flashlight, say a two D-cell sized flashlight, then *maybe*. 700$ wouldn't seem too bad then. I can carry one of those hanging from a small cord and a dog clip all the time and very rarely break one and getting it oil and dirt grunged never effects them that much.
well, I have an old laptop I have run many times off of solar, a powerbook 280c, it only has a 12 volt input, but I doubt I could use that thing for this project, it's just totally designed wrong, it was designed to be expanded into a desktop dock, then there's the issue of the OS, etc. Other laptops I have seen (easily avaialable) all have to convert or invert the power, making them energy hogs.
However, I found a coupla links, look above in my reply to cbreaker. I also think using a pda makes more sense, just from the power angle. I only want to use a small panel that can be masked/cammied easier, plus cheaper, plus I already got a small one spare, I think IIRC it's aboiut 300 mw. It would need a charge controller as well because it's open voltage, varies like most PV panels with amount of rays hitting it, and you don't want to fry out your batteries, and you want the exact power getting to your AP device. And you want it hidden, probably, because some fool would blast the thing with his shotgun, perhaps thinking it's some cop snooper device perhaps. Perhaps a dodge around that would be to put your relay directly at someone elses house, offer them free access for hosting the thing, then you wouldn't have to worry so much about the power and the security of the relay, etc. That would just be knocking on the door saying howdy and running it by them. or mayber just leasing the space, so much a year, you do all the work, etc.
first, my bad, the cellular isn't broadband, it's just wireless. verizon has it in my area. T-mobile doesn't, which have a much cheaper plan for pure data. I just got a landline and regular dialup, expensive enough, it's all I use the POTS for.
Friend of mine out in the sticks in wyoming has satellite inet. Costed him beaucoup to get it, but it was that or an occassional 19.2 connect on the old phone wirez there... all I know is, I don't have a grand up front then almost one hundred a month for inet, that just isn't happening. latency wouldn't bother me, I don't game much if ever, but I still hear the satellite providers are dinks in other areas, bandwith transfer and whatnot. So that's a no go either way you look at it.
I have found this so far:
this one I believe was covered on slashdot:
http://www.jhai.org/technology.htm
not sure about this one
http://www.zakongroup.com/technology/highest_wir el ess_network/
Apparently doing about what we want. So it's possible now, with off the shelf stuff. Expensive though, need a home made outta junk stuff idea here.
... for that kinda loot, it needs a built in camera. All kinza cellphones have that now, seems they missed that.
but.. it also looks like maybe something we were discussing with regards wifi, some sort of low power remote relay for doing homebrew line of sight jumps to get wifi to remote areas. Small enough to be stashed someplace out of the way, low enough power that a solar panel and batteries might make it work. Although most likely there is a cheaper pda-like device with even better power management/lower requirements that would do the same, because the screen would be hardly ever used, grey scale would be fine for that.
I keep thinking yikes, that's a lot of loot for this thing. Start to think about it, sheesh. I'm thinking PDAs need to be way closer to the 200$ range all the time, after that, you are heading rapidly towards (used) laptop prices, and at 700$, most likely there's a new one out there someplace close to that.
What they need is a comparison shootout, with computer things being sold as PDAs compared to computer things being sold as telephones, dollar for dollar feature for feature. They are merging fast.
is there a single point in between you two that is visible to both of you? if so, perhaps you can mount some sort of stand alone self powered AP there to act as a relay?
Reason I ask is because I've been thinking about this myself, because I can't get broadband..BUT.... over a big hill and about 2.5 miles from me more or less in a straight line is a place (a truckstop really) that has a commercial wifi subscription you can get. Cheap, too, paid by the year. It's my nearest place with wifi I think. If I knew how to do it maybe this would be possible, but I just don't know. All I got so far is one spare small solar panel, and a few spare rechargeable battery packs from cordless drills that are defunct, but the batteries still hold power. Seems like a nice kit that would do this would sell well, as long as it wasn't too expensive, but I'd be interested in a tutorial of possibilities, as I've never done wireless internet yet. I think I could manage the power, and the actual mounting (if I find a sweet spot and get the property owners permission of course), but the rest, no idea. I guess google is my friend on that one.
rural areas of the US are simply dismal for broadband, so there's wifi, satellite, or expensive cellular as the possibilities. Satellite and cellular just way too expensive, so that's out.
whole new meaning to lighting your....
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... err, no, won't go there.. wouldn't be prudent...
Anyway,pretty funny, found this with a google search. At least one slashdotter is an expert in it, top of the thread. Bet he's got some good links.
I used to dive a lot, I've seen fairly large bubbles in freshwater lakes. Nothing on the scale to sink ships though or cause massive climate change.
Re:I had read of this before...
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--no, I haven't seen large methane pockets burning on the surface. I HAVE heard of them being the probably cause of things like the disappearing ships in the bermuda triangle area, etc, and it certainly makes a lot of sense.
I think, unfortunately, that sudden and dramatic climate change on earth is much more common than what most people think, and that it can hit in a very short time. The frozen mammoths come to mind, foash frozen for millenia, frozen in mid summer, never to thaw out. That's FAST climate change.
Hmm, now I am thinking I need to double my firewood stash.... hmmmm
I admit it, I am SUCH a doomer... heh heh heh
And almost all cultures have a "great flood" story. I'm pretty sure it happened. Would be too weird and too coincidental for it not to have happened, what with all the oral and scribed/scratched evidence and testimony. There's also the evidence that shows muuch more advanced civilizations existed, yet we have little hard evidence left--except things like the pyramids, for instance... some advanced culture built them, but little remains. They got wiped out, back to the stone age, took a few thou years or more to build back up. That's my best guess anyway.
Well, I DID see a portion of the detroit river on fire once though......
I ALSO once saw a screaming flaming bolide splash into the ocean. THAT was awesome! That sucker was trailing smoke and fire and we watched it ccome in, just jaw droppin COOL! Some friends and I had gone out to the beach late, just getting weird and chillin, never expected anything like that! Lemme see, that was right off of marblehead mass, summer of 70, IIRC.
KER SPLASH!
heh heh heh
Hey, I ain't read it yet, but seeing the algae/burnable oil deal in an article, looking forward to that one.
....want a serious, across the board fundamental change in the US. The government is corrupt, broken, out of control. Think about what we do. Millions trudge to the polls and allegedly "elect" a mostly priveleged millionaire class of people to a professional and pensioned "career" of outright "rule" over us. they DO NOT in fact, represent us, you and me, they represent and work for some fairly wealthy and exalted inteerests qwho have nothing in common with 99% of the US population. Nothing. And MOST of them are lawyers, and/or are connected financially to international conglomerates, in a big way. This is just an OBVIOUS conflict of interest. WHAT ELSE are you going to get but more complex and weird laws when it PROFITS the very people who "pass" them all the time? Then, while congress is in session, they spend all their time passing new laws,by the thousands, never ending, with little effort made to even have a modicum of constitutional review, common sense review, or to see if perhaps some of the older laws they have passed need to just be removed, a law-code review if you will. It doesn't happen, there's NO incentive for them to do so, because they control the system, they control the mass media, they control the social engineering brainwashing facilities called "public schools", and they PROFIT from it to extreme and obscene levels.
It's NUTS. It's getting worse, there's no end to the amount of laws passed, no top end limit, we are over 3 million laws on the books now, and these people in washington are SO FAR REMOVED from what it really is like in the US outside of the completely artifically maintained washington DC/NYC/LA axis of profits area, they really have no clue what they are doing other than maximising profits for themselves and their rich buds. No clue and they DON'T WANT a clue. They are trained actors and script readers, they "campaign" by 15-30 second sound bite, directly or indirectly, and by the acceptance of out and out bribes called "campaign contributions", but these public uttered "sound bite" words have little meaning, they just parrot what their focus groups tell them that will result in the same people "voting" for them over and over again, no matter what really happens.
The system is broken, terribly. It needs to change. Change at the federal level is just way to hard, SO, we need to elect some governor some place who can be the executive branch leader that at least can get ONE state back to what we are supposed to have,set a clear example of what it really was designed as, an independent state with loose ties to the federal government in a "union", BUT NO MORE, *full, default and complete* constitutional rights, and he has got to be unafraid of serious confrontation. That's the highest level we can hope for to look for any significant change for the better, IMO.
The Libertarian Party Free State Project is one example, Mack for Governor in Utah is another (He has a decent credible chance, too). There might be more, those are the two I am aware of right now where this sort of effort is being undertaken.
A success in these matters will go a long way to re establishing the court system like it is supposed to be, especially with jury nullification, speedy trials, and always having a jury trial if the matter in question is over 20$. You get some honest working class people on juries, and STOP the mostly completely criminal DAs and judges intimidating and instructiong them illegally, you'll see nonsense like in this article struck down, because people can see it's absurd. BUT, it HAS to be done at some decent level, local it doesn't matter, federal is impossible, that leaves the state level.
I had read of this before...
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... and I'll give it much credit. But.....so far, we aren't seeing any replenished fields of note, despite some of them being worked for decades. They just gradually get pumped out to the point where it is impractical to extract any more. None of them really run completely dry, they just get so wimpy that it's useless to work them any longer, the so called "peak" period is reached, then they decline.
If and when they start filling back up,as per the enlightened hypothesis, I propose a new term, "epoch energy". If it takes an epoch for them to be formed and to be forced upwards into the pools where we find them, and we take much more than is produced in an epoch in just one hundred years, the effects are the same as if they were true "fossil" fuels.
Interesting regardless actually. I think of better useage would be the tar sands, perhaps worked with solar heat. Those and the frozen methane hydrates, the quantities I have seen estimated are staggering. Just sorta hard to get to them now and deal with them.
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I guess what I was more referring to was when some corp trots out it's scientific spokes model and then they tend to fib quite regularly. But, that's usually the only scientist the end users/public get to see or hear about. I am sure you are correct in that privately it could easily be a different story.
Yes, concerned about cell phone use as well. I think it changes DNA pretty qucikly when that sort of radiation is used at close range for long periods.
you would think so, that they would license it, dual license perhaps. Yes, it could be sold to cover some bills. Maybe fund the patent office, get more examiners and hand each a bucket of clues. That would sure help! I guess it would depend on the patent how I would feel about it. I think if it had the possibility to be of serious major public good they should just release it to qualified entrepeneurs inside the US for the patent period, see what new jobs could come out of it. It IS tax payer funded after all.
Thanks for the reply, I actually never thought of them getting patents, just sorta slipped by my radar there.
.. patents created on the governments nickle, both in house and via sub contractors? Who actually owns them, and who can use them, and when?
Shows what you can do if you play fair, but tough. They are apparently taking a raise that is under inflation rate-good for the econony, inflation must slow down to keep a strong buck. If everyone did that, we could completely beat inflation. They made an issue of outsourcing and won, good. We already have a 50 state common economic market, it's called the "united" states, every buck saved and spent here gets recirculated many times, another plus for the economy as a whole and maintaining a strong middle class. And SBC re looked at the figures and realised by golly they could still stay in business, and not play follow the leader to some globalism miasma-con that is only believed in by international mega-profit skimmers. I hope many other unions follow suit, and I keep hoping for an ever larger uber-union that would possibly include almost all IT-type workers, nation wide. You CAN win, just takes strength in numbers and being realistic in your negotiations. Ask for only what's fair, and work hard once you get what you want. win/win overall.
... I was an AH & L guy for about 1.5 years, one of only two white collar jobs I ever had. We had pretty decent A/H policies ( looked at almost all the competition, most out there are crapola), but the company lost money on every one of those sold. they were a great deal to the consumer. Accident and health policies are (basically) industry loss leaders, they want a foot in the door to sell you stuff like term life, whole life, and annuities, and even the money from those gets invested else wheres. And the first year any policy is sold, almost all of it goes for commissions and bureaucratic administrative overhead.
Now a LONG time ago insurance was almost all funded from policy premiums (so called shared risk), but that is true ancient history, it's unsustainable like that now. they would have to charge people their entire paychecks, and then some.. They still run demographics in convulted actuarial science, but it's bickering over peanuts,mostly there they look for total wipeouts they shouldn't even deal with, and they make the bulk of their black-ink loot elsewheres, just using the cash flow from premiums for investments. Some other types of policies they are stuck with, that they'd really rather just dump and forget about, for instance, hardly any insurance companies *want* to give homeowners in hurricane prone areas, but the government has mandated they do so, as a condition for selling other insurance in that area. A lot of the insurance companies are in dismal straights now, even though in public they still "look" semi OK. And the quasi governmental and large corporate insurers are toast, just a matter of time now, especially those behind some big pensions and mortgages in general. They got into using derivatives and calling that an asset in hand, among some other shenanigans. They get away with it too, and 999 out of 1000 people got NO clue what is going on there right this second. Makes the dot com bubble look like a lemonade stand stickup. MAN 0 MAN is that a can o wurms gonna rock the world when that one busts.
thanks! I certainly HOPE oil is self renewing, and/or there is enough of it to insure we have a good chance of continual energy useage and not getting into any weird global "dieoffs" or world wars over it. And also perhaps we might be able to figure out a much better way to use it or burn it better, so as to reduce pollution.
you could get totally anon cards from some banks in the caribbean. I've seen them (well, one), they were blank on the back. Number on the front, zero name on them. The US feds got them busted,or outlawed or something, too many people were using them to hide money they claim. Or so I recall from the noooze. Sorry, can't remember an exact name of one of them right now, but I guy I met had one (it was a Visa) and showed it to me, tried to get me interested in them, but I passed, not a high roller here, they are welcome to inspect my dozenaire account any time they want to..
I can "hide" my entire account in one pocket....
%^(
hmm, glad I waited before mashing "submit" I just checked Google apparently they still exist! Good luck!
...forums so much. You get every POV imaginable, and if it's a good forum, links-a-plenty to go check out. Keeps you from becoming stilted and narrow minded. It's MUCH better to at least be talking *with* someone, even arguing, then to be in a "me-too" only place where all you do is talk *about* "the other guys". Politics in particular, with news being a sub class of that obviously.
sucks for that lady--good point. Email or phone that mom, who doesn't have a lawyer,who's not going to be able to afford a lawyer, and is scared out of her wits right now, and turn her on to it. Make the RIAA reveal how they did it, in exquisite detail, because if THEY were offering it for download, then it is FREE to download. Just like if SCO released a linux with their alleged IP in it, under the GPL, then it is FREE for anyone. Use their own lameness right back at them.
Being up against government or some filthy rich corporation is scary. I've done it-twice-without a lawyer,representing myself, but I spent months learning the laws, court procedures, etc. Won both times too, out of court settlements, bercause they realised I had them and wasn't going to rollover for them. Cretins.. Obnoxious cretins.. Anyway, not many people have the time or mindset to do that. I wish more did, because it's totally legal to represent yourself, and one of the things we need to do is take back "law" from the lawyer-legislators/lawyers/judges axis of mega-profits guild. Talk about your true lucrative monopolies... if MORE people would just file their own suits against government and big corporations, and if they were really hip if they get called to jury duty, and if more ethics complaints were filed against government employees, hired, appointed or elected, we could go a long ways to re establishing the republic like it was designed as, not as it has been changed into, mostly illegally, too, IMO.
basically what I do. I rarely even use my printer for that matter. all I would use a pda for really is if I am out and about working is a glorified internet radio, so I can feed the netstreams I want to my pda, then to some serious headphones. I've found that good totally over the ears audio headphones work about as well as the "quiet" do nothing but sit there headphones I use when I'm running loud equipment.
And most of the netstreams/radio I listen to are on shortwave, which is dismall for a mobile device where you can't be tethered to a long line antenna for decent reception. I've tried it, it doesn't work very well, one direction you can hear it, turn 90 degrees and you lose the signal, etc. Normal commercial am/fm is ok with a portable radio, just not the commercial shortwave. And I'd like to be able to surf occassionaly from outside wirelessly, say when I'm way off yonder with a piece of busted equipment,. with a small PDA that had net capability, I can go to the manufacturers website and look for some info I might need, or even just use google to look for help on something I might be stumped on, or even just have the manual all there on the pda to look at, sometimes just a good visual/tech specs is enough to get something fixed. And a lot of times big ole heavy crap just has a habit of breaking down way over yonder where your tools and shop *ain't*.
Insurance companies are in no way totally funded by what you pay for an insurance premium. Not even close, in the vast majority of cases. Most of them are part of conglomerates, and make their real money in diverse ways, large wall street trading, mortgage brokering and so on. All of them are seeing their businesses go south in this economny, at the same time that risks are being better analysed. In addition, they have suffered some pretty significant losses in the past, after first being "assured" by scientists and whatnot that such and such was "completely safe", asbestos being mentioned in the opening blurb being a very good example. Here's a clue: scientists are just as often wrong in their future predictions as they are right. Hmm, another one. I can distinctly remember any number of "scientists" and "government spokes people" assuring the US and the military that "agent orange" was perfectly harmless and safe.
Turns out they were wrong, wrong on asbestos, wrong on agent orange, but... you get the same amount of "scientists" now as back then still pulling the same thing-they invent something, and almost immediately say it's "safe" if there's an immediate or close to immediate mega profit angle that can be garnered.
With nano-they do NOT know what is going to be safe and what isn't, so from the insurance companies POV it's "waitaminnit fellas, you gave us this song and dance before,so let's just think on this again, or you guys underwrite it yourselves".
That's all that's going on now, and the insurance guys would be total fools to not be professional skeptics of "scientists" or "industrys" claims on this or that. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me 2983 times, well shame on me. Even the dullest wits eventually bingo to what is a good deal or not. That's the position they are in now. for some things, there's no amount of money available to cover some of the potential risks, so it's uninsurable. Just the way things are I guess. If it costs as much to insure some piece of tech as you would hope to benefit from it, then it's a better idea to just skip it, go on to something else.
... technology itself. and I've seen this distinction to be failed to be seen over and over again here on slashdot. Why is it if someone just doesn't like "A" piece of technology, then it automagically means they don't like - "fear and mistrust"- ALL technology? Why is that? Where ever did you (generic you really, not personal) get that idea?
From my POV, the idea of getting microchipped, or handing "them" the ability to track me/surveil me/ whatever in every single thing I do by putting RFID tags in every conceivable place and for every conceivable situation is totally abhorrent. Totally. It's disgusting, and I've been speaking out against it as long as I have been aware of it, because it's incredibly easy to do a logical progression and see what is going to happen. I am almost completely against the entire concept of RFID, and certainly don't want my life to revolve around that technology, although I thoroughly enjoy and use many other aspects of modern technology. I'm as much a gadget freak and tool user as anyone else here, but some things are just better left alone, not to be used, IMO. You see it's called "choice", and millions of us choose privacy, and not turning over our lives and our souls to some corporate profits at any cost technofeudalistic society. We don't want the borg to win, in other words. We've seen what just implicitly "trusting" them has caused. It's not all good, far from it. blindly just adopting technoloyg just because it's new and shiny is not all that smart. sometinmes it turns out whatever was created was a pretty bad idea. Socially, we are still millenia behind where we need to be, technology is just "out there" but it is not being used *wisely* in any manner of ways or places.
In fact, that's a public line in the sand for me, anyone trying to force a microchip, for ANY reason they concoct,iiregardless of any authority they purport to be or represent, on me, against my will, is going to be met with instant ultra violent force from me TO them, in the most efficient and technologically advanced manner I am capable of at the moment. In addition, I will personally shun any human I am aware of that has accepted any sort of embedded "chip" no matter the stated purpose. I would literally harangue, yell at, cuss out, and spit in the face anyone who wanted to microchip "shake hands" with me. And I encourage others to do the same.
A lot of us out here are not in any way, manner, shape or form interested in becoming cyborgs, or being part of some hive mentality-termite society, which is the obvious direction this technology is leading us to, along with some other technologies.
Others will choose differently, and so it goes. Guess what, men will win, machine men will eventually lose. It will be a big fight, but pure humans who value "human-ness" over all else will win. Call that a prediction.
This microchip crap and tagging, etc, is just *wrong* and SO wrong that it can and will cause a lot of violent revolutionary action against it. Eventually. Not sure when, but I am fully confident it *will*. It is also wrong to assume people who value their privacy/indivdulaity/personal soverignty and who think that this complete fascist blend of government and international business that all of us are currently serfing away under are in any way "luddites", far from it, we just think "they" have enough power/control/information about us and over us already, they certainly don't need more than what they have now, and we don't care how "convenient" it makes it for them, or how much more "profitable" it is for them to use this technology. SCREW em basically, enough's enough.
And THAT is why you see more people at the cash line, and less at the borg line. One of the reasons anyway. Another is, is that for casual purchases, CCs are stoopid. People all over are using CCs less, because they got burned so bad in the dot com alleged "boom" years. That's why they keep having to drop interest rates, people noticed it is more "interesting" to stay within a budget,to hang on t
can't really do it in a small post, but here's a generic scenario. This is VERY simplistic. Say it's getting warmer. The reasons are a totality, not one or the other. Greenhouse gases accumulating, not allowing heat to escape, etc. That's why they are called greenhouse gasses, they mimic what happens inside a greenhouse. The gasses come from both man made (various civilisation *things* that cause heat) and natural sources, like volcanoes, big forest fires, etc,etc. Part of the gasses are also just water vapor. Partly it also the particulate matter suspeneded in the atmosphere, blocking sunlight/heat, a disruption that effects plants in general, they won't grow as well, and therefore can't help mitigate the climate like they do now.
.... !!??1!!"
As it gets warmer, ice that is non floating, the ice that's on land in the arctic and antaractic melts, dumping huge quantities of cold fresh water into slightly warmer salt water. And the more that melts the faster it melts, because the white ice reflected heat, now it's bare rock and dirt, which is darker and absorbs heat, accelerating the melting. This also adds to the overall depth of the oceans, it rises. Floating ice is neutral, but land locked ice adds to the depth after it melts. OK, this new free flowing water up in the arctic (and off antarctica, but we'll just look at the arctic) sinks, causing changes in the global sea currents. One of the important ones is the gulf stream, which cycles around the atlantic as it gets heated in the tropics, flows north up the east coast of north america, dumps heat across northern europe, etc, then sinks back down, flows back across down to the gulf again. If the newly melting arctic ice is injected into this current from melting, it slows this gulf stream down, tremendously. You can see pics now, BTW, that shows this is happening to a large degree in the arctic. Without that warm gulf stream water constantly hitting the northern latitudes, well, it gets a LOT colder there. And the more the gulf stream slows down, the colder it gets up in the northern latitutdes, until such a time as a near- stasis is re established, where the conflicting events cancel each other, then it just hangs as an "ice age" for quite a long time as the smaller events start to accumulate and it reverses. Back and forth and forth and back it goes.. You get your localised "ice age". Hundreds of millions of people live up there, but it's become a lot more un-liveable,all the way to near-impossible, plus the water has risen to the point that coastal communities become flooded, and coastal communites have a huyge % of the populations, because mankind has accumulated itself to a great degree near oceans, and near where rivers enter oceans.
Basically hilarity and chaos ensue. "social unrest*" and "economic re adjustments**" and so on.
The only real debate is how fast and how much it can happen. That it DOES happen is just historical record. We do have evidence now that it can happen in a time span much less than millenia. Beyond that, "they" are only guessing.
I hope this is close enough, it is the cliff notes version as far as I understand it.
*social unrest = buncha them canuckians all move down here to georgia after they get theyselves all frozen out, where they drink up all the beer and get to eyeballin all our big hair gals-well, we gonna have a faht then, surely
**economic re-adjustments = "whatchoo mean a loaf of bread is now 19.89$, and a gallon 0 gas is 142.999$
and stuff like that there. It would be the sucks.
kinda sorta getting there. But no built in phone or wireless, and it's 1500$! HAHAHAHA! At any given point, I am a *solid* multi dozenaire......
%^)
pretty obvious too. Look just one single step above file sharing. See it? It's got little to do with file sharing, it's to get another point of entry for the federal government to snoop in and regulate the internet, especially P2P networks in general. Those programs scare the snot out of governments all over, because they are uncontrollable, and allow real time exchange of information in a wide area, to thousands/millions of people. Governments have a track record of regulation and control, whatever they find that is UNregulated and OUT of their control, they pass laws against. They do it all the time. If fits all their other actions the past few years, chip away here, chip away there. Simultaneously pass enough laws to make everyone a potential criminal,in some form or another, then create and promote crises so they can go "see, we need this additional power".
It pays to never lose track of the larger picture, and not get bogged down in minutiae.
really good tip! Thanks, appreciate that. I'm gonna go exploring sometime soon see what my terrain really is. I know there's one big hill between here and there, maybe just from that point it might work. And heck ya, the cost looks to be in the budget, not to mention the complexity of it, simpler is better.
I understand what you are saying, yes, laptops can't be stuck in your pocket. Wasn't really my point though. It's just fairly expensive for what it does, IMO anyway. If I got one it would have to be rugged/weatherised as all get out, I destroy just normal wristwatches while I am working. Don't want to risk it with anything really expensive. I've destroyed clip on the belt walkman like things before, radio/cassette devices. I don't do the urban/office/student thing, I work outside. And weight doesn't bother me, I am always amazed that the obvious solution to laptop battery life isn't taken-just use dual or triple batteries built in, and "struggle" with an extra pound or two weight. That's a side issue though, the wimperization of our society.....
I don't even carry my cellphone, it would be destroyed or horribly grunged out within a week if I did. When beepers first came out, same deal, kept smashing them. I tried it before with my cell, lasted about three days and it got dropped from around 15 foot up. Still worked, it fell on a lawn,but still...I keep it in the ride or whatever or if I go out "to town" with GF she carries it in her purse. I run chainsaws, tractors, hand tools like picks and shovels and axes and machetes and brushhooks, sometimes in some pretty rough terrain, etc and always got to stop and fix stuff as well, it's just too impractical for me to have an easily broken device hanging on my belt or even in like a cargo pants pocket. I could *probably* do it, but it would limit me as instead of working and concentrating on the task at hand I'd be constantly worrying about the doo-dad and having to adjust what I am doing in order not to break the thing. Now, if they built a PDA/phone combo with all the bells and whistles into a ruggedized normal flashlight, say a two D-cell sized flashlight, then *maybe*. 700$ wouldn't seem too bad then. I can carry one of those hanging from a small cord and a dog clip all the time and very rarely break one and getting it oil and dirt grunged never effects them that much.
hmm, think I just had a good idea....prior art!
well, I have an old laptop I have run many times off of solar, a powerbook 280c, it only has a 12 volt input, but I doubt I could use that thing for this project, it's just totally designed wrong, it was designed to be expanded into a desktop dock, then there's the issue of the OS, etc. Other laptops I have seen (easily avaialable) all have to convert or invert the power, making them energy hogs.
However, I found a coupla links, look above in my reply to cbreaker. I also think using a pda makes more sense, just from the power angle. I only want to use a small panel that can be masked/cammied easier, plus cheaper, plus I already got a small one spare, I think IIRC it's aboiut 300 mw. It would need a charge controller as well because it's open voltage, varies like most PV panels with amount of rays hitting it, and you don't want to fry out your batteries, and you want the exact power getting to your AP device. And you want it hidden, probably, because some fool would blast the thing with his shotgun, perhaps thinking it's some cop snooper device perhaps. Perhaps a dodge around that would be to put your relay directly at someone elses house, offer them free access for hosting the thing, then you wouldn't have to worry so much about the power and the security of the relay, etc. That would just be knocking on the door saying howdy and running it by them. or mayber just leasing the space, so much a year, you do all the work, etc.
first, my bad, the cellular isn't broadband, it's just wireless. verizon has it in my area. T-mobile doesn't, which have a much cheaper plan for pure data. I just got a landline and regular dialup, expensive enough, it's all I use the POTS for.
r el ess_network/
Friend of mine out in the sticks in wyoming has satellite inet. Costed him beaucoup to get it, but it was that or an occassional 19.2 connect on the old phone wirez there... all I know is, I don't have a grand up front then almost one hundred a month for inet, that just isn't happening. latency wouldn't bother me, I don't game much if ever, but I still hear the satellite providers are dinks in other areas, bandwith transfer and whatnot. So that's a no go either way you look at it.
I have found this so far:
this one I believe was covered on slashdot:
http://www.jhai.org/technology.htm
not sure about this one
http://www.zakongroup.com/technology/highest_wi
Apparently doing about what we want. So it's possible now, with off the shelf stuff. Expensive though, need a home made outta junk stuff idea here.
... for that kinda loot, it needs a built in camera. All kinza cellphones have that now, seems they missed that.
but.. it also looks like maybe something we were discussing with regards wifi, some sort of low power remote relay for doing homebrew line of sight jumps to get wifi to remote areas. Small enough to be stashed someplace out of the way, low enough power that a solar panel and batteries might make it work. Although most likely there is a cheaper pda-like device with even better power management/lower requirements that would do the same, because the screen would be hardly ever used, grey scale would be fine for that.
I keep thinking yikes, that's a lot of loot for this thing. Start to think about it, sheesh. I'm thinking PDAs need to be way closer to the 200$ range all the time, after that, you are heading rapidly towards (used) laptop prices, and at 700$, most likely there's a new one out there someplace close to that.
What they need is a comparison shootout, with computer things being sold as PDAs compared to computer things being sold as telephones, dollar for dollar feature for feature. They are merging fast.
is there a single point in between you two that is visible to both of you? if so, perhaps you can mount some sort of stand alone self powered AP there to act as a relay?
Reason I ask is because I've been thinking about this myself, because I can't get broadband..BUT.... over a big hill and about 2.5 miles from me more or less in a straight line is a place (a truckstop really) that has a commercial wifi subscription you can get. Cheap, too, paid by the year. It's my nearest place with wifi I think. If I knew how to do it maybe this would be possible, but I just don't know. All I got so far is one spare small solar panel, and a few spare rechargeable battery packs from cordless drills that are defunct, but the batteries still hold power. Seems like a nice kit that would do this would sell well, as long as it wasn't too expensive, but I'd be interested in a tutorial of possibilities, as I've never done wireless internet yet. I think I could manage the power, and the actual mounting (if I find a sweet spot and get the property owners permission of course), but the rest, no idea. I guess google is my friend on that one.
rural areas of the US are simply dismal for broadband, so there's wifi, satellite, or expensive cellular as the possibilities. Satellite and cellular just way too expensive, so that's out.
Anyway,pretty funny, found this with a google search. At least one slashdotter is an expert in it, top of the thread. Bet he's got some good links.
I used to dive a lot, I've seen fairly large bubbles in freshwater lakes. Nothing on the scale to sink ships though or cause massive climate change.
--no, I haven't seen large methane pockets burning on the surface. I HAVE heard of them being the probably cause of things like the disappearing ships in the bermuda triangle area, etc, and it certainly makes a lot of sense.
I think, unfortunately, that sudden and dramatic climate change on earth is much more common than what most people think, and that it can hit in a very short time. The frozen mammoths come to mind, foash frozen for millenia, frozen in mid summer, never to thaw out. That's FAST climate change.
Hmm, now I am thinking I need to double my firewood stash.... hmmmm
I admit it, I am SUCH a doomer... heh heh heh
And almost all cultures have a "great flood" story. I'm pretty sure it happened. Would be too weird and too coincidental for it not to have happened, what with all the oral and scribed/scratched evidence and testimony. There's also the evidence that shows muuch more advanced civilizations existed, yet we have little hard evidence left--except things like the pyramids, for instance... some advanced culture built them, but little remains. They got wiped out, back to the stone age, took a few thou years or more to build back up. That's my best guess anyway.
Well, I DID see a portion of the detroit river on fire once though......
I ALSO once saw a screaming flaming bolide splash into the ocean. THAT was awesome! That sucker was trailing smoke and fire and we watched it ccome in, just jaw droppin COOL! Some friends and I had gone out to the beach late, just getting weird and chillin, never expected anything like that! Lemme see, that was right off of marblehead mass, summer of 70, IIRC.
KER SPLASH!
heh heh heh
Hey, I ain't read it yet, but seeing the algae/burnable oil deal in an article, looking forward to that one.
....want a serious, across the board fundamental change in the US. The government is corrupt, broken, out of control. Think about what we do. Millions trudge to the polls and allegedly "elect" a mostly priveleged millionaire class of people to a professional and pensioned "career" of outright "rule" over us. they DO NOT in fact, represent us, you and me, they represent and work for some fairly wealthy and exalted inteerests qwho have nothing in common with 99% of the US population. Nothing. And MOST of them are lawyers, and/or are connected financially to international conglomerates, in a big way. This is just an OBVIOUS conflict of interest. WHAT ELSE are you going to get but more complex and weird laws when it PROFITS the very people who "pass" them all the time? Then, while congress is in session, they spend all their time passing new laws,by the thousands, never ending, with little effort made to even have a modicum of constitutional review, common sense review, or to see if perhaps some of the older laws they have passed need to just be removed, a law-code review if you will. It doesn't happen, there's NO incentive for them to do so, because they control the system, they control the mass media, they control the social engineering brainwashing facilities called "public schools", and they PROFIT from it to extreme and obscene levels.
It's NUTS. It's getting worse, there's no end to the amount of laws passed, no top end limit, we are over 3 million laws on the books now, and these people in washington are SO FAR REMOVED from what it really is like in the US outside of the completely artifically maintained washington DC/NYC/LA axis of profits area, they really have no clue what they are doing other than maximising profits for themselves and their rich buds. No clue and they DON'T WANT a clue. They are trained actors and script readers, they "campaign" by 15-30 second sound bite, directly or indirectly, and by the acceptance of out and out bribes called "campaign contributions", but these public uttered "sound bite" words have little meaning, they just parrot what their focus groups tell them that will result in the same people "voting" for them over and over again, no matter what really happens.
The system is broken, terribly. It needs to change. Change at the federal level is just way to hard, SO, we need to elect some governor some place who can be the executive branch leader that at least can get ONE state back to what we are supposed to have,set a clear example of what it really was designed as, an independent state with loose ties to the federal government in a "union", BUT NO MORE, *full, default and complete* constitutional rights, and he has got to be unafraid of serious confrontation. That's the highest level we can hope for to look for any significant change for the better, IMO.
The Libertarian Party Free State Project is one example, Mack for Governor in Utah is another (He has a decent credible chance, too). There might be more, those are the two I am aware of right now where this sort of effort is being undertaken.
A success in these matters will go a long way to re establishing the court system like it is supposed to be, especially with jury nullification, speedy trials, and always having a jury trial if the matter in question is over 20$. You get some honest working class people on juries, and STOP the mostly completely criminal DAs and judges intimidating and instructiong them illegally, you'll see nonsense like in this article struck down, because people can see it's absurd. BUT, it HAS to be done at some decent level, local it doesn't matter, federal is impossible, that leaves the state level.
... and I'll give it much credit. But.....so far, we aren't seeing any replenished fields of note, despite some of them being worked for decades. They just gradually get pumped out to the point where it is impractical to extract any more. None of them really run completely dry, they just get so wimpy that it's useless to work them any longer, the so called "peak" period is reached, then they decline.
If and when they start filling back up,as per the enlightened hypothesis, I propose a new term, "epoch energy". If it takes an epoch for them to be formed and to be forced upwards into the pools where we find them, and we take much more than is produced in an epoch in just one hundred years, the effects are the same as if they were true "fossil" fuels.
Interesting regardless actually.
I think of better useage would be the tar sands, perhaps worked with solar heat. Those and the frozen methane hydrates, the quantities I have seen estimated are staggering. Just sorta hard to get to them now and deal with them.