I agree. To me, NPR news is straight forward report and analysis. Car Talk is entertainment, so naturally it's the biggest draw. However, just a little All Things Considered goes a long way. To many GOP strategists (particularly after the Bork and Thomas nominations), NPR is the enemy. NPR not only reports but goes in depth on stories the GOP and their backers would just as soon stay buried... and NPR news listeners tend to be the sort of upper middle class folks who take the time to hassle their congressional reps, etc.
Anyway, my view is that by and large, the GOP and the ownership class tend to view information as proprietary and most valuable when closely held. On the other hand, the proper function of the Republic (and in theory, the business market) requires information and viewpoints to be openly available at nominal cost... which is NPR's news model. In that the ownership class is forced to have discussions they'd just as soon not, they find it convenient to use the Reagan rhetoric which labels the purveyors as Liberal. I think most Americans have bought into this.
Hence, NPR == Liberal, and cuts in on Air America's potential business.
"Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong" (tm) Dennis Miller, comedian, brown noser
I think Air America has three things working against it:
NPR and Pacifica networks do a pretty good job covering the same demographic in the major markets.
Beyond the major metro areas, (IMO) audiences are going to tend to be more conservative.
A lot of people agree with many economic or social ideals typically labelled as liberal, but don't consider themselves liberal. Not surprising, given the money that's gone into equating the term with welfare mothers.
do you think it would be fair to say that since 1900 in America over 100 million jobs have been "destroyed"...
In essence, you're making the buggy whip maker analogy. Which works, when the change occurs within a national economy. If Henry Ford had shipped his Model T's in from then low cost Japan rather than building them in Dearborn, the analogy would fall apart.
Manufacturers are engaging in labor cost arbitrage on a scale which employees can't effectively react to, other than via the political process. We're creating a market for populist demagogues. You can pay pundits to label them as protectionist/nativist/racist, but if enough people squirm with radical globalist wiennie up their ass, that tactic ain't gonna play.
The shop I'm at has been working the image processing and data storage problem for PanSTARRS, another sky survey project that is a bit further along (they have a test scope up and running on Maui). It's interesting to me that both projects are at once using conventional solutions and thinking outside of the box.
Conventional: LSST will use a single large telescope and detector; PanSTARRS (as it stands) intends to use a dedicated compute cluster for data reduction. Novel: LSST is leaning towards distributing its data reduction task over Google's huge server farm; PanSTARRS will use four off-the-shelf 1.8m telescopes, each with a 1.4GP detector, mounted together to image the same piece of sky, and merging the overlapping images in post processing.
When I was working on the project, one of PanSTARRS requirements was to finish analyzing one night's viewing before the following sunset. Early on, the principal investigators decided to solve the image storage issue by not storing them permanently. Instead, once the science for a night's imaging had been extracted (astrometry, LEO or supernova detection, etc), the original images would hit the bit bucket. Whether they've stuck with that I don't know.
Exactly what do you need to become "convinced", and afterwards, what then? If you'd just throw up your arms, then you're not adding anything to the conversation.
Sure, there have been sensationalist *and* rational reports like this for 40 years... and now we're watching the forecasts begin to noticably pan out. The bitch of it is that back when the effects weren't far above the noise level, the powers that be claimed "we don't see it", whereas now they're saying "we can't afford to do anything about it."
Note, the "cow" report is just dealing with methane, not carbon. Its in the nature of combusting hydrocarbons that methane is mostly burned by planes, trains, and automobiles before the byproducts exit the tailpipe, so it doesn't take many farting cows to stay ahead of the curve, nevermind 1.5 billion of them. Methane is a more efficient greenhouse gas, but for overall effect it's outpaced by the sheer bulk of carbon-based gases we add to the mix.
Frankly, I'm pretty sure that the cause of your and very many others skepticism can be traced directly to the PR departments of ExxonMobile and their peers, who have spent big bucks on shills and astroturfing. They picked up their tactics directly from Philip Morris and their peers (using the same PR firms), who succeeded in conning at least a couple of generations of customers that there was nothing wrong with a lifetime of smoke inhailation.
And the problem is that it appears to work. For giggles, I've tracked a couple of these stocks. If you don't get too greedy, and get out before the spammers (presumably holders of large blocks of stock) dump, you can actually make a good return.
You should revisit your data, and reread the article. The "problem" is that the scammers buy the stock pre-scam, and dump immediately at the first sign of a price blip. When I plug whichever penny stock into Yahoo, the price spike has always been a day or two in the past by the time my server receives (nevermind by the time I read) the spam touting it, and hasn't lasted more than a few hours.
So if you, as a spam recipient, play along with their stock game, you can make money, while helping drive up the price for the spammers to make their profit.
No you can't, unless you are "lucky" enough to be among the first recipients of the spam, and act upon it immediately. Depending on the number of shares outstanding, it may well be your buy of maybe $500 to $1000 that triggers the scammer's sell order. Face it, this is a total non-starter. Research already suggests that the scammers are only netting about 5%, which means they're doing about as well as a successful day trader, with only a little less effort. Since you will be in a reactive mode, you will be putting in more effort with significantly greater risk.
It would seem that Mr. Greubel has been given the wherewithall to fight the case by a Vancouver-based music producer who is looking to create a proper test case to challenge the RIAA "John Doe" lawsuits.
M. King Hubbert's 1956 report on the future of US domestic oil production in the lower 48 predicted a peak in 1970. He was wrong (It peaked in 1975).
World petroleum production will continue to grow at current rates until after 2030 (all from 'unconventional' sources like tar sands and oil shale).
Some points the CERA report overlooks:
Tar sand production requires 10 to 20 times as much energy to render into usable petro products as crude oil. Oil shale even more.
At planned production ramp up, all of Canada's natural gas production would go into tar sand processing in 10 years.
As a result, unconventional oil production produces large quantities of greenhouse gases, in addition to the gases released by the refined products.
CERA's business is to provide research papers for people making money extracting and refining petroleum. It's not in their interest for their papers to suggest or encourage massive shifts in the current energy economy. Research in alternatives aren't in their areas of expertise, and their existing customers would likely not purchase the data.
Back in the late 90's, MS gave away IE to remove the profits from browser products. Now, they'd like to remove the profits from DAPs by giving away Apple's margin on iPods. All of this made possible because MS ain't giving away Windows/Office.
With the billions of stockholders' money MS pours into non-Win/Off ventures that the company couldn't visualize profits from if they used the Hubble, at what point will said stockholders tell the board of directors to stop pour money down ratholes and distribute a worthwhile dividend?
Nowadays, I carry a digital point-n-shoot almost everywhere, and for most shots where I would have ordered 4x5 snapshots back in the day, it works great. But, even with a 1GB CF card, the hassle that keeps biting me is keeping a charge in the gd batteries. So, when I vacation somewhere that I know I'll want to take the time to set up a shot, or if there's the least question whether I'll be able to buy fresh lithium or recharge, I haul my high school era Minolta SRT-201, or the positively ancient hand-me-down Rolleiflex. Granted, 120 film for the Rollei is getting to be mail-order-only, but the only thing the Minolta needs a battery for is the meter, which lasts a couple of years if I'm burning holes through the lens. I can still get 35mm film in any one donkey/camel hole-in-the-wall "store", next to the Lomitil and condoms.
Call me an old fart, but while I'm sure I'll eventually spring for a dSLR (or a 6x6 digital back when they ain't >US$12K), I'm not looking forward to hauling yet another set of batteries and rechargers with me. It takes up space in my bags where the Powerbook is supposed to go.
That caveat is based on the rap I've heard from a number of expatrate ozi-women over the years, the claim being that male attitudes towards women in Oz is about 20 years or so behind the US. This may be a result of the relatively high beer consumption, but that's just a guess based on years of personal experimentation.
After giving the MPAA pamphlet and badge design a look, it's obvious this is an "extra-curricular" badge, so I wouldn't worry about it.
That the LA Council would have this doesn't surprise me, since these badges tend to reflect the local culture. Out in the Aloha and Maui County Councils, we've got the Hawaiiana badge. It's requirements are to learn and perform various skills of traditional Hawaiian culture, including some dance, song, theater, games, materials, agriculture, etc. It's actually quite a bit of work for someone not already a member of a hula halau, and is a 4 hour a day, 7 day class when offered at the two summer camps in the state. The class ends the week with a public performance in front of the rest of the camp. I've found the results relatively impressive, particularly from mainland Scouts whose previous exposure to Hawaiian "culture" stopped at coconut bras.
The Hawaiiana badge is moderately attractive, but the only reason to do the badge besides that is the desire to learn the material, because it doesn't count towards rank advancement. Neither does the MPAA badge, and unless the material proves interesting in its own right, only a handful of rabid patch collector Scouts are going to bother with it.
If someone can copyright musical compositions or words on paper, I suspect I could copyright my particular folding crane, or at least a book illustrating the methodology.
"Pretrash inspections" of her home could include (in increasing order of invasion): 1) digging through the trash can before hauling it out to the curb, 2) rifling the mailbox, and 3) breaking and entering. Short of crawling into her bed, I think that about covers it.
As DNA testing has enjoyed wider use, we're starting to see proof that there's even less genetic isolation than hypothesized by the "McDonalds Effect". The Economist reported the results of recent studies (on college-age adults, naturally) showing that many women were - it seems - acting on a drive to capture an alpha male's DNA, and then make a stable bread-winner male raise his spawn.
Charming, until Mr. Stable gets the labs results and kicks Ms. Primal Nature and her kids to the street.
If you can consider this contingency only an hour after the article was posted to Slashdot, then it's probably occurred to legislators, too.
Probably, but it's not apparent to me that they, in fact, have. Many have been the Acts of Congress that seemed to assume the economic situation mirrored that immediately after WWII, when just about all domestic (or world) demand for manufactured goods was met by US factories.
The article doesn't make this clear. If it only applies to domestically produced electronics, watch how fast the remainder of non-defence production gets moved overseas.
Much like the Spamhaus case in Illinois, this case reminds us that if you don't show up in court, the default judgement is going to suck.
In both of these cases, only the plaintiff's side was heard. Granted, Ms. Bock didn't seem to be in a position to defend herself, but there's nothing new about someone without money getting shafted in a US court. She already knew she was embroiled in a civil suit, and while I can understand that there were circumstances beyond her control, she would have fared better had she so much as showed up and asked for time to find another attorney to represent her. The adverserial system assumes that if you don't care enough to get someone (even yourself) in there to defend you, then you're prepared to spread 'em wide.
I do find it a bit odd that the court proceeded when a reasonable person would know that millions of people - including Ms. Bock - had recently been displaced. This'll be something to bring up should she manage to find someone to file an appeal.
Slightly off topic: it was already mentioned that in the Spamhaus case, theoretically all that Spamhaus needed to do was send an attorney to the court to state that the court didn't have jurisdiction for reasons 1 through N, to avoid the potential hassles with DNS. I say theoretically, since the judge could well have ruled tough shit, tell it to the appeals court. With any luck, the Federal Government will quash this case by the time it gets to the ICANN, or it's gonna increase the pressure to pull the organization away from the US.
The down fall is that the privatization world will probably be a bit upset about this.
The current crop of privateers, yes. If a space-oriented VC could envisage a suitable marketing plan, this would be the ideal private space infrastructure project. Most of the existing cheaper-faster-better startups focus merely on making a cheaper tube 'o fuel. Our current crop of missile makers are still basically building their product by hand. When a launch vehicle and payload go BOOM, a good portion of the contractor's and customer's capital goes with it. It's like watching the auto industry before Ford.
If a Paul Allen or consortium were to bankroll something like this, they wouldn't be betting the farm on each test launch.
Anyone want to bet that online casinos will be targeted by this law, but Wall Street will remain strangely exempt?
When you buy share of stock, you own a percentage of the company that issued it. Your reasons for buying it (profit, loss, wipe your ass w/ certificate) are incidental.
When you game, you're wagering you'll get something for nothing. Your reasons for doing it are also incidental. Nothing is produced but extremely costly entertainment.
With his executive decrees, disregard for the law and the constitution, secret prisons, use of torture, and his blatant lying to the American public, I think it's fair to say Herr Bush fits the definition of dictator.
IMO, that puts him more in league with Dick Nixon than an out-and-out dictator... bad, but someone we won't have to live with after the next Presidential election. If he's still in office after 2/09, or if Cheney moves up despite being almost universally disliked, then we can seriously talk about dictators, rather than meer power-hungry politicians.
On the assumption that we're not just talking citizen journalism, but electronic citizen journalism: how can I, as a US citizen publishing on the net, get the same First Amendment and case law protection as a print journalist/publisher? The old chesnut that the "freedom of the press belongs to the owner of the press" (ie. the mechanical device) seems to be taken literally by prosecutors and judges, such that someone publishing on their own website without deriving an income doesn't get the same benefit of the doubt as - say - The Village Voice.
Other than amassing a legal fund with which to defend one's self and create the case law that subsequent writers can enjoy, what are some avenues to generate a legal aura as a member of the 4th Estate? Would it be as simple as making sure a few local cyber cafes have hard copies of the weekly blog digest on the counter? Incorporate as a non-profit?
Boy, did you hit the nail on the head. This reminds me of US Senator Clinton (D-NY) trumpeting the fact that her office had helped land a Tata Consultancy Services office in Buffalo. While we can argue over the long term effects, I posted a note on her website pointing out that the short term effect was that she was adding 50 American faces to a business based on moving technical jobs away from her constituents. If Tata didn't suceed in outsourcing several times more American FTEs than they employed in Buffalo, that office would soon shut its doors.
We're getting off topic, but since you've opened the door, let's look at your AUS stats:
Tobacco: ~20,000 deaths / year Alcohol: ~1,800 deaths / year Illicit drugs: ~640 deaths / year
You wanna put tobacco inside? Be my guest, unless you're on a publically supported or group medical plan that I pay into, in which case I get to have a word in.
The delta between alcohol and illicit drugs is instructive, in that Oz is near the top of the list for beer consumption (~110 l/yr per capita). Illicit drug consumption doesn't begin to compare (ie. 2 hits heroin, 2 hits cocaine, 6 joints/yr per capita). Yet that pathetically small dose serves up 35% as many deaths as everyone and their uncle knocking back at least a couple of stubbies a day. I don't think I'm too far off base to say that it wouldn't take much more legalized dope to close that gap. Nevermind the personal health effects, just add automobile. Yeeeeee-haaaaw!
Slashdot Mirror
I agree. To me, NPR news is straight forward report and analysis. Car Talk is entertainment, so naturally it's the biggest draw. However, just a little All Things Considered goes a long way. To many GOP strategists (particularly after the Bork and Thomas nominations), NPR is the enemy. NPR not only reports but goes in depth on stories the GOP and their backers would just as soon stay buried... and NPR news listeners tend to be the sort of upper middle class folks who take the time to hassle their congressional reps, etc.
Anyway, my view is that by and large, the GOP and the ownership class tend to view information as proprietary and most valuable when closely held. On the other hand, the proper function of the Republic (and in theory, the business market) requires information and viewpoints to be openly available at nominal cost... which is NPR's news model. In that the ownership class is forced to have discussions they'd just as soon not, they find it convenient to use the Reagan rhetoric which labels the purveyors as Liberal. I think most Americans have bought into this.
Hence, NPR == Liberal, and cuts in on Air America's potential business.
"Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong" (tm) Dennis Miller, comedian, brown noser
do you think it would be fair to say that since 1900 in America over 100 million jobs have been "destroyed"...
In essence, you're making the buggy whip maker analogy. Which works, when the change occurs within a national economy. If Henry Ford had shipped his Model T's in from then low cost Japan rather than building them in Dearborn, the analogy would fall apart.
Manufacturers are engaging in labor cost arbitrage on a scale which employees can't effectively react to, other than via the political process. We're creating a market for populist demagogues. You can pay pundits to label them as protectionist/nativist/racist, but if enough people squirm with radical globalist wiennie up their ass, that tactic ain't gonna play.
The shop I'm at has been working the image processing and data storage problem for PanSTARRS, another sky survey project that is a bit further along (they have a test scope up and running on Maui). It's interesting to me that both projects are at once using conventional solutions and thinking outside of the box.
Conventional: LSST will use a single large telescope and detector; PanSTARRS (as it stands) intends to use a dedicated compute cluster for data reduction.
Novel: LSST is leaning towards distributing its data reduction task over Google's huge server farm; PanSTARRS will use four off-the-shelf 1.8m telescopes, each with a 1.4GP detector, mounted together to image the same piece of sky, and merging the overlapping images in post processing.
When I was working on the project, one of PanSTARRS requirements was to finish analyzing one night's viewing before the following sunset. Early on, the principal investigators decided to solve the image storage issue by not storing them permanently. Instead, once the science for a night's imaging had been extracted (astrometry, LEO or supernova detection, etc), the original images would hit the bit bucket. Whether they've stuck with that I don't know.
Exactly what do you need to become "convinced", and afterwards, what then? If you'd just throw up your arms, then you're not adding anything to the conversation.
Sure, there have been sensationalist *and* rational reports like this for 40 years... and now we're watching the forecasts begin to noticably pan out. The bitch of it is that back when the effects weren't far above the noise level, the powers that be claimed "we don't see it", whereas now they're saying "we can't afford to do anything about it."
Note, the "cow" report is just dealing with methane, not carbon. Its in the nature of combusting hydrocarbons that methane is mostly burned by planes, trains, and automobiles before the byproducts exit the tailpipe, so it doesn't take many farting cows to stay ahead of the curve, nevermind 1.5 billion of them. Methane is a more efficient greenhouse gas, but for overall effect it's outpaced by the sheer bulk of carbon-based gases we add to the mix.
Frankly, I'm pretty sure that the cause of your and very many others skepticism can be traced directly to the PR departments of ExxonMobile and their peers, who have spent big bucks on shills and astroturfing. They picked up their tactics directly from Philip Morris and their peers (using the same PR firms), who succeeded in conning at least a couple of generations of customers that there was nothing wrong with a lifetime of smoke inhailation.
And the problem is that it appears to work. For giggles, I've tracked a couple of these stocks. If you don't get too greedy, and get out before the spammers (presumably holders of large blocks of stock) dump, you can actually make a good return.
You should revisit your data, and reread the article. The "problem" is that the scammers buy the stock pre-scam, and dump immediately at the first sign of a price blip. When I plug whichever penny stock into Yahoo, the price spike has always been a day or two in the past by the time my server receives (nevermind by the time I read) the spam touting it, and hasn't lasted more than a few hours.
So if you, as a spam recipient, play along with their stock game, you can make money, while helping drive up the price for the spammers to make their profit.
No you can't, unless you are "lucky" enough to be among the first recipients of the spam, and act upon it immediately. Depending on the number of shares outstanding, it may well be your buy of maybe $500 to $1000 that triggers the scammer's sell order. Face it, this is a total non-starter. Research already suggests that the scammers are only netting about 5%, which means they're doing about as well as a successful day trader, with only a little less effort. Since you will be in a reactive mode, you will be putting in more effort with significantly greater risk.
It would seem that Mr. Greubel has been given the wherewithall to fight the case by a Vancouver-based music producer who is looking to create a proper test case to challenge the RIAA "John Doe" lawsuits.
Some points the CERA report overlooks:
CERA's business is to provide research papers for people making money extracting and refining petroleum. It's not in their interest for their papers to suggest or encourage massive shifts in the current energy economy. Research in alternatives aren't in their areas of expertise, and their existing customers would likely not purchase the data.
Back in the late 90's, MS gave away IE to remove the profits from browser products.
Now, they'd like to remove the profits from DAPs by giving away Apple's margin on iPods.
All of this made possible because MS ain't giving away Windows/Office.
With the billions of stockholders' money MS pours into non-Win/Off ventures that the company couldn't visualize profits from if they used the Hubble, at what point will said stockholders tell the board of directors to stop pour money down ratholes and distribute a worthwhile dividend?
Nowadays, I carry a digital point-n-shoot almost everywhere, and for most shots where I would have ordered 4x5 snapshots back in the day, it works great. But, even with a 1GB CF card, the hassle that keeps biting me is keeping a charge in the gd batteries. So, when I vacation somewhere that I know I'll want to take the time to set up a shot, or if there's the least question whether I'll be able to buy fresh lithium or recharge, I haul my high school era Minolta SRT-201, or the positively ancient hand-me-down Rolleiflex. Granted, 120 film for the Rollei is getting to be mail-order-only, but the only thing the Minolta needs a battery for is the meter, which lasts a couple of years if I'm burning holes through the lens. I can still get 35mm film in any one donkey/camel hole-in-the-wall "store", next to the Lomitil and condoms.
Call me an old fart, but while I'm sure I'll eventually spring for a dSLR (or a 6x6 digital back when they ain't >US$12K), I'm not looking forward to hauling yet another set of batteries and rechargers with me. It takes up space in my bags where the Powerbook is supposed to go.
That caveat is based on the rap I've heard from a number of expatrate ozi-women over the years, the claim being that male attitudes towards women in Oz is about 20 years or so behind the US. This may be a result of the relatively high beer consumption, but that's just a guess based on years of personal experimentation.
After giving the MPAA pamphlet and badge design a look, it's obvious this is an "extra-curricular" badge, so I wouldn't worry about it.
That the LA Council would have this doesn't surprise me, since these badges tend to reflect the local culture. Out in the Aloha and Maui County Councils, we've got the Hawaiiana badge. It's requirements are to learn and perform various skills of traditional Hawaiian culture, including some dance, song, theater, games, materials, agriculture, etc. It's actually quite a bit of work for someone not already a member of a hula halau, and is a 4 hour a day, 7 day class when offered at the two summer camps in the state. The class ends the week with a public performance in front of the rest of the camp. I've found the results relatively impressive, particularly from mainland Scouts whose previous exposure to Hawaiian "culture" stopped at coconut bras.
The Hawaiiana badge is moderately attractive, but the only reason to do the badge besides that is the desire to learn the material, because it doesn't count towards rank advancement. Neither does the MPAA badge, and unless the material proves interesting in its own right, only a handful of rabid patch collector Scouts are going to bother with it.
If someone can copyright musical compositions or words on paper, I suspect I could copyright my particular folding crane, or at least a book illustrating the methodology.
"Pretrash inspections" of her home could include (in increasing order of invasion): 1) digging through the trash can before hauling it out to the curb, 2) rifling the mailbox, and 3) breaking and entering. Short of crawling into her bed, I think that about covers it.
As DNA testing has enjoyed wider use, we're starting to see proof that there's even less genetic isolation than hypothesized by the "McDonalds Effect". The Economist reported the results of recent studies (on college-age adults, naturally) showing that many women were - it seems - acting on a drive to capture an alpha male's DNA, and then make a stable bread-winner male raise his spawn.
Charming, until Mr. Stable gets the labs results and kicks Ms. Primal Nature and her kids to the street.
If you can consider this contingency only an hour after the article was posted to Slashdot, then it's probably occurred to legislators, too.
Probably, but it's not apparent to me that they, in fact, have. Many have been the Acts of Congress that seemed to assume the economic situation mirrored that immediately after WWII, when just about all domestic (or world) demand for manufactured goods was met by US factories.
The article doesn't make this clear. If it only applies to domestically produced electronics, watch how fast the remainder of non-defence production gets moved overseas.
Much like the Spamhaus case in Illinois, this case reminds us that if you don't show up in court, the default judgement is going to suck.
In both of these cases, only the plaintiff's side was heard. Granted, Ms. Bock didn't seem to be in a position to defend herself, but there's nothing new about someone without money getting shafted in a US court. She already knew she was embroiled in a civil suit, and while I can understand that there were circumstances beyond her control, she would have fared better had she so much as showed up and asked for time to find another attorney to represent her. The adverserial system assumes that if you don't care enough to get someone (even yourself) in there to defend you, then you're prepared to spread 'em wide.
I do find it a bit odd that the court proceeded when a reasonable person would know that millions of people - including Ms. Bock - had recently been displaced. This'll be something to bring up should she manage to find someone to file an appeal.
Slightly off topic: it was already mentioned that in the Spamhaus case, theoretically all that Spamhaus needed to do was send an attorney to the court to state that the court didn't have jurisdiction for reasons 1 through N, to avoid the potential hassles with DNS. I say theoretically, since the judge could well have ruled tough shit, tell it to the appeals court. With any luck, the Federal Government will quash this case by the time it gets to the ICANN, or it's gonna increase the pressure to pull the organization away from the US.
The down fall is that the privatization world will probably be a bit upset about this.
The current crop of privateers, yes. If a space-oriented VC could envisage a suitable marketing plan, this would be the ideal private space infrastructure project. Most of the existing cheaper-faster-better startups focus merely on making a cheaper tube 'o fuel. Our current crop of missile makers are still basically building their product by hand. When a launch vehicle and payload go BOOM, a good portion of the contractor's and customer's capital goes with it. It's like watching the auto industry before Ford.
If a Paul Allen or consortium were to bankroll something like this, they wouldn't be betting the farm on each test launch.
Anyone want to bet that online casinos will be targeted by this law, but Wall Street will remain strangely exempt?
When you buy share of stock, you own a percentage of the company that issued it. Your reasons for buying it (profit, loss, wipe your ass w/ certificate) are incidental.
When you game, you're wagering you'll get something for nothing. Your reasons for doing it are also incidental. Nothing is produced but extremely costly entertainment.
With his executive decrees, disregard for the law and the constitution, secret prisons, use of torture, and his blatant lying to the American public, I think it's fair to say Herr Bush fits the definition of dictator.
IMO, that puts him more in league with Dick Nixon than an out-and-out dictator... bad, but someone we won't have to live with after the next Presidential election. If he's still in office after 2/09, or if Cheney moves up despite being almost universally disliked, then we can seriously talk about dictators, rather than meer power-hungry politicians.
On the assumption that we're not just talking citizen journalism, but electronic citizen journalism: how can I, as a US citizen publishing on the net, get the same First Amendment and case law protection as a print journalist/publisher? The old chesnut that the "freedom of the press belongs to the owner of the press" (ie. the mechanical device) seems to be taken literally by prosecutors and judges, such that someone publishing on their own website without deriving an income doesn't get the same benefit of the doubt as - say - The Village Voice.
Other than amassing a legal fund with which to defend one's self and create the case law that subsequent writers can enjoy, what are some avenues to generate a legal aura as a member of the 4th Estate? Would it be as simple as making sure a few local cyber cafes have hard copies of the weekly blog digest on the counter? Incorporate as a non-profit?
This activity occurs at the expense of what?
Boy, did you hit the nail on the head. This reminds me of US Senator Clinton (D-NY) trumpeting the fact that her office had helped land a Tata Consultancy Services office in Buffalo. While we can argue over the long term effects, I posted a note on her website pointing out that the short term effect was that she was adding 50 American faces to a business based on moving technical jobs away from her constituents. If Tata didn't suceed in outsourcing several times more American FTEs than they employed in Buffalo, that office would soon shut its doors.
And there, my friends, is political slant in action. Nice try at viral marketing.
We're getting off topic, but since you've opened the door, let's look at your AUS stats:
Tobacco: ~20,000 deaths / year
Alcohol: ~1,800 deaths / year
Illicit drugs: ~640 deaths / year
You wanna put tobacco inside? Be my guest, unless you're on a publically supported or group medical plan that I pay into, in which case I get to have a word in.
The delta between alcohol and illicit drugs is instructive, in that Oz is near the top of the list for beer consumption (~110 l/yr per capita). Illicit drug consumption doesn't begin to compare (ie. 2 hits heroin, 2 hits cocaine, 6 joints/yr per capita). Yet that pathetically small dose serves up 35% as many deaths as everyone and their uncle knocking back at least a couple of stubbies a day. I don't think I'm too far off base to say that it wouldn't take much more legalized dope to close that gap. Nevermind the personal health effects, just add automobile. Yeeeeee-haaaaw!