...so I see Apple products as particularly vulnerable....
Maybe, but apparently a lot less vulnerable than the makers of bottom of the barrel computers. The people in that bottom category will try to limp along with the stuff they already have until they see evidence of an economic turn around. Also, buying a new PC with VISTA is a step DOWN, rather than an upgrade. The new bottom tier computer with VISTA doesn't work any better than the older ones with XP, but possibly worse.
If you were running a business like Apple is, rather than a charity, you would be interested in selling as many widgets and making as fat a profit on each as possible. So yes, in THIS case at least, even you as a business person, would judge your success by how many people were willing to fork over a nice chunk of change to you.
The desktop and the iTunes Visualizer display at 1080x1920, but I have no video material at full 1080 quality. I don't know if a blu-ray player in a fire-wire-enclosure would work. Normal DVD's played straight or converted to H.264 look very nice though. The appear to be at least as good as from the Toshiba up-converting DVD player. The 8MP pictures from my Olympus SLR look very sharp however, using iPhoto.
...Or is it just a pretty, expensive, show-off chunk of easily scratched plastic....
Of course that is all it is but they are selling like hot-cakes and Apple is laughing all the way to the bank, even in a recession. Same is true of those "expensive' Macs many here on/. are moaning about.
...In difficult financial times the value isn't there for most people....
Apple isn't targeting their products at people in dire financial straits, but to people who still have money. They have never sold stuff to the bottom end of the market, especially commodity items such as computers. That is why they are doing better than the other PC makers. Also, more and more people are beginning to understand that the purchase price of a computer is only a relatively small part of the total cost over the life of one. Having to dork with Windows, buy anti-malware software and being stuck with an 8 year old OS is certainly not lost on people. A smart marketing message by Apple, taking advantage of the MS VISTA debacle is also part of the equation. A Mac OS10.5 Leopard OS runs acceptably well on our old G4 Mac Mini. Getting VISTA to run on PC of equivalent age & specs is an exercise in frustration if the older software even works at all.
That old G4, connected to a 47" LCD TV makes a fine, networked media device for movies and music.
In the car business, Honda is an example. Their cars generally cost more to buy, but they also sell for a lot more used than some Ford or Chevy. This true of used Macs as well. Check that out on ebay if you wish.
... it's about the rights AND responsibilities....
Anyone posting on/. and at the same time advocating the idea that people should NOT spend their money as they see fit for energy is a hypocrite. Shut off your computer and do all your work with pencil and paper and stop wasting power reading and posting drivel about responsibility and society.
...fact that the Federal Government is literally obligated (court orders) to spend hundreds of millions of dollars...
Are you really telling me that these court cases are brought by locals, rather than well heeled environmental groups? Who IS bringing these court cases that force the Fed to spend all that money? There are of course some locals, mostly retired people who are also often members of environmental organizations that bring these lawsuits. They sell their overpriced real estate in the big city and then move to a small town on the river where they voice their opinion and pay dues to their environmental club which then has tons of money to pay lawyers to bring lawsuits.
I know that in the case of the Columbia River dams, there are far more people benefitting directly than just the transportation segment. There are huge acreages of irrigation from these reservoirs. Every time you do a Google search, you are benefitting, because Google has a large data center near The Dalles, on a site that used to be an electricity sucking aluminum refinery. They now use that electrical infrastructure and the cheap electricity to power their servers. Even people as far as Los Angeles can get as much as 3000 MW of clean power from these dams.
Back in the 50s and 60s, Northern California, the service territory of PG&E, had some of the cheapest electricity rates in the whole USA. Then the environmental and deregulation politics kicked in and now California utility payers are saddled with a huge debt and almost the highest rates in the country. PG&E had numerous small powerhouses they were forced to abandon by environmental political maneuvers and lawsuits. Now these same actors are trying to get the Pacific Northwest to get into that same kind of mess by advocating and litigating for the removal of dams.
Yes, Salmon are affected, but what about all the other wildlife that is there ONLY because there is a reservoir? Have you ever watched the numerous windsurfers enjoying the unique combination of wind and open water in the Gorge? How does such a benefit get factored into the equations to leave or remove a dam? If everything, not just a few salmon or other fish is factored in, removing a dam is universally a stupid, hare-brained idea.
...why does everyone get up in arms when just trying to want to buy online what we have bought for YEARS on a CD....
If you are male and of an age where you can afford equipment like that, I suspect that your ears may not be as golden as they used to be when you were poorer, but young, agile and strong and your hearing extended to 20,000Hz.
Most music on CD's even, is unnaturally processed, such as compression to make it sound louder. Often, also equalization is also added which distorts the original performance. This is almost universally true of all the popular music. The one area where this is usually not done nowadays is in classical music involving a full symphony orchestra. So, if you like classical music, your Klipsch speakers will definitely give you a reproduction close to actually being in the second or third row of a concert hall.
I used to do master recordings back in the analog 15 inches-per-second tape recording days for radio broadcasting and live shows on FM Radio. They had some Klipsch and Altec speaker system along with 200lb heavy tube amplifiers in the studio. That was impressive sound that I could back then still actually HEAR. These systems reproduced the sound of that 12 foot Boesendorfer Concert Grand they had amazingly well.
I still have some of the very first stereo LPs ever made in my music collection. There are also still a number of direct to disc LPs, because vinyl CAN have lower noise and less distortion than analog tape.
Unfortunately, music these days is not produced for audiophiles, but the mass market. For that the iTunes sound quality is far better than 90% or more of the reproducing equipment out there. I think you'll be stuck with buying CDs and perhaps even LPs as long as they are still made.
...ONLY when it is of the same quality as I can get at a B&M store...
Wow, you must have golden ears and a $5000 sound system to be able to tell the difference between a 256Kb/s AAC file and the equivalent CD or even SACD. You need ultra high quality master recordings at $50 or more per song.
....In case you missed it, I think God is a concept, not a being...
Well, either your opinion is valid or Moses who talked to God. He asked God what his name was that he should tell the people. God replied: I am, tell them that "I AM" sent you. That expression is related to the word to be and that therefore makes God a being, not merely a concept.
Jesus claimed to be God come to earth. Jesus was very much a living person, just as you are. He proved his claim to deity by rising from the dead after being executed in a most cruel way. You can say that you don't believe that, but you cannot say that it did not happen exactly as it is chronicled by eyewitnesses. Human courts generally give very high weight to the testimony of eyewitnesses. Those opposed to this testimony have tried, yet failed, for almost 2000 years now, to discredit the written legal deposition of what these witnesses saw, heard and experienced.
One of the founders of Harvard Law School has carefully examined this written evidence by the standards all courts of law operate and found no way to discredit the testimony. If you want to read what he wrote, go here:
Many today put forth the idea that there is no truth. Maybe you are one of the relatively few who disagrees with that and is still interested in truth.
(....The scientists ask the God's God (the God that created God)...)
Yes, the world rests of the back of a turtle. So what supports the turtle? Why yes, it's turtles all the way down! Any one or anything worthy of the title "God" must be eternal, self existent, with no beginning or end.
That is the God described in the Bible, ALONE. All other sacred writings fall short in that they restrict God into or as part of this time-space universe that scientists can explore. Jesus Christ is also the ONLY founder of a major religion who claimed or it is claimed on His behalf by eyewitnesses, that He is God come to earth and that he came back physically from the dead. His tomb alone is empty. All the other's bones are still moldering in their respective graves.
Now whether a person believes this or not is something else entirely. However, IF, and that is of course an if, these claims are really true, if Jesus did indeed conquer death for all humanity, then that event if it indeed took place as chronicled by eyewitnesses at the time, has huge, eternally significant implications for each person that has ever lived on this planet.
As in a court room, nothing historical can be proved absolutely because all court decisions are based on the past. We have in the Gospels and the other parts of the Bible a written deposition, if you will, of eyewitnesses who testify to what is written. The apostle Peter writes:
II Peter 1:16 For not following cunningly devised fables, but becoming eyewitnesses of the majesty of Jesus Christ, we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord. 17 For He received honor and glory from God the Father, when was borne to Him a voice from the excellent glory, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 18 And we heard this voice being borne from Heaven, being with Him in the holy mountain.
What the judge or jury can and are asked to do, is to consider the testimony of witnesses and other evidence and then make a decision based on their BELIEF of that evidence. Someone convicted of a crime is sent to prison or the death chamber, not on absolute PROOF but on the collective BELIEF of a group of people. Similarly, everyone's eternal destiny rests in their faith, belief in the testimony of God's Word.
.... I do feel that I'm one step closer to creating life....
It is the year 2109. Some scientists have figured out how to come before God and how to make life. They tell him: "Move over, we don't need you anymore because we can make life now also." God smiles and replies: "That is quite an achievement. Would you please give me a demonstration?" The scientists tell him: "Sure watch this!" They proceed to scrape together some dirt and put it into their quietly humming life creation machine. At this point God stops them with: "Now just wait one minute you guys, that is my dirt! You make your own dirt."
I would be willing to bet that even in your specific case, that the local people, the ones who actually live there and make their livelihood in that area were NOT the ones who advocated the removal of any dam. I have never heard of or read about any case where the locals advocated the destruction of a resource they have come to depend on. These things are always perpetrated by outsiders who care only about their own agenda. They don't give a rat's ass about the feelings or needs of the locals. You have presented no evidence that your case is any different.
....formed conclusions based on my experiences....
So your experiences are the be all and end all of absolute truth? The question is not who is right and who is wrong, but is it independently true? Here is a scientific experiment you can do to show how subjective your own or anybody's experience can be:
Fill one large bowl with lukewarm water and another with normal tap water. Now put one of your hands in each of the bowls for about three minutes. After that reverse the location of each hand. Do you notice how subjective your perception of temperature is?
When you are on a jury in a court of law, you are required to judge the evidence presented and forget your own experience.
(...because an atheist believes that god does not exist...)
That was exactly what Lee Strobel believed until his wife became a Christian and he noticed the positive changes in her life. As a skilled lawyer and journalist he set out to debunk her faith. He was a very scientific and methodical about it, but was willing to accept the evidence wherever it led.
(...It's because history tells us that those who claim godhead...)
It is true, that some rather audacious claims either made by Jesus Christ or attribute to him having made. These claims are recorded in the New Testament. There have been many throughout history that have made such claims to deity. The central claim of the Christian faith is that Jesus Christ overcame our common enemy -- death. Lee Strobel carefully investigated and evaluates available evidence for and against this assertion. If this central claim of the death and resurrection of Jesus is really true, that it actually happened in history, that makes pretty powerful evidence that Jesus Christ is indeed God come to earth. It means that what he says must be taken more seriously by all of us than anything else in life.
You are of course correct in the semantic sense. I was using the word efficiency in the sense of comparing it to a resistance heater or a fossil burning furnace. The device is called a heat PUMP, because it moves thermal energy uphill in the same sense that a water pump moves water uphill. There is no violation of any laws of physics here, but only the moving of already existing energy.
... most of the locals would probably prefer to see the river put back into its native state,...
That was an out and out lie, at least in the case of a local irrigation dam here. Almost ALL locals were vehemently opposed the removal of the dam, but were overruled by the amply financed outsiders, such as the Sierra Club and other well heeled lobby groups, financed by wealthily city people, many of which have never been to or even seen a farm up close. All these types ever do is go to the grocery store for their food, without so much as a nanosecond thought about where that food came from. Some of them may go for a hike once a year in some distant "wilderness" area they want to preserve as their exclusive playground.
These wealthy enviro-terrorists use expensive lawyers to litigate their pet causes through the courts or buy legislators, thereby steamrollering under financed local opposition into the ground. These outsiders got their way and now hundreds of thousands of kilowatt-hours of electricity from fossil fuels have to be used each year to pump the irrigation water to the farms. These rich people can easily afford to pay more for the food, but those who don't have money to burn on expensive lawyers or bribe legislators have to be happy with the crumbs left behind by the rich.
99% of all dams are beneficial because the water they store is an increasingly critical need for all segments of society. Electricity generation is only a small side effect part of this equation.
Why is it that the Swiss can build dams, railways, roads, power lines and aerial trams leading to restaurants and view points on mountain tops without raping the environment? Why is it that the Swiss and the Austrians both can have automobile free villages in the mountains, using trains instead? Why is it that the Germans can have TWO means of transportation to the top of their highest mountain?
Sierra Club types would have a shit hemorrhage if anyone suggested something like an aerial lift up Half Dome or el-Capitan in Yosemite. Why is it that only hardy, strong people, able to laboriously climb up there are allowed to appreciate the visual splendor from the tops of such places? Don't the many who do not have the ability and stamina to do this also deserve to appreciate the beauty the Creator made for ALL people?
There was a jerk named Paul Ehrlich who trumpeted this overpopulation BS over 40 years ago already. Yelling uses energy which has to be supplied by the food you eat. Growing the extra food for that makes up for any amount of population growth that might affect the environment. So if the greens stop yelling more people can be fed for the same energy expended.
...I was simply pointing out that hydropower has environmental costs...
There is definitely an environmental impact by a dam across a river. Over all however it is a beneficial impact rather than negative. A large lake supports a diverse and abundant flora and fauna that did not exist there before. Yes, some existing river life may be displaced, but is by far made up for by the larger amount of life made possible by the stored water. Irrigated croplands also support not just your next dinner, but also other creatures, such as wild grazing animals. Even if a dam generated no electricity whatsoever, it would STILL be beneficial to the environment and people. Electricity is really a freebie for hypocritical city slickers, many of which may have never even visited a far away large dam.
Even a relatively small dam, such as the one that holds back Shasta Lake in No. Cal. is impressive. The shoreline of this lake is longer than the entire California Coast! How much wildlife is in and around that lake?
...What happened to all the land that was flooded when the dam was put in?...
Yes, but now all the water that is used to cover a MUCH greater area than that reservoir with green crops. It also provides food for you and a livelihood for the farmers and the whole chain between them and your dinner table. How about all the soil that now grows green plants because it is NOT eroded by repeated floods now that the dam is there?
Such as not having nice lake to fish or swim in? Such as not providing a habitat for aquatic wild life? How about the birds of prey that get their fish out of that reservoir. Of course all those thousands of acres of farms that get live giving irrigation water to grow some of the food you eat everyday is so detrimental to you also! The fact that certain valleys with their town and villages used to to be flooded periodically before that dam was built counts fro nothing.
Everything mankind does has trade-offs. A damned up river has detrimental effects on the then existing life in and around it. However the new, large lake formed fosters other life forms that never existed in that place before. So to make an across the board a priori judgment as to which is better is total foolishness.
Over all, building dams has usually been very beneficial to the local population of ranchers and farmers and to the new wild life that comes to live in the new habitat created by the lake. Making electricity is really a beneficial side effect of a dam. It benefits the city-slickers some of whom have never been out in some of the places where the dams are located. Those who seldom leave their mother's basement even benefit from the cheap electricity the get to run their computers.
....since with gas you're getting 100% of the avalible heat from the fuel,....
unless you're using the electricity to power a heat pump. If so and you are using outside air, the efficiency is well over 100% unless the air temperature is very cold, such as below zero. If some other heat source is used, such as a body of water or underground water, efficiency can be high even when the outside air get very much colder. Here in Pacific Northwest, we have a mild climate and hydro power keeps many households warm in winter. In addition, on those few summer days when it gets a bit toasty, a heat pump can also be used to cool the house.
....there are so many people trying consciously....
I would say yes, many people are trying consciously very hard to PREVENT prophecies to be fulfilled. Are you really saying that the surrounding nations making war against the fledgling state of Israel coming into existence in 1948 were hoping to fulfill this prophecy? Are you asserting that when Egypt, Jordan, Syria etc. attacked Israel in 1967 they wanted to ensure that the then divided Jerusalem would be united under Israeli government?
The Bible is not at all vague, but very specific in some of these predictions. Here is one where God speaks to the prophet:
Zecheriah 12:2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling to all the peoples all around, and it shall also be against Judah in the siege against Jerusalem. 3 And in that day I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all peoples. All who lift it shall be slashed, and all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it.
Now what other city on earth can you think of, where a zoning change to build some multi-family housing makes world headlines and threatens the peace? Here is a town that which is insignificant as far as the world's cities go, yet today it is indeed a "burdensome" big issue in the middle east.
(...so it's not really clear if the end of days really means...)
If words still have meaning, then just read and interpret the words the same way you would if they were in a modern newspaper. Why should the rules for interpreting the Bible be any different than those used for any other writing, especially from history of long ago? When the "end" of days in this CONTEXT is mentioned, it is always in combination with the rule of Messiah, Jesus Christ, here on Earth. The "end" refers to the end of man's rule over this planet and the beginning of God's rule, not the physical destruction of the earth or the universe. This is the time I am looking forward to as written in:
Isaiah 9:6 For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be on His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
You probably have heard this sung around Christmas time.
No other ancient historical writings have as many ancient manuscripts preserved than the Bible. No actual historical FACT, as chronicled in the Bible has ever been found to be wrong by archeology or anthropology. If you really WANT to know more, get the excellent book "Case For Christ" by Lee Strobel. He was an Atheist, but one with an open mind. He researched the issues you bring up. Have you done your homework, or are you just blindly accepting YOUR assertions on faith?
...Frankly in twenty or thirty years I seriously doubt that Israel can survive....
Which is diametrically opposed to countless passages in the Bible, specifically the Old Testament. There it is predicted that the Jewish people would be scattered among the nations, who would hate them. Furthermore we read in these sacred texts that Jerusalem would be under Gentile control until the time of the Gentiles (nations) is fulfilled.
It is also prophesied that near the end of history, these people would be gathered again into the very real estate promised to Abraham. It also states that Jerusalem would once again come under Jewish rule.
The last, final scattering happened in 70AD under the auspices of the Roman General Titus Vespasian. There was no nation of Israel for all the intervening centuries until 1948 and Jerusalem was under the domination of a number of gentile rulers, none of them Jews. That changed in 1967 when that city once again became part of Israel, after having been under foreign rule since long before Jesus Christ was on Earth. The Hebrew language is also the ONLY once dead ancient language ever to come back to life for everyday use in living people.
We read that at some point ALL nations, (under the UN banner?) will come together for a battle (Armageddon) in a valley just north of Jerusalem. It will be the last battle of the last war before control of this planet will once again revert to the on who made it in the first place -- God the Son, Jesus Christ. Just before foolish humans manage to render themselves extinct by war and pollution, He will enforce His peace terms at last on bickering, strife and war torn humanity. The capitol, seat of government, for the entire planet, will be Jerusalem, as it was promised to Israel's King David more than 3000 years ago.
Just as surely that 1948 and 1967 events were history written in advance, by the One eternal God who exists outside of and sees all time, the rest of what is written in these sacred writings will come to pass at the appointed time and place. All the nukes on the planet cannot and will not change what the eternal Creator God has planned for Israel and all the rest of the inhabitants of this third rock from the sun. We humans have this grand illusion that we are in charge of our own ultimate destiny. I am sure glad that someone more righteous than mere humans is the ultimate boss of the universe.
....that few will risk their reputation to publish....
Yet, it has been the few, the daring to be different, not the ones feeling safe in the crowd, that have contributed the most to major knowledge in the early history of experimental and observational science.
This was true centuries ago and still is true today. Danish Astronomer Roemer was the first to assert that light did indeed have a finite velocity, even though the prevailing majority opinion (politically correct) at the time was that light travelled instantaneously from place to place. It took over 50 years before the scientific community as a whole finally admitted that Roemer was correct in his observations.
Other early scientists, such as Kepler, Copernicus, Pasteur and others also had to fight the majority status quo establishment, but were finally, after a long uphill battle proven to be right. Had any of these early scientists been subject to the politicized grant dispensing mechanisms of today, they would have gotten the same treatment as those who propose electric universe, intelligent design or other theories labeled "crackpot" pseudoscience by the establishment today. These early scientific lone pioneers would have never gotten their work published, if today's mechanisms of "peer review" by the "majority scientific sheeple" had been in place back then.
Present day cosmology exalts gravity as the dominant force operating in the large scale universe. They ignore entirely or relegate electricity into a minor role in the larger structure and operation of the universe. That is surprising to me given the fact that the electric interaction is about 40 orders of magnitude more powerful than gravity. Most matter in the universe is NOT composed of nicely neutral atoms, such as we enjoy here on Earth, but consists of loose electrons and nuclei moving violently in response to immense cosmic electric and magnetic fields.
Cosmic rays are powerful evidence of charged particles at energies orders of magnitude greater than anything man has generated in expensive gadgets, such as the LHC, of immense accelerating fields over cosmic distances.
I too would like to see alternate ideas, such as the electric universe theories be tested by the newest available evidence coming in from advanced space probes and modern telescopes. However, I fear that, as in the past, new radical ideas will not become mainstream until the entrenched scientific powers die off and get replaced by a generation of people who have not invested their entire lives, careers and prestige in the existing theories and procedures. Anyone who HAS written their PhD thesis, innumerable books and papers espousing the current theories, will NOT be amenable to having all that work thrown onto the rubbish heap of false scientific beliefs.
Slashdot Mirror
...so I see Apple products as particularly vulnerable....
Maybe, but apparently a lot less vulnerable than the makers of bottom of the barrel computers. The people in that bottom category will try to limp along with the stuff they already have until they see evidence of an economic turn around. Also, buying a new PC with VISTA is a step DOWN, rather than an upgrade. The new bottom tier computer with VISTA doesn't work any better than the older ones with XP, but possibly worse.
...Yes we must all judge things by popularity...
If you were running a business like Apple is, rather than a charity, you would be interested in selling as many widgets and making as fat a profit on each as possible. So yes, in THIS case at least, even you as a business person, would judge your success by how many people were willing to fork over a nice chunk of change to you.
...Can it handle H.264 1080P...
The desktop and the iTunes Visualizer display at 1080x1920, but I have no video material at full 1080 quality. I don't know if a blu-ray player in a fire-wire-enclosure would work. Normal DVD's played straight or converted to H.264 look very nice though. The appear to be at least as good as from the Toshiba up-converting DVD player. The 8MP pictures from my Olympus SLR look very sharp however, using iPhoto.
...Or is it just a pretty, expensive, show-off chunk of easily scratched plastic....
Of course that is all it is but they are selling like hot-cakes and Apple is laughing all the way to the bank, even in a recession. Same is true of those "expensive' Macs many here on /. are moaning about.
...In difficult financial times the value isn't there for most people....
Apple isn't targeting their products at people in dire financial straits, but to people who still have money. They have never sold stuff to the bottom end of the market, especially commodity items such as computers. That is why they are doing better than the other PC makers. Also, more and more people are beginning to understand that the purchase price of a computer is only a relatively small part of the total cost over the life of one. Having to dork with Windows, buy anti-malware software and being stuck with an 8 year old OS is certainly not lost on people. A smart marketing message by Apple, taking advantage of the MS VISTA debacle is also part of the equation. A Mac OS10.5 Leopard OS runs acceptably well on our old G4 Mac Mini. Getting VISTA to run on PC of equivalent age & specs is an exercise in frustration if the older software even works at all.
That old G4, connected to a 47" LCD TV makes a fine, networked media device for movies and music.
In the car business, Honda is an example. Their cars generally cost more to buy, but they also sell for a lot more used than some Ford or Chevy. This true of used Macs as well. Check that out on ebay if you wish.
... it's about the rights AND responsibilities ....
Anyone posting on /. and at the same time advocating the idea that people should NOT spend their money as they see fit for energy is a hypocrite. Shut off your computer and do all your work with pencil and paper and stop wasting power reading and posting drivel about responsibility and society.
...fact that the Federal Government is literally obligated (court orders) to spend hundreds of millions of dollars...
Are you really telling me that these court cases are brought by locals, rather than well heeled environmental groups? Who IS bringing these court cases that force the Fed to spend all that money? There are of course some locals, mostly retired people who are also often members of environmental organizations that bring these lawsuits. They sell their overpriced real estate in the big city and then move to a small town on the river where they voice their opinion and pay dues to their environmental club which then has tons of money to pay lawyers to bring lawsuits.
I know that in the case of the Columbia River dams, there are far more people benefitting directly than just the transportation segment. There are huge acreages of irrigation from these reservoirs. Every time you do a Google search, you are benefitting, because Google has a large data center near The Dalles, on a site that used to be an electricity sucking aluminum refinery. They now use that electrical infrastructure and the cheap electricity to power their servers. Even people as far as Los Angeles can get as much as 3000 MW of clean power from these dams.
Back in the 50s and 60s, Northern California, the service territory of PG&E, had some of the cheapest electricity rates in the whole USA. Then the environmental and deregulation politics kicked in and now California utility payers are saddled with a huge debt and almost the highest rates in the country. PG&E had numerous small powerhouses they were forced to abandon by environmental political maneuvers and lawsuits. Now these same actors are trying to get the Pacific Northwest to get into that same kind of mess by advocating and litigating for the removal of dams.
Yes, Salmon are affected, but what about all the other wildlife that is there ONLY because there is a reservoir? Have you ever watched the numerous windsurfers enjoying the unique combination of wind and open water in the Gorge? How does such a benefit get factored into the equations to leave or remove a dam? If everything, not just a few salmon or other fish is factored in, removing a dam is universally a stupid, hare-brained idea.
...why does everyone get up in arms when just trying to want to buy online what we have bought for YEARS on a CD....
If you are male and of an age where you can afford equipment like that, I suspect that your ears may not be as golden as they used to be when you were poorer, but young, agile and strong and your hearing extended to 20,000Hz.
Most music on CD's even, is unnaturally processed, such as compression to make it sound louder. Often, also equalization is also added which distorts the original performance. This is almost universally true of all the popular music. The one area where this is usually not done nowadays is in classical music involving a full symphony orchestra. So, if you like classical music, your Klipsch speakers will definitely give you a reproduction close to actually being in the second or third row of a concert hall.
I used to do master recordings back in the analog 15 inches-per-second tape recording days for radio broadcasting and live shows on FM Radio. They had some Klipsch and Altec speaker system along with 200lb heavy tube amplifiers in the studio. That was impressive sound that I could back then still actually HEAR. These systems reproduced the sound of that 12 foot Boesendorfer Concert Grand they had amazingly well.
I still have some of the very first stereo LPs ever made in my music collection. There are also still a number of direct to disc LPs, because vinyl CAN have lower noise and less distortion than analog tape.
Unfortunately, music these days is not produced for audiophiles, but the mass market. For that the iTunes sound quality is far better than 90% or more of the reproducing equipment out there. I think you'll be stuck with buying CDs and perhaps even LPs as long as they are still made.
...ONLY when it is of the same quality as I can get at a B&M store...
Wow, you must have golden ears and a $5000 sound system to be able to tell the difference between a 256Kb/s AAC file and the equivalent CD or even SACD. You need ultra high quality master recordings at $50 or more per song.
....In case you missed it, I think God is a concept, not a being...
Well, either your opinion is valid or Moses who talked to God. He asked God what his name was that he should tell the people. God replied: I am, tell them that "I AM" sent you. That expression is related to the word to be and that therefore makes God a being, not merely a concept.
Jesus claimed to be God come to earth. Jesus was very much a living person, just as you are. He proved his claim to deity by rising from the dead after being executed in a most cruel way. You can say that you don't believe that, but you cannot say that it did not happen exactly as it is chronicled by eyewitnesses. Human courts generally give very high weight to the testimony of eyewitnesses. Those opposed to this testimony have tried, yet failed, for almost 2000 years now, to discredit the written legal deposition of what these witnesses saw, heard and experienced.
One of the founders of Harvard Law School has carefully examined this written evidence by the standards all courts of law operate and found no way to discredit the testimony. If you want to read what he wrote, go here:
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/jesus/greenleaf.html
Many today put forth the idea that there is no truth. Maybe you are one of the relatively few who disagrees with that and is still interested in truth.
(....The scientists ask the God's God (the God that created God) ...)
Yes, the world rests of the back of a turtle. So what supports the turtle? Why yes, it's turtles all the way down! Any one or anything worthy of the title "God" must be eternal, self existent, with no beginning or end.
That is the God described in the Bible, ALONE. All other sacred writings fall short in that they restrict God into or as part of this time-space universe that scientists can explore. Jesus Christ is also the ONLY founder of a major religion who claimed or it is claimed on His behalf by eyewitnesses, that He is God come to earth and that he came back physically from the dead. His tomb alone is empty. All the other's bones are still moldering in their respective graves.
Now whether a person believes this or not is something else entirely. However, IF, and that is of course an if, these claims are really true, if Jesus did indeed conquer death for all humanity, then that event if it indeed took place as chronicled by eyewitnesses at the time, has huge, eternally significant implications for each person that has ever lived on this planet.
As in a court room, nothing historical can be proved absolutely because all court decisions are based on the past. We have in the Gospels and the other parts of the Bible a written deposition, if you will, of eyewitnesses who testify to what is written. The apostle Peter writes:
II Peter 1:16 For not following cunningly devised fables, but becoming eyewitnesses of the majesty of Jesus Christ, we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord. 17 For He received honor and glory from God the Father, when was borne to Him a voice from the excellent glory, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 18 And we heard this voice being borne from Heaven, being with Him in the holy mountain.
What the judge or jury can and are asked to do, is to consider the testimony of witnesses and other evidence and then make a decision based on their BELIEF of that evidence. Someone convicted of a crime is sent to prison or the death chamber, not on absolute PROOF but on the collective BELIEF of a group of people. Similarly, everyone's eternal destiny rests in their faith, belief in the testimony of God's Word.
.... I do feel that I'm one step closer to creating life....
It is the year 2109. Some scientists have figured out how to come before God and how to make life. They tell him: "Move over, we don't need you anymore because we can make life now also." God smiles and replies: "That is quite an achievement. Would you please give me a demonstration?" The scientists tell him: "Sure watch this!" They proceed to scrape together some dirt and put it into their quietly humming life creation machine. At this point God stops them with: "Now just wait one minute you guys, that is my dirt! You make your own dirt."
...I was referring to a specific case...
I would be willing to bet that even in your specific case, that the local people, the ones who actually live there and make their livelihood in that area were NOT the ones who advocated the removal of any dam. I have never heard of or read about any case where the locals advocated the destruction of a resource they have come to depend on. These things are always perpetrated by outsiders who care only about their own agenda. They don't give a rat's ass about the feelings or needs of the locals. You have presented no evidence that your case is any different.
....formed conclusions based on my experiences....
So your experiences are the be all and end all of absolute truth? The question is not who is right and who is wrong, but is it independently true? Here is a scientific experiment you can do to show how subjective your own or anybody's experience can be:
Fill one large bowl with lukewarm water and another with normal tap water. Now put one of your hands in each of the bowls for about three minutes. After that reverse the location of each hand. Do you notice how subjective your perception of temperature is?
When you are on a jury in a court of law, you are required to judge the evidence presented and forget your own experience.
(...because an atheist believes that god does not exist...)
That was exactly what Lee Strobel believed until his wife became a Christian and he noticed the positive changes in her life. As a skilled lawyer and journalist he set out to debunk her faith. He was a very scientific and methodical about it, but was willing to accept the evidence wherever it led.
(...It's because history tells us that those who claim godhead ...)
It is true, that some rather audacious claims either made by Jesus Christ or attribute to him having made. These claims are recorded in the New Testament. There have been many throughout history that have made such claims to deity. The central claim of the Christian faith is that Jesus Christ overcame our common enemy -- death. Lee Strobel carefully investigated and evaluates available evidence for and against this assertion. If this central claim of the death and resurrection of Jesus is really true, that it actually happened in history, that makes pretty powerful evidence that Jesus Christ is indeed God come to earth. It means that what he says must be taken more seriously by all of us than anything else in life.
...Nothing can be over 100% efficient,...
You are of course correct in the semantic sense. I was using the word efficiency in the sense of comparing it to a resistance heater or a fossil burning furnace. The device is called a heat PUMP, because it moves thermal energy uphill in the same sense that a water pump moves water uphill. There is no violation of any laws of physics here, but only the moving of already existing energy.
... most of the locals would probably prefer to see the river put back into its native state,...
That was an out and out lie, at least in the case of a local irrigation dam here. Almost ALL locals were vehemently opposed the removal of the dam, but were overruled by the amply financed outsiders, such as the Sierra Club and other well heeled lobby groups, financed by wealthily city people, many of which have never been to or even seen a farm up close. All these types ever do is go to the grocery store for their food, without so much as a nanosecond thought about where that food came from. Some of them may go for a hike once a year in some distant "wilderness" area they want to preserve as their exclusive playground.
These wealthy enviro-terrorists use expensive lawyers to litigate their pet causes through the courts or buy legislators, thereby steamrollering under financed local opposition into the ground. These outsiders got their way and now hundreds of thousands of kilowatt-hours of electricity from fossil fuels have to be used each year to pump the irrigation water to the farms. These rich people can easily afford to pay more for the food, but those who don't have money to burn on expensive lawyers or bribe legislators have to be happy with the crumbs left behind by the rich.
99% of all dams are beneficial because the water they store is an increasingly critical need for all segments of society. Electricity generation is only a small side effect part of this equation.
Why is it that the Swiss can build dams, railways, roads, power lines and aerial trams leading to restaurants and view points on mountain tops without raping the environment? Why is it that the Swiss and the Austrians both can have automobile free villages in the mountains, using trains instead? Why is it that the Germans can have TWO means of transportation to the top of their highest mountain?
Sierra Club types would have a shit hemorrhage if anyone suggested something like an aerial lift up Half Dome or el-Capitan in Yosemite. Why is it that only hardy, strong people, able to laboriously climb up there are allowed to appreciate the visual splendor from the tops of such places? Don't the many who do not have the ability and stamina to do this also deserve to appreciate the beauty the Creator made for ALL people?
... till we totally over-populate this planet,...
There was a jerk named Paul Ehrlich who trumpeted this overpopulation BS over 40 years ago already. Yelling uses energy which has to be supplied by the food you eat. Growing the extra food for that makes up for any amount of population growth that might affect the environment. So if the greens stop yelling more people can be fed for the same energy expended.
...I was simply pointing out that hydropower has environmental costs...
There is definitely an environmental impact by a dam across a river. Over all however it is a beneficial impact rather than negative. A large lake supports a diverse and abundant flora and fauna that did not exist there before. Yes, some existing river life may be displaced, but is by far made up for by the larger amount of life made possible by the stored water. Irrigated croplands also support not just your next dinner, but also other creatures, such as wild grazing animals. Even if a dam generated no electricity whatsoever, it would STILL be beneficial to the environment and people. Electricity is really a freebie for hypocritical city slickers, many of which may have never even visited a far away large dam.
Even a relatively small dam, such as the one that holds back Shasta Lake in No. Cal. is impressive. The shoreline of this lake is longer than the entire California Coast! How much wildlife is in and around that lake?
...What happened to all the land that was flooded when the dam was put in?...
Yes, but now all the water that is used to cover a MUCH greater area than that reservoir with green crops. It also provides food for you and a livelihood for the farmers and the whole chain between them and your dinner table. How about all the soil that now grows green plants because it is NOT eroded by repeated floods now that the dam is there?
.....We locals pay for it in many ways...
Such as not having nice lake to fish or swim in? Such as not providing a habitat for aquatic wild life? How about the birds of prey that get their fish out of that reservoir. Of course all those thousands of acres of farms that get live giving irrigation water to grow some of the food you eat everyday is so detrimental to you also! The fact that certain valleys with their town and villages used to to be flooded periodically before that dam was built counts fro nothing.
Everything mankind does has trade-offs. A damned up river has detrimental effects on the then existing life in and around it. However the new, large lake formed fosters other life forms that never existed in that place before. So to make an across the board a priori judgment as to which is better is total foolishness.
Over all, building dams has usually been very beneficial to the local population of ranchers and farmers and to the new wild life that comes to live in the new habitat created by the lake. Making electricity is really a beneficial side effect of a dam. It benefits the city-slickers some of whom have never been out in some of the places where the dams are located. Those who seldom leave their mother's basement even benefit from the cheap electricity the get to run their computers.
....since with gas you're getting 100% of the avalible heat from the fuel,....
unless you're using the electricity to power a heat pump. If so and you are using outside air, the efficiency is well over 100% unless the air temperature is very cold, such as below zero. If some other heat source is used, such as a body of water or underground water, efficiency can be high even when the outside air get very much colder. Here in Pacific Northwest, we have a mild climate and hydro power keeps many households warm in winter. In addition, on those few summer days when it gets a bit toasty, a heat pump can also be used to cool the house.
....there are so many people trying consciously....
I would say yes, many people are trying consciously very hard to PREVENT prophecies to be fulfilled. Are you really saying that the surrounding nations making war against the fledgling state of Israel coming into existence in 1948 were hoping to fulfill this prophecy? Are you asserting that when Egypt, Jordan, Syria etc. attacked Israel in 1967 they wanted to ensure that the then divided Jerusalem would be united under Israeli government?
The Bible is not at all vague, but very specific in some of these predictions. Here is one where God speaks to the prophet:
Zecheriah 12:2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling to all the peoples all around, and it shall also be against Judah in the siege against Jerusalem. 3 And in that day I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all peoples. All who lift it shall be slashed, and all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it.
Now what other city on earth can you think of, where a zoning change to build some multi-family housing makes world headlines and threatens the peace? Here is a town that which is insignificant as far as the world's cities go, yet today it is indeed a "burdensome" big issue in the middle east.
(...so it's not really clear if the end of days really means...)
If words still have meaning, then just read and interpret the words the same way you would if they were in a modern newspaper. Why should the rules for interpreting the Bible be any different than those used for any other writing, especially from history of long ago? When the "end" of days in this CONTEXT is mentioned, it is always in combination with the rule of Messiah, Jesus Christ, here on Earth. The "end" refers to the end of man's rule over this planet and the beginning of God's rule, not the physical destruction of the earth or the universe. This is the time I am looking forward to as written in:
Isaiah 9:6 For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be on His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
You probably have heard this sung around Christmas time.
No other ancient historical writings have as many ancient manuscripts preserved than the Bible. No actual historical FACT, as chronicled in the Bible has ever been found to be wrong by archeology or anthropology. If you really WANT to know more, get the excellent book "Case For Christ" by Lee Strobel. He was an Atheist, but one with an open mind. He researched the issues you bring up. Have you done your homework, or are you just blindly accepting YOUR assertions on faith?
...Frankly in twenty or thirty years I seriously doubt that Israel can survive....
Which is diametrically opposed to countless passages in the Bible, specifically the Old Testament. There it is predicted that the Jewish people would be scattered among the nations, who would hate them. Furthermore we read in these sacred texts that Jerusalem would be under Gentile control until the time of the Gentiles (nations) is fulfilled.
It is also prophesied that near the end of history, these people would be gathered again into the very real estate promised to Abraham. It also states that Jerusalem would once again come under Jewish rule.
The last, final scattering happened in 70AD under the auspices of the Roman General Titus Vespasian. There was no nation of Israel for all the intervening centuries until 1948 and Jerusalem was under the domination of a number of gentile rulers, none of them Jews. That changed in 1967 when that city once again became part of Israel, after having been under foreign rule since long before Jesus Christ was on Earth. The Hebrew language is also the ONLY once dead ancient language ever to come back to life for everyday use in living people.
We read that at some point ALL nations, (under the UN banner?) will come together for a battle (Armageddon) in a valley just north of Jerusalem. It will be the last battle of the last war before control of this planet will once again revert to the on who made it in the first place -- God the Son, Jesus Christ. Just before foolish humans manage to render themselves extinct by war and pollution, He will enforce His peace terms at last on bickering, strife and war torn humanity. The capitol, seat of government, for the entire planet, will be Jerusalem, as it was promised to Israel's King David more than 3000 years ago.
Just as surely that 1948 and 1967 events were history written in advance, by the One eternal God who exists outside of and sees all time, the rest of what is written in these sacred writings will come to pass at the appointed time and place. All the nukes on the planet cannot and will not change what the eternal Creator God has planned for Israel and all the rest of the inhabitants of this third rock from the sun. We humans have this grand illusion that we are in charge of our own ultimate destiny. I am sure glad that someone more righteous than mere humans is the ultimate boss of the universe.
...The spending is spiraling out of control,...
That's why big numbers are no longer labeled "astronomical" but are now "economic" numbers in terms of the total debt owed by everybody to everybody.
....that few will risk their reputation to publish....
Yet, it has been the few, the daring to be different, not the ones feeling safe in the crowd, that have contributed the most to major knowledge in the early history of experimental and observational science.
This was true centuries ago and still is true today. Danish Astronomer Roemer was the first to assert that light did indeed have a finite velocity, even though the prevailing majority opinion (politically correct) at the time was that light travelled instantaneously from place to place. It took over 50 years before the scientific community as a whole finally admitted that Roemer was correct in his observations.
Other early scientists, such as Kepler, Copernicus, Pasteur and others also had to fight the majority status quo establishment, but were finally, after a long uphill battle proven to be right. Had any of these early scientists been subject to the politicized grant dispensing mechanisms of today, they would have gotten the same treatment as those who propose electric universe, intelligent design or other theories labeled "crackpot" pseudoscience by the establishment today. These early scientific lone pioneers would have never gotten their work published, if today's mechanisms of "peer review" by the "majority scientific sheeple" had been in place back then.
Present day cosmology exalts gravity as the dominant force operating in the large scale universe. They ignore entirely or relegate electricity into a minor role in the larger structure and operation of the universe. That is surprising to me given the fact that the electric interaction is about 40 orders of magnitude more powerful than gravity. Most matter in the universe is NOT composed of nicely neutral atoms, such as we enjoy here on Earth, but consists of loose electrons and nuclei moving violently in response to immense cosmic electric and magnetic fields.
Cosmic rays are powerful evidence of charged particles at energies orders of magnitude greater than anything man has generated in expensive gadgets, such as the LHC, of immense accelerating fields over cosmic distances.
I too would like to see alternate ideas, such as the electric universe theories be tested by the newest available evidence coming in from advanced space probes and modern telescopes. However, I fear that, as in the past, new radical ideas will not become mainstream until the entrenched scientific powers die off and get replaced by a generation of people who have not invested their entire lives, careers and prestige in the existing theories and procedures. Anyone who HAS written their PhD thesis, innumerable books and papers espousing the current theories, will NOT be amenable to having all that work thrown onto the rubbish heap of false scientific beliefs.