I don't have the figures or a link on me at the moment, but a little googling should lead the way. I had heard the same thing a number of times, and believed it. But I found some info (on wikipedia, maybe. Not that that should be a sole source) that said that although the amount of cheap and easy nuclear fuel could be expended in fifty years, it's possible to use breeder reactors and the more plentiful Uranium-238 and such to give us sufficient nuclear fuel for another few thousand years.
And droughts. And more powerful storms. And the melting of the glaciers on Greenland and Antarctica, and the resulting 10' rise in oceans heights. And the disruption of the jet stream to northern Europe. And the ensuing famines. And the flooding of coastal areas.
Certainly, as a people the world can surely overcome the coming troubles, but it won't be pleasant. You want to take in the tens of millions of displaced people? If you're in the US, do you remember the trouble that the loss of part of one city caused, last year?
Sure, maybe the hundreds of scientists are wrong. But, you know, maybe they're right too? Shouldn't an attempt be made to curtail some of this?
Oh, man, you just slammed both Clinton and Bush in one post. I'm surprised this little thread hasn't collapsed into a singularity from the weight of all of the flames.
They actually explain at the end that they have accounted for this, I believe. Whether they've done a good job of that is something else altogether, but...
When the Chinese government does something, everybody yells 'OMG those communist bastards are 3v1l!!!'. But when the US government does something, almost nobody says a word.
When China does something, the US complains. When the US does something, everyone in Europe complains. When Europe does something... Well, I guess that's probably the US complaining again. And Russia maybe.
I didn't have time to read the rest of your post (gosh that's a lot of words!), but I did have time to mis-read your first paragraph. I saw "faster than pie" and immediately fell in love with the phrase, until I saw the "in the sky" part. I was much saddened: I think "pie" could totally be a new speed barrier.
Gamers are average computer users. Or at least for most families, there's probably someone in the house that wants to play games. Halo 2 for PC is already announced to require Vista, and MS announced a few months ago a MS-certified-type game system for PCs. How much you want to bet that to get the little sticker on the box it has to be Vista-only?
Of course, simultaneously MS has been trying to kill off PC gaming with their consoles, so they might be shooting themselves in the foot after all.
Microsoft lies. I've heard from people using the beta, and there are tales of 900 megs of RAM in use at boot-up and 50 processes. And that's with Glass turned off. And if it follows like XP64, it'll actually get more bloated as it moves out of beta and toward release.
It is impressive that your 295hp car can get 28mpg. OTOH, it's unlikely that even a 120hp car, sold in the US, will get more than 40mpg. Which isn't that big of an improvement over the past couple of decades.
He does expound upon the concept of badassery in Cryptonomicon, but in a different sort of way.
Like every other creature on the face of the earth, Godfrey was, by birthright, a stupendous badass, albeit in the somewhat narrow technical sense that he could trace his ancestry back up a long line of slgihtly less highly evolved stupendous badasses to that first self-replicating gizmo--which, given the number and variety of its descendants, might justifiably be described as the most stupendous badass of all time. Everyone and everything that wasn't a stupendous badass was dead. (Cryptonomicon (paperback) p. 6)
"Notwithstanding the provisions of 106(3), the owner of a particular * * * phonorecord lawfully made under this title, or any person authorized by such owner, is entitled, without the authority of the Copyright owner, to sell or otherwise dispose of the possession of that * * * phonorecord."
The disposal 109(a) speaks of allows two options: distribution of a particular phonorecord to another or to destruction of a particular phonorecord. Thus, this section allows me to sell a vinyl copy of a phonorecord to a friend or destroy my phonorecord without requiring permission from the author.
Were you planning on actually building something yourself that uses your magical ideas? Or are you now? If not, then why not throw it out there, let it be stolen, and then you can buy it without actually doing any work yourself.
Slashdot Mirror
Went ahead and hunted for the link:
Wikipedia: Nuclear Power
I am not a nuclear physicist, so it could be full of crap, but wiki's science info is generally pretty sound.
And droughts. And more powerful storms. And the melting of the glaciers on Greenland and Antarctica, and the resulting 10' rise in oceans heights. And the disruption of the jet stream to northern Europe. And the ensuing famines. And the flooding of coastal areas.
Certainly, as a people the world can surely overcome the coming troubles, but it won't be pleasant. You want to take in the tens of millions of displaced people? If you're in the US, do you remember the trouble that the loss of part of one city caused, last year?
Sure, maybe the hundreds of scientists are wrong. But, you know, maybe they're right too? Shouldn't an attempt be made to curtail some of this?
Oh, man, you just slammed both Clinton and Bush in one post. I'm surprised this little thread hasn't collapsed into a singularity from the weight of all of the flames.
They actually explain at the end that they have accounted for this, I believe. Whether they've done a good job of that is something else altogether, but...
You say that now, but just wait 'till its desiccated husk rises from the grave to terrorize the populous. Zombies are a lot harder to kill.
When China does something, the US complains. When the US does something, everyone in Europe complains. When Europe does something... Well, I guess that's probably the US complaining again. And Russia maybe.
It's the circle of life.
I didn't have time to read the rest of your post (gosh that's a lot of words!), but I did have time to mis-read your first paragraph. I saw "faster than pie" and immediately fell in love with the phrase, until I saw the "in the sky" part. I was much saddened: I think "pie" could totally be a new speed barrier.
lol wut u say?
Of course, simultaneously MS has been trying to kill off PC gaming with their consoles, so they might be shooting themselves in the foot after all.
Microsoft lies. I've heard from people using the beta, and there are tales of 900 megs of RAM in use at boot-up and 50 processes. And that's with Glass turned off. And if it follows like XP64, it'll actually get more bloated as it moves out of beta and toward release.
But, look! He was linked with Clinton! That means he has no bias here. Come on, don't you know anything?
Dvorak and Cringely both in the same day! We're doomed, folks!
It is impressive that your 295hp car can get 28mpg. OTOH, it's unlikely that even a 120hp car, sold in the US, will get more than 40mpg. Which isn't that big of an improvement over the past couple of decades.
You do know that Shadow of the Colossus is already out, right? It's been out and available for a while now. A couple of months?
Man, Bush sucks.
...to plug that little hole. I'm not sure what happened there.
But, yes. The content industry hates the whole thing, and the DRM thing is definitely an attempt to
THE FIRST SALE DOCTRINE AND DIGITAL PHONORECORDS
And that's precisely why all of those stores that sell used CDs don't exist.
Oh, wait. What's that? There are tons of those stores?
Wait... Is not spyware? It's definitely malware.
Were you planning on actually building something yourself that uses your magical ideas? Or are you now? If not, then why not throw it out there, let it be stolen, and then you can buy it without actually doing any work yourself.
Very insightful. Hadn't thought of that, but you're totally right. We won't be purchasing soap, pants or coffee: We'll be buying a license.
+1 billion, Political Action for the Lazy
Rock on. I'm all for that idea. Of course paper letters and faxes apparently mean more, but this would at least be a start.