and I have to agree. It was only a Canadian Dieffenbunker (http://www.diefenbunker.ca/ ) in Alberta, but it was underground, under concrete and steel and it got a bit depressing. After a 12 hour shift it was really quite shocking to exit the bank-vault doors and return to the real world:P
Yeah they left out the "English Language" before "words" there unfortunately. English speakers have a tendency to think that English is the only "real" language, the rest of them are sort of fake languages people speak to fool us into thinking they are real languages.
It is the most complete dictionary of any language on the planet to the best of my knowledge though, and likely a standard to which the rest of the language dictionaries aspire to one degree or another.
I have the Abridged version of the Oxford English Dictionary (in 2 volumes of extremely tiny print with accompanying magnifying glass), and that is more than enough dictionary for anyone I think. I can't imagine owning the full 20 volume set - although I would love to get it. You get the definitions of the words, with accompanying history, examples of usage (modern day and period, with quotes from written sources etc). Its very complete.
The act of constructing Klingon was based on our understanding of how many other languages work, or have worked in the past - i.e. Linguistics as a study - I highly doubt it contributed anything to Linguistics as a whole. Its a clever language in and of itself, but not revolutionary. I highly doubt there is very much in Klingon that hasn't occurred elsewhere in another human language. The sheer variety of ways that humans have chosen to develop their languages is just staggering, and almost anything you can think of (and a lot that would never occur to anyone) is likely present somewhere. Most people more or less assume that their language is the right way to express everything, and are unable to really comprehend that there is no right way per se. Thus the reason that so few people have much sympathy when they hear this or that language is dying out - they don't see the problem with that because obviously it wasn't any good (in comparison to their language). Most of those people are English speakers of course, and English is in no way threatened with extinction (despite what you might think when you see the deplorable level of a lot of its users ability to spell or even communicate):P
As for the popularity and persistence of Klingon, I can only guess that because it was invented for geeks, some of them have seized it and adopted it fanatically as a result. Of course, as complex as it is, its relatively simple in comparison to most human languages, since its highly consistent. Usually one of the biggest obstacles in learning a new language is not learning the conventions of the language, but the exceptions. Most languages, having not been created from scratch, are highly inconsistent in their vocabulary and structure - not to mention dialectal differences at all - and as a result, truly mastering them to the point of fluency is extremely difficult.
Actually, its because "Chinese" is actually multiple different languages. The speakers themselves tend to view them as different dialects of the same language, but linguistically, thats not quite true.
"Chinese is classified as a macrolanguage with 13 sub-languages in ISO 639-3, though the identification of the varieties of Chinese as multiple "languages" or as "dialects" of a single language is a contentious issue." - Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Language).
The cleverness of the Character based writing system employed for these various different but similar languages, is that a newspaper (for instance) written anywhere in the country can be read by anyone else anywhere else in the country apparently). The difficulty is in acquiring the knowledge of the characters in the first place.
I dunno why anyone is surprised though, without wanting to sound like some old codger, I have yet to see a person under 25 who can spell worth crap. I work with some who have essentially no ability to spell out street names for instance. Their spelling is as bad as the foreign guys I work with, who at least have the excuse of not actually speaking English for very long.
I agree it will likely die out in the long run, American English will dominate every other language eventually, because American culture is being pushed aggressively/shoved down everyone's throats aggressively.
Haven't studies shown that an American president who gets involved in a war is most likely to get reelected? That might be one cause for the US getting constantly involved in wars; the others being that it lets the current president pay off the military industrial complex and it lets you test new weapon systems. This would explain a lot about US foreign policy if true, sadly:P
Caveat: I am Canadian, so my viewpoint isn't the same as a US citizen's might be.
Amazing change yes. I too ran McAfee, and ran a BBS back in the day (and am feeling old). I don't hate anti-virus companies (although I am running a mac now, and have to worry far less about viruses for the most part), I hate Microsoft instead, because the existence of the whole virus/malware/trojan world can be laid at their feet for writing such incredibly insecure operating systems. Everyone else in this chain is just responding to MS ineptness. The virus writers and malware writers can get away with it because PCs running windows have such a poor security system, and because generations of users have grown up ignorant of how their computer works. Can MS Windows be secure, sure, but it takes effort and intelligence on the part of the user and that's asking too much. The average computer user is too stupid to actually operate a computer competently, or too lazy to learn.
That is the western model for game sales. Its worked so far, but now the companies face more serious competition in fighting for customers dollars. In the MMO world there has been relatively little offered in the way of new games, probably because of the huge costs and development time required to produce a new major MMO. Of the titles coming out a few are seeking to do RMT monetization of items - the new Star Wars game coming from Bioware for instance. Why? Presumably because in Asia they have seen this model work well. There are definitely tons of players of MMOs out there who are willing to fork over big bucks to get items that let them win more in PvP. I have seen it in a few games I have played. I view these people as pathetic cheats, but it doesn't change the fact that they get the top end items and can dominate in PvP. Either the companies decide to support this in game and profit from it themselves, or they let it happen as a blackmarket and lose out on the money changing hands. If there is a way to cheat in an MMO, players will find it and exploit it, and other players will find a way to make money from it. Very few players seem to be interested in playing a balanced and fair game. The experience of virtual victory over an opponent is too highly valued, no matter what needs to be done to acquire it. I think companies need to strike a balance to keep their players from leaving in droves though. If "The Sword of PK Slaying" is available as an award from a large scale raid, and offers great bonuses in PvP it will be desirable. If its a very rare drop, it will be even more desirable since it confers a substantial advantage and most other players will not have it. If the company running the game then turns around and makes an equivalent item available in the Online store for the game for say $20, then the perceived value of the original item will drop considerably. Its no longer rare, it no longer confers the same advantage etc. If the 2 items are stats-wise the same, but the raid gained one has a distinct (and shinier) appearance, you can at least have the boasting rights for having won it in the raid, and that will help compensate a bit. If the company sells the equivalent item at $125 in the online store, the original will retain its value and the people who shell out the $125 to have the equivalent item (because they are too lazy to earn it the hard way) can still get the same item but with a much larger barrier to acquisition, then more of a balance is struck. The players who earn it by repeatedly doing a difficult raid until they win the item can feel like they have achieved something (and MMOs are in large part about the virtual sense of achieving a goal), while the people who lack the time but have the money can still get the item they want, but far fewer of them will do so. The problems arise, IMHO, when the store starts selling items which confer a substantial advantage but which are not available in game, or for which the chance of obtaining the item is extreme to say the least.
the dedication of ST Fans who would go to all this bother to produce a fakeumentary to get advertising, and who have produced a Klingon Opera. The fans of the Klingon language are very persistent and devoted, if perhaps a bit odd to say the least. Its entirely silly to me of course, but to each their own.
I have 2 choices: * Shaw Cable (in other cities its Rogers Cable, but the 2 companies have made an agreement to not compete and operate in separate cities, so its one or the other). They have good speed at peak but because of their network design, if there are a lot of users on your hub the speed suffers. * Telus Internet - Telus is a phone company offering internet service over their phone lines. Its the only local phone company. Their service is consistent but slower than Shaw.
Both of them charge about the same amount, both are pricing to ensure you pay a substantial amount for an internet connection, neither of them offer a distinct advantage.
There is no real competition. Neither is cutting their prices to get more customers from what I can see. It still costs me around $50/mo to get an internet connection.
The problem with "The free market competition will solve problems" is the fact that companies are actively engaged in ensuring there is no competition. Witness the agreements between Shaw and Rogers (I remember an article in which one agrees to stop operating in city A and the other agreed to stop operating in city B). I am sure there is collusion at some level to ensure the prices remain as high as possible. Each has a more or less monopoly in their area, except for Telus which is the only competition. They are not that good as competition (witness their efforts to get into providing televisions services, their PVR is handsdown the worst PoS possible). NN is a necessary thing if we want the internet to continue to be a useful tool for the free exchange of information. Allowing the ISPs to throttle access and gear payment based on that is a grave mistake. Of course it will happen and the government will just roll over and show its stomach
Like it or not, I can attest to the fact that I often mentally judge someone by their speech if I am talking to them, or by their spelling and punctuation if I am reading their writing. I am sure I am hardly alone. If they lack the ability to compose a coherent sentence, or the decency to use a spell checker, and have no concept of grammatical formations, then I am inclined to judge them as uneducated, ignorant or ill-informed, and I tend to disregard whatever it was that they were trying to communicate. Now, I grant you that sometimes one might type "Pimpin' ain't easy" for the effect - but the intention is to imply someone who is a lower-class, uneducated and possibly not very bright individual. If you regularly communicate in a similar style, you will look equally lower-class, uneducated and possibly not very bright. In other words, its a matter of communication. If you communicate poorly, you tend to be ignored, and in my opinion whatever you have to say matters less.
If I am reading forum posts and I come across a post that is utterly incoherent, misspelled, or contains a lot of grammatical errors, I skip it. That person has failed to get whatever point they were trying to make across to me at least, and likely others. If you want to be given attention, and your opinions to be given any consideration, learn to communicate using proper grammar, spelling etc. Failure to do so simply makes you look like an idiot.
Now, unleash the Grammar Nazis to let me know where I have erred in my post. I tried to be correct throughout, but I am sure I have made at least one mistake:)
If that was the book written in 2nd person perspective, that made it utterly unreadable for me. I have to say I hate it when authors decide to do something strange like that just to be gimmicky.
"You wake up in the morning, and turn on the police scanner"
I mean WTF? 1st person POV and various forms of Omnipotent 3rd person POVs have been used in storytelling for how many thousands of years? Its a shame because it seemed like a decently interesting story.
I deliver pizza on the weekends. Within my experience, Taxis are the least predictable and most hazardous vehicles on the road, more so than many apparently drunk drivers I have seen (and reported mind you). Taxi drivers are all calm and sedate when you are in the vehicle paying them, but when they are out to get the next customers - watch out. I have seen vehicles pass (in the opposite lane, over double yellow lines) through an intersection while traffic is entering that intersection coming the opposite way. I have seen u-turns across 3 lanes of traffic with cars going both ways. I have seen 2 taxis stopped side by side (blocking the whole road) so the drivers could talk with each other, just around a blind curve. In fact I have seen taxi drivers doing the above maneuver across the main street in our downtown, blocking all traffic both ways for about a minute.
Sadly the police in Victoria BC seldom seem to stop cabbies at all, although I have seen one pulled over for speeding (I would guess he was doing about 90 in a 50 zone, and the cop was at hand, but speeding taxis are the norm within my experience).
Taxis are dangerous IMHO, I always assume if I see one driving nearby that it might do anything at any point, likely the most stupid thing possible. The only upside to this is that the drivers generally seem to be somewhat capable, if as dumb as a box of hammers.
I agree the whole system needs revision. The problem with your suggestion is that it requires setting up an agency and a system to track all of those payments, a means to collect them etc. This will of course be prone to corruption etc as well, so it needs safeguards to ensure data integrity...
Simply trying to change copyright laws to make them more consistent and fair might be easier in the end (and I know how monumental a task that would be in the US alone).
Of course neither will happen because the almighty RIAA/MAFIAA control the politicians and can prevent any changes which threaten their business models/protection racket...
just to keep things from getting confusing to the customer: * Standard moves to Standard 1.5, while * High Speed remains at version 1.4 (Which shall not be named), until version 1.6 comes out (skipping 1.5 to avoid confusion with Standard 1.5) * Ultra High Speed is released in the meantime starting at version 1.7 (to avoid confusion with the newly released, and probably faster High Speed 1.6).
That way it remains clear to the customer which version they want, and the manufacturers can continue to sell the consumer multiple cables, all priced well above what they should be priced.
Well, speaking entirely impartially, and as a Canadian, its because Canada is the most important country in the world and the finest place to live of course.
Or it could just be because the article that's linked came from a Canadian news service, I dunno...
There is also a huge segment of the population that is too ignorant to read a report or accept any evidence that global warming is happening and make up their own mind. Compare how many newspapers contain a regular column on the state of the environment versus how many have an Astrology section. People on average are stupid, ignorant and self-centered. Half of them are worse than that. Worse yet doing something about global warming might require them to make some sacrifice themselves, better to just hope it goes away.
I believe that global warming is happening, and that its man-made in origin. I also believe that not a damn thing will be done about it because its more convenient for those in authority (Corporations, Government in that order) to ignore it and let millions of people suffer and die, than it is for them to have to shift their business models at all and accept a potential loss in profits. Humanity is too shortsighted to actually accomplish anything required. We are too ignorant and selfish, and I can't see anything changing that enough to stop the advance of global warming. Anything I can do to decrease the impact of human civilization along with all the rest of us that might feel and act the same way, will simply be absorbed by some company out there that doesn't feel it has to respond because our collective efforts decreased the impact on the environment enough that they can claim credit for it. In short, I believe we are all fucked, and nothing will be done to fix the situation. Millions will die, countries will be disrupted, disease will run rampant, civilization may even fall entirely, but up until that point, the corporations and the governments around the world will continue to wear their blinders and rake in the profits for the sake of short term gains.
If you don't pursue this in some form against all parties you discover have violated your rights, can their lawyers say that you were not actively seeking to defend the license on your images and therefore any individual attempt can be dismissed? I mean its like that with trademarks is it not? If you aren't actively defending it, you can lose it? IANAL of course. I would pursue the DMCA takedown notice route I think (assuming you are in the USA), and let them know of the problem. At the same time, contact the EFF and see if they can help. I am sure they prefer high profile cases of course, but things that advance the cause of the EFF - and defending the CC license might be viewed as such - might get their support (and thus cover the costs of suing). Actually, contact the EFF first and see what they say, maybe the DMCA takedowns need to be run through them first:P Is a shame that western civilization has settled on a system where only those with money can get justice, and those with more money can ignore the laws more or less as they see fit provided they are prepared to spend money on lawyers.
When we might have advanced enough to have only one world government and have gotten beyond all that nationalism. One (or more likely 2) remaining languages on Earth is a likely event given how few languages remain and how quickly we are losing them.
isn't really a bad choice if you want your culture and language to eventually dominate the world. Mandarin currently exceeds English as a spoken language by population (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers). It's hardly a representational sample by any stretch of the imagination, but where I work at the moment we have at least 6 out of the 10 drivers who are from mainland China and living here in Canada at the moment. Most of them want to get Canadian citizenship eventually, some already have. I would guess that in a few hundred years we will be down to only a few surviving languages, with Mandarin in 1st place and English in 2nd or vice versa. The Internet is only speeding up the death of minor languages I am sure, and we lose a couple of world language every month, as the last native speakers die off (http://www.globalwatchtower.com/2008/02/20/intl-mother-language/). Of the remaining 6-7 thousand human languages, half or so may be gone in 30 years. As that takes place I imagine the process will accelerate. Once we lose a language, we lose an entire mode of human thinking and way of viewing the world. Unfortunately for us English speakers, Mandarin is much harder to learn than English is for Mandarin speakers:P
If you can afford it. If they come up with a cure for AIDS/HIV, whats it worth to the person who is afflicted with it? What isn't it worth. They could easily patent it, then peg the cost at $20000 US per treatment.
The rich will get treated, the drug companies will make a fortune, the researcher will get more funding for further research, but I won't hold my breath on the average person who is afflicted seeing any benefits from this until the patents have expired.
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and I have to agree. It was only a Canadian Dieffenbunker (http://www.diefenbunker.ca/ ) in Alberta, but it was underground, under concrete and steel and it got a bit depressing. After a 12 hour shift it was really quite shocking to exit the bank-vault doors and return to the real world :P
It was also kinda cool in a way :P
Yeah they left out the "English Language" before "words" there unfortunately. English speakers have a tendency to think that English is the only "real" language, the rest of them are sort of fake languages people speak to fool us into thinking they are real languages.
It is the most complete dictionary of any language on the planet to the best of my knowledge though, and likely a standard to which the rest of the language dictionaries aspire to one degree or another.
I have the Abridged version of the Oxford English Dictionary (in 2 volumes of extremely tiny print with accompanying magnifying glass), and that is more than enough dictionary for anyone I think. I can't imagine owning the full 20 volume set - although I would love to get it. You get the definitions of the words, with accompanying history, examples of usage (modern day and period, with quotes from written sources etc). Its very complete.
The act of constructing Klingon was based on our understanding of how many other languages work, or have worked in the past - i.e. Linguistics as a study - I highly doubt it contributed anything to Linguistics as a whole. Its a clever language in and of itself, but not revolutionary. I highly doubt there is very much in Klingon that hasn't occurred elsewhere in another human language. The sheer variety of ways that humans have chosen to develop their languages is just staggering, and almost anything you can think of (and a lot that would never occur to anyone) is likely present somewhere. Most people more or less assume that their language is the right way to express everything, and are unable to really comprehend that there is no right way per se. Thus the reason that so few people have much sympathy when they hear this or that language is dying out - they don't see the problem with that because obviously it wasn't any good (in comparison to their language). Most of those people are English speakers of course, and English is in no way threatened with extinction (despite what you might think when you see the deplorable level of a lot of its users ability to spell or even communicate) :P
As for the popularity and persistence of Klingon, I can only guess that because it was invented for geeks, some of them have seized it and adopted it fanatically as a result. Of course, as complex as it is, its relatively simple in comparison to most human languages, since its highly consistent. Usually one of the biggest obstacles in learning a new language is not learning the conventions of the language, but the exceptions. Most languages, having not been created from scratch, are highly inconsistent in their vocabulary and structure - not to mention dialectal differences at all - and as a result, truly mastering them to the point of fluency is extremely difficult.
Actually, its because "Chinese" is actually multiple different languages. The speakers themselves tend to view them as different dialects of the same language, but linguistically, thats not quite true.
"Chinese is classified as a macrolanguage with 13 sub-languages in ISO 639-3, though the identification of the varieties of Chinese as multiple "languages" or as "dialects" of a single language is a contentious issue."
- Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Language).
The cleverness of the Character based writing system employed for these various different but similar languages, is that a newspaper (for instance) written anywhere in the country can be read by anyone else anywhere else in the country apparently). The difficulty is in acquiring the knowledge of the characters in the first place.
I dunno why anyone is surprised though, without wanting to sound like some old codger, I have yet to see a person under 25 who can spell worth crap. I work with some who have essentially no ability to spell out street names for instance. Their spelling is as bad as the foreign guys I work with, who at least have the excuse of not actually speaking English for very long.
I agree it will likely die out in the long run, American English will dominate every other language eventually, because American culture is being pushed aggressively/shoved down everyone's throats aggressively.
I got it eventually, at least most of the time, and I am a white Canadian living on the west coast :P
Loved The Wire by the way, some of the best TV I have ever seen.
Haven't studies shown that an American president who gets involved in a war is most likely to get reelected? That might be one cause for the US getting constantly involved in wars; the others being that it lets the current president pay off the military industrial complex and it lets you test new weapon systems. This would explain a lot about US foreign policy if true, sadly :P
Caveat: I am Canadian, so my viewpoint isn't the same as a US citizen's might be.
Amazing change yes. I too ran McAfee, and ran a BBS back in the day (and am feeling old).
I don't hate anti-virus companies (although I am running a mac now, and have to worry far less about viruses for the most part), I hate Microsoft instead, because the existence of the whole virus/malware/trojan world can be laid at their feet for writing such incredibly insecure operating systems. Everyone else in this chain is just responding to MS ineptness. The virus writers and malware writers can get away with it because PCs running windows have such a poor security system, and because generations of users have grown up ignorant of how their computer works. Can MS Windows be secure, sure, but it takes effort and intelligence on the part of the user and that's asking too much. The average computer user is too stupid to actually operate a computer competently, or too lazy to learn.
That is the western model for game sales. Its worked so far, but now the companies face more serious competition in fighting for customers dollars. In the MMO world there has been relatively little offered in the way of new games, probably because of the huge costs and development time required to produce a new major MMO. Of the titles coming out a few are seeking to do RMT monetization of items - the new Star Wars game coming from Bioware for instance. Why? Presumably because in Asia they have seen this model work well.
There are definitely tons of players of MMOs out there who are willing to fork over big bucks to get items that let them win more in PvP. I have seen it in a few games I have played. I view these people as pathetic cheats, but it doesn't change the fact that they get the top end items and can dominate in PvP. Either the companies decide to support this in game and profit from it themselves, or they let it happen as a blackmarket and lose out on the money changing hands. If there is a way to cheat in an MMO, players will find it and exploit it, and other players will find a way to make money from it. Very few players seem to be interested in playing a balanced and fair game. The experience of virtual victory over an opponent is too highly valued, no matter what needs to be done to acquire it.
I think companies need to strike a balance to keep their players from leaving in droves though. If "The Sword of PK Slaying" is available as an award from a large scale raid, and offers great bonuses in PvP it will be desirable. If its a very rare drop, it will be even more desirable since it confers a substantial advantage and most other players will not have it. If the company running the game then turns around and makes an equivalent item available in the Online store for the game for say $20, then the perceived value of the original item will drop considerably. Its no longer rare, it no longer confers the same advantage etc. If the 2 items are stats-wise the same, but the raid gained one has a distinct (and shinier) appearance, you can at least have the boasting rights for having won it in the raid, and that will help compensate a bit. If the company sells the equivalent item at $125 in the online store, the original will retain its value and the people who shell out the $125 to have the equivalent item (because they are too lazy to earn it the hard way) can still get the same item but with a much larger barrier to acquisition, then more of a balance is struck. The players who earn it by repeatedly doing a difficult raid until they win the item can feel like they have achieved something (and MMOs are in large part about the virtual sense of achieving a goal), while the people who lack the time but have the money can still get the item they want, but far fewer of them will do so.
The problems arise, IMHO, when the store starts selling items which confer a substantial advantage but which are not available in game, or for which the chance of obtaining the item is extreme to say the least.
the dedication of ST Fans who would go to all this bother to produce a fakeumentary to get advertising, and who have produced a Klingon Opera. The fans of the Klingon language are very persistent and devoted, if perhaps a bit odd to say the least. Its entirely silly to me of course, but to each their own.
If you want more:
'U' recreating the primal sound of Klingon Opera:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFNwKNyCnSU
Scene 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6HBlvu3AsM
I have 2 choices:
* Shaw Cable (in other cities its Rogers Cable, but the 2 companies have made an agreement to not compete and operate in separate cities, so its one or the other). They have good speed at peak but because of their network design, if there are a lot of users on your hub the speed suffers.
* Telus Internet - Telus is a phone company offering internet service over their phone lines. Its the only local phone company. Their service is consistent but slower than Shaw.
Both of them charge about the same amount, both are pricing to ensure you pay a substantial amount for an internet connection, neither of them offer a distinct advantage.
There is no real competition. Neither is cutting their prices to get more customers from what I can see. It still costs me around $50/mo to get an internet connection.
The problem with "The free market competition will solve problems" is the fact that companies are actively engaged in ensuring there is no competition. Witness the agreements between Shaw and Rogers (I remember an article in which one agrees to stop operating in city A and the other agreed to stop operating in city B). I am sure there is collusion at some level to ensure the prices remain as high as possible. Each has a more or less monopoly in their area, except for Telus which is the only competition. They are not that good as competition (witness their efforts to get into providing televisions services, their PVR is handsdown the worst PoS possible).
NN is a necessary thing if we want the internet to continue to be a useful tool for the free exchange of information. Allowing the ISPs to throttle access and gear payment based on that is a grave mistake. Of course it will happen and the government will just roll over and show its stomach
Like it or not, I can attest to the fact that I often mentally judge someone by their speech if I am talking to them, or by their spelling and punctuation if I am reading their writing. I am sure I am hardly alone. If they lack the ability to compose a coherent sentence, or the decency to use a spell checker, and have no concept of grammatical formations, then I am inclined to judge them as uneducated, ignorant or ill-informed, and I tend to disregard whatever it was that they were trying to communicate. Now, I grant you that sometimes one might type "Pimpin' ain't easy" for the effect - but the intention is to imply someone who is a lower-class, uneducated and possibly not very bright individual. If you regularly communicate in a similar style, you will look equally lower-class, uneducated and possibly not very bright. In other words, its a matter of communication. If you communicate poorly, you tend to be ignored, and in my opinion whatever you have to say matters less.
If I am reading forum posts and I come across a post that is utterly incoherent, misspelled, or contains a lot of grammatical errors, I skip it. That person has failed to get whatever point they were trying to make across to me at least, and likely others. If you want to be given attention, and your opinions to be given any consideration, learn to communicate using proper grammar, spelling etc. Failure to do so simply makes you look like an idiot.
Now, unleash the Grammar Nazis to let me know where I have erred in my post. I tried to be correct throughout, but I am sure I have made at least one mistake :)
If that was the book written in 2nd person perspective, that made it utterly unreadable for me. I have to say I hate it when authors decide to do something strange like that just to be gimmicky.
"You wake up in the morning, and turn on the police scanner"
I mean WTF? 1st person POV and various forms of Omnipotent 3rd person POVs have been used in storytelling for how many thousands of years? Its a shame because it seemed like a decently interesting story.
I deliver pizza on the weekends. Within my experience, Taxis are the least predictable and most hazardous vehicles on the road, more so than many apparently drunk drivers I have seen (and reported mind you).
Taxi drivers are all calm and sedate when you are in the vehicle paying them, but when they are out to get the next customers - watch out. I have seen vehicles pass (in the opposite lane, over double yellow lines) through an intersection while traffic is entering that intersection coming the opposite way. I have seen u-turns across 3 lanes of traffic with cars going both ways. I have seen 2 taxis stopped side by side (blocking the whole road) so the drivers could talk with each other, just around a blind curve. In fact I have seen taxi drivers doing the above maneuver across the main street in our downtown, blocking all traffic both ways for about a minute.
Sadly the police in Victoria BC seldom seem to stop cabbies at all, although I have seen one pulled over for speeding (I would guess he was doing about 90 in a 50 zone, and the cop was at hand, but speeding taxis are the norm within my experience).
Taxis are dangerous IMHO, I always assume if I see one driving nearby that it might do anything at any point, likely the most stupid thing possible. The only upside to this is that the drivers generally seem to be somewhat capable, if as dumb as a box of hammers.
I agree the whole system needs revision. The problem with your suggestion is that it requires setting up an agency and a system to track all of those payments, a means to collect them etc. This will of course be prone to corruption etc as well, so it needs safeguards to ensure data integrity...
Simply trying to change copyright laws to make them more consistent and fair might be easier in the end (and I know how monumental a task that would be in the US alone).
Of course neither will happen because the almighty RIAA/MAFIAA control the politicians and can prevent any changes which threaten their business models/protection racket...
just to keep things from getting confusing to the customer:
* Standard moves to Standard 1.5, while
* High Speed remains at version 1.4 (Which shall not be named), until version 1.6 comes out (skipping 1.5 to avoid confusion with Standard 1.5)
* Ultra High Speed is released in the meantime starting at version 1.7 (to avoid confusion with the newly released, and probably faster High Speed 1.6).
That way it remains clear to the customer which version they want, and the manufacturers can continue to sell the consumer multiple cables, all priced well above what they should be priced.
Well, speaking entirely impartially, and as a Canadian, its because Canada is the most important country in the world and the finest place to live of course.
Or it could just be because the article that's linked came from a Canadian news service, I dunno...
There is also a huge segment of the population that is too ignorant to read a report or accept any evidence that global warming is happening and make up their own mind. Compare how many newspapers contain a regular column on the state of the environment versus how many have an Astrology section. People on average are stupid, ignorant and self-centered. Half of them are worse than that.
Worse yet doing something about global warming might require them to make some sacrifice themselves, better to just hope it goes away.
I believe that global warming is happening, and that its man-made in origin. I also believe that not a damn thing will be done about it because its more convenient for those in authority (Corporations, Government in that order) to ignore it and let millions of people suffer and die, than it is for them to have to shift their business models at all and accept a potential loss in profits. Humanity is too shortsighted to actually accomplish anything required. We are too ignorant and selfish, and I can't see anything changing that enough to stop the advance of global warming.
Anything I can do to decrease the impact of human civilization along with all the rest of us that might feel and act the same way, will simply be absorbed by some company out there that doesn't feel it has to respond because our collective efforts decreased the impact on the environment enough that they can claim credit for it.
In short, I believe we are all fucked, and nothing will be done to fix the situation. Millions will die, countries will be disrupted, disease will run rampant, civilization may even fall entirely, but up until that point, the corporations and the governments around the world will continue to wear their blinders and rake in the profits for the sake of short term gains.
If you don't pursue this in some form against all parties you discover have violated your rights, can their lawyers say that you were not actively seeking to defend the license on your images and therefore any individual attempt can be dismissed? I mean its like that with trademarks is it not? If you aren't actively defending it, you can lose it? :P
IANAL of course.
I would pursue the DMCA takedown notice route I think (assuming you are in the USA), and let them know of the problem. At the same time, contact the EFF and see if they can help. I am sure they prefer high profile cases of course, but things that advance the cause of the EFF - and defending the CC license might be viewed as such - might get their support (and thus cover the costs of suing). Actually, contact the EFF first and see what they say, maybe the DMCA takedowns need to be run through them first
Is a shame that western civilization has settled on a system where only those with money can get justice, and those with more money can ignore the laws more or less as they see fit provided they are prepared to spend money on lawyers.
When we might have advanced enough to have only one world government and have gotten beyond all that nationalism. One (or more likely 2) remaining languages on Earth is a likely event given how few languages remain and how quickly we are losing them.
isn't really a bad choice if you want your culture and language to eventually dominate the world. Mandarin currently exceeds English as a spoken language by population (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers). :P
It's hardly a representational sample by any stretch of the imagination, but where I work at the moment we have at least 6 out of the 10 drivers who are from mainland China and living here in Canada at the moment. Most of them want to get Canadian citizenship eventually, some already have.
I would guess that in a few hundred years we will be down to only a few surviving languages, with Mandarin in 1st place and English in 2nd or vice versa. The Internet is only speeding up the death of minor languages I am sure, and we lose a couple of world language every month, as the last native speakers die off (http://www.globalwatchtower.com/2008/02/20/intl-mother-language/). Of the remaining 6-7 thousand human languages, half or so may be gone in 30 years. As that takes place I imagine the process will accelerate. Once we lose a language, we lose an entire mode of human thinking and way of viewing the world.
Unfortunately for us English speakers, Mandarin is much harder to learn than English is for Mandarin speakers
I sold mine and bought an IBM 286, the difference was staggering. The only good side of the IBM PC was that it had a HD.
You want the one about Bittorrent traffic I suspect. Or you love complete non-sequiturs a lot :P
Give a punster the right line and you are almost guaranteed to hook them. Either they can't resist responding, or they do it just for the halibut.
If you can afford it. If they come up with a cure for AIDS/HIV, whats it worth to the person who is afflicted with it? What isn't it worth. They could easily patent it, then peg the cost at $20000 US per treatment. The rich will get treated, the drug companies will make a fortune, the researcher will get more funding for further research, but I won't hold my breath on the average person who is afflicted seeing any benefits from this until the patents have expired.