The UN has a great track record for choosing which countries are on different commissions. Take, for instance, the UN Commission on Human Rights. It includes such notable standouts as China and Cuba. Now, China, Syria, and Ghana are cited by the article. This is absurd . . . unless you're China. What better way to keep your masses oppressed and diligently working than to regulate the internet for the entire world.
We wouldn't want to mess up "China, Inc." with ideas about freedom, democracy, or faith.
Forgotten history is doomed to repeat itself. The USS Arizona, if memory serves, is one of the most popular tourist magnets for Japanese tourists. Why aren't either hypocenter of the atomic bombs detonations a destination for Americans? The Japanese seem keen to remember their lessons.
Or, it could be that Hawaii IN GENERAL is an EXTREMELY popular tourist destination for Japanese tourists. Hawaii caters to Japanese tourists and it's reasonably priced (versus Japan). Have you ever actually been to Japan? It's expensive. It's small. It's a long, expensive flight away.
Maybe there are other factors than The Japanese seem keen to remember their lessons.
The reason the file/folder method worked so well is because it's a good abstraction from the real world model. If you switch to something more complex that can't be described easily in the real world, many people will reject it without trying it.
Wouldn't it be great if the real world worked like this!?! Imagine a my sock drawer as a "smart folder!" Magically, all of my socks would be in one easy place!
I know that personally, I will want to have both for the forseeable future. I love driving on my high def TV, but I despise playing first person shooters on the console, due to the lack of control.
Control and i/o are both key. Bejeweled on Palm OS is very different from the Bejeweled you play on the LCD screen on a trans-Atlantic flight.
Take a company like Bungie, now owned by M$, and look at their games. Their big seller is the Halo franchise, but their former flaship series was Myth which would simply not work on the Xbox. It needs a keyboard. Could Myth be made playable without a keyboard? Probably, but the experience would change.
cool! i can hardly wait until orbiting mini-nuke-tipped bunker-busters are available in walmart!
You should hope not. Take a look at the labels on many of the products sold in Wal-Mart and you'll see "Made in China." Of course, at least Wal-Mart stores don't say "Welcome to China" on the front doors. Whether the same can be said for Tokyo's airport in the not too distant future is another matter.
I also value the fact that my computers now are almost perfectly silent - I don't want to sit next to an open case with whirring harddisks and fans anymore. A silent and well-designed computer serves me much better than one that has 100 times the power - that I'm not using anyway.
I agree entirely. I purchased a Dimension 3000 that started making terrible fan noise the day I plugged it in. Horrible, rattling noise. The fix? A folded paper towel wedged between the cheap, loose fan shroud and the case.
It amazed me that I found the solution on the web. I am even more amazed that most people will probably just tolerate the noise. I'm not saying my Dimension is any worse than any other computer, but it was such an easy fix for such a cheap problem that I was blown away that a company would ship a product like that.
The EROEI ("energy return on energy invested") for ethanol and other biofuels is horrible. Government subsidies make them profitable and attractive to producers.
There is a body of scientific and economic evidence which shows that our faith should not be placed in biofuels.
There needs to be a 10X reduction in the price/energy ratio of photovoltaics. Do that, i.e. reduce the cost of the solar energy to meet the world's needs to an investment of about $100 trillion, amortize it over 30 years, and I'm sure we can find the money and land to do this.
This will never happen. It's simply too expensive when you factor in ALL the costs to convert a substantial portion of the United States' energy consumption to solar. There is the net energy of producing the cells, which is high, and they have to be replaced. What will be the net energy costs in 20 or 30 or 40 years of replacing worn out solar cells when petroleum reserves have continued to dwindle, supply has dwindled, and the demand for oil in the Third World has rocketed up as the rest of the world wants what we have?
The problem with most people today is that they think Moore's law applies raw marterials and material goods. It doesn't. When demand increases without increasing supply, costs inevitably increase. Solar energy will become MORE expensive in the future, not less, regardless of adding a few percentage points of efficiency.
This assumes that the cost of solar power remains flat; it does not. The construction of solar cells requires numerous materials which must be mined and processed. Currently, the cost of these materials does NOT reflect their widespread use in photovoltiac cells.
Further, most people who suggest using photovoliac cells fail to fully appreciate the economics of "net energy" and how that relates to our long-term energy issues.
It is simply ridiculous to suggest that solar energy can supply all or a substantial portion of our energy needs.
Now, I may have been asleep in government class, but that sounds like you're disregarding the system of checks and balances which underpin our government.
Congress has always been able the take certain issues away from the courts. That is part of checks and balances.
I have used the same HP 32S since 1987. I used it in high school, undergrad, and I have carried it in my briefcase for years. It has had a corner chewed up by my wife's dog; it just keeps working.
This durability and long life are probably the problem. HP calculators were products which people did not need to replace very often. This runs smack up against the short-term thinking that pervades much of America's stock-price obsessed business climate. I once considered myself an HP customer because I would ONLY have bought another HP calculator if I ever needed one. I was a customer for life, and they lost me.
I never understood the push to gobble up Compaq and throw more of their employees' pension eggs into the basket of cookie cutter computers. "Me too" has never been a long-term strategy for growth.
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We wouldn't want to mess up "China, Inc." with ideas about freedom, democracy, or faith.
Why?
Just kidding.
Or, it could be that Hawaii IN GENERAL is an EXTREMELY popular tourist destination for Japanese tourists. Hawaii caters to Japanese tourists and it's reasonably priced (versus Japan). Have you ever actually been to Japan? It's expensive. It's small. It's a long, expensive flight away.
Maybe there are other factors than The Japanese seem keen to remember their lessons.
Wasn't that an A-Team episode?
Wouldn't it be great if the real world worked like this!?! Imagine a my sock drawer as a "smart folder!" Magically, all of my socks would be in one easy place!
I need to patent this NOW!
Control and i/o are both key. Bejeweled on Palm OS is very different from the Bejeweled you play on the LCD screen on a trans-Atlantic flight.
Take a company like Bungie, now owned by M$, and look at their games. Their big seller is the Halo franchise, but their former flaship series was Myth which would simply not work on the Xbox. It needs a keyboard. Could Myth be made playable without a keyboard? Probably, but the experience would change.
Now, a Bluetooth enabled keyboard . . . .
You should hope not. Take a look at the labels on many of the products sold in Wal-Mart and you'll see "Made in China." Of course, at least Wal-Mart stores don't say "Welcome to China" on the front doors. Whether the same can be said for Tokyo's airport in the not too distant future is another matter.
that I started reading that and even clicked "next page." I've sunk to a new low. I really WILL read anything about Star Wars.
have to spend more on air conditioning. Brilliant!
That's just cheesy.
I agree entirely. I purchased a Dimension 3000 that started making terrible fan noise the day I plugged it in. Horrible, rattling noise. The fix? A folded paper towel wedged between the cheap, loose fan shroud and the case.
It amazed me that I found the solution on the web. I am even more amazed that most people will probably just tolerate the noise. I'm not saying my Dimension is any worse than any other computer, but it was such an easy fix for such a cheap problem that I was blown away that a company would ship a product like that.
Oh. Wait. Scratch that last part.
When Buck Rogers was cancelled.
There is a body of scientific and economic evidence which shows that our faith should not be placed in biofuels.
This will never happen. It's simply too expensive when you factor in ALL the costs to convert a substantial portion of the United States' energy consumption to solar. There is the net energy of producing the cells, which is high, and they have to be replaced. What will be the net energy costs in 20 or 30 or 40 years of replacing worn out solar cells when petroleum reserves have continued to dwindle, supply has dwindled, and the demand for oil in the Third World has rocketed up as the rest of the world wants what we have?
The problem with most people today is that they think Moore's law applies raw marterials and material goods. It doesn't. When demand increases without increasing supply, costs inevitably increase. Solar energy will become MORE expensive in the future, not less, regardless of adding a few percentage points of efficiency.
This assumes that the cost of solar power remains flat; it does not. The construction of solar cells requires numerous materials which must be mined and processed. Currently, the cost of these materials does NOT reflect their widespread use in photovoltiac cells. Further, most people who suggest using photovoliac cells fail to fully appreciate the economics of "net energy" and how that relates to our long-term energy issues. It is simply ridiculous to suggest that solar energy can supply all or a substantial portion of our energy needs.
Congress has always been able the take certain issues away from the courts. That is part of checks and balances.
This durability and long life are probably the problem. HP calculators were products which people did not need to replace very often. This runs smack up against the short-term thinking that pervades much of America's stock-price obsessed business climate. I once considered myself an HP customer because I would ONLY have bought another HP calculator if I ever needed one. I was a customer for life, and they lost me.
I never understood the push to gobble up Compaq and throw more of their employees' pension eggs into the basket of cookie cutter computers. "Me too" has never been a long-term strategy for growth.
You're wrong. It's the gnomes. They've given up on underpants.