It's real, and it's profound. The tendency is both a cause and a symptom of the "Information Age" -- cf. Industrial, Feudal and Agricultural -- making it a positive feedback loop, such that the rate of human evolutionary change is increasing, putting we geeks and goofballs in the avant guard, seeing as how we're less distracted by the common plights and predators of previous ages, unfortunately leading to the clash with Those Who Would Control Everything. I think. Without a trace of hubris, nosiree.
I was astonished at how relatively difficult it was, to google Sybil Edmunds. It would seem that the gag order was rather successful, the bastards. I finally found this:
Democracy Now! also had on Sybil Edmunds, the FBI agent who slammed as "an outrageous lie" Condoleezza Rice's claim that the government had no warning that planes could be used against the US before 9/11. On Monday, a battery of eight Justice Dept officials went to court to try and impose a second all encompassing gag order on her -- which will forbid her from repeating anything that she has previously -- so that she can not testify in a lawsuit filed by 9/11 victims' families. She has already testified before the 9/11 commission. Conservative Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley has said he considers her "credible."
In a related astonishment, I read best-selling author Tom Clancy's novel, "Debt of Honor" which concludes with an airliner flying into the Capitol. It was written in 1995. To my understanding, this was long before Condoleeza Rice's Outrageous Lie. Gag me -- <retch> oops, you already did.
Citgo is a wholy-owned subsidiary of the Venezuelan national oil company, and some of the money you spend at Citgo's pumps actually gets to poor people in Venezuela, and seems to be helping finance a spunky little social revolution.
1) Nuclear Waste Disposal Industry? I was not aware of one.
2) "I fail it," "it" being the understanding of your post. Ironic being something like, "the results being the exact opposite of those intended," how is it ironic that the (as far as I can tell, currently nonexistent) space-elevator industry should not be funded by the (also currently nonexistent as far as I can tell) nuclear waste disposal industry?
2.a Oh, because the space elevator might require (as a matter of economics) nuclear propulsion? I consider that this might be a serious consideratation, but that it's premature to consider it seriously.
2.b There may be other sources (the link regards tourism; surely there are other reasons) of funding for the elevator (which is but one possibility for removing large quantities of mass from earth's gravity). The Major Player? perhaps not.
3 That the (nascent?) nuclear waste disposal industry were to be involved in the design etc. of modules destined: to contain nuclear waste, and for the sun: sounds ok to me.
4 "not ironic, but interesting:" I might not only buy, but, for no particularly good reason, sell: that one.
These people, of course. Or, whoever can successfully compete with them on the basis of a bid.
The following has a basis partly in the realm of 'intuition' as opposed to scientific and engineering credentials, but reflects a long-held opinion:
There is no long-term solution to the problem of nuclear waste, except sending it to the sun.
I believe we (humans) are not (yet) capable of damaging it.
I believe this very issue will determine the economic viability of both the nuclear industries and the space elevator.
There's serious money available (at least, during some (US) administrations) potentially available for the research and development of any solution to this problem.
Good Golly, humans walked on the moon 30 years ago. This is do-able.
Again I say: in the long term, there is no other solution.
1) that your INTEREST is the only thing that matters; the most valuable thing in the entire universe is a problem which you think you can solve, but you just gotta make sure. It can be hard to find, that combination of "think I can do it" and "it might even be useful / cool / satisfying / fun."
2) You referenced 1978: I'll say that BASIC is a very nice language to start with. (Microsoft's QBasic was my introduction; if you can find me at mugwumpus.com I'll make sure you get a copy.) Because: IT'S POSSIBLE TO KNOW EVERY DAMN THING THERE IS TO KNOW ABOUT IT. This is not so true (to my understanding) for "modern" languages. There's a level of certainty, control, power and confidence conferred by that POSSIBILITY that's hard to shake.
"There is one thing you absolutely must know about modern advertising. No matter how true any single advertisement is, modern advertising itself, taken as a whole, tells a lie - that you need the thing being advertised. It is a lie because consumer goods of real value do not need to be advertised...."
But note the last 2 paragraphs:
The St. Petersburg Times did an interview with Reed Freeman, chief privacy officer at Claria. That company, once known as Gator, took a licking in the public forum over its adware deliveries, but Freeman told the paper that the company has changed its practices:
"Consumers shouldn't have to go hunt for disclosure of that nature," he said. "Adware companies that are interested in broad consumer acceptance ought to be putting their disclosures in the download process as they are getting the product so they can make an informed decision about what they're getting."
This is The Post, after all, so you can be Absolutely Certain that 'Claria' has, indeed, changed its spots.
Now, where the hell do I find (a big enough check to retain) that PR firm?
Usefulness is useful, but pure science is fascinating, and the research potential here astonishes me.
One of my all-time favorite reads was Complexity, couched as the story of the Sante Fe Institute and its brilliant, eccentric, tortured visionaries. Each an expert in their academic (in the sense of "strict observance of conventional rules" as well as "pertaining to academia") field, including economics, biology and computer science, they pursued the interdisciplinary "science of complexity".
The universe is full of complex systems, which are not comprehensible except as the aggregate of the interactions between autonomous agents: an economy consists of the transactions between buyers and sellers; the slime mold, depending on temperature and humidity, becomes a slowly-moving glob of brown goop, or simply vanishes as the individual cells go their own way; computers have not yet formed their own scientific community, but, we suppose, they're working on it.
Brains, it would seem, are complex systems; there is no "chief brain cell," they form spontaneously based on interactions between autonomous brain cells. I want to know more about the "api" of brain cells, and this article would seem to suggest the opening of a rather large door.
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.chomskytorrents.org/DownloadTorrent.php ?TorrentID=1516
An astonishing documentary.
It's real, and it's profound. The tendency is both a cause and a symptom of the "Information Age" -- cf. Industrial, Feudal and Agricultural -- making it a positive feedback loop, such that the rate of human evolutionary change is increasing, putting we geeks and goofballs in the avant guard, seeing as how we're less distracted by the common plights and predators of previous ages, unfortunately leading to the clash with Those Who Would Control Everything. I think. Without a trace of hubris, nosiree.
I was astonished at how relatively difficult it was, to google Sybil Edmunds. It would seem that the gag order was rather successful, the bastards. I finally found this:
Democracy Now! also had on Sybil Edmunds, the FBI agent who slammed as "an outrageous lie" Condoleezza Rice's claim that the government had no warning that planes could be used against the US before 9/11. On Monday, a battery of eight Justice Dept officials went to court to try and impose a second all encompassing gag order on her -- which will forbid her from repeating anything that she has previously -- so that she can not testify in a lawsuit filed by 9/11 victims' families. She has already testified before the 9/11 commission. Conservative Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley has said he considers her "credible."
In a related astonishment, I read best-selling author Tom Clancy's novel, "Debt of Honor" which concludes with an airliner flying into the Capitol. It was written in 1995. To my understanding, this was long before Condoleeza Rice's Outrageous Lie. Gag me -- <retch> oops, you already did.
Citgo is a wholy-owned subsidiary of the Venezuelan national oil company, and some of the money you spend at Citgo's pumps actually gets to poor people in Venezuela, and seems to be helping finance a spunky little social revolution.
http://www.google.com/search?q=citgo+buycott
ok, I'm willing to consider that you're right. Got links? other verification?
2) "I fail it," "it" being the understanding of your post. Ironic being something like, "the results being the exact opposite of those intended," how is it ironic that the (as far as I can tell, currently nonexistent) space-elevator industry should not be funded by the (also currently nonexistent as far as I can tell) nuclear waste disposal industry?
2.a Oh, because the space elevator might require (as a matter of economics) nuclear propulsion? I consider that this might be a serious consideratation, but that it's premature to consider it seriously.
2.b There may be other sources (the link regards tourism; surely there are other reasons) of funding for the elevator (which is but one possibility for removing large quantities of mass from earth's gravity). The Major Player? perhaps not.
3 That the (nascent?) nuclear waste disposal industry were to be involved in the design etc. of modules destined: to contain nuclear waste, and for the sun: sounds ok to me.
4 "not ironic, but interesting:" I might not only buy, but, for no particularly good reason, sell: that one.
The following has a basis partly in the realm of 'intuition' as opposed to scientific and engineering credentials, but reflects a long-held opinion:
There is no long-term solution to the problem of nuclear waste, except sending it to the sun.
I believe we (humans) are not (yet) capable of damaging it.
I believe this very issue will determine the economic viability of both the nuclear industries and the space elevator.
There's serious money available (at least, during some (US) administrations) potentially available for the research and development of any solution to this problem.
Good Golly, humans walked on the moon 30 years ago. This is do-able.
Again I say: in the long term, there is no other solution.
Otter has it right. I'll add
1) that your INTEREST is the only thing that matters; the most valuable thing in the entire universe is a problem which you think you can solve, but you just gotta make sure. It can be hard to find, that combination of "think I can do it" and "it might even be useful / cool / satisfying / fun."
2) You referenced 1978: I'll say that BASIC is a very nice language to start with. (Microsoft's QBasic was my introduction; if you can find me at mugwumpus.com I'll make sure you get a copy.) Because: IT'S POSSIBLE TO KNOW EVERY DAMN THING THERE IS TO KNOW ABOUT IT. This is not so true (to my understanding) for "modern" languages. There's a level of certainty, control, power and confidence conferred by that POSSIBILITY that's hard to shake.
"There is one thing you absolutely must know about modern advertising. No matter how true any single advertisement is, modern advertising itself, taken as a whole, tells a lie - that you need the thing being advertised. It is a lie because consumer goods of real value do not need to be advertised...."
--Paul Lutus, from Consumer Angst
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic le/2005/07/07/AR2005070700698.html
The article is quite informative, actually. They even mention Firefox by name, and a big picture of the logo!, tho they managed to not make that nice logo link to Firefox.
But note the last 2 paragraphs:
The St. Petersburg Times did an interview with Reed Freeman, chief privacy officer at Claria. That company, once known as Gator, took a licking in the public forum over its adware deliveries, but Freeman told the paper that the company has changed its practices:
"Consumers shouldn't have to go hunt for disclosure of that nature," he said. "Adware companies that are interested in broad consumer acceptance ought to be putting their disclosures in the download process as they are getting the product so they can make an informed decision about what they're getting."
This is The Post, after all, so you can be Absolutely Certain that 'Claria' has, indeed, changed its spots.
Now, where the hell do I find (a big enough check to retain) that PR firm?
Usefulness is useful, but pure science is fascinating, and the research potential here astonishes me.
One of my all-time favorite reads was Complexity, couched as the story of the Sante Fe Institute and its brilliant, eccentric, tortured visionaries. Each an expert in their academic (in the sense of "strict observance of conventional rules" as well as "pertaining to academia") field, including economics, biology and computer science, they pursued the interdisciplinary "science of complexity".
The universe is full of complex systems, which are not comprehensible except as the aggregate of the interactions between autonomous agents: an economy consists of the transactions between buyers and sellers; the slime mold, depending on temperature and humidity, becomes a slowly-moving glob of brown goop, or simply vanishes as the individual cells go their own way; computers have not yet formed their own scientific community, but, we suppose, they're working on it.
Brains, it would seem, are complex systems; there is no "chief brain cell," they form spontaneously based on interactions between autonomous brain cells. I want to know more about the "api" of brain cells, and this article would seem to suggest the opening of a rather large door.