I was not "inadequately grasping," I was speaking around a technical term that is far too often misunderstood by people unfamiliar with its significance in a specific technical context. The Swiss may be claiming that much. I prefer to be a bit more conservative with an assessment of just how well a lethally degenerative disease can be managed over decades. They don't have any where near enough long term data to be making such claims, as the drugs involved are too newly developed for them to know how effective they will be over decades.
No, It is not even potentially a cure for AIDS. It does look like it might offer a route for immunization, or at least increased resistance. This would still be an incredible breakthrough, but it is important to keep perspective on what the realities are.
Always Remember: AIDS is Deadly. It is not a "chronic condition." It is a death sentence, maybe it'll take 5, even 10 years to kill some small group of victims, for many it is as few as 6-24 months. Way, way to many young people somehow manage to remain ignorant of this.
Say what? That's ri-damn-diculous. The "bread and butter of science" IS finding things that deviate with our predictions. That's how science progresses, and what makes it different from, and superior to, other methods of learning of about the world. Sure, we do other experiments to see if what learn, and think is true from a new novel result is correct, but that's not the exciting part. That's why those people don't get Nobel Prizes.
If all we did was poke at things and record how they behave in accordance with our expectations, we might as well close up shop, write everything down in a book (call it, oh, a Bible maybe), and do something else.
Attribution-only copyright? What the hell are you talking about?
You do realize that plagiarism is still plagiarism, even if the work is in the public domain? Or did I just shoot a hole through the method you used (or were planning on) to get through High School and College English classes?
Exactly what would you want from this "copyright" anyway? If I, say, save your comment, and post it as my own in a later thread, I probably haven't gained very much, and what have you lost exactly? However, at that point, should you notice it, you can still take the action taken against plagiarists since the dawn of writing, point it out, at which point I look like a Jackass, a Liar, and a Thief.
At the same time, if one is to suggest that they find the world a very disturbing and dystopian place, and that the current trends in society and its effects on the world at large are only likely to magnify these traits, and that as a result one has decided to kill to kill oneself, well, their feelings are immediately regarded as irrational and society hospitalizes them.
The possibility that those individuals have come to a rational decision about a course of action to take as a response to the world around them, and their vocalization of this attitude is merely seeking reassurance to proceed with an act that the irrational parts of the brain fight actively against, is dismissed on its face.
Now, let's admit that this percentage of Suicidal patients may be a small one, but it is there. Society really needs to re-evaluate how we respond to those people. I'm going to hazard a guess that the rising population in developed countries of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEET, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikikomori, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasite_singles is fed by this group. Hikikomoris in particular, (while the term is Japanese, the phenomena it refers is anything but unheard of in the west, the Highly educated young person who withdraws from society has a history here going back centuries) are probably highly symptomatic of a society that refuses to deal with (or stops doing so) suicides in a reasonable way. This is exacerbated by people who (very mistakenly) believe that Major Depression can be cured, when in reality it is Permanent, and can be both extremely debilitating and largely unresponsive to treatment.
While articles, such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_depression, tend to gloss over just how bleak the prognosis often is, the acknowledgment of the proliferation of increasingly fringe treatments for depression, such as Vagus Nerve stimulation, Hypnotherapy (!), and transcranial magnetic and electroshock techniques is evidence of just how ineffective medicine often is at dealing with this condition.
It worked the last time, and we got a good 30-40 years out of it, before the republicans destroyed it. The New Deal & Great Society did not collapse on their own. They are struggling under a concerted 50 year campaign by the Republican party to destroy them. Social Security is still around, despite every effort of the republicans to kill it (up to and including stealing the entire trust fund). Bretton Woods took a long time to show its flaws, and it was undermined by republicans pushing for unfair advantages to export nations (which the USA was at the time), and it took the combination of Vietnam and Richard Nixon's trade with communist China (a horrible, horrible idea) AND the Oil Crisis to bring it down.
The sources of the current problems are not mysterious. We know how every one happened. There's just too much misdirection by the Neo-Conservatives and Libertarians ranting about how the market is so "magical" and "mysterious" that no one can understand it. That's bullshit. You approach scientifically just like any other field of study.
LOL! Missed that whole thing bout china putting men in space did you? Or do you not know how you do that? (*Hint* It involves putting men in a tin can instead of a Warhead at the top of a big ICBM). In what must be a big surprise to you, China has some very good ICBMs capable of putting a nuke on a target anywhere in the world, See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_March_rocket. And if you think Missile defense systems are gonna protect the USA, you're in dire need of a wake-up call. You've been drinking too much Ronald Reagan brand cool-aid. Missile Defense sucks, it's not reliable, even against the shittiest quality missiles in the world. 2300+ thermonukes is more than enough to brute force your way through any defense the USA could muster and take out every important target they want, that includes any target they THINK is important.
In a significant military engagement with China, I suspect the USA would be in for a very rude awakening.
Nevermind that the entire idea is moronic on its face. Let's suppose Jesus of Nazareth really existed (a big enough leap in its self, given that no contemporary testimony of this supposed person exists, the first records of his supposed life being written over a century after he is supposed to have died!), and let's suppose that Christian dogma is correct, and that he was in fact, the son of god, and god incarnate.
So why, didn't he do anything useful. Instead of, you know, pissing off a couple of bankers and some priests and getting nailed to a tree, why didn't he use his incredible magic powers to, say, take over the Roman empire and use its incredible political and social machinery to alter the world for the better? Why take a rain check on that, and communicate that "oh yeah, I'm coming back to smite the wicked" "Awesome! When's that gonna happen" "Uhhhh... In a...While." to the seedy religious nuts who wrote the book of revelation in the 3rd century? It's every bit as god-damned ridiculous as Book of Mormon or Scientology (which, for those not keeping track, is VERY VERY ridiculous).
And yes, I'm being a sensationalist and exaggerating, but at the same time, I'd say I'm treating this subject with exactly as much seriousness and respect as it deserves. "But Jesus Died For You!" Not very bloody talented then was he?
How about the fans of game journalism join together in silence for all the old magazines that once engaged in erudite criticism. "Computer Gaming World" under founder Russell Sipe and successor Johnny Wilson was another. G
Please. This happens everywhere, not just in the "bluest areas of the country." I know. I live in a Red State, and I know Public Defenders. I get to hear all about the cases where a Police officer testifies, in front of a judge that: a person, who they will not identify, who has provided the police with information, is in fact, NOT a confidential informant, and thus subject to discovery and disclosure to the defense. Despite the fact that said person also possesses information exculpatory to the defendant. Reason? "I didn't pay them." The judges only response? "Good luck with that on appeal!" And lets it slide. That's some fan-fucking-tastic impartiality there.
This shit goes down everywhere.
Then we have the lovely position taken by various attorney general's that they simply WILL NOT answer questions posed to them by congress, and WILL NOT investigate or prosecute Bush administration staff.
Right, abortion clinic bombings have nothing to with Christianity. Nope, not a damn thing.
Bullshit. There's more similarity between Christian and Islamic fundamentalists than there are differences. They use the same methods when it suits them, they just disagree on points of dogma.
Honestly, patent trolling isn't, but the actions of many large corporations in manipulating markets and prices are. This guy is small fry, and honestly he doesn't need more than shaking up a little. But how about, for example, Jeff Skilling, former CEO of ENRON (who unfortunately is deceased)? How about the CEO and board members of EXXON-Mobil, BP, and AT&T? How about various different leaders of financial markets and architects of the current loan crisis?
They are all every bit as culpable as the people responsible for the stock market crash in 1929.
Also "out of control" is bit much. I attempted to engage an argument over whether mob justice is justified as a defense against thugs, but in a larger sense I think it is justified as a defense against the large scale hijacking of economies and political systems by Billionaires and Multinational corporations.
We already know who this Lawyer is, and who his firm is and who they work for. There is an exceptionally expedient way for society to deal with this. It is unfortunate that it is necessary, but we must reconcile ourselves to fact that societal institutions have been corrupted. We must search for means to enact reform, and if they have forced us to take plays from their books, then so be it.
Vigilantism is not only necessary, it is justified. We need to seek out the personal information of this lawyer, his entire firm, and the President and board of directors of the companies that employ them. Publish their names, home addresses, any phone numbers that can be found, their license plate numbers, the names of their family members, the schools their children attend. Everything. This is War, ladies and gentlemen. Of a more dire and extreme sort than any in history. Only by securing true strategic objectives can the enemy be worn down. We must destroy not just his willingness, but his ability to fight. Destroy the ability of those who drive the conflict to live their lives in the most basic way and victory is assured.
We, the greater whole of society, are everywhere. We surround them. We can destroy them. All that is required is the will.
Your understanding of orbital mechanics be seriously whacked yo! Think about what you just said, it implies that you have more energy when you are sitting on the ground than when you're orbiting the earth. Not right. You're missing the importance and reality of potential energy in the calculations. An object the size of the earth in Neptune's orbit has much more potential energy than the earth has, and thus more energy total. If the object moves toward the sun, the total energy of the sun-object system decreases.
You can't understand it because you're deluded with Libertarian philosophy. Despite what you may think, it is possible for people to exploited, even when they give their consent. A fact that is even acknowledged by the law, which is why a voluntary contract to sell yourself into slavery is unenforceable, and void.
Your interpretation is extremely slanted. As others have noted, this is a precautionary measure by an enormously powerful Cartel to shut an up and comer out of the market. Whether it works or not is still very much up in the air, but in either way it demonstrates nothing about the power of the free market. This market (music owned by mainstream publishers and more generally music still under copyright) is not a free market to begin with.
As for choosing wisely lest we lose progress, What Progress? Copyright still lasts for an Unconstitutionally long time (which is effectively unlimited), and artists are still be badly exploited by massive corporations. There is no progress to be lost, except the continued erosion of sales of music owned by the big cartel. The decline of their revenue is the REAL progress. Once the power of big media is eroded to the point of making re-regulating media and telecommunications in a reasonable way, then we will have made a grand achievement.
I wanted to get back to you. You do understand why it isn't possible for everyone to do what you're doing don't you? How much are yours and your friends project costing to move themselves off grid? Several thousand dollars at least, plus labor is what my research indicates is the minimum for a functional system. It's easier to do when building a new home, as the costs can be absorbed and offset in the larger project, but conversions of existing homes generally run at least $5000-$10,000. For so many people, that's not remotely achievable, and that isn't their fault.
Which isn't to say I that I disagree with people moving off-grid and building green houses, far from it! I applaud and admire your actions, and hope to be able to follow suit one day. What I mean is that it isn't possible for everyone to do that. There isn't enough wilderness for everyone to live out in the country and grow food and herbs. Really I'm making two separate points I need to articulate: One, that human population is so high, distributed, low impact living just isn't physically possible, and Two, that the economics of trying to live green still make it economically impossible for too many people to even try to make a difference. This combination of factors I see as the Rock and Hard Place, respectively, of sustainable human civilization.
Ding Ding Ding! This is exactly what pisses me off when "environmentalists" trash nuclear power. They act like the alternative is everybody using Windmills and solar panels. What is actually going to happen is this: Alaska will ransacked, stripped of oil and forests, and the entire Appalachian Mountain Range will be strip mined for coal. That is the real alternative to nuclear power in the USA.
The Environmentalist-flag waving NIMBY crowd have doomed us to an ecological catastrophe far greater than any Nuclear Disaster in history.
If they really cared about Suzie Cheerleader, they'd have actually taught her about birth control, and not taught her that she'd go to hell if her boyfriend ever uses a condom. This is exaggeration, but only a slight one.
Which is supposed to establish what? Whether a court would acknowledge the fact or not, such a contract is signed under duress, and is therefore not legally valid. More importantly, it isn't morally or ethically a valid contract, and any student is perfectly justified in violating it if they so choose.
They could beat you with a stick until you give them all your stuff too, that would be just as valid as forcing you to sign a contract before you attend school as you legally required to, morally the two acts are pretty similar.
Re:We need this type of thing done in the classroo
on
Hand-Made Vacuum Tubes
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· Score: 0
Piss off Wanker. You're an ignorant Jackass.
As DeathElk notes, there are well characterized reasons well founded in Electrical Engineering for why tube amplifiers sound better overdriven. The reason is that while transistors and ICs go non-linear in their amplification very suddenly, tubes go non-linear gradually over a range. Thus instead of the harsh clipping behavior solid state equipment exhibit, tubes produce distortion that is often considered very musical.
Note that while there do exist amplifiers that use DSP simulations to attempt to provide the same effect without tubes, these simulations are widely considered very poor, or at best inadequate.
None of which is to say that what I described is not, in fact, EXACTLY what should have happened. Note that I didn't criticize the Airforce for not obeying the order to shoot down a hijacked civilian plane, I criticized G. H. W. Bush for not ordering it done. Leadership would have been him going up on television and expressing his regret, but in face of having just watched a plane fly into the WTC, with the knowledge there were two more in the air, that "We have no Choice." J. F. K. would have done it. Eisenhower would have done it. Bush did not.
Content does rule, but Word is arguably the over-engineered, overly complex swiss army knife when all that is needed is a scalpel. I've done most of my composition in Notepad/TextEdit for years as result, copying the finished text into another program for typesetting later.
I'm very tired of this "there are no functional differences between tools" reactionary meme.
A New Made in America Custom Shop Fender Strat may not make you sound like Jimi Hendrix, but there most definately is a difference between such an instrument and a Made in Indonesia Squire. The Quality Control and manufacturing tolerances are kept much tighter on the former instrument, and the differences in materials does make for real differences in playability. I can give an excellent example with a physical explanation for why. In all classic instruments, as well as in the better quality modern instruments, the Nut on guitars is made of high quality materials like bone, metal, or a number high quality synthetics, which are then polished to be very smooth. The Nut is the part on a guitar that controls the string length of a string when played "open". On a quality instrument, the strings slide smoothly over the nut, and thus are easier to reach and hold accurate tuning. On Cheap instruments, the nut is made of plastic, and is unpolished, causing the strings to stick and jerk suddenly over the nut, causing sudden changes in the tension on the strings, and as the note created by the strings is dependent on the tension, this causes very audible problems.
Jimi Hendrix would certainly have sounded amazing playing even a cheap modern instrument, but he would always be better playing the classic (and of immaculate quality) 1950's Strats he used for most recordings. And while a player of moderate skill won't be able to sound like Jimi in either case, he will still sound better (worst case: less bad) on a better instrument than a poorer one. Incredible skill can allow a person to overcome the shortcomings of a very poor tool, but incredible tools can allow people of moderate skill to accomplish much more than poor ones, and can make skill acquisition much easier.
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I was not "inadequately grasping," I was speaking around a technical term that is far too often misunderstood by people unfamiliar with its significance in a specific technical context. The Swiss may be claiming that much. I prefer to be a bit more conservative with an assessment of just how well a lethally degenerative disease can be managed over decades. They don't have any where near enough long term data to be making such claims, as the drugs involved are too newly developed for them to know how effective they will be over decades.
Always Remember: AIDS is Deadly. It is not a "chronic condition." It is a death sentence, maybe it'll take 5, even 10 years to kill some small group of victims, for many it is as few as 6-24 months. Way, way to many young people somehow manage to remain ignorant of this.
If all we did was poke at things and record how they behave in accordance with our expectations, we might as well close up shop, write everything down in a book (call it, oh, a Bible maybe), and do something else.
You do realize that plagiarism is still plagiarism, even if the work is in the public domain? Or did I just shoot a hole through the method you used (or were planning on) to get through High School and College English classes?
Exactly what would you want from this "copyright" anyway? If I, say, save your comment, and post it as my own in a later thread, I probably haven't gained very much, and what have you lost exactly? However, at that point, should you notice it, you can still take the action taken against plagiarists since the dawn of writing, point it out, at which point I look like a Jackass, a Liar, and a Thief.
The possibility that those individuals have come to a rational decision about a course of action to take as a response to the world around them, and their vocalization of this attitude is merely seeking reassurance to proceed with an act that the irrational parts of the brain fight actively against, is dismissed on its face.
Now, let's admit that this percentage of Suicidal patients may be a small one, but it is there. Society really needs to re-evaluate how we respond to those people. I'm going to hazard a guess that the rising population in developed countries of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEET, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikikomori, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasite_singles is fed by this group. Hikikomoris in particular, (while the term is Japanese, the phenomena it refers is anything but unheard of in the west, the Highly educated young person who withdraws from society has a history here going back centuries) are probably highly symptomatic of a society that refuses to deal with (or stops doing so) suicides in a reasonable way. This is exacerbated by people who (very mistakenly) believe that Major Depression can be cured, when in reality it is Permanent, and can be both extremely debilitating and largely unresponsive to treatment.
While articles, such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_depression, tend to gloss over just how bleak the prognosis often is, the acknowledgment of the proliferation of increasingly fringe treatments for depression, such as Vagus Nerve stimulation, Hypnotherapy (!), and transcranial magnetic and electroshock techniques is evidence of just how ineffective medicine often is at dealing with this condition.
The sources of the current problems are not mysterious. We know how every one happened. There's just too much misdirection by the Neo-Conservatives and Libertarians ranting about how the market is so "magical" and "mysterious" that no one can understand it. That's bullshit. You approach scientifically just like any other field of study.
In a significant military engagement with China, I suspect the USA would be in for a very rude awakening.
So why, didn't he do anything useful. Instead of, you know, pissing off a couple of bankers and some priests and getting nailed to a tree, why didn't he use his incredible magic powers to, say, take over the Roman empire and use its incredible political and social machinery to alter the world for the better? Why take a rain check on that, and communicate that "oh yeah, I'm coming back to smite the wicked" "Awesome! When's that gonna happen" "Uhhhh... In a ...While." to the seedy religious nuts who wrote the book of revelation in the 3rd century? It's every bit as god-damned ridiculous as Book of Mormon or Scientology (which, for those not keeping track, is VERY VERY ridiculous).
And yes, I'm being a sensationalist and exaggerating, but at the same time, I'd say I'm treating this subject with exactly as much seriousness and respect as it deserves. "But Jesus Died For You!" Not very bloody talented then was he?
How about the fans of game journalism join together in silence for all the old magazines that once engaged in erudite criticism. "Computer Gaming World" under founder Russell Sipe and successor Johnny Wilson was another. G
This shit goes down everywhere.
Then we have the lovely position taken by various attorney general's that they simply WILL NOT answer questions posed to them by congress, and WILL NOT investigate or prosecute Bush administration staff.
No, it doesn't make it ok. It means they are equally evil.
Bullshit. There's more similarity between Christian and Islamic fundamentalists than there are differences. They use the same methods when it suits them, they just disagree on points of dogma.
They are all every bit as culpable as the people responsible for the stock market crash in 1929.
Also "out of control" is bit much. I attempted to engage an argument over whether mob justice is justified as a defense against thugs, but in a larger sense I think it is justified as a defense against the large scale hijacking of economies and political systems by Billionaires and Multinational corporations.
Vigilantism is not only necessary, it is justified. We need to seek out the personal information of this lawyer, his entire firm, and the President and board of directors of the companies that employ them. Publish their names, home addresses, any phone numbers that can be found, their license plate numbers, the names of their family members, the schools their children attend. Everything. This is War, ladies and gentlemen. Of a more dire and extreme sort than any in history. Only by securing true strategic objectives can the enemy be worn down. We must destroy not just his willingness, but his ability to fight. Destroy the ability of those who drive the conflict to live their lives in the most basic way and victory is assured.
We, the greater whole of society, are everywhere. We surround them. We can destroy them. All that is required is the will.
It's going to suck to everybody in western civilization in 20 years, because you libertarian fuckers sold us all to the Chinese.
Your understanding of orbital mechanics be seriously whacked yo! Think about what you just said, it implies that you have more energy when you are sitting on the ground than when you're orbiting the earth. Not right. You're missing the importance and reality of potential energy in the calculations. An object the size of the earth in Neptune's orbit has much more potential energy than the earth has, and thus more energy total. If the object moves toward the sun, the total energy of the sun-object system decreases.
You can't understand it because you're deluded with Libertarian philosophy. Despite what you may think, it is possible for people to exploited, even when they give their consent. A fact that is even acknowledged by the law, which is why a voluntary contract to sell yourself into slavery is unenforceable, and void.
As for choosing wisely lest we lose progress, What Progress? Copyright still lasts for an Unconstitutionally long time (which is effectively unlimited), and artists are still be badly exploited by massive corporations. There is no progress to be lost, except the continued erosion of sales of music owned by the big cartel. The decline of their revenue is the REAL progress. Once the power of big media is eroded to the point of making re-regulating media and telecommunications in a reasonable way, then we will have made a grand achievement.
Which isn't to say I that I disagree with people moving off-grid and building green houses, far from it! I applaud and admire your actions, and hope to be able to follow suit one day. What I mean is that it isn't possible for everyone to do that. There isn't enough wilderness for everyone to live out in the country and grow food and herbs. Really I'm making two separate points I need to articulate: One, that human population is so high, distributed, low impact living just isn't physically possible, and Two, that the economics of trying to live green still make it economically impossible for too many people to even try to make a difference. This combination of factors I see as the Rock and Hard Place, respectively, of sustainable human civilization.
The Environmentalist-flag waving NIMBY crowd have doomed us to an ecological catastrophe far greater than any Nuclear Disaster in history.
They could beat you with a stick until you give them all your stuff too, that would be just as valid as forcing you to sign a contract before you attend school as you legally required to, morally the two acts are pretty similar.
As DeathElk notes, there are well characterized reasons well founded in Electrical Engineering for why tube amplifiers sound better overdriven. The reason is that while transistors and ICs go non-linear in their amplification very suddenly, tubes go non-linear gradually over a range. Thus instead of the harsh clipping behavior solid state equipment exhibit, tubes produce distortion that is often considered very musical.
Note that while there do exist amplifiers that use DSP simulations to attempt to provide the same effect without tubes, these simulations are widely considered very poor, or at best inadequate.
None of which is to say that what I described is not, in fact, EXACTLY what should have happened. Note that I didn't criticize the Airforce for not obeying the order to shoot down a hijacked civilian plane, I criticized G. H. W. Bush for not ordering it done. Leadership would have been him going up on television and expressing his regret, but in face of having just watched a plane fly into the WTC, with the knowledge there were two more in the air, that "We have no Choice." J. F. K. would have done it. Eisenhower would have done it. Bush did not.
I'm very tired of this "there are no functional differences between tools" reactionary meme.
A New Made in America Custom Shop Fender Strat may not make you sound like Jimi Hendrix, but there most definately is a difference between such an instrument and a Made in Indonesia Squire. The Quality Control and manufacturing tolerances are kept much tighter on the former instrument, and the differences in materials does make for real differences in playability. I can give an excellent example with a physical explanation for why. In all classic instruments, as well as in the better quality modern instruments, the Nut on guitars is made of high quality materials like bone, metal, or a number high quality synthetics, which are then polished to be very smooth. The Nut is the part on a guitar that controls the string length of a string when played "open". On a quality instrument, the strings slide smoothly over the nut, and thus are easier to reach and hold accurate tuning. On Cheap instruments, the nut is made of plastic, and is unpolished, causing the strings to stick and jerk suddenly over the nut, causing sudden changes in the tension on the strings, and as the note created by the strings is dependent on the tension, this causes very audible problems.
Jimi Hendrix would certainly have sounded amazing playing even a cheap modern instrument, but he would always be better playing the classic (and of immaculate quality) 1950's Strats he used for most recordings. And while a player of moderate skill won't be able to sound like Jimi in either case, he will still sound better (worst case: less bad) on a better instrument than a poorer one. Incredible skill can allow a person to overcome the shortcomings of a very poor tool, but incredible tools can allow people of moderate skill to accomplish much more than poor ones, and can make skill acquisition much easier.