I have been in dozens of ensembles over the decades, and I wholeheartedly disagree with your statements. There is plenty of room for interpretation and original thought in performing a piece of music. Even things like Christmas carols are never done the same way twice when performed live. Don't think for a moment that just because a family sitting around a room reading some sheet music didn't come up with the tune, they are not "creating music." Surely if Roy Lichtenstein is considered a creator of art, music performers should be considered creators of music.
Also bear in mind the GP was referring to the relative creativity involved in playing music and sports, as opposed to watching and listening. What happened around the family piano was orders of magnitude more creative than having the radio on in the background as you play a video game. Ooh, that's another one. Remember when you used to have to type your own programs into a computer before you could play them? Sure, you didn't come up with all the code yourself; you might not have even changed any of the lines. But copying it, compiling and then playing it was much more creative. If you wanted to tweak things you could. Unfortunately, the un-compiled program has gone the way of the un-recorded song and the pick-up game of baseball. Only a few esoteric fans even bother anymore.
They did? Then why am I having difficulty authorizing a sixth computer to play this music that I bought last week? Do I need to download a patch for iTunes or something?
I'm sorry you got modded down, but you got modded back up quickly. Please stick around; I enjoy reading your posts. They are always well thought out and interesting. Don't let a couple of mods on crack tick you off.
For some reason, I'm thinking of the cow at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, who was genetically engineered to want to be eaten. If you have the technology to make a cow both sentient and tasty, why not design it to want to be eaten?
We would then have TV shows and magazines talking about the personal private lives of those people who produced your cars and computers
You mean like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates? There are others who come to mind: Jack Welch, Richard Branson, Martha Stewart. But really, as a stockholder in several mutual funds, what businessmen and women do in their personal life really does have an effect on me. People are finicky, and stock prices fluctuate upon rumors of what these folks are (or were) up to.
Presumably politicians are fair game because their public life and private life intermingle all too often.
And in contradiction to yourself, trees are actually responsible for helping create water. Ever seen a desert with trees? Nope...
That doesn't mean that trees help create water. That just means deserts are less habitable to trees. If you plant thousands of trees in the desert, it doesn't start raining on them. There's still no rain, and the trees die. Ask anybody who tries to farm in the Southwest.
There are no such buffer zones in Texas. The only buffers are signs incrementally reducing the speed limit as you approach a town on a highway (e.g. 70 to 55 to 40, rather than 70 to 40). You must be going the slower speed as soon as you get to the sign. They can and do ticket people in my part of town where the speed limit goes from 45 to 30 just before a school/neighborhood.
Many cities around the world deploy parking meters in places where there is no lack of parking places as a form of revenue for the local authorities.
Yeah, but these guys are talking about San Francisco, where a good parking spot can cost as much as an apartment. It's definitely a place where public parking needs to be metered. BART, FTW!!!
Where do you live that the lights are timed for the speed limit? Around the Houston area they certainly aren't. Your probability for catching a green wave does not increase with proximity to the speed limit. Hell, in some neighborhoods all the lights have car sensors rather than timers.
As for coasting to a stop at a red light, that's not "hypermiling," it's just common sense. I can't count the number of times I've had to stop because somebody gunned past me on the way to a red light, only to have to stop, when we both could have coasted through had he just had an iota of patience. So wasteful!
people have largely stopped honking, so they'll just sit behind such an oblivious person and just wait
Man I want to live where you do. Around here, if you aren't immediately moving you get honked at. The great irony there is that if you don't wait at least half a second before hitting the gas, you're likely to get hit by a red-light-runner.
rubberneckers, even when someone is just changing a tire or getting a ticket
Slowing down is not rubbernecking when somebody is getting a ticket. In Texas, you're required by law to either move over one lane or drop to 20 mph below the posted speed limit when passing an emergency vehicle with lights on.
so many people seem unwilling to even get up to the speed limit, let alone exceed it by a few miles per hour, as if you're going to get a ticket for 48 in a 45
People don't go over the speed limit, because it's the law (in most states, though some have a reasonable speed clause). If you don't like it, petition your local transportation department to change it. Don't ride their ass, honk your horn, and/or flip them off. Not saying you do, but several want-to-go-fast-because-I-can drivers certainly do. I used to be one of them when I was a whippersnapper. And there are certainly locales where the local police force will give you a ticket for going even one mph over the posted limit, even when you're in the process of decelerating from one speed zone to another.
As for people who stop on acceleration lanes, I'm right with you. It's terribly common in San Antonio. I'm surprised it doesn't cause more accidents than it does. It's second on my list of pet peeves only to those who don't yield to those on an exit ramp.
In an older copy of the Texas driver handbook, you used to have to come to a complete stop at a red with green arrow. In some states it may still be that way, I don't know. Additionally, if you're turning, it's always advisable to slow down enough so that you can stop if there are pedestrians present.
Wrong. Photographs of public domain works are only copyrightable (in the US) if they add something creative. The express purpose of these digital paintings were to be as similar to the original as possible. Thus, the photos have no creative value beyond that of the original work. Consequently, in the US they would not fall under copyright. I took a photograph of a Mozart score. It is very valuable and interesting, but it is not something I can claim copyright on. Likewise, Google cannot claim copyright on digitized public domain works (although they have slapped CC licenses on that stuff).
Have you seen the "landscape" of West Texas? I lived there for years, but I never heard it called beautiful. If anything, I'd say that these things are a great way to make a depressingly monotonous landscape just a little bit interesting. Before this, the nicest thing a rancher could hope to see on his land was a pumpjack. Personally, I find the larger turbines strikingly beautiful, and I hope to see them dotting landscapes across the US.
I've only got about 30 grand, though, so I hope he doesn't mind taking a 99% loss. On a more cynical note, I can't help but wonder if this was all some ploy to discredit renewable energy.
The only music I've ever had problems playing on my iPod was the one album that I bought from iTunes (a Mahler symphony I couldn't find at the library). I eventually got it working again, but the fact that I had to delete the music, un-authenticate everything, then re-download it, or some such ridiculous process, tells me that their DRM is not flawless. Sure, ripping my own CDs is a pain in the butt, but at least I know it will work forever on whatever hardware I want to use.
If you try "programming languages", "supreme court justices", or "linux distros" you get no results from Alpha, but a reasonable effort from Squared. Then again, these are all topics that are well covered by Wikipedia. It seems that when you do get results from Alpha, they're almost always exactly what you're looking for (unless there's a periodical with the exact phrase you're searching for, e.g. "construction equipment"). On the other hand, Squared takes more of a bad-data-is-better-than-no-data approach. They both serve their purposes, but I wouldn't exactly call them competitors.
It would be better to give scientology itself a page about themselves that only they can edit, that is labeled as such.
...
That's what a real democraticized encyclopedia would do.
No. A "democraticized" encyclopedia would still have to be an encyclopedia. That is to say, it would not allow original research, and it would not have separate entries for the same subject, each with its own point of view. Even Uncyclopedia has rules, for crying out loud. Is it too much to ask that people making contributions to Wikipedia follow the simple rules of notability, verifiability, and (less simple) neutrality?
Interesting analogy. Instead of a balloon it could be an inner tube or some other topology, and your point would be the same. One thing it allows you to envision is that if we could determine the topology, then we could determine the center of the hyper-universe (the balloon/air system), and determine the shortest multi-dimensional routes from one part of the surface of the balloon to another. Also, with the inner tube topology, if it expands too much, part of the universe will eventually collide with another part of the universe that used to be far away. What if that is already happening and we don't know it? Seeing as most of the universe is empty space, the odds of two large bodies (e.g. galaxies) colliding through such a manifold collapse or topology singularity seem slim. My brain hurts now...
The latest IEEE Spectrum "Winners and Losers" edition listed a robotic strawberry picker as a loser. The gist was that it doesn't work in fields, only special greenhouses, and that the mechanics of actually picking a strawberry without damaging it is fairly complicated. This tomatobot doesn't seem to address either of these issues, either.
Slashdot Mirror
Also bear in mind the GP was referring to the relative creativity involved in playing music and sports, as opposed to watching and listening. What happened around the family piano was orders of magnitude more creative than having the radio on in the background as you play a video game. Ooh, that's another one. Remember when you used to have to type your own programs into a computer before you could play them? Sure, you didn't come up with all the code yourself; you might not have even changed any of the lines. But copying it, compiling and then playing it was much more creative. If you wanted to tweak things you could. Unfortunately, the un-compiled program has gone the way of the un-recorded song and the pick-up game of baseball. Only a few esoteric fans even bother anymore.
Let me get this straight: it will be a square, triangle, pipeline? Are you sure it's not a series of tubes?
They did? Then why am I having difficulty authorizing a sixth computer to play this music that I bought last week? Do I need to download a patch for iTunes or something?
It's called "social studies" where I come from.
I'm sorry you got modded down, but you got modded back up quickly. Please stick around; I enjoy reading your posts. They are always well thought out and interesting. Don't let a couple of mods on crack tick you off.
For some reason, I'm thinking of the cow at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, who was genetically engineered to want to be eaten. If you have the technology to make a cow both sentient and tasty, why not design it to want to be eaten?
We would then have TV shows and magazines talking about the personal private lives of those people who produced your cars and computers
You mean like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates? There are others who come to mind: Jack Welch, Richard Branson, Martha Stewart. But really, as a stockholder in several mutual funds, what businessmen and women do in their personal life really does have an effect on me. People are finicky, and stock prices fluctuate upon rumors of what these folks are (or were) up to.
Presumably politicians are fair game because their public life and private life intermingle all too often.
And in contradiction to yourself, trees are actually responsible for helping create water. Ever seen a desert with trees? Nope...
That doesn't mean that trees help create water. That just means deserts are less habitable to trees. If you plant thousands of trees in the desert, it doesn't start raining on them. There's still no rain, and the trees die. Ask anybody who tries to farm in the Southwest.
There are no such buffer zones in Texas. The only buffers are signs incrementally reducing the speed limit as you approach a town on a highway (e.g. 70 to 55 to 40, rather than 70 to 40). You must be going the slower speed as soon as you get to the sign. They can and do ticket people in my part of town where the speed limit goes from 45 to 30 just before a school/neighborhood.
Many cities around the world deploy parking meters in places where there is no lack of parking places as a form of revenue for the local authorities.
Yeah, but these guys are talking about San Francisco, where a good parking spot can cost as much as an apartment. It's definitely a place where public parking needs to be metered. BART, FTW!!!
lights are timed for the speed limit
Where do you live that the lights are timed for the speed limit? Around the Houston area they certainly aren't. Your probability for catching a green wave does not increase with proximity to the speed limit. Hell, in some neighborhoods all the lights have car sensors rather than timers.
As for coasting to a stop at a red light, that's not "hypermiling," it's just common sense. I can't count the number of times I've had to stop because somebody gunned past me on the way to a red light, only to have to stop, when we both could have coasted through had he just had an iota of patience. So wasteful!
people have largely stopped honking, so they'll just sit behind such an oblivious person and just wait
Man I want to live where you do. Around here, if you aren't immediately moving you get honked at. The great irony there is that if you don't wait at least half a second before hitting the gas, you're likely to get hit by a red-light-runner.
rubberneckers, even when someone is just changing a tire or getting a ticket
Slowing down is not rubbernecking when somebody is getting a ticket. In Texas, you're required by law to either move over one lane or drop to 20 mph below the posted speed limit when passing an emergency vehicle with lights on.
so many people seem unwilling to even get up to the speed limit, let alone exceed it by a few miles per hour, as if you're going to get a ticket for 48 in a 45
People don't go over the speed limit, because it's the law (in most states, though some have a reasonable speed clause). If you don't like it, petition your local transportation department to change it. Don't ride their ass, honk your horn, and/or flip them off. Not saying you do, but several want-to-go-fast-because-I-can drivers certainly do. I used to be one of them when I was a whippersnapper. And there are certainly locales where the local police force will give you a ticket for going even one mph over the posted limit, even when you're in the process of decelerating from one speed zone to another.
As for people who stop on acceleration lanes, I'm right with you. It's terribly common in San Antonio. I'm surprised it doesn't cause more accidents than it does. It's second on my list of pet peeves only to those who don't yield to those on an exit ramp.
In an older copy of the Texas driver handbook, you used to have to come to a complete stop at a red with green arrow. In some states it may still be that way, I don't know. Additionally, if you're turning, it's always advisable to slow down enough so that you can stop if there are pedestrians present.
Wrong. Photographs of public domain works are only copyrightable (in the US) if they add something creative. The express purpose of these digital paintings were to be as similar to the original as possible. Thus, the photos have no creative value beyond that of the original work. Consequently, in the US they would not fall under copyright. I took a photograph of a Mozart score. It is very valuable and interesting, but it is not something I can claim copyright on. Likewise, Google cannot claim copyright on digitized public domain works (although they have slapped CC licenses on that stuff).
Have you seen the "landscape" of West Texas? I lived there for years, but I never heard it called beautiful. If anything, I'd say that these things are a great way to make a depressingly monotonous landscape just a little bit interesting. Before this, the nicest thing a rancher could hope to see on his land was a pumpjack. Personally, I find the larger turbines strikingly beautiful, and I hope to see them dotting landscapes across the US.
I've only got about 30 grand, though, so I hope he doesn't mind taking a 99% loss. On a more cynical note, I can't help but wonder if this was all some ploy to discredit renewable energy.
The only music I've ever had problems playing on my iPod was the one album that I bought from iTunes (a Mahler symphony I couldn't find at the library). I eventually got it working again, but the fact that I had to delete the music, un-authenticate everything, then re-download it, or some such ridiculous process, tells me that their DRM is not flawless. Sure, ripping my own CDs is a pain in the butt, but at least I know it will work forever on whatever hardware I want to use.
If you try "programming languages", "supreme court justices", or "linux distros" you get no results from Alpha, but a reasonable effort from Squared. Then again, these are all topics that are well covered by Wikipedia. It seems that when you do get results from Alpha, they're almost always exactly what you're looking for (unless there's a periodical with the exact phrase you're searching for, e.g. "construction equipment"). On the other hand, Squared takes more of a bad-data-is-better-than-no-data approach. They both serve their purposes, but I wouldn't exactly call them competitors.
How ironic. In the US, Microsoft probes YOU!!!! I know, I know... -1 Redundant.
It would be better to give scientology itself a page about themselves that only they can edit, that is labeled as such.
...
That's what a real democraticized encyclopedia would do.
No. A "democraticized" encyclopedia would still have to be an encyclopedia. That is to say, it would not allow original research, and it would not have separate entries for the same subject, each with its own point of view. Even Uncyclopedia has rules, for crying out loud. Is it too much to ask that people making contributions to Wikipedia follow the simple rules of notability, verifiability, and (less simple) neutrality?
Interesting analogy. Instead of a balloon it could be an inner tube or some other topology, and your point would be the same. One thing it allows you to envision is that if we could determine the topology, then we could determine the center of the hyper-universe (the balloon/air system), and determine the shortest multi-dimensional routes from one part of the surface of the balloon to another. Also, with the inner tube topology, if it expands too much, part of the universe will eventually collide with another part of the universe that used to be far away. What if that is already happening and we don't know it? Seeing as most of the universe is empty space, the odds of two large bodies (e.g. galaxies) colliding through such a manifold collapse or topology singularity seem slim. My brain hurts now...
Israel already tried that, but the Mexican officials took offense, so they changed it back.
I had just assumed it was irony, given the context of his post.
I didn't know Dan Glickman was a tax cheat.
Did I read that right? You have been investigated for plagiarism four times in your academic career?
Hero? You've forgotten the JibJab lawsuit, haven't you.
The latest IEEE Spectrum "Winners and Losers" edition listed a robotic strawberry picker as a loser. The gist was that it doesn't work in fields, only special greenhouses, and that the mechanics of actually picking a strawberry without damaging it is fairly complicated. This tomatobot doesn't seem to address either of these issues, either.