You want to kill tens of millions of people? Pick up a bunch of poisonous crap from random home depots around the country, gather it all up in some vans, and dump it all in a bunch of $RANDOM_SMALL_CITY water supplies across the country at the same time, the small cities who don't have budget or infrastructure go guard those supplies. There you go - millions dead from common household materials, and all you have to know how to do is drive a truck and not be an idiot. You don't have to have genetically engineered bio-warfare materials to kill people.
If someone who is anywhere near intelligent wants to kill a bunch of people, like REALLY WANTS TO, they're going to do it. Nothing you or me or the government can do will stop them. All the government can do is stop the idiots and people who have other more specific aims than "kill a ton of random people".
Usually that aim is to strike mass panic in the populace. Alarmist people like you are the real problem. People like you have already let terrorists win. They don't even have to do any more damage, you are obviously already terrorized to the point where even the thought of something going wrong holds you back from truly progressive ideas, like this one.
Dunno how this got modded to insightful but the idea that there will ever be even 400,000 Americans is ludicrous. The population growth rate of the US is not growing, it is SHRINKING. Same with the rest of the world. The parent seems to be living back in the 70's with his "dire predictions" of overpopulation.
Numbers are still growing; but recently--it is impossible to know exactly when--an inflection point seems to have been reached. The rate of population increase began to slow. In more and more countries, women started having fewer children than the number required to keep populations stable. Four out of nine people already live in countries in which the fertility rate has dipped below the replacement rate. Last year the United Nations said it thought the world's average fertility would fall below replacement by 2025. Demographers expect the global population to peak at around 10 billion (it is now 6.5 billion) by mid-century.
I read a book once about terraforming Venus by sending probes periodically over decades to inject payloads of hydrogen, algae, and seawater into the atmosphere. The algae would thrive off of the mainly Co2 atmosphere and multiply, producing o2, and gradually lowering the planet's temperature over a long period of time.
The problem with the proposal is I can't remember how they expected to keep water for the algae liquid at 450 degrees.
Comcast invested X billion dollars rolling out that wire network, on the expectation it will earn them X*Y billion dollars in revenue. How can the government come along and usurp the wires from Comcast without paying up that X*Y billion dollars?
Yes yes the wires were on public land blah blah - but I don't see the government forking out that cash to build their own competitive network.
That's a very idealistic point of view, however it does nothing to help people who are dying TODAY or being raped and tortured TODAY.
I would love for you to look into the eyes of a mother whose 8 year old child was just beaten to death because they would not join the military, or even worse one whose child DID join the military and was killed, and say "Oh but look, you can have this nice new laptop! And in 5 generations many less kids will die... maybe, if you work hard!"
Please tell me on what charge you can be brought for selling oregano to anyone, let alone a cop. If there is one it's a great way to get back at my local grocer. Thanks.
If you want to help a kid somewhere then why don't you donate your $400 to Unicef so it can buy food and medicine for 1000 kids? Or donate it to Amnesty INternational so they can stop kids from being raped and tortured in Cambodia?
Seriously - buying laptops for kids should not be P1 in terms of global humanitarian aid folks.
Once again, a TV download/streaming service that blocks out Canadian viewers, even though we get all shows broadcast at the exact same time as the US. Maybe I would watch the shows legally if they let me.
Having twice as much of a pittance of the home video market is still just that, a pittance. The main barrier to entry for high-def has beent he high price point - no one wants to spend $400 on a Blu-Ray player when their DVD player they got for $50 plays moves "just fine".
With low cost sub-$100 and sub-$200 players, HD-DVD is set to sweep into living rooms as the dominant high-def format. Unless Sony can somehow cut it's prices even further (doubtful), it is on the losing end of this battle, regardless of how many people boguht Blu-Ray so far.
Like, what amazes me the most about these kinds of lawsuits, is why the companies settle. Why not take it to a jury trial? I don't see any way TT could possibly lose if they did. The whole reason the suit even exists is because people don't understand the issues - once they do there is no way it would be upheld. I mean, you can bring in ANY product manufacturer as a witness! For example:
TT Lawyer - So Mr Disney - are you aware that with a small 3rd party modification I can access PORNOGRAPHY in your motion picture Snow White?
Well - if Sony PR is calling it a stalemate, thats the equivalent of declaring HD-DVD the winner.
Did anyone expect otherwise though? The statement "Never Get Involved in a Land War in Asia" has pretty much been replaced with "Never Get Involved On The Sony Side Of A Format War". Seriously - Betamax, Mini Disc, Memory Stick, A-TRAC - Why would anyone expect Sony to come out aheard this time? They have no idea how to trumpet a format.
Can I do Help -> About in Windows Vista and see credits for the thousands who helped write that program? What about Mac OSX? Hell what about Firefox?
Why do video game developers for some reason get put on this pedestal compared to other developers - it is all coding. In the end, they did their job, they got paid for it, end of story. This isn't another EA scandal here, this is just a bunch of whiny babies.
When the media companies finally get their way and Joe and Jane Sixpack can no longer freely re-watch "It's a Wonderful Life" to their heart's desire every holiday season, there will be outrage
Who needs a PVR when they already show the damn thing 24/7 on about 15 channels at once for a week straight?
There are documented cases of people born on airplanes who were able to claim citizenship in four countries at once - their home country, the country where the plane took off from, the country where the plane landed, and the country whose airspace the person was in when they were born.
MySpace may be the #1 website by traffic, but not by money-making eyeballs. MySpace's largest demographic is tweens and younger. Facebook's is High School to College and older. Guess which demographic spends more money?
The money the government collects from lotteries doesn't vanish into thin air. It is a very important source of revenue for the state. In most cases I know of in the US the money from the state lotto is directed either in whole or in part directly into the public school system.
If everyone stopped buying lotto tickets and started sponsoring kids in Africa instead then the state would not be able to find your schools, and in a couple of decades you'd have to be sponsoring "3rd world kids" in the US.
There is a rumour going around the mill that Walmart is going to also shortly announce it is going HD-DVD exclusive, for both players and titles (witht he exception of the PS3). It is all related to the lower price point of the players, and these discount retailers having to squeeze every dime or margin out of every product.
If Walmart goes HD-DVD exclusive, then Blu-Ray is as good as DOA.
This whole thing smacks of a blatant WTO violation to me.
You are not allowed to restrict products to sale in a given region. This is the whole purpose of WTO treaties. It is what allows the US to sell it's food internationally and to import international goods.
The WTO are who brought down the MPAA region codes. They could do the same to Valve.
This whole thing is talking about internet access over mobile phones. Not a single thing you posted is valid. if I had mod points i'd bitch slap this post.
Slashdot Mirror
You want to kill tens of millions of people? Pick up a bunch of poisonous crap from random home depots around the country, gather it all up in some vans, and dump it all in a bunch of $RANDOM_SMALL_CITY water supplies across the country at the same time, the small cities who don't have budget or infrastructure go guard those supplies. There you go - millions dead from common household materials, and all you have to know how to do is drive a truck and not be an idiot. You don't have to have genetically engineered bio-warfare materials to kill people.
If someone who is anywhere near intelligent wants to kill a bunch of people, like REALLY WANTS TO, they're going to do it. Nothing you or me or the government can do will stop them. All the government can do is stop the idiots and people who have other more specific aims than "kill a ton of random people".
Usually that aim is to strike mass panic in the populace. Alarmist people like you are the real problem. People like you have already let terrorists win. They don't even have to do any more damage, you are obviously already terrorized to the point where even the thought of something going wrong holds you back from truly progressive ideas, like this one.
The number of immigrants will go down as the number of people to immigrate goes down.
The US has around 5.8% of the world's population right now. You are SERIOUSLY considering that by 2100 it will have ballooned to 12.5% percent???
Numbers are still growing; but recently--it is impossible to know exactly when--an inflection point seems to have been reached. The rate of population increase began to slow. In more and more countries, women started having fewer children than the number required to keep populations stable. Four out of nine people already live in countries in which the fertility rate has dipped below the replacement rate. Last year the United Nations said it thought the world's average fertility would fall below replacement by 2025. Demographers expect the global population to peak at around 10 billion (it is now 6.5 billion) by mid-century.
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9545933
I read a book once about terraforming Venus by sending probes periodically over decades to inject payloads of hydrogen, algae, and seawater into the atmosphere. The algae would thrive off of the mainly Co2 atmosphere and multiply, producing o2, and gradually lowering the planet's temperature over a long period of time.
The problem with the proposal is I can't remember how they expected to keep water for the algae liquid at 450 degrees.
Comcast invested X billion dollars rolling out that wire network, on the expectation it will earn them X*Y billion dollars in revenue. How can the government come along and usurp the wires from Comcast without paying up that X*Y billion dollars?
Yes yes the wires were on public land blah blah - but I don't see the government forking out that cash to build their own competitive network.
That's a very idealistic point of view, however it does nothing to help people who are dying TODAY or being raped and tortured TODAY.
I would love for you to look into the eyes of a mother whose 8 year old child was just beaten to death because they would not join the military, or even worse one whose child DID join the military and was killed, and say "Oh but look, you can have this nice new laptop! And in 5 generations many less kids will die... maybe, if you work hard!"
Please tell me on what charge you can be brought for selling oregano to anyone, let alone a cop. If there is one it's a great way to get back at my local grocer. Thanks.
If you want to help a kid somewhere then why don't you donate your $400 to Unicef so it can buy food and medicine for 1000 kids? Or donate it to Amnesty INternational so they can stop kids from being raped and tortured in Cambodia?
Seriously - buying laptops for kids should not be P1 in terms of global humanitarian aid folks.
Why would I pay $399 for a OLPC laptop when I can buy a NORMAL full featured laptop from CC for $299 on Black Friday or $400 any other day?
Once again, a TV download/streaming service that blocks out Canadian viewers, even though we get all shows broadcast at the exact same time as the US. Maybe I would watch the shows legally if they let me.
Back to Torrents...
Having twice as much of a pittance of the home video market is still just that, a pittance. The main barrier to entry for high-def has beent he high price point - no one wants to spend $400 on a Blu-Ray player when their DVD player they got for $50 plays moves "just fine".
With low cost sub-$100 and sub-$200 players, HD-DVD is set to sweep into living rooms as the dominant high-def format. Unless Sony can somehow cut it's prices even further (doubtful), it is on the losing end of this battle, regardless of how many people boguht Blu-Ray so far.
Like, what amazes me the most about these kinds of lawsuits, is why the companies settle. Why not take it to a jury trial? I don't see any way TT could possibly lose if they did. The whole reason the suit even exists is because people don't understand the issues - once they do there is no way it would be upheld. I mean, you can bring in ANY product manufacturer as a witness! For example:
TT Lawyer - So Mr Disney - are you aware that with a small 3rd party modification I can access PORNOGRAPHY in your motion picture Snow White?
Well - if Sony PR is calling it a stalemate, thats the equivalent of declaring HD-DVD the winner.
Did anyone expect otherwise though? The statement "Never Get Involved in a Land War in Asia" has pretty much been replaced with "Never Get Involved On The Sony Side Of A Format War". Seriously - Betamax, Mini Disc, Memory Stick, A-TRAC - Why would anyone expect Sony to come out aheard this time? They have no idea how to trumpet a format.
Can I do Help -> About in Windows Vista and see credits for the thousands who helped write that program? What about Mac OSX? Hell what about Firefox?
Why do video game developers for some reason get put on this pedestal compared to other developers - it is all coding. In the end, they did their job, they got paid for it, end of story. This isn't another EA scandal here, this is just a bunch of whiny babies.
Call me cynical but when I read "HD Video" I expect some 720p goodness at the least. This little baby window is not HD.
Anyone have a link to the actual 720p video?
When the media companies finally get their way and Joe and Jane Sixpack can no longer freely re-watch "It's a Wonderful Life" to their heart's desire every holiday season, there will be outrage
Who needs a PVR when they already show the damn thing 24/7 on about 15 channels at once for a week straight?
There are documented cases of people born on airplanes who were able to claim citizenship in four countries at once - their home country, the country where the plane took off from, the country where the plane landed, and the country whose airspace the person was in when they were born.
From the post description it doesn't sound like he is trading in anything but ads.
The only real shower in Canada that compares to Netflix is Zip.ca, which is astronomically expensive ($25 / month???) compared to Netflix.
Canadian postage is not more than US postage, DVDs are not more, so I don't get why they feel justified charging so much more.
If things continue at their current pace, GOOG will exceed MSFT in market cap sometime in the next two years.
MySpace may be the #1 website by traffic, but not by money-making eyeballs. MySpace's largest demographic is tweens and younger. Facebook's is High School to College and older. Guess which demographic spends more money?
The money the government collects from lotteries doesn't vanish into thin air. It is a very important source of revenue for the state. In most cases I know of in the US the money from the state lotto is directed either in whole or in part directly into the public school system.
If everyone stopped buying lotto tickets and started sponsoring kids in Africa instead then the state would not be able to find your schools, and in a couple of decades you'd have to be sponsoring "3rd world kids" in the US.
There is a rumour going around the mill that Walmart is going to also shortly announce it is going HD-DVD exclusive, for both players and titles (witht he exception of the PS3). It is all related to the lower price point of the players, and these discount retailers having to squeeze every dime or margin out of every product.
If Walmart goes HD-DVD exclusive, then Blu-Ray is as good as DOA.
This whole thing smacks of a blatant WTO violation to me.
You are not allowed to restrict products to sale in a given region. This is the whole purpose of WTO treaties. It is what allows the US to sell it's food internationally and to import international goods.
The WTO are who brought down the MPAA region codes. They could do the same to Valve.
This whole thing is talking about internet access over mobile phones. Not a single thing you posted is valid. if I had mod points i'd bitch slap this post.