Whichever side of the "digital rights" argument you are looking at this from, we have to grudgingly admit that this drives innovation.... Adversity seems to drive innovation, whether in nature, or our society, be it in housing or farming etc.
So the adversity is Copy protection to the user, so users break the copy protection.
The adversity for the copyright holder is the "hacker" for lack of a better word, trying to circumvent the protection, so this leads to more encryption innovation.
If it weren't for Napster, would Itunes have ever come to be so soon? Which leads to another lesson- give the people what they want- or they will take/create it themselves.
When the recording/movie industry realizes that most music/video is "infringed/stolen" for convenience, not $$$, they may give us what we want. I like itunes because, hey, its 3am, my lady friend is getting frisky (Because I inflated her with salin instead of air like usual... more realistic that way) and I want to listen to some Barry White, but the stores are closed.... I can download it. Or if I don't want to go out and buy it because, yes, even though I am 27 my grandmother grounded me, or my acne or psoriasis is acting up I dont want to be seen in public, I want to download that CD/DVD.
Admission- if a song/group isn;t available on Itunes, I might (not admitting guilt here) download it somewhere else where it is 0 cents per song, not 99 cents per song.... even though I was willing to pay if available....
Give the consumer what we want, or we will get it our own way!!!!!!
In Communist China, computers spam you...
China can stop spam much more easily because the state has control over the internet... Sort of like how my parents used to have more control over me when I lived with them (what are these Kmart Brassiere Catalogs doing under your mattress) than they do now, when I live with my grandmother.
I think a better analogy would be one of your car gas tank- If I go around putting Diesel in your gasoline tank (or vice versa) in the night, is it your fault for not having a locking gas cap?
All this nonsense about locking doors- In the military, locks are called delaying devices. Locks only keep honest men out...
What this kid did was cause a lot of damage. How many older people or people who don't know much about computers had to spend a lot of money to fix issues caused by sasser? We can sit here and say people need to know more about computers, or they shouldn't use them... that is fine and good, but we all have things in our life that we maybe should know more about before using, be it a toaster or an auto.
If someone walks up and breaks your jaw, could their defense be "he should have known how to defend himself...."
Let's get serious- those who assign blame to victims of crime are likely trying to get a rise out of everybody by making statements they don't believe themselves...
If she is that good at astrology... she must already know the outcome of the case... so I am assuming she will win, because why else would she go forward with it?
Can we patent one click posting?
Seriously though, hats off to Amazon- like it or not, it wasn't easy to start a company 10 years ago on the net and have it still be in business....
I will say that I won't shop there because I am suspicious of any compnay that has a "buyer's club" that offers discounts, shipping or otherwise....
They do have some nice "Photography" books... Honest mom, it isn't porn, its erotica.... and stay out of the basement!"
I don't see a problem as long as there is backup... I don't recall ever losing our phone line at work, I do recall many times losing internet. There are many times in business when an hour of not being able to use the phone could cost more than the savings from VOIP over a decade.... (For example, an angry customer who needs something fixed right away...) Yes, I know we all caryy cell phones.
Also- unlimited (like the old watts lines) business phone lines (domestic Long distance) can be had for around 39.99 a month....
One more thing- maybe I watch too much dateline- but businesses are sooooooooooooo worried about liability (thing sensitivity training... he/she isn't fat a fat pig, he/she is big boned with a twinkie addiction, and over active thyroid, and an aversion to exercise...), but imagine if 911 didnt work ehen someone at work needed it.... talk about a potential lawsuit....
Just my two cents, but it seems we have a bit of a ways to go with voip....
This is nothing new- I have been buying the 4 for $10 movies from the wal mart bargain bin for years- A lot are decent (Well, full disclosure- I think segal is decent, I mean in every movie he is either an ex cia agent or an ex navy seal), I do the same thing with books- I buy a lot of brand new former best sellers at a steep discount (like 2$ for a brand new book) at off price stores.
I don't know of any (family friendly) dvd that I would pay 19$ for.
I really hope that they decontaminate this before it ever comes back... Viruses are some of the simplest life forms, so it is more likely that there would be a virus than a humanoid alien... Who knows what havoc this could wreak.
In all seriousness, hopefully this will give us a window into the creation of the universe, or maybe just the solar system.
I have sort of an obsession with astronomy... I think my parents always thought my telescope was for peeping on the neighbor- "honest mom, the vaseline is for greasing the telescope....
Tell me if you like the fit of my tinfoil hat- but here goes:
Does anyone really belive that the US doesnt have a shuttle like craft? I am sure the military has some type of way to get up and work on sattelites without the shuttle. Think about how important sattelites and space in general are to our military... It woulod take hundreds of pages to list all the military functions that rely on satellites- from the most basic gps to sunmarine nav (yes I know they can navigate other ways). The US military spends something like 3billion a day- do we reallyb think they don't have a shuttle type vehicle of their own?
It just makes sense- the military is all about controlling operating coinditions and redundant systems....
Just my two tinfoil cents.
Cost has little to do with selling price- What does it cost to produce a duplicate cassete (music or movie) vs. what does it cost to reproduce a CD/DVD, yet dvds and CDs cost more than cassettes (when they were both easily available).
Didn't the recording induistry lose a class action about CD price fixing? Didn't they settle it by giving CDs to libraries? Weren't there a lot of stories about a single rural library getting 100+ duplicate copies of a CD that never sold so they would have had to shred them anyway? Did those of us who paid 20$ plus for cds (long before napster) ever get a penny? Sorry for my rant....
But look at mark ups in retail- on a new car it is about 6% give or take, on clothing it is at least 100%, usually around 300%....
( If a man speaks in the forest and there is no woman there to hear him, is he still wrong?
I do think this will be a nail in the coffin of swapping trademarked works... I think people are more worried about the FBI kicking in your door than the RIAA sending a letter.
But keep in mind, distributing it beofre it is out is eveidence of another crime, i.e. stealing the work in the form of a proof or whatever from the studio... a bit different from buying it and then sharing....
And re: your post- My guess is they know where Bin Laden is, but he is in a country we can't get him (e.g. China or Saudi Arabia)for a plethora of reasons.
How long before we get ex girlfriend maps?
There are a few I would like to see, including- best chili dog map and cheap beer map.
How long before someone finds out the next time google is going to be taking pictures, and writes something really raunchy on their property in huge letters.
This would also be a great way to advertise... Hey look, those cars are parked in such a way to spell out slashdot as seen from the sattelites!!!! If a man speaks in the forest, and there is no woman there to hear him, is he still wrong?
Advertising is sold on a CPM (cost per thousand viewers basis) so 33 million or so is a big number to the bottom line.
Also, this will disproportionatly affect the poor- not everyone can afford cable. Keep in mind that the airwaves are owned by the FEd, and thus need do some good, so in the case of a national emergency, we need to be able to communicate with the people. You can't just write off 12% of viewers....
Missing latest rerun of everybody loves raymond, ok... missing ebs alert, not ok....
How long before we have a Congressional equivelant?
We had one, from the Mahoning Valley in Ohio. He is currently in Federal Prison. James Traficant, D, representitive from Ohio. He completed his speeches with the phrase "Beam me up Scotty." He wore an amazingly bad toupee with sideburns, and wore leisure suits on the House floor. He was a Democrat who voted with the Republicans.
This is exactlt right- unless a company acts like a consumer products company- consumers for the most part won't buy the product.
German Cra companies had this problem in the early 90's- American's wanted cup holders in cars- the German engineers felt that people shouldn't have beverages while driving and left them out, and American consumers ended up with Lexuses.
I realize that is a simplified view...
If one makes a product so difficult to buy and get support for (average PC users), then guess what, average PC users won't buy it (unless you have a monopoly, but that is another story). There are reasons why companies have tech people and marketing people. In the same way marketing people don't know much about tech a lot of the time, a lot of tech people can develop an amazing product, and have no clue how to market it/make it appeal to joe consumer....
Re:What would be the significance of this?
on
Lake spotted on Titan?
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
From my limited astronomy background (wasn't my major, but it fascinated me so I paid attention): Through modeling, we can assume that what holds on Earth, should hold on other planets, other galaxies etc.
I think what we are forgeting is that it seems that we know less about space than sometimes we think. For example, if memory serves me right, there is a lot of dark matter in the fringes of the galaxy- we know it is there because something is having an effect on other bodies there, however we can't detect it because it doesn't seem to emit any known energy source... (Caveat- I am not an astronomer, just a hobbyist, so take my assertion with a salt grain)
So in my line of reasoning, it seems that this lake on Titan may not have the same characteristics as a similar lake on Earth, for a plethora of reasons that we may not understand yet.
All that aside, how cool would it be to swim on another planet, even if in a lake of methane...
And for those with tinfoil hats- keep in mind that some assume that we don't get real info from NASA- such as those who say that gravity on the moon is much closer to the Earth's gravity, unlike what we are told, but this can't be released because it would throw a Geurilla Wrench into the theory of relativity....
I am less inclined to care about the look of it, and more inclined to care about reliability. At home, yes I want a nice looking gui, but at work, i just want it to run.
Speaking of eye candy and reliablity/faithfullness- reminds me of my wife, although she is neither...
Sort of like my cell phone- I don't care about features, I just want one that actually gets good reception when used as a phone....
Depending on the thickness of your tinfoil hat- there are many examples of the gov'/military testing things on humans despite the fact that they "aren't supposed to." The Tuskegee Airmen are a well known example, others may require a little more belief in some conspiracy type things.
It seems to me that this would, or has already been, tested on humans who aren't from the good ole US... The are billions of people of Earth, and they gov'y knows where to find the ones who won't be noticed... i.e. prostitutes etc.
This does bring up all types of amazing possibilities- like having this on ambulances so peopel could be suspended until they are at a hospital and the trauma team is ready...
Although I seem to remember a few times I tried to replace my blood with liquor, and even at a relatively low %, I still woke up with a heck of a headache...
unparalleled cool quotient
How do you create this? Much time and $$ is spent on Madison Avenue trying to make a product cool... The Ipod is a great product in my opinion, but coolness has little to do with greatness...
When passenger rail travel was ubiquitous in the US, there were quite a few wrecks with high casualty rates. There are fewer train fatalities now because there are fewer trains running, and they aren't running very fast- a train deraling at 100 mph like one of the highballing steam engines is a bit different than a train derailing at 45 mph like they run now.
The one thing that has always stuck me about the flying v. driving safety comparison- Much of driving is within your control- as a passenger on a plane, nothing is in your control. There is littel that you can do to change the odds of being in plane crash- there is much you can do to change your odds of dying while driving. If flying safer per mile than driving in the daytime, wearing a safety belt in a vehicle with side curtain airbags while NOT talking on the phone, changing the radio station etc? All the statistic says is that flying is safer per mile than driving, but the driving stat includes people driving drunk, or on the phone, or at 100mph in a 35 mph zone (I live in a rural area and DWS (Driving while Stupid) is a huge problem with mostly males on country roads- hit a bump at 100mph on a country road and you are done for)
Statistics can be manipulated to show just about any result you want....
I agree 100% with your post- I am also biased- I am a huge fan of railroading and love trains, so that is my caveat.
The major problem with translating some European/Asian models of transportation to the US is pure distance. Please don't forget that a country like Germany (I have visited there a couple times and find that Germans, like most Europeans are a great and friendly people) would fit into Texas, one of the 50 us states, twice. So when Japan creates a bullet network, it is more akin, area wise, to putting a rail network into one of the 50 US states. Obviously people wise, it is very different. But as far as track miles in the US it would be a huge number. Everything would have to be regraded, turns banked, track relaid etc. to allow for high speed running. Also, don't forget, almost nothing infastructure wise is from beofre WWII, wheareas much of the rail in the US is well over 60 years old, some much older. And the grades and rights of way here in the states are from the 1800's in many sections.
If one could travel at 223 mph accross the US that would be incredible- I could be from here in Ohio to California in what, 12-14 hours? That would almost make it feasible to board a train after work on Friday, have a nice dinner aboard, catch a show on board, go to sleep, and wake up near the West coast- It would almost make it feasible (Moneyt aside) to take a weekend trip to California (arrive Sat early afternoon, leave Sunday Early afternoon...) Of course this will never happen for many assorted reasons, however I can dream can't I?
Imagine if these bullet trains copuld be made zero emmision- don't forget that planes are awful polluters (why I can't stand a hollywood star who drives a Prius telling me she is green, the jumping into a Gulfstream and jetting accross the country...)
Will they offer the option of pre-dog-eared so that I can tell people that I read these books, not just own them? Sort of like the "pre-distressed" jeans they sell now.
Truth is, at a used book store, you could likely, with some searching, get most of this collection in hardbound lightly used volumes for 1-3$ a book. Less if you go to the library sale...
I am all for e-books and I read all my newspapers online- But like my dad says- until you can read an e-book in the can- count him in for hard copies... (Yes, I know you can take an ebook reader in the can, but who wants to...)
And I wonder how this Amazon collection comes packaged- Does it show up in a shipping container?
Um... Or they could make money with the lego thing.... check it.... Lego Serious Play http://www.seriousplay.com/ When your company has way too much time and money... and needs an infusion of trendiness...
I will say, I enjoyed legos as a youngster, and still think they are neat- but there are way to many preformed pieces. The fire house/trucks/castles and all made of the traditional legos were my favorite...
Lego my eggo? Is that the same kind of thing?
Birds do it. Bees do it. Tonight see what happens when Nerds do it... Okay, so perhaps the made for tv Nerds in Love didn't do justice to the earlier revenge of the nerds series...
But didn't we find this out in the first sequel at the HOTel coORAL esSEX?
In all seriousness- of course we make better lovers/companions. Intelligent people tend to be more caring about others needs. Also,physical beauty fades (how many hot 18-30 year olds do you see? How many hot 45-55 year olds do you see? enough said) but to be a truly great lover/partner is in the head and heart. With my wife, the best times we have are when we are talking and enjoying each others company. (okay second best times...)
It is like a conversation I once had with my ex- me "we can;t break up! isn't our sex life great?"
her: "of course our sex life is great honey, but we have to get along for the other 23 hours, 59 minutes every day!"
Slashdot Mirror
Whichever side of the "digital rights" argument you are looking at this from, we have to grudgingly admit that this drives innovation.... Adversity seems to drive innovation, whether in nature, or our society, be it in housing or farming etc.
So the adversity is Copy protection to the user, so users break the copy protection.
The adversity for the copyright holder is the "hacker" for lack of a better word, trying to circumvent the protection, so this leads to more encryption innovation.
If it weren't for Napster, would Itunes have ever come to be so soon? Which leads to another lesson- give the people what they want- or they will take/create it themselves.
When the recording/movie industry realizes that most music/video is "infringed/stolen" for convenience, not $$$, they may give us what we want. I like itunes because, hey, its 3am, my lady friend is getting frisky (Because I inflated her with salin instead of air like usual... more realistic that way) and I want to listen to some Barry White, but the stores are closed.... I can download it. Or if I don't want to go out and buy it because, yes, even though I am 27 my grandmother grounded me, or my acne or psoriasis is acting up I dont want to be seen in public, I want to download that CD/DVD.
Admission- if a song/group isn;t available on Itunes, I might (not admitting guilt here) download it somewhere else where it is 0 cents per song, not 99 cents per song.... even though I was willing to pay if available....
Give the consumer what we want, or we will get it our own way!!!!!!
In Communist China, computers spam you...
China can stop spam much more easily because the state has control over the internet... Sort of like how my parents used to have more control over me when I lived with them (what are these Kmart Brassiere Catalogs doing under your mattress) than they do now, when I live with my grandmother.
I think a better analogy would be one of your car gas tank- If I go around putting Diesel in your gasoline tank (or vice versa) in the night, is it your fault for not having a locking gas cap?
All this nonsense about locking doors- In the military, locks are called delaying devices. Locks only keep honest men out...
What this kid did was cause a lot of damage. How many older people or people who don't know much about computers had to spend a lot of money to fix issues caused by sasser? We can sit here and say people need to know more about computers, or they shouldn't use them... that is fine and good, but we all have things in our life that we maybe should know more about before using, be it a toaster or an auto.
If someone walks up and breaks your jaw, could their defense be "he should have known how to defend himself...."
Let's get serious- those who assign blame to victims of crime are likely trying to get a rise out of everybody by making statements they don't believe themselves...
If she is that good at astrology... she must already know the outcome of the case... so I am assuming she will win, because why else would she go forward with it?
Can we patent one click posting?
Seriously though, hats off to Amazon- like it or not, it wasn't easy to start a company 10 years ago on the net and have it still be in business....
I will say that I won't shop there because I am suspicious of any compnay that has a "buyer's club" that offers discounts, shipping or otherwise....
They do have some nice "Photography" books... Honest mom, it isn't porn, its erotica.... and stay out of the basement!"
I don't see a problem as long as there is backup... I don't recall ever losing our phone line at work, I do recall many times losing internet. There are many times in business when an hour of not being able to use the phone could cost more than the savings from VOIP over a decade.... (For example, an angry customer who needs something fixed right away...) Yes, I know we all caryy cell phones.
Also- unlimited (like the old watts lines) business phone lines (domestic Long distance) can be had for around 39.99 a month....
One more thing- maybe I watch too much dateline- but businesses are sooooooooooooo worried about liability (thing sensitivity training... he/she isn't fat a fat pig, he/she is big boned with a twinkie addiction, and over active thyroid, and an aversion to exercise...), but imagine if 911 didnt work ehen someone at work needed it.... talk about a potential lawsuit....
Just my two cents, but it seems we have a bit of a ways to go with voip....
This is nothing new- I have been buying the 4 for $10 movies from the wal mart bargain bin for years- A lot are decent (Well, full disclosure- I think segal is decent, I mean in every movie he is either an ex cia agent or an ex navy seal), I do the same thing with books- I buy a lot of brand new former best sellers at a steep discount (like 2$ for a brand new book) at off price stores.
I don't know of any (family friendly) dvd that I would pay 19$ for.
I really hope that they decontaminate this before it ever comes back... Viruses are some of the simplest life forms, so it is more likely that there would be a virus than a humanoid alien... Who knows what havoc this could wreak.
In all seriousness, hopefully this will give us a window into the creation of the universe, or maybe just the solar system.
I have sort of an obsession with astronomy... I think my parents always thought my telescope was for peeping on the neighbor- "honest mom, the vaseline is for greasing the telescope....
Tell me if you like the fit of my tinfoil hat- but here goes:
Does anyone really belive that the US doesnt have a shuttle like craft? I am sure the military has some type of way to get up and work on sattelites without the shuttle. Think about how important sattelites and space in general are to our military... It woulod take hundreds of pages to list all the military functions that rely on satellites- from the most basic gps to sunmarine nav (yes I know they can navigate other ways). The US military spends something like 3billion a day- do we reallyb think they don't have a shuttle type vehicle of their own?
It just makes sense- the military is all about controlling operating coinditions and redundant systems....
Just my two tinfoil cents.
Cost has little to do with selling price- What does it cost to produce a duplicate cassete (music or movie) vs. what does it cost to reproduce a CD/DVD, yet dvds and CDs cost more than cassettes (when they were both easily available).
Didn't the recording induistry lose a class action about CD price fixing? Didn't they settle it by giving CDs to libraries? Weren't there a lot of stories about a single rural library getting 100+ duplicate copies of a CD that never sold so they would have had to shred them anyway? Did those of us who paid 20$ plus for cds (long before napster) ever get a penny? Sorry for my rant....
But look at mark ups in retail- on a new car it is about 6% give or take, on clothing it is at least 100%, usually around 300%....
( If a man speaks in the forest and there is no woman there to hear him, is he still wrong?
I do think this will be a nail in the coffin of swapping trademarked works... I think people are more worried about the FBI kicking in your door than the RIAA sending a letter.
But keep in mind, distributing it beofre it is out is eveidence of another crime, i.e. stealing the work in the form of a proof or whatever from the studio... a bit different from buying it and then sharing....
And re: your post- My guess is they know where Bin Laden is, but he is in a country we can't get him (e.g. China or Saudi Arabia)for a plethora of reasons.
How long before we get ex girlfriend maps?
There are a few I would like to see, including- best chili dog map and cheap beer map.
How long before someone finds out the next time google is going to be taking pictures, and writes something really raunchy on their property in huge letters.
This would also be a great way to advertise... Hey look, those cars are parked in such a way to spell out slashdot as seen from the sattelites!!!!
If a man speaks in the forest, and there is no woman there to hear him, is he still wrong?
Advertising is sold on a CPM (cost per thousand viewers basis) so 33 million or so is a big number to the bottom line.
Also, this will disproportionatly affect the poor- not everyone can afford cable. Keep in mind that the airwaves are owned by the FEd, and thus need do some good, so in the case of a national emergency, we need to be able to communicate with the people. You can't just write off 12% of viewers....
Missing latest rerun of everybody loves raymond, ok... missing ebs alert, not ok....
How long before we have a Congressional equivelant?
We had one, from the Mahoning Valley in Ohio. He is currently in Federal Prison. James Traficant, D, representitive from Ohio. He completed his speeches with the phrase "Beam me up Scotty." He wore an amazingly bad toupee with sideburns, and wore leisure suits on the House floor. He was a Democrat who voted with the Republicans.
This is exactlt right- unless a company acts like a consumer products company- consumers for the most part won't buy the product.
German Cra companies had this problem in the early 90's- American's wanted cup holders in cars- the German engineers felt that people shouldn't have beverages while driving and left them out, and American consumers ended up with Lexuses.
I realize that is a simplified view...
If one makes a product so difficult to buy and get support for (average PC users), then guess what, average PC users won't buy it (unless you have a monopoly, but that is another story). There are reasons why companies have tech people and marketing people. In the same way marketing people don't know much about tech a lot of the time, a lot of tech people can develop an amazing product, and have no clue how to market it/make it appeal to joe consumer....
From my limited astronomy background (wasn't my major, but it fascinated me so I paid attention): Through modeling, we can assume that what holds on Earth, should hold on other planets, other galaxies etc.
I think what we are forgeting is that it seems that we know less about space than sometimes we think. For example, if memory serves me right, there is a lot of dark matter in the fringes of the galaxy- we know it is there because something is having an effect on other bodies there, however we can't detect it because it doesn't seem to emit any known energy source... (Caveat- I am not an astronomer, just a hobbyist, so take my assertion with a salt grain)
So in my line of reasoning, it seems that this lake on Titan may not have the same characteristics as a similar lake on Earth, for a plethora of reasons that we may not understand yet.
All that aside, how cool would it be to swim on another planet, even if in a lake of methane...
And for those with tinfoil hats- keep in mind that some assume that we don't get real info from NASA- such as those who say that gravity on the moon is much closer to the Earth's gravity, unlike what we are told, but this can't be released because it would throw a Geurilla Wrench into the theory of relativity....
I am less inclined to care about the look of it, and more inclined to care about reliability. At home, yes I want a nice looking gui, but at work, i just want it to run.
Speaking of eye candy and reliablity/faithfullness- reminds me of my wife, although she is neither...
Sort of like my cell phone- I don't care about features, I just want one that actually gets good reception when used as a phone....
Depending on the thickness of your tinfoil hat- there are many examples of the gov'/military testing things on humans despite the fact that they "aren't supposed to." The Tuskegee Airmen are a well known example, others may require a little more belief in some conspiracy type things.
It seems to me that this would, or has already been, tested on humans who aren't from the good ole US... The are billions of people of Earth, and they gov'y knows where to find the ones who won't be noticed... i.e. prostitutes etc.
This does bring up all types of amazing possibilities- like having this on ambulances so peopel could be suspended until they are at a hospital and the trauma team is ready...
Although I seem to remember a few times I tried to replace my blood with liquor, and even at a relatively low %, I still woke up with a heck of a headache...
Will this apply to other areas or just tech? For example, will you be able to patent a shirt design or a new motor?
unparalleled cool quotient
How do you create this? Much time and $$ is spent on Madison Avenue trying to make a product cool... The Ipod is a great product in my opinion, but coolness has little to do with greatness...
When passenger rail travel was ubiquitous in the US, there were quite a few wrecks with high casualty rates. There are fewer train fatalities now because there are fewer trains running, and they aren't running very fast- a train deraling at 100 mph like one of the highballing steam engines is a bit different than a train derailing at 45 mph like they run now.
The one thing that has always stuck me about the flying v. driving safety comparison- Much of driving is within your control- as a passenger on a plane, nothing is in your control. There is littel that you can do to change the odds of being in plane crash- there is much you can do to change your odds of dying while driving. If flying safer per mile than driving in the daytime, wearing a safety belt in a vehicle with side curtain airbags while NOT talking on the phone, changing the radio station etc? All the statistic says is that flying is safer per mile than driving, but the driving stat includes people driving drunk, or on the phone, or at 100mph in a 35 mph zone (I live in a rural area and DWS (Driving while Stupid) is a huge problem with mostly males on country roads- hit a bump at 100mph on a country road and you are done for)
Statistics can be manipulated to show just about any result you want....
I agree 100% with your post- I am also biased- I am a huge fan of railroading and love trains, so that is my caveat.
The major problem with translating some European/Asian models of transportation to the US is pure distance. Please don't forget that a country like Germany (I have visited there a couple times and find that Germans, like most Europeans are a great and friendly people) would fit into Texas, one of the 50 us states, twice. So when Japan creates a bullet network, it is more akin, area wise, to putting a rail network into one of the 50 US states. Obviously people wise, it is very different. But as far as track miles in the US it would be a huge number. Everything would have to be regraded, turns banked, track relaid etc. to allow for high speed running. Also, don't forget, almost nothing infastructure wise is from beofre WWII, wheareas much of the rail in the US is well over 60 years old, some much older. And the grades and rights of way here in the states are from the 1800's in many sections.
If one could travel at 223 mph accross the US that would be incredible- I could be from here in Ohio to California in what, 12-14 hours? That would almost make it feasible to board a train after work on Friday, have a nice dinner aboard, catch a show on board, go to sleep, and wake up near the West coast- It would almost make it feasible (Moneyt aside) to take a weekend trip to California (arrive Sat early afternoon, leave Sunday Early afternoon...) Of course this will never happen for many assorted reasons, however I can dream can't I?
Imagine if these bullet trains copuld be made zero emmision- don't forget that planes are awful polluters (why I can't stand a hollywood star who drives a Prius telling me she is green, the jumping into a Gulfstream and jetting accross the country...)
Will they offer the option of pre-dog-eared so that I can tell people that I read these books, not just own them? Sort of like the "pre-distressed" jeans they sell now.
Truth is, at a used book store, you could likely, with some searching, get most of this collection in hardbound lightly used volumes for 1-3$ a book. Less if you go to the library sale...
I am all for e-books and I read all my newspapers online- But like my dad says- until you can read an e-book in the can- count him in for hard copies... (Yes, I know you can take an ebook reader in the can, but who wants to...)
And I wonder how this Amazon collection comes packaged- Does it show up in a shipping container?
Um... Or they could make money with the lego thing.... check it.... Lego Serious Play http://www.seriousplay.com/ When your company has way too much time and money... and needs an infusion of trendiness...
I will say, I enjoyed legos as a youngster, and still think they are neat- but there are way to many preformed pieces. The fire house/trucks/castles and all made of the traditional legos were my favorite...
Lego my eggo? Is that the same kind of thing?
Birds do it. Bees do it. Tonight see what happens when Nerds do it...
Okay, so perhaps the made for tv Nerds in Love didn't do justice to the earlier revenge of the nerds series...
But didn't we find this out in the first sequel at the HOTel coORAL esSEX?
In all seriousness- of course we make better lovers/companions. Intelligent people tend to be more caring about others needs. Also,physical beauty fades (how many hot 18-30 year olds do you see? How many hot 45-55 year olds do you see? enough said) but to be a truly great lover/partner is in the head and heart. With my wife, the best times we have are when we are talking and enjoying each others company. (okay second best times...)
It is like a conversation I once had with my ex-
me "we can;t break up! isn't our sex life great?"
her: "of course our sex life is great honey, but we have to get along for the other 23 hours, 59 minutes every day!"