The same thing happened to me recently too, and I came to the same conclusion, though seeing you post about it now (and never in the past) makes me wonder if it's really the result of meta-modding or a new/. policy.
Oh yeah, sodium is nasty, no doubt about that. The fuel is Unholy Stuff too, but my point about a meltdown (which was to answer a question about meltdowns) still stands. I'm in no way saying it's foolproof or the best way to provide our power or anything like that.
I -DO- however believe that it's probably the best method of dealing with nuclear wastes already in existence.
Lesee.... It's clean because if you stand a mile or so from the materials used you won't notice any negative effects. And... (this one's harder) umm... oh, it's renewable in the sense that if we get hit with a stellar core fragment from some supernova somewhere it will renew our supply of fuel...(?)
If I remember correctly, it's not that they don't have meltdowns, it's that they are SUPPOSED to be in a state of meltdown. I -THINK-. (too lazy to google)
IIRC they keep the fuel in a hot liquid state and basically keep it covered in molten sodium. They use convection for "pumping" the coolant and can process most nuclear wastes as fuel.
I've always thought the fast integrals were good ideas too, if for nothing else than to process our currently stored wastes.
Re:My heterogeneous experience with Cell processor
on
Panic in Multicore Land
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Heterogeneous cores are already in almost every PC I've seen so far this millennium. Anyone with a GPU is running heterogeneous cores in their machine. How do we handle it? The first half of your second sentence; libraries and frameworks. OpenGL, DirectX and whatnot provide the frameworks we need while the various manufacturers provide the drivers to maintain compatibility with the various APIs. We'll see soon enough (as a result of the Cell) if the same thing (2 or more different libraries for the same processor; one for each of it's core-types) becomes the norm for other heterogeneous core system. I think so, but it may be overlooked by manufacturers who want to view a processor as a unit instead of a compilation of various units. They'll figure it out, these guys aren't MBAs, they're the truly educated.:-D
"The only VIABLE option is to bitch and whine some more."
Yes, that very much sounds like something one would expect to hear on the internet, where people think whining and moaning about something actually HELPS! It doesn't.
And the VERY LEAST you need bodies in the streets non-violently INTERRUPTING BUSINESS AS USUAL (if you don't interrupt the flow of money, you'll not accomplish a thing) on weekdays in major cities. Anything less will be blown off as if it's, well, nothing more than empty bitching and whining.
And as for that little bit of wisdom regarding Iraq, while you correctly point out that it's not wonderfulness and sunshine over there, you never mention the fact that they HAVE SUCCESSFULLY stopped the most powerful military on the face of the Earth from fulfilling their "cakewalk" of a land/resources grab. Yes, the price is high, but the things that really matter don't always come at a discount.
Fucking grow up and open your damned eyes. Yes, we should grow up, open our eyes, and join you hiding under the bed from the boogyman.
boogety boogety, I'm a dark skinned man, who talks in funny words and wears a strange hat... boogety boogety. I come amidst vague threats relayed by shady characters and anonymous sources... boogety boogety.
When you're done cowering under the covers, wipe yourself and join us at the grow ups table, will you?
That's the first thing I thought of too, and the thought took the form of a drug name: acetylsalicylic acid. Bayer had (has) a popular brand of acetylsalicylic acid, with the trade name of Aspirin. The still sell acetylsalicylic acid (that's fun to type) under the name Aspirin, but now so do many other companies.
Not being a lawyer, I have only the barest glimmer of how a company would go about losing a trademark like that, but I would surmise that Scrabble has broken the generic barrier. You mention survey evidence, is that actually a benchmark the courts would use to determine the protectability of the trademark? I would figure the vast majority of people being shown a trademark-removed generic layout of such a crossword game would automatically associate the word 'scrabble' as the descriptive name for this type of game. Likewise with the monopoly on Monopoly. (teehee)
Nice analysis, but wasted. This is a standard FUD troll post. If you need confirmation of the fact, just pick an unlikely phrase from the article and google it with quotes. This post has been on slashdot A LOT, and has made it's rounds to other sites as well.
Nice counters though, good to see someone out there vigilant against the FUD machine.
Yes, they should spend their time out killing and dying while YOU sit at home and 'distill' all those facts for them, so that YOU can decide what they think. They have no times keeping informed and discovering the twists and turns the world is taking, all they need to know can be 'distilled' for them by YOU. How thoughtful of you.
Doesn't matter if it's communist or fascist boys and girls, the conflicts the U.S. struggled through during the 20th century were against AUTHORITARIANISM. You know, Authoritarianism, where people 'in the know' tell the lowly 'frontlines' folk (be they workers or soldiers) 'how it is' and 'what we need to do for the good of the country'. Some of us Americans have enough of the Spirit of '76 left in us to resist the march of Authoritarianism, and not a few of us signed up for service. ALL OF US will decide on our own facts thank you, and need none of your input regarding who we deem valid sources of those facts. If we want your input, we'll click your link.
Right, I agree, but I'm gonna throw something out there that puts this whole anonymity thing in perspective.
There is enough data on every one reading this post (like the kind parent mentioned) to scuffle our anonymity for good. The issue isn't them collecting SOME data, the issue is them collecting EVERY PIECE THEY WANT, especially tied-to-everything numbers like credit cards and social security #s, and collecting them in enough places for those numbers to be used as KEYS in collating and cross-referencing databases.
Facial recognition software and other methods of high-processor-usage surveillance aren't common yet because they have so many other (already compiled) DBs to draw data from, why waste all that crunch on building a new one?
All the data is there, but putting those pieces together is a monumental task. The thing that that brown guy (you're not THE brown guy:-) ) gets that so many people seem not to is that by not giving those numbers up, unless you absolutely HAVE to, you're probably making ALREADY IN PLACE database queries SKIP YOUR RECORD because you don't have data in the key fields that they are using to correlate the data. Names are too common, SS, phone and CC numbers are unique, and finely suitable for master keys to many MANY disparate DBs. That DB structure has to be obnoxious, and any speedbump you can put in the way of connecting YOUR dots gives you that one tiny edge in your quest for anonymity.
I have a bit of a built-in edge because my real name contains a non-alphanumeric character in a place that's not unique, but rare. This ALONE has caused me to realize that they gave up on using names as an identifier about 10 years ago, because I started getting mail from people who had a different spelling of my name than the people that referred me TO them.
The point is, if you want ANY kind of anonymity you HAVE to do things like pay cash, work for cash, fill out your own tax forms and refuse to give your SS to anyone. Phone numbers are pretty much unique too, don't give those away either, but that gets practically impossible in many cases... If you're a part of society, you could be watched. I guess that's the bottom line. The best you can hope for is to make someone WORK at creating a custom query just to put your data together properly.
Context is important. Using Gestault mind and running 'slashdot' and 'naked pic' through the rinse cycle... *POP* into my brain goatse comes. Actually, it popped in more vividly than even the most ingenious goatse link can do. Stupid mental block vulnerabilities. I've just now learned what 'too smart for your own good' really means.
Thanks guys. Oh yeah, one more thing... I've been in the tubes for over a decade now, and feel it is my duty to tell you, the mother lode you're looking for is carried by the nntp protocol not the http (well, that's only SLIGHTLY true(read: it's a lie) but it's true enough for THIS post). Usenet is your friend, but practice safe cybersex; here is neomunk's guide to safe strokin' on the usenet:
1) Virus scan everything, and I mean everything, even if YOU don't think the file format isn't vulnerable, scan it anyways. 2) Report the child fuckers and their ilk (may they burn in every hell ever conceived by Man and All Others) to http://www.cybertipline.com/ . 3) Drink plenty of clear fluids and stock up on Kleenex/Jergens/other material aids. 4) (as per There's Something About Mary) Dispose of wastes properly, be conscious of your fluids. 5) (as per Lewis Black) Take care not to squeeze the doorknob too hard when you DO finally leave your room.
Follow these simple rules and you're sure to have hours, days, or even years of disease* free biological satisfaction.
* Disease in this context means viral infection, bacterial infection, pregnancy, human social interaction, emotional connection, emotional growth, real life experience and fresh air.
My point was that when you implied that we citizens don't have anything to fear from the government except for the paranoia it inspires (at least that's how I read it), it's easy to find examples that run counter to that logic.
You ask WHY the FBI would want to spy on you, which is of course such a simple question to answer that any 12 year old could provide it. You really don't know? Okay, I'll spoon-feed you this one. Total Information Awareness. If you're doing something and they aren't watching, they don't know what you're doing then do they? This makes them nervous. Why? Because then they might not know if you need to be set aflame (the David Koresh connection) or just closely watched (like the anti-war grannies the FBI was caught spying on).
Maybe they just showed her some results of some of that-there FISAless warrantless wiretapping. Results with her as a participant in a, to be polite, awkward conversation.
With bandwidth prices being so low nowadays, I'd say that's a pretty cheap and efficient method of making mass-payoffs... if you consider not having a private conversation aired publicly a payoff. If you throw in a nice position in the House (Speaker sounds dandy), I guess it's not a bad deal, assuming you've already sold your soul (and lets be honest, these ARE politicians we're talking about).
Software guys can become half-assed circuit guys pretty easily with modern microcontrollers. Learn a couple of (very) simple circuits, hell, you don't even have to learn to solder with the PIC kits available today. After you do the monkey's job of putting part A into slot A everything else turns into a software problem... Well, everything AFTER you figure out how to turn a hit on the dartboard into a properly formatted digital signal. At least when looking for a PIC kit you should be able to find one with a switch demultiplexer or something.
Anyways, I think this is serious overkill for what you're talking about, so much so that I'd imagine it would be MORE complicated to use one of these as opposed to a PIC kit, but that's just my opinion.
I disagree with you, but you've been modded badly, you're certainly no troll.
To the point, you're generally correct I think, but you're missing something, and to show you what I'll use an example from my own life.
I've known that the economy would start 'trembling' in mid 2007 and continue to do so into at least mid 2009 since early 2004. I started following a blog-reporter by the name of Mike Whitney in 2004 and became aware of the way the sub-prime mortgages were being used as securities for bigger investments. Now, I'm no economist, not at all, but Mr. Whitney explained things in such a manor that I was able to understand the financial shenanigans being pulled with money that was just as likely to not exist as to exist. Sub-prime mortgages cost more for less value and the buyers are poor, of course many will default, that part seemed obvious to me, so his explanations of what brokers and banks were DOING with this maybe-money gave me an understanding of what was to come.
Even the WSJ 'didn't see this coming'... Or (more likely IMHO) didn't see it as FIT TO PRINT, due to strong conflicts of interest.
Having typed that, I think I just came to a clearer understanding of your point of view, and the hole in it. THE WHOLE OF "professional" journalism has a gaping hole in reporting where they have an interest in making stories biased, and that gaping hole is such a large and important aspect of our daily lives that it almost moots your point. Professional news is invariably run by a large corporate entity. Large corporate entities have a strong commonality in their interests, even when in competition with each other they want people to see things in a generally similar manner. This point of view is omnipresent in the corporate media, and makes the corporate media absolutely blind to stories that stray from (or outright oppose) this point of view. People have noticed it, and feel like they are being 'spoon fed'.
None of this invalidates what you have to say, but it does show the limitations of the status quo. And, to me, those limitations have come too close to home to make the corporate media worth anything to me except as a seed farm for the more objective 'online news' (more objective in it's totality, not at any one specific site) to cull stories from an do some actual REPORTING.
I think the thing you're not quite grasping about the whole idea doesn't have anything at all to do with trust or credability. It's all about seeing words you haven't thought to give any meaningful correlation to a certain subject used in reference to the subject.
Simple example: A story about a warehouse fire is presented on both CNN and slashdot.
CNN: Videos of a warehouse fire, and an official telling us the cause was old electrical wiring. Lots and lots of commentary about the possible hazards of any chemicals in the warehouse, and lots and lots of commentary about the dangers of old electrical wiring, some interviews with firefighters.
slashdot: A link to some videos of a warehouse fire, an article from some print-newspaper or a blog that eventually links to a print newspaper, a little 'frosty piss' and a few AC trolls... and a lengthy post from an AC that uses terms like 'liability' and 'OSHA warnings' and 'losing revenue' and 'new insurance policy'... whatever. The AC -seems- coherent and consistent, names names and points to some collaborating material, but offers no SOLID PROOF.
Is the AC wacko? IRRELEVANT! You, a person who seems to understand the value of doing your OWN research, now has something TO RESEARCH! See, before it was just a boring warehouse fire, but afterward it's a POSSIBILITY of being a real story. The crux of the matter is that before the AC came around you had never even heard of the names the AC named, the fresh insurance policy OR about the OSHA citations.
In my opinion, for someone who likes to do their own research, slashdot type news is HIGHLY superior in that it gives me more data to sort through for useful information. A lot of it is noise, but you'll get signals that are TOTALLY ABSENT from traditional news media.
You -DO- know that nuclear power is/was the biggest monetary black hole that we've ever stumbled into... Right?
Unlike a lot of other 'nuke isn't the answer' people, I do think it's possible to build SAFE nukes and properly store/process the used fuel. However, that fuel is -so much- rarer than oil, -so much- more energy intensive to get out of the ground, -so much- more energy intensive to process into usable fuel and mindnumbingly painful to store and handle correctly. I really don't think it's economically feasible. How many tons of ore need be processed for a fill-up?
As long as we need to keep pulling energy sources from the ground that have taken millions or billions of years to 'collect' the energy in a dense enough state, we're going to hit walls in our energy production and we're going to disrupt the environment to a large degree for energy consumption.
Cut all the middle-men (physics-wise) out and let's tap the power source of the Earth itself, the good ole' semi-local, massive, stable, hot fusion reactor parked conveniently just about 8 minutes out, as the photon flies.....
Slashdot Mirror
The same thing happened to me recently too, and I came to the same conclusion, though seeing you post about it now (and never in the past) makes me wonder if it's really the result of meta-modding or a new /. policy.
You're just a sadist is what you are. :-D
That "she" is pre-op?
2D political attenuation, here ya go.
http://www.politicalcompass.org/usprimaries2008
It's a 2D (a social and an economic axis) chart, with some references to political figures in the sidebar.
Oh yeah, sodium is nasty, no doubt about that. The fuel is Unholy Stuff too, but my point about a meltdown (which was to answer a question about meltdowns) still stands. I'm in no way saying it's foolproof or the best way to provide our power or anything like that.
I -DO- however believe that it's probably the best method of dealing with nuclear wastes already in existence.
Lesee.... It's clean because if you stand a mile or so from the materials used you won't notice any negative effects. And... (this one's harder) umm... oh, it's renewable in the sense that if we get hit with a stellar core fragment from some supernova somewhere it will renew our supply of fuel...(?)
:-D
Yeah, that's the ticket.
If I remember correctly, it's not that they don't have meltdowns, it's that they are SUPPOSED to be in a state of meltdown. I -THINK-. (too lazy to google)
IIRC they keep the fuel in a hot liquid state and basically keep it covered in molten sodium. They use convection for "pumping" the coolant and can process most nuclear wastes as fuel.
I've always thought the fast integrals were good ideas too, if for nothing else than to process our currently stored wastes.
Heterogeneous cores are already in almost every PC I've seen so far this millennium. Anyone with a GPU is running heterogeneous cores in their machine. How do we handle it? The first half of your second sentence; libraries and frameworks. OpenGL, DirectX and whatnot provide the frameworks we need while the various manufacturers provide the drivers to maintain compatibility with the various APIs. We'll see soon enough (as a result of the Cell) if the same thing (2 or more different libraries for the same processor; one for each of it's core-types) becomes the norm for other heterogeneous core system. I think so, but it may be overlooked by manufacturers who want to view a processor as a unit instead of a compilation of various units. They'll figure it out, these guys aren't MBAs, they're the truly educated. :-D
"They've got us by the balls, what can we do?"
"The only VIABLE option is to bitch and whine some more."
Yes, that very much sounds like something one would expect to hear on the internet, where people think whining and moaning about something actually HELPS! It doesn't.
And the VERY LEAST you need bodies in the streets non-violently INTERRUPTING BUSINESS AS USUAL (if you don't interrupt the flow of money, you'll not accomplish a thing) on weekdays in major cities. Anything less will be blown off as if it's, well, nothing more than empty bitching and whining.
And as for that little bit of wisdom regarding Iraq, while you correctly point out that it's not wonderfulness and sunshine over there, you never mention the fact that they HAVE SUCCESSFULLY stopped the most powerful military on the face of the Earth from fulfilling their "cakewalk" of a land/resources grab. Yes, the price is high, but the things that really matter don't always come at a discount.
boogety boogety, I'm a dark skinned man, who talks in funny words and wears a strange hat... boogety boogety. I come amidst vague threats relayed by shady characters and anonymous sources... boogety boogety.
When you're done cowering under the covers, wipe yourself and join us at the grow ups table, will you?
That's the first thing I thought of too, and the thought took the form of a drug name: acetylsalicylic acid. Bayer had (has) a popular brand of acetylsalicylic acid, with the trade name of Aspirin. The still sell acetylsalicylic acid (that's fun to type) under the name Aspirin, but now so do many other companies.
Not being a lawyer, I have only the barest glimmer of how a company would go about losing a trademark like that, but I would surmise that Scrabble has broken the generic barrier. You mention survey evidence, is that actually a benchmark the courts would use to determine the protectability of the trademark? I would figure the vast majority of people being shown a trademark-removed generic layout of such a crossword game would automatically associate the word 'scrabble' as the descriptive name for this type of game. Likewise with the monopoly on Monopoly. (teehee)
Nice analysis, but wasted. This is a standard FUD troll post. If you need confirmation of the fact, just pick an unlikely phrase from the article and google it with quotes. This post has been on slashdot A LOT, and has made it's rounds to other sites as well.
Nice counters though, good to see someone out there vigilant against the FUD machine.
Yes, they should spend their time out killing and dying while YOU sit at home and 'distill' all those facts for them, so that YOU can decide what they think. They have no times keeping informed and discovering the twists and turns the world is taking, all they need to know can be 'distilled' for them by YOU. How thoughtful of you.
Doesn't matter if it's communist or fascist boys and girls, the conflicts the U.S. struggled through during the 20th century were against AUTHORITARIANISM. You know, Authoritarianism, where people 'in the know' tell the lowly 'frontlines' folk (be they workers or soldiers) 'how it is' and 'what we need to do for the good of the country'. Some of us Americans have enough of the Spirit of '76 left in us to resist the march of Authoritarianism, and not a few of us signed up for service. ALL OF US will decide on our own facts thank you, and need none of your input regarding who we deem valid sources of those facts. If we want your input, we'll click your link.
Right, I agree, but I'm gonna throw something out there that puts this whole anonymity thing in perspective.
:-) ) gets that so many people seem not to is that by not giving those numbers up, unless you absolutely HAVE to, you're probably making ALREADY IN PLACE database queries SKIP YOUR RECORD because you don't have data in the key fields that they are using to correlate the data. Names are too common, SS, phone and CC numbers are unique, and finely suitable for master keys to many MANY disparate DBs. That DB structure has to be obnoxious, and any speedbump you can put in the way of connecting YOUR dots gives you that one tiny edge in your quest for anonymity.
There is enough data on every one reading this post (like the kind parent mentioned) to scuffle our anonymity for good. The issue isn't them collecting SOME data, the issue is them collecting EVERY PIECE THEY WANT, especially tied-to-everything numbers like credit cards and social security #s, and collecting them in enough places for those numbers to be used as KEYS in collating and cross-referencing databases.
Facial recognition software and other methods of high-processor-usage surveillance aren't common yet because they have so many other (already compiled) DBs to draw data from, why waste all that crunch on building a new one?
All the data is there, but putting those pieces together is a monumental task. The thing that that brown guy (you're not THE brown guy
I have a bit of a built-in edge because my real name contains a non-alphanumeric character in a place that's not unique, but rare. This ALONE has caused me to realize that they gave up on using names as an identifier about 10 years ago, because I started getting mail from people who had a different spelling of my name than the people that referred me TO them.
The point is, if you want ANY kind of anonymity you HAVE to do things like pay cash, work for cash, fill out your own tax forms and refuse to give your SS to anyone. Phone numbers are pretty much unique too, don't give those away either, but that gets practically impossible in many cases... If you're a part of society, you could be watched. I guess that's the bottom line. The best you can hope for is to make someone WORK at creating a custom query just to put your data together properly.
Ahem.... goatse is a naked pic fellas.
Context is important. Using Gestault mind and running 'slashdot' and 'naked pic' through the rinse cycle... *POP* into my brain goatse comes. Actually, it popped in more vividly than even the most ingenious goatse link can do. Stupid mental block vulnerabilities. I've just now learned what 'too smart for your own good' really means.
Thanks guys. Oh yeah, one more thing... I've been in the tubes for over a decade now, and feel it is my duty to tell you, the mother lode you're looking for is carried by the nntp protocol not the http (well, that's only SLIGHTLY true(read: it's a lie) but it's true enough for THIS post). Usenet is your friend, but practice safe cybersex; here is neomunk's guide to safe strokin' on the usenet:
1) Virus scan everything, and I mean everything, even if YOU don't think the file format isn't vulnerable, scan it anyways.
2) Report the child fuckers and their ilk (may they burn in every hell ever conceived by Man and All Others) to http://www.cybertipline.com/ .
3) Drink plenty of clear fluids and stock up on Kleenex/Jergens/other material aids.
4) (as per There's Something About Mary) Dispose of wastes properly, be conscious of your fluids.
5) (as per Lewis Black) Take care not to squeeze the doorknob too hard when you DO finally leave your room.
Follow these simple rules and you're sure to have hours, days, or even years of disease* free biological satisfaction.
* Disease in this context means viral infection, bacterial infection, pregnancy, human social interaction, emotional connection, emotional growth, real life experience and fresh air.
My point was that when you implied that we citizens don't have anything to fear from the government except for the paranoia it inspires (at least that's how I read it), it's easy to find examples that run counter to that logic.
You ask WHY the FBI would want to spy on you, which is of course such a simple question to answer that any 12 year old could provide it. You really don't know? Okay, I'll spoon-feed you this one. Total Information Awareness. If you're doing something and they aren't watching, they don't know what you're doing then do they? This makes them nervous. Why? Because then they might not know if you need to be set aflame (the David Koresh connection) or just closely watched (like the anti-war grannies the FBI was caught spying on).
You just quoted David Koresh 6 months before he went shopping for property in the heart of Texas.
Maybe they just showed her some results of some of that-there FISAless warrantless wiretapping. Results with her as a participant in a, to be polite, awkward conversation.
With bandwidth prices being so low nowadays, I'd say that's a pretty cheap and efficient method of making mass-payoffs... if you consider not having a private conversation aired publicly a payoff. If you throw in a nice position in the House (Speaker sounds dandy), I guess it's not a bad deal, assuming you've already sold your soul (and lets be honest, these ARE politicians we're talking about).
Software guys can become half-assed circuit guys pretty easily with modern microcontrollers. Learn a couple of (very) simple circuits, hell, you don't even have to learn to solder with the PIC kits available today. After you do the monkey's job of putting part A into slot A everything else turns into a software problem... Well, everything AFTER you figure out how to turn a hit on the dartboard into a properly formatted digital signal. At least when looking for a PIC kit you should be able to find one with a switch demultiplexer or something.
Anyways, I think this is serious overkill for what you're talking about, so much so that I'd imagine it would be MORE complicated to use one of these as opposed to a PIC kit, but that's just my opinion.
I disagree with you, but you've been modded badly, you're certainly no troll.
To the point, you're generally correct I think, but you're missing something, and to show you what I'll use an example from my own life.
I've known that the economy would start 'trembling' in mid 2007 and continue to do so into at least mid 2009 since early 2004. I started following a blog-reporter by the name of Mike Whitney in 2004 and became aware of the way the sub-prime mortgages were being used as securities for bigger investments. Now, I'm no economist, not at all, but Mr. Whitney explained things in such a manor that I was able to understand the financial shenanigans being pulled with money that was just as likely to not exist as to exist. Sub-prime mortgages cost more for less value and the buyers are poor, of course many will default, that part seemed obvious to me, so his explanations of what brokers and banks were DOING with this maybe-money gave me an understanding of what was to come.
Even the WSJ 'didn't see this coming'... Or (more likely IMHO) didn't see it as FIT TO PRINT, due to strong conflicts of interest.
Having typed that, I think I just came to a clearer understanding of your point of view, and the hole in it. THE WHOLE OF "professional" journalism has a gaping hole in reporting where they have an interest in making stories biased, and that gaping hole is such a large and important aspect of our daily lives that it almost moots your point. Professional news is invariably run by a large corporate entity. Large corporate entities have a strong commonality in their interests, even when in competition with each other they want people to see things in a generally similar manner. This point of view is omnipresent in the corporate media, and makes the corporate media absolutely blind to stories that stray from (or outright oppose) this point of view. People have noticed it, and feel like they are being 'spoon fed'.
None of this invalidates what you have to say, but it does show the limitations of the status quo. And, to me, those limitations have come too close to home to make the corporate media worth anything to me except as a seed farm for the more objective 'online news' (more objective in it's totality, not at any one specific site) to cull stories from an do some actual REPORTING.
I think the thing you're not quite grasping about the whole idea doesn't have anything at all to do with trust or credability. It's all about seeing words you haven't thought to give any meaningful correlation to a certain subject used in reference to the subject.
Simple example: A story about a warehouse fire is presented on both CNN and slashdot.
CNN: Videos of a warehouse fire, and an official telling us the cause was old electrical wiring. Lots and lots of commentary about the possible hazards of any chemicals in the warehouse, and lots and lots of commentary about the dangers of old electrical wiring, some interviews with firefighters.
slashdot: A link to some videos of a warehouse fire, an article from some print-newspaper or a blog that eventually links to a print newspaper, a little 'frosty piss' and a few AC trolls... and a lengthy post from an AC that uses terms like 'liability' and 'OSHA warnings' and 'losing revenue' and 'new insurance policy'... whatever. The AC -seems- coherent and consistent, names names and points to some collaborating material, but offers no SOLID PROOF.
Is the AC wacko? IRRELEVANT! You, a person who seems to understand the value of doing your OWN research, now has something TO RESEARCH! See, before it was just a boring warehouse fire, but afterward it's a POSSIBILITY of being a real story. The crux of the matter is that before the AC came around you had never even heard of the names the AC named, the fresh insurance policy OR about the OSHA citations.
In my opinion, for someone who likes to do their own research, slashdot type news is HIGHLY superior in that it gives me more data to sort through for useful information. A lot of it is noise, but you'll get signals that are TOTALLY ABSENT from traditional news media.
I just want to point out that you're comparing people who are supposedly REPORTERS with people who are current-event COMEDIANS.
"Ah, shit" is correct. I would like to add a gracious 'Thank You nenolod' for not being a tool and keeping this little nugget to yourself.
You -DO- know that nuclear power is/was the biggest monetary black hole that we've ever stumbled into... Right?
Unlike a lot of other 'nuke isn't the answer' people, I do think it's possible to build SAFE nukes and properly store/process the used fuel. However, that fuel is -so much- rarer than oil, -so much- more energy intensive to get out of the ground, -so much- more energy intensive to process into usable fuel and mindnumbingly painful to store and handle correctly. I really don't think it's economically feasible. How many tons of ore need be processed for a fill-up?
As long as we need to keep pulling energy sources from the ground that have taken millions or billions of years to 'collect' the energy in a dense enough state, we're going to hit walls in our energy production and we're going to disrupt the environment to a large degree for energy consumption.
Cut all the middle-men (physics-wise) out and let's tap the power source of the Earth itself, the good ole' semi-local, massive, stable, hot fusion reactor parked conveniently just about 8 minutes out, as the photon flies.....
I completely 100% agree. Seriously, 100%.
I was just pointing out that even for a snide quip, that one was a little too open and reversible.