Perhaps something similar would evolve, but that hardly guarantees that the identical behaviors would appear from similar conditions.
A certain whale song, for instance, may be lost forever... Although other whale songs would appear in its place. It would be similar to wiping out humans, and having them start again. We might eventually reach a similar stage of culture to what we have now, but it would hardly be identical... and something most definitely would be lost.
Few animals go extinct in a way that means they could be realistically revived. Another overlooked aspect is that of the culture of these animals. We bring the species back into existence, but whatever traits that were actually learned are lost to time.
By culture I'm referring to anything that is passed on from parent to child via teaching (observation). Animal calls are an example of this.
I assume you're referring to the images hosted from that other site. Could you not edit these out of your site temporarily? If you give it two days, any chances of the/. effect will be over... and the images, I assume, are not absolutely necessary.
There's a great deal of difference between spending the last years of your life writing for posterity but knowing you're not going to get paid for it, and writing for posterity and knowing that your grandchildren are going to be able to going to college and never have to worry about medical bills.
Equal opportunity weeps. Perhaps a country that has an interest in keeping resources in the hands of elite families also has an interest in this type of incentive.
Maybe a country that is based on equality of opportunity (Canada / USA) should put less focus on crafting incentives that involve passing family fortunes down.
Disney, "New" Viacom (and its former parent CBS Corporation, the former "Old" Viacom), TimeWarner, News Corp, Bertelsmann AG, and General Electric together own more than 90% of the media holdings in the United States.
From The Irony of Democracy, Dye & Ziegler
The Media Empires:
1. AOL - Time Warner
Television: HBO, TNT, TBS, CNN, CNNSI, CNNFN, Cinemax, Time Warner Cable
Motion Pictures: Warner Brothers, New Line Cinema, Castle Rock,...
Magazines: Time, People, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, plus twenty-eight other specialty magazines
Books: Warner Books, Little, Brown Publishing, Book-of-the-Month club
Internet: AOL, Netscape, Compuserve
Walt Disney:
Television: ABC-TV, plus ten stations; ESPN, ESPN-2, Disney Channel, A&E, E!, Lifetime
Motion Pictures: Walt Disney Pictures, Miramax, Touchstone
Viacom:
Television: CBS, plus thirty-four TV stations: MTV, TNN,...
Motion Pictures: Paramount Pictures, Spelling, Viacom
Books: Simon & Schuster, Scribner's, Free Press
NewsCorp (FOX)
Television: Fox Network plus fifteen other stations; Fox News, Fox Sports,...
Motion Pictures: 20th Century Fox, Searchlight
Books: Mushroom Record
Perhaps it's infeasible to take that power directly, but what about indirectly... such as using the energy discharges to superheat some form of matter that you would be able to control a little better (or anything similar). Is there no medium on which to harness this type of energy? And does anyone know of any research currently be done on this subject? I would be certainly interested in hearing about it...
Well how about ground based... Like I said in reply to the other guy, the CN Tower is considered to be the world largest lightening rod, and according to Wikipedia is struck over 40-50 times per year (which I'm guessing could probably be increased if the attempt was made).
I didn't specify that it be a necessity that it depend on blimps, it could very well be ground based... According to Wikipedia the CN Tower gets struck 40-50 times per year by lightening. I would figure it would be possible to greatly increase that number if you tried.
I'm sure you understood the point of my question, which was: why hasn't the clouds been harnessed as a source of energy? No need for belittlement.
I'm curious as to when they're going to be able to harness this energy as an alternative power source. It would be very cool to see blimps as power stations siphoning off energy from the clouds. I assume this isn't feasible (yet at least), considering I haven't heard anything about it...
Can any explain the major defects this type of energy gathering?
I get 2Gbps up/down in my apartment in Finland, and it's included as a part of my rent; which is next to nothing, since it's a student apartment. On top of that, free post-secondary education for all! On the downside, higher taxes... on the upside, a well educated populous, and debt free students.
I'm a Canadian married to a Finnish citizen, which is the reason why I'm here, and I can say this connection is the nicest I have ever been on. I've also been on other publicly available Finnish connections, and it is still leaps beyond what Canada has to offer... especially in terms of fairness towards the customers, since rates are low and forced contracts are rare.
This is probably not the only answer, and it is most definitely simplified, but I might suggest that they are the product that everyone is familiar with, and they have a dominant hold on the software / hardware industry still.
Even though I love Linux, I still have to carry around a Windows partition simply because most proprietary software only runs on Windows. Why does most proprietary software run only on Windows? Because that's what the dominant market share is using. (circular, yes)
If my parents, or pretty well anyone I know of, heads to a common franchise computer store to buy a PC, they will be presented with pretty well only one option - a windows machine. Windows is bundled with the PC, they don't know of any other options, and it's probably a hassle to get the store to take it off and refund the money.
As for familiarity, I'm sure it can be agreed the drive for consumers (individual and business) to purchase things they are familiar with is quite strong. That's what branding is all about. How did Windows become a brand name? Their corrupt business practices lead them there...
I'm not saying that consumers are not responsible for continuing to support a business known for corrupt practices, but their choice is influenced by a number of factors you are completely overlooking. Things will hopefully change, but I guarantee it won't happen over night...
Actually, I'm a Canadian as well... Sprint outsources a lot of their work to Canada, and one of their branches was in Ontario.
Unfortunately I don't know of any other court cases going on that challenge these types of situations. In fact, from the article you presented:
"There are not that many people out there prepared to buck the establishment," said Toronto lawyer Margaret Waddell, who is involved in a class action against a bank for the transaction fees on its cash advances.
No Class Actions
TO THE EXTENT ALLOWED BY LAW, WE EACH WAIVE ANY RIGHT TO PURSUE DISPUTES ON A CLASSWIDE BASIS; THAT IS, TO EITHER JOIN A CLAIM WITH THE CLAIM OF ANY OTHER PERSON OR ENTITY, OR ASSERT A CLAIM IN A REPRESENTATIVE CAPACITY ON BEHALF OF ANYONE ELSE IN ANY LAWSUIT, ARBITRATION OR OTHER PROCEEDING. No Trial By Jury
TO THE EXTENT ALLOWED BY LAW, WE EACH WAIVE ANY RIGHT TO TRIAL BY JURY IN ANY LAWSUIT, ARBITRATION OR OTHER PROCEEDING.
I too am interested in whether these companies can actually get away with these things.
Instead Of Suing In Court, We Each Agree To Arbitrate Disputes
We each agree to finally settle all disputes (as defined and subject to any specific exceptions below) only by arbitration. In arbitration, there's no judge or jury and review is limited. However, just as a court would, the arbitrator must honor the terms and limitations in the Agreement and can award the same damages and relief, including any attorney's fees authorized by law. The arbitrator's decision and award is final and binding, with some exceptions under the Federal Arbitration Act ("FAA"), and judgment on the award may be entered in any court with jurisdiction.
In 'accepting' the terms of conditions, which is upon the first use of the phone, you waive your right to settle disputes in front of jury. This is another thing we toss at the customers if they threaten to sue.
I think the point of my reminiscence was with this line:
My (completely unprofessional) understanding is that if I can use the services without having to verify my identity, then I probably haven't formed any contract, and if I'm not forced to even be aware that there IS a "contract" then I certainly haven't agreed to anything.
Where the parent was speaking of a contract not being binding if he is unaware. Whether you are aware of the contract, or not, seems to be beside the point with most companies. The fact is that you've acted in some way that can be construed, due to lack of evidence to the contrary, as an agreement into some contract.
Whether Google will attempt to do this, or whether Google could even profit from doing this, I have no idea.
I do, however, take note, and agree with you, that the parallels between Google and Sprint are weak... but my issue was more with the awareness of the contract.
...and if I'm not forced to even be aware that there IS a "contract" then I certainly haven't agreed to anything.
This reminds me...
I used to work for Sprint as a crappy CSR (Customer Service Representative) back when they forced you into contracts for making any sort of changes to your account (esp. price plan changes), and I can say that customers were not always (or even commonly) aware as to their entering a binding legal agreement. There were a lot of times when a customer would call up to cancel, and you state that they'll have an ETF (Early Termination Fee) due to a previous price plan change; they were shocked and denied that they were told anything, and usually went on to claim that they are legally entitled to be warned of this.
Even though it was blatantly obvious that our staff, not to mention the under-trained overseas non-English speaking staff, were not informing the customers of this fact, we were informed that we had to tell the customer that their claims were meaningless. We had no records of our staff NOT informing them that a contractual obligation came with the account changes, so we can only assume that they were told. A verbal contract is a binding contract, and the website has the full details of the contract extensions, if they bothered to go search. So basically we were told to tell them, "too fucking bad!"
Nowhere in my CSR training did they state that we had to inform the customer of contract extensions, and the retention rate of employees was terrible... so one can only assume that very few people in the building were doing their jobs even remotely correct. (These are all obvious reasons for the exodus from Sprint by their customers)
How does all this relate to the OP? It highlights the casual disregard by big business of their legal obligations. If there is no record that you were not informed that a contract was required, then the business can only assume that you were under one.
Thank you for your insightful post. Please read my reply to the other guy. THIS IS NOT MY ANALOGY. I WAS MERELY ASKING HIM TO ELABORATE ON HIS ANALOGY.
Perhaps I took his comparisons a little too literally, and I apologize if I somehow offended you. We all make mistakes, especially in interpreting other peoples ambiguous writings. There's no need for hostility, nor name calling. It's a little childish and self-defeating.
It's not my analogy, I was just expanding upon what the parent was giving.
He likened the open-source movement to the allies, and then he goes on to quote Churchill, which he states is in the spirit of things, and is 'rather apt'. He then finishes it off by analogizing Churchill's unknown warriors to the programmers of the OSS movement...
So if your comment was directed to me, then you have me confused. I'm hardly supporting this analogy; just merely asking him to elaborate on it further.
If it wasn't directed towards me, then I apologize... and you should reply to his post, not mine.
The open-source struggle is a war on proprietary software, which is analogous to the Allies vs. Nazism; and the allied warriors, consequently, are analogous to open-source programmers. So everything fits nicely except for one small detail... Who is Hitler?... and I suppose, who is Churchill (although, that is less exciting).
Slashdot Mirror
- John
Perhaps something similar would evolve, but that hardly guarantees that the identical behaviors would appear from similar conditions.
A certain whale song, for instance, may be lost forever... Although other whale songs would appear in its place. It would be similar to wiping out humans, and having them start again. We might eventually reach a similar stage of culture to what we have now, but it would hardly be identical... and something most definitely would be lost.
- John
By culture I'm referring to anything that is passed on from parent to child via teaching (observation). Animal calls are an example of this.
- John
I assume you're referring to the images hosted from that other site. Could you not edit these out of your site temporarily? If you give it two days, any chances of the /. effect will be over... and the images, I assume, are not absolutely necessary.
- John
Maybe a country that is based on equality of opportunity (Canada / USA) should put less focus on crafting incentives that involve passing family fortunes down.
- John
You are right. It's more like six entities.
The Media Empires:
1. AOL - Time Warner
Television: HBO, TNT, TBS, CNN, CNNSI, CNNFN, Cinemax, Time Warner Cable
Motion Pictures: Warner Brothers, New Line Cinema, Castle Rock,
Magazines: Time, People, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, plus twenty-eight other specialty magazines
Books: Warner Books, Little, Brown Publishing, Book-of-the-Month club
Internet: AOL, Netscape, Compuserve
Walt Disney:
Television: ABC-TV, plus ten stations; ESPN, ESPN-2, Disney Channel, A&E, E!, Lifetime
Motion Pictures: Walt Disney Pictures, Miramax, Touchstone
Viacom:
Television: CBS, plus thirty-four TV stations: MTV, TNN,
Motion Pictures: Paramount Pictures, Spelling, Viacom
Books: Simon & Schuster, Scribner's, Free Press
NewsCorp (FOX)
Television: Fox Network plus fifteen other stations; Fox News, Fox Sports,
Motion Pictures: 20th Century Fox, Searchlight
Books: Mushroom Record
Seagram:
Television: News Network
Motion Pictures: Universal Pictures
General Electric:
Television: NBC Network plus thirteen TV stations; CNBC, MSNBC
Perhaps it's infeasible to take that power directly, but what about indirectly... such as using the energy discharges to superheat some form of matter that you would be able to control a little better (or anything similar). Is there no medium on which to harness this type of energy? And does anyone know of any research currently be done on this subject? I would be certainly interested in hearing about it...
- John
Well how about ground based... Like I said in reply to the other guy, the CN Tower is considered to be the world largest lightening rod, and according to Wikipedia is struck over 40-50 times per year (which I'm guessing could probably be increased if the attempt was made).
- John
I didn't specify that it be a necessity that it depend on blimps, it could very well be ground based... According to Wikipedia the CN Tower gets struck 40-50 times per year by lightening. I would figure it would be possible to greatly increase that number if you tried.
I'm sure you understood the point of my question, which was: why hasn't the clouds been harnessed as a source of energy? No need for belittlement.
- John
I'm curious as to when they're going to be able to harness this energy as an alternative power source. It would be very cool to see blimps as power stations siphoning off energy from the clouds. I assume this isn't feasible (yet at least), considering I haven't heard anything about it...
Can any explain the major defects this type of energy gathering?
- John
- John
I get 2Gbps up/down in my apartment in Finland, and it's included as a part of my rent; which is next to nothing, since it's a student apartment. On top of that, free post-secondary education for all! On the downside, higher taxes... on the upside, a well educated populous, and debt free students.
I'm a Canadian married to a Finnish citizen, which is the reason why I'm here, and I can say this connection is the nicest I have ever been on. I've also been on other publicly available Finnish connections, and it is still leaps beyond what Canada has to offer... especially in terms of fairness towards the customers, since rates are low and forced contracts are rare.
- John
Even though I love Linux, I still have to carry around a Windows partition simply because most proprietary software only runs on Windows. Why does most proprietary software run only on Windows? Because that's what the dominant market share is using. (circular, yes)
If my parents, or pretty well anyone I know of, heads to a common franchise computer store to buy a PC, they will be presented with pretty well only one option - a windows machine. Windows is bundled with the PC, they don't know of any other options, and it's probably a hassle to get the store to take it off and refund the money.
As for familiarity, I'm sure it can be agreed the drive for consumers (individual and business) to purchase things they are familiar with is quite strong. That's what branding is all about. How did Windows become a brand name? Their corrupt business practices lead them there...
I'm not saying that consumers are not responsible for continuing to support a business known for corrupt practices, but their choice is influenced by a number of factors you are completely overlooking. Things will hopefully change, but I guarantee it won't happen over night...
- John
Unfortunately I don't know of any other court cases going on that challenge these types of situations. In fact, from the article you presented: A note on Sprint's TOS with regard to lawsuits: I too am interested in whether these companies can actually get away with these things.
- John
From Sprints Terms and Conditions Sprint's Terms and Conditions: In 'accepting' the terms of conditions, which is upon the first use of the phone, you waive your right to settle disputes in front of jury. This is another thing we toss at the customers if they threaten to sue.
Go figure if this is legal...
- John
Whether Google will attempt to do this, or whether Google could even profit from doing this, I have no idea.
I do, however, take note, and agree with you, that the parallels between Google and Sprint are weak... but my issue was more with the awareness of the contract.
- John
I used to work for Sprint as a crappy CSR (Customer Service Representative) back when they forced you into contracts for making any sort of changes to your account (esp. price plan changes), and I can say that customers were not always (or even commonly) aware as to their entering a binding legal agreement. There were a lot of times when a customer would call up to cancel, and you state that they'll have an ETF (Early Termination Fee) due to a previous price plan change; they were shocked and denied that they were told anything, and usually went on to claim that they are legally entitled to be warned of this.
Even though it was blatantly obvious that our staff, not to mention the under-trained overseas non-English speaking staff, were not informing the customers of this fact, we were informed that we had to tell the customer that their claims were meaningless. We had no records of our staff NOT informing them that a contractual obligation came with the account changes, so we can only assume that they were told. A verbal contract is a binding contract, and the website has the full details of the contract extensions, if they bothered to go search. So basically we were told to tell them, "too fucking bad!"
Nowhere in my CSR training did they state that we had to inform the customer of contract extensions, and the retention rate of employees was terrible... so one can only assume that very few people in the building were doing their jobs even remotely correct. (These are all obvious reasons for the exodus from Sprint by their customers)
How does all this relate to the OP? It highlights the casual disregard by big business of their legal obligations. If there is no record that you were not informed that a contract was required, then the business can only assume that you were under one.
- John
You had better be right about Dylan and Hendrix being Cylons, or I'm going to be pissed at the writers for breaking the atmosphere.
- John
It's all right.. The other guy did as well.
:)
To be completely honest, the post was meant to be humorous, and not serious in the least. Guess it kind of backfired
Thanks for the understanding of the misunderstanding.
- John
Thank you for your insightful post. Please read my reply to the other guy. THIS IS NOT MY ANALOGY. I WAS MERELY ASKING HIM TO ELABORATE ON HIS ANALOGY.
Perhaps I took his comparisons a little too literally, and I apologize if I somehow offended you. We all make mistakes, especially in interpreting other peoples ambiguous writings. There's no need for hostility, nor name calling. It's a little childish and self-defeating.
- John
It's not my analogy, I was just expanding upon what the parent was giving. He likened the open-source movement to the allies, and then he goes on to quote Churchill, which he states is in the spirit of things, and is 'rather apt'. He then finishes it off by analogizing Churchill's unknown warriors to the programmers of the OSS movement...
So if your comment was directed to me, then you have me confused. I'm hardly supporting this analogy; just merely asking him to elaborate on it further.
If it wasn't directed towards me, then I apologize... and you should reply to his post, not mine.
- John
The open-source struggle is a war on proprietary software, which is analogous to the Allies vs. Nazism; and the allied warriors, consequently, are analogous to open-source programmers. So everything fits nicely except for one small detail... Who is Hitler? ... and I suppose, who is Churchill (although, that is less exciting).
- John