governments have been trying to pull this crap for years. it didnt start with bush, or clinton & its not just in the usa, its been going on a long time, across a lot of countries, this is just a gradual progression now that the technology allows it.
if they get their way, we'll be under 24/7 total surveilance & even our thoughts will be monitored & automatically scanned for possible 'terrorist' ideas.
ms havent stolen any bsd code, as you say it is allowed to use bsd code in commercial apps. even if it wasn't allowed, it still wouldnt be stealing, it'd be copyright infingement.
well, i can't tell the difference between most of the mass market crap put out by the major labels.
technically you're right, but a lot of the pop music is so generic now, you could argue that they arent really so unique. each label has similar 'artists' that are supposed to compete for the same audience.
certainly if EMI dropped their prices by 50%, the other labels would have to as well, or face a drop in sales. if one of the labels increased their prices, without the others following, they'd see a drop in sales too.
some some ways the music industry is like several monopolies, but it resembles a bigger oligopoly more, as these seperate 'monopolies' are all related to each other.
cartels aren't often caught, due to their power & the difficulities in proving cartels, and in most places cartels are illegal, so you dont get many self-admitted cartels either. however, theres is a great pressure to form a cartel in any oligopoly situation.
it can also be argued that you get similar effect through perfect competition in an oligopoly, because each company realises that a price cut would only bring a (very) temporary increase in profits, untill their competitors follow & then it leads to a drop in profits across the industry. I think the main difference between that & a cartel, is its also hard to raise prices, unless they all agree to do it at the same time. cd prices rises, at least here in the uk, do tend to happen at the same time & by the same amount, which suggests collusion between the companies.
yeah, it seems i was previously misinformed. uk gallons werent standardised until the 19th century, before then, there were 3 different gallons (ale, wine & corn), the us picked the smallest one to standardise on, before the uk stardardised on the imperial gallon.
i had heard it was more recent, that the us changed the size of their gallon for some reason, but i was obviously misinformed.
less radiation from the sun hits the earth's surface now than 50 years ago, this has been measured multiple times, by different scientist all over the world.
this seems to be caused by 'global dimming', the extra soot & dust from combustion forms more clouds, and makes these clouds more reflective, so more of the sun's radiation gets reflected back into space.
if it wasnt for this global dimming effect, global warming would be much worse by now.
i was just pointing out that uk gallons are also four quarts, but our quarts are also bigger. five quarts to a gallon just sounds stupid, its mixing us & uk measures. the actual difference is theres 16oz in a us pint & 20oz in a uk pint.
i think you need to lay off the beer before you start typing.
boddingtons isn't available in 16oz cans here in the uk, they must be a special export version.
we mainly use the metric system now, in the uk, beer normally comes in 330ml, 440ml, 500ml, or 568ml cans (one english pint).
it seems to be you that cares enough to make such a long post, with all the bold tags & english spellings.
an oligopoly is simply a situation where several large companies control such a large proportion of the market, that between them, they have the power to fix prices/supply.
a cartel is when several large companies, in a oligopoly situation, collude in order to fix prices.
cartels are oligopolies, but not all oligopolies must be cartels. however, it is in any private companies best interests to form a cartel with their 'competitors', if they find themselves in an oligopoly.
yes, cartels do tend to act like monopolies & abuse monopoly power to set prices at the maximum level the market will bear, but they are not monopolies, they are cartels.
a monopoly is where one company controls the market, an oligopoly is where several companies between them have the power to control a market, but don't neccessarily use it, a cartel is where several companies in an oligopoly collude, so they can set prices as if they were a monopoly.
cartel is the correct word you were looking for.
its also in wide enough usage to be understood by anyone that cares . if you start misusing the term 'monopoly', people will dismiss your ideas, as you obviously don't know what a monopoly is.
the downside is, there'd be less profit for the big, polluting, corps. so the fatcats that run them might have to wait until next year to replace their luxury yacht.
oh, and, fuel tax would be even more extortionate & they'd probably make us all wear sandels, by law.
yes, i'd much rather live my life based on evidence than faith.
faith is believing something 'just because', thats not a good enough reason for me.
I don't believe in much really, like you said before, nothing is absolute, anything i do believe, i'm prepared to have disproven & change my views.
scientific theory shows theres no need for a god & most of the bible is probably fiction, just common sense can tell you stuff like noah's ark is pretty unlikely.
theres just as much evidence for the flying spaghetti monstor as any religion. even if there is a god, what makes you think the mormons were right? not the hindus, sikhs, buddhists, or one or the hundreds of other religions?
i'm sorry if i offend anyone, i dont mean to, i just really dont understand being religious, at all.
yes, i know nothing is certain & its hard to prove anything, but like you say, science is based on observations, religion is based on faith.
i know which i'd rather trust.
i didnt say 'no evidence', i said 'no reliable evidence', theres books, tv shows & films about aliens too, does that mean the klingons are about to invade?
how is any religious belief not based on 'blind faith'?
theres no proof that any god exists, or even any reliable evidence to suggest a god exists. if you believe in a god, without any evidence, that is 'blind faith'.
On the other hand, the President's approval rating has more to do with the media/Democrat coalition hounding him about stuff that's not his fault. Katrina. The ports deal. Every cat in a tree and train derailment is his fault.
Katrina wasn't his fault, the disaster was. Lack of any planning & evacuation was his fault, lack of rebuilding is still his fault.
There is one sense in which you're right, though. GW has a grand plan to foster democracy in the Middle East. I think he underestimated the time that will take -- and it may be longer than his term. If the Iraqis can come together and ignore the (Iranian generated) hate-mongering, they'll have a chance to build their own government. If they do that, and ask us to leave, we'd have no choice but to do so.
Unless of course the Iraqi's choose a government that the americans don't like, which of course they'll have to do by force.
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If you don't play games, or need specific windows-only apps (autocad, etc) theres no reason to use windows.
if you don't have a reason to use windows, don't, its just not worth it, try linux instead.
just take that copy of windows xp back to the shop (you did buy it, right?) & get your money back.
why on earth would you want to combine the stability of windows with the value for money of apple hardware?
monopoly & oligopy companies can put up effective barriers to entry for new competitors.
for example, a huge advertising budget means anyone wanting to compete also needs a huge advertising budget. startups dont have that capital.
yeah, they are supposed to be educational after all.
and it'd solve the bloat problem, if you only gave them 12mb 486s, they couldnt write anything bloated.
it'd be great for linux
they still need to advertise the new weapons, these american tv-wars are great for that.
governments have been trying to pull this crap for years. it didnt start with bush, or clinton & its not just in the usa, its been going on a long time, across a lot of countries, this is just a gradual progression now that the technology allows it.
if they get their way, we'll be under 24/7 total surveilance & even our thoughts will be monitored & automatically scanned for possible 'terrorist' ideas.
theres nobody you can vote in that will stop it.
ms havent stolen any bsd code, as you say it is allowed to use bsd code in commercial apps. even if it wasn't allowed, it still wouldnt be stealing, it'd be copyright infingement.
laws only normally get repealed by people demonstrating that its a bad law, most of the time this is done by openly breaking it.
the record companies did actually lose at least one court case in the usa about price fixing, so it is legitimate to call them a cartel.
i ng%20court
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cd%20price%20fix
well, i can't tell the difference between most of the mass market crap put out by the major labels.
technically you're right, but a lot of the pop music is so generic now, you could argue that they arent really so unique. each label has similar 'artists' that are supposed to compete for the same audience.
certainly if EMI dropped their prices by 50%, the other labels would have to as well, or face a drop in sales. if one of the labels increased their prices, without the others following, they'd see a drop in sales too.
some some ways the music industry is like several monopolies, but it resembles a bigger oligopoly more, as these seperate 'monopolies' are all related to each other.
cartels aren't often caught, due to their power & the difficulities in proving cartels, and in most places cartels are illegal, so you dont get many self-admitted cartels either. however, theres is a great pressure to form a cartel in any oligopoly situation.
it can also be argued that you get similar effect through perfect competition in an oligopoly, because each company realises that a price cut would only bring a (very) temporary increase in profits, untill their competitors follow & then it leads to a drop in profits across the industry. I think the main difference between that & a cartel, is its also hard to raise prices, unless they all agree to do it at the same time. cd prices rises, at least here in the uk, do tend to happen at the same time & by the same amount, which suggests collusion between the companies.
yeah, it seems i was previously misinformed. uk gallons werent standardised until the 19th century, before then, there were 3 different gallons (ale, wine & corn), the us picked the smallest one to standardise on, before the uk stardardised on the imperial gallon.
i had heard it was more recent, that the us changed the size of their gallon for some reason, but i was obviously misinformed.
yes, you are right, it isnt true.
less radiation from the sun hits the earth's surface now than 50 years ago, this has been measured multiple times, by different scientist all over the world.
this seems to be caused by 'global dimming', the extra soot & dust from combustion forms more clouds, and makes these clouds more reflective, so more of the sun's radiation gets reflected back into space.
if it wasnt for this global dimming effect, global warming would be much worse by now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_dimming
i was just pointing out that uk gallons are also four quarts, but our quarts are also bigger. five quarts to a gallon just sounds stupid, its mixing us & uk measures. the actual difference is theres 16oz in a us pint & 20oz in a uk pint.
i think you need to lay off the beer before you start typing.
boddingtons isn't available in 16oz cans here in the uk, they must be a special export version.
we mainly use the metric system now, in the uk, beer normally comes in 330ml, 440ml, 500ml, or 568ml cans (one english pint).
it seems to be you that cares enough to make such a long post, with all the bold tags & english spellings.
an oligopoly is simply a situation where several large companies control such a large proportion of the market, that between them, they have the power to fix prices/supply.
a cartel is when several large companies, in a oligopoly situation, collude in order to fix prices.
cartels are oligopolies, but not all oligopolies must be cartels. however, it is in any private companies best interests to form a cartel with their 'competitors', if they find themselves in an oligopoly.
yes, cartels do tend to act like monopolies & abuse monopoly power to set prices at the maximum level the market will bear, but they are not monopolies, they are cartels.
a monopoly is where one company controls the market, an oligopoly is where several companies between them have the power to control a market, but don't neccessarily use it, a cartel is where several companies in an oligopoly collude, so they can set prices as if they were a monopoly.
cartel is the correct word you were looking for.
its also in wide enough usage to be understood by anyone that cares . if you start misusing the term 'monopoly', people will dismiss your ideas, as you obviously don't know what a monopoly is.
the co2 released by biodiesel is absobed by the plants used to produce it. therefore it is carbon neutral.
or you could just use linux.
the downside is, there'd be less profit for the big, polluting, corps. so the fatcats that run them might have to wait until next year to replace their luxury yacht.
oh, and, fuel tax would be even more extortionate & they'd probably make us all wear sandels, by law.
PCs & cellphones existed 20 years ago, i think you meant 40.
new movies are £15 - £25 here in the uk, thats $27 - $45, us.
music cds are £10 - £17, thats around $18-$30.
movies also have later release dates here, so our 'new releases' will probably already be in american bargain bins.
its not a monopoly, its a cartel.
i agree with everything else you said.
no, english gallons are four quarts, thats why they call them quarts.
our pints are 20oz, the us reduced theirs to 16oz, so english pints, gallons & quarts are 25% bigger than american ones.
my 12 year old car does over 40mpg. newer fuel efficient cars can get 50-60mpg
yes, i'd much rather live my life based on evidence than faith.
faith is believing something 'just because', thats not a good enough reason for me.
I don't believe in much really, like you said before, nothing is absolute, anything i do believe, i'm prepared to have disproven & change my views.
scientific theory shows theres no need for a god & most of the bible is probably fiction, just common sense can tell you stuff like noah's ark is pretty unlikely.
theres just as much evidence for the flying spaghetti monstor as any religion. even if there is a god, what makes you think the mormons were right? not the hindus, sikhs, buddhists, or one or the hundreds of other religions?
i'm sorry if i offend anyone, i dont mean to, i just really dont understand being religious, at all.
yes, i know nothing is certain & its hard to prove anything, but like you say, science is based on observations, religion is based on faith.
i know which i'd rather trust.
i didnt say 'no evidence', i said 'no reliable evidence', theres books, tv shows & films about aliens too, does that mean the klingons are about to invade?
how is any religious belief not based on 'blind faith'?
theres no proof that any god exists, or even any reliable evidence to suggest a god exists. if you believe in a god, without any evidence, that is 'blind faith'.
its what all religions are based on.
why should gay be a bad word? what do you have against gay people?
On the other hand, the President's approval rating has more to do with the media/Democrat coalition hounding him about stuff that's not his fault. Katrina. The ports deal. Every cat in a tree and train derailment is his fault.
Katrina wasn't his fault, the disaster was. Lack of any planning & evacuation was his fault, lack of rebuilding is still his fault.
There is one sense in which you're right, though. GW has a grand plan to foster democracy in the Middle East. I think he underestimated the time that will take -- and it may be longer than his term. If the Iraqis can come together and ignore the (Iranian generated) hate-mongering, they'll have a chance to build their own government. If they do that, and ask us to leave, we'd have no choice but to do so.
Unless of course the Iraqi's choose a government that the americans don't like, which of course they'll have to do by force.