Fish bait, thoroughbreds, rocks, chicken, milk, and Walmarts.
Altell was based here, though that is now called Verizon they kept the office space. We also have Dillards, Tyson Foods, Colman Dairy, and Acxiom.
Arkansas's Gross State Product is roughly on par with the GDP of Tunisia and Sudan. [source]
From my ongoing personal experience, it's not a bad place to live, but don't expect to do anything big or amazing here.
I'm kinda surprised to see this earthquake situation come about here. I've heard that fracking could cause earthquakes, and I thought that was pretty interesting, but I never considered the possiblity of being affected by it personally. Two nights ago many people in my city reported that they felt the largest one, which was a 4.7 Magnitude quake centered in Greenbrier about 30 miles north. I didn't feel it, but a lot of people did. I would like to think the mining would stop if it became clear that they were causing it, but I fear the level of damage that would have to happen before they are convinced.
What's so wrong about making an exception in this case?
Idealistic human rights aside, if a small group is being grotesquely obnoxious to everyone else (to the point of making the grieving so sick that they barf between wails and tears) - and *everybody* else hates them and what they do - it would not be unreasonable for the vast civilized population to shut them up. It's not even mob rule, it's common sense. You can't yell fire in a theater, you can't threaten another human being, and you certainly can't sexually harass a woman. A lot of that has to do with how other people would respond to it. The panic, the fear, the awkward silence and anger... How is this any different? The list of reasonable exceptions to our great free speech rule is very large, and we're already used to having laws that limit it.
So why not make it illegal to protest a funeral? Who will be disenfranchised by that? Oh boo hoo, some hill-billy backwards family of lawyers isn't going to be able to make the family of the diseased cry. How will they ever make money, once they are unable to sue people who react in extreme but totally understandable ways to their troll-like behavior? Poor Fred Phelps, now that his right to be obscene and grotesquely obnoxious is taken away, what ever will he do? Maybe the family will have to take up real jobs, I bet some clansman ax-murderer would love to have one of them to represent him.
I imagine a coffee shop with timers on each chair. Put in a quarter to sit in a chair for 10 minutes. Two quarters for 15 minutes. Three for 22.5. Four for 33.75, etc. The more quarters you put in, the less you get out of it.
At the end of the time, the chair emits a soft ding and raises a flag. Put in more quarters for more time. Want to stay 30 minutes? No problem. Want to stay an hour? Reconsider your options.
No, tablets aren't the future of computing, just a part of it. All because I can make spreadsheets on my rooted Nook Color doesn't mean I want to. There will always be tasks you will want to keep doing on the PC.
Exactly. We also have to be obese, bankrupt, and love Sarah Palin.
That is what it means to be a true American.
Re:Creativity is disappearing for many reasons
on
The Creativity Crisis
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· Score: 1
I find it interesting that your generation is responsible for the video game generation we're in now. Those kids who played with sticks and pretended they were lightsabers? They grew up to make games such as Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, and Everquest.
Now kids are playing the games your generation has made for them. The brighter ones grow up to become interns in the video game and movie studios, but most are content to play away their lives in World of Warcraft... or watch the latest Twilight.
I'm between generations, born in the mid 80s, I've seen some of those great cartoons you are talking about, but I've also seen what has become of them (and cable TV in general). I was never really a physical kid, but I did have a bike - and I loved to ride it. I still remember the very moment and the exact place I learned to ride one. It was a wonderful experience... I'll never forget it.
Recently I've put a 2 stroke engine kit on a bike, I've made small but useful programs & games, and I've created my own 3D characters in 3DS Max and Blender (You can see that stuff here). I have this creativity you're moaning about, but my upbringing wasn't the greatest. My mom was overprotective and never let me do anything other than study. Once she even tore up my artwork and stories because I wasn't studying. I was also in the center of a custody battle. But I still managed.
Perhaps creative people are born creative, and the time they've spent holed up in some classroom or at home will only increase their desire to branch out and do new things when they become their own person... but maybe that's wishful thinking. I've never met a baby that wasn't curious about the world and innately creative.
Growing up I made bad grades. I think schools have been discouraging creativity for as long as I've been alive. There have been countless times, since my earliest days in pre-school, where I've wanted to do something creative - but I couldn't. My earliest memory in school was wanting to play with wooden blocks, and getting only one chance to do it the whole school year. I had legos, but blocks are more versatile (and bigger!), so I liked those more. I have memories of being in art classes (I took them when ever I could, especially in middle & high-school), and never being allowed to just DRAW WHAT I WANTED. No, we had assignments like every other class where we'd draw plastic imitation fruit or plants... I never learned anything from drawing a still life, that's for sure.
I'm in college now. Still making bad grades. I pass of course, making Bs and such, but I still hate school. Every semester I find myself almost unable to do anything that doesn't completely conflict with my bullshit homework from classes that have absolutely nothing to do with my major. And of course, I tend to do what I want these days... to a point anyway. My summers are still the most productive times of the year.
Grades are a less reliable measurement of intelligence now more than ever - since intelligent creative kids don't like to conform and do what they're told all the time.
A small dilemma for me is that I'm trying to get into the film industry, as I'd like to make 3d characters for a living - but I know that what I'm creating has no real benefit to society - and games even lesser so. Lately it seems as though we could do without all these distractions. But as a friend once told me... I'll do what I want - I always do. Even if it is to the detriment of a future generation. =/
Perhaps I can seek solace in the fact that my chances of doing what I want to do for a living are pretty low to begin with... and when I find my place in this society, I'll just have to accept it.
"Maybe they're art, just not great art. You seem to be looking for absolutes where there should be none."
Countless works of art has been created, most of them do not measure up to Shakespeare, and a great majority of that art can't be properly compared because they are in a different medium (would you compare The David to MacBeth?). All because they can't measure up or can't be compared does not mean games are not art.
I doubt there are any real C64 users left. I have a couple Commodores that I keep for nostalgia. Both of them (a 64 and 128), work with my new digital TV. I assume most new TVs work with analog signals, though I guess this is just temporary. Even cable providers are trying to go all digital. That said, there is always a market for closed circuit security cameras, so you could probably find monitors for those for a long time.
Barring that, just keep an old small TV around. I've got two analog tubes that I never use and can't really give to anybody.
Digital reception is so bad here in North Little Rock that after spending up to $60, $70 dollars for increasingly weird looking antennas, I just gave up and got cable.
I never liked analog static, but digital distortion is far - far worse... and that's assuming you can get any kind of digital signal at all.
I do not mean this to offend, or taint your argument, or as a direct attack on your character: but that is precisely what Karl Marx argues in the Communist Manifesto.
I think the big problem is not with the economy (not that there aren't problems), but with our corporate-controlled political system. I, like you, am tired of seeing millionaire candidates elected to represent us. Not many of us seem to care, and the ones that do are called socialists, pinkos, etc. I believe there should be a real attempt to lessen the amount of money spent on political campaigns, to level the playing field and allow us to elect true representatives from our cities and states. (Representatives with a lowercase-r, in the sense that all politicians are elected to represent the will of the populace)
Our current political system allows corporations to back their favorite millionaire candidates, who then proceed to start wars for purpose of monetary gain for those corporations. You better believe Haliburton profits off our wars. And that's just the peak of it. On the local level it's the same story. You have local industries helping out local millionair candidates for state governor. Similarly educated regular people don't have a chance in hell getting elected because they don't have the money to compete during the election campaign cycle.
And sure, a lot of the time we get a 'benevolent king', like Bill Clinton, who doesn't screw us over. But that's just luck. He was rich too - he went to the same Ivy League schools as the rest of them. Most of the time we'll just get a crook or a businessman. And I don't think that's what the founding fathers ever intended.
I don't believe much should be done from an economic perspective to prevent this. This problem has to be solved politically. Unfortunately, unless held at gunpoint, our representatives in government (again, little 'r') will never vote to reduce their chances at re-election.
Meanwhile, they get free reign to do whatever they want, and spin reality to their liking. We may remain the world's most powerful nation for decades to come, but we are losing what made our country great. These people who claim to be against big government are really for big government - big government in their favor. And when government favors the rich over the poor, and huge banks over small business, religion over science - you've got a slope leading to corporatism... dare I say outright fascism.
Our kids are going to grow up reading this stuff they're forcing on them now. They will be the ideal voters for the politicians of the future. Imagine what life will be like for us then. Maybe there will be another witch hunt. Maybe there will be more prisons to facilitate the result of more victimless crimes. Law will be a minefield, the government will be all powerful and all knowing, and the majority will support the government's effort in the name of the war on terror. In the name of fighting the Muslims. In the name of Christianity!
I'd like to think there were enough people who lacked ambition (enough Hank Hills), that these jobs can and will be filled, and that my trash will continue to be picked up.
"Maybe we should instead strive for a more egalitarian society where everyone's contribution is respected."
My opinion is that people can think what they want, and it is not up to the government to tell us to be comrades. I don't think about the dishwasher. If someone were to ask me about the job a dishwasher does, I'd ask them if that was a trick question.
"We overvalue positions of leadership and expertise, while lying that everyone could do those jobs. And tons of unqualified people rush to fill those jobs, because they were told they could, and that those jobs were more important than hauling garbage"
It's not up to you to say who can, and cannot, do something. How would you feel if your advisor told you, "No, you can't do this very well - I can tell by just looking at you. You shouldn't go to college either. You should work in the coal mines instead."
That's not the government's job - that's the job of the hiring manager. They are responsible for filtering unqualified people out. If a person wants to waste their lives trying to do stuff they aren't good at, fine, let them be.
I think it is important that we should pursue what want. We live not to serve the state, but our own interests. It's not up to the government to decide what we should do with our lives.
Although this isn't a career: I want to strap a pulsejet to a bicycle. Not everyone wants to do that. Not everyone should do that. But this is a free country. (And that's just for a hobby. For a living I want to animate- I am teaching myself because the schools that teach animation are prohibitively expensive. My success in this field are completely dependent on my ambition and willingness to work harder than everybody else. -- In the meantime I attend a local college for a degree in Graphic Design.)
They say freedom isn't free. You pay in other ways. If that means my degree isn't worth much, so be it. At least I'll have one. I'll let my brains (provided its not splattered on asphalt) push me the rest of the way through in life - as it should be.
There are 300 million people in the country. They don't need protection from disappointment. If they can't do something, they will find out - and they will look for other work. That's perfectly fine.
Even with out that, just the game design itself is art.
The last image he shows a chess board. Suddenly it dawned on me - even when you remove all the digital graphics of most games today and return to the basic wooden board games, you see ART. The game play itself is art, in addition to the game peaces and the game board. It's all a product of the creative process.
So what you are saying is that their goal is to indirectly shut down all independently owned websites and website hosting (website hosts are also considered ISPs), and basically turn the internet into a dumb TV box with channels that provide pay-per-view consumption. Maybe if we're lucky we'll still have Comcast's 10mb website hosting option and Facebook... But many sites, even Slashdot, could be shut down if their hosts are unable to afford the new costs of being an ISP directly responsible for all content uploaded by its users.
I don't know, but that sounds so extreme it's hard to believe. If it's true, then at least we still have bbs systems and phone lines... Another thing to worry about is the administration's willingness to circumvent the people's will. This is essentially an edict ('for our own good' I'm sure...). In this instance, we might as well have a dictator.
Slashdot Mirror
Fish bait, thoroughbreds, rocks, chicken, milk, and Walmarts.
Altell was based here, though that is now called Verizon they kept the office space. We also have Dillards, Tyson Foods, Colman Dairy, and Acxiom.
Arkansas's Gross State Product is roughly on par with the GDP of Tunisia and Sudan. [source]
From my ongoing personal experience, it's not a bad place to live, but don't expect to do anything big or amazing here.
I'm kinda surprised to see this earthquake situation come about here. I've heard that fracking could cause earthquakes, and I thought that was pretty interesting, but I never considered the possiblity of being affected by it personally. Two nights ago many people in my city reported that they felt the largest one, which was a 4.7 Magnitude quake centered in Greenbrier about 30 miles north. I didn't feel it, but a lot of people did. I would like to think the mining would stop if it became clear that they were causing it, but I fear the level of damage that would have to happen before they are convinced.
What's so wrong about making an exception in this case?
Idealistic human rights aside, if a small group is being grotesquely obnoxious to everyone else (to the point of making the grieving so sick that they barf between wails and tears) - and *everybody* else hates them and what they do - it would not be unreasonable for the vast civilized population to shut them up. It's not even mob rule, it's common sense. You can't yell fire in a theater, you can't threaten another human being, and you certainly can't sexually harass a woman. A lot of that has to do with how other people would respond to it. The panic, the fear, the awkward silence and anger... How is this any different? The list of reasonable exceptions to our great free speech rule is very large, and we're already used to having laws that limit it.
So why not make it illegal to protest a funeral? Who will be disenfranchised by that? Oh boo hoo, some hill-billy backwards family of lawyers isn't going to be able to make the family of the diseased cry. How will they ever make money, once they are unable to sue people who react in extreme but totally understandable ways to their troll-like behavior? Poor Fred Phelps, now that his right to be obscene and grotesquely obnoxious is taken away, what ever will he do? Maybe the family will have to take up real jobs, I bet some clansman ax-murderer would love to have one of them to represent him.
I imagine a coffee shop with timers on each chair. Put in a quarter to sit in a chair for 10 minutes. Two quarters for 15 minutes. Three for 22.5. Four for 33.75, etc. The more quarters you put in, the less you get out of it.
At the end of the time, the chair emits a soft ding and raises a flag. Put in more quarters for more time. Want to stay 30 minutes? No problem. Want to stay an hour? Reconsider your options.
... a company bus. ~_^
That explains the artillery fire.
No, tablets aren't the future of computing, just a part of it. All because I can make spreadsheets on my rooted Nook Color doesn't mean I want to. There will always be tasks you will want to keep doing on the PC.
Thanks for the info.
I seem to have failed an online IPv6 test. Should I be worried?
My university has a unique ip address for each and every ethernet outlet on campus.
They're Bender prototypes.
The only thing I ever learned on a computer in an elementary school was how to type. In most cases, they were more of a distraction than anything.
Exactly. We also have to be obese, bankrupt, and love Sarah Palin.
That is what it means to be a true American.
I find it interesting that your generation is responsible for the video game generation we're in now. Those kids who played with sticks and pretended they were lightsabers? They grew up to make games such as Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, and Everquest.
Now kids are playing the games your generation has made for them. The brighter ones grow up to become interns in the video game and movie studios, but most are content to play away their lives in World of Warcraft... or watch the latest Twilight.
I'm between generations, born in the mid 80s, I've seen some of those great cartoons you are talking about, but I've also seen what has become of them (and cable TV in general). I was never really a physical kid, but I did have a bike - and I loved to ride it. I still remember the very moment and the exact place I learned to ride one. It was a wonderful experience... I'll never forget it.
Recently I've put a 2 stroke engine kit on a bike, I've made small but useful programs & games, and I've created my own 3D characters in 3DS Max and Blender (You can see that stuff here). I have this creativity you're moaning about, but my upbringing wasn't the greatest. My mom was overprotective and never let me do anything other than study. Once she even tore up my artwork and stories because I wasn't studying. I was also in the center of a custody battle. But I still managed.
Perhaps creative people are born creative, and the time they've spent holed up in some classroom or at home will only increase their desire to branch out and do new things when they become their own person... but maybe that's wishful thinking. I've never met a baby that wasn't curious about the world and innately creative.
Growing up I made bad grades. I think schools have been discouraging creativity for as long as I've been alive. There have been countless times, since my earliest days in pre-school, where I've wanted to do something creative - but I couldn't. My earliest memory in school was wanting to play with wooden blocks, and getting only one chance to do it the whole school year. I had legos, but blocks are more versatile (and bigger!), so I liked those more. I have memories of being in art classes (I took them when ever I could, especially in middle & high-school), and never being allowed to just DRAW WHAT I WANTED. No, we had assignments like every other class where we'd draw plastic imitation fruit or plants... I never learned anything from drawing a still life, that's for sure.
I'm in college now. Still making bad grades. I pass of course, making Bs and such, but I still hate school. Every semester I find myself almost unable to do anything that doesn't completely conflict with my bullshit homework from classes that have absolutely nothing to do with my major. And of course, I tend to do what I want these days... to a point anyway. My summers are still the most productive times of the year.
Grades are a less reliable measurement of intelligence now more than ever - since intelligent creative kids don't like to conform and do what they're told all the time.
A small dilemma for me is that I'm trying to get into the film industry, as I'd like to make 3d characters for a living - but I know that what I'm creating has no real benefit to society - and games even lesser so. Lately it seems as though we could do without all these distractions. But as a friend once told me... I'll do what I want - I always do. Even if it is to the detriment of a future generation. =/
Perhaps I can seek solace in the fact that my chances of doing what I want to do for a living are pretty low to begin with... and when I find my place in this society, I'll just have to accept it.
Hobbies are for pinko socialists!
"Maybe they're art, just not great art. You seem to be looking for absolutes where there should be none."
Countless works of art has been created, most of them do not measure up to Shakespeare, and a great majority of that art can't be properly compared because they are in a different medium (would you compare The David to MacBeth?). All because they can't measure up or can't be compared does not mean games are not art.
Using some products contrary to it's intended purpose *is* a felony. Usually this warning is on drugs or chemicals.
It sucks but we're just going to have to get used to this and more shit like it. Someday it may even be illegal to write a program without a license.
I doubt there are any real C64 users left. I have a couple Commodores that I keep for nostalgia. Both of them (a 64 and 128), work with my new digital TV. I assume most new TVs work with analog signals, though I guess this is just temporary. Even cable providers are trying to go all digital. That said, there is always a market for closed circuit security cameras, so you could probably find monitors for those for a long time.
Barring that, just keep an old small TV around. I've got two analog tubes that I never use and can't really give to anybody.
Digital reception is so bad here in North Little Rock that after spending up to $60, $70 dollars for increasingly weird looking antennas, I just gave up and got cable.
I never liked analog static, but digital distortion is far - far worse... and that's assuming you can get any kind of digital signal at all.
Also... 600 million?!
Yeah, 15 years from now we'll be using a YUV based uncompressed streaming video on our multi-gigabit internet connections.
I do not mean this to offend, or taint your argument, or as a direct attack on your character: but that is precisely what Karl Marx argues in the Communist Manifesto.
I think the big problem is not with the economy (not that there aren't problems), but with our corporate-controlled political system. I, like you, am tired of seeing millionaire candidates elected to represent us. Not many of us seem to care, and the ones that do are called socialists, pinkos, etc. I believe there should be a real attempt to lessen the amount of money spent on political campaigns, to level the playing field and allow us to elect true representatives from our cities and states. (Representatives with a lowercase-r, in the sense that all politicians are elected to represent the will of the populace)
Our current political system allows corporations to back their favorite millionaire candidates, who then proceed to start wars for purpose of monetary gain for those corporations. You better believe Haliburton profits off our wars. And that's just the peak of it. On the local level it's the same story. You have local industries helping out local millionair candidates for state governor. Similarly educated regular people don't have a chance in hell getting elected because they don't have the money to compete during the election campaign cycle.
And sure, a lot of the time we get a 'benevolent king', like Bill Clinton, who doesn't screw us over. But that's just luck. He was rich too - he went to the same Ivy League schools as the rest of them. Most of the time we'll just get a crook or a businessman. And I don't think that's what the founding fathers ever intended.
I don't believe much should be done from an economic perspective to prevent this. This problem has to be solved politically. Unfortunately, unless held at gunpoint, our representatives in government (again, little 'r') will never vote to reduce their chances at re-election.
Meanwhile, they get free reign to do whatever they want, and spin reality to their liking. We may remain the world's most powerful nation for decades to come, but we are losing what made our country great. These people who claim to be against big government are really for big government - big government in their favor. And when government favors the rich over the poor, and huge banks over small business, religion over science - you've got a slope leading to corporatism... dare I say outright fascism.
Our kids are going to grow up reading this stuff they're forcing on them now. They will be the ideal voters for the politicians of the future. Imagine what life will be like for us then. Maybe there will be another witch hunt. Maybe there will be more prisons to facilitate the result of more victimless crimes. Law will be a minefield, the government will be all powerful and all knowing, and the majority will support the government's effort in the name of the war on terror. In the name of fighting the Muslims. In the name of Christianity!
The future is bleak.
I'd like to think there were enough people who lacked ambition (enough Hank Hills), that these jobs can and will be filled, and that my trash will continue to be picked up.
"Maybe we should instead strive for a more egalitarian society where everyone's contribution is respected."
My opinion is that people can think what they want, and it is not up to the government to tell us to be comrades. I don't think about the dishwasher. If someone were to ask me about the job a dishwasher does, I'd ask them if that was a trick question.
"We overvalue positions of leadership and expertise, while lying that everyone could do those jobs. And tons of unqualified people rush to fill those jobs, because they were told they could, and that those jobs were more important than hauling garbage"
It's not up to you to say who can, and cannot, do something. How would you feel if your advisor told you, "No, you can't do this very well - I can tell by just looking at you. You shouldn't go to college either. You should work in the coal mines instead."
That's not the government's job - that's the job of the hiring manager. They are responsible for filtering unqualified people out. If a person wants to waste their lives trying to do stuff they aren't good at, fine, let them be.
I think it is important that we should pursue what want. We live not to serve the state, but our own interests. It's not up to the government to decide what we should do with our lives.
Although this isn't a career: I want to strap a pulsejet to a bicycle. Not everyone wants to do that. Not everyone should do that. But this is a free country. (And that's just for a hobby. For a living I want to animate- I am teaching myself because the schools that teach animation are prohibitively expensive. My success in this field are completely dependent on my ambition and willingness to work harder than everybody else. -- In the meantime I attend a local college for a degree in Graphic Design.)
They say freedom isn't free. You pay in other ways. If that means my degree isn't worth much, so be it. At least I'll have one. I'll let my brains (provided its not splattered on asphalt) push me the rest of the way through in life - as it should be.
There are 300 million people in the country. They don't need protection from disappointment. If they can't do something, they will find out - and they will look for other work. That's perfectly fine.
I thought it would just fry the electronics with intense heat. Just how much debris would that create? Can't be much.
Even with out that, just the game design itself is art.
The last image he shows a chess board. Suddenly it dawned on me - even when you remove all the digital graphics of most games today and return to the basic wooden board games, you see ART. The game play itself is art, in addition to the game peaces and the game board. It's all a product of the creative process.
Who is this guy, and why should I care what he thinks?
So what you are saying is that their goal is to indirectly shut down all independently owned websites and website hosting (website hosts are also considered ISPs), and basically turn the internet into a dumb TV box with channels that provide pay-per-view consumption. Maybe if we're lucky we'll still have Comcast's 10mb website hosting option and Facebook... But many sites, even Slashdot, could be shut down if their hosts are unable to afford the new costs of being an ISP directly responsible for all content uploaded by its users.
I don't know, but that sounds so extreme it's hard to believe. If it's true, then at least we still have bbs systems and phone lines... Another thing to worry about is the administration's willingness to circumvent the people's will. This is essentially an edict ('for our own good' I'm sure...). In this instance, we might as well have a dictator.