I'm not sure if i agree to this. There is some truth in that of course, it's just that people are enjoying too many things at once than they can pay for reasonably. I also enjoy a lot of thing i don't wish to pay for (and thus don't), and that's indeed not so nice of me. But the things i really care about, those that interest me the most, do get a lot of money from me.
We're in a culture where suddenly it's possible to experience just about everything for free if you want to. And that leads to a lot of people doing so, but a lot of them wouldn't bother if they had to pay. And if you're expecting to get money from the mainstream, you better advertise a lot, and go for the lowest common denominator. Otherwise, find a loyal public, and don't expect to make millions, but a fair living should be very possible if you're good at what you do :).

I'm wondering what the ideal situation is. It's really nice to be able to see & experience so much, but how do the people making all those things get money? How do you split the people who are just casually interested from those who really like it, and want to pay for it. A lot of it in the current world has become more a case of goodwill of people willing to pay for content, because they know they don't need to.

I respect the content of what i like most, and am willing to pay for it. But not everybody wants to or is able to... It's a very hard question...

i love your exaggeration, but am also wondering how a solution could possibly be found.

Users & advertisers just have opposite wishes. I don't see any middle ground. They are convinced that we want to see ads that are relevant to us, no we don't, if we want to know what could be interesting for us, we'll talk to our peers, we don't need you to try and data mine it for us, especially since no one trusts you anymore!

Btw, i'm wondering, is there a browser/plugin that nicely separates cookies across websites? that ads can't track you across websites via cookies? Completely separate cookie caches dependent on the url in your address bar sounds pretty easy to make, and would prevent some basic tracking (of course they can still track you on ip address, the information your browser gives, ... but i think cookies are at least a nice chunk to disable if possible).

Ads are just something that seems to only be able to get worse with every year, and i hope the backlash that the younger generation is giving to it, will some day actually mean that ads will be reduced again. They'll never disappear since they work too damn well, but that the only evolution appears to be more ads in more places and more tracking, that just can't be maintained.

"Better to Remain Silent and Be Thought a Fool than to Speak and Remove All Doubt"
Or in this case: if he doesn't know anything about it, why immediately assume the plastics would be dangerous (and that expert doctors pioneering such a procedure wouldn't think of it)...

He wouldn't have gotten the angry comment if he had simply asked if the plastic can't give health issues, instead of making a sensationalist comment about it without knowing anything about the subject...

I've recently been wondering: isn't this exactly what most of the economy is about these days?

Just look at where most of the money is, it's all virtual things, why the hell is facebook worth billions? What does it physically produce or add to this economy?

Want to get rich? forget about actually making stuff, try to get into the next virtual bubble (or go along in many of the existing ones). When it's all virtual, and you don't really need to make something, perpetual exponential increase suddenly is possible (until it collapses that is, but who saw that coming?), but there just is no hard limit. and since it's coupled with money, if you're lucky you'll make a fortune.

It's not that there's no logic in that. But the purpose is just generally to soak up power when there is little demand, and to release it when there's high demand. Why not just make this separate facilities just for this function, and do it for the entire grid? why the focus on data centers?

Or is it just to try and shift the maintenance of this likely mess to someone else? It sounds like a nice idea, but will probably require some effort, and some annoying surprises from time to time as the batteries will wear out, and will require quite some management.

for all the negative remarks, maybe i'm the only one who wonders how awesome this would be for space travel XD
we would be able to explore a meaningful part of the galaxy XD.

i gues for the most we're producing money to go up the chain to those who deserve it?

but how else will people come to this site if we don't explain spinning quarks via (american)football (aka handegg) metaphors?

and of course this needs to become a site for the wider audience, it's a wide open market, noone else is doing it, they'll corner the market in no time, while keeping all the technical users currently making this site a reasonable success :).

it's the best marketing strategy since new coke!

"appealing to a wider audience"

i've got the feeling the beta slashdot was designed by someone who makes websites for the elderly

huge fonts, extra pictures, tons of whitespace everywhere >__
it might be decent for a mobile version, but not for desktops, we're not reading this on 8" screens

Great comment :)

I completely agree with you, the endless battle between left and right is really annoying me lately, because it's indeed a false choice that doesn't make any sense. If you talk with people from both sides, in the end they want exactly the same thing, so what makes them left or right? mostly their position in society.

People who like to be in control, don't need or want to rely much on others, and don't need anything from society will choose right wing, because it's in their best interest, more social people, but also people in weaker positions or who prefer to collaborate more are more likely to go left wing since it's in their best interest.

I find myself a bit in the middle knowing people from both sides well, not really feeling much affinity with either side, and just getting really annoyed with both sides >_. Since i have a masters degree, and a good job, i'm more likely to vote right (well, europe style right, which is still pretty left for america), since it's more in my day to day/financial interests, but i don't really like either side that much, and neutral territory doesn't exist (and isn't allowed to exist anymore) -_-...

I also hope this nonsense will in the near future come to an end, as more and more people must get bored of it, start seeing trough it, and will want actual meaningful discussions and get people to vote for that aren't just a living stereotype of what right/left wing is supposed to be...

also, breathing pure oxygen isn't so healty, so i'm wondering how they solve that without an external tank.

isn't it just that people react emotionally to such things? the real discussion is far above the understanding of 99.99(don't know how many more nines until i only keep the real experts)% of the people, so when asked an opinion, they react more emotionally than logically. So on depending on the current weather it's logical those emotions are different.

I also hate discussions about topics like this, because it's just emotional shouting at eachother with facts only used to confirm what you feel is right. Even when people on this site would love to claim how intellectual they are, both sides are more about emotions and personal viewpoints than real science, we might now some good facts, read some interesting articles, but do we really know anything about climate science, all the subtle things, ... everything that can't be easily found in popular science magazines or the few popular arguments from both sides that people keep repeating to prove their own feelings are the best.

do you really think these basic and honest emotions are so elaborate? are an actual plan of what we want to do next, and how everything should be handled? You can make it as confusing as you want, search the grayer areas, etc...
Some things i can answer a bit, if you have religious reservations about it, good for you, make a will where you stipulate what you want and don't enforce it on the rest of society.
But in general, he's fucking angry at people who are saying he should let his father suffer, and won't let him do what he and his family think is the most humane thing. I would be too. And i would wish similar dire things on such people. That doesn't mean i will act on them, there are luckily laws preventing this, our society won't allow this. But that doesn't mean that's not what i would feel, think and even at the moment self say. Give it a few weeks to come to a more rational, civilized point of view.

And what is the more civilized answer? stop pushing your life choices on others, if you want to live like a plant, or suffer and be kept alive even if you will never heal, good for you, but i don't want that (and I'm happy i live in Europe where this is allowed).