Finally a well worded insightful post, a rare occurrence on this site. The link to the newsletter subscription is missing though.

No, that's what the sharks are for.

Good analysis. The mentioned wealth inequity, the poverty, crime, lack of education, and corruption result in a vicious, almost unbreakable circle. It's like a real life experiment and illustrates why 3rd world countries mainly stay the way they are.

Speaking of 80's rock, even worse would be a moon named 'Europe'. Oh wait...!

Eternal September sure changed things, but you had ways to avoid the derp. The real problem is what I call the "Cult of Mediocrity", which got born through "Web 2.0".

Before that, people would have hobbies, having fun with them, and get inspired by professionals.

Today, everyone is a writer, photographer, musician, etc., posts online and gets cheered upon by other wannabies, celebrating their mediocre hobbyist results as the ultimate achievement. Consequences of this are rampant narcissism and arrogance on the one hand, and a society which focuses on equality instead of talent.

If one compares test levels for university entry between then and now, one can see an example of where we're heading.

Which explains why one can't be sure if MP3's are music or not.

This cooperation between MS and the NSA maybe explains why MS got away in most cases of monopolistic abuses during so many years: it's easier to infiltrate computers worldwide if they all use the same OS.

I have an uneasy feeling with this.
OK, maybe I just read/watched too much bad Science Fiction.
Nevertheless, the message I'll send will be:

"Nothing to see here, move along!"

Not sure why this was modded down, but that link is insightful.

It also shows why MP3 @ 320 kb/s doesn't make sense. For the best lossy compression, MP2 at that bitrate would be better.

IMHO, FLAC for home listening, and MP3 @ ~192 kb/s ("lame -V2") for mobile is the way to go.

Same old shit as always (DNRTFA).

I'm tainting my pure and virgin kernels since about 10 years with the evil corporate drivers from Nvidia, because it works and performs. Sorry Gnu!

The opinions of "the masses" are entirely based upon second hand information, i.e. whatever media outlet they believe. Those media outlets don't even have expert teams like the politicians should have and listen to, so this won't really make for better policies.

Apart from that detail, I personally have no problems with GM crops on the health side (*). I do have serious objections though concerning the misuse of legal ways to enforce mono culture and the elimination of small farmer's biodiversity. That is something GM crop companies should not have a right to do.

(*) Since the invention of antibiotics and vaccination, and widespread adoption of hygiene, the general life expectancy has grown very slowly.
Our bodies are currently part of a long time experience, which involves exposure to pollution from fossil fuels, radioactive particles from accidents and open-air atom bomb test (yes, until this day), processed fats and sugars, artificial electromagnetic waves of many wavelengths, GM food, and more.
Noone knows if one or many of these factors play a role in the ever growing effect of cancer, diabetes, and other deadly desases on our theoretical life expectancy.

Very well said. And in addition to all this, people living outside of the cities are the worst polluters due to the large distances they drive with their own cars (incl. into and out of the city for work/shopping/entertainment/etc.), plus the transport of goods.

To those worrying about farmers: forget it, they're subsidized heavily already.

In the past, the driving force behind technology was war. These days it is the quarterly profit report. There's a lot of technology behind both efforts. The former focuses on dominatiing the enemy, the latter on selling items fast. Choose your poison.