More importantly, if it was an ICBM, why the hell didn't our different RADAR systems catch it at any point? We're supposed to have had this technology down to detect these sort of launches a long, long time ago.

No, it really is. It advocates that 3rd world countries can only advance to 1st world status by polluting... a lot. Instead of trying to develop these countries without all the pollution we had to do in the past, they are basically saying that 1st world countries have to subsidize that pollution advancement by lowering their own pollution in response.
 
It's a totally assanine proposition and basically is advocating that it's fine for 3rd world countries to pollute if they advance themselves up.

Limited, DRM enabled goods that they can then charge the end user double for.

This isn't actually better for the consumer, guys.

This wouldn't be a problem if copyrights expired in a relatively 'short' time. 7 or 14 years might be too short, but life plus 50 years is far too long.

Yeah, some sequels might be utter crap, but we wouldn't be shocked that someone *else* might want to write or create a story in someone else's universe.

The problem is that the non-competitive part of copyright has been grossly expanded so that it is unjustly monopolizing those industries. And the recording industries want to keep trumpeting things like this, because its the only way they know how to make money.

But piracy exists because of out of control prices and control. If the movie and recording industries actually tried to lower their prices to match what people feel is the value, they would see more. But they are stuck in their inflated worth and feeling they need more. In fact, they are the ones that 'feel entitled' to more and more money at the expense of their consumers.

Actually, until ads quit infecting my computer, I'm going to be blocking everything I possibly can. My virus/malware infection per month ratio dropped dramatically with the addition of Adblock Plus.

Perhaps the advertisers should be going after the reason most people are blocking ads these days.

They will do probably rather little, other than maybe use some tool to watch what is happening. People that want to farm, fill farm. People that don't will play and create.

As soon as I get a better computer where I don't have lag while typing in, I'll probably work on some story arcs myself.

Another problem is that in most games they are having to rewrite their engine, create all new artwork and figure out new ways to stand out.

It's actually really horrible that every single new game has to just about recreate everything. It would be like every new book requiring that the rebuild presses and typefaces to print them. Sadly, copyright infringements 'threats' are being used to make things harder. You can't use an actual car in a game, so they have to make a car that *looks* similar to the real thing.

Then appy that to basically just about everything. So much needless work being done over and over. So much wastage.

I've actually been advocating the use of nukes if our climate shift truly does get to the point of extinction level heat.

We can easily clear a few mines (or make a pure waterway in Central America) to get enough volcanic-type particulates into the air to drench the world in rain or snow. Radiation fallout would be unpleasant, but better than the extinction of humanity.

I will gladly admit that I will not purchase D&D 4th Edition. Not because I could pirate it, but because it's a POS that was not even properly Beta'ed.

Their entire difficulty scale was wrong in the original printing (as a matter of fact, last I checked some of the spells still required 30+ DCs for rather weak effects). The tag/marking system in combat was asinine and it catered too much to the figure and strategic war-gamers and seriously lacked role-playing support.

If D&D is still around in five years and comes out with a 4.5 that actually fixes the 4e flaws, I might actually drop real money on real books.

But it looks like WotC has totally forgotten everything they learned and earned from 3.0 and 3.5.

Idiots.

After all, all that 'data' that was so useless for hundreds and hundreds of years was because we didn't have the ability to decode it.

Hmm. Perhaps we need to have a 'new rosetta stone' project that all programs and decoders have to submit to (for hardware and software.)

You wouldn't believe how many people I've heard of that mentioned, "Yeah, I've got a couple of converter boxes. Just in case my cable TV gets cut off." Or "It's only $10 with the coupon. I'll get an extra one just in case."
 
My TV is not digital compatible, but I only watch DVDs or play my PS2 (sometimes) on it. It makes no difference.
 
There is no good reason to not stick to the cut-off. People will adjust or find ways of getting their converter boxes... or remember that you can read books or do other activities at times. And there will probably be many acts of 'kindness' from people that just happen to have a few extra to give to the truly needy.

A lot of stations can't afford to run both signals (they don't have the infrastructure, money, ect.)
 
So this sounds like a lot Of FUD. They can already request an extension on the deadline (like the poor guys that are waiting for their new digital transmitter and paying to keep a road plowed up into the mountains near where I live.)
 
I bet, all in all, that when this is over, that this was just designed to allow someone in particular to exploit the system.

...with all this detailed, logged and tracked information on our over-priced and bloated money laundering scheme!