Slightly off-topic, but I was doing research recently on how prolific various artists were over the last 50 years and hence needed to get the lengths of their studio albums to determine it. For artists from the 60s it was often impossible to get this information from Internet discographies. As such, I simply pirated the music to get the running times.

Rather ironic that piracy does a better job of preserving information about our historical artistic culture than the legitimate Internet in my specific case.

I actually did delete every file I downloaded once I got the info I needed BTW. Not because I care in the slightest about copyright, but because I don't support patented formats, and hence won't use mp3s.

Indeed. As a musician myself, I literally cringe when someone uses the word "create" in reference to writing music. It's so utterly arrogant and delusional. No one creates music. We build by accretion upon the works of past artists and within the influence of the culture and technology we grow up in and with.

Human beings have been playing music on instruments for about 40,000 years and much longer without. Funny how all these nonsense "rights" only sprung up in the last couple centuries and the lies that music wouldn't be written without them as well...

The only reason it's a step in the right direction is because every other browser has dragged Microsoft kicking and screaming into the present. They certainly wouldn't have done it on their own...

I've always found it silly that the requirement to legally acquire works for free is to get in one's car and drive to a library.

If I simply pirate all the works to create my own library and then drive around the block in my car a few times before consuming them every now and then, I've essentially done the same thing.

Just to be clear, this was a mild attempt at humor...

The real purpose of libraries in America is an adjunct to public education; to make available and instill in individuals the knowledge to identify threats to liberty and prevent the rise of tyranny. It is meant to protect a "government by the people" from becoming one run by an elite ruling class. As such, the presence of "entertainment" in a library is secondary.

Sadly, and although it is anecdotal, over the last couple decades I have noticed in the communities I have lived in a shift away from libraries being repositories of knowledge and instead becoming little more than entertainment "rental" establishments.

The fiction sections keeping getting larger and larger and the inclusion of DVDs, CDs, and other media have all come at the expense of the non-fiction section. I would guess that at my current library, only about 20-25% of the selections are non-fiction.

Obviously, libraries are failing at their purpose to the same degree that the public education system is, with the former serving more to distract than teach, and the latter to train for wage slavery rather than to truly educate.

The American experiment was an interesting idea even if it is failing completely at this point.

I really just don't understand this whole 3D movie thing. It's about as interesting as VR gloves in the late 90s; a neat idea, but really nothing but an expensive, impractical gimmick.

I think I'll sit this out until someone invents the Holodeck, or at the very least, makes something that doesn't hurt my eyes or make me wear glasses.

This comment isn't necessarily directed at you, but I always love people who use extremist arguments so they don't have to do anything at all. The world isn't black and white and you don't have to boycott all of China overnight to make a difference.

You can start by simply using sites like this to guide your purchases: http://www.stillmadeinusa.com/

Not only will you lessen support for China, but you are increasing it for your fellow Americans (assuming you are one).

“Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains. “ ---Thomas Jefferson

Thankfully, history is full of naive people who refused to accept "how things are" and did something to change reality instead. The complacent are nothing but an anchor holding back human progress...

Just to give you some faith, I think Steam is utter crap and will never buy a game from them EVER. I do buy from gog.com though, for the very reason that I only buy things I can own.

Indeed. I'm a game collector with over 2000 games, most complete in their boxes, and I can still play games from as far back as 1979 without any problem. I don't need to "call" anyone for permission to do so either, like on Steam.

The book some of this info is drawn from, The Immense Journey by Loren Eiseley, was published in 1957!!!

Likewise, our politicians do nothing for America out of the spirit of giving - we pay them. In fact, not only are they highly paid but they get more state welfare through pensions and healthcare than all illegal immigrants combined.

I didn't say they wouldn't. Note the use of the word "most" in my post. Even if all 20% did those jobs, my statement would still be accurate.

Funny how people cavalierly ignore the context of statements as well. The point of Thoreau's quote is that one shouldn't support laws that are unjust, NOT that laws shouldn't be respected at all. Obviously, a law that protects you from criminals who threaten your family is just and should be supported. I'm not sure where you got the idea that I would think otherwise...

"Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice." ---Henry Thoreau

"Law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual." ---Thomas Jefferson

In short, I don't care in the slightest what the law says.

Yes, because the millions of illegal immigrants in this country don't give back by building our houses, cleaning our buildings, growing our food, or mowing our lawns for shit wages with no benefits. You know, all the jobs most Americans would never get off their fat asses to do, but nevertheless need to be done. They do more for America than most of the elected representatives in our own government...

But we can allow the government to spend trillions on war and bailing out rich corporations while continually eviscerating our civil liberties? Illegals shouldn't even be on the radar at this point...

I would go further and say the borders of all countries should be completely open. All people have an intrinsic natural right to travel and just because some tyrant drew an imaginary line in the sand at some point in history doesn't justify the abridgement of said rights. No one should be forced to live in poverty or under tyranny simply by accident of birth.