A sixty-something is probably gonna go with the Beatles and the Stones. But you're right, for most people, the music they were into as teenagers is what they listen to for the rest of their lives. That's because most people aren't really interested in music per se, but rather obtain a group identity by adopting whatever their peers were listening to. Later, it becomes nostalgia.

But the truth is, most commercial music is schlock, and always has been. There have been exceptions, of course, (hmm...the Beatles and the Stones?), but when people talk about how awful, say, 80's music was, I'm thinking of Minor Threat, or the Feelies, etc... If you only hear commercial music, of course it will seem to you like all music is shit.

I think the generational thing is gone, though. This is the post-modern era, after all, where people listen to music from all eras. That's why we haven't seen a revolution in rock since 1977 - there's nothing to rebel against if your parent's (and grandparent's) music is "cool." I haven't given up hope, though.

It definitely has. There's a lot of effort to master from original tape, and a lot of new releases are being recorded to tape. Shelby Lynn's "Just a Little Lovin" is a good example, recorded on, mastered from the original 2" tape. A lot of recent releases sound incredible. "Digitally Remastered" is now a label people avoid like the plague.
Still, few people today own a hi-fi. Most do their listening on computer speakers, earbuds, or boom boxes. Of the people buying vinyl, a large percentage think that record noise is part of the (retro) experience, and I suspect few have the equipment needed to reveal the difference between analog and digital. In short, for many, it is just a fad.
As for myself, I'm buying as many titles as I can. Who knows what the future holds? I still cringe everytime I think of the boxes of records I sold, just to make moving more convenient.

Right. I've never torrented music. There are easier ways to get it, where you're going to find a much better selection.

Stories about zero tolerance are always quite amusing. Astonishing, even, when you consider that adults are behind these policies. But just because LotR is mentioned, seems a very tenuous reason to be discussing it here. Just saying'...

Right. If he's gonna play on the Terminal, he oughta learn some unix-y stuff. These key commands work in all text fields:

                ctrl-a = brings cursor to the beginning of a line
                ctrl-d = deletes the letter in front of the cursor
                ctrl-e = brings cursor to the end of a line
                ctrl-k = erases an entire line in front of the cursor
                ctrl-o = acts like return, but cursor stay in the same place
                ctrl-t = brings the letter that is behind the cursor forward one, switching places with the next letter.
                ctrl-v = moves cursor to the end of a document, or line
                ctrl-w = deletes everything behind the cursor.

I think these commands were originally from emacs, so I'm not sure if they work in vi. The HOME and END keys simply bring you to the top and bottom of a document, respectively. I can see how a person coming from Windows would not find Mac OS intuitive. You have to unlearn a lot of bad habits.

It's been shown over and over that a similarly configured PC costs as much or more than a comparable Mac. It's just that you can't buy a stripped-down Mac, like you can with PCs.

Of course it's ridiculous. I mean, what constitutes an event, or a choice? We always think of it in terms of people making choices, but surely every bacterium that wriggles this way instead of that, every mote of dust, every atom, every photon, would have its parallel universes of possibility. And possibilities are infinite for each. Not that these things aren't worth thinking about.

It's not a paradox if life is unique to Earth. This idea that, because there are trillions of stars, and because many of them have planets, ergo, there must be life on many of them, is a statistic based upon a sample of one. Until we understand how life began, I don't know if we can really say anything about the chances of life elsewhere. It's pure speculation.

Let's get our approximates right!

A couple = ~2
A few = ~3
Several = ~7

This.

Well, that's a big part of his defense: "How could someone so stupid be the kingpin and mastermind the government is making him out to be?" I'm starting to believe it myself.

How do you figure? Isn't it helicopter parenting which produces nerds?

Yeah, I had to walk a mile-and-a-quarter to school everyday, by myself! During Summer vacation, my mother would force me to go outside, and stay outside, until suppertime! With no supervision! Wow, I'm only realizing now, I really was neglected as a child. Of course, all the other kids were neglected in exactly the same way. It's a miracle we weren't all abducted!

In all seriousness, I can only pity the way kids grow up today. And everyone wonders why they're so fat.

I would like to take the time to point out to anyone thinking of doing this: Anyone claiming to be a hit man is actually a cop. That probably goes for anyone claiming to be a teenage girl who is interested in your online sexual advances, as well. Hope I've saved you some trouble.

Right, most news outlets bury corrections.

You are right that news is not their "primary" function, but the fact that a comedy program does a better job of covering the news than do most cable news outlets really says something, doesn't it? I decided to have a look at that poll they do each year, where they show how informed people are, based on their news source. I wondered if the Daily Show was included. Turns out Daily Show viewers are second only to NPR listeners. I suspect it's for the same reason - both do in-depth coverage of issues. It is unfortunate that, while their listeners are first and second most informed, they are last and second-to-last in numbers.

Read it and weep:

http://publicmind.fdu.edu/2012...