True, I was simplifying. But basically he just said he ate less and exercised. Why would this be a hack? It's just common sense. A hack implies some kind of clever nerdy invention.

The bro-science book that says you should eat 6 meals a day? It has some good ideas on lifting at home if you are poor and can't afford weights or a gym membership, but that's about it. Later, the author went to jail for transporting loaded assault rifles across state lines.

So you weigh only like 45 kg/100 lbs? Do you even lift, bro?

Wow! The guy ate less calories, and he lost weight!

IBM isn't actually producing a lot these days.
Their PC and X86 server businesses have already been sold to Chinese companies. They're divesting themselves of their semiconductor business as well. I assume they'll keep the P-series and Z-series servers for a while, but "International Business Software and Services" would be a much more appropriate name for the company.

Agreed. People already move about the world completely immersed in what's happening on their smart phones. The fact that you need a certain screen size to have a usable interface and enjoyable experience puts a serious limit on the evolution of that technology. I think there's also going to be a saturation point in the app space when the "cool" has worn off. Something like Google Glass has got to be the next logical extension.

fundamentally I share your pessimism tho for different reasons. Short of getting the population down to under 5 billion (and 11 billion is looking more likely), it's going to end badly. The particular cause is the only question.

But... on a day to day basis, LED bulbs are a win, win, win. High quality light, energy consumption so low they pay off in under a year under normal usage, and instant on.

I also have to say that the possibility for nuclear power is over. It's never been a significant share of world power generation and while nuclear is great- nuclear plus humans has a terrible record- essentially a major accident every 10 to 12 years with a resulting loss of use of real estate for hundreds of years.

Coal is actually worse (seam fires) and results in the loss of entire small towns and hundreds of square miles of real estate but it is well established.

Solar is projected to be down to .36 cents/watt by 2024. At those prices-- why not use it? It's like LED's. Lower than current power generation prices for several countries, it provides energy during the periods of highest power usage, has lower water usage, lower pollution profile (tho I'm wondering what is hidden from us that will become apparent in mass production). It's prices are still dropping rapidly (in part due to temporary subsidies). Installations are rising logarithmically and have passed an inflection point towards exponential growth.

The nice thing is- everyone benefits. If solar cuts oil demand by 5%-- that has a huge effect on the price of oil overall. Same for coal.

Perhaps someday, they will design an inexpensive reactor system that is reliable combined with a breeder reactor to reduce waste to 1-3% quantity. I think smaller would be better. And based on the new autoshut down modules. And with no way stupid or careless humans can fuck things up.

But really- 11 billion people is no meat for most people (which is not as good as vegans project), lower quality of life, and a fairly pointless existence with the high automation we have coming (sitting around consuming food and entertainment- no real work to do for most).

sometimes, it's enough just to say something... even if only a few others (or no one else) gets it.

It's well known that shading a roof lowers air conditioning costs.

However, shading a roof might slightly raise daytime heating costs.

If we don't hit the brakes, we hit the tree at 60mph.
If we do hit the breaks, we hit the tree at 30mph.

Either way, we hit the tree, so why bother braking?

Or we can lock the brakes, go into a skid, flip the car, and burst into flames while rolling down the embankment because we lost control of the car while we were overdoing it.

It's a complex situation. Slowing down fossil fuel usage and output by 10% might be cost effective, slow the curve, give more time for other solutions. Also, producing solar tends to lead to solar being cheaper in the future. Which means it can replace more fossil fuel. As a bonus- inexpensive solar power depresses the price of fossil fuel and so the more expensive oil isn't drilled and pumped yet. So less expensive home heating, fossil electricity, and gasoline.

I'm just saying I can understand why people stop voting when the game is rigged so well that less than 1% of elections matter whether they vote or not (and that was for a state rep position- nothing national).

Sure- some people will play against overwhelming odds- or vote when it rarely matters. But I hope you can see how many just say, "Screw it- I'm going to sleep in, go on vacation, just work over time, stop beating my head against the wall because of some tiny chance that it might make some tiny difference".

Voter turnout is higher when it matters.

I vote. But I can easily understand how disillusioned (and effectively disenfranchised) voters stop voting.

Snowden gave everything he had to journalists. He didn't bring any digital storage media with him when he went to Russia precisely because he didn't want anyone else getting access to the raw data.
Whatever 'intel' he could provide has already been published in the pages of The Guardian.

It's clear to most of us when our vote matters (turnout rises) and when it doesn't (low turnout).

In my district- I've had ONE vote in 17 years that mattered. The rest came down just the way the gerrymandering predicted.
I either voted with a 60/40 or higher majority or with a 40/60 or lower minority.

In the one vote, the race was by 31 votes. It was contested and maybe if it had been 30, it might have been contested longer. And turnout was high because it was clear the challenger might unseat the incumbent (and did.. barely).

Perhaps if we had term limits ...

But really modern computers can predict the outcomes from districts fro years at a time.

Silver and Wang predicted almost all of the elections for the last two cycles before the vote.

If it is clear which way the vote is before we go to the polls (and it almost always is) then why go vote?

"20 years ago, my house was made of biodegradable wood. It is still usable today."

+1 Funny
Accidentally modded -1 Overrated.

Drat.