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It's sad to see good empirical evidence casually tossed by the wayside because it doesn't "fit" with your world view. I find it highly irrational that real possible solutions are ignored, while "pie in the sky" ideas such as carbon-taxes are foisted upon economies.
Instead of Carbon Taxes, perhaps you'd be interested in another form of carbon reduction? I'm sure it's right down your alley.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgpa7wEAz7I
Give this a try... hard evidence on reversing desertification.
It's nice to be a Preiß, but it's higher to be a Bayer!
Either the Spanish Inquisition or Goldman Sachs. Either way, it sure was unexpected.
10 years ago, MP3 encoders couldn't encode decent cymbals and saxophones below 384kbps... it was just a stream of high pitched garbage.
These days they're both really good encoders. I still prefer AAC over MP3 just because the high freq nuances are better captured, but at AAC@256 and MP3@320, the differences are practically imperceptible to my ears.
The only time I'd look at lossless music is for Orchestral pieces. Compressed pieces still sound flattened and don't have the wideness because there's a lot more overtones, harmonics and variety of tones in live recordings. Microphones, recordings and engineering have adjusted in the past 5 years to compensate - so recent pieces are not too bad however.
Like anything, it's best to just try a few different methods and see what sounds best to you.
Apostolic succession perhaps?
Take New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles as examples. Don't get me wrong, I like those places and I like the people that live there. But all too often many of them tell me how screwed up education is, how the city is corrupt, and how taxes are destroying their way of life. You'll hear this from the advantaged people as much as from the poor and disadvantaged people.
On the other hand, places like Texas have less polar education quality, the cities are still corrupt, but the taxes are lower (yeah!). The conservatives often vote against policies that seem crazy to the liberals. They won't pay for better schools, they don't want new city halls, and they could care less about hospital improvements. The reason I've heard from many conservatives is that most often in the past, such funds went to administration, capital and profit rather than actual improvements.
In a nutshell, political leanings don't matter, the only thing that matters is liberty and freedom. Being able to choose where, how and what you live is more important than planning, administration and politics that grows out of the established leadership. Those that choose to can make the life they want in a vast array of places and opportunities offered in the world. Different places allow similar people to fit better and be happy together. When one group becomes too powerful and attempts to impose their worldview on others you create more divisive and intrusive governments.
And if they had something better than Radio or Light, then why would they use inefficient slow tech?
Scientists are discovering physics and material hacks all the time, so the possibility of "instantaneous" communication is growing stronger. University labs are producing some interesting results that seem to skirt along the edges of information theory and quantum theory. It's unlikely, but possible. Check back in a hundred years or so...
As someone who has lived and worked in iPhone and Android land since the beginnings, I'm excited to see something new. Don't get me wrong - I like my iPhone and android for what they are - but having the option of getting into the code and fixing the stupid is a great incentive for me to switch.
That's true - but I also think a lot of really smart people dabble in conspiracy theories. You won't see many of them pulling together a movement, but mainly they watch and attempt to verify things that seem interesting.
In other words - conspiracy theories are just wild-ass guesses. In some limited circumstances, it's a start for deeper researching of topics. Most of the real conspiracies are leaked or eeked out by conversations with real people, not conspiracy boards.
Yo Dawg, so like my theory is that some crazy mujahideen who happens to be really rich decided to attack America using airplanes. He conspires with a bunch of dudes who then steal the identities of some other dudes, so then they hijack and crash their stolen airplanes at 500mph into buildings! Meanwhile, crazy dude's freakin' brother Shafig is eating breakfast with the ex-president of the USA. Sick, huh?
Conspiracy? By definition - hell yes. True? Seems legit. The truth is already f*cked up enough - why add even more truthiness?
I mostly agree with the technical issues - but I don't agree with that consumer demands make for short shelf-lives. People generally keep cameras for a few years - a good quality SLR camera will last 7-10 years.
The problem is that manufacturers are making shoddy products that break easily. Cameras used to be made like tanks, but these days some fall apart in your hands. I refuse to buy cheaply made cameras, and all of my cameras have lasted forever and still work.
Manufacturers are generating their own consumer demand by making shoddy products - products that aren't even worth repairing.
Does it not make sense that greed, insecurity, fear and bigotry are ancient grounded in primate drives wrapped in ignorance.
No, if game theory and psychology has taught us anything, it's that humans are born to be jealous, coveting bastards.
If in fact a persons' mind can be expanded, empowered, fully developed, then the process would leave its owner present to what fundamentally works and not.
I used to think like that too! That is, until I worked with some of the most intelligent people in the world.
The Machiavellian manipulation of humanity by a wealthy powerful few is an inherently bankrupt enterprise.
That's so very true. That's why America is moving towards more freedom, less concentration of wealth and higher standards of healthcare!
Expanded human cognition opens the way to expanded human perception and enlightenment
Or, it opens the way to better propaganda, larger classes of poor, and a superclass of powerful people who are in fact above the law.
Or maybe those that control the resources will do as they have always done? Nah...
The problems of fair allocation of profits, food and energy will only get worse as robotic efficiencies and AI management intelligence become ubiquitous. As a general rule throughout history humanity has functioned on four categories of people: the managers (political, business), workers/farmers, intellectuals and the dependents. The dependents don't participate fully in a market economy due to various reasons including sickness, poverty or lack of available work.
As the managers and intellectuals construct a system of automation and efficiency that will require fewer workers and farmers, I predict a fascist regime will enslave the growing dependent population into a feudal system, as has happened several times before on lesser scales. Would you agree?
Old timer, n.: One who remembers when charity was a virtue and not an organization.