Although I enjoyed your discussion home cinimas are infinetly better than going out to watch a film evan if you only have a 42" 2 year old LCD tv and bog standard surround sound system.

maybe you have super awesome cinemas where you are but in the uk there is always something objectively wrong and not in a "charming way" ( listed above in my other comment )



>> ^Sarzy:

>> ^budzos:
Skipped through it. Stunning cinematography. Hope nobody wants to go see it with me so that I can enjoy it on blu-ray. Here's a big fuck you to almost everyone at the movies who won't stop talking and kicking my seat. Even the people I go to movies with manage to annoy me to hell and distract me from the movie with their weird stunts. The person I went to see Captain America (mediocre film, good comic-book movie) with fricking disappeared for the last 20 minutes of the movie. When they reappeared afterwards they said "when I went to the bathroom I didn't want to pass in front of the audience again so I just sat over here." Meanwhile I spent the entire last 20 minutes wondering where the hell they were, and I'm sure the people in the seats around their new seat were also scratching their heads. Just come back to your fucking seat.

True, the theatrical experience can suck sometimes (and your friend is a weirdo), but no home theatre can match the experience of seeing a great movie on the big screen. That's why, even as home theatre technology gets better and better, I'll never stop going to the movies.

The point about global warming is that all the available evidence shows that:
1. It is happening
2. It is man-made.

Why is that a problem? well, because we dont know what the consequences could be, we dont know how to stop the rising temperature or if theres a limit or if or when we can reverse the trend.

All of the above could happen, or it might not, some of it may not be due to GW and some of it may be. The fact is that we are messing with earths ecosystem, which is the very reason we are here in the first place. We grew up and evolved as a species on this planet, under these conditions, how will a rapid(geologically rapid 100-200 years) change in climate affect us as a species? how will it affect millions of other species? How will it affect weather? viruses? diseases? deserts? forests?

We don't know

Thats the point. some of the above are possible consequences of global warming*.

*or some denialist pulled it out of their ass and put it on the web so that other denialists could impress us all with their extensive lists.

>> ^quantumushroom:

Enviro-statist alarmists claim that all of the following have been (or will be) caused by global warming.

Agricultural land increase, Africa devastated, African aid threatened, air pressure changes, Alaska reshaped, allergies increase, Alps melting, Amazon a desert, American dream end, amphibians breeding earlier (or not), ancient forests dramatically changed, Antarctic grass flourishes, anxiety, algal blooms, Arctic bogs melt, Asthma, atmospheric defiance, atmospheric circulation modified, avalanches reduced, avalanches increased, bananas destroyed, bananas grow, better beer, big melt faster, billion dollar research projects, billions of deaths, bird distributions change, birds return early, blackbirds stop singing, blizzards, blue mussels return, boredom, Britain Siberian, British gardens change, bubonic plague, budget increases, building season extension, bushfires, business opportunities, business risks, butterflies move north.
Cardiac arrest, caterpillar biomass shift, challenges and opportunities, Cholera, civil unrest, cloud increase, cloud stripping, cod go south, cold climate creatures survive, cold spells (Australia), computer models, conferences, coral bleaching, coral reefs dying, coral reefs grow, coral reefs shrink , cold spells, cost of trillions, crumbling roads, buildings and sewage systems, cyclones (Australia), damages equivalent to $200 billion, Dengue hemorrhagic fever, dermatitis, desert advance, desert life threatened, desert retreat, destruction of the environment, diarrhoea, disappearance of coastal cities, diseases move north, Dolomites collapse, drought, drowning people, ducks and geese decline, dust bowl in the corn belt.
Early spring, earlier pollen season, Earth biodiversity crisis, Earth dying, Earth even hotter, Earth light dimming, Earth lopsided, Earth melting, Earth morbid fever, Earth on fast track, Earth past point of no return, Earth slowing down, Earth spinning out of control, Earth to explode, earth upside down, Earth wobbling, earthquakes, El NiZo intensification, erosion, emerging infections, encephalitis, Europe simultaneously baking and freezing, evolution accelerating, expansion of university climate groups, extinctions (human, civilisation, logic, Inuit, smallest butterfly, cod, ladybirds, bats, pandas, pikas, polar bears, pigmy possums, gorillas, koalas, walrus, whales, frogs, toads, turtles, orang-utan, elephants, tigers, plants, salmon, trout, wild flowers, woodlice, penguins, a million species, half of all animal and plant species, less, not polar bears), experts muzzled, extreme changes to California.
Famine, farmers go under, figurehead sacked, fish catches drop, fish catches rise, fish stocks decline, five million illnesses, floods, Florida economic decline, food poisoning, food prices rise, food security threat (SA), footpath erosion, forest decline, forest expansion, frosts, fungi invasion, Garden of Eden wilts, genetic diversity decline, gene pools slashed, glacial retreat, glacial growth, glacier wrapped, global cooling, global dimming, glowing clouds, Gore omnipresence, grandstanding, grasslands wetter, Great Barrier Reef 95% dead, Great Lakes drop, greening of the North, Gulf Stream failure, habitat loss, Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, harvest increase, harvest shrinkage, hay fever epidemic, hazardous waste sites breached, heat waves, hibernation ends too soon, hibernation ends too late, high court debates, human fertility reduced, human health improvement, human health risk, hurricanes, hydropower problems, hyperthermia deaths.
Ice sheet growth, ice sheet shrinkage, inclement weather, infrastructure failure (Canada), Inuit displacement, Inuit poisoned, Inuit suing, industry threatened, infectious diseases, insurance premium rises, invasion of midges, island disappears, islands sinking, itchier poison ivy, jellyfish explosion, Kew Gardens taxed, krill decline, lake and stream productivity decline, landslides, landslides of ice at 140 mph, lawsuits increase, lawsuit successful, lawyers’ income increased (surprise, surprise!), lightning related insurance claims, little response in the atmosphere, Lyme disease.
Malaria, malnutrition, Maple syrup shortage, marine diseases, marine food chain decimated, marine dead zone, Meaching (end of the world), megacryometeors, Melanoma, methane emissions from plants, methane burps, melting permafrost, Middle Kingdom convulses, migration, migration difficult (birds), microbes to decompose soil carbon more rapidly, more bad air days, more research needed, mountain (Everest) shrinking, mountains break up, mountains taller, mudslides, next ice age, Nile delta damaged, no effect in India, nuclear plants bloom, oaks move north, ocean acidification, outdoor hockey threatened, oyster diseases, ozone loss, ozone repair slowed, ozone rise.
Pacific dead zone, personal carbon rationing, pest outbreaks, pests increase, phenology shifts, plankton blooms, plankton destabilised, plankton loss, plant viruses, plants march north, polar bears aggressive, polar bears cannibalistic, polar bears drowning, polar bears starve, polar tours scrapped, psychosocial disturbances, railroad tracks deformed, rainfall increase, rainfall reduction, refugees, reindeer larger, release of ancient frozen viruses, resorts disappear, rice yields crash, rift on Capitol Hill, rioting and nuclear war, rivers raised, rivers dry up, rockfalls, rocky peaks crack apart, roof of the world a desert, Ross river disease.
Salinity reduction, salinity increase, Salmonella, salmon stronger, sea level rise, sea level rise faster, sex change, sharks booming, shrinking ponds, ski resorts threatened, slow death, smog, snowfall increase, snowfall reduction, societal collapse, songbirds change eating habits, sour grapes, spiders invade Scotland, squid population explosion, squirrels reproduce earlier, spectacular orchids, stormwater drains stressed.
Taxes, tectonic plate movement, terrorism, ticks move northward (Sweden), tides rise, tourism increase, trade winds weakened, tree beetle attacks, tree foliage increase (UK), tree growth slowed, trees could return to Antarctic, trees less colourful, trees more colourful, tropics expansion, tropopause raised, tsunamis, turtles lay earlier, UK Katrina, Venice flooded, volcanic eruptions.
Walrus pups orphaned, war, wars over water, water bills double, water supply unreliability, water scarcity (20% of increase), water stress, weather out of its mind, weather patterns awry, weeds, Western aid cancelled out, West Nile fever, whales move north, wheat yields crushed in Australia, white Christmas dream ends, wildfires, wind shift, wind reduced, wine - harm to Australian industry, wine industry damage (California), wine industry disaster (US), wine - more English, wine -German boon, wine - no more French , winters in Britain colder, wolves eat more moose, wolves eat less, workers laid off, World bankruptcy, World in crisis, Yellow fever.

Enviro-statist alarmists claim that all of the following have been (or will be) caused by global warming.


Agricultural land increase, Africa devastated, African aid threatened, air pressure changes, Alaska reshaped, allergies increase, Alps melting, Amazon a desert, American dream end, amphibians breeding earlier (or not), ancient forests dramatically changed, Antarctic grass flourishes, anxiety, algal blooms, Arctic bogs melt, Asthma, atmospheric defiance, atmospheric circulation modified, avalanches reduced, avalanches increased, bananas destroyed, bananas grow, better beer, big melt faster, billion dollar research projects, billions of deaths, bird distributions change, birds return early, blackbirds stop singing, blizzards, blue mussels return, boredom, Britain Siberian, British gardens change, bubonic plague, budget increases, building season extension, bushfires, business opportunities, business risks, butterflies move north.

Cardiac arrest, caterpillar biomass shift, challenges and opportunities, Cholera, civil unrest, cloud increase, cloud stripping, cod go south, cold climate creatures survive, cold spells (Australia), computer models, conferences, coral bleaching, coral reefs dying, coral reefs grow, coral reefs shrink , cold spells, cost of trillions, crumbling roads, buildings and sewage systems, cyclones (Australia), damages equivalent to $200 billion, Dengue hemorrhagic fever, dermatitis, desert advance, desert life threatened, desert retreat, destruction of the environment, diarrhoea, disappearance of coastal cities, diseases move north, Dolomites collapse, drought, drowning people, ducks and geese decline, dust bowl in the corn belt.

Early spring, earlier pollen season, Earth biodiversity crisis, Earth dying, Earth even hotter, Earth light dimming, Earth lopsided, Earth melting, Earth morbid fever, Earth on fast track, Earth past point of no return, Earth slowing down, Earth spinning out of control, Earth to explode, earth upside down, Earth wobbling, earthquakes, El NiZo intensification, erosion, emerging infections, encephalitis, Europe simultaneously baking and freezing, evolution accelerating, expansion of university climate groups, extinctions (human, civilisation, logic, Inuit, smallest butterfly, cod, ladybirds, bats, pandas, pikas, polar bears, pigmy possums, gorillas, koalas, walrus, whales, frogs, toads, turtles, orang-utan, elephants, tigers, plants, salmon, trout, wild flowers, woodlice, penguins, a million species, half of all animal and plant species, less, not polar bears), experts muzzled, extreme changes to California.

Famine, farmers go under, figurehead sacked, fish catches drop, fish catches rise, fish stocks decline, five million illnesses, floods, Florida economic decline, food poisoning, food prices rise, food security threat (SA), footpath erosion, forest decline, forest expansion, frosts, fungi invasion, Garden of Eden wilts, genetic diversity decline, gene pools slashed, glacial retreat, glacial growth, glacier wrapped, global cooling, global dimming, glowing clouds, Gore omnipresence, grandstanding, grasslands wetter, Great Barrier Reef 95% dead, Great Lakes drop, greening of the North, Gulf Stream failure, habitat loss, Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, harvest increase, harvest shrinkage, hay fever epidemic, hazardous waste sites breached, heat waves, hibernation ends too soon, hibernation ends too late, high court debates, human fertility reduced, human health improvement, human health risk, hurricanes, hydropower problems, hyperthermia deaths.

Ice sheet growth, ice sheet shrinkage, inclement weather, infrastructure failure (Canada), Inuit displacement, Inuit poisoned, Inuit suing, industry threatened, infectious diseases, insurance premium rises, invasion of midges, island disappears, islands sinking, itchier poison ivy, jellyfish explosion, Kew Gardens taxed, krill decline, lake and stream productivity decline, landslides, landslides of ice at 140 mph, lawsuits increase, lawsuit successful, lawyers’ income increased (surprise, surprise!), lightning related insurance claims, little response in the atmosphere, Lyme disease.

Malaria, malnutrition, Maple syrup shortage, marine diseases, marine food chain decimated, marine dead zone, Meaching (end of the world), megacryometeors, Melanoma, methane emissions from plants, methane burps, melting permafrost, Middle Kingdom convulses, migration, migration difficult (birds), microbes to decompose soil carbon more rapidly, more bad air days, more research needed, mountain (Everest) shrinking, mountains break up, mountains taller, mudslides, next ice age, Nile delta damaged, no effect in India, nuclear plants bloom, oaks move north, ocean acidification, outdoor hockey threatened, oyster diseases, ozone loss, ozone repair slowed, ozone rise.

Pacific dead zone, personal carbon rationing, pest outbreaks, pests increase, phenology shifts, plankton blooms, plankton destabilised, plankton loss, plant viruses, plants march north, polar bears aggressive, polar bears cannibalistic, polar bears drowning, polar bears starve, polar tours scrapped, psychosocial disturbances, railroad tracks deformed, rainfall increase, rainfall reduction, refugees, reindeer larger, release of ancient frozen viruses, resorts disappear, rice yields crash, rift on Capitol Hill, rioting and nuclear war, rivers raised, rivers dry up, rockfalls, rocky peaks crack apart, roof of the world a desert, Ross river disease.

Salinity reduction, salinity increase, Salmonella, salmon stronger, sea level rise, sea level rise faster, sex change, sharks booming, shrinking ponds, ski resorts threatened, slow death, smog, snowfall increase, snowfall reduction, societal collapse, songbirds change eating habits, sour grapes, spiders invade Scotland, squid population explosion, squirrels reproduce earlier, spectacular orchids, stormwater drains stressed.

Taxes, tectonic plate movement, terrorism, ticks move northward (Sweden), tides rise, tourism increase, trade winds weakened, tree beetle attacks, tree foliage increase (UK), tree growth slowed, trees could return to Antarctic, trees less colourful, trees more colourful, tropics expansion, tropopause raised, tsunamis, turtles lay earlier, UK Katrina, Venice flooded, volcanic eruptions.

Walrus pups orphaned, war, wars over water, water bills double, water supply unreliability, water scarcity (20% of increase), water stress, weather out of its mind, weather patterns awry, weeds, Western aid cancelled out, West Nile fever, whales move north, wheat yields crushed in Australia, white Christmas dream ends, wildfires, wind shift, wind reduced, wine - harm to Australian industry, wine industry damage (California), wine industry disaster (US), wine - more English, wine -German boon, wine - no more French , winters in Britain colder, wolves eat more moose, wolves eat less, workers laid off, World bankruptcy, World in crisis, Yellow fever.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

I wasn't a huge fan of Cryptonomicon - I got bogged down in the book, and it seemed to not be going anywhere, lost its way over multiple chapters. After reading the inside flap of Anathem, it sounded like more of the same and decided to give it a pass. I know people love these books though - so I guess it's a very subjective thing. >> ^direpickle:

Stephenson's Anathem was absolutely science fiction. Cryptonomicon is one of my favorite books, though it's not particularly sci-fi-ish except for a couple of things.

They are all standing on a great huge quicksand bog. I'd be running too.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'chtv, troopers, star wars, swamp' to 'chtv, troopers, star wars, swamp, bog logic' - edited by ponceleon

Mindblowingly good/heartwrenching. One hopes that it does not prelude a bog standard zombiefest.

>> ^marinara:

/me played civ I to death. loved/hated it. IMHO best was alpha centauri. you could design your own units, terraform land, lots of nice stuff.
i actually bought civ IV, but was real frustrated. I played the CIV V demo and was impressed that they fixed a lot of the CIV IV crap. I feel you with the interface clunkiness.
I'm still playing Sins of a solar empire. if you can stand the longish games, it's a pretty good strategy games.
Oh, master of magic.


Sins is great, I highly recommend the expansions. They added in star bases, so late game, you don't have to be constantly running your main fleet around the edges of your empire. The game bogs down my machine multiplayer though. Can't have more than 4 star systems before it slows to a crawl.

Everything about this makes perfect sense.
>> ^GeeSussFreeK:

>> ^charliem:
Nothing helpful at all.
A single paragraph bill? Proposing senators go through it? (As if they don't already?)
Dont get me wrong, I like Ron Paul...but this is just, meh...wasting his breath really.

If you wanted to exact change, make the people who write it and the agents themselves...it is the quickest way to exact change. For example, make it law that all US employees could not have someone else do their taxes for them, they had to complete all aspects without any help whatsoever...you would have such a drastic change to simplify the tax code it would make your head spin.
I have also been considering an amendment to the constitution. That ALL federal legislation have a maximum time limit, let say 10 years. That way, any unpopular, or down right complete failures of legislation would expire without a huge act of congress (drug war, wars in general, war on terror, DHS, ect). Basically, we would keep what works, and what doesn't would fall away. (it would also bog down congress a bit, which was always the founders intent with the system)

>> ^charliem:

Nothing helpful at all.
A single paragraph bill? Proposing senators go through it? (As if they don't already?)
Dont get me wrong, I like Ron Paul...but this is just, meh...wasting his breath really.


If you wanted to exact change, make the people who write it and the agents themselves...it is the quickest way to exact change. For example, make it law that all US employees could not have someone else do their taxes for them, they had to complete all aspects without any help whatsoever...you would have such a drastic change to simplify the tax code it would make your head spin.

I have also been considering an amendment to the constitution. That ALL federal legislation have a maximum time limit, let say 10 years. That way, any unpopular, or down right complete failures of legislation would expire without a huge act of congress (drug war, wars in general, war on terror, DHS, ect). Basically, we would keep what works, and what doesn't would fall away. (it would also bog down congress a bit, which was always the founders intent with the system)

Each packet is already treated differently on the internet and people haven't had a problem with it. For instance, I have a premium membership at file planet. As such, I don't wait in lines, and have faster service on the whole. AOL, and Google treat individual users to different ad experiences based on their profile. These types of explicit and implicit relationships make the internet the crazy mashup that it is, it is what makes it work. There might be a market for people who want to pay extra to have their traffic prioritized. When you are talking about a finite thing, that is worth paying for. For example, if someone on the bogged down AT&T network wanted to pay extra to have a bigger piece of the network pie, companies should be allowed to offer such things.

The REAL problem is that new network infrastructure isn't allowed to be installed by anyone other than explicit government enforced companies. As such, the network gets more and more crowed and the cable companies can charge people for these "deluxe rate plans" and not have to keep their services competitive. This has only changed small amounts in the era of high speed; once cable and DLS started to offer similar rates and speeds both sides tried to get the leg up. But in reality, they are still dealing with huge areas of influence against outsiders making it even more competitive. If Comcast becomes as data unfriendly as AOL did in its hayday, people have no choice due to decades of government control.

In reality, you don't want the government telling people what they can do with their pipes, the end result is worse than if you just opened up the markets to outsiders wanting to string up new services. It is no small stretch of the imagination to presume if the government starts getting in the business of telling ISPs what they can or can't transmit with priority, it will lead to what they can transmit at all. Like if they decided to crack down on cyber bulling, a very hot political subject right now, the FCC could demand that ISPs can no longer deal traffic to sights that have anonymous posting. That would be letter of law now instead of just one punk ISP trying to pull one over on consumers. The internet will remain more free the more you keep the FCC out of it, just look at their track record. How many small independent radio broadcasts companies exist? Well, it has gone form about 70% before the FCC to about 5% now, and less than 1% for television. If you want huge media corporations taking over the internet, then you want the FCC involved in the regulation of the internet.

Ask Howard Stern or George Carlin about the FCC and how open they are.

The site maybe bogged for a while when I did a SiftTalk search for submitter "ant" and search term "slow".

Hehe

I tried teaching the Periodic Table of Elements; Solids, Gasses & liquids; and Transparent, Translucent and Opaque.

It was fun for a while, then we moved on and didn't get bogged down.
I'm lucky, my kids seem to Straight A (Principal's List) students (Knock on wood).
I'd like to attribute it to their inquisitive nature, It might be that I've always liked answering their questions, or maybe I just got dam lucky!

...to hell with sports stats and teams, and in Canada, no one cares who the past Prime-ministers were!

>> ^bmacs27:
I'd rather just pick some fixed amount everybody gets for life however, and just hand them the money when they are 18. It doesn't even have to be money right away (to defer the inflation). It could just be stamps that are converted to cash by the doctors when they are reimbursed for services. It's got most of the qualities of the progressive plans. It's egalitarian. It puts money in the pocket of people that need it. Unlike those plans however, it would get the votes from both sides.
Like I said, it isn't that radical. It isn't like the European style systems, but there are models. Like I mentioned, a similar system is quite popular in Singapore (which I wouldn't describe as an entirely backwards society, I could do without the caning, but you know, quit yer litterin'). For whatever reason, however, this debate always gets bogged down in this quagmire of European system or status quo, which I find bunk. I think there are legitimate concerns with the European way of providing health that don't fit neatly with our cultural identity. There would be broad Republican support for a bill that puts consumers in charge of cost control (this video could be cited as evidence). So why not consider that sort of plan? Because it doesn't inch us along the path to single-payer? Political points? What is it? Why isn't it even on the table?


Let me unpack this a bit, and respond separately to policy substance and the politics of the bill.

I'm not sure how a "lump sum" grant would work. Is there a hidden assumption in there that this is to replace their Medicare benefits later in life? Are there new taxes to offset it? Do people get to keep what they don't spend as cash? What happens if you get a serious illness and deplete it before you're 30?

Part of the advantage of the plan DeLong proposes is that most of the cost is borne by the individual themselves. They also have strong incentives to keep themselves healthy, since any money they don't use gets rolled over into their IRA, or if they so choose, returned to them immediately. If they're young and healthy, this means they have a pretty strong push towards saving 15% of their income at all times. If they do get sick, they have an incentive to try to deal with their illness as cheaply as possible, since every dime is out of pocket. If they get seriously ill, and blow through their HSA, they know what they pay is capped at 15% of their yearly income, and everything past that is paid for by the government, so they know they won't go broke.

A lump sum plan seems to lose most of those advantages.

As for politics, what Democrats are proposing now is actually to the right of the bill Republicans offered to Bill Clinton in the 90's. It's more conservative than the Massachusetts Romneycare reforms.

Republican opposition isn't ideological. There isn't a single god damned thing Democrats could do with this bill that would make Republicans vote for it. They win by handing Obama a defeat, period. Any reform that dramatically improves the system that's signed into law by Obama means historically huge credit will be heaped on Democrats in general, and Obama in particular. They will do anything to stop that from happening.

That said, I would have loved to have seen Democrats propose something like what DeLong suggested, just to hear what the Republican anti-reform talking points would've been. Probably they'd just demagogue the mandated 15% contribution to HSA's and call that a "government takeover" of health care. They'd probably still say that all we need to do is tort reform and to "let companies sell insurance across state lines" which would in effect eliminate the states' ability to regulate insurance.

The only bill that would ever get broad Republican support is one introduced by a Republican majority in congress.

@NetRunner : Yea, something like that. I'd rather just pick some fixed amount everybody gets for life however, and just hand them the money when they are 18. It doesn't even have to be money right away (to defer the inflation). It could just be stamps that are converted to cash by the doctors when they are reimbursed for services. It's got most of the qualities of the progressive plans. It's egalitarian. It puts money in the pocket of people that need it. Unlike those plans however, it would get the votes from both sides.

Like I said, it isn't that radical. It isn't like the European style systems, but there are models. Like I mentioned, a similar system is quite popular in Singapore (which I wouldn't describe as an entirely backwards society, I could do without the caning, but you know, quit yer litterin'). For whatever reason, however, this debate always gets bogged down in this quagmire of European system or status quo, which I find bunk. I think there are legitimate concerns with the European way of providing health that don't fit neatly with our cultural identity. There would be broad Republican support for a bill that puts consumers in charge of cost control (this video could be cited as evidence). So why not consider that sort of plan? Because it doesn't inch us along the path to single-payer? Political points? What is it? Why isn't it even on the table?