I just recently discovered Portishead (thanks to Pandora), and I hadn't yet heard this song. I'm going to have to hear it a few more times before I can tell how much I like it.

The video, however, is nothing short of amazing. Now I have to move The Fountain up to the head of my Netflix queue. All my careful planning gone for naught, thanks to you!

I think what a lot of people need to realise is the world of computers doesn't just consist of you hardcore nerds who actually care about stuff like multi-tasking, playing with insides and any other pointlessly hopeless reason you have for hating something you haven't touched.

The thing is and I know this is going to be difficult to grasp, many people DON'T want needlessly complex interfaces to do what they want to do on the internet, neither Windows, OS X or Linux is an appropriate tool. It's great if you love working in a terminal with your 100 memorised key commands but this is not for everyone.

You need to understand that there are people that can NOT grasp the idea of a "tab" in a browser, there are people who think a browser IS the internet, there are people when you tell them to open another window, will minimize to desktop to re-click the application icon. You may call them stupid in your high chair but there is absolutely no reason these people should be deprived of enjoying the same entertainment you do. The simplicity of the iPhone/iPad OS is entirely 100% intentional, it doesn't multi-task on purpose, multi-tasking is utterly confusing! Again not for you that's great but you already have 10000 other devices you are free to choose from.

People miss one key fact, not everything is for you, not every product is going to cater to your needs. I can tell you around my circle of friends and family, not a single person could give two damns about a webcam and I challenge anyone to show me some kind of report that shows how amazingly popular video chat is. Not a single person cares that they can't "stream Pandora and write an email at the same time!", not a single one has ever even heard of Pandora, I in fact had never heard of it until I heard people whinging about it with the iPad.

Also please stop comparing this to the iPod/iPhone, if you think a bigger screen is a "small change", you need to take a course in Human Computer Interaction and then come back and repeat that sentence. I also bet you think that porting a desktop application to a mobile is just shrinking it down? Please.

Should we open Pandora's box?

Yes
No

It's actually pointless to introduce the solar energy input into the equation at all Crake. The sun has shone and will shine for far longer than human beings will ever manage to survive on this planet. When I and many others look at agricultural reform we look at those aspects of the food production chain that humans can control and can change. The 'facilitation' you talk about is the entire crux of the modern day agricultural dilemma. There are an infinite number of ways that facilitation could happen, and the concern and debate is whether or not the road industry has chosen for us is the one that will bare the most fruit. Clearly it has not. The reasons, myriad, I don't want to write a thesis on the sift.

And I agree, when you start looking at government crop subsidies the energy calculation does lose its relevance. Why? Because you have jumped a 100 steps up a chain that was problematic at its root. The agricultural subsidy issue is a whole other Pandora's box.

Again, it's not the Haber process itself that is unsustainable, it is the entire industrial agricultural framework. The Haber process's dependence on natural gas is problematic, and even with future technological developments aside, it's a reductionist solution that undermines the multitude of complimentary farming techniques that could naturally introduce nitrogen into the soil. It's the kind of simplified agricultural solution that corporate agribusiness monopolies love, and it's this mutual reinforcement that causes concern. Again, the Haber process is a small piece of huge puzzle, we digress.

And with regards to future developments, let me illustrate why future developments are almost irrelevant to many of the problems at hand. In India for example there is a 500 year old tradition of aquaculture, for shrimp specifically. Most of the farms are small, local and sustainably run using various aquaculture farming methods (if you are interested you could read up on the Bheri system of aquaculture, just one of the many traditional systems).

This 'third world' farming technique as some might call it is just as profitable and has yields just as large as the more intensive commercial and industrial aquaculture methods. It has stood the test of time and it also forms the back bone of India's shrimp export economy, the largest in the world.

Industrial shrimp farming has had dismal success around the world. Taiwan, China, Mexico, Ecuador, all these countries have had huge issues keeping commercial shrimp farming sustainable. Wherever commercial shrimp farming has been tried, it has failed to a large degree, usually due to major disease outbreaks. That's why the call it the 'rape and run' industry.

Isn't it strange that the more industrial shrimp farms are introduced in India (due to government subsidies and incentives), the more 'environmental issues' they have to deal with that just didn't exist with the 'traditional third world systems' . . . mangrove destruction, drinking water pollution (from antibiotics and pesticides add to the shrimp ponds to minimize disease) , salinization of groundwater, etc.

Now you might argue with me that the solution to this problem potentially lies with future developments . . . a better antibiotic maybe, perhaps genetically engineering shrimp to be more resistant to disease and pollution, etc, or maybe the solution lies in adopting farming techniques that have been slowly perfected for the last 500 years and are proven to work, where the only interventions that could be made were natural ones and success was determined by how well you could maintain a balanced relationship with your local ecosystem. It is these farming systems and the mindset that they embody that I would like to see the world adopt, improve upon and gravitate towards.

Pinning your hopes for improvement on future developments and technology is totally misguided, especially when the core of the modern industrial agricultural foundation is so rotten. I have nothing against technology, but I'm not going to let the problems, born of brutish and unsophisticated industrial thinking, be overlooked by a corporate apologist futurist mindset. I'm not implying that's how you feel about the issue, but that the stance that many people have. There is an utter lack of holistic thinking in the industrial agricultural world (and everywhere else pretty much) and the direction it is leading us in is potentially frightening.

This video has been declared a duplicate; transferring votes to the original video and killing this dupe - dupeof declared by spoco2.

Man, I searched quite hard for it, using oliva munn, avatar etc. as search terms... sometimes I lament at the search ability on VS.

*dupeof=http://www.videosift.com/video/Attack-of-the-Show-Thelma-Louise-II-Avatars-of-Pandora

>> ^demon_ix:
It is. By about 7 hours. If my understanding of time isn't failing me.


Thanks, just double checking. *dupeof=http://www.videosift.com/video/Attack-of-the-Show-Thelma-Louise-II-Avatars-of-Pandora

>> ^demon_ix:
ant's hulu clip is blocked for me, so I can't confirm it's a dupe, but http://www.videosift.com/video/Attack-of-the-Show-Thelma-
Louise-II-Avatars-of-Pandora


Definitely, a dupe, but is mine older?

ant's hulu clip is blocked for me, so I can't confirm it's a dupe, but http://www.videosift.com/video/Attack-of-the-Show-Thelma-Louise-II-Avatars-of-Pandora

I get it!

In reply to this comment by jwray:
oooh a cross between zangarmarsh and un'goro crater.

>> ^syncron:
>> ^xxovercastxx:
Pandora? Unobtainium? Who the hell is naming these things? What do they call those aircraft, death trapters?

Scorpion gunships actually.
http://james-camerons-avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Scorpion_Gunship



MAJOR UN-TAGGED SPOILERS!

>> ^xxovercastxx:
Pandora? Unobtainium? Who the hell is naming these things? What do they call those aircraft, death trapters?


Scorpion gunships actually.
http://james-camerons-avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Scorpion_Gunship

Your video, Exploring Pandora, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Pandora? Unobtainium? Who the hell is naming these things? What do they call those aircraft, death trapters?

I was kind of hoping this was going to be about the internet radio station.