elderbear

What a great guy! I looked over and there he was eating lunch two tables away from us at the Newsroom Cafe in Beverly Hills. When we finished lunch I went over and said hi and how much I had appreciated his roles. His "florida" accent is how he talks. His smile is magnificent and he was very approachable. Highlight of my day!

I guess it takes all kinds. Voyager was not my favorite Trek, but I'm enjoying it more than I imagine I'd enjoy sharp metal objects through my genitalia, hammered or otherwise!

Given his current approval ratings, I don't think Bush can buy his way into a 3rd term. I think the Republicans would like to get rid of him NOW so that he doesn't drag them down with him!

Sort of like the heroin pusher telling his customer that the junkie is an addict! It truly is outrageous! But inspite of the multiple layers of hypocrisy, we are addicted to oil. And, we're living at the global peak of oil production, while demand for oil will go up as India and China become more serious oil junkies. Even from a dark-soul like Bush, admitting the truth is a start. Yes, we are addicted to oil. A sudden withdrawal would probably be fatal (read Jared Diamond's Collapse for historical examples). Increasing prices over a few decades may prompt change. Whatever change we come up with will have to include brilliant repurposing of infrastructure or it will be a disgusting kludge. Given the complexities of the situation, we'll probably have elements of both. OTOH, I heard a piece on NPR's Science Friday that examined using ethanol. It's working quite well in Brazil (but they've been working on it for 25+ years). In theory, we could nearly run America on ethanol generated from sawmill waste!

There's an old joke: Think of the em-pee-aye-aye as an 8000 pound gorilla ...

Even if your arguments are right, it's not hard at all for them to get a financial award. They have a whole stable full of lawyers which they must pay regadless of winnings or losings. It costs the MPAA nothing to attack Nite. OTOH, Nite is not a lawyer and is not made of money. It would be financially prohibitive for him to fight this battle, regardless of what they can prove or not. "Justice" goes to the rich, regardless of the righteousness of their cause.

Count me in to support Nite and not the MPAA.

I would never download something I wasn't entitled to. There are a few torrent sites that host only legal downloads, mostly concert recordings by bands that encourage fans to record and share. That's it. Period. What does that have to do with the MPAA? But a friend of a friend downloads, so I hear. The MPAA's activities have not caused this person to modify their downloading activities one bit. If one site closes, my friend's friend simply finds another source. I recently heard that this person had said "The avian flu pandemic might not be a total loss - 90% of MPAA employees and attorneys would not be able to work." Sounds like overkill to me. This person is probably mentally unbalanced, and certainly not a Christian.

It would be an interesting experiment to become "blessingists." Pray to whatever Gods you may believe in, or simply focus your intent for a few minutes that things work out OK for Nite. Then ... ... and this is the hard one: do the same for the MPAA. They may be misguided, they may be hurtful, but in the end, what have any of us to lose by doing so? The worst we can do is improve our own mental state. Anger (such as would prompt "terrorist" language) is a natural defensive emotion. This MPAA group is out to harm our benefactor and friend, Niteshdw. That is a threat to all of us. We should feel some anger at that. But anger only helps in a mano y mano fight. Otherwise, it damages the body and psyche. To become engraged at the MPAA is to harm ourselves. Suppressing anger, however, is physically harmful also. The simplest solution is to reframe the problem: what are other ways to think about the MPAA's actions. Forgive the MPAA, for they are misguided. Say a prayer or focus your heart on blessings for the people who make up the MPAA (not for their cause or actions). In a PM months ago, Niteshdw told me how he endeavors to "hate the sin and love the sinner." (We weren't discussing the MPAA) Can we learn to hate the behavior and love the inddividuals responsible for it? If for no other reason that it reflects Nite's ethics and practice?

Enterprise! Did you grab it from somewhere, or can you generate these things?

They're a valued business for me - they're prices are quite reasonable, so I'd feel bad if I torrented a ton of their stuff. But I'll look into putting together a compilation of some of the best. Demonoid.com has tons of TTC stuff. Unfortunately, a bunch of the people who make the torrents ignore CD tracks and try to directly encode at 32kbps. That would work, but the audio needs to be filtered first, otherwise it's rather annoying to listen to. One of the very best courses is on Freedom. When I got it it was only available on tape, so I'll have to hook up the tape deck and record it. Real soon now. But after I get done ripping the Vikings one (18 CDs will take a while!!!)

After several months of very long commutes in heavy traffic, I've become addicted to listening to lectures from TTC The Teaching Company. I'm currently listening to a great one on the Vikings. They were living the Science Fiction of the 9th Century! And I think they'd have one heck of a party and battles with Klingons. What do you think? Does it belong here? Or should I take it to Demonoid, where they already have a serious SIG on TTC lectures. BTW, in order to deliver a lecture series for TTC, 1 in about 5000 professors are selected. I've auditioned a number of their candidates and given them all thumbs down. The ones who finally pass muster are excellent speakers. 64k doesn't sound too bad - 32K requires band pass filtering before encoding, an additional step I don't relish. 128k is larger, but will sound better. I'll retain the CD and track structuring. 2 30 minute lectures per CD, 6 5 minute tracks per lecture. I'll also make sure that the files are nicely titled.

Somebody set up a poll about moderation - this is a hot-button issue. On topic: It's absolutely nuts to say you can or cannot FF something. Remember, the TV stations are using the public airwaves for their product. Commercials now consume more than 33% of the American TV show. I'd rather pay $20/month and get 52 minutes of content than have to sit through endless commercials and only get 38+ minutes of content. But then again, I'm not the average American.

Can you hurry up and bring it to the Whitehouse?!?

Sure you can! You cannot have infinite options in a quantum physical space! But in a pure mathematical space, I can have an infinite number of options between 0 and 1. First option is at 0, second at 1/2, third at 1/4, etc ..., having a bit turned on or off at each 2^-n. Works quite nicely. B) But then along comes Schroedinger's cat to spoil all that fun - unless/until somebody proves Cantor right.