I’ve argued with people in the past that to use a quote is agree to the defense of it’s inclusion. I’ve never been amused by those trying to wiggle out of a comment by stating it’s not their words so .. Cough BS. So while I don’t agree on the latter paragraph as being accidental, e.g the military picking up where the system failed since I believe that it’s there to benefit from such, the rest is pretty much what the US looks like from here.
Now ask yourself another question. Has anybody resigned, from either the public or the private sectors (overlapping so lavishly as they now do)? Has anybody even offered to resign? Have you heard anybody in authority apologize, as in: “So very sorry about your savings and pensions and homes and college funds, and I feel personally rotten about it”? Have you even heard the question being posed? O.K., then, has anybody been fired? Any regulator, any supervisor, any runaway would-be golden-parachute artist? Anyone responsible for smugly putting the word “derivative” like a virus into the system? To ask the question is to answer it
Came across this item on the Clean Technica blog which has a practical view of energy that’s sadly lacking on those that oppose it. Hell in the UK when Torness , a nuclear power station, was being built many locals had a sticker that said “nuclear power? No thanks. Atop an image of the sun. I laughed, I still laugh and to this day usually ascribe such glorious ignorance to those that want to save the planet but ONLY within their ideological boundaries on what’s comfy technology wise. In most cases their comfort level is fire , then you have the raw foodies who’ve not even gotten that far but more abuse on that natural crowd later. Natural does not equal good in all, hell most cases. That people post these online rather than using a “natural” rock to stand and engage passers by with leads me to question their commitment to the atavistic tendencies that seem to serve them so well with the diet.
Anyway. Let’s get back to the portable nuclear generators and how fricking handy these will be if we can avoid the people that work at Jiffy Lube ever getting these in for service..
Hyperion Power Generation, for example, is focusing on a heating unit that is small enough to fit on the back of an over-the-road truck that can produce 70 MW of thermal energy constantly for several years. I spoke to the company founder for The Atomic Show Podcast and he explained how his company is establishing the supply chain needed to build 4,000 units that will be able to provide heat for about $3 per million BTU. By comparison, liquified natural gas sold in Japan last week for $20 per million BTU.
This is to the tech crowd, the geeks e.g the people that should know better.
Nearly
everything I’m seeing from the Pax08 concert has such poor sound /
video that it’s a complete waste of time and energy yet this crap is
getting 4 and 5 stars. Here’s where it bugs me. The crappy sound
and video in a sane world would be “mediated” by the crowd and given
an appropriate rating but it seems that it’s totally broken in the
cases of geek centric clips. Self recognition doesn’t = ****/*****
stars dumb ******/*******
You are today’s equivalent of the
idiots in sports stadiums with their GN14 flashes trying to reach out
all the way to center field. Either drop the money on a reasonable
recorder or just leave it in your pocket.
Blame the recent enthusiasm for Jonathon Coulton and our attendance at the Phoenix concert this part Thursday for this post. One of the songs played Mandelbrot set which got me thinking about Fractals and the screensaver I used to enjoy more than the bills I received for staying online. This time I found something way cooler with links to one of my top ten favorite movies based on a short story by an author I like. Please enjoy the electric sheep screen-saver
Out of interest the only pop science book that I have lost is called ” Chaos” by James Gleick
It’s not someone looking for a cheap, but adorable,way to feed otters but the replies are great. So if the idea of kitten consumption offends I’d steer clear of this.
I love it when companies that create a problem take corrective action against their best customers. actually make that their customers period. This is the mentality that decides the easiest solution to a health problem that disproportionately affects a segment of the population has to be inflicted on the general population that don’t have the same predisposition.
A real case of the cure being worse than the disease.
Such a case is Ebay’s recent decision to remove the ability for sellers to rate buyers.Couple this with a new fee schedule that is argued by Ebay to mean a reduction of charges for “most” people which seems counter to my experience. If they mean per 1000 items listed it’s cheaper for mass sellers there’s a case for that. For the occasional seller all I see are increases
It’s an election year after all and I think they’ve been nicking plays from the politician’s play book. Reducing an insertion fee by 5c while adding on the
If you list 100 items with a starting and ending price of $9 with a 50 percent sell-through rate (50 items out of 100 actually sell), it would cost you a total of $63.63 in fees under the old structure and a total of $74.38 under the new structure. This is a fee increase of 17 percent.This is based on the old insertion fee of 40 cents plus commission fee of 5.25%, and the new insertion fee of 35 cents plus 8.75% FVF. If you list 100 items with a starting price of $9 and sell 50 percent of them at a selling price of $35, you would have paid $121.75 in total fees under the old pricing structure. Under the new pricing, you would pay $162. That is a 33 percent fee increase.
Which is in most of the cases for my personal use + paypal fees = usuary? I really liked Ebay and apart from rare items now I’ve abandoned it. Two reasons. One the curse of “perfect information” There’s just too many people using it with an appreciation for the value of items that there’s little deviation in the price of gear. Secondly I’m painfully aware that additional fees are passed straight on to me. It’s bad for me on both counts.
I found the presence of neg feedback generated by a seller VERY instructive with regards to demeanor and professionalism of the seller .e.g “loser didn’t read ad properly , get a life” killed my desire straight away to deal with them. Mistakes happen, it’s the only way you see where customer service promises transform into action.
No longer having that insight is a disservice to buyers as well as sellers and I swear I looked up Ebay’s new management to see if they’d used a “buy it now” option to bring in Fema’s ex director. Yer doing a hell of a job Ebay.
I love it when companies that create a problem take corrective action against their best customers. actually make that their customers period. This is the mentality that decides the easiest solution to a health problem that disproportionately affects a segment of the population has to be inflicted on the general population that don’t have the same predisposition.
A real case of the cure being worse than the disease.
Such a case is Ebay’s recent decision to remove the ability for sellers to rate buyers.Couple this with a new fee schedule that is argued by Ebay to mean a reduction of charges for “most” people which seems counter to my experience. If they mean per 1000 items listed it’s cheaper for mass sellers there’s a case for that. For the occasional seller all I see are increases
It’s an election year after all and I think they’ve been nicking plays from the politician’s play book. Reducing an insertion fee by 5c while adding on the
If
you list 100 items with a starting and ending price of $9 with a 50
percent sell-through rate (50 items out of 100 actually sell), it would
cost you a total of $63.63 in fees under the old structure and a total
of $74.38 under the new structure. This is a fee increase of 17 percent.This
is based on the old insertion fee of 40 cents plus commission fee of
5.25%, and the new insertion fee of 35 cents plus 8.75% FVF. If
you list 100 items with a starting price of $9 and sell 50 percent of
them at a selling price of $35, you would have paid $121.75 in total
fees under the old pricing structure. Under the new pricing, you would
pay $162. That is a 33 percent fee increase.
Which is in most of the cases for my personal use + paypal fees = usuary? I really liked Ebay and apart from rare items now I’ve abandoned it. Two reasons. One the curse of “perfect information” There’s just too many people using it with an appreciation for the value of items that there’s little deviation in the price of gear. Secondly I’m painfully aware that additional fees are passed straight on to me. It’s bad for me on both counts.
I found the presence of neg feedback generated by a seller VERY instructive with regards to demeanor and professionalism of the seller .e.g “loser didn’t read ad properly , get a life” killed my desire straight away to deal with them. Mistakes happen, it’s the only way you see where customer service promises transform into action.
No longer having that insight is a disservice to buyers as well as sellers and I swear I looked up Ebay’s new management to see if they’d used a “buy it now” option to bring in Fema’s ex director. Yer doing a hell of a job Ebay.
This was a long weekend due to MLK day. I’d love to pick up that hot potato but frankly you can pick your own version of the man. I’m just convinced that we should not be so happy as to call this equality by any stretch of the imagination. This country is so far away from treating people by the content of their character but instead attempts to treat them based on atavistic ass hattery, having the right combination of chromosomes , which invisible friend they have and a myriad of seemingly hardwired behaviors that have people acting as a walk on part in their own life. ( Notice we often talk about the lessons we need to learn? )
Here’s a view that may seem over simplistic but seems to fit most of my experiences with groups .Welcome to the monkey sphere.
Onto something happy. Today was a matinée ice hockey game. Dobh was in attendance and was being wickedly cute, and while a bit difficult he took a three hour trip pretty well. He howls along to each score for the home team. He had a lot of opportunity today This is the first time in over a decade I’ve made a point of watching a sport that wasn’t a national event such as Wimbledon or the Super bowl. The fan attire fits me nicely, there’s a level of skill immediately apparent that I can’t discern in baseball and I don’t even want to get into professional football. I live in Phoenix for fucks sake Even though I never had a sporting background. I still had to play rugby, soccer and hockey at school , I lived in the country with one non driving parent. It wasn’t that big a deal we could only afford one car.( you tell the kid’s that today and they won’t believe you </python> so it wasn’t really an option.
Next post: Boy do the American’s know how to put on a show,
I’m wondering if any guide to influencing people is effective if they’ve already gained many years experience of you. I’m wondering if you start pushing their influence and compliance buttons how well they spot it? Do we really have to play the game of crafting onion requests to have people agree to the what looks like a concession but hey, that’s what we wanted you to think anyway. Maybe that’s why APS keep asking for insane increases to make us all happy when instead of screwing us they use lube first.
So here I am reading in parallel Tom Robbins Still Life with the woodpecker( 5th time round, a book on influence the psychology of persuasion by Robert Cialdini , a book on how organizations are inherently evil,Calculated chaos by Butler Shaffer and have just finished The invisibles book, kissing Mr Quimper, by Grant Morrison. Is it any I wonder how I can’t finish a sentence around people without trailing off?
It’s hard to rein in new applications of information in the short term which sadly is about the only timespan most American’s work on. They miss the here and now because they are so fucking anxious for it to arrive that they miss it going by. ADD makes perfect sense here I think Rushkoff’s take on this being an adaptive strategy to the messages hitting you daily is closer to the truth than would be convenient for those making a living from the effects of it.
Ok since this is a dump post.
People that haven’t read Violent Acres are missing out.
Penn Jillette has started vlogging over at Cracker.com rather than link directly check out the header on the referring blog is worthy of your consideration.
And this defense of liberty by yeah I say this for humor value “Canadian” since freedom to me isn’t border related but cultural. Via Ernunnos but then every damn blog I read the day after;) This would have been awesome had it been a scripted show. That it’s reality , Alberta a Canadian one ,made my Sunday. We’re talking about beating out Summer Glau kicking ass in the Sarah Connor chronicles too. I’m watching hockey, getting intellectual stimulation from Canadians, other than Bear Naked Ladies ,and listening to a CBC series called how to think about science. I’m stuck in the land of the hot dog between a rock hard tortilla and a Tim Horton’s place.
That these items are considered dangerous is a sad indictment of the USA. I grew up on a farm.with guns, chainsaws, poison, tractors and animals that can take out a five year old, That’s before you consider Scottish winters and food. Anyway it’s entertaining and hopefully it inspires a family to build a potato gun this weekend:)
Happy new year, at least one of the many calenders that are out there. I prefer the dragons and fireworks
myself to the irony of the “timeless” Dick Clark looking like didn’t go down
to Georgia, but over to Switzerland instead and lost a watch building contest
with “Old Harry”, but I digress. Let’s start out 2008 with a positive message.
I am positive that elections are a great excuse to get more people blog, vlog
, ne demagogue this upcoming election with a torrent of user generated content
seeded by MSM sources ( Oh dear I’ve gone negative early… )
This is one of those tales I love. Most people here don’t believe me when I said that the UK was so hostile to car drivers that just being able to find somewhere to drive it and park was a chore. Pay the toll to get over the bridge, pay the toll to get into the city, pay to park etc. Now it looks like McDonald’s in the UK have decided that it’s in their interests to send $150 fines to people who have the gall( they probably have that minced up in their happymeal ) to eat their and pay for the meal. The UK people don’t seem to be ba da da da daaaa loving it. So that’s funny. What’s funnier and I have this debate quite a lot is that just because you hire a third person to be a dick on your behalf doesn’t make you less culpable just highlights how crass you are. Hey customers we’ve paid a company to shit in your food but since we don’t profit from it, swallow ok? See how it goes. Eat lunch one day, get fined, refuse to pay get a larger fine, then they take you by force and it all goes pear shaped. If you need to commit a crime in the UK mug someone . You’ll get less of a fine, some assistance with education, rented accommodation and some money .. just don’t park while beating the shit out of the pensioner.
I am kind lucky that I fell through the idea that libertarianism , as practiced by most of the people I’ve met here is going to advance us anywhere, soon, ever.
Now I can’t make such an unsupported statement ( ok I can but.. ) Stefan Molyneux , another great reason to embrace new media, takes a look at the demands that libertarians make from the rest of the world and what they will offer the rest of the world in return. It’s quite enlightening. While many of his techniques if followed through to their logical conclusion will save you a fortune on xmas cards ,being that you will have no friends left, they are rather interesting. So if you think that another person can give you freedom then you may as well vote for , well anyone really it doesn’t matter. Now I’m off to read Freedomain Radio – Videos
Dobhran, aka “pork chop” , “dosbin”, “Dobie” and on special occasions little lord farfanoogan will be having a nicely manufactured Christmas this year. Many licenced, plastic and on the whole worth their weight in lead toys are awaiting his rapt and often violent attention. Next year though? Erin’s been out in the woodshop between hobbling ( it’s like PT for her bunghole, er leg ) between a new play cube and my delightful ( so far) bike which has gotten us talking about making more of Dobhran’s toys. I found this jet on my web travels and have to say I’m impressed by it, though not the price of the plans. I think I want to build the wee one some form of gentle motion simulator but he’s really into bikes and cars. How the hell we make him a mini “hang on” that he won’t fall off is another matter.. maybe I’ll stick to cars for the time being.
This is the first time in over a decade I’ve made a point of watching a sport that wasn’t a national event such as Wimbledon or the Super bowl. The fan attire fits me nicely, there’s a level of skill immediately apparent that I can’t discern in baseball and I don’t even want to get into professional football. I live in Phoenix for fucks sake 
Even though I never had a sporting background. I still had to play rugby, soccer and hockey at school , I lived in the country with one non driving parent. It wasn’t that big a deal we could only afford one car.( you tell the kid’s that today and they won’t believe you </python> 
