m5c32 comments

There seems to be a dissonance.

If TV had no impact on people, we would not care about stereotypes on TV. People wouldn't complain that all the good people roles are (ethnicity) and all baddies in [hollywood|bollywood|hongkong] movies are (ethnicity), for example.

Whenever the subject comes up, it's claimed that TV and Movies provide role models. If TV and Movies had zero impact we would not care about who portrayed what.

One or the other is wrong. They can't both be true.

There is always India, who, by accident of history, also have an educated class well versed in English.

Why?

Because the frequency and prominence would suggest it's of high import, whereas it's really fluff and inconsequential. It's non-serious news, of the most vacuous kind. That's what's off-putting. Get some real news. Follow up on the scandals and deal brokers and kingmakers--stuff that matters. A little entertainment is ok --but this is overboard.

The thing is old media was slow to learn about personalization --if they have even begun.

News media make their money from advertising. The old medium of newspapers never learned how to personalize and serve that up to their visitors. Their idea of making money is to offer subscriptions. They never made money from subscriptions (exceptions like The Economist and so on, but even they depend on advertising). But now that's how they want to recoup their money.

That's not how it works --now with all the Ebays, Craigslists and all sorts of other localized "classifieds" eating Newspapers' lunch, that ship sailed.

Now, this has not settled --and it may be another 10 years before the dust starts to settle and the smart organizations figure a way to be profitable --but someone will figure a way, even if it's not the old organizations. It may be new reconstituted and unrecognized madia that takes over. time will tell.

Thanks Russia and China. Really, thanks for propping up the dictator (or dictatrix, if her claim is true). I'm sure you are following Spike Lee and are "doing the right thing". I'm sure neither one of you would take people's dire situation and turn it into a personal issue to show the EU and the US that you don't feel obliged follow their lead. No one would be that callous and machiavellian.

The Japanese maker of a controversial pesticide said it’s pulling all sales of the chemical from the U.S. market, surprising growers and environmentalists.

So this raises the question: Why is it controversial? I assume the controversy is more then just "environmentalists clamored for its removal from the marketplace" I mean, I'm sure there is a good reason behind the clamor.

China has passed the United States when it comes to how many people are adopting smartphones and tablets…

In other news, also has the largest population in the planet, produces the most carbon emissions and also produces the largest amount of disposable chopsticks. Film at eleven.

oh and who is going to feed the 2 billion gas guzzlers? easier said than done.

So you're saying that in half a generation they've forgotten how to ride bikes?

What? "the Datsun name will help its profile in newer markets." But why revert to Datsun as a name? No one will recognize it after 30 years....

Exactly. Why dredge up a brand whose times had passed? It has no cachet, other than some nostalgia for some, but that does not make sense for emerging markets where Datsun either has no meaning (and thus no advantage) or sounds oddly dated and old, grandfatherly. It's akin to someone dredging up Atari. It would strike a chord for a few, but for the vast majority it would mean nothing positive, possibly have negative association.

Except that's a poor analogy too. It's more like your neighbor is very close friends with a competing electricity provider and tries to convince you that your current provider is a misogynist...

Except your analogy breaks down b/c the US and the EU are not "convincing" Japan. Japan realizes that the claims are true but outlines how her dependence on this misogynist makes such move somewhat nuanced. There are dependency issues, of course.

If you looked at Stuxnet and compared what was discovered via the code (and what that indicated) there and what the iranian gov't claim, you would see a discrepancy --it would be very hard to assign that discrepancy to something other than refining nuclear material which can be used for nuclear weapons building. Whether they are at the stage of building weapons is anyone's guess. That they are trying to get there is not so much a guess.

They wouldn't have this problem if they were using 22mn or 28mn chips.

Well, it's not like intel would lend them their 22nm fabs (seeing as Apple is opting for non-intel for its post-pc devices). Good old Samsung and their 45nm fabs.

This is not a crime-prevention technique. This is a crime reporting technique.

Well, to be fair, if and when they catch the perp, that would prevent further crime by such person(s). So it has the potential to prevent further crime.

If my neighbour came to me and ORDERED me to stop buying electricity because HE has a dispute with the company supplying my electricity, I would tell him to solve his own problem diplomatically and quit being such a child!

Except that's a poor analogy. It's more like if you and your neighbor were both women and your and her electric provider were a misogynist. She asked you to and all the women who bought their electricity from the misogynistic provider and suggested you all buy your electricity from another provider who wasn't a misogynist. Then your neighbor realized that moving to another utility would be rather onerous so there are provisos for that and you all agree on a gradual schedule for the switch over. In addition, you would be willing to go back to the currently misogynist utility if they reformed and became enlightened with the help of your coordination.

Thorium reactors ... because they have military applications and more powerful lobbyist organisations.

You realise Thorium is UNattractive (when considering weapons grade byproducts) because weapons grade byproduct is much more difficult to extract --which was one of the reasons to favor Uranium when these things were bring designed in the 50s and 60s.

There have been good developments in renewable energy extraction technologies. They will replace traditional energy sources slowly, as cost-competitiveness and retooling transition take time. It's also likely Hydrogen gets skipped altogether. I mean, what is the advantage? It has lots of problems and not much unique upside. It's not like there are huge pools of pure hydrogen waiting for extraction. It has to be produced, transported and then converted back into energy (the whole cycle is wasteful).

Big Power Producers wants us to believe that small scale generation will never amount to anything

Bloom energy would like to disagree.

Big energy producers will have to transform like telecoms had to transform. From state sponsored monopolies to neutral carriers (in this case provide the infrastructure for the power grid, but not so much power production -or at least a reduced role).

Some scientists are working on technology to produce hydrogen by using nothing more than the sun.

In that case (as in most scenarios), hydrogen becomes an energy vessel --and not a very dense one. Transportation and storage become issues. It's not all that improbable that we skip hydrogen altogether and end up using something different. Hydrogen has been the next best thing since the 19th century and counting.

Unless there is some breakthru, it's not going to become a predominant vessel for energy.

I also think hydrogen has a major part in future energy sources.

They've been saying that for decades now. Where is this hydrogen coming from, water (or, ironically, reforming hydrocarbons)? Where do you get the energy to split water from?

So with bodies and recovered evidence, they still need a confession? Confessions are just as bad (unreliable) as eye witnesses accounts in establishing facts.

Gather and prove the evidence matches up with him doing it. You know, materials, fibers, splatter, cuts, bruises. Things which can't be explained away with, "oh, we had an argument".

Fingertips, blood. Next time just send the from name and address along with recent photo. Make it super easy to find you.

One model XQJ 37 nuclear-powered pansexual rotoplooker.

Hope Joe doesn't destroy it this time round.

Sea Shepherd claims win after fracas with Japan whalers

The thing is anyone can claim anything (that goes for both sides). The proof will be in the eating of the pudding (i.e. end of hunting season results).

Ok, gyrating pole-dancing robots? They'd better have self-lubricating, self-cleaning orifices or else, what's the point?

Unintended consequences.

The world needs energy. Remember the bright idea of ethanol from corn as an alternative? Drove up the prices of corn (which is a base for many goods) and in turn made many foods more expensive. And that was due to a small diversion of corn (maize) into fuel. And irony of ironies, clearcutting done to prepare land for maize production in 3rd world countries led to environmental (erosion and water) issues in those places.

Incentivize yes, but this idea that all at once one can just switch from non-renewable to renewable in a matter of years is ignorant or lunatic. Things just don't work like that.

waving Russian flags and chanting "Putin, Putin!"

Really? To me, it rang more like "Putain, Putain!"

China must increase military spending to win 'local wars' with neighbors: Wen

Translation: "We need to refocus the energy and gaze of our youth away from our own internal, national failings and misdirect them to manufactured problems abroad thus pulling a fast one via the convenient mantel of patriotism.

"My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir.

Right. Because this_is_the_first_time_ever he was on the Radio. No Way. That's just the guy he is (he probably likes to laugh it off as "stick"). The only reason he's even apologized is because his advertisers seem to be pulling out (pun intended).

She should file a defamation suit against him and the radio company. If she doesn't have the money, someone should pony up for her.

for the first time Germany has expressed concerns mainly over Chinese threats that it could cancel orders for EU-built Airbus planes.

Uhhm, yeah. That would be THE concern. China knows how to play hardball. It's almost a certainty the EU will cave in. And people think the US plays hardball. Just. You. Wait.

Really, I don't know what the big deal is. All airlines are affected by this. It's not as though some would be exempted. Are 20 euros going to keep people from taking a plane to the EU?

professor wrapped an electrical cord around a student’s neck during a class as an “educational demonstration,”

Hya. I think he was more likely trying to demo the MP Milligan and Hutchence thing.

How can any religion be against contraception? I can understand people's beliefs regarding foetuses. But contraception? Ar they also against masturbation and wet dreams? Good luck with stoping that. That kind of belief system is just beyond the pale of any reason.

Now, I accept that people can have cookie ideas, but there is no reason that they should be allowed to stand against reason and public health. Some things are more important than officially recognizing cookie ideas and giving them some kind of legal imprimatur. We're not living in the 1700's here.

Penny-wise and pound foolish to try to derail free contraceptives.

If people have better access to contraceptives, the fewer accidental pregnancies, the fewer accidentals, the fewer total taken to full term. The fewer pregnancies means more productivity (not having to take maternity and paternity leave by the parents).

Yeah, go ahead, shoot yourselves in the foot. Allow more unwanted pregnancies and all that comes with that.

Even in poor areas of Africa and the indian subcontinent, they know enough to know that birth control is an important aspect of having people ascend from a life of grim prospects that unwanted pregnancies would saddle poor families with. It's one of the stepping stones in empowering women. How people in an industrialized country fail to realize this is either from stupidity or, well, probably just playing idiotic religion-based policies.

Is that the way we should think about healthcare, in terms of what is best for the population as a whole or what is best to get elected? It seems the latter and that is a sad commentary on the people and politicians.

Google is saying that if I specifically don't type in 'Jamie Oliver' they'll still filter or put a bias on what I see. That is not the Google experience I'm looking for

Easy. Sign out. That's it. Once you sign out, you will no longer get SPYW results. You'll get vanilla (uncustomized results).

Agree this is a furore over nothing.

It is and it isn't. Genrally people can't help but broadcast their peccadillos (and worse) by leaving their crumbs all over the internet. So, yeah, if people had self control and knew better --which they apparently don't. This would be no big deal. But the thing is, people will sell their souls to be cool or to get something for free (i.e. email, social networking platform, etc) All that works fine, till it doesn't. Such as when their friend, lover, spouse, colleague, employer find something unexpected. Or when a service has so much information on their subscribers they can know if someone is pregnant, ill, engaged in criminal activity, engaged in thought crime, etc.