UNetbootin - The Universal Netboot Installer

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UNetbootin - The Universal Netboot Installer Nice. Un instalador para Guindous o Linux para incluir otras distros sin necesariamente tener el CD a la mano.

10 Japanese Customs You Must Know Before a Trip to Japan

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10 Japanese Customs You Must Know Before a Trip to Japan

Video Games - Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo Expands His Empire - NYTimes.com

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Video Games - Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo Expands His Empire - NYTimes.com

Compost - Wired How-To Wiki

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Compost - Wired How-To Wiki

Un lindo reality check cortesia del Washington Post

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Wake Up, America. We're Driving Toward Disaster.

By James Howard Kunstler
Sunday, May 25, 2008; B03


Everywhere I go these days, talking about the global energy predicament on the college lecture circuit or at environmental conferences, I hear an increasingly shrill cry for "solutions." This is just another symptom of the delusional thinking that now grips the nation, especially among the educated and well-intentioned.

I say this because I detect in this strident plea the desperate wish to keep our "Happy Motoring" utopia running by means other than oil and its byproducts. But the truth is that no combination of solar, wind and nuclear power, ethanol, biodiesel, tar sands and used French-fry oil will allow us to power Wal-Mart, Disney World and the interstate highway system -- or even a fraction of these things -- in the future. We have to make other arrangements.

The public, and especially the mainstream media, misunderstands the "peak oil" story. It's not about running out of oil. It's about the instabilities that will shake the complex systems of daily life as soon as the global demand for oil exceeds the global supply. These systems can be listed concisely:

The way we produce food

The way we conduct commerce and trade

The way we travel

The way we occupy the land

The way we acquire and spend capital

And there are others: governance, health care, education and more.

As the world passes the all-time oil production high and watches as the price of a barrel of oil busts another record, as it did last week, these systems will run into trouble. Instability in one sector will bleed into another. Shocks to the oil markets will hurt trucking, which will slow commerce and food distribution, manufacturing and the tourist industry in a chain of cascading effects. Problems in finance will squeeze any enterprise that requires capital, including oil exploration and production, as well as government spending. These systems are all interrelated. They all face a crisis. What's more, the stress induced by the failure of these systems will only increase the wishful thinking across our nation.

And that's the worst part of our quandary: the American public's narrow focus on keeping all our cars running at any cost. Even the environmental community is hung up on this. The Rocky Mountain Institute has been pushing for the development of a "Hypercar" for years -- inadvertently promoting the idea that we really don't need to change.

Years ago, U.S. negotiators at a U.N. environmental conference told their interlocutors that the American lifestyle is "not up for negotiation." This stance is, unfortunately, related to two pernicious beliefs that have become common in the United States in recent decades. The first is the idea that when you wish upon a star, your dreams come true. (Oprah Winfrey advanced this notion last year with her promotion of a pop book called "The Secret," which said, in effect, that if you wish hard enough for something, it will come to you.) One of the basic differences between a child and an adult is the ability to know the difference between wishing for things and actually making them happen through earnest effort.

The companion belief to "wishing upon a star" is the idea that one can get something for nothing. This derives from America's new favorite religion: not evangelical Christianity but the worship of unearned riches. (The holy shrine to this tragic belief is Las Vegas.) When you combine these two beliefs, the result is the notion that when you wish upon a star, you'll get something for nothing. This is what underlies our current fantasy, as well as our inability to respond intelligently to the energy crisis.

These beliefs also explain why the presidential campaign is devoid of meaningful discussion about our energy predicament and its implications. The idea that we can become "energy independent" and maintain our current lifestyle is absurd. So is the gas-tax holiday. (Which politician wants to tell voters on Labor Day that the holiday is over?) The pie-in-the-sky plan to turn grain into fuel came to grief, too, when we saw its disruptive effect on global grain prices and the food shortages around the world, even in the United States. In recent weeks, the rice and cooking-oil shelves in my upstate New York supermarket have been stripped clean.

So what are intelligent responses to our predicament? First, we'll have to dramatically reorganize the everyday activities of American life. We'll have to grow our food closer to home, in a manner that will require more human attention. In fact, agriculture needs to return to the center of economic life. We'll have to restore local economic networks -- the very networks that the big-box stores systematically destroyed -- made of fine-grained layers of wholesalers, middlemen and retailers.

We'll also have to occupy the landscape differently, in traditional towns, villages and small cities. Our giant metroplexes are not going to make it, and the successful places will be ones that encourage local farming.

Fixing the U.S. passenger railroad system is probably the one project we could undertake right away that would have the greatest impact on the country's oil consumption. The fact that we're not talking about it -- especially in the presidential campaign -- shows how confused we are. The airline industry is disintegrating under the enormous pressure of fuel costs. Airlines cannot fire any more employees and have already offloaded their pension obligations and outsourced their repairs. At least five small airlines have filed for bankruptcy protection in the past two months. If we don't get the passenger trains running again, Americans will be going nowhere five years from now.

We don't have time to be crybabies about this. The talk on the presidential campaign trail about "hope" has its purpose. We cannot afford to remain befuddled and demoralized. But we must understand that hope is not something applied externally. Real hope resides within us. We generate it -- by proving that we are competent, earnest individuals who can discern between wishing and doing, who don't figure on getting something for nothing and who can be honest about the way the universe really works.

James Howard Kunstler is the author, most recently, of "World Made by Hand," a novel about America's post-oil future

Proposed Treaty Turns Internet Into a Virtual Police State | TorrentFreak

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Proposed Treaty Turns Internet Into a Virtual Police State | TorrentFreak

Adieu to the true audiophile? | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

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Adieu to the true audiophile? | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

Equinox Desktop Environment

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Equinox Desktop Environment

PC World - Windows XP SP3's aches, pains and user complaints

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PC World - Windows XP SP3's aches, pains and user complaints

Justo cuando todo estaba cool con Sprint

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Vienen a cagarlo todo. Piensan poner un data cap de 5GB por mes. Que te deja un data cap de 5GB? No mucho. Eso en realidad me lo pela. Bueno, a buscar si Claro ofrece uan mejor alternativa. Al menos te dan 60 dias para largarte si no estas de acuerdo con los terminos del contrato. Es una pena porque esta tarjetita me trabajaba de lo mas bien con Linux. :(

Wired vs Wireless: Sometimes There's No Substitute for a Cable

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Wired vs Wireless: Sometimes There's No Substitute for a Cable

LocatePC, Free Theft Recovery Software for your PC

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LocatePC, Free Theft Recovery Software for your PC

HOWTO: FutureLooks - A "next-gen" Desktop Pack. - Ubuntu Forums

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HOWTO: FutureLooks - A "next-gen" Desktop Pack. - Ubuntu Forums

Slashdot | Wikimedia Censors Wikinews

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Slashdot | Wikimedia Censors Wikinews

Five Reasons -- Wait, Six! -- to Start Considering WiMax Today - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership

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Five Reasons -- Wait, Six! -- to Start Considering WiMax Today - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership

How to spot weak arguments at The CreateDebate Blog

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How to spot weak arguments at The CreateDebate Blog

50 Free Icon Sets - The Web Squeeze

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50 Free Icon Sets - The Web Squeeze

11Alive.com | Atlanta, GA | If I Didn't See It With My Own Eyes...

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11Alive.com | Atlanta, GA | If I Didn't See It With My Own Eyes...

Repair4Laptop: Do-It-Yourself Laptop & Notebook Upgrading, Modding, Repairing

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Repair4Laptop: Do-It-Yourself Laptop & Notebook Upgrading, Modding, Repairing

The Freecycle Network

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The Freecycle Network

Computer Donation - Donate Computer - Charity - Tax Benefits

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Computer Donation - Donate Computer - Charity - Tax Benefits

Linux On A Stick: Fedora 9 Puts Your Desktop on a USB Drive

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Linux On A Stick: Fedora 9 Puts Your Desktop on a USB Drive

I'm the Other Woman

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I'm the Other Woman

10 Surprising Health Benefits of Sex

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10 Surprising Health Benefits of Sex

Free Music: 22 Websites That Are Driving Daggers Into The Heart Of The RIAA | TinyDad

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Free Music: 22 Websites That Are Driving Daggers Into The Heart Of The RIAA | TinyDad

NPR station WBUR Boston adds support for free audio standard - Free Software Foundation

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NPR station WBUR Boston adds support for free audio standard - Free Software Foundation

BBC Mundo | A fondo | 2008 | Mayo 68

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BBC Mundo | A fondo | 2008 | Mayo 68

¿Porqué importa el Mayo del 68? Además de las repercusiones mundiales de lo que ocurrió ese año, también nací yo, ¡carajo! ¿Qué más importante que eso? :D

YouTube - THE EMPIRE STRIKES BARACK

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YouTube - THE EMPIRE STRIKES BARACK

How It Does It: The RIAA Explains How It Catches Alleged Music Pirates - Chronicle.com

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How It Does It: The RIAA Explains How It Catches Alleged Music Pirates - Chronicle.com

Proyecto Fedora

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Proyecto Fedora

Windows: Get Vista's Best Features in XP

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Windows: Get Vista's Best Features in XP

Free Music Studio Means No More Excuses | Listening Post from Wired.com

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Free Music Studio Means No More Excuses | Listening Post from Wired.com

hobnox.com :: Your Music, Film & Urban Culture - Video Tutorials

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hobnox.com :: Your Music, Film & Urban Culture - Video Tutorials