Alright, I can't seem to get the video running on my dialup connection, I don't know how to download from lowem's link, and I tried skiwi's link, but there are so many pages I had to try the search function for bartlett, and the search function doesn't work. A little help?

Well, I'm afraid you will need a little bit more than dialup to download either the ED2K or Bittorrent file (I think it's the same one), unless you don't mind holding on to that line for a week or two. It's about 400 MB in size *and* you need to queue up a little.

See if you can get someone who has broadband and knows how to use a ED2K or BT client (perhaps a relative, or a fellow forum member who lives nearby - or something?) - and get them to burn a CD and send it over to you.

I don't think there's a such thing as a little bit more than dialup. You either have dialup or you have something 30+ times faster. For me, a little bit, is defined as at most 20% increase.

But that aside, talk about user unfriendly. It wouldn't be hard for me to get at the video if it was on regular web space. I remember early days on the internet where you didn't have to worry about crazy things like torrents, and you could download 400 MB files of regular http at a solid 48 kb without any problems. Now people are going over bandwidth limits with regular http files and it seems like everyone is turning to torrents. Peak bandwidth anyone?

Whew, what a tangent. I was able to view the video in slide show form by changing my real player settings. I have one of the worst outlooks on the future in this forum, and even I learned something about how the exponential function affects growth. It just reinforces my dark predictions. Population growth will become 0 and likely negative one day. It is inevitable.

The best part of the video was when he showed a list of things that grow population and reduce it. He said that nature will choose from the right side of the list one day no matter what we do. Fortunately, it is possible for us to make the choice from that list. I think it's time to stop guessing at how the future will be and start thinking about what to choose from the list of ways that populations go down. Do we want abortions, forced contraception, war, disease, famine, or anything from that list? Surely, we can add to the list in discussion, but the day that the human race as a whole can decide how it wants to reduce population will mark a huge point in human achievement on par with the invention of the wheel. Up until now, we have almost always let nature choose from the list for us. Will we ever have the wisdom to make our own choice from the list?

Sorry, I was kinda kidding about the 'little bit more" part. Though there *is* ISDN which is 64 kbps (1.1x), dual-channel ISDN at 128 kbps (2.3x), and the lower-end DSL plans which start from 256 kbps (4.6x).

It's only the cable and higher-end DSL plans which are at 1500 kbps and higher that are really 30x faster, and then of course there's Japan with their fiber-to-the-home installations ...

Well, anyway, at least you've watched the video. Me, I'm still downloading the 400 MB file - it's not exactly The Matrix (for the record I have the original of that one! ) or something lol, so there're fewer sources.

Right. I thought this was one of the most interesting parts of the video. Everything our society strives for contributes to the population problem. Unfortunately, I don't think people will accept this, because the longevity fetish doesn't seem to be losing style at this time. It would also be very difficult to encourage something from the list, which he acknowledged.

In my opinion, the most effective way to reduce the population is disease, which would spread quite quickly due to intercontinental travel. Of course, the public would not approve of a campaign for disease, but, in my opinion, I think that we'll be due for another epidemic soon, so maybe nature, the government, or whoever, is already at the plate. I still think it would be funny to have a marathon that encourages people to contract AIDS.

We have plenty of weapons at our disposal, but, like disease, I think these will also be used voluntarily. We've used nuclear weapons before when we were in a winning situation, so I think we'll see plenty of interesting actions when we lose.

I think the most humane thing to do would be to abstain from sex that produces babies. This would automatically fail since people apparently think it is a right to breed. Encouraging blowing and gobbling might work, but this type of sex requires precise communication. If people can take some time to learn about their partners' anatomy, and casually practice what their partner desires, then that would be great.

I sure would love to see some pro-smoking commercials. It'd be easy to market; just do the usual "hot chicks will beg to blow you if you use our product" for the guys, and "you're ugly, but you can become less ugly by using our product" for the girls.

Realistically, though, I think physics will make the choice.

I think this is a challenge to any optimists left lurking these boards. Tell us a way that we can achieve 0 population growth but keep suffering to a minimum? Maybe we need suicide booths like the cartoon, Futurama. I think that lowering birth rates will be the most ideal, but also the most challenging to achieve. Hunger will be pretty tough to avoid in a world with a yearly shortfall in energy production and a population that is still trying to grow. Of course hunger paves the way for disease and war. These are mother nature's most common choices from the list.

For those who don't know, humans are the only mammal whose females are capable of becoming pregnant 12 months out of the year. If we are unable to manage our numbers through wisdom, perhaps some genetic engineering is needed to put us back in line with the rest of nature.

Sheesh...

Does anybody have a link for this video that actually WORKS? The Realmedia stream dies after a few seconds (if it starts at all), edonkey is worthless crap (I've NEVER been able to get anything to successfully download from that network, even after trying several clients), and apparently the bittorrent tracker is down.

If anyone has the avi version and knows how to seed a torrent, please do so and post a link here. I'll help with seeding it once I have a copy. I can also host it intermittently from my hard drive thru http for those who can only manage a "Right-Click Save"...

I was able to view the realmedia stream by changing the settings in the player to 56k.

So does nature. When any given species exceeds the carrying capacity of their environment, two things set in: disease and the inability to reproduce due to toxins or malnutrition. 37% of all deaths last year were disease related. Look at all the premature births, fertility clinics, and the related multiple births that go with it. Mother Nature batts last.

I frequently DL 300kb/s from e donkey,


The BT tracker is up again...

Yup, don't use edonkey, use emule. On a good day, I can get upwards of 80 KB/sec on emule.

Bittorrent can be even better provided the tracker is up and there are seeds around, that one can hit the download limit cap which is around 180 KB/sec (on 1500K cable).

I've finished getting the 400 MB lecture video from emule some time back, haven't watched it yet (due to my anime backlog, couldn't help it, lol). Maybe later today, or tomorrow.

It's not just a fact-filled video. It's a fun-filled video.

And here I sit, out in the sticks, at the end of the phone line, where my lousy connection rarely budges over 24 kps. I can go thru a six pack while a 3 minute audio downloads. This valley didn't get electricity til the 1950s, so I probably shouldn't complain about my turtle connection. Still, it would be nice to some day see 56 kps. An impossible dream no doubt . . .?

Stick it out, big guy. This is a video worth watching. I just saw an article that stated that SA just doubled their reserves. After watching this video, my raction was, "so what?" It's a real eye-opener.

Math. Just math.

Anyone know how I can save this presentation to my computer? I've tried saving the link, but that just saves a shortcut to it. Once I'm in realplayer I can't find a way to save the file either...