Have you ever heard of a non-fraudulent product being introduced in that fashion? Sounds like whatever it is, it has no more merit that Merit cigarettes; or a certain "Merit" who is well known in the Lou Gehrig's Disease patient ripoff industry, a matter in which I happen to have grounds for very strong personal opinions.
But all that aside, welcome back, Dell, kinda missed you while Mike was trying to lead the charge with, well, something that he doesn't want to race against a chopstick.
I tried to watch the flick of this Pete fella, but ran into some obstacles.
1. The flicks that looked most interesting weren't freebies, and the freebies were taking so long to download that I gave up. Now if I thought the flicks were likely to be really great stuff, I might have hung in there (pardon my choice of words) to watch the thing anyhow, but my expectations weren't all that great.
2. Outlandish claims without substantiation are innumerable and I don't have time to research them all to see if someone is actually onto something. And Pete starts right out with claims about history that are pretty hard to take seriously.
3. Recently I've watched a couple LRL'er recommended flicks, and both turned out to be complete burns. I'm left scratching my head trying to figure out why on earth they posted those flicks since it made 'em look so bad. I suppose the question answers itself. Because it makes 'em look so bad is reason enough for them to do it. Looking stoopid in movies attracts the gullibillies.
So, I impatiently await the reports of those who have actually taken the time to wade through the freebie Pete flicks. Well, maybe not so impatiently, the signs don't bode well.
* * * * * * * * *
On a more philosophical note, the whole question of how to know something has been undergoing rapid evolution for more than 500 years. Before the advent of the printing press in the Western world, you pretty much had to trust what influential people said, and if you figured out they were full of BS, you were pretty much stuck. Then came the printing press and widespread literacy, and now you could get some combination of information and misinformation from as wide a variety of people as you liked. In the English-speaking world, the KJV Bible exposed many millions to a whole slew of authors from different historical eras and cultures, and in so doing pretty much invented what we know now as USA culture.
Then came radio and TV, "instant communication" but it was one-way. Without the ability to cross-examine the interpreters, much less the witnesses, everything had to be regarded as suspect, a problem that the publication of the KJV hadn't fixed. Meanwhile there was in the USA and Europe a system of communication primarily through mail service and journal print media that facilitated 2-way communication of the sort that was needed to establish the foundations of modern science in its many disciplines. This new beast had its strength in what various persons with different backgrounds and personal opinions could agree on based on some combination of persuasive logical reasoning and of observations that others could replicate. In plain English, the fancies of episcopal "authorities" weren't in control any more, the testimony of the universe itself was back in the saddle.
And now, we live in the Internet age. Just about anybody can converse 2-way with just about anybody, although language barriers haven't completely fallen quite yet and governments have had some success in getting the free exchange of information under their control.
Governments don't give a darn about LRL's, as long as the politicians are not on the payroll of the victims, and as long as security and military procurement of such devices is done through the proper bribery channels. Dell, as far as I know you've never been accused of defrauding security or military procurement, which pretty much limits your market to treasure hunters who have access to the Internet and if after having done their research they still want to buy something you sell, go for it, as I occasionally say, "Darwin's Law".
I understand you're getting old, and that your wife has serious disabilities. I wish you well on the years you have left. We've flamed each other a time or two, but I've experienced a whole lot worse with family whom I love. Hope I'm not shocking you by telling you I do not hate you and never did, we have our disagreements for sure but you'd probably make an acceptable next door neighbor, an opinion which I hold also of Art whom I poke a lot of fun of but also kinda like the guy. Heck, this is El Paso, for all I know my next door neighbor who is a great guy and family man works for the DEA making sure the dope gets from Juarez to Chicago under government control rather than falling into the hands of civilian criminal cartels, whom the DEA has never been willing to identify as the crooks they're going after. "Read the advertisement." [CAVEAT LECTOR: I have no specific reason to believe that my next door neighbor is involved in government drug-running, I'm merely citing him as a hypothetical example.] In El Paso, the big problem is not drugs (which the government makes sure go through smoothly) but the TSA, who are the criminal theft operation at the airport. Not many people I hate, but those SOB's...... well, they've got a perfect setup for theft without recourse, let's leave it at that lest I find out I've been put on a no-fly list.
In the big picture of things, it is necessary to leave open the possibility of fraud, because without it, the possibility of innovation does not exist. Nature itself teaches us this with many instances of mimicry. Mostly it's harmless creatures mimicking the harmful, taking away the power of the harmful, but when you consider the creatures of the more evolutionary circumscribed ocean deep which has been around a lot longer, it's mostly dangerous creatures mimicking the harmless. All creatures advertise to find mates, from bacteria to naked apes, because "it pays to advertise". And in a world where things constantly change, it pays to play the "puffery" card. Nature itself teaches this principle, if you've ever heard a mockingbird's song at 4 AM and stayed awake to appreciate it, there you have it. Puffery, not fraud. The bird-dick may be only half as long as the song, but the bird and the song are for real. Dead or unhealthy birds can't do it. In the bird kingdom, song fakery is almost nonexistent, it's millions of years ahead of the war against Chinese counterfeiting operations.
So, are LRL's fraudulent? That's well established. Do some people want them anyway, having been informed what the things are? Evidently so. Bon Appetit. Darwin's Law, or as some might describe it, "the justice of the LORD".
Dell, welcome back. If in the Zoroastrian last judgment you're the Hindu reincarnation of a 1st century Jewish tax extortionist named Matthew in the Christian tradition, I hope we can shake hands without a 30-point rise in blood pressure.
--Toto
