I came here to make a comment about hoping they come up with a way to turn the electricity into water soon, but I see the very first post in the thread has already beaten me to the same point.

I'll have to content myself with pondering how well the photovoltaic system will offset the power needed by the air conditioners in the desert wastelands of the US Southwest...

I know of one company that seems to do it right, but they sell recordings of college course lectures rather than books. "The Teaching Company" offers electronic downloads in addition to hard media...and the files are DRM-free. My wife and I spend quite a lot of money on them every year and the ease of use we gain from not having to contend with DRM actually is a factor. Admittedly, we're both big nerds...either way, they seem to be doing good business, so it's obviously possible to not treat your customers like presumptive criminals and yet make a decent profit. (Are you listening, Audible/Amazon.com?)

(No affiliation - just a fan.)

I should clarify that I'm not actually making that argument, only asking about it.

I'm not so much bothered that the "idea guy" gets credit, but rather that the person who actually does the work and successfully implements the idea doesn't.

One might think that wouldn't apply in this case since, after all, how much skill does it take to load rocks into a truck and dump them in a spiral? However, I've seen the roads - such as they are - out there. Anyone who can haul large amounts of basalt out there and dump it offshore in Gunnison Bay in some kind of coherent shape deserves to share in the credit, I think.

As AdamVillani mentioned, Rozel Point (which you can see part of in the image above - it's the streak of sand sticking into the water in the far background) has already been drilled before. Oil (well, tar) actually seeps up out of the ground through the sand there. Had a heck of a time getting that off my dog's paws (not to mention washing the salt out of her fur...)

Spiral Jetty is interesting, but not only do I doubt substantial impact on it from drilling, and not only did the guy credited as the artist suggest that he wanted it to end up disappearing (entropy, blah blah blah), but on a completely separate note I have to wonder why they guy is credited as the artist. As far as I was able to find out, it appeared he thought up the idea of having a big spiral made of local volcanic rocks...and then he paid someone else to make it.

I mean, come on, if I come up with an idea for a painting and pay someone else to paint it for me, do I still get to call myself the artist of the painting?...

I'm beginning to wonder how it can possibly be that things like this don't fall into the same category as "shouting 'Fire' in a crowded theater".

Do we need a law prohibiting "incitement of terror"?

So cute and glittery, we need a goatse.cx chaser!

Space-shifting is not "fair use".

Let me clarify that: Space-shifting is not merely "fair use".

Unless the RIAA has been a lot more successful at legislator-bribing than I realize, the Home Recording Act of 1992 makes space-shifting explicitly legal, doesn't it?

Or in short: the "War on Terrorism" seems to increase terror.

You know, as a science nerd, I'm beginning to hope they finally formally declare the government "War on Science" that we keep seeing signs of. If they would just come out and openly declare it, we'd have fusion-in-a-can, cancer cures, and faster-than-light space travel in a decade or two, if the other formal "War on X" projects are any indication...