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As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.

Commissioner Pravin Lal
"U.N. Declaration of Rights"

And that's the only time it's said in that entire movie, in that huge paragraph. It's emphasized at least 3 times in Boiler Room.

About the only thing you can argue is that Boiler Room made more of a focus on the term "whale" than Casino did since Boiler Room's story was all about going after whales, whereas in Casino going after the whale was only mentioned in the opening of the film. That aside, don't argue about how many times a movie uses a word. That's a stupid argument:

Casino uses "whale" three times in the voiceover: http://sfy.ru/?script=casino_1995
Boiler Room uses "whale" four times in conversation: http://sfy.ru/?script=boiler_room

It means nothing. You open your argument up to whether or not Martin Scorsese is more capable of bringing "the term to the masses" than some unknown called Ben Younger. Judging by the box office success of each film, I would have to conclude that more people heard the term "whale" from Casino than they did from Boiler Room even despite the latter film's heavier emphasis within the story.

And that's the only time it's said in that entire movie, in that huge paragraph. It's emphasized at least 3 times in Boiler Room.

I'm sure it's been used in casinos since the dawn of time but Boiler Room brought the term to the masses.

it's stolen from the movie Boiler Room about young stockbrokers lying to clients about worthless stocks in the late 90s.

"Guy's probably a whale . See what he's playing with. Truth is it doesn't matter these days. With the DOW where it is now, everyone wants a piece of the market. I can close anyone at any time anywhere in the country. Just give me a phone number. "

Zynga really does steal everything, but it's ironic that they chose that movie because at the end they're all busted by the FBI. Are you trying to tell us something Zynga?

I think this quote applies here: As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master. Commissioner Pravin Lal "U.N. Declaration of Rights" source

IS IT OK FOR GOOGLE TO REMOVE NEGATIVE PRESS ABOUT ITSELF, WHILE THE REST OF OUR LIVES ARE EFECTED BY WHAT GOOGLE DISPLAYS ABOUT EACH OF US. THEY HAVE WON IN THE BUSINESS WORLD, BUT NOW THEIR MONOPOLY EFFECTS ALL OF US AND THEY HAVE A FEDUCIARY RESPONSIBILITY TO THE WORLD TO ACT ETHICALLY AND THEY ARE NOT!!! I NEED HELP AND ADVICE ON WHAT TO DO ABOUT GOOGLE. I THINK WAHT THEY DID WAS ILLEGAL AND JUST WRONG!! My name is Rob Shambro, I am the CEO of GenosTV (www.genos.tv) a global broadband cable operator launching on January 6, 2011 at the Consumer Electronics Show. GoogleTV Invigorates the IPTV Market and Genos' CEO, Rob Shambro, Dissects the AlternativeTV Space. Here is a link to hte article. It was an upstanding, educational release just stating the FACTS in the IPTV marketplace. http://www.forbes.com/feeds/prnewswire/2010/05/21/prnewswire201005211326PR_NEWS_USPR_____AQ08961.html In the press release I state, "A quick Google search on GoogleTV today, shows very mixed emotions on the service, leaning towards the "not so impressed." A. Do you think I would even dare to say that if it were not true? Absolutely NOT! B. I issued the release around 9am PST. Here is the good part, at around 10 am I go back to Google and do another quick search on GoogleTV and every single negative press article was gone. I could not believe it. C. On top of that the search results were nice and neatly organized in near chronological order! Do they not have to live by their page rank software? I printed out everything, 30 search results pages deep, before and after. The change would have been IMPOSSIBLE using their software. D. My press release above ranked in the top 100 releases for MAY in PRNEWSWIRE. This release was picked up everywhere, yet it’s nowhere to be found on Google unless you absolutely search for it. E. Then I went to Bing.com and did a search on GoogleTV and Google TV and printed out the search results pages, 30 deep. This how their software would display the search results. F. The NUMBER ONE article about GoogleTV is HULU Unlikely to Run on GoogleTV on mashable.com. http://mashable.com/2010/05/20/hulu-google-tv-android/ In the past I had some negative articles posted by some anonymous people that showed up first every time you did a search on my name. This was like that for years. It has cost me millions of dollars in financing and stress. I almost gave up and never started another company again because of Google.. Just recently a 10 year old negative article that came up first in my search results and CAUSED ME NOT TO GET a $500,000 investment from a local investor. I can prove it. You hear horror stories about Google ruining people's lives because of negative press showing up first in their search results. I am sure I am not alone here!!! I wish I could go into my search results and change them around so they all look positive and neat, JUST LIKE THEY DID. This is NOT fair. You hear about doctors that can not get a single patient because on Google is some old domestic violence case that happened 20 years that comes up first on a search on their name. Google should have to live by the same rules as everyone else. I think this is illegal. They have cau

I think this quote applies here:

As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.

Commissioner Pravin Lal
"U.N. Declaration of Rights"

source

I get the impression that this one is not a charlatan out for a buck, but simply confused. Don't be too hard on him.

There are two kinds of scientific progress: the methodical experimentation and categorization which gradually extend the boundaries of knowledge, and the revolutionary leap of genius which redefines and transcends those boundaries. Acknowledging our debt to the former, we yearn nonetheless for the latter.
Academician Prokhor Zakharov
"Address to the Faculty"
http://www.generationterrorists.com/quotes/smac.html

The term "addiction" is usually considered perjorative, and is not used for necessities of life such as food, water, oxygen, and the temperature range our biology expects.

Some careful consideration will reveal that all four of those things are in fact just expressions of energy patterns in mass. One of them happens to be completely taken care of by the biosphere, but that makes it no less true.

Further thought points out that, in the immortal words of CEO Nwabudike Morgan, "Life is merely an orderly decay of energy states, and survival requires the continual discovery of new energy to pump into the system." (The quote may be oddly sourced but it's still very true.)

"Oil addiction" is probably not the best way of thinking about it, but has some truth. "Energy addiction" is a complete pointless way of thinking about our energy needs. The "solution" to energy addiction is death. You're much better off thinking in terms of balancing our supply and demand, growing the true supply while shrinking the demand.

The universe is awash in energy, still flush in its youth.

Why do you insist that the human genetic code is "sacred" or "taboo"? It is a chemical process and nothing more. For that matter -we- are chemical processes and nothing more. If you deny yourself a useful tool simply because it reminds you uncomfortably of your mortality, you have uselessly and pointlessly crippled yourself. - Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, "Looking God in the Eye"

Complete list of quotes here, although for full effect you really need to hear some of them. The voice acting on Alpha Centauri is among the best ever done for video games. Especially the Ascent to Transcendance sequence, though I find I prefer the second-to-last project to the last one.

I'd post these, but every time I do my bandwidth gets shot all to hell. :)

Is this evidence that the media has an anti-American bias, or is this evidence that the facts have an anti-American bias?

Exactly. But oddly I think the GP's bizarre delusion (that it would be fair or correct if there were an exact balance of positive and negative news stories about Iraq) actually articulates one of the basic operational principles of Western (esp US) news journalism; that their duty is to mediate opposing points of view within the power elite ... rather than to approximate the unpleasant truth about the progress of the war.

Because let's face it, the US position in the current US/Iraq war is definitely deteriorating. Sun Tzu would not have been surprised:

1. When you do battle, even if you are winning, if you continue for a long time it will dull your forces and blunt your edge; if you besiege a citadel, your strength will be exhausted. If you keep your armies out in the field for a long time, your supplies will be insufficient.
2. When your forces are dulled, your edge is blunted, your strength is exhausted, and your supplies are gone, then others will take advantage of your debility and rise up. Then even if you have wise advisors you cannot make things turn out well in the end.
3. Therefore I have heard of military operations that were clumsy but swift, but I have never seen one that was skillful and lasted a long time. It is never beneficial to a nation to have a military operation continue for a long time.

The Art of War - Doing Battle

It is not uncommon to see patients undergo permanent psychological trauma in the presence of the Sphere, before the nerve stapler has even been strapped into position. Its effect on the general consciousness of the culture is profound: husbands have seen wives go inside, and mothers their children. Dr. Xynan left the surface of the sphere semitranslucent for a reason. You can hear them in there; you can see them. It is a thing of terrible beauty.

Baron Klim: "The Music of the Spheres"

'Abort, Retry, Fail?' was the phrase some wormdog scrawled next to the door of the Edit Universe project room. And when the new dataspinners started working, fabricating their worlds on the huge organic comp systems, we'd remind them: if you see this message, {always} choose 'Retry.'

Bad'l Ron, Wakener: Morgan Polysoft

Not so.

The gained ability to quickly master languages would help them with mastering all languages fatser, including the one that they started learning first.

Many great English authors were bilingual and yet managed to develop linguistic abilities far beyond most of us who grew up learning just one language.

For example Henry Miller, who first learned German; and Joseph Conrad, who first learned Polish & French.

Also, I would think that your brain would idle more if you just learn one language.

I saw many comments posted that I would like to touch on

The article isn't about reading in general, it's about reading fiction, and poetry, not technical manuals and news (on or off line.) So it's not about the literacy (as one poster seemed to think.

Also movies can not possibly contain all the content of a well written book, take The Lord Of the Rings for example, if all the content of the books was included in the movies we'd be waiting for parts 4-9 to come out still.

Reading is not made to be interesting any more in schools, required reading includes books that no one wants to read anymore, and the school describes them as "Literary classics" and to kids classics = old, and un interesting.

So in conclusion, reading can still be fun, we just have to have our schools upgrade the required reading, perhaps some Douglas Adams (may he rest in peace) or Terry Pratchett. Or allow students to pick books (not magazine articles) to read. But some required reading that should include the classics are...

• Animal Farm - Gives a good look at communism. Metaphor Analasys. - Quotes
• The Chrysalids - teaches about xenophobia in Post Nuklear earth. quotes

There are others that I would recommend, however their titles slip my mind at the moment.

Watchmen and From Hell are graphic novels I keep coming back to at least once or twice a year.

Why? This is why.

I believe Planet will talk to us if we are willing to listen. These fungal stalks behave as multistate relays: taken together, the neural net connectivity must be staggering. Can a planet be said to have achieved sentience?

Lady Deirdre Skye
Arguments in Council

If dubya believes that a strike back is strategically/tactically beneficial to the USA, he should order the armed forces to kill our enemies. If the response is simply an act of retaliation fueled by anger, though, he really ought to think about if this helps or not...