Slashdot Mirror

The term "communist" isn't actually as cut and dried as you make it out to be.

Marxists defined communism as the dissolution of the state, elimination of private property, and the leveling of all class barriers. That idealized goal was not achieved during the Soviet era, obviously, but the term was hijacked by the Communist Party, which for obvious political reasons presented its society as the realization of the communist dream.

The West saw little reason to quibble over terminology, and so bought into this misrepresentation by using the term communism rather than another, more accurate term (such as totalitarian socialism).

So yes, our history books call it communism, but history books simplify presentation of complicated historical material for reasons of clarity, ideology, and so on. Check out Lies My Teacher Told Me to get a glimpse at these simplifications in effect.

For more info about communism, check out this detailed explanation.

The US should play no part in this overthrow. At best, it draws massive international scrutiny. At worst, it results in horrific warfare and thousdans of deaths, which will no doubt happen if the US went to war with China.

On the economic side, I'm really not in favor of embargoing the dictatorships. As you noted above, improved prosparity among the victims of dictators is a very good thing. Maslow's pyramid of needs strikes again. This, along with simple reasons of human decency, is why the US should have a policy of requiring its corporations to provide at least a living wage to its employees in dictatorships (and none of that "we don't do it, its the subcontractors fault" BS either). If we doubled the wages of the average Chinese employee of, say, Nike then they would be better able to satisfy their low end needs which leads naturally to a desire to satisfy higher level needs. As Maslow points out, a person who is worried about starving doesn't care too much about politics.

Requiring items manufactured in dictatorships to bear a "Made by Victims of a Dictator" label would assist the US citizens in allowing the magic of the market to do its job. The market, as you may recall from the non-religious economics classes you may have taken, can't function in an informational vacuum. It requires *INFORMED* consumers to function properly.

As posted up a bit :
16kV shock to person on power pole

Case in point: Guy high on PCP tries to kill self with 16kV

I have thought about how to implement this and found that Escher's Print Gallery brought me my knees ... why ? here is the story in brief ...

a workflow that involves a myriad of data types, including:

• two-dimensional concept sketches;
• computer-rendered images;
• animations and movies of cars in various environments;
• 3-D clay and computer models at various scales;
• interior textures and fabrics;
• and engineering data.

The basic problem is to be able to show the data in 1D, 2D and 3D. Then, there are pseudo dimensions that give rise to 1.5D, 2.5 D, and finally the element of Time T has to be taken into each of these spaces. The crux of the problem is to maintain continuity of "something" that flows between each of these spaces - often in an iterative and recursive fashion. This something can be abstracted as an object (which I call the Bubble, hence my domain name BubbleUI !) and the authors say

... environment can be conceptualized as running an object-oriented simulator in which each computational element is abstracted into an object. Objects dynamically enter and leave the environment .... We envision a usage scenario that involves coordinated use of all these terminals. While they are all interconnected at the systems level, from the user's perspective, a seamless mechanism for transporting work from one device to another is highly desirable.

To be able to visualize this the best I can do is suggest that you look at the Paint Gallery by MC Escher . and here Just Imagine that the paintings in the Gallery are not Static paintings, but are actually windows looking into the Real World. As the Real World is dynamic, when you revist a given window, it is possible that things might have changed. Then, you will have a good idea of what you mind has to get a handle on, before a user can have "sentient data access."

The concept of visualling the Prints in the Print Gallery as Windows is not too off-base because the Article describes that there is a desire to integrate the physical with the visual ....

An advantage to using bar codes is that we can also integrate physical assets into our system.

And the article also says that there are more than just Static Screens that have to be incorporated

The different tasks in this workflow are typically performed

• by different people,
• at different locations,
• and often using very different and specialized hardware and software.

So accomodate the above requirement, imagine now that there is not a single Spectator in the Gallery, but there are many people looking at many "Windows" at the same time. And like in real life these Spectators interact with each other inside the Print Gallery (FIGURE), just as the Real World visible from the Windows is interacting in the background (GROUND)..

After all is said and done, the conclusion that I came up with in the 1st draft of my doctoral thesis (which was rejected and I then approached this subject different which was then accepted) was that the Glue to bind it all is the Cognition of the User - i.e. PortfolioBrowser==User

The glue that binds our diverse collection of terminals, containers, and identifiers is a software infrastructure we call PortfolioBrowser. ... the design of our PortfolioBrowser embraces our fundamental goal of minimizing transaction costs at all times, throughout the entire system.

The User, in my conception, is the PortfolioBrowser. And because of this choice at the center o

I recently took a new products development class as part of my MS Management of Technology degree (shameless plug: UNH MS MOT) and what the above poster described is mostly true. Other sources of funding include:

Government grants (Matt-Lesko-style)

Government small business loans (these are largely the reason for Subway's growth since franchisee's typically take one out to open a Subway.)

Your Rich Uncle

An angel investor. An angel investor typically will invest in early-stage companies to help them get going. They are tough to find, but usually have lots of experience and business acumen to help you out. Like other forms of VC, these want a return on their investment, but will want you to be heavily involved in the company, which means you will own your IP.

If you noticed, i called the air powered spudder a cannon and the combustion version a gun.
Now here is a video some kids made. Amuse yourselves.

"What do you get with a college degree?
A well-engineered Potato Gun"

Sorry, but Rand here and elsewhere is spouting apologetic nonsense, to justify the strong taking from the weak without compassion. She has no understanding of the many possible senses of self or types of selfishness (beyond a narrow conception of self as solitary body). If you had stopped paying attention in your history class :-) and instead lucked into some stuff written from other than the perspective of the current victors, you would have discovered that the United States of America's prosperity was built in large part on the genocide of the native peoples and theft of their land (including by use of biological warfare) [which destroyed many cultures far more egalitarian and generally pleasant than at present], the slavery of black people ripped from their native worlds and treated more cruelly and peversely than most slaves throughout the ages, the theft of patents and copyrights and trade secrets from old Europe, and the exploitation of seeds and plants and animals imported from a variety of countries by immigrants (as well as indigenous ones cultivated for millenia like corn, potatoes, and tobacco again taken without just compensation from the natives), assistance from countries like France which saw value in the US prospering to the detriment of England, as well as clever politics and global economic strategy which helped destroy Europe during two world wars and led to immense profits from the destruction and reconstruction of those countries (including by the Bush family). Yes, there was a lot of hard work involved too by some -- usually not those who got most of the riches. Try reading the book A People's History of the United States or the book Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong or even the online: Confessions of a Recovering Economist. Never forget that there are two human components to wealth (beyond a healthy natural world underlying it all) -- labor and rent (or other monopolies enforced ultimately by state violence including patents and regulatory powers). It is in the control of rent monopolies that the greatest wealth is to be had -- and usually the greatest unfairness. And the trail of control over monopolies rarely leads entirely to labor -- except perhaps of an ingratiating or militaristic sort. Much of the generally undertold and underappreciated history of the US from the Trail of Tears to the fight for the forty hour work week (now being lost again) revolves around power struggles over monopoly power to make decisions about some resource (i.e. who has the right to use a piece of land or set working conditions in some factory).

If we are very lucky, robotics may bring us back to a level of spiritual and economic prosperity enjoyed by many native peoples for thousands of years, but supporting larger populations (maybe quadrillions around the solar system with self-replicating space habitats powered by sunlight and using asteoridal ore). Most anthropologists now accept that agriculture and related work was a huge step backwards in health and living conditions for most people, and only happened because of rising populations and ever more sophisticated militaristic bureaucracies.

A lot of them are. My university's wages Assuming of course you include associate and assistant 'profs'

You dumbass! Do you have something against caribou?

Oh pulleeze. What so-called scientists think will happen to the herd depends largely on who funds them, and how PC they wish to appear at cocktail parties. The truth (warning, PDF) is that the carribou probably don't care. Also, surely there must be some endangered species in the other parts of the world where they drill oil. Why is the US the only country in the world cursed with endangered species in its oil fields? (that's a rhetorical question).

The amount of oil that would be produced is insignificant compared to US annual usage.

"A billion dollars here, a billion dollars there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money." Sorry I can't remember who said that, but I think it's a good quote to use here. The "ANWR isn't very much" argument is usually based on oil coming from noplace but ANWR. True, in that case ANWR only supplies 6 months of oil, but of course we'd be idiots to try and 100% supply ourselves from anywhere, let alone ANWR.

What ANWR would give us is the ability to replace a 10% supplier for the next 5 years, or a 5% supplier for the next 10, or to not worry as much about the strategic reserve, etc.

Also, oil is a commodity. The idiot who said "most of that oil will go to Asia" had no clue. Of course it would go to Asia, thus freeing up more Gulf of Mexico/Mexican/Venezuelan oil to go to Texas refineries.

However, I will concede one point: ANWR isn't our best source of oil. By some estimates, the equivalent of an entire Saudi Arabia lies beneath the Gulf of Mexico, totally untapped.

Just think of what we could do with that. Arabs in a snit? Inflation wreaking havoc with the economy? No problem. Just increase the output. Not having enough local production is like not having enough control over the money supply. Greenspan can adjust the interest rate. We ought to be able to adjust our energy rates too.

i thought zion was ethiopia.. thats what da rasta man always tell meh...

i just looked it up: zion

1. The historic land of Israel as a symbol of the Jewish people.
2. The Jewish people; Israel.
3. A place or religious community regarded as sacredly devoted to God.
4 .An idealized, harmonious community; utopia.

personally i saw this movie asmore fitting with the 3rd point, the god being the survival of the human race embodied by neo

"Authors" is a widely-used expression meaning "those who thought of the idea and made it happen."

For example, ancient historians such as Polybius used the phrase "authors of the rebellion" to denote a group of people who had rebelled against the ruling authority.

Rush the stores. Stock up now before it is to late!

The open fields of the USA will feel my wrath as I assult them with my cardboard tubes. (My @#$%@$% parachutes always get stuck).

Good thing I have plenty of ducttape and plastic sheeting for emergeny repairs.

When they came for me there was no one left to speak.

SD

How do you find new music, then? I get mine here: 90.1 WRUV FM Burlington

What? You've never heard of the politically influential Flat Earth Society? They have a Web site and might send you a brochure. ;-)

It's a textbook myth. You can find info about Columbus and his contemporary science online. It was pretty much impossible to be a sailor and not notice the round earth. I think C estimated its diameter at about 4,000 miles, so he was waaayyy off in his estimate of the distance to India, plus he had no idea of the intervening continent unless he was hanging out at the Viking bars. (The intervening continent turned out to be worth a lot, though.)

I don't know where these idiotic ideas of flat earths and cherry trees come from. As a starting point you might enjoy the book "Lies My Teacher Told Me." It has a web site; with a quiz!

What, you mean These Fox Trot comics?

The fact is, people can make music in their own homes now. People can make albums in their own homes. In previous years, you couldn't do that, you had to go to a record company for "the big break" (the chance to make an album).
Take a glimpse at what would be possible without the RIAA getting in the way (and yes, with the technology of today, at everyone's fingertips, they are getting in the way):
90.1 FM WRUV Burlington
Bring The Noise! (note Sat. Oct 26th show)
Ninjatune

Anyone else have links to share with this fellow on how unsigned, unbig-business music can work? ((on a side note I just realized how silly it is for people using linux, a fairly (some might say very) non-big-business thing, to say that non-big-business models can't be adapted in other places))

90.1 WRUV Burlington (Vermont) is a good model to follow. I believe there's a webcast as well, if you'd like to tune in some time. Basically, they only play music that does not fall in any of these categories:

Any artist that has ever been in regular rotation on commercial radio stations in the state of Vermont (excluding Vermont Public Radio).

Any artist that has ever been on the Billboard Top 40 Album or Singles charts.

Any artist who has ever been in regular rotation on MTV. This excludes specialty programs such as 120 Minutes and Direct Effect.

Any artist that breaks any one of the above criteria and is in a new band.

Add to that Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen.

Okay.. so this is slightly off topic. (I think Cartoon Network is doing the right thing in remaining sensitive to current events. Would you rather have them not give a damn about what's going on in the world and play it anyway because they paid for the rights of it? Would you rather CNN et al played commercials every 15 minutes on Tuesday? At least this shows the mega-corporations aren't thinking ONLY about profit any more.)

Bah! Humans are a violent species, as the violent response by the USA to the terrorist attack will prove. Sex and violence have been an integral part of our entertainment since before Homer.

Basically, Hollywood stands a good chance of coming out as a better group because of this. In the last 10 years, as the cultural decadence and decline of America took hold, Hollywood has been pandering to America's baser instincts at the expense of good old-fashioned American story-telling.

What, you mean like _Birth of a Nation_?

Moveis have gotten more and more bland, formulaic, and irrelevent to the modern world in the past decade than ever before.

No, they have not, you silly little reactionary. You are simply filtering the bad movies from yesteryear out of your memory.

Hopefully America will keep the unifying and sobered spirit it has re-discovered in the aftermath for some time to come. Parents having honest discussions with their children about issues of morality, crime rates in NY at their lowest levels in the history of the city (common enemy), young people not blindly assuming the world owes them something, but being cognisant of their own morality.

Crime rates in NYC (and the nation as a whole) have been on their way down for quite some time.

Hell, if the last traces of the ugly racism popping up against Arab-American can be eradicated.... America stands a great chance to come out of this a more responsible, more caring, more serious, more compassionate, more focused, more dedicated, and more selfless nation.

Fallwell has found it easier to assign blame to gays, lesbians, bisexuals, pagans, and the ACLU.

The point? Hopefully Hollywood will follow and put out entertainment that's more meaningful than another episode of Friends, a pointless prurient movie about sex and violence, or another dumb series about beautiful young 20-somethings whining about nothing.

So you are saying they should replace _Friends_ with _Leave it to Beaver_? Meaningless entertainment is not a recent development, nor has it recently increased in magnitude. Tex Avery's work is pretty cool, but hardly more meaningfull then Cowboy Bebop.

--
I am Jake, artist and geek. check out my photos from diver cité!

That is to say, none. Unless of course you use the power of statistics.

What Apple really needs is a good pesticide!

What Apple really needs is a good pesticide!

What Apple really needs is a good pesticide!

NY Time article about this: So , Is This Why Einstein Was So Brilliant?

Damn, where's The Green Hornet when you need him?

why? well, let's face it, our lawmakers are for sale, and these corporations have money. Not that I necessarily blame the lawmakers for pimping themselves, because they need the money in order to get elected. The candidate that promises the most to corporate America will get the most money and therefore the most publicity and therefore will get elected. See? Our country is set up to promote the interests of corporations. Nobody is going to revoke (or refuse to renew) the lease on the airwaves owned by any part of AOL/Time-Warner. For more info, a good starting point is Selling the Air, by Thomas Streeter (Chicago UP, 1996). Or, if the information revolution has given you add and you haven't the attention span to read a book, watch the movie Bulworth. Then you'll want to read the book.

There is a searchable MSDS archive at http://siri.uvm.edu/msds/, where you can browse the relative toxicity of various compounds. (BTW, the sequence is Iron, Cobalt, Nickel).