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Oil Slick Threatens African Penguins
An oil slick in South Africa is threatening the third-largest colony of Jackass penguins, which are about to enter their breeding season. This is the second major oil pollution disaster to hit Cape Town's penguins. Sanccob is leading the rescue effort. Donations can be sent here.
Will this delay the 2.4.0 kernel release?
Is it really smart to assosciate the linux penguin with jackass penguins?
Just curious.
--"Karma is justice without the satisfaction"
I'm already forced to pay taxes; no way am I going to willingly pay for a bunch of jackasses.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
I just found a new nickname for the clueless Linux Zealots at work...cool!
So my question is: how appropriate is it for people to use their website as a medium to raise consciousness and solicit donations for whatever cause they are currently supporting?
Follow-up: does it matter if the purpose of the website typically excludes stories about that particular topic, moving though they may be?
And another one: are there some issues which are so important that they should headline any/all forms of media, regardless of the subject matter usually addressed by that media? If so, is this one of those topics?
I ask only because I'm willing to look like a nitpicking, heartless jerk in order to satisfy my curiosity.
Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.
Penguins in trouble
Slashdot readers quick response
Kills the webserver
Hmmm... Symbol of the Democratic Party (US), symbol of the Linux movement. Coincidence? The Truth is Out There.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Must be a new Microsoft tactic... I suppose they chose the "linux" topic because there is no "penguins" topic. Or "enviro" topic -- which would be nice, btw.
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Join the efforts to save the penguin! Tux shouldn't be left without friends!
Donate $100 or more now and get a "I helped save Tux" bumper sticker FREE!
Linus Takes a Poop - Slashdot Posts
posted by CmdrTaco
Joe The Trollbaby writes:"Linus torvalds took a poop. Since this has something to do with linux, being that linus developed the linux kernel - it must be slashdot news-worthy." - note: linus has taken poops before. check here for more.
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -David Hume
----
The world is filled with good causes... thousands of them. There are hundreds of endangered species, people dying of diseases and starving in almost every part of the world, and we are destroying our environment in so many different ways. It would be impossible -- even in a community the size of Slashdot -- to even begin to address these problems. We can, however, do our small part to help with one of them. The penguin is our mascot, and that makes it as good a cause as any to get behind.
Even if you don't help save the penguins, you can give a dollar to a homeless guy, or buy an acre of land in the rainforest, or give to the American (or Canadian) Cancer Society. The point is, do something. As a collection of individuals with above average intelligence, we have a responsibility to this world to do something, anything, to make it just a little bit better.
Reality has a liberal bias
You know, this kind of stuff would have never had this kind of attention paid to it had it not been for the linux use of the penguin logo. Oil slicks suck, and yet we still demand cheap gas prices. Here in the Midwest, people are bitching about how they are getting screwed by the gas companies, so corners are cut and accidents such as this are more likely to occur.
<rant>
And of course there are already those posters complaining that this is not News for Nerds or that kind of ranting. Come on, this seems to be Sengan's second post, and this kind of news interested him. If you were also an author, you would have a right to complain.
</rant>
A site showing pictures of the penguins before the slick can be found here, and the google cached link of the slashdotted link is right here. CNN is also covering the story.
So the next time that you pump your gas or drive down the freeway to work, ask yourself whether you really need to do this. Public transportation is usually powered by much safer power sources, so maybe these kind of accidents won't happen anymore.
-zavyman
Back under your bridge Troll!
Fawking Trolls!
"Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion." - Jed Babbin
Every time I read of a story like this, I feel sick. Literally. Just another reason we should be using alternative energy sources and all ships should be required to have double hulls *and Linux). This is the 21st century. Why is everything still so backwards?
As a species, we are such failures in protecting our own planet...
Long live the penguins!!!!
Oh, my god, they dirtied Jackass Penguins. You bastards!!! ---- Anyways, I get sad when any animal is hurt, but this one's personal. I declare war on Microsoft. (for the milionth time, tho :)
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..I prefer my penguin baked rather than deep fried in oil. Whatever, as long as some Africans get food.
--
+&x
i just checked out that link
karma of 22 eh? still not posting at +2 yet?
i'm not going to bother defending my post to you - since you obviously didn't get the point of it in the first place!
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -David Hume
"Hi, I'm Linus Torvalds and this is my friend, Tux."
[ Adorable little penguin waddles over and lays a flipper against Linus' leg, snuggling up against him. ]
"Oil slicks can be a messy, dangerous and often deadly disaster. Just a couple years ago, my friend Tux here was near death due to the after-effects of just such a slick, but thanks to caring contributions from people just like you, Tux is alive and well today [ Tux smiles, sweetly at the camera ]."
[ Shot widens to show Linus standing in front of a virtual sea of oily penguins. ]
"Right now, there are hundreds of penguins -- just like Tux -- who need your help. Won't you find it in your heart to share your good fortune with those less fortunate than yourself? Please contribute to the United Penguin Care Coalition. Little lives, like Tux's, depend on it."
* United Penguin Care Coalition substitued for the South African National Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds. Why? Duh, that would have sounded too fruity in the commercial.
---
seumas.com
Someone definately missed the April 1st release date on this story...
Drag n' Drop DVD Recommendations
I would be much more likely to donate to the cause if they took credit cards online. Can't they appeal to some large, greedy oil company looking to do community service by donating a server, SSL, and a Merchant Account (say maybe someone who could symphathize... like maybe Exxon??)
I was thinking - yeah I might chip in some cash for this - I like penguins, hate oil slicks - what the hell?
Oh... but you got to fax your credit card number or send them a *snail mail* with your info... sorry but you lost me there. Make it easy to donate online and maybe more people would give.
Slashdot has always been Geek news, and it's always seemed to me fairly activist.
I would like to suggest we keep in mind the original promise of the computer...paperless. Indeed Enviromentalism is an *excelent* geek thing to engage in. Biology rocks in a completely egg-based geek way, and it's really really interesting. Us boffins are the future, and if we don't use our ,often, priveleged positions to fight for stuff that really matters than were all doomed
Case in point in Australia is SIMCOA's use of Old Growth Jarrah woodchips in the silicone smeltering process. Jarrah is one of the largest trees in the world, and it also produces fan-bloody-tastic furniture. It's endangered too. Currently SOTICO, the logging company is selling this priceless wood as woodchips at $14 a tonne. There are many enviro-friendly alternatives for it. As end users we should be complaining bitterly that our comps are trashing forrests unneccesarrily. Put preasure if you want to on intel/amd/motorolla etc to use enviro friendly processing methods.
Either way. It's verry geek. Let's do something for those penguins. It's important. Tux'd agree too methinx.
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
So the next time that you pump your gas or drive down the freeway to work, ask yourself whether you really need to do this. Public transportation is usually powered by much safer power sources, so maybe these kind of accidents won't happen anymore.
I agree that humans and their feigned needs for fossil fuels at low costs led to this sort of tragedy. I don't agree that public transportation uses safer power sources. They use either (1) electricity created at central fossil-fuel burning facilities, or (2) fossil-fuels in other forms.
Not to mention the mode of transportation itself. Cars crashing on the highway are the number one dangerous mode. But think of the number of San Francisco Muni bus accidents, New York subway derailments, airline disasters, AMTRACK derailments, freight trains with toxic chemicals spilling, train derailments in Turkey and Germany and everywhere else.
Diesel smoke from public buses also cause more pollution per person, in areas where ridership is too low to amortize the damage. Sure, if the route runs half-full, then say thirty people use twenty times the fuel of cars. During off-peak and mis-arranged routes, then four people use fifteen times the fuel.
Diesel truck lobbying groups and the engine producers don't let you into the dirty secrets: tests are rigged to measure idle-power emissions instead of typical loads. Diesel engine improvements far outweigh the efficiencies demanded by the solo car driver; a car in 1998 emitted 4% of the toxins that a car in 1978 did, while diesel has hardly budged.
Yep, people's priorities are skewed pretty badly.
Rainforests burn daily for farming acreage, eradicating dozens of species of primates, countless other animal and vegetation species, and we devote to the cause of some penguins caught in a one-time disaster.
More money was spent on the making of Jurassic Park than had ever been spent in the history of dinosaur paleontological research. The USPTO has a few hundred million dollars siphoned off in appropriations committees, since they don't really need those patent fee proceeds; announced the same day that NASDAQ:MSFT nears its 52week low, representing a drop of over a hundred billion equity because of uncertainty in a single massive litigation.
And while I'm off-topic,
When is O'Reilly going to create a wildlife fund for all the cute animals featured on the covers of *nix utility references?
[
So my question is: how appropriate is it for people to use their website as a medium to raise consciousness and solicit donations for whatever cause they are currently supporting?
One could argue that this at least as topical as all the frighteningly lame April Fools stories. Fringe topics often find their way into mainstream media if only to provide some variety.
And another one: are there some issues which are so important that they should headline any/all forms of media, regardless of the subject matter usually addressed by that media?
By all means. Whenever the "Buy Claudius More Doritos" fund gets precariously low, it is imperative for the story to supersede all these silly "Wah--I have to pay a whole extra dime for my gas" stories.
People really need to get a grip.
p.s. Too bad about them penguins.
p.p.s Just what the heck does "Nacho Cheesier" mean, anyway?
dead Jackass penguins, i hope tux is one of them, i don't like him much.
Coming from South Africa, I have a tendency to actually read some of the stuff that pops up about it. I read this and I realized that is serious. Most of you played this off as something which should not be posted on Slashdot, even kindof flaming them for daring to put it on the site. Like it or not, our mascot is a penguin and any pengiuns should be close to our hearts.
Lets be hypothetical a little... would you say that a Swedish hacker is less of hacker than an American hacker? They are both hackers and from what I have seen on the newsgroups some of them make the news with more pizaz than many others ;-)
Back to being a bit more serious. EVERY nut in the world knows that the conservation of a species is VERY important, since the loss of a species has several impacts on the environment that are only fully realized years after it has happened. These pengiuns off the South African coast are part of a penguin species that do not exist anywhere else in the world. Apart from the fact that the oil spill arrived during their breeding season, the impact of the oil spill will only be seen next year when hundreds, if not thousands of penguins are lost.
So, be serious for a moment and realize that if oil spills happen a few more places in the world, and not just in SA, the pengiun mascot we have may be the only living pengiun in the world by 2020.
It disturbs me to see "brainy" geeks be so unbelievably STUPID as to play off the importance of a species being in trouble. Drop that arrogant shithead approace to life and be better people. Perhaps you might even be a real software engineer then, and not just a hopeless script kiddie.
That is my two cents worth ...
Life's like that
I've read a lot of comments either saying this isn't News for Nerds, defending the post because it's their web site and they can do what they want (and we can criticize: don't forget they're making money off us), and saying that activism->evironmentalism. Personally, I would have posted this story, too, but I would have posted it as "Funny." Look, they post anything that vaguely has to do with Linux (like Transmeta news), and this has to do with the Linux mascot. I really don't give a rat's ass about the penguins, but It's the Linux Mascot, Damnit!
Oil slicks do suck, but they're not caused by demand for cheap gas. At least, not in any right-thinking petroleum company. A spill is literally money being washed away, reducing supply and causing a financial loss for whoever had paid for that oil. So if we want cheap gas, we should be putting more pressure on companies who don't take the necessary precautions.
Not that I disagree with your frustration. We should be reducing our petroleum consumption. And shippers aren't being punished nearly enough for spills. But the biggest problem I see is that this is the first I've heard about this. I haven't seen it on the front page of any newspapers, or given any kind of coverage on prime-time network news. If people don't seem to be caring enough about issues like this, it's because their surrogate brains in the popular media aren't telling them to care.
Any sufficiently advanced civilization is indistinguishable from Gods.
No, this has become Troll Combat at this point. Damn Trolls have lately really detracted from my slashdot experiance, an since Taco Etc. will not help me, I'm helping myself: My solution? Troll the Trolls. Okay, it's not the MOST ORIGINAL solution, but hey, is ANYTHING really new at this point? I didn't think so.
Fawking Trolls!
"Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion." - Jed Babbin
"Diesel engine improvements far outweigh the efficiencies demanded by the solo car driver; a car in 1998 emitted 4% of the toxins that a car in 1978 did, while diesel has hardly budged."
You may want to check out this news item.
Natural Selection Creates Super-Engines
You know what the main difference between you and I is? I'm not afraid to loose more karma at this point, and post with my real name, unlike you, you anonymous piece of shit.
Fawkin Troll.
Fawking Trolls!
"Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion." - Jed Babbin
Let's get something straight here. Environmentalism is not a worldview that has a Scriptural basis. If it be the will of God that these penguins endure an oil-based death, then that is the will of God and by definition it is completely and wholly correct. The fact that Man is attempting to subvert this ("route around it", as it were) is completely blasphemous. Environmentalism is state-sponsored Communism and as such it is completely unacceptable to decent, moral people. Environmentalists ought to just go on television and dump copies of the Holy Bible into their "recycling bin"; after all, that is what their true agenda is, and there is no hiding that fact.
.. namely, the loss of all of that precious, precious oil. This is oil that could have been used to power a glorious sport utility vehicle or an eighteen-wheeler! Instead, it has been wasted; it has been spread ramshod over the seas where it will be imbibed by careless fish and fowl. If there is a Hell for animals, I pray that those creatures stupid enough to consume my go-go juice will end up there!
Personally, I think this is a sign from the Lord. It is a sign instructing His children to turn away from the temptations of Linux and all of its Communist underpinnings. God has made it clear that His children are to earn their keep by the sweat of their brow, and those who will not work will not eat. Clearly, God references capitalism here. The rise of Linux and the damnable "BSD" derivatives are yet another sign of the death grip that the Antichrist has on the world. Personally, I donate equal amounts of my income to the offering plate and Microsoft. I get the satisfaction of knowing that my money is going to a Godly corporation instead of a sixteen year-old drug-crazed hacker in a country like Amsterdam.
I find it interesting that nobody has mentioned the real tragedy here
As a result of the envirocommie hysteria that has ended up here, I shall purchase a 9 MPG Ford Excursion. I shall burn plastics in my backyard. I shall remove the "low-flow" shower head installed by my liberal super and replace it with one that allows water to flow "wastefully." I shall hunt spotted owls. I am declaring war on all of the causes that envirocommies hold dear. Unfortunately for the envirocommies, I'm far more heavily-armed than they are. Too bad!
But is is about penguins. And penguins being the mascot of linux. And linux being a major topic, I think it does have a bit of relivance.
And refering to your comment about geese. Of course it wouldn't make it on slashdot. But it wasn't about geese now was it, it was about penguins.
Just calm down a bit... There is no need to waste screen space with comments like this. Get over it. Eveyone knows that articals on /. aren't always about tech/nerd stuff, And I thing thats good thing.
If you think the artical is redundant/boring/whatever, all you have to do is not read it. And let eveyone else enjoy themselves.
I beleive that even where the ships do have double hulls, most owners and oil companies view it as extra space to carry oil.
MrCreosote Meow!Thump!Meow!Thump!Meow!Thump! "You're right! There isn't enough room to swing a cat in here!"
The big bad oil companies as you seem to think of them are the blood which makes commerce flow in 1st word nations, it's not the net, it's not open source, it's not technology, it's the men and women in the trenches that work 7x24 to supply the energy so that you can log into /. with your truck supplied workstaion with your truck supplied software burning electricity that's partially supplied by the oil companies you flame.
Look the net was built for commerce, by people who understand commerce, for the intended use of commerce, the oil companies and energy companies provide the bolld for their network, not yours, you're an invited guest here, mind your manners.
So my question is: how appropriate is it for people to use their website as a medium to raise consciousness and solicit donations for whatever cause they are currently supporting?
.. that is, if it's all right with you.
The two key words in the above sentence are:
"their website"
This is not your Web site, nor is it mine. It is the Slashdot crew's Web site, and the last time I checked, it is both legal and appropriate for them to post material as they see fit. If they post something that you find to be objectionable, you are under no obligation to either read or respond to any of it. You do not have a service agreement with Andover or Rob or any of the crew, nor do you pay them a plugged nickel for the use of their resources. Therefore, you do not have a leg to stand on when you complain about the material that they decide to post, particularly when you can simply ignore it completely.
The Slash code is publicly available; if you wish to start up a Web site where solicitations of any kind are not posted, then you have more than enough tools to get you on your way. Until then, I would encourage you to keep reading and contributing to Slashdot, but ignore that which bores or offends you.
That said, I am going to add some DeCSS-related material to my home page
:-)
We're going down, in a spiral to the ground
Who ever they were, they obviously had some negitive feelings towards the birds.
I hope you enjoy the taste of silicon, cash, concrete and oil, because thanks to people like you, we'll all end up eating and drinking that.
I was tempted to keep my mouth shut, but this one is just too tempting. *engage rant mode* You should worry about the people that don't have concrete, oil, silicon and cash - because with those basic precusors, I can build purification facilities for water, artificially grow tasty produce indoors, generate all the power I need, and live a comfy life.
It's the people that don't have those things that will suffer. Don't underestimate man's engineering talent - we're pretty good at givin' the schlong to mother nature. It's the people that can't afford to do that - and we've got plenty of people in rough shape in North America, think about what the schmuck living in the alley eats every day - I bet he wishes he had some of that cash and oil. I won't even talk about the natural habitats that are being wrote off (tough noogies, too many people, watcha going to do, nobody bitchin' about the 2 *Billion* tonnes of Coal being consumed in China each year, etc etc etc etc etc)
Writing those "trivial free programs" might take BILLIONS of dollars from money-grubbing tycoons (no names here), money that maybe could be re-allocated for that schmuck living in the street. Before you get all commie on me, remember, each according to his talents..
OTOH, helping some shmuck, buying an acre of rainforest, or even writing a check to buy some soap to clean off some poor penguins will do a hell of a lot more than hassling people on Sunday morning waving a dead tree in their face. :)
Kudos (Rant off!)
..don't panic
While we're at it, how can something be both new and improved. If it's new, what are they improving on?
I read this comment. Please don't dignify it by calling it a troll. It was just a poor attempt at sarcasm that involved bathroom humor (which I find disgusting anyway). One thing I do wish is that the moderators would stop confusing Troll with Offtopic.
...with Its a hell of a lot more relevant than Katz's movie reviews.
Ever get the impression that your life would make a good sitcom?
Ever follow this to its logical conclusion: that your life is a sitcom?
"I don't care about the Constitution!" --Bill O'Reilly, November 17, 2009
it's not *really* an enviromental story, it's a not so subtle hint to the zealots out there... if you're a linux advocate (the penguin), don't be a jackass, or you'll be wiped out by an oil slick (well, I'm not gonna say what that is).
time for the downward moderation!
---
I'm not ashamed. It's the computer age, nerds are in.
They're still in, aren't they?
---
I'm not ashamed. It's the computer age, nerds are in.
They're still in, aren't they?
Apparently, one way to send money from the United States to South Africa is through an International Postal Money Order. They can be purchased at U.S. post offices.
As I understand it, you fill out a form including how much (in USD) you want to send, pay for the amount of the money order, plus a fee of $8.50 USD, and then mail the form to a processing center. Eventually the U.S. Postal Service sends the info to the foreign country's post office, and the foreign post office sends the money order to the recipient. The recipient can then cash the money order at local exchange rates.
Does anyone have any experience with this? Is using an International Postal Money Order preferable to simply sending a personal check? Do the exchange fees make this method not worthwhile? Obtaining and sending drafts in foreign currencies seems so difficult.
Ben
A) geese don't typically sit out in the ocean where there are likely to be oil spills
/. community. I for one found it quite funny to see it listed under "topic=linux"
B) this IS about penguins, and therefore is of interest to the
There are also other issues this raises having to do with conflicts of environmental concerns and economic concerns when it comes to devoloping/semi-developed nations. So if an oil spill happened off the coast of Alaska maybe it would be a lot less relevant. (Although I realize the only reason they put it in was because it involved penguins)
Ever get the impression that your life would make a good sitcom?
Ever follow this to its logical conclusion: that your life is a sitcom?
"I don't care about the Constitution!" --Bill O'Reilly, November 17, 2009
The main difference is about eight inches minus for you and about a couple hundred pounds plus for you, you fat fuck!
Right. Like you even have a dick.
That's not courage, that's stupidity! You have no fear at all of being a clueless fuck in public with your real name. So people can say "That Scott Lockwood, what a hosebag!"
You know what? If they say it WITH a REAL NAME, I don't care - I'll respect that opinion. AC's can lick the crap from my anus.
At least I'm not married to a total behemoth.
My wife is the most wonderful, worthwhile person you'll ever meet, except you'll never meet her. At least I can get married, unlike you - you smelly, pimple covered, dorky, nerdy, geeky ass.
Oh, and learn how to CLOSE an itallics tag you worthless bag of crap. Try using the button NEXT to submit.
Fawking Trolls!
"Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion." - Jed Babbin
God, no! The flames, the flames! I'm burning up!
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Do you even know anything about perl? -- AC Replying to Tom Christiansen post.
Here's another link if you're interested. www.news24.co .za
-- Wodin
Or if not over sea, there are many people in the US that need help.
While I'm not saying "dont' help the penguins", I am saying that it disturbs me that people are very frequently more interested in "save the whales" or "save the penguins" as is the case here, than helping fellow humans.
-------
CAIMLAS
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
This was the second post, and the first post was about the 2.4 kernel (which was more offtopic than funny). How is this redundant?
sup
I thought they were talking about Linuxone.. must be another group of Jackass Penguins.
> Who was the biologist
AFAIK, it didn't take a profesional to come up with that name. They sound like donkeys.
My Karma: ran over your Dogma
StrawberryFrog
Just because it's our mascot we should save penguins? How narrow-minded!
Ofcourse it's a good cause! but there are worse problems.
Personally, I think this whole topic is sick, it's a kind of internet-sensation-hype story, I'd prefer either no topics on environment, or a broad range of items on environment, not just our little bit, it's too exagerated.
Bizar technology?
The slashdot crew just needs to make a few more topics (subdivide the news topic a bit, add an 'enviro' topic... heck, maybe just make all the topics hierarchial)
Then, people who only want linux/microsoft stories can use their user preferences to disable all others.
-- Sad thing is that so many people find it much easier to click 'reply' than 'user preferences' or 'page down'
-- 2 + 2 = 5, for very large values of 2
I think it's terribly presumptuous for us to say humans are destroying the environment. Look at the age of the earth, and how long humans have been around. Just a blink of an eye. And only in the last couple of centuries have we started to develop technology. A fraction of a blink of an eye. How could we, in such a small period of time, possibly have any meaningful impact at all?
Deforestation? That would fix itself in just a few hundred years, the same fraction of a blink of an eye. Desertification? We've merely sped that up a little bit. Nothing shocking there. Greenhouse effect? At worst, we're speeding up a natural process, if we've had any meaningful influence at all.
Am I against environmental control? Not in the least! I love nature, and I want to live in an environment that is as clean and natural as possible. I see pollution and environmental destruction everywhere. But to think we have any true influence on nature at all is an unprecedented feat of megalomania.
)O(
the Gods have a sense of humour,
Never underestimate the power of stupidity
To err is human, to moo bovine
On the humaniterian side - yes, there are people starving in the world. This is bad. There are also penguins dying. This is also bad. But if we focus all our attention on the starving people there will be no wildlife left soon, because there will always be starving people. Help either or help both. But do not say that one must be ignored in favor of the other. You may assign different priorities to them, but both are important.
Fair enough ,but to setup a user, go into preferences and set up to ignore all but Linux postings wouldn't have avoided seeing this "non-linux topic".
I once concluded that my life was an absurdist fable, but tomato potato gerbil apropos.
--Perianwyr Stormcrow
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
I agree that making donations to save these little guys is a good thing. But what about the mongrel shipping company that allowed it to happen? Surely they're the ones that should be footing the bill.
I'm amazed that people are debating if this news should be covered on Slashdot. In fact, I also submitted the story last night...but I did not have the link to Sanccob that makes things easier.
First of all, yes we should care about everything. But we can't. Humans are messing up the world too fast for us to work on it all, but what we can do is pick one thing and concentrate on it. And the penguin (or perhaps all seabirds) is a good place to start.
Was the penguin chosen because it is our logo? Of course. If you want to support something else, that's fine...but why not start with our little Tux friends. If you want to support Gnus that's fine as well. The sonoran toad? No problem. But a Penguin seems a logical choice.
This subject is topical 'cause it is a call for Linux community action. Note that even Billy Gates has a cause.
Is Billy a nicer guy than the Linux crowd? We know that is not true, and here is a way to prove it.
I am saddened by the number of people who say "Hey, who cares". I hope that many of those posters are kids and suffer from the foolishness of youth. Because who fails to see the importance of a balanced environment and diversity of life on the planet is a poorly educated individual. I'm not some environmental wacko; I eat meat and support controlled hunting. But I also support our planet.
Here here!!
Frogs are primitive animals - so the occasional extra toe is not that unusual. But this is very unusual.
Fortunately the Jackass Penguin is not an endangered species. In fact the only penguin that appears on the current animals redlist is the yellow-eyed penguin, currently classified as "vulnerable" because of its recent decline in numbers.
This is of course where I give a shameless plug to some guys I used to work for.. The World Conservation Monitoring Centre maintains a huge reference data set of protected areas, endangered species and biodiversity resources. Dont go looking there for scare stories, and in fact its pretty dry and unemotional stuff but the information is solid and reliable.
# human firmware exploit
# Word will insert into your optic buffer
# without bounds checking
I had a
Will the Jackass penguin be the logo for Microsoft's Linux distribution?
--
Slashdot has no qualms about posting stuff to save peguins from an oily drowning death but I think they would hestitate if demons were being hunted down and destroyed by the Vatican!
Could this be yet another Linux vs BSD Slashdot issue? Kind of makes you think. ^_^
ps. What the heck is that cute demon called anyways?
South African Rand (ZAR)
Currently
1 US$ = 6.87 ZAR
1 UK£ = 10.33 ZAR
1 Euro = 6.44 ZAR
SA's international telephone/fax code is +27, and add "South Africa" to the postal address.
CowboyNeal for president!
"Hit any user to continue."
Not to mention the mode of transportation itself. Cars crashing on the highway are the number one dangerous mode. But think of the number of San Francisco Muni bus accidents, New York subway derailments, airline disasters, AMTRACK derailments, freight trains with toxic chemicals spilling, train derailments in Turkey and Germany and everywhere else.
(&^#!*&%#$!!! Honestly! Don't you realize that the only reason you hear about those is that they are 'news items'??? Just because CNN doesn't mention it on the evening news, doesn't mean it didn't happen, just that it's not 'newsworthy'. Just like airplane crashes. Anytime a plane with over 50 passengers goes down, it makes the news. In Ontario, (the first statistics I found), someone dies in a car crash every nine hours!!
Diesel smoke from public buses also cause more pollution per person, in areas where ridership is too low to amortize the damage.
Well, you're right here. The counter-point is that in rural areas, public transportation becomes more of a state service, allowing those who do not own cars to get around. The real environmental benefits of public transportation work best in urban areas, of course.
The rest I agree with. Hehe.
Wah!
...and I damn near choke when I read about "Jackass penguins."
I assure you that I (Signal 11) will never make another "lame ass joke".
-o Disclaimer: My employer doesn't even agree with me about C indentation style o-
For those of you who live near Mystic, Connecticut, you can see Jackass penguins at the aquarium there. It's pretty interesting.
That is messed up. Funny, but messed up.
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After 0.10 hours of intense searching, I found this (courtesty of a link under the entry for "Tux" in the jargon file): From: Linus Torvalds Ok, short version: I've always liked penguins, and when I was in Canberra a few years ago we went to the local zoo with Andrew Tridgell (of samba fame). There they had a ferocious penguin that bit me and infected me with a little known disease called penguinitis. Penguinitis makes you stay awake at nights just thinking about penguins and feeling great love towards them. So when Linux needed a mascot, the first thing that came into my mind was this picture of the majestic penguin, and the rest is history. Slightly more accurate version: Yes, I was bitten by a penguin, but it wasn't actually very ferocious. It was really just a pigmy penguin about 6 inches tall or something, and it was more of a timid nibble ("is this finger a see before me a small fish, or what?"). Even so, I like penguins a lot.
Give me my freedom, and I'll take care of my own security, thank you.
Hear, Hear! Blasphemous as it may be, I do occasionally want to go outside, and I would prefer that "outside" not be toxic. For those interested in being part of the solution rather than part of the problem, I have compiled the following list of organizations/sites:
t al.html
e r_Mobile_Power/sun_catcher_mobile_power.ht m
o nment_and_Nature/Water_Resources/Organizat ions/
i ence/Environment_and_Nature_News/
-In 1966, a handful of river-lovers decided to change the course of events that was destroying the Hudson, and reclaim a natural treasure for us all. They wanted to dramatize the rivers plight, recall its history, and help guide its future. They wanted to provide their fellow citizens with a first-hand look at the neglect and pollution of the river, and move them to action.
So they built a boat.
http://www.clearwater.org/
-The Keeper Concept.
The Keeper concept started on New York's Hudson River where a coalition of commercial and recreational fishermen mobilized in 1966 to reclaim the Hudson from its polluters...The Hudson's miraculous recovery has helped make the Keeper program an international model for ecosystem protection.
http://www.keeper.org/
http://www.riverkeeper.org/
-more Resources:
http://www.riverkeeper.org/resources/environmen
-BayKeeper was founded to stop the increasing pollution of San Francisco Bay. http://www.sfbaykeeper.org/bayinfo.html
-http://www.greenpeace.org/
-http://www.emagazine.com/
-Run or recharge just about any notebook computer, mobile phone, PDA, GPS, or digital music player with one of our Sun Catcher solar chargers.
http://www.powerqwest.com/PQ/Products/Sun_Catch
-http://www.earthfriendlybaby.com/
-The Orion Society is an award-winning publisher, an environmental education organization, and a communications and support network for grassroots environmental and community organizations across North America. It is a nonprofit membership organization with 8000 members, individual and organizational, representing all fifty states and thirty-one foreign countries.
http://www.orionsociety.org/
-Eagle Research - A non-profit organization that develops & distributes practical energy saving methods and devices.
http://www.eagle-research.com/
-The Information Center for the Environment is a cooperative effort of environmental scientists at the University of California, Davis and collaborators at over thirty private, state, federal, and international organizations interested in environmental protection.
http://ice.ucdavis.edu/
-Pace Virtual Environmental Law Library
http://joshua.law.pace.edu/env/vell6.html
-Northern Sun Merchandising. Merchandise to provoke, amuse, touch the heart and just generally stir up people's thinking.
http://www.northernsun.com/
-Mojo Wire - Daily News and resources for the skeptical citizen
http://www.motherjones.com/
-Alternet.org - independant News and Information
http://www.alternet.org/index.html
-http://dir.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/Envir
-http://fullcoverage.yahoo.com/Full_Coverage/Sc
Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!
Next time I visit an Arab country I'm going to look at the bathroom soap in a whole new way...
:0
Oh shit, that was good. I am drooling on my table with laughter!
That is a direct, personal attack! He makes a point that maybe if somebody chipped in and set them up with SSL, more people would take the time to send them money to help their very worthy cause. And what do you do? You directly attack him. Well listen up, Estanislau, I'll bet you use toilet paper same as any of us. I doubt you would go to the "old way" of wiping your rear on your hand just to conserve a quarter gallon of gas a year. What's giving your computer the electricity it's running off of? Burning gasoline, or burning coal, almost guaranteed. We don't need to be fed your crap.
I could have posted this anonymously, but I chose to use my real login. Maybe I'll put a couple of karma points on the line, I don't care. I just get sick of seeing this crap (and that's exactly what it is). It doesn't help anyone, it does nothing to help the cause (unlike his insightful comment that, who knows, may give someone with the means the idea to do it)... It's worthless. So maybe you don't think somebody's joke is funny, so maybe you don't think his idea is good... That doesn't matter. When you go all holier-than-thou on us, it doesn't help anybody.
So I just wasted way too much time writing this. It's probably a huge waste of time, since you'll probably not listen to any of it. Whatever. I just wanted to get that off my chest. My apologies for making this post as useless as the one to which it is a reply, I deserve any hit to my karma that is given (but I argue that he deserves the same). Have a good day.
The streets shall flow with the blood of the Guberminky.
I can just picture the scene if the clean-up plans don't go to schedule, all the penguins arrive home, absolutely knackered and just a little pissed off, no doubt, only to be repacked and flown away again...
Donate online by Friday, and give'em your email so long.
See 2000.7.5 Slashback for more
CowboyNeal for president!
"Hit any user to continue."