Censorship is always oppressive - there should be no rules against free speech.
Society is free to make rules against speech which it finds offensive, and the individual is free to ignore those rules.
I personally think that Germany is wrong to ban Holocaust deniers - if there is evidence that 6 million Jews died, then produce it.
The repression of skepticism of the Holocaust makes me think that the evidence for it is lacking - if there is evidence, why don't they produce it rather than making doubt illegal?
And yes, I'm against the 'lese majiste' laws in Thailand, because there's no way that some inbred fuckwit has the right to demaqnd respect from proper, well bred people.
I'll bet there's something in there 'respecting local laws' or similar, so the code will have no teeth.
As soon as the Chinese say 'this AC is suspected of being Falun Gong', or the French say 'this AC has a SS dagger for sale', or the Australians say 'this AC has offended Family First', each and every signatory to the code will lube up and bend over.
Sorry, but I don't think Google, Microsoft or Yahoo have the balls to stand up for free speech when faced with a lawsuit.
I'd also agree that 'addiction' should be restricted to physical addictions.
The misuse of the word to describe what is basically a failure of self-discipline (as in 'sex addict', 'adrenaline junkie', etc.) dilutes its meaning.
Having been physically addicted to heroin a couple of decades ago, I can tell you that physical addiction is a hell of a lot worse than having to give up a few pleasures.
Added to which, the UK has just announced that we won't be progressing e-voting any time soon, which is a small glimmer of common sense from Neues Arbeit (motto - Kraft Durch Dummheit).
Would you expect the sort of sad-sack who gets his jollies from kids to understand that?
Now that this case has highlighted the use of hash values, I'm sure some of the more intelligent kiddy-fiddlers will start to modify the images, but the vast majority of perverts will still be caught.
Nice idea for a different sort of signature, though - perhaps it might be a good project to highlight the usefulness of Open Source.
The only people I have known who would go out and steal to get pot are the same sort of scrotes who would go out and steal so they can afford cigarettes and beer once they have spent all their dole.
And yes, I have known lots of habitual, excessive pot smokers - those with the money get by, those without would steal, whatever their personal peccadillo.
Face it - pot isn't addictive any more than any other enjoyable activity, be it gambling, porn, extreme sports, etc.
Smoke it when it's there, ignore it if it's not, that's my approach:o)
Special Relativity may be correct since the Bible doesn't say anything about the speed of light.
This cretin seems to think otherwise - from the 'article':
Since creation week, the diameter of the universe has been constant (a static universe) and the speed of light has dropped precipitously to its present value-following decay curves we can now piece together with some confidence based on (a) measured values of c for the last 300 years, (b) corrections to known radioactive decay dates which go back to approximately 2000 B.C., and (c) the observed quantization of the red shift of light from distant galaxies for the time period from creation to about the time of Abraham.
I'd love to see more of this Bible Relativity explained - it's surely a rich vein of humour.
Although that does conveniently ignore any hint of a Creation, it doesn't actually provide a useful answer...
It might point the way to an answer, though - just not one that fits neatly into our limited understanding of space, time and causality.
The elimination of the idea of a 'first cause' may actually reflect the way things are, rather than the way they appear to us through our limited view.
Anyway, it does away with all that God superstition, so it'll do for me:o)
MS was once the scrappy, cheap alternative to Big Blue and the proprietary Unix club
When was that, exactly?
For file and print services, Netware had NT beaten hands down - for RDBMS, Oracle ran way faster on Netware than on NT, and even the mainframe integration on Netware was light years ahead of the Microsoft offerings.
Novell were just shitty marketers, so Windows (a perfectly adequate desktop OS) ended up competing against real server OSs by default.
OK, the server flavours of Windows are better now than they used to be, but I'd rather run Linux, a proprietary *nix or (heaven forbid) IBM on a critical system than any number of Windows servers.
I'd expect to see a couple of the big boys supporting AMQP soon - if only to stop Microsoft diluting and perverting the standard.
I don't have mod points today, but you deserve to be +5 - HitTheNailOnTheHead.
Unfortunately, being a Canadian ruling, it won't be binding in a US court, but the reasoning used by the judge could be referred to in argument, and as pointed out above, the ruling is in plain English, so most US judges should be able to digest it (given time).
Yes, in a way - the Law Lords are the final court of appeal in the UK (though the EU Court of Human Rights can be appealed to as a last resort if the Lords go against you).
They are the most senior of senior judges (similar), not politically appointed or motivated (dissimilar), and tend towards the abstract in their rulings (not sure how abstract Scalia et al could manage).
No - it's Yoruba for "Come back after the rainy season - it'll probably have compiled by then, but if not, there'll be plenty of dried wilderbeest to snack on."
But Lewis was a Christian, and not entirely fashionable among the broadly Leftist "intelligentsia" that dominated British media (mainly via the BBC) for so long.
Add to that the fact that "That Hideous Strength" was clothed as science fiction (Perelandra is still one of the best Sci-Fi novels ever written), and Lewis being less well appreciated (at least by the Left) than Orwell is hardly surprising.
Disclaimer - I'm neither Christian nor Conservative, but I do like a good read;P
Slashdot Mirror
Nearly as bad as a Rickrolling :o)
Shall we dance?
Censorship is always oppressive - there should be no rules against free speech.
Society is free to make rules against speech which it finds offensive, and the individual is free to ignore those rules.
I personally think that Germany is wrong to ban Holocaust deniers - if there is evidence that 6 million Jews died, then produce it.
The repression of skepticism of the Holocaust makes me think that the evidence for it is lacking - if there is evidence, why don't they produce it rather than making doubt illegal?
And yes, I'm against the 'lese majiste' laws in Thailand, because there's no way that some inbred fuckwit has the right to demaqnd respect from proper, well bred people.
I'll bet there's something in there 'respecting local laws' or similar, so the code will have no teeth.
As soon as the Chinese say 'this AC is suspected of being Falun Gong', or the French say 'this AC has a SS dagger for sale', or the Australians say 'this AC has offended Family First', each and every signatory to the code will lube up and bend over.
Sorry, but I don't think Google, Microsoft or Yahoo have the balls to stand up for free speech when faced with a lawsuit.
Nah - Beagle 2 is hiding, and will pop out from behind a rock and try to shag the astronaut's leg...
Netball's like basketball, but tougher - most netball players I've known had thighs that could crack walnuts.
Good luck - and wear wrist / ear protectors if you get past first base :o)
As far as I was aware (bearing in mind that the last time I read the Bhagavad Gita was at school 30 years ago), all are aspects of Vishnu.
You're right, though - microShiva is more precise.
I'd also agree that 'addiction' should be restricted to physical addictions.
The misuse of the word to describe what is basically a failure of self-discipline (as in 'sex addict', 'adrenaline junkie', etc.) dilutes its meaning.
Having been physically addicted to heroin a couple of decades ago, I can tell you that physical addiction is a hell of a lot worse than having to give up a few pleasures.
Added to which, the UK has just announced that we won't be progressing e-voting any time soon, which is a small glimmer of common sense from Neues Arbeit (motto - Kraft Durch Dummheit).
Oh, hash?
Never mind...
Would you expect the sort of sad-sack who gets his jollies from kids to understand that?
Now that this case has highlighted the use of hash values, I'm sure some of the more intelligent kiddy-fiddlers will start to modify the images, but the vast majority of perverts will still be caught.
Nice idea for a different sort of signature, though - perhaps it might be a good project to highlight the usefulness of Open Source.
The only people I have known who would go out and steal to get pot are the same sort of scrotes who would go out and steal so they can afford cigarettes and beer once they have spent all their dole.
And yes, I have known lots of habitual, excessive pot smokers - those with the money get by, those without would steal, whatever their personal peccadillo.
Face it - pot isn't addictive any more than any other enjoyable activity, be it gambling, porn, extreme sports, etc.
Smoke it when it's there, ignore it if it's not, that's my approach :o)
This cretin seems to think otherwise - from the 'article':
Since creation week, the diameter of the universe has been constant (a static universe) and the speed of light has dropped precipitously to its present value-following decay curves we can now piece together with some confidence based on (a) measured values of c for the last 300 years, (b) corrections to known radioactive decay dates which go back to approximately 2000 B.C., and (c) the observed quantization of the red shift of light from distant galaxies for the time period from creation to about the time of Abraham.
I'd love to see more of this Bible Relativity explained - it's surely a rich vein of humour.
More likely, being in his 80s and with his excellent understanding of technology, he views Americans as a series of n00bs.
Is that a sled dog with lipstick?
It might point the way to an answer, though - just not one that fits neatly into our limited understanding of space, time and causality.
The elimination of the idea of a 'first cause' may actually reflect the way things are, rather than the way they appear to us through our limited view.
Anyway, it does away with all that God superstition, so it'll do for me :o)
So that's a microVishnu, then?
Though after the shock news of myelin erosion increasing after the age of 39, most of us who were there are now struggling to remember...
Oh, and get off my lawn :P
Well, this is sort of close...
When was that, exactly?
For file and print services, Netware had NT beaten hands down - for RDBMS, Oracle ran way faster on Netware than on NT, and even the mainframe integration on Netware was light years ahead of the Microsoft offerings.
Novell were just shitty marketers, so Windows (a perfectly adequate desktop OS) ended up competing against real server OSs by default.
OK, the server flavours of Windows are better now than they used to be, but I'd rather run Linux, a proprietary *nix or (heaven forbid) IBM on a critical system than any number of Windows servers.
I'd expect to see a couple of the big boys supporting AMQP soon - if only to stop Microsoft diluting and perverting the standard.
I don't have mod points today, but you deserve to be +5 - HitTheNailOnTheHead.
Unfortunately, being a Canadian ruling, it won't be binding in a US court, but the reasoning used by the judge could be referred to in argument, and as pointed out above, the ruling is in plain English, so most US judges should be able to digest it (given time).
Yes, in a way - the Law Lords are the final court of appeal in the UK (though the EU Court of Human Rights can be appealed to as a last resort if the Lords go against you).
They are the most senior of senior judges (similar), not politically appointed or motivated (dissimilar), and tend towards the abstract in their rulings (not sure how abstract Scalia et al could manage).
So yes, it's similar but uniquely British.
No - it's Yoruba for "Come back after the rainy season - it'll probably have compiled by then, but if not, there'll be plenty of dried wilderbeest to snack on."
Pigs will fly!
Ah, economies of scale - we can transport lots more pigs with a bigger rocket!
But Lewis was a Christian, and not entirely fashionable among the broadly Leftist "intelligentsia" that dominated British media (mainly via the BBC) for so long.
Add to that the fact that "That Hideous Strength" was clothed as science fiction (Perelandra is still one of the best Sci-Fi novels ever written), and Lewis being less well appreciated (at least by the Left) than Orwell is hardly surprising.
Disclaimer - I'm neither Christian nor Conservative, but I do like a good read ;P