"The solution to pollution is dilution" - man, that was one big lie, wasn't it? It started dying with this [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamata_Bay].
More than 15 years ago I was involved in such study and already at that time it was understood that the water might be safe for drinking but should you eat fish from it you are in trouble. The operative word here is "bio accumulation". I was working on a project commissioned by the [much smaller] EU at the time to readjust the safety levels of heavy metals in marine and river waters. We worked along the south-west coast of France and north-west cost of Spain. You know what's funny - because of the importance of our finds which would lead to legislation change we worked "under cover".I am not kidding. A fishing boat was used with an analytical lab on board but we would always say on the radio we were fishermen. Even to the people that direct the traffic in harbors. We were told not to say to anyone what we research. I think the very fact that such measures were taken on a EU project no less, says something...something that is not nice.
However, your particular anger is not warranted in this case, IMO. The radioactive material form that disaster is truly insignificant compared to the heavy metal pollution from everything else. I am not saying that we should close our eyes and mouths of course...
You may post this 1000 times [you do good work on this tread, I see] but it ain't gonna change anything. This technology will not fly....
Also, idiots are those who only know "it's the law, it's the law". The law, my friend is made by people, changed by people and abandoned by people.
An exercise for you - tell me how many serious politicians have stated loud and clear that "privacy is dead" or that "you have no reasonable expectation of privacy outside your home". You DO realize that such statements would mean political suicide in most countries in the world, right? It's the fucking corporations that are stating this all the time and their shills [with the silent support of governments, of course]. And you in particular are carrying water for them ATM, at the expense of the majority of the population. I hope you at least get paid for it...otherwise take that word "idiot" that you like so much and stick it to your forehead.
Both are true. I can ogle nature all day long and will not get bored. I can look at a leaf for hours.
However, if you can bring me just on the other side of the moon, no further, so I can see the starts without light pollution and atmosphere I think the first time I'll just freeze from awe....now that I live in the Netherlands where clouds and sky are the same thing and even if they weren't this country has one of the worst cases of light pollution I truly miss the night sky. Really, I am not exaggerating.
What about an "outside" view of a Galaxy [that we can see only in movies] or a glimpse towards the Galactic core. How about planets and moons. Rings, great spots, Io's volcanoes and so on and so on...? I'll cry my eyes out...
We don't want any "pillars", thank you. Which pillars exactly are you lamenting for?
The pillar of religion? Don't make me laugh.... The pillar of "free and independent" press. keep on laughing The pillar of democracy with proper check and balances. staring to hyperventilate with so much laughter The pillar of outdated believes, general ignorance that still battles with century old ideas [evolution]. collapsing on the floor laughing. The pillar of peaceful coexistence, tit for tat, non-violent competition . Oh wait, THIS is not a pillar of our society...'nuf said.
When people lament the loss of "norms and values" what they lament is that they are not allowed to kill the ones that disagree with them. Bigots that want to reverse the clock and bring back all the magnificent social ideas of the past/sarcasm
I've always wanted to see real competition between social systems. The original idea of the US had the potential to do just this, but alas, it did not happen. The central government should have insured only free travel and commerce between the states, defense and perhaps a few critical infrastructures and that's it. Then let the people move to the state which has the system closest to their attitude.
In fact I'd extend this idea to the whole globe. Let's not have countries but regions that are run by different social systems. Let's see then where the interesting people will go, the creative people, the productive people. Let the bigots cluster and live the way the want it.
The problem is of course that people always fight with each other. It is not enough to live and let live. I know almost no person that fully subscribes under this principle. No, we have to remove, stamp on or kill the ones that do not agree with our way of life...so sad.
I am betting that as soon as this tech kicks in the following will happen:
You will not be allowed to film [or use the recording, say in court] authorities of any kind [border control, police ect.]
You won't be allowed to use it in concert halls [buy buy conductor app], cinemas, theaters, pubs [be sure that many owners will forbid it to keep their clientele], churches, schools [creepy pedo], kindergartens [the same], at work [because you corporate secrets]
Therefore it's primary usefulness will be...wait for it....to collect even more personal data from the slaves while not endangering the masters in any way. Voluntarily! While arguing and fighting among ourselves about it. Brilliant!
I think Brin is having the laugh of his life. He must have heard that in communist states it was common to subscribe for a consumer product and wait for years to get it. But make the right ad campaign and western people will gladly surrender their dignity and line up to wait to give you money!!!. I am speechless...and some idiot above tried to say that there is some financial envy in those bashing the tech? Envy? I am pitying those fools...
Is that so? I wonder what happens with a person if he/she grew with normal diet and was put on vegan? I am not sure this is entirely healthy...
The Dutch are the tallest nation on earth because they eat very protein rich stuff [diary products]. That was on the news not so long ago...and you know what - funny but taller people are more successful in life. It's probably due to cognitive bias, the same one that makes people forgive the trespasses of beautiful people more readily that those of ugly people. So there is something in us that values height and perhaps it is connected via something like [illustration only example] "tall person - has access to protein rich food - good mate". Also funny that all vegetarians I know [not even vegans] are on average not very tall or wide and honestly will have a difficulty to compete with meat eaters if we were in the "kill or be killed" situation.
So, as the food supplies begin to dwindle [they will eventually as will everything in a finite system with infinite growing demand] we will see more and more propaganda to switch to "eco food" like insects, microorganisms ans so on. It totally amazes me when people nonchalantly say "well, if we want to feed the ever growing population we will have to switch the menu" and no no one says "why are we so stupid to continue our infinite growth".
So 3 billion meat eaters on earth or 6 billion vegetarians or 10 billion vegans or 20 billion fungi eaters [numbers purely for illustration] - why one is "better" than the other? The impact on the eco system would be the same. Actually more because those 20 billion might still want heating, clothing and mobile phones... I think however, that one IS better than the rest - namely the largest number possible that gives everyone the richest and healthiest diet possible in a sustainable manner, according to who we are.
Who are we? We are omnivorous and without meat we won't be even here. I will not go into details, since my knowledge is not professional but I have heard many times that meat eating [also very important - fish eating] gave us the spare energy to grow the brains that made us human. Cooking the food was the next revolution. With more concentrated source of food you need less of digestive system so you can shrink it while expanding other parts of the body. I see in my mouth the cutters of the rabbit, the canines of the tiger and the molars of the cow. And I ain't going to argue with 4 billion years of evolution and will oppose those who not only fight it but do it for the wrong reasons.
In conclusion I would rephrase the OP. "Forcing or manipulating people or society to not be omnivorous [as we want, please, are entitled to and, if you are religious, were made to be] is dangerous, useless and often stupid and could be therefore be called unethical".
Eliminate all waste? In this economic paradigm which sole purpose is to encourage waste [money-goods-money-goods, as fast as we can because we take a slice at every transaction right?]?
I think you worry too soon. It's like worrying that the Sun will go out one day...
Fancy! I am still playing extremely heavily modded Oblivion. I don't think Skyrim will run smoothly on my PC anyway. Also - I am hesitant to play "coded for console, rushed for PC" kind of thing. I mean Oblivion is unplayable on PC without modding; after modding it's one of the best games ever. I lesson to us all, perhaps?
Also - golden oldies like Alpha centauri, Rome total war [extremely heavily modded], Painkiller [when I feel like shooting something], GTA 3 [use it as a substitute to recreational driving - put my MP3 collection on the radio and just drive/float/fly]. I do have an old console - PS2 and use it to play the one and only game that warrants, in my opinion, purchasing a console - Gran Turismo. My wheel gear is twice as pricy compared to the console...
My decision to come and work in the Netherlands is entirely based on Cosmos. "travelers in time ans space" was the episode - it talks exclusively about the Dutch golden age. Saw it behind the Iron Curtain at an age of 12 or something. When I realized that this is a society where you could say "The world is my country, science is my religion" [quote Christian Huygens] in the times when Galileo was prosecuted in South Europe and threaten with death I though "this is it, I'm going there".
Of course, this famous Dutch spirit has been under attack recently as "non-profitable" - exactly the same decline in rational thought that we see much more pronounced in the US. So the Dutch also need new Cosmos, to remind them that it is because of that spirit they had the golden age. The moment they loose it, they've lost everything, since this country has nothing else [no resources, nor territory].
Health considerations and efficiency. At the end everyone wins if the workers are treated well - the company, the worker and society as a whole. There is nothing "left", "right" or anything remotely political in this. It's solid, scientific facts. And you know the thing about science, right - it works!
Where I work we are obliged to take minimum 15 days per year. That's working days, mind you, in essence it's 3 calendar weeks. My total vacation days are 28 working days [5 calendar weeks and a bit] + the option to buy 5 extra days. I always do it. Money is nothing compared to spare time...substituting 1 tablet per year for 1 full week rest - that's cheap!
Oh, and in case you are wondering - I work in a fully [high-tech] private company, shareholders and all, and we are bloody good in what we do.
In the larger picture - when the assholes say these worker protections are not profitable what they mean is that it's not profitable for THEM. But if you look over the whole society you will see the [enormous] profit everywhere. When the assholes get their way, they [as an example] force people to poverty and sub-standard lifestyles which results in increased health costs and increased crime rates but those are not paid by THEM, so society covers for their profits. Get it? This is going on in Europe [the assholes pushing hard against science and reason for personal profit] at the moment and if we are so stupid to succumb to these [imported] lies our societies will degrade....
That's a lie, perpetuated by both capitalist and the former "communists". I fail to see where is the state in "the means of production belong to the creators of the wealth".
I've got nothing of this. Nothing. No Facebook, no tweeter, no nothing. Not even a picture of me on the public Internet can be found./. and Linkedin , that is all [I regret the latter and perhaps I am beginning to regret the former too].
Now, do you think that the contacts from my phone are not pulled hundred times already by everyone and their dog? Do you think that I have no file somewhere based only on my/. posts? Do you think my I-net queries and everything I do online is not followed? Do you think that in the rare occasions I have used navigation the data is not stored somewhere "for my convenience"?
After the Iron Curtain fell I saw my file. I was 16 years old when the system collapsed and I did have a file. WTF, I was just a youngster in high school! Everyone did have a file apparently. You want to tell me that today it is any different? If anything it is easier to realize and the paranoia of the western powers is just as large as the one of the communists with the added "bonus" that now both the government and the businesses are fucking us...
Slightly tangential, but your post would be just as correct if you replace "manager" with "politician". Career politicians are the death of our society.
On topic - I am a lucky bastard - at my work all the managers are nerds who either founded the company or arose from the file and rank. It's not that they don't make mistakes but 1. they know the work and 2. being nerds you can have a logical discussion based on facts with them.
Terry Pratchett is on our side too. When his hero-con master Moist looks for a printing company for his stamps it says [approximately] "Moist liked companies where you can go inside and actually speak with the person whose name is above the door. It means it's probably not run by crooks".
Sorry, I disagree on your last point. I am not boycotting/. this week and here is what I noticed:
I get too many mod points. When spending the last one if I just reload/. I get another 15 on the spot. I might be wrong but doesn't this mean that many quality users with high karma are not present so the system gives too much to the rest?
However, the modding itself became much more "group think". Sarcasm is not detected as such. Political correctness [auto censorship] is on the rise. Obvious humorous posts are modded troll.
Saner? No way, just the opposite. Unless you call "sane" the official party line [group think, pol. correctness, ect.]
If I have to put my tinfoil hat I'd say that/. is dumbed down deliberately, probably because our opinions matter and were becoming ever more noticed by the public at large. I personally have had the experience of being replied on other forums with the exact sentences [down to the punctuation or weird grammar if it is from non-native English speaker] that I have seen written here. Even my own sentences. I am not talking about the popular/. memes, no. Sentences and expressions from a normal discussion. Some people are listening and spreading our ideas around.
I have always thought that freedom of speech is OK as long as you don't matter. If you do, one way or another you will be stopped...I know it sounds batshit crazy but can anyone give me an alternative reason? Why do the owners of the site do this? Obviously they try to replace the community with another one. Obviously the new community is moving towards the middle of the distribution and becoming increasingly mainstream. Why?
I have seen this before, more than once. Vibrant forums are deliberately destroyed and are now just another site full with idiots and bigots. Not nearly as big as/. and still someone is taking the effort to destroy them. In my country some geeks analyzed many discussion sites and concluded that half of the posts online are from shills. They even found one of the companies that was offering such shills for hire. Turns out all major political parties are their customers and many businesses. And this is in my insignificant, pitiful, poor country that no-one takes seriously.
I cannot imagine what is at stake in an empire like the US and the lengths to which the powers to be will [or their deluded supporting sheep] will go to stifle critical thought or any thought. Even such "trivialities" as deleting 2 pages from the English translation of this book [www.amazon.com/Homo-Zapiens-Victor-Pelevin/dp/0142001813/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1392319501&sr=8-2&keywords=victor+pelevin] simply because it talks about Coca-Cola and Pepsi [in an extremely humorous and witty manner] - they pay attention even to that!!!!! How many people will read that book anyway [100 times less than the number of/. users I recon]? And yet a censorship was executed obviously in favor of those giant corporations. They think this is important enough to warrant the censoring of a book? How paranoid are those people, I wonder. I think more than me and my tinfoil hat speculations....don't you think?
It does not have to be directed by Obama, it does not have to be orchestrated by some secret cabal or 3 letter organization. It is just the Zeitgeist and we are all somehow part of the conspiracy - some of us doing big evils daily, some doing little evils daily that amount to big ones, some conforming to the inhuman socioeconomic system and deluded human mythology [in an insane world the sane are labeled crazy and who wants to be labeled like that] and adding small evils too, some of us through indifference or bigotry. We are all guilty. The system snowballs on the shoulders of the conforming, the scared, the indifferent and it only appears that there is a conspiracy, but there isn't...or there are numerous small ones acting in accord...again it's just the Zeitgeist
Just look at your post for crying out loud. Part of it is off-topic but you are at +4, whereas every negative opinion about Beta is at -1 across the site [even the jokes]. Meditate on this you should...
As much as I would like your argument to be correct I don't think it is. Who needs biology? The banker, the accountant, the politician, the driver, the sport star or the computer geek? No-one.
Yet, some years ago I claimed here, in front t of this audience that biology is the most relevant science for the layman to understand.
What biology is important for , is that it stands against the suicidal mythology of Homo Sapiens expressed succinctly by the statement "The Earth was build for/belongs to man and man's destiny is to rule it" [notice that this applies to religious or non-religious people equally] Biology teaches us what is our real position in the community of life. It teaches us the most important survival lessons. If we disregard those lessons we will go extinct. The dangers for humanity coming from "physics" are few and far between [meteor strike, super nova, black holes ect]. The dangers rooted in biology are much more immediate and much more likely to happen.
So although I find biology to be absolutely essential for the survival of humanity we can still go along without it pretending we are living in a dream untul we wake up in the nightmare. Not gonna be the first time either, but the stakes are very high now...
If you point to stars with a laser [one of the advertized uses of those devices and the only use I would care about if I had one] it might be a tad difficult not to hit a plane by accident from time to time [move your arm by an inch and you cover many miles up there]. Also, the amount of planes these days is ridiculous. Maybe we should accept this minor evil and equip the planes with some filters or something. I don't know, maybe that would be too impractical or pricey. Tough.
Another thought - this ridiculous increase as the article calls it, is maybe partially due to the fact that they are looking for it. Like doctors that define some new condition and suddenly almost every one on the street has it!
On the other hand I fully admit that there are [way too] many morons out there. Just the other day a kid was shining a laser on me while I was cycling in Amsterdam. I saw him from afar and was prepared but so many people would not be.
Sometimes, it's about the right approach indeed:) Let's finish with an anecdote.
A few winters back it was popular in the Netherlands among the youngsters to throw snowballs on cars, buses ect. and cyclists. I think on few occasions some citizens lost their nerves and I think a Russian guy once did something pretty harsh but I don't remember what it was. Anyway, I am coming home with some food from the restaurant, it's very slippery and I barely manage to stay on the bicycle. A group of 4-5 teens hits me with snowballs. I stop, they prepare to run but I told them I just want to talk.
So I tried to explain that in such conditions one hit like this and some elderly chap but also anyone else can fall and badly injure themselves [I've dislocated a shoulder falling from a bicycle and that was the least fun I had in my life so far in terms of pain - it was horrible!]. At the beginning they were listening [or pretending] but once they realized I was not threatening in any way [big mistake] they became arrogant and eventually one of them asked me with a kind of a black American accent, imitating some gangsta persona I guess "So, bro, where are you coming from" [we spoke in English]. I was pissed by their arrogance and foolishness and saw an opportunity. I said with carefully nonchalant tone "Oh, I am just coming from Chechnya; I am a Russian soldier and just finished my service there. In the special forces." Utter silence! Their expressions - priceless! I could almost hear the deflation of their egos. That was a few days after that accident I mentioned above and I do have Slavonic features and can speak Russian if called on my bluff. I hope that at least for a few days they were less idiotic.
In this case it was the parents and the police that were too soft on those idiots. But I don't blame the police. They catch them, report their behavior to the parents and tell them not to do it. We cannot and should not ask anything more from them because on the other hand we know what happens when the police gets to care for your children, don't we?
I cannot help but feel somewhat satisfied about this news. As a smoker, I have no issue with the reasonable demands of non-smokers [I hated smoking on the working place or in trains even though I smoke, for instance].
But the hysterical propaganda that still rages on, the ever increasing "financial incentives" to quit [ever higher taxes and license fees - do you notice they always do it to things we are "addicted" too , like energy, housing, food, drinks...treats to increase medical premiums....] has left me bitterly disappointed by the gullibility of the human race and its pettiness. The lies about secondary smoking, the "cost" of smokers to society [all damn lies, but let's not digress] all these hatred [remember, it made enough impression so that Rockstar to include in GTA 4 an "interview" on the chat radio with hysterical mom that was advocating shooting smokers on site] - I felt and still feel very upset...
And all the time when having discussions with those people I was saying "Beware, next they'd come after you - for your beer, for your food, for your car, for your sex life, for your opinions [if they make difference - freedom of speech applies as long as the speech has no detectable political impact]"
No, I disagree. Best comment on the subject ever was done by my better half. Picture : we are eating a breakfast and BBC World is on the TV. Some man in the studio was just talking about Russian oligarchs and Putin and bla bla and in the end with pathetic aplomb he says "In short: Russia is a Mafia state"!
My wife looks up briefly and says "Of course it is a Mafia state. So is the West only here it is legal, so they don't call it Mafia".
Slashdot Mirror
"The solution to pollution is dilution" - man, that was one big lie, wasn't it? It started dying with this [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamata_Bay].
More than 15 years ago I was involved in such study and already at that time it was understood that the water might be safe for drinking but should you eat fish from it you are in trouble. The operative word here is "bio accumulation". I was working on a project commissioned by the [much smaller] EU at the time to readjust the safety levels of heavy metals in marine and river waters. We worked along the south-west coast of France and north-west cost of Spain. You know what's funny - because of the importance of our finds which would lead to legislation change we worked "under cover" .I am not kidding. A fishing boat was used with an analytical lab on board but we would always say on the radio we were fishermen. Even to the people that direct the traffic in harbors. We were told not to say to anyone what we research. I think the very fact that such measures were taken on a EU project no less, says something...something that is not nice.
However, your particular anger is not warranted in this case, IMO. The radioactive material form that disaster is truly insignificant compared to the heavy metal pollution from everything else. I am not saying that we should close our eyes and mouths of course...
You may post this 1000 times [you do good work on this tread, I see] but it ain't gonna change anything. This technology will not fly....
Also, idiots are those who only know "it's the law, it's the law". The law, my friend is made by people, changed by people and abandoned by people.
An exercise for you - tell me how many serious politicians have stated loud and clear that "privacy is dead" or that "you have no reasonable expectation of privacy outside your home". You DO realize that such statements would mean political suicide in most countries in the world, right? It's the fucking corporations that are stating this all the time and their shills [with the silent support of governments, of course]. And you in particular are carrying water for them ATM, at the expense of the majority of the population. I hope you at least get paid for it...otherwise take that word "idiot" that you like so much and stick it to your forehead.
Back in the USSR?!
You cannot pass! [the spelling test]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B...
WTF is this?
First post calling everyone in a bar "rejects" gets "insightful" and this denigrating, straw man...whatever utter bullocks post is also at +5?!?
50% of post are shills, right...I read that somewhere...oh wait, it was here! How ironic...
Which in turn is an exaggerated version of a....mirror. Major reduction of expense I'd say...
Read the following two books or more details:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Man-...
http://www.amazon.com/Phantoms...
Both are true. I can ogle nature all day long and will not get bored. I can look at a leaf for hours.
However, if you can bring me just on the other side of the moon, no further, so I can see the starts without light pollution and atmosphere I think the first time I'll just freeze from awe....now that I live in the Netherlands where clouds and sky are the same thing and even if they weren't this country has one of the worst cases of light pollution I truly miss the night sky. Really, I am not exaggerating.
What about an "outside" view of a Galaxy [that we can see only in movies] or a glimpse towards the Galactic core. How about planets and moons. Rings, great spots, Io's volcanoes and so on and so on...? I'll cry my eyes out...
We don't want any "pillars", thank you. Which pillars exactly are you lamenting for?
The pillar of religion? Don't make me laugh....
The pillar of "free and independent" press. keep on laughing
The pillar of democracy with proper check and balances. staring to hyperventilate with so much laughter
The pillar of outdated believes, general ignorance that still battles with century old ideas [evolution]. collapsing on the floor laughing.
The pillar of peaceful coexistence, tit for tat, non-violent competition . Oh wait, THIS is not a pillar of our society...'nuf said.
When people lament the loss of "norms and values" what they lament is that they are not allowed to kill the ones that disagree with them. Bigots that want to reverse the clock and bring back all the magnificent social ideas of the past /sarcasm
I've always wanted to see real competition between social systems. The original idea of the US had the potential to do just this, but alas, it did not happen. The central government should have insured only free travel and commerce between the states, defense and perhaps a few critical infrastructures and that's it. Then let the people move to the state which has the system closest to their attitude.
In fact I'd extend this idea to the whole globe. Let's not have countries but regions that are run by different social systems. Let's see then where the interesting people will go, the creative people, the productive people. Let the bigots cluster and live the way the want it.
The problem is of course that people always fight with each other. It is not enough to live and let live. I know almost no person that fully subscribes under this principle. No, we have to remove, stamp on or kill the ones that do not agree with our way of life...so sad.
I am betting that as soon as this tech kicks in the following will happen:
You will not be allowed to film [or use the recording, say in court] authorities of any kind [border control, police ect.]
You won't be allowed to use it in concert halls [buy buy conductor app], cinemas, theaters, pubs [be sure that many owners will forbid it to keep their clientele], churches, schools [creepy pedo], kindergartens [the same], at work [because you corporate secrets]
Therefore it's primary usefulness will be...wait for it....to collect even more personal data from the slaves while not endangering the masters in any way. Voluntarily! While arguing and fighting among ourselves about it. Brilliant!
I think Brin is having the laugh of his life. He must have heard that in communist states it was common to subscribe for a consumer product and wait for years to get it. But make the right ad campaign and western people will gladly surrender their dignity and line up to wait to give you money!!!. I am speechless...and some idiot above tried to say that there is some financial envy in those bashing the tech? Envy? I am pitying those fools...
Is that so? I wonder what happens with a person if he/she grew with normal diet and was put on vegan? I am not sure this is entirely healthy...
The Dutch are the tallest nation on earth because they eat very protein rich stuff [diary products]. That was on the news not so long ago...and you know what - funny but taller people are more successful in life. It's probably due to cognitive bias, the same one that makes people forgive the trespasses of beautiful people more readily that those of ugly people. So there is something in us that values height and perhaps it is connected via something like [illustration only example] "tall person - has access to protein rich food - good mate".
Also funny that all vegetarians I know [not even vegans] are on average not very tall or wide and honestly will have a difficulty to compete with meat eaters if we were in the "kill or be killed" situation.
So, as the food supplies begin to dwindle [they will eventually as will everything in a finite system with infinite growing demand] we will see more and more propaganda to switch to "eco food" like insects, microorganisms ans so on. It totally amazes me when people nonchalantly say "well, if we want to feed the ever growing population we will have to switch the menu" and no no one says "why are we so stupid to continue our infinite growth".
So 3 billion meat eaters on earth or 6 billion vegetarians or 10 billion vegans or 20 billion fungi eaters [numbers purely for illustration] - why one is "better" than the other? The impact on the eco system would be the same. Actually more because those 20 billion might still want heating, clothing and mobile phones...
I think however, that one IS better than the rest - namely the largest number possible that gives everyone the richest and healthiest diet possible in a sustainable manner, according to who we are.
Who are we? We are omnivorous and without meat we won't be even here. I will not go into details, since my knowledge is not professional but I have heard many times that meat eating [also very important - fish eating] gave us the spare energy to grow the brains that made us human. Cooking the food was the next revolution. With more concentrated source of food you need less of digestive system so you can shrink it while expanding other parts of the body. I see in my mouth the cutters of the rabbit, the canines of the tiger and the molars of the cow. And I ain't going to argue with 4 billion years of evolution and will oppose those who not only fight it but do it for the wrong reasons.
In conclusion I would rephrase the OP. "Forcing or manipulating people or society to not be omnivorous [as we want, please, are entitled to and, if you are religious, were made to be] is dangerous, useless and often stupid and could be therefore be called unethical".
Eliminate all waste? In this economic paradigm which sole purpose is to encourage waste [money-goods-money-goods, as fast as we can because we take a slice at every transaction right?]?
I think you worry too soon. It's like worrying that the Sun will go out one day...
Just tried it - indeed no blockade [UPC customer]. Not that it was difficult to circumvent it...
What an amazing day - first at work great results after years of struggle [you know how it is in R&D], now this. Today is a good day for democracy ;)
Fancy! I am still playing extremely heavily modded Oblivion. I don't think Skyrim will run smoothly on my PC anyway. Also - I am hesitant to play "coded for console, rushed for PC" kind of thing. I mean Oblivion is unplayable on PC without modding; after modding it's one of the best games ever. I lesson to us all, perhaps?
Also - golden oldies like Alpha centauri, Rome total war [extremely heavily modded], Painkiller [when I feel like shooting something], GTA 3 [use it as a substitute to recreational driving - put my MP3 collection on the radio and just drive/float/fly]. I do have an old console - PS2 and use it to play the one and only game that warrants, in my opinion, purchasing a console - Gran Turismo. My wheel gear is twice as pricy compared to the console...
It changes lives. Literally. It raises awareness.
My decision to come and work in the Netherlands is entirely based on Cosmos. "travelers in time ans space" was the episode - it talks exclusively about the Dutch golden age. Saw it behind the Iron Curtain at an age of 12 or something. When I realized that this is a society where you could say "The world is my country, science is my religion" [quote Christian Huygens] in the times when Galileo was prosecuted in South Europe and threaten with death I though "this is it, I'm going there".
Of course, this famous Dutch spirit has been under attack recently as "non-profitable" - exactly the same decline in rational thought that we see much more pronounced in the US. So the Dutch also need new Cosmos, to remind them that it is because of that spirit they had the golden age. The moment they loose it, they've lost everything, since this country has nothing else [no resources, nor territory].
Health considerations and efficiency. At the end everyone wins if the workers are treated well - the company, the worker and society as a whole. There is nothing "left", "right" or anything remotely political in this. It's solid, scientific facts. And you know the thing about science, right - it works!
Where I work we are obliged to take minimum 15 days per year. That's working days, mind you, in essence it's 3 calendar weeks. My total vacation days are 28 working days [5 calendar weeks and a bit] + the option to buy 5 extra days. I always do it. Money is nothing compared to spare time...substituting 1 tablet per year for 1 full week rest - that's cheap!
Oh, and in case you are wondering - I work in a fully [high-tech] private company, shareholders and all, and we are bloody good in what we do.
In the larger picture - when the assholes say these worker protections are not profitable what they mean is that it's not profitable for THEM. But if you look over the whole society you will see the [enormous] profit everywhere. When the assholes get their way, they [as an example] force people to poverty and sub-standard lifestyles which results in increased health costs and increased crime rates but those are not paid by THEM, so society covers for their profits. Get it? This is going on in Europe [the assholes pushing hard against science and reason for personal profit] at the moment and if we are so stupid to succumb to these [imported] lies our societies will degrade....
Democratic control means state control?
That's a lie, perpetuated by both capitalist and the former "communists". I fail to see where is the state in "the means of production belong to the creators of the wealth".
man, if you wanna be a good troll you gotta read a bit more. Your attempted insult is applicable for the Chinese and Koreans.
Do you hear a lot of silverware crashing noise in the names Myamoto Musashi, Oda Nobunaga, Tkeshi Kitano just to name a few....
Trolls these days....what do they teach them in school?
I've got nothing of this. Nothing. No Facebook, no tweeter, no nothing. Not even a picture of me on the public Internet can be found. /. and Linkedin , that is all [I regret the latter and perhaps I am beginning to regret the former too].
Now, do you think that the contacts from my phone are not pulled hundred times already by everyone and their dog? Do you think that I have no file somewhere based only on my /. posts? Do you think my I-net queries and everything I do online is not followed? Do you think that in the rare occasions I have used navigation the data is not stored somewhere "for my convenience"?
After the Iron Curtain fell I saw my file. I was 16 years old when the system collapsed and I did have a file. WTF, I was just a youngster in high school! Everyone did have a file apparently. You want to tell me that today it is any different? If anything it is easier to realize and the paranoia of the western powers is just as large as the one of the communists with the added "bonus" that now both the government and the businesses are fucking us...
Slightly tangential, but your post would be just as correct if you replace "manager" with "politician". Career politicians are the death of our society.
On topic - I am a lucky bastard - at my work all the managers are nerds who either founded the company or arose from the file and rank. It's not that they don't make mistakes but 1. they know the work and 2. being nerds you can have a logical discussion based on facts with them.
Terry Pratchett is on our side too. When his hero-con master Moist looks for a printing company for his stamps it says [approximately] "Moist liked companies where you can go inside and actually speak with the person whose name is above the door. It means it's probably not run by crooks".
Sorry, I disagree on your last point. I am not boycotting /. this week and here is what I noticed:
I get too many mod points. When spending the last one if I just reload /. I get another 15 on the spot. I might be wrong but doesn't this mean that many quality users with high karma are not present so the system gives too much to the rest?
However, the modding itself became much more "group think". Sarcasm is not detected as such. Political correctness [auto censorship] is on the rise. Obvious humorous posts are modded troll.
Saner? No way, just the opposite. Unless you call "sane" the official party line [group think, pol. correctness, ect.]
If I have to put my tinfoil hat I'd say that /. is dumbed down deliberately, probably because our opinions matter and were becoming ever more noticed by the public at large. I personally have had the experience of being replied on other forums with the exact sentences [down to the punctuation or weird grammar if it is from non-native English speaker] that I have seen written here. Even my own sentences. I am not talking about the popular /. memes, no. Sentences and expressions from a normal discussion. Some people are listening and spreading our ideas around.
I have always thought that freedom of speech is OK as long as you don't matter. If you do, one way or another you will be stopped...I know it sounds batshit crazy but can anyone give me an alternative reason? Why do the owners of the site do this? Obviously they try to replace the community with another one. Obviously the new community is moving towards the middle of the distribution and becoming increasingly mainstream. Why?
I have seen this before, more than once. Vibrant forums are deliberately destroyed and are now just another site full with idiots and bigots. Not nearly as big as /. and still someone is taking the effort to destroy them. In my country some geeks analyzed many discussion sites and concluded that half of the posts online are from shills. They even found one of the companies that was offering such shills for hire. Turns out all major political parties are their customers and many businesses. And this is in my insignificant, pitiful, poor country that no-one takes seriously.
I cannot imagine what is at stake in an empire like the US and the lengths to which the powers to be will [or their deluded supporting sheep] will go to stifle critical thought or any thought. Even such "trivialities" as deleting 2 pages from the English translation of this book [www.amazon.com/Homo-Zapiens-Victor-Pelevin/dp/0142001813/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1392319501&sr=8-2&keywords=victor+pelevin] simply because it talks about Coca-Cola and Pepsi [in an extremely humorous and witty manner] - they pay attention even to that!!!!! How many people will read that book anyway [100 times less than the number of /. users I recon]? And yet a censorship was executed obviously in favor of those giant corporations. They think this is important enough to warrant the censoring of a book? How paranoid are those people, I wonder. I think more than me and my tinfoil hat speculations....don't you think?
It does not have to be directed by Obama, it does not have to be orchestrated by some secret cabal or 3 letter organization. It is just the Zeitgeist and we are all somehow part of the conspiracy - some of us doing big evils daily, some doing little evils daily that amount to big ones, some conforming to the inhuman socioeconomic system and deluded human mythology [in an insane world the sane are labeled crazy and who wants to be labeled like that] and adding small evils too, some of us through indifference or bigotry. We are all guilty. The system snowballs on the shoulders of the conforming, the scared, the indifferent and it only appears that there is a conspiracy, but there isn't...or there are numerous small ones acting in accord...again it's just the Zeitgeist
Just look at your post for crying out loud. Part of it is off-topic but you are at +4, whereas every negative opinion about Beta is at -1 across the site [even the jokes]. Meditate on this you should...
As much as I would like your argument to be correct I don't think it is. Who needs biology? The banker, the accountant, the politician, the driver, the sport star or the computer geek? No-one.
Yet, some years ago I claimed here, in front t of this audience that biology is the most relevant science for the layman to understand.
What biology is important for , is that it stands against the suicidal mythology of Homo Sapiens expressed succinctly by the statement "The Earth was build for/belongs to man and man's destiny is to rule it" [notice that this applies to religious or non-religious people equally]
Biology teaches us what is our real position in the community of life. It teaches us the most important survival lessons. If we disregard those lessons we will go extinct. The dangers for humanity coming from "physics" are few and far between [meteor strike, super nova, black holes ect]. The dangers rooted in biology are much more immediate and much more likely to happen.
So although I find biology to be absolutely essential for the survival of humanity we can still go along without it pretending we are living in a dream untul we wake up in the nightmare. Not gonna be the first time either, but the stakes are very high now...
Phew, that's a tough one!
Here are some thoughts on the matter.
If you point to stars with a laser [one of the advertized uses of those devices and the only use I would care about if I had one] it might be a tad difficult not to hit a plane by accident from time to time [move your arm by an inch and you cover many miles up there]. Also, the amount of planes these days is ridiculous. Maybe we should accept this minor evil and equip the planes with some filters or something. I don't know, maybe that would be too impractical or pricey. Tough.
Another thought - this ridiculous increase as the article calls it, is maybe partially due to the fact that they are looking for it. Like doctors that define some new condition and suddenly almost every one on the street has it!
On the other hand I fully admit that there are [way too] many morons out there. Just the other day a kid was shining a laser on me while I was cycling in Amsterdam. I saw him from afar and was prepared but so many people would not be.
Sometimes, it's about the right approach indeed :) Let's finish with an anecdote.
A few winters back it was popular in the Netherlands among the youngsters to throw snowballs on cars, buses ect. and cyclists. I think on few occasions some citizens lost their nerves and I think a Russian guy once did something pretty harsh but I don't remember what it was. Anyway, I am coming home with some food from the restaurant, it's very slippery and I barely manage to stay on the bicycle. A group of 4-5 teens hits me with snowballs. I stop, they prepare to run but I told them I just want to talk.
So I tried to explain that in such conditions one hit like this and some elderly chap but also anyone else can fall and badly injure themselves [I've dislocated a shoulder falling from a bicycle and that was the least fun I had in my life so far in terms of pain - it was horrible!]. At the beginning they were listening [or pretending] but once they realized I was not threatening in any way [big mistake] they became arrogant and eventually one of them asked me with a kind of a black American accent, imitating some gangsta persona I guess "So, bro, where are you coming from" [we spoke in English]. I was pissed by their arrogance and foolishness and saw an opportunity. I said with carefully nonchalant tone "Oh, I am just coming from Chechnya; I am a Russian soldier and just finished my service there. In the special forces." Utter silence! Their expressions - priceless! I could almost hear the deflation of their egos. That was a few days after that accident I mentioned above and I do have Slavonic features and can speak Russian if called on my bluff. I hope that at least for a few days they were less idiotic.
In this case it was the parents and the police that were too soft on those idiots. But I don't blame the police. They catch them, report their behavior to the parents and tell them not to do it. We cannot and should not ask anything more from them because on the other hand we know what happens when the police gets to care for your children, don't we?
Or mod points. I cannot see if I have some, how many ect.
Sorry but I tried it and found it unworkable in 10 minutes. If it takes longer than that to find the functionality they are doing it wrong...
I cannot help but feel somewhat satisfied about this news. As a smoker, I have no issue with the reasonable demands of non-smokers [I hated smoking on the working place or in trains even though I smoke, for instance].
But the hysterical propaganda that still rages on, the ever increasing "financial incentives" to quit [ever higher taxes and license fees - do you notice they always do it to things we are "addicted" too , like energy, housing, food, drinks...treats to increase medical premiums....] has left me bitterly disappointed by the gullibility of the human race and its pettiness. The lies about secondary smoking, the "cost" of smokers to society [all damn lies, but let's not digress] all these hatred [remember, it made enough impression so that Rockstar to include in GTA 4 an "interview" on the chat radio with hysterical mom that was advocating shooting smokers on site] - I felt and still feel very upset...
And all the time when having discussions with those people I was saying "Beware, next they'd come after you - for your beer, for your food, for your car, for your sex life, for your opinions [if they make difference - freedom of speech applies as long as the speech has no detectable political impact]"
Enjoy now, idiots!
No, I disagree. Best comment on the subject ever was done by my better half. Picture : we are eating a breakfast and BBC World is on the TV. Some man in the studio was just talking about Russian oligarchs and Putin and bla bla and in the end with pathetic aplomb he says "In short: Russia is a Mafia state"!
My wife looks up briefly and says "Of course it is a Mafia state. So is the West only here it is legal, so they don't call it Mafia".
'nuf said..