Public roads are not, never have been, and should not be considered a basic public service.
The public road network is a means of transportation for individuals and groups, organizations, and companies, people and assemblies of all kinds. As a means of transportation, putting ownership and control of access to it in the hands of government is a very very bad idea that relies on a false idea that the government can be trusted because it is the government which gives us rights and therefore will protect them on any service it provides.
This nation, as with all other nations of humans, has a long history of illustrating just the opposite. Government descends from our basic rights as humans, not the other way around. We make right of our right to free will to choose to organize and co-operate under governance, not to exist at the leisure of it.
Governments inherently being creatures of our darker tendencies and mob rule, are not and never have been given inherently towards respecting or protecting our rights, but ever seek to intrude upon them and limit them.
Yet despite all the socialist alarm bells about the present president turning this nation into the bastard offspring of Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany, the same people all too often seem to think that government should provide the conduit through which we express ourselves. If this be the case, then let us turn over all the cars, garages, repair shops, fueling stations, fuel and lubricants and all other means of transportation right now to the government.
Anyone trust that the government will distribute these means as best fits our rights and needs or would they do as they more often do, limit, choke, control?
Road building and maintenance by government is to put those means in the hands of politicians and politics. Two things that should be kept as far away and have as little contact as possible with it. Putting my tax dollars on this is tantamount to forcing me to contribute to something destined to become embroiled ina civil rights clusterf*ck of all time in the near future. Let us cut to the chase and not go there in the first place.
Wow, talk about clueless reporting. "RFID"?! It uses Radio Frequency IDentification to power the mouse? Give me a break. I expect this from my local newspaper, not from Slashdot.
And why exactly is this news, anyway? I've had my Wacom tablet for five years, which has a pen and a mouse, neither of which has a battery.
The game of chicken continues until one of two things occurs. (1) Other countries pull out of the US. A cascade effect occurs and the world is in a depression. (2) Other countries don't pull out and slow, steady inflation causes US foreign debts to be effectively erased.
There's a number (3): the world economy gradually loses its dependency on the US economy, then other countries pull out of the US, and the rest of the world is just fine. This is what I think will happen over the next fifty years.
Not to mention they are aware that downloading is illegal now, so some stay away for that reason alone.
You know, I've never understood that. How can anybody think it's OK to download something that people have to make a living off of, without paying for it? How dumb do you have to be to only realise that after being told that it's illegal?
I disagree. One of the defining features of intelligence is the ability to plan, to draw conclusions from past events, form goals, and be able to consciously set out to reach those goals by applying past experience. Evolution does not work that way at all. It has no goals, it's just a simple process whose results are entirely incidental. It may appear intelligent, because the end result is so magnificently adapted to its environment, but that's exactly why people are so easily caught up in ID-type theories.
It's either gridlocked on the highway or you're gridlocked on the city streets.
I don't know. It often takes only a relatively small decrease in the amount of traffic to make the traffic flow smoothly again. Distributing the traffic better might decrease the amount of traffic on the main roads enough to resolve the gridlock there, without introducing it on the city streets.
If only some cars (possibly as few as one) are controlled by humans, things are MUCH more complex than if computers controll everything.
I don't think that's necessarily the case. Even when everything is computerized, the computer in the car is still going to have to monitor its surroundings and be able to react to unexpected obstacles or reactions. Some drunk or young child might wander onto the road. Another car might suffer a total break down. Something may fall on the road. Etc., etc. Other cars being driven manually is just another factor which doesn't increase the total complexity of the system much in relative terms.
There is (should be) a study dated 1998 (which I was not able to locate yet) sponsored by the EU Commission which states that daylight saving time does not have the desired effect on energy consumption (which is taken as a common fact anyway here (de)).
I heard an item on the radio here in the Netherlands saying that we save something like EUR 70.000.000 a year in energy expenditures because of daylight savings time. I'd like to see some good, scientific research on this matter. Someone must know whether we are, or are not getting any benefits from daylight savings time!
So how is this an advantage over del.icio.us, exactly?
Maybe it has to do with the context. Apparently, on de.lirio.us, it's licensed with a Creative Commons license. del.icio.us doesn't specify how the content is licensed. del.icio.us could turn around at some point in the future, after all those nice people have provided it with a very valuable set of data, and start to charge for it.
It happens all the time. The Dutch site www.schoolbank.nl, for instance, is now suddenly charging for being able to contact your old school friends, after having gathered a database with contact information over the backs of people who thought it would be free forever, and without compensating those people for their work. I just hate shit like that.
That's not so say del.icio.us would do that of course, but with de.liriu.us you know they can't do it.
Slashdot Mirror
..."fucking"?
Public roads are not, never have been, and should not be considered a basic public service.
The public road network is a means of transportation for individuals and groups, organizations, and companies, people and assemblies of all kinds. As a means of transportation, putting ownership and control of access to it in the hands of government is a very very bad idea that relies on a false idea that the government can be trusted because it is the government which gives us rights and therefore will protect them on any service it provides.
This nation, as with all other nations of humans, has a long history of illustrating just the opposite. Government descends from our basic rights as humans, not the other way around. We make right of our right to free will to choose to organize and co-operate under governance, not to exist at the leisure of it.
Governments inherently being creatures of our darker tendencies and mob rule, are not and never have been given inherently towards respecting or protecting our rights, but ever seek to intrude upon them and limit them.
Yet despite all the socialist alarm bells about the present president turning this nation into the bastard offspring of Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany, the same people all too often seem to think that government should provide the conduit through which we express ourselves. If this be the case, then let us turn over all the cars, garages, repair shops, fueling stations, fuel and lubricants and all other means of transportation right now to the government.
Anyone trust that the government will distribute these means as best fits our rights and needs or would they do as they more often do, limit, choke, control?
Road building and maintenance by government is to put those means in the hands of politicians and politics. Two things that should be kept as far away and have as little contact as possible with it. Putting my tax dollars on this is tantamount to forcing me to contribute to something destined to become embroiled ina civil rights clusterf*ck of all time in the near future. Let us cut to the chase and not go there in the first place.
And why exactly is this news, anyway? I've had my Wacom tablet for five years, which has a pen and a mouse, neither of which has a battery.
We are pretty good about vacuuming and even still, when we let the roomba loose he can still pick up a lot of dirt.
Why are you still vacuuming, though?
The game of chicken continues until one of two things occurs. (1) Other countries pull out of the US. A cascade effect occurs and the world is in a depression. (2) Other countries don't pull out and slow, steady inflation causes US foreign debts to be effectively erased.
There's a number (3): the world economy gradually loses its dependency on the US economy, then other countries pull out of the US, and the rest of the world is just fine. This is what I think will happen over the next fifty years.
I left for Japan on Wednesday and now I don't get to see it until I get back (in two weeks).
Why, aren't they showing it in Japan?
Not to mention they are aware that downloading is illegal now, so some stay away for that reason alone.
You know, I've never understood that. How can anybody think it's OK to download something that people have to make a living off of, without paying for it? How dumb do you have to be to only realise that after being told that it's illegal?
Sounds good. Should be at least as popular as DIVX.
I image there are a lot more Slashdotters whose favorite cause has been hampered by something added to an unrelated bill.
...see subject...
Tim Berners-Lee is to receive an award for his contributions to US politics.
web != internet
I covered this on my blog earlier today!
I can't believe I missed it!
I disagree. One of the defining features of intelligence is the ability to plan, to draw conclusions from past events, form goals, and be able to consciously set out to reach those goals by applying past experience. Evolution does not work that way at all. It has no goals, it's just a simple process whose results are entirely incidental. It may appear intelligent, because the end result is so magnificently adapted to its environment, but that's exactly why people are so easily caught up in ID-type theories.
Isn't randomn just something we can't understand ?
No, random is something we can't predict.
I hope they don't make a mistake in their calculations and end up with the impactor orbiting the comet.
SOP
Slice Of Pie?
Looks like I'll be buying my movies from France here on out.
Unfortunately, they won't play on an American player, due to some more obnoxious Digital pRrofit enhanceMent technology...
It's either gridlocked on the highway or you're gridlocked on the city streets.
I don't know. It often takes only a relatively small decrease in the amount of traffic to make the traffic flow smoothly again. Distributing the traffic better might decrease the amount of traffic on the main roads enough to resolve the gridlock there, without introducing it on the city streets.
If only some cars (possibly as few as one) are controlled by humans, things are MUCH more complex than if computers controll everything.
I don't think that's necessarily the case. Even when everything is computerized, the computer in the car is still going to have to monitor its surroundings and be able to react to unexpected obstacles or reactions. Some drunk or young child might wander onto the road. Another car might suffer a total break down. Something may fall on the road. Etc., etc. Other cars being driven manually is just another factor which doesn't increase the total complexity of the system much in relative terms.
The Dalek was in the bloody preview at the end of this week's episode! Hardly a big scoop, is it?
Sounds cheesy doesnt it
Sounds fishy to me
Register: -1 point (for putting the retraction after the advertisement)
There was an advertisement there?
There is (should be) a study dated 1998 (which I was not able to locate yet) sponsored by the EU Commission which states that daylight saving time does not have the desired effect on energy consumption (which is taken as a common fact anyway here (de)).
I heard an item on the radio here in the Netherlands saying that we save something like EUR 70.000.000 a year in energy expenditures because of daylight savings time. I'd like to see some good, scientific research on this matter. Someone must know whether we are, or are not getting any benefits from daylight savings time!
I'm sorry, I've got to know... WHY?!?!
So how is this an advantage over del.icio.us, exactly?
Maybe it has to do with the context. Apparently, on de.lirio.us, it's licensed with a Creative Commons license. del.icio.us doesn't specify how the content is licensed. del.icio.us could turn around at some point in the future, after all those nice people have provided it with a very valuable set of data, and start to charge for it.
It happens all the time. The Dutch site www.schoolbank.nl, for instance, is now suddenly charging for being able to contact your old school friends, after having gathered a database with contact information over the backs of people who thought it would be free forever, and without compensating those people for their work. I just hate shit like that.
That's not so say del.icio.us would do that of course, but with de.liriu.us you know they can't do it.