The Governor-General, for those non-colonials, exercises the supreme executive power of the Commonwealth. This still involves rum rationing, beating back the filthy natives and occasionally blocking legislation that interferes with their profligate lifestyles.
In Australia, all of their functions could theoretically be fulfilled by a giant rubber stamp that hates change and is uncomfortable around dark people.
This is also true in Canada.
Well, the last GG of Canada was a Haitian woman, so arguably was probably comfortable around dark people. The one before that was ethnic Chinese woman born in Hong Kong. But we seem to be back to form with our current one.
Also, to quibble with the grandparent, there are a lot more countries with Presidents than GGs in the Commonwealth.
Christ what next declaring another stupid war, like 'the war on drugs'. How long before they start to censor sites with political views not approved by the government, or blocking sites deemed 'risks to national security'.
What next^H^H^H^Hnow - Too late, this is precisely what's happening to Assange / Wikileaks. Not to mention all the other dirty tricks.
B) given a large enough knowledge base and a set of really good AI algorithms, one should be able to create intelligent machines. There's nothing to prevent them from replicating, either. However, I don't think that they will ever be truly sentient. Even so, careful design will be necessary to ensure Asimov's laws of robotics are strictly enforced.
Asimov's Laws of Robotics deal primarily with social realities. E.g., "A robot may not injure a human being . .." -- Human being does that include a Jew? a capitalist running dog? a fertilized human ovum? Terri Schiavo? The humanity of each of these has been called into question in one social context or other. Try making a formalized specification of what a human being is.
Read the laws carefully and you'll see a significant number of other terms that are difficult to define. Asimov explores some of the inherent ambiguities to make his robot stories interesting.
Hard to conceive of how one could have careful design to strictly enforce such laws.
Such hidden hand-waving in a seemingly formal statement is Kurzweillian.
Really now - the worst part is - this is the case even if I don't plan to stay in the States. If I want to go to Mexico there will no doubt be a stopover somewhere Stateside. It doesn't seem fair that their airport security policy applies to me even if I'm only there for an hour inside the same airplane. Really, there should be another method to handle those flights if they are really concerned (segregrated runway, new terminal, etc).
It's worse than that. If you want to fly over U.S. airspace, you have to submit to having the TSA collect and vet your information. If you're not a U.S. citizen, you have zero protections on how your information is used.
<irony>Of course, there's no way that information would ever be abused. You have no reason to fear if you have nothing to hide . ..</irony>
why do you care so much about random other countries?
This is an exceptionally 'American' statement that reinforces a rather negative stereotype about ignorance and moral detachment towards the rest of the world. To 95.5 percent of the worlds population, the USA is just another 'random country'.
As one of the 95.5 percent, I must say that the behaviour of the USA in some ways appears random. Perhaps it's predictable, but you can't predict based on its own stated objectives, (look at its unstated interests instead). But, it can't be considered a random country, if by random we mean similar to other countries. It has so much military and cultural power that it's in a class of its own.
How many thousands of similar videos exist? We probably won't find out until most of us are dead.
The secret agencies of the U.S. have increased immensely in terms of power and scope in the last decade. If that continues (I see little evidence that it won't), most of the evidence of U.S. war crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere will never be publicly revealed before the final judgment. Perhaps I'm cynical. I certainly hope I'm wrong.
"And unlike copyright, a patent will expire."
Totally untrue, with future extensions I fully expect the copyright on Mickey Mouse to expire by the year 2800.
As Abraham Lincoln would have said if he'd been our contemporary:
"Government of the people, by the people's representatives, for those represented by the lobbyists, shall not perish from the earth."
What absolutely baffles me is how many months after the "Collateral Murder" tape was released, we're all still watching our sit-coms, sipping our lattes, and arguing about Arizona and immigration and having mild debates over whether or not Wikleaks . . .
It's called "bread & circuses". It worked for the Roman Empire and the American Empire is taking it to new heights (well depths, really).
But 130 million can't possibly be right! We better assign some false precision to make our estimate believable. Significant digits are for science teachers and marriage counselors!
Why stop at 8 or 9? 18 is much better and just as meaningful:
129,864,880.461938427
Slashdot Mirror
It's "Mostly Harmless".
The Governor-General, for those non-colonials, exercises the supreme executive power of the Commonwealth. This still involves rum rationing, beating back the filthy natives and occasionally blocking legislation that interferes with their profligate lifestyles. In Australia, all of their functions could theoretically be fulfilled by a giant rubber stamp that hates change and is uncomfortable around dark people.
This is also true in Canada.
Well, the last GG of Canada was a Haitian woman, so arguably was probably comfortable around dark people. The one before that was ethnic Chinese woman born in Hong Kong. But we seem to be back to form with our current one.
Also, to quibble with the grandparent, there are a lot more countries with Presidents than GGs in the Commonwealth.
A useful reminder that, despite what many hope, there's no B for Backup in RAID.
You would be looking for a RABID setup? Try selling that.
He wouldn't actually sit down. He would stand next to the table.
And surreptitiously add a ninth pawn onto the board.
or even Guantanamo Bay
I think this line alone is a commentary on both the hyperbole used by his lawyers and the sad state of the US reputation in Europe.
Why do you think it is only in Europe that US reputation has suffered as a result of its actions over the past decade?
Just who do you think you are Noam Chomsky?
Until we see some real data, I'm not buying it.
You couldn't afford one anyway. Even if you could, where would you use it?
I came here for a good argument.
I'm sorry, but this is abuse.
...Or I could be talking complete nonsense and am simple unaware of the magnitude of NK's regular levels of crazy.
I get the sense that they're genuinely crazy. But then, I don't know either.
Nobody who knows can say. Re-education is not very pleasant.
Kudo's to him for his generosity, for keeping his word, and for showing others that mega-philanthropy brings it's own rewards.
"kudos" (a Greek transliteration) is a mass noun like "praise". Putting an apostrophe in it would be like prai'se.
Christ what next declaring another stupid war, like 'the war on drugs'. How long before they start to censor sites with political views not approved by the government, or blocking sites deemed 'risks to national security'.
What next^H^H^H^Hnow - Too late, this is precisely what's happening to Assange / Wikileaks. Not to mention all the other dirty tricks.
B) given a large enough knowledge base and a set of really good AI algorithms, one should be able to create intelligent machines. There's nothing to prevent them from replicating, either. However, I don't think that they will ever be truly sentient. Even so, careful design will be necessary to ensure Asimov's laws of robotics are strictly enforced.
Asimov's Laws of Robotics deal primarily with social realities. E.g., "A robot may not injure a human being . . ." -- Human being does that include a Jew? a capitalist running dog? a fertilized human ovum? Terri Schiavo? The humanity of each of these has been called into question in one social context or other. Try making a formalized specification of what a human being is.
Read the laws carefully and you'll see a significant number of other terms that are difficult to define. Asimov explores some of the inherent ambiguities to make his robot stories interesting.
Hard to conceive of how one could have careful design to strictly enforce such laws.
Such hidden hand-waving in a seemingly formal statement is Kurzweillian.
Really now - the worst part is - this is the case even if I don't plan to stay in the States. If I want to go to Mexico there will no doubt be a stopover somewhere Stateside. It doesn't seem fair that their airport security policy applies to me even if I'm only there for an hour inside the same airplane. Really, there should be another method to handle those flights if they are really concerned (segregrated runway, new terminal, etc).
It's worse than that. If you want to fly over U.S. airspace, you have to submit to having the TSA collect and vet your information. If you're not a U.S. citizen, you have zero protections on how your information is used.
<irony>Of course, there's no way that information would ever be abused. You have no reason to fear if you have nothing to hide . . .</irony>
The limit has been raised to about a million for a few versions now: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/excel-specifications-and-limits-HP010073849.aspx
And how many accountants never migrate their data to a version earlier than Excel 2007?
why do you care so much about random other countries?
This is an exceptionally 'American' statement that reinforces a rather negative stereotype about ignorance and moral detachment towards the rest of the world. To 95.5 percent of the worlds population, the USA is just another 'random country'.
As one of the 95.5 percent, I must say that the behaviour of the USA in some ways appears random. Perhaps it's predictable, but you can't predict based on its own stated objectives, (look at its unstated interests instead). But, it can't be considered a random country, if by random we mean similar to other countries. It has so much military and cultural power that it's in a class of its own.
How many thousands of similar videos exist? We probably won't find out until most of us are dead.
The secret agencies of the U.S. have increased immensely in terms of power and scope in the last decade. If that continues (I see little evidence that it won't), most of the evidence of U.S. war crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere will never be publicly revealed before the final judgment. Perhaps I'm cynical. I certainly hope I'm wrong.
"And unlike copyright, a patent will expire." Totally untrue, with future extensions I fully expect the copyright on Mickey Mouse to expire by the year 2800. As Abraham Lincoln would have said if he'd been our contemporary: "Government of the people, by the people's representatives, for those represented by the lobbyists, shall not perish from the earth."
Did the DoD get a volume discount?
No application will ever need more than 640K anyway.
Then they'll really be able to get rid of the competition. They'll have them coming and going
Here's the solution: Just get enough people working together
BBC is now reporting that the warrant has been withdrawn
What absolutely baffles me is how many months after the "Collateral Murder" tape was released, we're all still watching our sit-coms, sipping our lattes, and arguing about Arizona and immigration and having mild debates over whether or not Wikleaks . . .
It's called "bread & circuses". It worked for the Roman Empire and the American Empire is taking it to new heights (well depths, really).
But 130 million can't possibly be right! We better assign some false precision to make our estimate believable. Significant digits are for science teachers and marriage counselors!
Why stop at 8 or 9? 18 is much better and just as meaningful: 129,864,880.461938427
How can it be too late? It came out before Christmas, just like Larry promised.