Just to be clear, since it seems that I was saying there were black slave owners, my only point was that non-whites were very much involved in the slave trade.
I didn't actually know that there were black slave owners in the US at any point in time, even predating the formation of the US.
So the young white men that you have in class rooms, representing the opportunity for change, should just have to endure your racist offensive bullshit?
You're teaching them:
1) I'm white. I can't change that though. 2) Everybody hates me because of what I represent. I can't change their incorrect perceptions. 3) White people do evil shit. Doesn't matter that I don't have those negative feelings at all. I look white and have a penis, therefore I'm responsible for all the oppression and social inequality. I was born evil and I'm the Devil. 4) Black people apparently do a tremendous amount of evil offensive shit. From murders, treating women offensively, idolatry of the dollar, etc. They aren't personally responsible though. They have plenty of excuses of why that is, and I need to not say anything judgmental towards them to further the white man's oppression.
You didn't even listen to him did you?
You're own hatred and racism is being used to breed more of it. Everything that you ostensibly hate about racism, you push onto an innocent young child.
Because. Of. The. Color. Of. His. Skin.
Yeah... that's going to end well.
P.S - Instead of slamming young white men about how they are evil and deserve to be demonized.... why don't you spend even more effort showing them the success stories of "other" people? Show a diverse range of examples that serve to eliminate the illusory divide between us, and at the same time, heal the rift between everyone. Raise young white men to know that racism is simply stupid and illogical and that the color of one's skin in no way determines their potential worth to society.
When you are trying to teach something in a room with young people, and you bring up history in such a way that you label and isolate some young people in the room based on skin color, THAT NEEDS TO CHANGE
More racism does not cure racism.
For all of those that do feel oppressed, taking it out on young white men by telling them that they are evil and do evil things, is not a very smart way to move forward in society.
From those labels comes sadness & resentment. From that you get depression and anger. From that you get young people abused, taken advantage of, and then tattooed, shaved, and handed a neo-nazi jacket.
Talk about uncomfortable things all you want. For those children that is part of growing up and I would not want to shelter them. Just don't isolate a group of them and make them feel bad about something they have no power to change.
We can't change the past. We are not responsible for the entirety of the present. We can't change our skin color. Michael Jackson was a one-off.
Censorship is all about knowing what information people are consuming, and then to stop it. A local school board is a much much smaller threat than government surveillance and censorship.
Right now it's the school board, but the child can go to the library and get the book. It's physical. Kind of difficult to censor that. You would need book burnings.
It's not paranoia either. The FBI persecuted people based on their beliefs, the IRS has been used to quell political dissent, and knowing what people read is the first step towards putting them in the "undesirable" category. This isn't exactly something I need to prove with citations either. Read a damn history book.
It's absolutely related, and indeed, far far far far far far far far far far far FAR more nefarious with its potential impact.
You're argument that it's unrelated is purely about the source and scope of control, and you're dead wrong on this one.
That teacher made no effort to make the distinction between the actions of people in the past, and the young white men in the room. That's a huge effin problem. Let's discuss racism, and stereotypes, and prejudice, but do it in a way that is not racist in of itself.
Do you think it was only white men that had slaves and were racist? Puhleeeze.
Black people can be the most racist people on the planet now. Look at genocide happening in Africa. Christians and Muslims in Syria. Racism, slavery, and those associated evils are not the exclusive domain of white men. Black people sold each other into slavery in Africa. People tend to forget that. Slaves were picked up at the coast, but it was not white men hunting them to bring them to port.
That's what is so damn offensive about those "libs", "teachers", whatever dealing with children. I just call them arrogant racist assholes.
I was passionate about history, but I would have been deeply hurt and offended if there was too much emphasis on white men being the problem, and not enough attention paid towards creating a distinction that the young white men in the room are not inherently evil.
It's fucking hurtful. It creates a divide. It perpetuates the problem.
I totally understand the thinking behind the book ban. The "white man" is unfairly demonized well after we are supposed to getting rid of this shit. Does anyone think it's a really good idea to create judgement and negative emotions in a young person solely based on the color of their skin?
Children should not suffer the sins of the parents. I am not my parents.
That's some pretty harsh fucking judgment you have there.
Way to blame the victims.
The whole point to insurance is spreading the risk. Somebody is going to get sick at some time. I do have pre-existing health conditions, and guess what? CANCER IS A PRE-EXISTING HEALTH CONDITION YOU JERK.
So don't speak down to me.
I'm fully willing to help pay for my share of the risk. However, you need to face one simple fact:
THERE IS NO WAY ON GODS FUCKING GREEN EARTH THAT ONCE SOMEBODY HAS SOMETHING HAPPEN TO THEM THAT THEY CAN AFFORD THEIR HEALTH.
How many good people (in your estimation apparently) were paying contributors, only to get really sick, and then go bankrupt due to medical debt? Even when they had insurance? How about afterwards if they survived the crippling debt? Everybody is a walking pre-existing condition at some point. Get over it and stop blaming the victims for getting sick, and for sure, stop punishing them.
Getting sick doesn't just ruin your health (and possibly kill you) it completely guts and destroys you financially.
So before you go calling me a freeloader again buddy....
1) FIX THE FUCKING ECONOMY. I'll pay for my insurance, but dammit, you have got meet me halfway. You can't demand something and then refuse to give people the ability to do it. 2) FIX THE FUCKING MEDICAL INDUSTRIES. The reason why I can go under, lose my houses, go bankrupt, is because a medical operation can actually cost a million dollars. That's beyond ridiculous. 3) TAKE PROFIT OUT OF THE FUCKING EQUATION. This is a big one. If you want to force it on everybody, than you need, NEED, ABSOLUTELY NEED, to reduce the costs and make it as efficiently as possible.
I've seen those stats. The US spends many times more person for health care and actually receives less than 80% of the same benefit that other Western countries do. That's with nearly 5 times more money being expended!!!
Here is what you don't understand, and neither does that other asshole.
YOU CAN'T AFFORD HEALTH CARE IN THE US.
There. The Truth.
Minimum wage does not even begin to cover basic living costs, and health insurance companies fuck you at every turn.
You ever hear that saying you can't squeeze blood out of a turnip? Same thing here. You can't demand that the working poor pay for health insurance when the middle class can barely afford anything either.
I know young people that turned down medical insurance because they could not afford their half. You seem to want to drag them through the mud for it.
That's great. When it comes to deciding which one of the absolute necessities needing to be sacrificed for that health insurance, are you going to do it? Are you going to tell them that they need to go hungry for a few days? Have the power shut off to their overpriced apartments/shacks? Lose their vehicle so they can still spend over a hundred a month taking the bus?
That last one surprised the hell out of me. I moved from a much smaller place back to a city after giving up my car. Biked to work for a year or two. The actual costs of bus fare were $4 PER DAY. That's $120 per month. Take that out of minimum wage and push their faces in the dirt huh?
You just don't get it. You can force it all you want upon me and others that are on hard times. Unless you fix the fucking economy I will never have the money to survive, and if you penalize me in the coming years by absorbing my tax refund, you only push me under slowly.
So pass your fucking Obamacare and shove it down our throats. Not saying it doesn't have benefits. For Christ's sake, at least have the fucking decency to hike up minimum wage the amount needed to pay an average insurance policy.
1) How's it not exploration again? I don't get that. You contradicted yourself in that sentence. Of course the early oceanic voyages were exploratory in nature. The fact the ultimate objective was capitalist in nature does not discount that. 2) The reasons are irrelevant to the exploration. All that counts is that people threw themselves into the unknown for a *reason*. 3) Colonists and finding and creating a new home. Boy is history just full of that. 4) This is the only point that you have. You don't need to send people for an exploration today when you can send technology to remotely sense the environment.
I don't care if Mars One is a scam or not. I never cared enough about it to decide. Is it? Probably is if the budget is 1% of what any reasonable engineer would say it is. Telling people not to go simply because it's a one-way trip and to do so is stupid, is deeply offensive.
It's not just exploration. It's colonization. If I go to Mars, I am not coming back. There is no point to a trip like that to *come back*. The point is to colonize Mars, develop additional resources there, and be prepared to receive more people and resources. Somebody has to do it.
This is part of the human spirit. To explore. To find new land, new opportunities.
Wanting to go to Mars to create a future does not make one a moron. That is you judging them unfairly and without need. To do so means you judge all explorers, past and present, equally.
Those early oceanic explorers pushed themselves off land into a SALTY sea of liquid. To do so, and continue to go in a direction where fresh water and food may only possibly be obtained took as much courage as astronauts venturing out into space without a ubiquitous supply of oxygen.
Only the Greeks knew the world was not flat. Columbus had no way of knowing it wasn't, and no way of knowing just how big the Earth was either. For all he knew, he was going to die starving and dying of thirst out at sea.
I'm more than a little dubious that a launch is going to take place without the tech being there.
If it's a scam, the launch will never take place. Cuz... if it does... and what you say is true... then Mars One was murdering people by sending them up in space knowing that they had no chance at all to survive.
They'll go to jail.
I'm not disagreeing that this Mars One thing is a bad idea. Only that to criticize it based on danger is ludicrous. Our exploration history is replete with far more danger and loss of life with more certainty about a successful outcome than this.
You must have problems comprehending the magnitude of people's decisions in the past to go off exploring on this planet in the past. You act like it was somehow easier...
There was never any doubt of BP's guilt in the matter. Long standing history of recklessness, lost lives, and rampant stupidity fueled by greed. They were lucky for too long, and their crap caught up to them. The cost was astounding this time.
Considering the sheer magnitude of the situation, I think the most appropriate response by the US would have been to suspend their corporate charter permanently and confiscate all assets the US could get their hands on.
The lawsuit should be a criminal one in which US prosecutors prove (ample evidence provided) that the executives knew they were operating dangerously and onsite engineers raised safety concerns several times. Throw them in GITMO for 20 years.
I understand people say that is too extreme, but that's bullshit. If I kill 5,000 people tomorrow with a home made bomb, the government is going to come after me something fierce. Deservedly so.
So why let these executives off when they killed people, harmed the environment on an unprecedented scale, and harmed economies of multiple countries?
Just how much damage *does* it take for you to get on board with my seemingly strict punishment?
I don't think you or the OP of this particular thread gets it at *all*.
It's not that we now know about the NSA and what they were doing. We most certainly did.
It's that we have FUCKING PROOF.
In 2006, I was saying much the same things. I had high hopes for Obama because I honestly thought he was going to give us justice over some of that telco bullshit. Of course not. I was naive.
What Snowden has done, and deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for, is give me CREDIBILITY.
Now when I have a calm, not so agitated, san tin-foil conversation with somebody now about security, I get taken seriously.
I'm being asked right now what it would take to raise the level of security for several companies. What chat software could we use that is heavily encrypted? What should we be doing to vet hardware?
Most of it is of course executives wanting their conversations to be discrete so it can't be used against them, but that is progress nonetheless...
At the very least now when I talk about mass surveillance I don't see rolled eyes and skepticism. I have their attention.
The only way we could possibly lose is with continued apathy and stupidity. If we lacked those attributes we could defeat them in six months. People act like encryption is impossible or something. Push open source hardware, aggressively replace firmware with custom builds, mitigate as many possible threats as you can, and use the strongest encryption wherever possible.
Goooood news. With TAO being out in the open, and the US losing billions upon billions to its economy in the coming 12 months because hardware and software can't be trusted, you can bet your ass that the major players will be taking drastic action. Not as a PR job to the public citizen, no no no. It will be drastic action to convince me the person in charge of equipment purchasing that Cisco is still a good bet.
Why should Cisco care? Why should I choose to utilize them for public infrastructure, secure MPLS between financial institutions, etc. when I know they have been backdoored by the NSA? Especially, when the NSA is actually the least of my worries, but other governments and entities that would do harm to my network?
Kiss a huge amount of contracts goodbye. The worldwide consumers will most certainly be at least looking for other options right now.
Remember, the name of the game is NOT to deny them access to your networks from a full frontal assault from the NSA, but only to do just enough to raise the costs associated with mass surveillance several orders. The NSA can't get the financial resources to be approved for several orders more than what their budget has.
I have no love for you fucktardians that force me to:
- Lose my health insurance plan because it does not qualify - Botch a rollout of a rather simple website and backend infrastructure that greatly inhibits my ability to find insurance. If Google can do what it does, then by God those fucktards that created that website should have been able to do better. I've rolled out more complex platforms than that and integrated 3rd party services and data with said platforms. - Spend upwards of 10x more on insurance that is now mandatory
and above all... NOT FIX THE FUCKING ECONOMY TO ALLOW US POOR SHMUCKS TO AFFORD IT IN THE FIRST PLACE.
If your're so keen on telling everyone what to do and so anti-Libertarian then pass a fucking $20/h minimum wage law.
All that shit you want to force on me should take no *more* than 20% of a minimum wage income, AFTER basic expenses like food and shelter are met.
Last I checked $928 a month wasn't enough to live on by yourself (barely scrape by) AND have disposable income to the point you can by a couple hundred dollar insurance policy.
I'm not talking DirectTV and Netflix being basic expenses either. Those minimum wage people, which you and I could easily become, are scraping by on fucking Ramen Noodles and Mac N Cheese.
By all means, complain about the Libertarian philosophy, continue to force insurance down our throats, and completely ignore the obviously huge gaping fucking problem of doing it during a God Damn Full Blown Great Depression. I don't give a fuck what may be going on with Wall Street. Down on Main Street the shit has only been getting worse.
BP is not a good example of consumer stupidity or boycotting.
BP executives should be jailed for gross negligence that resulted in the loss of human life, severe and profound impact to the environment, and billions of dollars of damages to the economies surrounding the gulf.
If any private citizen had pulled off damage of that magnitude they would have been considered a super villain and put into a suspended cage and watched like Hannibal Lecter.
All of BP's assets should have been seized at an international level by the US, auctioned off, and the proceeds distributed to all of those affected, including non-US citizens and affected areas.
That would deter the fuck out of bad corporate behavior and would have been entirely appropriate given the circumstances.
I think the better decision is to not give any money to Safeway over the course of next year.
If enough people actually got together and boycotted Safeway for even 6 months, the effect would be noticeable on a revenue report.
While not enough to overhaul policies and get executives sacked, it should be more than enough to make some idiot executive think twice about getting publicly caught engaging in petty behavior against a lowly defenseless worker.
It's not as hard as you think to create a deterrent. Can't be done with apathy though.
I don't have any problem not shopping with them for an extended period of time.
If they want to get petty because a worker complained about them eliminating thousands of jobs in a public way (protected speech) and severely impact his ability to get unemployment (punish him) then I can punish them right back by removing several thousand dollars in revenue over the next couple of years.
I stick to it.
Nothing Apple. Ever. Fuck their walled garden freedom is what we tell you it is approach. Walmart. Those people can suck a bag of hairy dicks. Iomega. They've been running a data recovery scam for years by creating the worst fucking NAS on the planet and then charging you thousands of dollars for data recovery when their shitty product fails. Sony. Want to try to destroy my freedom so your soulless executives get a few more extra bucks? Not one penny of my money. Paypal. A criminal organization that has stolen millions upon millions from unsuspecting suckers by performing fraud themselves, and creating marketplaces that only encourage it. GoDaddy. Fuck You. That's Why. Google. I don't care how fucking shiny it is. You're not harvesting my privacy to make you richer. Facebook. Ditto bitches. Sprint. Sue me for non-payment on an account with my social when your security and fraud problems are well known? Yep. Bag of Dicks on the way... Entertainment and Music industries. Not one fucking dime ever. If you want to declare war over a broken business model due to evolution in how we exchange and work with data as a people and attempt to destroy our privacy and freedom to maintain power and money..... just kill yourselves. You're worse than HIV.
I'm sure they're are others.
My point is that there are plenty of very principled people that have a long history of voting with their wallets.
I don't need to vote for politicians. I just need to deny my money to those that would harm me and others being dickheads. That's actually effective in the long run.
It's not like I have to refuse to give my money to BlockBuster anymore right?
There is a big difference between 100% safe and 1% safe
Yes, but there was no way to tell that a couple hundred years ago. His point about exploration is valid. Did Columbus really have any way of saying it was an 18% "safe" expedition? How do you even begin to quantify those risks with the information they had then?
So many of the great explorers had absolutely no idea what the dangers were going to be, only that they would face them.
The fact that we can begin to quantify the risks is turning us into pussies. Would the next Chuck Yeager break the light speed barrier if some egghead said there was a proven 23.234% chance his nuts would shrivel up and fall off?
It's not like this is some sort of a redneck hold-my-beer stunt. They're only going to go if they have met a minimum amount of safety standards and have access to some pretty impressive technologies to bring with them.
Fucking Columbus didn't even understand biology and antibiotics, knew that people got very sick and died on long voyages, and still boarded the boat. Lewis and Clark had no idea what to expect going across the US. Whatever chance they had, it was going to be with their wits and what they brought with them.
The unknown that previous explorers faced was a lot more intimidating than the journey being contemplated by Mars One.
Telling somebody that has vastly more information and technology at their fingertips that they are morons for even attempting something like that is a little offensive, IMO. If you want to do that, then you must say that all of our great explorers in the past simply missed out on being awarded their Darwin Awards.
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Just to be clear, since it seems that I was saying there were black slave owners, my only point was that non-whites were very much involved in the slave trade.
I didn't actually know that there were black slave owners in the US at any point in time, even predating the formation of the US.
So the young white men that you have in class rooms, representing the opportunity for change, should just have to endure your racist offensive bullshit?
You're teaching them:
1) I'm white. I can't change that though.
2) Everybody hates me because of what I represent. I can't change their incorrect perceptions.
3) White people do evil shit. Doesn't matter that I don't have those negative feelings at all. I look white and have a penis, therefore I'm responsible for all the oppression and social inequality. I was born evil and I'm the Devil.
4) Black people apparently do a tremendous amount of evil offensive shit. From murders, treating women offensively, idolatry of the dollar, etc. They aren't personally responsible though. They have plenty of excuses of why that is, and I need to not say anything judgmental towards them to further the white man's oppression.
You didn't even listen to him did you?
You're own hatred and racism is being used to breed more of it. Everything that you ostensibly hate about racism, you push onto an innocent young child.
Because. Of. The. Color. Of. His. Skin.
Yeah... that's going to end well.
P.S - Instead of slamming young white men about how they are evil and deserve to be demonized.... why don't you spend even more effort showing them the success stories of "other" people? Show a diverse range of examples that serve to eliminate the illusory divide between us, and at the same time, heal the rift between everyone. Raise young white men to know that racism is simply stupid and illogical and that the color of one's skin in no way determines their potential worth to society.
Bullshit.
When you are trying to teach something in a room with young people, and you bring up history in such a way that you label and isolate some young people in the room based on skin color, THAT NEEDS TO CHANGE
More racism does not cure racism.
For all of those that do feel oppressed, taking it out on young white men by telling them that they are evil and do evil things, is not a very smart way to move forward in society.
From those labels comes sadness & resentment. From that you get depression and anger. From that you get young people abused, taken advantage of, and then tattooed, shaved, and handed a neo-nazi jacket.
Talk about uncomfortable things all you want. For those children that is part of growing up and I would not want to shelter them. Just don't isolate a group of them and make them feel bad about something they have no power to change.
We can't change the past. We are not responsible for the entirety of the present. We can't change our skin color. Michael Jackson was a one-off.
What Apple deserves to be bashed over is the ridiculous claim of industry leading security.
That's the part that's hilarious.
It's as funny as Ford using the Pinto as an example of industry leading automobile safety...
Unrelated my big fat white heinie.
Censorship is all about knowing what information people are consuming, and then to stop it. A local school board is a much much smaller threat than government surveillance and censorship.
Right now it's the school board, but the child can go to the library and get the book. It's physical. Kind of difficult to censor that. You would need book burnings.
It's not paranoia either. The FBI persecuted people based on their beliefs, the IRS has been used to quell political dissent, and knowing what people read is the first step towards putting them in the "undesirable" category. This isn't exactly something I need to prove with citations either. Read a damn history book.
It's absolutely related, and indeed, far far far far far far far far far far far FAR more nefarious with its potential impact.
You're argument that it's unrelated is purely about the source and scope of control, and you're dead wrong on this one.
Why wouldn't it make us uncomfortable?
That teacher made no effort to make the distinction between the actions of people in the past, and the young white men in the room. That's a huge effin problem. Let's discuss racism, and stereotypes, and prejudice, but do it in a way that is not racist in of itself.
Do you think it was only white men that had slaves and were racist? Puhleeeze.
Black people can be the most racist people on the planet now. Look at genocide happening in Africa. Christians and Muslims in Syria. Racism, slavery, and those associated evils are not the exclusive domain of white men. Black people sold each other into slavery in Africa. People tend to forget that. Slaves were picked up at the coast, but it was not white men hunting them to bring them to port.
That's what is so damn offensive about those "libs", "teachers", whatever dealing with children. I just call them arrogant racist assholes.
I was passionate about history, but I would have been deeply hurt and offended if there was too much emphasis on white men being the problem, and not enough attention paid towards creating a distinction that the young white men in the room are not inherently evil.
It's fucking hurtful. It creates a divide. It perpetuates the problem.
I totally understand the thinking behind the book ban. The "white man" is unfairly demonized well after we are supposed to getting rid of this shit. Does anyone think it's a really good idea to create judgement and negative emotions in a young person solely based on the color of their skin?
Children should not suffer the sins of the parents. I am not my parents.
That's some pretty harsh fucking judgment you have there.
Way to blame the victims.
The whole point to insurance is spreading the risk. Somebody is going to get sick at some time. I do have pre-existing health conditions, and guess what? CANCER IS A PRE-EXISTING HEALTH CONDITION YOU JERK.
So don't speak down to me.
I'm fully willing to help pay for my share of the risk. However, you need to face one simple fact:
THERE IS NO WAY ON GODS FUCKING GREEN EARTH THAT ONCE SOMEBODY HAS SOMETHING HAPPEN TO THEM THAT THEY CAN AFFORD THEIR HEALTH.
How many good people (in your estimation apparently) were paying contributors, only to get really sick, and then go bankrupt due to medical debt? Even when they had insurance? How about afterwards if they survived the crippling debt? Everybody is a walking pre-existing condition at some point. Get over it and stop blaming the victims for getting sick, and for sure, stop punishing them.
Getting sick doesn't just ruin your health (and possibly kill you) it completely guts and destroys you financially.
So before you go calling me a freeloader again buddy....
1) FIX THE FUCKING ECONOMY. I'll pay for my insurance, but dammit, you have got meet me halfway. You can't demand something and then refuse to give people the ability to do it.
2) FIX THE FUCKING MEDICAL INDUSTRIES. The reason why I can go under, lose my houses, go bankrupt, is because a medical operation can actually cost a million dollars. That's beyond ridiculous.
3) TAKE PROFIT OUT OF THE FUCKING EQUATION. This is a big one. If you want to force it on everybody, than you need, NEED, ABSOLUTELY NEED, to reduce the costs and make it as efficiently as possible.
I've seen those stats. The US spends many times more person for health care and actually receives less than 80% of the same benefit that other Western countries do. That's with nearly 5 times more money being expended!!!
Here is what you don't understand, and neither does that other asshole.
YOU CAN'T AFFORD HEALTH CARE IN THE US.
There. The Truth.
Minimum wage does not even begin to cover basic living costs, and health insurance companies fuck you at every turn.
You ever hear that saying you can't squeeze blood out of a turnip? Same thing here. You can't demand that the working poor pay for health insurance when the middle class can barely afford anything either.
I know young people that turned down medical insurance because they could not afford their half. You seem to want to drag them through the mud for it.
That's great. When it comes to deciding which one of the absolute necessities needing to be sacrificed for that health insurance, are you going to do it? Are you going to tell them that they need to go hungry for a few days? Have the power shut off to their overpriced apartments/shacks? Lose their vehicle so they can still spend over a hundred a month taking the bus?
That last one surprised the hell out of me. I moved from a much smaller place back to a city after giving up my car. Biked to work for a year or two. The actual costs of bus fare were $4 PER DAY. That's $120 per month. Take that out of minimum wage and push their faces in the dirt huh?
You just don't get it. You can force it all you want upon me and others that are on hard times. Unless you fix the fucking economy I will never have the money to survive, and if you penalize me in the coming years by absorbing my tax refund, you only push me under slowly.
So pass your fucking Obamacare and shove it down our throats. Not saying it doesn't have benefits. For Christ's sake, at least have the fucking decency to hike up minimum wage the amount needed to pay an average insurance policy.
1) How's it not exploration again? I don't get that. You contradicted yourself in that sentence. Of course the early oceanic voyages were exploratory in nature. The fact the ultimate objective was capitalist in nature does not discount that.
2) The reasons are irrelevant to the exploration. All that counts is that people threw themselves into the unknown for a *reason*.
3) Colonists and finding and creating a new home. Boy is history just full of that.
4) This is the only point that you have. You don't need to send people for an exploration today when you can send technology to remotely sense the environment.
I don't care if Mars One is a scam or not. I never cared enough about it to decide. Is it? Probably is if the budget is 1% of what any reasonable engineer would say it is. Telling people not to go simply because it's a one-way trip and to do so is stupid, is deeply offensive.
It's not just exploration. It's colonization. If I go to Mars, I am not coming back. There is no point to a trip like that to *come back*. The point is to colonize Mars, develop additional resources there, and be prepared to receive more people and resources. Somebody has to do it.
This is part of the human spirit. To explore. To find new land, new opportunities.
Wanting to go to Mars to create a future does not make one a moron. That is you judging them unfairly and without need. To do so means you judge all explorers, past and present, equally.
LOL!!
Air.
You know you need water and food too right?
Those early oceanic explorers pushed themselves off land into a SALTY sea of liquid. To do so, and continue to go in a direction where fresh water and food may only possibly be obtained took as much courage as astronauts venturing out into space without a ubiquitous supply of oxygen.
Only the Greeks knew the world was not flat. Columbus had no way of knowing it wasn't, and no way of knowing just how big the Earth was either. For all he knew, he was going to die starving and dying of thirst out at sea.
I'm offended if you call them morons simply because they have the courage to explore.
If you want to call them morons because neither they or Mars One fully understands the risks or prepare for it, go right ahead.
Don't denigrate them simply for their courage to explore.
I'm more than a little dubious that a launch is going to take place without the tech being there.
If it's a scam, the launch will never take place. Cuz... if it does... and what you say is true... then Mars One was murdering people by sending them up in space knowing that they had no chance at all to survive.
They'll go to jail.
I'm not disagreeing that this Mars One thing is a bad idea. Only that to criticize it based on danger is ludicrous. Our exploration history is replete with far more danger and loss of life with more certainty about a successful outcome than this.
Seriously? Are you that much of a fucking pussy?
One-Way Trip?
That's the part that scares you?
You must have problems comprehending the magnitude of people's decisions in the past to go off exploring on this planet in the past. You act like it was somehow easier...
The courts always take forever.
There was never any doubt of BP's guilt in the matter. Long standing history of recklessness, lost lives, and rampant stupidity fueled by greed. They were lucky for too long, and their crap caught up to them. The cost was astounding this time.
Considering the sheer magnitude of the situation, I think the most appropriate response by the US would have been to suspend their corporate charter permanently and confiscate all assets the US could get their hands on.
The lawsuit should be a criminal one in which US prosecutors prove (ample evidence provided) that the executives knew they were operating dangerously and onsite engineers raised safety concerns several times. Throw them in GITMO for 20 years.
I understand people say that is too extreme, but that's bullshit. If I kill 5,000 people tomorrow with a home made bomb, the government is going to come after me something fierce. Deservedly so.
So why let these executives off when they killed people, harmed the environment on an unprecedented scale, and harmed economies of multiple countries?
Just how much damage *does* it take for you to get on board with my seemingly strict punishment?
I cannot in good conscience boycott BJs. That's a rather important contribution to humanity and god bless those that make it happen.
It actually speaks to humility.
Only those that are humble and gracious will inherit the Earth. Cocky, egotistical narcissists need not apply.
Which, let's face it. The majority don't really meet the standards for meekness in the bible anyways.
Don't worry. If you actually survive some sort of Armageddon and are left with the meek, they will at least be nice people.
The ketchup dispensers are serving lube and salt'n'pepper bags have been replaced with condoms.
Condoms? That's like eating a sandwich with the saran wrap still over it....
I don't think you or the OP of this particular thread gets it at *all*.
It's not that we now know about the NSA and what they were doing. We most certainly did.
It's that we have FUCKING PROOF.
In 2006, I was saying much the same things. I had high hopes for Obama because I honestly thought he was going to give us justice over some of that telco bullshit. Of course not. I was naive.
What Snowden has done, and deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for, is give me CREDIBILITY.
Now when I have a calm, not so agitated, san tin-foil conversation with somebody now about security, I get taken seriously.
I'm being asked right now what it would take to raise the level of security for several companies. What chat software could we use that is heavily encrypted? What should we be doing to vet hardware?
Most of it is of course executives wanting their conversations to be discrete so it can't be used against them, but that is progress nonetheless...
At the very least now when I talk about mass surveillance I don't see rolled eyes and skepticism. I have their attention.
Thanks Snowden.
it is doomed to be lost
Which side?
The only way we could possibly lose is with continued apathy and stupidity. If we lacked those attributes we could defeat them in six months. People act like encryption is impossible or something. Push open source hardware, aggressively replace firmware with custom builds, mitigate as many possible threats as you can, and use the strongest encryption wherever possible.
Goooood news. With TAO being out in the open, and the US losing billions upon billions to its economy in the coming 12 months because hardware and software can't be trusted, you can bet your ass that the major players will be taking drastic action. Not as a PR job to the public citizen, no no no. It will be drastic action to convince me the person in charge of equipment purchasing that Cisco is still a good bet.
Why should Cisco care? Why should I choose to utilize them for public infrastructure, secure MPLS between financial institutions, etc. when I know they have been backdoored by the NSA? Especially, when the NSA is actually the least of my worries, but other governments and entities that would do harm to my network?
Kiss a huge amount of contracts goodbye. The worldwide consumers will most certainly be at least looking for other options right now.
Remember, the name of the game is NOT to deny them access to your networks from a full frontal assault from the NSA, but only to do just enough to raise the costs associated with mass surveillance several orders. The NSA can't get the financial resources to be approved for several orders more than what their budget has.
We can most certainly win.
The problem is that we will not even try.
wait, are there non-gambling casinoes?
Yes. They're called strip clubs. You get fucked. You lost a shitload of money. You never had a chance to make any money either.
I have no love for you fucktardians that force me to:
- Lose my health insurance plan because it does not qualify
- Botch a rollout of a rather simple website and backend infrastructure that greatly inhibits my ability to find insurance. If Google can do what it does, then by God those fucktards that created that website should have been able to do better. I've rolled out more complex platforms than that and integrated 3rd party services and data with said platforms.
- Spend upwards of 10x more on insurance that is now mandatory
and above all... NOT FIX THE FUCKING ECONOMY TO ALLOW US POOR SHMUCKS TO AFFORD IT IN THE FIRST PLACE.
If your're so keen on telling everyone what to do and so anti-Libertarian then pass a fucking $20/h minimum wage law.
All that shit you want to force on me should take no *more* than 20% of a minimum wage income, AFTER basic expenses like food and shelter are met.
Last I checked $928 a month wasn't enough to live on by yourself (barely scrape by) AND have disposable income to the point you can by a couple hundred dollar insurance policy.
I'm not talking DirectTV and Netflix being basic expenses either. Those minimum wage people, which you and I could easily become, are scraping by on fucking Ramen Noodles and Mac N Cheese.
By all means, complain about the Libertarian philosophy, continue to force insurance down our throats, and completely ignore the obviously huge gaping fucking problem of doing it during a God Damn Full Blown Great Depression. I don't give a fuck what may be going on with Wall Street. Down on Main Street the shit has only been getting worse.
Great Fucking Idea.
BP is not a good example of consumer stupidity or boycotting.
BP executives should be jailed for gross negligence that resulted in the loss of human life, severe and profound impact to the environment, and billions of dollars of damages to the economies surrounding the gulf.
If any private citizen had pulled off damage of that magnitude they would have been considered a super villain and put into a suspended cage and watched like Hannibal Lecter.
All of BP's assets should have been seized at an international level by the US, auctioned off, and the proceeds distributed to all of those affected, including non-US citizens and affected areas.
That would deter the fuck out of bad corporate behavior and would have been entirely appropriate given the circumstances.
I think the better decision is to not give any money to Safeway over the course of next year.
If enough people actually got together and boycotted Safeway for even 6 months, the effect would be noticeable on a revenue report.
While not enough to overhaul policies and get executives sacked, it should be more than enough to make some idiot executive think twice about getting publicly caught engaging in petty behavior against a lowly defenseless worker.
It's not as hard as you think to create a deterrent. Can't be done with apathy though.
I don't have any problem not shopping with them for an extended period of time.
If they want to get petty because a worker complained about them eliminating thousands of jobs in a public way (protected speech) and severely impact his ability to get unemployment (punish him) then I can punish them right back by removing several thousand dollars in revenue over the next couple of years.
I stick to it.
Nothing Apple. Ever. Fuck their walled garden freedom is what we tell you it is approach.
Walmart. Those people can suck a bag of hairy dicks.
Iomega. They've been running a data recovery scam for years by creating the worst fucking NAS on the planet and then charging you thousands of dollars for data recovery when their shitty product fails.
Sony. Want to try to destroy my freedom so your soulless executives get a few more extra bucks? Not one penny of my money.
Paypal. A criminal organization that has stolen millions upon millions from unsuspecting suckers by performing fraud themselves, and creating marketplaces that only encourage it.
GoDaddy. Fuck You. That's Why.
Google. I don't care how fucking shiny it is. You're not harvesting my privacy to make you richer.
Facebook. Ditto bitches.
Sprint. Sue me for non-payment on an account with my social when your security and fraud problems are well known? Yep. Bag of Dicks on the way...
Entertainment and Music industries. Not one fucking dime ever. If you want to declare war over a broken business model due to evolution in how we exchange and work with data as a people and attempt to destroy our privacy and freedom to maintain power and money..... just kill yourselves. You're worse than HIV.
I'm sure they're are others.
My point is that there are plenty of very principled people that have a long history of voting with their wallets.
I don't need to vote for politicians. I just need to deny my money to those that would harm me and others being dickheads. That's actually effective in the long run.
It's not like I have to refuse to give my money to BlockBuster anymore right?
Everything NASA has ever done was built by the cheapest bidder.
Our bridges were built by the cheapest bidders.. and it shows. Our software is built by the cheapest bidders.. and it shows too in many ways.
It didn't stop NASA from getting all the way to the Moon.
There is a big difference between 100% safe and 1% safe
Yes, but there was no way to tell that a couple hundred years ago. His point about exploration is valid. Did Columbus really have any way of saying it was an 18% "safe" expedition? How do you even begin to quantify those risks with the information they had then?
So many of the great explorers had absolutely no idea what the dangers were going to be, only that they would face them.
The fact that we can begin to quantify the risks is turning us into pussies. Would the next Chuck Yeager break the light speed barrier if some egghead said there was a proven 23.234% chance his nuts would shrivel up and fall off?
It's not like this is some sort of a redneck hold-my-beer stunt. They're only going to go if they have met a minimum amount of safety standards and have access to some pretty impressive technologies to bring with them.
Fucking Columbus didn't even understand biology and antibiotics, knew that people got very sick and died on long voyages, and still boarded the boat. Lewis and Clark had no idea what to expect going across the US. Whatever chance they had, it was going to be with their wits and what they brought with them.
The unknown that previous explorers faced was a lot more intimidating than the journey being contemplated by Mars One.
Telling somebody that has vastly more information and technology at their fingertips that they are morons for even attempting something like that is a little offensive, IMO. If you want to do that, then you must say that all of our great explorers in the past simply missed out on being awarded their Darwin Awards.
Man Up.