Although I assume you're being sarcastic, as Rubik's cube tournaments used to be somewhat widespread, but yes, there are professional SCRABBLE players for chrissake. I even saw a documentary about them once. They really are as pathetic as they sound.
IANAP, but I believe the idea is that empty space require less energy to 'warp', and that a few disparate atoms and molecules don't significantly change that energy requirement (which albeit is still huge). However, when you fill space with a lot of mass, and mass is energy, it presents a 'resistance' to warping that drives energy costs up to accomplish the goal. Such is my understanding of science-fiction FTL physics.;-p
You make a disturbingly valid point, though covert/indirect disenfranchisement might be a bit meta vis a vis silencing, the effect is similar. Though ultimately you're talking about simply expanding the dataset already in use for gerrymandering.
We're talking phonetics here, not spelling. There's a difference. An 'eee' sound becoming plural.
Aussie, Aussies.
Barbie, barbies.
Bikie, bikies.
All *phonetically* similar to pussy, pussies or pansy, pansies. And keep it in context, we're contrasting 'bikie' with the phonetics of 'biker', so it is completely appropriate to look at bike, biker, bikie, bikies vs. puss, (hypothetical) pusser, pussy, pussies.
Yes, and if we could build cars that produced vegetables instead of carbon monoxide we'd solve world hunger. The idea that laws will stop law breakers has always been laughable. Laws punish, and the threat of punishment may dissuade some, but no law can ever wholly 'stop' criminal behavior. Consequently, as crime has always and will always exist, it is necessary to defend oneself the moment it is necessary and not wait for a government employee to show up half an hour later to draw a chalkline around you.
However, even if there was a perfect utopia where no crime and no oppression were ever to happen again, hunters would still need guns to hunt, and target shooters would still need guns for target shooting.
It is worth adding that because firearms are a pre-industrial technology that at their core are nothing more than a strong metal tube, exothermically explosive propellant, and a projectile-- it is literally impossible to put that genie back in the bottle. Anybody with some basic tools and parts can make a gun in their garage. Without training in gunsmithing or a similar field the product would probably be as dangerous to the user as the target, but that doesn't change anything. (Perhaps most notably, the resistance groups in Scandinavian countries during World War 2 produced hundreds of fully automatic sub-machine guns in an underground cottage industry that made use of bicycle repair shops and other small concentrations of relatively limited equipment.)
Well, what do you expect? They call them 'bikies' for chrissake. If you said 'hey bikies!' in bar full of bikers in the States you'd be lucky to leave with all your limbs.
Wow. You really are dense. I just linked to where I retracted what I said because I finished reading the article. Hours ago. You're obviously as dumb as the mods who keep modding it up even though I retracted it.
You must be new here. Stating the obvious, regardless of facts or RingTFA (and I did realize my error and did retract my post before anybody even said anything, but mods aren't paying attention), is frequently modded way the hell up. Yes, I'm a karma whore. So what? Eat me.
And as for electric turtles, by your reasoning, there are no such things as submarines. (I love/.)
Let me know when you can cite any of this happening. Also, even though I personally will fight against it tooth and nail, I expect that nation-wide gun registration will happen long before warrants start getting sworn out by judges for things as tenuous as 'the coworker of this felon bought a periodical' rendering the point fairly moot.
And to be pedantic, there are strict guidelines for people who both own firearms and live with felons. Even as somebody whom most would consider a gun owners' rights extremist, I wholly support maintaining physical separation of felons and firearms and these should be enforced even by search warrant where there is probable cause (though I wouldn't go so far as reasonable suspicion).
Remember, my post was in response to a guy suggesting that this consumer information was important to assisting the government in silencing dissent. Even given these interconnections, do you seriously think that the government is waiting for you to buy snacks and liquor so that it will create the perfect conditions for them to snatch and grab you from a party full of your closest friends?
It may make you uncomfortable to know that databases are linking behaviors together so that some listless functionary can think of ways to squeeze a few more pennies out of you somehow, but I can't imagine how this information can be used in a truly damaging or hostile way that cannot already be done by information already in the hands of the IRS and other agencies.
And how is that more important than knowing where you sleep? I mean really, assuming Vayra's original premise of government silencing dissent, do you think the black ops are going to go through the trouble of setting up some grand take-down scenario at a grocery store full of curious witnesses?
Jesus, who are you, his wife? Hur dur, a random crazy threatened him, but no bikers have... why might that be? Let's see him support legislation outlawing biker gangs, see how many threats he gets.
I honestly don't see how knowing what groceries you bought last week makes you any easier a target for the black helicopters vs. all the critical information that the IRS already has like where you live, work, if you're married and to whom, etc.
I can only speak for myself, but I read/. for ten years before I registered, and that was to find out where the local 10 year anniversary party was. I only register with sites in order to get something I otherwise could not get, and posting under a name was not important to me here before that point.
That explains why MS software is so sub-par and MS advertising is so laughably terrible... it's all being written and designed by secretaries and janitors...
Ouch. Mega burn. As a father of one who will wait several years to figure out what that one means before having another (which will also probably be the last), I wholeheartedly agree.
You've been dodging this from the moment I asked it, focusing on anything and everything else to avoid it, trying to spin and reframe terms until you can succeed at completely different arguements, and until you answer it, fuck off:
I challenge you to name one incident in human history where a human society collapsed because of extinction of an organism.
(What you even quoted as what you were replying to is taken out of context, as immediately previous to that I restated the same parameters you're working so hard to ignore and escape. I previously had foolishly assumed you had integrity enough to be responding to the whole thought, not just the quote you took out of context, which is why I presumed that you were trying to provide an example within the parameters contained in the whole paragraph whereupon the reasoning would have been circular, because the true premise of the real question has always been social collapse as an effect.)
(The whole quote, of course, is "I notice you dodged my question about when any human society has collapsed due to an extinction. Isn't that kind of the crux of this issue? Wouldn't it establish an important precedent for your point? Of course it would, but the lack of any example, because there are none, does the opposite. Many species have 'gone the way of the dodo' during human existence, and that. has. never. mattered." The scope of what 'matters' in this case is defined earlier in the paragraph. It is simply social collapse. However, because you couldn't answer that question, you decided to lop off the important part, and focus on the now detached antecedent by itself, so that you could arbitrarily define a completely different scope for what 'matters'. You couldn't defeat the strong argument, so you created a weaker argument that was vaguely similar so that you could attack that instead. This is blatant, dishonest strawmanning. And the reason this is all parenthetical is it is all beside the point. The point is still the one question you keep dodging and spinning and no other. Answer it or fuck off. Anything short of an answer to that question I will ignore, and you can bask in the glory of having the last, disingenuous word.)
I'm so glad you could contribute such substance to this exchange. Your enlightening insight has shattered my world. I'm positively quaking consequent to such well-thought-out criticism of my human worth. I am quite certain that whichever parties you enjoy, I would not, and vice versa.
To him, then, Demosthenes made a sharp answer. 'Indeed,' said he, 'thy lamp and mine, O Pytheas, are not privy to the same pursuits.'
Slashdot Mirror
Although I assume you're being sarcastic, as Rubik's cube tournaments used to be somewhat widespread, but yes, there are professional SCRABBLE players for chrissake. I even saw a documentary about them once. They really are as pathetic as they sound.
More like buuurrrrrrrnnnnn.
IANAP, but I believe the idea is that empty space require less energy to 'warp', and that a few disparate atoms and molecules don't significantly change that energy requirement (which albeit is still huge). However, when you fill space with a lot of mass, and mass is energy, it presents a 'resistance' to warping that drives energy costs up to accomplish the goal. Such is my understanding of science-fiction FTL physics. ;-p
You make a disturbingly valid point, though covert/indirect disenfranchisement might be a bit meta vis a vis silencing, the effect is similar. Though ultimately you're talking about simply expanding the dataset already in use for gerrymandering.
We're talking phonetics here, not spelling. There's a difference. An 'eee' sound becoming plural.
Aussie, Aussies. Barbie, barbies. Bikie, bikies.
All *phonetically* similar to pussy, pussies or pansy, pansies. And keep it in context, we're contrasting 'bikie' with the phonetics of 'biker', so it is completely appropriate to look at bike, biker, bikie, bikies vs. puss, (hypothetical) pusser, pussy, pussies.
Yes, and if we could build cars that produced vegetables instead of carbon monoxide we'd solve world hunger. The idea that laws will stop law breakers has always been laughable. Laws punish, and the threat of punishment may dissuade some, but no law can ever wholly 'stop' criminal behavior. Consequently, as crime has always and will always exist, it is necessary to defend oneself the moment it is necessary and not wait for a government employee to show up half an hour later to draw a chalkline around you.
However, even if there was a perfect utopia where no crime and no oppression were ever to happen again, hunters would still need guns to hunt, and target shooters would still need guns for target shooting.
It is worth adding that because firearms are a pre-industrial technology that at their core are nothing more than a strong metal tube, exothermically explosive propellant, and a projectile-- it is literally impossible to put that genie back in the bottle. Anybody with some basic tools and parts can make a gun in their garage. Without training in gunsmithing or a similar field the product would probably be as dangerous to the user as the target, but that doesn't change anything. (Perhaps most notably, the resistance groups in Scandinavian countries during World War 2 produced hundreds of fully automatic sub-machine guns in an underground cottage industry that made use of bicycle repair shops and other small concentrations of relatively limited equipment.)
Well, what do you expect? They call them 'bikies' for chrissake. If you said 'hey bikies!' in bar full of bikers in the States you'd be lucky to leave with all your limbs.
Wow. You really are dense. I just linked to where I retracted what I said because I finished reading the article. Hours ago. You're obviously as dumb as the mods who keep modding it up even though I retracted it.
You may have done a better job than I did of reading the article before posting, but you failed at reading the thread.
You must be new here. Stating the obvious, regardless of facts or RingTFA (and I did realize my error and did retract my post before anybody even said anything, but mods aren't paying attention), is frequently modded way the hell up. Yes, I'm a karma whore. So what? Eat me.
/.)
And as for electric turtles, by your reasoning, there are no such things as submarines. (I love
Let me know when you can cite any of this happening. Also, even though I personally will fight against it tooth and nail, I expect that nation-wide gun registration will happen long before warrants start getting sworn out by judges for things as tenuous as 'the coworker of this felon bought a periodical' rendering the point fairly moot.
And to be pedantic, there are strict guidelines for people who both own firearms and live with felons. Even as somebody whom most would consider a gun owners' rights extremist, I wholly support maintaining physical separation of felons and firearms and these should be enforced even by search warrant where there is probable cause (though I wouldn't go so far as reasonable suspicion).
Trebek: "This term for a long-handled gardening tool can also mean an immoral pleasure seeker."
Contestant: "What is a hoe?"
Trebek: "No. (pause) Whoa, whoa, whoa. They teach you that in school in Utah, huh?"
Other contestant: "What is a rake?"
Remember, my post was in response to a guy suggesting that this consumer information was important to assisting the government in silencing dissent. Even given these interconnections, do you seriously think that the government is waiting for you to buy snacks and liquor so that it will create the perfect conditions for them to snatch and grab you from a party full of your closest friends?
It may make you uncomfortable to know that databases are linking behaviors together so that some listless functionary can think of ways to squeeze a few more pennies out of you somehow, but I can't imagine how this information can be used in a truly damaging or hostile way that cannot already be done by information already in the hands of the IRS and other agencies.
And how is that more important than knowing where you sleep? I mean really, assuming Vayra's original premise of government silencing dissent, do you think the black ops are going to go through the trouble of setting up some grand take-down scenario at a grocery store full of curious witnesses?
So did I, and retracted my previous post before you even started yours, unless you type really slowly.
Today is just not my day. I accidentally checked the AC box on that... no karma for me.
Apparently there are some such here on /.
And for that matter, how does he know the threat didn't come from a gamer who was also a biker?
I retract my previous post, as I finished the article and it turns out he did exactly that. Bleh.
Jesus, who are you, his wife? Hur dur, a random crazy threatened him, but no bikers have... why might that be? Let's see him support legislation outlawing biker gangs, see how many threats he gets.
I honestly don't see how knowing what groceries you bought last week makes you any easier a target for the black helicopters vs. all the critical information that the IRS already has like where you live, work, if you're married and to whom, etc.
I can only speak for myself, but I read /. for ten years before I registered, and that was to find out where the local 10 year anniversary party was. I only register with sites in order to get something I otherwise could not get, and posting under a name was not important to me here before that point.
That explains why MS software is so sub-par and MS advertising is so laughably terrible... it's all being written and designed by secretaries and janitors...
Ouch. Mega burn. As a father of one who will wait several years to figure out what that one means before having another (which will also probably be the last), I wholeheartedly agree.
I challenge you to name one incident in human history where a human society collapsed because of extinction of an organism.
(What you even quoted as what you were replying to is taken out of context, as immediately previous to that I restated the same parameters you're working so hard to ignore and escape. I previously had foolishly assumed you had integrity enough to be responding to the whole thought, not just the quote you took out of context, which is why I presumed that you were trying to provide an example within the parameters contained in the whole paragraph whereupon the reasoning would have been circular, because the true premise of the real question has always been social collapse as an effect.)
(The whole quote, of course, is "I notice you dodged my question about when any human society has collapsed due to an extinction. Isn't that kind of the crux of this issue? Wouldn't it establish an important precedent for your point? Of course it would, but the lack of any example, because there are none, does the opposite. Many species have 'gone the way of the dodo' during human existence, and that. has. never. mattered." The scope of what 'matters' in this case is defined earlier in the paragraph. It is simply social collapse. However, because you couldn't answer that question, you decided to lop off the important part, and focus on the now detached antecedent by itself, so that you could arbitrarily define a completely different scope for what 'matters'. You couldn't defeat the strong argument, so you created a weaker argument that was vaguely similar so that you could attack that instead. This is blatant, dishonest strawmanning. And the reason this is all parenthetical is it is all beside the point. The point is still the one question you keep dodging and spinning and no other. Answer it or fuck off. Anything short of an answer to that question I will ignore, and you can bask in the glory of having the last, disingenuous word.)
To him, then, Demosthenes made a sharp answer. 'Indeed,' said he, 'thy lamp and mine, O Pytheas, are not privy to the same pursuits.'