To imply that battleships are immune to modern weapons is misleading. The thick armor on battleships was designed to resist regular (for their day) armor piercing rounds. In WW2, shaped charge technology was developed. Although a shaped charge was never used against a battleship (to my knowledge) I wonder how successful battleship armor would be against modern shaped charges. And then there are nuclear bombs... Face it, all that armor is not that useful.
Although I was opposed to this delay let's look at what will occur as a result of PARTIAL digital conversion. Joe Sixpack has been oblivious to the conversion (even now). Partial conversion will mean that a few, but not all, of his favorite channels not be broadcasting in analog. He might now be convinced that it's time to do something. The downside it that he will probably complain to his Congress critters instead of getting a converter box. At least now he will be aware.
It's just a bad idea to have any for profit company running criminal justice operations such as prisons. I remember a story about one of the companies running many Texas prisons. The law forbids them from lobbying about laws increasing the penalties for crimes or making new criminal laws. Although they were prohibited from outright lobbying they were found to be using "back door" means to influence the state legislature. Some of the things they were doing is to form "community organizations" which they then funded heavily.
The profit motive in criminal justice should just be eliminated. Criminal justice should be run entirely by the state. We should still have prisons just stop having private companies operate them.
We all know the stories of how wonderful that Xerox PARC was. The failure wasn't the researchers, it was upper managements fault that couldn't see the future. Can you imagine what the world would be like if Xerox marketed all the inventions that came out of PARC?
I wonder how accurate the interpretation of natural language will be. Humans often get the actual message wrong can computers do better? I think not.
One of the problems with natural language is that it is often ambiguous. Natural languages, as spoken, were actually developed mostly by the peons not the rulers. The rulers would have liked a very precise language for their dealings with their underlings. The peons want their replies to be as vague as possible to avoid losing their head when they fail to meet the rulers specifications. For diplomatic relations, rulers too want as much vagueness as possible. Vagueness and ambiguity are thus built into natural language.
It's not a good reason in my opinion. If they were so concerned about a February switch, why didn't they choose the date they now want in the first place? It's just a delaying tactic.
Football might be more profitable is small towns but do the overall profits outweigh all the costs? If you include such intangible costs to society as caring for brain injured players (sometimes for life), the reduced productivity later in life for these players to the profits still outweigh the costs. The costs of a brain injury can be quiet high.
On the other hand, how do you determine brain injury? It sometimes seems that some jocks are brain injured at birth so no additional injury is possible.
It's rare for a sports program to pay for itself. If this was true, why do many school districts have a "pay for play" policy? Football has very high equipment costs and these costs are only partially offset by ticket receipts. If you did a careful analysis of all the costs, you would probably find that it cost the school district. The real shame is that this analysis is often not done.
There are many non contact sports out there. We should replace football in schools with one of them. Certainly you would want to eliminate any academic boxing programs (if there are any). As for soccer, I am OK with that if they also outlaw any use of the head as well as the arms. This is one of the modifications in sports rules that can be done. Now for the people that cry that these rule changes would change the nature of the game. Yes, they will but would that be a bad thing? Also, you could allow the full contact stuff for when the child is over 18 years old. I'm just opposed with school sports program actually doing harm when they should be doing good.
Are you crazy??? If there is a family history of a genetic abnormality then that trait will be in the cord blood as well. It will be useless to cure a genetic related disease. This is especially true of donating cord blood for others to use. If you have a family history of a genetic disease you might cause others that use the cord blood to get the family "curse".
Pay close attention to many of the advertisements for cord blood storage. It is implied that ones own cord blood could be used if a bone marrow transplant is needed. Now consider this... If one needs a bone marrow transplant, it is often because of a genetic disease. I'm not an expert in all the causes of cancer but even cancer might have a genetic cause. Do you want to replace your genetically faulty bone marrow with your own cord blood that will have the same genetic flaw? Obviously not! There are good reasons to store cord blood but an auto transfusion to cure a genetic flaw is not one of them. Now to use the stem cells to regenerate body parts that have been damaged by a non genetic cause. That is another matter.
The problem with the current legal status of marijuana it that legitimate medical research is hampered. Sure, there is some medical research happening but nowhere as much as there could be. There are many components of marijuana that are not involved with getting you high and these components may have medical benefits. The problem is that we just don't know about them because of all the hysteria generated by "Reefer Madness". We need a calm and rational investigation about all the components of marijuana.
Maybe you missed something. At the bottom of the summary, it says that Microsoft it would postpone a data center in his home state. That will cause unemployment in his home state to rise and his hopes of reelection to diminish. It's all about getting reelected. It's never too early to think of your chances the next time you face the voters in a poll, especially if your popularity is waning.
I think that will not help much if you are already getting telemarketer calls. If your phone number has already been sold by the CRTC then it's out there. It can be sold by the telemarketer and resold much like email addresses and SPAM.
Actually, I am happy he said it. It indicates that he hasn't realized that the ground beneath his feet has shifted. It indicates that he and others who think like him will continue down the path to political extinction.
"Do I have the concept of truth commissions wrong maybe?"
T&R could be anything you wanted because it's just a concept. It could even be an international.
"On the other hand, some kind of amnesty or clemency may allow the truth to come out in a way that it wouldn't if people were busy lawyering up."
That is exactly the reason Why I mentioned it. I think that the public knowing what has been done far outweighs the need for revenge. Don't get me wrong, I would like revenge, however it would get in the way of moving forward. Getting the truth is more important than getting revenge. Of course, someone that was actually harmed has every right to feel otherwise.
I'm not in favor of having a regular trial but maybe we could have a South Africa style "Truth and Reconciliation" hearings. They could be modeled on an actual trial and if the defendant is found to have done wrong to the Constitution he would be given the chance to admit he was wrong. If he admits wrongdoing then all is forgotten. However, if he doesn't admit wrongdoing, then an actual trial would be held. Note: I didn't say guilty because that is a legal term reserved for those actually convicted in a criminal trial. This surely would guarantee that Cheney would face criminal prosecution because he definitely wouldn't admit to wrongdoing.
"The most obvious (and complete) response is that I did not freely contract and agree to pay such a fee in return for such services"
Yet you do drive on publicly funded roads and expect the fire department to put out the fire if your house is burning. Just because you didn't EXPLICITLY contract for these services doesn't mean you shouldn't have to pay your fair share. If you don't want to pay taxes why don't you move somewhere where taxes aren't assessed,... like Somalia. There isn't any government there either so that should suit you just fine. Just watch out for all the thugs that are there that will be happy to relieve you of your money and life.
I thought you would parrot such idiocy that is why I goaded you in the first place!! Such a twisted interpretation of the Bible is not the opinion of most Bible scholars. The Bible teachings have been twisted like you have just done to justify many evils. Slavery is an example. I'm sure that you can find one or two Bible scholars that support you. (You might actually may be one of these crazy Bible nuts.) The fact remains that this is a view that is held by a very small minority and of that I am glad.
The collection of taxes is NOT theft! Look in the Bible about that one where Christ says that you should pay to Cesar what is due to Cesar. Not paying your fair share of taxes is immoral.
I would define a tax haven is a jurisdiction where a corporation (or for that matter an individual) keeps a presence for tax reasons AND they do not make any significant profits at that location. By the way, locating in a tax haven does not produce profits, it only avoids paying taxes on that profit. If they produce a significant amount of their profits at the tax haven (say over 5%), I wouldn't call that a tax haven. That covers the Cayman Islands, Bermuda or Luxembourg don't have enough population to support the generation of these profits.
My problem with them was their policy on restocking fees. I was having compatibility issues with video cards (I was running Win 95 at the time M$ hadn't completely fixed this issue). I was assured that I would have no problems with a card but I was suspicious because I was having problems with this type of card. I asked if I could return it if I had problems. The salesman said certainly I could return it but there was a 15% restocking fee. I went to BB which had the card for a lower price and I could return it without restocking fees. I never went into CC after that.
Slashdot Mirror
To imply that battleships are immune to modern weapons is misleading. The thick armor on battleships was designed to resist regular (for their day) armor piercing rounds. In WW2, shaped charge technology was developed. Although a shaped charge was never used against a battleship (to my knowledge) I wonder how successful battleship armor would be against modern shaped charges. And then there are nuclear bombs... Face it, all that armor is not that useful.
Although I was opposed to this delay let's look at what will occur as a result of PARTIAL digital conversion. Joe Sixpack has been oblivious to the conversion (even now). Partial conversion will mean that a few, but not all, of his favorite channels not be broadcasting in analog. He might now be convinced that it's time to do something. The downside it that he will probably complain to his Congress critters instead of getting a converter box. At least now he will be aware.
It's just a bad idea to have any for profit company running criminal justice operations such as prisons. I remember a story about one of the companies running many Texas prisons. The law forbids them from lobbying about laws increasing the penalties for crimes or making new criminal laws. Although they were prohibited from outright lobbying they were found to be using "back door" means to influence the state legislature. Some of the things they were doing is to form "community organizations" which they then funded heavily.
The profit motive in criminal justice should just be eliminated. Criminal justice should be run entirely by the state. We should still have prisons just stop having private companies operate them.
We all know the stories of how wonderful that Xerox PARC was. The failure wasn't the researchers, it was upper managements fault that couldn't see the future. Can you imagine what the world would be like if Xerox marketed all the inventions that came out of PARC?
I wonder how accurate the interpretation of natural language will be. Humans often get the actual message wrong can computers do better? I think not.
One of the problems with natural language is that it is often ambiguous. Natural languages, as spoken, were actually developed mostly by the peons not the rulers. The rulers would have liked a very precise language for their dealings with their underlings. The peons want their replies to be as vague as possible to avoid losing their head when they fail to meet the rulers specifications. For diplomatic relations, rulers too want as much vagueness as possible. Vagueness and ambiguity are thus built into natural language.
You must be a waffles man!
It's not a good reason in my opinion. If they were so concerned about a February switch, why didn't they choose the date they now want in the first place? It's just a delaying tactic.
Yeah, but how do you decide which one? It's a can of worms that shouldn't be opened.
Football might be more profitable is small towns but do the overall profits outweigh all the costs? If you include such intangible costs to society as caring for brain injured players (sometimes for life), the reduced productivity later in life for these players to the profits still outweigh the costs. The costs of a brain injury can be quiet high.
On the other hand, how do you determine brain injury? It sometimes seems that some jocks are brain injured at birth so no additional injury is possible.
It's rare for a sports program to pay for itself. If this was true, why do many school districts have a "pay for play" policy? Football has very high equipment costs and these costs are only partially offset by ticket receipts. If you did a careful analysis of all the costs, you would probably find that it cost the school district. The real shame is that this analysis is often not done.
There are many non contact sports out there. We should replace football in schools with one of them. Certainly you would want to eliminate any academic boxing programs (if there are any). As for soccer, I am OK with that if they also outlaw any use of the head as well as the arms. This is one of the modifications in sports rules that can be done. Now for the people that cry that these rule changes would change the nature of the game. Yes, they will but would that be a bad thing? Also, you could allow the full contact stuff for when the child is over 18 years old. I'm just opposed with school sports program actually doing harm when they should be doing good.
Are you crazy??? If there is a family history of a genetic abnormality then that trait will be in the cord blood as well. It will be useless to cure a genetic related disease. This is especially true of donating cord blood for others to use. If you have a family history of a genetic disease you might cause others that use the cord blood to get the family "curse".
Pay close attention to many of the advertisements for cord blood storage. It is implied that ones own cord blood could be used if a bone marrow transplant is needed. Now consider this... If one needs a bone marrow transplant, it is often because of a genetic disease. I'm not an expert in all the causes of cancer but even cancer might have a genetic cause. Do you want to replace your genetically faulty bone marrow with your own cord blood that will have the same genetic flaw? Obviously not! There are good reasons to store cord blood but an auto transfusion to cure a genetic flaw is not one of them. Now to use the stem cells to regenerate body parts that have been damaged by a non genetic cause. That is another matter.
The problem with the current legal status of marijuana it that legitimate medical research is hampered. Sure, there is some medical research happening but nowhere as much as there could be. There are many components of marijuana that are not involved with getting you high and these components may have medical benefits. The problem is that we just don't know about them because of all the hysteria generated by "Reefer Madness". We need a calm and rational investigation about all the components of marijuana.
Maybe you missed something. At the bottom of the summary, it says that Microsoft it would postpone a data center in his home state. That will cause unemployment in his home state to rise and his hopes of reelection to diminish. It's all about getting reelected. It's never too early to think of your chances the next time you face the voters in a poll, especially if your popularity is waning.
I think that will not help much if you are already getting telemarketer calls. If your phone number has already been sold by the CRTC then it's out there. It can be sold by the telemarketer and resold much like email addresses and SPAM.
Actually, I am happy he said it. It indicates that he hasn't realized that the ground beneath his feet has shifted. It indicates that he and others who think like him will continue down the path to political extinction.
"Do I have the concept of truth commissions wrong maybe?"
T&R could be anything you wanted because it's just a concept. It could even be an international.
"On the other hand, some kind of amnesty or clemency may allow the truth to come out in a way that it wouldn't if people were busy lawyering up."
That is exactly the reason Why I mentioned it. I think that the public knowing what has been done far outweighs the need for revenge. Don't get me wrong, I would like revenge, however it would get in the way of moving forward. Getting the truth is more important than getting revenge. Of course, someone that was actually harmed has every right to feel otherwise.
I'm not in favor of having a regular trial but maybe we could have a South Africa style "Truth and Reconciliation" hearings. They could be modeled on an actual trial and if the defendant is found to have done wrong to the Constitution he would be given the chance to admit he was wrong. If he admits wrongdoing then all is forgotten. However, if he doesn't admit wrongdoing, then an actual trial would be held. Note: I didn't say guilty because that is a legal term reserved for those actually convicted in a criminal trial. This surely would guarantee that Cheney would face criminal prosecution because he definitely wouldn't admit to wrongdoing.
"The most obvious (and complete) response is that I did not freely contract and agree to pay such a fee in return for such services"
Yet you do drive on publicly funded roads and expect the fire department to put out the fire if your house is burning. Just because you didn't EXPLICITLY contract for these services doesn't mean you shouldn't have to pay your fair share. If you don't want to pay taxes why don't you move somewhere where taxes aren't assessed, ... like Somalia. There isn't any government there either so that should suit you just fine. Just watch out for all the thugs that are there that will be happy to relieve you of your money and life.
I thought you would parrot such idiocy that is why I goaded you in the first place!! Such a twisted interpretation of the Bible is not the opinion of most Bible scholars. The Bible teachings have been twisted like you have just done to justify many evils. Slavery is an example. I'm sure that you can find one or two Bible scholars that support you. (You might actually may be one of these crazy Bible nuts.) The fact remains that this is a view that is held by a very small minority and of that I am glad.
The collection of taxes is NOT theft! Look in the Bible about that one where Christ says that you should pay to Cesar what is due to Cesar. Not paying your fair share of taxes is immoral.
I would define a tax haven is a jurisdiction where a corporation (or for that matter an individual) keeps a presence for tax reasons AND they do not make any significant profits at that location. By the way, locating in a tax haven does not produce profits, it only avoids paying taxes on that profit. If they produce a significant amount of their profits at the tax haven (say over 5%), I wouldn't call that a tax haven. That covers the Cayman Islands, Bermuda or Luxembourg don't have enough population to support the generation of these profits.
My problem with them was their policy on restocking fees. I was having compatibility issues with video cards (I was running Win 95 at the time M$ hadn't completely fixed this issue). I was assured that I would have no problems with a card but I was suspicious because I was having problems with this type of card. I asked if I could return it if I had problems. The salesman said certainly I could return it but there was a 15% restocking fee. I went to BB which had the card for a lower price and I could return it without restocking fees. I never went into CC after that.
"I'm looking at this post, five mod points ready to go,"
Do you realize that you are not allowed to post and moderate on the same article? If you did, any mod points you use on this article have been wasted.