Unfortunately with our "winner take all" system, it is possible, and in fact common for a substantial minority to vote against some bozo getting put into office, only to lose ANY voice in that arena of government until the next election. That, I believe, is a substantial contributor to the "apathy vote".
If I vote libertarian every single election, voting my conscience and trying to be heard, it doesn't do anything to prevent my rights from being trampled by those democrats and republicans that actually end up being elected. If I swallow my pride and vote for whichever of the two main party candidates is the lesser evil, I still get my rights trampled on some issues because they don't represent all of my views. It's a lose-lose situation, and it leads to despair, cynicism, and dropping out of the process.
How about Jose Pedillo? Or more worryingly, since there does seem to be a strong likelihood that Jose intended harm (even though the Justice Dept now claims "he's a small fish"), how about Mike Hawash, who has no charges against him, and no explanation of why he's being held or kept in solitary confinement or strip searched every time he returns to his cell.
Which isn't to say that previous democratic administrations aren't just as culpable, mind you. Been doing some reading, and it appears to me that Billy Bob set the stage for this with the anti-Terrorist legislation after the OK City bombing. One suspects that PATRIOT 1 was lying around someone's office for a longggg time, and Ashcroft just got to be lucky enough to rubber stamp it and pass it on up to Congress.
You're right, it is unlikely that the ability to access these records would be abused; but it has been abused in the past, so
many people are very wary of giving law enforcement that ability again.
I think you just contradicted yourself. If it's been abused in the past, it seems very likely to me that it will be abused again.
I'd really like to see you open any sealed lid with one hand, while preventing your 6 month old from rolling off the changing pad/table with the other hand, and wrangling a poopy diaper with your hypothetical third hand.
almost all of the "evidence" denying global warming has been put out by scientific groups funded by oil companies like Esso (ExxonMobil) and Shell
Almost all of the "evidence" proving global warming has been put out by people with an environmentalist "green" agenda. Interestingly, most of these people in the 70's were claiming an imminent new ice age; so much attention was given to it that it even made it down into juvenile publications such as "Ranger Rick Magazine". So, if having an agenda disqualifies your research, there's probably bloody little left to make a decision on.
Personally, I am interested to hear the point that perhaps the data is skewed by readings being higher in urban areas--areas where common sense says ever greater masses of concrete may be acting as heat holders.
My main point is not that "this proves global warming is a myth" (and I agree that it's clear that most of those claiming that outright have their own opposite agenda to push). Rather it's that we really don't have sufficient data to know for certain that "greenhouse gasses" are the primary cause of the warming trends we currently see. We only have solid data for a couple hundred years! And even for that, we only have it for some parts of the world for that long. In the scale of geophysical time, I'm extremely skeptical that the "trend" we see has any statistical significance, and I haven't seen any statistical analyses to demonstrate the case either way. (and of course statistics is the science of the likely, not the definite, so there will always be argument if the data is at one edge or the other of "significance").
No, not a Diaper Genie. That slaves you to THEIR BAGS FOR THE LIFE OF THE GENIE. Not to mention, those little balls are not very biodegradeable. Get a Diaper Champ. You use ANY BAG THAT FITS, you can put in any type of diaper you like, and it keeps the smell isolated just as good as the Genie. If you want to use disposables, go to it. If you want to use cloth, you can do that just as easily, something you can't say for the Genie.
The point is, the original post was not particularly "neo-con" unless you're wearing some really strange colored glasses. I'm a liberal-leaning libertarian (hahahah) and a new parent, and I found all of his advice quite accurate and sensible (based on my own childhood experiences around divorce as well as my current experience as a parent).
Your main good point is "think seriously about whether to have kids". I don't see how that in any way contradicts what was said in the top level post.
Dresses aren't necessary for infants. Pink and blue clothing as "de riguer" are stupid. Get green and yellow and red and pink and blue and orange. If your kid has to be in a uniform from day one, s/he will have problems.
As for names, when we had our first one a mere 7 months ago, we had one name of each gender just in case. Turns out those ultrasounds didn't lie.
As for the PVR, I'm still trying to convince my wife that we need one. I'm hoping to build a MythTV box:-)
Anyone with a brain can see that Congress was an accomplice to this atrocity, but it's silly to claim that they're as much at fault when 1) they weren't allowed to debate it significantly (thanks to the leaders, so I guess the leaders still have more fault than the rank and file) and 2) they didn't write it.
Exactly. Just because a criminal has accomplices (in this case, the Congress) doesn't lessen his crime. In most cases, it brings on RICO and harsher penalties.
What do you mean encryption has nothing to do with DRM? Encryption is about the only means to the end of DRM. Can you think of another way to enforce DRM goals in software that doesn't use encryption?
I took the retouched version (I couldn't find an undoctored original), and sharpened it pretty radically, and blew it up. This will usually show stark edges where something has been pasted in. While there are some pretty stark edges, they aren't discontinuous in the way of a cut and paste. It appears at this point that someone did some pretty hamfisted burning in on the boy, which is what leads those edges around him to be so dark and leads to some extra pixelation around him. There is also some inexplicable blurring under his left foot (circled in black) and on the front of the tank (circled in white). Closer inspection does NOT look like "rubber stamp" on the front of the tank, just bad blurring. And the final key, I was thinking the colors under the tank near the boy didn't really match elsewhere under the tank, but after my sharpening it's pretty clear that the two locations I've pointed at with arrows are the same light source on similar colored materials, probably buildings or what not.
So I concede the point. The original, with the boy, is enhanced with some blurring and some burning in, and that's about it. Personally I think they did a pretty bad job of it, but that's just my opinion, and being a bad job doesn't make it a fake.
BTW the version without the boy given the same treatment is really obviously fake, with clear cloned/rubber stamped areas.
And I don't recall contradicting that outright, simply saying that it looks to me like one variation of the "enhancement" might have been pasting the boy in. We'll see, once I can find a copy.
The one you linked to is blurred and oversharpened beyond any capability to determine the reality. It looks like it's reduced to an 8 bit colorspace or something, definitely "posterized" down to very few colors. I'm still looking for a reasonable quality original, and I'm having a lot of difficulty; there are a lot of pictures of various boys of all ages throwing stones at israeli tanks:-)
No, sorry, it's not just a "lightening tool". There are clear smudges in the under tank side that are "rubber stamp" style. If you just wanted to lighten the tank there are much more effective means, and plenty of free web pages everywhere telling you how to do it.
As for conspiracy theories, I never said anything about conspiracy theories. I said that the tank was obviously heavily doctored, it it would appear to me without having any tools in front of me that the boy was pasted on somehow.
I did realize that there was one other explanation, again alluded to by a previous poster, and similar to what you said: there was something on that front underside of the tank that someone wanted to hide, and they used rubber stamp to blur it out. The problem with that theory is that there also appears to be some bizarre coloration changes in the background that you can see underneath the tank. The stuff nearest the boy has a strong yellow that is similar to his shirt (not that I'm saying it's copied from his shirt, just associating colors), while over toward the right, at the curb or whatever, it suddenly gets more subduded and grey. I still think it looks very much like the boy is pasted in for whatever reason (I honestly can't think of any conspiracy theories that clearly indicate why you would or wouldn't want him there), but I will look at it closer with better tools when I get the chance.
Here's the other point that says the boy is a fake: look around his arms and head. There's a shadow there on the tank that can best be explained as "they didn't crop close enough to the boy's arms with their brush in photoshop". And as a previous poster pointed out, there is definitely rubber stamp activity going on elsewhere on the front of the tank. I'm betting if I looked at this in photoshop (not available at work:-) I could find the edges pretty easily.
there's a difference between corps gathering data on you from your transactions with them, and corps gathering other types of data on you that would be "spying" if done by the government. It seems to me that other corps could find "spying" data useful as well, so it might not just go away if the government were properly restricted. Other than that, I agree with you completely.
My mistake for trying it months ago and assuming it hasn't improved. When I first tried it, under windows, it wouldn't cope with any of the browsers I had installed except exploder.
Slashdot Mirror
Sing the praises of pants!
If I vote libertarian every single election, voting my conscience and trying to be heard, it doesn't do anything to prevent my rights from being trampled by those democrats and republicans that actually end up being elected. If I swallow my pride and vote for whichever of the two main party candidates is the lesser evil, I still get my rights trampled on some issues because they don't represent all of my views. It's a lose-lose situation, and it leads to despair, cynicism, and dropping out of the process.
How about Jose Pedillo? Or more worryingly, since there does seem to be a strong likelihood that Jose intended harm (even though the Justice Dept now claims "he's a small fish"), how about Mike Hawash, who has no charges against him, and no explanation of why he's being held or kept in solitary confinement or strip searched every time he returns to his cell.
Which isn't to say that previous democratic administrations aren't just as culpable, mind you. Been doing some reading, and it appears to me that Billy Bob set the stage for this with the anti-Terrorist legislation after the OK City bombing. One suspects that PATRIOT 1 was lying around someone's office for a longggg time, and Ashcroft just got to be lucky enough to rubber stamp it and pass it on up to Congress.
Seems to me that if this becomes permanent, they will have succeeded in destroying the constitution.
I think you just contradicted yourself. If it's been abused in the past, it seems very likely to me that it will be abused again.
Cool. Enjoy the back pain :-).
I'd really like to see you open any sealed lid with one hand, while preventing your 6 month old from rolling off the changing pad/table with the other hand, and wrangling a poopy diaper with your hypothetical third hand.
Almost all of the "evidence" proving global warming has been put out by people with an environmentalist "green" agenda. Interestingly, most of these people in the 70's were claiming an imminent new ice age; so much attention was given to it that it even made it down into juvenile publications such as "Ranger Rick Magazine". So, if having an agenda disqualifies your research, there's probably bloody little left to make a decision on.
Personally, I am interested to hear the point that perhaps the data is skewed by readings being higher in urban areas--areas where common sense says ever greater masses of concrete may be acting as heat holders.
My main point is not that "this proves global warming is a myth" (and I agree that it's clear that most of those claiming that outright have their own opposite agenda to push). Rather it's that we really don't have sufficient data to know for certain that "greenhouse gasses" are the primary cause of the warming trends we currently see. We only have solid data for a couple hundred years! And even for that, we only have it for some parts of the world for that long. In the scale of geophysical time, I'm extremely skeptical that the "trend" we see has any statistical significance, and I haven't seen any statistical analyses to demonstrate the case either way. (and of course statistics is the science of the likely, not the definite, so there will always be argument if the data is at one edge or the other of "significance").
"Blame Canada"
No, not a Diaper Genie. That slaves you to THEIR BAGS FOR THE LIFE OF THE GENIE. Not to mention, those little balls are not very biodegradeable. Get a Diaper Champ. You use ANY BAG THAT FITS, you can put in any type of diaper you like, and it keeps the smell isolated just as good as the Genie. If you want to use disposables, go to it. If you want to use cloth, you can do that just as easily, something you can't say for the Genie.
Your main good point is "think seriously about whether to have kids". I don't see how that in any way contradicts what was said in the top level post.
Absolutely. Don't give up too soon either, though. It can be really rough those first couple of weeks, as mom & baby learn how it all works.
Foolish.
Dresses aren't necessary for infants. Pink and blue clothing as "de riguer" are stupid. Get green and yellow and red and pink and blue and orange. If your kid has to be in a uniform from day one, s/he will have problems.
As for names, when we had our first one a mere 7 months ago, we had one name of each gender just in case. Turns out those ultrasounds didn't lie.
As for the PVR, I'm still trying to convince my wife that we need one. I'm hoping to build a MythTV box :-)
Anyone with a brain can see that Congress was an accomplice to this atrocity, but it's silly to claim that they're as much at fault when 1) they weren't allowed to debate it significantly (thanks to the leaders, so I guess the leaders still have more fault than the rank and file) and 2) they didn't write it.
Exactly. Just because a criminal has accomplices (in this case, the Congress) doesn't lessen his crime. In most cases, it brings on RICO and harsher penalties.
Just because you enjoy being screwed by John Ashcroft doesn't mean all of us do. Thank you.
What do you mean encryption has nothing to do with DRM? Encryption is about the only means to the end of DRM. Can you think of another way to enforce DRM goals in software that doesn't use encryption?
So I concede the point. The original, with the boy, is enhanced with some blurring and some burning in, and that's about it. Personally I think they did a pretty bad job of it, but that's just my opinion, and being a bad job doesn't make it a fake.
BTW the version without the boy given the same treatment is really obviously fake, with clear cloned/rubber stamped areas.
And I don't recall contradicting that outright, simply saying that it looks to me like one variation of the "enhancement" might have been pasting the boy in. We'll see, once I can find a copy.
The one you linked to is blurred and oversharpened beyond any capability to determine the reality. It looks like it's reduced to an 8 bit colorspace or something, definitely "posterized" down to very few colors. I'm still looking for a reasonable quality original, and I'm having a lot of difficulty; there are a lot of pictures of various boys of all ages throwing stones at israeli tanks :-)
As for conspiracy theories, I never said anything about conspiracy theories. I said that the tank was obviously heavily doctored, it it would appear to me without having any tools in front of me that the boy was pasted on somehow.
I did realize that there was one other explanation, again alluded to by a previous poster, and similar to what you said: there was something on that front underside of the tank that someone wanted to hide, and they used rubber stamp to blur it out. The problem with that theory is that there also appears to be some bizarre coloration changes in the background that you can see underneath the tank. The stuff nearest the boy has a strong yellow that is similar to his shirt (not that I'm saying it's copied from his shirt, just associating colors), while over toward the right, at the curb or whatever, it suddenly gets more subduded and grey. I still think it looks very much like the boy is pasted in for whatever reason (I honestly can't think of any conspiracy theories that clearly indicate why you would or wouldn't want him there), but I will look at it closer with better tools when I get the chance.
Here's the other point that says the boy is a fake: look around his arms and head. There's a shadow there on the tank that can best be explained as "they didn't crop close enough to the boy's arms with their brush in photoshop". And as a previous poster pointed out, there is definitely rubber stamp activity going on elsewhere on the front of the tank. I'm betting if I looked at this in photoshop (not available at work :-) I could find the edges pretty easily.
My mistake for trying it months ago and assuming it hasn't improved. When I first tried it, under windows, it wouldn't cope with any of the browsers I had installed except exploder.