It's effective work by the authorities. However, if people under FBI or CIA are actively encouraging or facilitating illegal activities that may not have happened otherwise, I may have some heavy objections as to whether it's "good" work.
Some of the basics are just fine - Like when I'm driving it's convenient to say "Call ***** mobile" and have it ring my girlfriend. But for most other applications (games, calendar, movies), I'm going to have to interact with my phone anyway just because of the nature of the activity. What use is it to say "Play Fight Club" if I'm not going to be holding and viewing the device?
...not ONE supervillain, superhero, or giant fire-breathing lizard has come out of Fukushima.
That's exactly what they want you to think Stuff like this happens all the time in Japan - You really think Godzilla was just some dude in a lizard suit?? Get real.
Unfortunately, since any attempt to help the poor is seen as socialism and there's a pervasive feeling in this country that poor people are poor for a reason and don't deserve any help...
I agree with your point overall, but I think you're making a bit of an unfair assessment right there. I think that the reason that we have such a hard time closing the gap isn't fear of socialism, it's that the problem is hugely complicated, largely self-pervasive, and our attempts to help the poor through welfare, increased access to schooling (scholarships and such), and social programs have been largely ineffective.
Just to nitpick a little, there's nothing saying that producers aren't allowed to label GMOs. Most just choose not to. And we ignorant masses typically don't buy organic because we don't think it's worth the added price or environmental impact.
A lot of things cause cancer that we don't give up. Like flying or living at high elevations. Or breathing. It's just a matter of how big the risk is versus how important the benefit is. If you smoke, you know you're taking a big risk but if it's really important to you, you do it any way. If you breathe, you know you're taking a minor risk, but because it's really ingrained into most of our life-styles, we keep it up.
Yeah, but when metal spoons explodes (like they do all the time)....you can just walk over and pick up the pieces.....right then, no need to evacuate for 500 years.
And when this explodes, we'll have to clean up salt, glass, and water. I highly doubt that any of those things will force a 500 year evac.
Let's examine 2 business models: 1) Do a bunch of really neat stuff that everyone will like at great expense and give it away for free. 2) Find a way to make a reasonable profit by providing useful services.
I know which model I'd pick and don't even consider it 'being evil'.
Criminals know there's a chance of getting caught, but it's simple risk/benefit. X = Perceived chance of getting caught P = Penalty if caught $ = Profit of legitimate version of endeavor $' = Profit of illegitimate version of endeavor M = Offset for positive moral feeling (varies per individual) T = Thrill factor of going outside the law (varies per individual) If $'-XP+T > $+M, a person goes criminal. Note that all values must be converted to personal 'worth' of cash/emotion.
In the worst case, they could call on their allies (like the USA) to send in some troops. I bet the US army would make short work of zombies, considering that the rules of engagement are (according to Zombie movies) effectively nil.
More likely, I think that if you phoned up most countries and said that there was a terrible disease that had wiped out most of the population and was continuing to spread, they'd be more likely to take a scorched earth approach rather than send people in that they need to bring back. At least that's what my plan would be after the coup when I'm dictator.
Iran was just a test case so that we could demonstrate just how vulnerable these things are and secure proper funding to lock ours down.
Security dude: "Some hostile country could sneak somebody in and sabotage our power plants with nothing more than malicious software!" Congress critter: "OK, I don't really get what you're saying, but let's assume that you're right in theory. We've never seen an attack like that any where in the world - Why worry? Besides I want to put in a giant duck pond and name it after myself - There isn't money for both." A couple of months later with Security dude working furiously... Security dude: "See what happened in Iran!?! It could happen here too! And if it does, the terrorists win!" Congress critter: "ZOMG! Then my duck pond wouldn't be lit! I'll sponsor a bill to fix this tomorrow!"
Only if the zombification effect was spread only through direct physical contact. If the zombies are initially zombified by some avian flu-type-virus or an especially nasty water infection, we could easily see the vast majority of the population competing for a taste of the non-infected brains. In a situation this serious, you really have to account for all possible scenarios.
Nightwatch/Daywatch are wonderful, but I don't know if I'd qualify them as zombie movies. There were some vampire type characters and various super-hero/villain characters, but not hordes of flesh-eating mindless killing machines - So based on the limited data I have right now I think the Russians are OK. You're right though - Norway not only has to deal with zombies, but Nazi zombies!
Good point, but what if the apocalypse isn't in the US? Or (more frightening), what if the zombies are still sophisticated enough to use guns and decide that's the most direct route to delicious BRRRAAAIIIIIINNNS?
It's like the old "build-a-better-mouse-trap" analogy. Sure, you can make it re-usable. You can make it more humane. You can make it with blinkin-lights. But, all we want is something cheap that we can throw peanut butter on, kills the mouse, and we can throw away w/o getting our hands dirty. About the only improvements for keyboards are making the keys softer/quieter, more comfortable, or rearranging them. Does my chair need to react when my bum's about to land?
Just to nit-pick, technology has been around much longer than "a few hundred years". The first time some dude figured out that hitting an animal with a heavy stick was more effective than kicking it, the club became revolutionary "modern" technology. Of course, later, there was the revolutionary "pointy stick" invention that took its place beside the "heavy stick". In a few hundred years, it will be just as laughable that magnetic data storage was ever considered "modern".
That said, I agree entirely. On the "star death" frame of time, we're working our way up to being infants. Let's get stuff figured out enough to explore OUR solar system before shooting out toward others. And, most likely, if there are other "intelligent" species out there they're either millions of years more evolved or less evolved than we are.
D'oh! Maybe that's why people are having such a hard time with it. Should have subtracted P from both sides getting P(N-1)=0. OK, solving P=NP took me two tries - Now I understand the debate.
Slashdot Mirror
It's effective work by the authorities. However, if people under FBI or CIA are actively encouraging or facilitating illegal activities that may not have happened otherwise, I may have some heavy objections as to whether it's "good" work.
Great - Updated from "http://slashdot.org/olduse.net" to "http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/06/06/1435259/olduse.net". Much better...
It's inconvenient to read TFA when the link provided is for "http://slashdot.org/olduse.net".
Some of the basics are just fine - Like when I'm driving it's convenient to say "Call ***** mobile" and have it ring my girlfriend. But for most other applications (games, calendar, movies), I'm going to have to interact with my phone anyway just because of the nature of the activity. What use is it to say "Play Fight Club" if I'm not going to be holding and viewing the device?
I'm certain that I'm running the most recent version of Netscape (although I haven't seen any updates in a while). I'm glad they're not dropping me.
Try here.
Or, for more info on test day, Try here.
...not ONE supervillain, superhero, or giant fire-breathing lizard has come out of Fukushima.
That's exactly what they want you to think Stuff like this happens all the time in Japan - You really think Godzilla was just some dude in a lizard suit?? Get real.
Unfortunately, since any attempt to help the poor is seen as socialism and there's a pervasive feeling in this country that poor people are poor for a reason and don't deserve any help...
I agree with your point overall, but I think you're making a bit of an unfair assessment right there. I think that the reason that we have such a hard time closing the gap isn't fear of socialism, it's that the problem is hugely complicated, largely self-pervasive, and our attempts to help the poor through welfare, increased access to schooling (scholarships and such), and social programs have been largely ineffective.
Just to nitpick a little, there's nothing saying that producers aren't allowed to label GMOs. Most just choose not to. And we ignorant masses typically don't buy organic because we don't think it's worth the added price or environmental impact.
A lot of things cause cancer that we don't give up. Like flying or living at high elevations. Or breathing. It's just a matter of how big the risk is versus how important the benefit is. If you smoke, you know you're taking a big risk but if it's really important to you, you do it any way. If you breathe, you know you're taking a minor risk, but because it's really ingrained into most of our life-styles, we keep it up.
Yeah, but when metal spoons explodes (like they do all the time)....you can just walk over and pick up the pieces.....right then, no need to evacuate for 500 years.
And when this explodes, we'll have to clean up salt, glass, and water. I highly doubt that any of those things will force a 500 year evac.
Let's examine 2 business models:
1) Do a bunch of really neat stuff that everyone will like at great expense and give it away for free.
2) Find a way to make a reasonable profit by providing useful services.
I know which model I'd pick and don't even consider it 'being evil'.
Criminals know there's a chance of getting caught, but it's simple risk/benefit.
X = Perceived chance of getting caught
P = Penalty if caught
$ = Profit of legitimate version of endeavor
$' = Profit of illegitimate version of endeavor
M = Offset for positive moral feeling (varies per individual)
T = Thrill factor of going outside the law (varies per individual)
If $'-XP+T > $+M, a person goes criminal. Note that all values must be converted to personal 'worth' of cash/emotion.
In the worst case, they could call on their allies (like the USA) to send in some troops. I bet the US army would make short work of zombies, considering that the rules of engagement are (according to Zombie movies) effectively nil.
More likely, I think that if you phoned up most countries and said that there was a terrible disease that had wiped out most of the population and was continuing to spread, they'd be more likely to take a scorched earth approach rather than send people in that they need to bring back. At least that's what my plan would be after the coup when I'm dictator.
Iran was just a test case so that we could demonstrate just how vulnerable these things are and secure proper funding to lock ours down.
Security dude: "Some hostile country could sneak somebody in and sabotage our power plants with nothing more than malicious software!"
Congress critter: "OK, I don't really get what you're saying, but let's assume that you're right in theory. We've never seen an attack like that any where in the world - Why worry? Besides I want to put in a giant duck pond and name it after myself - There isn't money for both."
A couple of months later with Security dude working furiously...
Security dude: "See what happened in Iran!?! It could happen here too! And if it does, the terrorists win!"
Congress critter: "ZOMG! Then my duck pond wouldn't be lit! I'll sponsor a bill to fix this tomorrow!"
Only if the zombification effect was spread only through direct physical contact. If the zombies are initially zombified by some avian flu-type-virus or an especially nasty water infection, we could easily see the vast majority of the population competing for a taste of the non-infected brains. In a situation this serious, you really have to account for all possible scenarios.
Nightwatch/Daywatch are wonderful, but I don't know if I'd qualify them as zombie movies. There were some vampire type characters and various super-hero/villain characters, but not hordes of flesh-eating mindless killing machines - So based on the limited data I have right now I think the Russians are OK. You're right though - Norway not only has to deal with zombies, but Nazi zombies!
According to 28 Days Later, Doghouse, and others, I think the UK may be in trouble too. Transylvania has other issues to deal with.
Good point, but what if the apocalypse isn't in the US? Or (more frightening), what if the zombies are still sophisticated enough to use guns and decide that's the most direct route to delicious BRRRAAAIIIIIINNNS?
It's like the old "build-a-better-mouse-trap" analogy. Sure, you can make it re-usable. You can make it more humane. You can make it with blinkin-lights. But, all we want is something cheap that we can throw peanut butter on, kills the mouse, and we can throw away w/o getting our hands dirty. About the only improvements for keyboards are making the keys softer/quieter, more comfortable, or rearranging them. Does my chair need to react when my bum's about to land?
Unless the Human Race spreads to other worlds, systems, and galaxies, we are dead as a species.
We are dead as a species.
FTFY - Heat death FTW
Just to nit-pick, technology has been around much longer than "a few hundred years". The first time some dude figured out that hitting an animal with a heavy stick was more effective than kicking it, the club became revolutionary "modern" technology. Of course, later, there was the revolutionary "pointy stick" invention that took its place beside the "heavy stick". In a few hundred years, it will be just as laughable that magnetic data storage was ever considered "modern".
That said, I agree entirely. On the "star death" frame of time, we're working our way up to being infants. Let's get stuff figured out enough to explore OUR solar system before shooting out toward others. And, most likely, if there are other "intelligent" species out there they're either millions of years more evolved or less evolved than we are.
"IT - Have you tried turning it off and on again?"
(Yes, like the article this comment is very USA centric.)
To be fair, pretty much anything concerning the FBI tends to be pretty USA centric.
D'oh! Maybe that's why people are having such a hard time with it. Should have subtracted P from both sides getting P(N-1)=0. OK, solving P=NP took me two tries - Now I understand the debate.