Uhm, aren't those case-hardened OLPC laptops supposed to be for the poor, deprived kids? I hope this guy is helping his son (I suppose daughter not likely) do his homework?
Uhm, yes. We could make a very good argument that we're in or entering another dark age. Education is on the wane while the disparity between wealthy and poor rapidly accelerates toward complete serfdom. The middle class is fast disappearing. Science is riddled with political agenda and strangled by the patent and copyright system, while many "peer reviewed" studies are really just simple corporate propaganda. The public domain (water, minerals, parks, roads, etc.) is being sold off to wealthy private and corporate interests. Draconian laws proliferate, making almost everything a serf might do a potential offense. (Steal a loaf of bread and you may well serve hard time, but wipe out someone's retirement, or foreclose on a home without a mortgage and you'll probably laugh about it on the golf course.) The haunting specter of "terrorism", real or imagined, has allowed many hard won personal rights to be effectively repealed, while a virtual witch hunt is in process. Virtually anyone is subject to a home invasion by authorities at any time without notice or significant recourse. The courts are stacked with political cronies, and few can afford a decent lawyer anyway. Fraud is rampant, yet rarely punished at the highest (most significant) levels. Government regulatory agencies are all captured and worse than ineffective. Naked resource wars are initiated unilaterally, as oil and other important resources dwindle. Unemployment and homelessness are rapidly rising, with no relief or government fix in the works. Retirement programs are in the sights for drastic cuts, as the moneyed interests refuse to cut bloated military budgets. The media is not obligated to tell the truth, so the masses are less informed then if they consumed no news. Resistance groups interested in not being in a dark age are infiltrated and rendered impotent in various other ways. The international moneyed powers are rapidly changing the governance of the world into something more hideous than anything the world has ever seen, while all eyes are on the insignificant spectacle of something else.
The official excuse for the quick burial at sea was so there couldn't be a Bin Laden martyr shrine. However, there are innumerable shrines around the world built around the flimsiest of relics such as a cup the martyr drank from once, or a shred of cloth the martyr supposedly had touched. A body is simply not necessary for a martyr's shrine. If anyone wants a Bin Laden shrine it won't take long before it's built.
We do know for a fact that Bin Laden may or may not be dead. Same for Kenneth Lay. In today's world bullshit reigns supreme and the higher you go the higher it's piled.
The fact that some wells may have had methane in the water prior to fracking operations in the area adds nothing to the pro fracking argument. In fact, if anything it shows that methane has a tendency to, and will in fact, seep upwards into the water table when fracture routes are available. If there's some gas seepage without man interfering, imagine what could happen when you fracture the barriers trapping the bulk of the gas! Additional fractures necessarily risk adding methane to the water table.
Oh, and about the water... Disposal is an issue which may contribute some problems to the water table, but methane would actually be the least of those as there are upwards of 600 different, mostly toxic chemicals in clean fracking fluid, and additional toxins in used fluid. A surface spill is also pretty easy to identify and locate in comparison to underground contaminating activity. Evaporation ponds - that means toxic fumes are released into open air, VOC's evaporating first most likely. In some cases fracking fluid is reused, more often it goes to municipal water treatment plants that are mostly ill equipped to deal with radioactivity etc.
Nobody here seems to have mentioned that the process of fracking involves placing a number of explosive charges along the horizontal run of the well, then using proprietary fluids under high pressure to infiltrate the newly formed cracks and prop them open. It's not merely filling a well with (toxic) liquid. It is in no way a precise operation. The fractures run vertically, and although the Marcellus layer can lay as far as 7000 feet down, that's not an incredible distance for previously trapped gas to now travel through a network of fissures and pores, gravel and sand layers, and rocky soils. Could anyone here really believe that it's preposterous for methane to leach upwards into the water table and not be a shill for the gas companies?
I might actually be an idiot, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong.
I just demonstrated that sock puppet software is available and in use. How far a stretch do you really think it is to assume there's an English language version, in spite of the official pronouncement? Are you telling me there's no covert propaganda activities within the U.S.?
As far as the ad hominem attack, well, that only speaks to your lack of an actual argument. In fact, it's a common tactic used when one hasn't a proper argument to be made. I suggested that forums such as at Slashdot could be being manipulated, and demonstrated how that is done. You could not show otherwise. Thus, I win. Good day sir.
Yeah, I'm sure Slashdot is completely immune to those tactics. And I suppose you think/. is too insignificant a community to manipulate? It's not like the government operates sock puppet software allowing a single user to operate multiple user ids for just this purpose. I'm sure they just keep that software on the shelf, not really actually using it on live sites.
I'd rather wear a tin foil hat than protect my head by plunging it in the dirt.
Anyway, I've long since moved on to the more effective MuMetal hat!
And in both cases, the few that run these countries have far more in common with each other than they do with their own citizens. It's like two wealthy plantation owners quarreling over different farming techniques.
somehow... I've seen a lot of downplaying of legitimate concerns on many threads at Slashdot, not just "this could never be a Chernobyl you idiot...". No, you idiot, maybe it's worse than Chernobyl.
Funny you should mention that -- the floor of my house is made of soapboxes!
My point is that it is merely a matter of time before any weapon is used against innocents. And that's quite an assumption you're making about the navy. They will shoot whatever they are told to shoot without asking questions. There can be no argument to prove laser weaponry will be useful only against legitimate military targets.
Those nuns were targeted, and should it suit someone in the right position to send a laser blast into a bus full of nuns, you can bet they will do it with no qualms at all.
The clear argument that weapons will be used improperly is that historically use of weapons is primarily at the sole discretion and behest of extremely self interested parties and serves only their own greed.
Must be nice to be able to selectively hear stories so as to remain comfortable while remotely bombing folks (many, if not most, innocent civilians and their children, btw) in a selected country tens of thousands of miles away. Did you ever hear similar stories in countries we wouldn't dream of invading, thanks to the cozy relationships those regimes maintain with our international corporations? Of course not, because those inflammatory stories are only trotted out when they are convenient to the goals of warhawks. I've seen pictures of some of "those women" with additional disfigurement caused by robotic drones! How did that help them?
Why not keep a lid on that indignation of yours until the U.S. decides to topple every regime that's hurts families for the benefit of the few oligarchs and their friends at the top? Oh, and shouldn't we start with the most egregious? (I'm sure Libya isn't even in the top ten.)
I'm not an expert on the subject, but I'd bet an argument could be made that that "little kid in Africa" might well be far better off in many ways if western colonialists had never set foot in Africa, stripping it of much of its wealth.
Other research at Texas A&M University shows indications that violent/action video games actually may increase pro-social behavior and civic engagement.
Perhaps the kind of inflammatory and socially divisive rhetoric put out by publishing flawed studies that prove nothing shows a lack of empathy on the part of the publishers, and antisocial self indulgence on the part of the researchers, both groups apparently fomenting further division in an already overly fractionated society.
Let's get some research on how we can really empathize. - by learning to accept and live gracefully amongst others with possibly diametrically opposing views, instead of trying to homogenize our species out of existence.
Slashdot Mirror
Uhm, aren't those case-hardened OLPC laptops supposed to be for the poor, deprived kids? I hope this guy is helping his son (I suppose daughter not likely) do his homework?
If not, it appears the OLPC theft problem has not been solved.
Then again, maybe we (via Nicholas and his brother John) meant to supply Afgan insurgents with an insecure means of communication?
Preposterous, I'm sure!
There's an XO and a 17" Powebook pictured in the Times article link
As soon as I get the funding and know-how, I'm off!
Simpler:
php_flag register_globals off
You're welcome!
...Trolling is a art.
That's "an" art, you bozo! ;o)
Like, way cheaper.
I'm thinking I'd need to get paid a princely sum to eat that!
Do we live in the Dark Ages...?/p>
Uhm, yes. We could make a very good argument that we're in or entering another dark age. Education is on the wane while the disparity between wealthy and poor rapidly accelerates toward complete serfdom. The middle class is fast disappearing. Science is riddled with political agenda and strangled by the patent and copyright system, while many "peer reviewed" studies are really just simple corporate propaganda. The public domain (water, minerals, parks, roads, etc.) is being sold off to wealthy private and corporate interests. Draconian laws proliferate, making almost everything a serf might do a potential offense. (Steal a loaf of bread and you may well serve hard time, but wipe out someone's retirement, or foreclose on a home without a mortgage and you'll probably laugh about it on the golf course.) The haunting specter of "terrorism", real or imagined, has allowed many hard won personal rights to be effectively repealed, while a virtual witch hunt is in process. Virtually anyone is subject to a home invasion by authorities at any time without notice or significant recourse. The courts are stacked with political cronies, and few can afford a decent lawyer anyway. Fraud is rampant, yet rarely punished at the highest (most significant) levels. Government regulatory agencies are all captured and worse than ineffective. Naked resource wars are initiated unilaterally, as oil and other important resources dwindle. Unemployment and homelessness are rapidly rising, with no relief or government fix in the works. Retirement programs are in the sights for drastic cuts, as the moneyed interests refuse to cut bloated military budgets. The media is not obligated to tell the truth, so the masses are less informed then if they consumed no news. Resistance groups interested in not being in a dark age are infiltrated and rendered impotent in various other ways. The international moneyed powers are rapidly changing the governance of the world into something more hideous than anything the world has ever seen, while all eyes are on the insignificant spectacle of something else.
Looks kinda dark to me!
Plain stupid idiots like you make me very angry! I could beat the hell out of your stupid face.
And people would pay to see that!
....there should no be so much shame about something instinctive...
That kind of thing is exactly what Terence McKenna means when he says "Culture is not your friend".
Smart. And probably true. Mod up regardless.
Speaking of bullshit logic....
The official excuse for the quick burial at sea was so there couldn't be a Bin Laden martyr shrine. However, there are innumerable shrines around the world built around the flimsiest of relics such as a cup the martyr drank from once, or a shred of cloth the martyr supposedly had touched. A body is simply not necessary for a martyr's shrine. If anyone wants a Bin Laden shrine it won't take long before it's built.
We do know for a fact that Bin Laden may or may not be dead. Same for Kenneth Lay. In today's world bullshit reigns supreme and the higher you go the higher it's piled.
The fact that some wells may have had methane in the water prior to fracking operations in the area adds nothing to the pro fracking argument. In fact, if anything it shows that methane has a tendency to, and will in fact, seep upwards into the water table when fracture routes are available. If there's some gas seepage without man interfering, imagine what could happen when you fracture the barriers trapping the bulk of the gas! Additional fractures necessarily risk adding methane to the water table.
Oh, and about the water... Disposal is an issue which may contribute some problems to the water table, but methane would actually be the least of those as there are upwards of 600 different, mostly toxic chemicals in clean fracking fluid, and additional toxins in used fluid. A surface spill is also pretty easy to identify and locate in comparison to underground contaminating activity. Evaporation ponds - that means toxic fumes are released into open air, VOC's evaporating first most likely. In some cases fracking fluid is reused, more often it goes to municipal water treatment plants that are mostly ill equipped to deal with radioactivity etc.
Nobody here seems to have mentioned that the process of fracking involves placing a number of explosive charges along the horizontal run of the well, then using proprietary fluids under high pressure to infiltrate the newly formed cracks and prop them open. It's not merely filling a well with (toxic) liquid. It is in no way a precise operation. The fractures run vertically, and although the Marcellus layer can lay as far as 7000 feet down, that's not an incredible distance for previously trapped gas to now travel through a network of fissures and pores, gravel and sand layers, and rocky soils. Could anyone here really believe that it's preposterous for methane to leach upwards into the water table and not be a shill for the gas companies?
Better yet: How many chickens does it take to get to the moon?
Sock puppet software in use against U.S. blogs, news broadcast circa 2005. In other words, this is old news.
I might actually be an idiot, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong.
I just demonstrated that sock puppet software is available and in use. How far a stretch do you really think it is to assume there's an English language version, in spite of the official pronouncement? Are you telling me there's no covert propaganda activities within the U.S.?
As far as the ad hominem attack, well, that only speaks to your lack of an actual argument. In fact, it's a common tactic used when one hasn't a proper argument to be made. I suggested that forums such as at Slashdot could be being manipulated, and demonstrated how that is done. You could not show otherwise. Thus, I win. Good day sir.
Yeah, I'm sure Slashdot is completely immune to those tactics. And I suppose you think /. is too insignificant a community to manipulate? It's not like the government operates sock puppet software allowing a single user to operate multiple user ids for just this purpose. I'm sure they just keep that software on the shelf, not really actually using it on live sites.
I'd rather wear a tin foil hat than protect my head by plunging it in the dirt.
Anyway, I've long since moved on to the more effective MuMetal hat!
And in both cases, the few that run these countries have far more in common with each other than they do with their own citizens. It's like two wealthy plantation owners quarreling over different farming techniques.
somehow... I've seen a lot of downplaying of legitimate concerns on many threads at Slashdot, not just "this could never be a Chernobyl you idiot...". No, you idiot, maybe it's worse than Chernobyl.
Perhaps this is part of the reason?
Could be it's not group think as much as group manipulation.
Funny you should mention that -- the floor of my house is made of soapboxes!
My point is that it is merely a matter of time before any weapon is used against innocents. And that's quite an assumption you're making about the navy. They will shoot whatever they are told to shoot without asking questions. There can be no argument to prove laser weaponry will be useful only against legitimate military targets.
and isn't likely to mistake a bus-full of nuns for an enemy aircraft carrier..
You mean that actual nun incident you reference was just an identification error? The one that caused protesters to chant "Washington Guns Killed American Nuns" during Alexander Haig's commencement speech at Syracuse?
Those nuns were targeted, and should it suit someone in the right position to send a laser blast into a bus full of nuns, you can bet they will do it with no qualms at all.
The clear argument that weapons will be used improperly is that historically use of weapons is primarily at the sole discretion and behest of extremely self interested parties and serves only their own greed.
They should just feed it to Ann Coulter. She's got a big mouth and thinks its healthy!
Uhm, on the other hand, things are bad enough without us having to battle a Radioactive Coulterzilla!
Never mind...
Must be nice to be able to selectively hear stories so as to remain comfortable while remotely bombing folks (many, if not most, innocent civilians and their children, btw) in a selected country tens of thousands of miles away. Did you ever hear similar stories in countries we wouldn't dream of invading, thanks to the cozy relationships those regimes maintain with our international corporations? Of course not, because those inflammatory stories are only trotted out when they are convenient to the goals of warhawks. I've seen pictures of some of "those women" with additional disfigurement caused by robotic drones! How did that help them?
Why not keep a lid on that indignation of yours until the U.S. decides to topple every regime that's hurts families for the benefit of the few oligarchs and their friends at the top? Oh, and shouldn't we start with the most egregious? (I'm sure Libya isn't even in the top ten.)
I'm not an expert on the subject, but I'd bet an argument could be made that that "little kid in Africa" might well be far better off in many ways if western colonialists had never set foot in Africa, stripping it of much of its wealth.
Other research at Texas A&M University shows indications that violent/action video games actually may increase pro-social behavior and civic engagement.
Perhaps the kind of inflammatory and socially divisive rhetoric put out by publishing flawed studies that prove nothing shows a lack of empathy on the part of the publishers, and antisocial self indulgence on the part of the researchers, both groups apparently fomenting further division in an already overly fractionated society.
Let's get some research on how we can really empathize. - by learning to accept and live gracefully amongst others with possibly diametrically opposing views, instead of trying to homogenize our species out of existence.