Ah. I stand corrected; thank you. I've heard about the execution being costly, but been wondering about how one could possibly be as costly as a lifetime in prison.
However (and I hope I'm correct this time) - isn't the life sentence which currently is the alternative to execution in the US one that allows for parole after 25 years? If we abolished the death penalty in favor or life without parole, wouldn't things end up with just as costly court processes *and* support costs for the criminal in question?
File-sharing does, quite contrary to what the RIAA says, no harm. It's no violent crime, and while it may be morally wrong, for most of it, piracy does not even translate into lost sales.
On the other hand, pedophilia causes permanent damage to it's victims (if only indirectly through supply and demand), and in a highly despicable way, too. I think the difference is obvious.
The death penalty is only more expensive than life because we make it so.
Don't take me wrong, I strongly believe that the death penalty, while important, should be reserved for those where proof of guilt is absolute. But on the other hand, there's far too much emphasis on not causing the executionee any suffering. We aren't talking about some white-collar criminals or marijuana users here, but heinous, vile individuals, murderers and serial rapists. We don't cry "inhumane" when our soldiers or policemen die from a bullet wound - why should we when our criminals get executed by firing squad?
Chemical castration, on the other hand, is a process increasingly used on sex offenders, for while it oppresses the offender's libido, it does not cause any permanent physical changes to his body (in contrast to chopping his balls off), and once the "treatments" are stopped, it is quickly reversed again.
The United States as well as Israel have been experimenting with chemical castration as a punishment for sex offenders for a while now, and it seems to be working pretty well.
I'm an atheist as well, and I agree that religions may contain many lies (although, noble ones) depending on how you take the data they provide you with, but if you make claims like this it's hard to believe you're anything but trolling.
Sure, we can be very certain that there was no Noah and his ark, and Jesus didn't turn water into wine - but quite a few of the fictive tales in the Bible (especially the Old Testament) have a historical basis or are metaphors for actual historical happenings. Studying the historicity of the Bible is a fully secular, academic discipline, and I wouldn't exactly call it stupid.
Not only are they customers, I'm quite sure they also make up the *majority* of Rapidshare's customers. Why would you want to pay for a RS subscription if you weren't using it to DL a large amount of rar archives?
Oh? I'm pretty sure Baldur's Gate II was developed with a much smaller budget than, say, Mass Effect 2, and while I absolutely love both games, I find BG2 to be way superior in both story and gameplay.
The quality issue isn't about cash, it's about casual vs gamer and publisher vs devs.
Yes, national socialist, who rounded up communists and trade union members.
...and also established a strong state control of Germany's economy, built quite a lot of civilian structures using tax money, brought a national health care system...
They certainly weren't communists and they weren't total socialists either, but both socially and economically, they overally stood on the left and not the right (unlike Hirohito's state or Mussolini's fascists).
That being said, I was more talking about contemporary Nazi parties which tend to be much further on the left than their predecessors, taking "national socialist" quite literally.
I don't know. Call me wrong when I am, but I've heard OpenGL, while very suited for industrial rendering, isn't too great for games due to performance issues.
I think the real reason for few DX11 games being around is that XP is still a very dominant part of the OS market - and DX10 and 11 have been designed not to support it in order to get gamers to buy Vista and 7.
What's described as "right wing" in Europe usually means "left-leaning centrist" or even "moderate left". Actual right wing politicians (Geert Wilders, Thatcher, US Neocons, Libertarians) are usually described as "fascist" and thrown in together with our Nazi parties (which, in fact, tend to be left-authoritarian, remember, national *socialist*, but nobody wants to hear that).
In modern warfare, numbers aren't that important anymore. It's all about force multipliers. The United States may have a (comparable) small military, true, but even the lowliest of their grunts is a highly trained and well equipped specialist. Just look at the last few wars the US has fought in (and I mean *actual* wars, not peacekeeping/stabilizing which involves fighting guerillas) - every time, relatively few US troops have inflicted major casualties with minor losses.
Nope, you're wrong. Virii is the Latin plural which has established itself as the plural for computer virii (at least it has in the scene), while viruses is used for their biological counterparts.
However, it is true that while people pirate the games when they come out, companies are not going to release without DRM.
Maybe not completely without DRM, yes, but certainly with acceptable DRM. Take a look at Mass Effect 2 - all it had was a simple non-rootkit CD check. Sure, it's DRM was easily circumvented and the game was available in certain circles long before it's official release, but I've bought it nonetheless (and so did many others).
As funny as it may be, EA got burnt early and hard (see: Spore) and thus slowly, but surely starts to wise up regarding DRM, and it's just a matter of time until other publishers follow. The DRM war is over. We've won.
Nah, it's just a sudden, unexpected outbreak of common sense (probably not even that - it's probably just our politicians playing anti-American again). It's not as shiny in Europe as many seem to think.
You know, in one of our countries, we've got our presidential elections upcoming and the only major opposition party's not even nominating a candidate, because they know that even if they'd win the vote, they'd still have no real power and would be forced to have the other party agree on every decision they'd like to push through - and that's by far not an issue exclusive to said country, that's for sure.[/offtopicrant]
Sadly, I have to disagree with the latter part of your post. In my experience, those who commit wanton abuse of animals (read - abuse with the intention to inflict pain, not just throwing rocks at the fsckingly annoying birds in your garden) generally tend to have more than just a hormone problem, and their behavior towards humans often leaves just as much to be desired.
The intention of lists like these (just like sex offender lists) are to protect other people from the dangerous individuals on them (it's just too bad that occasionally, harmless people that had one drink too much and opted to urinate in public end up on sex offender lists as well, but that's another issue). And I know I wouldn't want my children anywhere close to a guy who thought it would be fun to deep-fry a cat just as I wouldn't want them anywhere near an exhibitionist.
The point being that banks can protect themselves, but what can they do to protect their customers if those customers choose bad passwords?
They could enforce proper passwords ("must contain at least 3 numbers, 2 special signs, 2 uppercase characters, must be at least 8 characters long...), for example, like quite a few banks I know do.
Atheism is a belief, since God has not been disproven.
Last time I've checked, the burden of proof lay on the person claiming the existence of something, not the person being a skeptic about it. Or is disregarding Time Cube a belief as well?
And yes, being able to see what unit Johnny is in and who his friends are is a huge security risk. Now I can send him phishing emails with malicious attachments that appear to be from his wife, and all I have to do is look on Facebook.
It's worse than that. Accessing the Internet alone, regardless of what content you'll be accessing, is a security risk in itself - after a while of observation, Internet access habits can be quite valuable intel, as it shows at which time somebody's off-duty, which might lead to the enemy figuring out patrol rotations etc etc.
No, denying soldiers regular access to the Internet while deployed is definitely a good thing.
Slashdot Mirror
Ah. I stand corrected; thank you. I've heard about the execution being costly, but been wondering about how one could possibly be as costly as a lifetime in prison.
However (and I hope I'm correct this time) - isn't the life sentence which currently is the alternative to execution in the US one that allows for parole after 25 years? If we abolished the death penalty in favor or life without parole, wouldn't things end up with just as costly court processes *and* support costs for the criminal in question?
That's poor logic.
File-sharing does, quite contrary to what the RIAA says, no harm. It's no violent crime, and while it may be morally wrong, for most of it, piracy does not even translate into lost sales.
On the other hand, pedophilia causes permanent damage to it's victims (if only indirectly through supply and demand), and in a highly despicable way, too. I think the difference is obvious.
The death penalty is only more expensive than life because we make it so.
Don't take me wrong, I strongly believe that the death penalty, while important, should be reserved for those where proof of guilt is absolute. But on the other hand, there's far too much emphasis on not causing the executionee any suffering. We aren't talking about some white-collar criminals or marijuana users here, but heinous, vile individuals, murderers and serial rapists. We don't cry "inhumane" when our soldiers or policemen die from a bullet wound - why should we when our criminals get executed by firing squad?
Chemical castration, on the other hand, is a process increasingly used on sex offenders, for while it oppresses the offender's libido, it does not cause any permanent physical changes to his body (in contrast to chopping his balls off), and once the "treatments" are stopped, it is quickly reversed again.
The United States as well as Israel have been experimenting with chemical castration as a punishment for sex offenders for a while now, and it seems to be working pretty well.
I'm an atheist as well, and I agree that religions may contain many lies (although, noble ones) depending on how you take the data they provide you with, but if you make claims like this it's hard to believe you're anything but trolling.
Sure, we can be very certain that there was no Noah and his ark, and Jesus didn't turn water into wine - but quite a few of the fictive tales in the Bible (especially the Old Testament) have a historical basis or are metaphors for actual historical happenings. Studying the historicity of the Bible is a fully secular, academic discipline, and I wouldn't exactly call it stupid.
Say what again! I dare ya! I double-dare ya!
(usually Warhammer shit)
Heresy!
Not only are they customers, I'm quite sure they also make up the *majority* of Rapidshare's customers. Why would you want to pay for a RS subscription if you weren't using it to DL a large amount of rar archives?
Oh? I'm pretty sure Baldur's Gate II was developed with a much smaller budget than, say, Mass Effect 2, and while I absolutely love both games, I find BG2 to be way superior in both story and gameplay.
The quality issue isn't about cash, it's about casual vs gamer and publisher vs devs.
Yes, national socialist, who rounded up communists and trade union members.
They certainly weren't communists and they weren't total socialists either, but both socially and economically, they overally stood on the left and not the right (unlike Hirohito's state or Mussolini's fascists).
That being said, I was more talking about contemporary Nazi parties which tend to be much further on the left than their predecessors, taking "national socialist" quite literally.
I don't know. Call me wrong when I am, but I've heard OpenGL, while very suited for industrial rendering, isn't too great for games due to performance issues.
I think the real reason for few DX11 games being around is that XP is still a very dominant part of the OS market - and DX10 and 11 have been designed not to support it in order to get gamers to buy Vista and 7.
What's described as "right wing" in Europe usually means "left-leaning centrist" or even "moderate left". Actual right wing politicians (Geert Wilders, Thatcher, US Neocons, Libertarians) are usually described as "fascist" and thrown in together with our Nazi parties (which, in fact, tend to be left-authoritarian, remember, national *socialist*, but nobody wants to hear that).
In modern warfare, numbers aren't that important anymore. It's all about force multipliers. The United States may have a (comparable) small military, true, but even the lowliest of their grunts is a highly trained and well equipped specialist. Just look at the last few wars the US has fought in (and I mean *actual* wars, not peacekeeping/stabilizing which involves fighting guerillas) - every time, relatively few US troops have inflicted major casualties with minor losses.
Imagine playing Wii tennis, but to move you actually move your body.
It'd almost be like the real thing!
People who spend their time posting lists on Slashdot :P
Nope, you're wrong. Virii is the Latin plural which has established itself as the plural for computer virii (at least it has in the scene), while viruses is used for their biological counterparts.
However, it is true that while people pirate the games when they come out, companies are not going to release without DRM.
Maybe not completely without DRM, yes, but certainly with acceptable DRM. Take a look at Mass Effect 2 - all it had was a simple non-rootkit CD check. Sure, it's DRM was easily circumvented and the game was available in certain circles long before it's official release, but I've bought it nonetheless (and so did many others).
As funny as it may be, EA got burnt early and hard (see: Spore) and thus slowly, but surely starts to wise up regarding DRM, and it's just a matter of time until other publishers follow. The DRM war is over. We've won.
Nah, it's just a sudden, unexpected outbreak of common sense (probably not even that - it's probably just our politicians playing anti-American again). It's not as shiny in Europe as many seem to think.
You know, in one of our countries, we've got our presidential elections upcoming and the only major opposition party's not even nominating a candidate, because they know that even if they'd win the vote, they'd still have no real power and would be forced to have the other party agree on every decision they'd like to push through - and that's by far not an issue exclusive to said country, that's for sure.[/offtopicrant]
Sadly, I have to disagree with the latter part of your post. In my experience, those who commit wanton abuse of animals (read - abuse with the intention to inflict pain, not just throwing rocks at the fsckingly annoying birds in your garden) generally tend to have more than just a hormone problem, and their behavior towards humans often leaves just as much to be desired.
The intention of lists like these (just like sex offender lists) are to protect other people from the dangerous individuals on them (it's just too bad that occasionally, harmless people that had one drink too much and opted to urinate in public end up on sex offender lists as well, but that's another issue). And I know I wouldn't want my children anywhere close to a guy who thought it would be fun to deep-fry a cat just as I wouldn't want them anywhere near an exhibitionist.
The point being that banks can protect themselves, but what can they do to protect their customers if those customers choose bad passwords?
They could enforce proper passwords ("must contain at least 3 numbers, 2 special signs, 2 uppercase characters, must be at least 8 characters long...), for example, like quite a few banks I know do.
As long as they don't smell, sure. It's your lawn. I'll gladly get off it, if you keep off mine.
Atheism is a belief, since God has not been disproven.
Last time I've checked, the burden of proof lay on the person claiming the existence of something, not the person being a skeptic about it. Or is disregarding Time Cube a belief as well?
And yes, being able to see what unit Johnny is in and who his friends are is a huge security risk. Now I can send him phishing emails with malicious attachments that appear to be from his wife, and all I have to do is look on Facebook.
It's worse than that. Accessing the Internet alone, regardless of what content you'll be accessing, is a security risk in itself - after a while of observation, Internet access habits can be quite valuable intel, as it shows at which time somebody's off-duty, which might lead to the enemy figuring out patrol rotations etc etc.
No, denying soldiers regular access to the Internet while deployed is definitely a good thing.
I guess that'd make us even.
1. Enact a direct democracy.
Yeah, because what could be better than making those who have even less of a clue than our politicians the decision-makers ?