In Europe and Asia they spend FAR LESS money per student on education than we do here in the US and they get better results. I think the number 1 obstacle to improving the quality of education here in the US is the monolith of the teacher's unions. They oppose every measure that would hold teachers accountable for the education of the students.
Teachers get paid according to seniority and not to results.
MY solution, every yead give all teachers a competency test and a placement test for every student.
Every teacher that fails the test can't teach until s/he takes and passes the next test.
Teacher raises/promotions should be based upon where his/her students rank in the placement test.
If they had the incentive to be good teachers, they would be.
>>You do know that while your government may not be collecting data on you, just about every commercial organisation in your country is tracking your credit purchases, your on-line habits, movement patterns etc and tieing it into a handy, Government-provided unique identifier (your SSN), don't you?
Not me, I don't give my SSN to anyone when it is not necessary to benefit me. My employer, my bank, and my college have it. I don't give it to anyone else. Just FYI in many places here in the US it is not illegal to give false information as long as there is no fraudulent intent.
>>I could get really petty here by pointing out that it's been around a lot longer, had more ups and downs as a continent and had plenty of opportunity to learn from it's mistakes, unlike your own, however that wouldn't add to the debate so I won't.
I could get just as petty and tell you how we learn from YOUR mistakes and don't have to make them on our own, but I won't.
>>Reduced public perception of danger level and therefore personal protective measures required.
You seem to regard people taking their personal safety obligations on for themselves as a bad thing. I don't. The police can't be everywhere at once, if you want your family to be safe you have to insure it yourself.
The Nuremberg Files incident can be found with a simple yahoo, google, or metacrawler search look for "Nuremberg files" and you'll get tons of hits about the situation.
>>You're not committing a crime, are you? Why are you worried then?
While you're at it why not require everyone who is in public to submit for mantatory DNA and semen samples. If you're not going to rape or murder anyone what are you worried about?
I suppose it has to do with the fact that I'm an American, but I have a BIG problem with any group, government or private having too much power.
Orwell predicted such measures over a half-century ago. If they can monitor you for "crime prevention" reasons why not monitor people to see if they are "political agitators"? Lets monitor these people to make sure that they're not critical of the government or the police. Can't you see that?
If the technology is adapted to spy on regular people for a "good" purpose what is to stop it from being used for a "bad" purpose?
>>Contrast this with CCTV: technology in the hands of a single specified organisation with legal limits to their abilities, and oversight (not perfect, but there), used for a named, restricted purpose.
You can NEVER allow a group of people to set the bounds of their own powers. The government does just this. In the US all it would take is an act of Congress, and in the UK (I don't know their legal procedures) I assume that it would merely take an act of Parliment, to redefine and expand the powers of the government.
>>To me, this is a clear qualitative difference between the two cases. One is controlled, consensual and regulated. The other isn't any of those.
In what universe do you reside? How can it be consensual to be recorded everytime you go out of your house? How can you avoid this? Stay inside forever? Give me a break. Privacy and freedom are two of my BIGGEST concerns, at least here in the US we have a bill of rights to use as a shield from government abuses (even though they seem touse bigger and bigger clubs to try to beat it out of us).
>>Would I be in favour of CPUID if a clear benefit could be shown from it (fraud prevention is the putative reason), that use would be regulated and legally restricted? Yes. As it is, no no NO.
I oppose the CPUID no matter what. In a consumer machine there is no logical justification for it, unless you concede that it is to remove power from the hands of consumers.
You can't make intelligence and prudence a technological add-on. You must be CAREFUL of who you allow to get your personal information and your credit info.
Because some people don't know how or are too laze to do so isn't my problem. We shouldn't have to face restrictions because of the stupid people in our midst.
>>People just seem to get a bee in their bonnet when they think that someone is "censoring" them using moderation, IP logging etc. It isn't censorship, and in fact is essential, but try telling it to them. The argument usually slides into a chest-beating, speechifying, flag-waving mess.
I'm FAR more concerned with people abusing the legal system or simple threats to shut down legitimate sites.
Like what the Scientologists did to xenu.net or what the FBI did to that y2k hype site recently or what planned parenthood did to the Nuremberg Files website.
>>Queer and Nigger are both words that are, in the appropriate peer group, used as power words.
I have a personal take on this because I'm both a techie and I'm black.
I am also rather imposing in a physical sense. I'm 6'1" and I weigh about 208 pounds. I find it offensive when someone outside of one of my groups uses such a term to refer to me.
When a clueless technophobe refers to me as a geek or a nerd I don't like it. Just as when a non-black person refers to me as a nigger.
I've gotten into fights over both. As I grow older I refuse to use pejorative terms in a fraternal way. I will not call other people geeks, or niggers because I don't like it if someone calls me either of those things.
Then again maybe the term geek just doesn't apply to me. I am a techie in my heart, I've already got plans to spend next year's tax refund on an Über-cool Athlon upgrade for my computer, and my house is wired for ethernet.
At the same time I carry a.45 when I'm not at work, I can outdrink Marines on a weekend pass, and in high school I played football with someone who went on to play in the NFL (I'm not going to say who because I hate name droppers).
The terms Nerd and Geek pidgeonhole us in an unfair way.
>>Although some people get really antsy and yell "free speech, free speech!", the interests of the readership are served by precautions such as IP logging.
What? What does free speech have to do with catching someone lying?
Freedom of speech means just that, you are FREE to speak about whatever you want, BUT other people are free to catch you lying.
If someone were to say "I work at the factory and Cola X is made wht 4% goat urine" I'd hope that someone out there would be able to expose this person for the lying sock of shit that s/he is.
Freedom of speech is NOT freedom from responsibility.
>>The EU does not spy on it's citizens, individual governments do what they want so long as it isn't illegal or they don't get caught.
I freely admit that I do not know the internal workings of the EU, and frankly I don't particularly care. The point that I was making is, where is the outrage when it's a European government trampling on privacy?
It's intellectually and ethically bankrupt to decry the abuses of private industry while ignoring the abuses of government.
>>I think it's irrelevant here because you can't compare observing someone in the street to a foreign entity (government or otherwise) tracking their activities in a medium where they believe they have privacy.
Companies don't have armies or armed police forces. I think that corporate intrusion of privacy, no matter how bad it may be, is not in the same league as a government doing it.
>>I think it's irrelevant here because you can't compare observing someone in the street to a foreign entity (government or otherwise) tracking their activities in a medium where they believe they have privacy.
Only a fool thinks that they have absolute privacy on the internet. Your e-mail can be read by a resourceful cracker/hacker/or system administrator. You surfing can be tracked by the same resourceful group, and because of the way that the internet works there isn't much than can be done about it.
With the x86, PowerPC (and probably all others too) there is no such thing as truly random number generation. If you learn C or C++ you find this out. The "Random Number Generator" must be given a "seed" to produce pseudo random numbers.
When given a seed, numbers are generated in a fashion that "looks" random, but is not. If you give a program the same seed it will spit the same "random" numbers back out at you. What prevents this from happening is that many programs use the clock as a variable seed for random number generation. If you know the second when the clock was accessed, then you know the seed, from there you can reverse engineer any "random" numbers generated.
Even if you only know the minute you can make 60 tries to get the seed. If you're talking industrial espoinage it's well worth the time. If you'retalking about a government agency with millions upon millions of dollars at their disposal it's not a big deal.
True "randomness" is difficult to achieve, but I'd need a real math guru to explain it coherantly, because I can not.
>>Mind you, this highlights the fact that this isn't another silly trade war thing. Intel are a global company, and a boycott would hurt European commerce as well.
Maybe Intel should have thought about that before they tried to force the PSN down everyone's throat.
I bet that I could make a killing (figuratively of course) if I were allowed to manufacture and sell explosive devices around Europe. A little RDX in the end of a Bic pen or some composition C-1 inside of a mouse would be PERFECT for disgruntled employees to get revenge on their bosses.
But the welfare of the entire community/world/nation has more importance than MY need to make money.
>>For once, a credible world body is giving attention to privacy, and this is a Good Thing.
The EU is just offended that the FBI and NSA could be involved in stepping on their toes. The EU should be the only ones able to spy on residents of Europe.
If you were to walk/drive/bike around London you could be tracked by video surveillance equipment every step of the way.
Is there some transposition of the terms blockade and embargo?
An embargo is when a mfgr/supplier refuses to sell a product to a potential customer.
A blockade is when a government(or governments) refuse(s) to allow a product into a country(or countries).
While I'm at it, a boycott is when someone refuses to buy a product (or refuses to buy a product from a particular source).
LK
Re:ME ME ME ME(Shameless self-promoting plug)
on
Dear Mr. Lucas
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· Score: 2
James IS still alive, but he is 69. You need the voice of a younger actor to represent the voice of a younger character.
I'm the BEST prepared actor for the part.
LK
ME ME ME ME(Shameless self-promoting plug)
on
Dear Mr. Lucas
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· Score: 1
Just in case Mr Lucas is checking out/. I would like to say that I should be the one to do the voice overs in episode 3 when Anakin finally becomes Darth Vader. Ever since I was a kid I used to do voice impersonation of James Earl Jones, Destro from G.I. Joe, Michael Ironside, Christopher Lee, Geoffrey Holder(The guy who was Punjab in the Annie movie).
There is NO OTHER PERSON ON THE PLANET who is more prepared to do this than I am.
Is the bundled CD. I'd spend the money to get demos of things on CD that I don't want to spend 4 hours d/ling. I got a copy of MacWorld once just to get the copy of the BeOS that came with it.
I buy PC mags now just to get demos/patches and whatnot that I don't want to spend the time to d/l.
However this goes out the window when I can get phat-pipe bandwidth.
What that effect is doesn't really matter now does it?
Believeing something strongly enough can make it be reality. Ask any doctor, haveing a positive outlook is a VERY BIG part of getting well when you're very sick.
Not that there is necessarily anything supernatural at play, but perhaps still beyond what modern science is capable of explaining.
I believe that the hex predates christianity, as does tha ankh (the cross is remarkably similar to this BTW) Christians have co-opted several pre-sexisting Pagan holidays.
Jesus was definately NOT born in the winter, but it just so happens that the winter solstice is on Dec 21. All Saints Day is the day AFTER holloween. Sabbats were subverted by Christians, Easter, All Saints Day and Christmas are the most blatent.
People refused to stop celebrating pagan holidays after the rise of Christianity in Europe. In order to Christianize those holidays their meanings were twisted.
>> if something bad were to happen to you, you'd simply forget it
As I said before, I'm talking about truly traumatic experiences. A women can forget enough of the gruesome details of a rape to be able to enjoy making love again. Someone could forget the images of watching his friend or family member decapitated in a car accident so that s/he can live an otherwise normal life.
>>When does all this get boring? What becomes of all the challenges?
We then find OTHER challenges. Even though we can all obtain knowledge that we as a species have, there is always something more to learn. We must find THAT knowledge. There will always be more to learn and explore. This would free us to do so.
Need a liver transplant? No problem, go to sleep and have your rebuilt. Congenital heart defect? No problem when you're baby is a week old it will be repaired.
>>Take Bill Gates, for instance; he could just sit there in his mountains of money and despair, because now he can have anything he wants without having to work for it.
He has already "worked" for it. He was smart, he was ruthless, he was greedy and he was lucky. As much as I despise him, he has earned the money he should be able to get anything he can afford.
>>You may have your Brave New World but I shall pass. Lobotomy has more than one form.
You apparantly never read Brave New World. What I am talking about is the possibility for true equality for all people.
This is the next step in our evolution. We've reached the point where we no longer need to adapt to the environment to survive. We just hit an evolutionary brick wall, this is the way to break through it. I just hope that I live long enough to see it.
(Apology in advance, there is profanity in this message, but I feel that it was necessary to convey my opinions on the matter at hand.)
I'm sick of this assault on video games.
I've played video games since I coud walk over to them and put my money im, when I was a kid I wasn't learning how to be a ping-pong superstar I was just playing a game, I wasn't learning how to defend the planet against alien invasion or nuclear holocaust I was just playing a game.
This whole "These games are used by the military to teach people how to kill..." is utter bullshit. So what? Chess was designed to teach military strategy so that armies could go forth and KILL in a more efficient manner. So all of the wars of the past thousand years are because of chess, yeah that's it. Now I'm going to sue Parker Brothers because hundreds of millions of people have died in wars because of Chess and they are now profiting from this bloody game! This must be stopped.
I'm a hunter, I go out in the woods with a gun so that I can kill defenseless deer or rabbits or sqirrels or turkeys, so what? I've killed animals for sport, what does that prove? Does it mean that I'm any more likely to harm another human being without just cause? I say no. Why would a video game make someone more violent? The military uses a conditioned response to get people to kill, it doesn't matter how they do it. In the 1960s the US military used silhouettes of human forms popping up at various distances as a stimulus to provoke the response of aiming and firing without thinking. Let's ban silhouettes while we're at it. The fact that technology allows them to replace silhouettes with CGI doesn't mean that the computer is to blame. If these games were so great at teaching people how to shhot and kill, THEN WHY DOES THE US MILITARY STILL USE OLD FASHIONED FIRING RANGES?
Because you can't learn to shoot from playing a(modern) video game. You can't learn to deal with the noise and/or recoil of a real gun. You can't learn to compensate for breathing and your heartbeat from a video game. It take MONTHS to YEARS of practice with the REAL THING before you're good enough to go out and kill people. Video games don't cut it.
While we're at it let's go back to burning books in the old Nazi fashion. After all The Art of War by Sun Tzu is a manual on how to conduct a war. We must stop teaching our children about making war. Let's all play flower planting simulations and see who can come up with the best ideas for saving the rainfores.
The simple fact is this, some people CAN'T STAND the idea that there are people who enjoy doing different things than they do and by God someone must put a stop to it.
I enjoy a good game of Quake, Half-Life, Close Combat, and yes you guessed it Mortal Kombat. If I'm not bothering you...LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE!
After seeing death, I know that I don't want it to happen to me.
I don't want my body to lie in wormy earth and decompose. I know that I can't stop it from happening, but at the same time I don't WANT it to happen. I don't see a problem with that.
>>I think the idea that the soul goes on is detrimental because it encourages people to dismiss reality in favor of an imagined reward that is cut off from our lives by the sharp division of death.
I find that my beliefe in an afterlife is more dependant upon the need for punishment than the need for a reward. I'll explain, I don't find it acceptable to think that someone like Adolph Hitler will not face some manner of punishment in the next life while someone like Mother Teresa (No I'm not Catholic) will not be rewarded.
>>On the other hand, maybe people would relax a bit more if our lifespans were extended to, say, 200 healthy years. Maybe things would slow down and people would think about the consequences of their actions more, and feel less pressure.
This is not my point, when it's possible if I'm still alive and can afford to do so I'd jump at the chance.
>>If all unpleasant memories are removed from my mind, I will keep making the mistakes that led to those unpleasant memories over and over.
I'm talking about allowing a rape victim to forget all of the horrible details and give her enough peace of mind to be able to enjoy making love again.
I'm talking about giving someone the ability to forget watching his mother get beheaded in a car accident.
>>Sure, one could say, I've earned the money to have nanobots put into my body, and it's my right to do so. I'm not going to argue that. But I don't think immortality should be for sale at any cost..I believe it upsets the balance of life and death, of renewal and decay..I don't want to live forever, anyway.."Death is not an end, but only a transition.." The body sleeps, the soul lives on.
Those are your beliefs, and I respect them, but maybe not everyone shares those beliefs. Maybe I don't think that 70 years here is enough for me. What if I want to make it 500 or so? Why should YOU or anyone else for that matter have the authority to tell me that I can't?
I too believe that there is a life after life, but I'd rather live this one to the maximum before I go on to the next one.
Why do people insist on romanticizing death? I've seen more dead people than I care to remember. I watched my mother die from a brain tumor, I saw the bullet hole in my father's head, I've seen dead children, I've seen dead adults, I've lost many friends and family members. Death isn't some great release from the horror of this world. Death is grim, death is bad, death is a horror itself. I don't know about you, but I'd like to delay that horror as long as possible.
Slashdot Mirror
In Europe and Asia they spend FAR LESS money per student on education than we do here in the US and they get better results. I think the number 1 obstacle to improving the quality of education here in the US is the monolith of the teacher's unions. They oppose every measure that would hold teachers accountable for the education of the students.
Teachers get paid according to seniority and not to results.
MY solution, every yead give all teachers a competency test and a placement test for every student.
Every teacher that fails the test can't teach until s/he takes and passes the next test.
Teacher raises/promotions should be based upon where his/her students rank in the placement test.
If they had the incentive to be good teachers, they would be.
LK
>>You do know that while your government may not be collecting data on you, just about every commercial organisation in your country is tracking your credit purchases, your on-line habits, movement patterns etc and tieing it into a handy, Government-provided unique identifier (your SSN), don't you?
Not me, I don't give my SSN to anyone when it is not necessary to benefit me. My employer, my bank, and my college have it. I don't give it to anyone else. Just FYI in many places here in the US it is not illegal to give false information as long as there is no fraudulent intent.
>>I could get really petty here by pointing out that it's been around a lot longer, had more ups and downs as a continent and had plenty of opportunity to learn from it's mistakes, unlike your own, however that wouldn't add to the debate so I won't.
I could get just as petty and tell you how we learn from YOUR mistakes and don't have to make them on our own, but I won't.
>>Reduced public perception of danger level and therefore personal protective measures required.
You seem to regard people taking their personal safety obligations on for themselves as a bad thing. I don't. The police can't be everywhere at once, if you want your family to be safe you have to insure it yourself.
LK
The xenu case and the Y2k case are linked form Slashdot.
2 32&mode=thread
See
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/11/24/013
and
http://slashdot.org/yro/99/11/19/0219227.shtml
The Nuremberg Files incident can be found with a simple yahoo, google, or metacrawler search look for "Nuremberg files" and you'll get tons of hits about the situation.
LK
>>I think the guy meant that some people get all up in arms when people log there IP, because their anonymity isn't preserved.
There are ways to get around IP logging.
LK
>>You're not committing a crime, are you? Why are you worried then?
While you're at it why not require everyone who is in public to submit for mantatory DNA and semen samples. If you're not going to rape or murder anyone what are you worried about?
I suppose it has to do with the fact that I'm an American, but I have a BIG problem with any group, government or private having too much power.
Orwell predicted such measures over a half-century ago. If they can monitor you for "crime prevention" reasons why not monitor people to see if they are "political agitators"? Lets monitor these people to make sure that they're not critical of the government or the police. Can't you see that?
If the technology is adapted to spy on regular people for a "good" purpose what is to stop it from being used for a "bad" purpose?
>>Contrast this with CCTV: technology in the hands of a single specified organisation with legal limits to their abilities, and oversight (not perfect, but there), used for a named, restricted purpose.
You can NEVER allow a group of people to set the bounds of their own powers. The government does just this. In the US all it would take is an act of Congress, and in the UK (I don't know their legal procedures) I assume that it would merely take an act of Parliment, to redefine and expand the powers of the government.
>>To me, this is a clear qualitative difference between the two cases. One is controlled, consensual and regulated. The other isn't any of those.
In what universe do you reside? How can it be consensual to be recorded everytime you go out of your house? How can you avoid this? Stay inside forever? Give me a break. Privacy and freedom are two of my BIGGEST concerns, at least here in the US we have a bill of rights to use as a shield from government abuses (even though they seem touse bigger and bigger clubs to try to beat it out of us).
>>Would I be in favour of CPUID if a clear benefit could be shown from it (fraud prevention is the putative reason), that use would be regulated and legally restricted? Yes. As it is, no no NO.
I oppose the CPUID no matter what. In a consumer machine there is no logical justification for it, unless you concede that it is to remove power from the hands of consumers.
You can't make intelligence and prudence a technological add-on. You must be CAREFUL of who you allow to get your personal information and your credit info.
Because some people don't know how or are too laze to do so isn't my problem. We shouldn't have to face restrictions because of the stupid people in our midst.
LK
>>People just seem to get a bee in their bonnet when they think that someone is "censoring" them using moderation, IP logging etc. It isn't censorship, and in fact is essential, but try telling it to them. The argument usually slides into a chest-beating, speechifying, flag-waving mess.
I'm FAR more concerned with people abusing the legal system or simple threats to shut down legitimate sites.
Like what the Scientologists did to xenu.net or what the FBI did to that y2k hype site recently or what planned parenthood did to the Nuremberg Files website.
LK
>>Queer and Nigger are both words that are, in the appropriate peer group, used as power words.
.45 when I'm not at work, I can outdrink Marines on a weekend pass, and in high school I played football with someone who went on to play in the NFL (I'm not going to say who because I hate name droppers).
I have a personal take on this because I'm both a techie and I'm black.
I am also rather imposing in a physical sense. I'm 6'1" and I weigh about 208 pounds. I find it offensive when someone outside of one of my groups uses such a term to refer to me.
When a clueless technophobe refers to me as a geek or a nerd I don't like it. Just as when a non-black person refers to me as a nigger.
I've gotten into fights over both. As I grow older I refuse to use pejorative terms in a fraternal way. I will not call other people geeks, or niggers because I don't like it if someone calls me either of those things.
Then again maybe the term geek just doesn't apply to me. I am a techie in my heart, I've already got plans to spend next year's tax refund on an Über-cool Athlon upgrade for my computer, and my house is wired for ethernet.
At the same time I carry a
The terms Nerd and Geek pidgeonhole us in an unfair way.
LK
>>Although some people get really antsy and yell "free speech, free speech!", the interests of the readership are served by precautions such as IP logging.
What? What does free speech have to do with catching someone lying?
Freedom of speech means just that, you are FREE to speak about whatever you want, BUT other people are free to catch you lying.
If someone were to say "I work at the factory and Cola X is made wht 4% goat urine" I'd hope that someone out there would be able to expose this person for the lying sock of shit that s/he is.
Freedom of speech is NOT freedom from responsibility.
LK
>>The EU does not spy on it's citizens, individual governments do what they want so long as it isn't illegal or they don't get caught.
I freely admit that I do not know the internal workings of the EU, and frankly I don't particularly care. The point that I was making is, where is the outrage when it's a European government trampling on privacy?
It's intellectually and ethically bankrupt to decry the abuses of private industry while ignoring the abuses of government.
>>I think it's irrelevant here because you can't compare observing someone in the street to a foreign entity (government or otherwise) tracking their activities in a medium where they believe they have privacy.
Companies don't have armies or armed police forces. I think that corporate intrusion of privacy, no matter how bad it may be, is not in the same league as a government doing it.
>>I think it's irrelevant here because you can't compare observing someone in the street to a foreign entity (government or otherwise) tracking their activities in a medium where they believe they have privacy.
Only a fool thinks that they have absolute privacy on the internet. Your e-mail can be read by a resourceful cracker/hacker/or system administrator. You surfing can be tracked by the same resourceful group, and because of the way that the internet works there isn't much than can be done about it.
LK
With the x86, PowerPC (and probably all others too) there is no such thing as truly random number generation. If you learn C or C++ you find this out. The "Random Number Generator" must be given a "seed" to produce pseudo random numbers.
When given a seed, numbers are generated in a fashion that "looks" random, but is not. If you give a program the same seed it will spit the same "random" numbers back out at you. What prevents this from happening is that many programs use the clock as a variable seed for random number generation. If you know the second when the clock was accessed, then you know the seed, from there you can reverse engineer any "random" numbers generated.
Even if you only know the minute you can make 60 tries to get the seed. If you're talking industrial espoinage it's well worth the time. If you'retalking about a government agency with millions upon millions of dollars at their disposal it's not a big deal.
True "randomness" is difficult to achieve, but I'd need a real math guru to explain it coherantly, because I can not.
LK
>>Mind you, this highlights the fact that this isn't another silly trade war thing. Intel are a global company, and a boycott would hurt European commerce as well.
Maybe Intel should have thought about that before they tried to force the PSN down everyone's throat.
I bet that I could make a killing (figuratively of course) if I were allowed to manufacture and sell explosive devices around Europe. A little RDX in the end of a Bic pen or some composition C-1 inside of a mouse would be PERFECT for disgruntled employees to get revenge on their bosses.
But the welfare of the entire community/world/nation has more importance than MY need to make money.
LK
>>For once, a credible world body is giving attention to privacy, and this is a Good Thing.
The EU is just offended that the FBI and NSA could be involved in stepping on their toes. The EU should be the only ones able to spy on residents of Europe.
If you were to walk/drive/bike around London you could be tracked by video surveillance equipment every step of the way.
The EU is no hero for the cause of privacy.
LK
Is there some transposition of the terms blockade and embargo?
An embargo is when a mfgr/supplier refuses to sell a product to a potential customer.
A blockade is when a government(or governments) refuse(s) to allow a product into a country(or countries).
While I'm at it, a boycott is when someone refuses to buy a product (or refuses to buy a product from a particular source).
LK
James IS still alive, but he is 69. You need the voice of a younger actor to represent the voice of a younger character.
I'm the BEST prepared actor for the part.
LK
Just in case Mr Lucas is checking out /. I would like to say that I should be the one to do the voice overs in episode 3 when Anakin finally becomes Darth Vader. Ever since I was a kid I used to do voice impersonation of James Earl Jones, Destro from G.I. Joe, Michael Ironside, Christopher Lee, Geoffrey Holder(The guy who was Punjab in the Annie movie).
There is NO OTHER PERSON ON THE PLANET who is more prepared to do this than I am.
LK
>>Great, now we have CDs. But... Don't you think that with xDSL installed at home you will also find CDs useless?
Um, that's kinda what I just said.
LK
>>Why not just have a CD that includes the magazine content? Hasn't this already been done?
Good question, my answer...
It's not as easy to start your fireplace with an old CD.
LK
Is the bundled CD. I'd spend the money to get demos of things on CD that I don't want to spend 4 hours d/ling. I got a copy of MacWorld once just to get the copy of the BeOS that came with it.
I buy PC mags now just to get demos/patches and whatnot that I don't want to spend the time to d/l.
However this goes out the window when I can get phat-pipe bandwidth.
LK
>>0 == 0
What that effect is doesn't really matter now does it?
Believeing something strongly enough can make it be reality. Ask any doctor, haveing a positive outlook is a VERY BIG part of getting well when you're very sick.
Not that there is necessarily anything supernatural at play, but perhaps still beyond what modern science is capable of explaining.
LK
I believe that the hex predates christianity, as does tha ankh (the cross is remarkably similar to this BTW) Christians have co-opted several pre-sexisting Pagan holidays.
Jesus was definately NOT born in the winter, but it just so happens that the winter solstice is on Dec 21. All Saints Day is the day AFTER holloween. Sabbats were subverted by Christians, Easter, All Saints Day and Christmas are the most blatent.
People refused to stop celebrating pagan holidays after the rise of Christianity in Europe. In order to Christianize those holidays their meanings were twisted.
LK
Pagans in general and Wiccans specifically seem to believe that it's the symbolism of things which is important rather than just the object itself.
For example the hex (what most of you think of as a pentagram before it's turned upside down) has many meanings to many different people.
The 5 points can represent the 4 directions of the compass and how the power of the spirit is above them.
It can also represent earth, air, fire, and water with the power of the spirit being above them.
Whether you draw it on the ground or see it in your mind as long as you belive in the symbolism it has the same effect.
LK
>> if something bad were to happen to you, you'd simply forget it
As I said before, I'm talking about truly traumatic experiences. A women can forget enough of the gruesome details of a rape to be able to enjoy making love again. Someone could forget the images of watching his friend or family member decapitated in a car accident so that s/he can live an otherwise normal life.
>>When does all this get boring? What becomes of all the challenges?
We then find OTHER challenges. Even though we can all obtain knowledge that we as a species have, there is always something more to learn. We must find THAT knowledge. There will always be more to learn and explore. This would free us to do so.
Need a liver transplant? No problem, go to sleep and have your rebuilt. Congenital heart defect? No problem when you're baby is a week old it will be repaired.
>>Take Bill Gates, for instance; he could just sit there in his mountains of money and despair, because now he can have anything he wants without having to work for it.
He has already "worked" for it. He was smart, he was ruthless, he was greedy and he was lucky. As much as I despise him, he has earned the money he should be able to get anything he can afford.
>>You may have your Brave New World but I shall pass. Lobotomy has more than one form.
You apparantly never read Brave New World. What I am talking about is the possibility for true equality for all people.
This is the next step in our evolution. We've reached the point where we no longer need to adapt to the environment to survive. We just hit an evolutionary brick wall, this is the way to break through it. I just hope that I live long enough to see it.
LK
(Apology in advance, there is profanity in this message, but I feel that it was necessary to convey my opinions on the matter at hand.)
I'm sick of this assault on video games.
I've played video games since I coud walk over to them and put my money im, when I was a kid I wasn't learning how to be a ping-pong superstar I was just playing a game, I wasn't learning how to defend the planet against alien invasion or nuclear holocaust I was just playing a game.
This whole "These games are used by the military to teach people how to kill..." is utter bullshit. So what? Chess was designed to teach military strategy so that armies could go forth and KILL in a more efficient manner. So all of the wars of the past thousand years are because of chess, yeah that's it. Now I'm going to sue Parker Brothers because hundreds of millions of people have died in wars because of Chess and they are now profiting from this bloody game! This must be stopped.
I'm a hunter, I go out in the woods with a gun so that I can kill defenseless deer or rabbits or sqirrels or turkeys, so what? I've killed animals for sport, what does that prove? Does it mean that I'm any more likely to harm another human being without just cause? I say no. Why would a video game make someone more violent? The military uses a conditioned response to get people to kill, it doesn't matter how they do it. In the 1960s the US military used silhouettes of human forms popping up at various distances as a stimulus to provoke the response of aiming and firing without thinking. Let's ban silhouettes while we're at it. The fact that technology allows them to replace silhouettes with CGI doesn't mean that the computer is to blame. If these games were so great at teaching people how to shhot and kill, THEN WHY DOES THE US MILITARY STILL USE OLD FASHIONED FIRING RANGES?
Because you can't learn to shoot from playing a(modern) video game. You can't learn to deal with the noise and/or recoil of a real gun. You can't learn to compensate for breathing and your heartbeat from a video game. It take MONTHS to YEARS of practice with the REAL THING before you're good enough to go out and kill people. Video games don't cut it.
While we're at it let's go back to burning books in the old Nazi fashion. After all The Art of War by Sun Tzu is a manual on how to conduct a war. We must stop teaching our children about making war. Let's all play flower planting simulations and see who can come up with the best ideas for saving the rainfores.
The simple fact is this, some people CAN'T STAND the idea that there are people who enjoy doing different things than they do and by God someone must put a stop to it.
I enjoy a good game of Quake, Half-Life, Close Combat, and yes you guessed it Mortal Kombat. If I'm not bothering you...LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE!
LK
>>Why are we so afraid of death?
After seeing death, I know that I don't want it to happen to me.
I don't want my body to lie in wormy earth and decompose. I know that I can't stop it from happening, but at the same time I don't WANT it to happen. I don't see a problem with that.
>>I think the idea that the soul goes on is detrimental because it encourages people to dismiss reality in favor of an imagined reward that is cut off from our lives by the sharp division of death.
I find that my beliefe in an afterlife is more dependant upon the need for punishment than the need for a reward. I'll explain, I don't find it acceptable to think that someone like Adolph Hitler will not face some manner of punishment in the next life while someone like Mother Teresa (No I'm not Catholic) will not be rewarded.
>>On the other hand, maybe people would relax a bit more if our lifespans were extended to, say, 200 healthy years. Maybe things would slow down and people would think about the consequences of their actions more, and feel less pressure.
This is not my point, when it's possible if I'm still alive and can afford to do so I'd jump at the chance.
LK
>>If all unpleasant memories are removed from my mind, I will keep making the mistakes that led to those unpleasant memories over and over.
I'm talking about allowing a rape victim to forget all of the horrible details and give her enough peace of mind to be able to enjoy making love again.
I'm talking about giving someone the ability to forget watching his mother get beheaded in a car accident.
>>Sure, one could say, I've earned the money to have nanobots put into my body, and it's my right to do so. I'm not going to argue that. But I don't think immortality should be for sale at any cost..I believe it upsets the balance of life and death, of renewal and decay..I don't want to live forever, anyway.."Death is not an end, but only a transition.." The body sleeps, the soul lives on.
Those are your beliefs, and I respect them, but maybe not everyone shares those beliefs. Maybe I don't think that 70 years here is enough for me. What if I want to make it 500 or so? Why should YOU or anyone else for that matter have the authority to tell me that I can't?
I too believe that there is a life after life, but I'd rather live this one to the maximum before I go on to the next one.
Why do people insist on romanticizing death? I've seen more dead people than I care to remember. I watched my mother die from a brain tumor, I saw the bullet hole in my father's head, I've seen dead children, I've seen dead adults, I've lost many friends and family members. Death isn't some great release from the horror of this world. Death is grim, death is bad, death is a horror itself. I don't know about you, but I'd like to delay that horror as long as possible.
LK