I think they mean that we will basically die out and not really think of civilization as an empire or something. And some empires have fallen and the people moved on, but only because it was not on a large scale. It was not absolute. The Romans and Mayans were more like governments, not civilizations in the galactic sense, where it would be the human civilization.
Humans have nearly been wiped out a few times before and (so far) never by their own fault. f.i. Black Plague, Spanish Influenza et al. Who knows what we might find on another planet. f.i. new parasites
Not to mention the cosmic threats we are still ignorant about.
Or, and in this case I think it is what they could also mean, that we 'evolve' in such a direction that it leads to a one-way path to extinction. Think about what would happen if today the electricity went out forever. We'd be lost. Some might survive but can the survive for long? Kinda reminds me of the old Anti-Nuclear War films or zombie films where a few survive. So 1% survives? So what? Can they really survive for long? We are so advanced that we are actually unable to do certain things any more.
If that feared asteroid hits and we survive the initial impact. Great. But what then?
Now add in the fact that you have a colony somewhere and the life-line is detached. They can sustain themselves for a while, but for how long? If the Eco-System (including stuff like education and all that) is below a critical mass (I guess), when your doctor dies, who will take his place?
True, and from Prof Soon (or what was her name) we kinda know that he will 'die' when she is around.
btw: my favs: Eccleston and Tennant for a tie, then Smith. Eccleston really had the Time-War veteran going for him and the sometimes strange behaviour (bi-polar) could be an effect of the war (PTSD). Tennant I found to be a really good actor as he could go any way and really played the doctor well. Smith is ok, but his chaotic-ness feels to be more coming from being 'young' and I find it hard to 'see his age'.
Companions: Martha tie with Donna. Martha was smart and could hold her own. Donna was like the only direct non love interest and could out-lip the doctor. They were like an old couple at times. Amy and Rose are just useless eyecandy.
Though I really liked Rory. Helpless but with a good and brave heart.
You had no problem doing so with Saddam, Osama or China. Oh wait, I forgot they have no assets you want or fighting your enemies. THAT makes them 'evil' by default.
Sadly they only went after the head figures and not even the 'middle' fish. I agree that those forced into the parties were the little fishes, but there where many that, while they might have been forced in or not, had no problems packing up the jews and sinti and communists and liberals into the train boxes and shipping them off.
Sadly those trolls were allowed to just switch uniforms and continue their work. Many even turned to politics.
Then again, maybe that was the idea. If they remove to many of the Nazis (thus conservatives) the left wing would become to strong. That was to be avoided at all costs. Not unheard of in post WW2 Europe.
Yet at the same time have no problems giving the US ALL our bank account and financial movement data. Also they want to save all information about an employee in their little database for each employer and everyone else to see.
Same with the Chinese firewall. The Germans complained, yet we have our OWN censorship. Hypocrites anyone?
Sadly this is less about privacy then bad politicians having to save face and FB was the perfect candidate. The same populist party that promised to protect our information and give us 'more at the bottom line' actually would not even be elected if there was an election now.
By this definition, any site surrounding 'The Theory of Evolution', Christianity, Islam, same sex marriges, stem cell research and others would be blocked.
You both are correct. His education was paid by taxes and when he enters the job market, his taxes will go into someone else's education.
Great as long as the chain is not broken to much. You're income might not be as high as elsewhere, but for that you get a lot of 'free' and universal stuff. (education, healthcare, social systems)
Problem is, f.i. in Germany, that many somehow do think it is free and once they are done, complain that the pay in Germany is bad compared to elsewhere (usually those without free education) and will migrate off and basically leave a hole in our pockets after we paid for your education.
Many in Germany do not know a US style education at a college or university can run you 50%-100% or even more of the price of a house (say €200k - €250k, yes those numbers are realistic).
That is not only money missing in our finance system, but also another doctor missing from our healthcare system.
IfIWereKing: Keep the 'free' model but actually log 'virtual' costs of a semester onto a 'virtual' debt card for each student. The same amount as if you were enrolled in a 'private' university/college. After studies, every month working in country will reduce your debt by a certain amount (you don't have to pay a cent!). When your debt is paid, you can do what you want. If your debt is not paid and you want to work out of country, you have to *really* pay your debt. i.e. the virtual debt get's turned into REAL debt.
Being one of those mentioned non-college programmers, I agree fully. When matched skill to skill, your degree does not mean you are better.
I have even had experience with a Ph.D that was so high on himself, that he did not realize he had NO skill, but sure as hell tried to live up to his title and turned every 'hello world' into a monster.
You are forgetting the Pre-Marshall plan, that wanted Germany to be a agricultural country. You REALLY have to be ignorant to think THAT will work!. Not to mention that Germany would have ZERO way of defending itself without the western allies. Then, when the Red threat was to big, then only was the Marshall plan designed.
So the whole 'loving rebuilding of Western Germany' was only done so that Western Germany could act as a buffer against the Red Army.
You just don't get it do you? The US gov, and in extension the US tax payer, will pay for the war. Then the US gov gives the contracts to US friendly companies that will be VERY thankful to those politicians. Now the companies can exploit the resources for the money.
The price the companies have to pay, in being VERY thankful, will be a joke compared to the cost of the war. Also, the politicians don't pay for the war either. They just get re-elected, or not, it does not matter. But they will have a very lucrative consulting job at the above mentioned companies.
In summary: the companies make a fortune on wars, and later in constructing and resource mining and whatnot, that the taxpayer has to pay for.
My personal opinion: Even if they are not treated as poorly as in SA, it does not make it any better. Any other excuse is just a way to make ourselves feel better.
Two injustices does not make one any better.
So unless we treat them as well as we want to be treated ourselves, we are on the same 'side' as the other bad people, we are just in a 'better' bargaining position.
Did you watch Fox News again? You do know 15% of their stuff is crap, and the other 85% is utter crap.
You should check the history on Afghanistan and you would see that not only did the US support the Mujahedeen (and thus Osama) but also supported the Taliban as the follow-up 'government'.
Not to long before 9/11 the US gov invited a Taliban group over for a visit and basically defended the Talibans oppression of women et al as 'their way of life'. They actually had women there sitting in Burkas and Mrs Bush next to them.
You know, all that stuff they called bad AFTER 9/11.
And before you go off on 9/11, read further about that whole situation. It would really surprise you. (how do you think we knew where Osama was? They were telling us!)
You should REALLY read up on US history and it's dealings around the work. Though watch out, it might just disgust you.
To be honest, I don't know about Joes or his company and don't really care.
But the statement you are trying to make is fundamentally flawed, because success does not mean YOU are doing something correct. It basically only means you are able to turn a profit. I've been through my share of companies and can tell you that success != doing stuff right. Some of those I have been to basically just had the right product at the right time, allowing them to throw anything on the market and it would be bought up, regardless of quality or how good the company worked internally. And the sad fact was, internally the companies were plain chaos.
As soon as the cash-cows died, the companies started to have BIG problems, because they did not realize it was not them that were not the reason for the success. They were so obnoxious that they basically stared blaming the market for not seeing how great their stuff was. Then most of them started doing some really crazy stuff, basically proving they had no idea what they were doing. Especially adding more management overhead.
At least that was my exp. in 80% of the comps. YMMV
I'm no fan of Lost, but a big fan of A2A and it was a very good ending. To be blunt, I had never thought of the resolution as it turned out so I was actually positively surprised.
If you think about it, the entire show was written out well before they filmed it, thus the ending actually does not feel forced or off the mark.
Phillip Glenister deserves an award, not only one for the entire show, but for that last episode an extra one. Though there never was a A2A planned, LoM should have been a 3 season show and then end.
Sad to see the show end, but better to go out while on top!
I agree. It would just save them the effort of collecting the data themselves.
One thing about Germany is that they have the 'forbidden fruit' laws. In the US anything you collect on an illegal search is deemed illegal to use. Not so in Germany. They just need an excuse to search your house any whatever they find, they can use. Regardless if it was for the intended purpose or not.
Not quite. Basically the Allies got rid of the top layer of Nazis and left the rest.
There was some cleansing of Nazi party members, but sadly they were often the wrong people. f.i. teachers, bureaucrats, basically people who HAD to join the Nazi party or loose their jobs. Though they lost them afterwards for exactly that.
F.i. one police officer in the Town where I am from and who oversaw and managed the deportation of the Jews, later became Chief of Police and a high member of the Conservative party.
Allies basically made sure, as they so often do, that only the RIGHT governments would come to power. If it even looked like it would go to the left, they would have stepped in. This is obvious if we look at what happened in Greece after WW2.
There was no mass brainwashing or anything. Same (though a lot less) Germans that got a really good spanking for being so friggn dumb.
Also you should note that the stance of the Allies after the war was also not well thought through and even changed. First they wanted to make Germany an agricultural country (the genius behind that one should have been promoted to manage the Arctic) but when the Red threat was starting to build, they changed their minds as they thought a strong Germany would be a better buffer against invading Reds.
Thus the Marshall-Plan was no act of kindness but one of necessity and real-politik.
Remember, it is a question of perspective. If you are so far right, even Regan would look left to you! So if you are a hair shy of the KKK, anyone approaching the middle is already a IslamoFacistJewishNaziCommunistTerrist.
And the teabaggers are the worst of them. They are the brainless zombie masses that simply hate and fear everything. Though sadly, they show the ugly, though not the complete, face of the US. They kinda destroy any credibility the US had left and only reinforce the 'American Taliban' (I don't mean Walker) perception.
A few days ago I even read the typical racist dimwit talking about the 'fascist left'. WTF?
After reading about what the christian priests have been doing, we will probably have to stand in line to get in and when we do, they will have reserved all the good sins with their towels.
The saddest thing is, the have been news about exactly that. Putting cameras in bars and people's homes. Naturally the 'foot in the door' is the 'stop crime blahblah' but what will stop them from going full monty? Ya know, it is just to protect the children against the NaziZeoniteIslamofashistCommunist threat.
Though let's be honest, this is just BS legislation to give people the illusion of some kind of protection but in actuality only requires the cop to have a good excuse lined up.
If the cop wants to stop and question you, 'your walk was hostile' and then if you are even slightly annoyed or do not answer fast enough they have justification for the next action i.e. 'being hostile'. Then they will try to arrest you and you will automatically 'resist'... the next justification.
I once saw 5 police officers pounce on a teen because the teen was intoxicated (though legal in Germany) because... wait for it... he was in danger of hurting himself or others (i.e. 'imminent danger' justification). The kid was walking straight, able to articulate himself, though somewhat slurred. But I have been in worse conditions and never fell out of line. No friggn reason for the cops to pounce on him and naturally the kid resisted. The kid MIGHT have hurt himself if we was left alone, but the cops took care of that uncertainty the wrong way.
How many problems does the US have with identity theft or people running around with multiple names?
How can you prove you are you, but person X is not person X?
Each side has it's short-comings. Though if you actually think not having an ID means you are under the radar, you are mislead. You will have left some kind of paper trail.
Slashdot Mirror
I think they mean that we will basically die out and not really think of civilization as an empire or something.
And some empires have fallen and the people moved on, but only because it was not on a large scale. It was not absolute.
The Romans and Mayans were more like governments, not civilizations in the galactic sense, where it would be the human civilization.
Humans have nearly been wiped out a few times before and (so far) never by their own fault.
f.i. Black Plague, Spanish Influenza et al.
Who knows what we might find on another planet. f.i. new parasites
Not to mention the cosmic threats we are still ignorant about.
Or, and in this case I think it is what they could also mean, that we 'evolve' in such a direction that it leads to a one-way path to extinction.
Think about what would happen if today the electricity went out forever. We'd be lost. Some might survive but can the survive for long?
Kinda reminds me of the old Anti-Nuclear War films or zombie films where a few survive. So 1% survives? So what? Can they really survive for long?
We are so advanced that we are actually unable to do certain things any more.
If that feared asteroid hits and we survive the initial impact. Great.
But what then?
Now add in the fact that you have a colony somewhere and the life-line is detached.
They can sustain themselves for a while, but for how long?
If the Eco-System (including stuff like education and all that) is below a critical mass (I guess), when your doctor dies, who will take his place?
Just some thoughts.
Yep, kinda what got us here in the first place.
Since when has not taking a chance become part of humanity?
'Why did you climb that mountain?'
'Because it was there'
'You've got to break a few eggs to make an omelette'
'Damn the torpedoes'
True, and from Prof Soon (or what was her name) we kinda know that he will 'die' when she is around.
btw: my favs:
Eccleston and Tennant for a tie, then Smith.
Eccleston really had the Time-War veteran going for him and the sometimes strange behaviour (bi-polar) could be an effect of the war (PTSD).
Tennant I found to be a really good actor as he could go any way and really played the doctor well.
Smith is ok, but his chaotic-ness feels to be more coming from being 'young' and I find it hard to 'see his age'.
Companions:
Martha tie with Donna. Martha was smart and could hold her own. Donna was like the only direct non love interest and could out-lip the doctor. They were like an old couple at times.
Amy and Rose are just useless eyecandy.
Though I really liked Rory. Helpless but with a good and brave heart.
You had no problem doing so with Saddam, Osama or China.
Oh wait, I forgot they have no assets you want or fighting your enemies. THAT makes them 'evil' by default.
Sadly they only went after the head figures and not even the 'middle' fish.
I agree that those forced into the parties were the little fishes, but there where many that, while they might have been forced in or not, had no problems packing up the jews and sinti and communists and liberals into the train boxes and shipping them off.
Sadly those trolls were allowed to just switch uniforms and continue their work. Many even turned to politics.
Then again, maybe that was the idea. If they remove to many of the Nazis (thus conservatives) the left wing would become to strong. That was to be avoided at all costs.
Not unheard of in post WW2 Europe.
Yet at the same time have no problems giving the US ALL our bank account and financial movement data.
Also they want to save all information about an employee in their little database for each employer and everyone else to see.
Same with the Chinese firewall. The Germans complained, yet we have our OWN censorship. Hypocrites anyone?
Sadly this is less about privacy then bad politicians having to save face and FB was the perfect candidate.
The same populist party that promised to protect our information and give us 'more at the bottom line' actually would not even be elected if there was an election now.
By this definition, any site surrounding 'The Theory of Evolution', Christianity, Islam, same sex marriges, stem cell research and others would be blocked.
You both are correct. His education was paid by taxes and when he enters the job market, his taxes will go into someone else's education.
Great as long as the chain is not broken to much.
You're income might not be as high as elsewhere, but for that you get a lot of 'free' and universal stuff. (education, healthcare, social systems)
Problem is, f.i. in Germany, that many somehow do think it is free and once they are done, complain that the pay in Germany is bad compared to elsewhere (usually those without free education) and will migrate off and basically leave a hole in our pockets after we paid for your education.
Many in Germany do not know a US style education at a college or university can run you 50%-100% or even more of the price of a house (say €200k - €250k, yes those numbers are realistic).
That is not only money missing in our finance system, but also another doctor missing from our healthcare system.
IfIWereKing:
Keep the 'free' model but actually log 'virtual' costs of a semester onto a 'virtual' debt card for each student. The same amount as if you were enrolled in a 'private' university/college. After studies, every month working in country will reduce your debt by a certain amount (you don't have to pay a cent!). When your debt is paid, you can do what you want.
If your debt is not paid and you want to work out of country, you have to *really* pay your debt. i.e. the virtual debt get's turned into REAL debt.
Being one of those mentioned non-college programmers, I agree fully.
When matched skill to skill, your degree does not mean you are better.
I have even had experience with a Ph.D that was so high on himself, that he did not realize he had NO skill, but sure as hell tried to live up to his title and turned every 'hello world' into a monster.
You are forgetting the Pre-Marshall plan, that wanted Germany to be a agricultural country. You REALLY have to be ignorant to think THAT will work!.
Not to mention that Germany would have ZERO way of defending itself without the western allies.
Then, when the Red threat was to big, then only was the Marshall plan designed.
So the whole 'loving rebuilding of Western Germany' was only done so that Western Germany could act as a buffer against the Red Army.
You just don't get it do you?
The US gov, and in extension the US tax payer, will pay for the war.
Then the US gov gives the contracts to US friendly companies that will be VERY thankful to those politicians.
Now the companies can exploit the resources for the money.
The price the companies have to pay, in being VERY thankful, will be a joke compared to the cost of the war.
Also, the politicians don't pay for the war either. They just get re-elected, or not, it does not matter. But they will have a very lucrative consulting job at the above mentioned companies.
In summary: the companies make a fortune on wars, and later in constructing and resource mining and whatnot, that the taxpayer has to pay for.
Yes, I had been wondering the same. Did someone like walk across Afghanistan and stumble over a clump worth over a billion dollars?
Plus I also thought the West was in Afghanistan for the gas pipelines. This just adds on the strategic value.
My personal opinion:
Even if they are not treated as poorly as in SA, it does not make it any better.
Any other excuse is just a way to make ourselves feel better.
Two injustices does not make one any better.
So unless we treat them as well as we want to be treated ourselves, we are on the same 'side' as the other bad people, we are just in a 'better' bargaining position.
We had no problem with them stoning their wives when they were our friends.
Just like with our other pal Saddam.
Did you watch Fox News again? You do know 15% of their stuff is crap, and the other 85% is utter crap.
You should check the history on Afghanistan and you would see that not only did the US support the Mujahedeen (and thus Osama) but also supported the Taliban as the follow-up 'government'.
Not to long before 9/11 the US gov invited a Taliban group over for a visit and basically defended the Talibans oppression of women et al as 'their way of life'.
They actually had women there sitting in Burkas and Mrs Bush next to them.
You know, all that stuff they called bad AFTER 9/11.
And before you go off on 9/11, read further about that whole situation. It would really surprise you. (how do you think we knew where Osama was? They were telling us!)
You should REALLY read up on US history and it's dealings around the work.
Though watch out, it might just disgust you.
To be honest, I don't know about Joes or his company and don't really care.
But the statement you are trying to make is fundamentally flawed, because success does not mean YOU are doing something correct. It basically only means you are able to turn a profit.
I've been through my share of companies and can tell you that success != doing stuff right. Some of those I have been to basically just had the right product at the right time, allowing them to throw anything on the market and it would be bought up, regardless of quality or how good the company worked internally.
And the sad fact was, internally the companies were plain chaos.
As soon as the cash-cows died, the companies started to have BIG problems, because they did not realize it was not them that were not the reason for the success.
They were so obnoxious that they basically stared blaming the market for not seeing how great their stuff was.
Then most of them started doing some really crazy stuff, basically proving they had no idea what they were doing. Especially adding more management overhead.
At least that was my exp. in 80% of the comps.
YMMV
I'm no fan of Lost, but a big fan of A2A and it was a very good ending.
To be blunt, I had never thought of the resolution as it turned out so I was actually positively surprised.
If you think about it, the entire show was written out well before they filmed it, thus the ending actually does not feel forced or off the mark.
Phillip Glenister deserves an award, not only one for the entire show, but for that last episode an extra one. Though there never was a A2A planned, LoM should have been a 3 season show and then end.
Sad to see the show end, but better to go out while on top!
Cheers Gene Genie, and thanks for the great show!
I agree. It would just save them the effort of collecting the data themselves.
One thing about Germany is that they have the 'forbidden fruit' laws. In the US anything you collect on an illegal search is deemed illegal to use. Not so in Germany.
They just need an excuse to search your house any whatever they find, they can use. Regardless if it was for the intended purpose or not.
Not quite. Basically the Allies got rid of the top layer of Nazis and left the rest.
There was some cleansing of Nazi party members, but sadly they were often the wrong people. f.i. teachers, bureaucrats, basically people who HAD to join the Nazi party or loose their jobs. Though they lost them afterwards for exactly that.
F.i. one police officer in the Town where I am from and who oversaw and managed the deportation of the Jews, later became Chief of Police and a high member of the Conservative party.
Allies basically made sure, as they so often do, that only the RIGHT governments would come to power. If it even looked like it would go to the left, they would have stepped in.
This is obvious if we look at what happened in Greece after WW2.
There was no mass brainwashing or anything. Same (though a lot less) Germans that got a really good spanking for being so friggn dumb.
Also you should note that the stance of the Allies after the war was also not well thought through and even changed. First they wanted to make Germany an agricultural country (the genius behind that one should have been promoted to manage the Arctic) but when the Red threat was starting to build, they changed their minds as they thought a strong Germany would be a better buffer against invading Reds.
Thus the Marshall-Plan was no act of kindness but one of necessity and real-politik.
Remember, it is a question of perspective. If you are so far right, even Regan would look left to you!
So if you are a hair shy of the KKK, anyone approaching the middle is already a IslamoFacistJewishNaziCommunistTerrist.
And the teabaggers are the worst of them. They are the brainless zombie masses that simply hate and fear everything.
Though sadly, they show the ugly, though not the complete, face of the US. They kinda destroy any credibility the US had left and only reinforce the 'American Taliban' (I don't mean Walker) perception.
A few days ago I even read the typical racist dimwit talking about the 'fascist left'. WTF?
After reading about what the christian priests have been doing, we will probably have to stand in line to get in and when we do, they will have reserved all the good sins with their towels.
One question:
If you get arrested, would that effect your chances of getting an extension or a new papers?
In a different topic (about the guy in Seattle doing midnight golfing) someone mentioned that you could be asked if you had been arrested or not.
So if you forget your papers or something like that and you get caught, you might as well GTFO?
The saddest thing is, the have been news about exactly that.
Putting cameras in bars and people's homes. Naturally the 'foot in the door' is the 'stop crime blahblah' but what will stop them from going full monty?
Ya know, it is just to protect the children against the NaziZeoniteIslamofashistCommunist threat.
Love the title 'peace officer'.. yeah right!
Though let's be honest, this is just BS legislation to give people the illusion of some kind of protection but in actuality only requires the cop to have a good excuse lined up.
If the cop wants to stop and question you, 'your walk was hostile' and then if you are even slightly annoyed or do not answer fast enough they have justification for the next action i.e. 'being hostile'.
Then they will try to arrest you and you will automatically 'resist'... the next justification.
I once saw 5 police officers pounce on a teen because the teen was intoxicated (though legal in Germany) because ... wait for it ... he was in danger of hurting himself or others (i.e. 'imminent danger' justification).
The kid was walking straight, able to articulate himself, though somewhat slurred. But I have been in worse conditions and never fell out of line.
No friggn reason for the cops to pounce on him and naturally the kid resisted. The kid MIGHT have hurt himself if we was left alone, but the cops took care of that uncertainty the wrong way.
How many problems does the US have with identity theft or people running around with multiple names?
How can you prove you are you, but person X is not person X?
Each side has it's short-comings.
Though if you actually think not having an ID means you are under the radar, you are mislead. You will have left some kind of paper trail.