"Millions for defense but not one penny for tribute" Rep. Robert Goodloe Harper chairman of the committee on ways and means in Congress, on June 18, 1798
Mercenaries may be astronomically expensive, but what about paying tribute? You don't think that eventually, there comes a break even point?
When will the tribute end, if it isn't ended forcibly?
Convoying is a pain in the ass, of course. But, isn't paying tribute?
Macho bullshit? It's the macho bullshit that I learned under the leadership of United States Naval officers and petty officers.
Practically speaking, when we feared for the safety of our ship or crew, we answered with guns, then sought guidance from Washington. Guns first, radio second.
And, I would like to address the training of those merchant crews. The crew of the Maersk Alabama seemed to be moderately competent, wouldn't you say? Had those individuals in that crew had weapons, I dare say none of them would have shot themselves in the foot, and they would have repelled a boatload of half-assed ragtag pirates.
There are plenty of almost convincing arguments NOT TO ARM merchant mariners - from other countries. American merchant mariners stand apart, IMHO. Being American, a lot of them grew up with weapons - a lot like sailors in the Navy. At age 19, before any naval training, I was more than competent with a rifle.
I really am not accustomed to hearing an AUSTRALIAN sounding so damned ignorant. Your prejudice stands out loud and clear, however. Redneck. Billy Ray. Missura. You sound just like a refugee from the Los Angeles ghettos.
And, apparently illiterate as well. I said people LIKE ME. Read it carefully, you little hippy puss. People LIKE ME. Are you going to badmouth all the ANZACS who have died around the world, to protect your worthless ass? Anzacs who went ashore in godforsaken places with my dad in world war 2? People LIKE ME, and LIKE MY DAD, and LIKE MY SON.
No, you are NOT like any of us.
And, no, you wouldn't be procreating without people like me.
Get over it, you sheltered little pussy. You don't have the answers to squat. If you can possibly get untangled from your Mama's apron strings, you should get out in the world, and learn what real life is all about. Join the service. Serve. Give something of yourself. That is, if there IS anything of you that is worth giving.
If you're man enough, you may have the privilege of meeting my son in Korea or Germany. IF.
Small arms, and hand weapons can be permitted aboard a merchant, with little problem, with little alteration of existing treaties. A machine gun gets to be a little bit problematical.
A crew served weapon such as you suggest would drastically change a ship's status under any and all existing treaties.
While I approve, look at the arguments about a few rifles. Crap, every idiot in the world is upset over the idea of an M-16. No way will we ever get a 3" gun approved.
Never mind the idiots below who don't know what a 3" gun is - you phrased your post exactly right.;)
Be afraid. Be very afraid. It's people like me who stand between you and the bad guys. Without people like me, people like you WOULDN'T be procreating, ya ignorant boob.
Inbred tribals who have refused to support any government are responsible for their own poverty. If you can manage to teach those inbreds how to do anything more complicated than squeezing a trigger and pursuing a slow moving ship in a speedboat, then they can get together, elect the least incompetent of the inbreds to represent them, then get the government to look after thier needs.
That ineffective government you mention, is the result of a bunch of inbred tribals who refuse to submit to governance. The very same inbred tribals who are on the high seas assaulting merchant ships.
Let's kill off the inbreds, and the government will prosper, and piracy will end.
The M-16 is a great idea. Deadly force met with deadly force is the only answer that is likely to work.
But, I have to say that I am constantly amazed at the presumption of those who ban deadly force. Sheltered pussies sitting in a sheltered land, defended by armed men thousands of miles away, have the gall to prohibit weapons for the men who actually go into harms way.
People, these are armed robbers we are talking about. For whatever reason, they have decided to TAKE valuable items from innocent men who are only trying to make a living. Merchant mariners put their lives at risk to deliver the goods, only to have armed robbers come aboard, shove weapons in their faces, and demand their livelihoods from them.
Philosophers have the luxury of sitting at thier computers, justifying the pirates conduct, and insisting that the pirate's rights be upheld.
Sailors whose lives are at risk don't have that luxury.
Deadly force, however applied, must be used. There are multiple choices, after all.
Arm the merchant mariners. If ports don't want armed mariners, either avoid those ports, or have the weapons locked up while in port. No big deal.
Take on a squad or two of mercenaries. Trained killers, determined to protect the ship. Here we have no problems with poorly trained men whose marksmanship sucks.
Convoys. No ship transits the Gulf Monday thru Thursday. On Friday, one full fledged convoy transits southbound, and another transits northbound. The rest of the week, the Naval pirate killers patrol far and wide, searching for pirates to kill.
I repeat - I am simply amazed that so many people, around the world, can sit on their asses and pretend to know what life at sea is like, pretend to know how to deal with pirates, and they've never walked aboard a fucking SHIP!!
Morons. These are the same people who whine and cry because there are never enough cops to protect them, so when a bad guy comes along, they just curl up and die for the nice bad man.
I wouldn't sail anywhere without a weapon. I wouldn't even sail up the Mississippi river, let alone the Gulf of Aden without a weapon.
Let's get over this abhorrence we have for deadly force. If someone is trying to rob, rape, or kill you, the scum needs to be put down.
Or, you can kneel down to him, and make him your king.
I have a problem with converting. The city asked a private corporation to provide a service, and was turned down. The city then asked it's residents to fund the same service, and the citizens approved, and funded the service. The citizens, in effect, are providing their own service to themselves. Corporate America needs to bug off. The city has every right and authority to provide services if/when the residents demand that service. While this particular service may not fall withing traditional government services, I do not see that as a barrier.
It is preposterous that any city or other government body should be subject to corporate influence. This story only highlights the corruption that results from corporate lobbying.
Perhaps not "glaring". But, it is obvious that he is predisposed to judge certain types of cases in a certain manner. It is obvious that he will have prejudged all manner of arguments before hearing them. It is obvious that he has at least a working relation, if not a friendship, with the members of the prosecution.
If you are ever dragged before a court, will you be comforted to know that the judge and the prosecution are all members of the same country club that the complainant belongs to? You wouldn't suspect that your case had already been settled the night before, over dinner and martinis?
In my mind, the judge is corrupt. He should have recused himself from the case, and allowed an impartial judge to hear the case.
(sarcasem) I'll be happy when they focus on the Taxi companies. Damned pirates, if they weren't buying a few cars and then renting them to deadbeat consumers, those deadbeats would have to BUY A CAR!! If all consumers had to own their own car, GM would be healthy!! This piracy is the root of the world's economic ills, I tell you!! (/sarcasm)
Seriously, there goes the right of first purchase.
At one end of the scale, you'll find those who think the world owes them entertainment. At the other end of the scale, you'll find those copyright squatters who think the world owes them a lavish living for sitting on dead men's works, and for acquiring a monopoly on distribution schemes.
On your same scale, throwing a kid in jail for wanting to hear music without paying the parasites is just about negative infinity.
Now that we have judged each other's positions, got anything constructive to offer?
How about selling the kids all the music they want at a penny or a nickel a song, and allow them fair use, and personal copying right? Ditch the DRM. The use of DRM costs the copyright holder more than distribution!! It's not like it COSTS to distribute - especially if the copyright holders get their heads out of their butts, and use popular distribution schemes, like The Pirate Bay.
You make a solid case for overhauling the educational system in America. It's preposterous that we are now in the "information age", and schoolchildren don't know how to invoke a command line interface. It's one thing for the elderly (over age 30?) not to understand computers, but CHILDREN should certainly be computer savvy.
Oh yeah. Name some jobs that Windows "does perfectly well". You don't mean such jobs as harboring trojans, worms, and viruses, do you?
"backed by a major corporation" Yeah. I got lots and lots of real support from Microsoft. Things like "You'll need to call a computer tech to look at this problem for you." Or, in the case of Compaq, "You'll have to ship the machine back to Compaq for repairs."
Uh-huh. Yeah. What you meant to type was, "Dummies still aren't ready for Linux." Look beyond the shores of the United States. More and more of the market IS UPGRADING TO LINUX!
Windows has been safer for a while. If Desktop Linux had the market share that Windows boxes did, hackers would make swiss cheese of it.
I so enjoy these failed exercises in logic. "If Linux" and "If Windows", etc.
The fact is, no one routinely breaks into Linux systems. People DO routinely break into Windows. Just try to get a grip on reality, without the "If" bullshit.
Why do you think that Gates settled on the name "Windows"? He knew that it could be easily broken. Hell, he didn't even need to put in backdoors, just break a window, any window, and you have access to the system.
I invite you to break into my system, since "hackers" can so easily make swiss cheese of it. (I use the term "hackers" very loosely, in keeping with your apparent definition of "hacker") Do you need any help, or can you manage this trivial task alone?
Put the horse before the horse shit, alright? Blatant abuse of copyright "law" caused a problem that was addressed by piracy, then in turn,the abusers of copyright "law" attempted to address THEIR problem with piracy.
And, your holier-than-thou attitude toward cigarettes goes hand in hand with the abuse of copyright. Some kid wants to smoke, but "THE MAN" has the badge, the gun, the club, and all the money to back up his dictates that the kid can't smoke.
Why don't you smoke a doobie and chill out with that kid, and listen to some of his pirated headbanger's music? Some head banging might do you some good, LMAO
To answer your question, some uber-script-kiddie wants to have uber-root privileges.;)
I ain't no Linux guru - but, this really does seem to be a circular logic thing. I gotta be root to install a root kit - but, WHY?!?!?! I'm already root, I already have access to all of root's p0rn (not to mention all the users on the system), WHAT MORE IS THERE?!?!?!!!!
Maybe I'll change my handle to UberRoot now. I've always wanted to be a master script kiddie.
Australia is predominantly female. It figures that they are going to be "socially correct". But, they could admit that they are prejudiced. What about some old dinosaur, like myself? A damned cave man, who just doesn't GIVE A SHIT that some little wench might be offended that I belch and fart sometimes? She is going to MANDATE that I get accredited "on emerging social trends and evolving best practice"? Or what? I can't use her internetz? Silly bitch, when I go Neanderthal on your ass, you WISH THE HELL that YOU had been "accredited on emerging social trends and evolving best practice"!
It makes a man want to puke. We can't even rape and pillage like real men nowadays, and now THIS garbage!
Toggle is easy. Just use two different browsers. Maybe your favorite browser is Firefox, and your second favorite is Chrome. Configure Firefox to use normal ports, configure Chrome to use the ports provided by the anonymity service. You can do normal browsing, and carry on anonymous business SIMULTANEOUSLY!!
Slow? Yeah. But, I'm willing to spend the time waiting for pages to load, to read the sekrit stuff people have to say about life under this or that repressive regime.
TOR is dominated by child porn, so I have pretty much given up on it. Freenet has child porn, but isn't dominated by it, so I'm still using it. I2P is relatively new to me. It's somewhat faster, but I haven't found much on it yet.
All of them will remain installed on my virtual machines, so that I can go exploring outside officially approved channels.
It should be noted that ALL OF THEM seem to have halted development. It's almost like NSA stopped funding them or something. Check the history and update logs of any of them, you'll see pretty regular updates up through mid-2007, then WHAM! development stops.
Odd, huh? Oh, someone's knocking at the door..... OH NO!!!! IT'S THE THOUGHT POLICE!!!
As far as colonies, I assure you it'll happen just as soon as we find a way to make a living doing it (e.g. it shows a profit)
That part is easy. Just convince women (no need to prove it, just convince them of the truth) that moondust mixed with their favorite cream will remove wrinkles. Or, dust from Mars. Just as soon as a sizeable number of women BELIEVE THAT to be true, then a sizeable number of men will become miners/processors/spacetruckdrivers.
The only economic force that matches man's greed, is woman's vanity.
I doubt that mankind would survive such an impact today.
The purpose of a lunar colony, in and of itself, is NOT to ensure the survival of such an impact. In all likelihood, the same impact would make the moon uninhabitable, sooner or later. (without the earth, the moon will probably not maintain a stable orbit around the sun, not to mention the debris raining down on the moon)
Rather, the lunar colony provides experience and knowledge applicable to building more colonies further out in the solar system, which will help to ensure mankind's survival.
Ulimately, the goal is to put man onto planets outside the solar system. Today, THAT is a near impossibility. But, if we are afraid to tackle the difficult project of colonizing the moon, we will certainly never achieve the near impossible.
Cold hard reality talks out his arse, just to hear himself make noise here. Maxume is on another chapter, not even close to this page of the book. No one cares if we are noticed. Being noticed is worthless, if we don't survive to make note of it. In fact, being noticed could be counterproductive, regarding survival of our species.
Both Ultranova and Bunga Dunga are on track. But, sealed cities on earth won't protect against a direct hit, or even a near miss from an asteroid, no matter WHERE it's located. A large enough asteroid could turn the earth into another asteroid belt. The point is not necessarily to put men on the moon - that's just a stopping point. The point is, putting men OFF EARTH.
The goal is to put those few dozen people on the moon ASAP, so that they can learn, then teach the rest of us how it needs to be done. A couple years later, a few hundred more, then a couple years later, a few THOUSAND more.
Remember - when any living organism stops growing, it has begun to die. I can't see much growth of the human species from where I stand.
The research isn't even geared to putting men in space. Look at the title of the article again - robots. We are frightened of space, so we'll explore by proxy, sending robots in our place. Look at Mars.
Ultranova says "Think with your brains rather than with your balls." Let's get thinking then. But, it takes balls to take action. At present we are trapped in the stage of dreaming, and there isn't even any serious thinking taking place.
Yes, this. The biggest problem with copyright today is NOT the fascist attempts to enforce valid copyrights. No, the single biggest problem, is the corruption of copyright law. If a song hasn't earned enough money after ten years, that's tough. It's just a damned song. After ten years of collecting royalties, it should be released into the public domain. Books, I can see copyrights of 25 years or so.
But, I don't expect to see this happening. Instead, the corporations are going to buy off enough politicians that copyrights remain in effect for_freaking_EVER!!
Eventually, (maybe 20 years, maybe 50) there will be one monopolistic corporation. AllYourTunesBelongToUs
Errr, wait. You seem to miss the point. No matter how efficient or inefficient the launch systems are, we need people off planet. Every single human female capable of bearing a child residing off earth represents a small victory. (feminazi's protests to that statement are duly noted - no need to waste bandwidth on them)
Damn rocket technology, I was addressing the survival of the human species. You want to wait til it's "economically feasible"?
We have the ABILITY to put dozens of people on the moon today. What we lack is the BALLS to do it.
Maybe this is part of the reason all of our auto manufacturers are going bankrupt? An auto is supposed to be a means of transportation, not an entertainment center. They have no business putting stupid crap like ipod connectors in the vehicle. And, people who think they NEED an ipod connector in the car are probably spending WAY TO MUCH TIME IN THEIR CAR! Park the damned thing, and walk some of that lard ass off. Stop polluting, stop wasting fossil fuels, and save the frigging planet, alright?
I'm ready. Hell, I'm 52 (errrr, uhhhhm, 53 tomorrow) and I'm ready to go. What's wrong with the younger generation? For that matter, what's wrong with MY GENERATION?!?!?!
Build that big assed Roman Candle, give me some room and some food, and light that bastard off!!
Slashdot Mirror
So - it - all - boils - down - to - money.
Hmmmm.
"Millions for defense but not one penny for tribute" Rep. Robert Goodloe Harper chairman of the committee on ways and means in Congress, on June 18, 1798
Mercenaries may be astronomically expensive, but what about paying tribute? You don't think that eventually, there comes a break even point?
When will the tribute end, if it isn't ended forcibly?
Convoying is a pain in the ass, of course. But, isn't paying tribute?
Macho bullshit? It's the macho bullshit that I learned under the leadership of United States Naval officers and petty officers.
Practically speaking, when we feared for the safety of our ship or crew, we answered with guns, then sought guidance from Washington. Guns first, radio second.
And, I would like to address the training of those merchant crews. The crew of the Maersk Alabama seemed to be moderately competent, wouldn't you say? Had those individuals in that crew had weapons, I dare say none of them would have shot themselves in the foot, and they would have repelled a boatload of half-assed ragtag pirates.
There are plenty of almost convincing arguments NOT TO ARM merchant mariners - from other countries. American merchant mariners stand apart, IMHO. Being American, a lot of them grew up with weapons - a lot like sailors in the Navy. At age 19, before any naval training, I was more than competent with a rifle.
I really am not accustomed to hearing an AUSTRALIAN sounding so damned ignorant. Your prejudice stands out loud and clear, however. Redneck. Billy Ray. Missura. You sound just like a refugee from the Los Angeles ghettos.
And, apparently illiterate as well. I said people LIKE ME. Read it carefully, you little hippy puss. People LIKE ME. Are you going to badmouth all the ANZACS who have died around the world, to protect your worthless ass? Anzacs who went ashore in godforsaken places with my dad in world war 2? People LIKE ME, and LIKE MY DAD, and LIKE MY SON.
No, you are NOT like any of us.
And, no, you wouldn't be procreating without people like me.
Get over it, you sheltered little pussy. You don't have the answers to squat. If you can possibly get untangled from your Mama's apron strings, you should get out in the world, and learn what real life is all about. Join the service. Serve. Give something of yourself. That is, if there IS anything of you that is worth giving.
If you're man enough, you may have the privilege of meeting my son in Korea or Germany. IF.
Small arms, and hand weapons can be permitted aboard a merchant, with little problem, with little alteration of existing treaties. A machine gun gets to be a little bit problematical.
A crew served weapon such as you suggest would drastically change a ship's status under any and all existing treaties.
While I approve, look at the arguments about a few rifles. Crap, every idiot in the world is upset over the idea of an M-16. No way will we ever get a 3" gun approved.
Never mind the idiots below who don't know what a 3" gun is - you phrased your post exactly right. ;)
Be afraid. Be very afraid. It's people like me who stand between you and the bad guys. Without people like me, people like you WOULDN'T be procreating, ya ignorant boob.
Two words.
Horse and SHIT
Inbred tribals who have refused to support any government are responsible for their own poverty. If you can manage to teach those inbreds how to do anything more complicated than squeezing a trigger and pursuing a slow moving ship in a speedboat, then they can get together, elect the least incompetent of the inbreds to represent them, then get the government to look after thier needs.
That ineffective government you mention, is the result of a bunch of inbred tribals who refuse to submit to governance. The very same inbred tribals who are on the high seas assaulting merchant ships.
Let's kill off the inbreds, and the government will prosper, and piracy will end.
The M-16 is a great idea. Deadly force met with deadly force is the only answer that is likely to work.
But, I have to say that I am constantly amazed at the presumption of those who ban deadly force. Sheltered pussies sitting in a sheltered land, defended by armed men thousands of miles away, have the gall to prohibit weapons for the men who actually go into harms way.
People, these are armed robbers we are talking about. For whatever reason, they have decided to TAKE valuable items from innocent men who are only trying to make a living. Merchant mariners put their lives at risk to deliver the goods, only to have armed robbers come aboard, shove weapons in their faces, and demand their livelihoods from them.
Philosophers have the luxury of sitting at thier computers, justifying the pirates conduct, and insisting that the pirate's rights be upheld.
Sailors whose lives are at risk don't have that luxury.
Deadly force, however applied, must be used. There are multiple choices, after all.
Arm the merchant mariners. If ports don't want armed mariners, either avoid those ports, or have the weapons locked up while in port. No big deal.
Take on a squad or two of mercenaries. Trained killers, determined to protect the ship. Here we have no problems with poorly trained men whose marksmanship sucks.
Convoys. No ship transits the Gulf Monday thru Thursday. On Friday, one full fledged convoy transits southbound, and another transits northbound. The rest of the week, the Naval pirate killers patrol far and wide, searching for pirates to kill.
I repeat - I am simply amazed that so many people, around the world, can sit on their asses and pretend to know what life at sea is like, pretend to know how to deal with pirates, and they've never walked aboard a fucking SHIP!!
Morons. These are the same people who whine and cry because there are never enough cops to protect them, so when a bad guy comes along, they just curl up and die for the nice bad man.
I wouldn't sail anywhere without a weapon. I wouldn't even sail up the Mississippi river, let alone the Gulf of Aden without a weapon.
Let's get over this abhorrence we have for deadly force. If someone is trying to rob, rape, or kill you, the scum needs to be put down.
Or, you can kneel down to him, and make him your king.
I have a problem with converting. The city asked a private corporation to provide a service, and was turned down. The city then asked it's residents to fund the same service, and the citizens approved, and funded the service. The citizens, in effect, are providing their own service to themselves. Corporate America needs to bug off. The city has every right and authority to provide services if/when the residents demand that service. While this particular service may not fall withing traditional government services, I do not see that as a barrier.
It is preposterous that any city or other government body should be subject to corporate influence. This story only highlights the corruption that results from corporate lobbying.
Perhaps not "glaring". But, it is obvious that he is predisposed to judge certain types of cases in a certain manner. It is obvious that he will have prejudged all manner of arguments before hearing them. It is obvious that he has at least a working relation, if not a friendship, with the members of the prosecution.
If you are ever dragged before a court, will you be comforted to know that the judge and the prosecution are all members of the same country club that the complainant belongs to? You wouldn't suspect that your case had already been settled the night before, over dinner and martinis?
In my mind, the judge is corrupt. He should have recused himself from the case, and allowed an impartial judge to hear the case.
(sarcasem) I'll be happy when they focus on the Taxi companies. Damned pirates, if they weren't buying a few cars and then renting them to deadbeat consumers, those deadbeats would have to BUY A CAR!! If all consumers had to own their own car, GM would be healthy!! This piracy is the root of the world's economic ills, I tell you!! (/sarcasm)
Seriously, there goes the right of first purchase.
At one end of the scale, you'll find those who think the world owes them entertainment. At the other end of the scale, you'll find those copyright squatters who think the world owes them a lavish living for sitting on dead men's works, and for acquiring a monopoly on distribution schemes.
On your same scale, throwing a kid in jail for wanting to hear music without paying the parasites is just about negative infinity.
Now that we have judged each other's positions, got anything constructive to offer?
How about selling the kids all the music they want at a penny or a nickel a song, and allow them fair use, and personal copying right? Ditch the DRM. The use of DRM costs the copyright holder more than distribution!! It's not like it COSTS to distribute - especially if the copyright holders get their heads out of their butts, and use popular distribution schemes, like The Pirate Bay.
You make a solid case for overhauling the educational system in America. It's preposterous that we are now in the "information age", and schoolchildren don't know how to invoke a command line interface. It's one thing for the elderly (over age 30?) not to understand computers, but CHILDREN should certainly be computer savvy.
Oh yeah. Name some jobs that Windows "does perfectly well". You don't mean such jobs as harboring trojans, worms, and viruses, do you?
"backed by a major corporation" Yeah. I got lots and lots of real support from Microsoft. Things like "You'll need to call a computer tech to look at this problem for you." Or, in the case of Compaq, "You'll have to ship the machine back to Compaq for repairs."
Uh-huh. Yeah. What you meant to type was, "Dummies still aren't ready for Linux." Look beyond the shores of the United States. More and more of the market IS UPGRADING TO LINUX!
In communist China, Red Flag install you!! ;)
Except that the exploit depends on very specific architecture. http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/motherboards/DQ35JO/DQ35JO-overview.htm
I may be missing something here, but the hardware doesn't appear to be the first choice of people building server farms.
Windows has been safer for a while. If Desktop Linux had the market share that Windows boxes did, hackers would make swiss cheese of it.
I so enjoy these failed exercises in logic. "If Linux" and "If Windows", etc.
The fact is, no one routinely breaks into Linux systems. People DO routinely break into Windows. Just try to get a grip on reality, without the "If" bullshit.
Why do you think that Gates settled on the name "Windows"? He knew that it could be easily broken. Hell, he didn't even need to put in backdoors, just break a window, any window, and you have access to the system.
I invite you to break into my system, since "hackers" can so easily make swiss cheese of it. (I use the term "hackers" very loosely, in keeping with your apparent definition of "hacker") Do you need any help, or can you manage this trivial task alone?
Put the horse before the horse shit, alright? Blatant abuse of copyright "law" caused a problem that was addressed by piracy, then in turn,the abusers of copyright "law" attempted to address THEIR problem with piracy.
And, your holier-than-thou attitude toward cigarettes goes hand in hand with the abuse of copyright. Some kid wants to smoke, but "THE MAN" has the badge, the gun, the club, and all the money to back up his dictates that the kid can't smoke.
Why don't you smoke a doobie and chill out with that kid, and listen to some of his pirated headbanger's music? Some head banging might do you some good, LMAO
To answer your question, some uber-script-kiddie wants to have uber-root privileges. ;)
I ain't no Linux guru - but, this really does seem to be a circular logic thing. I gotta be root to install a root kit - but, WHY?!?!?! I'm already root, I already have access to all of root's p0rn (not to mention all the users on the system), WHAT MORE IS THERE?!?!?!!!!
Maybe I'll change my handle to UberRoot now. I've always wanted to be a master script kiddie.
Australia is predominantly female. It figures that they are going to be "socially correct". But, they could admit that they are prejudiced. What about some old dinosaur, like myself? A damned cave man, who just doesn't GIVE A SHIT that some little wench might be offended that I belch and fart sometimes? She is going to MANDATE that I get accredited "on emerging social trends and evolving best practice"? Or what? I can't use her internetz? Silly bitch, when I go Neanderthal on your ass, you WISH THE HELL that YOU had been "accredited on emerging social trends and evolving best practice"!
It makes a man want to puke. We can't even rape and pillage like real men nowadays, and now THIS garbage!
Toggle is easy. Just use two different browsers. Maybe your favorite browser is Firefox, and your second favorite is Chrome. Configure Firefox to use normal ports, configure Chrome to use the ports provided by the anonymity service. You can do normal browsing, and carry on anonymous business SIMULTANEOUSLY!!
Slow? Yeah. But, I'm willing to spend the time waiting for pages to load, to read the sekrit stuff people have to say about life under this or that repressive regime.
TOR is dominated by child porn, so I have pretty much given up on it. Freenet has child porn, but isn't dominated by it, so I'm still using it. I2P is relatively new to me. It's somewhat faster, but I haven't found much on it yet.
All of them will remain installed on my virtual machines, so that I can go exploring outside officially approved channels.
It should be noted that ALL OF THEM seem to have halted development. It's almost like NSA stopped funding them or something. Check the history and update logs of any of them, you'll see pretty regular updates up through mid-2007, then WHAM! development stops.
Odd, huh? Oh, someone's knocking at the door..... OH NO!!!! IT'S THE THOUGHT POLICE!!!
As far as colonies, I assure you it'll happen just as soon as we find a way to make a living doing it (e.g. it shows a profit)
That part is easy. Just convince women (no need to prove it, just convince them of the truth) that moondust mixed with their favorite cream will remove wrinkles. Or, dust from Mars. Just as soon as a sizeable number of women BELIEVE THAT to be true, then a sizeable number of men will become miners/processors/spacetruckdrivers.
The only economic force that matches man's greed, is woman's vanity.
A large enough asteroid impact could cause the earth to look like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_belt
I doubt that mankind would survive such an impact today.
The purpose of a lunar colony, in and of itself, is NOT to ensure the survival of such an impact. In all likelihood, the same impact would make the moon uninhabitable, sooner or later. (without the earth, the moon will probably not maintain a stable orbit around the sun, not to mention the debris raining down on the moon)
Rather, the lunar colony provides experience and knowledge applicable to building more colonies further out in the solar system, which will help to ensure mankind's survival.
Ulimately, the goal is to put man onto planets outside the solar system. Today, THAT is a near impossibility. But, if we are afraid to tackle the difficult project of colonizing the moon, we will certainly never achieve the near impossible.
Cold hard reality talks out his arse, just to hear himself make noise here. Maxume is on another chapter, not even close to this page of the book. No one cares if we are noticed. Being noticed is worthless, if we don't survive to make note of it. In fact, being noticed could be counterproductive, regarding survival of our species.
Both Ultranova and Bunga Dunga are on track. But, sealed cities on earth won't protect against a direct hit, or even a near miss from an asteroid, no matter WHERE it's located. A large enough asteroid could turn the earth into another asteroid belt. The point is not necessarily to put men on the moon - that's just a stopping point. The point is, putting men OFF EARTH.
The goal is to put those few dozen people on the moon ASAP, so that they can learn, then teach the rest of us how it needs to be done. A couple years later, a few hundred more, then a couple years later, a few THOUSAND more.
Remember - when any living organism stops growing, it has begun to die. I can't see much growth of the human species from where I stand.
The research isn't even geared to putting men in space. Look at the title of the article again - robots. We are frightened of space, so we'll explore by proxy, sending robots in our place. Look at Mars.
Ultranova says "Think with your brains rather than with your balls." Let's get thinking then. But, it takes balls to take action. At present we are trapped in the stage of dreaming, and there isn't even any serious thinking taking place.
Yes, this. The biggest problem with copyright today is NOT the fascist attempts to enforce valid copyrights. No, the single biggest problem, is the corruption of copyright law. If a song hasn't earned enough money after ten years, that's tough. It's just a damned song. After ten years of collecting royalties, it should be released into the public domain. Books, I can see copyrights of 25 years or so.
But, I don't expect to see this happening. Instead, the corporations are going to buy off enough politicians that copyrights remain in effect for_freaking_EVER!!
Eventually, (maybe 20 years, maybe 50) there will be one monopolistic corporation. AllYourTunesBelongToUs
Errr, wait. You seem to miss the point. No matter how efficient or inefficient the launch systems are, we need people off planet. Every single human female capable of bearing a child residing off earth represents a small victory. (feminazi's protests to that statement are duly noted - no need to waste bandwidth on them)
Damn rocket technology, I was addressing the survival of the human species. You want to wait til it's "economically feasible"?
We have the ABILITY to put dozens of people on the moon today. What we lack is the BALLS to do it.
Maybe this is part of the reason all of our auto manufacturers are going bankrupt? An auto is supposed to be a means of transportation, not an entertainment center. They have no business putting stupid crap like ipod connectors in the vehicle. And, people who think they NEED an ipod connector in the car are probably spending WAY TO MUCH TIME IN THEIR CAR! Park the damned thing, and walk some of that lard ass off. Stop polluting, stop wasting fossil fuels, and save the frigging planet, alright?
I'm ready. Hell, I'm 52 (errrr, uhhhhm, 53 tomorrow) and I'm ready to go. What's wrong with the younger generation? For that matter, what's wrong with MY GENERATION?!?!?!
Build that big assed Roman Candle, give me some room and some food, and light that bastard off!!