Didn't even read the summary.
My knee-jerk answer to the question was:
As long as
1) I'm a productive member of my society
2) I more or less enjoy myself
3) I can pass a Turing test (or some other generic boundary to establish a minimum sentience)
Given those three criteria, I'd be set for a very long life. I don't think that would stretch forever. Even given eternal youth, I'm bound to go crazy on a murderous rampage (see #1), or get super-emo-depressed (see #2). Given eternity, you run into chaos theory, so all sorts of things are on the table. Realistically though, I would rather not be some doped up grandpa in a vegetative state. But right now I WANT to live a good life forever.
Fun fact, when you let out compressed gas, the canister gets cool. It's actually a design problem for compressed air engines. It wouldn't work so well in cold moist places. You need to keep the engine and fuel tank decently warm to avoid everything icing up.
I believe he's calling out the fact that women have tits. They make milk and men don't. (BTW, if she pumps, the father can still be the one primarily taking care of the kid. But yeah, that's a pain. And while mother's milk is best, formula CAN feed a child)
But anyway, read it again. He's talking about stay-at-home dads.
There is no such thing as a perfectly free economy. It's an ideal to work towards. There are markets which are more free than others for a variety of reasons:
Government mandated monopolies
Old fashioned business monopolies
Natural monopolies
Barrier to entry
Customer loyalty
Lock-in
Collusion
Psychological things like fear, trust, risk aversion, paranoia, greed, envy, and hate
Lack of information, misinformation, misunderstood information, and FUD
And in an effort to stay on topic: religion, traditional views, and good ol' fashioned bigotry can keep the market from being "free".
In theory, yes, if you charge too much for a product/service/whatnot your competition will eat your lunch. In an ideal world that's how it would work and we wouldn't need a government. Sadly, we don't live there. Welcome to reality. Some things need to be regulated. Some things really don't.
I find it so fascinating. I've known many Persians. To a man and woman, they were intelligent, passionate, vocal and idealistic. So how did a nation with such cultural depth, such delightful people, so much going for them go so far off the track.
I'm in a similar boat with the type of Persians I've met. Of course, most of them have been rich and/or educated enough to be able to make their way to the USA. Yeah, most have been grad students. A couple were kids of people rich enough to GTFO.
You know how it's good advice for bigots to travel around and find that people are more or less the same no matter where you go? The same goes for those who idealize the exotic. Everywhere has a bell-curve of people.
Well, most still accept new medicare patients. As in 74%. Compared to the 87% that accept new patients with private insurance. So ~15% of doctors out there will take new patients, but will refuse medicare as a payment. Depending how that's spread about it could be a problem for some locations. And it could grow into a widespread problem eventually. But I'm not shitting bricks at the moment. And if the usage of medicare is expanded, and EVERYONE is covered, I imagine that it would take less paperwork to try and get approved for medicare. I'm not sure how HR686 is worded, so it might only cover citizens and exclude our second class citizens, but that would be odd. And I imagine there's still paperwork to prove that what they did was really needed. Maybe it's worse than whatever deals they have with the insurance companies, but I can't imagine it's less corrupt. But that's entirely because I have zero faith in insurance companies.
But hey, if too many doctors/hospitals/whatnot decide that the gravy train of private insurance is too good to let go of, then the idea of publicly funded/privately distributed might indeed need to change to publicly funded and distributed. I see that as a viable option on the table. If it's just that the paperwork is too much, well, that's something we would need to improve and streamline. As long as corruption and fraud doesn't become a problem. No one said this was a simple problem to fix, and anyone telling you their solution is perfect is full of shit.
Do you see anyone being "conscripted" into becoming a mailman? You know, into the federal US postal service? No?
Oh, well then, instead of conscripting a bunch of professionals with black bags in the night, maybe they'll just hire them. That is, if we actually nationalize the healthcare industry. Now, if HR676 passes, we won't even be doing that, we'll just be paying them out of the collective taxes rather than the collective insurance funds. The difference being that the government doesn't pocket the profit and ultimately works for the people. The similarity being that you can't shop around for where you get coverage.
In one case, the actor posts the information to express to the world the tyranny under which they live to maybe just someday restore some kind of liberty in their lives, at great risk to their own life. In the other case the actor posts the information with the express purpose of shaming and harming the government that authored them.
Uh... both of those cases are valid for both Assange and the Syrian example. The Syrian is oppressed AND wants to shame/harm the tyrant. Same with Assange. You know, USA and corporations doing generally dickish moves on a global scale is a form of oppression. It's at a greater distance since it's their actions abroad, but they're still trying to impose their will on those that don't want it, and at the cost of others.
What would the position of the slashdotters be if Assange weren't leaking classified information, but, say, private information of EU citizens?
I think that's been done. Yeah, here we go:
In January 2011, Rudolf Elmer, a former Swiss banker, passed on data containing account details of 2,000 prominent people to Assange, who stated that the information will be vetted before being made publicly available at a later date.[168]
Soooo, while it's a violation of privacy, if it exposes dastardly people doing dastardly thing, then all the more power to him. Seriously, screw those bankers and tax dodgers. And specifically, all the more power to Rudolf Elmer, the guy who actually leaked this information. Wikileaks is just doing the dissemination and proofing. (and keeping the source a secret, but that ball has been dropped.) Also making sure that the data being leaked only punishes those who really deserve it. They're not in the business of giving out everyone's credit card numbers. Duh.
But if they did, sure, we'd be pissed. Well I would anyway. What can I say, I'd feel bad for those poor lonely Europeans. (But still, ew)
But governments have the right to their own secrets. Assange was knowingly distributing them with malice
Yes. And exposed some extremely bad activities and people in doing so. He trampled all over the privacy laws, which is a problem, to expose an even bigger problem.
I'm all for him being charged and punished for violating those privacy rights. As long as I could trust the people in power to not charge him with bullshit charges, indefinitely detain him, or kill him. Which, quite sadly, I cannot. There's rising amounts of proof that I can't trust those people not to be dicks.
So with that in mind, I'm perfectly fine with Assange doing what he can to keep out of the grasp of those who would almost assuredly not give him a fair trial.
Meanwhile, I pretty damn pissed that my government is being this vile. I would prefer that they acknowledge their mistakes, thank him for bringing them to light, and make some serious efforts to weed out the corruption and vileness in the system.
We don't really understand consciousness so we don't know how much of the brain is responsible for it
All of it.
Suppose we were to hit this old intact brain with a jolt of electricity - would it feel it?
Yes. The same way a rock feels the chisel splitting it. As long as you define "feel" as "is affected by".
Would it be conscious at some level for a brief moment but completely unable to inform us?
No.
Would it suffer a brief horrible dream?
No. The patterns, structure, and chemical reactions required for processing dreams no longer exist
It makes me feel like I want to have my brain completely obliterated somehow when I die so I can be sure there is nothing left that is capable of suffering
Rest easy friend, the meatspace is all there is. And even when you're alive and functioning, there's no suffering with structural damage to the brain. You're diminished, sure, and can be a vegestable afterwards. But pain is a tool of the system. It isn't applied when mucking about with the system. (Unless you cross a bad wire in which case, wow, that's gotta hurt).
So now what do you do with the student who belongs to the studentID that was recorded browsing federally illegal material even though the student was home sick that day?
Because students NEVER leak their username and passwords to anyone.
The same way that a local municipality investing in infrastructure helps provide services to the locals.
If/when peak oil hits, this city will be ahead of the curve. While others are without power, or paying through the nose (and taxing the locals for it), and/or suffering from rapid change, this city will be self sustaining and simply cheaper to live in.
It's also a vote of confidence in renewable energy and sustainable living, which, if more people got on board with, will help save the planet as we know it. Saving the planet being a good thing for the submitter (and the rest of us). And since we live in a global society, and it matters to the submitter how the rest of the world does, he helps himself when he tries to help the whole.
Then ask: "How many hours does it take to become a manager?"
Well my boss usually took an hour or two for lunch, plus there was the drinks afterwards, so it was about 4 hours total. Buy hey now, it took DECADES of being being his son. That's time I'm just not going to get back.
You know, if you toned down the cynicism a bit you'd be a decent political commenter. Or if you staged it in such a way that everyone knew you were a crotchety old bastard. Like if you (or a 60+ facimile of you) recorded this in a recliner and told everyone to piss off when you were done. Or if you were arguing at the other regulars in a barbershop.
No no, that helped a lot. Thanks.
So this arbitrage is kinda like making a global exchange, bringing everyone into the same market. But rather than flat fees, they make money on the imbalance... hmm.
You mean like "a local place which has DIVINE pizza"?
Wow, if only I had taken that into account on my list.
If only I had put that at the top.
If only someone had read my post.
See kids, this is what thin-crust New York style does to you.
Slashdot Mirror
So... the logical conclusion:
Tape your eyes open and fall asleep under infographic posters.
Didn't even read the summary.
My knee-jerk answer to the question was:
As long as
1) I'm a productive member of my society
2) I more or less enjoy myself
3) I can pass a Turing test (or some other generic boundary to establish a minimum sentience)
Given those three criteria, I'd be set for a very long life. I don't think that would stretch forever. Even given eternal youth, I'm bound to go crazy on a murderous rampage (see #1), or get super-emo-depressed (see #2). Given eternity, you run into chaos theory, so all sorts of things are on the table. Realistically though, I would rather not be some doped up grandpa in a vegetative state. But right now I WANT to live a good life forever.
Have looked for a hackerspace in your area?
Fun fact, when you let out compressed gas, the canister gets cool. It's actually a design problem for compressed air engines. It wouldn't work so well in cold moist places. You need to keep the engine and fuel tank decently warm to avoid everything icing up.
So, it's A/C is naturally built into the design.
I believe he's calling out the fact that women have tits. They make milk and men don't. (BTW, if she pumps, the father can still be the one primarily taking care of the kid. But yeah, that's a pain. And while mother's milk is best, formula CAN feed a child)
But anyway, read it again. He's talking about stay-at-home dads.
FOOL!
Except that is not what you do in a free economy.
There is no such thing as a perfectly free economy. It's an ideal to work towards. There are markets which are more free than others for a variety of reasons:
Government mandated monopolies
Old fashioned business monopolies
Natural monopolies
Barrier to entry
Customer loyalty
Lock-in
Collusion
Psychological things like fear, trust, risk aversion, paranoia, greed, envy, and hate
Lack of information, misinformation, misunderstood information, and FUD
And in an effort to stay on topic: religion, traditional views, and good ol' fashioned bigotry can keep the market from being "free".
In theory, yes, if you charge too much for a product/service/whatnot your competition will eat your lunch. In an ideal world that's how it would work and we wouldn't need a government. Sadly, we don't live there. Welcome to reality. Some things need to be regulated. Some things really don't.
I find it so fascinating. I've known many Persians. To a man and woman, they were intelligent, passionate, vocal and idealistic. So how did a nation with such cultural depth, such delightful people, so much going for them go so far off the track.
I'm in a similar boat with the type of Persians I've met. Of course, most of them have been rich and/or educated enough to be able to make their way to the USA. Yeah, most have been grad students. A couple were kids of people rich enough to GTFO.
You know how it's good advice for bigots to travel around and find that people are more or less the same no matter where you go? The same goes for those who idealize the exotic. Everywhere has a bell-curve of people.
Well, most still accept new medicare patients. As in 74%. Compared to the 87% that accept new patients with private insurance. So ~15% of doctors out there will take new patients, but will refuse medicare as a payment. Depending how that's spread about it could be a problem for some locations. And it could grow into a widespread problem eventually. But I'm not shitting bricks at the moment. And if the usage of medicare is expanded, and EVERYONE is covered, I imagine that it would take less paperwork to try and get approved for medicare. I'm not sure how HR686 is worded, so it might only cover citizens and exclude our second class citizens, but that would be odd. And I imagine there's still paperwork to prove that what they did was really needed. Maybe it's worse than whatever deals they have with the insurance companies, but I can't imagine it's less corrupt. But that's entirely because I have zero faith in insurance companies.
But hey, if too many doctors/hospitals/whatnot decide that the gravy train of private insurance is too good to let go of, then the idea of publicly funded/privately distributed might indeed need to change to publicly funded and distributed. I see that as a viable option on the table. If it's just that the paperwork is too much, well, that's something we would need to improve and streamline. As long as corruption and fraud doesn't become a problem. No one said this was a simple problem to fix, and anyone telling you their solution is perfect is full of shit.
Do you see anyone being "conscripted" into becoming a mailman? You know, into the federal US postal service? No?
Oh, well then, instead of conscripting a bunch of professionals with black bags in the night, maybe they'll just hire them. That is, if we actually nationalize the healthcare industry. Now, if HR676 passes, we won't even be doing that, we'll just be paying them out of the collective taxes rather than the collective insurance funds. The difference being that the government doesn't pocket the profit and ultimately works for the people. The similarity being that you can't shop around for where you get coverage.
Oh hell no. We REALLY don't want to be the world's policemen.
In one case, the actor posts the information to express to the world the tyranny under which they live to maybe just someday restore some kind of liberty in their lives, at great risk to their own life. In the other case the actor posts the information with the express purpose of shaming and harming the government that authored them.
Uh... both of those cases are valid for both Assange and the Syrian example. The Syrian is oppressed AND wants to shame/harm the tyrant. Same with Assange. You know, USA and corporations doing generally dickish moves on a global scale is a form of oppression. It's at a greater distance since it's their actions abroad, but they're still trying to impose their will on those that don't want it, and at the cost of others.
What would the position of the slashdotters be if Assange weren't leaking classified information, but, say, private information of EU citizens?
I think that's been done. Yeah, here we go:
In January 2011, Rudolf Elmer, a former Swiss banker, passed on data containing account details of 2,000 prominent people to Assange, who stated that the information will be vetted before being made publicly available at a later date.[168]
Soooo, while it's a violation of privacy, if it exposes dastardly people doing dastardly thing, then all the more power to him. Seriously, screw those bankers and tax dodgers. And specifically, all the more power to Rudolf Elmer, the guy who actually leaked this information. Wikileaks is just doing the dissemination and proofing. (and keeping the source a secret, but that ball has been dropped.) Also making sure that the data being leaked only punishes those who really deserve it. They're not in the business of giving out everyone's credit card numbers. Duh.
But if they did, sure, we'd be pissed. Well I would anyway. What can I say, I'd feel bad for those poor lonely Europeans. (But still, ew)
But governments have the right to their own secrets. Assange was knowingly distributing them with malice
Yes. And exposed some extremely bad activities and people in doing so. He trampled all over the privacy laws, which is a problem, to expose an even bigger problem.
I'm all for him being charged and punished for violating those privacy rights. As long as I could trust the people in power to not charge him with bullshit charges, indefinitely detain him, or kill him. Which, quite sadly, I cannot. There's rising amounts of proof that I can't trust those people not to be dicks. So with that in mind, I'm perfectly fine with Assange doing what he can to keep out of the grasp of those who would almost assuredly not give him a fair trial.
Meanwhile, I pretty damn pissed that my government is being this vile. I would prefer that they acknowledge their mistakes, thank him for bringing them to light, and make some serious efforts to weed out the corruption and vileness in the system.
Well ok, here's the SFW version: Come on, read some of the cables and make up your own mind.
Whelp, there's the next plot for my shadowrun group.
My Wizard6/SwordSage2 is inconsolable.
Now he'll never get that ring of wizardry III
how much a brain works after it is dead
It doesn't.
We don't really understand consciousness so we don't know how much of the brain is responsible for it
All of it.
Suppose we were to hit this old intact brain with a jolt of electricity - would it feel it?
Yes. The same way a rock feels the chisel splitting it. As long as you define "feel" as "is affected by".
Would it be conscious at some level for a brief moment but completely unable to inform us?
No.
Would it suffer a brief horrible dream?
No. The patterns, structure, and chemical reactions required for processing dreams no longer exist
It makes me feel like I want to have my brain completely obliterated somehow when I die so I can be sure there is nothing left that is capable of suffering
Rest easy friend, the meatspace is all there is. And even when you're alive and functioning, there's no suffering with structural damage to the brain. You're diminished, sure, and can be a vegestable afterwards. But pain is a tool of the system. It isn't applied when mucking about with the system. (Unless you cross a bad wire in which case, wow, that's gotta hurt).
So now what do you do with the student who belongs to the studentID that was recorded browsing federally illegal material even though the student was home sick that day?
Because students NEVER leak their username and passwords to anyone.
The same way that a local municipality investing in infrastructure helps provide services to the locals.
If/when peak oil hits, this city will be ahead of the curve. While others are without power, or paying through the nose (and taxing the locals for it), and/or suffering from rapid change, this city will be self sustaining and simply cheaper to live in.
It's also a vote of confidence in renewable energy and sustainable living, which, if more people got on board with, will help save the planet as we know it. Saving the planet being a good thing for the submitter (and the rest of us). And since we live in a global society, and it matters to the submitter how the rest of the world does, he helps himself when he tries to help the whole.
SHAKA! When the walls fell...
Then ask: "How many hours does it take to become a manager?"
Well my boss usually took an hour or two for lunch, plus there was the drinks afterwards, so it was about 4 hours total. Buy hey now, it took DECADES of being being his son. That's time I'm just not going to get back.
An optimist tells you the glass is half full, a pessimist tells you the glass is half empty.
Which one is lying?
Quisling. I've learned something new.
You know, if you toned down the cynicism a bit you'd be a decent political commenter. Or if you staged it in such a way that everyone knew you were a crotchety old bastard. Like if you (or a 60+ facimile of you) recorded this in a recliner and told everyone to piss off when you were done. Or if you were arguing at the other regulars in a barbershop.
No no, that helped a lot. Thanks.
So this arbitrage is kinda like making a global exchange, bringing everyone into the same market. But rather than flat fees, they make money on the imbalance... hmm.
You mean like "a local place which has DIVINE pizza"?
Wow, if only I had taken that into account on my list.
If only I had put that at the top.
If only someone had read my post.
See kids, this is what thin-crust New York style does to you.
Beauty is only GUI deep, but ugly goes straight to the code.