I'd rather have an "embarrassment" (why an embarrassment? because the media say it's so, and logical analysis of facts goes out the window?) who actually made a decision once in her life, than a nobody-nothing whose experience is a big fat zero.
Have you seen the jokers we've been putting into office this past century and more?
Like the guy with zero private-sector experience, almost non-existent political experience (voting "present" is not making a decision), without any proof of eligibility, with a questionable past, no ex-girlfriends or friends, no school records, no recollection of actual contributions to the Law Review of the college he attended, and absolutely zero specific promises, only vague Stalinist-style "marching toward a bright future" bullcrap.
Which people fell for anyway. And you're still surprised?
It would be nice if the problem was with technology. However, real life doesn't work like this. For every wide-eyed idealist, there's a hundred Timothy Geithners (tax cheat), Charles Rangel (40 years' worth of tax abuses), and Anthony Wieners (do I really need to explain this one?), who will do everything and anything to gain as much power, money, and prestige as they can - the "small people" be damned.
It's unfortunate, but that's how it is. And it's not likely to change, for several reasons which would make far too long of an explanation. Suffice it to say that I could write 10 pages on each one, and still only scratch the surface of the complexity and difficulty involved in overcoming them. A brilliant author summarized this paradigm shift, half a century ago (emphasis mine):
"Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against - then you'll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We're after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you'd better get wise to it. There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted - and you create a nation of law-breakers - and then you cash in on guilt. Now, that's the system, Mr. Rearden, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."
Politics, according to a dictionary definition that's been scrubbed long ago, is "the business of acquiring, maintaining, and exercising power."
It's not about what "the people" want. It's not about what is "right" or "proper". It's about "what I can get for myself". And s long as decent people continue to tolerate indecent things, the jackasses in power will continue to do whatever they want. (Now, I'm not advocating the John Ross "Unintended Consequences" type of solution, but seriously, how do we make these jagoffs even pretend to do the right thing?)
It's not about the availability of technologies or the economic and social reasons for implementing them. It's about keeping those in power, in power.
"That's the system, Mr. CodeInspired, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."
The Internet put the power of reporting the news in the hands of anyone, not just the ivory-tower, credentialed journalists. That was half the death knell. The bigger issue, however, is the fact that by then, mass-media outlets have become opinion grinders, shaping and making the news rather than reporting it. If it wasn't for CNN/ABC/CBS/etc filtering what they didn't want to report, and spinning the few bits of info that they did decide to let through, people wouldn't have latched on to Drudge, Breitbart, and others.
And now, faced with a quantum-leap catastrophe, instead of recognizing their mistakes and learning from them, they fight the new wave rather than embrace it. They're making the same mistake manufacturers of horse-carriage-related goods made when they protested the advent of cars. The coachbuilders who embraced the new paradigm went on to become the premier suppliers of custom interiors and/or bodies for luxury cars (Vanden Plas, et al) - the others perished.
I wonder if there's a FOSS version of Qik or something similar. How many incidents will it take where someone records the cops doing something wrong - they take the phone & assault the user - get sued & video appears in court - cops get screwed - before the government figures out some way to step on Qik's toes?
If there was an open-source version, and it was all over the Github, then any threat against the company could be answered with "You want to shut us down? Go ahead. Ever heard of the Streisand Effect? Thousands of people will compile versions of Qik and mass-distribute it. And you'll have to put out 1,000 wildfires instead of 1. So yeah, go ahead, shut us down." or something along these lines.
Well, apparently because when the Palestinian Mandate was divided in 1948, and 86% of that land was given to what has become Jordan, with a huge percentage of the Palestinian Arabs now living there - that wasn't enough. The 14% of the land that the British and French governments decided to carve out of the territories they occupied, that went to Israel, was deemed "too much" by the neighboring Arabs.
Apparently, because Israel was attacked at its inception, and then again and again, every several years, yet they still managed to survive. How DARE they defend themselves?
Apparently, because although Arabs living in Israel are FULL CITIZENS with absolutely equal rights - yet Jews and Christians living in Arab states are treated like second-class people at best / subhuman at worst - that's still not enough.
Apparently, because Israel transports over 13,000 tons of food into Gaza every week, at no charge, that's not enough.
Apparently, because Israel DARES to respond to rocket attacks against residential areas, and kills a few Palestinians in the process.
All those reasons, are the apparent cause of Israel being an eeeevil, apartheid state.
Yeah, because those damn Jews occupying 0.6% of the land area compared to the land under control of the Arab League is just TOO MUCH. They don't deserve it.
Dude... "I'm even more sorry that "can I get a picture of that underage virtual pussy" is the first place your mind went when we showed you the photographer mode."...
Yes, there are good answers. "Because our game engine allows any camera view of any object. Prove intent now, asshole." is one I'd give, followed by something along the lines of "...and your pretentious moral outrage should be shoved right up your ass until the problem of real rape on the streets is resolved. When women aren't gang-raped for real anymore, then you can be upset about pixels on the screen."
The whole "next hour/next day/next week" thing is just overly paranoid, since most places have adjustments to AOC laws like the "Romeo & Juliet Clause" in many US states (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statutory_rape#Romeo_and_Juliet_laws), or judicial/prosecutorial guidelines that make a "reasonable allowance" (i.e. 1-2 months, sometimes as much as 6, in the case of a long-term relationship substantiated by character witnesses and material proof) for cases where the ages are close enough that making an adjustment of a couple of months will make it a non-issue.
It has nothing to do with the judge/prosecutor being a "nice guy", they just realize that the burden of proof is ridiculously high + there would be little or no public pressure if the accused is 18 and his girlfriend is 17+8months + there are too many precedents where such cases were thrown out on the first appeal. Plus, prison overcrowding is already an issue. So overall, if it's "very close", you realistically have nothing to fear. At least in "civilized" states like NY, NJ, CA, and FL. Can't vouch for Arkansas et al.
Try going to any "literotica" site (ex. www.asstr.org) and doing a search for "Mg" or "ped" or any other "interesting" keywords. There's a whooooole universe out there that you haven't seen yet...
BTW, the federal AOC of 18 is meant as a "safeguard" so no state could raise the AOC above 18. Many states have AOC of 17, 16, and a few even set it at 15.
Here's a chart listing the AOC by country, as well as by individual US states: http://www.avert.org/age-of-consent.htm
By using a pejorative adjective to automatically attach negative meaning to all members of a group of people, you're making me think that your opinion on the Tea Party may not be totally objective... just a slight hint there.
This is exactly why both major parties are shitting kittens every time the Tea Party is mentioned. Oh damn, a viable contender to the 2-party duocracy, the first in over a century? AAAAAAAAHHHH NOOOOOO!
Also, who's going to pay for those tracking devices?
The government? Great, just what we need - another agency/bureau, and spending money on enforcing yet another moronic tax.
The people? Let's make the slaves pay for their own chains. Lovely.
Auto manufacturers? Sure, let's increase cost-per-vehicle, which is going to be especially punitive for the lower end of the price spectrum (a $ 1000 device is only a tiny fraction of a $ 100,000 luxury car's price, but a much bigger additional weight on a $ 10K - $ 12K budget car). Also, let's screw over Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen, etc, while continuing to subsidize Government Motors with endless bailouts. What's another grand added to cost-per-vehicle when we've already done that tenfold?
Local and state governments? Once again, forcing slaves to pay for their chains, except now on the State-VS-Federal level.
Who the hell comes up with these kinds of ideas? And why isn't there a method of removing total morons from office based on the unbelievable level of the stupidity of their proposals???
There's already a gas tax. There's a highway tax. There's a "Metropolitan Commuter Tax" in NYC, as well as an assortment of other mini-taxes in other municipalities. There are already taxes on everything that has to do with vehicular travel - not to mention all the fees. And the punitive tickets for doing things that were perfectly OK before the raging morons took over the legislative system (i.e. using a cell phone).
Now, let's ponder why would you need to add another tax that specifically punishes those who travel a lot. [paranoia mode on] Could it be to restrict the movements of the masses and force more people to use the public-transit systems? Oh yeah, the transit unions would love that. Could it be to give the government a way to track every vehicle and pinpoint the location of anyone at any time? George Orwell is ecstatic. Could it be to isolate those with "unusual patterns of movement" and investigate them pre-emptively? Could it be to further damage the auto industry by discouraging car purchases, and of course to continue putting GM outside the normal market forces by pouring billions in subsidies into the failed company? And so on, and so on. There's about 50 things I can come up with, but you get the idea. [paranoia mode off]
So, here we have a tax that's completely odious in its essence, breaking so many Constitutional issues that you'd need ACLU's entire army of lawyers to sort it out, and sets up some pretty dangerous precedents.
Yup, yet another Spectacular Achievement(TM) of the Obama Administration.
"He who controls the language, controls thought. He who controls thought, controls behavior"
"Chemicals" become "toxins", "acts of terrorism" become "man-caused disasters" (hey, that's sexist!), and "illegal aliens" become "undocumented guests". And the beat goes on...
Whine all you want, it's still an awesome game
on
BioShock 2 Released
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· Score: -1, Flamebait
Screw the critics. I love BioShock. The storyline, the drama, the graphics, the subtle all-pervading insanity.
"Ooh, the concept appears unbalanced."... "Waah, it's not as believable as the original."... You know what? Put down the MacBook and the horn-rimmed glasses, back away from the Frappuccino, slowly, and STFU with all the art-school metaphysical crap.
The original kicked ass, pure and simple. How many other games offer that combination of determination and sadness, beautiful scenery and horrifying monsters, fast action and beautiful cutscenes? The environments, the puzzles, the music and sound effects - BioShock created an amazing world to rival Alice and Firefly, and engaged the player immediately and completely. Enough plot twists to make M. Night Shyamalan green with envy, culminating with finding out the truth about the voice on the radio, and the awesome "Man Vs Slave" cutscene.
Don't know about the critics, but I personally have enough faith in the sequel to have pre-ordered it. Especially considering all the bonus stuff that's included.:D
Yes, blue is the EIA data (all 476 weather stations across 152 "cells"), while the red line is the CRU cherry-picked data (90 stations from 121 "cells").
Actually, even though the line may look synchronized, the "Conclusions" section of the linked PDF specifically explains that by selectively discarding the data, the CRU made pre-1950's temperatures lower than actual, and post-mid-1990's temperatures higher than actual - thus producing an intentional skewing of the trendline. Those couple of millimeters' offsets between the blue and red lines *are* significant to scientists, looks like:)
Slashdot Mirror
I'd rather have an "embarrassment" (why an embarrassment? because the media say it's so, and logical analysis of facts goes out the window?) who actually made a decision once in her life, than a nobody-nothing whose experience is a big fat zero.
Have you seen the jokers we've been putting into office this past century and more?
Like the guy with zero private-sector experience, almost non-existent political experience (voting "present" is not making a decision), without any proof of eligibility, with a questionable past, no ex-girlfriends or friends, no school records, no recollection of actual contributions to the Law Review of the college he attended, and absolutely zero specific promises, only vague Stalinist-style "marching toward a bright future" bullcrap.
Which people fell for anyway. And you're still surprised?
It would be nice if the problem was with technology. However, real life doesn't work like this. For every wide-eyed idealist, there's a hundred Timothy Geithners (tax cheat), Charles Rangel (40 years' worth of tax abuses), and Anthony Wieners (do I really need to explain this one?), who will do everything and anything to gain as much power, money, and prestige as they can - the "small people" be damned.
It's unfortunate, but that's how it is. And it's not likely to change, for several reasons which would make far too long of an explanation. Suffice it to say that I could write 10 pages on each one, and still only scratch the surface of the complexity and difficulty involved in overcoming them. A brilliant author summarized this paradigm shift, half a century ago (emphasis mine):
"Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against - then you'll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We're after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you'd better get wise to it. There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted - and you create a nation of law-breakers - and then you cash in on guilt. Now, that's the system, Mr. Rearden, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."
Politics, according to a dictionary definition that's been scrubbed long ago, is "the business of acquiring, maintaining, and exercising power."
It's not about what "the people" want. It's not about what is "right" or "proper". It's about "what I can get for myself". And s long as decent people continue to tolerate indecent things, the jackasses in power will continue to do whatever they want. (Now, I'm not advocating the John Ross "Unintended Consequences" type of solution, but seriously, how do we make these jagoffs even pretend to do the right thing?)
It's not about the availability of technologies or the economic and social reasons for implementing them. It's about keeping those in power, in power.
"That's the system, Mr. CodeInspired, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."
The Internet put the power of reporting the news in the hands of anyone, not just the ivory-tower, credentialed journalists. That was half the death knell. The bigger issue, however, is the fact that by then, mass-media outlets have become opinion grinders, shaping and making the news rather than reporting it. If it wasn't for CNN/ABC/CBS/etc filtering what they didn't want to report, and spinning the few bits of info that they did decide to let through, people wouldn't have latched on to Drudge, Breitbart, and others.
And now, faced with a quantum-leap catastrophe, instead of recognizing their mistakes and learning from them, they fight the new wave rather than embrace it. They're making the same mistake manufacturers of horse-carriage-related goods made when they protested the advent of cars. The coachbuilders who embraced the new paradigm went on to become the premier suppliers of custom interiors and/or bodies for luxury cars (Vanden Plas, et al) - the others perished.
I wonder if there's a FOSS version of Qik or something similar. How many incidents will it take where someone records the cops doing something wrong - they take the phone & assault the user - get sued & video appears in court - cops get screwed - before the government figures out some way to step on Qik's toes?
If there was an open-source version, and it was all over the Github, then any threat against the company could be answered with "You want to shut us down? Go ahead. Ever heard of the Streisand Effect? Thousands of people will compile versions of Qik and mass-distribute it. And you'll have to put out 1,000 wildfires instead of 1. So yeah, go ahead, shut us down." or something along these lines.
Why is Israel an "apartheid state"?
Well, apparently because when the Palestinian Mandate was divided in 1948, and 86% of that land was given to what has become Jordan, with a huge percentage of the Palestinian Arabs now living there - that wasn't enough. The 14% of the land that the British and French governments decided to carve out of the territories they occupied, that went to Israel, was deemed "too much" by the neighboring Arabs.
Apparently, because Israel was attacked at its inception, and then again and again, every several years, yet they still managed to survive. How DARE they defend themselves?
Apparently, because although Arabs living in Israel are FULL CITIZENS with absolutely equal rights - yet Jews and Christians living in Arab states are treated like second-class people at best / subhuman at worst - that's still not enough.
Apparently, because Israel transports over 13,000 tons of food into Gaza every week, at no charge, that's not enough.
Apparently, because Israel DARES to respond to rocket attacks against residential areas, and kills a few Palestinians in the process.
All those reasons, are the apparent cause of Israel being an eeeevil, apartheid state.
Yeah, because those damn Jews occupying 0.6% of the land area compared to the land under control of the Arab League is just TOO MUCH. They don't deserve it.
I wonder if this trip will be paid for out of the $ 400,000,000.00 the US had given to Hamas.
Dude... "I'm even more sorry that "can I get a picture of that underage virtual pussy" is the first place your mind went when we showed you the photographer mode."...
BRILLIANT!
Yes, there are good answers. "Because our game engine allows any camera view of any object. Prove intent now, asshole." is one I'd give, followed by something along the lines of "...and your pretentious moral outrage should be shoved right up your ass until the problem of real rape on the streets is resolved. When women aren't gang-raped for real anymore, then you can be upset about pixels on the screen."
The whole "next hour/next day/next week" thing is just overly paranoid, since most places have adjustments to AOC laws like the "Romeo & Juliet Clause" in many US states (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statutory_rape#Romeo_and_Juliet_laws), or judicial/prosecutorial guidelines that make a "reasonable allowance" (i.e. 1-2 months, sometimes as much as 6, in the case of a long-term relationship substantiated by character witnesses and material proof) for cases where the ages are close enough that making an adjustment of a couple of months will make it a non-issue.
It has nothing to do with the judge/prosecutor being a "nice guy", they just realize that the burden of proof is ridiculously high + there would be little or no public pressure if the accused is 18 and his girlfriend is 17+8months + there are too many precedents where such cases were thrown out on the first appeal. Plus, prison overcrowding is already an issue. So overall, if it's "very close", you realistically have nothing to fear. At least in "civilized" states like NY, NJ, CA, and FL. Can't vouch for Arkansas et al.
Srsly? ..."try" to be discreet?
So fucking in a fountain in a public square is OK as long as one of you holds up a letter-sized piece of paper over the "interesting bits"? Awesome.
BRB, booking plane tickets.
Try going to any "literotica" site (ex. www.asstr.org) and doing a search for "Mg" or "ped" or any other "interesting" keywords. There's a whooooole universe out there that you haven't seen yet...
So if I draw two stick figures having sex, and say they're 12, that would be illegal? Would they throw me in jail for drawing stick figures?
Techno-Viking, is that you???
Love the priorities.
While this and this is happening, they're concerned about potential panty-shots in a videogame.
BTW, the federal AOC of 18 is meant as a "safeguard" so no state could raise the AOC above 18. Many states have AOC of 17, 16, and a few even set it at 15. Here's a chart listing the AOC by country, as well as by individual US states: http://www.avert.org/age-of-consent.htm
The government using a continuous-tracking system for any purpose other than its prima-facie intent? Nooo, could NEVER happen!
By using a pejorative adjective to automatically attach negative meaning to all members of a group of people, you're making me think that your opinion on the Tea Party may not be totally objective... just a slight hint there.
This is exactly why both major parties are shitting kittens every time the Tea Party is mentioned. Oh damn, a viable contender to the 2-party duocracy, the first in over a century? AAAAAAAAHHHH NOOOOOO!
What about driving on private roads, private property, and around parking lots/loading docks? Still counts?
Also, who's going to pay for those tracking devices?
The government? Great, just what we need - another agency/bureau, and spending money on enforcing yet another moronic tax.
The people? Let's make the slaves pay for their own chains. Lovely.
Auto manufacturers? Sure, let's increase cost-per-vehicle, which is going to be especially punitive for the lower end of the price spectrum (a $ 1000 device is only a tiny fraction of a $ 100,000 luxury car's price, but a much bigger additional weight on a $ 10K - $ 12K budget car). Also, let's screw over Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen, etc, while continuing to subsidize Government Motors with endless bailouts. What's another grand added to cost-per-vehicle when we've already done that tenfold?
Local and state governments? Once again, forcing slaves to pay for their chains, except now on the State-VS-Federal level.
Who the hell comes up with these kinds of ideas? And why isn't there a method of removing total morons from office based on the unbelievable level of the stupidity of their proposals???
There's already a gas tax. There's a highway tax. There's a "Metropolitan Commuter Tax" in NYC, as well as an assortment of other mini-taxes in other municipalities. There are already taxes on everything that has to do with vehicular travel - not to mention all the fees. And the punitive tickets for doing things that were perfectly OK before the raging morons took over the legislative system (i.e. using a cell phone).
Now, let's ponder why would you need to add another tax that specifically punishes those who travel a lot. [paranoia mode on] Could it be to restrict the movements of the masses and force more people to use the public-transit systems? Oh yeah, the transit unions would love that. Could it be to give the government a way to track every vehicle and pinpoint the location of anyone at any time? George Orwell is ecstatic. Could it be to isolate those with "unusual patterns of movement" and investigate them pre-emptively? Could it be to further damage the auto industry by discouraging car purchases, and of course to continue putting GM outside the normal market forces by pouring billions in subsidies into the failed company? And so on, and so on. There's about 50 things I can come up with, but you get the idea. [paranoia mode off]
So, here we have a tax that's completely odious in its essence, breaking so many Constitutional issues that you'd need ACLU's entire army of lawyers to sort it out, and sets up some pretty dangerous precedents.
Yup, yet another Spectacular Achievement(TM) of the Obama Administration.
To paraphrase...
"He who controls the language, controls thought. He who controls thought, controls behavior"
"Chemicals" become "toxins", "acts of terrorism" become "man-caused disasters" (hey, that's sexist!), and "illegal aliens" become "undocumented guests". And the beat goes on...
Screw the critics. I love BioShock. The storyline, the drama, the graphics, the subtle all-pervading insanity.
... "Waah, it's not as believable as the original." ... You know what? Put down the MacBook and the horn-rimmed glasses, back away from the Frappuccino, slowly, and STFU with all the art-school metaphysical crap.
:D
"Ooh, the concept appears unbalanced."
The original kicked ass, pure and simple. How many other games offer that combination of determination and sadness, beautiful scenery and horrifying monsters, fast action and beautiful cutscenes? The environments, the puzzles, the music and sound effects - BioShock created an amazing world to rival Alice and Firefly, and engaged the player immediately and completely. Enough plot twists to make M. Night Shyamalan green with envy, culminating with finding out the truth about the voice on the radio, and the awesome "Man Vs Slave" cutscene.
Don't know about the critics, but I personally have enough faith in the sequel to have pre-ordered it. Especially considering all the bonus stuff that's included.
Yes, blue is the EIA data (all 476 weather stations across 152 "cells"), while the red line is the CRU cherry-picked data (90 stations from 121 "cells"). Actually, even though the line may look synchronized, the "Conclusions" section of the linked PDF specifically explains that by selectively discarding the data, the CRU made pre-1950's temperatures lower than actual, and post-mid-1990's temperatures higher than actual - thus producing an intentional skewing of the trendline. Those couple of millimeters' offsets between the blue and red lines *are* significant to scientists, looks like :)