that's like saying "if you open a restaurant, and don't allow anyone to eat there, that's legal. so if you open a restaurant, and only allow white people to eat there, that should be legal too." now, you may or may not be right about apple's practices being legal, but your argument is, IMHO, invalid, as i tried to demonstrate through that analogy.
(btw, "idiot" is one of those pesky little words that, when used in an argument to attack the opponent, says much more about the person that said it than anyone else)
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age. - H.P. Lovecraft
while more research can't hurt, i find it very hard to believe that mm range radiation can cause mutations that could lead to cancer. a general rule of thumb for the effects of radiation is that it typically affects things on the same scale as its wavelength. so gamma rays than change nuclei, xrays can change molecular structure, etc.
disregarding your smartass comment about "fat people", no, this is a victory for "the terrorists", even if they don't consider it to be one. why, you ask? they're making the lives of westerners more miserable. the consequences of their actions are slowly eating away at all the things that the US and european countries have been so proud of traditionally - freedom, democracy, human rights, and all that stuff that more and more people seem to believe are unnecessary notions invented by ultra-liberals to scare children.
well yes, that much i agree with - american workers are "protected" by many laws (e.g. minimal wage, workplace conditions, etc) that make them much less attractive to an employer than illegals/quasi-slave labor in developing countries. though it's not obvious to me how this problem can be solved. how can you stop outsourcing without severely damaging the competitiveness of american companies? how do you stop illegal immigration without some very disturbing campaigns reminiscent of witch-hunts? i got nothin'.
there is no law that cannot be enforced, given sufficient resources. and one thing the MAFIAA has is resources.
you think anti-piracy laws are unenforceable? let me paint you a picture:
the internet has become a commodity like power or water, not in terms of how widespread it is, but because it is thoroughly regulated. anonymity is dead. MAC addresses are impossible to change, and are registered to a specific individual (perhaps a set of individuals, if it's a machine shared by a, say, family). owning a network card with a counterfeit MAC is a federal offense. ISP's are fully regulated, and are required to record if not all traffic, then at least all packet headers. a system is in place by which a government organization can gain instant access to any ISP's records, and even live traffic at any router. a rag-tag group of disgruntled idealists/poor teenagers can't stand up to a fully organized effort to shut them up.
far-fetched? sure. impossible? fuck no.
Re:unauthorized IP distribution = piracy
on
Making Sense of ACTA
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· Score: 2, Insightful
i agree that the possibility exists, and that in itself scares the shit out of me.
While I agree with the general idea behind your post, I fail to see how immigrants (evil, evil immigrants) fit there. IHMO, the biggest problem with the US gov't today is that it is a "democratic" government where elected officials are more worried about money than their own voters, especially since these days votes are won not through argument and opinion, but through ads and shady campaigns that overwhelm the voter with so much garbage that he no longer thinks about what's best for him, but rather what some cheap slogans that have been crammed in his brain tell him to do. Even language, what is supposed to be a tool for communication, has become tainted and twisted and bent into something that provokes animalistic emotion in the listener, not thought and reason. I bet if you looked at the brain of the average American through an fMRI when he heard words such as Democrat/Republican, liberal/conservative, healthcare, terrorism, etc, the areas you'd see lighting up would imply something very disturbing.
Immigrants aren't this country's biggest problem. Nor is it terrorists, oil, healthcare, global warming, etc. The biggest problem is that government is no longer for the people, or by the people (if it ever was, of course).
oh i see, so in confined spaces you become paranoid and mortally afraid of human contact... makes sense, in a disturbing, oh god what has mankind turned into sort of way.
i agree with most of that, except the part about not acknowledging anyone and NOT MAKING EYE CONTACT (PRESUMABLY UNDER PENALTY OF DEATH). maybe big city life is different, or maybe it's a northern thing, but i live in a medium-sized somewhat southern city, and most people here seem to welcome eye contact and a simple nod or "hi", and i'm one of them. of course we don't walk around saying hi to everyone we see, but there are lots of times when it seems appropriate.
well, you can lower the overall energy requirements, but what you're actually lowering is the waste. imagine a 100m 1 degree slope. walking up that slope would cost you some amount of calories, and riding a bike would presumably take less energy. but you still elevated yourself 100*sin(1) meters, which costs exactly 100*sin(1)*M*g, where M is your weight and g is gravity. The reason why it would take less energy is because the bike plays the same role as a catalyst, helping you use your energy more efficiently. (though AFAIK not all catalysts decrease energy requirements, sometimes they just make things faster)
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that's like saying "if you open a restaurant, and don't allow anyone to eat there, that's legal. so if you open a restaurant, and only allow white people to eat there, that should be legal too." now, you may or may not be right about apple's practices being legal, but your argument is, IMHO, invalid, as i tried to demonstrate through that analogy.
(btw, "idiot" is one of those pesky little words that, when used in an argument to attack the opponent, says much more about the person that said it than anyone else)
umm, methinks it would've been "make sense it does, no?"
h.p. lovecraft would applaud that conclusion:
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age. - H.P. Lovecraft
while more research can't hurt, i find it very hard to believe that mm range radiation can cause mutations that could lead to cancer. a general rule of thumb for the effects of radiation is that it typically affects things on the same scale as its wavelength. so gamma rays than change nuclei, xrays can change molecular structure, etc.
disregarding your smartass comment about "fat people", no, this is a victory for "the terrorists", even if they don't consider it to be one. why, you ask? they're making the lives of westerners more miserable. the consequences of their actions are slowly eating away at all the things that the US and european countries have been so proud of traditionally - freedom, democracy, human rights, and all that stuff that more and more people seem to believe are unnecessary notions invented by ultra-liberals to scare children.
or the more old-fashioned, 90's version of mythbusters - scientists.
i, personally, see this as a terrible treath.
sorry dude, accidentally modded you offtopic. posting to cancel.
opt-in, opt-out, i don't really care. i just want this clusterfuck to end already.
well yes, that much i agree with - american workers are "protected" by many laws (e.g. minimal wage, workplace conditions, etc) that make them much less attractive to an employer than illegals/quasi-slave labor in developing countries. though it's not obvious to me how this problem can be solved. how can you stop outsourcing without severely damaging the competitiveness of american companies? how do you stop illegal immigration without some very disturbing campaigns reminiscent of witch-hunts? i got nothin'.
there is no law that cannot be enforced, given sufficient resources. and one thing the MAFIAA has is resources.
you think anti-piracy laws are unenforceable? let me paint you a picture:
the internet has become a commodity like power or water, not in terms of how widespread it is, but because it is thoroughly regulated. anonymity is dead. MAC addresses are impossible to change, and are registered to a specific individual (perhaps a set of individuals, if it's a machine shared by a, say, family). owning a network card with a counterfeit MAC is a federal offense. ISP's are fully regulated, and are required to record if not all traffic, then at least all packet headers. a system is in place by which a government organization can gain instant access to any ISP's records, and even live traffic at any router. a rag-tag group of disgruntled idealists/poor teenagers can't stand up to a fully organized effort to shut them up.
far-fetched? sure. impossible? fuck no.
i agree that the possibility exists, and that in itself scares the shit out of me.
that's not batman, that's greed. there's a slight difference.
While I agree with the general idea behind your post, I fail to see how immigrants (evil, evil immigrants) fit there. IHMO, the biggest problem with the US gov't today is that it is a "democratic" government where elected officials are more worried about money than their own voters, especially since these days votes are won not through argument and opinion, but through ads and shady campaigns that overwhelm the voter with so much garbage that he no longer thinks about what's best for him, but rather what some cheap slogans that have been crammed in his brain tell him to do. Even language, what is supposed to be a tool for communication, has become tainted and twisted and bent into something that provokes animalistic emotion in the listener, not thought and reason. I bet if you looked at the brain of the average American through an fMRI when he heard words such as Democrat/Republican, liberal/conservative, healthcare, terrorism, etc, the areas you'd see lighting up would imply something very disturbing. Immigrants aren't this country's biggest problem. Nor is it terrorists, oil, healthcare, global warming, etc. The biggest problem is that government is no longer for the people, or by the people (if it ever was, of course).
you mean right and wrong?
i believe you mean expensive, not cheap
seriously? urinal greetings? i thought that was a myth...
oh i see, so in confined spaces you become paranoid and mortally afraid of human contact... makes sense, in a disturbing, oh god what has mankind turned into sort of way.
are you a new yorker, by any chance?
i agree with most of that, except the part about not acknowledging anyone and NOT MAKING EYE CONTACT (PRESUMABLY UNDER PENALTY OF DEATH). maybe big city life is different, or maybe it's a northern thing, but i live in a medium-sized somewhat southern city, and most people here seem to welcome eye contact and a simple nod or "hi", and i'm one of them. of course we don't walk around saying hi to everyone we see, but there are lots of times when it seems appropriate.
your friend had a collar bone? how unusual... is he from anywhere near chernobyl, by any chance?
so, there's a lawyer conspiracy to create jobs for lawyers?
well, it would be OK, except for the daily Jobs worship hours...
until the bank forecloses, of course.
well, you can lower the overall energy requirements, but what you're actually lowering is the waste. imagine a 100m 1 degree slope. walking up that slope would cost you some amount of calories, and riding a bike would presumably take less energy. but you still elevated yourself 100*sin(1) meters, which costs exactly 100*sin(1)*M*g, where M is your weight and g is gravity. The reason why it would take less energy is because the bike plays the same role as a catalyst, helping you use your energy more efficiently. (though AFAIK not all catalysts decrease energy requirements, sometimes they just make things faster)
oh jebus christ....