I remember playing with "gravity simulator" software on various computers. When you sent two obects into a near-miss, the close proximity would sling-shot them at tremendous speed.
I always wondered if there were stars, further-in our galaxy, that had had such close-encounters, and were now flinging in our direction at tremendous speed. Given the doppler effect, the star's radiation might even be shifted well out of the visible spectrum, and we might not even be aware of it's approach (without UV/Xray astronomy).
It wouldn't take a hit, or even a near-miss, to end all life on this planet. A distant miss, enough to perturb our orbit, or the path of the sun (and thereby perturb the orbits of ALL objects around the sun) - could be catastrophic.
Just seems though, we've gone this many billions of years without such an encounter - maybe they're rare. I mean - we don't see thousands such stars speeding around in other directions, so I guess there's no reason to think there may be one pointed at us. . .
A freind of mine (Mac-head, like me) has a sister who had an XP system that got all hosed up from adware.
She reinstalled the OS, put it back on line, and the problems continued - she thought she had a hardware problem. So she gave it to me to take a look at.
Now, I've done Windows development and systems integration for 14 years. I've never really had to deal with a Windows system that was exposed or used like this; my home-admin skills are Mac/Linux-based. I've read the whole spiel about how bad this is - but I didn't actually realize how bad it was, until I started working on this woman's computer. I booted from a clean floppy to DOS, ran virus scanners, disk checks, looked at all the hardware, everything was fine. So I booted to her OS, and was greeted immediately with buttloads of Dr. Watsons. I looked in all the usual places for auto-run software, and found about a dozen things that looked suspicious. I would delete them from the registry, AND THEY'D PUT THEMSELVES RIGHT BACK! I got sneaky, and booted to safe-mode, and replaced the evil binaries with read-only zero-byte stub files - hopefully that will block re-install of those particular programs.
This was a real eye opener for me. I had no idea how totally fucked up things are for the poor Windows people. I tried Ad Aware, found 43 MORE baddies - I tried Spybot S&D, and it found 75 items. I had it remove those - which required several reboots. I mean, holy crap, why do people put up with this?!
So I asked her. She's a real-estate agent. She runs a special MLS software that's Windows Only.
I showed her how to configure her firewall. I showed her how to use Spybot S&D (fwiw, I hear there's some adware that disables Spybot S&D!). I showed her how to use FireFox. I showed her my PowerMac, and Virtual PC.
1 week with her old system back, and no complaints yet. But I can't help thinking that the arms-race is just going to escalate. We need laws. We need people going to jail. Because if everybody just goes to Linux/Mac, the assholes will just write more Linux/Mac spyware.
The biggest danger to life on earth, currently, is life on earth.
However - if the earth were to geologicall "die" (as Mars has done), our Magnetic Field would weaken, and the solar wind would erode our atmosphere over hundreds or thousands of years. Earth would probably look a lot like Mars eventually.
Earth is taking longer to cool than did Mars, because it's bigger.
While I still firmly believe that Bush is a white-collar criminal, war profiteer, fascist thug, liar, drunk, hypocrite, deserter, and derelict in his duty to protect the Constitution, and incompetent as Commander in Chief with regard both to the planning and execution of the Iraqi war effort, and the failure of capturing Osama bin Laden. ..
But those people are FREE. Don't get me wrong. I'm not a starry-eyed neocon. I have no illusions that there won't be more fighting, a civil war, more car bombs. But those people are FREE.
The world IS better off with Saddam gone.
I still think we should spring for the (artificially inflated by Enron Accountants) $1 Billion to fix Hubble though. Hubble's a national treasure. An Icon of the Human Spirit. A symbol of Technological Achievement. To let a crooked accountant kill Hubble is simply criminal.
It's interesting you mention this, since cable companies and telcos have long enjoyed exclusivity contracts, state subsidation, tax breaks, and all sorts of other preferential treatment.
Wireless Internet is a luxury and not employed by many.
The same can be said of many government-funded infrastructure investments. The fact is, while your grandmother who lives with 100 feral cats may not use the interstate system on a daily basis (and therefore is indignant that her tax dollars go to fund it, and therefore, votes Repbulican) - many cat-food-shipping companies DO use the interstate highway system. Her feral cats would feast on her flesh if it weren't for public investment in infrastructure.
You may not feel wireless internet to be a necessity. But it's an area of infrastructure that doesn't lend itself well to a Free Market approach - and, new services you may not even imagine today, may spring from having this infrastructure. Just because your narrow mind can't see a public benefit, doesn't mean there isn't one. Universal high-speed wireless has the power to transform the way we do just about everything. If you think cell phones have been a great benefit, just wait until that kind of service can be united or combined with an always-on, wireless data connection to the internet. It's really important.
I used to not have a Cell Phone. Since I got one, I found that I do a LOT less driving around, when I forget to ask someone something, or when I'm on my way home from work, and stop at the store to pick something up - and I don't know what we need, so I dial my wife and ask. That's a couple of extra trips to the store. Less gasoline burned. Less feet of road occupied by my car. Less time spent doing extra driving, just to obtain probably less than 1k of data. And while this modern miracle of Cell Phones is entirely privately supplied - there is significant government regulation involved. The technology for wireless communication has existed for years, and the Free Market has not stepped in. This is not a vital service today. But it WILL be. When it's universal. Your grandma may just one day be emailing you videos of her feral cats, from a coffeeshop, on a public-access wireless connection.
The anti-Bush rhetoric is getting old. There's many reason we should or shouldn't be in Iraq,.......
You don't have to have an opinion about Iraq to be anti-Bush.
How about his prescription drug plan that cost $100 Billion more than they publicly admitted before the vote? And when a government accountant tried to tell the truth about it, his job was threatened.
Bush ripped this country off to the tune of $100 Billion of Corporate Welfare for his Pharmaceutical Industry donors. (including the company Rumsfeld used to CEO for).
All you have to do to be anti-Bush, is to have even the slightest desire for Fiscal Conservativism, and Honesty in government.
Bush's plan for NASA was to cancel funding for the good science NASA's been doing, and redirect funding into an empty promise of a mission to Mars, for the sole purpose of National Penis Length Extension. Unfortunately, it's going to make us look rather "short" when the Mars mission doesn't materialize. In the meantime, NASA's good science gets sabotaged.
I'm certain that this $1 Billion repair mission is completely bogus. Probably drawn-up by former Enron Accountants, in order to justify shitcanning Hubble.
Does it make any sense not to include the cost of the shuttle flight in the Science budget if that is the only purpose for the shuttle flight?
That may not have been a distinction prior to the anti-science crowd taking over. Now, the space program is all about international pissing contests, and empty Mars flight promises. Science be damned. Any funny accounting that supports this effort, is encouraged. Typical; create a "crisis" to justify an agenda.
The question isn't where all the cancer deaths came from. The question is - does the decline from the high death rates of the 1970's have anything to do with the environmental dissipation of the byproducts from the testing in the 1950's.
Kinda makes you wonder what the first thing an invading alien army would do to cheaply wipe out all satellite communications on earth, prior to an invasion. . .
Former employer (early 1990's) (later purchased by a company that rhymes with Flea Bait) used to dump the first week's distributor sales of a month into the last day of the previous month. Software wouldn't actually SHIP until 5 to 7 days later. We'd process these *anticipated* orders on the last day. We weren't public yet, at that time, we were trying to go public *(but ended up getting bought).
Later on, I found out that our hardware supplier (won't name names, they're still in business) was doing the same to us. They'd shave off a few bucks if we'd give them a heads up on our order a few days in advance.
I (much later) found out, that this practice is illegal.
A few mergers and acquisitions later, the company made a trade with a major ISP, software for free advertisement. Our books listed it as profit for the quarter, which had a huge effect of boosting our stock price EVEN THOUGH THE DETAILS OF THIS DEAL WERE DISCLOSED IN OUR QUARTERLY REPORT FILED WITH THE SEC. Afterwards, I got laid off, then the SEC announced an investigation. The market bitchslapped them HARD. I don't think they were ever actually fined, but they were forced to restate eventually.
It wasn't the CRIME that hurt their stock price. The crime BOOSTED the stock price. It was GETTING CAUGHT that hurt them.
It was shortly after that, that they very widely trimmed back on the Employee Stock Incentive Program. Not that the stock was worth anything at that point.
No way in hell my current employer would even try to get away with that crap. Way too much oversight. The Grown Ups are in charge here. I don't have stock options, but I'm a lot happier.
I've worked under many a manager, who've through apparent incompetence, engineered a wholly unrealistic schedule, then, when the team inevitably falls behind, a crisis is thus manufactured, justifying 100-hour work-weeks, and other draconian measures.
If, by some miracle, the project succeeds, the manager is promoted (Cheney/Cold War), and the unneeded engineers (Peace Divident) laid off.
If the project fails, the manager (Powell/Iraq, Ashcroft/Domestic WOT) is moved to another project, and one of the engineers is promoted to take over (Rice, Gonzalez), to take the fall for the failure of the project.
Unfortunately, when you standardize on QuickTime Player, your POOR USERS are subjected to the incredibly annoying NAGWARE if they don't fork over the $30 for QTPro - and another $30 for QTPro when Apple decides to update QuickTime Player, which usually amounts to no new features you'll ever be aware of, and sudden inability to play files you used to be able to play.
Don't get me wrong. I would LOVE to be a fan of QuickTime, if Apple would just FIX the above issues. Which have nothing to do with the technology, and everything to do with brainless marketroids.
Especially when you consider the feature-set of a VIC-20 compared to MiniMac. (OS X, plug-n-play networking, DVD, 3d graphics, 60 gig HD, 256mb RAM, etc.)
As a converse, look at a neighbor like Mexico, where no significant resource allocation appears to have zero impact, positive or otherwise, on entrepreneurial incentives and rewards.
So basiaclly you are saying capitalism and free speech are incompatable.
Well, Freedom in general, has to come bundled with Responsibility. For example, it is illegal to shout "Fire" in a crowded theater.
To this end, speech that is meant to (or has the effect of) incite violence or harm (open, unfortunately to WIDE interpretation), can be banned, within the confines of the Consitution.
Now, for example, say you're a manufacturer of a nifty, new, high-tech personal fire-extinguishing system, it might be commercially expedient to advertise to SELL such a system by yelling "FIRE!" in a crowded theater (while holding out a tray full of the devices, along with a cash-register). Not to get everyone to stampede to the nearest exit, causing mayhem and injury, but instead, to pursue the NOBLE and ENTERPRENEURIAL goal of GETTING FILTHY RICH.
I suspect that, as long as this seller were a high donor to political campaigns, nobody in the government would have a problem with such an advertisement.
Quiz: 1) Do you have a right to a job? 2) Does the constitution give you the right to a home? 3) Did the founding fathers provide everyone with the right to a fair wage? 4) Do you have the right to say whatever you want, whenever you want? 5) Do you have the right to be happy?
No. No. No. No. No. (and this is where a lot of Liberals get "it" wrong).
But there's language in the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence which supports these general privileges and entitlements. Along the lines of "to. . . promote the general welfare. .." and ". ..secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity". etc.
Turning America into a third-world shithole with no middle class is not in the best interests of Americans, at all levels of the economic scale. Ultimately, our country is as strong as it is, economically, and militarily, because of the strong investment we've made in a robust middle class (WRT public education, R&D, etc). The decimation of our middle class is going to make us the rough equivalent of Mexico, economically, and militarily, in the long run. It's a terrible security proposition. For ALL Americans. And for our (few remaining) Allies.
Of course, some of this "public investment" has gone too far, and of course some people have twisted it around to equate to some kind of RIGHT not enumerated in the Constitution or Bill of Rights. That doesn't mean you toss it all out wholesale. Where Social Security is concerned, Clinton said it best; "Mend it, don't end it."
Why do people think they are owed a medium for their ideas?
Because the airwaves regulated by the FCC are PUBLIC property. If you're a citizen, it belongs to YOU.
That's not to say that I disagree with Planet's right to cut off the website, they have that right.
But the notion that only monied interests should be able to (by virtue of some imagined ideal like a mythical "Free Market") have the privilege of free speech - ignores the fact that Public Research Funds created the Internet, and that the Public Airwaves are regulated by the FCC specifically to provide a forum for those who weren't "born rich" to have the right of free speech. Regardless of whether the Invisible Hand wants to hear "deviant talk" or not.
No, it means do some god damned work and get the resources. Save, assemble like minded people, coordinate with other groups.
In other words. . . the First Amendment does not list these as prerequisites for having a RIGHT of free speech. By listing these prerequisites, you're trying to turn a RIGHT into a privilege.
Iran, also not necessarily a 'bastion of freedom'...:)
However, the issues facing Iran today are very complex, and deep, and even well-informed Westerners would have a difficult time getting a pulse reading, even with their finger on the vein.
Events dating back to the 1953 US backed overthrow of a democratically elected government to prop up the Shah, later overthrown in the 1979 coup and hostage-crisis, US backing Saddam in the incredibly bloody Iran/Iraq war - which lasted 10 years, and decimated an entire generation of Iranians, and the US's later backing of Iran through illegal arms sales (Ollie North, Ghorbonifar, Poindexter. . . . . Bush) etc.
There's a point of view within Iranian culture, that the Mullahs have sucked the life out of Iran for too long. Some who share that view want a western-style democracy (roll the clock back to 1953). Some want a return of the Shah. Some just want to continue (or accellerate) the long road of progress and reforms that *have* taken place since 1980, under the Mullahs. America's recent sabre-rattling has certainly bolstered the Mullah's radical, hardline position, and weakened the moderates. Still, it's anybody's guess how this will all shake out, and it depends heavily on what's going to happen with Iraq, (whether there's a civil war, whether the Shiites end up with a significant chunk of what was Iraq), and whether the West does anything about Iran's provocative moves WRT purported nuclear weapons development.
It's probably not just a coincidence that this website was shut down. It's probably not a good thing for the West either. This may weaken the Mullahs from a resource and propaganda perspective, but it makes them look like the victim here. And that helps them. If it was intentional, it was not wise. Sounds like the people who like to think of themselves as the champions of Freedom in the world, need to be reminded of the reasons WHY Freedom is a good thing. History is littered with reasons. You don't have to look to hard to find examples where oppression backfired.
Bzzzt! Dumb answer #1. Red (rural) states have grown faster then blue ones due to emigration from the cities to the rural areas.
Or not: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/129 4248/p osts
Which is why there are so many of them leaving all the filth behind in the big cities and moving somewhere where they can breath and not choke on it
More like, they're moving to the country where they won't feel guilty driving their H2 to the end of the driveway to pick up their mail. Because the sky in the country isn't brown like it is in the cities. Yet.
As a former city-rat turned country-rat, the big challenge we learn out here in the country is; there's no fucking jobs. I ran away from the problems in the big city (Chicago). But I don't really see anybody out here having learned anything, or changing their behavior. They're polluting, developing every square inch of land into strip malls on flood-plains, and spitting out dozens of offspring without worring about the hellhole they're going to have to live in when even rural areas become overpopulated. Maybe some of them even believe in "the rapture" so they don't worry about whether there will be enough resources for the next generation. About as smart as those yeasts.
.....because they believe humans are an end, not a mean to an end.
BAH and BULLSHIT. Humans are just as much a Means to an End for the Religious Right as for anyone else.
It's all about POWER to the Religious Right. "Be fruitful and multiply" anyone? So the members of their religion outnumber the members of competing religions, so that when the inevitable holy war comes, they'll have the numerical advantage (which has paid off well for Red Staters - they've simply out-bred the Blue Staters - and this is essentially WHY Israel isn't going to give voting rights to the Palestinians, because they know damn well they'll be out-bred in two generations).
A real "culture of life". yeah right.
In High School biology, we did this experiment, with growth media, yeast, and a sealed test tube. The population of the yeast did very well, and multiplied geometrically, and things looked good because they had plenty of growth media for the forseeable future.
Until they choked on their own filth, (alcohol) and they all died.
Yeast clearly aren't very smart. Are human beings?
Slashdot Mirror
I remember playing with "gravity simulator" software on various computers. When you sent two obects into a near-miss, the close proximity would sling-shot them at tremendous speed.
I always wondered if there were stars, further-in our galaxy, that had had such close-encounters, and were now flinging in our direction at tremendous speed. Given the doppler effect, the star's radiation might even be shifted well out of the visible spectrum, and we might not even be aware of it's approach (without UV/Xray astronomy).
It wouldn't take a hit, or even a near-miss, to end all life on this planet. A distant miss, enough to perturb our orbit, or the path of the sun (and thereby perturb the orbits of ALL objects around the sun) - could be catastrophic.
Just seems though, we've gone this many billions of years without such an encounter - maybe they're rare. I mean - we don't see thousands such stars speeding around in other directions, so I guess there's no reason to think there may be one pointed at us. . .
THANKS
Symptoms good!
A freind of mine (Mac-head, like me) has a sister who had an XP system that got all hosed up from adware.
She reinstalled the OS, put it back on line, and the problems continued - she thought she had a hardware problem. So she gave it to me to take a look at.
Now, I've done Windows development and systems integration for 14 years. I've never really had to deal with a Windows system that was exposed or used like this; my home-admin skills are Mac/Linux-based. I've read the whole spiel about how bad this is - but I didn't actually realize how bad it was, until I started working on this woman's computer. I booted from a clean floppy to DOS, ran virus scanners, disk checks, looked at all the hardware, everything was fine. So I booted to her OS, and was greeted immediately with buttloads of Dr. Watsons. I looked in all the usual places for auto-run software, and found about a dozen things that looked suspicious. I would delete them from the registry, AND THEY'D PUT THEMSELVES RIGHT BACK! I got sneaky, and booted to safe-mode, and replaced the evil binaries with read-only zero-byte stub files - hopefully that will block re-install of those particular programs.
This was a real eye opener for me. I had no idea how totally fucked up things are for the poor Windows people. I tried Ad Aware, found 43 MORE baddies - I tried Spybot S&D, and it found 75 items. I had it remove those - which required several reboots. I mean, holy crap, why do people put up with this?!
So I asked her. She's a real-estate agent. She runs a special MLS software that's Windows Only.
I showed her how to configure her firewall.
I showed her how to use Spybot S&D (fwiw, I hear there's some adware that disables Spybot S&D!).
I showed her how to use FireFox.
I showed her my PowerMac, and Virtual PC.
1 week with her old system back, and no complaints yet. But I can't help thinking that the arms-race is just going to escalate.
We need laws.
We need people going to jail.
Because if everybody just goes to Linux/Mac, the assholes will just write more Linux/Mac spyware.
. . . wasn't the same true for the "hidden-bunny" on the Playboy Magazine covers?
The biggest danger to life on earth, currently, is life on earth.
However - if the earth were to geologicall "die" (as Mars has done), our Magnetic Field would weaken, and the solar wind would erode our atmosphere over hundreds or thousands of years. Earth would probably look a lot like Mars eventually.
Earth is taking longer to cool than did Mars, because it's bigger.
I disagree on the Iraq war.
.
While I still firmly believe that Bush is a white-collar criminal, war profiteer, fascist thug, liar, drunk, hypocrite, deserter, and derelict in his duty to protect the Constitution, and incompetent as Commander in Chief with regard both to the planning and execution of the Iraqi war effort, and the failure of capturing Osama bin Laden. .
But those people are FREE.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not a starry-eyed neocon. I have no illusions that there won't be more fighting, a civil war, more car bombs.
But those people are FREE.
The world IS better off with Saddam gone.
I still think we should spring for the (artificially inflated by Enron Accountants) $1 Billion to fix Hubble though. Hubble's a national treasure. An Icon of the Human Spirit. A symbol of Technological Achievement. To let a crooked accountant kill Hubble is simply criminal.
It's interesting you mention this, since cable companies and telcos have long enjoyed exclusivity contracts, state subsidation, tax breaks, and all sorts of other preferential treatment.
Wow. That sounds like a great deal.
For them.
How do I get into THAT racket?
Wireless Internet is a luxury and not employed by many.
The same can be said of many government-funded infrastructure investments. The fact is, while your grandmother who lives with 100 feral cats may not use the interstate system on a daily basis (and therefore is indignant that her tax dollars go to fund it, and therefore, votes Repbulican) - many cat-food-shipping companies DO use the interstate highway system. Her feral cats would feast on her flesh if it weren't for public investment in infrastructure.
You may not feel wireless internet to be a necessity. But it's an area of infrastructure that doesn't lend itself well to a Free Market approach - and, new services you may not even imagine today, may spring from having this infrastructure. Just because your narrow mind can't see a public benefit, doesn't mean there isn't one. Universal high-speed wireless has the power to transform the way we do just about everything. If you think cell phones have been a great benefit, just wait until that kind of service can be united or combined with an always-on, wireless data connection to the internet. It's really important.
I used to not have a Cell Phone. Since I got one, I found that I do a LOT less driving around, when I forget to ask someone something, or when I'm on my way home from work, and stop at the store to pick something up - and I don't know what we need, so I dial my wife and ask. That's a couple of extra trips to the store. Less gasoline burned. Less feet of road occupied by my car. Less time spent doing extra driving, just to obtain probably less than 1k of data. And while this modern miracle of Cell Phones is entirely privately supplied - there is significant government regulation involved. The technology for wireless communication has existed for years, and the Free Market has not stepped in. This is not a vital service today. But it WILL be. When it's universal. Your grandma may just one day be emailing you videos of her feral cats, from a coffeeshop, on a public-access wireless connection.
The anti-Bush rhetoric is getting old. There's many reason we should or shouldn't be in Iraq,.......
You don't have to have an opinion about Iraq to be anti-Bush.
How about his prescription drug plan that cost $100 Billion more than they publicly admitted before the vote? And when a government accountant tried to tell the truth about it, his job was threatened.
Bush ripped this country off to the tune of $100 Billion of Corporate Welfare for his Pharmaceutical Industry donors. (including the company Rumsfeld used to CEO for).
All you have to do to be anti-Bush, is to have even the slightest desire for Fiscal Conservativism, and Honesty in government.
Bush's plan for NASA was to cancel funding for the good science NASA's been doing, and redirect funding into an empty promise of a mission to Mars, for the sole purpose of National Penis Length Extension. Unfortunately, it's going to make us look rather "short" when the Mars mission doesn't materialize. In the meantime, NASA's good science gets sabotaged.
I'm certain that this $1 Billion repair mission is completely bogus. Probably drawn-up by former Enron Accountants, in order to justify shitcanning Hubble.
Does it make any sense not to include the cost of the shuttle flight in the Science budget if that is the only purpose for the shuttle flight?
That may not have been a distinction prior to the anti-science crowd taking over. Now, the space program is all about international pissing contests, and empty Mars flight promises. Science be damned. Any funny accounting that supports this effort, is encouraged. Typical; create a "crisis" to justify an agenda.
The question isn't where all the cancer deaths came from. The question is - does the decline from the high death rates of the 1970's have anything to do with the environmental dissipation of the byproducts from the testing in the 1950's.
Kinda makes you wonder what the first thing an invading alien army would do to cheaply wipe out all satellite communications on earth, prior to an invasion. . .
YES.
VERY common in the industry.
Former employer (early 1990's) (later purchased by a company that rhymes with Flea Bait) used to dump the first week's distributor sales of a month into the last day of the previous month. Software wouldn't actually SHIP until 5 to 7 days later. We'd process these *anticipated* orders on the last day. We weren't public yet, at that time, we were trying to go public *(but ended up getting bought).
Later on, I found out that our hardware supplier (won't name names, they're still in business) was doing the same to us. They'd shave off a few bucks if we'd give them a heads up on our order a few days in advance.
I (much later) found out, that this practice is illegal.
A few mergers and acquisitions later, the company made a trade with a major ISP, software for free advertisement. Our books listed it as profit for the quarter, which had a huge effect of boosting our stock price EVEN THOUGH THE DETAILS OF THIS DEAL WERE DISCLOSED IN OUR QUARTERLY REPORT FILED WITH THE SEC. Afterwards, I got laid off, then the SEC announced an investigation. The market bitchslapped them HARD. I don't think they were ever actually fined, but they were forced to restate eventually.
It wasn't the CRIME that hurt their stock price. The crime BOOSTED the stock price. It was GETTING CAUGHT that hurt them.
It was shortly after that, that they very widely trimmed back on the Employee Stock Incentive Program. Not that the stock was worth anything at that point.
No way in hell my current employer would even try to get away with that crap. Way too much oversight. The Grown Ups are in charge here. I don't have stock options, but I'm a lot happier.
The way to tell if Dooku is evil:
Check his pad for a Palantir.
If it's got a flaming lidless eye, the Dark Lord has turned him to evil.
NOt just politicians.
I've worked under many a manager, who've through apparent incompetence, engineered a wholly unrealistic schedule, then, when the team inevitably falls behind, a crisis is thus manufactured, justifying 100-hour work-weeks, and other draconian measures.
If, by some miracle, the project succeeds, the manager is promoted (Cheney/Cold War), and the unneeded engineers (Peace Divident) laid off.
If the project fails, the manager (Powell/Iraq, Ashcroft/Domestic WOT) is moved to another project, and one of the engineers is promoted to take over (Rice, Gonzalez), to take the fall for the failure of the project.
Unfortunately, when you standardize on QuickTime Player, your POOR USERS are subjected to the incredibly annoying NAGWARE if they don't fork over the $30 for QTPro - and another $30 for QTPro when Apple decides to update QuickTime Player, which usually amounts to no new features you'll ever be aware of, and sudden inability to play files you used to be able to play.
Don't get me wrong. I would LOVE to be a fan of QuickTime, if Apple would just FIX the above issues. Which have nothing to do with the technology, and everything to do with brainless marketroids.
Mundanes?t aters?
Muggles?
Straights?
Breeders?
Red-S
499 2005 dollars is a WHOLE LOT LESS than 200 1982 dollars.
c pi .pdf
http://oregonstate.edu/Dept/pol_sci/fac/sahr/cv
Especially when you consider the feature-set of a VIC-20 compared to MiniMac. (OS X, plug-n-play networking, DVD, 3d graphics, 60 gig HD, 256mb RAM, etc.)
well-intentioned programs whereby significant resource allocation lowers entrepreneurial incentives and rewards
As a converse, look at a neighbor like Mexico, where no significant resource allocation appears to have zero impact, positive or otherwise, on entrepreneurial incentives and rewards.
So basiaclly you are saying capitalism and free speech are incompatable.
Well, Freedom in general, has to come bundled with Responsibility. For example, it is illegal to shout "Fire" in a crowded theater.
To this end, speech that is meant to (or has the effect of) incite violence or harm (open, unfortunately to WIDE interpretation), can be banned, within the confines of the Consitution.
Now, for example, say you're a manufacturer of a nifty, new, high-tech personal fire-extinguishing system, it might be commercially expedient to advertise to SELL such a system by yelling "FIRE!" in a crowded theater (while holding out a tray full of the devices, along with a cash-register). Not to get everyone to stampede to the nearest exit, causing mayhem and injury, but instead, to pursue the NOBLE and ENTERPRENEURIAL goal of GETTING FILTHY RICH.
I suspect that, as long as this seller were a high donor to political campaigns, nobody in the government would have a problem with such an advertisement.
Quiz:
." and ". . .secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity". etc.
1) Do you have a right to a job?
2) Does the constitution give you the right to a home?
3) Did the founding fathers provide everyone with the right to a fair wage?
4) Do you have the right to say whatever you want, whenever you want?
5) Do you have the right to be happy?
No. No. No. No. No.
(and this is where a lot of Liberals get "it" wrong).
But there's language in the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence which supports these general privileges and entitlements. Along the lines of "to. . . promote the general welfare. .
Turning America into a third-world shithole with no middle class is not in the best interests of Americans, at all levels of the economic scale. Ultimately, our country is as strong as it is, economically, and militarily, because of the strong investment we've made in a robust middle class (WRT public education, R&D, etc). The decimation of our middle class is going to make us the rough equivalent of Mexico, economically, and militarily, in the long run. It's a terrible security proposition. For ALL Americans. And for our (few remaining) Allies.
Of course, some of this "public investment" has gone too far, and of course some people have twisted it around to equate to some kind of RIGHT not enumerated in the Constitution or Bill of Rights. That doesn't mean you toss it all out wholesale. Where Social Security is concerned, Clinton said it best; "Mend it, don't end it."
Why do people think they are owed a medium for their ideas?
Because the airwaves regulated by the FCC are PUBLIC property. If you're a citizen, it belongs to YOU.
That's not to say that I disagree with Planet's right to cut off the website, they have that right.
But the notion that only monied interests should be able to (by virtue of some imagined ideal like a mythical "Free Market") have the privilege of free speech - ignores the fact that Public Research Funds created the Internet, and that the Public Airwaves are regulated by the FCC specifically to provide a forum for those who weren't "born rich" to have the right of free speech. Regardless of whether the Invisible Hand wants to hear "deviant talk" or not.
No, it means do some god damned work and get the resources. Save, assemble like minded people, coordinate with other groups.
In other words. . . the First Amendment does not list these as prerequisites for having a RIGHT of free speech. By listing these prerequisites, you're trying to turn a RIGHT into a privilege.
Iran, also not necessarily a 'bastion of freedom'... :)
However, the issues facing Iran today are very complex, and deep, and even well-informed Westerners would have a difficult time getting a pulse reading, even with their finger on the vein.
Events dating back to the 1953 US backed overthrow of a democratically elected government to prop up the Shah, later overthrown in the 1979 coup and hostage-crisis, US backing Saddam in the incredibly bloody Iran/Iraq war - which lasted 10 years, and decimated an entire generation of Iranians, and the US's later backing of Iran through illegal arms sales (Ollie North, Ghorbonifar, Poindexter. . . . . Bush) etc.
There's a point of view within Iranian culture, that the Mullahs have sucked the life out of Iran for too long. Some who share that view want a western-style democracy (roll the clock back to 1953). Some want a return of the Shah. Some just want to continue (or accellerate) the long road of progress and reforms that *have* taken place since 1980, under the Mullahs. America's recent sabre-rattling has certainly bolstered the Mullah's radical, hardline position, and weakened the moderates. Still, it's anybody's guess how this will all shake out, and it depends heavily on what's going to happen with Iraq, (whether there's a civil war, whether the Shiites end up with a significant chunk of what was Iraq), and whether the West does anything about Iran's provocative moves WRT purported nuclear weapons development.
It's probably not just a coincidence that this website was shut down. It's probably not a good thing for the West either. This may weaken the Mullahs from a resource and propaganda perspective, but it makes them look like the victim here. And that helps them. If it was intentional, it was not wise. Sounds like the people who like to think of themselves as the champions of Freedom in the world, need to be reminded of the reasons WHY Freedom is a good thing. History is littered with reasons. You don't have to look to hard to find examples where oppression backfired.
Bzzzt! Dumb answer #1. Red (rural) states have grown faster then blue ones due to emigration from the cities to the rural areas.
Or not:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/12
Which is why there are so many of them leaving all the filth behind in the big cities and moving somewhere where they can breath and not choke on it
More like, they're moving to the country where they won't feel guilty driving their H2 to the end of the driveway to pick up their mail. Because the sky in the country isn't brown like it is in the cities. Yet.
As a former city-rat turned country-rat, the big challenge we learn out here in the country is; there's no fucking jobs. I ran away from the problems in the big city (Chicago).
But I don't really see anybody out here having learned anything, or changing their behavior. They're polluting, developing every square inch of land into strip malls on flood-plains, and spitting out dozens of offspring without worring about the hellhole they're going to have to live in when even rural areas become overpopulated. Maybe some of them even believe in "the rapture" so they don't worry about whether there will be enough resources for the next generation. About as smart as those yeasts.
.....because they believe humans are an end, not a mean to an end.
BAH and BULLSHIT.
Humans are just as much a Means to an End for the Religious Right as for anyone else.
It's all about POWER to the Religious Right.
"Be fruitful and multiply" anyone? So the members of their religion outnumber the members of competing religions, so that when the inevitable holy war comes, they'll have the numerical advantage (which has paid off well for Red Staters - they've simply out-bred the Blue Staters - and this is essentially WHY Israel isn't going to give voting rights to the Palestinians, because they know damn well they'll be out-bred in two generations).
A real "culture of life". yeah right.
In High School biology, we did this experiment, with growth media, yeast, and a sealed test tube. The population of the yeast did very well, and multiplied geometrically, and things looked good because they had plenty of growth media for the forseeable future.
Until they choked on their own filth, (alcohol) and they all died.
Yeast clearly aren't very smart.
Are human beings?