I am coming from Czech Republic former Czechoslovakia, currently EU and NATO member state, ally of USA. I remember communist totalitarian regime. When I read all this it reminds me the time when we as nation were less free and more secure under totalitarian communist surveillance. In that time done by the state secret police.
Each person by the time had a secret profile associated which indicated class status of the person and it's position and loyalty towards the regime. For example if grand father was entrepreneur during the free time, the person could be refused education or certain work positions or even imprisoned if it suited the regime and communist party purpose. This profile actually shaped person's career and life.
It is highly probable that a profile for each of us already exists in NSA database or soon will. It is a matter of time how it will be used and for what reason. It is very dangerous for the people, democracy and basic freedoms and it will certainly not help to protect it. This is already proven, massive surveillance is usually indicating totalitarian police state or it is one of it's main attributes.
That's what most of us have suspected, but it's good (in a way) to have it confirmed by somebody who lived in the old Eastern Bloc. There is now no doubt we're quickly headed in the wrong direction.
Snowden named Shen's university as one of hundreds of NSA targets in Hong Kong and mainland China in an interview published in Thursday's edition of the Post, but it was the only one he specifically identified.
At Chinese University, Shen said he wasn't sure why the NSA might target his school but added, "There are a few strategically important points in the Chinese University of Hong Kong."
Chinese University may have been of interest to the NSA beyond its infrastructure. University researchers are engaged in research projects with government counterparts in mainland China and elsewhere. Shen cited the example of the Dragon Programme, which is a joint project of the National Remote Sensing Center of China and the European Space Agency for Earth observation research and application development.
Chinese University also runs a joint program with the Chinese Academy of Sciences in "advanced integration technology," a brain research project with China's Academy of Military Medical Sciences, a research center for "radar remote sensing" with the China Center for Resources Satellite Data and Applications and the Joint Center for Intelligent Sensing and Systems with the National University of Defense Technology, among others.
Snowden mentioned how the NSA conducted cyber espionage operations on Hong Kong and China infrastructures. He even mentioned specific targets.
These are clearly "highly classified state secrets", unrelated to the domestic spying scandals.
China and Hong Kong didn't know they were the targets of "NSA conducted cyber espionage operations" or what the targets were? How dumb do you think they are? When China does the same to the US not only is it detected, but openly published.
Unless he divulged very concrete details, he divulged nothing of value to the targets of these operations. Want to know about the US arsenal? Try globalsecurity.org, wikipedia or nuclearweaponarchive.org. The only important things to keep classified are the exact details of the design, construction and capabilities. If the only thing you want to know about are the existence or general design and capabilities of anything from an RPG to a nuclear warhead, you can find it on the Internet. Hell, a lot of that info comes from Pentagon press releases!
Things like this and calls for revolution are just asking for the very real danger of replacing the Bad with the Worse.
More like the bad with the laughable. If it ever did come to a point where an overthrow of the government was brewing, I suspect that recruiting would not be via posts on Slashdot.
Uncle Sam or the MPAA? What the NZ and US governments have in common is subservience to the real PTB. The big revelation in massive online surveillance is going to be that they ignored stuff about nuking NYC but put high priority on "pirated" movies.
You probably should study a bit more on the matter.
I don't claim to be an expert on the issue, but all you're saying is that you agree with Marx more than Bakunin. That's a matter of opinion rather than fact or knowledge.
here is a guy (who insists on using a juvenile nickname) who had the wool pulled over his eyes by perhaps one of the most successful psychopaths of this and the last century: Steve Jobs
How do I get the wool pulled over my eyes like that? For the $100M that Woz made on being taken advantage of, I'll not only use a "juvenile nickname" but wear a clown suit if you want.
If you want to know what atrocities the Russians committed, look in the graves. If you want to know what atrocities the Nazis committed, look at the receipts. If you want to know what atrocities the Americans committed, look in the newspapers.
Best description of the difference I've ever seen.
consider that the United States is the only country to nuke another country
A different means to the same end - we actually killed more Japanese in the conventional bombings. If you're going to criticize that (and there is certainly good reason to do so) please discuss how you would have conducted the war instead.
Additionally discuss how several million Germans died towards the end and after WWII because the USSR decided to shrink the eastern part of Germany.
We engaged in propaganda in the extreme, rewriting our pledge of allegiance to include "under god" and printed the same on our money as a propaganda war against "godless communism."
That silly "under God" thing is your idea of extreme propaganda? No, blatant lies are extreme propaganda. Please discuss the relative extents of US and USSR use of such techniques, and the number of people sent to death prisons for disagreeing with the official line.
We engaged in witch hunts, like McCarthy appearing before Congress to say he "held in his hands" a list of known communist co-conspirators.
McCarthy victims lost their jobs, which was an injustice. How many were sent to something like the gulag?
We publicly executed Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953... the principle charge against them, the reason they were executed -- passing secrets about how to build the atom bomb, they were innocent of. They had only passed on low value information that was already duplicated elsewhere... mostly hand-drawn sketches.
They weren't innocent (at least not Julius), Sobel didn't say they were innocent, and there are many reasons other than his confession to believe that Julius was guilty. The reason they only passed on "low value information that was already duplicated" was because Ethel's brother Greenglass was a lousy spy. Greenglass and Julius were traitors - just not very effective ones. Ethel was a slightly different story. She probably wasn't guilty of much beyond not ratting out her husband and her brother. I think that may still have qualified for the death penalty, but in the interests of justice I don't think it merited it.
I'd be happy to entertain any significant act that you feel the USSR undertook that didn't have a parallel from the USA.
Does killing tens of millions of your own citizens in forced collectivization, forced relocations, artificial famines and camps that worked their prisoners to death count for anything?
However, I must say that the Soviet regime in was in some ways really better than you've accustomed to believe, that is for sure. And, in some ways the US has commited much more horrendous misdeeds.
That would be more meaningful if you at least gave some examples.
Communism in it's purist form as visioned by Karl Marx has never been implemented; he never really explained it either.
Marxism is not the only form of communism, and Marx was an authoritarian. It's well explained here.
In the 19th century there was a big rivalry between the Marxist communists and the anarchist communists, as exemplified by Bakunin. He and other anarchists hated Marx's "dictatorship of the proletariat", which Marx never precisely defined, but in which the word "dictatorship" was accurately used. As Bakunin said:
They [the Marxists] maintain that only a dictatorship—their dictatorship, of course—can create the will of the people, while our answer to this is: No dictatorship can have any other aim but that of self-perpetuation, and it can beget only slavery in the people tolerating it; freedom can be created only by freedom, that is, by a universal rebellion on the part of the people and free organization of the toiling masses from the bottom up.
I'm no political extremist, but I've always thought that if I were to become one I'd be an anarchist. Essentially they believe that all government authority is corrupt.
Complementary DNA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complementary_DNA) is basically a copy of the information from a gene.
Cells make RNA using the information from DNA and then the information is used to make a protein (which does the "real work"). cDNA is generally made by isolating the RNA from a cell and adding a protein called Reverse Transcriptase (from retroviruses) that converts the information of the RNA into DNA (mainly because DNA is easier to sequence and use).
The information from cDNA is identical to parts of the original DNA sequence, except it will sometimes have naturally occurring "edits". Other differences can be the result of "errors" produced by reverse transcriptase (usually contributes to the mutation rate of the virus).
Short version: cDNA is a copy of information encoded in the genome.
Would it be correct to say that using cDNA is a way to get rid of a lot of the cruft (inactive or unnecessary parts) of the original DNA sequence?
The most common discoveries patented today deal with process patents, ways of doing or making something.
You're playing with philosophy and word games. I'd argue that process patents are about inventions rather than discoveries because they deal with things that were created by people rather than things which already existed in nature. That's the way it's commonly understood and used today, Plato might have disagreed.
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries; [emphasis changed]
You need an expert in 18th century English to really sort that out. In modern English it's a contradiction because inventors invent things, they don't make scientific discoveries. I suspect "science" means something other than our common modern usage (which is more a matter of convention than definition anyway). In the 18th century what we call science might have more likely been called natural philosophy.
Slashdot Mirror
The trash can would make a great high end consumer Mac.
You're missing your calling as an industrial designer, at least according to iFans.
I am coming from Czech Republic former Czechoslovakia, currently EU and NATO member state, ally of USA. I remember communist totalitarian regime. When I read all this it reminds me the time when we as nation were less free and more secure under totalitarian communist surveillance. In that time done by the state secret police.
Each person by the time had a secret profile associated which indicated class status of the person and it's position and loyalty towards the regime. For example if grand father was entrepreneur during the free time, the person could be refused education or certain work positions or even imprisoned if it suited the regime and communist party purpose. This profile actually shaped person's career and life.
It is highly probable that a profile for each of us already exists in NSA database or soon will. It is a matter of time how it will be used and for what reason. It is very dangerous for the people, democracy and basic freedoms and it will certainly not help to protect it. This is already proven, massive surveillance is usually indicating totalitarian police state or it is one of it's main attributes.
That's what most of us have suspected, but it's good (in a way) to have it confirmed by somebody who lived in the old Eastern Bloc. There is now no doubt we're quickly headed in the wrong direction.
Snowden named Shen's university as one of hundreds of NSA targets in Hong Kong and mainland China in an interview published in Thursday's edition of the Post, but it was the only one he specifically identified.
At Chinese University, Shen said he wasn't sure why the NSA might target his school but added, "There are a few strategically important points in the Chinese University of Hong Kong."
Chinese University may have been of interest to the NSA beyond its infrastructure. University researchers are engaged in research projects with government counterparts in mainland China and elsewhere. Shen cited the example of the Dragon Programme, which is a joint project of the National Remote Sensing Center of China and the European Space Agency for Earth observation research and application development.
Chinese University also runs a joint program with the Chinese Academy of Sciences in "advanced integration technology," a brain research project with China's Academy of Military Medical Sciences, a research center for "radar remote sensing" with the China Center for Resources Satellite Data and Applications and the Joint Center for Intelligent Sensing and Systems with the National University of Defense Technology, among others.
Snowden mentioned how the NSA conducted cyber espionage operations on Hong Kong and China infrastructures. He even mentioned specific targets. These are clearly "highly classified state secrets", unrelated to the domestic spying scandals.
China and Hong Kong didn't know they were the targets of "NSA conducted cyber espionage operations" or what the targets were? How dumb do you think they are? When China does the same to the US not only is it detected, but openly published.
Unless he divulged very concrete details, he divulged nothing of value to the targets of these operations. Want to know about the US arsenal? Try globalsecurity.org, wikipedia or nuclearweaponarchive.org. The only important things to keep classified are the exact details of the design, construction and capabilities. If the only thing you want to know about are the existence or general design and capabilities of anything from an RPG to a nuclear warhead, you can find it on the Internet. Hell, a lot of that info comes from Pentagon press releases!
Things like this and calls for revolution are just asking for the very real danger of replacing the Bad with the Worse.
More like the bad with the laughable. If it ever did come to a point where an overthrow of the government was brewing, I suspect that recruiting would not be via posts on Slashdot.
Uncle Sam or the MPAA? What the NZ and US governments have in common is subservience to the real PTB. The big revelation in massive online surveillance is going to be that they ignored stuff about nuking NYC but put high priority on "pirated" movies.
He overestimated himself, and underestimated the value of stunt men and special effects.
What's he gonna save? Social Security?
No, he's a Republican.
The new style will know that the objective definition of right comes from Deep Thought.
You can already find old style humans who determine the truth purely using Deep Thought - libertarians or communists, your choice.
That's part of the reason I like working for small companies, but I still don't like cleaning the toilets.
You probably should study a bit more on the matter.
I don't claim to be an expert on the issue, but all you're saying is that you agree with Marx more than Bakunin. That's a matter of opinion rather than fact or knowledge.
here is a guy (who insists on using a juvenile nickname) who had the wool pulled over his eyes by perhaps one of the most successful psychopaths of this and the last century: Steve Jobs
How do I get the wool pulled over my eyes like that? For the $100M that Woz made on being taken advantage of, I'll not only use a "juvenile nickname" but wear a clown suit if you want.
If you want to know what atrocities the Russians committed, look in the graves. If you want to know what atrocities the Nazis committed, look at the receipts. If you want to know what atrocities the Americans committed, look in the newspapers.
Best description of the difference I've ever seen.
consider that the United States is the only country to nuke another country
A different means to the same end - we actually killed more Japanese in the conventional bombings. If you're going to criticize that (and there is certainly good reason to do so) please discuss how you would have conducted the war instead.
Additionally discuss how several million Germans died towards the end and after WWII because the USSR decided to shrink the eastern part of Germany.
We engaged in propaganda in the extreme, rewriting our pledge of allegiance to include "under god" and printed the same on our money as a propaganda war against "godless communism."
That silly "under God" thing is your idea of extreme propaganda? No, blatant lies are extreme propaganda. Please discuss the relative extents of US and USSR use of such techniques, and the number of people sent to death prisons for disagreeing with the official line.
We engaged in witch hunts, like McCarthy appearing before Congress to say he "held in his hands" a list of known communist co-conspirators.
McCarthy victims lost their jobs, which was an injustice. How many were sent to something like the gulag?
We publicly executed Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953 ... the principle charge against them, the reason they were executed -- passing secrets about how to build the atom bomb, they were innocent of. They had only passed on low value information that was already duplicated elsewhere... mostly hand-drawn sketches.
They weren't innocent (at least not Julius), Sobel didn't say they were innocent, and there are many reasons other than his confession to believe that Julius was guilty. The reason they only passed on "low value information that was already duplicated" was because Ethel's brother Greenglass was a lousy spy. Greenglass and Julius were traitors - just not very effective ones. Ethel was a slightly different story. She probably wasn't guilty of much beyond not ratting out her husband and her brother. I think that may still have qualified for the death penalty, but in the interests of justice I don't think it merited it.
I'd be happy to entertain any significant act that you feel the USSR undertook that didn't have a parallel from the USA.
Does killing tens of millions of your own citizens in forced collectivization, forced relocations, artificial famines and camps that worked their prisoners to death count for anything?
However, I must say that the Soviet regime in was in some ways really better than you've accustomed to believe, that is for sure. And, in some ways the US has commited much more horrendous misdeeds.
That would be more meaningful if you at least gave some examples.
an entity that we knew was always right
Bigger problem: there is no objective definition of "right".
all company employees from top to bottom will take a toilet scrubbing duty rotation for 15 minutes a week
I see you've worked for a small company.
The Stasi were more competent than average
Careful not to spout your cliches about German efficiency amongst KGB alumni.
while looking into the barrel of a gun
A libertarian term of art, more commonly phrased as "men with guns".
In the voluntary case, you have the option of removing yourself from the group. Churches and their schisms are an example.
By your reasoning about freedom, any country that allows you to leave is free.
Communism in it's purist form as visioned by Karl Marx has never been implemented; he never really explained it either.
Marxism is not the only form of communism, and Marx was an authoritarian. It's well explained here.
In the 19th century there was a big rivalry between the Marxist communists and the anarchist communists, as exemplified by Bakunin. He and other anarchists hated Marx's "dictatorship of the proletariat", which Marx never precisely defined, but in which the word "dictatorship" was accurately used. As Bakunin said:
They [the Marxists] maintain that only a dictatorship—their dictatorship, of course—can create the will of the people, while our answer to this is: No dictatorship can have any other aim but that of self-perpetuation, and it can beget only slavery in the people tolerating it; freedom can be created only by freedom, that is, by a universal rebellion on the part of the people and free organization of the toiling masses from the bottom up.
I'm no political extremist, but I've always thought that if I were to become one I'd be an anarchist. Essentially they believe that all government authority is corrupt.
dioxyribose backbone with their introns removed
I think that's today's special at the Cheesecake Factory.
For those of you who don't know:
Complementary DNA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complementary_DNA) is basically a copy of the information from a gene.
Cells make RNA using the information from DNA and then the information is used to make a protein (which does the "real work"). cDNA is generally made by isolating the RNA from a cell and adding a protein called Reverse Transcriptase (from retroviruses) that converts the information of the RNA into DNA (mainly because DNA is easier to sequence and use).
The information from cDNA is identical to parts of the original DNA sequence, except it will sometimes have naturally occurring "edits". Other differences can be the result of "errors" produced by reverse transcriptase (usually contributes to the mutation rate of the virus).
Short version: cDNA is a copy of information encoded in the genome.
Would it be correct to say that using cDNA is a way to get rid of a lot of the cruft (inactive or unnecessary parts) of the original DNA sequence?
Of course - Monsanto has more money than nature.
The most common discoveries patented today deal with process patents, ways of doing or making something.
You're playing with philosophy and word games. I'd argue that process patents are about inventions rather than discoveries because they deal with things that were created by people rather than things which already existed in nature. That's the way it's commonly understood and used today, Plato might have disagreed.
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries; [emphasis changed]
You need an expert in 18th century English to really sort that out. In modern English it's a contradiction because inventors invent things, they don't make scientific discoveries. I suspect "science" means something other than our common modern usage (which is more a matter of convention than definition anyway). In the 18th century what we call science might have more likely been called natural philosophy.