The book you want is Huxley's Brave New World. Instead of overlords controlling people through power and domination, people allow themselves to be controlled in exchange for the pleasantries of modern life - sex, entertainment, and other trivialities. As long as they get as much of those as they want, they don't give a damn what else is going on in society or who is controlling it. As the saying goes, you attract more flies with honey...
There was much more to it than that. The Savage (whose name escapes me) rejected all those supposedly pleasant things while the citizens, having been conditioned since before they were born, accepted them. Take the epsilons, for example: they weren't afforded much at all in the way of luxury, yet still served the state and might have fought to preserve the status quo if their development hadn't been retarded to the point where they couldn't even grasp the concept.
When people talk about Ninteen Eighty-Four, they often focus on the telescreen, to the exclusion of the mass surveillance of citizens by their peers. Similarly, with Brave New World the state essentially breeding people to be satisfied with what little they have takes second place to soma and free love that is (perversely) mandatory.
There was a pause; then the voice began again.
"Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they're so frightfully clever. I'm really awfully glad I'm a Beta, because I don't work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don't want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They're too stupid to be able "
The Director pushed back the switch. The voice was silent. Only its thin ghost continued to mutter from beneath the eighty pillows.
"They'll have that repeated forty or fifty times more before they wake; then again on Thursday, and again on Saturday. A hundred and twenty times three times a week for thirty months. After which they go on to a more advanced lesson."... "Till at last the child's mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the child's mind. And not the child's mind only. The adult's mind too—all his life long. The mind that judges and desires and decides—made up of these suggestions. But all these suggestions are our suggestions!
As for 1984, literary analysis was never my strong suit, but if asked I'd say that Orwell was afraid that an oppressive state would turn men against their fellows; I can only imagine what he would say about a world where people surrender their privacy willingly.
Back in the 1990s I heard the use of sound waves to move objects proposed as one of the fringe theories for how the pyramids were built, because "people could not have moved those great big blocks such long distances!".
That's not ironic. Perhaps eBay came to the same conclusion and decided to get in on the business that will eventually supplant them (or at least take a big chunk)? That seems like good business sense.
I don't drive to impress others, I drive because it's necessary. Give even the most pretentious hipster the choice between a one hour drive and a three hour bus journey to work (and back) each day, and we'll soon see how "cool" cars become.
Sub-postmasters, for those who aren't aware, are private subcontractors of the UK postal system. They are not directly employed by the government, they operate as private businesses.
The UK requires them to use specific software, called Horizon, to manage all transactions and accounting.
The Post Office is not state-owned.
FYI, the postal system in the UK was formally owned and operated by the state, but was split back in 1986 into Post Office Ltd and Royal Mail; the former was privatised. The Post Office operate the physical branches as well as selling some minor banking and telephony* services while RM, which is state-owned, deal with the actual delivery of mail. FWIW parts of my line of work would be much easier if the government actually did run the post offices.
*To make things more confusing, the old GPO also ran the telephones but that part was spun off into British Telecom long ago. Now the new Post Office also do telephony.
Both of them. It needn't be an either-or. The guy shouldn't be messing around with the bank's systems, and the bank shouldn't make it so easy for him to do so.
Speak for yourself. As far as I'm concerned the elephant in the room is "why are we still waiting for a new franchise?". I've had about as much Mario as I'm prepared to take and Zelda has already reach the point of diminishing returns.
Great, the UK is becoming a panopticon state even faster than the US.
The original Panopticon was a British prison. The system there worked because prisoners couldn't know if they were being watched, unlike the ANPR cameras the parent mentioned, which - like speed cameras - are always preceded by a sign to let you know they're there.
Ah, a radio show transcript. Isn't it funny how the wisest people on earth all have radio shows rather than jobs where they have to do so much as put on clothing for the camera?
You've never listened to Radio 4, have you? (Sorry if that doesn't work wherever you happen to be.) I recommend The Life Scientific, which is quite a pleasant talk show where scientists (duh) come on and talk about their particular fields. Plus, it's hosted by an actual scientist and, in a breaking move for the Beeb, one that hasn't been in a boy band.
If science isn't your bag then give "In Our Time" a try. The topics are much more varied but you do get Melvyn Bragg (chancellor of a University and a fellow of more British academic institutions than I care to list).
You'd think a FEW of them would, I dunno, work as scientists or something.
When one's radio obligations consist of barely more than one morning/afternoon per week, one generally finds plenty of time to pursue a career in whatever.
tl;dr Having a face fit for TV is not a pre-requisite for wisdom and there are a great number of radio shows hosted by the wise ones; I wouldn't be surprised if there were fewer on TV.
Probably because you use words like "leftists" and (I assume) "athiests" as perjorative terms. If only you'd worked in something about 'dem liberals you might have got a point for the full set.
You did manage to shoehorn something about Obama in there, so at least there's that.
All you need to make a 90 degree angle is something that you can fold. Take a piece of paper (or papyrus) and fold it, then fold it again so that the two straight edges are together and bingo, you have a right angle.
It's all well and good quoting the amendment, but you'll note the word "unreasonable" in there. May I suggest that instead of merely copy-pasting the constitution you give some thought as why checking a driver's phone may or may not be constitutional and write about that?
To play devil's advocate: a cursory glimpse to see if a call was in progress at the time of the crash seems reasonable to me; sending/receiving texts... not so much (who's to say I read the message that arrived just then?). Such complexities are, after all, the reason we have those "court" thingies.
The air flow through the middle of the cylinder almost guarantees they won't make stackable peripherals. It's going to be a tangled, sprawling mess to expand.
It's designed to sit on a flat surface, i.e. a desk, so stacking peripherals shouldn't be a problem. I still don't see the benefit of spinning the whole thing around; the power cord alone is thick enough to make it impractical.
If this was a new version of the cube I'd give serious thought to getting one, but as a high-powered, expensive replacement for my desktop I'll give it a miss.
Slashdot Mirror
Call me when they can answer the really tough questions, such as, "Does this dress make me look fat?"
Interesting game. The only winning move is not to play.
The book you want is Huxley's Brave New World. Instead of overlords controlling people through power and domination, people allow themselves to be controlled in exchange for the pleasantries of modern life - sex, entertainment, and other trivialities. As long as they get as much of those as they want, they don't give a damn what else is going on in society or who is controlling it. As the saying goes, you attract more flies with honey...
There was much more to it than that. The Savage (whose name escapes me) rejected all those supposedly pleasant things while the citizens, having been conditioned since before they were born, accepted them. Take the epsilons, for example: they weren't afforded much at all in the way of luxury, yet still served the state and might have fought to preserve the status quo if their development hadn't been retarded to the point where they couldn't even grasp the concept.
When people talk about Ninteen Eighty-Four, they often focus on the telescreen, to the exclusion of the mass surveillance of citizens by their peers. Similarly, with Brave New World the state essentially breeding people to be satisfied with what little they have takes second place to soma and free love that is (perversely) mandatory.
There was a pause; then the voice began again.
"Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they're so frightfully clever. I'm really awfully glad I'm a Beta, because I don't work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don't want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They're too stupid to be able "
The Director pushed back the switch. The voice was silent. Only its thin ghost continued to mutter from beneath the eighty pillows. "They'll have that repeated forty or fifty times more before they wake; then again on Thursday, and again on Saturday. A hundred and twenty times three times a week for thirty months. After which they go on to a more advanced lesson." ... "Till at last the child's mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the child's mind. And not the child's mind only. The adult's mind too—all his life long. The mind that judges and desires and decides—made up of these suggestions. But all these suggestions are our suggestions!
As for 1984, literary analysis was never my strong suit, but if asked I'd say that Orwell was afraid that an oppressive state would turn men against their fellows; I can only imagine what he would say about a world where people surrender their privacy willingly.
Back in the 1990s I heard the use of sound waves to move objects proposed as one of the fringe theories for how the pyramids were built, because "people could not have moved those great big blocks such long distances!".
In other news, bumblebees cannot fly.
That's not ironic. Perhaps eBay came to the same conclusion and decided to get in on the business that will eventually supplant them (or at least take a big chunk)? That seems like good business sense.
I don't drive to impress others, I drive because it's necessary. Give even the most pretentious hipster the choice between a one hour drive and a three hour bus journey to work (and back) each day, and we'll soon see how "cool" cars become.
To resummarize:
Sub-postmasters, for those who aren't aware, are private subcontractors of the UK postal system. They are not directly employed by the government, they operate as private businesses.
The UK requires them to use specific software, called Horizon, to manage all transactions and accounting.
The Post Office is not state-owned.
FYI, the postal system in the UK was formally owned and operated by the state, but was split back in 1986 into Post Office Ltd and Royal Mail; the former was privatised. The Post Office operate the physical branches as well as selling some minor banking and telephony* services while RM, which is state-owned, deal with the actual delivery of mail. FWIW parts of my line of work would be much easier if the government actually did run the post offices.
*To make things more confusing, the old GPO also ran the telephones but that part was spun off into British Telecom long ago. Now the new Post Office also do telephony.
They were missiles.
So where am I supposed to get clean water for my scotch?
You're not. Not, that is, if you like scotch.
...
Who would you blame? The bank or the guy?
Both of them. It needn't be an either-or. The guy shouldn't be messing around with the bank's systems, and the bank shouldn't make it so easy for him to do so.
Speak for yourself. As far as I'm concerned the elephant in the room is "why are we still waiting for a new franchise?". I've had about as much Mario as I'm prepared to take and Zelda has already reach the point of diminishing returns.
Great, the UK is becoming a panopticon state even faster than the US.
The original Panopticon was a British prison. The system there worked because prisoners couldn't know if they were being watched, unlike the ANPR cameras the parent mentioned, which - like speed cameras - are always preceded by a sign to let you know they're there.
Ah, a radio show transcript. Isn't it funny how the wisest people on earth all have radio shows rather than jobs where they have to do so much as put on clothing for the camera?
You've never listened to Radio 4, have you? (Sorry if that doesn't work wherever you happen to be.) I recommend The Life Scientific, which is quite a pleasant talk show where scientists (duh) come on and talk about their particular fields. Plus, it's hosted by an actual scientist and, in a breaking move for the Beeb, one that hasn't been in a boy band.
If science isn't your bag then give "In Our Time" a try. The topics are much more varied but you do get Melvyn Bragg (chancellor of a University and a fellow of more British academic institutions than I care to list).
You'd think a FEW of them would, I dunno, work as scientists or something.
When one's radio obligations consist of barely more than one morning/afternoon per week, one generally finds plenty of time to pursue a career in whatever.
tl;dr Having a face fit for TV is not a pre-requisite for wisdom and there are a great number of radio shows hosted by the wise ones; I wouldn't be surprised if there were fewer on TV.
I won't be satisfied until my makerbot can print an M16 with a free electron laser inside.
I'm told that I'm not an easy person to shop for.
Si tacuisses philosophus mansisses.
[After Colonial Marines] Is there a Gearbox game that is NOT controversial?
I'm going to say no, but only because I don't think Gearbox have released any in-house games since Colonial Marines.
There really needs to be a "-1, factually incorrect" option.
I just use -1 Overrated for that, especially if someone else has already given it a +1 Informative.
Also typical that this gets auto moderated to -1
Probably because you use words like "leftists" and (I assume) "athiests" as perjorative terms. If only you'd worked in something about 'dem liberals you might have got a point for the full set.
You did manage to shoehorn something about Obama in there, so at least there's that.
All you need to make a 90 degree angle is something that you can fold. Take a piece of paper (or papyrus) and fold it, then fold it again so that the two straight edges are together and bingo, you have a right angle.
It's all well and good quoting the amendment, but you'll note the word "unreasonable" in there. May I suggest that instead of merely copy-pasting the constitution you give some thought as why checking a driver's phone may or may not be constitutional and write about that?
To play devil's advocate: a cursory glimpse to see if a call was in progress at the time of the crash seems reasonable to me; sending/receiving texts... not so much (who's to say I read the message that arrived just then?). Such complexities are, after all, the reason we have those "court" thingies.
It's also best eaten whole. If you're going to chew your gagh you might as well just go the whole hog and cook it.
s/conceded/conceited
i dub thee the iDildo.
Self-warming too, what an innovation!
The air flow through the middle of the cylinder almost guarantees they won't make stackable peripherals. It's going to be a tangled, sprawling mess to expand.
It's designed to sit on a flat surface, i.e. a desk, so stacking peripherals shouldn't be a problem. I still don't see the benefit of spinning the whole thing around; the power cord alone is thick enough to make it impractical.
If this was a new version of the cube I'd give serious thought to getting one, but as a high-powered, expensive replacement for my desktop I'll give it a miss.
(:Damm, all the states are making pot legal... Who are we going to go after for nice easy busts so we look like we're working?
I get the feeling that busts will be much easier when everyone is sitting at home, cabbaged on their couches.
Pusser's rum is rather good, that is if you can get a hold of it in Texas(?).