it makes a hell of a lot of sense to bind sex up in taboos
Are not taboos intended to produce guilt?
See Wikipedia:
Some taboo activities or customs are prohibited under law and transgressions may lead to severe penalties. Other taboos result in embarrassment, shame, and rudeness.
My inference is entirely appropriate based on the words you used.
A healthy understanding of sex includes an understanding of the risks, and the necessary precautions. What it does not involve, in any way whatsoever, is guilt. That's what you seem to be arguing for though. Correct me if I'm misunderstanding you.
can result in fatal or permanently life-altering disease
and, of course, pregnancy. duh
What's the difference?
there is no such thing, nor will there ever be, a successful human society with a cavalier attitude towards sex
Depends on your definition of success I suppose. I'd argue that there cannot be a successful society without a free and open attitude towards sex, but that's because I include happiness as a measure of success.
Teenagers, having fewer preconceptions are more likely to apply rationality to their decisions. Adults are set in their ways and less open to new ideas, even if they are better. I don't think either group has a monopoly on being irrational.
Underage sex photos should be restricted (because someone was raped)
Not all under age sex is rape. Even if you accept the legal fiction that people under a certain age are incapable of consent, the age of consent differs from the age of majority in many places. In fact, people have been prosecuted for child pornography after taking pictures of perfectly legal sex acts. Hell, in my state a few years ago a man was sent to prison for having sex with his wife who he legally married in another state.
Talk to real understanders of arts and they will tell that good art can be distinguished from bad art.
Except that a lot of great art was panned when it first exhibited. And an incredible lot of high art is really without any value whatsoever. It's an Emperor's New Clothes phenomenon.
First, it seems that one of the reasons why the court ruled in such a way is because the aforementioned web page does not have any kind of advertising (no profit)
That's easy enough to deal with. Instead of running the database of torrent files on a web page, which requires hosting and fees and ads to pay for it, distribute it through p2p.
Yahtzee is a video game reviewer who needs to calm down and take a breath once in a while. Punctuation exists for a reason. I'm much more of a CGRHD guy myself. Visit YouTube to watch Classic Game Room HD in HD on YouTube.
When was the last time Paul McCartney made a notable album? It was before I was alive at least. Yet every music enthusiast knows who he is. Similarly, every video game enthusiast should know who Lord British is.
I don't care as much about signal to noise as sheer power. Maybe I could replicate the pants shaking ability of an IMAX sound system in a smaller room in my home with fewer watts. I'm not sure I could do that for less than $1800 though.
For me, the major factor keeping me out of a theater is the inability to smoke pot. However, for the handful of worthwhile movies that use the IMAX technology well, I can deal with it.
I don't think a 50ft screen, or 12000W sounds system is going to make it home any time soon. I have a real IMAX theater, with very good 3d technology 10 minutes from my home. There might, if you're really generous, be 12 movies worth seeing in a year. Maybe half of them would be amenable to being made in 3d. If it costs $15 per showing, for two people that's $180 in a year. I could go to the theater for 10 years and still spend less than having a giant projector and kilowatt surround sound system in my home.
I cant really think of many legitimate reasons a US born person should have be wandering around in the tribal regions of Pakistan.
US Born != US citizen. It might surprise you to learn that there are many Pakistan born US citizens. Should going home to visit your family make you a legitimate target for a UAV?
There's also missionaries, womens rights workers, etc., etc.
What else is a soldier? I think you could argue that soldiers have better software routines and algorithms than anything else man has made, but I don't think you could really argue that they are not making lethal decisions based on software routines. All mental activity corresponds to brain chemistry, which corresponds to physics, which is just math, which is just a bunch of algorithms.
If US citizens are taking up arms against the United States, it is quite irrelevant whether they are citizens or not.
That's a big IF. How do you know they're taking up arms, and not just aid workers concerned about women's rights in the newly fundmentalist Iraq? That's why we need this information, to answer that IF.
The Constitution is not a suicide pact.
No it's not. It's a prescription for a healthy society. Sometimes it has some negative side effects, but then you see your doctor and get the prescription changed (or have a constitutional convention, as the case may be). Simply disregarding it is not an option.
If these people wanted due process of law they should have remained on American soil and not enlisted in the service of foreign organizations that are trying to murder American soldiers and civilians
What about the US citizens who are not on American soil, but have not enlisted in the service of foreign organizations that are trying to murder Americans?
The ACLU has sued the United States Government to enforce a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for 'the release of records relating to the use of unmanned aerial vehicles -- commonly known as "drones" -- for the purpose of targeting and killing individuals since September 11, 2001."
If these records show that we're only killing "US Citizens are employed in the service of enemies of this Republic on foreign soil", that would be wonderful. I'd suggest that the ACLU stop there. If those records show that we're not only killing enemies, then there are serious questions to answer.
You can't just assume that every non-military US citizen killed in Iraq or Afghanistan is helping the insurgents without some data to prove it. All they're asking for is the data.
Of course PETA believes any sort of servitude by animals is the same as slavery. They'll never be happy. After all, if they ever got everything they wanted they'd have to find something useful to do with their lives.
Reading text on a page doesn't kill my immersion when reading a book. Why should it when playing a game? In fact, halting all game play to give a character time to go through his spiel breaks immersion. Letting me read at my own pace and get back to the game as quickly as possible does not.
Yes, very much so. Who bothers to sit around and listen to all the dialog anyway? It takes longer to listen to a character read several lines of dialog than it does to read the subtitles, so I just read the subtitles and get back to the game.
Slashdot Mirror
it makes a hell of a lot of sense to bind sex up in taboos
Are not taboos intended to produce guilt?
See Wikipedia:
My inference is entirely appropriate based on the words you used.
A healthy understanding of sex includes an understanding of the risks, and the necessary precautions. What it does not involve, in any way whatsoever, is guilt. That's what you seem to be arguing for though. Correct me if I'm misunderstanding you.
is there another product I can entrust to keep the 'my computer's doing weird things' calls to a minimum?"
There is. It's the word "no". As in, "No, I don't use windows myself, and I don't recommend it. Sorry I can't help."
can result in fatal or permanently life-altering disease
and, of course, pregnancy. duh
What's the difference?
there is no such thing, nor will there ever be, a successful human society with a cavalier attitude towards sex
Depends on your definition of success I suppose. I'd argue that there cannot be a successful society without a free and open attitude towards sex, but that's because I include happiness as a measure of success.
Teenagers, having fewer preconceptions are more likely to apply rationality to their decisions. Adults are set in their ways and less open to new ideas, even if they are better. I don't think either group has a monopoly on being irrational.
Underage sex photos should be restricted (because someone was raped)
Not all under age sex is rape. Even if you accept the legal fiction that people under a certain age are incapable of consent, the age of consent differs from the age of majority in many places. In fact, people have been prosecuted for child pornography after taking pictures of perfectly legal sex acts. Hell, in my state a few years ago a man was sent to prison for having sex with his wife who he legally married in another state.
By "interfere" you mean "buy them condoms", right?
I did not know that. His work is much more pleasant when you don't hear him speaking.
Talk to real understanders of arts and they will tell that good art can be distinguished from bad art.
Except that a lot of great art was panned when it first exhibited. And an incredible lot of high art is really without any value whatsoever. It's an Emperor's New Clothes phenomenon.
First, it seems that one of the reasons why the court ruled in such a way is because the aforementioned web page does not have any kind of advertising (no profit)
That's easy enough to deal with. Instead of running the database of torrent files on a web page, which requires hosting and fees and ads to pay for it, distribute it through p2p.
Yahtzee is a video game reviewer who needs to calm down and take a breath once in a while. Punctuation exists for a reason. I'm much more of a CGRHD guy myself. Visit YouTube to watch Classic Game Room HD in HD on YouTube.
The original Ultima is quaint, and not what most people expect from an RPG, but still plenty entertaining.
When was the last time Paul McCartney made a notable album? It was before I was alive at least. Yet every music enthusiast knows who he is. Similarly, every video game enthusiast should know who Lord British is.
I don't care as much about signal to noise as sheer power. Maybe I could replicate the pants shaking ability of an IMAX sound system in a smaller room in my home with fewer watts. I'm not sure I could do that for less than $1800 though.
For me, the major factor keeping me out of a theater is the inability to smoke pot. However, for the handful of worthwhile movies that use the IMAX technology well, I can deal with it.
I don't think a 50ft screen, or 12000W sounds system is going to make it home any time soon. I have a real IMAX theater, with very good 3d technology 10 minutes from my home. There might, if you're really generous, be 12 movies worth seeing in a year. Maybe half of them would be amenable to being made in 3d. If it costs $15 per showing, for two people that's $180 in a year. I could go to the theater for 10 years and still spend less than having a giant projector and kilowatt surround sound system in my home.
I cant really think of many legitimate reasons a US born person should have be wandering around in the tribal regions of Pakistan.
US Born != US citizen. It might surprise you to learn that there are many Pakistan born US citizens. Should going home to visit your family make you a legitimate target for a UAV?
There's also missionaries, womens rights workers, etc., etc.
What else is a soldier? I think you could argue that soldiers have better software routines and algorithms than anything else man has made, but I don't think you could really argue that they are not making lethal decisions based on software routines. All mental activity corresponds to brain chemistry, which corresponds to physics, which is just math, which is just a bunch of algorithms.
If US citizens are taking up arms against the United States, it is quite irrelevant whether they are citizens or not.
That's a big IF. How do you know they're taking up arms, and not just aid workers concerned about women's rights in the newly fundmentalist Iraq? That's why we need this information, to answer that IF.
The Constitution is not a suicide pact.
No it's not. It's a prescription for a healthy society. Sometimes it has some negative side effects, but then you see your doctor and get the prescription changed (or have a constitutional convention, as the case may be). Simply disregarding it is not an option.
If these people wanted due process of law they should have remained on American soil and not enlisted in the service of foreign organizations that are trying to murder American soldiers and civilians
What about the US citizens who are not on American soil, but have not enlisted in the service of foreign organizations that are trying to murder Americans?
what the hell does the ACLU want?
It's right there in the summary:
If these records show that we're only killing "US Citizens are employed in the service of enemies of this Republic on foreign soil", that would be wonderful. I'd suggest that the ACLU stop there. If those records show that we're not only killing enemies, then there are serious questions to answer.
You can't just assume that every non-military US citizen killed in Iraq or Afghanistan is helping the insurgents without some data to prove it. All they're asking for is the data.
I think instead that it was cats who domesticated humans.
Of course PETA believes any sort of servitude by animals is the same as slavery. They'll never be happy. After all, if they ever got everything they wanted they'd have to find something useful to do with their lives.
Muting TV doesn't let me get back to the good stuff any quicker. Skipping dialog does.
Reading text on a page doesn't kill my immersion when reading a book. Why should it when playing a game? In fact, halting all game play to give a character time to go through his spiel breaks immersion. Letting me read at my own pace and get back to the game as quickly as possible does not.
Yes, very much so. Who bothers to sit around and listen to all the dialog anyway? It takes longer to listen to a character read several lines of dialog than it does to read the subtitles, so I just read the subtitles and get back to the game.