I see this as an insult to America. They're basically saying our process of electing a president is a sham and that we're incapable of being democratic. People can talk about Florida all they want.
Don't stress it; the entire article posting is 90% lies. Clinton signed up the USA for this back in the early 90's. It has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with Florida in 2000 or any other particular US election. It's something that the European nation members do already and no one is claiming that it's because they've got rigged elections.
You needn't treat them like a threat to their face, that is just rude. Most people are "too busy"
So business users who are supposed to be working are "too busy" to learn proper computer use but they do have time to install P2P software and dl warez and music (which includes time to search and select)?
What I'd like to see would be a benchmark 'emerge system'
A heck of a lot of that procedure is disk intensive as well as CPU so there really isn't much added benefit in doing that on a 6GHz CPU with a (relatively) measly 1MB cache, 512MB of RAM, and standard disk drives. Sure, some, but not as much as some people would expect.
You might also end up with "flavors" of a level such as maybe Dell's idea of a Level 5 ends up better than Compaq's
Not only that but what about when new tech comes out? All the manufacturers get close, but not exactly, to the same release dates. So when Dell starts selling the new level 5 when Compaq is still selling off inventory of the prior level 5, how's the consumer to know? Model years, ala the auto industry, won't do since tech doesn't move in nice annual strides. So the only thing I can think of is to increment the numbers indefinitely. So in 30 years the three model levels might be 1245, 1246, and 1247. Obviously, not such a great idea because manufacturer X will bloat the numbers to get a jump on the competition. Who will buy a Dell model 1247 when Compaq releases practically the same thing labeled as a 1248?
Would the Green Party's purposes be better served by aligning with one of the major parties? Delivering votes drives politics, whether it is via money or via campaigning. If the Green Party pulled for a major party candidate (and thus delivered votes), wouldn't it have a LOT more pull when an issue it cares strongly about came before the legislature and/or executive? By running its own candidate, an alternative party takes away, rather than deliver, votes and so it seems they dillute their influence significantly. What is your take on this theory of the power of alternative parties in general?
Duh, people porn is people with their covers removed. Computer porn, in this case iMac porn, is a computer with its cover removed. This should be stunningly obvious. Please feel free to think before posting for a change.
but we can tell 90 % of the time weather someone has been in their machine or not
Umm, this is a logical contradiction. If you can't determine some of the people have opened their computers, it's impossible to say what percent you caught doing it.
but the "largest tax increase in the history of mankind" (according to Rush Limbaugh anyway)
No, actually according to anyone who cares to read the numbers. Please see chart #1 at Tax Freedom Day and note that from 1992 to 2000 (the Clinton years), taxes did nothing but go up, fast.
Since this is an IE exploit, I hit the parent's link with Mozilla and was told that my email address was removed from the database. WTF email address was "removed"? It looks like a completely bogus opt-out since they don't check that you've even submitted an email addy to be removed, nevermind actually finding and removing a record in their database. Yet the/. article states that the spams in question comply with the requirement of having a removal link. What good is a removal link that says you're removed when really no such thing happened??? I especially love the 'click here to enter more email addys to be removed'. I'll bet $20 that's just a harvesting technique.
Ask Jeeves prompts the user to ask in plain language but the thing just parses out keywords and does a standard search. It doesn't interpret the intent of the question so all kinds of wierd results come back that have nothing to do with what you're looking for (just like a typical Google or Yahoo search). If it actually did try to figure out what you are really asking then it would be a lot more useful. Since it doesn't, why even pretend?
Because XM is free of advertising. Someone has to pay for broadcasting and with commercial radio, it's the advertisers. With XM, it's the listeners. This makes perfect sense. What I don't get is people who pay for cable television service whose channels run ads.
because if the whole world converted to wind power in 15 years
Amazing how the whole world lives in areas where there is strong enough and steady enough wind to run reasonably local wind power generator farms.
As someone who lives in Colorado and has visited the wind farm in question, I can tell you that the northern Colorado / southern Wyoming areas where they have those generators are seriously windswept. Nonstop, hard wind. Not everywhere has such an area nearby, which shoots an unfortunate hole in the proposed worldwide plan.
As a side note, that area has one of the nation's highest suicide rates that is often blamed on the nonstop wind making people lose their minds.
Parent post is 100% right; the Zahn novels are excellent. Remember that even though the Emperor died there is still a vast beauracracy and military operating in the imperial mode to run the galaxy. After RotJ there wasn't an instantaneous happy new Republic. For those of you who haven't read them, do so if you want good sci-fi.
packing an insane 3500ft-lbs at the muzzle...now THAT'S protection!
Contrary to action movies, those artillery peices masquerading as handguns are not casually fired singled handed. The person in question who was being stalked is a woman and the average 250lb guy has to use two hands to fire a.50AE. The Glock recommended in a post above is a MUCH better choice.
a properly designed system with parachutes and balloons to absorb the impact, proven technology that's been used in the mars lander missions
Mars has less gravity than Earth so the parachutes and balloons would need to be much larger. And much larger coming down is much larger to lift up in the first place. This is a cheap (relatively) $200 million mission. Increasing the size to include touchdown equipment would boost the budget by a large factor. If they pull this off, it will be the new poster child for NASA's cheaper-faster programs.
"Legal" tender only because it is forced down the throat of the people, so the government can manipulate the money supply.
Please, feel free to print up anoncowardbux. If you get enough merchant to sign on, you can have your own money supply. The airlines inadvertantly did this with frequent flier miles. Those things are ubiquitous enough that they act as a type of money these days. There's nothing illegal about it. I bet that if you were determined enough, you could operate your finances completely with FF miles. You'd only need to convert some to deal in Fed Res Notes when its tax time, as the government wants taxes paid in USD. There would be absolutely nothing illegal in doing this. The government does not force legal tender down your throat. The government enforces that other people have to take your legal tender when you want to pay them off. Imagine someone demanding chickens for payment. I sure as heck don't have any chickens. Good thing for me I have dollars and they have to take the dollars instead of demanding whatever the heck they want.
It happens. They force the people to use money, so that they can then print MORE money to buy whatever they want
Before the second world war started, the Weimar Republic printed money to buy whatever it wanted. Workers' wives would run from the factories to the shops with wheel barrows rull of money to spend it before it inflated too much (within hours). I assure you, the current US federal government does NOT "print more money to buy whatever they want". There is a controlled budget process.
Furthermore, the Federal government prints absolutely NO money. The Treasury issues Treasury Notes and Bills, which it sells to the Federal Reserve. It is the Federal Reserve that either buys with cash on hand or has to print more to purchase the T-Bills/Notes. A fine distinction, perhaps too fine for most people to grasp, but the Federal Reserve has whopping loads of cash on hand if the Treasury gets temporarily too happy with printing up new debt. At least, long enough for your local investigative reported to bring it to our attention and put an end to it.
Within the science of economics, fiat means "having no intrinsic value." "The word fiat, IIRC, comes from the Italian word for "in faith."
Sorry, fiat means the same in economics as in regular English: by degree. It is from a Latin word, 'fier', meaning 'to decree'. It has a slightly negative connotation in English, showing the essay author's bias when he uses it to refer to the fact that U.S. Federal Reserve Notes are legal tender. His bias is completely exposed when we find that the two outside sources referenced are 1. Ludwig von Mises, the economist whose works were used to found Libertarianism and 2. Murray N. Rothbard, the founder of Libertarianism
The essay is rife with flaws from the mainstream economic point of view; its Libertarian slant is hard to wade through. I hate loaded language like 'fiat money' used to refer to legal tender. Just for fun, I'll address one point. Pointing out all the problems would make a good final exam essay at Bachelor level econ class:
The what-if example about the Professor deciding to make money leaves completely misses the point. Here's the way that would need to play out: The Prof would have to offer some kind of service or good that at least one of the other residents of the island wanted. In order to perform that service or hand over that good, the Prof would declare that he would only accept genuine ProfLeaves. In order to get ProfLeaves in the first place, the other resident(s) would have to perform a service or provide a good to him. The Prof can simply demand that others accept for no reason but that's not practical.
This is typically (note: 'typically' is not 'always') how currency gets its start; the government issues the money in return for services and goods from the citizens. The govmt declares that it will be demanding payment in its money as a tax payment. Soon, the money is in general circulation, as somewhere along the line, most of the participants are needing to pay for taxes and the government, as the largest purchaser and provider of new money, can set prices and supply.
For US Currency, it wasn't always legal tender. Indeed, many states and banks issues their own money. This caused a lot of confusion. Imagine travelling to another state and needing to change your money. A major reason the Europeans adopted a common currency is to make trade so much easier. In the US, to cut out all the confusion of all the competing currencies, the Federal government made Federal Reserve Notes legal tender. This means that you can print up your own JoeBucks but can't legally require anyone else to accept them. If they do, that's fine, if not, you have to pay in Fed Notes.
If you have a viable design for a space elevator, you can have your own IPO and raise plenty of cash. That's why there's no real need for artificial prizes. The revenue generated by the thing would be the real prize.
If/When there is a crash of a major airliner. People are not going to be walking away
Sure, not when there is a major crash of a major airliner, but I recall several moderately nasty crashes when people were able to get out and run away before being burned up... there was that plane that crashed into the river in NYC due to icing; the DC-10 that lost all hydraulic power and had to splash in the field in Illinois, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
I see this as an insult to America. They're basically saying our process of electing a president is a sham and that we're incapable of being democratic. People can talk about Florida all they want.
Don't stress it; the entire article posting is 90% lies. Clinton signed up the USA for this back in the early 90's. It has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with Florida in 2000 or any other particular US election. It's something that the European nation members do already and no one is claiming that it's because they've got rigged elections.
You needn't treat them like a threat to their face, that is just rude. Most people are "too busy"
So business users who are supposed to be working are "too busy" to learn proper computer use but they do have time to install P2P software and dl warez and music (which includes time to search and select)?
What I'd like to see would be a benchmark 'emerge system'
A heck of a lot of that procedure is disk intensive as well as CPU so there really isn't much added benefit in doing that on a 6GHz CPU with a (relatively) measly 1MB cache, 512MB of RAM, and standard disk drives. Sure, some, but not as much as some people would expect.
You might also end up with "flavors" of a level such as maybe Dell's idea of a Level 5 ends up better than Compaq's
Not only that but what about when new tech comes out? All the manufacturers get close, but not exactly, to the same release dates. So when Dell starts selling the new level 5 when Compaq is still selling off inventory of the prior level 5, how's the consumer to know? Model years, ala the auto industry, won't do since tech doesn't move in nice annual strides. So the only thing I can think of is to increment the numbers indefinitely. So in 30 years the three model levels might be 1245, 1246, and 1247. Obviously, not such a great idea because manufacturer X will bloat the numbers to get a jump on the competition. Who will buy a Dell model 1247 when Compaq releases practically the same thing labeled as a 1248?
Would the Green Party's purposes be better served by aligning with one of the major parties? Delivering votes drives politics, whether it is via money or via campaigning. If the Green Party pulled for a major party candidate (and thus delivered votes), wouldn't it have a LOT more pull when an issue it cares strongly about came before the legislature and/or executive? By running its own candidate, an alternative party takes away, rather than deliver, votes and so it seems they dillute their influence significantly. What is your take on this theory of the power of alternative parties in general?
(i.e. G5 heatsink that no one will ever see but still looks cool)
I thought that was the #1 indicator that the thing was meant to be user-openable.
Duh, people porn is people with their covers removed. Computer porn, in this case iMac porn, is a computer with its cover removed. This should be stunningly obvious. Please feel free to think before posting for a change.
but we can tell 90 % of the time weather someone has been in their machine or not
Umm, this is a logical contradiction. If you can't determine some of the people have opened their computers, it's impossible to say what percent you caught doing it.
PS - Weather is whether or not it's raining.
but the "largest tax increase in the history of mankind" (according to Rush Limbaugh anyway)
No, actually according to anyone who cares to read the numbers. Please see chart #1 at Tax Freedom Day and note that from 1992 to 2000 (the Clinton years), taxes did nothing but go up, fast.
Since this is an IE exploit, I hit the parent's link with Mozilla and was told that my email address was removed from the database. WTF email address was "removed"? It looks like a completely bogus opt-out since they don't check that you've even submitted an email addy to be removed, nevermind actually finding and removing a record in their database. Yet the /. article states that the spams in question comply with the requirement of having a removal link. What good is a removal link that says you're removed when really no such thing happened??? I especially love the 'click here to enter more email addys to be removed'. I'll bet $20 that's just a harvesting technique.
Ask Jeeves prompts the user to ask in plain language but the thing just parses out keywords and does a standard search. It doesn't interpret the intent of the question so all kinds of wierd results come back that have nothing to do with what you're looking for (just like a typical Google or Yahoo search). If it actually did try to figure out what you are really asking then it would be a lot more useful. Since it doesn't, why even pretend?
Because XM is free of advertising. Someone has to pay for broadcasting and with commercial radio, it's the advertisers. With XM, it's the listeners. This makes perfect sense. What I don't get is people who pay for cable television service whose channels run ads.
because if the whole world converted to wind power in 15 years
Amazing how the whole world lives in areas where there is strong enough and steady enough wind to run reasonably local wind power generator farms.
As someone who lives in Colorado and has visited the wind farm in question, I can tell you that the northern Colorado / southern Wyoming areas where they have those generators are seriously windswept. Nonstop, hard wind. Not everywhere has such an area nearby, which shoots an unfortunate hole in the proposed worldwide plan.
As a side note, that area has one of the nation's highest suicide rates that is often blamed on the nonstop wind making people lose their minds.
Parent post is 100% right; the Zahn novels are excellent. Remember that even though the Emperor died there is still a vast beauracracy and military operating in the imperial mode to run the galaxy. After RotJ there wasn't an instantaneous happy new Republic. For those of you who haven't read them, do so if you want good sci-fi.
Or were they merely designed to streamline outdated rules?
In all fairness to the politicos many well intentioned laws are twisted around when put in practice. For a recent example, see: McCain-Feingold
packing an insane 3500ft-lbs at the muzzle...now THAT'S protection!
.50AE. The Glock recommended in a post above is a MUCH better choice.
Contrary to action movies, those artillery peices masquerading as handguns are not casually fired singled handed. The person in question who was being stalked is a woman and the average 250lb guy has to use two hands to fire a
The only people who will benefit from outsourcing are corporate execs and stockholders
Since upwards of 3/4 of Americans are stockholders via 401k holdings then that's a pretty strong majority who benefits.
a properly designed system with parachutes and balloons to absorb the impact, proven technology that's been used in the mars lander missions
Mars has less gravity than Earth so the parachutes and balloons would need to be much larger. And much larger coming down is much larger to lift up in the first place. This is a cheap (relatively) $200 million mission. Increasing the size to include touchdown equipment would boost the budget by a large factor. If they pull this off, it will be the new poster child for NASA's cheaper-faster programs.
Loitering is also a crime in most localities
Park benches outside libraries have NO OTHER PURPOSE than to be loitered upon!
Wow, you say Libertarian as if its a bad thing. :)
I certainly do, because Libertarians come across as conspiracy theory nuts; please see all replies to my original.
"Legal" tender only because it is forced down the throat of the people, so the government can manipulate the money supply.
Please, feel free to print up anoncowardbux. If you get enough merchant to sign on, you can have your own money supply. The airlines inadvertantly did this with frequent flier miles. Those things are ubiquitous enough that they act as a type of money these days. There's nothing illegal about it. I bet that if you were determined enough, you could operate your finances completely with FF miles. You'd only need to convert some to deal in Fed Res Notes when its tax time, as the government wants taxes paid in USD. There would be absolutely nothing illegal in doing this. The government does not force legal tender down your throat. The government enforces that other people have to take your legal tender when you want to pay them off. Imagine someone demanding chickens for payment. I sure as heck don't have any chickens. Good thing for me I have dollars and they have to take the dollars instead of demanding whatever the heck they want.
It happens. They force the people to use money, so that they can then print MORE money to buy whatever they want
Before the second world war started, the Weimar Republic printed money to buy whatever it wanted. Workers' wives would run from the factories to the shops with wheel barrows rull of money to spend it before it inflated too much (within hours). I assure you, the current US federal government does NOT "print more money to buy whatever they want". There is a controlled budget process.
Furthermore, the Federal government prints absolutely NO money. The Treasury issues Treasury Notes and Bills, which it sells to the Federal Reserve. It is the Federal Reserve that either buys with cash on hand or has to print more to purchase the T-Bills/Notes. A fine distinction, perhaps too fine for most people to grasp, but the Federal Reserve has whopping loads of cash on hand if the Treasury gets temporarily too happy with printing up new debt. At least, long enough for your local investigative reported to bring it to our attention and put an end to it.
Within the science of economics, fiat means "having no intrinsic value."
"The word fiat, IIRC, comes from the Italian word for "in faith."
Sorry, fiat means the same in economics as in regular English: by degree. It is from a Latin word, 'fier', meaning 'to decree'. It has a slightly negative connotation in English, showing the essay author's bias when he uses it to refer to the fact that U.S. Federal Reserve Notes are legal tender. His bias is completely exposed when we find that the two outside sources referenced are 1. Ludwig von Mises, the economist whose works were used to found Libertarianism and 2. Murray N. Rothbard, the founder of Libertarianism
The essay is rife with flaws from the mainstream economic point of view; its Libertarian slant is hard to wade through. I hate loaded language like 'fiat money' used to refer to legal tender. Just for fun, I'll address one point. Pointing out all the problems would make a good final exam essay at Bachelor level econ class:
The what-if example about the Professor deciding to make money leaves completely misses the point. Here's the way that would need to play out: The Prof would have to offer some kind of service or good that at least one of the other residents of the island wanted. In order to perform that service or hand over that good, the Prof would declare that he would only accept genuine ProfLeaves. In order to get ProfLeaves in the first place, the other resident(s) would have to perform a service or provide a good to him. The Prof can simply demand that others accept for no reason but that's not practical.
This is typically (note: 'typically' is not 'always') how currency gets its start; the government issues the money in return for services and goods from the citizens. The govmt declares that it will be demanding payment in its money as a tax payment. Soon, the money is in general circulation, as somewhere along the line, most of the participants are needing to pay for taxes and the government, as the largest purchaser and provider of new money, can set prices and supply.
For US Currency, it wasn't always legal tender. Indeed, many states and banks issues their own money. This caused a lot of confusion. Imagine travelling to another state and needing to change your money. A major reason the Europeans adopted a common currency is to make trade so much easier. In the US, to cut out all the confusion of all the competing currencies, the Federal government made Federal Reserve Notes legal tender. This means that you can print up your own JoeBucks but can't legally require anyone else to accept them. If they do, that's fine, if not, you have to pay in Fed Notes.
After their IPO, they can afford it!
If you have a viable design for a space elevator, you can have your own IPO and raise plenty of cash. That's why there's no real need for artificial prizes. The revenue generated by the thing would be the real prize.
If/When there is a crash of a major airliner. People are not going to be walking away
Sure, not when there is a major crash of a major airliner, but I recall several moderately nasty crashes when people were able to get out and run away before being burned up... there was that plane that crashed into the river in NYC due to icing; the DC-10 that lost all hydraulic power and had to splash in the field in Illinois, etc.
It's bad enough when comment posters don't RTFA, but the submitter?!?!
From the article:
A Kennedy aide said the senator nearly missed a couple of flights because of the delays
This is NOT "turned down for a flight". Sheesh!