"A more troubling NBC usage (since it's more recent) is Iran vs Iraq, where chem weapons were a standard weapon. I bet you that's what folks in Israel are more concerned about too."
Chems aren't very effective though. It's worth remembering that Halabja required sustained bombardment and there were still plenty of survivors, even though the people were unmasked.
""I believe in this enough to kill others, but I don't want to sacrifice my own life for it."
War isn't a sport. "Risk" may vary, but absent a celestial reward from an imaginary friend there isn't much to make people WANT to get offed in order to kill others. That's why things like spears, arrows, and other "standoff" weapons were developed in the first place.
"everytime I hear about a wedding party obliterated and red misted in Afghanistan"
There seem to be an impressive number of "wedding parties" getting zapped. No smart insurgent would give the enemy help with damage assessment by fessing up to a successful airstrike...
"This is just the weak mob ganging up on the peasant. They dare not do that to the Emperor."
They have not been inconvenienced enough to revolt (and given the condition of China in 1948, and how far it has come, there is more reason for evolution than revolution....). Chinese proved they are capable of revolution, but their benevolent authoritarian regime isn't worth the social disruption, economic disruption, and violence revolution would entail.
"That's where a full third of our nation's food comes from. "
That does not necessarily mean that it should come from there forever. Just as the Rust Belt de-industrialized over decades, California could reduce the amount it farms. The employees can go back to Mexico and the owners can invest in something (or someplace) different.
"In a bad economy, pure science and space exploration seem to be first on the budget chopping block."
Dump the manned program and devote the remaining resources to advancing robotic systems. We can afford to wait centuries to send meat tourists, while learning how to economically exploit space by remote control.
Human explorers were fine when they were cheap and expendable. The loss of a ship and crew was nothing near as damaging to exploration as the loss of a Shuttle is today. Now humans are expensive and robots are cheap, so leave the tourists at home.
"And this is not the merits of communism that are discussed, it is in fact the actual circumstances."
Indeed, because even an attempt to implement Communism must give way to a non-Communist authoritarian state. The structures that must be destroyed and created naturally facilitate "Bolshevik" types taking power from "Menshevik" types, so Communist states die before they are born.
Communism requires Bolsheviks and Maoists to destroy monarchist and capitalist structures, so no one should be surprised if those folks run with the ball once they have it.:)
I don't hate Commies and rather admire their willingness to fight religionists, but they only thrive where other systems are allowed to degenerate.
"Why are some crimes forbidden to simulate, but violence, shooting people, and murder are fine?"
Because violence against the right sort of people is delicious to Abrahamic religions. OTOH, strict control and rationing of sex via marriage is part of how they maintain social control.
The most useful subject of such religions is one whose sexual stress is expressed as violence towards the infidel.
Before modding this down, have some Taliban or Church of the Creator.
"The volume of waste that this requires you to bury is inconsequentially small compared to the amount of solid waste (ash) you have to dispose of when you burn coal."
But coal waste is soft and cuddly while nuclear waste will kill or mutate us all in horrid 1950s Sci-Fi style!
There is no obligation to religion/superstition by private groups. It is time anti-religionists went on the offensive to assert ourselves (legally) against superstition.
We don't have to give religionists anything we are not obliged to in law, and we do NOT owe respect to superstition. Scientology in my opinion is a blatant con game, and hence worthy of (legal) denial of support. Supporters should be exposed so those of us who oppose Scientology can (legally) choose the manner of our interaction with them.
To judge from comments by former F-117 maintainers when it stopped being a "black" program, plenty of UFO sightings were 117s. Reasonable, since the public has no need (not to be confused with desire) to know about classified aircraft missions. Long before those days, it was common to build and test unusual aircraft because there was no way to computer model them.
They don't JUST want an internet appliance, they want an appliance that will do various subsets of the functions available on various office, printing, photo editing, media dowload, etc programs and they will be pissed when an internet appliance fails to do them and to accomodate their gradually evolving desires.
They want sophisticated capabilities with appliance-like reliability on an OS whose user interface never changes.
"Once you actually experience it for yourself, you start to feel like someone who just realized they've been abused their whole life and didn't know."
Having grown up with vinyl and cassette tapes, I never bought into DRM. Back in the day, a "server" in the dorm was a reel-to-reel tape player used to make cassettes of whatever the user wished. Copying CDs to tape was common too. Sneakernet works just fine for amassing large collections.:)
I'm not going to buy media that restricts what I can do with the product, so borrow-and-rip it shall be.
"Please do not insult the believers, those in this world who believe it is right to help and provide hope to our fellow human beings who suffer around us and those who wish to better the world in which we all live, by comparing us to the greedy, abusive, and controlling pseudo-religion that calls itself the "church" of Scientology."
There are a VAST number of "believers" in other faiths who are greedy, abusive, and controlling and religion most perfectly facilitates such behaviors.
Just because you like your church and it may have some friendly people in it does not mean that your religion deserves respect.
It must be understood that members of any faith cannot be faithful and hold a critical view of their own beliefs, so the rest of us must automatically discount professions by the faithful as merely the product of brainwashing.
"If yes to any of the above do you want these as officers? Even the extra-marital affairs in most circumstances provide proof that the person is capable of disloyalty."
Here's the old school Cold War G.I. answer to that one, and I miss those days very much!
"Pussy doesn't count, country does. Real soldiers are often hard-partying fornicators and the public which they protect should mind its own fucking business. If we fight for our country it shouldn't matter if we spend our free time in orgies with LBFMs and getting shitfaced drunk, or living like warrior monks, or crocheting doilies if that's our fancy. We have all kinds in the military, and so long as we fight well, kindly piss off."
Slashdot Mirror
"Mad cow == bird flu == swine flu == HORSESHIT."
You might have expressed it better, but you....are correct.
MRSA has a vastly higher body count than all the above, but since it is often spread by poor hygiene at hospitals it gets low billing.
http://www.protomag.com/assets/a-killer-called-staph
http://www.symptomsmrsa.com/ca-mrsa/ca-mrsa-death-count-surpassing-aids/
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/heic/patient/mrsa/
"A more troubling NBC usage (since it's more recent) is Iran vs Iraq, where chem weapons were a standard weapon. I bet you that's what folks in Israel are more concerned about too."
Chems aren't very effective though. It's worth remembering that Halabja required sustained bombardment and there were still plenty of survivors, even though the people were unmasked.
""I believe in this enough to kill others, but I don't want to sacrifice my own life for it."
War isn't a sport. "Risk" may vary, but absent a celestial reward from an imaginary friend there isn't much to make people WANT to get offed in order to kill others. That's why things like spears, arrows, and other "standoff" weapons were developed in the first place.
"everytime I hear about a wedding party obliterated and red misted in Afghanistan"
There seem to be an impressive number of "wedding parties" getting zapped. No smart insurgent would give the enemy help with damage assessment by fessing up to a successful airstrike...
"This is just the weak mob ganging up on the peasant. They dare not do that to the Emperor."
They have not been inconvenienced enough to revolt (and given the condition of China in 1948, and how far it has come, there is more reason for evolution than revolution....). Chinese proved they are capable of revolution, but their benevolent authoritarian regime isn't worth the social disruption, economic disruption, and violence revolution would entail.
"That's where a full third of our nation's food comes from. "
That does not necessarily mean that it should come from there forever. Just as the Rust Belt de-industrialized over decades, California could reduce the amount it farms. The employees can go back to Mexico and the owners can invest in something (or someplace) different.
"While suicide should never be celebrated, there's a certain honor in doing it as a result of professional failure."
It can be the ultimate apology. While your post will be modded Troll, other societies see things differently. Seppuku, anyone?
"In a bad economy, pure science and space exploration seem to be first on the budget chopping block."
Dump the manned program and devote the remaining resources to advancing robotic systems. We can afford to wait centuries to send meat tourists, while learning how to economically exploit space by remote control.
Human explorers were fine when they were cheap and expendable. The loss of a ship and crew was nothing near as damaging to exploration as the loss of a Shuttle is today. Now humans are expensive and robots are cheap, so leave the tourists at home.
"And this is not the merits of communism that are discussed, it is in fact the actual circumstances."
Indeed, because even an attempt to implement Communism must give way to a non-Communist authoritarian state. The structures that must be destroyed and created naturally facilitate "Bolshevik" types taking power from "Menshevik" types, so Communist states die before they are born.
Communism requires Bolsheviks and Maoists to destroy monarchist and capitalist structures, so no one should be surprised if those folks run with the ball once they have it. :)
I don't hate Commies and rather admire their willingness to fight religionists, but they only thrive where other systems are allowed to degenerate.
"Why are some crimes forbidden to simulate, but violence, shooting people, and murder are fine?"
Because violence against the right sort of people is delicious to Abrahamic religions. OTOH, strict control and rationing of sex via marriage is part of how they maintain social control.
The most useful subject of such religions is one whose sexual stress is expressed as violence towards the infidel.
Before modding this down, have some Taliban or Church of the Creator.
"Let's see, it's run by a mercurial egomaniac..."
We may not like mercurial egomaniacs, but some of them are good at getting shit done.
"As consumers we should NOT have to put up with copy protection crap."
Stop consuming it and you don't put up with it nor fund those who would foist it upon you.
Just Say No, it's that easy.
"American Culture: Made in China"
Poser Crap, made in China.
The HMMWV is a military truck, while the "Hummer" is for people too stupid to know the difference between a military truck and a Tahoe in drag.
"The volume of waste that this requires you to bury is inconsequentially small compared to the amount of solid waste (ash) you have to dispose of when you burn coal."
But coal waste is soft and cuddly while nuclear waste will kill or mutate us all in horrid 1950s Sci-Fi style!
"They are just the right size to make excellent 200-yard rifle targets."
So are some of the folks on my Christmas list.
"I believe this "Making a Child" Locating System will be of interest to many Slashdotters."
And many 4chan'ers, mores the pity!
"you're assuming the guy in the article is honestly trying to track his daughter."
He should go old school. The basement was good enough for Josef Fritzl!
There is no obligation to religion/superstition by private groups. It is time anti-religionists went on the offensive to assert ourselves (legally) against superstition.
We don't have to give religionists anything we are not obliged to in law, and we do NOT owe respect to superstition. Scientology in my opinion is a blatant con game, and hence worthy of (legal) denial of support. Supporters should be exposed so those of us who oppose Scientology can (legally) choose the manner of our interaction with them.
To judge from comments by former F-117 maintainers when it stopped being a "black" program, plenty of UFO sightings were 117s. Reasonable, since the public has no need (not to be confused with desire) to know about
classified aircraft missions. Long before those days, it was common to build and test unusual aircraft because
there was no way to computer model them.
AOL dialup also had decent speed in many locations. They still have lots of customers who have no other option than a POTS line.
"NOTE TO ALL OWNERS OF A 3 YEAR OLD: This is a joke, please do NOT try plugging things into your child!"
That should never be done except by clergy.
They don't JUST want an internet appliance, they want an appliance that will do various subsets of the functions available on various office, printing, photo editing, media dowload, etc programs and they will be pissed when an internet appliance fails to do them and to accomodate their gradually evolving desires.
They want sophisticated capabilities with appliance-like reliability on an OS whose user interface never changes.
"Once you actually experience it for yourself, you start to feel like someone who just realized they've been abused their whole life and didn't know."
Having grown up with vinyl and cassette tapes, I never bought into DRM. Back in the day, a "server" in the dorm was a reel-to-reel tape player used to make cassettes of whatever the user wished. Copying CDs to tape was common too. Sneakernet works just fine for amassing large collections. :)
I'm not going to buy media that restricts what I can do with the product, so borrow-and-rip it shall be.
"Please do not insult the believers, those in this world who believe it is right to help and provide hope to our fellow human beings who suffer around us and those who wish to better the world in which we all live, by comparing us to the greedy, abusive, and controlling pseudo-religion that calls itself the "church" of Scientology."
There are a VAST number of "believers" in other faiths who are greedy, abusive, and controlling and religion most perfectly facilitates such behaviors.
Just because you like your church and it may have some friendly people in it does not mean that your religion deserves respect.
It must be understood that members of any faith cannot be faithful and hold a critical view of their own beliefs, so the rest of us must automatically discount professions by the faithful as merely the product of brainwashing.
"If yes to any of the above do you want these as officers? Even the extra-marital affairs in most circumstances provide proof that the person is capable of disloyalty."
Here's the old school Cold War G.I. answer to that one, and I miss those days very much!
"Pussy doesn't count, country does. Real soldiers are often hard-partying fornicators and the public which they protect should mind its own fucking business. If we fight for our country it shouldn't matter if we spend our free time in orgies with LBFMs and getting shitfaced drunk, or living like warrior monks, or crocheting doilies if that's our fancy. We have all kinds in the military, and so long as we fight well, kindly piss off."