The quote in my sig is much abreviated for space. He had a very strange (by our standards) perspective on amerindians. On one hand he had the sort of idealized idea of the "noble savage" and on the other advocated their destruction, almost as an act of mercy. Here is one of his more well known editorials on the subject;
The Sitting Bull Editorial
Sitting Bull, most renowned Sioux of modern history, is dead.
He was not a Chief, but without Kingly lineage he arose from a lowly position to the greatest Medicine Man of his time, by virtue of his shrewdness and daring.
He was an Indian with a white man's spirit of hatred and revenge for those who had wronged him and his. In his day he saw his son and his tribe gradually driven from their possessions: forced to give up their old hunting grounds and espouse the hard working and uncongenial avocations of the whites. And these, his conquerors, were marked in their dealings with his people by selfishness, falsehood and treachery. What wonder that his wild nature, untamed by years of subjection, should still revolt? What wonder that a fiery rage still burned within his breast and that he should seek every opportunity of obtaining vengeance upon his natural enemies.
The proud spirit of the original owners of these vast prairies inherited through centuries of fierce and bloody wars for their possession, lingered last in the bosom of Sitting Bull. With his fall the nobility of the Redskin is extinguished, and what few are left are a pack of whining curs who lick the hand that smites them. The Whites, by law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are masters of the American continent, and the best safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians. Why not annihilation? Their glory has fled, their spirit broken, their manhood effaced; better that they die than live the miserable wretches that they are. History would forget these latter despicable beings, and speak, in later ages of the glory of these grand Kings of forest and plain that Cooper loved to heroism.
We cannot honestly regret their extermination, but we at least do justice to the manly characteristics possessed, according to their lights and education, by the early Redskins of America.
(Saturday Pioneer, December 20, 1890)
Have you tried the british writer Iain M. Banks? He's written some really good stuff, especially "Consider Phlebas", "Excession", and "The Player of Games." He does hard far-future science fiction set in a persistent universe centering around the "Culture", a human-AI-alien hybrid civilization. If you look for his stuff note that he writes straight fiction under the name Iain Banks, but saves his middle initial for his science fiction work.
the summary information I've seen largely blames First Energy Corp for screwing up, including failure of procedures, as well as failure in maintenance of internal alarm systems. What political and economic factors originating in the last three years are you refering to?
I agree with you on the humorous attempts early on to pin blame. I work on eletrical grid management systems, and the idea that the failure point of a multi-state blackout could be determined within a few hours is ludicrous in itself. These systems, both transmission and distribution, are amazingly complex; even modeled in geographical info systems there are vast differences between what infrastructure is tracked and accounted versus what is actually on the ground.
New York and the surrounds has suffered something like 2 or 3 regional blackouts lasting over 24 hours in the past 30 years or so. I'd hardly call that situation in "desperate need of repair." The blackout as an indicator of the poor health of the US eletrical grid was heavily sensationalized by the media. How many times have you lost power in the past 5 years? Do you want to pay substatially higher utility bills in order to reduce that downtime?
a friend with a young son said to me that it wasn't the nipple that bothered him aqs a father, so much as the act of Timberlake ripping off Jackson's top. It was an agressive, arguably denigrating act. It is an entirely different thing that seeing a mother feed her child. Dind't phase me much, but when people say they don't want their young children seeing that crap I find it hard to argue. Granted, the game itself is violent, but it isn't gratuitous, nor is it designed to promulgate disdain towards a class of people (i.e. women.)
in my experience (AM/FM GIS industry) a software consulting firm typically can't even bid a job without certification of insurance. I don't know how it is in other insutries however, but it is normal practice for large utility corporations.
"It's like the premise behind Moby Dick. Have you read it? Incredible details, no plot. "
Such nonsense. Of course Moby Dick has a plot; it even has several. Most superficially; Ahab, maimed in body and spiritually scarred, seeks to find in the vast expanse of ocean the great beast that took his leg and his pride and kill it. But it is about much more than that to a carefull reader. Do you think movies and books have to feature battling aliens, monsters and machine guns to have plot?
Some have mentioned "Time Enough for Love" as a work to avoid, yet on the whole it is probably the work of his I enjoyed most. Some of his best stories are imbedded as novelettes within the framework of the larger book. But then again, it features quite a bit of incest between characters, which some might find distasteful.
Generally, with Heinlein, I think his best work is consistently the stuff he did in the first person ("Puppet Masters", "Moon is a Harsh Mistress", "Starship Troopers", and "Double Star".) So you could approach it that way.
And if you'd like to get some insight into a very different period of race consciousness in American history, check out "Sixth Column". One of the most overtly rascist sci-fi novels I have read, but it was early in his career, and I do think he grew beyond that early narrow-minded perspective as he progressed. It is strange when writers and thinkers of the past are judged by modern standards of enlightenment, but I have no doubt that they should be as part of a legitimate critical interpretation. Funny that Shakespeare and Twain, in some ways, age better in that perspective than many writers of the 20th century.
great student camera, I don't believe they make them any longer, but they are all over ebay and inexpensive. Nice metal body in case you need to stop a bullet in a war zone. No apeture preview though...
Also, if you are more serious, you might consider picking up an older manual nikon. Then, if you collect some nice lenses, you can always migrate them to a digital body somewhere down the road.
ah, misunderstood you, I should read a bit more closely.
Don't really understand why they break it out like that, maybe to get renters like me to contribute? Though on the other hand, my landlord pays property tax, so the city gets their piece regardless.
Not really on-topic, but relating to being a renter and not a home owner, the thing I can't figure out is mortgage insurance. On the surface one might think "uh-oh, I can't pay my mortage this month, but the insurance will kick in." I was utterly baffled when this was first explained to me, and it still strikes me as a scam.
"I pay over $1,600 dollars a year in taxes for my house which is in a city. I always thought that city == trash pickup because of said taxes..."
cities provide many services; stuff like road repair, snow removal, parks and open space, police, fire, methodone clinics, subsidized public transport, recreation centers, public pools, wildlife management, etc... You may not use or want some particular service, but I bet you rely on some of them.
virii can be built out of RNA as well. Though in the instance of the article they did use DNA. But both types exist, don't know if anyone has synthesised an RNA virus yet though.
The loss of Columbia is a red herring, and I think the policy wonks are starting to realise just that. The real issue is why should NASA be fixated on building vehicles that do nothing but take us to take us back and forth to low earth orbit? The russians can get us there and back all we need, inexpensively, reliably, with 20 year old technology.
At the same time, I think we have to ask ourselves if the ISS is worth the tens of billions of dollars paid, the billions yet to be paid, as well as the potential risks to the lives of the brave men and women we place there. The ISS has never lived up to the research potential promised when it was sold to the taxpayers.
I believe you are incorrect. The prize for economics was established as an addendum to the original set by the central bank of Sweden in 1968, but is indeed awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the same body that selects the winners in chemistry and physics. Additionally, Nobel's will also made a partial provision for the prize in medicine. From your link... Nobel simply stated that prizes be given to those who, during the preceding year, "shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind" and that one part be given to the person who "shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine."...
I concur, I've flown 30+ times (Denver to Chicago) in the past 2 years, the cockpit door is wide open while the pilots run through their pre-flights checklists, even as the plane is boarded. I think they typically close the cockpit when the cabin door is shut. Makes sense; a place sitting at the gate is no threat, ie. jetliners usually need to be pushed back, and a comandeered plane could easily be barred from taxi by any number of airport service vehicles.
I don't buy his arguments. There are small game shops thriving in the marketplace. The best example i can give is the guys at
www.battlefront.com
They've produced two games, Combat Mission and Combat Mission 2 that are considered by most afficianados as the best strategic war games ever made. They sell only over the internet, develop for Apple and PC simultaneously, and managed to sell out their first printing of the recent Combat Mission 2. There is still a place for the small guy. Great game by the way, I highly recommend it for those disatisfied with the standard RTS fare.
I'm no lawyer, and I sure may be wrong, but if I were to tell someone how to subvert an alarm system in order to break into a bank, and they broke into the bank, got caught, and named me as providing the information needed to commit the crime, wouldn't the cops be able to come after me?
On a side note, a good friend of mine has been caugh up in this issue. A few years ago he bought a smart card writer, then cancelled his satellite TV. 2 or 3 months ago the satellite company apparently got a warrant to search the records of the company selling the writers, tracked down my buddy and sent him a nasty note declaring that either he paid them $7000 or they'd see him in court. The interesting thing is that they really don't have the goods on him. He bought a legal smart card writer, and he cancelled his satellite service. Totally circumstantial it seems to me. But he might pay up regardless, because he is scared the downside of going to court could end up costing a lot more than 7 grand.
Not that I agree with the Patriot act, or this as a possible successor, but calling the U.S. a "police state" is sheer hyperbole. If you'd like to gain a more realistic understanding of what a true "police state" is, and better insight into the terrors of totalitarianism, I'd recommend you pick up a copy of Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Archipelago."
not that the absence of evidence of the existence of ETs proves much. But should the absence of evidence for the existence of a supreme being prove less?
Slashdot Mirror
The quote in my sig is much abreviated for space. He had a very strange (by our standards) perspective on amerindians. On one hand he had the sort of idealized idea of the "noble savage" and on the other advocated their destruction, almost as an act of mercy. Here is one of his more well known editorials on the subject;
The Sitting Bull Editorial
Sitting Bull, most renowned Sioux of modern history, is dead.
He was not a Chief, but without Kingly lineage he arose from a lowly position to the greatest Medicine Man of his time, by virtue of his shrewdness and daring.
He was an Indian with a white man's spirit of hatred and revenge for those who had wronged him and his. In his day he saw his son and his tribe gradually driven from their possessions: forced to give up their old hunting grounds and espouse the hard working and uncongenial avocations of the whites. And these, his conquerors, were marked in their dealings with his people by selfishness, falsehood and treachery. What wonder that his wild nature, untamed by years of subjection, should still revolt? What wonder that a fiery rage still burned within his breast and that he should seek every opportunity of obtaining vengeance upon his natural enemies.
The proud spirit of the original owners of these vast prairies inherited through centuries of fierce and bloody wars for their possession, lingered last in the bosom of Sitting Bull. With his fall the nobility of the Redskin is extinguished, and what few are left are a pack of whining curs who lick the hand that smites them. The Whites, by law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are masters of the American continent, and the best safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians. Why not annihilation? Their glory has fled, their spirit broken, their manhood effaced; better that they die than live the miserable wretches that they are. History would forget these latter despicable beings, and speak, in later ages of the glory of these grand Kings of forest and plain that Cooper loved to heroism.
We cannot honestly regret their extermination, but we at least do justice to the manly characteristics possessed, according to their lights and education, by the early Redskins of America.
(Saturday Pioneer, December 20, 1890)
L. Frank Baum was also an advocate of genocide. Off-topic I guess.
Do you always spell your punctuation?
Question mark?
Have you tried the british writer Iain M. Banks? He's written some really good stuff, especially "Consider Phlebas", "Excession", and "The Player of Games." He does hard far-future science fiction set in a persistent universe centering around the "Culture", a human-AI-alien hybrid civilization. If you look for his stuff note that he writes straight fiction under the name Iain Banks, but saves his middle initial for his science fiction work.
actually several of us were born here.
the summary information I've seen largely blames First Energy Corp for screwing up, including failure of procedures, as well as failure in maintenance of internal alarm systems. What political and economic factors originating in the last three years are you refering to?
I agree with you on the humorous attempts early on to pin blame. I work on eletrical grid management systems, and the idea that the failure point of a multi-state blackout could be determined within a few hours is ludicrous in itself. These systems, both transmission and distribution, are amazingly complex; even modeled in geographical info systems there are vast differences between what infrastructure is tracked and accounted versus what is actually on the ground.
New York and the surrounds has suffered something like 2 or 3 regional blackouts lasting over 24 hours in the past 30 years or so. I'd hardly call that situation in "desperate need of repair." The blackout as an indicator of the poor health of the US eletrical grid was heavily sensationalized by the media. How many times have you lost power in the past 5 years? Do you want to pay substatially higher utility bills in order to reduce that downtime?
a friend with a young son said to me that it wasn't the nipple that bothered him aqs a father, so much as the act of Timberlake ripping off Jackson's top. It was an agressive, arguably denigrating act. It is an entirely different thing that seeing a mother feed her child. Dind't phase me much, but when people say they don't want their young children seeing that crap I find it hard to argue. Granted, the game itself is violent, but it isn't gratuitous, nor is it designed to promulgate disdain towards a class of people (i.e. women.)
in my experience (AM/FM GIS industry) a software consulting firm typically can't even bid a job without certification of insurance. I don't know how it is in other insutries however, but it is normal practice for large utility corporations.
"It's like the premise behind Moby Dick. Have you read it? Incredible details, no plot. "
Such nonsense. Of course Moby Dick has a plot; it even has several. Most superficially; Ahab, maimed in body and spiritually scarred, seeks to find in the vast expanse of ocean the great beast that took his leg and his pride and kill it. But it is about much more than that to a carefull reader. Do you think movies and books have to feature battling aliens, monsters and machine guns to have plot?
the VoodooPC is an extra $900 though.
Some have mentioned "Time Enough for Love" as a work to avoid, yet on the whole it is probably the work of his I enjoyed most. Some of his best stories are imbedded as novelettes within the framework of the larger book. But then again, it features quite a bit of incest between characters, which some might find distasteful.
Generally, with Heinlein, I think his best work is consistently the stuff he did in the first person ("Puppet Masters", "Moon is a Harsh Mistress", "Starship Troopers", and "Double Star".) So you could approach it that way.
And if you'd like to get some insight into a very different period of race consciousness in American history, check out "Sixth Column". One of the most overtly rascist sci-fi novels I have read, but it was early in his career, and I do think he grew beyond that early narrow-minded perspective as he progressed. It is strange when writers and thinkers of the past are judged by modern standards of enlightenment, but I have no doubt that they should be as part of a legitimate critical interpretation. Funny that Shakespeare and Twain, in some ways, age better in that perspective than many writers of the 20th century.
great student camera, I don't believe they make them any longer, but they are all over ebay and inexpensive. Nice metal body in case you need to stop a bullet in a war zone. No apeture preview though...
Also, if you are more serious, you might consider picking up an older manual nikon. Then, if you collect some nice lenses, you can always migrate them to a digital body somewhere down the road.
ah, misunderstood you, I should read a bit more closely.
Don't really understand why they break it out like that, maybe to get renters like me to contribute? Though on the other hand, my landlord pays property tax, so the city gets their piece regardless.
Not really on-topic, but relating to being a renter and not a home owner, the thing I can't figure out is mortgage insurance. On the surface one might think "uh-oh, I can't pay my mortage this month, but the insurance will kick in." I was utterly baffled when this was first explained to me, and it still strikes me as a scam.
I agree with most of your post, but;
"I pay over $1,600 dollars a year in taxes for my house which is in a city. I always thought that city == trash pickup because of said taxes..."
cities provide many services; stuff like road repair, snow removal, parks and open space, police, fire, methodone clinics, subsidized public transport, recreation centers, public pools, wildlife management, etc... You may not use or want some particular service, but I bet you rely on some of them.
virii can be built out of RNA as well. Though in the instance of the article they did use DNA. But both types exist, don't know if anyone has synthesised an RNA virus yet though.
The loss of Columbia is a red herring, and I think the policy wonks are starting to realise just that. The real issue is why should NASA be fixated on building vehicles that do nothing but take us to take us back and forth to low earth orbit? The russians can get us there and back all we need, inexpensively, reliably, with 20 year old technology.
At the same time, I think we have to ask ourselves if the ISS is worth the tens of billions of dollars paid, the billions yet to be paid, as well as the potential risks to the lives of the brave men and women we place there. The ISS has never lived up to the research potential promised when it was sold to the taxpayers.
I believe you are incorrect. The prize for economics was established as an addendum to the original set by the central bank of Sweden in 1968, but is indeed awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the same body that selects the winners in chemistry and physics. Additionally, Nobel's will also made a partial provision for the prize in medicine. From your link ... Nobel simply stated that prizes be given to those who, during the preceding year, "shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind" and that one part be given to the person who "shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine."...
I concur, I've flown 30+ times (Denver to Chicago) in the past 2 years, the cockpit door is wide open while the pilots run through their pre-flights checklists, even as the plane is boarded. I think they typically close the cockpit when the cabin door is shut. Makes sense; a place sitting at the gate is no threat, ie. jetliners usually need to be pushed back, and a comandeered plane could easily be barred from taxi by any number of airport service vehicles.
I don't buy his arguments. There are small game shops thriving in the marketplace. The best example i can give is the guys at
www.battlefront.com
They've produced two games, Combat Mission and Combat Mission 2 that are considered by most afficianados as the best strategic war games ever made. They sell only over the internet, develop for Apple and PC simultaneously, and managed to sell out their first printing of the recent Combat Mission 2. There is still a place for the small guy. Great game by the way, I highly recommend it for those disatisfied with the standard RTS fare.
Kim Stanley Robinson in "Green Mars" I believe.
Your knowledge of Heinlen is impressive; reading your list made me recall books I'd forgotten I read.
I'm no lawyer, and I sure may be wrong, but if I were to tell someone how to subvert an alarm system in order to break into a bank, and they broke into the bank, got caught, and named me as providing the information needed to commit the crime, wouldn't the cops be able to come after me?
On a side note, a good friend of mine has been caugh up in this issue. A few years ago he bought a smart card writer, then cancelled his satellite TV. 2 or 3 months ago the satellite company apparently got a warrant to search the records of the company selling the writers, tracked down my buddy and sent him a nasty note declaring that either he paid them $7000 or they'd see him in court. The interesting thing is that they really don't have the goods on him. He bought a legal smart card writer, and he cancelled his satellite service. Totally circumstantial it seems to me. But he might pay up regardless, because he is scared the downside of going to court could end up costing a lot more than 7 grand.
Not that I agree with the Patriot act, or this as a possible successor, but calling the U.S. a "police state" is sheer hyperbole. If you'd like to gain a more realistic understanding of what a true "police state" is, and better insight into the terrors of totalitarianism, I'd recommend you pick up a copy of Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Archipelago."
not that the absence of evidence of the existence of ETs proves much. But should the absence of evidence for the existence of a supreme being prove less?