Unless the government is claiming ownership of your body (which apparently the UK government is), you should be able to terminate yourself any time you want - especially if you're faced with a terminal illness. By not allowing him to commit suicide the government is basically making Mr. Pratchett the property of the queen. What year is this? 1772?
"The state of slavery is of such a nature, that it is incapable of being introduced on any reasons, moral or political; but only positive law, which preserves its force long after the reasons, occasion, and time itself from whence it was created, is erased from memory: it's so odious, that nothing can be suffered to support it, but positive law." - Judge Mansfield, Queen's Bench.
Yeah but do you really save money? $199 + 24 months * $40/month == $1160 vs. $649 + 24 months * $25/month == $1249
No not really. Oh well. This is why I still use a VirginMobile phone. The phone was free and the service is cheap ($0 a month plus fees -or- $25 unlimited). Of course it's no iPhone but I'm okay with that.
BTW escaping a two year contract is ridiculously easy. The companies change the terms so frequently (such as adding a datacap when you signed for an unlimited dataplan) that you can terminate the contract without repercussion.
I care. I liked the author's suggestion of creating a Dummy Account, just so you can view yourself and see what's visible to strangers. Ideally nothing but your name, but who knows for sure? What exactly is visible to Google, Bing, and other search engines? I'd like to know.
Well then let the BUSINESSES (hotels, amusement parks, restaurants, etc) that stand to profit from the tourism do the spending, rather than using tax dollars.
This sounds like Corporate Welfare --- the government is providing free advertising which businesses profit from, while the working class have to cover the costs of the ads. Steal from the poor; give to the rich.
In the US the equivalent is when I have to pay for a new Football Stadium in Baltimore, so the million-dollar owners can get rich off the ticket sales. It's BS and I can understand why the Malays are pissed.
>>>>> This is typical government "make work" bureaucracy that makes no more sense than going-round and busting windows to boost construction jobs. >> >>So your example of the typical government "make work" program is something that never happened?
Except it DID happen. They destroyed cars in order to boost construction jobs in factories. It was called "Cash for Clunkers" and destroyed perfectly good and operational vehicles. Even the parts were destroyed, rather than recycled (very, very ungreen).
You should read Asimov's Caves of Steel. Ironically it's about an energy crisis (humans are running out of nuclear fuel), and the need to leave earth behind. Saying we'll use nuclear doesn't actually solve the energy scarcity problem - it merely shifts it 50 years down the road.
>>>Let them sit out a winter shivering in the dark. We *need* nuclear power.
People in the 1800s didn't have nuclear power (or electricity), and they seemed to make out okay. Not that I want to revert to pre-turn-of-the-century living but we may not have any choice one the Oil Drought happens.
There's simply not enough energy to give ~3 billion Chinese, Europeans, and Americans the lifestyle they enjoyed living off the billion-year store of accumulated Dead Tree/Plant matter (coal/oil). We'll have to learn to live with less --- like only heating ONE room, rather than the whole house.
Then I bought a simulator and practiced for several days. I haven't wrecked a model airplane since. So YES simulators (videogames) can train you for the real thing, as any soldier can attest. It all started back when ATARI was asked by the army to adapt their "Battlezone" game to army tank training.
Which is why we try to build Republics, not democracies. In theory the men who lead the republic are smarter than the Demos and can weigh these risks more accurately, based upon rationality not fear.
This referendum in Italy should have been decided either (a) by the educated men leading the parliament or (b) a supermajority (66.7%). NOT a simple 50%+1 vote.
Firefox plus Opera (which stores bookmarks online, and has image compression to avoid ISP overage fees). Not chrome. I don't like how it's organized, or its lack of FF/opera-style addons and features.
I don't see any "sense" in adding codes merely to tell the doctor which finger was amputated. All he has to do is LOOK and see for himself which finger is missing. This is typical government "make work" bureaucracy that makes no more sense than going-round and busting windows to boost construction jobs.
It's also what bankrupted the treasury and led to the downfall of the Roman Empire (according to one historical theory).
And this is why Government interference has made health costs skyrocket. My great-grandfather practically lived in a hospital during the late 40s and early 50s (he was paralyzed). Back then it was possible because the cost of the room was no more expensive than renting a hotel room. He was a poor farmer, but still able to pay the bill out of his own pocket.
So what's changed since then? - Government regulations that require TONS more paperwork (like ICD-10), additional labor just to do that paperwork, and thereby cause costs to skyrocket.
Puppy Linux has the non-google Chromium as its standard browser, and it works well for that compact distribution, but I do miss all the Firefox addons. Like Youtube downloaders, Flash video downloaders, NoScript, CW's video plugin to watch free shows, and so on.
This is a random question, but I can't find the answer so I figured someone here might know:
What is the Leaf's gasoline MPG? Not the combined MPG, but the MPG if the battery was completely dead and you ran the car on gasoline power?
I own a Honda Insight (70MPG) and have driven the Civic Hybrid (51mpg), which are basically pure gasoline cars (no EV mode), so I'm curious how the leaf compares.
You can squeeze 100 fiber optics in the space of a centimeter-wide cable, and each one could provide a different company (comcast or cox or cablevision or appleTV or MSN or.....). So NO cable television is not a "natural" monopoly. It used to be, but it isn't anymore. NOW it is a monopoly by government mandate.
>>>Picture perfect example of the tragedy of the commons colliding with unregulated capitalism.
Sadly for you, this is NOT a perfect example because the Ship (and train) containers do interlock like legos and they do tie them down with chains. Shippers really do NOT want to tell their customers, "We lost your cargo," and risk losing them to competitors. They'd prefer to have zero loss.
But of course zero loss is as impractical as zero downtime for your website or the software you are writing. It's an unrealistic demand.
>>>Hey moron, the Telcos are not a government mandated monopoly.
The "moron" responds: Yeah they are. My county government MANDATED that, "Our citizens want cable television. Let's hire somebody to lay the cables and give them an exclusive deal for ten years," and then handed it over to the highest bidder (suburban cable - later renamed comcast). QED: we have a government-mandated monopoly.
It always amazes me when I show Pac-man to various people and they "It's too hard." And yet here's an AI that can apparently beat it..... what does that say about my friends and coworkers?
For me the Arcade versions are just about right, as far as difficulty. The home versions (Atari, Commodore) are all too easy (ghosts are dumb), except for the Jr. Pac-Man variant released in 1984 that has intelligent ghosts.
Ooops. I meant 30-to-40 Mbit/sec datarate. That is only 6-to-9 megabits per second per hd program. And yes that's pretty tight. It's about the same datarate as a DVD, but with six times more pixels to stream.
As for CDMA, I don't know if that would work on a noisy cable system. The reason broadcast digital radio and television is limited to ~250 kbit/s and 19 Mbit/s respectively is because of the high noise floor. Cable is no different. Cable is limited to just 30 or 40 Mbit/s using 16VSB or 64QAM, and still tends to break-up due to interference.
[180] channel slots [upto 1000 megahertz]. 1. A single six megahertz analog channel 2. [5] HD Digital Channels 3. [10] SD Digital Channels 4. Approximately 30 [or 40 Mbit] of download capacity for data
Points 2 and 3 are why cable channels often look pixelated compared to live broadcast. The cable channels squeeze as many channels as possible into each 6 megahertz/40 Mbit wide slot, which means the viewer sees lots of macroblocking and mosquitos in their picture.
>>>this guy had ALREADY submitted an app which they shamelessly ripped off for their OS, right down to the logo. >>>
Apple == 90s Microsoft. I used to hate the unscrupulous tactics MS used during the late 80s through the year 2000..... and now I see Apple copying many of those tactics. Kinda sad.
So boycott MS. Boycott apple. What's left? I used to opt for Atari and Commodore, but they stopped making computers.
Slashdot Mirror
Speaking as a libertarian:
Unless the government is claiming ownership of your body (which apparently the UK government is), you should be able to terminate yourself any time you want - especially if you're faced with a terminal illness. By not allowing him to commit suicide the government is basically making Mr. Pratchett the property of the queen. What year is this? 1772?
"The state of slavery is of such a nature, that it is incapable of being introduced on any reasons, moral or political; but only positive law, which preserves its force long after the reasons, occasion, and time itself from whence it was created, is erased from memory: it's so odious, that nothing can be suffered to support it, but positive law." - Judge Mansfield, Queen's Bench.
Yeah but do you really save money?
$199 + 24 months * $40/month == $1160
vs.
$649 + 24 months * $25/month == $1249
No not really. Oh well. This is why I still use a VirginMobile phone. The phone was free and the service is cheap ($0 a month plus fees -or- $25 unlimited). Of course it's no iPhone but I'm okay with that.
BTW escaping a two year contract is ridiculously easy. The companies change the terms so frequently (such as adding a datacap when you signed for an unlimited dataplan) that you can terminate the contract without repercussion.
>>>Who the fuck cares...
I care. I liked the author's suggestion of creating a Dummy Account, just so you can view yourself and see what's visible to strangers. Ideally nothing but your name, but who knows for sure? What exactly is visible to Google, Bing, and other search engines? I'd like to know.
>>>you can't make money without spending money.
Well then let the BUSINESSES (hotels, amusement parks, restaurants, etc) that stand to profit from the tourism do the spending, rather than using tax dollars.
This sounds like Corporate Welfare --- the government is providing free advertising which businesses profit from, while the working class have to cover the costs of the ads. Steal from the poor; give to the rich.
In the US the equivalent is when I have to pay for a new Football Stadium in Baltimore, so the million-dollar owners can get rich off the ticket sales. It's BS and I can understand why the Malays are pissed.
>>>>> This is typical government "make work" bureaucracy that makes no more sense than going-round and busting windows to boost construction jobs.
>>
>>So your example of the typical government "make work" program is something that never happened?
Except it DID happen.
They destroyed cars in order
to boost construction jobs in factories.
It was called "Cash for Clunkers" and destroyed perfectly good and operational vehicles. Even the parts were destroyed, rather than recycled (very, very ungreen).
You should read Asimov's Caves of Steel.
Ironically it's about an energy crisis (humans are running out of nuclear fuel), and the need to leave earth behind. Saying we'll use nuclear doesn't actually solve the energy scarcity problem - it merely shifts it 50 years down the road.
>>>Let them sit out a winter shivering in the dark. We *need* nuclear power.
People in the 1800s didn't have nuclear power (or electricity), and they seemed to make out okay. Not that I want to revert to pre-turn-of-the-century living but we may not have any choice one the Oil Drought happens.
There's simply not enough energy to give ~3 billion Chinese, Europeans, and Americans the lifestyle they enjoyed living off the billion-year store of accumulated Dead Tree/Plant matter (coal/oil). We'll have to learn to live with less --- like only heating ONE room, rather than the whole house.
Yes the future sucks. :-|
I wrecked my first model airplane.
Then I bought a simulator and practiced for several days. I haven't wrecked a model airplane since. So YES simulators (videogames) can train you for the real thing, as any soldier can attest. It all started back when ATARI was asked by the army to adapt their "Battlezone" game to army tank training.
"We are very bad at evaluating risks."
Which is why we try to build Republics, not democracies. In theory the men who lead the republic are smarter than the Demos and can weigh these risks more accurately, based upon rationality not fear.
This referendum in Italy should have been decided either (a) by the educated men leading the parliament or (b) a supermajority (66.7%). NOT a simple 50%+1 vote.
IMHO.
It sounds like an excellent game.
If it had been released in 1999.
>>>you should use 2 browsers anyway.
Right.
Firefox plus Opera (which stores bookmarks online, and has image compression to avoid ISP overage fees). Not chrome. I don't like how it's organized, or its lack of FF/opera-style addons and features.
I don't see any "sense" in adding codes merely to tell the doctor which finger was amputated. All he has to do is LOOK and see for himself which finger is missing. This is typical government "make work" bureaucracy that makes no more sense than going-round and busting windows to boost construction jobs.
It's also what bankrupted the treasury and led to the downfall of the Roman Empire (according to one historical theory).
And this is why Government interference has made health costs skyrocket. My great-grandfather practically lived in a hospital during the late 40s and early 50s (he was paralyzed). Back then it was possible because the cost of the room was no more expensive than renting a hotel room. He was a poor farmer, but still able to pay the bill out of his own pocket.
So what's changed since then?
- Government regulations that require TONS more paperwork (like ICD-10), additional labor just to do that paperwork, and thereby cause costs to skyrocket.
Puppy Linux has the non-google Chromium as its standard browser, and it works well for that compact distribution, but I do miss all the Firefox addons. Like Youtube downloaders, Flash video downloaders, NoScript, CW's video plugin to watch free shows, and so on.
I'd sooner that Ubuntu stick with Firefox.
Never mind!
Stupid me - I thought the Leaf was a hybrid car like the Chevy Volt (40 mpg). Ooops.
This is a random question, but I can't find the answer so I figured someone here might know:
What is the Leaf's gasoline MPG? Not the combined MPG, but the MPG if the battery was completely dead and you ran the car on gasoline power?
I own a Honda Insight (70MPG) and have driven the Civic Hybrid (51mpg), which are basically pure gasoline cars (no EV mode), so I'm curious how the leaf compares.
You can squeeze 100 fiber optics in the space of a centimeter-wide cable, and each one could provide a different company (comcast or cox or cablevision or appleTV or MSN or.....). So NO cable television is not a "natural" monopoly. It used to be, but it isn't anymore. NOW it is a monopoly by government mandate.
>>>10,000 is a tiny, infinitesimal fraction of..... 200,000,000 trips
99.995% reliability for shipping. Not bad. That's close to the reliability of phone service (five 9's).
>>>Picture perfect example of the tragedy of the commons colliding with unregulated capitalism.
Sadly for you, this is NOT a perfect example because the Ship (and train) containers do interlock like legos and they do tie them down with chains. Shippers really do NOT want to tell their customers, "We lost your cargo," and risk losing them to competitors. They'd prefer to have zero loss.
But of course zero loss is as impractical as zero downtime for your website or the software you are writing. It's an unrealistic demand.
Times two.
;-)
Both were probably Lost at sea in transit from the Beijing sellers to my home.
>>>Hey moron, the Telcos are not a government mandated monopoly.
The "moron" responds:
Yeah they are. My county government MANDATED that, "Our citizens want cable television. Let's hire somebody to lay the cables and give them an exclusive deal for ten years," and then handed it over to the highest bidder (suburban cable - later renamed comcast). QED: we have a government-mandated monopoly.
It always amazes me when I show Pac-man to various people and they "It's too hard." And yet here's an AI that can apparently beat it..... what does that say about my friends and coworkers?
For me the Arcade versions are just about right, as far as difficulty. The home versions (Atari, Commodore) are all too easy (ghosts are dumb), except for the Jr. Pac-Man variant released in 1984 that has intelligent ghosts.
Ooops. I meant 30-to-40 Mbit/sec datarate. That is only 6-to-9 megabits per second per hd program. And yes that's pretty tight. It's about the same datarate as a DVD, but with six times more pixels to stream.
As for CDMA, I don't know if that would work on a noisy cable system. The reason broadcast digital radio and television is limited to ~250 kbit/s and 19 Mbit/s respectively is because of the high noise floor. Cable is no different. Cable is limited to just 30 or 40 Mbit/s using 16VSB or 64QAM, and still tends to break-up due to interference.
Minor corrections:
[180] channel slots [upto 1000 megahertz].
1. A single six megahertz analog channel
2. [5] HD Digital Channels
3. [10] SD Digital Channels
4. Approximately 30 [or 40 Mbit] of download capacity for data
Points 2 and 3 are why cable channels often look pixelated compared to live broadcast. The cable channels squeeze as many channels as possible into each 6 megahertz/40 Mbit wide slot, which means the viewer sees lots of macroblocking and mosquitos in their picture.
>>>this guy had ALREADY submitted an app which they shamelessly ripped off for their OS, right down to the logo.
>>>
Apple == 90s Microsoft. I used to hate the unscrupulous tactics MS used during the late 80s through the year 2000..... and now I see Apple copying many of those tactics. Kinda sad.
So boycott MS.
Boycott apple.
What's left? I used to opt for Atari and Commodore, but they stopped making computers.