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  1. Re:Isaac Asimov: on Robots4Us: DARPA's Response To Mounting Robophobia · · Score: 2

    Why they didn't quite work as intended.

    Oh, yes. But in none of them has a robot actually done harm to a human — and where that almost happened, the fault was with the modified 1st Law...

  2. Re:Isaac Asimov: on Robots4Us: DARPA's Response To Mounting Robophobia · · Score: 1

    So, reality catches up with science fiction!

    Yes, Asimov did predict robophobia. Too bad, his other prediction in this area has not come true. Not yet, anyway...

  3. Re:Why is penetration in quotes? on Attempted Breach of NSA HQ Checkpoint; One Shot Dead · · Score: 1, Troll

    Though I agree with you on the matter of Michael Brown, your attempt to conflate him with Miriam Carey needs to be countered.

    Unlike Mr. Brown, who attacked the sole officer present. Although her (successful) attempt to drive through a fence-segment placed in front of her car may be considered an attack on the man, who placed it there, the multiple officers shooting her later had no reasons to fear for their lives, when they opened fire — and that's important.

    Officer Wilson acted in self-defense shooting Mr. Brown. There was no reason for Secret Service et al. to kill Ms. Carey — though they did have ample reasons to want to arrest her...

    That said, I find it strange, that her race was not immediately known — and that her death did not cause any "Black lives matter" protests. In fact, I didn't know, she was Black until I opened the above-posted link. I guess, there just was no need at the time to trump-up the police's supposed "racism" — or, maybe, the Federal officers reporting to Barack Obama and Eric Holder just can not be "racist" no matter who they kill any why...

  4. Re:Translation: on China's Foreign Ministry: China Did Not Attack Github, We Are the Major Victims · · Score: 0

    The 'logic' here is... not good.

    Yeah, kind of like Germans denying having bombed anyone during WW2: we were bombed a lot ourselves.

  5. Re: Why is penetration in quotes? on Attempted Breach of NSA HQ Checkpoint; One Shot Dead · · Score: 3, Informative

    Well, saying that Michael Brown "roughed up the clerk" definitely seems to be rewriting history.

    Well, thanks to the omnipresent (and privacy-invading) video-taping, we know, he really did rough-up the clerk. Without the video, who could've guessed the gentle momma boy could've hurt a fly on his way out of a convenience store with stolen goods?..

    Yes, someone in this thread is attempting to rewrite history... I guess, I'm a KKK too now...

  6. Re:Militia Acts, etc. on How Professional Russian Trolls Operate · · Score: 1

    Just what is so uniquely American or "bypolar" about Militia Acts?

  7. Re:How propaganda decides wars on How Professional Russian Trolls Operate · · Score: 0

    Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist party?

    A perfectly valid question to ask. Communism is the most murderous school of thought known to humanity — even Hitler bizarre brand of Fascism was but a distant second.

    Nothing "paranoid" about it. The above-mentioned Rosenberg was introduced to Soviet spies by a fellow American Communist (Bernard Schuster). Thus, belonging to CPUSA was not only indicative of supporting the Communism (whose murderousness was not as well-known back then), but also of a high likelihood of being a traitor.

    I'd say the number of non-threats who were actively and vigorously blackballed

    Citations needed.

    Then add in civil rights discontent

    The civil rights discontent was also actively instigated by the USSR. Both by covert payment to Americans and overt propaganda by the Soviets themselves.

  8. Re:How propaganda decides wars on How Professional Russian Trolls Operate · · Score: 0

    So just because the USSR tried to manipulate the peace movement therefore delegitimizes the entire peace movement?

    No, not entire — there were sincere pacifists even during WW2 — and not automatically. We need to painfully examine, to what extent the peace movement was compromised by involvement of both USSR and domestic terrorists. You may suspect me of overestimating the enemy's impact, but you are certainly underestimating it.

    I'm just raising awareness — so that the healing can begin.

    When the US was about to resume shooting in Iraq in 2003, the whole world erupted in the biggest coordinated protest in history — and not by Iraqis, but by outraged Westerners expressing their sympathy.. Where were these peace-loving legions, when Putin invaded Ukraine in 2014? What few protests there were, they were largely by Ukrainian expats with very few sympathetic locals in evidence. Why?

    Because Putin's propaganda machine worked — on the entire spectrum of Western politics, not just the Left as the USSR used to. Rightist Jews in the US were accusing Ukraine's new "junta" of being "nazis", while actual American Nazis called the new government "Jews". Without arguing with each other, but both helped Putin. Most likely, they didn't realize it — but there is no doubt, a there is a group of analysts at FSB attached to each Western opinion-maker. US is a pathetic noob at this.

    Wake up and smell "people's power" — and the power of propagandists to manipulate it.

  9. Re:How propaganda decides wars on How Professional Russian Trolls Operate · · Score: 1

    it's there but when you speak out, you will get flamed for it as unpatriotic terrist commie pinko.

    Citations needed.

  10. Re:People CHOOSE to work for Amazon on Amazon Requires Non-Compete Agreements.. For Warehouse Workers · · Score: 1

    can't exercise their skillset and background for 18 months after they leave a position without otherwise providing due compensation

    But they are provided compensation! Certainly enough, that they consider it acceptable to work for Amazon knowing about the restriction.

  11. Re:People CHOOSE to work for Amazon on Amazon Requires Non-Compete Agreements.. For Warehouse Workers · · Score: 0

    Just because people choose to work in a place, doesn't mean they choose to trample the employer's rights. It works both ways — "the rich" have rights too, you know.

    Or should he accept the job protecting his family from financial ruin now but at the possible non-compete expense further down the line?

    We are all responsible for the choices we make. Each one is deciding for himself.

    I can easily take your line of reasoning further — are the marital vows binding? How about Pledge of Allegiance — is that a "cohesive contract", that you are welcome to walk away from when money gets tight and a foreign power offers you payment in exchange for treason?

  12. Re:People CHOOSE to work for Amazon on Amazon Requires Non-Compete Agreements.. For Warehouse Workers · · Score: 0

    For some people, Amazon may the only reasonable option available at the time.

    Well, if the non-compete clause is part of a (or even the) reasonable option, then what's the problem?

    And it is not reasonable, then your statement is simply not true.

    Fortunately, we don't need to decide it here for all — everyone can make their own choice.

  13. People CHOOSE to work for Amazon on Amazon Requires Non-Compete Agreements.. For Warehouse Workers · · Score: 0

    As long as Amazon is not in a position to force anyone to work for them, what business is it of ours, what they ask of people willing to work for them?

  14. Re:How propaganda decides wars on How Professional Russian Trolls Operate · · Score: 1

    There was a lot of paranoia about Communist conspiracies. The Rosenberg trials.

    Is it really "paranoia" (a mental disease involving ungrounded fears) if the fear is substantiated? Rosenbergs really were Communist-spies, you know, who helped USSR obtain nuclear weapons sooner.

    it wasn't irrational to believe that expansionist communism was a real threat

    Well, it didn't stop being a real threat — as Budapest in 1956 and Prague in 1968 kept proving. But, somehow, that clear and present danger of Communism no longer played the role it played during Korea War. Why?

    Like I said, the USSR's active stimulation of "peace"-movement's collective clitoris played a role. Perhaps, a decisive one...

  15. Re:How propaganda decides wars on How Professional Russian Trolls Operate · · Score: 0

    You're talking about the public perception of the war, UN approval forms part of that public perception.

    UN's approval or lack thereof, by all appearances, was used to justify the opposition to war later, when the questions like mine here started popping up. I could find no references to UN's decision (or absence of it) as a factor. Could you?

    It's possible, but a far more likely factor is the fact they were very different wars at very different times.

    Well, I explained, how they were similar — only a few years apart and both in far lands without evident immediate threat to the US.

    The Korean war was over in 3 years. In Vietnam the US stepped into a long running conflict which ran a lot longer.

    I fail to see, how the length of a conflict affects the justification of it.

    You've also got media actually showing the home front what the battlefield actually looks like, that's a pretty profound change from previously where media pieces were basically clips from war movies.

    Yes. And the fact that media at home chose to concentrate on the negative, instead of praising the troops in general and heralding acts of valor in particular is, in my opinion, explained by (at least, in part) by the enemy's propaganda efforts.

    Finally you had a completely different culture in the 60's that was largely based on a rejection of authority

    And where, one wonders, did that come from?

    And where is it now, when questioning authority is not only not patriotic, but racist?

    You don't need Soviet propaganda to explain the Vietnam peace movement

    Well, we know for a fact (an inconvenient one), that USSR and other Communists were behind at least some of the "peace" organizations, such as the venerable World Peace Council.

    The practice is still ongoing — an establishment calling itself "anti-war", for example, is calling for international approval of Russia's invasion into and annexation of Crimea — do you think, they would've approved of Kosovo or Kurdistan voting to become a United States' 51st state? Is it really over-the-board to wonder, if, perhaps, this Justin Raimondo is manipulated by Kremlin — whether he even knows it or not?

  16. Re:Sure on How Professional Russian Trolls Operate · · Score: 1

    And the NSA hoovering up Americans' communications data.

    NSA's domestic spying is highly secretive and covert.

    They run away from any sunlight and do not engage in propaganda, which would've blown their secrets.

    They supply information to other branches of government, but don't do anything with it themselves. Had they done anything of the kind, you've would've heard plenty about it from Snowden's fans...

  17. Re:How propaganda decides wars on How Professional Russian Trolls Operate · · Score: 0

    Those reporters you say were flying in Hueys would've recorded numerous acts of heroism in addition to the screw-ups and war-crimes. Why did the media organizations back home choose to concentrate on the negative instead?

    Where is the "question authority" sentiment now, when dissent is not only no longer patriotic, it is outright racist?

  18. Re:Sure on How Professional Russian Trolls Operate · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Hover's infiltration of civil right's organizations

    That was a covert operation, which is a direct opposite of propaganda.

    Hoover was running FBI — federal police — not military. Countering foreign agents and spies is openly and officially within the scope of such establishments in all countries and infiltration is a perfectly legitimate tactics.

    "Interesting" my butt.

    under the argument that they were aligned with communists.

    Many were USSR-controlled (knowingly or not), in all likelihood. Some certainly were.

  19. Re:Sure on How Professional Russian Trolls Operate · · Score: 1

    On the other hand, the US has always had a rather loose interpretation of 'war fighting outside' which allowed for usage on disruptive elements of American society too.

    Citations?

  20. How propaganda decides wars on How Professional Russian Trolls Operate · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Compare our invasion of Korea with that of Vietnam only a few years later. Before you say "Korea was UN-approved" — no, that's a lame excuse. Stalin boycotted UN at the time action on Korea was decided, but by the time of Vietnam USSR has changed its approach. That's all.

    In both cases American military was sent to fight in remote lands against people, who didn't threaten America directly in any way — for fear of the domino effect of Communism. In both cases the fighting was heavy and numerous war-crimes have taken place.

    And yet, there was no domestic opposition to the Korean war — virtually none. No protests against the draft, no accusations of returning soldiers being "baby-killers". John Kerry, for example, has gained more political capital for opposing the war (and returning his medals), than for fighting in it (for an entire 4 months).

    Vietnam was widely considered a national shame long before the war was lost. Meanwhile the only source of any negativity about the Korean war in mass culture was the M*A*S*H series.

    Why was the domestic reaction to the two wars so drastically different? The theory of propagandists controlled and funded (with or without their own knowledge) by the USSR would explain the known facts.

  21. Re:Sure on How Professional Russian Trolls Operate · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's only those damn Russians are doing this, all other countries are saint.

    Excluded middle much? Other countries may be doing this — or planning to catch-up — but Russia has been doing this on massive scale for many years — all the while, in a classic fit of projection, accusing others of it.

    Another difference is, the US, for example, may consider such propaganda a war-fighting tool to be used outside, but Putin's regime — according to TFA — is happy to use it to prop the government domestically.

    Then, I suppose, for knuckle-dragging simpletons happy to equate Joe McCarthy with Lavrenty Beria, none of the above makes any difference...

  22. Re:Pave way for Russia's "polite men" on Russian Official Proposes Road That Could Connect London To NYC · · Score: 1

    overtake the USA power and begin a real massacre of white Alaskans

    Yes, an actual massacre (like this) might be a good enough justification for foreign intervention — though not for an annexation.

    But no massacre has happened — not in Crimea, not in Kharkiv, not Lviv, not Zaporizhya, not in even in Mariupol and Slovyansk (the two towns that fell under Russia's control briefly but were retaken).

    Entire national guard battalions are formed in the East from people, for whom the first language is Russian — if they are willing to die for their country, maybe, the allegations of the country's plans to "hang them" over their language-preference aren't entirely truthful, huh?

    Your fears might've been justifiable for a victim of massive state-propaganda a year ago, but by now — with Ukrainian "junta" in power for over 12 months and yet not one concentration camp, gas chamber, nor even a one-time mass-execution of Russian-speakers in evidence — the excuse is no more.

    If you continue to believe — and even parrot — this crap, there must be something seriously wrong with you. Either you are brain-dead stupid, or a (paid) Putin's troll...

    There are afaik no Ukrainian schools in Crimea

    Not any more, that's for sure — because Russia shut them down.

    All of your justifications are repeatedly demonstrated as non-sense and, even if they were valid, they would've justified only a wrong-righting invasion, but not a permanent annexation of any land.

    Vatnik much?

  23. Re:Pave way for Russia's "polite men" on Russian Official Proposes Road That Could Connect London To NYC · · Score: 0

    You are not required to speak Kenyan or Hawaiian, to serve in army where commands are given in Kenyan, to write official letters in Havaiian, to meet schoolchildren from schools where they are told that their Kenyan-Havaiian ancestors dug the Pacific, and so on (You understand).

    So, if Alaskans were facing all (or any?) of those evils, you feel, Russian invasion into Alaska would've been justified?

    BTW, do you think, Russian invasion into Crimea solved the problems you allude to? Can Crimean Tatars, who will now be drafted into Russian army now have an option of having commanders issuing commands in their language? Of course, not. Can ethnic Ukrainians in Crimea send children to a Ukrainian school? (No, they can not). In other words, the problems you are alluding to — if they are problems to begin with — are not solved by Russian occupation and your attempt to justify it in case of Crimea failed (miserably).

  24. Pave way for Russia's "polite men" on Russian Official Proposes Road That Could Connect London To NYC · · Score: 1

    Occupation and annexation of Crimea already a staggering success, Russia must be looking into organizing a referendum in Alaska.

    Peace-loving Americans will not be objecting — a referendum conducted under occupation going in favor of the occupying power? What "conflict of interest"?

    The knuckle-dragging haters will be neutralized by polite men with Russian accents wearing indiscernible uniforms...

  25. Java and Python on No, It's Not Always Quicker To Do Things In Memory · · Score: 1

    Java and Python versions of the code were written and then run on Windows and Linux systems for comparison. The total time of all writes for disk-only version was compared to total time of in-memory operations plus the disk write of the in-memory approach were then compared.

    I fear, this article will be referred to for years to come as "evidence", that in-memory work is slower, while the truth is, Java and Python programs are slower, than the properly-compiled (to machine code) programs. TFA says so too:

    these higher level languages are doing a lot of work behind the scenes to handle the concatenation, such as creating new objects and copying the strings in order to accommodate the extra bytes of data.

    but few people will read that far down...

    It is just "too easy" to write code, that will cause the useless object-creation and destruction in these "higher level" languages — and a human mind can not distinguish between a microsecond and a millisecond, so it all seems to work fine — until you need to do it a million times...