Oooh, you're such a non-conformist and so much smarter than anyone else. I'd keep an open mind about God rather than make a quick judgement.
You're very right! I am a non-conformist. I'd rather not indulge in the egotism of who is smarter than who. That's counter-productive and pointless.
As for my making 'quick judgment' and not being open-minded. . . How is trying to understand the idea of God while questioning the bible not the result of an open mind? Conformist thinking, (i.e., NOT thinking), is the truly close-minded activity, wouldn't you agree? I have spent years working on my ideas, bringing them to where they are now, and I am sure I have a lot of work still to do.
It's interesting that the great spiritual teachers, (including Jesus), all agree that not-following is essential if one is to reach enlightenment. Personal spiritual growth simply cannot be achieved by copying behavior and thought patterns; it can only be achieved by working on the self. There are no quick and lazy routes to the top of the mountain.
However, non-conformity is not a goal unto itself. It's simply the natural result flowing from following one's internal guidance systems with faith, energy and awareness.
Consider: When have the masses EVER been right about anything of importance?
1. WalMart appears to NOT be actually selling internal computer components, (Mother boards, hard drives, cases, etc). They're only selling monitors and keyboards and mice which you 'Assemble yourself.' Chumpy but whatever.
2. This is probably a good thing.
3. Because. . .
4. When WalMart gets into a market, they start dictating how and where things get manufactured, thus turning whole industries into lopsided affairs regulated by WalMart's decision-makers.
5. This is bad, because. . .
6. WalMart, the morally upright entity that it is, (*cough*) will have the ability to flood the market with a bunch of DRM hardware and force manufacturers to follow suit.
Do you want that? DRM hard drives and memory sticks and flat screens that won't display anything unless the RIAA hardware filters let it through?
I really don't understand why everyone seems to hate WalMart. In the spirit of the capatalistic system, WalMart has managed to become a world leading retailer. True, they use policies that tend to obliterate neighboring businesses through loss leaders and pricing undercuts, and they are vehemently non-union, but, and this is the point, WalMart is the huge success of one man's vision, and isn't that the American Dream?
That's easy to answer.
People hate WalMart because the American Dream is a bullshit fairy tale which causes massive harm and misery through uncontrolled greed and psychopathic disregard for others. When community is destroyed and lives shunted into ever-decreasing viability, then something is very obviously wrong. Just because the offending entity happens to hold true to the founding rules of the 'American Dream' does not make it healthy, noble or worthy of respect.
Consider. . . Who coined and marketed the idea of the 'American Dream' to everybody and what was the motive?
Consider this: I am a law abiding, gainfully employed, born in the USA citizen who, while not a big fan of Bush, supports our efforts in Iraq. I have no middle eastern blood yet I look like I could very well be middle eastern. For this reason I believe I am profiled far more than my fair share at the airport and selected for secondary inspection. I would gladly sport an implanted RFID tag that would instantly identify me as "OK". Let the tinfoil hatters stand in the security lines, I have better things to do.
Assuming you are not evil, the fact that you support the U.S. efforts in Iraq means you are hopelessly clueless.
There is an awful lot going on that you have no knowledge of. You would benefit enormously from some intensive reading and searching.
I can't get over the fact that people read the Bible without recognizing that it was a document created by people. People are corruptible and manipulable, and there were certainly governments 2000 years ago with power and secret services and propaganda departments bent on social molding and subjugation on their minds.
I am of the opinion that the 666 stuff in the bible is designed to freak people out and make them thrash around and fill up with lots of fear and chaotic feelings which specifically serve the Beast. God doesn't care what you do. God is infinite. God is everything, 'good' and 'bad'. A piece of God, (the dark side), might certainly issue instructions and fear-mongering through books like the bible to a bunch of other pieces of God, (us humans), but how you react to that fear mongering is up to you. There is no punishment at the pearly gates. That's bullshit. Punishment comes from little pieces of God with negative intent; our slave drivers and masters. You can avoid that pain by being careful and staying aware and acting smart.
Running around in fear of getting the 'Mark' is bullshit.
I'll avoid RFID for my own reasons. Not because I am instructed by some bullshit book.
Wow. This is the only good news I've heard from the Ranch in over a decade.
I just hope the theatrical releases are the cleaned-up and re-mastered versions they made in the mid-nineties. And I hope they're wide-screen!
I don't complain about Lucas printing money. --Aside from movie tickets and a bunch of plastic toys I bought when I was seven years old, I've not paid money for a Lucasfilm product since the Young Indiana Jones tapes came out. --Though, they were dissappointing. They were dumbed down with the Old Indy clips which held the stories together cut out. Silly.
I hope the DVD's don't suck. I'll wait for reviews before I buy. I still love Star Wars; I think it's a great story with an important message. I guess in the war of light and dark, such gambits as putting out a film, (like the last three), are going to be prone to attacks. --You can't have a cohesive message getting through! Might cause people to think a bit too much. Better to fry Lucas's brain from a distance with government rays or something. (I wouldn't put it past them. ..)
Sorry, but politics affects everybody today in every way.
We have new copyright laws and legal issues affecting all aspects of New Media, we have government agencies spying on the populace using high tech snooping techniques on internet, phone traffic, and even through hardware built directly into the PC, we have the, "How'd They Do That" of crashing passenger jets into 'important' buildings, we have the space program being used for spying and weapons use, we have hundreds of all-consuming video games which are based on war simulation, we have highly political science-fiction dramas on the telly and in film, (Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, Star Wars, and the now defunct Star Trek. ..)
And ALL of it as direct results or reactions to U.S. political maneuvering and general Bushite insanity.
Anybody who claims that Slashdot shouldn't be linked to politics because "It's supposed to be about News for Nerds," is living in a dream world and is probably a fucking neocon trying hard to keep his head in the sand.
But that's just my soon-to-be-utterly-worthless-due-to-a-crashed-U.S. -economy, two cents.
Your leftist slip is showing, this has zero to do with technology or anything remotely interesting to Nerds. Get over the 2000 and 2004 elections, your dream boy(s) lost, get over it already.
Get over WWIII. . ?
It's that kind of strange and deliberately myopic thinking which lends weight to the idea that Bush supporters are just pretend robot versions of actual human beings.
blather on about 'Natural Selection' as though they are contributing something useful, I am going to puke.
Shut up.
"Natural Selection." Ooooh! "Competition." Oooo. Big fucking deal. Who cares? Why endlessly spout one version of how things sort-of work? (While ignoring, of course, all elements of the bigger picture which don't fit the neat little theory.) --What is the advantage to this kind of chest thumping? Would it be any different if I were to walk around randomly declaring, (with an insufferably superior attitude), "Cups hold water better if you hold them upright"?
It's just another bit of internal dialogue leaking out around the edges. The desire to re-affirm one version of the world by re-describing it endlessly.
Denial doesn't prevent you from getting whacked. There are more interesting things than global temperature change going on out there. Humanity will continue, as you say, but that doesn't preclude massive die-offs. Darwinism works largely on that principal.
When a country is unassailable from the outside, then its enemies can only attack from the inside.
When a country is run by psychopathic liars who steal elections through rigged voting machines and who abuse the laws to ensure their continued control over the public, their enemies ARE the people.
Roger and Me won awards too as a documentar, but it wasn't correct. [. ..] The awards for movies are given by artists and mostly for art. Don't confuse recognition of artistic principles with statements underscoring factual correctness.
First of all to write off Roger & Me as 'incorrect' is foolishly dismissive. Despite his (well rebutted) detractors and his editorial over-indulgences, Moore's message, arguments and content remain entirely worthy of thought. Anybody I've met who rabidly despises the man has been, in my view, deliberately avoiding some difficult realities.
Secondly, Michael Moore did not have anything to do with the film in question.
Third, the director of "The Corporation" spent a LOT of time doing a LOT of fact checking, and as a result it is an excellent film worthy of attention, which it indeed recieved. --If many others thought it worthy of attention, then perhaps it is foolish to denounce it without having even seen the thing simply because it happens to be a 'movie'. Further, I would say that it is doubly foolish, as in the case of the poster, to think that by so denouncing, he was somehow lending weight to his argument. Stupid.
He's saying that people with modpoints have a tendancy to be dicks, and that in all likelyhood you're just being paranoid.
"Dick" is a relative term. In his case, his definition would seem to include anybody who is anti-religion and anti-Windows. I find it interesting that he should group the two together. But then, one person's "paranoid" is another's basic common sense, isn't it?
Your friend does not start posting at 2, he starts at 1. You and I post at +2 by default because we have the Karma bonus, you can look at that in the moderation history of our posts. He does not, His scores were modded down from 1 to -1, not from 2 to -1.
Yes, this is true. The punative history moderation required a minimum of 3 individuals who had access to mod points in that time-frame. --More people were necessary if one includes the moderation of the main post, since one user can only moderate a single time on any given post.
The fact that I need to watch a MOVIE to agree with your scenario means it's already pretty far-fetched.
First of all, the 'movie' you are referring to is a documentary which has won two dozen international awards since its release at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.
Secondly, why does my providing reference to a body of research, like the above mentioned doucmentary, automatically make the scenario it supports far-fetched?
Do you feel the same way about books? Or journal articles? Or anything which cannot be fully quoted in 50 lines or less in an original Slashdot post for your sound-biten reading pleasure?
There is a lot more randomness and herd mentality in play on/. all the time. Somehow, a pro-religious discussion gets modded down, or you happen to use/like Windows stuff, that gets modded down ALL THE TIME. Why else do you think any slightly pro-MS comment on/. is always started with "I hate Microsoft as much as the next guy, but..."?
I'm really not following you here. How exactly does pointing out that the standard bias on Slashdot is anti-Windows, help support your argument in even the smallest way?
Where do you get the estimate of 25 points? Previous to the SCO thread, it appears as though only 10 mod points total were spent modding posts down. That's now 2 people we're talking about.
6 posts modded from 2 to -1 = 18. The rest of the mod points were observed through the course of the day on the mother post as it went up and down.
Granted, this does not assume normal moderation behavior, but it is still indicative of unusual moderation behavior. I speak from, (as of this post) 1925 Slashdot posts worth of experience.
Also, I note, that some moderators have gone back in during the last few hours to re-mod carsonc's previous posts back up a few notches. I'm sure he is appreciative of this.
I know the guy who posted this Slashdot comment on how prominent Forbes writer, Daniel Lyons, a suspected SCO puppet, was asking leading questions of Balmer at Microsoft's request in a recent interview slamming Linux.
Through fluke, my friend managed to get first post. He was also posting with some respectable Slashdot Karma. What happened next was fascinating. . .
His post became the focus of a moderation tug-o-war. No big deal. Happens all the time on Slashdot. --I've posted hundreds of items which piss people off, and I've watched my posts fly up and down on the venerable, "Troll" to "Insightful" Slashdot scale. Except, I cannot ever claim to have invoked more than, at most, say 8 or 9 mod points from the Slashdot moderators.
We were chatting a few days later and he described the scenario to me. It seems that, lickety-split, after his post had gone up, a group of somebodies had gone into his posting history and spent a lot of mod points hammering several of his recent posts from 2's down into -1's. They spent, we estimate, at least 25 mod points worth of specific attention on him. Despite the fact that regular Slashdot moderators eventually won the tug-o-war, leaving his comment in the rarefied air of +5, his Karma had nonetheless dropped so quickly from history moderation, that he was left prevented from posting more than two comments per day, (effectively stopping him from engaging in open forum debate on the very topic he'd launched), and assigning an automatic -1 to everything he might say thereafter.
Yeah, yeah. Big deal. Slashdot Karma wars do exist on the level of schoolyard nonsense, but in this case. . .
A group of somebodies with 25 mod points to blow on a moment's notice? Well that raises interesting questions! Judging by the otherwise bland nature of carsonc's post, which I can't think could possibly have inspired anybody to have such intense emotional reaction and thus mod negatively, --unless they were directly affected by his comments, I can only surmise that it was either. . ,
A) Unwholesome Slashdot editors. --Which, considering Slashdot's fairly clean history of moral conduct over the years, I think is unlikely in the extreme.
or. . .
B) A band of Microsoft employees who had been directed to acquire mod points on Slashdot to be used at the whim of Microsoft's PR department precisely when negative views circulating around delicate points in the news might harm them. And as mod points are not given every day, how many users exactly, does it take to have 25 mod points available at a moment's notice? Enough to require some paid coordiation, I'd say.
Some might cry, "Conspiracy!" and wag their heads like dolts. But with several 1000 employees plugged into the Microsoft cube. . .
Anybody who has seen the film, "The Corporation" knows that such a scenario is not just possible, but -extremely- likely.
In other words. . . Fuck Microsoft. Switch to Linux. Tell everybody to do so now. Ubuntu will mail you 5 disks for free, and they'll support them, for free, for 3 years.
How does it open up? I'm seriously interested. Because I personally don't play video games and do not own a TV. I like masturbation as much as the next girl, but I definitely have sex more than I masturbate. I don't think that I spin in cycles of fear and hate, although to be fair I'm not sure exactly what that means. I usually only listen to people I respect, but not a lot of people tell me what to do anyways. I also don't blast my head much with evil EM, except with sunlight and ambient radiation, of course. Anyways, I don't do any of these evil things in excess and the universe has not "opened up in AMAZING ways". I dunno, the universe is pretty cool, but I don't think it's particularly more impressive now that I don't play video games or watch TV or babble on the phone all day. What has your experience been?
My experience has been in realizing that the Universe is anything but random, and that it is not just possible to direct one's Intent toward the realities we want to live in, but that it is in fact the only mode of existence available to us. --When people believe that the Universe is random and unkind, then that is exactly what they will experience. It takes energy and an unfogged mind to function effectively within this reality. Like having weak swimming muscles, you can't navigate your way through the currents of life with weak perceptions, and low energy. With energy comes courage and passion, and without those two things, a person is lost.
--My experience has been one where I began allowing myself to be happy. Instead of working cruddy 9-5 work which was grinding me into dust, I started following my passions, turning those into my work. Instead of saying 'No' to opportunity, (hiding inside watching television or playing video games), I started spending those thousands of hours contributing my time and energy to whatever worthy project which came knocking and which caught my interest. The experiences I've had as a result have been unique and surprising. Every week is filled with unexpected adventures of every kind.
This last week, for instance, I was looking for a new apartment. This was four days ago. I spent the day hiking around town looking at 'For Rent' signs and jotting down numbers. That was mundane and boring and the results were all lame apartments which all looked lonely. I found myself standing on the sidewalk feeling that this was a futile effort, and realized that I was hankering to live with people. I really like having room-mates, but only the right kind; energetic and positive and compassionate.
So I shifted my focus and changed my intent. About half an hour later a girl walked up to me and asked me if I was looking for room mates. --She spotted me looking at, 'for rent' ads on a bulletin board, and she was looking for somebody to fill an empty space in a house she'd just moved into. We got into an amazing conversation and talked for half an hour. It sounded like her room mates were great people and the price was really good. She was also beautiful and we were sparking off each other. --I tend to focus my intent in that direction even though I probably could better use the energy in other areas, but it was a nice buzz. We were both excited about the prospect of living with each other, and so we exchanged numbers and parted.
In reviewing the opportunity, however, I realized that I knew vaguely what sort of situation I'd be living in, having been there a couple of times before. --Love when mixed with roommates has always been a difficult, albeit fascinating, challenge. And while it has its rewards, for now it seemed like too much effort. While I enjoy living with people, I was also hoping to spend the year working hard on my own projects and not getting swept up in dramas. So I decided to re-focus my intent and I kept looking.
I ran into a friend of mine and he walked with me for a bit. I told him, "You know what I think would be really cool? Instead of looking for opportunities, I think it would be great to actually bring
So how many of you were swelling with patriotic pride back when Europe suggested that control over the web be shared among other nations? Feeling kinda dumb now for being so easily manipulated by the big 'patriot' button on your emotional center?
No? Don't feel like you've been made fools of yet?
The facts have been presented over and over and over. There has been ample opportunity for people to explore and find out the truth behind low power EM radiation from wireless communications devices. There are some excellent books written by very well respected scientists. And everybody has access to basic common sense whenever they want it.
And yet, I keep seeing the same avoidance. The same denial. The same arguments.
Some of my favorites include. . .
1. "Cell phones don't output enough power to cause ionization, therefore they cannot possibly harm brain cells."
This is false and myopic. It has also been a key feature of the public relations campaigning by the Telecom companies in making sure people buy their products and never sue them. Human cells naturally respond to micro-electric currents and frequencies, and cell phones, which modulate their microwave signals, tickle the brain in exactly the range where cells react. It has been demonstrated through numerous studies that the Blood Brain Barrier opens up to foreign particles when stimulated by Cell Phone EM. Could cancer be caused by poisons in the blood which might otherwise not enter cells? --This is just one of many ways damage can be caused. The fact that cell phone EM is not powerful enough to burn cells by no means indicates a safe technology.
2. "The studies are not published in big journals, so I refuse to look at them, because obviously they must be done by quack doctors."
You'd be surprised how often I hear this. --Many people steadfastly refuse to read or look beyond the voice of the authority figures in their worlds if the data might run counter to their accepted mode of belief. To which, I always think, "Lazy Coward." --The world is full of truth and lies, and only through direct exposure to data and thinking and comparing can we learn to determine which is which. Yes, I've read plenty of bunk from self-published scientists, but I've also read plenty of bunk from well-published scientists funded by amoral, self-interested corporations and governments. There have been a lot of studies which claim cell phone radiation is safe, but nearly all of them have been directly or indirectly funded by the Telcos themselves or by agencies, (like the airforce), who stand to be harmed by lawsuits should the prognosis be anything but rosy. Anybody who cannot see the conflict of interests here is either blind or foolish. There have been countless instances where corporate scientists have deliberately fudged their facts. To suggest that the multi-billion dollar cell phone industry is exempt from corruption or does not engage in subversive public opinion molding is foolish. In the end you must not take the voice of authoritarian publications and news agencies at face value. You have to THINK for yourself!
A basic truth: If you are too scared to think for yourself, then you probably don't.
3. "Everything causes cancer! Life is short. I can put up with the risks."
Think of it this way: Life is short, why waste even a second of it living according to a corporate agenda?
And anyway, this is not about cancer. Cancer is a side show. Cancer is nothing. The real issue is that Cell Phone EM, and all the other tiny dings we take from a thousand different vectors, (food, air, economy, media, etc.,), cause us to be worn down into idiot miserable slaves who have no clue about anything outside the thin layer of awareness we are allowed to retain. Once you start turning off the TV, stop playing video games, stop buzzing your head with EM, stop jerking off all the time, stop spinning in cycles of fear and hate, stop doing what you are told. . , the Universe starts to open up in AMAZING ways.
This is what it's all about. Liberation or slavery.
My response to this is f 'em -- if they're so shallow that they ignore technically superior solutions because those who create and promote it don't dress the way they like, they can keep getting ripped off by traditional commercial software.
So if I use Linux and am not a muggle, can I pay 95% less tax?
The government is a scam. The only reason to give them a thin dime is that they have all the guns. --And that all the dimes were made by them.
I wonder what would happen if you set up your own money system in your community, (and thereby, stop using banks and traceable, taxable income, and only donate your cash and time to whatever system of government your community agrees to establish in your region). . ?
Oh yeah. They'll call you communist and anti-capitalist, stir up all the dumb 'mericans with time-tested propaganda, and then burn you down Branch Davidian Style.
Golly! You can't have people opting out of the tax grid, now can you?
It was until last decade, (and perhaps still is), a standard.
I find it more interesting, though, to note that the technology can also be used for high-volume power storage. Of course, if you say so in any verifiable manner, you'll be disappeared.
I was invited to teach a class recently, and there was one kid (a girl), who was really making things tough on all the other kids around her. She was big, and strong and had zero self-esteem, and was going to be damned if anybody else would be allowed to have any either, and from there proceeded to disrupt and make it hard for others to enjoy the class. --The few odd times I run a class, I make it fun, with lots of art supplies and such.
Girls are funny creatures; bullying happens on a much more psychological level. Brutality masked as praise, "Oh, that's so good. Let me see. I want to take this home. I wish I could do something that good. You're amazing. Can I have this? I'm taking this." This was one very angry kid; you could see the threat and anger baking off her, and the other 12-year olds didn't know how to deal with it. This kid also spent a lot of time diminishing others for their achievements in more direct ways. A few of the boys during a break period were jumping to see if they could grab on to the door frame in the gymnasium. (It looked like a lot of fun, actually.) When one of them consistently was able to make the leap and grab on, this same girl would cry out, "YOU FREAK!" He eventually felt self-conscious and stopped jumping to display his skill. Nobody was immune. She even tried her bullshit on me, trying to distract and disrupt the kids I was working one on one with by banging the table and being loud, etc.
She managed to pretty much ruin about half the day-long seminar for all the girls around her. Standing out made them an object of ridicule, and protection from that came from siding with her criticisms of the others. Luckily, the really talented ones were able to hunker down and ignore her and just follow their interests, but the girls who didn't have their own internal guiding lights were just miserable.
Anyway, at one point, I just had to do something about it. --I was just a visiting guest-teacher, if you will, and there were a couple of teen-aged counselors who were supposed to take care of this end of dealing with kids, but they weren't up to the task. My job was to be interesting and fun and friendly. But I can't stand bullies.
I wasn't angry, but I definitely growled. I pounced and dragged her chair with her in it halfway across the floor and said, "Okay! You're really bugging me. What's up? What's going on here?" A collective shudder went through the whole group. I can be quite alpha at times, and with 12-year old girls, a little bit goes an awfully long way.
I quickly toned it down and said: "This stuff can get boring after a couple of hours, so if it's not your thing, you can take a hike. --And I mean that literally. There's the great outdoors. If you're too hyped up to deal with this, then you should go and burn off some of your excess energy. That's what I do when I feel like bouncing off the walls. I find a wall and bounce off it. But not here."
The problem was that I could read the whole situation very clearly. This bully wasn't a bad kid. She was a hurting kid. I later made a chance to talk with her one-on-one and I cut to the chase.
"Why are you so down on yourself?"
"My work sucks."
"Nonsense. You've never done this kind of work before and you're still learning how. The kids here who are really good at it have been practicing on their own for years. And even though you haven't, I really like the stuff you've done so far. Anyway, that's not the point. I've heard nothing out of your mouth but you putting yourself down, saying, 'I'm no good. I suck. I can't do anything.' --You have to be careful, because first of all, none of that is even remotely true, and second, your subconscious listens to that kind of thing, and it will start believing you if you keep it up. And then you will be in trouble. So what's going on here? Why don't you have any self-esteme? You're easily one of the most charasmatic kids in this whole group. How come you're so angry with yourself?"
1. The CIA is stupid. They make mistakes and show themselves.
2. The CIA is extremely smart. They know how to manipulate media and public opinion, they know how to create operatives who have no identity whatsoever and keep them secret.
3. The Chicago Tribune employs zealous reporters eager to uncover and share the truth.
4. The Chicago Tirbune employs cowardly scum willing to do the bidding of whoever has a big stick or a deep pocket, (usually both).
Each is a collection of people. The problem is that the good-intentioned guys (who are aware enough to do any good), are few in number and are actively opposed by the bad elements from holding positions of power.
It's a logic circuit; power only moves in one direction. The Good Americans at the CIA and the Chicago Tribune by virtue of being Good, do not harass and terrorize and subvert the Bad Americans working at the CIA and the Chicago Tribune. The same cannot be said in the reverse. Thus, the Bad Americans rise in power while the Good Americans remain stationary or are pressed out. Allow enough time to pass, and the whole structure starts to stink.
Slashdot Mirror
You're very right! I am a non-conformist. I'd rather not indulge in the egotism of who is smarter than who. That's counter-productive and pointless.
As for my making 'quick judgment' and not being open-minded. . . How is trying to understand the idea of God while questioning the bible not the result of an open mind? Conformist thinking, (i.e., NOT thinking), is the truly close-minded activity, wouldn't you agree? I have spent years working on my ideas, bringing them to where they are now, and I am sure I have a lot of work still to do.
It's interesting that the great spiritual teachers, (including Jesus), all agree that not-following is essential if one is to reach enlightenment. Personal spiritual growth simply cannot be achieved by copying behavior and thought patterns; it can only be achieved by working on the self. There are no quick and lazy routes to the top of the mountain.
However, non-conformity is not a goal unto itself. It's simply the natural result flowing from following one's internal guidance systems with faith, energy and awareness.
Consider: When have the masses EVER been right about anything of importance?
-FL
2. This is probably a good thing.
3. Because. . .
4. When WalMart gets into a market, they start dictating how and where things get manufactured, thus turning whole industries into lopsided affairs regulated by WalMart's decision-makers.
5. This is bad, because. . .
6. WalMart, the morally upright entity that it is, (*cough*) will have the ability to flood the market with a bunch of DRM hardware and force manufacturers to follow suit.
Do you want that? DRM hard drives and memory sticks and flat screens that won't display anything unless the RIAA hardware filters let it through?
Didn't think so.
-FL
That's easy to answer.
People hate WalMart because the American Dream is a bullshit fairy tale which causes massive harm and misery through uncontrolled greed and psychopathic disregard for others. When community is destroyed and lives shunted into ever-decreasing viability, then something is very obviously wrong. Just because the offending entity happens to hold true to the founding rules of the 'American Dream' does not make it healthy, noble or worthy of respect.
Consider. . . Who coined and marketed the idea of the 'American Dream' to everybody and what was the motive?
-FL
Lighter than blood, they swim around and eventually rise up to vessels in your brain and ear tracts.
Not so good for you.
-FL
Assuming you are not evil, the fact that you support the U.S. efforts in Iraq means you are hopelessly clueless.
There is an awful lot going on that you have no knowledge of. You would benefit enormously from some intensive reading and searching.
Good luck!
-FL
I am of the opinion that the 666 stuff in the bible is designed to freak people out and make them thrash around and fill up with lots of fear and chaotic feelings which specifically serve the Beast. God doesn't care what you do. God is infinite. God is everything, 'good' and 'bad'. A piece of God, (the dark side), might certainly issue instructions and fear-mongering through books like the bible to a bunch of other pieces of God, (us humans), but how you react to that fear mongering is up to you. There is no punishment at the pearly gates. That's bullshit. Punishment comes from little pieces of God with negative intent; our slave drivers and masters. You can avoid that pain by being careful and staying aware and acting smart.
Running around in fear of getting the 'Mark' is bullshit.
I'll avoid RFID for my own reasons. Not because I am instructed by some bullshit book.
-FL
I just hope the theatrical releases are the cleaned-up and re-mastered versions they made in the mid-nineties. And I hope they're wide-screen!
I don't complain about Lucas printing money. --Aside from movie tickets and a bunch of plastic toys I bought when I was seven years old, I've not paid money for a Lucasfilm product since the Young Indiana Jones tapes came out. --Though, they were dissappointing. They were dumbed down with the Old Indy clips which held the stories together cut out. Silly.
I hope the DVD's don't suck. I'll wait for reviews before I buy. I still love Star Wars; I think it's a great story with an important message. I guess in the war of light and dark, such gambits as putting out a film, (like the last three), are going to be prone to attacks. --You can't have a cohesive message getting through! Might cause people to think a bit too much. Better to fry Lucas's brain from a distance with government rays or something. (I wouldn't put it past them. .
-FL
We have new copyright laws and legal issues affecting all aspects of New Media, we have government agencies spying on the populace using high tech snooping techniques on internet, phone traffic, and even through hardware built directly into the PC, we have the, "How'd They Do That" of crashing passenger jets into 'important' buildings, we have the space program being used for spying and weapons use, we have hundreds of all-consuming video games which are based on war simulation, we have highly political science-fiction dramas on the telly and in film, (Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, Star Wars, and the now defunct Star Trek. .
And ALL of it as direct results or reactions to U.S. political maneuvering and general Bushite insanity.
Anybody who claims that Slashdot shouldn't be linked to politics because "It's supposed to be about News for Nerds," is living in a dream world and is probably a fucking neocon trying hard to keep his head in the sand.
But that's just my soon-to-be-utterly-worthless-due-to-a-crashed-U.S
-FL
Get over WWIII. . ?
It's that kind of strange and deliberately myopic thinking which lends weight to the idea that Bush supporters are just pretend robot versions of actual human beings.
-FL
Shut up.
"Natural Selection." Ooooh! "Competition." Oooo. Big fucking deal. Who cares? Why endlessly spout one version of how things sort-of work? (While ignoring, of course, all elements of the bigger picture which don't fit the neat little theory.) --What is the advantage to this kind of chest thumping? Would it be any different if I were to walk around randomly declaring, (with an insufferably superior attitude), "Cups hold water better if you hold them upright"?
It's just another bit of internal dialogue leaking out around the edges. The desire to re-affirm one version of the world by re-describing it endlessly.
Shut UP.
Thank-you.
-FL
Denial doesn't prevent you from getting whacked. There are more interesting things than global temperature change going on out there. Humanity will continue, as you say, but that doesn't preclude massive die-offs. Darwinism works largely on that principal.
-Fl
When a country is run by psychopathic liars who steal elections through rigged voting machines and who abuse the laws to ensure their continued control over the public, their enemies ARE the people.
-FL
First of all to write off Roger & Me as 'incorrect' is foolishly dismissive. Despite his (well rebutted) detractors and his editorial over-indulgences, Moore's message, arguments and content remain entirely worthy of thought. Anybody I've met who rabidly despises the man has been, in my view, deliberately avoiding some difficult realities.
Secondly, Michael Moore did not have anything to do with the film in question.
Third, the director of "The Corporation" spent a LOT of time doing a LOT of fact checking, and as a result it is an excellent film worthy of attention, which it indeed recieved. --If many others thought it worthy of attention, then perhaps it is foolish to denounce it without having even seen the thing simply because it happens to be a 'movie'. Further, I would say that it is doubly foolish, as in the case of the poster, to think that by so denouncing, he was somehow lending weight to his argument. Stupid.
-FL
"Dick" is a relative term. In his case, his definition would seem to include anybody who is anti-religion and anti-Windows. I find it interesting that he should group the two together. But then, one person's "paranoid" is another's basic common sense, isn't it?
One of us is wrong. I wonder who?
-FL
Yes, this is true. The punative history moderation required a minimum of 3 individuals who had access to mod points in that time-frame. --More people were necessary if one includes the moderation of the main post, since one user can only moderate a single time on any given post.
-FL
First of all, the 'movie' you are referring to is a documentary which has won two dozen international awards since its release at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.
Secondly, why does my providing reference to a body of research, like the above mentioned doucmentary, automatically make the scenario it supports far-fetched?
Do you feel the same way about books? Or journal articles? Or anything which cannot be fully quoted in 50 lines or less in an original Slashdot post for your sound-biten reading pleasure?
There is a lot more randomness and herd mentality in play on
I'm really not following you here. How exactly does pointing out that the standard bias on Slashdot is anti-Windows, help support your argument in even the smallest way?
-FL
6 posts modded from 2 to -1 = 18. The rest of the mod points were observed through the course of the day on the mother post as it went up and down.
Granted, this does not assume normal moderation behavior, but it is still indicative of unusual moderation behavior. I speak from, (as of this post) 1925 Slashdot posts worth of experience.
Also, I note, that some moderators have gone back in during the last few hours to re-mod carsonc's previous posts back up a few notches. I'm sure he is appreciative of this.
-FL
Check it out. . .
I know the guy who posted this Slashdot comment on how prominent Forbes writer, Daniel Lyons, a suspected SCO puppet, was asking leading questions of Balmer at Microsoft's request in a recent interview slamming Linux.
Through fluke, my friend managed to get first post. He was also posting with some respectable Slashdot Karma. What happened next was fascinating. . .
His post became the focus of a moderation tug-o-war. No big deal. Happens all the time on Slashdot. --I've posted hundreds of items which piss people off, and I've watched my posts fly up and down on the venerable, "Troll" to "Insightful" Slashdot scale. Except, I cannot ever claim to have invoked more than, at most, say 8 or 9 mod points from the Slashdot moderators.
carsonc's post however. . . Wow.
We were chatting a few days later and he described the scenario to me. It seems that, lickety-split, after his post had gone up, a group of somebodies had gone into his posting history and spent a lot of mod points hammering several of his recent posts from 2's down into -1's. They spent, we estimate, at least 25 mod points worth of specific attention on him. Despite the fact that regular Slashdot moderators eventually won the tug-o-war, leaving his comment in the rarefied air of +5, his Karma had nonetheless dropped so quickly from history moderation, that he was left prevented from posting more than two comments per day, (effectively stopping him from engaging in open forum debate on the very topic he'd launched), and assigning an automatic -1 to everything he might say thereafter.
Yeah, yeah. Big deal. Slashdot Karma wars do exist on the level of schoolyard nonsense, but in this case. . .
A group of somebodies with 25 mod points to blow on a moment's notice? Well that raises interesting questions! Judging by the otherwise bland nature of carsonc's post, which I can't think could possibly have inspired anybody to have such intense emotional reaction and thus mod negatively, --unless they were directly affected by his comments, I can only surmise that it was either. . ,
A) Unwholesome Slashdot editors. --Which, considering Slashdot's fairly clean history of moral conduct over the years, I think is unlikely in the extreme.
or. . .
B) A band of Microsoft employees who had been directed to acquire mod points on Slashdot to be used at the whim of Microsoft's PR department precisely when negative views circulating around delicate points in the news might harm them. And as mod points are not given every day, how many users exactly, does it take to have 25 mod points available at a moment's notice? Enough to require some paid coordiation, I'd say.
Some might cry, "Conspiracy!" and wag their heads like dolts. But with several 1000 employees plugged into the Microsoft cube. . .
Anybody who has seen the film, "The Corporation" knows that such a scenario is not just possible, but -extremely- likely.
In other words. . . Fuck Microsoft. Switch to Linux. Tell everybody to do so now. Ubuntu will mail you 5 disks for free, and they'll support them, for free, for 3 years.
-FL
How does it open up? I'm seriously interested. Because I personally don't play video games and do not own a TV. I like masturbation as much as the next girl, but I definitely have sex more than I masturbate. I don't think that I spin in cycles of fear and hate, although to be fair I'm not sure exactly what that means. I usually only listen to people I respect, but not a lot of people tell me what to do anyways. I also don't blast my head much with evil EM, except with sunlight and ambient radiation, of course. Anyways, I don't do any of these evil things in excess and the universe has not "opened up in AMAZING ways". I dunno, the universe is pretty cool, but I don't think it's particularly more impressive now that I don't play video games or watch TV or babble on the phone all day. What has your experience been?
My experience has been in realizing that the Universe is anything but random, and that it is not just possible to direct one's Intent toward the realities we want to live in, but that it is in fact the only mode of existence available to us. --When people believe that the Universe is random and unkind, then that is exactly what they will experience. It takes energy and an unfogged mind to function effectively within this reality. Like having weak swimming muscles, you can't navigate your way through the currents of life with weak perceptions, and low energy. With energy comes courage and passion, and without those two things, a person is lost.
--My experience has been one where I began allowing myself to be happy. Instead of working cruddy 9-5 work which was grinding me into dust, I started following my passions, turning those into my work. Instead of saying 'No' to opportunity, (hiding inside watching television or playing video games), I started spending those thousands of hours contributing my time and energy to whatever worthy project which came knocking and which caught my interest. The experiences I've had as a result have been unique and surprising. Every week is filled with unexpected adventures of every kind.
This last week, for instance, I was looking for a new apartment. This was four days ago. I spent the day hiking around town looking at 'For Rent' signs and jotting down numbers. That was mundane and boring and the results were all lame apartments which all looked lonely. I found myself standing on the sidewalk feeling that this was a futile effort, and realized that I was hankering to live with people. I really like having room-mates, but only the right kind; energetic and positive and compassionate.
So I shifted my focus and changed my intent. About half an hour later a girl walked up to me and asked me if I was looking for room mates. --She spotted me looking at, 'for rent' ads on a bulletin board, and she was looking for somebody to fill an empty space in a house she'd just moved into. We got into an amazing conversation and talked for half an hour. It sounded like her room mates were great people and the price was really good. She was also beautiful and we were sparking off each other. --I tend to focus my intent in that direction even though I probably could better use the energy in other areas, but it was a nice buzz. We were both excited about the prospect of living with each other, and so we exchanged numbers and parted.
In reviewing the opportunity, however, I realized that I knew vaguely what sort of situation I'd be living in, having been there a couple of times before. --Love when mixed with roommates has always been a difficult, albeit fascinating, challenge. And while it has its rewards, for now it seemed like too much effort. While I enjoy living with people, I was also hoping to spend the year working hard on my own projects and not getting swept up in dramas. So I decided to re-focus my intent and I kept looking.
I ran into a friend of mine and he walked with me for a bit. I told him, "You know what I think would be really cool? Instead of looking for opportunities, I think it would be great to actually bring
No? Don't feel like you've been made fools of yet?
You will.
-FL
And yet, I keep seeing the same avoidance. The same denial. The same arguments.
Some of my favorites include. . .
1. "Cell phones don't output enough power to cause ionization, therefore they cannot possibly harm brain cells."
This is false and myopic. It has also been a key feature of the public relations campaigning by the Telecom companies in making sure people buy their products and never sue them. Human cells naturally respond to micro-electric currents and frequencies, and cell phones, which modulate their microwave signals, tickle the brain in exactly the range where cells react. It has been demonstrated through numerous studies that the Blood Brain Barrier opens up to foreign particles when stimulated by Cell Phone EM. Could cancer be caused by poisons in the blood which might otherwise not enter cells? --This is just one of many ways damage can be caused. The fact that cell phone EM is not powerful enough to burn cells by no means indicates a safe technology.
2. "The studies are not published in big journals, so I refuse to look at them, because obviously they must be done by quack doctors."
You'd be surprised how often I hear this. --Many people steadfastly refuse to read or look beyond the voice of the authority figures in their worlds if the data might run counter to their accepted mode of belief. To which, I always think, "Lazy Coward." --The world is full of truth and lies, and only through direct exposure to data and thinking and comparing can we learn to determine which is which. Yes, I've read plenty of bunk from self-published scientists, but I've also read plenty of bunk from well-published scientists funded by amoral, self-interested corporations and governments. There have been a lot of studies which claim cell phone radiation is safe, but nearly all of them have been directly or indirectly funded by the Telcos themselves or by agencies, (like the airforce), who stand to be harmed by lawsuits should the prognosis be anything but rosy. Anybody who cannot see the conflict of interests here is either blind or foolish. There have been countless instances where corporate scientists have deliberately fudged their facts. To suggest that the multi-billion dollar cell phone industry is exempt from corruption or does not engage in subversive public opinion molding is foolish. In the end you must not take the voice of authoritarian publications and news agencies at face value. You have to THINK for yourself!
A basic truth: If you are too scared to think for yourself, then you probably don't.
3. "Everything causes cancer! Life is short. I can put up with the risks."
Think of it this way: Life is short, why waste even a second of it living according to a corporate agenda?
And anyway, this is not about cancer. Cancer is a side show. Cancer is nothing. The real issue is that Cell Phone EM, and all the other tiny dings we take from a thousand different vectors, (food, air, economy, media, etc.,), cause us to be worn down into idiot miserable slaves who have no clue about anything outside the thin layer of awareness we are allowed to retain. Once you start turning off the TV, stop playing video games, stop buzzing your head with EM, stop jerking off all the time, stop spinning in cycles of fear and hate, stop doing what you are told. . , the Universe starts to open up in AMAZING ways.
This is what it's all about. Liberation or slavery.
-FL
So if I use Linux and am not a muggle, can I pay 95% less tax?
The government is a scam. The only reason to give them a thin dime is that they have all the guns. --And that all the dimes were made by them.
I wonder what would happen if you set up your own money system in your community, (and thereby, stop using banks and traceable, taxable income, and only donate your cash and time to whatever system of government your community agrees to establish in your region). . ?
Oh yeah. They'll call you communist and anti-capitalist, stir up all the dumb 'mericans with time-tested propaganda, and then burn you down Branch Davidian Style.
Golly! You can't have people opting out of the tax grid, now can you?
-FL
I find it more interesting, though, to note that the technology can also be used for high-volume power storage. Of course, if you say so in any verifiable manner, you'll be disappeared.
Poof.
-FL
I was invited to teach a class recently, and there was one kid (a girl), who was really making things tough on all the other kids around her. She was big, and strong and had zero self-esteem, and was going to be damned if anybody else would be allowed to have any either, and from there proceeded to disrupt and make it hard for others to enjoy the class. --The few odd times I run a class, I make it fun, with lots of art supplies and such.
Girls are funny creatures; bullying happens on a much more psychological level. Brutality masked as praise, "Oh, that's so good. Let me see. I want to take this home. I wish I could do something that good. You're amazing. Can I have this? I'm taking this." This was one very angry kid; you could see the threat and anger baking off her, and the other 12-year olds didn't know how to deal with it. This kid also spent a lot of time diminishing others for their achievements in more direct ways. A few of the boys during a break period were jumping to see if they could grab on to the door frame in the gymnasium. (It looked like a lot of fun, actually.) When one of them consistently was able to make the leap and grab on, this same girl would cry out, "YOU FREAK!" He eventually felt self-conscious and stopped jumping to display his skill. Nobody was immune. She even tried her bullshit on me, trying to distract and disrupt the kids I was working one on one with by banging the table and being loud, etc.
She managed to pretty much ruin about half the day-long seminar for all the girls around her. Standing out made them an object of ridicule, and protection from that came from siding with her criticisms of the others. Luckily, the really talented ones were able to hunker down and ignore her and just follow their interests, but the girls who didn't have their own internal guiding lights were just miserable.
Anyway, at one point, I just had to do something about it. --I was just a visiting guest-teacher, if you will, and there were a couple of teen-aged counselors who were supposed to take care of this end of dealing with kids, but they weren't up to the task. My job was to be interesting and fun and friendly. But I can't stand bullies.
I wasn't angry, but I definitely growled. I pounced and dragged her chair with her in it halfway across the floor and said, "Okay! You're really bugging me. What's up? What's going on here?" A collective shudder went through the whole group. I can be quite alpha at times, and with 12-year old girls, a little bit goes an awfully long way.
I quickly toned it down and said: "This stuff can get boring after a couple of hours, so if it's not your thing, you can take a hike. --And I mean that literally. There's the great outdoors. If you're too hyped up to deal with this, then you should go and burn off some of your excess energy. That's what I do when I feel like bouncing off the walls. I find a wall and bounce off it. But not here."
The problem was that I could read the whole situation very clearly. This bully wasn't a bad kid. She was a hurting kid. I later made a chance to talk with her one-on-one and I cut to the chase.
"Why are you so down on yourself?"
"My work sucks."
"Nonsense. You've never done this kind of work before and you're still learning how. The kids here who are really good at it have been practicing on their own for years. And even though you haven't, I really like the stuff you've done so far. Anyway, that's not the point. I've heard nothing out of your mouth but you putting yourself down, saying, 'I'm no good. I suck. I can't do anything.' --You have to be careful, because first of all, none of that is even remotely true, and second, your subconscious listens to that kind of thing, and it will start believing you if you keep it up. And then you will be in trouble. So what's going on here? Why don't you have any self-esteme? You're easily one of the most charasmatic kids in this whole group. How come you're so angry with yourself?"
She st
Each is a collection of people. The problem is that the good-intentioned guys (who are aware enough to do any good), are few in number and are actively opposed by the bad elements from holding positions of power.
It's a logic circuit; power only moves in one direction. The Good Americans at the CIA and the Chicago Tribune by virtue of being Good, do not harass and terrorize and subvert the Bad Americans working at the CIA and the Chicago Tribune. The same cannot be said in the reverse. Thus, the Bad Americans rise in power while the Good Americans remain stationary or are pressed out. Allow enough time to pass, and the whole structure starts to stink.
-FL