A: New Orleans had a population of about 300 thousand. not tens of thousands. B: There were over 3 million people severely affected by hurricane Katrina. The radius of destruction was over 200 kilometers. C: The problem was not people who were uninsured. It was people who were insured and the insurance company refused to pay their rightful claims, delayed payments for years or attempted to pay less than they owed. D: We were literally told by insurance companies that they were not going to pay because then they wouldn't have enough money to cover the next disaster.
And until we have fixed the voting process that will be meaningless. There will always be 2 parties and they will always win. We need range voting of some kind to allow diversity in representation.
I want to see negative voting in place. You still get exactly one vote, but it can be for or against someone. The effective total vote count would be for - against for each candidate.
Because I am not retarded. Fact: Hawaii became a state in 1959. Fact: He was born in Hawaii in 1962. Fact: The later year came after the former. Fact: Documents have been provided to that effect. Fact: That means he is electable for presidency.
The Obama birth record bs I can understand... but why are "legalize marijuana, solve tax issues" big letdowns?
legalize marijuana: It could not only reduce the cost of law enforcement by tens or even hundreds of billions but provide valuable new jobs and revenue streams for taxation.
in that era the word militia meant every white male between the age of 18 and 35 IIRC.
The part of the second amendment I like to point out is "enemies both foreign and domestic". The purpose of the second amendment is unquestionably to provide the people of this nation the tools required to overthrow an oppressive regime, should one ever come to power, either through the aggression of a foreign power or through the manipulation of the voting population.
We will never reach 20 billion. All indications show that the rate of human reproduction is dropping and the the population will max out between 9 and 12 billion. This is being caused by increased use of contraceptives in the west as people try to retain a higher lifestyle without the vast financial burden of children plus, the third world people continue to starve and as of yet unidentified biological factors reducing fertility even among those who are attempting to breed. If we are lucky, we are looking at a long slow road to extinction. If we are not, it will be a violent short path.
"And who actually obeys the Pope?": Catholics, or they face purgatory/damnation, social ostracism by their church, excommunication, or even torture and murder (it still happens, though not as common as in the dark ages).
"Islamic clerics do not, period": You are taking that out of context, or perhaps I am using examples instead of fully explaining every bit. It does not matter if they claim to actually speak to god, its the effect I am referring to. By "interpreting" the often confusing and contradictory scripture, or claiming to do so without providing any reference to the scripture they are supposedly referencing they can justify just about anything, effectively wielding power over the people who have faith in them. They receive wealth, veneration, authority and power due to their position as holy men.
"change their imam...": What does that matter at all to what I am saying? An individual changing their leader of focus does not matter. I am not talking about individuals, I am talking about religious organizations and the people who control and benefit from them.
A: Most manual trucks don't have hand breaks, they have an emergency break pedal and a release that requires ducking under the dash to reach.
B: It is perfectly easy to rapidly release the break and apply gas while releasing the clutch. After you do it a couple times, you can avoid stalling, rolling backwards and burning rubber. Though I must admit, I still like to burn rubber occasionally.
You don't need one leader, there can be many. Almost everyone who follows a religion follows a specific leader, be it a local preacher, the ruling clerics in iran or the pope. People who have power and influence because they are "special". They speak to god and receive wealth, reverence and obedience.
For catholics: the pope, the bishops, the priests. For islam: the clerics and imam. For protestants of various flavors: any preacher, the Southern Baptist Convention, Billy Graham and the televangelist of the week, etc. For judaism: there were the priest kings of Israel and in modern times the rabbi particularly of the orthodox branch.
Unquestioning obedience... Yup, all right there. The pope gets to say what is and is not a sin for Catholics. And if you do not obey will be "damned" and possibly excommunicated or even killed (less of this recently, thankfully). To varying degrees, the same applies to the others as well. The same goes for the other religious authorities.
There are individual exceptions, and some religions may try to start out better. But from what I have seen, the ones that last are going to have a core of authoritarian corruption because they compete more effectively.
I agree that "symbology" and vocabulary are pretty meaningless in this context, unless you consider it as a form of subverting the meaning of language with double speak.
I was almost tempted to prove your signature correct.;)
It is a secret law so that it can be passed without opposition. Once it is to late to do anything about it, it will be made public. If the people don't know about it, they can not protest, they can not petition their government. The powers that be can get away with governing without requiring that little flaw of democratic representation. The safest and easiest way to subvert democracy is to keep the people ignorant.
And just like with phones, pay as you go will save if you rarely use it due to service outages or undesirable features, but the costs skyrocket with daily use.
It is very common for copyright to be stolen, 100% of copyrights that exist today have been or will be stolen. It is a right that belongs to the people, restricted to the creator for a limited time. Every instance where that restriction has been extended is a theft of the copyright of the people.
crap... I knew I should have gone back and done some fact checking. Its been way, way to long since I had to know orbital mechanics. Its just not something I get to use anymore.
it could also be more dangerous. With a head on collision, you are going to have a lot of inertia canceling each other out. I would bet that more of the material would de orbit with a head on impact than one at right angles.
Not a problem, until the thousands of parts from two exploded satellites dramatically increase the odds of impact for everything that remains in orbit.
Umm, if you turn a laser onto the side of the space junk facing Earth, the laser will push it away from Earth, not toward Earth.
That isn't really true.
This is a simplification: At a given altitude a stable circular orbit can exist only for one velocity. Higher altitudes require a higher absolute velocity. Lower altitudes require a lower absolute velocity.
Pushing the object higher without increasing its forwards velocity, it can no long remain in a circular orbit and its orbit will begin to deform, moving closer at perigee and farther at apogee. Once it is close enough for atmospheric drag to take effect, the object will loose forward velocity at perigee, this will rapidly being its apogee closer and closer and its orbit will decay faster and faster as more of its orbit is affected by drag.
personally, I am not fond of html5 either. The competing standard XHTML 2 is better (for instance is specifies the DOM structure, effectively eliminating most cross browser javascript issues), but it breaks backwards compatibility. With HTML 5 we will still need to use cross browser compatibility libraries or custom javascript for every nit picking issue with each browsers DOM model.
Slashdot Mirror
Bullshit.
A: New Orleans had a population of about 300 thousand. not tens of thousands.
B: There were over 3 million people severely affected by hurricane Katrina. The radius of destruction was over 200 kilometers.
C: The problem was not people who were uninsured. It was people who were insured and the insurance company refused to pay their rightful claims, delayed payments for years or attempted to pay less than they owed.
D: We were literally told by insurance companies that they were not going to pay because then they wouldn't have enough money to cover the next disaster.
That will only work for presidential elections. I want representation in the senate, congress, state and local offices as well.
Congratulations, you just wrote the next episode of House.
And until we have fixed the voting process that will be meaningless. There will always be 2 parties and they will always win. We need range voting of some kind to allow diversity in representation.
I want to see negative voting in place. You still get exactly one vote, but it can be for or against someone. The effective total vote count would be for - against for each candidate.
Because I am not retarded.
Fact: Hawaii became a state in 1959.
Fact: He was born in Hawaii in 1962.
Fact: The later year came after the former.
Fact: Documents have been provided to that effect.
Fact: That means he is electable for presidency.
The Obama birth record bs I can understand... but why are "legalize marijuana, solve tax issues" big letdowns?
legalize marijuana: It could not only reduce the cost of law enforcement by tens or even hundreds of billions but provide valuable new jobs and revenue streams for taxation.
Breeding rates are dropping all around the world, its dropping faster in the west, but it is dropping everywhere.
Fertility in men as measured by sperm count and motility is also dropping all around the world and we do not yet know why.
Addendum: of course, we had to outlaw child labor, and do dirty socialist public education and infrastructure projects to get here. ;)
The USA? My grandfather cut sugar cane 14 hours a day, 6 days a week for 25 cents.
in that era the word militia meant every white male between the age of 18 and 35 IIRC.
The part of the second amendment I like to point out is "enemies both foreign and domestic". The purpose of the second amendment is unquestionably to provide the people of this nation the tools required to overthrow an oppressive regime, should one ever come to power, either through the aggression of a foreign power or through the manipulation of the voting population.
We will never reach 20 billion. All indications show that the rate of human reproduction is dropping and the the population will max out between 9 and 12 billion. This is being caused by increased use of contraceptives in the west as people try to retain a higher lifestyle without the vast financial burden of children plus, the third world people continue to starve and as of yet unidentified biological factors reducing fertility even among those who are attempting to breed. If we are lucky, we are looking at a long slow road to extinction. If we are not, it will be a violent short path.
"And who actually obeys the Pope?": Catholics, or they face purgatory/damnation, social ostracism by their church, excommunication, or even torture and murder (it still happens, though not as common as in the dark ages).
"Islamic clerics do not, period": You are taking that out of context, or perhaps I am using examples instead of fully explaining every bit. It does not matter if they claim to actually speak to god, its the effect I am referring to. By "interpreting" the often confusing and contradictory scripture, or claiming to do so without providing any reference to the scripture they are supposedly referencing they can justify just about anything, effectively wielding power over the people who have faith in them. They receive wealth, veneration, authority and power due to their position as holy men.
"change their imam...": What does that matter at all to what I am saying? An individual changing their leader of focus does not matter. I am not talking about individuals, I am talking about religious organizations and the people who control and benefit from them.
A: Most manual trucks don't have hand breaks, they have an emergency break pedal and a release that requires ducking under the dash to reach.
B: It is perfectly easy to rapidly release the break and apply gas while releasing the clutch. After you do it a couple times, you can avoid stalling, rolling backwards and burning rubber. Though I must admit, I still like to burn rubber occasionally.
You don't need one leader, there can be many. Almost everyone who follows a religion follows a specific leader, be it a local preacher, the ruling clerics in iran or the pope. People who have power and influence because they are "special". They speak to god and receive wealth, reverence and obedience.
For catholics: the pope, the bishops, the priests.
For islam: the clerics and imam.
For protestants of various flavors: any preacher, the Southern Baptist Convention, Billy Graham and the televangelist of the week, etc.
For judaism: there were the priest kings of Israel and in modern times the rabbi particularly of the orthodox branch.
Unquestioning obedience...
Yup, all right there. The pope gets to say what is and is not a sin for Catholics. And if you do not obey will be "damned" and possibly excommunicated or even killed (less of this recently, thankfully). To varying degrees, the same applies to the others as well. The same goes for the other religious authorities.
There are individual exceptions, and some religions may try to start out better. But from what I have seen, the ones that last are going to have a core of authoritarian corruption because they compete more effectively.
I agree that "symbology" and vocabulary are pretty meaningless in this context, unless you consider it as a form of subverting the meaning of language with double speak.
I was almost tempted to prove your signature correct. ;)
It is a secret law so that it can be passed without opposition. Once it is to late to do anything about it, it will be made public. If the people don't know about it, they can not protest, they can not petition their government. The powers that be can get away with governing without requiring that little flaw of democratic representation. The safest and easiest way to subvert democracy is to keep the people ignorant.
How is that different from the typical myspace page? except that its mp3 instead of midi and horrors of flash and javascript instead of activex.
Point to one religion that has ever not had those trappings. Even Buddhism falls short.
As a software developer? Yes I do work 7*8, though sometimes I pull a slow week and do 5*10.
And just like with phones, pay as you go will save if you rarely use it due to service outages or undesirable features, but the costs skyrocket with daily use.
It is very common for copyright to be stolen, 100% of copyrights that exist today have been or will be stolen. It is a right that belongs to the people, restricted to the creator for a limited time. Every instance where that restriction has been extended is a theft of the copyright of the people.
crap... I knew I should have gone back and done some fact checking. Its been way, way to long since I had to know orbital mechanics. Its just not something I get to use anymore.
it could also be more dangerous. With a head on collision, you are going to have a lot of inertia canceling each other out. I would bet that more of the material would de orbit with a head on impact than one at right angles.
Not a problem, until the thousands of parts from two exploded satellites dramatically increase the odds of impact for everything that remains in orbit.
Umm, if you turn a laser onto the side of the space junk facing Earth, the laser will push it away from Earth, not toward Earth.
That isn't really true.
This is a simplification:
At a given altitude a stable circular orbit can exist only for one velocity.
Higher altitudes require a higher absolute velocity.
Lower altitudes require a lower absolute velocity.
Pushing the object higher without increasing its forwards velocity, it can no long remain in a circular orbit and its orbit will begin to deform, moving closer at perigee and farther at apogee. Once it is close enough for atmospheric drag to take effect, the object will loose forward velocity at perigee, this will rapidly being its apogee closer and closer and its orbit will decay faster and faster as more of its orbit is affected by drag.
personally, I am not fond of html5 either. The competing standard XHTML 2 is better (for instance is specifies the DOM structure, effectively eliminating most cross browser javascript issues), but it breaks backwards compatibility. With HTML 5 we will still need to use cross browser compatibility libraries or custom javascript for every nit picking issue with each browsers DOM model.