Ah yes - the old "'America' has free speech" balony. You can't even say fuck on the radio and you have the gall to lecture away about having the right to say anything anytime?
Your (slightly) interesting point has pinched me hard enough to engender this (even more slightly) interesting reply:
To learn why astrophysics is still "baby science", just follow the money. Astrophysics is currently chronically underfunded compared to other branches of investigation. Great leaps have been made, but there is a long way to go as you correctly suggest (although I don't agree with your choice of examples).
The question asked by politicians - "Of what earthly use is it?" has scotched many a big telescope or worthwhile stellar observatory or deepspace array.
Of course, the answer is simple:
"To know our origins, our present astronomical topography and our possible future."
We rely on our piddly little star for LIFE ITSELF. Wouldn't it be cool to know how it works????
Don't ya love English? We can legitimately spell "fish" as "ghyeti"
gh as in tough, ye as in dye, ti as in fiction
Oh, and as for "rugged" American equipment - I've heard of the same experiences in the outback of Australia - the only 4wd vehicles to survive are apparently made in Japan.;)
Just fine 'em if they don't vote like we do in Australia!
Voting is a civic duty, just like driving responsibly, parking sensibly, spitting carefully - and if you don't do these, you get fined.
Have a system (again like Australia) where legitimate excuses are clearly stated and easily verified, it costs you very little to administer, and the effect is that basically it's not worth your time not to vote, so you do...
Firstly, when one fills out one's warranty card for one's two-way radio, doesn't the manufacturer get this information anyway?
Secondly, how many people out there give this information to a store when you buy something? I know that I certainly DO NOT - primarily because I don't want my mailbox flooded with junk mail from the store or whoever they sell or have to give their data to.
Anyone who is worried about this as a consumer - you don't have to give your name at any store, and you don't have to fill in your warranty card.....
Toyota are using "bugger" in a series of very funny TV ads in Australia. They have been for some time.
In Australia, the word doesn't mean what it does to you Yanks.
Another instance of this is the word "Fanny", which means something quite different to "butt" in Australian slang.
For another example, the word "root" means to have sex in Australian slang - thus Australians are often puzzled to hear someone from the US say they were "Rooting" for their team until it's explained!
While we're at it let's look at the entry for the USA:
[Amnesty] called on the authorities at local, state and federal level to take action on a wide range of human rights concerns including the death penalty, police brutality, prison and jail conditions [including systematic torture] and the treatment of refugees, and called on the government to ratify international human rights treaties. [which for some reason the US refuses to do]
And next time, stop pontificating about the USA being a democratic country without doin' your homework. Oh, btw, the US is not a democracy, it's a republic.
"Write email with the assumption that your network / mail administrator is reading EVERYTHING, unless you know EXACTLY why they can't."
The things people assume about computers always amazes me - so I think it behooves us all to assume the worst about what people are doing with computers, especially as it relates to any "interesting" data one chooses to store or transmit on shared devices.
You are totally wrong in everything you say, Mr Coward.
You certainly CANNOT say "whatever you want". Try telling lots of people you are going to kill the president of the USA. Try telling children how much you'd like to cut their heads off. Try it with a police officer around.
Hate speech IS illegal in the US. However, the "test" that is used for speech to be hateful enough is extremely difficult (if not impossible) to meet. "[T]he constitutional guarantees of free speech and free press do not permit a State to forbid or prescribe advocacy of the use of force or of law violation except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless actions and is likely to incite or produce such action".Excellent site on the topic.
Oh - and as for the US being a bastion of "Free Speech" - try calling a radio station in the US and saying "Fuck".
I've read Orwell. All of Orwell. I am not talking about THOUGHT crimes here - only actual ones.
But any power can be mis-used. The apartheid government would have thrown N. Mandela in jail for speeding if they'd caught him at it - reckless driving or something. I'm not sure that one example of mis-using a law proves anything.
Also, you are obviously defining "PC" as something that is "crap". But I don't know yet what your definition of "PC" is!
Do you disagree that I should be prevented (assuming you and your family have brown hair) from standing outside your house with a megaphone and holding a "Brown Hair Haters" meeting?
Regarding your comment: "unfortunate that you probably couldn't do this kind of research in the English-speaking world."
What you are probably trying to say is "You couldn't do this kind of research in the USA." Unfortunately true - founded by puritans and not much has changed.
Your comment about "English-speaking" I just don't understand - the paper was written in perfect, even clever English.
Expressing a desire to "go postal" is not hate speech.
Explaining to you why Race X is inferior, and inciting you to kill as many members of Race X as you encounter is hate speech and a crime in most countries.
This seems to be exactly the kind of thing the judge is saying should have a six-month statute of limitations.
I disagree. This is exactly the kind of statement that needs a long "Self life" so that when you finally DO convince someone to "Kill those damn Xers" they can nail you on 16,000 counts of hate speech.
Hate speech incites crime against a group based on ethnicity/sexuality/religeon/etc.
"All male hetro white people should be killed" would be an example of hate speech if I was exhorting you to do it, or saying it should be done. I am not, of course.
What about criminals conspiring to break the law - their emails to each other are inadmissable after 6 months?
Now admittedly the judge deals with both of these examples by saying glibly that there should be no statute of limitations on being a "jerk" or having a "pattern" of illegal communications.
I think that a law to have a "statute of limitations" on things said in emails would have to be so narrowly drafted as to be unenforceable.
What use VRML? I've asked this one at various web dev. gatherings over the past 3 years, and have yet to have one solid answer.
I work with one of those folks who downloads EVERY new plugin/player/etc. and remember her being jazzed about VRML for about 5 minutes, and then it joining the other plaque in the clogged arteries of her pc.
I'd be interested in some/. opinions on any use, really, any use at all, for this standard.
There's some you can discount immediately, like CAD, being as there are far superior descriptor and file protocols already in existance and wide use.
Call me stupid, flame me - but give me a "killer app" for VRML.
Ick! Glad they took those out! The first one is just bad film-making (making the doctor EVIL rather than just responding to societal mores) and the second one is real preachy.
Agree generally though - great film!
Try this alternate ending on for size though and tell me if it sucks as bad as those outtakes (it probably does).
SPOILER FOLLOWS
As Ethan stands in the spacecraft lifting off at the end - what if there had been a porthole, and the last shot had been through the window at, say, a terraformed Mars? Suggesting a "larger" world and being just a little disconcerting (as the audience assumed it was on earth).
Do you thing this would have added "zing" or sucked as campy?
The old way was to have a dozen little kiddies so that after famine and disease and war had taken most of them away, you'd still have enough to carry on your precious genetic material.
Hang on - that's not really the old way - that's still happening all the time in 3rd world countries!
I really don't see how this is any different. Having a bunch of kids to maximise the chances of one or two surviving versus having another one (making two) to make sure they both survive - I think I know which I prefer.
They have two - they keep two. What's the big deal?
Slashdot Mirror
Ah yes - the old "'America' has free speech" balony. You can't even say fuck on the radio and you have the gall to lecture away about having the right to say anything anytime?
sigh.....
, the sun that is the source of all our power.
Your (slightly) interesting point has pinched me hard enough to engender this (even more slightly) interesting reply:
To learn why astrophysics is still "baby science", just follow the money. Astrophysics is currently chronically underfunded compared to other branches of investigation. Great leaps have been made, but there is a long way to go as you correctly suggest (although I don't agree with your choice of examples).
The question asked by politicians - "Of what earthly use is it?" has scotched many a big telescope or worthwhile stellar observatory or deepspace array.
Of course, the answer is simple:
"To know our origins, our present astronomical topography and our possible future."
We rely on our piddly little star for LIFE ITSELF. Wouldn't it be cool to know how it works????
Don't ya love English? We can legitimately spell "fish" as "ghyeti" gh as in tough, ye as in dye, ti as in fiction Oh, and as for "rugged" American equipment - I've heard of the same experiences in the outback of Australia - the only 4wd vehicles to survive are apparently made in Japan. ;)
http://www.solotrek.com
Just fine 'em if they don't vote like we do in Australia!
Voting is a civic duty, just like driving responsibly, parking sensibly, spitting carefully - and if you don't do these, you get fined.
Have a system (again like Australia) where legitimate excuses are clearly stated and easily verified, it costs you very little to administer, and the effect is that basically it's not worth your time not to vote, so you do...
Er, me English. You son of dingo ;)
Then wot kinda absentee landlord are ya gov? You should know wot's goin' on in yure own colony!
Firstly, when one fills out one's warranty card for one's two-way radio, doesn't the manufacturer get this information anyway?
Secondly, how many people out there give this information to a store when you buy something? I know that I certainly DO NOT - primarily because I don't want my mailbox flooded with junk mail from the store or whoever they sell or have to give their data to.
Anyone who is worried about this as a consumer - you don't have to give your name at any store, and you don't have to fill in your warranty card.....
Toyota are using "bugger" in a series of very funny TV ads in Australia. They have been for some time.
In Australia, the word doesn't mean what it does to you Yanks.
Another instance of this is the word "Fanny", which means something quite different to "butt" in Australian slang.
For another example, the word "root" means to have sex in Australian slang - thus Australians are often puzzled to hear someone from the US say they were "Rooting" for their team until it's explained!
While we're at it let's look at the entry for the USA:
[Amnesty] called on the authorities at local, state and federal level to take action on a wide range of human rights concerns including the death penalty, police brutality, prison and jail conditions [including systematic torture] and the treatment of refugees, and called on the government to ratify international human rights treaties. [which for some reason the US refuses to do]
And next time, stop pontificating about the USA being a democratic country without doin' your homework. Oh, btw, the US is not a democracy, it's a republic.
I wish I could remember who first said this:
"Write email with the assumption that your network / mail administrator is reading EVERYTHING, unless you know EXACTLY why they can't."
The things people assume about computers always amazes me - so I think it behooves us all to assume the worst about what people are doing with computers, especially as it relates to any "interesting" data one chooses to store or transmit on shared devices.
You are totally wrong in everything you say, Mr Coward.
You certainly CANNOT say "whatever you want". Try telling lots of people you are going to kill the president of the USA. Try telling children how much you'd like to cut their heads off. Try it with a police officer around.
Hate speech IS illegal in the US. However, the "test" that is used for speech to be hateful enough is extremely difficult (if not impossible) to meet. "[T]he constitutional guarantees of free speech and free press do not permit a State to forbid or prescribe advocacy of the use of force or of law violation except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless actions and is likely to incite or produce such action". Excellent site on the topic.
Oh - and as for the US being a bastion of "Free Speech" - try calling a radio station in the US and saying "Fuck".
I've read Orwell. All of Orwell. I am not talking about THOUGHT crimes here - only actual ones.
But any power can be mis-used. The apartheid government would have thrown N. Mandela in jail for speeding if they'd caught him at it - reckless driving or something. I'm not sure that one example of mis-using a law proves anything.
Also, you are obviously defining "PC" as something that is "crap". But I don't know yet what your definition of "PC" is!
Do you disagree that I should be prevented (assuming you and your family have brown hair) from standing outside your house with a megaphone and holding a "Brown Hair Haters" meeting?
Regarding your comment: "unfortunate that you probably couldn't do this kind of research in the English-speaking world."
What you are probably trying to say is "You couldn't do this kind of research in the USA." Unfortunately true - founded by puritans and not much has changed.
Your comment about "English-speaking" I just don't understand - the paper was written in perfect, even clever English.
That's EXACTLY the kind of crime I mean, and exactly the kind I think should never "expire", reasons posted elsewhere in this thread.
Expressing a desire to "go postal" is not hate speech.
Explaining to you why Race X is inferior, and inciting you to kill as many members of Race X as you encounter is hate speech and a crime in most countries.
This seems to be exactly the kind of thing the judge is saying should have a six-month statute of limitations.
I disagree. This is exactly the kind of statement that needs a long "Self life" so that when you finally DO convince someone to "Kill those damn Xers" they can nail you on 16,000 counts of hate speech.
So you're allowed one sexually harrassing email per six months as long as no-one complains!?
Please give an example of when you think this law should apply.
Hate speech incites crime against a group based on ethnicity/sexuality/religeon/etc.
"All male hetro white people should be killed" would be an example of hate speech if I was exhorting you to do it, or saying it should be done. I am not, of course.
You wrote:"Is it a thought crime to use a forbidden word?"
No, not a thought crime , just a crime. Assault.
People often confuse assault with battery, which is the hitting part.
There is no thought crime - you can silently think "You stupid ethnic group/gender/religion/sexual orientation" all you want.
What about hate speech - even one instance?
What about criminals conspiring to break the law - their emails to each other are inadmissable after 6 months?
Now admittedly the judge deals with both of these examples by saying glibly that there should be no statute of limitations on being a "jerk" or having a "pattern" of illegal communications.
I think that a law to have a "statute of limitations" on things said in emails would have to be so narrowly drafted as to be unenforceable.
Oh, btw, IANAL if it isn't obvious already!
Imagine a Beowulf cluster of people with the energy to write Beowulf cluster posts!
At 0.01c or even .3c the relativistic effects would be a complete non-issue. Relativity only really starts to catch up with you over .7c
You can work this out for yourself - here's the formula:
t1=t0/sqrt(1-(v^2/c^2))
put in m1 and m0 for mass.
What use VRML? I've asked this one at various web dev. gatherings over the past 3 years, and have yet to have one solid answer.
/. opinions on any use, really, any use at all, for this standard.
I work with one of those folks who downloads EVERY new plugin/player/etc. and remember her being jazzed about VRML for about 5 minutes, and then it joining the other plaque in the clogged arteries of her pc.
I'd be interested in some
There's some you can discount immediately, like CAD, being as there are far superior descriptor and file protocols already in existance and wide use.
Call me stupid, flame me - but give me a "killer app" for VRML.
Ick! Glad they took those out! The first one is just bad film-making (making the doctor EVIL rather than just responding to societal mores) and the second one is real preachy.
Agree generally though - great film!
Try this alternate ending on for size though and tell me if it sucks as bad as those outtakes (it probably does).
SPOILER FOLLOWS
As Ethan stands in the spacecraft lifting off at the end - what if there had been a porthole, and the last shot had been through the window at, say, a terraformed Mars? Suggesting a "larger" world and being just a little disconcerting (as the audience assumed it was on earth).
Do you thing this would have added "zing" or sucked as campy?
The old way was to have a dozen little kiddies so that after famine and disease and war had taken most of them away, you'd still have enough to carry on your precious genetic material.
Hang on - that's not really the old way - that's still happening all the time in 3rd world countries!
I really don't see how this is any different. Having a bunch of kids to maximise the chances of one or two surviving versus having another one (making two) to make sure they both survive - I think I know which I prefer.
They have two - they keep two. What's the big deal?