(...) who will use Tablet PCs? (...) It's not efficient for me to write on a Tablet PC when I can just type! I think the same will be said of future generations...
IMHO a tablet PC would be more for browsing content and interacting "mouse style" (games, surfing the web, accessing databases, reading ebooks, watching videos, etc). For entering significant amounts of text I cannot see a screen being as good as a simple keyboard.
IMHO to differentiate from laptops tablet PCs will eventually need to get rid of the keyboard. They need to get leaner than laptops. I would hope the concept evolves to the tablet being only the screen, processor, battery, WiFi, HD and USB/Flashcard ports, and that the keyboard, mouse, power supply, etc. will be available at work areas, waiting to be plugged in, like ethernet cables were before wifi. They are inexpensive and standard enough for that. I am not sure if there will be enough consumer interest for this concept. I know that Sony is experimenting with something along these lines in the Vaio U.
As for cursive writing, I won't weep its death more than the death of the Morse Code, though I am pretty sure it will live long as an Art, rather than as a tool.
Everybody here is missing the point. The $741 is an average, and Brazil has (literally) one of the worst income distributions in the world. Upper and middle class are less than 5% of the population (depends a little on your class definition, but not far from 5%). Minimum wage is about 100 dollars a month. A blue collar worker usually makes from 200 to 400 dollars a month (this at the company I work at, which has over 4000 employees, so it is a representative sample). I think anyone who thinks this starter version will have *any* penetration (except perhaps through OEM agreements) will be proven wrong.
Addictions are defined by the type of harm you are doing to yourself or those around you.
Harm could be defined from an "opportunity cost" point of view. What I mean is, one is harmed not only for the bad things that happen to him, but also by the good things that might have happened but did not.
Which brings us to another question, what personal good comes out of having kids ?
Failing to be social or reproducing are in no way harmful to anyone unless you are a fundamentalist christian who think its everyone's duty to marry and have 12 babies each.
Far from a fundamentalist , I am an atheist. Yet I do think not reproducing can be harmful in the definition I have given above (good things you miss).
As you pointed out before, this is what I think(stress on the "I"), not the absolute truth, and what everyone else thinks may be different. But here are two points:
1) I believe that our natural history (as a species) favored certain behaviors, which through natural selection caused emotional/physical rewards for certain situations to be "hard wired" on our bodies and minds/brains. Eating is one. Having sex is another. Loving your parents (especially as a child) is yet another. And loving your kids is in that list. The emotional aspect provided by this last point cannot be substituted by anything else on that list, as it is unique (it "feels" unique, anyone who has had a child will tell you). And if one dies without going through it, well, one is losing, although he/she may never know exactly what. I have two kids and I stand behind this line of reasoning. (Its MHO, no more, still it is validated by my personal experience).
2) It all depends on who you admire and why (your role models). The specific person I most admire it is, largely, because of how much he did to me when I was a kid. He showed me a beautiful side of himself, being much older, and taught me much. That individual is deceased now. Even if he werent, I wouldnt possibly be able to thank him (repay him) for what he did. My respect, my admiration and my indebtedness lead me to feel good doing the same he did to me to a new children. "Passing the token forward". Could I do it to a children other than my own ? I sure could. However in the end I am greatly inspired by the possibility that I could be to my children, to my grandchildren, what this person was to me. Would I lose without that possibility, that inspiration ? I have no doubt.
Again, this is all very personal, and I am sure other people have other reasons. I am happy, though, to be able to show you my side, and to dispell any myths of me being a fundamentalist religious guy stuck in the 1950s. Heck, the only thing I know from the 50s is Bill Halley and his Comets!
Think a USB dongle as the second factor, "the key". Think this USB dongle with a Hard Disk. The HD with a bootable operating system in it. And room left for all your sensitive data. Everyday you take your "key" away from your desk -- leaving behind essentially keyboard, mouse, printer, monitor and a clueless motherboard.
First factor would still be password. Which could cypher the HD contents. Which could have, perhaps, a HW block against repeated login attempts (such as data self destruction ?).
Now, such a system could still be subject to a Trojan horse attack, from the net or another infection source. However, chances of that happening could be greatly dimnished by using a safer than MS Windows OS. Perhaps an Open Source one. Perhaps a specific variation of an OpenSource one.
I believe its safe to say if a single man gets up in the morning, washes up, dresses nicely for his job, works 8 hours, eats 3 square meals and keeps his apartment clean, and spends every other hour not doing this playing a MMORPG, that he's not addicted. He's well adjusted, like's his game, but knows his other priorities.
You clearly talking about a single man. But with that behavior, how is he ever to get married ? And if he does get married, how is he going to sustain a relationship to the point of having kids ? Is he even having a social life, in which he may find companions ?
I think the point you are raising is tremendously relevant to the discussion. I also think your check list is too easy. If one goes through life cleaning his apartment, holding a job and spending 4 hours playing online a day that person will not qualify as "adjusted" in my neighborhood.
Personally I feel that playing Risk on the internet (plug, anybody knows of a better one for free ?) already borders on the definition of addiction when my kid is crying and I dont pick her up because I have 45 seconds to finish my turn or get dropped from the game.
Let the jokes about the typical slashdotter rain in, but the classic definition of a living being is that it is born, grows to adulthood, reproduces and dies.
Why does the IDF believe the game is so dangerous? "These people have a tendency to be influenced by external factors which could cloud their judgment, a military official says. They may be detached from reality(...)
You watching TV ? What is that, holly-fricking-wood liberals ? You outa here ! What book is that, son ? So you say its fiction, like it only exists in your head ? I see. You have been promoted to toillet cleaner, second class. Slashwhat? Look at me! Im talking to you. Stop typing and stand up right away! What do you think you are doing, writing, reading and being influenced by these international techno-babble freaks ?
Simply, the applicants didn't give HBS the opportunity to make any decision, they stole it.
They posed a question on a official communication system with the school, and the schools communication system answered what they asked. As you said, they cant be blamed for asking -- its just human nature. If you think "type this on your browser to try to see the result" is different from "call their admissions office at this number to try to get the result", well, then we are really not going to get anywhere with these this argument.
When I applied for MBA a few years back, application results were still sent by snail mail. Sometimes schools would ask a second year student to phone you with the "yes, you were accepted" news. But there was no guarantee -- if you wanted to be sure you were rejected you had to wait, wait, wait for the mailman to come. Most stressful time of my life. It defined the meaning of anxiety to me.
Like many, I tried calling the admissions office a couple of days after the results were mailed, to ask about my acceptance status. (living outside the US those snail mailings could take forever). They just wouldn't tell me anything on the phone... even when the answer was YES (as I found out later).
BUT... and now comes my point -- was it unethical of me to call them before the snail mail letter reached me ? Would it be unethical if they had told me ? Should my "ACCEPTED" result be turned into a "DING! REJECTED" result because I called ?
1. Kyoto "Would have exempted China and other developing nations entirely (despite the fact that their growing emissions would have swamped the reductions from the developed nations)."
Reminds me of a newspaper cartoon I saw: Fat-looking, suit wearing guy comes out of a large SUV, motor still running and black smog flowing out of its exhaust pipe. He walks up to a thin, hungry-looking, barefoot and sun-burned man who has an axe in his hands and is about to hit a tree, obviously to cut it down. Rich man screams to poor man: "Stop, Amigo! We need that tree to save us from the Greenhouse Effect!" SUV motor keeps running while he speaks...
Actually, if they make their search equal to google, they may be able to get a very large share of the market just for convenience-- because they can bundle it with the browser.
I am just thinking here that the first thing I do when I get a computer is install either (or both) Firefox and MyIE2, and set it up so that words typed in the address bar will take me directly to google's search results. That save's me screen real estate (google bar) and is very addictive.
But my parents (for instance) would never find and install a different browser, much less tweak it for a specific search engine.
MS reccomendation: #1 get search results quality and "screen hygiene"(advertisement pollution) similar to google #2 bundle search very well with the browser #3 also, move IE forward along with the likes of firefox, myie2 (aka maxthon), avantbrowser, etc.
Why don't they save us all some time and just ask "Are you going to commit acts of terrorism during your stay ?"
This type of meaningless, naive, questioning reminds me of a form Brazilian passport holders (at least) need to fill every time they go into the US. The form goes something like:
PLEASE MARK WITH AN 'X' ANY TRUE STATEMENT BELOW: ( ) You commited crimes against mankind. ( ) You commited genocide. ( ) You are or have been a member of the Nazi party.
etc...
Asking that is absurd (I mean, would you expect a girl/boy to both commit genocide and to be girl/boy-scout honest?). But they do ask it, nevertheless... I kid you not, I kid you not. Oh, wow. We should better get used to the geniuses running the show.
Congratulations on an excellent comment (didn't have mod points so I am trying to follow your thoughts).
(...)the poor continue to breed and die since they cannot afford the eternity treatments(...)
You assume that the eternity treatment would be expensive, however it may not be so. Even if it is expensive: If there is a way to pay for more years of life, can the public healthcare system justify not making it available to everyone ? Is it that much different than extending life through cancer treatment ?
If government policy supports ethernity for everyone then essentially all pension systems will implode under the reviewed financial obligations (they are already at risk, among other places in the US). This would have dire social consequences. If government doesn't pay for ethernity treatment, on the other hand, it will take a position that would be similar to denying AIDS treatment -- or, perhaps, to granting Euthanasia. So it looks like a catch-22.
The strip had a clueless young man coming in and saying he was Dilbert's new manager. He had almost no work experience. Why then ? Well he got the job because he came out of a top MBA program. And he got into a top MBA school because he scored well in the GMAT (~SAT etc). So... "You are a manager because you know math ?"
The irony is that math skills are deterministic for lots of things where it shouldn't. Fot at least one reason: math skills are easily quantified.
So *if* it happens that women (the better half of mankind) score lower on math, we could be discounting their ability to contribute to society (emotional intelligence, etc) too much.
Some car drivers stopped driving because it was quite a bit of work putting gas in their car. And don't even get me started about filling the tires with air...
In yet other news, tourists stopped traveling to Iceland beaches because they found out they could not count on warm weather. The Polar Bear Club President, however, declared "What, just because of a little wind and a few degrees of cold ? Why, the ear-protectors and the padded boots are so comfy, what are these people thinking ? Splitting some wood for the fireplace is a great way to keep oneself warm while enjoying fresh air".
(...) two Brazilian surfers were arrested in Miami's International Airport under terrorist charges. Mizael Cabral, born in Paraíba, and Daniel Correia, from Rio de Janeiro, spent a good amount of time in Uncle Sam's land working hard to save money so that they could start a surf board factory in João Pessoa. They bought as suction pump here that would make their job a lot easier, but something really weird happened in the airport while they were going back to Brazil. According to the American authorities, they were joking about having that suction pump*. The man from Paraíba supposedly asked the inspector in the airport: "Haven' you found the bomb in the bag yet?" And the one from Rio would've said: "If you open up my bag, it will explode". In cuffs, the two men were taken to Miami's Jail under the charges of "false information about explosives, with malicious intentions, irresponsibility and disregard for the human lives safety". They can be sentenced up to five years in prison and they will have to pay US$ 250 thousand dollars each. They have been in jail for almost a month and the press has no access to them.(...)
Neo: Whoa, deja vu. Trinity: What did you just say? Neo: Nothing, I just had a little deja vu. Trinity: What did you see? Cypher: What happened? Neo: A black cat went past us, and then another that looked just like it. Trinity: How much like it, was it the same cat? Neo: Might have been, I'm not sure. Morpheus: Switch, Apoc. Neo: What is it? Trinity: A deja vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something.
I drilled a small hole in the case and soldered in a piece of wire the right length for a half wavelength antenna -- a little less than 63 inches for the low end of the FM band. As a result, I can now broadcast all over my house.
Good idea ! I have a small RCA-branded FM transmitter, and also found it worthless. I am quite willing to take it apart.
Anyone know how I could plug its own output antena to the car stereos input antenna and both keep the original broadcast FM signal reception and add the strongest possible signal from such a small FM transmitter ? Is it as simple as putting a compatible connector at one end or should I worry with something else (e.g. cable length, splitters, etc.) ?
Interviewer: In recent years, there's been a lot of people clamoring to reform and restrict intellectual-property rights. It started out with just a few people, but now there are a bunch of advocates saying, "We've got to look at patents, we've got to look at copyrights." What's driving this, and do you think intellectual-property laws need to be reformed?
Gates: No, I'd say that of the world's economies, there's more that believe in intellectual property today than ever. There are fewer communists in the world today than there were. There are some new modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and moviemakers and software makers under various guises. They don't think that those incentives should exist.
And this debate will always be there. I'd be the first to say that the patent system can always be tuned--including the U.S. patent system. There are some goals to cap some reform elements. But the idea that the United States has led in creating companies, creating jobs, because we've had the best intellectual-property system--there's no doubt about that in my mind, and when people say they want to be the most competitive economy, they've got to have the incentive system. Intellectual property is the incentive system for the products of the future.
And, from Richard Stallman:
``Why Don't You Move to Russia?''
In the United States, any advocate of other than the most extreme form of laissez-faire selfishness has often heard this accusation. For example, it is leveled against the supporters of a national health care system, such as is found in all the other industrialized nations of the free world. It is leveled against the advocates of public support for the arts, also universal in advanced nations. The idea that citizens have any obligation to the public good is identified in America with Communism. But how similar are these ideas?
Communism as was practiced in the Soviet Union was a system of central control where all activity was regimented, supposedly for the common good, but actually for the sake of the members of the Communist party. And where copying equipment was closely guarded to prevent illegal copying.
The American system of software copyright exercises central control over distribution of a program, and guards copying equipment with automatic copying-protection schemes to prevent illegal copying.
By contrast, I am working to build a system where people are free to decide their own actions; in particular, free to help their neighbors, and free to alter and improve the tools which they use in their daily lives. A system based on voluntary cooperation and on decentralization.
Thus, if we are to judge views by their resemblance to Russian Communism, it is the software owners who are the Communists.
Bill Gates is coherent, though, with his 1976 "Open Letter to Hobbysts". Back then he complained that he wasnt breaking even with investing in software develolment -- and thus that people should pay. Should we bring his words back to him and convince him that, since MS is making such absurds amounts of cash on software today, maybe he should bring prices down ? See the direct 1976 Gates quote:
The royalty paid to us, the manual, the tape and the overhead make it a break-even operation. One thing you do do is prevent good software from being written. Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? What hobbyist can put 3-man years into programming, finding all bugs, documenting his product and distribute for free? The fact is, no one besides us has invested a lot of money in hobby software. We have written 6800 BASIC, and are writing 8080 APL and 6800 APL, but there is very little incentive to make this software available to hobbyists. Most directly, the thing you do is theft.
No, we hate the French because they're weasels, cowards and opportunistic a**holes who feel the only way to build their country up again is to tear the U.S. down. What other Western country is actively anti-American, and can be expected to oppose the U.S. no matter who controls the government- socialist, communist, Gaullist, National Front crypto-fascist?
Which country's foreign minister poses as champion of international law, yet is really a degenerate Napoleonic power worshipper who still thinks warfare is glorious- as long as it's France that's kicking butts?
Interesting argument. I would mod this AC as interesting.
The AC points out that neither France nor the USA are saints. That the USA is not a saint, the Iraq invasion + DoD Contractors & Oil Exploration Companies Profit Statements + George W. "Bully"'s line of talk already proved. AC reminds us France may try to look more rightful, but that its own actions are really not that consistent with the pose.
Here on my side, what I fear is a time when people in the US, in France, and everywhere lose the pretension of being morally right. People becoming unashamed of saying "we did it because we can, screw what you think".
Even if I know no country's government should be expected to be very rightful, I really, really hope the powerful countries will seek to restrain themselves and act with reflection and wisdom (and I am not talking to GWB). And I hope I can trust on each country's public opinion to seek *within* his/her own country what may be wrong. And denounce. And influence. And correct.
Yours truly, speaking from humble South America (aka "notUSA" and "notEurope", aka periphery of the world, aka not-a-perfect-government-place-either).
Interesting. I had read about that and thought it should not be accounted on "sixth sense" right away. I would investigate what caused peoples deaths, but I would guess: 1) Getting thrown against fixed, hard objects (lamp posts, walls, buildings, etc.) 2) Getting hit by hard objects (furniture, automobiles, parts of buildings, etc.) 3) Drowning due to being trapped somewhere (e.g. inside buildings, suction of sewer mouths, under cars, etc.)
Well, wild animals, being in the open, would be much less subject to #1, #2 and #3 above. And if they are not hit by anything and can swim (and most, including elephants, can), they will eventually reach higher ground.
BTW another article mentioned lots of corpses of domestic animals lying around. This would reinforce this theory.
Slashdot Mirror
IMHO to differentiate from laptops tablet PCs will eventually need to get rid of the keyboard. They need to get leaner than laptops. I would hope the concept evolves to the tablet being only the screen, processor, battery, WiFi, HD and USB/Flashcard ports, and that the keyboard, mouse, power supply, etc. will be available at work areas, waiting to be plugged in, like ethernet cables were before wifi. They are inexpensive and standard enough for that. I am not sure if there will be enough consumer interest for this concept. I know that Sony is experimenting with something along these lines in the Vaio U.
As for cursive writing, I won't weep its death more than the death of the Morse Code, though I am pretty sure it will live long as an Art, rather than as a tool.
Some info direct from Brazil.
Everybody here is missing the point. The $741 is an average, and Brazil has (literally) one of the worst income distributions in the world. Upper and middle class are less than 5% of the population (depends a little on your class definition, but not far from 5%). Minimum wage is about 100 dollars a month. A blue collar worker usually makes from 200 to 400 dollars a month (this at the company I work at, which has over 4000 employees, so it is a representative sample). I think anyone who thinks this starter version will have *any* penetration (except perhaps through OEM agreements) will be proven wrong.
Addictions are defined by the type of harm you are doing to yourself or those around you.
Harm could be defined from an "opportunity cost" point of view. What I mean is, one is harmed not only for the bad things that happen to him, but also by the good things that might have happened but did not.
Which brings us to another question, what personal good comes out of having kids ?
Failing to be social or reproducing are in no way harmful to anyone unless you are a fundamentalist christian who think its everyone's duty to marry and have 12 babies each.
Far from a fundamentalist , I am an atheist. Yet I do think not reproducing can be harmful in the definition I have given above (good things you miss).
As you pointed out before, this is what I think(stress on the "I"), not the absolute truth, and what everyone else thinks may be different. But here are two points:
1) I believe that our natural history (as a species) favored certain behaviors, which through natural selection caused emotional/physical rewards for certain situations to be "hard wired" on our bodies and minds/brains. Eating is one. Having sex is another. Loving your parents (especially as a child) is yet another. And loving your kids is in that list. The emotional aspect provided by this last point cannot be substituted by anything else on that list, as it is unique (it "feels" unique, anyone who has had a child will tell you). And if one dies without going through it, well, one is losing, although he/she may never know exactly what. I have two kids and I stand behind this line of reasoning. (Its MHO, no more, still it is validated by my personal experience).
2) It all depends on who you admire and why (your role models). The specific person I most admire it is, largely, because of how much he did to me when I was a kid. He showed me a beautiful side of himself, being much older, and taught me much. That individual is deceased now. Even if he werent, I wouldnt possibly be able to thank him (repay him) for what he did. My respect, my admiration and my indebtedness lead me to feel good doing the same he did to me to a new children. "Passing the token forward". Could I do it to a children other than my own ? I sure could. However in the end I am greatly inspired by the possibility that I could be to my children, to my grandchildren, what this person was to me. Would I lose without that possibility, that inspiration ? I have no doubt.
Again, this is all very personal, and I am sure other people have other reasons. I am happy, though, to be able to show you my side, and to dispell any myths of me being a fundamentalist religious guy stuck in the 1950s. Heck, the only thing I know from the 50s is Bill Halley and his Comets!
Think a USB dongle as the second factor, "the key". Think this USB dongle with a Hard Disk. The HD with a bootable operating system in it. And room left for all your sensitive data. Everyday you take your "key" away from your desk -- leaving behind essentially keyboard, mouse, printer, monitor and a clueless motherboard.
First factor would still be password. Which could cypher the HD contents. Which could have, perhaps, a HW block against repeated login attempts (such as data self destruction ?).
Now, such a system could still be subject to a Trojan horse attack, from the net or another infection source. However, chances of that happening could be greatly dimnished by using a safer than MS Windows OS. Perhaps an Open Source one. Perhaps a specific variation of an OpenSource one.
I believe its safe to say if a single man gets up in the morning, washes up, dresses nicely for his job, works 8 hours, eats 3 square meals and keeps his apartment clean, and spends every other hour not doing this playing a MMORPG, that he's not addicted. He's well adjusted, like's his game, but knows his other priorities.
You clearly talking about a single man. But with that behavior, how is he ever to get married ? And if he does get married, how is he going to sustain a relationship to the point of having kids ? Is he even having a social life, in which he may find companions ?
I think the point you are raising is tremendously relevant to the discussion. I also think your check list is too easy. If one goes through life cleaning his apartment, holding a job and spending 4 hours playing online a day that person will not qualify as "adjusted" in my neighborhood.
Personally I feel that playing Risk on the internet (plug, anybody knows of a better one for free ?) already borders on the definition of addiction when my kid is crying and I dont pick her up because I have 45 seconds to finish my turn or get dropped from the game.
Let the jokes about the typical slashdotter rain in, but the classic definition of a living being is that it is born, grows to adulthood, reproduces and dies.
(...)Dungeons & Dragons as an excellent way to learn hypnotism, control your parents minds, and force them to buy you more D&D books.
Wow, I knew about Pokemon -- D&D too ?
Why does the IDF believe the game is so dangerous?
"These people have a tendency to be influenced by external factors which could cloud their judgment, a military official says. They may be detached from reality(...)
You watching TV ? What is that, holly-fricking-wood liberals ? You outa here ! What book is that, son ? So you say its fiction, like it only exists in your head ? I see. You have been promoted to toillet cleaner, second class. Slashwhat? Look at me! Im talking to you. Stop typing and stand up right away! What do you think you are doing, writing, reading and being influenced by these international techno-babble freaks ?
Simply, the applicants didn't give HBS the opportunity to make any decision, they stole it.
They posed a question on a official communication system with the school, and the schools communication system answered what they asked. As you said, they cant be blamed for asking -- its just human nature. If you think "type this on your browser to try to see the result" is different from "call their admissions office at this number to try to get the result", well, then we are really not going to get anywhere with these this argument.
When I applied for MBA a few years back, application results were still sent by snail mail. Sometimes schools would ask a second year student to phone you with the "yes, you were accepted" news. But there was no guarantee -- if you wanted to be sure you were rejected you had to wait, wait, wait for the mailman to come. Most stressful time of my life. It defined the meaning of anxiety to me.
Like many, I tried calling the admissions office a couple of days after the results were mailed, to ask about my acceptance status. (living outside the US those snail mailings could take forever). They just wouldn't tell me anything on the phone... even when the answer was YES (as I found out later).
BUT... and now comes my point -- was it unethical of me to call them before the snail mail letter reached me ? Would it be unethical if they had told me ? Should my "ACCEPTED" result be turned into a "DING! REJECTED" result because I called ?
Keylock, around 10th century BC
Archimedean Screw, around 3rd century BC
Astrolabe, 2nd century BC
The Sandglass, before the 14th century
First pendulum clock, 1656
What about the size thing? This is from the article:
...ice sea is about 800 by 900 kilometres in size...
/. posting:
...between 800 and 900 km in size...
And this is from the
So, yeah, they RTFA, they just dont score high on reading comprehension...
1. Kyoto "Would have exempted China and other developing nations entirely (despite the fact that their growing emissions would have swamped the reductions from the developed nations)."
Reminds me of a newspaper cartoon I saw:
Fat-looking, suit wearing guy comes out of a large SUV, motor still running and black smog flowing out of its exhaust pipe. He walks up to a thin, hungry-looking, barefoot and sun-burned man who has an axe in his hands and is about to hit a tree, obviously to cut it down. Rich man screams to poor man: "Stop, Amigo! We need that tree to save us from the Greenhouse Effect!" SUV motor keeps running while he speaks...
* They can't bundle it with their OS
Actually, if they make their search equal to google, they may be able to get a very large share of the market just for convenience-- because they can bundle it with the browser.
I am just thinking here that the first thing I do when I get a computer is install either (or both) Firefox and MyIE2, and set it up so that words typed in the address bar will take me directly to google's search results. That save's me screen real estate (google bar) and is very addictive.
But my parents (for instance) would never find and install a different browser, much less tweak it for a specific search engine.
MS reccomendation:
#1 get search results quality and "screen hygiene"(advertisement pollution) similar to google
#2 bundle search very well with the browser
#3 also, move IE forward along with the likes of firefox, myie2 (aka maxthon), avantbrowser, etc.
Why don't they save us all some time and just ask "Are you going to commit acts of terrorism during your stay ?"
This type of meaningless, naive, questioning reminds me of a form Brazilian passport holders (at least) need to fill every time they go into the US. The form goes something like:
PLEASE MARK WITH AN 'X' ANY TRUE STATEMENT BELOW:
( ) You commited crimes against mankind.
( ) You commited genocide.
( ) You are or have been a member of the Nazi party.
etc...
Asking that is absurd (I mean, would you expect a girl/boy to both commit genocide and to be girl/boy-scout honest?). But they do ask it, nevertheless... I kid you not, I kid you not. Oh, wow. We should better get used to the geniuses running the show.
Congratulations on an excellent comment (didn't have mod points so I am trying to follow your thoughts).
(...)the poor continue to breed and die since they cannot afford the eternity treatments(...)
You assume that the eternity treatment would be expensive, however it may not be so. Even if it is expensive: If there is a way to pay for more years of life, can the public healthcare system justify not making it available to everyone ? Is it that much different than extending life through cancer treatment ?
If government policy supports ethernity for everyone then essentially all pension systems will implode under the reviewed financial obligations (they are already at risk, among other places in the US). This would have dire social consequences. If government doesn't pay for ethernity treatment, on the other hand, it will take a position that would be similar to denying AIDS treatment -- or, perhaps, to granting Euthanasia. So it looks like a catch-22.
The strip had a clueless young man coming in and saying he was Dilbert's new manager. He had almost no work experience. Why then ? Well he got the job because he came out of a top MBA program. And he got into a top MBA school because he scored well in the GMAT (~SAT etc). So... "You are a manager because you know math ?"
The irony is that math skills are deterministic for lots of things where it shouldn't. Fot at least one reason: math skills are easily quantified.
So *if* it happens that women (the better half of mankind) score lower on math, we could be discounting their ability to contribute to society (emotional intelligence, etc) too much.
and why I would never buy any piece of hardware that relies on a subscription
You mean you don't have a cell-phone ?
Some car drivers stopped driving because it was quite a bit of work putting gas in their car. And don't even get me started about filling the tires with air...
In yet other news, tourists stopped traveling to Iceland beaches because they found out they could not count on warm weather. The Polar Bear Club President, however, declared "What, just because of a little wind and a few degrees of cold ? Why, the ear-protectors and the padded boots are so comfy, what are these people thinking ? Splitting some wood for the fireplace is a great way to keep oneself warm while enjoying fresh air".
Details on the "other news" follows. Miami. Two Brazilian Surfers. It has all been widely published and discussed in the Brazilian press. The following is quoted from an article in English about the incident:
Neo: Whoa, deja vu.
Trinity: What did you just say?
Neo: Nothing, I just had a little deja vu.
Trinity: What did you see?
Cypher: What happened?
Neo: A black cat went past us, and then another that looked just like it.
Trinity: How much like it, was it the same cat?
Neo: Might have been, I'm not sure.
Morpheus: Switch, Apoc.
Neo: What is it?
Trinity: A deja vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something.
Turok 1990s: http://www.psychosaurus.com/turok/turokdh1.htm
Turok prior art (1950s): http://www.toonopedia.com/turok.htm
I drilled a small hole in the case and soldered in a piece of wire the right length for a half wavelength antenna -- a little less than 63 inches for the low end of the FM band. As a result, I can now broadcast all over my house.
Good idea ! I have a small RCA-branded FM transmitter, and also found it worthless. I am quite willing to take it apart.
Anyone know how I could plug its own output antena to the car stereos input antenna and both keep the original broadcast FM signal reception and add the strongest possible signal from such a small FM transmitter ? Is it as simple as putting a compatible connector at one end or should I worry with something else (e.g. cable length, splitters, etc.) ?
And, from Richard Stallman:
Bill Gates is coherent, though, with his 1976 "Open Letter to Hobbysts". Back then he complained that he wasnt breaking even with investing in software develolment -- and thus that people should pay. Should we bring his words back to him and convince him that, since MS is making such absurds amounts of cash on software today, maybe he should bring prices down ? See the direct 1976 Gates quote:
No, we hate the French because they're weasels, cowards and opportunistic a**holes who feel the only way to build their country up again is to tear the U.S. down. What other Western country is actively anti-American, and can be expected to oppose the U.S. no matter who controls the government- socialist, communist, Gaullist, National Front crypto-fascist?
Which country's foreign minister poses as champion of international law, yet is really a degenerate Napoleonic power worshipper who still thinks warfare is glorious- as long as it's France that's kicking butts?
Interesting argument. I would mod this AC as interesting.
The AC points out that neither France nor the USA are saints. That the USA is not a saint, the Iraq invasion + DoD Contractors & Oil Exploration Companies Profit Statements + George W. "Bully"'s line of talk already proved. AC reminds us France may try to look more rightful, but that its own actions are really not that consistent with the pose.
Here on my side, what I fear is a time when people in the US, in France, and everywhere lose the pretension of being morally right. People becoming unashamed of saying "we did it because we can, screw what you think".
Even if I know no country's government should be expected to be very rightful, I really, really hope the powerful countries will seek to restrain themselves and act with reflection and wisdom (and I am not talking to GWB). And I hope I can trust on each country's public opinion to seek *within* his/her own country what may be wrong. And denounce. And influence. And correct.
Yours truly, speaking from humble South America (aka "notUSA" and "notEurope", aka periphery of the world, aka not-a-perfect-government-place-either).
Interesting. I had read about that and thought it should not be accounted on "sixth sense" right away. I would investigate what caused peoples deaths, but I would guess:
1) Getting thrown against fixed, hard objects (lamp posts, walls, buildings, etc.)
2) Getting hit by hard objects (furniture, automobiles, parts of buildings, etc.)
3) Drowning due to being trapped somewhere (e.g. inside buildings, suction of sewer mouths, under cars, etc.)
Well, wild animals, being in the open, would be much less subject to #1, #2 and #3 above. And if they are not hit by anything and can swim (and most, including elephants, can), they will eventually reach higher ground.
BTW another article mentioned lots of corpses of domestic animals lying around. This would reinforce this theory.