I will flatter myself. There is, apparently, something quite interesting about our asses which drive them to travel great distances in order to probe them.
The fact is, there will be a time when new monsters will arise while other will be given special care and pitied as formerly discriminated groups currently are.
But I think by examining what people would do in a multi-life-form environment will show quite clearly why all of this "diversity" push is actually quite counter-productive. To put things in a "fair and equal" context, such integration invariably requires that everyone give up something of themselves in order to promote a kind of integration which literally removes individuality. And you can demonstrate this in just about any direction you like. One hot topic these days is integration of muslim people with non-muslim people. What does each side have to give up? A lot! What does each side have to tolerate? A lot! And what happens when friction occurs? A lot of terrible things.
Even now, the integration of black people into white society or white people into black society has not progressed as far as people would like to see. I think an important key here is to respect each others need to be different and to be who they want to be. And especially where those differences clash to the point where life and limb are at risk, we need to be mindful of the how and why of it. But more than that, we have to understand certain things about "equal but different." I think we all understand which side has more or less of what. And the "cost" of getting access to more of whatever is wanted may be to give up a part of your identity to participate. For example: A "long haired hippy" will not easily integrate into high society and big business. He would have to give up his long-haired hippy ways (or at least hide them) in order to gain access into this other world of expecations and acceptabilities. We all pretty much accept this. But when it comes to ethnicity, we just don't seem willing to accept it.
By examining this in the context of "earthlings vs extra-terrestrials" I think some things will become more evident about our own troubles here on earth. While we can all pretty much breathe the same air, even this can be an area of contention among different groups of humans. ("OMG! Did you smell that guy?! What has he been EATING?!")
I hope, at some point, we all begin to arrive at the conclusion that we won't all be able to get along all the time and that complete integration is not merely impossible, but attempts to do so are outright dangerous. I hate to put it like this, but if we were to try to integrate with a rattle-snake, the best answer is NOT to and to respect that this creature needs to be avoided and given his own space. It should never be a question of who would win in a fight -- both sides are lethal to one another. Best to just avoid it.
Back in the day when the question of integration was about different kinds of white people, it worked itself out pretty well...eventually... It was not easy. It was painful and often deadly. But the end result and best answer WAS, in fact, to give up a lot of our individual identities and cultures as a cost of admission into the melting pot. But we shouldn't FORCE IT. Let those who want to join us in the melting pot understand that the cost of admission is to give up much of themselves. The melting pot should not change as much as the new entries should and that's the way it has always worked.
So in the "Black entering white society" issue, I seriously love and admire black people who have chosen to get educated and kick ass in the world of work and business. The same is true of other groups which present that challenge. But forcing such issues is demonstrably bad.
Turns out there may actually be a way. As I said, I had to compile all of the dependent libraries and put them in their own separate location for the local GiMP 2.8.x to use. (I was not referring to GTK2 2.8.x, I was referring to GiMP 2.8.x) The problem is that the new libraries, when they did their thing, did not know how to integrate with the active GNOME desktop. There may be a file I can change or have it point somewhere... I don't know. Everywhere I asked offered no answers or suggestions.
I agree this shouldn't happen. But it did. I lost access to the facilities of my local GNOME desktop and I don't really know why.
You know, with all the crap with GNOME 3 and all, I left Fedora for CentOS. In many ways, CentOS serves me better, but in that, I also learned there were some things I couldn't do. Not "couldn't do without a great deal of trouble" but couldn't do. GiMP was and still is to some degree, important to me recreationally and professionally. And while I certainly have issues with GiMP 2.8.x's directions, I wanted to run it. Turned out, however, that I couldn't. It seems conflicting versions of GTK for the Desktop UI and the requirements of 2.8.x created a bit of an impossible situation. Determined to make it work, I eventually did manual compiles of GiMP and all of the GTK related dependencies. And there were a lot of them. But even after that, GiMP, with its own GTK libraries, would not integrate with my existing GNOME desktop. So I lost Japanese text entry which is, at times for me, important.
GTK is "Gimp toolkit." This makes it an application library. But for some reason, GNOME, the desktop OS shell, decided to adopt GTK for what it does. It didn't seem like a bad idea until you take into account that the GiMP and GTK developers don't give a rat's ass about backward compatibility or any of that. It is GNOME's fault for selecting GTK instead of forking it or something else. So now, among other programs, I cannot run GiMP on CentOS. I will never stop ranting about this.
But I miss the good days and have been watching the MATE desktop which will never, it seems, come to CentOS. And so I've been tempted to give the next Fedora a try. One thing I haven't heard much about is wobbly windows. I really like having my wobbly windows and 3D virtual desktop. (I speak of Compiz, of course if you didn't already know.) I see this: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/MATE-Compiz_Spin and that's encouraging... but I wonder. I hope anyway.
But I was looking at the release schedule. Combine that with the doom of the global economy, I'm thinking I'd be better off buying up stocks of canned beans instead of a new hard drive. *sigh*
Yeah, but I kind of like it when their sexy members get naked and stuff though:) I used to have a "PETA" folder somewhere but I lost it. Could someone post a few?
Yes they do. And so does the IRS. At this moment in time, once the corruption of one section of government has been demonstrated, they should all be examined. The days of "presumed righteous" government is and should be ended.
The fact is, the nation was founded on the principle that government itself is not above scrutiny and can not and should not be presumed righteous. Why else would the constitution have been written the way it was?
But all these religious minded people with their "faith" want to transfer it all to government as if they are a superior entity and not a colleciton of humans with interests and pursuits of their own. It is completely absurd on its face and yet people are still standing in line.
That would depend largely on where the money is spent...or not spent. For example, no more corn subsidies. We've got MORE than enough corn. If there should be subsidies, do it on things which people need more of -- fresh vegetables. Feeding people things which lead to diabetes and obesity is not good and worse when it's subsidized. You know? If I didn't know any better, I'd say this was being done intentionally.
Oh no, I totally get that. I have a friend who was a med student -- doctor now... chose anesthesiology no doubt because of his disgust of obesity -- told me all kinds of bothersome stories like that.
Perhaps while this story is about 2 of 5 maintaining "unaware" bias, the remaining 3 of 5 are quite aware of it.
ALL sex comes with health risks. I get it though. You're pointing out risky behaviors. And I rather agree with you on this.
People who engage in clinically risky behavior should receive fewer public benefits and not be a burden to the public. I say this while knowing that I too have engaged in risky behaviors -- who hasn't? I have been heavily into bicycling in the Washington DC area -- if that's not risky, I don't know what is.
But I accepted the risk and the possibility that I could get injured or killed. I had no expectation that the world owed me anything.
Reality: We are a society. What people do affects everyone else at some level.
Let's remember that obesity is an unhealthy condition. It is unhealthy and overwhelmingly self-inflicted. Medical students are quite often idealists and are all about the science of medicine. Combine the two and what do you get? What's surprising is the 2 of 5 number isn't 4 of 5 or higher.
I don't have any problem with making that definition. Wilful denial of access to information which can save lives is far more important than money -- any amount of money. And we need some laws on the books that will enforce this notion. It's truly sickening how far people will go.
But you know, I also consider war to be murder. Leaders who risk nothing send people to other places to kill other people and get killed. All the while, telling people lies about "freedom" and crap like that.
We need additional measurements... not just IQ and intelligence. We need maturity, wisdom and sociopathy measurments as well.
These days we put a lot of weight behind a person's "success" however that may be measured (most often in dollars) and presume it is a sign of superiority -- ostensibly intelligence or ability. But then I see those same people and often see them as failures as they lack some truly important qualities that would make them great people.
The fact is, when I use a glossy laptop screen, all I see is myself. It's annoying. Also, I see whatever is going on behind me which is also annoying at times. Being distracted by random events is a sign of lower intelligence? I don't know about that. I tend to be a bit hyper-aware... especially of tiny details. I can't STAND to see a mobile phone with cracks in the the display, for example, while other people seem to have no problem with it as long as it works.
Interesting thought, but in this world of "eBay" selling things sourced from China, that's sometimes hard to do.
That said, I also disagree with the notion of consumers being sued. What if I made the device with my own two hands using off-the-shelf components and some software I wrote?
For a lawyer to cook up this operating scheme strongly suggests that what he is doing is technically legal in the sense that it is likely within the letter of the law.
If nothing else defines what is wrong with the notion that "legal == right" this does. (Yes, I know there are things that do this better.)
I think a very simple law should be put into place which outlaws "NPEs." That would put a dent in the operations of these low-overhead trolls. But it would serve to embolden a select few who would claim to have a failed business based on their patent holdings and seek out damages from these others who are 'doing it better.'
There is no single silver bullet. But reforming the patent system, which effectively lies about the human condition by suggesting that nothing would be invented without a profit motive, one or more failing aspect of the patent system would be addressed.
The more I think about it, the more I think that any such "NPE" limitations should be carefully considered. Such measures threaten to raise the bar preventing pedestrian inventors from participating in the patent system leaving it available only to big business.
I think it will be difficult to stop the trolls without hurting real people.
I generally agree, but since they aren't exactly an organized group, philosophical differences will come about from time to time.
That said, it's kind of hard to imagine doing something against their site without harming innocents while at the same time doing anything which draws attention to problems there. The SA police response was initially denial followed by "no comment." So they still aren't doing anything as far as anyone can tell. And according to the two articles, they are also quite negligent in some areas while active in others which speaks of agendas, laziness and/or political biases among other problems. This is "a shaming."
I have been casually following the problems of South Africa and I am less than impressed. Somehow I had rather hoped that they had learned that the answer to racist law and policy is to do away with racist law and policy, not to "reverse it" by creating more racist law and policy which punishes the "race" of a person rather than individuals responsible. So it goes to show that both the US and South Africa (as well as many others) have some growing up to do.
And seriously, while I wouldn't do it, I can understand why a group interested in justice and equality would expose the sensitive details of people in the databases. If/when harm comes to them as a result of the leak, it would bring more global attention to the actual problems. And it's not like there's not already a whole lot of danger and unfairness in South Africa -- the "net condition" will not really change. But pubic awareness and especially global public awareness will have been raised, which makes it a "net improvement."
That study does NOT explore any connection between autism and thimerisal. It studies the effectiveness of the MMR vaccine itself. It only touches on the topic by stating "it's not likely." Saying it doesn't mean it's true.
Did you know there were government studies proving smoking was safe as well?
Citation needed. Where are articles or information about these studies or their conclusion?
I also have an autistic son. Join the club. There is no personal qualification with regards to that notion. "Hey! He's not dead!!" Yeah? But at what cost? A life of less potential and likely misery and frustration? Also, when you are gone, who will take care of him? And what future "misunderstanding" won't eventually land him in jail or some place like that?
And even now, there are plenty of diseases being invented by today's medical technology worse than these other potential causes. Ever see people whose bodies were mangled by MRSA? I have. It's pretty bad.
As you argue in favor of a disadvantaged life potential, tell me why the public deserves the additional burden?
Slashdot Mirror
I will flatter myself. There is, apparently, something quite interesting about our asses which drive them to travel great distances in order to probe them.
Extremely insightful.
The fact is, there will be a time when new monsters will arise while other will be given special care and pitied as formerly discriminated groups currently are.
But I think by examining what people would do in a multi-life-form environment will show quite clearly why all of this "diversity" push is actually quite counter-productive. To put things in a "fair and equal" context, such integration invariably requires that everyone give up something of themselves in order to promote a kind of integration which literally removes individuality. And you can demonstrate this in just about any direction you like. One hot topic these days is integration of muslim people with non-muslim people. What does each side have to give up? A lot! What does each side have to tolerate? A lot! And what happens when friction occurs? A lot of terrible things.
Even now, the integration of black people into white society or white people into black society has not progressed as far as people would like to see. I think an important key here is to respect each others need to be different and to be who they want to be. And especially where those differences clash to the point where life and limb are at risk, we need to be mindful of the how and why of it. But more than that, we have to understand certain things about "equal but different." I think we all understand which side has more or less of what. And the "cost" of getting access to more of whatever is wanted may be to give up a part of your identity to participate. For example: A "long haired hippy" will not easily integrate into high society and big business. He would have to give up his long-haired hippy ways (or at least hide them) in order to gain access into this other world of expecations and acceptabilities. We all pretty much accept this. But when it comes to ethnicity, we just don't seem willing to accept it.
By examining this in the context of "earthlings vs extra-terrestrials" I think some things will become more evident about our own troubles here on earth. While we can all pretty much breathe the same air, even this can be an area of contention among different groups of humans. ("OMG! Did you smell that guy?! What has he been EATING?!")
I hope, at some point, we all begin to arrive at the conclusion that we won't all be able to get along all the time and that complete integration is not merely impossible, but attempts to do so are outright dangerous. I hate to put it like this, but if we were to try to integrate with a rattle-snake, the best answer is NOT to and to respect that this creature needs to be avoided and given his own space. It should never be a question of who would win in a fight -- both sides are lethal to one another. Best to just avoid it.
Back in the day when the question of integration was about different kinds of white people, it worked itself out pretty well...eventually... It was not easy. It was painful and often deadly. But the end result and best answer WAS, in fact, to give up a lot of our individual identities and cultures as a cost of admission into the melting pot. But we shouldn't FORCE IT. Let those who want to join us in the melting pot understand that the cost of admission is to give up much of themselves. The melting pot should not change as much as the new entries should and that's the way it has always worked.
So in the "Black entering white society" issue, I seriously love and admire black people who have chosen to get educated and kick ass in the world of work and business. The same is true of other groups which present that challenge. But forcing such issues is demonstrably bad.
Turns out there may actually be a way. As I said, I had to compile all of the dependent libraries and put them in their own separate location for the local GiMP 2.8.x to use. (I was not referring to GTK2 2.8.x, I was referring to GiMP 2.8.x) The problem is that the new libraries, when they did their thing, did not know how to integrate with the active GNOME desktop. There may be a file I can change or have it point somewhere... I don't know. Everywhere I asked offered no answers or suggestions.
I agree this shouldn't happen. But it did. I lost access to the facilities of my local GNOME desktop and I don't really know why.
You know, with all the crap with GNOME 3 and all, I left Fedora for CentOS. In many ways, CentOS serves me better, but in that, I also learned there were some things I couldn't do. Not "couldn't do without a great deal of trouble" but couldn't do. GiMP was and still is to some degree, important to me recreationally and professionally. And while I certainly have issues with GiMP 2.8.x's directions, I wanted to run it. Turned out, however, that I couldn't. It seems conflicting versions of GTK for the Desktop UI and the requirements of 2.8.x created a bit of an impossible situation. Determined to make it work, I eventually did manual compiles of GiMP and all of the GTK related dependencies. And there were a lot of them. But even after that, GiMP, with its own GTK libraries, would not integrate with my existing GNOME desktop. So I lost Japanese text entry which is, at times for me, important.
GTK is "Gimp toolkit." This makes it an application library. But for some reason, GNOME, the desktop OS shell, decided to adopt GTK for what it does. It didn't seem like a bad idea until you take into account that the GiMP and GTK developers don't give a rat's ass about backward compatibility or any of that. It is GNOME's fault for selecting GTK instead of forking it or something else. So now, among other programs, I cannot run GiMP on CentOS. I will never stop ranting about this.
But I miss the good days and have been watching the MATE desktop which will never, it seems, come to CentOS. And so I've been tempted to give the next Fedora a try. One thing I haven't heard much about is wobbly windows. I really like having my wobbly windows and 3D virtual desktop. (I speak of Compiz, of course if you didn't already know.) I see this: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/MATE-Compiz_Spin and that's encouraging... but I wonder. I hope anyway.
But I was looking at the release schedule. Combine that with the doom of the global economy, I'm thinking I'd be better off buying up stocks of canned beans instead of a new hard drive. *sigh*
You know? Like setting up some sort of thing that contributes to a school account or something? That's pretty damned low.
Yeah, but I kind of like it when their sexy members get naked and stuff though :) I used to have a "PETA" folder somewhere but I lost it. Could someone post a few?
There can be and is no practice of "random selection" for investigation.
Do you know what "probable cause" means? It's in the US Constitution. Read it.
Yes they do. And so does the IRS. At this moment in time, once the corruption of one section of government has been demonstrated, they should all be examined. The days of "presumed righteous" government is and should be ended.
The fact is, the nation was founded on the principle that government itself is not above scrutiny and can not and should not be presumed righteous. Why else would the constitution have been written the way it was?
But all these religious minded people with their "faith" want to transfer it all to government as if they are a superior entity and not a colleciton of humans with interests and pursuits of their own. It is completely absurd on its face and yet people are still standing in line.
That would depend largely on where the money is spent...or not spent. For example, no more corn subsidies. We've got MORE than enough corn. If there should be subsidies, do it on things which people need more of -- fresh vegetables. Feeding people things which lead to diabetes and obesity is not good and worse when it's subsidized. You know? If I didn't know any better, I'd say this was being done intentionally.
Oh no, I totally get that. I have a friend who was a med student -- doctor now... chose anesthesiology no doubt because of his disgust of obesity -- told me all kinds of bothersome stories like that.
Perhaps while this story is about 2 of 5 maintaining "unaware" bias, the remaining 3 of 5 are quite aware of it.
ALL sex comes with health risks. I get it though. You're pointing out risky behaviors. And I rather agree with you on this.
People who engage in clinically risky behavior should receive fewer public benefits and not be a burden to the public. I say this while knowing that I too have engaged in risky behaviors -- who hasn't? I have been heavily into bicycling in the Washington DC area -- if that's not risky, I don't know what is.
But I accepted the risk and the possibility that I could get injured or killed. I had no expectation that the world owed me anything.
Reality: We are a society. What people do affects everyone else at some level.
Let's remember that obesity is an unhealthy condition. It is unhealthy and overwhelmingly self-inflicted. Medical students are quite often idealists and are all about the science of medicine. Combine the two and what do you get? What's surprising is the 2 of 5 number isn't 4 of 5 or higher.
I don't have any problem with making that definition. Wilful denial of access to information which can save lives is far more important than money -- any amount of money. And we need some laws on the books that will enforce this notion. It's truly sickening how far people will go.
But you know, I also consider war to be murder. Leaders who risk nothing send people to other places to kill other people and get killed. All the while, telling people lies about "freedom" and crap like that.
We need additional measurements... not just IQ and intelligence. We need maturity, wisdom and sociopathy measurments as well.
These days we put a lot of weight behind a person's "success" however that may be measured (most often in dollars) and presume it is a sign of superiority -- ostensibly intelligence or ability. But then I see those same people and often see them as failures as they lack some truly important qualities that would make them great people.
Oh that's an insulting conclusion.
The fact is, when I use a glossy laptop screen, all I see is myself. It's annoying. Also, I see whatever is going on behind me which is also annoying at times. Being distracted by random events is a sign of lower intelligence? I don't know about that. I tend to be a bit hyper-aware... especially of tiny details. I can't STAND to see a mobile phone with cracks in the the display, for example, while other people seem to have no problem with it as long as it works.
You're right... I'll just go back to studying my Cisco and Microsoft exam books...
They are just completely unable to take this test. I always had my suspicions...
Interesting thought, but in this world of "eBay" selling things sourced from China, that's sometimes hard to do.
That said, I also disagree with the notion of consumers being sued. What if I made the device with my own two hands using off-the-shelf components and some software I wrote?
For a lawyer to cook up this operating scheme strongly suggests that what he is doing is technically legal in the sense that it is likely within the letter of the law.
If nothing else defines what is wrong with the notion that "legal == right" this does. (Yes, I know there are things that do this better.)
I think a very simple law should be put into place which outlaws "NPEs." That would put a dent in the operations of these low-overhead trolls. But it would serve to embolden a select few who would claim to have a failed business based on their patent holdings and seek out damages from these others who are 'doing it better.'
There is no single silver bullet. But reforming the patent system, which effectively lies about the human condition by suggesting that nothing would be invented without a profit motive, one or more failing aspect of the patent system would be addressed.
The more I think about it, the more I think that any such "NPE" limitations should be carefully considered. Such measures threaten to raise the bar preventing pedestrian inventors from participating in the patent system leaving it available only to big business.
I think it will be difficult to stop the trolls without hurting real people.
There, fixed it for ya...
I generally agree, but since they aren't exactly an organized group, philosophical differences will come about from time to time.
That said, it's kind of hard to imagine doing something against their site without harming innocents while at the same time doing anything which draws attention to problems there. The SA police response was initially denial followed by "no comment." So they still aren't doing anything as far as anyone can tell. And according to the two articles, they are also quite negligent in some areas while active in others which speaks of agendas, laziness and/or political biases among other problems. This is "a shaming."
I have been casually following the problems of South Africa and I am less than impressed. Somehow I had rather hoped that they had learned that the answer to racist law and policy is to do away with racist law and policy, not to "reverse it" by creating more racist law and policy which punishes the "race" of a person rather than individuals responsible. So it goes to show that both the US and South Africa (as well as many others) have some growing up to do.
And seriously, while I wouldn't do it, I can understand why a group interested in justice and equality would expose the sensitive details of people in the databases. If/when harm comes to them as a result of the leak, it would bring more global attention to the actual problems. And it's not like there's not already a whole lot of danger and unfairness in South Africa -- the "net condition" will not really change. But pubic awareness and especially global public awareness will have been raised, which makes it a "net improvement."
That study does NOT explore any connection between autism and thimerisal. It studies the effectiveness of the MMR vaccine itself. It only touches on the topic by stating "it's not likely." Saying it doesn't mean it's true.
Did you know there were government studies proving smoking was safe as well?
Does that mean it comes with strippers and all that? I enjoy many forms of entertainment.
Citation needed. Where are articles or information about these studies or their conclusion?
I also have an autistic son. Join the club. There is no personal qualification with regards to that notion. "Hey! He's not dead!!" Yeah? But at what cost? A life of less potential and likely misery and frustration? Also, when you are gone, who will take care of him? And what future "misunderstanding" won't eventually land him in jail or some place like that?
And even now, there are plenty of diseases being invented by today's medical technology worse than these other potential causes. Ever see people whose bodies were mangled by MRSA? I have. It's pretty bad.
As you argue in favor of a disadvantaged life potential, tell me why the public deserves the additional burden?