Telemarketers alledge that they create several billion dollars in sales every year, several billion dollars that will go up in smoke in October.
Yeah, and the Russians said that they had several thousand nukes pointed at the US in the Cold War, well, technically they did.
Many, many, many of the silos had water in them up to the missile in the bottom, thus, when launching, would have killed all of the people launching them and left a missile with a nuke on top in burning in a hole in the ground and thirty minutes of rocket fuel burning there with it.
Lighting those suckers would have caused ecological disaster for the USSR.
The lesson here?
Never, ever, ever, trust the information given to you by your enemies. Do you expect North Korea to tell you the truth when threatening you? Expect enemy information to be overinflated. Or downright bogus.
And actually you can move right on in to California now, since the retarded state gov is basically trying abolish all immigration law. Come on over!
What is happening in CA is the definition of critical mass.
California is now being overrun by Mexicans, who want to live well but instead turn it into "new new" Mexico. Then when the property values plummet, there is no money and infrastructure to allow such a lifestyle, they will be moving to the Midwest in droves to unintentionally destroy its infrastructure and educational system, and taking all of the jobs away for crap wages and sucking up government services at a rate that we cannot even possibly pay for.
The Mexicans have proved that NO ONE WANTS TO LIVE IN MEXICO. And I'll be damned if they aren't turning California into Mexico right now. Who's next?
This is what happens when you let a group in that doesn't want to integrate into the society, but instead have a goal that has nothing to do with the other half. When the population gets high enough, the society takes an off ramp. Just like California is right now.
"La Raza!"
You'd be well informed to learn what that means. It is an exclusionary statement. I saw it everywhere in California.
So all of you that may get mad at what I said, I ain't no gringo. I may be white, but I speak Spanish almost fluently. SO IF YOU THINK THAT I AM SOME REACTIONARY REDNECK, think again.
I can see where all of this is going. This truly is heading to the mall scene in Minority Report.
BUT IT JUST GETS EVEN WORSE...
So you walk past a sensor in the mall wearing a pair of jeans with a RFID so small that you can't find it and never will, and all of the sudden you have an ad popping up for whatever market they sell your jeans to.
Better yet, when someone commits a heinous crime in that mall, a lot of sensors will have a record of the type of jeans and shirt anyone, including a criminal was wearing leaving a crime scene. HOW WONDERFUL! Imagine what happens when you are in the neighborhood wearing the same or similar tennis shoes and jeans combo! Regardless of who you are, the cops are going to come and question you! Probably take you downtown for a little questioning. Screw with your life for a bit. Shake you around. INSTANT PROBABLE CAUSE... after all "he was in the same area a few days later wearing the same type of jeans and shoes, your honor. And we have a homicide that is unsolved in the area."
Suddenly, you get busted for a crime you didn't commit!
You may call me a paranoiac but remember all of those people that have been in prison all of those years that have DNA evidence that conclusively proves that they weren't rapists. Trust me, there is nothing out of bounds that a cop will use to solve a murder case. NOTHING. That is not what a cop does. A cop hunts out crime. If he slaps cuffs on the wrong man, well, that is the court's responsibility to make sure it was the wrong guy, not the cop's responsibility. Also, cops do a little game called "courting you to death," like if you piss them off giving you a court summons (costing you hundreds of dollars) for a parking ticket, and messing with your life in a court appearance. You really don't want to defend yourself in a 'you vs. the cop' situation. It never, ever works. Most are good, but jerks are the ones that give me the willies.
Remember when cops were using thermal imaging guns to look into people's houses and checking electric bills to see if they were creating illegal grow operations? Think about it. THIS IS PROFILING HEAVEN. MORE DATA MEANS MORE PROFILING. The best part, you can't find out that they are profiling you. The cops pull you over for a bad turn signal, when all the while they are looking for a couple of key things, like the perfectly legal ammo you just bought at the gun store to take back to your ranch. Argue with them? GO TO JAIL. OR GO TO COURT AND PAY COSTS AND WASTE YOUR TIME.
It is not a matter of if this technology will be abused, it is simply a matter of when. You should look at history to see that. Evidence of it is everywhere even in the most polite societies.
How soon will it be after this stuff that some corporation starts walking people through your neighborhood with directional transmitters and antennas, and when you buy a Papa John's pizza, the next two days a Pizza Hut coupon is pinned to your front door or comes in your mailbox? Corporations are are not going to worry about the ethics of what they are doing. They are simply going to do them to sell you more pizza near their store to cut costs and sell more. It is now just going to make this world full of PHYSICAL SPAM.
Trust me, when the person in the mall with the clipboard seeks you out and says that she has a product that is better than the one you just purchased and is sitting in your bag, YOU'LL HATE IT. Either way, they'll be grifting your data... and you'll be paying for it.
If you hate it when Radio Shack asks you your fucking address when you buy a coax cable, then you'll really, really love what is around the corner.
The day will come, maybe in just a few decades, when every building has its own fuel cell, connected to a low-pressure hydrogen line.
Ahhh, but the day will never, ever come where the laws of thermodynamics will stop, creating a way to not lose copius amounts of energy creating hydrogen. Can't get more out than you put in. Never going to so much as break even. Water is a very, very sound molecule. It doesn't even come close to trying to break it for energy. There is no energy solution, because we're talking the first law of thermodynamics, and we're talking basic science. Sounds great. "We've got whole oceans here!" So is it really going to be that much better if we went to it?
What about other chemical processes? Unless you want wholesale ecological disaster in exchange for your Playstation 2 time, I cannot imagine it. Acids? Bases? What else just makes a LARGE, CONSUMABLE AMOUNT OF H2? It would be great for a camp stove, but what about whole cities?
You can't flip a molecule and make water into hydrogen and oxygen so easily. Water is the ANTI-FUEL. It's not gasoline that is waiting to combust. It's a real nightmare to try to get the energy back. Electrolysis just doesn't cut it. We'd really need a magic bullet with hydrogen.
Are hydrogen lines better than power lines?
IMHO It's never been about the resource, it is all about the energy you consume. We need to learn to lower our overall energy usage. That is my solution to all of this.
Hydrogen sounds like the greatest idea ever, too bad physics doesn't seem to back it up, at least right now.
"Pull US troops out of the Holy Land of Mecca!" How many months do you think it would be before popular demand to remove troops from Mecca would be deafening?
How many months do you think it would be before popular demand changed the government in charge of the Holy City of Mecca? How many months of coordinated attacks would it take before there would be a new foreign policy with the Holy City of Mecca or there would be a smoking crater there replacing the Holy City of Mecca.
Terrorists don't work alone. Period. Especially not in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, or Pakistan.
I do believe that we would start putting "the pressure" on them just as fast as they would on us. Perhaps in a more organized, more overt way. Blowing up civilians is hardly a good strategy for attacking a government with a poorly concieved "destruction of your civilization" strategy. Killing innocents just precipitates full scale war. If you didn't notice, we went through the 5th largest army in the world like a hot knife through butter. No one in the Middle East had as many arms as Saddam. To them and their idiotic ideals of destroying us, I say good luck. You're going to need it.
Trust me, if push comes to shove, we would execute the captured terrorists and bury them upside down with bibles and female clothing covered in pig blood if the shit gets too hectic. If they think that ANY GROUP (much less the Israelis or the Americans) are pussies that won't get extreme enough to defend ourselves from sociopaths? Then well, they have a lot to learn from the history of all humanity throughout all time. People, or civilizations just don't up and cry and say, "We're sorry. We'll be creating that Islamic utopia for you right now, sir."
This terrorism shit does not work. It doesn't bring about anything. It just kills. Their plan is good for a few whack jobs. But ultimately, it accomplishes nothing related to their goal.
I think many of you overestimate your enemies and underestimate your own resolve to survive them.
What I said was the general mentality of most people in the US that what they do is just and right, and rest of the world is war hungry, terrorist, etc.
Now you are generalizing. Yes, ALL OF AMERICA THINKS THE WAY YOU THINK IT DOES.
Well, I'm an American and I don't agree. Your return argument cannot be "well Americans think like that and that is it. You didn't hear me right." Boo hoo. You got shot down, Mr. Generalizations.
You speak of the "general mentality" like they are all useless people, or the "sheeple" that all of you 1337 geniuses are above. Well, my suggestion is that you get your manbreasts off of the keyboard, and get a girlfriend and a wife. God knows I got a beautiful wife with a PhD, so you can pre-emptively shut the fuck up.
You're an asshat. You and all of the other people in this world that divide us into camps are the cause of all of these problems. Generalizing leads to propaganda posters. Us vs. Them mentalities lead to attack. You respond to a specific problem with a specific answer. Don't think that if your sweeping generalizations about others somehow magically took effect, that the humanity would change one bit.
You, my friend, and all of your elitist friends should attempt a coup if you know that you are SO DAMN MUCH BETTER THAN YOUR FELLOW, UNINFORMED, LOWLIFE HUMANITY THAT YOU LIVE WITH.
I just had a conversation this evening with one of the most articulate men I have ever met. Timely and topical. Interesting. AND HOMELESS. So take that "the general mentality of most people in the US" and shove it straight up your ass.
All the blessings in the world to you now that you are out from under Soviet rule.
Many of us in America hoped for that day. Many of us knew how good our lives were and wished happiness to the rest of the world. I am happy you are free.
May you enjoy and love the life of your choosing that many of us in America do not appreciate as much as you do.
The space race was a cleverly designed PR piece that told the rest of the world that we could put a very large missile wherever we wanted it, whether in space, or on the moon, or in Moscow in a half-hour. Let there be no bones about it. If you saw what we spent on NASA vs. balistic missile testing, your jaw would drop.
By the way, the USSR was doing, and trying to do, the exact same thing we were.
Spare me the anti-US rhetoric about my country always being a bunch of bullies and the rest of the world a bunch of well-meaning space teletubbies. It is just plain ignorant of history... both of my nation and the history of man's aggression in general. "Big dog" politics has been happening since before humans could write. Mankind has always had useless demonization of the other tribe, which you are now guily of as the next guy. Way to not overcome it. You should put your ignorance in check, as well as your limited, uneducated world view and personal politics.
Nothing compares to the gentle, lilting, swish-swixh noise as your Commodore spends fifteen minutes booting a text type adventure from a audio cassette. It's as calming as a whale song.
Objectivity does not exist. Everyone, every reporter, every editor, approaches a story from an angle, whether a personal one derived from years of experience, or a collective one that comes from economic or political demands. It is essential that independent writers report and analyse truthful information without exaggeration, but there must be an open acknowledgement that different sources will skew descriptions based on their own opinions. One need only contrast, say, the Toronto Star, the National Post, and Socialist Worker's description of the same events to recognize this reality.
The scientific method does not exsist. Everyone, every scientist, every kid with a chemistry set approaches the situation differently, whether a personal one derived from years of experience, or a collective one that comes from economic or political demands. It is essential that independent scientists report and analyse accurate information without exaggeration, but there must be an open acknowledgement that different measurements will skew descriptions based on their own opinions. One need only contrast, say, the metric system, the English system, and a system based on the size of the current king's foot to recognize this reality.
Please. You are the one that has lost your objectivity. When you start saying phrases like "a collective that comes from economic or political demands," no wonder you think people cannot be objective. You're lost in your own mind and not making any measurements.
The facts are the facts. They happen. You do your best to report them by finding as much and placing value on time and relevence. I should know. It's asshats like you that think that you can do my job better in five minutes than what has taken me years and thousands of hours to improve.
Journalism is a skill. It can be quantified by its innacurracies and other factors. Some people (cough) think they know, when all they have are crackpot opinions, and think that the every journalist is FOX NEWS. Projection and generalizations like what your superior mind just did makes one a shitty journalist.
It is a scientific method. Or a crime scene method, where you try to whittle it to what the public can take away from it all. Not put in a spin.
It's offensive that you generalize people. That is very, very unjournalistic.
The panelists agreed that blogging and other forms of particpatory journalism don't automatically qualify as journalism, but they did say that it CAN be journalism if journalistic standards and principles are applied.
I would agree with that statement wholeheartedly.
It is not the medium, it is the standard of objectivity that makes a journalist.
As a professional journalist, my answer about the medium is, WHO CARES? It better be accurate, though.
I have friend I know in the news business right now who is a self-incorporated,. professional, web-based journalist who does newspaper gigs every day. His name is Joe White and he works out of Nashville, Tn.
He and I had this discussion a few months ago, and he said that it is more direct, more concise to the information you are interested in, and overall better for what he does.
I find this future proliferation (IT WILL HAPPEN) to be a double edged sword. My argument goes like this:
The Good Side: Anyone can go out and present the news.
The Bad Side: Anyone can go out and present the news.
Currently we are seeing as more people get more outlets to their information, that news is niching very fast. I see it in the future that someone, somewhere will have to certify that these people are not whackos out there that are hunting the news. So here we are, staring it in the face. Already there are news sites that are full of quacks and liars that present what they think a particular group of people want to hear, and then there's everyone else besides FOX NEWS. Really, as a journalist with no declared party politics leanings, I say they and CNN need to be dragged out into the street and beaten. But please, use the bat on Fox.
Really, I see two emerging problems. "Stunt news" and credential issues. Stunt news will be a very big issue. In order to get eyes, you are going to have to get something better than the rest. News is competetive. Imagine the gimmicks that are going to happen when no one taught you ethics, nor does anyone care. Credentialed media will be an issue as well. Any idiot with an opinion that overshadows their ability to stay objective will be out in full force. Why be a political activist when you can be a political journalist?
I personally will probably like the future of journalism, but there are a lot of responsibilities with that power.
This is purely an issue of free speach (linking to information the US government doesn't like) since that is the only thing he has been convicted of.
Hey, do you know of anyone that works as a clerk for the federal government? Maybe a tax accountant or some other mundane job? DO THEY DESERVE TO DIE FOR BEING A CLERK? DO THEY? Free speech? MY ASS!
Do you think that no clerks, secretaries, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, and CHILDREN died when Tim McVeigh decided to declare his personal war on the government? What about all the regular people that were there taking care of some beauracratic paperwork? WHAT ABOUT ALL OF THE INNOCENT CHILDREN IN THE DAYCARE? REMEMBER THE COVER OF THE MAGAZINES WITH THE FIREFIGHTER TAKING THE DYING CHILD OUT OF OKLAHOMA CITY? What did that child have to do with Tim McVeighs agenda? Why do you think that a man (he was 18) espousing attacking government installations and linking explosives information was NOT ADVOCATING WHAT THAT BUTCHER McVEIGH DID?
Yeah, this kid was only hacking and advocating the attack of the US Govt, then linking to explosives. The vast majority of the federal US Gov't, like all governments, are very, very benign. Attack people that are involved in farm subsidies and veterans home loans? When it comes to someone advocating something like that, I tell my local police force one thing... aim for the head.
America, no matter what you say, or think, does not just up and kill dissenters. After all, they only put this guy in jail for a year. In China, we would have never even been talking about this kid. We never would have even known.
Attacking the government will almost always involve collateral damage to innocents. Like a person that takes a gov't desk job should just expect to have to defend their life against the kind of "treachery against the masses" that these, and other idiots on slashdot and everywhere else speak of.
It's almost like saying... take a job at the ATF enforcing tobacco rules? Then we, the socialist a-holes deserve the right to attack and kill you. YOU CAN'T ATTACK. WE ARE OBLIGED TO. That sounds like the best, cleanest, most irrefutable way for my local law enforcement to cap someone to me.
Sounds a little duplicitous, doesn't it? Just like everyone's little friends, Al-Qaeda. "GOD IS ON OUR SIDE SO WE CAN KILL, YOU CAN NOT!"
Home-made explosives hardly ever get their intended targets, but are excellent at hitting innocents.
I really, really tire of complaining about the music industry, and the music industry complaining right back. Personally, for all of the lies, insane justifications, and pure virtriolic hate coming from both sides, I could personally care less anymore if I turn on a radio, or listen to a CD and all I get is static. Never before has so many billions and so many lawsuits come out of such a useless part of our society. People, it is just organized sounds.
Headphones with user end licenses. Internet computers not being allowed to communicate with each other. Capitol hill attorneys. Rock stars that are now internet experts. Music snobs. Federal laws. Soundtracks that cost more than the DVD. Nine thousand lawsuits a day.
The music is crap. The said justifications for overpricing said music is crap. The stealing of music is crap. Consequently, justifying stealing music is crap. It's all crap that is not worth our time.
I think I'm going to go outside to hear the birds chirping with a little highway noise arpeggio in the background. Unless I am not allowed to anymore. I am not listening to any more CDs than what I have. I am not downloading a thing ever again. I am not listening to the radio anymore.
I choose to not participate anymore in any of this. If it bankrupts a company or two, if some kids go to jail over some tunes, so be it. But no one is getting my money, support, or time on this crap ever again.
Press conferences of the future...
on
In-Flight Reboot?
·
· Score: 2, Funny
"The State Dept. would like to report that it is doing its best to retrieve Lt. Col. John Bowers from enemy territory right now. Lt. Col. Bowers due to system failure, was forced to Ctrl-Alt-Del out over southern Liberia earlier this week."
"So in closing your honor, the child saw a ROLLER COASTER in the back yard of another individual, so he HAD NO CHOICE to climb the fence, cover the barb wire with a pillowcase, throw meat to the dogs, sneak out at the property at night, chloroform the owner of the house, and steal the proper keys to get the device running. It is that injury that makes the defendant liable for all the injuries and damages up to $17 million that my client has asked for."
"We the jury, being too stupid to understand personal injury, award the plaintiff's family with indentured servitude and all of his assets, including the rollercoaster and time for the defendant to make the safe function of said rollercoaster, to the plaintiff's family."
Slashdot Mirror
(SARCASM)
Half-Life 2 won't sell well at all, considering that everyone I know hasn't heard about it.
Yeah, I am ecstatic for the new Dave Mirra game to come out.
(Sarcasm off)
And now I get the news that my Nvidia card sucks ass. This half-life thing is gonna run my budget into the ground. Crap.
Telemarketers alledge that they create several billion dollars in sales every year, several billion dollars that will go up in smoke in October.
Yeah, and the Russians said that they had several thousand nukes pointed at the US in the Cold War, well, technically they did.
Many, many, many of the silos had water in them up to the missile in the bottom, thus, when launching, would have killed all of the people launching them and left a missile with a nuke on top in burning in a hole in the ground and thirty minutes of rocket fuel burning there with it.
Lighting those suckers would have caused ecological disaster for the USSR.
The lesson here?
Never, ever, ever, trust the information given to you by your enemies. Do you expect North Korea to tell you the truth when threatening you? Expect enemy information to be overinflated. Or downright bogus.
And actually you can move right on in to California now, since the retarded state gov is basically trying abolish all immigration law. Come on over!
What is happening in CA is the definition of critical mass.
California is now being overrun by Mexicans, who want to live well but instead turn it into "new new" Mexico. Then when the property values plummet, there is no money and infrastructure to allow such a lifestyle, they will be moving to the Midwest in droves to unintentionally destroy its infrastructure and educational system, and taking all of the jobs away for crap wages and sucking up government services at a rate that we cannot even possibly pay for.
The Mexicans have proved that NO ONE WANTS TO LIVE IN MEXICO. And I'll be damned if they aren't turning California into Mexico right now. Who's next?
This is what happens when you let a group in that doesn't want to integrate into the society, but instead have a goal that has nothing to do with the other half. When the population gets high enough, the society takes an off ramp. Just like California is right now.
"La Raza!"
You'd be well informed to learn what that means. It is an exclusionary statement. I saw it everywhere in California.
So all of you that may get mad at what I said, I ain't no gringo. I may be white, but I speak Spanish almost fluently. SO IF YOU THINK THAT I AM SOME REACTIONARY REDNECK, think again.
I just see it for what it is.
"Made for Windows users age 3 and up."
-by Playskool
I can see where all of this is going. This truly is heading to the mall scene in Minority Report.
BUT IT JUST GETS EVEN WORSE...
So you walk past a sensor in the mall wearing a pair of jeans with a RFID so small that you can't find it and never will, and all of the sudden you have an ad popping up for whatever market they sell your jeans to.
Better yet, when someone commits a heinous crime in that mall, a lot of sensors will have a record of the type of jeans and shirt anyone, including a criminal was wearing leaving a crime scene. HOW WONDERFUL! Imagine what happens when you are in the neighborhood wearing the same or similar tennis shoes and jeans combo! Regardless of who you are, the cops are going to come and question you! Probably take you downtown for a little questioning. Screw with your life for a bit. Shake you around. INSTANT PROBABLE CAUSE... after all "he was in the same area a few days later wearing the same type of jeans and shoes, your honor. And we have a homicide that is unsolved in the area."
Suddenly, you get busted for a crime you didn't commit!
You may call me a paranoiac but remember all of those people that have been in prison all of those years that have DNA evidence that conclusively proves that they weren't rapists. Trust me, there is nothing out of bounds that a cop will use to solve a murder case. NOTHING. That is not what a cop does. A cop hunts out crime. If he slaps cuffs on the wrong man, well, that is the court's responsibility to make sure it was the wrong guy, not the cop's responsibility. Also, cops do a little game called "courting you to death," like if you piss them off giving you a court summons (costing you hundreds of dollars) for a parking ticket, and messing with your life in a court appearance. You really don't want to defend yourself in a 'you vs. the cop' situation. It never, ever works. Most are good, but jerks are the ones that give me the willies.
Remember when cops were using thermal imaging guns to look into people's houses and checking electric bills to see if they were creating illegal grow operations? Think about it. THIS IS PROFILING HEAVEN. MORE DATA MEANS MORE PROFILING. The best part, you can't find out that they are profiling you. The cops pull you over for a bad turn signal, when all the while they are looking for a couple of key things, like the perfectly legal ammo you just bought at the gun store to take back to your ranch. Argue with them? GO TO JAIL. OR GO TO COURT AND PAY COSTS AND WASTE YOUR TIME.
It is not a matter of if this technology will be abused, it is simply a matter of when. You should look at history to see that. Evidence of it is everywhere even in the most polite societies.
How soon will it be after this stuff that some corporation starts walking people through your neighborhood with directional transmitters and antennas, and when you buy a Papa John's pizza, the next two days a Pizza Hut coupon is pinned to your front door or comes in your mailbox? Corporations are are not going to worry about the ethics of what they are doing. They are simply going to do them to sell you more pizza near their store to cut costs and sell more. It is now just going to make this world full of PHYSICAL SPAM.
Trust me, when the person in the mall with the clipboard seeks you out and says that she has a product that is better than the one you just purchased and is sitting in your bag, YOU'LL HATE IT. Either way, they'll be grifting your data... and you'll be paying for it.
If you hate it when Radio Shack asks you your fucking address when you buy a coax cable, then you'll really, really love what is around the corner.
Arthur C. Clarke thought we'd be to Saturn by now, and we probably would be if we'd kept up what we were doing in the 60's.
If our governments kept everything up at the rate they were in the 60s, humanity would have been replaced by a series of radioactive craters by now.
All things change for a reason.
Is there a way to mark this entire thread as -1 Troll, just before all of the PC and console zealots arrive? I can smell them coming.
It would be a kind of flashing warning sign to others entering into the thread. Ya know, safety purposes.
Didn't know that info.
Good stuff. I just thought that all of this hydrogen stuff was bunk... I stand corrected.
And happily corrected at that.
Thanks again.
The day will come, maybe in just a few decades, when every building has its own fuel cell, connected to a low-pressure hydrogen line.
Ahhh, but the day will never, ever come where the laws of thermodynamics will stop, creating a way to not lose copius amounts of energy creating hydrogen. Can't get more out than you put in. Never going to so much as break even. Water is a very, very sound molecule. It doesn't even come close to trying to break it for energy. There is no energy solution, because we're talking the first law of thermodynamics, and we're talking basic science. Sounds great. "We've got whole oceans here!" So is it really going to be that much better if we went to it?
What about other chemical processes? Unless you want wholesale ecological disaster in exchange for your Playstation 2 time, I cannot imagine it. Acids? Bases? What else just makes a LARGE, CONSUMABLE AMOUNT OF H2? It would be great for a camp stove, but what about whole cities?
You can't flip a molecule and make water into hydrogen and oxygen so easily. Water is the ANTI-FUEL. It's not gasoline that is waiting to combust. It's a real nightmare to try to get the energy back. Electrolysis just doesn't cut it. We'd really need a magic bullet with hydrogen.
Are hydrogen lines better than power lines?
IMHO It's never been about the resource, it is all about the energy you consume. We need to learn to lower our overall energy usage. That is my solution to all of this.
Hydrogen sounds like the greatest idea ever, too bad physics doesn't seem to back it up, at least right now.
Actually, you just took it out of context.
That is still not an argument.
I was explaining that you should not think that way.
"Pull US troops out of the Holy Land of Mecca!" How many months do you think it would be before popular demand to remove troops from Mecca would be deafening?
How many months do you think it would be before popular demand changed the government in charge of the Holy City of Mecca? How many months of coordinated attacks would it take before there would be a new foreign policy with the Holy City of Mecca or there would be a smoking crater there replacing the Holy City of Mecca.
Terrorists don't work alone. Period. Especially not in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, or Pakistan.
I do believe that we would start putting "the pressure" on them just as fast as they would on us. Perhaps in a more organized, more overt way. Blowing up civilians is hardly a good strategy for attacking a government with a poorly concieved "destruction of your civilization" strategy. Killing innocents just precipitates full scale war. If you didn't notice, we went through the 5th largest army in the world like a hot knife through butter. No one in the Middle East had as many arms as Saddam. To them and their idiotic ideals of destroying us, I say good luck. You're going to need it.
Trust me, if push comes to shove, we would execute the captured terrorists and bury them upside down with bibles and female clothing covered in pig blood if the shit gets too hectic. If they think that ANY GROUP (much less the Israelis or the Americans) are pussies that won't get extreme enough to defend ourselves from sociopaths? Then well, they have a lot to learn from the history of all humanity throughout all time. People, or civilizations just don't up and cry and say, "We're sorry. We'll be creating that Islamic utopia for you right now, sir."
This terrorism shit does not work. It doesn't bring about anything. It just kills. Their plan is good for a few whack jobs. But ultimately, it accomplishes nothing related to their goal.
I think many of you overestimate your enemies and underestimate your own resolve to survive them.
Or is Pyongyang laughing themselves silly about the blackouts right now?
The maps look just like N. Korea does every night.
OUCH.
What I said was the general mentality of most people in the US that what they do is just and right, and rest of the world is war hungry, terrorist, etc.
Now you are generalizing. Yes, ALL OF AMERICA THINKS THE WAY YOU THINK IT DOES.
Well, I'm an American and I don't agree. Your return argument cannot be "well Americans think like that and that is it. You didn't hear me right." Boo hoo. You got shot down, Mr. Generalizations.
You speak of the "general mentality" like they are all useless people, or the "sheeple" that all of you 1337 geniuses are above. Well, my suggestion is that you get your manbreasts off of the keyboard, and get a girlfriend and a wife. God knows I got a beautiful wife with a PhD, so you can pre-emptively shut the fuck up.
You're an asshat. You and all of the other people in this world that divide us into camps are the cause of all of these problems. Generalizing leads to propaganda posters. Us vs. Them mentalities lead to attack. You respond to a specific problem with a specific answer. Don't think that if your sweeping generalizations about others somehow magically took effect, that the humanity would change one bit.
You, my friend, and all of your elitist friends should attempt a coup if you know that you are SO DAMN MUCH BETTER THAN YOUR FELLOW, UNINFORMED, LOWLIFE HUMANITY THAT YOU LIVE WITH.
I just had a conversation this evening with one of the most articulate men I have ever met. Timely and topical. Interesting. AND HOMELESS. So take that "the general mentality of most people in the US" and shove it straight up your ass.
All the blessings in the world to you now that you are out from under Soviet rule.
Many of us in America hoped for that day. Many of us knew how good our lives were and wished happiness to the rest of the world. I am happy you are free.
May you enjoy and love the life of your choosing that many of us in America do not appreciate as much as you do.
The space race was a cleverly designed PR piece that told the rest of the world that we could put a very large missile wherever we wanted it, whether in space, or on the moon, or in Moscow in a half-hour. Let there be no bones about it. If you saw what we spent on NASA vs. balistic missile testing, your jaw would drop.
By the way, the USSR was doing, and trying to do, the exact same thing we were.
Spare me the anti-US rhetoric about my country always being a bunch of bullies and the rest of the world a bunch of well-meaning space teletubbies. It is just plain ignorant of history... both of my nation and the history of man's aggression in general. "Big dog" politics has been happening since before humans could write. Mankind has always had useless demonization of the other tribe, which you are now guily of as the next guy. Way to not overcome it. You should put your ignorance in check, as well as your limited, uneducated world view and personal politics.
Does the sleek design and trim size prevent your kitchen table from wobbling after you accidentally drop it for the first time, or the second time?
(Personally, carrying around a $300+ hard drive scares the living crap out of old butterfingers here.)
Nothing compares to the gentle, lilting, swish-swixh noise as your Commodore spends fifteen minutes booting a text type adventure from a audio cassette. It's as calming as a whale song.
Don't forget to be kind and rewind.
NOW THAT'S STORAGE!
Objectivity does not exist. Everyone, every reporter, every editor, approaches a story from an angle, whether a personal one derived from years of experience, or a collective one that comes from economic or political demands. It is essential that independent writers report and analyse truthful information without exaggeration, but there must be an open acknowledgement that different sources will skew descriptions based on their own opinions. One need only contrast, say, the Toronto Star, the National Post, and Socialist Worker's description of the same events to recognize this reality.
The scientific method does not exsist. Everyone, every scientist, every kid with a chemistry set approaches the situation differently, whether a personal one derived from years of experience, or a collective one that comes from economic or political demands. It is essential that independent scientists report and analyse accurate information without exaggeration, but there must be an open acknowledgement that different measurements will skew descriptions based on their own opinions. One need only contrast, say, the metric system, the English system, and a system based on the size of the current king's foot to recognize this reality.
Please. You are the one that has lost your objectivity. When you start saying phrases like "a collective that comes from economic or political demands," no wonder you think people cannot be objective. You're lost in your own mind and not making any measurements.
The facts are the facts. They happen. You do your best to report them by finding as much and placing value on time and relevence. I should know. It's asshats like you that think that you can do my job better in five minutes than what has taken me years and thousands of hours to improve.
Journalism is a skill. It can be quantified by its innacurracies and other factors. Some people (cough) think they know, when all they have are crackpot opinions, and think that the every journalist is FOX NEWS. Projection and generalizations like what your superior mind just did makes one a shitty journalist.
It is a scientific method. Or a crime scene method, where you try to whittle it to what the public can take away from it all. Not put in a spin.
It's offensive that you generalize people. That is very, very unjournalistic.
The panelists agreed that blogging and other forms of particpatory journalism don't automatically qualify as journalism, but they did say that it CAN be journalism if journalistic standards and principles are applied.
I would agree with that statement wholeheartedly.
It is not the medium, it is the standard of objectivity that makes a journalist.
As a professional journalist, my answer about the medium is, WHO CARES? It better be accurate, though.
I have friend I know in the news business right now who is a self-incorporated,. professional, web-based journalist who does newspaper gigs every day. His name is Joe White and he works out of Nashville, Tn.
He and I had this discussion a few months ago, and he said that it is more direct, more concise to the information you are interested in, and overall better for what he does.
I find this future proliferation (IT WILL HAPPEN) to be a double edged sword. My argument goes like this:
The Good Side: Anyone can go out and present the news.
The Bad Side: Anyone can go out and present the news.
Currently we are seeing as more people get more outlets to their information, that news is niching very fast. I see it in the future that someone, somewhere will have to certify that these people are not whackos out there that are hunting the news. So here we are, staring it in the face. Already there are news sites that are full of quacks and liars that present what they think a particular group of people want to hear, and then there's everyone else besides FOX NEWS. Really, as a journalist with no declared party politics leanings, I say they and CNN need to be dragged out into the street and beaten. But please, use the bat on Fox.
Really, I see two emerging problems. "Stunt news" and credential issues. Stunt news will be a very big issue. In order to get eyes, you are going to have to get something better than the rest. News is competetive. Imagine the gimmicks that are going to happen when no one taught you ethics, nor does anyone care. Credentialed media will be an issue as well. Any idiot with an opinion that overshadows their ability to stay objective will be out in full force. Why be a political activist when you can be a political journalist?
I personally will probably like the future of journalism, but there are a lot of responsibilities with that power.
This is purely an issue of free speach (linking to information the US government doesn't like) since that is the only thing he has been convicted of.
Hey, do you know of anyone that works as a clerk for the federal government? Maybe a tax accountant or some other mundane job? DO THEY DESERVE TO DIE FOR BEING A CLERK? DO THEY? Free speech? MY ASS!
Do you think that no clerks, secretaries, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, and CHILDREN died when Tim McVeigh decided to declare his personal war on the government? What about all the regular people that were there taking care of some beauracratic paperwork? WHAT ABOUT ALL OF THE INNOCENT CHILDREN IN THE DAYCARE? REMEMBER THE COVER OF THE MAGAZINES WITH THE FIREFIGHTER TAKING THE DYING CHILD OUT OF OKLAHOMA CITY? What did that child have to do with Tim McVeighs agenda? Why do you think that a man (he was 18) espousing attacking government installations and linking explosives information was NOT ADVOCATING WHAT THAT BUTCHER McVEIGH DID?
Yeah, this kid was only hacking and advocating the attack of the US Govt, then linking to explosives. The vast majority of the federal US Gov't, like all governments, are very, very benign. Attack people that are involved in farm subsidies and veterans home loans? When it comes to someone advocating something like that, I tell my local police force one thing... aim for the head.
America, no matter what you say, or think, does not just up and kill dissenters. After all, they only put this guy in jail for a year. In China, we would have never even been talking about this kid. We never would have even known.
Attacking the government will almost always involve collateral damage to innocents. Like a person that takes a gov't desk job should just expect to have to defend their life against the kind of "treachery against the masses" that these, and other idiots on slashdot and everywhere else speak of.
It's almost like saying... take a job at the ATF enforcing tobacco rules? Then we, the socialist a-holes deserve the right to attack and kill you. YOU CAN'T ATTACK. WE ARE OBLIGED TO. That sounds like the best, cleanest, most irrefutable way for my local law enforcement to cap someone to me.
Sounds a little duplicitous, doesn't it? Just like everyone's little friends, Al-Qaeda. "GOD IS ON OUR SIDE SO WE CAN KILL, YOU CAN NOT!"
Home-made explosives hardly ever get their intended targets, but are excellent at hitting innocents.
Hey, be quiet over there! You can't vote in prison! We are counting the days, so keep your head down for a bit.
Anyone else tired of talking about this subject?
I really, really tire of complaining about the music industry, and the music industry complaining right back. Personally, for all of the lies, insane justifications, and pure virtriolic hate coming from both sides, I could personally care less anymore if I turn on a radio, or listen to a CD and all I get is static. Never before has so many billions and so many lawsuits come out of such a useless part of our society. People, it is just organized sounds.
Headphones with user end licenses. Internet computers not being allowed to communicate with each other. Capitol hill attorneys. Rock stars that are now internet experts. Music snobs. Federal laws. Soundtracks that cost more than the DVD. Nine thousand lawsuits a day.
The music is crap. The said justifications for overpricing said music is crap. The stealing of music is crap. Consequently, justifying stealing music is crap. It's all crap that is not worth our time.
I think I'm going to go outside to hear the birds chirping with a little highway noise arpeggio in the background. Unless I am not allowed to anymore. I am not listening to any more CDs than what I have. I am not downloading a thing ever again. I am not listening to the radio anymore.
I choose to not participate anymore in any of this. If it bankrupts a company or two, if some kids go to jail over some tunes, so be it. But no one is getting my money, support, or time on this crap ever again.
"The State Dept. would like to report that it is doing its best to retrieve Lt. Col. John Bowers from enemy territory right now. Lt. Col. Bowers due to system failure, was forced to Ctrl-Alt-Del out over southern Liberia earlier this week."
"So in closing your honor, the child saw a ROLLER COASTER in the back yard of another individual, so he HAD NO CHOICE to climb the fence, cover the barb wire with a pillowcase, throw meat to the dogs, sneak out at the property at night, chloroform the owner of the house, and steal the proper keys to get the device running. It is that injury that makes the defendant liable for all the injuries and damages up to $17 million that my client has asked for."
"We the jury, being too stupid to understand personal injury, award the plaintiff's family with indentured servitude and all of his assets, including the rollercoaster and time for the defendant to make the safe function of said rollercoaster, to the plaintiff's family."
"Case closed."