Only the Federal Government could spend one billion dollars to make something that already exists, and fail.
But my favorite part? There are nearly 2.5 million active and reserve members of the military. Amazon sells a three license copy of Quickbooks Pro 2013 for $400. Just sayin'
Hey now, slow down and look at the order of events. He can't possibly be for stripping someone of a 'right' they never had. Marriage is not a right. Even if it were, he isn't against allowing gays to marry, he's against the idea of letting them marry members of the same sex. He thinks that is bad for society, and for the soul of the individual. I don't think that's the case, but I'm not going to deny him, or you, the right to express his opinion.
Now, if the enemy in Enders Game was the interstellar gay conspiracy, none of us would have ever read it. Are the buggers gay? (that bugger is British slang for anal sex is, I think, just a coincidence)
Maybe it shouldn't be legally defined. Civil unions all around, leave marriage to religion.
But you bring up the benefits. Is marriage about love or government benefits? If the latter, then the entire issue is just homosexuals being greedy. If the former, what's the problem?
Card isn't a bigot, he's deeply religious. There is difference between being a rabid homophobe and believing that certain behavior is morally wrong. And he is a deeply moral person.
Personally, I don't believe in god or that homosexuality is wrong. But that doesn't mean I think someone who has spent as much time as he did as a missionary helping people in third world countries should be lambasted for his religion. Nor do I see how it is possible to do so without exposing oneself as a bigot.
So unless he's a member of Westboro Baptist, I'll just go ahead and assume that he adheres to the Christian principal of "hate the sin, love the sinner".
Hunter S. Thompson was a violent, selfish, drug addicted prick who once curbed a man for insulting him in a bar. That doesn't mean that he can't be one of my favorite writers. Hemingway was a violent drunk. Rousseau was a gigolo.
And treating people as less than human? That is a fallacy. If he thought homosexuals were less than human, they wouldn't be subject to Christian morals.
How many of us nerds lived for Enders Game when we were growing up? It's a damn good book. So good, I wouldn't care if he was a scientologist. Besides, this is America. We're allowed to believe in any crazy thing we want.
Here's an idea, though it requires some pre-planning. Don't store your passwords, store how you come up with them.
Passwords are usually 8-16 characters, letters, numbers and perhaps special characters. Thanks to XKCD, we all know (if you don't read it but youre here, there's something wrong with you) the best passwords are several short words. So, if you want secure, unguessable passwords, grab a book.
Let's take Dick and Jane for an example. Page 3, line 1 - See Dick Run. So, 3SeeDickRun is one of your passwords. If its a long book, note inside the cover how you derive your passwords, sections you used etc.
Of course, this is not much help when it comes to storing passwords if you don't already generate them thusly. And no, I don't have a copy of Dick and Jane, so that page number is just a guess.
QR codes allow for pretty high density, but since I assume you mean some sort of e-ink display, I don't get why you'd have to scan it.
Besides, wouldn't you still have to keep it powered?
EMTALA didn't go into effect until the 90's. Healthcare costs had been exploding for decades prior.
Healthcare costs are rising likely due to a combination of rapidly increasing demand and poorly thought out (well intentioned, but with dangerous side effects) government interventions. Obamacare is already a great example of the latter.
There is a fundamentally flawed assumption here. You are stating that the rich actively desire, and work towards, the impoverishment of everyone else.
That is patently absurd.
For one, the economy is not a zero sum game. One person doing well does not mean someone else must suffer.
Second, the idea that a business would want to keep its customers poor is utterly nonsensical. Consumers with rising incomes purchase more.
While there is more than enough shortsighted greed going around humanity, and not limited to the wealthy, you have to have a pretty dim view of the world to make the assumptions indicated.
Well... Given the right set of conditions it could be considered an act of war, but in 99% of cases it won't be. Think of it like fighting words (weak analogy, I know); if I tell you to go f*** yourself, you may take that as justification for punching me in the face, but unless you are already looking to do so it is not that likely.
The real consequence of getting caught peeping on your neighbor (if you are a nation) is that it gives them leverage against you. So whatever advantage you hoped to gain through espionage is turned against you.
While I find your prediction to be far less likely than the probability that you are simply a paranoid, the mere fact that it is possible suggests that we need to put some serious checks on how intel is gathered and used.
Paranoid weirdos play an important social role in keeping an eye on government. Of course, when they end up with leadership roles within the government, they just make things worse.
I wonder, is paranoia more than evolutionary survival instincts gone haywire, or does it play a beneficial role in society? Perhaps one that may even be selected for?
Well, intelligence gathering activities tend to violate the laws of the nation it is gathered from, not the nation doing the gathering. But that's not exactly a shock.
Nations are nosy neighbors. There's more spying and gossiping then a meeting of a neighborhood book group. It's something that may outrage the people of the nations involved, but the governments expect it. Israel, an American semi-dependant state, spies on their closest friend and ally all the time. And, vice versa. It's like masturbating in front of the homeless - everyone does it, but it's embarassing to get caught.
While I normally support medical research even at the expense of lab animals, this goes too far! I have never seen such an obvious case of animal cruelty!
How dare these monsters jam a device into this poor rabbit's eye when they so crassly admit that it is FOUR TIMES THE WIDTH OF A HARE!!!
How did they even manage that? An elasticized skull?
Don't assume it's just stubborness. The GOP isn't against green energy, they are against spending money we don't have on it, or making our current sources of energy more expensive. In some cases, they would rather forego the short term benefit to their home state due to the long term cost to the rest of the country (yeah, some of them are that decent. Statistically, at least two.)
Maybe we should find something that actually makes economic sense before we add another trillion to our national debt.
Hear hear!
What I'm most curious about is the pipeline. How exactly are they going to calculate its net effect on carbon emissions? Better yet, why do they think it needs study?
Oil from Canada is going to be burned. If it doesn't go through the pipeline, it needs to be shipped via supertanker. So, whatever moves the oil without needing fuel to do so is going to be the most Eco-friendly option.
No study needed, just logic.
Of course, government has no room for logic.
Obama was getting viewer data from cable companies??
No wonder the data being gathered by the NSA under his leadership has exploded. Data privacy clearly means nothing to him.
Data -> information -> knowledge -> power. Somebody has too much.
(Power -> corruption)
The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk?? Best name ever!
I'm glad such a thing exists for reasons other than a cool name, naturally. It is, after all, a pretty important field of study.
Bastards or no, that's really not fair to the insurance companies. Big Brother watches so as to control. Insurance companies would want to watch so as to know what your premium should be. And at least one already offer it as a service that can lower your bill.
As for DVRs, I want that info to go to Nielsen! I want broadcasters, and in a strange twist, advertisers, to know what I'm watching!! Why? I want to make sure my shows don't get cancelled.
Better yet, kill two birds with one stone. We want mars to not have perchlorate in the soil. We want mars to have oxygen floating around, not in the soil. You get energy from reducing chlorates, you need energy to split oxygen from iron.
It's clear where I'm going with this, right?
How exactly are we to do that without growing and developing? Would you expect to be awarded a PhD without graduating high school?
The idea that we are not worthy, or that we should focus on "solving our problems here", is absurd. The solution is in the doing.
So long as the supply of anything is less than what is demanded, be it food, power, living space or the pretty girl down the street, there will be conflict and sometimes it will be violent.
Now, while there will always be a "Red Queen's dilemma", some form of expansion is the only way to ensure that supply will keep pace with demand. Off planet expansion is an obvious way to go.
Also, going extra-terrestrial would provide a wonderful release for tensions here at home. Of course all the natural human tensions will play out wherever we go, but decreasing the density of human population will reduce the severity.
So, obviously immortality would have massive consequences here. If people stop dying, resources will become increasingly scarce. And then there will be the tensions rising from who has access to the tech. Solution? Want to be immortal? Leave. Free immortality for anyone that wants to go terraform Mars.
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But my favorite part? There are nearly 2.5 million active and reserve members of the military. Amazon sells a three license copy of Quickbooks Pro 2013 for $400. Just sayin'
Now, if the enemy in Enders Game was the interstellar gay conspiracy, none of us would have ever read it. Are the buggers gay? (that bugger is British slang for anal sex is, I think, just a coincidence)
But you bring up the benefits. Is marriage about love or government benefits? If the latter, then the entire issue is just homosexuals being greedy. If the former, what's the problem?
Personally, I don't believe in god or that homosexuality is wrong. But that doesn't mean I think someone who has spent as much time as he did as a missionary helping people in third world countries should be lambasted for his religion. Nor do I see how it is possible to do so without exposing oneself as a bigot.
So unless he's a member of Westboro Baptist, I'll just go ahead and assume that he adheres to the Christian principal of "hate the sin, love the sinner".
Hunter S. Thompson was a violent, selfish, drug addicted prick who once curbed a man for insulting him in a bar. That doesn't mean that he can't be one of my favorite writers. Hemingway was a violent drunk. Rousseau was a gigolo.
And treating people as less than human? That is a fallacy. If he thought homosexuals were less than human, they wouldn't be subject to Christian morals.
How many of us nerds lived for Enders Game when we were growing up? It's a damn good book. So good, I wouldn't care if he was a scientologist. Besides, this is America. We're allowed to believe in any crazy thing we want.
1. Abandon it.
2. Find a giant corporation to take it over. If we're lucky, they'll create some sort of cyborg police officer that will solve the crime problem.
Passwords are usually 8-16 characters, letters, numbers and perhaps special characters. Thanks to XKCD, we all know (if you don't read it but youre here, there's something wrong with you) the best passwords are several short words. So, if you want secure, unguessable passwords, grab a book.
Let's take Dick and Jane for an example. Page 3, line 1 - See Dick Run. So, 3SeeDickRun is one of your passwords. If its a long book, note inside the cover how you derive your passwords, sections you used etc.
Of course, this is not much help when it comes to storing passwords if you don't already generate them thusly. And no, I don't have a copy of Dick and Jane, so that page number is just a guess.
QR codes allow for pretty high density, but since I assume you mean some sort of e-ink display, I don't get why you'd have to scan it. Besides, wouldn't you still have to keep it powered?
Healthcare costs are rising likely due to a combination of rapidly increasing demand and poorly thought out (well intentioned, but with dangerous side effects) government interventions. Obamacare is already a great example of the latter.
That is patently absurd.
For one, the economy is not a zero sum game. One person doing well does not mean someone else must suffer.
Second, the idea that a business would want to keep its customers poor is utterly nonsensical. Consumers with rising incomes purchase more.
While there is more than enough shortsighted greed going around humanity, and not limited to the wealthy, you have to have a pretty dim view of the world to make the assumptions indicated.
The real consequence of getting caught peeping on your neighbor (if you are a nation) is that it gives them leverage against you. So whatever advantage you hoped to gain through espionage is turned against you.
While I find your prediction to be far less likely than the probability that you are simply a paranoid, the mere fact that it is possible suggests that we need to put some serious checks on how intel is gathered and used. Paranoid weirdos play an important social role in keeping an eye on government. Of course, when they end up with leadership roles within the government, they just make things worse. I wonder, is paranoia more than evolutionary survival instincts gone haywire, or does it play a beneficial role in society? Perhaps one that may even be selected for?
Yes. Yes they do. Mostly for economic advantage. Trading partners are also competitors.
Well, intelligence gathering activities tend to violate the laws of the nation it is gathered from, not the nation doing the gathering. But that's not exactly a shock. Nations are nosy neighbors. There's more spying and gossiping then a meeting of a neighborhood book group. It's something that may outrage the people of the nations involved, but the governments expect it. Israel, an American semi-dependant state, spies on their closest friend and ally all the time. And, vice versa. It's like masturbating in front of the homeless - everyone does it, but it's embarassing to get caught.
While I normally support medical research even at the expense of lab animals, this goes too far! I have never seen such an obvious case of animal cruelty! How dare these monsters jam a device into this poor rabbit's eye when they so crassly admit that it is FOUR TIMES THE WIDTH OF A HARE!!! How did they even manage that? An elasticized skull?
Personally, I like to believe that homosexuality is in fact supernatural and/or the work of the devil. Because that makes it so much hotter!
Don't assume it's just stubborness. The GOP isn't against green energy, they are against spending money we don't have on it, or making our current sources of energy more expensive. In some cases, they would rather forego the short term benefit to their home state due to the long term cost to the rest of the country (yeah, some of them are that decent. Statistically, at least two.)
Maybe we should find something that actually makes economic sense before we add another trillion to our national debt.
Hear hear! What I'm most curious about is the pipeline. How exactly are they going to calculate its net effect on carbon emissions? Better yet, why do they think it needs study? Oil from Canada is going to be burned. If it doesn't go through the pipeline, it needs to be shipped via supertanker. So, whatever moves the oil without needing fuel to do so is going to be the most Eco-friendly option. No study needed, just logic. Of course, government has no room for logic.
Obama was getting viewer data from cable companies?? No wonder the data being gathered by the NSA under his leadership has exploded. Data privacy clearly means nothing to him. Data -> information -> knowledge -> power. Somebody has too much. (Power -> corruption)
The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk?? Best name ever! I'm glad such a thing exists for reasons other than a cool name, naturally. It is, after all, a pretty important field of study.
Bastards or no, that's really not fair to the insurance companies. Big Brother watches so as to control. Insurance companies would want to watch so as to know what your premium should be. And at least one already offer it as a service that can lower your bill. As for DVRs, I want that info to go to Nielsen! I want broadcasters, and in a strange twist, advertisers, to know what I'm watching!! Why? I want to make sure my shows don't get cancelled.
Hardware positioning, occlusion and effects... It makes me sad every day that I have all this unused processing capacity sitting on my X-fi.
Better yet, kill two birds with one stone. We want mars to not have perchlorate in the soil. We want mars to have oxygen floating around, not in the soil. You get energy from reducing chlorates, you need energy to split oxygen from iron. It's clear where I'm going with this, right?
How exactly are we to do that without growing and developing? Would you expect to be awarded a PhD without graduating high school? The idea that we are not worthy, or that we should focus on "solving our problems here", is absurd. The solution is in the doing.
So long as the supply of anything is less than what is demanded, be it food, power, living space or the pretty girl down the street, there will be conflict and sometimes it will be violent. Now, while there will always be a "Red Queen's dilemma", some form of expansion is the only way to ensure that supply will keep pace with demand. Off planet expansion is an obvious way to go. Also, going extra-terrestrial would provide a wonderful release for tensions here at home. Of course all the natural human tensions will play out wherever we go, but decreasing the density of human population will reduce the severity. So, obviously immortality would have massive consequences here. If people stop dying, resources will become increasingly scarce. And then there will be the tensions rising from who has access to the tech. Solution? Want to be immortal? Leave. Free immortality for anyone that wants to go terraform Mars.
Games