And just one contest won't change much. Unlike space travel, this isn't unexplored territory that we're covering here. All the low hanging fruit was found and picked long ago. All the improvements you will see will be incremental and slow in coming.
In my ideal world, they would hold a NASCAR race where each car got just a little less fuel than necessary to finish the race (next year, each car would get a liter less if someone finishes with a running engine). A protected foot track on the inside would allow drivers to finish the race on foot if they ran out of gas. Remove the idiotic restrictor plate rule that has made it the most boring "sport" ever created.
The pressure now is to get within running distance first. Power is still important. Speed is important. Actually finishing is important.
Not only would this be good for the environment when you see some of the most gifted engineers in the world being struggling for new ways to save fuel, but it would also be good for NASCAR.
-The Greenies would just have to STFU. -Drivers would now deserve the title "athlete". -Different strategies would spread the cars out, and actually allow a surprise finish occasionally (vs the current "moving clump" they like to call a race). -The sport would actually become mildly interesting, because you won't know if a driver is hanging back to conserve fuel and make a big push at the end, or if the leader has some new technology that is going to allow him to stretch his fuel out and maintain it till the end.
When discussing evolution, natural selection, abiogenesis, cosmology, climatology etc. just don't be jerks. Speak with a level head and a personable tone. Speak to what you can prove scientifcally, and don't make things personal by introducing subjectivity.
Just stick with what is in bold and you'll do fine. I can tell someone that the world is 6,000 years old or 6 billion years old. Both are just numbers, and for the vast majority of people, one is a good as the other (because, neither will change the results of the American Idol poll). If you can't explain where the number comes from, save your breath. All your are doing is appealing to authority, and your appeal is not better to them than the local shaman. It's actually not that difficult to connect the dots and show how a number is arrived at, and people tend to be responsive to "I can explain." They are not responsive to, "I'm way to smart for you. So much so, that you'll never be able to understand how I arrived at my conclusion, so just accept it."
Using any other sort of persuasion technique is a disservice to all the scientist that have preceded us. Science is not about people convincing people. It is about data convincing people.
It is people like you who form the remaining 22% support base for Bush & Co.
Please don't try to pin this on Bush, et.al. Clinton pushed this just as much.
In fact, I see no difference between Obama, Clinton, McCain, Huckabby, or Edwards. Every one of them have the same answer to every social...more power for the Federal government. One says that he is going to raise revenue to fund the program by cutting taxes, the other claims she will only tax the 'rich', but they all want new programs on top of old programs. Centralized power, of which this is just a symptom, is the crack cocaine of every society. It looks so innocent, and give such a rush of euphoria when first used. But it quickly wears off, needing replenishment, and lays waste to the body in short order.
The point is, don't blame it on Bush or the people who voted for him. Blame on people who would vote for a candidate's whose only answer to every problem is MORE centralized power.
I've worked in telecom for years now writing code to operate the hardware.
Every single design for a new piece of telecom equipment includes provisions for lawful intercept. That provision working is more important than any other piece of the system. It can ship even if it is rebooting every 24 hours, but it won't ship if lawful intercept isn't working 100%.
But what if the software was a simulation of controlling something with a stick?
A flight simulator requires pressure feedback to be effective. I use Xplane to practice landings, but only to practice getting the numbers right. The actual flair requires some feedback on how hard you're pushing or pulling the yoke. Getting a proper trim in the simulator is nearly impossible, because you don't know how hard you're pulling or pushing to maintain altitude.
A surgeon uses tools for the most part. His work is experience through the feel of a knife.
Working on CAD would be similar to using a pair of pliers to work on a part.
Expect the price to stay there if Hollis can make sales with it. Some electromagnets and a few LED stuffed in some injection-molded plastic. The manufacturing cost are negligable compared to a joystick which has mechanical parts that are most likely assembled by hand. The magic of this device is in the software control, and the manufacturing cost there are nearly non-existent. Everyone could have two in a few years, for less than the $50 that a really good trackball would cost, except that it is so much more profitable to limit the market with patents.
one must wonder if Rush Limbaugh may have contributed
I just have to wonder if Limbaugh's advice is counterproductive.
From what I've seen in this election cycle, more than any other is that people are basically led around by the talking heads on TV. The will vote for whoever is getting the most press. With the Republican nomination cynched by McCain, the only thing that will be in the news will be Obama/Clinton. Come November, people will be saying, "McCain? Who is that?"
It isn't a matter of the media reporting badly about McCain. It is a matter of them simply overtly shutting him out of the news coverage altogether, like they did with Paul, Kucinich and later Huckabee. The talking-head, 24-hour news cycle is an extremely powerful tool that amounts to free political adds for whoever the network controllers consider a "front-runner", whether that be Giovanni or Thompson. Having Obama/Clinton being the "news of the day" for the next few months will not help McCain.
Are you fucking serious? I would assume that an official trying to help you re-animate a dead identity would perhaps scrutinize the photo a bit closer than, say, a DHS dolt at a window at the airport processing eight hundred people a day.
Why would the the re-animation official have a lower workload than the DHS official? You can't live next to the graveyard and cry at every funeral.
2.Preserving technology, infrastructure and supplies. If you've got something that works, you can't replace it. Do whatever you can to keep it working.
That's what I thought of during the Razor episode, when the Admiral wanted to strip the civilian ships and go fight a guerilla war. What the hell, you idiot? You have working ships and people that can operate them. Those people being of a very small set of remaining humans. Why would you just throw either away. Program the ones with FTL spools that are not compatible with the Pegasus jump in next to a base ship and set off a nuclear device. Outfit them with scanning equipment and have them run scouting missions. Mount weapons on them and have one more gun in the battle. Train the people to be soldiers.
In fact, I find the whole series permeated with the idea that there are 'civilians', helpless and incapable of self defence, and the 'military' who must provide all the needs for the civilians. And, somehow, this is as it should be. Sorry, but this is an all out WAR. Get your ass in gear and learn to shoot. Mount a gun on your ship and lend a hand. Human resources is still any organizations greatest asset. They built one additional ship the whole series. It was used for a few episodes and quickly forgotten. What the hell did everyone else do during all those months in space?
This is obviously a bad idea in terms of property rights, etc, and Euro-US relationship. But it will scar MS for life, since which govt would trust MS if they do that?
There is that point, and then there is the aftermath. A hurricane can kill thousands. The following unsanitary conditions can kill millions.
In the same way, M$ pulls out of EU, with severe scars and loss of sales. That's the hurricane.
The EU turns to open standards. All multi-nationals have to turn to open standards in lockstep (Re: ROHS - a EU standard, but you can't find an electronics supplier that doesn't try to comply). All foreign (to US) governments see what is going on, and turn to open standards (not wanting to be the next in line for "Microsoft's Wrath). EU investment in open-source OS variants pushes the standard to unprecedented heights. Multi-nationals and governments adopt the "new and improved" Linux/BSD/whatever. Cheap box retailers have to install multiple "Linux Lines" to their assembly plants to keep up with the corporate and governmental demand, and the boxes are now slightly cheaper than the M$ boxes (because, they don't have the M$ tax, and the commercial guys pay Dell, et.al. to install the same free-trial/adware on the Linux boxes) M$ would see all foreign and a major portion of domestic sales disappear practically overnight. Microsoft would be irrelevant in 5 years or less.
Yeah, Microsoft could try thumbing their noses at the EU, but they'll be thumbing that nose with a razor knife. We call that "Cutting your nose off to spite your face." It is not considered a smart move by the intelligencia.
It is the problem with humans, we don't want new power installations, we don't want to use less power and we refuse to switch to more economical appliances. Something has to give, but goverment or business is NOT going to do it. Sooner or later it just breaks down (see the LA brownouts) and finally a decission will have to be made.
Which is absolutely the way it should be, because it maximizes efficiency.
-What happens when we spend all the time switching to IPv6, and IP registrations drop off to nothing tomorrow? Right now, IP registrations would be at a peak rate, because no one has them. Everyone wants to get them at once. Once everyone has one, the demand drops to nothing. Projecting current rates into the future is a fool's game. In 2000, the feds were predicting the the US Federal Deficit would be paid off by 2020 or something silly like that. They were using figures from an economy that was on megaSteroids, induced by Y2K buying and an Internet bubble (among other things). It was stupid to predict current economic activity that far into the future, and it is silly to predict the end of IPv4 address on nothing more than current trends.
And that's about what happened. They got something out the door. IMO they got it out the door a little too soon,
And that has always been there culture. "Dump something to get a foothold on the market, even if it is crap." They dissed IBM and pumped Win3.1 onto the market, instead of waiting for OS/2 to finish testing. You'd think that they'd wise up now that they hold a monopoly.
Difference between IBM and Microsoft is that IBM actually had (and still has) a full portfolio. IBM offered a wide range of hardware and software that was of the utmost quality. Microsoft offers an office suite tied to a mediocre operating system that survives on the network effect, and that is still trying to catch up with basic multi-user and security standards that UNIX variants have had for years. They have recently tried to buy their way into other commodity markets, using monopoly cash from their lock-in tactics.
If Microsoft truly interoperates, they will be commoditized out of existence.
Sigh. I get tire of people trotting out the same old excuses for a stupid woman.
Get this straight, "You DON'T hold hot coffee between your legs to add sugar while driving a car." Intelligent people refer to such actions as STUPID, usually with an adjunct such as, "You'll spill hot coffee in your lap, knucklehead." Intelligent adults don't look to the court system to pamper them when they do something stupid, like playing with hot coffee in your lap while operating a motor vehicle, especially when you have the reduce physical reactions of an octogenarian.
McDonald's served thier coffee hot, because that is what customers wanted. That's called RUNNING A CUSTOMER FOCUSSED BUSINESS. My father would go out of his way to buy his coffee from McDonald's, just because they served it hot.
Sears knowingly sells tablesaws that have been known to cut off hands and fingers. Yet they continue to sell them just because people keep buying them. If you told Sears that people have been injured with the saws, I'm sure their response would be along the lines of, "Yeah. So?" So, should someone sue Sears for selling a known potentially harmful item?
I'll agree that money in DC is contributing to corruption. However, the answer is not to limit the money; it's to punish the corruption.
No. I disagree. That leads to the current situation where each party is constantly looking for corruption and scandal, with hearings ad-infinitum. The solution is to make the money irrelevant.
Use the power of the FCC, which requires broadcast stations to serve the "public good". Set aside a time two weeks before each election for a debate. Nothing may be aired on any radio or television station except for the debate. Breaks will be inserted for commercials (broadcasters won't loose any money). Every registered candidate in the viewing/listening area will be allowed to participate. Each will be allowed to enter a equal number of questions. Questions are submitted and shared beforehand, and all candidates will answer all the questions with equal, uninterrupted time. Microphone power is cut at the end of their time. The idea is to create the Superbowl of politics. Advertise all you want, but the true show happens at the one real debate.
This allows alternative parties to have a say, and raise issues normally ignored. This removes the need to fund rediculous and expensive sound-bite campaigns that don't say anything. This gets rid of one candidate being asked serious policy questions, and a second being asked about the beliefs of his/her supporters. A candidate will not HAVE to participate, but they loose a vital platform for getting their message out and everyone will wonder what they are afraid of. No one's free speech is hindered or curtailed in any way. It sort of encourages everyone to participate in the process, as they won't be able to flip over to American Idol. They'll either have to watch/listen to the debate, or actually get up and do something (which would be a good thing for most Americans).
The answer to bad speech is more good speech.
This won't happen without a HUGE grassroots uprising, because the last thing the Republidems want is an actual hones debate.
I bought a DeWalt battery powered drill. The thing lasted nearly 10yrs, but, alas, recently the batteries started showing signs of fatigue. I would charge them up, and only be able to use them for ten minutes or so before it would need charging again. A decade is a mighty fine track record for a set of batteries, so I was happy to get a new DeWalt drill for Father's Day. It came with two sets of batteries. The first one crapped out in about two weeks with a dead cell. The second one will only last for about one good deck screw before needing to be chucked back into the charger.
Question: When you get stuck in the middle of nowhere with a dead battery that you put in your car less than 30 minutes ago, who gets the blame? Capacity testing with these energy levels is NOT a realistic option.
Dude, do you want to bring down our entire political establishment? If your course were followed, we would no longer have American-Idol-esque elections, where the big issues where whether Obama dissed Hillary makes national news. "Hillary crying" would be a non-issue, and Obama wouldn't be able to say he was for change without someone seriously asking, "Change to what?". You couldn't have a presidential debate where one candidates talks about showing foreign nationals the gates of hell, another proposes introducing those nationals to "40 virgins they're looking forward to meeting", and a third is mocked with the question, "Who is talking about war?" Edwards wouldn't be able to claim that 'corporations' have bought off our government, without being asked, "Which ones?", and being pressed for an answer. No one would cheer a "stimulus package" that amounts to an expensive forced loan.
No. Critical thinking must absolutely NOT be taught in school. The next generation must be beaten into the spoon-fed sheople that currently exists.
3. RESERVATION OF RIGHTS AND OWNERSHIP. Microsoft reserves all rights not expressly granted to you in this EULA. The Software is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws and treaties. Microsoft or its suppliers own the title, copyright, and other intellectual property rights in the Software. The Software is licensed, not sold.
The software was sold, under the auspices of UCITA. What Microsoft has to say afterwards makes not one whit of difference. A license would require a second, signed contract, as it is outside the realm covered by UCITA, which is the what controls the sale of goods at retail establishments in the United States (other countries are probably similar, but probably not).
Some other countries (I'm thinking of Germany in particular) have much more stringent consumer protection and false advertising laws. Are software companies allowed to go around proclaiming they have their customers by the balls with this EULA crap.
The EULA doesn't mean a damn thing if you bought a boxed set. It also doesn't mean anything if you bought the computer in a store with a pre-installed version of the OS. The only way the EULA can mean anything is if you sign a copy of it before purchase. That is what the big push for UCITA version 2 was all about.
The legal theory that EULA's are bogus, extortionate tactics has never been tested in court. And it never will be. The people that are pushing such a ridiculous notion know that it is ridiculous and will be dismissed out-of-hand by any competent judge; therefore, they'll never bring suite. Bring suite would show how naked the emperor is.
I worked in construction once. I helped build several houses. Why can't I continue to get paid for the house 95yrs after it is built? People are still making money off of it. Renting it out and speculating on price increases. Selling houses is easy. Hauling wood around on your shoulders is hard. Why is it that I have to continue to work in order to get paid?
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Right on, edmicman.
And just one contest won't change much. Unlike space travel, this isn't unexplored territory that we're covering here. All the low hanging fruit was found and picked long ago. All the improvements you will see will be incremental and slow in coming.
In my ideal world, they would hold a NASCAR race where each car got just a little less fuel than necessary to finish the race (next year, each car would get a liter less if someone finishes with a running engine). A protected foot track on the inside would allow drivers to finish the race on foot if they ran out of gas. Remove the idiotic restrictor plate rule that has made it the most boring "sport" ever created.
The pressure now is to get within running distance first. Power is still important. Speed is important. Actually finishing is important.
Not only would this be good for the environment when you see some of the most gifted engineers in the world being struggling for new ways to save fuel, but it would also be good for NASCAR.
-The Greenies would just have to STFU.
-Drivers would now deserve the title "athlete".
-Different strategies would spread the cars out, and actually allow a surprise finish occasionally (vs the current "moving clump" they like to call a race).
-The sport would actually become mildly interesting, because you won't know if a driver is hanging back to conserve fuel and make a big push at the end, or if the leader has some new technology that is going to allow him to stretch his fuel out and maintain it till the end.
When discussing evolution, natural selection, abiogenesis, cosmology, climatology etc. just don't be jerks. Speak with a level head and a personable tone. Speak to what you can prove scientifcally, and don't make things personal by introducing subjectivity.
Just stick with what is in bold and you'll do fine. I can tell someone that the world is 6,000 years old or 6 billion years old. Both are just numbers, and for the vast majority of people, one is a good as the other (because, neither will change the results of the American Idol poll). If you can't explain where the number comes from, save your breath. All your are doing is appealing to authority, and your appeal is not better to them than the local shaman. It's actually not that difficult to connect the dots and show how a number is arrived at, and people tend to be responsive to "I can explain." They are not responsive to, "I'm way to smart for you. So much so, that you'll never be able to understand how I arrived at my conclusion, so just accept it."
Using any other sort of persuasion technique is a disservice to all the scientist that have preceded us. Science is not about people convincing people. It is about data convincing people.
So just how DO you get a bash prompt to appear on a Windows box?
Install Citrix.
No, their _priorities_ are the same. It's their _tactics_ that differ.
They both want to rob one constituency or another in order to buy votes (and hence, power) from another.
It is people like you who form the remaining 22% support base for Bush & Co.
Please don't try to pin this on Bush, et.al. Clinton pushed this just as much.
In fact, I see no difference between Obama, Clinton, McCain, Huckabby, or Edwards. Every one of them have the same answer to every social...more power for the Federal government. One says that he is going to raise revenue to fund the program by cutting taxes, the other claims she will only tax the 'rich', but they all want new programs on top of old programs. Centralized power, of which this is just a symptom, is the crack cocaine of every society. It looks so innocent, and give such a rush of euphoria when first used. But it quickly wears off, needing replenishment, and lays waste to the body in short order.
The point is, don't blame it on Bush or the people who voted for him. Blame on people who would vote for a candidate's whose only answer to every problem is MORE centralized power.
I've worked in telecom for years now writing code to operate the hardware.
Every single design for a new piece of telecom equipment includes provisions for lawful intercept. That provision working is more important than any other piece of the system. It can ship even if it is rebooting every 24 hours, but it won't ship if lawful intercept isn't working 100%.
But what if the software was a simulation of controlling something with a stick?
A flight simulator requires pressure feedback to be effective. I use Xplane to practice landings, but only to practice getting the numbers right. The actual flair requires some feedback on how hard you're pushing or pulling the yoke. Getting a proper trim in the simulator is nearly impossible, because you don't know how hard you're pulling or pushing to maintain altitude.
A surgeon uses tools for the most part. His work is experience through the feel of a knife.
Working on CAD would be similar to using a pair of pliers to work on a part.
Expect the price to stay there if Hollis can make sales with it. Some electromagnets and a few LED stuffed in some injection-molded plastic. The manufacturing cost are negligable compared to a joystick which has mechanical parts that are most likely assembled by hand. The magic of this device is in the software control, and the manufacturing cost there are nearly non-existent. Everyone could have two in a few years, for less than the $50 that a really good trackball would cost, except that it is so much more profitable to limit the market with patents.
one must wonder if Rush Limbaugh may have contributed
I just have to wonder if Limbaugh's advice is counterproductive.
From what I've seen in this election cycle, more than any other is that people are basically led around by the talking heads on TV. The will vote for whoever is getting the most press. With the Republican nomination cynched by McCain, the only thing that will be in the news will be Obama/Clinton. Come November, people will be saying, "McCain? Who is that?"
It isn't a matter of the media reporting badly about McCain. It is a matter of them simply overtly shutting him out of the news coverage altogether, like they did with Paul, Kucinich and later Huckabee. The talking-head, 24-hour news cycle is an extremely powerful tool that amounts to free political adds for whoever the network controllers consider a "front-runner", whether that be Giovanni or Thompson. Having Obama/Clinton being the "news of the day" for the next few months will not help McCain.
Are you fucking serious? I would assume that an official trying to help you re-animate a dead identity would perhaps scrutinize the photo a bit closer than, say, a DHS dolt at a window at the airport processing eight hundred people a day.
Why would the the re-animation official have a lower workload than the DHS official? You can't live next to the graveyard and cry at every funeral.
2.Preserving technology, infrastructure and supplies. If you've got something that works, you can't replace it. Do whatever you can to keep it working.
That's what I thought of during the Razor episode, when the Admiral wanted to strip the civilian ships and go fight a guerilla war. What the hell, you idiot? You have working ships and people that can operate them. Those people being of a very small set of remaining humans. Why would you just throw either away. Program the ones with FTL spools that are not compatible with the Pegasus jump in next to a base ship and set off a nuclear device. Outfit them with scanning equipment and have them run scouting missions. Mount weapons on them and have one more gun in the battle. Train the people to be soldiers.
In fact, I find the whole series permeated with the idea that there are 'civilians', helpless and incapable of self defence, and the 'military' who must provide all the needs for the civilians. And, somehow, this is as it should be. Sorry, but this is an all out WAR. Get your ass in gear and learn to shoot. Mount a gun on your ship and lend a hand. Human resources is still any organizations greatest asset. They built one additional ship the whole series. It was used for a few episodes and quickly forgotten. What the hell did everyone else do during all those months in space?
This is obviously a bad idea in terms of property rights, etc, and Euro-US relationship. But it will scar MS for life, since which govt would trust MS if they do that?
There is that point, and then there is the aftermath. A hurricane can kill thousands. The following unsanitary conditions can kill millions.
In the same way, M$ pulls out of EU, with severe scars and loss of sales. That's the hurricane.
The EU turns to open standards. All multi-nationals have to turn to open standards in lockstep (Re: ROHS - a EU standard, but you can't find an electronics supplier that doesn't try to comply). All foreign (to US) governments see what is going on, and turn to open standards (not wanting to be the next in line for "Microsoft's Wrath). EU investment in open-source OS variants pushes the standard to unprecedented heights. Multi-nationals and governments adopt the "new and improved" Linux/BSD/whatever. Cheap box retailers have to install multiple "Linux Lines" to their assembly plants to keep up with the corporate and governmental demand, and the boxes are now slightly cheaper than the M$ boxes (because, they don't have the M$ tax, and the commercial guys pay Dell, et.al. to install the same free-trial/adware on the Linux boxes) M$ would see all foreign and a major portion of domestic sales disappear practically overnight. Microsoft would be irrelevant in 5 years or less.
Yeah, Microsoft could try thumbing their noses at the EU, but they'll be thumbing that nose with a razor knife. We call that "Cutting your nose off to spite your face." It is not considered a smart move by the intelligencia.
Damn. I never ask for enough. There I was, happy for a 3-way.
It is the problem with humans, we don't want new power installations, we don't want to use less power and we refuse to switch to more economical appliances. Something has to give, but goverment or business is NOT going to do it. Sooner or later it just breaks down (see the LA brownouts) and finally a decission will have to be made.
Which is absolutely the way it should be, because it maximizes efficiency.
-What happens when we spend all the time switching to IPv6, and IP registrations drop off to nothing tomorrow? Right now, IP registrations would be at a peak rate, because no one has them. Everyone wants to get them at once. Once everyone has one, the demand drops to nothing. Projecting current rates into the future is a fool's game. In 2000, the feds were predicting the the US Federal Deficit would be paid off by 2020 or something silly like that. They were using figures from an economy that was on megaSteroids, induced by Y2K buying and an Internet bubble (among other things). It was stupid to predict current economic activity that far into the future, and it is silly to predict the end of IPv4 address on nothing more than current trends.
And that's about what happened. They got something out the door. IMO they got it out the door a little too soon,
And that has always been there culture. "Dump something to get a foothold on the market, even if it is crap." They dissed IBM and pumped Win3.1 onto the market, instead of waiting for OS/2 to finish testing. You'd think that they'd wise up now that they hold a monopoly.
No, if the company had learned to engineer a product properly, they wouldn't have to lose all that production time...
Here's a hint, you don't code and release a product, then turn around and write the spec for it.
Difference between IBM and Microsoft is that IBM actually had (and still has) a full portfolio. IBM offered a wide range of hardware and software that was of the utmost quality. Microsoft offers an office suite tied to a mediocre operating system that survives on the network effect, and that is still trying to catch up with basic multi-user and security standards that UNIX variants have had for years. They have recently tried to buy their way into other commodity markets, using monopoly cash from their lock-in tactics.
If Microsoft truly interoperates, they will be commoditized out of existence.
Sigh. I get tire of people trotting out the same old excuses for a stupid woman.
Get this straight, "You DON'T hold hot coffee between your legs to add sugar while driving a car." Intelligent people refer to such actions as STUPID, usually with an adjunct such as, "You'll spill hot coffee in your lap, knucklehead." Intelligent adults don't look to the court system to pamper them when they do something stupid, like playing with hot coffee in your lap while operating a motor vehicle, especially when you have the reduce physical reactions of an octogenarian.
McDonald's served thier coffee hot, because that is what customers wanted. That's called RUNNING A CUSTOMER FOCUSSED BUSINESS. My father would go out of his way to buy his coffee from McDonald's, just because they served it hot.
Sears knowingly sells tablesaws that have been known to cut off hands and fingers. Yet they continue to sell them just because people keep buying them. If you told Sears that people have been injured with the saws, I'm sure their response would be along the lines of, "Yeah. So?" So, should someone sue Sears for selling a known potentially harmful item?
I'll agree that money in DC is contributing to corruption. However, the answer is not to limit the money; it's to punish the corruption.
No. I disagree. That leads to the current situation where each party is constantly looking for corruption and scandal, with hearings ad-infinitum. The solution is to make the money irrelevant.
Use the power of the FCC, which requires broadcast stations to serve the "public good". Set aside a time two weeks before each election for a debate. Nothing may be aired on any radio or television station except for the debate. Breaks will be inserted for commercials (broadcasters won't loose any money). Every registered candidate in the viewing/listening area will be allowed to participate. Each will be allowed to enter a equal number of questions. Questions are submitted and shared beforehand, and all candidates will answer all the questions with equal, uninterrupted time. Microphone power is cut at the end of their time. The idea is to create the Superbowl of politics. Advertise all you want, but the true show happens at the one real debate.
This allows alternative parties to have a say, and raise issues normally ignored. This removes the need to fund rediculous and expensive sound-bite campaigns that don't say anything. This gets rid of one candidate being asked serious policy questions, and a second being asked about the beliefs of his/her supporters. A candidate will not HAVE to participate, but they loose a vital platform for getting their message out and everyone will wonder what they are afraid of. No one's free speech is hindered or curtailed in any way. It sort of encourages everyone to participate in the process, as they won't be able to flip over to American Idol. They'll either have to watch/listen to the debate, or actually get up and do something (which would be a good thing for most Americans).
The answer to bad speech is more good speech.
This won't happen without a HUGE grassroots uprising, because the last thing the Republidems want is an actual hones debate.
I bought a DeWalt battery powered drill. The thing lasted nearly 10yrs, but, alas, recently the batteries started showing signs of fatigue. I would charge them up, and only be able to use them for ten minutes or so before it would need charging again. A decade is a mighty fine track record for a set of batteries, so I was happy to get a new DeWalt drill for Father's Day. It came with two sets of batteries. The first one crapped out in about two weeks with a dead cell. The second one will only last for about one good deck screw before needing to be chucked back into the charger.
Question: When you get stuck in the middle of nowhere with a dead battery that you put in your car less than 30 minutes ago, who gets the blame? Capacity testing with these energy levels is NOT a realistic option.
What the hell?
Dude, do you want to bring down our entire political establishment? If your course were followed, we would no longer have American-Idol-esque elections, where the big issues where whether Obama dissed Hillary makes national news. "Hillary crying" would be a non-issue, and Obama wouldn't be able to say he was for change without someone seriously asking, "Change to what?". You couldn't have a presidential debate where one candidates talks about showing foreign nationals the gates of hell, another proposes introducing those nationals to "40 virgins they're looking forward to meeting", and a third is mocked with the question, "Who is talking about war?" Edwards wouldn't be able to claim that 'corporations' have bought off our government, without being asked, "Which ones?", and being pressed for an answer. No one would cheer a "stimulus package" that amounts to an expensive forced loan.
No. Critical thinking must absolutely NOT be taught in school. The next generation must be beaten into the spoon-fed sheople that currently exists.
See excerpt from microsoft EULA below.
3. RESERVATION OF RIGHTS AND OWNERSHIP. Microsoft reserves all rights not expressly granted to you in this EULA. The Software is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws and treaties. Microsoft or its suppliers own the title, copyright, and other intellectual property rights in the Software. The Software is licensed, not sold.
The software was sold, under the auspices of UCITA. What Microsoft has to say afterwards makes not one whit of difference. A license would require a second, signed contract, as it is outside the realm covered by UCITA, which is the what controls the sale of goods at retail establishments in the United States (other countries are probably similar, but probably not).
Some other countries (I'm thinking of Germany in particular) have much more stringent consumer protection and false advertising laws. Are software companies allowed to go around proclaiming they have their customers by the balls with this EULA crap.
pansy Supreme Court ... bought-off Congress
You, sir, have that totally wrong.
Congress is pansy and the Supreme Court is bought off.
To support sm62704:
The EULA doesn't mean a damn thing if you bought a boxed set. It also doesn't mean anything if you bought the computer in a store with a pre-installed version of the OS. The only way the EULA can mean anything is if you sign a copy of it before purchase. That is what the big push for UCITA version 2 was all about.
The legal theory that EULA's are bogus, extortionate tactics has never been tested in court. And it never will be. The people that are pushing such a ridiculous notion know that it is ridiculous and will be dismissed out-of-hand by any competent judge; therefore, they'll never bring suite. Bring suite would show how naked the emperor is.
I worked in construction once. I helped build several houses. Why can't I continue to get paid for the house 95yrs after it is built? People are still making money off of it. Renting it out and speculating on price increases. Selling houses is easy. Hauling wood around on your shoulders is hard. Why is it that I have to continue to work in order to get paid?