Capitalism has no mechanisms for dealing with its own flaws. The only thing that keeps capitalism from getting out of control is democracy.
Of course. Without democracy, capitalism in itself has no controlling feedback. Democracy is the control. Democracy is essential.
In the US the government is controlled by the corporations so democracy is no longer a check on capitalism.
Nothing is stopping us from having this discussion. Nothing is stopping you or anyone else from creating real, effective, meaningful political movements that could effectively correct flaws. Not smash windows! Correct flaws! Nothing is stopping you people.
But you don't. And that's the problem in my view.
Somebody's got to do it! But who? Why not the people? Who are you waiting for?
Smashing windows will not make a Savior appear. The people must do it. From the bottom up. Through hard work. Blood, sweat and screaming running tears! Not some hero. Nobody but the people.
Definitely not the "media attention" that the so-called Anarchists so crave with their smashups, even though they complain about the evil media corporations.
If the media corporations are evil, then don't wait for the media to save you! Do it yourselves for goodness' sake!
I can also see another problem. Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela made real sacrifices. The rioters don't even dare show their faces demonstrating in democratic countries. Their sympathisers don't even dare risk a few damn slashdot karma points showing their nick in discussions like this.
I realize that you don't see any importance in this. But it's really absolutely essential. Those who are not willing to stand for their views, wether it costs them some sacrifice or not, those cannot get political gains. It's not just that they don't deserve it. It simply isn't attainable.
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
Look, I discussed these things directly with the Black Block at Indymedia, shortly after Gothemburg. It was quite definitely not a case of ringers, not with the kind of passionate discussion that you get among those people to justify what they do. They have very strong principles and loads of political arguments. It is a political worldview. They believe it's Anarchism. It certainly isn't real Anarchism. Discussing with them was quite nightmarish because of their stong anti-democratic views.
They love referring to real heroes like Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, admirable people who made real sacrifices, immensely significant sacrifices. But they themselves don't even dare show their faces and stand for their cause while demonstrating in democratic countries.
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
There's a huge difference between defending the powerless and smashing up local cafeterias. There's a huge difference between purposeful political struggle and hooliganism.
The struggles that you mention are really important. The struggle to smash windows is not. Comparing the two as if they were equal is offensive.
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
Gothemburg last summer. Burning the furniture of small cafeterias, looting small radio stores, smashing windows everywhere.
High ideals indeed. I have a lot of respect for real political workers defending the small individual and struggling for a better world. I have no respect at all for rioters proving their political intent to suppress any dissent along the principles that might makes right.
These principles of political suppression and might makes right, which they reveal by their actions, do not lead to the kind of world I want to live in.
Democracy and capitalism may have many severe flaws, but they also have important mechanisms for dealing with flaws. The rioters refuse to use these mechanisms and instead attack local cafeterias. How clever.
And in the process, in Gothemburg and elsewhere, they silenced thousands of legitimate political workers who had real, meaningful programs.
They do have the right to express their opinion. But not that way.
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
The fact that he has the right to say whatever he said does not give him the right to say it in whichever way he likes.
He's not allowed to carve the message with a knife on your skin, or spray-paint it on your car, or send it out by spam.
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
Mod parent up. This is a good idea and a good contribution to the discussion.
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
Re:Lies! Uses Gamma Irradiation not Microwave!
on
The Future of MREs
·
· Score: 1
They also contain a certain amount of dihydrogen monoxide! I'm not exaggerating, this has been proven! Be careful!
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
Switching to Microsoft is an example of herd mentality. You can't do that and still have a Beowulf cluster. You'd get a Beosheep cluster.
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
Die? Clearly you don't understand where people get their knowledge about these matters. It seems you flunked your lessons about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
I got the patch off of Microsoft, posted it to our local file server and sent out a letter to the entire staff [insert something here about office politics and loosing face for scaring people] saying "install this patch immediately."
That won't work. To get the staff to actually install a patch you have to include the patch as an attachment in an e-mail that says something like "I love you and sending your this four your concidration."
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
Perl was invented by Klingons to test the spirit of Earthlings.
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
With one slingshot on Earth, another on the moon, another on Mars, another on one of Jupiter's moons... We'd get any amount of dirt-cheap super-fast interplanetary travel! Tourism, astronomical observatories, mining, exploration...
Book me on a trip to Ganymede! Book me now!
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
Shouldn't Slashdot be somewhat discerning in which articles they post?
Hey, hey, let's try to be a little realistic, okay?
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
"I have plenty of money for a while."...or am I misinterpreting that?
I have no idea how much he got, but in hard times everyone should save some backup money. If it's difficult, well, eat less, drink water instead of beer or cola, use the same clothes longer, whatever. Just make sure you save some backup money.
Michael, why are you so skeptical? Maybe you didn't notice but this is quantum physics. Quantum physics is currently a very hot buzzword. Everyone knows that anything is possible with buzzword technology.
You're supposed to wait until the hype wears off and quantum physics becomes old hat, like dotcom or something. Then it's time to be skeptical and say it won't work.
In 5 years they won't even be luggage, they'll be like large wristwatches. In 10 years you'll have them in a ring on your finger. In 15 years you'll need a truck for the electron microscope.
They can choose to view them as normal, or at +1 or +2 or -1 or -2 or not at all or whatever.
In your user settings you can set such modifiers for many of the moderation categories, like Offtopic, Funny, Flamebait etc. If you like Offtopics or Funnies or whatever, just give them a high modifier.
Try setting Offtopic to 6. Suddenly you'll find that a certain famous thread has everything scored +5 Offtopic. It looks funny, as if the persistent struggle of the editors modding all that material down were suddenly cancelled.
No, I would not be impressed since it's routine for me -- as I mentioned I learn languages for fun. And no, you can't get much translated fast, unless you're thinking of routine translation of simple user manuals and such things. Scientific literature is vastly different. And in addition to this difficulty, the quality requirements are also vastly higher.
If you tried it yourself for just a short while you'd see. You might buy an issue of the German edition of Scientific American and see how fast you can translate to English. Then consider translating Nature and Science, which are much thicker and present material that is much more difficult to translate. Then consider getting all the specialized publications translated in medicine, surgery, astronomy, computer science, geology, mathematics, physics, paleontology, chemistry, meteorology...
Don't forget the logistics and economics of printing and distributing the material every month.
Then there's the books.
Of course you'd divide the load. In fact you'd need to divide it among quite a few universities in each local language region. Many don't even have one.
If Red Hat becomes part of Big Mainstream Media, this leaves a sort of vacuum, room for a new independent company similar to Red Hat. If somebody founds such a company, Linux can eat the cake and still have it.
Even without such a company, the independence isn't lost. There's lots of room for both mainstream and independence. Linux is strong -- and getting stronger.
I approve most heartily! Of course, copy it as much as you like! Thanks!
I'm asking myself whether to sacrifice what karma I've managed to collect. This thing should be noticed! Posting at +1 is more noticeable -- but of course it gets costly.
I care about Slashdot. There are several things that I disagree with and a few that I dislike, but still I care. Slashdot is special. What's happening now is tragic.
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
Check out the most amazing Slashdot phenomenon ever! Rapidly approaching 500 comments... Not on a frontpage article, on a short post! Insightful comments at -1, interesting comments at -1, funny comments at -1... They climb slowly as regular moderators mod them up, then they slam down all at once, then climb slowly again, then slam down, over and over again.
Something is breaking Slashdot, tearing it down before our very eyes... and it looks like it's the editors themselves who are doing it! And the initial post isn't even very convincing in my opinion, I disagreed and felt that it wasn't important. There are flaws in the moderation system, so? Don't we all know that? The editors must be absolutely crazy to do this! What will happen to confidence in/. as an open and free discussion forum?
Don't miss this one, you've never seen anything like it! Check it out!
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
Slashdot Mirror
Capitalism has no mechanisms for dealing with its own flaws. The only thing that keeps capitalism from getting out of control is democracy.
Of course. Without democracy, capitalism in itself has no controlling feedback. Democracy is the control. Democracy is essential.
In the US the government is controlled by the corporations so democracy is no longer a check on capitalism.
Nothing is stopping us from having this discussion. Nothing is stopping you or anyone else from creating real, effective, meaningful political movements that could effectively correct flaws. Not smash windows! Correct flaws! Nothing is stopping you people.
But you don't. And that's the problem in my view.
Somebody's got to do it! But who? Why not the people? Who are you waiting for?
Smashing windows will not make a Savior appear. The people must do it. From the bottom up. Through hard work. Blood, sweat and screaming running tears! Not some hero. Nobody but the people.
Definitely not the "media attention" that the so-called Anarchists so crave with their smashups, even though they complain about the evil media corporations.
If the media corporations are evil, then don't wait for the media to save you! Do it yourselves for goodness' sake!
I can also see another problem. Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela made real sacrifices. The rioters don't even dare show their faces demonstrating in democratic countries. Their sympathisers don't even dare risk a few damn slashdot karma points showing their nick in discussions like this.
I realize that you don't see any importance in this. But it's really absolutely essential. Those who are not willing to stand for their views, wether it costs them some sacrifice or not, those cannot get political gains. It's not just that they don't deserve it. It simply isn't attainable.
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
Look, I discussed these things directly with the Black Block at Indymedia, shortly after Gothemburg. It was quite definitely not a case of ringers, not with the kind of passionate discussion that you get among those people to justify what they do. They have very strong principles and loads of political arguments. It is a political worldview. They believe it's Anarchism. It certainly isn't real Anarchism. Discussing with them was quite nightmarish because of their stong anti-democratic views.
They love referring to real heroes like Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, admirable people who made real sacrifices, immensely significant sacrifices. But they themselves don't even dare show their faces and stand for their cause while demonstrating in democratic countries.
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
There's a huge difference between defending the powerless and smashing up local cafeterias. There's a huge difference between purposeful political struggle and hooliganism.
The struggles that you mention are really important. The struggle to smash windows is not. Comparing the two as if they were equal is offensive.
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
Gothemburg last summer. Burning the furniture of small cafeterias, looting small radio stores, smashing windows everywhere.
High ideals indeed. I have a lot of respect for real political workers defending the small individual and struggling for a better world. I have no respect at all for rioters proving their political intent to suppress any dissent along the principles that might makes right.
These principles of political suppression and might makes right, which they reveal by their actions, do not lead to the kind of world I want to live in.
Democracy and capitalism may have many severe flaws, but they also have important mechanisms for dealing with flaws. The rioters refuse to use these mechanisms and instead attack local cafeterias. How clever.
And in the process, in Gothemburg and elsewhere, they silenced thousands of legitimate political workers who had real, meaningful programs.
They do have the right to express their opinion. But not that way.
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
The fact that he has the right to say whatever he said does not give him the right to say it in whichever way he likes.
He's not allowed to carve the message with a knife on your skin, or spray-paint it on your car, or send it out by spam.
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
Mod parent up. This is a good idea and a good contribution to the discussion.
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
They also contain a certain amount of dihydrogen monoxide! I'm not exaggerating, this has been proven! Be careful!
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
Switching to Microsoft is an example of herd mentality. You can't do that and still have a Beowulf cluster. You'd get a Beosheep cluster.
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
I got the patch off of Microsoft, posted it to our local file server and sent out a letter to the entire staff [insert something here about office politics and loosing face for scaring people] saying "install this patch immediately."
That won't work. To get the staff to actually install a patch you have to include the patch as an attachment in an e-mail that says something like "I love you and sending your this four your concidration."
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
Like Perl wasn't confusing enough....
Perl was invented by Klingons to test the spirit of Earthlings.
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
With one slingshot on Earth, another on the moon, another on Mars, another on one of Jupiter's moons... We'd get any amount of dirt-cheap super-fast interplanetary travel! Tourism, astronomical observatories, mining, exploration...
Book me on a trip to Ganymede! Book me now!
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
Shouldn't Slashdot be somewhat discerning in which articles they post?
Hey, hey, let's try to be a little realistic, okay?
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
"I have plenty of money for a while."...or am I misinterpreting that?
I have no idea how much he got, but in hard times everyone should save some backup money. If it's difficult, well, eat less, drink water instead of beer or cola, use the same clothes longer, whatever. Just make sure you save some backup money.
Anything else is to invite disaster.
The Amazing MegaMod Thread led to this discussion with the editors initiated by CmdrTaco.
Mom! Damn! I told you not to dust my room!
The Amazing MegaMod Thread led to this discussion with the editors initiated by CmdrTaco.
Michael, why are you so skeptical? Maybe you didn't notice but this is quantum physics. Quantum physics is currently a very hot buzzword. Everyone knows that anything is possible with buzzword technology.
You're supposed to wait until the hype wears off and quantum physics becomes old hat, like dotcom or something. Then it's time to be skeptical and say it won't work.
The Amazing MegaMod Thread (now >700 mods!!!) led to discussions with the editors initiated by CmdrTaco.
How small will these be in 5 years?
... -1 Insightful ... -1 Funny ... The most amazing Slashdot phenomenon ever, perhaps.
In 5 years they won't even be luggage, they'll be like large wristwatches. In 10 years you'll have them in a ring on your finger. In 15 years you'll need a truck for the electron microscope.
-1 Interesting
They can choose to view them as normal, or at +1 or +2 or -1 or -2 or not at all or whatever.
... -1 Insightful ... -1 Funny ... The most amazing Slashdot phenomenon ever, perhaps.
In your user settings you can set such modifiers for many of the moderation categories, like Offtopic, Funny, Flamebait etc. If you like Offtopics or Funnies or whatever, just give them a high modifier.
Try setting Offtopic to 6. Suddenly you'll find that a certain famous thread has everything scored +5 Offtopic. It looks funny, as if the persistent struggle of the editors modding all that material down were suddenly cancelled.
-1 Interesting
How many times do us in Australia have to say this...
... -1 Insightful ... -1 Funny ... The most amazing Slashdot phenomenon ever, perhaps.
This is Slashdot. You'll have to repeat it forever.
-1 Interesting
No, I would not be impressed since it's routine for me -- as I mentioned I learn languages for fun. And no, you can't get much translated fast, unless you're thinking of routine translation of simple user manuals and such things. Scientific literature is vastly different. And in addition to this difficulty, the quality requirements are also vastly higher.
...
... -1 Insightful ... -1 Funny ... The most amazing Slashdot phenomenon ever, perhaps.
If you tried it yourself for just a short while you'd see. You might buy an issue of the German edition of Scientific American and see how fast you can translate to English. Then consider translating Nature and Science, which are much thicker and present material that is much more difficult to translate. Then consider getting all the specialized publications translated in medicine, surgery, astronomy, computer science, geology, mathematics, physics, paleontology, chemistry, meteorology
Don't forget the logistics and economics of printing and distributing the material every month.
Then there's the books.
Of course you'd divide the load. In fact you'd need to divide it among quite a few universities in each local language region. Many don't even have one.
-1 Interesting
The world of Linux is far more complex than the world of Microsoft, for many reasons.
... -1 Insightful ... -1 Funny ... The most amazing Slashdot phenomenon ever, perhaps.
And that somewhat chaotic complexity is part of the beauty snd strength of Linux.
-1 Interesting
If Red Hat becomes part of Big Mainstream Media, this leaves a sort of vacuum, room for a new independent company similar to Red Hat. If somebody founds such a company, Linux can eat the cake and still have it.
... -1 Insightful ... -1 Funny ... The most amazing Slashdot phenomenon ever, perhaps.
Even without such a company, the independence isn't lost. There's lots of room for both mainstream and independence. Linux is strong -- and getting stronger.
-1 Interesting
A superb idea!
...Unless of course each and every comment I make now gets modded down...
The most amazing Slashdot phenomenon ever! (This sig wants to be copied.)
hope you don't mind
I approve most heartily! Of course, copy it as much as you like! Thanks!
I'm asking myself whether to sacrifice what karma I've managed to collect. This thing should be noticed! Posting at +1 is more noticeable -- but of course it gets costly.
I care about Slashdot. There are several things that I disagree with and a few that I dislike, but still I care. Slashdot is special. What's happening now is tragic.
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.
Check out the most amazing Slashdot phenomenon ever! Rapidly approaching 500 comments
Something is breaking Slashdot, tearing it down before our very eyes
Don't miss this one, you've never seen anything like it! Check it out!
Moderation Totals: Offtopic=62, Flamebait=1, Troll=3, Redundant=2, Insightful=11, Interesting=40, Informative=12, Funny=2, Overrated=2, Underrated=4, Total=139.
Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.