1. My insurance company makes me consent to my doctor/pharmacist/etc. sharing my treatment records with them so that they will pay the bills.
2. 'Some one' then gives those records to a data miner.
3. Later, to get new insurance (or maybe a job), the new insurer (or employer) makes me consent to them obtaining my records from my doctor/pharmacist/etc. But, instead, the new insurance company then buys the records from the data miner.
If that's what they're doing, then 'some one' has really played fast and loose with the fine print on those consent forms.
This points out the obviousness that the US government is no longer bound by the tenets of what was called "democracy", a concept that is fundamentally at odds with the concept of "sovereignty".
Both sovereign immunity from civil suits and democracy are old, old concepts that have existed compatibly for centuries. (For instance, if the government builds a road and your horse is lamed by the ruts, the government does not allow you to sue it for a new horse. If you don't like that situation, go find some voters and pass a law that says you can sue the government over potholes.)
The problem with the current US administration is that they're not obeying the laws that do apply to them.
Most suits for medieval atrocities would face a number of hurdles, e.g.:
There is often no present-day successor of the ancient defendant due to intervening time, revolutions, wars, sales of assets, etc.
Most sovereign states grant themselves immunity from suits by their citizens.
Statutes or precedent often forbid bringing claims older than a certain limited age.
There often is no present-day successor of the ancient plaintiff due to intervening time, revolutions, wars, sales of assets, etc.
These 'Templars' seem to be able to overcome 1 because, according to Catholic doctrine, the current Pope is the direct successor of an unbroken line going back to St. Peter. They seem able to overcome 2 because the Pope is not sovereign in Spain. Overcoming 3 and 4, though, seems unlikely.
The probability of an unacceptable collision in this century is ~2%.
Wow! Two percent is a huge number. I'm not sure how that "unacceptable" relates to these cases, but numbers in the range of whole percentage points are well above my personal something-must-be-done threshold.
He needed clothing sure, but why go home? They are sure to 'attempt to reacquire him there. I would.'
I suggest that we proceed on the assumption that he is bright enough to (1) run the cost-benefit analysis on escaping and (2) have a cache of cash and ID stored in preparation for a serious attempt to get out of the country and (3) isn't planning on returning to the US, ever.
Many voicemail systems (e.g. corporate ones) have long (upwards of 10 years) had the ability to send vmail without making a phone call. This is sometimes used to vmail several people with the same message. It is also used by PHBs and slackers to seem like they are in the office when they are not (the vmail appears to originate from the sender's office phone number).
To send a stealth message, a person usually needs to know the vmail portal access phone number for the party he wants to vmail. Most external people don't know the vmail portal number, so they can't send stealth messages.
Enter Slydial. What Slydial has done is simply learn all the access phone numbers for big vmail systems (mobile carriers, etc.) and to build a more-or-less universal front end over the existing feature. Convenient? Maybe, but it isn't very novel and it's easy for the carriers to break frequently. I'm not sure this is a sustainable business. (Besides, is there demand? Even internal users rarely use the stealth send features.)
Lloyd Alexander's books. His "Chronicles of Prydain" . ..
This would have been my number one fantasy recommendation for young readers. The best of the bunch IMHO are Taran Wanderer (4th), a wonderful coming of age story, and The Castle of Llyr (3rd), a lovely tale of young love. First time readers may prefer The Book of Three (1st), The Black Cauldron (2nd), and The High King, which are more action-adventure in nature.
I'm right here. And I'm scared to death. Of my government.
Years ago, I laughed off an idea like this (tasers strapped to all air passengers). Surely, I said, no one would seriously consider this -- passengers would decline to travel rather than strap on one of these things.
How wrong I was. It seems that no idea is so evil that it can't find a proponent in my government. Fsck me.
They punished the seller?! Surely, the people who buy votes are at least as great a danger to democracy. Why not wait for a bidder to appear and prosecute him instead? Or, prosecute both of them? What kind of country jails the little fish but lets the big fish off the hook?!
The List Milan, Italy Norilsk, Russia Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Mexico City, Mexico Dakar, Senegal Sumgayit, Azerbaijan Linfen, China La Oroya, Peru Kabwe, Zambia
Funny, isn't it, that no two of those cities are in the same country. I wonder what criteria they used so determine dirtiness . . .
Oh, and congratulations to the nation of Pennsylvania on its promotion.
Coal is much worse . . . Right now, I wouldn't consider buying so much as an electric scooter as long as the power plant is coal. But if the grid is nuclear (or some other green power), buying an electric car, motorcycle, etc suddenly makes sense. What's saddest may be that coal-mining states are among those most willing to ignore just how dirty coal is?
Ah yes, TMI. . . . the whole thing went out with a fizzle, with essentially zero radiation being emitted to the outside. You'd probably receive more radiation smoking a pack of cigarettes or flying across country than you would have sitting in TMI's backyard. Mod parent up.
Number of people dead due to TMI incident: zero. Number of health problems conclusively linked to TMI incident: zero. Amount of radiation to residents: 8-100 millirem. Improvements in power station design since 1979: lots. Chance of same incident happening again: ~zero.
Is a faster system going to improve the generally rubbish weather forecasts of "it might rain today"? IMHO it's not so rubbish any more. Consider what we have now that we didn't have two decades ago.
Precipitation predictions now have an accuracy of about +-1 hour for every 6 or so hours looking forward. That is, predictions 6 hours out are +-1 hour, while predictions 3 days out are +-12 hours. At 10 days out you're at +- a day and a half, but two decades ago we had nothing, so that too is an improvement.
Temperature predictions are accurate to +-1 hour for every 6 as well.
Rather than one prediction for a metro area, we now get forecasts that differentiate the conditions by zip code or smaller area. (The shore where I work differs from inland where I live differs from the heights off to the east.)
Maps showing the next hour's weather update every few minutes, not once per day as previously. These maps tell with excellent accuracy the precise precipitation pattern and amount.
I suggest that general weather predictions are now quite good enough. Resources should be devoted to providing warning for deadly weather (tornadoes, floods, hurricanes) -- and they are.
Thousands of people in positions of public trust are already fingerprinted. This includes doctors, lawyers, nurses, teachers, stock brokers, cops, everyone who holds a security clearance (e.g., contractors), everyone who has ever been in the military, etc. If we're going to fingerprint kindergarten teachers, it's about time we fingerprinted these bankers.
Also, don't forward chain letters, don't send around forwards of kitten pictures, pr0n, jokes, political screeds, etc. etc. Most people don't want to get it and you're wasting bandwidth. The time has come for us to stop using the 'wasting bandwidth' argument against users forwarding crap. The bandwidth of our systems now comfortably handles so much data (spam, heavy attachments, etc.) that nothing individual users have time to do (without automation or looping, at least) can amount to even a drop in the bucket.
Even the simpering idiot who routinely forwards kitten videos to hundred-person lists has difficulty causing real bandwidth trouble. Label that user as 'mostly harmless' and don't panic.
There are several good arguments against users forwarding crap, but bandwidth is no longer one of them. Good reasons include: inappropriate, waste-of-sender's-time, waste-of-recipients'-time, scams/phishing, viruses/attacks, etc.
"Listen, nowadays you have to think like a hero just to behave like a merely decent human being."
"So, promise me that if I ever find the courage to think like a hero, then you will act like a merely decent human being. Right? . . . Hey, you cannot reject me. Because I am strengthened by your rejection. So, promise me."
"All right. If you ever manage to be a hero, I'll be a... decent human being. . . . I promise." --The Russia House (1990)
Big news folks: using electricity (from our current grid sources) means releasing carbon! This is equally true of every use of electricity. Manufacturing, office HVAC, home HVAC, municipal services, and many other segments use lots of electricity, too. Data centers are not more evil for emitting carbon than anyone else. The report's focus should not be how much total carbon data centers emit, nor how fast that number is growing.
The focus should be whether there is opportunity in data centers to produce the same useful work for less carbon. To that end, the report should state its assumptions -- (a) that data centers consume most of their power inputs whether they are fully utilized or not and (b) that power consumption doesn't rise significantly as utilization goes up. If those things are true, then the data centers can improve efficiency on their end without having to get others to change the grid for them. (Not that changing the grid would be a bad thing, but it's less in the data centers' control.)
I've seen a fair number of celebrity guest conductors of orchestras in my day. At least this one will be programmed with the right numbers of measures and reasonable tempos (in effect, a moderately advanced metronome that is programmed with the number of measures and the tempo changes).
Yes, the performance will sound mechanical and uninspired to those with an ear for such things. A talented human conductor would supply more, but the robot can manage to get from start to finish because the musicians will compensate for its inadequacies.
Heck, the performance might not be that bad -- because a human conductor will rehearse the music and unify the musicians on interpretation. If the robot is programmed to direct in a way not incompatible with that interpretation, the musicians will supply much of what is needed. That does not that the robot is capable of doing a conductor's job -- he'll just play one on TV.
Slashdot Mirror
So, let me get this straight:
1. My insurance company makes me consent to my doctor/pharmacist/etc. sharing my treatment records with them so that they will pay the bills.
2. 'Some one' then gives those records to a data miner.
3. Later, to get new insurance (or maybe a job), the new insurer (or employer) makes me consent to them obtaining my records from my doctor/pharmacist/etc. But, instead, the new insurance company then buys the records from the data miner.
If that's what they're doing, then 'some one' has really played fast and loose with the fine print on those consent forms.
This points out the obviousness that the US government is no longer bound by the tenets of what was called "democracy", a concept that is fundamentally at odds with the concept of "sovereignty".
Both sovereign immunity from civil suits and democracy are old, old concepts that have existed compatibly for centuries. (For instance, if the government builds a road and your horse is lamed by the ruts, the government does not allow you to sue it for a new horse. If you don't like that situation, go find some voters and pass a law that says you can sue the government over potholes.)
The problem with the current US administration is that they're not obeying the laws that do apply to them.
Most suits for medieval atrocities would face a number of hurdles, e.g.:
These 'Templars' seem to be able to overcome 1 because, according to Catholic doctrine, the current Pope is the direct successor of an unbroken line going back to St. Peter. They seem able to overcome 2 because the Pope is not sovereign in Spain. Overcoming 3 and 4, though, seems unlikely.
As long as they're clear about what they are and aren't selling for $XX.99 per month, they're free to not sell whatever they don't want to sell.
(The mistake that the ISPs made was in claiming to sell YYY Mbits/s 'unlimited' and then not actually providing that.)
Where is the 'unfair' in saying, "You can have your privacy or my money, but not both."?
The probability of an unacceptable collision in this century is ~2%.
Wow! Two percent is a huge number. I'm not sure how that "unacceptable" relates to these cases, but numbers in the range of whole percentage points are well above my personal something-must-be-done threshold.
Then again, he could be that stupid.
He needed clothing sure, but why go home? They are sure to 'attempt to reacquire him there. I would.'
I suggest that we proceed on the assumption that he is bright enough to (1) run the cost-benefit analysis on escaping and (2) have a cache of cash and ID stored in preparation for a serious attempt to get out of the country and (3) isn't planning on returning to the US, ever.
It's a damned bible. I think we can suspend political correctness and use "AD" this one time.
Many voicemail systems (e.g. corporate ones) have long (upwards of 10 years) had the ability to send vmail without making a phone call. This is sometimes used to vmail several people with the same message. It is also used by PHBs and slackers to seem like they are in the office when they are not (the vmail appears to originate from the sender's office phone number).
To send a stealth message, a person usually needs to know the vmail portal access phone number for the party he wants to vmail. Most external people don't know the vmail portal number, so they can't send stealth messages.
Enter Slydial. What Slydial has done is simply learn all the access phone numbers for big vmail systems (mobile carriers, etc.) and to build a more-or-less universal front end over the existing feature. Convenient? Maybe, but it isn't very novel and it's easy for the carriers to break frequently. I'm not sure this is a sustainable business. (Besides, is there demand? Even internal users rarely use the stealth send features.)
Lloyd Alexander's books. His "Chronicles of Prydain" . . .
This would have been my number one fantasy recommendation for young readers. The best of the bunch IMHO are Taran Wanderer (4th), a wonderful coming of age story, and The Castle of Llyr (3rd), a lovely tale of young love. First time readers may prefer The Book of Three (1st), The Black Cauldron (2nd), and The High King, which are more action-adventure in nature.
Where are all of these scared people?
I'm right here. And I'm scared to death. Of my government.
Years ago, I laughed off an idea like this (tasers strapped to all air passengers). Surely, I said, no one would seriously consider this -- passengers would decline to travel rather than strap on one of these things.
How wrong I was. It seems that no idea is so evil that it can't find a proponent in my government. Fsck me.
They punished the seller?! Surely, the people who buy votes are at least as great a danger to democracy. Why not wait for a bidder to appear and prosecute him instead? Or, prosecute both of them? What kind of country jails the little fish but lets the big fish off the hook?!
I must be new here.
The List
Milan, Italy
Norilsk, Russia
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Mexico City, Mexico
Dakar, Senegal
Sumgayit, Azerbaijan
Linfen, China
La Oroya, Peru
Kabwe, Zambia
Funny, isn't it, that no two of those cities are in the same country. I wonder what criteria they used so determine dirtiness . . .
Oh, and congratulations to the nation of Pennsylvania on its promotion.
More than a few people were wondering how those sleazy lawyers can get away with stuff like this. This is how.
Number of people dead due to TMI incident: zero.
Number of health problems conclusively linked to TMI incident: zero.
Amount of radiation to residents: 8-100 millirem.
Improvements in power station design since 1979: lots.
Chance of same incident happening again: ~zero.
- Precipitation predictions now have an accuracy of about +-1 hour for every 6 or so hours looking forward. That is, predictions 6 hours out are +-1 hour, while predictions 3 days out are +-12 hours. At 10 days out you're at +- a day and a half, but two decades ago we had nothing, so that too is an improvement.
- Temperature predictions are accurate to +-1 hour for every 6 as well.
- Rather than one prediction for a metro area, we now get forecasts that differentiate the conditions by zip code or smaller area. (The shore where I work differs from inland where I live differs from the heights off to the east.)
- Maps showing the next hour's weather update every few minutes, not once per day as previously. These maps tell with excellent accuracy the precise precipitation pattern and amount.
I suggest that general weather predictions are now quite good enough. Resources should be devoted to providing warning for deadly weather (tornadoes, floods, hurricanes) -- and they are.AMENDMENT XXVIII
Congress shall make no law exceeding in length this Constitution.
(Let's make them earn their pay by holding a separate vote on every pork-laden amendment.)
1. New books!
2. New art!
3. Online tools!
4. New prices!
There, fixed that for you. Whether you plan to buy these books or not, remember to patronize your local independent gaming store. End of Plug.
Fingerprinting loan officials? It's about time.
Thousands of people in positions of public trust are already fingerprinted. This includes doctors, lawyers, nurses, teachers, stock brokers, cops, everyone who holds a security clearance (e.g., contractors), everyone who has ever been in the military, etc. If we're going to fingerprint kindergarten teachers, it's about time we fingerprinted these bankers.
Even the simpering idiot who routinely forwards kitten videos to hundred-person lists has difficulty causing real bandwidth trouble. Label that user as 'mostly harmless' and don't panic.
There are several good arguments against users forwarding crap, but bandwidth is no longer one of them. Good reasons include: inappropriate, waste-of-sender's-time, waste-of-recipients'-time, scams/phishing, viruses/attacks, etc.
"Listen, nowadays you have to think like a hero just to behave like a merely decent human being."
"So, promise me that if I ever find the courage to think like a hero, then you will act like a merely decent human being. Right? . . . Hey, you cannot reject me. Because I am strengthened by your rejection. So, promise me."
"All right. If you ever manage to be a hero, I'll be a... decent human being. . . . I promise."
--The Russia House (1990)
Big news folks: using electricity (from our current grid sources) means releasing carbon! This is equally true of every use of electricity. Manufacturing, office HVAC, home HVAC, municipal services, and many other segments use lots of electricity, too. Data centers are not more evil for emitting carbon than anyone else. The report's focus should not be how much total carbon data centers emit, nor how fast that number is growing.
The focus should be whether there is opportunity in data centers to produce the same useful work for less carbon. To that end, the report should state its assumptions -- (a) that data centers consume most of their power inputs whether they are fully utilized or not and (b) that power consumption doesn't rise significantly as utilization goes up. If those things are true, then the data centers can improve efficiency on their end without having to get others to change the grid for them. (Not that changing the grid would be a bad thing, but it's less in the data centers' control.)
I've seen a fair number of celebrity guest conductors of orchestras in my day. At least this one will be programmed with the right numbers of measures and reasonable tempos (in effect, a moderately advanced metronome that is programmed with the number of measures and the tempo changes).
Yes, the performance will sound mechanical and uninspired to those with an ear for such things. A talented human conductor would supply more, but the robot can manage to get from start to finish because the musicians will compensate for its inadequacies.
Heck, the performance might not be that bad -- because a human conductor will rehearse the music and unify the musicians on interpretation. If the robot is programmed to direct in a way not incompatible with that interpretation, the musicians will supply much of what is needed. That does not that the robot is capable of doing a conductor's job -- he'll just play one on TV.