Ever since Miller v. California, the definition of obscenity has hinged on the content of "contemporary community values". In the internet age, communities seem no longer to be defined by geographical boundaries, but rather by common interests. The "contemporary community values" standard would appear to be outmoded.
But, do you see geographic communities reasserting their common values by means of technologies like censorware? For example, if a community compiles a list of obscene sites and distributes it to its members, then can the geographic community truly be said to be obsolete?
Or do you see the proliferation of censorware making obscenity laws themselves obsolete, since people will no longer be exposed to material they do not wish to see?
As more countries' citizens get exposed to the internet and to the ideas of unbridled free expression, do you see further local pushes to enshrine free-speech protections in their charters or constitutions? Or do you see technology being harnessed to keep the masses in check as it has for millennia?
I'm a fencepost error, myself (vernal equinox). It makes it a little harder to use myself to convince people the stuff is bunk, since the system already distinguishes me as an exception.
I remember back when being a member of the TLA crowd just required a vow of lunacy. With all the mainstream attention and respect these people are getting, now, that committment to insanity seems to have been severely undermined.
At least we know we won't be seeing RMS promoting electric shavers any time soon, eh?.
The fact that they both have the word "Terra" in them just means they both have something to do with the earth. The terraserver stuff was just put together from declassified spy-satellite photos.
But maybe you have a point. Why would they launch another satellite when they can just simulate it all here on earth?....
Is it just that people can't tell the difference between political discourse and flaming? Is it just that criticism of any sort must be supressed? Surely we can't tolerate either. Someone, please have mercy upon this plebeian and undo this wretched moderation.
If you haven't seen it, I'll summarize it for you: lots of people shoot lots of other people. And some of them are dressed like elves.
It's tripe like this that reinforces gun-control freaks in Congress, though. You just know that they're sitting in front of their computers, alternating between wanking off and bemoaning "If only we could get rid of all the guns in this society, Mrs Claus would've had a chance!" Please, people, don't feed the polito-trolls. The exact same point could've been made with the exact same amount of artistic value if the characters had run around throwing pies at each other. Note: that doesn't say much for the artistic value of this movie.
Sounds like yet another example of Microsoft entering into anticompetitive with other companies to divide up markets into areas where they won't compete, leaving customers to foot higher bills. Or was MSOffice not big enough in 1993 to qualify as a monopoly?....
Bureaucrats do have to be held accountable somehow. Even if the money does ultimately come out of taxpayers' pockets, the fact that the department lost such a suit will look bad on someone's resume and will be taken into account for internal promotions. If we take an argument similar to yours to an extreme, one could be seen as advocating not paying victims of WW2 Japanese internment camps because the money came out of taxpayers' pockets.
Anything that makes comanies or government agencies think twice before blindly buying Microsoft crap might be worth doing. The fact that taxpayers will be shafted no matter what shouldn't come as any surprise.
IUDs are already grossly ineffective and dangerous, so they really shouldn't be up for consideration. The idea of the uterus changing shape and rendering them less effective, however, is absurd.
Diaphrams aren't held in place by gravitational forces; they're held in place by normal forces produced by the surrounding muscles.
If anything, gravity opposes the flow of semen on earth -- the motion is really completely dominated by muscle contractions and osmosis, which would be equally strong in space.
As for whether medical abortion is tragic/traumatic, that depends on either your physical constitution or your political/moral views, both of which are largely unaffected by space travel, at least in ways relevant to this discussion. And in any event, military matters have a tendancy to steamroll over any such complaints. Surely it's a lot more traumatic to swallow a cyanide pill than to swallow a mifepristone pill.
And no you weren't being serious, but it's more fun for me if I pretend you were.;)
Not exactly specific to space
on
Sex in Space
·
· Score: 2
Face it: wouldn't you want to experiment with Zero-G lovemaking if you had a chance to do so - and you had a willing partner available whose curiosity quotient was as high as yours?
Let's face it; that pretty much sums up all heterosexual male fantasies in this culture. Replace "Zero-G" with any other contrived situation, and you have a winner. "Wouldn't it be neat if she let me put it there...." "Wouldn't it be neat if she let us do it with that one too...." "If only I could find a partner who wants to have sex as much as I do!"
But I suppose I shouldn't expect people not to try to combine their primal drives like exploration and sex. And it is just a bit weird how America has made the great technological and cultural leap of putting convents into space, although that probably owes more to military culture than to science.
The solution to NASA's funding woes
on
Sex in Space
·
· Score: 5
Install cameras and charge pay-per-view. That would get most of America's attention. Hell, you could pay for a lot more than 2.5 years under that funding model.
I can see the headlines now: "Mons Veneris Explored Near Venetian Mountain"
Contraceptives would work fine
on
Sex in Space
·
· Score: 2
Hush, son, before you make yourself look like you've never had sex before. Condoms don't require gravity. Neither do hormonal shots like Deproprovera. Neither does any of them.
As for pregnancy, you take precautions, and if that doesn't work, you just pack lots of morning-after pills, and if it's too late to prevent implantation, there are other hormone regimes. Medically (chemically) induced abortion has been a reality for thousands of years. I just can't see it helping NASA funding any.
You do it in your office, with other officials, as a public figure, and at tax payer expense. Numerous politicians and sitting presidents come to mind.
Or you can just publicly and officially declare that you think about sex. Jimmy Carter's public confession that he considered himself an adulturer because he had adulterous thoughts in his heart must surely qualify.
Please, people, this isn't about collecting addresses for spam. It's a simple promotion, a web promotion no less, and its purpose is to get people acquainted with everyone.net. You did hear about their website before right? No? Well you have now. That's exactly the point. While you're there, they'll try to convince you why you should go with them instead of MS's hotmail.com. Again, that's the whole point.
Nah, there are better things to win
on
Win an AIBO
·
· Score: 3
If microbes were found on Mars, they could have originated on Earth and moved to Mars (or vice versa), but the chances are low indeed (although admittedly not zero) of Earth and Europan life having a common origin.
I couldn't help but read that last sentance as "[T]he chances are low indeed of Earth and European life having a common origin."
I personally think most correlations between video games and teen violence are bull. Having said that, however, I must point out the following:
Saying that people are naturally violent, naturally want to be violent, and that video games only tap into this urge and desire misses the point, which is: social orders are all about getting people not to do what they naturally do, because what they naturally do isn't good for cohabiting with the rest of society. Killing is one of the most natural acts in this world, but societies make most instances of killing illegal.
If you want to say "We have to suppress real violence, and therefore we have to allow for pretend violence in order to let people release their pent-up frustrations at not getting to be violent.", then you have a different point.
And while you're at it, you can also point out that many of the rules of law were founded on the idea of not suppressing violence, but rather in channeling violence and revenge in certain fashions. I.e., when a slave or a tree killed a man, it was given to his family to hack up into bits as revenge. With things like capital punishment still floating around, our society is much more violent than many would hope. I'm still amused by the correlation between calling for capital punishment and demonizing video games.
Slashdot Mirror
Here's a good one:
Ever since Miller v. California, the definition of obscenity has hinged on the content of "contemporary community values". In the internet age, communities seem no longer to be defined by geographical boundaries, but rather by common interests. The "contemporary community values" standard would appear to be outmoded.
But, do you see geographic communities reasserting their common values by means of technologies like censorware? For example, if a community compiles a list of obscene sites and distributes it to its members, then can the geographic community truly be said to be obsolete?
Or do you see the proliferation of censorware making obscenity laws themselves obsolete, since people will no longer be exposed to material they do not wish to see?
As more countries' citizens get exposed to the internet and to the ideas of unbridled free expression, do you see further local pushes to enshrine free-speech protections in their charters or constitutions? Or do you see technology being harnessed to keep the masses in check as it has for millennia?
I'm a fencepost error, myself (vernal equinox). It makes it a little harder to use myself to convince people the stuff is bunk, since the system already distinguishes me as an exception.
judge-jackson-won't-look-for-us-here.hotmail.com
bork-bork-bork.consumers.hotmail.com
here-come-the-clowns.legal.hotmail.com
And don't forget:
what-me-worry.linux.hotmail.com
I remember back when being a member of the TLA crowd just required a vow of lunacy. With all the mainstream attention and respect these people are getting, now, that committment to insanity seems to have been severely undermined.
At least we know we won't be seeing RMS promoting electric shavers any time soon, eh?.
The fact that they both have the word "Terra" in them just means they both have something to do with the earth. The terraserver stuff was just put together from declassified spy-satellite photos.
But maybe you have a point. Why would they launch another satellite when they can just simulate it all here on earth?....
I know I feel all warm and fuzzy after seeing their spiffy animations.
:-)
What I wonder: How do they keep the cartoonist from burning up on reentry?...
Is it just that people can't tell the difference between political discourse and flaming? Is it just that criticism of any sort must be supressed? Surely we can't tolerate either. Someone, please have mercy upon this plebeian and undo this wretched moderation.
If you haven't seen it, I'll summarize it for you: lots of people shoot lots of other people. And some of them are dressed like elves.
It's tripe like this that reinforces gun-control freaks in Congress, though. You just know that they're sitting in front of their computers, alternating between wanking off and bemoaning "If only we could get rid of all the guns in this society, Mrs Claus would've had a chance!" Please, people, don't feed the polito-trolls. The exact same point could've been made with the exact same amount of artistic value if the characters had run around throwing pies at each other. Note: that doesn't say much for the artistic value of this movie.
photos.html
faq.html
guestbook.html
Since the main site is probably about to explode, I thought I'd point out some mirrors of at least the pages, if not the movies.
Main site
news.html
videos.html
about.html
Your nephew's a catamite? How naughty! I'd suggest spanking him, but that might be counter productive.
Sounds like yet another example of Microsoft entering into anticompetitive with other companies to divide up markets into areas where they won't compete, leaving customers to foot higher bills. Or was MSOffice not big enough in 1993 to qualify as a monopoly?....
H ere you go.
Bureaucrats do have to be held accountable somehow. Even if the money does ultimately come out of taxpayers' pockets, the fact that the department lost such a suit will look bad on someone's resume and will be taken into account for internal promotions. If we take an argument similar to yours to an extreme, one could be seen as advocating not paying victims of WW2 Japanese internment camps because the money came out of taxpayers' pockets.
Anything that makes comanies or government agencies think twice before blindly buying Microsoft crap might be worth doing. The fact that taxpayers will be shafted no matter what shouldn't come as any surprise.
IUDs are already grossly ineffective and dangerous, so they really shouldn't be up for consideration. The idea of the uterus changing shape and rendering them less effective, however, is absurd.
Diaphrams aren't held in place by gravitational forces; they're held in place by normal forces produced by the surrounding muscles.
If anything, gravity opposes the flow of semen on earth -- the motion is really completely dominated by muscle contractions and osmosis, which would be equally strong in space.
As for whether medical abortion is tragic/traumatic, that depends on either your physical constitution or your political/moral views, both of which are largely unaffected by space travel, at least in ways relevant to this discussion. And in any event, military matters have a tendancy to steamroll over any such complaints. Surely it's a lot more traumatic to swallow a cyanide pill than to swallow a mifepristone pill.
;)
And no you weren't being serious, but it's more fun for me if I pretend you were.
Face it: wouldn't you want to experiment with Zero-G lovemaking if you had a chance to do so - and you had a willing partner available whose curiosity quotient was as high as yours?
Let's face it; that pretty much sums up all heterosexual male fantasies in this culture. Replace "Zero-G" with any other contrived situation, and you have a winner. "Wouldn't it be neat if she let me put it there...." "Wouldn't it be neat if she let us do it with that one too...." "If only I could find a partner who wants to have sex as much as I do!"
But I suppose I shouldn't expect people not to try to combine their primal drives like exploration and sex. And it is just a bit weird how America has made the great technological and cultural leap of putting convents into space, although that probably owes more to military culture than to science.
Install cameras and charge pay-per-view. That would get most of America's attention. Hell, you could pay for a lot more than 2.5 years under that funding model.
I can see the headlines now:
"Mons Veneris Explored Near Venetian Mountain"
Hush, son, before you make yourself look like you've never had sex before. Condoms don't require gravity. Neither do hormonal shots like Deproprovera. Neither does any of them.
As for pregnancy, you take precautions, and if that doesn't work, you just pack lots of morning-after pills, and if it's too late to prevent implantation, there are other hormone regimes. Medically (chemically) induced abortion has been a reality for thousands of years. I just can't see it helping NASA funding any.
You do it in your office, with other officials, as a public figure, and at tax payer expense. Numerous politicians and sitting presidents come to mind.
Or you can just publicly and officially declare that you think about sex. Jimmy Carter's public confession that he considered himself an adulturer because he had adulterous thoughts in his heart must surely qualify.
Please, people, this isn't about collecting addresses for spam. It's a simple promotion, a web promotion no less, and its purpose is to get people acquainted with everyone.net. You did hear about their website before right? No? Well you have now. That's exactly the point. While you're there, they'll try to convince you why you should go with them instead of MS's hotmail.com. Again, that's the whole point.
like a free dinner from the Warsaw Marriott.
Or a free pair of Adistar Wrestling shoes.
Or a free personal electronic caddy
Or a free set of shafts (you never know when yours will break, wink wink, nudge nudge)
Or a free WebTV (Ok, so that one's not so good)
Or a free Wave keyboard
Hmmm. I take it back. An AIBO is best after all.
If microbes were found on Mars, they could have originated on Earth and moved to Mars (or vice versa), but the chances are low indeed (although admittedly not zero) of Earth and Europan life having a common origin.
I couldn't help but read that last sentance as "[T]he chances are low indeed of Earth and European life having a common origin."
I personally think most correlations between video games and teen violence are bull. Having said that, however, I must point out the following:
Saying that people are naturally violent, naturally want to be violent, and that video games only tap into this urge and desire misses the point, which is: social orders are all about getting people not to do what they naturally do, because what they naturally do isn't good for cohabiting with the rest of society. Killing is one of the most natural acts in this world, but societies make most instances of killing illegal.
If you want to say "We have to suppress real violence, and therefore we have to allow for pretend violence in order to let people release their pent-up frustrations at not getting to be violent.", then you have a different point.
And while you're at it, you can also point out that many of the rules of law were founded on the idea of not suppressing violence, but rather in channeling violence and revenge in certain fashions. I.e., when a slave or a tree killed a man, it was given to his family to hack up into bits as revenge. With things like capital punishment still floating around, our society is much more violent than many would hope. I'm still amused by the correlation between calling for capital punishment and demonizing video games.
"I want to die" turns up 6
"Grits" turns up 12
"Sex with animals" turns up 5.
"Your mother" turns up 200.
My conclusion: "Your mother is still almost ten times as important as suicide, sex with animals, and grits combined."
Remember that, always.