What worries me is the mechanics of voting in Maryland. The election judge is supposed to give you a card with a stripe of magnetic tape, you slide it into the voting machine to turn it on, you mark your ballot electronically, you vote, you give the card back to the election judge.
My question is: what's to stop me from sliding that card into the machine and voting four or five times?
Does anyone else get the idea that this process was not very well thought out at all?
And after these things, Eric Raymond went in and spaketh to McNealy: "Thus saith Eric Raymond of the open source movement. Let Java go that my people may develop on it in the desert." But McNealy answereth, saying: "Who is Eric Raymond, that I should hear his voice and let Java go? I know not Raymond, neither will I let Java go." And McNealy said, "Seeth thou how the developers of Java are numerous, and how their multitude is increased. How much more if it be set free?" And McNealy's heart was hardened, and he did not hearken to them, as Eric Raymond commanded.
99.99% of the criminals we catch and convict are dumb.
Smart criminals are smart enough not to get caught. Heck, you never hear about the smart criminals, because no one suspects smart criminals of criminal activity.
Marco Polo wanted to tap into the exotic goods that he could bring back to Europe from Asia and Columbus was trying to find a quicker route to the East Indies so the spice trade could move faster.
That's what you may have been taught in school, but it was not actually the case. While improved trade between Asia and Europe was a happy coincidental result of Marco Polo's journey, it was not the primary cause. Marco Polo traveled to Asia in search of a legendary Christian kingdom, the land of Prestor John. He would then enlist their military support against the onslaught of the heathen Muslims.
He didn't find Prestor John's kingdom, but the improved Asia-Europe trade his journey spurred gave the European economy the kick in the shorts it needed to get out of the post-High Middle Ages doldrums, and that was probably just as effective at stemming the Muslim threat.
Yeah, I didn't know that either until I took an honors course in the history of apocalyptic cults at Virginia Tech.
No kidding. Hope NASA will have some better way planned of landing *people* on Mars, unless those brave pioneers don't mind being converted to thick 'n' chunky salsa by the voyage.
I would like it if someone could give a real scientific or at least monetary reason to send people to mars.
As if science and money are the ultimate ends of the human experience. They're not.
You could just as easily have asked what the scientific or monetary reasons were for Marco Polo to go to Asia, da Gama to go around the Cape of Good Hope, Columbus to go to America, or Magellan to sail around the world. Or what the scientific or monetary reasons for NASA to put men on the moon 40 years ago. While each voyage had scientific and/or monetary justifications, they only became clear in retrospect and were in any event secondary to the experience and the human achievement.
I'm reminded of an old episode of Beavis and Butthead.
(Guy on TV): You have a beautiful body. And we're all alone in this hotel room. But having sex with you would violate my principles. (Girl on TV): Oh, Joey, you're quite a guy. (voice of narrator): We will return in a moment to 'Joey Buttawipo: My Story.' (Butthead): This sucks, nothing's on!
Well, I dunno about all that, but I find all the justification I need to drink in the Good Book.
The First Epistle of Blessed Paul the Apostle to Timothy, chapter 5, verse 23 (Douay-Rheims Version) says: "Do not still drink water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thy frequent infirmities."
There you have it, folks. A divine license to drink. W00t!
5. Holy Orders (when your calling in life is to molest a little boy, apparently)
Speaking as one who is applying to seminary to study for the Catholic priesthood, and on behalf of the 99.9% of Catholic priests who are all good, holy men, I must take exception to your hateful, prejudiced remark. I would tell you to crawl back under whatever rock you spawned from and die in your own filth, but that wouldn't be Christian of me.
Instead I'll forgive you and pray for your salvation . . . I somehow think that may be more beneficial to you in the long run.
Trappist monasteries have been brewing beer for centuries.
Not only that, but they've been distilling spirits for centuries too. In fact, during the Middle Ages, monasteries were one of the few places where scientific knowledge was preserved, and monks would experimentally distill with all kinds of herbs and spices. Some popular beverages today take their names from monasticism. Chartreuse, for example, was first distilled in a monastery in Chartres, France. Cappuchino was invented by the Capuchin Franciscans. Benedictine was, of course, invented by Benedictines.
And Trappist beer is some of the best stuff I've ever had. I highly recommend Westmalle Tripel. Made by Trappist monks in Belgium, who apparently believe that if God wanted us to filter beer, He wouldn't have given us livers.
I believe I remember from high school biology that scabs from a vaccination would yield cowpox virus
Thats true, if you were vaccinated with cowpox virus, which is the method Edward Jenner introduced in the 18th Century. That's probably what you read about in your high school biology book. However, assuming you're not 200+ years old, you were probably vaccinated with killed (i.e. chemically inactivated) smallpox virions, which is what they used to make smallpox vaccine for the past several decades.
This is why it's critical, IMO, that the last legal stores of live smallpox not be destroyed. If a heretofore undiscovered store of smallpox (say, in a library book) is discovered and starts killing people, we would have no source material from which to develop a vaccine. That, and I've never been comfortable with the ethics of intentionally causing the extinction of any organism (assuming virii qualify as organisms), regardless of the harm they've historically caused.
Well, they set up an in-orbit rendezvous between two Gemini capsules in the mid-60s pretty successfully, if you recall. The technology and expertise are definately there -- it would certainly take some dusting off because a space shuttle is not a Gemini. But it's not impossible.
But I think the best thing that could have been done would have been to keep all the astronauts on the ISS while awaiting a rescue mission from a Soyuz or another shuttle.
Nope. No shuttle ever launched from SLC-6. My dad was a flight operations analyst at Vandenburg from 1983-1987, so he would know. SLC-6 was originally built to launch the shuttle into a polar orbit -- the shuttle would launch in a southerly direction. (You can't launch into a polar orbit from Canaveral because the spent solid-fueled boosters would fall onto Brazil, and that would probably torque the Brazilians off.) Unfortunately, the solid rocket boosters were redesigned after the Challenger accident, and enough weight was added to preclude ever launching into a polar orbit, so SLC-6 was, in fact, abandoned. I was last there in 1996, and it was rusting out pretty badly.
Also, they've used heaters on liquid O2 before. I was reading "Moon Lost" by Jim Lovell (the Apollo 13 astronaut), and he explains that heaters were used in the Apollo spacecraft's O2 tanks to keep the system pressurized. O2 pressure too low? Just turn on the heaters, more of the supercritical O2 would resublimate, pressure's back up to nominal. In fact, heaters were chosen instead of pumps because pumps have more moving parts which means more things that can malfunction.
Oh, don't worry. Your reputation will be destroyed and your life as you know it will cease to exist LONG before they get to the trial stage. The courts are required to assume "innocent until proven guilty," but American society is not.
After all the stuff that's appeared on Slashdot about the MPAA going after people lately, I would've seen something like this coming. Johansen should have known that he was the natural target. He should have either wiped all of his drives of the incriminating programs, etc. or gotten some REALLY strong encryption to hide everything. Of course, in hindsight, everything is 20/20.
By going after the person who started all their misery, the MPAA is trying to send a message, like: "No matter where you hide, we will get you. Even if you live in a foreign country, we will destroy your life and your reputation. We have enough money . . . don't think we won't"
Sorry to hear about Jon, but it looks like he's pretty screwed (depending on what exactly Norweigan law states and what he has on his now-seized computers). All the rest of us can do is: mirror mirror mirror. Mirror like crazy. Get free (or cheap) throwaway server space (eg GeoCities) and just put deCSS up. The MPAA can't go after everyone, and the more people that has it up, the probability that any one of us being INDIVIDUALLY busted drops like a stone. It's like an interstate highway . . . the more people that speed, the less probability that any one of the speeders gets ticketed.
Slashdot Mirror
What worries me is the mechanics of voting in Maryland. The election judge is supposed to give you a card with a stripe of magnetic tape, you slide it into the voting machine to turn it on, you mark your ballot electronically, you vote, you give the card back to the election judge.
My question is: what's to stop me from sliding that card into the machine and voting four or five times?
Does anyone else get the idea that this process was not very well thought out at all?
And after these things, Eric Raymond went in and spaketh to McNealy: "Thus saith Eric Raymond of the open source movement. Let Java go that my people may develop on it in the desert." But McNealy answereth, saying: "Who is Eric Raymond, that I should hear his voice and let Java go? I know not Raymond, neither will I let Java go." And McNealy said, "Seeth thou how the developers of Java are numerous, and how their multitude is increased. How much more if it be set free?" And McNealy's heart was hardened, and he did not hearken to them, as Eric Raymond commanded.
This story could not have come at a better time. I just got done with a lovely dinner of chili, cheese, and beer. P00t-- um, I mean, w00t!
99.99% of them are dumb.
99.99% of the criminals we catch and convict are dumb.
Smart criminals are smart enough not to get caught. Heck, you never hear about the smart criminals, because no one suspects smart criminals of criminal activity.
Goatse is porn???
And here I thought it was a site about pathogenic proctology.
Well, what do you expect? The entire country is descended from criminals. :-p
Marco Polo wanted to tap into the exotic goods that he could bring back to Europe from Asia and Columbus was trying to find a quicker route to the East Indies so the spice trade could move faster.
That's what you may have been taught in school, but it was not actually the case. While improved trade between Asia and Europe was a happy coincidental result of Marco Polo's journey, it was not the primary cause. Marco Polo traveled to Asia in search of a legendary Christian kingdom, the land of Prestor John. He would then enlist their military support against the onslaught of the heathen Muslims.
He didn't find Prestor John's kingdom, but the improved Asia-Europe trade his journey spurred gave the European economy the kick in the shorts it needed to get out of the post-High Middle Ages doldrums, and that was probably just as effective at stemming the Muslim threat.
Yeah, I didn't know that either until I took an honors course in the history of apocalyptic cults at Virginia Tech.
No kidding. Hope NASA will have some better way planned of landing *people* on Mars, unless those brave pioneers don't mind being converted to thick 'n' chunky salsa by the voyage.
I would like it if someone could give a real scientific or at least monetary reason to send people to mars.
As if science and money are the ultimate ends of the human experience. They're not.
You could just as easily have asked what the scientific or monetary reasons were for Marco Polo to go to Asia, da Gama to go around the Cape of Good Hope, Columbus to go to America, or Magellan to sail around the world. Or what the scientific or monetary reasons for NASA to put men on the moon 40 years ago. While each voyage had scientific and/or monetary justifications, they only became clear in retrospect and were in any event secondary to the experience and the human achievement.
This SCO press release indicates that they are offering a $250,000 reward
I want fifty thousand. No less.
I'm reminded of an old episode of Beavis and Butthead.
(Guy on TV): You have a beautiful body. And we're all alone in this hotel room. But having sex with you would violate my principles.
(Girl on TV): Oh, Joey, you're quite a guy.
(voice of narrator): We will return in a moment to 'Joey Buttawipo: My Story.'
(Butthead): This sucks, nothing's on!
Well, I dunno about all that, but I find all the justification I need to drink in the Good Book.
The First Epistle of Blessed Paul the Apostle to Timothy, chapter 5, verse 23 (Douay-Rheims Version) says: "Do not still drink water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thy frequent infirmities."
There you have it, folks. A divine license to drink. W00t!
Intact, uncut, circumcised, uncircumcised, whatever. My favorite way to characterize it is: do you have an anteater, or a helmet?
5. Holy Orders (when your calling in life is to molest a little boy, apparently)
Speaking as one who is applying to seminary to study for the Catholic priesthood, and on behalf of the 99.9% of Catholic priests who are all good, holy men, I must take exception to your hateful, prejudiced remark. I would tell you to crawl back under whatever rock you spawned from and die in your own filth, but that wouldn't be Christian of me.
Instead I'll forgive you and pray for your salvation . . . I somehow think that may be more beneficial to you in the long run.
Trappist monasteries have been brewing beer for centuries.
Not only that, but they've been distilling spirits for centuries too. In fact, during the Middle Ages, monasteries were one of the few places where scientific knowledge was preserved, and monks would experimentally distill with all kinds of herbs and spices. Some popular beverages today take their names from monasticism. Chartreuse, for example, was first distilled in a monastery in Chartres, France. Cappuchino was invented by the Capuchin Franciscans. Benedictine was, of course, invented by Benedictines.
And Trappist beer is some of the best stuff I've ever had. I highly recommend Westmalle Tripel. Made by Trappist monks in Belgium, who apparently believe that if God wanted us to filter beer, He wouldn't have given us livers.
I believe I remember from high school biology that scabs from a vaccination would yield cowpox virus
Thats true, if you were vaccinated with cowpox virus, which is the method Edward Jenner introduced in the 18th Century. That's probably what you read about in your high school biology book. However, assuming you're not 200+ years old, you were probably vaccinated with killed (i.e. chemically inactivated) smallpox virions, which is what they used to make smallpox vaccine for the past several decades.
This is why it's critical, IMO, that the last legal stores of live smallpox not be destroyed. If a heretofore undiscovered store of smallpox (say, in a library book) is discovered and starts killing people, we would have no source material from which to develop a vaccine. That, and I've never been comfortable with the ethics of intentionally causing the extinction of any organism (assuming virii qualify as organisms), regardless of the harm they've historically caused.
Well, they set up an in-orbit rendezvous between two Gemini capsules in the mid-60s pretty successfully, if you recall. The technology and expertise are definately there -- it would certainly take some dusting off because a space shuttle is not a Gemini. But it's not impossible.
But I think the best thing that could have been done would have been to keep all the astronauts on the ISS while awaiting a rescue mission from a Soyuz or another shuttle.
Survey says . . . BZZT! Wrong!
They do shuttle landings at Edwards Air Force Base in San Bernadino County in Southern California, on the edge of the Mojave Desert.
Nope. No shuttle ever launched from SLC-6. My dad was a flight operations analyst at Vandenburg from 1983-1987, so he would know. SLC-6 was originally built to launch the shuttle into a polar orbit -- the shuttle would launch in a southerly direction. (You can't launch into a polar orbit from Canaveral because the spent solid-fueled boosters would fall onto Brazil, and that would probably torque the Brazilians off.) Unfortunately, the solid rocket boosters were redesigned after the Challenger accident, and enough weight was added to preclude ever launching into a polar orbit, so SLC-6 was, in fact, abandoned. I was last there in 1996, and it was rusting out pretty badly.
Also, they've used heaters on liquid O2 before. I was reading "Moon Lost" by Jim Lovell (the Apollo 13 astronaut), and he explains that heaters were used in the Apollo spacecraft's O2 tanks to keep the system pressurized. O2 pressure too low? Just turn on the heaters, more of the supercritical O2 would resublimate, pressure's back up to nominal. In fact, heaters were chosen instead of pumps because pumps have more moving parts which means more things that can malfunction.
Oh, don't worry. Your reputation will be destroyed and your life as you know it will cease to exist LONG before they get to the trial stage. The courts are required to assume "innocent until proven guilty," but American society is not.
By going after the person who started all their misery, the MPAA is trying to send a message, like: "No matter where you hide, we will get you. Even if you live in a foreign country, we will destroy your life and your reputation. We have enough money . . . don't think we won't"
Sorry to hear about Jon, but it looks like he's pretty screwed (depending on what exactly Norweigan law states and what he has on his now-seized computers). All the rest of us can do is: mirror mirror mirror. Mirror like crazy. Get free (or cheap) throwaway server space (eg GeoCities) and just put deCSS up. The MPAA can't go after everyone, and the more people that has it up, the probability that any one of us being INDIVIDUALLY busted drops like a stone. It's like an interstate highway . . . the more people that speed, the less probability that any one of the speeders gets ticketed.