So now terrorists are following tourists who take pictures of those "bobbies on bicycles, two by two" and stealing the images right out of their cameras? Why bother? Just cut the middleman and pose as a tourist yourself. And since the police presumably wear uniforms and are thus identifiable even without photos, what's the benefit?
The only benefit I can see is to police who are acting outside the law and don't want any evidence recording that.
Ya know, I can't find a thing to disagree with there. If you let your country be taken over by foreign interests, the enemies of those foreign interests become YOUR enemies as well, and voila, terrorism.
Tho considering the death toll is a lot higher from ordinary household and auto accidents, maybe it's time to just ban people. Problem solved!:/
Yeah, we have the same problem here, only we call them Democrats... and the problem really is the socialist entitlement system which keeps people voting against their own best interests. "He who robs Peter to pay Paul is assured of Paul's vote."
I forgot to mention -- the U.S. used to have excellent rail coverage -- almost every wide spot in the road and every grain elevator in the entire U.S. had a rail siding. If you look at the old railway maps, the rails even went to many places that were so small they didn't even have a paved road, or were nothing but a freight depot. And when I was a kid, every freight train had a passenger car. So it's not like we haven't DONE this in the past. I don't know the financials of why it fell apart, but today the rail system is a tiny fraction of what it used to be, both for freight and passengers, and far as I know the remaining passenger rail system operates at a loss.
I am not really surprised to learn that, and I think it's something more Americans need to hear, since the special interests (and basement dwellers) only seem to notice "Europe has public transporation everywhere!"
Here in California we had a "high speed rail" ballot initiative last fall, which proposed to build a line between the Bay area and Los Angeles, a distance of 400 miles. Well, I worked out what the ticket price would have to be to cover the cost over the lifetime of the loans (the real cost to build it) and it came to a minimum of $1000 per one-way ticket -- assuming no cost overruns during construction (and in Calif. everything always winds up costing 3 to 5 times what it was budgeted for). Apparently more than half the voters couldn't figure this out, because the damned thing passed and now we're saddled with it -- in a state economy that is already on the brink of collapse, and a state budget that is so far in the hole it will never get out.
For comparison, the cost to make the same trip by car is about $100, or by air varies from $300 to as little as $25.
Which means a rail ticket, to be competitive, needs to be under $300 max, even allowing that it may be faster than all the waiting around at the airport, and easier than driving. So, yeah -- who's going to pick up the tab to subsidize the rest of the ticket? Because no way in hell would even the worst morons pay $1000 for it, and those rich enough to not care can afford better than a public rail.
Thanks! I looked for such a link, but "international" just didn't stand out to me as meaning "English":)
[goes off, reads stuff] This is interesting, and very true: ===== Respect for the right to privacy
Following the 9/11 event in the US, Europe has allowed itself to be swept along in a panic reaction to try to end all evil by increasing the level of surveillance and control over the entire population. We Europeans should know better. It is not twenty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and there are plenty of other horrific examples of surveillance-gone-wrong in Europe's modern history.
The arguments for each step on the road to the surveillance state may sound ever so convincing. But we Europeans know from experience where that road leads, and it is not somewhere we want to go.
We must pull the emergency brake on the runaway train towards a society we do not want. Terrorists may attack theopen society, but only governments can abolish it. The Pirate Party wants to prevent that from happening. =====
I think they make a good point by tying unbalanced copyright to personal privacy, as enforcing unbalanced laws leads to erosion of ALL rights, and loss of privacy is perhaps THE turning point on the road to totalitarianism. Once privacy is lost, other rights follow it into the grave that much more easily.
It's good to hear about this from someone who lives there and remembers their country's history.
My impression of the GDR gov't (myself being old enough to remember the Iron Curtain and what it meant) was that they didn't play fair even by the "rules" of totalitarianism -- exactly as you describe. Nothing and no one was safe. I wish more Americans would remember, and fight against our own slide into socialism. But because we don't have jackbooted thugs roaming the streets, too many people just don't see where it goes, nor remember what we fought against in the past. Reagan must be spinning in his grave.
My German friends have spoken of this "Eastalgia" with horror, as they watch its influence eroding united Germany's freedoms. And as Germany goes, so goes the rest of Europe, or so it has been historically.
It occurs to me that in today's world, there might not BE any capacity for breaking loose once socialism and oppression get into power, as (lacking outright attacks) there is not enough incentive to go to war against it, nor any great statesman like Reagan, who can get an unbalanced gov't hoist by its own petard.
The fact that we've chosen to appease pirates rather than blow them out of the water speaks to that.
No need for conspiracy theories. All you need is a culture where pigs and birds (notably ducks) are kept in close proximity. Pig coronavirus, when passed through a bird, often alters into a human-infective "flu" virus. Since there are hundreds of coronaviruses, and plenty of poor rural areas where pigs and fowl are kept together (notably China) the fact that we regularly get new flu variants is just mother nature being her bitchy self.
Back in the 1960s, flu almost always meant "stomach flu". The major symptoms were 2 to 3 days of violent vomiting and diarrhea. It was extremely contagious, with about a 3 day incubation period.
After 1970 or so the "stomach flu" abruptly became rare, and "flu" started to mean the fever and lung involvement we're familiar with today.
If power-hurling is a notable symptom, then we already had it here in the Los Angeles area, early last fall. Otherwise, probably not as severe as the average flu.
When I had a GeoShitties site, way back in about 1997 or 98, you had to pick your preferred ads for your page. So I picked... none. So my page got a very funny placeholder box instead.
Sorry, but that's not true. The first research I know of on the subject dates back to the late 1950s, and concerns roundworms in dogs. Turns out that unless the gut's mucus production is too high (caused mainly by irritating foods like soybean meal) or if the gut is retaining too much water (usually from high-fibre diet), a mature dog's immune system will pretty much expel roundworms, even if the dog is never treated for them. (And per recent research, turns out some exposure to roundworms during puppyhood is a good thing for the immune system's development.)
Actually most of the Interstate system is concrete, not asphalt. Regular rail is probably quite a lot cheaper to construct. However... as you say in another post, by its nature it is strictly point to point, not practical for everyday use in our sprawling country.
As to cargo rail -- which was also used for passenger rail -- we used to have plenty; when I was a kid you could pretty much go by rail anywhere to anywhere else in 3 days. Much of that has gone away.:(
Per what I've read about post-WW2 East Germany, yeah, the Soviets did the people no favours, just switched the chain from your right arm to your left arm.:(
Exactly what bothers me about such schemes. Your neighbour becomes your possible enemy... divide the people so they cannot possibly move against an oppressive gov't, because they all distrust one another too much.
Cue the "in Soviet Russia" jokes... oh, how about this one??
Subject: KGB Place and time: Somewhere in the Soviet Union in the 1950s.
The phone rings at KGB headquarters.
"Hello?"
"Hello, is this KGB?"
"Yes. What do you want?"
"I'm calling to report my neighbor Yankel Rabinovitz as an enemy of the State. He is hiding undeclared diamonds in some fallen trees on his property."
"This will be noted." Next day, the KGB patrol arrives at the Rabinovitz's house. They chop the trees into pieces, but find no diamonds.
Later the phone rings at the Rabinovitz house. "Hello, Yankel! Did the KGB come?"
"Yes. Did they chop your firewood?"
"Yes, they did."
"Okay, now it's your turn to call. I need my vegetable patch plowed.
Yes indeed, the practice does have a long pedigree... and in keeping with it being a form of national natural selection, we had a name for nations that didn't cut it:
Colonies.
Actually, I'm not so sure that isn't a viable solution.
And of course it serves as an object lesson to any would-be pirates who place any value on their own boats. Who wants to wind up with less than they started with??
As I said to another reply, it's not 1600 anymore, when a single gunboat could take out a port city. And it's not like they need to mount long-range cannon. A few large-calibre machine guns should suffice to repel pirates, and when coming into a civilized port, those could be dismounted and stored in secure lockers just like light arms have been historically.
Slashdot Mirror
Kinda predictable when you call a spade a spade...
It's no wonder people get, as someone once put it, the government they deserve :/
Ah. Same problem the U.S. has now fallen into. :(
So now terrorists are following tourists who take pictures of those "bobbies on bicycles, two by two" and stealing the images right out of their cameras? Why bother? Just cut the middleman and pose as a tourist yourself. And since the police presumably wear uniforms and are thus identifiable even without photos, what's the benefit?
The only benefit I can see is to police who are acting outside the law and don't want any evidence recording that.
Ya know, I can't find a thing to disagree with there. If you let your country be taken over by foreign interests, the enemies of those foreign interests become YOUR enemies as well, and voila, terrorism.
Tho considering the death toll is a lot higher from ordinary household and auto accidents, maybe it's time to just ban people. Problem solved! :/
Then how does the Labour party stay in power??
Yeah, we have the same problem here, only we call them Democrats... and the problem really is the socialist entitlement system which keeps people voting against their own best interests. "He who robs Peter to pay Paul is assured of Paul's vote."
I forgot to mention -- the U.S. used to have excellent rail coverage -- almost every wide spot in the road and every grain elevator in the entire U.S. had a rail siding. If you look at the old railway maps, the rails even went to many places that were so small they didn't even have a paved road, or were nothing but a freight depot. And when I was a kid, every freight train had a passenger car. So it's not like we haven't DONE this in the past. I don't know the financials of why it fell apart, but today the rail system is a tiny fraction of what it used to be, both for freight and passengers, and far as I know the remaining passenger rail system operates at a loss.
I am not really surprised to learn that, and I think it's something more Americans need to hear, since the special interests (and basement dwellers) only seem to notice "Europe has public transporation everywhere!"
Here in California we had a "high speed rail" ballot initiative last fall, which proposed to build a line between the Bay area and Los Angeles, a distance of 400 miles. Well, I worked out what the ticket price would have to be to cover the cost over the lifetime of the loans (the real cost to build it) and it came to a minimum of $1000 per one-way ticket -- assuming no cost overruns during construction (and in Calif. everything always winds up costing 3 to 5 times what it was budgeted for). Apparently more than half the voters couldn't figure this out, because the damned thing passed and now we're saddled with it -- in a state economy that is already on the brink of collapse, and a state budget that is so far in the hole it will never get out.
For comparison, the cost to make the same trip by car is about $100, or by air varies from $300 to as little as $25.
Which means a rail ticket, to be competitive, needs to be under $300 max, even allowing that it may be faster than all the waiting around at the airport, and easier than driving. So, yeah -- who's going to pick up the tab to subsidize the rest of the ticket? Because no way in hell would even the worst morons pay $1000 for it, and those rich enough to not care can afford better than a public rail.
Thanks! I looked for such a link, but "international" just didn't stand out to me as meaning "English" :)
[goes off, reads stuff] This is interesting, and very true:
=====
Respect for the right to privacy
Following the 9/11 event in the US, Europe has allowed itself to be swept along in a panic reaction to try to end all evil by increasing the level of surveillance and control over the entire population. We Europeans should know better. It is not twenty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and there are plenty of other horrific examples of surveillance-gone-wrong in Europe's modern history.
The arguments for each step on the road to the surveillance state may sound ever so convincing. But we Europeans know from experience where that road leads, and it is not somewhere we want to go.
We must pull the emergency brake on the runaway train towards a society we do not want. Terrorists may attack theopen society, but only governments can abolish it. The Pirate Party wants to prevent that from happening.
=====
I think they make a good point by tying unbalanced copyright to personal privacy, as enforcing unbalanced laws leads to erosion of ALL rights, and loss of privacy is perhaps THE turning point on the road to totalitarianism. Once privacy is lost, other rights follow it into the grave that much more easily.
It's good to hear about this from someone who lives there and remembers their country's history.
My impression of the GDR gov't (myself being old enough to remember the Iron Curtain and what it meant) was that they didn't play fair even by the "rules" of totalitarianism -- exactly as you describe. Nothing and no one was safe. I wish more Americans would remember, and fight against our own slide into socialism. But because we don't have jackbooted thugs roaming the streets, too many people just don't see where it goes, nor remember what we fought against in the past. Reagan must be spinning in his grave.
My German friends have spoken of this "Eastalgia" with horror, as they watch its influence eroding united Germany's freedoms. And as Germany goes, so goes the rest of Europe, or so it has been historically.
It occurs to me that in today's world, there might not BE any capacity for breaking loose once socialism and oppression get into power, as (lacking outright attacks) there is not enough incentive to go to war against it, nor any great statesman like Reagan, who can get an unbalanced gov't hoist by its own petard.
The fact that we've chosen to appease pirates rather than blow them out of the water speaks to that.
No need for conspiracy theories. All you need is a culture where pigs and birds (notably ducks) are kept in close proximity. Pig coronavirus, when passed through a bird, often alters into a human-infective "flu" virus. Since there are hundreds of coronaviruses, and plenty of poor rural areas where pigs and fowl are kept together (notably China) the fact that we regularly get new flu variants is just mother nature being her bitchy self.
Back in the 1960s, flu almost always meant "stomach flu". The major symptoms were 2 to 3 days of violent vomiting and diarrhea. It was extremely contagious, with about a 3 day incubation period.
After 1970 or so the "stomach flu" abruptly became rare, and "flu" started to mean the fever and lung involvement we're familiar with today.
If power-hurling is a notable symptom, then we already had it here in the Los Angeles area, early last fall. Otherwise, probably not as severe as the average flu.
Perhaps the new Tea Party? :)
I do wish the Pirate Party website had an English version, as I would like to read their info!
The volume of donations speaks for itself, tho...
When I had a GeoShitties site, way back in about 1997 or 98, you had to pick your preferred ads for your page. So I picked... none. So my page got a very funny placeholder box instead.
Sorry, but that's not true. The first research I know of on the subject dates back to the late 1950s, and concerns roundworms in dogs. Turns out that unless the gut's mucus production is too high (caused mainly by irritating foods like soybean meal) or if the gut is retaining too much water (usually from high-fibre diet), a mature dog's immune system will pretty much expel roundworms, even if the dog is never treated for them. (And per recent research, turns out some exposure to roundworms during puppyhood is a good thing for the immune system's development.)
Actually most of the Interstate system is concrete, not asphalt. Regular rail is probably quite a lot cheaper to construct. However... as you say in another post, by its nature it is strictly point to point, not practical for everyday use in our sprawling country.
As to cargo rail -- which was also used for passenger rail -- we used to have plenty; when I was a kid you could pretty much go by rail anywhere to anywhere else in 3 days. Much of that has gone away. :(
Per what I've read about post-WW2 East Germany, yeah, the Soviets did the people no favours, just switched the chain from your right arm to your left arm. :(
Exactly what bothers me about such schemes. Your neighbour becomes your possible enemy... divide the people so they cannot possibly move against an oppressive gov't, because they all distrust one another too much.
Cue the "in Soviet Russia" jokes... oh, how about this one??
Subject: KGB
Place and time: Somewhere in the Soviet Union in the 1950s.
The phone rings at KGB headquarters.
"Hello?"
"Hello, is this KGB?"
"Yes. What do you want?"
"I'm calling to report my neighbor Yankel Rabinovitz as an enemy of the State. He is hiding undeclared diamonds in some fallen trees on his property."
"This will be noted." Next day, the KGB patrol arrives at the Rabinovitz's house. They chop the trees into pieces, but find no diamonds.
Later the phone rings at the Rabinovitz house.
"Hello, Yankel! Did the KGB come?"
"Yes. Did they chop your firewood?"
"Yes, they did."
"Okay, now it's your turn to call. I need my vegetable patch plowed.
Yes indeed, the practice does have a long pedigree... and in keeping with it being a form of national natural selection, we had a name for nations that didn't cut it:
Colonies.
Actually, I'm not so sure that isn't a viable solution.
Ha! That's an excellent way of viewing it!!
Now if only we'd apply that to our own out of control government... :/
Excellent points!
And of course it serves as an object lesson to any would-be pirates who place any value on their own boats. Who wants to wind up with less than they started with??
Sounds like perfectly good tactics to me! And if the pirates neglected to bring lifeboats... oh well!!
That too... and once the pirates learn that you'll give in, they have all the incentive they need to escalate their own operations.
"Once you pay the danegeld, you never get rid of the Dane." -- 10th c. British saying
That's half of why we end up in situations like Vietnam and Iraq -- worrying about goodwill rather than just doing what needs to be done.
As I said to another reply, it's not 1600 anymore, when a single gunboat could take out a port city. And it's not like they need to mount long-range cannon. A few large-calibre machine guns should suffice to repel pirates, and when coming into a civilized port, those could be dismounted and stored in secure lockers just like light arms have been historically.