Nice straw man argument (NOT!), but we're talking about Mac Minis and Windows. Nobody in this thread has said a word about Linux.
So, where are thes zombie hordes of Mini Macs that the phishers/spammers/etc are controlling? Oh, right, they don't exist. Its a Windows-only "feature".
But since you brought it up, where are the hordes of Linux zombies?
If you're going to troll, at leas[tt] do it right... sheesh!
So you can only compare an Intel-based small form factor machine to the Mac Mini by price?!?? The whole point of the Mac Mini is OS X. Unless you somehow have OS X for Intel, there is no comparison to be made.
That's why I can't stand all this about a Mac Mini look-alike from Intel. Unless it runs OS X, then you shouldn't even use the term "Mac Mini" anywhere in the article. It's just a small form factor PC. I can't think of anyone who would put a small form factor Wintel box in the same trade space as a Mac Mini. Unless you like to compare apples and oranges in your spare time...
... and that's why I said, unless its priced way cheaper than the Mac Mini, why not get the real deal (the Mac Mini) instead? Obviously this is targeted at wannabes.
It makes me wonder just how bad Intel is hurting, with AMD kicking their butt in 64bit space, and their plan to continue ramping up clock speeds to 10ghz having hit a thermal wall, and people saying that there's no f'ing way they want to use the "latest and greatest" if its going to dim all the lights when you boot up...
No, the study said "nearly half of all the cigarettes smoked are smoked by the mentally ill".
It also gave rates of mental illnes for the population at large (around 20% in any given year)
In addition, in any given year, 1 in 5 adults in the United States is estimated to suffer from some form of mental illness. One in 20 suffers from a severe mental illness.
Take the smokers out of the equation and the rate of mental illness drops.
As for your slur against me, trying to say that I'm attempting to demonize people who "choose to use tobacco", you also fail to note that I pin the blame on the manufacturers and marketers. They ruthlessly exploited a sizeable portion of the population.
Given the high rates of mental illness (1 in 5), I find it extermely unlikely that your statement
former smoker who is mentally sound and who knows many smokers, I've seen no evidence of mental illness in any of the tobacco consumers that I know
is an accurate reflection of what's really going on in the world around you. Even if their rate of mental illenss was no greater than the general population, you'd still probably know a few people who are having trouble coping, or are depressed, or "too stressed out", and not dealing with it.
Oh, BTW, living with a schizophrenic is a health risk. It's not nice to say, but sometimes the truth is ugly.
Life has no purpose. It just "is". Same as electricity has no purpose. We choose to harness it to our purposes, but it has no innate "purpose", or reason for being. Ditto for our lives. Its only because we choose to read meaning into them that they have purpose. The universe at large doesn't/can't give a shit on way or the other.
Of course, so does everyone else. Just that non-smokers have a better quality of life (I don't think somokers can claim its fun to cough up a lung first thing in the morning, look 20 years older than their non-smoking siblings, stinking, or for women to get thickened, node-encrusted vocal chords so they sound like old men, etc).
Then there's the proven link of smoking behaviour and underlying mental illness.
150 years ago, a doctor would probably never see a single case of lung cancer in his or her career. 40 years ago, the tobacco industry was promoting smoking on TV as a way for women to stay thin, and having doctors smoke on TV shows. What a fuck-up.
We know further that the kind of intelligence we have has evolved exactly once.
I would disagree on that statement. Even dogs are able to understand that symbols mean other things, and other mammals (and some birds) have developed tools. Certainly, whales and dolphins also qualify as intelligent.
but I would agree that we can't assume intelligent life exists elsewhere, at least not within an overlapping timeframe with our own. This may or may not be a good thing. I mean, can you imagine having to sit through an alien's version of "Return of the Sith?" then again, it might be better (couldn't be much worse).
If we limit ourselves to only the local cluster, the probability is much lower (new word definition: the unit of measurement of the probability of intelligent life in any part of the universe: a clusterfuck)
Unlike all the examples you quoted, cigarettes are the only product that, when used as directed, kill the user. Limiting the discussion to products that are metabolized by the user, like cigarettes, we see that your examples fail -
Alcohol, in moderation, is actually beneficial to your health
Chocolate has health benefits as well as being a slight aphrodesiac.
All cigarette smoking does is make both the user and anyone around them sick, as well as, in many if not most cases, mask one or more underlying mental illnesses. There are NO benefits, except to the manufacturers and marketers, who should be lined up against the wall and shot. Normally, I'm against capital punishment, but I would enjoy being the one to pull the trigger/hang them/stone them to death/beat them to a pulp/boil them in oil/whatever. They are totally undeserving of any compassion.
And, to bring this back on-topic, I think any alien species would consider us to be incredibly dumb because, rather than seeing smoking for the self-destructive stupidity that it is, we've created whole industries around it, with people PAYING for the "privilege" of being addicted to something that will kill them.
Drake's Equation has had to be downsized quite a few times. Just one example - the core of galaxies is now considered to be inhospitable to life.
Then there's the time-frame. Advanced civilizations would tend to eat up their resources quite quickly, so the chances of 2 advanced civilizations maturing in the exact same time slice is extremely small. For example, for all intents and purposes, we can be pretty sure we're pretty much alone in this galaxy at this moment.
Sure it sucks, but it explains Fermi's Paradox. And it doesn't require us to be unique or special - just bad timing.
Be funny if we find out that the mistranslations were from a dyslexic, and it should be The Word of DOG, and that we should fear SANTA.
Funny how so far nobody's hit on the topic of collective intelligences, or hive minds, like termites, so far. Guess we're really into anthropomorphizing everything tonight.
You didn't bother quoting the rest of the phrase:
which makes it clear that what you are talking is the LEGAL definition of suicide.
Suicide is killing yourself. A lot of smokers have underlying mental problems, and smoking is a form of "self-medication". Google for smoking mental illness self-medication.
Study Finds: Sizable Chunk of Smokers Have Mental Illness Los Angeles Times Wednesday, November 22, 2000
Nearly half of all cigarettes purchased in the United States are smoked by people who suffer from mental illnesses, according to Harvard Medical School research.
Mentally ill people are roughly twice as likely to smoke as those without mental illnesses, according to the research published in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.
... it makes sense - you have to be nuts to smoke.
Even on this planet, the sample size for intelligent life is greater than 1. We have humans, dolphins, whales, chimps, etc.
You can't assume that just because its intelligent, that its going to walk on 2 feet, and can say a few words...
For example, if your girlfriend is hairy and goes "gooney googoo", I've got news for you - you've been fucking a sasquatch, not a human. She's a bigfoot, dude.
If 60% of people believed life exists on other planets, Bush wouldn't be president right now
People are capable of holding mutually conflicting beliefs. Just ask any stupid smoker why they're suicidal. They'll deny it. Then ask them why they're killing themselves by smoking, and how that doesn't qualify as suicide. Or look up cognitive dissonance.
One Bible teacher I heard tried to argue that in order for aliens to exist on other planets, Jesus would have had to go and die for their sins.....
More than one. I've heard them say it, too. Mind you' I've also heard "religious folks" claim that Jesus was an alien, and that UFOs brought life to earth, etc. Takes all kinds.
... seeing as we've already replied... after all, any alien civilization within 50 lightyears has heard Ricky Ricardo and Lucy fighting, and Ralph Cramden going "To the moon, Alice... to the moon!" as he get ready to belt her.
They've also been subjected to 40 years of soap operas. We've already seen the brain damage they can inflict on native species here on earth - it would be ironic if aliens find our trash entertainment so offensive they decide to remove the whole damn planet to make room for a hyperspatial autoroute. \Hey, maybe that's why marvin is so depressed - no more soaps.
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So, where are thes zombie hordes of Mini Macs that the phishers/spammers/etc are controlling? Oh, right, they don't exist. Its a Windows-only "feature".
But since you brought it up, where are the hordes of Linux zombies?
If you're going to troll, at leas[tt] do it right ... sheesh!
I mean, the orgasmatron looked neat in Woody Allen's "Sleeper", but it kind of sucked in "Demolition Man".
Nothing beats swapping fluids ...
Hopefully, alien slime won't grok it and insist on "communing" by swapping fluids with us.
It makes me wonder just how bad Intel is hurting, with AMD kicking their butt in 64bit space, and their plan to continue ramping up clock speeds to 10ghz having hit a thermal wall, and people saying that there's no f'ing way they want to use the "latest and greatest" if its going to dim all the lights when you boot up ...
The reason is very simple - to use your terms - life doesn't exterminate life. It creates conditions conducive to more life.
It also gave rates of mental illnes for the population at large (around 20% in any given year)
Take the smokers out of the equation and the rate of mental illness drops.As for your slur against me, trying to say that I'm attempting to demonize people who "choose to use tobacco", you also fail to note that I pin the blame on the manufacturers and marketers. They ruthlessly exploited a sizeable portion of the population.
Given the high rates of mental illness (1 in 5), I find it extermely unlikely that your statement
is an accurate reflection of what's really going on in the world around you. Even if their rate of mental illenss was no greater than the general population, you'd still probably know a few people who are having trouble coping, or are depressed, or "too stressed out", and not dealing with it.Oh, BTW, living with a schizophrenic is a health risk. It's not nice to say, but sometimes the truth is ugly.
You're anthropomorphizing. Big mistake.
Unless its priced WAY cheaper than a MiniMac, what's the point? Why not get the real deal?
After all, if it's running Windows:
... give it a few days, it WILL be non-working.Of course, so does everyone else. Just that non-smokers have a better quality of life (I don't think somokers can claim its fun to cough up a lung first thing in the morning, look 20 years older than their non-smoking siblings, stinking, or for women to get thickened, node-encrusted vocal chords so they sound like old men, etc).
Then there's the proven link of smoking behaviour and underlying mental illness.
150 years ago, a doctor would probably never see a single case of lung cancer in his or her career. 40 years ago, the tobacco industry was promoting smoking on TV as a way for women to stay thin, and having doctors smoke on TV shows. What a fuck-up.
but I would agree that we can't assume intelligent life exists elsewhere, at least not within an overlapping timeframe with our own. This may or may not be a good thing. I mean, can you imagine having to sit through an alien's version of "Return of the Sith?" then again, it might be better (couldn't be much worse).
If we limit ourselves to only the local cluster, the probability is much lower (new word definition: the unit of measurement of the probability of intelligent life in any part of the universe: a clusterfuck)
And, to bring this back on-topic, I think any alien species would consider us to be incredibly dumb because, rather than seeing smoking for the self-destructive stupidity that it is, we've created whole industries around it, with people PAYING for the "privilege" of being addicted to something that will kill them.
If we give you McNeal, will you also take McBride and the MoGTroll? Oh, and I've got first dibs on Leila.
Then there's the time-frame. Advanced civilizations would tend to eat up their resources quite quickly, so the chances of 2 advanced civilizations maturing in the exact same time slice is extremely small. For example, for all intents and purposes, we can be pretty sure we're pretty much alone in this galaxy at this moment.
Sure it sucks, but it explains Fermi's Paradox. And it doesn't require us to be unique or special - just bad timing.
Funny how so far nobody's hit on the topic of collective intelligences, or hive minds, like termites, so far. Guess we're really into anthropomorphizing everything tonight.
Suicide is killing yourself. A lot of smokers have underlying mental problems, and smoking is a form of "self-medication". Google for smoking mental illness self-medication.
here is just one result
... it makes sense - you have to be nuts to smoke.You can't assume that just because its intelligent, that its going to walk on 2 feet, and can say a few words ...
For example, if your girlfriend is hairy and goes "gooney googoo", I've got news for you - you've been fucking a sasquatch, not a human. She's a bigfoot, dude.
Once they see our "reality TV" and "idol" programs, they'll surely want to clean up the neighbourhood.
So, how about Fermi's Paradox?
They've also been subjected to 40 years of soap operas. We've already seen the brain damage they can inflict on native species here on earth - it would be ironic if aliens find our trash entertainment so offensive they decide to remove the whole damn planet to make room for a hyperspatial autoroute. \Hey, maybe that's why marvin is so depressed - no more soaps.