I had a friend who's drive was killed in a lightning strike. A friend of theirs swapped out the control board for another one. It physically fit, but released its magic smoke after just a few seconds. So, I inherited someone elses botched repair. Of course, I was 1,000 miles away, so it's not like I just stopped by to say "hi", and took a look at it.:)
I did some digging, and found a guy who would send you the appropriate replacement board for something like $40. It would help to have the original board, but he figured out which board was correct for this drive, and it took a whopping 5 minutes to install. Most of that was finding the screws and screw driver.:)
The only way to assure a drive is completely unrecoverable is physical destruction. Simple as that.
Well, for those of us living in the civilian world, C4 is hard to get our hands on.
Thermite, on the other hand, can be made rather easily from things around the house. A file or grinder, a bit of the appropriate metals, and an ignition source. Be sure that your "Member of the Overkill Club" card is up to date, and you're all set. 5 pounds of thermite vs 1 hard drive sounds just about right. Well, right through the drive, and the table, and the concrete below.:)
Actually, thermite may be the better choice anyways, unless you want to notify everyone for miles that you're using C4.:) It has lots of hot, and not much bang. Well, especially compared to C4.
And remember kids, don't try this at home. It's a really really (really) good way to burn down your house, get the police called by a neighbor, and/or be charged with arson and building explosives. Some law enforcement folks don't look upon such things as lightly as they used to.
If matter has existed infinitely, it is also possible that other entities can exist infinitely. You cannot say then "there is no God" if you accept that an entity can exist infinitely.
Now you're starting to catch on.
There is no great ghost in the sky that dictates the way humans should behave. It doesn't matter how old the fairy tale is, nor how many people believe in it.
There could be creatures with amazingly long lifespans (I'll call them ghod). Then that's a matter of natural selection and resource availability. If the ghod were to breed even once every 1000 years, their population would fill the universe in no time. We'd have no shortage of "gods" floating around.
We also know that energy cannot be created, nor destroyed. Energy is expended by virtually any task. For us, that includes breathing and our hearts pumping. If the ghod exist, they have to consume. Also, if the ghod creature were to have done the Genesis claims, then all that matter would have come from somewhere. Not the nothingness, unless that too was a poor translation really meaning "moved all matter in this universe from other pocket universes.
But no one has been able to demonstrate that the ghod species exists, or ever existed. There is simply no proof.
If the ghod species did exist, it is no more the omnipotent being, than you are when you step on an ant.
There are plenty of people with such beliefs, but there are a variety of mental disorders that they could be diagnosed with.
Wouldn't it be more rational to understand that the fairy tale, and the leaders of cults who believe in them, suffer from such delusions of grandeur? Not as being "god" themselves, but being the assistant to god, therefore being the most powerful human on the planet. That, in itself, would explain the various religions and splinters of religions that we have today. It's not that there ever was such a being, it's crazy people believing that they are the assistant to the most powerful being in the universe (who happens to not exist).
It does seem nicer to believe that 75% of the people out there aren't crazy, either believing in a fairy tale as truth, or believing that they are the assistant to the creature in the fairy tale.
"in vein" means "without purpose". "void" is an absence of anything (or something specific, if so qualified).
As I can clearly see, based on your response,
No there is no coincidence that quite a few translations have similar phrases or meaning. And there's no divine reason behind it. It's simply that people do read each others work. Over time, adjustments are made towards a common meaning. That does not mean that they are changed towards the original meaning. As no one has an original bible to cite, it can be assumed that they are all incorrect, as there are so many variations on it.
You mention "Thou shalt have no other gods(lower case 'g').
Yup, I noticed the lowercase "g". That's amazing. All part of ghoads plan, right? Or is it simply that recent adaptations of the story define the word god as a proper noun, and therefore it gets capitalized. Well, at least in English.
With the same idea, I could write a novel about Cat (my cat named Cat), about various things he did in his previous lives (he's up to #6 now), and how the universe was divinely created by him for us to live in peace and make sure he's fed.
Lastly... science has yet to explain the discharge known as lightning. Also life and death. I think the biggest things science has yet to explain is "What is it about humans that makes them so profoundly aware(conscious)?/Why do we desire more than our livelihood(greed, want - almost completely unrepresented in other lifeforms)?" and "Where/from what did matter originate?". Humans still believe in these figures because we have the innate feeling that there *is* a God, and so we hunt for one. Now ask me why.
Oohh, I love science questions. They don't let me answer science questions in trivia games any more. If I get it right, I'm being spiteful to other players. If I answer wrong, I'm condescending, as I am obviously getting it wrong on purpose.
Lightning is an electrical discharge between two dissimilar electrically charged areas. This charge is created by a number of things, most obviously clouds, their movement against themselves, each other, and through the air.
A medical professional can probably answer the life & death questions better than I can, but here's my answer.
"Life" is a electrochemical process, which occurs in the semi-squishy matter contained between the ears of most humans. It is supported by an array of devices, including but not limited to:
A respiratory system, used for exchanging waste gases with oxygen in a red liquid transport medium.
A vascular system, used to circulate the red liquid transport medium throughout the body, but primarily to the brain.
A muscular system, used to provide locomotion, protection, and a way to insert food stuffs into a gaping hole on the upper limb of the human form..
A digestive system, used to convert the above referenced food stuffs to usable energy, which is also transferred in the red liquid transport medium.
Failure of any of these systems will result in the termination of the symptom "life". That also is the definition of "death".
A psychologist can probably answer your questions on consciousness, want, need, and desire better, but...
There are numerous profoundly intelligent creatures on this planet. Unfortunately, many humans don't see life that way, with a particularly egotistical view of the universe.
Want, greed, and desire have been bred into humanity. We are taught from a very young age that it's better to have, than not to have. As we grow and mature, we are shown daily that want, greed, and desire are perfectly normal traits. If humans were allowed to grow with no exposure to culture at all, they would eventually learn language, but quite likely would have very different traits than we do.
And a theoretical astrophysicist can help you more with "where did matter come from". Basically,
What they're saying is that no soldering on the original hardware, nor replacement of any components is necessary. Some previous attacks required the removal of the storage media (compact flash, if I remember right).
The unit they demonstrated simply requires unplugging two things, and putting their unit in between. After the election is complete, they'd simply need to access the units again, remove the component, and all is well.
Most "void if broken" seals can be easily replicated. It's just a matter of getting a replacement seal in time. For the most part, people are dumb. If you do a good job of cleaning off the seal, they'd never notice it is missing.
18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.
I referenced several other translations, and they all say pretty much the same thing. The universe ("heavens"), then the Earth. Well, the can vary dramatically, but are based around the idea of the universe then the earth.
But for a book that is suppose to be taken literally, there are vast variations between them. Some versions have huge dialogues, some have lesser variations on the cited passage. The oldest I could find is the Douay-Rheims bible,
[18] For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens, God himself that formed the earth, and made it, the very maker thereof: he did not create it in vain: he formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord, and there is no other.
Even in these two, so similar, they have discrepancies.
"the very maker thereof:" != "he hath established it,"
In that syntax, the "he" would refer to the previous mention of "Lord", which we assume it means the god figure. Now the earlier "the very maker" is more precise, but does not prove an association to the god figure. It could be a peer, a designee (angels, and all that), or even a higher god. We shouldn't forget that for about 225,000 years before, it was pretty clear that there was no such thing as monotheism. The "god" figure they reference would most likely not be the only god. It would simply be the only god that humans were exposed to. The old testament only dates back to about the 6th century BCE. Before that, there were all kinds of neat gods running the universe.
And that whole pesky "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." passage kind of gives it away. What other gods? If this one is the one who created the universe, and the bipedal creatures with a superiority complex, the god figure wouldn't have needed to say anything like that.
Well... except for the fact that the god figure was a figment of the authors imagination. It's just a fairy tale, that was passed down, picked up by a few too many people, written down, rewritten, translated, and wrapped up in a whole theology. Now, around 2,000 years later, no one remembers the original script.
You could quite literally be quoting a poor interpretation of a childhood story to scare children into being good or else the sky creature would torture them forever. Since I'm not quite 8,000 years old, I can't make that judgement call for you.
I don't quite grasp why modern humans still need to believe in some mysterious figure. We understand life, death, the sky and stars above, lightning, the movement of the Earth around the Sun, and the movement of the Moon around the Earth. Religion was a crutch, to help simpler man (well, starting with early Hominids) explain the things around them, and cope with the things they couldn't understand. The world isn't flat, there are no unicorns, and there is no invisible sky creature watching your every move.
Did an invisible creature create the universe in 7 days (give or take some time scale, and all that), in a completed form, and in those 7 days it made two humans in a garden?
Did the universe form out of a natural process, and creatures evolved through a process of natural selection.
The two theories are mutually exclusive. The second has a scientific basis which can be proven. The first only exists because an n-th generation book says so.
Generally, an agnostic believes that there is a higher power. He or she simply doesn't adhere to a particular religious structure.
An athiest doesn't believe in any of the mythologies.
I don't believe in Santa Claus, the Loch Ness monster, bigfoot, fairies, gremlins, nor leprechauns. There's no proof that they exist. I don't believe in Allah, Sheba, Zeus, nor Thor. I don't believe in the flying spaghetti monster, nor do I believe that a random light in the sky is an alien visitor.
If an atheist was one who denied the existence in your god, you'd need to find an awful lot of labels for what one doesn't believe in. As we expand the list to all gods or goddesses in recorded history, you'd have an awful long list of negatives, with an amazing number of intersections with any theist. Or in simpler terms, I believe in one less god than a theist does.
An atheist can't actively attempt to disprove the existence of anyone's deity. One could disprove the existence of the Christian "God", Allah, Sheba, Zeus, or Thor. Unfortunately, most theists don't realize that they are attempting to do exactly that with every possible god but theirs. And of course, it's a losing battle, but a battle that has been fought long and hard since the beginning of recorded history. (Crusades, anyone?)
Prove to me that a supreme being or beings exist, and I'll be a follower. With the lack of proof except circular logic (God exists, because my book says God exists, who wrote the book saying God exists,...), I have better things to do with my Sundays and a percentage of my income, than to worship an idol representing some god or goddess.
Atheism is the lack of belief in a deity or deities.
We're all born without any ties to the superstition system that is religion. For some reason, people love grabbing their favorite myth (usually indoctrinated and retained from childhood), and shoving it down people's throats.
If you are "atheist", then you must also be "aunicornist", "aleprechaunist", "abigfootist", and "anessieist" (the last being a non-belief in the Loch Ness monster). I'm categorized as an atheist, but I simply to believe in any fairy tale, unless there is some concrete backing behind it. I prefer not to be labeled as anything, because I won't believe one particular fairy tale.
Don't worry, I'm still agreeing with you.:)
For the theists, with tens of thousands of different theologies floating around, you have a very poor chance of guessing right. When your divine right of passage comes along, the odds are against you for following the right one. You actually have better odds in Vegas (1:97) than in the next whatever (> 1:10,000, but most likely 0:10,000). Now consider that it's estimated that there are 50,000,000 habitable planets in the milky way galaxy, and 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 in the known universe. I'd rather wager on the idea that the idea that we are alone, with 1:50,000,000 odds means that we're not. It's much stronger than the 1:10,000 that a particular fairy tale is right.
I am fond of some of the ideas that float around. Multiple planes of existence, and physical things in our universe that we are not aware of at this time. Sure, they could be there. And I have just as much proof that there are more advanced civilizations on another plane of existence in our same physical space, as any theist has that.
The odds lean towards the possibility that there are other creatures in the universe, who may be more advanced than us. Now, if they are dropping by to play god, mutiliate cattle, or probe the anuses of lonely folks in the middle of nowhere, I will continue to listen to their stories, and compare it to the facts that support it (stories 1, facts 0)
With all that said, if any off-worlders are reading this, I need a ride off this rock. My time here is done.
Ya, I never saw how screwy things were until I actually started parsing data on my own. I'd pick an arbitrary person, and search the DB directly for their information. The "arbitrary" person was always someone who I knew personally, that I could tell and laugh about it later on. So I'd go in knowing at least their name, age, and home address. I'd search by name, get a SSN. Search for the SSN and get other varitions of their name. Search those results by home address. Find what cars they'd owned, and/or where they had drivers licenses. Every bit of information that I hit, I compile into the larger report.
It doesn't take my kind of access to get that kind of information though. A while back, I was talking to a woman before we started really dating. This is before I ever worked for a data mining company. She dared me to find out where she lived. I got it right within a mile of her house. I found her date of birth, partial social security number, past residences, and even 15 year old traffic tickets. Not all of the information is because of the Internet either. It would have required me driving out to court houses to do research. So what would have taken weeks of flying around to different cities, was done in about an hour for free, while sitting at home.:)
I've never met any of my alter egos, even the ones who live near by. I am surprised by what I find out there. My alter egos are doctors, veterinarians, lawyers, executives, programmers, and a pilot. Some are close to my age, but most are way off. I heard there is one who isn't exactly a good guy. He is 30 years older than me, and had outstanding felony arrest warrants. I haven't bothered to research him to find out what his current status is. It's probably for the best that I have no clue.
If you have the time and patients to do it, you can do some pretty interesting tracking of how your info gets shared. Parts of your info are always going to be there, and some aren't. For example, you can be confident that your first name, last name, street address, and usually email address will stick. Your middle name and zip+4 may get dropped.
if you have a domain name (or subdomain) that you don't mind inviting a bunch of spam to, you could do a wildcard redirection, and give each place a unique ID number. It has to not look like tracking though, or they may drop it. So if you own example.com, I could primarily use jwsmythe@example.com, but for each place that I give my info out to, I could use jwsmythe###@mail.example.com, where ### is a unique number.
For your physical mailing address, you'd want to check with your local postal carrier, but you could likely make your mailing address:
JW Smythe
123 Main St #123
Anytown, NY, 10011
The #123 should be a unit, room, or something, and the postal carrier should be ok with delivering it to your mailbox. Obviously, that doesn't work as well if you live in an apartment or other multi-unit dwelling. Put it on the first address line, not on the second. Sometimes the second line gets dropped off.
The harder part, that requires the dedication, is to track all the numbers. It can be months to years before you really start seeing that new info showing up from the wrong places.
I do wish people could see some of the stuff that I've seen. Most of it's protected by NDAs and stacks of laws.
But the problem originates with the fact that people don't necessarily have enough information to make educated guesses. It'll come out as some silly like searching for John McSmith (you said Irish, right?) in Boston or Chicago, 10% have a DOB, most have an address. So who is the John McSmith who they're referencing? Pick one.:)
Really, the information available is pretty sad. not that there isn't mountains of useful data. It's just that it is so easily tainted by various things. Maybe when you first called the electric company to have your power turned on, they keyed in John McSmith at 123 Main St. When you called again because they didn't turn on your service, they couldn't find your real address record, John McSmith at 321 Main St. so now you have two records. And at some point it's likely they'll either sell that information to someone else, or even just querying the credit bureau for your current score (ya, they do that).
If they aren't using a direct feed from the credit bureaus (most places don't), the place that the request passed through may be kind enough to remember that Jon Mack Schmit lives at 321 Main St. Aw shit, now you have another record because someone couldn't spell a good Irish name like McSmith.:)
I found that much like spammers, once some bad information gets in there, it'll continue to propagate out forever.
This could be easily fixed with an accurate and verifiable system of information. Something along the line of using the SSA issued SSN, with drivers license information. Both issuing parties do a good bit of verification. I won't say it's perfect, but it's far better than the procedures required for commercial entites to set up services. People get bent out of shape about privacy though, so you can't just go query the SSA for a SSN, nor the state DMV nor the federal databases in regards to your drivers license information. Nope, they are dependent on what they already know about you "the guy said Joe MicSmith on the phone, right?", and common pools of information such as the credit bureaus and other data mining companies.
Being that there are so many variations of my own name on my own credit bureau records (I check all 3 frequently), and none of them have my correct home address, nor even my employer listed. One has an employer that's 15 years out of date. Another is a company that never existed, that I put on a form because I didn't have anything better to put down. Basically, I put the name of one of my sites, rather than "unemployed and looking". I can't remember exactly where I did it, but that's the only situation I would have given that name, and it wasn't to get a line of credit established. Most likely I gave it when I had to give something for a grocery store "savings" card (mandatory, unless you want to pay double for groceries at that chain).
That actually makes perfect sense. "Person" searches are done on a few different criteria. They're typically:
First name, last name, state (possibly city). First name, last name, SSN. SSN
Date of birth, or approximate age are frequently used to narrow down a list.
Sometimes the SSN isn't available to the person doing the check, so they have to guess on who you are by first and last name. Lots of databases don't have the middle name. They may be missing, or inaccurate. According to my information in various databases, I have one of 5 middle initials, and none of them have my full middle name.
I run into this all the time. A couple weeks ago, I went to a major pharmacy chain for a refill on my prescription. They ask to verify your address. I told him mine. The system showed another city, 100 miles away. I know there is someone in that city with my name (first and last), who isn't me. He cross referenced it, and asked if I had prescriptions from a particular MD. I confirmed that I did.
Somehow, that same chain ended up with two different records for just me. I phoned in for a refill. They filled it at my "regular" pharmacy. When they refilled it, they did it at the one where I used to live (about 50 miles away), even though I haven't filled a prescription there in years.
Some places will associate vague information with everyone that could match. So if you are John Smith in New York City, and B&N was to take the Borders information to figure out what you may be interested in reading, you may suddenly have the purchase history for *every* John Smith in the area. It's stupid, but when all they have to go on is your name, they have to guess as best as they can. If *I* were to be doing such an import, I would just take that as inconclusive, and not associate it to everyone. First and last name aren't enough to work with, they shouldn't ever be considered as the search parameter, only as the verification. Search for SSN 111.22.3333, and then verify the name matches. Too bad they're frequently working with limited information.
I guess you were lucky in that there wasn't a death certificate issued for you. From what I understand, that is a bastard to get fixed.
And you're naive if you think that selling this kind of information only happens *after* a company goes under.
I've worked in the background information business for a while now. I'm always amazed at what datasources are available. Despite what any company says their privacy policy is, just about any company is willing to sell their collected customer information for the right price.
An example of this is the state I live in. The state DMV was caught selling their drivers license database. The name, DOB, SSN, DL number, address, phone number, and even what flags are on your license. It only because a big deal this year, because someone found out and made a stink. The truth to it is, that information has made its way out for years, being sold to credentialed companies.
Basically, if we proved (with a stack of paperwork and investigations) that we were only to provide that information to those who need it (law enforcement, etc), we could buy the whole list, and get it updated frequently. If we were caught selling it to others (such as the general public), there'd be a whole shitstorm come down on us, followed by fines that would likely exceed our gross income for the decade. That's not to say that credentialed companies don't have bad apples. If I have access to the DB, I could (in theory) make a copy, and sell it for a small fortune on the black market.
Would I be generally concerned that B&N got Borders data? Not really. My concern is that a disgruntled ex-Borders employee (probably in IT) took a copy of the DB, and is selling it to whoever wants it. There are thousands of companies in the background information business, who would be very happy to get their hands on it. And once one gets it without all the strings attached (i.e., black market), it's going to get out to others.
Beyond the data, there is misassociation of data. With one company, they associated me to my mom, sister, and several complete strangers. Just the "where have you lived?" list became an interesting assortment of addresses that I knew, and addresses that I'd never heard of. They even did email address associations. Someone with my real name (first and last) in a different state, had an email address with a provider I had never used. According to them, that was *MY* account. That's where the ugly part comes in. Wrong information causes problems.
Have you ever received collections calls for someone you never heard of? Do they continue to call because they are sure it's you? That's because there was a wrong association of information somewhere along the line. And every company that touches the data manipulates it in different ways. All it takes is one company to associate the information wrong, and that will propagate out to other providers forever.
Sometimes that information gets merged back into your credit history. I've had wrong addresses and other details show up on *my* credit report, because they bought a list of some sort of data which was suppose to be good, but wasn't. I had a collections company coming after me for money owed to an apartment complex, in a city that I never lived in, 10 years earlier. It was only $300. I couldn't convince them that I'd never lived there. They wanted proof. how do I *PROVE* that I never paid rent for a place in another city? I can't. I can show that I had a residence in the city I really lived in. Who's to say that the other residence wasn't for weekends, for my mistress, a friend, or whatever. I fought with them for 6 months, disputed the claim with all three credit bureaus, but it didn't help. Because i was trying to clean up my credit to buy a house, I ended up paying them off. $300 down the drain, for something that I had absolutely no involvement in, ever.
Wow, you've taken a meme, and tried to use it as an insult, rather than actually responding with anything intelligent. I'm very proud of you, you've filled the job role of "Anonymous Coward" very nicely.
The argument was that he can't change Star Wars. My argument was that there is no reason that he can't. And as you've been able to support your side of the argument with anything more than a sad little insult, I'll take it as you have nothing constructive or useful to support your side.
When you have something constructive to bring to the conversation, we can discuss it further.
I think it's ridiculous when ever I hear someone saying like this.
The owner of the movie is whoever it says in the contracts. Primarily, there are writers, directors, producers, and investors. Somewhere in contracts that you and I will never see, it shown who owns which parts of it.
Say I was the guy in charge of special effects for a huge movie that was primarily chroma key and CGI. My staff made greater than 50% of the movie, as in this theoretical project the actual actors and directors didn't have much to do with it. At the end of the day, I, nor my staff, would "own" the movie. Nope, it's the person who had the most leverage when writing up the contracts does.
Viewers in the theater own nothing more than their ticket stub, and the right to watch the movie once at that venue.
People who purchased the VHS tape or DVD own the perpetual rights to watch their copy of the movie as much as they'd like.
So back to the specific topic, the Star Wars movies. I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, so maybe I have an outside perspective here. I'm not emotionally invested in it, so I can see it from the viewpoint of the rest of the rational world.
If the actual legal owner (the guy with the stack of contracts and bank account full from the proceeds) decides to make his directors cut, remake, revisioning, or rehashing of it, that's completely up to him. If he wanted to make a sequel "Star Wars 15 - Care Bears vs The Empire" (assuming he also owns or has licensed the Care Bears), as a claymation 12 hour epic movie, done exclusively in brown and gray clay, that's really up to him. Would I say it's a mistake? Sure. What if he decided that it should be redone in grainy black and white silent movie style, in polarized 3d, and that's the only version that will be sold in retail outlets from now on? Well, that'd be a horrible combination, and I could laugh at it in every way possible, but he's the owner. And I probably wouldn't buy it.
Do I, a fan of "Star Wars 14 - The Wrath Of Luke" have any say to what he can or can't do? No.
What if I own a copy of every movie he ever made, and own every piece of merchandising every licensed or sold relating to the movies, in their original boxes, still in mint condition? No.
What if I set up the worlds largest fan site, and everyone who's ever heard of the movie talks about it on my fan site, and it has a bazillion daily viewers? No.
What if I organize reenactments of it around the world, and bring thousands of nerds together in fully licensed costumes to perform in them, and we've even built our own licensed replica of the death star in geosynchronous orbit to perform them on? No.
Nope, it still belongs to the owner. He can use it, abuse it, and destroy it as he sees fit. If he decided to stop production of all releases of his movies, and burn the originals, so be it. He owns them, not you, I, or any fan on the planet.
You have to learn how to read people. What is their stance (what they say they want). Do they change their stance by the audience they're speaking? Are they trying to pley every side of a discussion to swing their vote? Are they consistent in what they're saying? What have they historically done, and how has that related to their previous stances?
If a candidate addresses the NRA and says that we're constitutionally protected to continue to bare arms, but has a history of voting to restrict firearms ownership, that indicates that they are more willing to vote against our rights. I'm by no stretch of the imagination an NRA supporter, but I *AM* a supporter of civilian ownership of firearms. If you dig through my posting history, even just here on Slashdot, you'll see that to be true.
If a candidate states that they swear to uphold and protect the US Constitution and rights of the citizens, but has publicly stated or voted against free speech and privacy rights (reasonable search and seizure), no matter what they say in the campaign, they aren't working to protect our rights.
If their campaign platform is to represent the citizens and not accept campaign contribution, or bend to the pressures of big business, but then they quietly accept a fortune, and vote constantly in favor of businesses over people, they aren't working for the people. Governor Rick Scott, I'm pointing at you.
If they swear to correct the budget by requiring all entities to pay their fair share in taxes to fix the budget, but then allow GE to make a 5.1 billion dollar profit in the US (14.2 billion dollars world wide), yet allowing them to have a $0 tax bill (and take 3.2 billion dollars in tax benefits), they aren't seeking to fix anything, other than to leave a looming deficit, and take shady "contributions" (paper bag full of cash, etc).
Some politicians votes can be bought for a fancy dinner. Some for a nice vacation for them and their family. Sometimes it's $10k cash. Sometimes it's more. Some are honest. The honest ones are the same ones that don't have a successful political career. They may do well in the short term, but they won't remain in office for the long run.
Find me a honest politician, and I'd bet within a day I can find enough dirt on them to make you wonder why they aren't in prison. Make it easy for me though, keep it on the federal level. It's harder to find information quickly on local politicians, although I'm sure there is plenty of it.
An example of local politicians and their dirt is this.. This is a true story. There was a large land owner in a small town. A good portion of his property bordered a remote shoreline, with direct access to international waters. During campaign season, he would hold political fundraisers at his ranch for the sheriff, judges, and county officials. Some late nights, low flying aircraft would land at his ranch. Some nights, boats would come in to his dock. The sheriffs department would have a substantial number of patrol cars drive out there, and then leave shortly afterwards. No lights or sirens. No urgency in their travel. Something was brought into the ranch, and something was taken out in the patrol cars. Nobody saw anything. There would be no record of any incident at the ranch. The sheriff lived in a very nice gated and guarded compound. The ranch owner paid next to nothing in taxes. Just a token amount, after the county approved tax incentives. You or I would never find anything on what was happening. It never made the papers. The only way to find out what was in the plane, boat, or cars, would be to intercept them. Good luck there. The only way to know about it was to be involved, or if you happened to be at the right place, at the right time, and didn't say anything to anyone about it. Well, you could, if you wanted to be the victim of a boating or hunting accident. Shit happens, especially if you see something you shouldn't have.
That sample set is too small for an accurate analysis. Additionally, you have selected a filtered subset of the group for your sample set. Please retest and re-evaluate your position.
But during campaign time, they managed to get somewhere over 20.45% of the population to believe that they were representing the people. (over half of the voter turn voted for them).
While I fully believe that politicians lie during campaign season (and the rest of the time too), I still turn out to vote. I vote for the person least likely to strip us of our rights, and other assorted "bad things".
I think that was his implication. He has his UPS. Since none of us can afford an infinitely sized UPS (unless you happpen to have a ZPM), then he'd have N+1 whole-house generators with sufficiently sized fuel tank so you could always get refueled regardless of what happens.
I did some work at a datacenter with a beautiful setup. It didn't look like they could ever go down for power related reasons. DC room, N+1 generators, huge fuel supply. They were telling me about an incident a few years before. A nasty blizzard came through. No fuel was brought in to anywhere in the area for weeks. Gas stations weren't supplied, but that didn't matter much since no one could drive anywhere. Their 100,000 gallon fuel supply was almost depleted, so they contracted with a company a few hundred miles away to truck it in, and keep it coming in every 5 days until the utility power was restored. I believe that left them with a 2-3 day window in case there was a problem with a truck. I don't think most of us have the resources for that.
Even the best systems can be defeated by human stupidity. A friend of mine lost power because the power company disconnected her home for nonpayment. The thing was, she had paid. They were suppose to disconnect the neighbors house. They ran her around in circles for about an hour, and finally realized their mistake. So 12 hours without power. After 2 hours, she decided they weren't bringing the power back up any time soon. 10 hours on generator power. She had to refuel the generator once (it's a standard 5kw generator, 5 hr nominal runtime).
You know, a few years ago I would have argued with you about that. Then I spent some time up there.
There are plenty of people up there who have problems with our foreign policy, trade agreements (NAFTA is only when it works for the US). Some were a bit confused, and interested, to see that not all Americans fit the "dumb American" stereotype. The US gov't doesn't always play nice with the Canadian government, but you won't hear about that on our side of the fence. Very rarely will you see the whole picture of how others feel about America, until you've lived among them for a while.
Well, if there's an underdosing diagnosis, there must be a cure for it.:) I wonder what medical conditions they're prescribing it for these days. For teenagers, it seems to be a cure for boredom. For the rest of us, we're just "weird old people" if we drop acid.. Err, umm, partake of illicit drugs, that I swear I have no knowledge of.:)
They don't seem to have a code for 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, Ecstasy), and amphetamine is just too vague. It would probably have a tie-in to Z7251 (High risk heterosexual behavior).:)
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Well....
I had a friend who's drive was killed in a lightning strike. A friend of theirs swapped out the control board for another one. It physically fit, but released its magic smoke after just a few seconds. So, I inherited someone elses botched repair. Of course, I was 1,000 miles away, so it's not like I just stopped by to say "hi", and took a look at it. :)
I did some digging, and found a guy who would send you the appropriate replacement board for something like $40. It would help to have the original board, but he figured out which board was correct for this drive, and it took a whopping 5 minutes to install. Most of that was finding the screws and screw driver. :)
The only way to assure a drive is completely unrecoverable is physical destruction. Simple as that.
Well, for those of us living in the civilian world, C4 is hard to get our hands on.
Thermite, on the other hand, can be made rather easily from things around the house. A file or grinder, a bit of the appropriate metals, and an ignition source. Be sure that your "Member of the Overkill Club" card is up to date, and you're all set. 5 pounds of thermite vs 1 hard drive sounds just about right. Well, right through the drive, and the table, and the concrete below. :)
Actually, thermite may be the better choice anyways, unless you want to notify everyone for miles that you're using C4. :) It has lots of hot, and not much bang. Well, especially compared to C4.
And remember kids, don't try this at home. It's a really really (really) good way to burn down your house, get the police called by a neighbor, and/or be charged with arson and building explosives. Some law enforcement folks don't look upon such things as lightly as they used to.
Now you're starting to catch on.
There is no great ghost in the sky that dictates the way humans should behave. It doesn't matter how old the fairy tale is, nor how many people believe in it.
There could be creatures with amazingly long lifespans (I'll call them ghod). Then that's a matter of natural selection and resource availability. If the ghod were to breed even once every 1000 years, their population would fill the universe in no time. We'd have no shortage of "gods" floating around.
We also know that energy cannot be created, nor destroyed. Energy is expended by virtually any task. For us, that includes breathing and our hearts pumping. If the ghod exist, they have to consume. Also, if the ghod creature were to have done the Genesis claims, then all that matter would have come from somewhere. Not the nothingness, unless that too was a poor translation really meaning "moved all matter in this universe from other pocket universes.
But no one has been able to demonstrate that the ghod species exists, or ever existed. There is simply no proof.
If the ghod species did exist, it is no more the omnipotent being, than you are when you step on an ant.
There are plenty of people with such beliefs, but there are a variety of mental disorders that they could be diagnosed with.
Wouldn't it be more rational to understand that the fairy tale, and the leaders of cults who believe in them, suffer from such delusions of grandeur? Not as being "god" themselves, but being the assistant to god, therefore being the most powerful human on the planet. That, in itself, would explain the various religions and splinters of religions that we have today. It's not that there ever was such a being, it's crazy people believing that they are the assistant to the most powerful being in the universe (who happens to not exist).
It does seem nicer to believe that 75% of the people out there aren't crazy, either believing in a fairy tale as truth, or believing that they are the assistant to the creature in the fairy tale.
"in vein" means "without purpose". "void" is an absence of anything (or something specific, if so qualified).
As I can clearly see, based on your response,
No there is no coincidence that quite a few translations have similar phrases or meaning. And there's no divine reason behind it. It's simply that people do read each others work. Over time, adjustments are made towards a common meaning. That does not mean that they are changed towards the original meaning. As no one has an original bible to cite, it can be assumed that they are all incorrect, as there are so many variations on it.
Yup, I noticed the lowercase "g". That's amazing. All part of ghoads plan, right? Or is it simply that recent adaptations of the story define the word god as a proper noun, and therefore it gets capitalized. Well, at least in English.
With the same idea, I could write a novel about Cat (my cat named Cat), about various things he did in his previous lives (he's up to #6 now), and how the universe was divinely created by him for us to live in peace and make sure he's fed.
Oohh, I love science questions. They don't let me answer science questions in trivia games any more. If I get it right, I'm being spiteful to other players. If I answer wrong, I'm condescending, as I am obviously getting it wrong on purpose.
Lightning is an electrical discharge between two dissimilar electrically charged areas. This charge is created by a number of things, most obviously clouds, their movement against themselves, each other, and through the air.
A medical professional can probably answer the life & death questions better than I can, but here's my answer.
"Life" is a electrochemical process, which occurs in the semi-squishy matter contained between the ears of most humans. It is supported by an array of devices, including but not limited to:
A respiratory system, used for exchanging waste gases with oxygen in a red liquid transport medium.
A vascular system, used to circulate the red liquid transport medium throughout the body, but primarily to the brain.
A muscular system, used to provide locomotion, protection, and a way to insert food stuffs into a gaping hole on the upper limb of the human form..
A digestive system, used to convert the above referenced food stuffs to usable energy, which is also transferred in the red liquid transport medium.
Failure of any of these systems will result in the termination of the symptom "life". That also is the definition of "death".
A psychologist can probably answer your questions on consciousness, want, need, and desire better, but...
There are numerous profoundly intelligent creatures on this planet. Unfortunately, many humans don't see life that way, with a particularly egotistical view of the universe.
Want, greed, and desire have been bred into humanity. We are taught from a very young age that it's better to have, than not to have. As we grow and mature, we are shown daily that want, greed, and desire are perfectly normal traits. If humans were allowed to grow with no exposure to culture at all, they would eventually learn language, but quite likely would have very different traits than we do.
And a theoretical astrophysicist can help you more with "where did matter come from". Basically,
What they're saying is that no soldering on the original hardware, nor replacement of any components is necessary. Some previous attacks required the removal of the storage media (compact flash, if I remember right).
The unit they demonstrated simply requires unplugging two things, and putting their unit in between. After the election is complete, they'd simply need to access the units again, remove the component, and all is well.
Most "void if broken" seals can be easily replicated. It's just a matter of getting a replacement seal in time. For the most part, people are dumb. If you do a good job of cleaning off the seal, they'd never notice it is missing.
Actually, that doesn't present your case.
(King James Bible, Isaiah 45:18)
I referenced several other translations, and they all say pretty much the same thing. The universe ("heavens"), then the Earth. Well, the can vary dramatically, but are based around the idea of the universe then the earth.
But for a book that is suppose to be taken literally, there are vast variations between them. Some versions have huge dialogues, some have lesser variations on the cited passage. The oldest I could find is the Douay-Rheims bible,
Even in these two, so similar, they have discrepancies.
"the very maker thereof:" != "he hath established it,"
In that syntax, the "he" would refer to the previous mention of "Lord", which we assume it means the god figure. Now the earlier "the very maker" is more precise, but does not prove an association to the god figure. It could be a peer, a designee (angels, and all that), or even a higher god. We shouldn't forget that for about 225,000 years before, it was pretty clear that there was no such thing as monotheism. The "god" figure they reference would most likely not be the only god. It would simply be the only god that humans were exposed to. The old testament only dates back to about the 6th century BCE. Before that, there were all kinds of neat gods running the universe.
And that whole pesky "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." passage kind of gives it away. What other gods? If this one is the one who created the universe, and the bipedal creatures with a superiority complex, the god figure wouldn't have needed to say anything like that.
Well... except for the fact that the god figure was a figment of the authors imagination. It's just a fairy tale, that was passed down, picked up by a few too many people, written down, rewritten, translated, and wrapped up in a whole theology. Now, around 2,000 years later, no one remembers the original script.
You could quite literally be quoting a poor interpretation of a childhood story to scare children into being good or else the sky creature would torture them forever. Since I'm not quite 8,000 years old, I can't make that judgement call for you.
I don't quite grasp why modern humans still need to believe in some mysterious figure. We understand life, death, the sky and stars above, lightning, the movement of the Earth around the Sun, and the movement of the Moon around the Earth. Religion was a crutch, to help simpler man (well, starting with early Hominids) explain the things around them, and cope with the things they couldn't understand. The world isn't flat, there are no unicorns, and there is no invisible sky creature watching your every move.
Ok, I'm game.
If you've selected 1,000 items out of a set to be true, of course you'll have 100% accuracy.
But, what exactly were those 1,000 things that came true, so I can look more into them?
Easy.
Did an invisible creature create the universe in 7 days (give or take some time scale, and all that), in a completed form, and in those 7 days it made two humans in a garden?
Did the universe form out of a natural process, and creatures evolved through a process of natural selection.
The two theories are mutually exclusive. The second has a scientific basis which can be proven. The first only exists because an n-th generation book says so.
I'm confused. What box are you referring to? The only one like that, that I know of, contains a multi-state cat.
Generally, an agnostic believes that there is a higher power. He or she simply doesn't adhere to a particular religious structure.
An athiest doesn't believe in any of the mythologies.
I don't believe in Santa Claus, the Loch Ness monster, bigfoot, fairies, gremlins, nor leprechauns. There's no proof that they exist. I don't believe in Allah, Sheba, Zeus, nor Thor. I don't believe in the flying spaghetti monster, nor do I believe that a random light in the sky is an alien visitor.
If an atheist was one who denied the existence in your god, you'd need to find an awful lot of labels for what one doesn't believe in. As we expand the list to all gods or goddesses in recorded history, you'd have an awful long list of negatives, with an amazing number of intersections with any theist. Or in simpler terms, I believe in one less god than a theist does.
An atheist can't actively attempt to disprove the existence of anyone's deity. One could disprove the existence of the Christian "God", Allah, Sheba, Zeus, or Thor. Unfortunately, most theists don't realize that they are attempting to do exactly that with every possible god but theirs. And of course, it's a losing battle, but a battle that has been fought long and hard since the beginning of recorded history. (Crusades, anyone?)
Prove to me that a supreme being or beings exist, and I'll be a follower. With the lack of proof except circular logic (God exists, because my book says God exists, who wrote the book saying God exists, ...), I have better things to do with my Sundays and a percentage of my income, than to worship an idol representing some god or goddess.
Not to correct you, but...
Atheism is the lack of belief in a deity or deities.
We're all born without any ties to the superstition system that is religion. For some reason, people love grabbing their favorite myth (usually indoctrinated and retained from childhood), and shoving it down people's throats.
If you are "atheist", then you must also be "aunicornist", "aleprechaunist", "abigfootist", and "anessieist" (the last being a non-belief in the Loch Ness monster). I'm categorized as an atheist, but I simply to believe in any fairy tale, unless there is some concrete backing behind it. I prefer not to be labeled as anything, because I won't believe one particular fairy tale.
Don't worry, I'm still agreeing with you. :)
For the theists, with tens of thousands of different theologies floating around, you have a very poor chance of guessing right. When your divine right of passage comes along, the odds are against you for following the right one. You actually have better odds in Vegas (1:97) than in the next whatever (> 1:10,000, but most likely 0:10,000). Now consider that it's estimated that there are 50,000,000 habitable planets in the milky way galaxy, and 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 in the known universe. I'd rather wager on the idea that the idea that we are alone, with 1:50,000,000 odds means that we're not. It's much stronger than the 1:10,000 that a particular fairy tale is right.
I am fond of some of the ideas that float around. Multiple planes of existence, and physical things in our universe that we are not aware of at this time. Sure, they could be there. And I have just as much proof that there are more advanced civilizations on another plane of existence in our same physical space, as any theist has that.
The odds lean towards the possibility that there are other creatures in the universe, who may be more advanced than us. Now, if they are dropping by to play god, mutiliate cattle, or probe the anuses of lonely folks in the middle of nowhere, I will continue to listen to their stories, and compare it to the facts that support it (stories 1, facts 0)
With all that said, if any off-worlders are reading this, I need a ride off this rock. My time here is done.
Hehe, nice story (err stories).
Ya, I never saw how screwy things were until I actually started parsing data on my own. I'd pick an arbitrary person, and search the DB directly for their information. The "arbitrary" person was always someone who I knew personally, that I could tell and laugh about it later on. So I'd go in knowing at least their name, age, and home address. I'd search by name, get a SSN. Search for the SSN and get other varitions of their name. Search those results by home address. Find what cars they'd owned, and/or where they had drivers licenses. Every bit of information that I hit, I compile into the larger report.
It doesn't take my kind of access to get that kind of information though. A while back, I was talking to a woman before we started really dating. This is before I ever worked for a data mining company. She dared me to find out where she lived. I got it right within a mile of her house. I found her date of birth, partial social security number, past residences, and even 15 year old traffic tickets. Not all of the information is because of the Internet either. It would have required me driving out to court houses to do research. So what would have taken weeks of flying around to different cities, was done in about an hour for free, while sitting at home. :)
I've never met any of my alter egos, even the ones who live near by. I am surprised by what I find out there. My alter egos are doctors, veterinarians, lawyers, executives, programmers, and a pilot. Some are close to my age, but most are way off. I heard there is one who isn't exactly a good guy. He is 30 years older than me, and had outstanding felony arrest warrants. I haven't bothered to research him to find out what his current status is. It's probably for the best that I have no clue.
If you have the time and patients to do it, you can do some pretty interesting tracking of how your info gets shared. Parts of your info are always going to be there, and some aren't. For example, you can be confident that your first name, last name, street address, and usually email address will stick. Your middle name and zip+4 may get dropped.
if you have a domain name (or subdomain) that you don't mind inviting a bunch of spam to, you could do a wildcard redirection, and give each place a unique ID number. It has to not look like tracking though, or they may drop it. So if you own example.com, I could primarily use jwsmythe@example.com, but for each place that I give my info out to, I could use jwsmythe###@mail.example.com, where ### is a unique number.
For your physical mailing address, you'd want to check with your local postal carrier, but you could likely make your mailing address:
JW Smythe
123 Main St #123
Anytown, NY, 10011
The #123 should be a unit, room, or something, and the postal carrier should be ok with delivering it to your mailbox. Obviously, that doesn't work as well if you live in an apartment or other multi-unit dwelling. Put it on the first address line, not on the second. Sometimes the second line gets dropped off.
The harder part, that requires the dedication, is to track all the numbers. It can be months to years before you really start seeing that new info showing up from the wrong places.
I do wish people could see some of the stuff that I've seen. Most of it's protected by NDAs and stacks of laws.
But the problem originates with the fact that people don't necessarily have enough information to make educated guesses. It'll come out as some silly like searching for John McSmith (you said Irish, right?) in Boston or Chicago, 10% have a DOB, most have an address. So who is the John McSmith who they're referencing? Pick one. :)
Really, the information available is pretty sad. not that there isn't mountains of useful data. It's just that it is so easily tainted by various things. Maybe when you first called the electric company to have your power turned on, they keyed in John McSmith at 123 Main St. When you called again because they didn't turn on your service, they couldn't find your real address record, John McSmith at 321 Main St. so now you have two records. And at some point it's likely they'll either sell that information to someone else, or even just querying the credit bureau for your current score (ya, they do that).
If they aren't using a direct feed from the credit bureaus (most places don't), the place that the request passed through may be kind enough to remember that Jon Mack Schmit lives at 321 Main St. Aw shit, now you have another record because someone couldn't spell a good Irish name like McSmith. :)
I found that much like spammers, once some bad information gets in there, it'll continue to propagate out forever.
This could be easily fixed with an accurate and verifiable system of information. Something along the line of using the SSA issued SSN, with drivers license information. Both issuing parties do a good bit of verification. I won't say it's perfect, but it's far better than the procedures required for commercial entites to set up services. People get bent out of shape about privacy though, so you can't just go query the SSA for a SSN, nor the state DMV nor the federal databases in regards to your drivers license information. Nope, they are dependent on what they already know about you "the guy said Joe MicSmith on the phone, right?", and common pools of information such as the credit bureaus and other data mining companies.
Being that there are so many variations of my own name on my own credit bureau records (I check all 3 frequently), and none of them have my correct home address, nor even my employer listed. One has an employer that's 15 years out of date. Another is a company that never existed, that I put on a form because I didn't have anything better to put down. Basically, I put the name of one of my sites, rather than "unemployed and looking". I can't remember exactly where I did it, but that's the only situation I would have given that name, and it wasn't to get a line of credit established. Most likely I gave it when I had to give something for a grocery store "savings" card (mandatory, unless you want to pay double for groceries at that chain).
That actually makes perfect sense. "Person" searches are done on a few different criteria. They're typically:
First name, last name, state (possibly city).
First name, last name, SSN.
SSN
Date of birth, or approximate age are frequently used to narrow down a list.
Sometimes the SSN isn't available to the person doing the check, so they have to guess on who you are by first and last name. Lots of databases don't have the middle name. They may be missing, or inaccurate. According to my information in various databases, I have one of 5 middle initials, and none of them have my full middle name.
I run into this all the time. A couple weeks ago, I went to a major pharmacy chain for a refill on my prescription. They ask to verify your address. I told him mine. The system showed another city, 100 miles away. I know there is someone in that city with my name (first and last), who isn't me. He cross referenced it, and asked if I had prescriptions from a particular MD. I confirmed that I did.
Somehow, that same chain ended up with two different records for just me. I phoned in for a refill. They filled it at my "regular" pharmacy. When they refilled it, they did it at the one where I used to live (about 50 miles away), even though I haven't filled a prescription there in years.
Some places will associate vague information with everyone that could match. So if you are John Smith in New York City, and B&N was to take the Borders information to figure out what you may be interested in reading, you may suddenly have the purchase history for *every* John Smith in the area. It's stupid, but when all they have to go on is your name, they have to guess as best as they can. If *I* were to be doing such an import, I would just take that as inconclusive, and not associate it to everyone. First and last name aren't enough to work with, they shouldn't ever be considered as the search parameter, only as the verification. Search for SSN 111.22.3333, and then verify the name matches. Too bad they're frequently working with limited information.
I guess you were lucky in that there wasn't a death certificate issued for you. From what I understand, that is a bastard to get fixed.
And you're naive if you think that selling this kind of information only happens *after* a company goes under.
I've worked in the background information business for a while now. I'm always amazed at what datasources are available. Despite what any company says their privacy policy is, just about any company is willing to sell their collected customer information for the right price.
An example of this is the state I live in. The state DMV was caught selling their drivers license database. The name, DOB, SSN, DL number, address, phone number, and even what flags are on your license. It only because a big deal this year, because someone found out and made a stink. The truth to it is, that information has made its way out for years, being sold to credentialed companies.
Basically, if we proved (with a stack of paperwork and investigations) that we were only to provide that information to those who need it (law enforcement, etc), we could buy the whole list, and get it updated frequently. If we were caught selling it to others (such as the general public), there'd be a whole shitstorm come down on us, followed by fines that would likely exceed our gross income for the decade. That's not to say that credentialed companies don't have bad apples. If I have access to the DB, I could (in theory) make a copy, and sell it for a small fortune on the black market.
Would I be generally concerned that B&N got Borders data? Not really. My concern is that a disgruntled ex-Borders employee (probably in IT) took a copy of the DB, and is selling it to whoever wants it. There are thousands of companies in the background information business, who would be very happy to get their hands on it. And once one gets it without all the strings attached (i.e., black market), it's going to get out to others.
Beyond the data, there is misassociation of data. With one company, they associated me to my mom, sister, and several complete strangers. Just the "where have you lived?" list became an interesting assortment of addresses that I knew, and addresses that I'd never heard of. They even did email address associations. Someone with my real name (first and last) in a different state, had an email address with a provider I had never used. According to them, that was *MY* account. That's where the ugly part comes in. Wrong information causes problems.
Have you ever received collections calls for someone you never heard of? Do they continue to call because they are sure it's you? That's because there was a wrong association of information somewhere along the line. And every company that touches the data manipulates it in different ways. All it takes is one company to associate the information wrong, and that will propagate out to other providers forever.
Sometimes that information gets merged back into your credit history. I've had wrong addresses and other details show up on *my* credit report, because they bought a list of some sort of data which was suppose to be good, but wasn't. I had a collections company coming after me for money owed to an apartment complex, in a city that I never lived in, 10 years earlier. It was only $300. I couldn't convince them that I'd never lived there. They wanted proof. how do I *PROVE* that I never paid rent for a place in another city? I can't. I can show that I had a residence in the city I really lived in. Who's to say that the other residence wasn't for weekends, for my mistress, a friend, or whatever. I fought with them for 6 months, disputed the claim with all three credit bureaus, but it didn't help. Because i was trying to clean up my credit to buy a house, I ended up paying them off. $300 down the drain, for something that I had absolutely no involvement in, ever.
Wow, you've taken a meme, and tried to use it as an insult, rather than actually responding with anything intelligent. I'm very proud of you, you've filled the job role of "Anonymous Coward" very nicely.
The argument was that he can't change Star Wars. My argument was that there is no reason that he can't. And as you've been able to support your side of the argument with anything more than a sad little insult, I'll take it as you have nothing constructive or useful to support your side.
When you have something constructive to bring to the conversation, we can discuss it further.
I think it's ridiculous when ever I hear someone saying like this.
The owner of the movie is whoever it says in the contracts. Primarily, there are writers, directors, producers, and investors. Somewhere in contracts that you and I will never see, it shown who owns which parts of it.
Say I was the guy in charge of special effects for a huge movie that was primarily chroma key and CGI. My staff made greater than 50% of the movie, as in this theoretical project the actual actors and directors didn't have much to do with it. At the end of the day, I, nor my staff, would "own" the movie. Nope, it's the person who had the most leverage when writing up the contracts does.
Viewers in the theater own nothing more than their ticket stub, and the right to watch the movie once at that venue.
People who purchased the VHS tape or DVD own the perpetual rights to watch their copy of the movie as much as they'd like.
So back to the specific topic, the Star Wars movies. I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, so maybe I have an outside perspective here. I'm not emotionally invested in it, so I can see it from the viewpoint of the rest of the rational world.
If the actual legal owner (the guy with the stack of contracts and bank account full from the proceeds) decides to make his directors cut, remake, revisioning, or rehashing of it, that's completely up to him. If he wanted to make a sequel "Star Wars 15 - Care Bears vs The Empire" (assuming he also owns or has licensed the Care Bears), as a claymation 12 hour epic movie, done exclusively in brown and gray clay, that's really up to him. Would I say it's a mistake? Sure. What if he decided that it should be redone in grainy black and white silent movie style, in polarized 3d, and that's the only version that will be sold in retail outlets from now on? Well, that'd be a horrible combination, and I could laugh at it in every way possible, but he's the owner. And I probably wouldn't buy it.
Do I, a fan of "Star Wars 14 - The Wrath Of Luke" have any say to what he can or can't do? No.
What if I own a copy of every movie he ever made, and own every piece of merchandising every licensed or sold relating to the movies, in their original boxes, still in mint condition? No.
What if I set up the worlds largest fan site, and everyone who's ever heard of the movie talks about it on my fan site, and it has a bazillion daily viewers? No.
What if I organize reenactments of it around the world, and bring thousands of nerds together in fully licensed costumes to perform in them, and we've even built our own licensed replica of the death star in geosynchronous orbit to perform them on? No.
Nope, it still belongs to the owner. He can use it, abuse it, and destroy it as he sees fit. If he decided to stop production of all releases of his movies, and burn the originals, so be it. He owns them, not you, I, or any fan on the planet.
You have to learn how to read people. What is their stance (what they say they want). Do they change their stance by the audience they're speaking? Are they trying to pley every side of a discussion to swing their vote? Are they consistent in what they're saying? What have they historically done, and how has that related to their previous stances?
If a candidate addresses the NRA and says that we're constitutionally protected to continue to bare arms, but has a history of voting to restrict firearms ownership, that indicates that they are more willing to vote against our rights. I'm by no stretch of the imagination an NRA supporter, but I *AM* a supporter of civilian ownership of firearms. If you dig through my posting history, even just here on Slashdot, you'll see that to be true.
If a candidate states that they swear to uphold and protect the US Constitution and rights of the citizens, but has publicly stated or voted against free speech and privacy rights (reasonable search and seizure), no matter what they say in the campaign, they aren't working to protect our rights.
If their campaign platform is to represent the citizens and not accept campaign contribution, or bend to the pressures of big business, but then they quietly accept a fortune, and vote constantly in favor of businesses over people, they aren't working for the people. Governor Rick Scott, I'm pointing at you.
If they swear to correct the budget by requiring all entities to pay their fair share in taxes to fix the budget, but then allow GE to make a 5.1 billion dollar profit in the US (14.2 billion dollars world wide), yet allowing them to have a $0 tax bill (and take 3.2 billion dollars in tax benefits), they aren't seeking to fix anything, other than to leave a looming deficit, and take shady "contributions" (paper bag full of cash, etc).
Some politicians votes can be bought for a fancy dinner. Some for a nice vacation for them and their family. Sometimes it's $10k cash. Sometimes it's more. Some are honest. The honest ones are the same ones that don't have a successful political career. They may do well in the short term, but they won't remain in office for the long run.
Find me a honest politician, and I'd bet within a day I can find enough dirt on them to make you wonder why they aren't in prison. Make it easy for me though, keep it on the federal level. It's harder to find information quickly on local politicians, although I'm sure there is plenty of it.
An example of local politicians and their dirt is this.. This is a true story. There was a large land owner in a small town. A good portion of his property bordered a remote shoreline, with direct access to international waters. During campaign season, he would hold political fundraisers at his ranch for the sheriff, judges, and county officials. Some late nights, low flying aircraft would land at his ranch. Some nights, boats would come in to his dock. The sheriffs department would have a substantial number of patrol cars drive out there, and then leave shortly afterwards. No lights or sirens. No urgency in their travel. Something was brought into the ranch, and something was taken out in the patrol cars. Nobody saw anything. There would be no record of any incident at the ranch. The sheriff lived in a very nice gated and guarded compound. The ranch owner paid next to nothing in taxes. Just a token amount, after the county approved tax incentives. You or I would never find anything on what was happening. It never made the papers. The only way to find out what was in the plane, boat, or cars, would be to intercept them. Good luck there. The only way to know about it was to be involved, or if you happened to be at the right place, at the right time, and didn't say anything to anyone about it. Well, you could, if you wanted to be the victim of a boating or hunting accident. Shit happens, especially if you see something you shouldn't have.
That sample set is too small for an accurate analysis. Additionally, you have selected a filtered subset of the group for your sample set. Please retest and re-evaluate your position.
But during campaign time, they managed to get somewhere over 20.45% of the population to believe that they were representing the people. (over half of the voter turn voted for them).
While I fully believe that politicians lie during campaign season (and the rest of the time too), I still turn out to vote. I vote for the person least likely to strip us of our rights, and other assorted "bad things".
I think that was his implication. He has his UPS. Since none of us can afford an infinitely sized UPS (unless you happpen to have a ZPM), then he'd have N+1 whole-house generators with sufficiently sized fuel tank so you could always get refueled regardless of what happens.
I did some work at a datacenter with a beautiful setup. It didn't look like they could ever go down for power related reasons. DC room, N+1 generators, huge fuel supply. They were telling me about an incident a few years before. A nasty blizzard came through. No fuel was brought in to anywhere in the area for weeks. Gas stations weren't supplied, but that didn't matter much since no one could drive anywhere. Their 100,000 gallon fuel supply was almost depleted, so they contracted with a company a few hundred miles away to truck it in, and keep it coming in every 5 days until the utility power was restored. I believe that left them with a 2-3 day window in case there was a problem with a truck. I don't think most of us have the resources for that.
Even the best systems can be defeated by human stupidity. A friend of mine lost power because the power company disconnected her home for nonpayment. The thing was, she had paid. They were suppose to disconnect the neighbors house. They ran her around in circles for about an hour, and finally realized their mistake. So 12 hours without power. After 2 hours, she decided they weren't bringing the power back up any time soon. 10 hours on generator power. She had to refuel the generator once (it's a standard 5kw generator, 5 hr nominal runtime).
I've been there several times, and I think you may be exaggerating the length of the summer. Well, unless this was a particularly hot year. :)
You know, a few years ago I would have argued with you about that. Then I spent some time up there.
There are plenty of people up there who have problems with our foreign policy, trade agreements (NAFTA is only when it works for the US). Some were a bit confused, and interested, to see that not all Americans fit the "dumb American" stereotype. The US gov't doesn't always play nice with the Canadian government, but you won't hear about that on our side of the fence. Very rarely will you see the whole picture of how others feel about America, until you've lived among them for a while.
Well, if there's an underdosing diagnosis, there must be a cure for it. :) I wonder what medical conditions they're prescribing it for these days. For teenagers, it seems to be a cure for boredom. For the rest of us, we're just "weird old people" if we drop acid.. Err, umm, partake of illicit drugs, that I swear I have no knowledge of. :)
They don't seem to have a code for 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, Ecstasy), and amphetamine is just too vague. It would probably have a tie-in to Z7251 (High risk heterosexual behavior). :)