As for me, I'm fond of Kubrick's "Dawn Treader: a Space Odyssey" film. The scenes of Reepicheep the mouse doing space walks in his cute little mouse space suit were groundbreaking. And the tension when the Dufflepuds were stamping on the outside of the hull trying to break in.
"Dammit....now I'm imagining an episode of the Drew Carey show subtitled in 13375p34|....."
I can't help but remember one of my favorite jokes from that series. It was from the series last, declining years. Winfred Louder had just been replaced with the dotbomb "Neverendingstore". Drew wanders in, in his typical business suit and horn rims. One of the 20 something brothers who runs the dotbomb says "Oh look! It's the ghost of a guy who worked here in the 1950s!"
Q:"What about when the nanobots breed out of control?"
A:"We send bigger robots to eat them up"
Q:"And what about when the bigger robots get out of control?"
A:"We send huge platoons of godzillas to incinerate them"
Q:"What about when the godzillas breed and cover the planet?"
A: "Galactus is one phone call away"
Q: "What about....?"
A: "Don't worry. We've laced the godzillas with rat poison. Galactus eats Mars and quickly dies. No danger to Earth."
" When it's done, in about thirty years, these nanotech swarms will 'alter their shape to flow over rocky terrain or to create useful structures like communications antennae and solar sails."
Or really cool logos that are visible from at least one A.U. away.
Ah. C.S. Lewis and Arthur C. Clarke. Could always use another Perelandra novel, and Rama retreads never get old. It has been a while since their last collaboration, hasn't it?
"What do you mean? The nanoprobes were designed to spec. I was told to make them 56 microns wide. I followed the exact Galactica specifications for microns. If you did not want me to cover Mars in robots the size of Greenland, you should not have ordered me to!"
From www.outdooradvertising.mars: "Be the first to reach your customers through our out of this world advertising opportunity. For one low fee, our nanobots will transform the face of Mars to display your company's logo. For a lesser fee, we will print your company's logo on golf balls and watches."
In 2034, we send the nanobots to Mars. In 2054 they return: as giant tripods lasering cities into smoking rubbles. Unstoppable, except by the daring-do of Tom Cruise. Either that, or they evolve into blonde sexbots.
"But Braziliam government is not authoritarin OR socialist, to tell the truth one of the greatest complains agains Lulas government is that he turns against the comunist point of view of the begining of his political carrer"
That only shows that he matured. Why would anyone complain that he turned "against" the worst mass-murdering ideology of all time? My respect for Lula only grows.
All this bandwidth calling me
Back where it comes from
It's such a d00d attitude
Let's hack where it belongs
All the script kids growing up on the skids are goin'
Cleveland hacks, cleveland hacks
They're all jackin' in with an old 9-pin
They're goin' cleveland hacks, cleveland hacks...
"Well after some idiot in the north abolished slavery the south had to renew their cheap labour from somewhere...
It is not so much "cheap labor" as better labor. Certainly they are better if they are not as overpaid and lazy as the typical American (Norte Americano).
Also, some jobs are worth less than the minimum wage. Instead of having loopholes where illegals work these jobs for the real value, why not get rid of the government-mandated minimum wage? Make it above-ground.
"The debate is no longer whether to try to "strengthen the border" but whether or not to give their children driver's licenses and scholarships."
Where have you seen this seriously debated? Probably few aside from Pat Buchanan seriously want to take away rights from American citizens because their parents are illegals....and you ARE talking about American citizens here (born in this country). There is plenty of debate over citizenship and licenses for foreigners, however.
"Keeping the disk, pulverizing it completely, or throwing it into Mount Doom would seem to be the most reliable methods of ensuring security"
Frodo tosses hard disk into volcano. Not very far away, a tower in Redmond crumbles as a giant bespectacled eye glaces around in terror. Outside the Gates of mordor, a troll-like figure is about to stomp on the penguin's head. When the hard drive melts, Ballmer lifts his mishapen head, takes his foot off the penguin, and shambles confusedly into the night.
" I completely agree that the idea of Communism is a good one, that has been horribly stigmatized by the media"
Sorry, if you have something that, every time it is tried, causes unprecedented oppression and execution of a large chunk of the population, the problem is not PR!
That is the problem with this debate. You end up with "but those are not REAL communists!". The same happens with religious sects arguing with each other.
"most self-described communists and communist states distance themselves from him"
Most self-described communists? Pol Pot's regime was largely a creation of the PROC, which to this day has a huge number of communists in it. I am not sure, but members of the CP of China might outnumber all other self-described communists combined.
"Also, although Lenin did some not nice things, he was probably one of the closest adherants to Marxism to ever gain power."
He was one of the worst (and first) abusers. He overthrew a democratic government An ardent imperialist, he had his armies invade and annex several independent nations to his empire. He killed hundreds of thousands of Russians for ecnomic nonconformity. One example of his brutality was when he ordered all 60,000 of the ethnic Polish community in Vladivostok exterminated. Everything Stalin was infamous for was started under Lenin, including mass exterminations and the gulag. Stalin only had more time to implement it.
It is not an error to ascribe the "traits of Stalin" to Lenin.
"Some could argue that many of his moves were necessary to keep Russia from becoming nothing more than a very large wheat producer"
Is killing 7 million Ukrainians a good way to do this?
"I also notice that you did not mention Castro, who, despite some shortcomings, has done amazing things for Cuba"
I did not mention Castro as I chose not to name every thug. The most amazing thing he has done has been to hold on to a virtual monarchy, while just about all the other Latin American dictatorships have fallen. It is also one of the few countries to have the death penalty for unauthorized internet usage.
Why is it that your message is becoming anmore than an attempt to justify the actions of two of the worst bloodthirsty tyrants in history as that of "good" Communists?
"To each according to need, from each according to abilities" - how can that ever be a bad thing."
Because, in practice, communism ends up being nothing like this at all. Besides, this "rule" can be problematic: who enforces it?
"The problem with todays media and "anti-communism climate" is that communism is confused with totalitarian dictatorships and mass murderers."
This is not a confusion. Just about all of the communist regimes have been totalitarians and mass murderers, and most of the very worst mass murderers have been communists. If it goes horribly wrong just about every time you try it, again and again and again (from Lenin to Stalin to Mao to Pol Pot to....), is it worth trying yet another time, and losing hundreds of thousands of lives to another failed experiment? The track record is extremely bad.
Regardless, it turns out that Blockbuster still has a late fee if you return it late(and do not want to buy it), even now as they say "no late fees". It is $1, and they call it a restocking fee.
If they only charge the restocking fee if you return it late, gee, isn't that a late fee?
Slashdot Mirror
Paralysed people can now control artificial limbs by thought alone. Ian Sample reports". It won't meet your immediate needs, but there might be something of interest in it.
Now I'll have the "girl from ipanema" song going through my head all day. Thanks a lot.
As for me, I'm fond of Kubrick's "Dawn Treader: a Space Odyssey" film. The scenes of Reepicheep the mouse doing space walks in his cute little mouse space suit were groundbreaking. And the tension when the Dufflepuds were stamping on the outside of the hull trying to break in.
...unless it is that "Pitch Black" movie. That one was surprisingly good, at least until the cheesy digital manta-bats showed up.
I can't help but remember one of my favorite jokes from that series. It was from the series last, declining years. Winfred Louder had just been replaced with the dotbomb "Neverendingstore". Drew wanders in, in his typical business suit and horn rims. One of the 20 something brothers who runs the dotbomb says "Oh look! It's the ghost of a guy who worked here in the 1950s!"
Q:"What about when the nanobots breed out of control?"
A:"We send bigger robots to eat them up"
Q:"And what about when the bigger robots get out of control?"
A:"We send huge platoons of godzillas to incinerate them"
Q:"What about when the godzillas breed and cover the planet?"
A: "Galactus is one phone call away"
Q: "What about....?"
A: "Don't worry. We've laced the godzillas with rat poison. Galactus eats Mars and quickly dies. No danger to Earth."
Or really cool logos that are visible from at least one A.U. away.
Thanks. Next time, we will make sure to refer to the nanobots as a "death cloud" or "apocalyptic horde".
Ah. C.S. Lewis and Arthur C. Clarke. Could always use another Perelandra novel, and Rama retreads never get old. It has been a while since their last collaboration, hasn't it?
"What do you mean? The nanoprobes were designed to spec. I was told to make them 56 microns wide. I followed the exact Galactica specifications for microns. If you did not want me to cover Mars in robots the size of Greenland, you should not have ordered me to!"
It is those artificial AI intelligences that I fear the most, I tell ya.
From www.outdooradvertising.mars: "Be the first to reach your customers through our out of this world advertising opportunity. For one low fee, our nanobots will transform the face of Mars to display your company's logo. For a lesser fee, we will print your company's logo on golf balls and watches."
In 2034, we send the nanobots to Mars. In 2054 they return: as giant tripods lasering cities into smoking rubbles. Unstoppable, except by the daring-do of Tom Cruise. Either that, or they evolve into blonde sexbots.
That only shows that he matured. Why would anyone complain that he turned "against" the worst mass-murdering ideology of all time? My respect for Lula only grows.
Back where it comes from
It's such a d00d attitude
Let's hack where it belongs
All the script kids growing up on the skids are goin' Cleveland hacks, cleveland hacks
They're all jackin' in with an old 9-pin
They're goin' cleveland hacks, cleveland hacks...
0hi0!
It is not so much "cheap labor" as better labor. Certainly they are better if they are not as overpaid and lazy as the typical American (Norte Americano). Also, some jobs are worth less than the minimum wage. Instead of having loopholes where illegals work these jobs for the real value, why not get rid of the government-mandated minimum wage? Make it above-ground.
Where have you seen this seriously debated? Probably few aside from Pat Buchanan seriously want to take away rights from American citizens because their parents are illegals....and you ARE talking about American citizens here (born in this country). There is plenty of debate over citizenship and licenses for foreigners, however.
But what do I know. I am a Political Troll (tm)
Frodo tosses hard disk into volcano. Not very far away, a tower in Redmond crumbles as a giant bespectacled eye glaces around in terror. Outside the Gates of mordor, a troll-like figure is about to stomp on the penguin's head. When the hard drive melts, Ballmer lifts his mishapen head, takes his foot off the penguin, and shambles confusedly into the night.
It's really the users, not the product. Easy and common mistake.
The ballots were printed with BSD instead of Debian by mistake. Only the dead are eligible for voting in those elections.
In North Korea, only dead people cast votes via Diebold.
Sorry, if you have something that, every time it is tried, causes unprecedented oppression and execution of a large chunk of the population, the problem is not PR!
That is the problem with this debate. You end up with "but those are not REAL communists!". The same happens with religious sects arguing with each other. "most self-described communists and communist states distance themselves from him"
Most self-described communists? Pol Pot's regime was largely a creation of the PROC, which to this day has a huge number of communists in it. I am not sure, but members of the CP of China might outnumber all other self-described communists combined.
"Also, although Lenin did some not nice things, he was probably one of the closest adherants to Marxism to ever gain power."
He was one of the worst (and first) abusers. He overthrew a democratic government An ardent imperialist, he had his armies invade and annex several independent nations to his empire. He killed hundreds of thousands of Russians for ecnomic nonconformity. One example of his brutality was when he ordered all 60,000 of the ethnic Polish community in Vladivostok exterminated. Everything Stalin was infamous for was started under Lenin, including mass exterminations and the gulag. Stalin only had more time to implement it.
It is not an error to ascribe the "traits of Stalin" to Lenin.
"Some could argue that many of his moves were necessary to keep Russia from becoming nothing more than a very large wheat producer"
Is killing 7 million Ukrainians a good way to do this?
"I also notice that you did not mention Castro, who, despite some shortcomings, has done amazing things for Cuba"
I did not mention Castro as I chose not to name every thug. The most amazing thing he has done has been to hold on to a virtual monarchy, while just about all the other Latin American dictatorships have fallen. It is also one of the few countries to have the death penalty for unauthorized internet usage.
Why is it that your message is becoming anmore than an attempt to justify the actions of two of the worst bloodthirsty tyrants in history as that of "good" Communists?
Because, in practice, communism ends up being nothing like this at all. Besides, this "rule" can be problematic: who enforces it?
"The problem with todays media and "anti-communism climate" is that communism is confused with totalitarian dictatorships and mass murderers."
This is not a confusion. Just about all of the communist regimes have been totalitarians and mass murderers, and most of the very worst mass murderers have been communists. If it goes horribly wrong just about every time you try it, again and again and again (from Lenin to Stalin to Mao to Pol Pot to....), is it worth trying yet another time, and losing hundreds of thousands of lives to another failed experiment? The track record is extremely bad.
If they only charge the restocking fee if you return it late, gee, isn't that a late fee?