So? The US frequently threatens other countries with a similar fate. Why should the US be allowed to do it, and NK not? Oh, wait, maybe your finely tuned media machine hasn't filled you in the details.. the US threatens the lives of the populace of governments it doesn't like, all the frickin' time...
"Axis of Evil".. does this not sound like evil rhetoric to you? Sure sounds like it to me...
hey, guess what? the korean war is not over. its called a stalemate. time for diplomacy!
the world shouldn't be looking to america to provide this, however. americans aren't good at diplomacy, at all. they just don't understand why the rest of the world hates them, after all...
oh, right, coz if 'nuclear power' were possible, we'd have it by now..
dude, diplomacy takes hard work and well-tuned ethics.
the reason America resorts to violence so often is because it is The Lazy Path, and 'convenient means of disposing of ones problems' is a part of the American Psyche...
Are you suggesting that the government stop trying to aprehend and prosecute hard drug users/dealers?
Yes, the US government should stop doing this. It should do what its already doing with the Drug Barons of the World and regulate the industry.
I mean, the US is already a nation of drug slaves. I don't mean street-drugs, either, I mean 'legitimate, socially accepted drugs'. 3/4's of the U.S. is high, daily, anyway.
So, get rid of the crime factor, make it legal to smoke pot and stick yourself with heroin, and put those DEA agents to work providing social care programs, not enforcing an untenable Police State.
You already have a nearly Totally Drugged Society, the only difference would be the removal of the Police State factor.. but, oh no, Americans Love Their Cops, yo..
We've tried diplomacy for years and it doesn't work.
no, you've failed at diplomacy, you haven't tried it. fact is, America is just as incapable of diplomatic relations with NK as NK 'is capable of with the US'..
as for the definition of 'sane', i think you'll find that the definitions you are using were given to you by vested interests, who are capable of capitalizing on the definitions of 'sanity' versus 'insanity'.. so i wouldn't be so quick to assume that your definition of 'sane' is the be-all, end-all of the word. sane is as sane does; and by that basis, the US is Totally Fucking Bonkers.
40 Wars, since the end of WW2.. study up on that history, and we can start talking about which is the 'saner nation'..
I'm Australian, but I'll never live in Australia for as long as the bandwidth situation down there remains in the state it is in. Call me a junkie, but I spent many of my 'growing up' years in California, and I just can't go back to the Australian way of doing bandwidth...
look, all it takes is *ONE* connection to the internet, in safe harbour somewhere, and they're back on again.
just forget it. there's no way to 'cut them all off' from the 'net. its a preposterous idea.
the only solution is diplomacy. these people clearly think that their position is the right one; well, why is that? learn the answer to that question, and use diplomacy...
yeah, coz you know, with that American Might you can just block the entire country of north korea from having internet access 'at the flick of a switch'.
dufus. the internet is everywhere. you can't block all the connections that a 500-man organized team of hackers can set up for themselves.. whatever country they're in, or from.
okay folks, we're gonna be disinfecting this planet soon, we need you all to go outside and look up into the blue sky all day, mouths and noses and eyes open, and count all the contrails you can see, take lots of deep breaths.
.. diamonds of purest nitrogen, holy of holies, won't be cheap enough for us mortals to own and use until the.. erm.. porn industry.. works out.. a use for it..
Or maybe I'm the only person who went "What the- ?"
yeah man, i was like 'whoa, what was that' and it moved, and i'm all 'damn, gotta stop reading slashdot immediately', and it was all.. *bfrr-qfrrrrt*.. just a fart.
close though! i thought i'd suddenly become host to a sentinent ball of microbe!
Query: What's so darned not-sensible about a satellite launch?
Umm.. the fact that there will be no few hundred million people whose lives would be enrhiched by the same satellites' resources going in to their neighborhoods to install potable drinking-water, irrigation, and fundamental rights of human education.. yeah, okay, satellites can 'feed the people', but so can 200,000 water pumps or so, you know.. something the kerosene kost of a single launch might be able to pay for..
I've always admired writers whose style implies a certain work discipline, and I may be wrong but it seems as if you have a writing environment that does you wonders. As a world famous author, you have had the opportunity to work in some very interesting places.
My question(s) is(are) this: what is your ideal writing environment? Have you been to anywhere in particular in your travels, or have a writing setup/gig that has compelled you to really get words down, physically, ready for someone else to read?
The fact that we are even discussing the 'implications' of a Cop force and its impact on society should lead you to answer your own question, 'whats so special?'
The answer: When you live in a Police State, you will worship Police.
I switched, and I have to say that the one Mac I own has been the best computer investment I've made in a computer for years. I've gotten so much work done with this aging tiBook, it just keeps on ticking, and it always works.
Sure, I'm mostly a Unix hacker anyway, so I'm not a typical 'gotta have all the software written for me' kind of computer user, and I don't play video games, or have any 'office' needs which can't be met with vi.. so OSX is really mostly icing in the already well-made cake.
Still, I have to admit, I am sorta surprised that its 2004 now, and the #1 vendor of Unix is Apple. I don't know why its a surprise, but its a surprise.
I'd had a lot of hope for SGI, back in the day.. if only they'd made it, and done a laptop worthy of the SGI legend! I wish someone would get into the 'making a better laptop Unix than Apple' competition now, anyway..
.. do you really think they would try to cheat at the debates?
hell yes. do you not know what is at stake for the neo-con radicals, here? you brought up karl rove; do you really know what sort of individual he is, what sort of position he takes on world politics? ever read any of his treaties on the subject of the american statehood, personally?
And don't you think that if they did cheat Bush would have done a better job?
have you not been paying attention to the un-disputable litany of Bush public-speaking gaffs/monkey-business that we've had to endure since he came to power? Bush has counsel.
good as he is among the corn-fed, he loses his touch when exposed to the rest of humanity, and put in situations where he must cover rather large fault, or deny something evidently proven as fact. even outside of debates, Bush has proven a constant source of embarrassment for the GOP..
Do you really see Karl Rove (boy genius ®) couching him to say "It's hard work" over and over again?
yes. rove is prompting/'minding', it is a low-rate approach to keeping Bush 'on point' and 'in frame'. i would wager that they would go to such lengths, under the guises of National Security, to ensure that they have a strong leader in the eyes of the populace whose resources they intend to control for another 4 years or so..
now, if you think this is all too 'tin-foil', all you need to do is read karl rove's papers yourself. it couldn't really be more black and white.
hell yeah. my rev-a 5giger is deleted every month, i've got almost 3 years worth of.dd.tar.gz files of the entire disk image.
5gigs is plenty of tunes for my listening reality, anyway, specially since i swap.dd's whenever i need a change of music.. sweet to just 'load up', yo!
What's wrong with me digging that old celeron-400 out of the corner, installing smoothwall on it, and shoving it away in the cupboard to serve out it's days?
Nothing. Nobody said you shouldn't do that, if you so desire.
These systems are for those who don't have an old celeron-400 sitting in the corner. That you think everyone does just speaks of ignorance.
(Mines an i-opener, and its sitting on the spare desk behind me, in parts. I'd love to get it working one of these days, but instead... maybe I'll buy one of these Cheap Linux Development Hardware Spade thingies and dig a few holes..)
How far is it acceptable to go and when does it become wrong in your book?
I just think you're being naive if you really consider that a newspaper can't present the same point of view as a political party, subjectively. Or that the view must differ significantly or its not valid.
Its an Opinion piece. That header is supposed to mean something, you know. It means, its someones opinion, and they're fortunate enough to be in the position where the newspaper is offering them the inches to print that opinion.
What does 'invasive' mean? It means its in an area where it doesn't 'naturally belong', in this context, and 'is doing damage'.
The point is, tree's are exceptionally good at biological warfare. A non-native tree in a distant land, with no competitors, can utterly decimate local species.
Slashdot Mirror
So? The US frequently threatens other countries with a similar fate. Why should the US be allowed to do it, and NK not? Oh, wait, maybe your finely tuned media machine hasn't filled you in the details.. the US threatens the lives of the populace of governments it doesn't like, all the frickin' time...
.. does this not sound like evil rhetoric to you? Sure sounds like it to me...
"Axis of Evil"
hey, guess what? the korean war is not over. its called a stalemate. time for diplomacy!
...
the world shouldn't be looking to america to provide this, however. americans aren't good at diplomacy, at all. they just don't understand why the rest of the world hates them, after all
oh, right, coz if 'nuclear power' were possible, we'd have it by now..
...
dude, diplomacy takes hard work and well-tuned ethics.
the reason America resorts to violence so often is because it is The Lazy Path, and 'convenient means of disposing of ones problems' is a part of the American Psyche
Are you suggesting that the government stop trying to aprehend and prosecute hard drug users/dealers?
.. but, oh no, Americans Love Their Cops, yo ..
Yes, the US government should stop doing this. It should do what its already doing with the Drug Barons of the World and regulate the industry.
I mean, the US is already a nation of drug slaves. I don't mean street-drugs, either, I mean 'legitimate, socially accepted drugs'. 3/4's of the U.S. is high, daily, anyway.
So, get rid of the crime factor, make it legal to smoke pot and stick yourself with heroin, and put those DEA agents to work providing social care programs, not enforcing an untenable Police State.
You already have a nearly Totally Drugged Society, the only difference would be the removal of the Police State factor
We've tried diplomacy for years and it doesn't work.
.. so i wouldn't be so quick to assume that your definition of 'sane' is the be-all, end-all of the word. sane is as sane does; and by that basis, the US is Totally Fucking Bonkers.
.. study up on that history, and we can start talking about which is the 'saner nation' ..
no, you've failed at diplomacy, you haven't tried it. fact is, America is just as incapable of diplomatic relations with NK as NK 'is capable of with the US'..
as for the definition of 'sane', i think you'll find that the definitions you are using were given to you by vested interests, who are capable of capitalizing on the definitions of 'sanity' versus 'insanity'
40 Wars, since the end of WW2
woo, big deal, 60 years. thats not a long time. i'd hardly call it long enough to have 'a history lesson'.
I'm Australian, but I'll never live in Australia for as long as the bandwidth situation down there remains in the state it is in. Call me a junkie, but I spent many of my 'growing up' years in California, and I just can't go back to the Australian way of doing bandwidth...
"cut a few cables" .. uh huh.
...
look, all it takes is *ONE* connection to the internet, in safe harbour somewhere, and they're back on again.
just forget it. there's no way to 'cut them all off' from the 'net. its a preposterous idea.
the only solution is diplomacy. these people clearly think that their position is the right one; well, why is that? learn the answer to that question, and use diplomacy
yeah, coz you know, with that American Might you can just block the entire country of north korea from having internet access 'at the flick of a switch'.
.. whatever country they're in, or from.
dufus. the internet is everywhere. you can't block all the connections that a 500-man organized team of hackers can set up for themselves
okay folks, we're gonna be disinfecting this planet soon, we need you all to go outside and look up into the blue sky all day, mouths and noses and eyes open, and count all the contrails you can see, take lots of deep breaths.
mm.. kay?
.. diamonds of purest nitrogen, holy of holies, won't be cheap enough for us mortals to own and use until the .. erm .. porn industry .. works out .. a use for it ..
*ahem*
Or maybe I'm the only person who went "What the- ?"
.. *bfrr-qfrrrrt* .. just a fart.
yeah man, i was like 'whoa, what was that' and it moved, and i'm all 'damn, gotta stop reading slashdot immediately', and it was all
close though! i thought i'd suddenly become host to a sentinent ball of microbe!
y'know, i have felt this sentiment as well, many times over the years, but I still go back to the lanuage i've done most work in.
(C, for me..)
it seems to me that yes, more language is fantastic, woohoo! yay for the new shit!
but it also seems that history hasn't taught us tech-fetishists the lessons of the futility of perpetual 'new word' thinking.
face it, you have to to be a real hardcore fetishist to think that more language is good for anything.. use what you've got to make what you need!
Umm.. Mr. Chronic Poser, just one question ..
How do we know this is Full Thompson, the Real Gibson and Legitimate Stephenson? Have you, like, exchange keys with them or something?
Query: What's so darned not-sensible about a satellite launch?
.. yeah, okay, satellites can 'feed the people', but so can 200,000 water pumps or so, you know .. something the kerosene kost of a single launch might be able to pay for ..
Umm.. the fact that there will be no few hundred million people whose lives would be enrhiched by the same satellites' resources going in to their neighborhoods to install potable drinking-water, irrigation, and fundamental rights of human education
I've always admired writers whose style implies a certain work discipline, and I may be wrong but it seems as if you have a writing environment that does you wonders. As a world famous author, you have had the opportunity to work in some very interesting places.
My question(s) is(are) this: what is your ideal writing environment? Have you been to anywhere in particular in your travels, or have a writing setup/gig that has compelled you to really get words down, physically, ready for someone else to read?
The fact that we are even discussing the 'implications' of a Cop force and its impact on society should lead you to answer your own question, 'whats so special?'
The answer: When you live in a Police State, you will worship Police.
I switched, and I have to say that the one Mac I own has been the best computer investment I've made in a computer for years. I've gotten so much work done with this aging tiBook, it just keeps on ticking, and it always works.
Sure, I'm mostly a Unix hacker anyway, so I'm not a typical 'gotta have all the software written for me' kind of computer user, and I don't play video games, or have any 'office' needs which can't be met with vi.. so OSX is really mostly icing in the already well-made cake.
Still, I have to admit, I am sorta surprised that its 2004 now, and the #1 vendor of Unix is Apple. I don't know why its a surprise, but its a surprise.
I'd had a lot of hope for SGI, back in the day.. if only they'd made it, and done a laptop worthy of the SGI legend! I wish someone would get into the 'making a better laptop Unix than Apple' competition now, anyway..
.. do you really think they would try to cheat at the debates?
..
..
hell yes. do you not know what is at stake for the neo-con radicals, here? you brought up karl rove; do you really know what sort of individual he is, what sort of position he takes on world politics? ever read any of his treaties on the subject of the american statehood, personally?
And don't you think that if they did cheat Bush would have done a better job?
have you not been paying attention to the un-disputable litany of Bush public-speaking gaffs/monkey-business that we've had to endure since he came to power? Bush has counsel.
good as he is among the corn-fed, he loses his touch when exposed to the rest of humanity, and put in situations where he must cover rather large fault, or deny something evidently proven as fact. even outside of debates, Bush has proven a constant source of embarrassment for the GOP
Do you really see Karl Rove (boy genius ®) couching him to say "It's hard work" over and over again?
yes. rove is prompting/'minding', it is a low-rate approach to keeping Bush 'on point' and 'in frame'. i would wager that they would go to such lengths, under the guises of National Security, to ensure that they have a strong leader in the eyes of the populace whose resources they intend to control for another 4 years or so
now, if you think this is all too 'tin-foil', all you need to do is read karl rove's papers yourself. it couldn't really be more black and white.
hell yeah. my rev-a 5giger is deleted every month, i've got almost 3 years worth of .dd.tar.gz files of the entire disk image.
.dd's whenever i need a change of music .. sweet to just 'load up', yo!
5gigs is plenty of tunes for my listening reality, anyway, specially since i swap
What's wrong with me digging that old celeron-400 out of the corner, installing smoothwall on it, and shoving it away in the cupboard to serve out it's days?
... maybe I'll buy one of these Cheap Linux Development Hardware Spade thingies and dig a few holes..)
Nothing. Nobody said you shouldn't do that, if you so desire.
These systems are for those who don't have an old celeron-400 sitting in the corner. That you think everyone does just speaks of ignorance.
(Mines an i-opener, and its sitting on the spare desk behind me, in parts. I'd love to get it working one of these days, but instead
At work, I've got three of them that I can think of, and there are no linux based alternatives for them.
What are they?
How far is it acceptable to go and when does it become wrong in your book?
I just think you're being naive if you really consider that a newspaper can't present the same point of view as a political party, subjectively. Or that the view must differ significantly or its not valid.
Its an Opinion piece. That header is supposed to mean something, you know. It means, its someones opinion, and they're fortunate enough to be in the position where the newspaper is offering them the inches to print that opinion.
What does 'invasive' mean? It means its in an area where it doesn't 'naturally belong', in this context, and 'is doing damage'.
The point is, tree's are exceptionally good at biological warfare. A non-native tree in a distant land, with no competitors, can utterly decimate local species.
Sorta like Americans in Baghdad, but I digress..
okay, i'll bite ... whats the difference between "a front line" and "most active area"?