You are not seriously using The Simpsons "won't somebody think of the children" argument, are you? What the fuck does this have to do with the fact that idealogical conformity is a fact of life in the academic West?
What political persuasion do you think "independent" "academics" come from? There exists idealogical conformity in universities today. Of what character is this lack of dissent? I'll give you a hint, and it ain't the rights of the individual, limited government, and the promotion of free enterprise.
I never understood the difference, either...until I got into publishing (on a small scale). I had a brief but torrid affair with Verdana as a body text (always use serif fonts for body text, shows you how much I knew at the time).
I will never forget the moment that it dawned on me that Arial is just a cheap whore compared to Verdana's classy lady. I understood. OMFG.
Why did Microsoft "innovate" Arial? Because they didn't want to pay license fees. What, like Micro$oft doesn't have enough folding cash lying around? So, like everything Microsoft did, they made a cheap ripoff of an existing standard. Really opened my eyes, and it's not like I was pro-MS at the time. Arial is *just different enough* from Verdana to avoid a lawsuit. I'm sure some PHB got a six-figure bonus for that "innovation".
I'll bet dimes to dollars none of the principals on this deal "got it". It's science, after all, and scientists are just manual laborers, in the same sort of class as plumbers. The only good people in society are in finance and top corporate management.
Funny - a couple of years ago, bringing up Bush-hatred into totally unrelated conversations was considered obligatory, something normal people would do. It was serious and sane and anyone who modded flamebait was in league with Bu$hitler. People seriously used Bu$hitler, on this website, and were, in their tiny minds, not using flamebait. Look up "Bush Derangement Syndrome".
Anyone who describes himself as "psychonautic consciousness-expanding netliterati" needs to be sterilized. Have you reproduced yet? We can only hope not.
Where'd you buy it? I'm curious. As much as I'd like one of those awesome IBM keyboards, my laptop came with a Windows[tm] key and there was no model that didn't.
Has it ever occurred to you that that's how Gaia keeps her human population at sustainable levels? Remove the limits to growth, and population explodes. The planet is for every living being, not just humans. Technology just makes a bad problem worse. We need fewer humans and less electricity. It's a tough problem. Maybe we could put sterilization pills in children's vaccinations, or something. That way, they have to get the vaccine in order to go to school, and by the time they get to reproductive age it's already too late. Don't get the vaccinations, and you catch a children's communicable disease and die without reproducing. Gaia can be a harsh mistress if you abuse her.
It's as if Mother Gaia is giving us arrogant humans a lesson about overreaching our abilities.:) Maybe we need to dismantle all nuclear power, and just learn to live with less electricity in general. Think about the first word: reduce, reuse, recycle. Make no mistake: continue abusing the planet and the planet will strike back. Hard.
Still, in 2011, I have a Windows[tm] key on my keyboard. It STILL isn't used for anything. Did we *really* need a replacement for Ctrl-Esc? I remember not long ago, looking up the shortcuts for the Windows[tm] key, and the entire alphabet had not been allocated. It's as if Microsoft just innovated (snort) the Windows[tm] key in order to brand all keyboards with the Microsoft(R) symbol, and then forgot about the entire project. Looking at the docs, I see that Windows[tm]+G means "select next Windows Sidebar gadget item and bring all gadgets to the foreground." Wow! How freaking useful! Certainly good enough to allocate an entire key on the keyboard!
I always laugh when I see this "only paper ballots are secure" meme out there. It displays such a laughable level of ignorance, it's almost cute. You know, the PRI in Mexico rigged elections for 80 years using nothing but paper ballots.
So, since when is it OK to torture living things? What the fuck? When did this shit happen? Why is this not being shut down immediately? Let's get the activists on the job, and notify the lawyers. We've got work to do, people.
You underestimate how easily reporters are led by the nose and manipulated. These are journalists, after all. If they were smart they wouldn't have been RTF majors.
Don't doubt experts - they know more than you and are capable of making dispassionate, informed decisions and are morally capable of making unpopular judgments. Remember, citizen, opposition to the opinions of the educated is anti-intellectualism.
Karma doesn't work. Stop saying that. Maybe in the rarefied atmosphere of "this valley" (you don't even bother to define which one, a clear sign of insularity or ignorance [and aren't those the same?]) you can count on it, but then that's the small-town nature talking. You know, nobody buys from Bob the baker any more because he got caught molesting Ethel's sows out by the shed. Mentally substitute Bob with the morally wrong antagonist of any story. In the big wide world, "karma" doesn't work. In any case, karma (the real kind [hello India!] not the made-up Western kind) only determines what you will be in the next life.
Huh? Huge parts of the Chinese economy are directly owned by the government. Sort of like how General Motors is owned by the US government. I suppose the Western media failed to inform the public of the recent unveiling of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan, which will guide China's development for the next half decade.
I really don't know how this idea got started, because it's not true at all. I see it so many places, though, so there must be some source of the contamination, like the Broad Street Pump.
This is just the latest Western media meme (read: distortion). Manufacturing isn't going anywhere. The lowest-cost stuff will find a new home wherever it's cheapest, and that's how it's always been. But China manufacturing is here to stay. American companies may find that it's cheaper in the short run to bring manufacturing back onshore, but then they're right back to the problems of an anti-business zeitgeist which is probably why they left in the first place. China manufacturing will move...to China. Almost all of the development since the 80s has been concentrated on China's east coast. The costs in Beijing or Shanghai exceed those of many Western cities. There are plenty of inland areas awaiting investment and development. Vietnam? I have a buddy who does a lot of business down there. Says it's like China 20 years ago...shipments can't get to port because a flood washed out the road, generally poor infrastructure for taking care of foreign investments (permits take forever to get, etc.), and tons of other disadvantages. Still, Vietnam can make sense under certain circumstances.
Let me guess: you haven't been into a casino, and your experience is based on some movies you saw somewhere. Slot machines don't give out bags of coins any more, and they haven't for a while. You get a receipt to give to the cashier, or feed into another slot machine. Slot jockeys don't give a shit if the person next to them wins, they don't even shrug. They just keep on playing. Earthquake, fire alarm, casino being robbed, it doesn't matter.
"Keeping up with the Joneses" is materialism. You don't get anything but WoW-style mental satisfaction from playing slots.
What the hell does this have to do with China's congress? Everything's about America, isn't it?
Tell you what, I'll ask some Chinese people if they want to trade places with you, and live in that corrupt pyramid scheme of democracy. You like Chinese food?
Hey, the politicians and all their friends use facebook, which means everyone uses facebook. Besides, disenfranchising the lower 1/3 of society is OK, they never have anything interesting to say. Bunch of fucking rednecks (yes, Iceland has their analogue).
Slashdot Mirror
You are not seriously using The Simpsons "won't somebody think of the children" argument, are you? What the fuck does this have to do with the fact that idealogical conformity is a fact of life in the academic West?
What political persuasion do you think "independent" "academics" come from? There exists idealogical conformity in universities today. Of what character is this lack of dissent? I'll give you a hint, and it ain't the rights of the individual, limited government, and the promotion of free enterprise.
I never understood the difference, either...until I got into publishing (on a small scale). I had a brief but torrid affair with Verdana as a body text (always use serif fonts for body text, shows you how much I knew at the time).
I will never forget the moment that it dawned on me that Arial is just a cheap whore compared to Verdana's classy lady. I understood. OMFG.
Why did Microsoft "innovate" Arial? Because they didn't want to pay license fees. What, like Micro$oft doesn't have enough folding cash lying around? So, like everything Microsoft did, they made a cheap ripoff of an existing standard. Really opened my eyes, and it's not like I was pro-MS at the time. Arial is *just different enough* from Verdana to avoid a lawsuit. I'm sure some PHB got a six-figure bonus for that "innovation".
I'll bet dimes to dollars none of the principals on this deal "got it". It's science, after all, and scientists are just manual laborers, in the same sort of class as plumbers. The only good people in society are in finance and top corporate management.
Funny - a couple of years ago, bringing up Bush-hatred into totally unrelated conversations was considered obligatory, something normal people would do. It was serious and sane and anyone who modded flamebait was in league with Bu$hitler. People seriously used Bu$hitler, on this website, and were, in their tiny minds, not using flamebait. Look up "Bush Derangement Syndrome".
Anyone who describes himself as "psychonautic consciousness-expanding netliterati" needs to be sterilized. Have you reproduced yet? We can only hope not.
Where'd you buy it? I'm curious. As much as I'd like one of those awesome IBM keyboards, my laptop came with a Windows[tm] key and there was no model that didn't.
Has it ever occurred to you that that's how Gaia keeps her human population at sustainable levels? Remove the limits to growth, and population explodes. The planet is for every living being, not just humans. Technology just makes a bad problem worse. We need fewer humans and less electricity. It's a tough problem. Maybe we could put sterilization pills in children's vaccinations, or something. That way, they have to get the vaccine in order to go to school, and by the time they get to reproductive age it's already too late. Don't get the vaccinations, and you catch a children's communicable disease and die without reproducing. Gaia can be a harsh mistress if you abuse her.
It's as if Mother Gaia is giving us arrogant humans a lesson about overreaching our abilities. :) Maybe we need to dismantle all nuclear power, and just learn to live with less electricity in general. Think about the first word: reduce, reuse, recycle. Make no mistake: continue abusing the planet and the planet will strike back. Hard.
Still, in 2011, I have a Windows[tm] key on my keyboard. It STILL isn't used for anything. Did we *really* need a replacement for Ctrl-Esc? I remember not long ago, looking up the shortcuts for the Windows[tm] key, and the entire alphabet had not been allocated. It's as if Microsoft just innovated (snort) the Windows[tm] key in order to brand all keyboards with the Microsoft(R) symbol, and then forgot about the entire project. Looking at the docs, I see that Windows[tm]+G means "select next Windows Sidebar gadget item and bring all gadgets to the foreground." Wow! How freaking useful! Certainly good enough to allocate an entire key on the keyboard!
If your idea of culture is "that which is broadcast by major media companies", then I pity your tiny world-view.
I always laugh when I see this "only paper ballots are secure" meme out there. It displays such a laughable level of ignorance, it's almost cute. You know, the PRI in Mexico rigged elections for 80 years using nothing but paper ballots.
So, since when is it OK to torture living things? What the fuck? When did this shit happen? Why is this not being shut down immediately? Let's get the activists on the job, and notify the lawyers. We've got work to do, people.
You underestimate how easily reporters are led by the nose and manipulated. These are journalists, after all. If they were smart they wouldn't have been RTF majors.
Don't doubt experts - they know more than you and are capable of making dispassionate, informed decisions and are morally capable of making unpopular judgments. Remember, citizen, opposition to the opinions of the educated is anti-intellectualism.
Karma doesn't work. Stop saying that. Maybe in the rarefied atmosphere of "this valley" (you don't even bother to define which one, a clear sign of insularity or ignorance [and aren't those the same?]) you can count on it, but then that's the small-town nature talking. You know, nobody buys from Bob the baker any more because he got caught molesting Ethel's sows out by the shed. Mentally substitute Bob with the morally wrong antagonist of any story. In the big wide world, "karma" doesn't work. In any case, karma (the real kind [hello India!] not the made-up Western kind) only determines what you will be in the next life.
Huh? Huge parts of the Chinese economy are directly owned by the government. Sort of like how General Motors is owned by the US government. I suppose the Western media failed to inform the public of the recent unveiling of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan, which will guide China's development for the next half decade.
I really don't know how this idea got started, because it's not true at all. I see it so many places, though, so there must be some source of the contamination, like the Broad Street Pump.
This is just the latest Western media meme (read: distortion). Manufacturing isn't going anywhere. The lowest-cost stuff will find a new home wherever it's cheapest, and that's how it's always been. But China manufacturing is here to stay. American companies may find that it's cheaper in the short run to bring manufacturing back onshore, but then they're right back to the problems of an anti-business zeitgeist which is probably why they left in the first place. China manufacturing will move...to China. Almost all of the development since the 80s has been concentrated on China's east coast. The costs in Beijing or Shanghai exceed those of many Western cities. There are plenty of inland areas awaiting investment and development. Vietnam? I have a buddy who does a lot of business down there. Says it's like China 20 years ago...shipments can't get to port because a flood washed out the road, generally poor infrastructure for taking care of foreign investments (permits take forever to get, etc.), and tons of other disadvantages. Still, Vietnam can make sense under certain circumstances.
Let me guess: you haven't been into a casino, and your experience is based on some movies you saw somewhere. Slot machines don't give out bags of coins any more, and they haven't for a while. You get a receipt to give to the cashier, or feed into another slot machine. Slot jockeys don't give a shit if the person next to them wins, they don't even shrug. They just keep on playing. Earthquake, fire alarm, casino being robbed, it doesn't matter.
"Keeping up with the Joneses" is materialism. You don't get anything but WoW-style mental satisfaction from playing slots.
Q: Why is starting a slashdot comment in the Subject: line incredibly irritating?
Thus always to vigilantes. Maybe he'll serve as a warning to other would-be "protectors", but I doubt it.
They don't make car seats with flammable foam rubber any more.
What the hell does this have to do with China's congress? Everything's about America, isn't it?
Tell you what, I'll ask some Chinese people if they want to trade places with you, and live in that corrupt pyramid scheme of democracy. You like Chinese food?
Hey, the politicians and all their friends use facebook, which means everyone uses facebook. Besides, disenfranchising the lower 1/3 of society is OK, they never have anything interesting to say. Bunch of fucking rednecks (yes, Iceland has their analogue).
Way to go, generalize all of China based on one route.