Somewhat related to this topic, there have been studies done about the dangers of fine particle air pollution. Most fine particles are formed when emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides react with ammonia to form particles less than 2.5 microns in diameter, which interfere with the ability of the lungs to absorb oxygen.
This can lead to heart disease, lung cancer, respiratory ailments, and premature death. I'm paraphrasing from some reports found here.
I agree that it is a bad law, and a bad ruling, but I don't think think this qualifies as 'abuse of the law.' This is exactly the kind of thing those bribed lawmakers had in mind when they wrote it.
Using the DMCA to lock out third party printer cartridges -- that's closer to abusing the law than this case.
You bring up a good point, Unicron, however I feel that Copyright Infringement is several degrees of severity lower than Murder.
A similar argument could be made further up the ladder -- that the government allows you to buy guns, but doesn't let anyone have their own atom bomb. I mean, what gives? They both kill people.
Ah cool, a search for "Faris Odeh" did the trick. Kinda creepy reading his story -- how do you make peace with a society that raises children with a death wish?
And certainly it looks like many young boys want to 'grow up' to be just like Faris, so to speak.
I hope that these kinds of attitudes can be reversed when/if peace is finally restored to the area.
Use a long enough lens, and it looks like the kid running across the street is about to be bowled over by the tank, when in fact the tank is a block away.
Hey, is that where that quasi-famous "child and tank" photo from Israel came from? They've been putting that on t-shirts, bags of chips, mugs, the works.
Any links to web pages dissecting the photo? That'd make an interesting read.
[conspiracy] This is all just a ploy by book publishers and Microsoft to give e-books DVD-like region encoding. Package it in with some crappy "copy-protection" and you've got something that's (legally) uncrackable. [/conspiracy]
The Japanese seems to have a kind of America-in-the-1950's attitude when it comes to technology. Remember all those old black-and-white film/TV pieces about the Fantastic Future? Jetpacks, flying cars, robotic servants, orbital hotels, the works!
Japan has that same kind of attitude, except that all those neat things are closer than ever. The robots are real now, and not guys in shiny rubber suits. America's interests have moved on to other things, and has adopted a bit of practical cynicism towards technology.
Priceless! Comedy Gold. This is going in my quote collection.
"The only "genre" that has really died is text adventure, but that's only an implementation of RPG. Diablo is the same thing with graphics, and that's still going strong." -- "Have Blue" at Slashdot.org (3/24/2003)
... with games and characters such as Zelda, Super Mario,... Pretty friendly games, rather non-violent with...
What Mario and Zelda games are you playing? All the ones I play involve slashing people up with swords, crushing creatures to death, smashing other people's pottery, and running amok with a riot water cannon.
Sure it's bloodless, but that just makes it more acceptable to our children! Do you want your kids bashing ceiling tiles with their head for money?!
Re:Support our troops. SHUT UP!
on
Strike on Iraq
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· Score: 1
The "Support Our Troops" slogan (which I'm pretty sick of myself) mainly stems from the Vietnam war, when returning troops were spat upon and treated with disrespect.
It's trite and overused nowadays, but the basic jist of it is "don't blame them for doing what the government tells them. In fact, thank them for being willing to do it in the first place."
They consist of poor saps who joined the military to pay for college, and some meatheads who *want* to shoot guns and beat up brown people.
Ahem... it also includes not brandishing unfair stereotypes about them, and dividing them up into either vicious killers or scared teens, both with less-than-average intelligence.
Re:Not a troll: How many civilians died last time?
on
Strike on Iraq
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· Score: 1
It's pretty well known that the "Smart" weapons weren't so. I mean what was the interception rate of the Patriot missles?? Guess. ZERO.
and that's the shit that's supposed to protect the GOOD GUYS. How good could the weapons that were supposed to KILL the bad guys?
I'd imagine that it's much easier to hit a large stationary building than a small flying missle.
Generals gathered in their masses, just like witches at black masses. Evil minds that plot destruction, sorcerers of death's construction. In the fields the bodies burning, as the war machine keeps turning. Death and hatred to mankind, poisoning their brainwashed minds. Oh lord, yeah!
Politicians hide themselves away. They only started the war. Why should they go out to fight? They leave that role to the poor, yeah.
Time will tell on their power minds, making war just for fun. Treating people just like pawns in chess, wait till their judgement day comes, yeah.
Now in darkness world stops turning, ashes where the bodies burning. No more War Pigs have the power, Hand of God has struck the hour. Day of judgement, God is calling, on their knees the war pigs crawling. Begging mercies for their sins, Satan, laughing, spreads his wings. Oh lord, yeah!
Not a troll: How many civilians died last time?
on
Strike on Iraq
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Most anti-war people I hear talk about all the civilian casualties resulting from this war, but I'm somehow not sure I should take their word for it. Does anyone here know the read civilian death toll from the last Iraqi war?
I mean, I would think it'd be relatively low, what with all the expensive gagetry we're using nowadays.
Good points, but I have to say that there was a big spoilage factor in your case. Without the mystique, the first book isn't nearly as interesting. Not to mention that you already knew about the Fist-of-God, which was something of a revelation in the first book.
The Ringworld sequels are certainly his best effort (as far as his sequels go), but I still found them disappointing. A good read, but untimately disappointing.
You mention that the original Ringworld was largely an intro to the Ringworld, and not that deep. I agree with this, however I feel that the original book was leading up to a far greater storyline/world than what the sequels actually presented. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of great bits in both Engineers and Throne, but it they don't have the sweep/scope/grandeur that was hinted at in the first one.
I think he does fine with his standalone short stories (that use the same universe and some recurring characters). I was basically commenting on the sequels to his novels. It's possible he screws up direct sequels to short stories, but I don't know if he's done that yet.
Compounding this problem is that he's always leaving loose ends that beg for a sequel (like with that Trinoc story that you mentioned.)
It's too bad that the question of sequels didn't make the cut to be asked. I've noticed a trend in Niven's body of work -- he's not good at direct sequels. Really, some of his sequels fall short of the original novel, while the others fall far, far short.
Even when collaborating, the man just can't make a good series. Look at The Gripping Hand for a prime example. Am I the only one who notices this trend?
(Disclaimer: I've only read 50-60% of his work so far. Mainly it's the short stories I have to catch up with.)
Slashdot Mirror
Since when does a Unix/Linux buff not like the idea of a dumb terminal? Especially a cordless one with a touchscreen!
Certainly the current iteration of this product has flaws, but I'd expect some support for the basic concept.
Somewhat related to this topic, there have been studies done about the dangers of fine particle air pollution. Most fine particles are formed when emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides react with ammonia to form particles less than 2.5 microns in diameter, which interfere with the ability of the lungs to absorb oxygen.
This can lead to heart disease, lung cancer, respiratory ailments, and premature death. I'm paraphrasing from some reports found here.
I agree that it is a bad law, and a bad ruling, but I don't think think this qualifies as 'abuse of the law.' This is exactly the kind of thing those bribed lawmakers had in mind when they wrote it.
Using the DMCA to lock out third party printer cartridges -- that's closer to abusing the law than this case.
A "Ricer" is one who performs all sorts of crazy modifications on his low-end automobile.
Click here for details.
You bring up a good point, Unicron, however I feel that Copyright Infringement is several degrees of severity lower than Murder.
A similar argument could be made further up the ladder -- that the government allows you to buy guns, but doesn't let anyone have their own atom bomb. I mean, what gives? They both kill people.
Ah cool, a search for "Faris Odeh" did the trick. Kinda creepy reading his story -- how do you make peace with a society that raises children with a death wish?
And certainly it looks like many young boys want to 'grow up' to be just like Faris, so to speak.
I hope that these kinds of attitudes can be reversed when/if peace is finally restored to the area.
Use a long enough lens, and it looks like the kid running across the street is about to be bowled over by the tank, when in fact the tank is a block away.
Hey, is that where that quasi-famous "child and tank" photo from Israel came from? They've been putting that on t-shirts, bags of chips, mugs, the works.
Any links to web pages dissecting the photo? That'd make an interesting read.
I don't normally respond to my own posts, but it looks like I sparked a little flame war!
:-).
To anyone who cares: It was really just a joke, and does not reflect my views on the current Iraq conflict.
No need to mark me as a Foe (yet
So does it mean we'll have to invade Kentucky next?
[conspiracy]
This is all just a ploy by book publishers and Microsoft to give e-books DVD-like region encoding. Package it in with some crappy "copy-protection" and you've got something that's (legally) uncrackable.
[/conspiracy]
Ok, I'll just get back to work now.
The Japanese seems to have a kind of America-in-the-1950's attitude when it comes to technology. Remember all those old black-and-white film/TV pieces about the Fantastic Future? Jetpacks, flying cars, robotic servants, orbital hotels, the works!
Japan has that same kind of attitude, except that all those neat things are closer than ever. The robots are real now, and not guys in shiny rubber suits. America's interests have moved on to other things, and has adopted a bit of practical cynicism towards technology.
Priceless! Comedy Gold. This is going in my quote collection.
"The only "genre" that has really died is text adventure, but that's only an implementation of RPG. Diablo is the same thing with graphics, and that's still going strong." -- "Have Blue" at Slashdot.org (3/24/2003)
What Mario and Zelda games are you playing? All the ones I play involve slashing people up with swords, crushing creatures to death, smashing other people's pottery, and running amok with a riot water cannon.
Sure it's bloodless, but that just makes it more acceptable to our children! Do you want your kids bashing ceiling tiles with their head for money?!
It's trite and overused nowadays, but the basic jist of it is "don't blame them for doing what the government tells them. In fact, thank them for being willing to do it in the first place."
Ahem... it also includes not brandishing unfair stereotypes about them, and dividing them up into either vicious killers or scared teens, both with less-than-average intelligence.
I'd imagine that it's much easier to hit a large stationary building than a small flying missle.
Back, back ye troll!
> Yea, gotta love all the epic music and the quick edits, it's like watching a movie trailer.
> What have we become in 200 short years?
Incredibly cool, apparently.
Black Sabbath's War Pigs
------------------------
Generals gathered in their masses,
just like witches at black masses.
Evil minds that plot destruction,
sorcerers of death's construction.
In the fields the bodies burning,
as the war machine keeps turning.
Death and hatred to mankind,
poisoning their brainwashed minds.
Oh lord, yeah!
Politicians hide themselves away.
They only started the war.
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor, yeah.
Time will tell on their power minds,
making war just for fun.
Treating people just like pawns in chess,
wait till their judgement day comes, yeah.
Now in darkness world stops turning,
ashes where the bodies burning.
No more War Pigs have the power,
Hand of God has struck the hour.
Day of judgement, God is calling,
on their knees the war pigs crawling.
Begging mercies for their sins,
Satan, laughing, spreads his wings.
Oh lord, yeah!
Most anti-war people I hear talk about all the civilian casualties resulting from this war, but I'm somehow not sure I should take their word for it. Does anyone here know the read civilian death toll from the last Iraqi war?
I mean, I would think it'd be relatively low, what with all the expensive gagetry we're using nowadays.
Except that now it's white collar jobs that are leaving.
You fucking moron. It's not that the jobs are leaving. That would be fair. It's when they stay and are given to non-citizens that pisses me off.
If a job is physically in the U.S. then you have to employ a U.S. Citizen (or at least someone with a regular green card.)
50% Overrated? Darn it, people, if you mod me down then the terrorists have already won!
Won't somebody think of the children?
...then the terrorists have already won!
Good points, but I have to say that there was a big spoilage factor in your case. Without the mystique, the first book isn't nearly as interesting. Not to mention that you already knew about the Fist-of-God, which was something of a revelation in the first book.
The Ringworld sequels are certainly his best effort (as far as his sequels go), but I still found them disappointing. A good read, but untimately disappointing.
You mention that the original Ringworld was largely an intro to the Ringworld, and not that deep. I agree with this, however I feel that the original book was leading up to a far greater storyline/world than what the sequels actually presented. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of great bits in both Engineers and Throne, but it they don't have the sweep/scope/grandeur that was hinted at in the first one.
I think he does fine with his standalone short stories (that use the same universe and some recurring characters). I was basically commenting on the sequels to his novels. It's possible he screws up direct sequels to short stories, but I don't know if he's done that yet.
Compounding this problem is that he's always leaving loose ends that beg for a sequel (like with that Trinoc story that you mentioned.)
It's too bad that the question of sequels didn't make the cut to be asked. I've noticed a trend in Niven's body of work -- he's not good at direct sequels. Really, some of his sequels fall short of the original novel, while the others fall far, far short.
Even when collaborating, the man just can't make a good series. Look at The Gripping Hand for a prime example. Am I the only one who notices this trend?
(Disclaimer: I've only read 50-60% of his work so far. Mainly it's the short stories I have to catch up with.)