Democracy is the potential for freedom. As the saying goes, "I can only show you the door, but you must walk through it." And even with freedom, there is the choice to turn back or to move forward. Of course, when the alternative sociopolitical systems don't offer even that much, it's not easy to get too angry at democracy's imperfections.
I don't understand why many on slashdot are against this. We mock anti-nuclear power alarmists for blowing fears out of proportion, yet here we are saying "Oh no we shouldn't do this because there might be a catastrophe"
Where is the source to back your claim that it is the same people who "claimed that 'enhanced interrogation' was necessary" who are now saying that "such a confession was [unreliable]"?
It seems you're making the mistake of grouping everyone in the government as one, which is the same error that you seem to want to take issue with when you mock the usage of the word "evil" as a descriptor for Iran.
Your attempt at sarcasm to point out hypocrisy is disingenuous and falsely accusatory by the very fact that you are using the moral positions of two different and unrelated people, i.e. policy makers who support torture, and the GP poster. The fact that your post has been modded so highly "Insightful" indicates either a deeply flawed sense of logic in the/. community, or a childish penchant for ill thought out potshots.
Your post can only be relevant under two circumstances: 1) GP having a history of supporting torture, or 2) Policy makers who support torture now pointing out the unreliability of Hekmati's confession. Neither is true.
Wait, you can't go to a foreign country because you assume they harbor group prejudice? I'd say firstly you need to stop insulting those countries, and give their people some credit (only the ignorant hate people based on nationality), and secondly you need to grow a backbone and realize you are defined by your own personal actions and not by those of your government.
Now why would these shows need to be taken off the air if they weren't popular and the "vast majority of the Chinese people actually don't mind this"? The fact that they needed government interference in order to curb their growth suggests that your premise on the "very fundamental ideals of Chinese society" is wrong, because what people consume in entertainment is a reflection of the evolution of the fundamental ideals of any society.
I'd venture that the traditionalists/conservatives in China don't mind this, but the young people -- those who are and will continue to be the engine for liberalization -- will not. How would you react if Republicans wanted legislation to take The Bachelor/Bachelorette, The X Factor, or Big Brother off the air because they do not promote the "fundamental ideals of American society" like a nuclear family, patriarchal society, or heterosexuality? I suspect, if such a thing were to happen, you would be far more conflicted with your support than you are right now.
I'd love for these crap TV programs to be replaced with more documentaries too, but government should not be the one dictating what is on the airwaves -- it should be the people educating each other and changing what's on the air with their remotes. I can't believe so many on/. are supporting this action considering the past reaction to other proposals for "protecting decency" and "promoting values".
And If you guys read the article, you'd get nice quotes like these:
"Satellite channels have started to broadcast programs that promote traditional virtues and socialist core values," Xinhua on Tuesday cited China's broadcasting regulator as saying.
One does not have to be a member at/. for long to know that if any US politician were to say something similar, he/she would be criticized to hell and back for government overstep.
Also had people read the article, they'd get the larger context:
In October, Mr. Hu warned senior Communist Party leaders that "hostile" foreign forces are seeking to "Westernize" the country. "We should deeply understand the seriousness and complexity of the ideological struggle, always sound the alarms and remain vigilant, and take forceful measures to be on guard and respond," Mr. Hu said, according to the Associated Press.
..which is that the government feels threatened by the "westernization" of the Chinese mind. If anyone in the West were to say something similar regarding Eastern pop culture, or in the US regarding European pop culture, the accusations of xenophobia would be flying all over the place, here especially. Yet, somehow on/., the PRC government not only gets let off the hook, but support as well.
If only they'd get behind a religion of fervent creativity, production, and free dissemination of their collective work. This freeloader image they give off will hurt their cause more than help it.
The Corolla has actually been on the most stolen list for a very long time, only recently relinquishing its top 10 place to alternatives from Honda as they become similarly reliable and popular. In any case, you bring the argument that cheaper is the solution. I think there's a logic in that, but it also reminds me of a common mistake we make in assuming that by fixing one thing we can solve the entire problem. You can reduce the price of software to barely above cost, but the torrented alternative would still be more attractive. The result is an increased reluctance to create software in relatively open ecosystems that have easy to use tools for piracy, and a growing interest towards relatively closed ones like the various platform-specific marketplaces with barriers to piracy that are more difficult to surmount or are less well known to the public. The result is less competition in a common arena as developers both corporate and indie seek a niche to lock in as their own. For this, we can't lay the blame entirely on piracy, but the pressure it exerts on content creators, and the relief offered by these new publishing environments cannot be easily dismissed.
And I apologize for segueing out of the car analogies
Wait, isn't a ballistic trajectory easier to predict and therefore intercept? I mean, the US has anti-mortar guns that shoot shells out of their final free fall. Maybe you meant something other than ballistic? (maybe I'm not reading things correctly this morning?)
China doesn't like to throw around "liberty" because there even a blind man can see the trespasses upon it. If the abuse of the word "freedom" in the US disgusts you, I can assure you that you'd keel over from the abuse of the word "harmony" in China.
Given the choice, I'd almost prefer to live in their world.
Sentiments like this almost makes me wish that China allows naturalization of alien residents, because saying "I told you so" to sinophile foreigners would be a sweet satisfaction. You have no idea of how surreal it feels when you look Chinese, get treated like shit, get asked for id, and then suddenly there's no problem when you pull out your US passport.
If the US is indeed the same as China with regard to censorship, then searching "occupy wall street" would lock you out of google for 10 minutes, message board posts containing the word "Obama" or the name of the incumbent party would be scrubbed within hours if not automatically filtered, text messages with keywords related to OWS would be dropped and never received, and searching "Waco siege" or "Kent State shootings" would bring up only tourist information for the city, and visitor information for the school, to name but only a few.
Americans should be vigilant in protecting their civil liberties, but falling to lies like "the US is just as bad or worse" is not the way to do it.
And before anyone rushes to a conclusion either in support or against Anonymous, I encourage everyone to read past articles by Stratfor on google cache (advanced search, so might trigger captcha)
The fact that so few people on/. know about Stratfor and the depth of insight they provide on international matters is disheartening to say the least, though I shouldn't be surprised given the deterioration of comment quality in the years. I encourage everyone on/. to join their free mailing list when they get back online (use a disposable account if you wish)
Seriously they give far better analysis on issues than 99% of "news" websites.
Military materiel were paid for with taxes and war bonds. Your point would make more sense for Boeing's commercial products (though not completely since even they are partially subsidized). I mean, if the US gets lambasted for a publicly-funded military industrial complex, the least one can do is to give credit where it's due:)
If I were suspicious I'd think they're calling up their old stock and selling them as new (3yr warranty in 2009, 1yr in 2011). If I were cynical I'd think they're calling up their refurb stock and selling them as new. If I were reasonable I'd think they probably already don't have enough to sell, much less replace for free.
Perhaps the oft-expressed "Occam's Razor" is as relevant here as it was in those stories whose uncorroborated evidence pointed to US misdeed (Stuxnet stories for example)? Between Russian interference as suggested by the evidence in this story, and an even more complex US misinformation campaign to damage Russia, which is the more likely? Or is Occam's Razor only relevant to stories whose evidence show the US in a bad light, and coincidentally breaks down for those whose evidence points to an adversary of the US?
This carrier is more about the Spratlys than the US. It poses less of a threat to US carrier fleets than land based anti-ship missiles, and even those are far less of a threat than submarines. No, this isn't directed at the US ala US-Soviet arms build-up, though it will be a good stick-it-to-em card played often by Chinese pundits during US-Korea or US-Japan naval drills. The brilliance you see here is only the same kind of brilliance in having US carrier fleets in the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf. Just protecting national interests -- should neither blame them nor applaud them.
I don't know how the mix-up of patents with copyright in the first sentence didn't trigger mods' troll alarms. Add to that the fact that Chinese patents applications have grown massively in recent years to nearly equal US patent filing rates, making parent's premise entirely wrong.
No, countries on the way up don't view patents as hindrance -- they view patents by established competitors as a hindrance, while patents by them are advantageous and pursued emphatically.
Only responding because 1) conflating Hollywood (copyright) with patents, and 2) disgusting +5 insightful for a post that's pretty much wishful thinking.
That's plausible, but it doesn't seem wise to me to show their hand like this. A hack like this a one-shot deal -- you know the US will switch up protection on the remote link if you reveal this drone capture. If you have the capability to commandeer enemy drones, wouldn't it be more prudent to have it up your sleeve for when you can disable/commandeer an entire fleet coming at you? If the story is indeed true then it seems Iran just traded a serious battlefield advantage for some political one-upmanship. At best this would delay a future drone incursion by a few weeks for the newer firmware to be uploaded.
This story is really strange to me and I have a sinking feeling that what we've seen in the media isn't even close to the entire picture.
Slashdot Mirror
Democracy is the potential for freedom. As the saying goes, "I can only show you the door, but you must walk through it." And even with freedom, there is the choice to turn back or to move forward. Of course, when the alternative sociopolitical systems don't offer even that much, it's not easy to get too angry at democracy's imperfections.
Norton became self-replicating during that time? It may be a shit program, but it's no virus.
I don't understand why many on slashdot are against this. We mock anti-nuclear power alarmists for blowing fears out of proportion, yet here we are saying "Oh no we shouldn't do this because there might be a catastrophe"
Just admit it, you wanted a politics flamewar on /. for some entertainment, and since flamewars are page view magnets the editors happily oblige.
Where is the source to back your claim that it is the same people who "claimed that 'enhanced interrogation' was necessary" who are now saying that "such a confession was [unreliable]"?
It seems you're making the mistake of grouping everyone in the government as one, which is the same error that you seem to want to take issue with when you mock the usage of the word "evil" as a descriptor for Iran.
Your attempt at sarcasm to point out hypocrisy is disingenuous and falsely accusatory by the very fact that you are using the moral positions of two different and unrelated people, i.e. policy makers who support torture, and the GP poster. The fact that your post has been modded so highly "Insightful" indicates either a deeply flawed sense of logic in the /. community, or a childish penchant for ill thought out potshots.
Your post can only be relevant under two circumstances: 1) GP having a history of supporting torture, or 2) Policy makers who support torture now pointing out the unreliability of Hekmati's confession. Neither is true.
Wait, you can't go to a foreign country because you assume they harbor group prejudice? I'd say firstly you need to stop insulting those countries, and give their people some credit (only the ignorant hate people based on nationality), and secondly you need to grow a backbone and realize you are defined by your own personal actions and not by those of your government.
Now why would these shows need to be taken off the air if they weren't popular and the "vast majority of the Chinese people actually don't mind this"? The fact that they needed government interference in order to curb their growth suggests that your premise on the "very fundamental ideals of Chinese society" is wrong, because what people consume in entertainment is a reflection of the evolution of the fundamental ideals of any society.
I'd venture that the traditionalists/conservatives in China don't mind this, but the young people -- those who are and will continue to be the engine for liberalization -- will not. How would you react if Republicans wanted legislation to take The Bachelor/Bachelorette, The X Factor, or Big Brother off the air because they do not promote the "fundamental ideals of American society" like a nuclear family, patriarchal society, or heterosexuality? I suspect, if such a thing were to happen, you would be far more conflicted with your support than you are right now.
I'd love for these crap TV programs to be replaced with more documentaries too, but government should not be the one dictating what is on the airwaves -- it should be the people educating each other and changing what's on the air with their remotes. I can't believe so many on /. are supporting this action considering the past reaction to other proposals for "protecting decency" and "promoting values".
And If you guys read the article, you'd get nice quotes like these:
"Satellite channels have started to broadcast programs that promote traditional virtues and socialist core values," Xinhua on Tuesday cited China's broadcasting regulator as saying.
One does not have to be a member at /. for long to know that if any US politician were to say something similar, he/she would be criticized to hell and back for government overstep.
Also had people read the article, they'd get the larger context:
In October, Mr. Hu warned senior Communist Party leaders that "hostile" foreign forces are seeking to "Westernize" the country. "We should deeply understand the seriousness and complexity of the ideological struggle, always sound the alarms and remain vigilant, and take forceful measures to be on guard and respond," Mr. Hu said, according to the Associated Press.
..which is that the government feels threatened by the "westernization" of the Chinese mind. If anyone in the West were to say something similar regarding Eastern pop culture, or in the US regarding European pop culture, the accusations of xenophobia would be flying all over the place, here especially. Yet, somehow on /., the PRC government not only gets let off the hook, but support as well.
If only they'd get behind a religion of fervent creativity, production, and free dissemination of their collective work. This freeloader image they give off will hurt their cause more than help it.
The Corolla has actually been on the most stolen list for a very long time, only recently relinquishing its top 10 place to alternatives from Honda as they become similarly reliable and popular. In any case, you bring the argument that cheaper is the solution. I think there's a logic in that, but it also reminds me of a common mistake we make in assuming that by fixing one thing we can solve the entire problem. You can reduce the price of software to barely above cost, but the torrented alternative would still be more attractive. The result is an increased reluctance to create software in relatively open ecosystems that have easy to use tools for piracy, and a growing interest towards relatively closed ones like the various platform-specific marketplaces with barriers to piracy that are more difficult to surmount or are less well known to the public. The result is less competition in a common arena as developers both corporate and indie seek a niche to lock in as their own. For this, we can't lay the blame entirely on piracy, but the pressure it exerts on content creators, and the relief offered by these new publishing environments cannot be easily dismissed.
And I apologize for segueing out of the car analogies
Wait, isn't a ballistic trajectory easier to predict and therefore intercept? I mean, the US has anti-mortar guns that shoot shells out of their final free fall. Maybe you meant something other than ballistic? (maybe I'm not reading things correctly this morning?)
Beautiful, and enough technical detail to tickle your engineering bones without boring you to death
Some of the popular heavyweights:
http://archrecord.construction.com/
http://www.architectural-review.com/
http://www.japan-architect.co.jp/en/
http://www.detail.de/rw_3_News_En_Index.htm
http://www.elcroquis.es/Home.aspx?lang=en
China doesn't like to throw around "liberty" because there even a blind man can see the trespasses upon it. If the abuse of the word "freedom" in the US disgusts you, I can assure you that you'd keel over from the abuse of the word "harmony" in China.
Given the choice, I'd almost prefer to live in their world.
Sentiments like this almost makes me wish that China allows naturalization of alien residents, because saying "I told you so" to sinophile foreigners would be a sweet satisfaction. You have no idea of how surreal it feels when you look Chinese, get treated like shit, get asked for id, and then suddenly there's no problem when you pull out your US passport.
If the US is indeed the same as China with regard to censorship, then searching "occupy wall street" would lock you out of google for 10 minutes, message board posts containing the word "Obama" or the name of the incumbent party would be scrubbed within hours if not automatically filtered, text messages with keywords related to OWS would be dropped and never received, and searching "Waco siege" or "Kent State shootings" would bring up only tourist information for the city, and visitor information for the school, to name but only a few.
Americans should be vigilant in protecting their civil liberties, but falling to lies like "the US is just as bad or worse" is not the way to do it.
And before anyone rushes to a conclusion either in support or against Anonymous, I encourage everyone to read past articles by Stratfor on google cache (advanced search, so might trigger captcha)
The fact that so few people on /. know about Stratfor and the depth of insight they provide on international matters is disheartening to say the least, though I shouldn't be surprised given the deterioration of comment quality in the years. I encourage everyone on /. to join their free mailing list when they get back online (use a disposable account if you wish)
Seriously they give far better analysis on issues than 99% of "news" websites.
Military materiel were paid for with taxes and war bonds. Your point would make more sense for Boeing's commercial products (though not completely since even they are partially subsidized). I mean, if the US gets lambasted for a publicly-funded military industrial complex, the least one can do is to give credit where it's due :)
Seems like they jack up just so they end in nice looking retail figure after rebate. Of course we shouldn't be surprised.
If I were suspicious I'd think they're calling up their old stock and selling them as new (3yr warranty in 2009, 1yr in 2011).
If I were cynical I'd think they're calling up their refurb stock and selling them as new.
If I were reasonable I'd think they probably already don't have enough to sell, much less replace for free.
Perhaps the oft-expressed "Occam's Razor" is as relevant here as it was in those stories whose uncorroborated evidence pointed to US misdeed (Stuxnet stories for example)? Between Russian interference as suggested by the evidence in this story, and an even more complex US misinformation campaign to damage Russia, which is the more likely? Or is Occam's Razor only relevant to stories whose evidence show the US in a bad light, and coincidentally breaks down for those whose evidence points to an adversary of the US?
This carrier is more about the Spratlys than the US. It poses less of a threat to US carrier fleets than land based anti-ship missiles, and even those are far less of a threat than submarines. No, this isn't directed at the US ala US-Soviet arms build-up, though it will be a good stick-it-to-em card played often by Chinese pundits during US-Korea or US-Japan naval drills. The brilliance you see here is only the same kind of brilliance in having US carrier fleets in the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf. Just protecting national interests -- should neither blame them nor applaud them.
The Amish?
I don't know how the mix-up of patents with copyright in the first sentence didn't trigger mods' troll alarms. Add to that the fact that Chinese patents applications have grown massively in recent years to nearly equal US patent filing rates, making parent's premise entirely wrong.
No, countries on the way up don't view patents as hindrance -- they view patents by established competitors as a hindrance, while patents by them are advantageous and pursued emphatically.
Only responding because 1) conflating Hollywood (copyright) with patents, and 2) disgusting +5 insightful for a post that's pretty much wishful thinking.
That's plausible, but it doesn't seem wise to me to show their hand like this. A hack like this a one-shot deal -- you know the US will switch up protection on the remote link if you reveal this drone capture. If you have the capability to commandeer enemy drones, wouldn't it be more prudent to have it up your sleeve for when you can disable/commandeer an entire fleet coming at you? If the story is indeed true then it seems Iran just traded a serious battlefield advantage for some political one-upmanship. At best this would delay a future drone incursion by a few weeks for the newer firmware to be uploaded.
This story is really strange to me and I have a sinking feeling that what we've seen in the media isn't even close to the entire picture.