It's interesting to see just how much our society has changed with the advent of modern medicine. 150-200 years ago many many many babies were still dying in child birth or young children were dying from disease. Death was common place, thus there wasn't a huge uproar when it occured. Today, we've found ways to remove ourselves from death as much as possible through antibiotics, modern surgical techniques and doing things like pasturizing milk. The unintended consequence of this advancement has become a society that is absolutely mortified of death. We think we can outrun, outsmart or create technology to put off the inevitable but the reality is we can't.
In all actuality, in the scheme of humanity, the shuttle disasters should not be catastrophic. Shit happens. It's sad and it's terrible but bad things happen all the time. I think that if space exploration is going to ever take off, we're going to have to accept that there will be a "wild-west" era where things are very dangerous and many many people die. Too bad we [the united states] is a litigious society full of people looking to get rich quick. For crists sake, the astronauts know what kind of risk they are taking; to quote Kevin Smith from the Donnie Darko Director's Cut director track [I know he's not the director he's part of the commentary] "You need an acceptable level of insanity".
Re:Why not in America?
on
Gamer Nation
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· Score: 1
Hence I made the distinction between universal and individual heroes. From the perspective of an individual child, any one person can be a hero; there are no prerequistes for this but on a national level the head game designers at Blizzard will never attain the iconic status that say Lance Armstrong has attained, just not how our society works [even if some game designer came back from the brink of death because of cancer...he'd be a survivor but he'd never become an icon]. My post was never an attempt to undermine the importance of technology, I'm just saying that I doubt the long term validity of professional gaming leagues...
Re:Why not in America?
on
Gamer Nation
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· Score: 1
Yeah that very well may be the case, I can't even get in to video games anymore [mid-20's]. Rather go surfing or running or hang out with friends etc so I can only draw on my own experiences playing a MUD and Warcraft 2. Although all the playing was online, I was playing with people in other parts of the world...life is give and take and to be honest I'm happy with who I am today even though I allowed myself to be derailed for a bit.
I'm glad to see that technology is allowing for greater integration of the social experience...last I checked there still arn't many females in the arena but maybe that's changed too.
Re:Why not in America?
on
Gamer Nation
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· Score: 1
How can Americans expect their youth to become the next rising stars in the technology/gaming entertainment market when the common protocols are outdated and the new ones are usually too expensive?
Simply we put, we can't but we have no desire to be that way either. The fact is, the United States has a fundamentally different value system; we place an emphasis on things such as athletic prowess not video game aptitude. I'm sure/. readers would love to see a change in that convention but too much of this countries legacy is built around athletic ability. Our heroes [our in the collective united states sense not an individual sense] are men like Lance Armstrong and Michael Jordan; not Bill Gates and his ilk. If that's what you want, move to Korea but it's just not in line with our ethos and I for one do not see it changing anytime soon; but maybe I'm wrong...wouldn't be the first nor the last.
Besides, I personally don't have any desire to see this change occur here; video games are an anti-social experience. Disagree all you want but I regret spending my high school playing games online instead of being out socializing with people my age. Life is a series of trade-offs and if I have to choose between putting my kids in to sports camps and video game camps there really isn't any question to which I'll choose. Video games made me fat and lazy, athletics built confidence and put me in a siutation where I was actively socializing with people my age. Maybe I'm not the norm, but those are my experiences. (And I'm no longer fat & lazy, but at 5'9'' I weighed 245 lbs my junior year of high school, that's fucking pathetic).
Are you sure your name isn't chicken little, because it sounds like you think the sky is falling.
Ok, so that joke isn't funny, it's a stupid troll but I think you're taking things a little too far. Could the scenerio you've depicted occur? Sure could, will it occur? In my mind, it is highly unlikely. Things are never as bad as the cynics say and never as good as the optimists believe; besides governments are becoming less and less important in the world. If anything, I see this technology being used to improve targetted advertising; afterall everything in American society goes back to making dollars. Having a police force keeping people "in line" would be a waste of money.
Remember this is slashdot, therefore everything must be in some way related to some Science Fiction franchise; god forbid it be a scientific discovery in its own right.
Personally, I'd like to take this moment to say that Star Wars is terrible Science Fiction, oh wait it's Fantasy not Science Fiction but it's still terrible. The characters do not grow, the writing is sophmoric but it's one hell of a business franchise...kudos to Lucas for making his money [I'm a capitalist pig so I can't help but admire other capitalist pigs].
Does anyone have a website or contact information for this watchdog group? As a citizen of the United States I'd like to drop them a little letter suggesting they start addressing the real issues at hand and stop looking for a scapegoat. All they are doing is sensationalizing things in order to force their perspective on people; the real tragedy is that the people they are trying to protect, the children, are being forgotten...anyone else find this somewhat reminiscent of South Park Bigger Longer & Uncut? Blame Canada folks, it'll make it ALL better.
Wrong. Censorship and prohibition does not work. Particularly given the nature of the internet today, this is an absurd statement. We have more access to sex today then ever; the only solution would be revamping the education system.
The very unfortante downside is there is an entire generation that for the most part cannot be helped. It's not a pretty picture to say the least and America doesn't seem very interested in dealing with it at the moment we just like to gild the lily and act like we're trying to improve education.
Censorship is a waste of time, it just encourages people to explore "taboo" subjects and teens having sex is as old as humanity itself. People [I'm not attempting to troll here when I say people just making a generalized statement] need to get off their soapboxes and start dealing with the real issues. Video Games are not the problem they are just an easy target for short sited morons.
More over, I doubt the machine can play with any soul. It's our imperfection that allows for a beautiful and unique sound, not our perfection...then again I'm not a guitar player so maybe I'm romanticising things a bit [it's too fucking early in the morning for me to care about spelling shit right.]
I view it as a covering their ass situation; Blizzard does not want to stop getting your monthly 15.95 or whatever it is but if they condone account selling then they become liable for fradulant account sales; this way if you get burned on a transaction Blizzard can go 'we told you not to do that, it's not our problem' while still keeping accounts active that would otherwise get closed down.
The initial designation of the software has changed, big deal. If Microsoft made it so I couldn't set it to remove/quarentine, then I'd have a real problem with this but nothing has really changed. I am still able to remove that piece of shit software, although that hasn't been a problem for me because I don't get spyware.
Sometimes the initial/. response to this sort of MS stuff is acceptable but it has become a knee-jerk reaction and it's old.
For those of you interested in a great laugh, and to you mod's out there I realize this is off-topic but I just can't resist, here are the lyrics from the Tool song Eulogy. I have heard it was about L. Ron Hubbard, although I can verify that; read the lyrics and it seems applicable to many many things...
Eulogy
He had alot to say. He had alot of nothing to say. We'll miss him. (2x) We're gonna miss him (2x)
So long. We wish you well. You told us how you weren't afraid to die. Well then, so long. Don't cry. Or feel too down. Not all martyrs see divinity. But at least you tried.
Standing above the crowd, He had a voice that was strong and loud. We'll miss him. (2x) Ranting and pointing his finger At everything but his heart. We'll miss him. (2x) We're gonna miss him (2x)
No way to recall What it was that you had said to me, Like I care at all.
But it was so loud. You sure could yell. You took a stand on every little thing And so loud.
Standing above the crowd, He had a voice so strong and loud and i Swallowed his facade cuz I'm so Eager to identify with Someone above the ground, Someone who seemed to feel the same, Someone prepared to lead the way, with Someone who would die for me.
Will you? Will you now? Would you die for me? Don't you fuckin' lie.
Don't you step out of line. (3x) Don't you fuckin' lie.
You've claimed all this time that you would die for me. Why then are you so surprised when you hear your own eulogy?
You had alot to say. You had alot of nothing to say.
Come down. Get off your fuckin cross. We need the fuckin' space to nail the next fool martyr.
To ascend you must die. You must be crucified For your sins and your lies. [sic] Goodbye...
First let me say, I agree with your stance on unauthorized copyright violation and that I also agree that "term" piracy has been hijacked by RIAA/MPAA etc for their own ends BUT and this is a very big but just because the term was hijacked does not mean that its current definition is invalid. Languages are living entities, they evolve and devolve based on the circumstances of the societys using them. The standard meaning of words often change over time, because of this the definition provided is still valid.
Anyways, I'm pleased the RIAA is at least making a stab, even if it is a poor one, at joining the internet revolution [I mean Gore only invented it nine years ago!]. It's not perfect and lots needs to be done but the sky is not falling:)
If we're lucky, this will be the downfall of DoubleClick. Unfortantely, someone will just come up with an innovation that prevents the ads from being blocked through the current methods; in turn the ad blockers will be modified to block this new content...continue ad naseum.
I predict that advertising on the internet will continue as always. Maybe the system will look different but I don't forsee the end of "free internet". We shall see...
Personally, I don't give a rats ass about voice acting in video games. In most games I play, I have the sound turned down because listening to the same redundant soundtracks over and over again drives me insane. For me, video games are all about the story and voice acting DOES NOT IMPROVE STORY. Besides, half the time they talk too fucking slow. I can read a hell of a lot faster than they can talk and I don't like getting bogged down by some slow-reading voice actor [I know if the actor reads slow it's because of the script probably but you get the point]. Throw on the subtitles, put some music on I really want to listen to and I'm golden.
Voice Actors in Video Games are sorta like NHL Players...don't let the door hit you on the way out!
IANAA [I am not an anything] but it seems to me that the human body already comes with a programming language that has four unique identifiers aka DNA. I'm sure people are already exploring this but I have always seen similarities between how computers encode information {0,1 ad naseum} and the way that our bodies encodes information {Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine and Guanine}.
Personally, I do not think it's too far fetched to think that our DNA is just an elaborate programming language. Whether we're talking Assembly level or C level, who knows but once we're able to crack the genome and REALLY understand how these four "bases" [Let me reiterate, I graduated with a degree in philosophy so I'm blowing smoke out my rear atm] interact with each other it *MAY* become possible to manipulate the human body to produce these things on its own to avoid rejection. I know it's probably a long shot and there are probably an assortment of reasons why this would never work but I've always enjoyed playing with the implications of DNA being similar to a programming language and the power inherent to systems that can be manipulated at a foundational level.
Heheh this is OT, so feel free to MOD as such but it reminded me of my buddy who grows ganja. Over the past five years he's gotten quite good at making plants grow much larger than normal...it's hilarious.
Re:Take THAT, space science nay-sayers!
on
Glass In Spaaaaace
·
· Score: 1
I'm not a physicist but if my high physics memory is still working, you can achieve acceleration by changing direction so if you found a way to change direction at the right speed couldn't you create a psuedo-microgravity environment?
Slashdot isn't a popularity contest. I don't care if I get modded down, my karma is still solid. Even if my karma does hit the tank because I posted things against the grain that's fine by me. Some people are going to be douche bags and tee-up on certain topics [I'm well versed in this because I usually end up defending aspects of microsoft which is more dangerous than anything apple related on here], but I find *MOST* slashdot users do not subscribe to "slashthink" they just avoid getting in to stupid penis measuring contests hence go unnoticed.
I agree with removing the AC. There are few very situations that I can think of where I understand why a person would post something that is non-inflamatory through as an AC. You can read shit without registration but if you want to post you should be culpable...just my two cents worth.
See, I don't really agree that pollution is bad in a global sense. Can/Will it kill human life? Yeah sure, may kill a lot of other organic life? Yep sure will. Will pollution ultimately kill life on this planet? I think not...
Slashdot Mirror
It's interesting to see just how much our society has changed with the advent of modern medicine. 150-200 years ago many many many babies were still dying in child birth or young children were dying from disease. Death was common place, thus there wasn't a huge uproar when it occured. Today, we've found ways to remove ourselves from death as much as possible through antibiotics, modern surgical techniques and doing things like pasturizing milk. The unintended consequence of this advancement has become a society that is absolutely mortified of death. We think we can outrun, outsmart or create technology to put off the inevitable but the reality is we can't.
In all actuality, in the scheme of humanity, the shuttle disasters should not be catastrophic. Shit happens. It's sad and it's terrible but bad things happen all the time. I think that if space exploration is going to ever take off, we're going to have to accept that there will be a "wild-west" era where things are very dangerous and many many people die. Too bad we [the united states] is a litigious society full of people looking to get rich quick. For crists sake, the astronauts know what kind of risk they are taking; to quote Kevin Smith from the Donnie Darko Director's Cut director track [I know he's not the director he's part of the commentary] "You need an acceptable level of insanity".
Hence I made the distinction between universal and individual heroes. From the perspective of an individual child, any one person can be a hero; there are no prerequistes for this but on a national level the head game designers at Blizzard will never attain the iconic status that say Lance Armstrong has attained, just not how our society works [even if some game designer came back from the brink of death because of cancer...he'd be a survivor but he'd never become an icon]. My post was never an attempt to undermine the importance of technology, I'm just saying that I doubt the long term validity of professional gaming leagues...
Yeah that very well may be the case, I can't even get in to video games anymore [mid-20's]. Rather go surfing or running or hang out with friends etc so I can only draw on my own experiences playing a MUD and Warcraft 2. Although all the playing was online, I was playing with people in other parts of the world...life is give and take and to be honest I'm happy with who I am today even though I allowed myself to be derailed for a bit.
I'm glad to see that technology is allowing for greater integration of the social experience...last I checked there still arn't many females in the arena but maybe that's changed too.
How can Americans expect their youth to become the next rising stars in the technology/gaming entertainment market when the common protocols are outdated and the new ones are usually too expensive?
/. readers would love to see a change in that convention but too much of this countries legacy is built around athletic ability. Our heroes [our in the collective united states sense not an individual sense] are men like Lance Armstrong and Michael Jordan; not Bill Gates and his ilk. If that's what you want, move to Korea but it's just not in line with our ethos and I for one do not see it changing anytime soon; but maybe I'm wrong...wouldn't be the first nor the last.
Simply we put, we can't but we have no desire to be that way either. The fact is, the United States has a fundamentally different value system; we place an emphasis on things such as athletic prowess not video game aptitude. I'm sure
Besides, I personally don't have any desire to see this change occur here; video games are an anti-social experience. Disagree all you want but I regret spending my high school playing games online instead of being out socializing with people my age. Life is a series of trade-offs and if I have to choose between putting my kids in to sports camps and video game camps there really isn't any question to which I'll choose. Video games made me fat and lazy, athletics built confidence and put me in a siutation where I was actively socializing with people my age. Maybe I'm not the norm, but those are my experiences.
(And I'm no longer fat & lazy, but at 5'9'' I weighed 245 lbs my junior year of high school, that's fucking pathetic).
Are you sure your name isn't chicken little, because it sounds like you think the sky is falling.
Ok, so that joke isn't funny, it's a stupid troll but I think you're taking things a little too far. Could the scenerio you've depicted occur? Sure could, will it occur? In my mind, it is highly unlikely. Things are never as bad as the cynics say and never as good as the optimists believe; besides governments are becoming less and less important in the world. If anything, I see this technology being used to improve targetted advertising; afterall everything in American society goes back to making dollars. Having a police force keeping people "in line" would be a waste of money.
Personally, I don't find anything addictive about the game. I log on for maybe two hours a week, screw around and log off.
Granted, I played a mud for 9 years and dealt with its addiction and I think I'm just sorta over it.
Remember this is slashdot, therefore everything must be in some way related to some Science Fiction franchise; god forbid it be a scientific discovery in its own right.
Personally, I'd like to take this moment to say that Star Wars is terrible Science Fiction, oh wait it's Fantasy not Science Fiction but it's still terrible. The characters do not grow, the writing is sophmoric but it's one hell of a business franchise...kudos to Lucas for making his money [I'm a capitalist pig so I can't help but admire other capitalist pigs].
Does anyone have a website or contact information for this watchdog group? As a citizen of the United States I'd like to drop them a little letter suggesting they start addressing the real issues at hand and stop looking for a scapegoat. All they are doing is sensationalizing things in order to force their perspective on people; the real tragedy is that the people they are trying to protect, the children, are being forgotten...anyone else find this somewhat reminiscent of South Park Bigger Longer & Uncut? Blame Canada folks, it'll make it ALL better.
Wrong. Censorship and prohibition does not work. Particularly given the nature of the internet today, this is an absurd statement. We have more access to sex today then ever; the only solution would be revamping the education system.
The very unfortante downside is there is an entire generation that for the most part cannot be helped. It's not a pretty picture to say the least and America doesn't seem very interested in dealing with it at the moment we just like to gild the lily and act like we're trying to improve education.
Censorship is a waste of time, it just encourages people to explore "taboo" subjects and teens having sex is as old as humanity itself. People [I'm not attempting to troll here when I say people just making a generalized statement] need to get off their soapboxes and start dealing with the real issues. Video Games are not the problem they are just an easy target for short sited morons.
More over, I doubt the machine can play with any soul. It's our imperfection that allows for a beautiful and unique sound, not our perfection...then again I'm not a guitar player so maybe I'm romanticising things a bit [it's too fucking early in the morning for me to care about spelling shit right.]
I view it as a covering their ass situation; Blizzard does not want to stop getting your monthly 15.95 or whatever it is but if they condone account selling then they become liable for fradulant account sales; this way if you get burned on a transaction Blizzard can go 'we told you not to do that, it's not our problem' while still keeping accounts active that would otherwise get closed down.
The initial designation of the software has changed, big deal. If Microsoft made it so I couldn't set it to remove/quarentine, then I'd have a real problem with this but nothing has really changed. I am still able to remove that piece of shit software, although that hasn't been a problem for me because I don't get spyware.
/. response to this sort of MS stuff is acceptable but it has become a knee-jerk reaction and it's old.
Sometimes the initial
For those of you interested in a great laugh, and to you mod's out there I realize this is off-topic but I just can't resist, here are the lyrics from the Tool song Eulogy. I have heard it was about L. Ron Hubbard, although I can verify that; read the lyrics and it seems applicable to many many things...
Eulogy
He had alot to say.
He had alot of nothing to say.
We'll miss him. (2x)
We're gonna miss him (2x)
So long.
We wish you well.
You told us how you weren't afraid to die.
Well then, so long.
Don't cry.
Or feel too down.
Not all martyrs see divinity.
But at least you tried.
Standing above the crowd,
He had a voice that was strong and loud.
We'll miss him. (2x)
Ranting and pointing his finger
At everything but his heart.
We'll miss him. (2x)
We're gonna miss him (2x)
No way to recall
What it was that you had said to me,
Like I care at all.
But it was so loud.
You sure could yell.
You took a stand on every little thing
And so loud.
Standing above the crowd,
He had a voice so strong and loud and i
Swallowed his facade cuz I'm so
Eager to identify with
Someone above the ground,
Someone who seemed to feel the same,
Someone prepared to lead the way, with
Someone who would die for me.
Will you?
Will you now?
Would you die for me?
Don't you fuckin' lie.
Don't you step out of line. (3x)
Don't you fuckin' lie.
You've claimed all this time that you would die for me.
Why then are you so surprised when you hear your own eulogy?
You had alot to say.
You had alot of nothing to say.
Come down.
Get off your fuckin cross.
We need the fuckin' space to nail the next fool martyr.
To ascend you must die.
You must be crucified
For your sins and your lies. [sic]
Goodbye...
Is this the one where the guy runs in and gets his entire group wiped out because he was AFK?
At work and the shit is blocked by websense...BigBrother is watching, oh hi!
First let me say, I agree with your stance on unauthorized copyright violation and that I also agree that "term" piracy has been hijacked by RIAA/MPAA etc for their own ends BUT and this is a very big but just because the term was hijacked does not mean that its current definition is invalid. Languages are living entities, they evolve and devolve based on the circumstances of the societys using them. The standard meaning of words often change over time, because of this the definition provided is still valid.
Languages can't stay static.
Alright Chicken Little...sorry obligatory troll.
:)
Anyways, I'm pleased the RIAA is at least making a stab, even if it is a poor one, at joining the internet revolution [I mean Gore only invented it nine years ago!]. It's not perfect and lots needs to be done but the sky is not falling
If we're lucky, this will be the downfall of DoubleClick. Unfortantely, someone will just come up with an innovation that prevents the ads from being blocked through the current methods; in turn the ad blockers will be modified to block this new content...continue ad naseum.
I predict that advertising on the internet will continue as always. Maybe the system will look different but I don't forsee the end of "free internet". We shall see...
Personally, I don't give a rats ass about voice acting in video games. In most games I play, I have the sound turned down because listening to the same redundant soundtracks over and over again drives me insane. For me, video games are all about the story and voice acting DOES NOT IMPROVE STORY. Besides, half the time they talk too fucking slow. I can read a hell of a lot faster than they can talk and I don't like getting bogged down by some slow-reading voice actor [I know if the actor reads slow it's because of the script probably but you get the point]. Throw on the subtitles, put some music on I really want to listen to and I'm golden.
Voice Actors in Video Games are sorta like NHL Players...don't let the door hit you on the way out!
IANAA [I am not an anything] but it seems to me that the human body already comes with a programming language that has four unique identifiers aka DNA. I'm sure people are already exploring this but I have always seen similarities between how computers encode information {0,1 ad naseum} and the way that our bodies encodes information {Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine and Guanine}.
Personally, I do not think it's too far fetched to think that our DNA is just an elaborate programming language. Whether we're talking Assembly level or C level, who knows but once we're able to crack the genome and REALLY understand how these four "bases" [Let me reiterate, I graduated with a degree in philosophy so I'm blowing smoke out my rear atm] interact with each other it *MAY* become possible to manipulate the human body to produce these things on its own to avoid rejection. I know it's probably a long shot and there are probably an assortment of reasons why this would never work but I've always enjoyed playing with the implications of DNA being similar to a programming language and the power inherent to systems that can be manipulated at a foundational level.
Heheh this is OT, so feel free to MOD as such but it reminded me of my buddy who grows ganja. Over the past five years he's gotten quite good at making plants grow much larger than normal...it's hilarious.
I'm not a physicist but if my high physics memory is still working, you can achieve acceleration by changing direction so if you found a way to change direction at the right speed couldn't you create a psuedo-microgravity environment?
Slashdot isn't a popularity contest. I don't care if I get modded down, my karma is still solid. Even if my karma does hit the tank because I posted things against the grain that's fine by me. Some people are going to be douche bags and tee-up on certain topics [I'm well versed in this because I usually end up defending aspects of microsoft which is more dangerous than anything apple related on here], but I find *MOST* slashdot users do not subscribe to "slashthink" they just avoid getting in to stupid penis measuring contests hence go unnoticed.
I seriously doubt that vat-grown steak can cause your liver to fail like the mystery meats over at McDonald's...anyday of the week in my book :)
I agree with removing the AC. There are few very situations that I can think of where I understand why a person would post something that is non-inflamatory through as an AC. You can read shit without registration but if you want to post you should be culpable...just my two cents worth.
See, I don't really agree that pollution is bad in a global sense. Can/Will it kill human life? Yeah sure, may kill a lot of other organic life? Yep sure will. Will pollution ultimately kill life on this planet? I think not...