Are you the same person who posted this at MacRumors? Well, regardless, I liked it there and I like it here. It still amazes me that some people just don't get the humor, and are actually offended by it.
Look, if there's something to be said about the study being talked about here, then say it, but there's no need to start bringing in straw men, putting words in your opponents' mouths.
"The big lie works well here, keep repeating it, getting it into newspapers, internet chain letters, and voila!"
Some might say that's exactly what the PR machines employed by those big nasty corporations do.
I might agree with you about fast food, though I think people talking about it is at least a good thing; many people really do think it's healthy, normal human food. It isn't.
But the pharmaceutical companies - there really is a lot of fetid, rotting greed in that whole industry. I don't know about the cell phone companies. I doubt they're actively covering up research that they've already done about these things, like the tobacco companies were and the big pharmas do. That's the real evil - when you've come up with a product that you knowwill have significat adverse affects for significant numbers of people, yet you proceed with it anyway because, hey, you're entitled to at least recoup your investments, if not make a profit.
Why is that ironic? Outlook is a big do-everything program. Outlook Express just reads email (& newsgroups). Thunderbird competes with Outlook Express, if anything.
But HTML email *is* simple, except where programs like Thunderbird make it difficult. It must be pretty simple, my mom uses it all the time. *shudder*
In fact, in a way, HTML email is simpler than plain text, because plain text email just confuses people as to why they can type in different styles in other programs like Word, but not in their email. HTML email allows them to do what they expect to be able to do.
I never thought I'd be defending HTML email, but there you go.
Lord forgive me for simply posting a "Mod Parent Up" post, but at this point all I can really do is second everything RedBear just said. 100% beyond my utopia, full stop!!
I meant what I said, but not in a "Yogi Berra" way. Significant does not mean the same as important. Think "significantly different" as in statistics. Just because an apple is significantly different from an orange does not make it very important if you're looking for lettuce to make a salad.
Well, I would say that detrimental environmental policies are another thing greatly influenced by the larger issues of imperialism and corporatism. Environmental policy might be greatly helped by a simple revoking of corporate personhood, for example.
The anonymous coward who responded to you about approaching peak oil has a point - when it happens, it may well trump all else. But at the moment, the policies that would help us prepare for it, or stave it off, or make it irrelevant, or conversely make it a million times worse, are dependent on our marriage to imperialism and corporatism.
To overly simplify things, Islamic terrorism stems from the struggle in the Islamic world between a tendency towards historical medieval fundamentalist ideologies, and those who are looking for their place in the modernized, more open and sometimes secular world.
The same thing is going on in the Western world.
In both cases, imperialism and corporatism are at the very least setting bad examples, and at the very worst encouraging ignorance, superstition and war for feudal-style fun and profit.
The West does not lie at the center, but it is also not completely separate.
There are a lot of significant differences, but few of them are actually important. For example, though I supported Kerry, Kerry's presidency would have simply been a kinder, gentler version of the same stuff Bush's administration is doing. Some environmental and labor policy would change, but the two greatest fundamental issues facing America and the world in the 21st century would not have gone away. The spotlight on them would merely have dimmed.
1) Western imperialism (dare I say American imperialism?), of which terrorism is merely a facet.
2) The rise of and lack of limits on corporate power - of which terrorism is also a facet.
If we could honestly deal with these two issues, which are fast becoming one and the same due to corporate power influencing governments (and therefore imperialist policies), many other problems would become more manageable, and some might even disappear.
This is why im really happy about the Battlestar galactica series comming this new year... Gritty, realistic, and hopefully... above all else... not more episodal space opera campy bullsh*t.
A series, huh? Unless it's been entirely pre-plotted like Babylon 5, it's highly likely that it, too, will be episodal. And just because something is "gritty" and "realistic" (the realism of "gritty" sci-fi is highly debatable) doesn't proclude it from being "campy" "space opera". In fact, I would say at this point in time even the grittiest, most realistic sci-fi is bound to be campy and space-opera-ish if done as a television series, especially if done on the sci-fi channel. Gritty and realistic is now a cliche, too. It's all the same dreck.
Sci-fi belongs in books, and possibly movies or miniseries. Television demands characters that don't change, in a universe not too unrecognizable, and with the same old storylines about human interaction and peace/war. That said, I can enjoy a good cliche'd sci-fi TV series (gritty or not) since I expect little more than that.
Um, no. I don't know what city you're talking about, but here in New York the city was *not* designed for living where you work and walking to work. There are apartments everywhere, but the ones in Downtown and Midtown are very expensive, and the more livable ones are all in bulk areas farther away from the main work areas. Chances are most people work in either midtown or downtown, and then live somewhere in upper Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn or the Bronx. Nobody lives in Staten Island.
I'd love transit-oriented development, but it didn't happen here. Trains (at least) are a must, unless you're lucky enough to live at least 45 minutes walking distance from where you work - and even that's stretching it... who wants to walk 45 minutes to and from work every day when the train is right there?
Also, CNN is almost as bad as FOX these days. I don't know what anybody means when they say any of the major news networks are "liberal". They're corporate is what they are.
And yes, the first sentence was intended as a joke. The second bit wasn't.
It's about voter confidence, which is why a good number of people don't vote in the first place.
It doesn't even have to be electronic - my wife tried to vote in 2000 but her registration hadn't gone through. IN 2002 she had registered again, and it still wasn't processed - luckily she was able to do a provisional ballot. This time around it went through, but how many people don't keep trying? This specific problem is probably a local issue with the NY board of elections, but my point is just that things like this make a person not even want to vote; it gives the impression that her vote is not wanted and not important.
No, it's not the music store. iPod was popular before the music store. It's iTunes itself. The killer app for organizing your music. Nobody does it better or simpler. iPod sales went up when iTunes hit Windows, didn't they?
Well, all I have is a 1GHz iBook, and my gf has a 1.6 GHz PC notebook. So if I were to buy a new machine to play Doom 3, I may as well get a PC since the Mac requirements look pretty steep. And with the PC I'd be albe to play Half-Life 2 (and many other games), too.
I've fallen in love with Apple lately (well, OS X), but there's really no point in using Macs for games.
I'd mention the XBox 2, but I'd miss the keyboard/mouse combo for shooters, and if I'm going to shell out for a gaming machine next year or so, I may as well pay a few more for a full PC (shuttle/miniatx-sized) that can play more games I already own from before I got my iBook...
Anyone know of any progress on getting Thunderbird to access the built-in OS X address book? That's the main thing keeping me on Mail.app for the time being.
Maybe, but my god, what a way to disrespect America's voters!
From the submitter:
So it is over, and without a lot of extra fuss and recounts
Yeah, the pesky fuss of counting all the votes and making sure there were no shenanigans. We don't care much for that here in America. In fact, voting itself is such a nuisance. Distracts from work. Let's just get rid of it altogether.
Man, I'm gonna keep insisting that Diebold screwed America over until it's proven they didn't.
At least this way Bush has to deal with his own problems. People, are you listening? As things get worse and worse for the next four years, and America turns further into a Banana Republic... well, maybe the Democratic Party will be up to winning next time, and not being a sack of ineffective asses.
I would contend that free markets do not exist, but that is a discussion for another day.
What I want to address is your statement that the "right question" is "How little of my money can we get away with the government getting" - I think that is ignorant and short-sighted.
The real "right question" is, how do we forge policies that ensure a strong nation, broad prosperity, and effective government? We're all in this together - it isn't just about you and your money. Focusing soley on the money spent is the wrong way to approach your participation in civil society.
Perhaps he wasn't referring to business activity in general when he said "american corporations hold us back." Or, maybe he was. But I would agree with his specific statement. I would even shorten it to "corporations hold us back." They used to be non-entities under the law, and they used to be required to be doing something that would benefit the public. Now they have numerous rights and protections, and have no responsibilities to the society that holds them up. Maybe some of their evolution has been progress, but overall I think corporate law needs a lot of reform.
Slashdot Mirror
Are you the same person who posted this at MacRumors? Well, regardless, I liked it there and I like it here. It still amazes me that some people just don't get the humor, and are actually offended by it.
Look, if there's something to be said about the study being talked about here, then say it, but there's no need to start bringing in straw men, putting words in your opponents' mouths.
"The big lie works well here, keep repeating it, getting it into newspapers, internet chain letters, and voila!"
Some might say that's exactly what the PR machines employed by those big nasty corporations do.
I might agree with you about fast food, though I think people talking about it is at least a good thing; many people really do think it's healthy, normal human food. It isn't.
But the pharmaceutical companies - there really is a lot of fetid, rotting greed in that whole industry. I don't know about the cell phone companies. I doubt they're actively covering up research that they've already done about these things, like the tobacco companies were and the big pharmas do. That's the real evil - when you've come up with a product that you know will have significat adverse affects for significant numbers of people, yet you proceed with it anyway because, hey, you're entitled to at least recoup your investments, if not make a profit.
Really?!??!
Why is that ironic? Outlook is a big do-everything program. Outlook Express just reads email (& newsgroups). Thunderbird competes with Outlook Express, if anything.
But HTML email *is* simple, except where programs like Thunderbird make it difficult. It must be pretty simple, my mom uses it all the time. *shudder*
In fact, in a way, HTML email is simpler than plain text, because plain text email just confuses people as to why they can type in different styles in other programs like Word, but not in their email. HTML email allows them to do what they expect to be able to do.
I never thought I'd be defending HTML email, but there you go.
Lord forgive me for simply posting a "Mod Parent Up" post, but at this point all I can really do is second everything RedBear just said. 100% beyond my utopia, full stop!!
I meant what I said, but not in a "Yogi Berra" way. Significant does not mean the same as important. Think "significantly different" as in statistics. Just because an apple is significantly different from an orange does not make it very important if you're looking for lettuce to make a salad.
Well, I would say that detrimental environmental policies are another thing greatly influenced by the larger issues of imperialism and corporatism. Environmental policy might be greatly helped by a simple revoking of corporate personhood, for example.
The anonymous coward who responded to you about approaching peak oil has a point - when it happens, it may well trump all else. But at the moment, the policies that would help us prepare for it, or stave it off, or make it irrelevant, or conversely make it a million times worse, are dependent on our marriage to imperialism and corporatism.
Didn't say it did. I think you misunderstood me.
To overly simplify things, Islamic terrorism stems from the struggle in the Islamic world between a tendency towards historical medieval fundamentalist ideologies, and those who are looking for their place in the modernized, more open and sometimes secular world.
The same thing is going on in the Western world.
In both cases, imperialism and corporatism are at the very least setting bad examples, and at the very worst encouraging ignorance, superstition and war for feudal-style fun and profit.
The West does not lie at the center, but it is also not completely separate.
There are a lot of significant differences, but few of them are actually important. For example, though I supported Kerry, Kerry's presidency would have simply been a kinder, gentler version of the same stuff Bush's administration is doing. Some environmental and labor policy would change, but the two greatest fundamental issues facing America and the world in the 21st century would not have gone away. The spotlight on them would merely have dimmed.
1) Western imperialism (dare I say American imperialism?), of which terrorism is merely a facet.
2) The rise of and lack of limits on corporate power - of which terrorism is also a facet.
If we could honestly deal with these two issues, which are fast becoming one and the same due to corporate power influencing governments (and therefore imperialist policies), many other problems would become more manageable, and some might even disappear.
A series, huh? Unless it's been entirely pre-plotted like Babylon 5, it's highly likely that it, too, will be episodal. And just because something is "gritty" and "realistic" (the realism of "gritty" sci-fi is highly debatable) doesn't proclude it from being "campy" "space opera". In fact, I would say at this point in time even the grittiest, most realistic sci-fi is bound to be campy and space-opera-ish if done as a television series, especially if done on the sci-fi channel. Gritty and realistic is now a cliche, too. It's all the same dreck.
Sci-fi belongs in books, and possibly movies or miniseries. Television demands characters that don't change, in a universe not too unrecognizable, and with the same old storylines about human interaction and peace/war. That said, I can enjoy a good cliche'd sci-fi TV series (gritty or not) since I expect little more than that.
Um, no. I don't know what city you're talking about, but here in New York the city was *not* designed for living where you work and walking to work. There are apartments everywhere, but the ones in Downtown and Midtown are very expensive, and the more livable ones are all in bulk areas farther away from the main work areas. Chances are most people work in either midtown or downtown, and then live somewhere in upper Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn or the Bronx. Nobody lives in Staten Island.
I'd love transit-oriented development, but it didn't happen here. Trains (at least) are a must, unless you're lucky enough to live at least 45 minutes walking distance from where you work - and even that's stretching it... who wants to walk 45 minutes to and from work every day when the train is right there?
Occam's Razor doesn't apply to conspiracies.
Also, CNN is almost as bad as FOX these days. I don't know what anybody means when they say any of the major news networks are "liberal". They're corporate is what they are.
And yes, the first sentence was intended as a joke. The second bit wasn't.
It's about voter confidence, which is why a good number of people don't vote in the first place.
It doesn't even have to be electronic - my wife tried to vote in 2000 but her registration hadn't gone through. IN 2002 she had registered again, and it still wasn't processed - luckily she was able to do a provisional ballot. This time around it went through, but how many people don't keep trying? This specific problem is probably a local issue with the NY board of elections, but my point is just that things like this make a person not even want to vote; it gives the impression that her vote is not wanted and not important.
"they"?
I think it was just the submitter.
(and it isn't me)
As a Democrat, can fellow liberals (or at least "anti-Bush" people) please stop saying things like this? You hurt more than you help.
No, it's not the music store. iPod was popular before the music store. It's iTunes itself. The killer app for organizing your music. Nobody does it better or simpler. iPod sales went up when iTunes hit Windows, didn't they?
Jef Raskin & Xerox actually built off of even earlier concepts.
Well, all I have is a 1GHz iBook, and my gf has a 1.6 GHz PC notebook. So if I were to buy a new machine to play Doom 3, I may as well get a PC since the Mac requirements look pretty steep. And with the PC I'd be albe to play Half-Life 2 (and many other games), too.
I've fallen in love with Apple lately (well, OS X), but there's really no point in using Macs for games.
I'd mention the XBox 2, but I'd miss the keyboard/mouse combo for shooters, and if I'm going to shell out for a gaming machine next year or so, I may as well pay a few more for a full PC (shuttle/miniatx-sized) that can play more games I already own from before I got my iBook...
Anyone know of any progress on getting Thunderbird to access the built-in OS X address book? That's the main thing keeping me on Mail.app for the time being.
Um, yeah. "The country's goin' to hell, but it ain't hell yet. Let's count our blessings!"
I don't know about everybody else, but I feel better...
From the submitter:
Yeah, the pesky fuss of counting all the votes and making sure there were no shenanigans. We don't care much for that here in America. In fact, voting itself is such a nuisance. Distracts from work. Let's just get rid of it altogether.
Man, I'm gonna keep insisting that Diebold screwed America over until it's proven they didn't.
At least this way Bush has to deal with his own problems. People, are you listening? As things get worse and worse for the next four years, and America turns further into a Banana Republic
I would contend that free markets do not exist, but that is a discussion for another day.
What I want to address is your statement that the "right question" is "How little of my money can we get away with the government getting" - I think that is ignorant and short-sighted.
The real "right question" is, how do we forge policies that ensure a strong nation, broad prosperity, and effective government? We're all in this together - it isn't just about you and your money. Focusing soley on the money spent is the wrong way to approach your participation in civil society.
Perhaps he wasn't referring to business activity in general when he said "american corporations hold us back." Or, maybe he was. But I would agree with his specific statement. I would even shorten it to "corporations hold us back." They used to be non-entities under the law, and they used to be required to be doing something that would benefit the public. Now they have numerous rights and protections, and have no responsibilities to the society that holds them up. Maybe some of their evolution has been progress, but overall I think corporate law needs a lot of reform.