C'mon, think...in every arcade fighting game you have EVER played, what can every single token Japanese character do?
Throw super-fireballs and energy beams from their hands, that's what!
We already know that every single one of the Japanese are fluent in martial arts, but now it appears that the the Japanese goverment is using plutonium to convert their entire population into kung-fu-kickin', fireball-flickin' seizure-inducing ninja supersoldiers!
Actually, they had a smaller reactor but one of the Tech guys ruined it. He thought it would be really cool to put a window in the side of the reactor and throw in some light strips. But he wasn't watching what he was doing and when he reached over to get the LED-lit case fan he spilled his can of Mountain Dew all over the place. Oh, wait, did I say can of Mountain Dew? I meant stupendously hot plasma.:-)
"Yes, perhaps they should go through each dialog box and examine it, but that's very time-consuming."
Are you mad? How many programs do you install in the run of a day that you feel you are wasting a substantial amount of time reading dialogue boxes? And how poor is your memory that you can't remember what actions provoke which dialogue boxes? Never mind that causing users "to be screwed over" with "malicious, destructive action" is hardly being initiated by a toolbar app.
You know, whenever you drive in your car you have to check to see if traffic is coming. Do you stop doing this once you get tired of it, and just skim over the lanes of oncoming traffic? Or what about when you cross the street?
You seem to have an axe to grind against Windows, ostensibly because you are a Mac user, but if I am installing software onto my computer I want to know what it is doing and why, and if it is asking my permission then I should probably devote the brain power to read the request. This applies to ALL operating systems, and beyond that, this sort of "think about what you are doing before you do it" policy should apply to life in general.
In Post-Soviet Germany...
on
Potato Bazookas
·
· Score: -1, Troll
If news agencies could be moderated down for trolling I would drive this one to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
I could have told that guy that sitting in front of a computer for 18 hours a day would cause cardiovascular difficulty. I would think that your body frowns upon you filling the lower 33% of your body with 80% of your blood. He didn't die because the computer or the job killed him, he died because he was too stupid to figure that out.
I am so tired of news agencies printing medical stories. 99.9% of it (including this story) is biased, non-representative shite that jumps from conclusion to conclusion to get more funding. Then other groups just refute the claim because they found a 143-year-old Norwegian homeless lady with 12 cats and a propensity for eggs. It goes something like this:
Eggs are good! Eggs are bad. Eggs cure cancer! Eggs ARE cancer. Eggs fight crime! Eggs abduct and eat your young.
The end result of this will be that eggs are okay for you but lethal in doses of 146 at a time. So don't eat 146 eggs at a time, or you will die. Thanks for the tip guys! I'll just go out and eat 39 McDonalds hamburgers 'cause I'm feeling a little peckish.
Who owns the South Pole? Anyone? Or is the continent divided into a number of colonial regions?
But of all the places to build a highway...who is going to clear/maintain it? I imagine there is a little bit of blowing snow at the South Pole, and I for one would not want to drive in zero visibility on a friggin iceberg.
Ahh, the researchers are just getting all pissy because they have too high a ping to join in on the really good CT action:
"Guard the door!" "With what?" "Your sniper rifle!" "MY PING IS 14,275! I can walk faster than that!" "Get Washington on the phone..."
"I don't think folks hate americans because they kill people.. people all over the world do that.. People hate Americans because they have this stereotype in their minds that we are all wealthy, and have more than they do. You can thank hollywood and American TV for this as well as popular media."
Uhh, no. Oil sheiks have quite a bit of money. Overall the US is probably on par with most westernized nations, with the exception of the over-publicised top 2-3%.
The US is the target of a great deal of hatred because it feels that it has to meddle in the world's affairs and proclaims how great and just a nation it is for doing so, but is quite selective and hypocritical in choosing which causes it feels it has to meddle in. For example, giving money to Iraq to blow up Iran, and giving money to Iran to blow up Iraq. Or ruling certain groups as "terrorists" and ignoring other groups that fall into the same definition. And from a nation that so fully incorporates religion into it's daily life, calling your actions and plans a crusade is not a good idea, and no different than when we hear of a jihad against the US/Western world.
The US also feels that it can decide who can rule a country and who cannot (Chile, S Vietnam, attempted ousting of Castro). Most galling though is how it's OK for the US to bomb and invade whoever they want, but once someone retaliates the entire world has to concede to their wishes.
I'm not trying to be self-righteous here, as Canada has some stains on it's record too (ie the treatment of Japanese Canadians during WWII comes to mind) but there are quite a number of perfectly valid reasons for a large number of people to hate your country.
You have a good point; that was a fairly poor remark I made in passing. It was meant as more of a jest towards the national view of the Alliance, but I don't think it is entirely founded in truth and I don't think that I really fully believe it. But that will come later...
I don't vote Liberal, and that is kind of the point I was getting at. A lot of the country has a "well if I don't vote Liberal, who am I going to vote for?" attitude and it is very sad. Having said that I don't despise the Liberals as much as some of our cynical compatriots do, but I think it is time for a change.
The Alliance will not be elected, and most of the blame lies on Stockwell Day. The man made a shambles of a good situation and has tarnished his party's image for years to come, and his beliefs and values (as far as we know) are, at best, suspect in a diverse country such as Canada. The "racist, mean, bible-thumping baby-killers" image is entirely his fault and not the party's. Harper seems like a much better man for the job, though, and I hope he does well with it (although they are flagging as we speak).
I think the biggest reason that they will not be elected is simply because the rest of Canada does not want to vote for them, just like they do not want to vote for a Quebec party (separatist or not). They are seen as being a provincial party running in a national election; at least the Tories/Liberals/NDP get seats in a few regions (not so much NDP:-)).
Whether they want to or not, they will serve the needs of their electorate first (again, a sound strategy), but their electorate is Western Canadians, just like the electorate of the Liberal party is basically Ontario. I suspect that a fair number of people who would consider voting for the Alliance would vote for the NDP because they are seen as being pretty similar in a number of issues (though parallels can be drawn with just about every party). I for one, being a NFLDer, would vote NDP because they are closer to me, and are seen as being more of an "Atlantic" party, and for this reason others would not vote for them.
But it is time for the old white man Liberal party to leave, as no one group should hold power indefinitely. I just don't think it will happen until after Martin gets in and then only if he makes a shambles of it.
Of course if you have just moved here you have no idea what anything means, partly because everyone displays their numbers in such arbitrary ways. One day I read five different formats on store signs:
- 020x xxx xxxx (makes the most sense to those who are used to 7 digits) - 020 xxxx xxxx - 020xx xxx xxx - 020xx xxxxxx - xxxx xxxx
Of course they all mean the same thing, but I found it maddening nonetheless. I was here for 3 months before I figured out that 020 is an area code!
Then I bought a cell phone...
Here's another question. Why the hell do people use that stupid "+" sign instead of "00" before country codes? I know I'm dialing another country! The horrendously long phone number may have been my first clue. So why the "+"?
Getting away from political platforms, the reason the Liberals are in power is because there is more people in Ontario than in BC, and the Liberals have somewhat served the needs of those who elect them, ie. Ontario. I grant that any party interested in gaining/keeping power has to keep the right people happy, but it is interesting to see how poor a candidate the Atlantic provinces rate the elected party, as they usually vote against Ontario (Lib vs PC, for the most part, with a healthy dose of NDP...this is as far as I recall, of course, and I hope someone has a little more info than me).
I don't see how you can consider the Liberals to be the lesser of two evils in a multi-partied system. If Chretien was to continue as Lib leader the Alliance would win in the next election hands down. I would consider the NDP to be as good a candidate as any, but politics in the majority of Canada goes something like:
(a) If you are Central Canadian, vote Liberal. Otherwise vote PC because Ontario politics is a two-party system.
(b) If you are Western Canadian, vote Alliance. (Friendly note to voters: vehemently deny to all those who question you that once upon a time you thought that Stockwell Day, Canada's answer to "President" Bush, would be an ideal person to run the country.)
(c) If you are Quebecois, vote for the only party that will help you shed the yoke of Anglophone oppression (although that has really backfired recently...)
(d) If you are a Maritimer or a Newfoundlander, don't bother voting because it is just a waste of our time:-)
I know this sounds trollish, but although we sit here and make fun of a system that could allow a trained ape to assume the role of President, at least the outcome of the entire voting process is not determined by only 2 states.
But having said all this, I don't think that the Chretien government has done all that poorly. Sure our dollar is comparable to wooden nickels on the global market, but we have climbed a long way out of deficit. I just think we need a change (and not in the form of the Alliance, thank you very much...)
Whales have not been to space, nor have seals, or plankton. Do you think that killing off all the sharks won't affect these species? Getting to outer space is really easy compared to predicting the effects of extermination of a species. Don't laugh! Our knowledge of science is really good with problems that require brute force (getting into space being one of these examples) but when a little bit of finesse is needed (like to kill a virus without liquefying the host's insides) we are very very sloppy.
We won't die from killing sharks, but who knows what will result from it? Maybe sharks feed on a type of fish that eats a type of plant that carries a type of bacteria that will prove to be very harmful to humans, and by sharks culling the stocks we are protected. Or perhaps a particular type of photosynthtic algae or plant will die off and the ocean's oxygen levels will decline. No one knows, and no mass computing, Beowulf cluster-driven approach (again, brute force) is going to give an answer.
Besides, what's the harm in keeping a few sharks around? Bears attack people, and so do dogs, but we don't try to kill them too often! Sharks are one of the most interesting creatures in the world and they have much to teach us if they live long enough.
But you live in the third-most populated country on the planet! Are you telling me that New Yorkers have a strong sense of personal space? Maybe the ones that drive their SUV's everywhere, but what about the few million commuters that take the subway to work? Of course some people are sensitive to it, but some people are also claustrophobic:-)
We Canadians have double the land area and about 1/10th the population as the US, but we don't need 20 times the personal space! So the issue isn't as complicated as varying sense of personal space. I think it is just a reaction to anti-social behaviour. If you are next to a bunch of squealing yelling wrestling teenagers you feel a need to get away from them, but this need has nothing to do with your sense of personal space. I guarantee that if you take those kids and drop them in a bus stop in Tokyo you will get the same reaction as you would in Tulsa.
"You do have to wonder when and how the cell phone will successfully integrate itself into our collective social senses"
Wow, you haven't been to London!
Last summer I came here from a small city where a maximum of 5 of my friends have cell phones. Imagine my shock upon arriving here and EVERYBODY of every age has one. I have to agree with you; I keep mine on Silent Vibrate unless I am in a pub or a similar setting, and I try to keep my conversations short and to the point. Text messaging is a must, especially on a train where I am surrounded by cranky commuters who cannot get away from someone's phone playing that abominable Christina Aguilera shite.
Cell phones have become like any other technology, in that 33% of the people who buy them do so for the "cool" factor. How often does some asshole on the bus who looks like he is wearing the clothes he slept in pull out his loudly-ringing polyphonic uberphone, stare at it as his latest ringtone plays so that everyone can swivel and look at him, and proceed to bellow loud enough to be heard without the phone.
And there is NO need for 10-year-olds to have cell phones. You don't let your daughter pierce her ears or stay out past 10pm, then you don't buy her a phone.
(If my opinions have already been posted, sorry for being redundant...)
I hate to be a troll, but if a Linux app did this, almost no one here would be complaining about it. Since this "crime" was committed on Hell's Official OS by one of The Prince of Darkness' right-hand companies (to hear some people speak about MS and RealNetworks), this thread generates 500 replies in less than a day.
I don't have much sympathy for people who click through 12 screens of prompts and options when installing programs. As well, Real isn't the only type of software that does this! A large number of software that involves media and/or connecting to an external site offers spam subscription, as well as magazine subscriptions, credit card applications, etc etc etc... And these are often hidden away in very small type so that you don't see it.
The thing that bothers me more about RealPlayer is that it assumes that you want to use it for EVERY SINGLE FILE TYPE. You have to scroll through this long list of apps and unclick them all, because it selects them automatically. But I am hardly going to try and sue the company for this.
Take a bit of responsibility for your own actions. If they did this automatically with no chance of opting out, or if they offered a choice in a foreign language (other than legal-ese:-)) then I would be concerned. But they don't.
I think that urokinase is produced by the kidneys, but it is taken up by the cancerous cells. Therefore, while all cells are susceptible to anthrax to some degree, the majority of the agent will target the cancer cells primarily.
Of course, large concentrations will cause wide-spread disease, not just of the kidneys.
No, I mean that once we start installing wireless communications into cars people will start bringing computers with them. You stated that your children use computers as part of their learning, and that is great, but you then stated that kids NEED multiple activities. In keeping with the original post and the fact that you earlier mentioned the Gameboys I just extrapolated from there to computers.
There was three of us, and while it may have been bad for my parents at the time I think that because they didn't attempt to fill my every waking moment with activities we are all better off. Eventually, we all learn how to sit there and think quietly. Kids are being pestered more and more, and all they really need is to be left alone to figure some stuff out for themselves.
One of them will fall asleep (unless it is a short drive, and then the "keep them occupied" argument goes out the window) and the other will start using his brain rather than a computer because there is simply nothing else to do. Or he will fall asleep:-) But it's a win-win situation.
No, they do not NEED multiple activities in the form of mobile roving internet access. All of us catch enough CRT emission as it is. I don't know the numbers and am loathe to trust them, but childhood obesity and (more tellingly?) diabetes seems to be rising. Why do you think that is?
It is not the responsibility of the parent to buy crap for their children so that they can be occupied every minute of every day. Just because it is there does not mean you have to buy it! My computer has been online for a few months now, so I didn't grow up with the Internet or with the latest gadgets, and I like to think that I turned out fine:-) I had multiple activities, like playing with friends OUTSIDE and playing sports, and I did not read regularly (unlike your son, whom you should be proud of, though reading better than most adults in the US is hardly an achievement:-)
TV is a terrible waste of your time. Too many of those I know are hopeless couch potatoes and it is a shame. Sadly it seems that those with short attention spans turn into excellent TV addicts (brain turns off). Providing even MORE computer access will do little to deter your children from this, IMHO. Half of the reason that you drive somewhere is to do something new and to get out of the house, not to take the computer outside with you!
Which indicates that there way be an emotional component to it as well. I don't really believe that rubbing one piece of flesh into another over and over could make you smart. Hell, I've had my head up my ass for YEARS and I'm no smarter!
One of the most frustrating things I about my move to England has been banking. It takes forever to open an account, and they send you this debit card that is really just a credit card with a strange name because you still have to sign slips rather than use a PI number.
In Canada, nearly every store you walk into has Interac, be it a clothing store, convenience store or gas station. I like carrying around money, but it is much more convenient and safe to use debit cards. I cannot use my NatWest (stupid Switch card) debit card in anything but the biggest department stores (but not Debenhams!), and I live in London. You would think that a city of this size that is constantly warning it's citizens about muggings and fraud would start to implement some of these safer "new" technologies.
Opponents to debit card readers in stores say that it costs a lot to use them, but I suspect that has a little bit to do with supply-demand. Once all the big stores start carrying them it trickles down to the smaller stores, and pretty soon everyone uses the (more) secure debit purchases. If you still think it is too expensive, institute a minimum purchase limit (hell, they still do it with credit cards!)
A PI number is much harder to break than a signature is to forge. Some people don't even carry credit cards; they just set up the credit account on the debit card and use it with a separate PIN.
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C'mon, think...in every arcade fighting game you have EVER played, what can every single token Japanese character do?
Throw super-fireballs and energy beams from their hands, that's what!
We already know that every single one of the Japanese are fluent in martial arts, but now it appears that the the Japanese goverment is using plutonium to convert their entire population into kung-fu-kickin', fireball-flickin' seizure-inducing ninja supersoldiers!
Actually, they had a smaller reactor but one of the Tech guys ruined it. He thought it would be really cool to put a window in the side of the reactor and throw in some light strips. But he wasn't watching what he was doing and when he reached over to get the LED-lit case fan he spilled his can of Mountain Dew all over the place. Oh, wait, did I say can of Mountain Dew? I meant stupendously hot plasma. :-)
"Zee goggles. Zey do nothing!"
"Yes, perhaps they should go through each dialog box and examine it, but that's very time-consuming."
Are you mad? How many programs do you install in the run of a day that you feel you are wasting a substantial amount of time reading dialogue boxes? And how poor is your memory that you can't remember what actions provoke which dialogue boxes? Never mind that causing users "to be screwed over" with "malicious, destructive action" is hardly being initiated by a toolbar app.
You know, whenever you drive in your car you have to check to see if traffic is coming. Do you stop doing this once you get tired of it, and just skim over the lanes of oncoming traffic? Or what about when you cross the street?
You seem to have an axe to grind against Windows, ostensibly because you are a Mac user, but if I am installing software onto my computer I want to know what it is doing and why, and if it is asking my permission then I should probably devote the brain power to read the request. This applies to ALL operating systems, and beyond that, this sort of "think about what you are doing before you do it" policy should apply to life in general.
Guns potato you!
(sorry)
If news agencies could be moderated down for trolling I would drive this one to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
I could have told that guy that sitting in front of a computer for 18 hours a day would cause cardiovascular difficulty. I would think that your body frowns upon you filling the lower 33% of your body with 80% of your blood. He didn't die because the computer or the job killed him, he died because he was too stupid to figure that out.
I am so tired of news agencies printing medical stories. 99.9% of it (including this story) is biased, non-representative shite that jumps from conclusion to conclusion to get more funding. Then other groups just refute the claim because they found a 143-year-old Norwegian homeless lady with 12 cats and a propensity for eggs. It goes something like this:
Eggs are good!
Eggs are bad.
Eggs cure cancer!
Eggs ARE cancer.
Eggs fight crime!
Eggs abduct and eat your young.
The end result of this will be that eggs are okay for you but lethal in doses of 146 at a time. So don't eat 146 eggs at a time, or you will die. Thanks for the tip guys! I'll just go out and eat 39 McDonalds hamburgers 'cause I'm feeling a little peckish.
Who owns the South Pole? Anyone? Or is the continent divided into a number of colonial regions?
But of all the places to build a highway...who is going to clear/maintain it? I imagine there is a little bit of blowing snow at the South Pole, and I for one would not want to drive in zero visibility on a friggin iceberg.
Ahh, the researchers are just getting all pissy because they have too high a ping to join in on the really good CT action:
"Guard the door!"
"With what?"
"Your sniper rifle!"
"MY PING IS 14,275! I can walk faster than that!"
"Get Washington on the phone..."
(Pardon me if this has been asked already)
"I don't think folks hate americans because they kill people .. people all over the world do that .. People hate Americans because they have this stereotype in their minds that we are all wealthy, and have more than they do. You can thank hollywood and American TV for this as well as popular media."
Uhh, no. Oil sheiks have quite a bit of money. Overall the US is probably on par with most westernized nations, with the exception of the over-publicised top 2-3%.
The US is the target of a great deal of hatred because it feels that it has to meddle in the world's affairs and proclaims how great and just a nation it is for doing so, but is quite selective and hypocritical in choosing which causes it feels it has to meddle in. For example, giving money to Iraq to blow up Iran, and giving money to Iran to blow up Iraq. Or ruling certain groups as "terrorists" and ignoring
other groups that fall into the same definition. And from a nation that so fully incorporates religion into it's daily life, calling your actions and plans a crusade is not a good idea, and no different than when we hear of a jihad against the US/Western world.
The US also feels that it can decide who can rule a country and who cannot (Chile, S Vietnam, attempted ousting of Castro). Most galling though is how it's OK for the US to bomb and invade whoever they want, but once someone retaliates the entire world has to concede to their wishes.
I'm not trying to be self-righteous here, as Canada has some stains on it's record too (ie the treatment of Japanese Canadians during WWII comes to mind) but there are quite a number of perfectly valid reasons for a large number of people to hate your country.
Canon OrganPrintXP!! Gives (Primordial) Soup-er results every time!
(Canon, OrganPrintXP, and Primordial Soup-er are registered trade marks of Canon, Inc.)
Kind of brings new meaning to the expression "I could piss on the page and it would look better."
Print out a girl for yourself?
If this technology goes anything like every other technology we make, you might as well buy a RealDoll; it will probably be smarter.
You have a good point; that was a fairly poor remark I made in passing. It was meant as more of a jest towards the national view of the Alliance, but I don't think it is entirely founded in truth and I don't think that I really fully believe it. But that will come later...
:-)).
I don't vote Liberal, and that is kind of the point I was getting at. A lot of the country has a "well if I don't vote Liberal, who am I going to vote for?" attitude and it is very sad. Having said that I don't despise the Liberals as much as some of our cynical compatriots do, but I think it is time for a change.
The Alliance will not be elected, and most of the blame lies on Stockwell Day. The man made a shambles of a good situation and has tarnished his party's image for years to come, and his beliefs and values (as far as we know) are, at best, suspect in a diverse country such as Canada. The "racist, mean, bible-thumping baby-killers" image is entirely his fault and not the party's. Harper seems like a much better man for the job, though, and I hope he does well with it (although they are flagging as we speak).
I think the biggest reason that they will not be elected is simply because the rest of Canada does not want to vote for them, just like they do not want to vote for a Quebec party (separatist or not). They are seen as being a provincial party running in a national election; at least the Tories/Liberals/NDP get seats in a few regions (not so much NDP
Whether they want to or not, they will serve the needs of their electorate first (again, a sound strategy), but their electorate is Western Canadians, just like the electorate of the Liberal party is basically Ontario. I suspect that a fair number of people who would consider voting for the Alliance would vote for the NDP because they are seen as being pretty similar in a number of issues (though parallels can be drawn with just about every party). I for one, being a NFLDer, would vote NDP because they are closer to me, and are seen as being more of an "Atlantic" party, and for this reason others would not vote for them.
But it is time for the old white man Liberal party to leave, as no one group should hold power indefinitely. I just don't think it will happen until after Martin gets in and then only if he makes a shambles of it.
Of course if you have just moved here you have no idea what anything means, partly because everyone displays their numbers in such arbitrary ways. One day I read five different formats on store signs:
- 020x xxx xxxx (makes the most sense to those who are used to 7 digits)
- 020 xxxx xxxx
- 020xx xxx xxx
- 020xx xxxxxx
- xxxx xxxx
Of course they all mean the same thing, but I found it maddening nonetheless. I was here for 3 months before I figured out that 020 is an area code!
Then I bought a cell phone...
Here's another question. Why the hell do people use that stupid "+" sign instead of "00" before country codes? I know I'm dialing another country! The horrendously long phone number may have been my first clue. So why the "+"?
Canadian in London
Thank you. Most of my posts get responses like
Please.
Stop.
Talking.
I should let the little voices in my head take over more often...
Getting away from political platforms, the reason the Liberals are in power is because there is more people in Ontario than in BC, and the Liberals have somewhat served the needs of those who elect them, ie. Ontario. I grant that any party interested in gaining/keeping power has to keep the right people happy, but it is interesting to see how poor a candidate the Atlantic provinces rate the elected party, as they usually vote against Ontario (Lib vs PC, for the most part, with a healthy dose of NDP...this is as far as I recall, of course, and I hope someone has a little more info than me).
:-)
I don't see how you can consider the Liberals to be the lesser of two evils in a multi-partied system. If Chretien was to continue as Lib leader the Alliance would win in the next election hands down. I would consider the NDP to be as good a candidate as any, but politics in the majority of Canada goes something like:
(a) If you are Central Canadian, vote Liberal.
Otherwise vote PC because Ontario politics is a two-party system.
(b) If you are Western Canadian, vote Alliance. (Friendly note to voters: vehemently deny to all those who question you that once upon a time you thought that Stockwell Day, Canada's answer to "President" Bush, would be an ideal person to run the country.)
(c) If you are Quebecois, vote for the only party that will help you shed the yoke of Anglophone oppression (although that has really backfired recently...)
(d) If you are a Maritimer or a Newfoundlander, don't bother voting because it is just a waste of our time
I know this sounds trollish, but although we sit here and make fun of a system that could allow a trained ape to assume the role of President, at least the outcome of the entire voting process is not determined by only 2 states.
But having said all this, I don't think that the Chretien government has done all that poorly. Sure our dollar is comparable to wooden nickels on the global market, but we have climbed a long way out of deficit. I just think we need a change (and not in the form of the Alliance, thank you very much...)
(end of rant)
Whales have not been to space, nor have seals, or plankton. Do you think that killing off all the sharks won't affect these species? Getting to outer space is really easy compared to predicting the effects of extermination of a species. Don't laugh! Our knowledge of science is really good with problems that require brute force (getting into space being one of these examples) but when a little bit of finesse is needed (like to kill a virus without liquefying the host's insides) we are very very sloppy.
We won't die from killing sharks, but who knows what will result from it? Maybe sharks feed on a type of fish that eats a type of plant that carries a type of bacteria that will prove to be very harmful to humans, and by sharks culling the stocks we are protected. Or perhaps a particular type of photosynthtic algae or plant will die off and the ocean's oxygen levels will decline. No one knows, and no mass computing, Beowulf cluster-driven approach (again, brute force) is going to give an answer.
Besides, what's the harm in keeping a few sharks around? Bears attack people, and so do dogs, but we don't try to kill them too often! Sharks are one of the most interesting creatures in the world and they have much to teach us if they live long enough.
Actually, Georgie used to check his messages in just that manner, but once the anthrax scares started up he had someone else handle his mail. ;-D
But you live in the third-most populated country on the planet! Are you telling me that New Yorkers have a strong sense of personal space? Maybe the ones that drive their SUV's everywhere, but what about the few million commuters that take the subway to work? Of course some people are sensitive to it, but some people are also claustrophobic :-)
We Canadians have double the land area and about 1/10th the population as the US, but we don't need 20 times the personal space! So the issue isn't as complicated as varying sense of personal space. I think it is just a reaction to anti-social behaviour. If you are next to a bunch of squealing yelling wrestling teenagers you feel a need to get away from them, but this need has nothing to do with your sense of personal space. I guarantee that if you take those kids and drop them in a bus stop in Tokyo you will get the same reaction as you would in Tulsa.
"You do have to wonder when and how the cell phone will successfully integrate itself into our collective social senses"
Wow, you haven't been to London!
Last summer I came here from a small city where a maximum of 5 of my friends have cell phones. Imagine my shock upon arriving here and EVERYBODY of every age has one. I have to agree with you; I keep mine on Silent Vibrate unless I am in a pub or a similar setting, and I try to keep my conversations short and to the point. Text messaging is a must, especially on a train where I am surrounded by cranky commuters who cannot get away from someone's phone playing that abominable Christina Aguilera shite.
Cell phones have become like any other technology, in that 33% of the people who buy them do so for the "cool" factor. How often does some asshole on the bus who looks like he is wearing the clothes he slept in pull out his loudly-ringing polyphonic uberphone, stare at it as his latest ringtone plays so that everyone can swivel and look at him, and proceed to bellow loud enough to be heard without the phone.
And there is NO need for 10-year-olds to have cell phones. You don't let your daughter pierce her ears or stay out past 10pm, then you don't buy her a phone.
Sorry about the rant!
(If my opinions have already been posted, sorry for being redundant...)
:-)) then I would be concerned. But they don't.
I hate to be a troll, but if a Linux app did this, almost no one here would be complaining about it. Since this "crime" was committed on Hell's Official OS by one of The Prince of Darkness' right-hand companies (to hear some people speak about MS and RealNetworks), this thread generates 500 replies in less than a day.
I don't have much sympathy for people who click through 12 screens of prompts and options when installing programs. As well, Real isn't the only type of software that does this! A large number of software that involves media and/or connecting to an external site offers spam subscription, as well as magazine subscriptions, credit card applications, etc etc etc... And these are often hidden away in very small type so that you don't see it.
The thing that bothers me more about RealPlayer is that it assumes that you want to use it for EVERY SINGLE FILE TYPE. You have to scroll through this long list of apps and unclick them all, because it selects them automatically. But I am hardly going to try and sue the company for this.
Take a bit of responsibility for your own actions. If they did this automatically with no chance of opting out, or if they offered a choice in a foreign language (other than legal-ese
I think that urokinase is produced by the kidneys, but it is taken up by the cancerous cells. Therefore, while all cells are susceptible to anthrax to some degree, the majority of the agent will target the cancer cells primarily.
Of course, large concentrations will cause wide-spread disease, not just of the kidneys.
Jesus. Not another Douglas Adams' "The Restaurant At The End Of The Galaxy" reference!
/.!
Leave it to
I'm glad you know me so well!
I am really quite sensitive and frightened. Inadequate is probably a better word! That is why I hide behind a screen name, my dear friend.
I don't even like camels. Do you see my problems?
No, I mean that once we start installing wireless communications into cars people will start bringing computers with them. You stated that your children use computers as part of their learning, and that is great, but you then stated that kids NEED multiple activities. In keeping with the original post and the fact that you earlier mentioned the Gameboys I just extrapolated from there to computers.
:-) But it's a win-win situation.
There was three of us, and while it may have been bad for my parents at the time I think that because they didn't attempt to fill my every waking moment with activities we are all better off. Eventually, we all learn how to sit there and think quietly. Kids are being pestered more and more, and all they really need is to be left alone to figure some stuff out for themselves.
One of them will fall asleep (unless it is a short drive, and then the "keep them occupied" argument goes out the window) and the other will start using his brain rather than a computer because there is simply nothing else to do. Or he will fall asleep
No, they do not NEED multiple activities in the form of mobile roving internet access. All of us catch enough CRT emission as it is. I don't know the numbers and am loathe to trust them, but childhood obesity and (more tellingly?) diabetes seems to be rising. Why do you think that is?
:-) I had multiple activities, like playing with friends OUTSIDE and playing sports, and I did not read regularly (unlike your son, whom you should be proud of, though reading better than most adults in the US is hardly an achievement :-)
It is not the responsibility of the parent to buy crap for their children so that they can be occupied every minute of every day. Just because it is there does not mean you have to buy it! My computer has been online for a few months now, so I didn't grow up with the Internet or with the latest gadgets, and I like to think that I turned out fine
TV is a terrible waste of your time. Too many of those I know are hopeless couch potatoes and it is a shame. Sadly it seems that those with short attention spans turn into excellent TV addicts (brain turns off). Providing even MORE computer access will do little to deter your children from this, IMHO. Half of the reason that you drive somewhere is to do something new and to get out of the house, not to take the computer outside with you!
Which indicates that there way be an emotional component to it as well. I don't really believe that rubbing one piece of flesh into another over and over could make you smart. Hell, I've had my head up my ass for YEARS and I'm no smarter!
Warning: rant approaching...
One of the most frustrating things I about my move to England has been banking. It takes forever to open an account, and they send you this debit card that is really just a credit card with a strange name because you still have to sign slips rather than use a PI number.
In Canada, nearly every store you walk into has Interac, be it a clothing store, convenience store or gas station. I like carrying around money, but it is much more convenient and safe to use debit cards. I cannot use my NatWest (stupid Switch card) debit card in anything but the biggest department stores (but not Debenhams!), and I live in London. You would think that a city of this size that is constantly warning it's citizens about muggings and fraud would start to implement some of these safer "new" technologies.
Opponents to debit card readers in stores say that it costs a lot to use them, but I suspect that has a little bit to do with supply-demand. Once all the big stores start carrying them it trickles down to the smaller stores, and pretty soon everyone uses the (more) secure debit purchases. If you still think it is too expensive, institute a minimum purchase limit (hell, they still do it with credit cards!)
A PI number is much harder to break than a signature is to forge. Some people don't even carry credit cards; they just set up the credit account on the debit card and use it with a separate PIN.