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Or why not just build it on a mountain? If you find a high enough one, then cloud aren't normally a problem, apart from the really high ones like cirrus, cirrostratus, cirrocumulus etc. But if you were to build a tower on top of the said mountain, you may be able to avoid the clouds altogether.
However, I agree that it's a good thing the rest of the world doesn't have laws like in the USA. I don't think laws allowing the ownership of firearms,
Switzerland does. They even issue military grade weapons (fully automatic assault rifles) to 'civilians', to be kept at their home, complete with ammunition. (after they've had military training)
not being allowed to drink until you're 21,
Don't know about this one. I think 21 for alcohol is an American thing.
and having to drive at ridiculously slow speeds on highways
Norwegians are forced to drive at just 90 km/h (= 56 mp/h) on freeways. And the punishments for violation are apparently severe.
Europe is NOT gun free. Not even those countries that do have strict gun control laws, let alone those that don't. There are millions of legally owned weapons in Germany, a country in which it is difficult to get a firearm. Germany also has strict laws against both violence and sexual depictions (unless they're late at night) but not 'strong language' (banning the word "fuck" on television is an anglo-saxon thing, I think).
If you think Germany has liberal laws relating to displaying sexual acts, you should read the Jugendschutzgesetz of some German states, preferably starting with Bavaria, which is notoriously (catholic) conservative. Germany, and several other European states have CDA like laws. Although I think Australia takes the cake as far as state censorship is concerned.
It's odd that anyone seriously believes taking away guns is going to stop future massacres. If they can't get a gun, they'll go for a knife, or worse yet, a mototov cocktail. And how are you going to stop people from making molotov cocktails? By censoring subversive internet sites, of course! Back to square one again...
The real solution is to find out WHY people commit acts of violence like in Erfurt, not just find a scapegoat like guns or violent games. It means realising that there are people out there with psychological problems, people that should be treated and helped. Taking away the means (firearm) to an end (massacre) will not prevent future tragedies, it will merely force potential murderers to look for another weapon.
Of course, it's easier to prohibit than to think, but what the world could really use are politicians with brains, not politicians with agendas.
A German minister wants to introduce a bill to effectively forbid violence in computer games entirely. Not just to minors, to everyone. The justification for the blanket ban is, according to this minister, that if adults can buy violent games, then children might be allowed to play them, or adults might buy games and give them to children. The bill is just part of the [knee-jerk] reaction to the Erfurt massacre. Germany's federal goverment intends to further toughen a brand new, not-even-voted-on-bill that would have strengthened Germany's weapon code. Amongst the changes is a raise of the minimum age for weapons purchases from 18 to 21 (even though 18 is the age of consent in Germany and throughout Europe for practically everything, including running for office) and requiring a permit to purchase ammunition. Also the German goverment wants to regulate the internet in Germany even more to insure that no Germans buy forbidden products. See heise.de.
If you ask me, this is starting a very dangerous trend. Scapegoating and populistic politics are attractive to politicians that want to sooth angered citizens, so we can only expect this to go on until the possesion of anything not absolutely necessary is forbidden (...and don't tell me that won't happen.). Hopefully, this insanity will stay in Germany, but unfortunately I doubt it.
Personally, I'd rather not have cynical left-liberals exploiting the willingness of many adolescents to get their unquestioning support. Actually, with the exception of a few, the majority of adolescents (those with view both on the right and the left side of the spectrum) are naive and don't really think about their political opinions, and take up views that are fashionable with others, IMO. For them, it is more important to be part of something than to represent and lobby for a point of view they bother understand and support. Others just use so-called political opinions as a justification for random of semi-random violence. So, I'd rather have teenagers THINK about the issues than just have an automatic reaction. It helps to understand some economics so you actually realise how the system works before you decide to oppose it. And should you do that, you should have a realistic alternative. The majority of adolescents protesting under the banner of "another world is possible" don't know how the world should really be run (but think they do) or, worse yet, have some deluded view about how they can get economics to work. (Like huge wage increases [1])
Most people, in fact, only become involved in politics when it directly affects them, thus the "soccer mums" protesting for video game regulation, gun prohibtion, stricting drug prohibition laws and so on. They mostly have a one sided, simplistic view on politics since they only care about one issue, and only look at it from their point of view. Which is quite human, but not a good way to run politics.
[1] Huge wage increase - there are no doubt people out there that think that more money = more wealth, but don't realise that raising wages means raising prices. At the end of the day, you're just encouraging inflation. Which, from a true socialist's point of view, is exactly the aim of the exercise, namely eroding the wealth of the middle and upper class. But I doubt that many teenagers believe that that is reason why wages should be raised. Instead they somehow think that raising wages means being able to buy more, and closing the gap between rich and poor. Of course, management wages tend to increase more rapidly than those of the working or middle class. Ideally, wage increases should be matched to inflation so that the real wage keeps up with currency devaluation, and increases in real wages should be given only when the company in question is doing especially well and thus can afford to be more generous (and give the employees an incentive to stay there rather than seek other employment at a higher salary level) or as a bonus to an individual who has been exceptional in some way.
Things like the WWF and violent video games just feed our natural warrior needs, and it's perfectly healthy IMO...
Wow! I don't really agree with the World Wildlife Fund either on many issues, but that doesn't want to make express my masculinity with a 50 cm knife and an assault rifle. Now, while you might want to seriously hurt some hippies (you're probably not the only one), perhaps a little self-control is in order? White powder in the mail is quite sufficient.
And Stalin wasn't a real socialist, neither was Mao or anyone else whose regime is infamour today. They are all 'facists'. A socialist goverment is one in a country where everything works perfectly, and everyone is happy.
Similiarly, the Christian church is only Christian when they are tolerant, wise, caring, sympathetique, and most of all, correct. All those nasty paedophiles, and all those people who were burned at the stake, and all those people tortured, imprisoned, all that gold that was stolen from South America, all those people killed by the crusaders (women and children, including Jews and Christians), all the people killed in senseless sectarian conflicts (of which there has been no shortage lately), all those people punished for deviating from the churchs norms, all those who tried to stand up against the church and ended up burned at the stake was not caused by the church, it was caused by evil infiltrators. From that other religion (I'm not going to say it here, since I presume you know which religion it was that was scapegoated throughout the ages by the catholic church) or from satanists. Or even, gasp, from socialists. Or liberals. Or criminals, or disbelievers ("infidels"). Anyone but the church themselves. The church is inerrant. The church never makes mistakes. It can't. Right?
Norwegians hardly come across as being libertarian anti-traffic-light campaigners to me. After all, in Norway, the speed limit on freeways is only 90 km/h. (~=56 mph)
It's they're not there. There is relating to a place, they're is a shortening of they are.
BTW, 2% average death rate per year sounds bogus, if you are talking about death rate average per year throughtout an entire lifetime. If the death rate were so high, only a little over a quarter of the population would reach retirement. Judging from the large and growing number of pensioners, I think the number is lower than that. Perhaps 1% per annum would be closer. If you are talking about, uh, older microbiologists, then 2% may not be unreasonable. But not all microbiologists are old.
Excuse me? It was a Crossair flight, not a Swissair flight. Swissair no longer exists per se. Crossair was a regional airline, now it has taken up some (most) of Swissair's medium and long haul flights. That is, those that actually made money.
The plane flew too low and ended up flying into a forest in Birchwil, which is a few kilometres from the end of runway 28, the shortest of ZRH's 3 runways (it is 2.5 km long, the others are 3.3 and 3.5 kilometres long). According to the CVR, it appears to have been an accident. At least partially responsible were noise regulations forcing airliners to land on a runway that was not IFR equipped during poor visibility, though the pilot should have been capable of performing this procedure safely.
No, I do not work for an airline. Or for an airport. I happen to know this because Birchwil is about 2-3 km from where I live.
I actually have to work in order to listen without automatic negative judgement!
That is a good thing. It means you won't believe the kind of crap that one is forced to hear and read everyday. Horoscopes and such. It is much better to have an automatic defence reaction (scepticism) than to blindly and unquestioningly accept everything that is said and written. There are, IMO, far too many people out there that just believe in something becomes it gives them comfort. An analogy: Would you rather your immune system accept foreign matter until it could be proved to be dangerous, presuming it could be proved to be dangerous, in case you ever need an organ transplant, or would you rather have your immune system attack foreign matter be default, as it is intended to do? If you chose the first, I certainly hope you are living in hermetically sealed environment!
The burden of proof should lie with he or she who is amking the extraordinary claim, not with the unbeliever who refuses to accept that claim without evidence. If you want me to believe that you or anyone else has psychokinetic or telepathic abilities, then not only do you have provide a convincing PUBLIC demonstration thereof (double blind and fully open to the scientific process) but you also have to allow for some physical measurement, so we know it isn't just a trick. I do not consider myself qualified to judge on such an experiment, so I will wait until you get a reputable source to confirm the veracity of such findings before I'd personally even consider believing. Point me out a scientific, REPUTABLE source which claims it has evidence of supernatural occurences and then I may take you seriously.
EU (European actually, since all European countries have them, even those not in the EU) ID cards do not have biometrics. I am looking at mine right now, so I can say this with relative security. They have precisely the same as you'd find on a passport: name (machine type + hand written), photo, date of birth, place of origin, eye colour + height, place and date of issue and expiry date.
They do NOT (well, mine does not) have your address, your fingerprints, medical or criminal records or anything really personal. Unless you consider your height, eye colour or a photo of your face to be particularly personal.
Finally, you are not obliged to have one. The serve primarily as a more convenient replacement of a passport. You can use other forms of state ID to the same effect (passport, drivers license). I had to apply for mine, the process is similar to that of a passport application, but doesn't take as long and is cheaper.
Also, I haven't been asked for my ID by any police officers doing 'random' checks, the *only* time I've ever needed to show it is when I crossed the border. And then only when the border police actually bothered to check it.
Re:What you get out proportional to what you put i
on
On Hacktivism
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· Score: 1
It doesn't matter how much the person actually considers themselves to be doing, but rather how much this is worth to other people.
For the record, yes I think actors are overpaid. As long as the film industry is ready to overpay them, they will continue to be overpaid.
And capitalism perfect for real people.
Real people who want the best for themselves, like everyone does, including yourself. People are much more willing to work towards something when they can see tangible results, rather than some slight percentual increase that can hardly be attributed to any individual effort.
Regrettably, perfect people do not exist. If they did, economic systems would hardly be necessary at all, depending on just how you define a perfect person. What is perfection? Working for nothing? That's selflessness, but from a subjective point of view, selfnessless does not necessarily achieve anything, unless you can gain favour from others through it, in which case, selfnessless is preferable only if the favour exceeds the expense. As perfection in human beings is a purely subjective, ie unquantifiable and indeterminable by experimentation or measurement, the assumption that human perfection can be arbitarily defined is false.
And then there the battle cry of social democrats, solidarity. Solidarity means supporting everyone else at the cost of yourself, with the presumable goal of having everyone in the same or at least similar social/financial position. So it boils down to a simple ideological question: Should what you get out be proportional to what you put in, or should you get out the same amount as everyone else, regardless of how much they contributed, if indeed they contributed anything at all?
BTW:
especially as the population grows.
Total BS. It has a lot to do with human nature and absolutely nothing to do with population growth. Even at it's most primitive stages of social (but not biological) development, humans expressed the drive for material wealth and dominance over others, which one would attribute to greed.
Bad design? How do you design a railway that is immune to sabotage?! Have you ever seen a railway before?
It's worth noting that DB runs ICE (InterCity Express) locomotives/rolling stock that reaches speeds in excess of 300 km/h. At that speed, derailing the train could not only kill hundereds of passengers, but also do seriously damage anything the trains hits as well.
Derailing trucks carrying radioactive material, which is, I believe, the aim of these documents (I haven't read them, though I can read German) and this is quite dangerous. Although the said rolling stock is designed to withstand collisions, it's stupid to take risks like that for no reason. And the people doing this call themselves environmentalists. Presumably, derailing a train would be a big propaganda victory for them (Look! Evil RADIOACTIVE TOXIC DANGEROUS-TO-CHILDREN stuff is crashing! Stop it now! Before it's too late!) It wouldn't solve any ecological purpose. Of course, who would have thought Greenpeace would do something just for the PR...
That being said, I still don't think the site should be taken down, unless it is actively inciting people to destroy or mutilate tracks.
Here in Zurich, we have trams. Yes, trams, the train-like things that run in the middle of the street on 1 metre gauge track, with ugly wires hanging everywhere. On the other hand we, have have pretty fast commuter trains (S-Bahn/RER, as seen in most European cities) that are reasonably clean and usually on time. Except when it snows. Then nothing is on time.
I thought the Canary Wharf area had some of the newer subway facilities anyway? Britons talk so very negatively of their public transport system. Is it that bad?
NB: I have never ridden a subway system before. Neither Zurich nor Melbourne (where I lived earlier on) has such a system. Anyone who regulary rides both willing to comment which they prefer, LRT/tram or subway?
I very much doubt that is true, though I couldn't find anythink on Google over it. Though many of the self-appointed middle eastern "royalty" are cynical and corrupt, I doubt that they'd go that far, openly flouting the religous beliefs so strongly held in the Arabian Peninsula. I doubt that'd be considered ethically acceptable even in the most liberal of countries.
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Or why not just build it on a mountain? If you find a high enough one, then cloud aren't normally a problem, apart from the really high ones like cirrus, cirrostratus, cirrocumulus etc. But if you were to build a tower on top of the said mountain, you may be able to avoid the clouds altogether.
Switzerland does. They even issue military grade weapons (fully automatic assault rifles) to 'civilians', to be kept at their home, complete with ammunition. (after they've had military training)
Don't know about this one. I think 21 for alcohol is an American thing.
Norwegians are forced to drive at just 90 km/h (= 56 mp/h) on freeways. And the punishments for violation are apparently severe.
Europe is not one country. Yet.
Can you tell me where you got that little gem of information?
Just so I know you didn't invent it...
Not another one.
Europe is NOT gun free. Not even those countries that do have strict gun control laws, let alone those that don't. There are millions of legally owned weapons in Germany, a country in which it is difficult to get a firearm. Germany also has strict laws against both violence and sexual depictions (unless they're late at night) but not 'strong language' (banning the word "fuck" on television is an anglo-saxon thing, I think).
If you think Germany has liberal laws relating to displaying sexual acts, you should read the Jugendschutzgesetz of some German states, preferably starting with Bavaria, which is notoriously (catholic) conservative. Germany, and several other European states have CDA like laws. Although I think Australia takes the cake as far as state censorship is concerned.
It's odd that anyone seriously believes taking away guns is going to stop future massacres. If they can't get a gun, they'll go for a knife, or worse yet, a mototov cocktail. And how are you going to stop people from making molotov cocktails? By censoring subversive internet sites, of course! Back to square one again...
The real solution is to find out WHY people commit acts of violence like in Erfurt, not just find a scapegoat like guns or violent games. It means realising that there are people out there with psychological problems, people that should be treated and helped. Taking away the means (firearm) to an end (massacre) will not prevent future tragedies, it will merely force potential murderers to look for another weapon.
Of course, it's easier to prohibit than to think, but what the world could really use are politicians with brains, not politicians with agendas.
If you ask me, this is starting a very dangerous trend. Scapegoating and populistic politics are attractive to politicians that want to sooth angered citizens, so we can only expect this to go on until the possesion of anything not absolutely necessary is forbidden (...and don't tell me that won't happen.). Hopefully, this insanity will stay in Germany, but unfortunately I doubt it.
Most people, in fact, only become involved in politics when it directly affects them, thus the "soccer mums" protesting for video game regulation, gun prohibtion, stricting drug prohibition laws and so on. They mostly have a one sided, simplistic view on politics since they only care about one issue, and only look at it from their point of view. Which is quite human, but not a good way to run politics.
[1] Huge wage increase - there are no doubt people out there that think that more money = more wealth, but don't realise that raising wages means raising prices. At the end of the day, you're just encouraging inflation. Which, from a true socialist's point of view, is exactly the aim of the exercise, namely eroding the wealth of the middle and upper class. But I doubt that many teenagers believe that that is reason why wages should be raised. Instead they somehow think that raising wages means being able to buy more, and closing the gap between rich and poor. Of course, management wages tend to increase more rapidly than those of the working or middle class. Ideally, wage increases should be matched to inflation so that the real wage keeps up with currency devaluation, and increases in real wages should be given only when the company in question is doing especially well and thus can afford to be more generous (and give the employees an incentive to stay there rather than seek other employment at a higher salary level) or as a bonus to an individual who has been exceptional in some way.
Wow! I don't really agree with the World Wildlife Fund either on many issues, but that doesn't want to make express my masculinity with a 50 cm knife and an assault rifle. Now, while you might want to seriously hurt some hippies (you're probably not the only one), perhaps a little self-control is in order? White powder in the mail is quite sufficient.
And Stalin wasn't a real socialist, neither was Mao or anyone else whose regime is infamour today. They are all 'facists'. A socialist goverment is one in a country where everything works perfectly, and everyone is happy.
Similiarly, the Christian church is only Christian when they are tolerant, wise, caring, sympathetique, and most of all, correct. All those nasty paedophiles, and all those people who were burned at the stake, and all those people tortured, imprisoned, all that gold that was stolen from South America, all those people killed by the crusaders (women and children, including Jews and Christians), all the people killed in senseless sectarian conflicts (of which there has been no shortage lately), all those people punished for deviating from the churchs norms, all those who tried to stand up against the church and ended up burned at the stake was not caused by the church, it was caused by evil infiltrators. From that other religion (I'm not going to say it here, since I presume you know which religion it was that was scapegoated throughout the ages by the catholic church) or from satanists. Or even, gasp, from socialists. Or liberals. Or criminals, or disbelievers ("infidels"). Anyone but the church themselves. The church is inerrant. The church never makes mistakes. It can't. Right?
Norwegians hardly come across as being libertarian anti-traffic-light campaigners to me. After all, in Norway, the speed limit on freeways is only 90 km/h. (~=56 mph)
BTW, 2% average death rate per year sounds bogus, if you are talking about death rate average per year throughtout an entire lifetime. If the death rate were so high, only a little over a quarter of the population would reach retirement. Judging from the large and growing number of pensioners, I think the number is lower than that. Perhaps 1% per annum would be closer. If you are talking about, uh, older microbiologists, then 2% may not be unreasonable. But not all microbiologists are old.
Excuse me? It was a Crossair flight, not a Swissair flight. Swissair no longer exists per se. Crossair was a regional airline, now it has taken up some (most) of Swissair's medium and long haul flights. That is, those that actually made money.
The plane flew too low and ended up flying into a forest in Birchwil, which is a few kilometres from the end of runway 28, the shortest of ZRH's 3 runways (it is 2.5 km long, the others are 3.3 and 3.5 kilometres long). According to the CVR, it appears to have been an accident. At least partially responsible were noise regulations forcing airliners to land on a runway that was not IFR equipped during poor visibility, though the pilot should have been capable of performing this procedure safely.
No, I do not work for an airline. Or for an airport. I happen to know this because Birchwil is about 2-3 km from where I live.
The burden of proof should lie with he or she who is amking the extraordinary claim, not with the unbeliever who refuses to accept that claim without evidence. If you want me to believe that you or anyone else has psychokinetic or telepathic abilities, then not only do you have provide a convincing PUBLIC demonstration thereof (double blind and fully open to the scientific process) but you also have to allow for some physical measurement, so we know it isn't just a trick. I do not consider myself qualified to judge on such an experiment, so I will wait until you get a reputable source to confirm the veracity of such findings before I'd personally even consider believing. Point me out a scientific, REPUTABLE source which claims it has evidence of supernatural occurences and then I may take you seriously.
EU (European actually, since all European countries have them, even those not in the EU) ID cards do not have biometrics. I am looking at mine right now, so I can say this with relative security. They have precisely the same as you'd find on a passport: name (machine type + hand written), photo, date of birth, place of origin, eye colour + height, place and date of issue and expiry date.
They do NOT (well, mine does not) have your address, your fingerprints, medical or criminal records or anything really personal. Unless you consider your height, eye colour or a photo of your face to be particularly personal.
Finally, you are not obliged to have one. The serve primarily as a more convenient replacement of a passport. You can use other forms of state ID to the same effect (passport, drivers license). I had to apply for mine, the process is similar to that of a passport application, but doesn't take as long and is cheaper.
Also, I haven't been asked for my ID by any police officers doing 'random' checks, the *only* time I've ever needed to show it is when I crossed the border. And then only when the border police actually bothered to check it.
It doesn't matter how much the person actually considers themselves to be doing, but rather how much this is worth to other people.
For the record, yes I think actors are overpaid. As long as the film industry is ready to overpay them, they will continue to be overpaid.
And capitalism perfect for real people. Real people who want the best for themselves, like everyone does, including yourself. People are much more willing to work towards something when they can see tangible results, rather than some slight percentual increase that can hardly be attributed to any individual effort. Regrettably, perfect people do not exist. If they did, economic systems would hardly be necessary at all, depending on just how you define a perfect person. What is perfection? Working for nothing? That's selflessness, but from a subjective point of view, selfnessless does not necessarily achieve anything, unless you can gain favour from others through it, in which case, selfnessless is preferable only if the favour exceeds the expense. As perfection in human beings is a purely subjective, ie unquantifiable and indeterminable by experimentation or measurement, the assumption that human perfection can be arbitarily defined is false.
And then there the battle cry of social democrats, solidarity. Solidarity means supporting everyone else at the cost of yourself, with the presumable goal of having everyone in the same or at least similar social/financial position. So it boils down to a simple ideological question: Should what you get out be proportional to what you put in, or should you get out the same amount as everyone else, regardless of how much they contributed, if indeed they contributed anything at all?
BTW:
Total BS. It has a lot to do with human nature and absolutely nothing to do with population growth. Even at it's most primitive stages of social (but not biological) development, humans expressed the drive for material wealth and dominance over others, which one would attribute to greed.
Bad design? How do you design a railway that is immune to sabotage?! Have you ever seen a railway before?
It's worth noting that DB runs ICE (InterCity Express) locomotives/rolling stock that reaches speeds in excess of 300 km/h. At that speed, derailing the train could not only kill hundereds of passengers, but also do seriously damage anything the trains hits as well.
Derailing trucks carrying radioactive material, which is, I believe, the aim of these documents (I haven't read them, though I can read German) and this is quite dangerous. Although the said rolling stock is designed to withstand collisions, it's stupid to take risks like that for no reason. And the people doing this call themselves environmentalists. Presumably, derailing a train would be a big propaganda victory for them (Look! Evil RADIOACTIVE TOXIC DANGEROUS-TO-CHILDREN stuff is crashing! Stop it now! Before it's too late!) It wouldn't solve any ecological purpose. Of course, who would have thought Greenpeace would do something just for the PR...
That being said, I still don't think the site should be taken down, unless it is actively inciting people to destroy or mutilate tracks.
Here in Zurich, we have trams. Yes, trams, the train-like things that run in the middle of the street on 1 metre gauge track, with ugly wires hanging everywhere. On the other hand we, have have pretty fast commuter trains (S-Bahn/RER, as seen in most European cities) that are reasonably clean and usually on time. Except when it snows. Then nothing is on time.
I thought the Canary Wharf area had some of the newer subway facilities anyway? Britons talk so very negatively of their public transport system. Is it that bad?
NB: I have never ridden a subway system before. Neither Zurich nor Melbourne (where I lived earlier on) has such a system. Anyone who regulary rides both willing to comment which they prefer, LRT/tram or subway?
NASA developed no such space pen. That is an urban legend.
I very much doubt that is true, though I couldn't find anythink on Google over it. Though many of the self-appointed middle eastern "royalty" are cynical and corrupt, I doubt that they'd go that far, openly flouting the religous beliefs so strongly held in the Arabian Peninsula. I doubt that'd be considered ethically acceptable even in the most liberal of countries.
Do either of them include GCC 3.x?
I ask because it is especially difficult to upgrade from gcc 2.x, I don't want to recompile every C++ program...
An antidote for the A-Bomb?!
How do you create an antidote for a weapon?
I think you mean an "antidote" for radiation poisoning.