Inaction is a different thing. But what action do you suggest? The only way to prevent those conflicts would have been to maintain the colonial system of white government on black Africa. The wars and famines were a consequence of independence (which itself was a consequnce of WWII).
I'm not sure if that makes me an optimist or not, but it is a suckers bet, since if you win I probably won't be around to pay you.
I was waiting for someone to point that out.
I also notice that you bring up the Spanish Influenza. Will this technology get cheap enough for the next Anthrax mail attacker to perhaps use some bug like that or worse? (A side point: Am I the only one to have noticed that the anthrax mailings where sent to Democrats and to liberal media institutions? The mailings to the Democrats especially seemed to be engineered to put the Senate back in Republican control after the Jeffords defection.) Predicting the course of future technology is a crazy game of course. It's possible that we won't have miracle cures or doomsday genetic weapons by the end of the century. But things could also happen at a pace that we can't imagine now.
Anybody willing to make a bet with me on whether more people will be killed by genetically engineered weapons than are saved by genetically engineered cures during the 21st century?
The man of the million email addresses replies: Are they confirming MD5s in person, or over the phone, or by other electronic means? You have yet to master the art of paranoia, grasshopper.
Probably not a wounded friend. Wounded meal, maybe.
4 types of DNA from a European area that old is quite a find however. I'm interested to see how they are all related to each other and to us today. I'm also interested to see whether they can be used to re-run the tests for Neanderthal DNA.
Ladies and gentlmen of the jury, I'm just a caveman. I fell on some ice and later got thawed out by some of your scientists. Your world frightens and confuses me! Sometimes the honking horns of your traffic makes me want to get out of my BMW and run off to the hills or whatever. Sometimes when I get a message on my fax machine I wonder, Did little demons get inside and type it? I don't know! My primitive mind can't grasp these concepts. But there is one thing I do know. When a man like my client slips and falls on a sidewalk in front of a public library, then he is entitled to no less than two million in compensatory damages and two million in punitive damages. Thank you.
Suggestion #1: Don't ever post your problem to slashdot! They'll know you're a hacker.
#2: Feign absolute cluelessness about how this stuff works. Find an outside expert to give a second opinion.
#3: Call a lawyer at the first hint of legal trouble.
#4: If you're worried about your next job, the very best thing to do would probably be to find that outside expert I mentioned, and get him to write a note describing how the incompetents at your previous job completely misinterpreted all the data and picked you as a scapegoat because they didn't want to spend money correcting the flaws in their own system. If that isn't your style, there are legal ways to go after your previous boss for wrongful termination, but I'd be surprised if that actually had a positive effect on your future career.
Just imagine how much fun a land invasion route would have been during the Cold War. Both sides would have just loved that. Still, it would be very fun to be able to be able to drive from New York to London.
My comment was meant mostly in jest. But I'm not sure that you're right. Microsoft does have a patent portfolio, but it doesn't guarantee anything in the current system. Patent lawsuits are like gambling, and settlements against Microsoft are going to be far larger than any settlement against Microsoft's competitors. Moreover, I thought that Microsoft's monopoly was almost completely independent of software patents -- so they don't gain much. Microsoft will act to stop the chaos. The next judgment could stop them from selling Windows or Office even. That kind of chaos is terrible for the companies on the top who are mainly concerned about stability.
First off, you actually read this discussion?
I thought that I was just trolling back a troll here.
And yeah, it was partly a joke. But it really is just a figure of speech. The 1960's attitude of changing the roots of language to root out evil thoughts of the white, male dominated, theist culture that developed it (he --> he/she type stuff) was stupid then and it's just silly now. Meaning trumps form, you see.
I've heard them addressed on the news as "the Congressman from Puerto Rico" or what not. I'm not sure if that was how they were supposed to be addressed or not, but I've certainly heard it used that way. You're right that they aren't Congressmen. In fact, some states would lose Congressmen if Puerto Rico were ever to become a state because of the 435 limit, I believe.
This is the best news that I've heard for a while.
Why, you ask?
Because, my friends, Microsoft is now going to spends billions to kill the current patent system. They're going to buy every Congressman from Alaska to Puerto Rico to shut this scam down. Bill Gates is going to spend so much on politicians that they'll still be standing in line to give him blow jobs twenty years from now. After Microsoft is finished, the only debate will be whether to use the patent authority building for Total Information Awareness Headquarters or turn it into a Fritz Chip manufacturing plant.
Why did you bring it up? America has a birth rate that is higher than replacement level. If we are talking about America (which is, as I said, is all I'm talking about), what does this have to do with the topic at hand?
Let me try to do this simply:
Thrasymachus: "The West has stopped having children. In a hundred years, our current free society will have been completely replaced in a way far more thorough than the Roman Empire was replaced."
Indead: "Why? Give me facts, not hyperbole."
Thrasymachus: "The American fertility rate is 2.08. The non-Hispanic white American fertility rate is 1.84 (in 1998, I believe from the same CDC study that found the total 2.08 figure). That's far better than the European rate of 1.4. Japan has a worse rate than either. Now, in Japan, population decline will probably stop well before population hits zero. And because Japan is not importing vast numbers of immigrants to solve its population problem, it will probably maintain its culture. The problems it will face because of population decline will be primarily economic. In the U.S., it is the Hispanic birth rate that almost entirely makes up for the sub-replacement white birthrate. By 2050, the majority white American population will be a minority and still shrinking. I don't have a problem with Hispanic culture. But I'm not eager to see it replace my own. (Utah is the big exception to the American demographic trend with a fertility rate of 2.71 -- Mormons, you know. Without Mormons, the white trend would be far bleaker.) Moreover, immigration not only increases population, but immigrants currently bring with them a far higher birth rate than our current one. The comparative immigration to native birth rate ratio is far higher than it has ever been in America (since Columbus, that is). And we all know how much fun the natives had after Columbus. In Europe, of course, the demographic picture is far worse. And Europe is importing the difference from the Islamic world. There is no word for it but replacement. And it's a demographic event that is completely unprecedented. "
What does immigration and birth rates have to do with the "death of freedom"?
Once our civilization replaced by Hispanics is America, and Muslims in Europe, it will have many of the characteristics of those cultures. They do not seem to be very good at running free countires.
Thrasymachus: Now you accuse me of being negative towards Hispanic culture.
Indead: Where do I do that?
Thrasymachus: Why should that make me eager to have Hispanic culture replace my own culture? I'm an atheist for God's sake.
Indead: My comment was that you shouldn't look negatively on Hispanic culture... I assummed you would react at least somewhat positively to a culture that also embraces the morality that you say you would fight for.
Indead (misquoting himself):
In fact, I made quite the opposite assumption : that you would approve of hispanic culture since earlier in the thread you said you would fight for a culture that had Christian morality. I assummed that meant that you would look well on Hispanic culture since it shares those value that you would fight for.
This was before you declared that you don't care if a culture is Christian or not, since your an Atheist
When did I say this? Read carefully:
Thrasymachus: I don't have a problem with Hispanic culture. But I'm not eager to see it replace my own.
Indead: Why? Hispanic culture is more strongly rooted in devout Christianity than the average European culture.
Thrasymachus:
Why should that make me eager to have Hispanic culture replace my own culture? I'm an atheist for God's sake.
I live in a very multicultural neighborhood in suburban Maryland... The melting pot still exists. I see it's effects every day.
I live in a very very multicultural neighborhood in New Mexico, I work in a town that speaks mostly Spanish. I deal with illega
I think that is part of it. But I'd be surprised if that were the whole issue. If it were, then most outsourcing would go to other states, not other countries.
We were talking about replacement because of population decline. I brought up Japan because it was an example of a population that will not be replaced despite declining birth rate. And I also pointed out the reason that it will not be replaced: no immigration. I fail to see why I need to explain this in detail to you, it's obvious from reading the post.
You claim that we "were not talking about 'cultural pressure'. We were talking about birth rate."
Yet in the quote that started this discussion:
"In a hundred years, our current free society will have been completely replaced in a way far more thorough than the Roman Empire was replaced. The current freedom is already dead on its feet.
Why? Give me facts, not hyperbole. "
Sounds to me like we are talking about cultural replacement. So I brought up Japan to buttress my other points.
Now you accuse me of being negative towards Hispanic culture. I do not look negatively on Hispanic culture, as I've said before. Why do you think I do? I simply do not wish it to replace my own culture. I would imagine that Hispanics feel the same way, in fact I know they do. They go to great lengths to preserve their culture from the current majority culture here. Moreover, please note that Christian morality is part of culture, not the entire culture, as I hardly thought that I needed to point out.
As for the melting pot, it no longer exists. The expression "melting pot" was originated to describe the assimilation of (white European) immigrants into American culture. What we've got now is a salad bowl where no assimilation takes place.
You say American culture doesn't exist. But it has existed for centuries. We've been a white European nation with a white European culture speaking English.
You bring up the idea that we are a "proposition nation," to use the frequent term. But we're not a nation based on ideology - that's what the Soviet Union was. I'll point you to a good article by Zmirak on the subject. I'd also recommend Peter Brimelow's article, Time to Rethink Immigration. Look under the subheading: What is a Nation?
And finally, I see where you misunderstood me on the "birth rate ratio" comment. I was comparing the 1890-1920 immigration wave to the current post-1965 one. I worded it badly however, so let me put it this way: Without further immigration our population should be around 300 million by 2050. With immigration it will be about 500 million. Those numbers are far worse if you look at the post-1965 wave in its entirety. In the 1890-1920 wave, almost 40% of the immigrants went home eventually (compared to 10% today). Moreover, the population size due to 1890-1920 immigration was small compared to the population size due to natural growth. Now that our population is not growing fast at all, except for recent immigrants, new immigrants, and children of immigrants, the ratio of immigrants and recent immigrants to the rest of society is large and growing. Hence the replacement issue.
That is perfectly true. However, it begs the question: should Californian employee benefits have to compete with Indian benefits? Unless you are suggesting that Californians live like they are in the third world in order to make their labor competitive, out-sourcing will remain a problem. Out-sourcing is a problem in all U.S. states, not just California. The solution of working for less money and less benefits isn't a solution at all.
Slashdot Mirror
If you make a joke now, then the terrorists have already won.
You think that Korea is the model for UN action? I seem to remember something about 54,246 U.S. war dead.
Quantum physics is random. Just pop an electron through a slit and measure its deflection. There's random for you.
Inaction is a different thing. But what action do you suggest? The only way to prevent those conflicts would have been to maintain the colonial system of white government on black Africa. The wars and famines were a consequence of independence (which itself was a consequnce of WWII).
It's probably bad hardware if it's not drivers. Try running memtest.
I'd be really surprised. The World Wars alone wiped out quite a large number of people.
I'm not sure if that makes me an optimist or not, but it is a suckers bet, since if you win I probably won't be around to pay you.
I was waiting for someone to point that out.
I also notice that you bring up the Spanish Influenza. Will this technology get cheap enough for the next Anthrax mail attacker to perhaps use some bug like that or worse? (A side point: Am I the only one to have noticed that the anthrax mailings where sent to Democrats and to liberal media institutions? The mailings to the Democrats especially seemed to be engineered to put the Senate back in Republican control after the Jeffords defection.) Predicting the course of future technology is a crazy game of course. It's possible that we won't have miracle cures or doomsday genetic weapons by the end of the century. But things could also happen at a pace that we can't imagine now.
Anybody willing to make a bet with me on whether more people will be killed by genetically engineered weapons than are saved by genetically engineered cures during the 21st century?
He had a love interest the first time around too. That turned out real well for her and her infant child.
The man of the million email addresses replies: Are they confirming MD5s in person, or over the phone, or by other electronic means? You have yet to master the art of paranoia, grasshopper.
Sure, I've got the "correct" MD5s right here. You trust me, don't you?
After drivers, I wonder how many crashes are caused by bad hardware, especially bad memory.
And I notice that this is the figure for "MS Windows" crashes. I wonder how much better Windows XP would fare just by itself.
Oh yes, definitely a modern man. But I meant that I'd like some further confirmation that there was no Neanderthal hybridization in Europe.
Probably not a wounded friend. Wounded meal, maybe.
4 types of DNA from a European area that old is quite a find however. I'm interested to see how they are all related to each other and to us today. I'm also interested to see whether they can be used to re-run the tests for Neanderthal DNA.
Ladies and gentlmen of the jury, I'm just a caveman. I fell on some ice and later got thawed out by some of your scientists. Your world frightens and confuses me! Sometimes the honking horns of your traffic makes me want to get out of my BMW and run off to the hills or whatever. Sometimes when I get a message on my fax machine I wonder, Did little demons get inside and type it? I don't know! My primitive mind can't grasp these concepts. But there is one thing I do know. When a man like my client slips and falls on a sidewalk in front of a public library, then he is entitled to no less than two million in compensatory damages and two million in punitive damages. Thank you.
Suggestion #1: Don't ever post your problem to slashdot! They'll know you're a hacker.
#2: Feign absolute cluelessness about how this stuff works. Find an outside expert to give a second opinion.
#3: Call a lawyer at the first hint of legal trouble.
#4: If you're worried about your next job, the very best thing to do would probably be to find that outside expert I mentioned, and get him to write a note describing how the incompetents at your previous job completely misinterpreted all the data and picked you as a scapegoat because they didn't want to spend money correcting the flaws in their own system. If that isn't your style, there are legal ways to go after your previous boss for wrongful termination, but I'd be surprised if that actually had a positive effect on your future career.
Just imagine how much fun a land invasion route would have been during the Cold War. Both sides would have just loved that. Still, it would be very fun to be able to be able to drive from New York to London.
My comment was meant mostly in jest. But I'm not sure that you're right. Microsoft does have a patent portfolio, but it doesn't guarantee anything in the current system. Patent lawsuits are like gambling, and settlements against Microsoft are going to be far larger than any settlement against Microsoft's competitors. Moreover, I thought that Microsoft's monopoly was almost completely independent of software patents -- so they don't gain much. Microsoft will act to stop the chaos. The next judgment could stop them from selling Windows or Office even. That kind of chaos is terrible for the companies on the top who are mainly concerned about stability.
First off, you actually read this discussion? I thought that I was just trolling back a troll here.
And yeah, it was partly a joke. But it really is just a figure of speech. The 1960's attitude of changing the roots of language to root out evil thoughts of the white, male dominated, theist culture that developed it (he --> he/she type stuff) was stupid then and it's just silly now. Meaning trumps form, you see.
I've heard them addressed on the news as "the Congressman from Puerto Rico" or what not. I'm not sure if that was how they were supposed to be addressed or not, but I've certainly heard it used that way. You're right that they aren't Congressmen. In fact, some states would lose Congressmen if Puerto Rico were ever to become a state because of the 435 limit, I believe.
This is the best news that I've heard for a while.
Why, you ask?
Because, my friends, Microsoft is now going to spends billions to kill the current patent system. They're going to buy every Congressman from Alaska to Puerto Rico to shut this scam down. Bill Gates is going to spend so much on politicians that they'll still be standing in line to give him blow jobs twenty years from now. After Microsoft is finished, the only debate will be whether to use the patent authority building for Total Information Awareness Headquarters or turn it into a Fritz Chip manufacturing plant.
Why did you bring it up? America has a birth rate that is higher than replacement level. If we are talking about America (which is, as I said, is all I'm talking about), what does this have to do with the topic at hand?
Let me try to do this simply:
Thrasymachus: "The West has stopped having children. In a hundred years, our current free society will have been completely replaced in a way far more thorough than the Roman Empire was replaced."
Indead: "Why? Give me facts, not hyperbole."
Thrasymachus: "The American fertility rate is 2.08. The non-Hispanic white American fertility rate is 1.84 (in 1998, I believe from the same CDC study that found the total 2.08 figure). That's far better than the European rate of 1.4. Japan has a worse rate than either. Now, in Japan, population decline will probably stop well before population hits zero. And because Japan is not importing vast numbers of immigrants to solve its population problem, it will probably maintain its culture. The problems it will face because of population decline will be primarily economic. In the U.S., it is the Hispanic birth rate that almost entirely makes up for the sub-replacement white birthrate. By 2050, the majority white American population will be a minority and still shrinking. I don't have a problem with Hispanic culture. But I'm not eager to see it replace my own. (Utah is the big exception to the American demographic trend with a fertility rate of 2.71 -- Mormons, you know. Without Mormons, the white trend would be far bleaker.) Moreover, immigration not only increases population, but immigrants currently bring with them a far higher birth rate than our current one. The comparative immigration to native birth rate ratio is far higher than it has ever been in America (since Columbus, that is). And we all know how much fun the natives had after Columbus. In Europe, of course, the demographic picture is far worse. And Europe is importing the difference from the Islamic world. There is no word for it but replacement. And it's a demographic event that is completely unprecedented. "
What does immigration and birth rates have to do with the "death of freedom"?
Once our civilization replaced by Hispanics is America, and Muslims in Europe, it will have many of the characteristics of those cultures. They do not seem to be very good at running free countires.
Thrasymachus: Now you accuse me of being negative towards Hispanic culture.
Indead: Where do I do that?
Thrasymachus: Why should that make me eager to have Hispanic culture replace my own culture? I'm an atheist for God's sake.
Indead: My comment was that you shouldn't look negatively on Hispanic culture... I assummed you would react at least somewhat positively to a culture that also embraces the morality that you say you would fight for.
Indead (misquoting himself): In fact, I made quite the opposite assumption : that you would approve of hispanic culture since earlier in the thread you said you would fight for a culture that had Christian morality. I assummed that meant that you would look well on Hispanic culture since it shares those value that you would fight for.
This was before you declared that you don't care if a culture is Christian or not, since your an Atheist
When did I say this? Read carefully:
Thrasymachus: I don't have a problem with Hispanic culture. But I'm not eager to see it replace my own.
Indead: Why? Hispanic culture is more strongly rooted in devout Christianity than the average European culture. Thrasymachus: Why should that make me eager to have Hispanic culture replace my own culture? I'm an atheist for God's sake.
I live in a very multicultural neighborhood in suburban Maryland... The melting pot still exists. I see it's effects every day.
I live in a very very multicultural neighborhood in New Mexico, I work in a town that speaks mostly Spanish. I deal with illega
I think that is part of it. But I'd be surprised if that were the whole issue. If it were, then most outsourcing would go to other states, not other countries.
We were talking about replacement because of population decline. I brought up Japan because it was an example of a population that will not be replaced despite declining birth rate. And I also pointed out the reason that it will not be replaced: no immigration. I fail to see why I need to explain this in detail to you, it's obvious from reading the post.
You claim that we "were not talking about 'cultural pressure'. We were talking about birth rate."
Yet in the quote that started this discussion:
"In a hundred years, our current free society will have been completely replaced in a way far more thorough than the Roman Empire was replaced. The current freedom is already dead on its feet.
Why? Give me facts, not hyperbole. "
Sounds to me like we are talking about cultural replacement. So I brought up Japan to buttress my other points.
Now you accuse me of being negative towards Hispanic culture. I do not look negatively on Hispanic culture, as I've said before. Why do you think I do? I simply do not wish it to replace my own culture. I would imagine that Hispanics feel the same way, in fact I know they do. They go to great lengths to preserve their culture from the current majority culture here. Moreover, please note that Christian morality is part of culture, not the entire culture, as I hardly thought that I needed to point out.
As for the melting pot, it no longer exists. The expression "melting pot" was originated to describe the assimilation of (white European) immigrants into American culture. What we've got now is a salad bowl where no assimilation takes place.
You say American culture doesn't exist. But it has existed for centuries. We've been a white European nation with a white European culture speaking English.
You bring up the idea that we are a "proposition nation," to use the frequent term. But we're not a nation based on ideology - that's what the Soviet Union was. I'll point you to a good article by Zmirak on the subject. I'd also recommend Peter Brimelow's article, Time to Rethink Immigration. Look under the subheading: What is a Nation?
And finally, I see where you misunderstood me on the "birth rate ratio" comment. I was comparing the 1890-1920 immigration wave to the current post-1965 one. I worded it badly however, so let me put it this way: Without further immigration our population should be around 300 million by 2050. With immigration it will be about 500 million. Those numbers are far worse if you look at the post-1965 wave in its entirety. In the 1890-1920 wave, almost 40% of the immigrants went home eventually (compared to 10% today). Moreover, the population size due to 1890-1920 immigration was small compared to the population size due to natural growth. Now that our population is not growing fast at all, except for recent immigrants, new immigrants, and children of immigrants, the ratio of immigrants and recent immigrants to the rest of society is large and growing. Hence the replacement issue.
That is perfectly true. However, it begs the question: should Californian employee benefits have to compete with Indian benefits? Unless you are suggesting that Californians live like they are in the third world in order to make their labor competitive, out-sourcing will remain a problem. Out-sourcing is a problem in all U.S. states, not just California. The solution of working for less money and less benefits isn't a solution at all.