Re:If you aren't lazy, A BICYCLE IS FASTER.
on
This is IT?
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· Score: 1
How often do you need a 0 turning radius? I doubt any store would let people ride them around inside (the liability issues alone would kill that idea). Also, every workplace and store would have to accomidate these devices with lock-ups, etc. I don't see it happening without a major cultural shift.
As for learning how to ride a bike and shift gears even little kids manage to figure that out.
The problem with this replacing the wheelchair is that it requires being able to stand up to use it. A redesign with a large seat and 4 wheels that will allow a handicapped person to wiggle their way onto it would have to be made but that would probably defeat the intent of the product (small size, low energy costs).
If the atheletes are just the products of R&D then they shouldn't get the awards, they should march out the research teams to the podium. Hell, all the Gulf War parades should've consisted of electrical engineers and physicists.
"And the winner of the 100M dash, MERCK!, 2nd place goes to SCHERING-PLOUGH!"
How do you decide that a person is naturally genetically different but OK to compete and someone else has been artificially altered and not OK? If I'm born with a mutation that causes more twitch muscle fibers to naturally grow should I be allowed to compete but the guy who has the gene implanted cannot?
I've always thought it was an incredible waste of one's life to dedicate it to jumping across sand pits (long jump) or seeing how fast someone can run. How about putting all that research and energy into something useful like mental performance? We could have speed adding! Regurgitating pi! Bug free coding challenges!
The big difference is that a puppet or a cartoon character is clearly not human and isn't being passed off as anything but a cartoon/puppet. Hollywood will try to pass off CGI models as humans.
Well, guess I'll watch my phony actors in my virtual reality display while taking my placebos and eating my artificially flavored food.
In 1984 they had computers producing the plots to pornographic books. I guess in the 21st century we'll have computers pumping out committee generated characters.
Actually Disney is doing this already...
1. Handsome and athletic young male leading character who doesn't resemble his ethnic character.
2. Beautiful, skinny young female love interest who doesn't resemble her ethnic character.
3. Wacky, sarcastic animal sidekick.
4. Ugly and mindless evil antagonist who does resemble his/her ethnic character.
How crappy can tv/movies get before people turn it off? The lower limit seems to be unbounded.
The owners of the character will play the role that the agent does now for a real actor. They can license the character to movie makers and demand higher prices as it gets popular. I hope the movie companies don't keep any illegal copies of the software though! Thanks DMCA!
Re:The theories does not fitt or is it the messure
on
Giant Black Hole Found
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· Score: 1
You can measure their density based on how objects orbit them.
The kid obviously has the first goat powered linux box on a C64.
First he gets the goat going on the treadmill that powers the dynamo. Then he takes each ip packet and writes it down, mails it, Katz types them in, gets the replies, writes them down, then mails them back whereupon this guy types them into his machine and voila! High speed goat-herder porn!
I guess they have a passion for shows that don't bear the slightest resemblance to anything they recognize.
If the US' ultimate objective is to get a world of Brittany Spears fans watching the same crappy shows and the same crappy movies endlessly consuming junk they don't need then living in the mountains doesn't look so bad after all. Guess the US won't be happy until Time-Warner-Microsoft-Viacom-Disney is happy.
Why have a spiritual life when you can obscess about what team of millionaires is going to win some pointless championship? Who needs a meaningful life when you have T&A on the TV. Just let pop culture bandage over that hole in your soul!
Why focus on religious fundamentalism when you have a corporatacracy keeping the lid on too much freedom. It isn't churches who control information, culture, and access to government anymore.
How does shipping a tape recorder qualify as terrorism? How would it even be illegal? (assuming you weren't using it to violate state recording laws) Sounds like the definition of terrorism is getting pretty loose these days.
At a certain point the cost of shipping something as heavy as a pallet is going to be more than the cost of the thing being shipped! Those things are heavy.
You are correct that corporations are made of people, us. But most of the power in these organizations lies in the hands of a very small group. This is obvious every time a CEO gets a million dollar bonus the same year they layoff thousands of workers or take a huge loss.
The problem with "cash out your 401(k)" is that we are in a system that doesn't allow for immediate escape except by self-martyrdom. Look at the old coal towns of West Virginia. The workers lived in company towns, bought from company stores, etc. Costs of products were carefully set so the employees were just barely getting by. They weren't starving and had a roof over their heads so they weren't driven to desperation but they had a sense that they were being squeezed like fruit. Didn't like the prices at the store? Well there was no place else to go. Thought you deserved better pay? Were else could you work? All the coalmine owners were in collusion. And if you tried to assert yourself via unionization then the reply was with hired thugs and troops. Even the government turned it's back on you and called you an anarchist while the politicians dined with the mine owners.
So go ahead and try to escape the petroleum industry, but since most companies have moved to the suburbs you'd better have strong legs. The food you buy probably isn't locally grown anymore so you'll be keeping trucks on the roads just eating. Try avoiding credit card companies and their debt boosting policies when many sellers require credit cards. Wish company X was more responsible to the public? They can just pack up and move to a country that doesn't care. Want to try pulling your 401(k)? Good luck getting help from the government in your old age or affording wallet busting healthcare.
So what can we do? Well, we can start by simplifying our lives. Don't buy the house that is bigger than you need with the huge mortgage. Don't buy the $30K SUV when all you need is a commuter-mobile. If the economy doesn't endlessly grow like gangbusters accept it and live with less. Save some money instead of endlessly buying junk you don't need. Try making more of the goals in your life nonmaterial ones. There is a huge difference between what we want and what we need and what we need isn't much.
Self-Determination vs Corporatization
on
Defining Globalism
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· Score: 1
Globalization is the quasi-religious faith in the wisdom of the market taken to it's next level. We (and the rest of the world) are slowly handing over control of our culture, environment, laws, and markets to a spiderweb of treaties and economic "carrot & stick" threats.
Democratic governments are no more special in such a system than any dictatorship. Don't want to allow certain trade goods into your country? Sorry, can't say no or you risk economic isolation. What if your culture is opposed to blatant displays of sexuality? Tough, the market will choose your culture. Want to vote to change environmental rules in an industry? Nope, we're bound by treaties, so much for the voice of the people.
Granted trade agreements and economic treaties have existed before but we've never bound ourselves so thoroughly to an intricate system as this. It is no wonder that the British voters are reluctant to jump into the European Union. They can vote for their government but they'd have no voice in Brussels.
Economic growth has to have a point, it should not be an end to itself, something people seem to have forgotten. We are a very comfortable (aka spoiled) people already, why are we now allowing ourselves to be plugged into this? Unless you are a corporate boss you ultimately have more to lose from this than to gain.
Slashdot Mirror
How often do you need a 0 turning radius? I doubt any store would let people ride them around inside (the liability issues alone would kill that idea). Also, every workplace and store would have to accomidate these devices with lock-ups, etc. I don't see it happening without a major cultural shift.
As for learning how to ride a bike and shift gears even little kids manage to figure that out.
The problem with this replacing the wheelchair is that it requires being able to stand up to use it. A redesign with a large seat and 4 wheels that will allow a handicapped person to wiggle their way onto it would have to be made but that would probably defeat the intent of the product (small size, low energy costs).
If the atheletes are just the products of R&D then they shouldn't get the awards, they should march out the research teams to the podium. Hell, all the Gulf War parades should've consisted of electrical engineers and physicists.
"And the winner of the 100M dash, MERCK!, 2nd place goes to SCHERING-PLOUGH!"
How do you decide that a person is naturally genetically different but OK to compete and someone else has been artificially altered and not OK? If I'm born with a mutation that causes more twitch muscle fibers to naturally grow should I be allowed to compete but the guy who has the gene implanted cannot?
I've always thought it was an incredible waste of one's life to dedicate it to jumping across sand pits (long jump) or seeing how fast someone can run. How about putting all that research and energy into something useful like mental performance? We could have speed adding! Regurgitating pi! Bug free coding challenges!
Unless they modify your personality also you'll only win the gold medal for "one handed typing"
The big difference is that a puppet or a cartoon character is clearly not human and isn't being passed off as anything but a cartoon/puppet. Hollywood will try to pass off CGI models as humans.
Well, guess I'll watch my phony actors in my virtual reality display while taking my placebos and eating my artificially flavored food.
In 1984 they had computers producing the plots to pornographic books. I guess in the 21st century we'll have computers pumping out committee generated characters.
Actually Disney is doing this already...
1. Handsome and athletic young male leading character who doesn't resemble his ethnic character.
2. Beautiful, skinny young female love interest who doesn't resemble her ethnic character.
3. Wacky, sarcastic animal sidekick.
4. Ugly and mindless evil antagonist who does resemble his/her ethnic character.
How crappy can tv/movies get before people turn it off? The lower limit seems to be unbounded.
I thought most actors were artificial already. Just look at Sylvester Stallone's acting, he is obviously not human.
The owners of the character will play the role that the agent does now for a real actor. They can license the character to movie makers and demand higher prices as it gets popular. I hope the movie companies don't keep any illegal copies of the software though! Thanks DMCA!
You can measure their density based on how objects orbit them.
I hear a giant sucking sound and it isn't coming from Mexico! [ref. Ross Perot]
"Apple is still a company"? Judging from many of it's past business decisions I'd say not for long. ;)
Or they could rename it "LINUXRULES" and no /.'r would ever have the heart to delete it.
The kid obviously has the first goat powered linux box on a C64.
First he gets the goat going on the treadmill that powers the dynamo. Then he takes each ip packet and writes it down, mails it, Katz types them in, gets the replies, writes them down, then mails them back whereupon this guy types them into his machine and voila! High speed goat-herder porn!
I guess they have a passion for shows that don't bear the slightest resemblance to anything they recognize.
If the US' ultimate objective is to get a world of Brittany Spears fans watching the same crappy shows and the same crappy movies endlessly consuming junk they don't need then living in the mountains doesn't look so bad after all. Guess the US won't be happy until Time-Warner-Microsoft-Viacom-Disney is happy.
Why have a spiritual life when you can obscess about what team of millionaires is going to win some pointless championship? Who needs a meaningful life when you have T&A on the TV. Just let pop culture bandage over that hole in your soul!
Why focus on religious fundamentalism when you have a corporatacracy keeping the lid on too much freedom. It isn't churches who control information, culture, and access to government anymore.
You leave work and you call yourself an IT guy?
How does shipping a tape recorder qualify as terrorism? How would it even be illegal? (assuming you weren't using it to violate state recording laws) Sounds like the definition of terrorism is getting pretty loose these days.
And Jon Ashcroft is personally arresting people?
You'd end up with a box containing a broken camera and/or a busted tape-recorder.
So THAT'S what happened to that deer urine I ordered!!!!!
At a certain point the cost of shipping something as heavy as a pallet is going to be more than the cost of the thing being shipped! Those things are heavy.
I wonder what UPS employees use for their own shipping and do they punch themselves when they trash their own shipments?
You are correct that corporations are made of people, us. But most of the power in these organizations lies in the hands of a very small group. This is obvious every time a CEO gets a million dollar bonus the same year they layoff thousands of workers or take a huge loss.
The problem with "cash out your 401(k)" is that we are in a system that doesn't allow for immediate escape except by self-martyrdom. Look at the old coal towns of West Virginia. The workers lived in company towns, bought from company stores, etc. Costs of products were carefully set so the employees were just barely getting by. They weren't starving and had a roof over their heads so they weren't driven to desperation but they had a sense that they were being squeezed like fruit. Didn't like the prices at the store? Well there was no place else to go. Thought you deserved better pay? Were else could you work? All the coalmine owners were in collusion. And if you tried to assert yourself via unionization then the reply was with hired thugs and troops. Even the government turned it's back on you and called you an anarchist while the politicians dined with the mine owners.
So go ahead and try to escape the petroleum industry, but since most companies have moved to the suburbs you'd better have strong legs. The food you buy probably isn't locally grown anymore so you'll be keeping trucks on the roads just eating. Try avoiding credit card companies and their debt boosting policies when many sellers require credit cards. Wish company X was more responsible to the public? They can just pack up and move to a country that doesn't care. Want to try pulling your 401(k)? Good luck getting help from the government in your old age or affording wallet busting healthcare.
So what can we do? Well, we can start by simplifying our lives. Don't buy the house that is bigger than you need with the huge mortgage. Don't buy the $30K SUV when all you need is a commuter-mobile. If the economy doesn't endlessly grow like gangbusters accept it and live with less. Save some money instead of endlessly buying junk you don't need. Try making more of the goals in your life nonmaterial ones. There is a huge difference between what we want and what we need and what we need isn't much.
Globalization is the quasi-religious faith in the wisdom of the market taken to it's next level. We (and the rest of the world) are slowly handing over control of our culture, environment, laws, and markets to a spiderweb of treaties and economic "carrot & stick" threats.
Democratic governments are no more special in such a system than any dictatorship. Don't want to allow certain trade goods into your country? Sorry, can't say no or you risk economic isolation. What if your culture is opposed to blatant displays of sexuality? Tough, the market will choose your culture. Want to vote to change environmental rules in an industry? Nope, we're bound by treaties, so much for the voice of the people.
Granted trade agreements and economic treaties have existed before but we've never bound ourselves so thoroughly to an intricate system as this. It is no wonder that the British voters are reluctant to jump into the European Union. They can vote for their government but they'd have no voice in Brussels.
Economic growth has to have a point, it should not be an end to itself, something people seem to have forgotten. We are a very comfortable (aka spoiled) people already, why are we now allowing ourselves to be plugged into this? Unless you are a corporate boss you ultimately have more to lose from this than to gain.