I started my Olympic boycott with the LA games, but that was because they had turned into a craptastic media-fueled 24 hr sob story/inspirational tale.
There are enough sporting events going on to fill all 24 hours with "these are the competitors, and they're OFF!" instead of 5 minutes of some prepubescent mutant's gymnastics routine followed by 55 minutes of her stirring tale of anguish and triumph, afetr a word from these sponsors.
"How did he stay in office so long if there was already evidence of corruption in 2003 and 2004?"
The same way Dan Rostenkowski did and Marion Barry and Murtha after Abscam:
"He may be a son-of-a-bitch, but he's OUR son-of-a-bitch"
Also keep in mind that he has brought home a lot of bacon to the residents of Alaska, and they probably view such minor corruption as a cross they just have to bear to get the goodies. Remember, the "bridge to nowhere" ALMOST got approved.
"Sorry I didn't understand your question. In my opinion, under a long line of cases, a copyright owner's agent's making a copy for himself would NOT satisfy the third prong."
How does that fit with established law governing drug distribution arrests for a sting where the drugs were ONLY distributed to an undercover police officer? Could it no be argued that she *believed* she was distributing to the public, regardless of MediaSentry's actual standing?
"The/. crowd is pretty savvy, but surveys have shown that over 50% of Internet users, especially overseas, believe P2P content is LEGAL. I knew the Napster people, and most Napster users also believed that Napster was 100% legal."
Keep in mind that in some foreign countries they ARE legal.
"People sincerely believe all sorts of obviously wrong things all the time. 30% of Americans believe Barack Obama is a Muslim. 60-70% of Americans believe in Creationism. etc."
Belief is a funny thing, especially when there is a kernel of truth in there. I believe Obama _was_ a Muslim the same way my Dad _was_ Lutheran - he was born into the religion by nature of having at least 1 parent as a member. He converted to Catholicism about 20 years after marrying my Mom, and Dad never really practiced his religion either (still doesn't, really), but he's not going to deny it and say "No, I was never a Lutheran". The rhetorical contortions the Obama camp are going through to avoid the "M" word just feed the perception that he has something to hide.
"We develop a way to ship off significant amounts of people to colonies. Considering how fast humans reproduce, this is not likely any time soon at all. Colonies will not be a solution to population growth."
Colonies don't relieve population pressure by removing people from the populace; colonies remove people from the FUTURE populace by selectively attracting those more likely to reproduce - risk takers and the lower classes, looking for a better life. I would contend that that is why Europe's birth rate is so low - they shipped off all of the baby-makers to the US.
"It is disturbing that you think someone pointing out a problem (there is) and pointing out a solution (there is) is smug and self-righteous. The Europeans have solved this problem. If people like us cannot admit there is a problem or that there is a solution (is it really that bad that someone else found the solution?), then there can be no hope for progress. May as well go back to living without the benefits on modern life, if we are not going to be a solutions-oriented people.
Look up per-capita imprisonment rates for the U.S. if you still think there really is not a problem."
No, the Europeans haven't "solved this problem", because they don't HAVE the same problem. European nations tend to be culturally monolithic, with greater class stratification and higher welfare rates to keep the lower classes happy. For an example of how Europe deals with ethnic dissimilarity and the unsatisfied poor, look up the history of the Former Yugoslavia - that's the raw Europe under the veneer.
Also, the OP was using a situation that has NOTHING to do with his post - The US has a problem with it's justice system, but that didn't cause him to kill his wife and kid. The prison system didn't make him do it; he was at a low security prison farm, and he didn't learn how to kill there.
But hey, since the story had the words "US" and "Prison" in it, why not bring up irrelevant crap to score points? After all, it works (just like spam does).
You say you are not a psychologist, but you are making diagnoses of a person's state of mind based on his actions, and proposing that he be treated in accordance with that state of mind.
You use the term "disturbed", which you associate with "not mentally ill in the sense of a formal diagnosis". But you want to treat him as if he WAS mentally ill.
It reminds me of the phrase "drinking problem" - it covers bad habits and irresponsible behavior as well as alcoholism, yet the solution for everyone seems to be "treatment".
I disagree. He chose to take his own life - that doesn't mean he was mentally ill. If it does, that means that all of the advocates for assisted suicide are accomplices to murder.
He chose to kill others. Again, that doesn't mean he was mentally ill. People kill family members all the time and they know EXACTLY what they are doing, or are "in the heat of the moment" which implies NOT using your thought processes, be they irregular or normal.
He may well have been mentally ill - sociopathy or psychopathy comes to mind. But his murderous actions are not conclusive evidence of either.
"Thank god, somebody actually gets it. I sit here in Europe gritting my teeth at all the Americans flooding the web chatting cold-bloodedly about killing criminals or locking them away for life, with no apparent conception of the idea that people can be reformed or that punishment ought to be appropriate rather than exemplary if you want people to respect the law."
Wrong story to post this on - he was in a minimum security prison for a few years, not the Federal Pen for life.
And how exactly does one reform such a person? Maybe the same way smug self righteousnesses is cured?
"I'd rather kill myself than spend time in the pen. And since I'm God's gift to man, my family has no reason for livingh after I'm gone, so I'll take them with me."
"Wow, I have thought briefly along those lines, but to actually come out and say that you are THAT worried about your image? That you would risk brain cancer over looking dorky?
To admit that in a public forum makes you look a LOT worse than any headset possibly could, and to not recognize how insecure it makes you look--sorry dude... can't help."
Sigh - way to miss the point. THERE IS NO MEASURABLE RISK OF BRAIN CANCER FROM CELLPHONES!!! In that light, I am an order of magnitude more likely to be pushed in front of a bus by a rabid Star Trek hater than die of brain cancer due to cell phones. Depression from looking in a store window and seeing what an idiot I look like will shorten my life by maybe minutes, as opposed to the milliseconds my life will be shortened from microwave exposure.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that a cell phone transmitter (having to reach from the phone to the tower) is on the order of one watt, while your Bluetooth headset (having to reach only a few feet) is on the order of one milliwatt.
Which would you rather have up to your head?"
Well, having the cell phone to my head makes me look like I'm talking on the phone.
Having a bluetooth headset makes me look like I am talking to the voices in my head, or Dorkutis of Borg, depending on which side is seen.
So I'd rather use the phone, because the risk of brain cancer is probably an order of magnitude less than the damage to my image from using an item that is both dorky and pretentious at the same time.
Does he have ANY justification, other than "there *might* be a risk"?
So, if I tell him the sun MIGHT not come up tomorrow, will he not bother going to work? After all, I can't prove that the sun isn't coming up tomorrow - there's always some chance it won't.
"It's the same reason there are arguments in congress about a law to ban flag burning. In the past decade, the recorded case of an American burning the American flag can be counted in single digits. It's a non-problem."
Careful - one of the reasons no one has been burning flags in protest for the past 20 years is that in 1984 the Supreme Court ruled that is was freedom of speech. Prior to that, there were a lot of flags being burned at protests, because it got the protesters what they wanted - arrest and media. When it became legal, they stopped doing it - why go through all that trouble when it isn't going to get you arrested.
I think the Supreme Court was right, and that the politicians calling for a flag burning amendment are blow-hards, but let's be honest with ourselves: most protests these days are narcissistic exercises in attention gathering. Most protesters don't WANT the situation to change - they wouldn't have anything to protest.
"Here's the keys to the house, son. BTW, there's a big pit in the basement where I've been shitting for 50 years - you might want to take care of that"
"Why the hell didn't you just use the toilet, Dad?"
"I was trying to be green and not use any water. Aren't you proud of me?"
"He is not solving our energy crisis or any other technical problem. He is looking for solution to a problem which is much more sociological than technical: How do we make sure that important information is passed on to our descendants for thousands of years?
I am an engineer, and I would certainly consider the typical engineer unfit for solving this type of problems."
The issue is that he is looking at the WRONG PROBLEM. If we would implement an *engineering* solution to the problem of nuclear waste, we would have no need to communicate with those far flung future generations.
You seem to believe that engineers have a "hammer-nail" outlook - all the tools we have are engineering tools, so every every problem becomes an engineering problem. But in this case, the problem IS a nail, and the sociologist is trying to convince the wood to open a hole and accept the nail freely and openly.
If we bury that waste for future generations to deal with, all they are going to say is "why didn't those fuckers deal with this problem when they easily could have?"
"Here's the keys to the house, son. BTW, there's a big pit in the basement where I've been shitting for 50 years - you might want to take care of that" "Why the hell didn't you just use the toilet, Dad?" "I was trying to be green and not use any water. Aren't you proud of me?" "Fuck you."
Heh - my pacifist, critter loving Mom was complaining the other day about the rabbits eating her vegetable garden. I told her "Shoot 'em - it's not like we don't have enough guns around the house". She pooh-poohed the suggestion, saying that she doesn't know how to operate one, and she was too old. I pointed out that her father was blowing away groundhogs out of the back window with his double barreled shotgun well into his 70's, and they are very simple to operate, and it just so happens we have that VERY SAME shotgun in the safe.
I'm thinking the rabbit population is going to get quite a bit smaller around the R1.0 household shortly.
PS - she asked my brother to blow away a couple of rabbits, but by the time he grabbed a gun they were...occupied. He put down the gun, stating that he just couldn't kill a male while so engaged - it just seemed wrong.
"You got to love it: By day, they are mild mannered engineers. By night, they are undercover rocket scientists who are building a rocket to go to the moon! It sounds like a pulp sci-fi story."
More like a juvenile, specifically "Rocketship Galileo". About as technically infeasible as you can get, but fighting Nazi's on the Moon with an M1 Garand? AWESOME!!!
"As far as simplicity, I believe the argument is it's simpler to re-use our existing equipment and infrastructure, with minor modifications, than it is to completely re-tool. Re-use of the ground-based infrastructure, re-use of the existing booster technology, re-use, re-use, re-use. What's complex about that?"
If this were a Win7 thread you'd be crucified, for good reason. If your current product sucks, reusing it is a false economy.
Something similar here. I had spent a LOT of time translating a paper based estimating system to Excel spreadsheets while working as seconded staff to a powerplant (I wore the Owner's hardhat, but my paychecks were from a contractor). I was unceremoniously relieved of my responsibilities, which were given to an incompetent who worked for the Owner. So I copied all of my work product onto disks, proceeded to scrub my desktop and network share of any evidence that I was anywhere near the place, and then handed the disks to my *employer* - the one who signed the paychecks, not the one whose hat I wore.
Fast forward 6 months, and I get a call from the contractor. "Say, do you have copies of the files you were working on?" "Lemme check...nope, can't find them. Why?" "Well, the Owner can't seem to find any of your stuff." "That's because I scrubbed it and gave copies to my employer, aka you." "Why'd you do that?!" "You do remember the circumstances of my termination, do you not?" "Oh, yeah. Well, who exactly did you give it to?" "I gave them to you, personally - it was a stack of disks" "Ohhhh - I lost them" "Can't help you then"
What pissed me off is that I really would have sent him copies, but I had either forgotten to make personal backups or lost the disks as well.
Just keep driving. I've forgotten my laptop before, and if I worked as a company where forgetting one's laptop got one fired, I'd have been gone long ago for REAL mistakes, not just lapses in memory.
Slashdot Mirror
Porn star http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midori_(porn_star)
Japanese shibari expert and author http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midori_(author)
I started my Olympic boycott with the LA games, but that was because they had turned into a craptastic media-fueled 24 hr sob story/inspirational tale.
There are enough sporting events going on to fill all 24 hours with "these are the competitors, and they're OFF!" instead of 5 minutes of some prepubescent mutant's gymnastics routine followed by 55 minutes of her stirring tale of anguish and triumph, afetr a word from these sponsors.
"How did he stay in office so long if there was already evidence of corruption in 2003 and 2004?"
The same way Dan Rostenkowski did and Marion Barry and Murtha after Abscam:
"He may be a son-of-a-bitch, but he's OUR son-of-a-bitch"
Also keep in mind that he has brought home a lot of bacon to the residents of Alaska, and they probably view such minor corruption as a cross they just have to bear to get the goodies. Remember, the "bridge to nowhere" ALMOST got approved.
"Sorry I didn't understand your question. In my opinion, under a long line of cases, a copyright owner's agent's making a copy for himself would NOT satisfy the third prong."
How does that fit with established law governing drug distribution arrests for a sting where the drugs were ONLY distributed to an undercover police officer? Could it no be argued that she *believed* she was distributing to the public, regardless of MediaSentry's actual standing?
I ask for illumination's sake; IANAL,BIMO.
"The /. crowd is pretty savvy, but surveys have shown that over 50% of Internet users, especially overseas, believe P2P content is LEGAL. I knew the Napster people, and most Napster users also believed that Napster was 100% legal."
Keep in mind that in some foreign countries they ARE legal.
"People sincerely believe all sorts of obviously wrong things all the time. 30% of Americans believe Barack Obama is a Muslim. 60-70% of Americans believe in Creationism. etc."
Belief is a funny thing, especially when there is a kernel of truth in there. I believe Obama _was_ a Muslim the same way my Dad _was_ Lutheran - he was born into the religion by nature of having at least 1 parent as a member. He converted to Catholicism about 20 years after marrying my Mom, and Dad never really practiced his religion either (still doesn't, really), but he's not going to deny it and say "No, I was never a Lutheran". The rhetorical contortions the Obama camp are going through to avoid the "M" word just feed the perception that he has something to hide.
But the Creationists are just idiots.
"We develop a way to ship off significant amounts of people to colonies. Considering how fast humans reproduce, this is not likely any time soon at all. Colonies will not be a solution to population growth."
Colonies don't relieve population pressure by removing people from the populace; colonies remove people from the FUTURE populace by selectively attracting those more likely to reproduce - risk takers and the lower classes, looking for a better life. I would contend that that is why Europe's birth rate is so low - they shipped off all of the baby-makers to the US.
"It is disturbing that you think someone pointing out a problem (there is) and pointing out a solution (there is) is smug and self-righteous. The Europeans have solved this problem. If people like us cannot admit there is a problem or that there is a solution (is it really that bad that someone else found the solution?), then there can be no hope for progress. May as well go back to living without the benefits on modern life, if we are not going to be a solutions-oriented people.
Look up per-capita imprisonment rates for the U.S. if you still think there really is not a problem."
No, the Europeans haven't "solved this problem", because they don't HAVE the same problem. European nations tend to be culturally monolithic, with greater class stratification and higher welfare rates to keep the lower classes happy. For an example of how Europe deals with ethnic dissimilarity and the unsatisfied poor, look up the history of the Former Yugoslavia - that's the raw Europe under the veneer.
Also, the OP was using a situation that has NOTHING to do with his post - The US has a problem with it's justice system, but that didn't cause him to kill his wife and kid. The prison system didn't make him do it; he was at a low security prison farm, and he didn't learn how to kill there.
But hey, since the story had the words "US" and "Prison" in it, why not bring up irrelevant crap to score points? After all, it works (just like spam does).
You say you are not a psychologist, but you are making diagnoses of a person's state of mind based on his actions, and proposing that he be treated in accordance with that state of mind.
You use the term "disturbed", which you associate with "not mentally ill in the sense of a formal diagnosis". But you want to treat him as if he WAS mentally ill.
It reminds me of the phrase "drinking problem" - it covers bad habits and irresponsible behavior as well as alcoholism, yet the solution for everyone seems to be "treatment".
"The man was obviously deeply disturbed."
I disagree. He chose to take his own life - that doesn't mean he was mentally ill. If it does, that means that all of the advocates for assisted suicide are accomplices to murder.
He chose to kill others. Again, that doesn't mean he was mentally ill. People kill family members all the time and they know EXACTLY what they are doing, or are "in the heat of the moment" which implies NOT using your thought processes, be they irregular or normal.
He may well have been mentally ill - sociopathy or psychopathy comes to mind. But his murderous actions are not conclusive evidence of either.
"Thank god, somebody actually gets it. I sit here in Europe gritting my teeth at all the Americans flooding the web chatting cold-bloodedly about killing criminals or locking them away for life, with no apparent conception of the idea that people can be reformed or that punishment ought to be appropriate rather than exemplary if you want people to respect the law."
Wrong story to post this on - he was in a minimum security prison for a few years, not the Federal Pen for life.
And how exactly does one reform such a person? Maybe the same way smug self righteousnesses is cured?
"He also didn't deserve death for what he did; the jail time and fines/restitution was plenty."
Don't you mean his FAMILY didn't deserve death? Because whether or not he deserved it is moot - he did it to himself.
"It's the fundamental problem with being institutionalized in America: it's all about vengeance, not social rehabilitation."
That's right - the US penal system killed that little girl and her mother.
Asshole.
"I'd rather kill myself than spend time in the pen. And since I'm God's gift to man, my family has no reason for livingh after I'm gone, so I'll take them with me."
"Wow, I have thought briefly along those lines, but to actually come out and say that you are THAT worried about your image? That you would risk brain cancer over looking dorky?
To admit that in a public forum makes you look a LOT worse than any headset possibly could, and to not recognize how insecure it makes you look--sorry dude... can't help."
Sigh - way to miss the point. THERE IS NO MEASURABLE RISK OF BRAIN CANCER FROM CELLPHONES!!! In that light, I am an order of magnitude more likely to be pushed in front of a bus by a rabid Star Trek hater than die of brain cancer due to cell phones. Depression from looking in a store window and seeing what an idiot I look like will shorten my life by maybe minutes, as opposed to the milliseconds my life will be shortened from microwave exposure.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that a cell phone transmitter (having to reach from the phone to the tower) is on the order of one watt, while your Bluetooth headset (having to reach only a few feet) is on the order of one milliwatt.
Which would you rather have up to your head?"
Well, having the cell phone to my head makes me look like I'm talking on the phone.
Having a bluetooth headset makes me look like I am talking to the voices in my head, or Dorkutis of Borg, depending on which side is seen.
So I'd rather use the phone, because the risk of brain cancer is probably an order of magnitude less than the damage to my image from using an item that is both dorky and pretentious at the same time.
Does he have ANY justification, other than "there *might* be a risk"?
So, if I tell him the sun MIGHT not come up tomorrow, will he not bother going to work? After all, I can't prove that the sun isn't coming up tomorrow - there's always some chance it won't.
"It's the same reason there are arguments in congress about a law to ban flag burning. In the past decade, the recorded case of an American burning the American flag can be counted in single digits. It's a non-problem."
Careful - one of the reasons no one has been burning flags in protest for the past 20 years is that in 1984 the Supreme Court ruled that is was freedom of speech. Prior to that, there were a lot of flags being burned at protests, because it got the protesters what they wanted - arrest and media. When it became legal, they stopped doing it - why go through all that trouble when it isn't going to get you arrested.
I think the Supreme Court was right, and that the politicians calling for a flag burning amendment are blow-hards, but let's be honest with ourselves: most protests these days are narcissistic exercises in attention gathering. Most protesters don't WANT the situation to change - they wouldn't have anything to protest.
"Here's the keys to the house, son. BTW, there's a big pit in the basement where I've been shitting for 50 years - you might want to take care of that"
"Why the hell didn't you just use the toilet, Dad?"
"I was trying to be green and not use any water. Aren't you proud of me?"
"Fuck you."
"He is not solving our energy crisis or any other technical problem. He is looking for solution to a problem which is much more sociological than technical:
How do we make sure that important information is passed on to our descendants for thousands of years?
I am an engineer, and I would certainly consider the typical engineer unfit for solving this type of problems."
The issue is that he is looking at the WRONG PROBLEM. If we would implement an *engineering* solution to the problem of nuclear waste, we would have no need to communicate with those far flung future generations.
You seem to believe that engineers have a "hammer-nail" outlook - all the tools we have are engineering tools, so every every problem becomes an engineering problem. But in this case, the problem IS a nail, and the sociologist is trying to convince the wood to open a hole and accept the nail freely and openly.
If we bury that waste for future generations to deal with, all they are going to say is "why didn't those fuckers deal with this problem when they easily could have?"
"Here's the keys to the house, son. BTW, there's a big pit in the basement where I've been shitting for 50 years - you might want to take care of that"
"Why the hell didn't you just use the toilet, Dad?"
"I was trying to be green and not use any water. Aren't you proud of me?"
"Fuck you."
Heh - my pacifist, critter loving Mom was complaining the other day about the rabbits eating her vegetable garden. I told her "Shoot 'em - it's not like we don't have enough guns around the house". She pooh-poohed the suggestion, saying that she doesn't know how to operate one, and she was too old. I pointed out that her father was blowing away groundhogs out of the back window with his double barreled shotgun well into his 70's, and they are very simple to operate, and it just so happens we have that VERY SAME shotgun in the safe.
I'm thinking the rabbit population is going to get quite a bit smaller around the R1.0 household shortly.
PS - she asked my brother to blow away a couple of rabbits, but by the time he grabbed a gun they were...occupied. He put down the gun, stating that he just couldn't kill a male while so engaged - it just seemed wrong.
"You got to love it: By day, they are mild mannered engineers. By night, they are undercover rocket scientists who are building a rocket to go to the moon! It sounds like a pulp sci-fi story."
More like a juvenile, specifically "Rocketship Galileo". About as technically infeasible as you can get, but fighting Nazi's on the Moon with an M1 Garand? AWESOME!!!
"As far as simplicity, I believe the argument is it's simpler to re-use our existing equipment and infrastructure, with minor modifications, than it is to completely re-tool. Re-use of the ground-based infrastructure, re-use of the existing booster technology, re-use, re-use, re-use. What's complex about that?"
If this were a Win7 thread you'd be crucified, for good reason. If your current product sucks, reusing it is a false economy.
And the Shuttle, as a system, definitely sucks.
"It requires a long-barelled cannon packed with guncotton."
Bull, is that you? I KNEW the Israelis didn't get you!
Something similar here. I had spent a LOT of time translating a paper based estimating system to Excel spreadsheets while working as seconded staff to a powerplant (I wore the Owner's hardhat, but my paychecks were from a contractor). I was unceremoniously relieved of my responsibilities, which were given to an incompetent who worked for the Owner. So I copied all of my work product onto disks, proceeded to scrub my desktop and network share of any evidence that I was anywhere near the place, and then handed the disks to my *employer* - the one who signed the paychecks, not the one whose hat I wore.
Fast forward 6 months, and I get a call from the contractor. "Say, do you have copies of the files you were working on?"
"Lemme check...nope, can't find them. Why?"
"Well, the Owner can't seem to find any of your stuff."
"That's because I scrubbed it and gave copies to my employer, aka you."
"Why'd you do that?!"
"You do remember the circumstances of my termination, do you not?"
"Oh, yeah. Well, who exactly did you give it to?"
"I gave them to you, personally - it was a stack of disks"
"Ohhhh - I lost them"
"Can't help you then"
What pissed me off is that I really would have sent him copies, but I had either forgotten to make personal backups or lost the disks as well.
Just keep driving. I've forgotten my laptop before, and if I worked as a company where forgetting one's laptop got one fired, I'd have been gone long ago for REAL mistakes, not just lapses in memory.