The reason he probably chose the cutoff dates like he did is because we don't have much of a record of the achievements of humanity in those periods. Most of what we know is closer to legend and myth than anything else. The only thing we do know for a fact is that there are a couple of pyramids in the middle of a desert with mummified remains inside them, and other such things. But outside of that, the best historical record is the Bible.
I agree with you -- there were great societies that probably may have been far greater than the Romans back then. But we know nothing about them. We don't know even a fraction of their inventions, their theories, their political structures, their governments, or their societies. For all we know, they could've driven around in automobiles or flown around with wings. They could've had complex governmental structures that were at least as fair as the Roman system, and they may have had inventions that we would find quite significant.
Go ask a Korean where science development occured
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Human Accomplishment
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· Score: 4, Insightful
I spent several years living in Korea among the Koreans. I've studied their culture and personality up-close and personal.
Ask a Korean where all the science development occured, and they will point to Europe. Ask them what they have done to further humanity's knowledge and they might mutter something about a great world vision and system called Confucianism, but not much else.
It is true that recently (like in the past 50 years) Korea has experienced a rennaissance in that only now are their thinkers and artists truly free to express themselves. They understand that at this point, they are by no means pioneers. But soon their society will have "advanced" to a level that will be comparable with the European societies. They look to the West to find examples of great scientists, artists, political leaders (think American Revolution, Economic policy, etc...), in their effort to obtain the great wealth in all areas of life that we experience.
They are even now adjusting their entire education system to become like the Greek/Roman / European system we inherited. It used to be, "Do as the teacher says, memorize, and repeat". Now it is becoming, "Question the teacher, and when the teacher can't answer your questions, turn to other sources, or discover the answer for yourself." This is going counter to almost 5,000 years of history in that region.
The same holds true for Japan, China, and other Asian countries. It probably holds true for most of Africa, Australia, and even pre-1800's North and South America.
They literally contributed very, very little to humanity while the West was changing the world every 50 years or so. This is not racism, or me being and egotistical white male American, this is solid fact.
If you want to look at true human achievement, look at what the world is becoming. Only now do Asian, African, and other non-European begin to contribute to the arts and the sciences. Only now do you see advances in political and economical thought coming from there as well. This is all due to our natural sharing attitude, where we would rather teach and lift and bring others to our level than maintain our superiority with an iron fist. We understand that we are much more "wealthy" in true human achievemtn when we have two well-educated, intelligent people, than one well-educate and the other mis-educated.
Whew! You almost gave away the secret of advanced science.
I'm not going to tell you non-scientists our there the secret.
Nope. I won't.
Alright, here's the secret. All scientists are really little boys who play with really awesome toys that do really cool things. Next time you visit a lab, ask them to show you around. They might try to pull the serious tone, "Oh yes, this device is used to calibrate the thermometers at extreme temperatures", but that's just scientist talks for "Dude, this thing gets so cold you wouldn't freaking believe it! It makes this great sucking sound too, and all this steam comes off of it and ice forms and there's this doohicky that beeps!" It's exactly like a true motorhead or computer geek saying "0-60 in 2.4 seconds, no lie!" or "3.4 GHz max!"
That's the secret. All scientists are little boys playing with toys that are so incredibly awesome you would drool to see what they can do.
This scientist was playing with a toy that makes wind speed of MACH 5!!!! IS THAT FREAKING COOL OR WHAT!!! Oh, I'm sorry. The speeds are used to measure the aerodynamic properties of object at excessive velocities. DUDE, MACH 5 IS FASTER THAN THE SR-71! BULLETS DON'T EVEN GO THAT FAST! IT IS SO FREAKING FAST WE DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH IT YET! I wonder what it would do to the starship Enterprise... hum...
If you are travelling faster than light, and you fire your phasers, are you implying that somehow the phasers might travel away, and then come back and hit you, but a photon torpedoe would not?
Basic relativity states that in EVERY frame of reference, all the laws of physics are exactly the same. That means that even if you are going a gazillion times the speed of light, a beam of light travelling away from you will travel at exactly the speed of light away from you -- according to your perspective.
And if they had such a crack team at Star Trek, would you mind explaining why the Enterprise makes a "whooshing" sound as it flies by? Exactly what medium is this sound transmitted by? For that matter, why are there explosions that go "boom" in space?
Star Trek is PURE FANTASY. I enjoyed watching it when I was young, but I understood that it was as much fantasy as a soap opera or Star Wars. All the stuff they talk about sounds like nonsense. "Inertial dampers"? It's like trying to "dry water" or something similarly absurd. Of course, it might sound amazing to you, but if you crack a physics book, the real world of physics is far more interesting and wonderful.
Yes, the purpose of government IS to protect the citizenry from undesirable elements.
We establish laws to punish the criminals. We fight wars to keep the bad guys out. We are blowing up people in Iraq right now because they want nothing more than to visit your house and blow you up.
I want to see a street where all the filth is cleaned up. I don't want to have to worry about my child playing outside in the dark with his friends. I don't want to worry about drugs at school. I don't want to have to worry about whether I should carry a gun to work to protect myself from a potential crazy idiot.
I want my government to serve me and to lock all those idiots behind bars, execute the really bad ones, and make the playground safe for my children.
As far as why we have so many people in jail, do you think maybe it is because:
A) There are just a lot of bad people in this country, and the cops are doing a great job at catching them.
B) We aren't allowed to execute the really, really bad ones (violent sex offenders, murderers, and the treasonous who purposely poison our country), so we have to keep them in jail, taking up valuable space that should go to a less serious offender.
C) The judges aren't punishing the criminals severely enough, so by the time they DO get to jail, it is too late to hope to reform them.
D) We don't take juvenile crime serious, so by the time li'l Johnny turns 18, he has this idea that even if he gets caught, he'll skate.
I think you need to get real. If you are carrying drugs, I want you busted. I want the cops to cram your face into the cement, and I want you to stand before a judge and have him sentence you severely. And just to make it fair, if my son or daughter is ever caught with drugs, I hope the same goes. This nonsense of drug crimes being prosecuted like jay-walking has to end.
This device works by merely looking at the "color" of a substance. Instead of only three wavelengths of light, they can use several, and the type of light they use will detect subtle differences in chemical compounds.
I can imagine in the future, a device like this can be used to determine the exact chemical composition of any substance.
If you think that if there were fewer humans, we would have fewere problems, you must be living a pretty depressing life.
The way I see it, every human in this world actually contributes a lot more than they take. Just like at work, they pay about $1,000 to have me work (only a little bit ends up in my pocket), the value of my work far exceeds that (otherwise, I would be out on my butt in a flash).
I am making the world a richer, more prosperous, and happier place. Most people I see around me are doing the same. I know for a fact that most people in America, in Europe, in fact probably everywhere is doing the same.
Conclusion: We need more humans, not less. We will be far better off for it.
... and we will solve it in others, as the need arises.
The only thing standing between us and our roads is a huge environmental lobby and politicians who don't want to fix the problem. You'll notice traffic wasn't a problem during the 50's and 60's, despite the booming economy and rapid increase in car ownership. That is because they built newer, better, faster, and safer roads. Comes the 70s, 80s, 90s, and now the thirds millenium, and guess what? In my home state of Washington, we have built less than 10 miles of new roads in the past decade?!?!
It's this wonderful thing called "innovation" -- not the Microsoft kind -- and "humanity". We are intelligent creatures. Even the dumbest rocks are far brighter than any other animal on the planet. We find solutions to our problems, and we use engineers for the really hard ones. If some guys in the middle of a desert thousands of years ago could build a giant rock formation for a tomb, then by golly, we can build solutions for all of our problems. We don't have enough roads? We'll build them better and higher and faster. We don't have enough internet bandwidth? We'll find ways of connecting to overcome the "last mile". We don't have enough factories, or blue collar workers to build our toys? We'll build robots if we have to, but it will get done.
You'll find the greatest attention is paid to the biggest problems in this nation. While you think "the environment" and other petty things rank pretty high on the agenda, the truth is they don't.
There are currently, by rough estimate, 7 trillion people in the world. (Notice I am overestimating by a very large number).
There are 150 million square kilometers of dry land on the earth as well.
That means... about 47 people per square kilometer.
This is an absolute crisis, right? Well, no. Let's take a look at comparable population densities:
In Seoul, Korea, they fit busses, schools, cars, shopping malls, and have room to spare for about 480 people per square kilometer. Filling the earth with this density would require over 70 trillion people. I've lived in Seoul for several years, and it is quite comfortable, even for a 6'4" guy like myself. There are numerous parks, great mountains to hike, and a wonderful subway connecting everything together. Even though it boasts 10,000,000 people. it is still an incredible place to live.
Seoul too stuffy for you? Let's compare it with something like New Jersey. The population density of the entire state of New Jersey is something like 436 people per square kilometer.
The bottom line is that there is so much unused and unexploited land out there, it isn't even funny. In my state of Washington, it is incredibly easy to get lost in the wilderness, because it is vast and endless. I can't imagine why people bunch up in the densities they do around Seattle, but it is by no means representative of anything beyond the city bounds.
You've misunderstood the situation -- they have refused to honor the conventions of war, and so we have no obligation to honor the conventions of war with respect to them.
They have no country. They have no rights. They are lucky that they are alive. If we sent down soldiers to line them up and execute them all, we would be justified. They are not spies, they are not soldiers. They are terrorists, sent to attack a country in peacetime, and not the country's military, but the country's citizenry.
Next time some guy decides to pretend he is a friend, comes to your house, and blows your wife, children, and parents to smithereens, laughing all the way to the bank, threatening to do it again and again and again, I'd like to see you say, "Well, they have rights, and should get a fair trial." They don't get a trial, they get a bullet to the forehead, and that is if we are being humane.
An honorable country would not pack 19 men onto airplanes to crash into civilian buildings, trapping the people inside to choose between a burning hell or a jump to certain death.
Damn the terrorists to hell! I pray to God that He will strike all those who think like the terrorists down, and thrust them into the deepest recesses of hell. How can He be a God of Justice and Love if He allows this kind of crap to go on unpunished? They are not honorable, and they should feel DAMN lucky we didn't go and slaughter every man, woman, and child even remotely related to their cause.
We are in Iraq right no doing something that hasn't been done in a long time -- brought what is naturally coming to a terrible, terrible cockroach and his friends their just desserts. Just like when you stand up to a bully and crack him in the nose and explain to him that, "No, you are not going to take his lunch money, but you are going to eat a knuckle sandwich if you stop behaving so" you are totally justified, so are we when we step into a country like Iraq and unleash the wrath of justice on an immoral leadership.
You'll remember the Japs (as I intentionally refer to them) decided it would be a good idea to negotiate a peace treaty and then sneak attack. They too understand that we could've ethically justified a cleansing of their leadership as well. In other words, if, when we walked into Japan, we demanded that all the generals, officers, and officials of the nation present themselves to be beheaded for their crimes against our country, they would've understood and most likely complied.
Turn around and stop pointing your finger at our country -- why don't you go take a look at what is happening every day in North Korea, China, Iran, Rwanda, and other countries? You'll see that we are treating the people in Guantanamo more like men than they've been treated their entire lives.
Yes, I DO question your patriotism, because it seems like you sure as hell don't love what our country stands for. You'd rather side with the terrorists than side with a millitary commander who is doing the right thing.
1. every major journalist worth his/her salt would be all over it within hours. so it wouldn't succeed in obscuring information.
No, the only journalists who would care is maybe the "journalists" at Slashdot. This is so non-news it isn't even funny. Compare this to the partial-birth abortion ban, the multiple car-bombinds in Baghdad, or even the visit of the informant who helped the military find Jessica Lynch!
2. it would create an incredible backlash as soon as detected. what purpose would this serve?
Yep, you're right. I'm going to vote for Dean this time around, but not because I am a liberal -- oh no, I am Rush dittohead. Rather, it is because of Bush and his robots.txt! This is completely inexcusable! How dare he!
When's the last time the media has questioned the government and/or the establishment? Ever since the war in Iraq has started, every report on the country has been glowing. You'd think that the whole country rolled out red carpets to greet the soldiers, who have encountered little to no resistance in a country where they have always loved freedom and the American way.
Let's turn our attention to the latest political topic du jour -- the partial birth abortion ban. Why, once Bush penned his signature on that beauty, all the media reviews and all public opinion has been absolutely glowing, has it not? It is great to have a government that seems to always do things that satisfy everyone simultaneously.
And thinking of which, the last time I watched Hannity & Colmes, I couldn't help but notice how boring the show is because everyone is always agreeing with each other. I mean, take this direct quote from last night's show:
Hannity: I sure loved what the President did yesterday! He is the greatest guy since Jesus! HEIL BUSH!
Colmes: I'll have to disagree with you there, Sean. I think Bush is even greater than Jesus! LONG LIVE THE PRESIDENT!
Howard Dean (a guest on the show): I'm running for president, but I have to agree with you folks. HALLELUJAH that we have Bush for president!
We live in a wonderful world where everyone agrees with each other every day, and every newspaper article, TV news report, and radio discussion is completely positive concerning the current establishment and their decisions.
That's real irony for you.
Note to people who do not know what real irony is, here is a quick definition.
A sort of humor, ridicule, or light sarcasm, which adopts
a mode of speech the meaning of which is contrary to the
literal sense of the words.
The article is very fair and very well thought out. It is almost like reading a research paper. It looks like he is inviting criticism, insight, and corrections, rather than trying to force the experiments into a pre-determined outcome.
Such a thing is not possible in the proprietary world. Any study done on proprietary software has to be tainted with opinion and the experiments must be skewed. Read the EULAs. Some EULAs won't even allow you to publish the results of such tests.
Open Source software, of the BSD kind and the GPL kind, has totally changed the way we think about and work with software. One day, we will be able to scientifically determine what software we need to suit our needs. We will know ahead of time exactly what limits and what capabilities each piece of software has. IT managers will be able to sort through real facts based on real research, rather than a bunch of shallow articles and biased reports. Software will survive on its merits alone.
The whole industry is going to benefit by this, in a large, large way. The question one day will no longer be "Microsoft or Linux?" but "Which Open Source software should we use, and why?"
I guess there is a lot to this whole idea of capitalism. If you lower the price, the sales will increase. In the case of Nintendo, it sounds like their gross profit is going to increase because they lowered the price.
Now if we can convince our governments that if they lower taxes, the tax revenue will actually increase....
Try reading a book called "eMyth", which has nothing to do with the internet and has everything to do with why businesses can't get started and what successful businesses do to begin a growth pattern.
It basically revolves around clear roles, the development of processes, and hiring people who aren't bleeding geniuses to compensate for the lack of structure in your company.
It's like writing a program, but for an entire company. If you get the algorithm right, and if you get all the components working together properly, you will have created a money printing machine.
...adhere to strict software development guidelines.
If a new developer joins the team and discovers that the old developers had graciously...
Commented their code liberally
Documented the code, use cases, and architecture
Provided unit tests and test plans
Left notes on why things were done one way and not another
... the effort required to get up to speed will be greatly reduced.
I can't count the number of times where I've joined a team, spent 6 months investigating how they put things together, and then discovered that if I just rewrote everything from scratch, but this time document, test, and comment the code, we would save a ton of money versus trying to do that to existing code. It is especially popular in smaller companies where the software developers just don't have a lot of experience or they forget important things like project management and testing, that these problems are most evident.
Good riddance. I'd hate to work with someone with an attitude as terrible as yours. May you never return to the high-tech industry, and I hope your new life of picking up garbage on the street corners goes well.
While the government taxes half of what a company makes, it isn't true that that company would double in size if the taxes were cut to zero.
The truth is that the company would experience far greater growth. Think of the effects on the entire economy. The company would instantly double its profits, sure. But all of the company's customers would have doubled their profits as well. And all the company's suppliers would have doubled their profits as well. So the stuff the company buys is going to be cheaper, because the suppliers can afford to lower the price to be more competitive, and can afford to build that modernized factory that produces the same goods at a higher quality and at a lower price. The company is also going to sell a ton more stuff, because the customers are able to afford it. Increased revenues with lower costs means even more profits.
Companies and the people who get very rich from those companies also do other things with their extra money besides expanding their coffers and hiring more employees. They build hospitals, roads, stadiums, and other things that don't lead directly to more profits. They give money to charities, they give money to schools, build schools, and equip the schools with modern technology. If they could, they would probably even send their own employees to teach at said schools occasionally. It's called the "human spirit", and it has the nasty effect of turning perfectly greedy capitalists into philanthropic nightmares. The level of their charitable contributions far exceed anything the Federal, State, and City governments can ever hope of doing. The worth of their contributions, and the effectiveness of their projects, also far exceeds any brain-dead socialist policy that the government can hope to implement. Even the greediest of philanthropists, Bill Gates, even by giving away his own company's software in an attempt to dominate the education industry with his software, is doing more to help students than the Federal Government has ever dreamed of doing.
Interesting, you claimed that a letter that claims that the Smithsonian doesn't use the Book of Mormon as an archealogical guide means that the Book of Mormon isn't valid as an archealogical guide.
Think about that for a moment. Just because someone doesn't use Linux doesn't mean it isn't an OS.
The Book of Mormon, I agree, makes a horrible archeological guide, however. It is a wonderful spiritual and religious record however, written specifically for our day and age.
In other words, while you do have a bit more security because you are able to control what it going on, don't count on it.
I always SSH between boxes, avoid FTP unless it is publically available files (like ISO images of Red Hat) and deploy services that should be secure over SSL (IMAPS, HTTPS, SMTPS, and other encrypted channels)
Otherwise, you run the risk of having your entire intranet compromised if one machine is compromised or the firewall is broken. But if you play it safe, the worst case scenario is a single machine is infected or the firewall goes down, but not much more.
The judge didn't overturn a law written in congress and signed by the president. The ujudge overturned regulation implemented by the FTC because he felt that the FTC had no authority to do what it did, but the FCC could've done it. The FTC claimed that a small section of last year's budget provided them with the authority to do what they did.
So with congress passing this bill, and the president signing it, the case becomes pointless.
A young farmer, Joseph Smith, translated a book written on gold plates in the 1820s that described several societies that inhabited the Americas for thousands of years. The American Indians are descendants of one of them.
This book is called the "Book of Mormon" and is translated into hundreds of languages. Ask a friend who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for a copy and they will gladly give you one for free.
You can read about the heights of their civilization -- 400 years of no wars and complete harmony and prosperity for all -- and the depths of their civilization -- complete warfare including women and children, to the complete destruction of a race.
You'll also understand why some Native Americans had a ceremony of drinking the blood and eating the body of their God (in symbol, of course), and why Quetzecoatl resembles Christ. The strange tribes of Indians who spoke a language resembling Hebrew, as well as the Egyptian-like enscriptions on their tombs and pyramids will also make a lot more sense.
No one takes kids seriously in business. It's sad, but it's a fact. You won't make the money you want to make until you're into your mid-to-late twenties or thirties. "He's only a kid; what does he know?" You'll never hear it, but that what they'll think and that's what they'll say.
Don't be so quick to think that. Age is rarely a factor. There's an attitude that successful professionals have that people actually like and respect. If you gain this attitude, it doesn't matter what age you are (or what ability you have), people will think you know what you are doing and will be willing to entrust you with their equipment and give you their money for doing so.
Try discovering and devloping this attitude. Don't think of yourself as "less than professional" -- you're doing it for money so now you are professional too! Be the best out there. Tell people you are the best. Make sure that no one out there is better than you.
Then charge them through the nose for your excellent service. I'm talking $80, $100, $150 an hour. A fair price is fair because it makes both parties happy. Too cheap is unfair, as well as too expensive. Make sure you are getting your time's worth! You'll find yourself not giving them shoddy service so that they come back to you later for the same problem you could've fixed last time.
You are thinking too narrow -- you only see the wealth created by the sale of the license to use the software, not the wealth created from the users of the software.
I know several companies in the Seattle area (still suffering high unemployment and economic recession) that are successful *because* they use free software. They are able to adopt a piece of software, extend it to incorporate the features they need in their particular situation, and then add enough value to their company that they are turning healthy profits while all their competitors are flailing.
Let's take one piece of software -- the Apache web server. Even though acquiring the software requires little or no capital expenditure, deploying the software is pretty easy, and extending the software is only slightly more difficult, it is the foundation for several companies. Without that particular piece of software, they could not have built their business. Just having the software available to people creates wealth and value.
When Brazil unleashes a couple of million dollars from its IT spending and turns it into the pockets of Brazilian developers, testers, and documentators, it is going to begin the process of adding value to Free Software in Brazil. The companies and businesses will be able to utilize this software in their organizations, and add a bit of their own as well. The increased value of having the whole country united behind free software will bring such wealth that the previous revenue that licensing would've created would be seen as a drop in the bucket.
You have to view software from a holistic economic approach.
Slashdot Mirror
The reason he probably chose the cutoff dates like he did is because we don't have much of a record of the achievements of humanity in those periods. Most of what we know is closer to legend and myth than anything else. The only thing we do know for a fact is that there are a couple of pyramids in the middle of a desert with mummified remains inside them, and other such things. But outside of that, the best historical record is the Bible.
I agree with you -- there were great societies that probably may have been far greater than the Romans back then. But we know nothing about them. We don't know even a fraction of their inventions, their theories, their political structures, their governments, or their societies. For all we know, they could've driven around in automobiles or flown around with wings. They could've had complex governmental structures that were at least as fair as the Roman system, and they may have had inventions that we would find quite significant.
I spent several years living in Korea among the Koreans. I've studied their culture and personality up-close and personal.
/Roman / European system we inherited. It used to be, "Do as the teacher says, memorize, and repeat". Now it is becoming, "Question the teacher, and when the teacher can't answer your questions, turn to other sources, or discover the answer for yourself." This is going counter to almost 5,000 years of history in that region.
Ask a Korean where all the science development occured, and they will point to Europe. Ask them what they have done to further humanity's knowledge and they might mutter something about a great world vision and system called Confucianism, but not much else.
It is true that recently (like in the past 50 years) Korea has experienced a rennaissance in that only now are their thinkers and artists truly free to express themselves. They understand that at this point, they are by no means pioneers. But soon their society will have "advanced" to a level that will be comparable with the European societies. They look to the West to find examples of great scientists, artists, political leaders (think American Revolution, Economic policy, etc...), in their effort to obtain the great wealth in all areas of life that we experience.
They are even now adjusting their entire education system to become like the Greek
The same holds true for Japan, China, and other Asian countries. It probably holds true for most of Africa, Australia, and even pre-1800's North and South America.
They literally contributed very, very little to humanity while the West was changing the world every 50 years or so. This is not racism, or me being and egotistical white male American, this is solid fact.
If you want to look at true human achievement, look at what the world is becoming. Only now do Asian, African, and other non-European begin to contribute to the arts and the sciences. Only now do you see advances in political and economical thought coming from there as well. This is all due to our natural sharing attitude, where we would rather teach and lift and bring others to our level than maintain our superiority with an iron fist. We understand that we are much more "wealthy" in true human achievemtn when we have two well-educated, intelligent people, than one well-educate and the other mis-educated.
Whew! You almost gave away the secret of advanced science.
I'm not going to tell you non-scientists our there the secret.
Nope. I won't.
Alright, here's the secret. All scientists are really little boys who play with really awesome toys that do really cool things. Next time you visit a lab, ask them to show you around. They might try to pull the serious tone, "Oh yes, this device is used to calibrate the thermometers at extreme temperatures", but that's just scientist talks for "Dude, this thing gets so cold you wouldn't freaking believe it! It makes this great sucking sound too, and all this steam comes off of it and ice forms and there's this doohicky that beeps!" It's exactly like a true motorhead or computer geek saying "0-60 in 2.4 seconds, no lie!" or "3.4 GHz max!"
That's the secret. All scientists are little boys playing with toys that are so incredibly awesome you would drool to see what they can do.
This scientist was playing with a toy that makes wind speed of MACH 5!!!! IS THAT FREAKING COOL OR WHAT!!! Oh, I'm sorry. The speeds are used to measure the aerodynamic properties of object at excessive velocities. DUDE, MACH 5 IS FASTER THAN THE SR-71! BULLETS DON'T EVEN GO THAT FAST! IT IS SO FREAKING FAST WE DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH IT YET! I wonder what it would do to the starship Enterprise... hum...
I'm sorry but you came off like an idiot.
If you are travelling faster than light, and you fire your phasers, are you implying that somehow the phasers might travel away, and then come back and hit you, but a photon torpedoe would not?
Basic relativity states that in EVERY frame of reference, all the laws of physics are exactly the same. That means that even if you are going a gazillion times the speed of light, a beam of light travelling away from you will travel at exactly the speed of light away from you -- according to your perspective.
And if they had such a crack team at Star Trek, would you mind explaining why the Enterprise makes a "whooshing" sound as it flies by? Exactly what medium is this sound transmitted by? For that matter, why are there explosions that go "boom" in space?
Star Trek is PURE FANTASY. I enjoyed watching it when I was young, but I understood that it was as much fantasy as a soap opera or Star Wars. All the stuff they talk about sounds like nonsense. "Inertial dampers"? It's like trying to "dry water" or something similarly absurd. Of course, it might sound amazing to you, but if you crack a physics book, the real world of physics is far more interesting and wonderful.
Yes, the purpose of government IS to protect the citizenry from undesirable elements.
We establish laws to punish the criminals. We fight wars to keep the bad guys out. We are blowing up people in Iraq right now because they want nothing more than to visit your house and blow you up.
I want to see a street where all the filth is cleaned up. I don't want to have to worry about my child playing outside in the dark with his friends. I don't want to worry about drugs at school. I don't want to have to worry about whether I should carry a gun to work to protect myself from a potential crazy idiot.
I want my government to serve me and to lock all those idiots behind bars, execute the really bad ones, and make the playground safe for my children.
As far as why we have so many people in jail, do you think maybe it is because:
A) There are just a lot of bad people in this country, and the cops are doing a great job at catching them.
B) We aren't allowed to execute the really, really bad ones (violent sex offenders, murderers, and the treasonous who purposely poison our country), so we have to keep them in jail, taking up valuable space that should go to a less serious offender.
C) The judges aren't punishing the criminals severely enough, so by the time they DO get to jail, it is too late to hope to reform them.
D) We don't take juvenile crime serious, so by the time li'l Johnny turns 18, he has this idea that even if he gets caught, he'll skate.
I think you need to get real. If you are carrying drugs, I want you busted. I want the cops to cram your face into the cement, and I want you to stand before a judge and have him sentence you severely. And just to make it fair, if my son or daughter is ever caught with drugs, I hope the same goes. This nonsense of drug crimes being prosecuted like jay-walking has to end.
Good question. The answers is "lots".
This device works by merely looking at the "color" of a substance. Instead of only three wavelengths of light, they can use several, and the type of light they use will detect subtle differences in chemical compounds.
I can imagine in the future, a device like this can be used to determine the exact chemical composition of any substance.
If you think that if there were fewer humans, we would have fewere problems, you must be living a pretty depressing life.
The way I see it, every human in this world actually contributes a lot more than they take. Just like at work, they pay about $1,000 to have me work (only a little bit ends up in my pocket), the value of my work far exceeds that (otherwise, I would be out on my butt in a flash).
I am making the world a richer, more prosperous, and happier place. Most people I see around me are doing the same. I know for a fact that most people in America, in Europe, in fact probably everywhere is doing the same.
Conclusion: We need more humans, not less. We will be far better off for it.
... and we will solve it in others, as the need arises.
The only thing standing between us and our roads is a huge environmental lobby and politicians who don't want to fix the problem. You'll notice traffic wasn't a problem during the 50's and 60's, despite the booming economy and rapid increase in car ownership. That is because they built newer, better, faster, and safer roads. Comes the 70s, 80s, 90s, and now the thirds millenium, and guess what? In my home state of Washington, we have built less than 10 miles of new roads in the past decade?!?!
It's this wonderful thing called "innovation" -- not the Microsoft kind -- and "humanity". We are intelligent creatures. Even the dumbest rocks are far brighter than any other animal on the planet. We find solutions to our problems, and we use engineers for the really hard ones. If some guys in the middle of a desert thousands of years ago could build a giant rock formation for a tomb, then by golly, we can build solutions for all of our problems. We don't have enough roads? We'll build them better and higher and faster. We don't have enough internet bandwidth? We'll find ways of connecting to overcome the "last mile". We don't have enough factories, or blue collar workers to build our toys? We'll build robots if we have to, but it will get done.
You'll find the greatest attention is paid to the biggest problems in this nation. While you think "the environment" and other petty things rank pretty high on the agenda, the truth is they don't.
There are currently, by rough estimate, 7 trillion people in the world. (Notice I am overestimating by a very large number).
There are 150 million square kilometers of dry land on the earth as well.
That means... about 47 people per square kilometer.
This is an absolute crisis, right? Well, no. Let's take a look at comparable population densities:
In Seoul, Korea, they fit busses, schools, cars, shopping malls, and have room to spare for about 480 people per square kilometer. Filling the earth with this density would require over 70 trillion people. I've lived in Seoul for several years, and it is quite comfortable, even for a 6'4" guy like myself. There are numerous parks, great mountains to hike, and a wonderful subway connecting everything together. Even though it boasts 10,000,000 people. it is still an incredible place to live.
Seoul too stuffy for you? Let's compare it with something like New Jersey. The population density of the entire state of New Jersey is something like 436 people per square kilometer.
The bottom line is that there is so much unused and unexploited land out there, it isn't even funny. In my state of Washington, it is incredibly easy to get lost in the wilderness, because it is vast and endless. I can't imagine why people bunch up in the densities they do around Seattle, but it is by no means representative of anything beyond the city bounds.
You've misunderstood the situation -- they have refused to honor the conventions of war, and so we have no obligation to honor the conventions of war with respect to them.
They have no country. They have no rights. They are lucky that they are alive. If we sent down soldiers to line them up and execute them all, we would be justified. They are not spies, they are not soldiers. They are terrorists, sent to attack a country in peacetime, and not the country's military, but the country's citizenry.
Next time some guy decides to pretend he is a friend, comes to your house, and blows your wife, children, and parents to smithereens, laughing all the way to the bank, threatening to do it again and again and again, I'd like to see you say, "Well, they have rights, and should get a fair trial." They don't get a trial, they get a bullet to the forehead, and that is if we are being humane.
An honorable country would not pack 19 men onto airplanes to crash into civilian buildings, trapping the people inside to choose between a burning hell or a jump to certain death.
Damn the terrorists to hell! I pray to God that He will strike all those who think like the terrorists down, and thrust them into the deepest recesses of hell. How can He be a God of Justice and Love if He allows this kind of crap to go on unpunished? They are not honorable, and they should feel DAMN lucky we didn't go and slaughter every man, woman, and child even remotely related to their cause.
We are in Iraq right no doing something that hasn't been done in a long time -- brought what is naturally coming to a terrible, terrible cockroach and his friends their just desserts. Just like when you stand up to a bully and crack him in the nose and explain to him that, "No, you are not going to take his lunch money, but you are going to eat a knuckle sandwich if you stop behaving so" you are totally justified, so are we when we step into a country like Iraq and unleash the wrath of justice on an immoral leadership.
You'll remember the Japs (as I intentionally refer to them) decided it would be a good idea to negotiate a peace treaty and then sneak attack. They too understand that we could've ethically justified a cleansing of their leadership as well. In other words, if, when we walked into Japan, we demanded that all the generals, officers, and officials of the nation present themselves to be beheaded for their crimes against our country, they would've understood and most likely complied.
Turn around and stop pointing your finger at our country -- why don't you go take a look at what is happening every day in North Korea, China, Iran, Rwanda, and other countries? You'll see that we are treating the people in Guantanamo more like men than they've been treated their entire lives.
Yes, I DO question your patriotism, because it seems like you sure as hell don't love what our country stands for. You'd rather side with the terrorists than side with a millitary commander who is doing the right thing.
1. every major journalist worth his/her salt would be all over it within hours. so it wouldn't succeed in obscuring information.
No, the only journalists who would care is maybe the "journalists" at Slashdot. This is so non-news it isn't even funny. Compare this to the partial-birth abortion ban, the multiple car-bombinds in Baghdad, or even the visit of the informant who helped the military find Jessica Lynch!
2. it would create an incredible backlash as soon as detected. what purpose would this serve?
Yep, you're right. I'm going to vote for Dean this time around, but not because I am a liberal -- oh no, I am Rush dittohead. Rather, it is because of Bush and his robots.txt! This is completely inexcusable! How dare he!
Do you see how stupid that sounds?!?
I'm going to use a bit of real irony here.
When's the last time the media has questioned the government and/or the establishment? Ever since the war in Iraq has started, every report on the country has been glowing. You'd think that the whole country rolled out red carpets to greet the soldiers, who have encountered little to no resistance in a country where they have always loved freedom and the American way.
Let's turn our attention to the latest political topic du jour -- the partial birth abortion ban. Why, once Bush penned his signature on that beauty, all the media reviews and all public opinion has been absolutely glowing, has it not? It is great to have a government that seems to always do things that satisfy everyone simultaneously.
And thinking of which, the last time I watched Hannity & Colmes, I couldn't help but notice how boring the show is because everyone is always agreeing with each other. I mean, take this direct quote from last night's show:
Hannity: I sure loved what the President did yesterday! He is the greatest guy since Jesus! HEIL BUSH!
Colmes: I'll have to disagree with you there, Sean. I think Bush is even greater than Jesus! LONG LIVE THE PRESIDENT!
Howard Dean (a guest on the show): I'm running for president, but I have to agree with you folks. HALLELUJAH that we have Bush for president!
We live in a wonderful world where everyone agrees with each other every day, and every newspaper article, TV news report, and radio discussion is completely positive concerning the current establishment and their decisions.
That's real irony for you.
Note to people who do not know what real irony is, here is a quick definition.
A sort of humor, ridicule, or light sarcasm, which adopts
a mode of speech the meaning of which is contrary to the
literal sense of the words.
The winner in this case is Open Source software.
The article is very fair and very well thought out. It is almost like reading a research paper. It looks like he is inviting criticism, insight, and corrections, rather than trying to force the experiments into a pre-determined outcome.
Such a thing is not possible in the proprietary world. Any study done on proprietary software has to be tainted with opinion and the experiments must be skewed. Read the EULAs. Some EULAs won't even allow you to publish the results of such tests.
Open Source software, of the BSD kind and the GPL kind, has totally changed the way we think about and work with software. One day, we will be able to scientifically determine what software we need to suit our needs. We will know ahead of time exactly what limits and what capabilities each piece of software has. IT managers will be able to sort through real facts based on real research, rather than a bunch of shallow articles and biased reports. Software will survive on its merits alone.
The whole industry is going to benefit by this, in a large, large way. The question one day will no longer be "Microsoft or Linux?" but "Which Open Source software should we use, and why?"
I guess there is a lot to this whole idea of capitalism. If you lower the price, the sales will increase. In the case of Nintendo, it sounds like their gross profit is going to increase because they lowered the price.
Now if we can convince our governments that if they lower taxes, the tax revenue will actually increase....
Try reading a book called "eMyth", which has nothing to do with the internet and has everything to do with why businesses can't get started and what successful businesses do to begin a growth pattern.
It basically revolves around clear roles, the development of processes, and hiring people who aren't bleeding geniuses to compensate for the lack of structure in your company.
It's like writing a program, but for an entire company. If you get the algorithm right, and if you get all the components working together properly, you will have created a money printing machine.
If a new developer joins the team and discovers that the old developers had graciously...
I can't count the number of times where I've joined a team, spent 6 months investigating how they put things together, and then discovered that if I just rewrote everything from scratch, but this time document, test, and comment the code, we would save a ton of money versus trying to do that to existing code. It is especially popular in smaller companies where the software developers just don't have a lot of experience or they forget important things like project management and testing, that these problems are most evident.
Good riddance. I'd hate to work with someone with an attitude as terrible as yours. May you never return to the high-tech industry, and I hope your new life of picking up garbage on the street corners goes well.
While the government taxes half of what a company makes, it isn't true that that company would double in size if the taxes were cut to zero.
The truth is that the company would experience far greater growth. Think of the effects on the entire economy. The company would instantly double its profits, sure. But all of the company's customers would have doubled their profits as well. And all the company's suppliers would have doubled their profits as well. So the stuff the company buys is going to be cheaper, because the suppliers can afford to lower the price to be more competitive, and can afford to build that modernized factory that produces the same goods at a higher quality and at a lower price. The company is also going to sell a ton more stuff, because the customers are able to afford it. Increased revenues with lower costs means even more profits.
Companies and the people who get very rich from those companies also do other things with their extra money besides expanding their coffers and hiring more employees. They build hospitals, roads, stadiums, and other things that don't lead directly to more profits. They give money to charities, they give money to schools, build schools, and equip the schools with modern technology. If they could, they would probably even send their own employees to teach at said schools occasionally. It's called the "human spirit", and it has the nasty effect of turning perfectly greedy capitalists into philanthropic nightmares. The level of their charitable contributions far exceed anything the Federal, State, and City governments can ever hope of doing. The worth of their contributions, and the effectiveness of their projects, also far exceeds any brain-dead socialist policy that the government can hope to implement. Even the greediest of philanthropists, Bill Gates, even by giving away his own company's software in an attempt to dominate the education industry with his software, is doing more to help students than the Federal Government has ever dreamed of doing.
Interesting, you claimed that a letter that claims that the Smithsonian doesn't use the Book of Mormon as an archealogical guide means that the Book of Mormon isn't valid as an archealogical guide.
Think about that for a moment. Just because someone doesn't use Linux doesn't mean it isn't an OS.
The Book of Mormon, I agree, makes a horrible archeological guide, however. It is a wonderful spiritual and religious record however, written specifically for our day and age.
In other words, while you do have a bit more security because you are able to control what it going on, don't count on it.
I always SSH between boxes, avoid FTP unless it is publically available files (like ISO images of Red Hat) and deploy services that should be secure over SSL (IMAPS, HTTPS, SMTPS, and other encrypted channels)
Otherwise, you run the risk of having your entire intranet compromised if one machine is compromised or the firewall is broken. But if you play it safe, the worst case scenario is a single machine is infected or the firewall goes down, but not much more.
The judge didn't overturn a law written in congress and signed by the president. The ujudge overturned regulation implemented by the FTC because he felt that the FTC had no authority to do what it did, but the FCC could've done it. The FTC claimed that a small section of last year's budget provided them with the authority to do what they did.
So with congress passing this bill, and the president signing it, the case becomes pointless.
I'm surprised no one has brought this up.
A young farmer, Joseph Smith, translated a book written on gold plates in the 1820s that described several societies that inhabited the Americas for thousands of years. The American Indians are descendants of one of them.
This book is called the "Book of Mormon" and is translated into hundreds of languages. Ask a friend who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for a copy and they will gladly give you one for free.
You can read about the heights of their civilization -- 400 years of no wars and complete harmony and prosperity for all -- and the depths of their civilization -- complete warfare including women and children, to the complete destruction of a race.
You'll also understand why some Native Americans had a ceremony of drinking the blood and eating the body of their God (in symbol, of course), and why Quetzecoatl resembles Christ. The strange tribes of Indians who spoke a language resembling Hebrew, as well as the Egyptian-like enscriptions on their tombs and pyramids will also make a lot more sense.
No one takes kids seriously in business. It's sad, but it's a fact. You won't make the money you want to make until you're into your mid-to-late twenties or thirties. "He's only a kid; what does he know?" You'll never hear it, but that what they'll think and that's what they'll say.
Don't be so quick to think that. Age is rarely a factor. There's an attitude that successful professionals have that people actually like and respect. If you gain this attitude, it doesn't matter what age you are (or what ability you have), people will think you know what you are doing and will be willing to entrust you with their equipment and give you their money for doing so.
Try discovering and devloping this attitude. Don't think of yourself as "less than professional" -- you're doing it for money so now you are professional too! Be the best out there. Tell people you are the best. Make sure that no one out there is better than you.
Then charge them through the nose for your excellent service. I'm talking $80, $100, $150 an hour. A fair price is fair because it makes both parties happy. Too cheap is unfair, as well as too expensive. Make sure you are getting your time's worth! You'll find yourself not giving them shoddy service so that they come back to you later for the same problem you could've fixed last time.
You are thinking too narrow -- you only see the wealth created by the sale of the license to use the software, not the wealth created from the users of the software.
I know several companies in the Seattle area (still suffering high unemployment and economic recession) that are successful *because* they use free software. They are able to adopt a piece of software, extend it to incorporate the features they need in their particular situation, and then add enough value to their company that they are turning healthy profits while all their competitors are flailing.
Let's take one piece of software -- the Apache web server. Even though acquiring the software requires little or no capital expenditure, deploying the software is pretty easy, and extending the software is only slightly more difficult, it is the foundation for several companies. Without that particular piece of software, they could not have built their business. Just having the software available to people creates wealth and value.
When Brazil unleashes a couple of million dollars from its IT spending and turns it into the pockets of Brazilian developers, testers, and documentators, it is going to begin the process of adding value to Free Software in Brazil. The companies and businesses will be able to utilize this software in their organizations, and add a bit of their own as well. The increased value of having the whole country united behind free software will bring such wealth that the previous revenue that licensing would've created would be seen as a drop in the bucket.
You have to view software from a holistic economic approach.