If only I had noticed this earlier. I feel compelled to continue a dead thread.
What makes you competent to judge that?
Just facts.
Fact 1 - he is an American citizen.
Fact 2 - he is being held without being charged with a crime or given a trial.
If you accept that behavior in your government, I judge you to be insane. I am a dyed in the wool, gung ho, staunch conservative who voted for Bush both times. This is not a knee-jerk, liberal response. If they have evidence that they can use against him, use it, and start the trial. If not, let him go. No middle ground. No "secret" information, no sealed military tribunals. If you don't have evidence, or are unwilling to reveal it publically, tough. I would rather a dozen guilty Padillas went free than to give our government, or any future permutation of that government, the right to hold its citizens without trial. If you cannot see how that is a bad thing, then you are either insane or you are willfully stupid, trusting human nature(especially groupthink) to do the right thing in spite of ALL of history.
Forgive me, I missed one thing. You can start the process of becoming an instructor at 60 dives. But it requires 100 to complete. Which can still be accomplished in 6 months easily.
I mean, look at the sort of "specialties" PADI is offering now. Peak Performance Bouyancy? Bouyancy control is one of the cornerstones, perhaps THE cornerstone(given that it emcompasses good breath control as well), of good diving technique. This should be part of the basic openwater certification. A failure in this area leads directly to clumsy, overweighted divers who can and do inflict serious damage to underwater habitats, and are a danger to themselves and others.
How do you think PADI and the other certification agencies started? Certified divers who were instructing got together and came up with teaching standards.
It is not that these people are looking to circumvent the standards now used. It is that they find those standards and practices to be, in many cases, insufficient. They don't wish to eliminate the certification agency. They want to make a new one that has more strict standards, with an emphasis on a mentoring style of teaching, versus the abbreviated classroom style favored today.
Besides, given that PADI would certify someone as an instructor with only 6 months and 60 dives worth of experience is, frankly, scary.
There's a point at which you just have to shrug your shoulders and say tough shit. Yes, personal responsibility hurts sometimes. That's part of being an adult.
Besides, Hot Topic and Burger King are usually hiring, and they generally don't care about tats and whatnot. If you are in the above situation, be thankful that your moment of stupidity didn't result in death(yours or others), suck it up and move on. Don't expect the world(especially employers) to cut you slack for a boneheaded move you made while drunk.
The problem is, they dwarf the rest of the industry. The rest of the agencies follow their lead, as far as I can tell. I mean, they keep pushing the age limits on diving(it's down to 8 for their new program, I believe). I can't think of many 8 year olds that could physically handle a stressfull underwater emergency.
Some vintage divers I know have been kicking around the idea of starting a certification group focused on a mentoring style of teaching, like The Good Ol' Days(tm). I hope that they follow through.
Quick question: is SSI as certification-crazy as PADI has become? It seems like they focus on a Pokemon mentality("Gotta get 'em all") when it comes to dreaming up new ways to charge divers.
Not exactly. I am a PADI diver(judge that as you will), but I am pretty sure that NAUI also teaches no deco diving. In PADI, all normal rec diving is considered to be no deco. We learn to deal with it if needed, but are discouraged from actually exceeding the limits. That is left for later certifications. We did a deco dive when I was taking my advanced open water course.
Now, some people have a problem with PADI's philosophy and style of teaching(I sure do), but I think their stance on no deco rec diving is fairly average for the recreational diving industry.
No. You can take a VHS tape of, say Xmen, and physically cut out all the bits with Wolverine, for example. You can then sell the physical copy you own to someone. If you make and distribute a new, altered copy, then you can get in trouble for copyright violations. As another poster pointed out, doing this to a DVD is not feasible. But it is not illegal. If you have proof otherwise, please quote the law or court case that makes it so.
Bull. It is a product. The moment they release that product, I can view it however I like. I can turn my TV upside down, I can watch it through a blue lens, I can fast forward through all of the boring bits.
Are you really suggesting that some author has the "moral right" to force me to not use the fast forward button?
Now imagine that some web browser was programmed to leave out certain words in your site, changing the message you are delivering.
I can do that now with a printout and a Sharpie. The fact is, if someone is going to filter your content, there is nothing you can do about it, short of not putting it out there.
Medieval Madness requires a nod, as it is one of the best ever. But you left out Elvira Scared Stiff and Circus Voltaire, two extraordinary games. Never felt as tense in a game as getting to the last few goals in the Stiff-o-meter. And Sneakylock on CV is just too cool.
So I'm guessing that the answer is precisely one then?
Well, yes. Given my age and the length of my marriage, it is the only possible answer.
Please note that I was not denigrating your relationship. I simply find it odd that 5 years is considered substantial. I am constantly discovering new things about my wife, and our relationship is continually evolving.
Out of curiosity(and feel free not to answer if it uncomfortable), do you consider that relationship to have been a permanent one that failed early, or a transitory one that lasted longer than normal?
Correct. In this case, the government is curtailing the absolute freedom of some(the bigwig et al) in order to secure the relative freedom of all. My point was not that government activities are always wrong(after all, the freedom to kill others should be curtailed). My point was that government does not create or grant rights. It can only defend those rights that you naturally have, being a human being.
It's not the individual parts that I am speaking of. The system as a whole is proprietary. They can easily lock out non-proprietary software from running by refusing to boot non-Mac operating systems.
Essentially, they could implement "trusted computing" at the drop of a hat. Indeed, they could even package it as one of the OSX upgrades. In the more diverse PC world(in terms of hardware), that is a much bigger problem to crack.
This would be an entirely theoretical point except for the fact that Apple has used their platform control to kill off "allies" before. I trust them with my freedom just as much as I trust Microsoft, which is to say, not at all.
I like Macs. I dislike the Mac fanclub. And I dislike the idea of giving up control of my hardware to one company. I would hate to see everyone jump on the Mac bandwagon(in terms of running something like Linux on it), only to get locked out when/if it becomes a threat. Ask the people who ran Umax or Power Computing what it feels like.
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If only I had noticed this earlier. I feel compelled to continue a dead thread.
What makes you competent to judge that?
Just facts.
Fact 1 - he is an American citizen.
Fact 2 - he is being held without being charged with a crime or given a trial.
If you accept that behavior in your government, I judge you to be insane. I am a dyed in the wool, gung ho, staunch conservative who voted for Bush both times. This is not a knee-jerk, liberal response. If they have evidence that they can use against him, use it, and start the trial. If not, let him go. No middle ground. No "secret" information, no sealed military tribunals. If you don't have evidence, or are unwilling to reveal it publically, tough. I would rather a dozen guilty Padillas went free than to give our government, or any future permutation of that government, the right to hold its citizens without trial. If you cannot see how that is a bad thing, then you are either insane or you are willfully stupid, trusting human nature(especially groupthink) to do the right thing in spite of ALL of history.
Prove it. Oh, yeah, nobody has, and the government keeps saying that it doesn't have to. That is insane.
Come on, just between you and me. You just made all of that up, didn't you?
Or perhaps it's time to state a new law:
Any sufficiently technically correct scientific explanation, especially if it pertains to physics, is indistinguishable from gibberish.
Forgive me, I missed one thing. You can start the process of becoming an instructor at 60 dives. But it requires 100 to complete. Which can still be accomplished in 6 months easily.
I mean, look at the sort of "specialties" PADI is offering now. Peak Performance Bouyancy? Bouyancy control is one of the cornerstones, perhaps THE cornerstone(given that it emcompasses good breath control as well), of good diving technique. This should be part of the basic openwater certification. A failure in this area leads directly to clumsy, overweighted divers who can and do inflict serious damage to underwater habitats, and are a danger to themselves and others.
How do you think PADI and the other certification agencies started? Certified divers who were instructing got together and came up with teaching standards.
It is not that these people are looking to circumvent the standards now used. It is that they find those standards and practices to be, in many cases, insufficient. They don't wish to eliminate the certification agency. They want to make a new one that has more strict standards, with an emphasis on a mentoring style of teaching, versus the abbreviated classroom style favored today.
Besides, given that PADI would certify someone as an instructor with only 6 months and 60 dives worth of experience is, frankly, scary.
There's a point at which you just have to shrug your shoulders and say tough shit. Yes, personal responsibility hurts sometimes. That's part of being an adult.
Besides, Hot Topic and Burger King are usually hiring, and they generally don't care about tats and whatnot. If you are in the above situation, be thankful that your moment of stupidity didn't result in death(yours or others), suck it up and move on. Don't expect the world(especially employers) to cut you slack for a boneheaded move you made while drunk.
Nuke them from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
The problem is, they dwarf the rest of the industry. The rest of the agencies follow their lead, as far as I can tell. I mean, they keep pushing the age limits on diving(it's down to 8 for their new program, I believe). I can't think of many 8 year olds that could physically handle a stressfull underwater emergency.
Some vintage divers I know have been kicking around the idea of starting a certification group focused on a mentoring style of teaching, like The Good Ol' Days(tm). I hope that they follow through.
Quick question: is SSI as certification-crazy as PADI has become? It seems like they focus on a Pokemon mentality("Gotta get 'em all") when it comes to dreaming up new ways to charge divers.
Not exactly. I am a PADI diver(judge that as you will), but I am pretty sure that NAUI also teaches no deco diving. In PADI, all normal rec diving is considered to be no deco. We learn to deal with it if needed, but are discouraged from actually exceeding the limits. That is left for later certifications. We did a deco dive when I was taking my advanced open water course.
Now, some people have a problem with PADI's philosophy and style of teaching(I sure do), but I think their stance on no deco rec diving is fairly average for the recreational diving industry.
No. You can take a VHS tape of, say Xmen, and physically cut out all the bits with Wolverine, for example. You can then sell the physical copy you own to someone. If you make and distribute a new, altered copy, then you can get in trouble for copyright violations. As another poster pointed out, doing this to a DVD is not feasible. But it is not illegal. If you have proof otherwise, please quote the law or court case that makes it so.
It is illegal if I distribute or sell my modified copy, which I am not willing to do.
No, it's not. If you start making copies, yes. But you can hack up your copy and sell it.
That is not evolution. That is adaptation.
And what do you think evolution is?
*cough*Umax and Power Computing*cough*
Bull. It is a product. The moment they release that product, I can view it however I like. I can turn my TV upside down, I can watch it through a blue lens, I can fast forward through all of the boring bits.
Are you really suggesting that some author has the "moral right" to force me to not use the fast forward button?
Now imagine that some web browser was programmed to leave out certain words in your site, changing the message you are delivering.
I can do that now with a printout and a Sharpie. The fact is, if someone is going to filter your content, there is nothing you can do about it, short of not putting it out there.
Where are the private arch repositories(yours and Marks)? I have never seen a link that I can recall.
Medieval Madness requires a nod, as it is one of the best ever. But you left out Elvira Scared Stiff and Circus Voltaire, two extraordinary games. Never felt as tense in a game as getting to the last few goals in the Stiff-o-meter. And Sneakylock on CV is just too cool.
when they found "the Ark" with the transformers inside I actually felt a tear running down my cheek.
;)
OK, keep in mind that this is coming from someone who knows who Orion Pax and Alpha Trion are.
Get a grip.
So I'm guessing that the answer is precisely one then?
Well, yes. Given my age and the length of my marriage, it is the only possible answer.
Please note that I was not denigrating your relationship. I simply find it odd that 5 years is considered substantial. I am constantly discovering new things about my wife, and our relationship is continually evolving.
Out of curiosity(and feel free not to answer if it uncomfortable), do you consider that relationship to have been a permanent one that failed early, or a transitory one that lasted longer than normal?
How many relationships have you had that lasted longer?
10 years in July. If you count the dating phase, 12. 3 kids.
What you want, a written guarantee?
Well, I have a verbal one. Mine stipulates death as the only solvent for this arrangement.
Correct. In this case, the government is curtailing the absolute freedom of some(the bigwig et al) in order to secure the relative freedom of all. My point was not that government activities are always wrong(after all, the freedom to kill others should be curtailed). My point was that government does not create or grant rights. It can only defend those rights that you naturally have, being a human being.
Perhaps you should reread what you just posted: "natural rights."
I am no anarchist, but I certainly must respond to this.
The man's an anarchist who ironically enjoys the freedoms granted in this country (granted by the government).
No! The government exists to curtail your freedom. It does not grant it. That is a supposedly inalienable right.
It's not the individual parts that I am speaking of. The system as a whole is proprietary. They can easily lock out non-proprietary software from running by refusing to boot non-Mac operating systems.
Essentially, they could implement "trusted computing" at the drop of a hat. Indeed, they could even package it as one of the OSX upgrades. In the more diverse PC world(in terms of hardware), that is a much bigger problem to crack.
This would be an entirely theoretical point except for the fact that Apple has used their platform control to kill off "allies" before. I trust them with my freedom just as much as I trust Microsoft, which is to say, not at all.
I like Macs. I dislike the Mac fanclub. And I dislike the idea of giving up control of my hardware to one company. I would hate to see everyone jump on the Mac bandwagon(in terms of running something like Linux on it), only to get locked out when/if it becomes a threat. Ask the people who ran Umax or Power Computing what it feels like.