Picture yourself on the way home from grandma's house after visiting the family for Christmas. It's 1:30 AM. It's snowing and the wind is whipping. Everyone's tired and your wife is bitching up a storm because your mom put her in a bad mood. Your batteries are running low and you're still 200 miles from home. And it's going to take 4 hours to charge them.
Too bad. You should've charged up at your grandma's house.
I don't think the poster was condoning the law. And yes, it does suck... but it's also important to put it in perspective. It's no worse (but also not much better) than the USA's DMCA.
If we got rid of the electoral college, only the votes of people in high population states would count. If it is simple majority of votes, who gives a s$$t about Alaska voters,
Not true. If we got rid of the electoral college, an Alaskan vote would count just as much as a Californian vote. Sure, Alaska would get less visits from candidates on the campaign trail, but why do you care?
I'm with you on the abysmal news coverage, though.
sometimes, i think it is wrong for countries like germany to prosecute them
other times, i think it is wrong for the usa not too
the issue is one of persecution: one should not be persecuted for their beliefs
but if you are persecuting a group BECAUSE they believe they have a right to persecute people like this poor guy who is also just expressing his beliefs, the argument about freedom kind of collapses in on itself
They aren't persecuted for their beliefs. They are prosecuted for manipulation and extortion.
I don't get it. Why would reading on the toilet make me get agitated and stressed (unless I read my quarterly performance review, of course)? I'd be more inclined to just "push them out" if I didn't bring an article or book to read. So I'd say, NOT reading on the toilet is bad for you.
I fully agree, though, that reading in the toilet can be bad for your health.
"A person is guilty of a class A misdemeanor if such person unlawfully and without the consent of the persons entitled to privacy therein, installs or uses:...
The police officer's are not entitled to privacy in this guy's front yard, since they (hopefully) wouldn't expose their genitalia there. So they don't have to give their consent, and it's not a misdemeanor.
In theory, the executive and the judicative branches of government should be separated, and neither should have undue influence over the other. Hence the regime change should have had no effect on the outcome of the trial.
But as you said, unfortunately we live in the real world... and in the United States, Separation of Powers is only a dream.
firefox bundles google search and defaults to google (..and makes millions) and no one on./ says anything
That's probably because Firefox doesn't have 90% of the browser market, doesn't come preinstalled with an operating system that accounts for 95% of the personal computer market, and so far never has engaged in blatant anti-competitive behavior.
Have you even looked at the sites mentioned in the article you cited? Here is an excerpt from one of them:
"If I had even a remnant of a sense of humor left, I might find something funny in the fact that these Arab murderers are now killing their own 'brothers' in yet another of their frenzied, holy wars against their own. The Shiites and Sunnis are going at each other full force while the Kurds, also Muslims but not Arabs, sit safely on the sideline, watching the slaughter. The so-called 'Palestinians,' who now have territory of their own, are killing one another on a daily basis. And, don't forget those wonderful new politicians from Hamas unleashing terror against Fatah and others; reveling in the blood, terror and mayhem they hold so dear."
If you call this "factual news" or "real honest truth", you must be living in a parallel universe with different definitions of "news" and "truth". The site was dropped because it contains hateful personal rants, and not news.
Interesting that 98% of all political donations by Google employees went to support Democrats.
And what does this have to do with "censorship" tactics? Google employees can donate to any political party of their liking. If those were official company donations, it would be a different story.
Also, Al Gore is a senior adviser to Google.
Same thing here. There is nothing evil about consulting with a political figure of either end of the political spectrum. Now if you can point me to some evidence that Google are biasing their search results according to a political agenda, then I would be listening... as they are, your comments are simply FUD.
Re:Holy Honey I Shrunk The Kids, Batman!
on
Gadgets, Then & Now
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· Score: 1
And it will never stop. It's something called "exponential complexity".
When will people stop stating the obvious? Of course nobody in their right mind should put sensitive information onto a service like this. But there are plenty of appropriate uses for this: photos, videos (G-rated ones, at least), recipes, homework, etc.
The only problem I'm seeing is that many of these things are already covered by existing, specialized services.
However, the absolutely worst thing is a big, stupid government that can oppress its people at a moment's notice.
Re:Private enviro-bacterial research organization?
on
Bacteria Eat Styrofoam
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· Score: 1
In the Perfect World (TM), the solution would be simple:
Companies and individuals that produce pollution, trash, etc. place a cost on society: the cost and effort of cleaning up the mess, the research needed for finding efficient ways to do so, increased health cost, and the reduction in quality of life. Currently the taxpayer has to come up with this money, and since in most cases it's not included in the production cost, the markets are skewed. It's cheaper for a company to use a quick-and-dirty production process, even though the long-term cost for the country and for our society may be much higher. The obvious solution is to charge the manufacturer the total estimated cost caused by the pollution. Call it Environment Tax, Pollution Credits, or whatever you like.
In the Real World (TM), of course, it's not that simple. How do we estimate the total societal cost of pollution? Who should calculate those numbers? Government or an independent agency? How do we make sure this money gets spent efficiently?
Nevertheless, I would really like to see our society taking steps in that direction.
Slashdot Mirror
Penrose's argument sounds a bit like: "We know we will never be able to exceed the speed of light, so we should stop trying to build spaceships."
Picture yourself on the way home from grandma's house after visiting the family for Christmas. It's 1:30 AM. It's snowing and the wind is whipping. Everyone's tired and your wife is bitching up a storm because your mom put her in a bad mood. Your batteries are running low and you're still 200 miles from home. And it's going to take 4 hours to charge them.
Too bad. You should've charged up at your grandma's house.
Ha! I am the scientific principal in my kitchen!
I don't think the poster was condoning the law. And yes, it does suck... but it's also important to put it in perspective. It's no worse (but also not much better) than the USA's DMCA.
May I suggest you stop drinking soft drinks. Problem solved.
Oh, but who knows... maybe the spacecraft was piloted by a bunch of drunken alien teenagers.
The German government is actually not as corrupt as some other western nations' governments. So I have a good feeling about this.
Not true. If we got rid of the electoral college, an Alaskan vote would count just as much as a Californian vote. Sure, Alaska would get less visits from candidates on the campaign trail, but why do you care?
I'm with you on the abysmal news coverage, though.
Has it occurred to you that newspapers and magazines are financed partially through ads and partially through the sales price.
Your cable fees go to the network provider, I think, and not to the content providers.
Kavau
(proud MythTV user)
2 * 10^100
They aren't persecuted for their beliefs. They are prosecuted for manipulation and extortion.
I fully agree, though, that reading in the toilet can be bad for your health.
"A person is guilty of a class A misdemeanor if such person unlawfully and without the consent of the persons entitled to privacy therein, installs or uses: ...
The police officer's are not entitled to privacy in this guy's front yard, since they (hopefully) wouldn't expose their genitalia there. So they don't have to give their consent, and it's not a misdemeanor.
But as you said, unfortunately we live in the real world... and in the United States, Separation of Powers is only a dream.
That's probably because Firefox doesn't have 90% of the browser market, doesn't come preinstalled with an operating system that accounts for 95% of the personal computer market, and so far never has engaged in blatant anti-competitive behavior.
Or even better - pay off roughly 0.5% of the U.S. national debt!
Right, and let's not forget the utterly successful War on Drugs!
When did people start. Putting periods in mid-sentence. I think. It makes. A text hard to read.
Have you even looked at the sites mentioned in the article you cited? Here is an excerpt from one of them:
"If I had even a remnant of a sense of humor left, I might find something funny in the fact that these Arab murderers are now killing their own 'brothers' in yet another of their frenzied, holy wars against their own. The Shiites and Sunnis are going at each other full force while the Kurds, also Muslims but not Arabs, sit safely on the sideline, watching the slaughter. The so-called 'Palestinians,' who now have territory of their own, are killing one another on a daily basis. And, don't forget those wonderful new politicians from Hamas unleashing terror against Fatah and others; reveling in the blood, terror and mayhem they hold so dear."
If you call this "factual news" or "real honest truth", you must be living in a parallel universe with different definitions of "news" and "truth". The site was dropped because it contains hateful personal rants, and not news.
Interesting that 98% of all political donations by Google employees went to support Democrats.
And what does this have to do with "censorship" tactics? Google employees can donate to any political party of their liking. If those were official company donations, it would be a different story.
Also, Al Gore is a senior adviser to Google.
Same thing here. There is nothing evil about consulting with a political figure of either end of the political spectrum. Now if you can point me to some evidence that Google are biasing their search results according to a political agenda, then I would be listening... as they are, your comments are simply FUD.
And it will never stop. It's something called "exponential complexity".
Nah, people will get used to this. Just as they got used to people apparently having agitated conversations with themselves in public.
Try Hunter, In Darkness for something slightly different (but at the same time strangely familiar).
The only problem I'm seeing is that many of these things are already covered by existing, specialized services.
However, the absolutely worst thing is a big, stupid government that can oppress its people at a moment's notice.
Companies and individuals that produce pollution, trash, etc. place a cost on society: the cost and effort of cleaning up the mess, the research needed for finding efficient ways to do so, increased health cost, and the reduction in quality of life. Currently the taxpayer has to come up with this money, and since in most cases it's not included in the production cost, the markets are skewed. It's cheaper for a company to use a quick-and-dirty production process, even though the long-term cost for the country and for our society may be much higher. The obvious solution is to charge the manufacturer the total estimated cost caused by the pollution. Call it Environment Tax, Pollution Credits, or whatever you like.
In the Real World (TM), of course, it's not that simple. How do we estimate the total societal cost of pollution? Who should calculate those numbers? Government or an independent agency? How do we make sure this money gets spent efficiently?
Nevertheless, I would really like to see our society taking steps in that direction.