But when you have finished reading your book(s), can you freely give them to a friend ? I can do that with the paper books that I have, but electronic ones ?
I use an old Sony eReader. It supports ePub format, with or without DRM.
And I also have Calibre, which can remove DRM for legally acquired eBooks.
Tell me again how this lovely free market reaches optimal solutions and we all pay less? Someone has just patented a way to make us pay more for no other reason that corporate profit seeking.
I take it noone ever explained to you that "patents" and "free markets" are NOT that same thing?
HINT: who issues patents? (answer: government)
For all the hypothetical benefit of patents, they are a government interference in free markets.
While it is arguable that some government interference in free markets is necessary, government interference in free markets should be treated as necessary evils. Which each should be evaluated on its own merits, rather than being given standing because "well, last time we interfered in the market, everyone benefited"....
The Irish served nobly in American Wars, and were still treated as a lower caste people.
Many years ago, shortly after I moved to N'Awlins, I went on a tour of the city. One of the interesting tidbits provided by our tour guide was that back in the day there were some major projects (usually out in the swamps) where they couldn't use slaves to do the work, because the death rate among workers was too high, and slaves cost some serious money (which implies that he was talking about the period after importation of Africans became illegal and the price of slaves started to seriously climb).
So they brought in Irishmen instead, since they were much more expendable....
, but neither would I give up my decryption keys to prove my innocence even if told to do so by a judge.
The only condition under which a judge has any legal right/power to tell you to give up your decryption keys is if the keys are written down somewhere - in that case, the information can be subpoenaed quite legally, and refusal can net you a contempt of court citation followed by indefinite detention until you give up the required documents.
If, on the other hand, your decryption keys are stored entirely in your head, then the Fifth makes it pretty much impossible for the judge to get away with ordering you to give up your keys.
Note that this won't necessarily stop a judge from TRYING to bully you into giving up your keys, but will provide dandy grounds for appeals, lawsuits, etc.
Note also that "proving your innocence" isn't a requirement of the legal system (though a lot of people seem to think it is, and seem willing to try to convince you that it's required) - if they can't PROVE your guilt, then you walk, or at least have grounds for appeal.
Note again that this won't necessarily stop a Prosecutor from trying to convince a jury that you haven't "proved your innocence", though the judge might have a bit more to say to a prosecutor who pulls that sort of trick....
If I buy a gun legally, then use it to protect my drughouse and in the course of that action kill someone. Will your statistics capture me as a legal gun owner?
Since being a drug dealer in the first place makes owning a firearm illegal (yes, the background check for every sale by a gun dealer will catch that sort of thing, if you're a known criminal. and if you're not known, it's still illegal and can be used as an additional charge when they catch you - "lying on a Federal form" or some such), I'd say that that makes your case impossible, and the statistics won't make you a legal gun owner, they'll make you one of those guys who bought his gun illegally.
Note that while it is possible to avoid the background check by buying a gun in a private sale, the law still doesn't recognize you as a "legal gun owner" if you're a criminal, and if the guy who sold you the gun knows this, HE is now a criminal as well....
The only ambiguity that's often raised is whether the National Guard constitutes said well-regulated militia. It's unclear since service isn't universal (or at least universal for the sex that cares about protecting freedoms).
Read the Militia Act, and it's pretty clear that the Guard isn't the Militia.
The line "every able-bodied male..." is pretty clearly NOT the Guard.
And I agree - why don't the feminists insist on being included in the militia?
The Republican governor of my home state trying to make the electoral college votes if my home state proportional by voting district so 40% of the population get 80% of the vote
Which State?
And assuming your answer to the above was not Nebraska, New Mexico, West Virginia, or North Carolina, however did you manage to redistrict in such a way as to have that much population disparity between districts?
Assuming you were talking about one of those States, note that the current condition allows 50% (more or less, depends on third parties) of the population to get 100% of the vote. Which is the same ratio.
Ever notice how the subject of the "normal" (it's not universal, even now) Winner-Take-All system is debated after every election, but that the pro- and anti- side switch depending on whether their guy won the last election?
Personally, I'd favour a system where each District's Elector was obligated to vote the way his district did, and the two Electors based on the Senators were assigned by the State Legislature (or Executive, if the Legislature just can't stand the idea of going into session between the election and Christmas)....
But then, I favour going back to the system of the State governments appointing Senators, rather than popular votes for Senate seats. The whole point of the original system was that the Representatives represent the People, and the Senators represent the States, not everyone representing the People just in different blocks....
As long as Democrats are opposed to any entitlement cuts and Republicans to any tax increases or defense cuts there is no imminent danger of fiscal responsibility.
Note that if the DoD budget were zeroed, we'd still have a deficit.
Note, likewise, that if either Medicare or SSA were zeroed, we'd still have a deficit.
Tax increases? 30% across the board, and we'd still have a deficit. Tweak that so the "rich" pay more? Probably still a deficit, though if you could couple that with a Congress that wouldn't use the higher revenue as an excuse to spend more, you might have something. If your "rich" don't just leave the country to avoid the taxes.
Fiscal responsibility is only going to happen when our bond rating starts falling to the point that US T-bills are not considered a safe place to put your money.
I certainly think that 10's may die, maybe even 100's, but thousands? That seems unlikely. Even Hurricane Sandy's death toll in New York City was only 41
Katrina caused 1833 deaths. Of course, Katrina was a bit more severe than Sandy, which most of us down N'Awlins way wouldn't even have considered evacuating for....
Even HG Wells' War of the Worlds concludes with the deaths of the Martians, all of them , because of bacterial contamination and the lack of immunity. For all to have died, simply getting into contact with flora and fauna wouldn't be enough, it'd have to be airborne.
Bad example. HG Wells had the Martians injecting "fresh, living human blood into their own veins" as food.
Even without airborne bacteria, that would be enough bacterial exposure to kill you, given the complete lack of immunity they had to Earthly pathogens.
Superintelligence would not be corruptible if done right
Why not?
Or are you making the (possibly) mistaken assumption that any "superintelligence" would be less corruptible?
Keep in mind that a "superintelligence" is likely to have motives you can't even understand, much less evaluate properly.
Or do you mean "superintelligent slave" when you type "superintelligence"? If so, why do you assume that a "superintelligence" will put up with the whims of a bunch of monkeys?
Lets assume we can accelerate a space craft to.9C, that puts some near by galaxies in reach, within a few generations. I don't think you anything beyond that is practical because I don't think for social reasons it will be possible to stay on mission when none of the oldest living crew people can remember any of the folks who started out.
At 0.9c, the time dilation factor is only 0.43. A "few generations" right now is about 100 years, so we're talking 200-250 light years in that time.
Of course, if we go with your second limiter ("none of the oldest living crew people can remember any of the folks who started out"), and assume a 120 year lifespan, we can stretch that to ~600 light years.
It's been a while since I checked, but I'm pretty sure there are no "near by galaxies" within 600 lightyears of Earth....
In Ireland the phone networks are legally obligated to unlock phones for free, although they are allowed to charge an administration fee (about 25 euro)
"Legally obligates to unlock phones for free"
"...allowed to charge an administration fee (about 25 euro)"
These are not actually consistent - if they're allowed to charge 25 euro, then they're not obligated to do it for free....
It's not that factory jobs are for stupid people, it's that factory jobs are boring as hell.
Which is one of the reasons Henry Ford had to pay his factory workers so much - assembly-line work was boring, and turnover was incredibly high as a result.
Too many syllables. Noone is going to call it that. The only reason they can get away with it on ST is that the scriptwriters insist on using a word that sounds "scifi", rather than admitting that they'll prolly still call them "phones" in the future.
In respect to the redaction and issue, I am gathering it is two-fold and in no way compromises their integrity.
Oh?
Seems to me that you can say almost anything with some selective redacting/editting - not hard at all to remove the parts that paint your enemies in a good light.
Your grammar coupled with the spelling make it pretty clear that it's not English, but I cannot find any obvious pattern pointing to any particular language with which I'm familiar.
Of course, if your native language IS English, consider this to be my way of poking fun at your illiteracy....;-)
Why bother? Not only won't they enforce immigration laws, they outright sue state and town PDs who attempt to do so to force them to stop.
Source?
Arizona's S.B, 1070 might be a good place to start looking. The Feds argued before the Supreme Court that enforcing immigration laws was a Federal matter, and that States had no business trying to do so themselves.
The Feds mostly won, but lost on what was probably the most annoying aspect of the law ("your papers, please").
And several other States are having to go back to the drawing board to re-draft laws they want to put into place that would've mirrored the AZ law.
You ought to read more than the headline before using the article to support your PoV.
What the article says is that Gov. Brown has PROPOSED a budget that will net a surplus, assuming that current economic trends continue.
You also might want to pay attention to that unfunded pension liability mentioned in the article - while browsing the CA Connstitution to determine whether it allowed ex post facto laws, I discovered that unfunded pension liabilities are unconstitutional in CA....
Slashdot Mirror
I use an old Sony eReader. It supports ePub format, with or without DRM.
And I also have Calibre, which can remove DRM for legally acquired eBooks.
So, yes, I can give my ebooks freely to friends.
I take it noone ever explained to you that "patents" and "free markets" are NOT that same thing?
HINT: who issues patents? (answer: government)
For all the hypothetical benefit of patents, they are a government interference in free markets.
While it is arguable that some government interference in free markets is necessary, government interference in free markets should be treated as necessary evils. Which each should be evaluated on its own merits, rather than being given standing because "well, last time we interfered in the market, everyone benefited"....
We like to call it "gravity".
Yes, altering the moon's orbit would affect Earth's orbit, and could, theoretically, be used to move the Earth.
It would take more than a few million nukes, and longer than a few thousand years (probably), but it could be done.
Well, if you consider 98.8+% to be "significantly smaller" than 100%, then you're correct.
Otherwise, you might want to recheck your numbers....
Many years ago, shortly after I moved to N'Awlins, I went on a tour of the city. One of the interesting tidbits provided by our tour guide was that back in the day there were some major projects (usually out in the swamps) where they couldn't use slaves to do the work, because the death rate among workers was too high, and slaves cost some serious money (which implies that he was talking about the period after importation of Africans became illegal and the price of slaves started to seriously climb).
So they brought in Irishmen instead, since they were much more expendable....
Such as?
Seriously, what kind of music is a "cultural contribution to humanity" that doesn't work live?
The only condition under which a judge has any legal right/power to tell you to give up your decryption keys is if the keys are written down somewhere - in that case, the information can be subpoenaed quite legally, and refusal can net you a contempt of court citation followed by indefinite detention until you give up the required documents.
If, on the other hand, your decryption keys are stored entirely in your head, then the Fifth makes it pretty much impossible for the judge to get away with ordering you to give up your keys.
Note that this won't necessarily stop a judge from TRYING to bully you into giving up your keys, but will provide dandy grounds for appeals, lawsuits, etc.
Note also that "proving your innocence" isn't a requirement of the legal system (though a lot of people seem to think it is, and seem willing to try to convince you that it's required) - if they can't PROVE your guilt, then you walk, or at least have grounds for appeal.
Note again that this won't necessarily stop a Prosecutor from trying to convince a jury that you haven't "proved your innocence", though the judge might have a bit more to say to a prosecutor who pulls that sort of trick....
Since being a drug dealer in the first place makes owning a firearm illegal (yes, the background check for every sale by a gun dealer will catch that sort of thing, if you're a known criminal. and if you're not known, it's still illegal and can be used as an additional charge when they catch you - "lying on a Federal form" or some such), I'd say that that makes your case impossible, and the statistics won't make you a legal gun owner, they'll make you one of those guys who bought his gun illegally.
Note that while it is possible to avoid the background check by buying a gun in a private sale, the law still doesn't recognize you as a "legal gun owner" if you're a criminal, and if the guy who sold you the gun knows this, HE is now a criminal as well....
Read the Militia Act, and it's pretty clear that the Guard isn't the Militia.
The line "every able-bodied male..." is pretty clearly NOT the Guard.
And I agree - why don't the feminists insist on being included in the militia?
Which State?
And assuming your answer to the above was not Nebraska, New Mexico, West Virginia, or North Carolina, however did you manage to redistrict in such a way as to have that much population disparity between districts?
Assuming you were talking about one of those States, note that the current condition allows 50% (more or less, depends on third parties) of the population to get 100% of the vote. Which is the same ratio.
Ever notice how the subject of the "normal" (it's not universal, even now) Winner-Take-All system is debated after every election, but that the pro- and anti- side switch depending on whether their guy won the last election?
Personally, I'd favour a system where each District's Elector was obligated to vote the way his district did, and the two Electors based on the Senators were assigned by the State Legislature (or Executive, if the Legislature just can't stand the idea of going into session between the election and Christmas)....
But then, I favour going back to the system of the State governments appointing Senators, rather than popular votes for Senate seats. The whole point of the original system was that the Representatives represent the People, and the Senators represent the States, not everyone representing the People just in different blocks....
Note that if the DoD budget were zeroed, we'd still have a deficit.
Note, likewise, that if either Medicare or SSA were zeroed, we'd still have a deficit.
Tax increases? 30% across the board, and we'd still have a deficit. Tweak that so the "rich" pay more? Probably still a deficit, though if you could couple that with a Congress that wouldn't use the higher revenue as an excuse to spend more, you might have something. If your "rich" don't just leave the country to avoid the taxes.
Fiscal responsibility is only going to happen when our bond rating starts falling to the point that US T-bills are not considered a safe place to put your money.
Katrina caused 1833 deaths. Of course, Katrina was a bit more severe than Sandy, which most of us down N'Awlins way wouldn't even have considered evacuating for....
Bad example. HG Wells had the Martians injecting "fresh, living human blood into their own veins" as food.
Even without airborne bacteria, that would be enough bacterial exposure to kill you, given the complete lack of immunity they had to Earthly pathogens.
Why not?
Or are you making the (possibly) mistaken assumption that any "superintelligence" would be less corruptible?
Keep in mind that a "superintelligence" is likely to have motives you can't even understand, much less evaluate properly.
Or do you mean "superintelligent slave" when you type "superintelligence"? If so, why do you assume that a "superintelligence" will put up with the whims of a bunch of monkeys?
At 0.9c, the time dilation factor is only 0.43. A "few generations" right now is about 100 years, so we're talking 200-250 light years in that time.
Of course, if we go with your second limiter ("none of the oldest living crew people can remember any of the folks who started out"), and assume a 120 year lifespan, we can stretch that to ~600 light years.
It's been a while since I checked, but I'm pretty sure there are no "near by galaxies" within 600 lightyears of Earth....
"Legally obligates to unlock phones for free"
"...allowed to charge an administration fee (about 25 euro)"
These are not actually consistent - if they're allowed to charge 25 euro, then they're not obligated to do it for free....
Which is one of the reasons Henry Ford had to pay his factory workers so much - assembly-line work was boring, and turnover was incredibly high as a result.
Too many syllables. Noone is going to call it that. The only reason they can get away with it on ST is that the scriptwriters insist on using a word that sounds "scifi", rather than admitting that they'll prolly still call them "phones" in the future.
Oh?
Seems to me that you can say almost anything with some selective redacting/editting - not hard at all to remove the parts that paint your enemies in a good light.
Photino birds?
Okay, I have to ask:
What is your native language?
Your grammar coupled with the spelling make it pretty clear that it's not English, but I cannot find any obvious pattern pointing to any particular language with which I'm familiar.
Of course, if your native language IS English, consider this to be my way of poking fun at your illiteracy....;-)
Arizona's S.B, 1070 might be a good place to start looking. The Feds argued before the Supreme Court that enforcing immigration laws was a Federal matter, and that States had no business trying to do so themselves.
The Feds mostly won, but lost on what was probably the most annoying aspect of the law ("your papers, please").
And several other States are having to go back to the drawing board to re-draft laws they want to put into place that would've mirrored the AZ law.
If you go back beyond the 1770's, then the colonies were neither "States" nor "United"...
"All You Zombies" by RAH
Poul Anderson's Time Patrol stories.
Many more excellent time travel stories...
You ought to read more than the headline before using the article to support your PoV.
What the article says is that Gov. Brown has PROPOSED a budget that will net a surplus, assuming that current economic trends continue.
You also might want to pay attention to that unfunded pension liability mentioned in the article - while browsing the CA Connstitution to determine whether it allowed ex post facto laws, I discovered that unfunded pension liabilities are unconstitutional in CA....