by following turkey's authoritarian freedom crushing instructions that would otherwise get facebook banned, facebook remains influential in turkey in a positive way, in more subtle ways
Not a very nuanced view, and even complex matters can be surprisingly simple if you have values. -- "by following turkey's authoritarian freedom crushing instructions that would otherwise get facebook banned," facebook remains in business there. This and nothing else matters to corporations. Please don't pretend that FBs mission is to propagate free speech, because that would be... well, a blockheaded black-or-white kinda view. FB censors when it fits its business model (see the " pictures of breasts" argument). FB is accepting and taking part in what you call turkey's authoritarian freedom crushing instructions. Because they don't have values, as Zuckerberg likes to suggest, but business interests. Once Turkey blocks FB (Twitter etc.), people who value free speech will circumvent those blocks, as they have always done, but it would hurt FBs business.
The simple fact is MOST people will ignore limits that re too low
I'm not sure if this is true or if it applies to MOST. I don't know where you live, but I am quite certain that where I live it doesn't work that way (fines... few, not most can ignore those). Nonetheless, by raising the upper limit of speed, you'd further spread the difference of speeds of individual cars, i.e. those who go beyond limits and those who adhere, so I doubt you have a point here. Never mind, though, limits are and will remain arbitrary, and people will drive as fast as they see fit. People will die in traffic, no matter what we do. IMHO, raising speed limits will kill more people, but I might be wrong. Physics -- along with common sense -- saved my life quite a few times so far, so that might be something we both can agree to.
Avoiding accidents involves way more than simply braking.
Sure, but that wasn't my point. It is actually all about the time it takes the human body to react to stimuli. The average best case response time seems to vary from 215 milliseconds (humanbenchmark.com) to 166 ms (sprinters at the Beijing Olympics as of Wikipedias Mental chronometry entry). My point was: the faster you go, the more can happen within those ~180ms that you cannot respond to. We're not even talking about the forces involved at the respective velocities, or worst case response times of distracted drivers etc.
Comparing German accident rates to U.S. rates with very different driving situations makes no sense
In that case, physics might make sense. Just compare how many yards you make in a second at 55 mph vs. 85 mph. Also, compare stopping distances. Driving faster is more dangerous unless you bend the laws of physics.
Also, there's nothing controversial about geo and climate engineering, it's just a dumb idea, since we don't actually understand climate yet, or even just the weather. Let 'em write papers, but make sure they keep their hands off of actual "engineering" for a few more decades. We'll be busy coping with our most recent climate engineering attempt and its results, the release of several hundred million years' worth of carbon.
Um, no: Orban publicly announced that he plans to eliminate liberal democracy in his country and turn Hungary into an 'illiberal state,' modeled after China or Russia. Pretty much no other country does that, which shows that Orban's Fidesz is not like any other authoritarian regime IMO.
Valid points within the science we know, but it is probably wise to consider aspects outside of settled scientific knowledge:
So far, Ebola outbreaks were confined primarily to tropical regions of Sub-Saharan Africa; we will only just now be able to study how "well" the virus spreads "airborne", i.e. by commercial airlines, and we do not yet know what happens when the virus encounters a completely different set of hosts/environments/influences it wasn't exposed to so far.
While Gorillas are often associated with Ebola outbreaks, bats are considered the most likely natural reservoir of the EBOV. You'll probably have a hard time finding gorillas in your neighborhood, but bats... . I'm not sure how relevant this might be, but once you have a rising number of infected people on a global scale, the buildup of new reservoirs is not unlikely.
In the 100 or so years we have been really studying viruses, we have seen a virus mutate and change its infection vector exactly ZERO times.
While this is probably true, the science we acquired during these 100 or so years is often based on epidemiological conditions and assumptions that no longer apply, or have changed dramatically, or which have been made considerably more complicated because of the way the world changed since the Spanish Flu -- not talking about those things we just kinda missed. Point being: aside from hemorrhagic fever making clickbait headlines right now, it's the same with influenza: we'd better not underestimate it, be it airborne, avian or whatnot.
warlords in South America? Don't forget the pharmaceutical industry, and all those other industries that benefit from prohibiting a natural competitor that needs little cultivation because it basically grows like... well, weed.
Also, remember that this is an arms race. A few more similar cases and press coverage, and those people you target will know that a false identity only works if it comes with plastic surgery. And: whatever benefits they say face recognition has, they are dwarfed by the potential abuses. But we don't talk about those, we're busy thinking of the children, while trying not to think too hard of the children, because that would put us in a different camp.
They might be, but the "sophisticated information and disinformation" game works both ways, you know.
Russia in secret plot against fracking Nato chief says. "I have met allies who can report that Russia, as part of their sophisticated information and disinformation operations, engaged actively with so-called non-governmental organisations - environmental organisations working against shale gas - to maintain European dependence on imported Russian gas. That is my interpretation.
I have met neighbors who said they know someone who is sure that Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen is full of shit, but I prefer to rely on facts instead of hearsay.
Anti fracking groups have AFAIK demanded that Rasmussen provide evidence for his "interpretation" or else apologize. Ah, here's the open letter.
It is interesting, though, Nato doing some product placement for the fracking industry, lashing out at Putin and saying: the devil hates fracking, so it must be a good thing. If you oppose it, you're obviously bought by the Kremlin, because everybody in the EU but Gazprom just loves fracking.
Next thing you know, we'll see some sort of a global Foreign Agent Law... no, treaty, I mean treaty! Not a law, a treaty. My bad. Let's call it an agreement. And always remember: you can't trust the... Russians.
I find this case particularly amazing - in just three paragraphs you'll find a dozen reasons to be outraged -- or to dispair. After the first sentence you wonder if it is a parody, but it gets even better:
Recently, the Tallahassee police department revealed it had used stingrays at least 200 times since 2010 without telling any judge because the device's manufacturer made the police department sign a non-disclosure agreement that police claim prevented them from disclosing use of the device to the courts.
The ACLU has filed numerous records requests with police departments around the country in an effort to uncover how often the devices are used and how often courts are told about them.
In the Sarasota case, the U.S. Marshals Service claimed it owned the records Sarasota police offered to the ACLU because it had deputized the detective in the case, making all documentation in the case federal property. Before the ACLU could view the documents Sarasota had put aside for them, the agency dispatched a marshal from its office in Tampa to seize the records and move them to an undisclosed location.
I might with the next one, but this one is still running fine after > 22.000 km, consumes around 2 l/100 km of gas (7 l tank, excellent cruising radius) and ~ 300 ml/1000 km of 2-stroke oil. Plus, I don't have to worry about the rather huge distance between my electrical outlets and the scooter's parking space. Also, I'd have to spend ~ 4.000 EUR for a decent electric model, which I don't currently have to spare.
Additionally, the direct injection engines are quite powerful. I have yet to test an electric scooter (other than a Segway, which is fun to drive, but no alternative), but I guess that an equally powerful electrical engine would have a considerably lower mileage. Things might look different at the time when I have to consider a new purchase.
The devastating psychological and physical effects of prolonged solitary confinement are well documented by social scientists: prolonged solitary confinement causes prisoners significant mental harm and places them at grave risk of even more devastating future psychological harm.
Researchers have demonstrated that prolonged solitary confinement causes a persistent and heightened state of anxiety and nervousness, headaches, insomnia, lethargy or chronic tiredness, nightmares, heart palpitations, and fear of impending nervous breakdowns. Other documented effects include obsessive ruminations, confused thought processes, an oversensitivity to
stimuli, irrational anger, social withdrawal, hallucinations, violent fantasies, emotional flatness, mood swings, chronic depression, feelings of overall deterioration, as well as suicidal ideation
No, not a bullshit concept, and not that hard to understand: Fundamental human rights are not "a privilege society around you grants you"; you can buy a car and drive it, or buy land - those are privileges. You need to follow some rules to do either. Not so your human rights: as you -- hopefully -- are a human being, you possess certain rights; if society or any government for that matter does not grant you those rights, you are deprived from what civilized humanity has agreed to be the most basic things each and every human being posseses. Not so much a concept, it's rather a state, and you entered it simply by being born. There is no debate whether those rights exist. They just do. You did not just miss a memo here.
Slashdot Mirror
Not a very nuanced view, and even complex matters can be surprisingly simple if you have values. -- "by following turkey's authoritarian freedom crushing instructions that would otherwise get facebook banned," facebook remains in business there. This and nothing else matters to corporations. Please don't pretend that FBs mission is to propagate free speech, because that would be ... well, a blockheaded black-or-white kinda view. FB censors when it fits its business model (see the " pictures of breasts" argument). FB is accepting and taking part in what you call turkey's authoritarian freedom crushing instructions. Because they don't have values, as Zuckerberg likes to suggest, but business interests. Once Turkey blocks FB (Twitter etc.), people who value free speech will circumvent those blocks, as they have always done, but it would hurt FBs business.
Departure of global temperature from average for 2014 (NOAA)
Earth's departure in temperature from the 20th century average during the period 1880 - 2014, according to NOAA.
global departure of temperature from average from 1965 - 2014 (scepticalscience.com)
Article: 2014: Hottest Year in Recorded Human History, Dr. Jeff Masters' blog entry at wunderground.com.
I'm not sure if this is true or if it applies to MOST. I don't know where you live, but I am quite certain that where I live it doesn't work that way (fines ... few, not most can ignore those). Nonetheless, by raising the upper limit of speed, you'd further spread the difference of speeds of individual cars, i.e. those who go beyond limits and those who adhere, so I doubt you have a point here. Never mind, though, limits are and will remain arbitrary, and people will drive as fast as they see fit. People will die in traffic, no matter what we do. IMHO, raising speed limits will kill more people, but I might be wrong. Physics -- along with common sense -- saved my life quite a few times so far, so that might be something we both can agree to.
Sure, but that wasn't my point. It is actually all about the time it takes the human body to react to stimuli. The average best case response time seems to vary from 215 milliseconds (humanbenchmark.com) to 166 ms (sprinters at the Beijing Olympics as of Wikipedias Mental chronometry entry). My point was: the faster you go, the more can happen within those ~180ms that you cannot respond to. We're not even talking about the forces involved at the respective velocities, or worst case response times of distracted drivers etc.
In that case, physics might make sense. Just compare how many yards you make in a second at 55 mph vs. 85 mph. Also, compare stopping distances. Driving faster is more dangerous unless you bend the laws of physics.
+1
Also, there's nothing controversial about geo and climate engineering, it's just a dumb idea, since we don't actually understand climate yet, or even just the weather. Let 'em write papers, but make sure they keep their hands off of actual "engineering" for a few more decades. We'll be busy coping with our most recent climate engineering attempt and its results, the release of several hundred million years' worth of carbon.
It's the updated version of get off my lawn.
Um, no: Orban publicly announced that he plans to eliminate liberal democracy in his country and turn Hungary into an 'illiberal state,' modeled after China or Russia. Pretty much no other country does that, which shows that Orban's Fidesz is not like any other authoritarian regime IMO.
Valid points within the science we know, but it is probably wise to consider aspects outside of settled scientific knowledge:
While this is probably true, the science we acquired during these 100 or so years is often based on epidemiological conditions and assumptions that no longer apply, or have changed dramatically, or which have been made considerably more complicated because of the way the world changed since the Spanish Flu -- not talking about those things we just kinda missed. Point being: aside from hemorrhagic fever making clickbait headlines right now, it's the same with influenza: we'd better not underestimate it, be it airborne, avian or whatnot.
-1, whoosh. ;-)
warlords in South America? Don't forget the pharmaceutical industry, and all those other industries that benefit from prohibiting a natural competitor that needs little cultivation because it basically grows like ... well, weed.
While you are correct, it's rather old news: the lease agreement was signed back in 2013, and the building will be finished 2016. Still, interesting fact to keep in mind.
Also, remember that this is an arms race. A few more similar cases and press coverage, and those people you target will know that a false identity only works if it comes with plastic surgery. And: whatever benefits they say face recognition has, they are dwarfed by the potential abuses. But we don't talk about those, we're busy thinking of the children, while trying not to think too hard of the children, because that would put us in a different camp.
They might be, but the "sophisticated information and disinformation" game works both ways, you know.
I have met neighbors who said they know someone who is sure that Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen is full of shit, but I prefer to rely on facts instead of hearsay.
Anti fracking groups have AFAIK demanded that Rasmussen provide evidence for his "interpretation" or else apologize. Ah, here's the open letter.
It is interesting, though, Nato doing some product placement for the fracking industry, lashing out at Putin and saying: the devil hates fracking, so it must be a good thing. If you oppose it, you're obviously bought by the Kremlin, because everybody in the EU but Gazprom just loves fracking.
Next thing you know, we'll see some sort of a global Foreign Agent Law ... no, treaty, I mean treaty! Not a law, a treaty. My bad. Let's call it an agreement. And always remember: you can't trust the ... Russians.
I find this case particularly amazing - in just three paragraphs you'll find a dozen reasons to be outraged -- or to dispair. After the first sentence you wonder if it is a parody, but it gets even better:
and
What's wrong with this picture?
I might with the next one, but this one is still running fine after > 22.000 km, consumes around 2 l/100 km of gas (7 l tank, excellent cruising radius) and ~ 300 ml/1000 km of 2-stroke oil. Plus, I don't have to worry about the rather huge distance between my electrical outlets and the scooter's parking space. Also, I'd have to spend ~ 4.000 EUR for a decent electric model, which I don't currently have to spare.
Additionally, the direct injection engines are quite powerful. I have yet to test an electric scooter (other than a Segway, which is fun to drive, but no alternative), but I guess that an equally powerful electrical engine would have a considerably lower mileage. Things might look different at the time when I have to consider a new purchase.
It's an Aprilia Scarabeo, see here or google ditech engine. Good overview of the advantages here.
Granted, 2-strokes can be and usually are annoying and a source of serious pollution. They don't have to be, though. I drive a direct injection 2-stroke, and while it still does burn oil, [t]he amount of oil is so small that it has no noticeable effect on emissions, and it has none of the pass-through problems with oil as in a carbureted 2-stroke. It is a rather silent, efficient, low-cost and comparatively eco-friendly means of transportation. So, while carbureted 2-stroke scooter engines are annoying, that does not mean that all scooter suck.
Sarah Palin: "Mr President, the only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke."
I'd call it torture. Do it to your dog and people will say you are torturing it.
Solitary Confinement is Torture:
The devastating psychological and physical effects of prolonged solitary confinement are well documented by social scientists: prolonged solitary confinement causes prisoners significant mental harm and places them at grave risk of even more devastating future psychological harm.
Researchers have demonstrated that prolonged solitary confinement causes a persistent and heightened state of anxiety and nervousness, headaches, insomnia, lethargy or chronic tiredness, nightmares, heart palpitations, and fear of impending nervous breakdowns. Other documented effects include obsessive ruminations, confused thought processes, an oversensitivity to stimuli, irrational anger, social withdrawal, hallucinations, violent fantasies, emotional flatness, mood swings, chronic depression, feelings of overall deterioration, as well as suicidal ideation
No, not a bullshit concept, and not that hard to understand: Fundamental human rights are not "a privilege society around you grants you"; you can buy a car and drive it, or buy land - those are privileges. You need to follow some rules to do either. Not so your human rights: as you -- hopefully -- are a human being, you possess certain rights; if society or any government for that matter does not grant you those rights, you are deprived from what civilized humanity has agreed to be the most basic things each and every human being posseses. Not so much a concept, it's rather a state, and you entered it simply by being born. There is no debate whether those rights exist. They just do. You did not just miss a memo here.
"[...] post-9/11 federal spending on homeland security exceeds $790 billion. That's larger than TARP and, when adjusted for inflation, the New Deal." And that is just one random mainstream media source ... but you get the point.
... not completely unrelated and not exactly offtopic, but if we ever land there, I'd like the footage to resemble this: Europa Report.
After a year of monitoring
Yay! It's safe! *phew*