The internet has porn? For free? Gee gods! Why didn't anyone tell me sooner... all this time I have been jerking off to slashdot articles... mmm cmdrtaco, oh yeah! Mod me baby!
Making jail easier, going soft on crime doesn't actually reduce crime either. You can't get further apart then Holland in how jails are run, with even rapists getting community service here and yet recidivism is still very high.
Crime happens everywhere, regardless of the systems in place. The system isn't there to stop criminals but to stop non-criminals from joining the criminals because they might as well. Shoot the first sheep over the dam and the rest won't follow. That is law and order. If the first guy to use the safety lane to bypass a traffic jam isn't ticketted, soon everyone else will follow.
The problem is that some people just can't get their heads around the idea of a solution sometimes not being perfect but still being needed. A cast is far from ideal to have around your leg, but better then walking around with a broken leg.
Inner city transportation, especially in old cities, is a simple question of just how much grid lock you can have before goods become impossible to move. If you want to supply every shop in an ancient city center, then you either have to tear everything down or find someway to reduce the number of trucks or just accept that the roads are filled with trucks constantly leaving no room for shoppers.
A simple solution use in Holland is to "force" suppliers to use a centralized delivery system. In Utrecht consisting of an electric road train deliving "wagons" to each shop. Yes, this means extra handling and extra costs but having a big truck waiting till it can move to its destination costs time and money as well. Now the shop has a clear street when the shoppers come instead of the entire road blocked by trucks.
In Amsterdam they have rediscovered the canals for supplies. A boat is far slower but since it has the canals pretty much to itself it actually moves at equal speed.
A rope supply line would not work everywhere but can solve the problem for when the 2d world is simply to full. It is the reason mono-rails exist. Why subways exist. When the roads are full, you go up or down.
And the extra handling? Costs are actually not all that high and we do it all the time with our goods already. Pretty much anything you buy has gone through an array of distribution centers.
No animal has ever been hurt by an ugly construction, this structure exists above the trees. So the animals can live beneath it,their habitat is not cut up by a road, no animals are killed on the road.
Clearly you are one of those people who think oil slicks are good for nature because they sparkle so nicely in the sun.
Yesterday Iran executed a dutch woman, supposedly for smuggling drugs and selling it. Her arrest however came during Iran's own riots and some people believe the charges were fabricated. Curious she would be executed in such a hurry at this moment. Sending a message perhaps?
But don't worry, the dutch government froze, not cut, all ties with the Iran government an. That will teach them.
China has little to worry about, these revolts have been about high unemployment levels. China is not suffering from that. The people got their bread and circusseses. It is the Islamic nations that are worried. They are corrupt, inept and overflowing with ever larger generations of yoing people with no future. China escaped that with the one child policy.
All life around you proves evolution. Just as pretty much everything around you proves gravity. Or conservation of energy. Or that is something can fail, it will fail. Or that my cat canhascheezburger if I am to busy commenting on Slashdot, proving that the ordinary housecat has evolved to the top hunter of the world, the one that gets others to do the actual hunting.
The real proof however is in watching a creationist try to explain away T-rex. Real scientist are not sure if T-rex was a hunter or a scavenger. Creationist claim he was a plant eater. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_Museum No, I did NOT make this up. This place exists, but it shouldn't. America, hang you head in collective shame)
I don't know what the plants were like in T-Rexes time but they must have made being a vegan a LOT more exciting back then.
Small birds evolving different beaks to deal with different seeds because the best seed eater is the best breeder? I can buy that. T-rex ordering a salad I can not.
In Europe, this ain't even an issue. Evolution isn't taught in school, it is fact. School explains the fact same as school explains gravity. You have to be educated that gravity exists, just how it actually works.
That evolution is even up for debate shows a LOT about the USA. There shouldn't even be a debate. You don't debate facts. And if you claim evolution is not a fact... happy beard in the sky day.
Well, only about 5000 crossed. 200+ died, that is the ones we know about.
I would say the wall worked damn well. How many mexicans are in the US illegally? More then 5000? Somehow I don't think there would be such an issue of just a few thousand Mexicans. Then again, we are talking Republicans... 1 would set them howling.
Like most military units, snipers act mostly on other snipers on the field of combat. Archers first job is the other sides archers. Cavalery first checks the other sides cavalery. Fighter planes first got to control the other sides fighter planes (see the nice move by the Nazi's to tether their fighters to their bombers during the battle of Britain that nicely lost them the battle) etc etc.
Only if the sniper is sure that there are no other snipers around can he hunt other units. Else the first regular soldier he kills will be the end of him as the other sides sniper counters.
Egypt has been run for nearly three decades by the same guy backed by the same military leaders. Doesn't that tell you something? It has had large scale terrorist attacks and violently represses its Christian minority. A lot of the 9/11 attackers were from Egypt.
Oh yes, a woman who dares to walk without her head covered won't be killed, at least not on the street. If that is your measure of progressive then well, pretty much most of the world is progressive.
Oh, progressive for a muslim state. Bit of bigotted statement isn't it? If all men (and women) are to be equal then we should all judge them equally. The freedom in a nation should therefor be measured against ALL other nations, not just against other nations with a religion X as the national religion. A European or even an American would NOT find living in Egypt to be progressive. All though to be fair, considering recent election results, there are plenty of Europeans who seem to like the idea of a repressive regime.
Mind you, you could also simply have your head in the sand like this guy below who claims the Christian minority does alright... clearly not been following the news recently.
Is Egypt that bad? Yes, compared to north european, Canada and most of the USA, yes. That they shut of all internet access over some protests should be a bloody big clue. Is it as bad as some other nations? No. But what kind of standard is that? Pretty much any place on eartth is better then Somalia and North Korea so that is all right then? If you don't have massive death camps and a total break down of all law and order you are doing okay? Low standards indeed.
The real problem in Egypt and Tunesia is not so much a direct nazi style abuse of power but the total grid lock that the system has become. Nothing moves, nothing happens in Egypt. It ain't even just pure corruption. That can work, that can make things happen just for money. But in Egypt corrupt officials STILL only take money from you if you are from the side of town. You got to know people to be able to buy people.
Meanwhile, as said, nations should be judged by the best of other nations not the worsed because THAT is what the people on the street are doing. They SEE more and more the rest of world and see that a society can function differently. That there are places on earth where merit at least counts for something, where jobs can be had even if your dad is not connected. That there is such huge un-employment should tell you something. The country isn't doing anything. It exists and so does its population but where are its achievements? Where can its ever better educated youth push themselves and their nation forward?
No where and they are getting very upset about this. Idle hands are the devils etc etc. Meanwhile, the religious right is seeing the youth turning away from the old certainties (It is Allah's will) and at the same time some youth flee to the same. Leaders seeking legitimacy seek out the religious and then find them going out of control (see Reagan courting the religous right to victory, then Bush does the same and gets the tea party... OOPS).
Egypt is an old fashioned military style dictatorship that survived for a long time because it managed to keep things running without to much repression and out right poverty. But that doesn't mean people will be satisfied they aren't being killed or starving till eternity. They want jobs, a future, more freedom, and basically they want something to happen so tomorrow won't be the same as today. That is the problem with poor people, when they got nothing to loose, they are willing to fight for anything. Why do you THINK China is so hot on economic growth? They got 1 billion people controlled by a peoples army.
Egypt has an "elite" (as in not a peoples army) army controlling a population that isn't going anywhere that has tripled in size. They have seen change is possible. And anything is better then another day unemployed living below the poverty level for the 3rd generation.
You seem to be laboring under a mis apprehention, NOBODY CARES.
Go tell MS to get rid of the ribbon.
Go tell Apple you want OS9 back!
Do they listen? No? You just swallow their changes? Then why should opensource listen?
You still don't get a fundemental part of life. Consumers do NOT have a choice in the direction of the product they buy.
Seems funny, you buy MS Office that has problems reading its own old formats, doesn't read other formats and has gone through countless overhauls breaking backwards compatibilty.
OpenOffice does a name chance and you are crying foul.
He didn't bash, he questioned whether Oracle gets non-closed source software. It seems they don't. Funding open source development while squashing it at the same time would be evidence of that.
Personally I think it is simple. Oracle operates in a different field where its software is not so much bought because of a good name or good community standing but because Oracle is what you use to run databases. End of story. They never had to care about their end-user because their end-user didn't have a choice.
Then they did. Why do you think Linux did such a number on the unixes? Because suddenly all the geeks HAD a choice and that choice might not have been as solid but it had heart. Oracle doesn't.
It is not the enemy of open source, it is the big dog that squeeshes the life out of the rabbit and then doesn't get why it doesn't want to play anymore.
30% is NOTHING. Really, it is a trivial amount. It is not uncommon for affiliate systems to have an even split on any revenue generated through an affiliate and Facebook is one HELL of an affiliate. Yes boys and girls, that is all it is. Nothing different from porn or game sites that link to payed content except Facebook already gets people to surrender a lot of privacy before ever clicking through to the real content. Facebook is not in the business of making a social website anymore then google is about search results. It gets its cash from people clicking on ads displayed on its site. It has done this advertising thing so well, that now people are even willing to pay for the advertisement.
Smart.
If you read the article, the big boys have no problem with this, it is advertisement cost to them and in the online world the costs of aquiring paying customers is very high. A "normal" business cannot afford to spend up to 50% of its revenue on advertising... or can it? Think of the massive sponsorship deals done by Coca Cola or Nike? You don't think that the price for sugar water in a can is really what you pay for a Coke do you? Same with Farmville. You, the paying customer, pay for getting more players to play the game.
Zynga isn't going to leave facebook, not only do they consider the cost more then fair and part of how their business operate, but where would they go next? Farmville IS facebook, it wouldn't survive a second in the cold hard banner world. Facebook has created the eco system in which Farmville can survive.
Read up on affiliate systems, they are the back bone of much of the internet.
The scientists did NOT make the cold fusion claim, this was added later. Frauds or not, they can't be blamed for not doing cold fusion if they never claimed to do that.
Hamas is pissed off and is claiming this shows that the Palestinian authority is in bed with Israel. So what side was exactly willing to make more concessions? It would be like the democrats agreeing to do X knowing full well the republicans can and will block it anyway.
Diplomacy, it is a lot more complex then people think. There are rarely just two sides to deal with.
For instance, one of the simplest solutions to all this would be to build a wall around Israel and make the occupied bits the problem of the Arab nations on whose ground they are. Yeah, because Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon want that... NOT!
How many Palestinians want to have Israel become arab land BUT with Jewish wealth. We could relocate all the jews to a safe place. But then Israel would be the poor dustbowl it has always been. Not many Palestinians keen on that. Why do you think blockades that stop them going into Israel hurt their economy so much?
Diplomacy doesn't just deal with a dozen parties with different needs but parties that themselves have different and often conflicting needs and wants.
These leaks show very little of that. Because they are still the public musings of career diplomats who have made it their trade to hide the truth.
Fact is that a lot of western core techonolgy did NOT come from the US but from Europe especially England. The US just funded the nazi's long enough so that britain had to give up all its tech for free to buy expensive support. Oh that is a bit paranoid but the fact is that countless technology the US used to build their post WW2 empire did not come from the US.
Neither did pardoning nazi war criminals and setting them up with a life of luxury as a reward for working not just Jews and such but US soldiers to death help the US get into space first.
So what really is this lead this article is talking about? Japan has long been the place for the latest gadgets. They laugh at our mobile phones as being hoplessly out of date. American cars have never been thought of as high tech by anyone.
Trolling?A bit perhaps BUT there is a reason: How can you judge yourself if your self image is warped. And god knows the US self image is warped. Part of the reason is that the US is incredible self-centered. It is not just ego, it is practical things. As a dutch citizen I grew up in a world where if you wanted to watch a 2nd tv station you watched a foreign channel. Being exposed to different cultures was the norm even for mass media. This is ACTUALLY changing right now, more and more TV is dubbed in a nation that always used subtitles even for children.
But surely watching Magnum P.I. is not the same as truly experiencing another culture? No but it is the closest most of us will ever get. It helps the tiniest bit to get your head around the idea that there is more then one way that leads to rome and that for someone else, that other road might be faster. Think of it, what is the best way to get from Amsterdam to Rome? We can measure this and come up with pefect road. Now is that also the perfect road for someone in Berlin? No? How can that be? We found the perfect road, how can anything else possibly come close or even be better for you?
Americans believe that American Way Of Life is perfect not just for them but for everyone and they get very suprised when they find out other people disagree. Que countless wars to liberate people that then went about killing their liberators.
If Americans want to do some soul searching, they first need to stop reading their own history books and read some foreign ones. The more they upsetting the better. Just to get a different perspective. Only the can you start to look at your changing world. And realize, that it really hasn't been changing all that much.
What era exactly are you talking about, because back when the arabs mattered, Mohammed had not yet been born. For that matter, mass migrations over the centuries make it pretty sure that whatever groups lived in region X, doesn't live there anymore.
You are familiar with for instance with Alexander the Great? A greek. Well sorta, from the bad side of greece. So to what racial group do you attribute the results of his conquests? Who are his true descendants? He roamed around the mediterenian to India, spreading a different way of thinking that mixed with the local ways. Global trade happened a LOT earlier then most people assume.
Islam is a fate that not only came later but was preceded by mass genocide and mass migration. The persians? They were destroyed. It is as idiotic to claim that Muslims == Persians as it is to link the average fat American with the original indian tribes.
Before you try learning from history, make sure you are reading the adult version, not the sing along version from Animaniacs.
If the US wants to study history, look to England and how it tore itself apart post WW2, unable to accept the new realities of the modern world were socialism and capitalism constantly interact not to create the perfect society but the society that never goes to far down anyone single path at the cost of everything else.
Yes, and auto-pilot can fly an aircraft better for 99% of the time. Pity that 1% is the take off and landing where the risk is the biggest. Back to the drawing board.
Remember that pilot who succesfully landed his airliner on water? Auto-pilot or pilot skill? And how do you think that pilot got skilled? By turning on the auto-pilot?
Aiming a laser steadily at a target. Gosh darn nabbit, that must be so darn hard. Else the military would be using it all the time to light up targets... oh wait
THEY ARE!
Laser target designation, it has been all the rage since the first gulf war. It really ain't that complicated. You get device with some optics attached and you AIM them. Like say similar to how you aim a gun. You are aware that ordinary rifles pose a threath to aircraft in their range because a reasonably skilled marksman can hit a COMBAT plane? And airliners are big fat slow moving objects going in a straight line. Oh you don't have to correct for the trajectory of a bullet with a laser.
Read up on how the Red Baron was killed.
Are the wussies of slashdot that badly cordinated they can't train a pair of goggles on an aircraft? It really ain't all the difficult. Any cameraman can do it with far heavier equipment.
Just what the hell did you smoke that created this fairy land?
Tunesia recently revolted after DECADES of abuse by the superrich where they did no longer bother with tax evasion but just stole gold and killed those that protested. Oh and don't forget decades of poverty and a hopeless future for the majority.
If it takes that much negative karma, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and the likes have NOTHING to worry about. The average voter ain't even smart enough to realize that their tax avoidance schemes ultimately cause the non-super rich to pay higher taxes. They just blame Obama and vote in the tea-party. Extended tax-cuts for everyone who has more then a billion folks!
Bread and circusses. The only risk the super-rich face is if the American Dream dies, and that dream is not about actually being able to afford a car, a house and a huge tv, but about being able to work very very hard to get a loan that always puts you one pay check away from loosing it all. Keeps the folks on their toes, unwilling to do anything to risk upsetting the status quo lest they miss a credit card payment and loose it all.
Why do you think ALL the elite were HORRIFIED over the housing crisis? Because poor people lost their home? Yeah right. No, because poor people found out that they aren't all that tied down to their debt. Default and walk away and start over new, maybe somewhere different with a different kind of politician. Don't let the poor money to get themselves in debt and they just might not be in debt anymore and then how do you control them?
But that is not the worry of the super-rich. They are a few hours away from leaving the country anyway. It is the layer below that should be worried but the situation in the west is still far to tempting for the ones to get screwed to ask themselves, is it worth getting it up the ass so hard for the tiniest impossible change to one day strike it rich and screw every one else? 99% of voters in the US? Yes, yes it is.
Young people will always be be young people. And old people will always be old people. One set has learned the rules of society and knowns that they exist to make things go smooth and the other does not. Young people also live in a world centered on them. They go to a school system that is all about them, are raised by parents who care for them, watch TV that is aimed at them. Surely the world must be about them!
Well no. The full world, the world of adults is actually not about kids at all. Simple test, unless you are a parent or young, when are the school holidays in your region? Don't know? You did know when you were a kid. You will know when you are a parent. In fact in those circumstances the summer holiday is the center of your world. For the rest of adults? Sometime in the summer, maybe.
Kids when dealing with the non-kid world find themselves suddenly surrounded by adults that really just don't fucking want to deal with them. Random adult X is not your mommy. So on such forums, people are not willing to first put the child at ease, deal with their temper tantrums or fragile ego's. The kid is not used to have to deal with people not at its beg and call and voila, the age gap is there. But this one has "always" been there, or at least since the modern child hood was invented by the Victorians.
The generation gap is not just spelling. It is the simple attitude that has a teen first day on a temp job go to the sound system and put on his music... he just doesn't get that the pecking order changes from school to the workfloor. Oh some young kiddies will now protest, showing just how young and kidlike they are in the process.
The people posting on your forums just haven't learned yet that if you want to interact with other people it helps to follow the common unspoken rules. But this is their age and selfcenteredness, not their spelling skills at work. Plenty of older people who are self-centered start a forum post with "HELP please" in the subject, forcing anyone to open the post to see what the actual problem is... bad spelling? No, just not being able to do the mental work that other people have their own lives and so if you want their help you ought to make that as smooth a process as possible.
Just watch the number of people here who don't use the subject box to announce the content of their post making it more work to determine if its worth to open it if it hasn't been modded up yet.
As people grow up, and this is more then gaining years, they learn that other people have their own lives and that by communicating effectively, they can have favors done more easily because ultimately it is less work. Kids don't just have the social skills yet. That is why they are kids.
A simple example? I use paragraphs to make the text easier to read. Because I want YOU to read my posts, so I make it easy to do so. Read slashdot and see if you can find posts that are just one big block of text. Clearly such posters did NOT consider their audience capability to read the post comfortably. Not out of malice, just that knowing other people are human beings with their own feelings is not something that comes naturally to the young or self-centered.
If I destroy equipment NOT only do I have to pay for the destruction but for the write-off for the equipment.
If I blow up your car the cost to you is NOT 1 stick of dynamite. It is the stick of dynamite, the cost of your car, the bill for the fire department and the kick up your arse for failing so badly at cost calculation.
Time heals all wounds. Ellsberg was a villified as Assange is now. But the decades of Bread and Circusses have dult your memory till it now seems all quant and harmless.
Those who dare to stand out are often the oddballs of society. And society rarely looks on them kindly. Nobody likes someone who rocks the boat especially while they are sitting in it.
So you have realized that history is not a straight line. Good for you. Now realize this. History books are written by people and people have motives.
You get all these supposed nerds who say that GSM interference with a complex system is impossible, when you can BUY the proof at any novelty store. Remember those toys that light up or make a sound when your phone is about to ring? Gee, how do they work like MAGIC just by holding your phone near?
Did these "geeks" never own a sound system that garbled when a GSM was near?
But surely avionics are of a higher class? Surely not. Oh, the perfect system perfectly design and perfectly maintained might be but do you want to run the risk with EVERY single plane combined with every single plane system together with EVERY single radio source? Because if you allow phones, you must also allow Bluetooth, Wifi. What about satallite phones? Walkie Talkies? Where do you draw the line?
Safety rule, switch off your damn phone on my plane because failure to do so will cause serious harm from having your precious phone shoved up your arse, sideways. THAT a clear enough danger to your health?
Really, you are NOT that important you can't switch of your phone for 10 minutes.
First they came for Google, and I did not protest that Google was treated differently on the web, because I was not Google.
Then they came for the farmers, and I did not protest that farmers could not get the internet, because I was not a farmer.
Then they came for protest sites, and I did not protest because... welll I don't protest and who cares those trouble makers can no longer afford an online presence.
Then they came for me and even if there was anyone left to protest, there was no place left to do it. Like the newspapers, the radio and TV before, the internet had become corporate run, purely for profit and removed any usage of the voiceless to be heard.
The Internet is not just a gimmick anymore, it has become as essential for democracy, freedom and equality as education, food and medicine. We have strict regulation to ensure equal access to lifes essentials. I think it might be time to put access to free information on an equal basis as a basic human right. Better that then let the American ISP who are without principle ruin yet another media.
Slashdot Mirror
The internet has porn? For free? Gee gods! Why didn't anyone tell me sooner... all this time I have been jerking off to slashdot articles... mmm cmdrtaco, oh yeah! Mod me baby!
Making jail easier, going soft on crime doesn't actually reduce crime either. You can't get further apart then Holland in how jails are run, with even rapists getting community service here and yet recidivism is still very high.
Crime happens everywhere, regardless of the systems in place. The system isn't there to stop criminals but to stop non-criminals from joining the criminals because they might as well. Shoot the first sheep over the dam and the rest won't follow. That is law and order. If the first guy to use the safety lane to bypass a traffic jam isn't ticketted, soon everyone else will follow.
The problem is that some people just can't get their heads around the idea of a solution sometimes not being perfect but still being needed. A cast is far from ideal to have around your leg, but better then walking around with a broken leg.
Inner city transportation, especially in old cities, is a simple question of just how much grid lock you can have before goods become impossible to move. If you want to supply every shop in an ancient city center, then you either have to tear everything down or find someway to reduce the number of trucks or just accept that the roads are filled with trucks constantly leaving no room for shoppers.
A simple solution use in Holland is to "force" suppliers to use a centralized delivery system. In Utrecht consisting of an electric road train deliving "wagons" to each shop. Yes, this means extra handling and extra costs but having a big truck waiting till it can move to its destination costs time and money as well. Now the shop has a clear street when the shoppers come instead of the entire road blocked by trucks.
In Amsterdam they have rediscovered the canals for supplies. A boat is far slower but since it has the canals pretty much to itself it actually moves at equal speed.
A rope supply line would not work everywhere but can solve the problem for when the 2d world is simply to full. It is the reason mono-rails exist. Why subways exist. When the roads are full, you go up or down.
And the extra handling? Costs are actually not all that high and we do it all the time with our goods already. Pretty much anything you buy has gone through an array of distribution centers.
No animal has ever been hurt by an ugly construction, this structure exists above the trees. So the animals can live beneath it,their habitat is not cut up by a road, no animals are killed on the road.
Clearly you are one of those people who think oil slicks are good for nature because they sparkle so nicely in the sun.
Yesterday Iran executed a dutch woman, supposedly for smuggling drugs and selling it. Her arrest however came during Iran's own riots and some people believe the charges were fabricated. Curious she would be executed in such a hurry at this moment. Sending a message perhaps?
But don't worry, the dutch government froze, not cut, all ties with the Iran government an. That will teach them.
China has little to worry about, these revolts have been about high unemployment levels. China is not suffering from that. The people got their bread and circusseses. It is the Islamic nations that are worried. They are corrupt, inept and overflowing with ever larger generations of yoing people with no future. China escaped that with the one child policy.
All life around you proves evolution. Just as pretty much everything around you proves gravity. Or conservation of energy. Or that is something can fail, it will fail. Or that my cat canhascheezburger if I am to busy commenting on Slashdot, proving that the ordinary housecat has evolved to the top hunter of the world, the one that gets others to do the actual hunting.
The real proof however is in watching a creationist try to explain away T-rex. Real scientist are not sure if T-rex was a hunter or a scavenger. Creationist claim he was a plant eater. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_Museum No, I did NOT make this up. This place exists, but it shouldn't. America, hang you head in collective shame)
I don't know what the plants were like in T-Rexes time but they must have made being a vegan a LOT more exciting back then.
Small birds evolving different beaks to deal with different seeds because the best seed eater is the best breeder? I can buy that. T-rex ordering a salad I can not.
In Europe, this ain't even an issue. Evolution isn't taught in school, it is fact. School explains the fact same as school explains gravity. You have to be educated that gravity exists, just how it actually works.
That evolution is even up for debate shows a LOT about the USA. There shouldn't even be a debate. You don't debate facts. And if you claim evolution is not a fact... happy beard in the sky day.
Well, only about 5000 crossed. 200+ died, that is the ones we know about.
I would say the wall worked damn well. How many mexicans are in the US illegally? More then 5000? Somehow I don't think there would be such an issue of just a few thousand Mexicans. Then again, we are talking Republicans... 1 would set them howling.
Like most military units, snipers act mostly on other snipers on the field of combat. Archers first job is the other sides archers. Cavalery first checks the other sides cavalery. Fighter planes first got to control the other sides fighter planes (see the nice move by the Nazi's to tether their fighters to their bombers during the battle of Britain that nicely lost them the battle) etc etc.
Only if the sniper is sure that there are no other snipers around can he hunt other units. Else the first regular soldier he kills will be the end of him as the other sides sniper counters.
Egypt has been run for nearly three decades by the same guy backed by the same military leaders. Doesn't that tell you something? It has had large scale terrorist attacks and violently represses its Christian minority. A lot of the 9/11 attackers were from Egypt.
Oh yes, a woman who dares to walk without her head covered won't be killed, at least not on the street. If that is your measure of progressive then well, pretty much most of the world is progressive.
Oh, progressive for a muslim state. Bit of bigotted statement isn't it? If all men (and women) are to be equal then we should all judge them equally. The freedom in a nation should therefor be measured against ALL other nations, not just against other nations with a religion X as the national religion. A European or even an American would NOT find living in Egypt to be progressive. All though to be fair, considering recent election results, there are plenty of Europeans who seem to like the idea of a repressive regime.
Mind you, you could also simply have your head in the sand like this guy below who claims the Christian minority does alright... clearly not been following the news recently.
Is Egypt that bad? Yes, compared to north european, Canada and most of the USA, yes. That they shut of all internet access over some protests should be a bloody big clue. Is it as bad as some other nations? No. But what kind of standard is that? Pretty much any place on eartth is better then Somalia and North Korea so that is all right then? If you don't have massive death camps and a total break down of all law and order you are doing okay? Low standards indeed.
The real problem in Egypt and Tunesia is not so much a direct nazi style abuse of power but the total grid lock that the system has become. Nothing moves, nothing happens in Egypt. It ain't even just pure corruption. That can work, that can make things happen just for money. But in Egypt corrupt officials STILL only take money from you if you are from the side of town. You got to know people to be able to buy people.
Meanwhile, as said, nations should be judged by the best of other nations not the worsed because THAT is what the people on the street are doing. They SEE more and more the rest of world and see that a society can function differently. That there are places on earth where merit at least counts for something, where jobs can be had even if your dad is not connected. That there is such huge un-employment should tell you something. The country isn't doing anything. It exists and so does its population but where are its achievements? Where can its ever better educated youth push themselves and their nation forward?
No where and they are getting very upset about this. Idle hands are the devils etc etc. Meanwhile, the religious right is seeing the youth turning away from the old certainties (It is Allah's will) and at the same time some youth flee to the same. Leaders seeking legitimacy seek out the religious and then find them going out of control (see Reagan courting the religous right to victory, then Bush does the same and gets the tea party... OOPS).
Egypt is an old fashioned military style dictatorship that survived for a long time because it managed to keep things running without to much repression and out right poverty. But that doesn't mean people will be satisfied they aren't being killed or starving till eternity. They want jobs, a future, more freedom, and basically they want something to happen so tomorrow won't be the same as today. That is the problem with poor people, when they got nothing to loose, they are willing to fight for anything. Why do you THINK China is so hot on economic growth? They got 1 billion people controlled by a peoples army.
Egypt has an "elite" (as in not a peoples army) army controlling a population that isn't going anywhere that has tripled in size. They have seen change is possible. And anything is better then another day unemployed living below the poverty level for the 3rd generation.
You seem to be laboring under a mis apprehention, NOBODY CARES.
Go tell MS to get rid of the ribbon.
Go tell Apple you want OS9 back!
Do they listen? No? You just swallow their changes? Then why should opensource listen?
You still don't get a fundemental part of life. Consumers do NOT have a choice in the direction of the product they buy.
Seems funny, you buy MS Office that has problems reading its own old formats, doesn't read other formats and has gone through countless overhauls breaking backwards compatibilty.
OpenOffice does a name chance and you are crying foul.
Notice a difference?
He didn't bash, he questioned whether Oracle gets non-closed source software. It seems they don't. Funding open source development while squashing it at the same time would be evidence of that.
Personally I think it is simple. Oracle operates in a different field where its software is not so much bought because of a good name or good community standing but because Oracle is what you use to run databases. End of story. They never had to care about their end-user because their end-user didn't have a choice.
Then they did. Why do you think Linux did such a number on the unixes? Because suddenly all the geeks HAD a choice and that choice might not have been as solid but it had heart. Oracle doesn't.
It is not the enemy of open source, it is the big dog that squeeshes the life out of the rabbit and then doesn't get why it doesn't want to play anymore.
30% is NOTHING. Really, it is a trivial amount. It is not uncommon for affiliate systems to have an even split on any revenue generated through an affiliate and Facebook is one HELL of an affiliate. Yes boys and girls, that is all it is. Nothing different from porn or game sites that link to payed content except Facebook already gets people to surrender a lot of privacy before ever clicking through to the real content. Facebook is not in the business of making a social website anymore then google is about search results. It gets its cash from people clicking on ads displayed on its site. It has done this advertising thing so well, that now people are even willing to pay for the advertisement.
Smart.
If you read the article, the big boys have no problem with this, it is advertisement cost to them and in the online world the costs of aquiring paying customers is very high. A "normal" business cannot afford to spend up to 50% of its revenue on advertising... or can it? Think of the massive sponsorship deals done by Coca Cola or Nike? You don't think that the price for sugar water in a can is really what you pay for a Coke do you? Same with Farmville. You, the paying customer, pay for getting more players to play the game.
Zynga isn't going to leave facebook, not only do they consider the cost more then fair and part of how their business operate, but where would they go next? Farmville IS facebook, it wouldn't survive a second in the cold hard banner world. Facebook has created the eco system in which Farmville can survive.
Read up on affiliate systems, they are the back bone of much of the internet.
The scientists did NOT make the cold fusion claim, this was added later. Frauds or not, they can't be blamed for not doing cold fusion if they never claimed to do that.
Hamas is pissed off and is claiming this shows that the Palestinian authority is in bed with Israel. So what side was exactly willing to make more concessions? It would be like the democrats agreeing to do X knowing full well the republicans can and will block it anyway.
Diplomacy, it is a lot more complex then people think. There are rarely just two sides to deal with.
For instance, one of the simplest solutions to all this would be to build a wall around Israel and make the occupied bits the problem of the Arab nations on whose ground they are. Yeah, because Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon want that... NOT!
How many Palestinians want to have Israel become arab land BUT with Jewish wealth. We could relocate all the jews to a safe place. But then Israel would be the poor dustbowl it has always been. Not many Palestinians keen on that. Why do you think blockades that stop them going into Israel hurt their economy so much?
Diplomacy doesn't just deal with a dozen parties with different needs but parties that themselves have different and often conflicting needs and wants.
These leaks show very little of that. Because they are still the public musings of career diplomats who have made it their trade to hide the truth.
Fact is that a lot of western core techonolgy did NOT come from the US but from Europe especially England. The US just funded the nazi's long enough so that britain had to give up all its tech for free to buy expensive support. Oh that is a bit paranoid but the fact is that countless technology the US used to build their post WW2 empire did not come from the US.
Neither did pardoning nazi war criminals and setting them up with a life of luxury as a reward for working not just Jews and such but US soldiers to death help the US get into space first.
So what really is this lead this article is talking about? Japan has long been the place for the latest gadgets. They laugh at our mobile phones as being hoplessly out of date. American cars have never been thought of as high tech by anyone.
Trolling?A bit perhaps BUT there is a reason: How can you judge yourself if your self image is warped. And god knows the US self image is warped. Part of the reason is that the US is incredible self-centered. It is not just ego, it is practical things. As a dutch citizen I grew up in a world where if you wanted to watch a 2nd tv station you watched a foreign channel. Being exposed to different cultures was the norm even for mass media. This is ACTUALLY changing right now, more and more TV is dubbed in a nation that always used subtitles even for children.
But surely watching Magnum P.I. is not the same as truly experiencing another culture? No but it is the closest most of us will ever get. It helps the tiniest bit to get your head around the idea that there is more then one way that leads to rome and that for someone else, that other road might be faster. Think of it, what is the best way to get from Amsterdam to Rome? We can measure this and come up with pefect road. Now is that also the perfect road for someone in Berlin? No? How can that be? We found the perfect road, how can anything else possibly come close or even be better for you?
Americans believe that American Way Of Life is perfect not just for them but for everyone and they get very suprised when they find out other people disagree. Que countless wars to liberate people that then went about killing their liberators.
If Americans want to do some soul searching, they first need to stop reading their own history books and read some foreign ones. The more they upsetting the better. Just to get a different perspective. Only the can you start to look at your changing world. And realize, that it really hasn't been changing all that much.
What era exactly are you talking about, because back when the arabs mattered, Mohammed had not yet been born. For that matter, mass migrations over the centuries make it pretty sure that whatever groups lived in region X, doesn't live there anymore.
You are familiar with for instance with Alexander the Great? A greek. Well sorta, from the bad side of greece. So to what racial group do you attribute the results of his conquests? Who are his true descendants? He roamed around the mediterenian to India, spreading a different way of thinking that mixed with the local ways. Global trade happened a LOT earlier then most people assume.
Islam is a fate that not only came later but was preceded by mass genocide and mass migration. The persians? They were destroyed. It is as idiotic to claim that Muslims == Persians as it is to link the average fat American with the original indian tribes.
Before you try learning from history, make sure you are reading the adult version, not the sing along version from Animaniacs.
If the US wants to study history, look to England and how it tore itself apart post WW2, unable to accept the new realities of the modern world were socialism and capitalism constantly interact not to create the perfect society but the society that never goes to far down anyone single path at the cost of everything else.
Yes, and auto-pilot can fly an aircraft better for 99% of the time. Pity that 1% is the take off and landing where the risk is the biggest. Back to the drawing board.
Remember that pilot who succesfully landed his airliner on water? Auto-pilot or pilot skill? And how do you think that pilot got skilled? By turning on the auto-pilot?
Aiming a laser steadily at a target. Gosh darn nabbit, that must be so darn hard. Else the military would be using it all the time to light up targets... oh wait
THEY ARE!
Laser target designation, it has been all the rage since the first gulf war. It really ain't that complicated. You get device with some optics attached and you AIM them. Like say similar to how you aim a gun. You are aware that ordinary rifles pose a threath to aircraft in their range because a reasonably skilled marksman can hit a COMBAT plane? And airliners are big fat slow moving objects going in a straight line. Oh you don't have to correct for the trajectory of a bullet with a laser.
Read up on how the Red Baron was killed.
Are the wussies of slashdot that badly cordinated they can't train a pair of goggles on an aircraft? It really ain't all the difficult. Any cameraman can do it with far heavier equipment.
Just what the hell did you smoke that created this fairy land?
Tunesia recently revolted after DECADES of abuse by the superrich where they did no longer bother with tax evasion but just stole gold and killed those that protested. Oh and don't forget decades of poverty and a hopeless future for the majority.
If it takes that much negative karma, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and the likes have NOTHING to worry about. The average voter ain't even smart enough to realize that their tax avoidance schemes ultimately cause the non-super rich to pay higher taxes. They just blame Obama and vote in the tea-party. Extended tax-cuts for everyone who has more then a billion folks!
Bread and circusses. The only risk the super-rich face is if the American Dream dies, and that dream is not about actually being able to afford a car, a house and a huge tv, but about being able to work very very hard to get a loan that always puts you one pay check away from loosing it all. Keeps the folks on their toes, unwilling to do anything to risk upsetting the status quo lest they miss a credit card payment and loose it all.
Why do you think ALL the elite were HORRIFIED over the housing crisis? Because poor people lost their home? Yeah right. No, because poor people found out that they aren't all that tied down to their debt. Default and walk away and start over new, maybe somewhere different with a different kind of politician. Don't let the poor money to get themselves in debt and they just might not be in debt anymore and then how do you control them?
But that is not the worry of the super-rich. They are a few hours away from leaving the country anyway. It is the layer below that should be worried but the situation in the west is still far to tempting for the ones to get screwed to ask themselves, is it worth getting it up the ass so hard for the tiniest impossible change to one day strike it rich and screw every one else? 99% of voters in the US? Yes, yes it is.
Young people will always be be young people. And old people will always be old people. One set has learned the rules of society and knowns that they exist to make things go smooth and the other does not. Young people also live in a world centered on them. They go to a school system that is all about them, are raised by parents who care for them, watch TV that is aimed at them. Surely the world must be about them!
Well no. The full world, the world of adults is actually not about kids at all. Simple test, unless you are a parent or young, when are the school holidays in your region? Don't know? You did know when you were a kid. You will know when you are a parent. In fact in those circumstances the summer holiday is the center of your world. For the rest of adults? Sometime in the summer, maybe.
Kids when dealing with the non-kid world find themselves suddenly surrounded by adults that really just don't fucking want to deal with them. Random adult X is not your mommy. So on such forums, people are not willing to first put the child at ease, deal with their temper tantrums or fragile ego's. The kid is not used to have to deal with people not at its beg and call and voila, the age gap is there. But this one has "always" been there, or at least since the modern child hood was invented by the Victorians.
The generation gap is not just spelling. It is the simple attitude that has a teen first day on a temp job go to the sound system and put on his music... he just doesn't get that the pecking order changes from school to the workfloor. Oh some young kiddies will now protest, showing just how young and kidlike they are in the process.
The people posting on your forums just haven't learned yet that if you want to interact with other people it helps to follow the common unspoken rules. But this is their age and selfcenteredness, not their spelling skills at work. Plenty of older people who are self-centered start a forum post with "HELP please" in the subject, forcing anyone to open the post to see what the actual problem is... bad spelling? No, just not being able to do the mental work that other people have their own lives and so if you want their help you ought to make that as smooth a process as possible.
Just watch the number of people here who don't use the subject box to announce the content of their post making it more work to determine if its worth to open it if it hasn't been modded up yet.
As people grow up, and this is more then gaining years, they learn that other people have their own lives and that by communicating effectively, they can have favors done more easily because ultimately it is less work. Kids don't just have the social skills yet. That is why they are kids.
A simple example? I use paragraphs to make the text easier to read. Because I want YOU to read my posts, so I make it easy to do so. Read slashdot and see if you can find posts that are just one big block of text. Clearly such posters did NOT consider their audience capability to read the post comfortably. Not out of malice, just that knowing other people are human beings with their own feelings is not something that comes naturally to the young or self-centered.
If I destroy equipment NOT only do I have to pay for the destruction but for the write-off for the equipment.
If I blow up your car the cost to you is NOT 1 stick of dynamite. It is the stick of dynamite, the cost of your car, the bill for the fire department and the kick up your arse for failing so badly at cost calculation.
Time heals all wounds. Ellsberg was a villified as Assange is now. But the decades of Bread and Circusses have dult your memory till it now seems all quant and harmless.
Those who dare to stand out are often the oddballs of society. And society rarely looks on them kindly. Nobody likes someone who rocks the boat especially while they are sitting in it.
So you have realized that history is not a straight line. Good for you. Now realize this. History books are written by people and people have motives.
History is NOT what you read.
You get all these supposed nerds who say that GSM interference with a complex system is impossible, when you can BUY the proof at any novelty store. Remember those toys that light up or make a sound when your phone is about to ring? Gee, how do they work like MAGIC just by holding your phone near?
Did these "geeks" never own a sound system that garbled when a GSM was near?
But surely avionics are of a higher class? Surely not. Oh, the perfect system perfectly design and perfectly maintained might be but do you want to run the risk with EVERY single plane combined with every single plane system together with EVERY single radio source? Because if you allow phones, you must also allow Bluetooth, Wifi. What about satallite phones? Walkie Talkies? Where do you draw the line?
Safety rule, switch off your damn phone on my plane because failure to do so will cause serious harm from having your precious phone shoved up your arse, sideways. THAT a clear enough danger to your health?
Really, you are NOT that important you can't switch of your phone for 10 minutes.
First they came for Google, and I did not protest that Google was treated differently on the web, because I was not Google.
Then they came for the farmers, and I did not protest that farmers could not get the internet, because I was not a farmer.
Then they came for protest sites, and I did not protest because... welll I don't protest and who cares those trouble makers can no longer afford an online presence.
Then they came for me and even if there was anyone left to protest, there was no place left to do it. Like the newspapers, the radio and TV before, the internet had become corporate run, purely for profit and removed any usage of the voiceless to be heard.
The Internet is not just a gimmick anymore, it has become as essential for democracy, freedom and equality as education, food and medicine. We have strict regulation to ensure equal access to lifes essentials. I think it might be time to put access to free information on an equal basis as a basic human right. Better that then let the American ISP who are without principle ruin yet another media.