"Around $208.4 billion with a lot in reserves, no roads to build, no wellfare to payout, no military to support... Austrailia will loose the money game."
Australia should just go and invade those guys or at least bomb them a bit... oh wait...
I always wanted to put Soldiers of Allah 'Jihad' on an endless loop on a concealed boom box in some public place (preferably in the USA).
I don't think Soldiers of Allah would mind, but it might make other people, er, fidgety... especially that bit about 'for God never loves a starter of wars'.
Personally, I am torn between Nietzchian survivalism and something more liberal... well ok *anything* is more liberan than Nietzchianism... but heres the line;
It seems natural that we should be suppressing unfavorable genes, things that cause genuine problems to their carriers 'should' be allowed to evolve out.
On the face of it, this would be beneficial to our species since they are counter to survival; the selection pressures that we know about today should be selecting them out only our technology allows them to survive and reproduce, spreading the 'defect' into future generations.
However, we should note that the current generation never knows what future selection pressures will be, nor what will be a favorable trait in future generations.
While it might *seem* that something is a genetic defect 'today' its quite possible that only lack of imagination prevents us from realising that it may one day be a survival trait.
I think that whats really happening is that reproduction is a huge search engine; its like a lockpick trying combination after combination. Only theres (probably) no lock thats suddenly going to spring open. The bigger the population, the more combinations are being tested.
So, by keeping people alive despite genetic defects, and by allowing them to reproduce and spread their 'wierd' genes into future generations, what we are effectively doing is expanding the search space quite substantially.
Who knows what we will find in that expanded search space? Could be all sorts of cool things.
This is where the Nietzchian fails; they limit the possible search space and in so doing limit the future possibilities of what they might (genetically) discover.
(Apologies to Gene Roddenberrys 'Andromeda' and true Nietzchians everywhere).
"Have you seen any repulsively unattractive people, whose unattractiveness was not caused by a genetic or prenatal defect (not simply a bad mutation, but a messed up fertilisation or prenatal development), trauma or bad lifestyle? I haven't."
I only wish that they had continued with the mirror universe and done a whole series based on Empress Hoshi's Starfleet.
That would have been worth watching, but an evil Earth would be too politically dangerous for the studio... especially since 'the federation' has always *really* been about 'yanks in space'.
"Never underestimate social forces. Yes, the knights went out of business, but they did not do so overknight. Long bows, crossbows, and yes, even firearms had been in use for centuries before the knightly orders were disbanded."
Indeed, watching Akira Kurosawa movies is educational in this regard, especially the movie 'Ran'.
Slashdot Mirror
"here's a short list of things invented down under"
;)
I guess when you have evolved from sneaky, devious criminals...
"you merkins think you as so clever"
I'm NZ actually and yes, I think we are clever; clever enough to be in NZ instead of in Australia!
It was a facetious comment to another facetious comment. Just take it in context and have a good laugh.
"Around $208.4 billion with a lot in reserves, no roads to build, no wellfare to payout, no military to support... Austrailia will loose the money game."
Australia should just go and invade those guys or at least bomb them a bit... oh wait...
"if you wanna play it like that, the US invented almost every major technology this century"
Quite right, like Al Gore and the Internet.
I sense.... that their readership will drop...
Nice idea, but apparently they are fairly low volume; not really loud enough for a public place.
However, if they were wireless and you had several of them...
'In other words, the argument "your Honor, look at this kid, he's a punk - who ya gonna believe?" is pretty much valid'
Well it always seemed to work on Judge Judy.
I always wanted to put Soldiers of Allah 'Jihad' on an endless loop on a concealed boom box in some public place (preferably in the USA).
I don't think Soldiers of Allah would mind, but it might make other people, er, fidgety... especially that bit about 'for God never loves a starter of wars'.
I was thinking something similar, except more along the lines of 'the days of the strategic bomber are numbered'.
Clusters such as you describe might be the killer defense that could render the strategic bomber vulnerable and obsolete.
And believe it or not but some people still don't accept that passive smoking harms *people*
Personally, I am torn between Nietzchian survivalism and something more liberal... well ok *anything* is more liberan than Nietzchianism... but heres the line;
It seems natural that we should be suppressing unfavorable genes, things that cause genuine problems to their carriers 'should' be allowed to evolve out.
On the face of it, this would be beneficial to our species since they are counter to survival; the selection pressures that we know about today should be selecting them out only our technology allows them to survive and reproduce, spreading the 'defect' into future generations.
However, we should note that the current generation never knows what future selection pressures will be, nor what will be a favorable trait in future generations.
While it might *seem* that something is a genetic defect 'today' its quite possible that only lack of imagination prevents us from realising that it may one day be a survival trait.
I think that whats really happening is that reproduction is a huge search engine; its like a lockpick trying combination after combination. Only theres (probably) no lock thats suddenly going to spring open. The bigger the population, the more combinations are being tested.
So, by keeping people alive despite genetic defects, and by allowing them to reproduce and spread their 'wierd' genes into future generations, what we are effectively doing is expanding the search space quite substantially.
Who knows what we will find in that expanded search space? Could be all sorts of cool things.
This is where the Nietzchian fails; they limit the possible search space and in so doing limit the future possibilities of what they might (genetically) discover.
(Apologies to Gene Roddenberrys 'Andromeda' and true Nietzchians everywhere).
"Have you seen any repulsively unattractive people, whose unattractiveness was not caused by a genetic or prenatal defect (not simply a bad mutation, but a messed up fertilisation or prenatal development), trauma or bad lifestyle? I haven't."
Condoleeza Rice?
"Hell, I want to go to neverland ranch! They got a ferris wheel, llamas AND porn! Sounds like my kind of place."
Don't forget the freak show. Ok, so they only have one freak, but what a freak eh!?!?
"An engineer, Tim Paterson, at that company had stolen the ideas of CPM/86 and created a cheap clone of it."
I don't know about 'stole the ideas of' I always felt as if it were more like 'got the idea from looking over the shoulder of someone using CPM'.
If he had truly stolen ideas, PC-DOS might have been half decent, as it was it was almost just cosmetic...
"Hire a lackey. Find a guy/gal down at your local LUG"
You know, I was just thinking "I am *so* glad I don't work for this guy"
Anyone who did would wind up with no life at all. So the LUG suggestion is a great one.
Nothing lost, nothing gained, as they say!
I only wish that they had continued with the mirror universe and done a whole series based on Empress Hoshi's Starfleet.
That would have been worth watching, but an evil Earth would be too politically dangerous for the studio... especially since 'the federation' has always *really* been about 'yanks in space'.
Wasn't there a critical security patch for Exchange server a while back that silently reconfigured your mail server into an open relay?
Nice one, MS!
"Imagine Ford coming out with a car that will not start in certain supermarket parking lots"
oooh ooh, how about car that will stall out when you are in view of certain marketting companies billboards!
Wow, I am surprised that something like that didn't make it into NT. I'm sure Intel would have loved it...
"I ain't never seen a hearse with a luggage rack"
Not true, its just that people keep piling wreaths of flowers on them...
"He's laughing, and shooting, and the barrel glows bright cherry red and starts looking like it's actually going to get soft."
Hey, well thats *almost* like a light saber...
"They're nice weapons."
:)
They are also extremely heavy, one of the weightiest 'light' machineguns around IIRC.
Anyhow, I remember my little guys complaining bitterly about them in 'Wages of War'
"Never underestimate social forces. Yes, the knights went out of business, but they did not do so overknight. Long bows, crossbows, and yes, even firearms had been in use for centuries before the knightly orders were disbanded."
Indeed, watching Akira Kurosawa movies is educational in this regard, especially the movie 'Ran'.
"Since noise wouldn't be a problem anymore, this group would probably use M-60's"
Out of curiosity, have you ever actually seen someone succesfuly operate an M-60 in a stand position?
I mean in such a way that it would be effective in actual combat?
I think the exact quote would be;
"I can feel the insulation on my wiring hardening just being in the same room as that stuff"