Smallpox samples could have been taken by individuals or nations with some ulterior motive, while it was still 'in the wild'.
But use of such samples would require a fair bit of forward planning and continuity of storage. What are the requirements for long term storage of smallpox such that cultures can be grown from it? Refridgeration?
"I hope you arent trying to imply that the US is not justified in pursuing rouge WMDs today"
No. Indeed it is my view that the possession of nukes of any sort, bio- or chemical weapons should be classified as a 'crime against humanity'.
However, on another note, I have a feeling that the USA's apparent paranoia about smallpox is not due to its possible use by terrorists (seems far fetched to me) but rather due to a collective *guilt* trip.
I don't actually know that much about it. Do you know if it was an official government or military sanctioned act of genocide? Or was it just some local commander that thought it would be a good idea?
"Having sex for purposes other than reproduction has nothing to do with the VHEMT" I didn't exactly say it did.
I merely suggest that the cause of 'voluntary human extinction' is inadvertantly advanced by people choosing non-reproductive as opposed to reproductive sex (because that is what they are being conditioned to in their exposure to porno).
'The VHEMT is about making a choice not to reproduce during your lifetime. Having sex for fun or profit doesn't "make you a member".' Sorry, I don't intend that meaning, my apologies for misleading you.
I should point out that non-reproductive sex isn't necessarily unpleasent, however having to have a woman perform fellatio on you and then having to wank off such that you ejaculate onto her at just the right moment for the director would not, I feel, count as actual sex.
"there is nothing Catholic about having sex for fun or profit." I was referring to coitus interruptus, which is featured in most porno.
"Sex for any purpose other than reproduction is expressly prohibited by Christianity" That would be coitus, as in 'I did not have sexual relations with that woman.'
its on the tip of my tongue... that word for when someone is tricked into believing in something and paying money to see it, but its all a setup. Like P.T.Barnum or 'Ripleys believe it or not'.
The acts performed in a lot of porno are not necessarily acts which it is a great pleasure to perform.
They are not intended to feel good for the participants (who get paid to do it); they are intended to make money. Sex is essentially a tactile thing, not primarily visual.
To make money it has to look good. We don't have 'feelies' yet.
The sort of sex act that feels good may well not look good on camera. Duh.
What happens if its presented in such a way that a *LOT* of people wind up thinking that this is what sex really is?
Unwittingly, they join the Voluntary Human Extinction Project since these 'sex acts' are almost always non-reproductive; semen is usually deposited on some external surface. Think of it as a 'Catholic' guide to birth control.
Pro-wrestling is similar. Except with less bodily fluids. How many pro wrestling fans draw on what they see in 'the ring' as a benchmark for their internal model of physics? Their estimate of what happens to a person when a chair is broken across their back, for example? Maybe people arn't that dumb.
However, in both cases, I think theres an underlying dishonesty.
I could have got human stupidity all wrong, of course.:-/
"They're a Fascist Dictatorship with Communist Rhetoric. "
And those Chinese Fascist Communists will be first against the wall when the Revolution... oh... er... wait...
Re:Don't be led astray by things you don't need.
on
KISS
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· Score: 1
I think theres also the 'entry level creep' issue;
So the early mobile phones were just phones and they cost $xxx.xx (whatever),
Then, as the manufacturing and design techniques got better it turned out that they *could* make a plain old mobile phone and sell it for $x.xx.
But if they add this and that and a camera and bla bla to the 'entry level' phone they can still sell it for $xxx.xx with the justification 'look its got all this *stuff* its got to be worth it!'
I suspect that while its possible to produce plain old mobile phones very *very* cheaply, once you've sold them to whoever needs one, you no longer have any *new* sales.
" no, because you cant occupy a country with robots. You need people on the ground, working intelligence, getting among the people, all that hearts and minds stuff"
Unless you are on one of those operations where "you want the land, but you don't want the people who live there"
ewwww that sounds kind of familiar...
So if your robot, autonomous fighting machines slaughter unarmed, innocent civilians, who gets charged with war crimes?
I know from experience that potential clients will (almost) always go for the most optimistic quote not the most realistic quote.
Far too often, sales people *have* to lie to get contracts; because its the salesman that lies the best that wins the deal.
Human stupidity is such that they always seem to believe the most rosy-colored fantasies; "the cheque is in the mail", "big is beatiful" and "I won't cum in your mouth" to name but a few.
Slashdot Mirror
"Oh, and a few more things that turn into ethanol quite readily..."
Hemp?
'Reason number 4 is "SCO UNIX is secure" '
I think that anyone with any actual experience of providing services, on the internet, on SCO UnixWare, would know that this was patently false.
UnixWare is, essentially, unsecurable. There is, for example, an nmap scan which will knock a UnixWare box right off the 'net.
Its obvious that whoever inserted this one into the '5 reasons' knows nothing about SCO UnixWare.
Go figure.
"So, basically, they just go ahead and grant the patent (or application), and let the courts handle it."
Right... I get it now.
Its a scheme to prevent lawyers from going out of business.
Poor lawyers, they would have such a hard time making ends meet if things like this were done sensibly.
Smallpox samples could have been taken by individuals or nations with some ulterior motive, while it was still 'in the wild'.
But use of such samples would require a fair bit of forward planning and continuity of storage. What are the requirements for long term storage of smallpox such that cultures can be grown from it? Refridgeration?
"I hope you arent trying to imply that the US is not justified in pursuing rouge WMDs today"
No. Indeed it is my view that the possession of nukes of any sort, bio- or chemical weapons should be classified as a 'crime against humanity'.
However, on another note, I have a feeling that the USA's apparent paranoia about smallpox is not due to its possible use by terrorists (seems far fetched to me) but rather due to a collective *guilt* trip.
I don't actually know that much about it.
Do you know if it was an official government or military sanctioned act of genocide? Or was it just some local commander that thought it would be a good idea?
as a 'weapon of mass destruction' against the Native American population? Did they teach you about that?
They really annoy me and so far I havn't found a 'control center-ish' widget to disable them.
I *know* what the buttons do and the text takes up space.
"Having sex for purposes other than reproduction has nothing to do with the VHEMT" I didn't exactly say it did.
I merely suggest that the cause of 'voluntary human extinction' is inadvertantly advanced by people choosing non-reproductive as opposed to reproductive sex (because that is what they are being conditioned to in their exposure to porno).
'The VHEMT is about making a choice not to reproduce during your lifetime. Having sex for fun or profit doesn't "make you a member".' Sorry, I don't intend that meaning, my apologies for misleading you.
I should point out that non-reproductive sex isn't necessarily unpleasent, however having to have a woman perform fellatio on you and then having to wank off such that you ejaculate onto her at just the right moment for the director would not, I feel, count as actual sex.
"there is nothing Catholic about having sex for fun or profit." I was referring to coitus interruptus, which is featured in most porno.
"Sex for any purpose other than reproduction is expressly prohibited by Christianity" That would be coitus, as in 'I did not have sexual relations with that woman.'
its on the tip of my tongue... that word for when someone is tricked into believing in something and paying money to see it, but its all a setup. Like P.T.Barnum or 'Ripleys believe it or not'.
:-/
The acts performed in a lot of porno are not necessarily acts which it is a great pleasure to perform.
They are not intended to feel good for the participants (who get paid to do it); they are intended to make money. Sex is essentially a tactile thing, not primarily visual.
To make money it has to look good. We don't have 'feelies' yet.
The sort of sex act that feels good may well not look good on camera. Duh.
What happens if its presented in such a way that a *LOT* of people wind up thinking that this is what sex really is?
Unwittingly, they join the Voluntary Human Extinction Project since these 'sex acts' are almost always non-reproductive; semen is usually deposited on some external surface. Think of it as a 'Catholic' guide to birth control.
Pro-wrestling is similar. Except with less bodily fluids. How many pro wrestling fans draw on what they see in 'the ring' as a benchmark for their internal model of physics? Their estimate of what happens to a person when a chair is broken across their back, for example? Maybe people arn't that dumb.
However, in both cases, I think theres an underlying dishonesty.
I could have got human stupidity all wrong, of course.
"Why isn't it an honest job?"
Porno acting is as dishonest a job as being a pro-wrestler.
"She often gets stopped by total strangers who think her ring is beautiful and unique"
Dude, they are just trying to pick her up!
"User stupidity is the bigist security hole there is. It is often exploited and east to patch with a ballpen hammer"
Its also exploited by;
politicians, religions, capitalism in general
Its what makes the world go 'round, don't knock it.
"Personally, I'd rather be unemployed than be paid by someone with the ethics to deliberately release software like this."
Unemployed, maybe, but would you rather be hung upside down from a tree by your scrotum?
Thats what you get when you say 'no' to the right (wrong) people, dude. Where have you been living?
"I'll steal this line from you, thanks."
;-)
Yeah feel free, its GPL
Its a book.
Remarkably prophetic in many ways.
I'd recommend it in light of this thread.
Maybe Northern India, where its not so hot;
but Southern India... where it gets up to 45'C...
My brain, like any normal supercomputer, functions best at low temperature.
"If you're running stable, you shouldn't be running a 2.6 kernel anyway"
:-P
If you're running (debian) stable, you shouldn't be running anything thats not like 100 years old *anyway*
(I keep getting caught out by debian stable packages that are *way* out of date -- should be called 'debian *conservative*').
the one that when you apply the security update, it turns your server into an open relay?
IIRC, even if you went to the trouble to ensure that it was *not* an open relay, the patch would change the settings and, voila, open relay.
"They're a Fascist Dictatorship with Communist Rhetoric. "
And those Chinese Fascist Communists will be first against the wall when the Revolution... oh... er... wait...
I think theres also the 'entry level creep' issue;
So the early mobile phones were just phones and they cost $xxx.xx (whatever),
Then, as the manufacturing and design techniques got better it turned out that they *could* make a plain old mobile phone and sell it for $x.xx.
But if they add this and that and a camera and bla bla to the 'entry level' phone they can still sell it for $xxx.xx with the justification 'look its got all this *stuff* its got to be worth it!'
I suspect that while its possible to produce plain old mobile phones very *very* cheaply, once you've sold them to whoever needs one, you no longer have any *new* sales.
Hence the feature creep and 'entry level' creep.
Or something like that.
"Robot armies might be good against conventional armies, but they suck at human to human contact."
;-)
So... you are saying that the average US infantryman is better at... 'human contact' than a robot would be?
The US military has *always* sucked at hearts and minds. Thats why they need the Brits now and then.
yeah yeah troll yeah yeah yeah
" no, because you cant occupy a country with robots. You need people on the ground, working intelligence, getting among the people, all that hearts and minds stuff"
Unless you are on one of those operations where "you want the land, but you don't want the people who live there"
ewwww that sounds kind of familiar...
So if your robot, autonomous fighting machines slaughter unarmed, innocent civilians, who gets charged with war crimes?
Even passwords are 'just security through obscurity' ;)
I know from experience that potential clients will (almost) always go for the most optimistic quote not the most realistic quote.
Far too often, sales people *have* to lie to get contracts; because its the salesman that lies the best that wins the deal.
Human stupidity is such that they always seem to believe the most rosy-colored fantasies; "the cheque is in the mail", "big is beatiful" and "I won't cum in your mouth" to name but a few.
"unlimited bandwidth" is just a modern variation.