When a book is read by a good reader, they're awesome. Don't underestimate the importance of the reader -- a bad reader will make any book no matter how good, awful. Good narration is as much an art as writing, or at least I've come to think so.
I love listening to books while I drive -- I had a job 10 years ago that often had me driving to different places for 3-4 hours at a time. Nowadays though, my work commute is short, and I find myself sometimes just driving around the county aimlessly. At 2 gal/hr, that makes it kind of expensive sometimes. My problem is that if I'm not actually doing something, listening to books makes me fall asleep very fast, no matter how much I like them, although that has advantages when I do need to fall asleep right away. Any kind of activity that doesn't trigger the verbal part of my brain is great though, and I've recently started making much hated chores something I look forward to, e.g., I recently spent an evening ironing all the shirts I don't take to the cleaners so I could keep listening to a book without nodding off.
concept 1) a well regulated milita (NOT a standing army BTW) is necessary for the security of the state.
concept 2) people have the right to bear arms and it won't be infringed.
Not that hard really. What I think you want it to say is something along the lines of "The right of the people to keep and bear arms as part of a well regulated militia will not be infringed." But that is not what it say.
Those who worry are usually those who have something to hide or something criminal in the works.
You are presuming that what you do today, will always be legal. Can you not imagine a regime gaining power that might any random thing a serious crime? Pick any religion and their crazy rules. Maybe that shrimp scampi you put on your visa at the Shrimp Shack would violate a future crime. That's a silly one of course, but the world is full of silly laws and you have no idea what stupidity the future will bring.
It's a great movie true, but even greater book series. 21 volumes ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey%E2%80%93Maturin_series ). And if you like audiobooks, I prefer the ones with Simon Vance narrating. He does a great job on character voices.
The reason it is rare is not because it is a rubber stamp, but because the government attorneys are cautious about making the requests, and gather the proper proof that it is needed.
Compare with the Verizon order. OBVIOUSLY, every single Verizon customer in America is reasonably suspected to be a terrorist. A "cautious" government would only ask for such things after it has gathered sufficient proof, so they all must be suspected./sarcasm
ColdFjord is the kind of idiot idiots point at say: "you fucking retard."
The reason it is rare is not because it is a rubber stamp, but because the government attorneys are cautious about making the requests, and gather the proper proof that it is needed.
Compare to the subpoena for "every Verizon customer" -- are you telling me that every Verizon customer is under reasonable suspicion (the lowered standard under the Patriot Act from "probable cause") of being a terrorist?
Even under the lower standard, do you really expect me to believe that the government has a reasonable suspicion that EVERY SINGLE Verizon customer in America is a terrorist? Are you seriously that much of a backbirth that you actually believe that... or expect others to believe the same? I'm thinking you're some kind of subtle troll because you couldn't sell that load of crap to anyone but those who need assistance tying their shoes and taking a crap.
Throwing your vote away is failing to register your displeasure by voting as a sheep.
It is NOT a wasted vote to refuse to vote for a fuckhead but it is obviously a waste to cast a vote for a fuckhead. Winning isn't everything -- if nobody protests then the fuckhead thinks he's got a mandate. And if the fuckhead should lose to the other fuckhead not because that one got so many votes, but because the a lot of people voted for their cat (as I did for any seat in which there was no third party, and I mean any third party), that might make all the fuckheads think about actually appealing to voters again -- all us cat voters might then seem like a group they want to woo. But if you just give them your vote, they WILL ignore you. To win later, you have to be willing to make the fuckheads lose now.
I've been using DDG for my personal interest searches, but google is sadly much better when it comes to getting a quick answer to a technical issue.
As for running a mail server (for real -- not just the presetup things you get with any hosting account), I've been thinking of that too but that only protects contents of emails stored on the mail server. The mail going to and from that server however, is susceptible to observation anywhere along the path. And like with the phone metadata, the "who do you talk to, when, and how often" questions can be easily answered whether you run your own mail server and/or encrypt all your mail.
To be secure, you would need a mail system that encrypts everything including to and from and is somehow unaware of who the message is too or from. I'm not sure how this would work, except by having a mail client that received all email to everyone and could pick out the tiny amount it could decrypt. Since everyone gets everything, the metadata problem would go away. But can you imagine what a data hog that would be?
Doesn't change the fact that the Federal code base is so vast and so vague that the average citizen commits three Federal Felonies per day. Throw in laws that are secret and you're fucked if they want you. How do you even try to follow a secret law? Talk about a tool of tyranny.
Headline: "Intelligence Director declassifies law to explain massive phone, Internet surveillance"
As far as a "court" is concerned, realize that we are talking about the FISA court -- can you say rubber stamp?
From its inception, it was the ultimate rubber-stamp court, having rejected a total of zero government applications -- zero -- in its first 24 years of existence, while approving many thousands. In its total 34 year history -- from 1978 through 2012 -- the Fisa court has rejected a grand total of 11 government applications, while approving more than 20,000.
Imagine if they didn't have paper copies. They'd have been screwed rather than just annoyed and slightly poorer.
My business partner recently lost the all of her baby pictures for the first two years of her first kid. Not from hardware failure, but as best we can figure it relates to an issue in 2010 where updating iPhoto caused data loss. The time machine backup does not extend back before 2010 because the drive was replaced at some point (how many non-savy tech users think to backup their backups?). As a result -- they're totally gone.
In contrast, I have all my baby photos from the 60s and 70s. Some a bit tattered, and instead of thousands you get when people use digital cameras, maybe 50 or so, but because they're on paper I have them. Reading them requires no unavailable technology -- just eyes.
I love technology in general, but I've been bitten by it. If I really want to make sure I have the best chance of keeping something, I print it out. I don't print out everything -- the nature of digital content is that it allows people to store a huge amount of crap (like thousands of photos only slightly different from each other when one would be sufficient) for almost no cost. But that cheapness makes people devalue the little bit in that pile, that they really don't want to lose. And then they lose it and would pay almost anything to get it back.
And yes, I know papers and photos fade, but the process is slower. Typically with a computer, it's working and available one second, and gone the next. You have a lot more time to correct poor storage techniques with physical documents. And yes, papers and photos can get burned up -- but you can make offsite backups of these things too.
No, but what is intentionally blaming the attack on a spontaneous mob protest over a movie?
That would be the ever honorable appeal to prejudice -- "see how violent those tribal muslims are? They'll blow up an embassy over a youtube video. Savages!"
(and you Obamabots who want to deny that this happened, here's the timeline... though facts seldom stand in the way of your ability to ignore Obama's bloodthirsty character):
Oh yeah, and criticizing George W. Obama does not make one a Republican. No liberal can actually utter a favorable word and Obama in the same sentence. He's the worst thing to happen to this country since GWB really hit the executive power expansion button, because Obama has taken what was radical, and normalized it.
Then what shall we talk about with respect to Obama: Should it be his war on the 1st, 4th, or 5th amendment. His war on whistleblowers? Or just plain old war. Like tripling the number of troops in Afghanistan or conducting war with Libya without any congressional approval (goodbye War Powers Act, that little bit of post Viet Nam sanity designed to get us back to how the constitution says war is to started). Should we talk about how Obama tried to extend the Status of Forces Agreement in Iraq beyond the Dec 2011 expiration, failed, and as result pulled out the troops (and you fucking DNC hacks give him credit for ending Iraq when what he did was fail to extend it).
Maybe we should talk about Obama's opposition to the International Treaty to ban cluster bombs.
Maybe we should talk about how aggressively Obama has used the State Secrets Doctrine to shield torturers and those who spy on Americans. Maybe we should talk about why Obama as a candidate railed against NDAA, but recently cajoled Congress to pass it without any modifications, such as general estimate of how many Americans are illegally spied on.
WHATEVER. You fucking Democrat asshats are the biggest bunch of hypocrites around. Your ONLY reason to exist is to normalize the executive power grabs and constitution destroying behavior of the GOP. The entire country would be better off if you collectively had a heart attack and died, because then a real opposition to the GOP could evolve. Your ilk though, you're all talk and all back stabbing.
Good on Judge Gleason! I'm glad to hear that he may torpedo that travesty of a deal. Still, Obama's legal team is working hard to protect the banksters:
The deal -- known as a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) -- meant HSBC was exempt from prosecution and triggered a storm of criticism. Judge John Gleeson is now believed to be considering rejecting the deal, a move that could leave HSBC facing a criminal prosecution and the threat that its charter to do business in the US could be revoked.... The justice department is believed to be challenging the need for Gleeson's approval after failing to get a quick signature while the judge is upholding his opinion that he must sign off on the DPA.
Although Matt Taibi has it at 10 Billion, his description of the settlement with HSBC is sadly hilarious:
Wow. So the executives who spent a decade laundering billions of dollars will have to partially defer their bonuses during the five-year deferred prosecution agreement? Are you fucking kidding me? That's the punishment? The government's negotiators couldn't hold firm on forcing HSBC officials to completely wait to receive their ill-gotten bonuses? They had to settle on making them "partially" wait? Every honest prosecutor in America has to be puking his guts out at such bargaining tactics. What was the Justice Department's opening offer -- asking executives to restrict their Caribbean vacation time to nine weeks a year?
That makes sense, although it assumes that when they say "tolerance" they mean it can hover in that kind of wind. They might just mean it can fly and not crash in that kind wind, with the inevitable drift. You would think if it could hit 40mph, they would have shown at least one such zoom in their video.
Slashdot Mirror
When a book is read by a good reader, they're awesome. Don't underestimate the importance of the reader -- a bad reader will make any book no matter how good, awful. Good narration is as much an art as writing, or at least I've come to think so.
I love listening to books while I drive -- I had a job 10 years ago that often had me driving to different places for 3-4 hours at a time. Nowadays though, my work commute is short, and I find myself sometimes just driving around the county aimlessly. At 2 gal/hr, that makes it kind of expensive sometimes. My problem is that if I'm not actually doing something, listening to books makes me fall asleep very fast, no matter how much I like them, although that has advantages when I do need to fall asleep right away. Any kind of activity that doesn't trigger the verbal part of my brain is great though, and I've recently started making much hated chores something I look forward to, e.g., I recently spent an evening ironing all the shirts I don't take to the cleaners so I could keep listening to a book without nodding off.
In digital Soviet America, papers wipe you.
It is two concepts joined with a comma.
concept 1) a well regulated milita (NOT a standing army BTW) is necessary for the security of the state.
concept 2) people have the right to bear arms and it won't be infringed.
Not that hard really. What I think you want it to say is something along the lines of "The right of the people to keep and bear arms as part of a well regulated militia will not be infringed." But that is not what it say.
You are presuming that what you do today, will always be legal. Can you not imagine a regime gaining power that might any random thing a serious crime? Pick any religion and their crazy rules. Maybe that shrimp scampi you put on your visa at the Shrimp Shack would violate a future crime. That's a silly one of course, but the world is full of silly laws and you have no idea what stupidity the future will bring.
Besides, privacy is self-validating.
It's a great movie true, but even greater book series. 21 volumes ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey%E2%80%93Maturin_series ). And if you like audiobooks, I prefer the ones with Simon Vance narrating. He does a great job on character voices.
Please PLEASE PLEASE --- slip on bar of soap in your bathtub ( http://www.seattlepi.com/national/article/Someone-drowns-in-a-tub-nearly-every-day-in-1201018.php ). Seriously, DO NOT REPRODUCE. Your gene line is an intellectual dead end. If you have reproduced, please go for a family drive as often as you possibly can ( http://www.statisticbrain.com/car-crash-fatality-statistics-2/ ).
Consider this ColdFjord analysis about why the FISA court constitutes oversight in the face of 11 denials over 34 years and 20000 requests ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/03/fisa-court-rubber-stamp-drones ):
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3848163&cid=43969431
Compare with the Verizon order. OBVIOUSLY, every single Verizon customer in America is reasonably suspected to be a terrorist. A "cautious" government would only ask for such things after it has gathered sufficient proof, so they all must be suspected. /sarcasm
ColdFjord is the kind of idiot idiots point at say: "you fucking retard."
There is the difference between suspecting and being called a foil-hatter, and knowing for certain.
Well, considering the Feds admitted it was true, I think we can drop this line of thought.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/07/clapper-secret-nsa-surveillance-prism
Compare to the subpoena for "every Verizon customer" -- are you telling me that every Verizon customer is under reasonable suspicion (the lowered standard under the Patriot Act from "probable cause") of being a terrorist?
Even under the lower standard, do you really expect me to believe that the government has a reasonable suspicion that EVERY SINGLE Verizon customer in America is a terrorist? Are you seriously that much of a backbirth that you actually believe that ... or expect others to believe the same? I'm thinking you're some kind of subtle troll because you couldn't sell that load of crap to anyone but those who need assistance tying their shoes and taking a crap.
In 34 years and over 20,000 cases, the FISA court has denied 11 requests. So, would that be oversight ... or overstamp?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/03/fisa-court-rubber-stamp-drones
Throwing your vote away is failing to register your displeasure by voting as a sheep.
It is NOT a wasted vote to refuse to vote for a fuckhead but it is obviously a waste to cast a vote for a fuckhead. Winning isn't everything -- if nobody protests then the fuckhead thinks he's got a mandate. And if the fuckhead should lose to the other fuckhead not because that one got so many votes, but because the a lot of people voted for their cat (as I did for any seat in which there was no third party, and I mean any third party), that might make all the fuckheads think about actually appealing to voters again -- all us cat voters might then seem like a group they want to woo. But if you just give them your vote, they WILL ignore you. To win later, you have to be willing to make the fuckheads lose now.
I've been using DDG for my personal interest searches, but google is sadly much better when it comes to getting a quick answer to a technical issue.
As for running a mail server (for real -- not just the presetup things you get with any hosting account), I've been thinking of that too but that only protects contents of emails stored on the mail server. The mail going to and from that server however, is susceptible to observation anywhere along the path. And like with the phone metadata, the "who do you talk to, when, and how often" questions can be easily answered whether you run your own mail server and/or encrypt all your mail.
To be secure, you would need a mail system that encrypts everything including to and from and is somehow unaware of who the message is too or from. I'm not sure how this would work, except by having a mail client that received all email to everyone and could pick out the tiny amount it could decrypt. Since everyone gets everything, the metadata problem would go away. But can you imagine what a data hog that would be?
http://www.harveysilverglate.com/Books/ThreeFeloniesaDay.aspx
Doesn't change the fact that the Federal code base is so vast and so vague that the average citizen commits three Federal Felonies per day. Throw in laws that are secret and you're fucked if they want you. How do you even try to follow a secret law? Talk about a tool of tyranny.
Headline: "Intelligence Director declassifies law to explain massive phone, Internet surveillance"
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/06/3437545/white-house-defends-collection.html
As far as a "court" is concerned, realize that we are talking about the FISA court -- can you say rubber stamp?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/03/fisa-court-rubber-stamp-drones
The article also points out that in 2012, of 1789 applications to the FISA "court", none were rejected. Zero.
2011: 1676 applications. Zero rejected.
Imagine if they didn't have paper copies. They'd have been screwed rather than just annoyed and slightly poorer.
My business partner recently lost the all of her baby pictures for the first two years of her first kid. Not from hardware failure, but as best we can figure it relates to an issue in 2010 where updating iPhoto caused data loss. The time machine backup does not extend back before 2010 because the drive was replaced at some point (how many non-savy tech users think to backup their backups?). As a result -- they're totally gone.
In contrast, I have all my baby photos from the 60s and 70s. Some a bit tattered, and instead of thousands you get when people use digital cameras, maybe 50 or so, but because they're on paper I have them. Reading them requires no unavailable technology -- just eyes.
I love technology in general, but I've been bitten by it. If I really want to make sure I have the best chance of keeping something, I print it out. I don't print out everything -- the nature of digital content is that it allows people to store a huge amount of crap (like thousands of photos only slightly different from each other when one would be sufficient) for almost no cost. But that cheapness makes people devalue the little bit in that pile, that they really don't want to lose. And then they lose it and would pay almost anything to get it back.
And yes, I know papers and photos fade, but the process is slower. Typically with a computer, it's working and available one second, and gone the next. You have a lot more time to correct poor storage techniques with physical documents. And yes, papers and photos can get burned up -- but you can make offsite backups of these things too.
No, but what is intentionally blaming the attack on a spontaneous mob protest over a movie?
That would be the ever honorable appeal to prejudice -- "see how violent those tribal muslims are? They'll blow up an embassy over a youtube video. Savages!"
(and you Obamabots who want to deny that this happened, here's the timeline ... though facts seldom stand in the way of your ability to ignore Obama's bloodthirsty character):
http://factcheck.org/2012/10/benghazi-timeline/
Oh yeah, and criticizing George W. Obama does not make one a Republican. No liberal can actually utter a favorable word and Obama in the same sentence. He's the worst thing to happen to this country since GWB really hit the executive power expansion button, because Obama has taken what was radical, and normalized it.
One and the same. Obama's pick to head the FBI signed off on the Bush era domestic spying crap and torture. Welcome to the new boss, same as the old.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/30/james-comey-fbi-bush-nsa
Are you fucking joking, trolling or high?
Seriously it has to be one of those options because if anything, Democrats have proven themselves to be as bloodthirsty as Republicans.
And before I get off topic on my rant, do note that the Bush era fuckwad who signed off on GWB's warrantless wiretapping and torture policies, is Obama's pick to head the FBI:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/30/james-comey-fbi-bush-nsa
Then what shall we talk about with respect to Obama:
Should it be his war on the 1st, 4th, or 5th amendment. His war on whistleblowers? Or just plain old war. Like tripling the number of troops in Afghanistan or conducting war with Libya without any congressional approval (goodbye War Powers Act, that little bit of post Viet Nam sanity designed to get us back to how the constitution says war is to started). Should we talk about how Obama tried to extend the Status of Forces Agreement in Iraq beyond the Dec 2011 expiration, failed, and as result pulled out the troops (and you fucking DNC hacks give him credit for ending Iraq when what he did was fail to extend it).
Maybe we should talk about Obama's opposition to the International Treaty to ban cluster bombs.
Maybe we should talk about how aggressively Obama has used the State Secrets Doctrine to shield torturers and those who spy on Americans. Maybe we should talk about why Obama as a candidate railed against NDAA, but recently cajoled Congress to pass it without any modifications, such as general estimate of how many Americans are illegally spied on.
WHATEVER. You fucking Democrat asshats are the biggest bunch of hypocrites around. Your ONLY reason to exist is to normalize the executive power grabs and constitution destroying behavior of the GOP. The entire country would be better off if you collectively had a heart attack and died, because then a real opposition to the GOP could evolve. Your ilk though, you're all talk and all back stabbing.
Democrats: The New GOP. Fresh face, same shit.
Except this time, unlike the S&L crisis, NOBODY is going to jail. Google:
William K Black (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_K._Black)
And just read any random thing he's written or transcript from an interview he's given.
Oh man -- I'm anti-death penalty ... but Carlin justmight make me reconsider!
Good on Judge Gleason! I'm glad to hear that he may torpedo that travesty of a deal. Still, Obama's legal team is working hard to protect the banksters:
Came here to make an HSBC quip.
Although Matt Taibi has it at 10 Billion, his description of the settlement with HSBC is sadly hilarious:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/outrageous-hsbc-settlement-proves-the-drug-war-is-a-joke-20121213
Anyway, one thing is clear. Liberty Reserve didn't donate enough to Obama's campaign to get a slap on the wrist and and a cabinet post.
I was wrong if Wikipedia is right. It will go 40.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniature_UAV#Aeryon_Labs_.22SkyRanger.22
That makes sense, although it assumes that when they say "tolerance" they mean it can hover in that kind of wind. They might just mean it can fly and not crash in that kind wind, with the inevitable drift. You would think if it could hit 40mph, they would have shown at least one such zoom in their video.