where in the Constitution does it give us the right to speak annonymously? It doesn't and it shouldn't. The only way you can speak annonymously is to speak through others. You should have no expectation that the other person will not be compelled to reveal your identity.
This is wthout a doubt the dumbest post I have ever read on slashdot, and believe me, that's saying something. First, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights do not give us rights - they acknowledge that we have certain inalienable rights (sound familiar?). Your question "where in the Constitution does it give us the right..." shows an appaling ignorance of the basis for your country's origins. We HAVE rights - no one gives them to us.
Secondly, what nonsense is it that it is not possble to speak anonymously? What about posters, handbills and pseudonyms? What about a message chalked on the sidewalk or wall or shouted from a crowd? What about an anonymous letter to the editor or a midnight meeting with reporters in a Washington, DC garage? Do you think I could not post absolutely anonymously to slashdot if I wanted to? What world do you live in where these things don't exist (or, more correctly, never pass through your thought processes)?
No, they don't. That's not how the copyright works. Failure to sue one person for copyright infringement does not forfeit the copyright or constitute a license. The MTA could allow people to use the maps however they wanted, offering no license, but also not suing, up until someone uses it in a way they don't like, and then sue.
No one said anything about suing here - I said "enforce the copyright" which is what the MTA did with a cease and desist letter. It isn't necessary to sue anyone to enforce a copyright.
Even so, I argue that the MTA as a governmental agency could very easily lose its copyright to the map (or its right to enforce it) if they selectively or arbitrarily enforced it. If the MTA allowed the American Cheese Lovers Association to use the maps without permission and then refused to let the American Broccoli Lovers Association do the same the courts would almost surely rule that the MTA did not have the right to selectively enforce its copyright in a discriminatory manner against broccoli lovers. At that point the MTA would have only two choices - not enforce its copyright at all (essentially losing its copyright), or enforce it for everyone - the later case being what it is doing right now.
As far as I know, nobody actually died on the Tiananmen Square. Sure there were bloodbaths trailing all the way to the square, marking the path the army took, but when they reached the square everybody packed up.
No,, tanks were used to run over people in tents within the square..
I;m showing my age, but nothing is new if seems. I remember an old TV show (The FBI) where Efram Zimbalist, Jr. identified the home city of an abandoned car by pushing the buttons on the radio and noting the frequencies of each radio station. They then correlated all the radio stations in the country to find the one place all five frequencies were being used.
Don't forget medical records (remember also childhood immunizations and disease records, ask your parents if you don't have them) and hi-res scans of any X-Ray photos and dental records if you have them.
DNA samples from you and all family members (hair samples in tiny individually labeled plastic bags would be good)
IN addition to your list of what to take in a bugout:
DNA samples from you and all your family members (hair is fine). Scans of dental x-rays on your USB drive. Prescription list and other medication information (dosage, frequency, etc) List of drug and food allergies (on paper as well as on the USB drive) Basic medical histories
Permission to use copyrighted materials can be granted selectively, but that is not the same as not enforcing your copyright. If you don't enforce it you risk losing it and your work can becomes public domain. I am a photographer with copyrighted works, and believe me I know this to be the case. When you discover your work being used you HAVE to enforce the copyright even if you end up just granting permission to use it.
Often, the cops will ask if they can search your car. If you say no, they'll hold you there until a canine unit is dispatched to sniff around the outside of your car.
Actually this is not realy the case. When you are in the public transportation system the police have the right to search you and your property without a warrant. I know, it sounds wrong, but it is true. If you are in an airport, bus station or even on a public road they need no warrant. They can just walk up to you, ask to search your bag or car and if you say no they can do it anyway. Yes, they often ask you, but they really don't have to.
IANAL and I got this information many years ago from a TV special about drug smugglers at the Miami airport, but I believe it to be true. It may be limited to Federal transport systems.
Subway maps were very difficult to get. Technically they were free and available, but you had to be damned lucky to find a token booth clerk who actually had any in the booth.
I live in NYC and you can get free maps at any booth. Maybe when you were growing up in NY they were hard to get, but not now.
And yes, downloadable maps are a good idea. That is why you can download a map from the NYC MTA site just like any other image and put it on your own ipod or PDA for free. I know, I've done it. True, they don't have a "download" link, but anyone tech enough to even want a map on their PDA or ipod will know how to do it.
This isusue isn't so much about map distribution or profits, it is about control of a valuable asset by the MTA, or more correctly about preserving the right to control it in the future. Suppose people started selling subway maps to unsuspecting tourists? The MTA couldn't do anything about it if they had given up their copyright.
The basic point here is that the MTA can't selectively give up their copyrights - they have to enforce it every time a violation comes to their attention (no matter how trivial it may seem) or they lose it. Frankly, the guy should have just asked first, the MTA would have said OK, and everyone would have been happy.
It isn't that NYC Metropolitan Transit Authority minds people getting these maps for free, it's that they don't want to lose control of them. If the MTA lets anyone copy and use the maps without permission then they could be used for any purpose and the city would have no say in the matter. Once the city knows about an unauthorized use and and does nothing about it they establish a precedent under which anyone could use the maps for any purpose. The maps could be used for some new weird map porn for example, and the city couldn't do anything about it. I know that's not likely, but the point is that they could be used for any unknown purpose and the MTA wants to make sure their use can be controlled. For example vendors could sell copies of the free maps to unsuspecting tourists and the city could do nothing about it if they had given up their copyright. The MTA isn't holding the rights to the map for thenmselves, it is preserving the rights for the citizens of NY.
The use in question may be harmless, but who knows what could happen in the future? I thnk the person distributing the maps as a file should just ask the MTA's permission - the MTA would probably give it to him.
Hope you know the diesel fuel as of now in the U.S. can cause cancer.
Petroleum-based diesel fuel is NOT a carcinogen (according to IARC, NTP or OSHA). However, diesel EXHAUST is. On the other hand, raw gasoline and gasoline combustion products are BOTH human carcinogens. Frankly I feel safer with diesel.
I don't have any specific information on biodiesel, but since it does not contain petroleum neither it nor its exhaust should contain significant amounts of carcinogenic compounds, even today.
I keep hearing about these "IE Only" sites for a long time already. However, I yet have to find one. My primary browser is Konqueror, backup (for the case Konqueror barfs on a given site) is Mozilla. Could somebody point me to an "IE only site"?
secretshopper.com The initial page is ok for any browser, but trying to go into the site to register or train gets you a message that only IE will work, and they mean it - no amount of trying to fool it works.
I never gave serious thought to buying a TiVO. I am not going to shell out several hundred bucks on a device that MUST be connected to the manufacturer/service provider in order to work.
You just don't understand Tivo, but that's ok I didn't when I bought mine either _ I just got lucky. I too thought it was just a machine with some channel data. In fact, the connection to Tivo's program data is what makes it so great. Want to watch every sci-fi movie shown on TV for the next year? No problem. Want to watch every sci-fi movie that has Charleton Heston in it? No problem. Every movie starring Tishiro Mifune? Directed by Blake Edwards? No problem. Every nature show about bats? No problem.
Tivo is a house elf that sits at home 24 hours a day and does nothing but look through TV listings and record shows you like, and some it just thinks you might like... just so you can watch them whenever you want.
The combination of the time-shifting DVR and the constantlly refreshed program data makes Tivo so great. Most detractors on/. mistakenly think of it as just a VCR that you have to pay a subscription to use (which would be dumb), but that is not what Tivo is at all.
Let me pay you for the box, and even double the cost out of spite that I won't weld myself to your ongoing revenue stream. The box should be programable like a plain old VCR (i.e., recordable on channel X at time Y for Z length of content), or it should pull data from the "Channel Channel", or both.
The Tivo box is far from useless without Tivo's purchased programming data. You *can* set Tivo to record at x time for y length on z days (every day, avery weekday, every Tuesday, etc). Your statement just shows how little you actually know about this topic.
Frankly I don't see what's wrong with a monthly fee. It is optional, it is light years better than the cable menu screen (2/3 advertizing and 1/3 actual programming data), it automatically finds and tracks shows, schedule changes, directors, actors, subjects and keywords (try that with your *free* cable guide channel).
And as for your *pure and free* cable guide channel - you DO pay for it. In fact you pay twice for it: first in your cable fees and then again in the advertizing on it. You didn't really think the cable company gave you that guide for free just because they don't break the charge out in the bill? Hawwwwhawwww!
If you are so consumer oriented why do you keep that system where you pay twice as a hidden cost? I much prefer an up-front service that I pay for, with its additional services and functionality rather than that absurd cable menu channel which is in reality just another cable company revenue stream.
B.F. Skinner already coined the phrase for this from the marketers point of view. He noted that you could train a pigeon to do extrordinary things, so long as you never broke the task/reward cycle.
Actually, in operant conditioning the strongest and most persistent behaviors are ellicited by random rewards, not consistent rewards. The subject, upon figuring out that it can get the reward every time it completes a task (such as pecking a spot 100 times) slows or stops pecking immediately after a reward because it knows it is a long way from the next reward. On the other hand, if the subject never knows if the next peck might result in the reward, it exhibits much stronger and more persistent pecking behavior, often to the point of exhaustion. And since the next peck can always be the one that gets rewarded, getting a reward has no effect on pecking frequency.
That is why in major corporations the test subjects, oops I mean employees, seldom know the amount of an upcoming raise or even if they will get one, and promotions seem to come out of the blue, i.e. pseudo-randomly. Employees will work much harder if they are thinking "maybe this year I will get the promotion", just as the pigeons think "maybe this peck I'll get the corn"
Oh please! Let's not go there again! This Russian bike-riding daughter of a Russian nuke scientist riding around Chernobyl with a special pass was a hoax. It fooled/. about a year ago, let's pulease not do it all over again. Remember, some of the people on/. weren't even born a year ago!
This all boils down to one thing: lack of personal responsibility...So many of our problems are rooted in everyone's attempt to pass the buck...Where's Sartre when you need him?
You don't even see the irony, do you. Here you are moaning and bitching about lack of responsibility in people and so what do you do? Complain that sartre isn't here to do your thinking for you and help you out.
And by the way, what does a 12-step program have to do with not taking responsibility? It seems to me it IS taking responsibility and trying to change. Or maybe it is just to girly-man for you not to be able to instantly ignore a drug addiction.
or 2004 DNC (boston) where protestors were segregated to "free speech zones" locked behind a fence. under a freeway ramp. down the street from the convention center.
WHAT THE...!? This did not happen! It was only during the Republican convention that this happened. Also, it was only during the RNC that you could get arrested for riding your bicycle anywhere in Manhattan if there were two of you riding together - no parade permit it seems. I know, I was there.
I don't understand why it's costing us anything. They're the ones that lived below fuking sea level. They're the ones that lived in the path of hurricanes. They're the ones that should have been concerned about the construction status of the levee. It's their problem, not mine or the rest of the country's. They should have realized themselves that they live in an area prone to disasters and paid for the proper precautions to prevent such disasters.
The reason, you moron, is twofold: First, 65% of all US imports come through the New Orleans port, and 70% of our domestic oil and gas comes from the area. If your logic holds then is seems that thay could just tell us "YOU decided to live in a place without oil and gas, just sit in the cold and dark this winter", and "YOU decided to live where ships can't get to, so forget the imported stuff you like so much".
The second reason is that they are Americans and they would help you if you needed it (as they helped New York after 9/11). But then I imagine you didn't give a damn about New York either.
Before Hurricane Katrina breached a levee on the New Orleans Industrial Canal, the Army Corps of Engineers had already launched a $748 million construction project at that very location. But the project had nothing to do with flood control. The Corps was building a huge new lock for the canal, an effort to accommodate steadily increasing barge traffic.
Except that barge traffic on the canal has been steadily decreasing.
If you are trying to imply that the COE lied or was incompetent your logic leaves something to be desired. It seems most likely that barge traffic had been decreasing in the canal because barges were getting bigger and would not fit. That makes increased barge traffic on the river and a simultaneous decrease of barge traffic in the canal perfectly logical.
That's funny, because I seem to remember notable publications like the New York Times criticizing the earlier form of his budget which allocated MORE funds to the Army Corps of Engineers. Seems they thought the funds would be better used for "social programs."
You "seem to remember", riiiiight. This is just made-up garbage. I can't understand why this lie gets modded "insightful"
The NYTimes has an excellent search feature for all their articles for years past - why didn't you document this?
I think what you are remembering is the $230 million boondoggle pork project the Republican senator from Alaska got for his bridge to nowhere just a few months ago. (A $230 million bridge to an island with 20 people living on it.) Now the NYTimes DID say that money could be better spent elsewhere.
That's funny, because I seem to remember notable publications like the New York Times criticizing the earlier form of his budget which allocated MORE funds to the Army Corps of Engineers. Seems they thought the funds would be better used for "social programs."
You "seem to remember", riiiight. That's total baloney. I can't believe this made-up crap gets rated "Insightful".
The NYTimes has an excellent multi-year search feature - why don't you try to document this lie?
I think what you may be remembering is the Republican senator from Alaska's pork in the latest transporation authorization bill of a $230 million bridge to nowhere. More than twice what the COE originally asked for levees to protct a major American city.
...you are correct. Mutation makes it go, selection tells it where to go.
I never said that. Mutation only ALLOWS evolution, it does not cause it or "drive" it. Mutation is only the raw material that selection "uses" to drive evolution. Just as iron ore does not drive or cause steel, mutation does not drive or cause evolution. We could live in a sea of mutation and never get evolution without selection.
Remember that this thread started when somone stated that mutation drives evolution, and that natural selection was debunked and unimportant (and anyone who thought otherwise was poorly educated). Of course he had gotten Darwinism and natural selection confused and did not know his subject well enough to realize that. I have been trying to show, through a series of thought experiments, that without selection there could be no evolution - only random genetic noise.
The relationship between mutation, evolution and selection seems to me to be similar to a piano, where the keys are the mutations. Do the keys cause or *drive* a concerto? Of course not. we could randomly plonk on keys all day and only get noise. The keys only make the music possible. It is the *selection* of keys that drives the creation of the concerto. Similarly it is the selection of otherwise random mutation that drives evolution.
Certainly, both are important to evolution, but it would be more correct to say that variation drives evolution, while selection shapes it.
After I posted my reply I realized I did not say this very well. I think variation (mutation) only ALLOWS evolution, but it does not drive it. Mutation without selection is only noise. I think natural selection is both the driver and the shaper of evolution.
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Whever moded this as "redundant" has a viscious and delightful sense of humor.
where in the Constitution does it give us the right to speak annonymously? It doesn't and it shouldn't. The only way you can speak annonymously is to speak through others. You should have no expectation that the other person will not be compelled to reveal your identity.
This is wthout a doubt the dumbest post I have ever read on slashdot, and believe me, that's saying something. First, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights do not give us rights - they acknowledge that we have certain inalienable rights (sound familiar?). Your question "where in the Constitution does it give us the right..." shows an appaling ignorance of the basis for your country's origins. We HAVE rights - no one gives them to us.
Secondly, what nonsense is it that it is not possble to speak anonymously? What about posters, handbills and pseudonyms? What about a message chalked on the sidewalk or wall or shouted from a crowd? What about an anonymous letter to the editor or a midnight meeting with reporters in a Washington, DC garage? Do you think I could not post absolutely anonymously to slashdot if I wanted to? What world do you live in where these things don't exist (or, more correctly, never pass through your thought processes)?
And finally, "anonymous" only has one N.
No, they don't. That's not how the copyright works. Failure to sue one person for copyright infringement does not forfeit the copyright or constitute a license. The MTA could allow people to use the maps however they wanted, offering no license, but also not suing, up until someone uses it in a way they don't like, and then sue.
No one said anything about suing here - I said "enforce the copyright" which is what the MTA did with a cease and desist letter. It isn't necessary to sue anyone to enforce a copyright.
Even so, I argue that the MTA as a governmental agency could very easily lose its copyright to the map (or its right to enforce it) if they selectively or arbitrarily enforced it. If the MTA allowed the American Cheese Lovers Association to use the maps without permission and then refused to let the American Broccoli Lovers Association do the same the courts would almost surely rule that the MTA did not have the right to selectively enforce its copyright in a discriminatory manner against broccoli lovers. At that point the MTA would have only two choices - not enforce its copyright at all (essentially losing its copyright), or enforce it for everyone - the later case being what it is doing right now.
As far as I know, nobody actually died on the Tiananmen Square. Sure there were bloodbaths trailing all the way to the square, marking the path the army took, but when they reached the square everybody packed up.
No,, tanks were used to run over people in tents within the square..
I;m showing my age, but nothing is new if seems. I remember an old TV show (The FBI) where Efram Zimbalist, Jr. identified the home city of an abandoned car by pushing the buttons on the radio and noting the frequencies of each radio station. They then correlated all the radio stations in the country to find the one place all five frequencies were being used.
Don't forget medical records (remember also childhood immunizations and disease records, ask your parents if you don't have them) and hi-res scans of any X-Ray photos and dental records if you have them.
DNA samples from you and all family members (hair samples in tiny individually labeled plastic bags would be good)
IN addition to your list of what to take in a bugout:
DNA samples from you and all your family members (hair is fine).
Scans of dental x-rays on your USB drive.
Prescription list and other medication information (dosage, frequency, etc)
List of drug and food allergies (on paper as well as on the USB drive)
Basic medical histories
Permission to use copyrighted materials can be granted selectively, but that is not the same as not enforcing your copyright. If you don't enforce it you risk losing it and your work can becomes public domain. I am a photographer with copyrighted works, and believe me I know this to be the case. When you discover your work being used you HAVE to enforce the copyright even if you end up just granting permission to use it.
Often, the cops will ask if they can search your car. If you say no, they'll hold you there until a canine unit is dispatched to sniff around the outside of your car.
Actually this is not realy the case. When you are in the public transportation system the police have the right to search you and your property without a warrant. I know, it sounds wrong, but it is true. If you are in an airport, bus station or even on a public road they need no warrant. They can just walk up to you, ask to search your bag or car and if you say no they can do it anyway. Yes, they often ask you, but they really don't have to.
IANAL and I got this information many years ago from a TV special about drug smugglers at the Miami airport, but I believe it to be true. It may be limited to Federal transport systems.
Subway maps were very difficult to get. Technically they were free and available, but you had to be damned lucky to find a token booth clerk who actually had any in the booth.
I live in NYC and you can get free maps at any booth. Maybe when you were growing up in NY they were hard to get, but not now.
And yes, downloadable maps are a good idea. That is why you can download a map from the NYC MTA site just like any other image and put it on your own ipod or PDA for free. I know, I've done it. True, they don't have a "download" link, but anyone tech enough to even want a map on their PDA or ipod will know how to do it.
This isusue isn't so much about map distribution or profits, it is about control of a valuable asset by the MTA, or more correctly about preserving the right to control it in the future. Suppose people started selling subway maps to unsuspecting tourists? The MTA couldn't do anything about it if they had given up their copyright.
The basic point here is that the MTA can't selectively give up their copyrights - they have to enforce it every time a violation comes to their attention (no matter how trivial it may seem) or they lose it. Frankly, the guy should have just asked first, the MTA would have said OK, and everyone would have been happy.
It isn't that NYC Metropolitan Transit Authority minds people getting these maps for free, it's that they don't want to lose control of them. If the MTA lets anyone copy and use the maps without permission then they could be used for any purpose and the city would have no say in the matter. Once the city knows about an unauthorized use and and does nothing about it they establish a precedent under which anyone could use the maps for any purpose. The maps could be used for some new weird map porn for example, and the city couldn't do anything about it. I know that's not likely, but the point is that they could be used for any unknown purpose and the MTA wants to make sure their use can be controlled. For example vendors could sell copies of the free maps to unsuspecting tourists and the city could do nothing about it if they had given up their copyright. The MTA isn't holding the rights to the map for thenmselves, it is preserving the rights for the citizens of NY.
The use in question may be harmless, but who knows what could happen in the future? I thnk the person distributing the maps as a file should just ask the MTA's permission - the MTA would probably give it to him.
Hope you know the diesel fuel as of now in the U.S. can cause cancer.
Petroleum-based diesel fuel is NOT a carcinogen (according to IARC, NTP or OSHA). However, diesel EXHAUST is. On the other hand, raw gasoline and gasoline combustion products are BOTH human carcinogens. Frankly I feel safer with diesel.
I don't have any specific information on biodiesel, but since it does not contain petroleum neither it nor its exhaust should contain significant amounts of carcinogenic compounds, even today.
I keep hearing about these "IE Only" sites for a long time already. However, I yet have to find one. My primary browser is Konqueror, backup (for the case Konqueror barfs on a given site) is Mozilla. Could somebody point me to an "IE only site"?
secretshopper.com The initial page is ok for any browser, but trying to go into the site to register or train gets you a message that only IE will work, and they mean it - no amount of trying to fool it works.
I never gave serious thought to buying a TiVO. I am not going to shell out several hundred bucks on a device that MUST be connected to the manufacturer/service provider in order to work.
/. mistakenly think of it as just a VCR that you have to pay a subscription to use (which would be dumb), but that is not what Tivo is at all.
You just don't understand Tivo, but that's ok I didn't when I bought mine either _ I just got lucky. I too thought it was just a machine with some channel data. In fact, the connection to Tivo's program data is what makes it so great. Want to watch every sci-fi movie shown on TV for the next year? No problem. Want to watch every sci-fi movie that has Charleton Heston in it? No problem. Every movie starring Tishiro Mifune? Directed by Blake Edwards? No problem. Every nature show about bats? No problem.
Tivo is a house elf that sits at home 24 hours a day and does nothing but look through TV listings and record shows you like, and some it just thinks you might like... just so you can watch them whenever you want.
The combination of the time-shifting DVR and the constantlly refreshed program data makes Tivo so great. Most detractors on
Let me pay you for the box, and even double the cost out of spite that I won't weld myself to your ongoing revenue stream. The box should be programable like a plain old VCR (i.e., recordable on channel X at time Y for Z length of content), or it should pull data from the "Channel Channel", or both.
The Tivo box is far from useless without Tivo's purchased programming data. You *can* set Tivo to record at x time for y length on z days (every day, avery weekday, every Tuesday, etc). Your statement just shows how little you actually know about this topic.
Frankly I don't see what's wrong with a monthly fee. It is optional, it is light years better than the cable menu screen (2/3 advertizing and 1/3 actual programming data), it automatically finds and tracks shows, schedule changes, directors, actors, subjects and keywords (try that with your *free* cable guide channel).
And as for your *pure and free* cable guide channel - you DO pay for it. In fact you pay twice for it: first in your cable fees and then again in the advertizing on it. You didn't really think the cable company gave you that guide for free just because they don't break the charge out in the bill? Hawwwwhawwww!
If you are so consumer oriented why do you keep that system where you pay twice as a hidden cost? I much prefer an up-front service that I pay for, with its additional services and functionality rather than that absurd cable menu channel which is in reality just another cable company revenue stream.
B.F. Skinner already coined the phrase for this from the marketers point of view. He noted that you could train a pigeon to do extrordinary things, so long as you never broke the task/reward cycle.
Actually, in operant conditioning the strongest and most persistent behaviors are ellicited by random rewards, not consistent rewards. The subject, upon figuring out that it can get the reward every time it completes a task (such as pecking a spot 100 times) slows or stops pecking immediately after a reward because it knows it is a long way from the next reward. On the other hand, if the subject never knows if the next peck might result in the reward, it exhibits much stronger and more persistent pecking behavior, often to the point of exhaustion. And since the next peck can always be the one that gets rewarded, getting a reward has no effect on pecking frequency.
That is why in major corporations the test subjects, oops I mean employees, seldom know the amount of an upcoming raise or even if they will get one, and promotions seem to come out of the blue, i.e. pseudo-randomly. Employees will work much harder if they are thinking "maybe this year I will get the promotion", just as the pigeons think "maybe this peck I'll get the corn"
Oh please! Let's not go there again! This Russian bike-riding daughter of a Russian nuke scientist riding around Chernobyl with a special pass was a hoax. It fooled /. about a year ago, let's pulease not do it all over again. Remember, some of the people on /. weren't even born a year ago!
This all boils down to one thing: lack of personal responsibility...So many of our problems are rooted in everyone's attempt to pass the buck...Where's Sartre when you need him?
You don't even see the irony, do you. Here you are moaning and bitching about lack of responsibility in people and so what do you do? Complain that sartre isn't here to do your thinking for you and help you out.
And by the way, what does a 12-step program have to do with not taking responsibility? It seems to me it IS taking responsibility and trying to change. Or maybe it is just to girly-man for you not to be able to instantly ignore a drug addiction.
or 2004 DNC (boston) where protestors were segregated to "free speech zones" locked behind a fence. under a freeway ramp. down the street from the convention center.
WHAT THE...!? This did not happen! It was only during the Republican convention that this happened. Also, it was only during the RNC that you could get arrested for riding your bicycle anywhere in Manhattan if there were two of you riding together - no parade permit it seems. I know, I was there.
I don't understand why it's costing us anything. They're the ones that lived below fuking sea level. They're the ones that lived in the path of hurricanes. They're the ones that should have been concerned about the construction status of the levee. It's their problem, not mine or the rest of the country's. They should have realized themselves that they live in an area prone to disasters and paid for the proper precautions to prevent such disasters.
The reason, you moron, is twofold: First, 65% of all US imports come through the New Orleans port, and 70% of our domestic oil and gas comes from the area. If your logic holds then is seems that thay could just tell us "YOU decided to live in a place without oil and gas, just sit in the cold and dark this winter", and "YOU decided to live where ships can't get to, so forget the imported stuff you like so much".
The second reason is that they are Americans and they would help you if you needed it (as they helped New York after 9/11). But then I imagine you didn't give a damn about New York either.
Before Hurricane Katrina breached a levee on the New Orleans Industrial Canal, the Army Corps of Engineers had already launched a $748 million construction project at that very location. But the project had nothing to do with flood control. The Corps was building a huge new lock for the canal, an effort to accommodate steadily increasing barge traffic.
Except that barge traffic on the canal has been steadily decreasing.
If you are trying to imply that the COE lied or was incompetent your logic leaves something to be desired. It seems most likely that barge traffic had been decreasing in the canal because barges were getting bigger and would not fit. That makes increased barge traffic on the river and a simultaneous decrease of barge traffic in the canal perfectly logical.
That's funny, because I seem to remember notable publications like the New York Times criticizing the earlier form of his budget which allocated MORE funds to the Army Corps of Engineers. Seems they thought the funds would be better used for "social programs."
You "seem to remember", riiiiight. This is just made-up garbage. I can't understand why this lie gets modded "insightful"
The NYTimes has an excellent search feature for all their articles for years past - why didn't you document this?
I think what you are remembering is the $230 million boondoggle pork project the Republican senator from Alaska got for his bridge to nowhere just a few months ago. (A $230 million bridge to an island with 20 people living on it.) Now the NYTimes DID say that money could be better spent elsewhere.
That's funny, because I seem to remember notable publications like the New York Times criticizing the earlier form of his budget which allocated MORE funds to the Army Corps of Engineers. Seems they thought the funds would be better used for "social programs."
You "seem to remember", riiiight. That's total baloney. I can't believe this made-up crap gets rated "Insightful".
The NYTimes has an excellent multi-year search feature - why don't you try to document this lie?
I think what you may be remembering is the Republican senator from Alaska's pork in the latest transporation authorization bill of a $230 million bridge to nowhere. More than twice what the COE originally asked for levees to protct a major American city.
...you are correct. Mutation makes it go, selection tells it where to go.
I never said that. Mutation only ALLOWS evolution, it does not cause it or "drive" it. Mutation is only the raw material that selection "uses" to drive evolution. Just as iron ore does not drive or cause steel, mutation does not drive or cause evolution. We could live in a sea of mutation and never get evolution without selection.
Remember that this thread started when somone stated that mutation drives evolution, and that natural selection was debunked and unimportant (and anyone who thought otherwise was poorly educated). Of course he had gotten Darwinism and natural selection confused and did not know his subject well enough to realize that. I have been trying to show, through a series of thought experiments, that without selection there could be no evolution - only random genetic noise.
The relationship between mutation, evolution and selection seems to me to be similar to a piano, where the keys are the mutations. Do the keys cause or *drive* a concerto? Of course not. we could randomly plonk on keys all day and only get noise. The keys only make the music possible. It is the *selection* of keys that drives the creation of the concerto. Similarly it is the selection of otherwise random mutation that drives evolution.
Certainly, both are important to evolution, but it would be more correct to say that variation drives evolution, while selection shapes it.
After I posted my reply I realized I did not say this very well. I think variation (mutation) only ALLOWS evolution, but it does not drive it. Mutation without selection is only noise. I think natural selection is both the driver and the shaper of evolution.