"Being a joke doesn't preclude people from reacting negatively to it."
Well, you can certainly conclude that people who do are extremely weak-minded.
What a load of rubbish, people have the right to offend and be offended, it does not make either one of them weak-minded. However the expectation that labeling your speach a joke somehow magically takes away everyone else's right to be offended is a sign of a weak (or at best immature) mind.
A reasonable fine would be on the order of $50 to $100 per song.
How did you come to that number? That number doesn't even include reasonable damages. The entire point is to make it so painful, the party will not want to do so again.
I know its not popular here, but reality is far, far different than the pro-pirate crowd constantly attempts to censor and portray here.
In "reality" $2400 for 24 songs IS way more painfull than the fine for shoplifting 2-3 albums, and it's certainly more reasonable than $1,500,000 or any of the other insane figures quoted in TFA.
Shared knowledge and copyright are two different things. Copyright is not stopping me gaining knowledge from the internet anymore than it's stopping me gaining knowledge from a library, it's stopping me from copying someone's unique expression of that knowledge. There is no doubt that the internet has made knowledge far more accessible than it was back in TheDays(TM).
There are two main metrics to measure a health care system, cost and medical outcomes. Australia has done a pretty good job of optimising these by cutting insurance companies out of the picture for serious medicine. We pay a flat rate of 1.5% of taxable income for UHC that has statistically far better medical outcomes than the US. You can still buy private cover if you want things like fake tits or a single bed ward but these are genrally considered luxuries that are not essential to the care of the patient. Also the fact that the government collects the money and health proffesionals spend it means that it mostly gets spent where it's needed, not where it will garner the most votes.
Sure the Aussie system is far from perfect but it's compared to the US system it's cheaper, more effective, more equitable and more humane. However it's born from socialist ideology and that word seems to scare a lot of americans into voting against their own interests even though every one of them deposits their daily crap into a socialised sanitation system without a second thought.
Here in Oz they have a slogan for the lottery that goes "You've got to be in it to win it". Sure statistically speaking you will lose money in the long run but ALL investments are a gamble to some degree. As with anything else moderation is the key, a lottery ticket once a week is not going to send anyone broke but it will make at least one player rich.
Speaking of probabilities I find it highly unlikeley that everyone from Australia and the UK is pretentious, it's much more likely that you have never ventured outside the US.
Define "good reason", ie: at what point does speech become harrasment or vandalisim? Is creating a law that stops people from spray painting graffi on grave stones censorship or a reasonable action against vandalisim?
The argument against the dick in TFA and the "god hates fags" mob is similar to the argument against graffiti, it's more about the methods they use than it is about the things they say.
"You start talking multi-generation biosphere ships or cryo ships you're talking about a huge set of problems"
Agreed, the focus in these discussions always seems to be on how to move the spaceship but in reality that is a minor problem with several plausible solutions. When it comes to keeping the crew alive we don't even know how to keep a biodome on Earth from turning into a rotting cesspit after a year or two. Once we know how to do that we can perhaps use the technology to fix the (human) life support systems on "spaceship Earth" before we send a handfull of explorers to look at other planets.
"I have personally seen the effects of creating matter using electrons with a charge of -0.93 instead of the usual -1."
Sure skinny electrons increase postage and handling costs but the fat ones are worse since they get stuck in the narrow parts of the wires. This causes all the other electrons to pile up behind them and then my internet connection stops working.
Sure it is, just use C to write a C compiler for the new machine/OS. Try doing that with Java and you will find you need something like C to write a new JVM.
"With Java you're tied to a particular JVM, unless you go out of your way to make your code portable. With C you're tied to a particular machine model and operating system unless you go out of your way to make your code portable."
Pity I spent my mod points, that's it in a nutshell.
Just after I started uni, our maths lecturer came up to a group of about 8 of us standing around talking in the hallway, we had not yet had a math lecture but he prceeded to name each and every one of us. Government employee or not, he was a fucking genius with an extrodnary memory.
I agree that corporations and unions should be treated the same for the purposes of political donations. However I think you will find that all but one union has revenues of less that $20M/yr and the vast majority can only dream of revenues in excess of $1M/yr. The one union with revenues in exess of $20M/yr rakes in $175M/yr which in the grand scheme of things is peanuts. The notion that they can compete on an equal footing with corporate donations in a $1.5B campaign is laughable, the average US CEO's remuneration of $8.5M dwarfs the yearly revenue of all but a handfull of unions.
Note: The source for the union figures is the US DOL, they have a web app where you can look these things up but I used my fragile memory since I can't be bothered finding the link.
My daughter was introduced to basic concept of algebra via a spreadsheet back in the 90's, it was the teacher's own method and personally I thought it was very effective.
I wasn't taught to use computers or calculators at school. I was however taught to use log tables and slide rules.
We were literally not allowed to take typing or cooking classes, girls were not allowed to take woodwork or mechanical drawing classes. Boys and girls were not allowed to sit at the same desk and there were sexually segregated play areas. boys had cricket nets, girls had netball courts, etc, etc
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"Being a joke doesn't preclude people from reacting negatively to it."
Well, you can certainly conclude that people who do are extremely weak-minded.
What a load of rubbish, people have the right to offend and be offended, it does not make either one of them weak-minded. However the expectation that labeling your speach a joke somehow magically takes away everyone else's right to be offended is a sign of a weak (or at best immature) mind.
A reasonable fine would be on the order of $50 to $100 per song.
How did you come to that number? That number doesn't even include reasonable damages. The entire point is to make it so painful, the party will not want to do so again.
I know its not popular here, but reality is far, far different than the pro-pirate crowd constantly attempts to censor and portray here.
In "reality" $2400 for 24 songs IS way more painfull than the fine for shoplifting 2-3 albums, and it's certainly more reasonable than $1,500,000 or any of the other insane figures quoted in TFA.
This will answer your questions.
If he's not affraid to speak truth to power then I predict a highly publicised sex scandal somewhere in his near future.
"you ought to study it better and defeat it with rational arguments"
If rational arguments were effective most politicians and priests would be unemployed.
Shared knowledge and copyright are two different things. Copyright is not stopping me gaining knowledge from the internet anymore than it's stopping me gaining knowledge from a library, it's stopping me from copying someone's unique expression of that knowledge. There is no doubt that the internet has made knowledge far more accessible than it was back in TheDays(TM).
"The worthlessness of 2-3KB of data is becoming an indisputable and publically accepted fact"
By whom? Information is still inherently valuable, just because you can get it for free doesn't make it worthless.
"Corporations can't speak."
Maybe not in the literal sense, but they can certainly pay lobbyists to lie.
I watched a doco last night where Stephen Fry claimed female Komodo Dragons were capable of virgin births.
There are two main metrics to measure a health care system, cost and medical outcomes. Australia has done a pretty good job of optimising these by cutting insurance companies out of the picture for serious medicine. We pay a flat rate of 1.5% of taxable income for UHC that has statistically far better medical outcomes than the US. You can still buy private cover if you want things like fake tits or a single bed ward but these are genrally considered luxuries that are not essential to the care of the patient. Also the fact that the government collects the money and health proffesionals spend it means that it mostly gets spent where it's needed, not where it will garner the most votes.
Sure the Aussie system is far from perfect but it's compared to the US system it's cheaper, more effective, more equitable and more humane. However it's born from socialist ideology and that word seems to scare a lot of americans into voting against their own interests even though every one of them deposits their daily crap into a socialised sanitation system without a second thought.
Here in Oz they have a slogan for the lottery that goes "You've got to be in it to win it". Sure statistically speaking you will lose money in the long run but ALL investments are a gamble to some degree. As with anything else moderation is the key, a lottery ticket once a week is not going to send anyone broke but it will make at least one player rich.
Speaking of probabilities I find it highly unlikeley that everyone from Australia and the UK is pretentious, it's much more likely that you have never ventured outside the US.
Define "good reason", ie: at what point does speech become harrasment or vandalisim? Is creating a law that stops people from spray painting graffi on grave stones censorship or a reasonable action against vandalisim?
The argument against the dick in TFA and the "god hates fags" mob is similar to the argument against graffiti, it's more about the methods they use than it is about the things they say.
... gravity accelerates you in one direction (unless you have already exploded).
Gravity is indistingushable from acceleration.
"You start talking multi-generation biosphere ships or cryo ships you're talking about a huge set of problems"
Agreed, the focus in these discussions always seems to be on how to move the spaceship but in reality that is a minor problem with several plausible solutions. When it comes to keeping the crew alive we don't even know how to keep a biodome on Earth from turning into a rotting cesspit after a year or two. Once we know how to do that we can perhaps use the technology to fix the (human) life support systems on "spaceship Earth" before we send a handfull of explorers to look at other planets.
"I have personally seen the effects of creating matter using electrons with a charge of -0.93 instead of the usual -1."
Sure skinny electrons increase postage and handling costs but the fat ones are worse since they get stuck in the narrow parts of the wires. This causes all the other electrons to pile up behind them and then my internet connection stops working.
Yeah, we stoppped wearing onions on our belt after that....
"C isn't portable."
Sure it is, just use C to write a C compiler for the new machine/OS. Try doing that with Java and you will find you need something like C to write a new JVM.
"With Java you're tied to a particular JVM, unless you go out of your way to make your code portable. With C you're tied to a particular machine model and operating system unless you go out of your way to make your code portable."
Pity I spent my mod points, that's it in a nutshell.
"Now if anyone could explain how she managed to fade into thin air like that as soon as she noticed the camera..."
I can read lips, just before 'she' vanishes she says; "Beam me up Scotty, this disguise is embarrasing."
Just after I started uni, our maths lecturer came up to a group of about 8 of us standing around talking in the hallway, we had not yet had a math lecture but he prceeded to name each and every one of us. Government employee or not, he was a fucking genius with an extrodnary memory.
I agree that corporations and unions should be treated the same for the purposes of political donations. However I think you will find that all but one union has revenues of less that $20M/yr and the vast majority can only dream of revenues in excess of $1M/yr. The one union with revenues in exess of $20M/yr rakes in $175M/yr which in the grand scheme of things is peanuts. The notion that they can compete on an equal footing with corporate donations in a $1.5B campaign is laughable, the average US CEO's remuneration of $8.5M dwarfs the yearly revenue of all but a handfull of unions.
Note: The source for the union figures is the US DOL, they have a web app where you can look these things up but I used my fragile memory since I can't be bothered finding the link.
My daughter was introduced to basic concept of algebra via a spreadsheet back in the 90's, it was the teacher's own method and personally I thought it was very effective.
I wasn't taught to use computers or calculators at school. I was however taught to use log tables and slide rules.
We were literally not allowed to take typing or cooking classes, girls were not allowed to take woodwork or mechanical drawing classes. Boys and girls were not allowed to sit at the same desk and there were sexually segregated play areas. boys had cricket nets, girls had netball courts, etc, etc