"They are using force upon citizens, as if they were serfs."
Not really, some academics were commisioned by a government committe to come up with recommendations, traditionally these sort reports list every strategy they can think of, they make great slashdot headlines but are ignored by the government (except for the one recommendation they asked for during a golf game). As anecdotal evidence for that claim; I have been reading stories on slashdot about how both right and left wing Aussie communications ministers are implementing an Orwellian internet "any day now".
Think about it in "bread and circus" mode; Conroy has served almost a full term as comms minister and his filter is still nothing but an empty promise/threat. Before that the people on the other side of the house, (who are now filtering his filter from the law books), were just as adamant they would introduce a mandatory filter and just as unsuccessful because Conroy's mob filtered it out of the law books. If there was any real politcal will behind all this "clean up the net" rhetoric we would have had the Orwell plug-in installed circa 1997. But that will never happen because once they take on resposiblity for policing the net then all of a sudden it's the governments fault that someone's little princess was exposed to tub girl, much better for politicans on both sides to behave in their normal manner, ie: perpetually shocked, outraged and ineffectual.
I've never heard of this guy and I hate child molesters as much as you do but pedophilia has nothing to do with polygamy, homosexuality, or any other kind of sexual behaviour between consenting adults.
"The issue is that those 200 clouds would all be different."
It's NOT an issue, if they are split randomly into two groups then the statistical expectation is that roughly the same number of clouds in each group will produce rain. You then treat one group of clouds and leave the other alone (the control). If the number of clouds that produce rain in the treated group is significantly different to the control group then the treament has had an effect on rain production.
This is all just bog-standard statistical analysis.
"Many countries ARE subsidizing their green energy companies, sometimes quite hugely."
Apart from a few EU countries like Denmark and Germany, FF subsidies (both direct and indirect) still dwarf the money thrown at alternatives. Take away the FF subsides and alternatives would suddenly make a lot more sense in purely economic terms.
"If one is beset by savages, why NOT fuck 'em.....Most of the general public really are beneath respect.....and eager to make life a Hellmouth for anyone different"
Some great movies in your list and I would add "Dark star", however the GP stipulated previous sci-fi and those movies all came out much later than star trek.
Interesting to note that the star trek crew were using pen based tablets decades before they were invented.
I agree. I was a bit of a hippie in the 70's, the basic premise of the Libertarians is no different to the hippie movement; "take government away and everyone will play nice with each other". If that naive philosophy actually reflected large scale human behaviour then governments would never have formed in the first place.
Environmentalists have been ranting about oil, minning, and lumber companies raping third world enviromnents and the people who live there since the early seventies, it's obvious you haven't been listening.
Most things react badly to explosives, they may just rupture the pipe undergorund rather than pinch it off, the shatterd rock will then have billions of cracks where the oil can work it's way from the undergound rupture to the surface. You are then left with the same amount of oil gushing out of a multitude of smaller holes in the sea floor over a wide area rather than through a single narrow pipe.
The US has 5X the population of the UK and 15X the population of Australia. I don't find it at all surpising that the largest developed country in the world would also produce the bulk of the world's high quality academic research.
What a load of mom-and-apple-pie claptrap, according to those tables the UK is doing just as good as the US and a govt subsidized degree from Cambridge or Oxford is a hell of a lot cheaper than a top US institution.
Of course employers want to drive down wages but plumbers will always make a decent living because they know what they are doing and are prepared to get knee deep in other people's shit to fix their problems. Metaphorically speaking, IT proffesionals are not that different.
"So what we are seeing is a consolidation of work into two categories: one that requires specialized skills, and one that does not. Neither category is going to decrease or increase. I've not seen any evidence to the contrary in all these years of off-shoring hoopla."
Exactly, I've been hearing about my imminent redundancy since the mid-nineties. Off-shoring means I do less bulk coding than 20yrs ago but the claim that qualified and/or experienced developers are no longer in demand is nonsense.
Slashdot Mirror
"They are using force upon citizens, as if they were serfs."
Not really, some academics were commisioned by a government committe to come up with recommendations, traditionally these sort reports list every strategy they can think of, they make great slashdot headlines but are ignored by the government (except for the one recommendation they asked for during a golf game). As anecdotal evidence for that claim; I have been reading stories on slashdot about how both right and left wing Aussie communications ministers are implementing an Orwellian internet "any day now".
Think about it in "bread and circus" mode; Conroy has served almost a full term as comms minister and his filter is still nothing but an empty promise/threat. Before that the people on the other side of the house, (who are now filtering his filter from the law books), were just as adamant they would introduce a mandatory filter and just as unsuccessful because Conroy's mob filtered it out of the law books. If there was any real politcal will behind all this "clean up the net" rhetoric we would have had the Orwell plug-in installed circa 1997. But that will never happen because once they take on resposiblity for policing the net then all of a sudden it's the governments fault that someone's little princess was exposed to tub girl, much better for politicans on both sides to behave in their normal manner, ie: perpetually shocked, outraged and ineffectual.
"blowing up new york using illegally downloaded music and child porn"
Thanks, I've been wondering what a "dirty bomb" was.
I've never heard of this guy and I hate child molesters as much as you do but pedophilia has nothing to do with polygamy, homosexuality, or any other kind of sexual behaviour between consenting adults.
"The issue is that those 200 clouds would all be different."
It's NOT an issue, if they are split randomly into two groups then the statistical expectation is that roughly the same number of clouds in each group will produce rain. You then treat one group of clouds and leave the other alone (the control). If the number of clouds that produce rain in the treated group is significantly different to the control group then the treament has had an effect on rain production.
This is all just bog-standard statistical analysis.
"Many countries ARE subsidizing their green energy companies, sometimes quite hugely."
Apart from a few EU countries like Denmark and Germany, FF subsidies (both direct and indirect) still dwarf the money thrown at alternatives. Take away the FF subsides and alternatives would suddenly make a lot more sense in purely economic terms.
"If one is beset by savages, why NOT fuck 'em.....Most of the general public really are beneath respect.....and eager to make life a Hellmouth for anyone different"
Pot, Kettle?
Some great movies in your list and I would add "Dark star", however the GP stipulated previous sci-fi and those movies all came out much later than star trek.
Interesting to note that the star trek crew were using pen based tablets decades before they were invented.
I agree. I was a bit of a hippie in the 70's, the basic premise of the Libertarians is no different to the hippie movement; "take government away and everyone will play nice with each other". If that naive philosophy actually reflected large scale human behaviour then governments would never have formed in the first place.
"One thing you have yet to do, is explain exactly *how* things would be worse under the proposed changes."
/jk
Libertarian paradise
"Changing it from within requires, at a minimum, freedom of speech or the right to bear arms."
You have it back to front. Change from within sometimes leads to more rights.
""Videos"? I'm sorry, when did "video" become a verb?"
Back in the 80's, before that people had super 8 cameras and used "film" as a verb.
"Can you provide an example?"
Example
Environmentalists have been ranting about oil, minning, and lumber companies raping third world enviromnents and the people who live there since the early seventies, it's obvious you haven't been listening.
The middle of the gulf IS "exceptionally sparsely populated", Nigeria is on the west coast of Africa and has 150 million brown people living in it.
Most things react badly to explosives, they may just rupture the pipe undergorund rather than pinch it off, the shatterd rock will then have billions of cracks where the oil can work it's way from the undergound rupture to the surface. You are then left with the same amount of oil gushing out of a multitude of smaller holes in the sea floor over a wide area rather than through a single narrow pipe.
The US has 5X the population of the UK and 15X the population of Australia. I don't find it at all surpising that the largest developed country in the world would also produce the bulk of the world's high quality academic research.
What a load of mom-and-apple-pie claptrap, according to those tables the UK is doing just as good as the US and a govt subsidized degree from Cambridge or Oxford is a hell of a lot cheaper than a top US institution.
"plumbers somehow have kept their trade up."
Of course employers want to drive down wages but plumbers will always make a decent living because they know what they are doing and are prepared to get knee deep in other people's shit to fix their problems. Metaphorically speaking, IT proffesionals are not that different.
"So what we are seeing is a consolidation of work into two categories: one that requires specialized skills, and one that does not. Neither category is going to decrease or increase. I've not seen any evidence to the contrary in all these years of off-shoring hoopla."
Exactly, I've been hearing about my imminent redundancy since the mid-nineties. Off-shoring means I do less bulk coding than 20yrs ago but the claim that qualified and/or experienced developers are no longer in demand is nonsense.
"Consider it your death bed then."
Unlikely (unless you meant it literally).
"Does anyone still use COBOL?"
Of course they do, and their maintenance staff shit gold bricks.
"Agreed. But corporations dont want you."
Two three month spells out of work in 20yrs says that regardless of what they want, they need skilled people.
Heh, I'm degree qualified AND a HS dropout. ;)
"Pity it takes lots of posturing from Government officials to define the legal standing of an activity. :)"
Yes, it's one of the less plesurable facts of life.
Yeah right, that's why American tourists are known to the locals as "croc food".
Looks like a real nerd war to me, light saber skirmishes have been reported in Bristol, it was sheer luck that nobody lost an eye.