"Science is not a democracy. Facts, definitions and terms are not up for a vote."
The authority of a scientific view is derived from the strength of the scientific consensus that supports the view, every individual scientist has a duty to rally support for a different view if they belive the current consensus is flawed. That level of democracy in any human endevour is rare and is why the scientific community is sometimes called the republic of science.
Disclaimer: I agree that Gandhi was an important "prophet" in the grand scheme of things.
"Could you explain why that is Ironic?
His assasination demonstrated that his interpretation of an "eye for and eye" was correct, yet he was assasinated by someone who obviously had a different interpretaion of an "eye for eye".
"Now can we please stop arguing this off topic shit? If you don't want to actually discuss something relevant don't bother replying."
Yes, focus on the idea instead of the politics.
However your idiotic troll started the thread and introduced coke, pepsi and political bias. Now you want to back out because you realize you know jack shit about politics, business or culture in Kerala. Fess-up Mr.Rumsfeld, you saw the word "communist" and freaked out.
"I am arguing that [a communistic attitude toward big business] is the ONLY reason why they are doing what they are doing."
First of all they claim the famous "MS monoply" as the reason, second: I will bet my left testicle that there is more than one non-communist-white-male-middle-aged-middle-class slashdotter who sees MS's monopoly as a prime reason for governments to avoid it.
OTOH: I'm sure there are some politicians in the Kerala government that look for, or invent, reasons to demonise western style business, politics and culture. The political strategy behind this is simple scapegoating and is universal in human behaviour. Hypocricy is also a universal behaviour, eg: when zenophobic westeners are horrified to find themselves on the reciving end of zenophobic attitudes from non-westeners.
"Kerala is a communist state - they like to tell their citizens what products they can and cannot use"
Are you suggesting the drug war is over and the bong heads won, or did you forget about prohibition?
In true/. form I have not read TFA, but from the summary it sounds like they are doing what many of us would like to see ANY government do. Also from the summary they have not banned anything, so what is the problem besides the words "communist state"?
I hope the rest of/. does not judge this idea soley on the politics of it's implementer. I don't see why any taxpayer should automatically hand over millions for MS licenses when the alternative is both transparent and "free".
Disclaimer: I'm not a "Linux fan boy", nor am I a communist, I have been paid to develop "stuff" in windows for 15+yrs and think MSVC is the best C/C++ development platform bar none.
Coal is almost as abundant as sand in Australia and is a large export earner, even the fact that our large deserts make solar and wind very attractive it will be hard to replace coal with something else. Plus our government never does anything without a "nod" from the US.
PS: You are probably thinking of a different type of Mountain Ash, I was talking about Eucalyptus regnans. The largest logs we handled while I was at the mill were 12-14' in diameter, I don't have any pictures of my own so I snaffled one from google, this gives you an idea of the size, you get two logs like that from one mature tree (~70 meters^3).
I figure timber is as valuable a resource as oil since our civilization is highly dependent on both. If you look at the area north of the mill on google maps you can see the results from clear felling vs managed forest. NSW (different state) is to the north and had a policy of clear felling and selling the woodchips to Japan while Victoria reserved some areas in parks, only cut timber selected by "state forest management" and only chipped the waste. You can cross the border and see forest on one side and miles of nude hills on the other (top soil washed away). The nude hills in NSW are worthless and the money has been spent, the forest in Victoria is still providing a living for millers, park rangers, "forest management" and the odd protester 100' up a tree. The national parks themselves provide clean water to dozens if not hundreds of towns plus irrigation to three states, they also contain an incredibly dense and diverse population of wildlife.
Some of the credit for this kind of foresight has to go to political organisations such as greenpeace, in the same vein that credit for a booming economy is given to a ruling party that focuses on the $$$ part of the economy. We humans see our political positions in black and white (even when they change over time), there is no room in politics for an informed and impartial middle ground where statements like "nuclear power is not an option" (greenpeace) and "kyoto will kill the economy" (oil/coal/GWB industry) are seen for what they are, political dogma.
Having said all that, I will also say there are currently no "leaders" in greenpeace. If there were any true leaders they would PUBLICLY support Lovelace, accept the need for nuclear while renewables are ramped up, and start badgering governments/industry with a "best practice" policy. Persisting with the "no nukes" dogma, (very popular view in Australia), will only make them more irrelevant to people like yourself and alienate people like me.
I live in Australia, the sawmill where I worked was is in eastern victoria (the pointy end), and we do have big back yards. I worked there during the early '80s at the same time they stopped cutting old growth areas, however that does not mean all protesters have given up, nor does it mean all timber cutting has ceased.
I agree their stance on nuclear power is pure dogma left over from the '70s, as you say Lovelace has already pointed this out and greenpeace are trying to ignore his "incovenient truth", I fail to see how this is any different to the dogma of other political organisations.
"only effect they have is to prevent actions. They are the last word in paracitical, pointless organisations"
Yes, they prevented the french from testing nukes in my "back yard", they prevented the franklin dam, and they stopped the senseless slaughter of whales (to name but a few of their achivements). Yes they are practical, but I wouldn't say they are the "last word". Pointless? I don't understand, I thought you wanted to "support environmental progress".
"Take the money and energy wasted by greenpeace and put it into something with purpose that actually supports environmental progress rather than political positioning."
It has a purpose but you don't agree with it or can't see it, millions of others support greenpeace because they are politically effective.
Disclaimer: I lived and worked on a sawmill, (old growth mountain ash), it was eventually shut down when it's 5yr lease ran out and the area is now preserved as a national park. From my personal experience neither side of the "green argument" has a monopoly on ignorant arseholes.
Big companies often get big before they aquire a mission statement. The statement is usually and idealized version of what they thought they were doing at the time of writing. Think of it as therapy for fragile executive ego's.
SR was probably a bad choice, and Albert was no mathemetician (he said so himself). Black holes or the expanding universe may have been a better choice.
I have always wondered why people are so quick to accept the dire predictions of an economic model as gospel but are so slow to accept any prediction from a climate model, they are both mathematical models and the economic one is far less rigorous. Besides from what I hear on the other side of the Pacific, GWB has already devastated your economy with several trillion dollars of extra debt.
Kyoto failed because the US refused to get involved (yes I blame GWB and his oil mates), now do you have a better proposal than carbon trades/taxes or are you just bitching for the sake of it?
The bizzare part about maths is that it works so well it can often predict what scientists should observe. Many of the discoveries in 20th century physics were predicted by mathematics (eg: Albert described his paper on special relativity as "a mathematical curiosity" ).
"Poor thing, I found in the morning covered in fluff, motionless on the floor."
When I was a child my brothers goldfish jumped out of it's bowl and yet failed to hit the floor. The dog happened to be stood nearby and snapped it out of mid air, quickly ate it, then slunk off hoping we had not noticed what just happened.
When it comes to food, the dog is smarter than a child or a goldfish!
No. There are so many reasons to boycott particular entities and the entities are so intertwined that most people would would suffer "purchase paralysis" and would be unable to survive daily (western) life.
Some examples: Child/Forced/Indentured labour, Dolphin friendly tuna, Free range eggs, GE crops, Clear felling, Pollution, Working conditions, Dispossesion of tribal land, Privatization of Water, Compulsory aquisitions, ect, ect.
Most people will see the RIAA story and simply shrug.
I was actually taught this in school during the '60s (in Australia), also 1B = 1M * 1M. I think it was one of those US vs UK things like color vs colour.
Slashdot Mirror
A memo similar to that went past the presidents nose a month before 9/11, what good does all the fishing for terrorists actually do?
"Science is not a democracy. Facts, definitions and terms are not up for a vote."
The authority of a scientific view is derived from the strength of the scientific consensus that supports the view, every individual scientist has a duty to rally support for a different view if they belive the current consensus is flawed. That level of democracy in any human endevour is rare and is why the scientific community is sometimes called the republic of science.
"It is NOT how science works!"
Definitions for the scientific method, pick one or give me yours.
Disclaimer: I agree that Gandhi was an important "prophet" in the grand scheme of things.
"Could you explain why that is Ironic?
His assasination demonstrated that his interpretation of an "eye for and eye" was correct, yet he was assasinated by someone who obviously had a different interpretaion of an "eye for eye".
Dealing with MS is bad communisim but not all bad communists deal with MS.
"open source good, microsoft bad, but hang on, is communist open source good or bad?"
Slashdot logic FAQ #73:
Two wrongs cancel each other to make a right.
FAQ #73 History:
First articulated in the new testemant as "an eye for an eye", disputed by Gandhi who was ironically assasinated.
FAQ #73 Proof:
Communist - MS => OSS : therefore : Wrong - Wrong => Right.
"Now can we please stop arguing this off topic shit? If you don't want to actually discuss something relevant don't bother replying."
Yes, focus on the idea instead of the politics.
However your idiotic troll started the thread and introduced coke, pepsi and political bias. Now you want to back out because you realize you know jack shit about politics, business or culture in Kerala. Fess-up Mr.Rumsfeld, you saw the word "communist" and freaked out.
"I am arguing that [a communistic attitude toward big business] is the ONLY reason why they are doing what they are doing."
First of all they claim the famous "MS monoply" as the reason, second: I will bet my left testicle that there is more than one non-communist-white-male-middle-aged-middle-class slashdotter who sees MS's monopoly as a prime reason for governments to avoid it.
OTOH: I'm sure there are some politicians in the Kerala government that look for, or invent, reasons to demonise western style business, politics and culture. The political strategy behind this is simple scapegoating and is universal in human behaviour. Hypocricy is also a universal behaviour, eg: when zenophobic westeners are horrified to find themselves on the reciving end of zenophobic attitudes from non-westeners.
"Kerala is a communist state - they like to tell their citizens what products they can and cannot use"
/. form I have not read TFA, but from the summary it sounds like they are doing what many of us would like to see ANY government do. Also from the summary they have not banned anything, so what is the problem besides the words "communist state"?
/. does not judge this idea soley on the politics of it's implementer. I don't see why any taxpayer should automatically hand over millions for MS licenses when the alternative is both transparent and "free".
Are you suggesting the drug war is over and the bong heads won, or did you forget about prohibition?
In true
I hope the rest of
Disclaimer: I'm not a "Linux fan boy", nor am I a communist, I have been paid to develop "stuff" in windows for 15+yrs and think MSVC is the best C/C++ development platform bar none.
Coal is almost as abundant as sand in Australia and is a large export earner, even the fact that our large deserts make solar and wind very attractive it will be hard to replace coal with something else. Plus our government never does anything without a "nod" from the US.
"i wouldn't believe anything that Gr££npeace say."
You will find that generalizes to "anything ANY political organisation says".
PS: You are probably thinking of a different type of Mountain Ash, I was talking about Eucalyptus regnans. The largest logs we handled while I was at the mill were 12-14' in diameter, I don't have any pictures of my own so I snaffled one from google, this gives you an idea of the size, you get two logs like that from one mature tree (~70 meters^3).
I figure timber is as valuable a resource as oil since our civilization is highly dependent on both. If you look at the area north of the mill on google maps you can see the results from clear felling vs managed forest. NSW (different state) is to the north and had a policy of clear felling and selling the woodchips to Japan while Victoria reserved some areas in parks, only cut timber selected by "state forest management" and only chipped the waste. You can cross the border and see forest on one side and miles of nude hills on the other (top soil washed away). The nude hills in NSW are worthless and the money has been spent, the forest in Victoria is still providing a living for millers, park rangers, "forest management" and the odd protester 100' up a tree. The national parks themselves provide clean water to dozens if not hundreds of towns plus irrigation to three states, they also contain an incredibly dense and diverse population of wildlife.
Some of the credit for this kind of foresight has to go to political organisations such as greenpeace, in the same vein that credit for a booming economy is given to a ruling party that focuses on the $$$ part of the economy. We humans see our political positions in black and white (even when they change over time), there is no room in politics for an informed and impartial middle ground where statements like "nuclear power is not an option" (greenpeace) and "kyoto will kill the economy" (oil/coal/GWB industry) are seen for what they are, political dogma.
Having said all that, I will also say there are currently no "leaders" in greenpeace. If there were any true leaders they would PUBLICLY support Lovelace, accept the need for nuclear while renewables are ramped up, and start badgering governments/industry with a "best practice" policy. Persisting with the "no nukes" dogma, (very popular view in Australia), will only make them more irrelevant to people like yourself and alienate people like me.
I live in Australia, the sawmill where I worked was is in eastern victoria (the pointy end), and we do have big back yards. I worked there during the early '80s at the same time they stopped cutting old growth areas, however that does not mean all protesters have given up, nor does it mean all timber cutting has ceased.
I agree their stance on nuclear power is pure dogma left over from the '70s, as you say Lovelace has already pointed this out and greenpeace are trying to ignore his "incovenient truth", I fail to see how this is any different to the dogma of other political organisations.
"only effect they have is to prevent actions. They are the last word in paracitical, pointless organisations"
Yes, they prevented the french from testing nukes in my "back yard", they prevented the franklin dam, and they stopped the senseless slaughter of whales (to name but a few of their achivements). Yes they are practical, but I wouldn't say they are the "last word". Pointless? I don't understand, I thought you wanted to "support environmental progress".
"Take the money and energy wasted by greenpeace and put it into something with purpose that actually supports environmental progress rather than political positioning."
It has a purpose but you don't agree with it or can't see it, millions of others support greenpeace because they are politically effective.
Disclaimer: I lived and worked on a sawmill, (old growth mountain ash), it was eventually shut down when it's 5yr lease ran out and the area is now preserved as a national park. From my personal experience neither side of the "green argument" has a monopoly on ignorant arseholes.
Big companies often get big before they aquire a mission statement. The statement is usually and idealized version of what they thought they were doing at the time of writing. Think of it as therapy for fragile executive ego's.
SR was probably a bad choice, and Albert was no mathemetician (he said so himself). Black holes or the expanding universe may have been a better choice.
"turns out we would have devastated our economy"
I have always wondered why people are so quick to accept the dire predictions of an economic model as gospel but are so slow to accept any prediction from a climate model, they are both mathematical models and the economic one is far less rigorous. Besides from what I hear on the other side of the Pacific, GWB has already devastated your economy with several trillion dollars of extra debt.
Kyoto failed because the US refused to get involved (yes I blame GWB and his oil mates), now do you have a better proposal than carbon trades/taxes or are you just bitching for the sake of it?
The bizzare part about maths is that it works so well it can often predict what scientists should observe. Many of the discoveries in 20th century physics were predicted by mathematics (eg: Albert described his paper on special relativity as "a mathematical curiosity" ).
"If we program applications to beat humans, where does the "social aspect" of the game go?"
The answer to your question can be found in a roomfull of "one arm bandits".
"Poor thing, I found in the morning covered in fluff, motionless on the floor."
When I was a child my brothers goldfish jumped out of it's bowl and yet failed to hit the floor. The dog happened to be stood nearby and snapped it out of mid air, quickly ate it, then slunk off hoping we had not noticed what just happened.
When it comes to food, the dog is smarter than a child or a goldfish!
"Like he's ever been laid...."
It's common knowledge that he's screwed millions of people.
"Are people addicted?"
No. There are so many reasons to boycott particular entities and the entities are so intertwined that most people would would suffer "purchase paralysis" and would be unable to survive daily (western) life.
Some examples: Child/Forced/Indentured labour, Dolphin friendly tuna, Free range eggs, GE crops, Clear felling, Pollution, Working conditions, Dispossesion of tribal land, Privatization of Water, Compulsory aquisitions, ect, ect.
Most people will see the RIAA story and simply shrug.
I was actually taught this in school during the '60s (in Australia), also 1B = 1M * 1M. I think it was one of those US vs UK things like color vs colour.
Your attitude to people in need of medical care is sickening.
"Just curious...where do you live that you have to get a license to buy or own a gun?"
Australia, UK, pretty much any western country except the US.
"Legalizing drugs isn't going to stop the organized crime aspect of it."
The fastest way to kill organized crime is to remove it's ability to profit.
"Researchers Make Mount Etna Sing"
Yes, but can they make it dance.