Enron's CEO and CFO were very close friends to Kerry's wife, and the CEO was on one of her boards.
Although I totally agree with your general point that Democrats also have strong financial backing, in this case don't forget that Kerry's wife used to be Republican. She just changed "colors" 2 years ago to not to conflict too much with her husband's presidential "adventures".
...I thought the entire 'right to bear arms' and 'no standing army' provisions of the constitution were designed to allow the citizenry to overthrow the government, if they so chose?
Yes, but instead of citizens fighting the government we would end up having bunch of criminal groups fighting for their own cause. Think KKK or neo-nazis armed to teeth going for a killing spree influenced by their ideas. The common citizen wants to be productive, NOT organizing military groups.
Besides, gee, it's 21st century. Shouldn't we resolve conflicts by discussion (at least within US) instead of armed forces?
The official version for the dictatorship was: "since the resisting (by capitalists) forces would be strong, there must be a temporary dictatorship enforcing the communist values. Once the communist system is strongly in place, the true democracy can take place".
Note the word "temporary". The propaganda worked (to some degree) since you were always told: "not you, but your children will live in a better world". And of course your children were told the same story, on and on...
The reason for both is that tap water has chlorine (to prevent bacteria from spreading) as well as other chemicals/plumbing residues. The problem with chlorine is it's not healthy for you in the long run, and also leaves a bad aftertaste from drinking it. If you drink tap water you should filter it. Bottled water you can drink as is.
The divide increasingly is not so much between those who have and those who don't, but those who know how to use what
they have and those who don't.
It verbalizes what I've been thinking for last couple of years very nicely. US still is (yes it is, don't complain) land of opportunity IF you know how to use what you have. This also applies to poorer countries, since knowing how will put you ahead (in this case knowing how to get access to information, how to use it, filter what's good, etc.)
Ah, the discussion which sports should belong to Olympics.... It can be long and tedious. Personally I think if Taekwondo is an olympic event (Koreans added it in Soul, right? since this was their national sport), so should kick boxing (which is much more widely distributed). And if judo, why not karate as well?
And this site PokerInAthens.com claims that poker should be included as well (which if happened would open way to adding many other games such as bridge and chess).
Immigration to other parts of the world does seem more common nowadays, though. I often here the announcers mentioning athletes that have played for more than one country.
Which begs the question: which country is the migrating athlete supposed to represent? Supposedly an athlete is born in country A, lives there for 16 years, then migrates to country B. At age 20 he competes at an olympic event and win a medal. Can either country claim his win (regardless of which one he represents)? Country A can say that he was born and raised there (hence making him who he is), but country B can say that he trained there (and improved his sporting skill enough to win).
This will happen more and more, so this issue should be addressed.
In this particular example the teams coming first and second stuffed up their dives big time, with China getting absolutely nothing and America (though on the news broadcast it said Russia so I could be wrong about that) had one of their divers hit the board with his foot on the way down.
It was Russian diver who hit the board (I was watching the event). So I agree with you: Greece won more by luck, although their performance was quite solid.
This is actually a common thing during Olympics. Participating athletes are usually of very high level, and competitions are often very very close. It often boils down to who makes the least mistakes. In the example you mentioned both China and Russia were clearly leading the event until they both made mistakes. This allowed Greece, US, and a few other countries to move up. You might question the fairness of this, but it actually adds a lot of drama (one mistake and you're out, lot of pressure on your performance), and makes watching the Olympics more interesting (since it's less predictable, anyone can win).
Similar thing happened during men's gymnastics. Romania was clearly leading the event, until one guy fell of the bars.
So many of the arguments against AI take the form "what if something unexpected happens" and the AI is too dumb to do the right thing. Its a valid issue but one that has a simple counter-argument in the case of space exploration. What if something unexpected happens and the rover does not have a hour to wait for an intelligent answer? Sometimes a late decision is as bad as the wrong decision.
Very well said. To address the first issue (AI too dumb), well it can't be dumber than already is, and built-in failsafes will prevent it from doing anything unwanted. After all, we're talking about optimizing the discovery process.
The cost of the robot isn't building it, it is shipping it to another planet.
While you have a valid point, so does the parent poster. If the major cost lies in shipping the robot, sending a cargo ship with multiple robots will lower the cost per robot.
While the Wired article can be questioned, the BBC story talks about a different game, which actually have its merits. The BBC article is different: "UN creates game to tackle hunger". The way I see it, this is not some questionable educational program for the poor, but rather a game to increase awareness about world hunger within reacher countries. Nothing wrong with that.
Getting rid of the moon would likely be pretty catestrophic too - we rely quite heavilly on the tidal forces.
Probably not catastrophic. It would certainly have a DRAMATIC IMPACT but we could adjust (after a painful transition period). Getting rid of our Sun however, ahem...
...The Rocky Mountains is still the name of a mountain chain. (Note that "a rocky mountain" is something entirely different - just like "an internet.")
Very good analogy. "Rocky Mountains" implies a specific place, while "rocky mountains" simply describes mountains currently discussed (not to mention that Rocky Mountains actually are rocky, so it's perfectly OK to say: "The Rocky Mountains are really rocky.").
The only difference, they talked about laptops. Now apparently it's on the desktops. But since they're talking about 3D Monitors it shouldn't matter...
Yet another bogus attempt to inject some credence to that hoary ghost of ID. No, there is no "message" in our DNA other than the message of how to make and use cell parts.
And what makes you so sure of this? I'm not suggesting there is a message coded in our DNA, but if there is a possibility, it should be explored. After all there are many parts of DNA which scientists have NO IDEA what they are for.
Your type of flat denial is what held science back for many years throughout human development.
... light-speed communication at least, is a lot of patience!
Unless the first ETs we encounter live in a different time dimension. What we consider couple of thousand years, might be a few minutes for them, who knows?
The Ultimate Find: If we found someone, something out there, it would be the greatest discovery... well, practically ever. At least, "are we alone?" is something we've been asking for so long, and actually having a definitive answer would be amazing.
Agreed. The only problem is we really need to find something to have a definitive answer. Not finding doesn't prove there is nothing.
Could be. But what if there are signals/technologies outside our observable spectrum? We are currently trying to detect signals based on our own sensors: eyes and ears. In other words we're looking for what we can see and/or hear. But there might be technologies undetectable by our conventional observation methods. Somehow I think, we're still in for a major breakthrough here.
I'm pretty sure that the message would be something along the lines of "42" And it would just confuse us and piss us off.
Agreed, IF we assume ETs would use decimal system. Unless "42" (or something similar) is just using our characters , but is in fact totally different message in another alphabet/numerical system/symbol table.
Slashdot Mirror
Enron's CEO and CFO were very close friends to Kerry's wife, and the CEO was on one of her boards.
Although I totally agree with your general point that Democrats also have strong financial backing, in this case don't forget that Kerry's wife used to be Republican. She just changed "colors" 2 years ago to not to conflict too much with her husband's presidential "adventures".
...I thought the entire 'right to bear arms' and 'no standing army' provisions of the constitution were designed to allow the citizenry to overthrow the government, if they so chose?
Yes, but instead of citizens fighting the government we would end up having bunch of criminal groups fighting for their own cause. Think KKK or neo-nazis armed to teeth going for a killing spree influenced by their ideas. The common citizen wants to be productive, NOT organizing military groups.
Besides, gee, it's 21st century. Shouldn't we resolve conflicts by discussion (at least within US) instead of armed forces?
I am hoping that we have as much guts as the Spanish who had the guts to throw out a government that kept lying to them...
I am hoping that we are not as easily scared as the Spanish who backed away quickly to terrorists after a couple of bombs.
Socialism is about forcing everyone to be equally poor and equally miserable. There's nothing 'fair' about that system, either.
Thank you for this reply. Reminds me of a saying:
Q: How to have the highest house in town?
A (capitalist): Build the highest house
A (communist): Destroy all buildings higher than yours.
Trying to remember...
The official version for the dictatorship was: "since the resisting (by capitalists) forces would be strong, there must be a temporary dictatorship enforcing the communist values. Once the communist system is strongly in place, the true democracy can take place".
Note the word "temporary". The propaganda worked (to some degree) since you were always told: "not you, but your children will live in a better world". And of course your children were told the same story, on and on...
There's 2 main reasons for using bottled water:
- it tastes better
- it's healthier
The reason for both is that tap water has chlorine (to prevent bacteria from spreading) as well as other chemicals/plumbing residues. The problem with chlorine is it's not healthy for you in the long run, and also leaves a bad aftertaste from drinking it. If you drink tap water you should filter it. Bottled water you can drink as is.The divide increasingly is not so much between those who have and those who don't, but those who know how to use what they have and those who don't.
It verbalizes what I've been thinking for last couple of years very nicely. US still is (yes it is, don't complain) land of opportunity IF you know how to use what you have. This also applies to poorer countries, since knowing how will put you ahead (in this case knowing how to get access to information, how to use it, filter what's good, etc.)
Ah, the discussion which sports should belong to Olympics.... It can be long and tedious. Personally I think if Taekwondo is an olympic event (Koreans added it in Soul, right? since this was their national sport), so should kick boxing (which is much more widely distributed). And if judo, why not karate as well?
And this site PokerInAthens.com claims that poker should be included as well (which if happened would open way to adding many other games such as bridge and chess).
Immigration to other parts of the world does seem more common nowadays, though. I often here the announcers mentioning athletes that have played for more than one country.
Which begs the question: which country is the migrating athlete supposed to represent? Supposedly an athlete is born in country A, lives there for 16 years, then migrates to country B. At age 20 he competes at an olympic event and win a medal. Can either country claim his win (regardless of which one he represents)? Country A can say that he was born and raised there (hence making him who he is), but country B can say that he trained there (and improved his sporting skill enough to win).
This will happen more and more, so this issue should be addressed.
On similar note: why does Taiwan not have its own Olympic team? Pressure from China too much?
...that the guy in a blue tutu jumped in the pool BEFORE the medal-favourites flopped...
So just out of curiosity, are you implying anything? Like the tutu guy influenced the results somehow?
In this particular example the teams coming first and second stuffed up their dives big time, with China getting absolutely nothing and America (though on the news broadcast it said Russia so I could be wrong about that) had one of their divers hit the board with his foot on the way down.
It was Russian diver who hit the board (I was watching the event). So I agree with you: Greece won more by luck, although their performance was quite solid.
This is actually a common thing during Olympics. Participating athletes are usually of very high level, and competitions are often very very close. It often boils down to who makes the least mistakes. In the example you mentioned both China and Russia were clearly leading the event until they both made mistakes. This allowed Greece, US, and a few other countries to move up. You might question the fairness of this, but it actually adds a lot of drama (one mistake and you're out, lot of pressure on your performance), and makes watching the Olympics more interesting (since it's less predictable, anyone can win).
Similar thing happened during men's gymnastics. Romania was clearly leading the event, until one guy fell of the bars.
Yeah, just wait till Vicky hears of it...
So many of the arguments against AI take the form "what if something unexpected happens" and the AI is too dumb to do the right thing. Its a valid issue but one that has a simple counter-argument in the case of space exploration. What if something unexpected happens and the rover does not have a hour to wait for an intelligent answer? Sometimes a late decision is as bad as the wrong decision.
Very well said. To address the first issue (AI too dumb), well it can't be dumber than already is, and built-in failsafes will prevent it from doing anything unwanted. After all, we're talking about optimizing the discovery process.
The cost of the robot isn't building it, it is shipping it to another planet.
While you have a valid point, so does the parent poster. If the major cost lies in shipping the robot, sending a cargo ship with multiple robots will lower the cost per robot.
While the Wired article can be questioned, the BBC story talks about a different game, which actually have its merits. The BBC article is different: "UN creates game to tackle hunger". The way I see it, this is not some questionable educational program for the poor, but rather a game to increase awareness about world hunger within reacher countries. Nothing wrong with that.
Getting rid of the moon would likely be pretty catestrophic too - we rely quite heavilly on the tidal forces.
Probably not catastrophic. It would certainly have a DRAMATIC IMPACT but we could adjust (after a painful transition period). Getting rid of our Sun however, ahem...
...The Rocky Mountains is still the name of a mountain chain. (Note that "a rocky mountain" is something entirely different - just like "an internet.")
Very good analogy. "Rocky Mountains" implies a specific place, while "rocky mountains" simply describes mountains currently discussed (not to mention that Rocky Mountains actually are rocky, so it's perfectly OK to say: "The Rocky Mountains are really rocky.").
Running out of departments, are we? Or is it some kind of "null" department, or maybe The Department (the place to be)?
Am I the only one getting some /. deja vu here?
No.
Sharp announces 3D laptop
PC Magazine Review's Sharp's 3D Notebook
The only difference, they talked about laptops. Now apparently it's on the desktops. But since they're talking about 3D Monitors it shouldn't matter...
Yet another bogus attempt to inject some credence to that hoary ghost of ID. No, there is no "message" in our DNA other than the message of how to make and use cell parts.
And what makes you so sure of this? I'm not suggesting there is a message coded in our DNA, but if there is a possibility, it should be explored. After all there are many parts of DNA which scientists have NO IDEA what they are for.
Your type of flat denial is what held science back for many years throughout human development.
... light-speed communication at least, is a lot of patience!
Unless the first ETs we encounter live in a different time dimension. What we consider couple of thousand years, might be a few minutes for them, who knows?
The Ultimate Find: If we found someone, something out there, it would be the greatest discovery... well, practically ever. At least, "are we alone?" is something we've been asking for so long, and actually having a definitive answer would be amazing.
Agreed. The only problem is we really need to find something to have a definitive answer. Not finding doesn't prove there is nothing.
In other words, what you see is all there is.
Could be. But what if there are signals/technologies outside our observable spectrum? We are currently trying to detect signals based on our own sensors: eyes and ears. In other words we're looking for what we can see and/or hear. But there might be technologies undetectable by our conventional observation methods. Somehow I think, we're still in for a major breakthrough here.
I'm pretty sure that the message would be something along the lines of "42" And it would just confuse us and piss us off.
Agreed, IF we assume ETs would use decimal system. Unless "42" (or something similar) is just using our characters , but is in fact totally different message in another alphabet/numerical system/symbol table.