As I understand it, there is a difference in most people's minds between "gun owners" and "gun nuts". The vast majority of gun owners are sane and responsible individuals. Gun nuts are a strict minority.
I'm also an outsider. The first amendment says pretty clearly that "Congress shall make no law [..] abridging the freedom of speech", but I'm also aware that it's fairly well-established in law that the right to freedom of speech is not absolute, and can have reasonable limits imposed.
I'm not sure that Google autocomplete is the place to draw the line, but you do raise a good point. You have to think about this in the context of big data and modern government and corporate surveillance.
People's actions can be chilled or even lives ruined by very tenuous associations in databases. And whether through the Erdos/Bacon game, the assumption that correlation is the same as causation, or plain old coincidence, data mining can uncover associations which are false or misleading, even if they are statistically significant.
Now we may argue that people shouldn't base decisions on associations made by Google's machine learning algorithms. It is, ultimately, the responsibility of the person making the decision to evaluate the strength of the evidence rationally. In a perfect world, where everyone is perfectly sane and rational, and no snap judgments ever have to be made, we could assume this.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, these databases exist and are used. So how much responsibility should be placed on those maintaining the databases for making sure that the contents are accurate, particularly clearing up a mistake when it is pointed out? Is there additional responsibility if the database is accessible to the public?
It's a very interesting question, and I don't know the answer.
Right, but when someone refers to Socialism, you are generally referring to an economic method in contrast to Capitalism. [...] What makes a country Socialist is not "free health care for everyone", but rather, the lack of privately run businesses.
Maybe you do. Hell maybe most of America does, but America is crazy.
The context of the discussion was the claim that Martin Luther King, Jr. "was devolving deeply into socialism toward the end of his life". What he said was probably more to do with the liberal form of Christianity that he held his whole life, not "Socialism" as you define it here.
Yeah, I'm with you about controller skills. My wife is fine with a mouse or the Wiimote, but claims the XBox controller "looks intimidating". She said she might change her mind if there was a good co-op RPG we could play together, though. I'm thinking something from the Fable series.
Why not have one of those Canadians mate with an Ecuadorian.
If Julian Assange ever makes it there, we could at least do the same experiment with an Australian.
Back on topic, the thing that would concern me about this is that it's not just genetics. There's also the schedule of hormones and other chemical signals which a fetus gets over the course of gestation. There's no guarantee that they would be the same.
I'm not necessarily talking about RPGs, either. Wil Wheaton has a very good series on Geek and Sundry devoted to tabletop games of all kinds, including some classics like The Settlers of Catan.
As with the sodomy laws, I find it understandable if you honestly feel that copyright law is unjust. My point is that it's different from civil disobedience.
How far should we, those outraged by this king's treatment of his people, go to do something about it?
Was it actually the king, or an over-zealous sycophant? If the king is constitutionally banned from any political role, and takes his job seriously, he may not have any say in what happened.
I use a password manager to solve this problem. It stores all (or a large set of) my passwords in an encrypted database.
I see. And where, pray tell, is this database stored?
I ask, because I do (say) banking both at home and at my workplace. It would be useful if I could bring this database with me. I wouldn't want it network-connected; that would be insecure. But if I could store it on a device that I always carry with me, perhaps one that would fit in my pocket, that'd be fabulous.
This is one of the key things which distinguishes MLK, Gandhi, Occupy and everyone else who has participated in civil disobedience from piracy.
A key part of civil disobedience is that you actually take the rap for the law you're breaking. You dare the authorities to arrest you, giving them a choice to enforce an unjust because in doing so, they have to make a choice between enforcing an unjust law or not.
Piracy is more like everyone (I'd wager there are a few people here) who broke those so-called "sodomy laws", which existed until about ten years ago in the US. Some states, you may recall, actually outlawed certain non-exploitative sex acts between consenting adults carried out in private. (If you're not familiar with the phrase "sodomy law", don't be fooled; some of them outlawed acts which, if you have ever had sex, you have probably done.) In that case, most people who thought about it believed that the most appropriate response to the bad laws is to ignore them.
Not that I'm advocating this, mind. But there are many pirates who honestly believe that current copyright law is unjust, and rather than stand up, be counted, and take the rap, they choose to just ignore the law in private.
Anonymous occupies an interesting point between the two.
Science has provided us everything that religion has historically promised, including the chance of a firey holocaust which destroys humanity Go science!.
For some reason, I had this image of a modern American traveling back to ancient Rome and trying to enforce Webster spelling on Latin words. Mark Twain would be proud, I think.
By far the most common form of alcohol consumption as a teenager in the US is binge drinking at a party [...]
According to this "fact sheet", that's where most alcohol is consumed by teenagers. That doesn't mean that most under-21s who consume alcohol binge drink, or do so at a party. I believe that it's "the most common form of alcohol" per volume of alcohol, but I'd need to see more evidence as to whether or not it's the most common form per capita.
One thing that people don't get about drug use is that it's as much about culture and ritual as it is about chemistry. If you grew up in an ethnically Italian family, then for you, wine probably wasn't "drinking", it was "food". Wine was, after all, almost always consumed in the context of a meal. "Drinking" was what you did in secret on Saturday night with your friends with megaswill lager and cheap blended spirits.
Slashdot Mirror
The possession of certain types of "speech" is indeed limited. Child pornography is the obvious example.
As I understand it, there is a difference in most people's minds between "gun owners" and "gun nuts". The vast majority of gun owners are sane and responsible individuals. Gun nuts are a strict minority.
I'm also an outsider. The first amendment says pretty clearly that "Congress shall make no law [..] abridging the freedom of speech", but I'm also aware that it's fairly well-established in law that the right to freedom of speech is not absolute, and can have reasonable limits imposed.
I'm not sure that Google autocomplete is the place to draw the line, but you do raise a good point. You have to think about this in the context of big data and modern government and corporate surveillance.
We all know the stories of people being placed on TSA watchlists, arrested, interrogated, and even tortured for having a similar name to a bad guy or being the second cousin of a bad guy.
People's actions can be chilled or even lives ruined by very tenuous associations in databases. And whether through the Erdos/Bacon game, the assumption that correlation is the same as causation, or plain old coincidence, data mining can uncover associations which are false or misleading, even if they are statistically significant.
Now we may argue that people shouldn't base decisions on associations made by Google's machine learning algorithms. It is, ultimately, the responsibility of the person making the decision to evaluate the strength of the evidence rationally. In a perfect world, where everyone is perfectly sane and rational, and no snap judgments ever have to be made, we could assume this.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, these databases exist and are used. So how much responsibility should be placed on those maintaining the databases for making sure that the contents are accurate, particularly clearing up a mistake when it is pointed out? Is there additional responsibility if the database is accessible to the public?
It's a very interesting question, and I don't know the answer.
Right, but when someone refers to Socialism, you are generally referring to an economic method in contrast to Capitalism. [...] What makes a country Socialist is not "free health care for everyone", but rather, the lack of privately run businesses.
Maybe you do. Hell maybe most of America does, but America is crazy.
The context of the discussion was the claim that Martin Luther King, Jr. "was devolving deeply into socialism toward the end of his life". What he said was probably more to do with the liberal form of Christianity that he held his whole life, not "Socialism" as you define it here.
Actually, the word "socialism" can be legitimately applied to social democracy and social liberalism, and has been since at least the 1930s.
A computer hooked up to a TV, eh? We're returning to the 80s, I'm telling you.
Yeah, I'm with you about controller skills. My wife is fine with a mouse or the Wiimote, but claims the XBox controller "looks intimidating". She said she might change her mind if there was a good co-op RPG we could play together, though. I'm thinking something from the Fable series.
Why not have one of those Canadians mate with an Ecuadorian.
If Julian Assange ever makes it there, we could at least do the same experiment with an Australian.
Back on topic, the thing that would concern me about this is that it's not just genetics. There's also the schedule of hormones and other chemical signals which a fetus gets over the course of gestation. There's no guarantee that they would be the same.
Have you considered tabletop gaming?
I'm not necessarily talking about RPGs, either. Wil Wheaton has a very good series on Geek and Sundry devoted to tabletop games of all kinds, including some classics like The Settlers of Catan.
As with the sodomy laws, I find it understandable if you honestly feel that copyright law is unjust. My point is that it's different from civil disobedience.
Could have been this night.
For the last few journals I submitted to, the document class was on the publisher's web site, not CTAN.
no he didn't mention Gun control Bob Heinlein and that R.A.Y.N.D person
Man, that must have been quite a night.
She may not (she didn't solve Australia's Constitutional Crisis in 1975), but she could.
She didn't, but her personal representative in this vicinity did.
Well, sort of.
Some of these countries get by better than others.
Was it actually the king, or an over-zealous sycophant? If the king is constitutionally banned from any political role, and takes his job seriously, he may not have any say in what happened.
I use a password manager to solve this problem. It stores all (or a large set of) my passwords in an encrypted database.
I see. And where, pray tell, is this database stored?
I ask, because I do (say) banking both at home and at my workplace. It would be useful if I could bring this database with me. I wouldn't want it network-connected; that would be insecure. But if I could store it on a device that I always carry with me, perhaps one that would fit in my pocket, that'd be fabulous.
This is one of the key things which distinguishes MLK, Gandhi, Occupy and everyone else who has participated in civil disobedience from piracy.
A key part of civil disobedience is that you actually take the rap for the law you're breaking. You dare the authorities to arrest you, giving them a choice to enforce an unjust because in doing so, they have to make a choice between enforcing an unjust law or not.
Piracy is more like everyone (I'd wager there are a few people here) who broke those so-called "sodomy laws", which existed until about ten years ago in the US. Some states, you may recall, actually outlawed certain non-exploitative sex acts between consenting adults carried out in private. (If you're not familiar with the phrase "sodomy law", don't be fooled; some of them outlawed acts which, if you have ever had sex, you have probably done.) In that case, most people who thought about it believed that the most appropriate response to the bad laws is to ignore them.
Not that I'm advocating this, mind. But there are many pirates who honestly believe that current copyright law is unjust, and rather than stand up, be counted, and take the rap, they choose to just ignore the law in private.
Anonymous occupies an interesting point between the two.
Science has provided us everything that religion has historically promised, including the chance of a firey holocaust which destroys humanity Go science!.
The remaining weapons become much more lethal after a ban is passed, as the criminals don't turn their in, and now they know it is open season.
So what you're saying is that otherwise effective gun control won't work on the United States because the United States is already completely screwed.
That's a fair (and probably accurate) point, but it sounds just a tad like an excuse not to do anything.
In my case, on a different thread.
For some reason, I had this image of a modern American traveling back to ancient Rome and trying to enforce Webster spelling on Latin words. Mark Twain would be proud, I think.
According to this "fact sheet", that's where most alcohol is consumed by teenagers. That doesn't mean that most under-21s who consume alcohol binge drink, or do so at a party. I believe that it's "the most common form of alcohol" per volume of alcohol, but I'd need to see more evidence as to whether or not it's the most common form per capita.
One thing that people don't get about drug use is that it's as much about culture and ritual as it is about chemistry. If you grew up in an ethnically Italian family, then for you, wine probably wasn't "drinking", it was "food". Wine was, after all, almost always consumed in the context of a meal. "Drinking" was what you did in secret on Saturday night with your friends with megaswill lager and cheap blended spirits.
To be fair, it wasn't just the government. It was the government in unwitting collusion with region-locking DRM.