Education is not about picking up skills to be used in work. It's about learning how to think and opening your mind to new ideas. Basic knowledge of History, biology, political science, are indispensable in forming well-rounded thought, a sensible and responsible individual, an active citizen. Forming thinking independent of industry interests and moving things forward for humanity in different directions, regardless of industry needs are what education should be all about and it starts at home with the parents.
Unfortunately, the effect of ads is much worse than most people know.
The problem with ads is that they present you with an "image" of how your life should be. Shiny hair, pearly white teeth, a six-pack and a blond girlfriend with huge boobs. A big house, an SUV, lawn and 2 kids. They present an image of what "success" should be like or what a "man" should be like.. or more than the others what a woman should do, wear and think. Humans naturally wish to emulate stuff they are constantly exposed to. The human brain, watching stuff every day in ads, start to think that "Hey, everybody is like that so I should be too". So naturally you become miserable when you cannot be like them.
There's those who say "Ads do not affect me", and to those I say "O'RLY?". Think again.
I have submitted many stores about ads to slashdot which have been rejected. One of them is the following:
Today, a day which will live in infamy, I have created a filter which blocks all e-mail messages sent from Hotmail and iPhone devices. The reason? I don't like to read ads in my messages. The filter also sends the following message as a reply:
"YOUR MESSAGE TO me@somedomain HAS NOT BEEN READ, IT HAS BEEN AUTOMATICALLY DELETED!
Thank you for contacting me. In my ongoing fight against ads/commercial messages I have decided to block all messages that contain ad-like content. This includes messages from:
* apple's iPhone that contain the line: "Sent from my iPhone" — I don't care where it has been sent from.
* Microsoft's Hotmail service that append a short ad at the bottom of the message — I don't like to read ads.
*...probably more to come
If you wish to contact me please do so using a service that does not append ads or irrelevant information inside your e-mail message.
I apologize for any inconvenience caused and I beg for your understanding."
You are missing the point. The moment I saw the news title I was scared! (before reading the actual details). Why should slashdot give me a fright like that for something so trivial?
This is the first time I've seen this kind of news on slashdot. I dont believe my eyes. Has slashdot really SUNK that low?
What kind of title is that? A title like that can only scare people. Like the headlines on TV news and newspapers. Anthrax! Terrorism! Spiced up to increase ratings. Scare people for an asteroid that will burn up in the atmosphere? Why? I really thought slashdot was better than this.
It has indeed a lot of catching up to do. I wonder what google thought when they released Chrome. That we would just immediately give up firefox for it? Chrome needs a lot more than that to start taking users away from Firefox.
Chrome stayed on my system for about 15 minutes during the evaluation. Yes it was fast, yes it was shiny but I dont think i can browse without my firefox addons (adblock plus!!, piclens, rikaichan for japanese etc). I got used to the web without ads and I just cant go back.
I'm curious how American's decided who should lead the country
I have no idea how it worked in the US since I am from Greece but as far as I know, back in the old days after the forming of political parties the party leaders would tour the country holding speeches in major areas during which they would explain their action plan. That would give civilians an opportunity to hear their positions on various issues and also get a feel for the person based on his "charisma" among other things.
The way it works now with the media throwing dirt around and lobbying their preferred man during the news while pushing commercials in between is just silly.
Democracy? Nowadays democracy I'm afraid isnt working as it should be and it's all because of the media. It's turned more towards demagogy. People vote based on opinions formed by tv and the media. They dont even bother to see the candidates' plan.
Slashdot Mirror
Education is not about picking up skills to be used in work. It's about learning how to think and opening your mind to new ideas. Basic knowledge of History, biology, political science, are indispensable in forming well-rounded thought, a sensible and responsible individual, an active citizen. Forming thinking independent of industry interests and moving things forward for humanity in different directions, regardless of industry needs are what education should be all about and it starts at home with the parents.
The problem with ads is that they present you with an "image" of how your life should be. Shiny hair, pearly white teeth, a six-pack and a blond girlfriend with huge boobs. A big house, an SUV, lawn and 2 kids. They present an image of what "success" should be like or what a "man" should be like.. or more than the others what a woman should do, wear and think. Humans naturally wish to emulate stuff they are constantly exposed to. The human brain, watching stuff every day in ads, start to think that "Hey, everybody is like that so I should be too". So naturally you become miserable when you cannot be like them.
There's those who say "Ads do not affect me", and to those I say "O'RLY?". Think again.
I have submitted many stores about ads to slashdot which have been rejected. One of them is the following:
Today, a day which will live in infamy, I have created a filter which blocks all e-mail messages sent from Hotmail and iPhone devices. The reason? I don't like to read ads in my messages. The filter also sends the following message as a reply:
"YOUR MESSAGE TO me@somedomain HAS NOT BEEN READ, IT HAS BEEN AUTOMATICALLY DELETED!
Thank you for contacting me. In my ongoing fight against ads/commercial messages I have decided to block all messages that contain ad-like content. This includes messages from:
If you wish to contact me please do so using a service that does not append ads or irrelevant information inside your e-mail message. I apologize for any inconvenience caused and I beg for your understanding."
me2. I cant live without objectdock anymore ^_^ I swear if apple lays a hand on it I will curse them till the day I DIE!!!
You are missing the point. The moment I saw the news title I was scared! (before reading the actual details). Why should slashdot give me a fright like that for something so trivial?
This is the first time I've seen this kind of news on slashdot. I dont believe my eyes. Has slashdot really SUNK that low? What kind of title is that? A title like that can only scare people. Like the headlines on TV news and newspapers. Anthrax! Terrorism! Spiced up to increase ratings. Scare people for an asteroid that will burn up in the atmosphere? Why? I really thought slashdot was better than this.
It has indeed a lot of catching up to do. I wonder what google thought when they released Chrome. That we would just immediately give up firefox for it? Chrome needs a lot more than that to start taking users away from Firefox.
Chrome stayed on my system for about 15 minutes during the evaluation. Yes it was fast, yes it was shiny but I dont think i can browse without my firefox addons (adblock plus!!, piclens, rikaichan for japanese etc). I got used to the web without ads and I just cant go back.
I 'm wondering if google are secretly developing an O/S as well. I wont be surprised if they announce something sooner than expected.
I'm curious how American's decided who should lead the country
I have no idea how it worked in the US since I am from Greece but as far as I know, back in the old days after the forming of political parties the party leaders would tour the country holding speeches in major areas during which they would explain their action plan. That would give civilians an opportunity to hear their positions on various issues and also get a feel for the person based on his "charisma" among other things. The way it works now with the media throwing dirt around and lobbying their preferred man during the news while pushing commercials in between is just silly.
"in a democracy they are different lies."
Democracy? Nowadays democracy I'm afraid isnt working as it should be and it's all because of the media. It's turned more towards demagogy. People vote based on opinions formed by tv and the media. They dont even bother to see the candidates' plan.