You're an idiot and I think you're just trying to start some sort of ridiculous argument because everything you've just said is totally beside the point.
I agree and since the British government is unwilling to make reparations I as a British citizen am more than happy to do so on their behalf.
Obviously all the people actually involved are dead now so there is nothing I can do for them so it's their ancestors I feel I must recompense.
I have a simple formula, all we need to do it work out the average yearly income of American African Americans and the average income of Africans to get a figure of how much worse off the African Americans are. Then multilply that by the average lifespan of an African American and the number of them who can prove their ancestors were slaves.
You remember that warehouse at the end of Indiana Jones where they store the Ark Of The Covenant ?
The Queen has a similar warehouse where all the presents the monarchs have been given over the last 300 years or so are stored, this I-Pod is never going to be used.
Almost, there seem to be some extra steps required though
But if we both listen to the same radio...
And if when some work experience temp from the PRS phones me up and asks "Do you play music for your staff" I say "Why, yes I do !" then I have to pay for it.
I think the fact they charge money to actually read their 'religious' texts and refuse to let those who do not give them money read them is one reason and the fact the whole thing was made up by a bad science fiction writer and is obviously not a religion is another.
I think the sort of hate speech which is banned in the UK is where you go from saying "I hate all the Jews and I think you ought to to" ( which I don't think would be hate speech ) to "I hate all the Jews so come join me as I bomb their houses, enslave their children, butcher the menfolk and rape the wives and daughters."
The thing is though, and it's not apparent you realise it from your post, is that the artists have been getting paid by Google for the songs on Youtube. The argument here is not whether they should be paid, both Google & the PRS agree that they should be but how much they should be paid.
The music industry has a long history of asking for, and co-ercing lawmakers into forcing content providers to pay enourmous sums of money for their songs and now Google has turned round and said "That's too much. We want to pay you what we think is a reasonable amount and not what you're demanding" and until the PRS agree they have removed a lot of music videos from their site.
Obviously the PRS is desperate for the money they have been getting Google because they're making a big fuss of this all and seem to be demanding Google start showing their videos again and pay them whatever they ask for for the pleasure.
Hopefully once the PRS cave in, as the certainly must, and agree to a more reasonable fee this will restrict the amount they can reasonably demand from other content providers and the whole thing can get onto a more sensible footing.
I can't believe the government are allowing people to take these sorts of images. This is just a gift to the terrorists, they'll be able to see exactly which parts of the space station to target and may even be able to bring the whole thing down on a major population centre.
Yeah but when they say it's "metaphorical" what they mean is "I can pick and choose the bits I want to believe in as it suits me and if it looks like you have some good reasons why some of this is nonsense then that bit's metaphorical but still enables me to believe more or less what I would have believed had it not been metaphorical"
Not with lights but most main roads have priority over minor roads which cross over them so on the minor roads there is a give way sign and a line across the road which you need to stop at to check there is no traffic on the main road before you turn onto it or go across a junction. Obviously peoples definitions of "stop" varies quite a lot and some rural roads are quite dangerous when people take no notice of the signs.
It is interesting that the government seems to think that whilst the population should be monitored as closely as possible when it comes to their own activities they clearly take the exact opposite view and fight tooth and nail to keep their own details secret. They also appear to want to take this inbalance even further since according to a government minister defending the government from this report on the radio this morning...
"the benefit of these systems outweighs their illegality"
They appear to think they can also completely ignore the law if it suits the interests of Wacky Jacky and the rest of them.
Personally I can see the benefit of centralising government databases, done correctly it should save money and allow the government to work more efficiently which can only be a good thing. However, and it is a big however, I would only support the creation of these central databases based on the following ground rules being enforced:
1. I want to be able see every single piece of data the government is holding on me myself and I want an audit log showing me who has accessed this data and a reason as to why they had done so.
2. In tandem with the above I would want a swift and effective system to impartially consider any complaints I might have that my data was not being accessed for a good reason and the ability to correct any incorrect data I came across and I would require the impartial authority to actually be impartial and have the power to block access and effectively punish those responsible if they agree people have abused their priviledge of access to my data.
3. I would want the ability to remove my data completely from government systems should I choose to do so and not suffer any discriminatory restrictions to my access of government facilities if I chose to do so. Obviously I'd accept things may take them a bit longer to process without access to the electronic data but I wouldn't want to, for example, lose my driving licence.
4. I would have to trust the government and believe that they held themselves to the rule of law and did not undertake nefarious and underhand schemes to abuse my data and to be honest about their intentions.
Sadly I don't think the circumstances will ever be met which would allow the above to happen, particulary points 3 and 4 and especially not under the current morally bankrupt bunch of incompetents.
In the US the population is dispersed in suburbs making personal vehicles mandatory and public transportation impractical
How on Earth does having people living in suburbs make public transport impractical ? All you need to do is build subways, metros and trams into the suburbs. If Americans wanted to have first class public transport it would be easy to supply but really they don't they're perfectly happy with their cars and their "I'm all right Jack" selfishness.
What I did suggest was that machines would prize precision and efficiency; by that measure we barely qualify as an intelligent species
You've absolutley no idea what an alien machine might prize so deciding it would be precision and efficiency is an enourmous assumption. Even if it was true I've no idea how a species can be said to be precise, I think thats pretty much meaningless but as for efficiency I think any alien observer would conclude that humans are in fact very efficient in the way they interact and make use of their environment. If we didn't live efficiently we'd have become extinct a very very long time ago.
I think Russian peasants were being sent off to what were basically gulags long before Stalins time. I believe that only 50 years before Stalin there was an entire class of Russians known as serfs who were essentially slaves and could be killed, tortured or sent off to Siberia on the whim of any of their betters.
Ah but assuming that some evil dictator did seize the reins and bend the country towards his own nefarious ends he is ultimately going to be destroyed by absolute indifference, apathy and incompetence. All the monitoring devices in the world aren't going to be any use at all when no one can be bothered to leave their sofas to come to your rallies or join your all conquering army of supermen. Sooner or later he'd just get bored and go off to find a more suitable country to use.
God fearing folks however, are obsessed with the afterlife. These people tend to do things like build expensive temples
The best example I saw of this was when visiting a huge church, bedecked with gold candle holders, fine art and all the trimmings. Apparently the Church had been built to serve the large, extremely poor population living around it. In the church it explained how many hundreds would die each day from hunger, how many from disease, how many from despair and how many from poverty.
Amazingly the best thing the Catholic Church thought it could do at the time was take 10% of any money the locals did manage to scrape together, build an enourmous expensive church replete with a full complement of well fed well paid clergy and extract more money from the population by enforcing attendance at the church and demanding more donations every time people came. Wonderfully the church was able to serve the critically disadvantaged community for hundreds of years until, only recently, the area became gentrified.
Most normal people would think it a better idea to sort of the hunger, disease and poverty first before imposing yet more burdens on the communities life.
Slashdot Mirror
It doesn't look like it's even much of a village, it's a suburb of Milton Keynes FFS !
You're an idiot and I think you're just trying to start some sort of ridiculous argument because everything you've just said is totally beside the point.
I agree and since the British government is unwilling to make reparations I as a British citizen am more than happy to do so on their behalf.
Obviously all the people actually involved are dead now so there is nothing I can do for them so it's their ancestors I feel I must recompense.
I have a simple formula, all we need to do it work out the average yearly income of American African Americans and the average income of Africans to get a figure of how much worse off the African Americans are. Then multilply that by the average lifespan of an African American and the number of them who can prove their ancestors were slaves.
I'll accept payment in gold bullion.
According to Flashman the slave trade was largely eliminated by high spirited boys for the sheer fun of it.
You remember that warehouse at the end of Indiana Jones where they store the Ark Of The Covenant ?
The Queen has a similar warehouse where all the presents the monarchs have been given over the last 300 years or so are stored, this I-Pod is never going to be used.
Do the French speak English ?
No, no they don't do they - they speak French. Duh !
Because it comes from here. It's called English and we, the English, get the final say.
So there.
Obviously, they're wrong and would need to change.
You took a fairy to Scotland ???
It wasn't Glasgow by any chance was it ?
This works in Spain as well with Spanish. I have been told before to "Stop murdering my language and speak English !"
Almost, there seem to be some extra steps required though
But if we both listen to the same radio ...
And if when some work experience temp from the PRS phones me up and asks "Do you play music for your staff" I say "Why, yes I do !" then I have to pay for it.
I think the fact they charge money to actually read their 'religious' texts and refuse to let those who do not give them money read them is one reason and the fact the whole thing was made up by a bad science fiction writer and is obviously not a religion is another.
I think the sort of hate speech which is banned in the UK is where you go from saying "I hate all the Jews and I think you ought to to" ( which I don't think would be hate speech ) to "I hate all the Jews so come join me as I bomb their houses, enslave their children, butcher the menfolk and rape the wives and daughters."
The thing is though, and it's not apparent you realise it from your post, is that the artists have been getting paid by Google for the songs on Youtube. The argument here is not whether they should be paid, both Google & the PRS agree that they should be but how much they should be paid.
The music industry has a long history of asking for, and co-ercing lawmakers into forcing content providers to pay enourmous sums of money for their songs and now Google has turned round and said "That's too much. We want to pay you what we think is a reasonable amount and not what you're demanding" and until the PRS agree they have removed a lot of music videos from their site.
Obviously the PRS is desperate for the money they have been getting Google because they're making a big fuss of this all and seem to be demanding Google start showing their videos again and pay them whatever they ask for for the pleasure.
Hopefully once the PRS cave in, as the certainly must, and agree to a more reasonable fee this will restrict the amount they can reasonably demand from other content providers and the whole thing can get onto a more sensible footing.
I can't believe the government are allowing people to take these sorts of images. This is just a gift to the terrorists, they'll be able to see exactly which parts of the space station to target and may even be able to bring the whole thing down on a major population centre.
Unbelievable !
Yeah but when they say it's "metaphorical" what they mean is "I can pick and choose the bits I want to believe in as it suits me and if it looks like you have some good reasons why some of this is nonsense then that bit's metaphorical but still enables me to believe more or less what I would have believed had it not been metaphorical"
Not with lights but most main roads have priority over minor roads which cross over them so on the minor roads there is a give way sign and a line across the road which you need to stop at to check there is no traffic on the main road before you turn onto it or go across a junction. Obviously peoples definitions of "stop" varies quite a lot and some rural roads are quite dangerous when people take no notice of the signs.
It is interesting that the government seems to think that whilst the population should be monitored as closely as possible when it comes to their own activities they clearly take the exact opposite view and fight tooth and nail to keep their own details secret. They also appear to want to take this inbalance even further since according to a government minister defending the government from this report on the radio this morning...
They appear to think they can also completely ignore the law if it suits the interests of Wacky Jacky and the rest of them.
Personally I can see the benefit of centralising government databases, done correctly it should save money and allow the government to work more efficiently which can only be a good thing. However, and it is a big however, I would only support the creation of these central databases based on the following ground rules being enforced:
1. I want to be able see every single piece of data the government is holding on me myself and I want an audit log showing me who has accessed this data and a reason as to why they had done so.
2. In tandem with the above I would want a swift and effective system to impartially consider any complaints I might have that my data was not being accessed for a good reason and the ability to correct any incorrect data I came across and I would require the impartial authority to actually be impartial and have the power to block access and effectively punish those responsible if they agree people have abused their priviledge of access to my data.
3. I would want the ability to remove my data completely from government systems should I choose to do so and not suffer any discriminatory restrictions to my access of government facilities if I chose to do so. Obviously I'd accept things may take them a bit longer to process without access to the electronic data but I wouldn't want to, for example, lose my driving licence.
4. I would have to trust the government and believe that they held themselves to the rule of law and did not undertake nefarious and underhand schemes to abuse my data and to be honest about their intentions.
Sadly I don't think the circumstances will ever be met which would allow the above to happen, particulary points 3 and 4 and especially not under the current morally bankrupt bunch of incompetents.
How on Earth does having people living in suburbs make public transport impractical ? All you need to do is build subways, metros and trams into the suburbs. If Americans wanted to have first class public transport it would be easy to supply but really they don't they're perfectly happy with their cars and their "I'm all right Jack" selfishness.
You've absolutley no idea what an alien machine might prize so deciding it would be precision and efficiency is an enourmous assumption. Even if it was true I've no idea how a species can be said to be precise, I think thats pretty much meaningless but as for efficiency I think any alien observer would conclude that humans are in fact very efficient in the way they interact and make use of their environment. If we didn't live efficiently we'd have become extinct a very very long time ago.
Whatever assumptions you think I'm making are no where near as unfouded, unlikely and ridiculous as the assumption that the Bible is the Word Of God !
I think Russian peasants were being sent off to what were basically gulags long before Stalins time. I believe that only 50 years before Stalin there was an entire class of Russians known as serfs who were essentially slaves and could be killed, tortured or sent off to Siberia on the whim of any of their betters.
Ah but assuming that some evil dictator did seize the reins and bend the country towards his own nefarious ends he is ultimately going to be destroyed by absolute indifference, apathy and incompetence. All the monitoring devices in the world aren't going to be any use at all when no one can be bothered to leave their sofas to come to your rallies or join your all conquering army of supermen. Sooner or later he'd just get bored and go off to find a more suitable country to use.
Most probably, if I were being dragged off to a concentration camp I'd probably be pretty fearful too.
The best example I saw of this was when visiting a huge church, bedecked with gold candle holders, fine art and all the trimmings. Apparently the Church had been built to serve the large, extremely poor population living around it. In the church it explained how many hundreds would die each day from hunger, how many from disease, how many from despair and how many from poverty.
Amazingly the best thing the Catholic Church thought it could do at the time was take 10% of any money the locals did manage to scrape together, build an enourmous expensive church replete with a full complement of well fed well paid clergy and extract more money from the population by enforcing attendance at the church and demanding more donations every time people came. Wonderfully the church was able to serve the critically disadvantaged community for hundreds of years until, only recently, the area became gentrified.
Most normal people would think it a better idea to sort of the hunger, disease and poverty first before imposing yet more burdens on the communities life.