That screed was inspired by meeting and talking with members of various advocacy groups. Few have the slightest idea of why their group's goals and tenets are in existance. Their real reason for joining is social, i.e. to fill a vacancy in their lives. And it's sooooo kOoL to be helping a worthy cause.
Greenpeace is like any other orginization. There are a few founders, senior members, etc. who know what they are trying to do. These few get all the perks and credit.
Then there are the other 95% who join because it sounds good and fills a void in their miserable lives.
The latter will memorize slogans and boilerplate and regurgitate it at both appropriate and inappropriate times.
They never have critically examined the issues that affect their gourp and predigested beliefs prevent the painful necessity of having do so. These are easily led once they have become members. Any outrageous act becomes a necessity if it advances the groups goals and agenda.
The world view of religious cults and advocacy groups is quite similar. They just read from different literature.
For a business, a web site is a sales tool and a way to display/demo the goods. Period.
If the client has to learn the hard way, that is his problem. The Web designer can only advise.
A web designer is not a sales manager. Merchandising and sales strategies are beyond his area of concern. Confusion about this causes needless problems.
Whenever I read something like this, I get an image of an effete poff blathering on about art or literature that no one wants to view or read.
Web design can be an art form, and is a matter of personal taste and opinion. If you are selling it, the only opinion that matters your client's. Whatever one believes about his special blend of creativity and artistry, he can do only what someone else will pay for.
As the canibal explained to his son's questions,
"One mans meat is another mans poi, son."
but the Average Joe Computer non-Nerd is not going to understand it, not going to have any idea what else they would use, or anything like that.
I have been swamped by people at work and at home asking how to download and install Mozilla. The local MSNBC station has been advising people to switch browsers for a few days now. The message is getting around and "joe average" is worried.
Employment is not the true goal for anyone. It is a means to an end.
For many years, I enjoyed six to nine month backpacking trips. I did thruhikes of major trails, wandered at whim through the national forests of America, and enjoyed what I considered a happy way of life. I had to work only few months over winter to finance these activities.
Others prefer overbuilt houses, accumulation of material objects, or whatever else they desire. They have made a choice, and tied their lives to the whims of their employer.
Only a few people share my tastes in living. I know there is a price to be paid for participating in our materialistic culture. Few people that I have met are aware of how much they give up.
Prior to the Revolution, France was the major competition to the expanding English colonies. See French and Indian War, inter alia.
The French government aided the Colonies in their struggle for independence only as part of a larger effort to defeat England. Louis XVI was no admirer of liberty and indepencence.
After the Revolution, the fledgling United States had an undeclared war with Napoleonic France. The XYZ Affair was not one of the high points of American French friendship.
During the Civil War, Napoleon III favored and gave aid the the Confederacy. During the Civil War he installed Maximillian as the Emperor of Mexico. Post civil war stationing of Union troops along the southern U.S. border put a halt to Napoleon III's support of Maximillian and doomed Maximillian and his empire to a bloody end.
The French didn't find much to like about us until they got themselves ground down during WW1, which they unnecessarily helped bring about. This was the 3rd. Republic of La Affair Dryfus. After the conclusion of that war, France went back to its usual anti-Americanism.
At the start of WW2, France lost quickly and spent five years under German occupation. The symbol of France became Charles DeGaulle, an egomanic with delusions of omnipotence. His political policy consisted of hating his "allies" more than the Germans.
Following the heroic liberation of occupied France by DeGaulle and his minuscle army, only slightly supported by a few million American and British troops, succeeding French governments made anti-Americanism a central tenet of their policy. They never saw an enemy of America whom they couldn't find a way to love or an American goal they couldn't oppose.
Fortunately for the United States and the rest of the civilized world, France is a smallish place that is but a relic of Imperial Past. Unfortunately, misinformed U.S. politicians got us into Viet-Nam in an attempt to bail the French out of another of their misadventures.
The blood and treasure expended in two world wars and Viet Nam have long since repaid the French. I often suspect that they would have been better being incorperated into the Kaiser's Germany. They would have had better spelling, an orderly government and been kept in their proper place.
Our government has not been able to effectively censor very much in the past. I doubt their ability to do so in the future. The "Pentagon Papers" is a good example of this. And that was before the internet. The government is not a bloc of same minded employees but a collection of factions very much at odds with each other. This alone will insure the emergence of much information.
Censorship by business is no more worrisome. The recent ineffective efforts by Diebold to cover up their incompetence is noteworty. For those who can remember Ralph Nadar before his self appointed sainthood, General Motors tried to use private investigators among other tatics to silence him.
Those who seek to silence "racist" or "hate" speech will, at the most, cause the meaning of slurs to be transfered to other words and/or phrases. A look at literature from times past will show the evolution of ethnic/religious slurs.
kike->Chosen One->International Zionist, etc.
Personal Opinion A major reason for European dislike of "hate speech" is their own guilty past. Pre-war France was more antisemetic than Nazi Germany. Its history of antisemitism goes back centuries. William L. Shirer's "Collapse of the Third Republic" devotes much space to this. Antisemitism was/is widespread in the rest of Europe. Sadly, they are trying to suppress symbols rather than the actual hatred.
In a response to the attack on New Zealand, President Bush announced today that United States Army and Marine units would be stationed on Mars and other planets as a deterrent to further terrorism by unknown aliens. He will send a request for a further $900,000,000,000 to congress to fund the development of transport and supply systems for our brave patriotic troops. Haliburtion corp. has patriotically volunteered to undertake the conract for a mere 25% markup.
Attorney General John Ashcroft declared that the aliens have obvious ties with Al Queda. Only alien mind control could have changed the joyous happy reception that should have been give to US liberators by the oppressed Arab world. He will ask Congress to amend the Patriot act to allow preventive detention of the entire population of the United States and 24 hour observation of everyone else.
Affable non-entity and Homeland Security fill-in Tom Ridge announced newer, more vibrant colors for ever more heightened security levels. He is asking Congress to redefine illegal alien to include beings from other planets/solar systems.
May 28, 2004- Leaders of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe and invited guests will celebrate on June 1, 2004, the groundbreaking for the Tribe's state-of-the-art Community Technology Center in Plummer, Idaho.
Thats for the 44 magnum, Glock crowd. A small.22 revolver with hollow points will suffice for personal protection. Easy to conceal, and easy to aim and use at close distance. Doesn't weigh a lot either.
I live in a decent neighborhood, but crime, including home invasions, happens here too. Its less the neighborhood than access to interstate highways (for quick getaways) that invite crime. I encounter many strange and dubious types while at work and there's the little trips for supplies etc.
There seems to be an assumption that one goes to areas where crime occurs. Alas, crime
comes to us, and with all the psychotic individuals out there, your survival is not guaranteed even if you cooperate fully with the criminal's demands. No one lives in a world sealed off from ills of the world. Sensible precautions need to be taken. If your local government hasn't been taken over by liberals who have legislated protection for poor, deprived, not personally responsible criminals, give a little thought to protecting yourself.
The successful use of a firearm requires a bit of practice. You at least must know which end the bullet emerges from. A gun handling course, required to get the carry permit here, is useful.
For those with a curiosity for history, check Alexander Berkman's first use of firearms. "Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist" is his autobiography. He obtained a pistol, some ammo, and without even test firing the thing, tried to assissanate Henry Clay Frick. Botched the job.
Here in Virginia, the concealed carry permit allows one to do an imitation of Dirty Harry.
A lead induced lobotomy cures most criminal impulses.
In London,and those parts of the U.S. where the rights of criminals are paramount, you should at least show the thief how to operate the equipment and then thank him for helping making your trip lighter and easier.
WebTv is still around as MSNTv. It is a profitable division of Microsoft. They are now beta testing a broadband version of MSNTv. This will eliminate one of the real problems with the appliance. The new units have many long desired feature such as USB support, etc.
MSNTv is the ideal way to access the net for the totally inept. No virus or worms to worry about. While not everything that a PC will do can be done with MSNTv, surfing and email are easily done.
Most WebTv owners believed and still do believe that development of WebTv suffered greatly after its acquisition by Microsoft. Being assigned to the MSN division was another blow.
One of the major issues in the UPS strike was the classification of a majority of employees as temporary or part timers. Even though these employees worked forty hours per week and often more, they were paid less than employees classified as full time, and were given no benefits. This was and is nothing more than fraud on the part of UPS.
There always seems to be someone who wants to save people from the consequenses of their own stupidity. For their own good, of course. Even though it takes the interest out of being in the backcountry. People who need that degree of protection should stay home with their mommies.
It is difficult to find a truly remote wilderness these days. Infesting the backcountry with sensors is a step in the wrong direction.
I have spent a considerable part of my life in the backcountry. The responsability for my safety and well being is mine alone.
Those who stick to established trails are very seldom in need of search and rescue people. To use the "for the children's sake" arguement, it has been long known that young children who go missing tend to wander in upward, circular directions. They don't usually stick to trails but wander in the direction of anything that interests them. As for the "25 went in and only 24 came out" arguement, only a few trails have no alternate means of egress. In fact, every long distance hiker I have gotten to know over the years has a built in resistance to backtracking. Their motto is "Ever forward".
A better service for the unprepared weekender and overnighter would be providing inexpensive maps at the trailhead. When I worked for the AMC, the maps were sold for 50 cents paper and $1 waterproof. It is astonishing how many people will want save a few bucks by not buying accurate maps.
There is a basic difference in the outlook of people who wander the backcountry and those who belong to SAR orginizations. The former is a solitary individual who wishes to enjoy his own thoughts, proceed at his own pace, see and experience things not available to the modern motorized, connected, and regimented society we have today. SAR types are usually a social grouping of macho can do individuals who desire to bring control and order to the chaotic regions sought out by lovers of the backcountry.
When I first started backpacking, I was momentairily uncertain of my location. I sat down and thought about it. The goal of the trip was to spend a few weeks hiking in the mountains and forests. I had two weeks of food, shelter, and the misclellaneous junk need to do this. My exact location was not a necessary thing to know, since I was very actively fulfilling my goal. And in the lower 48 states, there are damn few places where you can actually walk for two weeks and not find a road or other sign of civilization. It takes careful planing to avoid roads, etc. for a two week stretch.
Slashdot Mirror
That screed was inspired by meeting and talking with members of various advocacy groups. Few have the slightest idea of why their group's goals and tenets are in existance. Their real reason for joining is social, i.e. to fill a vacancy in their lives. And it's sooooo kOoL to be helping a worthy cause.
Looks like the after part of this shot of California.
Greenpeace is like any other orginization. There are a few founders, senior members, etc. who know what they are trying to do. These few get all the perks and credit.
Then there are the other 95% who join because it sounds good and fills a void in their miserable lives.
The latter will memorize slogans and boilerplate and regurgitate it at both appropriate and inappropriate times. They never have critically examined the issues that affect their gourp and predigested beliefs prevent the painful necessity of having do so. These are easily led once they have become members. Any outrageous act becomes a necessity if it advances the groups goals and agenda.
The world view of religious cults and advocacy groups is quite similar. They just read from different literature.
For a business, a web site is a sales tool and a way to display/demo the goods. Period.
If the client has to learn the hard way, that is his problem. The Web designer can only advise.
A web designer is not a sales manager. Merchandising and sales strategies are beyond his area of concern. Confusion about this causes needless problems.
Whenever I read something like this, I get an image of an effete poff blathering on about art or literature that no one wants to view or read.
Web design can be an art form, and is a matter of personal taste and opinion. If you are selling it, the only opinion that matters your client's. Whatever one believes about his special blend of creativity and artistry, he can do only what someone else will pay for.
As the canibal explained to his son's questions,
"One mans meat is another mans poi, son."
I have been swamped by people at work and at home asking how to download and install Mozilla. The local MSNBC station has been advising people to switch browsers for a few days now. The message is getting around and "joe average" is worried.
Employment is not the true goal for anyone. It is a means to an end.
For many years, I enjoyed six to nine month backpacking trips. I did thruhikes of major trails, wandered at whim through the national forests of America, and enjoyed what I considered a happy way of life. I had to work only few months over winter to finance these activities.
Others prefer overbuilt houses, accumulation of material objects, or whatever else they desire. They have made a choice, and tied their lives to the whims of their employer.
Only a few people share my tastes in living. I know there is a price to be paid for participating in our materialistic culture. Few people that I have met are aware of how much they give up.
William L. Shirer wrote many books. I consider his "Collapse of the Third Republic" to be his best work.
A review is Here
Prior to the Revolution, France was the major competition to the expanding English colonies. See French and Indian War, inter alia.
The French government aided the Colonies in their struggle for independence only as part of a larger effort to defeat England. Louis XVI was no admirer of liberty and indepencence.
After the Revolution, the fledgling United States had an undeclared war with Napoleonic France. The XYZ Affair was not one of the high points of American French friendship.
During the Civil War, Napoleon III favored and gave aid the the Confederacy. During the Civil War he installed Maximillian as the Emperor of Mexico. Post civil war stationing of Union troops along the southern U.S. border put a halt to Napoleon III's support of Maximillian and doomed Maximillian and his empire to a bloody end.
The French didn't find much to like about us until they got themselves ground down during WW1, which they unnecessarily helped bring about. This was the 3rd. Republic of La Affair Dryfus. After the conclusion of that war, France went back to its usual anti-Americanism.
At the start of WW2, France lost quickly and spent five years under German occupation. The symbol of France became Charles DeGaulle, an egomanic with delusions of omnipotence. His political policy consisted of hating his "allies" more than the Germans.
Following the heroic liberation of occupied France by DeGaulle and his minuscle army, only slightly supported by a few million American and British troops, succeeding French governments made anti-Americanism a central tenet of their policy. They never saw an enemy of America whom they couldn't find a way to love or an American goal they couldn't oppose.
Fortunately for the United States and the rest of the civilized world, France is a smallish place that is but a relic of Imperial Past. Unfortunately, misinformed U.S. politicians got us into Viet-Nam in an attempt to bail the French out of another of their misadventures.
The blood and treasure expended in two world wars and Viet Nam have long since repaid the French. I often suspect that they would have been better being incorperated into the Kaiser's Germany. They would have had better spelling, an orderly government and been kept in their proper place.
Neither did southern California. You need to have a little more faith in the ingenuity of unabashed greed.
Our government has not been able to effectively censor very much in the past. I doubt their ability to do so in the future. The "Pentagon Papers" is a good example of this. And that was before the internet. The government is not a bloc of same minded employees but a collection of factions very much at odds with each other. This alone will insure the emergence of much information.
Censorship by business is no more worrisome. The recent ineffective efforts by Diebold to cover up their incompetence is noteworty. For those who can remember Ralph Nadar before his self appointed sainthood, General Motors tried to use private investigators among other tatics to silence him.
Those who seek to silence "racist" or "hate" speech will, at the most, cause the meaning of slurs to be transfered to other words and/or phrases. A look at literature from times past will show the evolution of ethnic/religious slurs.
kike->Chosen One->International Zionist, etc.
Personal Opinion A major reason for European dislike of "hate speech" is their own guilty past. Pre-war France was more antisemetic than Nazi Germany. Its history of antisemitism goes back centuries. William L. Shirer's "Collapse of the Third Republic" devotes much space to this. Antisemitism was/is widespread in the rest of Europe. Sadly, they are trying to suppress symbols rather than the actual hatred.
Here, in Virginia there are good results from a DNA database.
However, I have neither faith nor trust in politicians and the police. If there is a possible way to abuse this information, they will.
In a response to the attack on New Zealand, President Bush announced today that United States Army and Marine units would be stationed on Mars and other planets as a deterrent to further terrorism by unknown aliens. He will send a request for a further $900,000,000,000 to congress to fund the development of transport and supply systems for our brave patriotic troops. Haliburtion corp. has patriotically volunteered to undertake the conract for a mere 25% markup.
Attorney General John Ashcroft declared that the aliens have obvious ties with Al Queda. Only alien mind control could have changed the joyous happy reception that should have been give to US liberators by the oppressed Arab world. He will ask Congress to amend the Patriot act to allow preventive detention of the entire population of the United States and 24 hour observation of everyone else.
Affable non-entity and Homeland Security fill-in Tom Ridge announced newer, more vibrant colors for ever more heightened security levels. He is asking Congress to redefine illegal alien to include beings from other planets/solar systems.
Intellegence is a tool. As with other tools, proper honing, practice and skill in use determine success or failure in a given enviornment.
Widsom sometimes lies in knowing that the "bigger hammer" is not always the best tool.
The part of lightening study that fasinates me is the discovery of sprites,a part of a lightening strike that moves spaceward.
Here is a pic of a sprite.
This is linked to in a longish article. See under Recent Developments.
Thats for the 44 magnum, Glock crowd. A small
I live in a decent neighborhood, but crime, including home invasions, happens here too. Its less the neighborhood than access to interstate highways (for quick getaways) that invite crime. I encounter many strange and dubious types while at work and there's the little trips for supplies etc.
There seems to be an assumption that one goes to areas where crime occurs. Alas, crime comes to us, and with all the psychotic individuals out there, your survival is not guaranteed even if you cooperate fully with the criminal's demands. No one lives in a world sealed off from ills of the world. Sensible precautions need to be taken. If your local government hasn't been taken over by liberals who have legislated protection for poor, deprived, not personally responsible criminals, give a little thought to protecting yourself.
The successful use of a firearm requires a bit of practice. You at least must know which end the bullet emerges from. A gun handling course, required to get the carry permit here, is useful.
For those with a curiosity for history, check Alexander Berkman's first use of firearms. "Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist" is his autobiography. He obtained a pistol, some ammo, and without even test firing the thing, tried to assissanate Henry Clay Frick. Botched the job.
Here in Virginia, the concealed carry permit allows one to do an imitation of Dirty Harry.
A lead induced lobotomy cures most criminal impulses.
In London,and those parts of the U.S. where the rights of criminals are paramount, you should at least show the thief how to operate the equipment and then thank him for helping making your trip lighter and easier.
WebTv is still around as MSNTv. It is a profitable division of Microsoft. They are now beta testing a broadband version of MSNTv. This will eliminate one of the real problems with the appliance. The new units have many long desired feature such as USB support, etc.
MSNTv is the ideal way to access the net for the totally inept. No virus or worms to worry about. While not everything that a PC will do can be done with MSNTv, surfing and email are easily done.
Most WebTv owners believed and still do believe that development of WebTv suffered greatly after its acquisition by Microsoft. Being assigned to the MSN division was another blow.
People want to ship their relatives to mars, and then, not visit them.
One of the major issues in the UPS strike was the classification of a majority of employees as temporary or part timers. Even though these employees worked forty hours per week and often more, they were paid less than employees classified as full time, and were given no benefits. This was and is nothing more than fraud on the part of UPS.
Unfortunately, this practice is widespread.
The emergency decrees passed by the Reichtag after the "Burning" of the Reichtag building are not much different from those of Bush and Ashcroft.
This dredged up an old memory from Dicken's Pickwick Papes.
The section about half way down the page.
The Inscription
There always seems to be someone who wants to save people from the consequenses of their own stupidity. For their own good, of course. Even though it takes the interest out of being in the backcountry. People who need that degree of protection should stay home with their mommies.
It is difficult to find a truly remote wilderness these days. Infesting the backcountry with sensors is a step in the wrong direction.
I have spent a considerable part of my life in the backcountry. The responsability for my safety and well being is mine alone.
Those who stick to established trails are very seldom in need of search and rescue people. To use the "for the children's sake" arguement, it has been long known that young children who go missing tend to wander in upward, circular directions. They don't usually stick to trails but wander in the direction of anything that interests them. As for the "25 went in and only 24 came out" arguement, only a few trails have no alternate means of egress. In fact, every long distance hiker I have gotten to know over the years has a built in resistance to backtracking. Their motto is "Ever forward".
A better service for the unprepared weekender and overnighter would be providing inexpensive maps at the trailhead. When I worked for the AMC, the maps were sold for 50 cents paper and $1 waterproof. It is astonishing how many people will want save a few bucks by not buying accurate maps.
There is a basic difference in the outlook of people who wander the backcountry and those who belong to SAR orginizations. The former is a solitary individual who wishes to enjoy his own thoughts, proceed at his own pace, see and experience things not available to the modern motorized, connected, and regimented society we have today. SAR types are usually a social grouping of macho can do individuals who desire to bring control and order to the chaotic regions sought out by lovers of the backcountry.
When I first started backpacking, I was momentairily uncertain of my location. I sat down and thought about it. The goal of the trip was to spend a few weeks hiking in the mountains and forests. I had two weeks of food, shelter, and the misclellaneous junk need to do this. My exact location was not a necessary thing to know, since I was very actively fulfilling my goal. And in the lower 48 states, there are damn few places where you can actually walk for two weeks and not find a road or other sign of civilization. It takes careful planing to avoid roads, etc. for a two week stretch.
Looks like the police follow this web site closely.
Neomugicha Incident