I start an auto company. Through a lot of innovation and hard work (and bribes and back-alley deals), I obtain 95% market share. Everyone owns one of my cars, and every auto dealership sells only my cars.
Suddenly, I decide that I want to make tires, too. Who could begrudge me from bundling my cars with my tires? Certainly, if the customers want to use Michelin or Firestone tires, they could replace the bundled tires when they buy the car. I'll even be a nice guy and do an even trade for the tires, but it's up to the customer to do the work of putting on the tires or paying a mechanic to do it.
Ok, so what percentage of the total concrete worldwide makes up nuclear power plants? Even better yet - what CO2/MW output do nuclear power plants have, relative to other power generation methods? Note that you have to take that across the life of the reactor, since the CO2 cost of a nuclear plant from concrete is a one-time, up-front cost, whereas the CO2 cost of a coal/gas/oil plant adds in ongoing costs from burning their respective fuels.
You have to consider the above before that 7-10% figure becomes remotely relevant or applicable.
In the case of the latter group, it makes better business sense not to eliminate them. With cancer, AIDS, MS, et. al., it is more profitable to treat the symptoms.
discrimination would simply be a bad business decision
How do you figure? In business, risk is bad. It is not difficult to argue that someone predisposed to aggression and/or alcoholism is a greater risk than someone who is not. In a progressive world where we could map someone's genes in seconds, you'd simply weed out these people.
It doesn't matter that the person has never touched alcohol in their life (swearing they won't end up like an alcoholic relative) or done something like take up meditation or see a therapist regularly to curb their feelings of aggression. The company genetecist says the person is a drunk and a threat of violence, so the person gets kicked to the curb.
That is exactly the spirit of Gattaca.
Sure, Vincent rose above his genes and succeeded, but the world around him was one blinded to any and all factors that didn't show up in a DNA scan. He was forced to lie about his identity to be accepted, even though he was easily as good as anyone around him. At the same time, a murderer almost went free because his genes showed no predisposition to violence.
The movie is meant to be prophetic: it is not showing Vincent triumph over his genes as a sign that everything will be ok, but rather impressing upon us the need to look into the human element, because we will most likely fall into the cold, blind world that is depicted.
nor [do] they attach a mobile testing lab to them [throughout] the sporting event to make sure that they don't cheat.
If a quarterback were to break huddle to shoot up some steroids right there on the field, it wouldn't take a mobile testing lab to determine he was cheating.
It is a business risk to be operating software that is no longer supported by the manufacturer. Hence, businesses are "forced" to upgrade.
And, when you're stuck deciding between upgrading your software (to something which every employee knows, but which provides no *real* new features) or buy a different product (which will require training that's more expensive than either product itself), you realize there isn't really a choice.
Remember that Google is a global company, so what may be objectionable in one country may be perfectly acceptable in another. For example, posting a link to a TV episode of a British comedy that shows a little nudity would likely garner little objection from Brits ("Funny show, ol' chap!"), some objection from Americans ("Nudity? Think of the children!"), and some pretty intense objection from countries like Saudi Arabia.
We've seen that Google can't simply cater to American standards with the China story. Should they then find the country most prone to offense and use their morals as our measuring stick? Or should Google spend time finding what offends people of each country in the world, come up with a composite, and see if that can push the bar even lower?
If you live in China or some other nation where $.25 per hour for a job is a dream come true, this is very empowering. Its either this or work a slave wage job in an unsafe factory or mine. That or turn to crime...
In a way, they did resort to crime. They're breaking the laws of a virtual world to secure real-world cash. If EULAs and service agreements had any weight in courts, you could say that gold farmers were breaking real-world law as well.
Which would you be more concerned about if you're heavily investing large quantities of money into funding the creation, recording, and promotion of music?
...and monopolizing all avenues of distribution, making sure that any artist who wants to have their music heard must go through one of the record labels.
Never get a credit card.
Never open a bank account.
Never take out a loan.
Never accept compensation from work in any form but cash or material goods.
Never give your tax in formation to your workplace for W2s.
Never get a savings card from your local grocery store.
Never rent an apartment.
Never pay for utilities (water/gas/power).
Never buy a car.
There are plenty of every-day things you do offline that would put your information in the hands of the very companies that so often "misplace" our data.
Yup. Ask the designers, or more importantly, the victims of Therac-25.
If something like that can happen as a result of bugs, imagine what can happen when there's someone intentionally exploiting a security flaw to cause maximum damage.
I can tell you from my own professional experience that there are hospitals out there that are simply ripe for exploit (combination of poor network security and management software with holes). I suspect it won't be too many years down the road when we hear of multiple deaths as a result of a black hat going in and trashing a system that's required to keep patients alive and/or let the doctors do their work effectively.
Clearly, the US Government should then have access to all our personal information, and closely monitor each and every one of our personal financial transactions. Only with this amount of surveillance and control can the government be expected to fully do its job in protecting its citizens from financial terrorism.
As an added bonus, citizens who purchase certain combinations of items will be awarded an all expenses paid trip to the beautiful country of Cuba.
I am particularly interested in the modern dance, thinking that this is probably a better approach of studying oscillations than the springs that I used when I was in college.
I can guarantee there are situational examples of spring oscillations that are FAR more interesting to high school/college students than modern dance. The unfortunate truth, however, is that the students interested in physics are typically the same students with little/no field experience with such oscillations.
Slashdot Mirror
I start an auto company. Through a lot of innovation and hard work (and bribes and back-alley deals), I obtain 95% market share. Everyone owns one of my cars, and every auto dealership sells only my cars.
Suddenly, I decide that I want to make tires, too. Who could begrudge me from bundling my cars with my tires? Certainly, if the customers want to use Michelin or Firestone tires, they could replace the bundled tires when they buy the car. I'll even be a nice guy and do an even trade for the tires, but it's up to the customer to do the work of putting on the tires or paying a mechanic to do it.
That might be a valid comparison if every TV sold came with a Wii.
Ok, so what percentage of the total concrete worldwide makes up nuclear power plants? Even better yet - what CO2/MW output do nuclear power plants have, relative to other power generation methods? Note that you have to take that across the life of the reactor, since the CO2 cost of a nuclear plant from concrete is a one-time, up-front cost, whereas the CO2 cost of a coal/gas/oil plant adds in ongoing costs from burning their respective fuels.
You have to consider the above before that 7-10% figure becomes remotely relevant or applicable.
In the case of the latter group, it makes better business sense not to eliminate them. With cancer, AIDS, MS, et. al., it is more profitable to treat the symptoms.
What does the amount of property tax you pay have to do with the salary of teachers in your area, much less those in the rest of the country?
That's like saying the little Thai kids who make shoes must be living a cushy lifestyle because you paid $150 for your Nike sneakers.
discrimination would simply be a bad business decision
How do you figure? In business, risk is bad. It is not difficult to argue that someone predisposed to aggression and/or alcoholism is a greater risk than someone who is not. In a progressive world where we could map someone's genes in seconds, you'd simply weed out these people.
It doesn't matter that the person has never touched alcohol in their life (swearing they won't end up like an alcoholic relative) or done something like take up meditation or see a therapist regularly to curb their feelings of aggression. The company genetecist says the person is a drunk and a threat of violence, so the person gets kicked to the curb.
That is exactly the spirit of Gattaca.
Sure, Vincent rose above his genes and succeeded, but the world around him was one blinded to any and all factors that didn't show up in a DNA scan. He was forced to lie about his identity to be accepted, even though he was easily as good as anyone around him. At the same time, a murderer almost went free because his genes showed no predisposition to violence.
The movie is meant to be prophetic: it is not showing Vincent triumph over his genes as a sign that everything will be ok, but rather impressing upon us the need to look into the human element, because we will most likely fall into the cold, blind world that is depicted.
nor [do] they attach a mobile testing lab to them [throughout] the sporting event to make sure that they don't cheat.
If a quarterback were to break huddle to shoot up some steroids right there on the field, it wouldn't take a mobile testing lab to determine he was cheating.
Planned obsolescence.
It is a business risk to be operating software that is no longer supported by the manufacturer. Hence, businesses are "forced" to upgrade.
And, when you're stuck deciding between upgrading your software (to something which every employee knows, but which provides no *real* new features) or buy a different product (which will require training that's more expensive than either product itself), you realize there isn't really a choice.
What is objectionable?
Remember that Google is a global company, so what may be objectionable in one country may be perfectly acceptable in another. For example, posting a link to a TV episode of a British comedy that shows a little nudity would likely garner little objection from Brits ("Funny show, ol' chap!"), some objection from Americans ("Nudity? Think of the children!"), and some pretty intense objection from countries like Saudi Arabia.
We've seen that Google can't simply cater to American standards with the China story. Should they then find the country most prone to offense and use their morals as our measuring stick? Or should Google spend time finding what offends people of each country in the world, come up with a composite, and see if that can push the bar even lower?
If you live in China or some other nation where $.25 per hour for a job is a dream come true, this is very empowering. Its either this or work a slave wage job in an unsafe factory or mine. That or turn to crime...
In a way, they did resort to crime. They're breaking the laws of a virtual world to secure real-world cash. If EULAs and service agreements had any weight in courts, you could say that gold farmers were breaking real-world law as well.
Perhaps, but you have Benjamin Franklin and thousands of clones speaking out in support of patents.
Obviously, the solution should be to use a calendar based upon how many days it has been since Jesus was born.
Which would you be more concerned about if you're heavily investing large quantities of money into funding the creation, recording, and promotion of music?
...and monopolizing all avenues of distribution, making sure that any artist who wants to have their music heard must go through one of the record labels.
It does appear on the list for various Native American tribes, however.
Don't forget:
Never get a credit card.
Never open a bank account.
Never take out a loan.
Never accept compensation from work in any form but cash or material goods.
Never give your tax in formation to your workplace for W2s.
Never get a savings card from your local grocery store.
Never rent an apartment.
Never pay for utilities (water/gas/power).
Never buy a car.
There are plenty of every-day things you do offline that would put your information in the hands of the very companies that so often "misplace" our data.
Software? A 'dangerous' product?
Yup. Ask the designers, or more importantly, the victims of Therac-25.
If something like that can happen as a result of bugs, imagine what can happen when there's someone intentionally exploiting a security flaw to cause maximum damage.
I can tell you from my own professional experience that there are hospitals out there that are simply ripe for exploit (combination of poor network security and management software with holes). I suspect it won't be too many years down the road when we hear of multiple deaths as a result of a black hat going in and trashing a system that's required to keep patients alive and/or let the doctors do their work effectively.
So obviously, the TV is 8.2 feet.
Clearly, the US Government should then have access to all our personal information, and closely monitor each and every one of our personal financial transactions. Only with this amount of surveillance and control can the government be expected to fully do its job in protecting its citizens from financial terrorism.
As an added bonus, citizens who purchase certain combinations of items will be awarded an all expenses paid trip to the beautiful country of Cuba.
But the world is full of criminals who want to run your life.
Sadly, most of them are people we elected.
I am particularly interested in the modern dance, thinking that this is probably a better approach of studying oscillations than the springs that I used when I was in college.
I can guarantee there are situational examples of spring oscillations that are FAR more interesting to high school/college students than modern dance. The unfortunate truth, however, is that the students interested in physics are typically the same students with little/no field experience with such oscillations.
I'm confused... I'm still running with 640k. Aren't you?
This is not about making people safer. It's about testing how far our powers go after their dramatic expansion under the Patriot Act.
Gets down on his hands and knees with a stopwatch...
Honey! You're not faking this time!
...and twinkies.
"If you suck on a tit the movie gets an R rating. If you hack the tit off with an axe it will be PG."
Jack Nicholson