Paradoxically, this site is showing all the pictures found in news and reviews over the Internet.
Um...it's an internet website that shows....PICTURES?!?!?!?! Saying 'it's a news site that only shows pictures, contrary to common expectations of news sites' doesn't cut it, as it doesn't PURPORT to be a regular news site. There's no paradox when a site intended to display news photographs.....does.
>Once again, I'll refer to the old "Only Criminals Would Oppose This" arguement.
The one which is wheeled out whenever freedom is being threatened, such as cctv, id cards, drug tests at work etc etc?
My favorite thing to do when this hoary old chestnut gets trotted out is ask the trotter-outer whether he/she is for daily body cavity searches for each and every citizen of the US. If not, I ask them what exactly it is they have to hide, since only criminals have anything to fear. Plus, it would help early-detection rates of prostate cancer, and thus anyone who opposes this measure is demonstrably pro-cancer and probably a criminal, too.
Why do you doubt (c)? That's what they did to vinyl: they simply stopped making it. That forced people into getting CD players. So stop making CDs and you'll be forced to get a chip player and you'll be pretty much obliged to replace your CDs, too, so the RIAA will see a 50% revenue boost by not making CDs any more.
If you're inclined to argue, remember that this has already happened once before.
Not quite. When the hottest trax started coming out on plastic instead of wax, there was very little choice for the average person. You either bought what they sold or you didn't have music. Now, however, all you need is a computer and you have access to tons of free music (please note: I'm not talking about ripping off copyrighted materials. I'm talking about the huge amount of totally free music you can find online if you spend even a small bit of time looking). I haven't bought a CD for years already, and I don't see why changing the format will affect me. I have my mp3 and wav files, and I have plenty of storage for them, and when the new ultra-huge hard drives come out, I can just move that collection. That includes all music I've legally purchased on CD and tape, as well. I no longer need the physical CD or tape or fingernail-sized chip, and neither do lots of other people. In fact, there's no real reason for the music industry to go to another format; they would spend a ton of money and only piss off more customers than they have already pissed off. Here are a few sites to get you started if you want free music online. www.garageband.com www.nibb.net
Ever stop to think the two things might be related? Seven is a very large number of accidents. Accidents are more likely when you make all the drivers around you angry and irrational. (Remember, the other drivers are humans, not precision machines.)
In general, the best way to avoid accidents is to follow convention, do what everyone else is doing, and go with the flow. It's often the guy who sticks out of the flow of traffic like a sore thumb because he's trying to "obey the law" who ends up causing the massive disruption leading to an accident.
Ever stop to think that you're a fucking idiot? I didn't provide any context for those 7 accidents, I provided no timeline for them, and gave no information other than the number. I was in 3 of the 7 before I even had a driver's license. I'm 28, and lived in a populous city with major traffic problems most of my life. Here is more information on my accidents, so that you can see how faulty assumptions lead to faulty arguments. #1 biker enters limited-access highway from the side and hits the side of my stepdad's truck. #2 t-boned by a drunk prostitute while on the way to school in my friend's car; we were stopped waiting to turn left and she just rammed the passenger side of the car. Claimed she didn't see us. #3 rear-ended while on the way home from school, stopped at a stoplight in my friend's car. #4 while on my motorcycle, a guy changed lanes right into me. he told the cop I shoulda known he was going to change lanes and gotten out of his way. The cop didn't agree. #5 while in a parking lot, waiting for people to walk in front of my car, I got rear-ended by a guy who also claimed not to have seen me. (I don't know how you miss a 1977 chevy nova...then again, he didn't miss it.) #6 While on UT campus, I was pulling out of a parallel parking space near the library. There was a car stopped behind me with his blinker on, clearly indicating that he was waiting for the spot. When I was about 1/4 of the way out of the spot, a taxi came flying around the guy waiting to park (driving ~35 on a 20mph speed limit crowded college campus road) and tore off the front bumper of my car. #7 While driving downtown on a 35mph speed limit road, the driver in front of me slammed on her brakes for no apparent reason. I stopped in time to avoid her (with about 15 feet to spare) but the guy behind me 'didn't see me' and slammed into the back of my car at between 35 and 40 mph, pushing me the 15 feet into the truck in front of me.
Other people not paying attention caused every single one of the accidents I've been in. Nothing I was in control of had ANYTHING to do with any of them. The solution isn't more people breaking traffic laws, pal. It's more people PAYING ATTENTION so they can see the fucking road. Also, I refuse to get a ticket just because everyone else around me is breaking the law. If you're not going to pay my ticket for me, take the points for it onto your own license, and go to court for me, FUCK OFF. As I said, I've never caused an accident, and I've also never recieved a ticket. I've been driving for 13 years and have never gotten a ticket or caused an accident. That's what happens when you follow the laws. As for making the other drivers around me 'angry and irrational'...um, excuse me? It makes people angry when I don't break the law? TOO FUCKING BAD. I'm not responsible for anyone else's poor driving, no matter how you might twist it to make me seem so. I'm also not responsible for other people's convenience. If they're running late, they should have left earlier. If they're speeding for no real reason, why should *I* risk getting a ticket to facilitate them? I'm not going to live my life breaking laws to please others. If you do, that's your choice. The problem is that people don't take driving seriously anymore. It's not something to concentrate on, it's not something to perform with caution, it's just there. Driver error causes the vast majority of accidents, and I'll be damned if me driving WORSE is going to fix that problem.
Good concept, except these things instantly turn the light green for you and red for the other direction. There's no voting system, and what if someone has a juiced up repeater going off... better yet wouldn't it be great to just sit on the side of the road near an intersection and f*ck sh*t up?
From what I've seen with emergency vehicles in TX, it makes the opposing traffic light turn yellow, not red, and makes you wait the 4 seconds or 8 seconds or whatever the yellow's set to, depending on the speed limit of the road you're on. Emergency vehicles slow down as they're approaching the intersection to give the yellow time to turn red. YMMV all offers with approved credit terms and conditions apply see dealer for details.
They already do that. They're called proximity detectors, and they determine when cars are sitting on top of them. They work based on induction.
The worst thing about this system is how much it utterly sucks for motorcyclists. My only form of transportation for 5 1/2 years was a motorcycle, and I had to make tons of right turns to avoid left turn lanes with those things in 'em. I'd get off work at 1am and try to drive home, but unless I got really lucky and the car in front of me wanted to turn left, or I wanted to wait an unknown amount of time for some other car to want to turn left, I had to make a right and U-turn. It was highly annoying. One time, after I'd waited through 2 cycles with no green, and pulled my right-turn-U-turn ordeal, I got pulled over by a motorcycle officer. He didn't want to give me a ticket or anything, just told me that unofficially, officers will turn their backs if you run that kind of light on a bike, provided you wait a full change of the lights first (and it's late night/early morning when there's less chance a car will help you out). I'm too compulsive to be able to do that, though. I stuck it out with right-turn-U-turn. If I still had my bike, I'd buy one of these light-changer things just for intersections like that. Oh well. Motorcycles are always an afterthought in road/traffic light design, if they're thought of at all.
You can smugly sit there in the knowledge that you're doing the right thing, until you see that it's not all black and white and you have to try and conform to the driving style of the world around you. Within reason.
I always keep as much following distance as I can (up to about a car length per 10mph of speed). Why? Because people have slammed on their brakes in front of me for no reason whatsoever. It hasn't happened often, but it HAS happened. You never know what other drivers will do or what chance will throw at you and you shouldn't assume you do. I'm not going to drive bumper-to-bumper just to avoid pissing off other drivers around me. They aren't going to pay for my car if I rear-end someone because I failed to keep control of my speed (here in TX, that's what you get a ticket for if you DON'T maintain good following distance and you rear-end someone). I've been in 7 traffic accidents, none of which I caused and only 4 in which I was driving. Every single one of them was caused by somebody failing to follow a simple traffic rule because they were in a hurry, or because they had gotten away with it a million times before. Maybe I'm causing 'problems' to the drivers around me by not breaking even the most commonly broken traffic laws (following distance, signaling, misusing center turn lanes, not paying attention) but I've seen accidents caused by all of the above and I'm not about to put myself into one for someone else's convenience and/or to placate their 'road rage'. I know most people don't care and won't, but I'm not of the opinion that saving 20 or 30 seconds on a trip is worth possibly killing myself or other people. Apparently that's a minority opinion.
Regardless of whether it is natural or not if a change in climate will make the earth less hospitable to us and it is within our power to stop or lesson that effect it makes sense for us to do so.
Sure. Right. We can stop or lessen the effect of the sun's output increasing. Good one, bub. Perhaps you were referring to halting the production of manmade CFCs? Maybe you're afraid that O3 will cease to be produced? Or perhaps you're simply afraid that the hole in the ozone layer is getting bigger, or that we're in for global cooling, or global warming, or you think there aren't enough trees or that evil logging companies encourage monocultures, or that eating vegetarian doesn't cause any animals to die, or some other foolish thing. It really doesn't matter. I promise you that the earth really doesn't give a shit about human conceit and that 1000 years or less after our species is gone there will be very very very little sign of it remaining. Of course, you won't care, being dead. Neither will I, but then I don't care now. I could raze and salt half the state I live in, but someone viewing that state 1000 years from now would never know it. The dinosaurs cleared more land than humans ever could. Somehow, plants still exist, and so does the planet. We need to stop the mistaken belief that humans are capable of destroying this planet. We couldn't do it if we tried. Sure, we can wipe out species, we could wipe out entire orders if we wanted to. So what? Mother Nature has been doing that FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS. It's called "Natural Selection" and here's how it works: Some species become more viable and thus more populous, some species become less viable and thus less populous. Here's a hint: if your species *can* be wiped out, especially by something innocuous like humans clearing land for housing and such, YOUR SPECIES DOESN'T DESERVE TO EXIST. We have some kind of notion that we own this planet, or that we rule it. Bah. Stop whinging about the planet, it's taken care of itself for a long, long time, and nothing we do will have any real lasting impact in, say, a geological age. We don't have to "save" the planet, since it's in no real danger. Don't give me any rainforest bullshit either. I don't care. Nature's track record of genocide and genesis is much longer than most people ever take the time to try and comprehend. I know humans are conceited as a species, but it's getting ridiculous. Worst case: we kill ourselves (and probably a shitload of other species) off. Result: Nature rebuilds and moves on. Net result of human occupation on Earth, time frame 10 million years after the last human dies: nothing.
So, if we weren't using all that degraded biomass to power our cars, what would it be doing? Sitting in the ground, being useless. So what if we burn up 2 tons of what was once a fucking plant? It's not like we're cutting down 2 tons of CURRENT living biomass for each gallon. I mean, sure, look for more efficient energy sources; might as well, right? However, using old biomass that isn't doing anything else is better than, say, converting people into fuel. Of course, I can think of some people who would be more useful powering my car than in their current existence.
So you are right: in a sufficiently corrupt political system, even paper and pen is not enough to guarantee a fair election.
Well, considering that the election process predates election fraud by about 2 minutes, I think it's safe to say that *any* electoral system is going to be subverted, or at least someone will attempt to subvert it. It's one of the prices of freedom, and one of the responsibilities of the electorate is to monitor the process. Of course, the electorate hasn't been known for excercising its responsibilites. We all want more 'rights,' such as free money and a free living and free healthcare and free this and free that but we don't seem willing to shoulder the burdens that come along with freedom anymore. Today's 'me-first, me-last, me-always' mentality doesn't lend itself to social responsibility.
i don't think driving directions from the u.s. to france would be terribly useful. However, i'll send any european who wants them driving directions to the u.s., on condition that they follow them exactly.
In the UK we use some very advanced technology to handle elections. The vote is recorded by a sophsticated device called a pencil on a sheet of a material called paper, in the form of a graphite mark in the shape of an X. These pieces of paper are then folded for privacy, and put through a slot into a ballot box, which is locked. These boxes are then taken away and opened and the votes are counted by humans.
Yes, as we all know, Mr. Condescension, there have never been any cases of people tampering with those kinds of ballots.
if there is an easy way and a hard way to do something americans will choose the hard way.
case in point. the old russian pencil U.S. billion dollar space pen fiasco
As much as I see this brought up, I hardly ever see anyone who knows why NASA didn't just want to use pencils. It's not like it didn't occur to anyone. There exists more than one reason to use ink pens instead of pencils, but one is all you need: pens don't cause shavings of wood and graphite to float around the ship. Hint: There's no gravity in space to suck those small pieces of pencil to the ground. What I'm saying is that your actual point has merit, but the analogy you chose to illustrate it is seriously flawed. Personally, I don't see why it really matters as the popular vote is simply a charade anyway. I mean, 51% of the popular vote and $1.89 will get you a cup of coffee. It takes electoral college votes to win the presidency. Oh wait, I forgot, we all pretend that politicians actually care what the average people think. They don't trust us to make many decisions for ourselves, and choosing the president is one of the ones they make for us, while generally convincing us that what we think actually matters. If you need any further proof, look at all the state initiatives which the federal government is unconstitutionally overriding by threatening to withold all federal funding. Those initiatives were passed directly by majority vote of the population of the state, yet the federal government doesn't care at all about them. Politicians are not your friends, they do not care about you if you are not delivering them truckloads of money or votes, and if you think they are and do, respectively, then you are painfully deluded. Note: there *could* be one or two politicians that aren't like that. I don't need people replying that their local JP is a really great guy. The majority are sociopathic, egotistical fucktards that care about nothing more than personal advancement.
From the article: "But before it would be freed, it would become part of an experiment that could someday help suppress human appetites, or even save lives on the battlefield."
In other words, we torture the squirrels so that fatass armchair-Schwartzkopfs can get thinner with no effort while watching the USA shock and awe people on CNN and FOX.
Point the first: I am not torturing squirrels for the reasons you stated. I am torturing them just for fun. Point the second: If they all get thinner, they won't be fatasses anymore. Point the third: There's only one Schwarzkopf. Point the fourth: You shouldn't be so hard on yourself. You really are a worthwhile person and your self-esteem problems will clear up once you've passed puberty. Actually, that last part is just bullshit. I don't have any way of knowing if you really are worthwhile or not. I'm just guessing that your obvious esteem issues are unfounded. Maybe you *should* feel guilty for being alive.
For those who don't get the joke, it's a Texas thing. Quite a few people I've known had squirrels in the deep freezer. Makes decent stew, just a bit tough.
I'm from Texas as well, but surprisingly enough I actually know the difference between freezing something and flash-freezing it. Of course, it's possible that junk flash-freezer rebuilding has replaced junk trans-am rebuilding as the redneck national sport here in TX, but last time I drove by the trailer park I didn't see a single flash-freezer up on blocks in a driveway. Technoweenies should be able to tell the difference between lowering the temperature of an object dramatically in seconds and changing it moderately in the course of an hour or so. Of course, I'm sure everyone who posted a 'redneck freezer' joke will claim to have known the difference, and that it just doesn't matter because they were trying to make a joke. Here's a hint to all you lazy fuckers: words mean things. Sometimes, words and concepts can be this thing we call 'related' or 'vaguely similar'. These things are not exactly the same. For example, sandals and boots are similar, but not the same. Also, 'freezing something in your home refrigerator's freezer compartment' is only vaguely related to 'lowering something's temperature to -40 degrees in seconds'
[whispers from side of stage] Ok so now i'm being told that they're pretty much all arrogant.. okay then
I see. So, when I respond to a post about how American money is stupid, I get called arrogant. Nice. Non-Americans feel it is their right to be condescending and disrespectful toward all Americans, but then when we take exception we're arrogant. Don't tell me how much better you are and how much smarter you are and then turn around and say your monetary system is better because you have to have a different size and Day-Glo color for each of your notes to prevent your citizens from becoming terribly confused. You can't eat your cake and have it, too.
I didn't mean that scamming never happens here, but tricking someone into excepting one note instead of another doesn't, because of the different colours and sizes.
I'm glad you're the authority on the subject. So no one, ever, has tricked anyone into accepting non-legal tender in your country. Ever. Not once. How do you know? Perhaps your system has caused you to become so complacent that you wouldn't even know if counterfeiting or scamming was going on. I'll believe that before I believe that no one in your entire country has ever been tricked into taking a bill that wasn't right, or wasn't even money.
There is a good reason to make notes different colours and sizes. It is so that folks who are partially sighted can easily recognise the different notes.
Yes, that is true. Nowhere did I say it wasn't useful to the partially sighted. However, it doesn't follow that you'd want to use colors that will cause the fully sighted members of your community to become partially sighted. My problem isn't with the "concept", it's with the "execution", and I don't believe I said anything to counterindicate that. If the colors used weren't garish and trashy looking, it'd be fine. Also, just so you know, the different size thing works just as well for partially sighted people as it does for totally blind ones. There's no need to have eye-twisting colors, if the bills are already different sizes.
I agree. My main problem with Aussie money is that it looks like an explosion at the neon paint store and that some guy named 'banjo' is on it. Other than that, I think it's great.
I SO hope you end up accepting counterfeit money someday, in the hopes that maybe it'll pop that "high-and-mighty better than everyone else" attitude that you're projecting here.
I'm sorry you feel inferior to me. That isn't my fault, however. I don't think I'm better than everyone else, and I don't think you have to carry a chemistry set around to test money. You can get a pen for like 5 bucks from any office supply store that can tell you if the paper isn't right, and cursory visual inspection will tell you if the numbers have been changed. If the counterfeiting is good enough to pass those tests (which take maybe 3 seconds per bill) then it's good enough for me.
It must be tough though, when places give you back change, and you demand hundreds of dollars of tests for them to prove the money is real. Or do you just not get change back, and places tell you "get lost, asshole"?
Well, perhaps you are always getting numerous 20 dollar bills or 50 dollar bills as change, but I rarely have that problem. I don't test 1, 5, or 10 dollar bills except by cursory physical examination, which is very quick, and to most people looks like I'm just counting it (which I am also doing). If there is a 20 or 50 dollar bill given to me in change, yes I whip out the pen and test it really quick. Stores do it when they take those bills from me, and I don't have a problem with returning the favor. I rarely test more than 1 or 2 bills, and so far they've all passed, anyhow. I suppose you want some magic government department to take care of all your responsibilities for you, but I prefer to believe that since I'm the one taking the money, I'm the one responsible for at least looking at it, or swiping it with a pen if it's a large enough denomination. I'd say I appreciated your points, but they were idiotic and I didn't.
"Banjo" Patterson is a well respected Australian Poet. God forbid a country honour people who made a contribution to Australian society, rather then people who managed to get enough votes to run the country.
Yes, I'm sure Banjo did great things for Australia. He's the reason Australian poetry is respected far and wide...erm, wait. Let's see...English poets, check. Lots of those. French poets..yep, tons. American poets, sure got lots. Australian poets...well, there's that Banjo guy..and...well, I guess that's about it. Yay for your country, it produced a poet, and that was good enough to get him on the money. What's next? Putting Paul Hogan on your money because he's a famous Australian artist too? Make sure the background is bright yellow and pink with some lime green boxes on it so it fits in with the rest of those Day-Glo abominations you call bank notes.
Cause Its really aesthetic to have every single bill the same size, colour. Fucking moron.
Yes, I must be a moron not to want my money to look like an explosion in the Day-Glo paint factory. That means I have no taste. I'd prefer elegant, understated dignity over eye-gouging medleys of pink and purple. I sure have no aesthetic taste at all. Boy, you're sure smart. Dignified, refined, and elegant or a second-grader's first experience with neon fingerpaint. I'll take the former, please. You can have the latter.
Slashdot Mirror
Paradoxically, this site is showing all the pictures found in news and reviews over the Internet.
Um...it's an internet website that shows....PICTURES?!?!?!?! Saying 'it's a news site that only shows pictures, contrary to common expectations of news sites' doesn't cut it, as it doesn't PURPORT to be a regular news site. There's no paradox when a site intended to display news photographs.....does.
>Once again, I'll refer to the old "Only Criminals Would Oppose This" arguement.
The one which is wheeled out whenever freedom is being threatened, such as cctv, id cards, drug tests at work etc etc?
My favorite thing to do when this hoary old chestnut gets trotted out is ask the trotter-outer whether he/she is for daily body cavity searches for each and every citizen of the US. If not, I ask them what exactly it is they have to hide, since only criminals have anything to fear. Plus, it would help early-detection rates of prostate cancer, and thus anyone who opposes this measure is demonstrably pro-cancer and probably a criminal, too.
hey, i'm talking seriously, you're talking freakishly, yet your comments get a higher score....
I can see you're new here. Welcome to slashdot.
Why do you doubt (c)? That's what they did to vinyl: they simply stopped making it. That forced people into getting CD players. So stop making CDs and you'll be forced to get a chip player and you'll be pretty much obliged to replace your CDs, too, so the RIAA will see a 50% revenue boost by not making CDs any more.
If you're inclined to argue, remember that this has already happened once before.
Not quite. When the hottest trax started coming out on plastic instead of wax, there was very little choice for the average person. You either bought what they sold or you didn't have music. Now, however, all you need is a computer and you have access to tons of free music (please note: I'm not talking about ripping off copyrighted materials. I'm talking about the huge amount of totally free music you can find online if you spend even a small bit of time looking).
I haven't bought a CD for years already, and I don't see why changing the format will affect me. I have my mp3 and wav files, and I have plenty of storage for them, and when the new ultra-huge hard drives come out, I can just move that collection. That includes all music I've legally purchased on CD and tape, as well. I no longer need the physical CD or tape or fingernail-sized chip, and neither do lots of other people. In fact, there's no real reason for the music industry to go to another format; they would spend a ton of money and only piss off more customers than they have already pissed off.
Here are a few sites to get you started if you want free music online.
www.garageband.com
www.nibb.net
Ever stop to think the two things might be related? Seven is a very large number of accidents. Accidents are more likely when you make all the drivers around you angry and irrational. (Remember, the other drivers are humans, not precision machines.)
In general, the best way to avoid accidents is to follow convention, do what everyone else is doing, and go with the flow. It's often the guy who sticks out of the flow of traffic like a sore thumb because he's trying to "obey the law" who ends up causing the massive disruption leading to an accident.
Ever stop to think that you're a fucking idiot? I didn't provide any context for those 7 accidents, I provided no timeline for them, and gave no information other than the number. I was in 3 of the 7 before I even had a driver's license. I'm 28, and lived in a populous city with major traffic problems most of my life. Here is more information on my accidents, so that you can see how faulty assumptions lead to faulty arguments.
#1 biker enters limited-access highway from the side and hits the side of my stepdad's truck.
#2 t-boned by a drunk prostitute while on the way to school in my friend's car; we were stopped waiting to turn left and she just rammed the passenger side of the car. Claimed she didn't see us.
#3 rear-ended while on the way home from school, stopped at a stoplight in my friend's car.
#4 while on my motorcycle, a guy changed lanes right into me. he told the cop I shoulda known he was going to change lanes and gotten out of his way. The cop didn't agree.
#5 while in a parking lot, waiting for people to walk in front of my car, I got rear-ended by a guy who also claimed not to have seen me. (I don't know how you miss a 1977 chevy nova...then again, he didn't miss it.)
#6 While on UT campus, I was pulling out of a parallel parking space near the library. There was a car stopped behind me with his blinker on, clearly indicating that he was waiting for the spot. When I was about 1/4 of the way out of the spot, a taxi came flying around the guy waiting to park (driving ~35 on a 20mph speed limit crowded college campus road) and tore off the front bumper of my car.
#7 While driving downtown on a 35mph speed limit road, the driver in front of me slammed on her brakes for no apparent reason. I stopped in time to avoid her (with about 15 feet to spare) but the guy behind me 'didn't see me' and slammed into the back of my car at between 35 and 40 mph, pushing me the 15 feet into the truck in front of me.
Other people not paying attention caused every single one of the accidents I've been in. Nothing I was in control of had ANYTHING to do with any of them. The solution isn't more people breaking traffic laws, pal. It's more people PAYING ATTENTION so they can see the fucking road. Also, I refuse to get a ticket just because everyone else around me is breaking the law. If you're not going to pay my ticket for me, take the points for it onto your own license, and go to court for me, FUCK OFF. As I said, I've never caused an accident, and I've also never recieved a ticket. I've been driving for 13 years and have never gotten a ticket or caused an accident. That's what happens when you follow the laws. As for making the other drivers around me 'angry and irrational'...um, excuse me? It makes people angry when I don't break the law? TOO FUCKING BAD. I'm not responsible for anyone else's poor driving, no matter how you might twist it to make me seem so. I'm also not responsible for other people's convenience. If they're running late, they should have left earlier. If they're speeding for no real reason, why should *I* risk getting a ticket to facilitate them? I'm not going to live my life breaking laws to please others. If you do, that's your choice. The problem is that people don't take driving seriously anymore. It's not something to concentrate on, it's not something to perform with caution, it's just there. Driver error causes the vast majority of accidents, and I'll be damned if me driving WORSE is going to fix that problem.
Good concept, except these things instantly turn the light green for you and red for the other direction. There's no voting system, and what if someone has a juiced up repeater going off... better yet wouldn't it be great to just sit on the side of the road near an intersection and f*ck sh*t up?
From what I've seen with emergency vehicles in TX, it makes the opposing traffic light turn yellow, not red, and makes you wait the 4 seconds or 8 seconds or whatever the yellow's set to, depending on the speed limit of the road you're on. Emergency vehicles slow down as they're approaching the intersection to give the yellow time to turn red.
YMMV all offers with approved credit terms and conditions apply see dealer for details.
They already do that. They're called proximity detectors, and they determine when cars are sitting on top of them. They work based on induction.
The worst thing about this system is how much it utterly sucks for motorcyclists. My only form of transportation for 5 1/2 years was a motorcycle, and I had to make tons of right turns to avoid left turn lanes with those things in 'em. I'd get off work at 1am and try to drive home, but unless I got really lucky and the car in front of me wanted to turn left, or I wanted to wait an unknown amount of time for some other car to want to turn left, I had to make a right and U-turn. It was highly annoying. One time, after I'd waited through 2 cycles with no green, and pulled my right-turn-U-turn ordeal, I got pulled over by a motorcycle officer. He didn't want to give me a ticket or anything, just told me that unofficially, officers will turn their backs if you run that kind of light on a bike, provided you wait a full change of the lights first (and it's late night/early morning when there's less chance a car will help you out). I'm too compulsive to be able to do that, though. I stuck it out with right-turn-U-turn. If I still had my bike, I'd buy one of these light-changer things just for intersections like that. Oh well. Motorcycles are always an afterthought in road/traffic light design, if they're thought of at all.
You can smugly sit there in the knowledge that you're doing the right thing, until you see that it's not all black and white and you have to try and conform to the driving style of the world around you. Within reason.
I always keep as much following distance as I can (up to about a car length per 10mph of speed). Why? Because people have slammed on their brakes in front of me for no reason whatsoever. It hasn't happened often, but it HAS happened. You never know what other drivers will do or what chance will throw at you and you shouldn't assume you do. I'm not going to drive bumper-to-bumper just to avoid pissing off other drivers around me. They aren't going to pay for my car if I rear-end someone because I failed to keep control of my speed (here in TX, that's what you get a ticket for if you DON'T maintain good following distance and you rear-end someone). I've been in 7 traffic accidents, none of which I caused and only 4 in which I was driving. Every single one of them was caused by somebody failing to follow a simple traffic rule because they were in a hurry, or because they had gotten away with it a million times before. Maybe I'm causing 'problems' to the drivers around me by not breaking even the most commonly broken traffic laws (following distance, signaling, misusing center turn lanes, not paying attention) but I've seen accidents caused by all of the above and I'm not about to put myself into one for someone else's convenience and/or to placate their 'road rage'. I know most people don't care and won't, but I'm not of the opinion that saving 20 or 30 seconds on a trip is worth possibly killing myself or other people. Apparently that's a minority opinion.
http://www.msu.edu/~jdowell/FaultyLogic.html
You need to read this page.
Regardless of whether it is natural or not if a change in climate will make the earth less hospitable to us and it is within our power to stop or lesson that effect it makes sense for us to do so.
Sure. Right. We can stop or lessen the effect of the sun's output increasing. Good one, bub. Perhaps you were referring to halting the production of manmade CFCs? Maybe you're afraid that O3 will cease to be produced? Or perhaps you're simply afraid that the hole in the ozone layer is getting bigger, or that we're in for global cooling, or global warming, or you think there aren't enough trees or that evil logging companies encourage monocultures, or that eating vegetarian doesn't cause any animals to die, or some other foolish thing. It really doesn't matter. I promise you that the earth really doesn't give a shit about human conceit and that 1000 years or less after our species is gone there will be very very very little sign of it remaining. Of course, you won't care, being dead. Neither will I, but then I don't care now. I could raze and salt half the state I live in, but someone viewing that state 1000 years from now would never know it. The dinosaurs cleared more land than humans ever could. Somehow, plants still exist, and so does the planet. We need to stop the mistaken belief that humans are capable of destroying this planet. We couldn't do it if we tried. Sure, we can wipe out species, we could wipe out entire orders if we wanted to. So what? Mother Nature has been doing that FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS. It's called "Natural Selection" and here's how it works: Some species become more viable and thus more populous, some species become less viable and thus less populous. Here's a hint: if your species *can* be wiped out, especially by something innocuous like humans clearing land for housing and such, YOUR SPECIES DOESN'T DESERVE TO EXIST. We have some kind of notion that we own this planet, or that we rule it. Bah. Stop whinging about the planet, it's taken care of itself for a long, long time, and nothing we do will have any real lasting impact in, say, a geological age. We don't have to "save" the planet, since it's in no real danger. Don't give me any rainforest bullshit either. I don't care. Nature's track record of genocide and genesis is much longer than most people ever take the time to try and comprehend. I know humans are conceited as a species, but it's getting ridiculous. Worst case: we kill ourselves (and probably a shitload of other species) off. Result: Nature rebuilds and moves on. Net result of human occupation on Earth, time frame 10 million years after the last human dies: nothing.
So, if we weren't using all that degraded biomass to power our cars, what would it be doing? Sitting in the ground, being useless. So what if we burn up 2 tons of what was once a fucking plant? It's not like we're cutting down 2 tons of CURRENT living biomass for each gallon. I mean, sure, look for more efficient energy sources; might as well, right? However, using old biomass that isn't doing anything else is better than, say, converting people into fuel. Of course, I can think of some people who would be more useful powering my car than in their current existence.
So you are right: in a sufficiently corrupt political system, even paper and pen is not enough to guarantee a fair election.
Well, considering that the election process predates election fraud by about 2 minutes, I think it's safe to say that *any* electoral system is going to be subverted, or at least someone will attempt to subvert it.
It's one of the prices of freedom, and one of the responsibilities of the electorate is to monitor the process. Of course, the electorate hasn't been known for excercising its responsibilites. We all want more 'rights,' such as free money and a free living and free healthcare and free this and free that but we don't seem willing to shoulder the burdens that come along with freedom anymore. Today's 'me-first, me-last, me-always' mentality doesn't lend itself to social responsibility.
Hi! My name is 'humor'. 'humour' for those of you who speak british. Nice to meet you.
i don't think driving directions from the u.s. to france would be terribly useful. However, i'll send any european who wants them driving directions to the u.s., on condition that they follow them exactly.
In the UK we use some very advanced technology to handle elections. The vote is recorded by a sophsticated device called a pencil on a sheet of a material called paper, in the form of a graphite mark in the shape of an X. These pieces of paper are then folded for privacy, and put through a slot into a ballot box, which is locked. These boxes are then taken away and opened and the votes are counted by humans.
Yes, as we all know, Mr. Condescension, there have never been any cases of people tampering with those kinds of ballots.
if there is an easy way and a hard way to do something americans will choose the hard way.
case in point. the old russian pencil U.S. billion dollar space pen fiasco
As much as I see this brought up, I hardly ever see anyone who knows why NASA didn't just want to use pencils. It's not like it didn't occur to anyone. There exists more than one reason to use ink pens instead of pencils, but one is all you need: pens don't cause shavings of wood and graphite to float around the ship. Hint: There's no gravity in space to suck those small pieces of pencil to the ground. What I'm saying is that your actual point has merit, but the analogy you chose to illustrate it is seriously flawed. Personally, I don't see why it really matters as the popular vote is simply a charade anyway. I mean, 51% of the popular vote and $1.89 will get you a cup of coffee. It takes electoral college votes to win the presidency. Oh wait, I forgot, we all pretend that politicians actually care what the average people think. They don't trust us to make many decisions for ourselves, and choosing the president is one of the ones they make for us, while generally convincing us that what we think actually matters. If you need any further proof, look at all the state initiatives which the federal government is unconstitutionally overriding by threatening to withold all federal funding. Those initiatives were passed directly by majority vote of the population of the state, yet the federal government doesn't care at all about them. Politicians are not your friends, they do not care about you if you are not delivering them truckloads of money or votes, and if you think they are and do, respectively, then you are painfully deluded. Note: there *could* be one or two politicians that aren't like that. I don't need people replying that their local JP is a really great guy. The majority are sociopathic, egotistical fucktards that care about nothing more than personal advancement.
From the article:
"But before it would be freed, it would become part of an experiment that could someday help suppress human appetites, or even save lives on the battlefield."
In other words, we torture the squirrels
so that fatass armchair-Schwartzkopfs
can get thinner with no effort while
watching the USA shock and awe people
on CNN and FOX.
Point the first: I am not torturing squirrels for the reasons you stated. I am torturing them just for fun.
Point the second: If they all get thinner, they won't be fatasses anymore.
Point the third: There's only one Schwarzkopf.
Point the fourth: You shouldn't be so hard on yourself. You really are a worthwhile person and your self-esteem problems will clear up once you've passed puberty.
Actually, that last part is just bullshit. I don't have any way of knowing if you really are worthwhile or not. I'm just guessing that your obvious esteem issues are unfounded. Maybe you *should* feel guilty for being alive.
For those who don't get the joke, it's a Texas thing. Quite a few people I've known had squirrels in the deep freezer. Makes decent stew, just a bit tough.
I'm from Texas as well, but surprisingly enough I actually know the difference between freezing something and flash-freezing it.
Of course, it's possible that junk flash-freezer rebuilding has replaced junk trans-am rebuilding as the redneck national sport here in TX, but last time I drove by the trailer park I didn't see a single flash-freezer up on blocks in a driveway.
Technoweenies should be able to tell the difference between lowering the temperature of an object dramatically in seconds and changing it moderately in the course of an hour or so. Of course, I'm sure everyone who posted a 'redneck freezer' joke will claim to have known the difference, and that it just doesn't matter because they were trying to make a joke. Here's a hint to all you lazy fuckers: words mean things. Sometimes, words and concepts can be this thing we call 'related' or 'vaguely similar'. These things are not exactly the same. For example, sandals and boots are similar, but not the same. Also, 'freezing something in your home refrigerator's freezer compartment' is only vaguely related to 'lowering something's temperature to -40 degrees in seconds'
wow you really are an arrogant american
i thought they didn't exist?
[whispers from side of stage]
Ok so now i'm being told that they're pretty much all arrogant.. okay then
I see. So, when I respond to a post about how American money is stupid, I get called arrogant. Nice. Non-Americans feel it is their right to be condescending and disrespectful toward all Americans, but then when we take exception we're arrogant. Don't tell me how much better you are and how much smarter you are and then turn around and say your monetary system is better because you have to have a different size and Day-Glo color for each of your notes to prevent your citizens from becoming terribly confused. You can't eat your cake and have it, too.
I didn't mean that scamming never happens here, but tricking someone into excepting one note instead of another doesn't, because of the different colours and sizes.
I'm glad you're the authority on the subject. So no one, ever, has tricked anyone into accepting non-legal tender in your country. Ever. Not once. How do you know? Perhaps your system has caused you to become so complacent that you wouldn't even know if counterfeiting or scamming was going on. I'll believe that before I believe that no one in your entire country has ever been tricked into taking a bill that wasn't right, or wasn't even money.
There is a good reason to make notes different colours and sizes. It is so that folks who are partially sighted can easily recognise the different notes.
Yes, that is true. Nowhere did I say it wasn't useful to the partially sighted. However, it doesn't follow that you'd want to use colors that will cause the fully sighted members of your community to become partially sighted. My problem isn't with the "concept", it's with the "execution", and I don't believe I said anything to counterindicate that. If the colors used weren't garish and trashy looking, it'd be fine. Also, just so you know, the different size thing works just as well for partially sighted people as it does for totally blind ones. There's no need to have eye-twisting colors, if the bills are already different sizes.
Certainly the polymer notes are a brilliant idea.
I agree. My main problem with Aussie money is that it looks like an explosion at the neon paint store and that some guy named 'banjo' is on it. Other than that, I think it's great.
I SO hope you end up accepting counterfeit money someday, in the hopes that maybe it'll pop that "high-and-mighty better than everyone else" attitude that you're projecting here.
I'm sorry you feel inferior to me. That isn't my fault, however. I don't think I'm better than everyone else, and I don't think you have to carry a chemistry set around to test money. You can get a pen for like 5 bucks from any office supply store that can tell you if the paper isn't right, and cursory visual inspection will tell you if the numbers have been changed. If the counterfeiting is good enough to pass those tests (which take maybe 3 seconds per bill) then it's good enough for me.
It must be tough though, when places give you back change, and you demand hundreds of dollars of tests for them to prove the money is real. Or do you just not get change back, and places tell you "get lost, asshole"?
Well, perhaps you are always getting numerous 20 dollar bills or 50 dollar bills as change, but I rarely have that problem. I don't test 1, 5, or 10 dollar bills except by cursory physical examination, which is very quick, and to most people looks like I'm just counting it (which I am also doing). If there is a 20 or 50 dollar bill given to me in change, yes I whip out the pen and test it really quick. Stores do it when they take those bills from me, and I don't have a problem with returning the favor. I rarely test more than 1 or 2 bills, and so far they've all passed, anyhow. I suppose you want some magic government department to take care of all your responsibilities for you, but I prefer to believe that since I'm the one taking the money, I'm the one responsible for at least looking at it, or swiping it with a pen if it's a large enough denomination. I'd say I appreciated your points, but they were idiotic and I didn't.
"Banjo" Patterson is a well respected Australian Poet. God forbid a country honour people who made a contribution to Australian society, rather then people who managed to get enough votes to run the country.
Yes, I'm sure Banjo did great things for Australia. He's the reason Australian poetry is respected far and wide...erm, wait. Let's see...English poets, check. Lots of those. French poets..yep, tons. American poets, sure got lots. Australian poets...well, there's that Banjo guy..and...well, I guess that's about it. Yay for your country, it produced a poet, and that was good enough to get him on the money. What's next? Putting Paul Hogan on your money because he's a famous Australian artist too?
Make sure the background is bright yellow and pink with some lime green boxes on it so it fits in with the rest of those Day-Glo abominations you call bank notes.
Cause Its really aesthetic to have every single bill the same size, colour. Fucking moron.
Yes, I must be a moron not to want my money to look like an explosion in the Day-Glo paint factory. That means I have no taste. I'd prefer elegant, understated dignity over eye-gouging medleys of pink and purple. I sure have no aesthetic taste at all. Boy, you're sure smart.
Dignified, refined, and elegant or a second-grader's first experience with neon fingerpaint. I'll take the former, please. You can have the latter.