So the federal government, with its $1 TRILLION annual budget, can't afford a $20 billion space program?
Yet we spend over $450 billion on the military, almost twice as much as with under Bill Clinton. So in 4 more years it should be double the current amount...
I say scrap that idiotic missile defense system that can't shoot anything down, saving ~ $60 billion, and send 3 manned missions to Mars.
I believe the states are much more effective in fighting poverty than the federal government, since they are either local issues or problems with our economic system - in either case, more easily solved by actually creating jobs, locally or nationally. Simply throwing money at poverty is a band-aid.
Cameras are not the sole problem that many citizens are concerned with. Rather, they are a symptom of a feeling that our freedom is being eroded by an over-controlling government intent on knowing absolutely everything that is happening - in the off chance that ic can prevent some bad thing from happening.
The real problem is that people want to have some semblance of privacy. Most people strongly believe that the government should be in NO way involved in your personal, private life. Mass information-gathering techniques by the government - recording video, databases of regular citizens, indexed photos of people at rallying events, the government outright spying on its citizens (illegal in the US, btw, or used to be a few years back) - all these things are considered intrusions into your private, personal life. People don't want this.
The reason cameras are singled out - when they are potentially less intruding than, say, Echelon or the Total Information Awareness system (for some info: http://www.eff.org/Privacy/TIA/) - is that cameras are more visible. You can see them. They actually record you walking by them, whereas these other information-gathering systems operate in a clandestine fashion that you will likely never really hear about.
Now, all this aside is the fact that many people believe the government is out of control. I mean, why does it need all this security and control? If the country is so screwed up, why should we continue to prop it up on its 2 legs?? As many disgruntled citizens are aware nowadays, it is because the government is only interested in furthering the agendas of large corporations. To the detriment of its citizens. When the people protest, we get shot with rubber bullets, beaten with clubs and gassed.
What if we just started handing out small solar panels to all the families in Iraq? Distributed electricity generating could avoid a lot of the problems they are having with terrorists and guerillas blowing up the transmission lines. Then, if they need computers, sell 'em older refurbished laptops (somehow I think this isn't even on the US's "Iraq rebuilding list" agenda).
Maybe we should collect old junked laptops and ship 'em out to 3rd world countries. Makes a lot of sense now...
NYTIMES article: Iraq rebuffed Al Qaeda
on
Linux in Iraq
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Why did Saddam not ever have any dealing with any Islamic extremists, including Al Qaeda? Because it would have challenged Saddam's rule. He was a dictator, and we helped support him because he was anti-islamic - just look at the 10 year Iraq/Iran war. We funded him because that ended up killing over 1 million Iranians (and Iraqis, too).
I don't even want to get into invading Iraq and stuff, but needless to say, we didn't find millions of pounds of weapons of mass destruction, mobile weapons labs, and missiles capable of reaching the US.
However, we have set up a lot of other tin-pot dictators that aren't in the middle east. Just look at Pakistan, Haiti (just a few weeks ago!), etc,etc, google if you want to.
Why give large rebuilding contracts out to US firms, when there are literally millions of Iraqis who are unemployed - and will work for cheap - that are already in Iraq?
Not to mention the huge Iraqi construction companies who - over the last 20 years - built all of Saddam's palaces, military bunkers, etc. They certainly have the means, techinical expertise, and manpower to do that stuff. And they are already there.
That would go far beyond any Haliburton/Bechtel efforts to rebuild Iraq, as none of the money Haliburton gets paid goes to help Iraqis. After all, the point in rebuilding a country is to eventually restart said country's economy so people there can work. This almost sounds like Saudi Arabia all over again, with 80% unemployment rates - sans the monthly oil checks.
There are actually professionals - called architectrs and designers - who specialize in this kind of thing.
Contrary to popular disbelief, design can make a huge impact on people, psychologically influencing them, and can make you more or less productive; more or less happy, etc.
I would say that offering enough space for each person to do their work goes a long, long way in improving the productivity of an office. Natural lighting is also a very positive thing, as are interesting colors. Banal, white or beige walls seem very antiseptic to people and do not promote much that is positive.
So don't block off those windows (don't let the damn bosses hog them), allow the light to spill into a communal area, get rid of the fucking cubicals, but still partition the space to give people privacy, add some plants and paint a few walls with low-key nice colors (not bright red!), and you will be well on your way to making a nice, comfortable office. Oh yea, free drinks are always welcome.
What a way to go! Much better than dying in a car accident - and people would probably remember you, too! "First man who died in a privatized spacecraft."
We've had this kind of law in Oregon for around 2 years. We have dozens of DSL providers, even though there are only 2 or 3 phone providers in the major metro areas.
The system is setup so you pay the line provider separately from the ISP, which are not integrated. Really nice - you can get DSL for around $30/month, plus the normal phone fee on top of that.
Rated by Intel (whose research headquarters is in the metro area) as the most unwired city in America. Personal telco (http://www.personaltelco.net/) has over 100 hotspots around the city, with a lot of cool cafes hooked up (free service, of course).
Also, there is the fact that Linus Torvalds is moving to Portland soon - he just bought a house here.
Guess it's going to be Portland vs. Seattle pretty soon! Can't wait to see the bombs falling soon!
Back when I was a kid right before World War 2, I was riding on a Zeppelin when this strange guard was checking tickets. One of the passengers didn't have one, so he tossed him out the window.
Since when do you see 8-year olds with a drivers license out driving?
Blind people?
Sorry, it is not a right. It's not in the constitution. You have feet. You can walk, or take the bus, if you are stupid enough to live somewhere in which you cannot walk to work, the store, or school.
I think that black boxes SHOULD be mandatory. If you are out in the public realm, then *surprise* you need to follow a set of laws to not kill people, because 45,000 people in the US are killed each year by raving loons driving cars! There are 1.5 million auto accidents.
Freedom of speech is one thing, but here you are in the PUBLIC REALM, and you are responsible for your actions. Especially if they endanger people's lives.
If it were up to me, there would be NO more cars in the cities. That would solve most of these issues rather quickly, BUT...
Darn japanese inventors take all the credit. Well, I'm dating a japanese woman - and I have my super wind-powered car that is going through the patent office right now! Since I'm nice, I'll give you a sneak preview of it!
First, there is a mini-windmill that is attached to the hood of your car.
Then a gear steps the RPM up, which powers a fan in the back of your car to push it! I swear, once you get up to 30 mph, you don't need anymore gas! It's all about aerodynamics, I swear!
It's like the age-old argument: quality vs. quantity.
For instance, in your example, perhaps nobody knew that the guy who slipped really liked to buy wine and booze for his parents, who like to "get wild" on the weekends.
But because the computer just tracks what it is programmed to, it doesn't know this. The lawyers are then free to interpret this data however they choose. And believe me, they will wring and twist it however they see fit.
On the other hand, if you have a store clerk in the one-horse town, whom, hopefully talked to the guy buying booze, he could tell the jury the guy actually is a born-again mormon, doesn't drink, and buys it for his parents.
It's all about the potential for abuse, and the limit of technology. As if people's perceptions were questionable enough, these devices are created by us...and so inherently contain all of our faults, plus more (laws of physics).
My safe card has no name, no address, and no phone number. I just asked for one, and they gave it to me.
Yea, they can track "your" account, but it's pretty difficult for them to do that, unless they can cross-reference your credit card along with it. Or arrest you and yank it off your person.
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So the federal government, with its $1 TRILLION annual budget, can't afford a $20 billion space program?
Yet we spend over $450 billion on the military, almost twice as much as with under Bill Clinton. So in 4 more years it should be double the current amount...
I say scrap that idiotic missile defense system that can't shoot anything down, saving ~ $60 billion, and send 3 manned missions to Mars.
I believe the states are much more effective in fighting poverty than the federal government, since they are either local issues or problems with our economic system - in either case, more easily solved by actually creating jobs, locally or nationally. Simply throwing money at poverty is a band-aid.
Cameras are not the sole problem that many citizens are concerned with. Rather, they are a symptom of a feeling that our freedom is being eroded by an over-controlling government intent on knowing absolutely everything that is happening - in the off chance that ic can prevent some bad thing from happening.
The real problem is that people want to have some semblance of privacy. Most people strongly believe that the government should be in NO way involved in your personal, private life. Mass information-gathering techniques by the government - recording video, databases of regular citizens, indexed photos of people at rallying events, the government outright spying on its citizens (illegal in the US, btw, or used to be a few years back) - all these things are considered intrusions into your private, personal life. People don't want this.
The reason cameras are singled out - when they are potentially less intruding than, say, Echelon or the Total Information Awareness system (for some info: http://www.eff.org/Privacy/TIA/) - is that cameras are more visible. You can see them. They actually record you walking by them, whereas these other information-gathering systems operate in a clandestine fashion that you will likely never really hear about.
Now, all this aside is the fact that many people believe the government is out of control. I mean, why does it need all this security and control? If the country is so screwed up, why should we continue to prop it up on its 2 legs??
As many disgruntled citizens are aware nowadays, it is because the government is only interested in furthering the agendas of large corporations. To the detriment of its citizens. When the people protest, we get shot with rubber bullets, beaten with clubs and gassed.
What a wonderful society we live in.
Isn't that going to be made into a Reality TV Show sometime soon??
Can't wait!!
I really would prefer people to call sex "love-making" (especially when you are married) instead of "pornographic activities."
I mean, your terminology leaves much to be desired - would you suggest then that children are just a result of pornography?
Sounds kind of sick, if you ask me. I happen to consider sex a very wonderful - and fun - activity!
What if we just started handing out small solar panels to all the families in Iraq? Distributed electricity generating could avoid a lot of the problems they are having with terrorists and guerillas blowing up the transmission lines. Then, if they need computers, sell 'em older refurbished laptops (somehow I think this isn't even on the US's "Iraq rebuilding list" agenda).
Maybe we should collect old junked laptops and ship 'em out to 3rd world countries. Makes a lot of sense now...
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Sept-1 1-Commission.html?hp
Why did Saddam not ever have any dealing with any Islamic extremists, including Al Qaeda? Because it would have challenged Saddam's rule. He was a dictator, and we helped support him because he was anti-islamic - just look at the 10 year Iraq/Iran war. We funded him because that ended up killing over 1 million Iranians (and Iraqis, too).
I don't even want to get into invading Iraq and stuff, but needless to say, we didn't find millions of pounds of weapons of mass destruction, mobile weapons labs, and missiles capable of reaching the US.
However, we have set up a lot of other tin-pot dictators that aren't in the middle east. Just look at Pakistan, Haiti (just a few weeks ago!), etc,etc, google if you want to.
Damn! I wondered whatever had happened to that lady after she had escaped out of my testing laboratory located deep underground in a remote location.
Luckily, I just sent my best agents to "collect" this child and do more genetic testing on him, as he obviously has far surpassed his mother.
Muhahahaha! Soon I will rule the world with my mutant armies of 4 1/2 year olds!
Why give large rebuilding contracts out to US firms, when there are literally millions of Iraqis who are unemployed - and will work for cheap - that are already in Iraq?
Not to mention the huge Iraqi construction companies who - over the last 20 years - built all of Saddam's palaces, military bunkers, etc. They certainly have the means, techinical expertise, and manpower to do that stuff. And they are already there.
That would go far beyond any Haliburton/Bechtel efforts to rebuild Iraq, as none of the money Haliburton gets paid goes to help Iraqis.
After all, the point in rebuilding a country is to eventually restart said country's economy so people there can work.
This almost sounds like Saudi Arabia all over again, with 80% unemployment rates - sans the monthly oil checks.
scare me. Really makes you wonder when they'll just go crazy and start killing other people/animals.
hate is the result of fear.
There are actually professionals - called architectrs and designers - who specialize in this kind of thing.
Contrary to popular disbelief, design can make a huge impact on people, psychologically influencing them, and can make you more or less productive; more or less happy, etc.
I would say that offering enough space for each person to do their work goes a long, long way in improving the productivity of an office. Natural lighting is also a very positive thing, as are interesting colors. Banal, white or beige walls seem very antiseptic to people and do not promote much that is positive.
So don't block off those windows (don't let the damn bosses hog them), allow the light to spill into a communal area, get rid of the fucking cubicals, but still partition the space to give people privacy, add some plants and paint a few walls with low-key nice colors (not bright red!), and you will be well on your way to making a nice, comfortable office.
Oh yea, free drinks are always welcome.
You aren't going to find many hillbillies right next to Seattle.
What a way to go! Much better than dying in a car accident - and people would probably remember you, too! "First man who died in a privatized spacecraft."
Sweet! I could be famous!
We've had this kind of law in Oregon for around 2 years. We have dozens of DSL providers, even though there are only 2 or 3 phone providers in the major metro areas.
The system is setup so you pay the line provider separately from the ISP, which are not integrated. Really nice - you can get DSL for around $30/month, plus the normal phone fee on top of that.
Rated by Intel (whose research headquarters is in the metro area) as the most unwired city in America. Personal telco (http://www.personaltelco.net/) has over 100 hotspots around the city, with a lot of cool cafes hooked up (free service, of course).
Also, there is the fact that Linus Torvalds is moving to Portland soon - he just bought a house here.
Guess it's going to be Portland vs. Seattle pretty soon! Can't wait to see the bombs falling soon!
Back when I was a kid right before World War 2, I was riding on a Zeppelin when this strange guard was checking tickets. One of the passengers didn't have one, so he tossed him out the window.
Hey, isn't that how much a year's college tuition is nowadays?
And certainly not shared by "all citizens."
Since when do you see 8-year olds with a drivers license out driving?
Blind people?
Sorry, it is not a right. It's not in the constitution. You have feet. You can walk, or take the bus, if you are stupid enough to live somewhere in which you cannot walk to work, the store, or school.
I think that black boxes SHOULD be mandatory. If you are out in the public realm, then *surprise* you need to follow a set of laws to not kill people, because 45,000 people in the US are killed each year by raving loons driving cars! There are 1.5 million auto accidents.
Freedom of speech is one thing, but here you are in the PUBLIC REALM, and you are responsible for your actions. Especially if they endanger people's lives.
If it were up to me, there would be NO more cars in the cities. That would solve most of these issues rather quickly, BUT...
what KIND of paper? There are thousands...some are made of synthetic materials, too.
Darn japanese inventors take all the credit. Well, I'm dating a japanese woman - and I have my super wind-powered car that is going through the patent office right now! Since I'm nice, I'll give you a sneak preview of it!
First, there is a mini-windmill that is attached to the hood of your car.
Then a gear steps the RPM up, which powers a fan in the back of your car to push it!
I swear, once you get up to 30 mph, you don't need anymore gas! It's all about aerodynamics, I swear!
Too bad it isnt a national thing, but according to Oregon's constitution, stripping is considered free speech.
=D
It's like the age-old argument: quality vs. quantity.
For instance, in your example, perhaps nobody knew that the guy who slipped really liked to buy wine and booze for his parents, who like to "get wild" on the weekends.
But because the computer just tracks what it is programmed to, it doesn't know this. The lawyers are then free to interpret this data however they choose. And believe me, they will wring and twist it however they see fit.
On the other hand, if you have a store clerk in the one-horse town, whom, hopefully talked to the guy buying booze, he could tell the jury the guy actually is a born-again mormon, doesn't drink, and buys it for his parents.
It's all about the potential for abuse, and the limit of technology. As if people's perceptions were questionable enough, these devices are created by us...and so inherently contain all of our faults, plus more (laws of physics).
My safe card has no name, no address, and no phone number. I just asked for one, and they gave it to me.
Yea, they can track "your" account, but it's pretty difficult for them to do that, unless they can cross-reference your credit card along with it. Or arrest you and yank it off your person.
Everytime I work on my car, I end up with a couple of extra nuts and bolts I don't know what to do with. Oh well. My car still runs great!
Best quote: "Normally, I wear fur, but since we're such close friends I feel comfortable about stripping off."