If you were confused by the Napster saga, the big media companies only care about squashing competition. Napster helped their bottom line. ANd taking it down hurt their bottom line. It wasn't about infringement, anymore than the radio is about infringement.
It's about control.
If this succeeds, they're unnecessary. They are the gate keepers. An artist needs them. But they don't need artists. They can take any dancer or model who can't sing and turn them into a pop star.
What if you're tired? If you've taken no drugs, but worked twenty hours in a row? You WILL fail an impairment test. But you've done nothing wrong. Maybe you shouldn't be driving. But then, the state SHOULD be providing affordable and comprehensive public transit. Infrastructure is the government's #1 job, not that they seem to take it very seriously.
If you're in Europe, you can tune this out. Even in most American cities public transit is abysmal. In Boston for example, the subways shut down at midnight. For reference, the bars close at 1AM. That's in a major city. Most Americans don't live in the cities. And most suburban and rural areas don't even have taxi services available. In most of the US, rhetoric aside, driving isn't a privilege: Driving is a necessity.
Oddly, American towns and cities did had good public transit a hundred years ago. Back then, even most small towns had trolley services. Then a conspiracy destroyed public transit. It's OK though; after making millions destroying public infrastructure and lobbying against light rail, GM had to pay a $5000 fine. For more details, watch "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" It covers the basic story pretty well. The real life bad guys were a shade more cartoonish than Christopher Lloyd though.
And then there is the question of enforcement. Would the testing be done in the same, "at the whim of the guy with the badge" approach we have now? We don't inspect or enforce pretty much any public health issues in the US. Food safety, Drug safety, traffic safety, etc.: All public safety in the US is set up to assign blame after stuff hits the fan. It didn't used to be like this either.
How do you objectively test for "situational awareness"? I don't know of ANY way to do it, that isn't completely at the whim of the person conducting the test. Most cops should not be taken at their word.
Right now, there are huge scandals in Massachusetts over these exact two things. One over a police lab making up evidence, falsifying data and generally doing bad things; for more than a decade. And second a failure to oversee a compounding center, and just generally assigning blame later after many people contracted fungal meningitis from contaminated shots. And the only reason it was exposed was that one doctor took on themselves to track down the cause of an odd outbreak.
The test should be for reactions and situational awareness. If you fail for any reason, then you should be prevented from driving. If you fail and also have been taking drugs that are known to cause this kind of impairment, then you might get some extra penalty.
It's a common brush-off answer. But it ignores reality completely. If you can't balance on one leg and touch your nose, while reciting the alphabet backwards... you fail. If you refuse to walk a straight line backwards in icy, sub-zero conditions... you fail. It doesn't matter that you have artificial hips, knees, or limbs.
Give a token homework grade (like ~ 10%) for participating and make everything in the final grade else be based on original projects and tests. Make the students use given files.
For me the choice is obvious, I don't care about the age factor.
That philosophy is a-typical in hiring managers. I've seen too many hiring managers who want that recent college grad (specifically a 22 to 24 year old grad), since he/she will work 80 hours a week without complaining about it. The person with 15 years of experience wants more money and a more reasonable work environment (like spending time with his/her family).
At my last job, they laid off my entire team, except for the guy who graduated 2 months before and lived for the job. No girlfriend. No hobbies.
Also, 3 years out of the job market is considered to be your fault by hiring managers, no matter what. It doesn't matter that you couldn't find a job. And often, people are willing to make ridiculous compromises to get a job these days.
It's the same in the US. In the US, the test is supposed to mimic driving conditions in Southern California. 70 degrees F ambient. Statistical mix of hills, flats and valleys, for Southern California.
Wow! While I am amused by the theft of 80,000 lbs of nuts, I wonder what it has to do with Slashdot's mandate. Is there some secret walnut sniffing device being deployed? Are they using formerly secret walnut scanners?
I seem to remember that there was an offer to fly generators in from a US Aircraft Carrier (I believe the Enterprise) that was anchored off coast. I also seem to remember the offer being turned down by the Japanese government, since they had generators on trucks enroute. I think they also had a problem with all the coolant wiring being flooded.
I know the trucks didn't get there until the next day, since the roads were a mess, and by then it was too late to do any good.
America has been making weapons-grade nuclear material for somewhere near 70 years now so I am sure they know how to keep it safe and out of the hands of the bad guys.
When I was in school, one of my class projects (for "Analysis of Thermofluid Processes") was to design a theoretical (i.e. we didn't have to actually build it) man portable vaccination cooler. It had to keep the vaccines 50 degrees below ambient for a few days. My design was Peltier effect cooler that ran off batteries for 5 days. Intermittent duty cycle combined with heavy insulation made it more effective than you'd think.
The FBI set DeLorean up for drugs, the crime menace dejour in the 80s. When he found out he was in the middle of a drug dealer, the FBI "informant" threatened to kill him and his family unless he went through. Then the public arrest.
Nothing new here, folks. Same stuff, different day.
I'm shocked that this didn't come out 10 years ago. Scary terrorists might be hiding secret communications in internet porn. It's alarming, and racy. All you need for a good news story.
So you used to be indifferent to religion, until you read about people protesting MANDATORY, as in legally required to go to a legally required school, vaccinations? HPV is a sexually transmitted disease, it's not smallpox or polio or even rhinovirus (the common cold) you're talking about. The HPV virus is, at best, very weakly statistically linked to cervical cancer. The vaccine is far more concretely to Merck's profit margins than any public health benefit, and has an unacceptably high rate of collateral damage. Because THEY feel mandating the HPV vaccinations for THEIR children, including a big push for boys, with their sky high rates of cervical cancer, violates their constitutional rights to freedom of religion, they're not able to think analytically?
I don't see a problem with the Christian's analytical thinking in this instant. As for hate; irrational mandates like this are usually the start of real, and justified hate.
You know, there is a point of view about how science has become a dogmatic religion of it's own (http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge219.html#dysonf). People take science as truth, on faith. What is the one true system of mechanics? The system that has not been dis-proven in any case (which would rule out the entire system according to the scientific method)? Newtonian? Relativistic? Quantum?
Evolution is a great example of this. No one argues about the principles of heredity, as laid out by a very religious man, a friar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_Mendel). But the larger, completely extrapolated principle of evolution is a topic of debate.
The argument goes like this:
Scientific Person: Rodents evolved to Monkeys evolved to Apes evolved to Man
Judeo-Christian Person: Man did not come from monkeys!
Scientific Person: Where did man come from, then?
Judeo-Christian Person: G*d created him in his image!
Scientific Person: Well there's no proof of that.
Judeo-Christian Person: Well there's no proof that!
Scientific Person: Didn't you just hear me say that Rodents evolved to Monkeys evolved to Apes evolved to Man? What more proof do you need? It's SCIENCE!
Judeo-Christian Person: And didn't you just hear me say that G*d created man?!?
And so forth. But there has never been a single documented case of a genus changing due to evolution, that I'm aware of. Not one. It can't be shown experimentally. Dogs have dog babies. Cats have cat babies. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Scientifically, evolution is a supported theory. But it is just a theory. According to the scientific method, everything is either a LAW (a set of assumptions to establish a framework) or a THEORY (a set of assumptions derived from the law that haven't been dis-proven yet).
And yet, here on Slashdot, the rank and file members of the cult of science cheered when schools in Georgia were forced to take that basic scientific principle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method) off the front covers of their text books.
"This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered. " (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selman_v._Cobb_County_School_District)
It's a valid, 100% scientifically correct statement. It was forced off of textbooks because of dogma.
The courts did right in Tennessee. A person might believe in science. A person might believe in Flying Spaghetti Monsters. A person might believe the world is flat. But a balanced viewpoint, and by extension a balanced education, requires more than an ostrich-like ability to stick your head in the sand when facing a viewpoint you disagree with while bleating a dogmatic mantra. And the courts should not silence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech) a debate because it hurts the sensibilities of ANY group. At least not in the US, where the Constitution (http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html) grants the right to say anything.
Slashdot Mirror
Comparison to MTBE makes perfect sense. Ethanol is the direct replacement for MTBE in gasoline. Both were added to, ostensibly, reduce smog.
Why is Lobster still so expensive?
I've personally seen lobster for sale in Maine for as little as $2.80/lbs. That's cheaper than hotdogs.
It was originally a concept car called the Lincoln Futura (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Futura).
So it's like buying two amazing cars in one! A Ghia body worked over by George Barris.
If you were confused by the Napster saga, the big media companies only care about squashing competition. Napster helped their bottom line. ANd taking it down hurt their bottom line. It wasn't about infringement, anymore than the radio is about infringement.
It's about control.
If this succeeds, they're unnecessary. They are the gate keepers. An artist needs them. But they don't need artists. They can take any dancer or model who can't sing and turn them into a pop star.
If you're in Europe, you can tune this out. Even in most American cities public transit is abysmal. In Boston for example, the subways shut down at midnight. For reference, the bars close at 1AM. That's in a major city. Most Americans don't live in the cities. And most suburban and rural areas don't even have taxi services available. In most of the US, rhetoric aside, driving isn't a privilege: Driving is a necessity.
Oddly, American towns and cities did had good public transit a hundred years ago. Back then, even most small towns had trolley services. Then a conspiracy destroyed public transit. It's OK though; after making millions destroying public infrastructure and lobbying against light rail, GM had to pay a $5000 fine. For more details, watch "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" It covers the basic story pretty well. The real life bad guys were a shade more cartoonish than Christopher Lloyd though.
And then there is the question of enforcement. Would the testing be done in the same, "at the whim of the guy with the badge" approach we have now? We don't inspect or enforce pretty much any public health issues in the US. Food safety, Drug safety, traffic safety, etc.: All public safety in the US is set up to assign blame after stuff hits the fan. It didn't used to be like this either.
How do you objectively test for "situational awareness"? I don't know of ANY way to do it, that isn't completely at the whim of the person conducting the test. Most cops should not be taken at their word. Right now, there are huge scandals in Massachusetts over these exact two things. One over a police lab making up evidence, falsifying data and generally doing bad things; for more than a decade. And second a failure to oversee a compounding center, and just generally assigning blame later after many people contracted fungal meningitis from contaminated shots. And the only reason it was exposed was that one doctor took on themselves to track down the cause of an odd outbreak.
The test should be for reactions and situational awareness. If you fail for any reason, then you should be prevented from driving. If you fail and also have been taking drugs that are known to cause this kind of impairment, then you might get some extra penalty.
It's a common brush-off answer. But it ignores reality completely. If you can't balance on one leg and touch your nose, while reciting the alphabet backwards... you fail. If you refuse to walk a straight line backwards in icy, sub-zero conditions... you fail. It doesn't matter that you have artificial hips, knees, or limbs.
Or does this seem like a way to punish free users and play a victim card at the same time.
"It's not us doing it to try and force people into paid plans. It's... um... pirates?"
The solution is simple:
Give a token homework grade (like ~ 10%) for participating and make everything in the final grade else be based on original projects and tests. Make the students use given files.
Then, if they cheat, they only cheat themselves.
For me the choice is obvious, I don't care about the age factor.
That philosophy is a-typical in hiring managers. I've seen too many hiring managers who want that recent college grad (specifically a 22 to 24 year old grad), since he/she will work 80 hours a week without complaining about it. The person with 15 years of experience wants more money and a more reasonable work environment (like spending time with his/her family).
At my last job, they laid off my entire team, except for the guy who graduated 2 months before and lived for the job. No girlfriend. No hobbies.
Also, 3 years out of the job market is considered to be your fault by hiring managers, no matter what. It doesn't matter that you couldn't find a job. And often, people are willing to make ridiculous compromises to get a job these days.
It's the same in the US. In the US, the test is supposed to mimic driving conditions in Southern California. 70 degrees F ambient. Statistical mix of hills, flats and valleys, for Southern California.
All done on a rolling road.
Your mileage may vary.
As an American, I once saw a profound vision of the future, which shows how the Americans of the future will truly get around.
I want my hoverchair, darn-it!
Wow! While I am amused by the theft of 80,000 lbs of nuts, I wonder what it has to do with Slashdot's mandate. Is there some secret walnut sniffing device being deployed? Are they using formerly secret walnut scanners?
Or am I missing something?
As an engineer, I believe that Scott Adams has it right, once again.
I seem to remember that there was an offer to fly generators in from a US Aircraft Carrier (I believe the Enterprise) that was anchored off coast. I also seem to remember the offer being turned down by the Japanese government, since they had generators on trucks enroute. I think they also had a problem with all the coolant wiring being flooded.
I know the trucks didn't get there until the next day, since the roads were a mess, and by then it was too late to do any good.
"makes it very easy for nations to monitor traffic."
Mr. Kettle, you are black. Sincerely,
Mr. Pot.
P.S. We need all you nations that are worried about dissent to worry about copyright infringement instead.
America has been making weapons-grade nuclear material for somewhere near 70 years now so I am sure they know how to keep it safe and out of the hands of the bad guys.
But not 82 year old nuns apparently
When I was in school, one of my class projects (for "Analysis of Thermofluid Processes") was to design a theoretical (i.e. we didn't have to actually build it) man portable vaccination cooler. It had to keep the vaccines 50 degrees below ambient for a few days. My design was Peltier effect cooler that ran off batteries for 5 days. Intermittent duty cycle combined with heavy insulation made it more effective than you'd think.
"Surrender her pronto, or we'll level Toronto!"
Of the 80s.
Ah the 80s. More specifically http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_DeLorean#Arrest_and_trial
The FBI set DeLorean up for drugs, the crime menace dejour in the 80s. When he found out he was in the middle of a drug dealer, the FBI "informant" threatened to kill him and his family unless he went through. Then the public arrest.
Nothing new here, folks. Same stuff, different day.
I'm shocked that this didn't come out 10 years ago. Scary terrorists might be hiding secret communications in internet porn. It's alarming, and racy. All you need for a good news story.
So you used to be indifferent to religion, until you read about people protesting MANDATORY, as in legally required to go to a legally required school, vaccinations? HPV is a sexually transmitted disease, it's not smallpox or polio or even rhinovirus (the common cold) you're talking about. The HPV virus is, at best, very weakly statistically linked to cervical cancer. The vaccine is far more concretely to Merck's profit margins than any public health benefit, and has an unacceptably high rate of collateral damage. Because THEY feel mandating the HPV vaccinations for THEIR children, including a big push for boys, with their sky high rates of cervical cancer, violates their constitutional rights to freedom of religion, they're not able to think analytically?
I don't see a problem with the Christian's analytical thinking in this instant. As for hate; irrational mandates like this are usually the start of real, and justified hate.
No, it was the truth. The protests and petitions didn't get them to change their minds.
The US Attorney General implying "Arrest and charge Zimmerman, or we'll arrest and charge the lot of you," was what really got them to move.
Zimmerman's daddy was a judge, and got his kid out of most of his troubles, but this is a national issue in an election year.
You know, there is a point of view about how science has become a dogmatic religion of it's own (http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge219.html#dysonf). People take science as truth, on faith. What is the one true system of mechanics? The system that has not been dis-proven in any case (which would rule out the entire system according to the scientific method)? Newtonian? Relativistic? Quantum?
Evolution is a great example of this. No one argues about the principles of heredity, as laid out by a very religious man, a friar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_Mendel). But the larger, completely extrapolated principle of evolution is a topic of debate.
The argument goes like this:
Scientific Person: Rodents evolved to Monkeys evolved to Apes evolved to Man
Judeo-Christian Person: Man did not come from monkeys!
Scientific Person: Where did man come from, then?
Judeo-Christian Person: G*d created him in his image!
Scientific Person: Well there's no proof of that.
Judeo-Christian Person: Well there's no proof that!
Scientific Person: Didn't you just hear me say that Rodents evolved to Monkeys evolved to Apes evolved to Man? What more proof do you need? It's SCIENCE!
Judeo-Christian Person: And didn't you just hear me say that G*d created man?!?
And so forth. But there has never been a single documented case of a genus changing due to evolution, that I'm aware of. Not one. It can't be shown experimentally. Dogs have dog babies. Cats have cat babies. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Scientifically, evolution is a supported theory. But it is just a theory. According to the scientific method, everything is either a LAW (a set of assumptions to establish a framework) or a THEORY (a set of assumptions derived from the law that haven't been dis-proven yet).
And yet, here on Slashdot, the rank and file members of the cult of science cheered when schools in Georgia were forced to take that basic scientific principle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method) off the front covers of their text books.
"This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered. " (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selman_v._Cobb_County_School_District)
It's a valid, 100% scientifically correct statement. It was forced off of textbooks because of dogma.
The courts did right in Tennessee. A person might believe in science. A person might believe in Flying Spaghetti Monsters. A person might believe the world is flat. But a balanced viewpoint, and by extension a balanced education, requires more than an ostrich-like ability to stick your head in the sand when facing a viewpoint you disagree with while bleating a dogmatic mantra. And the courts should not silence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech) a debate because it hurts the sensibilities of ANY group. At least not in the US, where the Constitution (http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html) grants the right to say anything.
Amtrak has this on the eastern seaboard. They call it the Auto Train. http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer/AM_Route_C/1241245666320/1237405732511
I felt it. I didn't realize this was an earthquake at first. I thought I was shaking uncontrollably from the AC being too cold.
"You guys gotta try the pasta... it has a real nice Profit margin! BAM!" Elzar from Futurama.
Now substitute "printer ink" for pasta, and Carly Fiorina for Elzar.
Get the picture?