This "unknown" reason as to why the FBI took the hardrives/servers from Rackspace was more than likely given to Rackspace. However, probably due to some obscure clause to the Patriot Act that allows Britain and the US to work together or something to "fight terror" - the Feds can gag Rackspace from revealing that reason. Or even worse, the Fed's probably don't even need a reason other than "National Security - now shutup and hand over the hard drives".
Hey, those that make the rules and enforce the rules can, essentially, do what ever they want and there is not a damned thing "Joe Citizen" can do about it.
And to those of you that think the wheels of a brave new orwellian world aren't already in motion: nothing to see here, go back to sleep.
Maybe this should be the goal of the next Ansari X-Prize: Who can figure out a way to dump 2 loads of garbage from the space station with in 2 weeks of each dump. Yee-haw. Space is cool.
"I think," he said, "we need to get off this planet, because I'm afraid we're going to destroy it."
That comment was unsettling. Here is a guy who is a physisist in charge of Washington State's Center for Materials Research, and he's saying this kind of crap? Isn't that sad? Instead of trying to figure out ways to sustain the ecologies of our planet, we just try to figure out how to leave it. What's the point? We'll just land on some other planet and fuck that one up too. Secondly, if the aim is to land on Mars and terraform it, why go through all the trouble!!?? We already have Earth! Talk about a "throw away" economy.
Sometimes I really wonder it means to be "intelligent", because the more humans try display intelligence, the more they seem to prove we lack it.
"If successful, this approach will open the door to storing militarily significant quantities of positronium atoms."
If unsuccessful, this approach will pretty much tear a hole in the North American continental plate the size of which will make the Grand Canyon look like your girlfriend's [expletive deleted].
From TFA:
"Thus, in principle, a positron bomb could be a step toward one of the military's dreams from the early Cold War: a so-called "clean" superbomb that could kill large numbers of soldiers without ejecting radioactive contaminants over the countryside.
Phew! For a minute there, I thought us citizens had something to worry about.
Don't think I'll be joining the Army any time soon...wouldn't want to be a valid target for this damn thing.
FCC Flip:
"national defense and public safety goals that we seek to achieve by requiring these outage reports would be seriously undermined if we were to permit these reports to fall into the hands of terrorists who seek to cripple the nation's communications infrastructure."
FCC Flop: "The fcc did not go so far as to prohibit all network vulnerability data from reaching the public--only that the information won't reach the public via the FCC. Despite the stated fears about terrorism, the decision has no impact on what carriers can tell their customers--or anyone else."
President Bush:"You can embolden an enemy by sending mixed messages..."
(.....psst. Hey Bush, you might want to have a meeting with the FCC and DHS. Just a thought.)
Yeah, the Discovery Channel followed a similar fate as MTV: Started out with strictly music videos to a channel filled with everything but, so they started MTV2.
Discovery Channel, started out with a lot of interesting shows revolving around science, to a channel filled with everything but, so they started "Discovery Science Channel".
IMHO, Discovery should change their name to the Hobby Channel.
Did you see Brian Green host Elegant Universe? That was an amazing show. I'm reading his book by the same title and it is blowing my mind away. Just when I thought I had a firm grip on how the Universe worked, he explains concepts that really are...almost psychedelic. Fun stuff.
I got tired of that too, so I just changed the comment preferences to "Threshold 1". You see alot more crap, but it saves time because you can catch the context faster. When you get Mod Points, it's easier to give everyone a chance with the Threshold at 1.
I, for one, hate the man. He had some great visions and great films, but he shows his true colors over and over: greed unfettered with respect for his loyal fans.
I concur. George Lucas is a perfect example of life imitating art : the transformation of Anakin the Jedi Knight to Darth Vader. He went from a young visionary director, to an old squabbling greedy shell of the director he once was.
This is ridiculous. I think we should all petition together signatures for a "Cease and Desist" letter to LucasFilms to stop them from making crappy Star Wars "prequels".
LucasFilms obviously has a problem with people being creative and enterprising when it comes to entertainment. I mean, it's just a live version of MST3000 any way, right?
I can just see Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Karl Rove and Ashcroft sitting around a circle plotting...
"You know, we could do away with Public Schools all together, launch about 5 of these here Indian-type satellites in geo-synchronous orbit over this great nation of ours, and start beaming down "The New Education". We control the content, you know, Evolution is out, Creationism is in, that sort of thing. And that's just the beginning!!! Think of the revenues that could be generated by embedding advertising directly into the educational content...."
Some call me paranoid, but what do you call it when it actually happens, a "good idea"??
mikehoskins, slow down there. You read too far into my post and shot way past the scope of my counter points. See the top of my post, the part where I said I was just playing the "Devil's advocate"? I'm not trying to be a smart ass when I ask this, but, you do know what that means, right?
Why does Microsoft feel the need to try to dumb down everything...
Probably the same reason the Gov't created the Homeland Security Advisory System (Color coded chart). Because Americans don't want to go through the effort of educating themselves on complex subjects, so everything must be overly simplified.
Americans just stop paying attention if it takes longer than 2 sound bites to explain anything. It's the equivalent of information baby food - you don't have to chew and it goes down easily. Good for baby.
As a side note, I prefer the phrase "lazied down" to "dumbed down" because I believe describes the situation better. Although, after a while, laziness does lead to a dumbing eventually.
Slashdot Mirror
This "unknown" reason as to why the FBI took the hardrives/servers from Rackspace was more than likely given to Rackspace. However, probably due to some obscure clause to the Patriot Act that allows Britain and the US to work together or something to "fight terror" - the Feds can gag Rackspace from revealing that reason. Or even worse, the Fed's probably don't even need a reason other than "National Security - now shutup and hand over the hard drives".
Hey, those that make the rules and enforce the rules can, essentially, do what ever they want and there is not a damned thing "Joe Citizen" can do about it.
And to those of you that think the wheels of a brave new orwellian world aren't already in motion: nothing to see here, go back to sleep.
Maybe this should be the goal of the next Ansari X-Prize: Who can figure out a way to dump 2 loads of garbage from the space station with in 2 weeks of each dump. Yee-haw. Space is cool.
Sometimes I really wonder it means to be "intelligent", because the more humans try display intelligence, the more they seem to prove we lack it.
Don't think I'll be joining the Army any time soon...wouldn't want to be a valid target for this damn thing.
(.....psst. Hey Bush, you might want to have a meeting with the FCC and DHS. Just a thought.)
Do you mean this 42 is the answer?
Yeah, the Discovery Channel followed a similar fate as MTV: Started out with strictly music videos to a channel filled with everything but, so they started MTV2.
Discovery Channel, started out with a lot of interesting shows revolving around science, to a channel filled with everything but, so they started "Discovery Science Channel".
IMHO, Discovery should change their name to the Hobby Channel.
Did you see Brian Green host Elegant Universe? That was an amazing show. I'm reading his book by the same title and it is blowing my mind away. Just when I thought I had a firm grip on how the Universe worked, he explains concepts that really are...almost psychedelic. Fun stuff.
I got tired of that too, so I just changed the comment preferences to "Threshold 1". You see alot more crap, but it saves time because you can catch the context faster. When you get Mod Points, it's easier to give everyone a chance with the Threshold at 1.
At first I thought you said "complex orgasms". We all see what we want I guess...
I love seeing old ideas getting recycled. old school version
(I'm only joking, I understand your point. Have a nice day.)
This is ridiculous. I think we should all petition together signatures for a "Cease and Desist" letter to LucasFilms to stop them from making crappy Star Wars "prequels".
LucasFilms obviously has a problem with people being creative and enterprising when it comes to entertainment. I mean, it's just a live version of MST3000 any way, right?
LOL - That is exactly what popped into my mind when I RTFA. I thought I was the only one thinking along the same lines......scary ideas
I can just see Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Karl Rove and Ashcroft sitting around a circle plotting...
"You know, we could do away with Public Schools all together, launch about 5 of these here Indian-type satellites in geo-synchronous orbit over this great nation of ours, and start beaming down "The New Education". We control the content, you know, Evolution is out, Creationism is in, that sort of thing. And that's just the beginning!!! Think of the revenues that could be generated by embedding advertising directly into the educational content...."
Some call me paranoid, but what do you call it when it actually happens, a "good idea"??
Neo : Woah, deja vu.
Trinity : What did you just say?
Neo : Nothing, uh, just had a little..deja vu.
Trinity : What did you see?
Cypher : What happened?
Neo : Znode just posted a comment on Slashdot...and then posted another that looked just like it.
Trinity : How much like it, was it the same post?
Neo : *shrugs* Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was the exact same post.
Morpheus : Switch, Apoc!
Neo : What is it?
Trinity : A deja vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix...it happens when they change something.
Tank : Oh my God...
Holy Cow.
mikehoskins, slow down there. You read too far into my post and shot way past the scope of my counter points. See the top of my post, the part where I said I was just playing the "Devil's advocate"? I'm not trying to be a smart ass when I ask this, but, you do know what that means, right?
Don't you mean: Size doesn't matter, it's how much you upload?
Salesman: This is a $2200 computer.
Salesman: This is a $399 computer.
Customer: "I like that one."
Americans just stop paying attention if it takes longer than 2 sound bites to explain anything. It's the equivalent of information baby food - you don't have to chew and it goes down easily. Good for baby.
As a side note, I prefer the phrase "lazied down" to "dumbed down" because I believe describes the situation better. Although, after a while, laziness does lead to a dumbing eventually.