This is an slanderous and discriminatory statement, breathtaking in its scope that, quite frankly, any normal person should find deeply offensive. Literally, it makes something like "all blacks are lazy" - itself a singularly racist and small-minded insult - little more than a mildly critical observation
You slobbering idiot. You realise you are saying that "discrimination" -lol- against teachers (not any kind of ethnic minority last time I checked) is breathtakingly more importantly than racism against people of dark skin? This is exactly the kind of Jesus complex I'd expect from a civil service lifer who such as yourself, regardless of whatever fairy tale you make up as a life story next. What a muppet. How does fat like this get modded up?
Why attack not only an entire profession but, indeed, anyone who has ever passed on the knowledge and experience they have to another, when all you really mean is "just like any profession, teaching has some bad apples" ?
In the teaching profession, the good apples are in the extreme minority. Of course, every teacher likes to tell themselves they are in this minority. But its easier to set up straw men than to actually face that.
You do have to mention that there are teachers who do 'do' as you put it.
I do. One teacher I had was a good man, who I will revere as a teacher as long as I live. He never raised his voice or threatened anyone, he just knew his stuff back to front and was entheusiastic about it, combined with a fitting gravity, and there was never any messing around in his class. People were actually excited about learning what he had to teach!
Looking back on it though, objectively my experiences were 90% lifers who didn't care one way or the other and were often abusive (one classic was a teacher who regularily arrived into class after a few pints in the local, but never failed to wear his pioneer badge at PT meetings), and a few damn good teachers and lecturers.
The teacher is more upset about the video than the broken window, because it makes the teacher look like a fool and there is nothing he/she can do about it.
Welcome to the egotistical world of ratbaggery that is the teaching profession. I still remember back in school one wax-haired idiot telling us he could sit there for the rest of the year and do nothing, and he could never be fired. Indeed. I'm beginning to see a value in such business practices as outsourcing, and teleconferencing.
Those who can, do, those who can't, teach. And remember we aren't talking about "karate kid" style mentors here, we're talking about civil service lifers who for the most part have never had a job where they were required to be productive and / or competitive. In other words, a real job.
Only when Microsoft started hiring more women and minorities did things change to a large degree. Of course, Microsoft's productivity also took a hit right around that time too.
So, what am I saying? Decide that for yourself.
You're a misogynistic racist who has no idea how to motivate workers? Hey, if you're also a habitual drunk, you win a prize!
It wouldn't be useful from a commercial perspective of course. From a cultural one, it could be incredible. You could have an entire culture of nomads living on the ocean, never needing to make port. That whole international waters thing could be good too - casino ships?
Could you brew up enough biodiesel in algae tanks on a supertanker that the ship would be essentially self sufficient? I doubt there would be much room for a lot else, but when you're talking about supertankers, "not much room" is a relative term.
"Mutual legal assistance" is a generic term for this type of arrangement, and doesn't speak to the balance of such agreements.
Oh, well that makes your post much more reasonable, then. Sort of a "glass beads for that island", type of an effort, eh? Your dissenting opinion is looking increasingly groundless.
Yes, I'm sure the countless peaceful peoples around the world butchered by the British Empire in machine gun versus spear duels haven't forgotten you, either. What solution were you striving for there, exactly?
From the summary, it doesnt't look too mutual to me.
It is pretty horrendous, particularly when you couple it with our one-sided extradition arrangements with the US,' said [a human rights activist].
I'd like to know if its only the UK doing this, or all EU states? I know Ireland has done some remarkable ankle grabbing in that field for the US lately, which is the target of an ongoing campaign to make people aware of it, but AFAIK the EU forbids transfer of such information to the US because of the far weaker privacy laws there. Is the UK doing this in defiance of EU directives?
No one automatically has access to bank records or email accounts; a legal request must still be made to a bank or internet provider.
With the USD still being the de facto currency for international trade (for now), and control of name allocation among other things still resting with the US, can you see any bank or ISP refusing to hand over this information? This is a disgraceful infringement on the rights of people in the UK, although its nothing new, in fairness. Blair has been tonguing president pubes since he came into office, although what he hopes to gain is anyone's guess. Maybe he's trying to be a hinge point between the US and EU or something. All he seems to be doing is making the UK into a chattel state for US interests.
but then again, why is there SO much religion present in the USA? and why is it crippling to rational thought, to the extent that we've become a laughing stock of the world?
Many of the original immigrants to America were fleeing religious persecution back in Europe. What you are beginning to see now is that there were some good reasons they were being persecuted in the first place. Religious freedom is one thing, tolerating the growth of cults that use advanced indoctrination and retention techniques is something else entirely, which the relevant authorities in Europe recognised at the time. A view which I am finding less and less distasteful, over time.
When you buy an airline seat, you don't own the seat itself
Its worth pointing out here that your example is misleading - no one thinks they are buying an actual seat when they are booking a flight, they are buying the services of transportation. Thats an expression used only in certain parts of the US. On the other hand people are or should be aware that they are buying the use of a book, not full ownership of the book's contents to release under their own name if they wish.
This is still somewhat misleading however, since it requires a great deal of effort to publish a book. Copyright infringement on digital media is simple, easy, and very often automated by p2p services - in fact many of them depend on it for their continued existence and popularity. That technology isn't going away, ever, and frankly I can't see the vast majority of people wanting it to.
If a law cannot be enforced (and really, it can't in this case, you'd end up suing a large percentage of the voting population, not to mention anyone that wants to host such files can simply go somewhere not in line with western interests) then it merely serves to bring the whole body of the law into disrepute. Thats a law that needs to be changed because people are simply not obeying it. Yes is being broken merely because its fun and easy to do so, but that should tell you a lot right there, prohibition springs to mind. People aren't doing this for profit, they are doing it to enrich their lives. The digital media industry, or any industry which is eventually going to be digitised, is trying to hold back a tide of tremendously powerful forces, and they will eventually drown.
So given the eventual collapse of these industries with the removal or drastic reduction of the profit motive, will all art and music cease? No more than they did before the existence of these entities. Keep in mind also that the technology to create media on computers is improving daily; how long will it be before its trivial for a few people to get together and produce a decent quality movie, much like they can already do with music?
And before anyone leaps in and accuses me of supporting freeloaders, I'm in posession of a not insignificant body of copyrights myself. One example (never mind books, software and artwork) is a role playing game I've been working on now for about six years. It has been crafted and playtested, tweaked and playtested, game worlds built up from whole cloth, over 400 pages of rules (well only about 6 pages of actual core rules), equipment lists, magic spell lists, monsters, and more, covering everything from swords and sorcery to far future starship battles. Its comprehensive, its simple to use, its a thing of immense beauty, and better than any other system I have seen, imvho.
I'm now reaching the final draft stages, where all of the wrinkles have been ironed out. When its done, as it should be in about 3 or 4 months, I'll be releasing it on the web for general public use, free of charge. The only addendum I will attach is that people contribute back something to the game, whether it be a new skill, new spell, a game world, a drawing or sketch of their character, an adventure, a monster, or whatever, as much or as little as they like.
Why would I do this, just offer up thousands of hours of work (tens of thousands if you consider playtesters also) for free? For love of the game, and role playing in general. And why will people send back their own additions? For the very same reason. Everyone involved will have a richer life because of the free exchange of ideas and creative endeavour.
Do you really not understand this concept? I don't know how I can make it any clearer; I thought it was a self-explanatory idea.
I think perhaps we may be speaking at cross purposes. You are comparing justice to potty training, I'm comparing it to vengeance. There is a bit of a disparity between the two concepts, much like there is a difference in the the engineering ability required to build a paper plane as opposed to that required to build an intercontinental passenger jet. If one is sufficiently punished for ones deeds, a person might not be inclined to re-offend, but thats not education, thats the threat of further vengeance. Call that education, if you like.
Leaving aside recidivism rates which are another kettle of fish, the concept of prison as education is not one which anyone who has been there can attest to, unless you are talking about education in how to be a better criminal. Incentive is created for others to follow the law, but under threat of vengeance.
We might have to agree to disagree on this one, there is too much room for literal interpretation in the terms. The spirit of it seems clear to me, however.
Although many aspects of revenge resemble or echo the concept of making things equal, revenge usually has a more injurious than constructive goal.
What exactly is constructive about the prison system? Taking dangerous criminals off the streets might be seen as constructive, but not really, since they will be back having spent a few years in the company of other dangerous criminals. Do you think that makes them more or less dangerous? Or does it equalise the damage they did while committing their crimes?
Lawlessness should never be tolerated. Or will you let someone kill one of your family members, since (as you say) "a free society must tolerate some lawnessness or it is no longer free"? Come on: sacrifice a loved one for the good of the nation, I dare you.
Well since we are taking things to extremes, lets follow your path to its logical end: a society of ants marching in lockstep from the cradle to the grave, a place for everything and everything in its place. The diametrical opposite, what you seem to fear, is of course a barbaric anarchy, every man for himself - do what you will shall be the whole of the law. Neither is practical, neither is representative of humanity.
We are a young race, really in biological and evolutionary terms we are just down from the trees. We are still floundering around trying to determine exactly what is "good" and "evil", the characteristics of right and wrong. Some are convinced we are simply meat machines, our whole lives determined by our genes, excusing and condemning failures in equal measure, others seek to put every foible into a neat box to be repaired or removed, like most of the psychology industry, while yet others make the sight of our own bodies an abomination, along with certain arbitrary words, generally to do with the pleasurable act of copulation. Our instinctive natures and animal passions come into conflict with our intellectual and social structures. The question really is, are those structures right or wrong, did we achieve all we have in spite of or because of our passions?
I'd say that we do not have enough facts to make any definitive decisions on that question yet. Worship of the rule of law is as dangerous as not caring about law at all; law is and always has been a sanctioned instrument of vengeance, from the earliest days to the present. Thats why prisons are not places of rehabilitation (PMITA is even a commonly understood acronym!), they are places of punishment, and that is not likely to change any time soon.
And yet by adjusting the laws to compensate for our inherently passionate nature, you begin a game of brinkmanship, where people with less regard for their fellow man try to keep criminal acts to the grey areas where they might be excused their actions. Structure is not neccesarily the best way to go; neither is a lack of structure. How and where the best compromise is to be found is a question yet to be answered.
The dude jumps out of a plane with a homemade jetpack and flies around for six minutes, and you're not impressed?
Power assisted gliding is nothing new, it has been around for a while now. What he's doing is a cool stunt, yes, a fun toy if thats what floats your boat, but its hardly groundbreaking (no pun intended). Its not like he was in any real danger, what with the parachute strapped to his back and everything. Or if he was it was danger of his own making. So no, not impressed.
Yeah thats much more like assisted gliding than anything else. When he can take off from a standing start, like in Nausicaa (valley of the wind), I'll be impressed. Also his landing technique seems a bit hair raising. Do you fold up the wings before or after you deploy the parachute?
I heard we were going to have a big Atlantic Ocean hurricane season as well. I'm still waiting.
Ireland spent about six weeks recently under the worst weather conditions seen in decades, high winds, incessant rain, flooding, the works. I'd call that a hurricane, and I know I've never seen anything like it in my life.
I can't believe no one has mentioned this, but that correlates neatly with the end of the Mayan long count calendar, signalling the end of the fifth age and mankind (according to some sources, also a new beginning of some sort), and the start of the sixth. Heres an excerpt from the article:
The end of the 13th b'ak'tun is conjectured to have been of great significance to the Maya, but does not necessarily mark the end of the world according to their beliefs, but a new beginning or time of re-birth. According to the Popol Vuh, a book compiling details of creation accounts known to the Quiché Maya of the colonial-era highlands, we are living in the fifth world. The Popol Vuh describes the first four creations that the gods failed in making and the creation of the successful fifth world where men were placed. The Maya believed that the fifth world would end in catastrophe and the sixth and final world would be created that would signal the end of mankind.
The last creation ended on a long count of 13.0.0.0.0. Another 13.0.0.0.0 will occur on December 21, 2012, and it has been discussed in many New Age articles and books that this will be the end of this creation, the next pole shift or something else entirely.
I don't know if thats the coolest thing I've ever seen, or the creepiest.
Slashdot Mirror
See, this is why the Europeans kicked the shit out of fundies not so long ago. Enjoy your new continent, for the brief period you have it, primate.
This is an slanderous and discriminatory statement, breathtaking in its scope that, quite frankly, any normal person should find deeply offensive. Literally, it makes something like "all blacks are lazy" - itself a singularly racist and small-minded insult - little more than a mildly critical observation
You slobbering idiot. You realise you are saying that "discrimination" -lol- against teachers (not any kind of ethnic minority last time I checked) is breathtakingly more importantly than racism against people of dark skin? This is exactly the kind of Jesus complex I'd expect from a civil service lifer who such as yourself, regardless of whatever fairy tale you make up as a life story next. What a muppet. How does fat like this get modded up?
Why attack not only an entire profession but, indeed, anyone who has ever passed on the knowledge and experience they have to another, when all you really mean is "just like any profession, teaching has some bad apples" ?
In the teaching profession, the good apples are in the extreme minority. Of course, every teacher likes to tell themselves they are in this minority. But its easier to set up straw men than to actually face that.
Please sit down and shut up.
Thanks for clarifying what sort of a teacher you are. Pollution, solution, anyone?
But I would find great boredom in, say, being an actuary
So that whole egotistical teachers thing I was pointing out, again...
You do have to mention that there are teachers who do 'do' as you put it.
I do. One teacher I had was a good man, who I will revere as a teacher as long as I live. He never raised his voice or threatened anyone, he just knew his stuff back to front and was entheusiastic about it, combined with a fitting gravity, and there was never any messing around in his class. People were actually excited about learning what he had to teach!
Looking back on it though, objectively my experiences were 90% lifers who didn't care one way or the other and were often abusive (one classic was a teacher who regularily arrived into class after a few pints in the local, but never failed to wear his pioneer badge at PT meetings), and a few damn good teachers and lecturers.
The teacher is more upset about the video than the broken window, because it makes the teacher look like a fool and there is nothing he/she can do about it.
Welcome to the egotistical world of ratbaggery that is the teaching profession. I still remember back in school one wax-haired idiot telling us he could sit there for the rest of the year and do nothing, and he could never be fired. Indeed. I'm beginning to see a value in such business practices as outsourcing, and teleconferencing.
Those who can, do, those who can't, teach. And remember we aren't talking about "karate kid" style mentors here, we're talking about civil service lifers who for the most part have never had a job where they were required to be productive and / or competitive. In other words, a real job.
Only when Microsoft started hiring more women and minorities did things change to a large degree. Of course, Microsoft's productivity also took a hit right around that time too.
So, what am I saying? Decide that for yourself.
You're a misogynistic racist who has no idea how to motivate workers? Hey, if you're also a habitual drunk, you win a prize!
It wouldn't be useful from a commercial perspective of course. From a cultural one, it could be incredible. You could have an entire culture of nomads living on the ocean, never needing to make port. That whole international waters thing could be good too - casino ships?
Could you brew up enough biodiesel in algae tanks on a supertanker that the ship would be essentially self sufficient? I doubt there would be much room for a lot else, but when you're talking about supertankers, "not much room" is a relative term.
Perhaps you could read the article?
You must be new here.
"Mutual legal assistance" is a generic term for this type of arrangement, and doesn't speak to the balance of such agreements.
Oh, well that makes your post much more reasonable, then. Sort of a "glass beads for that island", type of an effort, eh? Your dissenting opinion is looking increasingly groundless.
How soon they forget.
Yes, I'm sure the countless peaceful peoples around the world butchered by the British Empire in machine gun versus spear duels haven't forgotten you, either. What solution were you striving for there, exactly?
This is an agreement for mutual legal assistance,
From the summary, it doesnt't look too mutual to me.
It is pretty horrendous, particularly when you couple it with our one-sided extradition arrangements with the US,' said [a human rights activist].
I'd like to know if its only the UK doing this, or all EU states? I know Ireland has done some remarkable ankle grabbing in that field for the US lately, which is the target of an ongoing campaign to make people aware of it, but AFAIK the EU forbids transfer of such information to the US because of the far weaker privacy laws there. Is the UK doing this in defiance of EU directives?
No one automatically has access to bank records or email accounts; a legal request must still be made to a bank or internet provider.
With the USD still being the de facto currency for international trade (for now), and control of name allocation among other things still resting with the US, can you see any bank or ISP refusing to hand over this information? This is a disgraceful infringement on the rights of people in the UK, although its nothing new, in fairness. Blair has been tonguing president pubes since he came into office, although what he hopes to gain is anyone's guess. Maybe he's trying to be a hinge point between the US and EU or something. All he seems to be doing is making the UK into a chattel state for US interests.
but then again, why is there SO much religion present in the USA? and why is it crippling to rational thought, to the extent that we've become a laughing stock of the world?
Many of the original immigrants to America were fleeing religious persecution back in Europe. What you are beginning to see now is that there were some good reasons they were being persecuted in the first place. Religious freedom is one thing, tolerating the growth of cults that use advanced indoctrination and retention techniques is something else entirely, which the relevant authorities in Europe recognised at the time. A view which I am finding less and less distasteful, over time.
When you buy an airline seat, you don't own the seat itself
Its worth pointing out here that your example is misleading - no one thinks they are buying an actual seat when they are booking a flight, they are buying the services of transportation. Thats an expression used only in certain parts of the US. On the other hand people are or should be aware that they are buying the use of a book, not full ownership of the book's contents to release under their own name if they wish.
This is still somewhat misleading however, since it requires a great deal of effort to publish a book. Copyright infringement on digital media is simple, easy, and very often automated by p2p services - in fact many of them depend on it for their continued existence and popularity. That technology isn't going away, ever, and frankly I can't see the vast majority of people wanting it to.
If a law cannot be enforced (and really, it can't in this case, you'd end up suing a large percentage of the voting population, not to mention anyone that wants to host such files can simply go somewhere not in line with western interests) then it merely serves to bring the whole body of the law into disrepute. Thats a law that needs to be changed because people are simply not obeying it. Yes is being broken merely because its fun and easy to do so, but that should tell you a lot right there, prohibition springs to mind. People aren't doing this for profit, they are doing it to enrich their lives. The digital media industry, or any industry which is eventually going to be digitised, is trying to hold back a tide of tremendously powerful forces, and they will eventually drown.
So given the eventual collapse of these industries with the removal or drastic reduction of the profit motive, will all art and music cease? No more than they did before the existence of these entities. Keep in mind also that the technology to create media on computers is improving daily; how long will it be before its trivial for a few people to get together and produce a decent quality movie, much like they can already do with music?
And before anyone leaps in and accuses me of supporting freeloaders, I'm in posession of a not insignificant body of copyrights myself. One example (never mind books, software and artwork) is a role playing game I've been working on now for about six years. It has been crafted and playtested, tweaked and playtested, game worlds built up from whole cloth, over 400 pages of rules (well only about 6 pages of actual core rules), equipment lists, magic spell lists, monsters, and more, covering everything from swords and sorcery to far future starship battles. Its comprehensive, its simple to use, its a thing of immense beauty, and better than any other system I have seen, imvho.
I'm now reaching the final draft stages, where all of the wrinkles have been ironed out. When its done, as it should be in about 3 or 4 months, I'll be releasing it on the web for general public use, free of charge. The only addendum I will attach is that people contribute back something to the game, whether it be a new skill, new spell, a game world, a drawing or sketch of their character, an adventure, a monster, or whatever, as much or as little as they like.
Why would I do this, just offer up thousands of hours of work (tens of thousands if you consider playtesters also) for free? For love of the game, and role playing in general. And why will people send back their own additions? For the very same reason. Everyone involved will have a richer life because of the free exchange of ideas and creative endeavour.
And that is the future of "digital media".
Do you really not understand this concept? I don't know how I can make it any clearer; I thought it was a self-explanatory idea.
I think perhaps we may be speaking at cross purposes. You are comparing justice to potty training, I'm comparing it to vengeance. There is a bit of a disparity between the two concepts, much like there is a difference in the the engineering ability required to build a paper plane as opposed to that required to build an intercontinental passenger jet. If one is sufficiently punished for ones deeds, a person might not be inclined to re-offend, but thats not education, thats the threat of further vengeance. Call that education, if you like.
Leaving aside recidivism rates which are another kettle of fish, the concept of prison as education is not one which anyone who has been there can attest to, unless you are talking about education in how to be a better criminal. Incentive is created for others to follow the law, but under threat of vengeance.
We might have to agree to disagree on this one, there is too much room for literal interpretation in the terms. The spirit of it seems clear to me, however.
Although many aspects of revenge resemble or echo the concept of making things equal, revenge usually has a more injurious than constructive goal.
What exactly is constructive about the prison system? Taking dangerous criminals off the streets might be seen as constructive, but not really, since they will be back having spent a few years in the company of other dangerous criminals. Do you think that makes them more or less dangerous? Or does it equalise the damage they did while committing their crimes?
Vengeance is mine, saith the law.
Law is not "a sanctioned instrument of vengeance", law is the threat of force used in order to encourage a code of conduct.
I don't see the difference between your definition, and mine.
Lawlessness should never be tolerated. Or will you let someone kill one of your family members, since (as you say) "a free society must tolerate some lawnessness or it is no longer free"? Come on: sacrifice a loved one for the good of the nation, I dare you.
Well since we are taking things to extremes, lets follow your path to its logical end: a society of ants marching in lockstep from the cradle to the grave, a place for everything and everything in its place. The diametrical opposite, what you seem to fear, is of course a barbaric anarchy, every man for himself - do what you will shall be the whole of the law. Neither is practical, neither is representative of humanity.
We are a young race, really in biological and evolutionary terms we are just down from the trees. We are still floundering around trying to determine exactly what is "good" and "evil", the characteristics of right and wrong. Some are convinced we are simply meat machines, our whole lives determined by our genes, excusing and condemning failures in equal measure, others seek to put every foible into a neat box to be repaired or removed, like most of the psychology industry, while yet others make the sight of our own bodies an abomination, along with certain arbitrary words, generally to do with the pleasurable act of copulation. Our instinctive natures and animal passions come into conflict with our intellectual and social structures. The question really is, are those structures right or wrong, did we achieve all we have in spite of or because of our passions?
I'd say that we do not have enough facts to make any definitive decisions on that question yet. Worship of the rule of law is as dangerous as not caring about law at all; law is and always has been a sanctioned instrument of vengeance, from the earliest days to the present. Thats why prisons are not places of rehabilitation (PMITA is even a commonly understood acronym!), they are places of punishment, and that is not likely to change any time soon.
And yet by adjusting the laws to compensate for our inherently passionate nature, you begin a game of brinkmanship, where people with less regard for their fellow man try to keep criminal acts to the grey areas where they might be excused their actions. Structure is not neccesarily the best way to go; neither is a lack of structure. How and where the best compromise is to be found is a question yet to be answered.
Well when it becomes "news for jocks" I'll join you in your admiration. Until then, technically, it wasn't wildly impressive.
The dude jumps out of a plane with a homemade jetpack and flies around for six minutes, and you're not impressed?
Power assisted gliding is nothing new, it has been around for a while now. What he's doing is a cool stunt, yes, a fun toy if thats what floats your boat, but its hardly groundbreaking (no pun intended). Its not like he was in any real danger, what with the parachute strapped to his back and everything. Or if he was it was danger of his own making. So no, not impressed.
Yeah thats much more like assisted gliding than anything else. When he can take off from a standing start, like in Nausicaa (valley of the wind), I'll be impressed. Also his landing technique seems a bit hair raising. Do you fold up the wings before or after you deploy the parachute?
I heard we were going to have a big Atlantic Ocean hurricane season as well. I'm still waiting.
Ireland spent about six weeks recently under the worst weather conditions seen in decades, high winds, incessant rain, flooding, the works. I'd call that a hurricane, and I know I've never seen anything like it in my life.
I can't believe no one has mentioned this, but that correlates neatly with the end of the Mayan long count calendar, signalling the end of the fifth age and mankind (according to some sources, also a new beginning of some sort), and the start of the sixth. Heres an excerpt from the article:
The end of the 13th b'ak'tun is conjectured to have been of great significance to the Maya, but does not necessarily mark the end of the world according to their beliefs, but a new beginning or time of re-birth. According to the Popol Vuh, a book compiling details of creation accounts known to the Quiché Maya of the colonial-era highlands, we are living in the fifth world. The Popol Vuh describes the first four creations that the gods failed in making and the creation of the successful fifth world where men were placed. The Maya believed that the fifth world would end in catastrophe and the sixth and final world would be created that would signal the end of mankind.
The last creation ended on a long count of 13.0.0.0.0. Another 13.0.0.0.0 will occur on December 21, 2012, and it has been discussed in many New Age articles and books that this will be the end of this creation, the next pole shift or something else entirely.
I don't know if thats the coolest thing I've ever seen, or the creepiest.
Hahah, hey you just made CmdrTaco a criminal in Australia!
Maybe their sky wizard will give them special dispensation.