Haven't been to the USA since 2010. When I went to Vancouver from Auckland last year, I paid extra to fly direct, just so I could bypass the US border. Won't be back to the USA for at least another four years.
My brother gave me the shareware demo a week after I had broken my finger playing cricket. A few hours later I'd finished the demo, and my finger has never quite been the same.
I remember spending many Saturdays playing death match against my flatmate over a RS232 cable strung across the hallway. Taking breaks to hit the takeaways around the corner. That guy was in love with the plasma rifle, and he used it to beat the snot out of me more than a few times.
Now I'm the head of a computer science department and he's a funding director for a major research organisation. Coincidence?
I spent four weeks teaching at two Chinese universities in 2014. All of the students were using VPN to circumvent the Great Firewall, and they all were using Facebook and Twitter. They were doing this openly in class. Circumvention is easy, well-known and seems to be fairly well-tolerated. I think it is tolerated with the students because they are using services like Facebook and Twitter for social activities. I expect there are Chinese government monitors watching what they say,and if they said the wrong thing (like how the president is hiding his money overseas) then there would be a crackdown.
This is just another example of how clueless the current Australian government is. It explains why there are now more New Zealanders moving from Australia to New Zealand, than from New Zealand to Australia. That hasn't been the case for decades!
I left four years ago, and haven't been back. If I were still there, I could be prosecuted for publishing in any of my research topics. Ridiculous.
You don't need to have plastic strong enough to withstand dozens or hundreds of firings, you need plastic strong enough to withstand one firing.
I can imagine 3D printing a shape with multiple one-shot barrels, adding some propellant, electrical detonator and a projectile to each barrel, then mounting the assembly on some kind of (probably 3D printed) grip. When all the barrels have been discharged, throw them away and mount another on the grip.
I've never told anyone how I've felt about working with them: "be careful of the toes you step on today, as they may be connected to the arse you have to kiss tomorrow"
I don't know what it's like in the US, but a while ago I looked at re-qualifying as a high school teacher in NZ (I also have a PhD, and have taught undergrad courses solo). I would only have had to do a one-year course, and there were scholarships available for the subjects I was looking at teaching. Granted, that is a whole (academic) year of bringing in less money than I am now, but it didn't seem too onerous to me.
leads me to believe just one thing: the USA is buggered. They've gone so far down the road of partisan wankery, where no-one can ever admit they're wrong and anyone who thinks differently is an enemy, that they're incapable of doing anything.
Have another civil war and be done with. Just do the rest of the world a favour and leave us out of it.
While it's unlikely that any FBI agents would face charges of contempt of court, judges don't like being lied to, or having their orders ignored. Given the FBI's behaviour, I wouldn't be too surprised if the judge denied the extradition request solely on the basis of the actions of the FBI.
In short, the FBI are acting like arrogant bullies and they are going to destroy their own case.
as they stand massed in an unsecured part of a typical U.S. aiport.
And that is the biggest, most glaring, elephant-in-the-living-room hole in U.S. airport security. The last time I had the misfortune to go through Chicago O'Hare airport, there must have been 300 people packed into an area the size of a basketball court, all waiting to go through the TSA checkpoint. Never mind a nail bomb, the place was so packed that if someone had dropped a lit road flare, the panic and stampede would have caused casualties.
Not that I'm advocating dropping lit road flares in check-in lines, but if I can think of it, I'm sure someone else can.
The insurance system is still superior though because you are allowed to choose your level of risk, and there will always be a public system to fall back on for last resort for those that did not chose insurance. At worst you end up in the same situation you would have been in with a public health plan, government panels deciding who gets treatment.
And that post so beautifully embodies everything that is wrong with the USA that the author should receive an award for demonstrating just how inhumane a first-world country can become.
People don't do advanced degrees like a PhD for the money (which isn't that great) or the recognition (which is hard to come by) but because they love the work.
>DMCA notices are filed under penalty of perjury. Has anybody, ever, even a single case, > been punished for filing a false takedown?
As I understand it, the perjury clause refers to the statement of the notifier that they represent or are truly acting for the rights holder, not that what they claim is true. I think that only requires a "good faith" belief that the material they wish taken down is infringing.
OK, a lot of comments from people saying they're not going to the US, and a few comments poking fun at them.
Thing is, I seem to recall reading that foreign tourism in the US has been declining over the last few years. A year or two ago I read that Air New Zealand was planning on flying direct from Auckland to Vancouver, with the stated reason being so people did not have to go through the hassle of US customs and immigration en route!
Make fun of the "I'm not going" comments if you like, but it seems that people really aren't going to the US now.
> This is pure fear mongering nonsense. The MMR vaccine is for diseases that doesn't do any of the above. Measels cause no real effects > unless your child is immunocompromized, and has been eliminated in North America since 2002
The father of an ex-girlfriend of mine was deaf due a childhood bout of measles. This was before the measles vaccine was available, of course.
Measles still exists in other parts of the world, what happens if a carrier gets on a plane to the US, and people have stopped vaccinating?
Vaccines have nothing to do with autism. Absolutely nothing. There is absolutely no evidence that vaccines cause autism, and anyone who tells you otherwise is either an idiot or a liar.
> I love Thomas Jefferson as much as the next American, but there are certain things you listen to him on and some things you don't. > Civil liberties, the scope of government, certainly
I rather think the issuance of currency fits rather squarely within the scope of government and civil liberties.
> If people reached Easter Island, which is almost off the coast of South America, what would have stopped Polynesian explorers from > traveling all the way to Chile?
As I understand it, current thinking is that polynesians did make it to South America, which is where they got gourds and sweet potatoes from. Then, they turned around and followed the prevailing winds home.
Thor Heyerdahl thought that polynesians came from South America and followed the prevailing winds in migrating west. But, genetic evidence proves that they come from Taiwain. The current theory is that they explored into the wind because it gave them a free trip home if they didn't find anything.
I'm sorry your daughter is autistic. I really, rally am.
But people like you who hysterically blame vaccines for their predicament in the face of all facts are doing incredible damage to the health of children.
Yes, your daughter cried all day after getting the vaccine, so did mine. Vaccines make you feel ill, it's part and parcel of how they work.
By your illogic we can blame the assassination of JFK on Dr Who, after all, they both happened on the same day!
You may have had measles as a child, I did as well. And a lot of people who get it do end up fine. But a lot don't. The father of an ex-girlfriend was deaf because of the effects of childhood measles. And the odds of serious complications of measles are a lot higher than the rates of autism, so even if there was a link (and all the evidence says that there isn't) you are far better off vaccinating than not.
Childhood mumps isn't as much of a problem as adult mumps, especially in men: sterility, anyone?
Polio still exists in the wild, what if all of the USA has followed your advice and stopped vaccinating? Then, someone with polio arrives on a plane? I'll tell you what happens, a lot of people end up very seriously f*cked up.
Smallpox vaccinations ended decades ago, I didn't get them, I was too young. My parents did, though. That's what eradicated smallpox.
There are vaccines for some strains of meningitis, my daughter has had them. Meningitis kills people, and tends to maim the ones that survive. I'm not taking that risk with my precious, precious, daughter.
Rates of autism have not changed since the elimination of thimerisol, so your straw man is already drifting downwind as thin smoke by this point.
Your other daughter's IQ probably is very high, but mine is higher than my brother's, and we both received the same vaccines. Different people develop differently, and even siblings develop in different environments (my brother was a wonderful teacher to me as a child, which almost certainly contributed to my mental development, and I love him for that).
My daughter has had every vaccine available, I would consider it gross negligence as a parent, bordering on child abuse, to deny her these protections. I would also be endangering the children around her if she were not vaccinated.
The anti-vaccination hysterics like you need to remember one simple fact: correlation does not imply causation. Until you get that through your thick heads, shut the f*ck up and stop endangering the health of our community.
Slashdot Mirror
Haven't been to the USA since 2010. When I went to Vancouver from Auckland last year, I paid extra to fly direct, just so I could bypass the US border. Won't be back to the USA for at least another four years.
My brother gave me the shareware demo a week after I had broken my finger playing cricket. A few hours later I'd finished the demo, and my finger has never quite been the same.
I remember spending many Saturdays playing death match against my flatmate over a RS232 cable strung across the hallway. Taking breaks to hit the takeaways around the corner. That guy was in love with the plasma rifle, and he used it to beat the snot out of me more than a few times.
Now I'm the head of a computer science department and he's a funding director for a major research organisation. Coincidence?
I spent four weeks teaching at two Chinese universities in 2014. All of the students were using VPN to circumvent the Great Firewall, and they all were using Facebook and Twitter. They were doing this openly in class. Circumvention is easy, well-known and seems to be fairly well-tolerated. I think it is tolerated with the students because they are using services like Facebook and Twitter for social activities. I expect there are Chinese government monitors watching what they say,and if they said the wrong thing (like how the president is hiding his money overseas) then there would be a crackdown.
This is just another example of how clueless the current Australian government is. It explains why there are now more New Zealanders moving from Australia to New Zealand, than from New Zealand to Australia. That hasn't been the case for decades!
I left four years ago, and haven't been back. If I were still there, I could be prosecuted for publishing in any of my research topics. Ridiculous.
You don't need to have plastic strong enough to withstand dozens or hundreds of firings, you need plastic strong enough to withstand one firing.
I can imagine 3D printing a shape with multiple one-shot barrels, adding some propellant, electrical detonator and a projectile to each barrel, then mounting the assembly on some kind of (probably 3D printed) grip. When all the barrels have been discharged, throw them away and mount another on the grip.
I've never told anyone how I've felt about working with them: "be careful of the toes you step on today, as they may be connected to the arse you have to kiss tomorrow"
I don't know what it's like in the US, but a while ago I looked at re-qualifying as a high school teacher in NZ (I also have a PhD, and have taught undergrad courses solo). I would only have had to do a one-year course, and there were scholarships available for the subjects I was looking at teaching. Granted, that is a whole (academic) year of bringing in less money than I am now, but it didn't seem too onerous to me.
leads me to believe just one thing: the USA is buggered. They've gone so far down the road of partisan wankery, where no-one can ever admit they're wrong and anyone who thinks differently is an enemy, that they're incapable of doing anything.
Have another civil war and be done with. Just do the rest of the world a favour and leave us out of it.
While it's unlikely that any FBI agents would face charges of contempt of court, judges don't like being lied to, or having their orders ignored. Given the FBI's behaviour, I wouldn't be too surprised if the judge denied the extradition request solely on the basis of the actions of the FBI.
In short, the FBI are acting like arrogant bullies and they are going to destroy their own case.
as they stand massed in an unsecured part of a typical U.S. aiport.
And that is the biggest, most glaring, elephant-in-the-living-room hole in U.S. airport security. The last time I had the misfortune to go through Chicago O'Hare airport, there must have been 300 people packed into an area the size of a basketball court, all waiting to go through the TSA checkpoint. Never mind a nail bomb, the place was so packed that if someone had dropped a lit road flare, the panic and stampede would have caused casualties.
Not that I'm advocating dropping lit road flares in check-in lines, but if I can think of it, I'm sure someone else can.
The insurance system is still superior though because you are allowed to choose your level of risk, and there will always be a public system to fall back on for last resort for those that did not chose insurance. At worst you end up in the same situation you would have been in with a public health plan, government panels deciding who gets treatment.
And that post so beautifully embodies everything that is wrong with the USA that the author should receive an award for demonstrating just how inhumane a first-world country can become.
in almost 39 years on this planet, I'm ashamed to be a New Zealander.
People don't do advanced degrees like a PhD for the money (which isn't that great) or the recognition (which is hard to come by) but because they love the work.
Basically, if you love doing it, do it. If you hang in there, things will probably work out. If not, find something else to do with your life. A while ago I summed up in a blog post my thoughts on doing a PhD: http://computational-intelligence.blogspot.com.au/2011/11/hang-in-there.html
Just my $0.02.
I think it was Patton who said "Your job is not to die for your country. It is to make the other poor bastard die for his."
>DMCA notices are filed under penalty of perjury. Has anybody, ever, even a single case,
> been punished for filing a false takedown?
As I understand it, the perjury clause refers to the statement of the notifier that they
represent or are truly acting for the rights holder, not that what they claim is true. I
think that only requires a "good faith" belief that the material they wish taken down is
infringing.
What would you do? Keep them in a lab? How would you justify that?
Put them in parliament. They'd fit right in.
OK, a lot of comments from people saying they're not going to the US, and a few comments poking fun at them.
Thing is, I seem to recall reading that foreign tourism in the US has been declining over the last few years. A year or two ago I read that Air New Zealand was planning on flying direct from Auckland to Vancouver, with the stated reason being so people did not have to go through the hassle of US customs and immigration en route!
Make fun of the "I'm not going" comments if you like, but it seems that people really aren't going to the US now.
> This is pure fear mongering nonsense. The MMR vaccine is for diseases that doesn't do any of the above. Measels cause no real effects
> unless your child is immunocompromized, and has been eliminated in North America since 2002
The father of an ex-girlfriend of mine was deaf due a childhood bout of measles. This was before the measles vaccine was available, of course.
Measles still exists in other parts of the world, what happens if a carrier gets on a plane to the US, and people have stopped vaccinating?
Vaccines have nothing to do with autism. Absolutely nothing. There is absolutely no evidence that vaccines cause autism, and anyone who tells you otherwise is either an idiot or a liar.
> I love Thomas Jefferson as much as the next American, but there are certain things you listen to him on and some things you don't.
> Civil liberties, the scope of government, certainly
I rather think the issuance of currency fits rather squarely within the scope of government and civil liberties.
> If people reached Easter Island, which is almost off the coast of South America, what would have stopped Polynesian explorers from
> traveling all the way to Chile?
As I understand it, current thinking is that polynesians did make it to South America, which is where they got gourds and sweet potatoes from. Then, they turned around and followed the prevailing winds home.
Thor Heyerdahl thought that polynesians came from South America and followed the prevailing winds in migrating west. But, genetic evidence proves that they come from Taiwain. The current theory is that they explored into the wind because it gave them a free trip home if they didn't find anything.
>They could also operate a casino. Hell, they could legalize drugs and prostitution. I am thinking big money from visitors
;-)
With a few casinos and brothels, I suspect the world's navies would be quite happy to be their protectors
My point being, how did he "manage" his people in that situation?
The mention of the 'quake seemed tacked on the end.
Sorry, should have made that explicit.
My bad.
As in, the Chengdu in Sichuan province that got hit by an earthquake a week ago?
I really wish I had mod points right now... and a moderation option "-1 Horrifying" :-)
I'm sorry your daughter is autistic. I really, rally am.
But people like you who hysterically blame vaccines for their predicament in the face of all facts are doing incredible damage to the health of children.
Yes, your daughter cried all day after getting the vaccine, so did mine. Vaccines make you feel ill, it's part and parcel of how they work.
By your illogic we can blame the assassination of JFK on Dr Who, after all, they both happened on the same day!
You may have had measles as a child, I did as well. And a lot of people who get it do end up fine. But a lot don't. The father of an ex-girlfriend was deaf because of the effects of childhood measles. And the odds of serious complications of measles are a lot higher than the rates of autism, so even if there was a link (and all the evidence says that there isn't) you are far better off vaccinating than not.
Childhood mumps isn't as much of a problem as adult mumps, especially in men: sterility, anyone?
Polio still exists in the wild, what if all of the USA has followed your advice and stopped vaccinating? Then, someone with polio arrives on a plane? I'll tell you what happens, a lot of people end up very seriously f*cked up.
Smallpox vaccinations ended decades ago, I didn't get them, I was too young. My parents did, though. That's what eradicated smallpox.
There are vaccines for some strains of meningitis, my daughter has had them. Meningitis kills people, and tends to maim the ones that survive. I'm not taking that risk with my precious, precious, daughter.
Rates of autism have not changed since the elimination of thimerisol, so your straw man is already drifting downwind as thin smoke by this point.
Your other daughter's IQ probably is very high, but mine is higher than my brother's, and we both received the same vaccines. Different people develop differently, and even siblings develop in different environments (my brother was a wonderful teacher to me as a child, which almost certainly contributed to my mental development, and I love him for that).
My daughter has had every vaccine available, I would consider it gross negligence as a parent, bordering on child abuse, to deny her these protections. I would also be endangering the children around her if she were not vaccinated.
The anti-vaccination hysterics like you need to remember one simple fact: correlation does not imply causation. Until you get that through your thick heads, shut the f*ck up and stop endangering the health of our community.