Every time I enter another country I've been asked to supply the address etc of where I'm staying when I fill in the immigration forms. The difference is, the information on the immigration forms is handled, processed, etc by the immigration departments of the countries involved, that is, by their governments.
Doctorow was asked to supply this information to American Airlines, who is, as far as I know, neither a government department nor a government.
As fond as I am of criticising the US government, in this case the information they ask for is no different to that of any other country, including my own. AA, on the other hand, has no right to ask for this information, as it is not their concern to control who enters the US.
The "Penalty of perjury" clause means that the person writing the notice is authorized to act on behalf of the copyright holder, not that the content of the notice is correct.
Looking at their list of best and worst programmes, the group seems to be very selective on which consequences they like shown and which they don't. They like to see the consequences of sex and drug use being shown, but not the consequences of assault and murder.
If they think that showing the consequences of sex will put people off of having sex, why wouldn't showing the consequences of murder put people off of killing?
The Bush regime is rapidly pushing the USA towards facism, and the American people are too wrapped up in their own jingoism to see or care about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignoratio_elenchi
there are also other contributing factors including the improvements in many foreign universities
Indeed, and many are coming to New Zealand. This, in turn, is boosting the NZ University system, which is good for me, because I work for a NZ university. So, from a purely selfish point of view, I should be cheering the US slide towards fascism, because I will likely personally benefit from it.
However, if you saw a friend making a terrible mistake, wouldn't you try to stop them? The US has long been a friend of New Zealand, so why shouldn't New Zealanders try to warn Americans of what you're doing? If it takes words like 'fascism' and 'jingoism' (words that are becoming increasingly apt, IMHO) to get through to them, then so be it.
As far as improving security goes, this is just eye-candy. Ask yourself this, how many of the 9/11 highjackers would have been prevented from boarding a plane under the current security rules? how many would have been kept out of the USA?
The best security is to not have people wanting to kill you in the first place. In this matter, the USA is failing dismally.
Note: now that I look at your profile, you aren't even from the US. Why should I care what you think? In fact, you made my point. This post is abbreviated.
Thank you for reinforcing my point about jingoism.
Don't care about foreigners?
Check.
See "jingoism" above.
It's this attitude that makes Americans targets the world over. If people like you actually gave a shit about other human beings, you might be able to step outside your borders without fearing for your lives. Or, pretending to be Canadian.
When the September 11th attacks happend, many Americans were bewildered: they didn't understand why people would do this to them. Many people in the non-US world wondered why it hadn't happened sooner.
I fail to understand your argument that, since we recruit intelligent foreigners to come and have great ideas here in the US, somehow Americans benefit
In case you haven't noticed, the idea that the US can monopolize the "information" economy is complete crap.
Indeed. But, but I never actually made that point. I was, in fact, pointing out how current US policies are hurting the US. Unlike you, I actually care about the welfare of US science.
And, oh, by the way, it's "farther", not "further".
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=further
and
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=farther
If you're going to be pedantic, you could at least look the words up first.
The USA has already suffered a significant drop in the number of foreign grad students enrolling. The number one reason given for this drop is intrusive and over-bearing background checks, a long waiting period and capricious immigration officials.
Don't care about foreigners? You should, as many institutions are now struggling to maintain student numbers. This has implications for funding, which in turn has implications for future research, which in turn has implications for the USA's future prosperity. The November issue of IEEE Spectrum has a short article on this.
Think the foreign grad students can be replaced by domestic students? Nope, the US education system is falling further behind in science education. See this article:
A few years ago I visited a research company in the USA (which shall remain nameless, since they do Homeland Security work now and I don't want to cause difficulties for them).
When I turned up each morning, I was asked to sign in to the visitor's register. When my host (the CEO of the company) first showed me where it was, I saw a column entitled "SSN". When I asked him what an SSN was, he replied, with a combination of humour and bitterness, "Social Security Number - you don't have one, you haven't been 'marked'".
IIRC the XB-70 Valkyrie used boron hydride as fuel to achieve Mach 3+ cruising speed. Energy density of the fuel was said to be twice that of hydrocarbon fuels.
Algae suck carbon dioxide out of the air. At worst, it's carbon neutral, at best it would be carbon negative, since not all of the algae is converted to fuel and burnt.
Biodiesel is probably the best near-term alternative fuel, mostly because it can use the existing distribution infrastructure.
>Which raises the question: in the original, how did the Galactica survive?
In the original series, the Colonial fleet was wiped out in an ambush by a vast fleet of Cylon fighters. Meanwhile, the Cylon basestars were attacking the 12 colonies.
The Galactica survived because Adama realised their homeworld was being attacked and bugged out halfway through the battle. The other Battlestars stayed and were destroyed.
"There goes the supertechnological soldier, staggering forward to wreak destruction on anyone he can entice within range. Meanwhile, the despicable enemy has opened fire with an old-fashioned but extremely efficient sub-machine gun."
Slashdot Mirror
Doctorow was asked to supply this information to American Airlines, who is, as far as I know, neither a government department nor a government.
As fond as I am of criticising the US government, in this case the information they ask for is no different to that of any other country, including my own. AA, on the other hand, has no right to ask for this information, as it is not their concern to control who enters the US.
The "Penalty of perjury" clause means that the person writing the notice is authorized to act on behalf of the copyright holder, not that the content of the notice is correct.
Well, walking trees would explain many of the car crashes here...
In NZ (and some other Westminster-style parliaments) the two sides of the house are two sword-lengths apart.
At least the Taiwanese only fight with their fists...
Looking at their list of best and worst programmes, the group seems to be very selective on which consequences they like shown and which they don't. They like to see the consequences of sex and drug use being shown, but not the consequences of assault and murder.
If they think that showing the consequences of sex will put people off of having sex, why wouldn't showing the consequences of murder put people off of killing?
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=131720&cid=110 00790
Indeed, and many are coming to New Zealand. This, in turn, is boosting the NZ University system, which is good for me, because I work for a NZ university. So, from a purely selfish point of view, I should be cheering the US slide towards fascism, because I will likely personally benefit from it.
However, if you saw a friend making a terrible mistake, wouldn't you try to stop them? The US has long been a friend of New Zealand, so why shouldn't New Zealanders try to warn Americans of what you're doing? If it takes words like 'fascism' and 'jingoism' (words that are becoming increasingly apt, IMHO) to get through to them, then so be it.
As far as improving security goes, this is just eye-candy. Ask yourself this, how many of the 9/11 highjackers would have been prevented from boarding a plane under the current security rules? how many would have been kept out of the USA?
The best security is to not have people wanting to kill you in the first place. In this matter, the USA is failing dismally.
Thank you for reinforcing my point about jingoism.
Don't care about foreigners?
Check.
See "jingoism" above.
It's this attitude that makes Americans targets the world over. If people like you actually gave a shit about other human beings, you might be able to step outside your borders without fearing for your lives. Or, pretending to be Canadian.
When the September 11th attacks happend, many Americans were bewildered: they didn't understand why people would do this to them. Many people in the non-US world wondered why it hadn't happened sooner.
I fail to understand your argument that, since we recruit intelligent foreigners to come and have great ideas here in the US, somehow Americans benefit
Thanks to shadowmatter for providing this link:
http://www.fareedzakaria.com/articles/newsweek/1 12904.html
In case you haven't noticed, the idea that the US can monopolize the "information" economy is complete crap.
Indeed. But, but I never actually made that point. I was, in fact, pointing out how current US policies are hurting the US. Unlike you, I actually care about the welfare of US science.
And, oh, by the way, it's "farther", not "further".
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=further
and
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=farther
If you're going to be pedantic, you could at least look the words up first.
The USA has already suffered a significant drop in the number of foreign grad students enrolling. The number one reason given for this drop is intrusive and over-bearing background checks, a long waiting period and capricious immigration officials.
i d= 276464&page=1
Don't care about foreigners? You should, as many institutions are now struggling to maintain student numbers. This has implications for funding, which in turn has implications for future research, which in turn has implications for the USA's future prosperity. The November issue of IEEE Spectrum has a short article on this.
Think the foreign grad students can be replaced by domestic students? Nope, the US education system is falling further behind in science education. See this article:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/DyeHard/story?
The Bush regime is rapidly pushing the USA towards facism, and the American people are too wrapped up in their own jingoism to see or care about it.
A few years ago I visited a research company in the USA (which shall remain nameless, since they do Homeland Security work now and I don't want to cause difficulties for them).
When I turned up each morning, I was asked to sign in to the visitor's register. When my host (the CEO of the company) first showed me where it was, I saw a column entitled "SSN". When I asked him what an SSN was, he replied, with a combination of humour and bitterness, "Social Security Number - you don't have one, you haven't been 'marked'".
Really, really glad I'm a New Zealander.
It could scare off the big companies, but that would allow smaller companies to get a foothold in the industry. Sounds like a good thing to me.
IIRC the XB-70 Valkyrie used boron hydride as fuel to achieve Mach 3+ cruising speed. Energy density of the fuel was said to be twice that of hydrocarbon fuels.
IIRC it's called mens rea. Only applies to crimes, not civil suits. Of course, different jurisdictions have different rules...
Dammit, should say "decline into irrelevance"
The sooner this number becomes the majority, the sooner the USA will decline in irrelevance.
Great, now I'm going to have those lyrics stuck in my head for the next week.
At least it's better than the Llama Song.
Great, a machine gets it more than most Slashdotters.
that I probably won't ever work in the USA, or even go back to visit in the near future.
The USA is now a fascist state, and that is very sad. Since Bush just got re-elected, things are only going to get worse.
Good thing the ESA is building a Soyuz launch pad at Kourou, then. That's almost on the equator.
I suspect the Ariane 5 could launch the booster stage, too.
ESA + Russia = lunar tourism?
Algae suck carbon dioxide out of the air. At worst, it's carbon neutral, at best it would be carbon negative, since not all of the algae is converted to fuel and burnt.
Biodiesel is probably the best near-term alternative fuel, mostly because it can use the existing distribution infrastructure.
is the 28th largest economy in the world.
New Zealand is 81.
Holy cow.
>Which raises the question: in the original, how did the Galactica survive?
In the original series, the Colonial fleet was wiped out in an ambush by a vast fleet of Cylon fighters. Meanwhile, the Cylon basestars were attacking the 12 colonies.
The Galactica survived because Adama realised their homeworld was being attacked and bugged out halfway through the battle. The other Battlestars stayed and were destroyed.
Ummm, you can't contract your way out of the law.
Just because you signed a contract with them, doesn't mean that they can commit a crime (theft) with impunity.
I would've told the police about what happend.
"There goes the supertechnological soldier, staggering forward to wreak destruction on anyone he can entice within range. Meanwhile, the despicable enemy has opened fire with an old-fashioned but extremely efficient sub-machine gun."
Wish I could remember who wrote that book.
My wife is Chinese, and she is very excited about and proud of this launch. Don't underestimate how much this event will boost their national pride.