Where did I defend the Bolsheviks? They created a heinous regime. I simply commented on the irony of the OP portraying them as stern taskmasters, as one of the ways they initially won over the people of Russia was by reducing working hours.
It's ironic you make that joke, since one of the first reforms the Bolsheviks made during the October Revolution was reducing the working day to 8 hours.
I used this tool, but it didn't turn out so well. The first question was, "To calculate your worth, please provide your SSN and online banking username and password." Unfortunately, when I clicked "Next", it's lagging and I can't get through to the next part...
I bet your carrier-pigeon vendor didn't talk about that part, did he?
Not only that, but his assistant kept touching my wife's ass, and after he wrapped up his sales presentation and left, we noticed all the silverware was gone. I'd advise all to keep well away from these carrier pigeon vendors, even if they seem slick.
Plus, I live close enough to Chernobyl to know that nuclear power is simply not acceptable. Unless you just love thyroid cancer.
So just because some incompetent bureaucracts intentionally push one power plant beyond its intended use, all nuclear plants everywhere must shut down?
Unfortunately if you simply switch to a bicycle in many American communities, you will be ostracized by your friends and coworkers because they will suspect you have been charged with DUI and can no longer drive a car. At least switching to a whizbang invention has less shame involved.
Remember the buzz around the Segway before it came out? (I know some Slashdotters these days are a bit too young, see e.g. Kemper's Code Name Ginger.) Basically Kamen's invention was first announced through the code names IT and Ginger, with the promise that this unknown invention would completely change life as we know it. When the Segway was finally unveiled, the disappointment pretty much killed off any widescale distribution of the device (along with crazy city ordinances). I wish this bike inventor luck, but I have a feeling that the less he touts how revolutionary it is, the more adoption it will see.
Another wacky idea first proposed in science fiction. Larry Niven's Puppeteer race in Ringworld moved their planets far from their sun to avoid baking in their own waste heat. But when it comes to Earth, this idea is still completely fantastical.
Reminds me of Kim Stanley Robinson's terraforming conjectures in his trilogy beginning with Red Mars, where an orbital lens first used to provide more sunlight for Mars is ultimately sent to Venus, turned around, and used to shield that hot planet from sunlight.
Yes, decriminalizing heroin is a good idea. Before it became a prohibited substance it was cheaply available in your neighborhood drug store. Addicts didn't have to resort to criminal activity to get their fix.
Opium was linked to criminal behavior long before it was banned. In order to buy opium from your neighbourhood drug store, you had to have money. But addicts were too out of it to maintain a steady job, so they needed to acquire cash to get their fix through other means. Never read Thomas de Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater? It's a fairly good portrayal of the early 19th century underworld that had grown up around the stuff.
My point is that if you legalize cannabis, what prevents the situation from becoming as bad as it was in Sweden in the mid 19th century? Instead of alcoholics you'll have a large segment of the population being high on pot all the time.
I hate pot with a passion. I think it smells rank and its effects are unpleasant. However, it is in no way comparable to alcohol. Certain populations have a tendency to drink for genetic and environmental factors (I live in Finland, the situation is comparable to Sweden), but cannabis just doesn't fill those needs.
Cannabis is de facto legal in the Netherlands, a country that used to have serious problems with drinking, but a fairly small amount of the population actually goes out and buys any of it.
Finland isn't worried about the Somali immigrants taking welfare, when their generous birthrates ensure that in just a generation or two the workforce will benefit from more taxpayers. The situation that has happened in Malmö is due to the ineptitude of the Swedish government in making immigrants integrate, and isn't any kind of point against the welfare state.
Yes, there are a few people here and there who travel on state money. In Finland, every student gets a monthly allowance from the state, and I know a few people who travel, but as they return to Finland twice a year to take book exams, they are hardly misusing the money. However, people like that are in no way representative of the average Nordic person, not even close.
Bring up a kid watching mom walk to the mailbox on the first of the month and you can forget em seeing the value of getting an education and a job.
The combined experience of the Nordic countries for half a century now should stand as proof that, even if everything in life is provided for you, the vast, vast majority of people still go out and work for a living.
If the gaim crew hadn't been stuck in protracted negotiations over their name with AOL, progress would have happened much sooner. That year of stagnation as the team was told their project was infringing was a serious blow to development.
Instead of saturating the media with insincere sound-bites from politicians who are judged more by their hair, makeup and height than their policies or competences, people actually get to meet the individuals they'll be voting for and are able to judge the person who wil [sic] represent them.
People will still have little to judge the politicians on than their personal appearance. It's not like the politicians actually have time to discuss serious policy when they do these neighbourhood walks. It's just smiles, handshakes and exhortations "Vote for me".
The fact is, all of you people who claim life would be better if we all just "got back to nature" are nothing more than a bunch of hypocrites. You could do it now, as you say everything is free, so all you have to do is leave, find some place secluded, and live. But nobody from Burning Man, or any of these other "freedom" parties ever does, because nobody wants to give up the luxuries the modern world provides. It's really nothing more than an excuse to have a raucous party.
Burning Man isn't about getting back to nature as much as it is getting away from other people. Burning Man has always attracted nerds and there is a lot of interesting technology being tried out every year. Burning Man is about radical free expression, so yes, Burners have always been upfront that it is a raucous party.
It is Rainbow Gatherings that are about getting back to nature. Yes, it is true that most participants hang out in the forest for a month eating the simplest of food, but then go back to civilization and sit in a comfortable flat. However, there are plenty of people who do nothing but drift from one Rainbow Gathering to another through the course of the year. They have cut themselves off from most of the luxury of the modern world (even getting between Rainbows is likely to be done by hitchhiking and hiking, with sleeping rough in a tent, instead of something more comfortable) so their idealism is much more credible.
I was actually thinking about going to Burning Man this year. It sounds like I already missed the good years.
There are other festivals that are similar to Burning Man--out in the middle of nowhere and dedicated to radical free expression--but which are still quite unknown. I'm obviously not going to name any, but if you are the sort who is into that sort of thing, you probably have friends who are also into that sort of thing and who know some cool places to attend. Just ask around, enjoy yourself there, and live in the moment without thinking all the time about how you missed Burning Man at its prime.
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Where did I defend the Bolsheviks? They created a heinous regime. I simply commented on the irony of the OP portraying them as stern taskmasters, as one of the ways they initially won over the people of Russia was by reducing working hours.
It's ironic you make that joke, since one of the first reforms the Bolsheviks made during the October Revolution was reducing the working day to 8 hours.
Solar panels don't have to last too long when fusion is only thirty years away, am i rite?
I used this tool, but it didn't turn out so well. The first question was, "To calculate your worth, please provide your SSN and online banking username and password." Unfortunately, when I clicked "Next", it's lagging and I can't get through to the next part...
Not only that, but his assistant kept touching my wife's ass, and after he wrapped up his sales presentation and left, we noticed all the silverware was gone. I'd advise all to keep well away from these carrier pigeon vendors, even if they seem slick.
So just because some incompetent bureaucracts intentionally push one power plant beyond its intended use, all nuclear plants everywhere must shut down?
A person who is 20 now (the age I was when I began reading Slashdot) might not have been passionately following technology news when they were 12.
Unfortunately if you simply switch to a bicycle in many American communities, you will be ostracized by your friends and coworkers because they will suspect you have been charged with DUI and can no longer drive a car. At least switching to a whizbang invention has less shame involved.
Remember the buzz around the Segway before it came out? (I know some Slashdotters these days are a bit too young, see e.g. Kemper's Code Name Ginger .) Basically Kamen's invention was first announced through the code names IT and Ginger, with the promise that this unknown invention would completely change life as we know it. When the Segway was finally unveiled, the disappointment pretty much killed off any widescale distribution of the device (along with crazy city ordinances). I wish this bike inventor luck, but I have a feeling that the less he touts how revolutionary it is, the more adoption it will see.
Yeah, because a minor detail mentioned in passing in one paragraph of the trilogy ruins its bold dramatic arc.
But then the trees would suck up precious water resources, worsening Earth's water crisis.
Another wacky idea first proposed in science fiction. Larry Niven's Puppeteer race in Ringworld moved their planets far from their sun to avoid baking in their own waste heat. But when it comes to Earth, this idea is still completely fantastical.
Reminds me of Kim Stanley Robinson's terraforming conjectures in his trilogy beginning with Red Mars , where an orbital lens first used to provide more sunlight for Mars is ultimately sent to Venus, turned around, and used to shield that hot planet from sunlight.
Opium was linked to criminal behavior long before it was banned. In order to buy opium from your neighbourhood drug store, you had to have money. But addicts were too out of it to maintain a steady job, so they needed to acquire cash to get their fix through other means. Never read Thomas de Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater ? It's a fairly good portrayal of the early 19th century underworld that had grown up around the stuff.
I hate pot with a passion. I think it smells rank and its effects are unpleasant. However, it is in no way comparable to alcohol. Certain populations have a tendency to drink for genetic and environmental factors (I live in Finland, the situation is comparable to Sweden), but cannabis just doesn't fill those needs.
Cannabis is de facto legal in the Netherlands, a country that used to have serious problems with drinking, but a fairly small amount of the population actually goes out and buys any of it.
Finland isn't worried about the Somali immigrants taking welfare, when their generous birthrates ensure that in just a generation or two the workforce will benefit from more taxpayers. The situation that has happened in Malmö is due to the ineptitude of the Swedish government in making immigrants integrate, and isn't any kind of point against the welfare state. Yes, there are a few people here and there who travel on state money. In Finland, every student gets a monthly allowance from the state, and I know a few people who travel, but as they return to Finland twice a year to take book exams, they are hardly misusing the money. However, people like that are in no way representative of the average Nordic person, not even close.
The combined experience of the Nordic countries for half a century now should stand as proof that, even if everything in life is provided for you, the vast, vast majority of people still go out and work for a living.
"Pidgin" is actually a Pidgin word for "business".
That would be a pigeon, not a pidgin.
If the gaim crew hadn't been stuck in protracted negotiations over their name with AOL, progress would have happened much sooner. That year of stagnation as the team was told their project was infringing was a serious blow to development.
The term "Ebonics" is a sensationalist media creation. In linguistics, the term is African-American Vernacular English, usually abbreviated AAVE.
People will still have little to judge the politicians on than their personal appearance. It's not like the politicians actually have time to discuss serious policy when they do these neighbourhood walks. It's just smiles, handshakes and exhortations "Vote for me".
Burning Man isn't about getting back to nature as much as it is getting away from other people. Burning Man has always attracted nerds and there is a lot of interesting technology being tried out every year. Burning Man is about radical free expression, so yes, Burners have always been upfront that it is a raucous party.
It is Rainbow Gatherings that are about getting back to nature. Yes, it is true that most participants hang out in the forest for a month eating the simplest of food, but then go back to civilization and sit in a comfortable flat. However, there are plenty of people who do nothing but drift from one Rainbow Gathering to another through the course of the year. They have cut themselves off from most of the luxury of the modern world (even getting between Rainbows is likely to be done by hitchhiking and hiking, with sleeping rough in a tent, instead of something more comfortable) so their idealism is much more credible.
Festivals dedicated to radical free expression (like Burning Man) are very different from music festivals.
There are other festivals that are similar to Burning Man--out in the middle of nowhere and dedicated to radical free expression--but which are still quite unknown. I'm obviously not going to name any, but if you are the sort who is into that sort of thing, you probably have friends who are also into that sort of thing and who know some cool places to attend. Just ask around, enjoy yourself there, and live in the moment without thinking all the time about how you missed Burning Man at its prime.