The problem with artificial insemination (at the risk of being modded -10000 redundant) is partly that in order for one successful insemination, several (20-30) embryos are created and then subsequently frozen and (sometimes many years later) unceremoniously destroyed, much to the chagrin of stem-cell researchers who would love to have the ability to do _exactly_ the same thing, and maybe benefit all humanity, but are stymied by "ethics" concerns.
"the US Constitution requires a seperation[sic] of church and state"?
Show me where it says that? AFAIK, that phrase didn't appear until a court decision in the 1940s -- exact case escapes my memory, but I _know_ the Constitution doesn't say anything about it. Want to check for yourself? http://www.usconstitution.net/const.txt
What makes you think that it couldn't have "potentially" been a bomb? Have you seen the IEDs that come out of Iraq and Afghanistan these days? I'm shocked and appalled that a person who is obviously quite ignorant of what could potentially be a bomb, and what couldn't, would waste everyone's time berating someone who was tasked with identifying bombs.
Listening to "all the annoying ads and filler tracks" is the price you pay for listening to the radio. That music is paid for in royalties by the stations (or their parent companies, or whatever; point is, someone pays hard cash for it) and that cost is passed on to the consumer through the advertising business. In this way, audio files are not radio. They follow a model much more like physical property; they generate no ad sales. Unless you'd rather Apple added advertisements during each track? Not that there wouldn't be ways around that, but that would make them equivalent to radio. The real situation is much more complicated.
"Would a Christian be happy to see a cartoon of Jesus dressed as a klansman? Or maybe Jesus stabbing an Arab child through the heart with a cross? Perhaps some, but the majority would see this as an insult and a totally unfair generalization."
No, I wouldn't be happy about a portrayal of Christ like that, but it happens a lot, and I don't remember the last time angry Christian mobs burned down an embassy or murdered dozens of people all over the world in response to one of them. So I think your point is correct, we wouldn't be happy, but your conclusion is wrong; there is a difference between being unhappy and murder.
"They're rewarded... for their contributions to the campaigns of the political leaders who control those contracts."
You're right there. But honestly, what solutions are there? Give the military enough power to control its own budget directly? That sounds like a road to exactly what America's founding fathers wanted to prevent when they made the military so completely subordinate to the (albeit often misguided) "will" of the civilian populace. I think it's great if little things like this can happen grassroots, but I don't think it would be wise to hand control of the means of production to those whose profession is the management of violence. Campaign finance reform? Great. Term limits? Even better. Prizes, rather than "research contracts"? Why didn't anyone think of this before?
I'm optimistic though. Things are improving, even if it takes a while.
"1. Coca Cola delivery trucks are not, to my knowledge, equipped with Tesla-coil like devices capable of illuminating light bulbs by some kind of electrical induction the moment that they drive past them - even during the Christmas holiday period."
I thought that was the Budweiser train? Oh, wait, it just carries billions of space-freezers and shallow women.
I use an All-Ett, the thinnest wallet in the WORLD. Ballistic nylon is good enough for me, and having a thin profile is extremely important because of the time I spend sitting on my butt.
Regardless of where you put the blame, the point is this: Linux is still not ready enough for the average user. Case in point: I'm a computer science major at a respected university and have spent almost 4 years working with linux (Slackware, SuSE, Fedora) and I have spent the entire day trying to get wireless networking up on a buddy's computer. With the arcane config files and command-line stuff that I've had to use (and still am not finished with), there's no way someone who just points-and-clicks could have figured it all out.
Seriously, that's awesome. Our company isn't quite as strict, but I'm also on the job ~17 hours a day with a lot of down time. Definitely all good ideas for a normal 9-to-5ish.
As a Fedora user I am consistently wondering why no one mentions yum (YellowDog Update Manager) when they talk about apt-get, rhn, etc. yum is a command-line package management tool that can be configured to use multiple internet repositories, and individual repositories are easy enough to build, at least for small (I don't have any experience with more than about 6 computers) networks. A GUI client, yumex, is available as well. Is there some reason no one mentions this?
":The WMD claims were investigated before the war by the weapons inspectors and everyone even the american weapons inspectors said there were no WMDs."
Brings up an interesting point as to why us "l33t g33ks" don't use English properly...if we did, the technical knowledge we'd like to share might be more accessible to "ID10T" users.
I'd say this falls under the first rule of bargaining: ask for much more than you honestly expect to get. That way what your really wanted all along is closer to what you settle for in the end. Bush asked a lot. But Congress will do their whole "I'll vote for it if x", "I'll vote for it if y" thing, until it's a piece of pork-barrel legislation with some vague leagalese ban on patenting human embryos, or something along those lines...a lot closer to what the majority of people actually want to see happen.
Humans, theoretically, are the epitome of natural selection. However, we have at this point learned to protect ourselves (to the detriment of our species as a whole) from it.
The theory of natural selection says that those most able to cope with the environment survived to reporduce. If natural selection is a part of the environment, doesn't it make sense that the human race has evolved a defense to it? Does this mean that societies with "Occupational Health and Safety" laws will be "naturally selected" to survive and reproduce over the societies which don't protect citizens from their own stupidity?
I have been waiting for someone else to say it, but as an American, I couldn't.
Our Declaration of Independence says "all men are created equal," where it should say, "all men are created with equal rights." I attend one of the few schools left where merely parroting the party line won't get you anywhere, and where people are expected to fail out. Our grads are also the best anywhere. Schools from all over the world come to study our methods.
I'll tell you what's wrong with the education system in America - we carry everyone along. "No Child Left Behind" just means that we all get stuck at the starting line of the race, waiting for the ones who can't (or won't) even crawl.
And I hear you on the mp3 player too...I am a proud owner of a Rio Karma -.ogg forever!
Perhaps a false sense of security is better than nothing. At risk of parroting George Bush, I will say that if Americans feel safer, the terrorism has a diminished effect. That ought to be worth soemthing. What would you propose to make air travel safer?
"Not ONE thing instituted by the government to date from after 9/11 would have prevented it from occuring."
Right. Good point. Next point (which is the one I was trying to make in the first place): making it easier to get on a plane makes it inherently easier to {blow it up, hijack it, etc, etc}. So letting people board without ID means one less thing they (terrorists, suicidal maniacs, insane thrillseekers, etc) have to worry about. Think about it this way: I know, as a sysadmin, that requiring a username and password isn't going to stop people from attacking my systems, but I'm sure not going to just leave an open, logged in terminal out where people can get to it!
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The problem with artificial insemination (at the risk of being modded -10000 redundant) is partly that in order for one successful insemination, several (20-30) embryos are created and then subsequently frozen and (sometimes many years later) unceremoniously destroyed, much to the chagrin of stem-cell researchers who would love to have the ability to do _exactly_ the same thing, and maybe benefit all humanity, but are stymied by "ethics" concerns.
"the US Constitution requires a seperation[sic] of church and state"?
Show me where it says that? AFAIK, that phrase didn't appear until a court decision in the 1940s -- exact case escapes my memory, but I _know_ the Constitution doesn't say anything about it. Want to check for yourself? http://www.usconstitution.net/const.txt
"...we don't consider the possibility that it has multiple distance values in a single moment of time."
"Nope. The solar winds overlap each other."
This would imply that yes, it _does_ have multiple distance values in a single moment of time.
What makes you think that it couldn't have "potentially" been a bomb? Have you seen the IEDs that come out of Iraq and Afghanistan these days? I'm shocked and appalled that a person who is obviously quite ignorant of what could potentially be a bomb, and what couldn't, would waste everyone's time berating someone who was tasked with identifying bombs.
Radio isn't "free" music.
Listening to "all the annoying ads and filler tracks" is the price you pay for listening to the radio. That music is paid for in royalties by the stations (or their parent companies, or whatever; point is, someone pays hard cash for it) and that cost is passed on to the consumer through the advertising business. In this way, audio files are not radio. They follow a model much more like physical property; they generate no ad sales. Unless you'd rather Apple added advertisements during each track? Not that there wouldn't be ways around that, but that would make them equivalent to radio. The real situation is much more complicated.
"Would a Christian be happy to see a cartoon of Jesus dressed as a klansman? Or maybe Jesus stabbing an Arab child through the heart with a cross? Perhaps some, but the majority would see this as an insult and a totally unfair generalization."
No, I wouldn't be happy about a portrayal of Christ like that, but it happens a lot, and I don't remember the last time angry Christian mobs burned down an embassy or murdered dozens of people all over the world in response to one of them. So I think your point is correct, we wouldn't be happy, but your conclusion is wrong; there is a difference between being unhappy and murder.
"They're rewarded ... for their contributions to the campaigns of the political leaders who control those contracts."
You're right there. But honestly, what solutions are there? Give the military enough power to control its own budget directly? That sounds like a road to exactly what America's founding fathers wanted to prevent when they made the military so completely subordinate to the (albeit often misguided) "will" of the civilian populace. I think it's great if little things like this can happen grassroots, but I don't think it would be wise to hand control of the means of production to those whose profession is the management of violence. Campaign finance reform? Great. Term limits? Even better. Prizes, rather than "research contracts"? Why didn't anyone think of this before?
I'm optimistic though. Things are improving, even if it takes a while.
"1. Coca Cola delivery trucks are not, to my knowledge, equipped with Tesla-coil like devices capable of illuminating light bulbs by some kind of electrical induction the moment that they drive past them - even during the Christmas holiday period."
I thought that was the Budweiser train? Oh, wait, it just carries billions of space-freezers and shallow women.
I use an All-Ett, the thinnest wallet in the WORLD. Ballistic nylon is good enough for me, and having a thin profile is extremely important because of the time I spend sitting on my butt.
Actaully....being a programmer in the US Army Signal Corps has been much like #1, 2, and 3....
"Should soldiers really expect the same rights as far as freedom of speech as other civilians?"
No. When I joined the military, I signed away those rights. I gave up mine, to protect yours.
2. ?????
3. Profit!
Regardless of where you put the blame, the point is this: Linux is still not ready enough for the average user. Case in point: I'm a computer science major at a respected university and have spent almost 4 years working with linux (Slackware, SuSE, Fedora) and I have spent the entire day trying to get wireless networking up on a buddy's computer. With the arcane config files and command-line stuff that I've had to use (and still am not finished with), there's no way someone who just points-and-clicks could have figured it all out.
Wow....
Teach me, master...
Seriously, that's awesome. Our company isn't quite as strict, but I'm also on the job ~17 hours a day with a lot of down time. Definitely all good ideas for a normal 9-to-5ish.
"and worst of all, Marketers."
Which would be where he fits in; popping up 20,000,000 ads per day certainly sounds like it!
As a Fedora user I am consistently wondering why no one mentions yum (YellowDog Update Manager) when they talk about apt-get, rhn, etc. yum is a command-line package management tool that can be configured to use multiple internet repositories, and individual repositories are easy enough to build, at least for small (I don't have any experience with more than about 6 computers) networks. A GUI client, yumex, is available as well. Is there some reason no one mentions this?
":The WMD claims were investigated before the war by the weapons inspectors and everyone even the american weapons inspectors said there were no WMDs."
Got any sources? (I'm genuinely interested.)
Brings up an interesting point as to why us "l33t g33ks" don't use English properly...if we did, the technical knowledge we'd like to share might be more accessible to "ID10T" users.
I'd say this falls under the first rule of bargaining: ask for much more than you honestly expect to get. That way what your really wanted all along is closer to what you settle for in the end.
Bush asked a lot. But Congress will do their whole "I'll vote for it if x", "I'll vote for it if y" thing, until it's a piece of pork-barrel legislation with some vague leagalese ban on patenting human embryos, or something along those lines...a lot closer to what the majority of people actually want to see happen.
"Google Earth for Linux
Picassa for Linux
Hello for Linux
Google Desktop for Linux
Google Talk for Linux"
When I see these things, I will embrace Google as my own....
Until then, gmail and my personalized homepage are very nice, but I have little hope.
Yep, us 19-year-olds definitely have things nailed down.
Humans, theoretically, are the epitome of natural selection. However, we have at this point learned to protect ourselves (to the detriment of our species as a whole) from it.
The theory of natural selection says that those most able to cope with the environment survived to reporduce. If natural selection is a part of the environment, doesn't it make sense that the human race has evolved a defense to it? Does this mean that societies with "Occupational Health and Safety" laws will be "naturally selected" to survive and reproduce over the societies which don't protect citizens from their own stupidity?
This is bad, very bad.
Thank you.
.ogg forever!
I have been waiting for someone else to say it, but as an American, I couldn't.
Our Declaration of Independence says "all men are created equal," where it should say, "all men are created with equal rights." I attend one of the few schools left where merely parroting the party line won't get you anywhere, and where people are expected to fail out.
Our grads are also the best anywhere. Schools from all over the world come to study our methods.
I'll tell you what's wrong with the education system in America - we carry everyone along. "No Child Left Behind" just means that we all get stuck at the starting line of the race, waiting for the ones who can't (or won't) even crawl.
And I hear you on the mp3 player too...I am a proud owner of a Rio Karma -
Perhaps a false sense of security is better than nothing. At risk of parroting George Bush, I will say that if Americans feel safer, the terrorism has a diminished effect. That ought to be worth soemthing.
What would you propose to make air travel safer?
"Not ONE thing instituted by the government to date from after 9/11 would have prevented it from occuring."
Right. Good point.
Next point (which is the one I was trying to make in the first place): making it easier to get on a plane makes it inherently easier to {blow it up, hijack it, etc, etc}. So letting people board without ID means one less thing they (terrorists, suicidal maniacs, insane thrillseekers, etc) have to worry about.
Think about it this way: I know, as a sysadmin, that requiring a username and password isn't going to stop people from attacking my systems, but I'm sure not going to just leave an open, logged in terminal out where people can get to it!