1. build a tiny little space ship
2. ask all the Bush and Cheney family members
to enter this thing
3. close the door
4. let this ship travel to Mars
Thats it. end of story.
Yep. Who cares about those people living on
islands in the pacific ocean with names that
we cant spell anyway? Everybody has to adapt;
so we buy some more air condition units and
they can learn to swim.
The question isnt: is there a global warning?
The question is: how hard will it hit us?!
Going to Mars and taming space is the only way forward for humanity as a whole and
There are lots of things more dangerous on Earth than going to Mars.
And that is exactly the reason why people should
not spend billions of dollars and life times
of thoughts with space travelling.
Remember this star trek thing? They didnt send
the first ship right after discovering the
warp engine; no they decided (wisely) to
fight poverty,pollution,diseases,and misery
in general before exploring the space!
We have quite a bunch of unsolved problems
on this very planet; damn we should resolve
these issues before even thinking about going
to space.
Face it: your children will not be educated
because of a Mars mission; your social security
and health care will not be guaranteed because
of a Mars mission; your mate who was sent
to Iraq to find WMDs that arent there will not
come back because of a Mars mission.
Sometimes dreaming is nice; sometimes it is
mandatory to provide a positive vision of the
future - but sometimes dreams are just a
vehicle designed to ignore reality.
Nowadays, it is no longer necessary to use the
bogeyman term of terrorist in order to frighten
the US people - in order to remove another one
of freedem derived from the US constitution.
They just do it. Face it man; the risk of being
hit by terrorist within the US last year was basically ZERO; there are many more dangers to your health and economic wealth that are coming directly from your government.
It is true; terrorists exist and and they want to
change the society. They want to take away
your freedom, your rights, your dignity.
And you know what? They won!
Dont be afraid of terrorist... better be afraid
about vanishing 400K money, vanishing social
security, health care, child education, civil
rights, Diebold voting equipment, stripped-down
pollution laws, ENRON style "ethics",...
Those are the issues that affect YOUR life,
directly, every day, every minute.
If you think this is a problem it is obvious that
you are unpatriotic; and probably a commie-terrorist. You see, if you are not
with us; for sure you must be with THEM.
What really worries me is the fact that there
must be people around who would tell you this -
and mean it!
Maybe you should spent some time reading the works of Noam Chomsky... but not those that every computer scientist knows of. He epxressed back
in the 80ies that it was the public that paid IBM
for developing computers in the 1950ies. One
decade later, when a lot of money was
spended and computers got profitable - of course,
it was IBM alone making those profits - not the public.
It will be the exact same thing here. Do you really think IBM isnt paid huge amounts of money for this work? They are doing research here;
they are making priceless experiences - and they
are paid for it. The public is paying the research; the company will make the profit. It is always working like this.
Why do you think that any sane being would invest money for more and more powerful nuclear weapons? Because we need them? Bullshit. It happens because money is spent and some make profit for doing research. That is the reason. The only reason.
Reading some of the replies to articles I am wondering if it is really a good idea to have such stuff published here.
As soon as the "real life" politics get into it,
people start to get mad. All of a sudden, dissent is unpatriotic; you are either on the right side
or you are "with them".
All of a sudden this is no longer a place for
nice, compassionate nerds; no - now this is a
place where all the rats come out of their holes
to bring hate and anger. And they are not asking
for discussion; as I said; you are with them or
you are a lousy stinkin' something. Of course,
that is the real life... but is what we need
here?
The (aggresive) liberal view is easily found at places like www.bushflash.com; the opposite
might be found at places like littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/ - really no
need in my eyes to bring slashdot into this league
of extraordinary hotheads...
Unfortunately you are right. As others have pointed out: this is not rocket science. But it seems like nobody can get it right.
My conclussion: this disastrous situation is not coming by accident - it is the will of those who are in power. No responsible politician would be willing to accept a voting system that comes with so many flaws... if he isnt planning to manipulate the next elections himself. You are not hiring a hit man so he talks to your enemies; you sent him to kill them. And you are not supporting a flawed voting system to do a correct count of votes; you are going to use it to count them like you want it. With privatized "eVoting" elections democracy will vanish. Being a young German I have always wondered how it must have been between 1930 and 1935 when the Nazis changed a democracy into a dictatorship. But of course that will never happen to you... the US have free media; nobody would ever try to call dissens unpatriotic or unamerican.
You mean, like in Georgia where the republican
candidate won... to the surprise of all
that read the pre-vote surveys that clearly
pointed out that the democrat guy would be the
winner?
Slashdot Mirror
1. build a tiny little space ship
2. ask all the Bush and Cheney family members to enter this thing
3. close the door
4. let this ship travel to Mars
Thats it. end of story.
The question isnt: is there a global warning?
The question is: how hard will it hit us?!
And that is exactly the reason why people should not spend billions of dollars and life times of thoughts with space travelling.
Remember this star trek thing? They didnt send the first ship right after discovering the warp engine; no they decided (wisely) to fight poverty,pollution,diseases,and misery in general before exploring the space!
We have quite a bunch of unsolved problems on this very planet; damn we should resolve these issues before even thinking about going to space.
Face it: your children will not be educated because of a Mars mission; your social security and health care will not be guaranteed because of a Mars mission; your mate who was sent to Iraq to find WMDs that arent there will not come back because of a Mars mission.
Sometimes dreaming is nice; sometimes it is mandatory to provide a positive vision of the future - but sometimes dreams are just a vehicle designed to ignore reality.
It isnt terrorism. It is called compassionate neoconservatism ... almost funny.
They just do it. Face it man; the risk of being hit by terrorist within the US last year was basically ZERO; there are many more dangers to your health and economic wealth that are coming directly from your government.
It is true; terrorists exist and and they want to change the society. They want to take away your freedom, your rights, your dignity.
And you know what? They won!
Dont be afraid of terrorist ... better be afraid
about vanishing 400K money, vanishing social
security, health care, child education, civil
rights, Diebold voting equipment, stripped-down
pollution laws, ENRON style "ethics", ...
Those are the issues that affect YOUR life, directly, every day, every minute.
What really worries me is the fact that there must be people around who would tell you this - and mean it!
Find the guy who did it. He should know.
It will be the exact same thing here. Do you really think IBM isnt paid huge amounts of money for this work? They are doing research here; they are making priceless experiences - and they are paid for it. The public is paying the research; the company will make the profit. It is always working like this.
Why do you think that any sane being would invest money for more and more powerful nuclear weapons? Because we need them? Bullshit. It happens because money is spent and some make profit for doing research. That is the reason. The only reason.
All of a sudden this is no longer a place for nice, compassionate nerds; no - now this is a place where all the rats come out of their holes to bring hate and anger. And they are not asking for discussion; as I said; you are with them or you are a lousy stinkin' something. Of course, that is the real life ... but is what we need
here?
The (aggresive) liberal view is easily found at places like www.bushflash.com; the opposite might be found at places like littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/ - really no need in my eyes to bring slashdot into this league of extraordinary hotheads ...
But it seems like nobody can get it right.
My conclussion: this disastrous situation is
not coming by accident - it is the will of those
who are in power. No responsible politician would
be willing to accept a voting system that comes
with so many flaws
manipulate the next elections himself.
You are not hiring a hit man so he talks to your enemies; you sent him to kill them. And you are not supporting a flawed voting system to do a correct count of votes; you are going to use it to count them like you want it.
With privatized "eVoting" elections
democracy will vanish.
Being a young German I have always wondered how it must have been between 1930 and 1935 when the
Nazis changed a democracy into a dictatorship.
But of course that will never happen to you
You mean, like in Georgia where the republican candidate won ... to the surprise of all
that read the pre-vote surveys that clearly
pointed out that the democrat guy would be the
winner?