Good job that soon we'll have a central database linked to your compulsory ID card and the GPS tracker in your car, at least then we'll be able to keep an eye on you and your subversive attitude.
While that is certainly good, it might also be a good idea to make these people wear some kind of visual sign, so that other people know to avoid them in the streets. Maybe some kind of geometric pattern, a star or triangle or something in pink or yellow, worn on the breast?
If you're an American, you can easily be even safer. Since influenza is spread by people sneezing, just look out for anyone near you drawing a deep breath: they're about to sneeze and spew deadly microbes in your direction, so shoot them first!!! The jury, being your peers, will certainly acquit you on grounds of self-defense, and the police will even help arrange the corpse so its mouth is open wider to make it look better for you in the photos, at least if you live where cayenne8 does.
And remember to get plenty of sleep so no one shoots you by accident when you yawn.
We've already seen how plants exploit quantum effects for their benefit, and I've heard theories (just theories mark you) of how an evolved response in humans where they'd use a quantum effect to ascertain probability, or even influence probability.
This is related to how voodoo dolls work through quantum entanglement. Basically, if you have something from the four basic voodoo groups - something from the Head, something from the Dead, something of the Body and something of the Thread - and combine them into a voodoo doll, their combined effect superimposes their combined quantum superposition over the targets, thus forcing the target to collapse its wave function in the same way as the doll.
Future advances in the field also show great promise: given any animate part of a quantum system, such as a beard that's still twitching, it should be possible to re-synthesize the entire quantum state of the system. This was originally suggested by an unknown user going by screen name "Largo", who apparently had some success there, but he seems to have been sucked into another dimension. I guess quantum research still has its dangers and will demand its victims, the same as early research into radioactivity.
But seriously: why do some people insist on perverting Quantum Mechanics into Quantum Mysticism and treating it like magic?
(In fact, just watch, I'm going to rub my crystal ball and predict that someone will promptly post a reply as to how wrong I am, and how homeopathy works and is proven and cures everything from hypochondria to cancer;)
Homeopathy might well be the correct first-aid response to hypochondria: someone thinks they're sick but aren't, so give them a make-believe medicine.
And be careful with the crystal ball, it it gathers enough static electricity it might turn into ball lighting.
Absolutely correct, it's obvious we'll resort to bottle caps as our new post collapse monetary deity.
"Money" is a tool for greatly simplifying logistical problems related to trading. You won't have money in a post-collapse society, because there won't be trade. By the time society begins to get rebuilt, whoever does the rebuilding gets to decide what's money. Since having gold as an actual, tangible object in your hands is so rare nowadays, it is very unlikely that it would work as a medium of exchange; the existence of some huge piles of gold (bank vaults and such) should further discourage anyone from using it, since the discovery of any of them would throw the economy into a total chaos.
The only thing that sacrificing a snake at an altar to Python will get you is a wide-angle disintegration beam. The only thing that will save you from that YASD is if you are playing a Knight and have (N)amed your weapon "Ni!".
Disintegration resistance also works. Kill a black dragon, then eat a tin made of its meat.
To those who don't get the above, that's ok, its fairly obscure,
I am so sick of hearing this excuse. You come to work or school when you are sick? You are a fucking sociopath.
A sociopath is someone who's unable to feel empathy for others, not someone who simply puts his own needs before those of others. The word for that is "selfish.
And no, it doesn't make it better to point out that you'll lose money or points if you don't; it makes it worse. It means you are willing to trade my health (and in this case, maybe my life) for a day's wages or a better grade in a course.
In this economy I'd risk a lot more than just a days wage. I'd risk my job, my entire income, and personal bankruptcy. To put it bluntly, I value my own life more than yours. If you don't like that, then vote a socialist government into power and have them build a social security network which allows me to survive and be reasonably comfortable even unemployed. Until then, I'll drag my carcass to work every day, since I have little choice.
Hey, when you have 30 minutes to find food, your choices are burger king, mcdonalds or taco bell because of the waits at the other places, and you have 5.00 cash. What do you do?
How about a couple hundred gold bars and a gun arsenal?
What will you do with gold if society collapses? It's a pretty metal; do you think anyone cares in that situation?
Not that society will collapse, anyway; even the Black Death, which killed 1/3rd of Europe, didn't manage to do that. This will kill some people, the rest will continue their life, and it'll be business as usual.
(Of course if I had that available I would be in an underground bunker somewhere typing this)
Quite useless, since viral particles stay in the air far longer than you can live on supplies there.
Yeah, he is. Just because you hate him doesn't mean plenty of people don't admire what he's been able to accomplish. I don't always agree with the man's methods, but the fact remains that what he's done is damn impressive.
Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot also managed to accomplish a lot. That doesn't make them worthy of admiration, thought. And while Gates hasn't killed anyone (AFAIK), the only thing he accomplished was building an empire at the expense of everyone else, which is what these other "great men" also accomplished.
Simply because a villain is successful doesn't make him any less a villain, or any more worthy of admiration. And Gates is a villain.
Alcohol impairs all of a person's mental functions, including the ability to recognize just how badly their abilities are impaired. The same drunkenness that makes a driver unsafe can also make that driver incapable of recognizing just how unsafe they are.
That's why I made the decision to never drive when I've had any alcohol within 12 hours, no matter how little, while sober. I remember and trust my sober judgement even while drunk (as I am right now, for example). That's why I I'm not particularly sympathetic to drunk drivers: they know they are drunk, but choose to drive nonetheless. Alcohol doesn't remove your intelligence, it simply loosens your inhibitions. It's not an excuse for taking stupid risks, and especially not for risking others.
That's why you're supposed to ask people for their keys while they're still sober. By the time they're drunk enough to be really dangerous, they're much less likely to give them to you.
I'm not giving my keys to anyone, ever, drunk or sober.
Except that this appears to be one of the varieties, like the 1918 pandemic, where the flu is only moderately irritating and the deaths are caused by the immune response, so weakening your immune system slightly (maybe go and catch a bacterial infection too and give it two things to worry about...) will be more likely to increase your chances of survival.
Except that inflammation doesn't weaken your immune system, it causes it to switch to "war mode", which means that any pre-existing infection increases the chances that the total response is out of proportion and will kill you.
How so? The problem is not the pictures being out there its sick fucks from anonymous and 4chan emailing them to the family with captions.
No, the problem is the pictures shouldn't be out there in the first place. The Internet is such a large place that it has plenty of sick fucks who'll do this kind of shit; the police should know this and act accordingly.
The police snafu, helps increase awareness that taking cocaine then driving can lead to horrible consequences, but anonymous harassing the family of a dead girl just offends.
Everyone is already perfectly aware of the consequences, it's simply that some people refuse to acknowledge that it might happen to them. I've never quite understood why; I have no problem understanding that if I have trouble walking then driving might not be such a good idea, but apparently some people do.
Hell, what if they said "If you keep taking that pill, you will die in 10 years, otherwise you will die in 15"? Well, right now some might actually say "I'll keep taking it", speaking for that person in 9 3/4 years who may answer VERY differently-- again a human inability to logically analyze the situation and come to an honest conclusion.
Given a choice between 10 years in good health and 15 bedridden and in pain, I'll take 10. I might answer differently if it's a choice between 3 months and 5 years 3 months. What's illogical about choosing differently between different options? Perhaps you should hone your own analytic skills before commenting on those of others.
The problem is that people are not paying for their own healthcare.
Not this libertarian bullshit again.
Since they aren't paying for it, they have no incentive to do their own checking or avoid needing the care to begin with.
I have every incentive to avoid being in need of medical care, simply because it is uncomfortable.
Our insurance model is broken. A bigger insurer (ie. Uncle Sam) won't fix it.
The point of insurance is to turn a small likelihood of a catastrophic cost into a fixed and affordable monthly cost. Since the cost of almost all major operations are beyond anyone's budget, some form of insurance - whether through an insurance company or in the form of taxes and publicly funded healthcare - is the only model that can work.
"Patient pays" -model is one where people die because they can't afford treatment; and while this is acceptable to libertarians, it isn't acceptable to me, so I'll keep on advocating publicly funded healthcare; and since all somewhat developed countries have such systems, I'd say that most people are with me on this. Yes, that means that you'll be paying for an alcoholic's liver transplant through your taxes, and will undoubtedly complain bitterly about this horrible violation of your personal freedom on the Internet, which was also paid by someone's tax money. My heart bleeds for you; but luckily, I can get it patched up with your tax money:p.
This post is more about eye protection: Next to the nose and mouth, your eyes are the next best method for transmission. Are thick, wrap-around glasses or goggles a good idea?
No, they aren't. They make you look like an idiot and can't stop you from getting infected. If this turns into a pandemic, the very air will be saturated with viral particles; you cannot avoid breathing some, or eating some with your food or water.
Your best bet is to ensure that you get enough sleep (to keep your immune system up), aren't overly stressed, eat healthily and are in decent shape. Also wash your hands; it won't stop the flu, but it will lessen the chances of some other nastiness from distracting your immune system at the critical moment.
Beyond that, you either can resist this thing or you can't. If you can, fine; if you can't, you'll die. It's genetic, and there's nothing you can do about it. You either make your Fortitude save or you won't, so just chill and wait for the dice to fall. Besides, worrying about it will cause stress, which will weaken your immune system and give you a penalty, thus lessening your chances.
Seriously, people, this breathing mask and goggles nonsense is just the viral equivalent of airport security theatre, and just as effective. If you have to go, go without looking like idiots.
One would expect by now even the most incompetent biotechnologist with an eye towards weaponizing could at least match the 1918 strain.
However, why would they? Flu is impossible to contain, it will spread to your own population, including the very scientists who made it. Using it as a weapon would be insane, even stupider than nuclear weapons (where you have a theoretical chance that the other side won't launch theirs). The only imaginable scenario would be where you use a non-deadly flu to temporarily disrupt the other nations production, with the price being that you'll suffer the same disruption a bit later.
No one "allows" me to travel. Countries allow me within their borders, but my right to travel is my own and is not allowed by anybody.
If no country besides your own allows you within their borders, you aren't travelling anywhere from your country. Keep your diseased libertarian ass on your side of the border, OK?
You don't need to find someone attractive to make eyes with them, for a price. You don't need to find someone attractive to sleep with them either, for a price. You might need Viagra, thought.
Because CGI constructs can't give in person interviews and the like.
Of course they can. Staged (scripted) ones, currently, but as AI technology advances they should become "real" ones eventually.
CGI is actually the easy part of a real digital actor; the AI is the hard part. Currently the animator control every little nuance, and that's horrendously inefficient. A better AI would allow the DA to follow higher-level commands ("walk menacingly") and a human-level one could simply be given a script.
T-1000 has an external shell made of flesh. Shouldn't that age normally? For that matter, the internal joints will wear down, just like those of humans... So, when will we see: "Terminator: Gray Death" and "Terminator: Arthritis" ?-)
Seriously. Anyone who can look me in the eye and call Crystal Skull worse than Temple of Doom is most likely lying to themselves, bitter because they had impossibly high expectations built up over time, or on drugs.
Ah yes, everyone who disagrees with you is evil or stupid. Right.
I will never understand how the fans can bitch about Crystal Skull, but apparently accept Temple of Doom.
Crystal Skull was OK, but it's not as good as Temple of Doom. There are several huge plot holes (why didn't the Skull just tell the crazy man how to get into the chamber, after telling him where the city was? Why the alien at the beginning was unable to regenerate, even when the other aliens regenerated from skeletal state in seconds?), and lets face it, Soviets simply aren't very good villains. Apart from that, it felt quite rushed at the end, and there are no real high points in the film. Finally, aliens just plain didn't do it for me.
I'd much prefer that to having Fuck-UROM or SafeDisc installed on my machine.
Personally, I prefer the disinfected Pirate Bay edition which doesn't inflict such malaise on my poor computer, but to each his own. Then again, it's been a while since I've run across a game that was worth even pirating...
In fact that was probably one of the best forms of DRM. But now we have the internet, that means of DRM is effectively useless.
Back then we had copy machines. Heck, I knew some guy who copied Star Control II's starmap by hand because it wouldn't copy properly due to its colors!
They feel they're entitled to it, and they're driven by greed. Can you offer a better explanation of why piracy still happens?
Certainly. There is a number of valuable, poorly guarded targets passing through an area with lots of people but no functioning government. Consequently, the oddball psychopaths, fortune hunters, and other assorted scum see an opportunity floating past them, ripe for the picking.
It has nothing to do with poverty - the pirates are rich enough to be able to afford boats and guns - and everything to do with opportunity.
Slashdot Mirror
While that is certainly good, it might also be a good idea to make these people wear some kind of visual sign, so that other people know to avoid them in the streets. Maybe some kind of geometric pattern, a star or triangle or something in pink or yellow, worn on the breast?
If you're an American, you can easily be even safer. Since influenza is spread by people sneezing, just look out for anyone near you drawing a deep breath: they're about to sneeze and spew deadly microbes in your direction, so shoot them first!!! The jury, being your peers, will certainly acquit you on grounds of self-defense, and the police will even help arrange the corpse so its mouth is open wider to make it look better for you in the photos, at least if you live where cayenne8 does.
And remember to get plenty of sleep so no one shoots you by accident when you yawn.
This is related to how voodoo dolls work through quantum entanglement. Basically, if you have something from the four basic voodoo groups - something from the Head, something from the Dead, something of the Body and something of the Thread - and combine them into a voodoo doll, their combined effect superimposes their combined quantum superposition over the targets, thus forcing the target to collapse its wave function in the same way as the doll.
Future advances in the field also show great promise: given any animate part of a quantum system, such as a beard that's still twitching, it should be possible to re-synthesize the entire quantum state of the system. This was originally suggested by an unknown user going by screen name "Largo", who apparently had some success there, but he seems to have been sucked into another dimension. I guess quantum research still has its dangers and will demand its victims, the same as early research into radioactivity.
But seriously: why do some people insist on perverting Quantum Mechanics into Quantum Mysticism and treating it like magic?
Homeopathy might well be the correct first-aid response to hypochondria: someone thinks they're sick but aren't, so give them a make-believe medicine.
And be careful with the crystal ball, it it gathers enough static electricity it might turn into ball lighting.
"Money" is a tool for greatly simplifying logistical problems related to trading. You won't have money in a post-collapse society, because there won't be trade. By the time society begins to get rebuilt, whoever does the rebuilding gets to decide what's money. Since having gold as an actual, tangible object in your hands is so rare nowadays, it is very unlikely that it would work as a medium of exchange; the existence of some huge piles of gold (bank vaults and such) should further discourage anyone from using it, since the discovery of any of them would throw the economy into a total chaos.
Disintegration resistance also works. Kill a black dragon, then eat a tin made of its meat.
Nethack is not obscure!
A sociopath is someone who's unable to feel empathy for others, not someone who simply puts his own needs before those of others. The word for that is "selfish.
In this economy I'd risk a lot more than just a days wage. I'd risk my job, my entire income, and personal bankruptcy. To put it bluntly, I value my own life more than yours. If you don't like that, then vote a socialist government into power and have them build a social security network which allows me to survive and be reasonably comfortable even unemployed. Until then, I'll drag my carcass to work every day, since I have little choice.
Bring food from home? It's cheaper and healthier.
What will you do with gold if society collapses? It's a pretty metal; do you think anyone cares in that situation?
Not that society will collapse, anyway; even the Black Death, which killed 1/3rd of Europe, didn't manage to do that. This will kill some people, the rest will continue their life, and it'll be business as usual.
Quite useless, since viral particles stay in the air far longer than you can live on supplies there.
Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot also managed to accomplish a lot. That doesn't make them worthy of admiration, thought. And while Gates hasn't killed anyone (AFAIK), the only thing he accomplished was building an empire at the expense of everyone else, which is what these other "great men" also accomplished.
Simply because a villain is successful doesn't make him any less a villain, or any more worthy of admiration. And Gates is a villain.
That's why I made the decision to never drive when I've had any alcohol within 12 hours, no matter how little, while sober. I remember and trust my sober judgement even while drunk (as I am right now, for example). That's why I I'm not particularly sympathetic to drunk drivers: they know they are drunk, but choose to drive nonetheless. Alcohol doesn't remove your intelligence, it simply loosens your inhibitions. It's not an excuse for taking stupid risks, and especially not for risking others.
I'm not giving my keys to anyone, ever, drunk or sober.
Except that inflammation doesn't weaken your immune system, it causes it to switch to "war mode", which means that any pre-existing infection increases the chances that the total response is out of proportion and will kill you.
No, the problem is the pictures shouldn't be out there in the first place. The Internet is such a large place that it has plenty of sick fucks who'll do this kind of shit; the police should know this and act accordingly.
Everyone is already perfectly aware of the consequences, it's simply that some people refuse to acknowledge that it might happen to them. I've never quite understood why; I have no problem understanding that if I have trouble walking then driving might not be such a good idea, but apparently some people do.
Given a choice between 10 years in good health and 15 bedridden and in pain, I'll take 10. I might answer differently if it's a choice between 3 months and 5 years 3 months. What's illogical about choosing differently between different options? Perhaps you should hone your own analytic skills before commenting on those of others.
Not this libertarian bullshit again.
I have every incentive to avoid being in need of medical care, simply because it is uncomfortable.
The point of insurance is to turn a small likelihood of a catastrophic cost into a fixed and affordable monthly cost. Since the cost of almost all major operations are beyond anyone's budget, some form of insurance - whether through an insurance company or in the form of taxes and publicly funded healthcare - is the only model that can work.
"Patient pays" -model is one where people die because they can't afford treatment; and while this is acceptable to libertarians, it isn't acceptable to me, so I'll keep on advocating publicly funded healthcare; and since all somewhat developed countries have such systems, I'd say that most people are with me on this. Yes, that means that you'll be paying for an alcoholic's liver transplant through your taxes, and will undoubtedly complain bitterly about this horrible violation of your personal freedom on the Internet, which was also paid by someone's tax money. My heart bleeds for you; but luckily, I can get it patched up with your tax money :p.
No, they aren't. They make you look like an idiot and can't stop you from getting infected. If this turns into a pandemic, the very air will be saturated with viral particles; you cannot avoid breathing some, or eating some with your food or water.
Your best bet is to ensure that you get enough sleep (to keep your immune system up), aren't overly stressed, eat healthily and are in decent shape. Also wash your hands; it won't stop the flu, but it will lessen the chances of some other nastiness from distracting your immune system at the critical moment.
Beyond that, you either can resist this thing or you can't. If you can, fine; if you can't, you'll die. It's genetic, and there's nothing you can do about it. You either make your Fortitude save or you won't, so just chill and wait for the dice to fall. Besides, worrying about it will cause stress, which will weaken your immune system and give you a penalty, thus lessening your chances.
Seriously, people, this breathing mask and goggles nonsense is just the viral equivalent of airport security theatre, and just as effective. If you have to go, go without looking like idiots.
However, why would they? Flu is impossible to contain, it will spread to your own population, including the very scientists who made it. Using it as a weapon would be insane, even stupider than nuclear weapons (where you have a theoretical chance that the other side won't launch theirs). The only imaginable scenario would be where you use a non-deadly flu to temporarily disrupt the other nations production, with the price being that you'll suffer the same disruption a bit later.
If no country besides your own allows you within their borders, you aren't travelling anywhere from your country. Keep your diseased libertarian ass on your side of the border, OK?
You don't need to find someone attractive to make eyes with them, for a price. You don't need to find someone attractive to sleep with them either, for a price. You might need Viagra, thought.
Of course they can. Staged (scripted) ones, currently, but as AI technology advances they should become "real" ones eventually.
CGI is actually the easy part of a real digital actor; the AI is the hard part. Currently the animator control every little nuance, and that's horrendously inefficient. A better AI would allow the DA to follow higher-level commands ("walk menacingly") and a human-level one could simply be given a script.
T-1000 has an external shell made of flesh. Shouldn't that age normally? For that matter, the internal joints will wear down, just like those of humans... So, when will we see: "Terminator: Gray Death" and "Terminator: Arthritis" ?-)
Ah yes, everyone who disagrees with you is evil or stupid. Right.
Crystal Skull was OK, but it's not as good as Temple of Doom. There are several huge plot holes (why didn't the Skull just tell the crazy man how to get into the chamber, after telling him where the city was? Why the alien at the beginning was unable to regenerate, even when the other aliens regenerated from skeletal state in seconds?), and lets face it, Soviets simply aren't very good villains. Apart from that, it felt quite rushed at the end, and there are no real high points in the film. Finally, aliens just plain didn't do it for me.
Waita Uziga.
Personally, I prefer the disinfected Pirate Bay edition which doesn't inflict such malaise on my poor computer, but to each his own. Then again, it's been a while since I've run across a game that was worth even pirating...
Back then we had copy machines. Heck, I knew some guy who copied Star Control II's starmap by hand because it wouldn't copy properly due to its colors!
Certainly. There is a number of valuable, poorly guarded targets passing through an area with lots of people but no functioning government. Consequently, the oddball psychopaths, fortune hunters, and other assorted scum see an opportunity floating past them, ripe for the picking.
It has nothing to do with poverty - the pirates are rich enough to be able to afford boats and guns - and everything to do with opportunity.