Faith based initiatives, vouchers and other programs lead me to believe that Bush is trying to give this country to the religious right as it is. The whole democracy thing in Iraq is more about Oil than anything else. A democracy is typically also an openly capitalistic society as well, allowing outside ownership of internal assets. As it is now, in the middle east, outside ownership is rather much not allowed. Now, take the country with some of the world's biggest oil reserves, open it up, make it a democracy and get our companies into it to own the oil and you make many very powerful people in the energy industry very happy. Not to mention, you have a relatively well educated extremely cheap labor pool in Iraq.
Between the cheap labor (huge item for the right) and energy (the two most expensive and important expenses in almost all businesses), the only other thing that would seem to be a goal would be the disruption of monarchies and dictatorships around the world. I will not argue with the last one. But I really believe that Oil and Cheap labor are/were two of the biggest reasons for Iraq, if not the two biggest reasons. I do believe that the noble idea of freeing the people was one of the goals, but obviously not high enough, as the planning was/is not there to show any real concern for the people we have *freed*.
To give you an idea of how much oil holds our economy at ransom, take a look at home many of the products outside of oil we use/depend on are based on oil.
This is the true issue, not anything else. The electoral system may be broken and skewed, but it is the best solution to our problem we have. Improvements can be made to it to make it better, bu that does not deal with the criminal manipulation of the Florida voters in the 2000 elections.
Would Gore have done better. I think so. I do not believe we would have the problems in Iraq and around the world that we have today if Gore were President. Yeah, the rich folk at the top might not be doing as much better (lower taxes, cheaper labor), and right wingers might feel a little less coddled, but the country would be in much better shape. I have always argued that employment and personal income drive the economy, not tax cuts. It is amazing how most people spend what they have if they have it, while those on the top tend not to spend what they have, as they keep it.
Part of being a leader is knowing your own weaknesses and learning to never trust single source information. Bush has failed on almost all accounts by not following these rules. Frankly, I am scared of how much more damage they can do in another four years. Even today, he exhibits the classic personality traits of an alcoholic. Drug addiction/alcoholism is as much a personality defect that ignores the reality and gravity of one's situation (called denial) as much as it might be a genetic predisposition.
He would probably be a great guy to be friends with, but not to run my company or my country.
We would have seperate rooms (or clusters in an open environment) with about a doz games installed on each machine:
Some of the games we used at one time or another:
Mechwarrior
AOE
Starcraft
Diablo II
Descent (and D. Freespace)
Doom
Unreal Tournament
A few suggested by users as most popular - which changed from time to time.
Everyone was *expected* to pitch in $20 per day for expenses. We used McD's for breakfast, Dominos for lunch and Dinner. These days, we have much better food selections available here. I suggest some better variety, but sitck with finger food that does not make a mess. Keyboards can be hard to clean when slobs use them.
Our sessions would go as long as 3 days (Friday afternoon to Sunday evening. We would draw between a dozen and 60 people, mostly based upon the size of the room(s) we had available to us. All spots were reservation (pay in advance, no refund) or walkin at $50 per day if space was available.
For getting the word out, we would use the cheap/free papers in the area, and the computer stores (offered free advertising at our gig if they advertised our gig at their place). We would go to all the Grocery stores and place 8.5x11 flyers up. They would last a few days - use tearoffs on the bottom to let people get the phone number to contact you easily. Local colleges are a great place to spread the word. We have an Ivy Tech and an IUPU here, so we put flyers on their boards as well (the local computer groups did for us to make it proper). If you are not to shy, putting a sign on the car (just like for sale) works wonders, believe it or not.
For insurance, never had it. Maybe a bad idea nd maybe not. I do not know. We never needed it. We had all people sign a waiver to be part of it. No kids under 18 without a guardian or responsible adult - legally adult, not acutally 8-).
Worst thing that happened, one of the players kids (about 10) hurt his ankle while running around (expressly forbidden in the rules the parent signed). A few keyboards were toasted with soda and other things. Lost one computer. Person who toastes it paid for it at least.
Beyond that, everything was always smooth. We learned about the 4th time to provide an area for Significant Others to sit and do something (TV was good).
We always made a profit. We allowed several companies locally to advertise at the bigger ones (the ones that were not private ivitation only). Compnies liked it for exposure, and the players got coupons from the companies, so most of them liked it.
Hope that helps. And good luck. LAN Parties get old fast when your career takes off and you have children.
I normally find little worth modding up. This is definately worth modding up!
Anyone who believes that either of the candidates are good for the presidency needs to do some home work on the candidates. This is not a choice of who is good for the job, but who is least damaging for the job. So far, Bush has proven to be exceptionally damaging. Kerry has not, yet. He may well prove to be as bad as Bush, but that would be a challenge. Kerry has a history of glorifying himself, liking the camera, spinning things in his favor(small lies, big lies) and changing his mind. Hmm... Sounds Like Bush to me. Big difference is Bush has been in, he has failed terribly and placed a huge burden on future generations. He has done some good things. He seems to be an OSS advocate.
Truth is, IMO, they are both bad picks. Kerry is less bad than Bush. None of the third party candidates make any sense to me either. Jimmy Carter was one of the most honest presidents we ever had. His honesty got him killed politically. That is how we the people allow the game to go. If we want honest people in office(s), we need to make sure they are honest. We do not, so those who can take advantage of us (while we let them) do take advantage of us. Bush has done very well at that. I think Kerry will do less well at that, and that is a good thing. Most politicians by today's rules will take advantage to some extent. They have to to garner dollar support to get elected.
Bravo for the scientists. Real scientists are normally to quiet out of fear (rightfully so) that the noise would interfere with true scientific endeavors. Sometimes, things become so wrong (think Church and Flat Earth, Church and Center of Universe, Church and Paganism, Church and Orphans to Australia, The final solution, Aparthied,...) that people need to step forward and cry fowl. Bush has a particularly nasty streak of fabricating science and reinterpreting scientific results to favor his political agenda. Not saying that others do not, but this Bush is far worse than other presidents in my memories.
If Sun were to put Java into the OS community, it would need to ensure that the write once run anywhere still worked. If the write once run anywhere part of Java were to be damaged, Java itself would be damaged. Given that MS proved this many years ago with their tainted version of Java, Sun ought to be shy about relenquishing control. So should we.
Java is a key language for cross platform development, yet it falls short of.net in many ways (and surpasses it in many ways as well). These shortcomings need to be addressed, but will not be addressed if we wind up with fragged Java. If core Java becomes divergent, then it will cease to be a write once run anywhere solution.
I like the idea of using a standards group to guide standards as it insures against predatory corporate dangers. I also think Java belongs to Sun. They developed it, they mareketed it, they sued MS to keep MS from destroying it. How much did any of us contribute to their cash flow specifically for those tasks. I do not see a problem with Sun doing this. It might not be pure Open Source, but it might be a good middle of the road. For most projects to be made open source, there must be a point of profitablility (money or otherwise). Companies live by profit, die by lack of profit. They will need reasons to embrace and support OS. After all, what part of Sun owns it has prevented you (the Java users) from using Java? Either Java users must be gluttons for abuse, or Sun has been pretty good to them so far.
True, but it must look like you are defeated, not slowly turning the tide of battle against the US. So far, it seems, we are doing a wonderful job of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in Iraq. Winning the ground war with troops is not a victory in this case. We have to win the hearts and minds of the people.
I guess you have never played music. How you play a riff (or a chord on a keyboard) is very important to the sound and more importantly, the PLAYABILITY of the music. Why do you think guitartists do not play notes simultaneously on all the different frets at once? Why do you think guitarists have a clip across the neck of the guitar to change the key? How do you think a D minor sounds when played on the third fret as opposed to open?
Not BS at all, get a cluestick and whack yourelf up side the head. Then, go learn a musical instrument besides voice.
If it does not do work, then how does it lift one's spirits, bring excitement and enhancement to scenes in movies? Whole lot of nothing going on, eh?
I completely agree. Too bad we can not sue for financial damages like you can when cars blow up. Maybe the producers of software might be more careful about what kind of code they put in the computer.
People like this are irrelevant. I do not purchase any music or artistic media any more. I have to spend my money on children, college (mine, my wife's and my kids'), living expenses, retirement savings and such. As college and life continues to become more expensive faster than our incomes increase, there will simply be less room for these more trivial uses of money.
If I want to listen to good music, I have a local choice (town of 40 to 50k) of blues, jazz, rock, christian contemp, classical and country. I support these bands by dining (visiting) the establishment they play in (tip them, buy their CDs directly from them) and letting the establishment know I like them. Otherwise, I listen to the radio.
If they want to choke every penny out of the arts, they will kill it. Let them kill it.
I think they should even start allowing patents on chord progressions, note combinations, artful color combinations and other artistic intellectual material (like software patents.) That will allow those greedy suits to have even more earnings (and make it even harder for people to have enjoyable arts). Once the arts get bad enough in the mainstream, it will become better for local artists, as they will sound that much better, or they will disappear in a flurry of riff, lyric, color and chord patent suits.
That would help other industries that the public ignores. As something they feel dies, they will understand better how these greedy patents, copyright and trademark laws are slowly bringing many things to a halt (or a slow trckle) while placing control of these things in the hands of a few ultra-wealthy greedy people.
Patenting of software is the same as patenting musical progressions (or riffs). Imagine where music would be if the riffs were patented. Imagine if authors could patent unique expressions that convey meaning more effectively than other expressions. Imagine if artists could patent color combinations that more effectively conveyed an image.
Hopefully, by thinking outside the cubicle for a moment, you may see the ramifications of this. The music industry would starve with patents on music like software patents. The writing industry would starve with patents on writing like software patents. All art and engineering would evolve much more slowly and be much^2 more expensive with the patent system that software enjoys.
She talks about theory. Theory is a wonderful thing. She tries to apply rules of morality and ethics to the human condition in such a way that the rules work. I do not really disagree with her (from what I have read), but in her writings that I have read, nowhere does she explain how capitalism can deter/prevent crime nor have I read anywhere where her views on selfishness being a virtue hint that she thinks we should all do things that are morally or legally wrong. If you think I have missed something, clue me in on the writing you are refering to. Ethics is a major study focus for me in college.
My understanding of what we are talking about here narrows down to the application of human behavior within a legal framework in a capitalistic society. The reason contract law is considered so important is that so many people break contracts. The reason we have such strong tort law is that people and corps violate the law and peoples' basic rights in such violent and broad ways. The reason we recall 50% of the pharmaceuticals every year and the industry (pharma) gets so many fines is that they violate the laws of the country and (most) moralities so often.
A Few Examples:
Xerox - underfunded pension fund (knowingly) to profit at the expense of those dependent on the fund.
Enron - Manipulated energy markets to profit at the expense of those in the energy markets
MS - Manipulated documentation, resellers, and other agencies to prevent competition, hurting the consumer/competition.
Monsanto - GMO crops illegally allowed to escape into the wild, thereby harming natural environments and the world community.
Oil Companies (most) - Block research into new energy sources that do not have a large barrier into energy harvesting. Hurts the everyone around the globe including the people in the company.
Many drug pushers - from petty to violent crime, peoples' lives are destroyed, children are hooked on mind altering/destroying substances.
Uninsured motorists - The rest of the country pays higher rates than because of these illegal free-loaders.
and more.... ad nauseum....
These are only some of the things I am talking about. I do not get the reference to Ayn Rand in any relation to these.
-InnerWeb
I would agree with you except that installation of MS patches has the nasty habit of ending productive use of applications on a patched machine. If preventing the virus is meant to prevent downtime, then a patch thaat causes downtime is about as useful as monkeys on typewriters.
Check out this link for yet another study showing another species (non-primate, African Grey Birds) and the similarities to human language development/learning.
Studies like this have an important impact on learning why children have learning disabilities. This one imparticular has had some very serious positive impact.
The fact that the birds tend to learn physical skills followed by language skills the same as normal children do suggest a lot about the development of not just language, but the integration of language as a whole into the learning experience (for certain animals and humans).
Whether or not the children in this study were tainted by a knowledge of gestures from an outside source, the study is important for the development of language skills. It would be interesting to know what adult contact they had in the beginning of the group, as I am sure (from being a parent amongst parents) that they would have received some signing skills there. Think of how most adults communicate with their pets. Signs and words.
Unfortunately, it does appear that (see post here) the results are interpreted in an interesting manner to fulfill some peoples' individual goals for research and such. I hope that continuous peer review sheds more light on these interesting theories.
Somebody gets it. Capitalism says nothing about restricting criminal intent. In fact, it encourages it. Capitalism rewards those who find innovative ways to compete and make more money than those they compete with. Crime is not a bad thing to the practitioner until they get caught, and even then, it may be a slap on the wrist, or a reprimand.
Communism and all the other *isms out there are all vulnerable to the same issues. If they were not, we never need the police, FBI or other agency. And, I believe if we did not need them, we would not tolerate their expense.
I can think of many examples where the lowest bid creates a problem. Can you imagine getting McService at a hospital? That truly scares me. Fries with your morphine?
Capitalism is a pie in the sky ideal. Ideals like that are good, as they define objectives to be debated and fought for. Never had any idea like this (Capitalsim, Socialism, Communism, Monarchy,...) truly worked when applied 100%.
Think about what you are saying. The people who are typically the least qualified in job skills (which by definition of Capitalism) will be the ones with the most critical jobs, and in charge of you at a time when you potentially have no ability to question their actions, have a second opinion, or check with your legal expert before proceeding. Most muck-ups happen in the medical profession from inadequately trained/attentive practitioners. They are the ones who are typically at the bottom of the scale.
Wrong. An opportunistic hospital in many cases has a monopoly. Many emergencies can not wait 30 minutes to ge to the next county, let alone 1 hour to get to the market with competition. That assuming the market is truly competitive, not some major health block (like in Cincinatti, Ohio). Oh, yeah, and assuming your insurance company will let you go to someone they are not in bed with.
The only way you could actually get around this is if you had the medical expertise to diagnose and know the treatment required of the person you are taking to the ER. In which case, why are you not doing the care yourself (timlieness is the most important determinant in the outcome in an emergency).
The only way you can get competition in is to find an investor who has a multi-decade long outlook, can invest many hundreds of millions (if not several billion) dollars (US) to build, hire maintain, and defend (malpractice) their medical center. In the end in many communities, there would still only be one standing (not enough business). All businesses are based on profit. What do you think the new kid on the block will do with the amount of debt the hospital will have had to assume to get itself going. These things are far from cheap. You really do not want a "cheap" medical care facility. You think certain restaurants are bad, wait until you find out about all the stuff that can happen with really substandard medical care.
..but now I do not even notice it. I spent 16 years swimming (nationals and all), playing water polo, soccer and running. I used to watch every competition I could. I do not even bother reading in the press anymore. The corporate involvement has gone from sponsorship to infernal meddling to worthless.
If someone can bring back sports (amateur) without the garbage, I would love to see it and be part of it again. I would not even know how to make it happen.
...this is something I have been asking for for a while. Every day, we have to deal with people driving 50 to 60 down our street (30 mph limit) where our and other's children are playing and riding bicycles.
Any black box recording technology has the ability to be abused, but the potential for abuse flies in the facce of this:
Jeff - Killed in 1987 by a drunk driver.
Carole - Killed in 1993 by a wreckless driver.
My HS Prom King and Queen - Killed in 1984 by drunk driving.
Peter - Paralyzed from waist down in 1982 by an elderly person who could no longer drive.
Tonya - Scarred over 80% of her body by a car fire started when rear ended by a speeding car.
Lisa - Killed in 1996 by a driver who lost control while speeding around a curve.
There are many more I can recount, both dead and alive who have been victims of people who had no business driving a car. The little black boxes might help get them off the road and save lives. As far as using them for anything else. We (the people) will allow it to go just as far as we are ignorant. I am certain it can be abused in so many ways. I am not certain the deaths and maimings it would be able to prevent (or the simple correct assignment of cost of damages) would be that light a reason to install them.
I can not think of any reason to be afraid of a black box unless it pinpoints you being somewhere that you should not have been. (I may be being naive). Black boxes record only enough data to determine what caused an accident to happen. Driving habits could be incorporated, as could other data. Would it be worth it if it cut the number of people killed and maimed on our roads in half?
The general American public does not need to know. They would never do anything anyway. The people who run businesses need to know just what their greed opens themselves up to. They are the ones who will run and moan and cry not fair. They will put money into the hands of legislatures to make a change. They are the ones who need to know.
Slashdot Mirror
Between the cheap labor (huge item for the right) and energy (the two most expensive and important expenses in almost all businesses), the only other thing that would seem to be a goal would be the disruption of monarchies and dictatorships around the world. I will not argue with the last one. But I really believe that Oil and Cheap labor are/were two of the biggest reasons for Iraq, if not the two biggest reasons. I do believe that the noble idea of freeing the people was one of the goals, but obviously not high enough, as the planning was/is not there to show any real concern for the people we have *freed*.
To give you an idea of how much oil holds our economy at ransom, take a look at home many of the products outside of oil we use/depend on are based on oil.
InnerWeb
Would Gore have done better. I think so. I do not believe we would have the problems in Iraq and around the world that we have today if Gore were President. Yeah, the rich folk at the top might not be doing as much better (lower taxes, cheaper labor), and right wingers might feel a little less coddled, but the country would be in much better shape. I have always argued that employment and personal income drive the economy, not tax cuts. It is amazing how most people spend what they have if they have it, while those on the top tend not to spend what they have, as they keep it.
Part of being a leader is knowing your own weaknesses and learning to never trust single source information. Bush has failed on almost all accounts by not following these rules. Frankly, I am scared of how much more damage they can do in another four years. Even today, he exhibits the classic personality traits of an alcoholic. Drug addiction/alcoholism is as much a personality defect that ignores the reality and gravity of one's situation (called denial) as much as it might be a genetic predisposition.
He would probably be a great guy to be friends with, but not to run my company or my country.
InnerWeb
InnerWeb
We would have seperate rooms (or clusters in an open environment) with about a doz games installed on each machine: Some of the games we used at one time or another:
Everyone was *expected* to pitch in $20 per day for expenses. We used McD's for breakfast, Dominos for lunch and Dinner. These days, we have much better food selections available here. I suggest some better variety, but sitck with finger food that does not make a mess. Keyboards can be hard to clean when slobs use them.
Our sessions would go as long as 3 days (Friday afternoon to Sunday evening. We would draw between a dozen and 60 people, mostly based upon the size of the room(s) we had available to us. All spots were reservation (pay in advance, no refund) or walkin at $50 per day if space was available.
For getting the word out, we would use the cheap/free papers in the area, and the computer stores (offered free advertising at our gig if they advertised our gig at their place). We would go to all the Grocery stores and place 8.5x11 flyers up. They would last a few days - use tearoffs on the bottom to let people get the phone number to contact you easily. Local colleges are a great place to spread the word. We have an Ivy Tech and an IUPU here, so we put flyers on their boards as well (the local computer groups did for us to make it proper). If you are not to shy, putting a sign on the car (just like for sale) works wonders, believe it or not.
For insurance, never had it. Maybe a bad idea nd maybe not. I do not know. We never needed it. We had all people sign a waiver to be part of it. No kids under 18 without a guardian or responsible adult - legally adult, not acutally 8-).
Worst thing that happened, one of the players kids (about 10) hurt his ankle while running around (expressly forbidden in the rules the parent signed). A few keyboards were toasted with soda and other things. Lost one computer. Person who toastes it paid for it at least.
Beyond that, everything was always smooth. We learned about the 4th time to provide an area for Significant Others to sit and do something (TV was good).
We always made a profit. We allowed several companies locally to advertise at the bigger ones (the ones that were not private ivitation only). Compnies liked it for exposure, and the players got coupons from the companies, so most of them liked it.
Hope that helps. And good luck. LAN Parties get old fast when your career takes off and you have children.
InnerWeb
Anyone who believes that either of the candidates are good for the presidency needs to do some home work on the candidates. This is not a choice of who is good for the job, but who is least damaging for the job. So far, Bush has proven to be exceptionally damaging. Kerry has not, yet. He may well prove to be as bad as Bush, but that would be a challenge. Kerry has a history of glorifying himself, liking the camera, spinning things in his favor(small lies, big lies) and changing his mind. Hmm... Sounds Like Bush to me. Big difference is Bush has been in, he has failed terribly and placed a huge burden on future generations. He has done some good things. He seems to be an OSS advocate.
Truth is, IMO, they are both bad picks. Kerry is less bad than Bush. None of the third party candidates make any sense to me either. Jimmy Carter was one of the most honest presidents we ever had. His honesty got him killed politically. That is how we the people allow the game to go. If we want honest people in office(s), we need to make sure they are honest. We do not, so those who can take advantage of us (while we let them) do take advantage of us. Bush has done very well at that. I think Kerry will do less well at that, and that is a good thing. Most politicians by today's rules will take advantage to some extent. They have to to garner dollar support to get elected.
Bravo for the scientists. Real scientists are normally to quiet out of fear (rightfully so) that the noise would interfere with true scientific endeavors. Sometimes, things become so wrong (think Church and Flat Earth, Church and Center of Universe, Church and Paganism, Church and Orphans to Australia, The final solution, Aparthied, ...) that people need to step forward and cry fowl. Bush has a particularly nasty streak of fabricating science and reinterpreting scientific results to favor his political agenda. Not saying that others do not, but this Bush is far worse than other presidents in my memories.
InnerWeb
Java is a key language for cross platform development, yet it falls short of .net in many ways (and surpasses it in many ways as well). These shortcomings need to be addressed, but will not be addressed if we wind up with fragged Java. If core Java becomes divergent, then it will cease to be a write once run anywhere solution.
I like the idea of using a standards group to guide standards as it insures against predatory corporate dangers. I also think Java belongs to Sun. They developed it, they mareketed it, they sued MS to keep MS from destroying it. How much did any of us contribute to their cash flow specifically for those tasks. I do not see a problem with Sun doing this. It might not be pure Open Source, but it might be a good middle of the road. For most projects to be made open source, there must be a point of profitablility (money or otherwise). Companies live by profit, die by lack of profit. They will need reasons to embrace and support OS. After all, what part of Sun owns it has prevented you (the Java users) from using Java? Either Java users must be gluttons for abuse, or Sun has been pretty good to them so far.
InnerWeb
InnerWeb
Not BS at all, get a cluestick and whack yourelf up side the head. Then, go learn a musical instrument besides voice.
If it does not do work, then how does it lift one's spirits, bring excitement and enhancement to scenes in movies? Whole lot of nothing going on, eh?
InnerWeb
InnerWeb
If I want to listen to good music, I have a local choice (town of 40 to 50k) of blues, jazz, rock, christian contemp, classical and country. I support these bands by dining (visiting) the establishment they play in (tip them, buy their CDs directly from them) and letting the establishment know I like them. Otherwise, I listen to the radio.
If they want to choke every penny out of the arts, they will kill it. Let them kill it.
I think they should even start allowing patents on chord progressions, note combinations, artful color combinations and other artistic intellectual material (like software patents.) That will allow those greedy suits to have even more earnings (and make it even harder for people to have enjoyable arts). Once the arts get bad enough in the mainstream, it will become better for local artists, as they will sound that much better, or they will disappear in a flurry of riff, lyric, color and chord patent suits.
That would help other industries that the public ignores. As something they feel dies, they will understand better how these greedy patents, copyright and trademark laws are slowly bringing many things to a halt (or a slow trckle) while placing control of these things in the hands of a few ultra-wealthy greedy people.
InnerWeb
Patenting of software is the same as patenting musical progressions (or riffs). Imagine where music would be if the riffs were patented. Imagine if authors could patent unique expressions that convey meaning more effectively than other expressions. Imagine if artists could patent color combinations that more effectively conveyed an image.
Hopefully, by thinking outside the cubicle for a moment, you may see the ramifications of this. The music industry would starve with patents on music like software patents. The writing industry would starve with patents on writing like software patents. All art and engineering would evolve much more slowly and be much^2 more expensive with the patent system that software enjoys.
InnerWeb
InnerWeb
InnerWeb
My understanding of what we are talking about here narrows down to the application of human behavior within a legal framework in a capitalistic society. The reason contract law is considered so important is that so many people break contracts. The reason we have such strong tort law is that people and corps violate the law and peoples' basic rights in such violent and broad ways. The reason we recall 50% of the pharmaceuticals every year and the industry (pharma) gets so many fines is that they violate the laws of the country and (most) moralities so often.
A Few Examples:
- Xerox - underfunded pension fund (knowingly) to profit at the expense of those dependent on the fund.
- Enron - Manipulated energy markets to profit at the expense of those in the energy markets
- MS - Manipulated documentation, resellers, and other agencies to prevent competition, hurting the consumer/competition.
- Monsanto - GMO crops illegally allowed to escape into the wild, thereby harming natural environments and the world community.
- Oil Companies (most) - Block research into new energy sources that do not have a large barrier into energy harvesting. Hurts the everyone around the globe including the people in the company.
- Many drug pushers - from petty to violent crime, peoples' lives are destroyed, children are hooked on mind altering/destroying substances.
- Uninsured motorists - The rest of the country pays higher rates than because of these illegal free-loaders.
- and more.... ad nauseum....
These are only some of the things I am talking about. I do not get the reference to Ayn Rand in any relation to these. -InnerWebInnerWeb
InnerWeb
Studies like this have an important impact on learning why children have learning disabilities. This one imparticular has had some very serious positive impact.
The fact that the birds tend to learn physical skills followed by language skills the same as normal children do suggest a lot about the development of not just language, but the integration of language as a whole into the learning experience (for certain animals and humans).
Whether or not the children in this study were tainted by a knowledge of gestures from an outside source, the study is important for the development of language skills. It would be interesting to know what adult contact they had in the beginning of the group, as I am sure (from being a parent amongst parents) that they would have received some signing skills there. Think of how most adults communicate with their pets. Signs and words.
Unfortunately, it does appear that (see post here) the results are interpreted in an interesting manner to fulfill some peoples' individual goals for research and such. I hope that continuous peer review sheds more light on these interesting theories.
InnerWeb
Somebody gets it. Capitalism says nothing about restricting criminal intent. In fact, it encourages it. Capitalism rewards those who find innovative ways to compete and make more money than those they compete with. Crime is not a bad thing to the practitioner until they get caught, and even then, it may be a slap on the wrist, or a reprimand.
Communism and all the other *isms out there are all vulnerable to the same issues. If they were not, we never need the police, FBI or other agency. And, I believe if we did not need them, we would not tolerate their expense.
I can think of many examples where the lowest bid creates a problem. Can you imagine getting McService at a hospital? That truly scares me. Fries with your morphine?
Capitalism is a pie in the sky ideal. Ideals like that are good, as they define objectives to be debated and fought for. Never had any idea like this (Capitalsim, Socialism, Communism, Monarchy, ...) truly worked when applied 100%.
Think about what you are saying. The people who are typically the least qualified in job skills (which by definition of Capitalism) will be the ones with the most critical jobs, and in charge of you at a time when you potentially have no ability to question their actions, have a second opinion, or check with your legal expert before proceeding. Most muck-ups happen in the medical profession from inadequately trained/attentive practitioners. They are the ones who are typically at the bottom of the scale.
InnerWeb
Wrong. An opportunistic hospital in many cases has a monopoly. Many emergencies can not wait 30 minutes to ge to the next county, let alone 1 hour to get to the market with competition. That assuming the market is truly competitive, not some major health block (like in Cincinatti, Ohio). Oh, yeah, and assuming your insurance company will let you go to someone they are not in bed with.
The only way you could actually get around this is if you had the medical expertise to diagnose and know the treatment required of the person you are taking to the ER. In which case, why are you not doing the care yourself (timlieness is the most important determinant in the outcome in an emergency).
The only way you can get competition in is to find an investor who has a multi-decade long outlook, can invest many hundreds of millions (if not several billion) dollars (US) to build, hire maintain, and defend (malpractice) their medical center. In the end in many communities, there would still only be one standing (not enough business). All businesses are based on profit. What do you think the new kid on the block will do with the amount of debt the hospital will have had to assume to get itself going. These things are far from cheap. You really do not want a "cheap" medical care facility. You think certain restaurants are bad, wait until you find out about all the stuff that can happen with really substandard medical care.
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If someone can bring back sports (amateur) without the garbage, I would love to see it and be part of it again. I would not even know how to make it happen.
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Any black box recording technology has the ability to be abused, but the potential for abuse flies in the facce of this:
Jeff - Killed in 1987 by a drunk driver.
Carole - Killed in 1993 by a wreckless driver.
My HS Prom King and Queen - Killed in 1984 by drunk driving.
Peter - Paralyzed from waist down in 1982 by an elderly person who could no longer drive.
Tonya - Scarred over 80% of her body by a car fire started when rear ended by a speeding car.
Lisa - Killed in 1996 by a driver who lost control while speeding around a curve.
There are many more I can recount, both dead and alive who have been victims of people who had no business driving a car. The little black boxes might help get them off the road and save lives. As far as using them for anything else. We (the people) will allow it to go just as far as we are ignorant. I am certain it can be abused in so many ways. I am not certain the deaths and maimings it would be able to prevent (or the simple correct assignment of cost of damages) would be that light a reason to install them.
I can not think of any reason to be afraid of a black box unless it pinpoints you being somewhere that you should not have been. (I may be being naive). Black boxes record only enough data to determine what caused an accident to happen. Driving habits could be incorporated, as could other data. Would it be worth it if it cut the number of people killed and maimed on our roads in half?
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Ok, for most people, that last line means it is time for a career change, let alone a computer change.
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