Leaving out the hyperbole, cant, and invective, A. Coward wrote:
>The men who wrote the Bill of Rights had absolutely no idea what kind of threats would be facing this country, and as such, their perspective is simply no longer valid.
I beg to disagree. The men responsible for the Bill of Rights, which took effect in 1791, were still around a few years later when our country was physically invaded by foreign troops. In fact, the chief author, James Madison, was President when the Brits marched in and burned the White House to the ground along with a few other important bits of Washington, DC. Since there were still plenty of Loyalist collaborators around, you could make the same arguments about opening mail, warrantless searches, etc. being in the interest of "national security." The biggest threat to our liberty then was the same as it is now, authoritarian government.
>So, what possible good can this do? Well, I guess it'll make it harder for underage kids to buy beer. Other than that? Nothing, really...
Back in my underage days, I never used a fake ID to buy beer (or wine or liquor). I never used a real one either, for that matter. I actually looked sort of young for my age, as well. I figured out that getting caught with a fake ID got you in Trouble. My technique was to go to a Mom and Pop grocery when they weren't real busy and just put a six pack up on the check out counter. If they asked for ID, I would just smile and tell them I didn't have it and walk out. That didn't happen much, as those places were always looking for any kind of sale. It was actually easier to get by the owners than any hired help they might have. Once I found a place that would sell to me, I became a regular customer.
Bars were a different story. You couldn't get into any of the popular college places, especially those with bands, without ID. On the other hand, there were lots of fairly classy places that never carded me. A couple of us were sitting at the bar on a Friday afternoon, having a beer and talking with the bartender when a guy walked in and sat down on my right. He turned to the guy on his right and carded him. Turned out he was an ABC agent. He sat there for about half an hour telling us all stories about fake IDs. I just about peed my pants.
You might also want to be thinking about your last words for your friends to remember you by. Some of the more popular choices from previous Darwin Award winners are:
Watch this.
I do this all the time.
Of course it's safe.
This is so cool.
This looked really great when they did it in the movies.
Have a friend shoot the video from a safe distance for your In Memoriam web page.
>So, Euroweenie, if you're so educated where's the Euro Man on the Moon? Where is the Euro Internet? Who is that Euro who invented the airplane?
Actually, I'm an American; but yes, I am well educated. Others have answered your questions above. I was talking about the ability to speak more than one language.
Because not all of the ice is floating. There is a significant amount of ice in the Greenland Ice Cap. Melting of this will cause the sea level to rise. Interestingly, it will also cause Greenland itself to rise by a small amount due to the release from the weight of the ice. There is also non-floating ice on the Canadian Shield islands. In addition, if you assume that melting of the Arctic ice cap will be accompanied by at least some melting of the Antarctic cap, there could be a sea level rise of from a few meters to several meters. This is enough to cause a severe disruption of human populations.
>Vista also differs greatly from Windows 95, which was actually eagerly recieved by customers, because it really was substantially better than its predecessor.
Yes it was. W95 was a huge improvement. Anybody else remember running third-party shells on top of Win 3x just to get some functionality?
3. Germany, Denmark, France and England don't broadcast in Dutch. But Belgium does. Besides, we're used to US movies and series broadcast in English, albeit with subtitles.
Besides which, since it is not "Murka", huge numbers of people actually speak several languages. In Europe, this means you're educated; while in the US, it means you're considered a terrorist.
I'm sure my grandma won't have any problems, then. Why not? Everyone around here assumes that Grandma can recompile her Linux kernel whenever she needs to.
Parent here is right on. There are pointers to arson, but the stuff cited in TFA isn't what I was taught. These were some of the indicators of arson:
Presence of accelerants - look for pour patterns on the floor.
Multiple points of origin - clear indicators that the fire started in two, three or more places.
Personal valuables missing - absence of photo albums, personal phone book by phone, pictures missing from wall, stereo, cameras, etc. missing. I once investigated a fire where I found ammo for five types of guns, but no guns, guitar strings and no guitars, clear evidence that pictures had been taken off the wall before the fire started and a gasoline pour pattern in the living room carpet that led to the front door.
The insured - that's your most important clue. Look at his finances.
As I said, these are indicators. No one is enough, but taken together they can tell you what might be arson.
>'As the body of evidence accumulates, people can become more reassured that these devices are safe, but the final word is not there yet,' Muscat added."
I am just flipping appalled at the number of people in academia who have not internalized the concept that You Can't Prove A Fucking Negative! Can you prove that Neandertals are extinct? Can you prove that space aliens aren't controlling Bush and Blair with mind rays? Hell no! People seem to spend a huge amount of time worrying about shit that just might maybe could be true because, even though there is absofuckinglutely no evidence FOR it. On the other hand, they will blithely put up with 50,000 automobile deaths per year in the US and god knows how many deaths from tobacco and alcohol. Sheesh!
Speaking of which, I think I'll go have a medicinal gin and tonic and calm down.
>against one who's morays are not in line with the west, well I'll take a.45
Yeah, those damn eels are nasty bastards, what with those teeth and big jaw muscles. I usually don't carry my.45 underwater even though it's stainless. Your dive knife is good enough for most problems, but a bang stick can be handy. Just keep your hands out of the holes, and you'll be OK.
A phone I can plug a usb cable into and drop pictures/sounds/contract directly from my computer.
A nice easy interface to do this with.
My Motorola Razr does that. The interface is proprietary, but it works well. The only moderately lame parts are the update and detection routines which seem designed to be teenager proof. Synchs or drag and drop from Outlook Contact and Calendar is dead easy. It also works with Outlook Express and Lotus Notes. You can also drag and drop photos, sounds, ringtones, etc. The software interface comes with a moderately OK tool to do some basic sound extraction and ringtone creation if you have nothing else.
I chose T-Mobile for a provider, because they promised to unlock the phone after 90 days, which they did. Lets me just drop a local prepaid chip in when I'm in Europe.
It connects to my laptop with either USB (5 pin miniB) or Bluetooth. Sorry, iPod cables don't work.
I don't mean to sound like a shill, and I don't work for either T-Mobile or Motorola, but I'm happier with this phone than any cell phone I've had yet.
>Do you whine about advertising in the print magazines you purchase?
No, but then I don't have to read them either. I can flip by them at will and only read what I want. I subscribe to Vanity Fair, and it is really ad-heavy, but I don't have to read any of them. (I do 'cause there's some really nice eye candy there.)
Video media and radio make me wait through the ad for the content.
I find it ironic and strangely fitting that the current thought of the day/moment at the bottom of the page as I read this is, "Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. -- General Omar N. Bradley."
That's something that's always struck me. An omnipotent god could trivially create a zillion photons all the way up to every star in the iniverse. And in fact could create 15 billion years of fake history which would be completely indistinguishable from "real" history.
This is often referred to as "Last Tuesdayism." The idea that the universe was created last Tuesday with the appearance of being 15 billion years old is logically impossible to falsify. Since it cannot be falsified, it is not science, but that doesn't stop the creationists from bringing up the idea. They never seem to understand that a corollary of it is that God is a liar.
There are also constant Usenet flamewars, religious jihads, and university campus riots between the Last Tuesdayists and the Last Mondayists. They're all heretics, of course. All right-thinking, intelligent people know that the universe was created by my cat Marvin three weeks ago Thursday.
>Yep, 4 rompin' stompin' snortin' cylinders of 87.5cc capacity. Kind of slow but smooth as the proverbial...
Whirrrrrr. I hadn't heard of that one. My brother had one of the 500/4s. You really had to be into changing gears to stay in the narrow torque band, but it was fun and quick.
All of the dashboard wiring of my 59 TR3 burned up in a memorable few moments that started at some speed. Took days to rewire the sucker. I never did change out the SU carburettors; not from any lack of desire for side-draught Webers. They just cost too much. Drove that sucker for five years and wish I still had it.
Yeah, I mostly rode British bikes and one 1966 Ducati. They needed lots of work; mostly just retuning from stuff vibrating loose and frequent oil changes from the lack of decent air cleaners. BMW and Guzzi both made reliable road bikes, but who could afford one? Things started to change when the Honda 750 came out. It made piles of power and actually was pretty dependable. Not quite like riding a Norton or a BSA 500 single, though.
Speaking of beautiful, but seriously flawed engineering... All 50's and 60's Jags and Triumphs seemed to conform to the motorcycle rule: drive them one hour, work on them two hours. (Don't know about MG's. I never owned one.)
Slashdot Mirror
>The men who wrote the Bill of Rights had absolutely no idea what kind of threats would be facing this country, and as such, their perspective is simply no longer valid.
I beg to disagree. The men responsible for the Bill of Rights, which took effect in 1791, were still around a few years later when our country was physically invaded by foreign troops. In fact, the chief author, James Madison, was President when the Brits marched in and burned the White House to the ground along with a few other important bits of Washington, DC. Since there were still plenty of Loyalist collaborators around, you could make the same arguments about opening mail, warrantless searches, etc. being in the interest of "national security." The biggest threat to our liberty then was the same as it is now, authoritarian government.
>So, what possible good can this do? Well, I guess it'll make it harder for underage kids to buy beer. Other than that? Nothing, really...
Back in my underage days, I never used a fake ID to buy beer (or wine or liquor). I never used a real one either, for that matter. I actually looked sort of young for my age, as well. I figured out that getting caught with a fake ID got you in Trouble. My technique was to go to a Mom and Pop grocery when they weren't real busy and just put a six pack up on the check out counter. If they asked for ID, I would just smile and tell them I didn't have it and walk out. That didn't happen much, as those places were always looking for any kind of sale. It was actually easier to get by the owners than any hired help they might have. Once I found a place that would sell to me, I became a regular customer.
Bars were a different story. You couldn't get into any of the popular college places, especially those with bands, without ID. On the other hand, there were lots of fairly classy places that never carded me. A couple of us were sitting at the bar on a Friday afternoon, having a beer and talking with the bartender when a guy walked in and sat down on my right. He turned to the guy on his right and carded him. Turned out he was an ABC agent. He sat there for about half an hour telling us all stories about fake IDs. I just about peed my pants.
I opened a can of anchovies to celebrate.
>set one up easily, inexpensively, and safely
Pick any two.
You might also want to be thinking about your last words for your friends to remember you by. Some of the more popular choices from previous Darwin Award winners are:
Have a friend shoot the video from a safe distance for your In Memoriam web page.
>So, Euroweenie, if you're so educated where's the Euro Man on the Moon? Where is the Euro Internet? Who is that Euro who invented the airplane?
Actually, I'm an American; but yes, I am well educated. Others have answered your questions above. I was talking about the ability to speak more than one language.
>You can go back to eating your own feces.
Solch eine intelligente Anmerkung. Arschloch.
Because not all of the ice is floating. There is a significant amount of ice in the Greenland Ice Cap. Melting of this will cause the sea level to rise. Interestingly, it will also cause Greenland itself to rise by a small amount due to the release from the weight of the ice. There is also non-floating ice on the Canadian Shield islands. In addition, if you assume that melting of the Arctic ice cap will be accompanied by at least some melting of the Antarctic cap, there could be a sea level rise of from a few meters to several meters. This is enough to cause a severe disruption of human populations.
>Vista also differs greatly from Windows 95, which was actually eagerly recieved by customers, because it really was substantially better than its predecessor.
Yes it was. W95 was a huge improvement. Anybody else remember running third-party shells on top of Win 3x just to get some functionality?
But Belgium does. Besides, we're used to US movies and series broadcast in English, albeit with subtitles.
Besides which, since it is not "Murka", huge numbers of people actually speak several languages. In Europe, this means you're educated; while in the US, it means you're considered a terrorist.
- Presence of accelerants - look for pour patterns on the floor.
- Multiple points of origin - clear indicators that the fire started in two, three or more places.
- Personal valuables missing - absence of photo albums, personal phone book by phone, pictures missing from wall, stereo, cameras, etc. missing. I once investigated a fire where I found ammo for five types of guns, but no guns, guitar strings and no guitars, clear evidence that pictures had been taken off the wall before the fire started and a gasoline pour pattern in the living room carpet that led to the front door.
- The insured - that's your most important clue. Look at his finances.
As I said, these are indicators. No one is enough, but taken together they can tell you what might be arson.Combine it with the tabletop particle accelerator discussed earlier today, and you've got something.
>'As the body of evidence accumulates, people can become more reassured that these devices are safe, but the final word is not there yet,' Muscat added."
I am just flipping appalled at the number of people in academia who have not internalized the concept that You Can't Prove A Fucking Negative! Can you prove that Neandertals are extinct? Can you prove that space aliens aren't controlling Bush and Blair with mind rays? Hell no! People seem to spend a huge amount of time worrying about shit that just might maybe could be true because, even though there is absofuckinglutely no evidence FOR it. On the other hand, they will blithely put up with 50,000 automobile deaths per year in the US and god knows how many deaths from tobacco and alcohol. Sheesh!
Speaking of which, I think I'll go have a medicinal gin and tonic and calm down.
>against one who's morays are not in line with the west, well I'll take a .45
Yeah, those damn eels are nasty bastards, what with those teeth and big jaw muscles. I usually don't carry my .45 underwater even though it's stainless. Your dive knife is good enough for most problems, but a bang stick can be handy. Just keep your hands out of the holes, and you'll be OK.
Or, were you talking about "mores"?
A nice easy interface to do this with.
My Motorola Razr does that. The interface is proprietary, but it works well. The only moderately lame parts are the update and detection routines which seem designed to be teenager proof. Synchs or drag and drop from Outlook Contact and Calendar is dead easy. It also works with Outlook Express and Lotus Notes. You can also drag and drop photos, sounds, ringtones, etc. The software interface comes with a moderately OK tool to do some basic sound extraction and ringtone creation if you have nothing else.
I chose T-Mobile for a provider, because they promised to unlock the phone after 90 days, which they did. Lets me just drop a local prepaid chip in when I'm in Europe.
It connects to my laptop with either USB (5 pin miniB) or Bluetooth. Sorry, iPod cables don't work.
I don't mean to sound like a shill, and I don't work for either T-Mobile or Motorola, but I'm happier with this phone than any cell phone I've had yet.
>Do you whine about advertising in the print magazines you purchase?
No, but then I don't have to read them either. I can flip by them at will and only read what I want. I subscribe to Vanity Fair, and it is really ad-heavy, but I don't have to read any of them. (I do 'cause there's some really nice eye candy there.)
Video media and radio make me wait through the ad for the content.
I find it ironic and strangely fitting that the current thought of the day/moment at the bottom of the page as I read this is, "Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. -- General Omar N. Bradley."
This is often referred to as "Last Tuesdayism." The idea that the universe was created last Tuesday with the appearance of being 15 billion years old is logically impossible to falsify. Since it cannot be falsified, it is not science, but that doesn't stop the creationists from bringing up the idea. They never seem to understand that a corollary of it is that God is a liar.
There are also constant Usenet flamewars, religious jihads, and university campus riots between the Last Tuesdayists and the Last Mondayists. They're all heretics, of course. All right-thinking, intelligent people know that the universe was created by my cat Marvin three weeks ago Thursday.
>those who play violent video games show increased activity in areas of the brain linked to emotional arousal
I would be far more concerned about the sociopathic tendencies of people who did not show emotional arousal than I am by anything reported here.
Whirrrrrr. I hadn't heard of that one. My brother had one of the 500/4s. You really had to be into changing gears to stay in the narrow torque band, but it was fun and quick.
All of the dashboard wiring of my 59 TR3 burned up in a memorable few moments that started at some speed. Took days to rewire the sucker. I never did change out the SU carburettors; not from any lack of desire for side-draught Webers. They just cost too much. Drove that sucker for five years and wish I still had it.
Yeah, I mostly rode British bikes and one 1966 Ducati. They needed lots of work; mostly just retuning from stuff vibrating loose and frequent oil changes from the lack of decent air cleaners. BMW and Guzzi both made reliable road bikes, but who could afford one? Things started to change when the Honda 750 came out. It made piles of power and actually was pretty dependable. Not quite like riding a Norton or a BSA 500 single, though.
>to hold up my 1962 Jaguar XJ12
Speaking of beautiful, but seriously flawed engineering... All 50's and 60's Jags and Triumphs seemed to conform to the motorcycle rule: drive them one hour, work on them two hours. (Don't know about MG's. I never owned one.)
Michael Jackson is Japanese?
>"Trsuat but verify"
Regan was senile, but he could pronounce English words properly. "Trsuat" sounds much more like something Bush would say.