" Without the USA's support, Britain would have been invaded by the Nazis.
Yes, without all those American pilots and American planes helping us in 1940, we'd definitely have lost the Battle of Britain.
Oh wait, the US didn't enter the war until 1941..."
Pray tell, exactly *how* would Britain have kept their planes flying and the industry to support and build and repair them going without the US's support? Try Googling "WW2 Prewar Aid". Critical arms, aircraft, and supplies were being shipped to Britain well before 1941.
Also, for those who think that if the US didn't participate that Russia would simply have been the one to have liberated France and would have defeated Germany and been the only one to enter Berlin, then they have another think coming. Try Googling "WW2 Lend Lease". Without arms , aircraft, and supplies from the US, neither Russia nor Britain would have been able to maintain their war-making capabilities. If you'd like details on US prewar plans and foreign aid, try here:
"It's the USAs' military might that saved Europe in WW1 and WW2"
That's a subject for debate, not proclamation...
I think Britain, France and Italy might might disagree. Without the USA's support, Britain would have been invaded by the Nazis. France and Italy were liberated.
And people are proposing it as a good model and a natural one. It's not, it's only in the US that the military are seen as some sort of gods.
I don't know whose post you're responding to here. I said nothing about anyone being gods nor does anyone I know in the USA think of the military in that way or even close. Nor was I seriously proposing the Starship Troopers society as an actual model. Just the un-arguable fact that a weak military invites attack from others that have expansionist aims.
The US has a weird, hyper-patriotic society that a lot of Europeans find bizarre, brainwashing and militaristic.
It's the USAs' military might that saved Europe in WW1 and WW2, and recently through NATO that allows much of Europe to eschew a large military for protection and kept them from becoming another Soviet satellite nation or becoming another Chinese Tibet.
You're welcome.
And only giving the franchise to people who have previously served in the military? Screw you! What gives you the right to decide that? What gives those citizens the right to decide how everyone else gets to live? Nothing whatsoever.
Doesn't have to be military, as in Heinleins' world it was simply public service, of which the military was one branch. Plus, we're talking theoretically about a science fiction novel. Nobody is taking anything away from anyone. Chill!
As much as I like that story, and its one of my all time favorite books, it starts with the premise that returning soldiers would essentially take over the world and everything would be wonderful thereafter. History has shown quite clearly that every time this occurs things go badly.
Except that they don't become "Citizens" until *after* they have served, and are no longer in the military. History has indeed shown that when the military takes over the government, then yes, bad things happen. But that's not the system that was described. It was civilians who had *previously* served in the military. Even today, one of the qualifications that many people look for in their elected leaders is previous military service.
History has shown that when citizens are ignorant of history, the means by which they both first gained and retain their freedoms, and by which their country remains free from attack, very bad things happen. Pearl Harbor happened because Japan saw that America after WW1 had shrunk their military to a fraction of its' previous strength, and the citizens and most of the government had a policy of isolationism and retreat from world conflict. Japan failed to take into account the American peoples' outrage and anger, and the sleeping industrial might America could bring to bear.
The surest way to get robbed in a big city is to look and act like a victim. The surest way to start a war is to appear conquerable to other nations with acceptable losses. That's precisely what the people who advocate unilateral disarmament, and also those who preach disengagement when targeted by terrorists, fail to understand.
As to the Sony/BMG rootkit incident, as long as the punishment for getting caught in bad corporate behavior is acceptable, expect to see such behavior repeated.
Hmm... now you make me look. Tried an 85 MB ISO with Notepad 5.2 (Win 2003) - yep, it's taking a while, but it's trying. Tried a 400 MB ISO and it didn't hang at all - it said "The %path of file% file is too large for Notepad. Use another editor to edit the file." So, the limit must be somewhere between the two.
(Note: Yes, I'm abusing my work's terminal server.)
>humor Gosh golly-gee, don't you know you're supposed to use Wordpad for files that big?:D >/humor
Just one of thousands of stories of "collateral damage" in the war on "stuff that's hard to tax". Thank goodness it was just some poor mother in a poorer section of town, and not some better-off family that could afford to launch a legal battle...that could take vital tools away from this essential war to protect revenue for government! They were also going to seize and auction the house, but that was dropped when the story hit the newspaper. Can't be stirring up the shee^W^W^W^Wcitizens to where they might try to change things.
This is like passing a law requiring the electric company to turn you in should they discover marijuana growing in your backyard when they check the meter!
Actually, in many areas (I live in one of these areas..thanks Consumers Energy!) the electric company reports to the police if your electric consumption spikes, the logic being that it's very likely that the spike in electrical usage is because of grow-lights being used to grow marijuana.
There was a local newspaper story last winter about the local SWAT team raiding a house because of a reported sudden electrical consumption spike. They ended up busting (literally) in the doors and terrorizing a single mother and 3 children because the gas furnace had failed and the mother had set up several electric heaters to keep her kids from freezing until she could afford to have the furnace fixed. Now she has to also buy a couple new doors and a window or two as well as a furnace.
Which will be a little more difficult now, as she lost her minimum wage job because she had her arm broken by a strike team member when being thrown to the ground when she came out of her bedroom to investigate all the noise that woke her at 4 AM. Not to mention the smoke damage to the house caused by one of the strike team members having thrown a blanket off a bed that landed over one of the electric heaters and started a small (thank goodness!) fire.
But, thankfully, she was able to finally convince Child Protective Services to return her children, and that she was not, in fact, operating an illegal drug manufacturing house.
And most homeless people don't bother with pay phones either. It turns out that with the prices for calls the way that they are, that it tends to be cheaper to just use a cell phone anyways. That and people can reliably return phone calls.
More likely they're using the prepaid variety. I would be as well if I weren't on a family plan with a couple of big talkers
I am in frequent contact with missions and other homeless shelters and the people that use their services, since I frequently do charitable events at these places. Most of the homeless either can't afford any kind of cellphone, or if they could, couldn't spend what little money they can scrape up from trash-diving for returnable bottles, etc on one. They need every dime for much more immediate needs. Cellphones are also easily (and are frequently) stolen and traded for drugs or sold for a few dollars. Many view homeless in possession of a cellphone as suspected drug dealers or users.
Pay phones were the main communication means for the homeless (other than to other homeless/street denizens). The homeless also have a high distrust for authorities, and avoid any contact with them whenever possible. I've heard them tell stories about themselves or another homeless person that witnessed a crime or encountered a stranger in extreme distress that, where in the past they would have simply picked up a nearby pay-phone and reported it anonymously, simply shrugged and walked away out of fear.
Let's hope the next terrorist in the process of initiating a major attack in some city is careless enough to let a non-homeless person witness their activities and report them. If a homeless person is the only witness, chances are good it'll go unreported, at least in any kind of timely manner.
Remove it immediately to prevent harm to your computer and protect your privacy!
A convicted monopolists' anti-spyware program marking the competitions' web browser as spyware/a security risk? Wow. They just have no fear, do they?. If they have the Justice Department and the politicians that well-bought that they feel they can get away with things like this, one has to wonder how long it'll be until they simply have their lapdogs in government mandate their software as the only 'legal' option.
How many IE vulnerabilities are actually in IE and how many are the OS? It is two distinct bits of source code and all the low level bugs probably belong to the OS rather than the browser. I am just saying there are lies, damn lies and statistics.
But, remember..according to MS, IE *IS* a part of the OS.
Even an Uller would be a devastating weapon against current armed forces. Heck, for that matter, so would a Flea! (at least against infantry/light armor) You go ahead and take that Highlander and I'll take the Uller, stripped down with one Clan Extended Range Large Laser or one Heavy Laser, full armor, and max speed. I used to love taking my little Uller into League online battles and tear up n00bs in Assault mechs! >:)
All that is nonsense today. World War Two is over and so is the USA/Soviet war, the so-called 'cold war'.
It seems that the Russians under Putin are becoming increasingly threatening to the West and to the USA in particular. There have been a number of incidents of late of Russia testing Western defenses, recently a number of Russian nuclear-capable bomber flights making incursions on NATO airspace and being intercepted by NATO fighters.
Let's not also forget that China is also a serious threat.
That being said, the idea of autonomous fighting machines is not a new one, I recall hours of entertaining reading from Keith Laumers' "BOLO" series, about artificially-intelligent super-tanks. There's an informative Wiki article on the Bolo tanks here:
The bottom line I guess, is that all of human history proves that the world is not a friendly place. Unilateral disarmament will be happily taken advantage of by powers that care not a whit about anything but gaining more power and territory, and are more than willing to sacrifice huge numbers of people on either/any side towards those goals. If we wish to both survive and remain a relatively free people, then we have no choice but to make sure we are first and best with weapons and battle systems.
What I'm just saying is that if you have a philosophical theory, then it should be taught in a philosophy class, along with string theory.
Since Einstein believed in God, and declared that the more he understood of the universe, the more sure of the existence of God he was, then perhaps we should relegate all that "E=MC2" philosophizing there too? Just a thought.
My k-12 history education wasn't much, ~10 years ago. My every impression is that it was better than my mothers, ~50 years ago(she really was nearly 40 when I was born).
How much of what you are noticing is simply your own knowledge of the history you are talking about growing? How do you address the fact that there isn't anywhere near 100 years of compulsory 7-12 education? Columbus day the Fourth of July still seem to be pretty big deal, which one wouldn't expect given what you are saying.
My K-12 education occurred 30 years ago. I remember that quizzes were held on sections excerpted and translated from Sun Tzus' "The Art Of War", and that the translated work was available in the school library. I wonder if it's even allowed to be brought on a H.S. campus these days. I remember studying about Hitlers' and Mussolinis' rise to power and how they managed it, and the repercussions including the Holocaust. I remember being taught about Lord Chamberlain, and how his appeasement strategy backfired and nearly caused Hitler to attain world rule.
I remember being taught about Christianity and how the Catholic Church rose to dominance, and where and how that both helped civilization and hurt it. Also about how the Catholic Church suffered the eastern and western schisms and their effects. We also learned about Calvinism and the Reformations. We spent nearly an entire semester on the Crusades, the causes and effects, the battles and tactics used by both sides, and the effects on civilization.
The history books that I was taught from had entire sections with multiple chapters devoted to most of the above topics. The history books I've seen of late, if they even mention some of those topics at all, devote a chapter or less, sometimes as little as a paragraph or two.
I know I'm old, but I don't think that so much history has passed in my lifetime to this point that those events have that much less significance to the world we find ourselves in as the make-up of modern H.S. history textbooks would seem to indicate. The ones I've seen have more on the U.N. and Islam than on WW2 or the Crusades or the American Revolution. I was surprised to learn from my grand-nephews' history book that the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese was perfectly justified and all Americas' fault for not allowing Japan to control all the oil-producing territories and sea routes it wanted so it could expand its' empire. I also learned that if only Lord Chamberlain or someone with his views had acted earlier and with more concessions, the Third Reich might have been "contained" and WW2 avoided. I didn't even see any mention of the Holocaust at all. Just....wow.
Just how many of the several million colonists living in what is now the US do you think were educated in a way that would allow them to think critically about governments and societies?
They weren't, as a rule, no different than today. But there was barely an education system in towns and villages, and none very far afield. If one were wealthy, one could have a tutor for ones' children sent to the colonies to teach them those subjects, and whatever else, like latin, in which many tomes of higher-learning were written. One *could* have bills posted around the towns and villages, and even back in England, for a tutor in swordsmanship, musketry, calvary training, and general military education/training. Try the modern equivalent and see how fast you get a visit (or several) from various authorities, including ones who would want the child or children taken away from you.
But this is before the 'modern era' of education, which is the context I was speaking in. My point was that in the last 100 years of educational history for mandated/compulsory education in America (K-12) history education of the type I referred to has been watered down, re-written, made politically correct, and diminished...and military history (outside of the mention of a few wars and notable battles) nearly eliminated.
"History" classes in US schools have become watered-down, politically-correct, evil-european-descended-caucasians-raping-the-continent diatribes that don't even bother attempting to appear balanced anymore. I looked over one of my grand-nephews' history schoolbooks, and going by what I read in there if I were to believe everything in it, *I'd* hate caucasians, the US, and consider even mentioning war as something that in some cases *might* have any valid reasons and/or higher moral and ethical motives as nearly criminal.
Heck, these days, even in colleges, getting an education in military history is getting to be hard to do, what with many colleges being increasingly anti-military. Yes, there are military colleges, but they are diminishing in number, and basic military history education shouldn't require attending such.
The overall state of education in the US is kind of frustrating(because so much time is wasted doing nothing at all and such), but the average education level is quite a lot higher than most or all of history.
If you're counting how many learn to read and have graduated H.S./college, then yes. If you're counting the amount of substantive education that would allow one to think critically about governments and societies, like histories of the United States, military history, histories of various successful and not-so-successful countries/societies/religions and the reasons why they were successful or not, then no.
The rich and powerful have the option to pay to be taught these things *if they choose*, but nobody is obligated to learn anything. Likewise, someone from a poorer background might be able to learn about these subjects, but usually would need to have the determination, interest, intelligence, and talent to teach themselves. These are not common traits, and even when present, are many times unrealized because of more immediate life-demands that face those of lesser means.
when thought is commercialized only commercials will have thoughts;~)
When thought is commercialized, only commercial entities can be permitted to have thoughts.
There, fixed that for you.
That could also make one wonder about the possibility of a hidden agenda behind the decline of education for common (read: not-rich/powerful people or their families) people.
If one has no words for a concept, it becomes hard to think about or communicate to others.
I hope they DO pass this, and I hope a large number of colleges and universities refuse to comply, and many thousands of students lose their grants and aid. This is just the sort of wide-reaching, shocking, horribly unjust-seeming PR disaster that needs to happen to wake up Joe Citizen to what the *AAs and their paid-for lackeys in Congress are doing. Hopefully, this will start an upheaval against all laws that appear *AA-influenced, including the insane copyright length extensions.
I know, I know. Fat chance. One can dream, though.
Well, I just renamed the files to $secdrv.sys (I found 2 copies..one in system32/drivers and one in a game folder (MechWarrior4 Vengeance, in mw4x folder) and the game still loads and runs.
I KNOW, Radiohead is offering their new album online for as much as you want to pay, but they can afford to.
Bull. Sorry, but that's just completely bass-ackwards. I *am* in an indie band, and these days people can now get a chance to hear our material that never would have before, because of the music cartels' history of locking up radio/TV/CD sales to exclude anyone not owned by them. We've done the same thing as Radiohead has now for a good while. It's been an overall win for us.
We *want* people to copy and share our music! That's free exposure, and the kind of word-of-mouth promotion that can't be bought. We will continue to encourage people to share our music, even if we were to get as famous as U2 or Radiohead or Led Zeppelin.
We sell physical CDs and video DVDs and other merchandise at shows. We state right on the media that it's fine to share, and if they feel what we've created is worth it to them, send a little money our way to help us keep creating. We receive enough to let us keep going.
CD sales aren't the end game, they're a means. They get us fans. They are a promotion tool, nothing more.
...having the *AAs' using questionably-legal tactics wasn't enough. Now we're gonna have the Feds sniffing around anyone using bandwidth or "teh 3v1lz" bittorrent? Prepare for more grannies, dead people and those with no computer to get dragged through the legal 7th level of Hades.
Even if you believe they have "OMG Teh Bawmb!", your next step is to convince everyone that Iran has "OMG Teh delivery mechanism!", e.g. a fleet of ICBMs capable of reaching America with a nuclear payload.
ICBMs are so cold-war. These days, all a hostile government needs to deliver a nuke is one of these.
Slashdot Mirror
" Without the USA's support, Britain would have been invaded by the Nazis.
Yes, without all those American pilots and American planes helping us in 1940, we'd definitely have lost the Battle of Britain.
Oh wait, the US didn't enter the war until 1941..."
Pray tell, exactly *how* would Britain have kept their planes flying and the industry to support and build and repair them going without the US's support? Try Googling "WW2 Prewar Aid". Critical arms, aircraft, and supplies were being shipped to Britain well before 1941.
Also, for those who think that if the US didn't participate that Russia would simply have been the one to have liberated France and would have defeated Germany and been the only one to enter Berlin, then they have another think coming. Try Googling "WW2 Lend Lease". Without arms , aircraft, and supplies from the US, neither Russia nor Britain would have been able to maintain their war-making capabilities. If you'd like details on US prewar plans and foreign aid, try here:
http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/csppp/ch10.htm
Which is excerpted from the main document here:
http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/csppp/index.htm
Goodness, what are they teaching in the history classes over there? I would have expected better than the poor job the US does with public education.
Cheers!
Strat
"It's the USAs' military might that saved Europe in WW1 and WW2"
That's a subject for debate, not proclamation...
I think Britain, France and Italy might might disagree. Without the USA's support, Britain would have been invaded by the Nazis. France and Italy were liberated.
And people are proposing it as a good model and a natural one. It's not, it's only in the US that the military are seen as some sort of gods.
I don't know whose post you're responding to here. I said nothing about anyone being gods nor does anyone I know in the USA think of the military in that way or even close. Nor was I seriously proposing the Starship Troopers society as an actual model. Just the un-arguable fact that a weak military invites attack from others that have expansionist aims.
Cheers!
Strat
The US has a weird, hyper-patriotic society that a lot of Europeans find bizarre, brainwashing and militaristic.
It's the USAs' military might that saved Europe in WW1 and WW2, and recently through NATO that allows much of Europe to eschew a large military for protection and kept them from becoming another Soviet satellite nation or becoming another Chinese Tibet.
You're welcome.
And only giving the franchise to people who have previously served in the military? Screw you! What gives you the right to decide that? What gives those citizens the right to decide how everyone else gets to live? Nothing whatsoever.
Doesn't have to be military, as in Heinleins' world it was simply public service, of which the military was one branch. Plus, we're talking theoretically about a science fiction novel. Nobody is taking anything away from anyone. Chill!
Cheers!
Strat
As much as I like that story, and its one of my all time favorite books, it starts with the premise that returning soldiers would essentially take over the world and everything would be wonderful thereafter. History has shown quite clearly that every time this occurs things go badly.
Except that they don't become "Citizens" until *after* they have served, and are no longer in the military. History has indeed shown that when the military takes over the government, then yes, bad things happen. But that's not the system that was described. It was civilians who had *previously* served in the military. Even today, one of the qualifications that many people look for in their elected leaders is previous military service.
History has shown that when citizens are ignorant of history, the means by which they both first gained and retain their freedoms, and by which their country remains free from attack, very bad things happen. Pearl Harbor happened because Japan saw that America after WW1 had shrunk their military to a fraction of its' previous strength, and the citizens and most of the government had a policy of isolationism and retreat from world conflict. Japan failed to take into account the American peoples' outrage and anger, and the sleeping industrial might America could bring to bear.
The surest way to get robbed in a big city is to look and act like a victim. The surest way to start a war is to appear conquerable to other nations with acceptable losses. That's precisely what the people who advocate unilateral disarmament, and also those who preach disengagement when targeted by terrorists, fail to understand.
As to the Sony/BMG rootkit incident, as long as the punishment for getting caught in bad corporate behavior is acceptable, expect to see such behavior repeated.
Cheers!
Strat
Hmm... now you make me look. Tried an 85 MB ISO with Notepad 5.2 (Win 2003) - yep, it's taking a while, but it's trying. Tried a 400 MB ISO and it didn't hang at all - it said "The %path of file% file is too large for Notepad. Use another editor to edit the file." So, the limit must be somewhere between the two.
:D
(Note: Yes, I'm abusing my work's terminal server.)
>humor
Gosh golly-gee, don't you know you're supposed to use Wordpad for files that big?
>/humor
Cheers!
Strat
Wow. That was certainly a cheerful tail!
Just one of thousands of stories of "collateral damage" in the war on "stuff that's hard to tax". Thank goodness it was just some poor mother in a poorer section of town, and not some better-off family that could afford to launch a legal battle...that could take vital tools away from this essential war to protect revenue for government! They were also going to seize and auction the house, but that was dropped when the story hit the newspaper. Can't be stirring up the shee^W^W^W^Wcitizens to where they might try to change things.
Cheers!
Strat
This is like passing a law requiring the electric company to turn you in should they discover marijuana growing in your backyard when they check the meter!
Actually, in many areas (I live in one of these areas..thanks Consumers Energy!) the electric company reports to the police if your electric consumption spikes, the logic being that it's very likely that the spike in electrical usage is because of grow-lights being used to grow marijuana.
There was a local newspaper story last winter about the local SWAT team raiding a house because of a reported sudden electrical consumption spike. They ended up busting (literally) in the doors and terrorizing a single mother and 3 children because the gas furnace had failed and the mother had set up several electric heaters to keep her kids from freezing until she could afford to have the furnace fixed. Now she has to also buy a couple new doors and a window or two as well as a furnace.
Which will be a little more difficult now, as she lost her minimum wage job because she had her arm broken by a strike team member when being thrown to the ground when she came out of her bedroom to investigate all the noise that woke her at 4 AM. Not to mention the smoke damage to the house caused by one of the strike team members having thrown a blanket off a bed that landed over one of the electric heaters and started a small (thank goodness!) fire.
But, thankfully, she was able to finally convince Child Protective Services to return her children, and that she was not, in fact, operating an illegal drug manufacturing house.
Cheers!
Strat
And most homeless people don't bother with pay phones either. It turns out that with the prices for calls the way that they are, that it tends to be cheaper to just use a cell phone anyways. That and people can reliably return phone calls.
More likely they're using the prepaid variety. I would be as well if I weren't on a family plan with a couple of big talkers
I am in frequent contact with missions and other homeless shelters and the people that use their services, since I frequently do charitable events at these places. Most of the homeless either can't afford any kind of cellphone, or if they could, couldn't spend what little money they can scrape up from trash-diving for returnable bottles, etc on one. They need every dime for much more immediate needs. Cellphones are also easily (and are frequently) stolen and traded for drugs or sold for a few dollars. Many view homeless in possession of a cellphone as suspected drug dealers or users.
Pay phones were the main communication means for the homeless (other than to other homeless/street denizens). The homeless also have a high distrust for authorities, and avoid any contact with them whenever possible. I've heard them tell stories about themselves or another homeless person that witnessed a crime or encountered a stranger in extreme distress that, where in the past they would have simply picked up a nearby pay-phone and reported it anonymously, simply shrugged and walked away out of fear.
Let's hope the next terrorist in the process of initiating a major attack in some city is careless enough to let a non-homeless person witness their activities and report them. If a homeless person is the only witness, chances are good it'll go unreported, at least in any kind of timely manner.
Cheers!
Strat
Relax. It's a doctored screenshot.
D'OHH!!!
Firefox is spyware. At least according to Microsoft. http://img405.imageshack.us/my.php?image=msasmfph6.gif [imageshack.us]
Remove it immediately to prevent harm to your computer and protect your privacy!
A convicted monopolists' anti-spyware program marking the competitions' web browser as spyware/a security risk? Wow. They just have no fear, do they?. If they have the Justice Department and the politicians that well-bought that they feel they can get away with things like this, one has to wonder how long it'll be until they simply have their lapdogs in government mandate their software as the only 'legal' option.
Cheers!
Strat
How many IE vulnerabilities are actually in IE and how many are the OS? It is two distinct bits of source code and all the low level bugs probably belong to the OS rather than the browser. I am just saying there are lies, damn lies and statistics.
But, remember..according to MS, IE *IS* a part of the OS.
Cheers!
Strat
Even an Uller would be a devastating weapon against current armed forces. Heck, for that matter, so would a Flea! (at least against infantry/light armor) You go ahead and take that Highlander and I'll take the Uller, stripped down with one Clan Extended Range Large Laser or one Heavy Laser, full armor, and max speed. I used to love taking my little Uller into League online battles and tear up n00bs in Assault mechs! >:)
Cheers!
Strat
All that is nonsense today. World War Two is over and so is the USA/Soviet war, the so-called 'cold war'.
It seems that the Russians under Putin are becoming increasingly threatening to the West and to the USA in particular. There have been a number of incidents of late of Russia testing Western defenses, recently a number of Russian nuclear-capable bomber flights making incursions on NATO airspace and being intercepted by NATO fighters.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1280809,00.html
And here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/09/AR2007080902211.html
Let's not also forget that China is also a serious threat.
That being said, the idea of autonomous fighting machines is not a new one, I recall hours of entertaining reading from Keith Laumers' "BOLO" series, about artificially-intelligent super-tanks. There's an informative Wiki article on the Bolo tanks here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolo_(tank)
The bottom line I guess, is that all of human history proves that the world is not a friendly place. Unilateral disarmament will be happily taken advantage of by powers that care not a whit about anything but gaining more power and territory, and are more than willing to sacrifice huge numbers of people on either/any side towards those goals. If we wish to both survive and remain a relatively free people, then we have no choice but to make sure we are first and best with weapons and battle systems.
Cheers!
Strat
What I'm just saying is that if you have a philosophical theory, then it should be taught in a philosophy class, along with string theory.
Since Einstein believed in God, and declared that the more he understood of the universe, the more sure of the existence of God he was, then perhaps we should relegate all that "E=MC2" philosophizing there too? Just a thought.
Cheers!
Strat
My k-12 history education wasn't much, ~10 years ago. My every impression is that it was better than my mothers, ~50 years ago(she really was nearly 40 when I was born).
How much of what you are noticing is simply your own knowledge of the history you are talking about growing? How do you address the fact that there isn't anywhere near 100 years of compulsory 7-12 education? Columbus day the Fourth of July still seem to be pretty big deal, which one wouldn't expect given what you are saying.
My K-12 education occurred 30 years ago. I remember that quizzes were held on sections excerpted and translated from Sun Tzus' "The Art Of War", and that the translated work was available in the school library. I wonder if it's even allowed to be brought on a H.S. campus these days. I remember studying about Hitlers' and Mussolinis' rise to power and how they managed it, and the repercussions including the Holocaust. I remember being taught about Lord Chamberlain, and how his appeasement strategy backfired and nearly caused Hitler to attain world rule.
I remember being taught about Christianity and how the Catholic Church rose to dominance, and where and how that both helped civilization and hurt it. Also about how the Catholic Church suffered the eastern and western schisms and their effects. We also learned about Calvinism and the Reformations. We spent nearly an entire semester on the Crusades, the causes and effects, the battles and tactics used by both sides, and the effects on civilization.
The history books that I was taught from had entire sections with multiple chapters devoted to most of the above topics. The history books I've seen of late, if they even mention some of those topics at all, devote a chapter or less, sometimes as little as a paragraph or two.
I know I'm old, but I don't think that so much history has passed in my lifetime to this point that those events have that much less significance to the world we find ourselves in as the make-up of modern H.S. history textbooks would seem to indicate. The ones I've seen have more on the U.N. and Islam than on WW2 or the Crusades or the American Revolution. I was surprised to learn from my grand-nephews' history book that the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese was perfectly justified and all Americas' fault for not allowing Japan to control all the oil-producing territories and sea routes it wanted so it could expand its' empire. I also learned that if only Lord Chamberlain or someone with his views had acted earlier and with more concessions, the Third Reich might have been "contained" and WW2 avoided. I didn't even see any mention of the Holocaust at all. Just....wow.
Cheers!
Strat
Just how many of the several million colonists living in what is now the US do you think were educated in a way that would allow them to think critically about governments and societies?
They weren't, as a rule, no different than today. But there was barely an education system in towns and villages, and none very far afield. If one were wealthy, one could have a tutor for ones' children sent to the colonies to teach them those subjects, and whatever else, like latin, in which many tomes of higher-learning were written. One *could* have bills posted around the towns and villages, and even back in England, for a tutor in swordsmanship, musketry, calvary training, and general military education/training. Try the modern equivalent and see how fast you get a visit (or several) from various authorities, including ones who would want the child or children taken away from you.
But this is before the 'modern era' of education, which is the context I was speaking in. My point was that in the last 100 years of educational history for mandated/compulsory education in America (K-12) history education of the type I referred to has been watered down, re-written, made politically correct, and diminished...and military history (outside of the mention of a few wars and notable battles) nearly eliminated.
"History" classes in US schools have become watered-down, politically-correct, evil-european-descended-caucasians-raping-the-continent diatribes that don't even bother attempting to appear balanced anymore. I looked over one of my grand-nephews' history schoolbooks, and going by what I read in there if I were to believe everything in it, *I'd* hate caucasians, the US, and consider even mentioning war as something that in some cases *might* have any valid reasons and/or higher moral and ethical motives as nearly criminal.
Heck, these days, even in colleges, getting an education in military history is getting to be hard to do, what with many colleges being increasingly anti-military. Yes, there are military colleges, but they are diminishing in number, and basic military history education shouldn't require attending such.
Cheers!
Strat
The overall state of education in the US is kind of frustrating(because so much time is wasted doing nothing at all and such), but the average education level is quite a lot higher than most or all of history.
If you're counting how many learn to read and have graduated H.S./college, then yes. If you're counting the amount of substantive education that would allow one to think critically about governments and societies, like histories of the United States, military history, histories of various successful and not-so-successful countries/societies/religions and the reasons why they were successful or not, then no.
The rich and powerful have the option to pay to be taught these things *if they choose*, but nobody is obligated to learn anything. Likewise, someone from a poorer background might be able to learn about these subjects, but usually would need to have the determination, interest, intelligence, and talent to teach themselves. These are not common traits, and even when present, are many times unrealized because of more immediate life-demands that face those of lesser means.
Cheers!
Strat
when thought is commercialized only commercials will have thoughts ;~)
When thought is commercialized, only commercial entities can be permitted to have thoughts.
There, fixed that for you.
That could also make one wonder about the possibility of a hidden agenda behind the decline of education for common (read: not-rich/powerful people or their families) people.
If one has no words for a concept, it becomes hard to think about or communicate to others.
Cheers!
Strat
But I, on the other hand, *might* be the exact same guy.
I hope they DO pass this, and I hope a large number of colleges and universities refuse to comply, and many thousands of students lose their grants and aid. This is just the sort of wide-reaching, shocking, horribly unjust-seeming PR disaster that needs to happen to wake up Joe Citizen to what the *AAs and their paid-for lackeys in Congress are doing. Hopefully, this will start an upheaval against all laws that appear *AA-influenced, including the insane copyright length extensions.
I know, I know. Fat chance. One can dream, though.
Cheers!
Strat
I am intrigued by your ideas and wish to subscribe to your newsletter^wband.
Oh, you don't have to limit yourself to just lil' ol' me. There's a few of us here:
http://www.indie911.com/
Cheers!
Strat
Can I just delete secdrv.sys?
AFAIK I don't use any macrovision disks.
Well, I just renamed the files to $secdrv.sys (I found 2 copies..one in system32/drivers and one in a game folder (MechWarrior4 Vengeance, in mw4x folder) and the game still loads and runs.
Cheers!
Strat
I KNOW, Radiohead is offering their new album online for as much as you want to pay, but they can afford to.
Bull. Sorry, but that's just completely bass-ackwards. I *am* in an indie band, and these days people can now get a chance to hear our material that never would have before, because of the music cartels' history of locking up radio/TV/CD sales to exclude anyone not owned by them. We've done the same thing as Radiohead has now for a good while. It's been an overall win for us.
We *want* people to copy and share our music! That's free exposure, and the kind of word-of-mouth promotion that can't be bought. We will continue to encourage people to share our music, even if we were to get as famous as U2 or Radiohead or Led Zeppelin.
We sell physical CDs and video DVDs and other merchandise at shows. We state right on the media that it's fine to share, and if they feel what we've created is worth it to them, send a little money our way to help us keep creating. We receive enough to let us keep going.
CD sales aren't the end game, they're a means. They get us fans. They are a promotion tool, nothing more.
Cheers!
Strat
...having the *AAs' using questionably-legal tactics wasn't enough. Now we're gonna have the Feds sniffing around anyone using bandwidth or "teh 3v1lz" bittorrent? Prepare for more grannies, dead people and those with no computer to get dragged through the legal 7th level of Hades.
Strat
Even if you believe they have "OMG Teh Bawmb!", your next step is to convince everyone that Iran has "OMG Teh delivery mechanism!", e.g. a fleet of ICBMs capable of reaching America with a nuclear payload.
ICBMs are so cold-war. These days, all a hostile government needs to deliver a nuke is one of these.
http://www.thecontainerman.com/images/standard_large.jpg
Cheers!
Strat