You are making a bit of an assumption thinking that the wealthy would consider sociopathy to be a negative trait, when it's very often that very trait which led them to be wealthy (or continue to be wealthy) in the first place.
And who gets to decide what is a mental illness? Does my mild OCD count? It's part of what makes me a good analyst, being able to spot inconsistencies. How about homosexuality, or transgender people? Their lives can be pretty miserable at times dealing with the stigma - lets magic that away so they don't need to suffer being abnormal.
That sound a bit too far? There are prominent people in the US Religious Right currently advocating killing gays, do you think they would consider it a better option that they never be born?
I recall a book from the early nineties (can't recall the name off the top of my head), where the basic storyline was about a Melanges inspired doctor who was performing eugenics experiments genetically altering black women to give birth to blue eyes, blonde haired, white skinned Aryan babies. Most of the story was set in South Africa.
Frankly it may require genetic engineering to breed a population that would be responsible enough to be safe with this kind of technology. The human race as it currently stands at the start of the 21st Century certainly doesn't qualify.
I think that some caution in deciding to use genetic manipulation of fetuses is valid.
While it may be used initially to screen out obvious disadvantages such as a tenancy for alcoholism, there will always be a doctor somewhere who will be prepared to screen for other traits as they become identifiable.
Did you know that it is illegal in parts of India to screen for gender? This is due to the gender imbalance of males to females, it is feared it will become even worse as people abort female children in preference to male. Despite it being illegal there are plenty of doctors who will tell parents the gender for a fee.
If your parents give you a stupid name as the result of some trend (hello to all those Bellas and Edwards out there just entering pre-school). You can at least change your name by deed poll. You can't change your build/height/ eye or hair colour (permanently) if appearance trends start dictating genetic manipulation choices.
You know, just because science figures out something that could make our lives better doesn't mean that it will be misused.
A quick google of this topic fails to provide any hits of relevance (your post is the top hit).
sounds like an urban myth to me. Not that I am going to debate that there are some stupid laws still on the books in most jurisdictions - lets start with the ones about gay marriage and anything that goes on in the bedroom. I got a hit on carrying a horse in your car, but nothing about lobsters.
I suspect their problem with it is the implicit acknowledgement of the existence of homosexuals in the creation of the gTLD.
Given their way of dealing with the existence of women is to shroud them in dark clothes from head to toe, restrict their participation in society and deny them basic rights - and that's a gender they need to ensure the continuation of their religion (unless they think they can get by on conversion alone), what makes you think they can't try to deny the existence of gays.
I was surprised that I had to read through to what was currently the last comment before encountering anyone mentioning this series. I actually went to the Wikipedia page for Harry Harrison to confirm I had remembered correctly that he'd written these given no one had mentioned them yet.
I found he'd written far more books than I'd realised, and I may have to go hunt a few more out now.
Possibly the question isn't will Ecuador stand and call the UK's bluff, but would the UK follow through if forced?
If the UK did in fact storm an embassy and as a consequence violate sovereign state, they are basically saying to anyone who may consider them an 'enemy' that they don't recognise consulates as sovereign territory so their own embassies in foreign countries are then at risk of incursion. Do they really want to do that in China or the Middle East or Africa or anywhere else they may have sensitive relationships?
Based on the definition in the grandparent's post: Insofar as I can't do something with my body, I don't own it. If you say I can't get a tattoo or a piercing, my body is that much under someone's control/ownership., most women in the US (and much of the world for that matter) don't own themselves due to laws relating to birth control and abortion.
Wasn't the Pippin sold under the branding of Bandai? I don't recall them even being available in Australia. If I remember correctly, I was working in the Apple reseller chain at the time and never remember seeing one.
At 5'2" I would love to have my desk lowered. I am constantly playing footsie with a foot rest that gets moved out of position by the coasters/feet of the chair base when I move it in and out. Unfortunately most places I have worked have fixed desk heights.
The one place I worked in recent years that had a below desk keyboard tray was actually the most comfortable because it meant I could have the chair at the correct height that I could get my feet flat on the ground without a foot rest.
That doesn't even take into account the amount of damage the dust from cheap paper does to the insides of quality print hardware. Ranging from clogging up optical sensors through to scratching drums with really crap paper.
I got hacked back in Vanilla when I was running on a Windows machine. It was a result of a key logger I picked up from the Curse addons site after they were compromised. Since moving back to a Mac for my primary WoW machine I haven't been compromised since. I also avoid using Curse as my primary source of Mods, preferring WoW Interface.
IINAL but the point of copyright was to allow a LIMITED period to profit EXCLUSIVELY from a specific work - after which you would need to create a NEW work from which to profit.
Super long copyright periods reduce the motivation to generate new and original works because the producers can continue to live off the revenue of their older works.
If the new works are any good they will compete with the older works on their own merit. When you listen to a classic rock station (and there are plenty of other station types to listen to) you are hearing those tracks which have stood the test of time and been considered worth listening to again. Hundreds of thousands of tracks have been ignored and forgotten and in some cases lost entirely.
i shouldn't have to wait because I'm international
So, as an observation, the final episode of House MD, one of the highest rating shows ever, screened in it's home market on May 21, 2012.
It's screening in Australia tomorrow (August 10, 2012), and that's reasonably fast tracked for US television in Australia.
There have been plenty of series over the years which have been cancelled before they were finished, moved to inhospitable timeslots, or just plain missing the advertised timeslot by the Australian broadcasters. It was Channel 10's treatment of the X-Files and Channel 7's treatment of Buffy that was the beginning of the end for me, resulting in me watching the end of both those series on DVD. I don't watch broadcast TV in Australia anymore. I either watch DVDs or downloads and am much happier for it.
Nerds would probably also appreciate QI (is that on BBC?), there have been an assortment of fabulous UK shows over the years including, but not limited to, Ultraviolet, Edge of Darkness, Jekyll, Coupling, Hustle, Spooks.
I have tried to read "And Another Thing" by Eoin Colfer on multiple occasions, I've tried listening to the audio book, I just can't get into it. I don't know if it lacks Douglas' turn of phrase or the fact that he seems to treat the existing universe as a lucky dip (put your hand into a bag and draw out a random element, try to make it work).
I know that Douglas reused elements from his earlier works, but they didn't feel arbitrary, and each book started with something new and drew the older elements in as they progressed, they didn't start with recycled material.
If you really want depressing - try blind Faith by Ben Elton. Quite a few of his novels fall into the realms of SciFi, such as his early works Stark and This Other Eden. Cast as satire, he addresses some very serious topics in his 'comedy' novels.
I read The Star Fraction by Ken MacLeod in the same month that I read Snow Crash for the first time. There are a number of overlapping themes which make them an interesting binary experience - much like 1984 and Brave New World are different faces of a possible but linked future.
Having met the man a few times, and seen the adoration of his fans (only red Dwarf fans seemed more manic), I can genuinely say that Pterry [1] deserves all the accolades he receives. As to how well known his works are outside of fantasy fandom, I have no idea. Most of my geek friends has read his works and enjoyed them.
The Discworld books are largely parodies and satire examining various pop culture phenomenons or societal constructs. for something slightly different, try Nation which isn't considered a Discworld novel per se.
Pterry is also an advocate for voluntary euthanasia, having recently made a documentary for the BBC. His interest in the topic was partially inspired due to his diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's disease.
If you are looking to try the Discworld novels for the first time, "Guards Guards" is a good place to start. The quality, complexity and depth of the novels has improved greatly over the 30 years or so he's been published.
[1] A convention adopted on alt.books.pratchett and alt.fan.pratchett also refers to Terry as Pterry as a homage to his book Pyramids. It has been fairly broadly adopted within fan circles. Terry used to be a regular participant on usenet before social media was cool. It was kinda neat to be able to have a conversation with an author you appreciated and get direct responses to questions on interpretation or intent of their works. Sadly since the onset of his Alzheimer's diagnosis, he doesn't frequent social media channels as much anymore. He has a twitter presence, but I'm unsure whether he is actually behind the keyboard. He now dictates his novels as a coping mechanism.
Slashdot Mirror
You are making a bit of an assumption thinking that the wealthy would consider sociopathy to be a negative trait, when it's very often that very trait which led them to be wealthy (or continue to be wealthy) in the first place.
And who gets to decide what is a mental illness? Does my mild OCD count? It's part of what makes me a good analyst, being able to spot inconsistencies. How about homosexuality, or transgender people? Their lives can be pretty miserable at times dealing with the stigma - lets magic that away so they don't need to suffer being abnormal.
That sound a bit too far? There are prominent people in the US Religious Right currently advocating killing gays, do you think they would consider it a better option that they never be born?
I recall a book from the early nineties (can't recall the name off the top of my head), where the basic storyline was about a Melanges inspired doctor who was performing eugenics experiments genetically altering black women to give birth to blue eyes, blonde haired, white skinned Aryan babies. Most of the story was set in South Africa.
Frankly it may require genetic engineering to breed a population that would be responsible enough to be safe with this kind of technology. The human race as it currently stands at the start of the 21st Century certainly doesn't qualify.
I think that some caution in deciding to use genetic manipulation of fetuses is valid.
While it may be used initially to screen out obvious disadvantages such as a tenancy for alcoholism, there will always be a doctor somewhere who will be prepared to screen for other traits as they become identifiable.
Did you know that it is illegal in parts of India to screen for gender? This is due to the gender imbalance of males to females, it is feared it will become even worse as people abort female children in preference to male. Despite it being illegal there are plenty of doctors who will tell parents the gender for a fee.
If your parents give you a stupid name as the result of some trend (hello to all those Bellas and Edwards out there just entering pre-school). You can at least change your name by deed poll. You can't change your build/height/ eye or hair colour (permanently) if appearance trends start dictating genetic manipulation choices.
You know, just because science figures out something that could make our lives better doesn't mean that it will be misused.
History begs to differ.
Was the get-away-car a mini minor driven by 17 of his closest accomplices?
A quick google of this topic fails to provide any hits of relevance (your post is the top hit).
sounds like an urban myth to me. Not that I am going to debate that there are some stupid laws still on the books in most jurisdictions - lets start with the ones about gay marriage and anything that goes on in the bedroom. I got a hit on carrying a horse in your car, but nothing about lobsters.
I suspect their problem with it is the implicit acknowledgement of the existence of homosexuals in the creation of the gTLD.
Given their way of dealing with the existence of women is to shroud them in dark clothes from head to toe, restrict their participation in society and deny them basic rights - and that's a gender they need to ensure the continuation of their religion (unless they think they can get by on conversion alone), what makes you think they can't try to deny the existence of gays.
If improving sewage management means that water sources remain potable rather than becoming polluted, it's a good thing.
If an improvement in sewage management means that the resulting effluent can be used to improve agriculture through fertilisation that better still.
I was surprised that I had to read through to what was currently the last comment before encountering anyone mentioning this series. I actually went to the Wikipedia page for Harry Harrison to confirm I had remembered correctly that he'd written these given no one had mentioned them yet.
I found he'd written far more books than I'd realised, and I may have to go hunt a few more out now.
I'm sure the current UK government longs to be thought of in the same context as Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's Iranian Revolutionary government.
Possibly the question isn't will Ecuador stand and call the UK's bluff, but would the UK follow through if forced?
If the UK did in fact storm an embassy and as a consequence violate sovereign state, they are basically saying to anyone who may consider them an 'enemy' that they don't recognise consulates as sovereign territory so their own embassies in foreign countries are then at risk of incursion. Do they really want to do that in China or the Middle East or Africa or anywhere else they may have sensitive relationships?
Based on the definition in the grandparent's post: Insofar as I can't do something with my body, I don't own it. If you say I can't get a tattoo or a piercing, my body is that much under someone's control/ownership., most women in the US (and much of the world for that matter) don't own themselves due to laws relating to birth control and abortion.
Wasn't the Pippin sold under the branding of Bandai? I don't recall them even being available in Australia. If I remember correctly, I was working in the Apple reseller chain at the time and never remember seeing one.
We at least special ordered a couple of Cubes.
At 5'2" I would love to have my desk lowered. I am constantly playing footsie with a foot rest that gets moved out of position by the coasters/feet of the chair base when I move it in and out. Unfortunately most places I have worked have fixed desk heights.
The one place I worked in recent years that had a below desk keyboard tray was actually the most comfortable because it meant I could have the chair at the correct height that I could get my feet flat on the ground without a foot rest.
That doesn't even take into account the amount of damage the dust from cheap paper does to the insides of quality print hardware. Ranging from clogging up optical sensors through to scratching drums with really crap paper.
Personally I liked the 3M Rainbow DyeSub printers, they used the same colour encoding as their Matchpoint chem proofing systems.
I first parsed this as wading through a thong of midgets with thousand island dressing and wondered WTF. Then I re-read it and still went WTF.
I LOL'd.
I got hacked back in Vanilla when I was running on a Windows machine. It was a result of a key logger I picked up from the Curse addons site after they were compromised. Since moving back to a Mac for my primary WoW machine I haven't been compromised since. I also avoid using Curse as my primary source of Mods, preferring WoW Interface.
IINAL but the point of copyright was to allow a LIMITED period to profit EXCLUSIVELY from a specific work - after which you would need to create a NEW work from which to profit.
Super long copyright periods reduce the motivation to generate new and original works because the producers can continue to live off the revenue of their older works.
If the new works are any good they will compete with the older works on their own merit. When you listen to a classic rock station (and there are plenty of other station types to listen to) you are hearing those tracks which have stood the test of time and been considered worth listening to again. Hundreds of thousands of tracks have been ignored and forgotten and in some cases lost entirely.
i shouldn't have to wait because I'm international
So, as an observation, the final episode of House MD, one of the highest rating shows ever, screened in it's home market on May 21, 2012.
It's screening in Australia tomorrow (August 10, 2012), and that's reasonably fast tracked for US television in Australia.
There have been plenty of series over the years which have been cancelled before they were finished, moved to inhospitable timeslots, or just plain missing the advertised timeslot by the Australian broadcasters. It was Channel 10's treatment of the X-Files and Channel 7's treatment of Buffy that was the beginning of the end for me, resulting in me watching the end of both those series on DVD. I don't watch broadcast TV in Australia anymore. I either watch DVDs or downloads and am much happier for it.
Second vote for Sherlock, it's awesome.
Nerds would probably also appreciate QI (is that on BBC?), there have been an assortment of fabulous UK shows over the years including, but not limited to, Ultraviolet, Edge of Darkness, Jekyll, Coupling, Hustle, Spooks.
Get the genre right, it's Fantasy, not Science Fiction.
I have tried to read "And Another Thing" by Eoin Colfer on multiple occasions, I've tried listening to the audio book, I just can't get into it. I don't know if it lacks Douglas' turn of phrase or the fact that he seems to treat the existing universe as a lucky dip (put your hand into a bag and draw out a random element, try to make it work).
I know that Douglas reused elements from his earlier works, but they didn't feel arbitrary, and each book started with something new and drew the older elements in as they progressed, they didn't start with recycled material.
If you really want depressing - try blind Faith by Ben Elton. Quite a few of his novels fall into the realms of SciFi, such as his early works Stark and This Other Eden. Cast as satire, he addresses some very serious topics in his 'comedy' novels.
I read The Star Fraction by Ken MacLeod in the same month that I read Snow Crash for the first time. There are a number of overlapping themes which make them an interesting binary experience - much like 1984 and Brave New World are different faces of a possible but linked future.
Having met the man a few times, and seen the adoration of his fans (only red Dwarf fans seemed more manic), I can genuinely say that Pterry [1] deserves all the accolades he receives. As to how well known his works are outside of fantasy fandom, I have no idea. Most of my geek friends has read his works and enjoyed them.
The Discworld books are largely parodies and satire examining various pop culture phenomenons or societal constructs. for something slightly different, try Nation which isn't considered a Discworld novel per se.
Pterry is also an advocate for voluntary euthanasia, having recently made a documentary for the BBC. His interest in the topic was partially inspired due to his diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's disease.
If you are looking to try the Discworld novels for the first time, "Guards Guards" is a good place to start. The quality, complexity and depth of the novels has improved greatly over the 30 years or so he's been published.
[1] A convention adopted on alt.books.pratchett and alt.fan.pratchett also refers to Terry as Pterry as a homage to his book Pyramids. It has been fairly broadly adopted within fan circles. Terry used to be a regular participant on usenet before social media was cool. It was kinda neat to be able to have a conversation with an author you appreciated and get direct responses to questions on interpretation or intent of their works. Sadly since the onset of his Alzheimer's diagnosis, he doesn't frequent social media channels as much anymore. He has a twitter presence, but I'm unsure whether he is actually behind the keyboard. He now dictates his novels as a coping mechanism.