As I read through the responses, I see so many of the people comment on the futility of pacifism in the context of reality.
Examples: "The simple fact is that in this world there are certain questions which can only be answered with violence."
"Counterproductive. If restriction this has any effect whatsoever, it's going to be to kill people. War has gotten steadily less destructive as technology has advanced, because fewer people are needed to fight. Lately, this has accelerated as more accurate weapons have cut down on civilian casualties."
"Just try to imagine a scenario where deadly force may need to be used to prevent more harm, i.e., there is a distinctly net positive effect. It's all well and good to talk about doing no harm. Just keep in mind that it's sometimes necessary to 'do harm' to prevent more of the same.
That's not a warmongering view, an American view, nor a Republican view. That's just a very simple fact of reality that would be discovered by an application of common sense. Anyone who might fall back on the refrain of "but we don't know what really would have happened otherwise, do we?" when presented with an example event is quite frankly choosing to delude themselves, and has chosen the path of willful ignorance under a very thin veil of righteousness."
"I believe it is a fallacy to try and strive for a world without war, however we should control it better to prevent unnecessary loss of life and resources."
And I can't help thinking as I read these 'reality' and 'greater good' comments: That, my friend, is why you are no Gautam Buddha or Jesus Christ, or even a Mohandas Gandhi.
The reason paper ballots are still used in most democratic countries is that the technology there has not advanced sufficiently, not because it is the easiest and the safest. The exception that proves the rule is that India recently completed its general elections which resulted in a transfer of power. India used a fully electronic voting system,- no paper ballots for a voting population of over 1 billion people. Not even the United States has dared to attempt this. Not only that, the e-voting system used in India is much more secure than the system being proposed in the USA.
Don't waste your faith. Humanity hasn't changed its nature much over the past few thousands of years. It's the systems that have changed for the better. A few enlightened leaders set up a better system, and that propagates itself over time.
Most of humanity has neither the time, nor perhaps the inclination, and dare I say the ability, to better their own lives.
That 88 million dollars will spawn an entire space industry creating thousands and thousands of jobs in a ripple effect. Sure it costs money to build a space rocket, but that money goes to Indian industry and people.
Sure, a hospital would be useful in a lot of places, but then if the Govt. spent all its money building hospitals for the huge population, who would educate them? Let's say there was enough money to both build hospitals and educate them, but then where would these educated people work? That's why India needs the space industry. Any kind of industry is good, actually.
"illegal user entry crashed a web-store" is a serious issue. Unfortunately, bringing the website down doesn't mean that the OS went down. The web-server may have crashed, the OS probably went on functioning. That's two different things.
Was the flaw left unfixed for too long because they did not have access to the source code? Or was it because it was too expensive? If this is such a critical system that it can cause loss of life (on a massive scale, no less), the root cause should have been fixed, rather than the workaround. I remember reading somewhere that this flaw has now been fixed. Smells like a managerial issue within the FAA, not just a technician problem.
Remember NASA and the space shuttles?
I keep hearing this statement about tube-amps being better than digital amps because of their warmer sound etc etc. Why doesn't someone do a spectral sound analysis for tube amps that outlines the differences with digital amps and settles the argument once and for all? Is there such an analysis somewhere out there already?
I would do it myself except that I don't have access to either tube amps or spectral analyzers...
The point of the GPL is not to provide free (as in beer) software to the world, but to ensure that anyone who takes something from the software community also contributes back to the same software community. Think of it as a barter system for software ideas. The Fortune 500 companies you speak of do not give anything free (as in beer) to anyone, so why should they be expected to get free code?
You are more right than you know... Hitler's Goering said http://www.snopes.com/quotes/goering.htm/
"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."
-- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials
Slashdot Mirror
As I read through the responses, I see so many of the people comment on the futility of pacifism in the context of reality.
Examples:
"The simple fact is that in this world there are certain questions which can only be answered with violence."
"Counterproductive. If restriction this has any effect whatsoever, it's going to be to kill people. War has gotten steadily less destructive as technology has advanced, because fewer people are needed to fight. Lately, this has accelerated as more accurate weapons have cut down on civilian casualties."
"Just try to imagine a scenario where deadly force may need to be used to prevent more harm, i.e., there is a distinctly net positive effect. It's all well and good to talk about doing no harm. Just keep in mind that it's sometimes necessary to 'do harm' to prevent more of the same.
That's not a warmongering view, an American view, nor a Republican view. That's just a very simple fact of reality that would be discovered by an application of common sense. Anyone who might fall back on the refrain of "but we don't know what really would have happened otherwise, do we?" when presented with an example event is quite frankly choosing to delude themselves, and has chosen the path of willful ignorance under a very thin veil of righteousness."
"I believe it is a fallacy to try and strive for a world without war, however we should control it better to prevent unnecessary loss of life and resources."
And I can't help thinking as I read these 'reality' and 'greater good' comments: That, my friend, is why you are no Gautam Buddha or Jesus Christ, or even a Mohandas Gandhi.
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The reason paper ballots are still used in most democratic countries is that the technology there has not advanced sufficiently, not because it is the easiest and the safest. The exception that proves the rule is that India recently completed its general elections which resulted in a transfer of power. India used a fully electronic voting system,- no paper ballots for a voting population of over 1 billion people. Not even the United States has dared to attempt this. Not only that, the e-voting system used in India is much more secure than the system being proposed in the USA.
Don't waste your faith. Humanity hasn't changed its nature much over the past few thousands of years. It's the systems that have changed for the better. A few enlightened leaders set up a better system, and that propagates itself over time.
Most of humanity has neither the time, nor perhaps the inclination, and dare I say the ability, to better their own lives.
That 88 million dollars will spawn an entire space industry creating thousands and thousands of jobs in a ripple effect. Sure it costs money to build a space rocket, but that money goes to Indian industry and people.
Sure, a hospital would be useful in a lot of places, but then if the Govt. spent all its money building hospitals for the huge population, who would educate them? Let's say there was enough money to both build hospitals and educate them, but then where would these educated people work? That's why India needs the space industry. Any kind of industry is good, actually.
"illegal user entry crashed a web-store" is a serious issue. Unfortunately, bringing the website down doesn't mean that the OS went down. The web-server may have crashed, the OS probably went on functioning. That's two different things.
Was the flaw left unfixed for too long because they did not have access to the source code? Or was it because it was too expensive? If this is such a critical system that it can cause loss of life (on a massive scale, no less), the root cause should have been fixed, rather than the workaround. I remember reading somewhere that this flaw has now been fixed. Smells like a managerial issue within the FAA, not just a technician problem. Remember NASA and the space shuttles?
I keep hearing this statement about tube-amps being better than digital amps because of their warmer sound etc etc. Why doesn't someone do a spectral sound analysis for tube amps that outlines the differences with digital amps and settles the argument once and for all? Is there such an analysis somewhere out there already? I would do it myself except that I don't have access to either tube amps or spectral analyzers...
The point of the GPL is not to provide free (as in beer) software to the world, but to ensure that anyone who takes something from the software community also contributes back to the same software community. Think of it as a barter system for software ideas. The Fortune 500 companies you speak of do not give anything free (as in beer) to anyone, so why should they be expected to get free code?
You are more right than you know... Hitler's Goering said http://www.snopes.com/quotes/goering.htm/ "Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger." -- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials
perhaps it would be better to say "as long as a person holds any kind of power over another, there will be war"