e2d2 identified two posts ago that the "...American dream was never about excess, it was about being able to achieve goals in your life through hard work." However, things have changed since the original iteration of the American dream. As e2d2 writes, "The definition has been twisted to mean rampant consumerism."
I accept this principle and that's what I was on about.
In terms of the personal vs. shared garden, I've found that the majority of personal gardens are not utilized in any food production at all and are FAR too small (especially in urban cores) to produce any significant quantities of food. Therefore, a large, open, communal garden will be much more productive. Growing potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, and legumes is simple in such a scheme and is more sensible than shipping most of our tomatoes in from Chile.
So I ask you, where are the socially responsible small community mayors and councilors? Why aren't more townships requiring greenspace dedicated to community gardening? Probably because there's a better return on investment if a developer builds a small out-of-the-box playground and uses the remaining land for another five building lots.
Immediately discounting me as a neo-hippy is ignorant. I don't drive unusually large vehicles, I took a shit once in Starbucks and never bought a coffee there, and I never made a differentiation between US consumerism vs X nationality consumerism; 'American Dream' is just a simpler concept to grasp than the 'Maori Dream.'
I just like to think that people might be a little happier and might not feel the need to supplant consumer goods for their lack of social contact. Please don't punch me in the face when I say "Hello" as I pass you on the street:)
If my rant was typical of 'modern America' then it wouldn't be a rant so much as popular opinion. And if it were popular opinion, then we wouldn't live in a country where excess is next to godliness.
You disparage my remarks, however. Well, as a society, lets continue to travel down this path of unnecessary waste and prolific environmental damage. Lets see how much biological diversity we can erase before we push the planet past the tipping point where we can no longer exist.
(rant) It's this stupid farce of the American Dream that has gotten the world into this mess -- both economically and environmentally.
Such rampant consumption is ruining rural farmland making us more and more dependent on devastating centralized factory farming. Every new 50" plasma television purchased means one more still-functional TV is gone to landfill and more materials must be extracted from the ground.
Maybe if we started to tout kinship with neighbours and reform our bonds with the people who live around us, we could learn to appreciate communal gardens where we use power tools and grow vegetables for one another. The idea of everyone having 1000 ft^2 back yards is preposterous and unsustainable.
Maybe this could even begin to unravel the animosity and disgust with people we pass on the sidewalks. We can't even make eye contact, smile, and say "Hi!" anymore. (/rant)
The push for proportional representation has been an issue since I was a child. The fact is, there has always been a problem with the number of seats parties have been elected to compared to the popular vote.
The issue is that the system cannot be changed without the will of the party in power. Since the system favours the party in power who often gains more seats than their share of the popular vote accounts for, changing the system will loose seats for the party. There is no motivation for the Conservative Party to change.
The fact that the Green Party (whom I do not support) received almost 7% of the popular vote but was not elected in a single riding indicates there may be a problem with the way we run our elections.
Therefore, I disagee with your implication that electoral reform has only now become an issue. It has always been an issue. Only now, centre-left voters (who represent the majority of Canadians) have been shut out by our current system. We, the (perversely) underrepresented majority, are now speaking out.
The 'privacy' problem of Facebook is hardly a problem at all. Generally, the people you already know will be looking at your profile and already know where you live and the people you hang around with.
No one makes money off of this information and it's attainable without serious difficulty anyway.
What IS a problem is the fact that the government is able to tap your phone lines, read your email, and look at what books you've checked out of the library.
And then there's cameras on street corners watching you to make sure you're not committing crimes...
Facebook and Gmail aren't even the thin edge of the wedge. No matter what, you don't HAVE to use those services. But there's nothing you can do about the government spying on you.
Because when I leave my fingerprints on my drinking cup, they're not being entered into a searchable database in an attempt to link me with criminal activity.
Thin edge of the wedge, my friend. Oh sure, you can say, "What have I to hide?" Well, when body cavity searches become routine (some may say they are) will you say, "I don't have anything to hide in my colon anyway; Have a gander!"?
This is the opinion I take as well. There has to be a purpose to life besides eat, sleep, work, play, ad nauseam.
I, personally, don't subscribe to the belief that the purpose of life is to obey scripture in order to achieve eternal life. It's an immaterial belief that will never be proven.
Learning things and passing knowledge onto subsequent generations is what makes our lives worthwhile.
I'm fully aware that standing on the surface of Pluto is inane and likely without merit since a robotic probe can do countless experiments that I, in a large and unwieldy, suit could not do. But the fact would be, I stood where no one has been before.
We could save all of our money and put it towards building better missiles and bombs to kill one another; or we could use similar technology and expand our civilization's reach.
So, if there is a 10 million digit figure that exists as a prime number, but it's too long to write out such that we can see or behold it tangibly, do we really know if it exists?
My knowledge of astrophysics has been garnered from reading Discover over the years, so I don't have a firm grasp on the concepts of accretion...
But if the Oort cloud was much greater in mass than the rest of the solar system, wouldn't a greater portion of the cloud have coalesced into planets and a larger star? I would have thought that the remnants of the accretion disc (what we know as the Oort cloud) could only be a certain percentage of the mass of the star it surrounds.
I agree. I would say that any fair-minded judge would probably rule in favour of the plaintiff and wave off any fines. (IANAL, so I'm wearing very rose-coloured glasses)
I doubt very many people would take Telus to court over something like this, however, so Telus FTW.
The problem is that Telus (and all the other cell providers in Canada) have an explicit "We reserve the right to alter the contract without prior notice" or something to that effect.
Basically, you sign a contract with Telus and you HAVE to adhere to the document, but Telus is more or less free to be asshats.
The choice of book is up to the student. The prof is free to make as many recommendations as they wish.
When I did first year Calc a few years ago, the suggestion was to use the 12th Ed. I used the 8th which was close to a decade old.
First year courses especially don't require up-to-date books (speaking from my B.Sc. viewpoint). The basics of physics, chemistry and math have not changed. Biology and biochemistry are a bit more dicey and it's best not to lag behind too many versions.
But by using a book that's dinged up and five years old you can save a shitload of cash. And you don't have to worry about putting them through the wringer either.
I know it's very silly and clearly does not represent any useful statistical figure. Joining a Facebook group requires little time and effort and you do not need to understand the position of the group to join.
However, the very fact that 90 000 individuals in a country of 34 000 000 are members of a single group speaks volumes.
It's not a stretch to draw an analogy to the time honoured petition. They also take very little to sign and you don't need to know the stance of the group either. But if you have a petition with 90 000 signatures, it's a loud document.
Plus, the story made the front page of/. and you plus several hundred thousand more people know of the group.
It is illegal to hunt white coats. Furthermore, the seals are shot with guns.
The hunt is no more inhumane than moose hunting, deer hunting, duck hunting, or any other sort of sustainable natural harvest. Sure, it LOOKS grisly given the white snow and striking blue skies in winter; but the fact remains that killing any animal is unpalatable but necessary.
The consistent, erroneous belief that Canadians feast on mounds of dead 'baby' seals is attributed to groups like PETA who are, arguably, one of the most inhumane non-governmental organisations in the world.
You don't have to be a nerd and hate sports. I know it seems an oxymoron, but it's really true. For instance, I'm on the Board of Directors for Ultimate league in my city.
You just don't appreciate sports like many people -- and that's OK. You wouldn't really need a census of opinion to determine that people who play sports are more interested in the Olympics.
The fact that China is spending BILLIONS of dollars on the Olympics and that even some of the poorest countries send athletes to compete (and win) nullifies your arguments.
When a poor kid in Ethiopia sees an athlete from his village destroy his or her competitors from across the globe, don't you think that might be worth it?
If you still don't think this is better than meetings on the internet or The Big Lebowski bowling tournaments, you have some serious social attachment issues and should consider removing yourself from society.
So, besides the Olympics which began over 2000 years ago, we have such modern gatherings-of-the-mind as the internet and bowling festivals highlighting man's greatest achievement: The Big Lebowski.
Don't get me wrong, The Big Lebowski was a pretty good movie, but suggesting that these sort of events are just as good as the Olympics pretty out there.
What about countries where internet access is not available? Or countries where 'The Big Lebowski' has not yet been translated into the official language?
~10 people competing for a medal every 4 years doesnt mean zit. if it is exciting, you should go out and compete in your local area, on equal grounds socioeconomically.
Am I to assume that you feel it isn't worth associating with individuals from developing countries? If so, your debate is nullified by prejudice. Otherwise, your arguments only serve to highlight how important the Olympics actually are: the great equalizer. All humans can compete in competition of speed and strength.
When you look at the Olympics from the shallow perspective of how many Gold, Silver or Bronze medals a country wins, then yes, the Olympics are simple and disinteresting.
It becomes exciting when you see athletes from so many countries competing on a level playing field (socioeconomically). It's only in such instances where humanity gets to see that we're all pretty much the same.
How else could you gather thousands of people together from potentially all the countries in the world without sport and competition?
Hating the Olympics is about as nihilistic and pessimistic as one can get.
Not sure why you would post as AC... maybe it's your subconscious telling you not to let the world know you live in a comic book fantasy.
How can a machine -- reading the output of an EEG -- determine 'Cat' from 'Terrorist' which "would be outlined in a thin red line, making them easier to pick up."
Slashdot Mirror
e2d2 identified two posts ago that the "...American dream was never about excess, it was about being able to achieve goals in your life through hard work." However, things have changed since the original iteration of the American dream. As e2d2 writes, "The definition has been twisted to mean rampant consumerism."
I accept this principle and that's what I was on about.
In terms of the personal vs. shared garden, I've found that the majority of personal gardens are not utilized in any food production at all and are FAR too small (especially in urban cores) to produce any significant quantities of food. Therefore, a large, open, communal garden will be much more productive. Growing potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, and legumes is simple in such a scheme and is more sensible than shipping most of our tomatoes in from Chile.
So I ask you, where are the socially responsible small community mayors and councilors? Why aren't more townships requiring greenspace dedicated to community gardening? Probably because there's a better return on investment if a developer builds a small out-of-the-box playground and uses the remaining land for another five building lots.
Immediately discounting me as a neo-hippy is ignorant. I don't drive unusually large vehicles, I took a shit once in Starbucks and never bought a coffee there, and I never made a differentiation between US consumerism vs X nationality consumerism; 'American Dream' is just a simpler concept to grasp than the 'Maori Dream.'
I just like to think that people might be a little happier and might not feel the need to supplant consumer goods for their lack of social contact. Please don't punch me in the face when I say "Hello" as I pass you on the street :)
If my rant was typical of 'modern America' then it wouldn't be a rant so much as popular opinion. And if it were popular opinion, then we wouldn't live in a country where excess is next to godliness.
You disparage my remarks, however. Well, as a society, lets continue to travel down this path of unnecessary waste and prolific environmental damage. Lets see how much biological diversity we can erase before we push the planet past the tipping point where we can no longer exist.
I like your do-nothing attitude!
(rant)
It's this stupid farce of the American Dream that has gotten the world into this mess -- both economically and environmentally.
Such rampant consumption is ruining rural farmland making us more and more dependent on devastating centralized factory farming. Every new 50" plasma television purchased means one more still-functional TV is gone to landfill and more materials must be extracted from the ground.
Maybe if we started to tout kinship with neighbours and reform our bonds with the people who live around us, we could learn to appreciate communal gardens where we use power tools and grow vegetables for one another. The idea of everyone having 1000 ft^2 back yards is preposterous and unsustainable.
Maybe this could even begin to unravel the animosity and disgust with people we pass on the sidewalks. We can't even make eye contact, smile, and say "Hi!" anymore.
(/rant)
The push for proportional representation has been an issue since I was a child. The fact is, there has always been a problem with the number of seats parties have been elected to compared to the popular vote.
The issue is that the system cannot be changed without the will of the party in power. Since the system favours the party in power who often gains more seats than their share of the popular vote accounts for, changing the system will loose seats for the party. There is no motivation for the Conservative Party to change.
The fact that the Green Party (whom I do not support) received almost 7% of the popular vote but was not elected in a single riding indicates there may be a problem with the way we run our elections.
Therefore, I disagee with your implication that electoral reform has only now become an issue. It has always been an issue. Only now, centre-left voters (who represent the majority of Canadians) have been shut out by our current system. We, the (perversely) underrepresented majority, are now speaking out.
The 'privacy' problem of Facebook is hardly a problem at all. Generally, the people you already know will be looking at your profile and already know where you live and the people you hang around with.
No one makes money off of this information and it's attainable without serious difficulty anyway.
What IS a problem is the fact that the government is able to tap your phone lines, read your email, and look at what books you've checked out of the library.
And then there's cameras on street corners watching you to make sure you're not committing crimes...
Facebook and Gmail aren't even the thin edge of the wedge. No matter what, you don't HAVE to use those services. But there's nothing you can do about the government spying on you.
This was the very same error that prevented a good LAN party a couple of years ago.
Instead we laughed heartily (as something dumb always goes wrong at our LANs...).
We got drunk instead and now 'ERROR: No error' is an inside meme.
Sure but that way they at least have to work for it... I'm not just going to give people my fingerprints because it's 'policy'.
Screw that. That's awfully defeatist.
Because when I leave my fingerprints on my drinking cup, they're not being entered into a searchable database in an attempt to link me with criminal activity.
Thin edge of the wedge, my friend. Oh sure, you can say, "What have I to hide?" Well, when body cavity searches become routine (some may say they are) will you say, "I don't have anything to hide in my colon anyway; Have a gander!"?
This is the opinion I take as well. There has to be a purpose to life besides eat, sleep, work, play, ad nauseam.
I, personally, don't subscribe to the belief that the purpose of life is to obey scripture in order to achieve eternal life. It's an immaterial belief that will never be proven.
Learning things and passing knowledge onto subsequent generations is what makes our lives worthwhile.
I'm fully aware that standing on the surface of Pluto is inane and likely without merit since a robotic probe can do countless experiments that I, in a large and unwieldy, suit could not do. But the fact would be, I stood where no one has been before.
We could save all of our money and put it towards building better missiles and bombs to kill one another; or we could use similar technology and expand our civilization's reach.
So, if there is a 10 million digit figure that exists as a prime number, but it's too long to write out such that we can see or behold it tangibly, do we really know if it exists?
My knowledge of astrophysics has been garnered from reading Discover over the years, so I don't have a firm grasp on the concepts of accretion...
But if the Oort cloud was much greater in mass than the rest of the solar system, wouldn't a greater portion of the cloud have coalesced into planets and a larger star? I would have thought that the remnants of the accretion disc (what we know as the Oort cloud) could only be a certain percentage of the mass of the star it surrounds.
Or am I talking our of my ass?
I agree. I would say that any fair-minded judge would probably rule in favour of the plaintiff and wave off any fines. (IANAL, so I'm wearing very rose-coloured glasses)
I doubt very many people would take Telus to court over something like this, however, so Telus FTW.
The problem is that Telus (and all the other cell providers in Canada) have an explicit "We reserve the right to alter the contract without prior notice" or something to that effect.
Basically, you sign a contract with Telus and you HAVE to adhere to the document, but Telus is more or less free to be asshats.
The choice of book is up to the student. The prof is free to make as many recommendations as they wish.
When I did first year Calc a few years ago, the suggestion was to use the 12th Ed. I used the 8th which was close to a decade old.
First year courses especially don't require up-to-date books (speaking from my B.Sc. viewpoint). The basics of physics, chemistry and math have not changed. Biology and biochemistry are a bit more dicey and it's best not to lag behind too many versions.
But by using a book that's dinged up and five years old you can save a shitload of cash. And you don't have to worry about putting them through the wringer either.
props
The current Governing party, the Conservative Party of Canada, is only fiver years old.
The Progressive Conservative party and the Canadian Alliance merged in October of 2003.
How many times have those groups been on the front page of /. or CBC.ca?
The fact that we're discussing the group means that their job is already done.
I know it's very silly and clearly does not represent any useful statistical figure. Joining a Facebook group requires little time and effort and you do not need to understand the position of the group to join.
However, the very fact that 90 000 individuals in a country of 34 000 000 are members of a single group speaks volumes.
It's not a stretch to draw an analogy to the time honoured petition. They also take very little to sign and you don't need to know the stance of the group either. But if you have a petition with 90 000 signatures, it's a loud document.
Plus, the story made the front page of /. and you plus several hundred thousand more people know of the group.
It is illegal to hunt white coats. Furthermore, the seals are shot with guns.
The hunt is no more inhumane than moose hunting, deer hunting, duck hunting, or any other sort of sustainable natural harvest. Sure, it LOOKS grisly given the white snow and striking blue skies in winter; but the fact remains that killing any animal is unpalatable but necessary.
The consistent, erroneous belief that Canadians feast on mounds of dead 'baby' seals is attributed to groups like PETA who are, arguably, one of the most inhumane non-governmental organisations in the world.
You don't have to be a nerd and hate sports. I know it seems an oxymoron, but it's really true. For instance, I'm on the Board of Directors for Ultimate league in my city.
You just don't appreciate sports like many people -- and that's OK. You wouldn't really need a census of opinion to determine that people who play sports are more interested in the Olympics.
Here here.
The fact that China is spending BILLIONS of dollars on the Olympics and that even some of the poorest countries send athletes to compete (and win) nullifies your arguments.
When a poor kid in Ethiopia sees an athlete from his village destroy his or her competitors from across the globe, don't you think that might be worth it?
If you still don't think this is better than meetings on the internet or The Big Lebowski bowling tournaments, you have some serious social attachment issues and should consider removing yourself from society.
So, besides the Olympics which began over 2000 years ago, we have such modern gatherings-of-the-mind as the internet and bowling festivals highlighting man's greatest achievement: The Big Lebowski.
Don't get me wrong, The Big Lebowski was a pretty good movie, but suggesting that these sort of events are just as good as the Olympics pretty out there.
What about countries where internet access is not available? Or countries where 'The Big Lebowski' has not yet been translated into the official language?
~10 people competing for a medal every 4 years doesnt mean zit. if it is exciting, you should go out and compete in your local area, on equal grounds socioeconomically.
Am I to assume that you feel it isn't worth associating with individuals from developing countries? If so, your debate is nullified by prejudice. Otherwise, your arguments only serve to highlight how important the Olympics actually are: the great equalizer. All humans can compete in competition of speed and strength.
When you look at the Olympics from the shallow perspective of how many Gold, Silver or Bronze medals a country wins, then yes, the Olympics are simple and disinteresting.
It becomes exciting when you see athletes from so many countries competing on a level playing field (socioeconomically). It's only in such instances where humanity gets to see that we're all pretty much the same.
How else could you gather thousands of people together from potentially all the countries in the world without sport and competition?
Hating the Olympics is about as nihilistic and pessimistic as one can get.
Not sure why you would post as AC... maybe it's your subconscious telling you not to let the world know you live in a comic book fantasy.
How can a machine -- reading the output of an EEG -- determine 'Cat' from 'Terrorist' which "would be outlined in a thin red line, making them easier to pick up."
Snake? SNAAAAAAAAKE!!
C'mon....