That question isn't well posed. Eggs are alive. Sperm are alive. Zygotes and embryos and fetuses and infants are all alive. A better question needs to be asked.
The disagreement is when does "your body" become "their body"
I view it as a disagreement over whether the state can force you to give birth or not. The only reason this has become such an issue in recent human history is because, for the first time, the state has taken an active interest in abortion. Something it never really cared about before. I happen to see the logical conclusion of the pro-life movement as women of childbearing age having to register and undergo regular gynecological checkups to see if abortions have taken place. The logic of their position demands it.
Hollywood isn't in the business of making quality films. It's in the business for making flashy trailers to get people to pay to come to an overcrowed, overpriced cinema; and buy merchandice for their kids. If a film has to actuall be made in order to make this trailer, so be it, but no-one said it had to be good. these days, the best talent in Hollywood goes into making the TV trailers and billboards.
Anyone still going to the movies, is a sucker. Even TV can surpass the tripe that Hollywood passes off as entertainment. And that's saying a lot.
History will look back upon George W. Bush as the undoing of what it means to be American.
I don't think history will be too kind on the Bush Administration. I think its time in office will be seen as a point of inflection for the course of the United States. The point at which it's preeminance in the world began to fade. Consider the status of the US in many spheres. It is in decline across the board.
In political circles, the US is no longer the great mediator or leader of the free world, and has lost much of the goodwill of its cold war allies. International esteem for America is at its lowest ebb since Vietnam. Possibly more so.
In the sphere of rights, the US is leading the way back into the bad old times of state supremecy over citizens, weaking separation of church and state, as well as rolling back decades of womens rights and bucking the trend when it comes to homosexuality.
In science, again the US is losing its lead, with things like patents, intelligent design and science funding cutbacks all stifling ongoing progress. Much development is taking place abroad. India, China and the EU now have their own, new rival space programs, while NASA struggles with aging technologies.
Militarily, the US has been broken by Iraq and the War on Terrorism. It's military is streched thin fighting shadows and imagined threats, and this weakness has been sensed by countries like Iran, North Korea and Sudan.
In culture, Hollywood and Big American Media has lost its dominance in the age of the internet, as well as to emerging media producers in Hong Kong and Bollywood. Foreign consumers no longer buy into, American culture as a sign of modernity, as they once did.
And of course, in financial circles, once the United States' most influential sphere, we find a country with a massive deficit, and the dollar no longer alone as the world's standard currency. The American markets no longer shake world markets as they did. Ben Bernanke does not generate as much waves as Alan Greenspan.
Much of this was inevitable. America was never going to maintain its position as the world's premiere nation for eternity. However, the Bush administration has accellerated, rather than retarded this decline. History will see the administration's time as a watershed period in history for America, when "Americian" ceased to be synonymous with "progressive" and "enlightened".
I hope they fix that nasty bug with Rhythmbox where it shipped with no list of internet radio stations whatsoever, as well as no mp3, aac, or wma support. That sort of defeated the whole point of the application. And I couldn't help but notice that the Totem movie player, can't actually play any movies. Oh, and the helix player doesn't actually work either. The workarounds consist of upgrading from unsupported repositories and generally mucking about in your root account.
Hopefully these new test procedures will be able to identify the problems with these applications and, if found unfixable, the applications in question will be removed from the repositories.
Speaking as an abstainer in a country where socializing equates to "getting very, very drunk", I can safely say that reading Slashdot trumps socializing every single time.
Since such a large portion of SUV consumers are suburbians who go everywhere on well-paved roads and never use their vehicle's off-road capabilities
Not true! They just use them in unexpected ways!
True Story. I know someone whos boss asked them about getting a tax break when he was buying a Honda CR-V. The tax laws allowed one to get a big break for vehicles that were not "designed and constructed for the purpose of travel by road." Now, the CR-V is an SUV, ergo offroad, ergo tax break. You savvy?
Now that law had been brought in, basically to give farmers purchasing tractors and other heavy equipment a tax break. And here we have the very person who was no supposed to benefit from it, getting a big tax break despite having purchaced a more expensive vehicle. Can you say loophole?
Needless to say, it's rather obvious that the CR-V was "designed and constructed for the purpose of travel by road.". But do you think that matters a danm? CR-V owners will just wave out the window calling "SUV! SUV! Offroad! Non Taxable! Non Taxable!! You Saaaavvvvvvyyyyyy!!?!" as the taxman runs after them thrashing his documents in the air impotently. And of course, his next move will be to turn around scowling at my scooter engine equipped compact and tax the wheels off it.
So you see, while SUV owners may never actually go offroad, they often get good use of the vehicles offroad capabilities. And the rest of use will end up footing the bill.
Finally the industry is discovering that making a sequel of a sequel of some old game is not a receipe for success.
Actually it was a sequel, to a sequel, of a clone, of an expansion, to a sequel, of a derivative, of a 1996 original. The whole game is usually built on a five year old engine from the company that made the product, that inspired the competitor of the expansion. Not the clone of course! That would just be silly. The clone came out three years after the original expansion and competitor had finished totally defining the entire genre, and the companies concerned had long since moved on.
And, very sadly, this is still a roaring recipe for success.
do they (microsoft) teach their executives that the business is personal?
"Tom, don't let anybody kid you. It's all personal, every bit of business. Every piece of shit every man has to eat every day of his life is personal. They call it business. OK. But it's personal as hell."
If kids attend classes online for fear of being shot at in the 'real' school, they're gearing themselves up for a life out in the 'real' world where they're just as likely to get shot.
Bullshit. The norms of the real world are nothing like the norms of a second level school. A second level institution operates in its own private sub-culture that is almost totally detached from reality. It's a morbid, almost fantastic perversion of the way the world normally works.
Do you have people in your place work work running around throwning pieces of half eaten fruit at you? Do you walk down the corridor past groups of senior members of staff and have them push or trip you over? Do you have to put up with people screaming, laughing and joking as you try to get work done? Are you prohibited by law from leaving if any of these things happen?
This kind of thing does not go on in primary education, or teritiary, or in the real world. It's a phenomenon peculiar to second level institutions only, and is the result of good intentioned efforts to educate teenagers by surrounding them with other teenagers with little meaningful adult contact.
People don't learn how to socialise in secondary schools. In most cases, they have to unlearn bad social habits they picked up there. If you want your child to learn how to socialise, have them socialise with adults more often.
Engineers, scientists, etc. are, for the most part, very conceited when it comes to their outlook on others they deem to be 'below' them on the totum pole.
A certain amount of this conciet, is to some degree justified. Techies', engineers in paticular, build the infrastructure on which humanity operates. Look at projects like the pyramids of Egypt, the Great Wall of China, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Internet. Concieved, designed and built by engineers, these works have lasted, and will outlast the work of their humanity comtemporaries. When Plato is forgotten for whatever it is he did, Pythagoras will live on in his theorem.
The fact is, engineers, scientists, programmers; work in things that are unambiguous. They find and make things with absolute truths, not with fuzzy interpretations. That's why their works live on when those of thousands of Aristotles fade into obcsurity. Because they can stand the test of time, and the elements.
Techies deal with things, not people. Things tend to be more concrete.
That wonderful feeling of making the password hard to guess, but easy to recall.
I used to get that feeling, then I got apg. It has the option of either generating totally random passwords, or by defualt, generating "pronouncable" passwords. It even gives you the phonetic pronouciation. Here's a sample output.
Despite the expierience of not a few Slashdotters, managers are still quite important in any organisation. Their job is to manage things so that you can get your job done. They're there to make sure the lights stay on, that there's water in the coolers, donuts in the kitchen, that you get a new computer, that you can order software, that you get feedback on your code, that you don't have to go looking for customers, and so that you don't have to deal with every trifling detail that goes with running an organisation and basically can just get down to work.
Unfortunately, some managers get it into their heads that not only should they make the company run smoothly, but that they should also run it outright. When this happens, it's best for the CEO's/directors to prune things pretty quick.
It case anyone hadn't noticed, computer science has very little to do with computers, and nothing whatsoever to do with hardware. I can just imagine the course instructors cackling as the naive students skip inside expecting arrays of sophisticated robots waiting to be programmed:
"Fools!! Did you really think it would be that interesting? You're mathematicians now!! Now get back to computing runtime complexities for applications you will never have call to write, or understand! *Wwwuu-ttisshh* Bwahahahhahahaaa !!"
Considering how rapidly bacteria tend to evolve, entrusting the production of wires to them may have unforseen and possibly devastating consequences.
Don't Worry!! We can Genetically Engineer(TM) that evolution out of the little critters! Plus We can make them construct the wires, Better, Stronger, Faster!!! No I didn't see Jurassic Park, What's your Point!?!!?
Gene Therapy(TM) is the Future of the Human Race!!!!! Of All Life on Earth!!!11111oneoneeleven
Slashdot Mirror
The fundamental question is when does life begin.
That question isn't well posed. Eggs are alive. Sperm are alive. Zygotes and embryos and fetuses and infants are all alive. A better question needs to be asked.
The disagreement is when does "your body" become "their body"
I view it as a disagreement over whether the state can force you to give birth or not. The only reason this has become such an issue in recent human history is because, for the first time, the state has taken an active interest in abortion. Something it never really cared about before. I happen to see the logical conclusion of the pro-life movement as women of childbearing age having to register and undergo regular gynecological checkups to see if abortions have taken place. The logic of their position demands it.
Hollywood isn't in the business of making quality films. It's in the business for making flashy trailers to get people to pay to come to an overcrowed, overpriced cinema; and buy merchandice for their kids. If a film has to actuall be made in order to make this trailer, so be it, but no-one said it had to be good. these days, the best talent in Hollywood goes into making the TV trailers and billboards.
Anyone still going to the movies, is a sucker. Even TV can surpass the tripe that Hollywood passes off as entertainment. And that's saying a lot.
Maybe I'm missing something.
The Knack.
I don't think history will be too kind on the Bush Administration. I think its time in office will be seen as a point of inflection for the course of the United States. The point at which it's preeminance in the world began to fade. Consider the status of the US in many spheres. It is in decline across the board.
Much of this was inevitable. America was never going to maintain its position as the world's premiere nation for eternity. However, the Bush administration has accellerated, rather than retarded this decline. History will see the administration's time as a watershed period in history for America, when "Americian" ceased to be synonymous with "progressive" and "enlightened".
A Rocket-Maaa--Aaaaa---Aaaaaannnn! Rocket Man!
I hope they fix that nasty bug with Rhythmbox where it shipped with no list of internet radio stations whatsoever, as well as no mp3, aac, or wma support. That sort of defeated the whole point of the application. And I couldn't help but notice that the Totem movie player, can't actually play any movies. Oh, and the helix player doesn't actually work either. The workarounds consist of upgrading from unsupported repositories and generally mucking about in your root account.
Hopefully these new test procedures will be able to identify the problems with these applications and, if found unfixable, the applications in question will be removed from the repositories.
Speaking as an abstainer in a country where socializing equates to "getting very, very drunk", I can safely say that reading Slashdot trumps socializing every single time.
Bees don't fly. They just convince the air to keep them aloft. It's true! Do the maths!
Since such a large portion of SUV consumers are suburbians who go everywhere on well-paved roads and never use their vehicle's off-road capabilities
Not true! They just use them in unexpected ways!
True Story. I know someone whos boss asked them about getting a tax break when he was buying a Honda CR-V. The tax laws allowed one to get a big break for vehicles that were not "designed and constructed for the purpose of travel by road." Now, the CR-V is an SUV, ergo offroad, ergo tax break. You savvy?
Now that law had been brought in, basically to give farmers purchasing tractors and other heavy equipment a tax break. And here we have the very person who was no supposed to benefit from it, getting a big tax break despite having purchaced a more expensive vehicle. Can you say loophole?
Needless to say, it's rather obvious that the CR-V was "designed and constructed for the purpose of travel by road.". But do you think that matters a danm? CR-V owners will just wave out the window calling "SUV! SUV! Offroad! Non Taxable! Non Taxable!! You Saaaavvvvvvyyyyyy!!?!" as the taxman runs after them thrashing his documents in the air impotently. And of course, his next move will be to turn around scowling at my scooter engine equipped compact and tax the wheels off it.
So you see, while SUV owners may never actually go offroad, they often get good use of the vehicles offroad capabilities. And the rest of use will end up footing the bill.
But why be nice, when you can Sue(TM)?
Yes, but multi-nationals have lobbyists.
Multi-nationals are bigger than nation states now. Did you get that memo?
Actually it was a sequel, to a sequel, of a clone, of an expansion, to a sequel, of a derivative, of a 1996 original. The whole game is usually built on a five year old engine from the company that made the product, that inspired the competitor of the expansion. Not the clone of course! That would just be silly. The clone came out three years after the original expansion and competitor had finished totally defining the entire genre, and the companies concerned had long since moved on.
And, very sadly, this is still a roaring recipe for success.
"Tom, don't let anybody kid you. It's all personal, every bit of business. Every piece of shit every man has to eat every day of his life is personal. They call it business. OK. But it's personal as hell."
If kids attend classes online for fear of being shot at in the 'real' school, they're gearing themselves up for a life out in the 'real' world where they're just as likely to get shot.
Bullshit. The norms of the real world are nothing like the norms of a second level school. A second level institution operates in its own private sub-culture that is almost totally detached from reality. It's a morbid, almost fantastic perversion of the way the world normally works.
Do you have people in your place work work running around throwning pieces of half eaten fruit at you? Do you walk down the corridor past groups of senior members of staff and have them push or trip you over? Do you have to put up with people screaming, laughing and joking as you try to get work done? Are you prohibited by law from leaving if any of these things happen?
This kind of thing does not go on in primary education, or teritiary, or in the real world. It's a phenomenon peculiar to second level institutions only, and is the result of good intentioned efforts to educate teenagers by surrounding them with other teenagers with little meaningful adult contact.
People don't learn how to socialise in secondary schools. In most cases, they have to unlearn bad social habits they picked up there. If you want your child to learn how to socialise, have them socialise with adults more often.
Engineers, scientists, etc. are, for the most part, very conceited when it comes to their outlook on others they deem to be 'below' them on the totum pole.
A certain amount of this conciet, is to some degree justified. Techies', engineers in paticular, build the infrastructure on which humanity operates. Look at projects like the pyramids of Egypt, the Great Wall of China, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Internet. Concieved, designed and built by engineers, these works have lasted, and will outlast the work of their humanity comtemporaries. When Plato is forgotten for whatever it is he did, Pythagoras will live on in his theorem.
The fact is, engineers, scientists, programmers; work in things that are unambiguous. They find and make things with absolute truths, not with fuzzy interpretations. That's why their works live on when those of thousands of Aristotles fade into obcsurity. Because they can stand the test of time, and the elements.
Techies deal with things, not people. Things tend to be more concrete.
Should I go on?
Please, allow me
Justice is arbitrary.
Law is arbitrary.
Society is the Tribe.
Keep Your PLace.
Don't Rock The Boat.
Nobody Cares. Nobody.
School would have been a great place if it wasn't for all the fucking teenagers.
That wonderful feeling of making the password hard to guess, but easy to recall.
I used to get that feeling, then I got apg. It has the option of either generating totally random passwords, or by defualt, generating "pronouncable" passwords. It even gives you the phonetic pronouciation. Here's a sample output.
[omf@mathsbox ~]$ apg -t
NialusekCy (Nial-us-ek-Cy)
fevuvUft (fev-uv-Uft)
yugyekvod (yug-yek-vod)
yalcutyed (yal-cut-yed)
diOwGhorc (di-Ow-Ghorc)
TremecOk1 (Trem-ec-Ok-ONE)
You can do this all day. Password generation is simply not difficult anymore.
Despite the expierience of not a few Slashdotters, managers are still quite important in any organisation. Their job is to manage things so that you can get your job done. They're there to make sure the lights stay on, that there's water in the coolers, donuts in the kitchen, that you get a new computer, that you can order software, that you get feedback on your code, that you don't have to go looking for customers, and so that you don't have to deal with every trifling detail that goes with running an organisation and basically can just get down to work.
Unfortunately, some managers get it into their heads that not only should they make the company run smoothly, but that they should also run it outright. When this happens, it's best for the CEO's/directors to prune things pretty quick.
It case anyone hadn't noticed, computer science has very little to do with computers, and nothing whatsoever to do with hardware. I can just imagine the course instructors cackling as the naive students skip inside expecting arrays of sophisticated robots waiting to be programmed:
"Fools!! Did you really think it would be that interesting? You're mathematicians now!! Now get back to computing runtime complexities for applications you will never have call to write, or understand! *Wwwuu-ttisshh* Bwahahahhahahaaa !!"
If Oswald could do it, then hitting a low flying plane should be a snap.
Yo' Momma's Boron!
Whatever the reason, they're going to need lots and lots of very expensive, and very patented anti-monoamine oxidase A to make them fit in at school.
You must be new here.
Considering how rapidly bacteria tend to evolve, entrusting the production of wires to them may have unforseen and possibly devastating consequences.
Don't Worry!! We can Genetically Engineer(TM) that evolution out of the little critters! Plus We can make them construct the wires, Better, Stronger, Faster!!! No I didn't see Jurassic Park, What's your Point!?!!?
Gene Therapy(TM) is the Future of the Human Race!!!!! Of All Life on Earth!!!11111oneoneeleven