But finding un-biased opinions is becoming increasingly difficult. While it is true that this information is available on the internet, most people stick to the sites they know and are comfortable with. Generally, that means that people visit sites that further confirm their existing opinions.
You are using some people being comfortable with the known sites and opinions to argue that some other people who want to dig through opinions wouldn't be able to find what they need. IMO that's a piece of flawed logic.
The point is people have the choice with the Internet - you want to stay polarized with your regular sites? Fine. Some other people can still choose not to and dig through the information.
I also won't fall for the promises of reliable, un-biased information either.
Nobody can promise you "reliable, un-biased information", ever. No piece of information is not biased. It's always your own judgement.
I guess, following this logic, we should revise current laws and forbid acquitting anyone on the basis of mental illness, because everyone would start killing people and then "resort to mental illness".
- Look, I came from the future - 2038!
- What are you, seen too much Terminator?
- No no, you don't understand. They sent me back to warn you people about the Y2038 bug and make you fix it NOW!
- Aren't we all supposed to be using 64 bit computers by then.
- No, well see that's the problem - we aren't. They made so much heat that the ice cap started melting so we had to go back to 32-bit.
- Now come on, how could you have managed to invent a time machine with 32-bit computers?!
- Well Google actually did, with a Lenovo PC farm.
What facts do I have wrong? Gates has pledged a lot of money, but he hasn't actually given it. He didn't even give the most money this year:
What facts did you have wrong? Do you consider 10% of your own net worth "small fractions"?
Pledging doesn't count? How about you pledge over half of your net worth now?
And what is this about the moral high ground? Am I not allowed to criticize anyone with more money than me?
You are _allowed_ to criticize anybody. Whether your criticism is fair, decent, and justified, is a whole different story.
The compass, of course. The bow...
The difficulty with a pre-industrial age list is that a lot of cool gadgets from then have become such an essential part of our daily lives that we don't look at them as "gadgets" any more. E.g., shoes.
Sun Microsystems recently unveiled a new grid computing offering that promises to make purchasing computer time over a network as easy as buying electricity and water.
That sounds very much to me like Sun's another try to warp the world back to the "classical" server/dumb-terminal era.
While RTFA, I couldn't help but wondering what the overhead of a Web service-based grid solution might be and how the overhead would get compounded by the frequent communication among the grid nodes.
If I were a Chinese teenager, you bet I'd be willing to walk that extra meter to get to the cafe 201 meters away from my school.
Viewing and keeping these pictures on pulic machines is prohibited in China.
I don't know if you ignored the other (more significant and pertinent) part of the whole fact on purpose or you just didn't know better, but here is an FYI - viewing and keeping porn on your own machine at your own home is also unlawful in China and subject to police raid at any time (without a warrant, that is).
I was in Beijing last summer, and the one thing that struck me was how our American media promotes an image of an evil tyranny in China. (While it is true that most freedoms - as we know them here - don't exist, it isn't the spawn of evil its made out to be.)
I can't see how you reconcile these with yourself - "it is true that most freedoms don't exist there" vs. "it isn't the spawn of evil it's made out to be". Did you know in China couples were arrested for watching porn at home by themselves? Did you know the government bulldozed people's houses without prior owner consentment and with just nominal compensation? Did you in China online forums would automatically drop your post if it contains any "sensitive phrases"?
I had no problems accessing the Net from my hotel - albeit an intl. dialup connection - and even visited a few Net cafes.
Did it ever occur to you that it might be because you were a foreigner and stayed in a hotel. And Beijing, being the national capital, may not be the best window for sampling ordinary chinese life?
Finally someone doesn't want their public subject to so much inane american propaganda.
If this were some other thread on American politics, I might have just let it go - but here I'd very much like to call BS and to say that you have completely missed the point. The point here is the Chinese government is trying to decide what its people can or cannot see - not only "inane American propaganda", but also everything else.
As for the "american propaganda", no hard feelings, but you probably have never lived in China or any communist countries long enough to know what a real propaganda machine is like -- it's pretty much one of the only two things (the other being armed forces) the ruling class relies on to hold those countries together.
You don't need any qualification to break your back 12 hours a day picking strawberries in California. How many Americans are willing to do that, even if their only alternative is welfare?
And that justifies hiring illegal immigrants instead of legal workers how?
A driver's license is a license to drive, period.
Well my friend I'm not so sure you can just slap that "period" there without more due questioning. Driver's licenses are used as a de facto identification in our daily life in contexts way beyond driving. Have you never lived in the US or are you going to deny that code fact?
Are illegal immigrants somehow less human than you?
Are any law breakers somehow less human than you?
Do you realize that it is nearly impossible to immigrate legally to the USA, especially after 9/11?
You know, there is some place called "google" where you can easily find out how many people have immigrated to the USA after 9/11. (and that also applies to whoever mod it "Informative"!)
And the folks who can come in legally have 10+ years of paperwork and having to deal with the government trying to push them out. It's no wonder why people go the illegal route--it's much easier!
It's no wonder why people do all kinds of illegal things -- they are all much easier than the legal alternatives!
You have a very large grey economy, with a lot of companies (especially farming companies and service operations) depending on those illegal aliens for their operation. In a different world, there would actually be a real effort to stop these immigrants and kill that economy, but realistically that is not going to happen, ever. Too large a part of the economy of those states are utterly dependent on that source of inexpensive labour to ever do anything more than empty gestures.
From the US standpoint, this piece of logic doesn't sound that much difference (in principle) from giving in to some Iraqi hostage takers. From those immigrants standpoint, it doesn't sound that much difference from being in a slavery economy.
Most "immigration friendly" initiatives actually save money, not the other way around (and that doesn't even touch the issue of basic human decency when it comes to medical care).
Is it just me or is it that "immigration friendly" is indeed different from "illegal immigration friendly"? I mean, how about making it easier to import workforce legally when needed, or how about training more Americans to qualify for the jobs, instead of this "We'll try to bust you at the door but if you manage to squeeze one foot in you are part of the family" nonsense?
Slashdot Mirror
Hmm, after careful consideration, we have decided to not have Mr. Nader on the ballot.
The point is people have the choice with the Internet - you want to stay polarized with your regular sites? Fine. Some other people can still choose not to and dig through the information.
Nobody can promise you "reliable, un-biased information", ever. No piece of information is not biased. It's always your own judgement.But seriously, I agree with you.
I guess, following this logic, we should revise current laws and forbid acquitting anyone on the basis of mental illness, because everyone would start killing people and then "resort to mental illness".
You got any kids yet?
Maybe it's just this generation of plant obtained the ability through mutation to make genetic self backups.
All your base are belong to us - er well, half us, half wikipedia.
- Look, I came from the future - 2038!
- What are you, seen too much Terminator?
- No no, you don't understand. They sent me back to warn you people about the Y2038 bug and make you fix it NOW!
- Aren't we all supposed to be using 64 bit computers by then.
- No, well see that's the problem - we aren't. They made so much heat that the ice cap started melting so we had to go back to 32-bit.
- Now come on, how could you have managed to invent a time machine with 32-bit computers?!
- Well Google actually did, with a Lenovo PC farm.
Undoubtedly one of the most brilliant minds of our time + OCD symptoms = Doctored up by the Starways Congress.
What facts did you have wrong? Do you consider 10% of your own net worth "small fractions"?
Pledging doesn't count? How about you pledge over half of your net worth now?
And what is this about the moral high ground? Am I not allowed to criticize anyone with more money than me?
You are _allowed_ to criticize anybody. Whether your criticism is fair, decent, and justified, is a whole different story.
How about getting your facts straight here, and do think twice before starting talking as if you were holding the moral highground?
I wonder what happens if they accuse you of stealing those security tags...
The compass, of course. The bow... The difficulty with a pre-industrial age list is that a lot of cool gadgets from then have become such an essential part of our daily lives that we don't look at them as "gadgets" any more. E.g., shoes.
Quote TFA:
Sun Microsystems recently unveiled a new grid computing offering that promises to make purchasing computer time over a network as easy as buying electricity and water.
That sounds very much to me like Sun's another try to warp the world back to the "classical" server/dumb-terminal era.
If you love your laptop so much, why would you drive your car over it?
While RTFA, I couldn't help but wondering what the overhead of a Web service-based grid solution might be and how the overhead would get compounded by the frequent communication among the grid nodes.
You were, until this post.
Viewing and keeping these pictures on pulic machines is prohibited in China.
I don't know if you ignored the other (more significant and pertinent) part of the whole fact on purpose or you just didn't know better, but here is an FYI - viewing and keeping porn on your own machine at your own home is also unlawful in China and subject to police raid at any time (without a warrant, that is).
Slow news day i guess.
-- ------ What part of "the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed" do you not understand ----
"the right of the people to keep and bear arms" is not a "human right" either.
I can't see how you reconcile these with yourself - "it is true that most freedoms don't exist there" vs. "it isn't the spawn of evil it's made out to be". Did you know in China couples were arrested for watching porn at home by themselves? Did you know the government bulldozed people's houses without prior owner consentment and with just nominal compensation? Did you in China online forums would automatically drop your post if it contains any "sensitive phrases"?
I had no problems accessing the Net from my hotel - albeit an intl. dialup connection - and even visited a few Net cafes.
Did it ever occur to you that it might be because you were a foreigner and stayed in a hotel. And Beijing, being the national capital, may not be the best window for sampling ordinary chinese life?
If this were some other thread on American politics, I might have just let it go - but here I'd very much like to call BS and to say that you have completely missed the point. The point here is the Chinese government is trying to decide what its people can or cannot see - not only "inane American propaganda", but also everything else.
As for the "american propaganda", no hard feelings, but you probably have never lived in China or any communist countries long enough to know what a real propaganda machine is like -- it's pretty much one of the only two things (the other being armed forces) the ruling class relies on to hold those countries together.
That's because somebody else figured out a way to buffer overflow the Windows' WAV processing code.
And that justifies hiring illegal immigrants instead of legal workers how?
A driver's license is a license to drive, period.
Well my friend I'm not so sure you can just slap that "period" there without more due questioning. Driver's licenses are used as a de facto identification in our daily life in contexts way beyond driving. Have you never lived in the US or are you going to deny that code fact?
Are any law breakers somehow less human than you?
Do you realize that it is nearly impossible to immigrate legally to the USA, especially after 9/11?
You know, there is some place called "google" where you can easily find out how many people have immigrated to the USA after 9/11. (and that also applies to whoever mod it "Informative"!)
And the folks who can come in legally have 10+ years of paperwork and having to deal with the government trying to push them out. It's no wonder why people go the illegal route--it's much easier!
It's no wonder why people do all kinds of illegal things -- they are all much easier than the legal alternatives!
From the US standpoint, this piece of logic doesn't sound that much difference (in principle) from giving in to some Iraqi hostage takers. From those immigrants standpoint, it doesn't sound that much difference from being in a slavery economy.
Most "immigration friendly" initiatives actually save money, not the other way around (and that doesn't even touch the issue of basic human decency when it comes to medical care).
Is it just me or is it that "immigration friendly" is indeed different from "illegal immigration friendly"? I mean, how about making it easier to import workforce legally when needed, or how about training more Americans to qualify for the jobs, instead of this "We'll try to bust you at the door but if you manage to squeeze one foot in you are part of the family" nonsense?