This argument assumes that Congress is authorized to do most of what it's doing. A more strict interpretation of the Constitution would likely result in a huge reduction in the size and scope of government. If Congress only dealt with those things it is constitutionally authorized to handle, it wouldn't need a huge number of staffers to deal with it all.
Well, that's a bit more drastic change than proposed with the staffers; one is easily implementable (if, I think, ill-advised), whereas the other one will require a dramatic shift in agendas by those in our judicial and legislative branches.
I don't think it would do that. If anything, I suspect there were proportionally fewer lawyers in Congress at the founding than today. The citizen-legislators we had 200+ years ago tended to come from all walks of life (as opposed to the politicians we have now, who frequently have never put in an honest day's work in their lives).
That may be, but again that assumes that we instantly transition to a whole new state of affairs, in this case completely eliminating the litigiousness of society. As it is, bills must be carefully worded in order that the author's full intent is encapsulated and can be upheld in court.
Part of the problem with oversized government is that it tends to attract people who are attracted to having huge amounts of power over people's lives. Smaller government would tend to attract more ordinary people. If (for instance) Robert "KKK" Byrd is no longer able to funnel billions of dollars' worth of pork into whatever holler he crawled out of, what's the likelihood that he would keep at it?
Conceded. However, short of a revolution, it would take years of planning and the will of the people to transform our government into that state in a prudent manner.
The problem with that proposal is that laws concerning all areas of life are put before Congress. We can't expect everyone to be expert in everything. While I agree that each Congressperson should read every bill he votes on, staffers are necessary.
Additionally, limiting the staff limits the Congress to lawyers. Diversity of profession is an important trait of a legislateive body, I think, and without staff with legal background, an engineer (for example) would likely find it very difficult to write legislation free of dangerous legal loopholes.
While legislators ought to have brains of their own and be more than parrots of their advisors, they also ought to have expert advice from people they trust, and a well-chosen staff can fit that bill.
That's like saying that if you get caught shoplifting, all you have to do is pay for the merchandise and it's no harm, no foul. That gives people no reason not to shoplift, because there's no risk. Either you get stuff for free, or you get caught and pay what you would have paid anyway.
You have to set penalties/rewards thinking about the results they'll have on future behavior.
It's actually just written in news style, which seems poorly written if you expect it to be written in essay style.
In news style, you write in very short paragraphs (1-2 sentences) and you order them so that the most important information is at the top, down to the least important at the bottom. One reason for this is that when an article is too long, it is very easy to reduce length by just cutting from the bottom.
The reason this is important is that apparently this Runner guy was in a public position and is therefore a public figure. This is partly a reference so that readers who vaguely recognize the name can think back to when they read the story before and say "Oh yeah, that's why I've heard that name before." Partly it's an important fact about one of the people arrested, who has been in a public position in the past (and may try to get into public position again).
It's not the cable company's decision how serious the crime is. I don't know the details of the law, but I imagine that Buckeye complained to the FBI that they suspected a federal law to have been broken (there's a lot of "cybercrime"-type federal laws), and the FBI responded as they saw fit.
But this isn't just "modifying your own property." For one thing, there's a good chance that they're renting/leasing the modem, a lot of cable providers do that. But more important, they've modified the modem to abridge a service agreement. It's like if the gas company determined that they could provide a certain amount of gas to an area based on their infrastructure there. And to keep people from starving gas customers further down the line, they put a choke on each customer's gas line to keep the amount of gas use down to a level the infrastructure can handle. Say that somebody said "fuck the man, I'll take as much gas as I want!" and took the choke out of their gas line. Sure, it's their property, but they're screwing other people and violating the agreement they had with the gas company.
I'm sure that they used Feds instead of locals because it was a violation of some federal law, not for some jackbooted nazi thug "repress the proles" sort of thing.
And the "few small emails" thing is a load of bull. It's not like they were limited to a few kbps or something.
High speed internet isn't exactly "monopolistic" in metropolitan areas like Toledo, either. If you read the forums attached to the Blade's article, you'll see one person from the area who didn't even consider Buckeye cable, implying that not only is there a second choice, there's at least a third because the person had a choice to make even after DQing Buckeye.
a) Who said that the person in question was 1) married and 2) male? Women are also able to "hoard property" in our society.
b) Gardeners and manservants (menservant(s)?) aren't forced to do anybody's bidding--they're not forced into that career, much less a particular employer.
c) On "hoarding": a capitalist system (which most economic systems in developed nations are to a greater or lesser extent) allow a person to exchange their time, sweat, effort, etc. for property or perhaps an abstract construct that can be exchanged for property. This is called "working for a living." People whose skillsets are relatively more in demand in relation to the supply generally receive more property for a comparable amount of time; likewise, people who are willing to perform tasks that many others are unwilling to perform can demand more for their output.
Another way property can be obtained is through inheritance; while it is true that the inheritor has not necessarily earned this property, it has been earned already by the inheritee, who is (within limits) and should be able to dispose of her property as she wishes.
Yet a third way is to allow another person to borrow property (or the aforementioned abstract constructs) in order to obtain a different property, which is often used to compensate people to create more knowledge and/or property, in return for some consideration.
Now, there are other ways to gather property, but this is a short list, all of which give the gatherer the right to do so.
> The most simple degree of proof is the percentage of specialists in the field it convinces and over what period of time.
This is not a *proof*, it is merely an argument (and a logical fallacy at that--appeal to authority).
A proof is mathematical. It either proves or it doesn't. You could have conditional proof--e.g. this is true if general relativity holds. But in this case the proof depends on its conditions, and so isn't strictly a proof of the conclusion, but of the statement "if P then Q" where P is your condition and Q is your conclusion.
Convincing, on the other hand, does come in different degrees. But convincing somebody that something is true is *not* the same thing as proving that it is true.
Actually, they're discovering higher-temp superconductors. I'm pretty sure there are some that superconduct above the temperature of liquid nitrogen, and I think I heard something about a potential room-temp superconductor.
RMS (and disciples) wouldn't like it--all software should be Free dammit!
People could argue that it goes against the GPL in spirit, but I think you're right on that front. Wasn't there some big scandal about this sort of thing a year or two ago?
Do you contract/work at IBM, or does somebody else call slides/transparencies foils? Does anyone know the reason for the name foils?
ObOnTopic: Of course, most electronic/semiconductor, hell, every company I've seen tends to paste the word Confidential on everything. Still, you find confidential stuff on the walls, in the "non-confidential only" recycling/trash cans, etc.
I think people are getting a little paranoid. All it looks like to me is that they're going to give the software a pay-for-download-and-burn feature. They don't say anything about blocking music, and it seems to me that if they were going to block burning "unauthorized" music, they would put that in the lead of the press release. They would be proud of coming up with a technology that "stops the pirates" from stealing their music.
I understand that at one point the tiles read TAPU. Unfortunately, now they've been affixed to the ground, and can no longer be moved. But on the subject of hacks, a quasi-hack is the class rings. It is traditional that the designs on the sides of RPI class rings contain a screw hidden within the design. This is the Tute Screw. The Tute Screw is threaded both ways so that it goes in no matter which way you turn it, and it is what the administration uses to continuously screw the students. FWIW.
Nope, the original poster was right. All of "it" is in "bit"; you can see both letters of it in the original order in bit. But only two-thirds of "bit" is in "it"; thus, there is a good deal of "bit" in "it."
Well, in the states we have this thing called football. But it's not really football. We call that soccer. This game involves a ball resembling an oval rotated around its major axis which is thrown around by very large men who get hit by other very large men in different colored uniforms. Today was the Super Bowl, the final game that determines the world champions of football, though none of the rest of the world plays it (with a few exceptions) so it's really more of a national championship. In any case, the 60 minutes of playtime are extended to about a four-hour extravaganza including a bazillion dollar halftime show that isn't worth watching and many 30 second advertising spots (that cost about $2 million a pop this year) that are. Interspersed with this is the actual game. The game is historically NOT, repeat NOT, worth watching, though this is the third year in a row where the game actually seemed to be a contest with the winner in doubt. This is because one conference, the NFC (national football conference, not to be confused with the NFL, or national football league, of which it is a subdivision) is generally much better than the AFC (american football conference), which is derived from the old American Football League. In any case, the final score was 23-16 (St. Louis Rams over the Tennessee Titans), which is closer than it seems; a touchdown (passing the goal line) is worth six points and allows a chance at an extra point kick. These extra points are rarely missed. What made the game interesting was the fourth quarter. During this quarter, there were several scores, and at one point the teams were tied 16-16. The St. Louis Rams then made a spectacular play and crossed nearly the entire field for a touchdown in one play. The Titans then came back, and with six seconds left, had 10 yards (meters) left to go for a touchdown of their own. The end of that final play found the Titans a mere 3 feet from tieing up the game and forcing it into overtime. There's a bit more of interest because the two teams have recently moved from their home cities, but that's the topic of another post. Note: Sorry for the block of text; I'm not even much of a football fan; I watch a grand total of maybe three games each year, including college games. Imagine what a real fan would tell you.
Interesting fact about GM. Fairly recently (2-3 yrs ago, IIRC), GM created a new policy on that. It basically says that noone at GM can take gifts, dinner, nudie club visits, etc. from people who work for companies that do business with GM. I believe, however, that the sales dept. can still wine, dine, and nudie club clients. Integrity only goes so far:P.
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Well, that's a bit more drastic change than proposed with the staffers; one is easily implementable (if, I think, ill-advised), whereas the other one will require a dramatic shift in agendas by those in our judicial and legislative branches.
That may be, but again that assumes that we instantly transition to a whole new state of affairs, in this case completely eliminating the litigiousness of society. As it is, bills must be carefully worded in order that the author's full intent is encapsulated and can be upheld in court.
Conceded. However, short of a revolution, it would take years of planning and the will of the people to transform our government into that state in a prudent manner.
Matt
The problem with that proposal is that laws concerning all areas of life are put before Congress. We can't expect everyone to be expert in everything. While I agree that each Congressperson should read every bill he votes on, staffers are necessary.
Additionally, limiting the staff limits the Congress to lawyers. Diversity of profession is an important trait of a legislateive body, I think, and without staff with legal background, an engineer (for example) would likely find it very difficult to write legislation free of dangerous legal loopholes.
While legislators ought to have brains of their own and be more than parrots of their advisors, they also ought to have expert advice from people they trust, and a well-chosen staff can fit that bill.
Matt
That's like saying that if you get caught shoplifting, all you have to do is pay for the merchandise and it's no harm, no foul. That gives people no reason not to shoplift, because there's no risk. Either you get stuff for free, or you get caught and pay what you would have paid anyway.
You have to set penalties/rewards thinking about the results they'll have on future behavior.
Matt
It's actually just written in news style, which seems poorly written if you expect it to be written in essay style.
In news style, you write in very short paragraphs (1-2 sentences) and you order them so that the most important information is at the top, down to the least important at the bottom. One reason for this is that when an article is too long, it is very easy to reduce length by just cutting from the bottom.
The reason this is important is that apparently this Runner guy was in a public position and is therefore a public figure. This is partly a reference so that readers who vaguely recognize the name can think back to when they read the story before and say "Oh yeah, that's why I've heard that name before." Partly it's an important fact about one of the people arrested, who has been in a public position in the past (and may try to get into public position again).
Matt
It's not the cable company's decision how serious the crime is. I don't know the details of the law, but I imagine that Buckeye complained to the FBI that they suspected a federal law to have been broken (there's a lot of "cybercrime"-type federal laws), and the FBI responded as they saw fit.
Matt
But this isn't just "modifying your own property." For one thing, there's a good chance that they're renting/leasing the modem, a lot of cable providers do that. But more important, they've modified the modem to abridge a service agreement. It's like if the gas company determined that they could provide a certain amount of gas to an area based on their infrastructure there. And to keep people from starving gas customers further down the line, they put a choke on each customer's gas line to keep the amount of gas use down to a level the infrastructure can handle. Say that somebody said "fuck the man, I'll take as much gas as I want!" and took the choke out of their gas line. Sure, it's their property, but they're screwing other people and violating the agreement they had with the gas company.
I'm sure that they used Feds instead of locals because it was a violation of some federal law, not for some jackbooted nazi thug "repress the proles" sort of thing.
And the "few small emails" thing is a load of bull. It's not like they were limited to a few kbps or something.
High speed internet isn't exactly "monopolistic" in metropolitan areas like Toledo, either. If you read the forums attached to the Blade's article, you'll see one person from the area who didn't even consider Buckeye cable, implying that not only is there a second choice, there's at least a third because the person had a choice to make even after DQing Buckeye.
Matt
Just to feed the troll a bit...
a) Who said that the person in question was 1) married and 2) male? Women are also able to "hoard property" in our society.
b) Gardeners and manservants (menservant(s)?) aren't forced to do anybody's bidding--they're not forced into that career, much less a particular employer.
c) On "hoarding": a capitalist system (which most economic systems in developed nations are to a greater or lesser extent) allow a person to exchange their time, sweat, effort, etc. for property or perhaps an abstract construct that can be exchanged for property. This is called "working for a living." People whose skillsets are relatively more in demand in relation to the supply generally receive more property for a comparable amount of time; likewise, people who are willing to perform tasks that many others are unwilling to perform can demand more for their output.
Another way property can be obtained is through inheritance; while it is true that the inheritor has not necessarily earned this property, it has been earned already by the inheritee, who is (within limits) and should be able to dispose of her property as she wishes.
Yet a third way is to allow another person to borrow property (or the aforementioned abstract constructs) in order to obtain a different property, which is often used to compensate people to create more knowledge and/or property, in return for some consideration.
Now, there are other ways to gather property, but this is a short list, all of which give the gatherer the right to do so.
HTH. HAND.
Matt
> The most simple degree of proof is the percentage of specialists in the field it convinces and over what period of time.
This is not a *proof*, it is merely an argument (and a logical fallacy at that--appeal to authority).
A proof is mathematical. It either proves or it doesn't. You could have conditional proof--e.g. this is true if general relativity holds. But in this case the proof depends on its conditions, and so isn't strictly a proof of the conclusion, but of the statement "if P then Q" where P is your condition and Q is your conclusion.
Convincing, on the other hand, does come in different degrees. But convincing somebody that something is true is *not* the same thing as proving that it is true.
Matt
Actually, they're discovering higher-temp superconductors. I'm pretty sure there are some that superconduct above the temperature of liquid nitrogen, and I think I heard something about a potential room-temp superconductor.
Matt
RMS (and disciples) wouldn't like it--all software should be Free dammit!
People could argue that it goes against the GPL in spirit, but I think you're right on that front. Wasn't there some big scandal about this sort of thing a year or two ago?
Matt
Do you contract/work at IBM, or does somebody else call slides/transparencies foils? Does anyone know the reason for the name foils?
ObOnTopic: Of course, most electronic/semiconductor, hell, every company I've seen tends to paste the word Confidential on everything. Still, you find confidential stuff on the walls, in the "non-confidential only" recycling/trash cans, etc.
Matt
Nope; you were right the first time. Neither is the subject of sounds; "neither" is a singular pronoun.
Matt
I think people are getting a little paranoid. All it looks like to me is that they're going to give the software a pay-for-download-and-burn feature. They don't say anything about blocking music, and it seems to me that if they were going to block burning "unauthorized" music, they would put that in the lead of the press release. They would be proud of coming up with a technology that "stops the pirates" from stealing their music.
Matt
I understand that at one point the tiles read TAPU. Unfortunately, now they've been affixed to the ground, and can no longer be moved.
But on the subject of hacks, a quasi-hack is the class rings. It is traditional that the designs on the sides of RPI class rings contain a screw hidden within the design. This is the Tute Screw. The Tute Screw is threaded both ways so that it goes in no matter which way you turn it, and it is what the administration uses to continuously screw the students. FWIW.
Matt
Nope, the original poster was right. All of "it" is in "bit"; you can see both letters of it in the original order in bit. But only two-thirds of "bit" is in "it"; thus, there is a good deal of "bit" in "it."
Matt
Well, in the states we have this thing called football. But it's not really football. We call that soccer. This game involves a ball resembling an oval rotated around its major axis which is thrown around by very large men who get hit by other very large men in different colored uniforms. Today was the Super Bowl, the final game that determines the world champions of football, though none of the rest of the world plays it (with a few exceptions) so it's really more of a national championship. In any case, the 60 minutes of playtime are extended to about a four-hour extravaganza including a bazillion dollar halftime show that isn't worth watching and many 30 second advertising spots (that cost about $2 million a pop this year) that are. Interspersed with this is the actual game. The game is historically NOT, repeat NOT, worth watching, though this is the third year in a row where the game actually seemed to be a contest with the winner in doubt. This is because one conference, the NFC (national football conference, not to be confused with the NFL, or national football league, of which it is a subdivision) is generally much better than the AFC (american football conference), which is derived from the old American Football League. In any case, the final score was 23-16 (St. Louis Rams over the Tennessee Titans), which is closer than it seems; a touchdown (passing the goal line) is worth six points and allows a chance at an extra point kick. These extra points are rarely missed. What made the game interesting was the fourth quarter. During this quarter, there were several scores, and at one point the teams were tied 16-16. The St. Louis Rams then made a spectacular play and crossed nearly the entire field for a touchdown in one play. The Titans then came back, and with six seconds left, had 10 yards (meters) left to go for a touchdown of their own. The end of that final play found the Titans a mere 3 feet from tieing up the game and forcing it into overtime. There's a bit more of interest because the two teams have recently moved from their home cities, but that's the topic of another post.
Note: Sorry for the block of text; I'm not even much of a football fan; I watch a grand total of maybe three games each year, including college games. Imagine what a real fan would tell you.
Interesting fact about GM. Fairly recently (2-3 yrs ago, IIRC), GM created a new policy on that. It basically says that noone at GM can take gifts, dinner, nudie club visits, etc. from people who work for companies that do business with GM. I believe, however, that the sales dept. can still wine, dine, and nudie club clients. Integrity only goes so far :P.