The abolition of slavery really took place in 1833-1838, when the British Empire banned slavery, emancipated all slaves, abolished apprenticeships, and paid reparations to former slaves. After that, due to the global preponderance of the Empire, slavery was doomed, and various countries recognised this at various times, such as the US in 1863.
Regardless, picking out a specific episode is pointless, as the whole of human history has been a trend toward ever-increasing freedom, even if the process was slow or stagnant at times.
Sir Elton may be right, but fundamentally, the Internet is far more valuable than the transient phenomenon of pop music. Most of yesterday's tastes are outdated now, and as for what survives, it's enough to tide us over until the Internet and the creative classes evolve to a more beneficial relationship with each other.
But equally, I'd bet anything that Woz has had a great deal more fun than Gates through his career. Doing what you like to do and having fun at it (and he's obviously not broke) is a far more satisfying way to conduct your life than hoarding up for a golden retirement. Face it, by the time you retire, so many youthful opportunities will have closed before you. Life is short, it's only common sense to try to make it satisfying.
This is a minor thing, but give credit where it is due:
"You might have heard that old quote by Evelyn Beatrice Hall; >>I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
Voltaire was the originator of that quote.
You can't always kill processes on Windows; not if the application can't respond, for instance. There is no equivalent of -SIGTERM (kill -9) on Windows.
Well, unlike Russia's America's presence and influence are, actually, beneficial. Even when achieved by questionable means. Compare, for example, the developments in Chile (US-supported dictatorship) vs. Cuba (USSR-supported dictatorship). Chile is the Latin America's top economy, while Cuba is the very lowest. Or compare the USSR-supported North with the US-supported South Koreas... Or look at how the US-assisted Western Europe recovered after WW2 and then consider the USSR-controlled Eastern Europe (including Eastern Germany!)
And which has better healthcare: Cuba or Chile?
I am not disputing that Russia's influence is far worse. But you simply can't attribute Western Europe to American beneficial influence, when the characteristic structures had been there for hundreds of years. Russia's influence on other states has been clearly negative, but I would hesitate in characterising America's influence as unequivocally positive. Also, North Korea isn't quite a good indication, as it was never under direct Soviet control, unlike Eastern Europe.
(Disclaimer: I'm Eastern European, for what it's worth.)
Have you ever flown a major European airline? I can assure you, it is a pleasure, and difference in service and attitude between European and US airlines is shining day and blackest night.
The mobile-only lifestyle is quite popular in Europe, and not just with the under-30s. But since mobile reception is so much worse in the US, I find it hard to believe that an all-mobile lifestyle will really take hold, at least without some major renovation of the infrastructure.
Mandriva (then Mandrake) did this years ago, teaming up with LaCie to provide 40GB USB desktops, complete with boot CDs for systems that couldn't boot from USB.
Depends on how you define superpower. 7th largest economy in the world; per capita certainly far higher than many "superpowers" like India/China and even Japan.
You have to go a bit farther to find a proper healthcare system than Canada's, which is pretty poor. There are many examples of working public healthcare systems in Europe; an American only needs look a bit farther from home to find them.
Systems, which, by-the-by are stastically superior to the American system -- not necessarily for any inherent reason, but because the whole population is covered.
"then we need to have a good, long, hard look at the belief that our society is the greatest one on Earth."
It isn't. It's pretty nice but hardly among the best. The belief to the contrary is called "American exceptionalism". It's held by a surprising number of people -- I'm not including you, just pointing it out.
Mr. Kerouac's idealism is commendable, but not entirely accurate. These misfits of popular lore can both advance and detract humanity. The effects may cancel out, but my own view is that most simply have no effect, being external, and that a very small minority are harmful or helpful. I am sure that the recent murderer at Virginia Tech was a "misfit". So while there is something to what you quote, it is laughably naive.
It isn't just a gung-ho attitude, it's more a difference between adulthood and childhood. A majority people remain children all their lives, wearing their emotions on their sleeves and worse, acting by them. The trouble is, the proportion is rising. It's just conjecture, but in America it might be due to the consumer society and the "customer is king" attitude, plus higher living standards of course. I single out America because it has a higher proportion of this protracted childhood than most European or Asian countries.
Based on the very good precedent 100 years earlier -- one of the points of the 1689 English Bill of Rights was "freedom from fines and forfeitures without trial".
Before you forget, they were going from a very poor country to a very rich, paradise-rich (for them) country. I know this as I am from a poor country as well, living in the US (legally).
Most immigration to the US occurred for precisely that reason -- wealth, not any bullshit about democratic values or anything. Purely standard of living.
The fact that this was largely an illusion in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (one third of immigrants went back, and those who stayed died on average 14 years after arrival) did nothing to diminish the hope of wealth.
This is already the case in many European countries. The one European country that has a president, not just a prime minister -- France -- follows this system. In parliamentary systems the equation is a bit more complicated.
That's precisely *because* of the political system. The USSR sunk absurd amounts of money into "intellectually prestigious" pursuits, such as chess, for propaganda purposes. Chess players received huge amounts of state funding, in contrast to their Western counterparts, who were funded by the private sector. That's the reason (not to downplay their educational system) for the slew of great chess players from Russia.
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The abolition of slavery really took place in 1833-1838, when the British Empire banned slavery, emancipated all slaves, abolished apprenticeships, and paid reparations to former slaves. After that, due to the global preponderance of the Empire, slavery was doomed, and various countries recognised this at various times, such as the US in 1863. Regardless, picking out a specific episode is pointless, as the whole of human history has been a trend toward ever-increasing freedom, even if the process was slow or stagnant at times.
Sir Elton may be right, but fundamentally, the Internet is far more valuable than the transient phenomenon of pop music. Most of yesterday's tastes are outdated now, and as for what survives, it's enough to tide us over until the Internet and the creative classes evolve to a more beneficial relationship with each other.
But equally, I'd bet anything that Woz has had a great deal more fun than Gates through his career. Doing what you like to do and having fun at it (and he's obviously not broke) is a far more satisfying way to conduct your life than hoarding up for a golden retirement. Face it, by the time you retire, so many youthful opportunities will have closed before you. Life is short, it's only common sense to try to make it satisfying.
Last I checked, it's just base64-encoded -- no encryption by default.
This is a minor thing, but give credit where it is due: "You might have heard that old quote by Evelyn Beatrice Hall; >>I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Voltaire was the originator of that quote.
You can't always kill processes on Windows; not if the application can't respond, for instance. There is no equivalent of -SIGTERM (kill -9) on Windows.
And which has better healthcare: Cuba or Chile?
I am not disputing that Russia's influence is far worse. But you simply can't attribute Western Europe to American beneficial influence, when the characteristic structures had been there for hundreds of years. Russia's influence on other states has been clearly negative, but I would hesitate in characterising America's influence as unequivocally positive. Also, North Korea isn't quite a good indication, as it was never under direct Soviet control, unlike Eastern Europe.
(Disclaimer: I'm Eastern European, for what it's worth.)
Have you ever flown a major European airline? I can assure you, it is a pleasure, and difference in service and attitude between European and US airlines is shining day and blackest night.
The mobile-only lifestyle is quite popular in Europe, and not just with the under-30s. But since mobile reception is so much worse in the US, I find it hard to believe that an all-mobile lifestyle will really take hold, at least without some major renovation of the infrastructure.
Mandriva (then Mandrake) did this years ago, teaming up with LaCie to provide 40GB USB desktops, complete with boot CDs for systems that couldn't boot from USB.
Depends on how you define superpower. 7th largest economy in the world; per capita certainly far higher than many "superpowers" like India/China and even Japan.
You have to go a bit farther to find a proper healthcare system than Canada's, which is pretty poor. There are many examples of working public healthcare systems in Europe; an American only needs look a bit farther from home to find them. Systems, which, by-the-by are stastically superior to the American system -- not necessarily for any inherent reason, but because the whole population is covered.
"then we need to have a good, long, hard look at the belief that our society is the greatest one on Earth." It isn't. It's pretty nice but hardly among the best. The belief to the contrary is called "American exceptionalism". It's held by a surprising number of people -- I'm not including you, just pointing it out.
Mr. Kerouac's idealism is commendable, but not entirely accurate. These misfits of popular lore can both advance and detract humanity. The effects may cancel out, but my own view is that most simply have no effect, being external, and that a very small minority are harmful or helpful. I am sure that the recent murderer at Virginia Tech was a "misfit". So while there is something to what you quote, it is laughably naive.
It isn't just a gung-ho attitude, it's more a difference between adulthood and childhood. A majority people remain children all their lives, wearing their emotions on their sleeves and worse, acting by them. The trouble is, the proportion is rising. It's just conjecture, but in America it might be due to the consumer society and the "customer is king" attitude, plus higher living standards of course. I single out America because it has a higher proportion of this protracted childhood than most European or Asian countries.
Based on the very good precedent 100 years earlier -- one of the points of the 1689 English Bill of Rights was "freedom from fines and forfeitures without trial".
Before you forget, they were going from a very poor country to a very rich, paradise-rich (for them) country. I know this as I am from a poor country as well, living in the US (legally).
Most immigration to the US occurred for precisely that reason -- wealth, not any bullshit about democratic values or anything. Purely standard of living.
The fact that this was largely an illusion in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (one third of immigrants went back, and those who stayed died on average 14 years after arrival) did nothing to diminish the hope of wealth.
This is already the case in many European countries. The one European country that has a president, not just a prime minister -- France -- follows this system. In parliamentary systems the equation is a bit more complicated.
That's precisely *because* of the political system. The USSR sunk absurd amounts of money into "intellectually prestigious" pursuits, such as chess, for propaganda purposes. Chess players received huge amounts of state funding, in contrast to their Western counterparts, who were funded by the private sector. That's the reason (not to downplay their educational system) for the slew of great chess players from Russia.
I'm not British, but see a list of Greatest Television Advertisements in the UK...