I'm just glad it doesn't work the other way around. I could put swastikas all over my website on some server in Germany, confident that the FBI would laugh at Germany if they tried to have an American citizen arrested and deported.
The summary doesn't mention it, but none of those indicted or arrested were U.S. citizens or had likely even ever set foot on U.S. soil. Even if you're in another country, you had better make sure you're not violating U.S. law. Here's a full list of those foreigners who foolishly thought they weren't under U.S. jurisdiction (from the DOJ website):
Kim Dotcom, aka Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, 37, a resident of both Hong Kong and New Zealand. Dotcom founded Megaupload Limited and is the director and sole shareholder of Vestor Limited, which has been used to hold his ownership interests in the Mega-affiliated sites.
Finn Batato, 38, a citizen and resident of Germany, who is the chief marketing officer;
Julius Bencko, 35, a citizen and resident of Slovakia, who is the graphic designer;
Sven Echternach, 39, a citizen and resident of Germany, who is the head of business development;
Mathias Ortmann, 40, a citizen of Germany and resident of both Germany and Hong Kong, who is the chief technical officer, co-founder and director;
Andrus Nomm, 32, a citizen of Estonia and resident of both Turkey and Estonia, who is a software programmer and head of the development software division;
Bram van der Kolk, aka Bramos, 29, a Dutch citizen and resident of both the Netherlands and New Zealand, who oversees programming and the underlying network structure for the Mega conspiracy websites.
Dotcom, Batato, Ortmann and van der Kolk were arrested today in Auckland, New Zealand, by New Zealand authorities, who executed provisional arrest warrants requested by the United States. Bencko, Echternach and Nomm remain at large.
I know that the established programmer hierarchy would have me burned at the stake for even hinting at it, but I miss my old GOTO statement. Call it sloppy if you like, but a simple one line statement beats the shit out of the acrobatics I often have to do in Java to SIMPLY JUMP OUT OF THIS METHOD/LOOP TO A SINGLE SPECIFIC POINT IN THE PROGRAM.
break;}
break;}
break;} return;}//shit, still doesn't go where I need it to
Now, cue the voices of 1,000 programmers looking for a non-existent "disagree" mod and screaming at the top of their girlie lungs on why GOTO is EVIL, EVIL, EVIL--as they parrot the professors who taught them that.
I've lived in cities all my life and AFAIK, I've never seen the Milky Way. I wouldn't even know it was supposed to visible in the night sky if I hadn't seen pictures of it in books. Human's have done amazing things to adapt to our environment, and we've become the most adaptive species in the planet's history. But there is always a cost, unfortunately.
My state and local governments are WAY more corrupt than the federal government. If you think they're going to be any better, you are laughably mistaken.
Yeah, one of those heroic "I oppose it, you see...but I'm not going to do anything at all to stop it" moves that we've come to expect out of Saint Obama. He's not at all full of shit.
My concern is that some scientists are starting to sound more an more like the Creationists. I expect shrill millennialist apocalyptic rants out of religious fanatics. I most certainly do not expect them out of scientists.
It would seem that there is something fundamental about human nature which forever pulls us towards dogmatic extremism, be it in the form of "Jesus told me this and therefore WE MUST BURN THE WITCHES WHO SAY OTHERWISE" or "The scientific consensus says this and therefore we must BURN THE WITCHES WHO SAY OTHERWISE." This is particularly tragic to me because the whole point of science was to get AWAY from the orthodoxy of religious dogma.
My point is that a scientific organization (or individual scientist) should NEVER be in a position of saying "Okay, now that 99.99% of scientists agree on this matter, no further criticism and questioning of it will be tolerated." That's not science, it's dogma. It smells more like a church edict against heretics than something that should ever come from the mouth of someone representing themselves as pro-science.
Rather they are saying climate change denial, much like creationism, is not science
No, it sounds more like they're saying that it CAN'T be science. And I find it particularly disturbing that many of the advocates of the consensus model of late are sounding more like priests looking to excommunicate heretics than scientists expressing warranted skepticism. The shrill level of this debate is starting to sound like a holy war (being fought on both sides). And that's beneath at least one side in the debate. That kind of behavior is expected of anti-global warming ideological fanatics, who will brook no criticism. But it's not acceptable for scientists, who should know better than to treat their position as dogma.
I'm saying that even if 99.99% of scientists agree on something, even that wouldn't justify EVER saying "The matter is closed, no questioning of it will ever be tolerated henceforth." That's not science. That's the purview of religion. Any scientist who advocates the banishment of heretics has crossed the line from scientific inquiry into religious fervor.
In that case, I'm glad they didn't SUCCEED at silencing him.
The White House isn't "expressing" shit
on
SOPA and PIPA So Far
·
· Score: 4, Informative
The Hollywood studios behind these bills are some of Obama's biggest contributors. His "expression of concern" is just a pathetic attempt to play both sides of the fence. He would as soon deliver a State of the Union speech in the nude than to veto one of these bills (or anything similar).
Slashdot Mirror
(which, besides Jews, includes a lot of other groups
Including, ironically, many of the same Arabs who Israelis are so fond of calling anti-Semitic.
Texas law only requires that you shoot him in season and buy a tag.
Oh, that reminds me, I forgot to mention that if you say it six times you just get herpes.
I'm just glad it doesn't work the other way around. I could put swastikas all over my website on some server in Germany, confident that the FBI would laugh at Germany if they tried to have an American citizen arrested and deported.
The summary doesn't mention it, but none of those indicted or arrested were U.S. citizens or had likely even ever set foot on U.S. soil. Even if you're in another country, you had better make sure you're not violating U.S. law. Here's a full list of those foreigners who foolishly thought they weren't under U.S. jurisdiction (from the DOJ website):
Kim Dotcom, aka Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, 37, a resident of both Hong Kong and New Zealand. Dotcom founded Megaupload Limited and is the director and sole shareholder of Vestor Limited, which has been used to hold his ownership interests in the Mega-affiliated sites.
Finn Batato, 38, a citizen and resident of Germany, who is the chief marketing officer;
Julius Bencko, 35, a citizen and resident of Slovakia, who is the graphic designer;
Sven Echternach, 39, a citizen and resident of Germany, who is the head of business development;
Mathias Ortmann, 40, a citizen of Germany and resident of both Germany and Hong Kong, who is the chief technical officer, co-founder and director;
Andrus Nomm, 32, a citizen of Estonia and resident of both Turkey and Estonia, who is a software programmer and head of the development software division;
Bram van der Kolk, aka Bramos, 29, a Dutch citizen and resident of both the Netherlands and New Zealand, who oversees programming and the underlying network structure for the Mega conspiracy websites.
Dotcom, Batato, Ortmann and van der Kolk were arrested today in Auckland, New Zealand, by New Zealand authorities, who executed provisional arrest warrants requested by the United States. Bencko, Echternach and Nomm remain at large.
Are you?
I hear if you say his name three times into a mirror, you get a 25Mbps fiber-optic connection.
You're just a jealous bitch, mom! You don't understand that Daniel and me are going to last FOREVER!! I HATE YOU!!! I HATE YOU!!
* If grandma had balls, she could have been grandpa.
I really have to wonder if Yahoo should have accepted Microsoft's $45 billion bid
Gee, ya think?
That'll be a lot better, right?
Maybe you missed the //shit, still doesn't go where I need it to.
I know that the established programmer hierarchy would have me burned at the stake for even hinting at it, but I miss my old GOTO statement. Call it sloppy if you like, but a simple one line statement beats the shit out of the acrobatics I often have to do in Java to SIMPLY JUMP OUT OF THIS METHOD/LOOP TO A SINGLE SPECIFIC POINT IN THE PROGRAM.
break;} //shit, still doesn't go where I need it to
break;}
break;}
return;}
Now, cue the voices of 1,000 programmers looking for a non-existent "disagree" mod and screaming at the top of their girlie lungs on why GOTO is EVIL, EVIL, EVIL--as they parrot the professors who taught them that.
I've lived in cities all my life and AFAIK, I've never seen the Milky Way. I wouldn't even know it was supposed to visible in the night sky if I hadn't seen pictures of it in books. Human's have done amazing things to adapt to our environment, and we've become the most adaptive species in the planet's history. But there is always a cost, unfortunately.
My state and local governments are WAY more corrupt than the federal government. If you think they're going to be any better, you are laughably mistaken.
Yeah, one of those heroic "I oppose it, you see...but I'm not going to do anything at all to stop it" moves that we've come to expect out of Saint Obama. He's not at all full of shit.
If this thing passes, you just watch your hero not veto it.
My concern is that some scientists are starting to sound more an more like the Creationists. I expect shrill millennialist apocalyptic rants out of religious fanatics. I most certainly do not expect them out of scientists.
It would seem that there is something fundamental about human nature which forever pulls us towards dogmatic extremism, be it in the form of "Jesus told me this and therefore WE MUST BURN THE WITCHES WHO SAY OTHERWISE" or "The scientific consensus says this and therefore we must BURN THE WITCHES WHO SAY OTHERWISE." This is particularly tragic to me because the whole point of science was to get AWAY from the orthodoxy of religious dogma.
My point is that a scientific organization (or individual scientist) should NEVER be in a position of saying "Okay, now that 99.99% of scientists agree on this matter, no further criticism and questioning of it will be tolerated." That's not science, it's dogma. It smells more like a church edict against heretics than something that should ever come from the mouth of someone representing themselves as pro-science.
Rather they are saying climate change denial, much like creationism, is not science
No, it sounds more like they're saying that it CAN'T be science. And I find it particularly disturbing that many of the advocates of the consensus model of late are sounding more like priests looking to excommunicate heretics than scientists expressing warranted skepticism. The shrill level of this debate is starting to sound like a holy war (being fought on both sides). And that's beneath at least one side in the debate. That kind of behavior is expected of anti-global warming ideological fanatics, who will brook no criticism. But it's not acceptable for scientists, who should know better than to treat their position as dogma.
worldwide decline in the pirate population
I correlate that to an increase in the worldwide ninja population.
I'm saying that even if 99.99% of scientists agree on something, even that wouldn't justify EVER saying "The matter is closed, no questioning of it will ever be tolerated henceforth." That's not science. That's the purview of religion. Any scientist who advocates the banishment of heretics has crossed the line from scientific inquiry into religious fervor.
In that case, I'm glad they didn't SUCCEED at silencing him.
The Hollywood studios behind these bills are some of Obama's biggest contributors. His "expression of concern" is just a pathetic attempt to play both sides of the fence. He would as soon deliver a State of the Union speech in the nude than to veto one of these bills (or anything similar).
Include a big campaign contribution with your letter if you want to make sure it's not just thrown in the trash or just added to the pile.