If everything is voluntary, then what kind of wrong could you possibly come up with?
Hey, you and your family don't really _need_ to eat, so it's totally up to you whether you take this job that I'm offering you. Too bad for you that I own every business in your county, or you might be able to work for someone else - who might not even be a friend of mine. Oh, and the rent check will be due every other week - remember, you signed the contract "voluntarily", in return for me not using the lawn as a storage depot.
China has a LONG way to go before they can match any of the above listed countries in our spy programs.
From the few public statements I've read about China's intelligence program, they concentrate less on ferreting out secret information & basically go for quantity - they basically suck in public (or easily-obtained) info from all over the world, have thousands (if not tens of thousands) of analysts work on it all, and basically do a human data mining operation looking for clues, patterns & trends which can help them guess what other countries are doing.
Of course, that's just a "best guess" that I heard from an intelligence analyst's public statement, so I have no idea if that's what they really do. It seemed like a reasonable approach though, especially given China's historical abundance of highly-educated labor & bureacratic tendencies.
Actually, a corporation is required by law to seek a profit, at least here in the USA.
Incorrect. A corporation is required by law to fulfil its charter. The charter of most corporations usually includes clauses mentioning "maximizing shareholder value", but they don't have to, and they usually aren't the only clauses in the charter.
Yeah, like you can trust a sales representative to give you an honest broad picture of available technical solutions. "Surprise, _our_ products are better than anyone elses!"
You can ask a saleperson to boost their own product or service, or disparage the competitor's products or service, but if you completely rely on them to pick something for you, then you are being incompetent at doing your "due diligence".
I'm not saying that most advice that you get from Slashdot will be much better, but with a broad cross-section of geekdom willing to rant on about their favorite "solutions", if you're willing to sort through the noise, you can at least get a diverse set of leads on product/services/processes to evaluate.
Examples of this include: oxygen(from the air), water, etc.
And still others examples include: ideas & performances!
Actually, ideas & performances are even more a "public good" under your description than natural resources, which are merely (hopefully) abundant, not infinite.
I think so woolio, but how are we going to convince the TV networks to create new episodes of The Care Bears? Narf!
Re:Any allusions to the Prisoner?
on
Playing The Escape
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
The idea of a prisoner incarcerated because he knows too much sensitive government information may not be too fictional today.
Dunno, doesn't sound very practical for a ruthless government. It'd be a whole lot safer, easier & more efficient to kill such a person & "disappear" the body.
The Prisoner story makes a lot more sense if you need something special from that prisoner, or for them to do something special.
That's probably one of the reasons why they didn't want to give up control of the root DNS servers.
If they get too uppity about it though, they're going to learn that it's not impossible for most people to select a different set of root DNS servers - outside of U.S. control.
Since the stakes involved in not believing in the Bible (i.e. going to Hell for eternity) are much greater than those in not believing scientists (i.e. sounding like a fool in front of others), they tend to draw towards creationism and away from common science.
Actually, it forces people to make a choice about who they will believe when it comes to fundamental truths about the Universe: the scientists or the religious-types, i.e., it polarizes them.
How many go which way is probably a good measure of the general level of rationality versus emotionalism in society.
It's actually not illegal to sing happy birthday to a group of people. Public domain and all.
"Happy Birthday" is notin the public domain, and if Disney-like companies keep on extending the copyright period, it never will be.
Having said that, however, and as you & the Snopes article describes, non-commercial use of "Happy Birthday" like singing it at a party to your friends & family fall under Fair-Use considerations - at least until "content providers/parasites" manage to kill Fair-Use.
That depends on whether you think the neocons have control of the voting machines. If they do, then you will continue to see many "close" elections - but somehow, the Republicans will still keep "squeaking" out wins.
You are a complete fool. My mother is a teacher of learning-disabled kids, and she says there is a very precise set of symptoms which are associated with ADD & ADHD kids (she can "diagnose" kids as or more accurately than a lot of the school psychologists, just by working with them for a few hours).
She's also read a lot of medical research to find out anything that might help her teach them, and there are definite differences in the way that the brains of such kids process information (as shown by brain activity scanning). Even a quick Google yields this.
There might be SOME kids who are just naturally active & are incorrectly misdiagnosed with ADD & ADHD, but anyone who writes off the entire phenomenon as a scam is a moron.
As to whether drugs are necessary or not, it depends on whether you want these kids to grow up to be functioning adults or not.
Historically, these kids could probably still make a living by working here or there under supervision, but in today's society they've got to at least be able to read, write a little & do basic math to get along - and they can't even pick up THAT much unless they can focus long enough for the information to settle into their brains. Once they've got the long-term info in their brain, then they can decide whether or not to keep taking the meds - but without those drugs, trying to get them to remember anything is a fool's exercise.
If this method of biofeedback can handle mild cases of ADD & ADHD without requiring the use of drugs, then great - more power to'em. For the really severe cases though, you're going to have to med the kids just so you can explain the damn controls of the videogame to them or else they'll just mash buttons, get upset & probably end up throwing something at the screen.
A publically traded corporation is by law, required to uphold the interests of the shareholders foremost, above anything else.
IANAL, but as far as I know, a publically-traded corporation is, by law, only required to uphold what it says in its corporate charter. Most corporation charters say they will pursue shareholder's interests, but there can be other clauses in it which can allow the company to act in ways which might not directly benefit shareholders.
Notice the quotes (") around "popular support", implying skepticism.
It's not _unpopular_ enough so that the people who supported it are losing their jobs (yet).
If it hasn't reached that stage, then according to the typical media coverage, it has "popular support". And it probably won't reach that stage as long as the only people getting killed are considered to be part of the military, since that's "their job".
he'd have actually been making Pakistan choose between "going straight" or war with the US.
The U.S. "leadership" (I'm including both Repubs & Demos) wouldn't "go to war" against anyone with nukes. That's why they walk on eggshells around North Korea and why Iran wants nukes so badly.
It's a lot easier to get "popular support" for a war (or at least reduce the reasons for people to object) when the bulk of your population doesn't feel like they're taking any risks.
It is unlikely that an American consumer will go all the way to India for a haircut, for instance. Likewise, an American consumer likely won't order a pizza from a pizzeria in India or China.
Ah yes, these are stellar examples of the type of jobs which will make sure America maintains its reputation as a juggernaut of innovation and progress.
We have reliable power, good safe roads, good telecom infrastructure, and universities capable of graduating world-class engineers in every corner of the country.
Too bad we're letting all that slide (and the other countries aren't). Gotta keep cutting those taxes dontcha know.
It's implied. Obviously, an intelligent designer created these diseases to kill humans. I mean, what intelligent designer _wouldn't_ look at the current state of humanity & not design such a thing?
If airplane cockpit instruments can be disrupted by the small output wattage of typical cell phone(s) (even when "confined" in the fuselage of a plane), then they are a serious accident waiting to happen. I'd be surprised that such unreliable equipment is allowed on a vehicle which can be expected to be hit by lightning on a regular basis during a normal operational lifetime.
If the airlines were actually serious about the safety of their equipment, then they'd damn well better buy equipment which is resistant to such effects. If they don't, then sooner or later some malicious bastard is going to HERF/EMP a plane and that'll be all-she-wrote.
Don't be putting all the blame on the doctors. Unless they're working for themselves, the organizations they work for (the hospitals & HMOs) are often responsible for requiring that doctors see X number of patients per unit of time, where X tends to get larger as the bean-counters gets more frantic.
The motivation might still be greed, but I'd be pointing the finger more at the institution than at doctors in general. (Motivation will vary between individual doctors, of course.)
However, Public Radio is leftist. Period. If you studied political theory at all and then listen objectively to the topics and views presented you could come to no other conclusion.
*Snort* only to a right-winger. At least you're up-front about your political bent about it rather than the extremist hypocrite.
As a social-leftie (my private behavior is none-of-your-damn-business) & fiscal-conservative (there _is_ a limit as to how much the government can borrow), Public Radio seems boringly "in the middle" to me, and somewhat rightish when I compare it against many foreign news channels.
Not that I'm surprised, since they can't afford to tick off _anyone_ who might cut off their funding.
He was OBVIOUSLY not spying on INNOCENT Americans.
Uh huh, sure - and not too long ago he was claiming, in public & on the news, with an absolutely straight face and with no caveats, that law enforcement _always_ had to get a warrant before spying on anyone in the U.S. Why in the world would you believe anything this President says?
While idiots might believe complete business freedom is good for the "common" citizen, I highly doubt that's why the current Republican leadership is trying to deregulate as much as possible.
Chinese citizens were told their faces might be scanned and used for a future project such as this.
Why would the government care about whether they should tell their citizens about what they plan on doing with the picture? The citizens had better damn well do what they're told, they don't need any explanation.
Slashdot Mirror
Hey, you and your family don't really _need_ to eat, so it's totally up to you whether you take this job that I'm offering you. Too bad for you that I own every business in your county, or you might be able to work for someone else - who might not even be a friend of mine. Oh, and the rent check will be due every other week - remember, you signed the contract "voluntarily", in return for me not using the lawn as a storage depot.
From the few public statements I've read about China's intelligence program, they concentrate less on ferreting out secret information & basically go for quantity - they basically suck in public (or easily-obtained) info from all over the world, have thousands (if not tens of thousands) of analysts work on it all, and basically do a human data mining operation looking for clues, patterns & trends which can help them guess what other countries are doing.
Of course, that's just a "best guess" that I heard from an intelligence analyst's public statement, so I have no idea if that's what they really do. It seemed like a reasonable approach though, especially given China's historical abundance of highly-educated labor & bureacratic tendencies.
I always wondered what would have happened if he had taken both pills at the same time.
Incorrect. A corporation is required by law to fulfil its charter. The charter of most corporations usually includes clauses mentioning "maximizing shareholder value", but they don't have to, and they usually aren't the only clauses in the charter.
Yeah, like you can trust a sales representative to give you an honest broad picture of available technical solutions. "Surprise, _our_ products are better than anyone elses!"
You can ask a saleperson to boost their own product or service, or disparage the competitor's products or service, but if you completely rely on them to pick something for you, then you are being incompetent at doing your "due diligence".
I'm not saying that most advice that you get from Slashdot will be much better, but with a broad cross-section of geekdom willing to rant on about their favorite "solutions", if you're willing to sort through the noise, you can at least get a diverse set of leads on product/services/processes to evaluate.
And still others examples include: ideas & performances!
Actually, ideas & performances are even more a "public good" under your description than natural resources, which are merely (hopefully) abundant, not infinite.
I think so woolio, but how are we going to convince the TV networks to create new episodes of The Care Bears? Narf!
Dunno, doesn't sound very practical for a ruthless government. It'd be a whole lot safer, easier & more efficient to kill such a person & "disappear" the body.
The Prisoner story makes a lot more sense if you need something special from that prisoner, or for them to do something special.
That's probably one of the reasons why they didn't want to give up control of the root DNS servers.
If they get too uppity about it though, they're going to learn that it's not impossible for most people to select a different set of root DNS servers - outside of U.S. control.
Actually, it forces people to make a choice about who they will believe when it comes to fundamental truths about the Universe: the scientists or the religious-types, i.e., it polarizes them.
How many go which way is probably a good measure of the general level of rationality versus emotionalism in society.
"Happy Birthday" is notin the public domain, and if Disney-like companies keep on extending the copyright period, it never will be.
Having said that, however, and as you & the Snopes article describes, non-commercial use of "Happy Birthday" like singing it at a party to your friends & family fall under Fair-Use considerations - at least until "content providers/parasites" manage to kill Fair-Use.
That depends on whether you think the neocons have control of the voting machines. If they do, then you will continue to see many "close" elections - but somehow, the Republicans will still keep "squeaking" out wins.
You are a complete fool. My mother is a teacher of learning-disabled kids, and she says there is a very precise set of symptoms which are associated with ADD & ADHD kids (she can "diagnose" kids as or more accurately than a lot of the school psychologists, just by working with them for a few hours).
She's also read a lot of medical research to find out anything that might help her teach them, and there are definite differences in the way that the brains of such kids process information (as shown by brain activity scanning). Even a quick Google yields this.
There might be SOME kids who are just naturally active & are incorrectly misdiagnosed with ADD & ADHD, but anyone who writes off the entire phenomenon as a scam is a moron.
As to whether drugs are necessary or not, it depends on whether you want these kids to grow up to be functioning adults or not.
Historically, these kids could probably still make a living by working here or there under supervision, but in today's society they've got to at least be able to read, write a little & do basic math to get along - and they can't even pick up THAT much unless they can focus long enough for the information to settle into their brains. Once they've got the long-term info in their brain, then they can decide whether or not to keep taking the meds - but without those drugs, trying to get them to remember anything is a fool's exercise.
If this method of biofeedback can handle mild cases of ADD & ADHD without requiring the use of drugs, then great - more power to'em. For the really severe cases though, you're going to have to med the kids just so you can explain the damn controls of the videogame to them or else they'll just mash buttons, get upset & probably end up throwing something at the screen.
IANAL, but as far as I know, a publically-traded corporation is, by law, only required to uphold what it says in its corporate charter. Most corporation charters say they will pursue shareholder's interests, but there can be other clauses in it which can allow the company to act in ways which might not directly benefit shareholders.
Notice the quotes (") around "popular support", implying skepticism.
It's not _unpopular_ enough so that the people who supported it are losing their jobs (yet).
If it hasn't reached that stage, then according to the typical media coverage, it has "popular support". And it probably won't reach that stage as long as the only people getting killed are considered to be part of the military, since that's "their job".
The U.S. "leadership" (I'm including both Repubs & Demos) wouldn't "go to war" against anyone with nukes. That's why they walk on eggshells around North Korea and why Iran wants nukes so badly.
It's a lot easier to get "popular support" for a war (or at least reduce the reasons for people to object) when the bulk of your population doesn't feel like they're taking any risks.
Ah yes, these are stellar examples of the type of jobs which will make sure America maintains its reputation as a juggernaut of innovation and progress.
Too bad we're letting all that slide (and the other countries aren't). Gotta keep cutting those taxes dontcha know.
It's implied. Obviously, an intelligent designer created these diseases to kill humans. I mean, what intelligent designer _wouldn't_ look at the current state of humanity & not design such a thing?
If airplane cockpit instruments can be disrupted by the small output wattage of typical cell phone(s) (even when "confined" in the fuselage of a plane), then they are a serious accident waiting to happen.
I'd be surprised that such unreliable equipment is allowed on a vehicle which can be expected to be hit by lightning on a regular basis during a normal operational lifetime.
If the airlines were actually serious about the safety of their equipment, then they'd damn well better buy equipment which is resistant to such effects. If they don't, then sooner or later some malicious bastard is going to HERF/EMP a plane and that'll be all-she-wrote.
Don't be putting all the blame on the doctors. Unless they're working for themselves, the organizations they work for (the hospitals & HMOs) are often responsible for requiring that doctors see X number of patients per unit of time, where X tends to get larger as the bean-counters gets more frantic.
The motivation might still be greed, but I'd be pointing the finger more at the institution than at doctors in general. (Motivation will vary between individual doctors, of course.)
*Snort* only to a right-winger. At least you're up-front about your political bent about it rather than the extremist hypocrite.
As a social-leftie (my private behavior is none-of-your-damn-business) & fiscal-conservative (there _is_ a limit as to how much the government can borrow), Public Radio seems boringly "in the middle" to me, and somewhat rightish when I compare it against many foreign news channels.
Not that I'm surprised, since they can't afford to tick off _anyone_ who might cut off their funding.
Uh huh, sure - and not too long ago he was claiming, in public & on the news, with an absolutely straight face and with no caveats, that law enforcement _always_ had to get a warrant before spying on anyone in the U.S. Why in the world would you believe anything this President says?
While idiots might believe complete business freedom is good for the "common" citizen, I highly doubt that's why the current Republican leadership is trying to deregulate as much as possible.
Why would the government care about whether they should tell their citizens about what they plan on doing with the picture? The citizens had better damn well do what they're told, they don't need any explanation.