Well, there is leaking and there is leaking. For a long time, leaking was done to a responsible media, who would then go on to corroborate it with other sources if possible. Snowden actually, to his credit, did it the right way, giving the documents to the media who could then devote time to verifying the information. This is where the 4th estate shows it's value. However, confidence in the media is seriously eroded today. People don't even bother to criticize fox news anymore, and when they are busted in a lie, they don't even bother to defend themselves anymore. Who you leak to says more about your motives than the actual information, IMO. I think we, as a populous, have a dual responsibility to pay attention to these, but not to assume they are indisputable fact. With that said, there is a difference between a candle and a bonfire. When a lot of leaks from different sources point in a certain direction, you should probably start paying attention.
I support the legalization of weed, because I think it is at least as safe as alcohol. I do have to point out some factual errors in your post. THC, just like water, has a lethal dose. It is something between 6 and 12 times the lethal dose of caffeine, depending on which studies you believe. Secondly, it can have some very profound and lasting effects that won't just flush out eventually. The chief of which is, if you are schizophrenic, or at genetic risk of becoming schizophrenic, it can trigger the disease. Broadly speaking, this is true of just about any hallucinogen, and is very near and dear to me because it happened to a family member of mine. Now, does that make it worse than cigarettes or alcohol? Not even nearly. But we need to take pains to avoid this gift of Gaia characterization. It's not a vitamin, it's not good for you, we shouldn't pretend that it is.
Yes we totally can. There's not a lot humanity can't accomplish with the proper funding and will, but people like you think it will cost too much.
Not really, except moving further inland or building dykes like the Dutch do.
Gee, I wonder how much THAT will cost?
Is that a reason to create panic just to make money with the fear of yet another apocalypse? I find that disgusting.
The only thing that makes me panic is that people treat this idea so casually. I like not having a billion people knocking at my door looking for a new place to live.
Personally, I find that level of apathy disgusting.
I can one-up you on this. I never even finished high school (though I did get my GED). Now I am working as a data scientist. Of course, by the time I reached those critical years when I would have been receiving an education in my craft, I had already been ravenously learning programming since the age of 12. While I admit, I missed some of the fundamentals by not going the formal education route, and had to work twice as hard to catch myself up, I console myself by remembering that the skills I use today weren't being taught when I was in college (I did attend one year on scholarship). They were still teaching pascal and z80 assembly.
In my obviously biased opinion, passion is much more important than formal education in this field. It just changes too fast. If you aren't constantly re-teaching yourself, you will quickly get left behind.
From literally the least complicated google search ever: In January 2017, a U.S. intelligence community assessment expressed "high confidence" that Russia favored Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton, and that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered an "influence campaign" to denigrate and harm Clinton's electoral chances and potential presidency.[4] The report concluded that Russia used disinformation, data thefts, and leaks to attempt to advantage Trump over Clinton. These conclusions were reaffirmed by the lead intelligence officials in the Trump administration in May 2017.[5] Intelligence allies of the U.S. in Europe found communications between suspected Russian agents and the Trump campaign as early as 2015.[6]
No offense, but I will take the word of the world's most powerful intelligence agencies, with millions in resources and manpower, over you shouting "ZERO EVIDENCE" fifty times a thread and SOMEHOW getting modded up.
Far be it from me to defend President Garfield the Cat, but if the press can't bring in cameras, then how have I seen pictures in the oval office? Is it a staff photographer? Do the press borrow cameras for shoots? I would legitimately like to know.
I live in Louisiana, and 8 ish years ago my electric bill literally DOUBLED overnight. My lifestyle hadn't changed, and I checked my ac, but then I looked closer at my electric bill, and realized, in some months, more than half of my bill was going to a fuel adjustment. Entergy.com , Now, I don't know from month to month what my bill will look like, and have more than once been surprised with a $500+ bill (my usual is about $130). For those who are unaware, there are only about 3 weeks a year when Louisiana would be considered to have "Comfortable" weather.
My point being, the argument that conventional generation methods will be kinder to the consumer is crap if you live in my state. If we get back to the way it was I would WELCOME a measly 40% increase.
I love word games! Let's play some madlibs with your post!
>Kind of like not wanting to pay for a _ "qualifies as" denying her the right to _
I choose "Breast cancer" and "life". Sounds right.
>or how not wanting to pay for other people's _ education "qualifies as" denying access to education
"Public."
> or opposing the presence of illegal _ in the US "qualifies as" racism
"Immigrants". See, I just made it not racist! Why are you only after the Mexicans?
>opposing "gay marriage" qualifies as homophobia.
Uhhhh.. I got nothing. Turns out that opposing something that isn't your business and doesn't effect you just because it is icky is a phobia.
Ok, I had to undo mod points to post this, but I think this subject is rarely covered on slashdot. There is a dirty little secret to an economy, especially a consumer based one. In order for it to be strong, the money has to keep moving. If it gets locked up in too many places, the economy starts to stall. In america, this is typically done through progressive taxation and stock market investment. Why? It's pretty simple really. Poor people can't afford to save money. They typically live paycheck to paycheck. If you give 100 dollars to a poor person, you are basically injecting 100 dollars into the economy. Rich people don't have this problem. They are allowed to have savings, lock up their money into assets such as new houses, etc.
So yes, it is completely a redistribution of wealth, but one that will effectively create more, not less opportunity. Lets take everyone's favorite punching bag, Bill Gates. He is sitting one the same amount of wealth as literally millions of the lowest earning americans. Assuming you took all of it, and gave it to those people for free, what do you think would happen. Most would blow it. A healthy chunk would buy new computers and some of that money would return to Mr. Gates. And some percentage of those people would use the opportunity to position themselves to capture that money (by opening businesses) as it filters back up in the economy. You create hundreds of millionaires by devastating one billionaire.
Now, is this sort of thing a good idea for a society? Beats me, one could make several arguments in both directions. It is however, a very good idea for an economy. Keeping the money moving will always create more jobs, and allow more people to capture wealth as it filters up. UBI is not the only method of doing it, but it is sure a darn effective one.
Bullshit. Stereotypes can and do exist in the face of contrary evidence, just like myths. It wasn't all that long ago that most medical students polled thought men had one less rib than women. Stereotypes are highly subject to confirmation bias. They exist because people FEEL like they are accurate at the macro scale, usually without any statistical evidence to back it up. In short, humans are stupid, and come up with stupid shit. Especially when we are trying to explain societies to one another.
So, what you are saying is that poor people are less likely to be able to repay a loan. Presumably, loan officers have their income levels available, and therefore so would the AI. Where would race come into that equation in a meaningful way? I can see where, like humans, an AI could draw a correlation without establishing the causation.
I am so very tired of this welfare queen trope. I thought we were done with this in the 80s. Yes, this country has a problem with entitlements, and the overwhelming majority of it is SSI and subsidized healthcare (medicaid, medicare, marketplace), which combined make about 50% of the federal budget.
Most of what we think of as traditional "Welfare" is food stamps, and most people, in my state at least, who qualify by making under 23k, get a whopping 200 bucks or so a month. You can get TANF, or whatever your state's local flavor of it (FITAP in mine) and be living large on that 500 bucks a month (provided you have 10 or more children to support.) Did I mention you can't have more than 2k in assets? Earned income credit helps a lot of people too, but it isn't making you rich. All of that is about 10% of the budget.
Do people abuse the system? Sure, but if you are really concerned about cutting entitlements, and you are screaming about "Welfare", you are bitching up the wrong tree. Now if you have a good idea for cutting the spending while not killing a bunch of old people and kids, I am all ears.
How is the you rotting on the floor any more you than the you thinking, living, loving in a virtual world? Copy that you to another server, and which one is less you? People need to get over this idea that this meat that we walk around in has some unique spot inside that contains our soul. Rather realize that the only soul you have is the one that you have convinced yourself you have.
What's old is new again. The most exciting "innovation" the internet has brought to music, for me, has been the resurgence of patronage. Have an old band that you loved which faded into obscurity 20 years ago, who you wish would put out JUST ONE MORE ALBUM? With the advent of patreon and kickstarter, you can help them put out a new album just by donating. Hey, it was good enough for Mozart!
I haven't noticed the ratio of junk to awesome being any worse than what I hear on the radio. If you haven't found good indie music on youtube, you haven't looked very hard. Since I am an old fart, and miss the 80s, I have been ecstatic to see the synthwave subculture finding an audience, and inspiring new bands, Some of which are really good . This is something that would have never happened under the old distribution system.
I, for one, welcome the chances of sub cultures to flourish with massive connectivity, even if it did give us Bronies.
I think it's more likely the ones who kept growing their businesses because they weren't, you know, partisan idiots. If Bill can't succeed in an environment where others are, it might not be the president to blame. Just saying.
Ooh, nice mental gymnastics! You literally ignored an entire table of numbers to support your preconceptions, and accused someone else of ignoring reality. I wish I had some kind of award I could bestow on you.
I was rather amused that the Dems kept throwing amendments they knew wouldn't pass as a delaying tactic. One of them changed the name to The Republican Pay More for Less Care Act. Interesting times to be alive.
Slashdot Mirror
Good work sir! Thank God you are hear to point out the hypocrisy of a few individuals. Surely that will fix AGW! You are doing God's work, sir!
Well, there is leaking and there is leaking. For a long time, leaking was done to a responsible media, who would then go on to corroborate it with other sources if possible. Snowden actually, to his credit, did it the right way, giving the documents to the media who could then devote time to verifying the information. This is where the 4th estate shows it's value. However, confidence in the media is seriously eroded today. People don't even bother to criticize fox news anymore, and when they are busted in a lie, they don't even bother to defend themselves anymore. Who you leak to says more about your motives than the actual information, IMO. I think we, as a populous, have a dual responsibility to pay attention to these, but not to assume they are indisputable fact. With that said, there is a difference between a candle and a bonfire. When a lot of leaks from different sources point in a certain direction, you should probably start paying attention.
Thank God we fixed that problem by electing Trump. Oh wait....
I support the legalization of weed, because I think it is at least as safe as alcohol. I do have to point out some factual errors in your post. THC, just like water, has a lethal dose. It is something between 6 and 12 times the lethal dose of caffeine, depending on which studies you believe. Secondly, it can have some very profound and lasting effects that won't just flush out eventually. The chief of which is, if you are schizophrenic, or at genetic risk of becoming schizophrenic, it can trigger the disease. Broadly speaking, this is true of just about any hallucinogen, and is very near and dear to me because it happened to a family member of mine. Now, does that make it worse than cigarettes or alcohol? Not even nearly. But we need to take pains to avoid this gift of Gaia characterization. It's not a vitamin, it's not good for you, we shouldn't pretend that it is.
Can we do anything about it?
Yes we totally can. There's not a lot humanity can't accomplish with the proper funding and will, but people like you think it will cost too much.
Not really, except moving further inland or building dykes like the Dutch do.
Gee, I wonder how much THAT will cost?
Is that a reason to create panic just to make money with the fear of yet another apocalypse? I find that disgusting.
The only thing that makes me panic is that people treat this idea so casually. I like not having a billion people knocking at my door looking for a new place to live. Personally, I find that level of apathy disgusting.
I can one-up you on this. I never even finished high school (though I did get my GED). Now I am working as a data scientist. Of course, by the time I reached those critical years when I would have been receiving an education in my craft, I had already been ravenously learning programming since the age of 12. While I admit, I missed some of the fundamentals by not going the formal education route, and had to work twice as hard to catch myself up, I console myself by remembering that the skills I use today weren't being taught when I was in college (I did attend one year on scholarship). They were still teaching pascal and z80 assembly.
In my obviously biased opinion, passion is much more important than formal education in this field. It just changes too fast. If you aren't constantly re-teaching yourself, you will quickly get left behind.
From literally the least complicated google search ever:
In January 2017, a U.S. intelligence community assessment expressed "high confidence" that Russia favored Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton, and that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered an "influence campaign" to denigrate and harm Clinton's electoral chances and potential presidency.[4] The report concluded that Russia used disinformation, data thefts, and leaks to attempt to advantage Trump over Clinton. These conclusions were reaffirmed by the lead intelligence officials in the Trump administration in May 2017.[5] Intelligence allies of the U.S. in Europe found communications between suspected Russian agents and the Trump campaign as early as 2015.[6]
No offense, but I will take the word of the world's most powerful intelligence agencies, with millions in resources and manpower, over you shouting "ZERO EVIDENCE" fifty times a thread and SOMEHOW getting modded up.
I wish he would have started with himself.
Far be it from me to defend President Garfield the Cat, but if the press can't bring in cameras, then how have I seen pictures in the oval office? Is it a staff photographer? Do the press borrow cameras for shoots? I would legitimately like to know.
I live in Louisiana, and 8 ish years ago my electric bill literally DOUBLED overnight. My lifestyle hadn't changed, and I checked my ac, but then I looked closer at my electric bill, and realized, in some months, more than half of my bill was going to a fuel adjustment. Entergy.com , Now, I don't know from month to month what my bill will look like, and have more than once been surprised with a $500+ bill (my usual is about $130). For those who are unaware, there are only about 3 weeks a year when Louisiana would be considered to have "Comfortable" weather.
My point being, the argument that conventional generation methods will be kinder to the consumer is crap if you live in my state. If we get back to the way it was I would WELCOME a measly 40% increase.
I love word games! Let's play some madlibs with your post!
>Kind of like not wanting to pay for a _ "qualifies as" denying her the right to _
I choose "Breast cancer" and "life". Sounds right.
>or how not wanting to pay for other people's _ education "qualifies as" denying access to education
"Public."
> or opposing the presence of illegal _ in the US "qualifies as" racism
"Immigrants". See, I just made it not racist! Why are you only after the Mexicans?
>opposing "gay marriage" qualifies as homophobia.
Uhhhh.. I got nothing. Turns out that opposing something that isn't your business and doesn't effect you just because it is icky is a phobia.
Ok, I had to undo mod points to post this, but I think this subject is rarely covered on slashdot. There is a dirty little secret to an economy, especially a consumer based one. In order for it to be strong, the money has to keep moving. If it gets locked up in too many places, the economy starts to stall. In america, this is typically done through progressive taxation and stock market investment. Why? It's pretty simple really. Poor people can't afford to save money. They typically live paycheck to paycheck. If you give 100 dollars to a poor person, you are basically injecting 100 dollars into the economy. Rich people don't have this problem. They are allowed to have savings, lock up their money into assets such as new houses, etc.
So yes, it is completely a redistribution of wealth, but one that will effectively create more, not less opportunity. Lets take everyone's favorite punching bag, Bill Gates. He is sitting one the same amount of wealth as literally millions of the lowest earning americans. Assuming you took all of it, and gave it to those people for free, what do you think would happen. Most would blow it. A healthy chunk would buy new computers and some of that money would return to Mr. Gates. And some percentage of those people would use the opportunity to position themselves to capture that money (by opening businesses) as it filters back up in the economy. You create hundreds of millionaires by devastating one billionaire.
Now, is this sort of thing a good idea for a society? Beats me, one could make several arguments in both directions. It is however, a very good idea for an economy. Keeping the money moving will always create more jobs, and allow more people to capture wealth as it filters up. UBI is not the only method of doing it, but it is sure a darn effective one.
And eventually the MPAA. "We detected you watching a pirated movie near your phone. Pay us $3000 or...."
Because foraging for small bits of food in a large field is a lot of cardio. They evolved a long time before houses.
Bullshit. Stereotypes can and do exist in the face of contrary evidence, just like myths. It wasn't all that long ago that most medical students polled thought men had one less rib than women. Stereotypes are highly subject to confirmation bias. They exist because people FEEL like they are accurate at the macro scale, usually without any statistical evidence to back it up. In short, humans are stupid, and come up with stupid shit. Especially when we are trying to explain societies to one another.
So, what you are saying is that poor people are less likely to be able to repay a loan. Presumably, loan officers have their income levels available, and therefore so would the AI. Where would race come into that equation in a meaningful way? I can see where, like humans, an AI could draw a correlation without establishing the causation.
I am so very tired of this welfare queen trope. I thought we were done with this in the 80s. Yes, this country has a problem with entitlements, and the overwhelming majority of it is SSI and subsidized healthcare (medicaid, medicare, marketplace), which combined make about 50% of the federal budget.
Most of what we think of as traditional "Welfare" is food stamps, and most people, in my state at least, who qualify by making under 23k, get a whopping 200 bucks or so a month. You can get TANF, or whatever your state's local flavor of it (FITAP in mine) and be living large on that 500 bucks a month (provided you have 10 or more children to support.) Did I mention you can't have more than 2k in assets? Earned income credit helps a lot of people too, but it isn't making you rich. All of that is about 10% of the budget.
Do people abuse the system? Sure, but if you are really concerned about cutting entitlements, and you are screaming about "Welfare", you are bitching up the wrong tree. Now if you have a good idea for cutting the spending while not killing a bunch of old people and kids, I am all ears.
How is the you rotting on the floor any more you than the you thinking, living, loving in a virtual world? Copy that you to another server, and which one is less you? People need to get over this idea that this meat that we walk around in has some unique spot inside that contains our soul. Rather realize that the only soul you have is the one that you have convinced yourself you have.
What's old is new again. The most exciting "innovation" the internet has brought to music, for me, has been the resurgence of patronage. Have an old band that you loved which faded into obscurity 20 years ago, who you wish would put out JUST ONE MORE ALBUM? With the advent of patreon and kickstarter, you can help them put out a new album just by donating. Hey, it was good enough for Mozart!
I haven't noticed the ratio of junk to awesome being any worse than what I hear on the radio. If you haven't found good indie music on youtube, you haven't looked very hard. Since I am an old fart, and miss the 80s, I have been ecstatic to see the synthwave subculture finding an audience, and inspiring new bands, Some of which are really good . This is something that would have never happened under the old distribution system.
I, for one, welcome the chances of sub cultures to flourish with massive connectivity, even if it did give us Bronies.
I think it's more likely the ones who kept growing their businesses because they weren't, you know, partisan idiots. If Bill can't succeed in an environment where others are, it might not be the president to blame. Just saying.
Ooh, nice mental gymnastics! You literally ignored an entire table of numbers to support your preconceptions, and accused someone else of ignoring reality. I wish I had some kind of award I could bestow on you.
Please don't let Trump read this or he will be breaking into our cell phone conversations at 3 am shouting "WRONG!"
I was rather amused that the Dems kept throwing amendments they knew wouldn't pass as a delaying tactic. One of them changed the name to The Republican Pay More for Less Care Act. Interesting times to be alive.
Also, I just realized this whole conversation is the reason I have been having less sex lately.