Your perceptions are likely coloured by the fact that USians tend to regard anyone with any visible trace of Negro ancestry as 'Black', based no doubt at least in part on laws stemming from the One Drop Rule, even though many if not most 'Blacks' in the US are actually of mixed ancestry and many 'Whites' (including me) have traces of Sub-Sahara-African ancestry.
Because some of us would prefer not to run into certain people from the past.
Changing countries a few times has worked pretty well for me in that regard.:)
More seriously, I figure that there are a couple of billion other people online and I seriously doubt that I am very interesting to more than a handful of them.
7th-century barbarism? Try 17th - as late as the 1690s, people in some European countries were still liable to be executed, not only for leaving Christianity, but for switching to the wrong sort of Christianity.
This in no wise excuses what is done to people in some Muslim countries today should they try to renounce Islam; I'm merely pointing out that it's not been so long since such treatment was commonplace in the West as well.
(I know... I shouldn't feed the troll, but this shouldn't go unanswered, either.)
Atheism != amorality (or hedonism, for that matter).
Richard Dawkins does an excellent job of debunking this myth in The God Delusion. One of the best books I've read this year.
Or just ask any Buddhist. He or she will be happy to explain to you that you don't need any god(s) to tell you the difference between right and wrong. That's what your brain is for.
P.S. For the love of $_DEITY_, please learn how to spell "atheist".:)
Any attempt at correlation between crime and anything else certainly does depend on what's included in the definition of "crime". I'm glad you also noticed that the fact that the US murder rate is more than twice that in Sweden does imply that there's something else included under "crime" to offset that, and there is certainly no reason to belittle me because I expressed interest in what that might be. (And my comment was no more off-topic than the parent.)
Since you couldn't be bothered, I did a bit of research and it turns out that Sweden has quite a high rate of assaults. I find this a bit surprising, because it doesn't seem that violent here to me, but I've only lived here for a little over a year, so it's quite possible I'm missing something.
openSUSE doesn't do upgrades, except security upgrades.
Yes, I'm well aware of this, as I've used (open)SUSE for about 4 years now. Which is why I have got rid of a lot of their apps and started building them from source (even I can do a configure, make, make install, and I've even tweaked a few build scripts here and there when builds have failed because I'm using a newer version of a library or some such thing). While I'm still a long ways from being a true Linux g00r00 (whatever that is), it's got to the point where I don't use RPMs or even depend on YaST for configuring the system anymore (I'm no longer afraid of config files, and I've even built and installed drivers from source, woohoo), and I'm now debating whether my next system upgrades will be to openSUSE 11 or to a source-based distro.
You can also install Firefox 3 form this page. It is the second link. Not sure whether 10.2 can do the on-click install, but you can try to click it and see what happens. Otherwise add the firefox repo in YaST and install from there.
Yes, I know what's on opensuse.org, thanks.
But why should I do that when I can go to mozilla.com, grab the latest binary with the latest security fixes from there, and simply untar it in my ~/bin? (I prefer to use 64-bit binaries on my 64-bit system, as they do seem generally to perform better, but it's not like a religion for me or anything like that.)
Also, even though I'm a longtime Mozilla user - having used Mozilla suite or Firefox as my main browser since Mozilla 0.8.something (2001 IIRC) - I'm not terribly impressed by FF3 so far. Reminds me too much of MSIE.
I'm using 32-bit Firefox 2.0.0.16 on 64-bit openSUSE 10.2. (I get tired of waiting for them to upgrade, and I can't get it to compile, so I just grab the 32-bit binary from mozilla.com and plop it in my ~/bin.)
BTW, the Flash 10 installer wouldn't run ("OS not supported"), but copying libflashplayer.so to ~/.mozilla/plugins and restarting the browser did the trick.
I wouldn't run Flash even if they bothered to create a version that runs on my OS (64-bit Linux).
I'm using Flash on 64-bit Linux right now. No problems with YouTube, although some sites appear to be using crap detection scripts that give me a "You must upgrade to Flash 9 to view this" when in fact I am running Flash 9.
That being said, I'd be much happier if Flash were displaced by SVG or some other form of markup. Binary blobs suck.
Coding certainly can be off-shored, but developers need to be closer to managers...
"Close to an Internet connection" leaves a lot of leeway in geographical terms, and is pretty much all you need when the products being created consist solely of electrons.
I also noticed that the remastered versions of classic Trek change a lot of the visuals (booo, hissss) - why not the lines?
Although, in this particular case, it could be that I'm remembering from the James Blish print adaptations (some of which did improve on the originals, and some of which pissed me off for changing the endings).
Any for-profit company is not going to spend money and time to develop software then give it away to competitors. That is not only stupid, but it's illegal, and warrants a lawsuit by the shareholders.
Hmmm... Guess somebody forgot to tell the shareholders in RedHat, Sun (including MySQL), Google, IBM, and Novell - among others.
Get back to me when "expert" witnesses are punished for giving false ans misleading evidence.
But that's what appears to have happened in the wake of the Susan Clark trial.
The flawed statistics used by the prosecution in the Clark case would likely not have been nearly so convincing, had a key piece of evidence not been suppressed by another doctor. Allan Williams, the pathologist who withheld the relevant information about Clark's medical condition from her defence (and apparently botched the autopsies he performed on the infants), was ultimately found guilty of misconduct and banned from practising medicine for 3 years. Meadow (the paediatrician who supplied the misleading statistics) managed to overturn being struck from practise, but has nonetheless been effectively discredited, and is not likely to be called upon for expert medical testimony in any future trials in the UK.
So I think your complaint should be that Williams weren't punished sufficiently, rather than that Meadow got off scot-free (which he didn't, at least not entirely).
Also note that - at least in part due to the Clark case and other trials where Meadow was called on as an expert witness - the UK courts made it clear that medical expert witnesses are legally and professionally liable for false or misleading testimony, or for other misconduct relating to their actions as expert witnesses.
If you're going to toss about emotionally-charged words such as these, at least do so responsibly and with accuracy. Also bear in mind that intent does make a difference both under the law and to those left behind.
"Murder" implies premeditation and malice aforethought. (You don't murder someone by accident.) "Manslaughter" or "negligent homicide" would be more applicable here, more likely the latter.
"Sociopath" implies that he was actually glad that the woman was killed. (Not showing regret for an action is not the same as revelling in it.) It would be more fair to say the guy was being "callous" and "unrepentant".
"Stupid" also comes to mind, but doesn't really have much bearing on how he felt about the woman's death or his part in it.
Reminds me of a quote (or sig) I saw once, wish I could remember the source: "In the 80s, capitalism triumphed over communism. In the 90s, it triumphed over democracy."
Slashdot Mirror
The king decries it!
I do not think that word means what you think it means.
Perhaps you meant this word?
Your perceptions are likely coloured by the fact that USians tend to regard anyone with any visible trace of Negro ancestry as 'Black', based no doubt at least in part on laws stemming from the One Drop Rule, even though many if not most 'Blacks' in the US are actually of mixed ancestry and many 'Whites' (including me) have traces of Sub-Sahara-African ancestry.
Because some of us would prefer not to run into certain people from the past.
Changing countries a few times has worked pretty well for me in that regard. :)
More seriously, I figure that there are a couple of billion other people online and I seriously doubt that I am very interesting to more than a handful of them.
7th-century barbarism? Try 17th - as late as the 1690s, people in some European countries were still liable to be executed, not only for leaving Christianity, but for switching to the wrong sort of Christianity.
This in no wise excuses what is done to people in some Muslim countries today should they try to renounce Islam; I'm merely pointing out that it's not been so long since such treatment was commonplace in the West as well.
(I know... I shouldn't feed the troll, but this shouldn't go unanswered, either.)
Atheism != amorality (or hedonism, for that matter).
Richard Dawkins does an excellent job of debunking this myth in The God Delusion . One of the best books I've read this year.
Or just ask any Buddhist. He or she will be happy to explain to you that you don't need any god(s) to tell you the difference between right and wrong. That's what your brain is for.
P.S. For the love of $_DEITY_, please learn how to spell "atheist". :)
In that case, why not opt for another Hitler or Stalin? Both of them made their intentions quite clear, and followed through on them.
Obligatory KITH viddy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogXJ7YBb3NE
Any attempt at correlation between crime and anything else certainly does depend on what's included in the definition of "crime". I'm glad you also noticed that the fact that the US murder rate is more than twice that in Sweden does imply that there's something else included under "crime" to offset that, and there is certainly no reason to belittle me because I expressed interest in what that might be. (And my comment was no more off-topic than the parent.)
Since you couldn't be bothered, I did a bit of research and it turns out that Sweden has quite a high rate of assaults. I find this a bit surprising, because it doesn't seem that violent here to me, but I've only lived here for a little over a year, so it's quite possible I'm missing something.
This report, while slightly dated, might also be of interest.
I'm from the US and now live in Sweden, and I have a very hard time believing that the crime rate here is higher, given that the US murder rate in the US is more than double that of Sweden.
openSUSE doesn't do upgrades, except security upgrades.
Yes, I'm well aware of this, as I've used (open)SUSE for about 4 years now. Which is why I have got rid of a lot of their apps and started building them from source (even I can do a configure, make, make install, and I've even tweaked a few build scripts here and there when builds have failed because I'm using a newer version of a library or some such thing). While I'm still a long ways from being a true Linux g00r00 (whatever that is), it's got to the point where I don't use RPMs or even depend on YaST for configuring the system anymore (I'm no longer afraid of config files, and I've even built and installed drivers from source, woohoo), and I'm now debating whether my next system upgrades will be to openSUSE 11 or to a source-based distro.
You can also install Firefox 3 form this page. It is the second link. Not sure whether 10.2 can do the on-click install, but you can try to click it and see what happens. Otherwise add the firefox repo in YaST and install from there.
Yes, I know what's on opensuse.org, thanks.
But why should I do that when I can go to mozilla.com, grab the latest binary with the latest security fixes from there, and simply untar it in my ~/bin? (I prefer to use 64-bit binaries on my 64-bit system, as they do seem generally to perform better, but it's not like a religion for me or anything like that.)
Also, even though I'm a longtime Mozilla user - having used Mozilla suite or Firefox as my main browser since Mozilla 0.8.something (2001 IIRC) - I'm not terribly impressed by FF3 so far. Reminds me too much of MSIE.
"All in a day's work for... BICYCLE REPAIRMAN."
Damn you, I'm going to have that song going through my head all day now. ;P
My bad - sort of.
I'm using 32-bit Firefox 2.0.0.16 on 64-bit openSUSE 10.2. (I get tired of waiting for them to upgrade, and I can't get it to compile, so I just grab the 32-bit binary from mozilla.com and plop it in my ~/bin.)
BTW, the Flash 10 installer wouldn't run ("OS not supported"), but copying libflashplayer.so to ~/.mozilla/plugins and restarting the browser did the trick.
I wouldn't run Flash even if they bothered to create a version that runs on my OS (64-bit Linux).
I'm using Flash on 64-bit Linux right now. No problems with YouTube, although some sites appear to be using crap detection scripts that give me a "You must upgrade to Flash 9 to view this" when in fact I am running Flash 9.
That being said, I'd be much happier if Flash were displaced by SVG or some other form of markup. Binary blobs suck.
Coding certainly can be off-shored, but developers need to be closer to managers...
"Close to an Internet connection" leaves a lot of leeway in geographical terms, and is pretty much all you need when the products being created consist solely of electrons.
I also noticed that the remastered versions of classic Trek change a lot of the visuals (booo, hissss) - why not the lines?
Although, in this particular case, it could be that I'm remembering from the James Blish print adaptations (some of which did improve on the originals, and some of which pissed me off for changing the endings).
That's a classic Star Trek reference, in case you youngsters don't get it.
(And if memory serves me correctly, the line was actually, "Brain and again brain. What is brain?")
Any for-profit company is not going to spend money and time to develop software then give it away to competitors. That is not only stupid, but it's illegal, and warrants a lawsuit by the shareholders.
Hmmm... Guess somebody forgot to tell the shareholders in RedHat, Sun (including MySQL), Google, IBM, and Novell - among others.
Antarctica is not included in the study for NG or oil in those studies. Why?
Because the Antarctic Treaty prohibits such activities.
Get back to me when "expert" witnesses are punished for giving false ans misleading evidence.
But that's what appears to have happened in the wake of the Susan Clark trial.
The flawed statistics used by the prosecution in the Clark case would likely not have been nearly so convincing, had a key piece of evidence not been suppressed by another doctor. Allan Williams, the pathologist who withheld the relevant information about Clark's medical condition from her defence (and apparently botched the autopsies he performed on the infants), was ultimately found guilty of misconduct and banned from practising medicine for 3 years. Meadow (the paediatrician who supplied the misleading statistics) managed to overturn being struck from practise, but has nonetheless been effectively discredited, and is not likely to be called upon for expert medical testimony in any future trials in the UK.
So I think your complaint should be that Williams weren't punished sufficiently, rather than that Meadow got off scot-free (which he didn't, at least not entirely).
Also note that - at least in part due to the Clark case and other trials where Meadow was called on as an expert witness - the UK courts made it clear that medical expert witnesses are legally and professionally liable for false or misleading testimony, or for other misconduct relating to their actions as expert witnesses.
I'd still rather have the machine gun.
... Netscape 4 and below had some interesting quirks too, but those browsers are beyond the memory of most modern web-designers.
"...and get off my lawn."
There were just so many things to hate about the 4th-gen browsers, weren't there...? Ah, those were the days. ;)
If you're going to toss about emotionally-charged words such as these, at least do so responsibly and with accuracy. Also bear in mind that intent does make a difference both under the law and to those left behind.
"Murder" implies premeditation and malice aforethought. (You don't murder someone by accident.) "Manslaughter" or "negligent homicide" would be more applicable here, more likely the latter.
"Sociopath" implies that he was actually glad that the woman was killed. (Not showing regret for an action is not the same as revelling in it.) It would be more fair to say the guy was being "callous" and "unrepentant".
"Stupid" also comes to mind, but doesn't really have much bearing on how he felt about the woman's death or his part in it.
He's obviously never been to Sweden, this much is certain.
Reminds me of a quote (or sig) I saw once, wish I could remember the source:
"In the 80s, capitalism triumphed over communism. In the 90s, it triumphed over democracy."
Source of the quote: David Korten.
(Props to Jeremiah Cornelius, where I first saw it.)