"When a distinguished but elderly scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he says it is impossible, he is very probable wrong." -Clark's First Law.
Singularities have happened before. In a sense. The evolution of Homo Sapiens Sapiens was one, ealier human species were simply not intelligent enough to adapt well enough to survive in the long run. Especially when we exploded on the scene with larger, more sophisticated brains. The next, was agriculture. Humans had been hunter gatherers since they evolved. It was a simple process, but did not allow for long term storage of large amounts of excess food, nor for a few to provide food for many. The sudden development of agriculture allowed a population explosion amongst our species, and a major change in lifestyle...including the rise of civilization and a great amount of technology. Explaining life across that divide would be quite difficult. Next was the scientific/industrial revolution. For thousands and thousands of years...life had followed a vaguely similar pattern. And then...someone had the bright idea to automate labor, and meanwhile....people began thinking along the lines of what we call "the scientific method" and began to experiment. This lead to a huge change in culture, technology, way of life, and quality of life. Many couldn't accept it during the transition period, the change was too much, too scary. We underwent a couple of mini-singularities more recently, in the early to mid 20th we underwent a period of such rapid scientific and technological development that many people of the time felt overwhelmed by it...and at the same time began to feel that there was nothing science couldn't do. And in the late 20th, early 21st (not) the Internet has changed everything about how society works.
You see....a Singularity isn't a slow, evolutionary change in society, it's a sudden revolutionary change. What Ray Kurzwell, and many others who have been very closely studying the technologies and trends involved, are saying, is that we are due for one hell of a revolutionary change.
You own it in the same sense you own a book you purchase. There are some restrictions on your actions due to copyright law...but you own said book. With Linux, thanks to the GPL, most of those restrictions under copyright law...including the right to copy and redistribute....are done away with by agreement. The only requirement is that if you distribute it, you distribute all of it. But you still own it.
Funny you should say that. What gives you the right to control another country's domain?
Oh, I don't know...owning the system?
And how would that be different from them not having control over their domain cause you have control exactly? Given the choice between you and the UN, the rest of the world chooses the UN, the lesser of two evils.
The oranization that put Libya in charge of Human Rights is the lesser evil? The organization behind the "Wildlands Project" that seriously attempted to turn half of the United States into protected wilderness area where all human activity (including habitation) would be banned...is the lesser evil? The organization that continues to attempt to push a treaty on the United States that would have it violate the protected rights of it's citizenry....is the lesser evil? Don't make me puke. If you do, point me in the direction of the United Nations first.
And your whole war-on-drugs is fueling new generations of fuckups to roam your streets.
I can agree with you here. The Prohibition on Drugs is the dumbest idea since the last time we tried Prohibition.
And the fact that other countries use torture does make torture less of a crime.
I'm merely pointing out that it happens even in most "civilized" countries....and yet those same countries are quick to scream "evil nazi death camps" towards us.
The thing with Guantanamo isn't really the methods of interogation, it's that people don't get charged for anything even after several years. It took at least 2 years before the Swedish guy you had in there got released and he was never charged. That is a violation of human rights.
It would be if it were a civil prison, subject to civilian rules and civilian law. It's a military prison camp, containing prisoners from a military occupied region under martial law. It's subject only to military justice and the Geneva Convention. There's no right to a lawyer, no need for criminal charges. Your man knew the risks when he went into a war zone.
And Guantanamo isn't even half of the problem. The problem is all prisons in Iraq that are torturing people to death, and who gets sent to prison seems to be totally random. This one Swedish citizen, who fled from Iraq during Saddam went back, was arrested and they pulled out all his finger- and toenails, and electrocuted his genitals. That shit is fucked up, and 'You' are still over there. Is that shit freedom really?
Americans did this, or Iraqi Security/Police did this? I seriously doubt it was the US Military. We haven't electrocuted genitals since Vietnam...and that was rogue elements of the CIA. And we've told the Iraqi's time and time again that this type of this isn't acceptable, even to the people who used to do it to them.
All of which you can keep. All the old stuff from the NSFnet years is obsolete anyway. And again, it's not about the infrastructure at all, but about control. Verisign will stil own the stuff, but ICANN won't be able to turn of a country.
Ah so, we'd still own it....just have absolutely no say over what happens to it. Doesn't sound like actual ownership to me.
Again. You can keep the old stuff all you want. It's not in operation anymore.
You know, upgrades of the systems count...
$0 in cash went to the country Niue who should have owned the.nu domain.
Should have...maybe. It is quite a big maybe that they should have owned the.nu domain. But they didn't, and therefore it wasn't theft. If they had owned it, then it would be.
Just just don't seem to get it. You will still own the infrastructure. It about CONTROL!
What gives you the right to control something you don't own?
It a about freedom for one country to have control over their own domain. How can you be against freedom?:) I know, I stole that one from the Bush administration.
No...each country wouldn't have control over their domain....the UN would. Think about that nightmare for a moment.
You seem to lack a firm grasp on the English language.
You seem to lack a firm grasp on American humor. I thought you said you could pass for a native here...
'You' torture people in Iraq and on Guantanamo, both two places 'You' control. That's a war crime, and 'You' as a people should make it stop.
Oh yes, that air conditioning at Gitmo is serious torture (seriously, someone claimed this once). Ok ok, so we do use sleep deprivation in questioning...and torn up copies of the Koran, and other little things officially. And unofficially...there are always assholes and abusers anywhere you have people with power over others and people in prisoner situations. You know what goes on inside French, Italian, and Spanish prisons? I'd almost rather be executed than end up in one. People don't come out of those places sane. Did you know that in Japan that torture is a common, legitimate police interrogation technique, and that prison cells are so small you can't stand up in them?
Hell, at my local, civilan county lock-up...by brother got the shit beat out of him by abusive deputies (giving him major, lifelong injuries), who then charged him with assulting a police officer. My brother went to prison for that. None of it was official policy, none of it was ordered....it was just the result of human nature and an abusive asshole in a position of power
Are abuses going on at Gitmo, sure, I don't doubt it. It'll happen anywhere. Is torture formally being carried out there by State policy under orders? I'm sure as hell it's not.
Hell, I'm sure you have things, very distasteful things, that go on in your own nation's prisons.
That's true, I recently upgraded his machine...his hard drive....well, it died and I was called in to try to recover the data. No go, thing was so bad off it rattled when I took it out of the machine. I mean....seriously fried. Since a new hard drive was needed anyway we took the opportunity to completely upgrade his OS (he was using an outdated version of SuSE). I happened to have a Mepis CD handy, so I just installed that since it was an easy install. Fairly big change for him, the look and layout are different..but he adapted damn quickly (but then, his usual applications are all there...OO.org, Kmail, etc... and he loves the new look) and is happy as a clam.
Just a note. Anything can be hacked given enough patience, enough time, enough resources, and enough basic knowledge. There is no such thing as a 100% secure system, unless you are talking about a system that has been unplugged, encased in concrete, and sunk to the bottum of the ocean. Even then, I wouldn't be too sure. In other words, best that can be done is to make it a challenging thing to do. There is no system that cannot be penetrated by a talented hacker. This one, evidentally, from what I've read, was fairly talented...not your average script kiddie.
The thing is, it's not tax payer dollars which have payed for most of the infrastucture.
Did I say most of the internet's infrastructure was? No. I said most of the key infrastructure was. Most of the original, base, infrastructure around which the rest of the internet has grown was.
It's company dollars like Verisign. And they get payed from all over the world. And in some cases it's not dollars at all but as I could show, Swedish tax Kronors.
An American corporation btw...
The infrastucture hasn't been payed by tax dollars for a very long time, it's been payed by companies.
Doesn't matter. It was paid for by tax dollars at one point in time. If I buy something with one big lump sum payment, or if I pay off my debt on something.....is it no longer mine because I am not continually paying for that item?
And often Americans have stolen money belonging to other countries. The guys living on he Island Niue were pretty pissed that an American was hogging all the money for the.nu TLD, especially since it was popular in sweden since 'nu' means 'now' in Swedish.
I don't see how that was stealing exactly...
The side issue of the occupation of Iraq is just to show a recuring pattern of the US trying to force it's view on the world. Same thing with RIAA and MPAA, and software patents. Why do you think there is such resistance against patents in Europe? We tend to have smaller and less litigious companies that would be killed if software patens were allowed.
You do realise that the MPAA and RIAA are the laughingstocks of the USA too right? And software patents are probably eventually on the way out here too. Oh, and every time one of those idiotic patents has been challenged in court...it's died. Seriously, no big.
And you _don't_ own the technology. As soon as it's an RFC, the world owns it.
True, we only came up with the idea, and built the basic infrastructure...which we want to continue to own and not have seized in some socialist power grab.
And seriously. You should stop torturing people. For real.
Really? That's really odd man. My memory must be off. I woke up this morning, and I have no memory of me ever torturing anybody.
You do not have free media. It it way more controlled than you think, doesn't matter if it's a combination of government, one of the two parties, or giant media companies. The minute the media doesn't give you the truth, they are doing something wrong.
You honestly thing this is the same thing as no Freedom of the Press here? If you do, you clearly do not understand the concept.
I am a hypocrit? How? I'm against all forms of censorship, even the swedish film industry. I want _all_ the blood and gore. *turning on GTA:SA now*
Yes, but you seem to be under the impression that there is more here than in most of the world. You've bitched and bitched about how much worse our censorship is....when the fact is yours is just as bad. Only now that you have been caught in this has your story changed.
"Either you are just not understanding right (possibly, given you are not a native speaker of English, let alone the American dialect, let alone American legalese...) or you are being incredibly pedantic."
Trust me. You would not be able to tell I'm not american if you heard me speak. It looks like you are the bigot here. (hint: I've lived in the US, all A student including english
Ok, so you are probably just being pedantic. Still, speaking perfect American English does not mean that you have a full grasp of American legalese (hell, most Americans don't).
And there is a BIG difference between congress declaring war on a country, and giving that power to the president. It's not their power to give away according to the constitution. Please at least try to understand.
They didn't give him the power to do anything, they authorized the Commander of Chief of the Armed Forces to take military action. In short, they used their war powers. You have to think like a lawyer for a moment (in other words, like every politician in Congress).
And the Bush administration knew there weren't any WMD, it was all a lie.
No, they didn't. They honestly thought, just like the previous administration, that there were WMD in Iraq. Bush didn't lie...he was mistaken. There is a difference. Now, the British lied, they lied to us about intelligence that helped convince us to invade....so if you want to look for liars...
You bigot. Hating a country so much you have to invade it. At least you admit it.
Are you sure you understand American English as well as any native? I said quite clearly that we were, as a people, collectively fed up with Saddam. One man, one tyrant, not an entire people. Hardly makes us bigots.
But seriously. If you don't like the guy, DON'T GIVE HIM WEAPONS OR WMD IN THE FIRST PLACE.
Like I said...play one enemy against another. It was the Cold War era after all. We had to maintain some sense of stability in the region to prevent the world from going to hell.
Think hard, really hard. Maybe the US actions abroad since WWII has something to do with the attitude against you, and it could be the cause behind stuff like 9/11.
Hey, there was this ideological war going on. The US never wanted that much power. Historically...we're "aggressively isolationist, reluctantly expansionist." We don't, generally, know what to do with power when we have it. Americans generally don't like power....it just doesn't go well with our culture. We had it thrust upon us. And quite frankly, someone had to do it. Europe's whole "ho-hum, who cares, pass the wine" attitude wasn't going to help.
Cat got your tounge when I could show you didn't own all the infrastructure?
I not around 24 hours a day, 7 days a week you know. Give me a fucking break. I had to go fix someone's dead hard drive. Sad thing is...not recoverable (unless you break out a forensics lab, maybe), and no backups...
At any rate, we own most of the vital infrastructure holding thw whole thing together, and the UN is trying to take it from us.
My computer illiterate grandfather uses Linux on his computer, and he is happier with it than with Windows. So tell me...just how is Linux user hostile if such a person can use it easily and regularly.
Censorship is per definition when you torture people behind closed doors away from medias eyes for instance, then you censor information.
Are you smoking crack? The media has a right to publish anything they want (in fact, the People have a right to publish anything they want). They even have a right to try and find information to publish. This does not equal a right to go anywhere they want, or to have any information they demand. There is no fundamental right to have every piece of knowledge handed to you. It is not censorship if the government is unable to make you omniscient!
If you can't get information out of prisoners in the view of a camera, you are probably comitting war crimes. If you had pictures of how Iraqies are treated in prisons in Iraq on the 11 o'clock news, the government would loose the war on the homefront within a week.
But we did see pictures about treatment, and the people responsable are being punished.
Have you for instance seen, as I have on European TV, pictures of Iraqies being tortured by having the soles of their feet whipped with canes? It was a common torture method during Saddams rule, and it's still common in "free" Iraq.
By the American government? Right now? I'd like proof.
TV doesn't have any problem with violence. The movie industry in Sweden does. Some movies are censored and some graphical violence is cut out. But that has gotten a lot better since the eighties, when it was common. Nowadays allmost all movies are uncut. Last movie I can rembered that was censored in the theaters was Terminator 2. But some of your "GTA made my kid go on a shooting spree!" has bled over here but nothing has actually happened since "The Last Ninja" which was the game that started the debate.
So you are a hypocrite. If we fine for obscenity we are doing the evil of censorship and asre bad, bad people living in a horrible society. And yet, your people will directly censor for content.
No. Since you don't seem to speak english I will repeat myself. "A majority of the rest of the world dislike you as a whole country, government, people, soldiers abroad, christian nuts and especially the likes of RIAA and MPAA."
Ok, "dislike" then...you "dislike" our people and think the whole world does too. Still sounds like the same old bigotry and hate speech to me, just a lightening of tone. See, if I were to say, "I dislike Englishmen" or "I dislike Jews" I would be classed as a bigot. So should anyone who says "I dislike Americans."
Oh, I'm a bigot? Especially since I'm a university teacher at an international masters program with a minority of Swedish students. The rest are, French, German, Norwegian, Icelandic, Danish, Hungarian, American, Canadian, Brittish, Italian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Mexican, from Panama, Colombian, Swiss, Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, Australian, Thai Korean and a Palestinian.
Yes, you are a bigot. Your bigotry is focused against Americans, but that makes you no less of a bigot.
Your attitude on the other hand is exactly what people dislike, the whole "we are the best, and we can do what the fuck we like" makes you come off like a real asshole, even though you probably are an OK guy, considering you frequent slashdot.
When did I say we can do what we like? When did I say we are "the best"? Oh sure, I'll willingly admit the USA is the military top dog of the world....and economic leader....and currently the biggest cultural influence in the world....and that we have a damn good system of rights which I think is better than many countries... But other than that...
Yes. But he does not have the power to start wars without being attacked.
He didn't, technically Congress used it's war powers.
Incorrect. It authorized him to start war on Iraq as he saw fit. And he did
And as with all research made public, you don't own it anymore. I belongs to the world. In fact there are 13 root DNS servers in Europe on standby if you ever decide to use that "We own the internet" argument for real.
Whoops, forgot to deal with this... Anyway, the internet is not just research, it's infrastructure. If you want your own infrastructure (or backup infrastructure) that is fine. No problem with that at all. But we own the existing infrastructure. We paid for it. And now the UN is demanding (DEMANDING!) that we give it to them. How would you like it if something you paid for with your tax dollars, vital infrastructure, was suddenly claimed by the UN? I doubt you'd like it at all.
You do realize that you've just proven my point right? The soldier was punished (or at least they tried to). You have to account for the whole chain, not just the government. You even have to include self-censorship by media, or that soldiers are afraid to take pictures because they are afraid of punishment. It's a good thing that pictures are taken, otherwise the torture of prisoners in Abu-Graib(sp?) for instance would have gotten any justice.
The soldier taking pictures of the body bags...he was supposed to be doing his job, instead of goofing off taking snapshots. As for the prison photos....it's not like they were press photos, it's not like they were meant to be released to "tell all." They were personal snapshots taken by sick assholes who were enjoying their private, romantic moments together torturing prisoners and wanted to preserve the moment. They got leaked when one sent them over the internet to someone else.
And anyone who wants to use the "just following orders" and "didn't know it was illegal" defense on these twits BTW..."just following orders" didn't work after WWII, and every military officer is drilled about the Geneva Convention, and what to do about illegal orders. Furthermore...these idiots (or at least one of them was, I forget exact details here) were civilian prison guards prior to Iraq and thus should know how to treat prisoners.
I ask again. How can so many embedded reporters see so little actual killing?
If you're on duty to haul around a reporter....it's not very likely that you're going to be ordered into the most hazardous areas to ensure the safety of said reporter. It would make real bad press if they got killed...and people, as they always do when a reporter has died in war...will start screaming "coverup." The Army isn't made up of idiots you know.
Of course it's different, duh. But it's very much so censorship, and it's fueled by the fanatical Christian right, a very vocal minority.
In free countries, like in Sweden, people don't get upset if they hear fuck on TV or radio, and in fact a radioshow in sweden was swamped when they accidentally played a BLEEPed "radio-friendly" version of a song instead of the real version. People were very upset by the censorship, not the word fuck.
So would your television have no problem with say.....American style TV and movie violence? I don't mean the average fake looking gun shootout. I hear Europeans complaining about that all the time. Heck, in some countries over there, American games have the blood edited out, or other things edited out. But anyway, let's get back to language, you can hear a "fuck" or "shit" or "damn" or "son of a bitch" or even "asshole" on TV on certain shows. They don't get fined. You really have to go out of your way to be offensive usually to get fined.
No, that's not at all what I said.
A majority of the rest of the world dislike you as a whole country, government, people, soldiers abroad, christian nuts and especially the likes of RIAA and MPAA.
So, in other words, you honestly think that the majority of the people of the world hate the people of the United States. And hate our country.... even if excluding the government that runs it. That explains why I have so many foreign friends over the net that say you are so full of bullshit. I think you're just a bigot.
And this goes against the constitution! It gives the president power to invade if he wants to. Read the actual pages yourself. I'll say it again, it gives power to the president to start a war and that's not a power he should have, congress should have that power according to the constitution. Thanks for finding links that proves my point.
You do realise that the President is Commander and Chief of the Armed Forces yes? That's established in the Constitution. And that bill, passed through Congress, authorised the President to u
Why aren't you seeing body bags of Americans killed in Iraq on the evening news? (lesson learned from Vietnam, don't show dead Americans on TV or you'll loose the war)
The government not letting the press into the place they keep the bodies isn't the same as censorship. The press is allowed to print what they like. In fact, they did once get ahold of a picture, taken by a soldier, of bodybags and printed it. It caused an uproar in the military as they moved to punish the soldier who took the picture. But nobody stopped the press from printing any photos nor punished them for doing so.
Why is there such a gigantic fine if you show a nipple on TV?
Now that's different. There are rules about basic content for such things as considered obscenity and language...but within those very general guidelines people can do whatever they want. I do think that the fine for accidental nipplage on a live event was a little stupid though. It's not censorship though, fines are applied after the fact. There are no official government censors approving what is seen. If something happens, and people complain, a fine is likely...but also likely challenged. That's very different from censorship.
There was a survey of what people watching mostly FOX knew about the world around them. On most of the questions people watching FOX thought exactly the opposite of the truth. One of the questions was they thought foreigners though of the US, and 80% something say 'They like us', when most people outside of the US in fact dislike you. As a journalist, would you be proud of your network if a majority of of viewers believe the wrong thing most of the time? I would not.
So you honestly believe that most of the people of the world hate the American people? Careful now....I'm not saying government, I'm saying people.
Can you show a link to that vote?
I saw the footage when congress gave the president power to start any preemtive war.
You should watch it too, in fact every American should, but they are not going to see it on TV (cause it's censored):
In fact, the issue of voting on the war with Iraq was a major political issue during the last Presidential election, as John Kerry, the opponent to George Bush, had voted for going to war with Iraq....and yet strongly opposed the War in his campaign.
You should stop listening to your own propaganda and start contemplating how people outside the US think of you, and also why.
Perhaps you should take a dose of your own medicine there.
The whole "the Internet belongs to the US!" thing is exactly why people dislike you.
But it does. We built it, with our tax dollars, for our military....and then decided to open it to the public. That it gained popularity worldwide was a bonus. But it is our property. We made it, we paid for it.
I can travel freely to Cuba, can you? Oh, that's right, the US government has restrictions on its citizens to travel to Cuba, so it might not be that easy for you...
So your country never takes sanctions against another country, restricting contact with said nation?
I really have no idea what ban of books, movies and/or other media you're talking about... Feel free to fill me in.
I don't know what country you are from... But...
Let's take New Zealand.... Their "Office of Film and Literature Classification" has a standard where they will ban (or at the very least censor) any book, film, or media which they consider to be offensive to....well...anyone. of from the words of the agency itself, "Each time the Classification Office makes a classification decision it must consider whether the availability of that particular publication is likely to be injurious to the public good. Under the Classification Act, the Classification Office is deemed to exercise expert judgment when making these decisions." And yes, they have not only been known to ban books, but seize them from private owners.
Many former English colonies have similarly established agencies. And England itself has a long history of official book bans, including in recent years. In Germany and many other countries, books on nazism are banned....as are nazi symbols. This includes going so far as banning historically important texts as well as educational materials such as books about Nazi uniforms and symbols and how they were used (of interest to students of history of course).
In the United States, Freedom of the Press does not just mean the news media. It means any printed material.
And in some states you even redefine science to fit better with Christianity.
Sounds like your problems are with certain State governments. You see, the USA doesn't dictate State policy.
No, you are a country living in constant fear, because that's the way you control a supposed democracy.
We are? I'm not...funny that. Don't believe the media hype.
You're not even a working democracy since your system doesn't allow for a third party to ever get any control over congress. What happens if both parties are wankers?
It is true that third parties do not have enough influence at the Federal level (but can have significant influence at the State level though). But there have been third party Congressmen, and Independents not tied to any party are very common. There has even been a third party President once. So don't discount those third parties.
As for democracy...you're right, we aren't. Our own Founding Fathers detested the idea. Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner after all. We are a Federal Republic...a federation of 50 sovereign States. At the Federal level there is very little democracy, we do not directly elect our President (he's chosen by electors, who usually take the will of the people of their States into account), we do not elect Federal judges (appointees), and Congress (both the Senate and House) technically represents the States rather than the people directly. The States however, tend to be fairly standard democratic republics.
What happens if both parties are wankers? And even if the majority, votes for one guy, crooked voting machines, brothers, crooked voting officials, TV-station chiefs and Judges can sway the vote so the other guys wins. Or you could just buy a polititian.
Hey, don't forget ballot box stuffing by unions, fictional voters at non-existant addresses, dead people voting....yes those Democrats can be quite unscrupulous.
And what about your censored media?
What censored media? We have a Press which is routinely critical of our government. We have a press which often goes to extremes to exaggerate, or to blame our Federal government for things that aren't it's fault, withhold stories to release until it's at the point where they can most hurt the people currently in power, even go to the extreme of making stuff up on occasion. If the government is censoring the media...they are doing the most incompetent job in history.
And isn't there something basically wrong with a TV network (FOX), where the majority thinks the world around you actually like the US, even though reality is completely opposite?
What the hell are you talking about here?
And most important. You went against the Constitution when you gave the President power to start war and took that power away from congress.
Really? As far as I know the Congress fully approved the War ahead of time...just as the Constitution says it's supposed to. Again, stop listening to the hype and propaganda.
Oh? We still have more freedom than most western nations. We don't ban books, movies, or other media. We don't ban political party affiliation. People can actually be armed legally.
And stop abusing the word freedom. The US is not a free country, it's a police state run by religious fanatics, a military industiral complex and we're it's legal to give money to politicians to change their vote (usually called bribery in other countries).
America is a police state? News to me. This is a land where buying books about Nazi regalia, purely for the historical context, is legal, or you can buy books about explosives, or drugs, or books critical of our government, even books saying it should be overthrown....because we don't ban books here. Unlike in certain other "Free, Western" nations. This is a country where citizens can legally own M-16s. This is a country where anyone can express any political opinion they wish, even call the leadership evil...without being jailed. This is a country where people can vote for or join whatever political party they wish (even if it has a snowball's chance in hell), including the Nazi or Communist parties....without being jailed. And this is a country where people can be any religion they wish, there are various Neo-Pagans, Jews, Muslems, Hindus, Buddhists, Vodunists, and people of many other faiths...there's no law against it, there's no government oppression. Sure most are Christians of some sort or another...but most of those aren't even Fundamentalists of any stripe.
Where? Where is the fucking "police state" you are bitching about? I don't see it. If it were here, we'd overthrow it because Americans are culturally intolerant of tyranny.
I know someone who was beaten in jail by guards while in the shower, then charged and convicted with assaulting a police officer afterwards...and given a very serious medical condition he will live with the rest of his life. Does this count?
True liberals hate suffering and tyranny yes...those who are called liberals in the USA (and likely elsewhere in the world) only make a show of that while building a tyranny of their own.
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Singularities have happened before. In a sense. The evolution of Homo Sapiens Sapiens was one, ealier human species were simply not intelligent enough to adapt well enough to survive in the long run. Especially when we exploded on the scene with larger, more sophisticated brains. The next, was agriculture. Humans had been hunter gatherers since they evolved. It was a simple process, but did not allow for long term storage of large amounts of excess food, nor for a few to provide food for many. The sudden development of agriculture allowed a population explosion amongst our species, and a major change in lifestyle...including the rise of civilization and a great amount of technology. Explaining life across that divide would be quite difficult. Next was the scientific/industrial revolution. For thousands and thousands of years...life had followed a vaguely similar pattern. And then...someone had the bright idea to automate labor, and meanwhile....people began thinking along the lines of what we call "the scientific method" and began to experiment. This lead to a huge change in culture, technology, way of life, and quality of life. Many couldn't accept it during the transition period, the change was too much, too scary. We underwent a couple of mini-singularities more recently, in the early to mid 20th we underwent a period of such rapid scientific and technological development that many people of the time felt overwhelmed by it...and at the same time began to feel that there was nothing science couldn't do. And in the late 20th, early 21st (not) the Internet has changed everything about how society works.
You see....a Singularity isn't a slow, evolutionary change in society, it's a sudden revolutionary change. What Ray Kurzwell, and many others who have been very closely studying the technologies and trends involved, are saying, is that we are due for one hell of a revolutionary change.
So a system...used by enterprises....is not an enterprise system...
You own it in the same sense you own a book you purchase. There are some restrictions on your actions due to copyright law...but you own said book. With Linux, thanks to the GPL, most of those restrictions under copyright law...including the right to copy and redistribute....are done away with by agreement. The only requirement is that if you distribute it, you distribute all of it. But you still own it.
Oh yes, that air conditioning at Gitmo is serious torture (seriously, someone claimed this once). Ok ok, so we do use sleep deprivation in questioning...and torn up copies of the Koran, and other little things officially. And unofficially...there are always assholes and abusers anywhere you have people with power over others and people in prisoner situations. You know what goes on inside French, Italian, and Spanish prisons? I'd almost rather be executed than end up in one. People don't come out of those places sane. Did you know that in Japan that torture is a common, legitimate police interrogation technique, and that prison cells are so small you can't stand up in them?
Hell, at my local, civilan county lock-up...by brother got the shit beat out of him by abusive deputies (giving him major, lifelong injuries), who then charged him with assulting a police officer. My brother went to prison for that. None of it was official policy, none of it was ordered....it was just the result of human nature and an abusive asshole in a position of power
Are abuses going on at Gitmo, sure, I don't doubt it. It'll happen anywhere. Is torture formally being carried out there by State policy under orders? I'm sure as hell it's not.
Hell, I'm sure you have things, very distasteful things, that go on in your own nation's prisons.
That's true, I recently upgraded his machine...his hard drive....well, it died and I was called in to try to recover the data. No go, thing was so bad off it rattled when I took it out of the machine. I mean....seriously fried. Since a new hard drive was needed anyway we took the opportunity to completely upgrade his OS (he was using an outdated version of SuSE). I happened to have a Mepis CD handy, so I just installed that since it was an easy install. Fairly big change for him, the look and layout are different..but he adapted damn quickly (but then, his usual applications are all there...OO.org, Kmail, etc... and he loves the new look) and is happy as a clam.
Just a note. Anything can be hacked given enough patience, enough time, enough resources, and enough basic knowledge. There is no such thing as a 100% secure system, unless you are talking about a system that has been unplugged, encased in concrete, and sunk to the bottum of the ocean. Even then, I wouldn't be too sure. In other words, best that can be done is to make it a challenging thing to do. There is no system that cannot be penetrated by a talented hacker. This one, evidentally, from what I've read, was fairly talented...not your average script kiddie.
So lay off alright?
I not around 24 hours a day, 7 days a week you know. Give me a fucking break. I had to go fix someone's dead hard drive. Sad thing is...not recoverable (unless you break out a forensics lab, maybe), and no backups...
At any rate, we own most of the vital infrastructure holding thw whole thing together, and the UN is trying to take it from us.
Are you smoking crack? The media has a right to publish anything they want (in fact, the People have a right to publish anything they want). They even have a right to try and find information to publish. This does not equal a right to go anywhere they want, or to have any information they demand. There is no fundamental right to have every piece of knowledge handed to you. It is not censorship if the government is unable to make you omniscient!
But we did see pictures about treatment, and the people responsable are being punished.
By the American government? Right now? I'd like proof.
So you are a hypocrite. If we fine for obscenity we are doing the evil of censorship and asre bad, bad people living in a horrible society. And yet, your people will directly censor for content.
Ok, "dislike" then...you "dislike" our people and think the whole world does too. Still sounds like the same old bigotry and hate speech to me, just a lightening of tone. See, if I were to say, "I dislike Englishmen" or "I dislike Jews" I would be classed as a bigot. So should anyone who says "I dislike Americans."
Yes, you are a bigot. Your bigotry is focused against Americans, but that makes you no less of a bigot.
When did I say we can do what we like? When did I say we are "the best"? Oh sure, I'll willingly admit the USA is the military top dog of the world....and economic leader....and currently the biggest cultural influence in the world....and that we have a damn good system of rights which I think is better than many countries... But other than that...
He didn't, technically Congress used it's war powers.
The soldier taking pictures of the body bags...he was supposed to be doing his job, instead of goofing off taking snapshots. As for the prison photos....it's not like they were press photos, it's not like they were meant to be released to "tell all." They were personal snapshots taken by sick assholes who were enjoying their private, romantic moments together torturing prisoners and wanted to preserve the moment. They got leaked when one sent them over the internet to someone else.
And anyone who wants to use the "just following orders" and "didn't know it was illegal" defense on these twits BTW..."just following orders" didn't work after WWII, and every military officer is drilled about the Geneva Convention, and what to do about illegal orders. Furthermore...these idiots (or at least one of them was, I forget exact details here) were civilian prison guards prior to Iraq and thus should know how to treat prisoners.
If you're on duty to haul around a reporter....it's not very likely that you're going to be ordered into the most hazardous areas to ensure the safety of said reporter. It would make real bad press if they got killed...and people, as they always do when a reporter has died in war...will start screaming "coverup." The Army isn't made up of idiots you know.
So would your television have no problem with say.....American style TV and movie violence? I don't mean the average fake looking gun shootout. I hear Europeans complaining about that all the time. Heck, in some countries over there, American games have the blood edited out, or other things edited out. But anyway, let's get back to language, you can hear a "fuck" or "shit" or "damn" or "son of a bitch" or even "asshole" on TV on certain shows. They don't get fined. You really have to go out of your way to be offensive usually to get fined.
So, in other words, you honestly think that the majority of the people of the world hate the people of the United States. And hate our country.... even if excluding the government that runs it. That explains why I have so many foreign friends over the net that say you are so full of bullshit. I think you're just a bigot.
You do realise that the President is Commander and Chief of the Armed Forces yes? That's established in the Constitution. And that bill, passed through Congress, authorised the President to u
But does it run Linux?
In fact, the issue of voting on the war with Iraq was a major political issue during the last Presidential election, as John Kerry, the opponent to George Bush, had voted for going to war with Iraq....and yet strongly opposed the War in his campaign.
Perhaps you should take a dose of your own medicine there. But it does. We built it, with our tax dollars, for our military....and then decided to open it to the public. That it gained popularity worldwide was a bonus. But it is our property. We made it, we paid for it.I don't know what country you are from... But...
Let's take New Zealand.... Their "Office of Film and Literature Classification" has a standard where they will ban (or at the very least censor) any book, film, or media which they consider to be offensive to....well...anyone. of from the words of the agency itself, "Each time the Classification Office makes a classification decision it must consider whether the availability of that particular publication is likely to be injurious to the public good. Under the Classification Act, the Classification Office is deemed to exercise expert judgment when making these decisions." And yes, they have not only been known to ban books, but seize them from private owners.
Many former English colonies have similarly established agencies. And England itself has a long history of official book bans, including in recent years. In Germany and many other countries, books on nazism are banned....as are nazi symbols. This includes going so far as banning historically important texts as well as educational materials such as books about Nazi uniforms and symbols and how they were used (of interest to students of history of course).
In the United States, Freedom of the Press does not just mean the news media. It means any printed material.
It is true that third parties do not have enough influence at the Federal level (but can have significant influence at the State level though). But there have been third party Congressmen, and Independents not tied to any party are very common. There has even been a third party President once. So don't discount those third parties.
As for democracy...you're right, we aren't. Our own Founding Fathers detested the idea. Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner after all. We are a Federal Republic...a federation of 50 sovereign States. At the Federal level there is very little democracy, we do not directly elect our President (he's chosen by electors, who usually take the will of the people of their States into account), we do not elect Federal judges (appointees), and Congress (both the Senate and House) technically represents the States rather than the people directly. The States however, tend to be fairly standard democratic republics.
Hey, don't forget ballot box stuffing by unions, fictional voters at non-existant addresses, dead people voting....yes those Democrats can be quite unscrupulous. What censored media? We have a Press which is routinely critical of our government. We have a press which often goes to extremes to exaggerate, or to blame our Federal government for things that aren't it's fault, withhold stories to release until it's at the point where they can most hurt the people currently in power, even go to the extreme of making stuff up on occasion. If the government is censoring the media...they are doing the most incompetent job in history. What the hell are you talking about here? Really? As far as I know the Congress fully approved the War ahead of time...just as the Constitution says it's supposed to. Again, stop listening to the hype and propaganda.Oh? We still have more freedom than most western nations. We don't ban books, movies, or other media. We don't ban political party affiliation. People can actually be armed legally.
America is a police state? News to me. This is a land where buying books about Nazi regalia, purely for the historical context, is legal, or you can buy books about explosives, or drugs, or books critical of our government, even books saying it should be overthrown....because we don't ban books here. Unlike in certain other "Free, Western" nations. This is a country where citizens can legally own M-16s. This is a country where anyone can express any political opinion they wish, even call the leadership evil...without being jailed. This is a country where people can vote for or join whatever political party they wish (even if it has a snowball's chance in hell), including the Nazi or Communist parties....without being jailed. And this is a country where people can be any religion they wish, there are various Neo-Pagans, Jews, Muslems, Hindus, Buddhists, Vodunists, and people of many other faiths...there's no law against it, there's no government oppression. Sure most are Christians of some sort or another...but most of those aren't even Fundamentalists of any stripe.
Where? Where is the fucking "police state" you are bitching about? I don't see it. If it were here, we'd overthrow it because Americans are culturally intolerant of tyranny.
I know someone who was beaten in jail by guards while in the shower, then charged and convicted with assaulting a police officer afterwards...and given a very serious medical condition he will live with the rest of his life. Does this count?
True liberals hate suffering and tyranny yes...those who are called liberals in the USA (and likely elsewhere in the world) only make a show of that while building a tyranny of their own.
The internet was designed as a military project for our nation. We built it, we own it's infrastructure, it's our property. Don't like it? Tough.