Racism in Spain, AIDS denial (listing mostly US authors) and homeopathic beliefs in Britain do not amount to evidence of irrationality in Europe on anything like the scale of the US.
Your argument is simply false. Specifically, AIDS denial in parts of Africa and homeopathy in Britain are, in fact, more prevalent than, say, young-earth creationism in the US.
I consider your assumption that the cultures involved produce this type of stupidity to be in direct contradiction with the evidence. And anyone who has spoken at length with religious fundamentalists, creationists, conspiracy theorists, or any other promoter of psuedoscience like pyschics, etc (or even more broadly anti-knowledge like psuedohistory and psuedomathematics) will quickly realize it wasn't just a simple failure of their education system. It's something far more fundamental.
While there's a kernel of fundamentalism in the UK, I'm afraid this particularly virulent, anti-science, Know-Nothingist, inerrantist version of Christianity is an American invention.
While certainly true, it's equally true that the British (in particular, and Europeans in general) are not immune to a widespread acceptance of stupidity that appears to be a problem that is uniquely "common" to their society. I think we are in danger of viewing this problem too narrowly and thus asserting some sort of absurd cultural superiority. My hypothesis is simply that stupid people are drawn to stupidity. This fact, it seems to me, isn't culturally unique. And so cultural differences manifest themselves in different ways in different places.
In my view, all of these varieties of stupid are simply symptoms of the same fundamental flaw in human reasoning when viewed through the cultural of the person in question. So, more to the point, it needs to be examined why people, in general, believe stupid things. Pretending this is a uniquely American concoction hides, in my view, the underlying problem and distracts from the primary issue.
In theory, the rapture could happen at any second and they'll all vanish. I was going to start a petition to get the ball rolling, but I didn't know where to submit it.
I believe that people -- Americans in particular -- get very wigged-out when it is suggested that anything whatsoever might not be private property.
Don't forget people -- Europeans in particular -- get very wigged-out when it is suggested that people actually have the right to get paid for the work they do. (And the fact that it is their societly duty to provide art, for free, that everyone can sit around and celebrate).
Look, you can argue with the merits of the implementation, but pretending you don't understand why "Americans" think it's ok for artists and actors to get paid... that's just being ignorant for no apparant reason.|
As has been pointed out, that American is wrong. The point here is that you ran into a stupid American, not a stupid American law. Cops don't carry guns to catch shoplifters.
How is "No, Al Qaeda does not want to kill all Jews." nuanced? It isn't, it's a quite basic disagreement with your position. Make a point or don't.
Compare your depth of analysis with this utterly stupid comment:
This is the most racist, jingoistic, willfully xenophobic, flag-waving, God-appropriating culture since Nazi germany. Your ability to even get a job, a loan, or get admitted to a school is based on your willingness to sing the praises of Bush and wrap yourself in the flag.
Every single point you just made is provably false with a minor bit of effort.. (similar to the Al Qaeda vs "all jews" comment) effort I am entirely unwilling to spend on someone so completely and utterly beyond the level of truth-seeking and well into the realm of agenda-pushing. It's trivial to show that the parrallels you are trying to draw don't stand up, at all, to scrutiny. You know it and I know it. You are just repeating this cursory analysis over and over because it furthers your agenda. At best, it's just extremely weak, and at worst, it's dishonest.
Do you notice how nuanced your analysis is when you want to discredit comparisons that you disagree with, and how incredibly broad and generalizing a brush you use when you want to draw parallels? I can't really explain your bizarre analysis in any other way. But I am reasonably certain that you aren't approaching these issues with sufficient objectivity or intellectual honesty to make more a conversation meaningful.
You've completely missed my point. I don't object with a single thing you've said. What you just stated was a rational opinion on why government intrusion is less of a threat than terrorists. I have no problem with rational reasoning. I have a problem with fear mongering. Emotional rhetoric based on appeal to fear and appeal to consequences fallacies is garbage no matter whose pumping it.
Running around using words like 'tyranny', 'police-state', and 'facism', with virtually no analysis or intellectual honesty is just as bad as running around talking about 'islamofacists' and 'terrorists'. Appealing to fear isn't OK, ever. Just because you happen to agree with the ends doesn't justify the means. I am intellectually offended by people who resort to the same logically fallacious bullshit because they realize that sophistry is the most effective way to convince people they are right.
I'm not going to be scared of the government because someone can call it "facist" and yell about "tyrrany". It's hyperbolic and fallacious and it sets off my bullshit sophistry alarms from three miles away. That rhetorical tactic is fundamentally identical to overstating terrorist threat.
You seem to be saying that until they arrive in jackboots to carry you off, it's too early to complain. Well I have news for you: once they arrive in jackboots to carry you off, it's too late to complain.
Hi, that's the same logic that the President is using to scare people into giving him power. You are no different. Claiming that the police state facism is here and alive and well, and it's the end of the world is fearmongering just the same as claiming that terrorists are the gravest threat to America. The real threat to America is both sides who completely and utterly lack perspective and engage in hyperbolic rhetoric to scare people with, literally, an abuse of the truth.
Nothing beats a fearmongering president like fearmongering dissent. Welcome to the real new America. Everyone has lost all perspective... Chicken Little rules the day.
Honestly why don't companies like bungie simply run a CRC on any downloaded content, or record the downloaded date server side and compare it with the modified date client side.
Because it's not that simple. Think of the code that gets run.
Calculate CRC check CRC to answer if not equal jump to OMG_HACKER if equal jmp to PLAY_GAME_PLEASE
All a hacker has to do is find any location in 'Calculate CRC' and put a single instruction 'JMP PLAY_GAME_PLEASE', and he's bypassed your CRC check. So now you have to put in a check to make sure that code hasn't been screwed with, etc, etc. To be totally secure, it would need to be "turtles, all the way down".
I'm not a gas-price-shopper, but I know several people who are. It actually takes zero time to do since you're driving past all the big price signs on the way to and from work every day. To say the effort could be better used somewhere else is silly.
Bunk. Everyday I drive to work I ignore gas signs because I'm busy trying to unify physics or prove the Riemann hypothesis. So close....
You should try reading the article. The Air Force is saying that it's not going to "test" these weapons that everyone THINKS are non-lethal in a combat area and find out they are, in fact, NOT non-lethal. The air force is saying that if the governemnt (read: US population) wants them to use non-lethal weapons, then it better go about PROVING their non-lethality and willingness therein so far as to use it on themselves. The Air Force is saying that if the US conscience wants to the US to use non-lethal weapons, it better be willing to stick it's own neck on the line in the face of such non-lethal weapons.
This is the military being responsible... not the other way around. This is all-time great FUD. Slashdot should be ashamed for buying into this bullshit headline and quoting the wrong parts. Militaries KILL PEOPLE. That's what they do. The conscience of the American people want the military to NOT-KILL-PEOPLE, so they are promoting non-lethal weapons. The Air Force response by saying, "Once you test them on yourselves, American population, we will agree to use them on our enemies... they are nonlethal, after all?".
The air force is agreeing with you. The yellow journalist and sensationalistic title on this piece is seriously disheartening.
Nope, that's Venus and Earth. Mars is about one-third the mass of earth, IIRC.
Quoth the wikipedia, "Mars has half the radius of the Earth and only one-tenth the mass, being less dense, but its surface area is only slightly less than the total area of Earth's dry land".
Slashdot Mirror
Racism in Spain, AIDS denial (listing mostly US authors) and homeopathic beliefs in Britain do not amount to evidence of irrationality in Europe on anything like the scale of the US.
Your argument is simply false. Specifically, AIDS denial in parts of Africa and homeopathy in Britain are, in fact, more prevalent than, say, young-earth creationism in the US.
I consider your assumption that the cultures involved produce this type of stupidity to be in direct contradiction with the evidence. And anyone who has spoken at length with religious fundamentalists, creationists, conspiracy theorists, or any other promoter of psuedoscience like pyschics, etc (or even more broadly anti-knowledge like psuedohistory and psuedomathematics) will quickly realize it wasn't just a simple failure of their education system. It's something far more fundamental.
While there's a kernel of fundamentalism in the UK, I'm afraid this particularly virulent, anti-science, Know-Nothingist, inerrantist version of Christianity is an American invention.
While certainly true, it's equally true that the British (in particular, and Europeans in general) are not immune to a widespread acceptance of stupidity that appears to be a problem that is uniquely "common" to their society. I think we are in danger of viewing this problem too narrowly and thus asserting some sort of absurd cultural superiority. My hypothesis is simply that stupid people are drawn to stupidity. This fact, it seems to me, isn't culturally unique. And so cultural differences manifest themselves in different ways in different places.
In my view, all of these varieties of stupid are simply symptoms of the same fundamental flaw in human reasoning when viewed through the cultural of the person in question. So, more to the point, it needs to be examined why people, in general, believe stupid things. Pretending this is a uniquely American concoction hides, in my view, the underlying problem and distracts from the primary issue.
"Does it run Linux in Rule 110?"
t omaton n e _(book)
Not sure how far that kind of nerdery is gonna get you... even on slashdot. Know that you've been modded up in my heart.
Here's some wikipedia articles for anyone that's dug this far and is wondering what we are talking about:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_110_cellular_au
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_complete
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Cook
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_computatio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Scienc
The US has already done a good job at destabilizing the region. I doubt it could get much worse.
I know this is slashdot so anti-US trolling is par for the course, but it can. It can get much worse.
I think this fairly clearly proves that Gates' motivations are not altruistic.
That's a joke, right?
In theory, the rapture could happen at any second and they'll all vanish. I was going to start a petition to get the ball rolling, but I didn't know where to submit it.
You already have.
After reading this list, I must say that there are more than a few features I don't care about.
I jsut upgarded adn for smoe resaon firrefox uednerlines everyhting in red! WROST FAETURE EVAR!
I believe that people -- Americans in particular -- get very wigged-out when it is suggested that anything whatsoever might not be private property.
Don't forget people -- Europeans in particular -- get very wigged-out when it is suggested that people actually have the right to get paid for the work they do. (And the fact that it is their societly duty to provide art, for free, that everyone can sit around and celebrate).
Look, you can argue with the merits of the implementation, but pretending you don't understand why "Americans" think it's ok for artists and actors to get paid... that's just being ignorant for no apparant reason.|
As has been pointed out, that American is wrong. The point here is that you ran into a stupid American, not a stupid American law. Cops don't carry guns to catch shoplifters.
How is "No, Al Qaeda does not want to kill all Jews." nuanced? It isn't, it's a quite basic disagreement with your position. Make a point or don't.
Compare your depth of analysis with this utterly stupid comment:
This is the most racist, jingoistic, willfully xenophobic, flag-waving, God-appropriating culture since Nazi germany. Your ability to even get a job, a loan, or get admitted to a school is based on your willingness to sing the praises of Bush and wrap yourself in the flag.
Every single point you just made is provably false with a minor bit of effort.. (similar to the Al Qaeda vs "all jews" comment) effort I am entirely unwilling to spend on someone so completely and utterly beyond the level of truth-seeking and well into the realm of agenda-pushing. It's trivial to show that the parrallels you are trying to draw don't stand up, at all, to scrutiny. You know it and I know it. You are just repeating this cursory analysis over and over because it furthers your agenda. At best, it's just extremely weak, and at worst, it's dishonest.
Do you notice how nuanced your analysis is when you want to discredit comparisons that you disagree with, and how incredibly broad and generalizing a brush you use when you want to draw parallels? I can't really explain your bizarre analysis in any other way. But I am reasonably certain that you aren't approaching these issues with sufficient objectivity or intellectual honesty to make more a conversation meaningful.
unlike those trying to compare Al Qaeda and the Nazis, which have absolutely nothing to do with one another.
Uh... except for the whole... killing all the Jews thing....
You've completely missed my point. I don't object with a single thing you've said. What you just stated was a rational opinion on why government intrusion is less of a threat than terrorists. I have no problem with rational reasoning. I have a problem with fear mongering. Emotional rhetoric based on appeal to fear and appeal to consequences fallacies is garbage no matter whose pumping it.
Running around using words like 'tyranny', 'police-state', and 'facism', with virtually no analysis or intellectual honesty is just as bad as running around talking about 'islamofacists' and 'terrorists'. Appealing to fear isn't OK, ever. Just because you happen to agree with the ends doesn't justify the means. I am intellectually offended by people who resort to the same logically fallacious bullshit because they realize that sophistry is the most effective way to convince people they are right.
I'm not going to be scared of the government because someone can call it "facist" and yell about "tyrrany". It's hyperbolic and fallacious and it sets off my bullshit sophistry alarms from three miles away. That rhetorical tactic is fundamentally identical to overstating terrorist threat.
You seem to be saying that until they arrive in jackboots to carry you off, it's too early to complain. Well I have news for you: once they arrive in jackboots to carry you off, it's too late to complain.
Hi, that's the same logic that the President is using to scare people into giving him power. You are no different. Claiming that the police state facism is here and alive and well, and it's the end of the world is fearmongering just the same as claiming that terrorists are the gravest threat to America. The real threat to America is both sides who completely and utterly lack perspective and engage in hyperbolic rhetoric to scare people with, literally, an abuse of the truth.
Fortunately I don't use the same quote at every opportunity, only when rights are being removed.
So like... every Tuesday, give or take?
Oh, and welcome to the police state .
Nothing beats a fearmongering president like fearmongering dissent. Welcome to the real new America. Everyone has lost all perspective... Chicken Little rules the day.
Illegal wiretaps, torture, suspension of habeous corpus, secret prisons, and kangeroo courts are the markings of tyranny --- not freedom.
Methinks it's time to update your talking points.
"Those who would use the same quote at every opportunity, spread neither wisdom nor understanding." ~ me
"Those who sum up complicated situations with a single well worded statement are almost always full of shit." ~me (oh wait..)
Honestly why don't companies like bungie simply run a CRC on any downloaded content, or record the downloaded date server side and compare it with the modified date client side.
Because it's not that simple. Think of the code that gets run.
Calculate CRC
check CRC to answer
if not equal jump to OMG_HACKER
if equal jmp to PLAY_GAME_PLEASE
All a hacker has to do is find any location in 'Calculate CRC' and put a single instruction 'JMP PLAY_GAME_PLEASE', and he's bypassed your CRC check. So now you have to put in a check to make sure that code hasn't been screwed with, etc, etc. To be totally secure, it would need to be "turtles, all the way down".
I'm not a gas-price-shopper, but I know several people who are. It actually takes zero time to do since you're driving past all the big price signs on the way to and from work every day. To say the effort could be better used somewhere else is silly.
Bunk. Everyday I drive to work I ignore gas signs because I'm busy trying to unify physics or prove the Riemann hypothesis. So close....
I mean they're non-lethal, so what's the problem?
You should try reading the article. The Air Force is saying that it's not going to "test" these weapons that everyone THINKS are non-lethal in a combat area and find out they are, in fact, NOT non-lethal. The air force is saying that if the governemnt (read: US population) wants them to use non-lethal weapons, then it better go about PROVING their non-lethality and willingness therein so far as to use it on themselves. The Air Force is saying that if the US conscience wants to the US to use non-lethal weapons, it better be willing to stick it's own neck on the line in the face of such non-lethal weapons.
This is the military being responsible... not the other way around. This is all-time great FUD. Slashdot should be ashamed for buying into this bullshit headline and quoting the wrong parts. Militaries KILL PEOPLE. That's what they do. The conscience of the American people want the military to NOT-KILL-PEOPLE, so they are promoting non-lethal weapons. The Air Force response by saying, "Once you test them on yourselves, American population, we will agree to use them on our enemies... they are nonlethal, after all?".
The air force is agreeing with you. The yellow journalist and sensationalistic title on this piece is seriously disheartening.
AIDS gets a lot of coverage in America but it's not in the top 10 'causes of death' lists. It kills in a horrific way, and spreads in a horrific way
I don't think you are doing it right.
Don't forget slipping behind the bleachers with Urianium to father that illegimate child that may end up ending the world.
Sorry..I'm studying for my GRE's.. Words like stygian.. I mean fuck you, if you know what that means.
Fuck me? Fuck you, you fatuous rube with your puerile lexicon.
Nope, that's Venus and Earth. Mars is about one-third the mass of earth, IIRC.
Quoth the wikipedia, "Mars has half the radius of the Earth and only one-tenth the mass, being less dense, but its surface area is only slightly less than the total area of Earth's dry land".