Before viewing this video, I didn't realize the extent and urgency of the public urination problem! Now it is clear that our governments must do everything in its power to protect us from this scourge! I will gladly give up my privacy and other rights, if pissing in public is what it takes to keep our country safe from these malicious urinators who seek to undermine our continence.
From now on, people will only talk of two eras: before the urilift, and after!
The US revolution was because the people at the top of the ladder were overseas. They had final say on the rules, and they collected taxes from the colonies.
Those on the next rung down (the domestic élite) didn't like that, and convinced everybody to revolt.
Post-revolution, the ladder was still the same, just one rung shorter. The people at the bottom were still at the bottom, just with slightly fewer people controlling them.
The big "blogging" case in Canada that's in the news (or was, until it fizzled) is that (former) Conservative Party backbencher Garth Turner was very efficiently booted from the party, because he was being to open on his blog about the goings-on in government.
He pretty much took it in stride, called their bluff, and became a proud Independent MP (fairly rare in Canada, due to election financing rules). This past Tuesday he held a press conference where he revealed many of the problems with party politics, including how he did more in the last two weeks as an Independent MP than in two years as a backbencher of the ruling party.
What I get out of this is that if it pisses off the large companies and the traditional power structures, blogging must be good (teens on myspace aside).
It'll happen when broadband becomes as ubiquitous and as reliable as electricity. We have a loooong way to go before that happens.
North Korea doesn't have much broadband, and they have terribly unreliable electricity. I'm sure there's a number of villages in Africa that have neither.
TFA suggests one possibile excuse to go to the moon is to conduct scientific research (if the plan of attack uses an outpost).
However, look at where that's gotten us on the ISS: the original plans were to have far more scientific research modules than will be on the final ISS, but they have been cut to control costs. The overhead--that is, the life support, power, storage, and escape modules--are all still being implemented. Support for the ISS would not have been as high among decision makers if they had known that so much of the research would have been cancelled.
Long story short, I hope they don't make the same mistakes with moon travel. Get a good estimate of how much science can be done and at what costs, then get Congress to vote on it.
The rampant and blatant copyright infringement in China can only go so far. Since it is the driving force behind China's growing economy, eventually the Chinese will be creating their own IP and will find that it is infringed by their countrymen. China will then have to implement a solution.
Second Life, it seems, has created the perfect test case for this problem. Once a solution is found in Second Life (perhaps after a few tries, perhaps the SL economy will collapse before a solution is found), countries whose economies rely largely on lax enforcement of IP rights will be able to build toward that model.
Meanwhile, we'll still be stuck in our industrial-age paradigm, assuming we haven't revolted yet.
The fact that you claim something in court, and they defend it, doesn't amount to "copyright protection problems".
Let's suppose an animal rights activist stole my fur jacket, and I sued them. They could claim all they want, such as I didn't have the right to wear animals' fur. But the fact of the matter is the law weighs pretty heavily in my favour, even if this were a novel defense.
Now, if the judge were to agree with the defense, then I'd have some "problem"s.
A hundred years from now, you'd be able to walk the repository backwards and watch the suburbs shrink, the global waters recede, the forests regrow and the ice shelves stitch themselves together.
Thanks for the reminder.
I should really get off my duff and get more active in my community, so that hopefully some of these things might happen when we play time forward, too!
Take, for example, the case of Hassan Almrei, who is being held without charges in Canada and has been for over five years.
One of the many unsupported claims by Canada's intelligence agency for holding him is that he had images of bearded men, terrorism, and arabs on his computer. When they returned his computer, the only such images his lawyers could find were in his temporary internet files folder, and they were images from BBC, CBC, and Al-Jazeera.
The fact of the matter is that Western governments have created the illusion that there is this large threat in our countries, and are "showing" their people that they are doing something about it by arresting people--any people. They are not, however, charging them and giving them a fair and open trial in which these people can defend themselves. If they did, the charges would not hold.
I mean, come on! Liquid explosives on airplanes? The UK government was just grabbing at straws at that point.
In response to the surge in amateur videos, some law enforcement agencies have installed cameras in squad cars to protect officers against false allegations.
You're still missing the point:
The point is that the law enforcement agencies have installed cameras in squad cars to protect officers from being falsely accused of brutality, not to protect the public from that brutality happening in the first place.
While the end result may seem similar, the motives are completely different. The Police Department's mission statement may be to protect and serve the public, but the culture within the department (as with any law enforcement agency) is for members to protect each other.
People have been fired from Harvard for saying less than this.
How does this get marked +5 insightful?
Harvard isn't exactly the most radical institution. It's where you go to pay tons of money to assert your membership in the capital-E Establishment. Of course they've dismissed people who don't act the part, maintain the status quo, and avoid all potential controversy.
I mean, if the Washington Post ran an editorial critical of the government, would I get +5 Insightful for saying "people have been put in jail in China for saying less than that"?
Euphemistic, unclear, and non-standardized job descriptions are common no matter the field. Of course, it's more common in places where there is high demand and low job quality: workers at Subway are called "sandwich artists", telemarketing is "enumeration-type work".
Some job listing sites do require employers to use standardized job titles. The Government of Canada's Job Bank website uses a dewey-decimal-like National Occupation Classification, so that at least you can understand what type of work is being described.
The detailed job description? Well, the devil's in the details. Read the employment contract before you sign it.
Voting is a very complicated process not only for the voter, but also for the poll staff. Apparently, there aren't enough people qualified (or trainable) to work at polling stations, so they have to resort to using untrained labour.
Multimillion-dollar voting machines are sophisticated machines, so they come with large, detailed manuals. If you have a problem at the polling booth, you can spend a few hours figuring out the solution, and follow the simple step-by-step-by-step-by-holdonIhavetostartover-by- step-by-step instructions to fix the problem.
I've tried the alternative, and it isn't very user-friendly:
I worked at the polls in the most recent Canadian federal election, and we used pencil-and-paper ballots and registrations. The "comprehensive" 40-page manual we were given didn't even have an FAQ on such simple questions as the Graphite User Interface! When one of the units suddenly lost its resolution, we had to wait for hours until head office was able to ship us a repair unit!
Slashdot Mirror
Before viewing this video, I didn't realize the extent and urgency of the public urination problem! Now it is clear that our governments must do everything in its power to protect us from this scourge! I will gladly give up my privacy and other rights, if pissing in public is what it takes to keep our country safe from these malicious urinators who seek to undermine our continence.
From now on, people will only talk of two eras: before the urilift, and after!
- RG>
Is it just me, or did the voice sound like Terrance and Phillip? Fitting, since the article is about a Canadian city.
- RG>
I can think of a couple other states that should pick some up, too. (*COUGH*SC*COUGH*)
Then can use them to learn things like how the word "Jewellery" contains more than five letters.
- RG>
You know language has gone down the tubes when people use awkward metaphors to elaborate upon clear ones.
- RG>
("tubes" pun unintended)
The US revolution was because the people at the top of the ladder were overseas. They had final say on the rules, and they collected taxes from the colonies.
Those on the next rung down (the domestic élite) didn't like that, and convinced everybody to revolt.
Post-revolution, the ladder was still the same, just one rung shorter. The people at the bottom were still at the bottom, just with slightly fewer people controlling them.
- RG>
The big "blogging" case in Canada that's in the news (or was, until it fizzled) is that (former) Conservative Party backbencher Garth Turner was very efficiently booted from the party, because he was being to open on his blog about the goings-on in government.
He pretty much took it in stride, called their bluff, and became a proud Independent MP (fairly rare in Canada, due to election financing rules). This past Tuesday he held a press conference where he revealed many of the problems with party politics, including how he did more in the last two weeks as an Independent MP than in two years as a backbencher of the ruling party.
What I get out of this is that if it pisses off the large companies and the traditional power structures, blogging must be good (teens on myspace aside).
- RG>
CCTV, you say?
*shudder*
- RG>
We want a printable version so we
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
>> Next line >>
don't have to click ">> Next Page >>" to
>> Next line >>
go to the next page five times
>> Next line >>
just because the website's owners want more
>> Next line >>
ad revenue from the Slashdot effect! Also, ads are annoying.
- RG>
(sorry, the lameness filter kept me from making this more annoying/authentic)
North Korea doesn't have much broadband, and they have terribly unreliable electricity. I'm sure there's a number of villages in Africa that have neither.
May I toss my VHS tapes now?
- RG>
- RG>
Wait... let me figure this one out...
MCMXC was 1990...
MDCCCLX was 1860...
I give up! Which decade was XML?
- RG>
TFA suggests one possibile excuse to go to the moon is to conduct scientific research (if the plan of attack uses an outpost).
However, look at where that's gotten us on the ISS: the original plans were to have far more scientific research modules than will be on the final ISS, but they have been cut to control costs. The overhead--that is, the life support, power, storage, and escape modules--are all still being implemented. Support for the ISS would not have been as high among decision makers if they had known that so much of the research would have been cancelled.
Long story short, I hope they don't make the same mistakes with moon travel. Get a good estimate of how much science can be done and at what costs, then get Congress to vote on it.
- RG>
That was my thought too, only I went further.
The rampant and blatant copyright infringement in China can only go so far. Since it is the driving force behind China's growing economy, eventually the Chinese will be creating their own IP and will find that it is infringed by their countrymen. China will then have to implement a solution.
Second Life, it seems, has created the perfect test case for this problem. Once a solution is found in Second Life (perhaps after a few tries, perhaps the SL economy will collapse before a solution is found), countries whose economies rely largely on lax enforcement of IP rights will be able to build toward that model.
Meanwhile, we'll still be stuck in our industrial-age paradigm, assuming we haven't revolted yet.
- RG>
The fact that you claim something in court, and they defend it, doesn't amount to "copyright protection problems".
Let's suppose an animal rights activist stole my fur jacket, and I sued them. They could claim all they want, such as I didn't have the right to wear animals' fur. But the fact of the matter is the law weighs pretty heavily in my favour, even if this were a novel defense.
Now, if the judge were to agree with the defense, then I'd have some "problem"s.
- RG>
So where does that put Billy Crystal?
- RG>
So that's where Windows put all my critical files!
- RG>
Thanks for the reminder.
I should really get off my duff and get more active in my community, so that hopefully some of these things might happen when we play time forward, too!
- RG>
Take, for example, the case of Hassan Almrei, who is being held without charges in Canada and has been for over five years.
One of the many unsupported claims by Canada's intelligence agency for holding him is that he had images of bearded men, terrorism, and arabs on his computer. When they returned his computer, the only such images his lawyers could find were in his temporary internet files folder, and they were images from BBC, CBC, and Al-Jazeera.
The fact of the matter is that Western governments have created the illusion that there is this large threat in our countries, and are "showing" their people that they are doing something about it by arresting people--any people. They are not, however, charging them and giving them a fair and open trial in which these people can defend themselves. If they did, the charges would not hold.
I mean, come on! Liquid explosives on airplanes? The UK government was just grabbing at straws at that point.
- RG>
Third, it will teach these children that "firstly" and "secondly" aren't words.
- RG>
No, no, no... the tape goes in the tape deck!
No wonder it was destroyed!
- RG>
You're still missing the point:
The point is that the law enforcement agencies have installed cameras in squad cars to protect officers from being falsely accused of brutality, not to protect the public from that brutality happening in the first place.
While the end result may seem similar, the motives are completely different. The Police Department's mission statement may be to protect and serve the public, but the culture within the department (as with any law enforcement agency) is for members to protect each other.
- RG>
How does this get marked +5 insightful?
Harvard isn't exactly the most radical institution. It's where you go to pay tons of money to assert your membership in the capital-E Establishment. Of course they've dismissed people who don't act the part, maintain the status quo, and avoid all potential controversy.
I mean, if the Washington Post ran an editorial critical of the government, would I get +5 Insightful for saying "people have been put in jail in China for saying less than that"?
- RG>
Euphemistic, unclear, and non-standardized job descriptions are common no matter the field. Of course, it's more common in places where there is high demand and low job quality: workers at Subway are called "sandwich artists", telemarketing is "enumeration-type work".
Some job listing sites do require employers to use standardized job titles. The Government of Canada's Job Bank website uses a dewey-decimal-like National Occupation Classification, so that at least you can understand what type of work is being described.
The detailed job description? Well, the devil's in the details. Read the employment contract before you sign it.
- RG>
Voting is a very complicated process not only for the voter, but also for the poll staff. Apparently, there aren't enough people qualified (or trainable) to work at polling stations, so they have to resort to using untrained labour.
Multimillion-dollar voting machines are sophisticated machines, so they come with large, detailed manuals. If you have a problem at the polling booth, you can spend a few hours figuring out the solution, and follow the simple step-by-step-by-step-by-holdonIhavetostartover-by
I've tried the alternative, and it isn't very user-friendly:
I worked at the polls in the most recent Canadian federal election, and we used pencil-and-paper ballots and registrations. The "comprehensive" 40-page manual we were given didn't even have an FAQ on such simple questions as the Graphite User Interface! When one of the units suddenly lost its resolution, we had to wait for hours until head office was able to ship us a repair unit!
Yes. For example, thousands of species have adapted to human presence by going extinct.
- RG>