I never suggested that someone should be prevented from purchasing/viewing such material. Only that the use of such purchase/rental information can be used to track disturbing changes in viewing patterns.
You may lament the fact that legal activities may cause red flags, but it is no different in this case than the case of a farmer getting a visit from the FBI for buying large amounts of nitrate (bomb or fertilizer?). Or the FBI keeping files on protesters. Freedom of speech is guaranteed by the First Amendment, but if you are a habitual protester, the government has the responsibility that it doesn't grow further than just speech.
Though outright outlawing this type of material is only going to push it underground and do nothing to stop those who really want to consume it, I wonder if it isn't in society's best interest to at least monitor and track those who do consume "aberrant" pornography. If Joe Perv just gets his kicks from watching women raped and tortured but is otherwise a fine upstanding citizen, then a quick background scan would show him to be relatively safe (as safe as any other fine upstanding citizen) and no further monitoring is necessary. However, if Jim Proto-Raper who had a troubled childhood and a history of torturing animals is also jerking it to torture porn, wouldn't it be useful to keep an eye on him in case his behavior patterns change for the worse (perhaps his porn preferences get more and more violent over time).
I'm not saying you need to run a background check every time you want to rent Slut Teachers Get What They Deserve VI. Just that there is a balance to keep between protecting the citizenry from potentially dangerous people and allowing people the freedom to consume whatever vices they need.
The term "silver bullet" comes from the old myth that the only way to kill a werewolf is by shooting it with a silver bullet. Its use in every other scenario refers to the "magic" item being completely ineffective in its intended purpose.
"OOA/D is the silver bullet we've been looking for to tame our out of control schedules!" "Linux is the silver bullet which will fell MS-DOS/Windows from desktop dominance!" "We don't need to invest in alternative fuel research. We've got a silver bullet with bio-diesel!"
As you can see, the hope in the silver bullet is high, but more likely than not, the result is worse than expected.
That's like asking which animal's feces smells the best. I'm sure I could come up with an answer, but I'd just be ranking crap.
But since you asked, Rushdie writes some good fantasy fiction. Murakami is pretty good as well. Not many dragons and hardly any scantily-clad elf warriors on the cover, so these might not appeal to you.
The parent post makes a very good point. I agree with him wholeheartedly. You may be able to predict actions, but how can you predict whether an action will be an error?
I've seen some stupid research in my time, but actually believing you can predict errors in advance is like saying you can predict which leaf will fall off of a tree in the next 6 seconds.
Asan American, I'd just like to say that Agana appreciate this cable to Oz. Umatac this any way you want, but Agat faith that this will bring down communications costs for Maina Aussie mates.
It wouldn't be terribly difficult to build a small greenhouse with an enclosed atmosphere, so that's not a big problem. The problem is that you can't be sending up loam and fertilizer all the time to keep the plants going. You need to be able to use the resources you've got up there, and unfortunately moon dirt isn't very conducive to plant growth.
Why wouldn't they try a plant that grows in extremely low nutrient soil? There are plenty of plants that grow in sand along beaches and generate their own food through photosynthesis (all plants do, but some rely on it more than others).
Garden flowers are probably the worst type of plant to try to grow in nutrient-free dirt.
I work with a guy who believes that the reason Apple succeeds is that they accelerate the graphics with hardware. This gives them the ability to do transitions like Expose on the desktop and the smooth sliding on devices like the iPhone.
Pogo seems to be along the same lines. But where Apple's eye candy is functional, the Pogo eye candy looks like flashy for the sake of flashy. The 3D UI looks nice, but it's about as functional as Vista's Windows-Tab app selector.
I don't particularly like Apple, but they do seem to have strong design concepts. The design follows the function in their products, as far as I understand. But Pogo looks like they implemented it because the technology was cool, not because they had some difficult problem to solve.
That's up to half the RAM on the typical home system. Falling back on Moore's law doesn't help when your requirements are looking two years down the road.
Slashdot Mirror
And of course these are things that are already done. I'm glad to have at least one person here agree with me.
I never suggested that someone should be prevented from purchasing/viewing such material. Only that the use of such purchase/rental information can be used to track disturbing changes in viewing patterns.
You may lament the fact that legal activities may cause red flags, but it is no different in this case than the case of a farmer getting a visit from the FBI for buying large amounts of nitrate (bomb or fertilizer?). Or the FBI keeping files on protesters. Freedom of speech is guaranteed by the First Amendment, but if you are a habitual protester, the government has the responsibility that it doesn't grow further than just speech.
Though outright outlawing this type of material is only going to push it underground and do nothing to stop those who really want to consume it, I wonder if it isn't in society's best interest to at least monitor and track those who do consume "aberrant" pornography. If Joe Perv just gets his kicks from watching women raped and tortured but is otherwise a fine upstanding citizen, then a quick background scan would show him to be relatively safe (as safe as any other fine upstanding citizen) and no further monitoring is necessary. However, if Jim Proto-Raper who had a troubled childhood and a history of torturing animals is also jerking it to torture porn, wouldn't it be useful to keep an eye on him in case his behavior patterns change for the worse (perhaps his porn preferences get more and more violent over time).
I'm not saying you need to run a background check every time you want to rent Slut Teachers Get What They Deserve VI. Just that there is a balance to keep between protecting the citizenry from potentially dangerous people and allowing people the freedom to consume whatever vices they need.
The term "silver bullet" comes from the old myth that the only way to kill a werewolf is by shooting it with a silver bullet. Its use in every other scenario refers to the "magic" item being completely ineffective in its intended purpose.
"OOA/D is the silver bullet we've been looking for to tame our out of control schedules!"
"Linux is the silver bullet which will fell MS-DOS/Windows from desktop dominance!"
"We don't need to invest in alternative fuel research. We've got a silver bullet with bio-diesel!"
As you can see, the hope in the silver bullet is high, but more likely than not, the result is worse than expected.
Any other "useful" *wink wink* chemicals produced in that gel?
That's like asking which animal's feces smells the best. I'm sure I could come up with an answer, but I'd just be ranking crap.
But since you asked, Rushdie writes some good fantasy fiction. Murakami is pretty good as well. Not many dragons and hardly any scantily-clad elf warriors on the cover, so these might not appeal to you.
I mean for the fans, not the people milking the cow.
I certainly wasn't referring to sci-fi/fantasy when I used the word literature.
This will suffice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch93AKJm9os
Honest question. With so much actual literature out there, what's the fascination with the second rate fantasy of Tolkein?
It's called a "brain" you fucking asshat.
-1 flamebait.
The parent post makes a very good point. I agree with him wholeheartedly. You may be able to predict actions, but how can you predict whether an action will be an error?
Mod parent up!
I've seen some stupid research in my time, but actually believing you can predict errors in advance is like saying you can predict which leaf will fall off of a tree in the next 6 seconds.
Hey, you're from Jersey? I'm from Jersey too! What exit?
But those poor folks still have to live in New Jersey.
blood vessels, livers, bladders, breast implants, and meat
Really? I didn't think that people lost breast implants in accidents very often.
Asan American, I'd just like to say that Agana appreciate this cable to Oz. Umatac this any way you want, but Agat faith that this will bring down communications costs for Maina Aussie mates.
Somewhat related:
http://www.electric-escape.net/node/1475
http://www.thehumorarchives.com/joke/IRC_Idiot
Heh. That address resolves! 404, though.
But back up a bit and you get the whole directory structure. TONS of porn in a couple folders.
Year over year annual growth has ceased and this past quarter shows a 0.2% decline in revenues.
That's how it all started down here. Well, it started quite a bit before that, but there isn't any reason we can't give the moon a headstart.
It wouldn't be terribly difficult to build a small greenhouse with an enclosed atmosphere, so that's not a big problem. The problem is that you can't be sending up loam and fertilizer all the time to keep the plants going. You need to be able to use the resources you've got up there, and unfortunately moon dirt isn't very conducive to plant growth.
Why wouldn't they try a plant that grows in extremely low nutrient soil? There are plenty of plants that grow in sand along beaches and generate their own food through photosynthesis (all plants do, but some rely on it more than others).
Garden flowers are probably the worst type of plant to try to grow in nutrient-free dirt.
I work with a guy who believes that the reason Apple succeeds is that they accelerate the graphics with hardware. This gives them the ability to do transitions like Expose on the desktop and the smooth sliding on devices like the iPhone.
Pogo seems to be along the same lines. But where Apple's eye candy is functional, the Pogo eye candy looks like flashy for the sake of flashy. The 3D UI looks nice, but it's about as functional as Vista's Windows-Tab app selector.
I don't particularly like Apple, but they do seem to have strong design concepts. The design follows the function in their products, as far as I understand. But Pogo looks like they implemented it because the technology was cool, not because they had some difficult problem to solve.
That's up to half the RAM on the typical home system. Falling back on Moore's law doesn't help when your requirements are looking two years down the road.
Firefox works fine for me. It's good enough.