One of the reasons medical diagnostic gear is disproportionately expensive is lawsuits. We in the West are convinced that if we threaten to sue enough people we'll live forever.
Nerds love ancient historical stuff -- who the hell else is in the Society for Creative Anachronism, the Sealed Knot, various battle re-enactment societies, etc. etc.? Nerds! And what could be more nerdy than a mountain of statistics about the same?
Oh, and anybody who can't think of a use for this data has no idea what historical research is. You crowdsource this stuff and all kinds of interesting things will pop up. The better we understand our past, the better we understand ourselves.
As for the observations about monarchs needing bureaucrats -- EVERYbody needs bureaucrats, unless you'd prefer the government to be run by astrology and guesswork. If you're a soldier and you want to get paid the correct amount, on time, you need a bureaucrat to look after it. Plus, Britain during a lot of this period was essentially a police state, and police states need more bureaucrats than most. The Stasi in East Germany were Exhibit A, closely followed by the Nazis. The latter's record-keeping got a fair number of them hanged.
I have data on my hard drive that is probably illegal in certain jurisdictions. Now that governments are prosecuting people for merely possessing information, like demolition training materials or photographs of one's own children playing in the bathtub, regardless of what jurisdiction you live in, there is no way I'm going to let that out of my physical control. If I encrypt it before uploading it, they'll just discover that it's encrypted and use the rubber hose attack until I give them the key.
I keep an external hard drive that's five times as big as my normal one, and do a daily backup keeping up to five previous copies. Of course most of them don't ever change, like executables, so the drive doesn't really need to be that big.
You're allowed to hold any idiot opinion you want in the USA. You are not allowed to express it on the job. Workplace harmony trumps freedom to be an asshole. This was settled long ago; it's a dead issue. It goes double for cops, who need both to be sensitive to the public AND to have the full confidence and support of their fellow officers.
Don't like it? Go be a cop in Saudi, where I'm sure you're allowed to be as racist as you like.
I want the colossal richness and depth available only through online worlds, without the horny adolescents, griefers, and other social incompetents that MMOGs seem to attract.
Give with WoW with just me and the NPCs, and I'll pay for it. Not otherwise.
... is microblogging important events from places with limited bandwidth, like a pro-democracy demonstration in Tehran.
Otherwise, the kid has it on the nose. Not that that's a surprise; it's just that he seems to be the only person with the courage to come out and say it.
99% of the content of blogs is personal blather or links to other stuff on the web. BFD. News organizations actually -- here's a shock -- gather the news, with people who are paid to do it.
It doesn't change the fact that hate speech incites violence, which is what the ignorant parent was denying.
Christians see pictures that make fun of Christ as hate speech. Remember "Piss Christ"? Muslims see pictures that make fun of Mohammed as hate speech. Get used to it.
The only way to have freedom is for people to behave responsibly within those freedoms. Those who refuse to control themselves will be controlled -- either by the government or by their outraged neighbors. Always.
Science and social studies teachers are not paid to teach critical thinking, they are paid to teach the officially designated curriculum, which generally consists of facts and a few equations. That's what happens with your basic state-sponsored public education at the moment.
My critical thinking teacher was paid to teach critical thinking, and he did. Is that difficult to comprehend?
I've never said one thing in favor of censorship or hate speech laws. I am not pro-censorship, whether you label me as such or not.
My point is that people who think hate speech has no consequences, or is somehow beneficial, are ignorant of history and current affairs. That does not translate into an endorsement of censorship.
I am hardly turning a blind eye to the fact that intolerance continues to seethe below the surface. That was my point in the first place. Hate speech turns it into violence. Don't attempt to deny it: it is as incontrovertible as the Holocaust.
A course in critical thinking would accomplish nothing if the teacher teaching it did not actually teach critical thinking.
This would seem to be a tautology.
I don't see why you think it couldn't work. I took a class specifically on critical thinking in high school. It was one of the best I ever took. The teachers' union did not object. We learned to analyze the media and recognize sloppy reasoning, propaganda, and appeals to sentiment, among other things.
First, hate speech is NOT outlawed in most of the world. It's only outlawed in a few western democracies. Second, the fact of it being outlawed is NOT the source of the violence right under the surface. The violence below the surface has existed for centuries before there were any laws about such things.
I'm sorry, but you'll never convince me that "kill the queers" and "string up the niggers" is how we work out our differences peaceably. Peace only comes when we stop using such language.
I'm not arguing for censorship. I'm pointing out that these arguments against it are ill-informed and ineffective. A liberal (in the proper sense of the word, i.e. not authoritarian) democracy must first of all agree on tolerance. Without tolerance there is no hope for peace and good governance.
How many more examples do you want? "String up the niggers!" in Alabama in the 1950s, and sure enough, the niggers get strung up. "Kill the queers!" and sure enough, the queers get killed. These things seldom happen without someone talking about it first.
Northern Ireland is governed by the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly. Except in matters of defense and foreign relations they are themselves responsible.
Their efforts to claim that the UK had no jurisdiction over them failed because they were UK citizens, regardless of where they committed the crime. And the US can do the same to Americans smoking dope in Amsterdam.
Of course overt hate speech increases violence, are you nuts? Check out history of the partition of India. In many parts of the world violence is always just below the surface, and it only takes one or two unwise remarks in public to trigger rioting.
Check the map. Northern Ireland is very much part of the UK. And they ARE a tribal, or at least strongly sectarian, society that was until very recently was torn apart by terrorism.
Giving asylum has profound diplomatic consequences. It says to the other country that their human rights record and criminal justice system sucks. That's not something the USA really wants to say to the UK... not if the USA wants any more intelligence or other assistance.
Inciting sectarian hatred is not pointless there. It matters deeply and gets people killed. As it does in those large parts of the world still riven by ethnic, sectarian, and tribal divisions.
The USA is one of the few countries that can AFFORD freedom of speech.
Israelis arrest (and indeed assassinate) enemies of Israel anywhere they like. Ditto the USA. A California couple publishes porn on the Internet in California, and is tried and convicted in Tennessee, which they have never visited. You can do something in a foreign country that's totally legal there, and your own government will still prosecute you for it -- as these guys did. It's only a matter of time before the USA starts prosecuting American citizens for smoking dope and visiting prostitutes in Amsterdam.
The fact is, if you publish it on the web, you're liable for it worldwide, regardless of where you are or where the server is. Better get used to it.
The fact that the media gives equal time and access to creationists, conspiracy theorists, homeopathic medicine and various other tinfoil hat whackmobiles does the body politic no favors whatsoever. There's no emphasis on rigorous thought. Sentiment and ratings trump accuracy and logic.
Critical thinking should be a required course in every high school in the land, and if you fail you don't get a diploma. But the churches would scream bloody murder. The last thing they want is children thinking for themselves.
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One of the reasons medical diagnostic gear is disproportionately expensive is lawsuits. We in the West are convinced that if we threaten to sue enough people we'll live forever.
Rarely do I genuinely LOL. You did it.
Nerds love ancient historical stuff -- who the hell else is in the Society for Creative Anachronism, the Sealed Knot, various battle re-enactment societies, etc. etc.? Nerds! And what could be more nerdy than a mountain of statistics about the same?
Oh, and anybody who can't think of a use for this data has no idea what historical research is. You crowdsource this stuff and all kinds of interesting things will pop up. The better we understand our past, the better we understand ourselves.
As for the observations about monarchs needing bureaucrats -- EVERYbody needs bureaucrats, unless you'd prefer the government to be run by astrology and guesswork. If you're a soldier and you want to get paid the correct amount, on time, you need a bureaucrat to look after it. Plus, Britain during a lot of this period was essentially a police state, and police states need more bureaucrats than most. The Stasi in East Germany were Exhibit A, closely followed by the Nazis. The latter's record-keeping got a fair number of them hanged.
I have data on my hard drive that is probably illegal in certain jurisdictions. Now that governments are prosecuting people for merely possessing information, like demolition training materials or photographs of one's own children playing in the bathtub, regardless of what jurisdiction you live in, there is no way I'm going to let that out of my physical control. If I encrypt it before uploading it, they'll just discover that it's encrypted and use the rubber hose attack until I give them the key.
I keep an external hard drive that's five times as big as my normal one, and do a daily backup keeping up to five previous copies. Of course most of them don't ever change, like executables, so the drive doesn't really need to be that big.
You're allowed to hold any idiot opinion you want in the USA. You are not allowed to express it on the job. Workplace harmony trumps freedom to be an asshole. This was settled long ago; it's a dead issue. It goes double for cops, who need both to be sensitive to the public AND to have the full confidence and support of their fellow officers.
Don't like it? Go be a cop in Saudi, where I'm sure you're allowed to be as racist as you like.
I want the colossal richness and depth available only through online worlds, without the horny adolescents, griefers, and other social incompetents that MMOGs seem to attract.
Give with WoW with just me and the NPCs, and I'll pay for it. Not otherwise.
My best friends send me letters in the post.
Otherwise, the kid has it on the nose. Not that that's a surprise; it's just that he seems to be the only person with the courage to come out and say it.
99% of the content of blogs is personal blather or links to other stuff on the web. BFD. News organizations actually -- here's a shock -- gather the news, with people who are paid to do it.
It doesn't change the fact that hate speech incites violence, which is what the ignorant parent was denying.
Christians see pictures that make fun of Christ as hate speech. Remember "Piss Christ"? Muslims see pictures that make fun of Mohammed as hate speech. Get used to it.
The only way to have freedom is for people to behave responsibly within those freedoms. Those who refuse to control themselves will be controlled -- either by the government or by their outraged neighbors. Always.
Science and social studies teachers are not paid to teach critical thinking, they are paid to teach the officially designated curriculum, which generally consists of facts and a few equations. That's what happens with your basic state-sponsored public education at the moment.
My critical thinking teacher was paid to teach critical thinking, and he did. Is that difficult to comprehend?
I've never said one thing in favor of censorship or hate speech laws. I am not pro-censorship, whether you label me as such or not.
My point is that people who think hate speech has no consequences, or is somehow beneficial, are ignorant of history and current affairs. That does not translate into an endorsement of censorship.
I am hardly turning a blind eye to the fact that intolerance continues to seethe below the surface. That was my point in the first place. Hate speech turns it into violence. Don't attempt to deny it: it is as incontrovertible as the Holocaust.
A course in critical thinking would accomplish nothing if the teacher teaching it did not actually teach critical thinking.
This would seem to be a tautology.
I don't see why you think it couldn't work. I took a class specifically on critical thinking in high school. It was one of the best I ever took. The teachers' union did not object. We learned to analyze the media and recognize sloppy reasoning, propaganda, and appeals to sentiment, among other things.
First, hate speech is NOT outlawed in most of the world. It's only outlawed in a few western democracies. Second, the fact of it being outlawed is NOT the source of the violence right under the surface. The violence below the surface has existed for centuries before there were any laws about such things.
I'm sorry, but you'll never convince me that "kill the queers" and "string up the niggers" is how we work out our differences peaceably. Peace only comes when we stop using such language.
I'm not arguing for censorship. I'm pointing out that these arguments against it are ill-informed and ineffective. A liberal (in the proper sense of the word, i.e. not authoritarian) democracy must first of all agree on tolerance. Without tolerance there is no hope for peace and good governance.
How many more examples do you want? "String up the niggers!" in Alabama in the 1950s, and sure enough, the niggers get strung up. "Kill the queers!" and sure enough, the queers get killed. These things seldom happen without someone talking about it first.
Northern Ireland is governed by the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly. Except in matters of defense and foreign relations they are themselves responsible.
Their efforts to claim that the UK had no jurisdiction over them failed because they were UK citizens, regardless of where they committed the crime. And the US can do the same to Americans smoking dope in Amsterdam.
But you're still walking and breathing.
You don't actually know that.
Of course overt hate speech increases violence, are you nuts? Check out history of the partition of India. In many parts of the world violence is always just below the surface, and it only takes one or two unwise remarks in public to trigger rioting.
Check the map. Northern Ireland is very much part of the UK. And they ARE a tribal, or at least strongly sectarian, society that was until very recently was torn apart by terrorism.
Giving asylum has profound diplomatic consequences. It says to the other country that their human rights record and criminal justice system sucks. That's not something the USA really wants to say to the UK... not if the USA wants any more intelligence or other assistance.
Inciting sectarian hatred is not pointless there. It matters deeply and gets people killed. As it does in those large parts of the world still riven by ethnic, sectarian, and tribal divisions.
The USA is one of the few countries that can AFFORD freedom of speech.
Israelis arrest (and indeed assassinate) enemies of Israel anywhere they like. Ditto the USA. A California couple publishes porn on the Internet in California, and is tried and convicted in Tennessee, which they have never visited. You can do something in a foreign country that's totally legal there, and your own government will still prosecute you for it -- as these guys did. It's only a matter of time before the USA starts prosecuting American citizens for smoking dope and visiting prostitutes in Amsterdam.
The fact is, if you publish it on the web, you're liable for it worldwide, regardless of where you are or where the server is. Better get used to it.
One case in which the grunts got off better than the management.
The fact that the media gives equal time and access to creationists, conspiracy theorists, homeopathic medicine and various other tinfoil hat whackmobiles does the body politic no favors whatsoever. There's no emphasis on rigorous thought. Sentiment and ratings trump accuracy and logic.
Critical thinking should be a required course in every high school in the land, and if you fail you don't get a diploma. But the churches would scream bloody murder. The last thing they want is children thinking for themselves.