The USSR was a fascist country, although the red sort of fascism
Red fascism? Is that supposed to be an oxymoron? Fascism and communism were mortal enemies. You might want to look up a minor historical incident called World War II.
This, the OP does not know what Fascism or Communism is... possibly both.
Fascism is right wing authoritarianism, the ultimate extension of capitalism where the state essentially becomes a corporation (hence "the merger of corporate and state power").
Communism is the complete opposite, the destruction of the concept of private ownership. No corporations, no companies, everything shared equally. Even though communist governments almost always become authoritarian it's operation and execution were completely different to Fascism.
To use a simple cow analogy,
COMMUNISM
You have two cows.
The government takes both and gives you some milk.
FASCISM
You have two cows.
The government takes both and sells you some milk.
As such, almost all successful governments are mixed ideologies. Not capitalist or socialist in their entireties, rather combinations of the two (varying a great deal from nation to nation).
The Vietnam war was a quagmire for the US and as such the USSR loved it.
Yeah - many of the English navy names are quite good. I do like Ship names like "Attitude Adjuster" and "Frank Exchange Of Views", but they are not very practical (Indefatigable is not very practical too;) ).
I just read Excession. Good although I still think Player of Games is a better book.
Also, Indefatigable is a very apt name for a fast ship:)
I should probably clarify my earlier statement: Unit names and ship names are cool. Everything else is boring. Of course, in some cases, the names are also comedy gold. Take for example the British... they named a WWI ship the HMS Cockchafer. Yeah. A testament to miserable Britain if there ever was.
Erm, in proper English the "cock" spelling can often be pronounced "coe" I.E. cockburn is pronounced "coeburn".
Not sure how Cockchafer is pronounced but it's an European beetle.
But your point about the English navy is dead wrong. They have all the good ship names, HMS Resolute, Repulse, Victory, Indefatigable. Way better than the USS Alabama or Gerald R Ford.
Dogma be damned, slower != safer on a high speed road.
We've known this since the 70's. It's the same risk as going faster in terms of likelihood of causing an accident (see: Solomon Curve), however a lower speed represents a lower severity of injury. The best thing to do is to keep the same speed as others. This is why speed limits are such an important safety feature, they're designed to get everyone going the same speed. People who go faster or slower are the ones who increase risk.
But the problem with MOP's (Morons On Phone's) is not that they're travelling slower or faster, nor that they change lanes less. The problem is that they aren't paying attention to what they are doing and what is going on around them. The root cause of a lot of road accidents are driver error (speed just makes driver error deadly) and inattention is a huge part of what causes error.
I see this all the time on roads where I live (Perth, Australia), especially from pedestrians. I drive a sports car with a modified exhaust, so it's not quiet yet moronic pedestrians with white earbuds stuffed in their ears still walk out in front of me and my shiny, black, loud car. People are too busy with their phones to watch where they are going or pay attention to what they are doing.
All right, so Vietnam "doesn't count" because we didn't win --- even though, if we had, we'd still have already destroyed nearly all their dams and irrigation systems, and doused the whole country in carcinogenic defoliants, so I can't see the outcome being a lot more rosy after that point.
Still, if you've been to Vietnam lately you'll find they rebuilt themselves quite well without the US's help.
They are nearly up to the same industrial level as Thailand and Thailand received a metric shitload of US money.
I think that it's probably a move meant to give the North Koreans a chance to back down and declare 'victory' to their own people so that the crisis can end before things become unpredictable.
This,
Lil' Kim is probably just dealing with some internal unrest. Just manufacturing a crisis so that he can suppress his opposition. Every general who was under Kim Jong Il probably has their eye on the top job, the threat of war keeps them busy whilst the internal trouble is sorted out. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a purge in the NK military before this is over.
Because state sponsored assassination/regime change has never resulted in a worse leader getting in. I mean when they put the Shah in power in Iran it all came up roses didn't it.
While cute, this is really overthinking the problem.
If you want to kill lots of people in an aviation related way, send a suicide bomber to the security checkpoint at Thanksgiving.
Traditionally the goal of hijacking a plane is to get a bunch of hostages in order to further a political goal (release of "political" prisoners is a common one).
If a terrorist organisation could operate domestically and simply wanted to kill people, there are softer targets than airports (buses, theatres, think about the places that got hit in Israel in days past) and targets with far greater political value (banks, municipal buildings). You need only look at the damage Timothy McVey did and he was just one nut with a truck full of home made explosives. Fortunately for most western nations, terrorists are not supported enough or funded well enough to operate domestically.
It wants sqeemish.
You just made a really bad joke and they were trying to save the rest of us from seeing it.
The slashcensor has to work in our favour once in a while.
The plot line is better than Bioshock and the world is friggen awesome.
Solid 10 so far.
If Bioshock 1 is a 10 I give Infinite a 8. Both the plot and the gameplay is a step back. The game is better than I expected though.
If Bioshock 1 is a 10, System Shock 2 is 178.
Seeing as Bioshock 1 is just a rehashing of System Shock 2's story with cyberpunk swapped for steampunk.
Seriously, I've seen better storytelling in porno's. Better voice work too but that's besides the point. The story premise is not bad (as I said, it's based on System Shock 2) it's just so hacked together and poorly told.
Er, not forgetting of course that Fox News (and the practice of direct political interference by the media) is the brainchild of an ex-Australian?
Also, have you ever watched Today/Tonight?
Emphasis on "Ex" Australian.
TT/ACA and all the mainstream news sources in Oz are complete rubbish which is why I had to point out the ABC and SBS even through the SBS's format emphasises foreign news.
But if you've seen Fox News, they make Today Tonight look good.
The truth is always in the middle. I like to read Fox, MSNBC(Now NBCNEWS) and CNN to see different sides of the story and decide for myself what the truth is.
That's good in theory, but my experience with US "news" agencies is that neither one presents facts, only opinion and interpretation which means that you dont see the "truth" as you would call it, only someone elses opinion. What you're simply doing is hearing two biased opinions and deciding which one you agree with.
With news it is very good to get the facts from multiple reports of a situation and decide on your own opinion. But you cant do this if your sources don't contain the facts.
News should be fact presented dispassionately, Fox and MSNBC are the opposite of this. CNN simply fails at it.
Specifically, what it says is that both MSNBC and Fox are more than 50% opinion (well, non-news "analysis", anyway). So, these are primarily "chat" sources rather than news sources.
if you want actual news, according to this, go to CNN.
This,
Just because MSNBC contains a higher percentage of male cow faeces does not mean Fox News isn't almost bullshit as well.
actually, it doesn't matter how much it costs to fly from oz to us to buy the software...
As I said, it's easier and cheaper just to order the software from a store that ships to Australia and get them to send the boxed copy.
Besides, if you buy from Adobe, they dont bother sending you anything physical. They just email you a serial number, if you want the physical media you have to pay extra for that. It worked this way the last time I bought CS from an Adobe reseller and that was CS3. They emailed us the serial numbers and we had to pay A$150 for a copy of the media.
Where can I legally get a copy of Adobe CS6 outside of Adobe's supply chain? Nowhere. They have a government enforced monopoly allowing them to dictate prices above what the market is willing to bear.
If the market was willing, there wouldn't be price enquiries.
Awaken from your libertarian fantasy and visit the real world once in a while. The free market doesn't automagically fix things and prices are almost never set at what people are "willing" to pay, especially in monopolies.
Even with the GST and import taxes, if you're working for an Australian business who needs 2 (or more) copies of Adobe CS6, you're still well ahead by flying over to the US and buying them and paying the GST and import tax. At $3879 for the CS6 master collection, your $1600 flight and $1200 software purchase, plus say $300 salary and $100 hotel room for one night still comes out ahead - and for multiple copies, you're laughing.
Actually salary would be more like $1200. 2 x 16 hour flights (in Oz, every hour flying is counted as an hour working) plus the time there and back. Also you'll need to get them to spend at least one night in LA (closest city to Oz, although you can also fly to SF, Dallas and Fort Worth for the same amount of money and time). The trip would take the better part of a week, would you work 4 days for only $300? It's less than min wage here in Oz (30 hours = $10 an hour, min wage is $15 is p/h).
It would be easier to purchase a boxed copy from the myriad of stores who ship to Oz and ask them to ship to Oz. Customs takes the mandatory 10% GST (Goods and Services Tax, basically sales tax) and you get your software.
If the govt really cared (and this wasn't just some political sideshow) they'd allow shops to import direct from overseas importers... But it's the govt so I don't hold out much hope for that.
Import taxes = 0%
GST (Goods and Services Tax, our version of the VAT) 10%.
So if a software package costs US$1200 in the States, it should cost about $1320 in Oz. I'll allow up to $1500 to account for a smaller market and physical isolation.
I dont know how Adobe figures it can charge $1600 more for CS6 in Oz than it does in the US.
Slashdot Mirror
nazi's.
Have fun.
The USSR was a fascist country, although the red sort of fascism
Red fascism? Is that supposed to be an oxymoron? Fascism and communism were mortal enemies. You might want to look up a minor historical incident called World War II.
This, the OP does not know what Fascism or Communism is... possibly both.
Fascism is right wing authoritarianism, the ultimate extension of capitalism where the state essentially becomes a corporation (hence "the merger of corporate and state power").
Communism is the complete opposite, the destruction of the concept of private ownership. No corporations, no companies, everything shared equally. Even though communist governments almost always become authoritarian it's operation and execution were completely different to Fascism.
To use a simple cow analogy,
COMMUNISM
You have two cows.
The government takes both and gives you some milk.
FASCISM
You have two cows.
The government takes both and sells you some milk.
As such, almost all successful governments are mixed ideologies. Not capitalist or socialist in their entireties, rather combinations of the two (varying a great deal from nation to nation).
This.
Vietnam was an unmitigated disaster for the US.
Mr president, we cannot afford to have a fibre gap.
Yeah - many of the English navy names are quite good. I do like Ship names like "Attitude Adjuster" and "Frank Exchange Of Views", but they are not very practical (Indefatigable is not very practical too ;) ).
I just read Excession. Good although I still think Player of Games is a better book.
:)
Also, Indefatigable is a very apt name for a fast ship
Bigger crabs and lobster, and someone thinks this is a bad thing? I am going outside to rev my SUV for a while...
I direct you towards Fallout 3.
Next up, sharks.
Erm, nope. Next up, Somali Pirates with mirrors
Laser project unmitigated failure.
Targeted pirates used laser to get a quick tan and reheat burritos.
Until you get deployed to the SS Flounder...
I should probably clarify my earlier statement: Unit names and ship names are cool. Everything else is boring. Of course, in some cases, the names are also comedy gold. Take for example the British... they named a WWI ship the HMS Cockchafer. Yeah. A testament to miserable Britain if there ever was.
Erm, in proper English the "cock" spelling can often be pronounced "coe" I.E. cockburn is pronounced "coeburn".
Not sure how Cockchafer is pronounced but it's an European beetle.
But your point about the English navy is dead wrong. They have all the good ship names, HMS Resolute, Repulse, Victory, Indefatigable. Way better than the USS Alabama or Gerald R Ford.
Dogma be damned, slower != safer on a high speed road.
We've known this since the 70's. It's the same risk as going faster in terms of likelihood of causing an accident (see: Solomon Curve), however a lower speed represents a lower severity of injury. The best thing to do is to keep the same speed as others. This is why speed limits are such an important safety feature, they're designed to get everyone going the same speed. People who go faster or slower are the ones who increase risk.
But the problem with MOP's (Morons On Phone's) is not that they're travelling slower or faster, nor that they change lanes less. The problem is that they aren't paying attention to what they are doing and what is going on around them. The root cause of a lot of road accidents are driver error (speed just makes driver error deadly) and inattention is a huge part of what causes error.
I see this all the time on roads where I live (Perth, Australia), especially from pedestrians. I drive a sports car with a modified exhaust, so it's not quiet yet moronic pedestrians with white earbuds stuffed in their ears still walk out in front of me and my shiny, black, loud car. People are too busy with their phones to watch where they are going or pay attention to what they are doing.
(335 or 40 in a 50 zone)
335 KPH in a 50 zone is a bit fast :)
All right, so Vietnam "doesn't count" because we didn't win --- even though, if we had, we'd still have already destroyed nearly all their dams and irrigation systems, and doused the whole country in carcinogenic defoliants, so I can't see the outcome being a lot more rosy after that point.
Still, if you've been to Vietnam lately you'll find they rebuilt themselves quite well without the US's help.
They are nearly up to the same industrial level as Thailand and Thailand received a metric shitload of US money.
I think that it's probably a move meant to give the North Koreans a chance to back down and declare 'victory' to their own people so that the crisis can end before things become unpredictable.
This,
Lil' Kim is probably just dealing with some internal unrest. Just manufacturing a crisis so that he can suppress his opposition. Every general who was under Kim Jong Il probably has their eye on the top job, the threat of war keeps them busy whilst the internal trouble is sorted out. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a purge in the NK military before this is over.
I wouldn't settle for less than both.
Try to placate him... until you can kill him.
Because state sponsored assassination/regime change has never resulted in a worse leader getting in. I mean when they put the Shah in power in Iran it all came up roses didn't it.
While cute, this is really overthinking the problem.
If you want to kill lots of people in an aviation related way, send a suicide bomber to the security checkpoint at Thanksgiving.
Traditionally the goal of hijacking a plane is to get a bunch of hostages in order to further a political goal (release of "political" prisoners is a common one).
If a terrorist organisation could operate domestically and simply wanted to kill people, there are softer targets than airports (buses, theatres, think about the places that got hit in Israel in days past) and targets with far greater political value (banks, municipal buildings). You need only look at the damage Timothy McVey did and he was just one nut with a truck full of home made explosives. Fortunately for most western nations, terrorists are not supported enough or funded well enough to operate domestically.
really, who watches porn on their phone? That just seems like a terrible life choice. Small screen, horrible data speeds, smudgy finger marks.
Business travellers who cant afford prostitutes.
It wants sqeemish. You just made a really bad joke and they were trying to save the rest of us from seeing it. The slashcensor has to work in our favour once in a while.
...especially when the legal means of consuming the content covers most of the intended market.
...after the two/three/four years that it often takes for a top-notch show to reach my country in the first place.
This,
Dearest HBO, I'd like to buy Game Of Thrones but you leave no option open to me as an Australian.
So I end up pirating. It's not that I'm trying to rip HBO off, it's that HBO wont shut up and take my money.
The plot line is better than Bioshock and the world is friggen awesome.
Solid 10 so far.
If Bioshock 1 is a 10 I give Infinite a 8. Both the plot and the gameplay is a step back. The game is better than I expected though.
If Bioshock 1 is a 10, System Shock 2 is 178.
Seeing as Bioshock 1 is just a rehashing of System Shock 2's story with cyberpunk swapped for steampunk.
Seriously, I've seen better storytelling in porno's. Better voice work too but that's besides the point. The story premise is not bad (as I said, it's based on System Shock 2) it's just so hacked together and poorly told.
Er, not forgetting of course that Fox News (and the practice of direct political interference by the media) is the brainchild of an ex-Australian?
Also, have you ever watched Today/Tonight?
Emphasis on "Ex" Australian.
TT/ACA and all the mainstream news sources in Oz are complete rubbish which is why I had to point out the ABC and SBS even through the SBS's format emphasises foreign news.
But if you've seen Fox News, they make Today Tonight look good.
The truth is always in the middle. I like to read Fox, MSNBC(Now NBCNEWS) and CNN to see different sides of the story and decide for myself what the truth is.
That's good in theory, but my experience with US "news" agencies is that neither one presents facts, only opinion and interpretation which means that you dont see the "truth" as you would call it, only someone elses opinion. What you're simply doing is hearing two biased opinions and deciding which one you agree with.
With news it is very good to get the facts from multiple reports of a situation and decide on your own opinion. But you cant do this if your sources don't contain the facts.
News should be fact presented dispassionately, Fox and MSNBC are the opposite of this. CNN simply fails at it.
I don't know about ABC, but BBC is hardly a source of unbiased news. Its bias may simply be more in line with your preferences.
Erm, no. BBC is credible, they do make mistakes and this is widely publicised because the BBC has to admit and correct their mistakes.
When was the last time any Newscorp entity every corrected one of their stories.
BBC is very unbiased in their news presentation. It's just that they don't agree with your bias so you need to label them as being biased.
Specifically, what it says is that both MSNBC and Fox are more than 50% opinion (well, non-news "analysis", anyway). So, these are primarily "chat" sources rather than news sources.
if you want actual news, according to this, go to CNN.
This,
Just because MSNBC contains a higher percentage of male cow faeces does not mean Fox News isn't almost bullshit as well.
As an Australian who's seen US "news" channels I'm utterly flabbergasted whenever I see them. Opinion is masqueraded as fact, debates rigged and just about every thought terminating cliché is thrown in and repeated until you almost believe it. Coming from somewhere that has credible news sources like the BBC, ABC (Australian) and SBS I'm amazed at how poorly informed news sources truly are.
Even CNN is terrible. Last time I watched CNN it was the same four stories on repeat.
I'd be looking for news sources outside the US, US news channels make Top Gear's Clarkson look like the paragon of journalistic integrity.
actually, it doesn't matter how much it costs to fly from oz to us to buy the software...
As I said, it's easier and cheaper just to order the software from a store that ships to Australia and get them to send the boxed copy.
Besides, if you buy from Adobe, they dont bother sending you anything physical. They just email you a serial number, if you want the physical media you have to pay extra for that. It worked this way the last time I bought CS from an Adobe reseller and that was CS3. They emailed us the serial numbers and we had to pay A$150 for a copy of the media.
Because people are willing to pay it.
Wrong.
It's because people are forced to pay it.
Where can I legally get a copy of Adobe CS6 outside of Adobe's supply chain? Nowhere. They have a government enforced monopoly allowing them to dictate prices above what the market is willing to bear.
If the market was willing, there wouldn't be price enquiries.
Awaken from your libertarian fantasy and visit the real world once in a while. The free market doesn't automagically fix things and prices are almost never set at what people are "willing" to pay, especially in monopolies.
Even with the GST and import taxes, if you're working for an Australian business who needs 2 (or more) copies of Adobe CS6, you're still well ahead by flying over to the US and buying them and paying the GST and import tax. At $3879 for the CS6 master collection, your $1600 flight and $1200 software purchase, plus say $300 salary and $100 hotel room for one night still comes out ahead - and for multiple copies, you're laughing.
Actually salary would be more like $1200. 2 x 16 hour flights (in Oz, every hour flying is counted as an hour working) plus the time there and back. Also you'll need to get them to spend at least one night in LA (closest city to Oz, although you can also fly to SF, Dallas and Fort Worth for the same amount of money and time). The trip would take the better part of a week, would you work 4 days for only $300? It's less than min wage here in Oz (30 hours = $10 an hour, min wage is $15 is p/h).
It would be easier to purchase a boxed copy from the myriad of stores who ship to Oz and ask them to ship to Oz. Customs takes the mandatory 10% GST (Goods and Services Tax, basically sales tax) and you get your software.
If the govt really cared (and this wasn't just some political sideshow) they'd allow shops to import direct from overseas importers... But it's the govt so I don't hold out much hope for that.
what about the inport taxes? and the VAT tax?
On digital media,
Import taxes = 0%
GST (Goods and Services Tax, our version of the VAT) 10%.
So if a software package costs US$1200 in the States, it should cost about $1320 in Oz. I'll allow up to $1500 to account for a smaller market and physical isolation.
I dont know how Adobe figures it can charge $1600 more for CS6 in Oz than it does in the US.
aferarge