And add to that that, it didn't do everything badly. a) As you say, other soviet leaders may have been less barbarous. Like Gorbachev maybe? Kruschev(sp?)? So it was bad leadership, not the USSR itself. I mean really... we kill people too. When you strip away the media sound bytes and the claims of WMD, isn't a dead body a dead body?
and b) The USSR wasn't all bad. You know that for all the bad we say about them, it was the general consensus among Soviets that tales of homelessness in the US was propaganda by their own government. They didn't have homeless people, and couldn't imagine that any country that was as powerful and had a better reputation than them worldwide could possibly have people living on the streets with no shelter. So when they heard about it, they naturally assumed it was more propaganda by their own government.
Isn't it funny how people's perceptions can be warped?
Ok all drug laws. All aimed at reducing recreational abuse of drugs. We can debate the social utility of this sort of measure. We can debate their overall efficacy, etc. The reason I bring them up is... notice the change over all these years.
Up through the late 1930s, the method of enacting this policy was by the imposition of taxes. By 1970, we are actually using federal law to make actions which can happen entirely within the bounds of a state, between legal adults, a violation of federal law.
If this isn't a severe encroachment, I don't know what is.
You know its so true.... I look at the EU and think gee... isn't that what our "Federal Government" was supposed to be? A strong alliance between independant states for mutual defense and betterment.
Sadly, nobody bothered to look at how that worked out for us.
The strong alliance has come to dominate the states. Its power has creeped ever so steadly, and now an entity that was once meant to govern interstate commerce and defend the boarders now interferes in peoples lives. The supreme court even ruled recently that it can meddle in your medical relationship with your doctor.
Yes... thats exactly what interstate commerce and boarder defense was about. Good thing we struck down that 9th amendment eh?
Here is the thing... Someone, somewhere decided to use a method of counting users. This method was not entirely unreliable. They used it for many things, even though, it couldn't hope to possibly work right, given that cookies are under end user control. Even normal activity (using a different PC, reloading the OS, making a new browser profile) could cause it to register you as a new user.
THIS METHOD OF COUNTING WAS BROKEN FROM THE VERY DAY IT WAS INVENTED
It is not my, or anyone else responsibility to give two shits for the fact that this problem is, in fact, much harder than it seems to do for real, and some retard decided to do this.
If the website owner screws up in other ways his site can come down forever too. If he forgets to take backups and deletes his site, its gone. If he puts in the wrong credit card number or sends in the wrong server decomissioning order, gone. If he screws up his DNS, gone.
Bottom line, theres so many ways he could screw up and lose his own ability to keep the site up. This is just one of them. In the end its not "Delete Cookies, inflate net trafic"
The title is wrong from the start its "Count users incorrectly, inflate net traffic estimates"
Heh and here in MA I have seen them almost wipe out being too overzealous on the way to a call.
I was on broadway in Somerville outside Wangs fast food waiting for my takeout order. Just kinda chillin, you know.
All of a sudden I hear a siren and a cop comes barreling down broadway at what had to be 70 MPH.
He hits the split for medford street and almost wipes out, barely made the turn with tires screaching. You could see he was pretty close to losing control. If anyone had been crossing medford street at the time, it would have been all over for them.
Maybe I am getting old, but its hard to be too hard on them, it can be an adreanalin pumping job at times. Sure i have seen total asshole cops, even seen them try to goad people into fights. I have also seen the bullshit they put up with from people on a daily basis. I would have a bad attitude too if I had to deal with some of them.
Overall... I can see how responding to a call could ake one think its important to get there right now, and damn everything inbetween. What is it schneier says all the time? We tend to undervalue risks we choose and overvalues ones we don't control?
heh and for the record, I was laughing just as hard 4 years ago when people said that about Iraq.
I mean seriously, how do people have their head so deep in the sand that they actually think things like that? Why is modern warfare so poorly understood? (Ok, admittedly the media makes no attempt at all at explaining it)
Yah, if everyone in iraq were well... a moron. If they hadn't studied a bit, if nobody paid attention to the past 50 fucking years... then yes, their army would have met ours on the battlefield. We would have said "Oh look, a massive troop formation", pressed a button, and the war would be over in 6 weeks.
They didn't do that cuz anyone with half a brain knows you can't fight like that against an army like the US unless you have an army like...well... like china, or the US. Major air force, major navy, cruise missles, all that good stuff.
Unless you have an army like the US or china, you just can't fight us like that. You have to play to your own strengths. You hide in civilian clothes, in civilian houses... cuz its what works. History always vindicates the victor. Does it matter whether you are a war criminal or not?
All I had to do to realise this was a decade or longer conflict.... BEFORE IT STARTED.... was to imagine the US army gets instantly wiped out and china invades the US. Whats gonna happen? Are we going to welcome our liberators?
No... people will smile by day. And whenever able bodied americans meet, one may say "come to my house, we have a meeting tonight". And guess what... people will come to those meetings... and people will fight. They will fight until either they are gone and new generations have risen up accepting chineese rule... or until the foriegn fighters leave.
We either stay until the next generation of Iraqi accept us, or we leave them to fight it out to fill the power vaccuume.
Course, I realise your making fun of the people who thought that but seriously... I find living in a country where people go around not just saying that shit but believing it to be downright embarassing.
You are presuming that it isn't wrong, but I reckon the opposite. Instead of looking after each other, as we did in the past, and having meaning in our lives through that, the State has rendered our lives almost purposeless. And so we just play video games all day, and watch TV. In the past we would have looked after our parents until they died.
I am about as anti-statist as one gets and you know...I really have trouble blaming the state for that one. I think technology like games has evolved to attract us and fill up our leisure time.
Its like cheese cake. Its not the nutritional value of it that makes your mouth water. Its the fact that it was made with all the triggers that make it feel good in your mouth and just yummy as hell, its really hacking you rbrain to send you the "hungry eat that" signals, even though really... the body doesn't need it.
I think video games do similar things to other parts of the brain. Get the adreanalin pumping, that sort of thing.
I have touble blaming the state for people making poor time management decisions or feeling they have "lost purpose" (which supposedly existed int he past, at least, thats what all the books and movies tell us).
I think this is far more a case of selective memory and poor decision making faculties than really the fault of the state. That said... smash the state!:)
Agreed.... the problem isn't the tool, its how its used.
Now I have another spin... could this effect be "relativly good". Take for example salesmen who used these same sorts of presentations. There are many times I can remember sitting through a dog and pony show and later remembering that I really liked the product, and that I was amazed by what they showed me, but....
I couldn't remember why I liked it! Just that I "was amazed".
I could definitly seeing this be very helpful to sales people who present to decision makers, especially ones who only have a cursory understanding of technology and want to go with their gut. I could also see it making it harder for the more technical people in the room to remember specific points and come up with good arguments against later
Since we are talking about it....there is another cultural difference, which I mentioned... but didn't expand on. Mating options.
I am what you might call a "late bloomer". That is I am 28 and just kinda starting to date and find sexual partners etc. Sure I did a bit of that when I was a teenager and in my early 20s but not really much. I sort of started...then took a long hiatus... and am now sort of starting again.
One thing i have noticed in my ample trips out to the country in upstate NY anyway....
every woman over the age of 20 is married. The exceptions are almost unequivocally head cases (and I mean comparitivly so... as a man I think all women are head cases, much the same way they think I am a head case.... but I mean really batshit crazy here). I don't mean to cast aspersions, but its a trend I noticed. The vast majority of the girls worth dating in the country marry young and have kids.
In the city, at 28, I know lots of people, and very few are married. The few that are, are usually at least in their 30s. Sure some my age are starting, some did earlier and whatnot. The point is, I have a lot more options here.
Essentially my "lifestyle" as a "late bloomer"... as one of those "confirmed bachelors" who happens to not actually be gay (been there, tried that, didn't really like it, my gay friends rate me a "kinsey 1").... is one that benefits from the city and isn't so viable outside. Not entirely unviable, but doesn't seem so for someone who does want to date and have the occasional female companionship in the night.
I really don't mean to sound like I look down on others lifestyles, but the country life is a bit limiting in ways the city isn't (and vice versa). For me.... the city is the obvious choice.
Excuse me, I am going to have to ask you to tone it up a bit... you are entirely too nonhostile for slashdot:)
Kidding of course... no the country is great and I mostly understand all that. On some level it is just a matter of preference. I have had some great experiences visiting "that side of the fam" and do like the country a lot.
That said, the idea of living there is well... as I got across in my previous post, unfathomable to me. I look around the city and think of the lifestyle I would be giving up and... honestly... no. Its just not the lifestyle I want for me.
The ability to be in a crowd and yet blend in and be anonymous can be both isolating and liberating. There is something nice about the city, there are nice things about the country too...and I do recognize that.
However, for me... for my life... no fucking way:)
The question at hand was: "Wouldn't it be nice to work in CA and go home to some farm out in the middle of nowhere. "
I gave my answer. That answer is no... and I didn't even bother to go into my personal feelings on CA.
I never said that OTHERS should be prevented from having such options. I don't know you, your lifestyle choices have no bearing on my life. You can go to hell (or CA) if thats what you want. I am not stopping you, or advocating for you being stopped. Simply saying no thanks, not for me, and I don't see the attraction.
I was simply answering the question "Wouldn't it be nice" and no... actually... it wouldn't. And that is my final answer.
You, sir, are the closed minded individual. Yes, I know the downsides of the city, and honestly, on a pro/con list, I prefer the city. Hands down. I never once said anything negative about those who felt differently. _I_ even indicated that had I wanted a very different lifestyle, I might even consider it... however I don't want marriage or children (ok my views on that arn't as staunch as they have been in the past, but my basic view hasn't really changed yet).
I am not the one calling others opinions full of crap. I am secure enough in who I am and what I want to not have to belittle others opinions on how they want to live their lives just because they don't agree with mine. I was simply sharing with you how I see the question.
And somehow, that makes ME the closed minded one.... because I have an opinion that differs from yours.
I will note you refered to the countryside "scrolling".
If I were you, I might consider a little more time spent combining countryside and strolling rather than scrolling. You might find it to be quite relaxing.
Um no.... I would actually prefer to live in the city.
The countryside is a fine place to visit, even spend a week. However, live there? Grow up there? No fucking way!
I like the city. I like that there are things going on, and people around... bars to go drinking in, night clubs to go dancing, house parties, friends within a reasonable driving distance....
Basically... all of the things the country doesn't have. Food delivery... open stores at odd hours. All night grocery shopping.
I mean maybe if I was (or even wanted to be) married with children or something. However, I don't want that either. Then even if I was... I would hate to isolate my children like that. The city is where I grew up and I couldn't imagine growing up anywhere else.
I found this interesting in a recent show I saw called "Addiction"
They did FMRI scans of people in various situations, some addicts, some not.
What they showed was actual differences in their brain activity in various centers... changes that happened slowly over time. Use the drug over and over, and your brain adapts to that input, it changes in response to it.
Of course this is assumed to be an unequivicolly bad thing, though, I am not sure we really can put a value judgement on it... its one of those "it is what it is" things, we still don't know quite what to make of it... its still very very high level.
Of course, we should expect this with all things. I was born epileptic. I spent the first half of my life (up to this point) on anti-seizure drugs like tegratol. Look at what tegratol does, imagine a brain being exposed to it on a daily basis during its most formative years.... wow.
There has been only very very limited study into the area. I found a few articles in some recent searches on the subject. Some evidence that kids who grow up on these meds have lower incidence of marriage, lower overall achievement, etc. Overall, from my interactions with others, I have come to realise... my brain works differently in ways that actually makes it really hard to relate to alot of people in some ways.
How much of that is genetics? how much of that is upbringing? How much of that is changes made over years by exposure to brain fucntion altering drugs? How much of my formative experiences were colored or directly influenced?
Don't get me wrong... I am not trying to make a value judgement here, or say "hey look, they broke me" just that, more fascination with how the brain works and how changeable it really is. I would love to have such a "space belt". I wonder wat FMRIs of people who wore one for a year or two would differ from others.
Turnitin takes the copy they got...and makes ANOTHER copy into their database. Thus again violating your copyright as they are making the copy specifically for for profit use and not a protected class of use at all.
Remember, the "copying" that a computer needs to do when it loads a program into RAM got a specific exception in copyright... that would imply that such copying for other purposes does not have such an exception and is, in fact, a violation.
Hmmm and I support this, while I normally am against copyright holder silliness.
I also admit this is silly, and the company is, in my eyes, doing nothing wrong.
How do I reconcile these? Easy... Irony. I have a very healthy sense of it, and I LOVE the irony of this. I want to see these students succeede because this is no more silly than what I have seen the courts uphold in the past, and like the idea of how amazingly silly this one is.
I want to see them succeede not because of their merits, but because of the message that this sends.... copyright law is weird and needs an overhaul.
Oh but who cares. Corn purchased and eaten as corn accounts for what percentage of corn product in the average american's diet? My guess would be its in the low 1 digit percentages.
Corn byproduct is at least a component in the vast majority of our foods. Soda? Based on corn. Cereal? alot of them contain corn. High Fructose corn suryp is cheaper than sugar here, so it gets used most anywhere that sweetness is desired and corn syrup doesn't fuck up the flavor too bad to be fixed for cheaper than just using sugar.
Its interesting, in some ways it makes corn the most attractive plant for improvements in efficiency since its the basis of our entire diet. However, it also makes it the most risky one to modify.
I mean if zucchini became slightly more toxic... so what? Sure everyone eats it, but most in far lower quantities.
OF course you rmorality doesn't agree.... your not a pervert.
These Utahians are, on the other hand, quite obviously perverts.
Look at it this way... theres lots of ways to divide up the world. You can say "there are black people and white people"... then you broke up the world on skin color. You can say "there are good days and bad" then you have broken up days based on how you feel about them.
These people in Utah want to sort the entire content of the internet, based on sex. I say, putting such an incredibly high importance on sexual content vs everything else tells me one thing... they are perverts. Perverts who feel that sex is so highly dangerous and dirty that it needs to be supressed. Probably because feeling nasty and dirty is the only way they can get off.
Fucking asshole slow drivers cause more accidents. Especially ones that don't know how to get over. Keeping my eye out on you. Step on the fucking gas man. If you can't afford to drive fast, get a smaller car.
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And add to that that, it didn't do everything badly. a) As you say, other soviet leaders may have been less barbarous. Like Gorbachev maybe? Kruschev(sp?)? So it was bad leadership, not the USSR itself. I mean really... we kill people too. When you strip away the media sound bytes and the claims of WMD, isn't a dead body a dead body?
and b) The USSR wasn't all bad. You know that for all the bad we say about them, it was the general consensus among Soviets that tales of homelessness in the US was propaganda by their own government. They didn't have homeless people, and couldn't imagine that any country that was as powerful and had a better reputation than them worldwide could possibly have people living on the streets with no shelter. So when they heard about it, they naturally assumed it was more propaganda by their own government.
Isn't it funny how people's perceptions can be warped?
-Steve
We are CLEARLY using the hot grits standard as published on goatse.cx
Screw off meatstick, no way.
Mod grandparent up!
Are you familiar with the Harrison Narcotics Act (1914)
or perhaps the Marihauna Tax Act (1937) or, the coup de grace. The Controlled Substances Act
Ok all drug laws. All aimed at reducing recreational abuse of drugs. We can debate the social utility of this sort of measure. We can debate their overall efficacy, etc. The reason I bring them up is... notice the change over all these years.
Up through the late 1930s, the method of enacting this policy was by the imposition of taxes. By 1970, we are actually using federal law to make actions which can happen entirely within the bounds of a state, between legal adults, a violation of federal law.
If this isn't a severe encroachment, I don't know what is.
-Steve
And yet, I neither disagree, nor think that the government has any standing to involve itself in the matter.
-Steve
Ahahah
You know its so true.... I look at the EU and think gee... isn't that what our "Federal Government" was supposed to be? A strong alliance between independant states for mutual defense and betterment.
Sadly, nobody bothered to look at how that worked out for us.
The strong alliance has come to dominate the states. Its power has creeped ever so steadly, and now an entity that was once meant to govern interstate commerce and defend the boarders now interferes in peoples lives. The supreme court even ruled recently that it can meddle in your medical relationship with your doctor.
Yes... thats exactly what interstate commerce and boarder defense was about. Good thing we struck down that 9th amendment eh?
-Steve
One could assume the roomate hid the cd in his room to take the heat off himself. Give himself an easy out if the police ever came to the apartment.
That said, if that was his plan, you would think he would register the IM in his roomates name too.
So it sounds to me like "blame it on the roomate" was his plan, and done badly.
-Steve
Yes, and I almost mentioned that. I believe Virginia, which I didn't list, is also a commonwealth.
Though, isn't a commonwealth a subclass of states?
-Steve
yes "United STATES"
What do all o fthe following have in common:
New Hampshire
Arizona
France
Iowa
Iran
Give up? Its easy: They are all STATES
-Steve
Here is the thing... Someone, somewhere decided to use a method of counting users. This method was not entirely unreliable. They used it for many things, even though, it couldn't hope to possibly work right, given that cookies are under end user control. Even normal activity (using a different PC, reloading the OS, making a new browser profile) could cause it to register you as a new user.
THIS METHOD OF COUNTING WAS BROKEN FROM THE VERY DAY IT WAS INVENTED
It is not my, or anyone else responsibility to give two shits for the fact that this problem is, in fact, much harder than it seems to do for real, and some retard decided to do this.
If the website owner screws up in other ways his site can come down forever too. If he forgets to take backups and deletes his site, its gone. If he puts in the wrong credit card number or sends in the wrong server decomissioning order, gone. If he screws up his DNS, gone.
Bottom line, theres so many ways he could screw up and lose his own ability to keep the site up. This is just one of them. In the end its not "Delete Cookies, inflate net trafic"
The title is wrong from the start its "Count users incorrectly, inflate net traffic estimates"
-Steve
Heh and here in MA I have seen them almost wipe out being too overzealous on the way to a call.
I was on broadway in Somerville outside Wangs fast food waiting for my takeout order. Just kinda chillin, you know.
All of a sudden I hear a siren and a cop comes barreling down broadway at what had to be 70 MPH.
He hits the split for medford street and almost wipes out, barely made the turn with tires screaching. You could see he was pretty close to losing control. If anyone had been crossing medford street at the time, it would have been all over for them.
Maybe I am getting old, but its hard to be too hard on them, it can be an adreanalin pumping job at times. Sure i have seen total asshole cops, even seen them try to goad people into fights. I have also seen the bullshit they put up with from people on a daily basis. I would have a bad attitude too if I had to deal with some of them.
Overall... I can see how responding to a call could ake one think its important to get there right now, and damn everything inbetween. What is it schneier says all the time? We tend to undervalue risks we choose and overvalues ones we don't control?
-Steve
heh and for the record, I was laughing just as hard 4 years ago when people said that about Iraq.
I mean seriously, how do people have their head so deep in the sand that they actually think things like that? Why is modern warfare so poorly understood? (Ok, admittedly the media makes no attempt at all at explaining it)
Yah, if everyone in iraq were well... a moron. If they hadn't studied a bit, if nobody paid attention to the past 50 fucking years... then yes, their army would have met ours on the battlefield. We would have said "Oh look, a massive troop formation", pressed a button, and the war would be over in 6 weeks.
They didn't do that cuz anyone with half a brain knows you can't fight like that against an army like the US unless you have an army like...well... like china, or the US. Major air force, major navy, cruise missles, all that good stuff.
Unless you have an army like the US or china, you just can't fight us like that. You have to play to your own strengths. You hide in civilian clothes, in civilian houses... cuz its what works. History always vindicates the victor. Does it matter whether you are a war criminal or not?
All I had to do to realise this was a decade or longer conflict.... BEFORE IT STARTED.... was to imagine the US army gets instantly wiped out and china invades the US. Whats gonna happen? Are we going to welcome our liberators?
No... people will smile by day. And whenever able bodied americans meet, one may say "come to my house, we have a meeting tonight". And guess what... people will come to those meetings... and people will fight. They will fight until either they are gone and new generations have risen up accepting chineese rule... or until the foriegn fighters leave.
We either stay until the next generation of Iraqi accept us, or we leave them to fight it out to fill the power vaccuume.
Course, I realise your making fun of the people who thought that but seriously... I find living in a country where people go around not just saying that shit but believing it to be downright embarassing.
-Steve
I am about as anti-statist as one gets and you know...I really have trouble blaming the state for that one. I think technology like games has evolved to attract us and fill up our leisure time.
Its like cheese cake. Its not the nutritional value of it that makes your mouth water. Its the fact that it was made with all the triggers that make it feel good in your mouth and just yummy as hell, its really hacking you rbrain to send you the "hungry eat that" signals, even though really... the body doesn't need it.
I think video games do similar things to other parts of the brain. Get the adreanalin pumping, that sort of thing.
I have touble blaming the state for people making poor time management decisions or feeling they have "lost purpose" (which supposedly existed int he past, at least, thats what all the books and movies tell us).
I think this is far more a case of selective memory and poor decision making faculties than really the fault of the state. That said... smash the state!
-Steve
Agreed.... the problem isn't the tool, its how its used.
Now I have another spin... could this effect be "relativly good". Take for example salesmen who used these same sorts of presentations. There are many times I can remember sitting through a dog and pony show and later remembering that I really liked the product, and that I was amazed by what they showed me, but....
I couldn't remember why I liked it! Just that I "was amazed".
I could definitly seeing this be very helpful to sales people who present to decision makers, especially ones who only have a cursory understanding of technology and want to go with their gut. I could also see it making it harder for the more technical people in the room to remember specific points and come up with good arguments against later
-Steve
Since we are talking about it....there is another cultural difference, which I mentioned... but didn't expand on. Mating options.
I am what you might call a "late bloomer". That is I am 28 and just kinda starting to date and find sexual partners etc. Sure I did a bit of that when I was a teenager and in my early 20s but not really much. I sort of started...then took a long hiatus... and am now sort of starting again.
One thing i have noticed in my ample trips out to the country in upstate NY anyway....
every woman over the age of 20 is married. The exceptions are almost unequivocally head cases (and I mean comparitivly so... as a man I think all women are head cases, much the same way they think I am a head case.... but I mean really batshit crazy here). I don't mean to cast aspersions, but its a trend I noticed.
The vast majority of the girls worth dating in the country marry young and have kids.
In the city, at 28, I know lots of people, and very few are married. The few that are, are usually at least in their 30s. Sure some my age are starting, some did earlier and whatnot. The point is, I have a lot more options here.
Essentially my "lifestyle" as a "late bloomer"... as one of those "confirmed bachelors" who happens to not actually be gay (been there, tried that, didn't really like it, my gay friends rate me a "kinsey 1").... is one that benefits from the city and isn't so viable outside. Not entirely unviable, but doesn't seem so for someone who does want to date and have the occasional female companionship in the night.
I really don't mean to sound like I look down on others lifestyles, but the country life is a bit limiting in ways the city isn't (and vice versa). For me.... the city is the obvious choice.
-Steve
Excuse me, I am going to have to ask you to tone it up a bit... you are entirely too nonhostile for slashdot :)
:)
Kidding of course... no the country is great and I mostly understand all that. On some level it is just a matter of preference. I have had some great experiences visiting "that side of the fam" and do like the country a lot.
That said, the idea of living there is well... as I got across in my previous post, unfathomable to me. I look around the city and think of the lifestyle I would be giving up and... honestly... no. Its just not the lifestyle I want for me.
The ability to be in a crowd and yet blend in and be anonymous can be both isolating and liberating. There is something nice about the city, there are nice things about the country too...and I do recognize that.
However, for me... for my life... no fucking way
-Steve
Excuse me?
The question at hand was:
"Wouldn't it be nice to work in CA and go home to some farm out in the middle of nowhere. "
I gave my answer. That answer is no... and I didn't even bother to go into my personal feelings on CA.
I never said that OTHERS should be prevented from having such options. I don't know you, your lifestyle choices have no bearing on my life. You can go to hell (or CA) if thats what you want. I am not stopping you, or advocating for you being stopped. Simply saying no thanks, not for me, and I don't see the attraction.
I was simply answering the question "Wouldn't it be nice" and no... actually... it wouldn't. And that is my final answer.
You, sir, are the closed minded individual. Yes, I know the downsides of the city, and honestly, on a pro/con list, I prefer the city. Hands down. I never once said anything negative about those who felt differently. _I_ even indicated that had I wanted a very different lifestyle, I might even consider it... however I don't want marriage or children (ok my views on that arn't as staunch as they have been in the past, but my basic view hasn't really changed yet).
I am not the one calling others opinions full of crap. I am secure enough in who I am and what I want to not have to belittle others opinions on how they want to live their lives just because they don't agree with mine. I was simply sharing with you how I see the question.
And somehow, that makes ME the closed minded one.... because I have an opinion that differs from yours.
-Steve
I will note you refered to the countryside "scrolling".
If I were you, I might consider a little more time spent combining countryside and strolling rather than scrolling. You might find it to be quite relaxing.
-Steve
Um no.... I would actually prefer to live in the city.
The countryside is a fine place to visit, even spend a week. However, live there? Grow up there? No fucking way!
I like the city. I like that there are things going on, and people around... bars to go drinking in, night clubs to go dancing, house parties, friends within a reasonable driving distance....
Basically... all of the things the country doesn't have. Food delivery... open stores at odd hours. All night grocery shopping.
I mean maybe if I was (or even wanted to be) married with children or something. However, I don't want that either. Then even if I was... I would hate to isolate my children like that. The city is where I grew up and I couldn't imagine growing up anywhere else.
-Steve
I found this interesting in a recent show I saw called "Addiction"
They did FMRI scans of people in various situations, some addicts, some not.
What they showed was actual differences in their brain activity in various centers... changes that happened slowly over time. Use the drug over and over, and your brain adapts to that input, it changes in response to it.
Of course this is assumed to be an unequivicolly bad thing, though, I am not sure we really can put a value judgement on it... its one of those "it is what it is" things, we still don't know quite what to make of it... its still very very high level.
Of course, we should expect this with all things. I was born epileptic. I spent the first half of my life (up to this point) on anti-seizure drugs like tegratol. Look at what tegratol does, imagine a brain being exposed to it on a daily basis during its most formative years.... wow.
There has been only very very limited study into the area. I found a few articles in some recent searches on the subject. Some evidence that kids who grow up on these meds have lower incidence of marriage, lower overall achievement, etc. Overall, from my interactions with others, I have come to realise... my brain works differently in ways that actually makes it really hard to relate to alot of people in some ways.
How much of that is genetics? how much of that is upbringing? How much of that is changes made over years by exposure to brain fucntion altering drugs? How much of my formative experiences were colored or directly influenced?
Don't get me wrong... I am not trying to make a value judgement here, or say "hey look, they broke me" just that, more fascination with how the brain works and how changeable it really is. I would love to have such a "space belt". I wonder wat FMRIs of people who wore one for a year or two would differ from others.
This stuff just fascinates me.
-Steve
oh and the coup de grace....
Turnitin takes the copy they got...and makes ANOTHER copy into their database. Thus again violating your copyright as they are making the copy specifically for for profit use and not a protected class of use at all.
Remember, the "copying" that a computer needs to do when it loads a program into RAM got a specific exception in copyright... that would imply that such copying for other purposes does not have such an exception and is, in fact, a violation.
-Steve
Hmmm and I support this, while I normally am against copyright holder silliness.
I also admit this is silly, and the company is, in my eyes, doing nothing wrong.
How do I reconcile these? Easy... Irony. I have a very healthy sense of it, and I LOVE the irony of this. I want to see these students succeede because this is no more silly than what I have seen the courts uphold in the past, and like the idea of how amazingly silly this one is.
I want to see them succeede not because of their merits, but because of the message that this sends.... copyright law is weird and needs an overhaul.
-Steve
Oh but who cares. Corn purchased and eaten as corn accounts for what percentage of corn product in the average american's diet? My guess would be its in the low 1 digit percentages.
Corn byproduct is at least a component in the vast majority of our foods. Soda? Based on corn. Cereal? alot of them contain corn. High Fructose corn suryp is cheaper than sugar here, so it gets used most anywhere that sweetness is desired and corn syrup doesn't fuck up the flavor too bad to be fixed for cheaper than just using sugar.
Its interesting, in some ways it makes corn the most attractive plant for improvements in efficiency since its the basis of our entire diet. However, it also makes it the most risky one to modify.
I mean if zucchini became slightly more toxic... so what? Sure everyone eats it, but most in far lower quantities.
-Steve
OF course you rmorality doesn't agree.... your not a pervert.
These Utahians are, on the other hand, quite obviously perverts.
Look at it this way... theres lots of ways to divide up the world. You can say "there are black people and white people"... then you broke up the world on skin color. You can say "there are good days and bad" then you have broken up days based on how you feel about them.
These people in Utah want to sort the entire content of the internet, based on sex. I say, putting such an incredibly high importance on sexual content vs everything else tells me one thing... they are perverts. Perverts who feel that sex is so highly dangerous and dirty that it needs to be supressed. Probably because feeling nasty and dirty is the only way they can get off.
Fucking perverts.
-Steve
Fucking asshole slow drivers cause more accidents. Especially ones that don't know how to get over. Keeping my eye out on you. Step on the fucking gas man. If you can't afford to drive fast, get a smaller car.
-Steve