Are you not equally chained to these principles as a greedy man is chained to his money? If you can't stand down from a fight you know you'll lose to stay alive or stay out of prison, then maybe you're not free. The OP had a point; you're more likely to be happy if you've got money than if you've got none and you dig through trash to eat, or if you've been thrown into some King's cell to rot. The person he was responding to had a very narrow view of what's possible with money and what "rich" people are like. They're not all the same.
Some people pursue money to no end, of course, killing themselves in the process. Money doesn't guarantee happiness, but it can certainly make it easier to obtain, provided you don't sacrifice too much of your time and happiness to get it.
You idolize Thoreau, but if he'd simply paid his taxes he would have stayed out of jail. I'm sure that you're still paying your taxes, despite the war, bailouts, drug prohibition, and excessive welfare spending. I engage in civil disobedience, but I don't go out of my way to get caught doing it.
In any case, people do different things with freedom. Just because we don't choose to do the same thing doesn't mean others aren't free.
Those elderly people have inheritances, savings, pensions, social security... some of them have massive cash stacked up, dude.
If you get a job entertaining, feeding, or caring for the elderly, they will GIVE you some of that cash. They're going to make the demand for nursing and medicine in particular skyrocket.
Then you can take it and make some investments or start a business or something, thereby securing your own retirement and giving some younger folks employment.
Then you'll use your retirement to pay for entertainment, nursing, medicine, and so on when you're old, and the cycle will continue.
I know they're kind of difficult sometimes and they are a massive drain on social security, but I don't know if starting a "Logan's Run" situation is really a good answer to the problem.
What we should do instead is voluntarily work towards reducing the birth rate so that the world can return to having a sustainable population of humans. Everyone would be happier, healthier, and wealthier, if there were just less of us.
Knuckles! We can surgically remove every male infant's knuckles at birth to render them inefficient at striking things or other people with their fists.
While we're at it elbow and knee reduction surgery could be done to soften the blows from those parts of the body. Maybe we could add in squishy silicone implants and make it a crime to remove them.
Of course we better make sure that all of those date-rape drugs and knives and guns are off the market, because even a boy with surgically removed knuckles and blow-softening elbow and knee implants can still rob a store or rape a lady with one of those implements.
While we're at it, why don't we just pop everyone's brain out of their body at birth, and slip into a robot that is very interactive but ultimately incapable of any form of sabotage, betrayal, or violence towards other robots of it's type? That would reduce violent crime right?
Then again maybe taking an infant's brain out of it's head at birth is a violent crime itself. Point being, you have a point, you can never end violence. "Nothing ever ends," in the words of the Doc, and any attempt to ultimately end it will ultimately end up being as barbaric as the original violence it attempted to end.
Pretty soon we're all going to be lobotomized at birth so that we shuffle into the slaughterhouse more obediently like so many cattle.
I'll be dead by 2182 unless we reach singularity and achieve immortality through medicine, computing and science by then! So party it the fuck up! Smoke some weed, snort some cocaine, fuck a stripper! Life's a short joke and you're it so enjoy it while you can fuckers! Fuck the asteroids!
Painting a car pink is not the same as damaging your property. Maybe to you it is, but maybe there are other people out there who would like a pink car. I know I wouldn't mind having a purple one.
Carjackers aren't going to want to be driving a hot car around when it happens to be painted hot pink, covered in artwork, or shaped like a giant shoe. The reason is simple: if you're going to steal a car, you don't want the stolen car to be easily identified. A black car is much easier to hide than a pink one.
With my freeze ray
I will find the time to
Find the words to
Tell you how
How you make
Make me feel
What's the phrase?
Like a fool
Kind of sick
Special needs
Anyways
With my freezeray
I will stop the pain
It's not a death ray or an icebeam
That's all Johnny Snow
I just think you need time to know
That I'm the guy to make it real
The feelings you don't dare to feel
I'll bend the world to our will
And we'll make time stand still
That's the plan
Rule the world
You and me
Anyday
Love your hair
("What?")
"No I . . I, uh . . . love the . . . air"
Anyway
8 hour stops every 3 hours of driving means that the "testers" get plenty of time to tour lots of different hotels and cafes, eating the local fare, drinking the local brew and mixing with the local ladies.
Why the hell would you invest in the alternator technology if it would just ROB you of the opportunity to enjoy all of that down time on the road? Plus I bet these "testers" are getting paid some sort of wage for all of this, and that wage and most of their expenses will be paid by some sort of research grants.
I'm just sayin'. Sometimes psychology is the answer to these sort of engineering and financial decisions. Wouldn't YOU love to go on a cross-country trip and hang out in a string of hotel bars?
Plus you know, it's possible that the downtime will give them the opportunity to do things like optimize the software, troubleshoot problems, and so forth, so that they can improve the technology over the course of the trip. If they're going to take the time to do those things anyway, why bother to invest in engineering a one-time device to help them run without stopping?
So they're either getting drunk or being productive. Your call.
Actually, we are all dead. Everyone dies eventually and most people die of cancer, heart attack, or stroke. Is it possible that Dioxin causes any of these? If so, then it is killing us.
Stop being so shortsighted. I don't know whether or not Dioxin is poisonous, but you seem to have reached a conclusion based on the article summary. That alone speaks to your lack of critical thinking. You fail at science.
Get with the times. Chinese currency was fixed to the dollar for many decades, but sometime in the 90's they fixed it to a basket of world currencies instead, and now the Chinese currency floats openly on the market.
Because the Romans weren't conducting a controlled scientific experiment? Because the Romans didn't write down their findings, nor were they attempting to answer a scientific question to begin with? Because what we know about gladiator fights is limited and uncertain?
I can't think of an analogy for how stupid this is; that's how stupid it is.
Not to mention that lots of private security workers and bar bouncers are criminals or drug-users and wouldn't be caught dead in a police cruiser, ESPECIALLY in the front seat.
It wasn't an assumption; the OP clearly prefaced their statement with "I suspect," a phrase which underscores their own uncertainty.
Besides, admit it, most people who are over 40 take a little longer to adapt to using computers or to figure out some new-fangled program, video game, or cell phone. It's not that they're stupid or senile, they're just not used to electronics.
My Father, who recently turned 50, used to be a police officer. He used to have to write his police reports using ink and paper, and it wasn't until he was nearly 35 that they started using computers at the precinct to type reports. You can't just do something one way for 35 years and then turn around tomorrow and become an expert in doing it an entirely different way.
One of my industrial psychology professors, Dr. Truxillo, does a fair amount of research on the differences in ability between younger and older workers, and has some interesting ideas on the topic. I can't recall them with any real detail right now, but basically it amounts to the notion that younger and older workers generally have different strengths and weaknesses, but both have the same potential in all areas and both are still useful.
Because when you're designing a layout for a website, you don't always know what you want it to say yet. Because writing the text of the website is not always the developer's job. Because when you're having a meeting to get approval from a client for a layout, you don't want to blow a lot of time writing and re-writing some text that can be changed later and has no relevance to the task at hand.
Should I go on, or will you just admit that you're a moron and an ass and spare us both?
Some things can't be duplicated, like the privilege of watching a live feed on one of kink.com's websites and chatting with the models during the shoot in real-time. Nothing but a site subscription can get you that experience.
You're right, a lot of the porn people pay for they could be getting for free, but there IS a niche market for those who demand interactive porn, and/or access to a higher-quality product without having to wade through a bunch of malware-infested warez sites.
You don't think that some ideas or symbols are worth marking your body with?
I have a tattoo of the symbol for infinity on the center of my back. Any T-shirt covers it up so 95% of the people I meet haven't seen it and don't even know I have ink. I got the tattoo after thinking of the idea and considering it for 1 or 2 years. My Dad took me to the artist who did all of his tattoos right after my high school graduation ceremony, and paid for it as a graduation present.
I got the tattoo because the concept of infinity is closely related to immortality, timelessness, and endless life. It's ironic to tattoo a symbol for timelessness on a mortal body that will eventually wither, die, and rot. Therefore the tattoo is a personal reminder to live life to the fullest because it doesn't last forever.
The tattoo is not a cheap joke. It's not a kitschy idea. I don't show it at parties to get a laugh out of people. It's a very personal reminder to be happy and enjoy life.
You're right that it's very important to consider that tattoos last for the rest of your life (but not forever), and that they will eventually fade and possibly be warped by the wrinkling and sagging of skin. It's important to think about a tattoo for a long time before getting it to make sure that you want it, and it's also important not to get a tattoo of some political or scientific position you have that might change in the future. A tattoo of a flower is simple and timeless; flowers will always represent life, love, and beauty, and the tattoo could mark some important life event (such as my high school graduation). A tattoo that says "Bush Sucks" or "Jesus Saves" might not be a good idea because you might not always feel that way.
So, in summary, some tattoos are indeed stupid, but the idea that getting a tattoo is inherently stupid is a stupid idea. I'm not worried about my tattoo fading or wrinkling because it's a tattoo about aging and death anyway; the whole point is that it won't be there forever. The next tattoo I'm going to get will simply read "no hope, no fear" and I've been sure that I want it for over a year.
The researchers are not trying to save rats. They're trying to save human lives. Unfortunately, it isn't wise to use experimental medical procedures on humans as sometimes the treatment being tested ends up doing more harm than good.
I can't tell if you're just trying to be funny or if you really don't understand this.
Man. That totally reminds me of how much I hate this one dude at work. He gets this stupid-ass grin on his face whenever he thinks he's telling you something you don't know, and it makes me want to knock the smug bastard's teeth out of his head.
At least he's a socially inept moron with a stupid-sounding voice, so the cosmic joke is on him.
Culture notwithstanding, the conclusions regarding the probabilistic nature of inductive reasoning are insightful. It is important to understand that complex tasks and systems of belief are the result of trial and error; of making mistakes. Regardless of whatever superstitious or fallacious beliefs various cultures might have (and they all have them), this is an immutable fact of cognition, behavior, and psychology in general.
So I don't think it's that the conclusions don't make sense in an Eastern culture. It's simply that, as you describe it, this aspect of Eastern culture makes no sense at all to begin with. You can't do everything perfectly the first time around.
Slashdot Mirror
Are you not equally chained to these principles as a greedy man is chained to his money? If you can't stand down from a fight you know you'll lose to stay alive or stay out of prison, then maybe you're not free. The OP had a point; you're more likely to be happy if you've got money than if you've got none and you dig through trash to eat, or if you've been thrown into some King's cell to rot. The person he was responding to had a very narrow view of what's possible with money and what "rich" people are like. They're not all the same.
Some people pursue money to no end, of course, killing themselves in the process. Money doesn't guarantee happiness, but it can certainly make it easier to obtain, provided you don't sacrifice too much of your time and happiness to get it.
You idolize Thoreau, but if he'd simply paid his taxes he would have stayed out of jail. I'm sure that you're still paying your taxes, despite the war, bailouts, drug prohibition, and excessive welfare spending. I engage in civil disobedience, but I don't go out of my way to get caught doing it.
In any case, people do different things with freedom. Just because we don't choose to do the same thing doesn't mean others aren't free.
Those elderly people have inheritances, savings, pensions, social security ... some of them have massive cash stacked up, dude.
If you get a job entertaining, feeding, or caring for the elderly, they will GIVE you some of that cash. They're going to make the demand for nursing and medicine in particular skyrocket.
Then you can take it and make some investments or start a business or something, thereby securing your own retirement and giving some younger folks employment.
Then you'll use your retirement to pay for entertainment, nursing, medicine, and so on when you're old, and the cycle will continue.
I know they're kind of difficult sometimes and they are a massive drain on social security, but I don't know if starting a "Logan's Run" situation is really a good answer to the problem.
What we should do instead is voluntarily work towards reducing the birth rate so that the world can return to having a sustainable population of humans. Everyone would be happier, healthier, and wealthier, if there were just less of us.
Knuckles! We can surgically remove every male infant's knuckles at birth to render them inefficient at striking things or other people with their fists.
While we're at it elbow and knee reduction surgery could be done to soften the blows from those parts of the body. Maybe we could add in squishy silicone implants and make it a crime to remove them.
Of course we better make sure that all of those date-rape drugs and knives and guns are off the market, because even a boy with surgically removed knuckles and blow-softening elbow and knee implants can still rob a store or rape a lady with one of those implements.
While we're at it, why don't we just pop everyone's brain out of their body at birth, and slip into a robot that is very interactive but ultimately incapable of any form of sabotage, betrayal, or violence towards other robots of it's type? That would reduce violent crime right?
Then again maybe taking an infant's brain out of it's head at birth is a violent crime itself. Point being, you have a point, you can never end violence. "Nothing ever ends," in the words of the Doc, and any attempt to ultimately end it will ultimately end up being as barbaric as the original violence it attempted to end.
Pretty soon we're all going to be lobotomized at birth so that we shuffle into the slaughterhouse more obediently like so many cattle.
I'll be dead by 2182 unless we reach singularity and achieve immortality through medicine, computing and science by then! So party it the fuck up! Smoke some weed, snort some cocaine, fuck a stripper! Life's a short joke and you're it so enjoy it while you can fuckers! Fuck the asteroids!
I've often wondered why we think that every creature was made by a supreme being with a specific purpose in mind.
Yeah, but now when you find someone with a pointed knife, you can book them before they stab someone.
Not saying I agree, but that's the logic.
Painting a car pink is not the same as damaging your property. Maybe to you it is, but maybe there are other people out there who would like a pink car. I know I wouldn't mind having a purple one.
Carjackers aren't going to want to be driving a hot car around when it happens to be painted hot pink, covered in artwork, or shaped like a giant shoe. The reason is simple: if you're going to steal a car, you don't want the stolen car to be easily identified. A black car is much easier to hide than a pink one.
THQ published Relic's Company of Heroes. That game kicks serious ass.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfaXt1rC2G0
Laundry day
See you there
Underthings
Tumbling
Want to say
Love your hair
Here I go
Mumbling
With my freeze ray
I will stop the world
With my freeze ray
I will find the time to
Find the words to
Tell you how
How you make
Make me feel
What's the phrase?
Like a fool
Kind of sick
Special needs
Anyways
With my freezeray
I will stop the pain
It's not a death ray or an icebeam
That's all Johnny Snow
I just think you need time to know
That I'm the guy to make it real
The feelings you don't dare to feel
I'll bend the world to our will
And we'll make time stand still
That's the plan
Rule the world
You and me
Anyday
Love your hair
("What?")
"No I . . I, uh . . . love the . . . air"
Anyway
With my freeze ray I will stop -
8 hour stops every 3 hours of driving means that the "testers" get plenty of time to tour lots of different hotels and cafes, eating the local fare, drinking the local brew and mixing with the local ladies.
Why the hell would you invest in the alternator technology if it would just ROB you of the opportunity to enjoy all of that down time on the road? Plus I bet these "testers" are getting paid some sort of wage for all of this, and that wage and most of their expenses will be paid by some sort of research grants.
I'm just sayin'. Sometimes psychology is the answer to these sort of engineering and financial decisions. Wouldn't YOU love to go on a cross-country trip and hang out in a string of hotel bars?
Plus you know, it's possible that the downtime will give them the opportunity to do things like optimize the software, troubleshoot problems, and so forth, so that they can improve the technology over the course of the trip. If they're going to take the time to do those things anyway, why bother to invest in engineering a one-time device to help them run without stopping?
So they're either getting drunk or being productive. Your call.
It just ain't a comp-u-tor if you can't play you some Crysis on it. Do you really think I built a $1,000 machine just so I could use AutoCad?
My kingdom for a mod point, man. That was insightful and eloquent. I'll be paraphrasing, copying or bookmarking your comment.
Stop using your own mod points to defend your own stupid ideas. "Troll" ain't the right mod, that's my honest opinion, you've jumped to conclusions.
Actually, we are all dead. Everyone dies eventually and most people die of cancer, heart attack, or stroke. Is it possible that Dioxin causes any of these? If so, then it is killing us.
Stop being so shortsighted. I don't know whether or not Dioxin is poisonous, but you seem to have reached a conclusion based on the article summary. That alone speaks to your lack of critical thinking. You fail at science.
Get with the times. Chinese currency was fixed to the dollar for many decades, but sometime in the 90's they fixed it to a basket of world currencies instead, and now the Chinese currency floats openly on the market.
Because the Romans weren't conducting a controlled scientific experiment? Because the Romans didn't write down their findings, nor were they attempting to answer a scientific question to begin with? Because what we know about gladiator fights is limited and uncertain?
I can't think of an analogy for how stupid this is; that's how stupid it is.
Not to mention that lots of private security workers and bar bouncers are criminals or drug-users and wouldn't be caught dead in a police cruiser, ESPECIALLY in the front seat.
It wasn't an assumption; the OP clearly prefaced their statement with "I suspect," a phrase which underscores their own uncertainty.
Besides, admit it, most people who are over 40 take a little longer to adapt to using computers or to figure out some new-fangled program, video game, or cell phone. It's not that they're stupid or senile, they're just not used to electronics.
My Father, who recently turned 50, used to be a police officer. He used to have to write his police reports using ink and paper, and it wasn't until he was nearly 35 that they started using computers at the precinct to type reports. You can't just do something one way for 35 years and then turn around tomorrow and become an expert in doing it an entirely different way.
One of my industrial psychology professors, Dr. Truxillo, does a fair amount of research on the differences in ability between younger and older workers, and has some interesting ideas on the topic. I can't recall them with any real detail right now, but basically it amounts to the notion that younger and older workers generally have different strengths and weaknesses, but both have the same potential in all areas and both are still useful.
Because when you're designing a layout for a website, you don't always know what you want it to say yet. Because writing the text of the website is not always the developer's job. Because when you're having a meeting to get approval from a client for a layout, you don't want to blow a lot of time writing and re-writing some text that can be changed later and has no relevance to the task at hand.
Should I go on, or will you just admit that you're a moron and an ass and spare us both?
Some things can't be duplicated, like the privilege of watching a live feed on one of kink.com's websites and chatting with the models during the shoot in real-time. Nothing but a site subscription can get you that experience.
You're right, a lot of the porn people pay for they could be getting for free, but there IS a niche market for those who demand interactive porn, and/or access to a higher-quality product without having to wade through a bunch of malware-infested warez sites.
You don't think that some ideas or symbols are worth marking your body with?
I have a tattoo of the symbol for infinity on the center of my back. Any T-shirt covers it up so 95% of the people I meet haven't seen it and don't even know I have ink. I got the tattoo after thinking of the idea and considering it for 1 or 2 years. My Dad took me to the artist who did all of his tattoos right after my high school graduation ceremony, and paid for it as a graduation present.
I got the tattoo because the concept of infinity is closely related to immortality, timelessness, and endless life. It's ironic to tattoo a symbol for timelessness on a mortal body that will eventually wither, die, and rot. Therefore the tattoo is a personal reminder to live life to the fullest because it doesn't last forever.
The tattoo is not a cheap joke. It's not a kitschy idea. I don't show it at parties to get a laugh out of people. It's a very personal reminder to be happy and enjoy life.
You're right that it's very important to consider that tattoos last for the rest of your life (but not forever), and that they will eventually fade and possibly be warped by the wrinkling and sagging of skin. It's important to think about a tattoo for a long time before getting it to make sure that you want it, and it's also important not to get a tattoo of some political or scientific position you have that might change in the future. A tattoo of a flower is simple and timeless; flowers will always represent life, love, and beauty, and the tattoo could mark some important life event (such as my high school graduation). A tattoo that says "Bush Sucks" or "Jesus Saves" might not be a good idea because you might not always feel that way.
So, in summary, some tattoos are indeed stupid, but the idea that getting a tattoo is inherently stupid is a stupid idea. I'm not worried about my tattoo fading or wrinkling because it's a tattoo about aging and death anyway; the whole point is that it won't be there forever. The next tattoo I'm going to get will simply read "no hope, no fear" and I've been sure that I want it for over a year.
The researchers are not trying to save rats. They're trying to save human lives. Unfortunately, it isn't wise to use experimental medical procedures on humans as sometimes the treatment being tested ends up doing more harm than good.
I can't tell if you're just trying to be funny or if you really don't understand this.
Man. That totally reminds me of how much I hate this one dude at work. He gets this stupid-ass grin on his face whenever he thinks he's telling you something you don't know, and it makes me want to knock the smug bastard's teeth out of his head.
At least he's a socially inept moron with a stupid-sounding voice, so the cosmic joke is on him.
Culture notwithstanding, the conclusions regarding the probabilistic nature of inductive reasoning are insightful. It is important to understand that complex tasks and systems of belief are the result of trial and error; of making mistakes. Regardless of whatever superstitious or fallacious beliefs various cultures might have (and they all have them), this is an immutable fact of cognition, behavior, and psychology in general.
So I don't think it's that the conclusions don't make sense in an Eastern culture. It's simply that, as you describe it, this aspect of Eastern culture makes no sense at all to begin with. You can't do everything perfectly the first time around.
Why don't you just obtain a media program that can play Matroska files? That's way less of a hassle than converting them.