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Comment Re:The anthropic principle isn't a principle. (Score 4, Insightful) 683

"the idea of this universe being particularly suited to life"

... And if there are multiple parallel universes, then in all universes that are not suited to life, there will be no life to ask, "why isn't this universe suited to life". So only in the universes that are suited to life, could there be lifeforms asking, why is this universe suited to life.

Asking therefore "that the universe was made just for us", is clearly totally wrong. Its not about us at all. Its just that life can survive and exist in this universe.

Comment Re:Filed Under the NYT's "Fashion & Style?" (Score 4, Informative) 631

"but there are far too many people out there who would love to harass someone for no reason at all."

I find it very interesting you conclude, "no reason at all", because there is a reason, but unfortunately most people have not learned to see the reason, why some people behave this way towards others. When someone harasses someone else, there is always a reason, and that reason is always some form of personal gain from the harassment.

In a way, I find it both good and bad that a lot of people can't think of a reason, why someone would behave this way towards other people. Its good, in that most people clearly don't think (and so don't behave) this way towards others, which is very encouraging for all of us. But unfortunately is also bad, in that if more people learned to think like this, then fewer people would become the victims of this kind of treatment.

Everyone who continuously harasses, manipulates or ruthlessly exploits other people, for their own gain, is demonstrating a very strong sign of a cluster B personality disorder trait. One event of this kind of behavior, isn't enough to predict a person is this way, but a continued treatment of others by harassment, manipulation or ruthless exploitation, is a clear indicator of cluster B personality disordered behavior. But their behavior is not the reason why they are this way.

Here's a quick cut and paste from a previous post...
"The world will never change until everyone worldwide realizes that people who constantly seek power over others have a recognizable cluster B personality disorder. All cluster B personality disorders are ultimately driven by fear. And the ones with the disorder constantly seek to control that fear and control everyone around them based on their fear. (There are multiple fears, two examples are lack of attention and another is fear of lack of power. (There are also other fears). The attention seekers want more attention (they were deprived of parental attention as children. The ones who want power seek to prevent anyone ever having power over them again, the way they were treated unfairly as children)."

Cluster B disorders are only a minority of the population, but thought out our lives, we all meet multiple examples of these kinds of people in our lives. (To give an indication of the kinds of numbers of these people around, for example, its estimated that over 80% of people in prison have some form of cluster B disorder. Also there are many cluster B disordered people who are not in prison, but continue to treat others around them badly. (At times horrifically). Some are even in high positions. (They seek positions of power over others, sometimes relentlessly seek high positions of power over others). Also some of these people can be extremely convincing, as they spend years learning how to manipulate others. Some are almost like they are acting a role as they manipulate others and they can get very good at it).

Comment Re:hey what about Farscape (Score 1) 340

"it was a nice weapon!"

I was also thinking about Farscape.

Spoiler warning: For Farscape, and Star Trek TNG (although I expect most people (who care about seeing it), have seen both by now).

In Farscape, The Peacekeeper Wars, its Wormhole doomsday weapon was capable of destroying the entire universe. Not many doomsday weapons can beat that. I suppose the only way to go beyond that, would be to also cause total destruction throughout all time as well.

The anti-time effect in the final episode of Star Trek TNG, I guess would be more destructive in the past, if allowed to grow. So then I guess it would also wipe out everything in the future as well.

Comment Google's "Do no harm" PR smoke screen... (Score 2, Insightful) 142

Google provide what governments want, i.e. "Information", and as information is power, no government would want to stop Google. (Unless that information gathering power was directed at them).

Also from the main title page: "Similarly, if we knew the power that Google would have in 2008 with its ability to aggregate and correlate personal data, it is arguable that various regulatory and privacy bodies would never allow it to exist given the extensive privacy issues"

That's basically saying the boiled frog principle. So implying people other than governments, would see the danger with Google and then seek to pressure governments to stop it. Well *some* people have seen the power of google and did see the danger it opens up years ago, but no where near enough people stood up and said something about Google, to even limit its ultimate goal to becoming effectively an advertising version of Big Brother. Problem is even now, most people still cannot see the full danger, so nothing will be done.
e.g.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=465072&cid=22544268

Comment Re:Maternity Leave or alien invasion!? (Score 3, Funny) 149

"He needs to care for the alien fetus growing inside his stomach."

Maybe aliens have already replaced him with a replica? ... so he can help start the alien space invasion!... oh no!... This would also explain his sudden career change and it would also explain John Carmack's move into Aerospace!... see it explains a lot! ... they are both aliens!

Maybe the Armadillo's are behind it!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armadillo_Aerospace

Then again, maybe we have both had too much coffee today. :)

Comment Re:Regulations ... don't work and cannot work. (Score 4, Insightful) 610

"give controlled access to chemicals to irresponsible people in a way that ensures no other people are harmed."

The irresponsible people are allowed to buy incredible amounts of extremely hazardous materials like fireworks, while many chemicals that require qualifications, to even know what to do with them, are heavily restricted.

But then, someone wishing to do harm to others, can cause a lot of damage with just some gasoline and a lighter. The chemical isn't the danger, its the actions and intentions of the people using it.

Therefore the solution isn't to be found in ever more extra controls and banning parts of chemistry, its to be found in psychology. (We have enough controls on chemistry to avoid accidents, but ever more controls can never stop some people causing intentional harm towards others).

The answer to this problem is actually easier, than the relentless government solution of continued prohibition, of anything else they detect that can be used to harm others. There will always be things that can be used to cause harm to others. There will also always be new things found that can cause harm to others. Prohibition will never work. Its always going to be less than required. Plus they cannot block everything. (Even a house brick can cause harm to others, so they cannot ban house bricks). The solution of prohibition of chemicals and even at times, knowledge itself cannot work.

Psychology shows why people cause harm to others, for their own gain. The harm is caused intentional, there is a reason why they choose to cause harm to others. Only when enough people learn how to recognize the psychology of the ones who cause harm towards others, can we finally move towards a world, without fear of people causing intentional harm to others.

Comment NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition! (Score 1) 145

"Questioning the council leads to fear, fear leads to hate, etc..."

NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...

Comment Not a U-Turn, just boil frog more carefully now... (Score 4, Insightful) 143

"No, the purpose is selective enforcement"

...and selective enforcement, is a slower way to boil a frog. The point being, once they have a basic system implimented in law, they can then introduce new technology, controls and additional laws over time. So at first, introduce selective enforcement, then over time, widen the scope to much greater levels of enforcement. This way, they slip the full idea past opponents as opponents, *at this time* only have to agree on small parts of the overall idea. The control freaks who want this system, are starting to tread more carefully, now they are getting more (unwanted) attention on their plans. They still intend to have the full system, but they are now bring it in bit by bit. Don't want to heat the water too fast, or the frog will jump out the water.

But its wrong for the opponents of this system to say this is a U-Turn. "U-Turn" is political talk for implying a back down. This isn't a back down, the control freaks still want this system, no matter how many times they are told it will not work.

Comment Jacqui Smith's police state (Score 5, Insightful) 419

"Isn't a Labour government grand?"

This cartoon in the independent, sums up why we are heading into a total Big Brother police state.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/the-daily-cartoon-760940.html?ino=9

This party isn't really labour. Labour was started to help the people. This lot are only interested in helping the rich. This Labour government has become a bunch of arragant, closeminded, greedy, self-righteous, control freaks, pulling the whole UK into their personal police state hell and no one can tell them anything, otherwise they get labelled opposition (or worse) and then simply ignored.

Jacqui Smith MP, is one of the worst of them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacqui_Smith "As the UK Home Secretary, she has been noted for advocating strongly authoritarian policies."

Comment Re:I hate their lying ways (Score 1) 419

"How much will this cost in cash terms anyway?"

£12bn for the initial work, (estimate only, so I guess it'll cost more over time), plus, worst still, running cost of around a billion per year!. So in dollars, that's (at todays exchange rate) about $18.75 Billion setup costs, and $1.57 Billion running cost, per year! http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/16/interception_modernisation_analysis/

And thats just stage one... wait until they decide that other departments can then start more data mining, on this initial data trawl and initial profiling.

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