Shit, I remember reading about that in school. Latin class, to be specific - translating a section of Cassius Dio's Historia Romana about its construction. That alone tells you how incredibly old and overdesigned that thing is.

If you build something to last, its not overdesign, its good architecture. The concept of calulating the lifespan of a building is a very new and sad one, since it means you only build stuff that will make you "get your money back" before that time, preferrably within a generation. I know we cant have the old times back, but I am living in a city quarter that was built in the 1880s and most people in my town woul rather live in those "overdesigned" houses than the overprized concrete crap investors spray into the cityscape here. And, honestly, I would sincerely wish my government would build bridges and buildings that were designed to last, not to crumble after 50 years. What are we going to show our grandchildren? "And here was a building called 'the green mall' when I was a child, but when I was fourty they tore it down to build a school there, and now as you can see they are dynamiting that to replace it with an office building"? Regards

The idea of defining anything as being the norm for humans is actually offensive to me.

Proof again you can break into FBI or CIA, or you can talk about it, but you cant do both for very long.

This here explains it in some more words: https://www.infosecisland.com/blogview/14706-LulzSec-How-Not-to-Run-an-Insurgency.html#.TgNxjyifa2A.twitter

Since I'm at work, I dont have the appropriate quote, but Nietzsche extensively examined how reason is searving the desires (and the "will to power" in particular, of course).

Then, I am pretty sure it will be possible to find some prearistotelian thinker who came up with the same idea. Its not really a surprise.

Three years ago I would have happily signed up for such an adventure, even if it was one-way. To be part of that, oh wow. These days, with a wife and a child, I guess I'll envy those who go, but wont be amongst them.

So I dont thinnk there be volunteers lacking, Even though I dont know wether they ft the general requirements of mental stability to be locked up in a can for a year. Even the early colonists of the Americas expected to make some money and then return. And even in the Americas it was a three month voyage on a ship, not a year in space.

But hell, what a ride.

It really depends on the ressources I would be allowed to take with me. And of course on the realism of the assumption. Travelling back to the roman empire would probably wipe out 80% of humanity, considering the amouont of modern germs present humans carry around with them - and it also could mean a speedy death at the hand of some forgotten plague.

If I were allowed to bring some equipment with me, I'd bring a solar-powered battery charger, a digital camera, a laptop and some aspirin, someone with knowledge of arameic and greek and latin, a lot of gold coins and some guns, and would probably attempt to copy every scroll of the library of Alexandria I could lay my hands on. Securing the complete works of Aristotle would be enough, but salvaging a couple of thousands of scrolls, or ven more, from this lost treasure of human wisdom would not only make me rich, it would emply thousands of translators, historians, and philosophers for decades. It would change and refine and alter our view of the past, o philosophy, and solve a lot of historical puzzles.
Probably the burning of the library in 44BC was such a botched attempt, hm? :D

The second intervention I would attempt is not to "Kill Hitler" but comes close: Travel back to 1914 and create enough havoc that the Germans win the Battle of the Marne. the result?

• No trench Warfare on the western Front, millions of people survive
• No long fight on the Eastern Front, either, therefore:
• No communist uprising (Lenin stays in Swizerland), sparing 60 million lives and bringing Russia into modern Europe
• Germany creates and leads an european "Zollverein" (customs union), which today is called EU
• France and Britain loose their world power status, sparing them a couple of ugly colonial wars
• Hitler stays a failed Austrian painter
• The rise of the US to world power gets slowed somewhat (cause Europe doesnt have to borrow itself senseless)

Of course, all speculative, everything can still turn out terribly. ut it would sure be fun to try :D

Or I would just go back a couple of years and kick myself in the butt repeatedly fo breaking up with my ex.

Considering the absurdity of some patents granted in the past years, I seriously doubt that the number of paptens on file is a good indicator of technical prowess. It merely shows the strengh of the IP regime

or for Samuel L Jackson!

Now THAT would be a biopic of St. patrick even I as an atheist would want to see!

How the fuck is that posting informative? It is plainly FUD

Ahmadinejad has said again and again that he intends to destroy Israel

Go check yourselves

My I kindly point out, Sir, that you are arriving at exactly the point some exiled journalist in London came to some 150 years ago?

His basic insight was that power within society stems from posessions and riches, and especially those riches that allow you to produce more riches, which, in a capitalist society, are companies. And that those fortunes have a significant effect on how society is shaped, run, and governed, i.e. they influence which laws are made, how they are made, and by whom. His proposed solution, however, prooved to be remarkably unworkable due to a couple of wrong assumptions regarding the nature of humans.

I do understand, though, that liberal slashdot posters are usually in opopsition to intellectual property and would not always give credit where credit is due.

Right. But there is a slight difference between how the muslim trolls treat you and the christian trolls treat you. I honestly cant remember the last time I head about christian or liberal (or "conservative") terrorists over here in Europe.

I doubt the number of bombs going off after someone publicly burned the books of Adam Smith or John Locke would remain rather miniscule. You do not have the right not to be offended.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ3VcbAfd4w

I have mails from 1995 onward, by now roughly from 15+ different accounts, most of them defunct. Except for a couple of months of 1996 and 2005, which I wistfully deleted, I converted them all with a small tool (Aid4mail, i think) from PST, Eudora, or Pegasus format into thunderbirds UNIX-compatible format.

+ Open Source (Free + maintained + Supported)

+ Thunderbird searches and indexes just fine

+ plain text format - I can use all sorts of editors on them if necessary)

+ Always on my HDD (Encryption, no public mining, no external servers needed)

+ UNIX-Format guarantees I can convert them into something completely different in 20 years, should the need arise

+ no additional software needed

Am I overlooking some of GPs requirements here? Or is the slashdot crowd prone to a little overengineeering? :)

Regards!