Comment Re:Two words... fan fic (Score 5, Funny) 218
fanfic is the craigslist of the publishing world.
And just like craigslist, 2/3 of it deals with sex and some kind of disturbing fetish.
fanfic is the craigslist of the publishing world.
And just like craigslist, 2/3 of it deals with sex and some kind of disturbing fetish.
The thing that people often forget is that teaching itself is a serious talent/skill.
Are you from the teachers Union? That is a fat load of bullshit. Since they have been running that line, geting more and more people shut out of the schools, the quality of education has dropped.
Private enterprise will never spark the initial push to interplanetary/interstellar colonization
That's because privet enterprise isn't staffed with idiots, who after having spent 9/10 of their resources escaping a steep gravity well aren't going to go back down another. the future of space is in the asteroids with robots, not on planets with humans.
Government doesn't have the resources they have the power to take them from you. If the government decides to "create jobs" in a non profitable industry all that is happening is society is being impoverished for the benefit of a few people.
Also there are several very rich people interested in resource's from space since one small Near Earth Object has roughly 15 trillion dollars worth of high grade ore.
And that is why "our" criminal system has the most people in jail in the world.
I don't think most people agree that the criminal system should be binary with "right" and "wrong" being the only two states. The fact that an individual is conditioned towards extreme violence should factor into his sentencing and be corrected. They shouldn't be thrown into a box for the rest of their life at the expense of the state. I don't think the law exist as a means merely to get revenge on individuals.
Besides "the Quick-e-mart guy" is a false analogy, it would be more accurate to compare torture and the "it doesn't count because I didn't know better" defense to the vilonce such an individual would inflict on those around him and his children. Actions that are reinforced at every angle by his community.
But you're right, we should hold people to abstract lofty ideals in the legal system rather than actually account for human behavior and create a system that works. No body is talking about moral relativism, I know that would be your next response. I am are talking about humans, and a humanist system for law, not high moral fantasy. Humans follow a set system of actions based on their environment and situation, the people who manipulate that environment are the ones guilty. It's very easy for you siting at home to judge other humans based on your high moral codes, but your codes are just based on fantasy.
When I had to write academic articles for school the first place I always went was Wikipedia, not for the article, but for the collection of sources at the end. Usually there were more relevant and peer reviewed scores there than on Ebesco host. The citation sections of Wikipedia are probably one of the greatest overlooked resources on the web.
Just look at the sources for one simple comm theory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_of_silence not to mention the primary and secondary sources linked for anything historic. I got to Wikipedia first, and to library catalogs second when gathering sources is involved.
People keep looking at this in the context of right or wrong from am absolutist moral perspective. They need to look at this from the perspective of the people involved.
A soldier far away from home surrounded by other soldiers, conditioned with a set of values that is reinforced in every aspect by the others in his community. These people didn't commit torture as defined as one human to another, they commuted an act of torture from a member of a community against an animal. Nothing they did was wrong by the morals of their community, which were fostered by command. To charge them would be wrong. They do not have the power to question the ethical framework they are put in, that power has been purposely and systematically striped from them by command. Soldiers are not men of ordinary sense and understanding, no one of ordinary sense and understanding would go over a hill into certain death when ordered.
The leadership of this country purposely fostered an environment that was conductive towards this behavior, they reduce solders to equipment, and enemys to animals. To charge a solider with torture when they return to the states is like charging you for murder for eating meat today 10 years from now.
The social reinforcement and environment and community fostered by command is stronger incentive to follow orders than any punishment of treason. The punishment for questioning is social isolation and removal and shunning from ones community. These are the most powerful incentives in the human mind, add to that that every one around reaffirmed the belief that what they were doing was not only acceptable but right and noble. I'd venture that less than 1 in 1000 people have the moral fiber or dedication to human rights to either understand the coercion that is being allied or to resist it. This applies to Gitmo, Nam, and any other war. Command are the guilty ones.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment
Could this have been dangerous in the wrong hands?
Oh hell yeah, if by wrong hands you mean ones without a glove.
Other than that not really, since you still need 100cc of high grade plutonium, which is near impossible to make if you aren't an industrialized nation.
It's a tough problem,
No it isn't. It is a very simple one, charge based on harm. child porn=abuse, abuse=harm, harm=jail.
Yes it's bad to have those sorts of pictures made and distributed,
Again, no it isn't. That's your opinion. It isn't the job of the state to enforce your moral opinion. These were pictures made by individuals of their own volition. Prosecuting them in anyway is a gross violation of their most basic liberties.
I'm not really sure that this is the sort of crime that the lawmakers writing the legislation had in mind when they passed it
This is exactly the kind of prosecution they hoped for. The goal of laws like this is to control human behavior that certain groups dislike, namely pornography and sexuality. it has very little to actually do with CP. They just come through the back door riding the CP train and started bending the law as they always wanted to. They don't feel that people can make decisions for themselves.
You shouldn't look at the law as a means to enforce what is "right" and "wrong" from a moral stance, but as a means of protecting peoples rights. If you don't, more laws like this will come out of the woodwork.
No body is forcing me to go you say? well, they are forcing me to pay for it. I'd rather NASA spent my money figuring out how to mine the sky rather than how to plant a flag on a useless rock.
When the population of Earth hits 15 billion and you and 100 people on mars are freezing, starving, and suffocating, you can look at the sky and wonder how others will be getting on.
We'll be siting at the L5 Lagrange point with a few asteroids and a beer living it up, laughing at all the money you wasted.
Yeah, I have no doubt people will move to space like I said "an average near earth object has more high quality metal ore than human society has produced in the last 10 years"
Mars OTOH, has practically no resources, is far away, and down a gravity well.
So why? Why Mars? In 30 years we will not be getting Iron ore or energy off Mars if we sink trillions of dollars into getting there. We would get that from things closer to home if we utilize our resources to actually accomplish something useful like securing resources rather than a gigantic publicity stunt.
I've noticed several design suggestions in your code.
