Re: Writing software
On Jun 13, 2005, at 5:12 AM, G. D. Akin wrote: I'm sure this has come up before, but what software is there out there that can help you manage versions. As I get further into my English program, I find that I'm having a hard time keeping track of what's what and when I wrote what when? Low- and no-cost preferred but I am interested in all. It's evening now, so I've put a little thought into this, and can offer the following thoughts while I wait to learn a little more about your environment... First of all, I learned a new term this week -- Yak Shaving: Any seemingly pointless activity which is actually necessary to solve a problem which solves a problem which, several levels of recursion later, solves the real problem you're working on. Your pursuit of version control (or, more accurately in the field of writing, revision control) for your English program may result in yak shaving. In software development, version control is something of a sub-industry, and opinions about version control platforms are a little like text editor or operating system religious wars. Among open source software developers, there are two favorites: subversion (aka svn) and CVS, which subversion was developed to replace. Going back in history, there's also rcs, and on Solaris, sccs, which I grew up on. In the commercial world, there's Perforce (which we use where I work and I find a little odd) and Rational's ClearCase. I doubt you want to go that route. The reason I went down that particular digression is that I was about to suggest that you look into svn, but upon reading up on the popular RapidSVN front-end to svn, it occurred to me that you'd be doing a fair bit of installation and configuration of stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with your English program in order to get where you want to go... Hence, the Yak Shaving. By the way, this may be the story that gives the origin of the phrase Yak Shaving: I want to wax the car today. Oops, the hose is still broken from the winter. I'll need to buy a new one at Home Depot. But Home Depot is on the other side of the Tappan Zee bridge and getting there without my EZPass is miserable because of the tolls. But, wait! I could borrow my neighbor's EZPass... Bob won't lend me his EZPass until I return the mooshi pillow my son borrowed, though. And we haven't returned it because some of the stuffing fell out and we need to get some yak hair to restuff it. And the next thing you know, you're at the zoo, shaving a yak, all so you can wax your car. Back in the days of Mac OS 9 or earlier, I had a nice system extension that added version control to any application -- it modified the save dialog so that you could either replace the current version, save as a new version, or revert to an older version, all within the same file. Pretty cool. Don't know if there's anything like that for OS X, if that's your poison. Peace, Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Writing software
On Jun 13, 2005, at 5:12 AM, G. D. Akin wrote: Low- and no-cost preferred but I am interested in all. OpenOffice.org, which is the free (as in beer and speech) version of Sun's StarOffice package, which it (Sun) posits as an alternative to Microsoft Office, has versioning built in. In the File menu is a Versions... item that allows you to create multiple versions of a work in progress. This may be exactly what you're looking for. No yaks to shave, but you do have to decide for yourself whether this free alternative to the hugely popular (and not without reason, I might add) Microsoft Office application will work for you. By the way... I used to work at Sun Microsystems, where using StarOffice was required, and I can tell you with great confidence that almost nobody there liked it, though plenty of people were able to be reasonably productive with it, even the ragged early versions we were subjected to. I'll stop posting now. Really I will. Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Writing software
Dave asked: I'm sure this has come up before, but what software is there out there that can help you manage versions. As I get further into my English program, I find that I'm having a hard time keeping track of what's what and when I wrote what when? Low- and no-cost preferred but I am interested in all. With what do you write? What word processor, what platform? -- Word 2003 on Windows XP Pro. And no, I'm not an idiot. I don't care about Linux or Max OS, they aren't in my universe of home, school, or work :-) George A ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Discovery Channel's Greatest American
-Original Message- From: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 17:31:51 -0400 To: Killer Bs Discussion Sent: Sun, 12 Jun 2005 19:30:04 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Re: Discovery Channel's Greatest American On Fri, 10 Jun 2005 21:19:22 -0400 John D. Giorgis wrote: If you think that's bad, the TV ads for the duimb thing mentioned Madonna. JDG _ Lenaord Matusik wrote Mon, 13 Jun 2005 17:31:51 -0400 How silly, Madonna belongs to the Greatest Italians club; doesn't she? I mean, she has that statue thingy set up in her home town and all? [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 17:31:51 -0400 I think she should be greatest Jew Naw , the greatest Jew was that carpenter guy... Justin, Joshua, Joey something like that. Either him or that Schindler fella from WWII. Leonard Matusik __ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l - Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Find what you need with new enhanced search. Learn more. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l - Discover Yahoo! Have fun online with music videos, cool games, IM more. Check it out! ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Forget global warming, let's make a difference
* David Brin ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: SHow me where he acknowledges any need to do anything at all. Dan beat me to it. See the passage Dan quotes. Lomborg is a practical guy, and the passage Dan found demonstrates it. Rather than spending $150B a year reducing carbon emissions to make a minimal impact on global warming, why don't we consider spending some of that money on research for solar and nuclear fusion power, or geoengineering? Personally, I'd add fuel cells and hydrogen-based technology to the list, since such technology could form the basis for automobiles to run without CO2 emissions (hydrogen or other fuel cell chemistries could, for example, be generated at non-CO2 emitting nuclear, solar, or wind power stations) His armwavings serve one function, to say all right, we won't deny it's happening anymore. So now let's lazily mozey down to the bunk house and snooze a bit then jaw a little about it, tomorrow. I refuse to accept that we must choose between huge problems to address. So he doesn't deny reality, but you do? We are vastly rich and capable. We have proved again and again that we can deal with multiple problems at the same time. Moreover, we must. So you don't acknowledge that resources are finite, and that people must choose how to spend there efforts and resources? H. Okay, well then why don't you choose to fund a lab to find better solutions to global warming? You should be able to fund a world-class lab for less than $1 billion a year. That won't be a problem for you, will it? After all, you apparently agree with spending $150B a year on reducing carbon emissions. Shall we employ a million biologists to cure AIDS and NOT employ a million engineers to improve energy efficiency? Of course not. Lomborg agrees with you that we should research cleaner energy sources. The disagreement is with implementing current plans to reduce carbon emission. Excuse me? There's a tradeoff here? Not one that I can see. Our descendants will judge us according to the things we neglected and fires we did NOT put out. I'm beginning to wonder if you only read the unfortunate title of Lomborg's article, and neglected to read the actual text. Yes, his title is sensational and not to be taken literally. But anyone who reads the text sees that Lomborg is quite concerned about helping people. Shall we spend $150B a year on Kyoto and cut 0.2C from globabl warming in 2100? Or should we spend half of that money on ensuring clean drinking water for millions of people around the world? Which one do you think our descendants will more appreciate? That is what a person would do if he were the reasonable fellow you portray Lomberg to be. He never even tries. His sole effect is to attack the credibility of all people who want to address this problem with any urgency. Woud you care to revise this statement? The shoe fits. These monsters have most of the world's media shilling for them. Nu? feudalists did that in most human cultures. We should be surprised they are doing it now? Talking about shoes fitting, this ranting sounds a lot like a rich, spoiled teenager shouting save the whales while millions are dying from lack of clean water. -- Erik Reuter http://www.erikreuter.net/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Where the heck are all the terrorist?
I've been thinking again.
3 1/2 years ago the US gov declared War on Terrorism and I have yet to
figure out, WHERE are all the terrorists?
I mean, how hard could it BE to conduct a terrorism campaign in the U.S.?
Especially, if one had access to the resources of a nation-state or medium
sized multinational company.
This leads me to ponder 5 things
1) Islam Terrorists (an oxymoron) are basically disorganized and have a
profound lack of brainpower
2) Islamic Terrorists don't exist.
3) Islamic Terrorists aren't interested in conducting a terrorism campaign in
the US
4) I have no idea of what it takes to conduct a terrorism campaign.
5) Our homeland security forces are doing a great job of turn back the threat
of Islamic Terrorism
After 9/11/2001 {Being the sick puppy that I am} I sat down and made a large
list of how one might conduct a terrorism campaign and only a few seemed more
complicated than conjuring a decent FLASH MOB.
So I'm confused. ALL of the 5 things above seem implausable to me.
(especially #5)
I mean, what do we got so far, Dynamite smugglers, a shoe bomber, some poor
shmoo in LA who sends his son to a Pakistani hate camp
yeesh, how lame..
and just RECENTLY the FAA prohibits butane lighters on airplanes!
LOL, THAT was one of the first gags on my list. It took
them 3 YEARS to figure THAT one out; and in all that time, NO ONE, not one
suicidal idiot, created a fuel-air bomb out an airplane restroom, a butane
lighter and an aerosol can filled with oxygen.
My brother was recently asked by FAA inspectors to take a swig out of a 2 liter
soda he was carrying. He complied. When he asked WHY? the man told him that
It could have been filled with gasoline LOL, he said shit you think
I'd be afraid to drink a little gasoline if I were planning to blow myself up?
The man sniffed the bottleHA!
I guess the world must be a better place than THE PRESS makes it out to be,
'cause making serious mischief just doesn't seem that difficult. (and that's
not counting the ORGANIZED GeeWiz kinda serious mischief).
PS: does anyone else find it especially sick that the opening-salvo OP in a war
against terrorism was code-named Shock and Awe?
(hope they come home soon)
Leonard Matusik [EMAIL PROTECTED]
-
Yahoo! Mail Mobile
Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Check email on your mobile phone.
___
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life imitates art imitating life?
Has anyone seen this? I mean, they even call it claytronics! This is the fourth major fictional idea of mine that has been at least partly reified by researchers this year alone. And in not one case did anyone mention where they got the idea. sniff. Somebody oughta tell em... The replicator: create your own body double. (The New Scientist#2503: http://www.newscientist.com/channel/mech-tech/mg18625031.800) Need to be in two places at once? All you need to project yourself anywhere in the world is an internet connection and some intelligent nanodust TELEPORTATION might not yet be on the cards for us humans, but Seth Goldstein and Todd Mowry may have come up with the next best thing. This pair of computer scientists are trying to build an intelligent material that can replicate a physical three-dimensional facsimile of you from nothing more than a stream of video images. If it works, all you'll need to project yourself around the globe is an internet connection and a pile of their intelligent nanodust at the other end to assemble your replica. The project is still in its infancy, but the researchers hope the new material - made of self-organising nano-computers that can stick to each other and communicate with built-in wireless - will eventually be able to shape-shift in an instant, forming a replica of anything from a banana to a human. They call it claytronics, and the individual particles are known as claytronic ... * Not for publication * ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Writing software
Dave Land wrote: OpenOffice.org, which is the free (as in beer and speech) version of Sun's StarOffice package, which it (Sun) posits as an alternative to Microsoft Office, has versioning built in. In the File menu is a Versions... item that allows you to create multiple versions of a work in progress. Also appears in Word, if that is what you are already using and you give the File menu the time to expand (damn feature hiding menus). -- --Max Battcher-- http://www.worldmaker.net/ The WorldMaker.Network: Support Open/Free Mythoi. Read the manifesto @ mythoi.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Brin. Re: life imitates art imitating life?
In a message dated 6/14/2005 7:33:25 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: And in not one case did anyone mention where they got the idea. sniff. Sniff? One large monogrammed handkerchief coming right up. __ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | D.B. | |_| Vilyehm ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Writing software
On 14 Jun 2005, at 11:37 am, Max Battcher wrote: Dave Land wrote: OpenOffice.org, which is the free (as in beer and speech) version of Sun's StarOffice package, which it (Sun) posits as an alternative to Microsoft Office, has versioning built in. In the File menu is a Versions... item that allows you to create multiple versions of a work in progress. Also appears in Word, if that is what you are already using and you give the File menu the time to expand (damn feature hiding menus). Since it saves all the versions in one file as diffs in a proprietary undocumented format I would worry about the fragility of the resulting file and how to recover *any* version should it get corrupted. -- William T Goodall Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/ The three chief virtues of a programmer are: Laziness, Impatience and Hubris - Larry Wall ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Writing software
On Jun 14, 2005, at 9:59 AM, William T Goodall wrote: On 14 Jun 2005, at 11:37 am, Max Battcher wrote: Dave Land wrote: OpenOffice.org, which is the free (as in beer and speech) version of Sun's StarOffice package, which it (Sun) posits as an alternative to Microsoft Office, has versioning built in. In the File menu is a Versions... item that allows you to create multiple versions of a work in progress. Also appears in Word, if that is what you are already using and you give the File menu the time to expand (damn feature hiding menus). Since it saves all the versions in one file as diffs in a proprietary undocumented format I would worry about the fragility of the resulting file and how to recover *any* version should it get corrupted. In Word, this is true, and it's a reason I didn't recommend it. Despite my resistance to OpenOffice.org (which, incidentally, is the True Name of the suite, not OpenOffice, for some kind of trademark reasons), it at least uses a well-documented, internationally-standardized format: OpenDocument (http://books.evc-cit.info/odbook/ch01.html). The files are XML -- plain old text. Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Forget global warming, let's make a difference
This is foul-mouthed insulting and sophistry. For several messages ER has directed nasty ad hominem attacks at me. I want the Brin: label removed from this set of exchanges. He has reminded me why I opted out. BTW, none of his rants change the essential fact. The neocons first denied warming. Then denied it was human-caused. Then that it was significant. Now they claim it is TOO significant for any human-funded palliative measures to be effective without breaking the world's budget to solve other problems. And all this time they have repeated one refrain over and over. In reasonable tones, yet. We need more research... ...while savagely cutting the research budgets every chance they get. ...while taking a trillion dollars from our kids (in the form of new debt) to hand to their fellow artistocrats, on a promise that they would invest it all in new plants and inventions and equipment and factories (guess what? They heven't.) while they preside over the first war in our history in which the top tiers did not vote to tax themselves to pay for it. The first. The very first. With a smidgeon of that $trillion we could do many things, supplying both clean water and money for AIDS research, while applying reasonable prudence to our children's planet, so don't give me that crap about my not being pragmatic. Those are better projects than the biggest one currently financed... a trillion dollar project to socially re- engineer American society along gilded age aristocratic lines. That IS the big project, boys and girls. It is the one on which we are spending the most money. And oh... I am NOT a big fan of Kyoto. I would be happy to deliberate alternative efficiency-conservation approaches. Only there's a difference. When Lomberg et al say I would be happy to deliberate alternative efficiency-conservation approaches. They are LYING! Because after they preen and say that... they never ever do. It is an Orwellian big lie. The SUV standards are the smoking gun. Enough. I am outta here. What's sad is that these jerks are so hurting the image of conservatism that it will sink lower than post watergate. In five years, reasonable people will be fighting against the lefty backlash. Pragmatism is the victim. db PS Today announced. The service academies have seen a plummet in applications of unprecedented proportions. ranging from 12% (west point) to 22% (air force academy.) All services are plummeting in recruitment as our military readiness and morale plunge. But the service academies are a litmus. They reflect the other side of this. The administration's recent all-out political purge of the US Officer Corps. Leftists won't even notice these issues because of their patriotism is stupid reflex. Fortunately, while the left may be mired in an insane hostility toward the Officer Corps that is now our only bulwark and protection, not all democrats are lefties. See: http://www.trumanproject.org/ Many on the left would sneer at these folks as GOP Light. That is entirely wrong. These people want to reclaim the long democratic tradition of assertive foreign policy that is both prudent and bold, both moral and unafraid. Cooperative and yet unabashed at willingness to lead. The kind of leadership and assertive/decent Pax Americana that stepped into the Balkans and left the European Continent at peace under law for the first time in 4,000 years. Back when we still had allies who would trust us with more than a burnt match. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Writing software
Dave Land wrote: On Jun 14, 2005, at 9:59 AM, William T Goodall wrote: Since it saves all the versions in one file as diffs in a proprietary undocumented format I would worry about the fragility of the resulting file and how to recover *any* version should it get corrupted. In Word, this is true, and it's a reason I didn't recommend it. I haven't had a Word doc get corrupted since I stopped using floppies. It isn't pretty, but Word Versions are an option. Despite my resistance to OpenOffice.org (which, incidentally, is the True Name of the suite, not OpenOffice, for some kind of trademark reasons), it at least uses a well-documented, internationally-standardized format: OpenDocument (http://books.evc-cit.info/odbook/ch01.html). The files are XML -- plain old text. Word 2003 can output (not by default, although there may be setting to switch it to default) a semi-decent XML DOC format that adheres to a schema you can find. Not a standard, but at least open to exploration. The next Office will move past the ugly binary formats and use XML files by default! These new XML filetypes will also be transitioned as an option for the older versions. http://blog.worldmaker.net/node/116 -- --Max Battcher-- http://www.worldmaker.net/ The WorldMaker.Network: Support Open/Free Mythoi. Read the manifesto @ mythoi.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Discovery Channel's Greatest American
On Jun 14, 2005, at 4:03 AM, Leonard Matusik wrote: Naw , the greatest Jew was that carpenter guy... Justin, Joshua, Joey something like that. Fred. Fred Howard Christ. Worked in marketing, not carpentry. Pretty good guy. Or do you mean his brother? Either him or that Schindler fella from WWII. Um, I believe you'll find Oskar Schindler was not Jewish. -- Warren Ockrassa, Publisher/Editor, nightwares Books http://books.nightwares.com/ Current work in progress The Seven-Year Mirror http://www.nightwares.com/books/ockrassa/Flat_Out.pdf ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Forget global warming, let's make a difference
* David Brin ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: This is foul-mouthed insulting and sophistry. Actually, no, this is facts. For several messages ER has directed nasty ad hominem attacks at me. Not at all. I did not consider your comments about Lomborg and neocons to be nasty attacks. I used the exact rhetorical techniques you do in your emails to the list. Weren't you the one who said that is the way to communicate by email? You might try, I was wrong instead of the whining. I want the Brin: label removed from this set of exchanges. He has reminded me why I opted out. No problem, I will leave you out of any future discussions that involve reality. [Rest of off-topic rant deleted...] -- Erik Reuter http://www.erikreuter.net/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Forget global warming, let's make a difference
On Jun 14, 2005, at 12:32 PM, David Brin wrote: PS Today announced. The service academies have seen a plummet in applications of unprecedented proportions. The No Child Left Behind bill had an elegant little solution built into it, one that has seen essentially no publicity. Kids' school records are made available to military channels, presumably so the mil folks can better judge who is the most suitable to be the next crop of cannon fodder. This strikes me as being a sickening cynical practice. Evidently neo-conservatives are comfortable with cannibalism. Parents can opt their kids out of the program, but the whys and wherefores are different from school district to school district. More here: http://www.leavemychildalone.org/ -- Warren Ockrassa, Publisher/Editor, nightwares Books http://books.nightwares.com/ Current work in progress The Seven-Year Mirror http://www.nightwares.com/books/ockrassa/Flat_Out.pdf ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Forget global warming, let's make a difference
You might try, I was wrong instead of the whining. Please drop dead. In several years I have not used ad hominem language but I am going to break that fast now. You are a bona fide asshole and I want to hear from you never again. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Even better links on this project Re: life imitates art imitating life?
--- Joe Miller [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Not to disparage David, but there is a pretty big literature on 3-D printers way before David's book. Um, pay attention please, Joe. The phrase programmable matter is already trademarked by author Wil McCarthy, whose concepts have been delineated in fiction, quasi-fiction (http://www.wilmccarthy.com/nature.pdf) and nonfiction, including patent applications. As for 3D printers, I was one of the first - circa 1980 - to make proposals about that. But I referred in this case to making duplicates of one's SELF... especially out of clay. See KILN PEOPLE, whose title says it all. WHy these guys would go with claytronics I don't know. Oh, in the release of Wil Wright's new game system, one of his flacks refers to the cliche of Uplift... har! In fact, his new game does nothing BUT uplift. There are very few aspects of evolution. Everything is player-choice gaming. Unlike our Exorarium http://www.exorarium.com/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Brin: Re: Forget global warming, let's make a difference
* David Brin ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: Please drop dead. Eventually, perhaps. You are a bona fide asshole and I want to hear from you never again. I can keep playing these games as long as you can. I was going to let it drop, but you obviously don't want it to drop. You want to play games. Okay. I may be an asshole, but at least I'm a REAL asshole, not a pretend one. You big whining sissy! ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
someone
Someone explain to the screeching fagela that I have a lot of experience with obsessive fanboy stalkers. He is welcome at any time to approach and test his theory that I am a sissy. I will give him first shot and then hand him whatever of his body parts he cares to name. Like Jerry P, I have a perfect win record. Meanwhile, I ask that he be ejected. It is him or me. I mean it. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Brin: Re: someone
* d.brin ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: Someone explain to the screeching fagela that I have a lot of experience with obsessive fanboy stalkers. He is welcome at any time to approach and test his theory that I am a sissy. I will give him first shot and then hand him whatever of his body parts he cares to name. Hmm, still want to play? As usual, you have some things wrong. If you think I am a fanboy of yours, you haven't been reading very carefully. If you think I am going to stalk you, you will be disappointed. I could care less what you do or where you go. If you mean replying to your emails, well, there is an easy way to stop me from doing that. As soon as you stop replying to me, I'll stop replying to you. Meanwhile, I ask that he be ejected. It is him or me. I mean it. What a prima donna you are! Okay, I'll take the fall for the big sissy. Kick me off already! -- Erik Reuter http://www.erikreuter.net/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Re: Forget global warming, let's make a difference
On 6/14/05, Erik Reuter [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: * David Brin ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: Please drop dead. Eventually, perhaps. You are a bona fide asshole and I want to hear from you never again. I can keep playing these games as long as you can. I was going to let it drop, but you obviously don't want it to drop. You want to play games. Okay. I may be an asshole, but at least I'm a REAL asshole, not a pretend one. You big whining sissy! Pussies don't like dicks, because pussies get fucked by dicks. But dicks also fuck assholes: assholes that just want to shit on everything. Pussies may think they can deal with assholes their way. But the only thing that can fuck an asshole is a dick, with some balls. The problem with dicks is: they fuck too much or fuck when it isn't appropriate - and it takes a pussy to show them that. But sometimes, pussies can be so full of shit that they become assholes themselves... because pussies are an inch and half away from ass holes. I don't know much about this crazy crazy world, but I do know this: If you don't let us fuck this asshole, we're going to have our dicks and pussies all covered in shit! -Team America (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_America:_World_Police) ~Maru seemed time to lower the level of discourse again ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Forget global warming, let's make a difference
On 6/14/05, Warren Ockrassa [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Jun 14, 2005, at 12:32 PM, David Brin wrote: PS Today announced. The service academies have seen a plummet in applications of unprecedented proportions. The No Child Left Behind bill had an elegant little solution built into it, one that has seen essentially no publicity. Kids' school records are made available to military channels, presumably so the mil folks can better judge who is the most suitable to be the next crop of cannon fodder. This strikes me as being a sickening cynical practice. What, the eugenics bit, or the civil liberties bit? Evidently neo-conservatives are comfortable with cannibalism. Parents can opt their kids out of the program, but the whys and wherefores are different from school district to school district. More here: http://www.leavemychildalone.org/ Warren Ockrassa, Publisher/Editor, nightwares Books ~Maru ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
apologies to real brinellers
Sorry to the rest of you for getting sucked in.Fanboy sniping attacks are part of the territory and I generally snub the little gnats. Got fooled this time by the important topic (saving the world). We all depend upon a civilization in which the ratio of citizens to psychopaths gradually increases. Keep at it. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Gulags
On 6/13/05, Dan Minette [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: You are focusing on one section in several Geneva Conventions. I will repeat what I have above. Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and Additional Protocol II apply to prisoners regardless of the status of the legal standing of their organization. Common Article 3 also applies to government clashes with armed insurgent groups. In the Geneva Convention of 1949, I find. quote Nationals of a State which is not bound by the Convention are not protected by it. Nationals of a neutral State who find themselves in the territory of a belligerent State, and nationals of a co-belligerent State, shall not be regarded as protected persons while the State of which they are nationals has normal diplomatic representation in the State in whose hands they are. end quote That excludes virtually all of the members of AQ. I think if they were Iranian, they might be covered, so that's a reasonable point. I see the same clause in the 4th Geneva convention, so the protected person status there appears to be the same. If you see a contrary definition of a protected person from the one I listed, I'd like to know where it is. I tried to go to the obvious place to find these definitions, but I realize treaties can have things in not so obvious places. Number 1. Simply put the Bush administration has classified Al Qaeda members, the Taliban and anyone it suspects of being a terrorist as non-protected combatants not entitled to the Geneva Conventions. This includes many captives from Afghanistan sometimes turned in for the reward money or to settle old grievances. They have even applied this definition to two US citizens Number 2. You agree with the Bush administration and point to the 3rd Convention article 4 which defines POWs as a particular type of combatant. There is disagreement as to rather the Al Qaeda combatants would meet the definition there but near unanimity that the Taliban and other prisoners don't. In all cases a tribunal must be called to determine their status which has not been done. (The competent individual tribunals for determination of status is from the 1st protocol to the Geneva Conventions as well as Article 5 of the 3rd Convention. If you point to article 4 would you agree the administration should have to follow article 5?.) Before getting to the clinchers let's check with some experts. The Administration is applying the wrong part of the Conventions. They have invoked the provisions for irregular combatants not under Article 4-1, but under Article 4-2. They are treating them as though they are guerrillas or partisans who were fighting for a party to the conflict. And that's wrong in my view, said Robert Goldman, professor of law and co-director of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at the Washington College of Law, American University. But even according to the criteria specified for irregular forces, most of our experts believe the Taliban detainees, and possibly Al Qaeda as well, although there is less agreement on this point, would be entitled to POW status. They cited Article 5 of the Third Geneva Convention, which says that if there is any doubt as to whether or not the detainees meet the conditions, then they should be granted POW status until a competent tribunal determines otherwise. We don't have the facts. We don't know to what extent these people had a proper command structure, wore some sort of distinguishing features and complied with the laws of armed conflict. We just don't know, said APV Rogers, OBE, a retired major general in the British Army and recognized expert on the laws of war. Curtis Doebbler, Professor of Human Rights Law at American University in Cairo, who served as an advisor to the Taliban government on the laws of war and believes that the Taliban, unlike Al Qaeda, do meet the criteria enumerated in Article 4. But he agreed that we do not have all of the facts. The first thing is to determine the status of the detainees, and until a competent tribunal declares that they are not POWs, then they are. After that, you can have legal wrangling over the criteria in the Geneva Conventions, he said. The Bush Administration, by contrast, is claiming that there is no doubt. In its view, neither Al Qaeda nor the Taliban are eligible for POW status because they did not wear uniforms or otherwise distinguish themselves from the civilian population of Afghanistan or conduct their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of waran argument that is disputed by the majority of our experts. Some of our experts said they feared the Administration's decision could come back to haunt US soldiers should they ever be captured by a foreign enemy, particularly special forces who usually don't wear uniforms. I think we may have set a bad precedent. The drawback is that we have given the other side some ammunition when they capture our people, said H.Wayne
Re: life imitates art imitating life?
- Original Message - From: d.brin [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: brin-l@mccmedia.com; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Sheldon Brown [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, June 13, 2005 4:03 PM Subject: life imitates art imitating life? Has anyone seen this? I mean, they even call it claytronics! This is the fourth major fictional idea of mine that has been at least partly reified by researchers this year alone. And in not one case did anyone mention where they got the idea. sniff. Somebody oughta tell em... The replicator: create your own body double. (The New Scientist#2503: http://www.newscientist.com/channel/mech-tech/mg18625031.800) Need to be in two places at once? All you need to project yourself anywhere in the world is an internet connection and some intelligent nanodust TELEPORTATION might not yet be on the cards for us humans, but Seth Goldstein and Todd Mowry may have come up with the next best thing. This pair of computer scientists are trying to build an intelligent material that can replicate a physical three-dimensional facsimile of you from nothing more than a stream of video images. If it works, all you'll need to project yourself around the globe is an internet connection and a pile of their intelligent nanodust at the other end to assemble your replica. The project is still in its infancy, but the researchers hope the new material - made of self-organising nano-computers that can stick to each other and communicate with built-in wireless - will eventually be able to shape-shift in an instant, forming a replica of anything from a banana to a human. They call it claytronics, and the individual particles are known as claytronic ... * Not for publication * http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/AuthorTotalAlphaList.asp?AuNum=97 Somebody is paying attention.at least a little. xponent Spotted Maru rob ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Gulags
William T Goodall wrote: Instead of the present incredibly wasteful and expensive prison system just transport all serious criminals to a tropical resort island and give them free booze, drugs and hookers for life. This would be far cheaper than the present prison system, more humane, and have a 0% recidivism rate since transportees don't get to return. Less serious criminals can do tagged house arrest and community service. Hey - it worked for us (though a few of us convicts occasionally sneak back to Mother England..) (the booze is not free, and our wonderfully friendly and co-operative young ladies would object to the term hookers...) Russell C. Convict descendant on the world's largest and most tropical prison island. --- This email (including any attachments) is confidential and copyright. The School makes no warranty about the content of this email. Unless expressly stated, this email does not bind the School and does not necessarily constitute the opinion of the School. If you have received this email in error, please delete it and notify the sender. --- GWAVAsig ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: Gulags
Behalf Of Gary Denton This is pretty basic stuff and trying to argue that none of the Geneva Conventions apply just lowers the standing of the United States in the world. What REALLY bothers me about all this is this: If the United States wants to hold itself out as a paragon to the rest of the world, shouldn't we hold ourselves to a HIGHER standard than we'd hold other countries? If we want other countries to look up to the US, shouldn't we follow the spirit not just the letter of the law? - jmh ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Forget global warming, let's make a difference
Erik Reuter wrote: http://www.money.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/06/13/ccpers13.xmlmenuId=242sSheet=/money/2005/06/13/ixfrontcity.html Personal view: Forget global warming. Let's make a real difference snip Moreover, they should also tell what they expect the cost of the Kyoto Protocol to be. That may not come easy to natural scientists, but there is plenty of literature on the subject, and the best guess is that the cost of doing a very little good for the third world 100 years from now would be $150billion per year for the rest of this century. Interestingly, New Zealand is going to find the cost much sooner than most. An early adopter of Kyoto, they now find themselves in the curious position of running out of electrical power as demands increase and generating capacity stalls. They have abundant geo-thermal power sources, steady coastal winds, enormous hydro-electrical potential, long reserves of coal, and plenty of natural gas (and a friendly neighbour with plenty of uranium), but every single proposed wind-farm, geo-steam plant and hydro-electric dam has now been successfully stopped by environmentalists protecting their own little part of the world, and the natural gas and coal plants that no-one is objecting to would be in contravention of Kyoto because it would mean a greenhouse gas emission increase for the country. Effectively, Kyoto punishes New Zealand because it has BEEN USING greenhouse friendly methods by requiring reductions from a low starting point. Maybe they'll have to buy power from us because we haven't signed... Cheers Russell C. --- This email (including any attachments) is confidential and copyright. The School makes no warranty about the content of this email. Unless expressly stated, this email does not bind the School and does not necessarily constitute the opinion of the School. If you have received this email in error, please delete it and notify the sender. --- GWAVAsig ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
