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- What's the highest dollar price will Bitcoin reach in 2024? Posted on March 20th, 2024 | 68 comments
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Not surprising . . . (Score:2, Interesting)
the effects of known NSA monitoring are obvious in the poll results.
Re:Not surprising . . . (Score:5, Informative)
Or the effect of a lot of readers being in countries other than the USA.
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Or the effect of a lot of readers being in countries other than the USA.
Not to worry, we're spying on everyone. Equal opportunity, y'know.
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I've been telling people on this site for close to 10 years that not every /. reader is american. For the same amount of time, through clearly changing readerships, I've been told back that /. is an american site with american readers and american topics.
And for most of that time it's been a lie.
Like so many other sites on the Internet, americans certainly make up the largest single group, but most likely not the or at least not a strong majority. Europeans are more numerous both offline and on the Internet
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Yeah, where are all the homemade fireworks people?
You guys are a bunch of mewling quims*.
*it's vulgar, trust me.
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It's not so much vulgur as misogynistic.
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You mean we're all suddenly obsessed with rule of law now that NSA has demonstrated that it doesn't believe in any such thing?
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Nicely put.
I started giving a little time each Fourth to think on what it is we celebrate some years back quite by accident - I was living in a small town where they had a very traditional observance - a cobbled-together parade, the school band, the mayor giving a speech. When he misquoted one of the Founders it caught my ear. Just as I was patting myself on the back for knowing the correct quote, I realized that I really didn't know squat - just a few unconnected bits and bobs and a hazy hasty body of ig
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Was the author Broadus Mitchell?
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Gratuitous Missing Option (Score:5, Insightful)
Damn colonials (Score:5, Funny)
Will Smith (Score:5, Funny)
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It's not so terrible, I laugh my ass off every time I see Brent Spinner in the role of that hippy scientist.
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vs the laugh I generate when watching Brent Spiner and his wife on Night Court. :)
[John]
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Yes, yes... its got a bajillion plotholes, some of which you could drive an interstellar mothership through, but the eye candy is good, its got some laughs, and its kiddiesafe. I wouldn't call it terrible... just cheesy. Like Independence Day...
Re:Will Smith (Score:5, Funny)
I'm sorry, I can only suspend disbelief so far.
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Thanks
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So let me get this straight: Jeff Goldblum uses a Mac laptop to upload a virus into an ALIEN mothership's computer (using RS-232, I'm guessing) and never once do we see a dialog box about updating Adobe?
An artifact of its time. [imdb.com] Adobe hadn't written its updater yet. A normal computer had no dialog boxes requesting updates. Adobe didn't even own Flash back then. [adobe.com]
Objective Complete (Score:4, Funny)
Jeff Goldblum uses a Mac laptop to upload a virus into an ALIEN mothership's computer (using RS-232, I'm guessing) and never once do we see a dialog box about updating Adobe?
Just what do you think he was uploading anyway...
You never saw the upgrade notice because he was uploading the Adobe Installer!
Re:Will Smith (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Will Smith (Score:4, Informative)
I am no defender of 'Merica or governments in general, but your interpretation of that movie is nothing but idiotic counterfactual nonsense. If you want to write a soliloquy on the evils of America, feel free, but try using fact rather than trying to force such an interpretation though the lens of a 20 year old film.
On the other hand, if you want to review the film, Jay Sherman already gave the definitive one: "It stinks!"
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Anyway, if what I said was too long for you, the tl;dr version was "it was jingoistic toss aimed at jingoistic tossers".
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Re:American Jingoistism (Score:3, Insightful)
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Yes, yes... [Independence Day has] got a bajillion plotholes, some of which you could drive an interstellar mothership through, but the eye candy is good, its got some laughs, and its kiddiesafe. I wouldn't call it terrible... just cheesy. Like Independence Day...
As I commented on another site, the biggest problem with Independence Day wasn't its cheesiness, it was that it...
was an obnoxiously jingoistic piece of ra-ra-America toss. The ability to laugh at its cliched Hollywood-cheese sentimentality and downright stupidity was let down by the fact that you knew it took itself seriously, as did its intended audience. It was the sort of film where other countries get blown up only to illustrate the threat to Our Beloved America (ra ra ra), but we're not *really* supposed to be bothered about those foreigners, especially since those guys are all portrayed ineffectual as ditherers and Only America Can Save The World. (Where The World is really just America, anyway). On the other hand, when The White House Is Destroyed, this is obviously meant to be a Big Deal to us. (An American Eagle cries a single, solitary tear, etc etc). I hated it in its own right at the time, but it's been observed with hindsight that it also reflected the mindset of the disaffected and paranoid American right during Clinton's presidency and was a clear forerunner of Bush-era America's similarly arrogant, partisan and jingoistic mentality.
LMAO. You could insert any country's name in those statements and be dead on for their own home-grown media story lines. What's the diff? Cheese is cheese. And the nationalistic arrogance is just as thick in--let me see--UK, French, Japanese, Chinese home grown stories. "We're the only ones that can save the world because we're awesome!" It's part of all the cultures on Earth. To read anything into it as "reflect[ing] the mindset of the disaffected" is pseudo-intellectual babble. Or another type of filmmaki
Re:Will Smith (Score:4, Interesting)
I hated it in its own right at the time, but it's been observed with hindsight that it also reflected the mindset of the disaffected and paranoid American right during Clinton's presidency and was a clear forerunner of Bush-era America's similarly arrogant, partisan and jingoistic mentality.
Are you even remotely familiar with Roland Emmerich's [imdb.com] filmography? He is quite a fan of Democrat presidents. For film-making purposes, his characters are mostly Americans, but he's all about multiculturalism. He usually shows people customs from different cultures, and his characters succeed through international cooperation. And random pointless feats of strength.
But then his presidents...
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It is a superb film containing all US stereotypes. Furthermore, it displays them in a grotesque scenario and distorted form, that it is more a comedy than an action movie. The best is the seriousness of the characters.
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And for the rest of the world, it's A terrible film starring Will Smith.
It's not a terrible movie, it's a drinking game.
Whenever there is a reference to a previous Sci-Fi move you take a drink.
I've never got more than 30 minutes in before passing out drunk.
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Cheers! [youtube.com]
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The Beatles sucked big wet donkey balls, but the Brits also gave us the Stones, the Sex Pistols, (most of) Monty Python and Benny Hill.
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If the US remained a British colony, who is not to say that Mark Twain would not have been born, he just would have been British instead.
Independence (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Independence (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Independence (Score:5, Insightful)
We did give everyone McDonalds and Hollywood. You're welcome!
Wait. We're supposed to thank you for giving us obesity-inducing food and perpetual copyrights?
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Shit... I dream when the US can gain independence from US imperialism. Fat chance.
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Isn't that your own fault? I mean if drunk loser Boris Yeltsin could ride a tank to the Russian White House and throw out the Soviet Politburo, why can't an enterprising American do the same?
(Hi bored NSA employee, thank you for finding my post in your extensive archives. It's a sunny day here on the other side of the planet. I hope your day is as good as mine! If I ever decide to visit your fair nation and I'm refused entry, I'm sure we'll both look back on this day and laugh.)
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Clearly you are not Russian.
In the US, being drunk makes you... drunk.
In Russia, it gives you superpowers.
Re:Independence (Score:5, Funny)
While the US celebrates its independence from European imperialism
*British* imperialism... Would have it been French, at least the US would have had decent bread and cheese.
Re:Independence (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, the French helped the Americans a lot during the American Revolution with naval operations. Not because they liked the Americans, but because they hated the English.
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they hated the English
they spat in their general direction even
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they hated the English
they spat in their general direction even
Or maybe even farted....
Re:Independence (Score:4, Interesting)
France, Portugal, Italy, Spain, and Austria, you must all cast off your puppet governments if you don't want to become America II.
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This act was as amazing chutzpah as when the Chinese jet and the American SIGINTS spy plane collided 12 or so years ago. Can you imagine what the US would do/feel/sulk if the Chinese were flying the same missions over 'international waters', but this time from Cuba and up the eastern seaboard ?
It will come now.
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The only reason the Chinese aren't flying over the Eastern seaboard is because their equipment doesn't have the range for it.
China is still a second rate, at best, military power. The size of their forces is frightening... if you are very close to them. Outside of that, their logistical capability is utter garbage.
China is a very real threat to those around them, which is mostly why the US is out there forward deployed. Otherwise the Japanese might start thinking they need a real military again, and that
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Celebrate the 4th, and join us in our national anthem [youtube.com]...
"The uploader has not made this video available in your country." Oh, the irony.
Anti-surveillance protests (Score:4, Informative)
Restore the Fourth [restorethefourth.net]
Good time to watch ... (Score:2)
A movie like ID4 that you shouldn't be watching because it's full of pseudo-patriotic shit.
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21st amendment (Score:4, Funny)
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I'll drink to that!
Cheers,
Dave
A Day That Shall Live In Infamy (Score:3, Interesting)
In Canada the fourth of July is a day like any other. Our day was the first.
I'm descended from Loyalists. My maternal ancestors settled in North Carolina, but went north, ending up in Nova Scotia.
...laura
Independence Day (Score:3, Interesting)
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Oh, hang on .... you mean your current pwnership by the chinese for all things manufactured.
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I used to be proud to be American... (Score:5, Insightful)
I used to be proud--really proud--to be American.
We had our problems, sure, but
- we didn't assassinate people
- we didn't torture people
- we hadn't started a major war in 40 years
- the government generally obeyed the law, and when it didn't, someone called them on it.
We could hold ourselves out as a model for other countries.
None of that is true any more.
For a long time, I blamed it all on Bush and the Republicans,
but then we elected Obama and Democrats,
and it hasn't helped.
Now I'm weary and ashamed, and I don't know where to go next, literally or figuratively.
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Little of that was ever true. Now we just know more of it.
When exactly was this, exactly? (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/mar/21/usa.davidpallister [guardian.co.uk]
- we did torture people, it was done so routinely that we even had a handbook:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Army_and_CIA_interrogation_manuals [wikipedia.org]
- our normal state *is* war. i could not find a 40 year gap when we were at peace since the 1800s:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_United_States [wikipedia.org]
i laugh when any of my fellow 'murikans asks tear eyed "why do they hate us?".
we have been busy exerting violence, exporting torture, destabilizing democracies, sponsoring terror and exploitation
through brutal dictatorships, forcing our corporate interests by military means on everyone, on every continent.
we, as a people, are compassionate, inventive, giving and law abiding, our governing class is amoral, tyrannical and malevolent.
Re:When exactly was this, exactly? (Score:4, Informative)
This is the curse of central banking. It provides the appearance of unlimited money with which politicians get to buy votes in ways they never before dreamed of. Central bankers, who always fund both sides of all wars, at the expense of the people. Without them, we would still be free. Without them, we could once again become free. Without them, governments can't grow to much more than 10% of GDP, versus the nearly 50% monster we have today.
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- we didn't assassinate people
except presidents that some people didn't like (4 successful and a dozen or more attempts - making it by far the most dangerous job in the world)
- we didn't torture people
Really? I guess you've never watched some of your TV programmes
- we hadn't started a major war in 40 years
40 whole years! you must be so proud. Though you've more than made up for that recently - how many wars should a country start every century? Hint: none would be a great place to start
- the government generally obeyed the law, and when it didn't, someone called them on it.
Err, when it didn't want to, it just changed the law to make its actions legal - or squirmed mightily trying to explain
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This reminds me of George Carlin's rant which I would agree with how the fu** can you be proud of something you were born into, but had nothing to do with?
What is there to be proud of? How we dictate other countries? How the only freedoms we have are for material goods? How we have a country full of zombies that seemingly do not care about there rights, until they are charged with a capital crime. How the Brtis and French slaughtered the Native people of the land which you so conveniently call yours?
I am be
There is no freedom in US (or almost anywhere)... (Score:4, Insightful)
when a man like Snowden is branded as a traitor instead of a hero to the people (American or not). Today it is NSA (and whatever organization or government for that matter) owning a piece of our freedom, but it is not too hard to envision a not too distant future where they will own our minds (or soul... whatever you want to call it) when the Brain-Machine Interface (BMI) takes off. It used to excite me to think about the future of BMI, but unless we start to defend our freedom, I think WE as a species are all screwed.
Re:There is no freedom in US (or almost anywhere). (Score:4, Interesting)
Why didn't Snowden just flee to S.America?
Why Hong Kong and then Russia?
He's making a point and he's keeping himself in the news at the risk of being caught and treated the same as B.Manning.
Who leaked the rumour of him being on the Bolivian Presidential Jet? Why?
I notice the BBC dropped that story off their front page PDQ.
As long as Snowden appears in the headlines shall we question the role of the USA (& UK puppet) globally.
It's clear, brave and risky media manipulation to get a point across...
What is Independence?
What are you celebrating?
The end of one empire and the beginning of another?
Re:There is no freedom in US (or almost anywhere). (Score:5, Insightful)
You must be seeing that through some sort of goggles.
When a citizen flees your country to a place like Hong Kong in order get _better_ treatment, you should wonder why you still believe you have a moral high ground to claim at all.
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Snowden didn't flee to get "better treatment," he wasn't being mistreated in the US. He fled law enforcement because he broke the law. He is a fugitive from justice.
Not sure how you got that wrong.
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No superheroes required to deliver justice, ordinary courts will do. The US has plenty of those.
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It is a rare day indeed when a US court rules against the government on ANYTHING, much less on matters of "national security", where they have been all too happy to break the separation of powers and grant "warrants" that are actually legislation.
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Where do you think he should have gone?
Do you think he should have stayed in Hawaii, given what's happening to Manning and Assange?
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Do you think he should have stayed in Hawaii
Yes, I do. Fighting The Man, exposing his secrets entails risk. If he truly believes that what he's doing is right and honorable, then he'll stay and fight.
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Do you think he should have stayed in Hawaii
Yes, I do. Fighting The Man, exposing his secrets entails risk. If he truly believes that what he's doing is right and honorable, then he'll stay and fight.
He already took a substantial risk by being in Hong Kong, rather than going somewhere like Cuba, Ecuador, Bolivia.
It's the USA that's dishonourable here, not Snowdon. (Also, to a lesser extent, the UK, for being involved in the spying, but I don't think they've [we've] been as hypocritical towards Snowdon.)
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Yet being the operative word.
The thing Snowden revealed was a shitload bigger than what Mannning did.
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You peoples' reactions remind me of the "will be sent to Guantanamo" meme that survived for sooo many years without a single shred of evidence that any* Americans were ever held in Gitmo. Also similar to the fundamentalist mantra that Jesus has been returning "Real Soon Now" for 1980 years.
* Oh, wait. There was one [wikipedia.org], but since he was raised in Saudi Arabia, it took a while to figure out he was "American". He was eventually sent back to Arabia.
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Shut the fuck up, you giant rat.
When rational argument fails, Ad hominem. You should feel proud.
Comment removed (Score:3)
Another missing option: (Score:3)
(Hey, it worked at least once, right?)
Why wasn't there a poll on July 1st? (Score:2)
Why wasn't there a poll for that?
Should a poll be planned for Aug. 1st?
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And how many Americans give a shit about Canada, eh? All we want is your oil and natural gas in Alberta. ;-) You can keep the Mounties, Quebec, and the moose and mosquitoes. Oh, but send us your health care system. At least it works.
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They send us many patients every year. They get sick of waiting and pay out of pocket for American health care. Sure, that system 'works'.
As good a day to fire a weapon in the City limits (Score:2)
Missing Option (Score:2)
Another revolution... (Score:2)
Today would be a good day to ponder another American Revolution, except that I'd rather not end up in Gitmo or some CIA black prison in eastern Europe being tortured. Besides, as history has shown, in nearly every case revolutions are revolting.
Re:A good day (Score:5, Insightful)
We do live in a free country. Free of privacy, free of economic opportunity, free of decent education, free of decent health care, free of a decent social safety net. We are practically legendary for our freedoms...
Re:A good day (Score:4, Insightful)
Indeed. And we're definitely the land of the brave too. C'mon, world, have you seen the shit we dare to eat?
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Never been to Japan, have you? :)
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No, but I want to try Fugu before I die (and preferably not right before I die).
I grew up on Lutefisk, Hakarl and Surstromming.
But I still shiver at the thought of eating Wonderbread and drinking Gatorade. There are limits to what I'll put in my mouth.
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We do live in a free country. Free of privacy, free of economic opportunity, free of decent education, free of decent health care, free of a decent social safety net. We are practically legendary for our freedoms...
Ahhh, but there's one...free to emigrate! ...errr, or is that expatriate?
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Also, free to try to change it. Emigrating is for wimps.
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Actually, taking one of the options:
Good time to ponder the rule of law and role of the State
It's more like:
"In Soviet Amerika, the State ponders YOUR role!
I think this, "Of the people, by the people, for the people" stuff . . . has perished from the Earth . . . it's been deprecated by the State.
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Happy birthday!
Fifty is just another step on the road of life. Try to be thankful to God for the time you have, and enjoy the journey.
Who Is Happy? [dennisprager.com]
Bang The Drum All Day [youtube.com]
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Never understood why people don't celebrate more as they're getting older. It's a race we all retire from at some stage, better to be increasingly glad.
Unless being born on 4th July is like having your birthday on Christmas or New Year's Eve?
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The US has lost all credibility. It won't be long now before it loses control of everything else.
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Some of us might, at some distant time in the past far exceeding the statute of limitations, have set off homemade explosives with enough power to launch things like anvils/trashcans/dumpsters etc.
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^-- butthurt from the truth