18,986 karma · joined August 17, 2009
If anyone has any experience with any of these and could comment on how they compare to mailinator, that would be very useful.
[1] - http://10minutemail.com/10MinuteMail/index.html
[2] - https://anonbox.net/
[3] - http://anonymouse.org/anonemail.html
[4] - http://trash-mail.com/
Lisp Flavoured Erlang:
The next Microsoft? That sounds like a nightmare.
No, thanks!
Actually, there mostly are no trials at all.
As the article states, "most drug-trafficking defendants plead guilty before trial"
One has to wonder if a "justice system" in which the majority of convicts have never even had a trial is worthy of the name.
Marijuana is effectively legal in the Netherlands. (Technically illegal, but "tolerated")
See "Three Felonies a Day"[1]
Also, note the following quote from the original article:
"most drug-trafficking defendants plead guilty before trial"
In fact, something like 90% or more of people accused of crimes in the US never get a trial, because they plead guilty. They plead guilty because prosecutors pile on so many charges that the defendants are afraid to risk life in jail if they happen to lose (in a judicial system that's usually stacked against them). Defending a case in Federal court is also incredibly expensive and traumatic. See the Aaron Swartz case for good examples of all of the above.
[1] - http://www.amazon.com/Three-Felonies-Day-Target-Innocent/dp/...
First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.
-- Stewart Brand [1] - spoken at the first Hackers' Conference, and reprinted in the May 1985 Whole Earth Review. The quotation is an elaboration from his book, The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at MIT, published in 1987.
I encourage everyone who cares about this to get politically involved at a level beyond merely voting for congress critters now and then.
There's a lot that you can do, from joining and supporting organizations like the EFF and the ACLU to getting involved in local politics, which is usually the level that can be most affected by relatively small numbers of individuals.
Case in point: Rand hated Libertarians.[1]
Some typical examples from the article:
- She called Libertarianism "a mockery of philosophy and ideology"
- She accused Libertarians of "slinging slogans and trying to ride on two bandwagons"
Later, she accuses them of entertaining "amateur political notions" and "rushing into politics in order to get publicity".
She says that Libertarians
- are based on "half-baked ideas, and in part on borrowed ideas".
- "spend their time denouncing me, while plagiarizing my ideas".
- "are perhaps the worst political group today, because they can do the most harm to capitalism, by making it disreputable."
- would "like to have an amoral political program"
The effects of protests might not be immediately obvious, and perhaps might never be publicly acknowledged. However, they can have a serious impact.
Here's one important example:
"Many people don't know it, but Nixon was considering using nuclear weapons in Vietnam. At that time, Nixon was also repeatedly saying that he didn't care what the American people thought about Vietnam, and that he was going to escalate the war anyway. However, according to a biography by a well-known historian, when Nixon saw hundreds of thousands of protesters on TV, he dropped his secret plan of nuking Vietnam."[1]
[1] - http://www.opednews.com/Diary/Why-Nixon-Didn-t-Nuke-Viet-by-...
Emacs has M-x regexp-builder
You can watch it for free on youtube.[3]
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads
I think it's rather that employers aren't willing to pay more, and waiters usually can't afford to turn down work that pays them these salaries, and there usually isn't another alternative that pays any better.
Regardless of the reasons for this state of affairs, the fact is that watiers in the US do get paid atrocious salaries and can't afford to look down their noses at "an extra few dollars" in tips.
I'm sure plenty of waiters would trade in the tip system for a guaranteed higher salary, but it's usually not up to them to decide.
It may be demeaning to you, as you probably make far more money than a waiter. But waiters in the US typically get paid an atrociously low salary, and make most of their income from tips.
"Do you do a good job because it it's what you want to do?"
Few people consider waiting tables their dream job. They usually do it because they consider it a temporary job, not a career. Some may take pride in doing an exceptional job, but they're probably the exception rather than the rule.
From what I've heard, in the US it's standard practice to split the tip among the staff in a restaurant. The cook, host/hostess, even the other waiters get their share of a single waiter's tip.
I'm not sure about the dishwasher. But it's pretty obvious what incentive the dishwasher has in keeping the dishes clean: if they're not, he/she will get fired.
You could, of course, program in a more functional style in Lisp (and that style is encouraged more in some Lisps than others), but you're not forced to.
As the old saying goes, the best way to rob a bank is to own one. The elite and ultra-rich commit theft and fraud on a scale that would bankrupt entire countries, and start wars with hundreds of thousands if not millions of casualties.
They get laws written in their favor, buy off politicians and judges, hide their gains in off-shore tax havens, and hire armies of high-paid lawyers to protect them -- with the effect that few of them suffer any consequences (rarely anything like the SWAT-style raids and hard jail time routinely inflicted upon the poor for far smaller offenses).
[1] - http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html
One thing he missed is the built-in microphone on his laptop and cell phone. That can also be controlled and listened-in to remotely, and it's usually harder to completely disable (unlike a webcam).
Yes, you could epoxy it shut, but even then it could still function (though with greatly reduced fidelity).
Disabling it completely would require opening up your laptop/cellphone case and unplugging the mic: something that would probably void your waranty and could be a nightmare to reassemble, depending on your hardware skills and the laptop/cellphone model you own.
Just remember not to use your credit card to make any purchases when using someone else's loyalty card, because then your identity will be linked to the loyalty card from then on.
Buy some and use it (perhaps inside a lining of regular fabric) to create a pouch or a bag. Put your phone(s) in there.
But the very question of "whether the insights actually produced something tangible in the real world" can itself be evaluated from many different perspectives and states of consciousness.
Sure, the question itself is perfectly legitimate. I'm just not sure how to evaluate the answers.
It's possible to learn quite a lot from bad trips. Some would argue that they're more valuable than good trips, where you may not learn much at all. Bad trips can involve facing unpleasant but important aspects of yourself, your life, that of your friends or family, or the world around you. Try to learn from them and use the insight you get from them to grow and improve your life.
That said, I personally think that strong psychedelics are best used under the guidance of a good therapist, who can help you deal with the very powerful and sometimes unpleasant experiences that many people have trouble assimilating on their own.
Unfortunately, psychedelics are currently taboo and illegal in much of the world, and most therapists either don't want anything to do with them or are ignorant of their incredible therapeutic potential. However, there are still some theraphists out there who are knowedgeable and willing to work with these substances and with the right clients. It may take some work to find them, but could be very worthwhile to do so, if you are serious about self-discovery and constructive use of these substances.
Is your view that that we have evolved for the ordinary state of consciousness a view that was made and evaluated in an ordinary state of consciousness? Should its worth be evaluated in an ordinary state of consciousness? How should we decide if it's valid? Why should something that is considered "most useful" be more valid than something that is considered "less useful"?
An ant's view of the a human city may be very useful to it in terms of its own survival and that of its colony, but few would argue that it understands a human city on as profound and deep a level as a human would. Now, which of these views are "right" or "valid"?
As for what's "in line with reality", would you consider a Picasso painting to be worthless compared to a photograph because the former is not very realistic compared to the latter? What about a song? Is the "in line with reality" standard applicable to a joke? (Sure, there are some jokes with are "funny because they're true", but that standard does not really apply to puns or jokes that rely on surprise for their effect. Are they worthless?) What about poetry? What about the value of a kiss?
Finally, speaking of evolution, Terrence McKenna conjectured that human intelligence and evolution may have been influenced by an encouter with psychedelic mushrooms, whose spores were hardy enough to survive a long interstellar journey to earth, and whose consumption gave human ancestors an enormous amount of novel information.