Posts by Vladimir Plouzhnikov

Re: Wow, Richard - you really seem to have touched a nerve !

I'm sorry if I made an impression that I think it is the only mechanism. I suspect it may be statistically significant but no attempts were made in the study to isolate and identify whether such mechanism exists.

Regarding conspiracies - I think there are plenty of conspiracies that happen all the time but they are short-lived and involve a limited number of people. Even so, the presence of such conspiracies becomes suspected/known/confirmed very quickly.

When the alleged conspiracy requires decades of cover up by hundreds of people in order to exist you can pretty much rule it out quite safely. Humans are not able to keep secrets (I think we evolved this way and for a good reason).

Now, there may be situations where interests of a group of people are aligned in the same direction through some objective causes and, logically, these people would individually act to preserve their interests (without any specific agreement with or even knowledge about the others) which will create an impression of collaboration or concerted action. I think those are often confused with conspiracies but they are not.

Re: Features?

Why?

Re: @Charles 9 Godo for him

Yes, I think it's not possible to revoke an individual disc, even with that. But they can, say, expire the whole batch of Star Wars, Episode I super director's cut and force people to buy Star Wars, Episode I platinum exclusive remastered key grip's cut with previously unseen footage of paint drying during the construction of the soundstage.

Re: Ha, that's nothing

You're too kind. But the French were paying anyway, so why not?

@Theodore

Ah, I was just wondering when those will Pope out...

Comprehension fail?

I did not say that streamed MS Office will or will not make a difference. My point was that those who buy into that model (basically, a form of phone-home DRM) are... well... not overly bright.

Re: Can I suggest...

Aka "Jewish Penicillin" or just "chicken soup" in Russia. That is THE way to do chicken soup. None of that "cream of chicken" nonsense!

Re: Talking of stupid

It's a standard Russian chemical notation which shows hydrocarbon radicals and the hydroxyl groups separately.

Re: Geography

"Most games dont have demo's"

And those that do, have DRMs on demos nowadays. I don't know about others but I've even stopped trying free demos coming with magazine cover discs because of that...

Re: Faking the Moon landings

Of course, everyone knows that the conspirators went to the Moon to plant convincing evidence in order to throw the public off the scent. It's the US military-industrial complex after all. With the money they had at stake, they did not spare any expense to make sure that noone will ever discover their plot. I heard they even sent as many as 12 people down to the Moon surface so that they could then convince everyone that the landings have happened... oh, wait a second...

Re: The reason they leave the liver/kidney

"digestive tract is optimised purely for a carniverous diet."

But, one of my cats liked fried poppadoms, another - sweet corn from tincans. They all absolutely loved to chew green grass (then vomit it all over the house).

@Helix Re: No anaglyph please

"These images are for red & green glasses."

They look like red-cyan to me.

@Dick Pountain

"That should make the API a crucial part of the intellectual property of any software system, in addition to the detailed source code."

Spoken like a true IP gangster ;-) Not only you seem to like the idea of software patents but also that of API patents, which is likely to bring any progress in any OS development to complete standstill forever. Shiver me timbers...

Re: Utterly ridiculous. @Psyx

"The police already know who they are *and don't regularly arrest them* which essentially decriminalises it to a certain extent in that a crime that the authorities ignore is almost not a crime."

But that is not the same as it being fully legal. If a pimp extorts money from them they cannot complain to the police, they cannot sue him, there is no recourse. Plus, this must really be a fertile ground for police. Do the cops close their eyes because they can't be bothered or is it because they've been paid off by the same very pimp?

Of course, this is not an overnight solution either, but where there is gray legality, there will always be black market and abuse.

"Please stick to *your* own, instead of telling me what I have and have not realised"

OK, if that's upsetting you. I normally find stating what I *think* the opponent have said a useful way of clarifying positions of the arguing sides.

"we seem to have totally strayed onto legalising prostitution as a solution for the marketing industry exploiting women and continuing to promote sexism."

Well, someone mentioned prostitution, I responded with my thoughts on it, and so it went on and on.

I don't for a second think that legalisation of prostitution is a solution to the marketing industry. I think these are unrelated subjects. I personally, think that booth-babes is a seriously overrated and ineffective marketing tool and the companies realise it is not worth paying for, so they look for excuses to stop using it.

Re: the problem with porn

Your #1 - it is pure fiction. We are maybe what we eat but we are not what we see. You don't automatically do anything you see on a screen, neither do other people, kids included. Conversely, not seeing something is not going to stop somebody who have certain fantasies in their head from trying to do them in real life.

In fact, I firmly believe that if you have an unbalanced individual with such fantasies and let him vent off his steam in front of a simulation, you will prevent, or at least defer him from doing it for real.

Your #2 - the underlying cause of sensitisation is irrelevant here. So, my point still stands - if your society is too sensitive about certain things it leads to chronic overreaction, whether it's caused by religion or by Daily Mail. Desensitisation is a good thing, without which your society will be failure.

Your #3 - children were always exposed to sex. There was no age of consent in the caves. Teenagers still at school have sex - how is that a new thing? The most famous love story in the world is about underage lovers - Romeo & Juliet, they'd be both on sex offenders register these days.

I see no indication that there is more teenage sex today than there always was in the past. There is a lot more hysteria about it for a number of reasons but I don't see the actual problem.

The nature has to have its ways - it makes teenagers interested in sex, whether you show them porn or put them in burkas. It also makes sure that not too many of them will have it - porn or no porn, a pimply-faced shy youth is not going to get laid until he matures enough to attract interest from the opposite sex.

@AdamWill and Nigel11

Oh, no, guys, please don't deceive yourself.

Whether you invest on a whim or after a careful research and deliberation, whether in stocks, oil, gold or land - any of that is taking a risk and that is what a gamble (aka speculation) is.

Google for a definition of gamble and the applicable result is "an enterprise undertaken or attempted with a risk of loss and a chance of profit or success."

In general, any position in the market that increases your risk (exposes you to the market fluctuation of value) is a speculative position and any position that decreases that risk is a hedging position.

There is nothing wrong with speculation/gamble if it's done properly and in a controlled way and it is impossible to make a return without taking risk, so gamble is an inevitable part of our lives. And if someone thinks that he never gambles/speculates he should think twice because even if he doesn't do it directly, someone else does it for him. Which is what I said in my first post.