@Robusto I'm not quite sure I got the dildoes part. What did they even need penis prosthetics for? I must've been looking in all the wrong places. Time to rewatch.
Well, that's probably the hardest thing about dealing with another language: knowing when you're supposed to draw inferences about things you don't necessarily understand. Because you think you should be able to understand everything, including stuff that is vague or opaque to native speakers.
@Reg: I thought I fixed my message but it didn't take. Would you mind adjusting "when you're supposed to don't inferences" to "when you're supposed to draw inferences"?
FWIW, the author of the GQ article writes in a way that sometimes relies more on hints and suggestions than outright declarations. It's a style aimed at exclusivity and an appeal to a certain clique of cognoscenti: "I know things you don't. And if you can't figure them out, maybe you don't belong here."
@Robusto I never got that argument. I could sell you a Happy-Meal watch for $500,000. In fact that's not that far from what's actually happening. The price tag alone does not mean anything.
@Cerberus We have three big companies, and several small companies that re-sell the service from the big companies. Why would a new player disrupt the cozy party so much? They will just set their prices a teeny tiny bit lower, or else offer a service that differs in enough details as to be impossible to meaningfully compare, and gouge as much as the other guys.
Anyway Verizon is widely reviled in the US. Their network is incompatible with all the other networks. If they expand to Canada, will it just perpetuate the incompatibility?
Anyway even if it harms business, it also costs more if they have to operate two different kinds of networks, one in the US, and one in Canada, which are incompatible. Probably better if they have only one network.
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I don't know, the difference in cost will probably be very low compared to all their other costs, and, more importantly, to their potential revenue if they can quickly scoop up many disgruntled Canadians before Canadian telcos can catch up.
>Mr. Santorum explained that his commitment to strengthening America's moral and spiritual foundations is a direct result of His own Christian faith ...
@Cerberus I highly doubt that the difference in cost to maintain two networks is as slight as you suggest. Also don't forget that we already have two incompatible networks here.
@KitFox yes, a soft question to populate the site, which was still Guitars at that point and has been merged into Musical Practice and Performance since.
The wound strings wear off quite fast, and start sounding dull even faster, so I replace them quite often. But whenever I do so, I replace the unwound strings as well, even though at that point, they usually still sound bright and show no sign of wear at all.
I must say I have never given it an...
The sad part is I probably haven't changed the strings again since. It's all just piano and bayan at this point. I play guitar like once a month, if you can call that playing anymore.
@Cerberus No, it's likely to be bad for me. I use one of the low-cost "new entrant" carriers, who are ACTUALLY competing on service and price, and who are most likely to get bought or go out of business if the market disrupts further. And if that happens, I will likely lose my cheap plan.
@Cerberus because they are struggling. It takes huge capital investment to build a network and anti-foreign-competition rules make it hard to build capital.
> From now on in the UK the government has the right to issue automatic blocks on any website found to contain adult content, they've also reserved the right to install web filters remotely to your computer, without your consent.
> Not only that, but they've decided that anything depicting sexual violence against women is illegal, yes, that's right, own a clockwork orange? Own some bdsm? Too bad. Be prepared to get rid of it or face jail time.
@DavidWallace Of course not. You're a stupid consumer. You need protection and dumbing-down, not freedom or education.
@RegDwighт Haha, it seems He prefers porn.
> They've already essentially made encryption in the UK illegal (You can be sentenced to 5 years in prison for not giving an encryption key to the government upon request, even if you genuinely don't know the key or never had it, too bad, even if the encrypted file contains sensitive personal information too bad).
@Cerberus the fun part is that the monarchies actually do not interfere with anything that matters. Where is the statement from the Queen condemning her shitty police state, putting all those criminals in gaol and establishing the Rule of Law?
@DavidWallace What often happens in America is that they heap all sorts of silly charges like this one on someone who only committed a minor offence, like Aaron Swartz, then force you to settle for a few years in prison, or face a theoretical 50 years from all the the silly crimes.
@DavidWallace see, but that is the Obama Defense[TM]. "We make all these evil laws, but we promise to never make use of them, for trust us, we are good." Well, who the fuck are you putting those laws in place for, then? Future evil presidents? Why thank you so very much!
Even so, I agree with David that there is little chance for most people to become directly affected by this in the near future. Doesn't make it less horribly bad, of course.
OK, but let me compare it to the anti-smacking law in New Zealand. Nobody has ever gone to prison for smacking their kid here, but the law exists which implies that they can. As a result, people smack their children less. And everybody wins.
@Cerberus you know, even in Weimar times, even in Roman times, it only took states a few years to get from here to there. And these days, the world is moving at a much, much higher speed. The near future is not "when I'll be dead". The near future is tomorrow.
The article says you can be "sentenced to 5 years in prison for not giving an encryption key to the government upon request". Not for having one in the first place.
@DavidWallace If they decide to prosecute him for downloading a couple of songs, or saying chiropraxis is pseudo-science (real scenarios both), they may add that charge if he won't or can't give them a key to some encrypted file.
@DavidWallace two things. First, it doesn't matter if they give a shit. It matters that they can, and once they do, there's nothing stopping them. The second, and probably even more important one for practical purposes, is that even by not being a jihadist or a child molester you help all those surveillance programs. You help them train their filters for what not to look for. You are being instrumental.
Then it becomes, "either settle for 1 year in prison for slandering chiropractors, or fight me and face a possible 10 years for added charges x, y, and z".
Damn, he was such a great character actor. He was once a Chicago cop, btw. If you want to hear a legit Chicago accent (from da Sout' Side), listen to him.
@DavidWallace They actually do this. There have been actual lawsuits.
> DESIGN your protest. This is something people REALLY miss. DON'T turn up to places in a Che Guevara tee and ripped cargo pants. DO turn up to places in a suit. Look respectful. If it comes to on-the-streets protests, have a clean cut dress code.
> People are more likely to listen to those wearing suits and ties and being respectful rather than 'dumb hippies' in their 'Visit Amsterdam' tee-shirt in the shape of a marijuana leaf, dreadlocks, and three-quarter-lengths. Design good graphics, good infographics, good motion graphics. Be professional. Be clean. Be impressive.
@DavidWallace I think they would be wise to keep a very short leash on @Matt. Frankly, he scares me. He could bring this whole thing crashing down simply by misplacing a comma.
@DavidWallace no, what I am saying is that I am all for actively helping the police, but I am not in the business of helping the police 24/7 by the sole virtue of my being there. I have not done anything. I should not be part of anything they do. Unless I actively choose to.
If they knock on my door and ask me politely, I will help. If they break into my PC, I can only help them in pointing out how they are the criminals now.
Not a single terrorist has been displayed that was caught using this bad kind of surveillance and unreasonable punishments who could not have been caught otherwise.
See, the smart thing for governments to do is just declare everyone a criminal. Then they can meet their arrest quotas easily, from the lowest-hanging fruit.
If 100,000 people died by terrorism every day, then perhaps a police state would be the best decisions. But in a rational way: only in ways that actually help.
> What happens to "The Land of the Free" when it is no longer "The Home of the Brave"? You get the evisceration of constitutional protections in the name of fighting terrorism. Dan wonders why everyone is surprised.
@Cerberus but you don't understand, in a police state the police are the terrorists. No need to justify their existence anymore. Have your cake and eat it!
I mean, I literally have an encrypted file that I cannot recall the password which decrypts it. I kept it in case I ever decide to try to break the encryption. But in the UK that file would be worth 5 years in jail.
Wouldn't it be funny if someone's English was so poor that the authorities thought their files were encrypted? And then they sentenced them to prison for being incomprehensible?
@Robusto the scary part is, they'd probably go ahead and decrypt it to read "Kill All Obamas" or something. Good luck convincing them of the error of their ways.
> Een andere vergaande voorgestelde bevoegdheid is het 'decryptiebevel', waarbij verdachten kunnen worden gedwongen om hun encryptiesleutels vrij te geven. Dat kan alleen als iemand wordt verdacht van medeplichtigheid aan terrorisme en van bezit of vervaardiging van kinderporno.
"Proposed law: if you are suspected of child porn or terrorism (yawn), you can be legally forced to give up encryptions keys; refusal would result in a maximum punishment of 3 years in prison. "
@Robusto I must say I can't tell Chicago accent from, um, a hole in the ground if you beat me with it swinging a dead cat. (Is that how you say in English?)
@Cerberus German buses are very pretty. They're the first ones to put full bus-body ads on their bus-bodies. Every other car is an ad. The other cars are just shy.
The wound strings wear off quite fast, and start sounding dull even faster, so I replace them quite often. But whenever I do so, I replace the unwound strings as well, even though at that point, they usually still sound bright and show no sign of wear at all.
I must say I have never given it an...
English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…
English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…