Dark Helmet 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: GOP Platform May Include Internet Freedom Language… But Also Wants Crackdown On Internet Porn

    Dark Helmet ( profile ), 28 Aug, 2012 @ 10:17am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Morality

    "I am under the firm belief that God put us here to figure out things on our own (hey we have a whole universe to explore ^_^ )and that includes actual scientific thinking."

    I respect your right to believe that, even if I find the belief to be egotistical and xenocentric on a massive scale. Understanding our biology, how we came to be, how we almost came NOT to be, relieves me of the centric notion that all of what I see around me is about mankind....

  • On the post: GOP Platform May Include Internet Freedom Language… But Also Wants Crackdown On Internet Porn

    Dark Helmet ( profile ), 28 Aug, 2012 @ 10:14am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Morality

    "Yes, non-religious people are perfect and full of truth and light and have never done any of these things. So we must eradicate religion so that we can all be saved."

    Are you contending that religion has NOT been responsible for the negatives I mentioned on a scale far beyond the secular?

  • On the post: GOP Platform May Include Internet Freedom Language… But Also Wants Crackdown On Internet Porn

    Dark Helmet ( profile ), 28 Aug, 2012 @ 09:40am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Morality

    "It just goes to show that neither the GOP nor DNC really set out to do what they say to do. They just want votes."

    Frankly, it also goes to show how much more level-headed a religion's average "believer" is compared to the actual theology of the religion they ascribe to. I'm always puzzled as to how this isn't a red flag for the believer to drop that religion, but I commend their ability to compartmentalize nonetheless....

  • On the post: GOP Platform May Include Internet Freedom Language… But Also Wants Crackdown On Internet Porn

    Dark Helmet ( profile ), 28 Aug, 2012 @ 09:25am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Morality

    "I'm an atheist, but not the kind that thinks that religion should be wiped from the face of the planet."

    You're entitled to your opinion, of course, although I suggest that out of a proponderance of love for your fellow man you rethink this platform. If you believe, as I do, that religion in history has had a net negative effect on mankind when considering all things (wars, divisiveness, control, retardation of science and society), then there is no reason to believe that such a net negative effect won't continue as long as religion exists on our planet.

    So, while I would never call for a mandated ban on religion, arguing for its removal voluntarily is a platform I wholeheartedly endorse....

  • On the post: GOP Platform May Include Internet Freedom Language… But Also Wants Crackdown On Internet Porn

    Dark Helmet ( profile ), 28 Aug, 2012 @ 09:05am

    Re: Re: Morality

    Why would you try to be anti-religion? You can be a deist and not a theist quite easily. Belief in a supernatural God does not require belief in a super-corrupt convention like religion.

    I happen to find myself thinking anti-theism is the closer to the truth than either deism or theism, but at least deists don't have to answer for the misguided notion of religion....

  • On the post: GOP Platform May Include Internet Freedom Language… But Also Wants Crackdown On Internet Porn

    Dark Helmet ( profile ), 28 Aug, 2012 @ 08:35am

    Morality

    Welcome to the infusion of morality and religion into public policy. Personally, I can't think of anything stupider than injecting the superstitions of the minority into the public policy of the whole....

  • On the post: Hotel Lock Company Wants Hotels To Pay For Fixing Their Hackable Product

    Dark Helmet ( profile ), 28 Aug, 2012 @ 06:19am

    Re:

    Lame analogy. If you boiled it down to the lock on the car being defeated with pocket change, then you'd be fucking pissed. Nice try though....

  • On the post: Facebook's Lower Stock Price Means Saverin Doubled Tax Bill By Leaving The Country

    Dark Helmet ( profile ), 25 Aug, 2012 @ 04:03pm

    Re:

    ....and also because the humor in the writing was AWESOME, yes?

    You people don't appreciate me... :)

  • On the post: Apparently I'm A Google Shill And I Didn't Even Know It

    Dark Helmet ( profile ), 24 Aug, 2012 @ 03:45pm

    Re:

    What the fuck are you talking about, dumbass? The filing is embedded below the article. How do you expect anyone to take your dumb ass seriously?

  • On the post: Apparently I'm A Google Shill And I Didn't Even Know It

    Dark Helmet ( profile ), 24 Aug, 2012 @ 02:19pm

    Re: Re: Re: What's stupid...

    No, what's really stupid is that Google wasn't even the one commissioning the study that got Techdirt listed on this filing. It's a tangential relationship at best.

    Oh well, I'm sure once this leaves Crystal Ball territory all the trolls in the world will want to put their stupdity on display for all of us to see.

    Sadly, I have yet to receive a check from Google, despite writing for the site. And, given that I, like Mike, have been critical of Google in the past, this is all much to do about nothing....

  • On the post: Apparently I'm A Google Shill And I Didn't Even Know It

    Dark Helmet ( profile ), 24 Aug, 2012 @ 01:25pm

    What's stupid...

    What's stupid about all this is that the broad order from the Judge, after Google said they had paid nobody to comment on the case, caused them to simply sweep a bunch of people they had unrelated business with and throw them at the judge to shut them up.

    "You didn't try hard enough, Google". WTF????

  • On the post: Apparently The Purpose Of Copyright: Keeping Our Ancestors' Promise To Noah Webster

    Dark Helmet ( profile ), 24 Aug, 2012 @ 09:19am

    Re: The nature of copyright

    First of all, thank you for being one of the folks around here who can disagree with portions of articles while being level-headed, reasonable, and on point. A couple of quick notes, however:

    "You're right that the "ultimate" goal (or purpose) of copyright law is the dissemination of works of knowledge and culture. However, the manner in which it is supposed to do that is by securing rights for a limited time in those works encouraging authors to create them. The "ultimate" goal of copyright is exactly as you say; but the operational goal (the goal immediately in the cross hairs of copyright for achieving that ultimate goal) is to see that as many works as possible be created in the first place."

    Perhaps, but we've seen an explosion of content creation in the same age as the explosion of piracy, so I'm not sure this is a point in favor of Copyright or Copyright enforcement....

    " I disagree as to the argument that, if anything, the first amendment should "repeal" the copyright clause because it came after. This is false. When a law is repealed, it is done so expressly. You don't enact a conflicting law as a tool to repeal an old one. The only reasonable statutory interpretation is that these legal principles must coexist and it falls on courts of law to interpret the often jagged boundaries of these principles."

    I had no intention of seriously suggesting that the 1st amendment repealed copyright law. It may LIMIT it, or limit its enforcement, but not repeal.

    Instead, I was pointing out that the quoted source's claim to some importance of copyright over the 1st Amendment because it came first could cut both ways, depending on how you assign privelage to both clauses. The truth is that no such assignment should exist, so the whole point is moot.

  • On the post: Fifteen Years Ago Today, Techdirt Was Born

    Dark Helmet ( profile ), 24 Aug, 2012 @ 05:27am

    Re: monumental waste of 15 years

    "15 years of winging"

    15 years of WINGING?!??! But we only JUST released motha fucking eagles on all yer asses, yo!

  • On the post: Fifteen Years Ago Today, Techdirt Was Born

    Dark Helmet ( profile ), 23 Aug, 2012 @ 11:55am

    Re: Re:

    But the pie is nigh....

  • On the post: Rep. Nadler Proposes The RIAA Bailout Act Of 2012

    Dark Helmet ( profile ), 23 Aug, 2012 @ 10:59am

    Re:

    "I am just waiting for the Born Music Tax."

    I likewise await the Bourne Music Tax. We all have to pay it, but none of us can remember what it was for, yet it continues to kick our ass....

  • On the post: Fifteen Years Ago Today, Techdirt Was Born

    Dark Helmet ( profile ), 23 Aug, 2012 @ 10:38am

    Hmm, let's see

    Coincidentally, I'm fairly certain that fifteen years ago this day, I was fifteen years old and saw my very first real life, in-person booby. In other words, it's nice and rather synergistic that this is a meaningful day for the both of us.

    Kidding aside, congrats Techdirt and Techdirt-ers. I couldn't be prouder to be a small part of it....

  • On the post: The DVD Is Dying. Hollywood's Plan? Do Nothing And Cede Ground To File Sharing

    Dark Helmet ( profile ), 23 Aug, 2012 @ 08:16am

    Re:

    "Marble cake"

    Motherfucking Eagle trumps Marble Cake.

  • On the post: Oxford Professor Says Mankind Is Ethically Obligated To Create Genetically Engineered Babies

    Dark Helmet ( profile ), 22 Aug, 2012 @ 12:27pm

    Re: Re: Re: Also

    "While the proposed method might qualify under a broad definition of eugenics, it is a particularly prejudicial term that predisposes the reader toward faulty assumptions."

    Yup, which I mentioned in the article to combat those faulty assumptions :)

  • On the post: Oxford Professor Says Mankind Is Ethically Obligated To Create Genetically Engineered Babies

    Dark Helmet ( profile ), 22 Aug, 2012 @ 12:17pm

    Re: Also

    Well, not definitive, but from Wikipedia: "Eugenics is the "applied science or the bio-social movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population", usually a human population"

    It would appear the definition for Eugenics isn't as narrow as you make it sound...

  • On the post: Oxford Professor Says Mankind Is Ethically Obligated To Create Genetically Engineered Babies

    Dark Helmet ( profile ), 22 Aug, 2012 @ 12:01pm

    Re: Not yet slippery

    "Honestly, in the end, I think this could be a boon to evolution; a shot in the arm, so to speak. These new screened humans would still compete with the home-grown kind, and could very well lead to selective sweeps much faster and with less suffering than "traditional" evolution."

    As I said, I don't have a fully formed opinion yet, but here's where the problem might lie. Whether we're talking about disease, as you were, or behavioral gene selection, as the article discussed, some of the same genes that put you at risk for one disease also ward off another. I'll have to go hunting for the link I was reading when writing this if you want a citation (if you really want me to, I'll go find it), but that was one of the biologists' problems: unintended consequences.

    Sure, we could eradicate every genetic marker for Alzheimer's through unnatural selection, but what if that same gene protects against some far WORSE disease that then runs rampant across the entire population?

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