[OT] way off-topic Re: [Novalug] Something Light and, mostly, Amusing

[gregory pryzby]

First, 

I changed the subject as this has strayed off topic.

That said, the same is true of medicines. Anyone who has had a bad
head cold knows that they need <medicine-of-choice>-D. And that is no
no longer available without you giving your information (name,
address, picture id w/ ssn or similar tracking). 

Sure some people cooked meth from it, but a lot less than people who
used it to get over a cold. The other day my wife and daughter both
needed a decongestant, and my wife could not by 2 boxes. She could buy
a brand that was dosed for childern and both could take the proper
amount, or she could get something for herself and tell my daughter to
tough it out.

I will leave out my comments on the system, freedom and rights and how
I can tie it to GPL v3 ;)


On Sun, Dec 03, 2006 at 02:59:00PM -0500, Dan Arico wrote:
> On Sun December 3 2006 8:49 am, Alan McConnell wrote:
> > The following, for your amusement, is from the NYTimes.  There is
> > a slightly more serious note at the end.
> 
> I've been working on an article tangentially related to this. It seems to 
> me that our educational/business systems are designed to recruit and 
> train people to fit into already existing systems. The folks who run 
> them aren't interested in people who are innovators except in small 
> incremental changes.
> 
> So how do the real innovators, the ones who cause quantum changes in 
> civilization, arise? It starts at a very early age when play edges over 
> into new territory and young people begin to do things just to see what 
> happens.
> 
> I got into chemistry in grade school when I discovered some science books 
> in the school library. I started with the simple experiments I found 
> there and moved into designing my own experiments. By the time I hit 
> high school, I was into rockets and explosives. By the time I hit 
> college, I already had years of experience in chemistry under my belt.
> 
> I have since discovered that almost all the real technological innovators 
> got started the same way. Vint Cerf, for instance, built bombs and 
> rockets in his garage. Today, we'd both probably have adjoining prison 
> cells.
> 
> It's more than just a crackdown on anything construed as "terrorism", 
> however. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is bad enough, but 
> the more pernicious influence has come from the Consumer Products Safety 
> Commission and the tort lawyers. They have "protected" us from harm to 
> the point that it is impossible to buy a real chemistry set and any 
> attempt by an amateur scientist to buy strong oxidizers or toxic 
> chemicals is met by a forest of licensing and regulations.
> 
> Childhood and adolescence are being directed into channels that are 
> taking the adventure out of life and insuring that the next generation 
> of scientists will be dull plodders who never make an earth-shaking 
> discovery.
> 
> Dan
> 
> -- 
> One OS to rule them all, One OS to find them,
> One OS to bring them all, and in the Darkness bind them,
> In the land of Redmond, where the Sales Reps lie.
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-- 
greg pryzby                              greg at pryzby dot org
fingerprint: 8A1A DB90 869F 5DD1 D6E9 EEB6 C156 6B04 849F A86F
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