Extremists (will be politically contentious)
Posted: July 2nd, 2020, 8:38 pm(split from my recalls thread as of 2021-09-10)
Those who succeed spectacularly in paving the roads to Hell (as the old proverb goes) with their "good" intentions (whether sincerely well-meaning or just cynically self-interested is another matter, of course):
The “anti-bullying” movement
What it's good for: No better than a 20% reduction in bullying (best case), which is overshadowed by heavy downsides (immense cost, escalating hostilities, reinforcing powerlessness etc.) Ironically, “anti-bullying” advocates themselves become some of the fiercest bullies, and by their own logic are therefore among the worst people. The most disempowering thing is for someone who has been seriously bullied to pick up the ideology.
Besides, in my childhood the teachers were the real bullies, and who would have defended me from them?
Even on the occasions where the Golden Rule is insufficient, anti-bully sentiment will not salvage the situation.
In many ways school itself is to blame, for denying students the freedom to quit (which is the only workable recourse then).
“Greenpeace” (more like Greenwar)
What they've done: Thrown a boulder into the Golden Rice project; pushed extremely-flammable R600a refrigerant for minimal benefit (negligible relative to fossil-fuel usage) compared to the previously-prevalent R134a (which was actually introduced just a little earlier, only the sensible engineers stuck with it until popular environmentalism became too overwhelming; also they paid no attention to air conditioners with their much larger refrigerant volumes), among many others.
Risk levels: Various (e.g. Medium for R600a fridges based on the several reported explosions, albeit no known deaths yet); but the highest goes above even Dire, as countless "third world" children are dying right now due to their hysterical sabotage of the 'Golden Rice' project.
To me Golden Rice was rather a breath of fresh air, after older selective-breeding efforts (i.e. Green Revolution) focused solely on yield.
On the refrigerant note, I tend to prefer hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs) as rightful successors to HFCs; hydrocarbon refrigerants like R600a, R601a may more-properly succeed the likes of methyl formate (which was flammable as well as eco-friendly by even strict green criteria, but went out long ago for being unstable).
I won't go so far as to defend gas-dusters containing R134a, but getting away from CFCs (and HCFCs) was indeed 99% of the battle.
"eXtended Copy Protection" as infamously used by Sony BMG (Rod Elliott called it the eXtremely Criminal Process, albeit the post itself was lost with the old forum since Worsthost betrayed him
)
What they've done: Snuck a rootkit onto the victims' computers (if they happened to have Windows with AutoRun enabled; otherwise it did nothing anyway) in the name of "anti-piracy" (ironically violating LAME's LGPL license in the process); followed by an "uninstaller" with crap of its own.
What to do: If you still have affected CDs, then (if you haven't done so already) copy their contents using a protected (or non-Windows i.e. inherently immune) computer, and (once you have verified-good copies) destroy the original discs.
Those who succeed spectacularly in paving the roads to Hell (as the old proverb goes) with their "good" intentions (whether sincerely well-meaning or just cynically self-interested is another matter, of course):
The “anti-bullying” movement
What it's good for: No better than a 20% reduction in bullying (best case), which is overshadowed by heavy downsides (immense cost, escalating hostilities, reinforcing powerlessness etc.) Ironically, “anti-bullying” advocates themselves become some of the fiercest bullies, and by their own logic are therefore among the worst people. The most disempowering thing is for someone who has been seriously bullied to pick up the ideology.
Besides, in my childhood the teachers were the real bullies, and who would have defended me from them?
Even on the occasions where the Golden Rule is insufficient, anti-bully sentiment will not salvage the situation.
In many ways school itself is to blame, for denying students the freedom to quit (which is the only workable recourse then).
“Greenpeace” (more like Greenwar)
What they've done: Thrown a boulder into the Golden Rice project; pushed extremely-flammable R600a refrigerant for minimal benefit (negligible relative to fossil-fuel usage) compared to the previously-prevalent R134a (which was actually introduced just a little earlier, only the sensible engineers stuck with it until popular environmentalism became too overwhelming; also they paid no attention to air conditioners with their much larger refrigerant volumes), among many others.
Risk levels: Various (e.g. Medium for R600a fridges based on the several reported explosions, albeit no known deaths yet); but the highest goes above even Dire, as countless "third world" children are dying right now due to their hysterical sabotage of the 'Golden Rice' project.
To me Golden Rice was rather a breath of fresh air, after older selective-breeding efforts (i.e. Green Revolution) focused solely on yield.
On the refrigerant note, I tend to prefer hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs) as rightful successors to HFCs; hydrocarbon refrigerants like R600a, R601a may more-properly succeed the likes of methyl formate (which was flammable as well as eco-friendly by even strict green criteria, but went out long ago for being unstable).
I won't go so far as to defend gas-dusters containing R134a, but getting away from CFCs (and HCFCs) was indeed 99% of the battle.
"eXtended Copy Protection" as infamously used by Sony BMG (Rod Elliott called it the eXtremely Criminal Process, albeit the post itself was lost with the old forum since Worsthost betrayed him
)What they've done: Snuck a rootkit onto the victims' computers (if they happened to have Windows with AutoRun enabled; otherwise it did nothing anyway) in the name of "anti-piracy" (ironically violating LAME's LGPL license in the process); followed by an "uninstaller" with crap of its own.
What to do: If you still have affected CDs, then (if you haven't done so already) copy their contents using a protected (or non-Windows i.e. inherently immune) computer, and (once you have verified-good copies) destroy the original discs.