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Are you implying I don't want to believe? That if I wanted to believe, I would?

I suggest you read up on whether belief is actually a choice.

http://atheism.about.com/od/atheismquestions/a/beliefchoice.htm

Christianity is a huge emotional stronghold for me. If I saw one good, compelling piece of evidence, I would believe again. So far you have presented me with nothing but tired, poorly presented apologetics and logical fallacies and failed to offer a shred of useful evidence supporting my believing in your God.

The only think that sucks worse than Silk is chocolate Silk.

I absolutely **love** Soy Milk - and yes, it doesn't taste like cows milk - but I absolutely hate the packaged milk in boxes and cartons (sold to "Americans"). I think the only way people like stuff like SIlk is because they drink it and think over and over again "its good for me - must drink- slurp - yum - its good for me - slurp - must drink- yum- its..."

Only good stuff is what you buy from asian markets or, if thats not available, made yourself :

http://chinesefood.about.com/od/breakfast/r/soybeanmilk.htm/

My girlfriend of 3 years is vegan. I don't eat pork or beef... I never really did - but I eat occassional chicken, fish, dairy and egg products (I can't stay away from real chocolate chip cookies!) From what I've gathered from our discussions she chooses vegan diet for a variety of reasons. Some more belief based and others are more evidence based. And that is an important point to this conversation - as with everything in life - the reasons are many - not just singular. I think it mostly relates to animal kindness, environmental effects of raising animals for mass consumption (I can't really explain this one because I don't really know details) and health reasons. Ironically, we will tend to eat scientifically engineered products (boca burgers, THOUSANDS of soy products and various other products) So, I sometimes wonder about the health reasons. But recently we've tended towards more veggies, pastas and grains. As for replacement meat, I've found that Seitan http://vegetarian.about.com/od/glossary/g/Seitan.htm is one of the closest to the texture of meat (compared to Tofu) My concerns with this soy based diet are related to the concern of soy being a plant estrogen and it's concern specifically - to men's health... http://www.rheumatic.org/soy.htm To answer (for her and other vegan's I know) the topic's question - I say: They would probably NOT eat it.

Earthquake lights.
The National Guard scrambled F-16's for "UFOs" and ended up waking people when one of their pilots freaked out and went super sonic. It makes much more sense than "training" and "flares" since flares aren't pseudo-stationary for 30+ minutes, and pilots don't go super sonic in that area.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_light
http://inamidst.com/lights/earthquake
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learning/faq.php?categoryID=8&faqID=103
http://geology.about.com/od/earthquakes/a/EQlights.htm

Do flares look like this?
http://www.wwki.com/Article.asp?id=661887&spid=21432
No aliens.

The republican plan has been to starve the beast with irresponsible tax cuts (mainly benefiting the wealthy) to create deficits, ultimately forcing a reduction in the size of government. In other words, save America from big government by bankrupting it. Well, we're now $9,400,000,000,000 in debt... so,... thanks guys....

Neither, they're both getting re-elected. Anyone fool enough to vote for an "electable" candidate are the ones who are truly to blame.

The DMCA was drafted by Orin Hatch (R). Besides, the DMCA was nickel and dime... If you want corporate welfare, Clinton rolled back depression era law (Glass Steagall) that prevented certain conflicts of interest. The direct result of that action was the implosion of the whole damned economy(!) less than two years later with Enron, Arthur Anderson, WorldCom and the like. Ironic that the Democrat would repeal the New Deal and the Republican cowboy would be charged with reinstating it... Well, that didn't exactly happen, we got Sarbanes-Oxley instead. That's used mainly to justify $20 fees for an iPhad upgrade.

Then you'll also be contributing to the massive $700,000,000,000 annual trade deficit. Not that it will do you any good. The tax is already owed. If you don't pay sales tax, you owe use tax. The law says you're a tax cheat if you don't. If the money goes out of the country to retailers they can't reach, they'll just get it at the source. Visa/MasterCard will be all too happy to comply.

no practical computer vermin for Macs out in the wild taking advantage of the many supposed flaws.

a simple google search pulls up: http://antivirus.about.com/od/macintoshresource/Macintosh_Viruses_and_Mac_Virus_Resources.htm

As your knowledge of technology matures you will find that different situations call for different OS's.

Yes virtualization is the future, but not in the way you think, already the next release of windows server is implementing near to full VM environments. Apple will continue to push OSX but hopefully they will not open it up to multiple hardware environments, or we are going to say goodbye to our beloved stable Mac. Broad sweeping statements, inability to distinguish between BSD and Linux, I see now that I am talking to a fanboy.

And for cryin out loud, dont run vista in a VM, what are you? A glutton for punishment?

Take it from a guy who has implemented Macs, *n*x, and Windows in many many many different environments. Been there done that, they are pretty much all equal. I am just as comfortable giving someone a windows box as long as it is behind a firewall and Firefox, as I am giving them a MAC. My reluctance on macs is generally pointed to the difficulty in supporting them, increasing downtime when a failure does happen. What I do like is that MAC users tend to be considerably more tech savvy than Windows users. Of course I have good money that OS.5 is going to kick ass as it gets tested in the real world. I think we will se great market share increases for OSX here in the next 5 years, especially with the disappointment of vista.

Yahoo isn't just stamped on them, it is them. Do a search on yahoo and a search on Alta Vista. The results are carbon copies.

I didn't know this, I don't use Yahoo! for searches and haven't for years. Most of the tyme I use Google however I also use About.com, Altavista, Ask.com, and Mooter.

I'd rather have 2 big players instead of one colossus Search company that if things go wrong, the whole planet suffers.

I don't think this is quite true. Unlike an OS or apps it's easy to switch your search engine. While I mostly use Google I also use About, Alta Vista, Ask.com, and Mooter. On the other hand, if you're using online apps then yes it can be hard to switch. However I'd rather have my apps running and my docs stored locally. At most I'd vpn into my home server while on the road.

Canada has a huge lead on the US in those categories despite being even larger and more sparsely populated. (And yes, broadband has been available in rural areas for over a decade.) Unfortunately, under the Conservatives, the companies here have been evading the regulations that are supposed to control them.

http://www.acronymfinder.com/af-query.asp?acronym=SANS
System Administration, Networking, and Security Institute (SANS)
Institute's Internet Storm Center (ISC)
http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=4247

http://www.acronymfinder.com/af-query.asp?Acronym=SAN&Find=find&string=exact
Storage Area Network (SAN)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SanDisk
SanDisk Corporation

http://japanese.about.com/blqow38.htm
from AnonymousCoward-san

http://babelfish.altavista.com/
sans acronymes le monde serait un meilleur endroit

*Pries the musket from his cold, dead hands*

http://email.about.com/od/freeemailreviews/tp/free_email.htm/ list 14 free email hosting providers, although y! is on there twice (new and classic)

I admit I have no idea how to figure out how many colors there are with 6 bits per pixel...but I did find this website which talks about 8bit and 6bit LCDs: http://compreviews.about.com/od/multimedia/a/LCDColor.htm

Everyone also knows that I'm the author of RoughlyDrafted,

Jeepers - are you? And you admit it? In public?

please let us know where the market for Mac viruses and exploits is,

Well, there's a Safari exploit being auctioned right now.

But really, the vast majority of exploits to hit OS X won't be OS X specific - but belong to other projects, like Apache, SSH, Samba, etc. This is because OS X sensibly uses open source to do all its heavy lifting security wise.

Also, please fill us in on what you think it means to be a zombie, because a zombie process has nothing to do with being part of a Windows botnet.

You're a dumbass.

Admittedly, (presumably) you're an OS X user, so you're less likely to have experience with zombies, but you'd think you'd at least do a simple google search before attempting to correct someone.

As a New Zealander, I have to say that over-taxation of the kind described is absolutely a bad idea. Here we have millions available to buy high-country land for conservation, to pay for medical care for refugess with AIDS, for politicians amusements, and especially for helping the underpriviledged. Meanwhile, we're in a housing crisis because nobody with a regular job can afford even the deposit on a home because they've got nothing left after PAYE, Student Loans, KiwiSaver, ACC, Earner Premiums, etc, etc. Once you've lost around 47% percent of your income in tax, groceries are then taxed at 12.5%, and fuel is taxed over 60%, and so on. You do what you can to minimise it, but as an Employee, there are limited options.

I agree that some taxation is necessary, but socialism is killing the middle class. I'm seriously considering a move to somewhere like Hong Kong with their more reasonable 20% rate.

Few Olympics are profitable. I only know of two in the last few decades that didn't end up costing the taxpayers money, the 1984 summer games in Los Angeles and the 2002 winter games in Salt Lake City. There may have been others, but not many.

However, lots of places that host the Olympics end up making a profit in the longer term.

Not so sure about that. I just moved out of BC, Canada recently, but the way things were going the outpouring of $$$ was wayyy beyond budget, and the incoming was going to have a hard time catching up. Similarly, Greece suffered greatly under the cost of hosting the olympics.

May some are going to make money from it: travel agencies, advertisers, etc, but I think the profit is relegated to a limited number of pockets, and I'm not so sure that the gov't pockets (aka the taxpayers) will be one of them, except for those that are going to benefit from a few "greased palms"

Not necessarily. The use of bitumen/tar was documented in biblical times. The Romans were thought to have used coal for metalwork. A Greek by the name of Heronas, developed a prototype steam engine. They might have advanced faster technologically, if they weren't afraid of making the slaves unemployed

You can also read the history of the combustion engine . The first combustion engines were based on gunpowder, then coal powered steam engines, coal gas, and finally petroleum. At the same time, engineers experimented with one stroke, two stroke and four stroke engines with vertical and V slant pistons.

The current situation, requiring a passport to visit Canada

A passport is required to (re)enter the USA.

Canada would be happy to let US citizens/residents into the country with a government ID if we were sure that we could send them home when we got tired of them.

Mein Englisch ist besser als Dein Deutsch!

Wrong on both counts.

Steve Jobs visited Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center), and was shown around. Having paid (in stock), he was allowed to "pick one of three", and went for the GUI. Apple developers then did significant extra items on top of Xerox's work (partly because they mis-remembered what they saw; some things like overlapping windows hadn't been worked out by Xerox, although the devs thought they had seen them)

http://inventors.about.com/od/cstartinventions/a/Apple_Computers.htm
http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=On_Xerox,_Apple_and_Progress.txt
http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Busy_Being_Born.txt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIM_alliance>The AIM Alliance was an alliance formed in September 1991 between Apple Computer, IBM and Motorola to create a new computing standard based on the PowerPC architecture.. In other words, there was never any Atari "exclusivity"

If you are ever down this way drop by the Razorback and check her out.You really respect what those guys went through during WW2 when you see the tiny cramped conditions on board those subs.But that's my take on the subject,your opinion may vary.

A related problem is Google's appeasement of muslim demands for censorship, not because they don't have a legal right to do this, but because Google is a de facto portal to ideas and speech, and so their capitulation to intimidation (as well as, for example, Borders and Waldenbooks removing magazines from their shelves if they contain articles that might upset Muslims) has the effect of abridgment of the freedom of speech. That this is happening within the U.S. and has a direct effect on what Americans are permitted to see and hear is alarming.

But it's not the Sunday following Passover, as Passover this year isn't until Sunday 20 April (really it begins at Sunset on 19 April) and goes for 7 days, until Saturday 26 April. There is an extra month in the Jewish calendar this year to help account or seasonal changes and differences between solar and lunar months.

This about.com article (http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/godsreligion/a/aa040200.htm) explains it better than I can.

Believe it or not, there are a ton of Christian terrorist groups.

Let's see:

KKK - (Burned, bombed, decapitated) They claimed it was their god given right. Slave owners did the same
Army of God - (Use deadly force to blow up abortion clinics)
Nagaland for Christ - Terrorist attacks against Indian Army (the largest demacracy in the world)
Tsar Lazar Guard - First uniformed Christian "militia" group. Classified by NATO as a terrorist organization
God's Army -a Christian revolutionary group in armed rebellion against the military government of Burma.
National Liberation Front of Tripura - Ethnic cleansing and bombings
North Ireland Terrorism - Long before arabs started it, the protestants were bombing the catholics
Lord's Resistance Army Lord's Resistance Army - Torture, Rape, use of child soldiers
the list goes on....I remember the October group or something in Greece had a large christian motive against the orthodox church, also that armenian group that bombed several masks in turkey and killed 3 university students (anti islam christians). Chstrian god is the same as islam, and so is there history and modern acts of terrorism. theres a ton in south america, you just don't hear about them becuase u live in a pro-christian country where a recent survey indicated that Gays were hated less than atheists...http://atheism.about.com/b/2006/03/24/atheists-hated-more-than-gays-muslims-all-other-groups.htm

Why is there so many people surprised about the class keyword finally being implemented? I remember reading the reserved words for javascript way back in the 90's and seeing class in there. I always wondered how long it would take to be implemented. Here is a list of javascript reserved words.

Cool. I'm glad the newest wave of consumer WAPs are starting to support this, but I would not consider that "average" since it will take a while for all of these to be replaced. Also, as I mentioned in another response, none of this is all that relevant since they still ship with the security features off.

With the Iraq war costing $12 billion a month, that buys the country another 7 weeks!

Additionally, in the book, HAL vents the atmosphere in the Discovery to prevent Bowman from returning as he did not have a full pressure suit. The scene never made it into the movie - I don't recall if it was shot and cut or never filmed at all. However it is the (unportrayed) reason that Dave Bowman is wearing his helmet again once he finally gets on board and through the famous "Daisy" scene.

They got so much wrong, but the issues they got right. We don't have flying cars, but we are different people due to technology. We do not get our food from cubes, but the fast food is just presented manner meant to imitate the food it replaces. We had pocket calculators long before the cleaning work was autonomously taken over by machine, but the roomba exists. Children are being trained in ware fare using video games. The basis of our interactions are being changed by rapid instantaneous communication. Our basic functions, such as sex, have been changed by the picture phone and internet. No longer must anyone settle for the person next door, when one can surf for an attractive specimen in the morning, text during class, and set up the date for the evening at a bus stop midway between the two of you. In fact, we never have to settle when everything can be custom made to out specifications.

There are two things that disappoint me about many so-called intellectuals. The first is that they don't seem to read enough history. The second is that don't seem to read enough science fiction. To me this strikes me as a person who knows not where they came from, and who knows not where they are going. All they know is what is happening at the moment, their immediate desires, and all they care about is what they must do to fulfill those desires.

Clarke's writing clearly defines him as a different sort of person. The Foundation series clearly identifies him as a man who knew history. His life defines him as a man who knew where he as the rest of us were likely going. I wonder what the world would be like if our leaders were like this. People of history and vision, rather than people who apparently do not even both to hold a book correctly, and proudly states that they never read, or that they read the cliff notes versions. I am reminded of John F. Kennedy, the person who pushed the nation to space, for better or worse. It is claimed in Thirteen Days that JFK had read the Guns of August, did understand that many conflicts start because leaders assume they know what the other party is thinking, and then constructs inflexible plans based on those assumptions. As he knew history, he could do something different in his attempt to achieve a result. Again, history and vision of the future. Something we are sorely lacking, and something that is all too often ridiculed by those who are justing looking at how to swindle their first million by the time they are 25.

Defense is a "relatively small" part of the budget? Are you sure we're talking about the same country here?

The 2008 budget calls for total spending of $2.9 trillion (on tax revenues of $2.66 trillion). Of that, $481.4 billion goes to the Department of Defense. That's 16.6% of the entire budget. If you count other defense related areas, such as the "Global War on Terror" ($145.2 billion) and the Department of Homeland Security ($34.3 billion), we're up to $660.9 billion, which is 22.79% of the total budget.

All of this, of course, doesn't even include the cost of the Iraq war, which is financed through separate appropriations. Bush has requested an additional $105 billion for 2008 war costs, which would bring total defense-related spending in 2008 to $765.9 billion, or 26.4% of the total budget.

That's right, more than one quarter of the entire national budget is dedicated to defense spending, including the war in Iraq. By comparison, the next largest budget item, Social Security, comes in at $608 billion, or 20.97% of the total budget. And I'm not even including any military-related spending that may be assigned to other Cabinet departments or other programs.

Sure, people like to throw around meaningless numbers like defense spending is only around 4 or 5% of total GDP. But guess what: we don't pay for it with total GDP, we pay for it with tax dollars. It's absurd to compare budget items to the total GDP, because it implies that spending a giant percentage of our total production on the federal government (around 20.27% assuming a projected $14.31 trillion total GDP in 2008) is somehow okay.

Sources:

GDP Estimate: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_future_GDP_estimates_(nominal)
2008 Budget: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget%2C_2008
2008 Iraq war appropriations: http://middleeast.about.com/od/iraq/f/me080225b.htm

As a Jew I am outraged by this. The so-called Zionists don't like to hear this, but they are doing to the Palestinians exactly what the Nazis did to us.

Except that the Chevy Nova did perfectly fine in Spanish speaking countries and there appears to have been no confusion about its name.

http://spanish.about.com/cs/culture/a/chevy_nova.htm (This link is not meant to imply that about.com is an authoritative source of historical information. This was just the first hit on google.)

You should look here: http://usmilitary.about.com/od/theorderlyroom/l/blsecmenu.htm

It is made up of the powers-that-be.
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/thepoliticalsystem/a/electcollege.htm
You may vote for my buddies to determine who gets to replace me as the guy who takes your money.

Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems that both the PS3 and Xbox 360 are computers:
http://playstation.about.com/od/ps3/a/PS3SpecsDetails_3.htm
http://xbox.about.com/od/xbox2/a/xbox360specs.htm

The PS3 and Xbox 360 are computers that are specifically designed for gaming - while the computers that you purchase from Dell, Gateway, etc. are intended for many other functions. So the point of this article is that computers that aren't designed for gaming aren't very good at gaming? Slow news day.

Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems that both the PS3 and Xbox 360 are computers:
http://playstation.about.com/od/ps3/a/PS3SpecsDetails_3.htm
http://xbox.about.com/od/xbox2/a/xbox360specs.htm

The PS3 and Xbox 360 are computers that are specifically designed for gaming - while the computers that you purchase from Dell, Gateway, etc. are intended for many other functions. So the point of this article is that computers that aren't designed for gaming aren't very good at gaming? Slow news day.

The soul of Wikipedia is obviously inclusionism. If you start picking what stays and what goes, then it will become just like every other encyclopedic resource out there. The problem is that people are treating Wikipedia as if it were supposed to be "the" resource rather than just "a" resource. If you use it knowing that the information within is not meant to be authoritative, than it can be a great resource to use as a starting point or for situations where incorrect information is not going to cause problems down the line. The word "wiki" itself means "quick" or "fast", as in, an encyclopedia for quick answers, not necessarily absolute answers.

As far as my daily light research needs are concerned, if Wikipedia becomes a deletionsim camp, then they better change the "wiki" part of their name; because even by their supposed competitor's definitions of the word "wiki" it would be a lie. And seriously, what would you prefer? One of the ad laden, content starved, dead ended, upselling pages at the previous three links? Or this one?

The soul of Wikipedia is obviously inclusionism. If you start picking what stays and what goes, then it will become just like every other encyclopedic resource out there. The problem is that people are treating Wikipedia as if it were supposed to be "the" resource rather than just "a" resource. If you use it knowing that the information within is not meant to be authoritative, than it can be a great resource to use as a starting point or for situations where incorrect information is not going to cause problems down the line. The word "wiki" itself means "quick" or "fast", as in, an encyclopedia for quick answers, not necessarily absolute answers.

As far as my daily light research needs are concerned, if Wikipedia becomes a deletionsim camp, then they better change the "wiki" part of their name; because even by their supposed competitor's definitions of the word "wiki" it would be a lie. And seriously, what would you prefer? One of the ad laden, content starved, dead ended, upselling pages at the previous three links? Or this one?

Don't worry about a few parts per quadrillion of who the heck knows what.

You should worry about the massive amounts of fluoride that is being placed deliberately in our drinking water despite many known dangers. This extremely toxic and dangerous substance is being put into our water in massive quantities, on purpose, allegedly to help our teeth.

I'd post under my id (rthille), but I'm moderating here too :-p

Einstein was certainly an atheist. He may have been a deist, but he was certainly an a-theist.

http://atheism.about.com/od/einsteingodreligion/tp/Einstein-on-a-Personal-God.htm

Clinton and McCain are like the frat brothers Bush and Kerry. Its a scorecard power players really like.

They're more alike than you might realize. They were both Goldwater supporters, and she was even president of the Young Republicans at her school.

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

--MarkusQ

You have extreme comprehension issues. They appear to be related to thinking you're correct and being unwilling to examine the situation.

The USA has drafted soldiers, and could again. This means the system is set up in such a way as to contain people who do not want to be there.

As for voluntarily leaving the army, you are hysterically delusional. Sure, there are early ways out of basic service, some even with an honorable discharge, but they are all at the discretion of the army.

As for the military lying, surely you know what a recruiter is. Then surely you know that they'll promise nearly anything to get you to join. They have quotas. Here's just one article, google for more.

So you can be conscripted (just not right now, how comforting), will be lied to in order to be tricked into joining, and have no real practical way out.

As for being shot, I encourage you to look at the penalties for desertion in the face of the enemy. Death and life imprisonment are both options. The last time a soldier has been court-martialed and executed was 1945, but what do you think they do in the field? Gently arrest you and send you back home for a comfortable trial? More like, KIA.

For a country without the draft, can you explain selective service registration? Huh? Summer-camp paperwork?

If you could be conscripted, and merely are not yet, you're still a slave. Either you have freedom, or it can be taken away and you could be forced to go to war for a cause you don't believe in.