Domain: about.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to about.com.
Comments · 4,151
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"nothing to see here"
Ah, but when other people hear about and see this, they'll nod, saying: Our government is doing something with it. and instantly believe that there's more going on. That this is just the surface and so on.
Alas! The government has succeded in their mission; creating a distraction to hide their incompetence. The truth, which anyone with common sense would see, is that nobody has any good idea as to how to stop a would-be illdoer.
Why? Since he's not wearing his Terrorist badge, obviously.
You cannot bind a creative mind.
BTW, the WTC 9/11 was not as original as I first thought. A B-25 bomber crashed into the Empire State Building back in 1945. -
News reliable
Reading a comment some time ago here on slashdot, (sorry, no link here),
I was curious as to whether the news was reliable.
See, someone commented on that the fact that the New York Times did a story, that's no guarantee that it is accurate.
Fortunately, I was able to confirm for all /.'ers that the story is indeed true:
the government is already sued over patent infringement:
Obviously it is this one:
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bllas er.htm
For the lazy ones of us an exerpt of that webpage:
Ray Gun
A patent for the "Portable Beam Generator" also known as a hand-held laser ray gun was granted to the inventor, Frederick R. Schollhammer on July 9, 1968. It was patent #3,392,261.
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Oh and YES, this is a joke... -
What about
What about The Sims 1 and 2? There is nudity in them and it can be modded and turned off. -
Re:Simplistic?Maybe YOU shoud read what you are responding to. I gave you a list of new features in cars. There have been thousands of features added to cars for safety, performance etc. in the last hundred years. And if you'll read the quote below from http://vintagecars.about.com/od/historygreatmomen
t s/ss/modelt_visit_4.htm. You'll see that the user interface has gotten much simpler. There is NOT a direct correlation between feature set and UI complexity.Henry Ford had his own ideas about where the controls should be. There are three pedals on the floor, two on the steering column, a floor lever to the left. The floor lever is neutral in the upright position, second gear when moved forward and an emergency brake when all the way back. The left pedal is first gear when depressed, second if the floor lever is forward. The middle pedal is reverse and the right pedal is the brake. One lever on the steering column is throttle, the other lever is spark advance.
And if you can figure that out, you'll not only appreciate the car that put the world on wheels, you're eligible to drive one. Nothing on four wheels is more loveable than a Model T. -
It's a Glacial formation!
Hey that that kind of looks like the rocks here or here or here or here.
and check out these regularily "cut" bad boys here.
But how do you explain natural pyramids?
Oh I don't know maybe this quote:
"If the glacier erodes three or more cirques on different sides of the mountain, a peak will begin to form. The peak may be a steep pyramid shaped rock, which is known as a horn. The Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps is a well known horn."
Yah! -
Clearly the military needs to save money
Every $3500 saved allows us to stay in Iraq for another second. The decision is obvious.
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Re:I'm not sure it's that easy.
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Re:Well, that's democracy for ya
As a stock holder in a dozen or so corporations, I can definitively say that all of the CEO's of said companies have been paid ludicrous amounts that are in no way based on the actual performance of my stock and investment in said companies. I also know that my 0.00000003% share of the company makes my voice non-exitent in the debate. The fact that 90+% of most companies shares are purchased by 1) Board of Director members, or 2) Invesment Fund Managers (who may also be members of BoD, or related to members or CEOs) means that many, many, many of the upper management compensation decisions are entirely based on elements that have no correlation to the quality of the job the people have done, but much more on the amount of corruption, inside information, and payola being passed around. I actually attended a couple annual shareholders meetings, thinking that I would then get some of the information that I heard financial analysts talking about, or that obviously some of the big investors had access to. Also thinking that I might have some influence on what I thought my company should be doing. HA!
Sports, Hollywood, or other stars are selling their popularity, and presumably the advertisers and producers are getting a good return for their investment. I personnally do not think that my shares in Coca Cola are that enhanced by massive spending on sports endorsements. But at least the company appears to be trying to show some sort of fiscal responsibility towards the average shareholder.
And you are right, if you own no stock, have no investment protfolio, no retirement fund, don't work for a public company, and have no pension to worry about, it is none of your business. First, I would weep for your future, except that my taxes will pay for your welfare. Second, as someone who participates in all of the above I have a great interest in how my assests are being used, as well as interest in what other companies are presenting as "standard" business practices.
As far as relative value, when the CEO salary vs average worker ratio was 85 to 1 in 1990, I thought that was excessive. Now with the average at 431 to 1, it is so far beyond relative worth that the corruption is glaring.
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Re:Nintendo's Wii akin to Chevrolet's Nova?
You would think that the fact that the Nova's actually sold better than predicted would have been an indication that people should stop putting it in Economics textbooks and using it as examples of bad names.
Personally, I'm partial to things that end up like they shouldn't in English. Like this chinese restaurant that I saw in Lake City, Florida (sorta looks like profanity, so possibly NSFW).
That restaurant is there every time I drive through that spot, so I'm not sure that it necessarily matters what you call yourself for small-time business. -
Nintendo's Wii akin to Chevrolet's Nova?I missed the first article about this name change but this reminds me of the urban legend of the Chevrolet Nova in Latin America. Nova means literally "doesn't go" in Spanish and so my teacher told me in Spanish class that it did horrible in Latin America. This isn't true, as the article points out and I wonder what exactly goes through an executive's head as they pick out a name for a product. From the article:
A logical analysis of the story would also indicate its unlikelihood: It strains credibility to believe that a company as large as General Motors, with marketing executives and other employees and contacts throughout the world, wouldn't be aware of a negative meaning of a product name. In fact, according to one marketing analyst (Cecelia Bouleau, quoted in Business Mexico magazine), GM marketers discussed the possibility of confusion with the name, but "they kept the name and it sold very well.
You have to imagine that the execs at Nintendo saw this as a risqué move and weighed in the possible problems they would have marketing it. Is there a cultural barrier here that is plaguing a dominantly Japanese company? ... I think that the word is sufficiently incorporated into the language as meaning 'new' as in 'bossa nova' that the criticism isn't valid."
Also to note about Wii is that the logo looks very ... Apple-esque in its very light gray on white background way.
All these jokes have been made about the name but on the manufacturer's site, you'll find this little blurb:Introducing
So you see, even they are aware of the puns that come with a name like Wii. Personally, I'm glad they chose something other than an old name coupled with a high number (Nintendo 64, Xbox 360, Sega 32, etc.) because that makes it sound like something where bitrate and technical specs are the only things that concern a gamer. And they're not. The thing that concerns me the most is if there's going to be games that I enjoy, Tetris did that with 16 bits so I welcome anything at any bit rate that provides me with entertainment. ... Wii.
As in "we."
While the code-name "Revolution" expressed our direction, Wii represents the answer.
Wii will break down that wall that separates video game players from everybody else.
Wii will put people more in touch with their games ... and each other. But you're probably asking: What does the name mean?
Wii sounds like "we," which emphasizes this console is for everyone.
Wii can easily be remembered by people around the world, no matter what language they speak. No confusion. No need to abbreviate. Just Wii.
Wii has a distinctive "ii" spelling that symbolizes both the unique controllers and the image of people gathering to play.
And Wii, as a name and console, brings something revolutionary to the world of video games that sets it apart from the crowd.
So that's Wii. But now Nintendo needs you.
Because, it's really not about you or me.
It's about Wii.
And together, Wii will change everything.
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Re:So does someone in marketing need to be shot?This almost reminds me of a story I heard years back about how an American car company put out a car under the American name in South America that name sound like "junk", "broken" or something like that in spanish.
If I remember correctly, that car was the Chevy Nova. "No va" means "it doesn't go" in Spanish but that is an urban legend according to this: The Legend of the Chevy Nova That Wouldn't Go
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Re:If Ron Moore were to produce The Phone Book...
"You say that now, but you haven't seen the episode where Starbuck flies her viper over a tank full of Space Sharks"
I saw that episode and you must have things mixed up. She is not flying her viper. By that time the fleet has reached today's earth. She saves a surfer from a shark by riding a flying motorcycle and pulling him out of the water onto her seat. http://scifi.about.com/cs/bgsonscifi/a/aa111203.ht m -
Re:Take it out of context, twist it around...Bzzt. But thanks for playing and we have some nice parting gifts for you.
From the link:
It's true that the word "Berliner" in German means a particular kind of jelly-filled pastry as well as a citizen of Berlin. But look at it this way: If I were to tell a group of Americans that my editor is a New Yorker, would any of them really think I've confused him with a well-known weekly magazine?
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Re:It's about time that TCP/IP was tested...
Ummmm, yea. The topic is about an active duty Sergeant, not an overpaid consultant, setting up an ISP. I've never been in the military, but a quick search produced a chart showing his salary to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $25,000 a year, not "$80k tax free".
http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/pay/bl 06enlbasepay.htm -
6 bit color?
The first page of the review shows that the color count is 16.2M, this typically means that each channel is only 6 bits or 262,144 true colors dithered up to 16.2M. If you spend much time editing pictures, 6 bits per channel can drive you nuts. More details here On the positive side, Asus's website shows a 1 year ZBD (zero bright dot) warranty, and a 3 year panel warranty. link
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What about Putti?
"Putti are those plump little naked boys with wings that one often sees in Renaissance, Mannerist, Baroque and Rococo art. Typically, a putto (the singular form) depicts an angel or cherub in a religious scene, but he may also come in the form of Cupid. In either case, a putto's presence symbolizes love, whether Divine or of a more earthly nature. Incidentally, you never run across ugly putti in art; they're so cute you could just pinch them." - Art History Glossary
Images (illegal?)
Is this is a class issue? Naked kids in anime "comics" are disgusting and illegal. Naked kids in statues are artistic and legal? -
Re:Why were they dumped?
I noticed who the patent holder actually is: Parkinson; Ward D. One of the four Micron founders (http://experts.about.com/e/m/mi/Micron_Technolog
y .htm).
Also, note that Intel and Micron have had a research realtionship in the past (http://www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/bios/dbaglee. htm) with Micron holding a 2% majority. -
Re:ROFL!
http://geography.about.com/library/faq/blqzbusies
t airport.htm
"Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport is the world's busiest passenger airport, with 77,939,536 arrivals, departures, and transfers in 1999. Atlanta bypassed #2 Chicago-O'Hare in 1998 to become the world's busiest." -
Re:If Madonna prices it, they will buy...They are simply charging what their fans are willing to pay.
They are charging what their wealthy or incredibly in-debt financially stupid fans are willing to pay. Just because Madonna has 1% of her fan base that is willing to pay that amount does not mean that she's not alienating the other 99% by charging so much.
A woman reportedly worth over 3/4 of a billion dollars at this time, charging $250/ticket is greed. Pure, simple, unadulterated greed, and a complete lack of care for the people who put her at that level.
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fact of interviewing life these days.
Behavioral and Personality Type tests are becoming almost standard for larger companies (read, ones that can afford them). Whether or not they add value is debatable, and whether you should "move on" obviously will be a personal choice. If it's a job you really want, you probably should consider taking it.
I don't consider these tests harmless, especially since many companies allow too much weight to the results. I wonder how many industry leaders today would get "passing" results.
All that said, if you're interested in what they're looking for and some info on why, and what you might do to improve your results visit this site.
For a perspective from the "hiring" side, you might want to look at this article.
Also, here's an article that describes what behavioral interviews/tests are. It claims (I won't agree or disagree):
..., behavior-based interviews are said to be 55 percent predictive of future on-the-job behavior, while traditional interviews are only 10 percent predictive. They can help hiring managers get more objective information about a candidate's job-related skills, abilities, interest and motivation, and make more accurate hiring decision. Currently, 30 percent of all organizations are using behavioral interviews to some degree.
It's mostly voodoo garbage (no offense to voodoo practicers) but is a fact of life in the interviewing world.
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Re:BaloneyThat's like saying Edison and Tesla are to blame every time someone gets electocuted.
You do know that the electric chair has been invented during the AC vs DC flamewar by Edison (a DC proponent...) to "prove" that AC was too damn dangerous for general use
;)?So Westinghouse (not Tesla) is to blame for the invention of AC current, and Edison for his invention of that particular use of AC...
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Re:Meh, what a worthless review
He basically reviews a really old game that wasn't released in the US initially, but did find its way into super mario all stars (what was it, 10 years ago?)with updated graphics. Why review the original is beyond me unless you really wanted to see if Nintendo made any gameplay differences(the author never talks about the differences, if they exist)
Why write this crappy article? Well, the E3 registration deadline is less than 2 weeks away. Maybe he's one review away from scoring a press pass. Hmm...
Oh look, he wrote an article about how to get into E3 last year.
bort. -
Re:From TFA
The Department of Defense has announced its recruiting and retention statistics by the active and reserve components for the month of March.
All of the active duty branches met or exceeded their recruiting goals for the month. On the reserve side, only four of the six reserve services met their monthly recruiting goal.
Source: About.com
So fewer people are opting for duty in the reserves, but more people are signing up for active service. -
Re:US SMB2, Canon or not canon?
Luigi jumped higher in the Japanese SMB2 ("The Lost Levels"). If you look at the title screen you'll notice that you have two options: Mario Game and Luigi Game. There was no two-player.
Mario runs faster than Luigi but doesn't jump as high. Luigi jumps higher than Mario but doesn't run as fast. Both characters would "slide" a little when they stopped running - Mario stopped faster than Luigi.
So the jumping thing is canon from the Japanese SMB2, not the American SMB2.
However, Shyguys have appeared in the various Super Mario RPGs (along with other US SMB2 enemies) so it would seem that it's canon-ish, at the very least.
The Wikipedia article on The Lost Levels lists a bunch of gameplay features and comparisons from The Lost Levels. It's worth noting that The Lost Levels version of SMB2 is actually quite a bit easier than the original SMB2 - the Wikipedia article lists why. (In The Lost Levels, you have The ability to save and trestart at any level, so if you find a backwards warpzone you can easily restart the level you started from. The poison mushrooms were changed to be vibrant purple, looking nothing like normal mushrooms. There are other minor changes to enemy AI that makes the game easier as well.)
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64 bit cpu?
Did you go for the64 bit CPU?
That what got me off of my butt, although I'd like to say it was the occassional memory paging faults that were getting thrown now and then at inopportune moments, the truth is that I'd put up with that, and figured out some of the issues by staring at debug output for a few months, it was the price cut of the AMD dual core 64s that got me moving.
With th eCPU and the 2 gigs of RAM, I am in multitasking heaven, even the bit of compiling I've done so far hasn't strained it.
With HP, i was already comfortable with their factory boxes. Over many years now, I've become the friend to call when the home PC starts acting up. The majority of time, the problems have been system file deletion or corruption, and i've found that HPs were the easiest to fix because of their recovery cds.
Now they throw the backup onto the machine and don't give full recovery discs. I'm thinking that this was an MS idea in an effort to keep the number of bootleg OSes down.
I also have a bit of negative energy directed towards HPs recent past, and the trialware bundle was lame; i would have been happier without some of it. I tried out the 60 day symantic security suite, it seems pretty hands off and trouble free, but after 30 days began to nag with a pop-up reminder of my need to purchase a subscription, and it irritated me this early into the trial.
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Re:Why I post AC
Are you this man?
http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/r/E/wtctou rist1.jpg/ -
mis-information?
While our military may sometimes seem incompetent, don't forget they are involved in informational warfare in many different ways you might never think of.
I wouldn't be surprised in the least if some or all of this 'leaked' information has been crafted to make our enemies think we are doing things we are not.
This is nothing new, look up operation mincemeat for a very interesting story of a successful mis-information mission performed in WW2. -
Re:I don't get itThe Tax was only supposed to have a duration of two years. The new business failed, but the tax is still with us.
That's ok. Here in Pennsylvania we have a tax on the purchase of alcohol which was implemented to help the folks of the 1936 Johnstown flood. That was 70 years ago.
Last I checked, Johnstown had recovered nicely from the flood (both of them) yet we still have the tax.
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Re:Time for a little balance to the propaganda...find a just model for social organization that respects some basic malthusian ecological premises...
Why, it must be one of the Asian countries, right?
Japan? Uh, no.
Korea? Only if you consider North--South Korea is if anything more crowded and has even less natural resources--but their economy ($20,000+ per-capita GDP) is ten times that of their neighbor ($2,000-).
Taiwan? Singapore? Malaysia? Nope, nope, nope.
India? Has a very growing economy as well as some third-worldish regions and a population problem.
How about China and its attempts to curtail population growth through government action? Oh, no, there's that whole "one-child-policy-led-to-a-preponderance-of-males
" thing.Gee, getting really, really hard to defend the conventional wisdom of so-called "intellectuals."
"O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise..."
Apparently not.
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Ne me frego
Actually the hand gesture he used doesn't mean "go fuck yourself." (The gesture is one where you put your hand under your chin and brush your fingers forward and outward, like you're clearing something out of your beard.) It's Italian, and it means "you're not worth the hair on my chin," or "you're worthless."
That's my opinion/understanding, anyway, though I've also seen it defined as meaning "Me ne frego," or "I don't give a damn," which is listed here.
Not exactly polite, but not quite the same as giving someone the 'ol middle finger, either. The point is, he could have been a lot more offensive if he had wanted to, but he settled for something arguably middle-of-the-road. -
Re:Global warming taking its place...catastrophies that never materialized
You think so? Never materialized? Huh?
The floods in central Europe broke records lasting hundreds of years. Repeatedly in 1998,1999, 2002 and now 2006. Just try searching for floods in Central Europe. Or prehaps for heavy snowfall this year. Or perhaps about the wild-fires in recent years. No. Never happened. In your basement.
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And they want me to pay for this data?
Why should I pay for this data
http://usgovinfo.about.com/b/a/217091.htm
when I get get it for free, then? -
Re:Obsolete?
Faxing those documents makes some sense, but it is still so antiquated -- a technology from the 60s (or earlier) still being used today.
Try the mid-1800's ....... it's a very old technology.
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blfax .htm -
Re:How is it POC?
A worm is not a virus. A virus doesn't exploit holes in web servers, it just infects binaries.
There are challenges in making a virus for both windows and linux, although it is definetely possible:
A while ago it was the winux virus (also a proof of concept)
Unlike a worm though, a virus would have a hard time to spread in a linux environment, as it is
highly unlikely that enterprize linux users have write access to any kind of binaries... There is however
a dangerous situation i can think of: a system running windows that has access to linux system binaries through
samba or nfs ... -
Re:Sooner than you think
According to this http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/gravity_spe
e d_030107.html Gravity travels at light speed.
However, it was immediately attacked http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/gravity_spee d_030116.html
Contrary to some of the other posts there is no current reason to exclude the idea that gravity is faster than the speed of light. Some experiments have shown that it is possible. ( http://physics.about.com/cs/gravity/a/speedofgravi ty_2.htm ) We do not know what gravity is, exactly, so its impossible to simple compare it to your average particle physics and the like.
As I said there is equal amounts of arguments against these experiments and there conclusions so we simply dont know for sure. It is very likely that it does travel at exactly the same speed as light (Just as Einstein predicted) but you should never rule out other possibilities until you are sure. -
Picard Should Design a Vibrator for Bush
When you say "We're prolly gonna have to package it up inside a good story anyway, if we wanna get it out there for public consumption", I wonder: is that particular wording the product of your intelligent design process?
Your statement reminds me how George W Bush affects his artificial good old boy colloquial accent, makes anti-intellectual statements to appeal to his base, talks down to the American people as if they were children, makes up nice sounding stories he knows aren't true, "packages" the truth he refuses say in public, and doesn't believe the American people deserve to know what he really thinks.
As they say in Texas (or is it Tennessee?), and as Laura Bush embroiders across several pillows: "There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again."
The Affective Computing Rearch Group at MIT Media Lab should hit the White House Press Office up for some research funding, to help perfect the skill of looking directly into the camera and lying with a straight face. The Bush Administration is going to need to get a lot better at that, during the next few years.
Maybe they'd pay Picard millions of dollars to develop a vibrator for Bush Administration officials that goes off when people look like the don't believe the lies they're being told with a straight face. Just to be fair and balanced, imagine what a mess we could have avoided if Bill Clinton had one: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman. BZZZZZZZZZZZ!"
Doesn't Bill O'Reilly already have one of those? It just always going off all the time, for him!
"What, you've got a vibrator, don't you? Every girl does."
[Is that why girls always know what guys are thinking? Or is it because guys are always thinking the same thing?]"And just use your vibrator to blow off steam."
"Yes, in fact my wife does have a vibrator. She'd kill me if she knew I was telling you!"
"You should purchase a vibrator and name it."
"I have a vibrator shaped like a cock with a little battery in it."
"We should buy a vibrator together, I could coach you through it."
"If any woman ever breathed a word I'll make her pay so dearly that she'll wish she'd never been born."
"I'll rake her through the mud, bring up things in her life and make her so miserable that she'll be destroyed."
"And besides, she woudn't be able to afford the lawyers I can or endure it financially as long as I can."
"And nobody would believe her, it'd be her word against mine and who are they going to believe?"
"Who are they going to believe? Me or some unstable woman making outrageous accusations?"
[Bill, your vibrator's going off again! They're not convinced!]"They'd see her as some psycho, someone unstable."
[In other words: A match made in heaven!]"Besides, I'd never make the mistake of picking unstable crazy girls like that."
[Yeah, he'd rather pick Ann Coulter, who's actually an unstable crazy dude!]"Nobody sticks up for Christmas except me."
[Such a martyr. Why don't you get nailed up for Easter, too?]-Don
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Re:The Easter Bunny Proves Intelligent Design!
The bunny is from a pagan fertility goddess. (Early marketing for Christianity figured out that it was a lot easier to slide people into the Church if they could keep celebrating their decidedly-non-Christian festivals.)
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Re:Wow"Pointing out sites that are more liberal than the mainstream media doesn't support your argument. I may as well argue that I am the perfect weight at 250 lbs because there is a guy across the aisle from me who weighs 300. It is possible to have a small liberal bias. You didn't exactly choose a neutral source for your supporting "research," either."
True. But that sword cuts both ways. You argue that you are the perfect weight at 250, and point to the guy who weighs 300 as being fat. I am trying to point out that the average male weight in the US is 190 pounds, and that your definition of fat or not fat is slightly skewed. CNN, cited by most as a very liberal media, is about as neutral as it gets. Fox is skewed pretty far to the right. I'll answer your "fair and balanced" attempt later. So, as far you go, you're right. As for my citations, what can I say, I'm slacking at work and didn't take the time to site more scholarly sources. They do exist, however.
The bias in fox news goes further than the simple slant that they give their pieces. Fox regularly repeats talking points from one side without fact checking them, while giving only derisive short shrift to the talking points of the other side, has a general lack of fact checking, and something like 80% of their guests are conservatives. I repeat: Stating a fact and a falsehood side by side does not equate to attempting to give both sides an equal chance. Fact checking and citation are absolutely key, and NO main stream media source provides these elements. That is a major problem.
Finally, Fox does not put up someone who strongly believes in the other side, they throw up a token ragdoll. Colmes, for instance, is a weak-willed, unintelligent frog, whose role on Hannity and Colmes is generally reduced to introducing the guest. That is not any sort of balance.
I will give fox one positive point. They continually have General Wes Clark on, and he's one of the last great hopes for moving this country in the right direction.
I very much like reading liberal media. I wish the majority of media were liberal. And by liberal, I tend to mean that they actually do real fact checking and don't put up with talking points, falsehoods, and agendas. For instance, every time someone does a story about "intelligent design", they're catering to neo-con agendas because it would be a non-issue if it weren't being pushed by neo-cons and their media. If they happen to believe in conservative values, but don't take party loyalty above their job, then I'd call them liberal. And that would be a Good Thing(tm).
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Re:Don't bother learning japanese
In Japanese words do not change. In Arabic they do. In fact (similar to German) in Arabic word stem can change depending on context. (In German some stems change normal letter to umlaut - verb conjugation & plural nouns.).
I think Japanese is fun. At moment I'm studing Hiragana - because that's what you need to start learning Kanji.
Writting system is nuts - but well among all the languages I know - Russian, Belarusian, French, English & German - there is no language w/o some weirdness in it.
As to the practicalities, of course learning Chinese & Hindi has more prospects: after all every third person in the world speaks one of the languages (India has many languages - not only Hindi).
But as long as I remain manga & anime fan - I would go on learning Japanese. Anyway I hear lots of it. Why not?
P.S. I use http://japanese.about.com/ a lot - they have piles of information on Japanses. As beginner I find the information and way it is given quite useful. They have RSS feed and it's quite normal for me to start morning by checking it out. And before I lost my PM3 player I also listend Pimsleur courses: they definitely help to start. -
Re:Prayer may not be for the patient
So, in your opinion, the Catholic Church was once a murderous regime? To you think they would beg to differ? My point is that Christianity purports to be an ideology.
I believe history, and the Church itself, are both quite clear on that; no, I don't think "they" would be to differ, though I am not a Catholic and don't speak for the Church; and "Christianity" no more purports to be an ideology than a brick purports to be a suitable material for building.
Atheism, on the other hand, is not an ideology, not a set of beliefs or anything. If you want to criticize particular people for their hostility to religion, that's one thing. But to criticize them as atheists makes little logical sense.
Take that up with the atheists who I've seen and heard frequently exercise self-congratulation that their beliefs make them superior (in some way I've yet to fully comprehend) to those who are religious.
And please explain to me why there's a constant stream of atheistic invective against organized religion, especially Christianity (though, oddly, not Islam, but then I don't have as much experience with forums in which Islamic views are strongly represented). After all, there's no reason for any atheist to give a fig that someone believes in one God, versus believing in one million deities, or none at all; and, even if there was such a reason, there's no atheistic directive to "preach the gospel", try to "convert" others, etc.
Yet, I get far more atheists "knocking on my door", insisting I "adopt" their religion, than I do Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, and other "religious" types combined. (That takes into account the Internet, of course; why would any atheists even bother participating in a discussion on prayer, anyway? I don't participate in discussions of whether rosary beads actually do any good, to pick an example I know basically nothing about!)
I can -- and have -- go among the deeply religious of various faiths (whether in places of worship, in public places, or in a prison), be open and honest about my religious beliefs, and pretty much get, and certainly give, nothing but respect for others' beliefs.
But the nastiest, filthiest invective I experience, when it comes to insulting my religious beliefs (whether directed at me personally, or just ridiculing beliefs I recognize as my own, in general), pretty much comes 100% from atheists.
Does that not mean those atheists are basically acting as if they are a religion? Or does that just make them a bunch of jerks, in your view? (Maybe they're just a subculture of atheists that, to make a wild guess, is in, or freshly out, of college, after having been "indoctrinated" by left-wing professors and other kooks to attack Christianity as a means to undermine Republicans? Darby's sig, "Murder a Republican", is consistent with this speculation. But the utter lack of response by atheists to their "own kind" speaking improperly on their behalf, and with disrespect, to and about others, suggests that this subculture is, in practice if not precisely, representative of atheists in general. Is this guy misguided, in treating both atheism and Christianity as religions? Do atheists frequently gather together and promote, or "peer-pressure", each other to tolerate the religious beliefs of others, as do Jews, Christians, and Muslims, to name just a few religions with which I'm familiar?)
Also, keep in mind that one of the fundamental distinguishing characteristics of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, at the times and in the contexts where they began, were not that they believed in a God, but that they believed in one God.
Whereas, the cultures from which they largely sprang were "immersed" (and probably greatly stifled by) the belief in many gods, with many conflicting, confusing demands, which (of cour
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Re:Perfect...
Pirates haven't really been around for many years...
Really? are you certain?
Also, 'cops' & 'blogs' are poor analogies for this discussion. No-one that I'm aware of is going around using those terms to further their litigation agendas.
Look, do most people think like you and consider 'copyright infringement' to be 'piracy'? Yes, it's a fact that they do. Is that good? IMHO, no. My point is that it plays into the hands of the **AA's. Maybe that's not important to most people. Fair enough. I prefer to make the distinction because I feel that it is important. -
Re:Sounds mostly familiar
To help with your back problems, you could also try these two yoga positions (which are sort of the same thing):
The bridge
The wheel
The bridge requires a lot less strength than the wheel, but I feel the wheel does much more for the back. You can do an approximation of the wheel pose with one of those large workout balls. It helps my back a lot.
If you do start doing the wheel or bridge, I'd suggest alternating with something like the child pose just to even things out. -
Re:Sounds mostly familiar
To help with your back problems, you could also try these two yoga positions (which are sort of the same thing):
The bridge
The wheel
The bridge requires a lot less strength than the wheel, but I feel the wheel does much more for the back. You can do an approximation of the wheel pose with one of those large workout balls. It helps my back a lot.
If you do start doing the wheel or bridge, I'd suggest alternating with something like the child pose just to even things out. -
Re:Sounds mostly familiar
To help with your back problems, you could also try these two yoga positions (which are sort of the same thing):
The bridge
The wheel
The bridge requires a lot less strength than the wheel, but I feel the wheel does much more for the back. You can do an approximation of the wheel pose with one of those large workout balls. It helps my back a lot.
If you do start doing the wheel or bridge, I'd suggest alternating with something like the child pose just to even things out. -
Re:business methods wildly counterproductive...
Was the first link in google after searching for 'who invented the assembly line'
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Re:the "scientific" idiocy strikes again
In general, dictionaries are written by theists. (This is a generalization based on the fact that for most of Western Civilization, the population has been nearly entirely theist.) Webster's dictionary was founded by a very well known theist that included Biblical references in many of his definitions. Many theists I've encountered cannot tell the difference between simply not believing in their god, actively believing their god does not exist, and hating their god and denying its existence even though I actually know it's there. So it's understandable that few dictionaries are going to portray atheists accurately or even nonnegatively.
If you want a decent definition of atheism, perhaps it would be best to find it in the atheist population. http://atheism.about.com/od/aboutatheism/p/atheism 101.htm
Or a more scholarly source: http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=atheism
On the other hand, one can find definitions that define atheism as the "belief that there is no god and that religion should be suppressed" (http://www.naiadonline.ca/book/01Glossary.htm).
You can see how it's easy to get confused? Fortunately, the atheist population (I hesitate to say community, since any alliances are usually very tenuous and temporary) has defined gradations to allow for the diversity of views within the atheist population. (Note that atheism is simply the lack of belief. Anything beyond that is an individual's philosophy.) The Wikipedia has a very detailed overview of these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism
Your whole argument is that atheists actively believe your god is false. I can't see why this could possibly be important to you, since all you're doing is arguing over whether someone can be called an atheist or not.
As to your logic, S -> G is equivalent to ~G -> ~S. The negation goes as follows:
~(S->G)
~(~S or G)
~G and S
Converted back into English, you have: Science can prove God exists and God does not exist.
This is useless to us, since nobody is actually denying the original claim. Not that this is terribly relevant, but I thought I ought to correct your error. -
Re:I've been there
Say what you like about it not being religious but do a quick google on it and you will find so many references to their religious nature and origins that it completely closes the argument. I'm sure some chapters of AA are more religious than others, but most are. In fact, the U.S. Court of Appeals declared it so. You can see a reference here: http://alcoholism.about.com/library/weekly/aa9904
2 2.htm
As for the success rates...the generous numbers put it at about 5%. Again, go and google it yourself. Consequently, I dont buy your "I know hundreds of people who have succesfully recovered" bit. Sorry but it's bullshit. -
Re:And in other social networking site sales news.Google will pay someone to take Orkut off their hands, in Brazilian currency too!
Oooh! How many is a brazilian ?
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Re:Future renovations?
"USS Enterprise [wikipedia.org] was commissioned in 1960 and is scheduled for decommissioning in 2013. So far its been in service almost 46 years. I see no reason why these ships won't last for 50 years. Even submarines last 30 years (and some SSBNs are under consideration to be extended to 50 years)."
Did you mean to say "will be commisioned in 2265 and is scheduled for decomissioning in 2294."? http://scifi.about.com/library/weekly/aa101899.htm / -
Re:Exactly
Oh, do you mean thishttp://antivirus.about.com/library/weekly/aa0
1 2003b.htm case?
Who is spouting misinformation?
"Right of sale" gives you the right to RESELL any software that you've paid for. Case law has backed this, much to the chagrin of software companies, movie studios, and record labels. That's why you can buy used CDs and video games. It is perfectly, 100%, legal for you to sell software you've paid for on eBay. I do it all the time.
And yes, companies HAVE paid lots of money for violating software contracts, in almost every case it's because they were using it without paying (or more often, paying ENOUGH). The only part of EULAs that really seems solid is the "use at your own risk" disclaimers. Companies haven't been very successful (in a long while anyway) at suing software companies because some bug damaged their business.
Just because it's printed on a sheet of paper in offical-sounding legalese doesn't make it the LAW.