Slashdot Mirror

Only a minority of people gives even the slightest care to being moral. That's exactly why we invest enormously in police and legal systems, because it's the only way to put the brakes on the avarice that rules most people.

No. We invest in police and military and other forms of state force because it's the only way to preserve the privilege of the sociopaths on the top of the heap. In order to convince us that that all this privilege-protecting infrastructure is necessary, the aristocracy directs a great deal of its energy into getting the rest of us to fear and hate each other, to believe that the only thing keeping most of our neighbors from slitting our throats is the guns of cops and soldiers.

As Steinbeck put it,

Here is the node, you who hate change and fear revolution. Keep these two squatting men apart; make them hate, fear, suspect each other. Here is the anlarge of the thing you fear. This is the zygote. For here "I lost my land" is changed; a cell is split and from its splitting grows the thing you hate--"We lost our land." The danger is here, for two men are not as lonely and perplexed as one. And from this first "we" there grows a still more dangerous thing: "I have a little food" plus "I have none." If from this problem the sum is "We have a little food," the thing is on its way, the movement has direction. Only a little multiplication now, and this land, this tractor are ours. The two men squatting in a ditch, the little fire, the side- meat stewing in a single pot, the silent, stone-eyed women; behind, the children listening with their souls to words their minds do not understand. The night draws down. The baby has a cold. Here, take this blanket. It's wool. It was my mother's blanket--take it for the baby. This is the thing to bomb. This is the beginning--from "I" to "we."

I see what you did there.

Good eye, catching the similarity.

Then, what you're looking for is the Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. Lots and lots of tits. And scantily clad lady ninjas too. And it's actually a pretty good book, also. Believe it or not.

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.” ( Alexis de Tocqueville )

"benefits from the public treasury" are Entitlements - Medicaide, Medicare, Social Security, Welfare, etc; and that is what is presently killing the Greece, Italy, and other economies in Europe. The USA can still avoid it if reforms are properly made. But the present elected class can't seem to do their job in that respect.

There's not a small number of chosen in Mormon belief- you're most likely getting mixed up with the Jehovah's Witnesses, who read Revelation 7 rather literally and thus think there's 144,000 "anointed" who go to heaven; any other faithful people supposedly spend eternity on earth. Mormons actually believe almost everyone will be saved in some sense but there will be differing "degrees of glory." The idea is that though almost all of the wicked will eventually (after death) repent and be cleansed from sin and live in a "kingdom of glory" where external conditions are heavenly, some will never be able to endure the presence of the Father and the Son, and their pains of regret at not having diligently followed Christ will be in some sense "hellish."

Not everyone in mainstream Christianity believes everyone can go to heaven; Calvinists believe Christ died only for the elect who were predestined to salvation and the rest of humanity is SOL. This seems pretty starkly at odds with scripture (God's will is to "have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth," 1 Timothy 2:4) and with the idea that God is just and loving.

As far as the question of how many will be saved, the closest one gets to an answer in the Bible is Luke 13:23-24 and Matthew 7:13-14, which seem to imply that few are saved but really turn the question more to the difficulty of the way rather than the number.

Universalism- the idea that all will eventually be saved- has usually been associated with "liberal" theology which sets aside a lot of mainstream beliefs (e.g. Unitarian Universalism), but there have been plenty of people with more "conservative"/orthodox beliefs who have believed in some form of universalism. A notable example is George MacDonald, who was a major source of inspiration for C.S. Lewis and others. C.S. Lewis talks of the doors of Hell being locked from the inside i.e. the opportunity to accept salvation is always there but some will choose to reject it for an indefinitely long time, and we can't very well say what happens over the course of the eternities. On this topic I think the story of the quadrillion kilometers from Ivan's nightmare in Brothers Karamazov is both humorous and enlightening.

Your criticism of Mormons for spending money on buildings they believe are dedicated to God seems very similar to Judas Iscariot's complaint in John 12 that the expensive ointment Mary anointed Christ with should have been sold and the money given to the poor (John helpfully adds "not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.") They actually do quite a lot for the poor, especially in disaster relief situations. Life isn't a zero sum game, and plenty of people from all kinds of different religions believe that both giving to the poor and dedicating our best to God are important.

It isn't an ability you want, because it doesn't seem to work. I can't say how educated I am with out seeming to toot my own horn but I am willing to post the link to my goodreads.com account.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/4550816?shelf=%23ALL%23

So as you can see I never read at all. In fact I don't even own a single book!

As a scientist we're trained to try and find ways to falsify our existing view, and receive the counter-evidence with an *open mind*.

Start here and proceed through this.

And after you explain to yourself and admit that "wiping Israel from the face of the Earth" is a fabrication by right-wing nuts and Fox-grade sources (finding the correct sources for that I leave to you as an exercise in honesty) and properly apologizing to me for what you've accused me of, you may hope I'll reconsider who to regard you as. So far, you've presented no evidence to support your claims, which are based on nothing more than hearsay, or to contradict what I've said and shown. To add to injury, you also insulted me with accusations of lying and dilettantism, so it's you who spews unfounded crap and uses fallacious nonsense and dishonest tactics (ad hominem, ad personam, ad verecundiam, ad ignorantiam, ad auditorem).

Oh, and finally, YOUR MOTHER!

Here's my list of recent books, it only covers items not mentioned elsewhere in this discussion.

- "The most human human" by Brian Christian. A great story about the human side of the Turing test, how to ensure judges think you're a human. You think that's easy? Think again! The book tells us interesting things about the brain, about society, about how computers work. A great read.

- "Intimate relationships" by Miller, Perlman, Brehm. I read it after Paul Bloom's recommendation (see the intro course to psychology on academicearth.org). Geeks will love this book, it is useful, it explains how relationships work and how they fail; it is based on research; there are charts and formula too.

- "The humane interface" by Jef Raskin is an excellent book about interfaces that don't suck. Raskin provides several fundamental ideas which describe a humane interface. He provides plenty of examples, the ideas are simple to grasp and they're awesome. A must read, if you are a fan of Donald Norman (I won't write about him, since others mentioned his books in other threads).

- "The evolution of cooperation" by Robert Axelrod is the book that describes the math and the ideas behind Dawkins' "Nice guys finish first". It is a great book about cooperation, why it matters.

- "On intelligence" by Jeff Hawkins provides an interesting point of view about the high level features of the brain, and some ideas about how these features are implemented. The brain is a prediction making device - it makes sense.

- "Drawing on the right side of the brain" by Betty Edwards is an interesting book about developing your drawing skills, with plenty of examples and exercises. The story revolves around the idea that we must learn to rely on our right hemisphere despite the fact that the left hemisphere tends to take over and rationalize things around us.

- "Night" by Elie Wiesel is the story of a Jewish boy who was taken to a concentration camp, along with his family. A touching book that describes how things worked in Auschwitz, how things turned from bad to worse.

- "Predictably irrational" and "Upside of irrationality" by Daniel Ariely - behavioural economics, relationships, very interesting stuff with a lot of experimetal data. Personally, I apply his tips at the university, to minimize the probability that my students are cheating at exams. They like the things I do, the method works. I strongly recommend Ariely's works. Papers published by him can be downloaded for free, look for them.

- "The power of a positive no" and "Getting to yes" and "getting past no" by William Ury are excellent books about negotiation. This applies to business, relationships and everything else. Have a look, they're very useful.

- "Systemantics" is an awesome book, I bet any engineer will love the humour in it.

My book list can be found here: http://goodreads.com/gr8dude, feel free to ask questions about any of them, I'll be glad to provide feedback.

I must confess that I also enjoy reading various papers, scholar.google.com is an awesome resource. All you need to do is make sure that the papers are related to a field you're interested in. I often get in touch with the authors and exchange ideas, the modern world is very interactive. Reading papers is fun!

I also enjoy reading poetry (and writing it too). This is an interesting exercise, because it makes you think in a different way, rely on metaphors... It is very unlikely that a typical Slashdotter is a speaker of Romanian, but if you are, have a look at poems written by Steliana Grama. For speakers of English, have a look at grooks by Piet Hein. Really, I insist, they're very short, here's a free sample
{
THE ROAD TO WISDOM

The road to wisdom?
-- Well, it's plain
and simple to express:
Err and err and err again
but less and less and less.
}

One last bit I wish to mention - I live in Moldova and getting English books over here is

The Atrocity Archives - Charles Stross

Bob Howard is a computer-hacker desk jockey, who has more than enough trouble keeping up with the endless paperwork he has to do on a daily basis. He should never be called on to do anything remotely heroic.

Forgot one that left a big impression on me that wasn't Fiction.

Biographical: How To Be a Woman - Caitlin Moran

1913 – Suffragette throws herself under the King’s horse.
1969 – Feminists storm Miss World.
NOW – Caitlin Moran rewrites The Female Eunuch from a bar stool and demands to know why pants are getting smaller.

There’s never been a better time to be a woman: we have the vote and the Pill, and we haven’t been burnt as witches since 1727. However, a few nagging questions do remain

Why are we supposed to get Brazilians? Should you get Botox? Do men secretly hate us? What should you call your vagina? Why does your bra hurt? And why does everyone ask you when you’re going to have a baby?

Part memoir, part rant, Caitlin Moran answers these questions and more in How To Be A Woman – following her from her terrible 13th birthday (‘I am 13 stone, have no friends, and boys throw gravel at me when they see me’) through adolescence, the workplace, strip-clubs, love, fat, abortion, TopShop, motherhood and beyond.

Here are some different books from different genres that I have particularly liked and read recently. They're Steam Punk, Cyber Punk, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Space Opera, and Dystopia. If you like this sort of thing I've got more on my Goodreads profile.

Steam Punk: Soulless - Gail Carriger

Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire -- and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.

With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London's high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?

Cyber Punk: The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer - Neal Stephenson

Decades into the future, near the ancient city of Shanghai, a brilliant nanotechnologist named John Percival Hackworth has broken the rigorous moral code of his tribe, the powerful neo-Victorians, by making an illicit copy of a state-of-the-art interactive device called "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer". Seattle Weekly called Stephenson's Snow Crash "The most influential book since ... Neuromancer."

Fantasy: Poison Study - Maria V. Snyder

About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.

And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust—and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.

As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear

Urban Fantasy: Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch

Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.

Space Opera: Old Man's War - John Scalzi

John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army.The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce-and aliens willing to fight for them are common. The universe, it turns out, is a hostile place. So: we fight

Here are some different books from different genres that I have particularly liked and read recently. They're Steam Punk, Cyber Punk, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Space Opera, and Dystopia. If you like this sort of thing I've got more on my Goodreads profile.

Steam Punk: Soulless - Gail Carriger

Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire -- and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.

With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London's high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?

Cyber Punk: The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer - Neal Stephenson

Decades into the future, near the ancient city of Shanghai, a brilliant nanotechnologist named John Percival Hackworth has broken the rigorous moral code of his tribe, the powerful neo-Victorians, by making an illicit copy of a state-of-the-art interactive device called "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer". Seattle Weekly called Stephenson's Snow Crash "The most influential book since ... Neuromancer."

Fantasy: Poison Study - Maria V. Snyder

About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.

And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust—and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.

As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear

Urban Fantasy: Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch

Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.

Space Opera: Old Man's War - John Scalzi

John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army.The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce-and aliens willing to fight for them are common. The universe, it turns out, is a hostile place. So: we fight

Here are some different books from different genres that I have particularly liked and read recently. They're Steam Punk, Cyber Punk, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Space Opera, and Dystopia. If you like this sort of thing I've got more on my Goodreads profile.

Steam Punk: Soulless - Gail Carriger

Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire -- and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.

With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London's high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?

Cyber Punk: The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer - Neal Stephenson

Decades into the future, near the ancient city of Shanghai, a brilliant nanotechnologist named John Percival Hackworth has broken the rigorous moral code of his tribe, the powerful neo-Victorians, by making an illicit copy of a state-of-the-art interactive device called "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer". Seattle Weekly called Stephenson's Snow Crash "The most influential book since ... Neuromancer."

Fantasy: Poison Study - Maria V. Snyder

About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.

And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust—and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.

As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear

Urban Fantasy: Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch

Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.

Space Opera: Old Man's War - John Scalzi

John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army.The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce-and aliens willing to fight for them are common. The universe, it turns out, is a hostile place. So: we fight

Here are some different books from different genres that I have particularly liked and read recently. They're Steam Punk, Cyber Punk, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Space Opera, and Dystopia. If you like this sort of thing I've got more on my Goodreads profile.

Steam Punk: Soulless - Gail Carriger

Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire -- and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.

With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London's high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?

Cyber Punk: The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer - Neal Stephenson

Decades into the future, near the ancient city of Shanghai, a brilliant nanotechnologist named John Percival Hackworth has broken the rigorous moral code of his tribe, the powerful neo-Victorians, by making an illicit copy of a state-of-the-art interactive device called "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer". Seattle Weekly called Stephenson's Snow Crash "The most influential book since ... Neuromancer."

Fantasy: Poison Study - Maria V. Snyder

About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.

And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust—and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.

As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear

Urban Fantasy: Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch

Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.

Space Opera: Old Man's War - John Scalzi

John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army.The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce-and aliens willing to fight for them are common. The universe, it turns out, is a hostile place. So: we fight

Here are some different books from different genres that I have particularly liked and read recently. They're Steam Punk, Cyber Punk, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Space Opera, and Dystopia. If you like this sort of thing I've got more on my Goodreads profile.

Steam Punk: Soulless - Gail Carriger

Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire -- and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.

With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London's high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?

Cyber Punk: The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer - Neal Stephenson

Decades into the future, near the ancient city of Shanghai, a brilliant nanotechnologist named John Percival Hackworth has broken the rigorous moral code of his tribe, the powerful neo-Victorians, by making an illicit copy of a state-of-the-art interactive device called "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer". Seattle Weekly called Stephenson's Snow Crash "The most influential book since ... Neuromancer."

Fantasy: Poison Study - Maria V. Snyder

About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.

And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust—and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.

As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear

Urban Fantasy: Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch

Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.

Space Opera: Old Man's War - John Scalzi

John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army.The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce-and aliens willing to fight for them are common. The universe, it turns out, is a hostile place. So: we fight

Here are some different books from different genres that I have particularly liked and read recently. They're Steam Punk, Cyber Punk, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Space Opera, and Dystopia. If you like this sort of thing I've got more on my Goodreads profile.

Steam Punk: Soulless - Gail Carriger

Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire -- and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.

With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London's high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?

Cyber Punk: The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer - Neal Stephenson

Decades into the future, near the ancient city of Shanghai, a brilliant nanotechnologist named John Percival Hackworth has broken the rigorous moral code of his tribe, the powerful neo-Victorians, by making an illicit copy of a state-of-the-art interactive device called "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer". Seattle Weekly called Stephenson's Snow Crash "The most influential book since ... Neuromancer."

Fantasy: Poison Study - Maria V. Snyder

About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.

And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust—and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.

As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear

Urban Fantasy: Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch

Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.

Space Opera: Old Man's War - John Scalzi

John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army.The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce-and aliens willing to fight for them are common. The universe, it turns out, is a hostile place. So: we fight

Authoritarian governments that pass SOPA and NDAA? The Military Commissions Act and PATRIOT?

I am in the mind of Walt Kelly's Pogo: "We have met the enemy, and they are us."

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism

Excerpt from pages 166-73 of "They Thought They Were Free" First published in 1955
By Milton Mayer

But Then It Was Too Late

"What no one seemed to notice," said a colleague of mine, a philologist, "was the ever widening gap, after 1933, between the government and the people. Just think how very wide this gap was to begin with, here in Germany. And it became always wider. You know, it doesn't make people close to their government to be told that this is a people's government, a true democracy, or to be enrolled in civilian defense, or even to vote. All this has little, really nothing, to do with knowing one is governing.

"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.

"This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter.

Even though I'm not a big fan of cutting the NASA budget, here is some (reasonable) reading about why is it good:
http://tech.mit.edu/V130/N18/nasap.html

For fans of Neal, there was recently interview on goodreads with him (however, interviewer was, nicely said, boring):
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/video_chat/14

and the evergreen of Neal @google (a lot of interesting ideas - e.g., about wikipedia):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnq-2BJwatE

C) God created Man by throwing rocks at the Earth.

Boys are Stupid, Throw Rocks at Them

It's part of a broader home automation effort by Google called Android @Home. It will allow easy home automation through open source libraries, standard protocols, and reference implementations.

Everything about the wasp except why! We know what it is, we just can't figure out why the illuminating fuck anybody could possibly want a lightbulb with an IP address (from an engineering perspective it's stupid).

Wait, if God made bananas easy for humans to eat and bananas are radioactive does that mean God's trying to kill us ?

God has a 100% success rate in killing us. (But he has a very good excuse for that.)

Sure why not:
First translated in 1859 to English by George Dasent
http://www.amazon.com/Popular-Tales-Norse-George-Dasent/dp/1438529686/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299159712&sr=8-1

And a recent republication of the orginal book which was published in 1848:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6937139-norske-folkeeventyr

According to the book DIA and Other Scams, there was a plan in the 1930's to build a ring "beltway" around Denver -- in approximately the same area as the current C-470/E-470/NW Parkway, i.e. 25-mile diameter) -- that would be not for cars, but rather be a continuous take-off/landing strip for airplanes -- take-off and land anywhere.

. This one does have the advantage of offloading the origin-of-life-on-earth, in which case you can at least claim that maybe biogenesis only happened once somewhere else and is being blown all over the Universe, rather than having only one planet and only a billion years in which to fit your explanation.

How does that help, exactly? You still have the problem of abiogenesis somewhere. At least here on Earth you know you have the right ingredients in abundance and you don't need to invoke a low-probability transfer mechanism to explain how it got here.

I'm not saying that this rules out panspermia, but it does make it seem like rather the more complicated option, all else being equal.

I'm not making an argument *for* panspermia, especially not after reading Nick Lake's brilliant book Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life, in which he has a lot to say about biogenesis as an iterative chemical process in deep-sea thermal vents.

But with that said, panspermia is almost as simple as creationism: "oh it happened somehow somewhere and we just got the results." We've demonstrated several times that bacteria -- and I believe lichens -- can at least survive extended exposure in low earth orbit, so at that point it's not difficult to believe they could get here from somewhere else. (Especially because bacterial spores *certainly* could withstand outer space, probably indefinitely.) So at that point you no longer have to fit your biogenesis explanation into early Earth conditions and timeframes: you can come up with just about any starting conditions you want and say "it must have happened on a planet that was like THIS" and you have a nice self-fulfilling prophecy.

Also obligatory,and I'm surprised it's not here yet... http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2150663.The_Makeshift_Rocket

Bill Clegg was a well-known and well-regarded literary agent and editor. His childhood predisposed him to wanting to hide. From a review:

After several years representing a growing list of highly acclaimed writers, literary agent Bill Clegg walked away from his world and went on a two-month crack binge. He had been released from rehab nine months earlier, and his relapse would cost him his home, his money, his career, his status, and--very nearly--his life.

What is it that makes an exceptional young mind want to disappear? Clegg makes startlingly clear the powerful attraction of the reality-obliterating drug that had him in its thrall, calling its effect a state where "doom does not eclipse bliss." The terrifying story of Clegg's addiction is intercut with flashbacks to his childhood, when a harrowing physical condition is treated with mockery by one parent and with negligence by the other, shaping the future addict's desire to hide, to be "away."

For some reason this has got me thinking of a Sci-fi book I read when I was a kid - Virus, by Molly Brown which talks about AIs that have an organic "logic" core and are susceptible to biological viruses. Good SF for young readers.

Close, although I have no idea how factual that quote is.

ok, you're clearly retarded, so continuing this debate seems pointless, but i'll make one last, half assed attempt.

http://classiclit.about.com/od/atreegrows/fr/aafpr_treegrows.htm

http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780060736262/A_Tree_Grows_in_Brooklyn/index.aspx

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14891.A_Tree_Grows_in_Brooklyn

http://classicreads.wordpress.com/2010/03/28/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn-schedule/

http://www.teachwithmovies.org/guides/tree-grows-in-brooklyn.html

http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=9780060736262

http://www.librarything.com/work/1475

http://kimbofo.typepad.com/readingmatters/2005/11/a_tree_grows_in.html

And again, Betty Smith is not a 'classic' author, but one of the few books she wrote is a classic book. Can you really not understand that very simple concept, or are you just grasping at straws in a desperate attempt to not have to admit you're wrong?

"You cannot reason people out of a position that they did not reason themselves into." - Ben Goldacre.

Besides those with financial interests in the status quo, the majority of those fighting reform rely on appeals to emotions or snazzy catchphrases (death panels, anybody?), not appeals to reason. Though insightful, I doubt stories like this have much of an impact on the opinions of those already convinced.

Relax. I never accused you of anything. I said disliking people for no other reason than their political views (an R or a D after their name) is akin to racism or bigotry. When did I accuse you of that? I said that I, meaning ME, not you, would not hold Arianna's political views into account when considering my like or dislike of her. That was all.

Gandhi had political views that are radically different than my own, but that doesn't mean I have no respect for the man, his cause or his methods.

original post calling HP a shill site is offering an opinion not a fact. this opinion is relative and has no way of being a "fact". You can't take the Huff seriously. IT's a political shill site.that is a troll/flamebait and you know it.

Um, no. I'm pretty sure Arianna Huffington would agree that her site has more than a slight liberal slant. Here is a quote from her Bio:

Huffington describes herself as a "former right-winger who has evolved into a compassionate and progressive populist". She is the founder of The Huffington Post, a liberal online news and commentary website and aggregated blog.

I don't think you will find anyone to the right of Stalin that says HuffPo is not a left leaning site at the very least. That's fine. It's great that she can do that. That's what free speech is all about. However, that must be taken into consideration when branching out to "investigative journalism". The source must be considered in all matters. Besides, don't you think the political leanings of TownHall.com would have been mentioned in the summary if they were claiming to start "investigative journalism"? It needed to be pointed out, regardless if it leans left or right.

you my friend need help. i suggest a 12 step program myself. maybe a regime of daily masturbation will help. you obviously have something exerting pressure on your brain.

I'm not the one doing the accusing here. Nor am I the one taking offense when none was meant. Do you know what trolling means?

Now, please, step away from the crack pipe and pick up the bong and relax. No one is trying to insult you or piss you off. Then again, given your already heightened sense of paranoia, maybe a bong is not the best thing for you either.