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Yep, I'd say you interpreted me correctly.

I disagree with your book author metaphor because the print industry is a lot more diverse. With relatively little effort you can become a publisher (or heck like you say, self published), this is not so with the film industry mainly because you have to rely on the MPAA if you want to get beyond a small distribution.

So yes, I still have to say that the film industry is censored though I think using the term "regulatory body" was a big mistake on my part as it connoted "Government" for a lot of people. It can't be ignored that the MPAA Rating System is a systematic form of industry self-censorship, and it was intended as such from its inception through Jack Valenti: http://www.skepticfiles.org/en001/mpaarate.htm

I fully agree that the US Government isn't in control of what can and can't be said or depicted in a film, rather, that honour goes to a monopolistic industry association that controls the majority of production and distribution.

I reckon if independent studios or publishers were more competitive with the MPAA we wouldn't be having this conversation, however with media production becoming easier and cheaper all the time we may see this shift of artistic control lean more toward the artists than the producers.

Anyway, sorry for the ramblings...

A science teacher I had, when he was in college, used a neat substance in the dorm on mice/rat "runways". He and his room-mates would mix up a batch of Ammonium triiodide (NH4I3), smear it on all the little paths around the room where the rodents would run. Then, in the middle of the night they would hear a loud pop/bang when the deed was done. According to the linked article above, it is some seriously nasty stuff.

Sorry for the anonymous post...tin-foil hat currently on.

The title of the poem was "Datawocky" [a clear satire of Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky"], and it had a rather surreal illustration that I am still looking for.

The infinite series of tubes has preserved the poem, sans fictional attribution, but I can not find the illustration.

DATAWOCKY - by Jack Stack

'Twas global and the megabytes
Did gyre and gimbal on the disk
All mimsy were the prompts and codes
And the software was brisk

Beware the microchip my son
The bits, the bytes and bauds and such
Beware the CRT and shun
The qwerty keyboard's clutch

He took his self-pace book in hand
Long time the menu key he sought
Then wrestled he with the toaster drive
And sat a while in thought

Then as he sought that glitchy bug
The microchip, with gates aflame,
Came whiffling through its I/O plug
And processed as it came

Asynch, Bisynch, all protocols,
His binary went snicker snack,
He felt it crash, and with a dash
He came galumphing back

And dids't thou tame the microchip
Come interface my beamish boy
O frabjous day, Caloo! Callay!
O database, O Joy

'Twas global and the megabytes
Did gyre and gimbal on the disk
All mimsy were the prompts and codes
And the software was brisk

Learning how to create images in hex and then being able to manipulate them (rotating them, etc.) from
a BASIC program was cool.
peek and poke and call changed everything.
Inline assembly/machine language should be available in all scriptable languages. :-)

As far as games go:
Choplifter and Wizardry kicked ass...Dung Beetles was pretty fun too....

Of course...

The man with three buttocks

That's an interesting reply, and different from what I expected. I wonder how inaccuracies in the scripture will convince you that the whole god thing is a scam, but you said it so let's roll with that. (Then again, Paul the Apostle wrote to his friends in Corinth that if Jesus did not rise from the dead, their faith was in vain, so you follow him in that.)

I'm by far not a bible expert, so I'll pick one where I happen to be a little familiar with the topic: The gospels.

It's very common knowledge that the four gospels included in the NT were hand-picked from a much larger number. Several of the non-canonical gospels include versions of Jesus' life story that differ considerably. The total number of gospels is quite impressive.

The rediscovery of the gospel of Judas sheds considerable doubt on the objectivity of the canonical gospels. It makes it clear that they are witness reports, and from witnesses with limited information.
Also, remember that there are no non-christian sources from the time who document the resurrection, which - if it happened - was certainly newsworthy. A list of authors who we would expect to mention this event can be found at the end of this article, which also gives evidence near the start that at least the earliest gospel was altered after the fact.

There's also a longer discussion about the resurrection thing, and I'll leave the topic with that because I wanted to write about the gospels.

Regarding altering of the gospels, christians don't call it that way, the proper term appears to be "harmonizing". It's been going on for a long time, too. this article puts it nicely:

"To
bring the different stories into agreement, the church often modified
or even rewrote the scriptures. Tatian, a disciple of Justin, tried to
solve the problem by writing the "Diatessaron", a composite of the
stories of matthew, mark, luke and john. "

It also contains the following claim, unfortunately without mentioning the source:

""the most radical alterations", writes Kronos, "date from the
nicene Council and were motivated by the understanding between
Pope Damasus I and Emperor Constantine. It was on this occasion
that the oldest Gospels, Notably the Gospel of the Hebrews(the
original Gospel of Mathew) were declared to be hidden (apokruphos
== Apocryphal). Furthermore additions, ommissions, and alterations
were made in the four remaining Gospels. St Jerome, who had been
commissioned to translate them into latin, was surprised by this."

So let's move away from the sceptics, here is the Catholic Encyclopedia, and it says:

"Another factor which contributed to the alleged distortion of the Gospel story was the necessity imposed on primitive Christianity of altering, if it were to last, the conception of the Kingdom of God preached by Jesus in person. On His lips, it is said, the Gospel was merely a cry of "Sauve qui peut" addressed to the world which He believed to be about to end. Such was also the persuasion of the first Christian generation. But soon it was perceived that they had to do with a world which was to last, and the teaching of the Master had to be adapted to the new condition of things. This adaptation was not achieved without much violence, done, unconsciously, it is true, to historical reality, for the need was felt of deriving from the Gospel all the ecclesiastical institutions of a more recent date. Such is the eschatological explanation propagated particularly by J. Weiss, Schweitzer, Loisy; and favorably received by Pragmatis

..."Hrm, sure seems like the whole Prodigy STAGE.DAT dust-up".

As it turns out, I was wrong - it's even more innocuous than that.

In case anyone was interested about the garbage or communal dumpster issue, please see this link (federal) and this link (North Carolina).

So, after reading your bold print I decided to do a quick google search for "ACLU and Waco" and I found this http://www.skepticfiles.org/aclu/01_10_94.htm

Basically the release in that link says that the ACLU partnered with organizations like the NRA to ask for an investigation into federal abuses of power following the Waco incident. Doesn't seem to me that they just let the incident slide like you suggest.

The IBM Mouse Balls story is one of my favorites. Snopes says it was an internal joke memo. Here is a version from 1989, scroll down for it.

I once read on another source, probably made up, that this WAS in fact a real memo and that the person sending it went to some lengths to bypass the normal internal checks that keep such humor from getting out into the field. Specifically, the person who allegedly wrote the memo declared it a safety emergency memo, which at the time allegedly went through virtually zero in-depth checks from management. I am unable to find this source and I don't give it much credibility.

As for photocopying disks for backup purposes, I do so for insurance purposes. If my house burns down, my "off-site backups" help me file an insurance claim. It works for hard drives too.

Genetic algorithms are proof that mutations are a source of new information and variation. There is experimental proof from computer simulation now that Darwinian Evolution does work:

The following is an excellent article about unguided simulated evolution (URL at end of paragraph). Reproducing programs in a virtual machine that can mutate randomly result in evolution without the need for imposed "fitness criteria" or any ideal "goal solution". The programs either reproduce or crash (die) on their own without any human designed selection process or selection of any particular trait. The system automatically, implicitly selects for "fitness" (the ability to successfully reproduce and/or survive). "Survivor survives"; perhaps a tautology, and very very true.

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/meta/getali fe/epgp.html

Another page on Tierra:

http://www.skepticfiles.org/origins/tierra.htm

A quote from the above page on complexity increase through evolution:

"The unrolled loop is an example of the ability of evolution to produce an
increase in complexity, gradually over a long period of time. The interesting
thing about the loop unrolling optimization technique is that it requires more
complex code. The resulting creature has a genome size of 36, compared to its
ancestor of size 80, yet it has packed a much more complex algorithm into less
than half the space."

Um, Forrest Mims is a creationist wingnut (and I say that with no offense meant to any nuts that might exist on wings). This article is similarly being spread by people like Dembski. Here's a debunking. Here's more.

There's one minor, itty-bitty difference between Pianka's speech and Forrest's reporting. Pianka said that it's going to happen, not that he wants it to happen. Pianka believes that a worldwide airborne plague is inevitable due to overpopulation, and campaigns to try and encourage population control (esp. in third world countries) are critical. While I don't agree with that, it's a valid argument, and is anything but "I want 90% of the world to drop dead."

If you really want to modify your workspace in a meaningful way, you need to use the proper tools. If you do a good job, you might end up with something like this.

I met my future wife online in 1985. We both ran local BBSs, spent long hours chatting and a relationship quickly developed.

We were married online in Dec. 1990. The pastor and both of us called a multi-line BBS and had several friend join as witnesses. The service was done and we were married. Later that night, we have a service IRL just to placate the family and all, but we all signed a document and had it notarized stating that our official wedding took place online.

Evidently someone saved a transcript for posterity's sake and it surfaced on the web a few years ago:

http://www.skepticfiles.org/aj/wed_b&c.htm

software sold by Microsoft then and now (and by thousands of other commercial vendors) has a certain licensing agreement associated with it.

You presuppose that such "licensing agreements" are meaningful.

I can publish a book that says on the cover, "By purchasing this book, you agree to surrender all fair use rights, to never contradict any of the opinions expressed herein, to make underleg noises during the good parts, and to buy me a beer if we ever meet in person." That doesn't make it a valid contract.

The problem of false, flawed or planted memories needs to be dealt with.
In most cases, after a very short period of time, what people are adamant
is the *truth* is actually embellished or wrong.
The individuals personal perceptions of reality play a very large roll
in perceptions of truth.

The human memory never was what it used to be.

http://www.skepticfiles.org/false/mgfmsasc.htm

>>This is one of the most thoughtful and respectful responses ever on this site. It poves what I have always known, that even though the world is ruled by powermongers, most people are good.

Heh, thanks. I typically post as an anonymous coward on subjects like this because the slashdot moderation system usually goes like this:
1) CHURCH IS EVIL (+5 insightful)
2) NO ITS NOT (-5 flamebait, off-topic, troll)

And I've built up good karma here over the years. =)

>>One small point. At one point you state that 'good christins' do not believe
>> that god causes the ill of the world, but when christianty is critized because
>> historically and currently many treat it as a cosmic money machine, you respond
>> with what can only be intepreted as an insult, and then point out some absurd
>> cases to prove your point.

It's one of those challenging problems. Bible pretty clearly says that if someone gets leprosy (or whatever) that it's not a result of sin. So when a fundamentalist minister goes on TV and says that a person got AIDS because of his sin, what do you call him? For simplicity, I used the term "not a good Christian", but I'm sure theologians have a better term. "Non-practicing" doesn't exactly cut it, since he's an active minister. I don't know.

The problem I have with atheists is that they profess to follow rational thought, but almost all that I've known (which is quite a few) have seriously unstable personalities and/or irrational beliefs. Many have irrational hatred for the church (for example the GP who invented the claim that the Bible said we should kill anyone with a different colored skin), and act spiteful towards anyone professing a faith. Many replace religion with beliefs in purely crazy things, like pyramid power, or the healing power of crystals, or psychic powers, or aliens (I've met a lot who believe in the latter two -- all while criticizing Christians for being irrational, oddly enough. She said that claims of prayers being answered were really psychic powers manafesting.) IMO, the correct rational belief is agnosticism (I don't know if a God exists), not atheism (God does not exist).

From my experience, many atheists are simply people who are angry and/or bitter at the church. For example, in my area an atheist (local college professor) was angry that Easter morning church services were being held on public land on the top of a mountain overlooking the ocean near here, so a few years ago he filed an application before the church did, and held a pagan ceremony around a cross on Easter morning... just to be a prick, mainly. Dr. Peter Irons of UC San Diego. Here's the atheist press release on his "Celebration of freedom and diversity":

http://www.skepticfiles.org/moretext/easter7.htm

It's also amusing the press release claims he "considers himself to be a practicing Christian" when in interviews with the campus paper he said he was an atheist.

> What is Nessie is a Megafauna, a species of some sort of giant fish or cold-blooded reptile

I say fish:
http://www.skepticfiles.org/skep2/nessfish.htm
http://images.google.ca/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=& q=huge+sturgeon&btnG=Search

I think you are remembering a short story by Isaac Asimov, titled 'How It Happpened'.

Link: http://www.skepticfiles.org/atheist/asimovdo.htm

Ask the Australians if rabbits are dangerous.

Sure, that would work.

The fact of the matter is that are a lot of common household items that can easily be made to "blow up". Just look at Timothy McVeigh. Good luck outlawing the "raw materials" needed to make a fertilizer bomb.

Despite a widespread belief to the contrary, the Saturn V blueprints
have not been lost. They are kept at Marshall Space Flight Center on
microfilm.

The problem in re-creating the Saturn V is not finding the drawings, it
is finding vendors who can supply mid-1960's vintage hardware (like
guidance system components), and the fact that the launch pads and VAB
have been converted to Space Shuttle use, so you have no place to launch
from.

Actually, my religion can't be debunked by any theory, in that my religion is non-comittal. I specifically said in that post that "the parent, however, didn't say anything about the origin of life,". I didn't say that it's how life was created, but he's right in that evolution is observable.

On another note, you obviously have no idea what you're talking about. Seriously.

#1. "Adaptation is NOT evolution." adaptation: Biology. An alteration or adjustment in structure or habits, often hereditary, by which a species or individual improves its condition in relationship to its environment.
Apparently you do not understand the biolgical definition of "adaptation." An adaptation is some change an organism has made to fit it's environment. It's not a process. It's caused by the process "natural selection" which is the mechanism for evolution.

Adaptation, evolution, and natural selection are not several distinct phenomena, like you seem to think. You're mistaking "evolution" for the term "macro-evolution" which involves speciation. Evolution does not have to create new species to be evolution.

Also, about us "never absolutely seen the emergence of a new species"... good job, idiot. I found that all in about 2 minutes. Not that I didn't already know you were wrong, I'm just saying, do a little research before you make these ridiculous claims.

As well as us not being sure what a species is, what the hell are you talking about? Biology. A fundamental category of taxonomic classification, ranking below a genus or subgenus and consisting of related organisms capable of interbreeding. I think we're pretty sure what a species is. Even given various exceptions, it's not like we can't tell what's in a species with ease.

Not to mention the fact that it doesn't matter, as evolution does not have to entail speciation, as you wrongly believe.

And about whatever the Bible says: that's great! I don't care! Didn't I just say to leave your religion out of this? This has nothing to do with the Bible, or the origin of life for that matter.

It just has to do with my point, and the point of the original parent that evolution is observable and going on right now. It is. Accept it. Your religion will not come crashing to its feet, I promise, just stop making these ridiculous claims.

Alka-seltzer

"..doped with iron oxide and cellulose acetate butyrate impregnated with aluminium powder..."

iron scale (Fe3O4).Rust will work but you may want to adjust the mixture to about 77% rust. The aluminum is usually coarse powder to help slow down the burning rate.

This is a great story, but I think it's an urban legend. Suspicious, I did a little searching and got this; do a text search on "urinate" to get the right part.

Yeah, I know. What a spoilsport.

Phil Katz was a complete and total ASSHAT too, and I think he deserved his massively drunken depressed death last year or the year before..

And you are entirely wrong about the lawsuit. From this link, you can find out lots of great information. Basically, SEA had released the source code, but required their permission to use it for any purpose beyond study. Phil took their source code, modified it, and then re-sold it for $1.50 less than what SEA did. SEA offered Phil an unlimited use license of SEA's code, if Phil would withdraw from offering to the BUSINESS market. (SEA and Phil Katz used to command fees of thousands of dollars per copy of the software.. I think I have copies of the ads at home from the early 80's)

Your views are totally distorted by what you heard in your 133t bbs days.

OK, keep in mind while reading the following that I'm a member of the ACLU. I'm going to touch on some of their less popular positions, though.

The ACLU tends to be fanatical on matters of speech, even when most people would not necessarily be on their side. The case that Bill O'Reiley likes to rail against is where they have helped defend the North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA)... they really do believe that everybody has the right to say anything, no matter what it is and what might be done with that information.

They have also been famous in defending (and winning) the right of groups like the Ku Klux Klan and fascist Nazi-praising groups to march. Again, for them it's a bright line: no matter how vile the speech, the speaker has the right to say it.

They have also been very active in challenging the Bush Administration's position that they are able to keep suspected terrorists incommunicado for as long as they like.

I wouldn't necessarily want to live in a world where the ACLU positions always ended up prevailaing. I do, however, believe that they are a very necessary counterbalance to those interests that would drag us back to the bad old days of McCarthyism (I would ask Ann Coulter, "Have you no shame, Madame?") and other reactionary movements.

On September 11th, I sent money to two groups: the Red Cross and the ACLU.

• "The Bible is not my Book and Christianity is not my religion. I could never give assent to the long complicated statements of Christian dogma." - Abraham Lincoln
  
  
• "As to Jesus of Nazareth...I think the system of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us, the best the World ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting Changes, and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity. " - Benjamin Franklin
  
  
• "I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature." - Thomas Jefferson
  
  
• "I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any Church that I know of. My own mind is my own Church." - Thomas Paine

ARTICLE 11.
As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion,-as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen,-and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

The original post looks at the new solid fuel more from an environmental standpoint. In that respect, reusable boosters with an environmentally friendly fuel are good because you're not throwing away all that shell material on each launch. Also, my point was that solid rockets are easier to operate and maintain than liquid-fuelled ones, and making them less environmentally noxious is a Good Thing. They have different applications, and I imagine that both technologies will have a place as long as we're putting stuff is space by pushing reaction mass around. Lastly, I certainly don't dispute that the Shuttle is costly to operate.

At the begining of the Shuttle program Nasa did everything that they could do make sure that the Saturn V's would never be built again, they destroyed all of the blueprints and attempted to destroy all of the equipment used to make them.

This is a popular urban legend. The Saturn V blueprints still exist stored on microfilm at the Marshall Space Flight Center. Rocketdyne still has significant documentation describing the F-1 (first stage) and J-2 (second and third stage) engines. The national archives also contain significant documentation on almost all NASA projects--including Saturn V. Although much of the equipment used to build Saturn has been lost or dismantled, it's not really surprising--the last Saturn V flight was what, nearly thirty years ago? Do we expect IBM to still have the hardware on hand to build an S/370 machine whenever we want one? Yes, the launch facilities for the Saturn V were dismantled or repurposed. NASA had to launch the Shuttle from somewhere, and the Saturn V program was coming to a close.

For what it's worth, I agree with you on the ISS. It would make more sense to update the Saturn V design--use modern materials where appropriate, and certainly new avionics--to do heavy lifting for the ISS. Unfortunately, such an option seems politically untenable at the moment, and there really aren't any other major projects happening right now that demand such lift capacity. (A Mars mission would be neat--but who's going to fund it?)

You must have mistaken me for nearly a decade ago. By the way, 1993 called. They want their Waco debate back.

Believe me when I say "I couldn't care less about the legal status of Koresh's gun collection". I do, however, find your humorless obsession with the Waco incident amusing. Dance for me some more, monkey-boy, and make my Monday bearable!