Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: Things, Stuff, Items
Fitting tributes? SEWilco writes "New Scientist reports that an asteroid was officially named "18610 Arthurdent" on May 9; it is not known if Douglas Adams heard of it before he died May 11."
And dclydew writes "We at Binary Freedom would like to propose "Towel Day." May 25, two weeks after Douglas Adams' passing, all fans worldwide are encouraged to carry a towel around for the day."
It would be nice to see Thursday renamed as well.
Wait till the Jedi control the Senate. Slightly aging news, but CuriousGeorge113 writes "According to this Theage.com.au article, the Australian Government has issued yet another warning to Star Wars fans intent on writing in 'Jedi' as their religion in the upcoming census. It appears that this e-mail is beginning to pick up some steam."
Join the parade. Macki writes "Three weeks ago, Ford Motor Company sued 2600 over a DNS entry pointing FuckGeneralMotors.com at the Ford website. A hearing is set for May 18th in Detroit. Supporters are invited to join a caravan to Detroit that will go through up state New York and Canada in time for the hearing. A motion has already been filed for a protective order from legal shenanigans while in Michigan-- it's a good read and gives a thorough run-down of the case."
Open for the public, yes. Delphion may be about to start charging for certain of its formerly free services, but my note that the USPTO should put more documents on the Web was too harsh. A USPTO employee helpfully wrote:
"The United States Patent and Trademark Office offers the entire USPTO Patent database online for free (we've been doing this for some time now) -- just click any of the Search Patents links to get started.You can search text for all patents since 1976 and view images of all patents since 1790 (except those files lost in the early Patent Office fires and fractional patents). We have the entire available patent database on line. You will need a TIFF image browser plugin (we offer a link to a free plugin on our site).
We also offer Patent Application Publications online. These are pending patent applications received after the new rules went into effect (from March 15 2001 through the present weekly issue). The database consists of the full text of US published applications (including new utility and plant). The full text of a published application includes all bibliographic data, such as the inventor's name, the published application's title, and the assignee's name, as well as the abstract, the full description of the invention, and the claims. All of the words (text) in the publication are searchable."
Thanks for the information. Sorry for being the source of FUD. Now where are the searchable PDFs? :)
Am I the only one who thinks that Ford should, instead of going to court over this, try building decent cars?
Philosophy: Regard for the force as a supreme supernatural power
Organizational Structure: The Jedi Council
Towel Day should be June 22nd (42 days after Douglas Adams died) not May 25th (14 days after).
From a lecture at University of Connecticut by Mr. Adams himself: You can't make a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster, since some of the ingredients aren't liquid under earthly conditions. The best approximation is to take one liquor store and pour it into another.
*ahem* Scientology? *ahem*
They finally replaced the touted in the Washington Post "Wildly Explosive Search Tool?"
--
WolfSkunks for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.keenspace.com";
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
But wait a minute! Pissing off large, statistics-collecting organizations is one of the guiding principles of my life! One could almost call it...a religion :-)
Hi, does someone want to explain why Towel day seems to be on the 25th and not the 11th?
And anyway Jedi is a formal religion in Australia: http://jediaustralia.org/
Want a sure fire way to piss of a someone from Central or south america? Go to Costa Rica and call yourself an American. Guess what, they are too. Americans are anyone from north, south or central america, not people from the United States of America.
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
First reason we (In the US) do a Census, to figure out how many congress people each state gets. But also things like how many health care facilites each area needs. If a county has one hospital for 50,000 people it might be time to build a second one.
Erlang Developer and podcaster
don't be shocked - a suprising number of USians have no idea where NZ is...
And a surprising number of pedantic imbeciles use crappy invented words like "USians." At least have a sense of utility and, well, elegance, instead of using some lop-sided moniker. If you don't like "Americans," try "US citizens" or "US residents" or "people who live in the United States of America."
Besides all that, "US" in any form could mean "United States of Mexico," couldn't it? So where does that leave your lame "USians"?
Wordnik, a dictionary project which aims to collect
Lying? Just because I am a non-practising Jedi?
A friend of mine is Jewish, but does not keep kosher, and does not attend Sabbath services. Would he be lying if he put down Jewish on his census form?
What about those Christians of various denominations who do not go to church?
You can bet that there will be hundreds, if not thousands, of people who will claim to be one religion or another, yet do not practise their professed religion.
Nope, Jedi it is!
Ahh - My eye!
The doctor said I'm not supposed to get Slashdot in it!
Slashdotter means "the daughter of slashdot." Get it right :)
Unlike another certain /. editor, he has the balls to admit when he screwed up.
michael, perhaps you should learn from this example.
Only on slashdot can a posting be rated "Score -1, Insightful".
--
Well, if you are Australian, you don't have to answer this question. All the others are required, this one is optional. Depends if you want to proclaim it.
:)
Personally I have no intention to claim to be a Jedi, since I'm not. And I have no problem ticking the "no religion" box.
The statistics are not frivolous curiosity. They are used seriously - to develop policy on funding schools & hospitals & all sorts of other stuff. Low level policy analysts usually try their best to work out where the population is that needs the schools etc. Then the politicians usually sneak in and screw it up
No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up.
I put down 'Jedi' as my religion on my census form here in New Zealand. Actually I didn't fully intend for it to stay on the form, but I forgot that I'd put it there until after the guy picked it up in the evening. Haha. Never heard anything from them. Apparently they were altering any forms with 'Jedi' on them to 'Other'. So much for signing a declaration of your belief that you fill out the correct details, if they just change things that don't suit there needs.
When shit hits the fan get some of these https://youtu.be/pY-GncsZ-UE
If their legal system is based on the British, they might not even have a constitution.
We have a constitution, just no rights under it.
I usually put "Multi Solipsist" and they haven't fined me yet,
Hmm.
Any estimates on the size of the USPTO's patent database? If it's something that could reasonably fit on a few hundred CDROMs, it might be worth asking them to think about distributing it.
Having an on-site copy of the database for searching and data-mining at your local university or large company's library would raise very interesting applications. Write the correct tools, and you could easily see what the state-of-the-IP-art is in any given field, and I'm sure that organizations like the EFF would like an easier way to peer-review the patent database, too.
OTOH, if you'd need the proverbial 747 full of CDs, this wouldn't be practical.
There is a nice little trick that http 1.1 allows called listening for host headers.
This trick can be used to not serve a document to a request with an invalid host header. Or to redirect the request. Or to do any number of things, for example, point the request to slashdot, which is hopefully listening for invalid host headers and redirecting those requests to trolldot.
It's really not a big deal. Even IIS includes the ability to do this.
This whole lawsuit is clueless, and hopefully the judge hasn't been bought and will throw it out immediately upon learning that Ford had options other than a lawsuit.
No, it is flamebait.
Need a Python, C++, Unix, Linux develop
This is close to what I said in a different comment, though you manage to say it much less antogonistically. :-)
Need a Python, C++, Unix, Linux develop
The real problem here is the process by which funding is allocated on the basis of census data.
In the US, during the census push, they went on and on about how filling out the census would help your wise and powerful legislators appropriately apportion the largess of taxes to the people. To me, it completely damages the credibility of the census as an 'apolitical' process.
I don't want a 'father government' who I must tell the truth to so that he might wisely care for the needs of the individual family members he is somehow responsible for. The whole belief structure leading to the idea of needing an accurate census is an anathema to me.
If someone in my community wants my help, they can ask me. They shouldn't go running to the government to get them to take money from my pocket and put it in theirs. That kind of thing breeds dissension and distrust and destroys communities.
Need a Python, C++, Unix, Linux develop
As did the Babylonians before them. They found some containers with residue left in them a couple years ago, I remember.
Switch the . and the @ to email me.
Sorry, but a washcloth doesn't cut it. I'm carrying a towel on the 25th, regardless.
At Duckon this weekend some friends and I intend to devise the definitive Pan Galactic Gargleblaster recipe. I haven't liked the looks of anything I've seen on the net so far. Since it's described as being "rather like having one's brains bashed in by a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick", I think it's only fitting to start with Stolichnaya Limonnaya and Goldschlager and work from there.
Assuming, of course, that our cocked-up room reservation is resolved... :-(
Chelloveck
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
- 1 2-liter bottle of 7-up
- 1 bottle Everclear
- 1 bottle Southern Comfort
- 1 1/2 gallon of your favorite sherbert
Mix. Drink in Dixie cups. Quickly. Lest the wax holding them together melts...--
I swear by MacOS X. Although I use to swear *at* MacOS 9...
given the extraordinary us-centrism demonstrated by most usians, you could expect a comment modded up to +5 if it explained that new zealand was not AUSTRIA
Oh, come one -- this isn't flamebait, it's freakin' hilarious!
---------------------------------------------
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
What I find shocking/funny is that someone pointing out that New Zealand and Australia are two different countries is considered +5 insightful! (and that its necessary at all!)
I guess now its "News for Nerds, and Computer Folks Who Never Looked at a Globe".
Next up: Georgia! It's both a state AND a country!
---------------------------------------------
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
"There are no strict numerical criteria for a religion, but it must show an underlying belief system or philosophy, underpinned by an organisational structure, the ABS said. The census also recognises non-theistic belief systems such as humanism and rationalism."
I guess Cannibalism is ok, then? Good.
By the way, when can you guys stop by. I'd like to have you all for dinner...
"...they may harpoon us, but they ain't gonna pick us up on no radar screen!"
I am currently reading "Speaker for the Dead," and noticed that Ender clearly knows where his towel is.
Back on topic, I for one will have my towel with me on May 25, with my name proudly displayed in old, unravelling embroidery.
--
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
--
It is a curious fact, and one to which no one knows quite how much importance to attach, that something like 85% of all known worlds in the Galaxy, be they primitive or highly advanced, have invented a drink called jynnan tonnyx, or gee-N'N-T'N-ix, or jinond-o-nicks, or any one of a thousand or more variations on the same phonetic theme. The drinks themselves are not the same, and vary between the Sivolvian "chinanto/mnigs" which is ordinary water served at slightly above room temperature, and the Gagrakackan "tzjin-anthony-ks" which kills cows at a hundred paces; and in fact the one common factor between all of them, beyond the fact that the names sound the same, is that they were all invented and named before the worlds concerned made contact with any other worlds.
What can be made of this fact? It exists in total isolation. As far as any theory of structural linguistics is concerned it is right off the graph, and yet it persists. Old structural linguists get very angry when young structural linguists go on about it. Young structural linguists get deeply excited about it and stay up late at night convinced that they are very close to something of profound importance, and end up becoming old structural linguists before their time, getting very angry with the young ones. Structural linguistics is a bitterly divided and unhappy discipline, and a large number of its practitioners spend too many nights drowning their problems in Ouisghian Zodahs.
--
---
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
It's akin to writing "call 555-1212 for a good time" on a bathroom wall. Lets pretend that YOUR phone number is 555-1212. All of a sudden, you have a bunch of weirdos calling you all the time and your friends can no longer reach you.
DNS pointers do not consume bandwidth in and of themselves, but the traffic they generate can cost money. Why should Ford pay bandwidth fees for a domain it doesn't want or control?
AFAIK, it's not about having a SomethingSucks.com website, it's about (a) damaging the image of a company and (b) unfair use of resources (Ford's bandwidth). 2600 _could_ have pointed the domain at their own servers. Instead they act like children and point it at Ford.
Again, AFAIK General Motors has no relation to Ford. In fact, AFAIK, they compete with each other. If typing in "GeneralMotorsSucks.com" leads you Ford's homepage, what are you going to think about Ford? Oh, instead of competing they resort to slander. Yeah. Okay.
Ford has been wronged here.
2600 has not done ANYTHING in this case that could be "standing up for their freedoms". Grow up.
---
Computer Science: solving today's problems tomorrow.
Price, Quality, Time. Pick none. What, you thought you had a choice?
I'm not a big fan of organized religions, and I find the idea of a religion needing a structure to be legit very disturbing.
Blar.
I believe the relationship (w.r.t sports and other lethal matters) can be summed up as
:-) can be found by periodic (every day or so) reference to underarm bowling, west island, etc ...
"NZ will fight anyone in the world to be the first to beat Australia"
Great moments of esteem and affection
LL
"so long and thanks for all the books" maybe?
Er, I'd have thought putting 'None' would have achieved that.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Uh, no. It's the same warning. The Jedi article is dated 19th April.
Um, actually, the ancient Egyptians had beer.
To live till you die is to live long enough. -Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
The Unahted States of Amurikuh is rat heeuh. They's no uthah place wuth bein' at! Muh president is Charlton Heston and if enny of y'all Commie pinko faggits have a problem with that, y'all kin take it up with muh buddies: Smith and Wesson. If the U.S. wuzzn't the greatest country in the world, how comes we invented the pickup truck, beer, TNN, guns an d Jack Daniels? Yee hah! U.S.A! U.S.A.!
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
I believe this is the relevant article in the Australian Consitution:
116. The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth.
Blog
"the daughter of slashdot"
:)
That sounds to me awfully like the phrase "Bride of Frankenstein"... but no, that was a film. Scary concept, anyway.
deus does not exist but if he does
So I should have my handheld's screen saver be "Don't Panic!" on May 25th...
Actually, that was Parliament-haus der Austr[al]ia
www.timcoleman.com is a total waste of your time. Never go there.
so, the Oz government is really saying "I find your choice of faith... disturbing."?
dave
When you could be a follower of The Invisible Pink Unicorn (blessed be her hooves)
MrCreosote Meow!Thump!Meow!Thump!Meow!Thump! "You're right! There isn't enough room to swing a cat in here!"
Hmmn.... In _our_ (UK) recent census I could and did put Jedi simply because there was a specific exception for question ten from the legal requirements which apply to the other questions.
Of course they'll mod my response down.
__
__
Arse
You are not your ancestors.
I am not mine.
The sins of my fore-fathers and yours are not my f**king problem.
If you want reparations, complain about something current, instead of living in the past. Like racism.
Not to mention that half the white people in this country are descended from poor white trash immigrants who couldn't have afforded slaves in the first place. The lion's share of property belongs to those who started with a lion's share of property. The rest of us bust our ass in fast food until we get some real skills.
White Geek-grrl
(who worked her way through college out of a trailer park on Blimpie wages, so don't whine to me, bitch.)
To truly understand recursion, you must first truly understand recursion.
--
You think being a MIB is all voodoo mind control? You should see the paperwork!
A man who wants nothing is invincible
White Europeans enslaved Black Africans and killed Native Americans because they thought them to be sub-human. As as result, the descendants of the White Europeans have the lion's share of the money and property in this country.
Once we minorities get reparations from the descendants from the Whites that fucked over our ancestors then maybe we could compromise.
For now "compromise" is impossible as long as Whites insist that everyone be "colorblind", which is really code for minorities to ignore their heritage and act White (white as in the absence of color when you mix paint, not all colors as in light)...
--
You think being a MIB is all voodoo mind control? You should see the paperwork!
A man who wants nothing is invincible
...and according to Episode 1, you'd have to have a particular level of midichlorians in your blood? If you don't have them, the Jedi Council won't train you, therefore you are not a Jedi.
Maybe you can apply with the Sith? I hear they're hiring.
"How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
Not strictly related to meteors but the DNA page at h2g2 now has links to two of his favourite charities: The Dian Fosseey Gorilla Fund and Save the Rhino for those who would like to make donations in his memory.
No, no... the really disturbing part is
"Yes, of course they're anonymous. Unless we don't like the answers, then we hunt you down and fine the shit out of you."
Anyone else notice this bit? Isn't there something very, very wrong with looking at census results before stripping off the identifying information?
-grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
I agree with 2600 that Ford should've asked them nicely first, to remove the pointer of www.fuckgeneralmotors.com. On the other hand, I can understand Ford's point of view. How would you feel if someone pointed the URL of allslashottersareassholes at your site? The problem is that people who see this pointer will assume that Ford owns the site. Yes, people are that stupid. So Ford's just trying to protect itself... not in the smartest way possible, but still reasonably.
As a side note, doing a car caravan to protest actions by a car manufacturer is a fairly bizarre idea, isn't it? Why not do a bicycle rally instead? It might hurt Ford more...
Thalia
The ABS looks at the census data prior to anonymising to prevent people falsifying information and to make sure information has been entered correctly. Once all the data is confirmed, they strip all identifying information unless you specify that you're willing to have your personal details revealed after a waiting period (in the order of 100 years) to aid researchers and academics. If you're outside the ABS, you can't get access to the identifying information. Once the data has been confirmed, the identifying information is permantently stripped (unless you specify otherwise).
No problems with confidentiality.
This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time.
Sorry, but read my post again. I said that you had to show:
a clear belief structure; and / or
that you live your life by those precepts.
No argument - formalised religions have got it easy here. But, you might also be able to argue succsessfully that Jedi has a formal belief structure. If you really believe it, give it a go.
The Jedi situation wouldn't have been an issue had it not been for the email circulating. The big problem is that the email encourages people to fuck with the system for the sole purpose of annoying people. If you're really a Jedi, then you get lumped in with the people who are doing it just to annoy. Sucks to be you. Think of it as profiling. :)
Your second point is correct, and what they'll likely do. They'll probably just drop the jedi responses and look at the remainder. However, it would be easier for them if they didn't have to do this, and it could actually improve the statistical robustness of the responses (greater sample size etc). Hence they're trying to encourage people not to do it.
Personally, I find it hard to believe that they'll actually try to enforce this. Still, I'm not keen enough to find out by getting a $1,000 fine. This isn't a fight with a purpose or a good outcome. It's just to piss the ABS off. Whee.
This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time.
Touche - I used a bad example. A better example would be extra funding going to an Anglican Public school due to a large number of people putting Anglican down as their religion.
Or, extra funding going to a Christian Youth Community Centre because there a large number of Christians in the immediate area. Places of worship is a bad example. The people who have input into the distribution of funds have more sense than that. Mea culpa.
This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time.
I couldn't really say that any one division of Christianity is in the majority. There are Anglican schools, Protestant schools and also non-denominational schools. You don't have to be a fundamentalist to go to any of these, but if the school follows a particular religion, you're normally expected to go to chapel (normally 15min a week) and attend religion, a class like any other.
While it sounds like indoctrination, the reality is most people really don't care. I attended a private Anglican school, and no-one I knew really took chapel or religion seriously. It was just something that you had to turn up to and be quiet. From what I've heard, the care factor in public schools is even lower. Your results from the religion class don't count towards University entrance unless you'll be going into Theology at a Christian college. So, most people don't bother.
Personally, it made no difference to my education. I don't think I lost anything (the overall quality of education being very low anyway), and it exposed me to a different way of life. If you don't want to attend a school that is run like this, there are many other non-denominational schools. It's up to the school how they decide to operate.
Other religions (such as Islam, Buddhism, etc) aren't represented as commonly, but that's more a factor of distribution of population than anything else. I don't claim to be an expert on this, it's just what I know from my limited experience. From what I understand, public funds go to projects aimed at building a sense of community, hence the religious organisations. As far as I know, the government doesn't have preference towards a particular religion. Whatever is in the majority may get some money. Also, religions are not the only thing assessed - many other factors are also taken into account when trying to apportion funds (culture, ethnicity, nationality, etc).
Insert the usual disclaimers here: YMMV, IANAL, ISFMEO (I speak from my experience only), etc.
This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time.
I never said putting down Jedi makes sense. :) I just think it's stupid to threaten fines for doing it.
The fine is for deliberately falsifying information on the census. You'd get the same fine for claiming to be an 80 year old when you were actually 20. Or for claiming to have 6 children when you actually have 2. It's just a rigid interpretation of the law.
Sure (assuming they would have put something down besides Jedi, of course). But I doubt the number of people would might actually do it would actually have much of a statistical affect, given the total size of the population - even assuming that they all put down their actual religion instead.
It could have an effect, as data is collected at a statistical divison level (roughly equivalent to one postcode and I haven't used the right term - can't remember what it is). A large number of people in that area claiming to be a jedi might not have a significant effect when examined nationally, but could screw up data at the divison level. For example, people who receive a lot of chain mail (like university students), can answer the census (like university students) and all live in roughly the same area (like university students) might be able to have a significant effect on their divison.
This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time.
Are you sure on this? My copy of the section reads like so:
116. The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth.
I don't have anything about it being unconstitutional to question someone's claim to a faith or ask them to demonstrate their faith as proof. Maybe it's been amended and I have a really old version ...
Could you post your version of the section?
This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time.
116. The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth.
This is true, but the Census and Statistics Act 1905-1973 doesn't prevent you from believing what you want. You have the right not to declare what religion you practice. However, if you choose to answer the question, you must answer it honestly. If you can honestly answer that you are a practicing Jedi (and show proof thereof), the ABS can't fine you.
This is confusing two issues - one is the freedom to practice religion, one is lying on a government form. You have the right to practice any religion you want, you don't have the right to lie to the government.
On a different note, S.52(xi) of the constitution gives the federal government the right to make laws concerning the census. Just a bit of trivia ...
This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time.
Unlike most people here, I actually contacted the ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics, the organisation that does the census to ask about this. The $1,000 fine for putting false information on the census is an actual penalty. The key issue, though, is knowingly providing false or misleading information. You don't have to answer the religion question if you don't want to. However, if you do ansewr it, you must answer truthfully. Jedi would be a legitimate answer if you can demonstrate a clear belief structure or if you can show that you try to live your life according to those precepts.
The information about religion is used by the government for distribution of funds. For example, a area surveyed with a high number of Orthodox Jews will see a lot of community funding going to Orthodox Synagogues. People who deliberately falsify their religion interferes with this process (making it more difficult for the ABS, which is only trying to do their best).
This isn't a case of 'the man' trying to shut people down. It's a case of a bunch of idiots thinking they're protesting (because they received chain mail that's been circultating since the NZ census - duh) when all they're actually doing is screwing up funding for other people in their community. If you don't want to answer, don't. What's the point? It doesn't matter how many people put Jedi down, it's not recognised as a religion. Before the devil's advocates come out the woodwork, it is not a religion that people currently follow. People could probably build a belief structure around it, but I doubt you could show active Jedi belief. You might as well say Trekkies are religious.
For the record, the person I spoke to at the ABS was very helpful and friendly.
This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time.
H2G2 fans in NZ should list their religion as "worshippers of the Great Prophet Zarquon".
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
And a surprising number of pedantic imbeciles actually object to others "using crappy invented words" like "USians."
Maybe I should say "Slashdot member" as opposed to Slashdotter.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
What I want to see is the Bush administration funding Satanists to run soup kitchens and after school programs.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
your midichlorian count is above 250.
Duh.
-Adam
Honk if you've never seen a bazooka fired out a car window.
This sig 80% recycled bits, 20% post user.
That's hilarious man... I'm from Boston and have been accused on two separate occasions of being from Britain while on vacation. Americans can even be oblivious when it comes to recognizing one of their own it seems.
What's Imperialism the opposite of?
------
^^
------
Though not impossible, it is improbable that a fully-functioning light sabre will appear in front of me.
------
I dunno. I think ethnicity is kinda cool. I like learning about other people's cultures. I'd hate for those cultures to suddenly melt into one.
------
This is why there were bishops in the House of Lords up until last year
There still are bishops in the Lords, I thought. And the King/Queen is head of the Church of England, and children get taught Christianity in school unless they specifically opt out.
In America denying someone the chance to put down their religion, whatever it is, would be unconstituational.. is something like this the case in Australia?
If their legal system is based on the British, they might not even have a constitution.
I don't know if you are being a troll or just plain ignorant.
Australian Constitution.
That site (found in 5 seconds with Google) seems to have many constitutions of many nations listed, and it might be worth a read next time you feel like insulting some country you know nothing about.
Not all countries have constitutions. Great Britain, for example, does just fine without one.
Thus suggesting that a country doesn't have a constitution does not constitute an insult to that country. Why are you so defensive? I don't have anything against au.
Does anyone else remember this game or should I just check myself into a "home" (as my wife has threatened to do to me recently)?
Or are you just going to check yourself out of the asylum and join Wonko the Sane?
Lying? Just because I am a non-practising Jedi?
No, lying because you are not a Jedi. While Xtianity might be based on fiction, we know that Jedi do not exist and have never existed.
If I asked you what color your hair was and you answered "blue," it would be true if your hair was blue, but not any other time. Now, the difference is, there is the possibility that your hair is blue, but zero possibility that you are a jedi.
Religion isn't a special category where a new religion pops into existance just because you decide that it might be funny or cool to consider yourself a member. If you can decide that you are a Jedi, then I can decide that I am a pink unicorn and that "pink unicornness" is my religion.
Religion is a deeply held system of beliefs, not semantic tomfoolery.
Neopets - the best free game on the Int
I will probably agree that Discordianism is a religion because it seems to have a relatively large number of (apparently) sincere believers.
Of course, it may be that there are a few sad bastards who actually consider themselves Jedi, and for them I accept that Jedi is their "religion."
I personally don't believe that religion deserves any special protection. Let's say that a co-worker believes that bowling is really fun and important for his mental health, and the optimum day for him to bowl is Sunday. Let's say that I believe that some dead guy needs to be venerated on Sunday. Is my belief any more or less important than his? Legally, yes, but I don't believe that it should be. The law shouldn't favor any particular set of beliefs.
Neopets - the best free game on the Int
Join the parade. Macki writes "Three weeks ago, Ford Motor Company sued 2600 over a DNS entry pointing FuckGeneralMotors.com at the Ford website.
Lets get some facts straight here. This is slander which is illegal, not only that but it is a waste of Ford's resources via way of bandwidth which is unfair. Aside from that 2600 may be whoring themselves in too broad fashions nowadays to make some outrageous statements for "the cause" well which cause of Hacking/Phreaking does General Motors fall into?
2600 which is a semi good magazine should be a slight bit more responsible with their actions, especially now that they're under the gun with e DVD case. I believe they should have the right to say whatever they want, its an Amendment, but they have no right to point Fuckgeneralmotors at Ford's website. I'm sure Ford never authorized it. They should have just created a virtual directory on their own sites with their own petty propaganda.
What if it were Apple making a "FuckLinux" website which pointed to Microsoft? I'm sure they'd be an uproar.
Get responsible 2600
Want Root?
To any government survey that asks for your religion is:
"None of your damn business!"
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
You know, the name of this article's title: "Slashback: Things, Stuff, Items" reminds me of the folders that I see in my home directory:
~/stuff
~/junk
~/crap
"Web journalists": one part lazy, one part journalist.
Learn from your parents' mistakes: use birth control.
The original Zaphod's was on Laurier Avenue, east of downtown.
It was demolished about a decade ago to make way for - I'm not making this up - a Bell Canada central office. We thought this was pretty funny, of course.
It was replaced by a new Zaphod's in the Byward Market; a few years ago, Zaphod 2 was opened on Bank street.
I've never been to the first two Zaphods, but Zaphod 2 used to have the Brian Downey Big Band play every Tuesday, and a good crowd of swing dancers could usually be found there. I don't recall any leather or whips, as one poster described, but I did notice a few of what I took to be Zaphod's more "regular" customers looking a bit confused by all the social dance...
Any takers? Anyone humble enough to be on the Council? Should we hold elections?
Yoda was played by Frank Oz. There are no coincidences...
This post expresses my opinion, not that of my employer. And yes, IAAL.
Dodge?
War crimes, torture, lies, illegal spying... Would someone give Bush a blowjob, already, so he can be impeached?
I stopped using 'americans' after some columbians took offense to my use of it (to exclude them) at a programmers conference once - they were of course right - they are 'americans' - and apparently regularly refer to themselves as such.
That left me in a problem - it seeme that the citizens of the US don't actually have a simple word that uniquely defines themselves ('yanks' used elsewhere is not universally accepted here in the US) - online I've often use the term " 'merkins " with a nod and a wink - but that's a bit salacious (it's funny on a number of levels, both the double meaning and the poke at 'merkin pronounciation) - I think "USians" points out the naming problem to any US citizens (who tend to be relatively unaware that a large chunk of their neighbors consider them arrogant for claiming the name as their own) without the 'merkin in joke.
don't be shocked - a suprising number of USians have no idea where NZ is - I've seen it put off the coast of Africa (Madagascar), Brazil, etc - one of my co-workers (an intelligent engineer) thought I came from the east coast of Canada (New Foundland)
yup you're right - if you're allowed to claim you believe you're haunted by prehistoric murdered space aliens and that exorcizing them will give you powers over matter and energy surely you must be able to claim you belive little latex guys with an hand stuck up their butt can teach you to do the same thing (and at $7.50 a pop it's way cheaper than the Co$ alternative)
As someone pointed out, it's in Ottawa :)
... erm ... interesing experience. I seem to recall a fair bit of leather, whips, body paint and bikers.
:)
That aside, last time I was there, it was an
Just to warn all you geeks out there; don't show up in slacks
Barclay family motto:
Aut agere aut mori.
(Either action or death.)
Barclay family motto:
Aut agere aut mori.
(Either action or death.)
It is almost 1,200 miles from the nearest point of New Zealand to the nearest point of Australia.
You would hope people at /. would be able to read a freakin' map.
I made my towel last year in school
It?s a white towel with the words "Don?t Panic" at the top and then 42 under that.
I also have some quotes from the hitchhikers guide.
I just printed it out on iron on transfer paper and then used the schools shirt press.
Worked out wonderfully.
The back button on my browser is broken... so I would appreciate it if everyone would put a "target=new" into their link
I really hope you are joking :)
The back button on my browser is broken... so I would appreciate it if everyone would put a "target=new" into their link
Your sad devotion to that ancient religion hasn't conjured up the stolen data plans nor given you clairvoyance enough to find the location of the rebel's hidden forghhghhhg.
Someone you trust is one of us.
May 25 is also National Missing Children's day, as well as my birthday.
-----
"Defenestration" is to throw out of a window; what's a word for throwing 'Windows' out of something?
Why not just put Subgenius? Believe whatever you want, and for only 30 bucks US, you won't be pink to Bob. That's important when the saucers land and you want your reserved seat.
--SolidGold
--SolidGold
Everything you know is wrong. Or more accurately, inaccurate.
It's the same fight over race questions on census forms. I've been checking "other" and writing in "human" on surveys and other forms since age 14. That pisses the bean counters to no end, but I don't identify with any race/ethnic group OTHER than "human", so they can go fook themselves.
The only documents I've checked a predefined box on are documents that could have gotten me turned down for a security clearance or tossed in jail for failing to obey a direct order. But if they don't specifically tell me to check one specific box on any given form...
Other: Human
Begin Mushy Philosophy.
It's about time more people start identifying with ALL of their fellow humans, not just the few that come from the same place or look the same, or worship exactly the same. (What about running the same operating system?) That's one of the joys of working in the military... The diversity and "brotherhood" at work is rather refreshing after watching petty little race/ethnic/gang wars on TV every night.
End Mushy Philosophy, resume Rabble Rousing.
The Jedi thing down under is just another good step in the fight against the bean counters who feel the need to keep everyone in their separate little worlds, each with their separate, special needs. That kind of enforced stereotyping will keep racial/religious/ethnic groups at each others throats forever. Maybe that's what they want, because they have big government programs devoted to endlessly "solving" them forever? I simply can't believe that's the right answer.
You're right, I don't want ethnic differences to go away, I just don't think that going out of our way to point out these differences is very productive. The purpose of the census is to determine who gets what amount of money, and rather than that money being spread by need (for example), it is being influenced by people's faith, skin color, or ethnic background.
That just encourages divisions and barriers between the various groups. I'm 100% for diversity and I think healthy interaction between groups is great. Collecting government statistics about groups that are separated by only superficial differences, then making policy based on those statistics, just doesn't make any sense to me.
It's bad enough when one religious group feels the need to stomp on another group, and it's worse when the government goes out of it's way to highlight that the groups are, and always will be, exclusive separate parts.
My partial solution - make an honest effort to actually BELIEVE that we're all part of the same human race. Force our politicians to deal with us on that basis rather than on our faith or whatever other groupings they want to stick us in.
for about 5 months in junior highschool i carried a not only a towel, but a fully loaded satchle, among other things containing all 5 books in the series, a cricket corkie, a t-82 graphing calculator with "don't panic" airbrushed on the cover, and a star atlas. I'm not sure were i got the cricket corkie...i've never been to england.
Xearth
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
You are wrong...
Australia is between NZ and Asia - not the other way round.
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
Geeze -- to think that people would confuse fuckgeneralmotors.com as a domain name owned by general motors, and to further still describe Ford's actions as "reasonable"... ..hey wwaaaaitasec here.... I've been gobbled up by the ford troll!
Yes, if it truly was a practised religion then it would be fair to be written on the census. But this really is just a bunch of people with no beliefs trying to 'beat the system'.
(I kind-of ranted this in the reply below too...)
New Zealand is to Australia as Canada is to the United States...
...except New Zealand has sheep insted of beavers.
;)
Australian Constitution.
That site (found in 5 seconds with Google) seems to have many constitutions of many nations listed, and it might be worth a read next time you feel like insulting some country you know nothing about.
The law is that you must put accurate information onto the census sheet.
;)
;)
Yes, people are constitutionally free to practise whatever religion they choose, however 'Jedi' is not a religion, but a fictional way of life from an 20 year old trilogy of films. So, if you put it on the census, you are lying. Yes, YOU ARE, you can't say you're a practising Jedi, light sabres just don't exist (unfortunatly...
And sorry about the original angry reply, I just haven't had enough caffeine today I think
If there were really a group of people, however small, following 'Jedi' then it should be (and would be) allowed on the census. But there is not; there is simply a bunch of people that think a stupid stunt like this is 'beating the system'.
This is a memorial republication of his 1998 interview with them. Sad-but-good stuff.
Liza
These opinions are my own. My employer is not aware of them, does not endorse them, and is not responsible for them.
Jedism isn't a religion because nobody has killed millions of people in the name of Jedism yet.
But it will be sued out of existance for infringing on the intellectual property of Adams...
All opinions are my own - until criticized
. While this would be neat, it was the actual Hitchhikers Guide that Ford Prefect carried that had the words "Don't Panic".
:) ...
It might be cute to walk around with one of those on towel day as well, though
"There is no knowledge that is not power"
Here is a very good reason not to put Jedi if you are Christian or believe that the Bible is true.
Note that this is KJV, not the watered down NIV version.
Daniel 11: 37-38 " He shall give no heed to the gods of his fathers; he shall not give heed to any other god, for he shall magnify himself above all. He shall honor the god of forces instead of these; a god whom his fathers did not know he shall honor."
Drop me a line at:
Key ID: 0x54D1D809
There was a similar Jedi religion email going around England in the weeks before our census at the end of April. I haven't heard any feedback yet as to whether the Force is now recognised!
Seeing as both New Zealand and Australia are part of the Commonwealth, does anybody know of any similarities between the censuses (censi?)
http://blog.grcm.net/
Any particular similarities between Transcendentalism and The Force are probably general similarities between philisophical systems, and may even reflect some amount of knowledge by Emerson in those Eastern Philosophies. ELF - Decentralized Anonymous Filesharing
Actually the pickup truck came from the Australian Utility. It was an Aussie idea by a woman who sent a letter to a car company: "A car that can be used normally on weekdays and that can be used to transport pigs to market on sundays" or something like that.
"Go into the hall of mirrors and have a bloody hard look at yourself" - HG Nelson
Our census is due today and the move to record "Jedi" has happened here too, but I have not heard anything from the government intending to prevent it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Artificial intelligence or natural stupidity?
Artificial intelligence or natural stupidity?
Guess which wrote this...
And, arguably, Christianity is a fictional way of life from a 2000 year old set of scrolls written by some people who had a real fondness for mushrooms and wine. What's your point? In other words, prove to me that Jesus was ressurected, and I'll prove to you that these aren't the droids you're looking for.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
(C) Kaki Sain, 2011. By reading this, you have illegally copied my property to your brain.
A suprising number of USians have no idea where the US is, who their president is or that anything actually exists outside of their local area.
Working for the (other) man
Well, actually according to this web page, they didn't count them up as specifically Jedi votes. Kria
I agree with you. This "freedom of religion" thing that Americans enjoy is meant to keep the government's nose out of arguments for or against religion. I think we also need a "freedom of ethnicity", just to end all this 'racial' (that's a misnomer) crap that the entire world has to deal with. Can't people just understand that we're all people, regardless of heritage, gender, religion, politics, etc? Perhaps compromise would be easier if they/we would...
Although that would have been a great twist for Adams to have thrown into one of his stories...
What about discordianism? That's a religion based on tomfoolery where you are forbidden from believing the tenets.
ftp://arnold.c64.org/pub/games/h/Hitchhiker_s_Guid e_To_The_Galaxy.Infocom.zip
Whack it straight into your favourite c64 emulator, and relive the heady days.
- We really didn't think anything of it. Until we found out that Ford was actually suing us for linking to them! Apparently their logic goes something like this - someone who takes the initiative to type www.fuckgeneralmotors.com into their browser winds up being pointed to the IP address of Ford's main server, and the Ford homepage pops up on their screen. Funny, right?
If Ford is so utterly concerned about this, why don't they just add a "NameVirtualHost" and redirect traffic somewhere else?Please don't tell me that no one at Ford has thought of this. Makes you wonder where their motives are...
I/O Error G-17: Aborting Installation
I had the Apple II version of the text based Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy game. It came with some great stuff, including a DON'T PANIC button (this was back when people wore those things). Even though I never beat it, I found it much more enjoyable than the PC RPG's of the time, which used beautiful CGA (EGA for a few) graphics. My imagination was always more colorful. I've been quite tempted to find images and run it on an emulator.
They both had a question in asking about what religion you are.
All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
I'm sure there was a recipe in the original book, which I don't have to hand at the moment, but I think it involved things like Jinnan Tonnix and ice cubes made from methane or something like that.
On another note, Douglas Adams died of a heart attack while working out in a gym. I'd like to think that wherever he is now, he'd appreciate the irony of that.
All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
Great Britain does have a constitution. It's just not written down anywhere, or at least not in one place.
All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
Its pretty damn sad that you could base your so called religion from a movie made in the early 80's. I mean seriously, get over it. It was all a money making scheme by lucas. Don't believe me? Look at the prequels, the merchandising, the advertising, you name it. Your religion is nothing more than the fictional stories of a rich hollywood movie maker.
So whats the deal with jedi in australia? Write in fuckyou for the religion line, what can they do?
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
We Canadians take our census a little less seriously, as I made a point of contacting a region Census representative about that very question.
In short, I am officially registered with the government of Canada census as 'Jedi'. If we get more than 10,000 in Canada - someone could apply for a grant...
Then I could indeed become a Jedi Knight. Wait, that gives me an idea... I could move to Ohio and become a Jedi Knight of Columbus.
MaasNeotek - Building42.com
// Hunter, Angler, Photographer, Dad. (In no particular order.)
So, I wrote in "Linux". After all, we have a diety (Linus), a satan figure (Gates), rituals (compiling the kernel) and wars (KDE/Gnome).
while literature can often be a poor substitute for a picture, or even video (a picture is worth a thousand words), a video can also be a poor substitute for literature. Upon finding out about the death of Douglas Adams, my friends and I got out our trusty towels, and hung them from our sunroofs, windows, and tailgates as we caravaned slowly with our lights on to blockbuster with black arm bands, rented the hitch hiker's guide to the galaxy (two cassetes!), and retired to john to watch the 3 hour epic.
somewhat depressing was the starwars-ish intro, written by
Douglas Adams, and john speaks out "words from the grave." We all sat in silence as the rest of the "inspiring" words scrolled into the inky blue vastness of space (old 80's VHS color deterioration). They're alright movies. Check em' out sometime.
A great man, no doubt. I'm curious as to what his gravestone will have on it.
"So long and thanks for all the fish"
, no doubt.
moox. for a new generation.
Well, while it is not with the late Adams' approval, I believe there is a bar in Montreal called Zaphod Beeblebrox's, and of course they serve a drink they'd like to call the pan-galactic gargle-blaster. It is simply a shot from every bottle of hard liquor on the shelf poured into a very tall glass. Personally, I figure a pan-galactic gargle blaster is pure ethyl alcohol with LSD and a thimbleful of pear-flavouring. I'm more interested in how to make a martimmy anyways.
They really are more useful than they're given credit for.
---
---
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
But it's just a battle to 'beat the law'. Everyone knows that people don't practise Jedi as a religion, and that it was merly the name from Star Wars.
Ok, so let's form a church of the Jedi. We can meet once a month and discuss Star Wars, maybe watch a film.
I'll bring Wookie-shaped crackers.
Remember "Bring 'em on"? *sigh
This reminds me of a situation I read about a few years ago. I don't remember many of the details, but a group of prisoners tried to get their "Church of the Harley-Davidson" officially recognized for some reason or another. Naturally, they were denied.
---
Check in...(OK!) Check out...(OK!)
I pledge allegiance to the flag...
of the Corporate States of America...
Yeah, but "The sheep, a proud and noble animal" just doesn't have the same ring.
There a requirments that have to be
gone though to be consided a religion in
Austraila,
IIRC you must have at lest 500 members,
they must of been practince once a week
for no less then 3 years..
You must also have your canon submited,
and it must in no way contradict with any
australian law..
probly a few other thigns too
You have 5 Moderator Points!
Which Helpless Linux zealot/MS basher do you want to mod down today?
Is there a hidden message in there that "Slashdot is About to Start Charging?
Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
If your teachers don't understand, explain it. If they actually try to get you in trouble, complain about them stifling your desire to read. I can't imagine this being a bad thing.
Looking for freelance Actionscript (Flash/Flex) or ColdFusion work and/or freelance developers. Email me, put Slashdot
June 22nd perhaps?
(a wait of 42 days (I hope) for reference)
FP.
--
Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
Actually, if they don't understand, that's partly the point. If somebody asks you, you can enlighten them! And if they tell you to stop, start a campaign to promote towels and their usefulness. Personally, I think the under-25 crowd has largely missed out on having a literary cultural phenom like the Trilogy during their formative years. Now they're too old for Harry Potter, and it's kinda sad.
Please mod me up. My grandma might not make it to the weekend and she always wanted me to hit karma cap.
You assume some ulterior motives on the part of the government. What if the reason they want religious/ethnic information is to keep cultures from being decimated? Without this information, they might not realize that in the past 10 years, a lot of people with, say, Greek heritage have move into a certain suburb of Chicago? They wouldn't be aware that they should provide more resources for the Greek cultural groups in that area. Or that they're overfunding in a city where most of the Jewish community has gradually moved away? How else do you get this information without bias?
Please mod me up. My grandma might not make it to the weekend and she always wanted me to hit karma cap.
Anybody want to take bets on when 18610 Arthurdent will be demolished in order to make room for the Mars-Jupiter expressway?
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
How is that obvious? Satanists condone it. I condone it; as an atheist, I see no reason to object to Satanism any more strenuously than I object to Christianity.
Perhaps you are confusing Satanism with the popular mythology of satan worshippers. If you pick up a book on satanism or listen to a talk at your local church, chances are good that you'll be reading/hearing about the Big Bad Satan Worshippers: drinking blood, killing babies, molesting children, etc. This is a myth invented by religious folk, and is no more valid than the myth of witches in the 14th-19th centuries.
---------
---------
get your war on
\begin{AOL}Me too! \end{AOL}
I also filled in the ethnic origin box as "Other: MONGREL".
Paul
Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate
My friends and I actually made/drank several using the following recipe (add ingredients in the order listed) ... all jokes aside, it's actually a very enjoyable drink:
3 shots Everclear
1 shot Sloe Gin
1 shot Peppermint Schnapps
3 oz. Jolt Cola
3 oz. Perrier
200 mg. caffeine tablet, crushed (Vivarin, etc.)
1" cube of dry ice
(1) 1/4" stainless steel ball bearing (not to be consumed; just let it roll around in the bottom of the glass)
The drink is marroon, very bubbly, and tastes vaguely like cough syrup although it's actually quite tasty. It's dangerous to drink this with any other 'chemical substances' in your system, however, as we learned through hard experience.
I tend to use the term USers *duck*
What about a Jynnan tonnyx, geeN'N-T'N-ix, jinond-o-nix, chinanto/mnigs, or a tzjin-anthonyu-ks? Does this bar serve any or all of these??
Keeping
Sorry 'bout that, but this has been the first chance that I've had in ages to get a point in first before the massed hordes, and I couldn't resist doing my bit to counter the American dominance of /.
As a New Zealander I should point out that New Zealand and Australia are not the same place. The suggestion that they are is one that people in both countries would find equally offensive ... :-)
We've had our census recently and I believe there was a similiar move to make/prevent Jedi being recorded as a religion.
What do you mean that Yoda is fictional??? You perverted ****Blasphemer****!!! Just 'cause you don't believe in him!!
What if I said that I didn't believe in Mohammed, or Christ, or Satan?? OR What if I said they were fictional characters?? (Most of you wouldn't care, which doesn't bother me.) The point is this -- you can't prove Yoda to be a fictional character anymore than I can prove your God to be fictional!! So stay away from the holy priesthood of Jedi-ism!!!!
This is not meant for the humor impaired.
So we don't have to wait until next year to do it. Kind of silly, but understandable.
Oh please allow Scientologists to fill out their religion on census forms. It'll point out that their UFO religion does not have 8 million+ members.
Not that a UFO religion is a bad thing. The Raelians are open and honest about what they believe in.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
So you're saying that it's wrong to hack the census forms?
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Religion is a deeply held system of beliefs, not semantic tomfoolery.
No it isn't! I'm sorry, is this the five minute argument, or the full half-hour?
Quibling leads to bickering, bickering leads to arguments, arguments lead to flame-wars, flame-wars lead to moderation.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Does anyone else remember this game or should I just check myself into a "home" (as my wife has threatened to do to me recently)?
It did exist, we all loved it (that damned babel fish!), and you can play a java version of it here.
For the Goatse-paranoid, that's http://www.xcalibur.co.uk/games/hitchhik.html
Some 30000 Czechs claimed to be Eskimos in the last census ;) And there's a Sioux movement in Slovakia ;)
Sorry if I offended you, but I was just throwing a thought out, definitely not trolling.
- -
It was just to provoke discussion, not be taken as absolute truth.
One thing I'd like to point out is I put it in a question. If I said, 'Australia's consitution prevents this, otherwise they're the most...' that would be an insult.
Just clarifying.
------------------------------------
No sig for you.
Don't worry about the first comment, I completely understand.
My original thought was not that people actually used the force and lightsabers (as cool as that would be) in this religion, but could do whatever they wanted. I think I remember on the original site linked that to be recognized as a religion it had to have 10,000 people (?) and have a set value base. Well, I don't know if 10,000 people would say this is their religion, but the value base is definitely there, and documented throughout four movies. Also, 'Jedi' could be your name for your beliefs because you feel that living like a 'Good Jedi' is the path to salvation. So one is not necessarily lying about one's religion.
BTW, Buddhism is also vaguely related to Jedism (Lucas, I guess, borrowed liberally from many religions) because of the belief in an all-encompassing 'Force'. Buddhists call this 'Ultimate Reality' if I remember correctly. The point of these examples is also to prove that one could even conclude that Jedism is the best mix of multiple religions. Hypothetically speaking for all of this, of course.
--------------------------------------
No sig for you.
Well, obviously the flip side of Christianity is Satanism! (Which obviously nobody condones).-
-------------------------------------
No sig for you.
But doesn't it seem weird that if a heretofore unnamed group of people (not necessarily organized) decided to put this down they suddenly couldn't? Now this specific instance is a joke, but it sets a bad precedent... IMHO, a government shouldn't usually allow people to do one thing but then change its mind because it's a 'joke'.
What if the gov't. decided a vote for Ralph Nader was a joke because he didn't have a chance of winning? Bad idea. Very bad.
--------------------------------------
No sig for you.
Self-Determination. Imperialism being one country having colonies, self-determination letting them decide what they wanted to be.
--------------------------------------
No sig for you.
If they won't let someone put Jedi, why do they let people put Christian? Muslim? Jewish? All of these religions are recognized by some people, while others think the whole religion is full of it. Just because a few government officials don't think that 'Jedi' counts as a religion doesn't mean that it's NOT a religion.
-
On a side note, it's not like even following the 'Jedi Code' would get one locked up! As far as I can tell, Christianity and 'Jedism' would follow extremely similiar belief systems. Nobody (well, a very small minority) would say that Christianity encourages bad things- murder, rape, etc. Jedism wouldn't either. If I lived in Australia you can bet I'd put Jedi!
P.S.- In America denying someone the chance to put down their religion, whatever it is, would be unconstituational.. is something like this the case in Australia?
-------------------------------------
No sig for you.
I guess that in my view, ANY attempt to decree what is a "valid" religion, no matter how hokey it seems, would be ludicrous and immoral. Hey, if some guy worships tulips, good for him, hey may well believe it's his religion. All the (flower) power to him. q:]
MadCow.
I used to have a sig, but I set it free and it never came back.
If Ford wins this lawsuit, what prevents them from suing me for putting a link on my site that says "FordSucks.com" and having it point to Ford.com; or what if 2600 just put a redirect on their page instead of changing the DNS. Ford, of all people, has NO right to stop people from expressing their opinion. Oh, and the bandwidth issue? Give me a break. Aside from today, I bet maybe 25 visitors went to fgeneralmotors.com. Get real. I think I might just start a joqsux.com and you can argue that it is tarnishing your brand name.
"Anyway, long story short... is a phrase whose origins are complicated and rambling...." - Abraham Simpson
Yeah, I got all excited because I am going to Montreal tomorrow, I was going to stop by and have a drink to Mr. Adams' memory... but alas, Ottawa is a bit too far out of my way.
Today they sue for pointing a domain name at a site.
Tomorrow they sue for linking to a site.
is that what you want?
Shameless Self Promotion : Webhosting at Blender Networks.
I once got a transfer to Germany by a US organization. When I got there unable to speak more than 5 words of German the guys there thought they must have misread Australia as Austria. I still stayed on there a year and picked up the language very quickly. If it was due to misreading then I am very happy with errors :)
Saying your OS is the best because more people use it is like saying MacDonalds make the best food
hehehe, I still play the game sometimes - this year even :)
:P
I have an amiga verion of it now though - it's faster and has slightly better rounded fonts
> Turn on light - Don't want to stumble around in the dark now, there's a bulldozer coming!
Saying your OS is the best because more people use it is like saying MacDonalds make the best food
Surely the real point behind this whole jedi/census issue is that it hilights the hypocrasy underpinning all major religions. Namely that they all seek to understand, explore and explain what is ultimately unknown. No religion is based upon fact and furthermore no religion has been proven to be anything other than fiction anyway! So why, I find myself thinking, is the 'religion' Jedi any different? The answer is political power and who controls it. Here in the UK the church has been devolved from Parliament for hundreds of years (since the reformation) and yet shops were only allowed to open on sundays 10 years ago...! The point is that people have the right to believe whatever they want to believe, it should never be tied to politics, ever. For the record I placed my belief as jedi in the recent UK census, I will however be counted as an 'other' - hmmm
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
Well, my religion means something to me (I'm Council President at my church), but my government's curiosity means little to me, and their need to know my religious beliefs means nothing to me. To the contrary, any government's request to know my religious beliefs offends me, and I would gladly enter "Jedi" or just leave the form blank.
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
The illustration on the jacket ignited a few brain cells that I thought I had long ago killed with alcohol, and memories of my Commodore-64 days rushed through what is left of my brain. I recalled a "Hitchhiker" game for the C-64 that I had nearly completely forgotten. I vaguely remember being Zaphod and Ford and every other character in the book, saving the universe and everything in 64 k-bytes through a text interface.
Does anyone else remember this game or should I just check myself into a "home" (as my wife has threatened to do to me recently)?
By the time I reach the bar at Zaphod Beeblebrox's here in Ottawa each Thursday night there is a tall Jynnan tonnyx waiting for me at the bar, glowing violet in the black light.
Mine is alternatively pronounced 'A tall Bombay and tonic, with lime.'
The first one this week will be in honor of Douglas Adams. Heck, make that all of them :)
DmitriIt's a great game.
-Jade E.
You make a good point. I guess there isn't really all that much difference between pointing a DNS name and a plain hyperlink .. although most people perceive them to be quite different things .. the domain name somehow has more "authority". If what they did is wrong, then why wouldn't fuck General Motors be wrong too .. ? Hmm .. its not really slander either, is it. Still, either way, the public will side against 2600 just because of the word "fuck".
I can't really agree with 2600's actions here. This doesn't come off as a valid protest of any sort - it comes off as a childish prank, and this is how the general public will see it. This doesn't do anything positive for "the cause", rather, it is only likely to hurt it. Would you (for example) use this incident as an example when trying to convince your mother? There are many far more mature ways to make a statement. This makes h(cr)ackers look really bad to the public, and provides exactly the kind of material organizations such as the FBI love to have for their anti-hacking campaigns to convince the government to give them more power and people less freedom.
I'm sorry, I just can't for the life of me see how pointing a DNS entry "fuckgeneralmotors" at ford's website can be construed as "making a statement" (unless the statement they're trying to make is that the DNS system can be too easily manipulated or something). I think its childish. I can imagine having found this sort of thing funny when I was 14.
2600 like to provoke big corporation it don't like, for example www.fuckmicrosoft.com they got heat on it but it's still up. If they have to take down the site because of the name what happen to free speech which 2600 lives for. If you are in the New York area listen to 2600 show it interesting it is broadcasted on wbai on wednesdays.
I'd like to carry around a towel May 25, but I'm not sure that my teachers would understand. Do you think it's okay if I carry around a washcloth in my pocket instead?
--
*cough*Scientology*cough*
I agree completely. Did it seem like I was saying anything contrary to that?
"A witty saying proves nothing." - Voltaire
Put Transcendentalism as your religion. The whole Jedi system is a direct rip off (not that it's a bad thing) of Transcendentalism. Some may argue that Transcendentalism isn't a religion (I agree with them) but hey it's as close as you can come to putting Jedi. Seriously, read "Self Reliance" by Ralph Waldon Emerson, it's a great read and you'll start seeing the references there are to it everywhere in society. "The Force" is really the "Oversoul," and then there's the whole, "evil is simply a lack of good," thing. I could go on for hours, but I did that for English class already, so I'll spare you.
"A witty saying proves nothing." - Voltaire
What would really be useful is a towel with DON'T PANIC on it in large, friendly letters. It would provide both physical and psychological comfort.
Is there anyplace you can get custom printed towels?
Technically that covers everything except christianity, yet they can't prohibit, or not count it, because its also used as a general term for Wicca, Asatru etc. which are definitely real religions.
I probably would have just assumed General Motors owned it. I mean remember when George W. Bush brought all those domains like GeorgeWBushSucks.com? They all point to the GWB web site. If I had found this domain name some other way I would have assumed General Motors was trying to pull the same thing.
Apparently Ford chose his name after an imperfect understanding of what would be a suitably common name in England (the Ford 'Prefect' was very popular model for a few years).
Many years ago, when the Internet had just become the focus of politicos running for presidency, I sat in a small theater on the University of Texas campus and listened to Douglas Adams speak. I hadn't made the connection before that his HHGTTG was a prophetic similitude for the internet, and sat in rapture for an hour and a half as realization hit me.
The man was entirely humorous, entirely abase of agreeability towards politics in general, even so far as to state (paraphrased, from age old memory): "The Internet Superhighway is a terrible moniker. The Internet is nothing like a highway, super or otherwise, because it is a confining concept to associate it with something familiar. The Internet is nothing like you or I have ever encountered before. It is the future."
Aside: My only complaint is traffic is traffic, on the highway or on the servers...
I'll seriously miss a 6th book in the trilogy, myself. Such a tragedy. Wearing my towel May 25th.
Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental.
The Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster
(Score:5, Funny)
by phossie
What is the origin of the Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster, and how would you make one on Earth?
I need to know.
DA:
Unfortunately there are a number of environmental and weapons treaties and laws of physics which prevent one being mixed on Earth. Sorry.
All right Towel Day is on for this year but I want to bring something up.
I would like to suggest that Towel Day not be a single day to celebrate a man like Douglas Adams, but those of us who treasure his works, make his birthday March 11, a Towel Day tradition for us to carry out and hand down to our children once they read the series as well.
No this may sound like a bit much but hear me out and think about it.
Maybe Ill be the only one but at least I told a few of you and you can follow if you choose.
wizardofod
"For a moment, nothing happened.
Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen."