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The Magic Box Hoax
Rasvar writes "Here is an interesting article from The Florida Times-Union about a high tech hoax that managed to pull in the likes of Blockbuster Video, US West, Ted Turner, Sen Orrin Hatch and numerous others. I actually attended one of the "demonstrations" of this device years back. I came away cynical becuase of the way he presented stuff. Sometimes it is good to be a cynic. This is a very good article on an impressive high tech scam."
Say, doesn't that guy look kinda like CowboyNeal?
I'm the Devil the Windows users warned you about.
I didn't realize being made fun of on Slashdot was a legal action.
Believe it or not, justice and such things as logic and "weighing evidence" can exist outside of the courts. America would be a better place if they did so more often.
Anyone whose interests might conflict with mine, especially if they are charged with aiding or protecting me, should be subject to intense scrutiny, and be able to stand up under it. Lately, we've seen that the Church's actions cannot hold up under the light.
Intense scrutiny is fine, but don't damn them all just because of some transgressions.
The outrage at the scandals (note the use of the plural) is partly that sexual abuses happened, but mostly that the church has gone to such lengths to cover them up and keep those same priests active, in some cases returning them to positions with unsupervised contact with children. If there weren't a pattern of covering up, the innocent priests wouldn't be tainted by the guilt of their colleagues. But, by suppressing the truth, the Church has allowed uncertainty to spread, and they have nobody to blame but themselves.
Like I said before, this (the cover-up) is the church following through on its "forgiveness" dogma. I'm not Catholic, and I agree with those that say they forgave too much and worked too hard to keep it low, but I appreciate a moral authority that actually stands up for what they say.
Think about it. Let's say that you're accused of molesting a child left in your care. EVEN IF YOU DIDN'T DO IT, the accusation still hurts you. There's merit to the church overreacting to protect those accused of child molestation, considering the overreaction that's made to people merely accused of the crime.
(Yes, it's a horrible crime equal to or greater than murder. But, well, "Innocent until proven guilty.")
It's possible a giant pink cupcake that hides in the asteroid belt controls human clone puppets to act exactly like overweight scammers.
Now, all I have to do is prove it...
In this particular case, yeah, I do. As for my wanking habbit.. ahem... Excuse me.
It's america's wang. Must have big balls too.
--chuck
How is making an assertion being close-minded? I believe that non-smokers have good lungs in general and that heavy smokers do not. Is that close-minded too? No. Being close-minded is being unwilling to consider alternatives when reasoning is presented for them. Your parent poster is not close minded unless you provide good evidence to counter his assertion and he persists to advocate it despite finding no counter to your counters. (Of course, some would say he is correct by definition. At least to me, cyncic implies skeptisicm + pessimism + "being perpetually bitter" which doesn't sound too healthy.
As an aside, it is probably true that a certain degree of close-mindedness is necessary for living in this world. It may be a fundamental part of being "intelligent" (which is something of a misnomer: intelligence isn't about being correct or finding Truth, it's about being jumpy if you're the prey and ruthless if you're the predator (e.g., making optimal decisions in the time available to make them... exahustive search is not intelligence)).
-1, Too Many Layers Of Abstraction
Mind you I'm in Oz
Actually I remember reading somewhere that Oz phone lines can Potentially do up to 64K, that maybe why I've even manage to do 56K sometimes