I agree 100% with you. My mother is highly religious - but I wouldn't dare try and convince her of my views. My father recently died of cancer just a year ago, and she seems to find peace and some sort of comfort and hope when she goes to church and has a personal relationship with God - and if that makes her life easier to live in this tough time, I don't care if she prays to a rock.
I understand the role that religion plays in some people's lives, and being agnostic or an atheist is not for everyone. It's just religion is usually imposed upon people at a young age where they don't have a choice or can't mount a logical defense against what they're being told so they take it as truth. I wish people were baptized at the age of 20 or so, and I bet we'd have a lot less followers.
To me, all religions are a scam. Some have been around longer than others and thus emanate a sense of legitimacy but they're mostly cults with a God that we offer our prayers and money to in return for a hope of a better life.
Religions come and go, their Gods are offered gold, placed upon altars and have great building and churches erected in their names - and yet, people die of violence, starvation, and famine. Their Gods grow weak and frail, their subjects grow old and a new religion eventually emerges and takes its place as the new "true" religion. A sad cycle indeed.
I'm sorry for not providing my sources, I figured it would be common knowledge to people who appreciate their health and who's theyre getting their care from:
Prescription Drugs - Leading Killer in USA
According to information we have received, a statistical study of hospital deaths in the U.S. conducted at the University of Toronto revealed that pharmaceutical drugs kill more people every year than are killed in traffic accidents.
The study is said to show that more than two million American hospitalized patients suffered a serious adverse drug reaction (ADR) within the 12-month period of the study and, of these, over 100,000 died as a result. The researchers found that over 75 per cent of these ADRs were dose-dependent, which suggests they were due to the inherent toxicity of the drugs rather than to allergic reactions.
The data did not include fatal reactions caused by accidental overdoses or errors in administration of the drugs. If these had been included, it is estimated that another 100,000 deaths would be added to the total every year.
The researchers concluded that ADRs are now the fourth leading cause of death in the United States after heart disease, cancer, and stroke.
Source: Jason, et al. (Lazarou et al), Incidence of Adverse Drug Reactions in Hospitalized Patients, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Vol. 279. April 15, 1998, pp. 1200-05. Also Bates, David W., Drugs and Adverse Drug Reactions: How Worried Should We Be? JAMA, Vol. 279. April 15, 1998, pp. 1216-17.
Another article: FDA advisers tied to industry
An article by Dennis Cauchon, the USA TODAY Newspaper
Sept. 25, 2000
Federal law generally prohibits the FDA from using experts with financial conflicts of interest, but according to the article, the FDA has waived the restriction more than 800 times since 1998.
These pharmaceutical experts, about 300 on 18 advisory committees, make decisions that affect the health of millions of Americans and billions of dollars in drugs sales. With few exceptions, the FDA follows the committees' advice.
The FDA reveals when financial conflicts exist, but it has kept details secret since 1992, so it is not possible to determine the amount of money or the drug company involved.
A USA Today analysis of financial conflicts at 159 FDA advisory committee meetings from Jan. 1, 1998, through last June 30 found:
At 92% of the meetings, at least one member had a financial conflict of interest.
At 55% of meetings, half or more of the FDA advisers had conflicts of interest.
Conflicts were most frequent at the 57 meetings when broader issues were discussed: 92% of members had conflicts.
At the 102 meetings dealing with the fate of a specific drug, 33% of the experts had a financial conflict.
in Ontario it is now a ticketable offense to text, email, or navigate with your GPS while driving.
I don't know where they got this list of things you can't do, but the "official" handout from the government of Ontario very clearly states what you CAN and CANNOT use while driving.
You CANNOT use:
-Hand-held wireless communications devices such as cell phones, smartphones
-Hand-held electronic entertainment devices such as iPods, or other portable MP3 players, or portable games
-Texting and emailing
-Viewing display screens on devices not required for driving such as a laptop or DVD player
You CAN use: -Hands-free wireless communications devices with an earpiece or Bluetooth device
-911 calls
-Pressing the button of a hand-held device to activate hands-free mode for incoming or outbound calls
-GPS units mounted on dashboards
-Collision avoidance systems
-Use by emergency services personnel such as police, fire and ambulance
-Logistical transportation tracking devices used for commercial vehicles
Uhmm, yea, there is immunity - it's called your immune system, and you'd still have one if you hadn't compromised it with vaccine injections. Also, about 100,000 people die from FDA aproved drugs each year, can they sell you a vaccine for that too?
This here little gem is $299. It's about the size of a pack of matches. Battery lasts for 5 DAYS, has a "panic" alarm that the child can press at her discretion. And also updates you through a txt message on your cellphone or email if the child leave a "designated" area that you get to control. And you can of course track the location of the GPS transmitted on in real-time on a map on the web (no software to install).
I`m glad to see these types of replies here. Last time I posted something anti-globalwarming, I got mauled by Al Gore fanboys who just jump on any popular bandwagon of the year. And this year, it's Man-made Global Warming (and has been the bandwagon of choice for many years now:)).
Nobody talks about global cooling that was suppose to end life on the planet as we know it in the 1960's. We are so eager to forget history.
Anybody remember when CNN.com used to have videos that you'd have to pay for to view?! Then nobody actually paid and they realized the better way to drive traffic is to provide them totally free of charge? I know I visit cnn.com more often now because of it. Why aren't things like these noted and written down somewhere so nobody goes through this again?
I think the main post's idea is that there are many independent news sources that provide such services free of charge. So the main question I think is "Why pay for this site, when all others are free?".
Ok, maybe you get a nicer page layout with colourfull flash animations, or some cool widget. Personally, I'd welcome the day when main-stream media outlets die and the only news you get comes from people like you and me, who have are not constrained by our bosses and do not have to be biased in favour of any one entity.
This may seem tin-foil-hatty, but personally - I do not believe anything I hear anymore, I know it's been filtered and truncated through multiple PR staff, management, and "think-of-the-children" outlets before it makes its way to me. The sooner this dies, the sooner we can get back to receicing public opinion, and not state-sponsored opinion.
Yes, but I think the reason visiting slashdot makes it (laziness) go over a bit easier, is the feeling that you've managed to do nothing by doing something. If you're doing nothing by not even reading slashdot, well... now you're just abusing your laziness.
I was wondering the exact same thing. I guess I must have missed the email about the impending doom of computer mice. And exactly what would we replace it with? I haven't seen any promising replacements as of yet.
Why not just spend $300 on an old Thinkpad? They were built pretty tough, and are probably too heavy for a small kid to carry around so he won't be able to drop it.
I run a music torrent tracker. People are more than happy to pay me for the great service I provide which according to the users, is 100 times better than they commercial offering out there. And nobody is calling me names because I make a few bucks to pay for the server.
I have record labels coming to me asking if I can "secretly" release their un-released tracks on my tracker and make it look like they've been pirated by a "warez" group so it looks authentic, because more people will download "unreleased" material and they`ll get the word out about their label.
I have also been contacted by bigger labels asking me if I'd be nice enough to remove a specific song they've released because it`ll be a big money maker, and I do.
None of these people including the labels and the artists want to go to court, and they're quite happy with having some of their stuff released on trackers, as long as the people downloading the tracks think otherwise.
A lot of this stuff is NOT what it seems, and a lot of the times - labels and artists are on "our" side, but they can't say it and have to depend on my discretion.
Many big-name artists have an account on my tracker, and have many gigs of downloads and uploads.. you have to remember, they are also "users" just like you and me. So this whole image of owners of the pirate bay being money-grabbing hooligans is absolutely out of whack, I`m a regular guy, you are - and so are they.
They did exactly that. What you're looking for is the Oregon Petition which was signed by over 30,000 thousand scientists from different fields of study.
Here's a snippet:
The Oregon Petition was the fourth, and by far the largest, of five prominent efforts that attempt to show that a scientific consensus does not exist on the subject of anthropogenic global warming, following the 1992 Statement by Atmospheric Scientists on Greenhouse Warming, the Heidelberg Declaration and the Leipzig Declaration. The petition site currently lists more than 31,000 signatories.
The reality of the matter is that because global warming has such a huge political backing, nobody who opposes global warming will ever make it to the news, or the newspapers. Politicians who have big money in this are not interested in showing two sides of this issue, and are much more comfy knowing you think humans make the climate change.
If you're interested in learning more and how this "cult" of global warming fanatics is really taking shape, you can watch a great movie called The Great Global Warming Swindle which will make it much clearer to the average person on how climate change works and how it's being perverted by the media.
Sure you're going to say, hey - virus tools and information is on the net everywhere. But for how long? This was the case with Terrorist textbooks, and look where that's getting people, landed in jail! Same goes for P2P programs, sure they're for "educational" purposes and can be used legitimately, but sooner or later some politician of the government will find a way to usurp the good will of these people and brand them as "soon-to-be-identity-thieves" in some mock "save the children" scenario.
....anything is possible with this post-9/11 governments we have.
The phone rings at FBI headquarters. "Hello?"
"I'm calling to report my neighbor.
He is hiding marijuana inside his firewood."
"Thank you very much for the call, sir."
The next day, FBI agents descend on the neighbor's house.
They search the shed where the firewood is kept.
Using axes, they bust open every piece of wood, but find no marijuana.
They swear at the neighbors and leave.
The phone rings ~ it's the neighbors house.
Hey, Adrian, did the FBI come?"
"Yep."
"Did they chop your firewood?"
"Yep."
"Great, now it's your turn to call. I need my garden plowed."
Only reason for them saying this would be to make it easier for the average Joe to understand what happened. I`m pretty confident the hashes were stolen, and I doubt you'd find your PIN Code written inside the magnetic stripe or on the ATM Machine like you said yourself.
It makes it more hacker-like saying they stole PIN Codes.
Brute forcing a 4-digit hash would probably take seconds, so it wouldn't have been much of an effort regardless of what they stole.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree 100% with you. My mother is highly religious - but I wouldn't dare try and convince her of my views. My father recently died of cancer just a year ago, and she seems to find peace and some sort of comfort and hope when she goes to church and has a personal relationship with God - and if that makes her life easier to live in this tough time, I don't care if she prays to a rock.
I understand the role that religion plays in some people's lives, and being agnostic or an atheist is not for everyone. It's just religion is usually imposed upon people at a young age where they don't have a choice or can't mount a logical defense against what they're being told so they take it as truth. I wish people were baptized at the age of 20 or so, and I bet we'd have a lot less followers.
To me, all religions are a scam. Some have been around longer than others and thus emanate a sense of legitimacy but they're mostly cults with a God that we offer our prayers and money to in return for a hope of a better life.
Religions come and go, their Gods are offered gold, placed upon altars and have great building and churches erected in their names - and yet, people die of violence, starvation, and famine. Their Gods grow weak and frail, their subjects grow old and a new religion eventually emerges and takes its place as the new "true" religion. A sad cycle indeed.
I'm sorry for not providing my sources, I figured it would be common knowledge to people who appreciate their health and who's theyre getting their care from:
Prescription Drugs - Leading Killer in USA
According to information we have received, a statistical study of hospital deaths in the U.S. conducted at the University of Toronto revealed that pharmaceutical drugs kill more people every year than are killed in traffic accidents.
The study is said to show that more than two million American hospitalized patients suffered a serious adverse drug reaction (ADR) within the 12-month period of the study and, of these, over 100,000 died as a result. The researchers found that over 75 per cent of these ADRs were dose-dependent, which suggests they were due to the inherent toxicity of the drugs rather than to allergic reactions.
The data did not include fatal reactions caused by accidental overdoses or errors in administration of the drugs. If these had been included, it is estimated that another 100,000 deaths would be added to the total every year.
The researchers concluded that ADRs are now the fourth leading cause of death in the United States after heart disease, cancer, and stroke.
Source: Jason, et al. (Lazarou et al), Incidence of Adverse Drug Reactions in Hospitalized Patients, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Vol. 279. April 15, 1998, pp. 1200-05. Also Bates, David W., Drugs and Adverse Drug Reactions: How Worried Should We Be? JAMA, Vol. 279. April 15, 1998, pp. 1216-17.
Another article:
FDA advisers tied to industry
An article by Dennis Cauchon, the USA TODAY Newspaper
Sept. 25, 2000
Federal law generally prohibits the FDA from using experts with financial conflicts of interest, but according to the article, the FDA has waived the restriction more than 800 times since 1998.
These pharmaceutical experts, about 300 on 18 advisory committees, make decisions that affect the health of millions of Americans and billions of dollars in drugs sales. With few exceptions, the FDA follows the committees' advice.
The FDA reveals when financial conflicts exist, but it has kept details secret since 1992, so it is not possible to determine the amount of money or the drug company involved.
A USA Today analysis of financial conflicts at 159 FDA advisory committee meetings from Jan. 1, 1998, through last June 30 found:
At 92% of the meetings, at least one member had a financial conflict of interest.
At 55% of meetings, half or more of the FDA advisers had conflicts of interest.
Conflicts were most frequent at the 57 meetings when broader issues were discussed: 92% of members had conflicts.
At the 102 meetings dealing with the fate of a specific drug, 33% of the experts had a financial conflict.
I don't know where they got this list of things you can't do, but the "official" handout from the government of Ontario very clearly states what you CAN and CANNOT use while driving.
You CANNOT use:
-Hand-held wireless communications devices such as cell phones, smartphones
-Hand-held electronic entertainment devices such as iPods, or other portable MP3 players, or portable games
-Texting and emailing
-Viewing display screens on devices not required for driving such as a laptop or DVD player
You CAN use:
-Hands-free wireless communications devices with an earpiece or Bluetooth device
-911 calls
-Pressing the button of a hand-held device to activate hands-free mode for incoming or outbound calls
-GPS units mounted on dashboards
-Collision avoidance systems
-Use by emergency services personnel such as police, fire and ambulance
-Logistical transportation tracking devices used for commercial vehicles
This is available on a PDF printout here.
Uhmm, yea, there is immunity - it's called your immune system, and you'd still have one if you hadn't compromised it with vaccine injections. Also, about 100,000 people die from FDA aproved drugs each year, can they sell you a vaccine for that too?
This here little gem is $299. It's about the size of a pack of matches. Battery lasts for 5 DAYS, has a "panic" alarm that the child can press at her discretion. And also updates you through a txt message on your cellphone or email if the child leave a "designated" area that you get to control. And you can of course track the location of the GPS transmitted on in real-time on a map on the web (no software to install).
Spark Nano Child GPS Tracker
I`m glad to see these types of replies here. Last time I posted something anti-globalwarming, I got mauled by Al Gore fanboys who just jump on any popular bandwagon of the year. And this year, it's Man-made Global Warming (and has been the bandwagon of choice for many years now:)).
Nobody talks about global cooling that was suppose to end life on the planet as we know it in the 1960's. We are so eager to forget history.
Anybody remember when CNN.com used to have videos that you'd have to pay for to view?! Then nobody actually paid and they realized the better way to drive traffic is to provide them totally free of charge? I know I visit cnn.com more often now because of it. Why aren't things like these noted and written down somewhere so nobody goes through this again?
I think the main post's idea is that there are many independent news sources that provide such services free of charge. So the main question I think is "Why pay for this site, when all others are free?".
Ok, maybe you get a nicer page layout with colourfull flash animations, or some cool widget. Personally, I'd welcome the day when main-stream media outlets die and the only news you get comes from people like you and me, who have are not constrained by our bosses and do not have to be biased in favour of any one entity.
This may seem tin-foil-hatty, but personally - I do not believe anything I hear anymore, I know it's been filtered and truncated through multiple PR staff, management, and "think-of-the-children" outlets before it makes its way to me. The sooner this dies, the sooner we can get back to receicing public opinion, and not state-sponsored opinion.
Yes, but I think the reason visiting slashdot makes it (laziness) go over a bit easier, is the feeling that you've managed to do nothing by doing something. If you're doing nothing by not even reading slashdot, well... now you're just abusing your laziness.
Stop with the memes already, you insensitive clod!
And thats the way I like it. Please keep the government's greedy and controlling hands out of this.
I was wondering the exact same thing. I guess I must have missed the email about the impending doom of computer mice. And exactly what would we replace it with? I haven't seen any promising replacements as of yet.
Why not just spend $300 on an old Thinkpad? They were built pretty tough, and are probably too heavy for a small kid to carry around so he won't be able to drop it.
Haha, yes I have.. after a night of clubing. I call them "Serious contenders" - my friend though it was pretty funny :)
I looked at the vidcaps and didn't see Picard. This movie has failed already.
TranceTraffic, it's an EDM (Electronic Dance Music) tracker.
I run a music torrent tracker. People are more than happy to pay me for the great service I provide which according to the users, is 100 times better than they commercial offering out there. And nobody is calling me names because I make a few bucks to pay for the server. I have record labels coming to me asking if I can "secretly" release their un-released tracks on my tracker and make it look like they've been pirated by a "warez" group so it looks authentic, because more people will download "unreleased" material and they`ll get the word out about their label. I have also been contacted by bigger labels asking me if I'd be nice enough to remove a specific song they've released because it`ll be a big money maker, and I do. None of these people including the labels and the artists want to go to court, and they're quite happy with having some of their stuff released on trackers, as long as the people downloading the tracks think otherwise. A lot of this stuff is NOT what it seems, and a lot of the times - labels and artists are on "our" side, but they can't say it and have to depend on my discretion. Many big-name artists have an account on my tracker, and have many gigs of downloads and uploads.. you have to remember, they are also "users" just like you and me. So this whole image of owners of the pirate bay being money-grabbing hooligans is absolutely out of whack, I`m a regular guy, you are - and so are they.
Here's a snippet:
The reality of the matter is that because global warming has such a huge political backing, nobody who opposes global warming will ever make it to the news, or the newspapers. Politicians who have big money in this are not interested in showing two sides of this issue, and are much more comfy knowing you think humans make the climate change.
If you're interested in learning more and how this "cult" of global warming fanatics is really taking shape, you can watch a great movie called The Great Global Warming Swindle which will make it much clearer to the average person on how climate change works and how it's being perverted by the media.
You've all spelled "Whisky" differently.. now put the glass down and step away from the keyboard!
Mark up OP please, it is a real issue.
....anything is possible with this post-9/11 governments we have.
Sure you're going to say, hey - virus tools and information is on the net everywhere. But for how long? This was the case with Terrorist textbooks, and look where that's getting people, landed in jail! Same goes for P2P programs, sure they're for "educational" purposes and can be used legitimately, but sooner or later some politician of the government will find a way to usurp the good will of these people and brand them as "soon-to-be-identity-thieves" in some mock "save the children" scenario.
The phone rings at FBI headquarters. "Hello?" "I'm calling to report my neighbor. He is hiding marijuana inside his firewood." "Thank you very much for the call, sir." The next day, FBI agents descend on the neighbor's house. They search the shed where the firewood is kept. Using axes, they bust open every piece of wood, but find no marijuana. They swear at the neighbors and leave. The phone rings ~ it's the neighbors house. Hey, Adrian, did the FBI come?" "Yep." "Did they chop your firewood?" "Yep." "Great, now it's your turn to call. I need my garden plowed."
Only reason for them saying this would be to make it easier for the average Joe to understand what happened. I`m pretty confident the hashes were stolen, and I doubt you'd find your PIN Code written inside the magnetic stripe or on the ATM Machine like you said yourself.
It makes it more hacker-like saying they stole PIN Codes.
Brute forcing a 4-digit hash would probably take seconds, so it wouldn't have been much of an effort regardless of what they stole.
I should have been more clear about what I was trying to say... climate is real. Climate change do to human-produced co2 levels is not.
Global warming religious fanatics will use this for more fear-mongering in the media and everywhere else in 4... 3... 2... 1...