Obviously, I meant evolution as an explanation of prehistory. Few people deny the small steps that can be shown in a lab, but every few months we see research come out that challenges natural-selection evolution as we understand it as the sole explanation of our existence.
That's what I mean... it's like believing that the earth is flat, which was widely held by even scientists centuries ago. How fervent did some of those people defend that belief, based on assumed "facts"? Did people get killed over disagreement? What if historical evolution is incorrect, yet today's scientists have decided it is true and nothing will change their minds?
This is why it's important to remember that the theory of evolution is falsifiable. If some evidence arises that demonstrates, clearly, that evolution was not the origin of man, then those scientists will be forced, ultimately, to accept that they were wrong. It could take time, but ultimately we will arrive closer to the truth, and that is a good thing.
So what's the harm if we embrace a false theory for a while? What if "dark matter" turns out to be false, despite recent observations that lend it additional credibility? Or what if it turns out, in the end, that burning candles need fresh air, not because they're saturating the air around them with phlogiston, but because they're depleting the air's supply of oxygen?
Science, ultimately, provides just a model of the world around us. At any given time, some part of the model is bound to be wrong. But the relevant point is that this model works. It gives us the tools we need to learn more, and refine (or even rewrite!) the model.
Take for example the virgin birth of Anakin. That really served no purpose. His father could have died in mining accident, a burglary attempt, solar storm; any of those would be far simpler and easier to handle.
Not to mention that in the context of the story they were really glossing right over the most obvious explanations.
That is, of course, that Shmi was either lying, or else she was raped while unconscious, possibly drugged... In which case her own insistence that there was no father is highly suspect. What could she gain from such a lie? Or if it's not a lie, how would she arrive at such a fantastical conclusion? Is she merely deluded? In a state of denial? Terribly, terribly naive? Desperate to create an exciting fiction around her otherwise dreary life?
It did always seem really fishy that someone with such powerful connections - (former) planetary royalty, political elite, etc. couldn't arrange the freedom of one slave - particularly before he went off to fight in the Clone Wars...
Jar Jar provided something very important to the movie. A plot device that the poor writing of Lucas allowed to be the central cause of the Empire being born.
He wasn't the central cause, he was a tool. Jar-Jar was just coaxed into presenting the proposal to grant emergency powers to the chancellor... The rest of the senate were tripping over themselves to approve it.
It seems a silly distinction. Windows facilitates the use of the machine and its resources. It sets the standard for how users interact with the machine, how communication happens between processes, and so on. That it (in its old versions) was not a complete end-to-end operating system is irrelevant to the question of whether it [i]was[/i] an operating system.
Of course, when Windows was originally released (and trademarked), it was a window manager that ran on top of the MS-DOS operating system. It didn't grow into a full operating system until later. The first version was released in 1985. Even when the Windows trademark was filed in 1990, it was still running on top of MS-DOS.
I don't think it's an important distinction, really. The question of whether one operating environment runs within another one, whether one is complete without the other, whether memory protection is provided between the two environments, whether there's a distinct API with no overlap - it really has little to do with what defines an "operating system" IMO.
I see no reason to define "operating system" to mean only something that goes fully end-to-end, from the boot process and the basic functions of resource management, all the way up to the user interface. An operating system is something that facilitates use of the computer, something that sets the standard of how the user interacts with it. Windows did that, even before it cast off the MS-DOS core.
When Martha Stewart will die, it will (at least theoretically) allow her company to treat her name as a fictional mascot, appoint another "Martha Stewart" or pretend that some things the company markets were endorsed by the original Martha Stewart
Ah, kind of like how Haman Khan tried to give her Neo-Zeon movement credibility by parading around the last surviving member of the Zabi family...
Actually, 2001, then Star Wars makes kind of a nice double-feature. 2001 provides the substance, while Star Wars, with its more light-hearted, whimsical approach, helps take the edge off after all the seriousness of 2001.
Tolkien Tolkien Tolkien Tolkien Tolkien Tolkien Tolkien Tolkien Tolkien Mushroom! Mushroom! Tolkien Tolkien Tolkien Tolkien A SNAKE! A SNAKE! Oh it's a snake!
Look at him now, it's Magical Tolkien, He's havin' a show, they're packin' the folk in, And in due course, disappearing a dwarf Where is the dwarf? Hidden of course!
Takin' a bow, it's Magical Tolkien, His assistant's an elf, he ain't no Vulcan, Look at him there with his leathery, leathery whip, it's made of Hobbit, and with a little flick
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the dwarf is back, Yeah, yeah, yeah, the dwarf is back, Back, back, back from his magical journey...
What did he see, in the parallel dimension?
He saw nine fell kings on their fell steeds, Seeking the One Ring, doing evil deeds, Across the land, doing their dark lord's bidding...
Somewhere at home I still have a t-shirt from the launch of the original bondi iMac.
I also left blood on the inside of one of the two display models Australia got issued for the launch roadshow at the technicians training session, damn the shielding around the display was sharp.
Well, this was part of Jobs's long-term business strategy. To make his pact with Satan, he needed to make a blood offering. The normal terms of such a pact are that you take a person, kill them, and offer the blood. But Jobs felt he could get a more mutually beneficial arrangement by turning this one-time blood sacrifice into a more continual source of fresh blood. Satan would have to spend less on refrigeration (and believe me, it costs a lot for Satan to keep blood fresh in between those rare offerings) and (at least according to Jobs) receive more blood overall, and Jobs would have the opportunity to close the deal without committing himself to an act that could have consequences later, while simultaneously consecrating the machines in question...
I'm pretty sure Joel asked them not to do the invention exchange since that was his "thing" (remember he was a prop comic).
Given that it was his "thing" it wouldn't have really made sense for them to continue it anyway... (I mean, what other member of the cast would have been able to fill that role? And would they have even wanted to?)
Also, JMS said that he didn't rush anything - all the plot threads relevant to ending the Shadow War and the Earth Alliance civil war were given the amount of time he wanted for them.
Well, I thought it seemed like kind of a rush. Season four starts and it's like, "OK, time for the Shadow War to end and the First Ones to go away, so we can wrap up the civil war thing." Even if it's not the truth, it seemed like season 4 was packed tight, and then with season 5 seeming kind of sparse, that only reinforced the effect.
When they started showing crap like wrestling, ghost hunters and changed their name to that insipid SyFy I knew they were gone for good.
This is the same network that showed "Crossing Over with John Edward" and various other shows tossing around copious amounts of bullshit related to nutjob conspiracy theories, ghost sightings, etc. They were doing this pretty much from the start, as I recall.
(And I did watch at "the start" - FTL newsfeeds, Doctor Who hour... good times...)
Would you be happier if they had never brought it back at all? It was Comedy Central who canned MST3K after season 7, and SciFi who picked them up for 3 more seasons after that.
Yeah, seriously. It's not like MST3K was struck down in its prime, either. The show had ten seasons (on cable, I mean) plus a movie. How many shows manage that? They had a good run. And without the Sci-Fi years we'd have no Prince of Space (aah!)
Slashdot Mirror
Obviously, I meant evolution as an explanation of prehistory. Few people deny the small steps that can be shown in a lab, but every few months we see research come out that challenges natural-selection evolution as we understand it as the sole explanation of our existence.
That's what I mean... it's like believing that the earth is flat, which was widely held by even scientists centuries ago. How fervent did some of those people defend that belief, based on assumed "facts"? Did people get killed over disagreement? What if historical evolution is incorrect, yet today's scientists have decided it is true and nothing will change their minds?
This is why it's important to remember that the theory of evolution is falsifiable. If some evidence arises that demonstrates, clearly, that evolution was not the origin of man, then those scientists will be forced, ultimately, to accept that they were wrong. It could take time, but ultimately we will arrive closer to the truth, and that is a good thing.
So what's the harm if we embrace a false theory for a while? What if "dark matter" turns out to be false, despite recent observations that lend it additional credibility? Or what if it turns out, in the end, that burning candles need fresh air, not because they're saturating the air around them with phlogiston, but because they're depleting the air's supply of oxygen?
Science, ultimately, provides just a model of the world around us. At any given time, some part of the model is bound to be wrong. But the relevant point is that this model works. It gives us the tools we need to learn more, and refine (or even rewrite!) the model.
>He wasn't the central cause, he was a tool. [...]
Lucas was a tool.
was?
Take for example the virgin birth of Anakin. That really served no purpose. His father could have died in mining accident, a burglary attempt, solar storm; any of those would be far simpler and easier to handle.
Not to mention that in the context of the story they were really glossing right over the most obvious explanations.
That is, of course, that Shmi was either lying, or else she was raped while unconscious, possibly drugged... In which case her own insistence that there was no father is highly suspect. What could she gain from such a lie? Or if it's not a lie, how would she arrive at such a fantastical conclusion? Is she merely deluded? In a state of denial? Terribly, terribly naive? Desperate to create an exciting fiction around her otherwise dreary life?
It did always seem really fishy that someone with such powerful connections - (former) planetary royalty, political elite, etc. couldn't arrange the freedom of one slave - particularly before he went off to fight in the Clone Wars...
I beg to differ.
Jar Jar provided something very important to the movie. A plot device that the poor writing of Lucas allowed to be the central cause of the Empire being born.
He wasn't the central cause, he was a tool. Jar-Jar was just coaxed into presenting the proposal to grant emergency powers to the chancellor... The rest of the senate were tripping over themselves to approve it.
X Windows isnt an operating system
Windows 3.1 wasn't either.
It seems a silly distinction. Windows facilitates the use of the machine and its resources. It sets the standard for how users interact with the machine, how communication happens between processes, and so on. That it (in its old versions) was not a complete end-to-end operating system is irrelevant to the question of whether it [i]was[/i] an operating system.
Of course, when Windows was originally released (and trademarked), it was a window manager that ran on top of the MS-DOS operating system. It didn't grow into a full operating system until later. The first version was released in 1985. Even when the Windows trademark was filed in 1990, it was still running on top of MS-DOS.
I don't think it's an important distinction, really. The question of whether one operating environment runs within another one, whether one is complete without the other, whether memory protection is provided between the two environments, whether there's a distinct API with no overlap - it really has little to do with what defines an "operating system" IMO.
I see no reason to define "operating system" to mean only something that goes fully end-to-end, from the boot process and the basic functions of resource management, all the way up to the user interface. An operating system is something that facilitates use of the computer, something that sets the standard of how the user interacts with it. Windows did that, even before it cast off the MS-DOS core.
When Martha Stewart will die, it will (at least theoretically) allow her company to treat her name as a fictional mascot, appoint another "Martha Stewart" or pretend that some things the company markets were endorsed by the original Martha Stewart
Ah, kind of like how Haman Khan tried to give her Neo-Zeon movement credibility by parading around the last surviving member of the Zabi family...
more 2001 then Star Wars
THAN.
Actually, 2001, then Star Wars makes kind of a nice double-feature. 2001 provides the substance, while Star Wars, with its more light-hearted, whimsical approach, helps take the edge off after all the seriousness of 2001.
Sounds like too much tolkien and no action!
Let's face it, folks: you can't Tolkien outta anything!
Tolkien Tolkien Tolkien Tolkien Tolkien Tolkien Tolkien Tolkien Tolkien Mushroom! Mushroom! Tolkien Tolkien Tolkien Tolkien A SNAKE! A SNAKE! Oh it's a snake!
Look at him now, it's Magical Tolkien,
He's havin' a show, they're packin' the folk in,
And in due course, disappearing a dwarf
Where is the dwarf? Hidden of course!
Takin' a bow, it's Magical Tolkien,
His assistant's an elf, he ain't no Vulcan,
Look at him there with his leathery, leathery whip,
it's made of Hobbit,
and with a little flick
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the dwarf is back,
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the dwarf is back,
Back, back, back from his magical journey...
What did he see, in the parallel dimension?
He saw nine fell kings on their fell steeds,
Seeking the One Ring, doing evil deeds,
Across the land, doing their dark lord's bidding...
Clearly this was faked by our martian overlords. Whom I welcome, by the way.
Our overlords are displeased with subjects who fail to use "whom" correctly...
Somewhere at home I still have a t-shirt from the launch of the original bondi iMac.
I also left blood on the inside of one of the two display models Australia got issued for the launch roadshow at the technicians training session, damn the shielding around the display was sharp.
Well, this was part of Jobs's long-term business strategy. To make his pact with Satan, he needed to make a blood offering. The normal terms of such a pact are that you take a person, kill them, and offer the blood. But Jobs felt he could get a more mutually beneficial arrangement by turning this one-time blood sacrifice into a more continual source of fresh blood. Satan would have to spend less on refrigeration (and believe me, it costs a lot for Satan to keep blood fresh in between those rare offerings) and (at least according to Jobs) receive more blood overall, and Jobs would have the opportunity to close the deal without committing himself to an act that could have consequences later, while simultaneously consecrating the machines in question...
I'm pretty sure Joel asked them not to do the invention exchange since that was his "thing" (remember he was a prop comic).
Given that it was his "thing" it wouldn't have really made sense for them to continue it anyway... (I mean, what other member of the cast would have been able to fill that role? And would they have even wanted to?)
What are you going to sell to the nerds watching science fiction?
Merchandising!
Hey, I don't know if anybody's mentioned this yet, but you should repeat to yourself "it's just a show, I should really just relax."
You know, if you were wondering about how he eats or breathes, or other science facts.
Of course SGU was Sci-fi. The fact that you, or I for that matter, don't like it doesn't mean it's not sci-fi.
And it's trivial to make a sci-fi show thats about vampires.
Indeed! The real challenge is to make a vampire show about sci-fi! It seems like the whole "vampire" thing would become sort of incidental...
Also, JMS said that he didn't rush anything - all the plot threads relevant to ending the Shadow War and the Earth Alliance civil war were given the amount of time he wanted for them.
Well, I thought it seemed like kind of a rush. Season four starts and it's like, "OK, time for the Shadow War to end and the First Ones to go away, so we can wrap up the civil war thing." Even if it's not the truth, it seemed like season 4 was packed tight, and then with season 5 seeming kind of sparse, that only reinforced the effect.
When they started showing crap like wrestling, ghost hunters and changed their name to that insipid SyFy I knew they were gone for good.
This is the same network that showed "Crossing Over with John Edward" and various other shows tossing around copious amounts of bullshit related to nutjob conspiracy theories, ghost sightings, etc. They were doing this pretty much from the start, as I recall.
(And I did watch at "the start" - FTL newsfeeds, Doctor Who hour... good times...)
Would you be happier if they had never brought it back at all? It was Comedy Central who canned MST3K after season 7, and SciFi who picked them up for 3 more seasons after that.
Yeah, seriously. It's not like MST3K was struck down in its prime, either. The show had ten seasons (on cable, I mean) plus a movie. How many shows manage that? They had a good run. And without the Sci-Fi years we'd have no Prince of Space (aah!)
If your home desktop has RAID, you are probably a nerd incapable of thinking like a normal person ;)
Either that, or you bought a consumer-grade machine that was (stupidly) pre-configured with a RAID. (Dell does this, don't they?)
I'm just wondering when the MacPro is going to be discontinued, what consumer needs 16 cores?
Anybody planning on running Flash.
Wait, so you're saying that flash will use those cores effectively?
And yet another person doesn't understand that "tithing" means giving 10%. No more, no less.
Yeah, we should round up these fools and decimate them! Then we'll be rid of them altogether!
My companies website is hosted on an iMac you insensitive clod!
The Bondi Blue one?
You really should have held out for the Graphite model.
Yes, You can download the Lion Developer Preview, but it requires the App Store App, and the process has been a little quirky. Good Luck!
And you can only get it in Kenya
It's like pointing out that women with rape fantasies don't actually want to be raped for real.
If anyone approved some sort of government grants for this research, they deserved to be real-punched in the dick.
Right, 'cause as we all know there's no point to scientific research into questions we think we already know the answers to...