There *are* passages indicating that no pictures be made of Mohammed. There are also some saying that no pictures be made of *any* man or animal. Which is why mosques, when they have paintings, have only abstract paintings. There is even one which says something like "painters of pictures belong in hell" (not exact quote).
However, these passages are in the hadith, not the Quran. The Hadith are suplementary traditions, and as such are followed to varying degrees by different sects.
In any case, all this is irrelevant. It does not matter whether these beliefs are written anywhere. The fact is, a lot of Muslims hold these beliefs. It doesn't matter if they are written down, because it's not like they suddenly make sense if they are written down. Also, not all religions have a completely literal tradition. In Hinduism, for example, although there are a lot of `holy' books, most Hindus have never read them (even those who describe themselves as religious). The religion has, in practice, an almost entirely *oral* tradition. I hope you would agree that the beliefs of a religion with an oral tradition should not be treated any differently than that of one with a written tradition (and the same should apply for anything in between, such as the hadith).
What is written and what is not, is not important. We need only decide what freedoms one should be willing to sacrifice in order to comply with someone else's belief.
My opinion is, *none*. A religious person should not expect me to comply with beliefs I do not hold.
This usage of the word "pirate" dates to 1603 at least (citation on wikipedia). If you start contesting 400 year old definitions you might have to throw out half the dictionary.
re: SIM.. maybe this used to be the case, but it doesn't work that way now. I got a SIM in germany about a month back, and i didnt have to fill in any form, or show any ID..
however,
1) the legal question about vista search hasn't actually been settled yet, so please don't talk like it has been. i quote from the article:
A hearing to review Microsoft's adherence with the consent decree is scheduled for June 26 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
2) even if eventually it is decided that microsoft needs to provide a link or whatever to GDS, it will still be my opinion that it is unfair (we are allowed to question - though not break - laws, you know) simply because vista search is an OS feature and not an added application in the same way that spotlight is a Mac OSX feature and not an added application.
read my other comment. i was not trying to predict what the law will say, but was giving my opinion on whether it is fair to force microsoft to integrate GDS into their OS. do you realize that there is no real limit to how far you can take this once you start?
is everything other than a kernel not a part of the OS?
but wouldn't you agree that the question isnt always as easy to settle as for solitaire??? and if u have used vista search, then u will know what i mean
why the hate?
do u think saying fuck a few times will prove u correct?
MS bashing is fun, but do realize, that the line between added application and OS feature, is really not that clear cut. i could take things to their logical extreme and argue that everything other than the kernel is not part of the OS.. of course i would be wrong, but the point is, "this is an OS feature, not an application" can sometimes be a very valid argument..
my point about spotlight was this: spotlight and the vista search are the SAME, in terms of the nature of the functionality they offer to the end user... why is one considered an added application while the other is an OS feature?
and just to be clear... I do not know the law, and I am not arguing about the law... it is simply that this time i feel microsoft is justified, and being forced to provide even a link to someone else's program is unfair, and has the potential of being taken to ridiculous extremes..
and no i am not a microsoft fanboy.. in fact i am not even a windows user.. (except for gaming of course)
Yes I am well aware of what the Shiv Sena has done for the city. Are you? If you really know so much, then it can hardly have escaped our attention, that incidents like the one mentioned in the story are something that the Shiv Sena comes up with every other day??? Do you want a list? Since you know so many "facts known to most Mumbaikars" you shouldn't need a reminder, but here goes anyway, in the order that I remember them -The riots they caused because someone(probably them) smeared tar on an irrelevant statue of the wife of Bal Thackeray. (Ironically, a "fact known to most Mumbaikars" is that Bal Thackery cheated on his wife until the day she died) In any case riots for this? Bus burnings? -The whole Valentines day bullshit that they keep coming up with every alternate year? Pillaging shops that sell Valentine's day cards?? -O and here's an idea that died quickly: Do you remember the speech Thackeray gave at Shivaji Park where he said that the Marathi people should organize suicide sqauds to fight terrorism? Fortunately he realized the "brilliance" this idea very soon, and it was never mentioned again. -Burning movie theaters that screen movies they dont like???? Remember Earth? -Beating up hundreds of immigrants coming to Mumbai because they didnt want "outsiders" "stealing" Marathi jobs??
And those were the minor ones.. how about: -Unequivocal support for Muslim killings in the Gujarat riots?? (In their mouthpiece newspaper Samana) -Support for Muslim killings and active participation during the riots in Mumbai? And if you think these facts are not "known to most Mumbaikars" or you dont believe them, look up Amnesity internationals reports on Hindu -Muslim riots for more..
"render India a totalitarian, communist regime" Sorry but I must laugh at this. Anyone with ANY knowledge of the Indian political scene will. The "communist" idealogy is pretty dilute now in India. Since you mention Nandigram. Do you know what the basic issue was? The Communist party supported the building of Special Economic Zones by PRIVATE players to entice capitalist PRIVATE companies into the area. The killings are of course unpardonable, but the point I am making is that this is the extent to which communism in India has been diluted, and nobody dreams of totalitarian communist regimes in the traditional sense. And no I am not a communist in any sense.
Are you claiming that Naxalite attacks are NOT reported by Indian media?????? Slowly i begin to suspect that you are an NRI (Non resident Indian to everyone who deosnt know what that is) living in the USA and with that irritating tendency to preach about matters that they know nothing about. Please correct me if I am wrong. What is certain however, is that Naxalite attacks are very much reported.
And Nandigram... OMFG do you know what you are talking about??? This was all over the news. The news channels obsessed about it day and night until it was pouring out my ears???? Once again.. do you live in India??? On what basis are you saying the media did not report this??
I have never seen you. Therefore it takes me just as much faith to believe in your existance as in Evolution or Creationism.
Secondly, there is a case for arguing that we do in fact see evolution at work (think drug resistant bacterial strains, and small changes of that sort). Since the time scales are so large, we cannot hope to see a really large change of course, since we haven't been looking for long enough.
I vote for Ubuntu.
What i really love about Ubuntu is how the live CD works. You can install apps, and write files and all of it can get saved on a USB drive. It remembers your apps flawlessly between boots.
Knoppix has a similair, but more restricted feature. The Live CD can create a partition on a USB drive and store the/home directory there. It can not, however, easily remember installed apps between boots, as only/home is writable.
And Ubuntu is better than Knoppix anyway IMHO.
Oh except that unlike Knoppix, Ubuntu does not create a partition on your USB drive, it uses the whole thing (AFAIK) so you cannot use that drive at all for anything else
Slashdot Mirror
They are NOT talking about solar cells. Everyone agrees that would be stupid.
Actually, Luxembourg is the biggest by far for per capita gdp. America is 9th. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita
Gates is not comparing himself to Einstein. TFA is comparing him to Einstein.
There *are* passages indicating that no pictures be made of Mohammed. There are also some saying that no pictures be made of *any* man or animal. Which is why mosques, when they have paintings, have only abstract paintings. There is even one which says something like "painters of pictures belong in hell" (not exact quote).
However, these passages are in the hadith, not the Quran. The Hadith are suplementary traditions, and as such are followed to varying degrees by different sects.
In any case, all this is irrelevant. It does not matter whether these beliefs are written anywhere. The fact is, a lot of Muslims hold these beliefs. It doesn't matter if they are written down, because it's not like they suddenly make sense if they are written down. Also, not all religions have a completely literal tradition. In Hinduism, for example, although there are a lot of `holy' books, most Hindus have never read them (even those who describe themselves as religious). The religion has, in practice, an almost entirely *oral* tradition. I hope you would agree that the beliefs of a religion with an oral tradition should not be treated any differently than that of one with a written tradition (and the same should apply for anything in between, such as the hadith).
What is written and what is not, is not important. We need only decide what freedoms one should be willing to sacrifice in order to comply with someone else's belief.
My opinion is, *none*. A religious person should not expect me to comply with beliefs I do not hold.
This usage of the word "pirate" dates to 1603 at least (citation on wikipedia). If you start contesting 400 year old definitions you might have to throw out half the dictionary.
its a hell of a lot cheaper than a bunch of rockets (if built of course ;)
RTFA.. their target cost is $400/lb.. thats several orders of magnitude cheaper than rockets
re: SIM.. maybe this used to be the case, but it doesn't work that way now. I got a SIM in germany about a month back, and i didnt have to fill in any form, or show any ID..
however,
1) the legal question about vista search hasn't actually been settled yet, so please don't talk like it has been. i quote from the article:
A hearing to review Microsoft's adherence with the consent decree is scheduled for June 26 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
2) even if eventually it is decided that microsoft needs to provide a link or whatever to GDS, it will still be my opinion that it is unfair (we are allowed to question - though not break - laws, you know) simply because vista search is an OS feature and not an added application in the same way that spotlight is a Mac OSX feature and not an added application.
read my other comment. i was not trying to predict what the law will say, but was giving my opinion on whether it is fair to force microsoft to integrate GDS into their OS. do you realize that there is no real limit to how far you can take this once you start?
is everything other than a kernel not a part of the OS?
but wouldn't you agree that the question isnt always as easy to settle as for solitaire??? and if u have used vista search, then u will know what i mean
why the hate?
.. (except for gaming of course)
do u think saying fuck a few times will prove u correct?
MS bashing is fun, but do realize, that the line between added application and OS feature, is really not that clear cut. i could take things to their logical extreme and argue that everything other than the kernel is not part of the OS.. of course i would be wrong, but the point is, "this is an OS feature, not an application" can sometimes be a very valid argument..
my point about spotlight was this: spotlight and the vista search are the SAME, in terms of the nature of the functionality they offer to the end user... why is one considered an added application while the other is an OS feature?
and just to be clear... I do not know the law, and I am not arguing about the law... it is simply that this time i feel microsoft is justified, and being forced to provide even a link to someone else's program is unfair, and has the potential of being taken to ridiculous extremes..
and no i am not a microsoft fanboy.. in fact i am not even a windows user
well do you really expect anyone to integrate a third party search into their OS?
why dont people sue apple for Spotlight?
i just knew they use them to watch bad movies. or even better.. porn with a million Teraflops???
Could we then factor large numbers by having sex???? As if we needed another reason to do it!
First. I have lived in Bombay all my life.
Yes I am well aware of what the Shiv Sena has done for the city. Are you?
If you really know so much, then it can hardly have escaped our attention, that incidents like the one mentioned in the story are something that the Shiv Sena comes up with every other day??? Do you want a list? Since you know so many "facts known to most Mumbaikars" you shouldn't need a reminder, but here goes anyway, in the order that I remember them
-The riots they caused because someone(probably them) smeared tar on an irrelevant statue of the wife of Bal Thackeray. (Ironically, a "fact known to most Mumbaikars" is that Bal Thackery cheated on his wife until the day she died) In any case riots for this? Bus burnings?
-The whole Valentines day bullshit that they keep coming up with every alternate year? Pillaging shops that sell Valentine's day cards??
-O and here's an idea that died quickly: Do you remember the speech Thackeray gave at Shivaji Park where he said that the Marathi people should organize suicide sqauds to fight terrorism? Fortunately he realized the "brilliance" this idea very soon, and it was never mentioned again.
-Burning movie theaters that screen movies they dont like???? Remember Earth?
-Beating up hundreds of immigrants coming to Mumbai because they didnt want "outsiders" "stealing" Marathi jobs??
And those were the minor ones.. how about:
-Unequivocal support for Muslim killings in the Gujarat riots?? (In their mouthpiece newspaper Samana)
-Support for Muslim killings and active participation during the riots in Mumbai?
And if you think these facts are not "known to most Mumbaikars" or you dont believe them, look up Amnesity internationals reports on Hindu -Muslim riots for more..
"render India a totalitarian, communist regime"
Sorry but I must laugh at this. Anyone with ANY knowledge of the Indian political scene will. The "communist" idealogy is pretty dilute now in India. Since you mention Nandigram. Do you know what the basic issue was? The Communist party supported the building of Special Economic Zones by PRIVATE players to entice capitalist PRIVATE companies into the area. The killings are of course unpardonable, but the point I am making is that this is the extent to which communism in India has been diluted, and nobody dreams of totalitarian communist regimes in the traditional sense. And no I am not a communist in any sense.
Are you claiming that Naxalite attacks are NOT reported by Indian media?????? Slowly i begin to suspect that you are an NRI (Non resident Indian to everyone who deosnt know what that is) living in the USA and with that irritating tendency to preach about matters that they know nothing about. Please correct me if I am wrong.
What is certain however, is that Naxalite attacks are very much reported.
And Nandigram... OMFG do you know what you are talking about??? This was all over the news. The news channels obsessed about it day and night until it was pouring out my ears???? Once again.. do you live in India??? On what basis are you saying the media did not report this??
I have never seen you. Therefore it takes me just as much faith to believe in your existance as in Evolution or Creationism.
Secondly, there is a case for arguing that we do in fact see evolution at work (think drug resistant bacterial strains, and small changes of that sort). Since the time scales are so large, we cannot hope to see a really large change of course, since we haven't been looking for long enough.
I vote for Ubuntu. What i really love about Ubuntu is how the live CD works. You can install apps, and write files and all of it can get saved on a USB drive. It remembers your apps flawlessly between boots. Knoppix has a similair, but more restricted feature. The Live CD can create a partition on a USB drive and store the /home directory there. It can not, however, easily remember installed apps between boots, as only /home is writable.
And Ubuntu is better than Knoppix anyway IMHO.
Oh except that unlike Knoppix, Ubuntu does not create a partition on your USB drive, it uses the whole thing (AFAIK) so you cannot use that drive at all for anything else