I do understand what is meant by scientific theory, but just because a belief is dressed up in big words and big ideas does not change the fact that it is a belief.
Apparently you don't understand what's meant be scientific theory. By definition, it's a not a belief, but involves rigorous testing and data collection, and the burden of proof is on the party claiming the theory explains the observations and data. It's a process, and theories are refined, and even contradicted and replaced if data refuting the theory exists and the results can be reliably repeated.
There's no such process with beliefs.
His point is that a "scientific theory" has a more precise definition than the colloquial understanding the term "theory". In laymen's terms, it's an explanation that fits observed/observable facts. Wikipedia gives a more detailed description of the semantical differences in the opening paragraphs in the article on "theory".
(Note: This is gonna get a bit rambly, and stream of consciousness, but it does address some of what you wrote.)
"Give peace a chance."
That sentiment is nice... until the other guy rolls over you in a tank.
Human beings are violent, and will never cease to be violent. And it's a good thing when harnessed at the right time. After all, it's a violent planet.
Delusional animal rights activists like to tell us that human beings invented warfare, and the animal kingdom is all sunshine and lollipops. That's a crock. Animals injure and kill each other over food, territory, and mates all the time. If that's not what warfare is at its core, I don't know what is.
I'm not saying war is good. I'm saying it's inextricably linked to human nature, or so I'm lead to believe by science (evolution) and by theology (Original Sin) that we're at war with our violent nature all the time.
The fundamental misunderstanding that peace activists seem to have is that peace is a means to achieve something. Peace isn't a means to achieve something, it's an end. Peace, to me, is the state where because there's justice, and people are able to enjoy the fruits of their labor unharrassed, there's no need to resort to violence. But when this state is upset, various means, up to and including violence may be necessary to restore peace. Peace is an end... a goal to achieve. Violence is a means to achieve a goal.
Um... it had to die because it was loose and could have attacked anybody. The cops arrived on the scene, and put the animal down to protect themselves and others.
The law of the jungle: kill or be killed.
Acting as a government agency, they have the responsibility to balance the rights of all involved. You have a right to speak. You do not have the right to deny someone the education they paid for (their "property"). Your right to swing your arm ends at someone else's nose.
Acting as a school, they have to look out for the rights of students who pay large amounts of money for a the priviledge to attend classes and be educated.
Acting as a community, they once again have to balance the concerns of the community as a whole, not just one loud, non-representative group. (I'm not saying "non-representative" to trash the message... just that they are a small group of students compared to the student body as a whole).
The "free speech zones" are intended to handle the concerns of all involved. Free exchange of ideas? Check. Keeping high noise levels away from people trying to concentrate on a lecture? Check.
How is this a problem?
[The rich] should pay the most, they earn the most.
There. Fixed it.:P
The rich already pay the most, and in fact pay a larger percentage of the taxes in the United States than they did when Bush took office in 2000.
This class warfare against people who get ahead by working hard and risking capital has got to stop. They're paying their fair share. They're paying more than their fair share.
Unless you mean "National Budget Deficit" (which is completely different, but frequently confused) then I don't think we have a National Debt, considering all the money other countries owe the USA.
Secondly, why should we have to wait to reduce the national debt and/or budget deficit first before we get a tax break? Tax revenues went up under Bush's tax cuts. Of course, he screwed it up with allowing and engaging in pork-barrel spending with Congress, but the moral of the story to me is that cutting taxes was a good thing. The problem is rampant spending.
I purchased my Wii around late August/early September. The only Wii titles I own are Wii Sports, Madden NFL 2008, and Super Mario Galaxy.
I've not played Super Mario Sunshine, so I can't compare Galaxy on that front, but Super Mario Galaxy feels like a proper follow-up to Super Mario 64. In fact, in terms of play mechanics, I think surpasses SM64 as the heavyweight champ of platforming. While it's not the only game to mess with gravity-based platforming challenges (the arcade game Strider's space station levels come to mind), it's the first one to use them as the basis of the over 50% of the game. While the disorientation can be frustrating at times, even the most difficult levels are never so hard as to make one give up. Miyamoto is a firm, but fair taskmaster.:P
If the only way democracy can work is through an enlightened populace, then no voting system will cure the flaws present in people. There... Fixed it.:P
Make something idiot-proof, and they'll just a bigger idiot.
I have to say that political or socially conscious messages in video games aren't new. The whole Metal Gear Solid mythos (and Kojima's other games like Zone of the Enders) deal with everything from the threat of nuclear proliferation, to censorship, to the futility and tragedy of war, to how the allies of today can become the enemies of tomorrow and vice versa. Some of the themes are a bit too blatant for my tastes (though that may be a function of the translation from Japanese to Western culture), but I still think they added depth to the story, and help make MGS a classic.
To hear the description of this story idea, I think the writer may be barking up the wrong tree if he's going to take such a blatant "blame America for terrorism" tack. It's one thing to express your opinion in a story, but I tend to prefer art that's left up to interpretation (which I think the MGS games did, even as they made clear Kojima's perspective).
In the Metal Gear games, Snake is Anglo-Japanese. I don't remember exactly where I saw it, but I've heard it stated that it was an attempt to give the player an avatar that appealed to audiences in Japan, North America, and Europe. Not that I think it mattered, ultimately.
The failure of this type of policy was when they designed Raiden (MGS2's main character) to have broader appeal (adding women to the equation by making him bishounen). This alienated some of the hardcore fans of the series.
Sometimes I think overthinking the issue of the player character's race can lead more problems than making the character a non-descript *default* race (e.g. it's not specified or referred to at all).
So, there you go, it's once again a matter of information and - I guess - education. Lack of proper education and medienkompetenz in both politics and population mixed with overzealous right-wing politicians, guess what kind of laws this will spawn... [/rant]
I whole-heartedly agree, with the caveat that it's not just the right wing politicans that engage in patronizing attempts to protect the people from themselves. You need only look at New York City's recent ban of trans-fatty acids in cooking in all restaurants in the city. New York City is widely considered one of the most left-wing cities in the US, but there, they're banning something people can avoid by simply NOT EATING IT.
Nanny-staters come in all colors of the political rainbow.
So you turn up your nose at the popular "mainstream" franchise titles. Apparently Madden isn't intellectual enough.
I dislike when people just drip sarcastic, intellectual elitism all over the place because their own pet book/game/movie/etc. just isn't popular with the general public. God forbid someone like sports titles (Madden), or arcade racing (Need for Speed). And for Pete's sake... Sims (if not all the spin-offs) is the responsibility of geek hero Will Wright.
I like my share of esoteric software titles or movies, and I'm proud of it, but I don't trash "popular" culture like it's somehow beneath me.
For a console game that gets this more or less right, see Metal Gear Solid 2 and up (and the GameCube MGS: The Twin Snakes).
Bodies can still disappear for garbage collection under 2 conditions:
The body is discovered by a guard, who presumably checks the body's pulse, and when he finds him dead, the body is cleared from the playfield, and he guard radios in the alert.
The body was a member of an attack team sent in to find and attack your character during an alert. The bodies are cleared to keep from cluttering the area, and to make consessions for RAM limitations since reinforcements will continue to arrive for each attacker killed until a preset limit have been taken out, or you manage to elude your pursuers for a set amount of time.
Soliders will notice the dead or unconscious, and react accordingly, so hiding these dead or KOed soliders in lockers, dumping them over the side of the ship, or hiding them behind those crates over there, etc. becomes important. And if you opted to go non-lethal, you need to often act quickly since the soldier will wake up at some point, and either call in an alert, or go back to his partol route (depending on how he wound up unconscious).
There are limitations, but the developers worked well within them I think.
I am, however, ripping off these huge evil corporations.
...
Either way. If I want to support my favorite artist, I will download their entire discography, not pay a cent for it all (just to show how much I agree with them that these recording companies are mostly pure evil), and then go to their concerts or live shows.
Which you'll attend by paying large sums of money to a "huge evil corporation" like TicketMaster.
THEN they'll be getting
...pennies on the dollar of...
my money...
:D
Do you want the truth? Many artists don't get their fair cut from the record company. But the solution to this is for artists to distribute their music to paying customers directly, and those customers to honor the spirit of the artist's copyrights, as the indie music scene has done for years, and the internet helps make wider distribution possible. A friend of mine is heavily involved in the online indie music scene, and huge critic of the RIAA and MPAA's abusive DRM schemes. But the way to beat them is to not patronize them, if you feel that strongly about it. Free market FTW.
One reason for this difference in news coverage, I think, is that the mainstream news editors don't understand tech news all that well, so they err on the side caution.
And yet they'll print sensational news stories about global warming, or the latest medical or scientific study, or the latest babble from the "Center for Science in the Public Interest" without the slightest idea about the process of scientific inquiry, or without printing the opposing viewpoints within the scientific community.
Erring on the side of caution indeed...
Slashdot Mirror
His point is that a "scientific theory" has a more precise definition than the colloquial understanding the term "theory". In laymen's terms, it's an explanation that fits observed/observable facts. Wikipedia gives a more detailed description of the semantical differences in the opening paragraphs in the article on "theory".
"Give peace a chance."
That sentiment is nice... until the other guy rolls over you in a tank.
Human beings are violent, and will never cease to be violent. And it's a good thing when harnessed at the right time. After all, it's a violent planet.
Delusional animal rights activists like to tell us that human beings invented warfare, and the animal kingdom is all sunshine and lollipops. That's a crock. Animals injure and kill each other over food, territory, and mates all the time. If that's not what warfare is at its core, I don't know what is.
I'm not saying war is good. I'm saying it's inextricably linked to human nature, or so I'm lead to believe by science (evolution) and by theology (Original Sin) that we're at war with our violent nature all the time.
The fundamental misunderstanding that peace activists seem to have is that peace is a means to achieve something. Peace isn't a means to achieve something, it's an end. Peace, to me, is the state where because there's justice, and people are able to enjoy the fruits of their labor unharrassed, there's no need to resort to violence. But when this state is upset, various means, up to and including violence may be necessary to restore peace. Peace is an end... a goal to achieve. Violence is a means to achieve a goal.
Um... it had to die because it was loose and could have attacked anybody. The cops arrived on the scene, and put the animal down to protect themselves and others. The law of the jungle: kill or be killed.
Acting as a government agency, they have the responsibility to balance the rights of all involved. You have a right to speak. You do not have the right to deny someone the education they paid for (their "property"). Your right to swing your arm ends at someone else's nose. Acting as a school, they have to look out for the rights of students who pay large amounts of money for a the priviledge to attend classes and be educated. Acting as a community, they once again have to balance the concerns of the community as a whole, not just one loud, non-representative group. (I'm not saying "non-representative" to trash the message... just that they are a small group of students compared to the student body as a whole). The "free speech zones" are intended to handle the concerns of all involved. Free exchange of ideas? Check. Keeping high noise levels away from people trying to concentrate on a lecture? Check. How is this a problem?
False. Freedom of speech isn't intended to insulate you from criticism. It's intended to prevent you from being prosecuted for speaking.
Unless you mean "National Budget Deficit" (which is completely different, but frequently confused) then I don't think we have a National Debt, considering all the money other countries owe the USA. Secondly, why should we have to wait to reduce the national debt and/or budget deficit first before we get a tax break? Tax revenues went up under Bush's tax cuts. Of course, he screwed it up with allowing and engaging in pork-barrel spending with Congress, but the moral of the story to me is that cutting taxes was a good thing. The problem is rampant spending.
I purchased my Wii around late August/early September. The only Wii titles I own are Wii Sports, Madden NFL 2008, and Super Mario Galaxy. I've not played Super Mario Sunshine, so I can't compare Galaxy on that front, but Super Mario Galaxy feels like a proper follow-up to Super Mario 64. In fact, in terms of play mechanics, I think surpasses SM64 as the heavyweight champ of platforming. While it's not the only game to mess with gravity-based platforming challenges (the arcade game Strider's space station levels come to mind), it's the first one to use them as the basis of the over 50% of the game. While the disorientation can be frustrating at times, even the most difficult levels are never so hard as to make one give up. Miyamoto is a firm, but fair taskmaster. :P
Make something idiot-proof, and they'll just a bigger idiot.
I have to say that political or socially conscious messages in video games aren't new. The whole Metal Gear Solid mythos (and Kojima's other games like Zone of the Enders) deal with everything from the threat of nuclear proliferation, to censorship, to the futility and tragedy of war, to how the allies of today can become the enemies of tomorrow and vice versa. Some of the themes are a bit too blatant for my tastes (though that may be a function of the translation from Japanese to Western culture), but I still think they added depth to the story, and help make MGS a classic. To hear the description of this story idea, I think the writer may be barking up the wrong tree if he's going to take such a blatant "blame America for terrorism" tack. It's one thing to express your opinion in a story, but I tend to prefer art that's left up to interpretation (which I think the MGS games did, even as they made clear Kojima's perspective).
In the Metal Gear games, Snake is Anglo-Japanese. I don't remember exactly where I saw it, but I've heard it stated that it was an attempt to give the player an avatar that appealed to audiences in Japan, North America, and Europe. Not that I think it mattered, ultimately. The failure of this type of policy was when they designed Raiden (MGS2's main character) to have broader appeal (adding women to the equation by making him bishounen). This alienated some of the hardcore fans of the series. Sometimes I think overthinking the issue of the player character's race can lead more problems than making the character a non-descript *default* race (e.g. it's not specified or referred to at all).
So you turn up your nose at the popular "mainstream" franchise titles. Apparently Madden isn't intellectual enough. I dislike when people just drip sarcastic, intellectual elitism all over the place because their own pet book/game/movie/etc. just isn't popular with the general public. God forbid someone like sports titles (Madden), or arcade racing (Need for Speed). And for Pete's sake... Sims (if not all the spin-offs) is the responsibility of geek hero Will Wright. I like my share of esoteric software titles or movies, and I'm proud of it, but I don't trash "popular" culture like it's somehow beneath me.
- The body is discovered by a guard, who presumably checks the body's pulse, and when he finds him dead, the body is cleared from the playfield, and he guard radios in the alert.
- The body was a member of an attack team sent in to find and attack your character during an alert. The bodies are cleared to keep from cluttering the area, and to make consessions for RAM limitations since reinforcements will continue to arrive for each attacker killed until a preset limit have been taken out, or you manage to elude your pursuers for a set amount of time.
Soliders will notice the dead or unconscious, and react accordingly, so hiding these dead or KOed soliders in lockers, dumping them over the side of the ship, or hiding them behind those crates over there, etc. becomes important. And if you opted to go non-lethal, you need to often act quickly since the soldier will wake up at some point, and either call in an alert, or go back to his partol route (depending on how he wound up unconscious). There are limitations, but the developers worked well within them I think.Do you want the truth? Many artists don't get their fair cut from the record company. But the solution to this is for artists to distribute their music to paying customers directly, and those customers to honor the spirit of the artist's copyrights, as the indie music scene has done for years, and the internet helps make wider distribution possible. A friend of mine is heavily involved in the online indie music scene, and huge critic of the RIAA and MPAA's abusive DRM schemes. But the way to beat them is to not patronize them, if you feel that strongly about it. Free market FTW.