Rastas use herb to bring on a meditative state while they ponder their religion. I certainly know it has brought on many "zen like" states when I have been working on music or doing other activities. You are able to let go of consciousness a bit and get "in the zone" much more easily. I could see that helping in quite a few similar situations. (And who hasn't felt that "zen like" state playing games sober? You feel like you are just plowing through enemies racking up wins left and right.)
Considering that the vast majority of humanity is creationist in one form or another, that's laughable. However, you're right that we should stand up for our opinions, especially when they are backed by good evidence. It is every person's duty to speak the Truth. Of course some people could be less proud/opinionated and admit to themselves they might be wrong (whether creationist or scientist). When it comes down to it, both science and religion distract us from living many a time; there is much more to life than either of those fields encompasses.
Despite adding to this breathy debate, I will say that, especially from an evolutionary stand point, it is pretty weird to dismiss religion as having no useful contributions to humanity. Science has had a similar number of counter-productive additions to humanity. Plus there's the whole thing with arguing about unprovable theses - no one can win.
Hey at least now we are meta-discussing, right? Now everybody shut up and get back to work:)
Some of us just get tired of this incessant and unresolvable baiting and bickering. And the long stupid rants by both sides of an unresolvable argument. You're wasting your time as well as everyone else's.
Threatening someone's face is not the same, at all, as using public knowledge of vulnerabilities as an incentive to get software manufacturers to code their shit right.
Anything can be mentally addicting; some people will use anything as a security blanket. I doubt these friends of yours developed their antisocial behavior because they smoke weed. On the other hand, there are physically addictive properties of nicotine and alcohol. Also, there is no real withdrawal effect associated with THC or the other cannibinoids.
Completely! This is the future of application design, mark my words ladies and gentleman. It's kind of like paying thousands for a pair of shoes that are less useful or durable when you could buy a $20 pair at Pay-Less. Now if only I can figure out how to get in on the luxury app market...
First of all, don't call me insane. I thought we were having a fucking conversation.
Secondly you are reading into what I am saying. Good private education (especially one on one) is too expensive. Church education isn't bad because it teaches religion - I didn't say that. The close-minded attitude it teaches is the problem. It's a false dichotomy to say that one can't learn about religion and about the sociology of homosexuality (if you read the course description you will see that it is not a class about "how to be gay" despite the title of the class).
So having underpaid teachers with classrooms of 30+ kids
I thought we didn't need more funding!
some people will be successful, and others will not.
That doesn't give them the right to throw all morals out the window. Just because something is legal doesn't make it OK.
Oh yeah--So your idea is to educate the crap out of ourselves because we need to be 'progressive' all the while putting a freeze on any real progress in your town
Oh, they kept the store fronts just fine. But now instead of the local restaurants that were cheaper and better and other local stores we have Quizno's, Pickleman's, Subway, Starbucks, Kaldi's, and clothing stores for rich yuppies. And this is thanks to collusion between one of the wealthy families in town and the city council. So, I'm all for working hard to make something of yourself. The thing is, some people cheat.
I'm not sure where you get that WalMart was more EXPENSIVE
Simple. You move into a town, undersell them for a few years until they are forced to go out of business. Then you raise your prices. The free market doesn't always work in the idealistic way of better product for less money = success.
How the hell have 'evil rich people' manipulated the world into a constant state of war?
Mostly through weapons dealing by America, China, and Russia (backed by the ultra-rich with international ties). And through manipulation of politics by gangs of drug dealers and casino owners. I know it sounds crazy. But this is really happening. Look up the American involvement in South America or the American/Russian/Brittish dealing with the Middle East for the past 100 years. Now we are seeing it with the sale of arms to warring African militias by the Chinese and Russia - it's a battle of influence that has a profound affect on the world. Some of it is because we are human, sure, but it doesn't help for the world's super powers and their backers to foment conflict in nearly every underdeveloped country in the world.
Anyway, I am enjoying this discussion, but I am starting my vacation tomorrow. I am going to download some Reggae and run some other errands. If I can't find time, it was good talking to you.
LOL. Those course aren't ridiculous. I have never seen a problem with studying our own culture intellectually. It's not like anyone is forced to take such classes, either.
Anyway, in reality your ideas would lead to a nation of idiots. It's really that simple. Either everyone receives a sub-par home education or church education, or they are subjected to a massively impersonal international indocrinational "education business." Sounds great.
What have rich people ever done to me? They've brought their filth Wal*Marts to my town and driven out the smaller businesses that were less expensive, they've turned my historic downtown into a posh strip mall for bitches and boners. They've gone out of their way to accommodate vapid yuppies and bring them to my town. They've manipulated the world into a state of constant war for the past 200+ years. The list goes on and on.
Home schooling can be a lot cheaper than private education, sure. On the other hand good education isn't cheap - a 20 student class is less expensive to teach per capita than a 1 student class. Throw in the cost of personal tutors for the more specialized subjects like math, The Sciences, and The Arts, and it's nothing but a losing deal.
With that in mind, and with an immense aversion to an America where through negligence a child's parents have the option to deny their child education, where truancy is legal, and where the rich have the tools to deny us even more of our freedoms, I can only conclude that education should be where it is - firmly in the hands of the people. (Corporate controlled education - HELL NO!)
And we the government is supposed to be spending money on defense. They are not supposed to be spending it on schools.
What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty. - Thomas Jefferson
If the government abolished public schools and the taxes that go along with them, I would have about $200 more per month
I'm calling BS on that. If you are paying $400 a month in taxes, it seems reasonable that you don't have the money to send your child to a decent private school or tutor anyway. (By all means send them off to be indoctrinated at your local church school, though. See how that works out for them.)
We are spending so much more on defense than education. Get your facts straight (assuming you live in the US).
public school... faced with a teacher trying to dumb down the coursework for the biggest retard in the class
Not this fallacy again:( It sure doesn't help that we are taking away funding from the worst schools, either.
english, religious history, and the 'home economics'... geek stuff like programming, and basic electronics, along with political science.
What about history, geography, chemistry, physics, physical exercise, creative arts, music, social skills, etc?
we both hate higher-level math
You hate it? That certainly speaks well for both of you and your ideas about education.
Dumping more money into our schools won't solve the problem.
Yeah. And taking money away from them won't either.
I completely agree, and it would be far worse to have an unstable OS/UI. I guess what I mean though is on, say, Facebook, one can write "emails," chat, blog, twitter, plan events, play games, etc. all from a handy, streamlined UI. And while desktops have had applications to perform all of these tasks, the UI does not allow you to have as much freedom or control. Wouldn't it be great if the desktop UIs were more streamlined and allowed different, actual applications to be presented in a way similar to Facebook? (As a starting point, certainly Facebook's UI has many shortcomings.)
One of the things that seems to confuse average users and clutter the UI is context switching, which happens to a far less extent on these mainframe like interfaces. Now, if we could take the mainframe out of it, present it in a similarly clean way, and combine it with the power of client side executables, we would have a huge leap forward in desktop UI design - and a whole lot less of a mess than people creating multiple custom UIs on top of browsers on top of outdated UIs on top of desktop OSs!
The real problem is that OS technology has remained relatively stagnant for the past ~25 years, not that web development is showing "too much" innovation.
Take a look at all the new websites that have become so popular. Sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, etc. (in many ways) combine traditional "applications" into one UI that is more fluid, integrated, and responsive to its users' needs than any traditional UI/OS.
We have both a natural and legal right to not be searched without a warrant. So yes, by sullying one of the most important legal rights in the US, I would call them treasonous. You're entitled to your opinion (however wrong), but as you are not (personally) giving a free pass to actions that attack the very core of the few good things left about the US legal system, you are not being treasonous. Very close, but, y'know, the First Amendment? Might not matter to you. If the tables were turned you might think I should be thrown into a prison somewhere and left to starve. Maybe not you personally, but there are certainly some (many?) that would.
Slashdot Mirror
Rastas use herb to bring on a meditative state while they ponder their religion. I certainly know it has brought on many "zen like" states when I have been working on music or doing other activities. You are able to let go of consciousness a bit and get "in the zone" much more easily. I could see that helping in quite a few similar situations. (And who hasn't felt that "zen like" state playing games sober? You feel like you are just plowing through enemies racking up wins left and right.)
:(
Damn it is dry in my town at the moment
Creationists are stupid.
Considering that the vast majority of humanity is creationist in one form or another, that's laughable. However, you're right that we should stand up for our opinions, especially when they are backed by good evidence. It is every person's duty to speak the Truth. Of course some people could be less proud/opinionated and admit to themselves they might be wrong (whether creationist or scientist). When it comes down to it, both science and religion distract us from living many a time; there is much more to life than either of those fields encompasses.
Need a living example of the truth of this -- John McCain.
I was with you up to there. I'm not flamebaiting: I'm not particularly fond of Obama either.
Despite adding to this breathy debate, I will say that, especially from an evolutionary stand point, it is pretty weird to dismiss religion as having no useful contributions to humanity. Science has had a similar number of counter-productive additions to humanity. Plus there's the whole thing with arguing about unprovable theses - no one can win.
:)
Hey at least now we are meta-discussing, right? Now everybody shut up and get back to work
Some of us just get tired of this incessant and unresolvable baiting and bickering. And the long stupid rants by both sides of an unresolvable argument. You're wasting your time as well as everyone else's.
Man I would totally hangout with conspiracy theorists if they were passing joints around all the time.
The key rule of any profession is to make things a lot of people can use. Even outside making money. Corollary: Code for you audience.
Hmm... not sure about that one (cf. dictionary.com).
I call poor analogy!
Threatening someone's face is not the same, at all, as using public knowledge of vulnerabilities as an incentive to get software manufacturers to code their shit right.
Apparently this is not true everywhere (e.g. Great Britain).
Anything can be mentally addicting; some people will use anything as a security blanket. I doubt these friends of yours developed their antisocial behavior because they smoke weed. On the other hand, there are physically addictive properties of nicotine and alcohol. Also, there is no real withdrawal effect associated with THC or the other cannibinoids.
Sadly, I will sleep better at night knowing that there is some favorable precedent regarding open licenses.
Everything is crackable; it's a good idea to be obscure most of the time. Relying on obscurity as your only defense is what is a bad idea.
Completely! This is the future of application design, mark my words ladies and gentleman. It's kind of like paying thousands for a pair of shoes that are less useful or durable when you could buy a $20 pair at Pay-Less. Now if only I can figure out how to get in on the luxury app market...
Secondly you are reading into what I am saying. Good private education (especially one on one) is too expensive. Church education isn't bad because it teaches religion - I didn't say that. The close-minded attitude it teaches is the problem. It's a false dichotomy to say that one can't learn about religion and about the sociology of homosexuality (if you read the course description you will see that it is not a class about "how to be gay" despite the title of the class).
So having underpaid teachers with classrooms of 30+ kids
I thought we didn't need more funding!
some people will be successful, and others will not.
That doesn't give them the right to throw all morals out the window. Just because something is legal doesn't make it OK.
Oh yeah--So your idea is to educate the crap out of ourselves because we need to be 'progressive' all the while putting a freeze on any real progress in your town
Oh, they kept the store fronts just fine. But now instead of the local restaurants that were cheaper and better and other local stores we have Quizno's, Pickleman's, Subway, Starbucks, Kaldi's, and clothing stores for rich yuppies. And this is thanks to collusion between one of the wealthy families in town and the city council. So, I'm all for working hard to make something of yourself. The thing is, some people cheat.
I'm not sure where you get that WalMart was more EXPENSIVE
Simple. You move into a town, undersell them for a few years until they are forced to go out of business. Then you raise your prices. The free market doesn't always work in the idealistic way of better product for less money = success.
How the hell have 'evil rich people' manipulated the world into a constant state of war?
Mostly through weapons dealing by America, China, and Russia (backed by the ultra-rich with international ties). And through manipulation of politics by gangs of drug dealers and casino owners. I know it sounds crazy. But this is really happening. Look up the American involvement in South America or the American/Russian/Brittish dealing with the Middle East for the past 100 years. Now we are seeing it with the sale of arms to warring African militias by the Chinese and Russia - it's a battle of influence that has a profound affect on the world. Some of it is because we are human, sure, but it doesn't help for the world's super powers and their backers to foment conflict in nearly every underdeveloped country in the world.
Anyway, I am enjoying this discussion, but I am starting my vacation tomorrow. I am going to download some Reggae and run some other errands. If I can't find time, it was good talking to you.
LOL. Those course aren't ridiculous. I have never seen a problem with studying our own culture intellectually. It's not like anyone is forced to take such classes, either.
Anyway, in reality your ideas would lead to a nation of idiots. It's really that simple. Either everyone receives a sub-par home education or church education, or they are subjected to a massively impersonal international indocrinational "education business." Sounds great.
What have rich people ever done to me? They've brought their filth Wal*Marts to my town and driven out the smaller businesses that were less expensive, they've turned my historic downtown into a posh strip mall for bitches and boners. They've gone out of their way to accommodate vapid yuppies and bring them to my town. They've manipulated the world into a state of constant war for the past 200+ years. The list goes on and on.
With that in mind, and with an immense aversion to an America where through negligence a child's parents have the option to deny their child education, where truancy is legal, and where the rich have the tools to deny us even more of our freedoms, I can only conclude that education should be where it is - firmly in the hands of the people. (Corporate controlled education - HELL NO!)
And we the government is supposed to be spending money on defense. They are not supposed to be spending it on schools.
What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty. - Thomas Jefferson
I get it already ;)
Well, I'll be damned. Learned something about how to correctly look up prefixes in the OED, though :D
If the government abolished public schools and the taxes that go along with them, I would have about $200 more per month
I'm calling BS on that. If you are paying $400 a month in taxes, it seems reasonable that you don't have the money to send your child to a decent private school or tutor anyway. (By all means send them off to be indoctrinated at your local church school, though. See how that works out for them.)
We are spending so much more on defense than education. Get your facts straight (assuming you live in the US).
public school ... faced with a teacher trying to dumb down the coursework for the biggest retard in the class
Not this fallacy again :( It sure doesn't help that we are taking away funding from the worst schools, either.
english, religious history, and the 'home economics' ... geek stuff like programming, and basic electronics, along with political science.
What about history, geography, chemistry, physics, physical exercise, creative arts, music, social skills, etc?
we both hate higher-level math
You hate it? That certainly speaks well for both of you and your ideas about education.
Dumping more money into our schools won't solve the problem.
Yeah. And taking money away from them won't either.
It's jerry-rigged, not "jury-rigged," dammit!
I completely agree, and it would be far worse to have an unstable OS/UI. I guess what I mean though is on, say, Facebook, one can write "emails," chat, blog, twitter, plan events, play games, etc. all from a handy, streamlined UI. And while desktops have had applications to perform all of these tasks, the UI does not allow you to have as much freedom or control. Wouldn't it be great if the desktop UIs were more streamlined and allowed different, actual applications to be presented in a way similar to Facebook? (As a starting point, certainly Facebook's UI has many shortcomings.)
One of the things that seems to confuse average users and clutter the UI is context switching, which happens to a far less extent on these mainframe like interfaces. Now, if we could take the mainframe out of it, present it in a similarly clean way, and combine it with the power of client side executables, we would have a huge leap forward in desktop UI design - and a whole lot less of a mess than people creating multiple custom UIs on top of browsers on top of outdated UIs on top of desktop OSs!
The real problem is that OS technology has remained relatively stagnant for the past ~25 years, not that web development is showing "too much" innovation.
Take a look at all the new websites that have become so popular. Sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, etc. (in many ways) combine traditional "applications" into one UI that is more fluid, integrated, and responsive to its users' needs than any traditional UI/OS.
We have both a natural and legal right to not be searched without a warrant. So yes, by sullying one of the most important legal rights in the US, I would call them treasonous. You're entitled to your opinion (however wrong), but as you are not (personally) giving a free pass to actions that attack the very core of the few good things left about the US legal system, you are not being treasonous. Very close, but, y'know, the First Amendment? Might not matter to you. If the tables were turned you might think I should be thrown into a prison somewhere and left to starve. Maybe not you personally, but there are certainly some (many?) that would.
I wrote my senators. Fat lot of good that shit does. They don't care. This nation needs a serious shakeup NOW.