I'm glad to hear there are others who have realized this. I agree wholeheartedly. It's bugged me quite a bit that the folks doing this research feel confident that more than 90% of our genetic information is meaningless.
What would people think if someone claimed to finally decode the mysterious "Russian" language, and announced that it was 90% meaningless?
Nature isn't that wasteful, and it wouldn't carry around 90% of the DNA for no good reason. Didn't some doctors used to think that the heart was a useless organ? Even the tonsils are somewhat useful. The appendix seems to be one of the few examples of wastefulness. So maybe if I heard that less than 10% of DNA was meaningless I could believe it.
Fact is, we barely know anything about what our DNA means. I'd bet there's a lot more to it than the straight protien mappings that we know about now. I am very excited to see the developments over my lifetime in figuring it out. But when I hear these reports, I wonder if the folks doing it are even qualified. If they don't know what it means, they should just say so and keep working at it.
My original post clearly stated that I know there are a lot of sensitive, non-violent men, so there was nothing self-centered about it.
My comment about the majority was based on the fact that 8 out of 12 replies to the original post were simply sexist comments like "dumb cunt" and "wanna fuck?". That makes a majority. I'm just pointing out facts, not making assumptions. Those were all real comments made to be read by real people. It doesn't matter that they were trolls, it just indicated that the majority of men, in this forum at least, take an aggressive sexist stance rather than intelligent disagreement.
And by that token, I assume, standing up against racism is somehow undermining tolerance? And the Jews in Europe would have been better off doing their own fighting, since any assistance would certainly make them feel like a bunch of sissies.
The problem is, you (or at least your troll alter ego) still sees some type of team distinction between men and women. I'm quite sure that women can handle anything men throw at them (they have for all of recorded history, after all). That still doesn't make it polite.
Get over it. Girls wear belly shirts, and guys stare at their breasts. Both enjoy the experience
Got no problem with that. But I don't like sexist verbal abuse about PMS and phrases like "dumb cunt" being thrown around whenever a woman disagrees with the slashdot guy club.
Oh, and have you ever had the fun of being "pussy whipped" as you so kindly put it? Don't put down what you don't know, mate:)
I think that "hardwired" means "unchangable". The examples you gave are of initial reactions.
I agree with the original post that humans are not hardwired for anything. They certainly have inborn tendancies, but can, through self re-programming, change those tendancies.
For example, I _can_ walk on a glass table top now, and if you flick near my face a couple times, I'll be able to hold my eyes open after a couple tries.
There are even people who can maintain absolute calm as they are consumed by flames, like that Monk who protested the Vietnam war by lighting himself on fire.
Pretty incredible, when you think about it. And maybe something unique to mankind...
Apparently the person who marked the above comment as flamebait thinks it's appropriate to make scathing sexist comments in a public forum like Slashdot. Nice to know where people stand on this.
Sorry, but you're way off. Fat & ugly people can get laid quite well. I know, I'm one of them. The ones who can't get laid are usually jerks who won't put out the effort to build a mutually beneficial relationship with a woman.
The best sex takes place on a much higher level than what the media has led us to believe.
Are you really so naive as to think that any opinion substantially different than those held by you and your friends is some type of con?
It doesn't matter whether the original post was a troll or not. I couldn't care less - what I pointed out in my post was that the responses were garbage: reactionary misogynistic crap. They were totally inappropriate even in response to a troll, because real women read slashdot and probably get tired of seing women (real or not) shat upon every time they dare speak an opinion that doesn't fall in line with the male masses.
I just have to say that, as a married man, I am very disappointed at the responses that the original post generated. The comments were degrading and verbally abusive. I could literally smell the seething testosterone in this thread.
Funny thing is, I didn't even agree with Lover's Arrival, and I was going to post a rebuttal, but upon reading the replies I can only shake my head and admit that - in general - she's right.
I personally enjoy both porn and violent video games to some degree. I am also, however, a sensitive and completely non-violent person in my actual life. I know there are a lot of men like me.
However, as is made apparent by this thread, the majority (or lowest common denominator) male is really an inconsiderate sex-crazed propagation machine. At least on slashdot. I hope that some of you can grow into real humans some day.
First, I want to thank you for taking the time to discuss:)
My other observation though was that if you still want to keep the financial "freedoms", why isn't current copyright good enough?
I think there's some confusion here - copyright is the foundation of licenses - even the GPL relies on copyright. Copyright simply states that the creator has "final say" in what happens to their work. The license then states what that "final say" is.
the license is stating that no one can make money from distribution of your work
Actually I'm just stating that if they want to make money from distribution that they have to talk to me first. It would then be dependent on the situation, but I'd probably say, "Sure! As long as I get a fair cut!".
I think that there is a possible market for media promoted in this way - perhaps one could get popular through free (as in beer) grass roots distribution, and then a publisher offers to pick up the work and sell it to the Wal-Mart crowd, giving the artist a cut. It's not too different than what happens now, except the artist is in control instead of the publisher.
I'd be glad to hear any further thoughts you have!
Seriously, though, it all depends on which definition of "free" you are talking about, and about how much freedom qualifies as free. There's no such thing as complete freedom, even with the GPL or BSD licenses.
The freedom I'm offering with my license is freedom to do anything except earn money off it. That is quite a bit of freedom, when you think of it - certainly more than most art being distributed these days.
I've been working on a non-profit site for independent art promotion called Indigarden, which includes among other things, a free art licence somewhat similar to the one being discussed here. I haven't had it looked over by a lawyer yet, but plan to do that soon.
One of the main differences, is that I've tried to work into the license protection from others profiting from your work, because as an artist, that's what I fear. I'm alright with people passing my artwork around, but if they've got a way to make money with it, they need to work out a deal with me. I'd be interested in hearing comments from other artists (and non-artists) - how they feel about this.
The site also includes a voting system that allows collaborative filtering. I haven't promoted it at all yet, so there's not a large selection of stuff in the database, but if anyone wants to take a look, or to add stuff to the collection, they're more than welcome.
After the brutal crucifiction of their son Jimmy Smiles by a couple of local young upstanding Christian boys, parents of the victim have announced a lawsuit against the alleged creator of the universe. Apparently the methodical murder was carried out in explicit detail, using the Bible as a "textbook for murder".
The parents purchased a copy of "The Bible" and read it. "I was appalled," said Jimmy's father Ted Smiles, "I had no idea that such a brutal and descriptive text existed on how to torture and kill.". The book apparently also teaches that crucified people can "rise from the dead", calling into question, in troubled minds, the finality of their actions.
Furthermore, the two attackers were actually brought to a school each Sunday whose only purpose was to teach from this book. "If that's not sickening, then I don't know what is," noted Jimmy's mother.
This isn't the first time that Christian teachings have been implicated in violent acts. Professor Reuben Fitzgerald noted the violent "crusades" of earlier centuries. "It is astonishing that this material is still so easy to get - even for youngsters. Surely it should be restricted, or perhaps even banned."
Jimmy Smiles was described as a gentle and sweet boy who liked to ride his bike, write stories, and play video games like Doom, Quake, and Unreal Tournament.
Some volunteers are simply allowing others to observe and record parts of their conversation with AOL's servers.
If someone actually put up a proxy server, AOL would add restrictions to the EULA in a second, and then sue anyone who was "letting others observer and record parts of their conversation".
Who cares about AIM anyways? Let AOL keep their system - just use something else. If people stopped using AIM, AOL would eventually have to make it compatible with the other systems anyway, like they had to do with email.
Applications - Web or otherwise - consist of code and data. In the current architecture of Web applications, there must be a strict partition between code and data because HTML can only describe data and has no ability to compute. But there is no real difference between an application and an interactive document. An interactive document is just an application housing mostly static data (text and graphics) with very little code (the interactive part).
I couldn't disagree more with this theory. After years of web development, including for one of the highest volume dynamic sites in the world, I believe there should be a strict separation between data, formatting, and interactivity. Every place I've worked has eventually come to the same conclusions:
content writers don't want to know layout
layout designers don't want to know programming
programmers don't want to do layout or writing
Of course these are generalizations, but keeping these things seperate (at least keeping programming separate from the other two) has proven to work for the better. It's easier to find people, too.
It's kind of like suggesting that a novel include alternating languages from paragraph to paragraph.
Few people would be able to enjoy it!
Can both sides at least agree to call each other by their chosen names, "pro-life" and "pro-choice"? I'm tired of all the name-calling and propaganda tactics.
I'd also like to remind everyone that the vast majority of people who are pro-life are as disgusted by these extremist acts of violence as the everyone else.
This is a tough issue, and we'll never all agree, but I let's at least be civilized about it.
All the "Blair Witch", in the long term, proved was that "Grass Roots" couldn't do it more than once (re: the major flop that BWP2 was).
That doesn't make any sense because BW2 wasn't grass roots at all. Rather, it was exactly what we've come to expect from Hollywood. Maybe it's impossible for a sequel to be grass roots by it's very nature, but in any case BW2 certainly wasn't. It discarded every single element that made the first film special. All BW2 shows is that Artisan didn't know how to properly cash in on grass roots support.
The lives of millions and their living conditions is a lot more important than the continued existance of some obscure far away plant or animal.
Good thing we found penicillin before too many folks started thinking like that. I wonder what other useful stuff we'd discover if we weren't so preoccupied with our own passing coolness.
he will... become the fastest man to break the sound barrier unaided
At first I assumed this was a typo, but then I remembered that the speed of sound isn't constant, and depends on the air pressure. Although likely unintentional, is there any truth to the statement? That he will be the "fastest" man to break the sound barrier? I forget which way it goes (I would think slower at higher altitudes/lower pressure...)
Slashdot Mirror
Bye bye Karma.
That's what running a big business is all about. Mc Donalds, Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart...
You don't make much money catering to the elite.
I concede that you could be right on both counts. Thanks for the reply :)
What would people think if someone claimed to finally decode the mysterious "Russian" language, and announced that it was 90% meaningless?
Nature isn't that wasteful, and it wouldn't carry around 90% of the DNA for no good reason. Didn't some doctors used to think that the heart was a useless organ? Even the tonsils are somewhat useful. The appendix seems to be one of the few examples of wastefulness. So maybe if I heard that less than 10% of DNA was meaningless I could believe it.
Fact is, we barely know anything about what our DNA means. I'd bet there's a lot more to it than the straight protien mappings that we know about now. I am very excited to see the developments over my lifetime in figuring it out. But when I hear these reports, I wonder if the folks doing it are even qualified. If they don't know what it means, they should just say so and keep working at it.
Expect Apple to include their next revisions - they're nuts about silent computers.
My comment about the majority was based on the fact that 8 out of 12 replies to the original post were simply sexist comments like "dumb cunt" and "wanna fuck?". That makes a majority. I'm just pointing out facts, not making assumptions. Those were all real comments made to be read by real people. It doesn't matter that they were trolls, it just indicated that the majority of men, in this forum at least, take an aggressive sexist stance rather than intelligent disagreement.
I'd like to reply to your thoughts, but I'm afraid of wasting my breath on a nameless AC who won't read anything I've written.
The problem is, you (or at least your troll alter ego) still sees some type of team distinction between men and women. I'm quite sure that women can handle anything men throw at them (they have for all of recorded history, after all). That still doesn't make it polite.
And I like polite.
Got no problem with that. But I don't like sexist verbal abuse about PMS and phrases like "dumb cunt" being thrown around whenever a woman disagrees with the slashdot guy club.
Oh, and have you ever had the fun of being "pussy whipped" as you so kindly put it? Don't put down what you don't know, mate :)
I agree with the original post that humans are not hardwired for anything. They certainly have inborn tendancies, but can, through self re-programming, change those tendancies.
For example, I _can_ walk on a glass table top now, and if you flick near my face a couple times, I'll be able to hold my eyes open after a couple tries.
There are even people who can maintain absolute calm as they are consumed by flames, like that Monk who protested the Vietnam war by lighting himself on fire.
Pretty incredible, when you think about it. And maybe something unique to mankind...
Apparently the person who marked the above comment as flamebait thinks it's appropriate to make scathing sexist comments in a public forum like Slashdot. Nice to know where people stand on this.
Next - Sex != women bouncing around in g-strings to promote a new product. This is called exploitation.
The best sex takes place on a much higher level than what the media has led us to believe.
It doesn't matter whether the original post was a troll or not. I couldn't care less - what I pointed out in my post was that the responses were garbage: reactionary misogynistic crap. They were totally inappropriate even in response to a troll, because real women read slashdot and probably get tired of seing women (real or not) shat upon every time they dare speak an opinion that doesn't fall in line with the male masses.
Now go back into your cave.
Funny thing is, I didn't even agree with Lover's Arrival, and I was going to post a rebuttal, but upon reading the replies I can only shake my head and admit that - in general - she's right.
I personally enjoy both porn and violent video games to some degree. I am also, however, a sensitive and completely non-violent person in my actual life. I know there are a lot of men like me.
However, as is made apparent by this thread, the majority (or lowest common denominator) male is really an inconsiderate sex-crazed propagation machine. At least on slashdot. I hope that some of you can grow into real humans some day.
Ugh.
Good luck, Lover's Arrival.
My other observation though was that if you still want to keep the financial "freedoms", why isn't current copyright good enough?
I think there's some confusion here - copyright is the foundation of licenses - even the GPL relies on copyright. Copyright simply states that the creator has "final say" in what happens to their work. The license then states what that "final say" is.
the license is stating that no one can make money from distribution of your work
Actually I'm just stating that if they want to make money from distribution that they have to talk to me first. It would then be dependent on the situation, but I'd probably say, "Sure! As long as I get a fair cut!".
I think that there is a possible market for media promoted in this way - perhaps one could get popular through free (as in beer) grass roots distribution, and then a publisher offers to pick up the work and sell it to the Wal-Mart crowd, giving the artist a cut. It's not too different than what happens now, except the artist is in control instead of the publisher.
I'd be glad to hear any further thoughts you have!
Seriously, though, it all depends on which definition of "free" you are talking about, and about how much freedom qualifies as free. There's no such thing as complete freedom, even with the GPL or BSD licenses.
The freedom I'm offering with my license is freedom to do anything except earn money off it. That is quite a bit of freedom, when you think of it - certainly more than most art being distributed these days.
One of the main differences, is that I've tried to work into the license protection from others profiting from your work, because as an artist, that's what I fear. I'm alright with people passing my artwork around, but if they've got a way to make money with it, they need to work out a deal with me. I'd be interested in hearing comments from other artists (and non-artists) - how they feel about this.
The site also includes a voting system that allows collaborative filtering. I haven't promoted it at all yet, so there's not a large selection of stuff in the database, but if anyone wants to take a look, or to add stuff to the collection, they're more than welcome.
Peace.
The parents purchased a copy of "The Bible" and read it. "I was appalled," said Jimmy's father Ted Smiles, "I had no idea that such a brutal and descriptive text existed on how to torture and kill.". The book apparently also teaches that crucified people can "rise from the dead", calling into question, in troubled minds, the finality of their actions.
Furthermore, the two attackers were actually brought to a school each Sunday whose only purpose was to teach from this book. "If that's not sickening, then I don't know what is," noted Jimmy's mother.
This isn't the first time that Christian teachings have been implicated in violent acts. Professor Reuben Fitzgerald noted the violent "crusades" of earlier centuries. "It is astonishing that this material is still so easy to get - even for youngsters. Surely it should be restricted, or perhaps even banned."
Jimmy Smiles was described as a gentle and sweet boy who liked to ride his bike, write stories, and play video games like Doom, Quake, and Unreal Tournament.
Services will be held this Sunday.
Some volunteers are simply allowing others to observe and record parts of their conversation with AOL's servers.
If someone actually put up a proxy server, AOL would add restrictions to the EULA in a second, and then sue anyone who was "letting others observer and record parts of their conversation".
Who cares about AIM anyways? Let AOL keep their system - just use something else. If people stopped using AIM, AOL would eventually have to make it compatible with the other systems anyway, like they had to do with email.
Applications - Web or otherwise - consist of code and data. In the current architecture of Web applications, there must be a strict partition between code and data because HTML can only describe data and has no ability to compute. But there is no real difference between an application and an interactive document. An interactive document is just an application housing mostly static data (text and graphics) with very little code (the interactive part).
I couldn't disagree more with this theory. After years of web development, including for one of the highest volume dynamic sites in the world, I believe there should be a strict separation between data, formatting, and interactivity. Every place I've worked has eventually come to the same conclusions:
- content writers don't want to know layout
- layout designers don't want to know programming
- programmers don't want to do layout or writing
Of course these are generalizations, but keeping these things seperate (at least keeping programming separate from the other two) has proven to work for the better. It's easier to find people, too.It's kind of like suggesting that a novel include alternating languages from paragraph to paragraph. Few people would be able to enjoy it!
Can both sides at least agree to call each other by their chosen names, "pro-life" and "pro-choice"? I'm tired of all the name-calling and propaganda tactics.
I'd also like to remind everyone that the vast majority of people who are pro-life are as disgusted by these extremist acts of violence as the everyone else.
This is a tough issue, and we'll never all agree, but I let's at least be civilized about it.
That doesn't make any sense because BW2 wasn't grass roots at all. Rather, it was exactly what we've come to expect from Hollywood. Maybe it's impossible for a sequel to be grass roots by it's very nature, but in any case BW2 certainly wasn't. It discarded every single element that made the first film special. All BW2 shows is that Artisan didn't know how to properly cash in on grass roots support.
Good thing we found penicillin before too many folks started thinking like that. I wonder what other useful stuff we'd discover if we weren't so preoccupied with our own passing coolness.
he will ... become the fastest man to break the sound barrier unaided
At first I assumed this was a typo, but then I remembered that the speed of sound isn't constant, and depends on the air pressure. Although likely unintentional, is there any truth to the statement? That he will be the "fastest" man to break the sound barrier? I forget which way it goes (I would think slower at higher altitudes/lower pressure...)