Good counterpoints, sir. The correct information I speak of is exactly what you mention: the Sun is 1 AU away, Speed of Light is a constant, planet is older, etc. We have been pounding that data away at the entire world for almost a century now, and still we have significant amounts of resistance to these. If the truth isn't good enough for these people, then how can we ever truly expect to solve the problem?
One thing I will point out though, is that Religion does have a "middle ground", although every dogmatic, doctrinaire religion out there doesn't like to admit it: mysticism. The mystics of all faiths (IMHO) are the ones who can bridge the paradox between science and religion - though they get nothing but hate for it from both sides. It's an example of Gesalt theory: you have two groups looking at one black and white image. The first group only sees the black, the second group sees only the white, and neither group can comprehend the other's position because their respective color is all they know. There's only a bare handful of people who can switch between both, and it's always been that way
Uh huh. How would you account for politicians from differing cultural regions of the country promising to honor and obey promises they made to said electorate, that would run completely counter to what politicians from other cultural regions promise? You'd still have the same problem, albeit with a lot more culture war going on.
To me this piece is rather interesting (and the commentary) because it offers a glimpse into two very distinct mindsets: the view that we are all programmable machines and if only we get the "right" information in and all the "wrong" information out then everything will be fine, and the view that somehow, someway we come preprogrammed and thus have a tendency to self-select data that supports our personal beliefs.
Why do we persist in continuing to believe that somehow we'll cure the problem of religious fundamentalism if only we pound enough data through everyone's skull? Because there is the pervasive belief that we're just programmable machines. Well if that's so, then why in this day and age do we STILL have people who believe in Creationism? Or ID? Or climate change being false? Wouldn't an overload of correct information purge those beliefs away?
How dare they write code that willingly compromises my computer! And then tell me that they're somehow enabling my freedom to be molested by Chinese/Eurotrash scriptkiddies! I'll go down to Fremont this afternoon and shit on their parking lot in response.
Taken from a comment on the TFA's commentary, and it proves a point. I've always wondered why we tend to take scientific recreations in a lab and automatically apply them to phenomena to the world outside the lab as "absolutely the truth". Are we that desperate for a logical-sounding answer that we'll immediately say "these phenomena were reproduced in this lab using these specific resources and therefore this must automatically happen every time similar phenomena happens under uncontrolled circumstances"
At the risk of being modded down (and the certain doom of being mocked), I feel compelled to follow up on this and feed the troll. I went the UoP route, and found out that many (perhaps most) of their online degree programs were little more than diploma mills at the time. And at that point I entered a rather profound depression because I realized I'd been a fool and had probably wasted tens of thousands of dollars (yes, smart people do get suckered too).
However, it wasn't until later that I discovered that I might have actually lucked out. I got my Masters in Education - Curriculum & Instruction, which actually happens to be a very strong program in its own right, because of the sheer number of professional educators who take the UoP's Education grad-level courses, and teach them. All but two of my professors were educators, education professionals, or senior education management (the two that weren't - well, I considered asking for their photos to print out on my toilet paper so I could wipe my ass with their face - they were THAT bad). Not only that, but I learned a hell of a lot about education - the philosophy, the psychology, the pedagogy, and about how school districts operate when it comes to curriculum and teaching. And I was able to take all that information and apply it to my corporate world quite successfully. Which shocked the hell out of me because I initially thought my degree was worthless.
If I must be flamed for saying I have a MAED from University of Phoenix, then flame me. I was taken in, as were many other people. But, surprisingly, I emerged with an actual graduate-level education in Education that was worth the hassle (which impressed my wife, who's a teacher herself), and has proved itself. I don't know now if UoP cleaned up their act. I suspect they have as they haven't lost their accreditation, the DoL hasn't found any new complaints, and now everyone and their uncle is getting in on the online education program.
Thank you for your response on this. I bought MK vs DC a while back and just got into the storyline. As soon as I finish with BioShock 2, I'm going to do MK vs DC (right now I'm right where the Flash is possessed by something - and I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the storyline and acting so far)
Return to the foul, eldtritch depths from whence you came, Beast from Beyond! The stars are not yet aligned and your time has not yet come! Back! Back I say! No Slashdot User IDs for you!
He WOULD be successful in portraying something like that as a CIA attack. However, I believe being portrayed as a cross-dressing, child-eating, donkey-fucker would cause enough cognitive dissonance amongst the people of Venezuela that they'd be able to start looking at him objectively rather than subjectively.
You're also right that the Venezuelans are the only ones that can do something about him. When half the country supports him because he champions the poor at the cost of all else (because the Venezuelan elite betrayed the trust of the people over all), then that is an internal matter.
be nice to see that image though... maybe it could become the new goatse meme
As bad as things were in Venezuela before this, now they've gotten much, much worse. Any chance of convincing some gray/black hats to strike a blow for decency and sanity, and hack Chavez's websites to portray him as a transvestigial equinophiliac paedo-cannibal?
anything that will make the common people laugh at him, and thereby undermine his social standing from within is just about the only hope Venezuela has left
America does not have a super-majority cultural/ethnic enclave as does most of Europe or the rest of the world. Yes, us whiteys are the majority, but we are not the supermajority we once were. We are also founded on the notion that a man (or woman) is responsible for his/her own success - and while we're willing to give a hand out to help someone up, we will not prop someone up for a lifetime
There are two big problems with America adopting a single-payer system: 1) It gives "the other" equal access to resources, and 2) it encourages the government to take a greater interest in our personal affairs. The first point has to do with the lack of a ethnic super-majority in the US. While we've made great strides against racism, we still have a problem with granting "free" health care to those who are "not like us". If we did magically go to a single payer system, our news channels would be filled with stories of welfare queens and illegal immigrants hogging up all our health care - which would do *wonders* for our race relations. We don't want to give free stuff away to those not like us if it means we ourselves don't get it. The second point is that Americans intrinsically have a distrust of intrusive government. All-in-all, our government is one of the least-intrusive systems in the world, when compared to Europe and Asia. We expect that our fellow citizen is responsible for him/herself and his/her success/failure. We don't like the idea of a welfare state or a dole because we were a frontier nation and part of our culture is based on the idea that we do things ourselves.
For the US, it's too much to expect a single payer system, absent a massive catastrophe that forces us to it. The best we can do is manipulate our private health insurance sector to provide good medical coverage at a fair cost - and that is what this reform package is going to start doing. It won't do it all... we'll actually need a Republican President with a Democratic congress to make the changes that really need to be made (or vice versa - the US has only really ever done well when one party controls the Presidency and the other Congress - they have to work together then to get anything done).
Abraham Lincoln was a REPUBLICAN! It's about time the GOP reclaim their long-long-looooooong forgotten mantle as the party that ended slavery and created the platform for modern civil rights.
So when I'm gaming, and up against a big boss, my heart rate goes through the roof. I may be stationary, but my heart's pounding like I'm in a fight, I'm sweating, and my body's in fight mode. In my opinion and experience, I'm burning more calories (relatively speaking) gaming than I am just sitting and watching TV.
"Show me a business that has a good case for encouraging their competition."
Las Vegas is built upon casinos encouraging their competitors to build next to them. Until the recession hit, it was a foolproof way for over fifteen years to get more crowds to come to Vegas. The latest spectacle of a casino would draw in larger crowds from around the world to come see it, and stay in the available rooms, and eat, and gamble. Case in point: Steve Wynn and the story of how he sold the Mirage to MGM/Kirk Kerkorian, and then went on to build the Bellagio, and the Wynn, etc.
there are other examples of how businesses in certain instances actually do want competitors coming in to help broaden and strengthen an industry. Energy companies would be one of those markets. A prior poster explained it best: mature companies "fight" innovators - forcing innovators to improve their product. Once those innovators have a healthy durable product/service, then the mature companies can come in, purchase them, and incorporate the product/service into their own portfolio. It's how capitalism has worked for hundreds of years
Slashdot Mirror
Good counterpoints, sir. The correct information I speak of is exactly what you mention: the Sun is 1 AU away, Speed of Light is a constant, planet is older, etc. We have been pounding that data away at the entire world for almost a century now, and still we have significant amounts of resistance to these. If the truth isn't good enough for these people, then how can we ever truly expect to solve the problem?
One thing I will point out though, is that Religion does have a "middle ground", although every dogmatic, doctrinaire religion out there doesn't like to admit it: mysticism. The mystics of all faiths (IMHO) are the ones who can bridge the paradox between science and religion - though they get nothing but hate for it from both sides. It's an example of Gesalt theory: you have two groups looking at one black and white image. The first group only sees the black, the second group sees only the white, and neither group can comprehend the other's position because their respective color is all they know. There's only a bare handful of people who can switch between both, and it's always been that way
May the FSM bless you for this statement of truth, my pseudo-descendent DNA-programmed sack of plasma, water, and carbon!!!
Uh huh. How would you account for politicians from differing cultural regions of the country promising to honor and obey promises they made to said electorate, that would run completely counter to what politicians from other cultural regions promise? You'd still have the same problem, albeit with a lot more culture war going on.
To me this piece is rather interesting (and the commentary) because it offers a glimpse into two very distinct mindsets: the view that we are all programmable machines and if only we get the "right" information in and all the "wrong" information out then everything will be fine, and the view that somehow, someway we come preprogrammed and thus have a tendency to self-select data that supports our personal beliefs.
Why do we persist in continuing to believe that somehow we'll cure the problem of religious fundamentalism if only we pound enough data through everyone's skull? Because there is the pervasive belief that we're just programmable machines. Well if that's so, then why in this day and age do we STILL have people who believe in Creationism? Or ID? Or climate change being false? Wouldn't an overload of correct information purge those beliefs away?
"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice..."
That would depend on whose liberty you are protecting.
I am printing this out and saving it. Thank you :-)
How dare they write code that willingly compromises my computer! And then tell me that they're somehow enabling my freedom to be molested by Chinese/Eurotrash scriptkiddies! I'll go down to Fremont this afternoon and shit on their parking lot in response.
Taken from a comment on the TFA's commentary, and it proves a point. I've always wondered why we tend to take scientific recreations in a lab and automatically apply them to phenomena to the world outside the lab as "absolutely the truth". Are we that desperate for a logical-sounding answer that we'll immediately say "these phenomena were reproduced in this lab using these specific resources and therefore this must automatically happen every time similar phenomena happens under uncontrolled circumstances"
Great! I'll start with you first and then pick three other people.
Along these lines, how would we know if we've discovered a wave? And what would distinguish a graviton wave from a ripple in space-time?
Damn....
Oh dang, the punchline is the title... What do I put in the body?
Bullets.
I stand corrected, sir! I thought you were trolling, but you were not. My apologies
At the risk of being modded down (and the certain doom of being mocked), I feel compelled to follow up on this and feed the troll. I went the UoP route, and found out that many (perhaps most) of their online degree programs were little more than diploma mills at the time. And at that point I entered a rather profound depression because I realized I'd been a fool and had probably wasted tens of thousands of dollars (yes, smart people do get suckered too).
However, it wasn't until later that I discovered that I might have actually lucked out. I got my Masters in Education - Curriculum & Instruction, which actually happens to be a very strong program in its own right, because of the sheer number of professional educators who take the UoP's Education grad-level courses, and teach them. All but two of my professors were educators, education professionals, or senior education management (the two that weren't - well, I considered asking for their photos to print out on my toilet paper so I could wipe my ass with their face - they were THAT bad). Not only that, but I learned a hell of a lot about education - the philosophy, the psychology, the pedagogy, and about how school districts operate when it comes to curriculum and teaching. And I was able to take all that information and apply it to my corporate world quite successfully. Which shocked the hell out of me because I initially thought my degree was worthless.
If I must be flamed for saying I have a MAED from University of Phoenix, then flame me. I was taken in, as were many other people. But, surprisingly, I emerged with an actual graduate-level education in Education that was worth the hassle (which impressed my wife, who's a teacher herself), and has proved itself. I don't know now if UoP cleaned up their act. I suspect they have as they haven't lost their accreditation, the DoL hasn't found any new complaints, and now everyone and their uncle is getting in on the online education program.
Thank you for your response on this. I bought MK vs DC a while back and just got into the storyline. As soon as I finish with BioShock 2, I'm going to do MK vs DC (right now I'm right where the Flash is possessed by something - and I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the storyline and acting so far)
Return to the foul, eldtritch depths from whence you came, Beast from Beyond! The stars are not yet aligned and your time has not yet come! Back! Back I say! No Slashdot User IDs for you!
He WOULD be successful in portraying something like that as a CIA attack. However, I believe being portrayed as a cross-dressing, child-eating, donkey-fucker would cause enough cognitive dissonance amongst the people of Venezuela that they'd be able to start looking at him objectively rather than subjectively.
You're also right that the Venezuelans are the only ones that can do something about him. When half the country supports him because he champions the poor at the cost of all else (because the Venezuelan elite betrayed the trust of the people over all), then that is an internal matter.
be nice to see that image though... maybe it could become the new goatse meme
As bad as things were in Venezuela before this, now they've gotten much, much worse. Any chance of convincing some gray/black hats to strike a blow for decency and sanity, and hack Chavez's websites to portray him as a transvestigial equinophiliac paedo-cannibal?
anything that will make the common people laugh at him, and thereby undermine his social standing from within is just about the only hope Venezuela has left
It's mauve today... could be pimento tomorrow, with a slight haze of chartreuse.
America does not have a super-majority cultural/ethnic enclave as does most of Europe or the rest of the world. Yes, us whiteys are the majority, but we are not the supermajority we once were. We are also founded on the notion that a man (or woman) is responsible for his/her own success - and while we're willing to give a hand out to help someone up, we will not prop someone up for a lifetime
There are two big problems with America adopting a single-payer system: 1) It gives "the other" equal access to resources, and 2) it encourages the government to take a greater interest in our personal affairs. The first point has to do with the lack of a ethnic super-majority in the US. While we've made great strides against racism, we still have a problem with granting "free" health care to those who are "not like us". If we did magically go to a single payer system, our news channels would be filled with stories of welfare queens and illegal immigrants hogging up all our health care - which would do *wonders* for our race relations. We don't want to give free stuff away to those not like us if it means we ourselves don't get it. The second point is that Americans intrinsically have a distrust of intrusive government. All-in-all, our government is one of the least-intrusive systems in the world, when compared to Europe and Asia. We expect that our fellow citizen is responsible for him/herself and his/her success/failure. We don't like the idea of a welfare state or a dole because we were a frontier nation and part of our culture is based on the idea that we do things ourselves.
For the US, it's too much to expect a single payer system, absent a massive catastrophe that forces us to it. The best we can do is manipulate our private health insurance sector to provide good medical coverage at a fair cost - and that is what this reform package is going to start doing. It won't do it all... we'll actually need a Republican President with a Democratic congress to make the changes that really need to be made (or vice versa - the US has only really ever done well when one party controls the Presidency and the other Congress - they have to work together then to get anything done).
But that's an image I cheerfully look forward to pondering on for the rest of my day.
Let me be the first to welcome our flatulent, heavily armored, ozone destroying elephant overlords!
Abraham Lincoln was a REPUBLICAN! It's about time the GOP reclaim their long-long-looooooong forgotten mantle as the party that ended slavery and created the platform for modern civil rights.
So when I'm gaming, and up against a big boss, my heart rate goes through the roof. I may be stationary, but my heart's pounding like I'm in a fight, I'm sweating, and my body's in fight mode. In my opinion and experience, I'm burning more calories (relatively speaking) gaming than I am just sitting and watching TV.
"Show me a business that has a good case for encouraging their competition."
Las Vegas is built upon casinos encouraging their competitors to build next to them. Until the recession hit, it was a foolproof way for over fifteen years to get more crowds to come to Vegas. The latest spectacle of a casino would draw in larger crowds from around the world to come see it, and stay in the available rooms, and eat, and gamble. Case in point: Steve Wynn and the story of how he sold the Mirage to MGM/Kirk Kerkorian, and then went on to build the Bellagio, and the Wynn, etc.
there are other examples of how businesses in certain instances actually do want competitors coming in to help broaden and strengthen an industry. Energy companies would be one of those markets. A prior poster explained it best: mature companies "fight" innovators - forcing innovators to improve their product. Once those innovators have a healthy durable product/service, then the mature companies can come in, purchase them, and incorporate the product/service into their own portfolio. It's how capitalism has worked for hundreds of years
You go dip yourself in a vat of molasses. Then I'm going to immoliate you afterwards. Syrup burns, beyotch!