I think you fail to understand how difficult it is to move out of the sort of extreme and dire poverty that persists in the world.
Try moving to a more abundant farming area, whose inhabitants look upon you as an outsider who is muscling in on their scarce resources.
Try moving from a rural existence, where your food comes from your labours, to the city, where you must buy your food with money. (Where unskilled labour is dirt cheap.
Try getting a passport without spending a large amount of money.
Try getting a visa to Europe or US if you come from Africa.
Great.
Why don't they employ their anthropologist to study how everyone gets irritated by the stupid ringtones - particularly when they go off in public places. How about having one that... oh, I dunno.. makes a noise like a phone?
I would like to apply for the job of Chief Sneak and Tattle-tale at your company. I believe I have the relevant nosiness, curiousity and contempt for my fellow employees, along with an over-riding ability to toady to management. I also love lauding it over other people that I know their business.
No, we both have the same definition of worthwhile.
I'm not talking about the worth of the religious sentiment of the book itself.
I suggest that particular translation is worthy for its literary merit and cultural impact, irrespective of the Judao-Christian message.
I suspect that you don't find the book itself annoying - nor good for a laugh - but rather that you might find some people's attitudes and beliefs so, which they claim to have taken from the pages of a bible - not necessarily this one.
They stuck pretty close to Matthew Tindale's earlier English translation, (he invented lots of English words, such as "Sabbath"), which was itself a fair translation of the Vulgate, compiled by St. Jerome.
The King James Bible was created by committee - perhaps the only example of a worthwhile achievement implemented by one.
(Though, in fairness, they didn't make it Creative Commons.)
"Bell Telephone faced a dilemma. They had sold the equipment to the military with the assurance that it was secure, but it wasn't. The only thing they could do was to tell the [U.S. Army] Signal Corps about it, which they did."
Can you imagine a Government contractor coming clean these days? You're more likely to get someone like Dick Jones from OCP:
"I had a guaranteed military sale with ED 209. A renovation program. Spare parts for years. Who cares if it worked or not?"
Do I give the Govt a list of everyone I do business with for them to check; or do I get the complete list of criminals and check for overlap myself?
Sounds like a massive datamining operation to me.
I can reveal that Apple will include a next-generation technology that features audio instant messaging.
iPhone users can record short audio messages, using the iPhone's mic, and send this to another user, who is able to listen to the message with the phone's speaker.
In this way, iPhone users can simulate a "real-time" audio conversation.
In the UK, and a fair amount of the rest of the world, the book retailer takes up to 50% of the cover price. Smaller independent bookshops will take 30%: Waterstones, Borders and the big boys will demand 50% to let you put your book in their shops.
If you want your book to be on a display, the publisher pays even more.
The author will take between 5-8% as royalties.
The rest of the take goes to the publisher, who has to pay the printer (eventually), staff and business overheads, marketing, etc.
Even with advances in technology such as short-run digital printing, Computer-to-plate, PDFs etc, most publishing meetings consist of decisions to turn down books simply on the fact that there's no money in it.
Was there a planet that Kirk/Picard/Janeway didn't leave in a fundamentally different state after turning up?
Humans are designed to trade, travel and exploit resources. Then move on when there are too many tourists.
Frankly, I'm surprised there isn't aready a Prime Directive that reads:
"See that blue/green planet with all the space junk and EM noise? You want to leave that one well alone!"
I suppose the problem lies in the word "unnecessarily". Meat eaters would argue, I suppose, that a degree of suffering is necessary.
Assuming that "natural man" is a carnivore and a hunter (amongst other things), then in hunting and killing an animal, there will be some pain involved, which is neccessary to the process.
Modern man has obviously specialised and industrialised the process, so that I don't have to kill animals for my lunch, and slaughtermen don't have to write their own software. You can argue whether the process might be made less painful, but death, like life itself, is a painful experience.
I presume you would suggest that man in the 21st century does not need meat protein, so that the killing of all animals for food in unnecessary. I would suggest that the industrialisation of the food process which allows the luxury of this position.
Either you have faith in God, and believe in 7 days, or I.D,.... or, you have faith that I.D. or Creation is not a possiblity, or can't exist because Science can't prove it. The Pope has no problem with evolution. It just seems to be American Baptists that can't cope.
One of the features of Christianity is that it is supposed to do away with the old Jewish pedantic scrutiny over the exact literal meanings and intepretation of the Law. (Matthew 22:37-40). But it seems this is lost on some who feel their faith is on some way threatened if the Bible is not classes as 100% literal, despite the culture of symbolism inherent in Judaism.
If the Designer is so intelligent and man is his masterpiece, then explain shins.
Any half competent designer would have put some fleshy covering there to stop it hurting so much when you hit them against a table leg.
Testes outside the body? What were you thinking?
Nerve cell regeneration would be on most people's wishlist.
Complete amino acid synthesis is missing.
One third of the day in low-power recovery mode?
The Appendix: why?
Intelligent? frankly, I give it a C minus at best.
Slashdot Mirror
I think you fail to understand how difficult it is to move out of the sort of extreme and dire poverty that persists in the world.
Try moving to a more abundant farming area, whose inhabitants look upon you as an outsider who is muscling in on their scarce resources.
Try moving from a rural existence, where your food comes from your labours, to the city, where you must buy your food with money. (Where unskilled labour is dirt cheap.
Try getting a passport without spending a large amount of money.
Try getting a visa to Europe or US if you come from Africa.
Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Great. ... oh, I dunno.. makes a noise like a phone?
Why don't they employ their anthropologist to study how everyone gets irritated by the stupid ringtones - particularly when they go off in public places. How about having one that
Everyone knows there's no money in software. Nor music. Nor literature. It's all free.
These are all things we do in our spare time and give away for free, after we've done our job cleaning toilets.
That spelling error on his sign turned out to be fortuitous. "Scientologists are complete cults."
Well exactly. Whilst phonetic spellings would have covered up my lapse, they are generally a bad thing.
Are you suggesting I'm homophonic?
Roll on phonetic spellings in English. Then what we lose in clarity, we will gain in accuracy.
Dear Sir
I would like to apply for the job of Chief Sneak and Tattle-tale at your company. I believe I have the relevant nosiness, curiousity and contempt for my fellow employees, along with an over-riding ability to toady to management. I also love lauding it over other people that I know their business.
No, we both have the same definition of worthwhile.
I'm not talking about the worth of the religious sentiment of the book itself.
I suggest that particular translation is worthy for its literary merit and cultural impact, irrespective of the Judao-Christian message.
I suspect that you don't find the book itself annoying - nor good for a laugh - but rather that you might find some people's attitudes and beliefs so, which they claim to have taken from the pages of a bible - not necessarily this one.
Not sure what Constantine had to do with it.
But I digress....
The King James Bible was created by committee - perhaps the only example of a worthwhile achievement implemented by one. (Though, in fairness, they didn't make it Creative Commons.)
What about Oolite? Started as Mac, ported to Linux and PC.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oolite_(computer_game)
"Bell Telephone faced a dilemma. They had sold the equipment to the military with the assurance that it was secure, but it wasn't. The only thing they could do was to tell the [U.S. Army] Signal Corps about it, which they did."
Can you imagine a Government contractor coming clean these days? You're more likely to get someone like Dick Jones from OCP:
"I had a guaranteed military sale with ED 209. A renovation program. Spare parts for years. Who cares if it worked or not?"
By "whatever next?", I meant, "whatever will pass for news on Slashdot?".
I shouldn't worry about quad core. Half the software I run doesn't take advantage of it anyway.
Whatever next? Software expands to fill the hardware available....?
Do I give the Govt a list of everyone I do business with for them to check; or do I get the complete list of criminals and check for overlap myself? Sounds like a massive datamining operation to me.
iPhone users can record short audio messages, using the iPhone's mic, and send this to another user, who is able to listen to the message with the phone's speaker.
In this way, iPhone users can simulate a "real-time" audio conversation.
Oh, hang on a minute....
The author will take between 5-8% as royalties.
The rest of the take goes to the publisher, who has to pay the printer (eventually), staff and business overheads, marketing, etc.
Even with advances in technology such as short-run digital printing, Computer-to-plate, PDFs etc, most publishing meetings consist of decisions to turn down books simply on the fact that there's no money in it.
really?
Yes! why do you think the aliens haven't made contact? That would ruin the experiment.(Nice catch, btw)
I should know better to ask a question about Star Trek on Slashdot - even a rhetorical one..........
Was there a planet that Kirk/Picard/Janeway didn't leave in a fundamentally different state after turning up?
Humans are designed to trade, travel and exploit resources. Then move on when there are too many tourists.
Frankly, I'm surprised there isn't aready a Prime Directive that reads:
"See that blue/green planet with all the space junk and EM noise? You want to leave that one well alone!"
I suppose the problem lies in the word "unnecessarily". Meat eaters would argue, I suppose, that a degree of suffering is necessary. Assuming that "natural man" is a carnivore and a hunter (amongst other things), then in hunting and killing an animal, there will be some pain involved, which is neccessary to the process. Modern man has obviously specialised and industrialised the process, so that I don't have to kill animals for my lunch, and slaughtermen don't have to write their own software. You can argue whether the process might be made less painful, but death, like life itself, is a painful experience. I presume you would suggest that man in the 21st century does not need meat protein, so that the killing of all animals for food in unnecessary. I would suggest that the industrialisation of the food process which allows the luxury of this position.
Soylent Green is..... Cows!!!!
If the Designer is so intelligent and man is his masterpiece, then explain shins. Any half competent designer would have put some fleshy covering there to stop it hurting so much when you hit them against a table leg. Testes outside the body? What were you thinking? Nerve cell regeneration would be on most people's wishlist. Complete amino acid synthesis is missing. One third of the day in low-power recovery mode? The Appendix: why? Intelligent? frankly, I give it a C minus at best.