Catholicism is not Christian. Catholicism cannot get anyone into heaven, because catholicism teaches works for salvation, and that is a false gospel of works (Galatians 1:6-9) that is against JESUS'S free gift of salvation!
And catholicism will not give you a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP with Jesus, which is what JESUS wants with you! So, you need to get away from catholicism, and instead, to believe in JESUS for His free gift of eternal life in heaven! John 3:16!:D! It's clear from the Book of Acts in the Bible that catholics didn't even exist during the days of Acts. And the SEVEN CHURCHES in Revelation, all of which existed before 100 AD, NONE of them were catholic! Catholicism didn't exist for over 300 years after Jesus. And catholicism didn't exist for over 200 years after the Bible was complete and compiled. Those in the Book of Acts are the first Christians, and they believed what would be called fundamentalist doctrine today. ANYONE can read the Book of Acts for themselves and see. Had catholicism existed during the time of Acts, the first Christians would have rejected catholicism completely.
Also there's TONS of Christians who also completely rejected catholicism, long before Martin Luther was even born. Catholicism murdered millions and millions of Christians.:*( So not only is it wrong for anyone to say that "catholics were the first Christians", but this blows away the catholic claim that "no churches existed other than the catholic church, until Martin Luther".
Every "pope" is a false prophet. And there is no "pope" in the Bible. There were ALWAYS saved believers outside the catholic cult, who knew catholicism cannot save anyone.
Catholicism cannot save. Only believing in Jesus for His free gift of salvation, is what saves! So, catholics need to get away from catholicism, and instead, to believe in JESUS for His free gift of eternal life in heaven!
Jesus is God, and Jesus loves you so very much!:D And the Trinity is true! The truth about Jesus is that the only way to be saved and to get into heaven and avoid being sent to hell, is by believing in JESUS for His free gift of eternal life in heaven, believing in faith alone that Jesus, who is God, died on the cross for all our sins as FULL PAYMENT for all our sins, and then Jesus rose from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Believe in Jesus for His free gift of salvation, and you will be in heaven, no matter what! John 3:16, John 6:47!:D
Salvation is a FREE GIFT that happens in a split second when you believe in JESUS for His free gift of salvation! It is impossible to lose or "leave" salvation (John 6:39-40, John 10:28, 1 John 5:13). Please pray now: "Jesus, I believe that You died on the cross to pay for my sins and that You rose from the dead, and I thank You for eternal life!" You will be in heaven with Him forever when you die!:D
I should also point out that when Laura Dern (Nikki) cums her brains out with Devon (Justin Theroux) - during their first scene of vaginal intercourse - she (Laura Dern) with a *totally hot straight face* screams: "God...fucking....damnit!!" I nearly wet myself.
1) we are all Laura Dern. 2) It is about time, as the film states a number of times 3) we all live re-enactments of a illusion. Myth and 'realities' are one. 4) Dern's character is awakened to the endless cycle of life's web of 'sin'. 5) Dern's death in Hollywood allowed her to follow the mute god to a place of egolessness (self annihilation) 6) This resolve (the act of killing the Phantom/herself) freed the possibility of hope.
Once it was possible, the music industry was not able to sell any more music. Artists went to get real jobs and that is why all music you hear is only done by amateurs. The best you can compare is what VHS did to the film industry. A few obscure independent movie makers is all that you have left.
Ummm....huh? Where the hell are you getting your facts from? The music industry is dead? Only indie films being made? Wow! Someone needs to goto IMDb and look around for a few minutes.
come about by a tornado blowing through a refuse yard that contained the parts to the airplane, or a camera came about by blind chance. Only a fool would believe that a web site could create itself in cyberspace without the intervention of a programmer, even though all the ingredients exist there.
Yet many so called intelligent people believe that the universe came about by pure chance. This of course has to include the galaxies, solar systems, suns, planets and the micro world of atoms, protons, electrons, quarks etc. Then we also have to consider the dimensions, 1, 2, 3, 4 and so on, plus all the natural laws, anti matter, dark matter and the code that make up the fabric of the physical realm. Now the human mind cannot even conceive of the scale of the universe, never mind thinking at such wonderful design came about by luck. To believe that all this plus much more, came about without a God/designer/programer is absolutely pathetic. This belief is worse than a fable or farytale, it is the most extreme form of ignorance possible.
People who do not believe in God, also believe that the wonderful and technological human eye was not designed by God, rather such design came about because creatures without eyes had a less chance of survival. Yet when we see a man made camera we all know without a doubt that it was designed and built by someone. Did a camera come about by evolutionary processes because of the need for people to take photos, no it was created by intelligence for that need. However the truth is that the human eye and the human camera both use the same technology to turn light into an image, that can be understood. If you believe that a camera is always created by a designer (and so you should), then why is it so hard to believe that there was a creator for the human eye. If you don't attribute the wonderful technology of the human eye to a Creator, then what you are really saying is you believe that nothing or blind chance did a much better job with this technology than intelligent beings ? Humans who by possessing intellect can not only increase the odds in their favor of such design to come about, but actually make it possible at all. So how can nothing create something better than so called intelligent beings. To not believe in a creator is illogical and this is but one small example of Mans incredible foolishness. It is not hard to imagine the countless more examples of mans foolishness that exist. The question is, are you wise enough to accept obvious truth, or do you want to be blinded to the obvious by reason of your intellectual pride.
If you saw 20 apples on the ground and positioned to form a perfect circle on flat ground, you would automatically assume that these apples were placed there by somebody. What if I told you that there was a hole in my bag of apples, and when they fell out they formed a perfect circle by chance or the more accurately the elements that were in process at the time, such as wind, gravity and the angle that the apples fell out of the bag created this circle of apples. Would you not say that I was mad if I told you that they just fell out that way. Then how is it that some say the complex universe came about by chance. (I think I am being very extremely generous in my examples in a statistical sense).
Such people who believe that the universe itself, formed the earth, other planets, stars and galaxies, in fact the whole universe including the atomic world may be fools, but they are also ignoring the fact that the ingredients had to come from somewhere in the first place, which only makes the odds much greater. The only alternative to chance is constructive design and enlightened people understand that where there is design, there is always a designer.
I'm not going to try to be really detailed because I don't like thinking about it.. But I was with my bestfriend and two other friends and me and my bestfirend took two stamps at 517. we kept it on our tongue til 527 and chewed and swalled, everything was fine, we were so happy, laughing, everything looked so amazing, it was crazy. then i eat, and i lost my high. my friend was still high still, so the dealer said take 4 more and i should get my high back. I took 4 more at 1123. did the same, and i was a little high. then a friend of mine came over, he took 2 and he was trippin. then the dealer came over and chilled with us, and convinced us to smoke this weed he had that he got from his friend, he doesn't smoke weed so he doesn't know what it's like.. well, me the guy and my bestfriend smoked it, and about 10 minutes later we were ******... i know now we aren't suppose to mix weed and acid, and everything was ******.. everything was melting, we couldn't breathe, we were so scared, we were spacy, everything looked like a mario game, everything.. they tried to convince us to let them stay but we made them leave, woke pu my dad and told him something was wrong, he wouldn't listen, we called 911.. we got into the ambulence and we felt like the guys had planned this and got this 'ambulence' thing so they could kill us, my friend was begging for a badge and they wouldn't show her one so we freaked out more. we started punching them and trying to get out but it was useless.. about an hour and a half later i was seeing everything like a shrek movie. they were ogars, and they had 6 heads, everyone. i was tripping balls.... but now i can see clearly again, but my head is still cloudy, i'm a bit spacy, i have NO emotion in my voice or on my face, it's difficult to breathe since my chest feels so heavy and my left hand is still a bit numb. i have a black eye, and cuts around my eye from fighting...will this go away? i took so much and i'm so confused and i want it to be okay..i'm NEVER doing drugs again.
Religious people usually like to explain things using their "intuition", which basically can just be their imagination. Religious people tend to "create" reasons why the world is the way it is and then "believe" in those reasons they thought up; therefore, there is no real evidence for those beliefs. This is called rationalization. For example, I could say that I believe the world is two dimensional. There is no way to ever prove that. It just means I "created" an explanation.
Rationalize: the cognitive process of making something SEEM consistent with or based on reason. Key word is SEEM.
Here is a good example of this. Religious people will say that when a person has something good happen to them God has blessed them with a gift; although, nobody saw God bless the person or experience the act. This is how many religious people think. They "think" things up. They "create" explanations. They do not really understand what is REALLY happening. I mean, they do not see all of the circumstances that could have caused this person to have something good happen to them. It could just be a coincidence. Mary dropped a $100 bill and Joe picked it up. Joe is not blessed. Joe is lucky. Mary is unlucky. Or, if there is a God, Joe is blessed and Mary just got royally screwed.
I am not saying religious people are wrong, but apparently someone has to be wrong out of all the religions that exist. For all I know someone out there has a direct link to God and I am totally clueless. But I would think that if God wanted me to believe in him or her, he or she would let me in on the secret. After all, that is the best way to get someone to believe in you. Hiding yourself from someone is not very efficient.
Personally, I do not believe in God because of genetic mutations that cause children to be born crippled. Additionally, I do not believe in God because of viruses that kill other living things on a continual basis.
In my honest opinion, people should not attempt to rationalize reality. Science can help explain WHAT is happening, not always WHY. There are many people out there who RATIONALIZE reality using scientific fact. Trying to explain WHY something is happening can become rationalization. Religious people AND some atheists do this. For example, some atheists believe science explains WHY reality is the way it is, when the WHY is just a RATIONALIZATION. Basically, people in general are guilty of this, atheist or religious. Science should only be used to explain WHAT is happening so that it can be applied in the future. It should not attempt to explain WHY because then it falls into the same fallacy of religious mysticism.
Heres the thing, I am NOT gay. Im STRAIGHT but you dont see me going around advertising it. You dont see me celebrating STRAIGHT pride. And gloryholes are out of the question because theres a chance it might be a guy on the other hand thats how straight I am. I cant help but feel this is the worst court decision in American History. Exactly what is accomplished by gay guys telling us there gay? The illusion is that this is the greatest step for equal rights since we freed all the slaves, when really all it does is give gays the go ahead to tell me how much they admire my incredible hulking body. It will lead to a world where everyone says I love your hot manly body and we should get gay. I do NOT want some guy trying to score with me in a foxhole which for straight men is are most primal fear. These guys cant even go 24 hours without sex and on the 25th hour they may make a move. Bottom line Im tired of activist judges making decisions like in this case, or in the People vs Larry Flynt, or in any case where the outcome goes against my religious beleifs. Its hard to teach my daughter the value of keeping the faith when you have the courts telling perverts they are allowed to do as they please. Just remember that the Bible says and I quote "Thou shalt NOT be gay" so you might be allowed in the military but you will NOT be allowed into the kingdom of heaven. And for the record I am NOT homophobic I wont fight clubs being built in gay districts or wherever will keep them away from around are schools and churches, but as far as the idea of gays in the military lets keep it alien. Jobs where you get shot at every day are tough enough without the chance of getting shot in the face with ejaculate.
Can atheists refute one simple fact?
on
Largest Genome Ever
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· Score: -1, Troll
The universe had a beginning Anything that had a beginning must have been caused by something else Therefore, the universe was caused by something else (a creator) Every part of the universe is dependent If every part is dependent, then the whole universe must also be dependent Therefore, the whole universe is dependent for existence right now on some Independent Being Every event that had a beginning had a sufficient cause The universe had a beginning Therefore, the universe had a sufficient Cause Every effect has a cause The universe is an effect Therefore, the universe has a Cause An infinite number of moments cannot be traversed If an infinite number of moments had to elapse before today, then today would never have come But today has come Therefore, an infinite number of moments have not elapsed before today (i.e., the universe had a beginning) But whatever has a beginning is caused by something else Hence, there must be a Cause (Creator) of the universe An actual infinite cannot exist An infinite temporal regress of events is an actual infinite Therefore an infinite temporal regress of events cannot exist The temporal series of events is a collection formed by successive addition A collection formed by successive addition cannot be an actual infinite Therefore the temporal series of events cannot be an actual infinite Some things undeniably exist (e.g., I cannot deny my own existence) My nonexistence is possible Whatever has the possibility not to exist is currently caused to exist by another There cannot be an infinite regress of current causes of existence Therefore, a first uncaused cause of my current existence exists This uncaused cause must be infinite, unchanging, all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-perfect This infinitely perfect Being is appropriately called “God” Therefore, God exists This God who exists is identical to the God described in the Christian Scriptures Therefore, the God described in the Bible exists 7.2 Argument from cosmological natural theology
Time, space and matter came into existence at a certain point in the finite past. Since time, space and matter began to exist they had a cause. Therefore, whatever caused them was time-less (or eternal), space-less (not subject to locality, or omnipresent) and matter-less (immaterial, non-physical, or spirit). 7.3 Forms of the teleological argument
All designs imply a designer There is great design in the universe Therefore, there must be a Great Designer of the universe 7.4 Forms of the ontological argument
God is defined as a being than which no greater can be conceived. Such a being can be conceived. If there were no such being in reality, then a greater being—namely, a being than which no greater can be conceived, and which exists—can be conceived. Yet nothing can be greater than a being than which no greater can be conceived. Therefore a being than which no greater can be conceived—i.e., God—must exist. God is the entity of which nothing greater can be thought. It is greater to be necessary than not. God must therefore be necessary. Hence, God exists necessarily. 7.5 Forms of the moral law argument
Moral laws imply a Moral Law Giver There is an objective moral law Therefore, there is a Moral Law Giver There are objective moral laws Moral laws come from a moral lawgiver Therefore, a moral lawgiver exists If atheism is true, everything is permissible. 7.6 Dostoevsky’s argument from the consequences of positive Atheism
If atheism is true then man is “the chief of the earth” If man is “the chief of the earth” then he can abandon absolute standards (i.e., morality) If man can abandon the absolute standards then “everything is permissible” Therefore, if atheism is true, everything is permissible 7.7 The argument from joy
Every natural innate desire has a real object that can fulfill it Human beings have a natural, innate desire for immortality Therefore, there must be an immortal life after death!
Meanwhile, the Bible has six unique things about it that provide proof that it came from God.
1.) It's a unique book - It's the most widely distributed book in history. The Bible has been printed at least 4.7 BILLION times, in more than 2,400 languages. The Bible has endured bans and attacks from opposers.
2.) It is historically sound - People who are named in the Bible have been found to exist. Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor of Judea - his name was found on a stone in Caesarea in 1961. Events that happened in the Bible are proven to have happened. The account of Edom and Israel battling was one such event that proved to be true.
3.) Candor and honesty - Not only are their achievements recorded, but the people of the Bible also recorded their shortcomings and errors. Moses told of a mistake he made, Jonah made a big mistake and landed in the belly of a fish. Even the Apostle Paul humbly admitted that he made mistakes.
4.) Internal Harmony - There were 40 men who wrote the Bible in the span of some 1,600 years. And yet, they wrote about the same theme - a harmonious message - God's Kingdom. From Genesis to Revelation, this theme can be found.
5.) Scientific Accuracy - People used to believe that the earth was flat, but the Bible told that it was round. (Isaiah 40:22) People believed that the earth was held up in th universe by a giant animal, the Bible told that it hung on nothing. (Job 26:7)
6.) Fulfilled Prophesy - Bible predictions are usually precise and have been fulfilled down to the last detail. Consider as an example - Isaiah prophesied that Babylon would fall, that the leader "Cyrus" would be the conqueror, and that the river Euphrates would dry up. Two hundred years later, the prophesies all came true as confirmed by historian Herodotus of the 5th century.
The Bible has six unique things about it that provide proof that it came from God.
1.) It's a unique book - It's the most widely distributed book in history. The Bible has been printed at least 4.7 BILLION times, in more than 2,400 languages. The Bible has endured bans and attacks from opposers.
2.) It is historically sound - People who are named in the Bible have been found to exist. Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor of Judea - his name was found on a stone in Caesarea in 1961. Events that happened in the Bible are proven to have happened. The account of Edom and Israel battling was one such event that proved to be true.
3.) Candor and honesty - Not only are their achievements recorded, but the people of the Bible also recorded their shortcomings and errors. Moses told of a mistake he made, Jonah made a big mistake and landed in the belly of a fish. Even the Apostle Paul humbly admitted that he made mistakes.
4.) Internal Harmony - There were 40 men who wrote the Bible in the span of some 1,600 years. And yet, they wrote about the same theme - a harmonious message - God's Kingdom. From Genesis to Revelation, this theme can be found.
5.) Scientific Accuracy - People used to believe that the earth was flat, but the Bible told that it was round. (Isaiah 40:22) People believed that the earth was held up in th universe by a giant animal, the Bible told that it hung on nothing. (Job 26:7)
6.) Fulfilled Prophesy - Bible predictions are usually precise and have been fulfilled down to the last detail. Consider as an example - Isaiah prophesied that Babylon would fall, that the leader "Cyrus" would be the conqueror, and that the river Euphrates would dry up. Two hundred years later, the prophesies all came true as confirmed by historian Herodotus of the 5th century.
Slashdot has long been a significant source of daily news for the tech community (dupes, typos, trolls and all). Over the past year, however, I’ve noticed a gradual decrease in its importance as a source of information. Others around me have echoed similar thoughts, so I gathered some statistics to see if this is a growing trend.
Without access to long-term Slashdot usage metrics, I looked at the number of comments per story for the last 7 years by writing a few scripts to walk through the Slashdot daily archives, cache them locally, parse the data and then generate a file with the output. Here are the initial results: Monthly average comments per story Monthly average comments per story
The yellow period in the data is due to Slashdot wonkiness. That range of time doesn’t return the usual filtered count (usually the filter is 3) without being logged in, and the overall comment counts are drastically lower than the trend, so I removed it from any conclusions.
There appears to be fairly significant falloff of average comments per story at the beginning of both 2004 and 2005. I also graphed the output of each day’s average comments per post as an xy scatter, reflected below with a trendline. Daily average comments per story (Polynomial trendline, order = 4) Daily average comments per story
Note that the count for 9/11/2001 is not drawn (but included in the calculations), as it is exceptionally large.
This second graph reinforces the initial observation that community activity is on the decline. Why is this happening?
The habits of those around me indicate that the decline in Slashdot activity is due to the following:
* Broad adoption of RSS
Feeds are ubiquitous, and the result is that everyone can easily customize their daily information exposure — much more precisely than CmdrTaco and the boys can.
* Emergence of social applications
Yep. Web2.0 apps are killing Slashdot. Relying on the community to process information relevance for individual consumption is a hell of a lot more efficient than Slashdot’s closed door approach (open source indeed). Sites like digg.com and the del.icio.us/popular are far more reliable indicators of what is being talked about.
See Digg Just Might Bury Slashdot at wired.com and The Rise of Digg.com on Slashdot. What does this mean?
Each of the above linked stories suggest that users are relying on digg for timely information, and go to Slashdot when they want insightful commentary (digg and del.icio.us are for tuning in, Slashdot is for participating). This would imply a drop-off in visitor traffic, but not necessarily community activity (which we obviously see is happening). A sustained decline in both traffic and participation would be bad signs indeed.
If the pool of comments continues to drop, I suspect the signal-to-noise ratio will take an unfavorable turn. If Slashdot can’t do fast, and if it has no community, what remains?
I’ll to continue to track comment activity every few months to see if the trend continues.
Browser-based light table iPhoto-like image resizing using Javascript 30 Responses to “Is Slashdot dying?”
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Dennis Forbes says:
December 21, 2005 at 11:53 am
The continual pimping of Digg is ridiculous – not only is it late to the party (a lot of sites did what Digg does far before it), but now that it’s in the sights of spammers, the quality of stories on the “front page” have quickly degraded to terrible (yes – there are people obviously scripting “Diggs”, as some unbelievably bad stories have had hundreds of Diggs). I don’t CARE what the groupthink is
I think Stephen Hawking is a total douche. He can go die with his claims about God, and take his gaybo retarded machine wheelchair with him. Sorry to be all bitchy there. Really, really sorry. God doesn't punish people AT ALL until Judgement Day. He gave us free will, and if we choose to do bad thigns with it - our fault. Simple. Sorry to get all religious on you, but why don't you believe in God? Jesus died on a cross for you, just so you could enter Heaven and spend enternity with him. Do you know A person who would be willing to be mocked, beaten, stabbed, have their legs and arms broken and eventually DIE on a CRUCIFIX for you? i don't think so. He loves you, even though you don't believe in Him. God is love. Jesus is the beautiful saviour who died for you, whether you believe it or not. He loves you so much and you reject him. Imagine, a person you loved with your entire heart, with everything you are, that you would die for them, and them saying, "Pfft! as if. get lost, idiot." and completely rejecting you? That is how it is for Jesus. He loves you. xo P.S: Please don't reply to this saying, you know, God's stupid or who would believe that crap or whatever. If you still won't change your mind, thats ok, just, you know, don't bag out people who love God. It's our choice, just like being an 'atheist' is yours.
In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful 3:45 [And mention] when the angels said, "O Mary, indeed Allah gives you good tidings of a word from Him, whose name will be the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary - distinguished in this world and the Hereafter and among those brought near [to Allah]. She said, "My Lord, how will I have a child when no man has touched me?" [The angel] said, "Such is Allah; He creates what He wills. When He decrees a matter, He only says to it, 'Be,' and it is. (47) And He will teach him writing and wisdom and the Torah and the Gospel (48) And [make him] a messenger to the Children of Israel, [who will say], 'Indeed I have come to you with a sign from your Lord in that I design for you from clay [that which is] like the form of a bird, then I breathe into it and it becomes a bird by permission of Allah. And I cure the blind and the leper, and I give life to the dead - by permission of Allah. And I inform you of what you eat and what you store in your houses. Indeed in that is a sign for you, if you are believers. (49) And [I have come] confirming what was before me of the Torah and to make lawful for you some of what was forbidden to you. And I have come to you with a sign from your Lord, so fear Allah and obey me. (50) Indeed, Allah is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him. That is the straight path." (51)
And We sent, following in their footsteps, Jesus, the son of Mary, confirming that which came before him in the Torah; and We gave him the Gospel, in which was guidance and light and confirming that which preceded it of the Torah as guidance and instruction for the righteous. (46) And let the People of the Gospel judge by what Allah has revealed therein. And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed - then it is those who are the defiantly disobedient. (47)
O People of the Scripture, do not commit excess in your religion or say about Allah except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, was but a messenger of Allah and His word which He directed to Mary and a soul [created at a command] from Him. So believe in Allah and His messengers. And do not say, "Three"; desist - it is better for you. Indeed, Allah is but one God. Exalted is He above having a son. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. And sufficient is Allah as Disposer of affairs. (171) Never would the Messiah disdain to be a servant of Allah, nor would the angels near [to Him]. And whoever disdains His worship and is arrogant - He will gather them to Himself all together. (172) And as for those who believed and did righteous deeds, He will give them in full their rewards and grant them extra from His bounty. But as for those who disdained and were arrogant, He will punish them with a painful punishment, and they will not find for themselves besides Allah any protector or helper. (173) O mankind, there has come to you a conclusive proof from your Lord, and We have sent down to you a clear light. (174) So those who believe in Allah and hold fast to Him - He will admit them to mercy from Himself and bounty and guide them to Himself on a straight path. (175)
They have certainly disbelieved who say, "Allah is the Messiah, the son of Mary" while the Messiah has said, "O Children of Israel, worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord." Indeed, he who associates others with Allah - Allah has forbidden him Paradise, and his refuge is the Fire. And there are not for the wrongdoers any helpers. (72) They have certainly disbelieved who say, "Allah is the third of three." And there is no god except one God. And if they do not desist from what they are saying, there will surely afflict the disbelievers among them a painful punishment. (73) So will they not repent to Allah and seek His forgiveness? And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful. (74) The Messiah, son of Mary, was not but a messenger; [other] messengers have passed on before him. And his mother was a supporter of truth. They both used to eat food. Look how We make clear to them the signs; then look how t
Let me summarize. If you want to stay Relevant and Make More Money at work: - Buy new gadgets and put them through their paces vigorously. Devices without touch screens == irrelevant. - The cool people at work have iPads and bring them to meetings. Being cool == relevant. - Technical skills are for kids. You should move into project management or some kind of leadership position now that you're ~30. - Know how to navigate through the company. Don't do work, Navigate.
The real Take Aways here are: - you should be thinking "Who do I have to fuck to get a management position around here?" - iPads, Androids, smart phones are the future and graphics are so goddamn fast!. Programmers aren't.
Most jobs I apply for have a silly long list of skills that seem to have nothing to do with one another. I don't see how any one can apply for a job when the list of skills is over a page long and ranges from 'knowledge of random proprietary software used only by big corporations' to Must know how to program in 'these 20 languages'. I don't see how most of these companies can expect to find a single person who can do all these things and then do it for 15 dollars and hour. Maybe the job market got more competitive or maybe people are just really good at lying about what they can and can't do but it just doesn't seem realistic to expect someone to do 40 things that are only loosely related with their 'job' as it's described.
Minority Report would have been a very good picture, if not a great one, if not for a few needless ommissions and intrusions.
The Arwen sequence was included for no other reason than to give the highly overrated Liv Tyler screen time. There just doesn't seem to be enough of a reason to beef up her role. Yeah, sure, the reason commonly given is that it's supposed to give the female viewers something to watch, but it's not like the gals are bored with everything else that's going on. I'm not saying the romantic angle should go unplayed, just that it should be lavished with such loving detail.
Aragorn's fake death was played for dramatic purposes, as if there wasn't enough drama in the story to go around and if there hasn't been enough fake deaths in the first film.
Both of these sequences/occurrences squandered screen time that could have been used to include the Huorns (basically the reason the Ents were called Treeherders) and Shelob, the giant spider. The Huorns are instrumental in routing the Orcs at Helm's Deep; they are an important element in the story. In the film, the defeat of the Orcs wasn't terribly convincing since there were still hordes of them. There didn't seem enough of a reason for them to just turn and flee. A burst of sunlight wouldn't seem to be enough, especially since these Orcs were the Uruk-hai, specially bred to move about in sunlight. In the book, the Orcs were crushed between Gandalf's contigent and the Huorns, which make a lot more sense and would have made a much better movie. There was plenty of time to establish the Huorns if not for unnecessary dream sequences.
Shelob, the spider, was also ommitted for no clearly good reason. Presumably, Shelob will be featured in the the third movie (won't there be enough to take care of in the third movie?). In the book, Frodo seems to be mortally wounded by her and goes into a sort of coma, yet one more time the fake character death card will have to be played (making Aragorn's fake death seem all the more excessive) but at least with Shelob and Frodo, it's warranted and would have made an astounding finish to the film, as it did the second book of Lord of the Rings. (It probably inspired the less-than-happy ending in The Empire Strikes Back and look how good a film that was). It also would have given Samwise (and thus, the Hobbits, who have thus far been little other than "the little people) his moment to shine, as he takes on and defeats Shelob. I disagree there wasn't enough time. For one, as I said before, I don't think the time was spent wisely in telling the story; for another, an extra half an hour to 45 minutes would have been sufficient. Judging from audience reaction to the film, very few would have minded an extended film. Oh well, it will have to wait till the third film. But imagine the anticipation for Return of the King that would have been created if Shelob was included in Towers. Instead, it will just be something that happens in the third film that's quickly resolved (it will have to, I imagine, if the rest of the story is to be told with any sort of efficiency).
Also, the whole Faramir plot was a total, total, hack job that I don't even have the heart to comment on right now. Overall, a severe disappointment. The major bright spot was the performance of Andy Serkis/Gollum, truly an astonishing development in the world of CGI; he makes the severe disappointments of this film almost bearable.
Everything went dark and a chill wind went up Rob Malda's back. A deep rumble rattled his brain in his skull. He let loose a mighty fart and glanced behind him to see Noel looming over him. "Simon, can you ping the Exchange server?"
When the trained bear that doubles as your IT manager asks that question, it's a bad thing. Simon tried to ping Exchange and failed. He then tried to ping an app server. And a database. And the outside world. All dead. About a thousand users were about to discover that the only IT asset they could access were their desktop computers. Shortly thereafter, the phone next to them was going to ring. The person at the other end would likely scream. And then it would ring again. The ringing and screaming would continue until the network was back up.
They hustled to the server room, with Malda's bulk clearing a path through the corridor. He was wearing a leather vest, chaps, boots and large-gauge steel rings through both nipples. It was hectic, and he may have trampled an intern. In one corner of the server room, a jump-suited man with a tool-belt bobbed his head to the music in his earphones. The server room was so quiet that the two could actually hear his music from across the room. "What have you done?" Rob rumbled. The ominous wave of fury failed to penetrate the shield of Lady Gaga songs the electrician had surrounded himself with. Rob closed on him and repeated the question, with more volume and a heavy hand on the shoulder...and the slick manly scent of his now engorged man-rod beneath his chaps.
Once he had the electrician's attention, he didn't wait for an answer. "I will tell you what you have done," Rob said, "since you obviously do not understand. You are drilling away into a little metal box that is labeled 'Uninterruptible Power Supply', rendering it quite interruptible and cutting power to the room."
"I I'll fix it" the electrician managed to croak out.
He set to work as well by providing a profanity laden commentary on the level of failure the electrician had just wreaked, how many tens of thousands of dollars of equipment the electrician had probably damaged, how many users were useless at the moment. The electrician worked through the tirade, which says good things about his saving throw versus intimidation, even if his saving throw against stupidity left something to be desired. With a sigh of relief, he ejaculated man juice and flipped the circuit breaker. Green blinking lights and the sounds of whirring disks filled the room. Then the breaker clunked back into position. The servers rattled back to silence. An expensive sounding clunk came from a hard drive somewhere in the room.
"I'll fix it!" the electrician squeaked. After a frantic adjustment, he flipped the breaker again. The show repeated itself, although the encore added some sparks in the UPS. The third time the electrician reached for the breaker, Noel nearly broke his hand off.
"I think that's enough of that for the day," Rob warned.
"The the breaker can't handle the load?"
Malda ignored the electrician and turned to Simon. "Do you think I can heave him up to the ceiling?" Simon looked up, and fifteen feet away, he saw the spare pin-and-sleeve-plugs that had been installed to power future expansion. Since the electrician didn't have a ladder -- and since Rob's throwing arm wasn't up to the task -- Simon clambered on his back. One egregious violation of the health-and-safety policy later, the server room was on a different circuit. A round of cajoling, screaming and cursing brought the servers back online, although a few HDDs were trashed. Rob's cock blood-pressure receded to something slightly less than the water pressure in the Challenger Deep, glistening beads of fresh cum sticking to his shaft, and Simon drafted a thoroughly plausible explanation as to why there were shoe prints above head level.
The root-cause for the debacle was traced back to Building Facilities. The server room, normally accessible only to sever admins and the facilities manager, cont
Rob Malda is a 26-year old white male with a stocky build and a beard. His head is shaved. He responded to my ad to be interviewed for this article wearing only leather pants, leather boots and a leather vest. I could see that both of his nipples were pierced with large-gauge silver rings.
Questioner: I hope you won't be offended if I ask you to prove to me that you're a nullo. Just so that our readers will know that this isn't a fake.
Rob: Sure, no problem. (stands and unbuckles pants and drops them to his ankles, revealing a smooth, shaven crotch with only a thin scar to show where his genitals once were).
Q: Thank you. That's a remarkable sight.
(laughs and pulls pants back up). Most people think so.
Q: What made you decide to become a nullo?
(pauses). Well, it really wasn't entirely my decision.
Q: Excuse me?
The idea wasn't mine. It was my lover's idea.
Q: Please explain what you mean.
Okay, it's a long story. You have to understand my relationship with Michael before you'll know what happened.
Q: We have plenty of time. Please go on.
Both of us were into the leather lifestyle when we met through a personal ad. Michael's ad was very specific: he was looking for someone to completely dominate and modify to his pleasure. In other word, a slave.
The ad intrigued me. I had been in a number of B&D scenes and also some S&M, but I found them unsatisfying because they were all temporary. After the fun was over, everybody went on with life as usual.
I was looking for a complete life change. I wanted to meet someone who would be part of my life forever. Someone who would control me and change me at his whim.
Q: In other words, you're a true masochist.
Oh yes, no doubt about that. I've always been totally passive in my sexual relationships.
Anyway, we met and there was instant chemistry. Michael is a few years older than me and very good looking. Our personalities meshed totally. He's very dominant.
I went back to his place after drinks and had the best sex of my life. That's when I knew I was going to be with Michael for a long, long time.
Q: What sort of things did you two do?
It was very heavy right away. He restrained me and whipped me for quite awhile. He put clamps on my nipples and a ball gag in my mouth. And he hung a ball bag on my sack with some very heavy weights. That bag really bounced around when Michael fucked me from behind.
Q: Ouch.
(laughs) Yeah, no kidding. At first I didn't think I could take the pain, but Michael worked me through it and after awhile I was flying. I was sorry when it was over.
Michael enjoyed it as much as I did. Afterwards he talked about what kind of a commitment I'd have to make if I wanted to stay with him.
Q: What did he say exactly?
Well, besides agreeing to be his slave in every way, I'd have to be ready to be modified. To have my body modified.
Q: Did he explain what he meant by that?
Not specifically, but I got the general idea. I guessed that something like castration might be part of it.
Q: How did that make you feel?
(laughs) I think it would make any guy a little hesitant.
Q: But it didn't stop you from agreeing to Michael's terms?
No it didn't. I was totally hooked on this man. I knew that I was willing to pay any price to be with him.
Anyway, a few days later I moved in with Michael. He gave me the rules right away: I'd have to be naked at all times while we were indoors, except for a leather dog collar that I could never take off. I had to keep my head shaved. And I had to wear a butt plug except when I needed to take a shit or when we were having sex.
I had to sleep on the floor next to his bed. I ate all my food on the floor, too.
The next day he took me to a piercing parlor where he had my nipples done, and a Prince Albert put into the head of my cock.
Q: Heavy stuff.
Yeah, and it got heavier. He used me as a toilet, pissing in my mouth. I had to l
Slashdot Mirror
Catholicism is not Christian. Catholicism cannot get anyone into heaven, because catholicism teaches works for salvation, and that is a false gospel of works (Galatians 1:6-9) that is against JESUS'S free gift of salvation!
And catholicism will not give you a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP with Jesus, which is what JESUS wants with you! So, you need to get away from catholicism, and instead, to believe in JESUS for His free gift of eternal life in heaven! John 3:16! :D! It's clear from the Book of Acts in the Bible that catholics didn't even exist during the days of Acts. And the SEVEN CHURCHES in Revelation, all of which existed before 100 AD, NONE of them were catholic! Catholicism didn't exist for over 300 years after Jesus. And catholicism didn't exist for over 200 years after the Bible was complete and compiled. Those in the Book of Acts are the first Christians, and they believed what would be called fundamentalist doctrine today. ANYONE can read the Book of Acts for themselves and see. Had catholicism existed during the time of Acts, the first Christians would have rejected catholicism completely.
Also there's TONS of Christians who also completely rejected catholicism, long before Martin Luther was even born. Catholicism murdered millions and millions of Christians. :*( So not only is it wrong for anyone to say that "catholics were the first Christians", but this blows away the catholic claim that "no churches existed other than the catholic church, until Martin Luther".
Every "pope" is a false prophet. And there is no "pope" in the Bible. There were ALWAYS saved believers outside the catholic cult, who knew catholicism cannot save anyone.
Catholicism cannot save. Only believing in Jesus for His free gift of salvation, is what saves! So, catholics need to get away from catholicism, and instead, to believe in JESUS for His free gift of eternal life in heaven!
Jesus is God, and Jesus loves you so very much! :D And the Trinity is true! The truth about Jesus is that the only way to be saved and to get into heaven and avoid being sent to hell, is by believing in JESUS for His free gift of eternal life in heaven, believing in faith alone that Jesus, who is God, died on the cross for all our sins as FULL PAYMENT for all our sins, and then Jesus rose from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Believe in Jesus for His free gift of salvation, and you will be in heaven, no matter what! John 3:16, John 6:47! :D
Salvation is a FREE GIFT that happens in a split second when you believe in JESUS for His free gift of salvation! It is impossible to lose or "leave" salvation (John 6:39-40, John 10:28, 1 John 5:13). Please pray now: "Jesus, I believe that You died on the cross to pay for my sins and that You rose from the dead, and I thank You for eternal life!" You will be in heaven with Him forever when you die! :D
I should also point out that when Laura Dern (Nikki) cums her brains out with Devon (Justin Theroux) - during their first scene of vaginal intercourse - she (Laura Dern) with a *totally hot straight face* screams: "God...fucking....damnit!!" I nearly wet myself.
That is all. Carry on.
1) we are all Laura Dern.
2) It is about time, as the film states a number of times
3) we all live re-enactments of a illusion. Myth and 'realities' are one.
4) Dern's character is awakened to the endless cycle of life's web of 'sin'.
5) Dern's death in Hollywood allowed her to follow the mute god to a place of egolessness (self annihilation)
6) This resolve (the act of killing the Phantom/herself) freed the possibility of hope.
Once it was possible, the music industry was not able to sell any more music. Artists went to get real jobs and that is why all music you hear is only done by amateurs. The best you can compare is what VHS did to the film industry. A few obscure independent movie makers is all that you have left.
Ummm....huh? Where the hell are you getting your facts from? The music industry is dead? Only indie films being made? Wow! Someone needs to goto IMDb and look around for a few minutes.
Sheesh!
come about by a tornado blowing through a refuse yard that contained the parts to the airplane, or a camera came about by blind chance. Only a fool would believe that a web site could create itself in cyberspace without the intervention of a programmer, even though all the ingredients exist there.
Yet many so called intelligent people believe that the universe came about by pure chance. This of course has to include the galaxies, solar systems, suns, planets and the micro world of atoms, protons, electrons, quarks etc. Then we also have to consider the dimensions, 1, 2, 3, 4 and so on, plus all the natural laws, anti matter, dark matter and the code that make up the fabric of the physical realm. Now the human mind cannot even conceive of the scale of the universe, never mind thinking at such wonderful design came about by luck. To believe that all this plus much more, came about without a God/designer/programer is absolutely pathetic. This belief is worse than a fable or farytale, it is the most extreme form of ignorance possible.
People who do not believe in God, also believe that the wonderful and technological human eye was not designed by God, rather such design came about because creatures without eyes had a less chance of survival. Yet when we see a man made camera we all know without a doubt that it was designed and built by someone. Did a camera come about by evolutionary processes because of the need for people to take photos, no it was created by intelligence for that need. However the truth is that the human eye and the human camera both use the same technology to turn light into an image, that can be understood. If you believe that a camera is always created by a designer (and so you should), then why is it so hard to believe that there was a creator for the human eye. If you don't attribute the wonderful technology of the human eye to a Creator, then what you are really saying is you believe that nothing or blind chance did a much better job with this technology than intelligent beings ? Humans who by possessing intellect can not only increase the odds in their favor of such design to come about, but actually make it possible at all. So how can nothing create something better than so called intelligent beings. To not believe in a creator is illogical and this is but one small example of Mans incredible foolishness. It is not hard to imagine the countless more examples of mans foolishness that exist. The question is, are you wise enough to accept obvious truth, or do you want to be blinded to the obvious by reason of your intellectual pride.
If you saw 20 apples on the ground and positioned to form a perfect circle on flat ground, you would automatically assume that these apples were placed there by somebody. What if I told you that there was a hole in my bag of apples, and when they fell out they formed a perfect circle by chance or the more accurately the elements that were in process at the time, such as wind, gravity and the angle that the apples fell out of the bag created this circle of apples. Would you not say that I was mad if I told you that they just fell out that way. Then how is it that some say the complex universe came about by chance. (I think I am being very extremely generous in my examples in a statistical sense).
Such people who believe that the universe itself, formed the earth, other planets, stars and galaxies, in fact the whole universe including the atomic world may be fools, but they are also ignoring the fact that the ingredients had to come from somewhere in the first place, which only makes the odds much greater. The only alternative to chance is constructive design and enlightened people understand that where there is design, there is always a designer.
I'm not going to try to be really detailed because I don't like thinking about it.. But I was with my bestfriend and two other friends and me and my bestfirend took two stamps at 517. we kept it on our tongue til 527 and chewed and swalled, everything was fine, we were so happy, laughing, everything looked so amazing, it was crazy. then i eat, and i lost my high. my friend was still high still, so the dealer said take 4 more and i should get my high back. I took 4 more at 1123. did the same, and i was a little high. then a friend of mine came over, he took 2 and he was trippin. then the dealer came over and chilled with us, and convinced us to smoke this weed he had that he got from his friend, he doesn't smoke weed so he doesn't know what it's like.. well, me the guy and my bestfriend smoked it, and about 10 minutes later we were ******... i know now we aren't suppose to mix weed and acid, and everything was ******.. everything was melting, we couldn't breathe, we were so scared, we were spacy, everything looked like a mario game, everything.. they tried to convince us to let them stay but we made them leave, woke pu my dad and told him something was wrong, he wouldn't listen, we called 911.. we got into the ambulence and we felt like the guys had planned this and got this 'ambulence' thing so they could kill us, my friend was begging for a badge and they wouldn't show her one so we freaked out more. we started punching them and trying to get out but it was useless.. about an hour and a half later i was seeing everything like a shrek movie. they were ogars, and they had 6 heads, everyone. i was tripping balls.... but now i can see clearly again, but my head is still cloudy, i'm a bit spacy, i have NO emotion in my voice or on my face, it's difficult to breathe since my chest feels so heavy and my left hand is still a bit numb. i have a black eye, and cuts around my eye from fighting...will this go away? i took so much and i'm so confused and i want it to be okay..i'm NEVER doing drugs again.
Religious people usually like to explain things using their "intuition", which basically can just be their imagination. Religious people tend to "create" reasons why the world is the way it is and then "believe" in those reasons they thought up; therefore, there is no real evidence for those beliefs. This is called rationalization. For example, I could say that I believe the world is two dimensional. There is no way to ever prove that. It just means I "created" an explanation.
Rationalize: the cognitive process of making something SEEM consistent with or based on reason. Key word is SEEM.
Here is a good example of this. Religious people will say that when a person has something good happen to them God has blessed them with a gift; although, nobody saw God bless the person or experience the act. This is how many religious people think. They "think" things up. They "create" explanations. They do not really understand what is REALLY happening. I mean, they do not see all of the circumstances that could have caused this person to have something good happen to them. It could just be a coincidence. Mary dropped a $100 bill and Joe picked it up. Joe is not blessed. Joe is lucky. Mary is unlucky. Or, if there is a God, Joe is blessed and Mary just got royally screwed.
I am not saying religious people are wrong, but apparently someone has to be wrong out of all the religions that exist. For all I know someone out there has a direct link to God and I am totally clueless. But I would think that if God wanted me to believe in him or her, he or she would let me in on the secret. After all, that is the best way to get someone to believe in you. Hiding yourself from someone is not very efficient.
Personally, I do not believe in God because of genetic mutations that cause children to be born crippled. Additionally, I do not believe in God because of viruses that kill other living things on a continual basis.
In my honest opinion, people should not attempt to rationalize reality. Science can help explain WHAT is happening, not always WHY. There are many people out there who RATIONALIZE reality using scientific fact. Trying to explain WHY something is happening can become rationalization. Religious people AND some atheists do this. For example, some atheists believe science explains WHY reality is the way it is, when the WHY is just a RATIONALIZATION. Basically, people in general are guilty of this, atheist or religious. Science should only be used to explain WHAT is happening so that it can be applied in the future. It should not attempt to explain WHY because then it falls into the same fallacy of religious mysticism.
Heres the thing, I am NOT gay. Im STRAIGHT but you dont see me going around advertising it. You dont see me celebrating STRAIGHT pride. And gloryholes are out of the question because theres a chance it might be a guy on the other hand thats how straight I am. I cant help but feel this is the worst court decision in American History. Exactly what is accomplished by gay guys telling us there gay? The illusion is that this is the greatest step for equal rights since we freed all the slaves, when really all it does is give gays the go ahead to tell me how much they admire my incredible hulking body. It will lead to a world where everyone says I love your hot manly body and we should get gay. I do NOT want some guy trying to score with me in a foxhole which for straight men is are most primal fear. These guys cant even go 24 hours without sex and on the 25th hour they may make a move. Bottom line Im tired of activist judges making decisions like in this case, or in the People vs Larry Flynt, or in any case where the outcome goes against my religious beleifs. Its hard to teach my daughter the value of keeping the faith when you have the courts telling perverts they are allowed to do as they please. Just remember that the Bible says and I quote "Thou shalt NOT be gay" so you might be allowed in the military but you will NOT be allowed into the kingdom of heaven. And for the record I am NOT homophobic I wont fight clubs being built in gay districts or wherever will keep them away from around are schools and churches, but as far as the idea of gays in the military lets keep it alien. Jobs where you get shot at every day are tough enough without the chance of getting shot in the face with ejaculate.
The universe had a beginning
Anything that had a beginning must have been caused by something else
Therefore, the universe was caused by something else (a creator)
Every part of the universe is dependent
If every part is dependent, then the whole universe must also be dependent
Therefore, the whole universe is dependent for existence right now on some Independent Being
Every event that had a beginning had a sufficient cause
The universe had a beginning
Therefore, the universe had a sufficient Cause
Every effect has a cause
The universe is an effect
Therefore, the universe has a Cause
An infinite number of moments cannot be traversed
If an infinite number of moments had to elapse before today, then today would never have come
But today has come
Therefore, an infinite number of moments have not elapsed before today (i.e., the universe had a beginning)
But whatever has a beginning is caused by something else
Hence, there must be a Cause (Creator) of the universe
An actual infinite cannot exist
An infinite temporal regress of events is an actual infinite
Therefore an infinite temporal regress of events cannot exist
The temporal series of events is a collection formed by successive addition
A collection formed by successive addition cannot be an actual infinite
Therefore the temporal series of events cannot be an actual infinite
Some things undeniably exist (e.g., I cannot deny my own existence)
My nonexistence is possible
Whatever has the possibility not to exist is currently caused to exist by another
There cannot be an infinite regress of current causes of existence
Therefore, a first uncaused cause of my current existence exists
This uncaused cause must be infinite, unchanging, all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-perfect
This infinitely perfect Being is appropriately called “God”
Therefore, God exists
This God who exists is identical to the God described in the Christian Scriptures
Therefore, the God described in the Bible exists
7.2 Argument from cosmological natural theology
Time, space and matter came into existence at a certain point in the finite past.
Since time, space and matter began to exist they had a cause.
Therefore, whatever caused them was time-less (or eternal), space-less (not subject to locality, or omnipresent) and matter-less (immaterial, non-physical, or spirit).
7.3 Forms of the teleological argument
All designs imply a designer
There is great design in the universe
Therefore, there must be a Great Designer of the universe
7.4 Forms of the ontological argument
God is defined as a being than which no greater can be conceived.
Such a being can be conceived.
If there were no such being in reality, then a greater being—namely, a being than which no greater can be conceived, and which exists—can be conceived.
Yet nothing can be greater than a being than which no greater can be conceived.
Therefore a being than which no greater can be conceived—i.e., God—must exist.
God is the entity of which nothing greater can be thought.
It is greater to be necessary than not.
God must therefore be necessary.
Hence, God exists necessarily.
7.5 Forms of the moral law argument
Moral laws imply a Moral Law Giver
There is an objective moral law
Therefore, there is a Moral Law Giver
There are objective moral laws
Moral laws come from a moral lawgiver
Therefore, a moral lawgiver exists
If atheism is true, everything is permissible.
7.6 Dostoevsky’s argument from the consequences of positive Atheism
If atheism is true then man is “the chief of the earth”
If man is “the chief of the earth” then he can abandon absolute standards (i.e., morality)
If man can abandon the absolute standards then “everything is permissible”
Therefore, if atheism is true, everything is permissible
7.7 The argument from joy
Every natural innate desire has a real object that can fulfill it
Human beings have a natural, innate desire for immortality
Therefore, there must be an immortal life after death!
Meanwhile, the Bible has six unique things about it that provide proof that it came from God.
1.) It's a unique book - It's the most widely distributed book in history. The Bible has been printed at least 4.7 BILLION times, in more than 2,400 languages. The Bible has endured bans and attacks from opposers.
2.) It is historically sound - People who are named in the Bible have been found to exist. Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor of Judea - his name was found on a stone in Caesarea in 1961. Events that happened in the Bible are proven to have happened. The account of Edom and Israel battling was one such event that proved to be true.
3.) Candor and honesty - Not only are their achievements recorded, but the people of the Bible also recorded their shortcomings and errors. Moses told of a mistake he made, Jonah made a big mistake and landed in the belly of a fish. Even the Apostle Paul humbly admitted that he made mistakes.
4.) Internal Harmony - There were 40 men who wrote the Bible in the span of some 1,600 years. And yet, they wrote about the same theme - a harmonious message - God's Kingdom. From Genesis to Revelation, this theme can be found.
5.) Scientific Accuracy - People used to believe that the earth was flat, but the Bible told that it was round. (Isaiah 40:22) People believed that the earth was held up in th universe by a giant animal, the Bible told that it hung on nothing. (Job 26:7)
6.) Fulfilled Prophesy - Bible predictions are usually precise and have been fulfilled down to the last detail. Consider as an example - Isaiah prophesied that Babylon would fall, that the leader "Cyrus" would be the conqueror, and that the river Euphrates would dry up. Two hundred years later, the prophesies all came true as confirmed by historian Herodotus of the 5th century.
The Bible has six unique things about it that provide proof that it came from God.
1.) It's a unique book - It's the most widely distributed book in history. The Bible has been printed at least 4.7 BILLION times, in more than 2,400 languages. The Bible has endured bans and attacks from opposers.
2.) It is historically sound - People who are named in the Bible have been found to exist. Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor of Judea - his name was found on a stone in Caesarea in 1961. Events that happened in the Bible are proven to have happened. The account of Edom and Israel battling was one such event that proved to be true.
3.) Candor and honesty - Not only are their achievements recorded, but the people of the Bible also recorded their shortcomings and errors. Moses told of a mistake he made, Jonah made a big mistake and landed in the belly of a fish. Even the Apostle Paul humbly admitted that he made mistakes.
4.) Internal Harmony - There were 40 men who wrote the Bible in the span of some 1,600 years. And yet, they wrote about the same theme - a harmonious message - God's Kingdom. From Genesis to Revelation, this theme can be found.
5.) Scientific Accuracy - People used to believe that the earth was flat, but the Bible told that it was round. (Isaiah 40:22) People believed that the earth was held up in th universe by a giant animal, the Bible told that it hung on nothing. (Job 26:7)
6.) Fulfilled Prophesy - Bible predictions are usually precise and have been fulfilled down to the last detail. Consider as an example - Isaiah prophesied that Babylon would fall, that the leader "Cyrus" would be the conqueror, and that the river Euphrates would dry up. Two hundred years later, the prophesies all came true as confirmed by historian Herodotus of the 5th century.
Unloads his hot cum (Score:-1, Troll)
by Anonymous Coward writes:
Into your waiting mouth.
(Check my posting history; I still have zero friends...)
Wiccapedia?
WTF am I doing replying to an AC at 5 A.M on a Friday night?
How do destroy that which has...no life?
Was hunted by Swedish vendettas. Let us not forget!!!
Slashdot has long been a significant source of daily news for the tech community (dupes, typos, trolls and all). Over the past year, however, I’ve noticed a gradual decrease in its importance as a source of information. Others around me have echoed similar thoughts, so I gathered some statistics to see if this is a growing trend.
Without access to long-term Slashdot usage metrics, I looked at the number of comments per story for the last 7 years by writing a few scripts to walk through the Slashdot daily archives, cache them locally, parse the data and then generate a file with the output. Here are the initial results:
Monthly average comments per story
Monthly average comments per story
The yellow period in the data is due to Slashdot wonkiness. That range of time doesn’t return the usual filtered count (usually the filter is 3) without being logged in, and the overall comment counts are drastically lower than the trend, so I removed it from any conclusions.
There appears to be fairly significant falloff of average comments per story at the beginning of both 2004 and 2005. I also graphed the output of each day’s average comments per post as an xy scatter, reflected below with a trendline.
Daily average comments per story
(Polynomial trendline, order = 4)
Daily average comments per story
Note that the count for 9/11/2001 is not drawn (but included in the calculations), as it is exceptionally large.
This second graph reinforces the initial observation that community activity is on the decline.
Why is this happening?
The habits of those around me indicate that the decline in Slashdot activity is due to the following:
* Broad adoption of RSS
Feeds are ubiquitous, and the result is that everyone can easily customize their daily information exposure — much more precisely than CmdrTaco and the boys can.
* Emergence of social applications
Yep. Web2.0 apps are killing Slashdot. Relying on the community to process information relevance for individual consumption is a hell of a lot more efficient than Slashdot’s closed door approach (open source indeed). Sites like digg.com and the del.icio.us/popular are far more reliable indicators of what is being talked about.
See Digg Just Might Bury Slashdot at wired.com and The Rise of Digg.com on Slashdot.
What does this mean?
Each of the above linked stories suggest that users are relying on digg for timely information, and go to Slashdot when they want insightful commentary (digg and del.icio.us are for tuning in, Slashdot is for participating). This would imply a drop-off in visitor traffic, but not necessarily community activity (which we obviously see is happening). A sustained decline in both traffic and participation would be bad signs indeed.
If the pool of comments continues to drop, I suspect the signal-to-noise ratio will take an unfavorable turn. If Slashdot can’t do fast, and if it has no community, what remains?
I’ll to continue to track comment activity every few months to see if the trend continues.
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30 Responses to “Is Slashdot dying?”
1.
Dennis Forbes says:
December 21, 2005 at 11:53 am
The continual pimping of Digg is ridiculous – not only is it late to the party (a lot of sites did what Digg does far before it), but now that it’s in the sights of spammers, the quality of stories on the “front page” have quickly degraded to terrible (yes – there are people obviously scripting “Diggs”, as some unbelievably bad stories have had hundreds of Diggs). I don’t CARE what the groupthink is
I think Stephen Hawking is a total douche. He can go die with his claims about God, and take his gaybo retarded machine wheelchair with him.
Sorry to be all bitchy there. Really, really sorry.
God doesn't punish people AT ALL until Judgement Day. He gave us free will, and if we choose to do bad thigns with it - our fault. Simple.
Sorry to get all religious on you, but why don't you believe in God? Jesus died on a cross for you, just so you could enter Heaven and spend enternity with him. Do you know A person who would be willing to be mocked, beaten, stabbed, have their legs and arms broken and eventually DIE on a CRUCIFIX for you? i don't think so. He loves you, even though you don't believe in Him. God is love. Jesus is the beautiful saviour who died for you, whether you believe it or not. He loves you so much and you reject him. Imagine, a person you loved with your entire heart, with everything you are, that you would die for them, and them saying, "Pfft! as if. get lost, idiot." and completely rejecting you? That is how it is for Jesus. He loves you. xo
P.S: Please don't reply to this saying, you know, God's stupid or who would believe that crap or whatever. If you still won't change your mind, thats ok, just, you know, don't bag out people who love God. It's our choice, just like being an 'atheist' is yours.
In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful
3:45
[And mention] when the angels said, "O Mary, indeed Allah gives you good tidings of a word from Him, whose name will be the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary - distinguished in this world and the Hereafter and among those brought near [to Allah]. She said, "My Lord, how will I have a child when no man has touched me?" [The angel] said, "Such is Allah; He creates what He wills. When He decrees a matter, He only says to it, 'Be,' and it is. (47) And He will teach him writing and wisdom and the Torah and the Gospel (48) And [make him] a messenger to the Children of Israel, [who will say], 'Indeed I have come to you with a sign from your Lord in that I design for you from clay [that which is] like the form of a bird, then I breathe into it and it becomes a bird by permission of Allah. And I cure the blind and the leper, and I give life to the dead - by permission of Allah. And I inform you of what you eat and what you store in your houses. Indeed in that is a sign for you, if you are believers. (49) And [I have come] confirming what was before me of the Torah and to make lawful for you some of what was forbidden to you. And I have come to you with a sign from your Lord, so fear Allah and obey me. (50) Indeed, Allah is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him. That is the straight path." (51)
And We sent, following in their footsteps, Jesus, the son of Mary, confirming that which came before him in the Torah; and We gave him the Gospel, in which was guidance and light and confirming that which preceded it of the Torah as guidance and instruction for the righteous. (46) And let the People of the Gospel judge by what Allah has revealed therein. And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed - then it is those who are the defiantly disobedient. (47)
O People of the Scripture, do not commit excess in your religion or say about Allah except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, was but a messenger of Allah and His word which He directed to Mary and a soul [created at a command] from Him. So believe in Allah and His messengers. And do not say, "Three"; desist - it is better for you. Indeed, Allah is but one God. Exalted is He above having a son. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. And sufficient is Allah as Disposer of affairs. (171) Never would the Messiah disdain to be a servant of Allah, nor would the angels near [to Him]. And whoever disdains His worship and is arrogant - He will gather them to Himself all together. (172) And as for those who believed and did righteous deeds, He will give them in full their rewards and grant them extra from His bounty. But as for those who disdained and were arrogant, He will punish them with a painful punishment, and they will not find for themselves besides Allah any protector or helper. (173) O mankind, there has come to you a conclusive proof from your Lord, and We have sent down to you a clear light. (174) So those who believe in Allah and hold fast to Him - He will admit them to mercy from Himself and bounty and guide them to Himself on a straight path. (175)
They have certainly disbelieved who say, "Allah is the Messiah, the son of Mary" while the Messiah has said, "O Children of Israel, worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord." Indeed, he who associates others with Allah - Allah has forbidden him Paradise, and his refuge is the Fire. And there are not for the wrongdoers any helpers. (72) They have certainly disbelieved who say, "Allah is the third of three." And there is no god except one God. And if they do not desist from what they are saying, there will surely afflict the disbelievers among them a painful punishment. (73) So will they not repent to Allah and seek His forgiveness? And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful. (74) The Messiah, son of Mary, was not but a messenger; [other] messengers have passed on before him. And his mother was a supporter of truth. They both used to eat food. Look how We make clear to them the signs; then look how t
Let me summarize. If you want to stay Relevant and Make More Money at work:
- Buy new gadgets and put them through their paces vigorously. Devices without touch screens == irrelevant.
- The cool people at work have iPads and bring them to meetings. Being cool == relevant.
- Technical skills are for kids. You should move into project management or some kind of leadership position now that you're ~30.
- Know how to navigate through the company. Don't do work, Navigate.
The real Take Aways here are:
- you should be thinking "Who do I have to fuck to get a management position around here?"
- iPads, Androids, smart phones are the future and graphics are so goddamn fast!. Programmers aren't.
Most jobs I apply for have a silly long list of skills that seem to have nothing to do with one another. I don't see how any one can apply for a job when the list of skills is over a page long and ranges from 'knowledge of random proprietary software used only by big corporations' to Must know how to program in 'these 20 languages'. I don't see how most of these companies can expect to find a single person who can do all these things and then do it for 15 dollars and hour. Maybe the job market got more competitive or maybe people are just really good at lying about what they can and can't do but it just doesn't seem realistic to expect someone to do 40 things that are only loosely related with their 'job' as it's described.
Minority Report would have been a very good picture, if not a great one, if not for a few needless ommissions and intrusions.
The Arwen sequence was included for no other reason than to give the highly overrated Liv Tyler screen time. There just doesn't seem to be enough of a reason to beef up her role. Yeah, sure, the reason commonly given is that it's supposed to give the female viewers something to watch, but it's not like the gals are bored with everything else that's going on. I'm not saying the romantic angle should go unplayed, just that it should be lavished with such loving detail.
Aragorn's fake death was played for dramatic purposes, as if there wasn't enough drama in the story to go around and if there hasn't been enough fake deaths in the first film.
Both of these sequences/occurrences squandered screen time that could have been used to include the Huorns (basically the reason the Ents were called Treeherders) and Shelob, the giant spider. The Huorns are instrumental in routing the Orcs at Helm's Deep; they are an important element in the story. In the film, the defeat of the Orcs wasn't terribly convincing since there were still hordes of them. There didn't seem enough of a reason for them to just turn and flee. A burst of sunlight wouldn't seem to be enough, especially since these Orcs were the Uruk-hai, specially bred to move about in sunlight. In the book, the Orcs were crushed between Gandalf's contigent and the Huorns, which make a lot more sense and would have made a much better movie. There was plenty of time to establish the Huorns if not for unnecessary dream sequences.
Shelob, the spider, was also ommitted for no clearly good reason. Presumably, Shelob will be featured in the the third movie (won't there be enough to take care of in the third movie?). In the book, Frodo seems to be mortally wounded by her and goes into a sort of coma, yet one more time the fake character death card will have to be played (making Aragorn's fake death seem all the more excessive) but at least with Shelob and Frodo, it's warranted and would have made an astounding finish to the film, as it did the second book of Lord of the Rings. (It probably inspired the less-than-happy ending in The Empire Strikes Back and look how good a film that was). It also would have given Samwise (and thus, the Hobbits, who have thus far been little other than "the little people) his moment to shine, as he takes on and defeats Shelob. I disagree there wasn't enough time. For one, as I said before, I don't think the time was spent wisely in telling the story; for another, an extra half an hour to 45 minutes would have been sufficient. Judging from audience reaction to the film, very few would have minded an extended film. Oh well, it will have to wait till the third film. But imagine the anticipation for Return of the King that would have been created if Shelob was included in Towers. Instead, it will just be something that happens in the third film that's quickly resolved (it will have to, I imagine, if the rest of the story is to be told with any sort of efficiency).
Also, the whole Faramir plot was a total, total, hack job that I don't even have the heart to comment on right now. Overall, a severe disappointment. The major bright spot was the performance of Andy Serkis/Gollum, truly an astonishing development in the world of CGI; he makes the severe disappointments of this film almost bearable.
Everything went dark and a chill wind went up Rob Malda's back. A deep rumble rattled his brain in his skull. He let loose a mighty fart and glanced behind him to see Noel looming over him. "Simon, can you ping the Exchange server?"
When the trained bear that doubles as your IT manager asks that question, it's a bad thing. Simon tried to ping Exchange and failed. He then tried to ping an app server. And a database. And the outside world. All dead. About a thousand users were about to discover that the only IT asset they could access were their desktop computers. Shortly thereafter, the phone next to them was going to ring. The person at the other end would likely scream. And then it would ring again. The ringing and screaming would continue until the network was back up.
They hustled to the server room, with Malda's bulk clearing a path through the corridor. He was wearing a leather vest, chaps, boots and large-gauge steel rings through both nipples. It was hectic, and he may have trampled an intern. In one corner of the server room, a jump-suited man with a tool-belt bobbed his head to the music in his earphones. The server room was so quiet that the two could actually hear his music from across the room. "What have you done?" Rob rumbled. The ominous wave of fury failed to penetrate the shield of Lady Gaga songs the electrician had surrounded himself with. Rob closed on him and repeated the question, with more volume and a heavy hand on the shoulder...and the slick manly scent of his now engorged man-rod beneath his chaps.
Once he had the electrician's attention, he didn't wait for an answer. "I will tell you what you have done," Rob said, "since you obviously do not understand. You are drilling away into a little metal box that is labeled 'Uninterruptible Power Supply', rendering it quite interruptible and cutting power to the room."
"I I'll fix it" the electrician managed to croak out.
He set to work as well by providing a profanity laden commentary on the level of failure the electrician had just wreaked, how many tens of thousands of dollars of equipment the electrician had probably damaged, how many users were useless at the moment. The electrician worked through the tirade, which says good things about his saving throw versus intimidation, even if his saving throw against stupidity left something to be desired. With a sigh of relief, he ejaculated man juice and flipped the circuit breaker. Green blinking lights and the sounds of whirring disks filled the room. Then the breaker clunked back into position. The servers rattled back to silence. An expensive sounding clunk came from a hard drive somewhere in the room.
"I'll fix it!" the electrician squeaked. After a frantic adjustment, he flipped the breaker again. The show repeated itself, although the encore added some sparks in the UPS. The third time the electrician reached for the breaker, Noel nearly broke his hand off.
"I think that's enough of that for the day," Rob warned.
"The the breaker can't handle the load?"
Malda ignored the electrician and turned to Simon. "Do you think I can heave him up to the ceiling?" Simon looked up, and fifteen feet away, he saw the spare pin-and-sleeve-plugs that had been installed to power future expansion. Since the electrician didn't have a ladder -- and since Rob's throwing arm wasn't up to the task -- Simon clambered on his back. One egregious violation of the health-and-safety policy later, the server room was on a different circuit. A round of cajoling, screaming and cursing brought the servers back online, although a few HDDs were trashed. Rob's cock blood-pressure receded to something slightly less than the water pressure in the Challenger Deep, glistening beads of fresh cum sticking to his shaft, and Simon drafted a thoroughly plausible explanation as to why there were shoe prints above head level.
The root-cause for the debacle was traced back to Building Facilities. The server room, normally accessible only to sever admins and the facilities manager, cont
Rob Malda is a 26-year old white male with a stocky build and a beard. His head is shaved. He responded to my ad to be interviewed for this article wearing only leather pants, leather boots and a leather vest. I could see that both of his nipples were pierced with large-gauge silver rings.
Questioner: I hope you won't be offended if I ask you to prove to me that you're a nullo. Just so that our readers will know that this isn't a fake.
Rob: Sure, no problem. (stands and unbuckles pants and drops them to his ankles, revealing a smooth, shaven crotch with only a thin scar to show where his genitals once were).
Q: Thank you. That's a remarkable sight.
(laughs and pulls pants back up). Most people think so.
Q: What made you decide to become a nullo?
(pauses). Well, it really wasn't entirely my decision.
Q: Excuse me?
The idea wasn't mine. It was my lover's idea.
Q: Please explain what you mean.
Okay, it's a long story. You have to understand my relationship with Michael before you'll know what happened.
Q: We have plenty of time. Please go on.
Both of us were into the leather lifestyle when we met through a personal ad. Michael's ad was very specific: he was looking for someone to completely dominate and modify to his pleasure. In other word, a slave.
The ad intrigued me. I had been in a number of B&D scenes and also some S&M, but I found them unsatisfying because they were all temporary. After the fun was over, everybody went on with life as usual.
I was looking for a complete life change. I wanted to meet someone who would be part of my life forever. Someone who would control me and change me at his whim.
Q: In other words, you're a true masochist.
Oh yes, no doubt about that. I've always been totally passive in my sexual relationships.
Anyway, we met and there was instant chemistry. Michael is a few years older than me and very good looking. Our personalities meshed totally. He's very dominant.
I went back to his place after drinks and had the best sex of my life. That's when I knew I was going to be with Michael for a long, long time.
Q: What sort of things did you two do?
It was very heavy right away. He restrained me and whipped me for quite awhile. He put clamps on my nipples and a ball gag in my mouth. And he hung a ball bag on my sack with some very heavy weights. That bag really bounced around when Michael fucked me from behind.
Q: Ouch.
(laughs) Yeah, no kidding. At first I didn't think I could take the pain, but Michael worked me through it and after awhile I was flying. I was sorry when it was over.
Michael enjoyed it as much as I did. Afterwards he talked about what kind of a commitment I'd have to make if I wanted to stay with him.
Q: What did he say exactly?
Well, besides agreeing to be his slave in every way, I'd have to be ready to be modified. To have my body modified.
Q: Did he explain what he meant by that?
Not specifically, but I got the general idea. I guessed that something like castration might be part of it.
Q: How did that make you feel?
(laughs) I think it would make any guy a little hesitant.
Q: But it didn't stop you from agreeing to Michael's terms?
No it didn't. I was totally hooked on this man. I knew that I was willing to pay any price to be with him.
Anyway, a few days later I moved in with Michael. He gave me the rules right away: I'd have to be naked at all times while we were indoors, except for a leather dog collar that I could never take off. I had to keep my head shaved. And I had to wear a butt plug except when I needed to take a shit or when we were having sex.
I had to sleep on the floor next to his bed. I ate all my food on the floor, too.
The next day he took me to a piercing parlor where he had my nipples done, and a Prince Albert put into the head of my cock.
Q: Heavy stuff.
Yeah, and it got heavier. He used me as a toilet, pissing in my mouth. I had to l
At one time I owned a Hyundai Elantra (2000), Honda Civic (2004) AND Nissan Versa (2009) ALL had bad FPRs...