It's not intolerant to bash a Muslim's beliefs, it's just unwise.
That doesn't reflect well on Islam but it's hardly a justification for not taking a pop at Christianity. Unless of course you want Christianity to shelter under the Islamic umbrella of fear?
I never said it wasn't, and I never mentioned SI units, you brought that up.
The point about time is that a day, a measurement based on the Earth's rate of rotation, has been split into 24 parts, a nice number divisble by 2, 3, 4, 6, and 12, each hour has been split into a similarly nice number of parts called minutes which in turn is split into seconds.
A metric version of time would presumably have 10 or 100 hours per day, 10 or 100 minutes per hour and so on. 10 is not a good number for dividing and has been chosen because of the number of digits this branch of the Great Apes have on their hands.
Why should people change? I'm English and we happily use metric for any financial transactions or scientific purposes but the Imperial system is more human friendly for things that matter. It developed over the centuries because its scales fit their purpose rather than being dictated by irrelevant physical phenomenom.
A tall person is over 6 foot. that has a nice ring to it. 1.8 metres is not human friendly. A foot is about the size of an adult foot, it makes sense.
We still use stones for weight. You end up at a nice number. 10 stones is a slim man, 15 stones is a porky man, 20 stones is a fatso. The equivalent range in Kg goes from around 60 to 120. We don't normally use numbers that high in every day life.
Time is still an imperial system, we just don't think of it that way. The French tried to metricise that too but it was crap. Using 60 minutes and 24 hours makes sense as they divide nicely into quarters and thirds unlike 10.
Also, our language, literature and petry is full of imperial words. We would lose a vital link with the past if we abandoned their use.
Metric has its place, but using it everywhere makes no sense.
Some people cannot sing in tune. Most people do not need to be taught to do this, they can just do it straight away.
If you can't sing in tune there is little point trying to be a singer.
Most Muslims in the UK are quite happy with the way things are. You really think they want to turn us into Pakistan?
The 'UK School Trojan Horse Plot' is some hyped up nonsense based on a fake letter. Reminds me of the fake 'elders of Zion' hoax that still causes grief to Jews.
Some nutters blew up a couple of buses 10 years ago and as a result of peple like tyou playing into their hands by over-reacting we have awful legislation like this.
Islamic Extremism is not surging in the UK and don't bandy about your 'We' as if you represent me you ignorant arsehole.
that doesn't mean those folks are any more intelligent or sophisticated
I'd agree with you on the intelligent part, but I think it does show a greater degree of sophistication.
Sophistication means not being naive about how the world actually works. Understanding evolution therefore makes you more sophisticated.
Why shouldn't prisoners be allowed to vote? Unless a person's citizenship is stripped, they should always retain the right to vote.
To be clear, I'm aware that the US has the same laws, but I've always felt them antithetical to a free and democratic society.
This is especially true in a world where no citizen can be aware of all of the laws and in many cases the laws actually conflict.
Well our elected parliament has decide they shouldn't.
Seems to me that elected representatives should make the law not judges.
Prisoners voting in the UK also poses specific problems as we vote in relatively small constituencies and some of our prisons are very large. You might end up giving prisoners a disproportionate amount of influence if they were in a swing seat.
We also send far fewer people to prison than the USA so the ones that are in there are almost certainly toerags.
Thanks for that. David and the Foreskins, great story. I shall teach my son that one so he can mention it at school when David and Goliath is brought up.
Surely you'd expect there to be lots of civilisations at different stages, not just one that is ignoring us and hiding.
The idea that there are only two civilisations in the universe is far less likely than there being just one in my opinion.
Also, although it is probably unwise to extrapolate too much from ourselves, any civilisation is likely to be made up of beings that either evolved via natural selection, or were designed by beings that evolved. As such they are likely to have a sense of morality, as we do, and to be interested in the welfare of other creatures, as we are.
I don't think a civilisation that could mine stars would just hide from everyone else.
Slashdot Mirror
Money is a myth that atheists believe in. You're conflating myth with supernatural belief
It's not intolerant to bash a Muslim's beliefs, it's just unwise.
That doesn't reflect well on Islam but it's hardly a justification for not taking a pop at Christianity. Unless of course you want Christianity to shelter under the Islamic umbrella of fear?
Is gerbiling now a word as well?
I don't think we should use torture because it is morally wrong, ticking bomb or no ticking bomb.
I'm not going to pretend that it doesn't work though.
And the "second" is an SI unit :D
I never said it wasn't, and I never mentioned SI units, you brought that up.
The point about time is that a day, a measurement based on the Earth's rate of rotation, has been split into 24 parts, a nice number divisble by 2, 3, 4, 6, and 12, each hour has been split into a similarly nice number of parts called minutes which in turn is split into seconds.
A metric version of time would presumably have 10 or 100 hours per day, 10 or 100 minutes per hour and so on. 10 is not a good number for dividing and has been chosen because of the number of digits this branch of the Great Apes have on their hands.
So you missed the entire point of my post.
Where accuracy matters you use metric. When it doesn't you stick with Imperial.
Our language is full of idioms based on Imperial measures. You don't throw that away just to prove how modern you are.
Ignorant, illiterate people like you are centimetring us closer to hell every day.
Yeah, 1.8 metres under has a great ring to it.
Illeterate, ignorant, people like you are centimetering us closer to hell every day.
Why should people change? I'm English and we happily use metric for any financial transactions or scientific purposes but the Imperial system is more human friendly for things that matter. It developed over the centuries because its scales fit their purpose rather than being dictated by irrelevant physical phenomenom.
A tall person is over 6 foot. that has a nice ring to it. 1.8 metres is not human friendly. A foot is about the size of an adult foot, it makes sense.
We still use stones for weight. You end up at a nice number. 10 stones is a slim man, 15 stones is a porky man, 20 stones is a fatso. The equivalent range in Kg goes from around 60 to 120. We don't normally use numbers that high in every day life.
Time is still an imperial system, we just don't think of it that way. The French tried to metricise that too but it was crap. Using 60 minutes and 24 hours makes sense as they divide nicely into quarters and thirds unlike 10.
Also, our language, literature and petry is full of imperial words. We would lose a vital link with the past if we abandoned their use.
Metric has its place, but using it everywhere makes no sense.
Some people cannot sing in tune. Most people do not need to be taught to do this, they can just do it straight away. If you can't sing in tune there is little point trying to be a singer.
What a load of shit.
Most Muslims in the UK are quite happy with the way things are. You really think they want to turn us into Pakistan?
The 'UK School Trojan Horse Plot' is some hyped up nonsense based on a fake letter. Reminds me of the fake 'elders of Zion' hoax that still causes grief to Jews.
Some nutters blew up a couple of buses 10 years ago and as a result of peple like tyou playing into their hands by over-reacting we have awful legislation like this.
Islamic Extremism is not surging in the UK and don't bandy about your 'We' as if you represent me you ignorant arsehole.
that doesn't mean those folks are any more intelligent or sophisticated
I'd agree with you on the intelligent part, but I think it does show a greater degree of sophistication. Sophistication means not being naive about how the world actually works. Understanding evolution therefore makes you more sophisticated.
All the stuff you listed happened in the first 60 or so of those 100 years. Nothing much has happened since then.
Why shouldn't prisoners be allowed to vote? Unless a person's citizenship is stripped, they should always retain the right to vote.
To be clear, I'm aware that the US has the same laws, but I've always felt them antithetical to a free and democratic society.
This is especially true in a world where no citizen can be aware of all of the laws and in many cases the laws actually conflict.
Well our elected parliament has decide they shouldn't.
Seems to me that elected representatives should make the law not judges.
Prisoners voting in the UK also poses specific problems as we vote in relatively small constituencies and some of our prisons are very large. You might end up giving prisoners a disproportionate amount of influence if they were in a swing seat.
We also send far fewer people to prison than the USA so the ones that are in there are almost certainly toerags.
What do you mean it didn't happen?
He was arrested and held for 6 months then allowed to go free by the UK government.
A car has a useful purpose. A handgun is designed to kill people.
Can only get latest figures for both countries from 2008, USA has 5 times the UK population:
UK fatal stabbings 270
UK fatal shootings 53
USA fatal stabbings 1,897
USA fatal shootings 9,484
Seems like the UK stabbing rate is quite a bit lower than the USA even though we are really frustrated by not being able to shoot one another.
Thanks for that. David and the Foreskins, great story. I shall teach my son that one so he can mention it at school when David and Goliath is brought up.
I expect it will surprise his teacher.
Humans aren't designed to have full recall, even actors generally dislike watching their own performances.
Imagine being able to watch you whole life, it could cause massive mental problems.
How would you ever get over a broken heart if you could replay all of your happiest moments alongside the mistakes you'd made.
Recording our lives is just asking for a tsunami of unforeseen consequences.
Yep, no thought about the grieving widow, children, parents. BLAM, look at ME! I can pull a trigger.
Gun nuts are like tweeny boys waiting for their bits to grow.
Surely you'd expect there to be lots of civilisations at different stages, not just one that is ignoring us and hiding.
The idea that there are only two civilisations in the universe is far less likely than there being just one in my opinion.
Also, although it is probably unwise to extrapolate too much from ourselves, any civilisation is likely to be made up of beings that either evolved via natural selection, or were designed by beings that evolved. As such they are likely to have a sense of morality, as we do, and to be interested in the welfare of other creatures, as we are.
I don't think a civilisation that could mine stars would just hide from everyone else.
No one is arguing that some Japanese did terrible things before and during the war. It doesn't justify dropping nukes or fire bombing their cities.
I'm British and we are (mostly) pretty ashamed of the way we bombed German cities.
I can understand how we ended up doing it but that doesn't excuse it.
You don't get fined $183,000 for throwing a brick through a window though.
It's supposed to be a justice system, and that fine is clearly unjust.
If you look at scientific scholars you will find a diverse array of religious beliefs
Strictly speaking that is true. However scientists are much more likely to have no religious belief than their native population.
Even in the USA, that weird outlier of religiosity amongst the developed world, only about a third of scientists claim to have any religious beliefs.
We haven't forgot 1812
I've noticed that. Hardly anyone in the UK has heard of that war.
I think it's because we were still in the middle of a much bigger war with the Frogs when it happened.
I don't really see why selling to Facebook woulb be morally reprehensible.
Also, you have to consider what good things you could do with the money.
The hundreds of thousands of dollars you airily dismiss could have done a lot of good.