> Ultracapitalistic opinions like you make me think that perhaps forcing is the only way to get sense into your thick skulls.
-begin rant-
"Think of the Children", "Think of the Environment" - These are the battle cries of the intellectual elite. What they are really saying is don't be critical of psuedo-science, don't try to think for yourself. Just do as you are told. We know what is right (and what is best for you). It has nothing to do with children or the environment, it has to do with control.
It is interesting that you are willing to use force to coerce people into thinking like you. Why not simply supply all of the (unbiased) data that you can, even the most thick skulled among us would find if difficult to explain away a clear cause and effect relationship. If you feel the need to use force, then your argument is a failure.
> I'll be more than happy to sacrifice the living standards of myself and my children if it means that the global warming is stopped.
Very well then, sacrifice away, just don't expect others to follow your lead and don't think that you have right or duty to force others to sacrifice.
> Were it not for those monks, all those great classical texts (which made the Renaissance possible) would probably have been lost forever.
Not entirely true. You can trace much of the knowledge that sparked the Renaissance to the library of Medina (sp?) in Spain. When the Crusaders came to take the city, a Frenchman who had been exiled there knew the someone in a position of power in the Crusaders and was able to negotiate a peaceful surrender of the city. Thereby leaving the library intact...optics, agriculture, medicine, math... all the knowledge which has brought us to where we are today. If I am remembering the histroy correctly, the Frenchman had been exiled by the Catholics in France. What a wonderful irony.
Relax little camper, no need to be a knee-jerk reactionary. Since/. is a US web-site, hosted on a US server, maintained by a US staff, it is perfectly understandable that outside the US == Foreign.
I assume you mean debt, if not then ignore the rest of my comment. In America, economic strength != national debt. In a mercantile (sp?) economy there is that relationship, but not in the U.S. In the U.S. (and similar countries) economic strength is based more on market strength (which in turn is effected by productivity, employment, interest rates, ect.). It is possible that an excessive (sp?) national debt could impact the economy by forcing the government to increase taxes therfore taking away money that would otherwise be spent on goods & services or reinvested into the market. Then again, IANAE, and could be completely wrong.
> Wasn't religious intolerance what allowed 7 million Jews and 6 million Catholics/blacks/invalids etc. to perish
No, it was a combination cultural anti-semitism and the need to finance the Whermacht. Very few Catholics died, the stance of the Catholic church was to put self-preservation above the defense of the Jews/Communists/Invalids/Others.
Four points:
1) If I remember correctly there is no such classification as "race" in biology. As I remember it, it is Kingdom/Phylum/Class/Order/Family/Genus/Species. Race is a sociological concept. Ethnic group may be a better term; however, even that is imprecise when you factor in environment (urban poor vs suburban non-poor vs rural poor vs.....)
2)From what I remember of Cognitive Development the differences in standardized test scores between groups has more to do with cultural and economic factors then anything else. In tests that are considered culturally non-biased, the bell curve flattens out.
3)Again, as I remember, the statistical methodologies in "The Bell Curve" were flawed.
4)The "ghastly and pitiful state of humanity" found by explorers were tribes living on the coast. Again, environment played a large role in this as those tribes were most likey to have been enslaved, brutalized, and inbred (long before the Europeans got there). Interior to the coast line, there were highly developed societies (as the British learned when they tangled with the Zulu tribe). While it is true that the infrastructure was not at the level of European cities, that may have more to do with environment then anything else.
The legal status of gambling is determined by location. It is legal in Nevada, Atlantic City, reservation casinos.... Even if act of Gambling is illegal, hosting a website is not. States want to do away with online gambling so the working poor will turn to "crack for the statistically challenged", also known as the lottery, to provde a chance for escape.
Generalizations make for great rhetoric but very poor intelligent conversation. Please list all immoral acts by the United States (government, citezens, or both) and I will point out at least one country/empire that is as bad if not worse (pick your topic: slavery, forced relocation of indigenous peoples, environmental contamination, military intervention for economic reasons, censorship, oppression of religous expression, ect) The United States is not perfect; however, in no single topic, let alone the combination of all the topics (required for the title of most immoral), is the United States the world leader.
> They used the A-bomb. Sure, the United States could have invaded Japan. Resulting in (if I remember the numbers correctly) 250,000 dead US and allied soldiers. Of course, the casualties on the Japanese side would have been far worse. They were prepared to fight to the death for every inch of ground. When U.S forces moved accross the Pacific, they would trap tens of thousands of Japanese troops. The only ones captured alive were those unable to commit suicide.
> They imprison 1% of their population.....10 times more than China does. Interesting numbers... of course since the Chinese execute people for offences that are protected by the Constitution and Bill of Rights, I would not be suprised if only a small number of convicts make it to a prison alive instead of being executed and having their organs harvested and sold abroad.
> There is no denying the facts. You only stated one fact. That the United States used the A-Bomb is true. Other wise you make one blanket condemnation and one statement with no supporting evidence.
> The U.S. is no better than China. Except that you can criticize the government, move about the country and abroad at will, peacefully assemble (tip: throwing rocks at nervous, undertrained, and armed soldiers is not peaceful. It is; however, very stupid). You have recourse to the law including the right to sue the government (state, local, and federal) to redress grievences. You have a great deal of control over your own future. You can have more then one child. I could go on but I believe I have made my point.
> Face the facts silly little white boy. Nice to see the racists have the right to post.
> capital punishment -- murder by government > edict
Society, like a private citizen, has the right to act in self-defense. So, when a jury decides that an individual is guilty and then comes to the decision that the individual is not only incorrigible but poses a grave threat to the security of the society, the jury must act in defense of society and have the individual executed.
>The citizens can't kill under the law (unless >you are a police officer)
Wrong answer... someone walks into my house I have the legal right to unload a clip into their head.
Who thinks trading with China is a good thing? Business does. Whether it is ag-corps selling canned hams, tobacco selling, well, tobacco, or aerospace/telecom/tech companies grabbing whatever market share they can, Big Business (worn cliche, I know) wants permenant China trade (no worries about long term contracts). So, since market capitalization has been placed before our (blemished) ethics and corporations buy whatever legislation they need, the shining beacon of democracy has been replaced with the blue light special.
Cuba gets differant treatment, why? Sugar producers don't want cheap Cuban sugar in US markets, tobacco wants keep out the better quality(?) Cuban products, The Cuban people are so poor that they would not be purchasing enough US product, and no one wants to alienate the Cuban-American political bloc.
A) Hitler came to power on back of the Treaty of Versailles. The French are complaining because they helped create the problem and it is far easier to whine then to face up to your own history.
B) The Nazis took Europe because the French were too stupid and too lazy to defend themselves (leaving the Brits holding the bag).
C) Those Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen lost their lives for two reasons: 1. The French military was incompetent and 2. To return Freedom to Europe that includes the freedom to express opinions. Opionins and beliefs that you might not like. I may not like the views and beliefs of group X but I will defend to the death their right to express them. and yes, I have proudly served my country.
D) uhhhh.... Pearl Harbor? Hello? We haven't been really been flattened (like what Napolean did to Moscow - can I auction Napolean stuff?) because we have these two big things next to us, what are those called? Oh yeah, oceans. Plus we would not have even been in Vietnam if it was not for the, once again, incompetent French military. It is spelled Iraq and we really didn't flatten them, not like we could have.
E) Open wounds, huh? How about learning from history with an open and brutally frank discussion? Bury your head at your own peril.
Your child is one of the ten that is harrassed. Your child, deciding that life is now over because they have been branded as "dangerous", steps in front of a bus. Now your child is dead. Killed by the system that was supposed to keep them safe. You think that your child would not do it? You have no clue what your child is really thinking! The more you think everything is all right, the better the chance is that every thing is wrong. You just put your child in the grave, no different then if you put a gun to their head and pulled the trigger. It reminds me of a quote about people who are willing to give up freedom for security deserve neither.
This only applies to graduate students at state schools. If the university is serious about taking away your rights to independently developed software then you need to contact your local state employees union representitive and open a dialog on organizing. You would be suprised how very cooperative the administration becomes upon hearing the grad students are going union (just ask the grad students at UT Dallas).
A) Define intelligence for me. B) Then provide me with a map that links form (brain systems and individual neurons) to function (emotion, cognition, memory, ect). C) If you want a truly intelligent system (instead of one that just recognizes patterns) then the level of granularity required of our understanding of a biological intelligence model is, for now, overwhelming. D) Hard AI is not impossible but in order to understand the engineering requirements one really needs to look at cognition (both cognitive neuroscience and cognitive psychology) to see where we are and where we need to go.
Slashdot Mirror
> Ultracapitalistic opinions like you make me think that perhaps forcing is the only way to get sense into your thick skulls.
-begin rant-
"Think of the Children", "Think of the Environment" - These are the battle cries of the intellectual elite. What they are really saying is don't be critical of psuedo-science, don't try to think for yourself. Just do as you are told. We know what is right (and what is best for you). It has nothing to do with children or the environment, it has to do with control.
It is interesting that you are willing to use force to coerce people into thinking like you. Why not simply supply all of the (unbiased) data that you can, even the most thick skulled among us would find if difficult to explain away a clear cause and effect relationship. If you feel the need to use force, then your argument is a failure.
> I'll be more than happy to sacrifice the living standards of myself and my children if it means that the global warming is stopped.
Very well then, sacrifice away, just don't expect others to follow your lead and don't think that you have right or duty to force others to sacrifice.
-end rant-
}:o
A steer getting dropped into a meat grinder feet first.....
> Were it not for those monks, all those great classical texts (which made the Renaissance possible) would probably have been lost forever.
...optics, agriculture, medicine, math... all the knowledge which has brought us to where we are today. If I am remembering the histroy correctly, the Frenchman had been exiled by the Catholics in France. What a wonderful irony.
Not entirely true. You can trace much of the knowledge that sparked the Renaissance to the library of Medina (sp?) in Spain. When the Crusaders came to take the city, a Frenchman who had been exiled there knew the someone in a position of power in the Crusaders and was able to negotiate a peaceful surrender of the city. Thereby leaving the library intact
Be nice or I'll have to send over Jesse Jackson to uplift the Cornish.
> The soldiers in every army are conditioned to obey orders unquestioningly, that's why they will do what their superiors tell them...
That is one of the most biased and idiotic statements I have read in a long time. As a veteran I can assure you that this is not the case.
> Hopefully well soon be having a second guy fawkes day.
Well, best of luck, seems you already gave away your guns. Now you get to give up your privacy. Lucky you.
> Whaddya mean, Foreign Countries?
/. is a US web-site, hosted on a US server, maintained by a US staff, it is perfectly understandable that outside the US == Foreign.
Relax little camper, no need to be a knee-jerk reactionary. Since
I assume you mean debt, if not then ignore the rest of my comment. In America, economic strength != national debt. In a mercantile (sp?) economy there is that relationship, but not in the U.S. In the U.S. (and similar countries) economic strength is based more on market strength (which in turn is effected by productivity, employment, interest rates, ect.). It is possible that an excessive (sp?) national debt could impact the economy by forcing the government to increase taxes therfore taking away money that would otherwise be spent on goods & services or reinvested into the market. Then again, IANAE, and could be completely wrong.
> 25squid a month
25 squid ?!?! Are they alive? That's a whole lot of Calamari! Should we inform PETA?
It's a joke, relax already
Mircosoft Engineers doing a code security audit ... now that is funny.
> Wasn't religious intolerance what allowed 7 million Jews and 6 million Catholics/blacks/invalids etc. to perish
No, it was a combination cultural anti-semitism and the need to finance the Whermacht. Very few Catholics died, the stance of the Catholic church was to put self-preservation above the defense of the Jews/Communists/Invalids/Others.
> Who will it be next guys? Muslims? I bet it won't be good 'ol Christian Wight Males will it?
...) males already have. It was the Bataan Death March.
Christian (and Atheist, Jewish, Muslim, Animist
Peaceloving people
.. would have simply shot Ghandi
they all refuse to bear arms
a worldpeace ensues
Those who refuse to bear arms will be enslaved by those who do.
Hitler/Stalin/Mao
Four points:
1) If I remember correctly there is no such classification as "race" in biology. As I remember it, it is Kingdom/Phylum/Class/Order/Family/Genus/Species. Race is a sociological concept. Ethnic group may be a better term; however, even that is imprecise when you factor in environment (urban poor vs suburban non-poor vs rural poor vs.....)
2)From what I remember of Cognitive Development the differences in standardized test scores between groups has more to do with cultural and economic factors then anything else. In tests that are considered culturally non-biased, the bell curve flattens out.
3)Again, as I remember, the statistical methodologies in "The Bell Curve" were flawed.
4)The "ghastly and pitiful state of humanity" found by explorers were tribes living on the coast. Again, environment played a large role in this as those tribes were most likey to have been enslaved, brutalized, and inbred (long before the Europeans got there). Interior to the coast line, there were highly developed societies (as the British learned when they tangled with the Zulu tribe). While it is true that the infrastructure was not at the level of European cities, that may have more to do with environment then anything else.
The legal status of gambling is determined by location. It is legal in Nevada, Atlantic City, reservation casinos.... Even if act of Gambling is illegal, hosting a website is not. States want to do away with online gambling so the working poor will turn to "crack for the statistically challenged", also known as the lottery, to provde a chance for escape.
> The U.S is the most immoral nation ever.
... of course since the Chinese execute people for offences that are protected by the Constitution and Bill of Rights, I would not be suprised if only a small number of convicts make it to a prison alive instead of being executed and having their organs harvested and sold abroad.
Generalizations make for great rhetoric but very poor intelligent conversation. Please list all immoral acts by the United States (government, citezens, or both) and I will point out at least one country/empire that is as bad if not worse (pick your topic: slavery, forced relocation of indigenous peoples, environmental contamination, military intervention for economic reasons, censorship, oppression of religous expression, ect) The United States is not perfect; however, in no single topic, let alone the combination of all the topics (required for the title of most immoral), is the United States the world leader.
> They used the A-bomb.
Sure, the United States could have invaded Japan. Resulting in (if I remember the numbers correctly) 250,000 dead US and allied soldiers. Of course, the casualties on the Japanese side would have been far worse. They were prepared to fight to the death for every inch of ground. When U.S forces moved accross the Pacific, they would trap tens of thousands of Japanese troops. The only ones captured alive were those unable to commit suicide.
> They imprison 1% of their population.....10 times more than China does.
Interesting numbers
> There is no denying the facts.
You only stated one fact. That the United States used the A-Bomb is true. Other wise you make one blanket condemnation and one statement with no supporting evidence.
> The U.S. is no better than China.
Except that you can criticize the government, move about the country and abroad at will, peacefully assemble (tip: throwing rocks at nervous, undertrained, and armed soldiers is not peaceful. It is; however, very stupid). You have recourse to the law including the right to sue the government (state, local, and federal) to redress grievences. You have a great deal of control over your own future. You can have more then one child. I could go on but I believe I have made my point.
> Face the facts silly little white boy.
Nice to see the racists have the right to post.
> capital punishment -- murder by government
... someone walks into my house I have the legal right to unload a clip into their head.
> edict
Society, like a private citizen, has the right to act in self-defense. So, when a jury decides that an individual is guilty and then comes to the decision that the individual is not only incorrigible but poses a grave threat to the security of the society, the jury must act in defense of society and have the individual executed.
>The citizens can't kill under the law (unless >you are a police officer)
Wrong answer
You are correct.
Who thinks trading with China is a good thing? Business does. Whether it is ag-corps selling canned hams, tobacco selling, well, tobacco, or aerospace/telecom/tech companies grabbing whatever market share they can, Big Business (worn cliche, I know) wants permenant China trade (no worries about long term contracts). So, since market capitalization has been placed before our (blemished) ethics and corporations buy whatever legislation they need, the shining beacon of democracy has been replaced with the blue light special.
Cuba gets differant treatment, why? Sugar producers don't want cheap Cuban sugar in US markets, tobacco wants keep out the better quality(?) Cuban products, The Cuban people are so poor that they would not be purchasing enough US product, and no one wants to alienate the Cuban-American political bloc.
A) Hitler came to power on back of the Treaty of Versailles. The French are complaining because they helped create the problem and it is far easier to whine then to face up to your own history.
B) The Nazis took Europe because the French were too stupid and too lazy to defend themselves (leaving the Brits holding the bag).
C) Those Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen lost their lives for two reasons: 1. The French military was incompetent and 2. To return Freedom to Europe that includes the freedom to express opinions. Opionins and beliefs that you might not like. I may not like the views and beliefs of group X but I will defend to the death their right to express them. and yes, I have proudly served my country.
D) uhhhh.... Pearl Harbor? Hello? We haven't been really been flattened (like what Napolean did to Moscow - can I auction Napolean stuff?) because we have these two big things next to us, what are those called? Oh yeah, oceans. Plus we would not have even been in Vietnam if it was not for the, once again, incompetent French military. It is spelled Iraq and we really didn't flatten them, not like we could have.
E) Open wounds, huh? How about learning from history with an open and brutally frank discussion? Bury your head at your own peril.
Your child is one of the ten that is harrassed. Your child, deciding that life is now over because they have been branded as "dangerous", steps in front of a bus. Now your child is dead. Killed by the system that was supposed to keep them safe. You think that your child would not do it? You have no clue what your child is really thinking! The more you think everything is all right, the better the chance is that every thing is wrong. You just put your child in the grave, no different then if you put a gun to their head and pulled the trigger. It reminds me of a quote about people who are willing to give up freedom for security deserve neither.
> The Bible, being the inerrant word of God.
... well that at least explains the popularity of the bible in certain parts of the U.S.
Which bible? The original latin (hebrew? ancient greek?) that you have never read or the one written for a pedophile (King James).
> It does not say that we coalesced from chemicals floating around in goo.
Swell, so we all get to be inbred instead
Nor does the bible dicuss fusion, fission, electromagnetic forces, ect. Yet they do exist.
This only applies to graduate students at state schools. If the university is serious about taking away your rights to independently developed software then you need to contact your local state employees union representitive and open a dialog on organizing. You would be suprised how very cooperative the administration becomes upon hearing the grad students are going union (just ask the grad students at UT Dallas).
A) Define intelligence for me. B) Then provide me with a map that links form (brain systems and individual neurons) to function (emotion, cognition, memory, ect). C) If you want a truly intelligent system (instead of one that just recognizes patterns) then the level of granularity required of our understanding of a biological intelligence model is, for now, overwhelming. D) Hard AI is not impossible but in order to understand the engineering requirements one really needs to look at cognition (both cognitive neuroscience and cognitive psychology) to see where we are and where we need to go.
Farewell brave Galileo, fair winds and following seas my friend.
Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee