Actually, I think that is a really insightful question even though I am about to disagree with everything else you said.
We really don't know any of this stuff for fact
As much as we can "know something for a fact", I think our scientific theories are pretty high up there.
Big Bang theory isn't set in stone
Of course not; it is mutable, but the overall cosmological model is hardly under question. However, the questions they asked in the article were rather stupid and I would have to disagree with at least the BB theory according to the questions from the article, while I am actually all for exploring the poorly named theory.
...One of the widely held theories by Big Bang theorists was that the universe would end in a "Big Crunch"...
Like your iff(primordial-soup) then evolution statement I examine below, your talk about related guesswork has little to do with the cosmological model that comes from the poorly named big bang theory.
I think the a high number of Christians accept that species have the ability to adapt and change in reaction to their surroundings through natural selection, which seems to fill a definition of evolution, even if it is not the one scientists want it to be
Scientists should want students to have the most accurate theory, not something "which seems to fill a definition of" the theory. I would say they are correct to insist on that. I would rather 0% of our youth say they accept evolution, but 100% understand it with accuracy than the other way around. I think most scientists would agree.
The "primordial soup" theory, one of the corner stones of evolution
I never heard that before. They aren't necessarily related. As far as evolution goes it really wouldn't matter if God came down and personally created the first single celled organisms. The primordial soup is really not necessary. I also skimmed your link which said basically: the conditions of the predicted primordial soup were different according to some scientists. Not really a disproof of evolution.
I got caught up arguing little things as I'm sure replies to me will, but In answer to your question: I think it is rather important as it points out the ignorance that people have towards science. People seem to believe in evolution or the big bang not based on how they were raised, which is not how it should be. A good scientific minded person (brought out of a country with a good science education system) would take in the evidence and accept the theory that best fits the evidence and best allows us predict where we need to explore in the future. Though the article's survey was total crap and reasonable to dismiss, non-acceptance of old, well supported theories is evidence to me that our scientific education kinda sucks (or people are purposely very ignorant to it).
"The universe began with a big explosion" Agree/Disagree
If big means it filled the whole universe at the time, then I'll agree to the big, but if you mean larger than an atom, then I'll disagree.
Which still leaves them to define all the other terms like 'explosion': I mean it was the beginning of space-time as we know of, so it didn't really explode because it was already everywhere, but it was rather hot, like explosions I'm familiar with. Marginally agree? maybe?
'Began'...I don't know, heard that time was different then, not really sure what you mean there. And is Universe all matter we know of, I mean, we're not in some sort of black hole in the larger unobservable universe?
If someone wants to kill themselves, there's plenty of ways to do it and trying to deny access to anything that discusses it is going to be about as effective as denying sex education to kids in the belief that they'll not have sex if you don't tell them about it.
Quite right, people don't realize that suicide is like sex, in the fact that there are plenty of ways to do it wrong that will add a great burden to society. I know a few suicide survivors who are functional only because their youth allowed them to heal. If you have old people in chronic pain and they attempt to end it without knowing what they are doing, you'll just end up with old people in chronic pain with chemical holes burned in their stomach, drug related brain damage and non fatal bullet holes all over.
Speaking of which, C now stands for Citigroup according to Google. Before, typing C in google would just get you a web page concerning the C programming language.
So what you are saying is that all occurrences of C were being treaded as equals? So really all we need is this chart to determine the leading language: http://www.google.com/finance?q=c,+JAVA,++cpp
No, what happens is the non-supertaskers take out other people in their way who may or may not be supertaskers. The net effect will be no change in the supertaskers:non-supertaskers ratio.
Precisely, it may even go the other direction. My alcoholic uncle, though telling everyone he could handle driving drunk and besides he never drove drunk anyway, had enough suspicion of himself to cruise around in a tank of a car. I've heard from others he's no exception.
I happen to be a supertasker, but just in case a texting non-supertasker hits me while I'm texting, I'll only be texting from my SUV.
So China DDOSes all servers, making them unavailable for users. POTUS flips kill switch, making all servers unavailable for users... Isn't that a little redundant?
No, its like dumping your significant other to prevent yourself from being dumped. The end result is the same, but you feel powerful because it was our choice to DOS ourselves, not China's.
Though I want to know, why would china want to DOS the companies selling their stuff?
You can start by rallying friends and family to vote for anyone but an incumbent. Send enough people packing and the rest will get the message.
Did it two elections ago, did it last election, did it in local utility cooperative elections, next guys were the same as the last and forgot their promises of change. Nothing except who was favored by their nepotism changed.
Exactly, which means they send you to Guantanamo, and take away the rights of everyone else even faster, to protect them from terrorists like you.
Remember IRS airplane guy? I don't agree with him but now private aviators get an extra security theater of their own as retribution from the man to the community for one crazy's actions.
Can anyone think of a single example where throwing the kill switch would be better than not throwing the kill switch?
Yes, say your at war with the US and you take down most of their communication lines, but just one pesky system that is designed to be linked about strongly enough to survive a nuclear war, but good news, all you need is for an agent to get infiltrate the "kill switch" chain of command, and bam your done!
Or were you talking about how this would be beneficial to the US? Well that, I'll think about.
Well if his business model is trading content for malware, then it's just plain unfair that you get content but he doesn't get to give you malware
If his business model can be trivially rendered non-viable, its up to him to change it, not us to suffer with it.
Actually I figured out how to improve his business model: the malware serves you the content, now he can be sure that you're infected and maximizing his profits before you get to access his content.
If his business model can be trivially rendered non-viable, its up to him to change it, not us to suffer with it.
Agreed. I avoid the checkout counter at the local supermarket as I exit with groceries, it trivially renders their business model non-viable, but really, it's up to them to change it, not me to suffer with it.
I wonder if the women will be ordered to lose - I can imagine if they were playing a lot they'd get pretty good at the games and if some guy with low self esteem keeps getting his butt handed to him by a girl he's paying for the privilege, he's not going to be too pleased... well, not unless getting his butt handed to him by a girl is "his thing" of course!
Article: After a session Players can rate their PlayDate on her hotness, gaming skill and flirtiness.
So yeah, you can choose ultra flirty girls who suck at games if you like kicking their ass, or uber bitchy girls who will kick your ass if thats your thing.
Kinda the same reaction I'm getting here. I can't say I much care about the "date" part, or even if it's a girl or a guy, but if they're even marginally good at Star Trek Online, I could have some use fir someone to watch my back and have a chat with.
Wouldn't it be easier to comb the Star Trek Online boards and find a _free_ friend to watch your back? If you couldn't I bet you could pay a hobbyist to watch your back for far less than these play dates.
week or so ago, one of the guys at Ars Technica ranted in an article about how people who use ad blocking are stealing content... I said then, and I still maintain, that using ad blocking and Flash blocking is not just a matter of convenience, but a matter of maintaining the security of my system.
Well if his business model is trading content for malware, then it's just plain unfair that you get content but he doesn't get to give you malware. In fact now he has to use twice as much malware on the honest costumers who don't adblock him.
Coptic Christians, Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, the Nomiya church in Kenya.
Most western branches are enlightened enough to view it as a medical issue and don't impose it upon members. However, my parents wanted my wee to be as much like Christ's as possible.
...you granted MySPACE the right to do what it pleases with your data. By deleting your account, aren't you thereby revoking that right from MySPACE?
So prove they are abusing your data.
I get email and especially post-office-kind mail with eerily detailed information about me all the time. I've never tried calling the companies and asking where they data mined it from (I try not to contact them if at all possible), but I don't think it would work. Obviously someone I'm doing business with is giving something away, but I don't think I'll ever be able to track them down.
The task of proving myspace sold your data after you deleted your account would be huge and then you would have to hire a better legal team than theirs to attempt to make your argument, from which you will probably win an apology.
or you could not put real data in there to begin with? My only MS account was a troll...
I think social networking had a really good start. My MS account was there so that old friends could find me. I was able to meet Highschool friends I had mostly forgot and let them know when we were back in town. It really worked well for a time.
Of course, now it just collects friend requests from porn sites and local bands and my bulletin board is all chain-mail. If I was to set up an account now, it would be a troll.
I can see the basis of your complaint from your user name. So, tell me, is necromancy your religion, or just a hobby?
Your down at the local cemetery, smoking a blunt, exhuming corpses. "It's for a religious rite officer!" It would be a great test for religious tolerance.
>And THAT is one of the best arguments against national health care.
So what happens when someone gets into an accident in the US? 1) His insurance carrier covers it and makes it up through everyone else's premium. 2) He's got no insurance, but the doctors treat him anyway and then try to make up the funds by charging from insured members more (see case 1) or taking it from donations or any state funds they might receive. Hospitals don't refuse to treat people without health care right now, and those funds still have to come from somewhere. If anything it's a reason for the -- unfortunately never actually proposed -- "death panels" to put down people who are sucking up unreasonable money.
overrides my own freedom to risk said injury.
Completely agreed. Let's found a religion that says I don't have to follow laws that tell me what I can do to my own self for my supposed own good.
In the US: yes, but try to get that money out of them. We have lots of "hit and runs" here for that reason, and if responsible party does stick around, you'll have to find that he has got the funds or enough insurance (both unlikely) to be worth suing for the money.
I've got my insurance in line (in US): They'll pay $10K in the motorists medical bills but unless I am severely at fault he won't get another cent. Considering the price of brain surgery he'll require, he and the hospital will probably have to try to recover the funds from somewhere else. I would recommend they sue the state for letting him ride without a helmet =P
Slashdot Mirror
"How much does it matter?"
Actually, I think that is a really insightful question even though I am about to disagree with everything else you said.
We really don't know any of this stuff for fact
As much as we can "know something for a fact", I think our scientific theories are pretty high up there.
Big Bang theory isn't set in stone
Of course not; it is mutable, but the overall cosmological model is hardly under question. However, the questions they asked in the article were rather stupid and I would have to disagree with at least the BB theory according to the questions from the article, while I am actually all for exploring the poorly named theory.
...One of the widely held theories by Big Bang theorists was that the universe would end in a "Big Crunch"...
Like your iff(primordial-soup) then evolution statement I examine below, your talk about related guesswork has little to do with the cosmological model that comes from the poorly named big bang theory.
I think the a high number of Christians accept that species have the ability to adapt and change in reaction to their surroundings through natural selection, which seems to fill a definition of evolution, even if it is not the one scientists want it to be
Scientists should want students to have the most accurate theory, not something "which seems to fill a definition of" the theory. I would say they are correct to insist on that. I would rather 0% of our youth say they accept evolution, but 100% understand it with accuracy than the other way around. I think most scientists would agree.
The "primordial soup" theory, one of the corner stones of evolution
I never heard that before. They aren't necessarily related. As far as evolution goes it really wouldn't matter if God came down and personally created the first single celled organisms. The primordial soup is really not necessary. I also skimmed your link which said basically: the conditions of the predicted primordial soup were different according to some scientists. Not really a disproof of evolution.
I got caught up arguing little things as I'm sure replies to me will, but In answer to your question:
I think it is rather important as it points out the ignorance that people have towards science. People seem to believe in evolution or the big bang not based on how they were raised, which is not how it should be. A good scientific minded person (brought out of a country with a good science education system) would take in the evidence and accept the theory that best fits the evidence and best allows us predict where we need to explore in the future. Though the article's survey was total crap and reasonable to dismiss, non-acceptance of old, well supported theories is evidence to me that our scientific education kinda sucks (or people are purposely very ignorant to it).
I know, and the question they asked:
"The universe began with a big explosion" Agree/Disagree
If big means it filled the whole universe at the time, then I'll agree to the big, but if you mean larger than an atom, then I'll disagree.
Which still leaves them to define all the other terms like 'explosion': I mean it was the beginning of space-time as we know of, so it didn't really explode because it was already everywhere, but it was rather hot, like explosions I'm familiar with. Marginally agree? maybe?
'Began'...I don't know, heard that time was different then, not really sure what you mean there. And is Universe all matter we know of, I mean, we're not in some sort of black hole in the larger unobservable universe?
If someone wants to kill themselves, there's plenty of ways to do it and trying to deny access to anything that discusses it is going to be about as effective as denying sex education to kids in the belief that they'll not have sex if you don't tell them about it.
Quite right, people don't realize that suicide is like sex, in the fact that there are plenty of ways to do it wrong that will add a great burden to society. I know a few suicide survivors who are functional only because their youth allowed them to heal. If you have old people in chronic pain and they attempt to end it without knowing what they are doing, you'll just end up with old people in chronic pain with chemical holes burned in their stomach, drug related brain damage and non fatal bullet holes all over.
Speaking of which, C now stands for Citigroup according to Google. Before, typing C in google would just get you a web page concerning the C programming language.
So what you are saying is that all occurrences of C were being treaded as equals? So really all we need is this chart to determine the leading language:
http://www.google.com/finance?q=c,+JAVA,++cpp
No, what happens is the non-supertaskers take out other people in their way who may or may not be supertaskers. The net effect will be no change in the supertaskers:non-supertaskers ratio.
Precisely, it may even go the other direction. My alcoholic uncle, though telling everyone he could handle driving drunk and besides he never drove drunk anyway, had enough suspicion of himself to cruise around in a tank of a car. I've heard from others he's no exception.
I happen to be a supertasker, but just in case a texting non-supertasker hits me while I'm texting, I'll only be texting from my SUV.
How is this news for nerds?
Being nerd protects me quite well from such diseases. Is this some sort of appeal from non-nerds for our help?
So China DDOSes all servers, making them unavailable for users.
POTUS flips kill switch, making all servers unavailable for users...
Isn't that a little redundant?
No, its like dumping your significant other to prevent yourself from being dumped. The end result is the same, but you feel powerful because it was our choice to DOS ourselves, not China's.
Though I want to know, why would china want to DOS the companies selling their stuff?
You can start by rallying friends and family to vote for anyone but an incumbent. Send enough people packing and the rest will get the message.
Did it two elections ago, did it last election, did it in local utility cooperative elections, next guys were the same as the last and forgot their promises of change. Nothing except who was favored by their nepotism changed.
Vote.
Run for office.
Rebel.
Except when you rebel, you are a terrorist.
Exactly, which means they send you to Guantanamo, and take away the rights of everyone else even faster, to protect them from terrorists like you.
Remember IRS airplane guy? I don't agree with him but now private aviators get an extra security theater of their own as retribution from the man to the community for one crazy's actions.
Can anyone think of a single example where throwing the kill switch would be better than not throwing the kill switch?
Yes, say your at war with the US and you take down most of their communication lines, but just one pesky system that is designed to be linked about strongly enough to survive a nuclear war, but good news, all you need is for an agent to get infiltrate the "kill switch" chain of command, and bam your done!
Or were you talking about how this would be beneficial to the US? Well that, I'll think about.
Well if his business model is trading content for malware, then it's just plain unfair that you get content but he doesn't get to give you malware
If his business model can be trivially rendered non-viable, its up to him to change it, not us to suffer with it.
Actually I figured out how to improve his business model: the malware serves you the content, now he can be sure that you're infected and maximizing his profits before you get to access his content.
If his business model can be trivially rendered non-viable, its up to him to change it, not us to suffer with it.
Agreed. I avoid the checkout counter at the local supermarket as I exit with groceries, it trivially renders their business model non-viable, but really, it's up to them to change it, not me to suffer with it.
I wonder if the women will be ordered to lose - I can imagine if they were playing a lot they'd get pretty good at the games and if some guy with low self esteem keeps getting his butt handed to him by a girl he's paying for the privilege, he's not going to be too pleased... well, not unless getting his butt handed to him by a girl is "his thing" of course!
Article: After a session Players can rate their PlayDate on her hotness, gaming skill and flirtiness.
So yeah, you can choose ultra flirty girls who suck at games if you like kicking their ass, or uber bitchy girls who will kick your ass if thats your thing.
Bragging, eh? I reckon your average geek would be lucky to last 10 seconds...
...while viewing the post.
Kinda the same reaction I'm getting here. I can't say I much care about the "date" part, or even if it's a girl or a guy, but if they're even marginally good at Star Trek Online, I could have some use fir someone to watch my back and have a chat with.
Wouldn't it be easier to comb the Star Trek Online boards and find a _free_ friend to watch your back? If you couldn't I bet you could pay a hobbyist to watch your back for far less than these play dates.
week or so ago, one of the guys at Ars Technica ranted in an article about how people who use ad blocking are stealing content... I said then, and I still maintain, that using ad blocking and Flash blocking is not just a matter of convenience, but a matter of maintaining the security of my system.
Well if his business model is trading content for malware, then it's just plain unfair that you get content but he doesn't get to give you malware. In fact now he has to use twice as much malware on the honest costumers who don't adblock him.
Coptic Christians, Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, the Nomiya church in Kenya.
Most western branches are enlightened enough to view it as a medical issue and don't impose it upon members. However, my parents wanted my wee to be as much like Christ's as possible.
...you granted MySPACE the right to do what it pleases with your data. By deleting your account, aren't you thereby revoking that right from MySPACE?
So prove they are abusing your data.
I get email and especially post-office-kind mail with eerily detailed information about me all the time. I've never tried calling the companies and asking where they data mined it from (I try not to contact them if at all possible), but I don't think it would work. Obviously someone I'm doing business with is giving something away, but I don't think I'll ever be able to track them down.
The task of proving myspace sold your data after you deleted your account would be huge and then you would have to hire a better legal team than theirs to attempt to make your argument, from which you will probably win an apology.
or you could not put real data in there to begin with?
My only MS account was a troll...
I think social networking had a really good start. My MS account was there so that old friends could find me. I was able to meet Highschool friends I had mostly forgot and let them know when we were back in town. It really worked well for a time.
Of course, now it just collects friend requests from porn sites and local bands and my bulletin board is all chain-mail. If I was to set up an account now, it would be a troll.
Chris Jarvis, 31 year old Star Wars fan, finally gets laid and gets a life.
Also, loses geek card and ejected from the church of Jedi.
I can see the basis of your complaint from your user name. So, tell me, is necromancy your religion, or just a hobby?
Your down at the local cemetery, smoking a blunt, exhuming corpses. "It's for a religious rite officer!" It would be a great test for religious tolerance.
If he could demonstrate mastery of the force, he'd be a million dollars richer thanks to James Randi.
No, science would just expand to include mitochlorians. No supernatural phenomenon there.
"The Jedi church has no official doctrine or scripture." Which gives personal doctrine complete freedom to be whatever the hell he wants.
Awesome, jedichurch.org is whitelisted in my company's nsfw-blocker.
>And THAT is one of the best arguments against national health care.
So what happens when someone gets into an accident in the US?
1) His insurance carrier covers it and makes it up through everyone else's premium.
2) He's got no insurance, but the doctors treat him anyway and then try to make up the funds by charging from insured members more (see case 1) or taking it from donations or any state funds they might receive.
Hospitals don't refuse to treat people without health care right now, and those funds still have to come from somewhere. If anything it's a reason for the -- unfortunately never actually proposed -- "death panels" to put down people who are sucking up unreasonable money.
overrides my own freedom to risk said injury.
Completely agreed. Let's found a religion that says I don't have to follow laws that tell me what I can do to my own self for my supposed own good.
In the US: yes, but try to get that money out of them. We have lots of "hit and runs" here for that reason, and if responsible party does stick around, you'll have to find that he has got the funds or enough insurance (both unlikely) to be worth suing for the money.
I've got my insurance in line (in US): They'll pay $10K in the motorists medical bills but unless I am severely at fault he won't get another cent. Considering the price of brain surgery he'll require, he and the hospital will probably have to try to recover the funds from somewhere else. I would recommend they sue the state for letting him ride without a helmet =P