Despite your predjudice this question does not involve faith, it's about science. At what point is an unborn human life worth protetcting? And you can't answer it. Neither can anyone else, through science. Because science, as worth a pursuit as it it, is unable to answer many of these questions. Can science define a thought, not brain activity but an actual thought? What makes one thought different from another, what differentiates Einstein's e=mc^2 from Bobo's mumbling and drooling in the cornor?
The problem is that science is great for observing the world around us, but it can't answer any of the more "complex" questions regarding our existance.
What I am trying to do, although I should have done it less sarcastically, is get people to think. Do we know the millisecond life begins? No, not even the day. So the preconceived notions of the parent post are what I am questioning, and inviting him (or anyone else) to defend. I don't expect many takers, because they don't know.
It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed,
the hands acquire shaking, the shaking becomes a warning.
It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.
Cantide, re your sig: It's tea, not coffee. The quote is from an exchange between Lady Astor (sp?) and Sir Winston Churchill
Do you know about GAK? Government Accessability to Keys is a standard that is present in all encryption software nowadays, from Lotus Notes to GPG/PGP. What GAK does is take your 128 bit encryption and give the government a template that makes it 40 bit, which can then be quickly and easily cracked. Still feel secure? I Don't bother with any of the current crop of encryption programs any more than I bother tying a pretty red ribbon across my chest in place of my seatbelt, and for exactly the same reasons.
If you don't like that either then write your own 128, or better yet 256 bit, encryption program and don't give in when you have FBI agents shadowing you 24x7 for no reason. Which is what I believe happened to the creater of PGP and why he eventually passed it off to someone else who then caved into the gov't and gave them the "mask".
The above information is from my recollections of the past 15 years and hasn't been updated recently (by me). If you have more curren info on any of this please let me know.
If I stand on the street cornor and shout "Drugs for sale, weed, XTC, 'shrooms! Good Prices!!" should I get investigated? Sure I have free speech, but I've also given probable cause.
Well guess what? The Internet is a public forum, a public network.
Don't get me wrong, Carnivore offends me no end. But that's a clear cut case of our own government using the spies of other governments to spy on US citizens, since it is blatently unConstutional for the US gov't to spy on it's own citizens.
However what is being described here is something completely different. If you don't like it use a good encryption program or don't do that sort of business on the 'Net.
Of course it's about the responsibility of the parent to know what they're buying their child! However many parents encourage their kids to earn money to learn to handle it responsibly. So what's to stop the kid from nipping off to the local video game store and buying what they think is cool when their parents aren't around?
This law. Hold the business accountable for being a good member of the community.
Since porn and video games can adversly affect young and impressionable minds, yes. Much like innappropriate use of alcohol can make the body ill, innappropriate use of porn/violent videos/games can make the mind ill. Applying those rules in certain situations is a good thing.
And why do people not see that by restricting the sale to minors returns control to the parents, who's job it is to determine which values they want to pass on to their kids anyway? If the parent wants li'l Johny to have GTA3 then they can go buy it for him. But last time I checked children's "rights" where pretty much restricted anyway (with a few exceptions). That's why these things are rated "Adult" or "Mature", because they are NOT appropriate for minors.
Not only should we give bogus data on the cards, but we should all swap them with other people as often as possible. Bonus points for swapping with someone from another state.
That way, even if you have to use your own data it will quickly become disassociated with you.
I suppose kids ought to be able to just walk in and buy Hustler and Marlboroughs too? Y'know kids get a lot of free time these days, especially during the summer. I'd rather have the retailer have to have some responsibility rather than just take anyone's money and turn a blind eye to the needs of the community.
And if you want your child to have that particular "piece of filth" then how much of a hardship is it for you to go down there with your child and get it with/for them?
And yet topics with a high emotional content in the Wikipedia tend to be extremely biased. For just a couple of examples the article on Astrology speaks as if Astrology is established as a valid science. I know of at least one person (not me) who tried to correct this gross misrepresentation and the peer review process failed utterly.
Another example is the article on the Biblical book of Daniel. The article cited the date for Daniel as 100 B.C., something we know is false since Daniel was translated in the Septuigent before 200 B.C. I corrected that, (and may or may not have put in the more accurate date of c. 600 B.C.) but the fact that no one bothered to do the slightest bit of research before posting a grossly erroneous date was disturbing.
Similarly, at least one (if not more) of the many articles on Jesus dispute the physical existance of this man, cite dates for the Gospels as 2nd or 3rd century, and numerous other errors that no honest (i.e. one with no agenda) historian would countenance for one second! I have attempted to post comments for discussion and corrections to these articles in the past and been informed that I made the article POV, even when citing my sources while the other viewpoint had none or easily debunkable ones.
Another time I attempted to introduce some science or fairness into another article with a high emotional content and was flamed. And I guarantee I didn't start that, I knew is was an emotional subject for some and I was walking on eggshells the entire time since I knew that my viewpoint, and the scientific evidence I brought, would be unwelcome. I was pointed to a Web site to refute what I was saying and I ended up quoting their own reference back to them since it sustained my comments. Did this earn me respect? Only at very high temperatures.....
In short, I view attempting to edit the Wikipedia about as productive as urinating into a fan and I don't bother to use it as resource, knowing personally how broken it is.
I done two stints for Microsoft as a temp, totalling just under 1 year. Yeah, they treat their people pretty well. I might add that this was on Help Desk, not development.
I'd have to resarch that to argue it, and I just don't have the time right now so I'll take your word for it. That is still a far cry from carpet bombing.
Only if you're British. The Brits were seriously PO'd after the Battle of Britain, the US was (for the most part, there were exceptions like Dresden) very careful to only hit military targets.
The scroll wheel on your mouse will do the same thing.
But I don't think that's the issue. Off Topic and Overrated are typically overused by people who didn't like what you had to say in another thread and follow you around to "punish" you with their mod points. I know of at least one other person who has logged in to his personal page only to see his five most recent posts modded Overrated. Most metamods won't bother reading the context to mark this Unfair, they're just metamoderating hoping to get more mod points so they burn through it quickly and move on.
This has become a bit of a pet peeve with me and recently I've been taking metamoderating pretty seriously, doing it every chance I get and reading the context on anything even remotely questionable.
Note to future moderators: Get a sense of humor. Jokes are not Off Topic, and while the poster won't get Karma for a Funny mod I appreciate the stress relief of a good laugh. So lighten up a little will ya?
Correct me if I'm mistaken, but I thought the Apple Macintosh was originally the Holy Grail of graphics arts/desktop publishing? If I am correct (and I believe I am) then Unix is very diffinately an option for you, and a good one too.
Actually, if you read the writings of the Founding Fathers you will quickly see that their intent was not to keep people of faith out of the government, it was to keep the government out of the Church. Many of the early immigrants to America fled religious persecution from a State run church.
And while the two examples I cited were extreme, their like are hardly uncommon. Many teachers feel threatened by the practice of religion in the school for some reason.
Regardless of whether it's "just" the tax code or a Bill that was passed into Law, the intent of the Founders was pretty clear. The gov't has no business messing with a church.
Yes, it is. The law you refer to is clearly unConstitutional. The 1st Amendment to the US Constition very clearly states:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Please note that Congress has made a law that both abridges the freedom of speech (to wit, tax exempt orgs may not endorse political candidates) and "prohibits the free excercise thereof" (speaking of religion) by saying that (tax exempt) religious leaders or institutions may not endorse a candidate they feel matches the moral beliefs of their religion. While IANAL this is pretty clearly in plain English. After all the ludicrous separation of church and state nonsense (e.g. school officials harrassing some kid for praying over his lunch, or the girl who wore her (Muslim) headscarf to school and they expelled her for it) this is just one more example of a double standard.
Nevertheless, you might be surprised to know that I disagree with the tax exempt status given to all groups. (But then again I don't think that corporations should be taxed either, because that cost just gets passed along to the customer.)
Funny, I don't hear anyone screaming about the 1st Amendment being violated here, yet it was. In fact it was violated far more clearly here than in the LiveJournal debacle.
No, that's the whole point. The voter takes the extra ticket with them so they can verify their vote at their convenience. However having a station for the voter to check their vote before they leave the polling place isn't a bad idea.
I don't think my idea/process is perfect. It was intended more as an outline or starting place to show how accountability would have to be present at every step of the process.
Then add mandatory high res Web cams for 2 miles in every direction from the polling place, or come up with another form of accountability to prevent this.
The only way it will ever be secure is if there is accountability which means, among other things, a paper trail.
I would go for something like this:
The voter goes into the booth, makes their choices and pulls the lever. The eVoter(TM) prints out two (or more) identical bar codes on separate sheets of cardstock (or thin plastic or other similar material).
The voter then goes to the next booth and puts one of the bar codes into the eTabulator(TM), keeping the other one.
The eVoter has encoded all vote info, including write-ins and a unique session ID (not attached to the voter) into the bar code. The barcode specification is published and freeware readers will be supplied by the manufacturers and the government, as well as installed on computers in every public library.
The engineering specs and software source for the eVoter and eTabulator (made by two different companies by law) will be published and open to review. Voters will be able to check their votes on any computer with a bar code reader, and the unique session ID (identical on both bar code slips prevents a voter from putting both bar codes into the eTabulator and getting two votes). The session ID could also be used to make sure the same number of sessions were created in both eVoter and eTabulator to prevent people from printing their own votes before hand and stuffing the ballot box (eTabulator).
...is the smallest unit of government. The family is where people learn their values, including co-operation and respct for others. Stable families mean a better society and, generally speaking better government.
Slashdot Mirror
The problem is that science is great for observing the world around us, but it can't answer any of the more "complex" questions regarding our existance.
What I am trying to do, although I should have done it less sarcastically, is get people to think. Do we know the millisecond life begins? No, not even the day. So the preconceived notions of the parent post are what I am questioning, and inviting him (or anyone else) to defend. I don't expect many takers, because they don't know.
Since you are obviously aware of things the rest of aren't would you please be so good as to inform us exactly when life begins?
It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed,
the hands acquire shaking, the shaking becomes a warning.
It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.
Cantide, re your sig: It's tea, not coffee. The quote is from an exchange between Lady Astor (sp?) and Sir Winston Churchill
That's good to know. Wish you hadn't posted as an AC, I almost didn't check at -1.
If you don't like that either then write your own 128, or better yet 256 bit, encryption program and don't give in when you have FBI agents shadowing you 24x7 for no reason. Which is what I believe happened to the creater of PGP and why he eventually passed it off to someone else who then caved into the gov't and gave them the "mask".
The above information is from my recollections of the past 15 years and hasn't been updated recently (by me). If you have more curren info on any of this please let me know.
Well guess what? The Internet is a public forum, a public network.
Don't get me wrong, Carnivore offends me no end. But that's a clear cut case of our own government using the spies of other governments to spy on US citizens, since it is blatently unConstutional for the US gov't to spy on it's own citizens.
However what is being described here is something completely different. If you don't like it use a good encryption program or don't do that sort of business on the 'Net.
This law. Hold the business accountable for being a good member of the community.
And why do people not see that by restricting the sale to minors returns control to the parents, who's job it is to determine which values they want to pass on to their kids anyway? If the parent wants li'l Johny to have GTA3 then they can go buy it for him. But last time I checked children's "rights" where pretty much restricted anyway (with a few exceptions). That's why these things are rated "Adult" or "Mature", because they are NOT appropriate for minors.
Not only should we give bogus data on the cards, but we should all swap them with other people as often as possible. Bonus points for swapping with someone from another state.
That way, even if you have to use your own data it will quickly become disassociated with you.
I suppose kids ought to be able to just walk in and buy Hustler and Marlboroughs too? Y'know kids get a lot of free time these days, especially during the summer. I'd rather have the retailer have to have some responsibility rather than just take anyone's money and turn a blind eye to the needs of the community.
And if you want your child to have that particular "piece of filth" then how much of a hardship is it for you to go down there with your child and get it with/for them?
Another example is the article on the Biblical book of Daniel. The article cited the date for Daniel as 100 B.C., something we know is false since Daniel was translated in the Septuigent before 200 B.C. I corrected that, (and may or may not have put in the more accurate date of c. 600 B.C.) but the fact that no one bothered to do the slightest bit of research before posting a grossly erroneous date was disturbing.
Similarly, at least one (if not more) of the many articles on Jesus dispute the physical existance of this man, cite dates for the Gospels as 2nd or 3rd century, and numerous other errors that no honest (i.e. one with no agenda) historian would countenance for one second! I have attempted to post comments for discussion and corrections to these articles in the past and been informed that I made the article POV, even when citing my sources while the other viewpoint had none or easily debunkable ones.
Another time I attempted to introduce some science or fairness into another article with a high emotional content and was flamed. And I guarantee I didn't start that, I knew is was an emotional subject for some and I was walking on eggshells the entire time since I knew that my viewpoint, and the scientific evidence I brought, would be unwelcome. I was pointed to a Web site to refute what I was saying and I ended up quoting their own reference back to them since it sustained my comments. Did this earn me respect? Only at very high temperatures.....
In short, I view attempting to edit the Wikipedia about as productive as urinating into a fan and I don't bother to use it as resource, knowing personally how broken it is.
I done two stints for Microsoft as a temp, totalling just under 1 year. Yeah, they treat their people pretty well. I might add that this was on Help Desk, not development.
I'd have to resarch that to argue it, and I just don't have the time right now so I'll take your word for it. That is still a far cry from carpet bombing.
Only if you're British. The Brits were seriously PO'd after the Battle of Britain, the US was (for the most part, there were exceptions like Dresden) very careful to only hit military targets.
But I don't think that's the issue. Off Topic and Overrated are typically overused by people who didn't like what you had to say in another thread and follow you around to "punish" you with their mod points. I know of at least one other person who has logged in to his personal page only to see his five most recent posts modded Overrated. Most metamods won't bother reading the context to mark this Unfair, they're just metamoderating hoping to get more mod points so they burn through it quickly and move on.
This has become a bit of a pet peeve with me and recently I've been taking metamoderating pretty seriously, doing it every chance I get and reading the context on anything even remotely questionable.
Note to future moderators: Get a sense of humor. Jokes are not Off Topic, and while the poster won't get Karma for a Funny mod I appreciate the stress relief of a good laugh. So lighten up a little will ya?
The sad thing is that some people are going to believe that's real.
Yasser Arafat is not dead, yet.
Just in case you were unaware, OSX = BSD = Unix.
And while the two examples I cited were extreme, their like are hardly uncommon. Many teachers feel threatened by the practice of religion in the school for some reason.
Regardless of whether it's "just" the tax code or a Bill that was passed into Law, the intent of the Founders was pretty clear. The gov't has no business messing with a church.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Please note that Congress has made a law that both abridges the freedom of speech (to wit, tax exempt orgs may not endorse political candidates) and "prohibits the free excercise thereof" (speaking of religion) by saying that (tax exempt) religious leaders or institutions may not endorse a candidate they feel matches the moral beliefs of their religion. While IANAL this is pretty clearly in plain English. After all the ludicrous separation of church and state nonsense (e.g. school officials harrassing some kid for praying over his lunch, or the girl who wore her (Muslim) headscarf to school and they expelled her for it) this is just one more example of a double standard.
Nevertheless, you might be surprised to know that I disagree with the tax exempt status given to all groups. (But then again I don't think that corporations should be taxed either, because that cost just gets passed along to the customer.)
Funny, I don't hear anyone screaming about the 1st Amendment being violated here, yet it was. In fact it was violated far more clearly here than in the LiveJournal debacle.
I don't think my idea/process is perfect. It was intended more as an outline or starting place to show how accountability would have to be present at every step of the process.
Then add mandatory high res Web cams for 2 miles in every direction from the polling place, or come up with another form of accountability to prevent this.
I would go for something like this:
The voter goes into the booth, makes their choices and pulls the lever. The eVoter(TM) prints out two (or more) identical bar codes on separate sheets of cardstock (or thin plastic or other similar material).
The voter then goes to the next booth and puts one of the bar codes into the eTabulator(TM), keeping the other one.
The eVoter has encoded all vote info, including write-ins and a unique session ID (not attached to the voter) into the bar code. The barcode specification is published and freeware readers will be supplied by the manufacturers and the government, as well as installed on computers in every public library.
The engineering specs and software source for the eVoter and eTabulator (made by two different companies by law) will be published and open to review. Voters will be able to check their votes on any computer with a bar code reader, and the unique session ID (identical on both bar code slips prevents a voter from putting both bar codes into the eTabulator and getting two votes). The session ID could also be used to make sure the same number of sessions were created in both eVoter and eTabulator to prevent people from printing their own votes before hand and stuffing the ballot box (eTabulator).
...is the smallest unit of government. The family is where people learn their values, including co-operation and respct for others. Stable families mean a better society and, generally speaking better government.