My point being that practically speaking even scientific claims can't be undeniably falsified - there are ways to plausibly call into question any assault on a scientific theory.
And all of those methods are themselves testable. Would you care to come up with a testable, repeatable demonstration of the existence of God? Religion is about faith -- about believing something unprovable. Science isn't. Any attempt to inject God into a scientific process immediately makes it unscientific because God's motivations and processes cannot, by definition, be explained.
PS: I'm pretty sure that the scientific claim that the Earth is a flat disk carried around on the back of turtles has been undeniably falsified to all but the most ignorant and obtuse of people.
You can say that there's no proof regarding God's existence.
I will go further and say that God's existence is unprovable and therefore any explanation that involves divine intervention is at its roots unscientific. Science deals with hypotheses that can be falsified. And I will give you a piece of evidence that can falsify evolution: rabbit fossils in the Precambrian. According to evolution they can't be there, and after a century of looking they still aren't.
I think what needs to happen at this point is for the accrediting bodies that certify Kansas' high school diplomas to put a rider on their certification that would allow any college or university that is serious about science to deny admission to a product of the Kansas public schools. If they wish to teach a Medieval version of science, then let them only profit from Medieval levels of technology.
If my Senators were appointed by the New York State Legislature then perhaps they'd care more about New York State then the party line/Washington Politics.
Historically, that was not true. Senators were even more beholden to the special interests, as the lobbyists only had to bribe a relative handful of legislators to get a pet Senator as opposed to having to at least spend wads of cash to influence an election. Remember that Lincoln probably would have won the popular vote for Senator, but the Democratic machine only had to make sure that their candidates won easily manipulated local elections to ensure that Douglas was appointed. He was much more interested in national Democratic politics than in the concerns of Illinois.
Unless said person wasn't white or lacked a penis, at which point they were considered "property."
Oh, and to vote in most states you had to be wealthy enough to pay the poll tax, which means poor folks didn't have a say in who represented them either. Not to mention that Senators were appointed, not elected.
You might try actually studying the men and their times, rather than the hagiographic portrayals that we tend to get in school. They accomplished many great things, but they were fully as venal and self-centered as most politicians today. They were just smart enough to recognize that, and to create a system that assumed its participants would be self-centered and venal.
The real problem with today's Republican Party is that they have stopped recognizing that very fact and claim moral superiority. They find themselves frustrated by the checks and balances erected in the system to prevent the power-hungry from accomplishing too much and wish to rip out the foundations of government that have served this country well for centuries. That ain't conservative, folks. It's as radical as Stalin or Robebspierre and will lead inevitably to the same result.
These days? The joke in the days of Apollo was that a Saturn V wasn't cleared to launch until the pile of completed paperwork was taller than the launch stack. This isn't new, and may actually be a good sign that NASA is going back toward getting all of the details right prior to launch.
Hobby is a polite way of saying "addiction" in this case. What we really need is a Slashoholics Anonymous Meetup. Oh, and probably a Doublestorypostaholics Anonymous for certain editors...
You are asking an American to think and invest in the long term. We consider that to be unpatriotic, and call people who call for such investment "stoopid liberuls" and "Dumbocrats." Plus a rise in short term costs makes it harder to give tax cuts to our pimps. errr campaign contributors. It's just not our way.
I think the difference is that magnetism doesn't warp space-time like gravity does. My crude understanding of black holes is that at the event horizon, space-time ceases to exist, so there would be no where for the magnetic field to propagate. Quantum forces like magnetism need a space to work in, and black holes have no space at all by definition.
I'm sure someone who's actually had a relativity class can explain it better than I can, but I think I'm on the right track at least.
To be perfectly pedantic, there are no metric units used anywhere in that phrase. Unless there's a new SI unit for satellite size called the Sputnik that I am unaware of, of course.
Wait a minute, I thought you said there should be no laws? That's what I was calling an assinine idea. Now it seems that you do want at least one, so apparently you do agree that laws are necessary in human society?
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is far superior to Bass, and it's pretty much a mass market beer in the States at this point. I'm sure your local microbreweries do a far, far, better job that even that if you poke around a bit. Even Michael Jackson (the beer critic, not the freak of nature) has stated that the craft brewing industry in the US is producing better beers than the ones in Europe.
Remember that it doesn't need a multimillion dollar ad campaign to be good. If it does, then you are probably not worthy!
Yes, they did a great job, and will continue to do great things, as will many of the other private sector ventures. But let's remember that what they did was successfully place a person into a BALLISTIC path in space, for a couple minutes, WELL BELOW low earth orbit, FORTY+ YEARS AFTER it was done by governments. Personally, I'm saving my really enthusiastic clapping for when they put someone up there...and KEEP them up there.
Here, here. I'll also add AND BRING THEM DOWN SAFELY. Unlesss it's Lance Bass. They can leave his sorry ass up there for all I care.
Orbital reentry is much more complicated that what SS1 went through. You can't feather your way out of a vaccuum.
Amend that to "most humans" and add a few other trivial pursuits to the list of distractions our Dear Leaders use, and I'll agree with you wholeheartedly. This is not uniquely or especially an American trait, as Machiavelli recognized it long before there was a United States.
OK. Please post all of your personal info on your slashdot page. If I make copies of them, you aren't harmed since you still have your copy, correct? Why not post your credit card details on Kazzaa?
Arguing with you freeloaders is ridiculous, and I'm at least sympathetic to your cause. I'd like to see the law changed to allow true fair use, but it will never happen while spoiled children whine that their candy isn't free.
Which is a form of theft, along with embezzlement, larceny, GTA, fraud, and armed robbery. The term "theft" encompasses an large field of property crime.
So using a descrambler to view and record pay cable channels is not theft? I mean the signal is still there for others to take, right? You don't need to actually totally deprive someone of the use of something to take it. You merely need to use it without the owner's permission. That certainly occurs during MP3 downloads according to current IP law.
If you have a problem with that, then you have a problem with the law and should work to change it. In the meantime you are committing theft as it is defined under the legal code, no matter how you seek to rationalize it.
Bzzzt. Thank you for playing. Unless you're Norman Bates, having your mother force you to study algebra isn't self-starting, it's just a different teacher. Are you suggesting that one parent must forgo an income to homeschool their children? Perhaps she should stay barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, as well! Even if one parent stays home, how should we expect that parent to be a great teacher? My mom did stay home while we were in school, but she wouldn't have been able to teach me biology or physics, and I very much doubt that her reading assignments would have included Faulkner, Lawrence, or Dostyevski. I was hardly just "babysat" while I was in public high school.
I will tell you this, as well. I went to a private college with a whole bunch of private school and homeschooled kids. Watching them deal with black students as if they were exhibits in a menagerie rather sickened me. Some of these kids had never met a non-upper class WASP in their entire lives. When thrust into the workplace, who do you think they will preferentially hire and promote? As I said, while there isn't a draft to force people of different classes and races to work together, public education is about a close as we're going to get.
Even the most libertarian of the Founders recognized the benefits of public education, so we can't even say that we're getting away from their intent. Jefferson in particular is often cited by the small government crowd, but he wrote reams on why public education is a duty of good government.
I guess you burn down your house when you find termites in it, too. I don't think I've met an eleven year old who will gladly self-study algebra in my life. Just as people do better in diet and exercise plans with the help of trainers, people learn better with guidance. Whether or not the kind of guidance they're getting in today's high schools is the correct kind is an open question.
There is also a second, important goal to public education in my mind. With the abolition of universal military service, it is one of the few times during the formative periods of your life that your are forced to meet and socialize with your peers in different socioeconomic classes. It has been my experience that public school educated individuals deal better with diversity than their elitist private school brethern. One look at the current Administration's, or Al Gore's, touch with the common man shows you what I am talking about.
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And all of those methods are themselves testable. Would you care to come up with a testable, repeatable demonstration of the existence of God? Religion is about faith -- about believing something unprovable. Science isn't. Any attempt to inject God into a scientific process immediately makes it unscientific because God's motivations and processes cannot, by definition, be explained.
PS: I'm pretty sure that the scientific claim that the Earth is a flat disk carried around on the back of turtles has been undeniably falsified to all but the most ignorant and obtuse of people.
I will go further and say that God's existence is unprovable and therefore any explanation that involves divine intervention is at its roots unscientific. Science deals with hypotheses that can be falsified. And I will give you a piece of evidence that can falsify evolution: rabbit fossils in the Precambrian. According to evolution they can't be there, and after a century of looking they still aren't.
I think what needs to happen at this point is for the accrediting bodies that certify Kansas' high school diplomas to put a rider on their certification that would allow any college or university that is serious about science to deny admission to a product of the Kansas public schools. If they wish to teach a Medieval version of science, then let them only profit from Medieval levels of technology.
Historically, that was not true. Senators were even more beholden to the special interests, as the lobbyists only had to bribe a relative handful of legislators to get a pet Senator as opposed to having to at least spend wads of cash to influence an election. Remember that Lincoln probably would have won the popular vote for Senator, but the Democratic machine only had to make sure that their candidates won easily manipulated local elections to ensure that Douglas was appointed. He was much more interested in national Democratic politics than in the concerns of Illinois.
Not the book section.
How do you hurt someone less than "not at all?" I spend time in my local Apple Store, and I can't remember the last time a customer bought a book.
Don't stand between the customers and the Shuffles, though. You'll get run down.
The real problem with today's Republican Party is that they have stopped recognizing that very fact and claim moral superiority. They find themselves frustrated by the checks and balances erected in the system to prevent the power-hungry from accomplishing too much and wish to rip out the foundations of government that have served this country well for centuries. That ain't conservative, folks. It's as radical as Stalin or Robebspierre and will lead inevitably to the same result.
These days? The joke in the days of Apollo was that a Saturn V wasn't cleared to launch until the pile of completed paperwork was taller than the launch stack. This isn't new, and may actually be a good sign that NASA is going back toward getting all of the details right prior to launch.
I'll add HumorlessPendantaholics to my list, I suppose...
Hobby is a polite way of saying "addiction" in this case. What we really need is a Slashoholics Anonymous Meetup. Oh, and probably a Doublestorypostaholics Anonymous for certain editors...
You are asking an American to think and invest in the long term. We consider that to be unpatriotic, and call people who call for such investment "stoopid liberuls" and "Dumbocrats." Plus a rise in short term costs makes it harder to give tax cuts to our pimps. errr campaign contributors. It's just not our way.
I'm sure someone who's actually had a relativity class can explain it better than I can, but I think I'm on the right track at least.
To be perfectly pedantic, there are no metric units used anywhere in that phrase. Unless there's a new SI unit for satellite size called the Sputnik that I am unaware of, of course.
Wait a minute, I thought you said there should be no laws? That's what I was calling an assinine idea. Now it seems that you do want at least one, so apparently you do agree that laws are necessary in human society?
Says who? Without laws to regulate conduct, the strong make their own rules. After all, what is there to stop them?
Really? I would suggest you move to Somalia then. It should be a paradise according to you.
How far are you willing to take that? Everyone has a conflict of interest, so should no one make laws?
Which would you rather have as a babysitter, a proven child molester or one who says he's not, but might because he's likely never been caught?
Remember that it doesn't need a multimillion dollar ad campaign to be good. If it does, then you are probably not worthy!
Here, here. I'll also add AND BRING THEM DOWN SAFELY. Unlesss it's Lance Bass. They can leave his sorry ass up there for all I care.
Orbital reentry is much more complicated that what SS1 went through. You can't feather your way out of a vaccuum.
Amend that to "most humans" and add a few other trivial pursuits to the list of distractions our Dear Leaders use, and I'll agree with you wholeheartedly. This is not uniquely or especially an American trait, as Machiavelli recognized it long before there was a United States.
Arguing with you freeloaders is ridiculous, and I'm at least sympathetic to your cause. I'd like to see the law changed to allow true fair use, but it will never happen while spoiled children whine that their candy isn't free.
Which is a form of theft, along with embezzlement, larceny, GTA, fraud, and armed robbery. The term "theft" encompasses an large field of property crime.
If you have a problem with that, then you have a problem with the law and should work to change it. In the meantime you are committing theft as it is defined under the legal code, no matter how you seek to rationalize it.
Bzzzt. Thank you for playing. Unless you're Norman Bates, having your mother force you to study algebra isn't self-starting, it's just a different teacher. Are you suggesting that one parent must forgo an income to homeschool their children? Perhaps she should stay barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, as well! Even if one parent stays home, how should we expect that parent to be a great teacher? My mom did stay home while we were in school, but she wouldn't have been able to teach me biology or physics, and I very much doubt that her reading assignments would have included Faulkner, Lawrence, or Dostyevski. I was hardly just "babysat" while I was in public high school.
I will tell you this, as well. I went to a private college with a whole bunch of private school and homeschooled kids. Watching them deal with black students as if they were exhibits in a menagerie rather sickened me. Some of these kids had never met a non-upper class WASP in their entire lives. When thrust into the workplace, who do you think they will preferentially hire and promote? As I said, while there isn't a draft to force people of different classes and races to work together, public education is about a close as we're going to get.
Even the most libertarian of the Founders recognized the benefits of public education, so we can't even say that we're getting away from their intent. Jefferson in particular is often cited by the small government crowd, but he wrote reams on why public education is a duty of good government.
There is also a second, important goal to public education in my mind. With the abolition of universal military service, it is one of the few times during the formative periods of your life that your are forced to meet and socialize with your peers in different socioeconomic classes. It has been my experience that public school educated individuals deal better with diversity than their elitist private school brethern. One look at the current Administration's, or Al Gore's, touch with the common man shows you what I am talking about.