I defy you to tell when a word's capitalized when it's spoken out loud. I don't have to tell whether God is capitalized or not in the pledge by listening. It's written that way. And the fact that it's not "a god" or even "the god" but just "God" indicates that it is a name or title and refers to "God" specifically.
The Pledge is neither scripture nor a prayer.... except it's defended with religious zeal, treated as political dogma, and recited like prayer.
Among the eastern religions, I think you'll find that in Hinduism, for example, "God" would not be incompatable with their beliefs. Many others would also be comfortable referring to a generalized divinity in this way. Others, notably atheists, agnostics, skeptics, and any religions that don't like their divinities being generalized or co-opted for political purposes, would. I might also point out that in the 1962 Engel vs. Vitale case so-called "non-sectarian" prayers were specifically disallowed. If everyone were comfortable with it we all wouldn't be having this discussion now would we?
In any event, the bare word "God" does not imply any religion whatsoever. Well that's a new one. Pray tell, what exactly does the phrase "under God" imply if not religious, and why is it so important? Apparently the '54 congress thought they put it there to "acknowledge the dependence of our people and our Government upon the moral directions of the Creator."
The Constitution does not provide for the "separation of church and state". The First Amendment certainly doesn't. Indeed, the phrase "separation of church and state" is not present in the First Amendment or Constitution. The idea was developed and avocated by Jefferson and Madison but not officially sanctioned until the 1947 Supreme Court (whose job it is to elaborate points of constitutional law) case of Emerson vs. Board of Education, when Justice Black wrote of the "wall of separation" the Constitution maintains between church and state. The justices in that case unanimously interpreted the Establishment Clause as going well beyond simply prohibiting the establishment of a state religion (including specifically prohibition of laws which "aid all religions" and also that no force shall be used to make anyone profess belief or disbelief in any religion).
In any case, what you seem to be defending is the idea that some vague religiousity pervading into public institutions and schools in particular is harmless or even beneficial. However, as the wikipedia entry on this subject so aptly put it, "in practice the predominant religious make-up of a school often makes those of a minority religion feel unwelcome or hated." Particularly if juvenile practitioners of said predominant religious make up and minority religions (and especially the non-religious) are given a daily reminder first thing in the morning about it.
Huh. You say you can put any interpretation you like on the words "under God". Yet if I'm not mistaken, you and the pledge both capitalize "God". Typically this is done with proper nouns, which refer to specific persons, places, or things. Notably, this is how the Jews and Christians refer to their god (in English, anyway), out of respect. Muslims specifically prefer Allah, and the various eastern religions tend to be non-exclusive or even non-deistic, to say nothing of all the others. But I'm sure that's just a coincidence that it's capitalized. If it weren't that would mean Congress had compromised the separation of church and state back in '54 you and others were using a lame and weasely arguement to keep it that way.
Newdow could be crazier than Michael Jackson for all I care. It doesn't change the fact that this is a highly controversial issue over a textbook example of indoctrination which many people are uncomfortable with, and which is long overdue for a trip to the Supreme Court. By attempting to sidestep the arguement by attacking the arguer you're just making yourself look like a douchebag.
See here for more about baloney detection. Courtesy of noted scientist, educator, and atheist Carl Sagan.
Yes we can, if the child has acutal convictions in the matter. It's routine for the children of Jehovah's Witnesses not to say the pledge, and has been for many years.
It's always heartwarming to see an indoctrination defeated by a deeper indoctrination.
I think it's a matter of timing. Back when the "under God" words were added to the Pledge back in the 50's I would have agreed that it was improper and it should have gone to the courts back then.
Why don't you move to Russia then you damn pinko!
The post-war era wasn't all smiling teens in poodle skirts and pompadours listening to early rock while dad was driving a new car and smoking his pipe and mom was baking cookies in domestic bliss.
In many ways, the 50s was one of the most oppressive times in US history. The rollback of social and political gains made by women and minorities during the wartime crisis, McCarthyist witch hunts, urban sprawl, keeping up with the Joneses, eerily perfect families on TV sitcoms, hollywood blacklists, lobotomized housewives, and last but not least compulsory nationalist pledges and icons and propoganda at every turn. Including "under God" in the pledge and "In God We Trust" on our money.
As one of those kids mumbling over the words, I don't think "under God" should be removed - I think it should be abolished altogether. Even then I could figure out that daily repetitions of sociopolitically loaded words in a coercive group situation was a method of political indoctrination. And our money should be changed back to the way it was before (preferably with the damn peach-and-blue color and Federal Reserve bit removed too).
...Along with a bunch of other stuff that never gets mentioned.
Slashdot really needs a couple more sections for extra articles - in particular a "Society" section for discussions of politics policy et al, and an "Entertainment" section for talking about movies, tv, anime, and so forth (which DEFINITELY falls under the "nerds" clause). And why is there a BSD and Apple section but no Linux or Windows section? Does everyone really need to know about the evils of SCO or Microsoft daily?
Oh boo hoo. Nobody's forcing anyone to use Linux. The GPL is very specific about its conditions - you can use its extensive codebase for free, but any extensions you make you also have to provide for free. In other words, you still pay for Linux. Not with money, but with code - and if you write bad code, your reputation. If somebody doesn't like that they should use something else. Write their own code, pay for a proprietary codebase, or use an open-source codebase without such restrictions like BSD. Cisco and Broadcom are breaking a contract, simple as that, which is how a 12-person legal team can successfully litigate against a multi-billion dollar company.
Not as diplomatic as your letter, I admit. I don't really care for the GPL, but that just means I don't try to build on it or use it for profit.
1) Ty is right - this would be more useful if it were a TIVO like device. One of the fundamental differences between audio and video content is that while people will listen to a song dozens of times before they get tired of it (and even then probably want to listen to it later), a movie is best watched one, maybe two times at the most (unless you're some sort of sweaty-toothed freak). Fresh content is needed, and TIVO delivers. Video-On-Demand content is the other natural complement. There is the slight problem about putting a hard drive through transfering gigabyte-ranges of data per day. Regardless, neither I nor most people I can think of really have the time/attention to watch video on the go, nor the desire to watch it on such a tiny screen, so what's the point?
2) Missed the boat on an iPod knockoff? Are they on crack? The iPod is not a complicated or exclusive device. Sony could easily make something that compared favorably and people would buy it. Especially if it were cheaper, although it's unlikely they could do that since the bulk of the cost for any personal audio device is the drive.
That's the trouble with protocols... once they're set good luck ever getting rid of them.
The $64,000 question is, can the domain not found response be modified at all without breaking the protocol? For instance, to have older programs recognize the error, but next generation programs (web browsers mainly) be able to return useful information like possible alternatives? This would allow for smarter, more functional programs without breaking legacy apps.
They definitely aren't taking any chances on losing money with this one. I predict the strongest opening weekend ever and the biggest drop for the second weekend... gotta get people in the theaters before the word gets out you know...
Funny what happens when your amazing balancing anti-walking machine runs out of juice. And once you've picked yourself up off your ass/face, you get to lug your 90lb, $5000 machine someplace safe.
The humble bicycle, as if there was any doubt, clearly reigns supreme in this class of transportation. For getting around town comfortably, get a comfortable bike. For working around the warehouse, get a work bike or trike. And if you would like the electric assistance without your vehicle becoming useless when the battery runs out, get an electric bike. It's just that easy people.
Well then, I think we can add this to the Non-Libertarian FAQ. Which incidentally is the first thing on google that shows up when you search for "libertarian faq". I guess that probably means there are less Libertarians than there are people out there who are extremely annoyed by them.
Frankly, the graphing calculators HP made are too big and too slow. Graphing and matrices are overrated in calculator design - they're so complex you really should be using a computer to work with them. But my 42S, which I've had for over a decade, is perfect. All the functions I need, plus it's programmable if I want more. Two lines of input, which is hugely better than one but doesn't take up a lot of space. Clearly labeled and intelligently laid out keys. Deliciously slim and light, but with that solid HP feel to the keys and body. And of course, that RPN speed, simplicity, and efficiency that people trained on TIs just can't appreciate.
Sure, it could use a few more features, specifically a menu of scientific constants, conversions, and functions. An alpha mode along the lines of today's cellphones would be nice too, although T9 sounds like a bit much to ask for. A USB interface to program it from and use it as a peripheral with my computer would be very nice in this day and age. But for now, I wouldn't trade my 42S for any calculator in the world.
And to think, if my dad hadn't won it as a door prize at a conference and given it to me since he wasn't used to RPN, and I hadn't learned to use it because I didn't have a non-RPN scientific calculator, I never would have known. Guess I'm just lucky.
From what I can tell, doing routine repair on the 12" powerbook (such as replacing the hard drive) looks about a million times easier than working on the current iBook. What a nightmare that is. Believe me, I know.
So what we have here are two cards of different widths, with a connector that's the same width. Here's what'll happen:
1) People will accidentally buy 54mm cards without realizing it won't fit in their 34mm slots 2) When you put a 34mm card in your 54 mm slot, your device will either have a big gap next to the card or will have to use an alkward and twice as expensive double door 3) The 22mm notch on the 54mm card will get caught on things and could possibly even be a weak point. 4) People won't realize that 34mm cards will work in their 54mm slot, or try to put it in on the wrong side, and such. 5) 5mm won't be thick enough for a variety of purposes 6) One of these card formats will be effectively abandoned (54mm) and the other will be widely adopted (34mm), obviating the work on the abandoned design and leaving a legacy of unsupported formats to confuse people on ebay auctions and such.
The logical thing to do would be what they do now: have single and double height cards, that work in a double slot.
Am I the only person that wishes games/anime would cut back on the gratuitous fanservice? It makes gamers look bad. OK, it makes gamers look even more pathetic than they already do, especially when the wife/girlfriend/mom comes home. I watch that DOA commercial and I'm like "Dudes, get some lives, this is stupid." Kinda like how I felt every time Liv Tyler showed up in LOTR for her extremely padded scenes - is there a digital effect for "vaseline on the lense" or do they do it the old fashioned way?
Bouncing computer generated boobs can be titillating for all of about 15 minutes, then you've seen them from every worthwhile angle, and it's just silly. Unnecessary and contrived to the point of annoyance. At the very least, they could produce equivalent games for girls.
Halo wasn't stolen from the PC. It was stolen from the Mac. Along with one of the best developers of Mac-first games, which is what Bungie WAS. I own all three Marathons, I know. When they displayed the first Halo promo at the MacWorld '99 keynote I was in ecstasy. Later when I read that Bungie had sold out to Microsoft I thought it was some kind of bad joke. It wasn't. Now, 3 years after Halo was supposed to be released for Mac (and PC) they're finally fulfilling their promise. No doubt it will be the last of Bungie I ever see.
No. In Cowboy Bebop, several chinese gangs figured prominently, and there was even a geomancy episode. Geomancy and Taoist magic played an even more prominent role in Outlaw Star. Chinese architecture and design were prominent in both series, especially OS. Incidentally, in both shows the currency of choice was Wulongs. Not Yen. There are many other anime in which the Japanese play a prominent or dominant (or at least heroic) roles. These were not among them. In fact I'm not sure there were ANY Japanese characters among them.
In Blade Runner, there was a whole underclass that was a combination of many different ethnicities. A number of these characters that we met (The Eye Guy, petshop woman, Edward James Olmos) were speaking a tonal language that sounded chinese. It was supposed to be a creole language, but given that it was tonal this heavily implies chinese. The japanese style could also be seen on billboards and such, and there was a German burlesque theater, and of course it's set in America, but the underclass was the one with the numbers. It would be more accurate to say that Blade Runner was a multicultural/fusion culture future.
Slashdot Mirror
I defy you to tell when a word's capitalized when it's spoken out loud.
... except it's defended with religious zeal, treated as political dogma, and recited like prayer.
I don't have to tell whether God is capitalized or not in the pledge by listening. It's written that way. And the fact that it's not "a god" or even "the god" but just "God" indicates that it is a name or title and refers to "God" specifically.
The Pledge is neither scripture nor a prayer.
Among the eastern religions, I think you'll find that in Hinduism, for example, "God" would not be incompatable with their beliefs. Many others would also be comfortable referring to a generalized divinity in this way.
Others, notably atheists, agnostics, skeptics, and any religions that don't like their divinities being generalized or co-opted for political purposes, would. I might also point out that in the 1962 Engel vs. Vitale case so-called "non-sectarian" prayers were specifically disallowed. If everyone were comfortable with it we all wouldn't be having this discussion now would we?
In any event, the bare word "God" does not imply any religion whatsoever.
Well that's a new one. Pray tell, what exactly does the phrase "under God" imply if not religious, and why is it so important? Apparently the '54 congress thought they put it there to "acknowledge the dependence of our people and our Government upon the moral directions of the Creator."
The Constitution does not provide for the "separation of church and state". The First Amendment certainly doesn't.
Indeed, the phrase "separation of church and state" is not present in the First Amendment or Constitution. The idea was developed and avocated by Jefferson and Madison but not officially sanctioned until the 1947 Supreme Court (whose job it is to elaborate points of constitutional law) case of Emerson vs. Board of Education, when Justice Black wrote of the "wall of separation" the Constitution maintains between church and state. The justices in that case unanimously interpreted the Establishment Clause as going well beyond simply prohibiting the establishment of a state religion (including specifically prohibition of laws which "aid all religions" and also that no force shall be used to make anyone profess belief or disbelief in any religion).
In any case, what you seem to be defending is the idea that some vague religiousity pervading into public institutions and schools in particular is harmless or even beneficial. However, as the wikipedia entry on this subject so aptly put it, "in practice the predominant religious make-up of a school often makes those of a minority religion feel unwelcome or hated." Particularly if juvenile practitioners of said predominant religious make up and minority religions (and especially the non-religious) are given a daily reminder first thing in the morning about it.
Huh. You say you can put any interpretation you like on the words "under God". Yet if I'm not mistaken, you and the pledge both capitalize "God". Typically this is done with proper nouns, which refer to specific persons, places, or things. Notably, this is how the Jews and Christians refer to their god (in English, anyway), out of respect. Muslims specifically prefer Allah, and the various eastern religions tend to be non-exclusive or even non-deistic, to say nothing of all the others. But I'm sure that's just a coincidence that it's capitalized. If it weren't that would mean Congress had compromised the separation of church and state back in '54 you and others were using a lame and weasely arguement to keep it that way.
Newdow could be crazier than Michael Jackson for all I care. It doesn't change the fact that this is a highly controversial issue over a textbook example of indoctrination which many people are uncomfortable with, and which is long overdue for a trip to the Supreme Court. By attempting to sidestep the arguement by attacking the arguer you're just making yourself look like a douchebag.
See here for more about baloney detection. Courtesy of noted scientist, educator, and atheist Carl Sagan.
Yes we can, if the child has acutal convictions in the matter. It's routine for the children of Jehovah's Witnesses not to say the pledge, and has been for many years.
It's always heartwarming to see an indoctrination defeated by a deeper indoctrination.
(To paraphrase Lone Star)
I think it's a matter of timing. Back when the "under God" words were added to the Pledge back in the 50's I would have agreed that it was improper and it should have gone to the courts back then.
Why don't you move to Russia then you damn pinko!
The post-war era wasn't all smiling teens in poodle skirts and pompadours listening to early rock while dad was driving a new car and smoking his pipe and mom was baking cookies in domestic bliss.
In many ways, the 50s was one of the most oppressive times in US history. The rollback of social and political gains made by women and minorities during the wartime crisis, McCarthyist witch hunts, urban sprawl, keeping up with the Joneses, eerily perfect families on TV sitcoms, hollywood blacklists, lobotomized housewives, and last but not least compulsory nationalist pledges and icons and propoganda at every turn. Including "under God" in the pledge and "In God We Trust" on our money.
As one of those kids mumbling over the words, I don't think "under God" should be removed - I think it should be abolished altogether. Even then I could figure out that daily repetitions of sociopolitically loaded words in a coercive group situation was a method of political indoctrination. And our money should be changed back to the way it was before (preferably with the damn peach-and-blue color and Federal Reserve bit removed too).
...Along with a bunch of other stuff that never gets mentioned.
Slashdot really needs a couple more sections for extra articles - in particular a "Society" section for discussions of politics policy et al, and an "Entertainment" section for talking about movies, tv, anime, and so forth (which DEFINITELY falls under the "nerds" clause). And why is there a BSD and Apple section but no Linux or Windows section? Does everyone really need to know about the evils of SCO or Microsoft daily?
Not as diplomatic as your letter, I admit. I don't really care for the GPL, but that just means I don't try to build on it or use it for profit.
... can be found courtesey of David Brin, science fiction writer and one of the more unusual and thoughtful pundits out there. This series of articles began with an article in Salon following the release of TPM: beginning with the original article, "Star Wars Despots vs. Star Trek Populists" and its side article, an addendum in response to the emails, and a later AOTC update.
1) Ty is right - this would be more useful if it were a TIVO like device. One of the fundamental differences between audio and video content is that while people will listen to a song dozens of times before they get tired of it (and even then probably want to listen to it later), a movie is best watched one, maybe two times at the most (unless you're some sort of sweaty-toothed freak). Fresh content is needed, and TIVO delivers. Video-On-Demand content is the other natural complement. There is the slight problem about putting a hard drive through transfering gigabyte-ranges of data per day. Regardless, neither I nor most people I can think of really have the time/attention to watch video on the go, nor the desire to watch it on such a tiny screen, so what's the point?
2) Missed the boat on an iPod knockoff? Are they on crack? The iPod is not a complicated or exclusive device. Sony could easily make something that compared favorably and people would buy it. Especially if it were cheaper, although it's unlikely they could do that since the bulk of the cost for any personal audio device is the drive.
That's the trouble with protocols... once they're set good luck ever getting rid of them.
The $64,000 question is, can the domain not found response be modified at all without breaking the protocol? For instance, to have older programs recognize the error, but next generation programs (web browsers mainly) be able to return useful information like possible alternatives? This would allow for smarter, more functional programs without breaking legacy apps.
The new behavior doesn't really bug me. Actually, having similarly spelled sites suggested looks handy for when you mistype.
I suppose if your software counted on receiving domain not found errors to function properly it could be a real problem.
They definitely aren't taking any chances on losing money with this one. I predict the strongest opening weekend ever and the biggest drop for the second weekend... gotta get people in the theaters before the word gets out you know...
Dean of SF? How about the Dirty Old Man of SF... Heinlein women are definitely his most bizzare creation.
Well, it's not like there aren't a ton of others in the same fantasy women vein (Varley, Niven, etc...).
... and many situations in which the majority is self-serving and infringing on the rights of minorities.
Funny what happens when your amazing balancing anti-walking machine runs out of juice. And once you've picked yourself up off your ass/face, you get to lug your 90lb, $5000 machine someplace safe.
The humble bicycle, as if there was any doubt, clearly reigns supreme in this class of transportation. For getting around town comfortably, get a comfortable bike. For working around the warehouse, get a work bike or trike. And if you would like the electric assistance without your vehicle becoming useless when the battery runs out, get an electric bike. It's just that easy people.
Well then, I think we can add this to the Non-Libertarian FAQ. Which incidentally is the first thing on google that shows up when you search for "libertarian faq". I guess that probably means there are less Libertarians than there are people out there who are extremely annoyed by them.
Frankly, the graphing calculators HP made are too big and too slow. Graphing and matrices are overrated in calculator design - they're so complex you really should be using a computer to work with them. But my 42S, which I've had for over a decade, is perfect. All the functions I need, plus it's programmable if I want more. Two lines of input, which is hugely better than one but doesn't take up a lot of space. Clearly labeled and intelligently laid out keys. Deliciously slim and light, but with that solid HP feel to the keys and body. And of course, that RPN speed, simplicity, and efficiency that people trained on TIs just can't appreciate.
Sure, it could use a few more features, specifically a menu of scientific constants, conversions, and functions. An alpha mode along the lines of today's cellphones would be nice too, although T9 sounds like a bit much to ask for. A USB interface to program it from and use it as a peripheral with my computer would be very nice in this day and age. But for now, I wouldn't trade my 42S for any calculator in the world.
And to think, if my dad hadn't won it as a door prize at a conference and given it to me since he wasn't used to RPN, and I hadn't learned to use it because I didn't have a non-RPN scientific calculator, I never would have known. Guess I'm just lucky.
From what I can tell, doing routine repair on the 12" powerbook (such as replacing the hard drive) looks about a million times easier than working on the current iBook. What a nightmare that is. Believe me, I know.
So what we have here are two cards of different widths, with a connector that's the same width. Here's what'll happen:
1) People will accidentally buy 54mm cards without realizing it won't fit in their 34mm slots
2) When you put a 34mm card in your 54 mm slot, your device will either have a big gap next to the card or will have to use an alkward and twice as expensive double door
3) The 22mm notch on the 54mm card will get caught on things and could possibly even be a weak point.
4) People won't realize that 34mm cards will work in their 54mm slot, or try to put it in on the wrong side, and such.
5) 5mm won't be thick enough for a variety of purposes
6) One of these card formats will be effectively abandoned (54mm) and the other will be widely adopted (34mm), obviating the work on the abandoned design and leaving a legacy of unsupported formats to confuse people on ebay auctions and such.
The logical thing to do would be what they do now: have single and double height cards, that work in a double slot.
Am I the only person that wishes games/anime would cut back on the gratuitous fanservice? It makes gamers look bad. OK, it makes gamers look even more pathetic than they already do, especially when the wife/girlfriend/mom comes home. I watch that DOA commercial and I'm like "Dudes, get some lives, this is stupid." Kinda like how I felt every time Liv Tyler showed up in LOTR for her extremely padded scenes - is there a digital effect for "vaseline on the lense" or do they do it the old fashioned way?
Bouncing computer generated boobs can be titillating for all of about 15 minutes, then you've seen them from every worthwhile angle, and it's just silly. Unnecessary and contrived to the point of annoyance. At the very least, they could produce equivalent games for girls.
Halo wasn't stolen from the PC. It was stolen from the Mac. Along with one of the best developers of Mac-first games, which is what Bungie WAS. I own all three Marathons, I know. When they displayed the first Halo promo at the MacWorld '99 keynote I was in ecstasy. Later when I read that Bungie had sold out to Microsoft I thought it was some kind of bad joke. It wasn't. Now, 3 years after Halo was supposed to be released for Mac (and PC) they're finally fulfilling their promise. No doubt it will be the last of Bungie I ever see.
Hope you like realplayer's interface
None of them support Rendezous (AKA zeroconf), at least not on the level of Apple's airport base stations. That's a hack I'd really like to see.
No Japanese characters except Suzuka in Outlaw Star, that is.
No. In Cowboy Bebop, several chinese gangs figured prominently, and there was even a geomancy episode. Geomancy and Taoist magic played an even more prominent role in Outlaw Star. Chinese architecture and design were prominent in both series, especially OS. Incidentally, in both shows the currency of choice was Wulongs. Not Yen. There are many other anime in which the Japanese play a prominent or dominant (or at least heroic) roles. These were not among them. In fact I'm not sure there were ANY Japanese characters among them.
In Blade Runner, there was a whole underclass that was a combination of many different ethnicities. A number of these characters that we met (The Eye Guy, petshop woman, Edward James Olmos) were speaking a tonal language that sounded chinese. It was supposed to be a creole language, but given that it was tonal this heavily implies chinese. The japanese style could also be seen on billboards and such, and there was a German burlesque theater, and of course it's set in America, but the underclass was the one with the numbers. It would be more accurate to say that Blade Runner was a multicultural/fusion culture future.