Yea, but at the rate we are going down the ol s***er the fall of US world dominance is a forgone conclusion in another generation.
That's what they said in the 60s, with the race riots and Vietnam. And the 70s with massive inflation and a general feeling of 'malase'. And the 80s with the coming Japanese dominance. Then in the 90s the whole "China and India will dominate" started picking up. Heck, if you go back to the country's founding noone thought we would last more than a couple of years.
Couple points. One is that everyone forgets that the US isn't a passive actor in all of this. The US has done a pretty good job in the past of adapting to change and has gone through various trials in the past--including some which threatened liberty (see Alien and Sedition Acts and the Red Scare).
Second is that massive population != dominance. If it were so, the US could have spawned a couple of billion citizens by now. It really isn't that hard! Remember all those overpopulation horror stories of the 70s? Well, we adjusted and other countries didn't. Wait until those couple of hundred million people in the underclasses of India and China want a piece of the wealth pie.
Is that the same democracy that has a US president and Congress making laws that apply to single individuals?
Is that the same democracy that holds people indefinitely without charge and without representation in cuba?
Is that the same democracy that give governments the right to spy on you without court orders and without your knowledge?
Is that the same democracy that executes juvenile offenders and the mentally impaired?
Is that the same democracy that has Congress enacting laws which give ridiculous amounts of power to big corporations. (e.g. DMCA, copyright extensions, Broadcast flag )
.
.
Is that the same democracy that has Congress enacting laws which give ridiculous amounts of power to big corporations.
Hmmm,
Keep your democracy. The rest of the world is better off without it
So what is the better alternative? China, where the central government has supreme power and regularly does all these nasty things without fear of any consequences. In America you can write all those bad things about the government on a website and not be afraid the secret police are going to come pay you a visit. And if you don't like the government you can choose to protest it or work to elect a new one. I recall the last time there was a massive protest against the Chinese government they brought in armored tanks...
Well, if the UN can manage CEB [unsystem.org], CTBTO [ctbto.org], ECA [uneca.org], ECE [unece.org], ECLAC [eclac.org], ESCAP [unescap.org], ESCWA [escwa.org.lb], FAO [fao.org], UNCTAD [unctad-undp.org], HLCM [unsystem.org], MA HREF="http://ceb.unsystem.org/hlcp/default.htm">HL CP, IACSD [unsystem.org], IANWGE [unsystem.org], IAPSO [iapso.org], and about 5 times as many more, I think they can handle one more.:)
UN's record isn't that great IMHO
Oh really? Of the organizations I listed (in alphabetical order), how many are bloated and overbudget? How many have involved scandal of any kind? How many have been largely ineffective? Etc?
How about you start by telling us what the heck any of these organizations actually do and what real and meaningful good they actually have
accomplished? It is up to the UN and its defenders to prove they are doing some good, not the other way around.
What I do know is that none of those 13+ organizations you rattled off has been able to stop genocide in Yugoslavia or Rwanda nor have they been able to prevent the UN from being a money launderer for Saddam.
Brian Ellenberger
Even the submitters don't read the articles anymor
on
EA Starts Gamedev Program
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Dang, even the submitters don't read the articles anymore. It claimed to be "first-ever endowed chair at a university for the study of electronic gaming and interactive entertainment" not "the first official game development education". I'm an alumni and there have been game development classes going back years.
Also, before people start sneering, this degree is in the USC School of Cinema-Television, not the Engineering dept. It has about as much to do with the programming side of gaming as a degree in cinema has to do with the details of the electronics in a movie camera. USC does have some cool Computer Graphics classes in the Engineering dept, however.
from hitting the floor. this is so fundamentally wrong on so many levels that it boggles the mind. clearly, politicians aren't being bought by multinationals any more. they're being bought by construction firms.
RTFA:
"financed mostly if not entirely with private money. The builders would then charge motorists tolls."
Maybe mom and pop should buy a "homework" PC, so their snot nosed kid can pay for their own gaming machine some day.
Hmm, sounds like someone has issues.... I'm guessing Mom and Dad didn't spring for that new 386 back in the day?:)
Anyway your argument is rather silly and counterproductive. Plenty of kids (including me) played a ton of computer video games and still got straight-A's. However, me getting a C64 when I was 7 got me interested in computers in the first place. After playing around with the games I was curious about what else the thing could do. 20 years later I am Software Engineer. If my parents made the C64 a no-fun "homework only" machines things may have turned out very differently for me.
Now I'm not saying to let your kids run wild or spend $4000 on their computer, but kids don't respond well to being forced to do anything. For that matter, adults don't either. Kids are natually curious. If you open the door a little by making something fun, they have a tendency to run right in.
Brian Ellenberger
P.S. There are games which are educational and fun at the same time, mostly those with some historical background. Pirates! and Civilization come to mind from when I was much younger.
On top of that, they actually managed to steal nothing... as the prosecutor said, it was the amount of damage they could have imposed that resulted in the "substantial sentence", not what they actually did.
I don't believe criminals should be rewarded for incompetence. We are punishing them for stealing credit card numbers. Why should the fact they weren't good at it change anything? Should we rather let people off easy until they get good at it and succeed? What will that teach them (or other wannabe criminals)?
Oh who cares, when was the last time you played a truly innovative sports game? By their very nature they can't go beyond the rules of the game they're based on.
Ah, but if you know anything about football you would know it is a very deep and complex game. Football reminds me of a chess game with real people where each side can choose their opening positions every play. It really is a facinating mixture of head knowledge and physical ability and requires years to fully appreciate.
And football games are getting more and more realistic every year. And not just in graphics. There is every bit or more strategy in a game like Madden 2005 as any Real Time Strategy game---with surprising less "twitching". Don't let the fact that it is a "sports game" fool you into thinking its a dumb mindless fast-twich fest. There is alot more to the game than picking a 4-3 in running situations and a Dime in passing ones. You can't win without using your brain.
You have hospitals with 5, 6, and 8 day waits for urgent heart surgery! A freakin week! And who the heck has "Elective" heart surgery? "Yes Doctor, I would love to have that new heart upgrade installed" Sounds like a way to play with the numbers since you have to wait a month or more for the "Elective" stuff.
And Angioplasty at most of those hospitals is over a week, sometimes 2?
Glad we don't have your "wonderful" health care system here...
The school district here, decided that it was a good idea to spend several million dollars for football field upgrades.
Depending on where you live the field upgrades are easily funded by the gate + concessions.
In my personal experience with sports, I learned as much from playing High School Football as I learned from the classroom. I'm bona fide Slashdot geek like everyone else--a straight-A student and graduated Summa Cum Laude from college with a CS degree. But I learned my life skills like confidence, perseverance, heart, and toughness from sports. I would not be half the person I am today without sports.
In the toughest moments of my life when things looked impossible and I had to reach deep within myself it was sports that prepared me.
Of course I'm not saying that you only learn confidence, perseverance, heart, and toughness from sports or that they are a prereq to success. All I'm saying is that they mean alot more than some kids just screwing around for no reason whatsoever.
There is more to life than Calculus, Computers, and Chemistry.
I will support Universal Heath Care when they come up with a system such that each and every citizen recieves the exact same heath care---starting with the President. If I have to sit on a waiting list for 6 months for surgery so should the President, Legislature, etc.
Knowing that is never going to happen I am completely against Universal Health Care. Do you actually think you and John Howard recieve equal care? Heck, politicans here won't even trust their kids to public schools let alone public health care!
Health Care--like food and land and every other resource--is a limited resource. Not everyone can eat lobster everyday and live in a mansion and afford to go to an Ivy league school. Not everyone can receive the top best healthcare. That is just reality.
What happens in "Universal Health Care" is that the powerful get their health care while what is left over is spread out thin between everyone else. At least in our system if I work hard enough and have a good job I can get good health care. To me that is much more fair than having my health care decided by whether or not I'm in politics or by "who I know".
The first amendment was not meant to protect your right to say anything, anywhere, anytime, so yes, you are naive.
First Amendment: 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.
What part of "Congress shall make no law" don't you understand? It didn't say "Congress shall make no law except where it *really really* needs to. You either have free speech or your don't. Once you start limiting, there is no stopping how much you limit it.
The PC Game market is dropping like a rock while the console industry is booming. Many genres have all but disappeared, long time companies are failing, and sales keep going down. Its not like the console market is doing massive innovation or has better graphics. And console games tend to be more expensive new and hold their full price longer.
I'm going to commit a holy Slashdot sin, but do you think that, gee, maybe the easy of piracy MAY have something to do with it?
One of the reasons that Blizzard has been successful is that they make multiplayer games that require that you BUY THE GAME. None of this play it for a year and justify to yourself why you didn't buy it by saying "This sucks, its just like War2. I'm not going to buy it".
It's not like Blizzard isn't providing enough servers or bandwidth or like its hard to find a game.
We should be protecting Blizzard as one of the few quality game companies left making PC games, not attacking them because they would like to remain profitable.
You don't like it? DON'T BUY THEIR GAMES OR PIRATE THEM.
Do you believe that Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and Mormons should be allowed to practice polygamy?
They already can, for the most part. There are no laws stopping a man from living with multiple women, sleeping with them, having those women carry his children, etc. And there is no laws against those churches performing marriage ceremonies for polygamy.
To religious people, the government has no power to marry. If it turned up that due to some legal mixup my wife and I were not legally married I would not consider us "living in sin" for 4 years.
she refused to broadcast (in the jury's words) "a false, distorted or slanted story" about the widespread use of BGH in dairy cows.
Catch that part about "in the jury's words"? Note the use of quotation marks? Do you still think the statements "may or may not have been false"? Still not convinced? Here's another refresher from the story:
So if a particular jury rules against Linux and says that Linus Torvalds and IBM lied about including some SCO code, does that mean that Slashdot can no longer give their side of the story?
Or better yet, can the news publish a convicted felon's side of the story? Or should it be censored because they were convicted? You know, cause jurys never screw up....
Since when are people or organizations not allowed to defend themselves?
A good report would give Monsanto Corporation's side of the story and then include "a jury said it was false, distorted or slanted".
For all I know Monsanto Corporation may be guilty as hell. Even if they are, it doesn't make censoring their side of the story right.
When the reporters took it upon themselves to only show one side they stopped reporting news and started reporting opinion.
I'm glad someone stood up to them, even if Monsanto Corporation was wrong. Because that is the job of the people viewing the report to decide, not the reporters.
As far as the Oil Supplies Dwindling vs Nuke Plants Corrupt... what do you want? Nuke plants in our cars? You're talking about Gorgonzola cheese when it's clearly Brie Time, baby! Apples and Oranges.
You will admit that these are stories that are ignored right?
There is a difference between news and opinion. News tries to be neutral and either report basic objective facts such as "A shooting occured at Mary St. at 10:00" or tries to present both sides of an argument "Candidate 1 said blah blah. Candidate 2 rebutted with blah blah blah".
These stories are about as neutral as the Rush Limbaugh show.
However, blindly dismissing these articles because the "Lack any real information" is as baseless as believing the opposite stories, I'm sure equal ammounts of research went into both, and again, there are probably some ammounts of truth to both.
I didn't blindly dismiss the articles. I read them and noted they have no supporting evidence! How can you be sure that they did equal amounts of research if they don't publish that research? When they make statements such as "The rich countries are robbing the poor of their natural resources" there better darn well be a footnote detailing some research from somewhere. Otherwise it is baseless opinion. Maybe they are right, but without referring to their evidence there is no way to support their conclusions.
Wow, this is has to be one of the most biased flamebait articles I have ever seen posted on Slashdot. These so-called "Censored" stories are no better than one organization's personal opinion pieces of what they believe is wrong in the world with little or no evidence of censoring by the media or even evidence of their opinions.
Take "Wealth Inequality in 21st Century Threatens Economy and Democracy". It is filled with zero-sum fallacies and very little hard evidence to back up their facts. Blaming Africa's troubles on other's countries successes makes about as much sense as your mother telling you to eat your veggies because people are starving in China. No mention is made of such factors as the continual warfare that plagues much of the African continent. In addition statements such as "As rich countries, strip poorer countries of their natural resources in an attempt to re-stabilize their own, the people of poor countries become increasingly desperate." are presented with absolutely no supporting evidence.
Going to some others: "#7: Conservative Organization Drives Judicial Appointments" Hmm, as if the ACLU, NOW, and NARAL have no affect on the Democrat's choice of Judicial Appointments.
"The Media Can Legally Lie" This one seems most hypocritical. Seems that Fox editors wanted some reporters to include some statements from the "Monsanto Corporation" in a story that was negative towards them. The reporters refused and were fired. The statements may or may not have been false, but isn't that for the people watching the story to decide? Isn't not including them censorship?
We also have the conflicting "Media and Government Ignore Dwindling Oil Supplies" and "New Nuke Plants: Taxpayers Support, Industry Profits". So if oil supplies are dwindling don't we want the government to encourage new forms of energy? Seems like pretty luddite thinking to me.
Oh well, what can you do.
Brian
PS Glad I got some karma to burn cause I'm probably going to get killed for this post. I would prefer people actually respond rather than mod down, but I know they won't
Even Tolkien, as brilliant and diverse as his world was, found himself doing the same with his races. Dwarves were gruff, short tempered and loved living underground. Elves were stoic and mystical.
Tolkien never had the room to get into the subcultures of the different races in the Lord of the Rings, but if you read the Silmarillion you would see how he weaves several diverse Elvish cultures. Some followed the angels to Valinor, some didn't. Some even rebelled against the Valar, killed other Elves and stole their ships.
Sorry, I wasn't specifically defending Chick. But please don't confuse him with most Chick with most conservative Christians. I'm in Atlanta in the heart of conservative Christian land and most Christian bookstores carry C.S. Lewis and Tolkien and have no problem with Lewis's books like "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe".
First of all, let me say that I in no way believe that playing D&D makes anyone go insane/think they are a witch/become a devil worshipper.
But I do want to try to show a little bit of why some Christians have a problem with D&D. Let's use another example. Maybe this is a little contrived, but say you were passionate about Native American rights. Maybe you are a Native American. And say there is this new RPG called Wild West which a good portion of the game involves killing Native Americans. While its only a game, it is a bit unsettling right?
The problem that some Christians have with D&D is that a portion of the game involves Pagan Gods and Goddesses. In the case of some classes (ex. Cleric) it involves *praying* to the God/Goddess for spells.
Now, this isn't a big deal to people who are not believers or even to people who are used to jumping in and out of make believe worlds. But to alot of Christians (and probably Jews and Muslims) who believe that serving foreign gods is about the **worse offense possible**, pretending to serve foreign gods, even in a game, is pretty horrific. This is compounded by the fact that throughout the Old/Hebrew Testament are a ton of stories about the people falling away from God and worshipping foreign gods.
Also note that fantasy authors such as Tolkien and C.S. Lewis are not only OK with conservative Christians, but their works are often sold in Christian bookstores. This is because, while similar to D&D, the fundamental worlds of these two authors are extremely Judeo-Christian monothestic.
Now I don't want D&D banned, restricted, or otherwise shut down. Any restriction on free speech and expression is vile to me. But in the spirit of better cultural understanding I want more people on Slashdot to know where some of these people are coming from. These aren't just some "crazy nutjobs" but people with genuine beliefs.
And there are probably alot of believers who are able to separate their beliefs and the game or change the modules to fit their beliefs.
Maybe its because Gosling is coming from X11 land and its sucky drag n drop/clipboard implementations but this is seriously a big deal is a Windowed operating system. In a Windowed Operating System, it should be easy to move data from one application to another---even though they are made by different companies. And not just text either---things like pictures as well. Going beyond this, dynamic linking and embedding is a handy feature as well.
Slashdot Mirror
Yea, but at the rate we are going down the ol s***er the fall of US world dominance is a forgone conclusion in another generation.
That's what they said in the 60s, with the race riots and Vietnam. And the 70s with massive inflation and a general feeling of 'malase'. And the 80s with the coming Japanese dominance. Then in the 90s the whole "China and India will dominate" started picking up. Heck, if you go back to the country's founding noone thought we would last more than a couple of years.
Couple points. One is that everyone forgets that the US isn't a passive actor in all of this. The US has done a pretty good job in the past of adapting to change and has gone through various trials in the past--including some which threatened liberty (see Alien and Sedition Acts and the Red Scare).
Second is that massive population != dominance. If it were so, the US could have spawned a couple of billion citizens by now. It really isn't that hard! Remember all those overpopulation horror stories of the 70s? Well, we adjusted and other countries didn't. Wait until those couple of hundred million people in the underclasses of India and China want a piece of the wealth pie.
BrianIs that the same democracy that has a US president and Congress making laws that apply to single individuals? Is that the same democracy that holds people indefinitely without charge and without representation in cuba? Is that the same democracy that give governments the right to spy on you without court orders and without your knowledge? Is that the same democracy that executes juvenile offenders and the mentally impaired? Is that the same democracy that has Congress enacting laws which give ridiculous amounts of power to big corporations. (e.g. DMCA, copyright extensions, Broadcast flag ) . . Is that the same democracy that has Congress enacting laws which give ridiculous amounts of power to big corporations. Hmmm, Keep your democracy. The rest of the world is better off without it
So what is the better alternative? China, where the central government has supreme power and regularly does all these nasty things without fear of any consequences. In America you can write all those bad things about the government on a website and not be afraid the secret police are going to come pay you a visit. And if you don't like the government you can choose to protest it or work to elect a new one. I recall the last time there was a massive protest against the Chinese government they brought in armored tanks...
Brian EllenbergerWell, if the UN can manage CEB [unsystem.org], CTBTO [ctbto.org], ECA [uneca.org], ECE [unece.org], ECLAC [eclac.org], ESCAP [unescap.org], ESCWA [escwa.org.lb], FAO [fao.org], UNCTAD [unctad-undp.org], HLCM [unsystem.org], MA HREF="http://ceb.unsystem.org/hlcp/default.htm">HL CP, IACSD [unsystem.org], IANWGE [unsystem.org], IAPSO [iapso.org], and about 5 times as many more, I think they can handle one more. :)
UN's record isn't that great IMHO
Oh really? Of the organizations I listed (in alphabetical order), how many are bloated and overbudget? How many have involved scandal of any kind? How many have been largely ineffective? Etc?
How about you start by telling us what the heck any of these organizations actually do and what real and meaningful good they actually have accomplished? It is up to the UN and its defenders to prove they are doing some good, not the other way around.
What I do know is that none of those 13+ organizations you rattled off has been able to stop genocide in Yugoslavia or Rwanda nor have they been able to prevent the UN from being a money launderer for Saddam.
Brian EllenbergerDang, even the submitters don't read the articles anymore. It claimed to be "first-ever endowed chair at a university for the study of electronic gaming and interactive entertainment" not "the first official game development education". I'm an alumni and there have been game development classes going back years.
Also, before people start sneering, this degree is in the USC School of Cinema-Television, not the Engineering dept. It has about as much to do with the programming side of gaming as a degree in cinema has to do with the details of the electronics in a movie camera. USC does have some cool Computer Graphics classes in the Engineering dept, however.
Brian
from hitting the floor. this is so fundamentally wrong on so many levels that it boggles the mind. clearly, politicians aren't being bought by multinationals any more. they're being bought by construction firms.
RTFA:
"financed mostly if not entirely with private money. The builders would then charge motorists tolls."
Brian Ellenberger
FYI: The governor is Democrat from a blue state, not a Southern Bible thumper. Last I checked conservatives don't have any problems with guns.
Maybe mom and pop should buy a "homework" PC, so their snot nosed kid can pay for their own gaming machine some day.
:)
Hmm, sounds like someone has issues.... I'm guessing Mom and Dad didn't spring for that new 386 back in the day?
Anyway your argument is rather silly and counterproductive. Plenty of kids (including me) played a ton of computer video games and still got straight-A's. However, me getting a C64 when I was 7 got me interested in computers in the first place. After playing around with the games I was curious about what else the thing could do. 20 years later I am Software Engineer. If my parents made the C64 a no-fun "homework only" machines things may have turned out very differently for me.
Now I'm not saying to let your kids run wild or spend $4000 on their computer, but kids don't respond well to being forced to do anything. For that matter, adults don't either. Kids are natually curious. If you open the door a little by making something fun, they have a tendency to run right in.
Brian Ellenberger
P.S. There are games which are educational and fun at the same time, mostly those with some historical background. Pirates! and Civilization come to mind from when I was much younger.
On top of that, they actually managed to steal nothing ... as the prosecutor said, it was the amount of damage they could have imposed that resulted in the "substantial sentence", not what they actually did.
I don't believe criminals should be rewarded for incompetence. We are punishing them for stealing credit card numbers. Why should the fact they weren't good at it change anything? Should we rather let people off easy until they get good at it and succeed? What will that teach them (or other wannabe criminals)?
Brian Ellenberger
Oh who cares, when was the last time you played a truly innovative sports game? By their very nature they can't go beyond the rules of the game they're based on.
Ah, but if you know anything about football you would know it is a very deep and complex game. Football reminds me of a chess game with real people where each side can choose their opening positions every play. It really is a facinating mixture of head knowledge and physical ability and requires years to fully appreciate.
And football games are getting more and more realistic every year. And not just in graphics. There is every bit or more strategy in a game like Madden 2005 as any Real Time Strategy game---with surprising less "twitching". Don't let the fact that it is a "sports game" fool you into thinking its a dumb mindless fast-twich fest. There is alot more to the game than picking a 4-3 in running situations and a Dime in passing ones.
You can't win without using your brain.
Brian Ellenberger
You have hospitals with 5, 6, and 8 day waits for urgent heart surgery! A freakin week! And who the heck has "Elective" heart surgery? "Yes Doctor, I would love to have that new heart upgrade installed" Sounds like a way to play with the numbers since you have to wait a month or more for the "Elective" stuff.
And Angioplasty at most of those hospitals is over a week, sometimes 2?
Glad we don't have your "wonderful" health care system here...
Brian
The school district here, decided that it was a good idea to spend several million dollars for football field upgrades.
Depending on where you live the field upgrades are easily funded by the gate + concessions.
In my personal experience with sports, I learned as much from playing High School Football as I learned from the classroom. I'm bona fide Slashdot geek like everyone else--a straight-A student and graduated Summa Cum Laude from college with a CS degree. But I learned my life skills like confidence, perseverance, heart, and toughness from sports. I would not be half the person I am today without sports.
In the toughest moments of my life when things looked impossible and I had to reach deep within myself it was sports that prepared me.
Of course I'm not saying that you only learn confidence, perseverance, heart, and toughness from sports or that they are a prereq to success. All I'm saying is that they mean alot more than some kids just screwing around for no reason whatsoever.
There is more to life than Calculus, Computers, and Chemistry.
Brian Ellenberger
I will support Universal Heath Care when they come up with a system such that each and every citizen recieves the exact same heath care---starting with the President. If I have to sit on a waiting list for 6 months for surgery so should the President, Legislature, etc.
Knowing that is never going to happen I am completely against Universal Health Care. Do you actually think you and John Howard recieve equal care? Heck, politicans here won't even trust their kids to public schools let alone public health care!
Health Care--like food and land and every other resource--is a limited resource. Not everyone can eat lobster everyday and live in a mansion and afford to go to an Ivy league school. Not everyone can receive the top best healthcare. That is just reality.
What happens in "Universal Health Care" is that the powerful get their health care while what is left over is spread out thin between everyone else. At least in our system if I work hard enough and have a good job I can get good health care. To me that is much more fair than having my health care decided by whether or not I'm in politics or by "who I know".
Brian Ellenberger
The first amendment was not meant to protect your right to say anything, anywhere, anytime, so yes, you are naive.
First Amendment: 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.
What part of "Congress shall make no law" don't you understand? It didn't say "Congress shall make no law except where it *really really* needs to. You either have free speech or your don't. Once you start limiting, there is no stopping how much you limit it.
Brian
The PC Game market is dropping like a rock while the console industry is booming. Many genres have all but disappeared, long time companies are failing, and sales keep going down. Its not like the console market is doing massive innovation or has better graphics. And console games tend to be more expensive new and hold their full price longer.
I'm going to commit a holy Slashdot sin, but do you think that, gee, maybe the easy of piracy MAY have something to do with it?
One of the reasons that Blizzard has been successful is that they make multiplayer games that require that you BUY THE GAME. None of this play it for a year and justify to yourself why you didn't buy it by saying "This sucks, its just like War2. I'm not going to buy it".
It's not like Blizzard isn't providing enough servers or bandwidth or like its hard to find a game.
We should be protecting Blizzard as one of the few quality game companies left making PC games, not attacking them because they would like to remain profitable.
You don't like it? DON'T BUY THEIR GAMES OR PIRATE THEM.
Brian Ellenberger
They already can, for the most part. There are no laws stopping a man from living with multiple women, sleeping with them, having those women carry his children, etc. And there is no laws against those churches performing marriage ceremonies for polygamy.
To religious people, the government has no power to marry. If it turned up that due to some legal mixup my wife and I were not legally married I would not consider us "living in sin" for 4 years.
Brian Ellenberger
The reporters objected to including information they knew to be false. Since when is repeating known falsehoods "reporting"?
Its not the reporter's job to be judge and jury for what is "true" and what is "false". Especially since they are not genetic engineers.
she refused to broadcast (in the jury's words) "a false, distorted or slanted story" about the widespread use of BGH in dairy cows.
Catch that part about "in the jury's words"? Note the use of quotation marks? Do you still think the statements "may or may not have been false"? Still not convinced? Here's another refresher from the story:
So if a particular jury rules against Linux and says that Linus Torvalds and IBM lied about including some SCO code, does that mean that Slashdot can no longer give their side of the story?
Or better yet, can the news publish a convicted felon's side of the story? Or should it be censored because they were convicted? You know, cause jurys never screw up....
Since when are people or organizations not allowed to defend themselves?
A good report would give Monsanto Corporation's side of the story and then include "a jury said it was false, distorted or slanted".
For all I know Monsanto Corporation may be guilty as hell. Even if they are, it doesn't make censoring their side of the story right.
When the reporters took it upon themselves to only show one side they stopped reporting news and started reporting opinion.
I'm glad someone stood up to them, even if Monsanto Corporation was wrong. Because that is the job of the people viewing the report to decide, not the reporters.
Brian Ellenberger
As far as the Oil Supplies Dwindling vs Nuke Plants Corrupt... what do you want? Nuke plants in our cars? You're talking about Gorgonzola cheese when it's clearly Brie Time, baby! Apples and Oranges.
Two words: Fuel cells
Brian Ellenberger
You will admit that these are stories that are ignored right?
There is a difference between news and opinion. News tries to be neutral and either report basic objective facts such as "A shooting occured at Mary St. at 10:00" or tries to present both sides of an argument "Candidate 1 said blah blah. Candidate 2 rebutted with blah blah blah".
These stories are about as neutral as the Rush Limbaugh show.
However, blindly dismissing these articles because the "Lack any real information" is as baseless as believing the opposite stories, I'm sure equal ammounts of research went into both, and again, there are probably some ammounts of truth to both.
I didn't blindly dismiss the articles. I read them and noted they have no supporting evidence! How can you be sure that they did equal amounts of research if they don't publish that research? When they make statements such as "The rich countries are robbing the poor of their natural resources" there better darn well be a footnote detailing some research from somewhere. Otherwise it is baseless opinion. Maybe they are right, but without referring to their evidence there is no way to support their conclusions.
Brian Ellenberger
Wow, this is has to be one of the most biased flamebait articles I have ever seen posted on Slashdot. These so-called "Censored" stories are no better than one organization's personal opinion pieces of what they believe is wrong in the world with little or no evidence of censoring by the media or even evidence of their opinions.
Take "Wealth Inequality in 21st Century Threatens Economy and Democracy". It is filled with zero-sum fallacies and very little hard evidence to back up their facts. Blaming Africa's troubles on other's countries successes makes about as much sense as your mother telling you to eat your veggies because people are starving in China. No mention is made of such factors as the continual warfare that plagues much of the African continent. In addition statements such as "As rich countries, strip poorer countries of their natural resources in an attempt to re-stabilize their own, the people of poor countries become increasingly desperate." are presented with absolutely no supporting evidence.
Going to some others: "#7: Conservative Organization Drives Judicial Appointments" Hmm, as if the ACLU, NOW, and NARAL have no affect on the Democrat's choice of Judicial Appointments.
"The Media Can Legally Lie" This one seems most hypocritical. Seems that Fox editors wanted some reporters to include some statements from the "Monsanto Corporation" in a story that was negative towards them. The reporters refused and were fired. The statements may or may not have been false, but isn't that for the people watching the story to decide? Isn't not including them censorship?
We also have the conflicting "Media and Government Ignore Dwindling Oil Supplies" and "New Nuke Plants: Taxpayers Support, Industry Profits". So if oil supplies are dwindling don't we want the government to encourage new forms of energy? Seems like pretty luddite thinking to me.
Oh well, what can you do.
Brian
PS Glad I got some karma to burn cause I'm probably going to get killed for this post. I would prefer people actually respond rather than mod down, but I know they won't
Even Tolkien, as brilliant and diverse as his world was, found himself doing the same with his races. Dwarves were gruff, short tempered and loved living underground. Elves were stoic and mystical.
Tolkien never had the room to get into the subcultures of the different races in the Lord of the Rings, but if you read the Silmarillion you would see how he weaves several diverse Elvish cultures. Some followed the angels to Valinor, some didn't. Some even rebelled against the Valar, killed other Elves and stole their ships.
Like much else, brainwashing starts in the home.
So is that what happened to you?
Sorry, I wasn't specifically defending Chick. But please don't confuse him with most Chick with most conservative Christians. I'm in Atlanta in the heart of conservative Christian land and most Christian bookstores carry C.S. Lewis and Tolkien and have no problem with Lewis's books like "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe".
First of all, let me say that I in no way believe that playing D&D makes anyone go insane/think they are a witch/become a devil worshipper.
But I do want to try to show a little bit of why some Christians have a problem with D&D. Let's use another example. Maybe this is a little contrived, but say you were passionate about Native American rights. Maybe you are a Native American. And say there is this new RPG called Wild West which a good portion of the game involves killing Native Americans. While its only a game, it is a bit unsettling right?
The problem that some Christians have with D&D is that a portion of the game involves Pagan Gods and Goddesses. In the case of some classes (ex. Cleric) it involves *praying* to the God/Goddess for spells.
Now, this isn't a big deal to people who are not believers or even to people who are used to jumping in and out of make believe worlds. But to alot of Christians (and probably Jews and Muslims) who believe that serving foreign gods is about the **worse offense possible**, pretending to serve foreign gods, even in a game, is pretty horrific. This is compounded by the fact that throughout the Old/Hebrew Testament are a ton of stories about the people falling away from God and worshipping foreign gods.
Also note that fantasy authors such as Tolkien and C.S. Lewis are not only OK with conservative Christians, but their works are often sold in Christian bookstores. This is because, while similar to D&D, the fundamental worlds of these two authors are extremely Judeo-Christian monothestic.
Now I don't want D&D banned, restricted, or otherwise shut down. Any restriction on free speech and expression is vile to me. But in the spirit of better cultural understanding I want more people on Slashdot to know where some of these people are coming from. These aren't just some "crazy nutjobs" but people with genuine beliefs.
And there are probably alot of believers who are able to separate their beliefs and the game or change the modules to fit their beliefs.
Brian Ellenberger
Maybe its because Gosling is coming from X11 land and its sucky drag n drop/clipboard implementations but this is seriously a big deal is a Windowed operating system. In a Windowed Operating System, it should be easy to move data from one application to another---even though they are made by different companies. And not just text either---things like pictures as well. Going beyond this, dynamic linking and embedding is a handy feature as well.