Your comment makes it seem as if the agnostic is merely a person who lacks the courage to take a side in an important fight. It is as though you feel theists are perpetrating nothing but evil, and if we agnostics refuse to help defeat them by marching under your atheist banner, then we are the lowliest cowards imaginable. But my take is that both atheists and theists are usually reasonably good people. My agnosticism stems from a philosophy that I do not attempt to force myself to claim to know the answer to a question that I have no way of knowing the answer to ("belief"). I do not see that this is a character flaw on my part, or that it prevents me from speaking up against injustice, whether that injustice is perpetrated by theists, atheists, or even other agnostics. I am not as you say "hiding behind agnosticism". I am courageously admitting that I do not know and have no way of knowing the answer to the proposition "God exists." Unless you know something I don't, you don't know the answer either. To insist that we must take a stand on the proposition being true or false is not courageous. It is merely arrogant.
From this article and other business practices that I've heard about in Japan, it seems to me that what is wrong with the the upper management of Japanese organizations is that they get no reality check from the yes men who follow them around. What is wrong with the Japanese working class is they are too spineless to organize and stand up to such bullshit.
It's funny. Some of the comments here from college educated professionals with technical degrees are a little ironic. In my earlier life, I was a blue-collar tradesman and member of a union. I distinctly remember that when it was only the jobs of the working class that seemed threatened by competition from abroad (either through trade or immigration), that most of the professional class would respond that more competition would result in net higher living standards. Claims from the working class to the contrary were dismissed as ignorant of economics, and of the effects of comparative advantage. Now that it is your own professions that are threatened, I see that you are engaged in what you once considered "whining" by others.
The Cosmic Carnival of Stanislaw Lem : An Anthology of Entertaining Stories by the Modern Master of Science Fiction This was also translated by Kandel and is a great intro to Lem.
The organization stands accused of targeting vulnerable people for commercial gain.
Other religious groups might want to render an opinion to the courts defending Scientology. How many religions can't be accused of targeting vulnerable people?
I've been thinking about all that heavy bumper to bumper traffic on I-15 every weekend. I have a proposal that will alleviate the heavy traffic, reduce air pollution and consumption of fossil fuels. Additionally, it would provide a badly needed economic boost to southern Nevada and California (which have both been hit badly by the recession). It would be an effective use for some of the Federal stimulus money and would help both areas benefit from foreign tourism, thus reducing the national trade deficit. The idea: Build a high speed rail from Las Vegas to Disneyland.:-) No seriously.
That pretty much sums up the problem with a lot of enterprises. Producing high quality products for mass consumption often doesn't make good business sense.
You make a good point about series there. TV should do more miniseries in which a story is developed and completed drawing to a definite ending. The stories are more compelling when they don't look like they're contrived to keep the series going indefinitely.
Once there was a live CD called Freesbie. But I don't think it's being updated anymore. I wish there was a live CD to evaluate before committing it to the hard drive. Is anyone maintaining a live CD for any of the BSD's?
I was an engineering student at UNLV in my early 30s. I was practically computer illiterate until I got a desktop system with Windows 3.11. I spent about a year fiddling with it, and read "PC's for Dummies", then got into some classes where I learned that most of the serious engineering work was done on something called "Unix". Someone told me that there was a version for PC's called "lynex" (or something like that). After a little research over the internet (which was still new to practically everyone), I ordered the Slackware 96 cds from Walnut Creek. I installed that on my desktop and then curiosity took hold of me. I couldn't resist hacking around to see how to make my machine do things that according to most of the competent PC people were too difficult to do without using expensive proprietary software. 13 years later, I've run Slackware, Red Hat, Suse, Debian, Ubuntu, and several times built Linux from Scratch systems. I got a new laptop a few months ago. Step One: Installed Kubuntu, Step Two: Removed Vista.
I don't care about Linux getting a majority of desktops. But when the share of computers running non-Microsoft products gets too small, the internet becomes largely incompatible with anyone not using MS software.
I'm a long time English speaker. I'm going to spend the next week or two learning Spanish. At the end of two weeks, I'll chronicle my experiences telling you which language is best.
Imagine being a state legislator in Oklahoma. A large proportion of your constituents will be bible thumpers who will expect you to vote yes on a bill like this. Since it doesn't actually censor Dawkins, the only rational thing to do is figure that it does no harm and vote in favor of it.
I'm reminded of the line from the movie Barbershop where Eddie says, "If you can't speak your mind in the barbershop, then where can you speak it?" Slashdot has always been a place where I thought I could speak my mind without incurring penalties. So what would a potential employer learn about me here? They would find that my politics is more liberal than some employers would like. They'd find out that I'm an unabashedly pro-union, pro-employee free choice act, anti-religion, anti-abortion, pro-open source, pro-socialized health care, anti-illegal-immigration, pro-legalize marijuana, pro-gay marriage, pro-second amendment, pro-prosecute Bush and Cheney advocate. I'll put it all right here in one place so they don't have to look further. If you can't have me work for you because I hold any of these positions, then you don't want me to work for you.
Beware. One of the dangers of advocating open source is overestimating the abilities, and the patience, of the target audience. They will attempt to use the OSS, but failing to achieve proficiency with it in what they perceive to be a reasonable period of time, i.e. about three minutes, they will tell everyone they know that you talked them into using this "stupid" software. This software is so "dumb", that it doesn't even know that it should work exactly the way the software that they're accustomed to works. And then they will tell everyone how stupid you are.
Slashdot Mirror
Your comment makes it seem as if the agnostic is merely a person who lacks the courage to take a side in an important fight. It is as though you feel theists are perpetrating nothing but evil, and if we agnostics refuse to help defeat them by marching under your atheist banner, then we are the lowliest cowards imaginable. But my take is that both atheists and theists are usually reasonably good people. My agnosticism stems from a philosophy that I do not attempt to force myself to claim to know the answer to a question that I have no way of knowing the answer to ("belief"). I do not see that this is a character flaw on my part, or that it prevents me from speaking up against injustice, whether that injustice is perpetrated by theists, atheists, or even other agnostics. I am not as you say "hiding behind agnosticism". I am courageously admitting that I do not know and have no way of knowing the answer to the proposition "God exists." Unless you know something I don't, you don't know the answer either. To insist that we must take a stand on the proposition being true or false is not courageous. It is merely arrogant.
From this article and other business practices that I've heard about in Japan, it seems to me that what is wrong with the the upper management of Japanese organizations is that they get no reality check from the yes men who follow them around. What is wrong with the Japanese working class is they are too spineless to organize and stand up to such bullshit.
How long before surgeons start using these to perform surgery over the internet?
It's funny. Some of the comments here from college educated professionals with technical degrees are a little ironic. In my earlier life, I was a blue-collar tradesman and member of a union. I distinctly remember that when it was only the jobs of the working class that seemed threatened by competition from abroad (either through trade or immigration), that most of the professional class would respond that more competition would result in net higher living standards. Claims from the working class to the contrary were dismissed as ignorant of economics, and of the effects of comparative advantage. Now that it is your own professions that are threatened, I see that you are engaged in what you once considered "whining" by others.
Milton Friedman? Is that you? I thought you were dead.
The Cosmic Carnival of Stanislaw Lem : An Anthology of Entertaining Stories by the Modern Master of Science Fiction
This was also translated by Kandel and is a great intro to Lem.
The organization stands accused of targeting vulnerable people for commercial gain.
Other religious groups might want to render an opinion to the courts defending Scientology. How many religions can't be accused of targeting vulnerable people?
I've been thinking about all that heavy bumper to bumper traffic on I-15 every weekend. I have a proposal that will alleviate the heavy traffic, reduce air pollution and consumption of fossil fuels. Additionally, it would provide a badly needed economic boost to southern Nevada and California (which have both been hit badly by the recession). It would be an effective use for some of the Federal stimulus money and would help both areas benefit from foreign tourism, thus reducing the national trade deficit. The idea: Build a high speed rail from Las Vegas to Disneyland. :-) No seriously.
That pretty much sums up the problem with a lot of enterprises. Producing high quality products for mass consumption often doesn't make good business sense.
You make a good point about series there. TV should do more miniseries in which a story is developed and completed drawing to a definite ending. The stories are more compelling when they don't look like they're contrived to keep the series going indefinitely.
Once there was a live CD called Freesbie. But I don't think it's being updated anymore. I wish there was a live CD to evaluate before committing it to the hard drive. Is anyone maintaining a live CD for any of the BSD's?
This just can't be true. We'd have heard it reported on CBS, NBC, or Fox if it were. Right?
I was an engineering student at UNLV in my early 30s. I was practically computer illiterate until I got a desktop system with Windows 3.11. I spent about a year fiddling with it, and read "PC's for Dummies", then got into some classes where I learned that most of the serious engineering work was done on something called "Unix". Someone told me that there was a version for PC's called "lynex" (or something like that). After a little research over the internet (which was still new to practically everyone), I ordered the Slackware 96 cds from Walnut Creek. I installed that on my desktop and then curiosity took hold of me. I couldn't resist hacking around to see how to make my machine do things that according to most of the competent PC people were too difficult to do without using expensive proprietary software. 13 years later, I've run Slackware, Red Hat, Suse, Debian, Ubuntu, and several times built Linux from Scratch systems. I got a new laptop a few months ago. Step One: Installed Kubuntu, Step Two: Removed Vista.
But that's the energy of the moon orbiting the planet. If we tap into the tides, the moon will fall from the sky. :-)
"Democrats and Republicans are both evil in their own ways."
Yeah, but Democrats are evil only when they're in power. Republicans are pretty much evil all the time.
I don't care about Linux getting a majority of desktops. But when the share of computers running non-Microsoft products gets too small, the internet becomes largely incompatible with anyone not using MS software.
Glad you posted that. Our alternative American Peoples Front Party was looking for a black guy to be chairman.
Whoever modified me as offtopic, doesn't get the analogy.
I'm a long time English speaker. I'm going to spend the next week or two learning Spanish. At the end of two weeks, I'll chronicle my experiences telling you which language is best.
Imagine being a state legislator in Oklahoma. A large proportion of your constituents will be bible thumpers who will expect you to vote yes on a bill like this. Since it doesn't actually censor Dawkins, the only rational thing to do is figure that it does no harm and vote in favor of it.
I'm reminded of the line from the movie Barbershop where Eddie says, "If you can't speak your mind in the barbershop, then where can you speak it?" Slashdot has always been a place where I thought I could speak my mind without incurring penalties. So what would a potential employer learn about me here? They would find that my politics is more liberal than some employers would like. They'd find out that I'm an unabashedly pro-union, pro-employee free choice act, anti-religion, anti-abortion, pro-open source, pro-socialized health care, anti-illegal-immigration, pro-legalize marijuana, pro-gay marriage, pro-second amendment, pro-prosecute Bush and Cheney advocate. I'll put it all right here in one place so they don't have to look further. If you can't have me work for you because I hold any of these positions, then you don't want me to work for you.
Will Sweet Zombie Jesus be resurrected into the dialogue?
Seems to go with the Armour Hot Dog song. Was that the intent?
There are lots of young adults in Russia (and other former Soviet Republics) who aren't old enough to remember Communism.
Beware. One of the dangers of advocating open source is overestimating the abilities, and the patience, of the target audience. They will attempt to use the OSS, but failing to achieve proficiency with it in what they perceive to be a reasonable period of time, i.e. about three minutes, they will tell everyone they know that you talked them into using this "stupid" software. This software is so "dumb", that it doesn't even know that it should work exactly the way the software that they're accustomed to works. And then they will tell everyone how stupid you are.