My last point is that most murders are second degree murders. The typical scenario is the person loses it due to a tramatic event (ie: finding your wife sleeping with another guy) and goes on a shooting spree. Sooo, maybe we should prevent people from having sex so that doesn't happen?
Granted, lot's of murders are 'written off' as second degree murders, or "Crimes of Passion", but closer scrutiny shows this is rarely the case.
Most, if not all, 'shooting sprees' are preceded by a trail of detectable events that start LONG before the final 'showdown' that we all read about in the papers.
I highly reccommend Gavin De Becker's book "The Gift of Fear" for some insights as to the nature of these events. It's fascinating stuff, dealing with stalking, disgruntled employees and spousal abuse. The amazing thing is how these things DON'T happen spontaneously, but only appear that way.
My last point is that most murders are second degree murders. The typical scenario is the person loses it due to a tramatic event (ie: finding your wife sleeping with another guy) and goes on a shooting spree. Sooo, maybe we should prevent people from having sex so that doesn't happen?
Granted, lot's of murders are 'written off' as second degree murders, or "Crimes of Passion", but closer scrutiny shows this is rarely the case.
Most, if not all, 'shooting sprees' are preceded by a trail of detectable events that start LONG before the final 'showdown' that we all read about in the papers.
I highly reccommend Gavin De Becker's book "The Gift of Fear" for some insights as to the nature of these events. It's fascinating stuff, dealing with stalking, disgruntled employees and spousal abuse. The amazing thing is how these things DON'T happen spontaneously, but only appear that way.
There's a really great movie idea in the making here.
A mammoth, recently resurrected to glorious fanfare and world-wide acclaim, soon finds himself alone in the City, where even the bright lights, the hookers and the orange circus peanuts can't appease the emptiness he feels inside, until suddenly, just when he's just about to end it all by snorting up a drum full of drain-cleaner, he get's a mysterious phone call from a wacky Russian scientist (played by Christopher Lloyd), who turns out to be the one that found his 'mother' in the first place, but who got brushed aside by the media and science establishment alike in the initial fanfare of the find. He's found another carcass, in even better condition than the first, but if the world finds out about it, it could be taken away, and our hero would lose his only chance at finding True Love. The Wacky Scientist has a plan, but no, it's impossible...or is it?...
This movie proposal is, of course, released and available for use under the terms and conditions of the GPL.
I thought neanderthals were vegetarians. Big, flat teeth and all that for grinding instead of cutting. We (australopithecus afarensis?) won out by our ability to subsist on carrion and vegetation alike.
Hunting was very touch and go in the beginning, with often as many (or more) hunters killed as prey (when dealing with mammoths, at least.
The technological innovation of the atlatl is believed to have changed this very drastically. The atlatl is a devestatingly simple device which allows a single person to throw a spear with vastly superior accuracy and power than with his or her arm alone.
The odds were very suddenly reversed, with one man often killing more than one mammoth.
Must have been a real blast until the population died down, at which point there was probably a lot of suffering due to the vastly increased populations of humans.
Which is fine, so long as you're referring to being shot down with a gun.
Shooting down ideas verbally is the right and duty of all whose sense of decency provolks them to do so, especially in a forum (Slashdot) specially designed for that purpose.
Kats is not "asking questions of his audience". He is exploiting us for attention and peer credibility. I find that offensive and have no problems with saying so.
I appreciate the devil's advocate role. It helps to set things in a starker relief.
And I appreciate the logic that if "X=true" and Mr. Y tries to convince the masses that "X !=true" then Mr. Y is doing those folks a disservice.
But the very nature of your proposition shows that there is still great disagreement as to whether or not "X=true". It could be argued that this disagreement would not exist if but through the malign efforts of people like Mr. Y, but I find that hard to support if you take things to a world level rather than an Early Colonial American level. At the world level there has been tremendous disagreement over this sort of thing for a long, long time, with ALL parties equally convinced of the superiority of their own beliefs Validity and Superiority.
The very nature of any Religious Thought is to exclude all other forms of Religious Thought.
Viral Memetics and all that. Ideas clings as tenaciously to 'life' as ever an animal did.
We don't keep porn in Public Libraries and we don't display Mounds of Shit in Public Art Museums.
Why not?
Limits. Imposed by society. Someone is always excluded and that's just the way it is.
Is there any shortage of hardcore porn in our society? No. Only in the Public Library.
Is there any shortage of crappy, childish art in America? Nope. It's all out there for the taking.
Just not in the publicly funded art museum.
When Society foots the bill, Society gets to call the shots. The mayor acts in most cases as the voice of Society. If the majority of voters find his decisions fail to reflect their own regarding the use of public spaces, then he will not be re-elected.
"If God does not exist, then all things are permissable." But we *know* deep down in our souls and bones, that right and wrong DO exist and all things are not permissable. And that in turn demands the existence of God.
No offense but I gotta join the rest in shooting down this kind of reasoning.
'Conscience' (an innate sense of 'right' and 'wrong') comes from being treating lovingly, fairly and reasonably as a child by the parents or care-givers. This is the sense of right and wrong that we feel in our bones which, as grownups, we often project on an imaginary parent in the sky we call "God".
"Aha!" you say, "Where did your *parents* get the idea of right and wrong? Eh Mister Smartypants? Ha ha! They got it from God!"
No. They didn't. They got it from their parents and from their culture. The Bible is certainly a major part of our culture and has a pronounced effect on the teaching and illustration of right and wrong, but it is by no means the last word on morality (thank God!;)
Children who are abused often have very little going on in terms of conscience as you or I percieve it, and feel little or no remorse in inflicting similar abuse on others.
"Hey!" says another, "*I* was abused as child, so don't TELL ME I don't have a conscience, 'cause I *do*!"
Fair enough and very glad to hear it. Somewhere, someone showed you an alternative to the wrath you suffered at home, and you saw something you liked and followed it.
I spent a lot of time working with addicts and alcoholics in the past, and was constantly amazed at how deeply religious many of them became (through AA and 12 step programs). I realize now that these people were experiencing 'parenting' for the first time.
Interesting and enlightening post. I'll look further into the motivations and whatnot of John Locke. He may well become my next historical hero.
I think that even a lot of folks who today consider themselves 'religious' would have a lot more sympathy for Mr. Locke's agenda if they were around in his time, where dissenting views, even ones within the realm of Christianity, could get common folks into a LOT of trouble.
...one of your own making. The article doesn't mention anything about reaching escape velocity at sea level. It talks about reaching a speed of 600 mph at which point conventional rockets take over.
Bottom line: it's a LOT easier to go from 600mph to escape velocity than it is to go from 0mph to escape velocity.
P.S. I used to watch popeye when I was a child and then be horrified later when I threw my toys down the stairs and they wouldn't fly back together after they were smashed.
Wow. What an idiot.
Joking!!!
:):):):)
I don't remember the episode where Popeye threw his toys down the stairs. I was too busy trying to figure out exactly who/what 'the Jeep' was, I reckon.
I *do* remember my disappointment upon realizing that the whole spinach thing was just a sham to get me to 'eats me vegetables'. I became a very jaded young man that day.
Is there a support group, forum or mailing list for 'Adult Child Victims of Popeye'?
The nature (not the quality) of Id games changed after Romero (left/was ousted/whatever) from the company. Without going into detail, I laud some changes and bemoan the loss of others.
My challenge to you is this:
Say something positive (as in 'kind', 'upbeat', 'flattering', etc.,) about John Romero's contribution(s) to the astounding success of the early Id games, up to and including Quake, and tell us what, if anything, you miss since his departure.
If you respond with something clever ("He made great coffee") or something bitter ("He never made coffee") I will surely chuckle with the rest or nod in solemn understanding, but will consider the challenge a failure on your part. If you manage to say something positive and insightful about his technical/design/whatever contributions, without retracting it or qualifying it, I will touch my head to the floor in respect and say "Wow. There goes a Man."
If you truly believe that he contributed nothing, then by all means say so and we'll call it a draw.
In any case, I will continue to be an avid admirer and follower of your efforts to continuously raise the bar of Sheer Amazingness in Computer Gaming Quality(TM).
It wasn't that bad, really. We held the cat's eyes open with little strips of duct tape, but rewarded them with extra servings of tuna after the research was finished. Some of the cats proved reluctant to wander about and look at things, so we prompted them with mild electric shocks. At the end of testing, all cats were fine.
Unfortunately, to maximize returns on our research, we were then forced to mash up the cats brains and put them in a blender, in preparation for DNA testing.
Be comforted to know that the cats were treated humanely and frequently rewarded with petting, stroking and repeated iterations of the words "nice kitty".
Slashdot Mirror
My last point is that most murders are second degree murders. The typical scenario is the person loses it due to a tramatic event (ie: finding your wife sleeping with another guy) and goes on a shooting spree. Sooo, maybe we should prevent people from having sex so that doesn't happen?
Granted, lot's of murders are 'written off' as second degree murders, or "Crimes of Passion", but closer scrutiny shows this is rarely the case.
Most, if not all, 'shooting sprees' are preceded by a trail of detectable events that start LONG before the final 'showdown' that we all read about in the papers.
I highly reccommend Gavin De Becker's book "The Gift of Fear" for some insights as to the nature of these events. It's fascinating stuff, dealing with stalking, disgruntled employees and spousal abuse. The amazing thing is how these things DON'T happen spontaneously, but only appear that way.
My last point is that most murders are second degree murders. The typical scenario is the person loses it due to a tramatic event (ie: finding your wife sleeping with another guy) and goes on a shooting spree. Sooo, maybe we should prevent people from having sex so that doesn't happen?
Granted, lot's of murders are 'written off' as second degree murders, or "Crimes of Passion", but closer scrutiny shows this is rarely the case.
Most, if not all, 'shooting sprees' are preceded by a trail of detectable events that start LONG before the final 'showdown' that we all read about in the papers.
I highly reccommend Gavin De Becker's book "The Gift of Fear" for some insights as to the nature of these events. It's fascinating stuff, dealing with stalking, disgruntled employees and spousal abuse. The amazing thing is how these things DON'T happen spontaneously, but only appear that way.
That's "Gastly Weather(TM)" and don choo fugheddit!
We live in SMASHaChusetts!
"The Horrors of Ivan"
Coming soon, to FOX TV!
There's a really great movie idea in the making here.
A mammoth, recently resurrected to glorious fanfare and world-wide acclaim, soon finds himself alone in the City, where even the bright lights, the hookers and the orange circus peanuts can't appease the emptiness he feels inside, until suddenly, just when he's just about to end it all by snorting up a drum full of drain-cleaner, he get's a mysterious phone call from a wacky Russian scientist (played by Christopher Lloyd), who turns out to be the one that found his 'mother' in the first place, but who got brushed aside by the media and science establishment alike in the initial fanfare of the find. He's found another carcass, in even better condition than the first, but if the world finds out about it, it could be taken away, and our hero would lose his only chance at finding True Love. The Wacky Scientist has a plan, but no, it's impossible...or is it?...
This movie proposal is, of course, released and available for use under the terms and conditions of the GPL.
I thought neanderthals were vegetarians. Big, flat teeth and all that for grinding instead of cutting. We (australopithecus afarensis?) won out by our ability to subsist on carrion and vegetation alike.
Hunting was very touch and go in the beginning, with often as many (or more) hunters killed as prey (when dealing with mammoths, at least.
The technological innovation of the atlatl is believed to have changed this very drastically. The atlatl is a devestatingly simple device which allows a single person to throw a spear with vastly superior accuracy and power than with his or her arm alone.
The odds were very suddenly reversed, with one man often killing more than one mammoth.
Must have been a real blast until the population died down, at which point there was probably a lot of suffering due to the vastly increased populations of humans.
Same old same old!
always patterning their lives based on men's every whim
Wow! Where do I meet one of THOSE???
"How To Attract The Low-Brow Wife-Beating Macho Stalker of Your Dreams!"
Available now!
Check out Aikido, Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu, or Shaolin Kung-fu, and you'll have a tough time finding a more quirky pile-o-geeks.
You *have* to be a bit of a geek to have the persistence and curiosity neccessary to learn anything worthwhile from these arts!
If you were to specify say, kick-boxing, or shoot-fighting or something more macho, I would agree whole-heartedly.
Besides, does Catherine Raymond walk around with her gi on and an arm-load of trophies all the time? I don't think so!
Haiiiiiiiiiii-YAH!
Cool Edit Pro - 64 tracks, fx, cut, paste, crossfade, all in all an amazingly fun and useful bit of software
Sound Forge - 2 track (stereo) only, but very high - resolution bit-twiddling capabilities
Support for multiple input sound cards - (ISIS, Motu, Gadget Labs)
Support for DirectX / DSP effects
Linux doesn't compare just yet, but I think that will change soon. BeOS is making efforts in this direction, but I'm not holding my breath.
Which is fine, so long as you're referring to being shot down with a gun.
Shooting down ideas verbally is the right and duty of all whose sense of decency provolks them to do so, especially in a forum (Slashdot) specially designed for that purpose.
Kats is not "asking questions of his audience". He is exploiting us for attention and peer credibility. I find that offensive and have no problems with saying so.
Well stated.
I appreciate the devil's advocate role. It helps to set things in a starker relief.
And I appreciate the logic that if "X=true" and Mr. Y tries to convince the masses that "X !=true" then Mr. Y is doing those folks a disservice.
But the very nature of your proposition shows that there is still great disagreement as to whether or not "X=true". It could be argued that this disagreement would not exist if but through the malign efforts of people like Mr. Y, but I find that hard to support if you take things to a world level rather than an Early Colonial American level. At the world level there has been tremendous disagreement over this sort of thing for a long, long time, with ALL parties equally convinced of the superiority of their own beliefs Validity and Superiority.
The very nature of any Religious Thought is to exclude all other forms of Religious Thought.
Viral Memetics and all that. Ideas clings as tenaciously to 'life' as ever an animal did.
cheers,
-kent
We don't keep porn in Public Libraries and we don't display Mounds of Shit in Public Art Museums.
Why not?
Limits. Imposed by society. Someone is always excluded and that's just the way it is.
Is there any shortage of hardcore porn in our society? No. Only in the Public Library.
Is there any shortage of crappy, childish art in America? Nope. It's all out there for the taking.
Just not in the publicly funded art museum.
When Society foots the bill, Society gets to call the shots. The mayor acts in most cases as the voice of Society. If the majority of voters find his decisions fail to reflect their own regarding the use of public spaces, then he will not be re-elected.
"If God does not exist, then all things are permissable." But we *know* deep down in our souls and bones, that right and wrong DO exist and all things are not permissable. And that in turn demands the existence of God.
;)
No offense but I gotta join the rest in shooting down this kind of reasoning.
'Conscience' (an innate sense of 'right' and 'wrong') comes from being treating lovingly, fairly and reasonably as a child by the parents or care-givers. This is the sense of right and wrong that we feel in our bones which, as grownups, we often project on an imaginary parent in the sky we call "God".
"Aha!" you say, "Where did your *parents* get the idea of right and wrong? Eh Mister Smartypants? Ha ha! They got it from God!"
No. They didn't. They got it from their parents and from their culture. The Bible is certainly a major part of our culture and has a pronounced effect on the teaching and illustration of right and wrong, but it is by no means the last word on morality (thank God!
Children who are abused often have very little going on in terms of conscience as you or I percieve it, and feel little or no remorse in inflicting similar abuse on others.
"Hey!" says another, "*I* was abused as child, so don't TELL ME I don't have a conscience, 'cause I *do*!"
Fair enough and very glad to hear it. Somewhere, someone showed you an alternative to the wrath you suffered at home, and you saw something you liked and followed it.
I spent a lot of time working with addicts and alcoholics in the past, and was constantly amazed at how deeply religious many of them became (through AA and 12 step programs). I realize now that these people were experiencing 'parenting' for the first time.
just some observations
cheers!
Interesting and enlightening post. I'll look further into the motivations and whatnot of John Locke. He may well become my next historical hero.
I think that even a lot of folks who today consider themselves 'religious' would have a lot more sympathy for Mr. Locke's agenda if they were around in his time, where dissenting views, even ones within the realm of Christianity, could get common folks into a LOT of trouble.
This demonstrates exactly what he is talking about. As long as people can't speak without the fear of offending others, we aren't truly free.
I'm free. How 'bout you?
How much of this Freedomless Hell you describe is self-inflicted and/or self-imposed?
Are you just a worm on a hook?
Sounds like a pretty wretched existence to me.
...Linux ain't fer sale!
The article says it'll only cost $75 worth of electricity to get a vehicle into orbit! Are they crazy?
It doesn't say that *anywhere* in the article. It says it'll cost $75 to accelerate the vehicle to 600mph.
The problem w/ escape velocity at sea level is...
...one of your own making. The article doesn't mention anything about reaching escape velocity at sea level. It talks about reaching a speed of 600 mph at which point conventional rockets take over.
Bottom line: it's a LOT easier to go from 600mph to escape velocity than it is to go from 0mph to escape velocity.
P.S. I used to watch popeye when I was a child and then be horrified later when I threw my toys down the stairs and they wouldn't fly back together after they were smashed.
:) :) :)
Wow. What an idiot.
Joking!!!
:)
I don't remember the episode where Popeye threw his toys down the stairs. I was too busy trying to figure out exactly who/what 'the Jeep' was, I reckon.
I *do* remember my disappointment upon realizing that the whole spinach thing was just a sham to get me to 'eats me vegetables'. I became a very jaded young man that day.
Is there a support group, forum or mailing list for 'Adult Child Victims of Popeye'?
That's Wizard of Wor if I'm not mistaken...
;)
The nature (not the quality) of Id games changed after Romero (left/was ousted/whatever) from the company. Without going into detail, I laud some changes and bemoan the loss of others.
My challenge to you is this:
Say something positive (as in 'kind', 'upbeat', 'flattering', etc.,) about John Romero's contribution(s) to the astounding success of the early Id games, up to and including Quake, and tell us what, if anything, you miss since his departure.
If you respond with something clever ("He made great coffee") or something bitter ("He never made coffee") I will surely chuckle with the rest or nod in solemn understanding, but will consider the challenge a failure on your part. If you manage to say something positive and insightful about his technical/design/whatever contributions, without retracting it or qualifying it, I will touch my head to the floor in respect and say "Wow. There goes a Man."
If you truly believe that he contributed nothing, then by all means say so and we'll call it a draw.
In any case, I will continue to be an avid admirer and follower of your efforts to continuously raise the bar of Sheer Amazingness in Computer Gaming Quality(TM).
It wasn't that bad, really. We held the cat's eyes open with little strips of duct tape, but rewarded them with extra servings of tuna after the research was finished. Some of the cats proved reluctant to wander about and look at things, so we prompted them with mild electric shocks. At the end of testing, all cats were fine.
Unfortunately, to maximize returns on our research, we were then forced to mash up the cats brains and put them in a blender, in preparation for DNA testing.
Be comforted to know that the cats were treated humanely and frequently rewarded with petting, stroking and repeated iterations of the words "nice kitty".
Yours Truly,
The Scientists