The thought came into my head that whether supported in law or not, it behooves the judge to consider the relative circumstances and relative harm here. At worst JKR loses maybe 0.1% of her annual profits; is that really sufficient to constitute "harm"??
Could mean anything. Whatever chemical or energy forces affect the proteins. Yeah, I agree that's ridiculously nonspecific:) but some are already known, so make a reasonable starting point.
Yes, but now I'm wondering... DNA can be damaged/mutated by environmental factors; proteins can be damaged by chemicals (when I was in college, we used the crude method of boiling proteins in a saturated lye solution to break them down into their various amino acids); why should prions be immune?
Which says nothing pro or con re this Purdey fellow's theory of the origin of BSE; he could be dead-wrong on that, yet correct as applied elsewhere. Or he may be completely off-base in every way, yet we should still look at *what* causes prions to "fold wrong"; who knows what we'll learn?
Oh, I don't underestimate them at all -- being involved in the fight against "animal rights" (which as exersized by groups promoting it, means "no human rights") -- bunch of religious fanatics who believe in evil magic and can't be taught different, and have infinite zeal and nearly unlimited resources. And now they're going into schools spewing their twisted propaganda...
Loons are the same everywhere, only the targets differ. Our best hope of not being overrun is to preemptively educate kids on critical thinking, which means looking at all sides and ID'ing the fallacies.
Frex, I remember how we learned that the sun doesn't go around the earth. Our sci. teacher set up an earthnocentric model, and let us break it down into "why it doesn't work".
"The more people are deluded by things like creationism and homeopathy, the weaker our democracy becomes."
Agreed, but... this often comes from what boils down to a belief in magic, because they don't understand science, and anything they don't understand, they don't think *anyone else* can understand either. So anything "mystical" magically becomes "factual" in their minds, a very easy state even for an educated person to fall into if they've no training to the contrary. (MOST of the people I know who believe in homeopathy are very well-educated otherwise, but weak on critical/comparitive thinking.)
I think fewer people would be deluded by such pseudosciences if they learned ABOUT them (not to believe, but what is claimed of it) in school, away from parental pressure to conform to the religion (or whatever) practiced at home.
And if the concepts of creationism were taught, with care to note where it does or does not mesh with established reality, maybe more kids would see the fallacies for themselves.
See, I don't have a problem with teaching kids *about boneheaded theories* -- frex, we learned about "flat earth" in my gradeschool science class, presented as one of many outdated theories. I think it's good to know about these discredited theories, so you don't get led down some similar garden path lacking all logic.
What I would have a problem with is picking any of the hundreds of creation myths to present as The Way Things Are. And if it's presented as "fact", which creation myth do you go with? Christian? Buddhist? Native American? Almost every culture has one! there's no good way to pick the "most valid" because they ALL rely on hearsay evidence.
However, they do offer a good point from which to teach critical thinking.
"...create an entire new federal department of volunteerism"
Can you say New Deal Democrats?? who are largely why we're buried under the Big Gov't we are today.
I've sometimes considered that 2 years of required (and paid) national service might be a good thing for kids just out of high school -- so they can see the real world before they decide on a college and a career (given that our nanny state prevents kids from growing up in a timely manner). But a dept. of volunteerism?? WTF??
Even speaking as an atheist, I have no problem with teaching *about* creationism, different religions, etc. because it never hurts to have knowledge of other methods of thinking. (Frex, in my junior high anthro class, we learned about ancient Egyptian gods. What's wrong with knowing about that??)
However, I would have a problem with any of them being taught as Correct Thought.
As to stances on technology, I found this more disturbing than Palin's lack of same:
http://www.betanews.com/article/Where_does_Joe_Biden_stand_on_technology_issues/1219872202 "Biden's pro-business stance is evident in his efforts to expand copyright legislation, often siding with the entertainment industry. His pen has produced significant pro-copyright legislation, and most notably in 2002, he asked the Justice Department to take a tougher stance on those who commit copyright infringement."
OTOH, this is noteworthy (from TFA of today):
"[Palin] used the Internet to make Alaska government more transparent. Sen. Barack Obama has made government transparency part of his platform. Gov. Palin has indeed taken that a step further by actually taking action in Alaska government. Currently, any check written by the state government over $1,000 is posted to the Division of Finance Web site."
I see shining a bright light on how gov't spend our tax dollars as a GOOD thing.
I think the effect may be the opposite... If it's out in the open, the public will get used to it and lose their suspicions of it. But so long as it was covert, everyone knew it had to be up to no good, so remained justifiably suspicious.
Just my tinfoil hat take. Yours may fit differently.;)
I've noticed that every last "energy saving" bill on the California ballot specifically aids some GW-industry (usually an alt-energy company) that can't make it on its own in the open market. In short, these bills serve as corporate welfare for a special interest group. And yes, I do RTFBills, every last word of 'em.
Even if I "believed in" human-caused-GW (which I don't, being more in awe of the sun's power there) this special-interest-corp-welfare is enough to make me think twice about the value of such bills, no matter what benefits they purport to create.
Yeah. I've complained about that problem wrt other stuff as well, frex like how we ship product X out of the country, and import product X, so who benefits? Middlemen.
I swear, the world has been taken over by middlemen.:/
The concept of the snitch-for-the-public-good is hardly exclusive to the far right. Communism (even in the pure form you mention) also wants its citizens to report one another for "hoarding" or "privatizing".
When I was growing up, almost every adult male had fought in WW2, or knew someone who had. We had the Cold War and the Iron Curtain as constant reminders of what we'd fought against, and what we had to vigilantly not become.
When the reminders of past debacles wear away, history repeats.
Slashdot Mirror
The writing style is interesting indeed, but I'm rather alarmed by the proofreading!!
And from all I've heard from people who actually knew RAH... you're right.
The thought came into my head that whether supported in law or not, it behooves the judge to consider the relative circumstances and relative harm here. At worst JKR loses maybe 0.1% of her annual profits; is that really sufficient to constitute "harm"??
The_r alphabet _s a l_ttle strange.
Or maybe "_cky _chthyosaur" lacked the r_ght resonance?
Besides, they're the State Bird of Wyoming.
The perfect mascot for vapourware, eh? ;)
Right up there with "amorphous mass" ;)
BTW love your tagline, fits right in with this thread :)
Could mean anything. Whatever chemical or energy forces affect the proteins. Yeah, I agree that's ridiculously nonspecific :) but some are already known, so make a reasonable starting point.
Yes, but now I'm wondering... DNA can be damaged/mutated by environmental factors; proteins can be damaged by chemicals (when I was in college, we used the crude method of boiling proteins in a saturated lye solution to break them down into their various amino acids); why should prions be immune?
Which says nothing pro or con re this Purdey fellow's theory of the origin of BSE; he could be dead-wrong on that, yet correct as applied elsewhere. Or he may be completely off-base in every way, yet we should still look at *what* causes prions to "fold wrong"; who knows what we'll learn?
Oh, I don't underestimate them at all -- being involved in the fight against "animal rights" (which as exersized by groups promoting it, means "no human rights") -- bunch of religious fanatics who believe in evil magic and can't be taught different, and have infinite zeal and nearly unlimited resources. And now they're going into schools spewing their twisted propaganda...
Loons are the same everywhere, only the targets differ. Our best hope of not being overrun is to preemptively educate kids on critical thinking, which means looking at all sides and ID'ing the fallacies.
Frex, I remember how we learned that the sun doesn't go around the earth. Our sci. teacher set up an earthnocentric model, and let us break it down into "why it doesn't work".
"The more people are deluded by things like creationism and homeopathy, the weaker our democracy becomes."
Agreed, but... this often comes from what boils down to a belief in magic, because they don't understand science, and anything they don't understand, they don't think *anyone else* can understand either. So anything "mystical" magically becomes "factual" in their minds, a very easy state even for an educated person to fall into if they've no training to the contrary. (MOST of the people I know who believe in homeopathy are very well-educated otherwise, but weak on critical/comparitive thinking.)
I think fewer people would be deluded by such pseudosciences if they learned ABOUT them (not to believe, but what is claimed of it) in school, away from parental pressure to conform to the religion (or whatever) practiced at home.
And if the concepts of creationism were taught, with care to note where it does or does not mesh with established reality, maybe more kids would see the fallacies for themselves.
See, I don't have a problem with teaching kids *about boneheaded theories* -- frex, we learned about "flat earth" in my gradeschool science class, presented as one of many outdated theories. I think it's good to know about these discredited theories, so you don't get led down some similar garden path lacking all logic.
What I would have a problem with is picking any of the hundreds of creation myths to present as The Way Things Are. And if it's presented as "fact", which creation myth do you go with? Christian? Buddhist? Native American? Almost every culture has one! there's no good way to pick the "most valid" because they ALL rely on hearsay evidence.
However, they do offer a good point from which to teach critical thinking.
"...create an entire new federal department of volunteerism"
Can you say New Deal Democrats?? who are largely why we're buried under the Big Gov't we are today.
I've sometimes considered that 2 years of required (and paid) national service might be a good thing for kids just out of high school -- so they can see the real world before they decide on a college and a career (given that our nanny state prevents kids from growing up in a timely manner). But a dept. of volunteerism?? WTF??
Even speaking as an atheist, I have no problem with teaching *about* creationism, different religions, etc. because it never hurts to have knowledge of other methods of thinking. (Frex, in my junior high anthro class, we learned about ancient Egyptian gods. What's wrong with knowing about that??)
However, I would have a problem with any of them being taught as Correct Thought.
As to stances on technology, I found this more disturbing than Palin's lack of same:
http://www.betanews.com/article/Where_does_Joe_Biden_stand_on_technology_issues/1219872202
"Biden's pro-business stance is evident in his efforts to expand copyright legislation, often siding with the entertainment industry. His pen has produced significant pro-copyright legislation, and most notably in 2002, he asked the Justice Department to take a tougher stance on those who commit copyright infringement."
OTOH, this is noteworthy (from TFA of today):
"[Palin] used the Internet to make Alaska government more transparent. Sen. Barack Obama has made government transparency part of his platform. Gov. Palin has indeed taken that a step further by actually taking action in Alaska government. Currently, any check written by the state government over $1,000 is posted to the Division of Finance Web site."
I see shining a bright light on how gov't spend our tax dollars as a GOOD thing.
I think the effect may be the opposite... If it's out in the open, the public will get used to it and lose their suspicions of it. But so long as it was covert, everyone knew it had to be up to no good, so remained justifiably suspicious.
Just my tinfoil hat take. Yours may fit differently. ;)
Hmmm... well, having my own planet doesn't sound too bad either ;)
Per TFWiki, some of the little islands north of Britain still have the concept, but one doubts much is available for purchase.
I've noticed that every last "energy saving" bill on the California ballot specifically aids some GW-industry (usually an alt-energy company) that can't make it on its own in the open market. In short, these bills serve as corporate welfare for a special interest group. And yes, I do RTFBills, every last word of 'em.
Even if I "believed in" human-caused-GW (which I don't, being more in awe of the sun's power there) this special-interest-corp-welfare is enough to make me think twice about the value of such bills, no matter what benefits they purport to create.
And let's say this absurdity is upheld, and we have to pay to view the law.
In fairness, should that not apply to ALL laws (not just those derived from industry standards)??
You can see how unworkable THAT would be... as someone above japed, "I couldn't afford to know the law!"
The road to hell is.... dirt.
Buy a which what?? [goes off, looks it up]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allodial_title
Wonderful concept, sounds almost like having my own country. So where CAN I buy such land nowadays??
And Jefferson was right.....
Yeah. I've complained about that problem wrt other stuff as well, frex like how we ship product X out of the country, and import product X, so who benefits? Middlemen.
I swear, the world has been taken over by middlemen. :/
Now that you mention it... wasn't there some such program going on in ... was it Quebec?? a few years ago??
Does to me too :(
BTW, been meaning to ask about your sig...???
(I don't entirely disagree, actually)
The concept of the snitch-for-the-public-good is hardly exclusive to the far right. Communism (even in the pure form you mention) also wants its citizens to report one another for "hoarding" or "privatizing".
When I was growing up, almost every adult male had fought in WW2, or knew someone who had. We had the Cold War and the Iron Curtain as constant reminders of what we'd fought against, and what we had to vigilantly not become.
When the reminders of past debacles wear away, history repeats.