Buddhism is the only 'old' religion (although some argue it's a philosophy as it has no god) which correlates and whose beliefs correspond with science all the way across the board.
Only if you discard reincarnation, Nirvana, various supernatural beings like the "Monkey God" (as seen in the famous classical Chinese book "Voyage to the West" - basically the whole religion. You might as well say Christianity fits with science because there was that flood thing in Genesis and floods have been known to happen. Just like a broken clock which is right twice a day, religions can sometimes be congruent by chance with science.
While scientists would not particularly go for the whole reincarnation game, there is a lot of logic in it
No. At the root of it is the assumption that there is a "soul" responsible for our thoughts that is somehow separate from the brain, just like in Christianity, Islam, etc. According to science, we think because neurons fire in our brains. When the brain dies, no more thoughts.
There is no way for a family of seven to use a Toyota Prius for anything worthwhile.
Perhaps, but in the 21st century even Mormons and devout Catholics have less than five kids. Really, having more than two children when the world is overpopulated already is not a good idea.
There's a basketball player named Michael Jordan? I would have thought that the./ crowd would be fans of yet a third Michael Jordan, the well known machine learning researcher
It's not so much a matter of "memorizing" facts or people -- it's more about getting enthused by ideas and concepts by linking them to people.
Many times scientific ancedotes also have a useful moral. For example, Kekulé''s dream has a moral -- sometimes the way to solve a difficult problem is not to knock yourself out trying, but to wait and reflect (even subconsciously) about it. Certainly I find that method works with debugging, at least.
Is it just me, or is an almost-exclusive focus on facts a good thing for textbooks of any sort?
The point is an anecdote or two livens things up. Would any one remember who discovered of the structure of benzine or how if they hadn't heard about Kekulé's weird dream of a snake eating its own tail? (And yes, I know most cynical chemists think that Kekulé was just BS-ing about the dream -- that's not the point)
The first time I saw Mosaic was August 1993. I couldn't understand why its supporters were so enthusiastic. After all, it was just Gopher with pictures, right? And Gopher was the standard.
Perhaps things were different in Einstein's day, but physics has been in the "Big Science" mode for decades. Look at a typical particle physics paper out of CERN or Fermilab-- it has normally 30 or 40 authors. In contrast, biology has only recently (with the advent of genomics) gotten into such a "Big Science" mode.
Nah, it was actually pretty good -- at least until they rearched Earth and the kids had superpowers or something equally stupid. And the Viper toys that actually shot little plastic pieces were way better than the Star Wars toys.
Putting up the right wing conspiracy as a bogeymen to solicit donations is pretty disgusting
If you think so, don't you agree that having the ultra-right-wing newspaper "The Wall Street Journal" printing its little diatribe against Salon to be pretty disgusting too?
I really don't get this whole "instant message" craze, but I guess it really is popular with generation Y -- I work with some 22-year old people fresh out of university and they all chat with friends (both those at the company and elsewhere) using instant messages. Ignoring the debate about whether they should be doing this at work (they do get their work done, so it can't be that bad for productivity) I find it amazing that they would enjoy the interruptions. I personally vastly prefer e-mail to phone conversations because I can deal with e-mail when it's a good time for me. IM seems to me to be a return to the annoying days of the telephone.
Wow, I must be missing a lot. I didn't think it was that tough to move to another country. As to region coding, it would seem this nastly law called the DMCA is really the only thing enforcing that on anyone...
I can only assume that you have never lived in another country besides your own. I'm an American living and working in Canada, and because of NAFTA, this is easier than in most other countries. Yet, every year I am at the mercy of the Canadian government to stay here. I'm sure if unemployment rose high enough, I would be denied a work permit and told to go back home. The laws really are different for American corportations versus American workers. As for region coding, it is here too, despite the fact that DMCA has no authority here in the Great White North. So why is region coding enforced despite this? Because American Corporations like it that way.
Don't worry, it won't be a large amount, only $15 (about the price of a CD). I'm sure your payroll officer will agree because it is not theft since you will never see the money on your paycheck in the first place.
Bad analogy. The point isn't that copyright violations only cost copyright holders a small amount, but rather that nothing has been taken at all, making "theft" as inappropriate a description of the violation as the other common description -- "piracy" (since when has a p2p "pirate" murdered someone on the high seas?).
Rather the sole violation is that nothing has been *given*. A better analogy to using p2p rather than purchasing a CD would be listening to a street musician and not giving him a tip. Obviously, if nobody gave street musicians tips, the profession would disappear. But since street musicians don't have politicians in their pockets, that isn't a crime.
For all intents and purposes, this is completely true. "Better", for a commercial product, is that mix of things which causes that product to sell in larger quantities that the competition. In the marketplace, the "best" product is simply the one that sells the most. It's largely self-referential.
You are referring to "better" from the standpoint of the seller. The more controversial opinion that the author was making is that popularity also makes it better for the *buyer*.
The phrase "for fun and profit" is a lot older than that magazine article -- it refers to ads in 1950's comic books that would offer some book for learning some dubious skill (lockpicking, growing mushrooms, etc.) -- the headline always read "Learn (Subject) for Fun and Profit!"
As an American living in Canada I also have to deal with customs fees when I buy things from outside Canada. What annoys me is that my Canadian co-workers all say "why not buy locally?" as if I was doing it to screw the Canadian economy and not because the books, CDs,and computer equipment I order just can't be had locally. Incidentally, I don't believe the US has such fees -- I'm a fan of German music and never had any problem shipping CDs from Germany to the US when I lived there.
I kind of miss that amount of customability in games today. They increase the play value. Today, even though the games are much more complex, you can only play it one way, and when you win, there is no point in playing any more.
Don't you think you're perception of what's going on is a bit narrow? The reason that cars are okay and Segways aren't is because they have roads for cars to drive on
You are confusing cause and effect. Cars use roads because roads were there before cars were invented. They were originally for pedestrians and horses, but as the popularity of cars increased, cars became the principal users, and in many places pedestrians and horses are no longer allowed to use the roads. Assuming Segways actually prove to be more than hype, perhaps they will become the principal users of sidewalks.
Yes, but oldtimers may remember that Graffiti is older than the Pilot. Palm used to make Graffiti for the early Newtons (in the 'Egg Freckles' days), back when Newtons were the *only* PDAs.
Guess what's different about cinema, theater and books compared to TV? A conscious decision to experience some content that interests one. While I suppose it is not impossible to only watch TV shows that interest you (TIVO and the like seem to point to such a future), in general most people I know who watch TV simply turn it on when they get home and passively watch it all evening, perhaps channel surfing to avoid something particularly bad.
No, all the article says is that Segways are evil because they 1) apparently can cause damage to buildings, although this is based on very weak anecdotal evidence and 2) somehow encourage obesity. This second point shows pretty faulty logic because it assumes that anyone using a Segway would have biked if they didn't have this evil machine. What if they would have used a car? And why, pray tell, must the only source of exercise be through transportation? I don't bike, but I work out in a gym.
Er, was your humor chip impaired while reading Snowcrash? Of course Snowcrash was a satire and a pretty funny one at that. In serious cyberpunk the underworld may control powerful artificial intelligences, but having the evil underworld boss controlling pizza delivery? It's silly and meant to be, but the humor is somewhat lost without having read a serious cyberpunk novel.
I don't see how you can appreciate _Snowcrash_ without reading _Neuromancer_ -- It would be like watching _Blazing Saddles_ without ever seeing a real Western.
but 300 baud? You sure that wasn't a vic 20 or a PET even? Even the local wannabe had a 1200baud, us elites had an RS-232C adaptor and a 2400..
It was all about the year, not the machine type. When I got my first modem in 1984, while I suppose I could have found some manufacturer making 1200 baud modems, no BBSes had them, so it wouldn't have done me much good.
t probably matters little if your american. "It doesn't matter that we didn't fly first, there's no point changing the history books to fit what actually happened that would be silly!" Making it so that they lose less kudos to another country, by making it less important is cultural xenophobia.
Lots of things happen in history. History isn't just a listing of random facts, it is a method of finding cause and effect. Facts that don't lead anywhere are just trivia -- . It has nothing to do with xenophobia.
In Canada, those of Scandinavian descent are into the idea that the Vikings were the first Europeans to reach North America. Even if true, who cares? The wave of colonialism was inspired by Columbus, plain and simple.
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Buddhism is the only 'old' religion (although some argue it's a philosophy as it has no god) which correlates and whose beliefs correspond with science all the way across the board.
Only if you discard reincarnation, Nirvana, various supernatural beings like the "Monkey God" (as seen in the famous classical Chinese book "Voyage to the West" - basically the whole religion. You might as well say Christianity fits with science because there was that flood thing in Genesis and floods have been known to happen. Just like a broken clock which is right twice a day, religions can sometimes be congruent by chance with science.
While scientists would not particularly go for the whole reincarnation game, there is a lot of logic in it
No. At the root of it is the assumption that there is a "soul" responsible for our thoughts that is somehow separate from the brain, just like in Christianity, Islam, etc. According to science, we think because neurons fire in our brains. When the brain dies, no more thoughts.
There is no way for a family of seven to use a Toyota Prius for anything worthwhile.
Perhaps, but in the 21st century even Mormons and devout Catholics have less than five kids. Really, having more than two children when the world is overpopulated already is not a good idea.
There's a basketball player named Michael Jordan? I would have thought that the ./ crowd would be fans of yet a third Michael Jordan, the well known machine learning researcher
It's not so much a matter of "memorizing" facts or people -- it's more about getting enthused by ideas and concepts by linking them to people.
Many times scientific ancedotes also have a useful moral. For example, Kekulé''s dream has a moral -- sometimes the way to solve a difficult problem is not to knock yourself out trying, but to wait and reflect (even subconsciously) about it. Certainly I find that method works with debugging, at least.
Is it just me, or is an almost-exclusive focus on facts a good thing for textbooks of any sort?
The point is an anecdote or two livens things up. Would any one remember who discovered of the structure of benzine or how if they hadn't heard about Kekulé's weird dream of a snake eating its own tail? (And yes, I know most cynical chemists think that Kekulé was just BS-ing about the dream -- that's not the point)
The first time I saw Mosaic was August 1993. I couldn't understand why its supporters were so enthusiastic. After all, it was just Gopher with pictures, right? And Gopher was the standard.
Perhaps things were different in Einstein's day, but physics has been in the "Big Science" mode for decades. Look at a typical particle physics paper out of CERN or Fermilab-- it has normally 30 or 40 authors. In contrast, biology has only recently (with the advent of genomics) gotten into such a "Big Science" mode.
Nah, it was actually pretty good -- at least until they rearched Earth and the kids had superpowers or something equally stupid. And the Viper toys that actually shot little plastic pieces were way better than the Star Wars toys.
Putting up the right wing conspiracy as a bogeymen to solicit donations is pretty disgusting
If you think so, don't you agree that having the ultra-right-wing newspaper "The Wall Street Journal" printing its little diatribe against Salon to be pretty disgusting too?
I really don't get this whole "instant message" craze, but I guess it really is popular with generation Y -- I work with some 22-year old people fresh out of university and they all chat with friends (both those at the company and elsewhere) using instant messages. Ignoring the debate about whether they should be doing this at work (they do get their work done, so it can't be that bad for productivity) I find it amazing that they would enjoy the interruptions. I personally vastly prefer e-mail to phone conversations because I can deal with e-mail when it's a good time for me. IM seems to me to be a return to the annoying days of the telephone.
Also, expect prices of vintage Curtas calculators to go up because of their mention in the book...
Wow, I must be missing a lot. I didn't think it was that tough to move to another country. As to region coding, it would seem this nastly law called the DMCA is really the only thing enforcing that on anyone...
I can only assume that you have never lived in another country besides your own. I'm an American living and working in Canada, and because of NAFTA, this is easier than in most other countries. Yet, every year I am at the mercy of the Canadian government to stay here. I'm sure if unemployment rose high enough, I would be denied a work permit and told to go back home. The laws really are different for American corportations versus American workers. As for region coding, it is here too, despite the fact that DMCA has no authority here in the Great White North. So why is region coding enforced despite this? Because American Corporations like it that way.
Don't worry, it won't be a large amount, only $15 (about the price of a CD). I'm sure your payroll officer will agree because it is not theft since you will never see the money on your paycheck in the first place.
Bad analogy. The point isn't that copyright violations only cost copyright holders a small amount, but rather that nothing has been taken at all, making "theft" as inappropriate a description of the violation as the other common description -- "piracy" (since when has a p2p "pirate" murdered someone on the high seas?).
Rather the sole violation is that nothing has been *given*. A better analogy to using p2p rather than purchasing a CD would be listening to a street musician and not giving him a tip. Obviously, if nobody gave street musicians tips, the profession would disappear. But since street musicians don't have politicians in their pockets, that isn't a crime.
For all intents and purposes, this is completely true. "Better", for a commercial product, is that mix of things which causes that product to sell in larger quantities that the competition. In the marketplace, the "best" product is simply the one that sells the most. It's largely self-referential.
You are referring to "better" from the standpoint of the seller. The more controversial opinion that the author was making is that popularity also makes it better for the *buyer*.
The phrase "for fun and profit" is a lot older than that magazine article -- it refers to ads in 1950's comic books that would offer some book for learning some dubious skill (lockpicking, growing mushrooms, etc.) -- the headline always read "Learn (Subject) for Fun and Profit!"
As an American living in Canada I also have to deal with customs fees when I buy things from outside Canada. What annoys me is that my Canadian co-workers all say "why not buy locally?" as if I was doing it to screw the Canadian economy and not because the books, CDs,and computer equipment I order just can't be had locally. Incidentally, I don't believe the US has such fees -- I'm a fan of German music and never had any problem shipping CDs from Germany to the US when I lived there.
I kind of miss that amount of customability in games today. They increase the play value. Today, even though the games are much more complex, you can only play it one way, and when you win, there is no point in playing any more.
Don't you think you're perception of what's going on is a bit narrow? The reason that cars are okay and Segways aren't is because they have roads for cars to drive on
You are confusing cause and effect. Cars use roads because roads were there before cars were invented. They were originally for pedestrians and horses, but as the popularity of cars increased, cars became the principal users, and in many places pedestrians and horses are no longer allowed to use the roads. Assuming Segways actually prove to be more than hype, perhaps they will become the principal users of sidewalks.
Yes, but oldtimers may remember that Graffiti is older than the Pilot. Palm used to make Graffiti for the early Newtons (in the 'Egg Freckles' days), back when Newtons were the *only* PDAs.
Guess what's different about cinema, theater and books compared to TV? A conscious decision to experience some content that interests one. While I suppose it is not impossible to only watch TV shows that interest you (TIVO and the like seem to point to such a future), in general most people I know who watch TV simply turn it on when they get home and passively watch it all evening, perhaps channel surfing to avoid something particularly bad.
No, all the article says is that Segways are evil because they 1) apparently can cause damage to buildings, although this is based on very weak anecdotal evidence and 2) somehow encourage obesity. This second point shows pretty faulty logic because it assumes that anyone using a Segway would have biked if they didn't have this evil machine. What if they would have used a car? And why, pray tell, must the only source of exercise be through transportation? I don't bike, but I work out in a gym.
Er, was your humor chip impaired while reading Snowcrash? Of course Snowcrash was a satire and a pretty funny one at that. In serious cyberpunk the underworld may control powerful artificial intelligences, but having the evil underworld boss controlling pizza delivery? It's silly and meant to be, but the humor is somewhat lost without having read a serious cyberpunk novel.
I don't see how you can appreciate _Snowcrash_ without reading _Neuromancer_ -- It would be like watching _Blazing Saddles_ without ever seeing a real Western.
but 300 baud? You sure that wasn't a vic 20 or a PET even? Even the local wannabe had a 1200baud, us elites had an RS-232C adaptor and a 2400..
It was all about the year, not the machine type. When I got my first modem in 1984, while I suppose I could have found some manufacturer making 1200 baud modems, no BBSes had them, so it wouldn't have done me much good.
t probably matters little if your american. "It doesn't matter that we didn't fly first, there's no point changing the history books to fit what actually happened that would be silly!" Making it so that they lose less kudos to another country, by making it less important is cultural xenophobia.
Lots of things happen in history. History isn't just a listing of random facts, it is a method of finding cause and effect. Facts that don't lead anywhere are just trivia -- . It has nothing to do with xenophobia.
In Canada, those of Scandinavian descent are into the idea that the Vikings were the first Europeans to reach North America. Even if true, who cares? The wave of colonialism was inspired by Columbus, plain and simple.