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User: jonthegm

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  1. Re:Failed on the first try on Pope Rails Against the Internet and Transparency · · Score: 1

    One of the first cases is stating that the Virgin Mary's body went to heaven after she died.

    Just to nitpick further, it's actually the ONLY case since the concept was established.

  2. Re:The Pope on Pope Rails Against the Internet and Transparency · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm not justifying it, I'm just pointing out that the Popes have traditionally been regarded as wise but still human. Ex Cathedra has only been invoked once since the concept was invented, so it's meant to define religion redefining pronouncements. I'm only clarifying this to alleviate the misconception that "anything" the pope says is automatically viewed by the Catholic Church as 100% Awesome. Full disclosure: I'm an agnostic "recovering" Catholic.

  3. Re:The Pope on Pope Rails Against the Internet and Transparency · · Score: 4, Informative

    What the pope says is only infallible when he speaks Ex Cathedra. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_infallibility

  4. Re:How is this "news for nerds"? on Major Broadcasters Hit With $12M Payola Fine · · Score: 1

    And I think that treating radio as being obligated to promote culture is wrong. The only responsibility a non-public radio station has is to its stockholders.

  5. Re:What about Air America? on Major Broadcasters Hit With $12M Payola Fine · · Score: 1

    I don't think payola needs to be illegal. In 1958, America voiced its displeasure at Alan Freed when it came to light that he was accepting payola for his radio show. They did not need the government to come to that conclusion!

    Broadcast media in general is dying in my opinion... slowly falling to the wayside as the younger generations demand more and more "on-demand" solutions. Why listen to what "The Man" tells you, when you can listen to what you want, when you want?

  6. Re:New advertising campaign on Algae That Cleans Emissions and Produces Fuel · · Score: 1

    Yes, but can it run Linux?

  7. Re:Paper this is based on on Warp Engines In Development? · · Score: 1

    No, according to his sentence structure, the theory WILL be falsified.

  8. Re:In other news... on Dungeons and Shadows · · Score: 1

    No, it's because he hasn't read the Eberron Campaign setting. It seriously got me back into D&D after years of HERO.

  9. Re:Alternity on Dungeons and Shadows · · Score: 1

    And while I loved the Alternity worlds (especially Dark*Matter), I must say that the system completely blows. I'd rather just convert existing material to Unknown Armies (Stolze and Tynes ftw!) or D20 Modern (meh).

  10. No VOIP system will dare oppose the Emperor now. on VoIP Backlash From Phone Companies · · Score: 1

    The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.

  11. What next? on Insecure Code - Vendors or Developers To Blame? · · Score: 1

    I predict that Slashdot will have a headline next week that proclaims "Security flaws totally the fault of the end-user."

  12. Re:I can stop anytime... on M.I.T. Explains Why Bad Habits Are Hard to Break · · Score: 5, Funny
    See, this is why I like a little variety in my addictions: alcohol for a couple weeks, smoking the next, Starcraft after that, keeps me from getting pinned down to a single addiction for very long.
    Dude, I think that's ADHD.
  13. Re:Aluminium Reality or Aluminum Realty? on Transparent Aluminum a Reality · · Score: 1

    How, in every visible way, you shine As if the stars in your wake align Almost impossible to malign But just below where you shine, you burn Although I know it, I never learn Just goes to show that I can't discern Aluminum to me Aluminium to some You can shine like silver all you want But you're just Aluminum

  14. Re:A Lame Gaim Claim on Linux Instant Messengers · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Where's the voice chat? The large avatars? A way to "skin" the program easy enough for my mother to figure out? Video chat? Not to mention that the file transfers are mildly wonky (not as bad as they used to be). Yeah... gAIM is "just as good" as Messenger! :eyeroll: I'd say it's about par with where AIM was about 10 years ago.

  15. Re:Enter Adam Smith.... on Nitpicking Wikipedia's Vulnerabilities · · Score: 1

    I fail to see how edit war drama is a positive externality. Especially since it doesn't affect the amount of trolling on usenet.

  16. Serenity and Existentialism on Serenity Opens Today · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Julian Sanchez, over at http://www.reason.com/ has an interesting article about the Camus and Sartre influence in Serenitty.

    *Warning MEGA Spoilers* *Warning MEGA Spoilers* *Warning MEGA Spoilers*

    An excerpt: (full text behind this link.)

    In Serenity, however, the central influence appears to be not Sartre but Albert Camus. The Operative, for example, is emphatically not some mere bounty hunter, but a true believer. As he explains at one point, "I believe in something greater than myself: A better world, a world without sin." He has no illusions, either, about the morally monstrous acts he must perpetuate in service of that end, acts he recognizes make him unfit to live in his own utopia. The Operative is a Moses who knows he will not reach the promised land he hopes to help make. He is, in other words, a perfect instance of the revolutionary mindset Camus describes in The Rebel, an anti-Marxist essay that was the catalyst for Camus' break with the (then) pro-Soviet Sartre. For the revolutionary, Camus notes, values are "only to be found at the end of history. Until then there is no suitable criterion on which to base a judgement of value. One must act and live in terms of the future. All morality becomes provisional."
  17. I think I saw this in Dan Simmons' new Duology. on Reintroduce Megafauna to North America? · · Score: 1

    After we bring Elephants and tigers and lions to the world, we'll start bringing back dinosaurs and terror birds. Then the global Caliphate will send out an army of cybernetic monsters to destroy the Jews. Then the biosphere becomes self-aware and everything goes to hell.

  18. Re:Where are my flying cars? on Requiem for the Once-Imagined Future · · Score: 1

    Mojo Nixon in 2008: A flying car in every garage! Vote Mojo Nixon, this Nixon's not a Dick.

  19. Where are my flying cars? on Requiem for the Once-Imagined Future · · Score: 2, Funny

    I was promised flying cars by 2000!

  20. Macromedia Dreamweaver on Sanely Moving from Word to the Web? · · Score: 1

    It's a dream come true for eliminating Word formatting in an html file, or for just copy/pasting from one file to the other.

    It doesn't seem to transfer colors over, but that may be user-error.

    You could always just write some php/perl scripts for scrubbing, too! RegExps are your friends!

  21. Re:Talk about short sighted! on Do We Really Need Space Weapons? · · Score: 1

    Why should we fund NASA when Mojave Aerospace Ventures seems on track to be able to do similar things for a fraction of the price?

  22. Re:What is with people these days? on BBC In Trouble Over Free Music · · Score: 1

    TANSTAAFL

  23. Re:Not Enough Oil on Conquering the LaGrange Points? · · Score: 1

    Obviously not.

  24. Re:Not Enough Oil on Conquering the LaGrange Points? · · Score: 5, Funny

    Obviously, you're not thinking either. Where are we going to get enough hydrogen if all the consumers are using it up? It's not like there's huge reservoirs of H just lying around and falling from the sky.

  25. Re:Education Sucks in the US? That's news to me! on Improving Education? · · Score: 1

    No, but I don't think they're as honest as we are either.

    Also, I believe that forcing parents to actually pay their own money for their children's education will force them to care. If they don't care, then they're wasting their money.

    As it stands now, everyone in the country is expected to pay into the system, whether we agree with it or not. We force the parents who actually care about their kids to pay double! (Once for taxes and again for private school or home schooling) For those who remain with the public school system it is Someone Else's Problem, and you don't need to worry about it; you just send the kids off, and they're magically edumacated.

    Schools need to be run like businesses (and when I say that, I mean an ideal business. Not some mega-corp that recieves corporate welfare and legislates its competition away)