I will freely admit that my above post is a troll, but it is so only in the sense that I was and am pointing out unpleasant facts that no one wants to notice.
I'll clarify what I said about flawed economics: The real reason why abstinence before marriage and marital fidelity is important to Christianity and Patriarchal religions is that they are economically important. The only way a man can be sure the children he is paying to raise are his is if his wife is a virgin when they are married and is faithful to him. Male marital fidelity is mostly something that is demanded by women out of a desire for fairness. So despite all their high "moral" talk the real reason behind it all is money. Patrilineal systems reduce male-female relationships to cold economic transactions. Matrilineal ones, however leave said relationships to be separate and important in their own right. Consider: What if husbands are not part of a family through marriage? Then a family consists of a woman, her children, her brothers, her mother, and her uncles (her mother's brothers). This arrangement takes money out of the bedroom.
By "Christian Romantic ideal" I'm referring to what has grown out of the concept of courtly love in the middle ages. It's based around abstinence, self-denial and guilt.
You can claim all you want about Christianity not being against sex, but historically it just isn't true. But as a real Neo-Pagan (One who has actually read Graves' "The White Goddess") I would be willing to argue that such behavior is intrinsic to patriarchal religions that demonize women. And don't even try to claim that Christianity doesn't do that.
Point: Who gets blamed for man getting booted from the Garden of Eden?
Point: Who was Lillith? What happened to her? Why?
And thats just the first few pages of genesis.
But anyway, I believe, although I am not by any means certain, that the problem is societal, not endemic to the human condition. And I believe it is related to the flawed economics of patriarchy and patriarchal succession. (This opinion probably just lost me all people willing to agree.) To do a rediculously large oversimplification, Christianity is a basically a fairly innocuous rehash of the Cult of Dionysus, but bogged down with a huge stash of Hebrew political history and treatise that people keep trying to interpret in a religious light. (When in reality, it has the same relation to religion that Henry II claiming he acted by divine right did) Its too bad really, that the Cult of Mithras didn't become the dominant Dionysian cult in the early first millenium, it tended to be far nicer.
You fail to acknowledge that the women had unrealistic expectations of marriage. THAT is a huge problem with marriage today. The Christian romantic ideal is unrealistic, and ultimately, based on the idea that suffering is good. (this is reflected in many ways, abstinence and it's odd permutations are some of those) It's not, it leads to f'ed up miserable people.
A healthy marriage is one in which the people involved mutually agree on what they expect of each other and follow through.
Two people lying together because they BOTH want to is the most healthy natural thing in the world. A very strong argument can be made that the Christian ideals you hold lead to insecure women with no confidence in themselves and an inability to enjoy sex; and men whose frustrations and feelings of guilt turn into violence and ultimately rape.
Christianity is the cause of the problems, not the solution.
Nope, that format is just not big enough to hold all of LOTR, at least in a DVD type format (that is, MPEG-2), unless you are willing to accept a downsampled video stream, each part of LOTR being >8GB. Now if there is a blue laser MPEG-4 player, that would rock.
You might have more luck arguing this plant, which does the same thing better. Also, although the drug made from it is illegal to sell, neither the drug nor the plant are illegal to possess.
Of course, Wormwood has the small problem of being not only repulsive to insects, but also poisonous to plants growing in soil near it, but thats just an engineering problem.
The data from numerous pyschological studies is flat out against you. In fact, it tends to show that before about 18-20 people don't really have the capability to realistically plan and anticipate future events and consequences.
I use this often to argue that 16 year olds shouldn't be allowed to drive, because they're just not capable of it (experimental data and accident rates are clearly in support of this) However, they should be allowed to buy and consume alcohol, so they'll know how to handle it when they can drive. Data from Europe tends to show that this is also correct.
I would also like to point out that juveniles generally get totally screwed by the legal system, especially where I live. Offenses for which an adult is levied small fines frequently result in probation and/or community service for a minor.
The great irony about the NEO-GEO is that although it failed in the mass market, it has maintained a sufficient cult following that games continue to be released for it. In terms of staying power it was/is the greatest console of its era.
The problem is that Wal-Mart is such a major distribution power. What if telecoms "made a choice"
that they are no longer going allow you to transmit information of which they don't approve. I suppose that isn't censorship either. They are both private companies, and both control means of distribution.
Once a company reaches a certain level of size and control of its given market they SHOULD lose much of their choices, because it is censorship, and it is dangerous. It is someone saying, "This you may not hear, this you may not see, this you are forbidden to know." It does not matter whether the entity is public or private. The decision whether or not to view something should rest ultimately with the consumer, and if some delicate little sensibilities are upset along the way, too bad.
Grow up. People bleed, People die. Babies aren't brought by the stork, and they don't come from under cabbage leaves. Real live is rated at least NC-17, and if you don't like it, live in a bubble, but there's no reason the rest of us should sacrifice to make it easy for you.
Calculators, always seemed to me to be a way to remove the tedius calculation step. I think it is disturbing that Math is becoming a class on button pushing.
Here's a solution though, you could have two portions of a math test, have one part that was straight problems to work, factor, expand, etc, where calculator use is permitted, you could then have a second written part, where the questions would be of the form "Describe how to solve problem x without a calculator." The second part could be weighted so it would be most of the grade, as that's really the most important aspect. That method would also help to force more people to learn terminology. I think that could work marvelously for Algebra and above, and clearly below that no calculators should be permitted at all. I think that it is foolish to deny the existence of calculators in education, but its even worse if people have no understanding of math at all.
I hope these pan out. There are a couple of difficulties I see though, the retinal scanning aspects of MEMS displays would probably work a lot like a telescope eyepiece. You'd have to hold the device, or your head, at just the right place for the image to be in focus and on the correct part of your retina. That could definately prove cumbersome. The other displays he talks about sound great, but what are you going to use for a white light source that will produce a bright enough image? Can you make led's big enough to supply enough light for a 20-something inch screen? Otherwise they're going to have to use expensive bulbs that will have to be replaced regularly, and that would seem to give CRTs or LCDs the edge.
use threats to accomplish their own economic and political goals, that certainly puts them in the running, I'd say.
They may not kill people, but they're perfectly fine with having them kidnapped and detained. Just because they operate inside the law doesn't make their tactics legitimate. Laws are bought and sold, they are created by people whose interests are not those of society, at least to a frightening extent.
Inkjets just irritate me to death. I've had experience with many from various manufacturers and none have ever been very reliable, and the @$%@&#! cartridges dry out over time. Besides I like my drab black and white papers. Black and white may be ugly, but it's ugly in an uncompromising, dignified sort of way. Lasers are glorious freedom, toner being far more robust.
Your first point is an issue of implementation, and therefore isn't really valid against nuclear power in general. Your second point is just absurd "if a plant ever blew up," there are so many reasons that wouldn't happen its ridiculous to even think about it. Of course it could happen, but its also possible that your car's gas tank could spontaneously explode, but you don't spend too much time worrying about that, do you? There's way too much radiation paranoia in the US, its just not that big a threat. The real issue is heat pollution, but that's an engineering problem that simply requires adequate water reservoirs and cooling.
Solar is not a viable solution for power, we just don't possess technology to obtain anywhere near the efficiency required. When someone designs a solar cell that is actually capable of converting a significant percentage of the sunlight that hits it to electricity, then there will be an alternative. Solar power isn't infinite eitherer, there is a very definite finite number of joules that fall on the earth at any given time, that amount would be sufficient to sustain our power needs if we had some way to convert enough of it, but we don't.
"content creating" hoo-boy sorry bout that:) No more booze when I'm soapboxing!
But seriously, considering this has given me more ammo for this argument.
Extension of copyright lengths is another biggie that indicates what I said is correct. If nothing ever falls into the public domain, it becomes much more difficult for artists/authors to produce anything at all without sanction of the major copyright holders. This gives the media industry a death grip on what we can see and experience.
The fact that indie musicians and online comics aren't as popular as traditional media is moot. The internet has only existed as any kind of significant force for less than ten years for crying out loud. The changes it has wrought in the past decade are like the first few years of the industrial revolution, which is really still playing out. We are still very much in the beginning of the digital revolution.
"Free software is built on a pre-existing cultural norm - ie hacking - that doesn't exist for these other media."
I would argue with this point. In what way do hackers differ from other people who make art on an amateur level? There are people who write, produce music, and produce visual arts non-commercially, and some of this material is damn good, such as Penny Arcade, PvP, or Megatokyo. This is true for all media forms and goes back to a central flaw in the media industry's argument.
They would like us to believe that without commercial distribution i.e them, media would not exist, but this is simply false. Money is not the sole reason people create art, they do so because they enjoy it. They whole idea copyright and IP in US is based around the idea that "Hmm, It would be nice if people who create art could charge for it, allowing them to more easily support themselves and create more." This initial idea was valid and good, but it has now been carried over to the extreme. The media industry now is essentially rabidly trying to destroy non-commercial media, as a threat to their profits.
The attitudes the RIAA shows towards independent labels and bands are really the opinions the media industry has about all amateurs, if we start amusing ourselves, we won't need them. This is why content creating is in danger from SSCA/CBDTPA. They want us to be locked into them with no other choice.
It would be very interesting if as an experiment, a group of young american adolescents had to read "Stranger in a Strange Land," and "Time Enough for Love." It might scandalize them sufficiently to allow them to grow up into normal sane human beings. Good Grief! Putting sex in a magical box seperate from all other human activities Is a Perversion! It is at the very least as sick as the ones people who hold puritanical attitudes try to suppress.
haven't you ever seen a projection screen NTSC TV up close? most of them I've seen look like crap, but resolution wise, this project would be superior to those, since even at 800x600 you're doing much better than a standard TV signal, even deinterlaced DVD only has 480 lines of resolution.
The issues with this project are bulb-life, and the quality of the optical system through which you are projecting. If the optical quality can be made satisfatory, everything brought to correct focus and whatnot, then I'd be interested in building one of these.
Slashdot Mirror
Serious question, what is wrong with windows that formatting a floppy brings everything to a screeching halt? Its annoying as all get out.
I'll clarify what I said about flawed economics: The real reason why abstinence before marriage and marital fidelity is important to Christianity and Patriarchal religions is that they are economically important. The only way a man can be sure the children he is paying to raise are his is if his wife is a virgin when they are married and is faithful to him. Male marital fidelity is mostly something that is demanded by women out of a desire for fairness. So despite all their high "moral" talk the real reason behind it all is money. Patrilineal systems reduce male-female relationships to cold economic transactions. Matrilineal ones, however leave said relationships to be separate and important in their own right. Consider: What if husbands are not part of a family through marriage? Then a family consists of a woman, her children, her brothers, her mother, and her uncles (her mother's brothers). This arrangement takes money out of the bedroom.
You can claim all you want about Christianity not being against sex, but historically it just isn't true. But as a real Neo-Pagan (One who has actually read Graves' "The White Goddess") I would be willing to argue that such behavior is intrinsic to patriarchal religions that demonize women. And don't even try to claim that Christianity doesn't do that.
Point: Who gets blamed for man getting booted from the Garden of Eden?
Point: Who was Lillith? What happened to her? Why?
And thats just the first few pages of genesis.
But anyway, I believe, although I am not by any means certain, that the problem is societal, not endemic to the human condition. And I believe it is related to the flawed economics of patriarchy and patriarchal succession. (This opinion probably just lost me all people willing to agree.) To do a rediculously large oversimplification, Christianity is a basically a fairly innocuous rehash of the Cult of Dionysus, but bogged down with a huge stash of Hebrew political history and treatise that people keep trying to interpret in a religious light. (When in reality, it has the same relation to religion that Henry II claiming he acted by divine right did) Its too bad really, that the Cult of Mithras didn't become the dominant Dionysian cult in the early first millenium, it tended to be far nicer.
A healthy marriage is one in which the people involved mutually agree on what they expect of each other and follow through.
Two people lying together because they BOTH want to is the most healthy natural thing in the world. A very strong argument can be made that the Christian ideals you hold lead to insecure women with no confidence in themselves and an inability to enjoy sex; and men whose frustrations and feelings of guilt turn into violence and ultimately rape.
Christianity is the cause of the problems, not the solution.
Nope, that format is just not big enough to hold all of LOTR, at least in a DVD type format (that is, MPEG-2), unless you are willing to accept a downsampled video stream, each part of LOTR being >8GB. Now if there is a blue laser MPEG-4 player, that would rock.
What happened to DirectX and OpenGL?
Of course, Wormwood has the small problem of being not only repulsive to insects, but also poisonous to plants growing in soil near it, but thats just an engineering problem.
I use this often to argue that 16 year olds shouldn't be allowed to drive, because they're just not capable of it (experimental data and accident rates are clearly in support of this) However, they should be allowed to buy and consume alcohol, so they'll know how to handle it when they can drive. Data from Europe tends to show that this is also correct.
I would also like to point out that juveniles generally get totally screwed by the legal system, especially where I live. Offenses for which an adult is levied small fines frequently result in probation and/or community service for a minor.
Not according the perception of the outside world. Consider our *expletive* retarded *expletive* pretend president, shrub.
http://www.scopereviews.com/
The great irony about the NEO-GEO is that although it failed in the mass market, it has maintained a sufficient cult following that games continue to be released for it. In terms of staying power it was/is the greatest console of its era.
Once a company reaches a certain level of size and control of its given market they SHOULD lose much of their choices, because it is censorship, and it is dangerous. It is someone saying, "This you may not hear, this you may not see, this you are forbidden to know." It does not matter whether the entity is public or private. The decision whether or not to view something should rest ultimately with the consumer, and if some delicate little sensibilities are upset along the way, too bad.
Grow up. People bleed, People die. Babies aren't brought by the stork, and they don't come from under cabbage leaves. Real live is rated at least NC-17, and if you don't like it, live in a bubble, but there's no reason the rest of us should sacrifice to make it easy for you.
Here's a solution though, you could have two portions of a math test, have one part that was straight problems to work, factor, expand, etc, where calculator use is permitted, you could then have a second written part, where the questions would be of the form "Describe how to solve problem x without a calculator." The second part could be weighted so it would be most of the grade, as that's really the most important aspect. That method would also help to force more people to learn terminology. I think that could work marvelously for Algebra and above, and clearly below that no calculators should be permitted at all. I think that it is foolish to deny the existence of calculators in education, but its even worse if people have no understanding of math at all.
HP doesn't make calculators anymore, so unless you're a collector, its pretty much useless to plug them.
spot on rebuttal.
it seems like that would be terribly difficult to implement in a sub-$200 device
I hope these pan out. There are a couple of difficulties I see though, the retinal scanning aspects of MEMS displays would probably work a lot like a telescope eyepiece. You'd have to hold the device, or your head, at just the right place for the image to be in focus and on the correct part of your retina. That could definately prove cumbersome. The other displays he talks about sound great, but what are you going to use for a white light source that will produce a bright enough image? Can you make led's big enough to supply enough light for a 20-something inch screen? Otherwise they're going to have to use expensive bulbs that will have to be replaced regularly, and that would seem to give CRTs or LCDs the edge.
They may not kill people, but they're perfectly fine with having them kidnapped and detained. Just because they operate inside the law doesn't make their tactics legitimate. Laws are bought and sold, they are created by people whose interests are not those of society, at least to a frightening extent.
it might be that the 20 days of lost revenue is how long it took the bloody little #@%* to notice his spam was getting bounced. just a guess though.
Inkjets just irritate me to death. I've had experience with many from various manufacturers and none have ever been very reliable, and the @$%@&#! cartridges dry out over time. Besides I like my drab black and white papers. Black and white may be ugly, but it's ugly in an uncompromising, dignified sort of way. Lasers are glorious freedom, toner being far more robust.
Solar is not a viable solution for power, we just don't possess technology to obtain anywhere near the efficiency required. When someone designs a solar cell that is actually capable of converting a significant percentage of the sunlight that hits it to electricity, then there will be an alternative. Solar power isn't infinite eitherer, there is a very definite finite number of joules that fall on the earth at any given time, that amount would be sufficient to sustain our power needs if we had some way to convert enough of it, but we don't.
But seriously, considering this has given me more ammo for this argument.
Extension of copyright lengths is another biggie that indicates what I said is correct. If nothing ever falls into the public domain, it becomes much more difficult for artists/authors to produce anything at all without sanction of the major copyright holders. This gives the media industry a death grip on what we can see and experience.
The fact that indie musicians and online comics aren't as popular as traditional media is moot. The internet has only existed as any kind of significant force for less than ten years for crying out loud. The changes it has wrought in the past decade are like the first few years of the industrial revolution, which is really still playing out. We are still very much in the beginning of the digital revolution.
I would argue with this point. In what way do hackers differ from other people who make art on an amateur level? There are people who write, produce music, and produce visual arts non-commercially, and some of this material is damn good, such as Penny Arcade, PvP, or Megatokyo. This is true for all media forms and goes back to a central flaw in the media industry's argument.
They would like us to believe that without commercial distribution i.e them, media would not exist, but this is simply false. Money is not the sole reason people create art, they do so because they enjoy it. They whole idea copyright and IP in US is based around the idea that "Hmm, It would be nice if people who create art could charge for it, allowing them to more easily support themselves and create more." This initial idea was valid and good, but it has now been carried over to the extreme. The media industry now is essentially rabidly trying to destroy non-commercial media, as a threat to their profits.
The attitudes the RIAA shows towards independent labels and bands are really the opinions the media industry has about all amateurs, if we start amusing ourselves, we won't need them. This is why content creating is in danger from SSCA/CBDTPA. They want us to be locked into them with no other choice.
It would be very interesting if as an experiment, a group of young american adolescents had to read "Stranger in a Strange Land," and "Time Enough for Love." It might scandalize them sufficiently to allow them to grow up into normal sane human beings. Good Grief! Putting sex in a magical box seperate from all other human activities Is a Perversion! It is at the very least as sick as the ones people who hold puritanical attitudes try to suppress.
haven't you ever seen a projection screen NTSC TV up close? most of them I've seen look like crap, but resolution wise, this project would be superior to those, since even at 800x600 you're doing much better than a standard TV signal, even deinterlaced DVD only has 480 lines of resolution. The issues with this project are bulb-life, and the quality of the optical system through which you are projecting. If the optical quality can be made satisfatory, everything brought to correct focus and whatnot, then I'd be interested in building one of these.