The author of this opinion piece claims that people 1000 times smarter than we currently are might not want the same things we want (such as meeting aliens), but since he is not 1000 times smarter, he really isn't in the position to tell us.
What terrifies me is people that believe the ONLY source of morality is exactly that in the form of their religion. When some one makes claims like that, what they really just said is "I see no reason not to rip you apart with my bare hands right now except the external moral authority told me not too and/or/because I would be punished if I did".
I'll apologize in advance for continuing this way off topic thread. I don't typically respond to AC's, but I'll make an exception. I am a Christian, and I make no secret of it. If you (not you specifically, but any person in general) believe the teachings of the Christian church, that means you believe that there is only one God, and faith in Jesus Christ is the only means of salvation. If you believe in Christ, you understand that there is no way that you on your own could ever "good enough" to obtain eternal life in Heaven (Romans 3:20-24), so you don't behave out of fear of punishment. Jesus Christ has already paid for the punishment that everyone deserves for their sins. You behave because of what Christ has commanded you to do: "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Mark 12:30-31). I'll be the first to admit that I, like many Christians, fall short of this standard on many occasions.
And I'm really off topic but I think religious believers should get the help they need for their condition. That is, when you find out your full grown friend or coworker seriously believes in the Easter Bunny you wouldn't shoot him or take his kids, you'd try to help him. Remember, these people are a combination of a handful of nutty bars and opportunistic power hungry people up to no good but mainly victims of life long brainwashing and conditioning.
I don't need any help, and don't need have any condition. I don't want to wield any control over anyone else, and there aren't any people in the church who are trying to wield power over me. It's not like as if Christians, or people of any other religion have a monopoly over love of power, we've seen that with terrible effect in many 20th/21st century secular states.
I grew up in the church, but I wouldn't say that I really understood it, and wasn't really too committed to the little I did understand. Then I went to college and fell far away from my Christian faith. I was somewhere between atheist and agnostic during that time. I neither knew, nor cared if there was a God. I believed everything in the world could be answered naturalistically and science could answer all mankind's questions.
After I got married, my wife wanted to go to church, so I started going with her. I am a skeptic by nature, and a lot of questions I wanted answered. I decided that if there really could be a God, then that must be the most important thing there could be to know, so I started doing lots of research. I searched for answers to the questions I had, both from skeptics and Christian apologetic/theological sources. Somehow, I usually found the skeptics' answers ringing hollow. The apologetic answers were structured in a more logically consistent manner, and made more sense to me. After much study, thought and prayer, I eventually came back to faith in God. I also know that this was not due to anything I did, but rather it was a gift of Grace through the Holy Spirit moving me toward faith. (Titus 3:3-8)
I still don't have all the answers to all my questions, but I am mostly satisfied with the answers I have received. That doesn't mean that I stop asking the questions or searching for the answers, I do continue to seek them. At the same time, I also understand that there are some questions that I will never have the answers to, and that it is not possible for a finite being like myself to fully understand an infinite being like God.
If you don't inherently understand how forcing people to pray to your god is an infringement of their freedom of religion, you will never understand it.
Way to put words in someone's mouth. Straw man, have you heard of it?
Where the morals or ethics came from is irrelevent.
It's only irrelevant if they don't come from anywhere. If there is a source of objective morality, it is of the utmost relevance.
Many religions have some good ideas at their core, it's just that they eventually tend to be used by people to wield power over others.
Just like everything else. No matter what system you have in place, somebody is going to feel oppressed. Political correctness, affirmative action, wealth redistribution all help some people while harming others. I've seen atheists recommend taking children away from Christians who bring their children to church because it is child abuse. A completely secular society would not be a panacea.
I agree that security on peoples' private phones is important, but I have no idea why the ACLU is getting involved. It's one thing to fight against government intrusion into privacy, and quite another to fight to have the government compel private companies to force updates on users' phones.
No, it's not sad, it's logical given past experience. I'm not typically into conspiracy theories, but I can already see this as some sort of attempt to try and sway people on gun control. They'll find some way to link this to a militia group or something like that.
isn't that the whole point of a tablet? light use on the road? it was never meant to replace a Mac, PC or desktop software
It all depends. You definitely need light-weight on a phone, which was kind of my point. Some places are using iPads and other tables as PC replacements, so some of those features that aren't included in the current crop are definitely needed.
either way you don't need the entire MS Office on a mobile device. just a few features to use on the road or train
Depends on the mobile device. I have Numbers for my iPhone, and it's a complete pain in the neck to do any editing on it. The only redeeming quality is that it uses iCloud, so I only use it to view documents I've created on my Mac, making only minor corrections as necessary. But if you're using a tablet with a Bluetooth keyboard, you'd definitely want more features than many of the light-weight word processors that are available can offer.
Sure, EA screwed the pooch on the SimCity release, but at least they aren't on the government lobbyist gravy train like AMD, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Monsanto, etc. These companies use the government to screw over the public. At least with EA you have the choice to not buy their products. With the others, you're paying for their products whether you use them or not, either in the form of subsidies or flat-out money grabs.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not afraid of a pocketknife. I'm just amused (horrified) that they're letting the thing that caused this whole mess back on the plane, but not abolishing the TSA or their fascist policies.
Personally, I think they should give every passenger a knife when they get on board.
There are also a few flaws with your assumptions: 1) Many states do not collect any form of sales tax. Do you still charge a tax to those who don't pay sales taxes under ordinary circumstances? 2) FTA, this deals with only the states. It doesn't seem likely that they would also lump city sales taxes in with this. That would be equivalent to a city charging a sales tax on their residents when they buy something physically outside the borders of their city. 3) I doubt most states will be satisfied with a 5% tax. I know my state charges more, and some states like California charge much more than that. It won't fly simply for that reason.
How is suggesting interacting with a single bureaucracy worse than dealing with 50?
How difficult is it to query a database for transactions based on sales by state, multiply that total by the tax rate and EFT a payment? Yes, it will be slightly more complicated than that, but it really shouldn't be. From a programming standpoint, it should be fairly trivial. The one way that the Feds could be helpful would be by requiring standardized reporting for the states.
Slashdot Mirror
I think what she meant was "You can't win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket".
Yes, but you always save a $1 (or more) every time you don't buy a lottery ticket. ;-)
The author of this opinion piece claims that people 1000 times smarter than we currently are might not want the same things we want (such as meeting aliens), but since he is not 1000 times smarter, he really isn't in the position to tell us.
Do you really think that the end result will be better, and not worse?
No, it will almost certainly be worse.
how many employees are there? just him?
FTA:
Rather, it's that people just like to stay: Dropcam has hired 30 workers to date, and it's never had to give a single going-away party.
What terrifies me is people that believe the ONLY source of morality is exactly that in the form of their religion. When some one makes claims like that, what they really just said is "I see no reason not to rip you apart with my bare hands right now except the external moral authority told me not too and/or/because I would be punished if I did".
I'll apologize in advance for continuing this way off topic thread. I don't typically respond to AC's, but I'll make an exception. I am a Christian, and I make no secret of it. If you (not you specifically, but any person in general) believe the teachings of the Christian church, that means you believe that there is only one God, and faith in Jesus Christ is the only means of salvation. If you believe in Christ, you understand that there is no way that you on your own could ever "good enough" to obtain eternal life in Heaven (Romans 3:20-24), so you don't behave out of fear of punishment. Jesus Christ has already paid for the punishment that everyone deserves for their sins. You behave because of what Christ has commanded you to do: "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Mark 12:30-31). I'll be the first to admit that I, like many Christians, fall short of this standard on many occasions.
And I'm really off topic but I think religious believers should get the help they need for their condition. That is, when you find out your full grown friend or coworker seriously believes in the Easter Bunny you wouldn't shoot him or take his kids, you'd try to help him. Remember, these people are a combination of a handful of nutty bars and opportunistic power hungry people up to no good but mainly victims of life long brainwashing and conditioning.
I don't need any help, and don't need have any condition. I don't want to wield any control over anyone else, and there aren't any people in the church who are trying to wield power over me. It's not like as if Christians, or people of any other religion have a monopoly over love of power, we've seen that with terrible effect in many 20th/21st century secular states.
I grew up in the church, but I wouldn't say that I really understood it, and wasn't really too committed to the little I did understand. Then I went to college and fell far away from my Christian faith. I was somewhere between atheist and agnostic during that time. I neither knew, nor cared if there was a God. I believed everything in the world could be answered naturalistically and science could answer all mankind's questions.
After I got married, my wife wanted to go to church, so I started going with her. I am a skeptic by nature, and a lot of questions I wanted answered. I decided that if there really could be a God, then that must be the most important thing there could be to know, so I started doing lots of research. I searched for answers to the questions I had, both from skeptics and Christian apologetic/theological sources. Somehow, I usually found the skeptics' answers ringing hollow. The apologetic answers were structured in a more logically consistent manner, and made more sense to me. After much study, thought and prayer, I eventually came back to faith in God. I also know that this was not due to anything I did, but rather it was a gift of Grace through the Holy Spirit moving me toward faith. (Titus 3:3-8)
I still don't have all the answers to all my questions, but I am mostly satisfied with the answers I have received. That doesn't mean that I stop asking the questions or searching for the answers, I do continue to seek them. At the same time, I also understand that there are some questions that I will never have the answers to, and that it is not possible for a finite being like myself to fully understand an infinite being like God.
If you don't inherently understand how forcing people to pray to your god is an infringement of their freedom of religion, you will never understand it.
Way to put words in someone's mouth. Straw man, have you heard of it?
How about a party name that doesn't implicitly say the others are 'anti Justice'?
Wait... you mean they aren't? Don't worry, I'm sure if the Justice party was in power, they'd be just as anti-justice as the rest of them. :-D
Where the morals or ethics came from is irrelevent.
It's only irrelevant if they don't come from anywhere. If there is a source of objective morality, it is of the utmost relevance.
Many religions have some good ideas at their core, it's just that they eventually tend to be used by people to wield power over others.
Just like everything else. No matter what system you have in place, somebody is going to feel oppressed. Political correctness, affirmative action, wealth redistribution all help some people while harming others. I've seen atheists recommend taking children away from Christians who bring their children to church because it is child abuse. A completely secular society would not be a panacea.
The term is gerrymandering.
Al Qaeda can never win militarily.
No, they win by bankrupting us to fund the expanding police state.
I agree that security on peoples' private phones is important, but I have no idea why the ACLU is getting involved. It's one thing to fight against government intrusion into privacy, and quite another to fight to have the government compel private companies to force updates on users' phones.
there is a set amount of gold on earth.
That may be true, but I'm kinda thinking that we haven't found it all yet...
one Walter White, described as a mild-mannered, former High School Chemistry teacher.
No, it's not sad, it's logical given past experience. I'm not typically into conspiracy theories, but I can already see this as some sort of attempt to try and sway people on gun control. They'll find some way to link this to a militia group or something like that.
isn't that the whole point of a tablet? light use on the road? it was never meant to replace a Mac, PC or desktop software
It all depends. You definitely need light-weight on a phone, which was kind of my point. Some places are using iPads and other tables as PC replacements, so some of those features that aren't included in the current crop are definitely needed.
either way you don't need the entire MS Office on a mobile device. just a few features to use on the road or train
Depends on the mobile device. I have Numbers for my iPhone, and it's a complete pain in the neck to do any editing on it. The only redeeming quality is that it uses iCloud, so I only use it to view documents I've created on my Mac, making only minor corrections as necessary. But if you're using a tablet with a Bluetooth keyboard, you'd definitely want more features than many of the light-weight word processors that are available can offer.
Yes, sorry. I typed that in haste, was definitely referring to Arch Daniels Midland (ADM), not Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).
Sure, EA screwed the pooch on the SimCity release, but at least they aren't on the government lobbyist gravy train like AMD, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Monsanto, etc. These companies use the government to screw over the public. At least with EA you have the choice to not buy their products. With the others, you're paying for their products whether you use them or not, either in the form of subsidies or flat-out money grabs.
My personal favorite was Black Knight 2000. I'd love to get one, but the cost of the cabinet is way too high.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not afraid of a pocketknife. I'm just amused (horrified) that they're letting the thing that caused this whole mess back on the plane, but not abolishing the TSA or their fascist policies.
Personally, I think they should give every passenger a knife when they get on board.
The layout of this article was awful. Here's the print version so you can see them all on one page.
There are also a few flaws with your assumptions:
1) Many states do not collect any form of sales tax. Do you still charge a tax to those who don't pay sales taxes under ordinary circumstances?
2) FTA, this deals with only the states. It doesn't seem likely that they would also lump city sales taxes in with this. That would be equivalent to a city charging a sales tax on their residents when they buy something physically outside the borders of their city.
3) I doubt most states will be satisfied with a 5% tax. I know my state charges more, and some states like California charge much more than that. It won't fly simply for that reason.
Yes, but you're ignoring what is happening after step 4...
How is suggesting interacting with a single bureaucracy worse than dealing with 50?
How difficult is it to query a database for transactions based on sales by state, multiply that total by the tax rate and EFT a payment? Yes, it will be slightly more complicated than that, but it really shouldn't be. From a programming standpoint, it should be fairly trivial. The one way that the Feds could be helpful would be by requiring standardized reporting for the states.
If you'll check a history book, you'll find the rallying cry was not "No Taxation" but rather "No Taxation Without Representation". Huge difference.
Yes, taxation without representation was cheaper.