This shouldn't be a troll since the definition of cult can be benign.
According to the wikipedia dictionary:
Cult: A group or doctrine with religious, philosophical or cultural identity sometimes viewed as a sect (sect: a group sharing particular (often unorthodox) political and/or religious beliefs), often existent on the margins of society and/or exploitative towards its members.
Note that the last part of the definition of a cult is optional, which really means that most basic definition of cult means 'a group with religious identity sharing religious beliefs.' The connotation of a group that controls it's members doesn't really apply to the above post.
I say this as a Catholic who recognizes that my Church is a cult. We are a minority in the world population (about 15% of the world population) and have many beliefs that outsiders and even many in our own church reject. Many people think the Church is out to control people, but those of us in the Church look at it differently, and I'm sure it's that way in many of the more popular cults.
When I studied in seminary, we had a teacher that would tell the story of when he taught his first class at the school, it still had the name from the previous semester, 'Creed and Cult.' He walked in that first day, and told the students they would be studying Creed (from the Latin 'to believe') and that Cult would be practiced in the chapel afterward. In that context, the word also carries with it the type of worship (rituals) that the group uses to commune with God.
Broadcast TV is free as a public service, and there are legitimate reasons people might want to have broadcast TV without paying for a service package. In this election year, debates and other government programming should remain available at no cost. This is an important part of a modern democracy, that is maintaining an educated public.
I and my wife only have cable TV because it's free with cable internet. We are contemplating a move out of town, beyond the service area of the cable company. If we do, the only TV service we will take will be broadcast, not satellite.
Frankly, we have too much on our hands to even watch the few things we have recorded on our recorder, but it would still be nice to have some service available for free.
Other reasons to carry and use a credit card for everyday use.
Credit cards are great for emergencies, the financial equivalent of a cell phone. It used to be, it was a good idea to have the checkbook with you at all times, because you couldn't be absolutely sure you wouldn't need a tow or have something else come up. Now days, the only three things I really need to carry when I leave the house are my keys, license, and credit card, and if I had one, a cell phone.
Additionally, checks are expensive, something like 5-10 cents a pop or more, but the credit company gives you a card, and replacements, for free. Using checks for everything would probably cost me $50 a year counting postage for monthly bills. Using online bill pay and credit cards, I can spread that same cost over 10 years.
Convenience. I've used pay at the pump since 1994 when I got my first debit card as a freshman in college. I've gone into the register more in the last 13 years to get my receipt (and now I don't bother) from the pump's printer being out of order or paper than to go inside to pay. I'm pretty sure the number of times I've had to pay inside is less than 15, and some of those are places that didn't have pay-at-the-pump then.
Cash back rewards. I get about 2% back (used to be higher, but Chase was being to generous before) in cash with the previous incarnation of their cash back reward program. I get almost 10 cents back for every gallon of gas I buy, which takes a little of the sting out. I get about $250 a year.
Free use of their money. I get to keep my money for an extra 5 weeks (3-7 week window from billing cycle to billing due date) and owe nothing as long as I pay by the due date. If I had a checking account that charged interest of 18%, that would amount to about $150 a year in interest savings on an average balance of $800, and with a checking account that pays 3%, I get $25 a year on money that I held on to until my bill date.
I live just outside of my state's capital, and I'm fortunate to live in a neighborhood that has cable TV, or I'd be stuck with dial-up.
We're considering moving across town, less than 2 miles from the nearest densely populated area, to an area where nice houses are lined up on country roads, but the house doesn't have any options for DSL or Cable. You'd think the cable company would want to put service in houses that cost above $200,000 since those people would probably be more likely to be able to pay for $100 packages, but for some reason they won't.
Well, in Christianity one of the core beliefs is the physical resurrection of the dead at some point in the future. But, for that to be the case, God is going to have to re-create, re-build, reconstruct the organs of anybody (at least those who are 'saved') whose body was destroyed by disease, burned to ashes, wasted away because of the centuries between the death and resurrection, etc. The body is considered sacred by many of various creeds, because we are our body, but many also see the value of organ donation.
For instance, I am Catholic, so I can really only speak to the Church's teaching. Cremation is only allowed if it's not done as a protest against the resurrection. I think organ donation is allowed without restriction.
For me, the only problem I have with this is somebody is profiting from it. I would prefer that the only person who 'profits' from my death be the recipient of my organs, but I'd prefer to think that my corpse is of more value to my family than the value they could sell it for.
I think one of the most unknown advantages the casino has that aren't taken into account in such comments are that the casino has deeper pockets than the players.
Imagine a scenario where we give 1000 typical casino guests $10,000 each, and told them to play a certain game as long as they want or until they bust. Very few players quit while they're ahead, because as long as you're winning, it's difficult to imagine losing, and the casino isn't going to quit the way a losing player will have to unless you're a player they recognize as a good player or a cheat. When the casino gets down 10,000, it keeps playing, and some players who double their money will lose it (and more) back. But, when a guest gets down 10,000, you have no choice but to stop.
Regardless of luck, as long as the casino eliminates their risk from good players and cheats, even a lucky player is likely to come out behind against the casino because they have to stop when they get far enough behind and never have the chance to hit their lucky streak to get ahead, that chance would dictate they would run into if they could play infinite hands, and random chance dictates that most players will get that far down at some point if they keep playing to build larger winnings or playing to get their money back.
For most of us, the only way to beat the casino is to be playing a different game, that is to enjoy yourself even when you lose, and to consider what you'll lose to be the cost of admission.
I had forgotten about number 7. For number 10, ebooks might move to passage/paragraph numbers.
11. Clutter: My wife hates my book collection because it takes up space. I still have the books because I might want to read them some day, but all I'm really interested in is the words, not the paper they're written on. Once we can store them on paper, they are stored on the reader and your computer, but you don't have to use physical space to store them. 12. Back-up-able: Put all your books on a physical disk the way you back up your pictures, and store in your bank safety deposit box the way you do your pictures, and your library is safe from most disasters that you'd have to worry about. 13. Organization: Instead of figuring out how to physically store your books, and having to remember where each title is, you can use tags (author, genre, etc.) or search instead. 14. Magazines and newspapers should become e-zines, and you should be able to have the entire collection of whatever magazine you like, or excerpt the articles you like and ditch the rest in short order. You should be able to pull your newspaper down from anywhere. Popular columnists can go 'independent,' and you would be able to get their newsletter, weekly column, etc. with one or two ads from their own website. 15. Lower cost of entry for authors: You might see books released directly by an author that can't find a publisher, but one big, good review, and they'd find an audience. The author would get nearly all of the money by setting up an account to bill readers who voluntarily pay like with the Radiohead and NIN recent web releases. Some might write a book, and offer to release it once a certain amount of money has been pre-paid against the release of the book by fans of the author who are waiting for the next release. This might result in the return of the serial, the original episodic content.
The only advantages to using a paper book are temporary (mostly technical) limitations that can eventually be overcome. The biggest obstacle will be the formatting and DRM issues (mentioned elsewhere, and which I agree with) and publisher reluctance, much like what the music industry is progressing through.
1. Searching: An index is nice, but I can think of times that I'd rather be able to search. 2. Portability: With an ebook reader, you can carry your entire library in a device the size of a piece of paper. Sure you have have to charge it, but you've got to sleep some time, right? 3. Commenting: The ability to markup the book without damaging it book in some way. 4. The ability to make as many bookmarks as you want. I don't know if any reader has instituted this yet, but this would be a killer feature that would allow you to mark all your favorite pages/passages so you can jump to any of them in a second. 5. Portable bookstore: Decide you want to read something but don't have the time to go to the bookstore, download the book to your computer or directly to your reader. 6. Unlimited selection: Everything ever published will eventually be available to be loaded on my ebook reader, but I have real difficulty with the selection available to me at local bookstores, especially with the lack of older titles available.
What is stopping me from getting into the ebook game now are the cost and features of the readers available. I never pay the early adopter tax, but within five years, I'll probably get a reader. I'm also not interested in paying the same price as I would at the bookstore for a new hardback, because the bookstore and it's share of the price shouldn't be necessary any longer, but as long as I can wait a year and get the book at half of the paperback cost, I'll be sold.
While most of what you say is correct, 'rhythm' incorrectly describes current methods of practice. Rhythm is only about 93% (thats 70 pregnancies per year per 1000 women) effective due primarily to the fact that ovulation can be delayed through sickness or the fact that some women naturally have longer cycles than the standard 28 days.
Modern methods are called Natural Family Planning, and require scientific observations and recording to accurately determine when a woman is actually fertile. There are three different styles of NFP called temperature only (4 days of elevated temps indicate post ovulation infertility), mucus only (Billings or Creighton, 4 days of lack of mucus after the fertile time), and the Symptothermal method (STM) (combines the other two, most commonly 3 days of both mucus and temperature indication of infertility). A German study into the effectiveness of the STM found it to be 99.6% effective when used correctly, that is 4 accidental pregnancies per 1000 women in one year. The actual effectiveness in the real world is 98.2%. Depending on what sources you use, hormonal contraceptives tend to be about 93% effective in real world use, with a perfect use rate similar to the STM.
Disclaimer: My wife and I use and teach STM NFP, but receive no financial benefit from it other than not having to pay for artificial methods.
You are correct. These are the people who believe every word of the Bible is literally true (except when it contracts their beliefs) despite the minor contradictions in the text that make it impossible for every passage to be identical. Compare John 19:17 against Mark 15:21.
Insiteful? He didn't get the group name right. Funny I suppose since Pornography and Phonographic look similar, and spanking can be a fetish and Pornographic . . .
According to Wikepedia, the KotOR video game set 4000 years prior to the movies had a 'Sith Armada' headed by Darth Malak. This Sith Armada seemed to be manned by many people referred to as Sith, but maybe by the time in the movies, the ordinary Sith are gone and there are just the two? While it would seem to be a very precarious situation for the Sith to only have two, maybe there is some way the Sith Lords can be rebooted in the event of the death of both?
Maybe it's not surviving that they are going for, but rather domination by the main Sith Lord, and having more than the one pair would lead to in-fighting, and Sith Lord would have no desire to share his knowledge and power with more than just his apprentice. He's too busy gaining or abusing power to have an entire class of Sith to train. Who knows if Lucas has even thought it out that far.
I used to do that, but when I got a DVR/DVD recorder from Toshiba that really changed the way we watch TV, although it seems like we might watch more now because we tend to watch more shows that require seeing every episode, but we find that we enjoy what we watch more, and we don't watch just to see what is on.
1. The quality of what we record is more to our interest than the average TV programming. Less interesting programming has no interest now. 2. Commercials are now gone, even if we choose to start watching just halfway through the program. Watching a program as it airs is less enticing because we would have to watch (mostly repetitive) commercials.
The quality of life difference is huge between before and now. We get to watch what we want, when we want, and in less time. I no longer feel like I'm missing out on going to the theater, because I know most movies will eventually come to my home, so I no longer feel the need to waste a gallon of gas and an hour (driving, waiting in line, previews) to watch a movie. I have almost no interest in going to the theater, and I had gift certificates to go to a free movie go unused for a year. Nothing at the theater is worth the time or inconvenience. Also, some stuff that seems interesting loses our interest after we've already gone to the effort of recording it but I don't feel like I've lost anything because I haven't gone to any effort beyond finding it in the listings and spending a minute to record it.
We might move soon to a location that doesn't have cable, and I don't know how my DVR will work with the digital converter we'll need next year for over the air digital TV. That might be the thing that gets us to drop TV as a family pass time.
The difference between other pictures being legal and child pornography being illegal is that the one taking the pictures is the one committing the illegal act being photographed, primarily for the purpose of profiting from the pictures. The demand for the pictures drives the crime, the abuse of the child and the taking of the pictures are the same act.
With other pictures, you're probably looking at a third party taking pictures of somebody else committing a crime, a crime that they are trying to profit from directly other than through the voyeurism element of having a picture taken. That is, if a carjacker steals a car in broad daylight, he didn't do it so that somebody else could get pictures of the act, he did it purely for the intent of taking the car from the driver. Anybody that got or sold pictures of the event didn't cause the crime, they just happened to be in the right place at the right time to take the picture.
All class A's should be re-designated as class B's, and entities that currently have class As that need more than a class B should be able to claim multiple class B's from their current class A.
I'm a contractor with the Postal Service (Class A 56) and I don't think we need the whole thing. Probably 50-75% of postal computers are individual post offices that access the network through a DSL (or in some small towns, dialup) and VPN. Data Centers and other large facilities should easily be able to fit in 1-10 class B's depending upon just how many sites there are.
But the applications are what keep people on Windows. Get people to move to a cross-platform software package, say Open Office, GnuCash, KDE desktop, FireFox browser, vlc and flash for video, and a couple of nice games, then when people have the option of getting Windows or Linux the next time around, Microsoft will lose a customer or have to drop their price to stay in the game.
Well, it's not as if he had much of a choice of what to say, to maintain consistency with church doctrine. If he encouraged it, there would come some rather unpleasant questions as to what, exactly, would require baptism; if a cloned person has a cloned soul; whether you receive some of the soul of the fetus that gave the stem cells when, for whatever reason, you use said stem cells--all a bunch of nasty theological problems. It's not so much an issue on the state of the soul, since all souls (if such a thing exists) are created by God on demand. I'm not sure how God would handle the issue of cloned beings and souls. What the Catholic Church is concerned with on this issue is that God is the Creator of all life, and he has created a perfectly good method of creating new individuals that also is an important way for humans to learn who God is. In Catholic theology, human sexual expression is an imitation of the Trinity, where the Father's great intellect is the Son, and the love between the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit, and he has given us the gift of sexuality as a way of imitating him by men and women procreating to make children which are the physical manifestation of their love for one another. Any act of sex that rejects this principle, or life creating that does not happen through sex is always to be a violation God's will.
Unlike the common misconception that the Church does not like sex is strongly misguided, otherwise the Church would be doing God a great disservice to associate him so closely with sex. The Church just disagrees with the way that many people chose to express their sexuality.
For more or this teaching, look up the Theology of the Body, a phrase that refers to the sexual teachings of John Paul II.
Every time I've used it, it's because there is no line in the self checkout but the wait is more than 5 minutes to get to the front of a regular line. The payoff is that I can check out in 3-5 minutes instead of 10-15. If the Self-check lanes have a similar wait to a regular register, I choose to go with the clerk.
The thing I'd really like to see wireless power for? Transportation, by building this system right into the roads and billing your car for the amount of electricity used. Cars would be lighter, reducing the amount of electricity that would be required to move the vehicle. This would also eliminate the need for batteries meaning unlimited range. I'd be interested to see what would happen to automotive design if the power plant of a car was no longer necessary.
The only problem with this is the engine/batteries are all that keep some cars on the road on very windy days, and trucks pulling weight would have to some mass to maintain traction.
Figure in the fact that voting rights in Google are held in the not-publicly-traded preferred stock, and Microsoft could buy every share of common stock on the open market, and still not be able affect Google's business one bit. They couldn't hire anybody, fire anybody, or force the company to sell. The common stock available on the market only gives shareholders the right to share in the profits, not affect the direction of the company.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, because there's no way the Church's position might have done some good, right?
This shouldn't be a troll since the definition of cult can be benign.
According to the wikipedia dictionary:
Cult: A group or doctrine with religious, philosophical or cultural identity sometimes viewed as a sect (sect: a group sharing particular (often unorthodox) political and/or religious beliefs), often existent on the margins of society and/or exploitative towards its members.
Note that the last part of the definition of a cult is optional, which really means that most basic definition of cult means 'a group with religious identity sharing religious beliefs.' The connotation of a group that controls it's members doesn't really apply to the above post.
I say this as a Catholic who recognizes that my Church is a cult. We are a minority in the world population (about 15% of the world population) and have many beliefs that outsiders and even many in our own church reject. Many people think the Church is out to control people, but those of us in the Church look at it differently, and I'm sure it's that way in many of the more popular cults.
When I studied in seminary, we had a teacher that would tell the story of when he taught his first class at the school, it still had the name from the previous semester, 'Creed and Cult.' He walked in that first day, and told the students they would be studying Creed (from the Latin 'to believe') and that Cult would be practiced in the chapel afterward. In that context, the word also carries with it the type of worship (rituals) that the group uses to commune with God.
http://polishlinux.org/apps/educational-programs-in-gnulinux/
Broadcast TV is free as a public service, and there are legitimate reasons people might want to have broadcast TV without paying for a service package. In this election year, debates and other government programming should remain available at no cost. This is an important part of a modern democracy, that is maintaining an educated public.
I and my wife only have cable TV because it's free with cable internet. We are contemplating a move out of town, beyond the service area of the cable company. If we do, the only TV service we will take will be broadcast, not satellite.
Frankly, we have too much on our hands to even watch the few things we have recorded on our recorder, but it would still be nice to have some service available for free.
Other reasons to carry and use a credit card for everyday use.
Credit cards are great for emergencies, the financial equivalent of a cell phone. It used to be, it was a good idea to have the checkbook with you at all times, because you couldn't be absolutely sure you wouldn't need a tow or have something else come up. Now days, the only three things I really need to carry when I leave the house are my keys, license, and credit card, and if I had one, a cell phone.
Additionally, checks are expensive, something like 5-10 cents a pop or more, but the credit company gives you a card, and replacements, for free. Using checks for everything would probably cost me $50 a year counting postage for monthly bills. Using online bill pay and credit cards, I can spread that same cost over 10 years.
Convenience. I've used pay at the pump since 1994 when I got my first debit card as a freshman in college. I've gone into the register more in the last 13 years to get my receipt (and now I don't bother) from the pump's printer being out of order or paper than to go inside to pay. I'm pretty sure the number of times I've had to pay inside is less than 15, and some of those are places that didn't have pay-at-the-pump then.
Cash back rewards. I get about 2% back (used to be higher, but Chase was being to generous before) in cash with the previous incarnation of their cash back reward program. I get almost 10 cents back for every gallon of gas I buy, which takes a little of the sting out. I get about $250 a year.
Free use of their money. I get to keep my money for an extra 5 weeks (3-7 week window from billing cycle to billing due date) and owe nothing as long as I pay by the due date. If I had a checking account that charged interest of 18%, that would amount to about $150 a year in interest savings on an average balance of $800, and with a checking account that pays 3%, I get $25 a year on money that I held on to until my bill date.
I live just outside of my state's capital, and I'm fortunate to live in a neighborhood that has cable TV, or I'd be stuck with dial-up.
We're considering moving across town, less than 2 miles from the nearest densely populated area, to an area where nice houses are lined up on country roads, but the house doesn't have any options for DSL or Cable. You'd think the cable company would want to put service in houses that cost above $200,000 since those people would probably be more likely to be able to pay for $100 packages, but for some reason they won't.
That can be arranged. Don't turn around, this won't hurt a bit.
Well, in Christianity one of the core beliefs is the physical resurrection of the dead at some point in the future. But, for that to be the case, God is going to have to re-create, re-build, reconstruct the organs of anybody (at least those who are 'saved') whose body was destroyed by disease, burned to ashes, wasted away because of the centuries between the death and resurrection, etc. The body is considered sacred by many of various creeds, because we are our body, but many also see the value of organ donation.
For instance, I am Catholic, so I can really only speak to the Church's teaching. Cremation is only allowed if it's not done as a protest against the resurrection. I think organ donation is allowed without restriction.
For me, the only problem I have with this is somebody is profiting from it. I would prefer that the only person who 'profits' from my death be the recipient of my organs, but I'd prefer to think that my corpse is of more value to my family than the value they could sell it for.
I think one of the most unknown advantages the casino has that aren't taken into account in such comments are that the casino has deeper pockets than the players.
Imagine a scenario where we give 1000 typical casino guests $10,000 each, and told them to play a certain game as long as they want or until they bust. Very few players quit while they're ahead, because as long as you're winning, it's difficult to imagine losing, and the casino isn't going to quit the way a losing player will have to unless you're a player they recognize as a good player or a cheat. When the casino gets down 10,000, it keeps playing, and some players who double their money will lose it (and more) back. But, when a guest gets down 10,000, you have no choice but to stop.
Regardless of luck, as long as the casino eliminates their risk from good players and cheats, even a lucky player is likely to come out behind against the casino because they have to stop when they get far enough behind and never have the chance to hit their lucky streak to get ahead, that chance would dictate they would run into if they could play infinite hands, and random chance dictates that most players will get that far down at some point if they keep playing to build larger winnings or playing to get their money back.
For most of us, the only way to beat the casino is to be playing a different game, that is to enjoy yourself even when you lose, and to consider what you'll lose to be the cost of admission.
I had forgotten about number 7. For number 10, ebooks might move to passage/paragraph numbers.
11. Clutter: My wife hates my book collection because it takes up space. I still have the books because I might want to read them some day, but all I'm really interested in is the words, not the paper they're written on. Once we can store them on paper, they are stored on the reader and your computer, but you don't have to use physical space to store them.
12. Back-up-able: Put all your books on a physical disk the way you back up your pictures, and store in your bank safety deposit box the way you do your pictures, and your library is safe from most disasters that you'd have to worry about.
13. Organization: Instead of figuring out how to physically store your books, and having to remember where each title is, you can use tags (author, genre, etc.) or search instead.
14. Magazines and newspapers should become e-zines, and you should be able to have the entire collection of whatever magazine you like, or excerpt the articles you like and ditch the rest in short order. You should be able to pull your newspaper down from anywhere. Popular columnists can go 'independent,' and you would be able to get their newsletter, weekly column, etc. with one or two ads from their own website.
15. Lower cost of entry for authors: You might see books released directly by an author that can't find a publisher, but one big, good review, and they'd find an audience. The author would get nearly all of the money by setting up an account to bill readers who voluntarily pay like with the Radiohead and NIN recent web releases. Some might write a book, and offer to release it once a certain amount of money has been pre-paid against the release of the book by fans of the author who are waiting for the next release. This might result in the return of the serial, the original episodic content.
The only advantages to using a paper book are temporary (mostly technical) limitations that can eventually be overcome. The biggest obstacle will be the formatting and DRM issues (mentioned elsewhere, and which I agree with) and publisher reluctance, much like what the music industry is progressing through.
1. Searching: An index is nice, but I can think of times that I'd rather be able to search.
2. Portability: With an ebook reader, you can carry your entire library in a device the size of a piece of paper. Sure you have have to charge it, but you've got to sleep some time, right?
3. Commenting: The ability to markup the book without damaging it book in some way.
4. The ability to make as many bookmarks as you want. I don't know if any reader has instituted this yet, but this would be a killer feature that would allow you to mark all your favorite pages/passages so you can jump to any of them in a second.
5. Portable bookstore: Decide you want to read something but don't have the time to go to the bookstore, download the book to your computer or directly to your reader.
6. Unlimited selection: Everything ever published will eventually be available to be loaded on my ebook reader, but I have real difficulty with the selection available to me at local bookstores, especially with the lack of older titles available.
What is stopping me from getting into the ebook game now are the cost and features of the readers available. I never pay the early adopter tax, but within five years, I'll probably get a reader. I'm also not interested in paying the same price as I would at the bookstore for a new hardback, because the bookstore and it's share of the price shouldn't be necessary any longer, but as long as I can wait a year and get the book at half of the paperback cost, I'll be sold.
While most of what you say is correct, 'rhythm' incorrectly describes current methods of practice. Rhythm is only about 93% (thats 70 pregnancies per year per 1000 women) effective due primarily to the fact that ovulation can be delayed through sickness or the fact that some women naturally have longer cycles than the standard 28 days.
Modern methods are called Natural Family Planning, and require scientific observations and recording to accurately determine when a woman is actually fertile. There are three different styles of NFP called temperature only (4 days of elevated temps indicate post ovulation infertility), mucus only (Billings or Creighton, 4 days of lack of mucus after the fertile time), and the Symptothermal method (STM) (combines the other two, most commonly 3 days of both mucus and temperature indication of infertility). A German study into the effectiveness of the STM found it to be 99.6% effective when used correctly, that is 4 accidental pregnancies per 1000 women in one year. The actual effectiveness in the real world is 98.2%. Depending on what sources you use, hormonal contraceptives tend to be about 93% effective in real world use, with a perfect use rate similar to the STM.
Disclaimer: My wife and I use and teach STM NFP, but receive no financial benefit from it other than not having to pay for artificial methods.
They probably need it to run Windows for Warships properly. You wouldn't want to run out of cycles in the middle of a battlefield.
You are correct. These are the people who believe every word of the Bible is literally true (except when it contracts their beliefs) despite the minor contradictions in the text that make it impossible for every passage to be identical. Compare John 19:17 against Mark 15:21.
Insiteful? He didn't get the group name right. Funny I suppose since Pornography and Phonographic look similar, and spanking can be a fetish and Pornographic . . .
AWW screw it.
According to Wikepedia, the KotOR video game set 4000 years prior to the movies had a 'Sith Armada' headed by Darth Malak. This Sith Armada seemed to be manned by many people referred to as Sith, but maybe by the time in the movies, the ordinary Sith are gone and there are just the two? While it would seem to be a very precarious situation for the Sith to only have two, maybe there is some way the Sith Lords can be rebooted in the event of the death of both?
Maybe it's not surviving that they are going for, but rather domination by the main Sith Lord, and having more than the one pair would lead to in-fighting, and Sith Lord would have no desire to share his knowledge and power with more than just his apprentice. He's too busy gaining or abusing power to have an entire class of Sith to train. Who knows if Lucas has even thought it out that far.
I used to do that, but when I got a DVR/DVD recorder from Toshiba that really changed the way we watch TV, although it seems like we might watch more now because we tend to watch more shows that require seeing every episode, but we find that we enjoy what we watch more, and we don't watch just to see what is on.
1. The quality of what we record is more to our interest than the average TV programming. Less interesting programming has no interest now.
2. Commercials are now gone, even if we choose to start watching just halfway through the program. Watching a program as it airs is less enticing because we would have to watch (mostly repetitive) commercials.
The quality of life difference is huge between before and now. We get to watch what we want, when we want, and in less time. I no longer feel like I'm missing out on going to the theater, because I know most movies will eventually come to my home, so I no longer feel the need to waste a gallon of gas and an hour (driving, waiting in line, previews) to watch a movie. I have almost no interest in going to the theater, and I had gift certificates to go to a free movie go unused for a year. Nothing at the theater is worth the time or inconvenience. Also, some stuff that seems interesting loses our interest after we've already gone to the effort of recording it but I don't feel like I've lost anything because I haven't gone to any effort beyond finding it in the listings and spending a minute to record it.
We might move soon to a location that doesn't have cable, and I don't know how my DVR will work with the digital converter we'll need next year for over the air digital TV. That might be the thing that gets us to drop TV as a family pass time.
The difference between other pictures being legal and child pornography being illegal is that the one taking the pictures is the one committing the illegal act being photographed, primarily for the purpose of profiting from the pictures. The demand for the pictures drives the crime, the abuse of the child and the taking of the pictures are the same act.
With other pictures, you're probably looking at a third party taking pictures of somebody else committing a crime, a crime that they are trying to profit from directly other than through the voyeurism element of having a picture taken. That is, if a carjacker steals a car in broad daylight, he didn't do it so that somebody else could get pictures of the act, he did it purely for the intent of taking the car from the driver. Anybody that got or sold pictures of the event didn't cause the crime, they just happened to be in the right place at the right time to take the picture.
All class A's should be re-designated as class B's, and entities that currently have class As that need more than a class B should be able to claim multiple class B's from their current class A.
I'm a contractor with the Postal Service (Class A 56) and I don't think we need the whole thing. Probably 50-75% of postal computers are individual post offices that access the network through a DSL (or in some small towns, dialup) and VPN. Data Centers and other large facilities should easily be able to fit in 1-10 class B's depending upon just how many sites there are.
But the applications are what keep people on Windows. Get people to move to a cross-platform software package, say Open Office, GnuCash, KDE desktop, FireFox browser, vlc and flash for video, and a couple of nice games, then when people have the option of getting Windows or Linux the next time around, Microsoft will lose a customer or have to drop their price to stay in the game.
Unlike the common misconception that the Church does not like sex is strongly misguided, otherwise the Church would be doing God a great disservice to associate him so closely with sex. The Church just disagrees with the way that many people chose to express their sexuality.
For more or this teaching, look up the Theology of the Body, a phrase that refers to the sexual teachings of John Paul II.
Every time I've used it, it's because there is no line in the self checkout but the wait is more than 5 minutes to get to the front of a regular line. The payoff is that I can check out in 3-5 minutes instead of 10-15. If the Self-check lanes have a similar wait to a regular register, I choose to go with the clerk.
The thing I'd really like to see wireless power for? Transportation, by building this system right into the roads and billing your car for the amount of electricity used. Cars would be lighter, reducing the amount of electricity that would be required to move the vehicle. This would also eliminate the need for batteries meaning unlimited range. I'd be interested to see what would happen to automotive design if the power plant of a car was no longer necessary.
The only problem with this is the engine/batteries are all that keep some cars on the road on very windy days, and trucks pulling weight would have to some mass to maintain traction.
Figure in the fact that voting rights in Google are held in the not-publicly-traded preferred stock, and Microsoft could buy every share of common stock on the open market, and still not be able affect Google's business one bit. They couldn't hire anybody, fire anybody, or force the company to sell. The common stock available on the market only gives shareholders the right to share in the profits, not affect the direction of the company.
The winner of the Google Lander program land on the moon.