The BRM is practically irrelevant since the only changes to the document will be editorial in nature. None of the objectionable technical content will be changed because Microsoft has already released its products.
So, the only relevant issue now is how many new bullshit third-world countries will include themselves in the process (assuming they still can) and tip the vote.
the leaders of the church (the Pope and his underlings) had received all of God's teachings directly, through oral tradition and through the direct (miraculous) transmission of the Holy Spirit.
So, the stories go from a messianic cult leader to his indoctrinated cult members to decades of oral traditions to a political process that chose the thin selection of material to include in the religious cannon. None of these sources are in any way reliable. The only question is in which steps each of the "magic" elements of the story got added. Christ's divinity was decided by a non-unanimous majority of the men present at the Council of Council of Nicaea. The virgin-birth story was plagiarized from a book written 500 years earlier. You'll forgive me if I don't buy into the Holy Spirit fixing all of the errors and exaggerations introduced in the transmission process.
A lot of religious people seem to think that rational analysis cannot be applied to their beliefs; however, it certainly can be applied to the history of their sacred religious cannon and its history stinks pretty badly. At first, I thought you were being facetious about oral traditions being direct or in any way reliable, but I guess not. Have you ever compared the tenth generation of a rumour to its original story?
Clinton did far better than the exit poll numbers in the locales which were tallied by LHS from Diebold (now Premier) machines, while Obama won in the municipalities which were counted by hand.
In other words, Clinton is more popular in urban areas and Obama is more popular in rural areas.
The agnostic says: "It can't be proven either way, so I don't care."
Stated this way, the agnostic is drawing an absolute conclusion without evidence. If the Christian God were to show up in Times Square tomorrow and give an irrefutable demonstration of who he is, then it would be proven.
There is also more to the atheist position than just ignoring everything without evidence. An intelligent person will examine the history and evolution of religion and mythology and the vulnerability of laypeople to believing superstitious things and will connect the dots. An atheist doesn't necessarily positively assert that there is no God, but merely gives the theist argument the same weight as any other ludicrous proposition that has no evidence. There is a teapot in orbit around Pluto. Prove that there isn't. The Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe five minutes ago. Prove that he didn't.
A "hard" atheist who does positively assert that there is no God is going a step too far and making the same error as the agnostic in the above example. The correct statement is that it is ludicrous to believe in a God.
mostly out of fear - leave and maybe get the wrath of god as preached by almost every religion
Yes, but they are already going to face the wrath of the god(s) of every religion except for one. What's one more? He'll only be getting the charred ashes after the other gods are through with you anyway.
That's a rather glib comment that flies in the face of thousands of years of wise, intelligent and educated people advocating just such a belief and their opponents disagreeing, but not calling it an oxymoron.
I believe you are wrong; therefore, you are wrong. Hey, you're right—justification by faith does work! Belief in the Flying Spaghetti Monster gives me comfort; therefore, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is true in absolute reality. Cool. What a powerful weapon!
Apple Matters on recent trends in OS market share that says that while OS X has seen continual growth, from 4.21% in Jan 2006 to 7.31% in December 2007 at the same time, Linux's percentage has risen from only 0.29% to 0.63%.
Apple Matters on recent trends in OS market share that says that while OS X has seen continual growth, up 74% from Jan 2006 to December 2007, at the same time, Linux's share has risen only 117%. There, fixed that for you.
could self-correct for any flaw we discover by simply rewriting the memories of any experiences we had, or deleting and replaying that part of the simulation with different variables. Again, since our experience is wholly under the control of the simulation, we again would be none the wiser.
The Flying Spaghetti Monster does this every instant of every day. This makes Pastafarianism logically sound while other religions are a mass of contradictions.
Do you really think someone who is willing to hijack a plane and then fly it into a skyscraper doesn't already have a poker face?
The easiest-to-get suicide attackers are young and inexperienced religious idealists who are looking for the easiest and quickest ticket into heaven. I wonder what they do on the 73rd day of eternity.
information overload is being predicted by some analysts as the problem of the year for 2008.
Sure, why not? I have been hearing how people were going to be overloaded by information every year for the past 25 years. Seems a lot like predictions of the imminent demise of the Internet. Or how if you watched a puppy growing for the first month of its life, you would conclude that it will be 400 feet tall in six years. Funny how these things never seem to come to fruition. Perhaps there is some kind of compensating force at work.
But for some reason, we're afraid to blow up the occasional person to get into space. We need to get over that.
China doesn't mind blowing people up for the glory of the empire. This is why the next people to step foot on the moon and the first people to step foot on Mars will be Chinese. The US is no longer in the space race.
Gotta say, that's about the level of logic and justification that I'm used to seeing from Harper. Sad isn't it.
And what will you be saying four months from now when the site is up to snuff, people all around the world have gotten their medical tests all along, and there has been no nuclear accident? Will you be saying that Harper was wrong?
Granted, the logical thing for Harper to say would have been "There is a 99.9999972% probability that there will be no nuclear accident." But then, the general public doesn't have much comprehension of probabilities.
To me, this a simple matter of priorities, and a no-brainer at that. Yes, it is a bad thing to temporarily cut corners on safety regulations, but it worse to kill people by denying them urgently needed medical tests. The Liberals party, which I generally vote for, is merely posturing. The bill can't pass without Liberal support (even in the form of abstaining), so the Liberals will be voting in favor of a bill they pretend to oppose. I have been quite unimpressed with them lately.
What do you want to bet that the smart foster parents will raise a smart kid, and the dumb foster parents will raise a dumb kid?
False. While it has been liberally fashionable for the past 50 years to assume a 100% 'nurture' determination of outcome, it's really only about 45%. There have been some studies of measuring the IQs* of high/low socioeconomic-status kids raised by high/low parents. I would like to quote the IQ results, but the frikking publishers are locking up the content of the relevant papers that I can find online. The ranking is as follows:
1. High kids raised by High parents
2. High kids raised by Low parents
3. Low kids raised by High parents
4. Low kids raised by Low parents
(* It's also liberally fashionable to attack IQ tests as being meaningless. However, "imperfect" != "meaningless". People really are not created equal.)
A shift in either direction would not be pleasant!
Last winter and last summer in Ottawa were pretty mild. The cold weather lately demonstrates that we haven't been polluting enough. To the beer-fridge store!
Slashdot Mirror
The BRM is practically irrelevant since the only changes to the document will be editorial in nature. None of the objectionable technical content will be changed because Microsoft has already released its products.
So, the only relevant issue now is how many new bullshit third-world countries will include themselves in the process (assuming they still can) and tip the vote.
So, the stories go from a messianic cult leader to his indoctrinated cult members to decades of oral traditions to a political process that chose the thin selection of material to include in the religious cannon. None of these sources are in any way reliable. The only question is in which steps each of the "magic" elements of the story got added. Christ's divinity was decided by a non-unanimous majority of the men present at the Council of Council of Nicaea. The virgin-birth story was plagiarized from a book written 500 years earlier. You'll forgive me if I don't buy into the Holy Spirit fixing all of the errors and exaggerations introduced in the transmission process.
A lot of religious people seem to think that rational analysis cannot be applied to their beliefs; however, it certainly can be applied to the history of their sacred religious cannon and its history stinks pretty badly. At first, I thought you were being facetious about oral traditions being direct or in any way reliable, but I guess not. Have you ever compared the tenth generation of a rumour to its original story?
Wikipedia also covers this subject quite well.
In other words, Clinton is more popular in urban areas and Obama is more popular in rural areas.
Stated this way, the agnostic is drawing an absolute conclusion without evidence. If the Christian God were to show up in Times Square tomorrow and give an irrefutable demonstration of who he is, then it would be proven.
There is also more to the atheist position than just ignoring everything without evidence. An intelligent person will examine the history and evolution of religion and mythology and the vulnerability of laypeople to believing superstitious things and will connect the dots. An atheist doesn't necessarily positively assert that there is no God, but merely gives the theist argument the same weight as any other ludicrous proposition that has no evidence. There is a teapot in orbit around Pluto. Prove that there isn't. The Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe five minutes ago. Prove that he didn't.
A "hard" atheist who does positively assert that there is no God is going a step too far and making the same error as the agnostic in the above example. The correct statement is that it is ludicrous to believe in a God.
Yes, but they are already going to face the wrath of the god(s) of every religion except for one. What's one more? He'll only be getting the charred ashes after the other gods are through with you anyway.
Wikipedia covers evolution fact and theory in much more detail.
I believe you are wrong; therefore, you are wrong. Hey, you're right—justification by faith does work! Belief in the Flying Spaghetti Monster gives me comfort; therefore, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is true in absolute reality. Cool. What a powerful weapon!
Apple Matters on recent trends in OS market share that says that while OS X has seen continual growth, up 74% from Jan 2006 to December 2007, at the same time, Linux's share has risen only 117%. There, fixed that for you.
The Flying Spaghetti Monster does this every instant of every day. This makes Pastafarianism logically sound while other religions are a mass of contradictions.
The easiest-to-get suicide attackers are young and inexperienced religious idealists who are looking for the easiest and quickest ticket into heaven. I wonder what they do on the 73rd day of eternity.
My prediction for 2008: Idiots predicting imminent doom like they always have.
Sure, why not? I have been hearing how people were going to be overloaded by information every year for the past 25 years. Seems a lot like predictions of the imminent demise of the Internet. Or how if you watched a puppy growing for the first month of its life, you would conclude that it will be 400 feet tall in six years. Funny how these things never seem to come to fruition. Perhaps there is some kind of compensating force at work.
China doesn't mind blowing people up for the glory of the empire. This is why the next people to step foot on the moon and the first people to step foot on Mars will be Chinese. The US is no longer in the space race.
The IPv4 address space will always be exhausted four years from the present time.
Where a religious nut would say "The lord works in mysterious ways", a conspiracy nut would say "The government used alien technology". QED.
Your analogy is flawed because there is no ambulance.
And what will you be saying four months from now when the site is up to snuff, people all around the world have gotten their medical tests all along, and there has been no nuclear accident? Will you be saying that Harper was wrong?
Granted, the logical thing for Harper to say would have been "There is a 99.9999972% probability that there will be no nuclear accident." But then, the general public doesn't have much comprehension of probabilities.
To me, this a simple matter of priorities, and a no-brainer at that. Yes, it is a bad thing to temporarily cut corners on safety regulations, but it worse to kill people by denying them urgently needed medical tests. The Liberals party, which I generally vote for, is merely posturing. The bill can't pass without Liberal support (even in the form of abstaining), so the Liberals will be voting in favor of a bill they pretend to oppose. I have been quite unimpressed with them lately.
n-th level grand parent:
"fight until there isn't a single non-muslim left, and allah reigns supreme" (quran 8:39)
Is there more than one kill-all-non-muslim passage?
False. While it has been liberally fashionable for the past 50 years to assume a 100% 'nurture' determination of outcome, it's really only about 45%. There have been some studies of measuring the IQs* of high/low socioeconomic-status kids raised by high/low parents. I would like to quote the IQ results, but the frikking publishers are locking up the content of the relevant papers that I can find online. The ranking is as follows:
1. High kids raised by High parents
2. High kids raised by Low parents
3. Low kids raised by High parents
4. Low kids raised by Low parents
(* It's also liberally fashionable to attack IQ tests as being meaningless. However, "imperfect" != "meaningless". People really are not created equal.)
Are you saying that the kill-all-non-muslims quote is not part of the Qur'an or that there is some mitigating context that is not being pointed out?
Assuming that Miguel is a competent software developer, why does he think that MSOXML is a good design?
Last winter and last summer in Ottawa were pretty mild. The cold weather lately demonstrates that we haven't been polluting enough. To the beer-fridge store!
Wow, this is almost as good news to Canada as Global Warming is!
You referenced emacs in a vi thread. I invoke Goodwin's Law!