> we learned what happened in the real world > since neo became the one. real world folks were > practically worshipping neo as a prophet, > offering him gifts and asking him to watch over > loved ones in the matrix
In the first one, the savior/coming of Jesus thing was somewhat subtle, and interesting to watch for. In the second one, it was slapping you in the face with a heavy flounder.
And the rave/Saturnalia thing. While I might expect a culture that had no culture and arose naturally to have a somewhat more primitive styling, that was going a bit far.
> the realist view (colonel locke wanting to > fight the machines in battle and disregard the > mystic view as fiction)
Thus kicking the Holy feel of the first right in the balls. What a letdown.
The fight scene incidental music was terrible. In the first one, it was a masterpiece, throbbing and keeping in time with the action. It's like some clown working on TV did the action music in this one.
> the story was great and the action was > spectacular...except a little too much > bureaucroacy and domestic stuff
There were very few WOW moments for me in this one -- the guy jumping onto the hood, Neo holding the pipe and running around in circles on Smiths' faces, and picking up speed flying to save Trinity at the end. And note that two of those scenes were shown in the trailer!
That fight with the French guy's lackys, god damn that was boring. Most of the fight scenes in the rip-off "The One" were better than this one.
Much of the first half of the movie, with all the "Life and Times of Zion" crap, I was actually sitting there thinking, how boring can this get?
And who on this planet is running around thinking Jada Pinkett-Smith is hot?!?!? Sheet, I'd rather see Tori Spelling in a bikini play that part.
And how in God's name did Smith find out Neo was talking to the Oracle? Granted, he was now a free program, much like the Oracle appeared to be, but that was a little convenient.
> The annoying Jar Jar Binks style character will > walk around in front of you.
Which, ahem, reminds me, why did they get rid of Dozer, anyway? Did he want too much money? Did he pull a Cripsin Glover? It's too bad because he seemed to be a fantastic actor in the first.
I got the feeling he had a connection into the Matrix (courtesy of Smith's failed attempt to take over his brain?) and that was why he could defeat the sentinels at the end, rather than the real world was another simulation, ship-in-a-bottle style.
Anyway, someone explain this bit of silliness to me: The guy in the real world Smith cloned himself into tries to assassinate Neo on the outside. He uses a cerimonial dagger, slices his own hand, then runs after Neo & friends.
WTH was that all about?!?!? Why would Smith slice his hand with a ceremonial dagger prior to an assassination attempt?
Reminds me of the Dilbert strip where Dilbert points out to a class he's teaching (kids) that they can all be engineers, but that the male to female ratio is 30 to 1, "very in favor for the female!"
A little girl raises her hand and asks, "Will I be allowed to date a non-engineer?"
Do you people realize how idiotic your anti-sodomy ideas are? An alien looking down, watching some people threaten violence against others because those others put their penis in another, consenting person's ass, would throw up his hands and declare this planet hopeless.
Of course, if he looked elsewhere and saw some people telling others they must participate in the first party's health care plan, or violence will be threatened, he'd throw up his hands, too.
Neither the left nor the right "gets it" with respect to just leaving other people the hell alone.
> The farmer can only take 1 item with him at a > time... but if he leaves the chicken and grain > together, the chicken eats the grain, etc.
Take chicken across the river, leaving the fox and grain. Go back and get the fox (or grain) and take it over. Take the chicken back and leave it, taking the grain. Take grain back over to fox. Go back and get the chicken and bring it over.
Never heard this question before, 6 seconds to solve it in my head.
2 hours and still can't get that damned interface at Top Coder working. Buggy as hell, it is.
Ok, this "Topcoder" site should hire some of its own contestants to reprogram its site. Problems so far looking around:
1. Little popup that puts up the red button to enter the competition areas has the bottom line (warning about DON'T CLOSE THIS WINDOW!) chopped off.
2. Actual coding window when scrolling upward has graphic artifacts and you must highlight the scraggly area and dehighlight to make it look good.
3. Went back later, window with red button hasn't gotten as far as displaying the red button (only displaying "Java stuff loading" or whatever. Half an hour and counting.
And I'm not even looking for problems. They're leaping up and barfing in my face.
ACT has reading? It was English (note the capital E), math, science, and history.
I recall one particularly dimwitted guy at my school who couldn't get a 17 average on the ACT, the minimum so he could go play baseball at some low-level college. I got 17 average just on my math and science if I got a complete, perfect 0 on the English and history.
> One more possibility exists: given the > possibility of time loops, God (or the > Universe) could be self-created
Stephen Hawking came up with a similar argument. He pointed out it was mathematically possible to describe how the time dimension, as you got closer and closer to the big bang, rotated around (don't ask me) and became a spacial dimension. Thus our gut feeling that time always existed could be just as wrong as our concept of infinite cold, which actually only goes down to absolute zero.
Whether a virus is life or not is kind of splitting hairs.
By the definition of a parasite, it certainly fits.
Whether we should think of them as life or not should probably depend on whether they are the result of some kind of true life, like a simple bacteria, that evolved downward, or they are the result of some random chemical reaction that then began picking up steam from evolution.
> If Jesus were to appear and perform a miracle > in front of me, I would abandon atheism.
That wouldn't be enough for me. Jesus would have to appear and perform a miracle in front of James Randi and get him to abandon atheism before I would convert.
> And you yourself admit that the stars are > indeed as old as they seem - it's only the > Earth you say is young, right?
At this point, with a proposed ancient universe but a young earth with young life on it, one wonders how we could distinguish the creator of the earth and life on earth from an advanced alien culture.
Planetary-scale manipulation, assembly of matter from quarks, construction of cells, etc. in brute force fashion are all merely engineering problems. Difficult to be sure, but hardly worthy of the "infinitely powerful and infinitely smart" description, far and away.
Evolution is so well grounded that we may conclude with virtual certainty that even if God created the universe and all the life, that evolution would immediately pick up from that point.
In other words, The Good Lord would have to actively keep evolution from mutating the species and their interactions over the eons.
Actually, God or whatever, the question as to why does anything exist is very important.
Claiming god or the universe always existed is a cheat to get around this issue.
If the universe was created by a fluctuation in a probability field, i.e. out of nothingness, well, fine. But how did it come to be that a probability field and quantum rules were there? As someone once said, such a situation is a far cry from nothing.
Simply saying that God doesn't need a creator or always existed is just a simple, baseless assertion.
The philosophical problem is that neither position makes sense, existing forever, or being auto-created out of nothing.
> "Even those who search for a creator other than > God will, in fact, have the Creator of life > revealed to them in the near future, for every > knee shall bow and every tongue confess that > Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the > Father."
I shan't kneel even in that case. While it might be in the nature of an infinitely powerful and perfectly good god to create beings, it does not follow that one puts them in a universe where they can rape, torture, and murder each other.
Worse, this perverted god, being all-knowing, experiences both the pain a raped and tortured four year old feels, as well as the bizarre anger/lust as the attacker ejaculates inside his dying body.
And I'm supposed to kneel to this god because it's morally and ethically imperative?
> the theory is not supported any more except by > the few staunchest researchers
That may be, but the point was to help shoot down the well-used religious "theory" that such chemicals were far too complex to happen naturally. Thus they, and we, must have been created by some god somewhere.
Thus it is a completely valid experiment, and very important, too.
Slashdot Mirror
> we learned what happened in the real world
> since neo became the one. real world folks were
> practically worshipping neo as a prophet,
> offering him gifts and asking him to watch over
> loved ones in the matrix
In the first one, the savior/coming of Jesus thing was somewhat subtle, and interesting to watch for. In the second one, it was slapping you in the face with a heavy flounder.
And the rave/Saturnalia thing. While I might expect a culture that had no culture and arose naturally to have a somewhat more primitive styling, that was going a bit far.
> the realist view (colonel locke wanting to
> fight the machines in battle and disregard the
> mystic view as fiction)
Thus kicking the Holy feel of the first right in the balls. What a letdown.
The fight scene incidental music was terrible. In the first one, it was a masterpiece, throbbing and keeping in time with the action. It's like some clown working on TV did the action music in this one.
> the story was great and the action was
> spectacular...except a little too much
> bureaucroacy and domestic stuff
There were very few WOW moments for me in this one -- the guy jumping onto the hood, Neo holding the pipe and running around in circles on Smiths' faces, and picking up speed flying to save Trinity at the end. And note that two of those scenes were shown in the trailer!
That fight with the French guy's lackys, god damn that was boring. Most of the fight scenes in the rip-off "The One" were better than this one.
Much of the first half of the movie, with all the "Life and Times of Zion" crap, I was actually sitting there thinking, how boring can this get?
And who on this planet is running around thinking Jada Pinkett-Smith is hot?!?!? Sheet, I'd rather see Tori Spelling in a bikini play that part.
And how in God's name did Smith find out Neo was talking to the Oracle? Granted, he was now a free program, much like the Oracle appeared to be, but that was a little convenient.
> The annoying Jar Jar Binks style character will
> walk around in front of you.
Which, ahem, reminds me, why did they get rid of Dozer, anyway? Did he want too much money? Did he pull a Cripsin Glover? It's too bad because he seemed to be a fantastic actor in the first.
I got the feeling he had a connection into the Matrix (courtesy of Smith's failed attempt to take over his brain?) and that was why he could defeat the sentinels at the end, rather than the real world was another simulation, ship-in-a-bottle style.
Anyway, someone explain this bit of silliness to me: The guy in the real world Smith cloned himself into tries to assassinate Neo on the outside. He uses a cerimonial dagger, slices his own hand, then runs after Neo & friends.
WTH was that all about?!?!? Why would Smith slice his hand with a ceremonial dagger prior to an assassination attempt?
I must have missed something.
The computers Trinity hacked were part of the 1999 simulation. Ergo they were running 1999 software. Ergo all that Unix crap is A-OK.
> Results : 3 unique results
Reminds me of the Dilbert strip where Dilbert points out to a class he's teaching (kids) that they can all be engineers, but that the male to female ratio is 30 to 1, "very in favor for the female!"
A little girl raises her hand and asks, "Will I be allowed to date a non-engineer?"
You use a newsgroup picture autodownloader, or scam a password an xxx passwords hacker site.
Duh!
Do you people realize how idiotic your anti-sodomy ideas are? An alien looking down, watching some people threaten violence against others because those others put their penis in another, consenting person's ass, would throw up his hands and declare this planet hopeless.
Of course, if he looked elsewhere and saw some people telling others they must participate in the first party's health care plan, or violence will be threatened, he'd throw up his hands, too.
Neither the left nor the right "gets it" with respect to just leaving other people the hell alone.
Ya still gotta watch out for the viruses, though.
> suggest that it would be kinda cool if you
> could find like-minded people by analyzing the
> queries submitted to a Web search engine.
Search: [+"Sandra Bullock" +"Buffy" +"Lesbian Celebrity Erotic Stories"]
Who's with me, fellas?
> The farmer can only take 1 item with him at a
> time... but if he leaves the chicken and grain
> together, the chicken eats the grain, etc.
Take chicken across the river, leaving the fox and grain. Go back and get the fox (or grain) and take it over. Take the chicken back and leave it, taking the grain. Take grain back over to fox. Go back and get the chicken and bring it over.
Never heard this question before, 6 seconds to solve it in my head.
2 hours and still can't get that damned interface at Top Coder working. Buggy as hell, it is.
Ok, this "Topcoder" site should hire some of its own contestants to reprogram its site. Problems so far looking around:
1. Little popup that puts up the red button to enter the competition areas has the bottom line (warning about DON'T CLOSE THIS WINDOW!) chopped off.
2. Actual coding window when scrolling upward has graphic artifacts and you must highlight the scraggly area and dehighlight to make it look good.
3. Went back later, window with red button hasn't gotten as far as displaying the red button (only displaying "Java stuff loading" or whatever. Half an hour and counting.
And I'm not even looking for problems. They're leaping up and barfing in my face.
ACT has reading? It was English (note the capital E), math, science, and history.
I recall one particularly dimwitted guy at my school who couldn't get a 17 average on the ACT, the minimum so he could go play baseball at some low-level college. I got 17 average just on my math and science if I got a complete, perfect 0 on the English and history.
> Good point. I guess what I was really trying to
> get at was, its hard for me to learn something
> conceptually without pratical application.
Oh, I don't know. Most Slashdotters pick up on masturbation readily enough.
Exactly! Now those who would rip the DVDs will just have to do it very quickly.
Meanwhile the rest of us will have a problem paying $15 for a movie we can get a "2 day pass" on.
So:
1. Rippers not foiled
2. Home buyers irritated they pay good money and don't "get" the movie.
Sounds like a piss poor excursion for the record industry.
> One more possibility exists: given the
> possibility of time loops, God (or the
> Universe) could be self-created
Stephen Hawking came up with a similar argument. He pointed out it was mathematically possible to describe how the time dimension, as you got closer and closer to the big bang, rotated around (don't ask me) and became a spacial dimension. Thus our gut feeling that time always existed could be just as wrong as our concept of infinite cold, which actually only goes down to absolute zero.
Whether a virus is life or not is kind of splitting hairs.
By the definition of a parasite, it certainly fits.
Whether we should think of them as life or not should probably depend on whether they are the result of some kind of true life, like a simple bacteria, that evolved downward, or they are the result of some random chemical reaction that then began picking up steam from evolution.
> If Jesus were to appear and perform a miracle
> in front of me, I would abandon atheism.
That wouldn't be enough for me. Jesus would have to appear and perform a miracle in front of James Randi and get him to abandon atheism before I would convert.
> And you yourself admit that the stars are
> indeed as old as they seem - it's only the
> Earth you say is young, right?
At this point, with a proposed ancient universe but a young earth with young life on it, one wonders how we could distinguish the creator of the earth and life on earth from an advanced alien culture.
Planetary-scale manipulation, assembly of matter from quarks, construction of cells, etc. in brute force fashion are all merely engineering problems. Difficult to be sure, but hardly worthy of the "infinitely powerful and infinitely smart" description, far and away.
Evolution is so well grounded that we may conclude with virtual certainty that even if God created the universe and all the life, that evolution would immediately pick up from that point.
In other words, The Good Lord would have to actively keep evolution from mutating the species and their interactions over the eons.
Actually, God or whatever, the question as to why does anything exist is very important.
Claiming god or the universe always existed is a cheat to get around this issue.
If the universe was created by a fluctuation in a probability field, i.e. out of nothingness, well, fine. But how did it come to be that a probability field and quantum rules were there? As someone once said, such a situation is a far cry from nothing.
Simply saying that God doesn't need a creator or always existed is just a simple, baseless assertion.
The philosophical problem is that neither position makes sense, existing forever, or being auto-created out of nothing.
> Maybe they are all wrong and the earth is
> actually suspended on the back of a turtle.
I.e. It's turtles all the way down.
Or, as befitting today, maybe we're in a virtual world, and it's turtles all the way up!
> "Even those who search for a creator other than
> God will, in fact, have the Creator of life
> revealed to them in the near future, for every
> knee shall bow and every tongue confess that
> Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
> Father."
I shan't kneel even in that case. While it might be in the nature of an infinitely powerful and perfectly good god to create beings, it does not follow that one puts them in a universe where they can rape, torture, and murder each other.
Worse, this perverted god, being all-knowing, experiences both the pain a raped and tortured four year old feels, as well as the bizarre anger/lust as the attacker ejaculates inside his dying body.
And I'm supposed to kneel to this god because it's morally and ethically imperative?
I think not.
> the theory is not supported any more except by
> the few staunchest researchers
That may be, but the point was to help shoot down the well-used religious "theory" that such chemicals were far too complex to happen naturally. Thus they, and we, must have been created by some god somewhere.
Thus it is a completely valid experiment, and very important, too.