Hear, hear. This is an example of the Broken Window fallacy. If someone breaks a shopkeeper's window, that creates a job for the glassmaker, who then has money to spend on lunch, which is a job for the baker, and so on. However, this ignores the lost opportunity of having the shopkeeper spend that money on something he actually wanted. I've heard people argue that World War II was good for the economy, and I think that's a more obvious version of this fallacy. Everyone had a job, but they were making bullets and bombs, which clearly don't help improve people's quality of life.
I'm liberal, and if you want decentralized government, it's okay by me. It is, in fact, a platform plank of the Green Party.
However, I live in Alabama, and when I hear someone talk about state's rights, it's usually because of poorly disguised resentment over racial integration. People say the Civil War was really about state's rights, but they're unable to name one important state right Alabama lost except for the right to own people. Though the slavery argument may not be correctly directed at you, it is not exactly a strawman argument.
If you want people to stop directing these arguments at you, you should loudly and clearly distance yourself from the modern cult of "conservatism" that claims to want limited government, but is glad to, for example, vote away a state's right to allow gay people to marry with the power of a Constitutional amendment.
I think it's wonderful that creationists are interested in teaching the controversy. Organized religion has made great strides. It's wonderful that they've put their ideas on a level playing field with the competition. There was a time when they would have suppressed any idea that conflicted with their dogma. So. They can teach the controversy in school, and evolutionary scientists can teach the controversy at church. Is that how this will work?
The grandparent post was modded as flamebait, but the religious flame war is in real life. From the parent's article:
However, with this step forward comes a new set of ethical considerations, say experts. “We need to be critically aware of the profound implications of creating synthetic life,” said Karl Giberson, director of the Forum on Faith and Science at Gordon College in Wenham. “I don’t think this is something to be scared of. I don’t think Mother Nature is being violated in some egregious way. But this is an area of science with important ethical considerations, and religious sensibilities and higher priorities need to be on the table, under discussion.”
It's a pretty moderate response, but even so, it conflates ethics and religion, implying that the ethical decisions should be based on theology. The grandparent is right - this is going to be a culture war thing.
He is a top-tier science fiction author with Hugo and Locus awards, including a nomination this year. Before that, he was a programmer and tech journalist with a monthly column on Linux.
Unless they are being forced to work in this factory as literal slaves, the fact that they're doing it probably means it's the best option available. By all means lean on the factory to improve conditions, but before taking the business elsewhere for the sake of the employees, find out what the employees would do otherwise. Work in an even worse factory? Become prostitutes? Starve?
Is it silly? If variable self-replicating patterns can be generated by plasma, you'd have the prerequisites for evolution even in the center of the sun.
it's a long, long distance from seriously competing with Flash [...] five years
What a difference the internet has made on our sense of progress. Thank you Al Gore!
Maybe Adobe isn't worried about HTML 5 because their business model doesn't rely on rent-seeking behavior. They make good tools, too. It's not easy to do animations based on JavaScript plus the canvas tag, and that presents Adobe with an opportunity to build a library and a graphical tool for that. If they build such a thing on open standards, I won't be able to complain. Well, except about the price.:-/
I notice a lot the firms that made it (and keep making it) are companies known for long hours and high stress.
I suspect the only companies who are concerned with placing on the list are the ones who are very concerned with low morale and high turnover. I've seen it happen on a local level. Sweatshops place highly - comfortable workplaces don't appear.
Anyone who gives up on science because of this trifling matter is welcome to go back to the dark ages and live their short, wholesome, science-free life.
The problem is that in a democratic system, they have the power to take the rest of us into the dark ages with them.
I'm trying to make this into an art form with my new blog. I write completely fabricated science stories with the "ring of truth." My goal is to author a meme with the power of "Did you know we only use ten percent of our brains?" or "Did you know a dog's mouth is actually cleaner than a human's?"
it's survival of the fittest, not the most deserving. Religious fundamentalism may triumph over reason and science for the same reason a swarm of army ants might triumph over Stephen Hawking.
Slashdot Mirror
It may create jobs, but they do not create value
Hear, hear. This is an example of the Broken Window fallacy. If someone breaks a shopkeeper's window, that creates a job for the glassmaker, who then has money to spend on lunch, which is a job for the baker, and so on. However, this ignores the lost opportunity of having the shopkeeper spend that money on something he actually wanted. I've heard people argue that World War II was good for the economy, and I think that's a more obvious version of this fallacy. Everyone had a job, but they were making bullets and bombs, which clearly don't help improve people's quality of life.
Strip mine the asteroid until it disappears.
Because this job is going to take not only an oil driller, not only a good oil driller, but the Best. Driller. In The WORLD .
And be sure not to contact him until a few hours before impact.
I'm liberal, and if you want decentralized government, it's okay by me. It is, in fact, a platform plank of the Green Party.
However, I live in Alabama, and when I hear someone talk about state's rights, it's usually because of poorly disguised resentment over racial integration. People say the Civil War was really about state's rights, but they're unable to name one important state right Alabama lost except for the right to own people. Though the slavery argument may not be correctly directed at you, it is not exactly a strawman argument.
If you want people to stop directing these arguments at you, you should loudly and clearly distance yourself from the modern cult of "conservatism" that claims to want limited government, but is glad to, for example, vote away a state's right to allow gay people to marry with the power of a Constitutional amendment.
I think it's wonderful that creationists are interested in teaching the controversy. Organized religion has made great strides. It's wonderful that they've put their ideas on a level playing field with the competition. There was a time when they would have suppressed any idea that conflicted with their dogma. So. They can teach the controversy in school, and evolutionary scientists can teach the controversy at church. Is that how this will work?
The grandparent post was modded as flamebait, but the religious flame war is in real life. From the parent's article:
However, with this step forward comes a new set of ethical considerations, say experts. “We need to be critically aware of the profound implications of creating synthetic life,” said Karl Giberson, director of the Forum on Faith and Science at Gordon College in Wenham. “I don’t think this is something to be scared of. I don’t think Mother Nature is being violated in some egregious way. But this is an area of science with important ethical considerations, and religious sensibilities and higher priorities need to be on the table, under discussion.”
It's a pretty moderate response, but even so, it conflates ethics and religion, implying that the ethical decisions should be based on theology. The grandparent is right - this is going to be a culture war thing.
Thank you! It's Poe's Law.
What is the name of that phenomenon where it becomes impossible to distinguish actual right-wing views from sarcastic parodies?
We should just do away with paper money and only use gold.
The United States is a Christian nation, so we should teach in public schools that the Earth is only 6,000 years old.
Our president is likely an Islamic terrorist sleeper agent planted here decades ago in order to become president and enact terror-friendly laws.
Whoever this fucktard is
He is a top-tier science fiction author with Hugo and Locus awards, including a nomination this year. Before that, he was a programmer and tech journalist with a monthly column on Linux.
Unless they are being forced to work in this factory as literal slaves, the fact that they're doing it probably means it's the best option available. By all means lean on the factory to improve conditions, but before taking the business elsewhere for the sake of the employees, find out what the employees would do otherwise. Work in an even worse factory? Become prostitutes? Starve?
Is it silly? If variable self-replicating patterns can be generated by plasma, you'd have the prerequisites for evolution even in the center of the sun.
Novell wins...fatality!
Quick, do the spine thingy! - Forward, Down, Forward, Low Punch
it's a long, long distance from seriously competing with Flash [...] five years
What a difference the internet has made on our sense of progress. Thank you Al Gore!
:-/
Maybe Adobe isn't worried about HTML 5 because their business model doesn't rely on rent-seeking behavior. They make good tools, too. It's not easy to do animations based on JavaScript plus the canvas tag, and that presents Adobe with an opportunity to build a library and a graphical tool for that. If they build such a thing on open standards, I won't be able to complain. Well, except about the price.
I notice a lot the firms that made it (and keep making it) are companies known for long hours and high stress.
I suspect the only companies who are concerned with placing on the list are the ones who are very concerned with low morale and high turnover. I've seen it happen on a local level. Sweatshops place highly - comfortable workplaces don't appear.
Anyone who gives up on science because of this trifling matter is welcome to go back to the dark ages and live their short, wholesome, science-free life.
The problem is that in a democratic system, they have the power to take the rest of us into the dark ages with them.
I'm trying to make this into an art form with my new blog. I write completely fabricated science stories with the "ring of truth." My goal is to author a meme with the power of "Did you know we only use ten percent of our brains?" or "Did you know a dog's mouth is actually cleaner than a human's?"
AOL Acquires Time Warner in Largest Ever Expenditure of Pretend Internet Money
It's good news because it will help kill IE6, which has serious CSS rendering problems and doesn't support PNG24 graphics.
As of today, IE6 still has significant market penetration. My guess is that corporate users keep that number high.
Foster provided a tie-breaking vote to pass a major ethics reform bill.
Not to be a wet blanket, but didn't all of the people who voted for the ethics reform bill provide a tie-breaking vote?
it's survival of the fittest, not the most deserving. Religious fundamentalism may triumph over reason and science for the same reason a swarm of army ants might triumph over Stephen Hawking.
Why has a Supreme Court to tell politicians that their laws are against the constitution?
For the same reason we need policemen to remind thieves that larceny is illegal.
What is a "pledge?" Is it anything like a legally binding agreement, or is it like when you promise to do something while looking at a flag?
but he can kick its assets until they liquidate.
He'll just roundhouse kick them until they sue themselves.