I thought the reasoning of politicians had gone a little beyond the "let's suck up to whatever Bill Gates says for he always knows better than us". It seems we're still a long way from that...
The problem is, of course, that with this new decision, the Constitutional Council opens a way to prosecute people who witnessed police violence and/or abuses and then decide to broadcast/upload the video over the Internet, without going to a court or to the police first. This is clearly designed to stifle dissent and the flow of information over the Internet.
Thanks mate, you phrased it much better than I would ever have.
Hi, I've been working for a few months myself on the subject of audio codecs, at Orange (France Telecom) R&D department, and I can confirm that Suzanne Vega's "Tom's Diner" is a popular tune to test new codecs on (alongside with a tune from "The Cranberries" first album).
You can judge your codec on the overall quality of sound (distortion), the rendering of consonants, the residual noise in silences between two uttered words, etc. Of course, various other kinds of samples were used too (orchestral music, plain speech, male/female voices, and so on).
Developing codecs was fun, but I got tired of it after a while, and I went back to developing Linux programs on embedded systems in another company...
If France, you need to have a "carte de presse" (some kind of journalist license) to be considered a professionnal. And it's pretty damn hard to obtain, unless you work nearly full-time for a news media...
(Putting my basque beret on) 'Kay, I think the real reason for this law is the media drawing public attention on a few cases of "happy slapping" committed on civil servants, teachers and school pupils in urban areas. The idea would be to punish the people who deliberately film those scenes with the purpose of humiliating the victim even more when those images are cast on the Internet.
However, I don't have the same interpretation as you on the fact that "filming your local police officers beating people up remains legal". You can be damn sure that if a nearby cop catches you in the act, you better run faster than him. 'Cos you can be sure he won't let you produce your movie in court...
And I also see this as a more general trend in France, particularly from Sarkozy and his political side, to suppress any dissentive media, be they newspapers, magazines, TV networks, blogs or even music bands. Just ask Google for "Sarkozy censure", you'll get countless different reports. IMHO, Nicolas Sarkozy is clearly abusing his powers as Ministre de l'Intérieur (i.e. Minister of Domestic Affairs, in charge of the police) to favor his own campaign and suppress any dissent.
Oh, sorry, I missed the part about "finding a meaning for our existence" in your previous post. But then... does the quest of a meaning to our existence necessarily involve finding a purpose to our lives ? Even if we find a meaning to our lives, does that necessarily translate into a purpose ?
Sure, if we are not here on a purpose determined by some deity, then finding a meaning to our lives is not so obvious. But on the other hand, it enables you to develop your free will. You are not there on someone else's purpose, you are free to do whatever you want with your life (within the rules defined by the society you live in, but then it may be quite easy to move somewhere else). Finally, having to think seriously and decide on your own purpose in life enables you to grow up, even if it can be quite risky and sometimes painful.
Personnally, I've been through a few months of psychological trouble lately, simply because I had suddenly realized that the purpose I thought I had in life did not suit me after all, and I had realized that somehow my parents had wired that purpose into my mind, unbeknownst to me (and to them too). Now I'm trying to find my own way. But maybe, for religious types, the promise of eternal life is a strong enough incentive that one does not deviate from the purpose religion has set to him ? And the sense of security provided by religion may help too...
Nope. "Do it, and do it responsibly. Respect your partner; use condoms and everything necessary so that you both feel safe and happy doing it."
No mixed message in that. I respect the people who care for virginity and abstinence before marriage; but more important to me is to really care for your partner and respect him/her all along. And no amount of abstinence can compensate for a spoilt first-time, even if it happens after marriage.
Hell, plop a CANDU next to every hot-water uranium reactor and you have the waste problem mitigated. Use a tetrachloride fast-breeder, and you have it solved. Use thorium and you don't HAVE waste to begin with (and a cleaner fuel-mining process).
I'd be really interested if you could provide us with a few links to relevant articles. Here in France, we have 80% of electricity generated through nuclear power, and the current generation of power plants will need to be replaced within the next 20 years. So if there are easy ways to "solve" the problems of nuclear waste, I'm definitely interested. Before I get up and go demonstrating in the streets against more nuke power plants...
I like your "blue yellow-spotted swans". Another very-well known example is the IPU, or Invisible Pink Unicorn. This animal is very similar to your swans in its characteristics. The wikipedia article develops your arguments too.
My personal experience leads to the opposite conclusion. We may be wired to follow the logic we understand or are taught. If we are taught how to think rationally and scientifically, then belief in God is vulnerable to rational analysis.
Well, discounting all the religious scientists, I must say your one data point sounds far more compelling than the large group of people they asked. Sold!
Hmmm, and... Mr Sarcastic AC, did that large group receive the rational and scientific education mentioned by the GP ?
Besides, the GP is being honest by mentioning his analysis is based on his "personal experience", and by no means a generalization; and (s)he only says that "belief of God is vulnerable to rational analysis", not that you suddenly become a wholehearted atheist.
Contraception, including condoms, does a rather bad job of stopping incurable diseases -- it's seriously irresponsible to suggest that anybody rely on this "protection" for their future health and even survival.
Oh, come on. Do you think it is more responsible to promote abstinence education over contraceptive education ?
Chew on this : abstinence will just *not happen*. The sexual urges will always be stronger. Therefore, if you want to have some kind of successful public health policy, you have to teach both : people should be taught to behave responsibly and respectfully with their partner(s) in sex, and they should also bet very well educated (i.e., not just a few words about condoms) on the subjects of contraception and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.
> I hate to say this as an agnostic, but without God there is no real reason to stay alive.
And as an atheist I hate to read it;-) therefore I will rephrase it :
"Without some kind of (irrational) hope, there is no real reason to stay alive."
Hope that things will get better, that other humans are not that evil after all, that the sun will shine again after a rainy day.... There is no specific need to believe in God for that, but there certainly is a need for hope.
[Bad formatting. Should have had my cup of coffee first.]
> With modern processes and medical care, eating pig flesh is not such a problem anymore.
Actually, it wasn't that much of a problem either for civilizations that had discovered a way to cure pork by either salting it and keeping it in brine, or smoking it. Add in some natural lactic fermentation, and you get a product which is both rid of parasites and germs, and fit for long-time conservation (by this I mean up to 8 months).
Both those processes allowed for the development of pig breeding in quite a few civilizations. Of course, the curing processes that I described above are appropriate for places where the temperature does not often rise above 35 C. I wonder, however, what the techniques are/were in South-East Asia, where pork is also a common item on the menu...
> Of course, the problem with religion is, what was once a good idea is now dogma.
Absolutely. In Indonesia, for instance, lots of tribes and people that just recently converted to Islam are abandoning pig breeding and culinary traditions around pork meat, just for the sake of religion... Cheers Oink oink !
> With modern processes and medical care, eating pig flesh is not such a problem anymore.
Actually, it wasn't that much of a problem either for civilizations that had discovered a way to cure pork by either salting it and keeping it in brine, or smoking it. Add in some natural lactic fermentation, and you get a product which is both rid of parasites and germs, and fit for long-time conservation (by this I mean up to 8 months).
Both those processes allowed for the development of pig breeding in quite a few civilizations. Of course, the curing processes that I described above are appropriate for places where the temperature does not often rise above 35 C. I wonder, however, what the techniques are/were in South-East Asia, where pork is also a common item on the menu...
> Of course, the problem with religion is, what was once a good idea is now dogma.
Absolutely. In Indonesia, for instance, lots of tribes and people that just recently converted to Islam are abandoning pig breeding and culinary traditions around pork meat, just for the sake of religion...
Cheers
Oink oink !
Let me get my cluestick... where is it ? Ah, there [WHACK !] it [WHACK !] is...
The security hole was discovered, not fixed. And it won't be fixed before a loooooong time, Microsoft has a history of letting their security holes unpatched for ages...
Slashdot Mirror
... welcome our new Pluto-recognizing overladies.
I thought the reasoning of politicians had gone a little beyond the "let's suck up to whatever Bill Gates says for he always knows better than us". It seems we're still a long way from that...
+ 1, beautiful :-)
I am apalled at the number of replies that would deserve a "-1, *wooosh!*" moderation for not getting your joke in the first place ;-)
A un de ces quatre,
Hervé
You can judge your codec on the overall quality of sound (distortion), the rendering of consonants, the residual noise in silences between two uttered words, etc. Of course, various other kinds of samples were used too (orchestral music, plain speech, male/female voices, and so on).
Developing codecs was fun, but I got tired of it after a while, and I went back to developing Linux programs on embedded systems in another company...
If France, you need to have a "carte de presse" (some kind of journalist license) to be considered a professionnal. And it's pretty damn hard to obtain, unless you work nearly full-time for a news media...
However, I don't have the same interpretation as you on the fact that "filming your local police officers beating people up remains legal". You can be damn sure that if a nearby cop catches you in the act, you better run faster than him. 'Cos you can be sure he won't let you produce your movie in court...
And I also see this as a more general trend in France, particularly from Sarkozy and his political side, to suppress any dissentive media, be they newspapers, magazines, TV networks, blogs or even music bands. Just ask Google for "Sarkozy censure", you'll get countless different reports. IMHO, Nicolas Sarkozy is clearly abusing his powers as Ministre de l'Intérieur (i.e. Minister of Domestic Affairs, in charge of the police) to favor his own campaign and suppress any dissent.
A few links:
- A movie clip censored by MySpace under pressure from Sarkozy
- A blogger compelled to withdraw public documents from his blog under pressure from the police
- Publisher cancels a book about Sarkozy's wife under pressure from the Ministre de l'Intérieur
Lots more about his connections to the media moguls and his biography on the french Wikipedia page.Insightful flaimebait, +2 ! ;-)
Sure, if we are not here on a purpose determined by some deity, then finding a meaning to our lives is not so obvious. But on the other hand, it enables you to develop your free will. You are not there on someone else's purpose, you are free to do whatever you want with your life (within the rules defined by the society you live in, but then it may be quite easy to move somewhere else). Finally, having to think seriously and decide on your own purpose in life enables you to grow up, even if it can be quite risky and sometimes painful.
Personnally, I've been through a few months of psychological trouble lately, simply because I had suddenly realized that the purpose I thought I had in life did not suit me after all, and I had realized that somehow my parents had wired that purpose into my mind, unbeknownst to me (and to them too). Now I'm trying to find my own way. But maybe, for religious types, the promise of eternal life is a strong enough incentive that one does not deviate from the purpose religion has set to him ? And the sense of security provided by religion may help too...
No mixed message in that. I respect the people who care for virginity and abstinence before marriage; but more important to me is to really care for your partner and respect him/her all along. And no amount of abstinence can compensate for a spoilt first-time, even if it happens after marriage.
Thanks a million, I really appreciated it :-)
I'll have a taste at a Chinese or Taiwanese sausage some time, if I can find an asian groceries store nearby...
Oh, and go take a look at Groklaw too. And by "taking a look" I mean, the archives of the last 4 years. A good read for starters :-)
I like your "blue yellow-spotted swans". Another very-well known example is the IPU, or Invisible Pink Unicorn. This animal is very similar to your swans in its characteristics. The wikipedia article develops your arguments too.
Besides, the GP is being honest by mentioning his analysis is based on his "personal experience", and by no means a generalization; and (s)he only says that "belief of God is vulnerable to rational analysis", not that you suddenly become a wholehearted atheist.
Chew on this : abstinence will just *not happen*. The sexual urges will always be stronger. Therefore, if you want to have some kind of successful public health policy, you have to teach both : people should be taught to behave responsibly and respectfully with their partner(s) in sex, and they should also bet very well educated (i.e., not just a few words about condoms) on the subjects of contraception and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.
And as an atheist I hate to read it
"Without some kind of (irrational) hope, there is no real reason to stay alive."
Hope that things will get better, that other humans are not that evil after all, that the sun will shine again after a rainy day.... There is no specific need to believe in God for that, but there certainly is a need for hope.
> With modern processes and medical care, eating pig flesh is not such a problem anymore.
Actually, it wasn't that much of a problem either for civilizations that had discovered a way to cure pork by either salting it and keeping it in brine, or smoking it. Add in some natural lactic fermentation, and you get a product which is both rid of parasites and germs, and fit for long-time conservation (by this I mean up to 8 months).
Both those processes allowed for the development of pig breeding in quite a few civilizations. Of course, the curing processes that I described above are appropriate for places where the temperature does not often rise above 35 C. I wonder, however, what the techniques are/were in South-East Asia, where pork is also a common item on the menu...
> Of course, the problem with religion is, what was once a good idea is now dogma.
Absolutely. In Indonesia, for instance, lots of tribes and people that just recently converted to Islam are abandoning pig breeding and culinary traditions around pork meat, just for the sake of religion... Cheers Oink oink !
Both those processes allowed for the development of pig breeding in quite a few civilizations. Of course, the curing processes that I described above are appropriate for places where the temperature does not often rise above 35 C. I wonder, however, what the techniques are/were in South-East Asia, where pork is also a common item on the menu... > Of course, the problem with religion is, what was once a good idea is now dogma. Absolutely. In Indonesia, for instance, lots of tribes and people that just recently converted to Islam are abandoning pig breeding and culinary traditions around pork meat, just for the sake of religion... Cheers Oink oink !
The security hole was discovered, not fixed. And it won't be fixed before a loooooong time, Microsoft has a history of letting their security holes unpatched for ages...
This thread has style. It turns out that the Monty Python were a bunch of Canadians, not Brits, after all :-)
Thanks for the fun. A la prochaine !
That's the best part of it :-)