I wonder how big China will have to get before they realize that it's hopeless to control information. I guess the people in power figure that as long as they maintain tight control for enough generations, the lack of information will just feel commonplace to the Chinese people. I don't think human biology will allow for that apathy about the world though. Although I could be wrong [ie. growing US apathy about non-domestic issues].
Robots put hot grits down my pants, and assimilated me into a petrified Natalie Portman after stripping me naked and installing Linux on me so I could play OGG Vorbis!
Frequently Messenger type programs get worms that do NOT require the user to click, thus making the virus that much more worm-like since it doesn't require user intervention. Windows XP had several of these vulnerabilities, and so did MSN Messenger 6. Did you ever wonder why Microsoft forced upgrades sometimes? It's because a critical bug was found in their JPG processing code for instance, and the mere presence of MSN 6 and an infected buddy messaging you automatically, because they got infected automatically, meant you got infected too. It came through a malformed.jpg or.png Avatar picture that on most Messengers is set to download and display upon arrival of any message from that person, even a message sent by a virus.
" At a firm I once worked at we had a jokestress named Maria."
Let me guess, it was hard getting the toner out of your hair?
-/kidding
But that's sad that she was fired over a malfunctioning decoration in an attempt to boost morale. Hopefully there was a better reason than that for her dismissal.
I for one welcome our British, sci-fi watching, FEMALE overlords. Really, really welcome them:-)
My first girlfriend was a sci-fi and fan-fiction fanatic, which turned out to be the basis of our relationship. Don't base your relationship on Star Trek, it gets cancelled too much.:-)
Teachers are there to handle dynamic or expected questions, that's why we train our teachers on a subject - so they can answer common questions and guide students through the common aspects of learning. Nazis have an agenda too, do you think we should include their views on biology in text books, since it's a common question from some students with racist parents?
Every person I've heard supporting ID uses a provably false reason why "evolution is wrong". This leads me to conclude that if only morons support ID, then ID is a moronic hoax:-)
"Don't get me wrong, I am not claiming evo is a weak theory. However, it has not been demostrated at a level strong enough to completely disregard competitors. It requires a leap of extrapolation with regard to complexity."
It sounds like you are to me. Astronomy can't exactly take pictures of a galaxy from another angle than the one from earth or our solar system presents us, but it's a hard science with strong theories. You just have to accept that some things in science just work, and if you're not comfortable with the explanations then go out and show why they don't work as they are understood, rather than suggesting to people that they ought not to bother trying to understand them because "God Did It" (TM).
"it could be boosted by finding hidden messages in ancient DNA such as "Kilroy was here"" Finding "Gawd waz here" microengraved onto DNA, RNA, or Buckyballs would certainly put some weight into the Intelligent Design hoax. Why aren't they out looking for that to test your hypothesis?
"and it could drop in rank by showing an observable example of natural selection turning something simple into something complex before the eyes and cameras of many observers." Something simple: creationism: God Did It!...turned into something complex: Intelligent Design: God Did It, with SCIENCE!
If you're looking for observable evolution within a human lifespan, man do you not understand evolution. Evolution by definition takes generations, and although many animals have generations that don't last as long as a human life, it still is pushing things time wise for any human-observable change to show up. If you aren't a flat earther and recognize that the earth is about 4 Billion years old, let me demonstrate how long a million years is. A year is a long time to you right? Well 100 is about your lifetime, and so seems about as infinitely long as a human can experience first hand. Imagine 10 lifetimes, that's 1,000 years. Then since you're metricly inclined, you'll realize right away that one thousand, 10-lifetimes is 1 Million years. Think of the changes in biology in the past 10 lifetimes, and judging by the fossil record from 10 million years ago, why are there no fossils of humans that old, and where did the animals that were around 10 million years ago, go? Evolution presents a plausible explanation for changes in biology that we can see in the fossil record, and even today with changes to microbes and fauna that have died out.
ID might seem plausible to some, but it still relies on an unprovable Christian God to make it all work. Then of course there's the problem that God himself needs a creator to have made him, etc. To break problems down into managable chunks, humans often omit extra data that doesn't affect the outcome of their project. There's no benefit from including God in calculations in science class, since he's not a defined constant even. If he were a defined value, we could cancel him out in our equations, but since we don't really need him in science, why is there a push to complicate science? Something like: God + E = MC^2 + God
It's an agenda to put Christian fundamentalism into school, plain and simple. Please don't support it, or you're supporting the radicalization of our youth, for use in future religious wars.
" Someone can correct me if I'm wrong here, but this scenario seems more to side with ID than evolution..."
I think you missed the overall point that ID supporters tend to ignore mountains of scientific evidence for the flimsy psuedo-science they try to fool people with. The clubber obviously wrecked the guy's knee, but as long as he can spout enough BS, there'll be some people who will doubt he was the clubber. After all, if there were an Intelligent Designer intervening in life, He broke the ID guy's knee.
" Why doesn't slashdot just create one article titled "People that believe in God are stupid" and have all ID discussion there?"
A belief in God isn't stupid. It's the wrong belief that ID is fit for the SCIENCE classroom when it's not a SCIENCE. ID is a Christian creation myth, wrapped in scientific sounding terms, and backed by some former scientists who put their belief in creationism higher than their obligation to educate future generations about the scientific method that has served humanity well the past few centuries.
Intelligent Design advocate: YEAAARRRRGGGHHHH! YOU BROKE MY KNEECAP!
Scientist: Perhaps it only appears that I broke your kneecap. Certainly, all the evidence points to the hypothesis I broke your kneecap. For example, your kneecap is broken; it appears to be a fresh wound; and I am holding a baseball bat, which is spattered with your blood. However, a mere preponderance of evidence doesn't mean anything. Perhaps your kneecap was designed that way. Certainly, there are some features of the current situation that are inexplicable according to the "naturalistic" explanation you have just advanced, such as the exact contours of the excruciating pain that you are experiencing right now.
Intelligent Design advocate: AAAAH! THE PAIN!
Scientist: Frankly, I personally find it completely implausible that the random actions of a scientist such as myself could cause pain of this particular kind. I have no precise explanation for why I find this hypothesis implausible --- it just is. Your knee must have been designed that way!
Intelligent Design advocate: YOU BASTARD! YOU KNOW YOU DID IT!
Scientist: I surely do not. How can we know anything for certain? Frankly, I think we should expose people to all points of view. Furthermore, you should really re-examine whether your hypothesis is scientific at all: the breaking of your kneecap happened in the past, so we can't rewind and run it over again, like a laboratory experiment. Even if we could, it wouldn't prove that I broke your kneecap the previous time. Plus, let's not even get into the fact that the entire universe might have just popped into existence right before I said this sentence, with all the evidence of my alleged kneecap-breaking already pre-formed.
Intelligent Design advocate: That's a load of bullpoop sophistry! Get me a doctor and a lawyer, not necessarily in that order, and we'll see how that plays in court!
Scientist (turning to audience): And so we see, ladies and gentlemen, when push comes to shove, advocates of Intelligent Design do not actually believe any of the arguments that they profess to believe. When it comes to matters that hit home, they prefer evidence, the scientific method, testable hypotheses, and naturalistic explanations. In fact, they strongly privilege naturalistic explanations over supernatural hocus-pocus or metaphysical wankery. It is only within the reality-distortion field of their ideological crusade that they give credence to the flimsy, ridiculous arguments which we so commonly see on display. I must confess, it kind of felt good, for once, to be the one spouting free-form bullshit; it's so terribly easy and relaxing, compared to marshaling rigorous arguments backed up by empirical evidence. But I fear that if I were to continue, then it would be habit-forming, and bad for my soul. Therefore, I bid you adieu.
The AC grandparent post is very insightful. The real way to power isn't just by voting, but it is by convincing others to vote the way you are. But there's a more powerful way still, and that's by running your choice candidate, and strategicly inserting them into the right seat, using a small but just-big-enough group of friends to hijack the nomination.
I don't have the obnoxious attitude in person, it's only online when I'm taking to crowds like Slashdot and it gets attention. Call it the "Fox News attitude".
And I do know most of them didn't vote, since one Union election I'm referring to had only about 40 voters out of a possible thousand.
First of all they aren't smarter than me simply because they don't vote. Second, I'm not in the USA, I'm in Canada, and I'm talking about something as basic as a student union [although it applies to other elections mostly too]. In Canada about 2% of the eligible voting population participates in party politics. This means that the 2% that do participate ultimately have the power [or more power than US may be a "2 party" system, but there are alternative parties that are just as viable as the Democrats, but the main stream media wouldn't dare to draw attention to such a fact.
I only say things like that after meeting apalling apathy for several hours from people who are supposedly the best educated people in the city, or are striving to become them. And I've been listening to Lewis Black for 2 hours, so I might be a tad over the top in my distain for ignorami:-)
I've tried marketing voting at a University, and people weren't interested. The problem was I wasn't handing out ballots with a pen, and a ballot box down the hallway. Kids will take what is pushed into their hand, especially if the pusher is attractive, and they don't stand to lose money immediately on the free product. I may not be attractive enough to market democracy, but isn't it a shame that Coke and Microsoft have that kind of appeal, but the fricken government that can take your money WITHOUT tricking you with marketing, holds no interest with the slobbering masses.
"The washing machine-sized Student Space Exploration and Technology Initiative (SSETI) Express spacecraft took off from the Plesetsk launch site in northern Russia"
Looks like we have a new measuring standard for use on Slashdot to replace VW Bug, or Library of Congress. Proper use of the standard will refer to how many "Washing Machines" an object going to, or coming from space is. 62Kg is the suggested weight in metric.
"ESA officials said the $121,185 (100,000 Euro) SSETI Express spacecraft entered a protective "safe mode" after accomplishing many of its initial objectives, including the deployment of three small, cube-shaped satellites built by universities in Germany, Japan and Norway."
Thank you for demonstrating why its so important that powerful jobs have expiry dates or limits. Unfortunately there's been a lot of effort in the past 5 years to let powerful people keep their power for longer periods of time, or to extend their rights over the public's rights.
Well that still could be good, since if we get ourselves modified to be resistant to HIV, we might have a better immune defence against the Plauge too?
As I understand it, Plauge is a bateria that can be treated these days. And a little bit of vaccine trivia for you: Cow pox infection survivors didn't get Small pox, so that's how the innoculation for mankind's only "eliminated" disease began to be put under control.
You do realize that Slashdot is a blog? It's many people posting thoughts on the topic of the day, on the Internet, for anonymous people and friends to read.
Slashdot Mirror
I wonder how big China will have to get before they realize that it's hopeless to control information. I guess the people in power figure that as long as they maintain tight control for enough generations, the lack of information will just feel commonplace to the Chinese people. I don't think human biology will allow for that apathy about the world though. Although I could be wrong [ie. growing US apathy about non-domestic issues].
"Did I forget anything?"
Robots put hot grits down my pants, and assimilated me into a petrified Natalie Portman after stripping me naked and installing Linux on me so I could play OGG Vorbis!
Frequently Messenger type programs get worms that do NOT require the user to click, thus making the virus that much more worm-like since it doesn't require user intervention. Windows XP had several of these vulnerabilities, and so did MSN Messenger 6. Did you ever wonder why Microsoft forced upgrades sometimes? It's because a critical bug was found in their JPG processing code for instance, and the mere presence of MSN 6 and an infected buddy messaging you automatically, because they got infected automatically, meant you got infected too. It came through a malformed .jpg or .png Avatar picture that on most Messengers is set to download and display upon arrival of any message from that person, even a message sent by a virus.
"
At a firm I once worked at we had a jokestress named Maria."
Let me guess, it was hard getting the toner out of your hair?
-/kidding
But that's sad that she was fired over a malfunctioning decoration in an attempt to boost morale. Hopefully there was a better reason than that for her dismissal.
I for one welcome our British, sci-fi watching, FEMALE overlords. Really, really welcome them :-)
:-)
My first girlfriend was a sci-fi and fan-fiction fanatic, which turned out to be the basis of our relationship. Don't base your relationship on Star Trek, it gets cancelled too much.
[yes, I'm exagerating, slightly]
Teachers are there to handle dynamic or expected questions, that's why we train our teachers on a subject - so they can answer common questions and guide students through the common aspects of learning. Nazis have an agenda too, do you think we should include their views on biology in text books, since it's a common question from some students with racist parents?
What worries me though is the moron that modded it "insightful". I suppose 50% of Slashdot moderators are stupider than the smarter 50%, though.
"What evidence proves that ID is incorrect?"
:-)
Every person I've heard supporting ID uses a provably false reason why "evolution is wrong". This leads me to conclude that if only morons support ID, then ID is a moronic hoax
"Don't get me wrong, I am not claiming evo is a weak theory. However, it has not been demostrated at a level strong enough to completely disregard competitors. It requires a leap of extrapolation with regard to complexity."
It sounds like you are to me. Astronomy can't exactly take pictures of a galaxy from another angle than the one from earth or our solar system presents us, but it's a hard science with strong theories. You just have to accept that some things in science just work, and if you're not comfortable with the explanations then go out and show why they don't work as they are understood, rather than suggesting to people that they ought not to bother trying to understand them because "God Did It" (TM).
"it could be boosted by finding hidden messages in ancient DNA such as "Kilroy was here""
...turned into something complex:
Finding "Gawd waz here" microengraved onto DNA, RNA, or Buckyballs would certainly put some weight into the Intelligent Design hoax. Why aren't they out looking for that to test your hypothesis?
"and it could drop in rank by showing an observable example of natural selection turning something simple into something complex before the eyes and cameras of many observers."
Something simple:
creationism: God Did It!
Intelligent Design: God Did It, with SCIENCE!
If you're looking for observable evolution within a human lifespan, man do you not understand evolution. Evolution by definition takes generations, and although many animals have generations that don't last as long as a human life, it still is pushing things time wise for any human-observable change to show up.
If you aren't a flat earther and recognize that the earth is about 4 Billion years old, let me demonstrate how long a million years is. A year is a long time to you right? Well 100 is about your lifetime, and so seems about as infinitely long as a human can experience first hand. Imagine 10 lifetimes, that's 1,000 years. Then since you're metricly inclined, you'll realize right away that one thousand, 10-lifetimes is 1 Million years. Think of the changes in biology in the past 10 lifetimes, and judging by the fossil record from 10 million years ago, why are there no fossils of humans that old, and where did the animals that were around 10 million years ago, go? Evolution presents a plausible explanation for changes in biology that we can see in the fossil record, and even today with changes to microbes and fauna that have died out.
ID might seem plausible to some, but it still relies on an unprovable Christian God to make it all work. Then of course there's the problem that God himself needs a creator to have made him, etc. To break problems down into managable chunks, humans often omit extra data that doesn't affect the outcome of their project. There's no benefit from including God in calculations in science class, since he's not a defined constant even. If he were a defined value, we could cancel him out in our equations, but since we don't really need him in science, why is there a push to complicate science?
Something like:
God + E = MC^2 + God
It's an agenda to put Christian fundamentalism into school, plain and simple. Please don't support it, or you're supporting the radicalization of our youth, for use in future religious wars.
" Someone can correct me if I'm wrong here, but this scenario seems more to side with ID than evolution..."
I think you missed the overall point that ID supporters tend to ignore mountains of scientific evidence for the flimsy psuedo-science they try to fool people with. The clubber obviously wrecked the guy's knee, but as long as he can spout enough BS, there'll be some people who will doubt he was the clubber. After all, if there were an Intelligent Designer intervening in life, He broke the ID guy's knee.
Did you miss the sarcasm of the whole thing?
" Why doesn't slashdot just create one article titled "People that believe in God are stupid" and have all ID discussion there?"
A belief in God isn't stupid. It's the wrong belief that ID is fit for the SCIENCE classroom when it's not a SCIENCE. ID is a Christian creation myth, wrapped in scientific sounding terms, and backed by some former scientists who put their belief in creationism higher than their obligation to educate future generations about the scientific method that has served humanity well the past few centuries.
[Taken from http://abstractfactory.blogspot.com/2005/10/only-d ebate-on-intelligent-design-that.html ]
The only debate on Intelligent Design that is worthy of its subject
Moderator: We're here today to debate the hot new topic, evolution versus Intelligent Des---
(Scientist pulls out baseball bat.)
Moderator: Hey, what are you doing?
(Scientist breaks Intelligent Design advocate's kneecap.)
Intelligent Design advocate: YEAAARRRRGGGHHHH! YOU BROKE MY KNEECAP!
Scientist: Perhaps it only appears that I broke your kneecap. Certainly, all the evidence points to the hypothesis I broke your kneecap. For example, your kneecap is broken; it appears to be a fresh wound; and I am holding a baseball bat, which is spattered with your blood. However, a mere preponderance of evidence doesn't mean anything. Perhaps your kneecap was designed that way. Certainly, there are some features of the current situation that are inexplicable according to the "naturalistic" explanation you have just advanced, such as the exact contours of the excruciating pain that you are experiencing right now.
Intelligent Design advocate: AAAAH! THE PAIN!
Scientist: Frankly, I personally find it completely implausible that the random actions of a scientist such as myself could cause pain of this particular kind. I have no precise explanation for why I find this hypothesis implausible --- it just is. Your knee must have been designed that way!
Intelligent Design advocate: YOU BASTARD! YOU KNOW YOU DID IT!
Scientist: I surely do not. How can we know anything for certain? Frankly, I think we should expose people to all points of view. Furthermore, you should really re-examine whether your hypothesis is scientific at all: the breaking of your kneecap happened in the past, so we can't rewind and run it over again, like a laboratory experiment. Even if we could, it wouldn't prove that I broke your kneecap the previous time. Plus, let's not even get into the fact that the entire universe might have just popped into existence right before I said this sentence, with all the evidence of my alleged kneecap-breaking already pre-formed.
Intelligent Design advocate: That's a load of bullpoop sophistry! Get me a doctor and a lawyer, not necessarily in that order, and we'll see how that plays in court!
Scientist (turning to audience): And so we see, ladies and gentlemen, when push comes to shove, advocates of Intelligent Design do not actually believe any of the arguments that they profess to believe. When it comes to matters that hit home, they prefer evidence, the scientific method, testable hypotheses, and naturalistic explanations. In fact, they strongly privilege naturalistic explanations over supernatural hocus-pocus or metaphysical wankery. It is only within the reality-distortion field of their ideological crusade that they give credence to the flimsy, ridiculous arguments which we so commonly see on display. I must confess, it kind of felt good, for once, to be the one spouting free-form bullshit; it's so terribly easy and relaxing, compared to marshaling rigorous arguments backed up by empirical evidence. But I fear that if I were to continue, then it would be habit-forming, and bad for my soul. Therefore, I bid you adieu.
The AC grandparent post is very insightful. The real way to power isn't just by voting, but it is by convincing others to vote the way you are. But there's a more powerful way still, and that's by running your choice candidate, and strategicly inserting them into the right seat, using a small but just-big-enough group of friends to hijack the nomination.
I don't have the obnoxious attitude in person, it's only online when I'm taking to crowds like Slashdot and it gets attention. Call it the "Fox News attitude".
And I do know most of them didn't vote, since one Union election I'm referring to had only about 40 voters out of a possible thousand.
First of all they aren't smarter than me simply because they don't vote. Second, I'm not in the USA, I'm in Canada, and I'm talking about something as basic as a student union [although it applies to other elections mostly too]. In Canada about 2% of the eligible voting population participates in party politics. This means that the 2% that do participate ultimately have the power [or more power than US may be a "2 party" system, but there are alternative parties that are just as viable as the Democrats, but the main stream media wouldn't dare to draw attention to such a fact.
I only say things like that after meeting apalling apathy for several hours from people who are supposedly the best educated people in the city, or are striving to become them. And I've been listening to Lewis Black for 2 hours, so I might be a tad over the top in my distain for ignorami :-)
I've tried marketing voting at a University, and people weren't interested. The problem was I wasn't handing out ballots with a pen, and a ballot box down the hallway. Kids will take what is pushed into their hand, especially if the pusher is attractive, and they don't stand to lose money immediately on the free product. I may not be attractive enough to market democracy, but isn't it a shame that Coke and Microsoft have that kind of appeal, but the fricken government that can take your money WITHOUT tricking you with marketing, holds no interest with the slobbering masses.
"The washing machine-sized Student Space Exploration and Technology Initiative (SSETI) Express spacecraft took off from the Plesetsk launch site in northern Russia"
_ russiansat.html
Looks like we have a new measuring standard for use on Slashdot to replace VW Bug, or Library of Congress. Proper use of the standard will refer to how many "Washing Machines" an object going to, or coming from space is. 62Kg is the suggested weight in metric.
The satellite is designed to go into safe mode when a problem is encountered, and it has done this.
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/051028_sseti
"ESA officials said the $121,185 (100,000 Euro) SSETI Express spacecraft entered a protective "safe mode" after accomplishing many of its initial objectives, including the deployment of three small, cube-shaped satellites built by universities in Germany, Japan and Norway."
Thank you for demonstrating why its so important that powerful jobs have expiry dates or limits. Unfortunately there's been a lot of effort in the past 5 years to let powerful people keep their power for longer periods of time, or to extend their rights over the public's rights.
Well that still could be good, since if we get ourselves modified to be resistant to HIV, we might have a better immune defence against the Plauge too?
Roughrider charged with sexual assult in B.C. It's unclear whether the aggravated part of the charge is due to having sex while knowing he was HIV+.
Don't forget to practice safe sex Slashdotters, especially if it's with a sports star.
No, I'm not new around here, why does everyone keep asking me that? What do you mean Slashdotters don't have sex!?
As I understand it, Plauge is a bateria that can be treated these days. And a little bit of vaccine trivia for you:
Cow pox infection survivors didn't get Small pox, so that's how the innoculation for mankind's only "eliminated" disease began to be put under control.
Tell me about it. I forgot, and next thing I knew there was this undead guy trying to sell me a larger penis.
You do realize that Slashdot is a blog? It's many people posting thoughts on the topic of the day, on the Internet, for anonymous people and friends to read.