Politicians are not interested in space. For the majority of people that have power, including politicians, religious leaders, CEOs and military commanders, their interest is in how they will maintain and extend their power on Earth. It's only you and me, probably geeks, probably sci-fi fans, who are excited by space exploration.
Let's not forget that (if) we went to the moon, it's because of the cold war. The USA wanted to dominate the immediate space around Earth, because of the fear that the Soviets would launch nuclear missile space platforms.
It's a sad fact, really, but the chances are in favor of a big (probably nuclear) world war (with religious tones) rather than constructing the NCC-1701 and going off to explore outer space...
DVD pirates will not be touched the slightest by these regulations. As long as computers with DVD recorders exist, piracy is safe. I wonder why all these regulations exist. The people that write them must be really out of touch with reality.
A black hole does not mean matter vanishes...if it did, the law of physics that states 'energy is never lost or created, it simply changes shape' would be violated. So where is the paradox? the matter that falls into a black hole is crushed and compressed due to the enormous gravity...but it is not lost, it stays there forever.
"Because God liked Abel's animal sacrifice more than Cain's vegetables, Cain kills his brother Abel in a fit of religious jealousy. 4:8"
God punishes Cain for killing his brother...God does not approve killing your siblings.
"God is angry. He decides to destroy all humans, beasts, creeping things, fowls, and "all flesh wherein there is breath of life." He plans to drown them all."
God would not destroy all life if humans were not so sinful. Again, God does not approve murder or cruelty. If man was not sinful, everything would be nice and easy.
"God repeats his intention to kill "every living substance... from off the face of the earth." But why does God kill all the innocent animals? What had they done to deserve his wrath? It seems God never gets his fill of tormenting animals. 7:4"
Because Earth was given as a playground for man, but man pisses on that playground. Man insults God with his ungodly behaviour.
Imagine making an android, making a city of artificial life for the android to live in, and then the android mocks you and plays you for a sucker.
"God tells Abram to kill some animals for him. The needless slaughter makes God feel better. 15:9-10"
Oh come on! God wants to see how loyal Abraham is. It does not mean God feels better or worse.
"Hagar conceives, making Sarai jealous. Abram tells Sarai to do to Hagar whatever she wants. "And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled." 16:6"
And how is God involved in this?
"Lot refuses to give up his angels to the perverted mob, offering his two "virgin daughters" instead. He tells the bunch of angel rapers to "do unto them [his daughters] as is good in your eyes." This is the same man that is called "just" and "righteous" in 2 Peter 2:7-8. 19:7-8"
Bleh...confusion (deliberate?) reigns supreme. First of all, the angers were not rapers (pun: perhaps they listened to KJ52;) ). Secondly, it was Lot that offered his daughters to the two angels, but the angels refused. The angels came to Lot's house to tell him to leave Sodom.
"God kills everyone (men, women, children, infants, newborns) in Sodom and Gomorrah by raining "fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven." Well, almost everyone -- he spares the "just and righteous" Lot and his family. 19:24"
Oh, I see now. God must have left the sodomizers, child rapers, orgy worshippers citizen of Sodom alone. Perhaps God should have given them the first prize for their oh-so-unsinful behaviour?
"Lot's nameless wife looks back, and God turns her into a pillar of salt. 19:26"
She was specifically told not to look.
"God orders Abraham to kill Isaac as a burnt offering. Abraham shows his love for God by his willingness to murder his son. But finally, just before Isaac's throat is slit, God provides a goat to kill instead. "
It was a test.
"Abraham shows his willingness to kill his son for God. Only an evil God would ask a father to do that; only a bad father would be willing to do it"
God was never willing to do it. He simply wanted to see how loyal Abraham was.
"Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, is "defiled" by a man who seems to love her dearly. Her brothers trick all of the men of the town and kill them (after first having them all circumcised), and then take their wives and children captive."
And how God is to blame here?
"After God killed Er, Judah tells Onan to "go in unto they brother's wife." But "Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and... when he went in unto his brother's wife... he spilled it on the ground.... And the thing which he did displeased the Lord; wherefore he slew him also." This lovely Bible story is seldom read in Sunday School, but it is the basis of many Christian doctrines, including the condemnation of both masturbation and birth control. 38:8-10"
Actually this story is always read in Sunday school. The point of it is that 'your body is not
"I didn't say I was angry because the world was in a sad state. I said I was angry at society."
It's the same, please don't play with words.
"There is a big distinction between being angry with the way things are going and being angry with people in general. My anger is not limited to just now, or even just the past 100 years. My anger is with the way we as humans function as a society."
That's what I was talking about. It is not justified to wanting to kill people because...people kill people.
"The instant we banded together for materialistic gain and not for survival is the starting point of my anger. It has nothing to do with politics, or money, or war, or famine, or anything else."
But materialistic gain is part of our survival plan. By gathering lots of energy/material around us, we maximize the chances of surviving (or so we think).
"It has to do with the very fundamental nature of our species."...as I told you above. But you can't just be angry at the level of wanting to kill people. Instead of frustrating yourself, why don't you be an activist and help improve this fsckin world?
"When I say I am angry, I am angry at this society."
I already covered that case. See my comment that starts with 'If you are angry because the world is in a sad state...'. You will stop being angry when you see how things are from the inside.
Why cars don't have collision radars in cars? nature can easily regulate traffic using sound waves. For example, bats use a radar system to avoid collisions, yet you don't often see bats colliding in mid air. The same system could be done with cars: the car could emit a radar signal with its signature and regulate its speed in order to avoid collisions with other vehicles.
After all, most other types of vehicles have radars on them (ships, aircraft, spacecraft etc).
Perhaps the solution lies in amusement parks? I don't mean this as a joke: if we had roller coasters instead of roads, then we would simply had to hop onto one of these and go to our destinations. The vehicles could be powered by electricity produced by nuclear power situated far away from cities.
Thanks a lot for revealing your psychological problems. You proved why these games should be banned.
You are angry? seriously? why? you can't get laid? you don't have a good job? you don't have a car? guess what:
YOU ARE NOT EVEN TRYING.
You saw a very nice looking girl yesterday at the mall. What did you do? nothing. You should have talked to her...you did not. Why? you get angry because all the others get the good looking girls, the money and the cars, right? Well, you can do that too, if you only tried. And even if you did not succeed in getting the most beautiful girl, you will be satisfied with yourself, because you tried really hard.
If you are angry because the world is in a sad state, you can run for mayor/governor/president. You can start out as a representative in your neighborhood's council, and from there, you can climb up the social ladder. I guarantee you that by the time you reach any significant position, you would have all the money and women you ever wanted. Aside from that, you would have totally forgotten your mission and idealism, and you would have accepted the fact that corruption, political backstabbing, under-the-table deals run the world.
Enjoying killing others, even if in a virtual environment, is pretty dangerous. The reason is that you view the other people as objects instead of real human beings with the same feelings as you. If you view the other people as objects of pleasure, then you exploit them; if you view them as objects of pain, you want to kill them.
The real hypocrisy with video game banning is that movies don't get banned, even if movies are orders of magnitude more graphic than video games. For example, I recently tried to view (not my choice!) a movie where the serial killer decapitated women and used their heads for oral sex (he did other shameful acts as well). Now what a sick bastard was whoever filmed this! people like that should be banned for making movies whatsoever and should get their head examined. It was one of the sickest things to have ever passed my eyes, and Manhunt or GTA is a newborn's dream compared to that...
There is no text in the Bible that promotes rape and stoning. I am against religion as much as possible, but we atheists must be truthful. The Bible refers to rape and stoning as sinful acts that must be avoided.
Scientific progress usually comes in small steps, but there are periods that great secrets are unlocked, allowing for fast progress of sciences. For example, from 1870 to 1950, we made huge discoveries regarding the nature of the universe that we are still trying to comprehend.
Suppose that in a similar period coming up in 1000 years from now, we discover the grand unified theory, a way to extract energy from the vacuum of space and a way to control gravity (there are strong indications about these things - see the Cassimir effect, quantum tunneling, quantum entanglement etc)...the path to interstellar travel as described by Pierre Alcubiere will open.
Even if, in the end, no such discoveries are made, there is no need to keep trying to discover them. We will discover lots of other things in the way.
Thatcher and Reagan helped created the society of 2/3: 2/3 of the population living an average life, 1/3 living in poverty so as that the 2/3 are happy. But look where are we now: poverty is on the rise in UK and in USA.
People with money will only invest if they can hold on to their money and multiply it. But is that good for the common folk? in the end, all money will be in the hands of the elite (as if it wasn't, but anyway).
You can try seeing it this way: Earth is a closed system, so the value of its resources, including workers, is fixed. The value created from work is part of the value of the Earth's resources...therefore, when someone earns money, the money earned are taken from the pockets of someone else, or from the natural resources of Earth.
Therefore, capitalism will ultimately fail, albeit more slowly than communism: in the end, everything will be at the hands of the few, and the many will suffer.
We are seeing the first symptoms of this problem in economies like Germany, where consumption has fallen dramatically the last few years. USA's economy is based on consumption, but what will happen when the day comes that people will not have enough money to spend? when they wear the same old shoes and clothes for years, don't buy any electronic devices, don't buy new cars etc? the economy will go down, that's for sure.
And don't say that "right now, USA's economy is healthy". There are certain tricks that are done to keep it that way. For example, imported goods get taxed, so as that local industries don't fail. Or the arms & weapons industry must keep selling their stuff in order to be prosperous.
Under this light, Thatcher was successful only for the time period that she acted (from 75 to 90). But her plan was short-sighted in the long run, just like everyone else who things that capitalism can work indefinitely.
I would pay my respects to the first guy who comes around with a system that can last millenia and bring prosperity to many generations. As it is right now, no economic system can exist for more than a couple of centuries, without brought down by revolutions and wars.
Pirate: a bad person that likes to illegally copy other people's software for his own profit.
Children of the time will ask their parents what are one-eye swashbuckling sea-faring bearded men with their remaining eye on the world's treasures are called...and the confusing answer will be 'pirates'.
And the kids will go: oh, just like those men that take software from others...
After IE7, nobody should ever respect any UI guidelines. The fact that in IE7, the menu is below the URL text box, is one of the most frustrating UI abominations ever.
Furthermore, sending information faster than light violates causality and creates time paradoxes. For example, it would be possible for Alice to inform Bob about an event concerning Bob, before the event was observed by Bob, thus giving Bob a chance to avoid the event.
Slashdot Mirror
Politicians are not interested in space. For the majority of people that have power, including politicians, religious leaders, CEOs and military commanders, their interest is in how they will maintain and extend their power on Earth. It's only you and me, probably geeks, probably sci-fi fans, who are excited by space exploration.
Let's not forget that (if) we went to the moon, it's because of the cold war. The USA wanted to dominate the immediate space around Earth, because of the fear that the Soviets would launch nuclear missile space platforms.
It's a sad fact, really, but the chances are in favor of a big (probably nuclear) world war (with religious tones) rather than constructing the NCC-1701 and going off to explore outer space...
DVD pirates will not be touched the slightest by these regulations. As long as computers with DVD recorders exist, piracy is safe. I wonder why all these regulations exist. The people that write them must be really out of touch with reality.
A black hole does not mean matter vanishes...if it did, the law of physics that states 'energy is never lost or created, it simply changes shape' would be violated. So where is the paradox? the matter that falls into a black hole is crushed and compressed due to the enormous gravity...but it is not lost, it stays there forever.
The Bible should be banned because it is a book of murder and cruelty,
but Manhunt should be allowed to be played because its murder and cruelty is entertainment.
Earth really has a prosperous future...
Let's see...
... from off the face of the earth." But why does God kill all the innocent animals? What had they done to deserve his wrath? It seems God never gets his fill of tormenting animals. 7:4"
;) ). Secondly, it was Lot that offered his daughters to the two angels, but the angels refused. The angels came to Lot's house to tell him to leave Sodom.
... when he went in unto his brother's wife ... he spilled it on the ground.... And the thing which he did displeased the Lord; wherefore he slew him also." This lovely Bible story is seldom read in Sunday School, but it is the basis of many Christian doctrines, including the condemnation of both masturbation and birth control. 38:8-10"
"Because God liked Abel's animal sacrifice more than Cain's vegetables, Cain kills his brother Abel in a fit of religious jealousy. 4:8"
God punishes Cain for killing his brother...God does not approve killing your siblings.
"God is angry. He decides to destroy all humans, beasts, creeping things, fowls, and "all flesh wherein there is breath of life." He plans to drown them all."
God would not destroy all life if humans were not so sinful. Again, God does not approve murder or cruelty. If man was not sinful, everything would be nice and easy.
"God repeats his intention to kill "every living substance
Because Earth was given as a playground for man, but man pisses on that playground. Man insults God with his ungodly behaviour.
Imagine making an android, making a city of artificial life for the android to live in, and then the android mocks you and plays you for a sucker.
"God tells Abram to kill some animals for him. The needless slaughter makes God feel better. 15:9-10"
Oh come on! God wants to see how loyal Abraham is. It does not mean God feels better or worse.
"Hagar conceives, making Sarai jealous. Abram tells Sarai to do to Hagar whatever she wants. "And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled." 16:6"
And how is God involved in this?
"Lot refuses to give up his angels to the perverted mob, offering his two "virgin daughters" instead. He tells the bunch of angel rapers to "do unto them [his daughters] as is good in your eyes." This is the same man that is called "just" and "righteous" in 2 Peter 2:7-8. 19:7-8"
Bleh...confusion (deliberate?) reigns supreme. First of all, the angers were not rapers (pun: perhaps they listened to KJ52
"God kills everyone (men, women, children, infants, newborns) in Sodom and Gomorrah by raining "fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven." Well, almost everyone -- he spares the "just and righteous" Lot and his family. 19:24"
Oh, I see now. God must have left the sodomizers, child rapers, orgy worshippers citizen of Sodom alone. Perhaps God should have given them the first prize for their oh-so-unsinful behaviour?
"Lot's nameless wife looks back, and God turns her into a pillar of salt. 19:26"
She was specifically told not to look.
"God orders Abraham to kill Isaac as a burnt offering. Abraham shows his love for God by his willingness to murder his son. But finally, just before Isaac's throat is slit, God provides a goat to kill instead. "
It was a test.
"Abraham shows his willingness to kill his son for God. Only an evil God would ask a father to do that; only a bad father would be willing to do it"
God was never willing to do it. He simply wanted to see how loyal Abraham was.
"Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, is "defiled" by a man who seems to love her dearly. Her brothers trick all of the men of the town and kill them (after first having them all circumcised), and then take their wives and children captive."
And how God is to blame here?
"After God killed Er, Judah tells Onan to "go in unto they brother's wife." But "Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and
Actually this story is always read in Sunday school. The point of it is that 'your body is not
"I didn't say I was angry because the world was in a sad state. I said I was angry at society."
...people kill people.
...as I told you above. But you can't just be angry at the level of wanting to kill people. Instead of frustrating yourself, why don't you be an activist and help improve this fsckin world?
It's the same, please don't play with words.
"There is a big distinction between being angry with the way things are going and being angry with people in general. My anger is not limited to just now, or even just the past 100 years. My anger is with the way we as humans function as a society."
That's what I was talking about. It is not justified to wanting to kill people because
"The instant we banded together for materialistic gain and not for survival is the starting point of my anger. It has nothing to do with politics, or money, or war, or famine, or anything else."
But materialistic gain is part of our survival plan. By gathering lots of energy/material around us, we maximize the chances of surviving (or so we think).
"It has to do with the very fundamental nature of our species."
Dude, you are a fucking moron.
God never encourages or approves murder/genocide/etc. God simply punishes people for their extremely sinful ways.
You obviously read the book, but you did not understand anything. Who's the idiot?
"When I say I am angry, I am angry at this society."
I already covered that case. See my comment that starts with 'If you are angry because the world is in a sad state...'. You will stop being angry when you see how things are from the inside.
Since they would put the 6 people in isolation, they could sell that as a reality show and fund the mission.
...or play ManHunt 2, of course...
Why cars don't have collision radars in cars? nature can easily regulate traffic using sound waves. For example, bats use a radar system to avoid collisions, yet you don't often see bats colliding in mid air. The same system could be done with cars: the car could emit a radar signal with its signature and regulate its speed in order to avoid collisions with other vehicles.
After all, most other types of vehicles have radars on them (ships, aircraft, spacecraft etc).
Perhaps the solution lies in amusement parks? I don't mean this as a joke: if we had roller coasters instead of roads, then we would simply had to hop onto one of these and go to our destinations. The vehicles could be powered by electricity produced by nuclear power situated far away from cities.
Thanks a lot for revealing your psychological problems. You proved why these games should be banned.
You are angry? seriously? why? you can't get laid? you don't have a good job? you don't have a car? guess what:
YOU ARE NOT EVEN TRYING.
You saw a very nice looking girl yesterday at the mall. What did you do? nothing. You should have talked to her...you did not. Why? you get angry because all the others get the good looking girls, the money and the cars, right? Well, you can do that too, if you only tried. And even if you did not succeed in getting the most beautiful girl, you will be satisfied with yourself, because you tried really hard.
If you are angry because the world is in a sad state, you can run for mayor/governor/president. You can start out as a representative in your neighborhood's council, and from there, you can climb up the social ladder. I guarantee you that by the time you reach any significant position, you would have all the money and women you ever wanted. Aside from that, you would have totally forgotten your mission and idealism, and you would have accepted the fact that corruption, political backstabbing, under-the-table deals run the world.
Enjoying killing others, even if in a virtual environment, is pretty dangerous. The reason is that you view the other people as objects instead of real human beings with the same feelings as you. If you view the other people as objects of pleasure, then you exploit them; if you view them as objects of pain, you want to kill them.
The real hypocrisy with video game banning is that movies don't get banned, even if movies are orders of magnitude more graphic than video games. For example, I recently tried to view (not my choice!) a movie where the serial killer decapitated women and used their heads for oral sex (he did other shameful acts as well). Now what a sick bastard was whoever filmed this! people like that should be banned for making movies whatsoever and should get their head examined. It was one of the sickest things to have ever passed my eyes, and Manhunt or GTA is a newborn's dream compared to that...
There is no text in the Bible that promotes rape and stoning. I am against religion as much as possible, but we atheists must be truthful. The Bible refers to rape and stoning as sinful acts that must be avoided.
Scientific progress usually comes in small steps, but there are periods that great secrets are unlocked, allowing for fast progress of sciences. For example, from 1870 to 1950, we made huge discoveries regarding the nature of the universe that we are still trying to comprehend.
Suppose that in a similar period coming up in 1000 years from now, we discover the grand unified theory, a way to extract energy from the vacuum of space and a way to control gravity (there are strong indications about these things - see the Cassimir effect, quantum tunneling, quantum entanglement etc)...the path to interstellar travel as described by Pierre Alcubiere will open.
Even if, in the end, no such discoveries are made, there is no need to keep trying to discover them. We will discover lots of other things in the way.
Or does it use a segmented architecture like 32-bit 80x86 CPUs to access more than 4 GB of memory?
Thatcher and Reagan helped created the society of 2/3: 2/3 of the population living an average life, 1/3 living in poverty so as that the 2/3 are happy. But look where are we now: poverty is on the rise in UK and in USA.
People with money will only invest if they can hold on to their money and multiply it. But is that good for the common folk? in the end, all money will be in the hands of the elite (as if it wasn't, but anyway).
You can try seeing it this way: Earth is a closed system, so the value of its resources, including workers, is fixed. The value created from work is part of the value of the Earth's resources...therefore, when someone earns money, the money earned are taken from the pockets of someone else, or from the natural resources of Earth.
Therefore, capitalism will ultimately fail, albeit more slowly than communism: in the end, everything will be at the hands of the few, and the many will suffer.
We are seeing the first symptoms of this problem in economies like Germany, where consumption has fallen dramatically the last few years. USA's economy is based on consumption, but what will happen when the day comes that people will not have enough money to spend? when they wear the same old shoes and clothes for years, don't buy any electronic devices, don't buy new cars etc? the economy will go down, that's for sure.
And don't say that "right now, USA's economy is healthy". There are certain tricks that are done to keep it that way. For example, imported goods get taxed, so as that local industries don't fail. Or the arms & weapons industry must keep selling their stuff in order to be prosperous.
Under this light, Thatcher was successful only for the time period that she acted (from 75 to 90). But her plan was short-sighted in the long run, just like everyone else who things that capitalism can work indefinitely.
I would pay my respects to the first guy who comes around with a system that can last millenia and bring prosperity to many generations. As it is right now, no economic system can exist for more than a couple of centuries, without brought down by revolutions and wars.
From the Webster dictionary, 2100 AD:
Pirate: a bad person that likes to illegally copy other people's software for his own profit.
Children of the time will ask their parents what are one-eye swashbuckling sea-faring bearded men with their remaining eye on the world's treasures are called...and the confusing answer will be 'pirates'.
And the kids will go: oh, just like those men that take software from others...
In an even smaller spot, this picture was found...
Yeap, just to right of the Argo.
Bullshit. What does 'advancing your spirituality' mean other than being a nutcase?
After IE7, nobody should ever respect any UI guidelines. The fact that in IE7, the menu is below the URL text box, is one of the most frustrating UI abominations ever.
Furthermore, sending information faster than light violates causality and creates time paradoxes. For example, it would be possible for Alice to inform Bob about an event concerning Bob, before the event was observed by Bob, thus giving Bob a chance to avoid the event.
Extending the question: what would happen if we discover how we can manipulate time and space as we see fit? if reality can be shaped up as we wish?
...it will be hacked within 24 hours!