I am also well aware of the conflicts within the bible that suggest that Mr Luthers notice on the church door can be considered to be in biblical error. However, even allowing for Justification by Faith Alone that still fails to make christianity unique. There are plenty of other beliefs where only the belief is considered important or relevant (though most also share Christianity's backstabbing "If you're not doing the works then clearly you don't really believe" trap).
try posting something with a bit of grounding, something foundational.
I actually fully bellowed with laughter on reading this gem sandwiched between two bible quotes.
And no, it's not just you, though you are fairly unique in SlashDot. Generally to find this level of biblical witterring and circular logic you'd have to go to Harry Potter forums "Burn the witches" threads or, for some obscure reason, Naruto fan forums.
Incidentally, I've not posted anything remotely flamebait yet today. Nor even any real flames, though you bait me severely. Why are you not "lead not my little ones into sin"ing? Hmm? You could be costing my my salvation by arousing my mockery and ire!
It's a fairly safe bet I have read the bible more thoroughly and more critically than you. Six times in full, solo (though I will confess to skimming the "Begats" and the Psalms. Twice in full in day by day study with a study group (No skimming). Dozens of times piecemeal in search of specific items.
Christianity which is not based on traditions, but rather on faith in the Word of God which has withstood thousands of years of oppression
Exactly the same as every other religion and their infallible texts which have been miraculously supplied and preserved. It's nonsense to claim a special place for christianity. It's not any different. There's nothing wrong with (your branch of) Christianity being a religion. That one is a pointless battle. You're fighting against the very definition of religion. Your claim though that christianity is not tradition based is a nonsense. The traditions are mostly documented in the bible you clutch, and others are disguised as being "an understanding of the true meaning" of the same.
As you said, you've located two of the items for yourself. You have however, started cherry-picking already. You claimed that all scripture is God-Breathed. Make up your mind.
But all other winged creatures that have four legs you are to detest here's a hint. There are none! The bibles writers believed that insects had four legs. Are you telling me you trust the Divine Inspiration through a process that can't even transmit a single digit number without error?
And no, pi does not, in effect, equal 3. That you would even suggest so indicates a lack of critical thought on your part that borders on the unforgivable in a forum specifically aimed for nerds and geeks.
Night, Day and Plants pre-sun... Perhaps you should actually go and read Genesis yourself? It's the very 1st chapter and already the books credibility (and yours for all your claims of knowing it better than me) is falling apart.
1st : Night and Day. 3: And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4: And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5: And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
2nd:Plants 11: And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. 12: And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
3rd:Sun and moon 14: And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: 15: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 16: And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. 17: And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 18: And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. 19: And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
Regarding Pi: I Kings 7 23: And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it about.
2 Chronicles 4 2: Also he made a molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round in compass, and five cubits the height thereof; and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.
God can't do math. Delightful.
See now, I'm sorry so many years of your life have been wasted indoctrinating yourself (or being indoctrinated) into a false belief, but living an entire life in this level of denial would be even worse. Open your eyes. The bible is no
If only the religious types would accept that and stop insisting on special creation taking 6 days being completed 6000 years ago...
And would lay off the whole "Turn or burn" routine.
Then I'd stop pointing out that they're misguided morons incapable of reasonable thought, and while their predecessors in simpler less infromed times had some excuse, anyone in modern times with access to real education who goes around making "GodDidIt" noises needs to be forcibly sterilized for the betterment of humanity.
Ooooooh! I'm a prophet! Listen carefully to my words!
I predict turmoil and strife in the Middle East. Often involving oil. Always involving sand. (I'm sorry Mr Adams. Don't hurt me).
"The temple burned as the prophet had foretold. Admittedly he'd fortold it while they were looking for kindling, but a prophecy is a prophecy". (Thanks Mr. Pratchett).
Pfeh. I don't suppose a little detail might be supplied. Something like what was requested? Something that actually has predictive ability (That is, can be looked at and determined as to what it will do, you know, rational like?)?
Of course it won't because you don't have anything to offer just more quotes from your stoned sheep-herders and the Mysogynist General and his army of ghost-writers.
It's a pity science doesn't enlighten us as to what happens when our time on this earth is up
Actually, it does.
You die, you rot, worms eat you. The end. This can be confirmed by simple observation. It is most definitely repeatable (with replacement test subjects) but is not, at our current technological level, reversible.
This is why atheists are often better human beings than the religious slaves around them. The atheist rationally and correctly knows that this life is all they get. So they usually endeavor make it a good one.
The Christian (just one sample of the religious, but most others are the same) drift through their only life waiting for it to be over so they can get on with a floaty happy dreamy eternity singing all day every day to satisfy their sky-pixies ego. (How exactly this is supposed to be a reward I don't know, but that's beside the point).
So that rules you out of any form of rational conversation about any topic more intellectually advanced than whether or not knitted bible covers are an abomination due to the impure nature of modern wool then.
In all seriousness, there is no hope of salvation or freedom for anyone who buys into the 6,000 year old earth view. Even the majority of christianity has accepted reality in this regard.
As there is no point or purpose in reasoning with you you are hereby relegated to the "poke it and watch it thrash about a bit for amusement" category.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
Does that include the bits about "God says to kill the men, the older women and the male children, but feel free to keep the virgin girls for the use of the army!" or the bit where God approves the technique of ambushing and raping women from another tribe so they'll be forced to choose between marrying you or being stoned to death?
What about his oft-repeated tactic of killing innocent bystanders to make a point to the wicked people that he wants to give a second chance to?
All of these are included in the bible, under the general heading of "Good things that God has approved". I certainly wouldn't want anyone taught from this source, nor would any rational human.
on faith which comes through hearing the Word (the Bible).
Otherwise known as a religious belief based on a small subset of traditional beliefs as enclosed in a collection of religious texts?
I'm still yet to see factual evidence proving anything written in the Bible as wrong.
Easy ones to start. The Bible states insects have 4 legs. Go check. Bats are allegedly birds. Pi is 3. Plants existed before the sun. Day and night existed before the sun (Not just incorrect, but daft).
I didn't find any reliable sources of information.
Yeah, I know how you feel. You'd think with the number of pages of "begats" he'd have thought to dedicate just 3 or 4 to a detailed count of livestock numbers across the planet through the generations. Ah well, not to worry. You know for a fact that there were only seven pairs in action after the flood, right?
Christianity is indeed not a religion. It is a cluster of religions, many of them in contradiction and open disagreement with each other.
Every religion on the planet will cheerfully point out that it is not a religion, but all those other "false" or "flawed" beliefs are.
Christianity is in no way, shape or part different in any significant manner to Judaism, Islam, Tiki-worship, Daoism, Wicca, Sun-worship, pyramid building, putting out milk for the pixies or building giant models of crashed aircraft in the hope that more of them will follow with their wondrous bounty.
And as long as that is true Turkey will not be welcome in the EU. The EU is not a cure for a messed up country. The EU is a self-serving alliance of countries, not a charity. Entry is (supposedly) only granted to countries that clearly show they're not going to screw things up for the existing members by being a messed up country in constant religio-political turmoil with no comprehension of protection of the citizenry and government of service.
I'm not entirely sure why Turkey was ever considered a potential entrant, but I suppose in this, as in everything, standards slip.
"finding good but obscure bands in your native language, becoming proficient at particular video games, or other cultural pursuits that don't put food on the table"
"not that crucial"
See the connection? I do not propose or support the deliberate extinguishing of languages, no more than I want everyone to acknowledge that musical perfection was reached 22 years ago and been in decline ever since.
However, to wail and moan about extinction and pretend it's a massive tragedy that will stunt us all is equally ridiculous.
If you want to spend your time learning near dead languages, more power to you, but don't take my money (tax or personal) or time to do it in.
I am Irish. I was forced by law to spend 12.5% or so of my education studying a dead language that has no bearing whatsoever on modern Ireland or modern Irish culture. I resent that. A lot. When something is dead, let it lie. Study it if you're interested. When a language is dying do not waste peoples time, funds and effort trying to force resuscitation at the cost of personal freedom, better education and cultural progress.
Irish was irreparably injured by the English occupation but died because the government tried to force it on schoolchildren in a badly designed syllabus thereby ensuring that the current generation of Irish adults (in the 20 to 40 range) know it only as something they loathe that took the place of science/a useful second language in their schools.
Not too worry. There's more of us than ever before making plenty of new culture and information. We can get by without anyone comprehending every little innuendo in every dead language.
It really, genuinely is not that crucial to grasp the culturally embedded wordplay in a story written in an amazonian tribe of 20 people 300 years ago.
These guys did a demo at an Accenture "Team Day" (Attendance mandatory) I was stuck in about two and a half years ago. Talk about a vortex of pointlessness. A company with no real innovations showing a demo of a moisture sensor attached to the most pointless game in history to the whole countries collection of Accenture drones who'd been listening to reports of how great the company was and how happy we all were to be in the company for the previous 5 hours.
As I recall, I bailed as soon as the manager watching my area got suckered into having the ring (thats what the sensor was then) attached for a round against one of the HR drones.
Anonymous muttered "Remember all the people who said that no non geeks would want a MP3 player when the first iPod came out?"
No, actually I don't. Apple were late to the party with the iPod. There had been literally dozens of highly successful portable MP3 players before the iPod hit the shelves. I do remember plenty of people pointing out that the iPod was overpriced and overspecc'd, but no-one claimed at that point that MP3's were geek only.
As for Java, Flash, Ajax and the mythical Web 2.0, well, really, not that big a deal. Most useful websites avoid them all on the front end, and in high load situations avoid them on the back end too. Most of those that do use flash are better off without it to boot.
CSS on the other hand has done a lot for web sites and the structure thereof. Strange you missed out just about the only genuinely beneficial addition since Mosaic.
Anonymous squawked that : Websites will accommodate the iPhone if want to continue receiving traffic. If a site doesn't, it will be left in the dust by sites who do.
To which I simply say "Bullshite". The iPhone is just another problem in search of a solution it needs in order to be a solution in need of a problem.
Mobile web-surfing is, and will for the foreseeable future remain, crap. A pointless waste of time, dedicated solely to those who value being gadget laden over being effective. The iPhone will not solve this. Nothing short of retinal-projected or mediumless holographic projection will solve this. "Paper-screen" technology might come close someday.
Face it. The iPhone will be too big for a phone and too small for everything else. It's simply another chance to worship at the altar of "not-quite-good-,-but-oh-so-sparkly geek toys", a deity also claimed by the schismed sects of "more-money-than-sense" and "breakable-yuppie-toys-are-not-the-equivalent-of-g old-chains-and-medallions-/-bling-,-honest-,-no-re ally-,-stop-laughing".
I might pick one up myself in a year or three when they hit the junkpiles, purely out of morbid curiosity.
Where would a Chinese person get English education? I doubt many Chinese schools would be allowed to teach English. Since that language is associated with the 'bad' western society.
That's so wrong it's not even sad. It's just hilarious...
English classes are mandatory in all middle schools, high schools and universities. Most elementary schools also teach English as a mandatory subject.
Additionally private English schools are (almost literally) to be found on every street corner. I could (fully literally) hit 5 with a small pellet gun from where I'm sitting (in my Director of Studies office in one of those schools) if there weren't walls in the way. The only oppression or repression the schools face is that of competition for students and staff.
Yeesh, dude... A little research would save you a lot of looking stupid there.
Google.com was briefly blocked and then rapidly unblocked again. Google image searches however undergo many odd little quirks, being temporarily blocked and released again only minutes later. basically, they block a region every time someone searches for keywords.
Slashdot Mirror
Duh, because they are independent nations.
As is Turkey.
Is or is not "Europe" in the name?
Is or is not "America" in the name of the United States of America?
I see your point, but it's kind of meaningless.
On that line why are Canada, Mexico, Brazil, chile and Argentina not states? And why is Hawaii a state? It's supposed to be America isn't it?
European Union, not Europe. The fact that the name is different should hint that it is not all of Europe.
I am also well aware of the conflicts within the bible that suggest that Mr Luthers notice on the church door can be considered to be in biblical error. However, even allowing for Justification by Faith Alone that still fails to make christianity unique. There are plenty of other beliefs where only the belief is considered important or relevant (though most also share Christianity's backstabbing "If you're not doing the works then clearly you don't really believe" trap).
try posting something with a bit of grounding, something foundational.
I actually fully bellowed with laughter on reading this gem sandwiched between two bible quotes.
And no, it's not just you, though you are fairly unique in SlashDot. Generally to find this level of biblical witterring and circular logic you'd have to go to Harry Potter forums "Burn the witches" threads or, for some obscure reason, Naruto fan forums.
Incidentally, I've not posted anything remotely flamebait yet today. Nor even any real flames, though you bait me severely. Why are you not "lead not my little ones into sin"ing? Hmm? You could be costing my my salvation by arousing my mockery and ire!
It's a fairly safe bet I have read the bible more thoroughly and more critically than you.
Six times in full, solo (though I will confess to skimming the "Begats" and the Psalms.
Twice in full in day by day study with a study group (No skimming).
Dozens of times piecemeal in search of specific items.
Christianity which is not based on traditions, but rather on faith in the Word of God which has withstood thousands of years of oppression
Exactly the same as every other religion and their infallible texts which have been miraculously supplied and preserved. It's nonsense to claim a special place for christianity. It's not any different.
There's nothing wrong with (your branch of) Christianity being a religion. That one is a pointless battle. You're fighting against the very definition of religion. Your claim though that christianity is not tradition based is a nonsense. The traditions are mostly documented in the bible you clutch, and others are disguised as being "an understanding of the true meaning" of the same.
As you said, you've located two of the items for yourself. You have however, started cherry-picking already. You claimed that all scripture is God-Breathed. Make up your mind.
But all other winged creatures that have four legs you are to detest
here's a hint. There are none! The bibles writers believed that insects had four legs. Are you telling me you trust the Divine Inspiration through a process that can't even transmit a single digit number without error?
And no, pi does not, in effect, equal 3. That you would even suggest so indicates a lack of critical thought on your part that borders on the unforgivable in a forum specifically aimed for nerds and geeks.
Night, Day and Plants pre-sun... Perhaps you should actually go and read Genesis yourself? It's the very 1st chapter and already the books credibility (and yours for all your claims of knowing it better than me) is falling apart.
1st : Night and Day.
3: And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4: And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5: And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
2nd:Plants
11: And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
12: And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
3rd:Sun and moon
14: And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
15: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16: And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17: And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
18: And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
19: And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
Regarding Pi:
I Kings 7
23: And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it about.
2 Chronicles 4
2: Also he made a molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round in compass, and five cubits the height thereof; and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.
God can't do math. Delightful.
See now, I'm sorry so many years of your life have been wasted indoctrinating yourself (or being indoctrinated) into a false belief, but living an entire life in this level of denial would be even worse. Open your eyes. The bible is no
If only the religious types would accept that and stop insisting on special creation taking 6 days being completed 6000 years ago...
And would lay off the whole "Turn or burn" routine.
Then I'd stop pointing out that they're misguided morons incapable of reasonable thought, and while their predecessors in simpler less infromed times had some excuse, anyone in modern times with access to real education who goes around making "GodDidIt" noises needs to be forcibly sterilized for the betterment of humanity.
Ooooooh! I'm a prophet! Listen carefully to my words!
I predict turmoil and strife in the Middle East. Often involving oil. Always involving sand. (I'm sorry Mr Adams. Don't hurt me).
"The temple burned as the prophet had foretold. Admittedly he'd fortold it while they were looking for kindling, but a prophecy is a prophecy". (Thanks Mr. Pratchett).
Pfeh. I don't suppose a little detail might be supplied. Something like what was requested? Something that actually has predictive ability (That is, can be looked at and determined as to what it will do, you know, rational like?)?
Of course it won't because you don't have anything to offer just more quotes from your stoned sheep-herders and the Mysogynist General and his army of ghost-writers.
*poke-poke-poke*
It's a pity science doesn't enlighten us as to what happens when our time on this earth is up
Actually, it does.
You die, you rot, worms eat you. The end. This can be confirmed by simple observation. It is most definitely repeatable (with replacement test subjects) but is not, at our current technological level, reversible.
This is why atheists are often better human beings than the religious slaves around them. The atheist rationally and correctly knows that this life is all they get. So they usually endeavor make it a good one.
The Christian (just one sample of the religious, but most others are the same) drift through their only life waiting for it to be over so they can get on with a floaty happy dreamy eternity singing all day every day to satisfy their sky-pixies ego. (How exactly this is supposed to be a reward I don't know, but that's beside the point).
I'll take the several thousand year option)
So that rules you out of any form of rational conversation about any topic more intellectually advanced than whether or not knitted bible covers are an abomination due to the impure nature of modern wool then.
In all seriousness, there is no hope of salvation or freedom for anyone who buys into the 6,000 year old earth view. Even the majority of christianity has accepted reality in this regard.
As there is no point or purpose in reasoning with you you are hereby relegated to the "poke it and watch it thrash about a bit for amusement" category.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
Does that include the bits about "God says to kill the men, the older women and the male children, but feel free to keep the virgin girls for the use of the army!" or the bit where God approves the technique of ambushing and raping women from another tribe so they'll be forced to choose between marrying you or being stoned to death?
What about his oft-repeated tactic of killing innocent bystanders to make a point to the wicked people that he wants to give a second chance to?
All of these are included in the bible, under the general heading of "Good things that God has approved". I certainly wouldn't want anyone taught from this source, nor would any rational human.
on faith which comes through hearing the Word (the Bible).
Otherwise known as a religious belief based on a small subset of traditional beliefs as enclosed in a collection of religious texts?
I'm still yet to see factual evidence proving anything written in the Bible as wrong.
Easy ones to start. The Bible states insects have 4 legs. Go check. Bats are allegedly birds. Pi is 3. Plants existed before the sun. Day and night existed before the sun (Not just incorrect, but daft).
I didn't find any reliable sources of information.
Yeah, I know how you feel. You'd think with the number of pages of "begats" he'd have thought to dedicate just 3 or 4 to a detailed count of livestock numbers across the planet through the generations. Ah well, not to worry. You know for a fact that there were only seven pairs in action after the flood, right?
So, just to clarify, you are in fact making it clear that you have no sources, no facts, and no references/citations of relevance?
Just to clarify for you :
Christianity is indeed not a religion. It is a cluster of religions, many of them in contradiction and open disagreement with each other.
Every religion on the planet will cheerfully point out that it is not a religion, but all those other "false" or "flawed" beliefs are.
Christianity is in no way, shape or part different in any significant manner to Judaism, Islam, Tiki-worship, Daoism, Wicca, Sun-worship, pyramid building, putting out milk for the pixies or building giant models of crashed aircraft in the hope that more of them will follow with their wondrous bounty.
And as long as that is true Turkey will not be welcome in the EU. The EU is not a cure for a messed up country. The EU is a self-serving alliance of countries, not a charity. Entry is (supposedly) only granted to countries that clearly show they're not going to screw things up for the existing members by being a messed up country in constant religio-political turmoil with no comprehension of protection of the citizenry and government of service.
I'm not entirely sure why Turkey was ever considered a potential entrant, but I suppose in this, as in everything, standards slip.
$87 cost, less $50 credit = $27? Are you sure the books weren't discounted for some other reason?
"finding good but obscure bands in your native language, becoming proficient at particular video games, or other cultural pursuits that don't put food on the table"
"not that crucial"
See the connection?
I do not propose or support the deliberate extinguishing of languages, no more than I want everyone to acknowledge that musical perfection was reached 22 years ago and been in decline ever since.
However, to wail and moan about extinction and pretend it's a massive tragedy that will stunt us all is equally ridiculous.
If you want to spend your time learning near dead languages, more power to you, but don't take my money (tax or personal) or time to do it in.
I am Irish. I was forced by law to spend 12.5% or so of my education studying a dead language that has no bearing whatsoever on modern Ireland or modern Irish culture. I resent that. A lot.
When something is dead, let it lie. Study it if you're interested. When a language is dying do not waste peoples time, funds and effort trying to force resuscitation at the cost of personal freedom, better education and cultural progress.
Irish was irreparably injured by the English occupation but died because the government tried to force it on schoolchildren in a badly designed syllabus thereby ensuring that the current generation of Irish adults (in the 20 to 40 range) know it only as something they loathe that took the place of science/a useful second language in their schools.
Yay! Hysterical Raisins!
Not too worry. There's more of us than ever before making plenty of new culture and information. We can get by without anyone comprehending every little innuendo in every dead language.
It really, genuinely is not that crucial to grasp the culturally embedded wordplay in a story written in an amazonian tribe of 20 people 300 years ago.
These guys did a demo at an Accenture "Team Day" (Attendance mandatory) I was stuck in about two and a half years ago. Talk about a vortex of pointlessness. A company with no real innovations showing a demo of a moisture sensor attached to the most pointless game in history to the whole countries collection of Accenture drones who'd been listening to reports of how great the company was and how happy we all were to be in the company for the previous 5 hours.
As I recall, I bailed as soon as the manager watching my area got suckered into having the ring (thats what the sensor was then) attached for a round against one of the HR drones.
Gods, I hope not.
More users = More idiots = more companies willing to capitalise on idiots = bloat, crud and general microsoftization of distros.
Ah well, should it happen it'll just be time to move on... BSD or BeOS... tough call.
Anonymous muttered "Remember all the people who said that no non geeks would want a MP3 player when the first iPod came out?"
No, actually I don't. Apple were late to the party with the iPod. There had been literally dozens of highly successful portable MP3 players before the iPod hit the shelves. I do remember plenty of people pointing out that the iPod was overpriced and overspecc'd, but no-one claimed at that point that MP3's were geek only.
As for Java, Flash, Ajax and the mythical Web 2.0, well, really, not that big a deal. Most useful websites avoid them all on the front end, and in high load situations avoid them on the back end too. Most of those that do use flash are better off without it to boot.
CSS on the other hand has done a lot for web sites and the structure thereof. Strange you missed out just about the only genuinely beneficial addition since Mosaic.
And a surfboard with a portable black hole heatsink.
Anonymous squawked that : Websites will accommodate the iPhone if want to continue receiving traffic. If a site doesn't, it will be left in the dust by sites who do.
g old-chains-and-medallions-/-bling-,-honest-,-no-re ally-,-stop-laughing".
To which I simply say "Bullshite". The iPhone is just another problem in search of a solution it needs in order to be a solution in need of a problem.
Mobile web-surfing is, and will for the foreseeable future remain, crap. A pointless waste of time, dedicated solely to those who value being gadget laden over being effective. The iPhone will not solve this. Nothing short of retinal-projected or mediumless holographic projection will solve this. "Paper-screen" technology might come close someday.
Face it. The iPhone will be too big for a phone and too small for everything else. It's simply another chance to worship at the altar of "not-quite-good-,-but-oh-so-sparkly geek toys", a deity also claimed by the schismed sects of "more-money-than-sense" and "breakable-yuppie-toys-are-not-the-equivalent-of-
I might pick one up myself in a year or three when they hit the junkpiles, purely out of morbid curiosity.
Where would a Chinese person get English education?
I doubt many Chinese schools would be allowed to teach English. Since that language is associated with the 'bad' western society.
That's so wrong it's not even sad. It's just hilarious...
English classes are mandatory in all middle schools, high schools and universities. Most elementary schools also teach English as a mandatory subject.
Additionally private English schools are (almost literally) to be found on every street corner. I could (fully literally) hit 5 with a small pellet gun from where I'm sitting (in my Director of Studies office in one of those schools) if there weren't walls in the way. The only oppression or repression the schools face is that of competition for students and staff.
Yeesh, dude... A little research would save you a lot of looking stupid there.
Google.com was briefly blocked and then rapidly unblocked again. Google image searches however undergo many odd little quirks, being temporarily blocked and released again only minutes later. basically, they block a region every time someone searches for keywords.
Luxury trans-oceanic power-boat racers.
(No, the summary never once mentioned PC or console or video....