and anyone else who rebels against him can be dealt with on the spot.
I was under the impression he forgives sinners.
He chalanged God's right to rule,... Earler you said: they could use that free will to obey him and thus show that they loved him as much as he loved them.
So which is it? Does god want to rule you or to love you? And in the recent thousands of years, where and how has god shown/is showing that he loves humans ? Since love is supposed to be a 2 way street... And where does he submit to your authority?
If he wants love so badly why wont he get a wife or a harem like those pagan gods?;) Btw how do you know the pagan gods do not exist? After all, the ancients believed in them equally fervently as you believe in your god. The hindus today believe equally fervently in their gods. Do they go to hell for being born hindu through no fault of theirs ? Why didnt your god give birth to Osamas 18th century grandparent in America? Would osama have been muslim if that had happened?
If I go back in time when osama is just born and plant him in an American christian orphanage, will he turn out to be a killer again ? What will he believe? Take a wild guess.Instead of Osama if its an average muslim or a hindu, what would he turn out to be?
What would happen if I planted your child in a Afghani family ? Would he be posting on slashdot in 20 yrs or beating up his four wives and growing poppy ?
If you answer "Osama wont be a killer ", then what can you say about the thousands of terrorists or pagans etc, anybody that christians say will go to hell?(Maybe you dont say that, but others do)
You assume that living forever is miserable becouse this world full of evil and imperfect humans is miserable. You also assume that God is miserable, and created humans (and as extention all life, including angels) to share his misery. The fact is, that God is complete in himself. He does not need anyone else around to make him happy. His modivation for creating is love.
That's a not fact Thats your assumption. And btw if god is so complete then why does he need love? If god is not vain then why does he want you to worship him? Why does he want anything?
And btw WHICH god ? And WHOSE god ? Why is the god depicted in the bible the ONE true god while the eskimo god or the hindu god(s) are false ?
God gave mankind the gift of free will so that they could use that free will to obey him and thus show that they loved him as much as he loved them.
Where does it say that ? No where. That is simply your or your sunday school interpretation.
They were perfect, and as such they would make no mistakes. Where does it say that ? How do you KNOW? Were you there ? Or is this someones interpretation?
They *chose* to disobey God. They decided they did not want to submit to Gods authority. That one tree was the only way that they had to prove that they were faithful to God.
You mean to say that before they ate from the tree, they had no knowledge of good and evil. So HOW could they have known that eating from the tree is evil ? More importantly, how could they know obeying god is good?? Do we punish little toddlers the FIRST time they hit someone with a bat? Do we punish our children and their countless generations FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES for ONE mistake ?
Dosent that sound like megalo-psycho-mania? So how exactly did people figure out that god is forgiving ?
It wouldnt be so bad if H1 replacements were actually good.
As far as Indians are concerned, I assure they are not. I'm an Indian F1 student and so are most of my friends. All my friends who have got a job, have got it through some Indian recruiter.
These recruiters basically create a fake resume for the student(or anyone) who wants to get a H1. They show 5+ yrs exp and whatever skills that are needed for the job. And finally the H1 guy gets paid a lot less.
Best part about this scam is, even if you are from another stream(say Chemical Eng, Mechanical Eng), the recruiters will 'train' you and get you a job.
Then you might ask how can such a person survive in the job. Well I've seen MANY people, including some from Mech eng get a job for a position that wants 6 yrs exp, and no one has got fired. That means the management and most of the collegues are equally qualified.(ie not at all). And lets face it, to 'blow enough smoke' as you put it is not rocket science. (I liked that expression and that why I replied)
I dont know about any numbers, but since an overwhelming majority of Indians that I know from several Univs have gotten jobs like this, I'd say atleast 1/4 of H1's are such 'qualified' individuals. Add to that I've met some H1's directly from India, and they didnt exactly impress me.
And guess what, to survive in the US, I've started approaching some recruiters... I'll be H1 before this year end.... thats the only way to pay my debts off.
I dont mean to say Indians are horrible programmers or anything like that. There are lots of good Indian programmers that US companies could use, but the people who are getting hired are certainly under qualified.
And that's any different from ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN???
Oh, they lean the other way, so they're okay in most people's books! Got it!
ABC, CBS, NBC, are far from perfect, but their reporters do not keep on chanting over and over again to "BOYCOTT FRANCE!!!" or other such nonsense.
ABC, CBS, NBC, do not,completely ignore an anti Bush-Rep OR anti Dem event event (such as the recent rally against US forces by people in Iraq). Whenever you see an anti bush story on news.google.com , check how the fox website covers it and in what detail. You'll see such an example every now and then.
The fox web site has a regular column called "Junk Science". The columinst Steven Milloi has only ONE agenda: bash the greens. Which is OK if you back that bashing with facts. However, if you read any of his back columns and try to verify his 'facts', you'll see that many of them are outright lies or non sequiturs. Some 'scientific' statements are actually not so clever manipulations to fool commoners. In one article he claims in a nonchalant manner theres no proof people are still suffering from cancer etc from the Bhopal targedy. To see if he's right, just take a trip to Bhopal and find out. I have. Bhopal is a few hundred miles from my birth place.
Even as I write, there is a story on ALL newspaper-websites about how John Kerry and another senator blew a CIA operatives cover. Foxnews is the only 'large' web site which does not mention the other senator, (an R) at all. The only websites who mention half truths like these are hardcore partisan web sites.
I had always HEARD fox was worthless... but to believe it, keep visiting it and see for yourself. Like I said you'll see a something totally twisted
Both India and China are food surplus nations.
Thats correct. I dont know about China, but the main problem in India is lack of purchasing power and distribution. Food in India is ultra cheap, but many Indians still can't afford it. There are warehouses that collect millions of tons of grain that wastes away because of various reasons. A great percentage of produced food is wasted by pests, lack of cold storage, slow processing, artificial shortages, Price gouging etc
China and India are historical enemies for literally thousands of years.
WHAT ?!!
For thousands of years, China and India have been cultural and trade partners. Buddhism, silk, spices, kung-fu
were some of the Indian exports. There was no scope for any Chinese/Indian monarch to even think of attacking their neighbour over the towering Himalayas that stand at almost every point at their borders Relations soured after the 1962 broder dispute and subsequent aid to Pakistan by China. China wanted a chunk of northeast Kashmir-Ladakh to better safe gaurd against an imminent Soviet invasion. And they claim parts of NE India for themselves. Aid to Pakistan makes a nice buffer, boxing India within and dividing its forces and attention.
Ok, so you switched from manufacturing to IT hardware. Then you switched from hardware to software. But exactly what will you switch to NOW ?
Biotech? Nanotech? I would say these things are still more than a decade away. What will the US do till then ?
But the main problem is, students are running away in droves from Basic Science, Engineering, Comp Science and Electronics. Not only that, many professors will tell you how these courses are being 'watered down' to such a level that whats being taught in Masters today was taught in undergad years earlier. Who will be left to drive this new economy in a decade?
You are sadly mistaken if you think there are no unmotivated and incompetent workers/CEO's in China/India (or anywhere else).
Having lived in India and the US, I think lack of motivation and incompetence is more prevalent in India. More so Govt. run companies. Most Indians I know in the US are on H1 and are thoroughly incompetent. Its the talented few who keep the image of Indians from being tarnished.
If you're talking about the general decline in the work culture in the US, then I agree.
People knows this, and there's a reason why intel has 90-95% of the x86 server market
The reason why Intel has 90% of the server market is that same reason why Intel has 80% of the deskptop/laptop market share.
People want brand names.
I really dont understand what people mean by 'stable'.
One of my several AMD based computers, an AthlonXP 2500+ runs Linux... and has uptimes of 20+ days.
Another XP 2500 I had earlier ran WinXP for weeks at a stretch. And my new A64 3000 does the same.
The only reason I turn my PC's off is to sleep without the sounds of the fans for a change. And btw all my computers are OC'd from stock speed, but not by much.
I suspect people complain about stability because they can't use their PC's.
Money is a more terrible thing to waste.:( Don't worry about my mind, I have my fair share of knowledge.
Changing schools is not easy for me. I'm a foreigner and I didnt know this school would suck so much. Over all, most of the Profs seem competent individually. But the design of the overall program and courses is weak. Its really difficult to fail in a course (except for 1 profs tough course). Grading is ultra lenient and plagarism is rampamt.
Most courses are nothing but a cursory overview of undergrad concepts ! The Thesis option is discouraged in favour of an Independant Study which most students plagarize. I badly wanted to take thesis so I can apply for Phd, but there has been NO guidance from Profs. I have friends in other schools, and its their Profs who help them choose Thesis/ Phd topics. Also they have it very tough.
Its a good school for other science/engineering branches though. If you care for rankings, it was number one in North US(Or was it North East?) for MS programs according to US News magazine.
My school sucks. In my Masters in CS program, the ANY Thesis or Project or research paper has to be MS Word. With templates provided by the school. And dont tell me. Too late to switch schools.
You cannot fill forms with Kpdf. Thats its only problem.(And possibly encrypted Pdfs)
Apart from that, I'd like to give kongrats and big thanks to the Kpdf and Kde devs for making a GREAT pdf viewer with KDE 3.4 ! Its got the best combination of features and speed. And a big jump from the earlier version. I think they now collaborate with the xpdf guys.
I hope they can find a solution for the forms problem.
I'd like to remind people that apart from Open Office, ALL apps(that I've tried) in Gnome and KDE, that have the Print command on a menu can create Pdf files.
Acrobat 7 is somehow slower for me than 5. (Like the WinXP version 7 was slower than 6) Acro 7 takes forever to startup as Adobe insists on loading plugins I would never use. You could remove the plugin files that can be a hassle sometimes.
However we have fallen by choosing sin, and thus are not perfect.
Ahhh.. but if you believe your own fairy tales, I didnt choose sin and neither did you. Eve and Adam chose sin !! However, the story goes that when they 'chose' it, they were unaware of right and wrong ! How could he know then that disobeying an order was wrong? Would you punish your 18 month child for his FIRST mistake ? Even the judicial courts of your cruel and corrupt man don't punish a child this badly.
I ask you one more thing: Should you be punished for your fathers crimes? Does that make sense to you ? You here in the news about people suffering in the most violent way possible... Thats because Adam made ONE mistake ?
Suppose you create something magnificent. Something truly amazing, remarkable, nothing like it before. Is it egomaniacal to ask people at least acknowledge "hey, bob made this" ? But you dont know who bob is do you? And who does? Is bob your christian god ? Or the hebrew god who dosent want you to eat pigs? Is it muslim god who says its ok to kill christians you dont like? The hindu elephant headed god with twelve wives? Is it the egyptian sun god? Is it the god of some african tribals or Pacific islanders? Is it the long forgotten Inca god? So Why and How is your bob
the One True Bob ? There is only ONE truth. Either the hindus are right or someone else is.
Don't forget, the elephant-god worshipper will have equally 'compelling' argments for his faith as you do. He 'believes' as deeply as you do. Again, he's only a hindu because his parents were hindus. If he was born to your parents, he would have looked down upon idolators. So again, according to most christians(and others), god chose to put this man in a hindu family, but he will go to hell because he's an idolator! In other words god gave this man a 99% chance of turning into an idolator, then condems him to hell for turning into an idolator! Howz that for nature vs nurture?So many christians, muslims and jews belive this (even if you don't, which again poses the question, WHO is correct?) And how is this merciful and benevolent?**
If you still insist the christians are right, well then which ones? Maybe its only the Amish who are on the 'right' path.Nobody even agrees how to go interpret your scripture, leave alone the actual allegory!!
I didnt know this. Dosent it worry you, you follow in the footsteps of these misguided people ?
Suppose you create something magnificent. Something truly amazing, remarkable, nothing like it before. Is it egomaniacal to ask people at least acknowledge "hey, bob made this" ?
You imply that something magnificent, amazing and remarkable HAS to have a maker. Then if you're story checks out, the MOST magnificent, amazing and remarkable entity is god ! So who made him ?
**In your(or others) scripture, how many examples of mercy can you show me? I really like the one where all the gays in town are killed. And the one where the jews take women prisoners as their concubines after god helps kill thousands of their 'enemies'.
If you were god, what do you think would be the mercifull and benevolent thing to do ? Kill the gays? Or would you say "Ok, you people have sinned. But I love you and give you one more chance. You will be born as babies in heaven where I will personally raise you in peace and kindness. I will feed you clothe you and no one will bully you in school. There will be no disease, hunger, theives, rapists or anything bad. I will teach you everything myself. Morality and difference between good and bad. I wil give you free choice. And then, at age 25, if you turn out to be gays or other sinners, you will go to hell. But since, everyone has the potential for good(your words), I'll give you one more chance, then one more, then one more...till that good comes out."
I know I said gays in my example, but change those for any other sinners. Including you since you say you are one.
So where did your mom get her beliefs from? What reasoning are they rooted in to make them anything actually 'Right' ? Common sense ? The only way members of society can survive and live happily is by helping each other. As history has shown time and again, keep fighting and you'll get chaos. If you don't love your peers and get angry for no reason, you'll be a wreck. Whats so divine in all this ?
Age is irrelevant for the soul is immortal, and Heaven is eternity. Now how would you know that ? Wait ! I can answer that !! The scripture says so !!! So it must be true.
I could kill you on the spot and there wouldnt be anything 'wrong' about it, There is nothing objectively wrong in that. But too many people doing too much kiling is not a good idea. (As explained in the first paragraph) Its also against the concept of evolution. Humans live better by joining brains. Not by locking fists.
And why is your life that important? Where is its value rooted beyond that of your first person perspective? My life is not important to the world at large. My Instinct for survival makes it important to me. Last time I checked dogs, crows and ants etc also struggle to survive. Its only the Human ego which makes it difficult to digest that humans are nothing special in this universe. And so you try to attach value to ourselves when there is none. 10000 years of human civilizaion is a blink in the history of the world.
Its use is that of a vehicle for the glorification of God What kind of egomaniac god wants to be glorified ? If he has everything, why does he want you to worship him? You say we are his children. Do you want your children to worship you ? Do you watch your five year old daughter kidnapped and raped then sold into prostitution, only to die of Aids in 20 years? Of course, if the guy who kidnaps this girl had been born in subarban Boston, he wouldnt have turned such a maniac. So why isnt everybody born in a nice suburb in a developed country where they have enough to eat, study and MOST importantly, access to your church. Since you say only those who believe in Jesus will go to heaven.
Question for you. Chritian people will say: "Look at this Taliban man aged 30. He beats women. He kills on a whim. He wants America and other kafirs destroyed. And most importantly, he dosent believe in jesus and will never believe and never repent. He would rather die. Surely, he will go to hell!" I ask you: You go back in time 30 yrs and kidnap that boy and take him to Canada. In his place, put a newly born canadian who'll pass for a Afghani. Considering no one notices, can you tell me how the two boys will grow up to be? Want to bet who has exponentially more chances of turning into a wife beater compared to other ? Question: Is your god fair?
I could kill you on the spot and there wouldnt be anything 'wrong' about it, Surely if you I kill your loved one you wouldnt mind ? Since he/she would be going to heaven right ? Right ?! Do you promise not bring the police into it? Surely there is no need to get upset with 9/11. Those who deserve it have gone to heaven, and the attackers will surely go to hell. So why is poor Osama being hunted ? Surely an eternity in hell is punishment enough. And what happened to turn the other cheek?
You've ignored some other questions I asked but no probs.
So you'll go to heaven. I wonder what would you do there? Assuming you need to sleep, you get up, pray to god, sing praises of god, talk about god, talk some more about god, discuss the glory of god. Of course I'm assuming you don't need to eat. I'm assuming thers no global. Nor need for computers and electricity. And definitely not slashdot. Question: How many years would you do this? Forever ???! Wouldnt that be slightly boring.
Although, relativity and quantum mechanics began as theories (thought experiment), relativistic/quantum phenomenon has been observed and proven. By spending some time and effort on learning physics, any average person can grasp the concept of relativity. With that knowledge in hand, anyone can see how people have applied relativity to practical applications like sattelite communications.
Also, there are thousands of experts and students of physics. They have written thouasnds of problems and written as many articles. They do not disagree.(except about the more exotic areas like black holes and sub atomic particles, about which we cannot gather enough knowledge, so its a lot of guesswork). There have been a number of attempts by scientists and writers to make dumbed down versions of science. (Carl Sagan, Bill Bryson, Stephen Hawking...) Thier books don't basically disagree. They dont make up stories about some giant neon lighted ferris wheel in the sky that sends down comets. They concentrate on the issue.
However, if I ask ten different christian(or other) sects the same question about some metaphor in a bible story(or other such book) I will get ten diffrent answers. You ask them if such-and-such behaviour in society is correct and moral, you will get ten different answers. You ask the same questions in ten different periods in time and you will get more different answers. Differnt answers in the same time at different locations.*
So whose derivation of the metaphor is the truth ? There is only one truth. And there is a good chance that. the truth could be that the scriptures are nothing but the incoherent ramblings of an ancient culture that have absolutely no relevance today. You need to wake up to that possibility.
*If you say the same about the scientific process, then you don't know how it works.
Most people believe that the bible represents a guide and isn't to be taken absolutely literally.
Can I ask why these 'most people' haven't got together to filter the allegory, the part thats supposed to be the meat of the 'guide' and make a new book?
If the bible is a collection of stories with allegory/metaphor can I know why people need it in the first place, since modern, educated people can be taught things without making up stories and hiding meaning in them ?
Why does anyone need a book to tell them* 'don't kill', 'don't steal' and 'love everyone' ? (* or put fear in them) My mom taught me not to kill, not to steal and love everyone. She didnt go to any church/temple/mosque. Or read any book. Am I missing something ? Oh yeah the whole after life thing.. riiiiight
Speaking of after life... someones seen it right ? Right ?! I wanna know what happens there ! Do you never get old ? Supposing you die at 2 yrs or 25 do you always stay 2 or 25? Or how mcuh do you grow up ? 15? 25? 45? 95? Do you forget all your experiences, family, friends etc on earth ? If everything is totally new, are you the same person ? Dosent that mean the wrong person was sent to heaven?
I've seen a lot of religious people who get... well.. horny a lot. And they think its Ok with their religion. Do you get horny in heaven ? So do you still stare at the neighbours wife in heaven ? Or does god remove your horniness? If so, then agian you dont remain the same person... Can you have kids in heaven? Do you feel like having kids in heaven? If nobody feels so, is it a society of Humans? Then what use is that 'glorious' body ?
Read my previous posts before modding. I'm not a troll. Just a little drunk.
How is it liberation when half the population STILL cannot vote ? (I admit Saudi is far far worse)
How is Saddams tyranny on his people, and on Kuwait in 1991 any worse than atrocties on Saudi women, who cant drive, vote, travel alone, get married at age 12 , get no education or jobs etc etc.
My only complaint is that Saudi and Kuwait were and are a better target for 'liberation' of any kind. What explanation do you have for this blind eye by the US AND by others? Couldnt be oil now could it ?
Slashdot Mirror
and anyone else who rebels against him can be dealt with on the spot.
;)
I was under the impression he forgives sinners.
He chalanged God's right to rule,...
Earler you said: they could use that free will to obey him and thus show that they loved him as much as he loved them.
So which is it? Does god want to rule you or to love you? And in the recent thousands of years, where and how has god shown/is showing that he loves humans ? Since love is supposed to be a 2 way street... And where does he submit to your authority?
If he wants love so badly why wont he get a wife or a harem like those pagan gods?
Btw how do you know the pagan gods do not exist? After all, the ancients believed in them equally fervently as you believe in your god. The hindus today believe equally fervently in their gods. Do they go to hell for being born hindu through no fault of theirs ?
Why didnt your god give birth to Osamas 18th century grandparent in America? Would osama have been muslim if that had happened?
If I go back in time when osama is just born and plant him in an American christian orphanage, will he turn out to be a killer again ? What will he believe? Take a wild guess.Instead of Osama if its an average muslim or a hindu, what would he turn out to be?
What would happen if I planted your child in a Afghani family ? Would he be posting on slashdot in 20 yrs or beating up his four wives and growing poppy ?
If you answer "Osama wont be a killer ", then what can you say about the thousands of terrorists or pagans etc, anybody that christians say will go to hell?(Maybe you dont say that, but others do)
So much for your free will.
You assume that living forever is miserable becouse this world full of evil and imperfect humans is miserable. You also assume that God is miserable, and created humans (and as extention all life, including angels) to share his misery. The fact is, that God is complete in himself. He does not need anyone else around to make him happy. His modivation for creating is love.
That's a not fact Thats your assumption. And btw if god is so complete then why does he need love? If god is not vain then why does he want you to worship him? Why does he want anything?
And btw WHICH god ? And WHOSE god ? Why is the god depicted in the bible the ONE true god while the eskimo god or the hindu god(s) are false ?
God gave mankind the gift of free will so that they could use that free will to obey him and thus show that they loved him as much as he loved them.
Where does it say that ? No where. That is simply your or your sunday school interpretation.
They were perfect, and as such they would make no mistakes.
Where does it say that ? How do you KNOW? Were you there ? Or is this someones interpretation?
They *chose* to disobey God. They decided they did not want to submit to Gods authority. That one tree was the only way that they had to prove that they were faithful to God.
You mean to say that before they ate from the tree, they had no knowledge of good and evil. So HOW could they have known that eating from the tree is evil ? More importantly, how could they know obeying god is good?? Do we punish little toddlers the FIRST time they hit someone with a bat? Do we punish our children and their countless generations FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES for ONE mistake ?
Dosent that sound like megalo-psycho-mania? So how exactly did people figure out that god is forgiving ?
It wouldnt be so bad if H1 replacements were actually good.
As far as Indians are concerned, I assure they are not. I'm an Indian F1 student and so are most of my friends. All my friends who have got a job, have got it through some Indian recruiter.
These recruiters basically create a fake resume for the student(or anyone) who wants to get a H1. They show 5+ yrs exp and whatever skills that are needed for the job. And finally the H1 guy gets paid a lot less.
Best part about this scam is, even if you are from another stream(say Chemical Eng, Mechanical Eng), the recruiters will 'train' you and get you a job.
Then you might ask how can such a person survive in the job. Well I've seen MANY people, including some from Mech eng get a job for a position that wants 6 yrs exp, and no one has got fired. That means the management and most of the collegues are equally qualified.(ie not at all). And lets face it, to 'blow enough smoke' as you put it is not rocket science. (I liked that expression and that why I replied)
I dont know about any numbers, but since an overwhelming majority of Indians that I know from several Univs have gotten jobs like this, I'd say atleast 1/4 of H1's are such 'qualified' individuals. Add to that I've met some H1's directly from India, and they didnt exactly impress me.
And guess what, to survive in the US, I've started approaching some recruiters... I'll be H1 before this year end.... thats the only way to pay my debts off.
I dont mean to say Indians are horrible programmers or anything like that. There are lots of good Indian programmers that US companies could use, but the people who are getting hired are certainly under qualified.
Untill this gets fixed, use SessionSaver . Restart firefox, and your tabs opened are still there ! With low mem usage again !
And that's any different from ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN??? Oh, they lean the other way, so they're okay in most people's books! Got it! ,completely ignore an anti Bush-Rep OR anti Dem event event (such as the recent rally against US forces by people in Iraq). Whenever you see an anti bush story on news.google.com , check how the fox website covers it and in what detail. You'll see such an example every now and then.
ABC, CBS, NBC, are far from perfect, but their reporters do not keep on chanting over and over again to "BOYCOTT FRANCE!!!" or other such nonsense.
ABC, CBS, NBC, do not
The fox web site has a regular column called "Junk Science". The columinst Steven Milloi has only ONE agenda: bash the greens. Which is OK if you back that bashing with facts.
However, if you read any of his back columns and try to verify his 'facts', you'll see that many of them are outright lies or non sequiturs. Some 'scientific' statements are actually not so clever manipulations to fool commoners. In one article he claims in a nonchalant manner theres no proof people are still suffering from cancer etc from the Bhopal targedy. To see if he's right, just take a trip to Bhopal and find out. I have. Bhopal is a few hundred miles from my birth place.
Even as I write, there is a story on ALL newspaper-websites about how John Kerry and another senator blew a CIA operatives cover. Foxnews is the only 'large' web site which does not mention the other senator, (an R) at all.
The only websites who mention half truths like these are hardcore partisan web sites.
I had always HEARD fox was worthless... but to believe it, keep visiting it and see for yourself. Like I said you'll see a something totally twisted
Both India and China are food surplus nations.
Thats correct. I dont know about China, but the main problem in India is lack of purchasing power and distribution. Food in India is ultra cheap, but many Indians still can't afford it. There are warehouses that collect millions of tons of grain that wastes away because of various reasons.
A great percentage of produced food is wasted by pests, lack of cold storage, slow processing, artificial shortages, Price gouging etc
China and India are historical enemies for literally thousands of years.
WHAT ?!!
For thousands of years, China and India have been cultural and trade partners. Buddhism, silk, spices, kung-fu were some of the Indian exports. There was no scope for any Chinese/Indian monarch to even think of attacking their neighbour over the towering Himalayas that stand at almost every point at their borders
Relations soured after the 1962 broder dispute and subsequent aid to Pakistan by China. China wanted a chunk of northeast Kashmir-Ladakh to better safe gaurd against an imminent Soviet invasion. And they claim parts of NE India for themselves. Aid to Pakistan makes a nice buffer, boxing India within and dividing its forces and attention.
Ok, so you switched from manufacturing to IT hardware. Then you switched from hardware to software.
But exactly what will you switch to NOW ?
Biotech? Nanotech? I would say these things are still more than a decade away. What will the US do till then ?
But the main problem is, students are running away in droves from Basic Science, Engineering, Comp Science and Electronics. Not only that, many professors will tell you how these courses are being 'watered down' to such a level that whats being taught in Masters today was taught in undergad years earlier.
Who will be left to drive this new economy in a decade?
You are sadly mistaken if you think there are no unmotivated and incompetent workers/CEO's in China/India (or anywhere else).
Having lived in India and the US, I think lack of motivation and incompetence is more prevalent in India. More so Govt. run companies. Most Indians I know in the US are on H1 and are thoroughly incompetent. Its the talented few who keep the image of Indians from being tarnished.
If you're talking about the general decline in the work culture in the US, then I agree.
People knows this, and there's a reason why intel has 90-95% of the x86 server market
The reason why Intel has 90% of the server market is that same reason why Intel has 80% of the deskptop/laptop market share.
People want brand names.
I really dont understand what people mean by 'stable'.
One of my several AMD based computers, an AthlonXP 2500+ runs Linux... and has uptimes of 20+ days.
Another XP 2500 I had earlier ran WinXP for weeks at a stretch. And my new A64 3000 does the same.
The only reason I turn my PC's off is to sleep without the sounds of the fans for a change. And btw all my computers are OC'd from stock speed, but not by much.
I suspect people complain about stability because they can't use their PC's.
Also, people quite often type "your" instead of "you're (you are)".
Eg: Your a moron.
While this may look like a typing mistake or an attempt to speed things up, I've observed that many people really don't know the difference.
Sad state of affairs with the schooling these days.
Money is a more terrible thing to waste. :( Don't worry about my mind, I have my fair share of knowledge.
Changing schools is not easy for me. I'm a foreigner and I didnt know this school would suck so much. Over all, most of the Profs seem competent individually. But the design of the overall program and courses is weak. Its really difficult to fail in a course (except for 1 profs tough course).
Grading is ultra lenient and plagarism is rampamt.
Most courses are nothing but a cursory overview of undergrad concepts ! The Thesis option is discouraged in favour of an Independant Study which most students plagarize. I badly wanted to take thesis so I can apply for Phd, but there has been NO guidance from Profs. I have friends in other schools, and its their Profs who help them choose Thesis/ Phd topics. Also they have it very tough.
Its a good school for other science/engineering branches though. If you care for rankings, it was number one in North US(Or was it North East?) for MS programs according to US News magazine.
Also, some chaps claim they can remove IE completely.
I just ran prelink and WOW ... Acro 7 loads an order of magnitude faster than before.
My school sucks. In my Masters in CS program, the ANY Thesis or Project or research paper has to be MS Word. With templates provided by the school. And dont tell me. Too late to switch schools.
You cannot fill forms with Kpdf. Thats its only problem.(And possibly encrypted Pdfs)
Apart from that, I'd like to give kongrats and big thanks to the Kpdf and Kde devs for making a GREAT pdf viewer with KDE 3.4 ! Its got the best combination of features and speed. And a big jump from the earlier version. I think they now collaborate with the xpdf guys. I hope they can find a solution for the forms problem.
I'd like to remind people that apart from Open Office, ALL apps(that I've tried) in Gnome and KDE, that have the Print command on a menu can create Pdf files.
Acrobat 7 is somehow slower for me than 5. (Like the WinXP version 7 was slower than 6) Acro 7 takes forever to startup as Adobe insists on loading plugins I would never use. You could remove the plugin files that can be a hassle sometimes.
However we have fallen by choosing sin, and thus are not perfect. .. but if you believe your own fairy tales, I didnt choose sin and neither did you. Eve and Adam chose sin !! However, the story goes that when they 'chose' it, they were unaware of right and wrong ! How could he know then that disobeying an order was wrong? Would you punish your 18 month child for his FIRST mistake ? Even the judicial courts of your cruel and corrupt man don't punish a child this badly.
Ahhh
I ask you one more thing: Should you be punished for your fathers crimes? Does that make sense to you ? You here in the news about people suffering in the most violent way possible... Thats because Adam made ONE mistake ?
Suppose you create something magnificent. Something truly amazing, remarkable, nothing like it before. Is it egomaniacal to ask people at least acknowledge "hey, bob made this" ?
But you dont know who bob is do you? And who does? Is bob your christian god ? Or the hebrew god who dosent want you to eat pigs? Is it muslim god who says its ok to kill christians you dont like? The hindu elephant headed god with twelve wives? Is it the egyptian sun god? Is it the god of some african tribals or Pacific islanders? Is it the long forgotten Inca god? So Why and How is your bob the One True Bob ? There is only ONE truth. Either the hindus are right or someone else is.
Don't forget, the elephant-god worshipper will have equally 'compelling' argments for his faith as you do. He 'believes' as deeply as you do. Again, he's only a hindu because his parents were hindus. If he was born to your parents, he would have looked down upon idolators. So again, according to most christians(and others), god chose to put this man in a hindu family, but he will go to hell because he's an idolator! In other words god gave this man a 99% chance of turning into an idolator, then condems him to hell for turning into an idolator! Howz that for nature vs nurture?So many christians, muslims and jews belive this (even if you don't, which again poses the question, WHO is correct?) And how is this merciful and benevolent?**
If you still insist the christians are right, well then which ones? Maybe its only the Amish who are on the 'right' path.Nobody even agrees how to go interpret your scripture, leave alone the actual allegory!!
I didnt know this. Dosent it worry you, you follow in the footsteps of these misguided people ?
Suppose you create something magnificent. Something truly amazing, remarkable, nothing like it before. Is it egomaniacal to ask people at least acknowledge "hey, bob made this" ?
You imply that something magnificent, amazing and remarkable HAS to have a maker. Then if you're story checks out, the MOST magnificent, amazing and remarkable entity is god ! So who made him ?
**In your(or others) scripture, how many examples of mercy can you show me? I really like the one where all the gays in town are killed. And the one where the jews take women prisoners as their concubines after god helps kill thousands of their 'enemies'.
If you were god, what do you think would be the mercifull and benevolent thing to do ? Kill the gays? Or would you say "Ok, you people have sinned. But I love you and give you one more chance. You will be born as babies in heaven where I will personally raise you in peace and kindness. I will feed you clothe you and no one will bully you in school. There will be no disease, hunger, theives, rapists or anything bad. I will teach you everything myself. Morality and difference between good and bad. I wil give you free choice. And then, at age 25, if you turn out to be gays or other sinners, you will go to hell. But since, everyone has the potential for good(your words), I'll give you one more chance, then one more, then one more...till that good comes out."
I know I said gays in my example, but change those for any other sinners. Including you since you say you are one.
So where did your mom get her beliefs from? What reasoning are they rooted in to make them anything actually 'Right' ?
Common sense ? The only way members of society can survive and live happily is by helping each other. As history has shown time and again, keep fighting and you'll get chaos. If you don't love your peers and get angry for no reason, you'll be a wreck. Whats so divine in all this ?
Age is irrelevant for the soul is immortal, and Heaven is eternity.
Now how would you know that ? Wait ! I can answer that !! The scripture says so !!! So it must be true.
I could kill you on the spot and there wouldnt be anything 'wrong' about it,
There is nothing objectively wrong in that. But too many people doing too much kiling is not a good idea. (As explained in the first paragraph) Its also against the concept of evolution. Humans live better by joining brains. Not by locking fists.
And why is your life that important? Where is its value rooted beyond that of your first person perspective?
My life is not important to the world at large. My Instinct for survival makes it important to me. Last time I checked dogs, crows and ants etc also struggle to survive. Its only the Human ego which makes it difficult to digest that humans are nothing special in this universe. And so you try to attach value to ourselves when there is none. 10000 years of human civilizaion is a blink in the history of the world.
Its use is that of a vehicle for the glorification of God
What kind of egomaniac god wants to be glorified ? If he has everything, why does he want you to worship him? You say we are his children. Do you want your children to worship you ? Do you watch your five year old daughter kidnapped and raped then sold into prostitution, only to die of Aids in 20 years?
Of course, if the guy who kidnaps this girl had been born in subarban Boston, he wouldnt have turned such a maniac. So why isnt everybody born in a nice suburb in a developed country where they have enough to eat, study and MOST importantly, access to your church. Since you say only those who believe in Jesus will go to heaven.
Question for you. Chritian people will say: "Look at this Taliban man aged 30. He beats women. He kills on a whim. He wants America and other kafirs destroyed. And most importantly, he dosent believe in jesus and will never believe and never repent. He would rather die. Surely, he will go to hell!"
I ask you: You go back in time 30 yrs and kidnap that boy and take him to Canada. In his place, put a newly born canadian who'll pass for a Afghani. Considering no one notices, can you tell me how the two boys will grow up to be? Want to bet who has exponentially more chances of turning into a wife beater compared to other ? Question: Is your god fair?
I could kill you on the spot and there wouldnt be anything 'wrong' about it,
Surely if you I kill your loved one you wouldnt mind ? Since he/she would be going to heaven right ? Right ?! Do you promise not bring the police into it?
Surely there is no need to get upset with 9/11. Those who deserve it have gone to heaven, and the attackers will surely go to hell. So why is poor Osama being hunted ? Surely an eternity in hell is punishment enough. And what happened to turn the other cheek?
You've ignored some other questions I asked but no probs.
So you'll go to heaven. I wonder what would you do there? Assuming you need to sleep, you get up, pray to god, sing praises of god, talk about god, talk some more about god, discuss the glory of god. Of course I'm assuming you don't need to eat. I'm assuming thers no global. Nor need for computers and electricity. And definitely not slashdot.
Question: How many years would you do this? Forever ???! Wouldnt that be slightly boring.
Is that such a good example ?
Although, relativity and quantum mechanics began as theories (thought experiment), relativistic/quantum phenomenon has been observed and proven. By spending some time and effort on learning physics, any average person can grasp the concept of relativity. With that knowledge in hand, anyone can see how people have applied relativity to practical applications like sattelite communications.
Also, there are thousands of experts and students of physics. They have written thouasnds of problems and written as many articles. They do not disagree.(except about the more exotic areas like black holes and sub atomic particles, about which we cannot gather enough knowledge, so its a lot of guesswork). There have been a number of attempts by scientists and writers to make dumbed down versions of science. (Carl Sagan, Bill Bryson, Stephen Hawking...) Thier books don't basically disagree. They dont make up stories about some giant neon lighted ferris wheel in the sky that sends down comets. They concentrate on the issue.
However, if I ask ten different christian(or other) sects the same question about some metaphor in a bible story(or other such book) I will get ten diffrent answers. You ask them if such-and-such behaviour in society is correct and moral, you will get ten different answers. You ask the same questions in ten different periods in time and you will get more different answers. Differnt answers in the same time at different locations.*
So whose derivation of the metaphor is the truth ? There is only one truth. And there is a good chance that. the truth could be that the scriptures are nothing but the incoherent ramblings of an ancient culture that have absolutely no relevance today. You need to wake up to that possibility.
*If you say the same about the scientific process, then you don't know how it works.
Most people believe that the bible represents a guide and isn't to be taken absolutely literally.
.. riiiiight
... well .. horny a lot. And they think its Ok with their religion. Do you get horny in heaven ? So do you still stare at the neighbours wife in heaven ? Or does god remove your horniness? If so, then agian you dont remain the same person...
Can I ask why these 'most people' haven't got together to filter the allegory, the part thats supposed to be the meat of the 'guide' and make a new book?
If the bible is a collection of stories with allegory/metaphor can I know why people need it in the first place, since modern, educated people can be taught things without making up stories and hiding meaning in them ?
Why does anyone need a book to tell them* 'don't kill', 'don't steal' and 'love everyone' ? (* or put fear in them)
My mom taught me not to kill, not to steal and love everyone. She didnt go to any church/temple/mosque. Or read any book. Am I missing something ?
Oh yeah the whole after life thing
Speaking of after life... someones seen it right ? Right ?! I wanna know what happens there ! Do you never get old ? Supposing you die at 2 yrs or 25 do you always stay 2 or 25? Or how mcuh do you grow up ? 15? 25? 45? 95?
Do you forget all your experiences, family, friends etc on earth ? If everything is totally new, are you the same person ? Dosent that mean the wrong person was sent to heaven?
I've seen a lot of religious people who get
Can you have kids in heaven? Do you feel like having kids in heaven? If nobody feels so, is it a society of Humans? Then what use is that 'glorious' body ?
Read my previous posts before modding. I'm not a troll. Just a little drunk.
No hate from me...
I used to be amused by 'believers'
Later I started pitying them.
Now with stories like this coming out all the time, I think I fear them.
And btw.. which god were you talking about?
Religion and copyright are not issues that nerds care about ? Wow.
Liberated Kuwait ?
How is it liberation when half the population STILL cannot vote ? (I admit Saudi is far far worse)
How is Saddams tyranny on his people, and on Kuwait in 1991 any worse than atrocties on Saudi women, who cant drive, vote, travel alone, get married at age 12 , get no education or jobs etc etc.
My only complaint is that Saudi and Kuwait were and are a better target for 'liberation' of any kind. What explanation do you have for this blind eye by the US AND by others? Couldnt be oil now could it ?