The overwhelming majority of human progress has come from people who were or are highly religious.
That's because it took us 5,000 years of civilization to grow past our need to attribute everything we didn't understand to a mysterious power. Today we actually have the cognitive fortitude to admit our ignorance and lack of imagination. Those evolved among us do anyway.
Your "deeply-held belief", which is undoubtedly simply a circumstance of conceptive chance, rather than a profound understanding of theology and introspection, is not shared by a statistically significant number of modern scientists. So this silly claim you parroted (made up by far more intelligent religious hacks, good job crediting them by the way) proving religious belief has anything to do with scientific endeavor is plainly bullshit.
But go right ahead. Continue to take the coward's way out and claim that some deity is responsible for your mental failures if that helps you look in the mirror. Just do us a favor and quit trying to rewritite history as well.
Given no argument was stated on why you shouldn't want open source genealogical software, no, the question was not legitimate.
Are you planning on modifying the code or examining the source somehow? If not, then why would you want it to be open source?
This betrays a lack of understanding of why, all other things being equal, open source is a superior choice (and for many, still the better choice given only a somewhat inferior enough piece of software). For that reason, the AC should not be responding to this topic, but doing their homework on why those of us who do use open source make that choice.
Calling Turkey "islamic" is in fact offensive, since Islam does not define that country, just as "Anglican" does not define the UK.
That you do not know this and make awful jokes reflects poorly on me, thus the need to apologize for my failing to ensure you don't run around the world being a jackass. It doesn't have to be my house; an idiot child brought to a restaurant demands that apologies be made to the other guests there as much as to the proprietor.
When you can comprehend these points, you may apologize to me. Until then, you can feel just as free to go fuck off yourself.
I wish my fellow Americans would just learn to shut up when they have nothing intelligent to say in an international forum. Terribly sorry about that. In hopes of redeeming some measure of dignity to the US...
Turkey has historically been a secular country. Sadly, they're falling for the same nonsense the US is and are sliding backwards towards the establishment of a theocratic government.
As you properly explained, it requires a train of though where putting something on a credit card isn't considered "spending", but paying off the card is.
"On what kind of a planet?"
A planet where children run free using a card daddy only pays off when Democrats get elected.
True, but Republicans aren't pushing for conservatism in this- and many other cases:
Republicans are trying to dismantle unions which are/were the status quo. Republicans are helping companies off-shore jobs, which is not a traditional phenomenon. Republicans are actively trying to insert religious dogma into science class, which is a radical idea. Republicans are trying to replace the institution of public education with the unproven system of charter schools.
Not that it's easy to be a Republican these days when it's not enough to claim conservatism, but also be electable and a buffoon at the same time. Being expected make good excuses about why you shouldn't be expected to read a few hundred pages must surely be what the founders were thinking when they penned the phrase "cruel and unusual."
Hence the "insane" mention by gcn, being the "mad" in mutually assured destruction.
Stating we have more than enough capacity isn't a threat, suggestion or wish. It's simply fact.
Nobody said anything about genocide until you came in. That you mention Godwin while being exactly the stereotypical idiot he criticized is just what's really sad in this discussion.
To expand on "Games = Play" I have to suggest also that "Games != Work". I mean, please- "the most popular games today have you tilling your farm, hiring waiting staff" is something that should NEVER appear in the same sentence as "reality."
FarmVille isn't backbreaking, only amazingly repetitive when you consider the player numbers. Your crops are guaranteed to sell, don't spoil unless you let them expire, and don't even a drop of rain. It's pure fantasy. SimFarm back in 1993 was much more a fun and realistic game. Zynga should have called it "FarmVille: SimFarm's Inbred Country Cousin"
Likewise for "hiring wait staff", which I assume never come in late or drop a single dish and work at 100% efficiency shift-long day in and out. Nor will they ever have a bad day and give you attitude or call out of work ten minutes after their shift starts. Again, it's not stressful the way work would be and should never be compared.
Sure, being a farmer who can flood an infinite-demand market with chocolate milk that comes out of a cow pre-pasteurized, homogenized and packaged would be a less stressful job than yours. Unfortunately nobody has that kind of job.
I think you missed the subject of the 'train wreck' phrase. I feel that only refers to the non-propaganda media outlets which keep talking about all the stupid stuff Palin does, not because they agree but because they can't help but cover dogs on skateboards.
I agree that Fox viewers are genuine Palin followers. They're genuinely ignorant of facts, their limited grasp of history and that their politicians are no better than the democrats they lambaste for "being politicians". They love that Palin doesn't care if she is right on a subject because that doesn't matter as much as following one's "common sense" or traditions.
I'm with you on Glenn Beck's exploitation, but these days I tend to believe Palin is doing exactly the same, though she's not hiding the fact that she wields significant political power. She pretends to be the authentic people's crusader but she hasn't been anything like that for a very long time. I find it sad that large parts of the American public hasn't learned from the presidency of George W. Bush and is intentionally flocking to the most unintellectual candidates. Like the rise of the religious right, this is the new tragedy of the Republican party from which I worry if they will recover as a serious political party which doesn't need the pathetic Democratic party in order to remain relevant.
Yes, donweel's "analysis" wasn't really eloquent, but it's still relevant.
The point is Google was $100 at IPO a few years back (Aug '04) . Contrast that to Microsoft's stock which hasn't climbed a penny since, let alone shot up over 400%.
Here- take a quick look. See the stagnating red line which hasn't gone up much in years and is now 7% below its value since '04? That's how fantastically Ballmer is doing and how worthwhile investing in Microsoft has not been. See the other line which is way up? That's a company which actually innovates, is expanding in more than rhetoric and has made money for investors. Want to make monkey-boy feel even worse? Add in AAPL which beats even Google's healthy stock price.
You're blaming stock splits? Ha! Like MSFT has had any use for those in almost a decade. Look it up- the last one was February 2003, back in the Internet's mesozoic era . After five years of "expert" analysts constantly claiming GOOG is an overpriced bubble Mountain View still continually beats profit expectations, proving that Google isn't the one who doesn't "get it"- it's everyone else and chief among these is certainly Microsoft.
God also said you shouldn't "spill your seed in vain" which is where the "Catholic church vs. masturbation & condoms" nonsense comes from. So it's not like he commanded us to have orgies or various other possible interpretations of "have loads of sex." The point was exactly as you said- to multiply and fill the earth.
As for the "sex == sin" thing, that's not a Jewish notion- but rather all about denying the rejection of pleasure. Again- thank the Catholics for that ray of sunshine. The Hebrew bible contains a lot of restrictions (e.g. adultery, bestiality, anal- if you read it that way) but I can't think of a single place where it says you're not allowed to enjoy it when you aren't practicing something forbidden.
Back to multiplying- given how we've pretty much overpopulated the planet already and infant mortality is dropping even among the poorest nations, it's obviously time to reinterpret all those laws under modern conditions. I'm wouldn't advise holding one's breath until this new pope does that, nor for the more conservative Rabbis in my own faith to realize having ten children today is morally wrong.
That right doesn't conflict with the right of a consumer to their property.
That's where innovation and brand come in. Just because you release your specs doesn't let a competitor compete with you until they've had time to get those specs into production and build a distribution network. By then it's too late for them to compete for market share.
There are a zillion cheap iPod knockoffs and other devices which do basically the same thing. Apple made a fortune on digital music players before anyone else and continue to sell theirs because they built a device consumers believe is superior to the generics.
The fear is actually a good thing- it keeps them innovating and staying at the cutting edge of development and not sitting on their asses.
Exactly. And likewise there's no genetic reason for babies to understand the concept of robots.
The whole question seems silly. Considering a decently life-like device, the wiser and more perceptive (read: older) a human needs to be to distinguish robotic from organic.
That "in general" is where Google has won every single time, and why Microsoft fails time and time again to remain relevant. A single feature does not innovation make, nor will this minor feature matter to anybody who isn't shallow. Might as well argue that you prefer Microsoft's color scheme or fonts.
As long as Microsoft continues to launch unsuccessful products despite massive advertising campaigns, they will continue to stagnate and fall further behind Google and Apple.
Just his hands? How about the jeans he wiped them off on while playing evil scientist?
It's true that a hobbyist isn't likely to take something benign and turn it into HIV or the bubonic plague, but those are extreme cases, far more than what's needed to kill you. Lethality comes in many degrees, all of which are dangerous enough inside the laboratory, so casually tinkering with E Coli is probably unnecessarily more dangerous than something which isn't already very capable of harming us.
Unless specifically working to modify a particular strain, these experimenters should choose a specimen which has a very short life and cannot thrive in a comfortable human environment so the chance of causing accidental harm is minimized. That's the main concern with such untrained budding epidemiologists- their lack of understanding and equipment when it comes to dealing with dangerous specimens.
No, that's a silly idea. Difficulty has nothing to do with it.
The difference here is between giving and stealing. "Friending" is an act of giving, therefore there was no stealing. The analogy is letting an officer enter your home without a warrant. He doesn't have that right until you gave it to him. Once you have, you can't cry foul of "illegal search" when he sees something illegal there.
If it were strictly about superficial preference your comment would make sense. The point being made is that hiring people who can't learn/adapt or are superstitious and petty is the real problem. The problem on/. is an excessive amount of strawmen, inflated egos and other various types of temperamental idiocy.
No since you, the user, didn't care enough to find out who this "friend" was and because of that you have no reasonable expectation of privacy from a stranger you invited into your circle of confidence. If you want privacy, keep things private by not sharing them, which you already do by putting them on a server not under your control. The onus to keep something private is completely on you up to the point where the law is actually broken and you can't possible be able to maintain your privacy.
If a government agency installed a black box in Facebook's datacenter, that would be an actual violation and perhaps "spy" would apply.
Having people write checks for their services would decrease apathy
Oh God no. I really don't want to have to write out checks for every thing the government does: fire, police, schools, road/bridge repair, library, city administration, lighting, parks, DMV, trash collection, courts, jails, beaches, and on and on and on... What a terrible hassle. I'd must rather just pay my real estate taxes and review the yearly breakdown per $1000 to see that I'm perfectly content that my city isn't terribly inefficient or spending on the wrong things.
That's not the apathy I was talking about- I'm talking about politicians who are obviously lying/ idiots but get voted in anyway election after election because they've got a (D) or (R) after their name and that party keeps winning with that incumbent advantage. The number of voters I talk to who don't understand the issues they vote on is staggering; most people just don't even bother to figure out what they want, let alone which politicians claim those opinions.
And would you really choose to quibble with the fire department of all things?
Slashdot Mirror
The overwhelming majority of human progress has come from people who were or are highly religious.
That's because it took us 5,000 years of civilization to grow past our need to attribute everything we didn't understand to a mysterious power. Today we actually have the cognitive fortitude to admit our ignorance and lack of imagination. Those evolved among us do anyway.
Your "deeply-held belief", which is undoubtedly simply a circumstance of conceptive chance, rather than a profound understanding of theology and introspection, is not shared by a statistically significant number of modern scientists. So this silly claim you parroted (made up by far more intelligent religious hacks, good job crediting them by the way) proving religious belief has anything to do with scientific endeavor is plainly bullshit.
But go right ahead. Continue to take the coward's way out and claim that some deity is responsible for your mental failures if that helps you look in the mirror. Just do us a favor and quit trying to rewritite history as well.
Given no argument was stated on why you shouldn't want open source genealogical software, no, the question was not legitimate.
Are you planning on modifying the code or examining the source somehow? If not, then why would you want it to be open source?
This betrays a lack of understanding of why, all other things being equal, open source is a superior choice (and for many, still the better choice given only a somewhat inferior enough piece of software). For that reason, the AC should not be responding to this topic, but doing their homework on why those of us who do use open source make that choice.
The idiots are out in force tonight...
If that's all you have to say, go back to your Playstation and leave politics to the adults.
Calling Turkey "islamic" is in fact offensive, since Islam does not define that country, just as "Anglican" does not define the UK.
That you do not know this and make awful jokes reflects poorly on me, thus the need to apologize for my failing to ensure you don't run around the world being a jackass. It doesn't have to be my house; an idiot child brought to a restaurant demands that apologies be made to the other guests there as much as to the proprietor.
When you can comprehend these points, you may apologize to me. Until then, you can feel just as free to go fuck off yourself.
*rolls eyes and sighs*
I wish my fellow Americans would just learn to shut up when they have nothing intelligent to say in an international forum. Terribly sorry about that. In hopes of redeeming some measure of dignity to the US...
Turkey has historically been a secular country. Sadly, they're falling for the same nonsense the US is and are sliding backwards towards the establishment of a theocratic government.
As you properly explained, it requires a train of though where putting something on a credit card isn't considered "spending", but paying off the card is.
"On what kind of a planet?"
A planet where children run free using a card daddy only pays off when Democrats get elected.
Sadly, the children got into the sugar jar again.
AC was quoting "Full Metal Jacket."
You have the time to write whatever that gibberish you did was, but can't handle copy&paste into Google?
True, but Republicans aren't pushing for conservatism in this- and many other cases:
Republicans are trying to dismantle unions which are/were the status quo.
Republicans are helping companies off-shore jobs, which is not a traditional phenomenon.
Republicans are actively trying to insert religious dogma into science class, which is a radical idea.
Republicans are trying to replace the institution of public education with the unproven system of charter schools.
Not that it's easy to be a Republican these days when it's not enough to claim conservatism, but also be electable and a buffoon at the same time. Being expected make good excuses about why you shouldn't be expected to read a few hundred pages must surely be what the founders were thinking when they penned the phrase "cruel and unusual."
Hence the "insane" mention by gcn, being the "mad" in mutually assured destruction.
Stating we have more than enough capacity isn't a threat, suggestion or wish. It's simply fact.
Nobody said anything about genocide until you came in. That you mention Godwin while being exactly the stereotypical idiot he criticized is just what's really sad in this discussion.
You forget that they'd consider emulating god to be hubris.
You mean except in cases where they offer "clarification" on His words.
To expand on "Games = Play" I have to suggest also that "Games != Work". I mean, please- "the most popular games today have you tilling your farm, hiring waiting staff" is something that should NEVER appear in the same sentence as "reality."
FarmVille isn't backbreaking, only amazingly repetitive when you consider the player numbers. Your crops are guaranteed to sell, don't spoil unless you let them expire, and don't even a drop of rain. It's pure fantasy. SimFarm back in 1993 was much more a fun and realistic game. Zynga should have called it " FarmVille: SimFarm's Inbred Country Cousin"
Likewise for "hiring wait staff", which I assume never come in late or drop a single dish and work at 100% efficiency shift-long day in and out. Nor will they ever have a bad day and give you attitude or call out of work ten minutes after their shift starts. Again, it's not stressful the way work would be and should never be compared.
Sure, being a farmer who can flood an infinite-demand market with chocolate milk that comes out of a cow pre-pasteurized, homogenized and packaged would be a less stressful job than yours. Unfortunately nobody has that kind of job.
Obama didn't quit. He got a promotion, stupid.
I think you missed the subject of the 'train wreck' phrase. I feel that only refers to the non-propaganda media outlets which keep talking about all the stupid stuff Palin does, not because they agree but because they can't help but cover dogs on skateboards.
I agree that Fox viewers are genuine Palin followers. They're genuinely ignorant of facts, their limited grasp of history and that their politicians are no better than the democrats they lambaste for "being politicians". They love that Palin doesn't care if she is right on a subject because that doesn't matter as much as following one's "common sense" or traditions.
I'm with you on Glenn Beck's exploitation, but these days I tend to believe Palin is doing exactly the same, though she's not hiding the fact that she wields significant political power. She pretends to be the authentic people's crusader but she hasn't been anything like that for a very long time. I find it sad that large parts of the American public hasn't learned from the presidency of George W. Bush and is intentionally flocking to the most unintellectual candidates. Like the rise of the religious right, this is the new tragedy of the Republican party from which I worry if they will recover as a serious political party which doesn't need the pathetic Democratic party in order to remain relevant.
Well you could just be a coward like her and use a helicopter.
Yes, donweel's "analysis" wasn't really eloquent, but it's still relevant.
The point is Google was $100 at IPO a few years back (Aug '04) . Contrast that to Microsoft's stock which hasn't climbed a penny since, let alone shot up over 400%.
Here- take a quick look. See the stagnating red line which hasn't gone up much in years and is now 7% below its value since '04? That's how fantastically Ballmer is doing and how worthwhile investing in Microsoft has not been. See the other line which is way up? That's a company which actually innovates, is expanding in more than rhetoric and has made money for investors. Want to make monkey-boy feel even worse? Add in AAPL which beats even Google's healthy stock price.
You're blaming stock splits? Ha! Like MSFT has had any use for those in almost a decade. Look it up- the last one was February 2003, back in the Internet's mesozoic era . After five years of "expert" analysts constantly claiming GOOG is an overpriced bubble Mountain View still continually beats profit expectations, proving that Google isn't the one who doesn't "get it"- it's everyone else and chief among these is certainly Microsoft.
That's what I assume Bluefoxlucid meant too.
God also said you shouldn't "spill your seed in vain" which is where the "Catholic church vs. masturbation & condoms" nonsense comes from. So it's not like he commanded us to have orgies or various other possible interpretations of "have loads of sex." The point was exactly as you said- to multiply and fill the earth.
As for the "sex == sin" thing, that's not a Jewish notion- but rather all about denying the rejection of pleasure. Again- thank the Catholics for that ray of sunshine. The Hebrew bible contains a lot of restrictions (e.g. adultery, bestiality, anal- if you read it that way) but I can't think of a single place where it says you're not allowed to enjoy it when you aren't practicing something forbidden.
Back to multiplying- given how we've pretty much overpopulated the planet already and infant mortality is dropping even among the poorest nations, it's obviously time to reinterpret all those laws under modern conditions. I'm wouldn't advise holding one's breath until this new pope does that, nor for the more conservative Rabbis in my own faith to realize having ten children today is morally wrong.
That right doesn't conflict with the right of a consumer to their property.
That's where innovation and brand come in. Just because you release your specs doesn't let a competitor compete with you until they've had time to get those specs into production and build a distribution network. By then it's too late for them to compete for market share.
There are a zillion cheap iPod knockoffs and other devices which do basically the same thing. Apple made a fortune on digital music players before anyone else and continue to sell theirs because they built a device consumers believe is superior to the generics.
The fear is actually a good thing- it keeps them innovating and staying at the cutting edge of development and not sitting on their asses.
Exactly. And likewise there's no genetic reason for babies to understand the concept of robots.
The whole question seems silly. Considering a decently life-like device, the wiser and more perceptive (read: older) a human needs to be to distinguish robotic from organic.
Not just babies. Set up a robot in any city in Kansas and watch them burn it at the stake.
That "in general" is where Google has won every single time, and why Microsoft fails time and time again to remain relevant. A single feature does not innovation make, nor will this minor feature matter to anybody who isn't shallow. Might as well argue that you prefer Microsoft's color scheme or fonts.
As long as Microsoft continues to launch unsuccessful products despite massive advertising campaigns, they will continue to stagnate and fall further behind Google and Apple.
Just his hands? How about the jeans he wiped them off on while playing evil scientist?
It's true that a hobbyist isn't likely to take something benign and turn it into HIV or the bubonic plague, but those are extreme cases, far more than what's needed to kill you. Lethality comes in many degrees, all of which are dangerous enough inside the laboratory, so casually tinkering with E Coli is probably unnecessarily more dangerous than something which isn't already very capable of harming us.
Unless specifically working to modify a particular strain, these experimenters should choose a specimen which has a very short life and cannot thrive in a comfortable human environment so the chance of causing accidental harm is minimized. That's the main concern with such untrained budding epidemiologists- their lack of understanding and equipment when it comes to dealing with dangerous specimens.
No, that's a silly idea. Difficulty has nothing to do with it.
The difference here is between giving and stealing. "Friending" is an act of giving, therefore there was no stealing. The analogy is letting an officer enter your home without a warrant. He doesn't have that right until you gave it to him. Once you have, you can't cry foul of "illegal search" when he sees something illegal there.
If it were strictly about superficial preference your comment would make sense. The point being made is that hiring people who can't learn/adapt or are superstitious and petty is the real problem. The problem on /. is an excessive amount of strawmen, inflated egos and other various types of temperamental idiocy.
No since you, the user, didn't care enough to find out who this "friend" was and because of that you have no reasonable expectation of privacy from a stranger you invited into your circle of confidence. If you want privacy, keep things private by not sharing them, which you already do by putting them on a server not under your control. The onus to keep something private is completely on you up to the point where the law is actually broken and you can't possible be able to maintain your privacy.
If a government agency installed a black box in Facebook's datacenter, that would be an actual violation and perhaps "spy" would apply.
Having people write checks for their services would decrease apathy
Oh God no. I really don't want to have to write out checks for every thing the government does: fire, police, schools, road/bridge repair, library, city administration, lighting, parks, DMV, trash collection, courts, jails, beaches, and on and on and on...
What a terrible hassle. I'd must rather just pay my real estate taxes and review the yearly breakdown per $1000 to see that I'm perfectly content that my city isn't terribly inefficient or spending on the wrong things.
That's not the apathy I was talking about- I'm talking about politicians who are obviously lying/ idiots but get voted in anyway election after election because they've got a (D) or (R) after their name and that party keeps winning with that incumbent advantage. The number of voters I talk to who don't understand the issues they vote on is staggering; most people just don't even bother to figure out what they want, let alone which politicians claim those opinions.
And would you really choose to quibble with the fire department of all things?