He talks about "taking down a sound system". For 17 people? Ridiculous. He talks of hiring a generator and a marquee. He says he spend £800 on the event. >£50 per person for a barbeque? Ridiculous.
You are very naive.
While I am not British and I admit to being unfamiliar with such details of your culture I have to loudy call BULLSHIT on your retort. I have attended and hosted numerous private parties which cost more that US$100 per person when all was said and done - complete with lighting and huge Peavey stacks pumping out the jams. None of these events were intended as nor turned out to be 100+ person 'raves'. It just happens that my brother played bass in a number of bands in the 80's and 90's and still has the 'kit'. According assinine thinking such as you present here I should never be allowed to borrow/use this gear for a small private function??
Enjoying an evening on pirvate property with a small group of friends and family is 'rediculous' if you splurge a little bit on some surf and turf while listining to tunes on an excellent sound system and using *GASP* a generator???
Makes me simultaneously quite happy that my ancestors fled your oppressive state back in the late 1680's and rather fearful that such twisted thinking is become the norm across the globe.
Sadly, here in the US it is getting to be more likely that this type of gathering will be shut down because the State has declared your private property a 'wetland' and your presence there is endangering the mosquitos.
My advice to the remaining free citizens of the world: throw all the fucking parties you can now before you no longer have ANY rights.
To clarify: this has nothing to do with PAYG vs risk - it is a simple mileage tax generated by the Cult of Global Warming so more of your $ can be extracted from you and sacrificed on the alter of Gaia.
"Well, in his defense employees should have the right to permanently remove personal data from their work stations such as emails, web surfing history, porn or whatever other private data a person might collect...reasonable level of privacy."
There is no such thing as a reasonable level of privacy for the things you list [regardless of gov/corp status]. An employee has no right to use the employer's equipment/services for personal purposes, that includes "emails, web surfing history, porn or whatever other private data a person might collect" - it should not be on the PC unless it [the PC] is yours.
I field this issue on a regular basis [desktop admin weenie for a smallish health insurance company]. We have the full backing of management to immediately delete any unathorized apps/data ["...yes, I did remotely delete iTunes and all of the music files on this PC, please address your complaints to Corporate Data Security, the Ethics and Compliance department, HR and every manager in my food chain...would you like their cell phione numbers?.."]. Despite the assumption that everyone seems to have that you have privacy at your place of employment you actually have very little [restroom with no camera/mic...thats about it]. The PC,hard disk, network, innerweb connection, email systems, telephone and every bit of airspace on the property are paid for by the employer - you have rights to pretty much none of it as an employee.
If "rights" are simply grounded in power, then surely anyone who has sufficient power to break the law also has the "right" to do so?
I personally do not like it but even a cursory review of history and/or current global headlines would tend to support that statement.
First of all, morality is culturally relative: some parts of the world frown on raping 14 year old girls but in other areas its called an arranged marriage. Are you suggesting that the child in question has the power to refuse being raped if the powers that be in her tribal area make said arrangement? I'm not so sure that her having the 'right' not to be raped gives her that warm and fuzzy feeling while it is happening.
Second, 'rights' are defined by those in power [**warning** - 'Soviet Russia' meme coming...]. In Soviet Russia there existed a 'right' to free speach. What was lacking was permission to speak. Those without power can believe they have 'rights' but lacking the ability to excercise those 'rights' pretty much makes it mental masturbation.
The way a perceived 'right' actually becomes a 'right' is for enough people to agree on it and force the issue - isn't that the definition of power [having enough critical mass and/or firepower to enforce your belief]?
Sure, it sucks balls, but power is now and always has been the definer of what 'rights' the masses are allowed to have/excercise. Certain individuals may rise above what the great unwashed are allowed to do if they personally have enough clout to do so but everyone else is under the bootheel whatever power structure they live under.
And I call bullshit on them. If anyone has gotten one of those calls, especially within the last 10 years, it was almost certainly a prank.
No Pranks here. This happened to one of my coworkers last year - I kid you not, we laugh our asses off about it to this day:
Relatively new manager type [who had already made friends with the support folks by simultaneously demanding service NOW and always being to 'busy' for it to take place] calls the Help Desk complaining that her printer is jammed and they kick the call to us.
First, she only has the printer on her desk in the first place because she played the 'I neeeeeed it, I reaaalllly neeeeed it' card when she arrived a few weeks earlier. The result being that she, the special manager, now has an HP laserjet sitting on her desk that normally would service her entire department [mind you that it is network ready, but slaved to her PC...]. I'll spare you the drama involved in getting it installed but it involves the installation not happening instantly when she demanded, I mean, ordered the printer and then nearly calling the police because some tech had touched her PC before hours without her permission...
Anyway, her printer is now jammed. Desktop tech goes to take a peak. The manager gives the standard 'it just stopped working' line and turns back to her work. Well, to shorten the tale a bit, the tech removes a blank CD-R from the guts of the printer [apparently, she had fed it into the envelope feeder...] and when he showed it to her with a puzzled look on his face she snatched it out of his hands and curtly informed him that he could go now.
We still do not know if she was trying to print a label on the CD or if she was trying to save a file...
So, people regularly do incredibly stupid things with CDs. Sometimes they even recognize that it was stupid enough not to tell anyone about, not even the guy that is there to fix it for them.
A non-CD one that happened to me:
I was dispatched to a remote site to check out a VAX terminal [yes, we still use them...] that the user said 'just stopped working'. One large drive-thru coffee later I arrive at the scene and am led to the offending device. I ask one more time before rolling up the sleeves what had happened and am told again that It Just Stopped Working {tm}.
Screen is dark so I flip the switch a few times - no change. I look over the top to check the power cable in the back - it is firmly inserted. I trace the power cable over a few feet and into a hole in the counter. I then look under the counter and locate the cord. I, now on hands and knees under the counter, only inches from three or four pair of smelly shoes, trace the power cord around and into a power strip whose red power lamp is off. "A-ha!", I exclaim triumphantly, and eagerly poke the switch on the power strip. The light remained dark.
Not to be beaten, I locate the end of the power strip and follow its cord to the next likely source of trouble. The cord looped around a large purse, behind a box and then right back into itself! Thats right folks, the power cord on the power strip had come unplugged all by itself while she was working and plugged itself into one of its own outlets!
"...skydiving and riding motorcycles are not forms of free speech"
Then you obviously haven't seen me do either of those things with a small cat, a bowling pin and three cans of whipped cream - its constitutionally protected speech you will never , ever forget!
News flash: you don't HAVE to be a Bush supporter if you disagree with socialism. Your sarcasm is misplaced in this case as I find many faults with the current administration and its supporters. But your knee-jerk wit does have to take that into account, does it?
Very simple: is the work being completed on time and in an acceptable volume?
If the answers are yes than you have an efficient telecommuter, if not , you don't. And if the manager can't get this through their cobweb filled head then THEY are not operating efficiently and should be replaced.
This is just another case of beating on the worker because of ineffectual management.
All science, thermo-D included, is only as good as what we currently know. AFAIK, we currently do NOT know everything and have NOT observed ALL aspects of EVERY facet of science in ALL parts of the universe.
Even in your "unknown" scenario, you still cannot get a free lunch. Ever
So far as we have yet discovered. Don't misunderstand my statement: we obviously reach a scientific comfort level at some point and refer to something as a 'law'. Newton's Laws do not hold in every case, that is why special/general relativity were developed. Thermodynamic laws are no different: they hold for a specific set of givens. While we currently find them to be valid we HAVE to leave open the possibility that conditions exist under which they do NOT hold - just past the event horizon of Cygnus X-1 may be such a location - please point me toward the data collected from there and I'll reconsider my position.
Your statements, while adding an interesting dynamic to the conversation, are no more 'ultimate truth' than the poster to which I was responding stating that miracles are fact.
You have an insufficient understanding of thermodynamics
And in that I am no different than any other human on the planet. That is why I, and any other open minded individual, must leave open the possibility that yet to be observed data can/will change our collective understanding of how things work. That possibility may be so small as to be exceedingly improbably but it exists nonetheless - just as the possibility of miracles being fact also exists, the volume of data has just not yet reached the comfort level for many to consider it reality.
.
It's a fantasy, and potentially a destructive delusion.
You sound very inscure [not saying you are, just that it appears so]. I fear for our species when having an open mind is considered destructive. The possibilities of life, the universe and everything are endless - that apparently scares you. Sorry, but some of us moved out of the cave a while back.
like for example, a flagrant, measurable, obvious violation of the laws of thermodynamics by the exercise of will of one human being (an absolute scientific impossibility),
Such a claim can not be made scientifically. There can always be the possibility that there is some thermodymanic transfer taking place that has yet to be fully explored/explained/observed. The laws of physics are NOT immutable truths - they are rigorously tested theories that undergo periodic revision when new data come to light. Claiming that it is an absolute scientific impossibility that an event can occur that is not fully described by current thermodynamic theory is utter nonsense worthy of a good belly-rumbling guffaw and clearly demonstrates lack of understanding on the part of those making such a claim. My Bic lighter could be preceived as a miracle by some back-rain forest clan if they have never seen, much less contemplated the possible existence of, such a thermodynamic device: it MUST be divine intervention! These same people may also believe that you can steal their soul by taking a photo of them: devine truth emparted from on-high or lack of understanding? Interpretation of observed data is based on frame of reference.
I get your point: IF a miracle were broadcast there would be those who would refuse to accept it as such. This is not surprising at all since lacking the presence of The Big Man in Times Square, jumping up and down shouting "It's me causing this miraculous thermodynamic oddity, really, really, really, its MEEEE" during the 'miracle' there is no evidence to indicate that it is a miracle rather than just an as-yet-unexplained thing that some guy on TV is going on about. Lacking such data, one who jumps to the miracle conclusion is likely doing so based on the assumption that miracles are made to happen with astonishing regularity [how else would there be thouseands of them documented?]. My point is that you are assuming based on faith that miracles occur in the first place [in order to have one broadcast they must exist] while my default interpretation of an unexplained event [yes, I have witnessed odd things in the past] is to assume that I don't have enough data to explain what I just saw. You hit it in an earlier post: some have faith in miracles while some have belief in observation.
Ok. Perhaps then it could be said that three-dimensional information was lost somewhere in the vicinity of the Shroud of Turin and later discovered by a 19th century photographer. Happy?
Or it could be stated that using new technology a way has been found to create new data [exaggerated scale false color imaging] by observing existing data [the shroud] and presenting it in a different frame of reference [2D rendering with a 3D-like appearance] by using more new technology [software and computers]. Some add this information to the carbon dating and conclude that the shroud is a cleverly executed fake with some very interesting features while others place their hands firmly over their ears and run around shouting "its a miracle, a miracle I say, LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA."
Again, someone without faith, presented with a miracle for which there is no non-supernatural explanation, might (and often does) still refuse to believe it was a miracle.
Again, there are no supernatural explanations for anything since once someting has occurred is is part of nature and therefore is not supernatural, unless you wish to claim that some event can be witnessed and not exist at the same time. And again, again, lack of explanation of an event does not make it something that cannot be explained [and therefore automatically is a miracle], it only makes it something that the observer does not understand/cannot explain. "Refusing to believe is was a miracle" implies that it was in fact a miracle when no such facts exist - that is a claim made by one who refuses to believe that there could eventually be found information that could explain what at the time was merely not understood. I could easily state that if someone claims to witness a miracle they are refusing to admit their lack of understanding of an otherwise explainable event.
There are numerous accounts of people who personally witnessed miracles that refused to believe their origin. Faith is a matter of the heart, not a matter of science. That isn't new either
You are attempting to use the fact that something is unexplained/not understood by an observer to claim that it is in fact a miracle. What part of not understanding something makes devine intervention a fact?
Faith is a matter of the heart, not a matter of science.
Bingo. So people should stop trying to mix the two [re: ID] and admit that their lack of factual understanding of a situation [science] does not directly and irrefutably lead to devine entities poking around in our business [Faith]. Faith does not equal fact. Objectively stating that one does not understand an observation does not equal 'refusing to believe in a miracle', it only means that the observer is leaving the question open pending further input rather than jumping to the conclusion that is has to be a miracle.
Stating that this in 'encoded' implies belief that this is an intentional effect
No it doesn't. Well, it doesn't unless you want to use it as a basis for attempting to refute a claim that was never made.
"Encode" is an active verb. Seriously, I just looked it up to make sure. You used the word first, I merely quoted it. I am not putting words in your mouth. Simply containing information is not the same as the data actively being placed there.
There have been thousands, possibly millions of documented miracles.
Something is defined as a 'miracle' only by one who has the preconceived notion that an unexplained event HAS to be 'supernatural'. Rather than being the wrath of God{tm} we now understand that eclipses, floods, earthquakes and baterial infections are really large masses obsructing line of sight, excessive water run off, tectonic plate movement and, well, baterial infections. Various religeous belief systems have historically interpreted these events as either the aforementioned wrath or some sort of miracle, 'documented' or not. Place all the belief in ' miracle' you wish into one large pile but Jim Henson is still dead. I sincerely doubt that those documenters of miracles are open to other natural explanations that don't mesh with the miracle idea.
...with irrefutable scientific proof that it could not possibly have occurred without a supernatural explanation..
This is an oxymoronic statement: you can't have scientific proof of something that can't be explained, just as there exists no proof that god(s) do not exist. "Supernatural" means about as much as "new and improved" - it may sound good at first but it doesn't really mean anything. If something just happened then it is part of nature and can't possibly be out of the realm of natural events just because the observer has no readily available explanation [again, regardless of whether the event was 'documented' or not].
...the Shroud of Turin is encoded..., etc, etc
Stating that this in 'encoded' implies belief that this is an intentional effect - I see no evidence that this data was intentionally implanted knowing that it could only be seen hundreds, sorry, 'thousands' of years later with a topo/relief camera. I can use an exaggerated scale false color image of my desk to generate a 3-D image of SpongeBob that my daughter drew on it with a pencil a bit too hard, that hardly implies that she encoded the sketch with 3D data. We do have the technologly. Once again, the lack of that knowledge by the observer does not make it a miracle, documented or not.
That is why they should have skilled IT admins on staff who can do such things.
They should remove the games from the image they use for the desktops [before deployment]- if they are just banging out factory images they should all be fired.
Or, they could do what many larger companies do: use third party tools that can monitor installed applications on the client and remove/block the items determined to be against policy. The company I work for is using CA's Unicenter [now DSM] suite: not free [or the best] but it does the job. If they are serious about this they should be serious about the IT staff that controls their network and about the tools they use to prevent staff wasting time using 'undesirable' software.
I again offer my services if they need help getting this done.
The mayor should be fired for wasting his and the staff's time with this touchy-feely Grab 'n' Grin nonsense.
Additional point: If use of this app is against policy why did IT leave it on the image? If is wasn't there is wouldn't be used. If NYC IT needs help in this area I am available for US$5000/wk plus travel, two meals/day [my choice of which meals and where], a room at the Trump for the duration [Park View w/jacuzzi] and tickets to Spamlot...
Slashdot Mirror
...we are probably the most warlike and violent race that has reached rudimentary intelligence in the universe...
And this is based on what evidence, exactly?
He talks about "taking down a sound system". For 17 people? Ridiculous. He talks of hiring a generator and a marquee. He says he spend £800 on the event. >£50 per person for a barbeque? Ridiculous.
You are very naive.
While I am not British and I admit to being unfamiliar with such details of your culture I have to loudy call BULLSHIT on your retort. I have attended and hosted numerous private parties which cost more that US$100 per person when all was said and done - complete with lighting and huge Peavey stacks pumping out the jams. None of these events were intended as nor turned out to be 100+ person 'raves'. It just happens that my brother played bass in a number of bands in the 80's and 90's and still has the 'kit'. According assinine thinking such as you present here I should never be allowed to borrow/use this gear for a small private function??
Enjoying an evening on pirvate property with a small group of friends and family is 'rediculous' if you splurge a little bit on some surf and turf while listining to tunes on an excellent sound system and using *GASP* a generator???
Makes me simultaneously quite happy that my ancestors fled your oppressive state back in the late 1680's and rather fearful that such twisted thinking is become the norm across the globe.
Sadly, here in the US it is getting to be more likely that this type of gathering will be shut down because the State has declared your private property a 'wetland' and your presence there is endangering the mosquitos.
My advice to the remaining free citizens of the world: throw all the fucking parties you can now before you no longer have ANY rights.
Rediculous my hairy yellow butt...
Can anybody clarify for me?
To clarify: this has nothing to do with PAYG vs risk - it is a simple mileage tax generated by the Cult of Global Warming so more of your $ can be extracted from you and sacrificed on the alter of Gaia.
No further explanation necessary.
= : ^ \ >
"Well, in his defense employees should have the right to permanently remove personal data from their work stations such as emails, web surfing history, porn or whatever other private data a person might collect...reasonable level of privacy."
There is no such thing as a reasonable level of privacy for the things you list [regardless of gov/corp status]. An employee has no right to use the employer's equipment/services for personal purposes, that includes "emails, web surfing history, porn or whatever other private data a person might collect" - it should not be on the PC unless it [the PC] is yours.
I field this issue on a regular basis [desktop admin weenie for a smallish health insurance company]. We have the full backing of management to immediately delete any unathorized apps/data ["...yes, I did remotely delete iTunes and all of the music files on this PC, please address your complaints to Corporate Data Security, the Ethics and Compliance department, HR and every manager in my food chain...would you like their cell phione numbers?.."]. Despite the assumption that everyone seems to have that you have privacy at your place of employment you actually have very little [restroom with no camera/mic...thats about it]. The PC,hard disk, network, innerweb connection, email systems, telephone and every bit of airspace on the property are paid for by the employer - you have rights to pretty much none of it as an employee.
Perhaps you could find me a keyboard without an enter key at all?
No luck there, but I do have several without an ANY key...
[ya, I know that one was way too easy, but there are no managers around so I had to do it..]
If "rights" are simply grounded in power, then surely anyone who has sufficient power to break the law also has the "right" to do so?
I personally do not like it but even a cursory review of history and/or current global headlines would tend to support that statement.
First of all, morality is culturally relative: some parts of the world frown on raping 14 year old girls but in other areas its called an arranged marriage. Are you suggesting that the child in question has the power to refuse being raped if the powers that be in her tribal area make said arrangement? I'm not so sure that her having the 'right' not to be raped gives her that warm and fuzzy feeling while it is happening.
Second, 'rights' are defined by those in power [**warning** - 'Soviet Russia' meme coming...]. In Soviet Russia there existed a 'right' to free speach. What was lacking was permission to speak. Those without power can believe they have 'rights' but lacking the ability to excercise those 'rights' pretty much makes it mental masturbation.
The way a perceived 'right' actually becomes a 'right' is for enough people to agree on it and force the issue - isn't that the definition of power [having enough critical mass and/or firepower to enforce your belief]?
Sure, it sucks balls, but power is now and always has been the definer of what 'rights' the masses are allowed to have/excercise. Certain individuals may rise above what the great unwashed are allowed to do if they personally have enough clout to do so but everyone else is under the bootheel whatever power structure they live under.
= : ^ \ >
If its about the pirate thing they should encourage this behaviour as the decline in pirate population is the cause of global warming...
Is there going to be a time when humans just don't do this kind of thing?
no
...thats why it was kept 'secret' - so the speakers did not know they were being listened to and would have [theoretically] looser lips.
They can't intimidate you if you have no knowledge or expectation that someone is listening.
just sayin...
And I call bullshit on them. If anyone has gotten one of those calls, especially within the last 10 years, it was almost certainly a prank.
...
No Pranks here. This happened to one of my coworkers last year - I kid you not, we laugh our asses off about it to this day:
Relatively new manager type [who had already made friends with the support folks by simultaneously demanding service NOW and always being to 'busy' for it to take place] calls the Help Desk complaining that her printer is jammed and they kick the call to us.
First, she only has the printer on her desk in the first place because she played the 'I neeeeeed it, I reaaalllly neeeeed it' card when she arrived a few weeks earlier. The result being that she, the special manager, now has an HP laserjet sitting on her desk that normally would service her entire department [mind you that it is network ready, but slaved to her PC...]. I'll spare you the drama involved in getting it installed but it involves the installation not happening instantly when she demanded, I mean, ordered the printer and then nearly calling the police because some tech had touched her PC before hours without her permission
Anyway, her printer is now jammed. Desktop tech goes to take a peak. The manager gives the standard 'it just stopped working' line and turns back to her work. Well, to shorten the tale a bit, the tech removes a blank CD-R from the guts of the printer [apparently, she had fed it into the envelope feeder...] and when he showed it to her with a puzzled look on his face she snatched it out of his hands and curtly informed him that he could go now.
We still do not know if she was trying to print a label on the CD or if she was trying to save a file...
So, people regularly do incredibly stupid things with CDs. Sometimes they even recognize that it was stupid enough not to tell anyone about, not even the guy that is there to fix it for them.
A non-CD one that happened to me:
I was dispatched to a remote site to check out a VAX terminal [yes, we still use them...] that the user said 'just stopped working'. One large drive-thru coffee later I arrive at the scene and am led to the offending device. I ask one more time before rolling up the sleeves what had happened and am told again that It Just Stopped Working {tm}.
Screen is dark so I flip the switch a few times - no change. I look over the top to check the power cable in the back - it is firmly inserted. I trace the power cable over a few feet and into a hole in the counter. I then look under the counter and locate the cord. I, now on hands and knees under the counter, only inches from three or four pair of smelly shoes, trace the power cord around and into a power strip whose red power lamp is off. "A-ha!", I exclaim triumphantly, and eagerly poke the switch on the power strip. The light remained dark.
Not to be beaten, I locate the end of the power strip and follow its cord to the next likely source of trouble. The cord looped around a large purse, behind a box and then right back into itself! Thats right folks, the power cord on the power strip had come unplugged all by itself while she was working and plugged itself into one of its own outlets!
This stuff really does happen.
With great frequency.
"...skydiving and riding motorcycles are not forms of free speech"
Then you obviously haven't seen me do either of those things with a small cat, a bowling pin and three cans of whipped cream - its constitutionally protected speech you will never , ever forget!
just sayin'...
= : ^ 0 >
at Vista Beta 2...
= : ^ 0 >
ya, a bit weak..[hadn't had the morning coffee yet...], but accurate nonetheless.
I just wanted to bring it full circle for the short-sighted Bush haters among us.
News flash: you don't HAVE to be a Bush supporter if you disagree with socialism. Your sarcasm is misplaced in this case as I find many faults with the current administration and its supporters. But your knee-jerk wit does have to take that into account, does it?
..or like asking a NeoLibCommy to keep his hands out of your pocket.
Very simple: is the work being completed on time and in an acceptable volume?
If the answers are yes than you have an efficient telecommuter, if not , you don't. And if the manager can't get this through their cobweb filled head then THEY are not operating efficiently and should be replaced.
This is just another case of beating on the worker because of ineffectual management.
nice - that one made it worth getting up this morning.
All science, thermo-D included, is only as good as what we currently know. AFAIK, we currently do NOT know everything and have NOT observed ALL aspects of EVERY facet of science in ALL parts of the universe.
Even in your "unknown" scenario, you still cannot get a free lunch. Ever
So far as we have yet discovered. Don't misunderstand my statement: we obviously reach a scientific comfort level at some point and refer to something as a 'law'. Newton's Laws do not hold in every case, that is why special/general relativity were developed. Thermodynamic laws are no different: they hold for a specific set of givens. While we currently find them to be valid we HAVE to leave open the possibility that conditions exist under which they do NOT hold - just past the event horizon of Cygnus X-1 may be such a location - please point me toward the data collected from there and I'll reconsider my position.
Your statements, while adding an interesting dynamic to the conversation, are no more 'ultimate truth' than the poster to which I was responding stating that miracles are fact.
You have an insufficient understanding of thermodynamics
And in that I am no different than any other human on the planet. That is why I, and any other open minded individual, must leave open the possibility that yet to be observed data can/will change our collective understanding of how things work. That possibility may be so small as to be exceedingly improbably but it exists nonetheless - just as the possibility of miracles being fact also exists, the volume of data has just not yet reached the comfort level for many to consider it reality.
. It's a fantasy, and potentially a destructive delusion.
You sound very inscure [not saying you are, just that it appears so]. I fear for our species when having an open mind is considered destructive. The possibilities of life, the universe and everything are endless - that apparently scares you. Sorry, but some of us moved out of the cave a while back.
like for example, a flagrant, measurable, obvious violation of the laws of thermodynamics by the exercise of will of one human being (an absolute scientific impossibility),
Such a claim can not be made scientifically. There can always be the possibility that there is some thermodymanic transfer taking place that has yet to be fully explored/explained/observed. The laws of physics are NOT immutable truths - they are rigorously tested theories that undergo periodic revision when new data come to light. Claiming that it is an absolute scientific impossibility that an event can occur that is not fully described by current thermodynamic theory is utter nonsense worthy of a good belly-rumbling guffaw and clearly demonstrates lack of understanding on the part of those making such a claim. My Bic lighter could be preceived as a miracle by some back-rain forest clan if they have never seen, much less contemplated the possible existence of, such a thermodynamic device: it MUST be divine intervention! These same people may also believe that you can steal their soul by taking a photo of them: devine truth emparted from on-high or lack of understanding? Interpretation of observed data is based on frame of reference.
I get your point: IF a miracle were broadcast there would be those who would refuse to accept it as such. This is not surprising at all since lacking the presence of The Big Man in Times Square, jumping up and down shouting "It's me causing this miraculous thermodynamic oddity, really, really, really, its MEEEE" during the 'miracle' there is no evidence to indicate that it is a miracle rather than just an as-yet-unexplained thing that some guy on TV is going on about. Lacking such data, one who jumps to the miracle conclusion is likely doing so based on the assumption that miracles are made to happen with astonishing regularity [how else would there be thouseands of them documented?]. My point is that you are assuming based on faith that miracles occur in the first place [in order to have one broadcast they must exist] while my default interpretation of an unexplained event [yes, I have witnessed odd things in the past] is to assume that I don't have enough data to explain what I just saw. You hit it in an earlier post: some have faith in miracles while some have belief in observation.
Ok. Perhaps then it could be said that three-dimensional information was lost somewhere in the vicinity of the Shroud of Turin and later discovered by a 19th century photographer. Happy?
Or it could be stated that using new technology a way has been found to create new data [exaggerated scale false color imaging] by observing existing data [the shroud] and presenting it in a different frame of reference [2D rendering with a 3D-like appearance] by using more new technology [software and computers]. Some add this information to the carbon dating and conclude that the shroud is a cleverly executed fake with some very interesting features while others place their hands firmly over their ears and run around shouting "its a miracle, a miracle I say, LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA."
I'm ecstatic, you?
Again, someone without faith, presented with a miracle for which there is no non-supernatural explanation, might (and often does) still refuse to believe it was a miracle.
Again, there are no supernatural explanations for anything since once someting has occurred is is part of nature and therefore is not supernatural, unless you wish to claim that some event can be witnessed and not exist at the same time. And again, again, lack of explanation of an event does not make it something that cannot be explained [and therefore automatically is a miracle], it only makes it something that the observer does not understand/cannot explain. "Refusing to believe is was a miracle" implies that it was in fact a miracle when no such facts exist - that is a claim made by one who refuses to believe that there could eventually be found information that could explain what at the time was merely not understood. I could easily state that if someone claims to witness a miracle they are refusing to admit their lack of understanding of an otherwise explainable event.
There are numerous accounts of people who personally witnessed miracles that refused to believe their origin. Faith is a matter of the heart, not a matter of science. That isn't new either
You are attempting to use the fact that something is unexplained/not understood by an observer to claim that it is in fact a miracle. What part of not understanding something makes devine intervention a fact?
Faith is a matter of the heart, not a matter of science.
Bingo. So people should stop trying to mix the two [re: ID] and admit that their lack of factual understanding of a situation [science] does not directly and irrefutably lead to devine entities poking around in our business [Faith]. Faith does not equal fact. Objectively stating that one does not understand an observation does not equal 'refusing to believe in a miracle', it only means that the observer is leaving the question open pending further input rather than jumping to the conclusion that is has to be a miracle.
Stating that this in 'encoded' implies belief that this is an intentional effect
No it doesn't. Well, it doesn't unless you want to use it as a basis for attempting to refute a claim that was never made.
"Encode" is an active verb. Seriously, I just looked it up to make sure. You used the word first, I merely quoted it. I am not putting words in your mouth. Simply containing information is not the same as the data actively being placed there.
There have been thousands, possibly millions of documented miracles.
...with irrefutable scientific proof that it could not possibly have occurred without a supernatural explanation..
...the Shroud of Turin is encoded..., etc, etc
Something is defined as a 'miracle' only by one who has the preconceived notion that an unexplained event HAS to be 'supernatural'. Rather than being the wrath of God{tm} we now understand that eclipses, floods, earthquakes and baterial infections are really large masses obsructing line of sight, excessive water run off, tectonic plate movement and, well, baterial infections. Various religeous belief systems have historically interpreted these events as either the aforementioned wrath or some sort of miracle, 'documented' or not. Place all the belief in ' miracle' you wish into one large pile but Jim Henson is still dead. I sincerely doubt that those documenters of miracles are open to other natural explanations that don't mesh with the miracle idea.
This is an oxymoronic statement: you can't have scientific proof of something that can't be explained, just as there exists no proof that god(s) do not exist. "Supernatural" means about as much as "new and improved" - it may sound good at first but it doesn't really mean anything. If something just happened then it is part of nature and can't possibly be out of the realm of natural events just because the observer has no readily available explanation [again, regardless of whether the event was 'documented' or not].
Stating that this in 'encoded' implies belief that this is an intentional effect - I see no evidence that this data was intentionally implanted knowing that it could only be seen hundreds, sorry, 'thousands' of years later with a topo/relief camera. I can use an exaggerated scale false color image of my desk to generate a 3-D image of SpongeBob that my daughter drew on it with a pencil a bit too hard, that hardly implies that she encoded the sketch with 3D data. We do have the technologly. Once again, the lack of that knowledge by the observer does not make it a miracle, documented or not.
Ramen
That is why they should have skilled IT admins on staff who can do such things.
They should remove the games from the image they use for the desktops [before deployment]- if they are just banging out factory images they should all be fired.
Or, they could do what many larger companies do: use third party tools that can monitor installed applications on the client and remove/block the items determined to be against policy. The company I work for is using CA's Unicenter [now DSM] suite: not free [or the best] but it does the job. If they are serious about this they should be serious about the IT staff that controls their network and about the tools they use to prevent staff wasting time using 'undesirable' software.
I again offer my services if they need help getting this done.
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Oh, great, a sarcasm detector - thats as reeeally useful invention...
The mayor should be fired for wasting his and the staff's time with this touchy-feely Grab 'n' Grin nonsense.
Additional point: If use of this app is against policy why did IT leave it on the image? If is wasn't there is wouldn't be used. If NYC IT needs help in this area I am available for US$5000/wk plus travel, two meals/day [my choice of which meals and where], a room at the Trump for the duration [Park View w/jacuzzi] and tickets to Spamlot...
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What happened to politicians in the last 100 years or so?
radio and television