Errr...no. There is no age interval for citizenship; anyone born in the United States or of American parents abroad is a U.S. citizen from birth to death or renunciation of citizenship. Furthermore, the constitutional protections of basic human rights apply to all persons in the U.S., not just citizens (you may dispute this one in practice based on a few human rights abuses committed by U.S. authorities unto its own citizens, but it's the legal truth).
The issue here is not that the right to play violent video games is protected by the constitution but does not apply to children, but that there is no constitutional right to play violent video games. The vast majority of "rights" in this country have been constructed by the courts or the lawmakers based on the principles of the Bill of Rights and the ninth-amendment protection of "unenumerated rights."
Do, indeed, the constitution or the laws of the land mention anything about the freedom to play violent video games? No. The legal question is not whether children have constitutional rights, but whether a municipal government has the power to prevent children from accessing games it finds objectionable in a public place.
The inevitable lawsuit will be a very interesting one to watch, because the current standard for deciding if objectionable material can be restricted by government decree is whether the offending material is totally devoid of either artistic merit or social value. Certainly this is not the case with (most) violent video games, but it will be fun to see the city's arguments to the contrary!
This "story you heard recently" is nonsense. It has been circulating with many variations for a few years. I assure you that such a situation is illegal according to the laws of the United States and Israel. Please, moderators, don't moderate this troll up when the substance of his post is so obviously apocryphal.
Returning to the original article, the INS is severely understaffed and its resources are distributed most inefficiently. That is what is causing this problem, not a policy of the administration to "boot out modern day emmigrants [sic]." Hire more people to process the applications and voila! More green cards!
The tendency of the immature anti-american contingent on slashdot to blow regretable but unintentional incidents of negligence such as this one out of proportion and into yet another evil policy of this horrible, horrible country borders on the ridiculous.
Don't get too mad at Mr Coward; "Anonymous Coward" is a catch-all name for anyone who posts anonymously. It took me a while to figure that out too. The various cretins who've been lobbing mudballs at you and your work under that name are each discrete entities, most of them barely literate. While certainly your books are worthy of some criticism, the thick-skulled posts of the Anonymous Cowards rarely qualify as such.
While I have your attention, let me say that I've been an ardent admirer of your work since the early eighties, "Maps in a Mirror" is my favourite anthology besides my Arthur Clarke omnibus, and "Unaccompanied Sonata" is the most beautiful SF story I've ever read; I come back to it again and again. Thank you, Mr Card.
Not since 1866 have a full moon, the winter solstice, and lunar perigee been bunched so closely in time, within ten hours of each other. The Earth, the sun, and the moon will be in a straight line and the moon will be in perigee, circumstances that produce the highest tides.
The situation is called a perigean syzgy, and it has dramatically affected weather patterns in coastal areas in the past. Storms that reach the coast during these times of unusually high tides have been known to cause sizable storm surges.
Remember, it's Internet Exploder on all those AOL CDs we like to use as frisbees, and AOL owns Netscape! So even if MS is a part-owner of Qwest, it doesn't mean they won't ship with Netscape.
This patent was referenced by M. Heeter. Have a look. To summarise, it is a database system for keeping track of animal carcasses at meat packing plants; a disturbing antecedent to say the least.
Here's a brilliant reduction of the previous two Ender books. The characters in them are so unlikable and the plot so implausible and moribund that I, who has devoured all of Card's short stories and all his books (except the "Book of Mormon in Space" Homecoming series), found them terribly painful to finish. This book puts the series back on track, I dare say. But I'm not looking forward to the next entry as much as I looked forward to, say, "Prentice Alvin;" Card's output for the past few years seems to be more and more about less and less.
I'm not too fond of the Christian religions either (I'm a French Jew, it's genetic). Yes, their simpler followers are responsible for all manner of calamity in the 15 centuries they have existed. Yes, many practitioners of Christianity have been corrupt hypocrites - particularly when in positions of power, and I would say power is the larger corrupting influence than religion. Yes, the Catholic church is quite silly sometimes. "Your experiment is ok unless you aren't prejudiced in our favour."
But if you decided that there were too many flamers evangelising Linux, would you therefore join the opposing team and say "linux sux?" Religion has done a lot of good in addition to the evils perpetrated across the centuries in its name.
I spent a number of years studying subatomics for my doctorate degree. It was a wonder and a great priviledge to see, and begin to understand, the beautifully complex components and processes which define the most basic matter. This, to me, did not refute the existence of a God/Creator; it reinforced it. What beautiful worlds of discovery he has created! We know (less surely than before) that most processes in the universe are governed by rules of physics. Who wrote them? We are learning that we can predict the outcome of most physical events in the most controlled environments *some* of the time, as we get into the quantum level. There is a large degree of chance there, and that, in my most humble of opinions, is where God "lives." The universe, and as a small part thereof, us, were not created by a regal-looking chap with a white beard, but by the physical and chemical forces he unleashed.
I disagree that religion and science are mutually exclusive. A scientific dimwit will do just as much ill work as a religious one.
On the matter immediately before us, I would say that the Vatican is only half wrong. It seems that they are saying, in addition to the "don't try to disprove a literal interpretation of the bible" nonsense, that it's ok to make unicellular life forms, but not anything more complex. This is largely irrelevent as nobody has the faintest idea of how to do so! It raises the question, however, of whether we as a species are ready for the power to create life. I would say, based upon a generous evaluation of our human race, absolutely not! I'm reminded of the Star Trek episode where Starfleet wants to take Data apart and build lots of androids. Picard argues that one Data is a marvel; but a hundred thousand Datas is slavery. We have to consider the ethics in applying our knowledge of bioengineering before the apprehension of this knowledge becomes responsible.
On this day of great significance for my people (Rosh Hashanah, the anniversary of the supposed date of the universe's creation), I pray that the coming year will yield us even more knowledge and understanding of this universe of God's creation.
Slashdot Mirror
Errr...no. There is no age interval for citizenship; anyone born in the United States or of American parents abroad is a U.S. citizen from birth to death or renunciation of citizenship. Furthermore, the constitutional protections of basic human rights apply to all persons in the U.S., not just citizens (you may dispute this one in practice based on a few human rights abuses committed by U.S. authorities unto its own citizens, but it's the legal truth).
The issue here is not that the right to play violent video games is protected by the constitution but does not apply to children, but that there is no constitutional right to play violent video games. The vast majority of "rights" in this country have been constructed by the courts or the lawmakers based on the principles of the Bill of Rights and the ninth-amendment protection of "unenumerated rights."
Do, indeed, the constitution or the laws of the land mention anything about the freedom to play violent video games? No. The legal question is not whether children have constitutional rights, but whether a municipal government has the power to prevent children from accessing games it finds objectionable in a public place.
The inevitable lawsuit will be a very interesting one to watch, because the current standard for deciding if objectionable material can be restricted by government decree is whether the offending material is totally devoid of either artistic merit or social value. Certainly this is not the case with (most) violent video games, but it will be fun to see the city's arguments to the contrary!
This "story you heard recently" is nonsense. It has been circulating with many variations for a few years. I assure you that such a situation is illegal according to the laws of the United States and Israel. Please, moderators, don't moderate this troll up when the substance of his post is so obviously apocryphal.
Returning to the original article, the INS is severely understaffed and its resources are distributed most inefficiently. That is what is causing this problem, not a policy of the administration to "boot out modern day emmigrants [sic]." Hire more people to process the applications and voila! More green cards!
The tendency of the immature anti-american contingent on slashdot to blow regretable but unintentional incidents of negligence such as this one out of proportion and into yet another evil policy of this horrible, horrible country borders on the ridiculous.
Personally, I'd rather see LinusLover.com. Grrrooowwwrr!
That's not a problem on public radio. Go, public radio!
He wrote a novelisation of the movie. The resulting novel, of course, was far better than the film.
Don't get too mad at Mr Coward; "Anonymous Coward" is a catch-all name for anyone who posts anonymously. It took me a while to figure that out too. The various cretins who've been lobbing mudballs at you and your work under that name are each discrete entities, most of them barely literate. While certainly your books are worthy of some criticism, the thick-skulled posts of the Anonymous Cowards rarely qualify as such.
While I have your attention, let me say that I've been an ardent admirer of your work since the early eighties, "Maps in a Mirror" is my favourite anthology besides my Arthur Clarke omnibus, and "Unaccompanied Sonata" is the most beautiful SF story I've ever read; I come back to it again and again. Thank you, Mr Card.
"Gene pool needs chlorine."
Not since 1866 have a full moon, the winter solstice, and lunar perigee been bunched so closely in time, within ten hours of each other. The Earth, the sun, and the moon will be in a straight line and the moon will be in perigee, circumstances that produce the highest tides.
The situation is called a perigean syzgy, and it has dramatically affected weather patterns in coastal areas in the past. Storms that reach the coast during these times of unusually high tides have been known to cause sizable storm surges.
But it'll still be pretty bright...
208 days transmission time? That's not much longer than I usually wait for Slashdot to be served right here on Earth!
Remember, it's Internet Exploder on all those AOL CDs we like to use as frisbees, and AOL owns Netscape! So even if MS is a part-owner of Qwest, it doesn't mean they won't ship with Netscape.
It's mad, but national ISPs are mad anyway.
Uncanny.
Oh bother, there goes my karma.
I'm not too fond of the Christian religions either (I'm a French Jew, it's genetic). Yes, their simpler followers are responsible for all manner of calamity in the 15 centuries they have existed. Yes, many practitioners of Christianity have been corrupt hypocrites - particularly when in positions of power, and I would say power is the larger corrupting influence than religion. Yes, the Catholic church is quite silly sometimes. "Your experiment is ok unless you aren't prejudiced in our favour."
But if you decided that there were too many flamers evangelising Linux, would you therefore join the opposing team and say "linux sux?" Religion has done a lot of good in addition to the evils perpetrated across the centuries in its name.
I spent a number of years studying subatomics for my doctorate degree. It was a wonder and a great priviledge to see, and begin to understand, the beautifully complex components and processes which define the most basic matter. This, to me, did not refute the existence of a God/Creator; it reinforced it. What beautiful worlds of discovery he has created! We know (less surely than before) that most processes in the universe are governed by rules of physics. Who wrote them? We are learning that we can predict the outcome of most physical events in the most controlled environments *some* of the time, as we get into the quantum level. There is a large degree of chance there, and that, in my most humble of opinions, is where God "lives." The universe, and as a small part thereof, us, were not created by a regal-looking chap with a white beard, but by the physical and chemical forces he unleashed.
I disagree that religion and science are mutually exclusive. A scientific dimwit will do just as much ill work as a religious one.
On the matter immediately before us, I would say that the Vatican is only half wrong. It seems that they are saying, in addition to the "don't try to disprove a literal interpretation of the bible" nonsense, that it's ok to make unicellular life forms, but not anything more complex. This is largely irrelevent as nobody has the faintest idea of how to do so! It raises the question, however, of whether we as a species are ready for the power to create life. I would say, based upon a generous evaluation of our human race, absolutely not! I'm reminded of the Star Trek episode where Starfleet wants to take Data apart and build lots of androids. Picard argues that one Data is a marvel; but a hundred thousand Datas is slavery. We have to consider the ethics in applying our knowledge of bioengineering before the apprehension of this knowledge becomes responsible.
On this day of great significance for my people (Rosh Hashanah, the anniversary of the supposed date of the universe's creation), I pray that the coming year will yield us even more knowledge and understanding of this universe of God's creation.