Well... one reason for a lot of the attempts to disprove evolution comes from Fundamentalists (IIRC, one of the churches that follows this calls themselves Testimonials). A core concept to the Fundamentalist faith is that the Bible is the literal word of God. Hence, if you can disprove any part of the Bible, then that proves the whole religion wrong. If you notice, you generally don't get creationists from the various Christian groups that believe that the Bible (specifically the Old Testament) are stories meant to teach a lesson, or were good guidelines to live by back in the days they were written.
So it has little to do with intuition, but more to do with the fact that from their point of view, the theory of evolution is a direct attack on their religion.
So... If I'm downloading a torrent of a show that is broadcast on standard television... that's infringement, but if I hook up a Tivo or VCR, record it, and then transfer it over to my computer... that's not infringement?
That reminds me of something mentioned in Number of the Beast by Heinlein... in one of the worlds they stopped in, you declared the value of your property, and were taxed based on that... with the caveat that anyone could purchase that property from you for your declared price... if you didn't want to sell, you'd have to revise your appraisal, and pay back taxes on it (I think it was five years worth...)
Well... You generally choose one year to base the estimates on... the current year that most estimates are based on are 1980's dollars... Compare the buying power of the dollar between the years...
All of the numbers used were based on wikipedia's current figures...
And I compared Windows 98 with both XP Professional and Vista Home...
Mind showing the flaws in my math? Again, I based the purchase price of Windows '98 in the year 2000, and compared it to the price of Windows XP Pro now, and the price of Windows Vista Home...
I went based on retail prices... would you prefer OEM prices? I'm sure it'll show that the price hasn't gone up as much as you think... Assuming you compare Windows 98 with a current home based OS...
Admittedly... most people here would never run a home version of an OS...
Oh gods.... please don't make me go back to the early days of Windows 95, when any game required a reboot into DOS mode...
That's something I truly don't miss... It's a computer... I like having multiple things open at all times... and rebooting for a game prevents me from doing this...
Just a side note... Windows 98 was $89 in 1999... Now... converting to 1980's dollars... that $89 in 2000 was about $186 (1980) dollars... Which equates to about $75 (2006) dollars... Which is fairly close to the price of Windows XP Professional currently... And you can easily find Vista Home for around $110 (2007)... so while the price has gone up (about 55% based on inflation)... it's only gone up about $20...
Now... comparing Windows 98 to XP Pro a couple of years ago you would see a much bigger difference...
Nephilium... not a Microsoft apologist... just someone who realizes that the argument of, "It cost $X 20 years ago, and now it costs $Y! They're exploiting me!" isn't a real argument...
Bah! We already have Christmas in July... now we just need to get people to start giving gifts for that, and we've got two starting points for the marketing...
We can advertise Christmas in July from Dec. 26th until July 25th, and Christmas from July 26th until December 24th...
Although... I'm pretty sure the first store to have year round Christmas carols will get firebombed...
The question is then raised, "Does extreme socialism lend itself more easily to government corruption then extreme capitalism?"
Another question would be, "Does socialism tend towards a totalitarian state more then capitalism, if so, why?"
My take on it is that the more power is concentrated in a smaller group of people the more corruption, and the faster the move to totalitarianism. This may be because the smaller the group holding power, the more power each member of that group has, and to quote an old axiom, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." In general, the more extreme socialist countries have a cult of personality about them (Mao, Che, Chavez, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Castro, etc...) I also wonder what the US would look like nowadays if Washington had not refused a third term, would a similar cult of personality have been built around him, and would that have started the US down a totalitarian state at the beginning of it's existence?
The various Christian groups generally just call for boycotts and protests... same as most Muslim groups...
The difference I see is that if you have a "Christian" calling for more, the majority of the Christian groups will turn around and say that the "Christian" calling for more is wrong... whereas when an imam calls for more, you rarely hear about other imams saying that the one calling for more is wrong...
Heh... the company I work for has GPS on the company trucks. Some of the drivers are well known for turning it off at the beginning of their shift claiming "thing just went down again!" When someone rides along in order to troubleshoot the problem, it doesn't happen...
Of course, the same drivers are also well known for going home for multiple hour lunches...
A) Instead of giving everyone else's money to one group, give it to one that will have an even lower return on investment... sounds like a brilliant investment strategy...
B) Bring our troops home, causing more instability in an already unstable region... then spend the money from one part of the budget that the Constitution actually allows for (military), to one that has no Constitutional authority (education). Nope... I like the Constitution, I wish more people did.
Oh... wait... you want to use everyone else's money to do it...
If you think it's a good idea, get together with friends and fellow travelers to put together grant programs, and get your hand out of my gods damned pockets!
Hmmm... my favorite systems to play under (in no particular order) were:
The Morrow Project
Feng Shui
Call of Cthulhu
Earthdawn (Yes... I liked the fact that a windling could kill a dragon if they were damned lucky!)
Mechwarrior
Mage
I never got a chance to play RuneQuest... but I will say I hate all RoleMaster system games with a never ending passion...
I wouldn't use the word illiterate... people can read... but it's a matter of what they read...
As to teachers unions... I always wonder why they're afraid of being judged themselves...
As to the classic texts... I've always wondered what books that have been published in the last ten years will be considered "classics" fifty years down the road... As well as what makes something a "classic"... Is Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep a classic? Is Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land a classic? Is Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon a classic? How about the Harry Potter books? The Ender series? The Travis McGee novels? Herbert's Dune series? King's Dark Tower series? Anything written by Gaiman?
Personally, I think there needs to be a way to show some of science's use in the real world... especially statistics...
Slashdot Mirror
Nah... distinguished people can never wave their cane at whippersnappers while shouting, "Get off my lawn you damned kids!"
That's what I look forward to the most... :)
Nephilium
Bah... all women are forever 21... at least when they ask me how old I think they are...
I've learned it's the only safe age to guess...
Guys... we get older...
Nephilium
You think that's changed in just ten years?
Nephilium
I prefer the term, "willfully ignorant".
Nephilium
Well... one reason for a lot of the attempts to disprove evolution comes from Fundamentalists (IIRC, one of the churches that follows this calls themselves Testimonials). A core concept to the Fundamentalist faith is that the Bible is the literal word of God. Hence, if you can disprove any part of the Bible, then that proves the whole religion wrong. If you notice, you generally don't get creationists from the various Christian groups that believe that the Bible (specifically the Old Testament) are stories meant to teach a lesson, or were good guidelines to live by back in the days they were written.
So it has little to do with intuition, but more to do with the fact that from their point of view, the theory of evolution is a direct attack on their religion.
Nephilium
You forgot... it has to be in an energy vortex... like those in Sonoma...
Nephilium
So... If I'm downloading a torrent of a show that is broadcast on standard television... that's infringement, but if I hook up a Tivo or VCR, record it, and then transfer it over to my computer... that's not infringement?
Mind explaining the difference?
Nephilium
That reminds me of something mentioned in Number of the Beast by Heinlein... in one of the worlds they stopped in, you declared the value of your property, and were taxed based on that... with the caveat that anyone could purchase that property from you for your declared price... if you didn't want to sell, you'd have to revise your appraisal, and pay back taxes on it (I think it was five years worth...)
Nephilium
Well... You generally choose one year to base the estimates on... the current year that most estimates are based on are 1980's dollars... Compare the buying power of the dollar between the years...
All of the numbers used were based on wikipedia's current figures...
And I compared Windows 98 with both XP Professional and Vista Home...
Mind showing the flaws in my math? Again, I based the purchase price of Windows '98 in the year 2000, and compared it to the price of Windows XP Pro now, and the price of Windows Vista Home...
I went based on retail prices... would you prefer OEM prices? I'm sure it'll show that the price hasn't gone up as much as you think... Assuming you compare Windows 98 with a current home based OS...
Admittedly... most people here would never run a home version of an OS...
Care to show the math errors?
Nephilium
Oh gods.... please don't make me go back to the early days of Windows 95, when any game required a reboot into DOS mode...
That's something I truly don't miss... It's a computer... I like having multiple things open at all times... and rebooting for a game prevents me from doing this...
Nephilium
That's just insanity... we can deal with that...
Nephilium
Just a side note... Windows 98 was $89 in 1999... Now... converting to 1980's dollars... that $89 in 2000 was about $186 (1980) dollars... Which equates to about $75 (2006) dollars... Which is fairly close to the price of Windows XP Professional currently... And you can easily find Vista Home for around $110 (2007)... so while the price has gone up (about 55% based on inflation)... it's only gone up about $20...
Now... comparing Windows 98 to XP Pro a couple of years ago you would see a much bigger difference...
Nephilium... not a Microsoft apologist... just someone who realizes that the argument of, "It cost $X 20 years ago, and now it costs $Y! They're exploiting me!" isn't a real argument...
Bah! We already have Christmas in July... now we just need to get people to start giving gifts for that, and we've got two starting points for the marketing...
We can advertise Christmas in July from Dec. 26th until July 25th, and Christmas from July 26th until December 24th...
Although... I'm pretty sure the first store to have year round Christmas carols will get firebombed...
Nephilium...
The big difference is that a death threat, being sued, and other intimidation techniques are happening now, and can be proven to have been done...
Can you prove to me that anyone has gone to Hell?
Nephilium... raised Roman Catholic... now an Agnostic Apostate...
Don't you know that in order to be modded up for something like this you have to start the comment with:
Nephilium
The question is then raised, "Does extreme socialism lend itself more easily to government corruption then extreme capitalism?"
Another question would be, "Does socialism tend towards a totalitarian state more then capitalism, if so, why?"
My take on it is that the more power is concentrated in a smaller group of people the more corruption, and the faster the move to totalitarianism. This may be because the smaller the group holding power, the more power each member of that group has, and to quote an old axiom, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." In general, the more extreme socialist countries have a cult of personality about them (Mao, Che, Chavez, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Castro, etc...) I also wonder what the US would look like nowadays if Washington had not refused a third term, would a similar cult of personality have been built around him, and would that have started the US down a totalitarian state at the beginning of it's existence?
Nephilium
Not sure if I'd say decades... maybe centuries...
How long have priest and rabbis jokes existed?
The various Christian groups generally just call for boycotts and protests... same as most Muslim groups...
The difference I see is that if you have a "Christian" calling for more, the majority of the Christian groups will turn around and say that the "Christian" calling for more is wrong... whereas when an imam calls for more, you rarely hear about other imams saying that the one calling for more is wrong...
Nephilium
Heh... the company I work for has GPS on the company trucks. Some of the drivers are well known for turning it off at the beginning of their shift claiming "thing just went down again!" When someone rides along in order to troubleshoot the problem, it doesn't happen...
Of course, the same drivers are also well known for going home for multiple hour lunches...
Nephilium
So... let's see...
A) Instead of giving everyone else's money to one group, give it to one that will have an even lower return on investment... sounds like a brilliant investment strategy...
B) Bring our troops home, causing more instability in an already unstable region... then spend the money from one part of the budget that the Constitution actually allows for (military), to one that has no Constitutional authority (education). Nope... I like the Constitution, I wish more people did.
Nephilium
There is no charity that comes out of the barrel of a gun, only out of people willingly giving money/time/expertise.
Nephilium
So then...
You'll be paying for the classes for the people?
Oh... wait... you want to use everyone else's money to do it...
If you think it's a good idea, get together with friends and fellow travelers to put together grant programs, and get your hand out of my gods damned pockets!
Nephilium
You don't sound happy...
You are a happy citizen, aren't you?
Only commie mutant traitors are unhappy...
You're not a commie mutant traitor are you?
Neph-I-LIM
Hmmm... my favorite systems to play under (in no particular order) were:
The Morrow Project
Feng Shui
Call of Cthulhu
Earthdawn (Yes... I liked the fact that a windling could kill a dragon if they were damned lucky!)
Mechwarrior
Mage
I never got a chance to play RuneQuest... but I will say I hate all RoleMaster system games with a never ending passion...
Nephilium
Or use the classic:
Nephilium
I wouldn't use the word illiterate... people can read... but it's a matter of what they read...
As to teachers unions... I always wonder why they're afraid of being judged themselves...
As to the classic texts... I've always wondered what books that have been published in the last ten years will be considered "classics" fifty years down the road... As well as what makes something a "classic"... Is Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep a classic? Is Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land a classic? Is Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon a classic? How about the Harry Potter books? The Ender series? The Travis McGee novels? Herbert's Dune series? King's Dark Tower series? Anything written by Gaiman?
Personally, I think there needs to be a way to show some of science's use in the real world... especially statistics...
Nephilium...