By that criteria, *any* faith can swing back and forth between religion and cult depending on the character of it's leadership. The Inquisition was certainly NOT about making people happier (except perhaps the power-mongers who sponsored it.) but rather making sure the Church had no potential rivals for power.
mmm, while I certainly agree with your description of religious schools (Whether they be Catholic, Hebrew or Sunday schools)I don't think the only difference is in size. Your closing sentence mentions this, age is an important criteria. I think that a religion is a cult that has survived and grown to the point where to has gained an aura of respectability. Thus both age and size count, with the equation giving a slightly greater weight to age than to size. This weighted measurement also justifies larger/older/more established religions to look down upon the newer, upstart little faiths. (Which "justified" the Catholic Church's persecution of the "The Cathar Heresy") An inexplicable behavior done once is an anomaly, repeated a few times is aberration, keep doing it for years and it becomes a hallowed tradition.
There have been many attempts over the years to supplant the traditional poppet valve technology in IC engines. Several engine designs already sport variable valve timing to control when and how much exhaust gas exits the cylinder. I have only heard of a few contenders that replace the whole valve train/gear train concept. The one that looks most intriguing to me is one I read about years ago in a hot rodder's magazine. (I forget which one, either Hot Rod or Car Craft) The Coates spherical rotary valve.
A definition I've always used, based on something Robert A Heinlein wrote, is based on the demographic makeup of the group.
If the majority of a faith's adherents are people who were born and raised into that faith then it is a religion. If the majority of the faith's adherents are people who have joined as allegedly freely consenting adults then it is a cult. Cults are also often characterized by their more blatant and strident attempts at brain-washing the flock and vigorously defending their legitimacy. (A religion doesn't need to be as obvious in it's brain washing since it gets most of it's members while they are young at a time when there are no other competing theologies in their brains that need to be displaced. It also doesn't need to defend it's legitimacy as vigorously because it's been around so long that it has become an institution...) This definition isn't perfect however, as it leaves such conceptual groups like the followers of the FSM or IPU in the class of cult rather than religion.
Personally, I think the whole concept is futile and consider myself to be an Ignostic
I dunno about the ability to see higher dimensions, never heard of that concept myself either. I know that many, if not most, fish have a very different field of vision and see in a different part of the spectrum than do humans. (Deep dwelling species don't need to see the wavelengths that are filtered out by the first few feet of water.) However, lateral lines are found on a lot of vertebrate sea life. They are lines of neural tissue that run down the body of the critter. The exact structure differs depending on if the animal is primarily a mobile one swimming from one place to another or a lurker. (e.g. fish that hang out in coral most of their lives.) These lines of nerves are exquisitely sensitive to pressure waves in the water, allowing the animal to sense the slightest shift in currents. Predator species use the lines to sense the presence of appropriately sized food moving at the right speed. Prey species use them to sense the approach of predators coming from their visual blind spot. There is evidence to suggest that schooling species also use this organ to help stay in formation within the schools. With some species, the lines are also electrical sensors, allowing an animal to sense the emanations even of prey that is lying motionless. Oblig. Wiki Lateral-line
*Disclaimer: I am NOT a marine biologist or ichthyologist, so my summary is sloppy, but you get the gist of it anyway...
Sound's like the geeks version of the Kibbutz A small circle of friends and myself have been seriously discussing and investigating the myriad details in setting up something along those lines for ourselves. Thus far, the most compelling arguments in favour of it are the economies of scale and the various grants, tax breaks and other incentives we may gain, depending on how we are structured. The strongest argument against it has been the possibility of serious personality conflicts long term. Even setting aside the hopelessly flawed "Free Love" communes of the early '70's; experiments in communal living in North America have, at best, a patchy record of success.
I agree, if I am trying to study and learn I do much better with a well written and illustrated textbook. Watching the babble box is different, that's something I do to relax and be entertained. Mainstream TV offends me however, and being a geek, I find watching a deep documentary or well presented lecture to be relaxing, engaging and fun! My wife (yes, a slashdotter who is actually married!) does not share my tastes in TV programming* however, so when I want to sit and veg out in front of the tube, it's at my monitor, not the set in the living room.
*Or several other forms of personal entertainment. Our last vacation, I packed a Java textbook I borrowed from the library, she packed a sudoku book bought at a news-stand.
I have been watching two sites regularly for "brainy TV". Both consist of generally very good public speakers giving a lecture or presentation about important concepts. The first I found was TED which focuses more on future concepts, developing trends in society and that sort of forward looking stuff. The second was one I first discovered on my local PBS station (TV Ontario) and later hunted down online. The show is Big Ideas which features mainly the most skilled Canadian College and University lecturers talking about the subjects that they teach.
I particularly liked Jacalyn Duffin's lecture about the history of medicine during the Rational Movement and it's relation to the scientific method in making a diagnosis.
If anyone knows of any other good webcast sites (other than the MIT open courseware project, which I already have.) please let me know.
Let's see here, ARIA is claiming >1,000,000,000 songs downloaded every year by Australians. According to Wikipedia,.au has a population of 20,788,357. This results in 48 songs for every man, woman and child in Australia every year* (I can't be bothered to RTFA, how long have they been doing this?) I dunno about you, but to me that looks more like an unexploited potential market. This is even more true when you consider that not every person in Australia has an Internet connection and of those who *do* have a connection, not all choose to infringe on corporately owned copyrights by downloading music without ARIA's blessing. Based on hearsay and such, I'll make a wild guess and say it's more like ten million Aussies downloading >150 songs each per year. That's only roughly 600MB per person/account but I've heard that Australia has poor long haul connections to the rest of the world, so downloading that much from other people around the world shows a great deal of interest. Ten million music fans, all heavy consumers and the **IA can't figure out a working micro-pay/pay-as-you-go music download system?
*For the sake of simplicity, I ignore Tasmania and the other islands, although I'm sure ARIA is counting them. I also round off the decimals
They had been bulk-erased tapes the school handed out. (and we had to give back after the class was over) I think they had been answering machine tapes in a previous life. There was no time or length info on them that I can recall, but they definitely had less tape than the average cassette and had a variety of labels. (Some said Tandy, most had names I'd never heard of before or since)
IIRC, the PET operating system was BASIC wasn't it? Then some shame is quite appropriate as I am ashamed to admit I still have a "cheat sheet" of PEEK and POKE codes around here somewhere that I used as a reference when writing my very first program. (A steerable rocket ship and asteroids made up of ASCII characters. The asteroids didn't break apart properly but I got an A anyway because I was able to squeeze the whole program into only three cassette tapes!)
And if you had watched a Coors commercial or read a Coors label, it also would have appeared to have been brewed in Canada. For most "imported" beers available in Canada, it does not make sense to ship large quantities of cans or (fragile) bottles from one country to another. Beer goes bad rather quickly when traveling in uneven temps like you find on board ship.* Instead, foreign brewers that make popular swill ^h^h^h^h beer will license the name and various copyrighted logos etc to a local/domestic brewer who makes the actual product using local water, barley, hops and so on. Here in Ontario Budweiser and Stella Artois are brewed by Labatt's while Coors Lite and Corona Extra are brewed by Molson's under license. Many of the better foreign beers are actually imported since the better quality can command a higher price, high enough to make importing the comparative small numbers profitable.
Check out www.labatt.com and www.molson.com for more info (warning, the Labatt site has an annoying and worthless age check. Feel free to lie, I did;) )
*I'm told that trying to ship beer long ways with inadequate refrigeration is behind the origin of the various India Pale Ales. During the early days of British colonialism in places like India, the British Empire shipped large amounts of beer to the colonies. Lagers, Porters and Stouts tend to go bad the quickest when warm, so brewers came up with a pale beer that traveled well and was very refreshing to dry throats despite being shipped in unrefrigerated cargo holds for weeks.
well, in theory any "stealth" aircraft would leave a detectable "hole" in the sky, but not in reflected, purposely broadcast emissions as you suggest. Radar sites are readily susceptible to HARM which rely on EM band emissions for at least initial targeting. I seem to recall that some country (can't be bothered to look it up)demonstrated detection of "stealth" aircraft by detecting the "hole" that the aircraft leaves in the background radiation. (CMB, cellular background noise, etc)Anything in the sky that can noticed when it occludes a star can be detected by it's occlusion of the background noise. This is obviously tricky to pull off since you need a sensitive directional antenna that can can keep up with a moving aircraft and be accurate enough to be certain that the "hole" is actually an aircraft and not normal variation in background noise or other artifact of the detection apparatus.
On a related note, as far as I know, ALL modern combat aircraft are readily detectable by the sort of Big Ear that the English, Germans and Japanese built in the early days of WWII. (Ever see that picture of Japanese soldiers parading what looked like giant trailer mounted French Horns? Think Civil War era tin ear trumpet on a massive scale) The only problem with those is that, when tracking aircraft that routinely move near or beyond the sound barrier, by the time you know for sure where he is headed, he has already wiped out your GHQ with a batch of laser guided munitions.
And let us not forget the legal theory that relations with the various native peoples are based on treaties directly between the Crown and sovereign nations in their own right. The Mohawk people have the strongest enforcement of this, which is why the Queen last visited, she met with representatives of the Mohawk Nation. If I recall correctly, there was something of a political embarrassment during her last visit when the representatives of the Inuit people used her last state visit as an opportunity to appeal directly to her over matters the current government refused to deal with.
This government policy is based on something called the Nickle Resolution, which dates back to 1919. The basic concept is (IMHO) on a common misunderstanding of the honours system as practiced anywhere within the Commonwealth. The theory of honours is that this is something conferred upon a worthy recipient directly from the hand of the Crown. This is based on the historical origins of Knighthood and Nobility. Under the British system of government, the whole noble class became very closely involved with the business of governing the nation. Canada, Australia, New Zealand and a few other common wealth countries preferred to practice a more democratic and class-less society. Thus, in Canada, the Nickle Resolution was made. The resolution was never passed, and hence has no factual legal standing. In Canada, the honours system is still legally a Royal Prerogative, which is why the Governor General must confer the actual award as the Queen's representative. (The GG outranks the Prime Minister, even though historically the Crown has almost always appointed the person suggested by the Prime Minsiter) Even if the Nickle Resolution was passed into law, it still would not be binding on Her Majesty since our Constitution clearly specifies that the Crown, not the Commons is the source of Honours. Anyone who is Knighted is also automatically a Peer as well. (Which is why the OoC only goes Member-Officer-Companion, higher ranks of Commander, Knight-Commander and Dame are all ennobled ranks) However, after the Nickle Resolution, the Crown had no way of honouring worthy Canadians with an equivalent to the top British awards except by conferring a British award. (The Victoria Cross being a good example.) On paper, the Queen can confer a British peerage on any Commonwealth citizen she deems worthy. In practice, this would violate established custom and potentially create a constitutional crisis.The OoC was created in 1967 to provide an alternative, however, nothing in the Order's creation forbids the Queen from conferring a British honour if she chooses. The Queen, as ultimate guardian of custom and precedent, normally will not confer a British honour on a citizen of one of the other Commonwealth countries without the consent of the current government but there is nothing in law to force her to adhere to this. Exceptions have been made for dual citizens (Conrad Black), citizens who are being rewarded for service to the British people (Holders of the VC) and foreign dignitaries. The political mess surrounding the knighthood of Conrad Black was solely because the Prime Minister at the time (Chrétien) didn't like it. Other Canadians have been awarded British honours with little more than a token protest by the Canadian government. Interesting tidbit on this whole peerage mess. Canada possesses a small number of baronetcies, lands which should be ruled by a Baronet in the Queens name directly rather than through the elected government. These predate the formation of the Dominion of Canada, the realm from which the modern country of Canada derives. As such, the current Canadian government does not have the legal right to prevent the Queen from appointing a Baronet to one of these. Currently, all the Baronetcies are vacant since most of the land grants were never improved to meet the requirements of the Letters of Patent that Kings James I and Charles I granted. The few that did qualify are currently vacant with no valid claimant to succession. The Letters of Patent were never repudiated and so the Queen still has the right to declare new holders of those realms in her name (through the issuance of a Royal Warrant). In practice, it is an embarrassing legal wrinkle which all parties are pretending does not exist.
I have Asperger's you insensitive clod! (Yes, I am aware of the irony of my calling someone else insensitive given my claim, picture a big Monty Python foot in here somewhere if you like) I am one of the many people who may well have Asperger's Syndrome. Certainly I have all the classic signs. Unfortunately I cannot say definitively that I do in fact have it, since I have been labeled with a host of disorders, Asperger's being one of the later ones. Many others who may have this condition may never be specifically diagnosed with it. Between my normal antisocial reticence and my traumas at the hands of mental health professionals I rarely talk about it.
First, Asperger's is known as what is called as a Spectrum Disorder, which means any one person could have some symptoms but not others, it also means one could be greatly or only mildly affected by it. Someone could be mild to moderately affected and would never get referred to someone for diagnosis and treatment, everyone would just think of him as being something of a loner with poor social skills. (Otaku anyone?)
Second, some of the symptoms of Asperger's as the same as symptoms found in ADD/ADHD, ODD and a host of other general Learning Disabilities. I personally have been diagnosed, at various times, with being "Hyperactive" (my first diagnosis predated the adoption of the ADD and later ADHD labels), ADD, ADHD, Latent sociopathy, PTSD, ASPD and several other convenient labels which describe but do not illuminate the nature of the problem. All too often, doctors play a guessing game when several conditions have overlapping symptoms. Sometimes they figure out which condition it was when they find the right drug that treats it. (If such a drug exists)
Third, almost no-one knew about the Asperger's Syndrome diagnosis until sometime in the 80's. I was diagnosed by a specialist at Toronto's Wellesley Hospital sometime around '88 or '89 as I recall and it was described to my mother as being a very new understanding. I have learned since then that it wasn't all that new, just suffering from the "not invented here" syndrome. Thus, even today there can be a much higher incidence of people affected by this condition then anyone really suspects.
Fourth, the anti-social or dis-social aspects of Asperger's and similar conditions predisposes someone with it to a more or less solitary life. Yet most are of entirely normal intelligence and there is one theory that suggest such people are actually higher in average IQ than the general population. (Just as some people have highly developed emotional reasoning and can be great with people at the expense of being slightly below average, the theory states that Asperger's kids are likely to bemore intelligent than the average because more of the developmental focus is on language and reasoning skills and less on emotional/social skills.) Intelligent minds are minds hungry for stimulation. Until very recently, this came in the form of reading, model building and other quiet hobbies. Now the Internet can provide more stimulation than any bricks and books library, computers offer more opportunities for endless design and tinkering than any model set. Thus, I suspect that you will encounter a higher proportion of people with Asperger's online than you will in the big room with the blue ceiling. Also, someone with Asperger's is a little more likely to devote a large chunk of their waking hours online than a "normal" person is because for an Asperger's person, the real world is confusing at the best of times, slightly annoying most of the time and generally just an all around irritation.
If my own experiences are anything to go by, most people with Asperger's Syndrome are likely to avoid talking about it. Our emotions are not as yours, thus we simply don't care all that much if we have it or not, all we care about is aping the nonsensical habits of our society so we don't stick out. Also, our slanted emotional set means we really don't care if you know we have it or not. In my point of v
Also check out "Orphans of the Sky" by Robert A. Heinlein which predates "Book of the Long Sun" by thirty odd years. (Come to think of it, it predates the entire Apollo Moon project.)
aw, c'mon, this is Canada. The rules are you don't need to announce the fight, and there are no mittens involved. (unless it's free mittens night at the ACC) The fight order goes like this: 1) One cross check too many 2) drop gloves on ice 3) pull opponents jersey over head 4) pound opponents head until the linemen intervene 5) spend a major in the box 6) ??? 7) Profit!
As two others (thus far!) have asked; link? I for one would simply love a chance to participate in designing a few choices pieces of mechanical-ness. Top of my list is are parts which OEM's typically under-engineer. (electrical and fuel connectors in cars which snap or break when you separate them, certain linkages in printers, the so-called "sneak-a-cup" valves on coffee machines which always leak, etc, etc. I'm sure any slashdotter could come up with a hundred similar annoyances)
Combine the ability to build one's one printer through collaboration with others, downloading open source firmware for that printer and then print-building from Creative Commons licensed schematics and we could see a huge explosion in art, design, boutique engineering and so on. Obviously; we are a few years yet from making complex items containing multiple materials or certain mixtures/alloys, so no custom made couch or untraceable firearms for anyone just yet. However, being able to replace that *&^%$*!!! cheap plastic page feed link arm that has broken for the 3rd time with an arm made of actual nylon or better still fused zinc piece would be reason enough for me to invest in such a printer.
I think the rule of thumb is Vancouver for any west coast town or near future Sci-Fi, Toronto for middle America and east coast harbour towns (detective and drama shows) and Montreal or Quebec city for generic European. Either way, it is yet another example of the unreality of "Hollywood". In order to capture the look of a genuine American city, they come to Canada. All because the tax breaks and exchange rate add up to more than the cost of shooting in what for them is a foreign location....
I'll grant you that movies would get boring pretty quick if they were absolutely true to life. The simple answer to that is to instead make life more like what movies are now! (better still, a beer ad!)
Think of what you'd have!
1. A laugh track to ease the pain of dealing with that PHB in your department. 2. a genuine chase sequence to make that commute not only less boring, but a hell of a lot shorter! 3. Nobody would need plastic surgeons or diet plans 4. Gorgeous bikini girls really *would* appear out of no where anytime you purchased the right product. 5. Your neighbors dog would be smarter than your neighbor! (no more crap on your lawn unless the dog is plotting against his owner) 6. Almost every major city would like like Toronto. (my home town, and have you heard the urban legend of a film co. who set up a Toronto alley as a stand in for a NY one? two whole days decorating the set with the right level of filth only to come back after the weekend to find it had been cleaned?) 7. Your spouse would be the hottest person around, unless you were tempted by infidelity. In which case the other wo/man would tempt you only until your spouse got a makeover and showed what passion really meant. 8. No meeting would ever last more than 10 minutes 9. The worst tech screwup, the most obscure error would be well within your capabilities (except on bring your daughter to work day) and be easily solved with a BOFH style clickity-clickity (hit enter key dramatically for optimum results) 10. Even desperate-to-get-out-of-there Hell-desk techs could drive a late model car...that mysteriously only seemed to need gas when fate wants you to meet someone important.
...with a properly weighted mock-up of your second child in your arms on the way to the crib! IN my case, I ended up with a twisted ankle and an impacted shoulder where I fell into the toy-box while twisting desperately to avoid crunching the "child process" under me. Older child lost the use of the Lego for a solid month after that one, and since then I don't bother picking them up while vacuuming.
man I am beginning to love that tinkle-tinkle-clatter sound of a brick getting sucked up!
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By that criteria, *any* faith can swing back and forth between religion and cult depending on the character of it's leadership. The Inquisition was certainly NOT about making people happier (except perhaps the power-mongers who sponsored it.) but rather making sure the Church had no potential rivals for power.
mmm, while I certainly agree with your description of religious schools (Whether they be Catholic, Hebrew or Sunday schools)I don't think the only difference is in size. Your closing sentence mentions this, age is an important criteria. I think that a religion is a cult that has survived and grown to the point where to has gained an aura of respectability. Thus both age and size count, with the equation giving a slightly greater weight to age than to size. This weighted measurement also justifies larger/older/more established religions to look down upon the newer, upstart little faiths.
(Which "justified" the Catholic Church's persecution of the "The Cathar Heresy") An inexplicable behavior done once is an anomaly, repeated a few times is aberration, keep doing it for years and it becomes a hallowed tradition.
There have been many attempts over the years to supplant the traditional poppet valve technology in IC engines. Several engine designs already sport variable valve timing to control when and how much exhaust gas exits the cylinder. I have only heard of a few contenders that replace the whole valve train/gear train concept. The one that looks most intriguing to me is one I read about years ago in a hot rodder's magazine. (I forget which one, either Hot Rod or Car Craft) The Coates spherical rotary valve.
If the majority of a faith's adherents are people who were born and raised into that faith then it is a religion. If the majority of the faith's adherents are people who have joined as allegedly freely consenting adults then it is a cult. Cults are also often characterized by their more blatant and strident attempts at brain-washing the flock and vigorously defending their legitimacy. (A religion doesn't need to be as obvious in it's brain washing since it gets most of it's members while they are young at a time when there are no other competing theologies in their brains that need to be displaced. It also doesn't need to defend it's legitimacy as vigorously because it's been around so long that it has become an institution...) This definition isn't perfect however, as it leaves such conceptual groups like the followers of the FSM or IPU in the class of cult rather than religion.
Personally, I think the whole concept is futile and consider myself to be an Ignostic
I dunno about the ability to see higher dimensions, never heard of that concept myself either. I know that many, if not most, fish have a very different field of vision and see in a different part of the spectrum than do humans. (Deep dwelling species don't need to see the wavelengths that are filtered out by the first few feet of water.)
However, lateral lines are found on a lot of vertebrate sea life. They are lines of neural tissue that run down the body of the critter. The exact structure differs depending on if the animal is primarily a mobile one swimming from one place to another or a lurker. (e.g. fish that hang out in coral most of their lives.) These lines of nerves are exquisitely sensitive to pressure waves in the water, allowing the animal to sense the slightest shift in currents. Predator species use the lines to sense the presence of appropriately sized food moving at the right speed. Prey species use them to sense the approach of predators coming from their visual blind spot. There is evidence to suggest that schooling species also use this organ to help stay in formation within the schools. With some species, the lines are also electrical sensors, allowing an animal to sense the emanations even of prey that is lying motionless.
Oblig. Wiki Lateral-line
*Disclaimer: I am NOT a marine biologist or ichthyologist, so my summary is sloppy, but you get the gist of it anyway...
Sound's like the geeks version of the Kibbutz
A small circle of friends and myself have been seriously discussing and investigating the myriad details in setting up something along those lines for ourselves. Thus far, the most compelling arguments in favour of it are the economies of scale and the various grants, tax breaks and other incentives we may gain, depending on how we are structured. The strongest argument against it has been the possibility of serious personality conflicts long term. Even setting aside the hopelessly flawed "Free Love" communes of the early '70's; experiments in communal living in North America have, at best, a patchy record of success.
*Or several other forms of personal entertainment. Our last vacation, I packed a Java textbook I borrowed from the library, she packed a sudoku book bought at a news-stand.
I particularly liked Jacalyn Duffin's lecture about the history of medicine during the Rational Movement and it's relation to the scientific method in making a diagnosis.
If anyone knows of any other good webcast sites (other than the MIT open courseware project, which I already have.) please let me know.
*For the sake of simplicity, I ignore Tasmania and the other islands, although I'm sure ARIA is counting them. I also round off the decimals
done! http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/2 9/0224200
They had been bulk-erased tapes the school handed out. (and we had to give back after the class was over) I think they had been answering machine tapes in a previous life. There was no time or length info on them that I can recall, but they definitely had less tape than the average cassette and had a variety of labels. (Some said Tandy, most had names I'd never heard of before or since)
IIRC, the PET operating system was BASIC wasn't it? Then some shame is quite appropriate as I am ashamed to admit I still have a "cheat sheet" of PEEK and POKE codes around here somewhere that I used as a reference when writing my very first program. (A steerable rocket ship and asteroids made up of ASCII characters. The asteroids didn't break apart properly but I got an A anyway because I was able to squeeze the whole program into only three cassette tapes!)
Check out www.labatt.com and www.molson.com for more info (warning, the Labatt site has an annoying and worthless age check. Feel free to lie, I did ;) )
*I'm told that trying to ship beer long ways with inadequate refrigeration is behind the origin of the various India Pale Ales. During the early days of British colonialism in places like India, the British Empire shipped large amounts of beer to the colonies. Lagers, Porters and Stouts tend to go bad the quickest when warm, so brewers came up with a pale beer that traveled well and was very refreshing to dry throats despite being shipped in unrefrigerated cargo holds for weeks.
On a related note, as far as I know, ALL modern combat aircraft are readily detectable by the sort of Big Ear that the English, Germans and Japanese built in the early days of WWII. (Ever see that picture of Japanese soldiers parading what looked like giant trailer mounted French Horns? Think Civil War era tin ear trumpet on a massive scale) The only problem with those is that, when tracking aircraft that routinely move near or beyond the sound barrier, by the time you know for sure where he is headed, he has already wiped out your GHQ with a batch of laser guided munitions.
And let us not forget the legal theory that relations with the various native peoples are based on treaties directly between the Crown and sovereign nations in their own right. The Mohawk people have the strongest enforcement of this, which is why the Queen last visited, she met with representatives of the Mohawk Nation. If I recall correctly, there was something of a political embarrassment during her last visit when the representatives of the Inuit people used her last state visit as an opportunity to appeal directly to her over matters the current government refused to deal with.
This government policy is based on something called the Nickle Resolution, which dates back to 1919. The basic concept is (IMHO) on a common misunderstanding of the honours system as practiced anywhere within the Commonwealth. The theory of honours is that this is something conferred upon a worthy recipient directly from the hand of the Crown. This is based on the historical origins of Knighthood and Nobility. Under the British system of government, the whole noble class became very closely involved with the business of governing the nation. Canada, Australia, New Zealand and a few other common wealth countries preferred to practice a more democratic and class-less society. Thus, in Canada, the Nickle Resolution was made. The resolution was never passed, and hence has no factual legal standing. In Canada, the honours system is still legally a Royal Prerogative, which is why the Governor General must confer the actual award as the Queen's representative. (The GG outranks the Prime Minister, even though historically the Crown has almost always appointed the person suggested by the Prime Minsiter) Even if the Nickle Resolution was passed into law, it still would not be binding on Her Majesty since our Constitution clearly specifies that the Crown, not the Commons is the source of Honours. Anyone who is Knighted is also automatically a Peer as well. (Which is why the OoC only goes Member-Officer-Companion, higher ranks of Commander, Knight-Commander and Dame are all ennobled ranks) However, after the Nickle Resolution, the Crown had no way of honouring worthy Canadians with an equivalent to the top British awards except by conferring a British award. (The Victoria Cross being a good example.) On paper, the Queen can confer a British peerage on any Commonwealth citizen she deems worthy. In practice, this would violate established custom and potentially create a constitutional crisis.The OoC was created in 1967 to provide an alternative, however, nothing in the Order's creation forbids the Queen from conferring a British honour if she chooses. The Queen, as ultimate guardian of custom and precedent, normally will not confer a British honour on a citizen of one of the other Commonwealth countries without the consent of the current government but there is nothing in law to force her to adhere to this. Exceptions have been made for dual citizens (Conrad Black), citizens who are being rewarded for service to the British people (Holders of the VC) and foreign dignitaries. The political mess surrounding the knighthood of Conrad Black was solely because the Prime Minister at the time (Chrétien) didn't like it. Other Canadians have been awarded British honours with little more than a token protest by the Canadian government.
Interesting tidbit on this whole peerage mess. Canada possesses a small number of baronetcies, lands which should be ruled by a Baronet in the Queens name directly rather than through the elected government. These predate the formation of the Dominion of Canada, the realm from which the modern country of Canada derives. As such, the current Canadian government does not have the legal right to prevent the Queen from appointing a Baronet to one of these. Currently, all the Baronetcies are vacant since most of the land grants were never improved to meet the requirements of the Letters of Patent that Kings James I and Charles I granted. The few that did qualify are currently vacant with no valid claimant to succession. The Letters of Patent were never repudiated and so the Queen still has the right to declare new holders of those realms in her name (through the issuance of a Royal Warrant). In practice, it is an embarrassing legal wrinkle which all parties are pretending does not exist.
(Yes, I am aware of the irony of my calling someone else insensitive given my claim, picture a big Monty Python foot in here somewhere if you like)
I am one of the many people who may well have Asperger's Syndrome. Certainly I have all the classic signs. Unfortunately I cannot say definitively that I do in fact have it, since I have been labeled with a host of disorders, Asperger's being one of the later ones. Many others who may have this condition may never be specifically diagnosed with it. Between my normal antisocial reticence and my traumas at the hands of mental health professionals I rarely talk about it.
First, Asperger's is known as what is called as a Spectrum Disorder, which means any one person could have some symptoms but not others, it also means one could be greatly or only mildly affected by it. Someone could be mild to moderately affected and would never get referred to someone for diagnosis and treatment, everyone would just think of him as being something of a loner with poor social skills. (Otaku anyone?)
Second, some of the symptoms of Asperger's as the same as symptoms found in ADD/ADHD, ODD and a host of other general Learning Disabilities. I personally have been diagnosed, at various times, with being "Hyperactive" (my first diagnosis predated the adoption of the ADD and later ADHD labels), ADD, ADHD, Latent sociopathy, PTSD, ASPD and several other convenient labels which describe but do not illuminate the nature of the problem. All too often, doctors play a guessing game when several conditions have overlapping symptoms. Sometimes they figure out which condition it was when they find the right drug that treats it. (If such a drug exists)
Third, almost no-one knew about the Asperger's Syndrome diagnosis until sometime in the 80's. I was diagnosed by a specialist at Toronto's Wellesley Hospital sometime around '88 or '89 as I recall and it was described to my mother as being a very new understanding. I have learned since then that it wasn't all that new, just suffering from the "not invented here" syndrome. Thus, even today there can be a much higher incidence of people affected by this condition then anyone really suspects.
Fourth, the anti-social or dis-social aspects of Asperger's and similar conditions predisposes someone with it to a more or less solitary life. Yet most are of entirely normal intelligence and there is one theory that suggest such people are actually higher in average IQ than the general population. (Just as some people have highly developed emotional reasoning and can be great with people at the expense of being slightly below average, the theory states that Asperger's kids are likely to bemore intelligent than the average because more of the developmental focus is on language and reasoning skills and less on emotional/social skills.) Intelligent minds are minds hungry for stimulation. Until very recently, this came in the form of reading, model building and other quiet hobbies. Now the Internet can provide more stimulation than any bricks and books library, computers offer more opportunities for endless design and tinkering than any model set. Thus, I suspect that you will encounter a higher proportion of people with Asperger's online than you will in the big room with the blue ceiling. Also, someone with Asperger's is a little more likely to devote a large chunk of their waking hours online than a "normal" person is because for an Asperger's person, the real world is confusing at the best of times, slightly annoying most of the time and generally just an all around irritation.
If my own experiences are anything to go by, most people with Asperger's Syndrome are likely to avoid talking about it. Our emotions are not as yours, thus we simply don't care all that much if we have it or not, all we care about is aping the nonsensical habits of our society so we don't stick out. Also, our slanted emotional set means we really don't care if you know we have it or not. In my point of v
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphans_of_the_Sky/
aw, c'mon, this is Canada. The rules are you don't need to announce the fight, and there are no mittens involved. (unless it's free mittens night at the ACC) The fight order goes like this:
1) One cross check too many
2) drop gloves on ice
3) pull opponents jersey over head
4) pound opponents head until the linemen intervene
5) spend a major in the box
6) ???
7) Profit!
Combine the ability to build one's one printer through collaboration with others, downloading open source firmware for that printer and then print-building from Creative Commons licensed schematics and we could see a huge explosion in art, design, boutique engineering and so on. Obviously; we are a few years yet from making complex items containing multiple materials or certain mixtures/alloys, so no custom made couch or untraceable firearms for anyone just yet. However, being able to replace that *&^%$*!!! cheap plastic page feed link arm that has broken for the 3rd time with an arm made of actual nylon or better still fused zinc piece would be reason enough for me to invest in such a printer.
Avagadro? I thought you were dead? http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp12012006.shtml
I think the rule of thumb is Vancouver for any west coast town or near future Sci-Fi, Toronto for middle America and east coast harbour towns (detective and drama shows) and Montreal or Quebec city for generic European. Either way, it is yet another example of the unreality of "Hollywood". In order to capture the look of a genuine American city, they come to Canada. All because the tax breaks and exchange rate add up to more than the cost of shooting in what for them is a foreign location....
Think of what you'd have!
1. A laugh track to ease the pain of dealing with that PHB in your department.
2. a genuine chase sequence to make that commute not only less boring, but a hell of a lot shorter!
3. Nobody would need plastic surgeons or diet plans
4. Gorgeous bikini girls really *would* appear out of no where anytime you purchased the right product.
5. Your neighbors dog would be smarter than your neighbor! (no more crap on your lawn unless the dog is plotting against his owner)
6. Almost every major city would like like Toronto. (my home town, and have you heard the urban legend of a film co. who set up a Toronto alley as a stand in for a NY one? two whole days decorating the set with the right level of filth only to come back after the weekend to find it had been cleaned?)
7. Your spouse would be the hottest person around, unless you were tempted by infidelity. In which case the other wo/man would tempt you only until your spouse got a makeover and showed what passion really meant.
8. No meeting would ever last more than 10 minutes
9. The worst tech screwup, the most obscure error would be well within your capabilities (except on bring your daughter to work day) and be easily solved with a BOFH style clickity-clickity (hit enter key dramatically for optimum results)
10. Even desperate-to-get-out-of-there Hell-desk techs could drive a late model car...that mysteriously only seemed to need gas when fate wants you to meet someone important.
man I am beginning to love that tinkle-tinkle-clatter sound of a brick getting sucked up!