And try to follow the logic trail. Simply because something cannot be "reproduced and verified" does not, in fact, make something false. Much like evolution.
However, intelligent folks know that simply because something is not repeatable and testable doesn't automatically make it false.
Take jury trials. We can't reproduce the circumstances hundreds of times to see if OJ really did kill Nicole. All we can do is take evidence, and come to conclusions. Guilt can never be proven to the same degree that we know water is made of two hydrogen atoms, and one oxygen atom.
Archeology is based largely on human interpretation, and doesn't have the same level of exactness. We can't repeat Rome's fall hundreds of times to see whether Josephus' writings are really authentic. document We take the word of the archeologists, and whatever dating techniques we have at the time.
Does this mean Archeology and criminal trials should be abandoned? No. Does this mean research into evolution, and the planet's family tree should be abandoned? No. It does mean that we need to read carefully where things cannot be verified through repeatability, and very carefully when hypothesis are non-falsifiable.
The point is the current definition does NOT require testing. The creationist group is actually asking we put in a 'testing' criteria. The post I was replying to said that this was 'too complicated'. So I demonstrated, through satire, that it isn't too complicated, but the bare minimum one needs to have real science.
Ah. Good point. Here's food for thought. Say we developed a new bacterial life form to terraform a planet. Then we destroyed ourselves, but hundreds of millions of years later the bacteria evolved to a level of intellegence.
Would the correct reason for the beginning of life on the planet be considered "natural" or super-natural"?
Thanks. That actually is an interesting point I hadn't considered.
Let me ask another question. Would you make the same decision if you knew you wanted kids? Mom teaches kids that if you don't put your faith in Jesus, you go to hell. Dad says he hasn't put his faith in Jesus. Kid has some issues to deal with....
What is the practical difference between being atheist and being agnostic? How would you live your life any differently if you shifted from agnostism and atheism?
I judge what a person really believes on actions, not on veriage. A person who clains to be a Christian, but lies, cheats and steals is not, regardless of quantity of memory verses, and WWJD bracelets.
Current "seeking natural explanations for what we observe around us,"
Proposed continuing investigation that uses observation, hypothesis testing, measurement, experimentation, logical argument and theory building to lead to more adequate explanations of natural phenomena
Yup overly complicated. Science is simply coming up with an explanation for what we see around us. It has nothing to do with testing our stories. If enough people believe the story being told, it is science.
That's the trick. Most people would say "bigger servers" and "bigger bandwidth". But I know the real reason. Notice how you get 'Service Unavailable'? Every so often? I found that if more than 50 people are accessing Slashdot at the same time, that their database cannot handle it. In reality, this site is hosted on an Amiga. Only 50 users you say? That can't be.... just look at my User ID!
All the 813,621 users before you don't really exist. These messages are randomly generated geek buzzwords. "Users" are given personalities, ranging from "Linux lover" to "Windows loser", from "I'm just a troll" to "IAARS", from "Funny" to "I take myself serious, but no one else does".
Those "personalities" alter the pre-populated phrase list according to topic (actually, I am not even sure the topic matters). Think of it as an advanced Turing simulation.
I was fooled for my first three months. Then, I saw the predictable responses, and realized that there was no actual intellegence here. Just the occassional real life person who wanders in and is fooled for a while. The auto-misspell feature was a nice addition, I have to admit.
Want proof? Pick a user id. Peruse messge list. Notice the lack of variety? Notice the lack of real meaning behind each message? And when there is real content, try browsing earlier messages. You will find phrases ripped verbatim from an earlier post.
Of course, you may also be a bot. CommanderTaco is always making tweaks to the message generation algorithm (though his posts, too, are mostly generated by code). I will have to peruse your message history when I am done posting here.
As an individual decision, you are correct. However, if as an aggregate, a significant proportion of us behave this way, we affect change in corporate behavior. I would also say that this behavior will only have an impact if management sees that they are losing sales by understaffing checkout lines. Talk to a manager and kvetch.
Yup. We need him to make another visit and drive the political salesman out.
Re:mnb Re:Wow, getting featured on the front page
on
Google's Past Homepage
·
· Score: 1
No. It doesn't. I M2 serval times per day. Almost every day, for about two months. I have NEVER seen a overrated. I have confirmation fom other M2ers as well.
If I am incorrect, give me a screenshot, and I will retract my sig.
There are legitimate used for 'overrated', as you point out. However, I see it abused. I see things that were never modded before get modded down to -1 with the 'overrated' option.
Re:Wow, getting featured on the front page is easy
on
Google's Past Homepage
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Exactly. But Coolio could not sue even though permission was not given. Weird Al stated that he never does parody songs without permission, and has, for example, not done a parody of Prince's 'Purple Rain' (I think) for this reason. He further stated this is not a legal requirement, just an attempt to keep relations between him and the music industry on good terms.
I, for one, always make my legal decisions based on Weird Al quotes.
Grandparent is making fun of something that I also find a pet peeve "you have to agree" statements mixed in with argument. Its like the arguer assumes whatever he says is automatically correct. If what you say is automatically correct, and everyone agrees, why bother talking (or posting).
Or, the more cynical side of me sees it as a ploy to sway weaker minded folks (Gosh... I don't want to sound stupid... and he sounds so confident... I guess I agree). I had a brief stint in telemarketing... phrases similiar to this one were peppered into the script... works better than you might think.
Clearly you must agree that this type of behavior should not be encouraged.
Slashdot Mirror
Ah yes... the Palm sisters. I know them well.
It's called sarcasm. I understand it doesn't always translate well in text, but several mods got it.
Thanks for doing so as an Anonymous Coward.
And try to follow the logic trail. Simply because something cannot be "reproduced and verified" does not, in fact, make something false. Much like evolution.
I agree. Now, we will be flamed for being morons.
However, intelligent folks know that simply because something is not repeatable and testable doesn't automatically make it false.
Take jury trials. We can't reproduce the circumstances hundreds of times to see if OJ really did kill Nicole. All we can do is take evidence, and come to conclusions. Guilt can never be proven to the same degree that we know water is made of two hydrogen atoms, and one oxygen atom.
Archeology is based largely on human interpretation, and doesn't have the same level of exactness. We can't repeat Rome's fall hundreds of times to see whether Josephus' writings are really authentic. document We take the word of the archeologists, and whatever dating techniques we have at the time.
Does this mean Archeology and criminal trials should be abandoned? No. Does this mean research into evolution, and the planet's family tree should be abandoned? No. It does mean that we need to read carefully where things cannot be verified through repeatability, and very carefully when hypothesis are non-falsifiable.
Did you read the thread?
The point is the current definition does NOT require testing. The creationist group is actually asking we put in a 'testing' criteria. The post I was replying to said that this was 'too complicated'. So I demonstrated, through satire, that it isn't too complicated, but the bare minimum one needs to have real science.
I hate explaining satire...
Ah. Good point. Here's food for thought. Say we developed a new bacterial life form to terraform a planet. Then we destroyed ourselves, but hundreds of millions of years later the bacteria evolved to a level of intellegence.
Would the correct reason for the beginning of life on the planet be considered "natural" or super-natural"?
Thanks. That actually is an interesting point I hadn't considered.
Let me ask another question. Would you make the same decision if you knew you wanted kids? Mom teaches kids that if you don't put your faith in Jesus, you go to hell. Dad says he hasn't put his faith in Jesus. Kid has some issues to deal with....
If you can't figure it out, I'm not telling.
This is why I like Slashdot. It keeps folks like you off the streets where you could do real harm...
What is the practical difference between being atheist and being agnostic? How would you live your life any differently if you shifted from agnostism and atheism?
I judge what a person really believes on actions, not on veriage. A person who clains to be a Christian, but lies, cheats and steals is not, regardless of quantity of memory verses, and WWJD bracelets.
Current
"seeking natural explanations for what we observe around us,"
Proposed
continuing investigation that uses observation, hypothesis testing, measurement, experimentation, logical argument and theory building to lead to more adequate explanations of natural phenomena
Yup overly complicated. Science is simply coming up with an explanation for what we see around us. It has nothing to do with testing our stories. If enough people believe the story being told, it is science.
Therefore, Genesis is science.
Good enough for me.
Not all asteroids are the same. Some are, as you say, loosely collected dust. Some are thought to be near-solid iron or other heavier metals.
Head will roll for that suggestion.
That's the trick. Most people would say "bigger servers" and "bigger bandwidth". But I know the real reason. Notice how you get 'Service Unavailable'? Every so often? I found that if more than 50 people are accessing Slashdot at the same time, that their database cannot handle it. In reality, this site is hosted on an Amiga. Only 50 users you say? That can't be.... just look at my User ID!
All the 813,621 users before you don't really exist. These messages are randomly generated geek buzzwords. "Users" are given personalities, ranging from "Linux lover" to "Windows loser", from "I'm just a troll" to "IAARS", from "Funny" to "I take myself serious, but no one else does".
Those "personalities" alter the pre-populated phrase list according to topic (actually, I am not even sure the topic matters). Think of it as an advanced Turing simulation.
I was fooled for my first three months. Then, I saw the predictable responses, and realized that there was no actual intellegence here. Just the occassional real life person who wanders in and is fooled for a while. The auto-misspell feature was a nice addition, I have to admit.
Want proof? Pick a user id. Peruse messge list. Notice the lack of variety? Notice the lack of real meaning behind each message? And when there is real content, try browsing earlier messages. You will find phrases ripped verbatim from an earlier post.
Of course, you may also be a bot. CommanderTaco is always making tweaks to the message generation algorithm (though his posts, too, are mostly generated by code). I will have to peruse your message history when I am done posting here.
Not as cool as complaining about a post as an Anonymous Coward. Wuss.
They teach you how to do that in Marketing class.
As an individual decision, you are correct. However, if as an aggregate, a significant proportion of us behave this way, we affect change in corporate behavior. I would also say that this behavior will only have an impact if management sees that they are losing sales by understaffing checkout lines. Talk to a manager and kvetch.
Yup. We need him to make another visit and drive the political salesman out.
No. It doesn't. I M2 serval times per day. Almost every day, for about two months. I have NEVER seen a overrated. I have confirmation fom other M2ers as well.
If I am incorrect, give me a screenshot, and I will retract my sig.
There are legitimate used for 'overrated', as you point out. However, I see it abused. I see things that were never modded before get modded down to -1 with the 'overrated' option.
I'm going to submit Google's CURRENT webpage.
Wanna take bets on whether it gets posted?
Exactly. But Coolio could not sue even though permission was not given. Weird Al stated that he never does parody songs without permission, and has, for example, not done a parody of Prince's 'Purple Rain' (I think) for this reason.
He further stated this is not a legal requirement, just an attempt to keep relations between him and the music industry on good terms.
I, for one, always make my legal decisions based on Weird Al quotes.
They may *ask* for permission, but are not required to get it. Ala "Weird Al" and "Coolio".
Grandparent is making fun of something that I also find a pet peeve "you have to agree" statements mixed in with argument. Its like the arguer assumes whatever he says is automatically correct. If what you say is automatically correct, and everyone agrees, why bother talking (or posting).
Or, the more cynical side of me sees it as a ploy to sway weaker minded folks (Gosh... I don't want to sound stupid... and he sounds so confident... I guess I agree). I had a brief stint in telemarketing... phrases similiar to this one were peppered into the script... works better than you might think.
Clearly you must agree that this type of behavior should not be encouraged.
I didn't know what RTS was, and I couldn't follow the link (company policy blocked site). So I did what any intelligent person would do. I Googled it.
Turns out RTS is Royal Televison Society.
This was a public service announcement. Please mod insightful.
You gotta be kidding me. I wouldn't waste MY time reading Slashdot. The Company's? Yes!