When half of the replies support the actions of the police in this, I know that Americxa as a bastion of freedom is over. I would have thought it would take more than killing ~3000 people with 4 airplanes to terrorize the entire nation into giving up all their rights, but I was wrong. The press and the government have been working harder than any 'terrorists' at terrorizing the public, and the public is falling for it.
To think that I can roll my two pieces of luggage with ~150 pounds of C4 each into the terminal, then whip out my cell phone and dial a number to set them off, but I can't walk around with some LEDs blinking on my chest. Wow, just fucking wow. I mean, I understand that people don't want to make mistakes that get themselves or others killed, but this is just over the top.
Huh? Why would you carry the preamble to the Declaration of Independence if you wanted Sharia law? Wouldn't you carry something out of the Koran?
Being an Atheist, I'm certainly opposed to Sharia law (which would involve me being killed), but I'm also opposed to restrictions on the freedom of the press and speech. You do remember the 'we will not be silenced' t-shirts that got people pulled off planes awhile back, right?
Most likely, the security personnel had never heard of the book...and most likely many many fewer people would have heard about it and I wouldn't have read it if it weren't for the fatwa issued against Rushdie...
I traveled to Paris & Italy this summer and while I've read "The God Delusion", I specifically picked my next book considering that I'd be traveling. So I took, "The Politics of Truth" instead of "Why I am Not a Muslim" (which makes me uncomfortable, reading it at our favorite Nepalese restaurant because I like the owner and I'm not sure if she's Muslim or not). I bought, 'State of Denial' while in Florence, and the two 'anti-bush' books didn't seem to cause me any trouble...
Well, I was half-joking with my post, but I'd still say that the reaction helps in identification, regardless as to what you are supposed to do with the information you've got once you've done the identification...
Of course it's a bell curve. I've known some great female enginners, and a few months ago a woman, Val Henson, gave a talk at the local LUG about filesystems. She's a kernel hacker and worked on ZFS at Sun. Another woman I worked with was a great low-level engineer, doing our remote and set-top firmware.
So, given the odds of picking anyone who knows anything about Linux or software development in general out of the population at large, I don't think you want to further limit your odds of success by throwing out all the females...
No, according to TFA, liberals are faster and more reliable at differentiating between the letter M and the letter W in a timed experiment.
Well, I'd have to say that since seeing "W-2004" with a little flag bumper stickers prior to the 2004 election, liberals [note: I'd describe myself as one] have an immediate, visceral, and very negative reaction to the letter 'W'.
It'd be nice if the headphone jack supported the iPhone's wired headphones w/mic. I'm sure there's probably one unused A->D on the SoC in the ipod Touch. Perhaps there'll be a software upgrade that lets you use iChat on the iPod touch with Wi-fi after AT&T pisses Apple off too much...
Would it really have been that much trouble for god to specify the wavelength of light comping off death's horse? I'm seriously, you're arguing about a book that says Pi = 3.
Most beliefs about a creator not consistent...
on
Why Myths Persist
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· Score: 1
Could you please describe to my what exactly you mean by "God", his desires, motivations and prior actions? I find that people either can't very well specify what they mean by "God". Further, even if they come up with something somewhat detailed, it's not internally consistent. Like the Christian god which is infinitely powerful (and so has the power to prevent suffering), and infinitely kind/loving (and so should have the desire to prevent suffering), and yet allows suffering to exist. Given my direct experience, the only "God" I can imagine is an evil tyrant.
I always figured that Shylock should have got his pound of flesh with sandpaper all over the borower's body... Just might take a few passes to make sure he didn't go too deep and cause blood to be spilled.
Every week, I send myself an unsealed envelope, registered mail. The post office thinks I'm weird, but when someone comes out with a cool idea, I write it up and stuff it in an old envelope and seal it...
Take a look at the bible (which is accepted by historians)
Not sure I understand the aside, "(which is accepted by historians)". Certainly historians don't see general support for the story about Jesus walking on water, or rising from the dead. Those are claims, which can be considered scientific claims since they are testable and falsify-able. If there were evidence, it could be examined for veracity. Other explanations (solid surface just below the water, theft of the body) could be posited and evidence for those alternate explanations examined.
But these "effects" of the Christian god, which you say the bible documents, belies the idea of "separate magisteria" postulated by Gould.
As an aside, I have been trying to read the bible (KJV), but I don't suffer fools gladly...
Yeah, well Gould is wrong. If there is a god who affects the universe (aside from initial conditions/laws), he would show effects and could be studied. If all god did was create the initial conditions, that still leaves the question of where did the creator come from, and why we'd bother with talking about the creator of the universe when he can't have anything to do with his creation.
"Either half my colleagues are enormously stupid", no just brainwashed. And human brains aren't so perfect that they can't believe two completely contradictory things and have not trouble believing them both true. Not to mention that falling back to religion for morality is utter shit. If you didn't have an evolved-in or culturally derived set of morals, you'd never be able to decide that it was ok to stop stoning adulterers.
Slashdot Mirror
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lava_bomb
Nor have a conversation with my wife about what we saw on vacation on the big island of hawaii...
When half of the replies support the actions of the police in this, I know that Americxa as a bastion of freedom is over. I would have thought it would take more than killing ~3000 people with 4 airplanes to terrorize the entire nation into giving up all their rights, but I was wrong. The press and the government have been working harder than any 'terrorists' at terrorizing the public, and the public is falling for it.
To think that I can roll my two pieces of luggage with ~150 pounds of C4 each into the terminal, then whip out my cell phone and dial a number to set them off, but I can't walk around with some LEDs blinking on my chest. Wow, just fucking wow. I mean, I understand that people don't want to make mistakes that get themselves or others killed, but this is just over the top.
Huh? Why would you carry the preamble to the Declaration of Independence if you wanted Sharia law?
Wouldn't you carry something out of the Koran?
Being an Atheist, I'm certainly opposed to Sharia law (which would involve me being killed), but I'm also opposed to restrictions on the freedom of the press and speech. You do remember the 'we will not be silenced' t-shirts that got people pulled off planes awhile back, right?
Good thing to put on a t-shirt....
:-)
in Arabic
Most likely, the security personnel had never heard of the book...and most likely many many fewer people would have heard about it and I wouldn't have read it if it weren't for the fatwa issued against Rushdie...
I traveled to Paris & Italy this summer and while I've read "The God Delusion", I specifically picked my next book considering that I'd be traveling. So I took, "The Politics of Truth" instead of "Why I am Not a Muslim" (which makes me uncomfortable, reading it at our favorite Nepalese restaurant because I like the owner and I'm not sure if she's Muslim or not). I bought, 'State of Denial' while in Florence, and the two 'anti-bush' books didn't seem to cause me any trouble...
Don't feel bad about your kids, according to Bush Senior, I, being an Atheist, shouldn't be considered a citizen either...
Not true. Messaging passing OS's and even BSD's without syscall wrappers enabled don't suffer from the problem.
Sure, but to be safe, you have to encrypt it first...
Well, I was half-joking with my post, but I'd still say that the reaction helps in identification, regardless as to what you are supposed to do with the information you've got once you've done the identification...
Of course it's a bell curve. I've known some great female enginners, and a few months ago a woman, Val Henson, gave a talk at the local LUG about filesystems. She's a kernel hacker and worked on ZFS at Sun. Another woman I worked with was a great low-level engineer, doing our remote and set-top firmware.
So, given the odds of picking anyone who knows anything about Linux or software development in general out of the population at large, I don't think you want to further limit your odds of success by throwing out all the females...
No, according to TFA, liberals are faster and more reliable at differentiating between the letter M and the letter W in a timed experiment.
Well, I'd have to say that since seeing "W-2004" with a little flag bumper stickers prior to the 2004 election, liberals [note: I'd describe myself as one] have an immediate, visceral, and very negative reaction to the letter 'W'.
My god, if we let these plants go wild, they'll strip the atmosphere of everything we need to live!
<grin>
It'd be nice if the headphone jack supported the iPhone's wired headphones w/mic. I'm sure there's probably one unused A->D on the SoC in the ipod Touch. Perhaps there'll be a software upgrade that lets you use iChat on the iPod touch with Wi-fi after AT&T pisses Apple off too much...
I know I'm wasting my time, but pi is defined as the ratio between a circle's diameter and it's circumference.
http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3Api
Bible claims about 30/10
http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=701359
Would it really have been that much trouble for god to specify the wavelength of light comping off death's horse? I'm seriously, you're arguing about a book that says Pi = 3.
Could you please describe to my what exactly you mean by "God", his desires, motivations and prior actions? I find that people either can't very well specify what they mean by "God". Further, even if they come up with something somewhat detailed, it's not internally consistent. Like the Christian god which is infinitely powerful (and so has the power to prevent suffering), and infinitely kind/loving (and so should have the desire to prevent suffering), and yet allows suffering to exist.
Given my direct experience, the only "God" I can imagine is an evil tyrant.
I always figured that Shylock should have got his pound of flesh with sandpaper all over the borower's body... Just might take a few passes to make sure he didn't go too deep and cause blood to be spilled.
Adding salt might be good to...
How do you prove the document was in the envelope at the time of mailing?
Every week, I send myself an unsealed envelope, registered mail. The post office thinks I'm weird, but when someone comes out with a cool idea, I write it up and stuff it in an old envelope and seal it...
Serve him Blinky!
Take a look at the bible (which is accepted by historians)
Not sure I understand the aside, "(which is accepted by historians)". Certainly historians don't see general support for the story about Jesus walking on water, or rising from the dead. Those are claims, which can be considered scientific claims since they are testable and falsify-able. If there were evidence, it could be examined for veracity. Other explanations (solid surface just below the water, theft of the body) could be posited and evidence for those alternate explanations examined.
But these "effects" of the Christian god, which you say the bible documents, belies the idea of "separate magisteria" postulated by Gould.
As an aside, I have been trying to read the bible (KJV), but I don't suffer fools gladly...
You are _so_ my new friend for that comment :-)
Yeah, well Gould is wrong. If there is a god who affects the universe (aside from initial conditions/laws), he would show effects and could be studied. If all god did was create the initial conditions, that still leaves the question of where did the creator come from, and why we'd bother with talking about the creator of the universe when he can't have anything to do with his creation.
"Either half my colleagues are enormously stupid", no just brainwashed. And human brains aren't so perfect that they can't believe two completely contradictory things and have not trouble believing them both true. Not to mention that falling back to religion for morality is utter shit. If you didn't have an evolved-in or culturally derived set of morals, you'd never be able to decide that it was ok to stop stoning adulterers.
I'd seen the quote before, but I'm reading "The Atheist's Bible" right now (gift from my wife), and it has the quote:
Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.
Voltaire
Absurd is certainly a good description for my feelings about religion...