We assign logical meaning to our painting after it is finished.
It only means something because we are here to say it means something.
I compare creationism to saying that painting came into being completely finished.
I compare evolutionary theory to saying the painting was built up in stages of increasing complexity- the input of each being the outputs of the previous.
---
You know snowflakes and crystals are really complex. I suppose by your theory you must conclude that every single one is made by god.
--- A final comment. You say the other would require millions of years. We have had -BILLIONS- of years. Four thousand million years and more.
It only takes 10,000 years for a mouse to be bred into an elephant under the right pressures. I hope, that regarding what man has done to wolves (all breeds of dogs from great danes to chihuahua's), that you will concede we could do that.
Now, what is going to happen under even stronger pressure where 99% fail to reproduce* if they lack a certain trait. How quickly they will adapt to the new environment.
*It's interesting to consider that modern industrial society seems to currently cut the birthrate below replacement- so I assume humans will adapt in some way- currently my bet is on the catholic and similar religions growing dominant).
I think that Siamese Twins are a pretty basic example of this happening.
I think it is a lot more likely for a single cell to divide but fail to separate than it is for human beings to divide and fail to seperate.
Once a single cell does that, then the question is- will it quickly kill the resulting duo-cell creature or can it survive. If it can survive, then there is a chance that a further reproduction will provide it with a selective advantage.
I still don't see why christians focus on this instead of on the central tenet of their faith- do they believe that jesus died and was resurrected in order to allow them to be forgiven their sins and enter heaven.
You are destroying your faith- my god several of the poeple in the recent case LIED UNDER OATH ON THE BIBLE that they did not have religious motives for their actions after they had previously publicly said that they did. That is part of what pissed the REPUBLICAN conservative judge off so badly. That these religious people were clearly PERJURING themselves in his court.
Whether or not the universe was created is not central to your being saved or not. ID is morally bankrupt- people who follow it only damage the christian religion they are professing to advance.
Actually do not see that organisms combining is impossible tho it has not been observed yet.
For example- many people can't digest food properly and have colon problems -until- they are infected with a parasitic worm. After that they are okay, even if the worms are killed off.
Lots of parasites basically take over their hosts almost completely. In some cases they are symbiotic. I could see by some random turn of events a parasite becoming so symbiotic that you might not be able to distinguish it from the host (very close to this are our mouth and stomach bacteria which we -require- to be healthy). Most adult humans walk around with about 5 pounds of healthy but alien creatures in their bodies and on their skin which protect them from unhealthy creatures.
It took me just under 6 minutes for 2.0 from first link click to download. The download took under 30 seconds so I suspect Time Warner had a local copy cached.
75mb is nothing on a cable modem these days.
STILL- it would be nice if the stopped doing this crap and had a 1.2mb patch.
This will be like going to a restaurant and paying 30 cents extra because of music played there- but they are not playing music while you are there.
Personally, I like the idea except that I know the artists will probably be screwed and the companies will get 90% of the taxes.
Going to be murder to apportion it fairly. If one artist sells 3 million copies and another is listened to by 3 million people but never sold any except at concerts, who deserves what share of the pie?
1) There is strong geological evidence of a 4 billion year time span. This is a -really- long time. In just a million years, humans have 50,000 generations. Consider what humans did to wolves in way less than 5,000 generations (wolf -> great dane, Irish wolf hound, beagle, pit bull, chihuahua, etc. All from the same parent wolf line).
2) Evolutionary theory has been applied to programs and using this method generated the standard solutions humans usually figure out and - this is cool - a new method to solve the problem, not previously considered, which was more efficient than anything we had thought up yet. Really exciting stuff. You really should look into this area.
3) Given that there is -no evidence- of human existence before roughly 100,000 years ago (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cro-magnon_man) and strong evidence of things similar to humans before that for only 2 million years, I think it would be very illogical to conclude that we started out perfect (unless by perfect you mean a small marsupial creature first seen during the dino era).
4) Remember- we are not perfect- we have lots of bad design in humans (the eye being a common example- our eyes are horribly designed).
5) "Bad" things are relative. Sickle cell is "bad" but in areas with maleria it is "good". "Good" things are relative. Dumping water for cooling is a good strategy in areas where you can replace the water- elsewhere, it's not such a good idea.
ID is creationism renamed (they know it too- the recent trial showed one of the big id books was originally written with "creationism" and when "creationism" was overturned, they just did a global search and replace with ID- that's lying- and that's pretty damn disappointing for a religion that is supposed to prize honesty and honorable behavior).
You cannot prove that gravity exists. That is why they call it the theory of gravitation. General relativity is the most successful theory of gravitation to date.
You can observe -facts-.
An object experiences acceleration with relation to other objects. A feather falls as fast a stone in a vacuum.
You cannot prove that evolution exists.
You can observe -facts-.
New species have differentiated themselves from base species within recent history (i.e. unable to breed with the base species any more). Gene patterns have certain distributions of errors and patterns which statistically support the idea of differentiation from common base species. Geology indicates the planet is -really- old. Astronomy indicates the universe is -really really- old. Genetics indicates our genes mix randomly with each generation in sexual species. Natural selection has been observed to change the most common characteristics of species within recent history. Forensics show that many species have flaws and drawbacks (such as the design of our eye, our tendency to go into shock for certain injuries, running a fever for some diseases, our appendix, lemmings tendency to run off cliffs). Strong evidence that 99% of species throughout history are dead. Strong evidence of long periods of history where no animals existed. Strong evidence of long periods of history where large reptiles dominated the planet. Strong evidence of massive extinctions via chunks of space pounding the planet. Strong evidence that those chunks of space used to hit a lot more but now hit less often.
The theory of evolution - so far - fits all of those facts.
---
What disappoints me about ID so much is that formerly honest, honorable christians are trading that away to lie and become without honor. The sick thing is, that IT IS NOT A BASIC TENET OF YOUR FAITH.
Do you believe christ rose again to save mankind for it's sins. That's pretty basic.
Why are you becoming so despicable over something that isn't a central tenet of your faith? You -KNOW- ID is creationism relabeled to try to slyly sneak it into schools. You have got to -KNOW- that you are lying when you say that it is really a scientific theory. You -KNOW- a basic principle of us government is the seperation of religion and state.
It is just insane to me. There are so many good things about christianity, why are you wasting resources on this issue? Instead of arguing evolution you could be printing bibles and doing missionary work to spread the word to the unsaved. I think you are losing your way over this issue.
Shows this... # Christianity: 2.1 billion # Islam: 1.3 billion # Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion # Hinduism: 900 million # Chinese traditional religion: 394 million # Buddhism: 376 million # primal-indigenous: 300 million # African Traditional & Diasporic: 100 million # Sikhism: 23 million # Juche: 19 million # Spiritism: 15 million # Judaism: 14 million # Baha'i: 7 million # Jainism: 4.2 million # Shinto: 4 million # Cao Dai: 4 million # Zoroastrianism: 2.6 million # Tenrikyo: 2 million # Neo-Paganism: 1 million # Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand # Rastafarianism: 600 thousand # Scientology: 500 thousand
Now, personally I think this is a little bit tricky since christianty ignores some fundamental differences which some branches would say other branches are going to hell (which would indicate to me that they don't think they follow the same reliigion).
Science is not a religion. Science is a mechanism.
Some scientific theories become religions (such as the russian's goofy genetic ideas back in the 40's and 50's). A key aspect advocate of the theory using their power to suppress data which contradicts their theory.
That means they need to be testable- so you have to be able to propose an experiment which would prove or disprove your theory.
But because science is a method, not a religion, anyone can gather data.
Unless someone else can gather the same data you can, then your experiments are not reproducible and your theory fails to be testable.
The theory of evolution is the current best fit for a huge pile of data. Some of the strongest supporting data comes from genetics (fascinating stuff).
It could be wrong. the theory of gravity could be wrong as well. Tomorrow gravity could stop for a few minutes and the survivors would then need to figure out why gravity stopped for a few minutes.
----
Let me talk to you straight Thos.
The one thing I have always appreciated about christians was that they were truth seekers, honest, and honorable to the point of dying for it.
Their belief made them happy- and it made them fairly pleasant people to have in a community. When they were in that mode, they attracted honest, honorable, and kind people to them.
As the religion has grown in numbers, it has become corrupted. Consider how many priests were protected from the consequences of all the evil they did. In my friend's small church, there was one similar incident between a senior figure and an adult member and that was -it-. He was still a member of the church but he was no longer qualified to be a moral leader
Please listen Thos- the people behind ID are liars and hypocrites. They do the christian religion no good in the eyes of non-believers. They clearly want to win at all costs. ID is not about promoting christianity- if anything it drives potential converts away.
What astounds me (and I assume other non-christians) is how the "good" christians are tolerating and getting into bed with these lying evil ID'ers over a stupid issue like "who created the earth" instead of focusing on "how can I be a good, moral and kind person and follow the beliefs of my flavor or christianity (usually just -believe that jesus was really the son of god).
If you force a bunch of religious crap down young student's heads then you only either kill the country because it can't perform good science or you lose the children when they realize how you abused their trust
---
The scientific method is NOT a religion. It's a method- just like car repair or the procedure for opening a door. Some theories may take on religious aspects for -BRIEF- periods of time (like 20-40 years) but they are always overturned by new data while good theories are continuously strengthened by new data (Evolution -currently- appears to be one of these "good" theories).
That's all I really have to say- maybe some of it will find fertile soil.
I hope you feel as I do that all those evil Last Mondayism followers are a stain to the general school of Last Weekism. I myself am a firm believer in Last Tuesdayism.
Every day I get less sleep and so I am more tired. If this continues within a month I won't be able to do anything at all since i'll be so tired. Clearly the world was created in the last week.
If you want a living example of natural selection and evolution, you merely need to examine intelligent design.
Over a period of time, arguments that were completely stupid (bad for procreation of the ID meme) have been culled.
Ideas which make it easier for it to suceed have been added.
ID today is not the simple obvious creationism of the late 1800's. It's a very complex system of arguments which could not have sprung complete as it is today.
If this much complexity in a meme can be realized in only a span of a hundred years (and really mostly in a punctuated period of the last 20 years when creationists figured out
a) how to lie (abandoning that pesky need to be honest they used to have) b) how to use mimic so "ID" "looks like" a scientific argument.)
then what could an living creature achieve in a million years of constant pressure (of early death!)?
Mother Teresa had some really twisted "you must suffer" shit going on. I would not classify her as good. The lady was seriously warped in some ways.
However she and RMS were/are both very driven towards a goal unlike most of us. My only goal is to be free by the time I'm 50 to decide what I really want to do (which seems to be nothing except lead an idle existence).
I agree. And since I am the one person who can think rationally, you need to just go along with my opinions.
Ethics are very slippery things, geekee.
Slavery was a noble institution during a lot of the worlds history- not much different than being a wage/debt slave today. Anyone could be a slave (preferring it to say, being put to death when you lost a war or being left to starve to death or to be eaten by wild animals), and anyone could buy their way out of it or be adopted out of it.
My reasonable opinion w/regard to downloading materials is that the strong has the illusion that they can ride roughshod over the week but hobbe's leviathan will consume them. In case you don't get the jist- the basis of democracy is that the strong must make fair deals with the weak or the weak (being so much more numerous and hence viewed as a leviathan) will kill the few strong while they sleep- or at least drink, take drugs, and infringe the hell out of their copyrights.
My second reasonable opinion is that unreasonable laws breed contempt for the law and weaken society. The music industry is clearly trying to impose an unreasonable eternal monopoly via these laws. They must be stopped by almost any means possible.
I believe that you lose the right to keep a "fair use" copy when you sell or give away the CD to another person (and transfer the fair use copy ability to them).
Not so sure about what happens if you own it and it is stolen or destroyed. SONY wants you to lose fair use rights then too.
Not sure what happens if you have the physical CD but it is unplayable any more.
Obviously, an easy legal way to get music is off the radio. Just set up a tuner card and record the broadcast for about 7 days, then cut out all the songs you want. For now you have the right and ability to record radio (they are trying to close that down next.)
The 28% of the females entering the field are going to get 50% of the promotions so they are "equally" represented in management.
At one company I worked for 100% managers were female. 45% of group leaders were female and 100% of the "business analysts" were female. Among the males, 60% were ethnic in some fashion or another. Meanwhile, the programming staff was about 80/20 male/female and 40/60 caucasian/*. I think out of a couple hundred people there were 5 white male management and most had been promoted over 10 years previously.
It took me a while, but I finally realized there was no way in hell I was going to get promoted there.
I agree and the media and society supresses occurence pedophilia from women and emphasizes its occurence in men.
The same thing happens with female violence in relationships.
Only in the last 5 years are we starting to see things turn around.
I -still- don't have as much of a problem with female pedophilia since I was raised to think it would be one of the greatest things on earth for an older lady to take me as a 13 year old into bed.
I still have that feeling and the opposite with regard to young girls "preyed" on by men. Reality is somewhere in between. There probably are a lot of 13+ (maybe 15+) boys and girls who would not be harmed and enjoy the experience a great deal. There are also probably a lot of 13+ boys and girls who would be messed up by the experience. I think it's a question of power in the relationship and if they seek out someone to have sex with (via a crush perhaps) vs being taken advantage of.
But clearly, women have gotten a break in the past and they are not going to get it going forward (to which I say DAMN STRAIGHT!). Now they are going to jail if they have sex with a minor just like males were in the past.
I think Byrne's take improved superman all around. Now superman is really a fantastically powerful telekinetic. One great point was how he frequently picked up large objects and they didn't bend or deform where he picked them up or shatter into tiny pieces all together.
X-ray vision clauradience (sp). Heat vision pyrokenesis... etc.
The whole kryptonite thing was at least partially a mental condition.
One US "face". 20 foreign lawyers trained in the states laws prepare the paperwork. The US "face" presents the paperwork in court.
It is decimating the paralegal profession.
XRay analysis is another area.
I have no problems with this. The PROBLEM is that while our XRAY analysis should drop and our legal bill should drop, they keep charging US rates while paying indian rates for the work.
IT's like the way we pay 20 dollars for the same DVD they sell in china for 2.50. At some point, it WILL even out.
The indian education system is still a fairly pure meritocracy.
For example, in the US, we might allow folks who make an "A" to go to a special school. And once enough "A"'s had applied, the school would be full.
In India, you would take a test, and the top 70 scorers get to go- even if 180 of them made A's. Not first come first serve- the top.
I have been told that that concept starts early- by the end of highschool you are either going to a trade school, going to college, or ineligable for further education- all the basis of testing.
It's very harsh and a lot of high school students commit suicide when they realize their life is over before it started (they should probably come to the US instead of killing themselves- here if you have drive you can always succeed).
But that means, that the people who make it through college, are smart and exceedingly driven compared to a similar groups of americans who were not culled so severely.
But it's like a mono culture vs a sexual culture. If the environment is well defined, they can master it. Once we are thrown back into an undefined environment, it may be different.
But do -not- under estimate indian programmers- a lot of them are competent and they are getting experience now.
Slashdot Mirror
You ignore one little point.
We assign logical meaning to our painting after it is finished.
It only means something because we are here to say it means something.
I compare creationism to saying that painting came into being completely finished.
I compare evolutionary theory to saying the painting was built up in stages of increasing complexity- the input of each being the outputs of the previous.
---
You know snowflakes and crystals are really complex. I suppose by your theory you must conclude that every single one is made by god.
---
A final comment. You say the other would require millions of years. We have had -BILLIONS- of years. Four thousand million years and more.
It only takes 10,000 years for a mouse to be bred into an elephant under the right pressures. I hope, that regarding what man has done to wolves (all breeds of dogs from great danes to chihuahua's), that you will concede we could do that.
Now, what is going to happen under even stronger pressure where 99% fail to reproduce* if they lack a certain trait. How quickly they will adapt to the new environment.
Please read the articles here... http://www.talkorigins.org/
*It's interesting to consider that modern industrial society seems to currently cut the birthrate below replacement- so I assume humans will adapt in some way- currently my bet is on the catholic and similar religions growing dominant).
And who wants to bet whether or not Sony's lines of computers don't come with crap like this installed to begin with.
I -do not buy- sony products.
I think that Siamese Twins are a pretty basic example of this happening.
I think it is a lot more likely for a single cell to divide but fail to separate than it is for human beings to divide and fail to seperate.
Once a single cell does that, then the question is- will it quickly kill the resulting duo-cell creature or can it survive. If it can survive, then there is a chance that a further reproduction will provide it with a selective advantage.
I still don't see why christians focus on this instead of on the central tenet of their faith- do they believe that jesus died and was resurrected in order to allow them to be forgiven their sins and enter heaven.
You are destroying your faith- my god several of the poeple in the recent case LIED UNDER OATH ON THE BIBLE that they did not have religious motives for their actions after they had previously publicly said that they did. That is part of what pissed the REPUBLICAN conservative judge off so badly. That these religious people were clearly PERJURING themselves in his court.
Whether or not the universe was created is not central to your being saved or not. ID is morally bankrupt- people who follow it only damage the christian religion they are professing to advance.
Come on guy, there are lots of viable single celled organisms.
If you have ever had mexican revenge, you were suffering from an influx of very successful single celled amoeba's.
Actually do not see that organisms combining is impossible tho it has not been observed yet.
For example- many people can't digest food properly and have colon problems -until- they are infected with a parasitic worm. After that they are okay, even if the worms are killed off.
Lots of parasites basically take over their hosts almost completely. In some cases they are symbiotic. I could see by some random turn of events a parasite becoming so symbiotic that you might not be able to distinguish it from the host (very close to this are our mouth and stomach bacteria which we -require- to be healthy). Most adult humans walk around with about 5 pounds of healthy but alien creatures in their bodies and on their skin which protect them from unhealthy creatures.
It took me just under 6 minutes for 2.0 from first link click to download.
The download took under 30 seconds so I suspect Time Warner had a local copy cached.
75mb is nothing on a cable modem these days.
STILL- it would be nice if the stopped doing this crap and had a 1.2mb patch.
To add to your point.
This will be like going to a restaurant and paying 30 cents extra because of music played there- but they are not playing music while you are there.
Personally, I like the idea except that I know the artists will probably be screwed and the companies will get 90% of the taxes.
Going to be murder to apportion it fairly. If one artist sells 3 million copies and another is listened to by 3 million people but never sold any except at concerts, who deserves what share of the pie?
His point is that we have done that to wolves in less than 10,000 years.
Now, give 1,000,000 years and getting new species is going to be pretty trivial.
For that matter, we have observed mesquitos speciate in our recent history now (re the london subway species is new).
1) There is strong geological evidence of a 4 billion year time span. This is a -really- long time. In just a million years, humans have 50,000 generations. Consider what humans did to wolves in way less than 5,000 generations (wolf -> great dane, Irish wolf hound, beagle, pit bull, chihuahua, etc. All from the same parent wolf line).
2) Evolutionary theory has been applied to programs and using this method generated the standard solutions humans usually figure out and - this is cool - a new method to solve the problem, not previously considered, which was more efficient than anything we had thought up yet. Really exciting stuff. You really should look into this area.
3) Given that there is -no evidence- of human existence before roughly 100,000 years ago (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cro-magnon_man) and strong evidence of things similar to humans before that for only 2 million years, I think it would be very illogical to conclude that we started out perfect (unless by perfect you mean a small marsupial creature first seen during the dino era).
4) Remember- we are not perfect- we have lots of bad design in humans (the eye being a common example- our eyes are horribly designed).
5) "Bad" things are relative. Sickle cell is "bad" but in areas with maleria it is "good". "Good" things are relative. Dumping water for cooling is a good strategy in areas where you can replace the water- elsewhere, it's not such a good idea.
ID is creationism renamed (they know it too- the recent trial showed one of the big id books was originally written with "creationism" and when "creationism" was overturned, they just did a global search and replace with ID- that's lying- and that's pretty damn disappointing for a religion that is supposed to prize honesty and honorable behavior).
You cannot prove that gravity exists.
That is why they call it the theory of gravitation.
General relativity is the most successful theory of gravitation to date.
You can observe -facts-.
An object experiences acceleration with relation to other objects.
A feather falls as fast a stone in a vacuum.
You cannot prove that evolution exists.
You can observe -facts-.
New species have differentiated themselves from base species within recent history (i.e. unable to breed with the base species any more).
Gene patterns have certain distributions of errors and patterns which statistically support the idea of differentiation from common base species.
Geology indicates the planet is -really- old.
Astronomy indicates the universe is -really really- old.
Genetics indicates our genes mix randomly with each generation in sexual species.
Natural selection has been observed to change the most common characteristics of species within recent history.
Forensics show that many species have flaws and drawbacks (such as the design of our eye, our tendency to go into shock for certain injuries, running a fever for some diseases, our appendix, lemmings tendency to run off cliffs).
Strong evidence that 99% of species throughout history are dead.
Strong evidence of long periods of history where no animals existed.
Strong evidence of long periods of history where large reptiles dominated the planet.
Strong evidence of massive extinctions via chunks of space pounding the planet.
Strong evidence that those chunks of space used to hit a lot more but now hit less often.
The theory of evolution - so far - fits all of those facts.
---
What disappoints me about ID so much is that formerly honest, honorable christians are trading that away to lie and become without honor. The sick thing is, that IT IS NOT A BASIC TENET OF YOUR FAITH.
Do you believe christ rose again to save mankind for it's sins.
That's pretty basic.
Why are you becoming so despicable over something that isn't a central tenet of your faith? You -KNOW- ID is creationism relabeled to try to slyly sneak it into schools. You have got to -KNOW- that you are lying when you say that it is really a scientific theory. You -KNOW- a basic principle of us government is the seperation of religion and state.
It is just insane to me. There are so many good things about christianity, why are you wasting resources on this issue? Instead of arguing evolution you could be printing bibles and doing missionary work to spread the word to the unsaved. I think you are losing your way over this issue.
Looks like your numbers are a little off but the percentages are roughly correct. Perhaps you are using older figures?
t ml
http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.h
Shows this...
# Christianity: 2.1 billion
# Islam: 1.3 billion
# Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion
# Hinduism: 900 million
# Chinese traditional religion: 394 million
# Buddhism: 376 million
# primal-indigenous: 300 million
# African Traditional & Diasporic: 100 million
# Sikhism: 23 million
# Juche: 19 million
# Spiritism: 15 million
# Judaism: 14 million
# Baha'i: 7 million
# Jainism: 4.2 million
# Shinto: 4 million
# Cao Dai: 4 million
# Zoroastrianism: 2.6 million
# Tenrikyo: 2 million
# Neo-Paganism: 1 million
# Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand
# Rastafarianism: 600 thousand
# Scientology: 500 thousand
Now, personally I think this is a little bit tricky since christianty ignores some fundamental differences which some branches would say other branches are going to hell (which would indicate to me that they don't think they follow the same reliigion).
Science is not a religion.
Science is a mechanism.
Some scientific theories become religions (such as the russian's goofy genetic ideas back in the 40's and 50's). A key aspect advocate of the theory using their power to suppress data which contradicts their theory.
That means they need to be testable- so you have to be able to propose an experiment which would prove or disprove your theory.
But because science is a method, not a religion, anyone can gather data.
Unless someone else can gather the same data you can, then your experiments are not reproducible and your theory fails to be testable.
The theory of evolution is the current best fit for a huge pile of data. Some of the strongest supporting data comes from genetics (fascinating stuff).
It could be wrong. the theory of gravity could be wrong as well. Tomorrow gravity could stop for a few minutes and the survivors would then need to figure out why gravity stopped for a few minutes.
----
Let me talk to you straight Thos.
The one thing I have always appreciated about christians was that they were truth seekers, honest, and honorable to the point of dying for it.
Their belief made them happy- and it made them fairly pleasant people to have in a community. When they were in that mode, they attracted honest, honorable, and kind people to them.
As the religion has grown in numbers, it has become corrupted. Consider how many priests were protected from the consequences of all the evil they did. In my friend's small church, there was one similar incident between a senior figure and an adult member and that was -it-. He was still a member of the church but he was no longer qualified to be a moral leader
Please listen Thos- the people behind ID are liars and hypocrites. They do the christian religion no good in the eyes of non-believers. They clearly want to win at all costs. ID is not about promoting christianity- if anything it drives potential converts away.
What astounds me (and I assume other non-christians) is how the "good" christians are tolerating and getting into bed with these lying evil ID'ers over a stupid issue like "who created the earth" instead of focusing on "how can I be a good, moral and kind person and follow the beliefs of my flavor or christianity (usually just -believe that jesus was really the son of god).
If you force a bunch of religious crap down young student's heads then you only either kill the country because it can't perform good science or you lose the children when they realize how you abused their trust
---
The scientific method is NOT a religion. It's a method- just like car repair or the procedure for opening a door. Some theories may take on religious aspects for -BRIEF- periods of time (like 20-40 years) but they are always overturned by new data while good theories are continuously strengthened by new data (Evolution -currently- appears to be one of these "good" theories).
That's all I really have to say- maybe some of it will find fertile soil.
A fellow believer in Last Weekism I see!
I hope you feel as I do that all those evil Last Mondayism followers are a stain to the general school of Last Weekism. I myself am a firm believer in Last Tuesdayism.
Every day I get less sleep and so I am more tired. If this continues within a month I won't be able to do anything at all since i'll be so tired. Clearly the world was created in the last week.
If you want a living example of natural selection and evolution, you merely need to examine intelligent design.
Over a period of time, arguments that were completely stupid (bad for procreation of the ID meme) have been culled.
Ideas which make it easier for it to suceed have been added.
ID today is not the simple obvious creationism of the late 1800's. It's a very complex system of arguments which could not have sprung complete as it is today.
If this much complexity in a meme can be realized in only a span of a hundred years (and really mostly in a punctuated period of the last 20 years when creationists figured out
a) how to lie (abandoning that pesky need to be honest they used to have)
b) how to use mimic so "ID" "looks like" a scientific argument.)
then what could an living creature achieve in a million years of constant pressure (of early death!)?
This is the most common problem with people doing illegal things.
They lose sight of what is and isn't illegal and stop being adequately cautious.
People do wrong things all the time- they need to say, "Okay, I am doing something bad." and not rationalize it. Know thyself.
Mother Teresa had some really twisted "you must suffer" shit going on. I would not classify her as good. The lady was seriously warped in some ways.
However she and RMS were/are both very driven towards a goal unlike most of us. My only goal is to be free by the time I'm 50 to decide what I really want to do (which seems to be nothing except lead an idle existence).
The author intended this as a clever joke playing off RMS hairiness.
Should be modded as humor.
I agree.
And since I am the one person who can think rationally, you need to just go along with my opinions.
Ethics are very slippery things, geekee.
Slavery was a noble institution during a lot of the worlds history- not much different than being a wage/debt slave today. Anyone could be a slave (preferring it to say, being put to death when you lost a war or being left to starve to death or to be eaten by wild animals), and anyone could buy their way out of it or be adopted out of it.
My reasonable opinion w/regard to downloading materials is that the strong has the illusion that they can ride roughshod over the week but hobbe's leviathan will consume them. In case you don't get the jist- the basis of democracy is that the strong must make fair deals with the weak or the weak (being so much more numerous and hence viewed as a leviathan) will kill the few strong while they sleep- or at least drink, take drugs, and infringe the hell out of their copyrights.
My second reasonable opinion is that unreasonable laws breed contempt for the law and weaken society. The music industry is clearly trying to impose an unreasonable eternal monopoly via these laws. They must be stopped by almost any means possible.
And why you don't go bigtime.
There are probably several dozen sites now that only allow a few hundred members and then shut down only inviting member's friends.
I think the trend will head that direction- big feeder sites with smaller, safer sites.
Data is data, it's very hard to tell if what is coming across the wire is a 1980's TV show or Everquest.
I believe that you lose the right to keep a "fair use" copy when you sell or give away the CD to another person (and transfer the fair use copy ability to them).
Not so sure about what happens if you own it and it is stolen or destroyed. SONY wants you to lose fair use rights then too.
Not sure what happens if you have the physical CD but it is unplayable any more.
Obviously, an easy legal way to get music is off the radio. Just set up a tuner card and record the broadcast for about 7 days, then cut out all the songs you want. For now you have the right and ability to record radio (they are trying to close that down next.)
The 28% of the females entering the field are going to get 50% of the promotions so they are "equally" represented in management.
At one company I worked for 100% managers were female. 45% of group leaders were female and 100% of the "business analysts" were female. Among the males, 60% were ethnic in some fashion or another. Meanwhile, the programming staff was about 80/20 male/female and 40/60 caucasian/*. I think out of a couple hundred people there were 5 white male management and most had been promoted over 10 years previously.
It took me a while, but I finally realized there was no way in hell I was going to get promoted there.
* Asian, Black, Indian, Philipeno, Russian.
I agree and the media and society supresses occurence pedophilia from women and emphasizes its occurence in men.
The same thing happens with female violence in relationships.
Only in the last 5 years are we starting to see things turn around.
I -still- don't have as much of a problem with female pedophilia since I was raised to think it would be one of the greatest things on earth for an older lady to take me as a 13 year old into bed.
I still have that feeling and the opposite with regard to young girls "preyed" on by men.
Reality is somewhere in between. There probably are a lot of 13+ (maybe 15+) boys and girls who would not be harmed and enjoy the experience a great deal. There are also probably a lot of 13+ boys and girls who would be messed up by the experience. I think it's a question of power in the relationship and if they seek out someone to have sex with (via a crush perhaps) vs being taken advantage of.
But clearly, women have gotten a break in the past and they are not going to get it going forward (to which I say DAMN STRAIGHT!). Now they are going to jail if they have sex with a minor just like males were in the past.
I read that and it was funny.
I think Byrne's take improved superman all around. Now superman is really a fantastically powerful telekinetic. One great point was how he frequently picked up large objects and they didn't bend or deform where he picked them up or shatter into tiny pieces all together.
X-ray vision clauradience (sp).
Heat vision pyrokenesis...
etc.
The whole kryptonite thing was at least partially a mental condition.
Here is how it works.
One US "face".
20 foreign lawyers trained in the states laws prepare the paperwork.
The US "face" presents the paperwork in court.
It is decimating the paralegal profession.
XRay analysis is another area.
I have no problems with this. The PROBLEM is that while our XRAY analysis should drop and our legal bill should drop, they keep charging US rates while paying indian rates for the work.
IT's like the way we pay 20 dollars for the same DVD they sell in china for 2.50.
At some point, it WILL even out.
The indian education system is still a fairly pure meritocracy.
For example, in the US, we might allow folks who make an "A" to go to a special school.
And once enough "A"'s had applied, the school would be full.
In India, you would take a test, and the top 70 scorers get to go- even if 180 of them made A's. Not first come first serve- the top.
I have been told that that concept starts early- by the end of highschool you are either going to a trade school, going to college, or ineligable for further education- all the basis of testing.
It's very harsh and a lot of high school students commit suicide when they realize their life is over before it started (they should probably come to the US instead of killing themselves- here if you have drive you can always succeed).
But that means, that the people who make it through college, are smart and exceedingly driven compared to a similar groups of americans who were not culled so severely.
But it's like a mono culture vs a sexual culture.
If the environment is well defined, they can master it. Once we are thrown back into an undefined environment, it may be different.
But do -not- under estimate indian programmers- a lot of them are competent and they are getting experience now.