For instance, a great many Christians believe in the power of intercessory prayer - that is, if someone is (e.g.) undergoing surgery, praying for them will help their health outcomes.
This has been tested and found to be not true. [nytimes.com]
Any God worth his salt would deliberately sabotage those expirements "Though shalt seek to test MY existance? A pox on you!":). The placebo effect isn't something to underestimate though. You have to know that people are praying for you to work of course.
Anyway, the bible is widely held, even by Christians as you point out, to be a bit of a fairy tale that nobody in their right mind would hold as the absolute truth (unless it suits their purpose to do so).
In the same way that string theory will be modified when tests prove false, so will the interpretation of God. You can prove the bible wrong but you can't prove the non-existance of God.
God is then just our ignorance of the world and the vanity of those who cannot answer 'i do not know'.
You say that like it's a bad thing. Even if science explained every last little detail of the universe, there is no way that the majority of people are going to understand it without devoting their entire lives to doing so. As far as they are concerned scientists telling people that there is no God are just as bad as the crazy guys standing on the street corners telling people that Coke and Pepsi are the same thing.
A belief in God gives some people tremendous comfort in a world that otherwise doesn't give a shit. I don't believe in God but I don't seek to stop others believing. I draw the line at anyone who comes knocking on my door (or anyone elses door) telling me what to believe, or committing any sort of atrocity in the name of their deity, but otherwise I think a bit of personal faith can be good for people.
Yeah I re-read that after i'd hit the final submit and wished i'd worded it differently. The proof would require some assumptions that "the big bang happened because the big bang happened" and that "the rules of the universe are what they are because they are what they are". From that point on we can (in theory, eventually) prove that everything that happened since happened by following those rules.
The rules may also describe why the big bang happened too, but the reason for the rules being what they are is always going to be up for debate. Any theory that explains the reason that the rules are what they are is going to be untestable unless we take even more leaps of faith (and is going to define even more rules anyway)
Apologizing for referring to the Christians' god as a he insults the English language just as much as saying "he or she" everywhere.
Given the insults that have been hurled at the English language by subsequent generations I think that it will understand (anthropomorphizing a language now???)
AC referred to God as an it. Doing that always reminds me of the psycho referring to his prey in silence of the lambs "it rubs the lotion on it's skin... or else it gets the hose again"
Yes I can't see any solution that isn't going to hurt at least a little bit. Maybe they could have some fun with it though. As soon as someone hits the "log other session out" button, the account is prevented from sending any messages (stop you doing a spam-and-run) and a 60 second timer starts and the other session is alerted that someone wants to kick them out. If they click the 'contest' button then a fight to the death begins to prove which is the real slim shady. Each user is quizzed on facts about their friends that happen to be online (the account is locked to prevent you looking that stuff up) and whoever knows the least stuff about their friends gets kicked. The online friends judge which is the real user. If you don't know stuff about your facebook friends then you deserve to lose the account anyway:)
If you had a webcam you could take a photo of yourself holding todays newspaper or striking a specified pose or something and your friends could decide if that is really you and if the picture is really current (because bot's don't know how to use photoshop:)
My biggest concern is that it's going to be an arms race with facebook vs the bots and that over time the bots are going to have to be written smarter and smarter and that they'll eventually become self-aware!
I don't believe in God, but if he (i'll use the 'he' pronoun for convenience) exists then he's the one making up the rules not us, so 'testing' for God is a bit dumb. We can prove that the universe could have happened without God but we can't prove he doesn't exist.
And if he does exist I bet string theory is giving him the best laugh he's had in centuries:)
and that should have been marketing executives obviously. I blame the migraine i am currently experiencing (presumably a result of said force disturbance:)
Actually, if you look at shockwave dynamics during the moment an object crosses from subsonic to supersonic velocity, it can very easily be considered much more of a barrier than 1gkeys/sec can.
I take it you didn't feel the disturbance in the force when the 1gkeys/sec barrier was broken then? It felt like a million GPU marking executives all took a deep breath and shouted "w00t!"
What could possibly be a better motivator for our society to start pushing the limits of propulsion technology again?
The better motivator would be if it looked like the Russians/Arabs/Koreans/anyone-not-USA was going to get there first. If NASA wants to enter the space race again they need to start siphoning some money off to the competitors to kickstart their space race.
If they've thought it through they'll put the chemicals in there like in normal household deodorizers that numb your nose so you can't smell anything anymore.
Or cigarettes (nicotine is somewhat of a stimulant - every wonder why everyone in a psych ward smokes?). Or a lobotomy. Or the kid would just leave school and nobody would care. Or they'd end their lives somewhere along the way when it all got too much. I think 'different' kids have it somewhat easier these days, although the less regimented school system actually works against some people.
You'll probably find a paper written or funded by scientology behind most claims that ADHD never used to exist and that Ritalin is turning our kids into zombies etc.
- What would happen to him if he didn't take the medication?
Based on my experience, he'd be squatting down in the dirt digging for interesting rocks rather than playing and learning how to socialize with other kids.
Sounds like they shouldn't be on ritalin then. If you give it to someone who doesn't have ADHD it will have more negative than positive effects. That's what TFA is about - the number of kids who have been diagnosed with ADHD but don't have it. Unfortunately (to some extent), ADHD and Aspergers have been flavour-of-the-month for some time, and while it's great to see the increased awareness of it, it also means that it is ridiculously over diagnosed. The saying "when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a skull^H^H^H^H^Hnail" springs to mind.
Don't let a bunch of misdiagnosis's fool you into thinking that ADHD doesn't exist and that stimulant medication can't be a good thing though.
I've taken ritalin before for a bit (~6-12 months... i was in my late 20's i think). For me there doesn't appear to be a big difference between ritalin and a good strong energy drink. Both make me want to actually participate in society instead of just watching it go by. I used to watch the ad's for coffee that showed people sitting down and having a deep conversation over a cup of coffee and i'd think it was a load of crap, but now I think they might be onto something.
It's not a wonderdrug but when done right it can be a good thing.
If you look at any article that mentions negative effects of ritalin there's a good chance that it is either presented by or at least funded by the church of scientology. You might have to dig a bit to find the link though.
That statement would get you a golf clap on a daytime chat show but it's a gross oversimplification. Some kids are put on ADHD drugs because they cause problems for others (making too much noise, not sitting still, etc) but are happy. That's more a problem with the environment than the child, so your statement kind of rings true.
Other kids cause problems for others (violent outbursts, serious assault, etc). Drugs aren't the only solution to that but they are a solution. I'd argue that ritalin is better than the cigarettes, alcohol, energy drinks, and illegal stimulants that these kids would otherwise self-medicate with as they get older.
It's a complicated problem and trying to address it with 5 words is pretty weak.
I've been working on a device which is capable of communicating with legislators, which it does via whacks to the head with a cardboard tube. 1 whack for yes, 64 for no, etc. While I don't advocate whacking mute blind deaf quadriplegic's on the head with anything I believe that my invention could be adapted to be more suitable for their use, with some funding.
D2D2T is a great way of solving the "my file is corrupt. I need the copy from wednesday" problem and the "our server room burnt down, here's some new servers, make it happen" problem. A good backup application can take periodic incremental backups to disk for point in time restoration, and then synthesize a full backup to tape every night, for total-loss restoration. A dedicated backup server does this better as you say. I use Bacula for this.
Kids remember things differently to adults though, especially really young kids. It might be nice for the kids to be able to get a few glimpses about what their mother was like when they are a bit older. You don't need to recreate her via digital media to do that though.
For an adult I think it's more important to move on though and (sadly) for a few memories to fade, otherwise you never get over it properly.
Myself, I enjoy looking at videos and photos of people I know, but I do find that a situation changes once a camera comes out - you change the situation by observing it with a camera.
When I was reading the summary I was thinking "i hope the OP is reading at at least +2 because this is going to suck". For some reason slashdot has been giving me everything (eg not filtering out -1's and 0's) these days and this one has sure brought out the worst in people.
Some people have a dark sense of humour and get through things by making jokes about it. I get that but it's nothing like what's going on here.
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For instance, a great many Christians believe in the power of intercessory prayer - that is, if someone is (e.g.) undergoing surgery, praying for them will help their health outcomes.
This has been tested and found to be not true. [nytimes.com]
Any God worth his salt would deliberately sabotage those expirements "Though shalt seek to test MY existance? A pox on you!" :). The placebo effect isn't something to underestimate though. You have to know that people are praying for you to work of course.
Anyway, the bible is widely held, even by Christians as you point out, to be a bit of a fairy tale that nobody in their right mind would hold as the absolute truth (unless it suits their purpose to do so).
In the same way that string theory will be modified when tests prove false, so will the interpretation of God. You can prove the bible wrong but you can't prove the non-existance of God.
God is then just our ignorance of the world and the vanity of those who cannot answer 'i do not know'.
You say that like it's a bad thing. Even if science explained every last little detail of the universe, there is no way that the majority of people are going to understand it without devoting their entire lives to doing so. As far as they are concerned scientists telling people that there is no God are just as bad as the crazy guys standing on the street corners telling people that Coke and Pepsi are the same thing.
A belief in God gives some people tremendous comfort in a world that otherwise doesn't give a shit. I don't believe in God but I don't seek to stop others believing. I draw the line at anyone who comes knocking on my door (or anyone elses door) telling me what to believe, or committing any sort of atrocity in the name of their deity, but otherwise I think a bit of personal faith can be good for people.
Yeah I re-read that after i'd hit the final submit and wished i'd worded it differently. The proof would require some assumptions that "the big bang happened because the big bang happened" and that "the rules of the universe are what they are because they are what they are". From that point on we can (in theory, eventually) prove that everything that happened since happened by following those rules.
The rules may also describe why the big bang happened too, but the reason for the rules being what they are is always going to be up for debate. Any theory that explains the reason that the rules are what they are is going to be untestable unless we take even more leaps of faith (and is going to define even more rules anyway)
Apologizing for referring to the Christians' god as a he insults the English language just as much as saying "he or she" everywhere.
Given the insults that have been hurled at the English language by subsequent generations I think that it will understand (anthropomorphizing a language now???)
AC referred to God as an it. Doing that always reminds me of the psycho referring to his prey in silence of the lambs "it rubs the lotion on it's skin... or else it gets the hose again"
Yes I can't see any solution that isn't going to hurt at least a little bit. Maybe they could have some fun with it though. As soon as someone hits the "log other session out" button, the account is prevented from sending any messages (stop you doing a spam-and-run) and a 60 second timer starts and the other session is alerted that someone wants to kick them out. If they click the 'contest' button then a fight to the death begins to prove which is the real slim shady. Each user is quizzed on facts about their friends that happen to be online (the account is locked to prevent you looking that stuff up) and whoever knows the least stuff about their friends gets kicked. The online friends judge which is the real user. If you don't know stuff about your facebook friends then you deserve to lose the account anyway :)
If you had a webcam you could take a photo of yourself holding todays newspaper or striking a specified pose or something and your friends could decide if that is really you and if the picture is really current (because bot's don't know how to use photoshop :)
My biggest concern is that it's going to be an arms race with facebook vs the bots and that over time the bots are going to have to be written smarter and smarter and that they'll eventually become self-aware!
which string theory?
The one that will come out of the renormalization that they'll need to do to make it fit the observed outcome of this experiment, obviously.
God has also failed every test thrown at it.
I don't believe in God, but if he (i'll use the 'he' pronoun for convenience) exists then he's the one making up the rules not us, so 'testing' for God is a bit dumb. We can prove that the universe could have happened without God but we can't prove he doesn't exist.
And if he does exist I bet string theory is giving him the best laugh he's had in centuries :)
Otherwise one could come across a Canadian without ever realizing it. Many look and sound like normal people.
Are you sure you've really met someone from Canada before?
GPU marking executives
and that should have been marketing executives obviously. I blame the migraine i am currently experiencing (presumably a result of said force disturbance :)
Actually, if you look at shockwave dynamics during the moment an object crosses from subsonic to supersonic velocity, it can very easily be considered much more of a barrier than 1gkeys/sec can.
I take it you didn't feel the disturbance in the force when the 1gkeys/sec barrier was broken then? It felt like a million GPU marking executives all took a deep breath and shouted "w00t!"
What could possibly be a better motivator for our society to start pushing the limits of propulsion technology again?
The better motivator would be if it looked like the Russians/Arabs/Koreans/anyone-not-USA was going to get there first. If NASA wants to enter the space race again they need to start siphoning some money off to the competitors to kickstart their space race.
If they've thought it through they'll put the chemicals in there like in normal household deodorizers that numb your nose so you can't smell anything anymore.
how about you make like a tree and get the hell out of here.
Out of curiosity, why is that? It seems odd that anyone would complain about people getting paid a modest sum of money to do useful work.
My guess would be because some people like to complain.
Or cigarettes (nicotine is somewhat of a stimulant - every wonder why everyone in a psych ward smokes?). Or a lobotomy. Or the kid would just leave school and nobody would care. Or they'd end their lives somewhere along the way when it all got too much. I think 'different' kids have it somewhat easier these days, although the less regimented school system actually works against some people.
You'll probably find a paper written or funded by scientology behind most claims that ADHD never used to exist and that Ritalin is turning our kids into zombies etc.
sounds like you should have taken some of these
- What would happen to him if he didn't take the medication?
Based on my experience, he'd be squatting down in the dirt digging for interesting rocks rather than playing and learning how to socialize with other kids.
Sounds like they shouldn't be on ritalin then. If you give it to someone who doesn't have ADHD it will have more negative than positive effects. That's what TFA is about - the number of kids who have been diagnosed with ADHD but don't have it. Unfortunately (to some extent), ADHD and Aspergers have been flavour-of-the-month for some time, and while it's great to see the increased awareness of it, it also means that it is ridiculously over diagnosed. The saying "when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a skull^H^H^H^H^Hnail" springs to mind.
Don't let a bunch of misdiagnosis's fool you into thinking that ADHD doesn't exist and that stimulant medication can't be a good thing though.
I've taken ritalin before for a bit (~6-12 months... i was in my late 20's i think). For me there doesn't appear to be a big difference between ritalin and a good strong energy drink. Both make me want to actually participate in society instead of just watching it go by. I used to watch the ad's for coffee that showed people sitting down and having a deep conversation over a cup of coffee and i'd think it was a load of crap, but now I think they might be onto something.
It's not a wonderdrug but when done right it can be a good thing.
If you look at any article that mentions negative effects of ritalin there's a good chance that it is either presented by or at least funded by the church of scientology. You might have to dig a bit to find the link though.
Just let kids be kids?
That statement would get you a golf clap on a daytime chat show but it's a gross oversimplification. Some kids are put on ADHD drugs because they cause problems for others (making too much noise, not sitting still, etc) but are happy. That's more a problem with the environment than the child, so your statement kind of rings true.
Other kids cause problems for others (violent outbursts, serious assault, etc). Drugs aren't the only solution to that but they are a solution. I'd argue that ritalin is better than the cigarettes, alcohol, energy drinks, and illegal stimulants that these kids would otherwise self-medicate with as they get older.
It's a complicated problem and trying to address it with 5 words is pretty weak.
except my funding of course :)
I've been working on a device which is capable of communicating with legislators, which it does via whacks to the head with a cardboard tube. 1 whack for yes, 64 for no, etc. While I don't advocate whacking mute blind deaf quadriplegic's on the head with anything I believe that my invention could be adapted to be more suitable for their use, with some funding.
D2D2T is a great way of solving the "my file is corrupt. I need the copy from wednesday" problem and the "our server room burnt down, here's some new servers, make it happen" problem. A good backup application can take periodic incremental backups to disk for point in time restoration, and then synthesize a full backup to tape every night, for total-loss restoration. A dedicated backup server does this better as you say. I use Bacula for this.
Kids remember things differently to adults though, especially really young kids. It might be nice for the kids to be able to get a few glimpses about what their mother was like when they are a bit older. You don't need to recreate her via digital media to do that though.
For an adult I think it's more important to move on though and (sadly) for a few memories to fade, otherwise you never get over it properly.
Myself, I enjoy looking at videos and photos of people I know, but I do find that a situation changes once a camera comes out - you change the situation by observing it with a camera.
When I was reading the summary I was thinking "i hope the OP is reading at at least +2 because this is going to suck". For some reason slashdot has been giving me everything (eg not filtering out -1's and 0's) these days and this one has sure brought out the worst in people.
Some people have a dark sense of humour and get through things by making jokes about it. I get that but it's nothing like what's going on here.