>One extra thing which I thought about was why the bloody hell would a God create us?
Maybe he had an ego problem - most religions seem to involve huge amounts of praising sundry dieties and telling them how great they are and holy books reminding them how important it is to bow down befor them and sing their praises.
>and why can't lemmings fly by now
Probably because it's an urban legend that they throw themselves over cliffs.
As for water->air. I would imagine that some fish found they liked taste of some animal that hung around on the waters edge and over generations managed to find a way to process oxygen in their gills 'au natural' as opposed to from the water. Eventually they got good enough to spend more time in the air than in the water and the gills mutated into something like lungs.
>In the United Kingdom you get taught 'History'
Yeah but to be fair, seeing as we plundered and conquered most of the world back in the day, our history included theirs.
It would be interesting to hear how they think Satan gains any sort of advantage by luring people into believing evolution. Alas religions are full of all sorts of claims like this without any real logic to them.
>No because building a 3 wheeled car didn't have the appeal for that idea (and product) to survive.
The main selling point(!) of the Robin and other 3 wheeled cars like the Bond Bug are that you used to be able to drive them (no idea if you still can) without a full driving license. They were also dirt cheap being fibreglass so provided cheap dry transportation for those on a budget and a provisional license. Quite exciting to be in at 70mph on a windy day too I would imagine;-)
Just to confuse the issue further, my understanding is that US English is far closer to 'original' English i.e. in England we used to use z instead of s in words like socialise, we had fall not autumn and so on. English English has changed dramatically since whereas US English is far more similar to what was originally exported there a few hundred years ago.
The only real change in US English has been the huge number of words turned in to verbs for no good reason.
We still understand each other, more or less, so they can't be *that* different yet.
>Christians don't kill you. Don't threaten you
There is a theatre production by the Reduced Shakespeare Company where they do the entire bible in 90 mins or somesuch. *Everytime* I have seen it there have been jossling, abusive Christians outside telling me I was going to hell for watching it. I've also numerous reports of people killing in the name of Christianity. I think we need to be clear on this, all religions, whether Muslim, Christian or whatever have extremist factions and that's where the problems are. the mainstream ones are generally fairly laid back.
> 85% of Americans self-identify as Christians. (2002)
> 12% Atheists and agnostics nationwide. (2004)
> 11% of the US population identify with a faith other than Christianity (2004)
That's 108%. OK, some are 2004 stats and some 2002 but even allowing for that, either the numbers are screwy or trends are changing *very* fast.
>If you were to poll European Christians versus American ones
That's an interesting thought. Whenever I discuss points of US Christian dogma with European Christians I usually get a pitying look before being told 'well, of course, they're not proper Christians - they have some crazy ideas'. Thing is, I expect US ones say much the same about them and African ones being different again. All religions seem to be awash with variations, each sure they are the One True Version and that the others are deluded.
It must be very confusing for anyone converting to/into a new religion as to which particular brand they ally themselves to, depending on their personal moral code etc.
>In which case the ability to keep in contact with someone is more needed?
Wouldn't be so bad if people had important conversations. Most just yell about nothing at full volume into their phones for an hour. There is very little short of loss of documents that means you need to contact anyone midflight - you couldn't do it before and everyone got by.
>Are they just making the rules up randomly or something?
Pretty much. The people and press say 'Evil is out there! Do something!' so they make this stuff up and say 'We did something!'
I like the way religions pick & choose. "We now accept that Genesis probably isn't 100% right but the bit about killing gays is def. spot on. Ah, stoning your daughters? wrong. Wearing mixed fibres, wrong. This bit about judgement day is fine though."
I hope your right because right now Sky Digital, cable digital and Freeview look terrible compared to a good analogue picture. I've not seen Sky HD yet though - hopefully that's better.
Sure they do ads for their stuff but they always have although yes, it does seem to have gone up a notch lately but then they;ve got more stuff to advertise - it ain't just BBC1 & the Home Service anymore.
Fully agree re lowest common denominator though - the BBC should not be chasing ratings.
>I need closure
I'll fucking, fucking, fuck you you fucking fucking fucker - fucking, fuck off fucking fucker.
OK, that's 14 words but it was something like that anyway.
:-) We got fed up with our 5yo going on about bottoms and farts all the time so we told him the one thing he must never say is the rudest word in the universe i.e. Belgium and now that's all he says.
>But comming from the UK, we tend to use "that's a bunch of turd burger" a lot
I think that's just you and your friends - I've never come across (fnarr) any of those phrases except Turd Burgerler used as slang for someone of the non-hetro persuasion.
Whilst in the right circumstances I can swear as much as the next person, at work and out in public, I don't like hearing it especially when people use it in every sentence without it even needing to be there. I have always considered really strong language to be the 11 on the amp - it's for when you need to get over the fact that something is really extreme i.e. big, massive, humungous, **ing huge.
Personally I'd find it stress inducing if I was surrounded by people swearing non stop all day. It has it's place and I'm happy with that but I don't want to hear it non stop, it demeans the person talking like that.
That said, I was sort of impressed by the moron chav who lived in the flat below mine once who managed a 16 word sentence which was all f**k or varients apart from 4 words and it made sense.
>I don't think they're the kind of organisation that would deliberately try to screw people
Ask a photographer. On their websites they actively try to get people to send in photos of various things but in the small print it says that anything you send becomes theirs and they can make as much money from it as they want and never pay you a penny.
>You must not forget all the money the BBC makes on flogging DVD boxsets off all it shows
They do make some money but a large chunk goes (usually) to whoever made the prog on their behalf. Also, despite selling lots of stuff abroad, the price they charge is minimal (no idea why) compared to what a US program would cost.
Slashdot Mirror
>One extra thing which I thought about was why the bloody hell would a God create us?
Maybe he had an ego problem - most religions seem to involve huge amounts of praising sundry dieties and telling them how great they are and holy books reminding them how important it is to bow down befor them and sing their praises.
>and why can't lemmings fly by now
Probably because it's an urban legend that they throw themselves over cliffs.
As for water->air. I would imagine that some fish found they liked taste of some animal that hung around on the waters edge and over generations managed to find a way to process oxygen in their gills 'au natural' as opposed to from the water. Eventually they got good enough to spend more time in the air than in the water and the gills mutated into something like lungs.
>In the United Kingdom you get taught 'History'
Yeah but to be fair, seeing as we plundered and conquered most of the world back in the day, our history included theirs.
It would be interesting to hear how they think Satan gains any sort of advantage by luring people into believing evolution. Alas religions are full of all sorts of claims like this without any real logic to them.
>No because building a 3 wheeled car didn't have the appeal for that idea (and product) to survive. ;-)
The main selling point(!) of the Robin and other 3 wheeled cars like the Bond Bug are that you used to be able to drive them (no idea if you still can) without a full driving license. They were also dirt cheap being fibreglass so provided cheap dry transportation for those on a budget and a provisional license. Quite exciting to be in at 70mph on a windy day too I would imagine
You forgot the swarms of old ladies that go along 'just in case'.
Just to confuse the issue further, my understanding is that US English is far closer to 'original' English i.e. in England we used to use z instead of s in words like socialise, we had fall not autumn and so on. English English has changed dramatically since whereas US English is far more similar to what was originally exported there a few hundred years ago.
The only real change in US English has been the huge number of words turned in to verbs for no good reason.
We still understand each other, more or less, so they can't be *that* different yet.
Heh - like the way it went from a +5 funny to 0 - Flamebait/troll combo - clearly upset someone with mod point armed friends ;-)
>Christians don't kill you. Don't threaten you
There is a theatre production by the Reduced Shakespeare Company where they do the entire bible in 90 mins or somesuch. *Everytime* I have seen it there have been jossling, abusive Christians outside telling me I was going to hell for watching it. I've also numerous reports of people killing in the name of Christianity. I think we need to be clear on this, all religions, whether Muslim, Christian or whatever have extremist factions and that's where the problems are. the mainstream ones are generally fairly laid back.
> 85% of Americans self-identify as Christians. (2002)
> 12% Atheists and agnostics nationwide. (2004)
> 11% of the US population identify with a faith other than Christianity (2004)
That's 108%. OK, some are 2004 stats and some 2002 but even allowing for that, either the numbers are screwy or trends are changing *very* fast.
>If you were to poll European Christians versus American ones
That's an interesting thought. Whenever I discuss points of US Christian dogma with European Christians I usually get a pitying look before being told 'well, of course, they're not proper Christians - they have some crazy ideas'. Thing is, I expect US ones say much the same about them and African ones being different again. All religions seem to be awash with variations, each sure they are the One True Version and that the others are deluded.
It must be very confusing for anyone converting to/into a new religion as to which particular brand they ally themselves to, depending on their personal moral code etc.
>why so many *Americans* have trouble grasping Darwin's theory of evolution
There, fixed it for you.
>I'm more curious what will Apple name their next major release, if ever.
OS-Xe (e for enhanced)
Now say it - OS Sexy - geddit?
>In which case the ability to keep in contact with someone is more needed?
Wouldn't be so bad if people had important conversations. Most just yell about nothing at full volume into their phones for an hour. There is very little short of loss of documents that means you need to contact anyone midflight - you couldn't do it before and everyone got by.
>Are they just making the rules up randomly or something?
Pretty much. The people and press say 'Evil is out there! Do something!' so they make this stuff up and say 'We did something!'
>there is a difference between something that looks human, and something that acts human
Suddenly Paris & Britney et al make sense.
I like the way religions pick & choose. "We now accept that Genesis probably isn't 100% right but the bit about killing gays is def. spot on. Ah, stoning your daughters? wrong. Wearing mixed fibres, wrong. This bit about judgement day is fine though."
I hope your right because right now Sky Digital, cable digital and Freeview look terrible compared to a good analogue picture. I've not seen Sky HD yet though - hopefully that's better.
Sure they do ads for their stuff but they always have although yes, it does seem to have gone up a notch lately but then they;ve got more stuff to advertise - it ain't just BBC1 & the Home Service anymore.
Fully agree re lowest common denominator though - the BBC should not be chasing ratings.
>I need closure
I'll fucking, fucking, fuck you you fucking fucking fucker - fucking, fuck off fucking fucker.
OK, that's 14 words but it was something like that anyway.
:-) We got fed up with our 5yo going on about bottoms and farts all the time so we told him the one thing he must never say is the rudest word in the universe i.e. Belgium and now that's all he says.
>But comming from the UK, we tend to use "that's a bunch of turd burger" a lot
I think that's just you and your friends - I've never come across (fnarr) any of those phrases except Turd Burgerler used as slang for someone of the non-hetro persuasion.
Whilst in the right circumstances I can swear as much as the next person, at work and out in public, I don't like hearing it especially when people use it in every sentence without it even needing to be there. I have always considered really strong language to be the 11 on the amp - it's for when you need to get over the fact that something is really extreme i.e. big, massive, humungous, **ing huge.
Personally I'd find it stress inducing if I was surrounded by people swearing non stop all day. It has it's place and I'm happy with that but I don't want to hear it non stop, it demeans the person talking like that.
That said, I was sort of impressed by the moron chav who lived in the flat below mine once who managed a 16 word sentence which was all f**k or varients apart from 4 words and it made sense.
>I don't think they're the kind of organisation that would deliberately try to screw people
Ask a photographer. On their websites they actively try to get people to send in photos of various things but in the small print it says that anything you send becomes theirs and they can make as much money from it as they want and never pay you a penny.
>You must not forget all the money the BBC makes on flogging DVD boxsets off all it shows
They do make some money but a large chunk goes (usually) to whoever made the prog on their behalf. Also, despite selling lots of stuff abroad, the price they charge is minimal (no idea why) compared to what a US program would cost.