Don't give up your vote just because the Republicrats limit you to two bad candidates. Men fought and died to get you that vote. Leaving a ballot blank is the modern day equivalent of burning the US flag.
If you really want to show them who's boss, and prove that they cannot limit your vote, vote for a third party that offers a candidate that is closer to your values than the Republicrats. I'm not a Libertarian shill, but the Libertarians are a freedom-based compromise between the Republicrats. Personally, I was really hoping Ron Paul would run third party or independent, but that football team mentality of "my party first, the country second" runs deep. And there's also Nader, but don't vote for him unless he has enough states such that he could possibly win (same goes for the Libertarians, but they usually get enough states).
I suppose Microshaft's monopoly of the retail chain is more useful than I'd wish. It makes it nearly impossible to buy a good preconfigured PC at anywhere near the same price as the components individually.
<sarcasm>But you forget that the new copy protection in Winblows Blista prevents piracy and only allows those who have legitimately purchased it to use it.</sarcasm>
But, personal attacks ignored, I do see your point.
Exactly. HD-DVD was the better format. It was inexpensive, could store more data (51 GB at 3 layers), and HD-DVDs could be produced with only small changes to existing DVD product lines. (The manufacturers would prefer HD-DVD to have won.) The players were made with common x86 PC parts and thus were cheaper to make. There were no plans for obsoleting in HD-DVD like Blu-Ray (Look it up; current Blu-Ray players can't play the new format they're releasing this year). In fact, the HD-DVD spec was finalized before the first player was ever released. Blu-Ray spec still hasn't been finalized.
So it all basically comes down to Sony forcing the free market in it's direction. Sony has the less consumer friendly format, so it naturally wins.
Sony - A bazillion
Consumers - zilch (since their current crop of Blu-Rays and HD-DVDs now need replacing)
We're talking about college students. Unless a bunch of them just bought PCs in the last year and 4 months, that was close to 10% of the Vista-installed user base on campus. I may have bought my first PC just before college, but today you can't get to college without having a PC in high school.
We've never sent a probe outside the solar system (yet), so what is to say that the interstellar space, or even the Heliopause itself, is not distorting the flow of energy/matter/time/space? What's to say that once Vayager I passes outside the Heliopause, we don't suddenly start receiving extremely redshifted transmissions from Andromeda that just happen to be exactly what Voyager I was sending? We don't know that our experimental laws of physics hold constant outside a solar system. The fact is, we have no experimental data, yet, with regard to celestial bodies outside our solar system, or the space between, so literally any explanation that provides for the light we see from other stars is a possibility.
more than likely i will go third party as i have lost faith in both parties.
Roger that. Both sides are so focused on taking away rights, rather than protecting them, now days that you'd think they were both filled with Stalinites. If it ends up Clinton v. McCain there won't be enough differences to tell them apart. If it ends up Obama v. McCain, I will at least have to consider voting for a Democrat before finally checking off for an American instead of a Republicrat.
I'd have to agree with linest, look at all the denominations that exist. Nearly all of them selectively disregard the parts of the Bible they don't like. Some even add to make up for perceived mistakes. To be honest, there is know way to know for certain, in this life, if any congregation is following the Bible correctly. The best one can do is read the book with an open mind and do as it says. Remarkably... that's what it says to do.
You are the second person I've heard from that understands Christ's teachings regarding mistreatment from others on such a level. The first was a former soldier. I spent the better part of two years trying to argue the point on an online Bible forum. Jesus said that His teachings would be hard to understand. They were hard enough for an oppressed people who wished freedom from their oppressors. It is harder still for a people who believe they are free and self-sufficient. "...it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich [i.e., self-sufficient] man to enter the kingdom of God."
As to sin as it's described in the Bible, don't let the messengers of Satan deceive you. As the apostles said, the followers of Satan would like nothing better than to convince you that nothing is evil so long as your intent is good. But how many millions of moral mistakes have been made using that logic?
Good point on the "Nullus Logicum Fallacy." I was really referring more to the "eugenics through euthanasia" aspect of Hitler's pronounced beliefs, but I wanted to do so in a way that would discourage from posting those who were not interested in discussion.
As to picketing an abortion clinic, embarrassing people at a time when they are already conflicted is not a way to endear them to your cause. If they really want to make a difference, and not just make a show to make themselves feel better, they should be discretely handing out adoption pamphlets at the clinics, or something similarly respectful.
I guess in my case, it comes down to how close I was to being "aborted." If my parents had felt they were ready, I would have had an older sibling. I came about by the combination of a snow storm and a lack of contraceptives, so you can see how close I was to being biological waste as opposed to the societal participant (debatable) I am today.
If by "august body," you mean like August Caesar, you may have hit the nail on the head. As George Lucas so excellently (or horribly as the opinion may swing) imitated in Star Wars Epsiodes I-III, a caesar, I forget which, convinced the Roman Senate to give him more powers, for use in defense of the nation, of course, and eventually, when the Caesars had enough power, one abolished the Senate.
Now when's the last time we conducted any trade with Rome? Anyone see a pattern here?
Those who remain ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it.
That assumes that our grandkids won't be organized into grain work camps by King Richard Cheney, III, where they are forced to farm grain to an export quota before they are allowed to eat any of it.
In order to remove all doubt: yes, I am suggesting that the current removal of Constitutionally granted rights is leading the United States of America to become the "United Socialist-Democratic States of America," which basically means a fascist government controlling the people while holding up the Constitution as a "Holy Document" and making reading of such document treason.
Our nation's government is turning into the very terrorists from which they claim to be protecting us.
Anyone else notice the peculiar turn outs in the early primaries? Someone debugging some "special" software?
You'll forgive me for being too sick to my stomach to continue in the conversation.
On the one hand, I'd like to have a bunch of rich kids sponsoring my family's entertainment... on the other hand, I don't want a bunch of poor kids with access to credit going into debt to sponsor my family's entertainment. I guess I'm a little torn on this issue.
But have you noticed that it seems most people, even some as young as 24, seem to consider video games to be children's toys? I get the feeling the in-game ads will be limited to fast food and "other toys." We might see a few Nigerian Scams... but I think most the ads won't apply to most gamers, due to the ignorance of the advertisers.
Finally, an open mind in this mess. I think you're starting to understand what I was trying to bring towards conclusion in my previous, apparently flamebait-worthy (who knew?), post.
The cell in which the DNA is developed into a living being is not as important as the DNA itself. Human DNA in a pig embryo will still produce a human, if allowed and provided the necessary materials and environment to continue development. Thus, killing it because it appears unhealthy before verifying such beyond a doubt is equivalent to euthanasia just as much as doing so after verification would be. (And here's where any semblance of a debate will likely end.) As far as I'm concerned, since Hitler supported such acts, I would firmly put my weight against them.
Disclaimer: I don't mean to make this a debate on abortion. My intent is to explore the ethics of this situation as it applies to scientific methods. I could care less about the legality of abortion. If people want to kill their own children before they are born, then I would submit them to a new category of the Darwin Awards, because in evolution (i.e., survival of the fittest) a species is unlikely to be considered fit to reproduce if it kills its own offspring before such reproduction can occur. Their lack of intent to continue the species does not decrease mine, so what reason have I to care?
I can't really imagine why I'd have a problem with growing cells from a human that way vs. previous experiments that have cultured human cells in a stand-alone environment.
The only thing changed by using a live pre-embryonic cell from an animal is that you now has a slightly higher success rate. If allowed to continue to adulthood, the resulting adult would be just as human as you (assuming you are) or I (pretty sure I am).
This is a classic case of wolf in sheep's clothing, only reversed. No matter what you do with human cloning, so long as the DNA is decidedly human, a human is killed when "embryos would then be destroyed. [FTA]"
Note that it takes a large change to make a set of DNA inhuman. The differences between your DNA and mine are many small differences, however the differences between a monkey's DNA and ours constitute an order of magnitude (perhaps even 2 or 3) greater number of differences.
You interpret the word "convert" to mean "add." I disagree.
I choose to agree with the definition of "convert" given by The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition:
"To change (something) from one use, function, or purpose to another; adapt to a new or different purpose: convert a forest into farmland.
You see, in the use of pirated software, one has not "...converted[changed] it to the taker's use..." because the original owner of the "personal property" continues to retain use of the property.
I will freely agree that the use of pirated software is illegal, copyright infringement, and that I don't condone or participate in it. However, to call it theft is the equivalent of tossing people of Asian decent in the US into concentration camps during WWII. It's just wrong.
Unfortunately, the US government does not recognize dual citizenship with regard to its citizens. IIRC, as soon as evidence of citizenship in another country after the age of 18 exists, you are no longer a US citizen.
there's no economic reason we need to import food, healthy or otherwise. Then why do we import food?
Ah, but you may have answered that question already:
We produce a lot of unhealthy food based around corn, corn and corn because that's what's most profitable. And for the more dense (like myself) who might be reading: We import food because while the stuff we make here is profitable, it's still useless blobs of fattening rubbish (greasy fast food, high fructose corn syrup, etc.) that is better spent as fuel for machines than for ourselves.
Interesting. A net surplus was also the case when Stalin was starving farmers to death so that he could obtain a net surplus... The parallels are surprising... and not totally irrelevant:
As far as healthy food is concerned, it is mostly imports, because most of our domestic food is corn byproduct and genetically engineered to be more productive (translation: less nutritious).
The most hilarious part of genetic engineering is that they spend more R&D money, to produce higher quantities of less nutritious food. This has the double wammy effect of causing the same quantities of food to increase in price and of requiring that more food be eaten to supply the same nutritious value, increasing the waistlines of the US while simultaneously emptying our wallets.
The whole situation reminds me of The Trouble with Tribbles.
For those with absolutely no idea of the reference (Who are you and how did you get that slashdotter's password?), in The Trouble with Tribbles, the Klingons poisoned a couple of grain (quadrotriticale) transports with nutrition blockers which would eventually build up in a person's system to the point where s/he could stuff him/herself and still die of starvation.
Contrary to the mods' opinions, this is actually a good point.
The title "Final Fantasy" is another example of Engrish. The Japanese meaning of the title is "Fantasy of Finality," as in, each game is a story about the end of the world being thwarted by a small band of misfits.
I'm sick and tired of these politicians claiming to be Christians just to get votes and then acting otherwise. It's really giving real Christians a bad rap. The rest of the world refers to the US as "Those Christians" with the kind of sneer that makes you dive to catch whatever organ it sounds like they're choking up. And this, all because the Red Party wants to say they're Christians but not act like Christians.
Worse yet, I've seen genuine Christians become just like these "Christian" politicians because they trusted them to the point of spouting their evil rhetoric. It's disgusting. I suppose it's somewhat telling that the Red Party could give a rat's past about their "base" when it finally comes to passing the laws they want. Oh, but they'll bail out their rich buddies en los corporaciones.
But seriously, fancy word play (Microshaft, M$, etc.) and insults don't really show people the errors that are inherent to Microshaft's products and business model. The problem is they haven't seen the alternatives in most cases, so we just sound like fruitcake when we claim that Microshaft products suck without showing them alternatives. After all, with all their problems, they are a far cry better than nothing at all... or at least a short cry better.
More on topic: I use a PDA for my calendar alternative. Lightning is on my work computer, but since I don't sync with that PC, it really just stays dormant. I've had the same popup reminder reliability issues with lightning as others have mentioned and I don't use the meeting scheduling functions that Outlook has.
A PDA, and especially a PDA phone, can be much more helpful for reminders, and if you pay for a data plan, time sensitive emails.
I don't know. I'd be willing to consider trading the right to abortion for the right to not have my private statements used against me in a kangaroo court of law.
A baby can be given to the state. Freedom of Speech cannot.
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Don't give up your vote just because the Republicrats limit you to two bad candidates. Men fought and died to get you that vote. Leaving a ballot blank is the modern day equivalent of burning the US flag.
If you really want to show them who's boss, and prove that they cannot limit your vote, vote for a third party that offers a candidate that is closer to your values than the Republicrats. I'm not a Libertarian shill, but the Libertarians are a freedom-based compromise between the Republicrats. Personally, I was really hoping Ron Paul would run third party or independent, but that football team mentality of "my party first, the country second" runs deep. And there's also Nader, but don't vote for him unless he has enough states such that he could possibly win (same goes for the Libertarians, but they usually get enough states).
I stand corrected... and mildly surprised.
I suppose Microshaft's monopoly of the retail chain is more useful than I'd wish. It makes it nearly impossible to buy a good preconfigured PC at anywhere near the same price as the components individually.
<sarcasm>But you forget that the new copy protection in Winblows Blista prevents piracy and only allows those who have legitimately purchased it to use it.</sarcasm>
But, personal attacks ignored, I do see your point.
Exactly. HD-DVD was the better format. It was inexpensive, could store more data (51 GB at 3 layers), and HD-DVDs could be produced with only small changes to existing DVD product lines. (The manufacturers would prefer HD-DVD to have won.) The players were made with common x86 PC parts and thus were cheaper to make. There were no plans for obsoleting in HD-DVD like Blu-Ray (Look it up; current Blu-Ray players can't play the new format they're releasing this year). In fact, the HD-DVD spec was finalized before the first player was ever released. Blu-Ray spec still hasn't been finalized.
So it all basically comes down to Sony forcing the free market in it's direction. Sony has the less consumer friendly format, so it naturally wins.
Sony - A bazillion
Consumers - zilch (since their current crop of Blu-Rays and HD-DVDs now need replacing)
We're talking about college students. Unless a bunch of them just bought PCs in the last year and 4 months, that was close to 10% of the Vista-installed user base on campus. I may have bought my first PC just before college, but today you can't get to college without having a PC in high school.
I've actually thought about this, too.
We've never sent a probe outside the solar system (yet), so what is to say that the interstellar space, or even the Heliopause itself, is not distorting the flow of energy/matter/time/space? What's to say that once Vayager I passes outside the Heliopause, we don't suddenly start receiving extremely redshifted transmissions from Andromeda that just happen to be exactly what Voyager I was sending? We don't know that our experimental laws of physics hold constant outside a solar system. The fact is, we have no experimental data, yet, with regard to celestial bodies outside our solar system, or the space between, so literally any explanation that provides for the light we see from other stars is a possibility.
Roger that. Both sides are so focused on taking away rights, rather than protecting them, now days that you'd think they were both filled with Stalinites. If it ends up Clinton v. McCain there won't be enough differences to tell them apart. If it ends up Obama v. McCain, I will at least have to consider voting for a Democrat before finally checking off for an American instead of a Republicrat.
I'd have to agree with linest, look at all the denominations that exist. Nearly all of them selectively disregard the parts of the Bible they don't like. Some even add to make up for perceived mistakes. To be honest, there is know way to know for certain, in this life, if any congregation is following the Bible correctly. The best one can do is read the book with an open mind and do as it says. Remarkably... that's what it says to do.
You are the second person I've heard from that understands Christ's teachings regarding mistreatment from others on such a level. The first was a former soldier. I spent the better part of two years trying to argue the point on an online Bible forum. Jesus said that His teachings would be hard to understand. They were hard enough for an oppressed people who wished freedom from their oppressors. It is harder still for a people who believe they are free and self-sufficient. "...it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich [i.e., self-sufficient] man to enter the kingdom of God."
As to sin as it's described in the Bible, don't let the messengers of Satan deceive you. As the apostles said, the followers of Satan would like nothing better than to convince you that nothing is evil so long as your intent is good. But how many millions of moral mistakes have been made using that logic?
Good point on the "Nullus Logicum Fallacy." I was really referring more to the "eugenics through euthanasia" aspect of Hitler's pronounced beliefs, but I wanted to do so in a way that would discourage from posting those who were not interested in discussion.
As to picketing an abortion clinic, embarrassing people at a time when they are already conflicted is not a way to endear them to your cause. If they really want to make a difference, and not just make a show to make themselves feel better, they should be discretely handing out adoption pamphlets at the clinics, or something similarly respectful.
I guess in my case, it comes down to how close I was to being "aborted." If my parents had felt they were ready, I would have had an older sibling. I came about by the combination of a snow storm and a lack of contraceptives, so you can see how close I was to being biological waste as opposed to the societal participant (debatable) I am today.
If by "august body," you mean like August Caesar, you may have hit the nail on the head. As George Lucas so excellently (or horribly as the opinion may swing) imitated in Star Wars Epsiodes I-III, a caesar, I forget which, convinced the Roman Senate to give him more powers, for use in defense of the nation, of course, and eventually, when the Caesars had enough power, one abolished the Senate.
Now when's the last time we conducted any trade with Rome? Anyone see a pattern here?
Those who remain ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it.
That assumes that our grandkids won't be organized into grain work camps by King Richard Cheney, III, where they are forced to farm grain to an export quota before they are allowed to eat any of it.
In order to remove all doubt: yes, I am suggesting that the current removal of Constitutionally granted rights is leading the United States of America to become the "United Socialist-Democratic States of America," which basically means a fascist government controlling the people while holding up the Constitution as a "Holy Document" and making reading of such document treason.
Our nation's government is turning into the very terrorists from which they claim to be protecting us.
Anyone else notice the peculiar turn outs in the early primaries? Someone debugging some "special" software?
You'll forgive me for being too sick to my stomach to continue in the conversation.
On the one hand, I'd like to have a bunch of rich kids sponsoring my family's entertainment... on the other hand, I don't want a bunch of poor kids with access to credit going into debt to sponsor my family's entertainment. I guess I'm a little torn on this issue.
But have you noticed that it seems most people, even some as young as 24, seem to consider video games to be children's toys? I get the feeling the in-game ads will be limited to fast food and "other toys." We might see a few Nigerian Scams... but I think most the ads won't apply to most gamers, due to the ignorance of the advertisers.
Finally, an open mind in this mess. I think you're starting to understand what I was trying to bring towards conclusion in my previous, apparently flamebait-worthy (who knew?), post.
The cell in which the DNA is developed into a living being is not as important as the DNA itself. Human DNA in a pig embryo will still produce a human, if allowed and provided the necessary materials and environment to continue development. Thus, killing it because it appears unhealthy before verifying such beyond a doubt is equivalent to euthanasia just as much as doing so after verification would be. (And here's where any semblance of a debate will likely end.) As far as I'm concerned, since Hitler supported such acts, I would firmly put my weight against them.
Disclaimer: I don't mean to make this a debate on abortion. My intent is to explore the ethics of this situation as it applies to scientific methods. I could care less about the legality of abortion. If people want to kill their own children before they are born, then I would submit them to a new category of the Darwin Awards, because in evolution (i.e., survival of the fittest) a species is unlikely to be considered fit to reproduce if it kills its own offspring before such reproduction can occur. Their lack of intent to continue the species does not decrease mine, so what reason have I to care?
The only thing changed by using a live pre-embryonic cell from an animal is that you now has a slightly higher success rate. If allowed to continue to adulthood, the resulting adult would be just as human as you (assuming you are) or I (pretty sure I am).
This is a classic case of wolf in sheep's clothing, only reversed. No matter what you do with human cloning, so long as the DNA is decidedly human, a human is killed when "embryos would then be destroyed. [FTA]"
Note that it takes a large change to make a set of DNA inhuman. The differences between your DNA and mine are many small differences, however the differences between a monkey's DNA and ours constitute an order of magnitude (perhaps even 2 or 3) greater number of differences.
You were half right with that. I hear the Dems were considering his likeness for their logo.
You interpret the word "convert" to mean "add." I disagree.
I choose to agree with the definition of "convert" given by The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition:
"To change (something) from one use, function, or purpose to another; adapt to a new or different purpose: convert a forest into farmland.You see, in the use of pirated software, one has not "...converted[changed] it to the taker's use..." because the original owner of the "personal property" continues to retain use of the property.
I will freely agree that the use of pirated software is illegal, copyright infringement, and that I don't condone or participate in it. However, to call it theft is the equivalent of tossing people of Asian decent in the US into concentration camps during WWII. It's just wrong.
Unfortunately, the US government does not recognize dual citizenship with regard to its citizens. IIRC, as soon as evidence of citizenship in another country after the age of 18 exists, you are no longer a US citizen.
Interesting. A net surplus was also the case when Stalin was starving farmers to death so that he could obtain a net surplus... The parallels are surprising... and not totally irrelevant:
As far as healthy food is concerned, it is mostly imports, because most of our domestic food is corn byproduct and genetically engineered to be more productive (translation: less nutritious).
The most hilarious part of genetic engineering is that they spend more R&D money, to produce higher quantities of less nutritious food. This has the double wammy effect of causing the same quantities of food to increase in price and of requiring that more food be eaten to supply the same nutritious value, increasing the waistlines of the US while simultaneously emptying our wallets.
The whole situation reminds me of The Trouble with Tribbles.
For those with absolutely no idea of the reference (Who are you and how did you get that slashdotter's password?), in The Trouble with Tribbles, the Klingons poisoned a couple of grain (quadrotriticale) transports with nutrition blockers which would eventually build up in a person's system to the point where s/he could stuff him/herself and still die of starvation.
Contrary to the mods' opinions, this is actually a good point.
The title "Final Fantasy" is another example of Engrish. The Japanese meaning of the title is "Fantasy of Finality," as in, each game is a story about the end of the world being thwarted by a small band of misfits.
I'm totally there with you.
I'm sick and tired of these politicians claiming to be Christians just to get votes and then acting otherwise. It's really giving real Christians a bad rap. The rest of the world refers to the US as "Those Christians" with the kind of sneer that makes you dive to catch whatever organ it sounds like they're choking up. And this, all because the Red Party wants to say they're Christians but not act like Christians.
Worse yet, I've seen genuine Christians become just like these "Christian" politicians because they trusted them to the point of spouting their evil rhetoric. It's disgusting. I suppose it's somewhat telling that the Red Party could give a rat's past about their "base" when it finally comes to passing the laws they want. Oh, but they'll bail out their rich buddies en los corporaciones.
The Red Party disgusts me, a Christian.
But tell us your real opinion of Microshaft.
J/K ;-)
But seriously, fancy word play (Microshaft, M$, etc.) and insults don't really show people the errors that are inherent to Microshaft's products and business model. The problem is they haven't seen the alternatives in most cases, so we just sound like fruitcake when we claim that Microshaft products suck without showing them alternatives. After all, with all their problems, they are a far cry better than nothing at all... or at least a short cry better.
More on topic: I use a PDA for my calendar alternative. Lightning is on my work computer, but since I don't sync with that PC, it really just stays dormant. I've had the same popup reminder reliability issues with lightning as others have mentioned and I don't use the meeting scheduling functions that Outlook has.
A PDA, and especially a PDA phone, can be much more helpful for reminders, and if you pay for a data plan, time sensitive emails.
I don't know. I'd be willing to consider trading the right to abortion for the right to not have my private statements used against me in a kangaroo court of law.
A baby can be given to the state. Freedom of Speech cannot.
Could it be a general PS2 library that was included in the game?
What if all PS2 games that were developed with the official dev kit have this code in them?