Posts by badmonkey 149 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Sep 2012
All true - but there has been something that can be called a major war in Europe, and quite the counter-argument to this whole back-slapping of the EU. That Serbia's me-too try out of right wing Christianity and nationalism wasn't stopped until Kosovo is a major blight on the EU's success story. It hardly helps that it was an Anglo-American effort that finally did the business.
Where do I sign up?
>>> There's religion and religion.
That's true. And my rhetoric is absolutist it's also true. I am attacking our friendly AC Christian's sneaky attempts to blame the Putinist thugs and their politics, trying to cleverly shift the responsibility away from his or her godly colleagues in the east where it properly lies in an entangled mess of hypocrisy, corruption, ignorance and superstition, and a continually unfortunate apathy on the part of the Russian people.
Maybe you could go away and come to the realization, in your own time of course, that holding religious faith in the face of the opportunities of modern education is really a rather inexcusable failure of intellect for anyone that's not completely stupid these days.
And that doing so, despite all evidence and reasoning that confronts you, is likely to lead to apologist bullshit in support of the usual suspects operating in the shadows of the churches in times and places they feel they can get away with it. Like the UK of old and, it would seem, Putinist Russia.
>>> How would we in the sophisticated West respond to a company that used a Swastika as a logo
If you mean the Nazi version, then, ummn, I suppose most would react in a way that would be appropriate for the use of a symbol of the Third Reich National Socialists and their associated crimes, the history of which is well known and still well remembered by some.
As opposed to a bite out of an apple which may or may not refer to a superstitious creation myth, which involves an unspecified type of fruit in a fantasy book written 2500 years ago by disparate and contradicting authors the content of which which has no basis in reality, you mean?
Bullshit. The Church is being manipulated by the Kremlin? You must be joking. How about they're both in it up their eyeballs, a symbiotic relationship of Church and State if there was ever one. Don't apologize for the appalling actions of your fellow faithful sheep. The Russian Orthodoxy has been aching for a chance to get back on the horse, and now - it's true with the full and mutual support of Putin and his cronies - they see their opportunity.
If Russia passes the anti-blasphemy law they're talking about, it shall have to be said that the country is properly fucked and will be for rather longer than the post-Soviet Glasnost had given hope for. It could already easily be said on the evidence of the appalling judicial result of the Pussy Riot case.
>>> It's a warning about the abuse of state power (in an unsustainable empire) against people who advocate sharing, being nice, and other "socialist" ideas.
Is it? Are you sure? Because I don't think that's the answer you'll get from any Christian, unless it's a liberal priest playing word games.
It is a symbol of Christ's sacrifice, which brought about the redemption of mankind. Of course a thoroughly repellant and immoral concept: the idea that vicarious redemption by way of the brutal torture and murder of a 3rd party is somehow an ethical precept.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo82sgrSAYg
No, we can see it for the primitive and dark reminder of human sacrifice that the Christians themselves confirm it to be.
Either that, or it's a reminder not to trust them damn dirty Christ killing Jews, one of the two.
>>> "everyone has an opinion that "speculates" one way or another."
Ummn no, some people are interested and would like to further their own knowledge/education, even if they're not interested in becoming theoretical physicists.
The OP has a point that for the Reg there is evidence of some alarming evidence of science illiteracy amongst the commenters in this thread.
Bravo, sir, for being the first commentard to point out the what-should-be-obvious, and rather showing up said commentards (and reporter) above.
Unless there is a way to arrange FTL travel such that causality paradoxes are avoided, it cannot be possible.
These sorts of articles strike me as having got things backward, because it is a resolution to this issue that is required first before it's even worth bothering to think about how to go about doing it.
Having said that...
>>> Do we really hope to live...
A few commentards above talked wistfully about hope and dreams of a more positive sort. I'm down with that, but hard reality is a better guide. I'm afraid the same goes with the negative - if causality paradoxes are somehow sustainable, well then I suppose we're all fuct if we ever work out how to exploit the fact. The universe does not give a two penny shag what your little monkey brain has dreamed up as "hope".
Yes, but as with the commenter above you, it is not so universal and you are falling into a trap of over-simplification.
>>> Really, if the God of Abraham is the same God for both the Jews and the Muslims why can't they just get along?
Partly because of politics, but actually mostly because the God is not the same at all; and the books are quite contradictory, and inciting of violence against infidels and apostates in all cases. It isn't hard to understand if one understands that the true believers are simply acting according to the word of God as they understand it from their particular dogma.
Apologists blathering about how the 3 religions are just different flavors of the same icecream and how we could all just get along in a nice gooey mix of doublethink - if only those horrible extremists (the ones who actually read the books seriously) would calm down - are, sadly, completely deluded.
It is about control and power, but such cynicism doesn't work universally. It's hard for educated westerners to understand that most of these people (Muslims) really do believe what they say they believe, and that it is a rather terrifying fact that their world view is what it is.
>>> forced to comply with legal standards imposed on countries they operate in.
That would be great in the west and hopefully we can get there, although the likes of the UK seem agonizingly stuck in a ridiculous liberal mindset that thinks that faith schools and the like are a good idea. But it's a pretty hopeless outlook for the likes of Pakistan where the men of God hold the innocents hostage and the legal framework itself is against the secular and mentally-free.
>>> When you consider how enlightened Islam once was and then it's decent into Medievalism
That's rather rosy tinted. Relatively enlightened, perhaps, compared to Christianity at the time, but that's not saying much.
Islam did it's fair share of *defining* Medievalism and together with Christianity kept the world in an age far darker than the classical era civilizations they displaced.
>>> it just beggars belief. The extremists put their own twist and interpretation onto the Koran...
It beggars your belief because you do not understand that there is not really any such thing as a "fundamentalist" and a moderate. The fundamentalists are true believers, by definition, and the "moderates" are ignorant hypocrites who claim to be good Muslims/Christians/Greek-god-worshippers, all the while ignoring 90% of the content in the books (mostly the bits they don't like, naturally).
The "extremists" are not putting their own twist and interpretation onto the Quaran. They are just opening it and reading it in the firm confidence that they are reading the word of the one true God, and acting accordingly.
I'm sure most haven't seen it. But this isn't much different to criticizing any populist group, like the greenies against nuke-this and nuke-that who wouldn't know the first thing about nuclear physics.
But they aren't really mindless sheep. They are true believers acting according to the precepts of their faith. If your worldview and mental disposition is sufficiently corrupted, warped, and darkened that you believe the Word of God, you would find such rioting to be perfectly understandable.
I did a look-up on the Wikipedia article (yes I was that bored)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirth
The transliteration into Latin from the "Cirth" or Dwarvish runes gives something like:
Njindndtō ōdbps - Lhōp Njōdtdlnd
Did somebody really screw up this badly on something that's supposed to be a priceless collectable?
How about some technical reporting that considers the relative benefits?
Resolutions above 1080p are not really necessary at conventional field-of-view angles, the "home theater" standard being ~ 30 degrees (formed from sensible living room arrangements of distance and screen size). At this angle the eye's visual acuity is 'maxed out' at 1920 x 1080 px and further increases in resolution are pointless. This threatens to become another megapixel race.
Widening the viewing angle a la IMAX is all very well and good but as with IMAX it would only apply to very large screens and would necessitate drastic changes in the photography and content.
Unless you plan on upgrading your eyes as well.
On the other hand, upping the screen quality, as OLED promises, is always going to be beneficial.
>>> This result will improve consumers experience, improve privacy, and demonstrate American innovation and leadership in the internet economy.
You're right, a "please don't fuck me over" scrap of data added to a client header which a vast number of webmasters will just treat with mild bemusement, not to mention all the Apache servers that will ignore it completely, will totally do that. Hell why didn't they do it earlier.
Idiot.
The "admen" are correct in saying that a default setting of on is completely counter-productive. Obviously you would, as a webmaster, now ignore all MSIE settings of the header, because it has been made totally meaningless.
It always was destined to be ignored though. Unless it is regulated, why would any webmaster implement it? The notion is bizarre. If you don't want to be "tracked", maybe try configuring your browser so it doesn't enthusiastically cooperate. After all, it is your own software that provides the relevant data. Asking the server to do it for you because you're too thick to take responsibility for yourself is ridiculous - and a false security as the real problem causers, the spammers et al, will definitely ignore your plaintive little header.
GET /butthole-pirates-tracker-ad.swf HTTP/1.1
Host: www.you-safe-with-us-honest.ru
Cookie: lolz=schmuck_number_69; interests=gay_porn
If-Modified-Since: Wed, 03 Oct 2012 01:23:45 GMT
DNT: 1
You do realize that your browser, any browser, including MSIE 10, would happily send the above headers? And how utterly fucking stupid that situation would be?
Give me a break.
I thought the article made that perfectly clear. The headline section that you're referring to is in quotes, further clarified in the article text as being the title of the forum on the Apple discussion site. If the whinging fanbois get it wrong, why should they be misquoted?
Maybe you're the one with literacy problems.
>>> If you had bothered to actually read the article:
>>> "A display with a larger Color Gamut cannot show colors that are not in the original content - it just exaggerates and distorts the colors."
This is such a stupid comment it hardly deserved responding to. The author needs to learn something about color management. "A display with a larger color gamut cannot show colors that are not in the original content." Is this supposed to be a surprise? Displays with an sRGB gamut can, can they? What the hell is supposed to be the point of this statement?
Wider color allows calibrated displays to more accurately reproduce color-profiled images created on calibrated machines like cameras or scanners. And they are Good. The UI of the operating system will display with higher saturation than normal, but this is hardly important.
>>> But as I pointed out, "DUAL-core CPU that beats the QUAD-core in the SIII", so the quad-core CPU in the SIII isn't all that it's cracked up to be. The SIII's chip is better because it's quad-core, right? No.
wtf are you talking about? You can find dual core Intel x64 chips that will, shock horror, "out perform" quad core Intel x64 chips, you know. Who cares? What matters are the results. The iPhone 5 is supposed to be a market leader, it's been released 6 months after the S3, and it's only a squeak faster.
And maybe splitting the cores up further has other advantages, like greater flexibility and battery management?
>>> Conveniently, you skipped over "which leads to distorted and exaggerated colors"
They're not "distorted", they're just not correctly calibrated. This is a fucking stupid comment. That is a software issue. If you're seriously going to say that a shitty sRGB display is better than a wide gamut, you're an idiot and I can't help you.
If Apple is serious about color fidelity, and I am all for it (they do have some precedent with things like Safari browser), then why aren't they shipping an iPhone with a wide gamut display with calibrated color profiles?
>>> and "lower power efficiency of OLEDs and concerns regarding premature OLED aging"
I skipped over it because I'm not interested in challenging it. Maybe it's true. From the fanboi bias evident in everything else you quoted, I'm skeptical. I'm "concerned" that the Martians are going to invade. Do you care? Didn't think so.
>>> It's not 25%. If you're going to compare prices at the current time, then yes there is a premium but the tech in the iPhone 5 is NEWER than that of the SIII (released in May), and clearly better.
Ummn of course I'm going to compare prices at the same point in time, what the fuck else would I do? The iPhone is *later* than the S3, a lot (25%) more expensive, and it's not clearly better at all; it's on shaky ground to say the least.
>>> Dual core CPU that beats the quad-core in the SIII
Only just. Once benchmark I found in 2 mins on Google says the iPhone 5 beats the S3 with a score of 1601 vs 1588. WOW!
>>> SIII: The Brightness is about half of the iPhone 5 due to power limits from the lower power efficiency of OLEDs and concerns regarding premature OLED aging. The Color Gamut is not only much larger than the Standard Color Gamut, which leads to distorted and exaggerated colors
Well fuck me, the S3 has a wide color gamut, but that's a negative thing now? Only an Apple fanboi could achieve such reality distortion.
I agree that calibration should be available, but a bit of mucking about might give positive results.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1521195
As to brightness, who the hell cares. If the iPhone is really "twice" as bright as the S3, then I suggest it's far too fucking bright and maybe they'd like to rethink their battery conservation strategy.
>>> Price... iPhone 5 16GB £529. Samsung SIII 16GB £499 at launch, now £422.90 (Amazon).
>>> I really don't think I've paid a premium
Well your own figures suggest you paid a 25% premium, what did *your* calculator tell *you*?
...which also makes it easier for the less desirables to identify where the more desperate girls are and so exploit them. The idea that their repression and cultural backwardness might be the root cause of the problem is a little inconvenient when you're desperately clinging onto power any way you can.
Or a big black obelisk, of course.
It may be that any dependency on geology is unreliable. After all the moon had a rough time of it. As an alien futurologist you may consider it unpredictable that even massive earthworks on an apparently stable surface could really endure. It may also have to be considered conceivable that intelligent life may never develop an interest in the moon's surface and never bother to go find your message, whereas DNA encoding would almost certainly cross the radar at some point as the medical benefits of the research would all lead to it.
Finally, because of the time scale, you have to consider all sorts of whacked out scenarios - I intentionally mentioned vandalism. A message on the moon will only be discovered by a select few, by those with the technological power to do it. You may have to think about the idea that an authoritarian power of your intended recipients may not like the idea of said message, and not only keep it from their population, but destroy it, meaning that no future civilizations will find it either. Or, a third party alien group may come across it, and also destroy it for whatever reason. But, something that is an integral part of every life form on the planet forever is a little harder to snuff out. Sooner or later, whether the next generation or the next species, somebody else will have another opportunity.
That's not necessarily right, it seems that DNA could be a reliable carrier of info.
Paul Davies suggested, quote from a brief Google search, "that some sections of junk DNA seem to be markedly resistant to change, and have remained identical in humans, rats, mice, chickens and dogs for at least 300 million years". Biologists like Richard Dawkins seem to agree this is generally plausible.
People overestimate how well artificial things last. There was a TV series about what would happen to the world if every human on the planet dropped dead, which drove home the point in rather dramatic visual style. The fact is it wouldn't take nature long to wipe out all traces of us.
Stuff like this glass data - buried, crushed, eroded to sand, in a geological instant. Even if you tried to protect it with sophisticated bunkers, or put it in orbit, or on the moon - you're still only just delaying the inevitable.
But if life evolves, always driven to survive as it is, then it is actually the ideal vehicle of legacy. Information could be genetically engineered into us, or other life forms whose evolutionary trees are judged more likely to continue. Bacteria for example.
The likes of Paul Davies suggest that it could be a likely place to look for messages encoded for *us*, by past visiting ETs for example (and that this is actually a more likely scenario than scanning the heavens for radio waves which seem less and less likely to be out there, even if the galaxy is relatively abundant with life). If you are ET and you visit earth, the chances are astronomically against it happening to be the year 2012. If you arrived 300 million years ago, how would you communicate with any yet-to-evolve intelligent species? Maybe leave a message that couldn't disappear or be easily vandalized, and the reading and understanding of which would depend on highly developed intelligence and technology? How would you do that?
Just to answer my own post. The BBC article has a little more to say on the matter
...
"Dr Kyung-Jin Min, from Inha University, told the BBC: "We also thought that different living circumstances or lifestyles of eunuchs can be attributed to the lifespan difference.
"However, except for a few eunuchs, most lived outside the palace and spent time inside the palace only when they were on duty."
Instead he thinks the data "provides compelling evidence that male sex hormone reduces male lifespan".
[contradicted by]
Dr David Clancy, from the University of Lancaster, said: "The results are persuasive, but certainly not conclusive."
He said the relatively high number of centenarians in the group suggested eliminating testosterone may have prolonged life. However, he cautioned that difference in lifestyle could have had a significant impact.
"In this case eunuchs were raised by eunuchs over generations, lifestyle differences may have been reinforced in this way.
"Castrato versus non-castrato singers are probably a better comparison, and showed no difference in lifespan. Non-castrato lived an average 65 years and both groups lived fairly cosseted lives."
...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19699266
I know that the article says that said ball-less wonders were compared against "a similar socio-economic background to exclude genetic differences", but one still has to wonder if the sample size is enough, and if the real reason for non-threatening men with cushy jobs at the royal palace living a little longer than normal is maybe something else...
Also, there are eunuchs today, for medical reasons if nothing else. Couldn't they be studied? I wonder if medieval Asian societies are about as relevant to modern Western lifestyles as, well, medieval Asian societies.
..."behave as if there is no God to judge them"
I behave as if there's no God to judge me. Because there isn't.
So you are only prevented from the litany of crimes you are itching to commit, because you are worried that an imaginary sky fairy is going to send you to his evil ex angel when the electrons quit running around those cells in your head? Moron.
I can't decide if it's satisfying or depressing to see Wikipedia exposed as the mess it is with its community of cynical, hypocritical, and insular wankers.
Its procedures are so easily abused by clever spammers who know how to turn the site's methods against it, one of which is referenced in the article. This being the flip side of the poor sods who might try to make an innocent edit or two before being ruthlessly chased off by the dominant resident whose territory he happened to encroach upon.
I say this not from a position of ignorance either; I had an account once with a number of edits, and racked up a bit of experience with the COI procedures and other mechanisms for supposedly dealing with the obvious problems.
Somebody mentioned the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect in another thread. I believe Wikipedia presents a strong case of it to most victims. Read any Wikipedia article on a topic you are expert in, and roll your eyes (and forget about trying to correct it, by the way). But you'll still click on other articles when you next do a Google search, woncha?
Will be interesting to see what happens to it over time.
>>> I said that atheism does not give you any basis for right and wrong. Nobody has yet been able to show otherwise.
It's not supposed to, you moron. Atheism is simply the absence of unsubstantiated belief in ridiculous fantasy figures that the imbecilic indoctrinated likes of you insist on believing in because an ignorant old pervert told you to one day.
>>> radical fundementalist Islamic world gets disconnected from the rest of society.
They already are, or close to it, and want nothing more.
Did you know that
- Greece annually translates five times more books from English than the entire Arab world
- the total number of books translated into Arabic in the last THOUSAND years is less than those translated in Spain PER YEAR ?
http://www.altalang.com/beyond-words/2009/08/10/a-note-on-arabic-literacy-and-translation/
The solution isn't to enable the Islamists, but to broadcast loud and clear all that we have to say, and to have no respect for cries of "insult" and "offence".
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