John Cuthber

I don't think that's nearly as comical as his assertion that rats don't eat rice. I suspect that replies to both points will be, at best, slow.

On roughly two thirds of the earth's surface, a parachute would ensure you drowned rather than being killed by the impact.

"I'm just saying this, you know rats don't normally eat rice at all." Rats don't eat rice? Tell that to the farmers.

Some abstained from voting.

http://xkcd.com/285/

"which doubtless incapacitated" Nobody on Earth knows what happend, yet your guess is "doubtless".

"when someone authorized hits the panic button" Does anyone have the stats for "pilot error" handy? "Then anyone who wants a chance at living, forms a line for the escape chute and slide through a tunnel out the bottom of the plane." Then lands in the cold water and dies of hypothermia or gets eaten by sharks. (or, indeed, both). Temperature distribution http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science/indicators/oceans/sea-surface-temp.html effect of cold water immersion http://www.seagrant.umn.edu/coastal_communities/hypothermia Plan A Don't let planes crash.

The CO and OH bonds are even more stable.

Just a quick reminder. There were plants which carried genes that rendered them immune to glyphosate, before glyphosate was ever synthesised. Spraying the weed-killer will have promoted the spread of that ability. With selection pressure like that, the emergence of resistance was inevitable. GMO only had an indirect effect on this. With or without GM technology we would have monocultures and glyphosate resistance. Incidentally, the "victim" of resistance to glyphosate is the people who make it- largely Monsanto. If all the weeds were immune they wouldn't be able to sell the stuff. The farmers can always find another weedkiller. Monsanto knew this and therefore put measures in place to reduce the likelihood (or, more realistically defer the start ) of glyphosate resistance.

I understand that passengers are so unconcerned about safety that they won't even accept rear-facing seats. Good luck trying to get them to pay for ejector seats .

In practical terms, no, you can't.

"Christians who do evil things do them because they DEVIATE from the teachings of Christ" OK, have you forgotten that he's reported as saying "For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished." and that the Law He's talking about is the OT with all the stonings etc? "Can you let me complete my biography of Muhammad first!?" why, what will it achieve? As I have pointed out, a lot of his "followers" ignore some of his teachings anyway.

"You have to realize that, at least in theory, 1.5 bln people consider this man to be their ultimate moral authority and try to be like him." I think you have failed to take due account of the phrase "in theory" there. And something like 2.2 billion believe in the fairy tale called Christianity from which you can also cherry pick bad bits. Most Christians are not in the habit of stoning children to death for being rude to their parents. in much the same way, most Muslims don't follow all the "rules" of their faith. Most terrorism may be wrought in the name of religion, and religion often helps to "justify" it, but the true causes are generally political and arise from perceived persecution towards some group to such an extent that their only option is to fight back through guerilla war. That's not a religious issue, it's a political one.

"I'm very calm with my beliefs, they don't control my life or my character" What does?

What are you seeking to bend? The answer to the question might be a lump of wood or some expensive bit of technical kit.

"I guess the underlying question is what does it mean to be affiliated?" To be the brother of. And it's not.

It was going so well until this popped up "So, if we want to understand the minds of Muslim terrorists," That conflation of terrorism and Islam is IMO a breach of the rules. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to deride all religion as glorified fairy tales, but that''s not the point here.

I think the current situation might convince the airlines that they should include a better "black box". It's been said (in the other thread) that most GPS systems only receive. That's true, but not the point. A satellite 'phone isn't that expensive (compared to a jet plane) and any GPS device could tell it where it is. The technology is off-the-peg these days. One potential problem is that the military get shirty about GPS systems that work when moving fast and at high altitude.

If the argument is that "tin an infinite number of universes, anything with a finite probability should happen at least once" then OK, By that argument, in some Universe somewhere, I'm God. Suddenly the argument seems less convincing. However, that only applies to events with non zero probabilities. There is, for example, no universe in which 2 has a rational square root. (with the normal definitions) Similarly there is no all-powerful God in any universe. The God of the Bible is logically impossible in any and all universes, including this one. There's also a logical glitch with the meaning of the word "universe". It means everything. So there's nothing outside it to count as part of even a second "universe\", never mind an infinite number of possible ones.

I work for a rather dull bit of the government: does that count?

You can't get hydration unless there is water. Initially, practically all the water that is added to the acid reacts. So you don't get hydration until the solution is relatively dilute.

"In most religions, religious texts say..." Made up stories can say anything they want.

You said "it's they're choice to continue to be gay in a country that kills them for it, and/or continue to live in the country that kills them for their own decisions in life. If they honestly don't want to be killed for their lifestyle, but they don't want to leave their home-land, something's going to have to change, or they gonna die." You didn't say that it was wrong for people to kill them and, by doing so, you tacitly supported that killing. (I'm ignoring the logical fallacy of begging the question there) If you are offended then perhaps you should do something about it. Condemn those who are doing what they see as the Lord's work. BTW, I did some research (quite some time ago actually). "There are six things that the LORD strongly dislikes, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue.." "Offenses against the truth express by word or deed a refusal to commit oneself to moral uprightness: they are fundamental infidelities to God and, in this sense, they undermine the foundations of covenant with God" and so on from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thou_shalt_not_bear_false_witness_against_thy_neighbour

Just to clarify things, here's a list of the people against whom the sanctions have been agreed. Dmitry Rogozin - Russian deputy PM (US) Valentina Matviyenko - head of Russia's upper house (US) Sergei Aksyonov - acting PM of Crimea (US and EU) Vladimir Konstantinov - speaker of Crimean parliament (US and EU) Viktor Yanukovych - former Ukrainian president (US) Andrei Klishas - member of Russia's upper house (US and EU) Leonid Slutsky - head of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) parliamentary committee in Russia (US and EU) Sergei Zheleznyak - deputy speaker of Russia's state Duma (EU) Alexsandr Vitko - commander of Black Sea Fleet (EU) They are not being targeted because they are rich, or have assets in the West. They are being targeted because they are the people (seen as) responsible for this cockup. Seems reasonable to me.

"As a good christian, I'm always going to disagree with any proof you try to give me." As a good Christian "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor". So if we show you that homosexuality is reasonable, normal and above all, not a personal choice, yet you continue to say otherwise, you are committing a sin. Incidentally, you might want to be careful bragging about how strongly you hold your faith http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins#Pride "I don't think people like getting killed for their sexual orientation, but we're not the ones doing the killing." Nice try with the red herring there. It doesn't matter who is doing the killing (even if they are doing it because they are good Christians and the Bible tells them to). "If they honestly don't want to be killed for their lifestyle, but they don't want to leave their home-land, something's going to have to change, or they gonna die." And what should change is the attitude that it is in any way right to kill them. However people like you tacitly support those murderers. The point remains that even the overt threat of death doesn't cause them to change their orientation. So it's clearly not a choice.