Cap'n Refsmmat

I think this misses the point. I want to understand recent history (the past few hundred years or so) so I understand why the world is as it is today. When CNN or Fox are talking about conflicts in the Middle East or civil wars in Africa, I want to know why those conflicts developed and what historical events led up to them, so I can understand the current events better. A public understanding of recent history could improve the public debate on foreign policy and political issues.

A couple people have mentioned foreign languages, which reminds me of my biggest peeve with language education. I want it to start in elementary school, not in high school. I took Spanish classes in high school and got fed up with the teachers and constant memorization -- but if you spread out a foreign language through frequent use all through elementary school, it would be so much easier to learn. Particularly because small kids are already good at picking up languages.

If that is the worst problem you see, you should be thankful! I see so many run-on sentences, apostrophe abuses, and poor word choices that I have no time to consider details like "whom" vs. "who," or anything more complex.

Hypothetical question for you: Suppose you have full control over the primary and secondary education systems of your nation (that is, everything up to, but not including, college/university). You may entirely rewrite the curriculum to include whichever subjects you want, and cast out whichever you feel are worthless. What would you include? I'd start by casting out a lot of English literature and analysis and refocusing on composition, rhetoric, and argumentation. I'd also expand the teaching of world history, particularly the history of the past few hundred years -- I'd like a populace that understands why our nations have ended up the way they are.

By working for ten years as a civil rights attorney and lecturing at a university. Oh, and writing a couple of very popular books.

Just curious: Why couldn't the Jews move from the countries where they are persecuted to countries where they are not? There are many Western nations where discrimination is investigated and prosecuted by the government. It's not the icons that are important -- Jerusalem is relevant to Islam's history whether or not they put a monument there. There were also Palestinians. Marat is arguing that, regardless of history, they did not deserve to be displaced to solve the problems of another group.

Now Syria? We haven't put troops on the ground in Libya, either. Could you clarify your post?

While this is strictly true, it's misleading. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704415104576250672504707048.html?mod=googlenews_wsj As my earlier link pointed out, we must separate out what women choose intentionally and what is forced upon them, and that is exceedingly difficult.

Indeed. Layers are to be expected: http://www.hackerfactor.com/blog/index.php?/archives/428-After-Birth.html What disturbs me more is that Trump is now claiming that Obama was not smart enough to get into Harvard and Columbia and is demanding he release his academic records. We're a year and a half from the election and the personal attacks are already at this level?

I'm afraid I'd rather not be a marketplace for obtaining hazardous materials. There are legal implications which are rather nasty.

I'm not sure I follow. An abstract is a brief summary at the beginning of a research paper; what do you mean by papers "listed in the abstracts"?

It may also be worth pointing out that the causes do not have to be uniform between genders. Lippa, R. (2006). Is High Sex Drive Associated With Increased Sexual Attraction to Both Sexes? Psychological Science, 17(1), 46-52. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2005.01663.x In light of that, I don't think we can call homosexuality highly unusual or unnatural.

http://philip.greenspun.com/careers/women-in-science is a fascinating article I recently read on this subject.

My Kindle's battery lasts a week or two between charges -- it's pretty fantastic, even with regular use, and they say they've improved the new generation further. The E-Ink screen uses incredibly small amounts of power, it seems.

If it looks like this: http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireless-Reader-Wifi-Graphite/dp/B002Y27P3M/ it's a Kindle 3. The Kindle 2 only comes in white, and has a different button layout.

The link simply leads to this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smINs5oqzhY

Lillith is mythological; I don't know if the myth is the basis of any Biblical interpretation. If you can't explain to me the points you make, I wonder whether you understand them either. As A Tripolation pointed out, this is a silly claim on a website you cited as evidence, not a silly claim in the Bible. So: How does this fallen angels thing work? You still have not provided Biblical or canonical evidence of it. Thomas Hobbes had the same problem you have, and resolved the issue by guaranteeing finite punishment in an infinite lake of fire. Those being punished stay in Hell for as long as is appropriate, but may have children while there which perpetuate the lake of fire and let it burn into eternity with more sinners.

Only if a program is designed to take advantage of them. Not all algorithms are suited to being split up into chunks and processed in parallel. There are newer programming languages and tools designed to make this easier, but they have a ways to go.

It works best in bright sunshine, actually. It's like printed paper. Now, the Nook Color uses an LCD screen instead of e-ink, so it'll behave like a laptop or cell phone screen in sunlight and become difficult to see. The Kindle looks rather nice outdoors. The biggest disadvantage is its relatively slow refresh time compared to an LCD, but I hear they've improved that some in the Kindle 3.

You said something about the distinction between lowercase and capitalized Adam, and said that it explains why there are two creation stories in Genesis. Could you explain this more carefully? I do not understand how it works. No wonder he rejected Satan's offer, then. That page is silly. Claims like "perhaps the most likely time for the battle to have happened, lies somewhere between the Old and New Testament" are trivially false, because the Old Testament was only canonized after the writing of parts of the New Testament. (Also, the quoted sentence has a rather nasty comma splice.) The tradition seems to be the one from the Book of Enoch, but that was never canonized or granted status in the Church (besides being quoted a bit).

I know what it speaks to. Could you explain the reasoning I quoted? I thought Satan was a famous liar. I know, but that is not what I asked you to justify. How did you arrive at the conclusion that "a full third of the angels that God felt were good enough to be with his best, Satan." How do you know it was a third? Does the Bible say which angels went to Satan?

Length contraction and time dilation, again. Now, if you're a stationary observer, you'd see each receding at 0.8c and you'd assume their relative velocity is 1.6c. However, if you were on one of the spaceships, you'd use this formula: [math]v'=\frac{v-u}{1-uv/c^2}[/math] where v is the velocity of the other spaceship (-0.8c) and u is the velocity of your reference frame compared to the observer (0.8c). (This is the equation for translating a velocity from one reference frame to another.) In this case, we'd arrive at a value of v' = -0.976c. From one spaceship, the other would appear to recede at -0.976c.

What you refer to can be treated exactly the same way, because it is a very similar behavior.

You can account for that effect very easily just by knowing the velocity of the spacecraft. You'll see the pulses being slow even if you account for the spacecraft's speed. (It's a Doppler shift, like when an ambulance passes you and the pitch of the sound changes, and it's very easy to account for.)

But your claim was that failing to consult the Holy Spirit for divine revelation is a sin. Is this a Biblically supported claim? That doesn't make sense. How can a creator create what is created if the creator is what is created? That would imply the created object created itself, because it is its own creator. Perhaps you can explain further.