Trumptor

That's a good one. It was even funnier to me because I thought I worked out what the integral of x was after reading the beginning of the joke. Since I hadn't done any calculus in years, and thought x^2 and to negate the 2 when taking the derivative I'd have to add a 1/2 to it so it would be x squared over two! I thought to myself, "I still got it". Then I read the punchline and felt pretty dumb for forgetting that any constant would also be dropped when taking the derivative, lol - the waitress kicked my butt too.

It's the way the system is set up. Corporations exist to profit the corporate employees, stockholders, etc. If they profit more by prolonging the lifespan of CFLs then that is the policy they will try and support. The CEO of a corporation in this position isn't going to pick any other course of action except the one that will better the company and in turn himself, unless he wants to be replaced by someone else that will.

Ok, warning - I'm going to ask a stupid question and am neither a chemist nor a climatologist, just so you all know. When I was in school in the late 70s, early 80s, we were learning about global cooling and it was said that CFCs were a contributing factor. Today, most aerosol bottles say" No CFCs" on them in an effort to combat global cooling, I figure. Why not allow CFCs again if they have the effect of cooling the planet, while the planet is warming. Wouldn't it help combat the effects?

I don't think alchemists could find much work today.

I heard that Constantine was visited by an angel the night before a great battle and was told that if his soldiers wore a cross on their attire during battle they would win. They were greatly outnumbered and were supposed to lose, but he heeded the vision and had his army bear the image of the cross on their clothes or shields, and as the angel said, they won the battle after which he knew that he was destined to bring Christianity into the Roman Empire.

Hitler was responsible for the deaths of millions and commanded a very strong military, Bin Laden did not. Also, Hitler was angry at the perceived transgressions against the German people, not against Christianity, while Bin Laden was retaliating for perceived transgressions against Muslims.

I'm sorry, I was just blurting out what I remembered from conversations I had with some of my Muslim friends back in school. This is the actual quote, and you are correct, it is from the Hadith - "The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews." I had several very good Muslim friends and we would talk philosophy and religion all the time after bar time and argue about whether Christianity or Islam were right. I would agrue that their religion was all about violence, and they would argue that it wasn't and that the Koran taught that killing anyone that is innocent was wrong. They would say that we, as Christians were pagans because we believed in the Holy Trinity, and on and on and on.... They did say that at the end of the world there was going to be some giant roaming around and that everyone that was good would see that Islam was the true religion and that all others would be killed - this is where I got it from, so I just assumed it was from the Koran, which turned out to be wrong. We would argue about many aspects of each others religions and make fun of each other, but none of us ever took it offensively because we were friends. So, I would definitely say that people are people and that nobody is inherently violent. It is a learned behavior, and I don't think there is a people in the world that haven't succumbed to it at some point in time. Lol Alan, that would be some radical there! I don't recall Adolf Hitler being in either the Old Testament or the New Testament or did I miss the memo that as Christians we now follow the teachings of Hitler?

I try to be open minded and as accepting as the next person, but facts are facts. Everyone should be required to read the Torah, Bible, and Koran and say for themselves what they take away from the experience. The Koran is undeniably more aggressive. According to the Koran, during the end times God will leave the Earth only to the Muslims and will tell Muslims himself, "there is a Jew hiding behind this rock, or a Christian hiding behind this tree, which you need to kill." I don't see the same intolerance in other religions.

I would hope that people would get sick of controls and revolt before something like this would happen. It would be a sad world if the "quantity over quality" of life wins out and we live to 90 on average by being forced to run on treadmills like hamsters and our diets consist on carrots and salads, while our grandparents lived to 85 by enjoying their lives with a morning coffee, steak and cheese here and there, and a few drinks with friends on occasion. I never even thought this would be seriously considered as an option.

I couldn't disagree more. Wow, I can't see how anyone can come to such a conclusion. Can you say that 100,000 humans on the planet would strain our natural resources and create as much pollution as 7 billion?!?!? Not to mention the greater statistical chance for mutations in viruses with a larger population. Put 100 rats in a cage with a certain virus and put a billion rats in a cage with the same virus and see which has a far greater chance of developing a mutation to kill off the population. I'm optimistic and don't worry much about the population problem because I believe our advances in technology along with the trend of a decline in the population growth rate will be enough to manage any problems, but those are hopes, not guarantees. Also, who the heck would come up with genocide as a solution for overpopulation??? Hitler? Lex Luther? I can't see that as a viable option in any serious discussion among civilized humans.

Actually, lack of exercise is arguably the worst thing we can do to our health. So definitely, the most urgent and most effective way to keep us healthy is to have forced highly encouraged daily exercise goals for individuals and higher taxes for those individuals that don't meet the government established goal. We should have government installed cameras in our homes and even our bathrooms so slackers can't "cheat" the system. The longer people are observed sitting, the higher their property, sales, and income taxes. This would be batshit crazy awesome! We would create a much healthier society than all the other efforts to date and would take a huge burden off the medical establishment. Since everyone is so interested in influencing individual habits for the greater good of society this should go over great.

I had a whole rant going, but erased it because I didn't think it reflected my thinking very well. I used to smoke a long time ago, about 10 years ago, and find it incredible how easily the masses are swayed. Decades ago, smoking was cool, now it's so disgusting that even smoking outdoors is offensive to people in the vicinity.

Which post are you referring to?

Yes, I wonder if the vertebrates wouldn't have survived after they evolved if, at a later point, through evolution it would arise again. If not, who knows how alien our world would look. I watched a show on TV bringing up the intelligence of squid and how if we weren't around anymore, it could be imagined that they could evolve to fill our spot with their intelligence and ability to manipulate their environment with their tentacles. When the crocodilians ruled the land, before the dinosaurs, they evolved into all sorts of crocodile species, including herbivorous crocodiles, bipedal crocodiles, etc. When the dinosaurs took over, they evolved into such diverse species ranging from chicken sized, bipedal dinosaurs to the towering Brachiosaurs. When mammals took over, the same thing happened all over again. It would be interesting to imagine what a invertebrate, squid-like world would look like if the squid were to dominate the world and diverge into a great many different species.

I think convergence can have the uncanny ability to converge the physical characteristics of animals in order to fill a niche. Look at all the marsupials that evolved through convergent evolution into the marsupial cat, tiger, wolf, etc. I find it incredible. Flies have also evolved to mimic other insects such as moths and bees, to the point where it is incredibly difficult to tell the difference unless you know what to look for. There's even a moth called a hummingbird clearwing that mimics the hummingbird.

I agree with you Sensei that having only one language would impede progress. I think that if there was only one language, it would be more rigid and would evolve slower, but with so many competing languages, where there's a fault in one language, the next will look to address the issue - Java was made to improve on C++, C# was there for developers that wanted more from Java (allowing pointers again), etc. I think the most taught languages are C# and Java by far.

I read that, on average, the Japanese (or was it Chinese?) score higher on the IQ tests than even native English speakers.

That is just awesome. I thought I would have to cut down all the dead trees on my property this spring but since they don't exist, I won't worry about it!

I think there is a difference in the type of languages used, but little differences in the languages used for a certain purpose. For example, C#, Java, Ruby etc. are programming languages with the same basic function and by learning one you can easily switch to another. ASP.NET and PHP are more focused on webpage development and require a different understanding. Oracle and SQL programming deal with databases and have a different setup and learning curve as well.

Well, I would think that something would have to be responsible for creating that illusion, and that thing would be coined with the word "God". If it's, as you said, all in our minds, then who created our minds, and who gave each of us a separate consciousness where we are separate from each other? Or did anyone? Did we just evolve that way?

If you want to call me bro, I won't mind at all. It would actually be humorous. It's also a term of endearment so it can be construed as a positive connection to someone. No big deal either way. The other words in the sentence would probably have a greater effect on the meaning of what you are trying to convey, but "bro"? - have at it, call me bro all you want, bro!

Saying that the reality in the universe is only real within the given universe is like saying that the stuff of dreams is real while we're dreaming and not outside of the dream, when we wake up. I think this kind of thinking would further strengthen the thought that the world we see is not all that there is.

I agree with you. Cherry-picking events can be used to smear any religion, except maybe a few like the Amish (can't imagine any reported Amish atrocities, but I may be wrong). Even the very events can be interpreted completely differently and have wildly differing reported numbers of killed, converted, etc. depending on where you get your information from.

Actually, something about the Janissaries that shows the other side that I am more familiar with hearing than the educated engineers, mathematicians, etc I read about ---- "From the 1380s to 1648, the Janissaries were gathered through the devşirme system which was abolished in 1638... In early days, all Christians were enrolled indiscriminately. Later, those from Greece and Serbia were preferred." "In 1804, the Dahias, the Jannisary junta that ruled Serbia at the time, had taken power in the Sanjak of Smederevo in defiance of the Sultan and they feared that the Sultan would make use of the Serbs to oust them. To forestall this they decided to execute all prominent nobles throughout Central Serbia, a move known as Slaughter of the knezes. According to historical sources of the city of Valjevo, heads of the murdered men were put on public display in the central square to serve as an example to those who might plot against the rule of the Janissaries. The event triggered the start of the Serbian revolution with the First Serbian uprising aimed at putting an end to the 300 years of Ottoman occupation of modern Serbia." I didn't think it was necessary to start a whole new thread for a little information that would still be marginally inline with this thread, but it makes the stories handed down through history about the atrocities by the Janissary much more believable. Sources http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janissary

You know I looked up Janissaries because I didn't believe what you said about them knowing where they came from, being well educated, and in positions of power - and actually found that the information I found agreed with your view. I never thought so before. I remember a story about a woman weeping and telling her son, "Don't forget your name" while he was being taken by the Turks, in the hopes that he wouldn't forget who he was. When he came back as an adult and massacred his former village, he ran across his mom and before slitting her throat, she called him by his name. He instantly recognized his mom and saw what he had done and fell into her arms crying. I wonder if there were real instances like this or if this is spun from legend. But you're right, this is detracting from the main point of the thread. I was trying to point out an instance of Islamic aggression in the Balkans and went off a bit. As I said earlier though, if we look, we can probably find incidents of violence from any religious group against another. Are followers of Islam more likely to engage in violence against people of other faiths? Does anyone have any statistics on this?