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Comment Re:Not all religions are bad (Score 1) 910

Try Unitarian Universalism.

Unitarian Universalist religion is non-creedal and follows seven principles http://www.uua.org/beliefs/principles/index.shtml
to try to make the world a better place. Not because there is some reward waiting, but because it's the right thing to do as a people.

Religion is helpful to build communities that come together to help make the world a better place. I'd be happy if atheists and agnostics also built communities to do the same.

Comment Re:Poor values and negative reinforcement (Score 1) 493

While going to church won't make you a better person unless you want to change, there are moral lessons to be learned and heard. Yes many churches are dogmatic. Some are not. There are a number of non-creedal churches (Unitarian Universalist, Quakers (Religous Society of Friends), and others.) I can't speech to religions like Buddhism or Hinduism though.

The point is where are people going to be hearing about treating people better if not at a church? Ideally the parents. Where else? And, sure churches have done bad things. So have governments and we still have those too.

Choosing not to participate in a religion just lets other people control the power churches/religion to influence behavior.

Comment Re:Thoughts. (Score 1) 527

When my wife's mother died, we recorded her reading her favorite Christmas story and other favorite children's stories for us to play for our children (we didn't yet have children at that time). It was a nice way for our kids to eventually see my wife's mother.

Comment Re:I prefer targeted ads (Score 0) 71

So do I. I'd rather only see ads for what may interest me. This has to be a win for both me and the company buying the ad. I'm happier because I see stuff I'm interested in and they are happier because if I know about it I'm more likely to buy it.

I can remember complaining to Yahoo years ago about them advertising services to me that my computer didn't support. What was the point of telling me about some cool new service if Mac or Linux wasn't supported. Heck they had to know what system I was running, better they put an ad there that would actually be useful.

Comment Re:Queue . . . (Score 1) 542

My kids have a idiosyncratic food reaction to corn and corn syrup. (We discovered it when they were infants.) We pretty much don't have anything in the house with corn. I hated to give up corn bread, corn chips and popcorn but with me the only one eating it (my wife gave it up too while breast-feeding) it was easier.

No processed foods, no fast foods (all their buns mostly have corn syrup). and just a few sodas now and then that don't have corn syrup. Only a few brands of ice cream without it.

We had trouble finding BBQ without corn syrup but found a few brands. Trader Joe's now has a brand of catsup without corn syrup but we did okay without it for a long time.

I made marshmallows from maple syrup so our kids could have s'mores at camp.

It has been a pain but it has also made us more aware of the sugar in foods and we just make our own or do without. Avoiding processed foods is the easiest way.

Microsoft Demos Three Platforms Running the Same Game 196

suraj.sun writes with this excerpt from Engadget: "Microsoft's Eric Rudder, speaking at TechEd Middle East, showed off a game developed in Visual Studio as a singular project (with 90% shared code) that plays on Windows with a keyboard, a Windows Phone 7 Series prototype device with accelerometer and touch controls, and the Xbox 360 with the Xbox gamepad. Interestingly, not only is the development cross-platform friendly, but the game itself (a simple Indiana Jones platformer was demoed) saves its place and lets you resume from that spot on whichever platform you happen to pick up."

Comment Re:tap-proof? (Score 1) 154

ASL is an actual language with its own linguistic rules. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sign_Language_grammar

Manually coded English (the more proper identification of Signed English) usually has significant trouble with homonyms and often has trouble with words built like "ice cream." Instead of using the ASL sign for "ice cream" I've seen people sign /ICE/ then sign /CREAM/. Which makes no sense when you could just use the sign /ICE CREAM/

It's written component was developed by William Stokoe for research purposes much like the International Phonetic Alphabet is used to transcribe spoken speech.

There's a lot of grammar encoded in facial expressions and body position have information much like vocal pitch and inflection convey in spoken language.

I will say that there is a continuum of languages from ASL to Signed English that most signers can flow from one to the other without too much trouble.

Government

Secret Service Runs At "Six Sixes" Availability 248

PCM2 writes "ABC News is reporting that the US Secret Service is in dire need of server upgrades. 'Currently, 42 mission-oriented applications run on a 1980s IBM mainframe with a 68 percent performance reliability rating,' says one leaked memo. That finding was the result of an NSA study commissioned by the Secret Service to evaluate the severity of their computer problems. Curiously, upgrades to the Service's computers are being championed by Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who says he's had 'concern for a while' about the issue."
Image

California Legislature Declares "Cuss-Free" Week Screenshot-sm 262

shewfig writes "The California legislature, which previously tried to ban incandescent light bulbs, just added to the list of banned things ... swear words! Fortunately, the measure only applies for the first week of March, and compliance is voluntary — although, apparently, there will be a 'swear jar' in the Assembly and the Governor's mansion. No word yet on whether the Governator intends to comply."

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