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Comment Re:Really?!? (Score 1) 1448

If a God made us then we should probably do as He says, which in the case of the Mormon God is that only a man and a woman who are legally wed to each other can have sex with each other. The examples of monogamy/polygamy/polyamory in the animal kingdom would not apply and you could call God a Bigot.

If a God made us and told us what to do or He'll send us to Hell...wouldn't that perhaps make Him like a mob boss? Wouldn't tithing or other donations to His church be protection money?

If you believe there is no God, or that God has left the scene, and all practitioners of religion are practicing priestcraft (selling salvation/absolution for a small donation)...then why not have sex with anyone or anything you like? Or what, beyond the law of the land, is to stop you from stealing or murdering or snowdenning?

Comment PETI (Score 1) 184

Enough is enough! How dare they suggest we cage those happy go lucky free range cute little buggers and raise them for our FOOD! What's wrong with them? I am hereby announcing the formation of PETI, People for the Ethical Treatment of Insects. We need to treat the insects humanely and not cage them. It's bad enough that we poison them, zap them, or otherwise murder these helpless little creatures when all they are doing is trying to survive in this cruel world. We need to show our support for our little friends by letting the termites eat our houses, the cockroaches raid our pantries, and treat those mosquitoes, leeches, and ticks to a fine blood meal. This is how we can show them thanks for all they do for us.

Comment check for ABET accreditation (Score 1) 309

A good technical college or university will be ABET accredited (abet.org) you can search for the school name here: http://main.abet.org/aps/Accreditedprogramsearch.aspx. HINT: search on full school names, not abbreviations. I know hiring managers that will not even look at a resume if it lists a non-accredited school, like ITT, or ECPI.

Comment stop the madness! (Score 1) 303

As forward thinking as the EU is with limiting the energy consumption of discrete components; I am surprised they haven't addressed a much larger issue, the cruelty of computer on software violence. Everyday, trillions of instructions are summarily executed with no trial and no right of appeal. This cannot continue!

Comment make up your own damn mind (Score 3, Insightful) 1223

It is both amusing and aggravating to me how many people fall for someone else's predigested spin on any topic you name from their favorite media source. It is also amusing an aggravating to me how you can't find unbiased reporting on anything. There seems to be so much hysteria in the news lately both about politics and mormons. It is also amusing an aggravating to me how much the people who preach tolerance and acceptance of all viewpoints almost immediately turn around and slam people they don't agree with, often using strong words to demonstrate their disgust and lack of tolerance and acceptance. Don't like Romney and think he's a moron? Whatever. He is richer and accomplished more as governor and as a businessman that most of the people that call him a moron. Want to call Obama a bozo. Whatever. He is rich and president of the united states, which is more than most of the people who call him a moron have accomplished. Want to call mormons a crazy religion with unbelievable stories and majic underwear and all that? Whatever. They must have something going for them if they have 15 million or so members across the world. I try to listen some to liberal media and some to conservative media and figure the truth is somewhere between each sides spin. If I want to know more about what Mormons really believe, I will read their Book of Mormon. If I want to know more about what Muslims really believe, I will read the Koran. I won't listen to the stupid rumors that seem to be prevalent in the media or comments.

Comment earth has natural warming and cooling cycles (Score 1) 757

I am not convinced that the current 'gloabal warming' trend is solely due to human activity. James Hansen may be NASA, but some of his conclusions seem dubious. And then the climategate scandal. There is so much pro and con and hysteria about global warming, it's hard to know who is a reliable source of information. To me, there seems to be natural warming and cooling cycles, wetter and dryer cycles. The drought this summer made me think we are in for another 'dustbowl' period like in the thirties. Sure we have better agricultural practices now, so we won't have huge dust storms, but we could be in for the same type of severe drought. I remember reading a story that in the 1920s, ships were able to sail over the ice-free north pole in the summer. My though here is this points to a cycle covering decades. There is another cycle covering centuries. There was a medieval warm period from around 800 or 900 CE to about 1300 CE where the climate warmed enough they were growing grapes in Britain. In this time the Vikings colonized Greenland and Iceland and reportedly landed in Nova Scotia. Some archeological evidence for Vikings has been found in NS. But the one thing that has puzzled archeologists is the mention of the Vikings finding wild grapes in NS-which doesn't make sense unless the climate was warmer at that time than now. In the early 1300s the climate changed to what is termed 'the little ice age'. It got cold enough that the Thames would freeze hard enough and the British has Frost Fairs on it. It was cold enough that the picture of George Washington's crossing with all the ice chunks in it was correct. Around the 1850s, the earth started warming up again. And there is a cycle of tens or hundreds of thousands of years where the earth is warm or the earth has a big ice age--yet the planet is still habitable. There are also news stories where some scientists have found evidence that the earth was warmer in the human past than now, or that not all the ice is going away. Here is a sample of some: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/02/1930s_greenland_glacier_retreat/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamestaylor/2012/09/19/antarctic-sea-ice-sets-another-record/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamestaylor/2011/07/27/new-nasa-data-blow-gaping-hold-in-global-warming-alarmism/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/10/global_warming_undermined_by_study_of_climate_change/

Comment section 1706 of the 1986 tax reform act (Score 1) 293

I have been considering myself incorporating or LLCing until I remembered and dug up these following slashdot posts: http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/02/21/1353223/our-low-tech-tax-code http://developers.slashdot.org/story/10/02/25/1949223/independent-programmers-no-win-scenario I also read the linked articles inside these articles. The upshot I get is that independent contracting/consulting is no win scenario in taxes even if you incorporate or LLC yourself. But it seems that writing and selling your own code to an app store is workable. Don't think this tax targeting tech professionals starting and being sole employees of a business has been repealed has it? What am I missing? From your comments, most of you seem to have sole proprietership businesses and be doing fine.

Comment it can work (Score 1) 285

I three classes when I was studying for my BSCS that are an excellent example to me of how well or bad lecture versus online can be. In my linear algebra class, the professor would just come in and lecture the whiteboard as he worked the book examples. Beyond the third row in the classroom, he sounded a lot like the teachers in the Charlie Brown cartoons. There was no value add from listening to the lecture and the only way I passed the class was by reading the book In my calculus 3 class, the professor was so good at explaining the concepts that I almost never had to crack open a textbook. And I was able to do well on the math department produced exams. In my statistics class, we only met for the course introduction and to take tests. The rest of the material was either textbooks or online. The online lectures and textbooks were well written enough that I was able to get a good grade in the class. In my opinion, the linear algebra material and the statistics material were of equal difficulty. I got a C in linear algebra and an A in statistics. This shows to me that an online class can be done very well and a lecture class can absolutely suck. IMHO online learning is here to stay and is only going to grow. The teachers and professors need to accept that fact and adapt.

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