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Comment Re:Let me be the first to say... (Score 1) 150

All languages are derived from a precursor language. What makes a derivative 'crappy'?

If any language is a crappy derivative, then English has the most going for it. Maybe as a native English speaker you never realized, but English is a terribly inconsistent language concerning spelling and pronounciation.

Comment Re:As a former muslim (Score 1) 880

I'm not equating all religions as equally bad. I think that most religions are a tool to exert power. That power can be used for good or for bad. The decision is up to the people who wield that power.
At the moment western societies are doing well also thanks to the comparatively little power that religion has over the people living in those countries. Power that unfortunately has historically mostly been used to oppress and control rather than to support people.
In the middle east, religion still plays a large role, and many people look towards a bleak, uncertain future. That makes it easy for madmen and hate preachers to abuse religion for manipulating people to further their own goals.

Comment Re:As a former muslim (Score 1) 880

The teachings of Christ may be about Love. That didn't stop the Spanish Inquisition from exiling, torturing and burning heretics and unbelievers at the stake, all with the blessings of the catholic monarchs and the pope. The teachings of love didn't help Galileo and other scientists and deviants in the course of christian history.
It is only thanks to the Age of Enlightenment and the departure and emancipation from religious doctrines that western societies have earned the freedoms they enjoy today. It is certainly not thanks to any teachings of Jesus.

That's why, again, it's not so much about what is written in the books. It's about the people and how they choose to interpret them to further their own goals.

Comment Re:As a former muslim (Score 3, Insightful) 880

Remember that in the middle, and late middle ages, the Islamic world was the advanced, progressive, cultured and tolerant civilization, far ahead of western Europe. Christian Europe was a place of endless war and bickering and of religious zealots.

Especially in Al-Andalus, under moorish rule, muslims, christians and jews lived peacefully together in what was perhaps the most advanced, safe and free place to live in the world, at the time.

It's not really about Islam or Christianity. Both holy books contain a lot of questionable, self-justifying violence. It's about the human beings who interpret and lay out the words. This, in my opinion, is one of the greatest problems with the abrahamic religions. The holy books contain so many contradictions and inconsistencies, you can justify just about anything by picking out the relevant parts that serve your cause.

Comment Re:Sounds Better? (Score 1) 433

I don't assume that modern vinyl is immune to the effect, but they don't bastardise vinyl masters like they do CD masters.

And neither is there a good reason why the loudness of digital media couldn't be reduced.

When music is broken by the loudness techniques used there is often clipping, that can't be fixed - data is irretrievably lost.

Comment Re:Sounds Better? (Score 1) 433

It doesn't matter how much you spend, Media conglomerates have ruined CDs, see the Loudness war

With the advent of the Compact Disc (CD), music is encoded to a digital format with a clearly defined maximum peak amplitude. Once the maximum amplitude of a CD is reached, loudness can be increased still further through signal processing techniques such as dynamic range compression and equalization. Engineers can apply an increasingly high ratio of compression to a recording until it more frequently peaks at the maximum amplitude. In extreme cases, efforts to increase loudness can result in clipping and other audible distortion

10 years ago if you'd have said vinyl sounds better than CD, I'd have said you're nuts or that you simply can't stand high pitched frequencies, but because of this butchered mastering of CDs, vinyl versions may sound better.

Comment Re: A Bridge Fuel... (Score 1) 401

The extremely expensive plants you mean? The ones that cost double what new renewables cost? Do they deliver dispatchable power or do they deliver continuous power that can't be altered much hour to hour?

What happens when a country with a 'safer plant' gets hit by bombs because the country it's in has gone to war?

Can u guarantee the safe waste won't end up in terrorists/mafia hands? Is all nuclear waste in the world right now accounted for?

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