I disagree. An omnipotent god would have thrown out all the dietary/hygiene rules in the OT and replaced it with "Boil your water, cook your food, wash your hands, shit downstream from where you live". These 4 simple instructions are VASTLY superior to all the rubbish that masquerades as "divinely inspired" nonsense in the OT. They are easier to remember, easier to do, and about 1000 times more effective. Why isn't that information in the Bible? Because the ignorant shepherds who wrote it didn't know about germ theory.

To paraphrase Sam Harris, imagine how incredible the Bible would be if it was actually written by an omnipotent being.

Thanks, Chris. That was useful, and I'll do some more Googling based on your reply.

I see these articles occasionally, but I don't know the significance. Can you outline *why* I should be excited about this?

All my sites hosted at Webfaction use PostgreSQL at no extra charge. On top of this, their service is fantastic.

This is the same argument that people make for abstinence-only sex education. When it's done perfectly, it's perfect. When it's not done perfectly, it's a fucking disaster.

I have a 2 and a 4-year-old. I bust my ass to keep tabs on them and I'll rip the face off of anyone who claims otherwise. But I'm not perfect, and neither are they. Why the hell would I gamble everything on my ability to be perfect?

Whenever someone mentions tracking technology, everyone gets their panties in a giant knot, and there are real issues there, so that's fine. But let me put it to you this way: If you had the ability to put a small device on your child that communicated in an encrypted fashion with a mobile that you carried, and it was impossible for anyone else (your mobile provider, Google, Apple) to learn ANYTHING about where you child was except you, wouldn't you do it? I sure as hell would. It would be negligent not to.

So the problem isn't knowing where your toddler is through electronic means, the problem is third parties knowing where your toddler is through electronic means. This is a software problem, and one we know how to solve. Let's move on to finding a better way for parents to look after their kids.

Lemon out.

Well said, Jareth. I'd have modded you up but have no points.

You've received some flack for this in your comments, but you're right. There are NO technologies that have been created based on the theory of God. That tells you something about the usefulness and explanatory power of religion: nil.

That's certainly what a lot of people think. What I'm trying to say is that is not what the evidence says. The innovation happens anyway. Only after the innovation has happened to patents get applied to the new field.

Anyway, check out the book I mentioned (Against Intellectual Monopoly). It spells it out in much greater detail.

There's a lot of good stuff in your post. We often forget the historical perspective.

My objection is your conclusion that innovation happens in spite of and because of these patent battles. This is incorrect. Research shows that in almost every field, there was rapid innovation, then patents were brought in to consolidate. The evidence is outlined in the freely available "Against Intellectual Monopoly".

TL;DR - Innovation does not happen because of patents, innovation happens, then patents happen.

Keep moving those goal-posts, AC! You've got them backed off so far now you have to squint to see them.

I'm not sure that's possible. However, you can show it "likely" to be true by analyzing industries that do not have intellectual property now, and industries that did not have intellectual property, but now do.

Fortunately, someone has already done this work for you. Search for "Against Intellectual Monopoly", a freely available book, which explores this very issue.

This is super cool, if it works, but I'll shit golden sunshine before I let someone near my eyeball with a knife!

If you were blind would you care?

If you were blind, how would you know?

All hail Colemak!

Moved through Dvorak to Colemak a few years ago, and don't know how I lived before it. The CAPS_LOCK == Backspace is the icing on the cake.

I'm on board as well. Let's start the meme...

Ghod damn it!

Patience, my friend.