A series by Coby Beck containing responses to the most common skeptical arguments on global warming. There are four separate taxonomies; arguments are divided by: * Stages of Denial, * Scientific Topics, * Types of Argument, and * Levels of Sophistication.
"Most of these people call themselves agnostic, but they don't harbor much suspicion that God is real. They tell me they reject atheism not out of piety but out of politeness. As one said, "Atheism is like telling somebody, 'The very thing you hinge your life on, I totally dismiss.'" This is the type of statement she would never want to make.
This is the statement the New Atheists believe must be made -- loudly, clearly and before it's too late. I continue to invite my friends for a nice, invigorating stroll down Logic Lane. For the most part, they just laugh and wave me on."
From Wired
Implementing sorting in GPU hardware for Postgres and Fast Computation of Database Operations using Graphics Processors
If bagged salad greens are vulnerable to bacterial contamination on such a scale, industry and government would very soon come looking for a technological fix; any day now, calls to irradiate the entire food supply will be on a great many official lips. From The New York Times
Richard Dawkins interview @ Salon
Now, suppose science does have limits. What is the value in giving the label "religion" to those limits? If you simply want to define religion as the bits outside of what science can explain, then we're not really arguing.
6412 or 3412 remote codes or reset remote? - Digital Forum: "I talked to shaw, they sent me this useful email and I just manualy programed the buttons 207 Fast Forward 243 Parental Lock 046 Record 237 B 115 G 177 M 242 Reserved 1 240 Browse 111 H 173 N 211 Reserved 2 114 C 048 Help (*) 034 O 238 Reserved 3 236 Cancel 113 I 211 Out Channel 208 Reserved 4 110 D 044 Info 210 P/F 204 Reserved 5 174 Day Minus 109 J 172 Page Down 209 Reverse 178 Day Plus 179 K 176 Page Up 241 A / Theme 112 E 175 L 205 Pause 108 F 239 List 081 PPV CABLE CONVERTER. 018 0...............0 014 1...............1 016 2...............2 012 3...............3 019 4...............4 015 5...............5 017 6...............6 013 7...............7 146 8...............8 142 9...............9 147 CHANNEL DOWN....Channel Down 140 CHANNEL UP......Channel Up 047 DOWN............Down 080 CLEAR...........Exit 079 SURROUND........Fav Ch 050 PROGRAM.........Guide 076 RECALL..........Last Channel 049 LEFT............Left 206 MENU............Menu 082 ENTER...........Music 141 MUTE............Mute 144 POWER...........Power(CATV) 045 RIGHT...........Right 078 SELECT..........Select 083 TV/VCR..........Switch A/B 051 UP..............Up 145 VOLUME DOWN.....Volume Down 143 VOLUME UP.......Volume Up DVR 178 Play 205 Pause 209 Rewind 207 Fast Forward 174 Stop 046 Record 173 Skip 179 Replay 175 DVR 210 PPV 208 OND 083 A/B 177 Live (DVR) 236 Swap (dual tuner DVR) Simply substitute the code for the feature you would like to map with the code in the instructions for 30 second skip. 1) Press the 'Cable' button at the top of the remote to put it into Cable Box control mode. 2) Press and hold the 'Setup' button until the 'Cable' button blinks twice. 3) Type in the code 994. The 'Cable' button will blink twice 4) Press (do not hold) the 'Setup' button 5) Type in the code 00XXX (Where XXX is the code for the feature you want to map). 6) Press whatever button you want to map the skip function to. __________________ Sony KDF55WF655 Motorola HD PVR 6412 bup bup bup im loving it"
Salon.com Books | The joys of life without God: "I believe in the indomitable human spirit and the amazing capacity we have for understanding the world; for love, joy and happiness. Science not only does not take away any of those things, it adds to the sum of human knowledge. When I look through my little telescope in my backyard at the planets, moon or Andromeda galaxy that is 2.9 million light-years away, I can enjoy the beauty of the night sky and appreciate it on an emotional level. Then I can think that the photons of light that are landing on my retina left 2.9 million years ago, when we were just barely bipedal hominids in Africa, and are just now arriving tonight. Boy, that's just awe-inspiring. To me, that's what it means to be spiritual -- what makes your spine tingle. It's what gives you a sense of awe and wonder and transcendence. It doesn't matter to me if you call it God or the cosmos. We're all talking about the same thing, whether it's religious people or New Age spiritual people or Buddhists or scientists. We're all talking about having a sense of awe and wonder at something grander than ourselves. "
This guy looks like a nut, but I've always thought this approach should be viable...
Scientific American: The Expert Mind: "The preponderance of psychological evidence indicates that experts are made, not born. What is more, the demonstrated ability to turn a child quickly into an expert--in chess, music and a host of other subjects--sets a clear challenge before the schools. Can educators find ways to encourage students to engage in the kind of effortful study that will improve their reading and math skills? Roland G. Fryer, Jr., an economist at Harvard University, has experimented with offering monetary rewards to motivate students in underperforming schools in New York City and Dallas. In one ongoing program in New York, for example, teachers test the students every three weeks and award small amounts--on the order of $10 or $20--to those who score well. The early results have been promising. Instead of perpetually pondering the question, 'Why can't Johnny read?' perhaps educators should ask, 'Why should there be anything in the world he can't learn to do?'"
Upside-Down-Ternet: "My neighbours are stealing my wireless internet access. I could encrypt it or alternately I could have fun"
Finally found a great DB2 JDBC driver cheat-sheet here: http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/db2/library/techarticle/dm-0401chong/index.html
