utemia

Reply to Review: The Da Vinci Code revisited in Books JoeUser Forums

[quote who="gaussflayer" reply="9" id="2357470"]Personally I preferred Angels And Demons to The Da Vinci Code, felt more Real. And in the case of Mary, well I thought it was to the Roman advantage that Jesus was seen to be the Only instance of a semi-Diety (or DemiGod) so that people could not rally around another and cause trouble, instead they could be managed by the Church. That would also be the time of the insertion of the whole anti-female thing, so that any claims that were

Reply to Bacon Sandwiches in Misc JoeUser Forums

Müsli has a lot of carbs - I like my continental breakfast! And Nutella - lots of carbs and calories to keep ya going. At least we don't sell cheese that comes in spraycans or butter that isn't butter hehe or skim milk (yuck)

Reply to Personal Identification Card in Politics JoeUser Forums

The chip doesn't hold the information about your work etc.. why should it? It isn't a federal file about you and a means for the government to know where you are at any given moment, it is done to make it counterfit proof.. and because the US had pressured the EU countries and threatend to quit the Visa Waiver programm with which EU citizens don't need a visa to travel to the US if the EU wouldn't comply. So our parliament passed the bill in that regard in 2007 - after all, it is a nice

Reply to Personal Identification Card in Politics Stardock Forums

What Aroddo didn't mention is that it is mandatory for german citizens to have a federal ID card from 16 year old onwards (at least I believe it is mandatory) and to carry some form of official ID with you at all time. In lieu of your "Personalausweiss" a drivers license will do in most cases, but not everybody has one of those because you can get by fine without owning a car here. You also need a federal form of ID to vote and the Perso is good for traveling inside those EU nations + Switze

Reply to Bacon Sandwiches in Misc Stardock Forums

Wonderbread in every sense of the word.. I never had seen bread that you could roll before I went to the US for the first time :). Just today a young friend of mine came back from a vacation in the US and she sort of liked american food even though it was a bit strange for her. Pancakes with maple syrup, butter and saussages are pretty alien here in Germany. We like Müsli for breakfast or reak dark bread with either butter and jam or real cheese and/or ham. Bacon is fine for brunc

Reply to Pirate Bay is gone! (Edit: Not anymore!) in Everything Else JoeUser Forums

[quote who="Jafo" reply="115" id="2350820"] but books were around for a lot lot longer and so the idea of protecting intellectual content is alot older than printing. Then there's art/painting...simply alternate media for creative thought/expression. The coinage of the word 'copyright' may be recent....but what it protects has been around just a little longer than that. The really annoying thing is I've been professionally protecting my own longer than most the

Reply to Pirate Bay is gone! (Edit: Not anymore!) in Everything Else JoeUser Forums

I agree that one could ask the legitimate question if there is any original thought and idea left or if everything is just some form of copy of something else that has been around before.. You can have a very interesting debate over fanfiction in that regard because it is one of the most obvious facettes of reusing established ideas and characters of others with your own creativity. There is a certain deadline in regard to the deaths of authors, I am not sure how long that perio

Reply to Pirate Bay is gone! (Edit: Not anymore!) in Everything Else Stardock Forums

What nobody mentions here is the very purpose of copyright, and the reasons it exists in the first place. To be in control over your own produced intellectual works is a very important civil liberty (mostly in regards to written work, admittedly). It has a very old tradition, going back to antiquity. The internet blurrs the line and it is easy to steal intellectal property, and since it doesn't belong to anybody but the author the claim that companies just sit on it to make money is abs

Reply to What happens if global warming is wrong? in Politics JoeUser Forums

Impressive..Do you know what Zimbabwe's national deficit is like? Must be one impressive number Time will tell for the US, but I doubt that you'll have to print bills with 14 zero's anytime soon.

Reply to What happens if global warming is wrong? in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]Never broke if you can just print more money.[/quote] haha you can try.. everybody can be a billionaire if the inflation is high enough after all. We had that here during the great depression in the 20ies, after WW1. It is sort of fun to see a 10 000 000 Mark bill with wich you couldn't even buy a loaf of bread. Afghanistan.. can't afford to lose there. Do you want the taleban to have nuclear capabilities? If they gain even more influence in Pakistan than they alread

Reply to What happens if global warming is wrong? in Politics JoeUser Forums

I think you are mixing two different aspects together that have vastly different meanings: cultural impacts and longlasting negative threatening technological impacts. Culturally, you are absolutely right. Predating highcultures certainly influenced our development and also our technology. The other issue, I don't think so. The romans had a huge empire and influence our culture, laws and customs (English language

Reply to What happens if global warming is wrong? in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]Just because we have technology doesn't make us any more intelligent/superior. Technology has been piggy backed on other technology. [/quote] I don't remember saying that technology made mankind superior, just that technology is a bigger therat to our survival than it had been in the past. Just because people had been using techniques of biowarfare in the past as they had been able to (sending infested blankets, sick people to spread it around etc.) doesn't make modern hightech with e

Reply to What happens if global warming is wrong? in Politics JoeUser Forums

Your examples are good - but most (except for mustard gas) have not that much to do with technology. Sending someone sick as a trojan horse is sly and deceptive, but hardly technolgy of massdestruction. And it didn't render the environment or town/region unliveable and toxic for the greeks who followed behind. Mustard gas was the beginning of hightech warfare. WW1 was the first modern war where technology started to play a more dominant role. Airplanes and huge artillery, machine guns

Reply to What happens if global warming is wrong? in Politics JoeUser Forums

She is interested in both. [quote]Are you concerned about the environment or are you concerned with man? Because, it sure seems like you're trying to play the whole outfield. Man has had technology that can wipe out whole populations for centuries. The technology we have now just makes it easier and less complex to do it. As long as there is a remnant of mankind in just aboout an senario we'll survive. In some senarios it would be more difficult but the way ou

Reply to What happens if global warming is wrong? in Politics JoeUser Forums

the_peoples_party, I wasn't referring to climate change in this instance. Even if man can't influence the power of the sun or earth's core, there is plenty that is possible in regards to pollution and nuclear catastrophies, enough so that it would be a real threat if it I was abused as a weapon or an horrible accident occurred or simple carelessness. Paladin, even if nuclear fallout doesn't kill animal and plantlife, it kills humans and that is my mainconcern. What do I ca

Reply to What happens if global warming is wrong? in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]We are not that powerful and we have very little impact on the planet. On people yes, one the environment that we need to survive yes, so it is good that you do your part. [/quote] I don't really understand your distinction - either you have the impact or you don't. And technology makes it certainly possible to pollute the environment to such an extent that survival would be critical. All one had to do is detonate every nuclear warhead at the same time and I bet that life would be pret

Reply to Homelessness: the Shameful Specter of the Capitalist Society..... in US Domestic JoeUser Forums

[quote]Well, that's funny; here, all this time, I thought that was why the first Pilgrims came to the New World, and why America was fashioned in the manner in which it was....because they didn't care for the way Europe did things, and wanted to make a country where those mistakes were not made[/quote] That doesn't really jive with what I know of the pilgrims and their strict religous beliefs woud have never allowed for the individual to do what they want. They were rigid and prejudicial and

Reply to Homelessness: the Shameful Specter of the Capitalist Society..... in US Domestic JoeUser Forums

I am sorry, it is more than just arguing semantics. Christian moral values are present in the enlightenment movement, but it was not a fact of life in 1776 that everybody should be treated equal and has the same rights, the idea of human dignity, that the individual matters, that reason and logic are more important than ideology and religion and that religion or society should not determine one's future. The consitution is a testament to humanistic achievements and not the result of fai

Reply to What happens if global warming is wrong? in Politics JoeUser Forums

That's what the news are saying: the banks are making profit again, export in Germany is increasing again for example and economic spokesmen here are cautiously optimistic that the worst is over. Doesn't really paint a bleak future for the next decade

Reply to Homelessness: the Shameful Specter of the Capitalist Society..... in US Domestic JoeUser Forums

[quote]America was founded on Christian values, by men who were Christian believers. Unfortunately, too many of us HAVE forgotten that.[/quote] Well, yes, they had been british settlers beforehand. European settlers were mostly Christian by default, that's all there is to it. The idea that the individual has rights and is not determined by religion or society and that all men are created equal are values and ideas that stem from humanist beliefs and the enlightenment movement/philosop

Reply to What happens if global warming is wrong? in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote who="taltamir" reply="8" id="2332442"]heated DEBATE? you mean destruction of economy that has been ongoing for many years? bankrupting the USA, and ruining lives and livelihood of many citizens. Well... global climate change advocates said that humans caused the earth to cool down with pollution and we need to shut down the industry in the 1970s... then the sun activity picked up and it started heating up, so suddenly humans were causing that with the same pollution and the sol

Reply to Homelessness: the Shameful Specter of the Capitalist Society..... in US Domestic JoeUser Forums

It sounds like you need a serious reform of your educational system. Serious meaning not something where politicians try to distinguish themselves but an honest attempt to make things better for everybody. More money isn't necessarily the solution, you need a reform of how public schools are run, new concepts etc. [quote]What's happened? The American public school system has, over the last 30-40 years, become a discipline-free zone, and a cesspool of Leftist and touchy-feely, secular-humanist

Reply to Homelessness: the Shameful Specter of the Capitalist Society..... in US Domestic JoeUser Forums

[quote]HA... major... I major in molecular biology, but I have enough knowledge and experience in education to fill books. Studying and "major" are not necessarily the same. You can read a book outside of class, and if all your knowledge comes from mandatory lectures and not from voluntery reading, then you are truely ignorant.[/quote] I was more thinking of research done in the course of majoring in the field, which is conducted by the faculty of educational science. Universities (at least i

Reply to What happens if global warming is wrong? in Politics Stardock Forums

What happens if global warming is wrong is that tons of people will have had heated debates over an issue for nothing, like so often in history. Other than that, what will happen if global cooling is wrong and global warming is right (human caused or not)? Will you eat your hat lol

Reply to Homelessness: the Shameful Specter of the Capitalist Society..... in US Domestic JoeUser Forums

[quote]it is called social evolution, instead of indoctrinating everyone in the country from early childhood, let people educate their own children in such manners. The result is a hetrogenous society where failed ideologies are allowed to fail, and successful ones thrive.[/quote] Can you elaborate on what you mean with "failed ideologies" and with what everyone is indoctrinated? There is no institutionalized ideology that is rammed down peoples throats. People are no longer strictly bound by