Xander

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Posts by Xander

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  20

  The New Pledge of Allegiance.

  by apostate man in

  1. social
  2. family

  an email i received today.... since the pledge of allegiance and the lord's prayer are not allowed in most public schools anymore because the word "god" is mentioned..... a kid in arizona wrote the attached.

  school.

  now i sit me down in school.

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  Xander

  Perhaps I should rephrase:

  Citing individual cases of discrimination/intolerance/etc BY INDIVIDUALS is useless.

  If the school counsel obviously upheld her right to wear it, the problem was not with the school policy now was it?

  The point I was making about the other example, is that teachers (or vice principals) have a lot of ability to display their own agenda.

  That DOES NOT mean there is some kind of organized anti-god agenda at work here.

  All the while everyone else gets to wear whatever they choose, but not her.

  I find that impossible to believe. Mind if I pull out my school handbook? Things that are prohibited (and I quote):
  

  "Clothing and patches or badges promoting slogans; also, any alcohol, tobacco, sex, profanity or inappropriate slogans; also, any type item(s), clothing, protruding jewelry, etc., that may distract from the educational process or create a safety concern are also prohibited. This includes any chain that is not part of the garment's original design....Clothing with holes is not permitted....suitable foot covering must be worn according to shop/class regulations"

  Other stuff:
  "Clothes and hair are expected to be neat, clean, and not create a disturbance or health/safety hazard. Dresses, skirts, shorts, etc....must be a length no shorter than 3 inches from the top of the kneecap. No sunglasses permitted. Coats, bandannas, and hats are not to be worm in the classroom/lab or halls. Clothing not permitted includes, but not limited to: thin strap tops, tank tops with low cut sides, sheer material tops, altered clothing not properly hemmed, tops exposing the bare midriff or navel, cycling shorts, and running shorts".

  Blahblahblah, and on and on. No mention of excluding religious texts. My brother's high school had similar ordnances. I'd challenge you to find me in righting ONE school that prohibits students from wearing religious texts on their shirts.

  Xander F
  (Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America - Ohio order)

  A fanatic is one who, upon losing sight of his goals, redoubles his efforts.
  --George Santayana
• 
  10

  One little lie spoils the whole thing....

  by simwitness in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  one thing i remember the most about being "in the truth" was the basic premise that all other religious orgs on the earth at one time or another taught a lie (and or still was teaching lies).

  this was the "crowning jewel" for the wtbs.

  they never "lied".. in a recent conversation with an elder, he made mention of this again.

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  Xander

  He stated: "If there is any lie, then God would not recognize them, or their service..."

  May very well be what the WTBTS brainwashes its elders to say, but they never put it in print. At least, not that I could find.

  And, at any rate, it would seem out of character for them to claim this - their leaders know full well the BS they sell. They (unfortunately) do a pretty good job of not shooting themselves in the foot so directly...

  Xander F
  (Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America - Ohio order)

  A fanatic is one who, upon losing sight of his goals, redoubles his efforts.
  --George Santayana
• 
  18

  Evidence of creation?

  by chappy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  not trying to start a discussion about extra-terrestrial life, but i assume that most feel it to be a rather strong possibility whether your belief is in creation, evolution or both.. i agree that discovery of intelligent life outside this world doesn't prove creation.

  suppose however that such life were discovered and that it was of the homo-saphien variety?

  what would be the odds of this happening through pure evolution?

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  Xander

  Hoob, hoob....c'mon....look at the wheel.

  Many cultures developed it independantly. It was what was needed to move from one stage in human cultural evolution to another.

  Or, taming wild animals. Happened a LOT of times, but in slightly different ways.

  Convergence just means that similar problems in the same basic environment will be met with similar solutions.

  Xander F
  (Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America - Ohio order)

  A fanatic is one who, upon losing sight of his goals, redoubles his efforts.
  --George Santayana
• 
  12

  My new Computer

  by Yerusalyim in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've decided to join the modern era and have purchased a hp with a 1.2 ghz processor.

  works a bit faster than the 166 mhz i was using before.

  i'm a bit disturbed by my own consumerism though.. yerusalyim.

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  Xander

  That's not a bad price, then. What kind of video card, sound card, ram, and hard drive did they put in it? Did it include a monitor?

  I'm basically just building a case against Best Buy and their ilk here...

  A (roughly) comparable system at Best Buy would run $700 and not include the monitor, a MUCH CRAPPIER video card, SDRAM (vs DDR), a MUCH CRAPPIER sound card, and no keyboard/mouse.

  IOW, a system that, built yourself (from retail store parts), would cost $475, Best Buy will charge you $700 for. If you're a little more frugal with the budget, you could probably shave off another $75 - $125 or so.

  Xander F
  (Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America - Ohio order)

  A fanatic is one who, upon losing sight of his goals, redoubles his efforts.
  --George Santayana
• 
  31

  Another computer topic

  by rhett in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  since everyone else is posting computer threads today i thought i would also.

  does anyone else here have more ram than processing power?

  my pc has a 500mhz processor and 512mb worth of ram.

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  Xander

  Yeah, but I can count on one hand the number of apps I've got that can use multiprocessors.

  Using SiSoft for benchmarking (Windows only util - http://www.sisoftware.demon.co.uk/sandra/index.htm), I get:
  CPU Arithmetic Benchmark
  4412 MIPS (Dhrystone)
  2201 MFLOPS (Whetstone)
  Memory Bandwidth Benchmark
  2.3 GB/s (int)
  2.2 GB/s (float)

  And, my 3dMark2k1 score (for benchmarking the 3d subsystem):
  9406

  If you are only running Linux, I don't know of any comparable tests to direct you at, though...

  (?Linux? - *blech* - no decent apps for it!)

  (I'm actually impressed, though. Really - I have heard all kinds of horror stories getting the AXPs to work multiprocessor)

  Xander F
  (Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America - Ohio order)

  A fanatic is one who, upon losing sight of his goals, redoubles his efforts.
  --George Santayana
• 
  31

  Another computer topic

  by rhett in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  since everyone else is posting computer threads today i thought i would also.

  does anyone else here have more ram than processing power?

  my pc has a 500mhz processor and 512mb worth of ram.

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  Xander

  Processing power, MAYBE spen....but I got you beat for gaming (and maybe even processing, I overclock my FSB causing my CPU pipe to RAM to jump to 302 MHz)

  AthlonXP '1600+'@'1900+'
  512 MB PC2400 @ 302 MHz
  GeForce3 Ti500 (270 core/595 ram)
  40GB + 20GB 7200 RPM ATA/100 HD
  1 100mbit NIC
  Hercules GameTheater XP (tried the live, thought it sucked, sorry)
  Shuttle AK31 v3.1 motherboard (VIA kt266a baby, YEAH)

  Xander F
  (Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America - Ohio order)

  A fanatic is one who, upon losing sight of his goals, redoubles his efforts.
  --George Santayana
• 
  12

  My new Computer

  by Yerusalyim in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've decided to join the modern era and have purchased a hp with a 1.2 ghz processor.

  works a bit faster than the 166 mhz i was using before.

  i'm a bit disturbed by my own consumerism though.. yerusalyim.

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  Xander

  Just FYI, if you built it yourself, it would cost (all prices include shipping):
  $83.00 Athlon 1.33GHz processor
  $60.00 256MB PC2100 RAM (twice as fast as PC-133)
  $73.00 ECS K7VTA3 Motherboard
  $30.00 ATX Case + 300W
  $80.00 Geforce2 Ti (get a 50% cheaper card if you don't do gaming)
  $95.00 Hercules GameTheaterXP (50% cheaper card if not big into multimedia)
  $20.00 v.92 Modem w/onboard DSP
  $70.00 40GB 7200rpm ATA/100 Hard disk
  $50.00 8x4x32 CDRW drive
  $20.00 Floppy drive/keyboard/mouse
  -------
  $581

  Oh, and 17" monitor:
  $170 Viewsonic P775 (1600x1200 @ 75Hz)
  -------
  $751

  This builds a very good gaming/multimedia/etc system from scratch. Obviously, you could probably re-use the monitor, mouse, keyboard, floppy drive, cd drive, and hard drive from your current computer. (Probably a good idea to buy the CD burner and a bigger drive, though).

  Anyway, a brief explanation of why I build my own computers....

  (EDIT: picked better monitor)

  Xander F
  (Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America - Ohio order)

  A fanatic is one who, upon losing sight of his goals, redoubles his efforts.
  --George Santayana
• 
  16

  How much of our brain do we use?

  by sleepy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this was from another post.. apostate man "the human mind is a wonderful healing device and we only use about 10% of it.".

  xander '*bzzzzt* sorry, urban legend.

  we use 100%.. now i've heared this being discussed a few times here before,.

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  Xander

  Not some mysterious super-genius capability waiting to be tapped.

  I would say that's true. Our brains DO have the ability to expand to add new information.

  But, would that be like saying we (as a country) only use 10% of our highway infrastructure? Or, only 10% of it's potential? No, of course not. We use 100% of it (or near enough), and we use it to 100% of its potential (or near enough). That roads can be added later is not really relevant.

  the WTS speculated and posited "how wonderful it will be to use our whole brains in paradise..",

  If you read the context whenever they say this, though, it is always obvious they are implying some kind of untapped genius - which is incorrect.

  Xander F
  (Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America - Ohio order)

  A fanatic is one who, upon losing sight of his goals, redoubles his efforts.
  --George Santayana
• 
  16

  How much of our brain do we use?

  by sleepy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this was from another post.. apostate man "the human mind is a wonderful healing device and we only use about 10% of it.".

  xander '*bzzzzt* sorry, urban legend.

  we use 100%.. now i've heared this being discussed a few times here before,.

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  Xander

  If we use 100% of our brain capabilites all the time then we could never learn anything new as our brain would be full.

  This question appears to reveal a basic mis-understanding of how the brain works, and is outside the original discussion.

  The neurons (cells that make up your brain) build connections with other neurons to form memories. New connections can be built all the time, which gives you the ability to remember things. Note that the brain is also very good at 'discarding' (not actually destroying, but 'marking for deletion' in a computer sense) memories that aren't really needed, so if, for example, you happened to live a very long life with lots of experiences, you'd never run out of room to store relevant memories.

  Memory, for instance, seems to be distributed across the whole population of neurons in the networks used to store it. So even in persons who do not have the need to store a great amount of information, the neurons are not left unused !
  --Prof. Renato M.E. Sabbatini, PhD, Director, Center for Biomedical Informatics State University of Campinas Email: [email protected]

  With the above....IOW, you DO use 100% of your brain. What happens, over time, that allows you to add additional memories is that your brain is dynamically optimizing how it is storing the data.

  Xander F
  (Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America - Ohio order)

  A fanatic is one who, upon losing sight of his goals, redoubles his efforts.
  --George Santayana
• 
  20

  The New Pledge of Allegiance.

  by apostate man in

  1. social
  2. family

  an email i received today.... since the pledge of allegiance and the lord's prayer are not allowed in most public schools anymore because the word "god" is mentioned..... a kid in arizona wrote the attached.

  school.

  now i sit me down in school.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Xander

  Guns don't kill people....PEOPLE kill people....with GUNS....

  I hate to say it but I don't think it helped anything by removing it from the schools

  I completely miss the point. You mean, if the teacher finds a student silently praying to himself, he gets the boot right away? Bullshit. Students can pray ALL THEY WANT in school.

  What was taken out was state-sponsorship of school prayer. AND IT SHOULD BE. What if your community was predominantly Wiccan? The 'school prayer' would then involve students casting a circle and honoring various gods and goddesses before lunch.

  Would you be offended if you kid was forced to partake in that? Judging by your other posts, I'd say YES. But, it's okay to force christian beliefs on others?

  Did you hear about the high school student who was suspended because she wore a shirt that said ABORTION IS MURDER?

  Citing individual cases is stupid. Did you hear about the high school student who was kicked out of class for refusing to sit in their chair? No? Well, that's because it isn't news, is it?

  Teachers have a lot of freedom to be total cocks over their beliefs, but I'd point out, you yourself admit:

  she was allowed to return to school with her shirt

  Ahhh, so it obviously was not any kind of policy problem here, just an individual teacher. Okay, SO WHAT?

  Note that I graduated only 5 years ago - we most certainly had prayer groups and christian youth groups IN THE SCHOOL. If someone was inclined that way, they had a place to go.

  State-sponsorship of such things is WRONG. The state MUST NOT CHOOSE which religions are 'okay' and which aren't. To suggest otherwise is just stupid and will promote even greater disharmony.

  Xander F
  (Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America - Ohio order)

  A fanatic is one who, upon losing sight of his goals, redoubles his efforts.
  --George Santayana