Description :: Looks like more people have died due to disease than war
So this begs the question. If a country goes to war against another country and that new country has a then greater ability to fight disease because of a more robust economy.............
Once, men turned thinking over to machines in the hopes that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.
We got around to the subject of war again and I said that, contrary to his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and destruction.
"Why, of course, the people don't want war," Goering shrugged. "Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one pie [...]
11/04/04 :: Article :: A -> B -> C :: But wait..I only like B. I hate C!
I think this email passes the Turing test on accident:
Hi, how's doing? The answer is lying on the surface. You're dead on your feet, man, I can tell! But chill out, there's plenty of people just like you. Do you know that an immense grow of people suffering from a sexual disorder is observed, it's being counted by millions already. Questioned? It's a modern life style. You get-you pay. Everyth [...]
Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.
Curiously enough, the volume of interest and public debate is often inversely proportional to the importance of a feature. The reason is that it is much easier to have a firm opinion on a minor feature than on a major one; minor features fit directly into the current state of affairs, whereas major ones - by definition - do not.
[Editor's note: while this was in the context of C++ language featur [...]
11/21/03 :: Article :: Emergent Properties :: Self-organizing systems are 'da bomb'
ah, yuh
that's right
this one's for all the naysayers and dream-slayers
who told the Hawk-man it couldn't be done.
Listen up.
Your momma is so fat, she's got a trashbag for a sock.
She's so hairy she looks like she's got Don King in a headlock.
Your momma is so ugly that her dog won't give her fleas.
You could stick her face in dough and make monster cookies.
Your momma is so da [...]
If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggl [...]
Jones' First Law: Anyone who makes a significant contribution to any field of endeavor, and stays in that field long enough, becomes an obstruction to its progress -- in direct proportion to the importance of their original contribution.
These, then, were Srenki, men whose virtue was the excess of vice, who with leaden zest performed quintessential evil and so redeemed their fellows from turpitude.
Description :: Looks like more people have died due to disease than war
So this begs the question. If a country goes to war against another country and that new country has a then greater ability to fight disease because of a more robust economy.............
There's a significant difference in the area of "intent" or "free will" between war and disease, usually (unless the disease is a weapon of war, or you want to argue that wars just "happen" without any human thought.)
Yes, lots of things can save lives in dramatic ways. Not going to war might help save lives, or it might not. Spending all our money on better drugs (through more research) might save lives, or it might starve us. Killing everyone, in the long run, spares all sorts of people from having to die (by simply not being born.) Even deciding to get yourself neutered will avoid death, by avoiding life. In the end, everyone dies. (Well, except for Elijah, Enoch, Moses, and Jesus -- though some/all of these are debatable.)
[Ed. note: this is the first entry of type 'message', but new public threading system for our users. Old 'messages' have been moved to 'private messages', and those should continue to be used for our work- or site-related banter. The choice of 'article' or 'message' is at the discretion of our users.]