Brainteaserfan

I'm pretty sure that the main point of Christianity is that we are an inherently sinful species, and only God can save us from our deserved punishment. Good deeds do not matter, nor does how we live our life, because we have still sinned. How is that shunning responsibility for our sins?

 

Maybe if we prayed to some telepathic, sentient universe-collective thing, everything would be better.

James 2, verse 26, NKJV, quote, "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."

http://mobile.biblegateway.com/passage/index.php?search=James+2%3A14-26&version=NKJV

It does matter what we do even after Jesus has saved us.

Economics is to the mathematics of the economy as doctoring is to the science of medicine.

Perhaps, but in this case I'd say it's more like how much we know about the brain's reactions/psychology. There are more economists who disagree, IMO, on what to do when there is a depression than doctors on what to do if you have a serious cold (a depression IMO is a sort of sickness to the economy).

IMHO the financial woes of both the UK and USA have a simple underlying cause. Governments who allow a national debt to increase year on year are building a house of cards that is destined to eventually collapse. The simple solution is to ensure that the national debt decreases, if only a little, year by year so that eventually over many years solvency can be obtained. The problem with this is that any government that takes the necessary steps to ensure this happens would become so unpopular that they would soon be voted out of office. I fear that this is a weakness of democracy and if "the house of cards" does collapse then democracy might collapse with it. I borrowed money earlier in my life to buy my home and sundry cars over the years but now I am retired I owe nobody anything. There was a newspaper headline the other day "Apple is richer than America". Since I am debt free I feel I can fairly claim that I, too, am richer than America!

You mean that you are richer than the government of America. (Which is not strictly true, because the government can just print more money to pay its debts.)

Hi,

I have decided to call those who refuse to understand anything about the Great Depression as Hooverists.

 

The lesson learned is ,however disturbing it is to Joe sixpack who is out of work, that it deepens and lengthens a recession if government pulls back and slows spending. So somehow having this belief that if "I cut back government should too." is a kneejerk reaction that is wrongheaded.

 

Economics is called the dismal science and it can be relied on for some ability to provide an understanding. If it was extremely predictive then economists would all be millionaires independent of the funnelled money into their pockets from Wall Street.

 

Depression is something that economists do have a handle on.

 

To see what is happening now it helps if you do have one economics course. The causes of The Great depression were many. My vote goes to the sudden shift from farmworkers to farm machinery that threw millions of those laborers out of work. Cities weren't going to be able to hire them. Without work people were not able to buy goods and services. It is a vicious cycle.

 

What is happening now? What is your opinion on cause today? Any takers? What do you think?

Economists do not have a handle on depression IMO. There are theories, but none are certain, because it is extremely difficult to prove a cause/effect relationship in economics. However, it is easy to bend data to look like it is a cause/effect relationship.

I suspect your country would be better served by bringing your troops home from all your overseas deployments and have them man your very porous border with Mexico. That, and the drug cartals, are a far greater threat to America than international terrorists ever will be. Even now the destructive nature of drugs and drug crime has and does have a far more destructive effect on your society than the aftermath of 9/11 is currently having. I would argue that the aftermath of 9/11 is fairly insignficant, though terrible for those who were directly involved in it, compared to illegal immigration and drug crime from across your Mexican border.

Please, this isn't us vs them. If the US falls or suffers economically, I think we can all agree that there will be a negative impact on the rest of the world.

I have a different idea on drugs. (sure, I want the US meddling soldiers home too, but after the US brings them back, how about we don't kill them ) Why don't we just legalize drugs (we meaning the world and US) If we police it more, there will just be a higher profit for those involved.

Lastly, I want you to know that I agree that immigration is a serious problem for the US, but I just don't have time to debate it.

Nonsense.

You pick 3 cases where you make the same mistake 3 times. You forget to mention which time zone.

 

We can make it all 1 time zone, but instead of having different time zones, we would have different Office-Hours-zones, and different dinner-time-zones.... and we would be in exactly the same situation as now.

 

... unless we would all get up at the same time worldwide, and go to sleep at the same time... but then I want to live in the part of the world where we get up at sunrise, and go to sleep at sunset. You can live on the dark side. Where do you live? I'm in Europe, which is by definition already close to GMT / UTC. Americans will have to get up around what is now midnight, and work through the night. Chinese will have to get up in the afternoon and work well into the evening. And Europeans can get up at sunrise, and work during the day. Excellent idea. I have a funny feeling some Americans and Asians will object though.

I don't understand how which time zone matters. I'm talking about our current system, if you lived close to a line.

I'm not saying that we don't have to all get up at the same time, eat at the same time etc. I understand that there would be different office hours, I don't see what that has to do with my post (I might just be really sleepy), but 1 time zone would fix all those problems that I mentioned IMO.

Edit: I reread your post, I think I mostly see what you meant now by not stating the time zone, sorry. Refer to my reply to imatfaal, please.

Nothing prevents you from using UTC if you find it useful. But a standard is something for wide adoption, and if it's not useful for most (or even detrimental for some) then it's not likely to be adopted.

I think we can all agree that metric is useful. However, america still doesn't use it. We don't use it not because it's not useful though. We just don't like to change from what we are used to.

Brainteaser - most of your problems are easily solved by the addition of three letters after the time; and that's exactly what we do.

... and then all our times are 2x as long. More mistakes, more time spent converting, harder for computers etc.

@Brainteaserfan: Actually the bible calls God a he throughout it's entirety, and Adam - the first human - was a male who was made in God's image. Eve, the first woman, was made from Adam's rib and so she is not made in God's image.

If you believe the Judeo-Christian book of folklore, then God is male.

I'm talking about god more generally.

However, "made in God's image" could have a few meanings IMO. The Bible calling Him a he does not clarify, because if he was "no" gender, then we would still use he.

You took zero direct hits and you bit 3 bullets. The average player of this activity to date takes 1.37 hits and bites 1.09 bullets. 530705 people have so far undertaken this activity.

Really, God is a "she"? When the gender is unknown, we use he.

Rubbish. I regularily travel to the US, the Middle East and the Far East. I don't want to have to say to myself, "aha, it's 3:00 am, and I'm in Dubai, so it must be just before lunch". If it's 3:00 am I want to know it's time to roll over and go back to sleep for a couple of hours. The current system allows me to do just that. Things that take place at certain periods in the day occur at that time, more or less, whether I am in London, Houston or KL. The system ain't broke, though this proposal would make it so.

You are on the edge of a time zone. You have a meeting at 3. You look at your watch, it says 1:45. However you are in a different time zone. So it would be a step to convert for you. Also, if a concert had flyers out, "concert at 4", and you are in a different time zone, the concert might be halfway over by the time you got there. Third case scenerio. I send an email to a friend in china for a video chat at 2. They think that I meant their time so I am awakened in the middle of the night.

Also, as trade, travel, and communication improve, IMO, 1 time zone will become even more useful.

Edit: ps, sorry for the short sentences.

Hello guys, i have been studying economics for 2years now, and i am really interested in how the economy of the world goes around. Recently i have been reading news on CNN, and i read about how the US has problems, and i see the word default, cutbacks, US losing power by 2025. What is happening?? i certainly know that the american economy is number one right now, but what issue suddenly puts the american economy on the decline, so much that it will collapse??

 

can anyone please give me a detailed information on this, if not good sources or video links???

 

thank you, i will appreciate any help offered.

Hard to pinpoint the cause. IMO, two big things that have hurt us as a country is not using more nuclear power and the addition of social security, Medicare, medicaid etc to the govs role. The gov does not manage money well. Let us save our own money.

On stimulus etc, this is an awesome music vid IMO

@swansont maybe you can discuss the two issues that Jackson brought up with someone who does have the authority to do something? (Maybe you have, I don't know)

This is the 3rd day of my fast and I am not as mentally alert as I need to be, so answering questions is a bite more challenging. During the cold war with the USSR, the US propaganda made a big deal out of the USSR rejecting religion and the US being a nation of God. This is when we added God to our pledge of allegiance. This was extremely helpful in uniting the nation against those Godless communist. At the same time it motivated many citizens to take their threatened Christianity more seriously. Being a good citizen was tied to being a Christian. Religion unites people, and enemies unite people, exaggerating the imagined differences and increasing the need to identify with 'us' and against 'them'. Some ancient Greek guy wrote about what war does to people, and I wish I were smart enough to remember his name and what he said. More recent research observed how conflict leads to exaggerating differences. Like oh God, those Godless people are so terrible and threatening, and there are so many of them. Without God they are under the influence of Satan. They must either be converted or destroyed.

 

Seriously, are you asking the question because you do not know what the people of the God of Abraham religions believe, or because you are one of them and do not question the good of your beliefs and the evil of non believers? This division of good and evil is actually Persian Zoroastrianism. The Jews were a tribe and as some native Americans called themselves the real people, and the Aztecs thought they were God chosen people, the Jews thought they were God's chosen people. In the ancient world everyone had a patron God or Goddess, and it is a real hoot that one tribal God, won out over all others. Christianity is a blend of many beliefs, especially Judaism, Sumerian and Egyptian mythology and Zoroastrianism, making a religion pitted against evil and darkness, and if you are not one of them, you are of the forces of evil and darkness, and this is tied to the Hebrew tribal war God that is jealous, fearsome, punishing and revengeful.

 

Did you not read the links? You are not aware of what 9/11 has to do with the division of Christians and Muslims and the Christian Right's role in electing Bush and Cheney twice? Both sides, Muslims and Christians are mobilizing against each other, and this is very good for the religious organizations. Or in other areas of the world, especially India, the division of Muslims and Hindus that is so much behind the conflict between two nuclear powers, Pakistan and India. Threatened people cleave to their religious leaders and each other, and this makes war good for religion, and religion good for war. Especially when you have a jealous, fearsome, punishing and revengeful God.

 

Republicans didn't just start wars, they manipulated Christians to support Bush, and once again Christians are being mobilized to maintain a war time budget and financial aid to Israel, for military purpose. When we invaded Iraq, media spoke of the shock and awe and power and glory, using religion to mobilize us for war. Our conflict with Iraq began with Saddam's support of the Palestinians and before this, he came to power because he was the US pick and support by the US because of the US's military strategy needs. People are playing deadly power games for control of global resources and markets, and they are using religion. My God, Bush jr. was not a Christian until he decided to run for President. Hello, Bush is a manipulator and the Christians have historical been manipulated. That means we will cut deeper into things like Social Security, and continue to increase military spending. Israel and Baghdad are militarily essential to the control of the mid east, and we want to run a pipe line through Afghanistan.

 

The Social Security cut isn't that bad? I live on less than $700 a month and my Social Security hasn't increased in two years. There is no way I can afford assisted living, and that means I am totally screwed if I can not maintain my independence. A medication I am taking helps me maintain my independence, but cuts into medicare and medicaid could mean I can no longer meet my medical needs. Medicare does not cover dentures, hearing aids, or eye care. Would you like to be toothless, deaf and going blind, and helpless to do anything about correcting these problems as people with more money can do? This is a huge state budget issue, with our state representatives telling us they know people will die because of lack of services, but they have to cut service because there just is no money to for them, and people with incomes as low as mine, can not pay for service, dentures, hearing aids, etc.. Can you imagine needing medical care you can not get, and medicine you can not get, and being so weak you can not mop a floor or safely take a shower alone, and not being able to get help? How long would you want to live under those conditions? In Oregon we have assisted suicide, but life can be really bad, long before a person qualifies for assisted suicide. Christian conservatives seem determined to punish the poor by ignoring their lives of hell, except to give them prays and try to convert them, but then kind of ignore them less they are good paying members of the church.

 

I almost joined a church once, but I couldn't afford it.

Whew, I don't know if I have time to answer all that!

Here goes....

Thanks on the first paragraph, that's interesting. From what I've read (could be wrong), has been stuff like this article. Quote "Presser and Chaves determine that attendance has been stable (at about 25%) since the 1990s. That finding challenges the idea that our society is increasingly secular, or that the changes since the 1990s—technological improvements, the increase of scientific knowledge, and urbanization— have any impact on church attendance."

That's from: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/novemberweb-only/145-42.0.html

So, since the fall of the USSR, church/religion/Christianity has remained relatively stable. At many of our schools, Christianity has been, IMO, taught less proportionately than other, less practiced ones.

Why are the only two options convert or destroy? I don't view unbelievers that way.

Christianity is not a blend of religions, it is the Jewish faith plus the NT (written by men who claimed to follow Jesus around 70ish ad.)

I see what you mean by war is good for religion and vice versa. He is not a war god. Those other adjectives I agree with though (except perhaps revengeful, it would depend on your definition. If you're wondering why, well, I love children, therefore I hate abortion. If you love what is righteous/good, you must hate what is bad/evil. I would also use the adjectives loving, faithful etc when describing Him though

I'm going to skip the first bold paragraph due to lack of time. Maybe later.

No relative or friend would help you if you couldn't maintain your independence?

Churches do help those who are not tithing. (at least, my church will if you need it)

To me the Social Security cut isn't that bad, because those who I know who receive it do not really need it much. However, I feel your pain with the budget cuts. My parents would like to help me with college expenses, but my father who work for the fed

hasn't received a pay increase for quite a while as well and is looking at a rather bleak pay future.

To clarify: I don't like bush or the republicans, but I'm trying to point out that there's plenty of blame to go round.

I'm out of time now, and don't know if I'll be able to continue putting much time into this thread, so I may "disappear".

Anyway, that's going OT! If I may get back to my earlier point, about all the millions of tons of WW2 ships and U-boats sunk in the North Atlantic. Have they caused specific, noticeable, effects?

AFAIK, we weren't monitoring the ocean nearly as much as we do today back then, so we really don't have much to compare to in order to answer that.

Bare with me, I don't see a draft function, so I will have to post and edit a few times to get the links in.

 

I have been fasting since Friday, and will fly to Washington DC to protest the Tea Party and the Republican resistance to raising taxes to pay for the wars they started, while insisting we manage the national debt crisis by taking money from seniors. We all pay into Social Security and our monthly checks depend on how much we put in. This is separate from income taxes to pay government expenses, and those who got us into wars and keep us us in them, should not be able to break the deal our government made with hard working citizens. The Tea Party is hypocritical because the original Tea Party was opposed to increased taxes, Britain was making all British citizens, because several years of war, had Britain on the brink of bankruptcy. Our founders kept the power to make war out of our president's hands, and made it hard for us to go to war, because everyone knew war means taxes and they didn't want what we have had since Reagan began slashing domestic spending and pouring every penny he could in military spending. The media is failing us, because all this is not news, and the public is not well informed.

 

This is in the religion forum, because of the part Christian Zionist play in keeping us in a state of war. Can you honestly believe they are just coincidentally having convention in Washington DC when the there is a fight over cutting the budget and what will be cut? Here is a Muslim perspective of that convention.

http://www.almoltaqa...ead.php?p=73053

 

Here is another link of the same thing. I little different perspective.

http://www.haaretz.c...israel-1.374161

 

Now here is an explanation of US aid to Israel and contributions of congressmen.

http://wrmea.org/com...14-billion.html

 

We might note the conference originates in Texas. I could be wrong, but I think, like the Bush administration, and especially the Texas Republicans, Christians are once again being using to control our spending on the military and cutting domestic budgets. We might also consider what industry will be kept healthy and what business will not be kept healthy if the Tea Party and John Boehner get their way way. We might pay more attention to what Eisenhower said about the Military Industrial Complex and what Carter said about needing to conserve.

 

War is good for religion and religion is good for war, but we are a democracy, and need to do something about the manipulation of Christians for political ends, especially when have so much on the line.

While the Republicans did start wars, and I'm not pleased with them for it, Obama has started a war in Libya, and he hasn't done a whole lot to get our troops out of the battlefield in other countries.

The spending cuts are unsubstantial (if that's a word.)

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=13484

We aren't taking that much from seniors as far as I know.

I'm still left a little confused on how war is good for religion.

"We can't even predict when and where hurricanes will form and when and where they will land."

 

Actually, from my point of view, we can.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Alley

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_hurricane_season

 

As imperfect as it is, our model of the weather is already useful. Sure they need to refine it, but it already tells me where to avoid when booking a holiday.

 

Finding that the model is more complex than we thought is a good thing.

It still doesn't affect the fact that adding CO2 to the atmosphere will increase it's ability to absorb IR and so affect climate.

That seems a lot like saying, "I predict that it will precipitate more in April than December."

Useful, but not quite what I would consider predicting.

No, this forum has rules. These ARE the rules, and for that matter, downloading a bootlegged copy of a book is illegal in most countries, the US and England included, which the server sits in.

 

Also, this isn't a public domain, it's a private forum, with certain rules. These are the rules, and while we might take input on some, in THIS particular case, and in the service of protecting ourselves and our admins legally, this is not up for debate.

 

I'm pretty sure that if you WANT to find such items, you can find them yourself, or, alternatively, find quite a lot of other forums that allow for these type of questions. This ScienceForums is not the address for it.

Sorry, everything looks like a brainteaser to me. I don't understand how it would go against the rules if the posters met the qualifications I described, but interesting point about where the server sits, although that shouldn't have any effect on what they say IMO, because how would they know where it sits (till now). I'm going to do some research on legality of that because I find it fascinating how leaders have decided to set up laws.

I'm not trying to say that the mods can't use common sense and I'm not trying to say that someone should post a reply with a link in it. I totally understand what your saying (I think) and agree mostly, except o. whether it is strictly against the rules.

No, I don't want to find such stuff, why risk getting in trouble for something like a book (or anything for that matter).

Sometimes I feel like ties are just pre-tied hangman's nooses. So when your boss decides to string you up, the noose is already around your neck.

Beauty of clip-ons.

I for one find this hilarious. Particularly the 'hip' part. Not that english speaking countries are immune from using other languages in advertising to achieve a certain appearance.

Seconded.

You can use it for whatever you want, but you can't use it for illegal purposes in this forum.

Agreed, but not strictly true, if someone was from a country where it was legal, than you could post the link and you'd be following the rules. Ghaz may be living somewhere where it's legal too.

Possibly being assigned to office could be random but at the end of the term a vote, to either retire you in luxury or shoot you, could be taken? That might be a bit of an incentive to do a good job, now it's just a popularity contest to get elected so you get the perks after whether you are a total disaster or not.

This is getting rather off topic.

I think you'd need other options besides the two extremes, and besides, if you were elected and there was a downturn in the economy, you'd be hurt for the rest of your life (assuming it wasn't put to a quick end at the termination of your term.)

Ummm.....no. There are no towns that are in between 2 time zones since there are no gaps between time zones. Towns that lie on the line that separate 2 time zones are technically in 2 time zones.

 

BTW, disadvantages of the current system are not automatically advantages of a new system. What "advantages" are there in the new system?

To the 1st part: True. That's what I meant to say.

To the 2nd: disadvantages of the current system that do not happen in another system are advantages of the other system over the current one.

Hal is unable or unwilling to tell me what the advantages of the idea are. Will you?

For starters, some towns are in between two time zones, making it difficult, and there are lots who regularly travel between them. It, IMO, would eliminate much confusion.

You could just add some incentive. A financial bonus afterwards if the the voters think you did a good job. Corruption is always a danger if people get power... regardless of the system.

And if I was a politician then, I'd create laws that favor poorer people and take a lot from those richer ones for them. I could be confident that the majority would vote for me, and I'd spend time relaxing.

Still.. it might work. I'd love to see this tried in a smaller country successfully. However, I'd also like for those in power to have had more education than the average person, so if people would just do several hrs of research each year with the current system, we'd already have a lot better place to live IMO.

Oh, come on! That's exactly what politicians do too.

Sure, they promise to do everything that they said during the campaigns... until lobby group X pays a visit, and heavily influences the politicians.

 

Politicians no longer have many friends in the local pub. Their relations are different. But they certainly try to make it better for a select group of people who have gained access to them. Lobbyists and politicians certainly have fun together, and I wouldn't be surprised if they call each other "friends"...

No, they try to get reelected too. Sure, they try to make it better for their friends and family too, but if randomly selected, you'd have no incentive to work in the interests of the people.

They are all the same stone

Wow, the lighting must be very different for the two photos. This, "not from the piece in the previous photo but from a different one" is what lead me to believe they were different, sorry.

I do sometimes wonder if the West wouldn't be better off picking politicians by a random draw of Social Security (or their equivalent) numbers. Considering the clusterf*ck that a number of "democratically elected" governments have made of their economies, it's kind of hard to imagine a bunch of amateurs picked at random doing a worse job.

No, we wouldn't be better off. At least if a current politician did something terrible, they might lose their office. If randomly selected, you'd just be trying to make it better for you, your family, and your friends.

self-deleted as exasperated at US failure

You would call a country that went from wilderness to superpower in less than 200 years a failure?

Natural selection is neither good nor bad. It is just a mechanism that exists.

Again, not to disagree. But won't it generally choose animal/plants that are better suited for the environment? How is that bad?