And New Social Identites usually make the most Fanatical advocates of violence.
Once I felt Education and knowledge would banish these outrages, but it seems education only make the tortures they inflict more brutal and sadistic. How does one stamp out intolerance? I once read that a killer overvalues his or her own life causing them to undervalue the lives of those around them, thus people become things with little or no value. They lack the ability to empathise with those who are different.
Such grievious horrors are inflicted on people in so much of the world. Is there a solution?
Posted on Sep 15, 2002, 7:59 PM from IP address 207.159.110.218
Occasionally the internet can be used for some good. I'm not one to put a lot of faith in online petitions, but it certainly is a way to attempt to make our voices heard.
This e-mail is about a woman living in Nigeria named Amina Lawal, who has been sentenced to death by stoning for the crime of expecting a baby while being a divorcee. As you may know, many of Nigeria's northern states have introduced harsh punishments such as amputation, stoning and flogging into the legal system. The Nigerian federal government regards the application of Sharia law as unconstitutional, but so far has not acted against its use.
So there is a link at the bottom of this e-mail. I would ask that you take a moment and click on the link, then click on the right hand "sign here" link. This will bring up a preformatted letter to the President of Nigeria, protesting this barbaric act of "justic" and asking that this sentence not be carried out.
This appears to be completely legit and not another internet hoax. I would certainly invite you to run a search on Amina Lawal or Nigerian+Woman+Stoning to confirm.
Should you wish, you may also forward this to others. If you could please copy and paste the message into a new message and blind cc the people to whom you are sending the message rather than just forward, this would be helpful, as it ensures both confidentiality and prevents creating large files consisting of old e-mail headers.
"Web May Hold the Key to Achieving Artificial Intelligence"
Washington Post (09/06/02) P. A1; Cha, Ariana Eunjung; Drezen, Richard A.
The controversy over artificial intelligence and how the Internet could shape it has been re-ignited by the advent of "chatterbots" such as Active Buddy's SmarterChild, a marketing tool that can "talk" to people via real-time text messages and answer questions by tapping into the Web's vast informational resources. A few such bots have progressed to the point that they can pass the Turing test and convince people they are actually human. Some experts worry that the ultimate goal of turning the Internet into a "global brain" by developing the technology further would give computers too much information and power, and lead to a "hive mind" that erodes freedom and individual expression. However, several challenges must be solved before such a goal is even possible: Computers cannot easily read Web pages, and lack common sense. World Wide Web Consortium director Tim Berners-Lee is trying to overcome the first problem by leading an effort to link keywords and tags to text, sounds, and images. Meanwhile, Push Singh of MIT's Media Lab and others are trying to solve the common sense problem by building a "knowledge base" in which volunteers contribute observations about commonsense behavior. At the Free University of Brussels, scientists are leading an international initiative to make computers understand how humans access data online, thus allowing them to comprehend the interactions between people, objects, and concepts. The work was pioneered by Old Dominion University's Johan Bollen, who conceived of a program that studies how people seek out information, and then streamlines the process. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43363-2002Sep5.html
"A Theory of Evolution, for Robots"
Wired News (09/05/02); Sandhana, Lakshmi
Chalmers Institute of Technology researchers Krister Wolff and Peter Nordin have conceived of a winged robot that can learn how to fly on its own; such a design circumvents scientists' own lack of knowledge about the mechanics of flight. The robot's creators turned to genetic programming to generate the instructions fed into the machine that helps it learn how to lift off. After being assessed, the most successful liftoff instructions were paired up, while randomly swapping instructions between these optimal pairs sired next-generation "offspring" commands that were transmitted to the robot. Techniques that the robot has learned include standing on its wings, pulling itself up by grasping convenient objects, and a more effective flapping methodology. The University of Reading's David Corne explains that evolutionary computation is key to solving control problems, such as what sequences of movements will allow a robot that is heavier than air to lift off and stay airborne. Meanwhile, engineering difficulties--the fast and flexible movement of joints--also need to be solved. The barrier to developing effective flying robots is a lack of funding for testing designs so that improved models can be developed, according to Corne. Nordin believes that such robots could be in operation within three years if enough funding is provided, and he also says that such research is important if better-performing aircraft are to be developed. http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,54900,00.html
Posted on Sep 11, 2002, 4:54 PM from IP address 4.43.240.222
I know there are big collabs like crazy going on, but I would like to start up one more. This one would end the last week of November so we would have time to code it and have it out by Christmas. I am pretty sure a lot of you have heard of the young singer Avril Lavigne. Well Blackrose and I saw alot of people have been making avs of her for palace chat or avs for forums and thought it would be interesting to start a big collab for that. So would anyone be interested in joining in our collab? If so then me and Blackrose are both making bases and you will get to vote on which one you like better and that is the one we will use for the collab. So post and let us know if you would be interested.
Posted on Sep 7, 2002, 5:38 PM from IP address 152.163.189.132
Mick and Paddy are out in the country shooting rabbits.
Suddenly, right in front of his friend Paddy, Mick falls to the ground, throws a quick spasm, then lies perfectly still. He doesn't seem to be breathing, his eyes are rolled back in his head. In fact, he looks pretty well dead!
Quick as a flash, a horrified Paddy whips out his mobile and calls 111. He gasps breathlessly to the operator...
"Mick just fell to the ground right here in front o' me! He's not breathing. He has no heartbeat! I tink he's dead! What can I do?" Well accustomed to this sort of situation however, the emergency operator responds with her most soothing tone...
"Okay Paddy, you must try to stay calm. If there's anything can be done, we'll do it. But you will have to keep your cool, then we can take it one step at a time!
"Sure! Sure! Of course, you're right. I'm fine. Just tell me what must I do?"
"Great! Now first of all, lets make sure he's dead."
The line goes silent, then a shot is heard.....
Paddy's voice comes back down the network.... "OK! What next?"
Posted on Sep 5, 2002, 9:52 AM from IP address 4.33.81.224
I know we have some fashion school and professional costumers here so, can someone tell me: What is the technical difference between a bustier and a corset?
Is a bustier just a type of corset? Or is a bustier just something strapless which goes from the waist up to attached cups but may or may not be a corset depending on whether it has boning and lacing?
Is there such a thing as a bustier corset or is that mixing incompatible terms?
Posted on Aug 31, 2002, 4:11 AM from IP address 207.195.139.200
Dac. A bustier is a garment which follows the figure; a corset is an appliance which shapes the figure. But really we should wait 'til Genie's well enuf to chime in (she's recovering from a procedure).
Posted on Aug 31, 2002, 10:49 AM from IP address 4.43.254.162
