updated 2005-11-29. (minor syntax updates 2009-09-16).
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This page is not the Official ChristLib Homepage, because there is no Official ChristLib Homepage. [ Bill Reveile http://reveile.org/christlib/ ] [ Previous ChristLib Page http://www.swcp.com/DarScott/CL/Christlib/ ][ Next ChristLib Page http://libertarian.faithweb.com/ ] [ The One After That: http://www.christlib.org/ (offline ?) ] . If you think you can make a better page than this, go for it -- and let me know so I can add you to the ring of ChristLib Pages:
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Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2002 22:17:06 -0700 To: Christlib at Reveile.org From: Bill Reveile < Bill at Reveile.org > Subject: Christlib: ADMIN: List archives bonanza
... any Christlib member can retrieve any digest generated since the list was moved to Reveile.org. ...
In the mean time be advised that there is an alternative to Roger's archive if you would like to fill in the gaps in your digest collection. Send an email to majordomo@Reveile.org with:
index christlib-digest
in the body of the message to get a list of the digest files available. The command to retrieve a file would be something like this:
get christlib-digest v02.n001
to get the file containing volume 2 number 1 etc. ...
If anyone is interested and needs help, email me and I'll give you what ever you want. Anyone interested in anything out of the SWCP archives going back to May 5, 1998 I can accommodate that also (Oh yeah, except for that one file).
Just out of curiosity, let me know if you have archives from the St. Bruce era. ...
...
Bill List PackRat ...
There is a fascinating mix of people on the list. There are libertarians who are not Christian (e.g., Jewish, athiest) and Christians who are not libertarian (e.g., Republican, Democratic, and the occasional anarchist). There's a few DNRC and Goth, but I'm still not certain if Dilbert's New Ruling Class (or the Goth culture) is more politics or religion, or something completely different. There are some people who claim it is impossible to be Christian and libertarian simultaneously. There are other people who claim that if one is "truly Christian", one will inevitably be led to something very close to the libertarian political viewpoint.
The people on ChristLib generally have a lot of sympathy for the underdog and alternative points of view. The people who claim that "One man *can* make a difference". The poor deluded fools :-P.
While religion and politics are often a volatile mix, the people on Christlib are surprisingly good at maintaining a sense of humor and balance while discussing God and Country.
I (David Cary) am human, therefore not merely opinionated and biased but often just plain wrong. Please tell me feedback.html how I could improve this page if you think the layout and the content could be improved, especially if something is misleading or (horrors!) actually in error.
"I am interested in how things really work, whether I like it or not." -- Dar Scott <dsc at swcp.com> Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 13:38:14 -0600
Here's the general information for the list:
[Last updated on: Mon Jan 19 18:02:30 1998] Welcome to Christlib, the email list for the discussion of topics that are, in some way, both Christian and libertarian. Both libertarians and Christians are welcome and especially Christian libertarians are welcome. The list was created by Bruce Baugh, who managed it for over three years. Bruce likened it to his living room and he expected his quests to treat each other politely. I intend to carry on that tradition. Each subscriber is here as my guest and I desire each one to feel comfortable on this list. I encourage subscribers to debate ideas as appropriate, but to never attack another subscriber. I (Dar Scott ) will normally send a gentle warning at first but may have to boot repeat offenders. (Should _I_ ever be rude to a subscriber, please wake me up by sending me a note.) What is Christian libertarianism? Is it real? Is it Biblical? Many of us have some opinions on this, of course, but this list as a discussion list makes no assumptions. You do not have to belong to any particular school of thought to belong to this list and to be a participant. And, though members of the list might favor some school of thought, this list is not some hook for some particular brand of Christian libertarianism. I have found some friends on this list; you might find friends, also. This list is open. To join, simply send mail from your email address to <majordomo@swcp.com> with this in the body: subscribe christlib As a member you can participate. To send mail to everyone on the list, send mail to <christlib@swcp.com>. Or simply reply to mail from the list. You can leave the list anytime. To unsubscribe, send mail to <majordomo@swcp.com> from your email address with this body: unsubscribe christlib Should you ever unsubscribe, I welcome comments on why. There is no web-site for Christlib yet; hang onto this information. God Bless, Dar Scott =CL= Christlib list manager 505/299-9497
Date: Sun, 1 Feb 1998 13:27:44 -0700 To: christlib at swcp.com From: Dar Scott Subject: Christlib: We're Transferred!! Sender: owner-christlib at swcp.com If I did everything right, then the list is transferred. As you may have noticed in the "Welcome" message, the list policy is basically the same. The topic is that which has something to do with libertarianism and with Christianity. The mood is polite. If I set this up right, replying to this message (or any other from the list) will be sending a message to the list. (Sorry about the double of the last message on the old list. I think I accidentally sent a message that included key words that triggered an automatic approval requirement. And then I was too impatient to wait for Bruce's approval.) You will receive a schedule by separate mail showing which weeks you are to send chocolate to the list manager. Just Kidding! :) Dar ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dar Scott +CL+ + Christlib list manager + Christlib is the discussion list for topics covering Christianity and libertarianism ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From: "Bruce Baugh" To: <christlib at swcp.com> Subject: Re: Christlib: Finding Christlib Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 21:08:46 -0800 Reply-To: christlib at swcp.com From: Dar Scott >However, at this time, I do not have an official Christlib page. Obviously we need a free and competitive market in Christlib pages.
Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Sat, 7 Feb 1998 13:23:43 -0700 To: christlib at swcp.com From: Dar Scott <dsc at swcp.com> Subject: Re: Christlib: Finding Christlib Bruce Baugh wrote, >>However, at this time, I do not have an official Christlib page. >Obviously we need a free and competitive market in Christlib pages. That's a great idea! (Psst!! Bruce! What if they want a share of the chocolate?) Attention everybody making Christlib pages! You'll get your chocolate in heaven!! Dar
Date: Sat, 7 Feb 1998 21:15:42 -0700 To: christlib at swcp.com From: Dar Scott <dsc at swcp.com> Subject: Christlib: List Subject Policy For the most part, there are no taboo subjects. In particular, homosexuality and abortion are NOT taboo topics. Some topics are just plain off subject, but brief excursions into these are OK. A lot of these are great fun. Some topics, by nature, are generally offensive and thus prohibited, even if one makes an excuse to applicability to the list topics. Hammer home those ideas of yours, but please do not attack others on the list. Please show general consideration. As part of this general consideration, please avoid offensive language. Overall, remember others are fellow guests in my living room. If I feel I need to, I will squelch any topic. I don't think this will be needed too often; those who come visit will tend to be those who use self-control and are learning self-government. Here are some ideas to consider when framing mail, especially mail on sensitive subjects. Take care to criticize ideas, not the person you are debating with. Keep a thick skin, even when some ideas seem to hit home. Avoid making pot-shots. Avoid introducing sensitive subjects when a sensitive debate is already in progress. Review the subject line for sensitive subjects; some people might want to avoid them. Show leadership in how you compose mail during sensitive debates. If someone has to bow out of a debate, remember this person may have had to leave before completely communicating his ideas. Be patient with those who take the time to advise a newbie or an old friend in these things. Sometimes a topic has been beaten into the ground and should get a rest. Be patient with the list manager; God is still building him. OK!! Go for it! Have fun! E-sodas are in the E-fridge! Dar ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dar Scott +CL+ Albuquerque dsc at swcp.com + Christlib list manager + Christlib is the discussion list for topics covering Christianity and libertarianism ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 17:01:02 -0700 To: christlib at swcp.com From: Dar Scott <dsc at swcp.com> Subject: Christlib: List Diversity Some of you may have noticed a slightly rough spot in the "Faith" discussion. Overall, I am pleased at how this did not escalate and how the discussion repaired itself. Of course, it may seem more damaging to those actually involved. Everybody is in A-OK status as list participants. Everybody involved seems to care about the list. Some questions came up and some may have been implied that I'll address with some comments on list diversity. Christlib is diverse in subscribers, discussion styles and discussion topics. Christlib is open to those not Christian and those not libertarian. In particular, there are atheists on the list. Though the list is a dear place for Christian libertarian fellowship, it is not closed to only CLs. (This avoids the question of who is qualified, and also keeps CLs from getting brain flabby.) There might be those on the list who are neither Christian nor libertarian, but I have no idea why they are not bored with the discussion. My mentioning the diversity does not mean that certain subjects should be avoided or that subjects of primary interest to a particular group need elaborate qualification. I just wish to arm you in keeping your discussion polite. Writing styles are diverse and this may require some patience. Some people are just different from you and some of us are still abecedarians in forming ideas and writing about them. Just because someone quotes scripture does not mean he is quoting it AT you as one might throw bricks. Just because one says he does not understand what you wrote does not mean he is calling you a snob or is complaining about your use of topic jargon. Just because some discussion seems to be intramural among CLs does not mean you are being shunted out. And if one makes a technical error about some group, it does not mean that he feels the truth about that group is unimportant. You are always free to ask for clarification or to ignore the vein. A wide range of topics are appropriate for the list. They just need to somehow apply to both Christianity and libertarianism. However, excursions outside this into areas of Christianity or libertarianism are just fine and even needed. I think it puts a damper on discussion to know there is a cliff one might fall over. And a lot of these diversions are fun. And a loop outside of scope often brings the topic to a point ON-topic that might not otherwise come up. Also, for me, I find I very much value the opinions of those on this list and how else can one get them on a slightly off-topic question except to ask? Back to the show currently in progress... Dar Scott List Mom ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dar Scott +CL+ Albuquerque dsc at swcp.com + Christlib list manager + Christlib is the discussion list for topics covering Christianity and libertarianism ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Interesting people who are not on ChristLib yet (but we wish they were !) include, but are not limited to, in random order, [FIXME: how should I organize this ?]
David D. Friedman http://www.daviddfriedman.com/ "the anarchist-anachronist-economist David Friedman" "Living Paper: An Open Source Project to produce computer programs that teach economic ideas." "One of my current writing projects is Future Imperfect, a book about technological change in the near future and its consequences. A draft is webbed; comments welcome." [FIXME: read; perhaps comment] _The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to a Radical Capitalism_ book by David D. Friedman.
IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS, IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS, IN OMNIBUS CARITAS. In necessary things, unity; in dubious things, liberty; in all things, charity. -- St. Augustine http://www.traditio.com/tradlib/phrases.txt
"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. ...those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." -- C. S. Lewis
Tozer held that one way society destroys people is by preventing them from thinking their own thoughts. ... Our
vastly improved methods of communication... A little effortless assimilation of these borrowed ideas and the average person has done all the thinking he will or can do. Tozer believed that the mind should be an eye to see with rather than a bin to store facts in.
In 1998-08-31, Dar Scott proposed a reading schedule so that we could intelligently discuss these books while they were fresh in our minds. I guess it was a slow month and Dar wanted to stir up some controversy ^H^H^H^H^H intelligent discussion.
I thought his 2 track idea, "Bible" and "non-Bible", was pretty clever. His initial suggestions were
Others suggested that these books were also somehow related to "Christian and libertarian" topics. [Please post to the list any suggestions you might have; please email me if I've missed suggestions that have been posted]
One of the classic works in libertarian thought (and one of the best IMO) is _THE LAW_ by Frederic Bastiat. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to recommend it to you since you can read it online for free:
http://www.bastiat.org/en/the_law.html
Highly recommended.
From: "Mike Stallings" Date: Fri, 24 Nov 2000 22:47:23 -0500 ... I was knocked for a loop when I first read _No Treason_. That's a pretty darned compelling read! And fun, too. : )
(by Lysander Spooner )
I'm going to attempt to find a way to avoid a custom ActiveX control (for the reasons mentioned at http://www.extraplicity.com/designers.html ) and use standard streaming video methods.-- David Cary 2003-02-26
If you are not listed and you want to be, or you are listed but you don't want to be, send me email d.cary@ieee.org. and I'll try to straighten things out ASAP.
changing the lawvs.
rewarding those who violate the law. There is nothing immoral about writing new laws or nullifying (is that the right word ?) old laws. And in the U.S.A., there's even perfectly legal ways of doing that. And what is wrong with changing the law in a way that benefits some people -- would you rather change the law to hinder those people ? I haven't really formed an opinion on what a really good immigration policy should be, but I doubt it would be described like this: ``The mechanism for selecting legal immigrants is very complex'' http://www.cis.org/topics/legalimmigration.html .
Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me; I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
the inscription on the Statue of Liberty, written by Emma Lazarus
technology and politics
-- http://www.abstractdynamics.org/archives/2003/08/09/the_technoarchy.htmlThe Technoarchy
Technoarchy: a form of oligarchy where society is controlled by those who use technology the best. Unlike traditional oligarchies technoarchies are generally emergent. For the most part they are not created deliberately, but rise out of the properties of the dominant technology of the time, ie the networked computers of the 21st century. ... Posted by William Abraham Blaze at August 9, 2003 02:44 PM
Tachyons, Time Travel, and Divine Omniscience
urban legends somehow related to "Christianity and libertarianism".
"I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots," Bush said during an August 27, 1988 press conference, according to an American Atheists spokesman.
So first off, this is the elder Bush, not the current President, whom many folks would assume the quote is attributed to.
Secondly, this is an alleged remark made during a press conference 13 years ago that nobody has any recollection of, other than the President of American Atheists. The former President Bush apparently denies it, and nobody can substantiate that the comment was even made.
I'm no Bush apologist (I voted Libertarian for lack of better options), but the way you present that quote in your sig is bound to incite someone to rail againt George W. Bush for it.
-- http://slashdot.org/yro/01/07/08/1425206.shtml For more details: http://www.google.com/search?q=George+Bush+atheists+patriots
The bill to define pi as 3.0 http://www.primenet.com/~heuvelc/bible/pi.htm is a "Net Hoax on Pi Just Won't Die" http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/ctc676.htm .
``The Bible and Pi'' article by Michael A. B. Deakin and Hans Lausch, in _The Mathematical Gazette_ July 1998 Volume 82 Number 494 http://www.m-a.org.uk/eb/mg/mg082bb.pdf claims that one could take the original text and derive the value 3*(111/106) which is close to the true value of pi. It also points out that 355/113 is a far more accurate approximation to pi.
The mathematical constant known as π (pi).
(See
si_metric_faq.html#micro
for the Greek letter π
)
-- http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/~d3rebas/humor/piapprox.htmlpi Approximation Day is on the 22/7 - that is, July 22. For the past few years, people at Chalmers University have celebrated it. ...
Norpan tried to calculate a suitable date for an e approximation day; ... 19/7
pi is approximately
3.141414... = 311/99 (MathWorld), or
3.1415094 = 333/106
3.1415094 = 3*111/106
3.141523... = 3^(1 + 6/143), (DAV) or
3.141523... = 3^(149/143), (DAV) or
3.141552... = 306^(1/5), (DAV) or
3.141556... = (2^16)/20861, or
3.141574 = 3*(1+8/343)^2 (DAV), or
3.141586... = sqrt(3)*sqrt(227/69) (DAV) or
3.141586... = sqrt(227/23) (DAV), or
3.141590... = e^2/3 + 19/28, or
3.1415926526 = (9^2 + (19^2)/22)^(1/4), or
3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097... = π = [3; 7 15 1 292 1 1 ... ]
3.1415928...= e^(2183/1907) (DAV) or
3.141592920... = 355/113, (Zu Chongzhi, Adriaen Métius, ...) or
3.1415950... = sqrt(3)*( 167/124 )^2 (DAV) or
3.141600000= 1.1 * 1.2 * 1.4 * 1.7 (Castellanos (1988), quoted by Weisstein, then rounded off by DAV) or
3.141609 = 6^(23/36), (DAV) or
3.1416408... = 6/5 * (golden mean)^2, or
3.1416408... = 9/5 + sqrt(9/5), (Ramanujan) or
3.14186... = sqrt(3)*78/43 (DAV), or
3.14196... = 2 + sqrt( e - sqrt(2) ), or
3.14256... = (39/22)^2 (DAV) (in other words, the area of a circle is about (radius*39/22)^2
3.14286... = 22/7 (Archimedes 287-212 B.C.)
3.1605 = (2*8/9)^2 (Egyptian) (in other words, the area of a circle is approximately (diameter*8/9)^2
3.1605 = (4/3)^4
Because the continued fraction expansion is
π = [3; 7,15,1,292,1,1,1,2,1,3,1,14,2,1,1,2,2,2,2,1,84,2,1,1,15,3,13,...],
the fractions that give the best possible approximations to π
(better than any other fractions) are:
3, 22/7, 333/106, 355/113, 103993/33102, 104348/33215, ...
Even though, in general, using a larger denominator gives a better approximation, it is a bit surprising to discover that there is no denominator less than 33102 that gives a better approximation than 355/113; and there is no denominator less than 106 that gives a better approximation than 22/7.
-- see
"Collection of approximations for p"
by Xavier Gourdon and Pascal Sebah.
http://numbers.computation.free.fr/Constants/Pi/piApprox.html
(which briefly explains continued fractions, which provide
a sequence of the best rational approximations for any given number)
see
Xavier Gourdon & Pascal Sebah
http://numbers.computation.free.fr/Constants/Pi/pi.html
and
Eric W. Weisstein
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pi.html
and
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/PiApproximations.html
/* was
http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~eww6n/math/Pi.html
*/
for many other approximations and exact formulas,
and how they were derived historically.
DAV discovered a couple of these approximations on his own, but I suspect I'm re-discovering what someone else has already discovered. In particular, I was interested in the number A of unit triangles that fit in a circle of radius r, A = k^2*r^2 = (k*r)^2 where k^2 = 4*π / sqrt(3) =~= 227/69 =~= 7.26. =~= [7; 3 1 11 3 1 1 1...] and k = sqrt(k^2) = 2*π^(1/2)*3^(-1/4) = [2; 1 2 3 1 4 256 1...] =~= [2; 1 2 3 1 4 ] = 167/62 =~= 2.6935... (that 256 is one of the largest terms in a continued fraction expansion I've seen so far, except for 292 in π itself ...) or we can rearrange to say π = sqrt(3)*k^2/4
Representations:
I am ashamed to tell you to how many figures I carried these calculations,
having no other business at the time.
-- Isaac Newton (1642-1727) (about a computation of π)
He is unworthy of the name of man who is ignorant of the fact that the diagonal of a square is incommensurable with its side.
-- Plato (428-348 B.C.)
Nature laughs at the difficulties of integration.
-- Pierre Simon de Laplace (1749-1827)
You have no idea, how much poetry there is in the calculation of a table of logarithms!
-- Karl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855)
Earliest Uses of Symbols of Operation and Grouping http://www.veling.nl/anne/templars/operation.html discusses the first use of +, -, ·, x, as mathematical operators.
[FIXME: idea_space.html ?]
π*sqrt(3)/6 = Sum{ k=0; &inf; (-1)^k / ( 3^k * (2*k+1) ) } (Sharp)
Surely these have some geometric meaning in triangular numbers ? (??? --quoted at http://numbers.computation.free.fr/Constants/Pi/piSeries.html )
similar formulas:
(π^4)/90 = 1 + 1/2^4 + 1/3^4 + 1/4^4 + ... = Sum{ k=1; inf; 1/k^4 }
π^2/12 = 1 - 1/2^2 + 1/3^3 - 1/(4^2) + ... = Sum{ k=1; &inf;; (-1)^(k+1)/( k^2 )
π/4 = 4*arctan(1/5) - arctan(1/239) Machin's formula
(π - 3) / 6 = = Sum{ k=1; &inf; (-1)^(k+1) /( 36*k^2 - 1 ) }
-- http://numbers.computation.free.fr/Constants/Pi/piSeries.html
PI 1 1 1 -- = ----- + ----- + ------ + ... 8 1 x 3 5 x 7 9 x 11
= Sum{ k=1; &inf; 1/( (2*k-1)(2*k+1) ) }
pi 1 1 -- = 1 - - + - - ... (from the taylor series for arctan(x), with x=1.) 4 3 5 ==== N-1 2 pi \ 2 N! -- = > ---------- 4 / (2 N + 1)! ==== N=0-- from hakmem 1d_design.html#hakmem item#119 and item#124 . One would hope that this *means* something geometrically. What ? [FIXME: transform to triangle notation].
Many, many other algorithms for finding π to any desired precision can be found at
http://numbers.computation.free.fr/Constants/Pi/piSeries.html
and
http://numbers.computation.free.fr/Constants/Pi/iterativePi.html
, for example
π^2/12 = 1 - 1/2^2 + 1/3^3 - 1/4^2 + ...
= sum{ n=1, inf, -(-1)^k/k^2 }.
(π-3)/6 = 1/35 - 1/143 + 1/323 - 1/575 + ...
= sum{ k=1, inf, -(-1)^k/( 36*k^2 - 1 ) }.
and the Archimedes-Pfaff algorithm and also much faster algorithms.
2.2.2 The arcsines function
In 1676, Isaac Newton gave the following series
arcsin(x) = x + (1/2)*x^3/3 + (1*3/2*4)*x^5/5 + ... ...with -1 < x < 1,
jointly with the formula
π/6 = arcsin(1/2)
it's easy to find a few digits for π. Newton gave 14 digits with this series.
...
In 1755, Euler used a new series for the arctan function:
arctan(x) = ( x /( 1 + x^2 ) )* ( 1 + (2/3)*y + (2*4/3*5)*y^2 + (2*4*6/3*5*7)*y^3 +... ) ;(Euler 13)
where
y = x^2/( 1+x^2 ).
in conjunction with the formula
π/4 = = 5* arctan(1/7) + 2*arctan(3/79).
The values x = 1/7 and x = 3/79 respectively give
y = 1/50 = 2/100 and y = 9/6250 = 12^2/10^5.
These values made the computation convenient for Euler in decimal base. He computed 20 decimal places of π within one hour.
If we set x = 1 in Euler's series (Euler 13), we obtain
π/4 = arctan(1) = 1/2 * ( 1 +(2/3)*(1/2) +(2*4/3*5)*(1/2^2) + ... )
giving
π = 2 * ( 1 + Sum{ k=1; &inf;; 2^k*(k!)^2/( (2*k+1)! ) )
The convergence is not so bad
x5 = 3.12(15007215007215...) x10 = 3.141(1060216013776...) x15 = 3.1415(797881375958...) x20 = 3.141592(2987403396...).This series is the basic formulae of the very small π program presented in Tiny programs for constants computation .
-- http://numbers.computation.free.fr/Constants/Pi/piclassic.html (Some of the formulas were illegible; reconstructed from http://mathworld.wolfram.com/InverseTangent.html )
Quadratic convergence means that the number of correct digits is doubled at each iteration. ... The first known quadratic algorithm was published in 1976 by Eugene Salamin in [6] and it was also discovered independently by Richard Brent the same year [5]. It uses the real AGM iteration.
:
Initial values:
x_0 = 1, y_0 = 1/sqrt(1), a0 = 1/2
x_k+1 = ( x_k + y_k )/2
y_k+1 = sqrt( x_k * y_k )
a_k+1 = a_k - 2^{k+1}*( x_{k+1}^2 - y_{k+1}^2 )
p_k = 2*x_{k}^2 / a_k
lim{ k->&inf; p_k } = π
"computing p_30 will provide more than a billion digits of p ! So the computation of only 30 square roots and less than a hundred multiplications is required to find a huge number of digits."
-- http://numbers.computation.free.fr/Constants/Pi/iterativePi.html DAV: what does this *mean*, geometrically ?
*converging* formulas for π: rather than going summing up a bunch of terms (*all* of which must be calculated to the desired precision), what sorts of formulas can take a (noisy) *approximation* of π and give a *better* approximation of π ? (... perhaps expand to allow *2* numbers, one converging on π, the other converging on some other arbitrary constant, and allow 2 functions to update both).
a(k+1) = a(k) + sin(a(k)) ; starting with a(0) anywhere near π, perhaps a(0) = 22/7.
a(k+1) = a(k) - tan(a(k)) ; starting with a(0) anywhere near π, perhaps a(0) = 22/7.
"the rate of convergence is now cubic (the number of digits is tripled at each iteration). ... The major drawback of those algorithms is to evaluate sine or tangent function at a given accuracy which is not so easy."
-- http://numbers.computation.free.fr/Constants/Pi/iterativePi.html
(DAV: remember ... sin[x] = x - x^3/3! + x^5/5! - x^7/7! + +x^8/8! ... Sum{ n=0; &inf;; (-1)^n * x^(2*n+1) /( 2*n+1 )! } )
DAV: I have generalized this to any arbitrary angle ... In addition to the sin() and tan() equations above, I find
a_k+1 = a_k + cos( a_k ) ; converges on π/2
a_k+1 = a_k - ( 2*sin(a_k) - sqrt(3) ) ; converges on π/3
a_k+1 = a_k - ( 1 - 2*cos( a_k ) )/sqrt(3) ; converges on π/3
a_k+1 = a_k - ( tan( a_k ) - sqrt(3) )/4 ; converges on π/3
a_k+1 = a_k - ( sqrt(2)*sin( a_k ) - 1 ) ; converges on π/4
a_k+1 = a_k - ( 1 - sqrt(2)*cos( a_k ) ) ; converges on π/4
a_k+1 = a_k - ( tan( a_k) - 1 )/2 ; converges on π/4
a_k+1 = a_k - ( 2*sin( a_k ) - 1 )/sqrt(3) ; converges on π/6
a_k+1 = a_k - ( sqrt(3) - 2*cos( a_k ) ) ; converges on π/6
a_k+1 = a_k - ( tan( a_k ) - 1/sqrt(3) )*(3/4) ; converges on π/6
These equations all come from the basic formula
a_k+1 = a_k - ε.
Near some arbitrary angle θ, in particular at the angle a_k = ( θ + ε ), the series expansions for sin( θ + ε ), cos( θ + ε ), tan( θ + ε ) (should I try other functions like 1/cos(), 1/sin(), 1/tan() ?) give us the approximations
ε =~= ( sin( θ + ε ) - sin( θ ) )/ cos( θ ) ε =~= ( cos( θ ) - cos( θ + ε ) )/sin( θ ) ε =~= ( tan( θ + ε ) - tan( θ ) )*( cos( θ ) )^2.
Then I just pick θ to make these formulas come out nice.
-- http://mathworld.wolfram.com/PiIterations.htmlA cubically converging algorithm which converges to the nearest multiple of π to f_0 is the simple iteration
f_{n+1} = f_n + sin( f_n )
(Beeler et al. 1972). For example, applying to 23 gives the sequence 23, 22.1537796, 21.99186453, 21.99114858, ..., which converges to 7π ~=~ 21.99114858.
Other converging formulas:
k ... 2+ inv 2+ inv ... 2+ inv
converges on k = sqrt(2) - 1. (DAV: from continued series fraction of sqrt(2)).
k_new = 1/( 1/(k+2) + 1 )
k ... 2+ inv 1+ inv ... 2+ inv 1+ inv ... 2+ inv 1+ inv
converges on k = sqrt(3) - 1. (DAV: from continued series fraction of sqrt(3)).
(DAV: from newton's approximation for f(x) = 1/(a*x) - 1, a method that given just about any guess for 1/a, converges on the exact value for 1/a: xnew = x + x*( 1 - a*x ) 1d_design.html#inverse )
The π expert is, of course, the famous Eve Astrid Andersson http://eveander.com/ /* was http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~eveander/ */ .
More than you ever wanted to know about pi: http://3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097.org/ .
Re: Converting Pi to binary (DON'T DO IT!) http://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/humor/pi.html
"For this particular planet, construct a perfect circle with a radius of 2075 miles, and measure the circumference. You will find that pi = 3.0." -- Dave Fischer, (Date: Wed, 18 Oct 95) (Newsgroups: sci.physics)
Digits of pi are generally calculated by representing pi as the sum of an infinite series, then evaluating that sum to as many terms as are necessary to get the desired number of digits.
One way is to use the formula Arctan(x) = x - x^3 + x^5/5 - x^7/7 + . . . , which is valid for x <= 1. Plugging in x=1 is not much use because, although you get a formula π/4 = 1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + ..., the series converges very slowly and you have to take thousands of terms to get even a few digits of accuracy.
A faster way is to use a formula such as π = 16*Arctan(1/5) - 4*Arctan(1/239). You evaluate each of these arctangents using the above series, taking enough terms of the series to get you to within the accuracy you desire. In your case, you would do the arithmetic in base 6 to get digits of π in base 6.
Another, more recent, series is π = sum[ k=0, infinity, (1/16^k)*( 4/(8k+1) - 2/(8k+4) - 1/(8k+5) - 1/(8k+6) ) ] which has the advantage that in base 16 there turns out to be a clever way to use this formula to calculate far-out digits of π without having to do high-precision arithmetic and without having to compute all the earlier digits first. That's only a help in base 16 and a few other bases, though.
Other hoaxes: periodical.html#anti_chain_letter
The quote below is merely a urban legend.
From: "John Fast" <jfast at fastindustries.com> To: christlib at swcp.com Subject: Christlib: web: Is Janet Reno a Cultist? Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 13:29:10 -0400 -----Original Message----- From: Dave Babbitt <dave at Babbitt.org> To: christlib@swcp.com Date: Thursday, June 25, 1998 7:23 AM Subject: Re: Christlib: Fwd: Are you a cultist? >Not to quench the spirit of anti-christian bigotry that Janet Reno is >trying to develop here, but a cultist can be either religious or political >and are defined by there practice of twisting the definitions of words to >the point of equivication. > >> >>MEMORABLE QUOTES: >> >>"A cultist is one who has a strong belief in the Bible and >>the Second Coming of Christ; who frequently attends Bible >>studies; who has a high level of financial giving to a >>Christian cause; who home schools for their children; who >>has accumulated survival foods and has a strong belief in >>the second amendment; and who distrusts big government. >>Any of these may qualify [a person as a cultist] but >>certainly more than one [of these] would cause us to look >>at this person as a threat, and his family as being in a >>risk situation that qualified for government interference." >> >>--Attorney General Janet Reno, Interview on 60 Minutes, >> June 26, 1994 (quote reprinted from the May/June issue >> of the Arizona Home Education Journal) >> >>--------- End forwarded message ---------- >> >>_____________________________________________________________________ >>You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. >>Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com >>Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] > > > >Dave Babbitt > >Check out http://www.babbitt.org/ > > > From: "John Fast" To: , , Subject: Re: Calumny of Janet Reno (was Christlib: Fwd: Are you a cultist?) Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 18:22:48 -0400 Marshall Fritz wrote: >John... > >This is a false quote. It is calumny >to spread it around. She did not >say this. She was not on 60 Minutes >on that day. Ouch!! Thanks!! > >Please advise each person to whom you >have sent this that you have heard a >warning of its falseness, and >encourage them to stop >spreading this unless >they get solid con- >firmation. (Which >they will not >find. Only >other >copies of the same thing, none of which >are >really documented, they just look that >way. > Yes, definitely! Thanks again! [snip] >Pith: I didn't give them hell. I just >told them the truth and they thought it >was hell. > Harry S Truman And, unfortunately, we must stick to the truth, even when it's unpleasant as hell. :-( Still, I'm sure there are enough true unpleasant things to say about Ms. Reno; certainly her performance as a U.S. Attorney here in Florida was disgusting, especially the "Country Walk" false child-abuse prosecutions! -- John Fast jfast at fastindustries.com or caliban at gate.net ENTJ/1 "Raise consciousness, not taxes." Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 18:49:41 -0400 From: "Doug Snead" To: christlib@swcp.com Subject: Re: Calumny of Janet Reno (was Christlib: Fwd: Are you a cultist?) John Fast wrote: > Marshall Fritz wrote: > >John... > >This is a false quote. It is calumny > >to spread it around. She did not > >say this. She was not on 60 Minutes > >on that day. > Ouch!! Thanks!! [ ... snip ...] I'm not so sure that the Justive Department denials are completely believeable. For many, the issue is not yet settled. For example, see http://www.tex-is.net/users/csbrocato/cultist.htm "Several individuals who called 60 Minutes to obtain a copy of the Reno interview were told that 60 Minutes had never done an interview with Janet Reno. One gentleman reported to us that when he contacted a company that sells video copies of 60 Minutes and other news shows, they became very "heated" after the requested June 26,1994 show." What I am saying is that I believe the denials even less that I do the reality of that quote. For many people, the case is *far* from closed. - Doug [ a word from Reno to your kids: http://www.usdoj.gov/kidspage/bias-k-5/home_intro.htm ] From: "Keith A. Keller" Subject: Christlib: Janet Reno To: christlib@swcp.com Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 17:13:22 -0400 (EDT) According to Allen J. Newton: > > Didn't Janet Reno define a "Dangerous Religious Fanatic" a few years ago > as anyone who owns a gun and believes that the Bible is the Word of God? > We discussed this on the list several months ago, and, if I recall correctly, came to the conclusion that that quote could not be confirmed. Someone posted a URL linking to a web page looking into the matter and trying to get a copy of the televised interview in which she allegedly said that. But "60 Minutes" denied that she ever said such a thing in an interview with them, and wasn't even in the episode which was broadcast on the date in question. -- Keith Keller I <kak4b at unix.mail.virginia.edu> The man who never alters his opinion is like the stagnant water and breeds Reptiles of the Mind. --William Blake "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"
related links:
Synopsis In an interview on 'Sixty Minutes', US Attorney General Janet Reno defines a 'cultist' as someone 'has a strong belief in the Bible and the Second Coming of Christ'. Is it true? No. It is a hoax.
Some pointers to alternative voting systems
[FIXME: where did I put that info ?]
Arrow's theorem ...
there are only two viewpoints that can ever exist - something is either right or wrong. Clouding our political system with shades of gray is not likely to keep America as free and prosperous as it has been for the last 226 years.
[FIXME: get better definition][arrow]
The theorem in economics, due to Kenneth Arrow, which says that you can't construct a "social preference function" (ranking the desirability of various social arrangements) out of individual preferences, while retaining a particular set of features ("nondictatorship" - the social preference function can't be just one person's individual preferences; consistency - the social preference function can't rank A above B, B above C, and C above A; "positive relation" between individual and social preference -- if the social preference function ranks A above B, and some person's individual preference changes from "B above A" to "A above B", that shouldn't cause the social preference to switch to "B above A"; and an "irrelevance" assumption which I don't quite remember, but is something like this, that if an individual changes their mind about the relative worth of C and D, it shouldn't affect the social preference standings of A and B.) -- http://www.extropy.com/ideas/lextropicon.html
http://www.wordsmith.org/words/
``Libertarians thus have a big stake in seeing a more accurate map accepted. But that doesn't mean the map is therefore inaccurate.'' DAV is fascinated by ``maps'' 3d_design.html#maps that let you see things more accurately. I find it amazing and counter-intuitive that most people (including myself), when confronted by a map that is truly more accurate than ones they've seen before, instantly feel that this ``new'' map is inaccurate, suspect, some sort of trick, etc. Why is this ? And what can cartographers do to indicate uncertainty and to guide people towards more appropriate maps ?
... seems similar to "The Political Compass" http://www.digitalronin.f2s.com/politicalcompass/ ... see also "The Lipson-Shiu Corporate Type Test" mad_science.html#lipson-shiu and MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) book.html#mbti
Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 11:46:52 -0600 To: christlib at swcp.com From: Dar Scott <dsc at swcp.com> Subject: Re: Christlib: What is defense? Hardrock wrote, ... >min(im)- least, smallest, least quantity, very small > (L. minimus) > >arch(y) government, rule (Gk. archia) > >-ist one who performs a (specified) action; one who > makes or produces; one who plays or operates a > specified instrument or contrivance; one who > specializes in a (specified) art or science or > skill; one who advocates or adheres to a doctrine > or system or code of behaviour, or that of a > (specified) individual (Gk. istes) > >so, using the basic rules of lexicography, and not filtering through any >particular agenda, the correct, in context definition of "minarchy" is >"one who advocates very small, or the least quantity of, government". I think that is the first parsing that Randall give. He used the word "state" instead of "government." Is this lexicography or morphology? In either case, it is not always clear concerning the order of combining morphemes. Consider "biweekly." In context, it may well be that the second (no doubt, tongue-in-cheek) parsing has some merit. Sigh. >> Sir, if you do not say what you mean, how >> am I to understand you? I can only assume >> that you think carefully about what you type. > >an assumption which is rarely justified. This may well be our best first assumption in discussion. On the other hand, just because someone slips and exposes himself, is no reason to let go with a ten page message destroying that person or that misstated idea. I think I may be tempted in this area; perhaps it is an indication of low self-esteeme when one has to blast away at errors that might be easily rectified quickly. On Christlib, it is not a matter of gaining points by machine-gunning exposed parts of other high scorers. We work together to build ideas. THEN WE SHOOT DOWN THE IDEAS!! Aaaa Ha Ha Ha!!!! ... Dar Scott
Date: Fri, 03 Jul 1998 09:06:30 -0700 To: christlib@swcp.com From: Bill Reveile <mvv at wco.com> Subject: Re: Christlib: What is defense? At 01:33 AM 1998/07/03 -0700, you wrote: > >to me, i see a minimum based on harm done. possibly with a punitive >amount of some sort. additional punishents based on demonstrated intent. >perhaps with the assumption that intent to harm is present. > I have never been able to find a basis for punishment of humans by other humans. Just like I have never been able to justify reparations based on intent. Harm done, however, does include all expenses incurred by anyone involved in the investigation, apprehension, pretrial incarceration, trial and subsequent incarceration, and monitoring of reparations connected to the crime. >> You see, I would allow the victim to lessen >> the criminal's punishment, but not the judge >> or the jury (if any). Any other punishments If the victim or anyone else chooses to absorb some of the damages based on lack of intent that is their choice. A judgement of intent would also be helpful to determine the percentage of responsibility but never to calculate punitive damages. >the jury would exist to determine intent from available evidence; pretty >much for additional punishments to the perpetrator, as i listed before. The plaintiff and defendant would arrive on an agreement of how a trial would proceed. This would decide whether or not it would be a volunteer or paid jury, a judge, an arbitrator, an unsupervised negotiation or flintlocks at twenty paces. "Defense" is the act of countering in kind any initiation of force to protect oneself or certain others from harm. "In kind" means using enough force to stop the unwanted action but not enough to cause unnecessary harm to the initiator of that unwanted action. "Force" means to cause another to change their just behavior against their will. "Just behavior" is behavior in which all can engage without violating the equal rights of others. "Rights" are claims to which one can reasonably expect all others to yield based on a consensus that all people have equal opportunity to make the same claims. "Claim" "Opportunity" "Reasonable" "Consensus" "People "equal" "violating" "unnecessary" "countering" "initiation" "certain others" I'll have to get back to you later on these.-- Bill Reveile Scarecrow Logic http://www.wco.com/~mvv/sln
-- Dar Scott , Fri, 3 Jul 1998"If we are looking through our "stateness" meter or some like limited view, God's speakng directly to individuals is indistiguishable from anarchy. But, if God is consistent in what He is saying to people (an assumption I'll accept), then one would see an emergent pattern of behavior in an theocracy that would not develop in [a non-theocratic] anarchy. ... So, I think the same society can be called an anarchy and a theocracy at the same time. I think the Bible does that with the time of the Judges. "
Any other words I should list here ? In particular, I want
and, of course their definition(s).
From: "John Fast" To: Subject: Re: Christlib: New Christlib Catalog Date: Fri, 3 Apr 1998 19:33:29 -0500 The Christlib[tm] merchandising department wrote: >CHRISTLIB CATALOG SALES > >Proud to me subscribed to Christlib? Now you can show it!! >Special items available today only!! > >=== Jewelry === > > ChristLib Nose Ring. Spells out Christlib. $55 > CL Tongue Pin. Interlocking CL design. $45 > Fish Anarchy Lip Pin. Unique!! $45 They apparently forgot: _Libere_ Crucifix (diagonal arrow behind cross). Let 'em know Our Lord was a political non-Euclidean. $55 Nolan Chart Crucifix. $65 14K Rosary $25 > >=== Sweaters and T-shirts === >Sizes: XL, XXL, XXXL and XXXXL >Based on the famous Christlib cartoons!! > > Yackity-Yak!! (black or white) T $20 Sweatshirt $30 > Bruce's Living Room (red or white) T $25 Sweatshirt $40 > Pretty Good Commission (white only) T $20 Sweatshirt $30 > How a Statist Sees Rapture (red only) T $20 Sweatshirt $30 > TEAM CHRISTLIB (black, red or white) T $25 Sweatshirt $40 He Didn't Die for the State (red or black) T $20 Sweatshirt $30 My Church Isn't BATF-Approved (white or black) T $20 Sweatshirt $30 Free Thought, Free Will, Free Men (black or white) T $20 Sweatshirt $30. (autographed, white only, add $10) St. Clive (red, white, or black) T $30 Sweatshirt $45 (autographed, red or white, add $10) All Men Are Created Equal Except One (black or white) T $20 Sweatshirt $30 Render Unto Washington (red or black) T $25 Sweatshirt $35 Atlas Shrugged, Jesus Wept (black or white) T $25 Sweatshirt $35 Pulp Scripture (red or black) T $30 Sweatshirt $40 Pulp Scripture limited edition (gold leaf, signed and numbered) T $50 Sweatshirt $60 Soul in Training/Property of God's Gym (white or black) T $25 Sweatshirt $35 > >=== St. Bruce Keepsakes === > > Sliver from the wooden handle of the lawn rake > he left behind in Portland. Comes with certificate. > Only 400 pieces. $100 > > Copy of the first game St. Bruce ever wrote. Make > C's and L's chase other letters around a maze. > CPM (8" floppy) $125 > DOS (5.25" floppy) $105 > >All profits go to sending chocolate to the list mom and to builders of >Christlib web pages.
From: "Christlib Catalog Sales" < catalog at christlib.com.UUCP > To: <christlib at swcp.com> Subject: Christlib: New Christlib Catalog Date: Wed, 01 Apr 1998 17:26:24 -0300 Sender: owner-christlib@swcp.com Precedence: bulk Reply-To: christlib@swcp.com CHRISTLIB CATALOG SALES Proud to me subscribed to Christlib? Now you can show it!! Special items available today only!! === Jewelry === ChristLib Nose Ring. Spells out Christlib. $55 CL Tongue Pin. Interlocking CL design. $45 Fish Anarchy Lip Pin. Unique!! $45 === Sweaters and T-shirts === Sizes: XL, XXL, XXXL and XXXXL Based on the famous Christlib cartoons!! Yackity-Yak!! (black or white) T $20 Sweatshirt $30 Bruce's Living Room (red or white) T $25 Sweatshirt $40 Pretty Good Commission (white only) T $20 Sweatshirt $30 How a Statist Sees Rapture (red only) T $20 Sweatshirt $30 TEAM CHRISTLIB (black, red or white) T $25 Sweatshirt $40 === St. Bruce Keepsakes === Sliver from the wooden handle of the lawn rake he left behind in Portland. Comes with certificate. Only 400 pieces. $100 Copy of the first game St. Bruce ever wrote. Make C's and L's chase other letters around a maze. CPM (8" floppy) $125 DOS (5.25" floppy) $105 All profits go to sending chocolate to the list mom and to builders of Christlib web pages.
From: "Bruce Baugh" < brucebaugh at mindspring.com > To: <christlib at swcp.com> Subject: RE: Christlib: New Christlib Catalog Date: Thu, 2 Apr 1998 11:20:11 -0800 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.2106.4 Reply-To: christlib at swcp.com <snip> Color me _vastly_ amused. -- Bruce Baugh http://brucebaugh.home.mindspring.com/
When the end of the world arrives, how will the media report it?
USA Today: "WE'RE DEAD"
The Wall Street Journal: "DOW JONES PLUMMETS AS WORLD ENDS"
...
Microsoft Systems Journal: "APPLE LOSES MARKET SHARE"
...
Readers Digest: " 'BYE"
Discover Magazine: "HOW WILL THE EXTINCTION OF ALL LIFE AS WE KNOW IT AFFECT THE WAY WE VIEW THE COSMOS?"
...
Sun: ARMAGEDDON TOLERANT SOFTWARE NOW AVAILABLE!
...
Popular Mechanics: Blueprints For Angel Wings
...
Christianity Today: Now Do You Believe Us??
...
Consumer Reports: Heat-Resistant Long Johns -- We Test 10 Brands
...
The Skeptical Inquirer: The Final Judgment -- Just Another Hoax? By James Randi
...
...
...
...
and several other ``headlines'' mirrored at: http://www.ugalumni.uoguelph.ca/~acunsolo/jokes/report.html | http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~echoes/jokes2.html | http://www.geocities.com/tlg_00/worldend.html | http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/97/Feb/endofworld.html | http://www.humorbin.com/Culture/media/armageddon.asp | http://club.euronet.be/patrick.verboven/The-House-of-Lists/endoftheworld.html (seems to have a few more entries than other mirrors) | http://www.subgenius.com/bigfist/answers/articles2/X0011_The_End........-.html (has a few entries not listed on other mirrors) | http://monster-island.org/tinashumor/humor/worldend.html | http://www.aaaugh.com/jokes/end_of_world.html | http://monster-island.org/tinashumor/humor/worldend.html
DAV: I thought this was hilarious. But then, I have a weird sense of humor.
We've been spending all too much time discussing Kevin Mitnick, "America's Most Wanted Computer Outlaw".
David Brin
links to http://opengov.media.mit.edu/Ryan McKinley ... a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ...
Dubbing it the Government Information Awareness project, McKinley has written a series of computer programs that will allow users to "scrape" existing online databases and add the information to his site (opengov.media.mit.edu). Individuals can also plug in information they might have developed or have access to, a potential boon for whistleblowers, said McKinley's thesis adviser, assistant professor Christopher Csikszentmihalyi.
... Clyde Wayne Crews Jr., head of technology policy at the libertarian Cato Institute, said the site is a natural evolution of the power of technology that can help check government abuse.
"If we're going to be watched, we have a right to watch the watchers," Crews said ...
DAV: David Brin has convinced me that the sort of privacy most people had in the 1990 will soon cease to exist. Brin doesn't argue about whether the passenger pigeon was good or bad. Brin makes the point that it is extinct, there's nothing we can do to bring it back, and discusses various ways we can deal with this fact.
After you read _The Transparent Society_ please check out http://crit.org/openness
-- chapter 7 ``The War over Secrecy'', _The Transparent Society_ book by David Brin 1998Excuse me for being greedy, but I want freedom and good government. Both a flourishing economy and a well-cared-for earth. A society that is diverse and communal ... ... that offers both privacy and accountability. One that can afford a big conscience, along with lots of neat toys.
-- chapter 8 ``Pragmatism in an uncertain world'', _The Transparent Society_ book by David Brin 1998if enough people are eccentric or individualistic in the coming age, they will almost certainly rather together on one issue, in a single cause uniting all the cypherpunks, amateur scientists, loners, polygamists, librarians, celibates, skateboarders, llama breeders, volunteer firefighters, paraplegics, UFO-maniacs, libertarians, agoraphobes, street jugglers, college professors, hobos, members of every ethnic minority or small religious denomination, and millions of others who just happen to like tolerance and diversity. Despite all their myriad differences, they may fight for a general policy of live and let live.
DAV: I'm not sure how I feel about being lumped in with ``llama breeders''. Well, at least I'm not lumped in with ``street mimes''. :-).
Thomas Jefferson
It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
-- Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia
-- Karl Fogel http://www.red-bean.com/kfogel/index.html [FIXME: #free-information]Why do I like the Internet? Thomas Jefferson said it best in this 1813 letter to Isaac MacPherson:
"Stable ownership is the gift of social law, and is given late in the progress of society. It would be curious then, if an idea, the fugitive fermentation of an individual brain, could of natural right, be claimed in exclusive and stable property. If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation."
Wow -- he sure knew how to write, huh?
Donald Knuth [FIXME: move Knuth info from elsewhere to here]
[FIXME: move this to a ``programming in general'' page ?]`` Besides demonstrating the techniques of clear, efficient coding, Knuth has sought to bring a deeper sense of aesthetics to the discipline. "You try to consider that the program is an essay, a work of literature," he says. "I'm hoping someday that the Pulitzer Prize committee will agree." Prizes would be handed out for "best-written program," he says, only half-joking. ...
Knuth's ideas of elegance can be applied to more disciplines than simply the digital realm. Knuth hesitates at this suggestion, then demurs: "Everyday life is like programming, I guess," he says. "If you love something you can put beauty into it." ''
After an introductory first session, the second lecture focusses on the interaction of randomization and religion, since randomization has become a key area of scientific interest during the past few decades. The third lecture considers questions of language translation, with many examples drawn from the author's experiments in which random verses of the Bible were analyzed in depth. The fourth one deals with art and aesthetics; it illustrates several ways in which beautiful presentations can greatly deepen our perception of difficult concepts. The fifth lecture discusses what the author learned from the "3:16 project," a personal exploration of Biblical literature which he regards as a turning point in his own life.
The sixth and final lecture, "God and Computer Science," is largely independent of the other five. It deals with several new perspectives by which concepts of computer science help to shed light on many ancient and difficult questions previously addressed by scientists in other fields.
...
The book concludes with a transcript of a panel discussion in which Knuth joins several other prominent computer specialists to discuss "Creativity, Spirituality, and Computer Science."
Rev. Joe Wright gave a widely-quoted prayer
before the House of Representatives of the Kansas Legislature
on January 23, 1996.
(I got these links from a internet search for
``prayer "joe wright" kansas
''.
[FIXME: reduce to just 3 or so links]
``a government that's big enough...''
related to "Ask for what you really want" creed.html#really_want .
From: Keith Lofstrom Subject: Christlib: Re: Quote To: christlib at swcp.com Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2000 08:47:19 -0800 (PST) X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL2] quoth Royster-Meister: > > "It's part of the package: a government big enough > > to give you everything > > you want is big enough to take away everything you've got." > > > > Lawrence Reed, May 2000 issue of _Ideas on Liberty_, Chris McKinney notes: > Everytime I read this I feel Reed has plagiarized Harry Browne: > > "The government that's strong enough to give you what you want by > taking it from someone else is strong enough to take everything > you have and give it to someone else." [_Why Government Doesn't > Work_, Harry Browne (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995) p. 27.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ according to Frank Williams, www.healylaw.com, and many others, Gerald Ford said: "A government big enough to give us everything we want is a government big enough to take from us everything we have" ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Barry Goldwater said (IMHO more eloquently): "A government big enough to give you what you want is big enough to take it all away" ------------------------------------------------------------------------ according to www.people.virginia.edu/~rlh83, Davy Crockett said: "Remember that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have" ------------------------------------------------------------------------ and according to patriot.org, Thomas Jefferson said: "Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have" This was also Government exhibit 459 at the trial of Timothy McVeigh, in a document found in his car, and thus part of the evidence that he was an extremist. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I don't have original sources on any of these, and I rather doubt the Davy Crockett one. I first heard this as the Goldwater version, and that one scans best, IMHO. The Browne version reads like Dan Quayle. Keith -- Keith Lofstrom <keithl at ieee.org> Voice (503)-520-1993 KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon" Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs
From: "Chris B. McKinney" To: christlib at swcp.com Subject: RE: Christlib: Quote Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2000 16:44:21 +0800 A google search of Gerald Ford "A government big enough" led me straight to http://www.bartleby.com/63/7/107.html, which attributes the quote "A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have," from an address to Congress on August 12, 1974. So, does anybody have a source earlier than this? Thanks, Chris
Subject: Christlib: Big Enough to Take It All Away To: christlib at swcp.com Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 13:18:31 -0400 (EDT) From: Tim King X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL54 (25)] The "tax-day" issue of the Liberator Online, published by the Advocates for Self-Government, has the following quote with attribution: "A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away." --Senator Barry Goldwater, US senator and 1964 candidate for president. A good issue, BTW. Including a story about a guy from Sunderland, England who was convicted of the crime of not using the metric system. You know, it's becoming more and more difficult to caricature government. -TimK -- Listen to my personal music collections at MP3.com: http://MP3.com/stations/timk It's free!
The U.S. Constitution and other historical documents.
The Constitution Society is a private non-profit organization dedicated to research and public education on the principles of constitutional republican government. ... We maintain that the principles of constitutional republicanism are universal, and applicable to all nations, although not well understood or upheld by most. We also examine the related principles of federalism and nomocracy, the rule of law, of nomology, the science of law, and show how those principles are applicable to solving the fundamental problem of avoiding excessive or unbalanced concentrations of power.http://www.constitution.org/ [FIXME: to read: http://www.constitution.org/aun/union_now.htm ]
other historic documents
Geneva convention
monks
All too often, I hear that "religion" is, like, you know, "bad", because of, you know, "the Crusades, the Inquisition, and stuff.". I'm looking for some good references to the actual facts of the matter.
For people who claim that "religion" has killed more humans than anything else, please consult bignums.html#morbid . [FIXME: still doesn't have any numbers on the Crusades ... but you can see that other things have been far more evil, killing more people than the entire population of the Holy Land ]
here are some related links, both pro- and anti-.
In 1975, Congress created the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to administer and enforce the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) - the statute that governs the financing of federal elections. The duties of the FEC, which is an independent regulatory agency, are to disclose campaign finance information, to enforce the provisions of the law such as the limits and prohibitions on contributions, and to oversee the public funding of Presidential elections.
optical scanner ballots
were apparently *less* reliable than the notorious punch card ballots
in this controversial election:
the number of changes per ballot is smaller for
the punch card ballots (one change per 1614 votes) than
the optical scanner ballots (one change per 1094 votes).
http://lakshmi.som.yale.edu/~spiegel/florida/FloridaChads.pdf
...
... However, in 2001 every uncounted ballot was carefully examined in a scientific study by the University of Chicago, which concluded that when all the votes were counted, more votes had been cast for Gore than for Bush.
... Bush might have kept his lead if the manual recounts of machine-rejected ballots had been completed along the lines either requested by Gore or initially mandated by the Florida Supreme Court. In these recount scenarios, not all of the machine-rejected ballots would have been included. ...
Q: Why were more errors like this made by Democrats than by Republicans?
A: The social characteristics of Florida Democrats. The two groups making the most errors were African Americans and seniors, who are core constituencies of the Florida Democratic Party. Seniors probably made errors because of weak eyesight and other physical limitations caused by aging. African Americans may have made errors because of the anxiety they are likely to feel at the polls, where in the not-very-distant past they would have routinely faced threats, violence, police harassment, and worse.
...
Q: Did Florida officials faithfully execute the state's election laws?
A: No. ...
Q: Will changes to state election laws that were enacted in 2001 prevent the same problems from recurring?
A: No. In fact, the badly named Florida Election Reform Act is in many respects a step backward. ...
...
[FIXME: move to http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?TechnicalSpecificationForVotingMachines ]
[FIXME: are these still good mirrors ?:] http://www.cris.com/~bwjass/lfl/ (mirror: http://www.concentric.net/~Bwjass/lfl/ )
Date: Thu, 7 May 1998 02:05:59 -0600 To: christlib@swcp.com From: Dar Scott Subject: Christlib: ADMIN -- New Info File for Christlib Sender: owner-christlib@swcp.com Precedence: bulk Reply-To: christlib@swcp.com Remember that long "welcome" mail you got when you subscribed to Christlib? That contains lots of good list info such as the whole scoop on manners, subscribing & unsubscribing, archives, digest, Dar's irritating copyright rules, and so on. I've made a new one. Today's changes include info on the archive and the digest. A month or so ago I incorporated stuff from mail I sent to the list about copyrights and list diversity. You can get the latest by sending mail to <majordomo@swcp.com> with "info christlib" in the body. The Info File is also visible at the archive site, but, since there are humans in that loop, there can be a delay in that change. It is my intent to send a note like this one when I make changes. Only smaller. Dar -------------------------------------------------------- Mr. Dar Scott +CL+ Albuquerque dsc@swcp.com + Christlib list manager + Christlib is the discussion list for topics covering Christianity and libertarianism. To subscribe send mail with "subscribe christlib" in the body to <majordomo@swcp.com>. List information is available at the archive site: http://www.findmail.com/listsaver/christlib/ Check out the first contribution to the free and competitive market in Christlib pages: http://www.rdrop.com/~cary/html/christlib.html +------------------------------------------------------+
Date: Thu, 7 May 1998 02:06:27 -0600 To: christlib@swcp.com From: Dar Scott Subject: Christlib: ADMIN -- Christlib has a digest As an alternative to the regular subscription to Christlib in which you get each message one at a time as soon as it is available, you can sub/scribe in a way that allows you to receive messages bundled into a few items of mail a day. This alternative is called a digest. If you know of anyone who left Christlib because of the mail load, let them know about the digest option. To subscribe to the digest send mail (from your email client) to <majordomo@swcp.com> with "subscribe christlib-digest" (sans quotes) in the body. If that looks like the right thing for you then unsub/scribe from the regular list to stop the one-at-a-time mail. Just send mail to <majordomo@swcp.com> with "unsubscribe christlib" in the body. If you don't like it, unsub/scribe in similar manner to christlib-digest. I think a digest subscription can often clean up a mailbox. With some mail clients it can save disk space. Some people find them easier to browse. (I don't.) I think it can work well for lurkers. There is a potential problem that can irritate your fellow Christlibers. When you reply to a digest, the "To:" will be set to the right address (usually). The subject will refer to something like "Re: christlib-digest V1 #12" not the embedded message you were thinking about. If you mail that, nobody will have any idea what you are talking about. You should copy the embedded subject line and paste it into the subject field. If there is no "Re:", you might want to type that in. This is all a real pain if you send a lot of messages to the list. So... Get a marker and write CHANGE CHRISTLIB SUBJECT along the top of your monitor. :) The digest looks good. There are very minor cosmetics in the subject list at the front. And there are probably some things I didn't test. Dar -------------------------------------------------------- Mr. Dar Scott +CL+ Albuquerque dsc@swcp.com + Christlib list manager + Christlib is the discussion list for topics covering Christianity and libertarianism. To subscribe send mail with "subscribe christlib" in the body to <majordomo@swcp.com>. List information is available at the archive site: http://www.findmail.com/listsaver/christlib/ Check out the first contribution to the free and competitive market in Christlib pages: http://www.rdrop.com/~cary/html/christlib.html +------------------------------------------------------+
http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?Psalms+78:1-8 ... Dave Babbitt Check out http://www.babbitt.org/cgi/bible/bible_annotator.cgi ... ??? http://www.fourthturning.com/ ???
Date: 5 May 1998 06:52:55 -0000 From: "Dar Scott" Subject: Re: Christlib: ADMIN -- Archive of Christlib To: christlib@aracnet.com The archive is set up. Look at http://www.findmail.com/listsaver/christlib/ You might have to register. (List data is old; I'll fix that later.) Dar Mark 4:22
Date: Tue, 5 May 1998 02:02:56 -0600 To: christlib@swcp.com From: Dar Scott Subject: Christlib: Re: ADMIN -- Archive of Christlib The Christlib archive is partially set up. I think you will need to register and to allow cookies to use it. It has some problems. The list info is from several months ago. The address for the list and the subscription address are OLD. Do not use FindMail to post to the list until that is fixed. Check the majordomo address displayed by FindMail before using it to change your subscription. Christlib archive is at... http://www.findmail.com/listsaver/christlib/ Some of you got this info earlier and this seems to be redundant. However, not everybody got this info, so I'm making sure that the entire list gets this. Having discovered the address errors, I think this anouncement is premature, but since some of you got the data, I figured I oughta be fair in premature anouncements. Still worth playing with; the thread trees are pretty smart. Remember...do not use FindMail to post yet. If convenient, hold off a couple days until I get this fixed before making links to the above. Dar -------------------------------------------------------- Mr. Dar Scott +CL+ Albuquerque dsc@swcp.com + Christlib list manager + Christlib is the discussion list for topics covering Christianity and libertarianism. To get info send mail with "info christlib" in the body to <majordomo@swcp.com>. Or check out the first contribution to the free and competitive market in Christlib pages: http://www.rdrop.com/~cary/html/christlib.html --------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 5 May 1998 21:34:36 -0600 To: christlib@swcp.com From: Dar Scott Subject: Christlib: ADMIN -- Copyrighted matterial to the list Here is list policy in sending articles, news reports, chapters, prefaces, similar works or large portions of them. This policy is based in part on law and practical issues, in part on the notion of avoiding the look of wrong doing and offending those who see propriety in written works, and in part as a default respect for creators. I am well aware that this policy is probably more conservative than "fair use" might be. These are listed from the most strict to the wishy-washy. 1. If it is copyrighted, get permission. Otherwise don't send it as a whole. Summarize it and, if appropriate, quote parts as needed. Show copyright notice and permission. 2. If it is not copyrighted, but _looks_ like it would be, note in the mail how it is not. If you are not sure, check it out. 3. If it is not copyrighted and you'd like to show respect to writers, consider getting permission anyway and giving appropriate credit. I am _very_ willing to help out in getting permission. But, then, I'm probably at least as lazy as anybody else on the list. And I'm certainly ignorant as to what is involved in getting permission. Of course, discussions on copyright and related subjects are open as well as those on list policy and even list policy as it applies to the abstract subjects. Dar Scott List Ogre
Date: Thu, 7 May 1998 13:09:05 -0600 To: christlib@swcp.com From: Dar Scott Subject: Re: Christlib: Re: ADMIN -- Archive of Christlib Sender: owner-christlib@swcp.com Precedence: bulk Reply-To: christlib@swcp.com The Christlib archive is up and looking good. There are a couple cosmetic flaws that may never go away. And the INFO FILE display is behind and will probably be behind until they set up a way for me to change it myself. (That means digest info is not there yet.) I think FindMail is doing a great job in archiving email lists. Y'all might enjoy using it for other lists, too. There are some advertising banners, but I enjoy the ones I get--I get Albuquerque weather! However, we don't want to put all eggs in one basket. Alternatives would be great. Ideas? The URL for the Christlib archive is this: http://www.findmail.com/listsaver/christlib/ It is so good, I think it is one of the competing Christlib pages in the free market of Christlib pages. Bet those guys at FindMail didn't know they were in the ring. The site provides lots of good Christlib info. I registered at FindMail some time before the Christlib URL was activated. So I don't know what happens when one clicks on the above URL cold. Let me know your experiences. If that works well, then it could make a good place to link to. There is an alternate URL without frames: http://www.findmail.com/listsaver/setnoframes/christlib/ That has no frames but does use tables and images. I'm not sure how well that works without previous registration. You can switch back and forth. The site does use cookies (information that it stores in your browser) but those are only sent to that site. The FindMail people seem to go to an effort to protect you from spam. If you want your mail removed, they can handle that. If you need to send mail to the list that should not be archived (limited permission, for example), there is a way to do that. They do display a writer profile. And if you scroll down past the list info, you will find some cool stats links including writer stats. Here you will find spelling error profiles, over-quoting stats, flaming profiles, readability profiles, terrorist indicators... Nah!! Just kidding on all those, but there are some stats; check em out. :) They do a good job of following threads even when the subject changes. So good, that those who subscribe to the digest (christlib-digest) and find a lot of interesting topics one day might want to switch to here to browse. If you are registered, you can post from here. The mail archived is from about 12/3/96 until now. About a year and a quarter and almost 4000 messages. They can add old mail in many formats. ANYBODY GOT MAIL ARCHIVES FOR 96 AND 95? Can I hope for even 94? Based on cookie info they even have a personal"My Mail" page that displays your favorite lists and even shows how much mail has come in since you last looked at the list. Great place for a bookmark. I still think there are places in free market Christlib pages for alternately displayed archives as well as safe rainy-day backups should FindMail fall apart. Dar ___________________________________________________________ Mr. Dar Scott +CL+ Albuquerque dsc@swcp.com + Christlib list manager + Christlib: Topics Christian and libertarianism. To subscribe send mail with "subscribe christlib" in the body to <majordomo@swcp.com>. List information is available online: http://www.findmail.com/listsaver/christlib/ (archive) http://www.rdrop.com/~cary/html/christlib.html ___________________________________________________________
Jews for Jesus http://www.jews-for-jesus.org/
Institute for Christian Leadership http://www.iclnet.org/
Theology on the Web http://www.dma.org/~thawes
Big questions: "What does theocracy imply in general?" -- Dar Scott, Sat, 4 Jul 1998 "one might feel that a theocracy must be a hierocracy or that all states are technically hierocracies."
Minnesota E-Democracy http://www.e-democracy.org/
RonO (Ronald B. Oakes) Webmaster, Christian Fandom web pages (http://www.christian-fandom.org/christian-fandom/) and list owner/manager Christian Fandom mailing list (christian-fandom at swcp.com)
"There are more free-market security guards than state police forces; more cases tried before free-market arbitrators than before state courts." -- http://www.ncpa.org/pi/crime/pdcrm/pdcrm63a.html
the Cato institue http://www.cato.org/
The CIA's World Fact Book search_tools.html#factbook
New Country Foundation http://www.freenation.org/ncf
??? American Freedom Network http://www.amerifree.com/
The Agnostic Church http://www.agnostic.org/ and has a "Agnostic Bible" http://www.agnostic.org/httoc.htm by William A. Schultz (currently a Work In Progress, inviting feedback).
Christian Book Distributors http://www.christianbook.com/ "put out a great catalog" -- recc. Hardrock Llewynyth Date: Tue, 30 Dec 1997
"The Right to Read" short story by Richard Stallman http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
I've been told that "Digital Future Coalition http://www.dfc.org/ wants to allow pirates to steal other people's work", which is the organization which fights against the "Creative Incentive Coalition http://www.cic.org/ wants to take away "Fair Use" rights, and to make it illegal for people or libraries to lend their books to others without making sure royalties are made to the original authors."
Religion and the Internet http://www.primenet.com/~captain/religion.htm A good, scholarly article on a subject that has had far too much hype recently. "Techno-Religious Developments"
Did this really happen ? http://www.photobooks.com/~horus/texts/wizzard.txt [FIXME: offline ?]
Unoffical United Methodist Web Page http://www.netins.net/showcase/umsource/
The Bill of No Rights http://www.bserver.com/bunker/billofno.html somewhat funny :-).
Laissez Faire Books http://www.LFB.org/ a bookstore focusing on pro-Libertarian books. claims to have "The World's Largest Selection of Books on Liberty". Books by David Friedman, P.J. O'Rourke, Ayn Rand, Robert Axelrod, Esther Dyson, Richard Dawkins, Jack London, Robert Heinlein, L. Neil Smith, etc.
Christian SF and Fantasy Recommended Reading http://www.swinggirl.com/~mpavlac/christsf.htm
http://www.christian-fandom.org/christian-fandom/ ???
L. Neil Smith http://LNeilSmith.org/
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1998 08:17:44 -0600 To: christlib at swcp.com From: Dar Scott Subject: Christlib: Day of Atonement (was Libertarian Christians?) John Fast wrote, >Seriously, though, I'd like to recommend J. Neil Schulman's story >"Day of Atonement," in _Free Space: The Libertarian SF Anthology_, >and also available on Neil's web site www.pulpless.com as part >of "Nasty, Brutish, and Short Stories." This is a self-referencial story--a terrorist's bomb thrown into the works--which at times leaves me baffled and at times reminds me of truths. Dar
all (?) presidential press releases since 1993-Jan have been archived ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/academic/political-science/
http://www.lucifer.com/virus/archive/0014.html a brief summary of the "Dark Ages" from 501 to 1449
Unravelling Wittgenstein's Net-- A Christian ThinkTank http://www.webcom.com/~ctt/ Glenn Miller's apologetics web site
Mike Hurley http://www.sound.net/~mhurley/url.htm /* moving to http://www.xoom.com/hisman ? */
http://ldolphin.org/ mirrored at http://www.best.com/~dolphin/ Go to his search engine http://ldolphin.org/asstbib.shtml and type "Third Temple Mount" for lots of info on the Temple Mount, the Dome of the Rock, the friction between Muslim and Jew at that site, the desire to build a Third Temple,
National Association of Evangelicals http://nae.goshen.net/
GOSHEN Christian Search Engine and Directory http://goshen.net/
Drug Enforcement Administration of the U.S. Department of Justice http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/
some arguments for the infallibility of the Bible http://members.aol.com/bible2007/
Center for Scientific Creation http://www.creationscience.com/
Why Argue with Christian Pseudo-Science?
http://www.mb.imag.net/~wpg742/reading/whyargue.html
by Doug Craigen, PhD (physics).
"Entropy, God and Evolution"
by Doug Craigen, PhD (physics)
http://www.mb.imag.net/~wpg742/reading/evol.html
recommended by David Cary.
World Evangelical Fellowship http://www.WorldEvangelical.org/ "the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church" ???
Unravelling Wittgenstein's Net-- A Christian ThinkTank http://www.webcom.com/~ctt/ DAV: This seems pretty good. Doesn't take himself too seriously; starts out with the quote "Critically examine EVERYTHING. Hold on to the good.". Has 2 incomplete files that look most useful:
"To sweeten poisoned wells" http://home.vicnet.net.au/~cardoner/uniya/un5su07.html Adrian Lyons SJ reflects on the notion of faith
Wendy McElroy's Site for Individualist Feminism, and Individualist Anarchism. http://www.zetetics.com/mac/
http://www.dejanews.com/~theory/ ???
"Politics is for the moment. An equation is for eternity." -- A. Einstein
"It seems to me a fundamental economic problem is that in order for *me* to breathe cleaner air, *you* have to buy an electric vehicle. I wonder, therefore, whether the general market model is appropriate, when you talk about something where the person laying out the money isn't necessarily the beneficiary." -- Michael Reizenman, quoted in "EVs [electric vehicles]: the road ahead" article in _IEEE Spectrum_ 1998-12 p. 51
"Democracy is ever eager for rapid progress, and the only progress which can be rapid is progress down hill." -- Sir James Jeans.
More context, trying to explain away the clear text: http://aldenchronicles.com/print0/print98.html also notes that "Breach of those treaties by the Barbary nations led to the Barbary wars in 1801. ... None of the other similar treaties with the Barbary states, before or after this treaty, including the replacement treaties signed in 1804 after the Barbary Wars, have any language remotely similar."
Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 22:05:11 -0400 From: nick rosen MIME-Version: 1.0 To: christlib at swcp.com Subject: Christlib: Re: Georgism (and Georgist convention) ... I don't have perfect solutions, just, IMHO, better solutions. ... Nicholas Rosen
http://news.crosswalk.com/ [periodical]
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 1998 15:11:58 -0500 To: christlib at swcp.com From: David Cary <d.cary at ieee.org> ... One would hope that the "stated ideals" of a system, the actions of individuals under that system, and the actual long-term results of a system would all be in harmony. But I see it is too much to ask for. ... >Date: Fri, 13 Feb 1998 22:25:03 -0700 >From: "William H. Stoddard" ... >Do you apply the same reasoning to all other philosophies and ethical belief >systems? It used to be observed that the characteristic socialist >argument was to >compare the stated ideals of communism (without regard for its practice) >to the >worst failings of capitalism (without regard for its stated ideals); that >method of >argument naturally made communism look much better than it really was. If >you >judge Christianity only by the highest standards it aspires to, but >paganism, or >Buddhism, or atheism, by the faults of those who adhere to those beliefs, you >aren't making a proper test. > >Bill Stoddard -- + David Cary "mailto:d.cary@ieee.org" "http://www.rdrop.com/~cary/" | Future Tech, Unknowns, PCMCIA, digital hologram, <*> O-
But science and technology are only half the picture. We put science topics in perspective by looking at related political, ethical and philosophical issues-- so you can get a well-rounded understanding of the hot issues.''
``Drug addiction should be treated for what it is: a medical illness and/or sin. ... Considering, "for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23), we certainly need a guideline other than sin to determine when behavior is criminal. If sin were the guideline, every citizen would be in jail every day.'' -- http://www.theism.net/authors/zjordan/docs_files/stone_files/stone.htm
``When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt.'' -- Leviticus 19:35
-- http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200108/CUL20010830d.htmlDr. Tim Wheeler, director of DRGO (Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership) and a southern California surgeon.
...
"First of all, there is no evil or mischievous thing that could be done with a gun that is not already against the law," Wheeler said. "And any further gun laws can only work against law-abiding gun owners and not criminals. The way you enforce the law against criminals is to apprehend and imprison criminals. And you leave the good people alone.
"It's that simple," he said.
-- Lemmy Caution August 20 2001-08-20 http://slashdot.org/articles/01/08/20/171203.shtmlBoth laissez-faire capitalism and communism rely on the existence of humans that don't exist yet: the former on perfectly rational, completely informed agents, the latter on completely fair, totally socialized comrades. The failures of each system are based on the fact that humans are not that easy to reinvent.
see also the anti-Jedi reaction:
"The Force Skeptics Page" by Roger M. Wilcox "Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." -- Han Solo, outspoken skeptic of the Force http://pw1.netcom.com/~rogermw/force_skeptics.html
"It takes angels to govern men, but if men were angels, they wouldn't need government."
DAV suspects these are a watered-down modern paraphrases of one of these speeches:
-- Larry P. Arnn 1998 http://www.claremont.org/publications/arnn10.cfmAngels and men. Did you ever read the Declaration of Independence? Did you know that God is in there four times? He is in there as the author of the "laws of nature and of nature's God." That is the legislative branch. He is in there as the "Creator"--he is a founder. He is in there as the "supreme judge of the world"--the judicial branch. He is in there as the "Divine providence"--the executive. If you put all three branches of government in the hands of any man, he would have to be like God because if he is like us, you could not trust him.
Men are not angels. That is why we must have government. Angels do not govern men. That is why we must have constitutions.
Guns are dangerous in the hands of anyone. ... Guns are dangerous in the hands of men, even if the men happen to work in the government.
On the other hand, Mortimer J. Adler asserts that even angels must have some form of government http://www.thegreatideas.org/apd-ange.html .
-- Lawrence Lessig 2002 http://slashdot.org/interviews/02/01/15/2040217.shtmlLL: The problem is protectionists will always think that any problem is caused by imperfections in protectionism, not by the imperfections of protectionism. We need to give up the idea that they will ever understand what good policy is, and focus instead on what good policy is.
QUIS CUSTODIET CUSTODES IPSOS. Who will guard the guards themselves? --Juvenal, Satires http://www.traditio.com/tradlib/phrases.txt
seems related to http://www.observingsurveillance.org/
IN OMNIBUS GLORIFICETUR DEUS. In everything let God be glorified.
LEX MALA, LEX NULLA. A bad law (is) no law. --St. Thomas Aquinas
MALA LEX, NULLA LEX. A bad law (is) no law. --St. Thomas Aquinas
NEMO MALUS NISI PROBETUR. No one is (to be considered) evil unless it should be proved. ("Innocent until proven guilty.") --Theological
NOLENS VOLENS. Willy-nilly (lit., unwilling, willing.)
NON ANGLI, SED ANGELI. Not Angles, but angels. --Pope St. Gregory the Great
O VERE IUS SUMMUM SUMMA MALITIAE. Oh, truly the greatest justice is height of injustice. (Complete legality is complete injustice.) --Terence, Heauton Timoumenos, 796
PANEM ET CIRCENSES. Bread and circuses. --Juvenal
SCIENTI ET VOLENTI NULLA FIT INIURIA. To one who is aware and willing there is not injury.
SEMPER FIDELIS. Always faithful -- United States Marines motto
SEMPER PARATUS. Always prepared. -- United States Coast Guard motto
SI MONUMENTUM REQUIRIS, CIRCUMSPICE. If you seek his monument, look around you. --Written by the son of Christopher Wren, which is the motto on the arch of St. Paul's, London, which Sir Christopher Wren built, but where he is not interred.
SOL OMNIBUS LUCET. The sun shines upon us all. --Petronius [ reminiscent of "But I say unto you, Love your enemies ... That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." -- Jesus Mat 5:44-45 ]
SOLUTIO OMNIUM DIFFICULTATUM CHRISTUS. The solution to all problems is Christ.
TEMPORA MUTANTUR, NOS ET MUTAMUR IN ILLIS. Times change, and we change with them. --Attributed to John Owen, ob. 1622
TOT POPULORUM DISCORDES FERASQUE LINGUAS SERMONIS COMMERCIO CONTRAXIT. (Latin) united through the fellowship of language the discordant and wild tongues of so many peoples. --Pliny the Elder, Historia Naturalis, 3:6:2
UBI SOLITUDINEM FACIUNT, PACEM APPELLANT. They make a wilderness and call it peace. --Tacitus
ULTIMUM IN EXECUTIONE, PRIMUM IN INTENTIONE. That which is first in the order of intention is last in the order of execution. --St. Thomas Aquinas [FIXME: ]
UNITAS IN VARIETATE, ET VARIETAS IN UNITATE. Unity in diversity, and diversity in unity. --St. Thomas Aquinas (definition of beauty)
URBANUS ET INSTRUCTUS. A gentleman and a scholar. --Migne, Patrologia Latina, 79, of Isaiah, ca. 356
VITA SINE LIBRIS (LITERIS) MORS EST. Life without books (letters) is death.
VOCABULA ARTIS. Technical terms.
OU POLL' ALLA` POLY'. Not many things, but much. ("Not quantity, but quality."
TO` APOD_EMEI^N H_E ARI'ST_E PAIDEI'A. Traveling is the best teacher.
http://www.traditio.com/tradlib/phrases.txt
a few more latin phrases are listed at http://www.quia.com/jg/96279list.html
Sic Semper Tyrannis : Thus ever to tyrants. The motto of the State of Virginia. John Wilkes Booth is supposed to have shouted this phrase as he jumped to stage of Ford's Theater after shooting Abraham Lincoln.
a posse ad esse - from possibility to actuality
audaces fortuna iuvat - fortune favours the bold
aude sapere - dare to know
corrigenda - things to be corrected
curriculum vitae - the course of one's life
docendo discimus - by teaching, we learn
(domus) dulcis domus - (home) sweet home
ignorantia legis neminem excusat - ignorance of the law excuses no one
sine qua non - something/someone indispensable
uti foro - to play the market
veritas nunquam perit - truth never dies
veritas vos liberabit - the truth will set you free
http://www.24hourtranslations.co.uk/lphrases.htm | mirror http://www.24hourlatin.com/language/latinphrases.htm
-- Bob Butler http://polyticks.com/...a problem...
The web isn't becoming a place where people from all over the idea come to share ideas. It is becoming a place where many groups of people who think alike clump together. ... We are building a plethora of intellectual ghettos.
...
``Never defend yourself because, your real friends will never believe anything bad about you, and your enemies will never believe anything good about you!''
...
He's the fastest growing evangelist on the Internet. He has gone from 198 to 212 pounds in just two Camp Meetings. He's definitely scriptural - Proverbs 28:25 "...but he that trusteth in the LORD shall be made fat."
Christianity is growing faster in sub-Saharan Africa than anywhere else on earth. Adherents to the world's largest religion are increasing at 3.5% a year in Africa, compared with 2.5% in Latin America and Asia, and less than 1% in Europe and North America. The proportion of African Christians to all Christians has grown from one in 10 in 1970 to one in five today. ...
The Christian Church first came to Africa around 50 years after the death of Christ, spreading from Egypt across North Africa and south into present-day Ethiopia, where it survives in the form of the Coptic Church. ...
... The first major African breakaway church-- the Church of Jesus Christ on Earth, begun by Congolese preacher Simon Kimbangu in 1921--now has 6.5 million followers, including thousands in Europe. ...
Both the A.I.C. and the evangelist churches have much in common. Most hold their services in the local language and focus on the Holy Spirit and miracles. Most mix traditional African spiritual beliefs-- like ancestor veneration, witchcraft and the concept of good and bad spirits-- with elements of Pentecostal worship, including drums, guitars and charismatic preachers. A growing number also embody a more fundamental theological shift away from European tradition. In place of the mainstream churches' offers of salvation in the next world for good deeds in this one, many newer African churches preach instant deliverance in the form of worldly wealth. It is this message, so-called Prosperity Theology, that appeals to the continent's poor and displaced. ...
... Nearly all of the growth in the Church in Latin America comes naturally through births. In Africa, over a quarter is due to conversions. ...
...
Unfulfilled promises of wealth and success can lead to disappointment, and African congregations have high turnover rates. "People go from place to place searching for an answer," says Father Emmanuel Hodges, a priest with the Episcopal Church in Liberia. "If they find what they need, they stay. If they don't, they move to the next one. ..." Silvia Opoku-Manu, 25, a philosophy student in the Ghanaian capital Accra, says she used to attend an independent church but became disillusioned. "They promise you faith now. They promise your business will prosper now. Everything is instant," she says. "But God doesn't work this way. God is not a coffee machine."
Cultwatch http://www.cultwatch.com/ Cultwatch is a para-church organization made up of people from different Christian denominations. It aims to help people trapped in cults and to warn people about the danger of cults. Cultwatch is a Christian-based organization dedicated to helping people from all walks of life.
Date: Tue, 25 Jun 2002 09:08:05 -0700 To: christlib at swcp.com From: the Royster-Meister Subject: Christlib: Prudence, etc....
...
... the government, masquerading as its own cure, has taught people that they can't do things for themselves. The ONLY way to change that is to whack away at government so that it doesn't do things for them anymore. Our government, were it a parent, would keep buying a bigger crib, a larger bottle, wider diapers, rather than let us have a real bed, walk on our own, choose what to eat or not, deal with our own messes. Our government wants, by the testimony of its actions, that we should remain babies forever. By supporting the philosophy behind that, which necessarily must be done in order to advocate government as mommy, you contribute to the problem.
...
Some people are ... are distressed by the presence of males -- shall we ban all males from public places? ...
...
I'll make you a deal: you get God to stop sending down that sunlight with its energies that cause skin cancer and sunburn, and I'll accept your premise.
...
[Did Royster really say all this, or is he quoting someone else ?]
Date: Tue, 25 Jun 2002 09:09:02 -0700 To: christlib at swcp.com From: the Royster-Meister Subject: Christlib: Prudence, etc.... tyranny, the idolatry of the state ...
... this country's God-ordained form of government sets forth that ALL government power derives from its citizens -- the corollary being that the government can have no powers that citizens do not have ...
... ... This Republic got along quite nicely for the first century of its existence wihtout public police forces; it should do so again.
...
[Did Royster really say all this, or is he quoting someone else ?]
... Yes, I am a Christian -- and it is precisely because of that, that I fear, and distrust, and remain suspicious of government; because it thinks it is God, and most of America acts as though iut was God (especially Democrats, but not many Republicans are immune either). ...
[FIXME: does http://www.trsc.com/cw/cw_20020223.html have an audio recording of that Deutsch sign-off ? ]``The first VOA broadcast originated from New York City on February 24, 1942, just 79 days after the United States entered World War II. Speaking in German, announcer William Harlan Hale told his listeners, "Here speaks a voice from America. Every day at this time we will bring you the news of the war. The news may be good. The news may be bad. We shall tell you the truth." ''
-- http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2001/10/mil-011012-3c617b8d.htm"Hier spricht die Stimmen aus Amerika. Heute und taeglish von heute an... . This is the Voice speaking from America. Daily at this time we shall speak to you about America and the war. The news may be good or bad. We shall tell you the truth."
`` ...
Skeptics will only win the war for rational beliefs by continuing, even in the face of defensive responses from others, to use behavior that is unfailingly dignified and tactful and that communicates respect and wisdom. For the data to speak loudly, skeptics must always refrain from screaming.
... Challenging beliefs must always be done with care and compassion.
Skeptics must remember to always keep their eye on the goal. They must see the long view. They must attempt to win the war for rational beliefs, not to engage in a fight to the death over any one particular battle with any one particular individual or any one particular belief. Not only must skeptics' methods and data be clean, direct, and unbiased, their demeanor and behavior must be as well. ''
-- http://mkellner.blogspot.com/I'll never forget the Senate Commerce subcommittee hearing on Open Network Architecture that was held years ago on the Hill; I covered it for MISWeek.
Fritz Hollings showed up for an initial statement and left as if he were being chased through the Carolina hills by a revenuer who saw moonshine in his car. That left one Senator, Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, to listen to the eye-glazing testimony of Eli Noam from Columbia U., Irv Sidenberg of Nynex (now Verizon) and some others.
Finally, Inouye, no slouch as a legislator or as an American (he lost an arm fighting for the U.S. during the Second World War), drew himself up and addressed the assembled telecom experts: “Gentlemen, you need to get together and work this out yourselves,” he said. “Because if you don't, we'll have to step in, AND WE HAVE NO IDEA OF WHAT WE'RE DOING.”
This was a rare moment of candor, to be sure, but it underlines a truth: why do we (particularly we journalists who've seen tons of government screw-ups) expect government to solve really tough problems such as software design and manufacture?
posted by Mark Kellner
-- Ole Wilhelm Klüwer http://home.online.no/~kluwer/engl.htmIs it meant that the Human Rights, with the focus on the individual, shall dissolve these old beautiful structures, so that we get a terrestial ocean of individuals ? If so, which policy has decided this ? What about the right of belonging ?
-- http://www.adherents.com/ [FIXME: move to bignums.html ?]... congregation statistics for over 4,200 religions, churches, denominations, religious bodies, faith groups, tribes, cultures, movements, ultimate concerns, etc.
Basically, researchers can use this site to answer such questions as "How many Quakers live in Indiana?", "What are the major religions of Nigeria?", or "What percentage of the world is Buddhist?" ...
-- _The Arrogance of Power_ book by Senator J. William FulbrightThere are two Americas. One is the America of Lincoln and Adlai Stevenson, the other is the America of Teddy Roosevelt and the modern superpatriots. One is generous and humane, the other narrowly egotistical; one is self critical, the other is self righteous; one is sensible, the other is romantic; one is good humored, the other solemn; one is inquiring, the other pontificating; one is moderate, the other filled with passionate intensity; one is judicious, and the other arrogant in the use of great power.
From: "Michael Morrison" <morrisonhimself at hotmail.com> To: christlib@swcp.com Subject: Re: Christlib: What is defense? Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 07:17:24 PDT Dar, your comment > >Of course, most people who call themselves pacifists really believe in >priviledged aggression based on the person's status or cause. is a shameful exaggeration and erroneous generalization. Please, for your soul's sake, read the life and works of Robert LeFevre. Your admirer (usually), Michael Morrison
AFGANISTAN ASSAULT. Bush October 2001 prime time TV speech: "On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against al Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan."
Soldiers deserve to understand whom they can kill morally and why those actions are indeed moral.
Gives some details of .
the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu
...
journalist Mark Bowden wrote a best-selling account of the battle, Black Hawk Down
"Few pacifists would accept logical outcome of their stance" editorial by Michael Kelly October 03, 2001 http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=kelly03&date=20011003
"Proud to be a pacifist" editorial by Lewis Green http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/134351683_pacifists10.html "Lewis Green is regional coordinator for Witness for Peace Northwest "
a fun and informative activity to explore world religions and belief systems. ... a sampling of more than two dozen world world religions, belief systems, or belief categories.
To promote and defend reason, science, and freedom of inquiry in all areas of human endeavor. ... the West Coast headquarters of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP -- publisher of Skeptical Inquirer magazine) and the Council for Secular Humanism (publisher of Free Inquiry magazine). ... also the international headquarters for Secular Organizations for Sobriety (SOS), also known a Save Our Selves, a popular recovery program that provides a nonreligious alternative to twelve-step programs for alcoholics and others with substance dependencies.
... a group dedicated to allaying the privacy concerns of millions of people whose every possession may soon be broadcasting data indiscriminately to the world ... Their plans are to tag all the objects manufactured on the planet with RFID chips and track them via the Internet ...
Apparently the RFID lobby sees public reluctance as nothing more than an obstacle to be overcome with shallow bromides and platitudes. ...
... the Mark of the Beast looks set to catch on more slowly with the public than originally thought.
"General Howe, No King but King Jesus" is a chapter in _Life in the Colonies_ schoolbook by ??? http://www.lifeinamerica.com/colonies/col_scope.htm
similar to
If we will not be governed by God, then we will be ruled by tyrants.
-- William Penn
http://www.fcgcchurch.com/IfTheFoundationsAreDestroyedWhatCanTheRighteousDo.html
-- http://members.tripod.com/kelschbiblestudy1/freedom/cost_freedom.htmPrinciples and Acts of the Revolution in America, Hezekiah Niles, British governor. Written to England about events in America. 1774 "If you ask an American, who is his master? He will tell you he has none, nor any governor but Jesus Christ". The quote was later adopted as the rallying cry of the colonists, "No King but King Jesus."
To suggest that America's Founding Fathers envisioned a society built on the premise that "We have no king but Jesus" is challenged by many scholars.
-- Robert Parry
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2001/011601a.html
also quoted at
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/bartagn.htm
""We have no king but Jesus." John Ashcroft's Speech at Bob Jones University given at Commencement, 1999-05-08 http://www.citizensoldier.net/bobjonesspeech.html
charity is not a function that government can perform efficiently. Government can only set up a bureaucracy to dole out money based on some set of criteria. But real charity requires loving people enough to become involved in their lives so you can learn what the real problems are and provide information, discipline, and resources to solve those problems.
[Who said this ?] http://www.citizensoldier.net/
One of my favorite Chrislib messages:
Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 15:54:45 -0700 From: Dar Scott <dsc at swcp.com> To: christlib@swcp.com X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.480)
Bing! Bing! Bing! Controversial Topic detected! Everybody, go to CT discussion mode! ToughSkins, ON! KidGloves ON! Enhanced Manners, activated!
...
Dar
"TV and Film Star is a Libertarian Freedom Fighter" by James W. Harris (2003-May-22 ?) http://www.lp.org/lpnews/0306/dean_cameron.html
Dean Cameron ...
...
Off-camera, Cameron has been putting his libertarian beliefs into practice. He is the inventor and marketer of the clever and provocative "Bill of Rights, Security Edition" for travelers -- a playing-card-sized piece of metal on which is printed the Bill of Rights.
The metal card is designed to set off the metal detectors in airports -- thus, in a dramatic live-action literally take away your Bill of Rights.
...
"My friend, Dino Cameron, is a genius," Jillette said. "He got the idea to make playing card-size copies of the Bill of Rights printed on metal. With the Fourth Amendment in red. It's a great idea. It sets off the metal detectors and you get to hear the security person say, 'I'm going to have to take away your Bill of Rights.' "
More praise for the cards comes from the American Civil Liberties Union, which has purchased cards for its volunteers. All in all, Cameron has sold over 2,000 of the cards so far.
You can check them out -- and get one for yourself and join the fun -- at:
www.securityedition.com.
(Sources: Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-ca-celebpolitics30mar30,1,38082 LP News : http://www.lp.org/lpnews/0306/dean_cameron.html )
...
"Proud to be an American" says one bumper sticker. "One nation - indivisible," says another. America was, of course, founded on the opposite principle...the idea that people were free to separate themselves from a parent government whenever they felt they had come of age. ...
...
But what is it? What has it become? What makes America different from any other nation? Why should we care more about it than about, say, Lithuania or Chad?
...
"Give me liberty or give me death," said Patrick Henry, raising the rhetorical stakes and praying no one would call him on it. Yet, the average man at the time lived in near perfect freedom. There were few books and few laws on them. And fewer people to enforce them. Henry, if he wanted to do so, could have merely crossed the Blue Ridge west of Charlottesville and never seen another government agent again.
...
Which takes me back to jury duty. We are there, like we are anywhere else, not as minions of the state, but as personally involved shapers of the world. The future is cloudy, and cause-and-effect is rarely obvious, so we do our shaping in partial ignorance. But not complete ignorance, ... Most of what I write above is a desperate plea to myself to fully engage in life ...-- Keith Lofstrom, 17 Apr 2001
What is money? And how well does it work to solve society's ills? Bernard Lietaer, author of the upcoming book Access to Human Wealth: Money beyond Greed and Scarcity (Access Books, 2003), has made a life's work of exploring these questions.
seems to be related to
"PgpID: An open-source, single sign-on, identity and messaging server ... written in Java and using an external OpenPGP/GnuPG." http://pgpid.sourceforge.net/
Civil liberpity: /n/ State of feigned apoplexy over a supposed "suppression" of constitutional rights, usually followed by exclamations that the U.S. is becoming a "police state" with much "crushing of dissent." Ex. - Linda Ronstadt has been the paragon of civil liberpity this week.-- http://www.arguewithsigns.net/archives/2004/07/21/blog_word_creation_pt_2/
Started 1998-03-07
Original Author: David Cary.
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