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Posts Made By: John Hopkins

October 15, 2003 05:41 PM Forum: Off Topic Discussions

They tracked him down!

Posted By John Hopkins

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/cubfan1.html

If the cubbies win tonight, he's off the the hook. If they lose, he's a mark.

October 21, 2003 06:12 PM Forum: Religion

Changing the A/A designation is none too bright

Posted By John Hopkins

http://www.csicop.org/list/listarchive/msg00431.html

October 27, 2003 04:45 PM Forum: Religion

Confused atheists

Posted By John Hopkins

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/custom/fringe/sfl-10heavenorhell,0,5063943.story?coll=sfla-news-fringe

Paragraph of contention:

"Many who describe themselves as either atheistic or agnostic also harbor contradictions in their thinking, Barna said. He said that half the atheists and agnostics surveyed believed that everyone had a soul, that heaven and hell existed and that there was life after death. One in eight atheists and agonistics believe that accepting Jesus Christ as savior probably makes life after death possible."

I'm guessing that anyone who's gone to the trouble of labeling themselves 'atheist' are probably not going to make mistakes of this kind.

By an amazing coincidence, I just happened to read this article an hour earlier:

http://www.csicop.org/doubtandabout/polling/

November 13, 2003 07:47 PM Forum: Religion

10 Commandments judge removed from bench

Posted By John Hopkins

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20031113_1016.html

November 17, 2003 07:18 PM Forum: Religion

For those flamewar blues...

Posted By John Hopkins

Here, folks, is a little levity on the other site I look at all day (IN-BETWEEN work calls, I assure you), and I'm not just pointing it out because I have a couple of entries in it (all the same, my handle is 'DARKHOP') =}

Anyway these are Photoshop 'contests,' they run about 3 times a day and the point is to be as artistic and/or funny (preferably the latter) as possible.

The theme in this one was to mate 2 different movies into one, and it got more responses than any other I've seen to date. Lotsa good ones, but also lotsa pics, so avoid if your connection is particularly slow:

http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=715072

December 17, 2003 04:58 PM Forum: Religion

Re: why all this effort?

Posted By John Hopkins

>>time and effort to destroy others faith.<<

Uh, if their faith can be 'destroyed' then it wasn't too firm to begin with, yes?

And no one's trying to destroy anything. We're discussing. If it gets a little heated sometimes, that's just the nature of this subject.

December 17, 2003 06:11 PM Forum: Religion

Uh-oh

Posted By John Hopkins

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/showsigwx.php?warnzone=MOZ021&warncounty=MOC049&local_place1=Turney&product1=NON+PRECIPITATION+STATEMENT

Here comes the sun...

January 31, 2004 03:05 PM Forum: Religion

Quote of the moment

Posted By John Hopkins

"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently." --Nietzsche

February 1, 2004 04:36 PM Forum: Religion

Without music, life would be a mistake

Posted By John Hopkins

"However, even 'boredom' has its aura of mystery and is imbued with a singular pathos by Nietzsche. Boredom, from which art provides a refuge, becomes terrifying -- the yawning abyss of being. When people are bored, they regard the moment as an empty passage of time. External events, as well as people's sense of self, become inconsequential. The phases of life lose their intentional tension and cave in on themselves like a souffle removed from the oven too soon. Routines and habits that otherwise provide stability suddenly prove to be nothing more than facades. Finally, the eerie scenario of boredom reveals a moment of true feeling. When people find nothing to do with themselves, nothingness besets them. Against this backdrop of nothingness, art performs its task of self-stimulation -- a virtually heroic enterprise, because people on the verge of a breakdown need to be entertained. Art steps in as a bridge to prevent succumbing to nihilist ennui. Art helps us to live; without it, life cannot stem the onslaught of meaninglessness."

--Rudiger Safranski in "Nietzsche, A Philosophical Biography"

Given that, y'know, philosophy doesn't get all that much action here.

February 2, 2004 12:47 PM Forum: Takahashi

FS102 on a CG5 mount -- is this doable?

Posted By John Hopkins

I'm deep in big-decision mode, one of the possibilities being getting an FS102 OTA/holder/finder package. If I do this will max out the spending money for a while, and all I've got to mount it on is Orion's version of the CG5 (Astroview, probably). This thing originally held an 8" reflector and has a C102 on it now, so do you Tak vets believe it would be an adequate interim mount our would I need to get something more appropriate ASAP?

I ask because I haven't been able to find adapter plates to join a Tak tube holder to a mount of this kind, and the C102 rings would probably be too flimsy.