Greg london said:
"Atheism and materialism is the belief in the non-existence of God, but science cannot prove he cannot exist, only that he isn't needed to explain some natural phenomenon."
I think the usual take is any natural phenomenon. Also I think it's better to say that science is by definition atheistic (no supernatural explanations alowed), but individual scientists may or may not be atheists when they are not doing science.
It's somewhat akin to catholics and the catholic church. It's fair to say the catholic church condemns same sex marriage and is hostile to homosexuality. This doesn't mean all catholics do the same, nor would it be right or fair to accuse one of prejudice. But I don't think you can claim that the Catholic Church isn't hostile to GLBT people because some large number of catholics isn't. unless one of them is the pope, maybe.
And I think science is kinda the same way - as a body of knowledge, it is hostile or dismissive of nonmaterial explanations. Individual scientists will vary, obviously, in their acceptance of nonmaterial orthogonal sources of knowledge when they aren't doing science.
Is there any way to separate derivative use and public domain? Because they feel like very different things. Writing a story that's set explicitly on Dragaera but doesn't involve any of the characters in the books or uses a morganti weapon can't be the same thing as selling electronic copies of the books without permission. Could you have some sort of staggered allowance? maybe after 5 years, specific unique objects can be used (light sabers, morganti blades, etc.), 10 years lets you use settings/institutions explicitly, 30 years lets you use characters, etc. As far as Buffy fanfic goes, for example, what does Joss Whedon own? Filling in the gaps in the character's history isn't allowed, but is the general concept of the watcher/slayer, into ever generation etc also his? If you wrote a story with Joan of Arc as a Slayer, with the appropriate historical personage as her watcher, are you in trouble? or do you only have problems if an otherwise unnamed dark haired man with an unconvincing Irish accent appears?
Jeremy
I think the idea is that your mouth is going to act akin to a lobster trap. You'll be able to shove the lightbulb in until the fat part is past your teeth and it will get stuck there. I can't imagine getting a lightbulb into my mouth so I'm having trouble imagining that part, but if you need to have a pronounced overbite in order to get it in, it could also be the case that the inserted lightbulb prevents the reverse.
And any references to the simile chosen by Lubert Stryer to describe a hydrogen bond in his classic text, Biochemistry (3rd edition or earlier) are right out.
re: pants, I depend on the gap online as I'm also outside the norm (29W, 34L). Although given the wide range of complaints, I'm beginning to wonder for whom they do make clothes. It sounds like skinny and short doesn't work, skinny and tall doesn't work; larger and short, and larger and tall are also badly served. Maybe they just leave the shelves stocked with what doesn't sell?
Brian
Is pandemonium books [if I've named it wrongly, I mean the SFF specialty bookstore in Harvard square] doing badly? I would mourn its passing. And if it isn't doing badly, I have to wonder why Victor Hugo is. My hope is Pandemonium is doing well and competing with the big box stores because I think it can/could/does - larger inventory of its niche, used books, imports, a somewhat broader interpretation of SFF than my local Borders (i.e., Christopher Moore, Ian (no M)Banks). They also get new SFF releases on the shelf a week or so earlier than Borders (at least for Lord of Castle Black). So if they are doing well or surviving comfortably, I could attribute V-H's troubles to something else.
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