Articles of Emoticon Defense

Scientific approaches to the meaning of life

The primary aim of the scientific approach to the meaning of life is to describe the empirical facts about human existence. Claims that empirical science can shed light on issues such as the meaning of life are highly disputed within the scientific and philosophy-of-science communities, and have been from the very beginning of science. In spite of this, science has provided many theories about the origin of life, in the areas of abiogenesis (for the origins of biological life) and cosmogony (for the origins of the universe). Both of these areas are quite hypothetical; cosmogony because no existing physical model can accurately describe the very early universe (the instant of the Big Bang),[82] and abiogenesis because the environment of the young earth is still not accurately known, and even though the conditions and chemical processes that may have been present then have been reproduced in a laboratory, to produce organic molecules, those very conditions are still under debate.[83][84][85]

The true nature and origin of consciousness and the mind itself are also widely debated in science, and more specifically in relation to the hard problem of consciousness. Various theories relating to consciousness have been postulated,[86][87] including hypotheses of consciousness and spacetime,[88][89] electromagnetic theories of consciousness,[90][89][91] the Multiple Drafts Model,[92][93][94][95][96] the holonomic brain theory,[97] Orch-OR[98] and the many-minds interpretation.[99]

[edit] Origin and nature of biological life

The exact mechanisms by which biological life could have originated from inanimate matter are unknown, but multiple theories have been posited, including the contemporary RNA world hypothesis. Some scientists claim life began on Earth as a primeval soup, while others believe that a more "complete" form of life arrived on our planet through panspermia. The initial mechanisms by which primitive cells were formed notwithstanding, almost all scientific origin theories are contingent upon the evolution of traits through mutation and natural selection.[100] Near the end of the 20th century, equipped with insights from the gene-centered view of evolution, biologists such as George C. Williams, Richard Dawkins and David Haig, to name a few, have suggested that insofar as there may be a primary function to life, it may be the survival of genes; following this approach, success isn't measured in terms of the survival of species, but rather in terms of the successful replication of genes.[101]

In addition to naturalistic arguments for the origin of life on Earth, some philosophers and theologians have postulated that a "watchmaker" or intelligent designer guided its development. This teleological argument has been rejected by most scientists, including Richard Dawkins, who has often affirmed that teleology is an illusion and does not exist, like in his Discovery Science video 'The Big Question: Why are we here?'[102] and in books such as The Blind Watchmaker[103] and The God Delusion.[104][105][106]

orris's career in tournament karate began on a losing note. He was defeated in his first two tournaments, dropping decisions to Joe Lewis and Allan Steen and three matches at the International Karate Championships to Tony Tulleners. However, by 1967, Norris began to demonstrate his skill and scored victories over the likes of Joe Lewis, Skipper Mullins, Arnold Urquidez, Victor Moore, Ron Marchini, and Steve Sanders. In early 1968, Norris suffered the sixth and last loss of his career, losing an upset decision to Louis Delgado. However, on November 24, 1968, he avenged his defeat to Delgado and in the process won the Professional Middleweight Karate champion (non-contact) title, which he held for six consecutive years.[3] In 1969, he won Karate's triple crown for the most tournament wins of the year, and the fighter of the year award by Black Belt Magazine. It was also in 1969 that Norris made his acting debut in the Dean Martin movie The Wrecking Crew.

In 1970, his younger brother Weiland was killed in Vietnam. Norris later dedicated his Missing in Action films to his brother's memory. At a martial arts demonstration in Long Beach, Norris met the soon-to-be famous martial artist Bruce Lee whom he respects and considers superior.[citation needed] In 1972, he acted as Bruce Lee's nemesis in the movie Way of the Dragon (titled Return of the Dragon in its US distribution), which is widely credited with launching his way into stardom. In Asia, he is still known primarily for this role. In 1974, McQueen encouraged him to begin acting classes at MGM. Chuck Norris retired with a karate record of 65–6, having avenged all of his defeats.

Norris's first starring role was 1977's Breaker! Breaker!, and subsequent films such as The Octagon (1980), An Eye for an Eye (1981), and Lone Wolf McQuade proved his increasing box office bankability. In 1984, Norris starred in Missing in Action, the first of a series of POW rescue fantasies produced by Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus and released under their Cannon Films banner. Contrary to reports, he was never offered the part of the sensei of the Kobra Kai dojo in the movie The Karate Kid. On a February 9, 2006 episode of Adam Carolla's radio show, Norris said that he was never offered the role. Norris noted that he was already playing leading roles by the time The Karate Kid was in production.

Over the next four years, Norris became Cannon's most prominent star, appearing in eight films, including Code of Silence, The Delta Force, and Firewalker, in which he co-starred with Academy Award winner Louis Gossett, Jr.. Many of the aforementioned films were produced by Chuck Norris's brother Aaron, as were several episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger. In 1986, he was involved in the production of the Ruby Spears cartoon Karate Kommandos.

It is occasionally cited that Norris made history in 1997 when he was the first Westerner in the documented history of Tae Kwon Do to be given the rank of 8th Degree Black Belt Grand Master.[4] However, Norris himself appears to have been misled about this as there were at least two other US Black Belts (Charles 'Chuck' Sereff and Edward Sell[5][6]) awarded TKD 8th Dan several years previously. On July 1, 2000, Norris was presented the Golden Lifetime Achievement Award by the World Karate Union Hall of Fame.

On March 28, 2007, Commandant Gen. James Conway made legendary martial-arts ninja and action movie star Chuck Norris an “Honorary Marine” during dinner at the commandant’s residence in Washington, D.C.[7]

yur always wrong michael

Michael Dwyer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

Michael Dwyer (1772 – 1825) was a United Irish leader in the 1798 rebellion and later fought a guerilla campaign against the British army in the Wicklow Mountains from 1798-1803.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Early life
* 2 Dwyer in 1798 rebellion
* 3 Guerilla Campaign
* 4 Dwyer and Robert Emmett
* 5 Australia
* 6 Reference
* 7 External links

[edit] Early life

Dwyer was born in Camera, County Wicklow. In 1784 the family moved to a farm at Eadesown in the Glen of Imaal. Dwyer was a cousin of Anne Devlin who was to later achieve fame for her loyalty to the rebel cause following the suppression of Robert Emmet's rebellion.

[edit] Dwyer in 1798 rebellion

Dwyer joined the Society of United Irishmen and fought with the rebels as Captain under "General" Joseph Holt in battles during the summer of 1798 at Arklow, Vinegar Hill, Ballyellis and Hacketstown. Under Holt's leadership he withdrew to the safety of the Wicklow Mountains in mid-July when rebels could no longer operate openly following their defeat in the disastrous midlands campaign of July 1798. Together with Joseph Holt they tied down thousands of troops.

[edit] Guerilla Campaign

Dwyer and his men began a campaign targeting local loyalists and yeomen, attacking small parties of the military and eluding any major sweeps against them. His force was strengthened by many deserters from the military who headed to Wicklow as the last rebel stronghold and who became the dedicated backbone of his force as they could not be expected to be included in any future offer of amnesty.

Due to the constant hunt for him, Dwyer was forced to split and reassemble his forces and hide amongst civilian sympathisers to elude his pursuers. In December 1799 at Derrynamuck he and about a dozen comrades were sheltering in three cottages when an informer led a large force of the British soldiers to the area. The cottages were quickly surrounded, the first two surrendering but following consultation, Dwyer and his men decided to fight on after negotiating the safe passage of the women and children. In the hopeless gunfight which followed, the cottage caught fire and only Dwyer remained unwounded. At this stage, Dwyer's comrade, Sam McAllister stood in the doorway to draw the soldiers fire on him but which allowed Dwyer to slip out and make an incredible escape.

[edit] Dwyer and Robert Emmett

Dwyer later made contact with Robert Emmet and was apprised of plans for his revolt but was reluctant to commit his followers to march to Dublin unless the rebellion showed some initial success. The subsequent failure of Emmet's rising led to a period of repression and renewed attempts by the Government to wipe out Dwyer's forces. Methods adopted included attempts to deny him shelter among the civilian population by severely punishing those suspected of harbouring his men, offering of huge rewards for information, assigning thousands of troops to Wicklow, and building a series of barracks and a military road through county Wicklow.

In December 1803 Dwyer finally capitulated on terms that would allow him safe passage to America but the government reneged on the agreement holding him in Kilmainham Jail until August 1805, when they transported him to New South Wales (Australia) as an unsentenced exile.

[edit] Australia

Dwyer had arrived in Sydney on 14 February 1806 in the Tellicherry and was given free settler status. He arrived with his wife and two eldest children. He was given a grant of 40.5 ha (100 acres) of land on Cabramatta Creek in Sydney. Michael Dwyer was quoted as saying that all Irish will be free in this new country (i.e. Australia). This statement had been used against him and he was arrested in February 1807 and imprisoned. On 11 May 1807 Dwyer was charged with conspiring to mount an Irish insurrection against British rule. An Irish convict stated in court that Michael Dwyer had plans to march on the seat of Government in Australia, at Parramatta. Dwyer did not deny that he had said that all Irish will be free but he did deny the charges of organising an Irish insurrection in Sydney. Dwyer had the powerful support of Australia's first Jewish policeman, John Harris, who expressed the opinion in court that he did not believe that Dwyer was organising a rebellion against the Government in Sydney. On 18 May 1807, Dwyer was found not guilty of the charges of organising an Irish insurrection in Sydney.

Governor William Bligh disregarded the first trial acquittal of Michael Dwyer. Bligh who regarded the Irish and many other nationalities with contempt, organised another trial for Michael Dwyer in which he was stripped of his free settler status and transported to Van Diemens Land (Tasmania) and Norfolk Island. After Governor Bligh was overthrown in the Rum Rebellion in 1808, the new Governor of New South Wales, George Johnston who was present at Dwyer's acquittal in the first trial ordered that Michael Dwyer's freedom be reinstated. Michael Dwyer was later to become Chief of Police (1813-1820) at Liverpool, New South Wales.

Dwyer died in August 1825 and is buried with his wife, Mary (nee Doyle) at Waverley Cemetery, Sydney. On his grave is inscribed the words "The Wicklow Chief" and also mentioned are the other heroes of Irish causes. This inscription and other additions to the Dwyers' graves were added to in 1898 as a monument to celebrate the centennary of the 1798 Uprising, and paid for by Irish nationalists and their supporters in Australia.

Dwyer had seven children and has numerous descendants throughout Australia. In 2002, in Bungendore near Canberra, a family reunion took place with descendants of Michael Dwyer's family including descendants of related Australian Irish families the Donoghues and Doyles. One of Michael Dwyer’s sons was the owner of The Harp Hotel in Bungendore, New South Wales in circa 1838. Dwyer’s nephew John Donoghue (1822-1892), built The Old Stone House, Molongolo Rd, Bungendore, circa 1865, a huge strongly constructed Bungendore landmark and a monument to pioneering and hard-working Irish Australian settlers.

Deep Explorers, Inc. has been in operation as an innovator of technical diving, dive training and dive operations for nearly two decades. President and CEO, Dan Crowell is the former skipper of the legendary dive vessel Seeker, which today is an icon of his pioneering spirit. Though no longer at the helm, Dan and Deep Explorers, Inc. are still heavily engaged in innovative diving techniques and training. Dan is one of Technical Diving International's (TDI) finest Instructor trainers, as well as a long time commercial and scientific diver with thousands of hours of underwater experience. Deep Explorers, Inc. is utilizing this extensive experience to offer dive training for both Diver and Instructors, ranging from basic open water scuba to advanced mixed gas closed circuit rebreather diving as well as surface supplied air diving with full facemasks and dive helmets.

In fluid mechanics, a splash is a sudden disturbance to the otherwise quiescent free surface of a liquid (usually water). The disturbance is typically caused by a solid object suddenly hitting the surface, although splashes can occur in which moving liquid supplies the energy. This use of the word is onomatopoeic.

Splashes are characterized by transient ballistic flow, and are governed by the Reynolds number and the Weber number.

Small scale splashes in which a droplet of liquid hits a free surface can produce symmetric forms that resemble a coronet; milk is often used as it is opaque.

Sand is said to splash if hit sufficiently hard (see dry quicksand) and sometimes the impact of a meteorite is referred to as splashing, if small bits of ejecta are formed.

Physicist Lei Xu and coworkers at the University of Chicago discovered that the splash due to the impact of a small drop of ethanol onto a dry solid surface could be suppressed by reducing the pressure below a specific threshold. For drops of diameter 3.4 mm falling through air, this pressure was about 20 kilopascals, or 0.2 atmosphere.

Why do Americans spell different to English and Irish people such as colour etc?

* 6 months ago

Report It
Jonathan's Avatar by Jonathan

Member since:
June 20, 2006
Total points:
14319 (Level 6)

* Add to My Contacts
* Block User

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker
Because their fore-fathers couldn't spell properly when they were making their dictionaries.

* 6 months ago

* Report It

Asker's Rating:
1 out of 5
Asker's Comment:
suppose

Is this what you are searching for?

* Rating: Good Answer
* Rating: Bad Answer

* 1 stars - mark this as Interesting!
Who found this interesting?
1. Chatty Guy
* Email
* Comment (1)
* Save
o Add to private Watchlist
o Save to My Web
o Add to My Yahoo!
o Add to Del.icio.us
o RSS

Beardo's Avatar Beardo
It is, as one of the other responses notes, because the US adopted some of Webster's spelling reforms. Report It

* You must be logged into Answers to add comments. Sign in or Register.
Other Answers (10)
Show:

*
tzarluke's Avatar by tzarluke

Member since:
September 17, 2007
Total points:
110 (Level 1)

o Add to My Contacts
o Block User
There is no reason. Like all things that Americans use, they make it slightly different so they can call it their own.
o 6 months ago
o 3 Rating: Good Answer
o 0 Rating: Bad Answer
o Report It
*
allydee's Avatar by allydee

Member since:
April 24, 2007
Total points:
419 (Level 2)

o Add to My Contacts
o Block User
when coming to america all things "english" wanted to be left behind and our forefathers wanted to simplify the language and to show some independence
o 6 months ago
o 2 Rating: Good Answer
o 0 Rating: Bad Answer
o Report It
*
Hope for the Best's Avatar by Hope for the Best

Member since:
July 07, 2006
Total points:
4257 (Level 4)

o Add to My Contacts
o Block User
You mean "spell differently..." right? They talk differently too!
o 6 months ago
o 0 Rating: Good Answer
o 2 Rating: Bad Answer
o Report It
*
God's Avatar by God

Member since:
August 01, 2007
Total points:
159 (Level 1)

o Add to My Contacts
o Block User
If they spelt all the words in English and spoke English like us then they wouldn't be Irish or American! Well that's what they think! It is just about being different and not being English!

Personally I don't think being English is that bad!
o 6 months ago
o 0 Rating: Good Answer
o 1 Rating: Bad Answer
o Report It
*
Gone for good...'s Avatar by Gone for good...

Member since:
September 06, 2007
Total points:
9356 (Level 5)

o Add to My Contacts
o Block User
Because the Americans have formed their own version of English, American English.

You will also find a few more Australian English changes as well but not as many as in the USofA.
o 6 months ago
o 1 Rating: Good Answer
o 0 Rating: Bad Answer
o Report It
*
haywood 55's Avatar by haywood 55

Member since:
June 08, 2007
Total points:
248 (Level 1)

o Add to My Contacts
o Block User
we don't. it's you.
o 6 months ago
o 0 Rating: Good Answer
o 4 Rating: Bad Answer
o Report It
*
toddk57@sbcglobal.net's Avatar by toddk57@...

Member since:
September 02, 2006
Total points:
19032 (Level 6)

o Add to My Contacts
o Block User
Well: it is because we'd are" American people in which English grammer became the same as Irish language of course knows how to Read, Write & Spell like our Ansistor's
Past history"
o 6 months ago
Source(s):
Language
o 0 Rating: Good Answer
o 2 Rating: Bad Answer
o Report It
*
thelev51's Avatar by thelev51

Member since:
August 12, 2007
Total points:
2583 (Level 4)

o Add to My Contacts
o Block User
A number of the words are spelt the way we the English did some time ago, it is only because of some archaic linguistic theories that we made a total mess of our own language by complicating things
o 6 months ago
o 0 Rating: Good Answer
o 0 Rating: Bad Answer
o Report It
*
ganesh's Avatar by ganesh

Member since:
September 10, 2007
Total points:
964 (Level 2)

o Add to My Contacts
o Block User
Noah Webster tried to reform English spelling in the 18th century. Some of his reforms were adopted, for instance "color", "center", and others were not - for instance "tung", "cloke", "wimmen".
o 6 months ago
Source(s):
http://www.m-w.com/info/spelling-reform....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_Webste...
o 2 Rating: Good Answer
o 0 Rating: Bad Answer
o Report It
*
J S's Avatar by J S

Member since:
March 22, 2007
Total points:
1654 (Level 3)

o Add to My Contacts
o Block User
Why not? Language isn't owned, it evolves; it is evolving differently in all parts of the world. Spellings are an obvious category and, quite honestly, I can't see that it really matters whether one writes color or colour - there is no risk of misinterpretation.

Of course, there are idioms that are easily confused; p!ssed, for example, means 'annoyed' to an American but 'drunk' to a Briton. To lose one's cherry in England is simply to mislay a rather tasty piece of fruit!

Grammar varies too: an English English speaker would shudder at 'different to' (meaning different from) whereas this is now standard US English.

I do get a little annoyed with the quaint notion expressed commonly on this forum by the English that they somehow own the language and feel a paternal need to protect it from outsiders. Taken to extreme the Germans should be really annoyed (p!ssed) at us for evolving their language which is, after all, the root of what is now English. But very few will allow logic to stand in the way of sanctimonious rectitude.

I'm British, by the way.

thought you were itrish :O

Dan is a masculine name. It refers sometimes to the short form of the name Daniel.

* Dan (Biblical figure), one of the sons of Jacob
* Dan (king), the name of one or more legendary Danish kings
* Dan (Chinese opera), a female role in Beijing opera
* DAN (protein) family of tgf beta signaling protein inhibitors
* Dan (newspaper), daily newspaper published in Montenegro
* Dan language, a Mande language spoken primarily in Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia
* Dan rank in Japanese, Chinese and Korean fine and martial arts.
* DJ Dan, an electronic music artist who uses the singular name "Dan"

Organizations which may be referred to as Dan or DAN include:

* Dan Bus Company, a public transport company in Israel
* Divers Alert Network, a non-profit organization for Scuba diving
* Dorsal attention network, a sensory orienting system in the brain

Persons with the surname Dan include:

* Fedor Dan, Russian Marxist revolutionary

Fictional characters named Dan include:

* Dan Hibiki, from the Street Fighter video game series.
* Dan (aka TriceraRanger), from the Japanese television series Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger.

Places which may be referred to as Dan include:

* Gush Dan, metropolitan area in central Israel
* Tel Dan, an archaeological site in Israel
* Dan (biblical city), the biblical location also called Dan, and identified with Tel Dan
* Dan (kibbutz), a Kibbutz in northern Israel

/lol

dan wud u please STOP IT WITH THE CRAP NONSENCE

he's translating our spam into Deano

lmao dwyer

merry christmassssssssssssssss

Unreal wrote:

merry christmassssssssssssssss

happppppppppy easttter

please let me fuck dan while he is asleep

Unreal wrote:

please let me fuck dan while he is asleep

Unreal wrote:

please let me fuck dan while he is asleep

fine...go ahead

Be my guest..