The man that more than any other credited with kick starting the scientific revolution was 15th Century theologeon Thomas Aquinas. He posited a thesis in which God as a creator set in motion the laws of nature and do not interfere (no freakin' miracles). Sounds familier? Because it is a scientic view of nature. Mendelson who proved genetic inheritance was a monk. More than that the scholarly network of monastries were responsible for the study and safe-keeping of earlier Greek philosophers in particular Aristotle. Literature and art? Just visit any national museum. I'd rate Confessions by St Augustine and Devine Comedy by Dante Alighieri as great examples of religion inspired literature. Can Homer's Odyssey be read without the tampering of man's fate by jealous Olympians? Have you not heard of the Hindu verdic epic poems? they are some of mankinds earliest examples of literature. Religous thinking (personal relationship with God) offer people a convenient and radical way of circumventing the conventions of society which can be more stiffling to progress. However as I said before non of the afforementioned thinkers ever for a second took the holy scripture at face value.

Have you tried the latest drivers? Re-install Sketup?

I find all this finger pointing halirious. What we are witnessing here isn't a new phenonmena. People have short memories. The Boom & Bust cycle is a natural part of the capitalist system. If you mobilise capital to a individual level (often concentrated in the hands of few) people are going to over invest in boom times to maximise profit and withdraw investment when the tables are turned, no fancy equations just pure common sense. Without intervention free market economies tend to go heads up every now and then. I find it really funny how people have short memories, have you forgotten the economic turmoil of the early Ninties? What about the Oil Crisis at the end of Seventies? The Great Depression anyone? It ruins people's financial security and is no way for civilised and responsible good governance to behave. This rediculous belief that somehow the free market is going sort out everything is profoundly superstitious. Anyone who advocate it is either one of those few who have the most capital who are in a position to benefit most from this economic cycle or a brain-washed twit who doesn't question the status quo and deserve a good kicking up the groin.

The party political system of Democracy evolved out of the British Parliament, where Reformist (Whigs and Chartists) formed interest groups and parties against the declining power of the Monarchy and the French Revolution where people of similar political inclinations sat next to each other in the general assembly (Reformers on the left side and Loyalists on the right). It was created/evolved in a time when society was highly stratified and the simple division between reformers and conservatives easily encompassed all political orientations. Take the British Labour party, it used to (before New Labour) have its core constituents based on, suprise, the labourers and Working class. Since the passing of manufacturing industry in Britain and rest of Western industrialised nations into service and information based economy where labour mobility is on the increase, old divisions are becoming increasingly meaningless as do their political party representational systems. Consequently European countries have witness decreasing number of electoral participation in the last 3 decade. I believe a new, more flexible way of political representation is urgently needed for mass Democracy to have any relavance for post-industrial societies.

@rickw said:

@chango70 said:

Come on Pete, give religion a break eh? I mean all these stupid people out there who don't understand science need something to make them feel good about themselves.

Wow, I didn't realize I was stupid, didn't understand science, and needed something to make me feel good about myself. Thanks for enlightening me.

It was meant as a sarcastic joke poking fun at fundamentalists shown on the video Pete posted. I am keenly aware of the contribution of Religion in literature, art and scientific thinking. However, those thinkers could hardly be classified as literal interpreters of the holy scripture.

Come on Pete, give religion a break eh? I mean all these stupid people out there who don't understand science need something to make them feel good about themselves.

Brilliant render! One thing. I'd add the curtain rail in. They look like they are floating right now.

Sorry but... what are you guys talking about???

My workplace just bought a spanking new Dell computer with Q9550 CPU @ 4x2.83GHz and Nvidia 8800 GT Graphics card. Now I can wiz through all the models that I struggled on with my 8600M GT laptop. I recommend it to anyone. You do however need to update the graphic driver has the default one with Dell gave some diplay glitches when using SU.

OMG! Me too! I didn't realise you can do that! Thanks!

Wicked! I like it a lot!

Remember democracy has many forms. Even the greatest champions of mass democracy and women's rights like John Stuart Mills had private reservations about decision making prowess of the so-called masses. I believe having to pander to popular whims of the voting pupblic can be a hinderance to progress in certain situations.

Whats is perhaps more important for me is better texturing and the ability to texture triangulated surfaces.

When you say multi-core support what do you mean? Do you mean for exporting video and images? As far as I understand its impossible to make the modeller itself use more than one core and there are no modelers out there that does that.

Oh man! Done like a pro.

I think it just needs tighter regulation and more accountability. Part of the problem is people genuinely thought by giving market free reign was a good idea in the 80s. Well its not (Ronald and Maggie). Now we have to live with the consequences.

I thought the potential is in social interation. Say if two people are browsing the same webpage they can start a conversation amounst themselves and visit relavent links with each other! That leads to multiple possibilities in information chaining.

Awesome idea!