Master Maverick

I apologize if I'm being stupid, but I'm kind of new to this stuff. I'm trying to learn about it, but I'm running into a problem with a hypothetical I came up with:

Imagine a container, only a few feet wide, but 186,000 miles long. It's flying away from you at 93,000 miles per second (half the speed of light). The short side is facing you. At the end closest to you is a transmitter, which will send a signal to a receiver at the opposite end. When the receiver gets the signal, it will activate a red light just above it. Assuming you were able to observe this from your position, what is the delay you would observe between the transmitter sending the signal, and the red light activating?

I keep coming up with 2 seconds. But an individual inside the container would observe 1 second. At 93,000 miles per second, time is supposed to slow to about 87%, relative to the distant observer. Which would mean that said observer should see a delay of about 1.15 seconds, not 2 seconds. What am I doing wrong?

Can anyone help me out, on this? I've placed railroad tracks, put a train station by them, and made sure it has power and water, but neither it nor the tracks are being used, and the zones by the tracks are not developing. I'm assuming I've done something wrong, but what?

Just thought I'd jump on this murder question bandwagon, too!

1) I’m open minded, and willing to admit that there are plenty of things I simply do not know. However, to regard this with any amount of seriousness, I would ask for some evidence of its credibility. So, if I may request, make me a believer? I am a male, born June 12, 1983 at approximately 9 p.m. Tell me something about myself. Something not already evident from my question, here. If you are unable to, proceed to question 2.

2) If we have determined that nothing about me can be known from the information provided, aside from that information itself, then it renders the belief that it can, astrology, completely unfounded. What, then, is your excuse, as a follower of this practice, that absolves you of the prejudice inherent in it? In other words, how is claiming that all Scorpios, Virgos, etc. act a certain way any different from claiming that all black people, or all asians, or all hispanics, act a certain way? How is this any better than racism?

Welcome, creationists, evolutionists! Step right up! Up for bidding today, a subject that’s sure to prove your beliefs are right! Yessiree, not since the banana (search youtube for “banana evolution” if you don’t know what I mean) has a life form been such potent ammunition for this debate! I present to you, the catfish! God’s punch line, or evolution’s conflict of interest? Who wants it more? At the sound of the bell, both sides may begin slinging baseless hypotheses on this already poorly founded question. Ding!

Let me preface this by saying that I do not intend this as a generalization for all theists, only those who lash out against non-believers, and complain about their beliefs not having influence in government.

Non-theists:

Started this country (America), on a foundation of freedom and a religiously neutral government.

Discovered electricity. (Ben Franklin) Harnessed electricity. (Thomas Edison)

Developed countless medical and technological advances, making them largely responsible for your every modern convenience, and the fact that you can live to be older than 40.

Yet you demand that the government and its laws should reflect YOUR beliefs and opinions, over anyone else’s. That your God belongs on the country’s money, and in the country’s pledge. (cont'd...)

There are hundreds of religions, in the world. The followers of any one of them will readily provide “evidence” for their religion’s credibility. And by evidence, of course, I mean things with completely reasonable, non-religious explanations, that they either refuse to acknowledge or are too damn stupid to understand.

Most people who follow a religion have had experiences that have convinced them that their religion is the correct one. Their senses and mind are overwhelmed by the experience, so much that it effects their perspective.

Understanding that every member of every other religion has the same “compelling” evidence and level of personal experience as you, pointing to their own religions as the truth, how can you possibly claim to know that you are correct? What makes your senses, and your perception, more reliable than theirs? Or do you think you are better educated? Than anyone who follows any other religion? What makes you right, and everyone else wrong?

Again, just something to provoke thought. God created man in his own image? Or does man create God in his? What purpose does an all-knowing, all-powerful being have for creating? What purpose(s) can creation serve, aside from overcoming limitation and satisfying curiosity? Psychologically, what creates the desire to project one’s views as an objective standard, and essentially project oneself, hypothetically, on an infinite and immortal scale?

No, I’m not wondering, myself. I’ve pretty much got it figured out. What I’m doing here is trying to provoke thought on the subject. Seems simple enough, right? “I make decisions, I have free will.” Well, how do you make your decisions? What factors are involved? Now what determined how those factors were defined? Other factors? What determined how those were defined? Are you making your own decisions? Or were they all made, and set, along with every other incident that has ever or will ever occur, whenever the universe began?

Note that this concept, if properly considered, cannot be used to evade responsibility for one’s actions, as responses, reactions, and consequences for those actions are equally preset.

So I answered a question, on which someone asked "Do you like my website?" and linked to it. A valid question. They wanted feedback and opinions. I took the opportunity to link to my site, in my response, as well. Apparently, it was pulled. Probably because it was "advertising".

Now honestly, with all of the stupid, nonsensical questions people ask on this site, along with all of the people who use it to push their political/religious views and agendas, does a question like that really deserve to be removed? How is that hurting anyone? For that matter, how much is it really inconveniencing anyone? And any more so than "Why don't people see that God is...yadda yadda yadda?" or "Dur! My butt fell off?" or that stupid edna crap? Must we be so uptight? Can we maybe try to use a little more discretion with reporting "abuse"? Take it easy. How desperately do you want to feel important?

A lot of people, and probably most of you who will read this, need to get something straight. Personal beliefs are just that. Personal beliefs. It’s common sense. It says so, right in the name. Now stay with me on all of this, because odds are, you’ll agree with at least one of these paragraphs. Many of you will agree with only one. Well, **** you. It’s all true, and it all needs to be said, and it would do you all a world of good to accept it. I’m probably about to piss a lot of people off, but I don’t care. This needs to stop, not just on this site, but everywhere, and I wish there was any hope of what I am writing here having any significant impact.

A bit lengthy, see additional info…

Recently, on some web pages, my browser has been displaying odd characters (an a with a ^ over it, for example) in place of apostrophes ('). Any idea what could be causing this, or better, what I can do to fix it? Can anyone go to my website: http://www.maverick83.150m.com/ , scroll down to the poem, and in the first line, tell me if the word "you'll" is displaying properly for you?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUlKHzHTQCM

See, I am interested in creating an ant farm. I want it to last, so I need a queen. (Without a queen, no new ants will be born, so the colony will die pretty quickly.) I've heard that in the absence of a queen, the worker ants will raise a new queen(s). This leads me to think that, if I go out and collect a lot of workers from a single colony and put them in the ant farm (a jar, filled with sand), they will produce a queen themselves, and so the colony will survive. However, previous attempts have not gone so well. Can anyone tell me why this is?

If he exists, God is all-powerful, yes? So then he’s fully capable of laying all his cards on the table. Saying, in a manner everyone on Earth can understand, “Look, I exist, and this is what I want. These are the rules, and this is what happens if you break them.” Yet it seems he is content to sit back and watch us kill each other over whether or not he exists, what he wants, and how we interpret everything he’s allegedly said. If the stakes are so high as heaven and hell, if he loves us all so much, don’t you think he owes it to us to clarify all of this nonsense? I know he allegedly gave us free will, but I’m not talking about forcing us to behave in a certain way. What is stopping him from making everyone aware of his existence, and what the rules of life are?

If you're agnostic, like me, or if you just plain don't believe in God, consider it a hypothetical question. Assume, for a moment, that God does exist. What is God like, or what would God be like, in terms of personality?

Not looking for answers such as "all-powerful", or "doesn't exist". Describe what you think God's personality is like, as though you were describing any person's personality.

*Check back for additional details, in a few days, or after this question receives a few responses.

I thought this one up, myself. First correct answer wins. In the absence of a correct answer, I'll pick the one I think is closest, or most creative.

My role is two-sided, both puppet and master.

As fast as you are, I promise I'm faster.

The bringer of death, the bringer of luck.

By the time that you see me, I've already struck.

What am I?