Slashdot Mirror

Kirsty Alley Why oh why Kirsty? I can't believe I had impure thoughts for you in my youth.

Rosie ODonnell Somebody I'd want to steer clear of, unfortunately that means driving around the block. Maybe when they staple her stomach they can do the mouth too.

Margaret Cho. Good to know that Fatkins is working for her. Not funny, but yet the Cho goes on.

Scientists have confirmed it. These are three big fat stars.

Actually, for a good critique of the foolishness behind profanity concerns, I would recommend the Penn & Teller: Bullshit! episode called Profanity before South Park. I imagine that, judging by the name of the show, their position won't come as a shock. South Park is funny and all, but if you want people to actually consider your point analytically, it helps if you don't have a singing and dancing log of shit on your show.

As much as I hate smoking...

Its more Bullshit when it comes to second hand smoke.

> You do alot more than piss off the non-smokers, you kill them. Please stop.

Bullshit.

Woops..... here is a working link.


Creationism is BULLSHIT

http://www.sho.com/site/ptbs/topics.do?topic=c/

Showtime is similar.

I'm just amazed that my original which should have been -1 Flamebait is (currently) a +5 Insightful...

Your dad votes... does he go to rallies at state houses protesting things? Does he start/join elaborate sit-ins for whatever cause is most popular this month? Does he get in people's faces when they take the opposite view?

Rather then just vote for something, these people get vocal and active, and start bitching in my face when I'm walking down the street.

I took a class in the evening a few summers ago when we first started this shit with Iraq (which I don't agree with)... and I had to listen to those hippie freaks chanting "No Blood for Oil"... Every day I had to get off the subway and walk past these retards, and everyday they'd scream in my ear about it as I passed them.

My point is NOT that these people don't have a right to an opinion or a vote, because they absolutely do. My point is that most of those people are out there chanting because they feel like it's fun and exciting... they're just following a leader... They have no real idea why we are there, or what the people in Iraq have to go through on a daily basis. The worst they know is when the homeless man actually talks back to them when they walk by him while trying to avert his gaze.

Ever watch that Penn & Teller show Bullshit on Showtime? He did a show that was DEAD ON for the mindset of these people. It was about environmentalism, but the idea was the same... the people were just willing to sign any petition or be against anything... it's a form of mob mentality, like when moron fans start tipping over cars and breaking everything in their path when their team loses (or worse if their team wins!)...

As for the fact that you work for MTV or whatever you said... sorry dude, didn't mean to shit on your company specifically. I know I'd be pissed if you started telling me how to flip the burgers at my job.

"That AD/HD is overdiagnosed should not detract from the fact that it is simultaneously underdiagnosed."

I agree with this, and I empathize. I'm nearly the same way - if I'm doing something I'm interested in, I can stay at it for hours. If I'm not interested in it, I simply can't stay focused. I may have AD/HD, though I've never been to someone who could diagnose me.

That being said, EVERYTHING I hear from the media says that ADD is what kids have when they won't behave. That's ENTIRELY not true. Kids that can't behave have no fucking discipline. Parents in this day and age are either too slothful or so apathetic they just don't care any more if their child succeeds.

Go to the store and watch the kids pull crap off shelves, then just drop it on the floor. What do their parents do? Leave it and say "don't do that". Parenting requires ACTION and INVOLVEMENT. I tell my 3-year old to pick up after herself. She does it happily since it doesn't take any extra effort on her part, and I'm in a better mood because of it.

My wife and I looked all over for a good baby-sitter for our child so my wife could go back to work. What did we find? Houses full of mean and tempermental kids that watched TV all day. TV is not a baby-sitter. Sitting down with your kids to watch Blue's Clues, Shrek, or Ice Age is one thing. Putting them in front of the TV for 8 hours a day is completely different. I grew up on TV, as I'm sure many of /.ers did, but come on people.

There is a SERIOUS lack of respect today. Kids have absolutely -zero- respect for laws, property, and people. The Golden Rule is all but forgotten. You absolutely cannot have well-behaving kids without their respect. Any parent who cannot practice what he/she preaches doesn't deserve their childrens' respect, and those are the kids that NEED to respect someone more than anything else.

What does all this rant mean? That AD/HD is way way way over diagnosed by psychiatrists who can't tell the difference between a disease and parents who just don't fucking care any more. Believe me when I understand that there is a real disorder, but it's a rare case when it's been diagnosed proplerly. All the kids I've seen diagnosed with AD/HD (neighbor is a child custody attourney, so we get to see our fair share) can sit down and play video games or watch TV for HOURS on end, yet can't put their dirty clothes in a hamper.

I reserve the right to call Bullshit.

This thing reminds me of Clay's horny, drug-addicted ferret, Angus, on Showtimes not-nearly-as-funny-as-it-should-be show "Free for all." I couldn't find any great pics, but Showtime's Free For All site is here.

The drug-addicted part is where I find the greatest resemblance.

Ever tried to access Showtime from outside the US?

I'm not sure about computer recycling, but most recycling is bullshit.

Penn and Teller do a great show called Bullshit! which deals with different topics that they think are, well, Bullshit. In Season 1, they did a piece on Environmental Hysteria. You might want to watch it, and try to keep an open mind.

Now, I could see supporting a show that took bogus experts as the target - i.e., those people who pretend to be able to talk to their dog, or to share karma with plants, use crystals to heal, etc.

Ahhh! Such a show exists! It is Penn & Teller's Bullshit. Sometimes called Bullsh!t.

It was shown on Showtime, the first season is available on DVD

It is a brilliant show, and does just what you describe. I (an AC you have never heard of) highly reccomend it.

Did anyone else catch Penn & Tellers show on Showtime regarding the Recycling industry and how bad recycling is for the environment? As someone who knows people who used to work in the paper recycling business, DON'T RECYCLE YOUR PAPER!!!

Penn & Teller: Recycling is Garbage!

Using a standard connection and browser, you can't access this site from outside the US (I'm all of 50 kms north of the border in Canada). There are ways around this particular bogosity, but it's generally so irritating that I don't bother with whatever site sets this restrictions. I noticed that Showtime does this as well.

The problem is in execution. There always seem to be those people out there who think that if they talk louder, their ideas gain more credibility.

I've always just viewed it as a similar to Munchausen Syndrome, in that it's a person who just wants attention, but there methods of going about it vary.

But in all, he seems right up there as the type of thing that Penn and Teller would make fun of on their show, but there's no full listing of what's going to be in season 2.

It's not just politicians. On their series Bullshit, Penn and Teller sent a petition to ban DHMO to a Greenpeace rally. The only thing more disturbing than the people who were willing to sign after hearing selected facts about water, was the number of people who signed without even hearing the pitch.

American's only vote when it matters.. like who's going to be the next American Idol.

I know you were only joking, but the funny thing is, you're actually right, and network execs have noticed. The wheels are already turning for an "American Idol"-style TV show to choose a presidential candidate. The show is called "American Candidate," and although it won't let me see the page because I'm not in the US, here's the link.

The hope is that if an election is "glammed-up" like TV shows, that voter interest will be piqued. In all seriousness, a surprising large number of people actually do vote in shows like "American Idol," and "Big Brother." If we could harness that kind of excitement and focus it on something like an election, we may just be able to restore voter interest.

OTOH, if Hubble were allowed to burn up on re-entry then George Lass could potentially have a kindred spirit to keep her company.

>I think that'd be a whole lot more useful than the internationalization stuff they're sticking in recently. I don't think I've ever seen a webpage yet that uses HTTP to determine which locale a user is from.

Click to see if your country is banned

[accidentally posted this to the wrong thread first. Yes, I'm stupid]

If you think that's bad, check out the Penn & Teller - Bullshit! homepage at Showtime. This is what I get:

Sorry. We at Showtime Online express our apologies; however, these pages are intended for access only from within the United States.

This is just a site about the show. It just makes no sense whatsoever to limit access in this way. I wonder if Penn & Teller would agree with me that it's... BULLSHIT!

?

[accidentally posted this to the wrong thread first. Yes, I'm stupid]

If you think that's bad, check out the Penn & Teller - Bullshit! homepage at Showtime. This is what I get:

Sorry. We at Showtime Online express our apologies; however, these pages are intended for access only from within the United States.

This is just a site about the show. It just makes no sense whatsoever to limit access in this way. I wonder if Penn & Teller would agree with me that it's... BULLSHIT!

?

If you think that's bad, check out the Penn & Teller - Bullshit! homepage at Showtime. This is what I get:

Sorry. We at Showtime Online express our apologies; however, these pages are intended for access only from within the United States.

This is just a site about the show. It just makes no sense whatsoever to limit access in this way. I wonder if Penn & Teller would agree with me that it's... BULLSHIT!

?

Before you get all bent out of shape, most public utility tap water is just fine. It's the bottled water that's ripping you off.

Have you never seen Penn and Teller's Bullshit? Look here Bottled water.

It's all advertising. It's all bullshit. Drink water straight from the tap and save enough money for a fucking brain transplant!

Two things:

1) My calendar runs out at Tue Jan 19 03:14:07 2038. Does that mean the world is going to end then?
2) I believe Penn and Teller discussed just how many end of the world predictions have occurred since the beginning of time on their show Bullsh*t (which, if you have showtime, you should definitely watch). Its ridiculous how many of these predictions there actually are. Here's a brief clip (RealPlayer req'd, sorry).

Funny thing is, this new direction for Enterprise sounds a lot like Crusade. A little bit like how DS9 plot arc aped B5's at some points. Of course that's not really fair DS9. There are only so many different directions you can go with stories. Plus a rather convincing arguement could be made that Crusade was JMS attempt to do a Star Trek: the Original Series on his terms in his universe.

Of course all bets are off if the next Trek series is a post-apocalyptic drama starring Jason Priestly and Lisa Bonet (like Jeremiah).

The spammers will claim they all fit in the personal communications requested by the recipient, and are not required to fill in all that rigamarole.

And you're right back where you started from.

No, the solution is to inform people that
a) Your body parts aren't going to get bigger (bellies excluded)
b) You really don't want to trust your finances -- even credit bailouts -- to people who'd SPAM you
c) There are no dignitaries in Nigeria that have millions of dollars they need to launder into the US, and if they did, you'd be arrested
d) There's no need to pay for porn. Go out into the big blue room and you could find someone real. Besides, there's enough free internet porn, just look.

You get SPAM because it works. People buy this crap. If they didn't, the spammers would stop.

The term Frankenfood is just another useless word by which none of the environmentalists can back up.

You see, I too thought that they spliced animal and plant genes together to make better producing crops.

But not so. This is what they would have you believe.

I'm not Flamebaiting, and I'm not Trolling. I was honestly surprised at what I learned from this episode of this show (which is great, btw), and how the only spliced genes in plants are from other plants.

Yes, really. Regardless of what Greenpeace would have you believe.

The environmentalists have made us think that genetically altered food is as bad as can be, and that we should stay away from it. That it's not regulated in any form or fashion. That the food industry runs amok with itself, feeding the world with whatever they can come up with in their Mad Scentist Labs.

But this is completely false. Any GM food is regulated far more than regular food, and these GM foods can save lives.

Dr. Borlog, the scientist who invented GM food, has saved an estimated billion lives in third world countries by making less land make more food. His research and development since the 1970's, when it began, is groundbreaking to say the least. And yet there are groups who protest this on a consistent basis. And you never see any of these group's members starving, do you?

A true tragedy was when an African country decided not to take an American donation of tons of corn because the environmentalists convinced the government of that nation that the genetically altered food was poison. An estimated 25,000 people die every day of starvation, and thousands of innocent people died in that country because of that misinformation.

Now I'm not for a GATTACA like society, but if we can GM a person so they don't get Downs Syndrome, or Cystic Fibrosis, I'm all for it. Most people are against it for moral reasons, not scientific ones.

These kinds of arguments hurt others whether they mean to or not.

The term Frankenfood is just another useless word by which none of the environmentalists can back up.

You see, I too thought that they spliced animal and plant genes together to make better producing crops.

But not so. This is what they would have you believe.

I'm not Flamebaiting, and I'm not Trolling. I was honestly surprised at what I learned from this episode of this show (which is great, btw), and how the only spliced genes in plants are from other plants.

Yes, really. Regardless of what Greenpeace would have you believe.

The environmentalists have made us think that genetically altered food is as bad as can be, and that we should stay away from it. That it's not regulated in any form or fashion. That the food industry runs amok with itself, feeding the world with whatever they can come up with in their Mad Scentist Labs.

But this is completely false. Any GM food is regulated far more than regular food, and these GM foods can save lives.

Dr. Borlog, the scientist who invented GM food, has saved an estimated billion lives in third world countries by making less land make more food. His research and development since the 1970's, when it began, is groundbreaking to say the least. And yet there are groups who protest this on a consistent basis. And you never see any of these group's members starving, do you?

A true tragedy was when an African country decided not to take an American donation of tons of corn because the environmentalists convinced the government of that nation that the genetically altered food was poison. An estimated 25,000 people die every day of starvation, and thousands of innocent people died in that country because of that misinformation.

Now I'm not for a GATTACA like society, but if we can GM a person so they don't get Downs Syndrome, or Cystic Fibrosis, I'm all for it. Most people are against it for moral reasons, not scientific ones.

These kinds of arguments hurt others whether they mean to or not.

This guy has too much time on his hands.

Basically he takes the movie he liked, the ideals and the perceptions, and he fills in the blanks.

Why do they use telephones?

Answer: It's a movie.
His Answer: They put network addresses on all data points along the matrix and blah blah blah

How does the blue/red pills work?

Answer: It's a movie.
His Answer: "the avatar's software module must be able to accept instructions to cancel out any given sensory input."

And, lastly, my favorite:

What/How does the Bugbot do/work?

Answer: It's a fucking movie.
His Answer: "Trinity says that Neo is "dangerous" to them before he is cleaned. We can infer that the bugbot is actually a munition, probably a semtex device that will detonate when it hears Morpheus's voice, killing both Neo and Morpheus and everyone else in the room."

This guy is just making shit up. Yet you know somewhere somebody is going to really put some thought and invest some time into thinking about this bullshit. Jeez. Where's Penn and Teller when you need em?

Yet fooling the press and the anti-scientific does not fact make. Those who dispute global warming are like Flat Earth types and creationists, rallying around fallacy and refusing to consider facts they find inconvenient. It's all Cargo Cult Science.

Some /. readers are probably adept enough at math to review the raw data and decide for themselves: solar irradiance data has been tracked and known for many years and is built into climate models that show, unequivocally, the consequences of human induced climate change. Even Bush finally admitted it.

Will the earth survive such changes? Of course it will. Will the human race survive? Probably. Will the long term cost of continuing to burn fossil fuels exceed the short term cost of switching to low carbon-load alternatives? Almost certainly.

But when evaluating the arguments of anti-environmentalists, which seem so utterly out of sync with even basic science, one must remember that, like their spiritual mentor James Watt, those that believe that Armageddon is around the corner will do nothing to protect the rights of future generations.

I shall refute this point by point:

>You will notice consistant definitions which are in agreement with the author. Your assertion that most people use the phrase "CD-ROM disc" is anecdotal and unverifiable.

You are incorrect. It is verifiable. And it only takes seconds.

In summary -- use the tools available to you.

>Additionally, you go on to make some rather rude remearks that the author is wrong about the history of acronym for DVD.

If you think bullshit is rude, I would suggest you dislike Penn and Teller, known scpetics who, I'm willing to bet, despise grammarians (Although I haven't asked them this. Perhaps a reading of some old PC Computing rags might shed some light on this matter.)

In essence, there is no consensus as for what the letters stand. Originally it meant "digital video disc"; some tried to shoe-horn "digital versatile disc", but there was never an agreement reached. However, the author of the site never makes a claim as to the current meaning. He states merely:

[O]riginally "Digital Video Disc"-even though some manufacturers now claim the initials stand for "Digital Versatile Disc."

What he says is true. It did at one point stand for "digital video disc" and some manufacturers currently do claim that it stand for "digital versatile disc." The dictionary offers both as a possibility and, in the end, both may end up as satisfactory answers.

Half-true. All manufacturers call it Digital Versatile Disc. I can find none that, today, would call it otherwise, except when they want to point out how a DVD player plays only Videos. Therefore the author was incorrect. It isn't some. It is all. The fact that there is a new logo that has been used by all manufacturers since, and that the DVD group now call it Digital Versatile Disc is just icing on the cake, as it were.

>If what you meant, however, was that "UFO" is the phrase to be applied to a creature not from Earth, then you are mistaken. Both "extraterrestrial" and "alien" already serve this purpose.

Yes, that is what I meant. The fact that there are already 2 words with this meaning does not preclude another word being used as such.

Princeton university supports my definition, and provides no specific definition that supports the argument of the author:

ufo

n : an (apparently) flying object whose nature is unknown; especially those considered to have extraterrestrial origins [syn: unidentified flying object, UFO, flying saucer]

The author is incorrect in his assumption that the term UFO cannot be applied to alien spacecraft. The military would also agree with Princeton University.

>On the matter of usage [of ok], you are correct. However, no one ever disagreed with you.

Bullshit. Read the site with a text browser next time. It clearly states "WRONG: OK". If this is a mistake on the part of the author, so be it. He is an english professor, and not a CS professor.

>He also claims that humanists (believers in the principles of Humanism) are more likely to use the "analogue" spelling.

Being pretentious, are we? I think if I were to lump myself with a group of people I'd know what the definition of Humanism are.

How's about an apology from you, since we apoligize for so much, it would appear.

>The author who wrote the page holds a degree Ph.D in English and is a professor of English at Washington State University. Not only does this qualify him as an expert of the English language, but it also exposes him to more samples of writings than most people. As such, if he claims that one spelling is preferred over another depending

Showtime won't pick up Farscape. Those few of us who are Odyssey 5 fans will tell you that Showtime gives a rat's ass about it's sci-fi-following subscribers. For those of you not in the know, O5 has 6 episodes left on their first season. They aired the "season finale" months ago and have been holding back giving fans the final 6 episodes they were promised. These missing episodes have aired in the UK, leaving the US fans to various P2P networks for crappy VCD versions of the last few eps.

So, not to beat down your attempt, but I doubt it will get more than the standard corporate P.R. BS from Showtime. Many Odyssey 5 fans have sent numerous letters, made numerous phone calls, and all we get is the standard "we love hearing feedback and forward it to the appropriate department." Evidently that department is the "we-don't-give-a-flying-fuck-what-you-want" department. They seem to be leaving the sci-fi genre in the dust, preferring to favor shows like Queer As Folk and Family Business. I suppose their target audience has changed; it's about the only reason we can think of for their neglect of the true fans.

Showtime won't pick up Farscape. Those few of us who are Odyssey 5 fans will tell you that Showtime gives a rat's ass about it's sci-fi-following subscribers. For those of you not in the know, O5 has 6 episodes left on their first season. They aired the "season finale" months ago and have been holding back giving fans the final 6 episodes they were promised. These missing episodes have aired in the UK, leaving the US fans to various P2P networks for crappy VCD versions of the last few eps.

So, not to beat down your attempt, but I doubt it will get more than the standard corporate P.R. BS from Showtime. Many Odyssey 5 fans have sent numerous letters, made numerous phone calls, and all we get is the standard "we love hearing feedback and forward it to the appropriate department." Evidently that department is the "we-don't-give-a-flying-fuck-what-you-want" department. They seem to be leaving the sci-fi genre in the dust, preferring to favor shows like Queer As Folk and Family Business. I suppose their target audience has changed; it's about the only reason we can think of for their neglect of the true fans.

Showtime won't pick up Farscape. Those few of us who are Odyssey 5 fans will tell you that Showtime gives a rat's ass about it's sci-fi-following subscribers. For those of you not in the know, O5 has 6 episodes left on their first season. They aired the "season finale" months ago and have been holding back giving fans the final 6 episodes they were promised. These missing episodes have aired in the UK, leaving the US fans to various P2P networks for crappy VCD versions of the last few eps.

So, not to beat down your attempt, but I doubt it will get more than the standard corporate P.R. BS from Showtime. Many Odyssey 5 fans have sent numerous letters, made numerous phone calls, and all we get is the standard "we love hearing feedback and forward it to the appropriate department." Evidently that department is the "we-don't-give-a-flying-fuck-what-you-want" department. They seem to be leaving the sci-fi genre in the dust, preferring to favor shows like Queer As Folk and Family Business. I suppose their target audience has changed; it's about the only reason we can think of for their neglect of the true fans.

Of course I am a dork. This is not showtime's website. Luckily I didn't submit the comment before I caught my egregious error. ... Real SHOWTIME contact form is here.

I would love more than anything for Penn & Teller's Bullshit to do a story entitled "Everything funds terrorism."

Their insights on topics from Feng Sheu and Bottled Water (easily one of my favorite episodes) are classic. They take the average urban myth (such as Chiropractics are actually doing you some good...not) and deconstruct it to shreds.

This is political BS and those who don't believe it have their head in the sand.

What's worse is this is just going to lead to more legislation taking away American Civil Liberties. I've got my ACLU membership card, do you?

Well, either lawyers don't use the internet, or you belong on Penn & Teller's Bullshit!.

Sorry -- but you, sir, are in another EXTREME minority. As in, 9/282 extreme, or 3% extreme. And 2 of the 9 quotes seem to be from a feline-o-phile story... which sort of worries me. I really had no clue that such literature existed, until today. Another 2 of the 9 are from the same person, Ed Arditti. So, striking out the unusual literature, and not giving credit for dupes, I'm down to 6. Which makes it a 98% advantage for the non-points team.

If you'd like, I'll email Ed Arditti and see if he can shed some light on to his wildly unsupported claim.

Now, if only 3% of the connected world says you're right, you'll need to provide me with some much harder evidence. Like, perhaps, at least an actual known slashdot account that you're willing to back up that claim with (both that it's a misquote, and what the difference is, exactly. Preferably referring to the UK, which is the land we're talking about). Otherwise, I'm more likely to believe I've been probed by aliens. At least in that case I'd have a reason for my constipation today that isn't related to McDonald's.

A while ago, I saw an ad in the Village Voice placed by Showtime-- apparently they're holding their own Queer as Folk fanfiction contest. This is probably one of the few examples in the US of a creator/content provider supporting the derivative works of fans (but note the legalese submission rules ^_~). I'm curious to know if there are any more ^_^

BTW, I collect doujinshi, and the arguement that such derivative works only fuels the demand for originals is very true. As my collection grows, I have become more a fan of the works the doujinshi are based off of than back when I had no doujinshi.

Penn & Teller's new Showtime series Penn & Teller: Bullshit! is going to cover some of this ground as well.

I'm not sure when you cancelled Showtime, but Odyssey 5 is a good sci-fi show. Hell, my wife is addicted to it, which says a lot. I've never seen Farscape, so I can't compare, but O5 certainly has my attention.

In fact, I've been wondering why I haven't seen more about it on Slashdot. Perhaps no one knows about it, or maybe it truly is disliked by the sci-fi crowd.

Just click on the "Google.com" link at the bottom right. That seems to give you a cookie which redirects you to google.com all the time.

When they first started doing this IP-based redirection, I found it almost offensive; I didn't like being automatically forced to another website because of my country (try going to Showtime's site from Canada). Now I'm starting to learn to accept it. In fact it might even be better since the search results are exactly the same unless you choose "Pages from Canada".

Showtime is the name of a premium movie channel owned by Viacom.

Showtime is also a film directed by Tom Dey produced by AOL Time Warner, who owns HBO, which competes with Showtime the channel.

Wait till Showtime the movie hits cable. Watch the legal sparks fly.

If you want proof that Flash is wonderful, check out WhirlGirl , the baddest superhero in all of SoCal!

Michael Dorn (Worf in Star Trek) and Diedrich Bader(Oswald on the Drew Cary show) do some of the voices.

Works great using the OS/2 flash plugin too.