Please tell me a time when in my lifetime when it was not considered politically correct to criticize Christians in the U.S.? Please name the comedian who makes a living belittling atheists? Or even has that as a significant part of their routine?
I think comedians' acts support the exact opposite point from the one you're trying to make, since a lot of comedy is about reversals of expectations. Comedians don't hate on atheists (or, to some extent, women, minorities [unless they're a member of that minority], poor people, the physically/mentally challenged, etc.) because it's not very funny. It's not that it's too un-PC, but these groups get belittled all the time in real life (it's pervasive throughout our society), and it's just not that funny to see a comedian do the same thing.
For example, it's widely accepted as funny, across many disparate cultures, to see a man lose a game or a fight to a woman, or to see a man dressed as a woman, because it's a reversal of what you'd normally expect -- a man "lowered" to an inferior status, that of a woman. However, it's not very funny to see a man beat a woman in a fight or win a game against a woman, generally. Does this mean that society is biased toward women, since comedies tend to show them with the upper hand? Of course not, it shows the exact opposite, since it's funny when the woman has the upper hand.
Note: this is all hastily written and full of generalizations. I'm not stating anything about what you or I personally find funny, but more society-wide observations. Also, I realize we were talking about christians/atheists; the male/female divide is more obvious and widespread, so it's easier to point out examples, but similar phenomena exist in both places.
I don't think it matters. The movie butchered so many comic book back stories...
Ha! Good one!
that it was incredibly painful to watch even after "the paint was applied."
I wouldn't call it a Ferrari either. Maybe a Pinto without a paint job.
...wait, were you serious? It seems silly to pretend that the last 15 retcons or complete rewrites were okay, but this one is a step too far! I haven't seen the movie in question and have no reason to believe it's not horrible, but to borrow from James Nicoll, the problem with defending the purity of Marvel back stories is that Marvel back stories about as pure as a cribhouse whore.
Are you serious? I didn't get too far in college, but to get a BS in 4 years, you needed to do 13-15 hours a semester. Are masters degrees really that easy?
Grad-level classes are typically fewer credits but more work than undergrad classes, and you're expected to do a whole lot more on your own outside of class. You can't directly compare an undergrad "credit" with a grad "credit".
Heh, fair enough. I agree some of the analysis is a bit weak, but it is still interesting. He was definitely trying to address all the people that insist Mexican Coke tastes better, not those that choose it for health reasons (though, really, drinking Mexican Coke for health reasons is a silly place to end up).
...did you read the link? The quote is from the conclusion of a long post that describes the setup and results of an admittedly small study, but a study nonetheless. Not just one person's opinion.
A superior Coca Cola made with sugar instead of corn syrup [...]
(Just as a sidenote) It depends how you mean "superior", but this sheds some interesting light on the matter:
Those folks who prefer Mexican Coke (like myself), really just like the idea of Mexican Coke—whether it's because they think real sugar is tastier/healthier than corn syrup, whether it's because Mexican Coke is more expensive and harder to find, thus more valuable, whether it's because of its exoticism, whatever the reason—strip away the Mexicanness of it, and suddenly it's a lot less appealing.
This doesn't exactly address prevalence of rape fantasies, but rather willingness to play out a rape fantasy if your partner asks, which is probably correlated. It's an interesting read (as is every post on that blog).
I agree about the TV series; they're probably what I use the streaming for 80% of the time. I've watched through Arrested Development, Doctor Who, (some of) Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and a few others. I rarely even look for recent releases (either I watch them in the theater or they'll show up eventually), so I'm rarely annoyed by long waits. I guess I'm one of those few that feels that the raised price is still totally reasonable, and the prior price felt like highway robbery (but not in a bad way, of course).
That raises a very good point. If I purchase something from a 7-11, I pay the sales tax of the seller's place of business, regardless of where I am from.
What you are proposing is that the 7-11 should determine where I am from, and charge me the appropriate sales tax from wherever I live.
No, the 7-11 charges you the tax based on where both you and the seller are physically located. The problem is that the sales tax laws were written based on the assumption that the seller and the buyer are in the same location, so you just charge tax based on the laws in that location. The laws fall apart when the buyer and seller are under different jurisdictions -- do you charge based on the location of the seller or the buyer? There's no satisfying option, so the answer is... neither, apparently. Online retailers shipping to other states just sorta slip through the cracks, and the states try to make up for that with use tax.
Btw, is there anyone who actually keeps track of all the use tax they owe?
Their games are basically this, except you can pay to reduce the amount of clicking, or so I gather. I'm happy to say I've never played a Zynga game in my life.
Maybe someone read a scroll of genocide, thinking it was some recipe?
Or maybe they thought it was a cursed scroll of genocide, which would merely send in a few instances of the race in question -- "reverse genocide", as it were;)
A bit of a whoosh there: Firefox was the tiny fast lightweight browser last week (that's the joke), before Chrome became the tiny fast lightweight browser browser yesterday. As for tomorrow, well, it'll probably be on a smartphone:)
It was good in the aspect that you could kick them off without them being personally offended, but it made it look like your line wasn't high quality and often will not go back to your site.
Isn't that even better? That way trolls will just leave without trying to get back at you or other asshattery, and the good users won't see any disruption, so you probably wouldn't gain much of a reputation as an unreliable site. Is there a downside I'm missing?
Instacloner? What instacloner? I distinctly remember a duplicator with an ethicator (and built-in moral compromise spectral release phantasmatron, naturally), but instacloner isn't ringing a bell.
And don't forget about the transmogrifier gun! A great advance in the field of transmogrification.
But regardless, I'd probably remove it, too, since there's a huge, unreasonable, internet shitstorm over nothing. Yes, their example is oversimplified, but it's intended for the average college freshman (not always the brightest tool in the shed). It's also an example of things they would be wise to avoid, not a rule. If you don't know how to secure your router, it's probably best not to set one up in your dorm room.
Having not seen the episode Drakkenmensch is referencing, I cleverly used my reading skills to deduce that "over there" references the "genius school" that Bart was sent to, and "this system" refers to the sort of system that the various linked articles (and, indeed, this very Slashdot discussion) are about. Reading is fun!
From what I've read, if you want the buttons on the right without fiddling then you need to download and use a different desktop theme. Not a big problem, but annoying.
OTOH, this *is* second had information. No guarantees.
There are a bunch of alternate themes that come with a default install, and all the other themes have the buttons on the right. Unless you specifically want everything else to follow the default theme, it's really quite easy to fix with no downloading required.
I think the value of the Turing test is that strong AI would be able to pass it, so if something fails the test you know it's *not* strong AI. If a system passes the Turing test, well, it may be strong AI, but it's not conclusive.
Well, we could have way more efficient queues if we had unisex bathrooms. Are there any objections that wouldn't be satisfied by having isolated stalls (i.e. floor-to-ceiling walls and doors without cracks to see through and which lock reliably)? I'd be totally in favor of that. Does anyone have a problem with washing their hands in view of someone of the opposite gender?
A more general comment on "self segregation": isn't all segregation "self segregation"? What's the difference between "We want to keep them away from us" and "We want to keep ourselves away from them"? The obvious distinction is majority vs. minority -- when the minority does it it's "self segregation" -- but if you're still looking at the granularity of an ethnic group or similar, it's no better.
If an individual wants to join a private group, that's totally fine and reasonable. If a group of Saudis decide that all Saudis should be segregated by gender, is it ethical to force that on the rest of them?
The "baby/bathwater" saying is only applicable when the proverbial baby is actually valuable in some way. Preventing only the autocompletion of a few random words seems more like throwing the soap suds out with the bathwater.
Slashdot Mirror
So... how much are they charging?
Please tell me a time when in my lifetime when it was not considered politically correct to criticize Christians in the U.S.? Please name the comedian who makes a living belittling atheists? Or even has that as a significant part of their routine?
I think comedians' acts support the exact opposite point from the one you're trying to make, since a lot of comedy is about reversals of expectations. Comedians don't hate on atheists (or, to some extent, women, minorities [unless they're a member of that minority], poor people, the physically/mentally challenged, etc.) because it's not very funny. It's not that it's too un-PC, but these groups get belittled all the time in real life (it's pervasive throughout our society), and it's just not that funny to see a comedian do the same thing.
For example, it's widely accepted as funny, across many disparate cultures, to see a man lose a game or a fight to a woman, or to see a man dressed as a woman, because it's a reversal of what you'd normally expect -- a man "lowered" to an inferior status, that of a woman. However, it's not very funny to see a man beat a woman in a fight or win a game against a woman, generally. Does this mean that society is biased toward women, since comedies tend to show them with the upper hand? Of course not, it shows the exact opposite, since it's funny when the woman has the upper hand.
Note: this is all hastily written and full of generalizations. I'm not stating anything about what you or I personally find funny, but more society-wide observations. Also, I realize we were talking about christians/atheists; the male/female divide is more obvious and widespread, so it's easier to point out examples, but similar phenomena exist in both places.
I don't think it matters. The movie butchered so many comic book back stories...
Ha! Good one!
that it was incredibly painful to watch even after "the paint was applied."
I wouldn't call it a Ferrari either. Maybe a Pinto without a paint job.
...wait, were you serious? It seems silly to pretend that the last 15 retcons or complete rewrites were okay, but this one is a step too far! I haven't seen the movie in question and have no reason to believe it's not horrible, but to borrow from James Nicoll, the problem with defending the purity of Marvel back stories is that Marvel back stories about as pure as a cribhouse whore.
Are you serious? I didn't get too far in college, but to get a BS in 4 years, you needed to do 13-15 hours a semester. Are masters degrees really that easy?
Grad-level classes are typically fewer credits but more work than undergrad classes, and you're expected to do a whole lot more on your own outside of class. You can't directly compare an undergrad "credit" with a grad "credit".
Heh, fair enough. I agree some of the analysis is a bit weak, but it is still interesting. He was definitely trying to address all the people that insist Mexican Coke tastes better, not those that choose it for health reasons (though, really, drinking Mexican Coke for health reasons is a silly place to end up).
...did you read the link? The quote is from the conclusion of a long post that describes the setup and results of an admittedly small study, but a study nonetheless. Not just one person's opinion.
A superior Coca Cola made with sugar instead of corn syrup [...]
(Just as a sidenote) It depends how you mean "superior", but this sheds some interesting light on the matter:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver
This doesn't exactly address prevalence of rape fantasies, but rather willingness to play out a rape fantasy if your partner asks, which is probably correlated. It's an interesting read (as is every post on that blog).
I looked up tardulent. No one seems to know what it means. Typo?
Try starting here and adding suffixes à la "fraudulent".
I agree about the TV series; they're probably what I use the streaming for 80% of the time. I've watched through Arrested Development, Doctor Who, (some of) Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and a few others. I rarely even look for recent releases (either I watch them in the theater or they'll show up eventually), so I'm rarely annoyed by long waits. I guess I'm one of those few that feels that the raised price is still totally reasonable, and the prior price felt like highway robbery (but not in a bad way, of course).
That raises a very good point. If I purchase something from a 7-11, I pay the sales tax of the seller's place of business, regardless of where I am from.
What you are proposing is that the 7-11 should determine where I am from, and charge me the appropriate sales tax from wherever I live.
No, the 7-11 charges you the tax based on where both you and the seller are physically located. The problem is that the sales tax laws were written based on the assumption that the seller and the buyer are in the same location, so you just charge tax based on the laws in that location. The laws fall apart when the buyer and seller are under different jurisdictions -- do you charge based on the location of the seller or the buyer? There's no satisfying option, so the answer is... neither, apparently. Online retailers shipping to other states just sorta slip through the cracks, and the states try to make up for that with use tax.
Btw, is there anyone who actually keeps track of all the use tax they owe?
Their games are basically this, except you can pay to reduce the amount of clicking, or so I gather. I'm happy to say I've never played a Zynga game in my life.
Maybe someone read a scroll of genocide, thinking it was some recipe?
Or maybe they thought it was a cursed scroll of genocide, which would merely send in a few instances of the race in question -- "reverse genocide", as it were ;)
A bit of a whoosh there: Firefox was the tiny fast lightweight browser last week (that's the joke), before Chrome became the tiny fast lightweight browser browser yesterday. As for tomorrow, well, it'll probably be on a smartphone :)
It was good in the aspect that you could kick them off without them being personally offended, but it made it look like your line wasn't high quality and often will not go back to your site.
Isn't that even better? That way trolls will just leave without trying to get back at you or other asshattery, and the good users won't see any disruption, so you probably wouldn't gain much of a reputation as an unreliable site. Is there a downside I'm missing?
Instacloner? What instacloner? I distinctly remember a duplicator with an ethicator (and built-in moral compromise spectral release phantasmatron, naturally), but instacloner isn't ringing a bell.
And don't forget about the transmogrifier gun! A great advance in the field of transmogrification.
Also, there's Google's cached version.
But regardless, I'd probably remove it, too, since there's a huge, unreasonable, internet shitstorm over nothing. Yes, their example is oversimplified, but it's intended for the average college freshman (not always the brightest tool in the shed). It's also an example of things they would be wise to avoid, not a rule. If you don't know how to secure your router, it's probably best not to set one up in your dorm room.
Having not seen the episode Drakkenmensch is referencing, I cleverly used my reading skills to deduce that "over there" references the "genius school" that Bart was sent to, and "this system" refers to the sort of system that the various linked articles (and, indeed, this very Slashdot discussion) are about. Reading is fun!
From what I've read, if you want the buttons on the right without fiddling then you need to download and use a different desktop theme. Not a big problem, but annoying.
OTOH, this *is* second had information. No guarantees.
There are a bunch of alternate themes that come with a default install, and all the other themes have the buttons on the right. Unless you specifically want everything else to follow the default theme, it's really quite easy to fix with no downloading required.
I think the value of the Turing test is that strong AI would be able to pass it, so if something fails the test you know it's *not* strong AI. If a system passes the Turing test, well, it may be strong AI, but it's not conclusive.
Well, we could have way more efficient queues if we had unisex bathrooms. Are there any objections that wouldn't be satisfied by having isolated stalls (i.e. floor-to-ceiling walls and doors without cracks to see through and which lock reliably)? I'd be totally in favor of that. Does anyone have a problem with washing their hands in view of someone of the opposite gender?
A more general comment on "self segregation": isn't all segregation "self segregation"? What's the difference between "We want to keep them away from us" and "We want to keep ourselves away from them"? The obvious distinction is majority vs. minority -- when the minority does it it's "self segregation" -- but if you're still looking at the granularity of an ethnic group or similar, it's no better.
If an individual wants to join a private group, that's totally fine and reasonable. If a group of Saudis decide that all Saudis should be segregated by gender, is it ethical to force that on the rest of them?
(Answer: No.)
You jest, but there are some really good short films which are shared on YouTube. A few random examples:
:P
Schwarzfahrer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFQXcv1k9OM
Validation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbk980jV7Ao
Complete History of the Soviet Union: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWTFG3J1CP8
And yes, I know that's a different definition of "quality" from the one used in the summary. I'm responding to a joke
The "baby/bathwater" saying is only applicable when the proverbial baby is actually valuable in some way. Preventing only the autocompletion of a few random words seems more like throwing the soap suds out with the bathwater.
The only ones I'm aware of are those who play Nethack (or its variants) on a server like nethack.alt.org :)