Every story having to do with mars, I know there's going to be a funny update in the continuing saga of the Martian Council and their plans to keep the nefarious Earthlings off their planet. Just saying that in counterpoint to the jealous asshats who keep trying to drag you down.
Yours are the best first posts ever, may you get a million more and frustrate hundreds of slimey trolls in the process.
Not purely the realm of males, but there is a power imbalance involved that makes it more egregious when men do it. Yes, putting people in their place when they misbehave is important, but I don't like to approach it like that. I see oppression as a mental illness that harms both the oppresser and the oppressed. When I see it, I recognize that the oppresser is also acting out of hurt. I recognize that 99% of the time, somewhere inside the bully and the asshole there is a human being who is acting out in the hope of receiving some firm but fair guidance. So when I see it, I gently ask them soomething like, "Did you mean to be offensive like that? Because many people would take offense at what you said." Simply pointing out their behavior in a non confrontational manner lets them back down without losing to much face, and by giving them an opportunity to agree that their behavior is offensive, I strengthen the part of them that is as offended by oppression as I am.
Yeah, very funny, but seriously, why is it still okay for men to do this to women they don't even know? Look, the only reason I mention all this is that I have a theory that if women were really treated like equals they would put out more. Hehe. Only serious, ladies.
I also think they might be more comfortable with being direct and asking for what they want instead of being passive aggressive and manipulative. And before any feminists get bent out of shape, think about it. Sure, not all women are that way, but many are, and it probably has to do with being in the subordinate role in society, they have to do it that way to get what you want.
This is why I ask all men to stand up for women's equality. We will get laid more. We won't have to be mind readers trying to figure out what she REALLY wants, as opposed to what she SAYS she wants. Did I mention the getting laid more part? Women won't have to use sex as a power ploy if they have equal power.
I can't believe you got modded insightful for this bitter misspelled rant. Can't get any, huh? Gotta take it out on the ladies, put 'em back in their place? If you think sexism is a thing of the past, you are deluded. Women still do not get equal pay for equal work, and they don't have access to the same opportunities men do. Women are still harrassed by sexist men. I've seen women whistled at, leered at, propositioned, insulted and degraded by complete strangers. I've never had a woman do that to me, or seen any woman do that to a man. Women still suffer far more from rape and spousal abuse than men do.
Mostly, people who complain about anything PC (racism, sexism, etc.) are insecure asshats who are afraid they have the skills to compete without the special status confered on them by their race or sex. They won't look at the possibility that maybe it isn't affirmative action keeping their poor privileged white male asses down, it's their own lack of skill and drive.
You call someone a troll and an anti semite. I say that when you act a certain way, you look like an idiot. You are quiet obviously engaged in name calling, while I am trying to provide constructive criticism. You like most people probably don't want to look stupid in front of large numbers of people, and like most people are probably unaware when you do. I'm merely trying to help, so that in the future you can come across as intelligent rather than a dundering chowderhead, which is how you come across now. No insult intended. I'm not saying you ARE a blithering idiot, merely how you LOOK to others. I will even provide some tips on how you can appear less like someone of impaired intelligence. Provide sources and actual quotes to back up your suppositions. This lets people corroborate your facts and see that you are telling the truth, not just spouting made up bullshit.
Thank you! It amazes me how often I point that out. A belief that everything done by our government is done for our benefit is part of a certain mindset. People really believe we are the best, most righteous nation on earth, that everything we do is good and just, that our Republican leaders are all good and just and righteous God fearing Christians with the country's best interest at heart.
To question any part of this belief system induces a state of acute anxiety in these people. They have based their whole ego structure around a belief that they are good people who are part of a good country. To call that into question is to call their very concept of self into question. This explains the ferocity with which they defend their beliefs, and the difficulty in comprehending something even so simple as the idea that our leaders may be acting selfishly in regard to oil.
I'm completely anti Bush, so far left I can't even walk straight, and even I wouldn't put Bush in the same league as China's leaders. Not that he wouldn't do the same damn thing if he thought he could get away with it, but he can't. Claiming otherwise is a slight to all the people in China who have suffered real oppression at the hands of it's leaders.
That being said, I have heard people argue that the problems of feeding a country that size, let alone dragging it into the modern age are so great that we can't judge China's leaders by the same book we judge ours. Interesting point, but I still don't quite buy it.
Moron. Nice try, troll, but you can't tar and feather IgnoramusMaximus with your anti-semtism just by pretending to be anti-semetic and agreeing with him. His arguments are not anti-semitic at all, and you can't discredit them with such a transparent ploy.
Oh, please. You have shown the entire slashdot community that you lack any facts to back up any of your assertions, so you turn to name-calling. Classic neo-con tactics.
You look like an idiot, as your opponents have cited fact after fact to back up their claims and you have absolutely nothing except your own misguided opinion. Please, for your own sake, drop it. You have come to this battle of wits unarmed, and the longer you go on, the more obvious it becomes.
He never said you lose the argument if you mention Nazis, he simply said that the longer a discussion goes on, the higher the likelhood that someone will mention the Nazis.
New Mexico has DST. Arizona is weird, though. The state doesn't have it, but the Navajo reservation which takes up the northeastern corner of the state does. Even more confusing, there is a Hopi reservation entirely inside the Navajo reservation that doesn't, and another tiny Navajo reservation entirely inside the Hopi reservation that does. You could very well have to change your clock seven times just travelling in a straight east-west line across the state.
There is a great SF book called "And Having Writ," can't remember the author and too lazy to google it, but anyway, it's about these aliens who come to study Earth some time ago but their ship breaks down. They are on their way to becoming the Tunguska event when they use an experimental device to alter probability, which sends them to an alternate universe where they don't blow up. They still crash, but survive. They figure the only way to repair their ship is to get the local tech up to snuff, and the best way to do that is to start a war. Well, they do their best to incite the world to war, but due to humorous misunderstandings of human motivations and whatnot they actually end up preventing World War I. So they decide to pack it in, put themselves into suspended animation for a few hundred years and just wait. Turns that thanks to them preventing war, (and us just knowing they are there) we actually progress faster and by 1950 we have interstellar travel and whatnot, so we wake them up and offer them a ride home.
Again, the question of intelligent design is simply unimportant as even if we knew for sure, the answer would tell us nothing. It is utterly unimportant. Why postulate the existence of a designer whose own existence would then have to be rationalized? Where does that get us? What does it do for us? Perhaps it is a symptom of the human need to feel like something is in control.
So we have two hypothesis, neither of which we know how to test for. Occam's razor says pick the simplest, which in my book is the infinite multiverse hypothesis. But the point is moot, it matters not to how I live my life. If God really wanted me to live a certain way, he should have told me Himself, not through the imperfect, manipulative, and selfish medium of other human beings, who I frankly don't trust one bit to realy His will to me. And yes, I have honestly and with an open heart and mind asked Him for a sign, or a clue, or even a fricken ambiguous hint, and I've gotten nothing in return. So my conclusion, which is only valid for me, is that He either doesn't exist or doesn't care about me. Either way, I'm not going to waste any more effort trying to figure out what He wants.
Experiments aren't falsifiable, theories are. It's simple: your theory makes a prediction. You do an experiment to see if that prediction is accurate. If it isn't, then the theory isn't accurate, so you revise it. Even fuzzy disciplines such as economics and biology can make predictions that are falsifiable. For instance, selfish actor theory of economics says that in a certain experiment, a person will act a certain way. One experiment is where you give a person a significant sum of money. They can keep it or give it to a second person. If they give it away, that money is multiplied and the second person gets more than the first gave away. The second person can then give some back to the first, which is also multiplied. Selfish actor theory says the first person will always keep all the money. In real life, they don't, so the theory is wrong.
Target gives gift receipts. They have a number on them but no prices. The Target drones can look up the receipt and see what was on it. I assume they can also see if something has been returned already.
Well in this case I think it means "whose quality no one we think matters cares to dispute." Which is really the case in for any editor. But the point made by an earlier post still stands, having official editors makes it less "wiki-like."
We don't know that the universe is finite, the big bang could have been a kind of phase change rather than a beginning. There could be a larger metaverse that is infinite that gives rise to all kinds of different universes. We just don't know at this point. My problem with the whole concept of God is that it unnecisarily complicates the picture without answering any questions. It just puts the whole first cause problem at one remove further back without answering it. And barring some definitive communication from said deity that is not obviously tainted by base human motivations, the existance or lack of God is a moot point. I will live my life in a moral fashion because it is what is best for me, what feels right. It brings me no comfort to feel there is a creator or savior watching over me. In fact, if there is, I'm going to be very, very angry with It when and if I meet it. Because, if there is a God, all the available evidence points to a psychotic being that is deliberately screwing with our heads.
Well, our universe may be part of a larger whole that is infinite and uncreated. If it was created by an infinite and uncreated God, then is definitely part of a system that is infinite and uncreated. (The universe + God) If one can conceive of a system like this with God in the picture, it should be possible to conceive of it with no God in the picture as well.
Slashdot Mirror
I'd like a pony.
Every story having to do with mars, I know there's going to be a funny update in the continuing saga of the Martian Council and their plans to keep the nefarious Earthlings off their planet. Just saying that in counterpoint to the jealous asshats who keep trying to drag you down.
Yours are the best first posts ever, may you get a million more and frustrate hundreds of slimey trolls in the process.
Not purely the realm of males, but there is a power imbalance involved that makes it more egregious when men do it. Yes, putting people in their place when they misbehave is important, but I don't like to approach it like that. I see oppression as a mental illness that harms both the oppresser and the oppressed. When I see it, I recognize that the oppresser is also acting out of hurt. I recognize that 99% of the time, somewhere inside the bully and the asshole there is a human being who is acting out in the hope of receiving some firm but fair guidance. So when I see it, I gently ask them soomething like, "Did you mean to be offensive like that? Because many people would take offense at what you said." Simply pointing out their behavior in a non confrontational manner lets them back down without losing to much face, and by giving them an opportunity to agree that their behavior is offensive, I strengthen the part of them that is as offended by oppression as I am.
Yeah, very funny, but seriously, why is it still okay for men to do this to women they don't even know? Look, the only reason I mention all this is that I have a theory that if women were really treated like equals they would put out more. Hehe. Only serious, ladies.
I also think they might be more comfortable with being direct and asking for what they want instead of being passive aggressive and manipulative. And before any feminists get bent out of shape, think about it. Sure, not all women are that way, but many are, and it probably has to do with being in the subordinate role in society, they have to do it that way to get what you want.
This is why I ask all men to stand up for women's equality. We will get laid more. We won't have to be mind readers trying to figure out what she REALLY wants, as opposed to what she SAYS she wants. Did I mention the getting laid more part? Women won't have to use sex as a power ploy if they have equal power.
To me, that's a cause worth fighting for.
Boy howdy, you sher do sound like like some sorta high-falutin' edumacated type when you use words like "yepp," "yupp," and "fuckin."
I don't generally flame people for their spelling, the GP just sounded like an ignorant redneck.
I can't believe you got modded insightful for this bitter misspelled rant. Can't get any, huh? Gotta take it out on the ladies, put 'em back in their place? If you think sexism is a thing of the past, you are deluded. Women still do not get equal pay for equal work, and they don't have access to the same opportunities men do. Women are still harrassed by sexist men. I've seen women whistled at, leered at, propositioned, insulted and degraded by complete strangers. I've never had a woman do that to me, or seen any woman do that to a man. Women still suffer far more from rape and spousal abuse than men do.
Mostly, people who complain about anything PC (racism, sexism, etc.) are insecure asshats who are afraid they have the skills to compete without the special status confered on them by their race or sex. They won't look at the possibility that maybe it isn't affirmative action keeping their poor privileged white male asses down, it's their own lack of skill and drive.
It's totally environmentally friendly and it can get you really high, really fast!
Hmmm, yeah, I suppose I SHOULD have put spoiler warnings in... But you should still read the book if you like SF, it is very funny.
You call someone a troll and an anti semite. I say that when you act a certain way, you look like an idiot. You are quiet obviously engaged in name calling, while I am trying to provide constructive criticism. You like most people probably don't want to look stupid in front of large numbers of people, and like most people are probably unaware when you do. I'm merely trying to help, so that in the future you can come across as intelligent rather than a dundering chowderhead, which is how you come across now. No insult intended. I'm not saying you ARE a blithering idiot, merely how you LOOK to others. I will even provide some tips on how you can appear less like someone of impaired intelligence. Provide sources and actual quotes to back up your suppositions. This lets people corroborate your facts and see that you are telling the truth, not just spouting made up bullshit.
Hope that helps!
Thank you! It amazes me how often I point that out. A belief that everything done by our government is done for our benefit is part of a certain mindset. People really believe we are the best, most righteous nation on earth, that everything we do is good and just, that our Republican leaders are all good and just and righteous God fearing Christians with the country's best interest at heart.
To question any part of this belief system induces a state of acute anxiety in these people. They have based their whole ego structure around a belief that they are good people who are part of a good country. To call that into question is to call their very concept of self into question. This explains the ferocity with which they defend their beliefs, and the difficulty in comprehending something even so simple as the idea that our leaders may be acting selfishly in regard to oil.
I'm completely anti Bush, so far left I can't even walk straight, and even I wouldn't put Bush in the same league as China's leaders. Not that he wouldn't do the same damn thing if he thought he could get away with it, but he can't. Claiming otherwise is a slight to all the people in China who have suffered real oppression at the hands of it's leaders.
That being said, I have heard people argue that the problems of feeding a country that size, let alone dragging it into the modern age are so great that we can't judge China's leaders by the same book we judge ours. Interesting point, but I still don't quite buy it.
Moron. Nice try, troll, but you can't tar and feather IgnoramusMaximus with your anti-semtism just by pretending to be anti-semetic and agreeing with him. His arguments are not anti-semitic at all, and you can't discredit them with such a transparent ploy.
Oh, please. You have shown the entire slashdot community that you lack any facts to back up any of your assertions, so you turn to name-calling. Classic neo-con tactics.
You look like an idiot, as your opponents have cited fact after fact to back up their claims and you have absolutely nothing except your own misguided opinion. Please, for your own sake, drop it. You have come to this battle of wits unarmed, and the longer you go on, the more obvious it becomes.
He never said you lose the argument if you mention Nazis, he simply said that the longer a discussion goes on, the higher the likelhood that someone will mention the Nazis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law
New Mexico has DST. Arizona is weird, though. The state doesn't have it, but the Navajo reservation which takes up the northeastern corner of the state does. Even more confusing, there is a Hopi reservation entirely inside the Navajo reservation that doesn't, and another tiny Navajo reservation entirely inside the Hopi reservation that does. You could very well have to change your clock seven times just travelling in a straight east-west line across the state.
There is a great SF book called "And Having Writ," can't remember the author and too lazy to google it, but anyway, it's about these aliens who come to study Earth some time ago but their ship breaks down. They are on their way to becoming the Tunguska event when they use an experimental device to alter probability, which sends them to an alternate universe where they don't blow up. They still crash, but survive. They figure the only way to repair their ship is to get the local tech up to snuff, and the best way to do that is to start a war. Well, they do their best to incite the world to war, but due to humorous misunderstandings of human motivations and whatnot they actually end up preventing World War I. So they decide to pack it in, put themselves into suspended animation for a few hundred years and just wait. Turns that thanks to them preventing war, (and us just knowing they are there) we actually progress faster and by 1950 we have interstellar travel and whatnot, so we wake them up and offer them a ride home.
Again, the question of intelligent design is simply unimportant as even if we knew for sure, the answer would tell us nothing. It is utterly unimportant. Why postulate the existence of a designer whose own existence would then have to be rationalized? Where does that get us? What does it do for us? Perhaps it is a symptom of the human need to feel like something is in control.
So we have two hypothesis, neither of which we know how to test for. Occam's razor says pick the simplest, which in my book is the infinite multiverse hypothesis. But the point is moot, it matters not to how I live my life. If God really wanted me to live a certain way, he should have told me Himself, not through the imperfect, manipulative, and selfish medium of other human beings, who I frankly don't trust one bit to realy His will to me. And yes, I have honestly and with an open heart and mind asked Him for a sign, or a clue, or even a fricken ambiguous hint, and I've gotten nothing in return. So my conclusion, which is only valid for me, is that He either doesn't exist or doesn't care about me. Either way, I'm not going to waste any more effort trying to figure out what He wants.
Experiments aren't falsifiable, theories are. It's simple: your theory makes a prediction. You do an experiment to see if that prediction is accurate. If it isn't, then the theory isn't accurate, so you revise it. Even fuzzy disciplines such as economics and biology can make predictions that are falsifiable. For instance, selfish actor theory of economics says that in a certain experiment, a person will act a certain way. One experiment is where you give a person a significant sum of money. They can keep it or give it to a second person. If they give it away, that money is multiplied and the second person gets more than the first gave away. The second person can then give some back to the first, which is also multiplied. Selfish actor theory says the first person will always keep all the money. In real life, they don't, so the theory is wrong.
Target gives gift receipts. They have a number on them but no prices. The Target drones can look up the receipt and see what was on it. I assume they can also see if something has been returned already.
Well in this case I think it means "whose quality no one we think matters cares to dispute." Which is really the case in for any editor. But the point made by an earlier post still stands, having official editors makes it less "wiki-like."
Absolutely. Nice box you have too :-)
That's what I told your mother last night, Trebeck. Haw, haw, haw!
Sorry, sorry, I've been watching too many SNL re-runs recently...
That is bad math. A better explanation of the probabilities can be found at talk.origins.org in a great article entitled "Lies, Damned Lies, Statistics and Probability of Abiogenesis Calculations".
We don't know that the universe is finite, the big bang could have been a kind of phase change rather than a beginning. There could be a larger metaverse that is infinite that gives rise to all kinds of different universes. We just don't know at this point. My problem with the whole concept of God is that it unnecisarily complicates the picture without answering any questions. It just puts the whole first cause problem at one remove further back without answering it. And barring some definitive communication from said deity that is not obviously tainted by base human motivations, the existance or lack of God is a moot point. I will live my life in a moral fashion because it is what is best for me, what feels right. It brings me no comfort to feel there is a creator or savior watching over me. In fact, if there is, I'm going to be very, very angry with It when and if I meet it. Because, if there is a God, all the available evidence points to a psychotic being that is deliberately screwing with our heads.
Well, our universe may be part of a larger whole that is infinite and uncreated. If it was created by an infinite and uncreated God, then is definitely part of a system that is infinite and uncreated. (The universe + God) If one can conceive of a system like this with God in the picture, it should be possible to conceive of it with no God in the picture as well.