Similarly, trying to prove a point by quoting or refering to a false authority, would be unacceptable.
No, an appeal to authority is claiming, even after contrary evidence is presented, that your points are correct simply because someone else says so. See, you have to present the counterpoints to get to there. Let's see that contrary evidence first, shall we?
Science depends on peer review. If Crichton's book hasn't been peer-reviewed before its publication could be permitted, it must be ignored. That's not ad hominem, that's just trying to keep afloat in the sea of crackpottery that results when anyone can get published.
Yes, because the slashdot discussion forums are for we scientists to discuss our peer reviewed papers and devise action strategies for submission directly to the President and the Pope themselves. Look, when you walk into a debate, it is not a valid tactic to immediately announce "you are not an expert in the subject matter, so don't even bother opening your mouth". When the opponent brings up points as enumerated by a third party, it is not enough to say that the source is not valid merely because the party is "not an expert". This is an ad hominem argument (i.e. MC is not an authority, therefore nothing he says is valid) the polar opposite of an appeal to authority, and is just as much a logical fallacy. The appropriate counterargument in a debate is to present actual refutation of the arguments, with enumerations of where his points fail to adhere to the very sources he cites. Like this.
Was that so hard? yeah, I know. It's easier to just handwave away people you disagree with. Put in some effort, you lazy fuckers!
You're assuming an atmosphere of fixed volume. If I learned anything from University it was that if you start with a 100% solution of coke and add rum you can get a 78% rum solution.
OK, now tell me how much CO2 you'd need to add to a gas mix that's 78% nitrogen, 20% oxygen, and 2% other gases to get an atmosphere that's 97% CO2? Now tell me where you're going to find enough carbon and oxygen to make that CO2. Then tell me how you're going to EXPAND THE EARTH so that its size (relative to the volume of its atmosphere) even remotely resembles that of Venus.
So let's make our own carbon converters. 2CO2 + energy -> C2 + 2O2.. it's really not complicated. Even if we were to get all the energy for that equation by burning coal or oil, we'd still be able to keep the carbon in the atmosphere at acceptable levels.
Ummmm....no. The process of reducing CO2 necessarily will release more CO2 than you reduce if you fuel the reaction with hydrocarbons. Nuclear and wind? Sure. But you'd be better off just directly replacing the CO2 producing power generation systems with those than going through the unnecessary steps involved in carbon sequestration.
That only works while our atmosphere isn't like that of Venus
Given that Venus' atmosphere is 96.5% CO2, and ours is.035% CO2, that's unlikely to happen-- if for no other reason than the 78% N2 would have to be somehow removed.
Before someone brings up the citations in Michael Crichton's State of Fear , which inevitably happens in global warming discussions here, let's remember that Crichton is not a scientist, he's not competent to judge the strength of the material he was relying on, and you shouldn't be forming your opinion about grave issues from airport paperbacks.
In the world of debate, the above would be classified an ad hominem argument. Someone not being an expert in the field is not proof that they're wrong. Debate the man's arguments, if you care so much. Or link to someone who does. There are plenty such sites on the web.
Frankly, I haven't seen any information to indicate that. All I'm aware of is that AWOLIE/DESERTER Bush trained on the standard "vomit comet" at Lackland OTS, but never actually flew any jet fighters, period.
He was assigned on flight status for the F-102 at Ellington. You don't get assigned to fly a plane unless you've actually been instructed on and demonstrated that you can fly that plane. Whatever else about his "military career" is laughable (and most of it is), chimpy was undoubtedly a trained jet fighter pilot.
This raises another question- isn't marraige
becoming less common?
Can't really draw any solid conclusions from that statistic, as it only addresses the social ritual, not the actual male-female pairbonding it represents. Has the pairbonding decreased, or only the ritual? I tend to think that people simply aren't bothering to engage in something that has become little more than a superfluous legal contract. Folks nowadays are more likely to conclude that the only useful purpose for marriage is that it automatically grants certain legal conveniences that are useful when raising children.
Many people seem to think people only get fat because they eat too much
That's because it is a logical and factually correct conclusion. You cannot get fat unless you consume more calories than you burn. This is basic physics, here. No matter what your metabolic issues might be, obesity is always caused by consuming a consistent surplus (i.e. "too much") of food. Granted, there are many issues related to metabolism and the hunger drive that make it more difficult not to do so, but you cannot deny that obesity is the direct result of simply eating too much.
Parent, you may trust it more than IE, but here's where Opera comes in. I'm not going to preach to you, but check it out.
let me know when opera gets around to letting me configure the tool bars. I want the nav arrows, address box, and google search box all crammed into the same line with the "File Edit... Help" menus. Firefox and IE can do that.
Nobody has ever accused Slashdot of having intelligence, but I think the average user would consider themselves to be a notch or 2 above average.
The problem with slashdot is that it's essentially six rational adults trying to hold a conversation in the same room with sixty screaming children. Intelligence does not, unfortunately, ensure maturity. Nor does it make one's conclusions correct. The moderation is the side effect of giving power to a bunch of bright children.
Re:And like feng shui, IT'S BULLSHIT!
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P&T did a show on Feng Shui in which no two of the three "experts" came up with the same answers about how to arrange the furniture.
Cripes. I love P&T:Bullshit, but this one I thought was kinda silly. While there are a few nuts who take this crap literally, feng shui is little more than a theory of interior design (with a dash of architectural design). Just as there are infinite ways to decorate a house in an 18th century colonial style, there are infinite ways to arrange the furniture to be "feng shui compliant". They demonstrated that feng shui is not a hard science, but so what?
Re:And like feng shui, IT'S BULLSHIT!
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I vote this post "Irony of 2006". You rant for people who fall for easy scams based on personal opinion, and then refer to people's "IQ", otherwise known as "someone's totally subjective opinion of how intelligence should be measured".
You're stretching. "Double digit IQ" or "room temperature IQ" are simply euphemisms for "idiot". You'd be correct if he was referring to (say) how tested IQ scores are clearly lower in those who espouse feng shui, but in fact he's just using it to mean "sub-average intelligence".
A person is guilty of criminal facilitation if he knowingly provides substantial assistance to a person intending to commit a felony, and that person, in fact, commits the crime contemplated, or a like or related felony, employing the assistance so provided.
Show me the felony committed by someone using his boarding pass printer.
So, how would new money flow into the economy? Easy: Just as it is created from nothing now, it would be the same, but, instead of it being loaned into existence, and interest being charged, every Citizen would get a monthly stipend, a "living wage". EVERYONE, young, old, rich, poor - the details would have to be worked out, and it would take time, but, it CAN work, if we GROW UP, and accept our responsibilities as Citizens, and create the future that WE want, not that which is dictated to us by the rich.
Jesus, don't you have a 5 year plan to work on Stalin?
Handing out a "living wage" stipend just guarantees that none of the grunt work will ever get done in this country. A huge portion of the country would sit at home and subsist off their "allowance" while the garbage went un-collected, concrete blocks went un-loaded, and ditches remain un-dug. The value of money comes from our use of it as a placeholder for man-hours applied as work. The fed does not loan the gov't enough money to support the entire population anyway. I could continue, but your argument is so full of idiotic holes it'd actually be easier to point out where you're right and call the rest crap.
Well, if I am going to refer to Albanian currency, this is a proper English sentence: "My pockets were full of qintars". If there is no English word to describe something, the foreign word becomes an English word.
No it doesn't. It is a proper English sentence, but the word "qintar" is still foreign. If you wanted to say the same thing using English only, you would say "My pockets are full of Albanian currency." Not having a single word direct translation of a foreign word does not confer membership upon the foreign word into the English language.
With respect, your paranoid delusions and violent fantasies won't do much to change the political climate. Just vote, please.
Until they institute Instant Runoff Voting, or include a way to vote "this is all a crock of shit", voting just perpetuates the myth that the system is working. Not voting is presently the only way to protest the system. What do you think would happen if voter turnout dropped below 5%?
And marriage is kind of important. It's where most of the babies come from.
No, most babies come from a man sticking his wiener in a woman. The fact that in many societies this coincides with marriage is a separate issue. Quite often, the imminent child is what instigates the marriage in the first place. Were marriage to be abolished tomorrow, I am confident that men will still seek to stick their wieners into women as often as possible. It's basic freakin' biology, man!
I agree that this is perhaps THE most pressing issue right now for Americans, but is it really ethical to distribute this kind of information?
Yeah, keep it secret so only those few who know about it will try it and it won't be obvious. If this gets out, all kinds of people might try it, even really incompetent ones. Can you imagine what a disaster it would be if it was obvious people were trying to steal an election instead of the usual, where it's stolen in secret?
Of course if you were in a 'free' country, then someone else could do what they like to you... Anyone with a gun could shoot you dead. Or your loved ones. I think that sucks. I think in such a country you would soon find your self under the opression of a local war lord.... So your free country would not last long.
I'm puzzled as to why you think freedom precludes law and order.
It reminds me of the 50's when you didn't agree with someone you'd call them a communist.
This still happens today.
Yeah, but back in those days calling someone a communist was to accuse them of being subversive or even traitorous. Nowadays, what with the collapse of the Soviet Union, it's more like merely calling them an idiot.
Slashdot Mirror
Was that so hard? yeah, I know. It's easier to just handwave away people you disagree with. Put in some effort, you lazy fuckers!
"I'll fucking knock Steven Hawking out of that stupid chair. Then i'll say 'now who's smart? now who's fucking smart?'"
is that the one?
It's dime-bag intellectuals like you getting together to "fix things" that inflict upon the world horrors like the 70 years of soviet communism.
Handing out a "living wage" stipend just guarantees that none of the grunt work will ever get done in this country. A huge portion of the country would sit at home and subsist off their "allowance" while the garbage went un-collected, concrete blocks went un-loaded, and ditches remain un-dug. The value of money comes from our use of it as a placeholder for man-hours applied as work. The fed does not loan the gov't enough money to support the entire population anyway. I could continue, but your argument is so full of idiotic holes it'd actually be easier to point out where you're right and call the rest crap.
According to TFA, they'd use extremely strong materials like Stainless Steel or Titanium to ensure the rigidity of the disks.
"Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself." - Mark Twain.