The most creepy things of all are those that are somewhat humanoid, but just slightly-off somehow. Like a humanoid robot with a robot teddy bear head pretty much fits that perfectly.
Didn't humanity survive through multiple ice ages? Harshest climate change yet? I don't think so.
Humanity survived through ice ages... Civilization did not (there was no civilization at the time.)
I have no doubt that the species will survive somehow. However, it will probably be pretty ugly for a while if our entire agricultural system collapses.
The fastest route to bringing Venezuela back to reality is simply to stop buying Citgo products. Dry up the money. Dry up Chavez.
Even if a Citgo boycott did have an effect on Chavez... While Chavez can be an enormous asshat at times, Venezuela looks like a human-rights paradise compared to plenty of other oil-producing nations.
Redirecting your money to one of them isn't really the answer either.
YOU SHOULD BE REQUIRED TO HAVE A LICENSE TO HAVE CHILDREN.
I'll go one better. Everyone should be sterilized at birth for free. If you want kids bad enough, you can pay out of your own pocket to get it reversed.
smarter, better-educated terrorists were more likely to carry out more deadly attacks.
A lot of this education is likely to be religious in nature, no? Better education = more exposure to the extremist religious teachings.
I think what's often overlooked is that these people believe exactly what they say they believe. That is, killing unbelievers is God's work, and blowing yourself up to do so will put you on the fast track to heaven. All of that education they've received only serves to reinforce that point. I don't think it gets any deeper than that- I don't think there's any hidden reasons, just pure, unwaivering faith in their religion.
Best for whom? For the populace? With nothing of any interest to anybody and no money for infrastructure, how, exactly, are they going to survive? The only influence that most third-world nations have at all is the mineral or biological (trees, plants that are used for medicines, etc.) wealth that they control.
Ah yes, who can forget the wealthy utopian wonderlands that are the mineral- and biologically- rich countries of the world! Plenty of mineral wealth in the ground (and in the hands of the ruling class), but not so much of it trickles down to the populace.
What infrastructure that does exist generally is built to export the mineral wealth out of the country as quickly as possible. Oh, and to displace any inconvenient people who happen to be living in the areas to be mined.
How are they going to survive? I don't know- how did the human species manage to survive for millions of years before someone showed up with a pickaxe and a shovel and started hauling minerals out of the ground? I'll give you a hint- it doesn't involve giving them jobs as miners.
Is email just too hectic a communication form for some people?
Yeah, it is. But then some people haven't mastered the art of wiping their own asses or making it through the day without drooling all over themselves first.
All forms of life live efficiently, as did humans for the first few million years of our species' existence. We weren't born civilization-builders, you know.
Maybe a southerner's definition of "aggression" differs from mine, but I seem to recall the Confederacy attacking Union forts as being the start of the war.
but see you can offend christians all you like just not muslims
Let me know when Muslim fundamentalists start trying to teach their creation myth as science in American public schools, because I'd be very interested in telling them to shut the fuck up as well.
You don't send men until you know for sure that there is something there, and know for sure exactly where it is. Then and only then can you justify the (powers of ten) cost.
That is, if it doesn't involve the chance to blow people up on purpose.
NASA -- Budget: $16.8 Billion (per year) Iraq War cost: $425+ Billion
Amazing what we can find the money for when we try.
For example, I think it's a pretty recent development that a non-trivial bloc of the population would actually cheer for the assassination of President Bush. Now, regardless of whether we agree with his policies, I find that pretty disgusting.
People cheer when murderers get the chair, when Saddam Hussein was hanged, when terrorists get shot or blown up, etc.
I guess it all depends on how much someone is hated, and whether in their opinion someone's death makes the world a better place.
He's not the first president of the USA to travel abroad, you know, but for reasons of overblown security measures interfering with other people's lives in very unpleasant ways, he's most probably the least wellcome one.
I think he's probably the least welcome US president because he's generally acknowledged around the world to be a complete knob. I doubt the extra security precautions have much to do with it.
More significantly: if everything is deterministic based on "physics", could you please tell us where the rules of physics come from, and why they are as they are and not some other way? For instance, why do massive bodies attract and not repel?
Think of it this way- imagine there are two universes: A. Our universe (with all the rules of physics exactly as they are) B. Another universe where massive bodies repel- not attract, but everything else is exactly the same as ours.
We know for certain that Universe A can support life- we are here! Maybe the laws of physics in Universe B don't allow the development of life, since stars and planets and any other sort of astronomical object would not be able to form. That's why we're here, and not in that universe.
So your question of where the rules of physics come from- there could be an infinite number of universes around, and if the one we're currently in had different rules, we wouldn't exist in this one, but we could exist in a different one with rules closer to what we know now.
People turned to the Republicans because, hey, at least they were better than the Democrats, right? Right?
Don't forget the huge chunk of the voting public (i.e. the South) that turned to the Republicans because of LBJ's signing of the Civil Rights Act ("We have lost the South for a generation.")
I just saw that a couple of Republicans are considering switching to Independents and the first thing I thought of was, "wow, they're already planning on ways to split the vote so their party wins."
How do you figure? Won't most people who would be voting for a "now-independent but formerly-Republican" be Republicans themselves, thus weakening the actual Republican candidate?
The problem isn't the Republicans. The problem isn't the Democrats. It's what BOTH parties have done to rape this country.
This is the line Nader was running on in the 2000 election. Republicans suck, Democrats suck, they're both puppets of big business, etc.
Then we got 4 + 3 years of Bush and co.
I'd agree with you that both parties suck, but I think the past 7 years have shown that one party sucks a whole lot worse than the other, and until we can manage a massive overhaul of the electoral system (HA!) I think our best bet is to keep Republicans out of any office higher than local dogcatcher.
At least construction workers don't spend all day reading slashdot during work hours...
Almost everyone in every industry finds a way to dick around and waste time, whether chatting with coworkers, smoking, reading slashdot, drinking coffee, staring off into space, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
Friendly appearance? That thing scares me..
Seriously, that's the first thing I thought of.
The most creepy things of all are those that are somewhat humanoid, but just slightly-off somehow.
Like a humanoid robot with a robot teddy bear head pretty much fits that perfectly.
Didn't humanity survive through multiple ice ages? Harshest climate change yet? I don't think so.
Humanity survived through ice ages... Civilization did not (there was no civilization at the time.)
I have no doubt that the species will survive somehow.
However, it will probably be pretty ugly for a while if our entire agricultural system collapses.
The fastest route to bringing Venezuela back to reality is simply to stop buying Citgo products. Dry up the money. Dry up Chavez.
Even if a Citgo boycott did have an effect on Chavez...
While Chavez can be an enormous asshat at times, Venezuela looks like a human-rights paradise
compared to plenty of other oil-producing nations.
Redirecting your money to one of them isn't really the answer either.
YOU SHOULD BE REQUIRED TO HAVE A LICENSE TO HAVE CHILDREN.
I'll go one better.
Everyone should be sterilized at birth for free.
If you want kids bad enough, you can pay out of your own pocket to get it reversed.
smarter, better-educated terrorists were more likely to carry out more deadly attacks.
A lot of this education is likely to be religious in nature, no?
Better education = more exposure to the extremist religious teachings.
I think what's often overlooked is that these people believe exactly what they say they believe.
That is, killing unbelievers is God's work, and blowing yourself up to do so will put you on the fast track to heaven. All of that education they've received only serves to reinforce that point.
I don't think it gets any deeper than that- I don't think there's any hidden reasons,
just pure, unwaivering faith in their religion.
Best for whom? For the populace? With nothing of any interest to anybody and no money for infrastructure, how, exactly, are they going to survive? The only influence that most third-world nations have at all is the mineral or biological (trees, plants that are used for medicines, etc.) wealth that they control.
Ah yes, who can forget the wealthy utopian wonderlands that are the mineral- and biologically- rich countries of the world!
Plenty of mineral wealth in the ground (and in the hands of the ruling class), but not so much of it trickles down to the populace.
What infrastructure that does exist generally is built to export the mineral wealth out of the country as quickly as possible. Oh, and to displace any inconvenient people who happen to be living in the areas to be mined.
How are they going to survive? I don't know- how did the human species manage to survive for millions of years before someone showed up with a pickaxe and a shovel and started hauling minerals out of the ground?
I'll give you a hint- it doesn't involve giving them jobs as miners.
"Chomsky describes himself as a "a libertarian socialist", whatever that means."
Libertarian Socialist
Is email just too hectic a communication form for some people?
Yeah, it is.
But then some people haven't mastered the art of wiping their own asses or making it through the day without drooling all over themselves first.
Were we put on this earth to live "efficiently"?
All forms of life live efficiently, as did humans for the first few million years of our species' existence.
We weren't born civilization-builders, you know.
(a.k.a. The War of Northern Aggression)
Maybe a southerner's definition of "aggression" differs from mine, but I seem to recall the Confederacy attacking Union forts as being the start of the war.
but see you can offend christians all you like just not muslims
Let me know when Muslim fundamentalists start trying to teach their creation myth as science in American public schools, because I'd be very interested in telling them to shut the fuck up as well.
By that logic, schools in the US shouldn't teach about slavery, fearing a confrontation of an 'anti-black' sentiment among racist hicks.
Or not teach evolution, out of fear of offending fundamentalist Christians.
They destroy families, lives, health, and general peace and good order. Making them legal does not prevent any of that.
Making them illegal does not prevent any of that either.
I understand your desire to "do something" about drugs, but arresting and imprisoning drug users does NOTHING.
Every year we toughen drug sentences, spend more money fighting drugs, etc. and for what?
If something doesn't work, it's insanity to do even more of the same thing next time and expect better results. You need to do something different.
You don't send men until you know for sure that there is something there, and know for sure exactly where it is. Then and only then can you justify the (powers of ten) cost.
That is, if it doesn't involve the chance to blow people up on purpose.
NASA -- Budget: $16.8 Billion (per year)
Iraq War cost: $425+ Billion
Amazing what we can find the money for when we try.
China needs to make real environmental and workplace safety laws and enforce them.
But then, where will we buy cheap consumer goods from?
For example, I think it's a pretty recent development that a non-trivial bloc of the population would actually cheer for the assassination of President Bush. Now, regardless of whether we agree with his policies, I find that pretty disgusting.
People cheer when murderers get the chair, when Saddam Hussein was hanged, when terrorists get shot or blown up, etc.
I guess it all depends on how much someone is hated, and whether in their opinion someone's death makes the world a better place.
So, if FWB was more competent, he would have killed Lincoln more?
That depends.. Who is FWB supposed to be?
FJohn Wilkes Booth?
I think I'll pass on this movie until it finds its way to Netflix like Fantastic Four.
;)
Why not continue to pass on it at that point?
He's not the first president of the USA to travel abroad, you know, but for reasons of overblown security measures interfering with other people's lives in very unpleasant ways, he's most probably the least wellcome one.
I think he's probably the least welcome US president because he's generally acknowledged around the world to be a complete knob. I doubt the extra security precautions have much to do with it.
More significantly: if everything is deterministic based on "physics", could you please tell us where the rules of physics come from, and why they are as they are and not some other way? For instance, why do massive bodies attract and not repel?
Think of it this way- imagine there are two universes:
A. Our universe (with all the rules of physics exactly as they are)
B. Another universe where massive bodies repel- not attract, but everything else is exactly the same as ours.
We know for certain that Universe A can support life- we are here!
Maybe the laws of physics in Universe B don't allow the development of life, since stars and planets and any other sort of astronomical object would not be able to form. That's why we're here, and not in that universe.
So your question of where the rules of physics come from- there could be an infinite number of universes around, and if the one we're currently in had different rules, we wouldn't exist in this one, but we could exist in a different one with rules closer to what we know now.
People turned to the Republicans because, hey, at least they were better than the Democrats, right? Right?
Don't forget the huge chunk of the voting public (i.e. the South) that turned to the Republicans because of LBJ's signing of the Civil Rights Act ("We have lost the South for a generation.")
I just saw that a couple of Republicans are considering switching to Independents and the first thing I thought of was, "wow, they're already planning on ways to split the vote so their party wins."
How do you figure? Won't most people who would be voting for a "now-independent but formerly-Republican" be Republicans themselves, thus weakening the actual Republican candidate?
The problem isn't the Republicans. The problem isn't the Democrats. It's what BOTH parties have done to rape this country.
This is the line Nader was running on in the 2000 election.
Republicans suck, Democrats suck, they're both puppets of big business, etc.
Then we got 4 + 3 years of Bush and co.
I'd agree with you that both parties suck, but I think the past 7 years have shown
that one party sucks a whole lot worse than the other, and until we can manage a
massive overhaul of the electoral system (HA!) I think our best bet is to keep
Republicans out of any office higher than local dogcatcher.
Is it? I thought, it was stolen by the Supreme Court... Oh, well, getting a story straight is always a problem, is not it?
If you're going to steal an election, it's best to cover all your bases.
At least construction workers don't spend all day reading slashdot during work hours...
Almost everyone in every industry finds a way to dick around and waste time, whether chatting with coworkers, smoking, reading slashdot, drinking coffee, staring off into space, etc.