Actually, I think your memory's a bit broken here. SMK AI does cheat, but it's not always Luigi with his infino-star.
Upon starting a circuit, the computer will automatically "rank" the CPU opponents. Barring something weird and usually player-induced (hitting some guy in the ass with a red shell right before he crosses the finish line on the final lap, for instance), the CPU player that finishes 2nd will always finish 2nd. The 3rd place racer will always finish third, 4th always 4th, etc etc.
It's awfully retarded, and one of the reasons I found Mario Kart to be about as lame as the old Sega "Blast Processing®" commercials made it out to be. 2P battle mode is a fun diversion, but the single-player amounts to nothing more complicated than pushing the right buttons. No variety, no surprises. Absolute bullshit. Street Racer did it all much better, and was 4-player, to boot.
Now, watch me quickly get hammered as -1, Overrated for daring to question a "classic". Heh.
If the vast majority believes something for long enough, it becomes the truth.
Bullshit there, Dr. Epistilogics. The vast majority believed that the Earth was flat and that the Sun revolved around the Earth. Did that somehow compress the planet into a plane? Did it alter the workings of mass and gravity as we now know it? No? You mean even back in the middle ages, the Sun was still giant and the Earth was still relatively small, and the latter revolved around the former, and that both were basically round? It wasn't? Gee! So, basically, you're just huffing some killer dope and trying to sound educated? Go figure!
Whatever the problems of government may be, at the end of the day, it is the people, through our elected officials, are in charge, and should be in charge.
Bravo to you for putting it so clearly. In a representative democracy, the senators, representatives, and various presidential subordinates, are not leaders. They are not even - in the ideal form of democracy - role models. Whenever I see them referred to as "leaders" (usually in glurge-for-kids, see: The Mini Page), I want to puke. The way I see it, politicians are actors - glorified lawyers, if you will. Their job is to say what you and I say, but say it in such a way that it's clean, precise, to the point, and doesn't contain so many bad Soviet Russia jokes. This is why I'll never vote Democratic or Republican - even if I knew it would come down to a single vote between the two, I would still vote for my ideals, not for "my favorite candidate on the island".
But enough off-topic ramblings. The trouble here is: What happens if 85% of the population believes that the Earth is flat? That the Sun revolves around us? What if 51% of the population decides it would be a lot nicer if the George Dubya forces demolished the World Trade Center with dynamite or miniature truckbombs or nanotermites or whatever?
We don't want politicians in "charge" of science, definitely - but it's even more dangerous to place "the People" in charge of science. We, as nerds, all get irritated when TIME or the New York Times completely botches the simple facts of a computing principle - and most of us harbor a distaste for "sensationalistic science" - such as that case a few months back about the "mysterious black bugs that lived under your skin and sucked your neurons". Can you imagine what would happen if science was put to a vote of the People? We'd have Intelligently Designed second gunmen on the Grassy Knoll, pi would be 3.14, and bodies in motion would remain in motion until they stopped, because Grandma Nitwit refuses to have it any other way, and the majority of people feel very sorry for Grandma Nitwit because she is such a nice person.
Scientists should be in control of science. Science should be placed in a category all its own - the "real world" - the world that determines whether Jimmy Twoshoes is going to live or die after ramming into an 18-wheeler on his bicycle. The world of Christ and myth and what's "nice" and "convenient" and "easy to have faith on" can either be separate, or non-existant - but to place it as an equal is moral relativism at its absolute worst. And to look at science - or the voice of science - as just another checkbox alongside "Christian", "Jew", "Islam", "other" (or "the Christian view", the "Jew view", etc) is to take a dangerously literal view towards "science as a belief system", or whatever the current head-up-the-ass in-vogue philosophical outlook is.
Using color-coded jewelcases to separate LiveCDs from porn "backups", reducing monitor glare with opaque curtains, and applying previously learned lessons in moderation towards the past-time of drinking Mountain Dew. CowboyHeloise brings us all of these, plus fifty helpful tips to prevent shitting in your pants during an all-night coding session!
<SPOILER> - the #1 tip: "Make sure to remove your pants before defecating. A little hand-written sign scotch-taped to the wall across from the toilet can be a last-minute life-saver!" </SPOILER>
Imagine interviewing from a job, and having your top hit in Google being, "John Doe: OMG that black dude is such an unfair bitch he hit me with the fucking rocket launcher when I was trying to give money to this hooker" just because GamePostings.coom happens to have a high siterank. People change, and the internet is old enough now that people in the world looking for jobs, loans, girlfriends, etc have crap like that posted all over.
I don't know, but someone who uses their real name in Counter-Quake Fortress Tournament... I think an "Idiot Clause" of some sort is warrented.
And, of course, unless your name is incredibly uncommon, chances are there's more than one person with your name (heck, I can put in my first name, last name, middle initial, city of birth OR city of residence, and still not find myself). Ask yourself: Would working for someone too stupid to deduce that John Doe the LPB Rocket Camping Faggot might or might not be John Doe the Business Major with a 3.6GPA (and as such, probably shouldn't be factored one way or the other) really be worth it?
I'd love it if Google and other search engines had a policy of booting forum posts from their index after a period of time, say 2 years. That said, I don't think the government needs to be involved.
I can't begin to count the number of times that I encountered a bizarre computer-related meltdown of some sort (Windows user lol), and the best match for my best-formed Google query - the result which, in fact, solved my trouble at the moment - was a three year old forum post. Ditto Minidisc info. Ditto issues with older first person shooters. Ditto issues with older pieces of software in general.
Even assuming for the sake of argument that Google could write a series of rules to tell its crawlers what was and wasn't a "forum post" - the mere idea that they should ranks as one of the dumbest I've ever read, on/. or anywhere. It betrays a near-total ignorance of the mechanics involved in quick-and-dirty troubleshooting. Are you trolling, or is this sincerely the best argument you can come up with?
Who the fuck knows what the GP's actually suggesting. He has the typical online penmanship, punctuation, and overall coherance of your average new age froo-frooer. Let him babble at empty space all he wants.
Yeah, I know - those two and three year olds, having no work or school to keep their twisted little minds busy, hang out in all the loony-bin chat rooms discussing their delusional symptoms-of-the-week, right?
You know, you meant this in jest, but the more I think about it, the more this explains not only the spread of Morgellon's Disease, but the state of America's chatrooms as well. The "other" Morgellon's Disease, if you will.
Doctors aren't perfect, and if something is outside of their experience, oftentimes they're not going to know what is going on. And to compound the problem there are some doctors who look for additional help, at least not right away. That's not a slam on Doctors, simply a point of human nature. I don't see the issue being a political one, more of a, 'but that doesn't happen here, so that can't be what's wrong' issue.
And yet 99.9% of the imperfect doctors, lawyers, and politicians congregate in the south. Or, in the case of the very honorable Jerry "A. Dipshit" Taylor, the south-midwest.
(note: "Jerry 'A. Dipshit' Taylor", aka "The Cleverest Joke on Slashdot Ever", (c) 2006 Nugneant, all rights reserved. Maybe if this gets to be the next M$ I'll pull a Sun and change the licensing)
Reading this article, the question struck me - could this be some sort of something having to do with hair follicles gone amock - similar to lupus (in which, if my memory serves correct, white blood cells run amock and start attacking previously healthy cells, typically on the skin)?
I'm quite sympathetic to the feelings of frustration you're going through. I have eczema and have seen my fair share of quacks. My favorite was this idiot Spaniard who recommended that I take less showers and baths - yeah, lot of good that did my staph infection. Finally I found the guy I'm currently seeing, who does U/V therapy - basically an industrial strength tanning bed, for a minute a session, three sessions a week. Yeah, I'll probably have a skin cancer someday, but man, I'm about willing to say that it's worth fifteen years off my life to have skin that isn't oozing skin-spit all over the place in between the. most. frustratingly. itching. welts/patches that you could ever imagine. It's like a constant sunburn that is always in that "itch" phase of healing.
But it's not a conspiracy. Look at it from the doctor's point of view. You're dealing with patients who are unable to take a fucking antibiotic to term. How do you think "Oh, cut out all the sugars, the fats, the oils, the artificial sweeteners, aaannnnndd the dairy from your diet - oh, and also please only buy this shampoo which smells like ennui and costs twice as much as 'normal' shampoo, kthx" would go over? "Shyeah. Right, doc."
The problem here is that, even if a radical dietary overhaul could "cure" a disease (ie, "mask the symptoms to such an extent that aforementioned disease becomes a non-issue"), so few people would do it that anything beyond a strong suggestion would be counter-productive - the Doctor would assume that when the patient says "okay, yes sir, I will" that the patient means it, and not waste time with the steroid pills / antibiotics / etc. The patient, to his/her credit, oftentimes genuinely means it when they say they'll cut their diet down - but after the second week of alfalfa sprouts and soy milk, a lot of people have to cut loose.
Anyway. "Practicalities of healthy living" flamewar aside, it's not exactly a feasible recommendation for the mass of society, at the moment. That's all. Doctor Dave doesn't give two shits whether the Mars corporation goes under - outside of his own personal eating habits, of course.
I'm glad you found a solution, though. Sincerely.:-)
Jesus christ man, TAKE YOUR FUCKING PILLS! If you actually remembered what the post said after you railed against hallucinations of what you thought you'd read then you'd realize the two aren't the same.
LOL!!!! TAKE YOUR FUCKING PILLS!! That's almost as funny as Micro"$"oft! Man,why isn't this post +5, Funny?
So are you one of those people who is so put off by normal human emotion that you'll build forts of straw to distance yourself from anyone with the slightest feeling whatsoever? Yeah, I'm sure you're life of the party - so long as the party is a sedate affair with Neil Diamond on the CD player, non-alcoholic beer in the cooler, and children asleep in the other room.
Yeah, I'd mod you way way down, not for calling 'bullshit', but for acting like an asshole and seriously missing the point and being angry about something in real life and taking it out on the poster. Fear mongering? He was implying the people should possibly be told it is genetically modified and let them decide. A bearded monster? To ask the questions? Things should be questioned, even the bad ones! The bad ones should have the easiest answers without the 'you cold hearted child killing bastard!' type of epithets and total point dodges in the response. My advice to you, bub, stick to the facts and leave the rest out or don't be surprised at the heavy metal pipe beatings you get from those you 'argue' with in person. Or wonder why people avoid you as much as they can. +4? shit..
I'd take this doozy of a paragraph point by point, but you got so emotional over something in real life and took it out on me that my feelings are hurt and I'm going to be a whining pussy on Slashdot about it.:(
Your paragraph, summed up: Blah blah a-boodle-doodle-doo. If you're going to be Master Jesus of the Manners, try to, like, show us how it's done? Or something? "Bub"? Dumbfuck.
My take on this is blah blah blah more cocks for my mouth plz
Fixed that paragraph for you. No need to thank me, I might get emotional about it.
...so, about that flouridated water! I mean, government sponsored ethnic cleansing or what?
Science is fun when you ignore the hundreds of thousands of advances that haven't blown up and killed everyone, and focus on the two or three that have.
My good lord. Ever so sorry my analogy offended you - here I thought I was just making an analogy, but you, Dr. Penguin Freud Collective, have shown me it was truly an insight into my very soul.
I notice that you did not touch upon any of the points I raised, which under normal circumstances would mean to me that, as usual, I'm right, and anyone who disagrees with me is either insane or a troll. But on this occasion, it is obvious to me that I, in my naive haste to use comparitive thinking to illustrate a point, have erred.
Your strawman holds up as if made of pure titanium.
Speaking seriously for a moment, you dumbass, you know that some nations are in hospitable climates, while others are in deserts, tundra, and southeast America? Oh, wait, nevermind, that blasted "logic" thing again, I won't bother this time, since I'm sure you'll take offense with the "southeast America" thing. Or something else completely idiotic.
Here I thought it had been around since the 1980s (in name, at least). Surely there have been plenty of bad ideas that blah blah good at the time since then?
Anyway, I'm very glad you learned how to be patronizing and condescending. I'm sure it makes you the life of the Mad Cow conventions.
None of the above. You do up the laces of the two year old, and teach them at the same time the importance of having tied shoe laces. You repeat this lesson many times. Many many times. They might listen and hopefully not trip over untied shoe laces, instead coming to you to do them up until such time that they can do it for themselves. If they do trip, the lesson you tried to teach suddenly has consequences and they might really learn it this time.
Not sure how that affects your comparison, but that's what you do with two year olds.
Within the confines of the analogy, this would be akin to... giving the third-world countries the supplies, while reminding them over and over again, sternly, that they need to have supplies, and that it's important to have supplies, and that they should come to you when they need supplies (or the violent overthrow of a left-wing dictator). Which is actually frighteningly close to American foreign policy, so I'll have to hand you the gold medal - you cheating, individualistic jerk.
(and - I had a much longer, OT reply to the entire prospect of rote memorization vis a vis child rearing, but I decided to, instead, move the whole thing to this journal entry, in which comments are welcome (as I am a wannabe education major and find discussion to be fascinating)).
Thank you. I don't usually make contentless self-indulgent/ego-whoring/whatever posts (that's what a journal's for) - but this time, I'll likewise make an exception.
But, shh! Quiet about your lack of mod points! Otherwise they might think your advice isn't the best advice to be following!:-D
* Water purification. Much better than Bad-water-symptom alleviation
* Biological desalination of seawater
* Biological control of mosquito and other vector organism populations
* Bio-engineered crop organisms that will give these countries a sustainable, non-oil economic leg to stand on, such as biofuels or bio-plastics
The apartment building is on fire! Bravely, Dr. Ventria dashes inside to check for survivors and organize the evactuation! Nugneant claps his hands with glee! But what's this?? A ragtag group of Armchair Perfectionists are damning the Good Doctor's efforts, saying that if he really wanted to help, he'd have brought a firehose and set up a ladder outside the apartment building!! Nugneant is trying hard not to laugh!! And uh-oh, here comes the army of mods in the big shiny mod-engine!! Whatever will happen next?? Tune in tomorrow for the next episode of SLASHDOT PRESENTS: THE RICE THREAD!!
I don't think the GP was advocating nobody help developing nations, they were saying that the developed world has a horrible track record of making things worse almost everywhere (for both altruistic and utterly venal reasons), and we might best help by fucking around a bit less with things over there.
...and, naturally, we accomplish this goal of "fucking around a bit less" not by genetically modifying rice, but instead by genetically modifying other organisms to--...wait a minute...
...see what I mean? Either he was your typical fresh-out-of-high-school Libertarian, or his entire post consisted of him crawling deeper and deeper inside his own asshole in the hopes that eventually he'd cancel himself out and go back to leading a normal existence as a squirrel or potholder or cloud or something. All in the span of about ten sentences or so. I picked the former option, based on typical internet demographics - but who really knows for sure. Either way, referring back to your post, paragraph (1) and paragraph (2) don't really work well together.
Well. Said. And better than I put it. I think I was still oxygen-deprived from my laugh at the statement about/. debate being just the same as academic discourse, so I sorta bungled my reply to this statement of the Parent. I meant to make clear that kenzels asked himself/herself "what if... this all goes wrong", then formed an elaborate delusion that left with him/her weeping for the world - instead it reads like there's an actual rhetorical "what if" in his/her post. Sigh.
I shouldn't bother with this "his/her" stuff - this is Slashdot, after all. What's a "her", anyway?:-D
But anyway. Yeah. Well, well said. I only hope someone comes up with a postulation for you to denounce.
What do you propose a biogeneticist (that means someone whose speciality is in the process of biogenetics, ie the building blocks of life - as opposed to being a politician, a general, a condom dispenser, a teacher, a full-time skeptic, or other things) do?
Your second paragraph seems to be saying something along the lines of "DON'T INVEST IN BIOGENETICS! BECAUSE SOLVING DISEASES IS ONLY A BANDAID TO THE GREATER PROBLEM OF blah blah". Notice the "blah blah". That is my way of implying that I tune you out because you don't make any sense. Tell me, where did I mention that this was GOING TO SAVE THE ENTIRE PLANET FOREVER ALL OUR TROUBLES GONE HOOP, HOOP, HOORAY? Oh, that's right, I didn't. Are you saying that nobody should give bio-genetics firms any money, because it's just a waste? Guess what - speaking rhetorically, if I give a bio-genetics firm money, it is with the express intent that they use it to bio-geneticize. And it seems like, in that regard, this is a very successful bio-genetics firm. Bio-genetics isn't cheap, you know. Well, anyway, how about just telling me in what firms to invest in to make sure the fundamental problems are fixed? Oh, wait, you mean it's vast and multi-faceted and there's no one firm that's working on the Perfection Engine? Oh well. I hate to sound like an asshole (not really), but you lose this paragraph.
And, Occam's Razor as applied to your conclusion: "blah blah blah I am a disgusting cowardly borderline-racist and we shouldn't share the spoils of hundreds of years of science with the primitives, just let the 1% with 90% of the wealth in Primitivswana get to make deals on the stock market and surely they will trickle down the wealth to the poor and all shall prosper!! blah blah". The "blah blahs" in this allude to you somehow managing, with three short paragraphs, to be even more long-winded and redundant than I am in all my pages of text.
Look at it this way: You're a two year old. I'm the wise old grandmother who babysits you. One day, I notice that one of your shoes is untied. Should I tie your shoe for you, knowing that, in the future, you'll possibly be able to tie your own shoe, but for now it's best just to tie your shoe (a crude, stopgap quickfix) so you don't trip, given that you are currently too young to learn how? Or should I just make sure you have access to shoes and laces and fingers and knots, then carry about my Objectivist business? If you answered "yes" to the former, then congratulations on re-thinking your original stance. If you answered "yes" to the latter, however, then you're probably a Libertarian, and I don't think there's any help for you.
You know what? I have looked at my own examples and read your post and come to see the error of my ways! God bless you kind sir for infusing my life with this newfound knowledge and teaching me the power of thought through the efforts of you're (sic) kind words and nimble feet.
This firm should be BUILDING THE WORLD'S BIGGEST AQUEDUCT!! Not fucking around with rice!! And also, all those "science" "firms" who are researching how to slam atoms into one another faster and better should stop this bullshit and work on sewing clothes for orphans! And those guys who are trying to figure out an alternative to fossil fuels? I think their efforts would be much better put towards a car that can not crash! Because after all, the easiest way of getting clean water from North America to South America, Asia, and Africa, is by getting a group of bio-geneticists to... ???...and then the children, rejuvenated from their crystal-pure drinking water, shall PROFIT!!
Seriously, do you view everything that takes place in America as the direct result of the orders of a single, monolithic entity? Because, for the most part, things just sorta "happen". There are probably already biogenetics firms looking for a way to combine "micro-organism that eats bad things in water" with "isn't dastardly dangerous to humans".
And, yeah, it's a little cynical and jaded to be mentioning money - but let's see, people get paid... how much? To hit a little ball around? And... how much? To make really banal rap music and crusade against file-sharing? Scientists, making a living - now that's wrong!
What ifs? Is that meant to be imply some negative connotation to perfectly reasonable and serious concerns?
No. For an example of an idiotic "what-if", refer yourself to this post made by "kanzels". At some point between "genetically modified rice that can cure diarrhea" and "this planet's going to die:(", there was a "what if" at some point that was, in the true spirit of human idiocy, answered idiotically.
Here's a whatif, for you. What if we give hard working salt-of-the-earth farmers the chance to save some money and allow them to feed their cows animal protein instead of corn? Never mind the overly analytical issue of feeding herbivores other herbivores, there's livelihoods at risk, economies at stake, and benefits to go around for everyone.
That's a very nice "whatif", Pollyanna. What if we could make every little girl a happy ballerina and every boy a top-notch astronaut? What if we could make everybody a millionaire? What if we could make every post on Slashdot a First Post, and every First Post a beautiful tapestry, interwoven with +5 Insightful, +5 Informative, and even +5 Funny jokes that aren't about Soviet Russia, underpants gnomes, or the new overlords - such that each post stands on its own as a brilliant essay, not just on the article (which would always be read and never succumb to the Slashdot effect), but on the human condition itself? -- okay, enough.
Yes, ideally we could blah blah protein instead of corn. Ideally there would not be any starving peasents, ideally governments would serve the needs of their people instead of merely lording over them / "leading" them, ideally I would not have to be making this post because you would already have read my mind and realized what I was about to say. Which is:
Unfortunately, ideals can not always be instantaneously achieved. So, instead of a perfect world, we have this here Magical Kaeopectate Rice made from the milk, spit and tears of the working class. It could certainly prevent some (roughly 2 days worth, according to the article) suffering, for now, and for the future, while we all slowly work towards a better tomorrow (note - not the John Woo film). However, the question then arises:
Should we be "moderate" about this new rice, a process which involves some idiots bleating back and forth about whether or not it's "ethical", twenty hippy-nerds eagerly speaking about stuff that'll make the average person's eyes glaze over (unfortunately, because if you listen, there's gems of thought to be had - sincerely, it is not my intention to belittle the +5 Informative one finds on Slashdot), one or two loudmouth louts like myself helpfully passing out free threats of sodomy, hopeless dorks posting about Diarrhea genetically modifying YOU, and the occasional testimony of people who've been abroad and seen this shit (pardon the pun) first-hand - oh, and of course, the GNAA at some point - -- and meanwhile while this circus of confusion is continuing thousands of children are sick and in pain and shitting all over the place?
Or should we take a moment to process this information, check to see if A) the rice is going to develop sentient intelligence of its own and take over the world and go Urotsukidoji on us all (answer: not likely), B) whether it'll infect other rice plants with its own insidious protein blend (answer: since rice is self-pollinating, Uncle Ben should have nothing to fear), and finally C) if the peasents will use this rice-protein (answer: they will, so long as misguided missionaries aren't trying to convince them that it's made from the literal blood, sweat, and tears of their ancestors) - and then proceed to move on to the next issue, happy and content (though momentarily) in the knowledge that a little less suff
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, I think your memory's a bit broken here. SMK AI does cheat, but it's not always Luigi with his infino-star.
Upon starting a circuit, the computer will automatically "rank" the CPU opponents. Barring something weird and usually player-induced (hitting some guy in the ass with a red shell right before he crosses the finish line on the final lap, for instance), the CPU player that finishes 2nd will always finish 2nd. The 3rd place racer will always finish third, 4th always 4th, etc etc.
It's awfully retarded, and one of the reasons I found Mario Kart to be about as lame as the old Sega "Blast Processing®" commercials made it out to be. 2P battle mode is a fun diversion, but the single-player amounts to nothing more complicated than pushing the right buttons. No variety, no surprises. Absolute bullshit. Street Racer did it all much better, and was 4-player, to boot.
Now, watch me quickly get hammered as -1, Overrated for daring to question a "classic". Heh.
Bullshit there, Dr. Epistilogics. The vast majority believed that the Earth was flat and that the Sun revolved around the Earth. Did that somehow compress the planet into a plane? Did it alter the workings of mass and gravity as we now know it? No? You mean even back in the middle ages, the Sun was still giant and the Earth was still relatively small, and the latter revolved around the former, and that both were basically round? It wasn't? Gee! So, basically, you're just huffing some killer dope and trying to sound educated? Go figure!
Bravo to you for putting it so clearly. In a representative democracy, the senators, representatives, and various presidential subordinates, are not leaders. They are not even - in the ideal form of democracy - role models. Whenever I see them referred to as "leaders" (usually in glurge-for-kids, see: The Mini Page), I want to puke. The way I see it, politicians are actors - glorified lawyers, if you will. Their job is to say what you and I say, but say it in such a way that it's clean, precise, to the point, and doesn't contain so many bad Soviet Russia jokes. This is why I'll never vote Democratic or Republican - even if I knew it would come down to a single vote between the two, I would still vote for my ideals, not for "my favorite candidate on the island".
But enough off-topic ramblings. The trouble here is: What happens if 85% of the population believes that the Earth is flat? That the Sun revolves around us? What if 51% of the population decides it would be a lot nicer if the George Dubya forces demolished the World Trade Center with dynamite or miniature truckbombs or nanotermites or whatever?
We don't want politicians in "charge" of science, definitely - but it's even more dangerous to place "the People" in charge of science. We, as nerds, all get irritated when TIME or the New York Times completely botches the simple facts of a computing principle - and most of us harbor a distaste for "sensationalistic science" - such as that case a few months back about the "mysterious black bugs that lived under your skin and sucked your neurons". Can you imagine what would happen if science was put to a vote of the People? We'd have Intelligently Designed second gunmen on the Grassy Knoll, pi would be 3.14, and bodies in motion would remain in motion until they stopped, because Grandma Nitwit refuses to have it any other way, and the majority of people feel very sorry for Grandma Nitwit because she is such a nice person.
Scientists should be in control of science. Science should be placed in a category all its own - the "real world" - the world that determines whether Jimmy Twoshoes is going to live or die after ramming into an 18-wheeler on his bicycle. The world of Christ and myth and what's "nice" and "convenient" and "easy to have faith on" can either be separate, or non-existant - but to place it as an equal is moral relativism at its absolute worst. And to look at science - or the voice of science - as just another checkbox alongside "Christian", "Jew", "Islam", "other" (or "the Christian view", the "Jew view", etc) is to take a dangerously literal view towards "science as a belief system", or whatever the current head-up-the-ass in-vogue philosophical outlook is.
Your logic leads me to believe you are either Chico Marx or John Dvorak. I don't know whether to therefore mod you up or down.
Coming up on Slashdot:
Using color-coded jewelcases to separate LiveCDs from porn "backups", reducing monitor glare with opaque curtains, and applying previously learned lessons in moderation towards the past-time of drinking Mountain Dew. CowboyHeloise brings us all of these, plus fifty helpful tips to prevent shitting in your pants during an all-night coding session!
<SPOILER> - the #1 tip: "Make sure to remove your pants before defecating. A little hand-written sign scotch-taped to the wall across from the toilet can be a last-minute life-saver!" </SPOILER>
Slashdot: Help for nerds. Hints that matter.
I don't know, but someone who uses their real name in Counter-Quake Fortress Tournament... I think an "Idiot Clause" of some sort is warrented.
And, of course, unless your name is incredibly uncommon, chances are there's more than one person with your name (heck, I can put in my first name, last name, middle initial, city of birth OR city of residence, and still not find myself). Ask yourself: Would working for someone too stupid to deduce that John Doe the LPB Rocket Camping Faggot might or might not be John Doe the Business Major with a 3.6GPA (and as such, probably shouldn't be factored one way or the other) really be worth it?
I'd love it if Google and other search engines had a policy of booting forum posts from their index after a period of time, say 2 years. That said, I don't think the government needs to be involved.
I can't begin to count the number of times that I encountered a bizarre computer-related meltdown of some sort (Windows user lol), and the best match for my best-formed Google query - the result which, in fact, solved my trouble at the moment - was a three year old forum post. Ditto Minidisc info. Ditto issues with older first person shooters. Ditto issues with older pieces of software in general.
Even assuming for the sake of argument that Google could write a series of rules to tell its crawlers what was and wasn't a "forum post" - the mere idea that they should ranks as one of the dumbest I've ever read, on
Whoever thought that Barely Legal would be looked upon with such a nostalgic eye?
Who the fuck knows what the GP's actually suggesting. He has the typical online penmanship, punctuation, and overall coherance of your average new age froo-frooer. Let him babble at empty space all he wants.
You know, you meant this in jest, but the more I think about it, the more this explains not only the spread of Morgellon's Disease, but the state of America's chatrooms as well. The "other" Morgellon's Disease, if you will.
You newbies have taken yet another beautifully funny post and turned it into a trainwreck of sad!
...dammit all to hell.
I'm going to mod you ALL down, and what's more, I'm going to mod you down -1 OVERRATED!!
I have nothing to fear! Meta-moderation, do your...
Doctors aren't perfect, and if something is outside of their experience, oftentimes they're not going to know what is going on. And to compound the problem there are some doctors who look for additional help, at least not right away. That's not a slam on Doctors, simply a point of human nature. I don't see the issue being a political one, more of a, 'but that doesn't happen here, so that can't be what's wrong' issue.
:-D
And yet 99.9% of the imperfect doctors, lawyers, and politicians congregate in the south. Or, in the case of the very honorable Jerry "A. Dipshit" Taylor, the south-midwest.
One has to wonder why.
(note: "Jerry 'A. Dipshit' Taylor", aka "The Cleverest Joke on Slashdot Ever", (c) 2006 Nugneant, all rights reserved. Maybe if this gets to be the next M$ I'll pull a Sun and change the licensing)
Sounds like a particularly thick Floater (get your mind out of the toilet bowl, it's a medical term).
Reading this article, the question struck me - could this be some sort of something having to do with hair follicles gone amock - similar to lupus (in which, if my memory serves correct, white blood cells run amock and start attacking previously healthy cells, typically on the skin)?
Conspiracy theory? Oh, bullshit.
:-)
I'm quite sympathetic to the feelings of frustration you're going through. I have eczema and have seen my fair share of quacks. My favorite was this idiot Spaniard who recommended that I take less showers and baths - yeah, lot of good that did my staph infection. Finally I found the guy I'm currently seeing, who does U/V therapy - basically an industrial strength tanning bed, for a minute a session, three sessions a week. Yeah, I'll probably have a skin cancer someday, but man, I'm about willing to say that it's worth fifteen years off my life to have skin that isn't oozing skin-spit all over the place in between the. most. frustratingly. itching. welts/patches that you could ever imagine. It's like a constant sunburn that is always in that "itch" phase of healing.
But it's not a conspiracy. Look at it from the doctor's point of view. You're dealing with patients who are unable to take a fucking antibiotic to term. How do you think "Oh, cut out all the sugars, the fats, the oils, the artificial sweeteners, aaannnnndd the dairy from your diet - oh, and also please only buy this shampoo which smells like ennui and costs twice as much as 'normal' shampoo, kthx" would go over? "Shyeah. Right, doc."
The problem here is that, even if a radical dietary overhaul could "cure" a disease (ie, "mask the symptoms to such an extent that aforementioned disease becomes a non-issue"), so few people would do it that anything beyond a strong suggestion would be counter-productive - the Doctor would assume that when the patient says "okay, yes sir, I will" that the patient means it, and not waste time with the steroid pills / antibiotics / etc. The patient, to his/her credit, oftentimes genuinely means it when they say they'll cut their diet down - but after the second week of alfalfa sprouts and soy milk, a lot of people have to cut loose.
Anyway. "Practicalities of healthy living" flamewar aside, it's not exactly a feasible recommendation for the mass of society, at the moment. That's all. Doctor Dave doesn't give two shits whether the Mars corporation goes under - outside of his own personal eating habits, of course.
I'm glad you found a solution, though. Sincerely.
Jesus christ man, TAKE YOUR FUCKING PILLS! If you actually remembered what the post said after you railed against hallucinations of what you thought you'd read then you'd realize the two aren't the same.
:(
LOL!!!! TAKE YOUR FUCKING PILLS!! That's almost as funny as Micro"$"oft! Man,why isn't this post +5, Funny?
So are you one of those people who is so put off by normal human emotion that you'll build forts of straw to distance yourself from anyone with the slightest feeling whatsoever? Yeah, I'm sure you're life of the party - so long as the party is a sedate affair with Neil Diamond on the CD player, non-alcoholic beer in the cooler, and children asleep in the other room.
Yeah, I'd mod you way way down, not for calling 'bullshit', but for acting like an asshole and seriously missing the point and being angry about something in real life and taking it out on the poster. Fear mongering? He was implying the people should possibly be told it is genetically modified and let them decide. A bearded monster? To ask the questions? Things should be questioned, even the bad ones! The bad ones should have the easiest answers without the 'you cold hearted child killing bastard!' type of epithets and total point dodges in the response. My advice to you, bub, stick to the facts and leave the rest out or don't be surprised at the heavy metal pipe beatings you get from those you 'argue' with in person. Or wonder why people avoid you as much as they can. +4? shit..
I'd take this doozy of a paragraph point by point, but you got so emotional over something in real life and took it out on me that my feelings are hurt and I'm going to be a whining pussy on Slashdot about it.
Your paragraph, summed up: Blah blah a-boodle-doodle-doo. If you're going to be Master Jesus of the Manners, try to, like, show us how it's done? Or something? "Bub"? Dumbfuck.
My take on this is blah blah blah more cocks for my mouth plz
Fixed that paragraph for you. No need to thank me, I might get emotional about it.
...so, about that flouridated water! I mean, government sponsored ethnic cleansing or what?
Science is fun when you ignore the hundreds of thousands of advances that haven't blown up and killed everyone, and focus on the two or three that have.
My good lord. Ever so sorry my analogy offended you - here I thought I was just making an analogy, but you, Dr. Penguin Freud Collective, have shown me it was truly an insight into my very soul.
I notice that you did not touch upon any of the points I raised, which under normal circumstances would mean to me that, as usual, I'm right, and anyone who disagrees with me is either insane or a troll. But on this occasion, it is obvious to me that I, in my naive haste to use comparitive thinking to illustrate a point, have erred.
Your strawman holds up as if made of pure titanium.
Speaking seriously for a moment, you dumbass, you know that some nations are in hospitable climates, while others are in deserts, tundra, and southeast America? Oh, wait, nevermind, that blasted "logic" thing again, I won't bother this time, since I'm sure you'll take offense with the "southeast America" thing. Or something else completely idiotic.
Keep huffing your way to the top, sir.
...the "latest"?
Here I thought it had been around since the 1980s (in name, at least). Surely there have been plenty of bad ideas that blah blah good at the time since then?
Anyway, I'm very glad you learned how to be patronizing and condescending. I'm sure it makes you the life of the Mad Cow conventions.
Within the confines of the analogy, this would be akin to... giving the third-world countries the supplies, while reminding them over and over again, sternly, that they need to have supplies, and that it's important to have supplies, and that they should come to you when they need supplies (or the violent overthrow of a left-wing dictator). Which is actually frighteningly close to American foreign policy, so I'll have to hand you the gold medal - you cheating, individualistic jerk.
(and - I had a much longer, OT reply to the entire prospect of rote memorization vis a vis child rearing, but I decided to, instead, move the whole thing to this journal entry, in which comments are welcome (as I am a wannabe education major and find discussion to be fascinating)).
Thank you. I don't usually make contentless self-indulgent/ego-whoring/whatever posts (that's what a journal's for) - but this time, I'll likewise make an exception.
:-D
But, shh! Quiet about your lack of mod points! Otherwise they might think your advice isn't the best advice to be following!
The apartment building is on fire! Bravely, Dr. Ventria dashes inside to check for survivors and organize the evactuation! Nugneant claps his hands with glee! But what's this?? A ragtag group of Armchair Perfectionists are damning the Good Doctor's efforts, saying that if he really wanted to help, he'd have brought a firehose and set up a ladder outside the apartment building!! Nugneant is trying hard not to laugh!! And uh-oh, here comes the army of mods in the big shiny mod-engine!! Whatever will happen next?? Tune in tomorrow for the next episode of SLASHDOT PRESENTS: THE RICE THREAD!!
Well. Said. And better than I put it. I think I was still oxygen-deprived from my laugh at the statement about /. debate being just the same as academic discourse, so I sorta bungled my reply to this statement of the Parent. I meant to make clear that kenzels asked himself/herself "what if... this all goes wrong", then formed an elaborate delusion that left with him/her weeping for the world - instead it reads like there's an actual rhetorical "what if" in his/her post. Sigh.
:-D
I shouldn't bother with this "his/her" stuff - this is Slashdot, after all. What's a "her", anyway?
But anyway. Yeah. Well, well said. I only hope someone comes up with a postulation for you to denounce.
So, question:
What do you propose a biogeneticist (that means someone whose speciality is in the process of biogenetics, ie the building blocks of life - as opposed to being a politician, a general, a condom dispenser, a teacher, a full-time skeptic, or other things) do?
Your second paragraph seems to be saying something along the lines of "DON'T INVEST IN BIOGENETICS! BECAUSE SOLVING DISEASES IS ONLY A BANDAID TO THE GREATER PROBLEM OF blah blah". Notice the "blah blah". That is my way of implying that I tune you out because you don't make any sense. Tell me, where did I mention that this was GOING TO SAVE THE ENTIRE PLANET FOREVER ALL OUR TROUBLES GONE HOOP, HOOP, HOORAY? Oh, that's right, I didn't. Are you saying that nobody should give bio-genetics firms any money, because it's just a waste? Guess what - speaking rhetorically, if I give a bio-genetics firm money, it is with the express intent that they use it to bio-geneticize. And it seems like, in that regard, this is a very successful bio-genetics firm. Bio-genetics isn't cheap, you know. Well, anyway, how about just telling me in what firms to invest in to make sure the fundamental problems are fixed? Oh, wait, you mean it's vast and multi-faceted and there's no one firm that's working on the Perfection Engine? Oh well. I hate to sound like an asshole (not really), but you lose this paragraph.
And, Occam's Razor as applied to your conclusion: "blah blah blah I am a disgusting cowardly borderline-racist and we shouldn't share the spoils of hundreds of years of science with the primitives, just let the 1% with 90% of the wealth in Primitivswana get to make deals on the stock market and surely they will trickle down the wealth to the poor and all shall prosper!! blah blah". The "blah blahs" in this allude to you somehow managing, with three short paragraphs, to be even more long-winded and redundant than I am in all my pages of text.
Look at it this way: You're a two year old. I'm the wise old grandmother who babysits you. One day, I notice that one of your shoes is untied. Should I tie your shoe for you, knowing that, in the future, you'll possibly be able to tie your own shoe, but for now it's best just to tie your shoe (a crude, stopgap quickfix) so you don't trip, given that you are currently too young to learn how? Or should I just make sure you have access to shoes and laces and fingers and knots, then carry about my Objectivist business? If you answered "yes" to the former, then congratulations on re-thinking your original stance. If you answered "yes" to the latter, however, then you're probably a Libertarian, and I don't think there's any help for you.
You know what? I have looked at my own examples and read your post and come to see the error of my ways! God bless you kind sir for infusing my life with this newfound knowledge and teaching me the power of thought through the efforts of you're (sic) kind words and nimble feet.
...and then the children, rejuvenated from their crystal-pure drinking water, shall PROFIT!!
This firm should be BUILDING THE WORLD'S BIGGEST AQUEDUCT!! Not fucking around with rice!! And also, all those "science" "firms" who are researching how to slam atoms into one another faster and better should stop this bullshit and work on sewing clothes for orphans! And those guys who are trying to figure out an alternative to fossil fuels? I think their efforts would be much better put towards a car that can not crash! Because after all, the easiest way of getting clean water from North America to South America, Asia, and Africa, is by getting a group of bio-geneticists to... ???
Seriously, do you view everything that takes place in America as the direct result of the orders of a single, monolithic entity? Because, for the most part, things just sorta "happen". There are probably already biogenetics firms looking for a way to combine "micro-organism that eats bad things in water" with "isn't dastardly dangerous to humans".
And, yeah, it's a little cynical and jaded to be mentioning money - but let's see, people get paid... how much? To hit a little ball around? And... how much? To make really banal rap music and crusade against file-sharing? Scientists, making a living - now that's wrong!
No. For an example of an idiotic "what-if", refer yourself to this post made by "kanzels". At some point between "genetically modified rice that can cure diarrhea" and "this planet's going to die :(", there was a "what if" at some point that was, in the true spirit of human idiocy, answered idiotically.
That's a very nice "whatif", Pollyanna. What if we could make every little girl a happy ballerina and every boy a top-notch astronaut? What if we could make everybody a millionaire? What if we could make every post on Slashdot a First Post, and every First Post a beautiful tapestry, interwoven with +5 Insightful, +5 Informative, and even +5 Funny jokes that aren't about Soviet Russia, underpants gnomes, or the new overlords - such that each post stands on its own as a brilliant essay, not just on the article (which would always be read and never succumb to the Slashdot effect), but on the human condition itself? -- okay, enough.
Yes, ideally we could blah blah protein instead of corn. Ideally there would not be any starving peasents, ideally governments would serve the needs of their people instead of merely lording over them / "leading" them, ideally I would not have to be making this post because you would already have read my mind and realized what I was about to say. Which is:
Unfortunately, ideals can not always be instantaneously achieved. So, instead of a perfect world, we have this here Magical Kaeopectate Rice made from the milk, spit and tears of the working class. It could certainly prevent some (roughly 2 days worth, according to the article) suffering, for now, and for the future, while we all slowly work towards a better tomorrow (note - not the John Woo film). However, the question then arises:
Should we be "moderate" about this new rice, a process which involves some idiots bleating back and forth about whether or not it's "ethical", twenty hippy-nerds eagerly speaking about stuff that'll make the average person's eyes glaze over (unfortunately, because if you listen, there's gems of thought to be had - sincerely, it is not my intention to belittle the +5 Informative one finds on Slashdot), one or two loudmouth louts like myself helpfully passing out free threats of sodomy, hopeless dorks posting about Diarrhea genetically modifying YOU, and the occasional testimony of people who've been abroad and seen this shit (pardon the pun) first-hand - oh, and of course, the GNAA at some point - -- and meanwhile while this circus of confusion is continuing thousands of children are sick and in pain and shitting all over the place?
Or should we take a moment to process this information, check to see if A) the rice is going to develop sentient intelligence of its own and take over the world and go Urotsukidoji on us all (answer: not likely), B) whether it'll infect other rice plants with its own insidious protein blend (answer: since rice is self-pollinating, Uncle Ben should have nothing to fear), and finally C) if the peasents will use this rice-protein (answer: they will, so long as misguided missionaries aren't trying to convince them that it's made from the literal blood, sweat, and tears of their ancestors) - and then proceed to move on to the next issue, happy and content (though momentarily) in the knowledge that a little less suff