Did you change your mind because of your own curiosity, reasoning and data collection OR because your tribe and its associated authority figures changed their minds and you felt compelled to follow suit?
Purely empirical. From my conversion to atheism (more of a very stern agnosticism, perhaps) to my willful abandonment of "one size fits all" ideologies, it was all based on looking at the world and a voracious appetite for information... and after reading a couple books by John Douglas (famed FBI profiler), I realized that ideologues on the pundit shows sound *WAY* too much like the serial killers that Douglas interviewed when he as developing profiling techniques.
Are you the sort of person who switches back and forth between beliefs easily?
Define "easily". Do you mean wishy-washy and easily swayed by gentle breezes, or, once are there are sufficient facts to form a conclusion in a particular situation, a decision is made without hesitation?
I abandoned "beliefs" altogether. Every situation requires its own solution. The solutions may be labeled by others as "libertarian" here or "progressive" there, but all I give a damn about is what works. What others label it is their problem.
Are you the sort of person who refuses to change belief systems out of fear of appearing or feeling weak-minded?
No. Don't give a gnat's fart what people think about it.
Do you lie to yourself in order to take the edge off uncomfortable truths?
No. Well, OK, I'm guilty of little things like "a couple more cookies won't hurt" or "I'll do an extra workout tomorrow".:-) You gotta paper over the little things once in a while otherwise you katches teh crazies or you turn into Monk and start vacuuming your carpet diagonally.
Are you lying to yourself right now about any of the answers to these questions?
I don't think so. Would I know if I was? Maybe I'm a really good liar.:-)
I'm the only person left that I know willing to say "You know, I'm not sure" on a complicated issue. Everyone thinks they *have* to have a definite conclusion on every topic in the universe.
I also very rarely hear anyone else say "it depends" because not only do lots of folks think they need that definite conclusion, but that conclusion is invariable and must (MUST!) be applied to the letter in every possible set of circumstances.
They were in the calm state, but right on top of one another, and then hidden behind the guy's head. And then the game got mad at me for *it's* interface quirk. Eh... like I said I'm going to rent it to give it a fair shake (literally in the case of the guys asthma inhaler).
I love a rich storyline as well- been playing RPGs since, well, "Adventure" on the 2600.:-) Hey, OK, some of the early games required some imagination on the player's part. I had all sorts of tales spun about those duck-dragons and that bat.
However I'm not looking for any emotionalism. I really liked Fable 2, but I felt nothing for the dog. And when I had to choose between bringing back the dog and bringing back thousands of dead people, I brought back the dog. Why? Did I get attached after all? No, but the dog was useful in closing out a few remaining XBox achievements.
I was NOT affected by the death of Aerith.:-) At least not beyond "Oh, crap, I liked using that character." If I recall she was a good healer.
OK, I do have a crush on Tali in Mass Effect, but other than that...
I didn't like any of the control scheme, and I actually did well with the demo. Won the fight and everything. But I found I was staring at the screen like a mental patient watching for random icons and not really paying attention to what was being said. Some would slowly fade in during conversations and blend in with the background. My classic copy of Apple's Human Interface Guidelines ran screaming out of the room.
The first time I had to choose a conversation gambit, the three selections appeared right on top of one another, and just as they started to pull apart and become readable they drifted behind the character's head. D'oh! That's when the woman admonished me for taking too long. Hey, eff you, game.:-P That right there is enough for me to *not* reward the developers. I understand what they were going for, but it winds up being very immersion breaking.
It's an interesting experiment- I'll probably rent it- but maybe next time they'll try to be a bit more practical and less pointlessly artsy in the interface.
And, honestly, was the drama really anything all that special?
"I don't know which lie to believe." -- Fox Mulder
It's easier to be a misanthrope. For me [1] GW is true and lots of people get fucked over: hell yes! or [2] it's all been mass hysteria and nothing happens: oh well, hey, is Last Guardian out yet?
To be followed by Operation Hooter Hurricane, Operation Mammary Monsoon, Operation Boobie Blizzard, Operation Tata Tornado and Operation Sirocco Of Sweater Puppies.
BTW, I live in a place with saner prices. I paid less than $200K for a 5BR, 5,000 square foot house with a 1/4 yard, on a cul-de-sac in a nice part of town.
Yeah, but it was 78 degrees here today.:-) I wore shorts and we all laughed at the East Coast.:D
Wow, you really are just lost to the ideology, aren't you?
The house was $250K when I bought it in 1995. Gosh, I'm sorry my hard work in college and in my career has paid off somewhat well, but I am far from being a millionaire. I also came from a lower middle class (on a good day) childhood. It's not real money until I sell the house, and I'll have to pay cap gains unless I find a retirement home of greater value. Can you people understand that, or is the manifesto the be-all and end-all of your pseudoreality?
No, that's stupid. My house reached $1 million in estimated value at the peak of the bubble. Now it's back down to $800K. If I sell now, I should pay taxes on the $200K I never got? That's rational to you? Fuck that!
How would you like it if you were out of work for a year, and once you got a job, you were taxed on the money you *could* have made during that year?
And stop with the class warfare rich kid crap. You really think that's some giant, significant segment of the real estate market? Really?
Piffle. The cost of the current 40,000 strong "striker" population (actual 3rd strikers are only about 7,500) is about $1.5 billion, and it's hard to break that down because many of those dumbshits would probably be in prison anyway for their 4th, 5th, and Nth strikes. That's the aspect many people forget... a lot of these guys would be bouncing in and out of prison, eating up court and police costs, and so on. Society's issues are not a single numbers.
the base problem is the locked in salary deals and golden pensions that are the envy of the whole world. It's the cost per prisoner.
Actually, I'm not opposed to some of the suggested amendments to Three Strikes, but it is in no way, shape or form the root cause.
For some reason you are posting from 2008. We just had the largest state tax increase in national history here in California last year. The Republicans capitulated in backroom deals, thus giving the required 2/3 majority.
We're now the highest taxed state in just about every area.
Guess what? It didn't help. It just raped an already bleeding economy in the ass.
There's plenty of blame all around (Personally, I vote NO on all bond measures. Period. Seems like they never get the things floated anyway), but this state government is one of the worst governments I can thin k of in history barring the obvious extreme examples. It's like they just don't care. I also blame the media- they report NONE of this, and only a few radio shows even track the shenanigans of state government, and they just get unfairly dismissed as shock jocks or something. Newspapers like the L.A. Times just act as cheerleaders for whatever numbskull schemes that Sacramento farts out.
Our per prisoner cost is astronomical due to the prison employee unions who seem to have stolen CIA mind control tech or something. Or they just buy outTheir pensions are ridiculous and the envy of the private sector suckers who pay for it all.
And stop with the Prop 13 blame. It's BS. Jebus, even many progressive politicians here don't trot that one out anymore. Go back and look at what led up to Prop 13. It didn't form out of a vacuum. People were having to get *loans* to pay their property taxes. It is INSANE to tax people on unrealized gains!
California pulls in PLENTY of revenue, and income tax revenues have risen 800% in the past three decades.
Malfunctioning state government?! Cripes, man, the state government here has basically declared open warfare on anyone remaining in the state who exhibits a microgram of productivity or independence. And when questioned (by the rare few in the news media that even bother) about the sanity of their actions in such a bad economy, they pretty much come out and admit they don't give a shit about anything other than some legacy involving bunnies and unicorn farts. Nearly every professional person I know is planning on leaving as soon as they can by looking for out of state work, getting their homes cleaned up for sale, etc.
And for the record, this state spends a lot on education- nearly half the state budget. The whole thing needs to be torn down and rebuilt from the foundations. Hell, you probably want to dynamite the foundations as well. But the political brain trust will just throw more money down the black hole, and they'll sit and wonder why it didn't help, and throw some more because doing anything else is ideological heresy. Rinse and repeat until the sate declares bankruptcy or armed insurrection occurs.
Have we entered a new era where plagiarism is not just tolerated, but seen as normal?
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way.
Yeah, good luck with that. Most of the kids I went to school with could barely handle putting on their socks *before* their shoes, and this was at a high school considered to be "academically elite" for the whole state. From the teachers I know, I see little to indicate the situation has improved.
The scariest kind of graduate is one who has been taught only to parrot, and to conform to orthodoxy, and who does not know how to question.
And why would the sociopathic pigs in government want anything other than that?
always wondered, would a laser be defeated if you gave the missile a mirror paint coat?
Did you ever bother to look up an answer? I know people who work on weapon systems. The first thing they do is consider potential countermeasures.
There's no such thing as a perfectly reflecting mirror. *Some* energy will be absorbed, and with no place to go, will vaporize the mirror coating, probably within a fraction of a second at these power levels.
But if the enemy wants to coat their missile with a bright, shiny (read: easily tracked) coating, I wouldn't complain. Hell, I'd sell them the paint.
Queen and Guns&Roses are considered heavy metal now? And this is "science" is it?
that "the most annoying sound" his colleague, Reagan McGuire, "could think of was Rush Limbaugh or rock music."
Pfft. Clearly an Abba fan. Or he sits around with his nose in the air as he listens to his collection of "thinking man's music" on reel to reel tape or his $2500 oil balanced, laser tracked turntable.
Slashdot Mirror
Dude, I *am* an engineer! :-)
I make far more than most of my peers, so maybe that says something further about being open minded.
Not to even mention that social problems != technical problems.
Did you change your mind because of your own curiosity, reasoning and data collection OR because your tribe and its associated authority figures changed their minds and you felt compelled to follow suit?
Purely empirical. From my conversion to atheism (more of a very stern agnosticism, perhaps) to my willful abandonment of "one size fits all" ideologies, it was all based on looking at the world and a voracious appetite for information... and after reading a couple books by John Douglas (famed FBI profiler), I realized that ideologues on the pundit shows sound *WAY* too much like the serial killers that Douglas interviewed when he as developing profiling techniques.
Are you the sort of person who switches back and forth between beliefs easily?
Define "easily". Do you mean wishy-washy and easily swayed by gentle breezes, or, once are there are sufficient facts to form a conclusion in a particular situation, a decision is made without hesitation?
I abandoned "beliefs" altogether. Every situation requires its own solution. The solutions may be labeled by others as "libertarian" here or "progressive" there, but all I give a damn about is what works. What others label it is their problem.
Are you the sort of person who refuses to change belief systems out of fear of appearing or feeling weak-minded?
No. Don't give a gnat's fart what people think about it.
Do you lie to yourself in order to take the edge off uncomfortable truths?
No. Well, OK, I'm guilty of little things like "a couple more cookies won't hurt" or "I'll do an extra workout tomorrow". :-) You gotta paper over the little things once in a while otherwise you katches teh crazies or you turn into Monk and start vacuuming your carpet diagonally.
Are you lying to yourself right now about any of the answers to these questions?
I don't think so. Would I know if I was? Maybe I'm a really good liar. :-)
I'm the only person left that I know willing to say "You know, I'm not sure" on a complicated issue. Everyone thinks they *have* to have a definite conclusion on every topic in the universe.
I also very rarely hear anyone else say "it depends" because not only do lots of folks think they need that definite conclusion, but that conclusion is invariable and must (MUST!) be applied to the letter in every possible set of circumstances.
They were in the calm state, but right on top of one another, and then hidden behind the guy's head. And then the game got mad at me for *it's* interface quirk. Eh... like I said I'm going to rent it to give it a fair shake (literally in the case of the guys asthma inhaler).
I love a rich storyline as well- been playing RPGs since, well, "Adventure" on the 2600. :-) Hey, OK, some of the early games required some imagination on the player's part. I had all sorts of tales spun about those duck-dragons and that bat.
However I'm not looking for any emotionalism. I really liked Fable 2, but I felt nothing for the dog. And when I had to choose between bringing back the dog and bringing back thousands of dead people, I brought back the dog. Why? Did I get attached after all? No, but the dog was useful in closing out a few remaining XBox achievements.
I was NOT affected by the death of Aerith. :-) At least not beyond "Oh, crap, I liked using that character." If I recall she was a good healer.
OK, I do have a crush on Tali in Mass Effect, but other than that...
I didn't like any of the control scheme, and I actually did well with the demo. Won the fight and everything. But I found I was staring at the screen like a mental patient watching for random icons and not really paying attention to what was being said. Some would slowly fade in during conversations and blend in with the background. My classic copy of Apple's Human Interface Guidelines ran screaming out of the room.
The first time I had to choose a conversation gambit, the three selections appeared right on top of one another, and just as they started to pull apart and become readable they drifted behind the character's head. D'oh! That's when the woman admonished me for taking too long. Hey, eff you, game. :-P That right there is enough for me to *not* reward the developers. I understand what they were going for, but it winds up being very immersion breaking.
It's an interesting experiment- I'll probably rent it- but maybe next time they'll try to be a bit more practical and less pointlessly artsy in the interface.
And, honestly, was the drama really anything all that special?
And then they sent it to NTSHA crash testing.
Services for the crash test dummies will be held Friday. It will be closed casket.
Like I lamented. Who can I trust?
"I don't know which lie to believe." -- Fox Mulder
It's easier to be a misanthrope. For me [1] GW is true and lots of people get fucked over: hell yes! or [2] it's all been mass hysteria and nothing happens: oh well, hey, is Last Guardian out yet?
To be followed by Operation Hooter Hurricane, Operation Mammary Monsoon, Operation Boobie Blizzard, Operation Tata Tornado and Operation Sirocco Of Sweater Puppies.
I could keep this up all day. :-D
Yeah, I know. Pathetic.
we can change the climate to make things better
There. That. Textbook example of famous last words. ;-)
Image: Southern California in 2050, mid-summer, after attempts to "fix" the climate: Clicky
Why can't they just throw some more money
Dear Citizen,
We are out of money.
Hugs,
President Obama
PS: O_o
BTW, I live in a place with saner prices. I paid less than $200K for a 5BR, 5,000 square foot house with a 1/4 yard, on a cul-de-sac in a nice part of town.
Yeah, but it was 78 degrees here today. :-) I wore shorts and we all laughed at the East Coast. :D
Wow, you really are just lost to the ideology, aren't you?
The house was $250K when I bought it in 1995. Gosh, I'm sorry my hard work in college and in my career has paid off somewhat well, but I am far from being a millionaire. I also came from a lower middle class (on a good day) childhood. It's not real money until I sell the house, and I'll have to pay cap gains unless I find a retirement home of greater value. Can you people understand that, or is the manifesto the be-all and end-all of your pseudoreality?
No, that's stupid. My house reached $1 million in estimated value at the peak of the bubble. Now it's back down to $800K. If I sell now, I should pay taxes on the $200K I never got? That's rational to you? Fuck that!
How would you like it if you were out of work for a year, and once you got a job, you were taxed on the money you *could* have made during that year?
And stop with the class warfare rich kid crap. You really think that's some giant, significant segment of the real estate market? Really?
Piffle. The cost of the current 40,000 strong "striker" population (actual 3rd strikers are only about 7,500) is about $1.5 billion, and it's hard to break that down because many of those dumbshits would probably be in prison anyway for their 4th, 5th, and Nth strikes. That's the aspect many people forget... a lot of these guys would be bouncing in and out of prison, eating up court and police costs, and so on. Society's issues are not a single numbers.
the base problem is the locked in salary deals and golden pensions that are the envy of the whole world. It's the cost per prisoner.
Actually, I'm not opposed to some of the suggested amendments to Three Strikes, but it is in no way, shape or form the root cause.
For some reason you are posting from 2008. We just had the largest state tax increase in national history here in California last year. The Republicans capitulated in backroom deals, thus giving the required 2/3 majority.
We're now the highest taxed state in just about every area.
Guess what? It didn't help. It just raped an already bleeding economy in the ass.
Yeah... which is why the current Early Release Program, which will release thousands of prisoners, is causing so much controversy. Right.
Three Strikes is not the problem.
There's plenty of blame all around (Personally, I vote NO on all bond measures. Period. Seems like they never get the things floated anyway), but this state government is one of the worst governments I can thin k of in history barring the obvious extreme examples. It's like they just don't care. I also blame the media- they report NONE of this, and only a few radio shows even track the shenanigans of state government, and they just get unfairly dismissed as shock jocks or something. Newspapers like the L.A. Times just act as cheerleaders for whatever numbskull schemes that Sacramento farts out.
Our per prisoner cost is astronomical due to the prison employee unions who seem to have stolen CIA mind control tech or something. Or they just buy outTheir pensions are ridiculous and the envy of the private sector suckers who pay for it all.
And stop with the Prop 13 blame. It's BS. Jebus, even many progressive politicians here don't trot that one out anymore. Go back and look at what led up to Prop 13. It didn't form out of a vacuum. People were having to get *loans* to pay their property taxes. It is INSANE to tax people on unrealized gains!
California pulls in PLENTY of revenue, and income tax revenues have risen 800% in the past three decades.
http://www.sacbee.com/walters/story/2002341.html
Malfunctioning state government?! Cripes, man, the state government here has basically declared open warfare on anyone remaining in the state who exhibits a microgram of productivity or independence. And when questioned (by the rare few in the news media that even bother) about the sanity of their actions in such a bad economy, they pretty much come out and admit they don't give a shit about anything other than some legacy involving bunnies and unicorn farts. Nearly every professional person I know is planning on leaving as soon as they can by looking for out of state work, getting their homes cleaned up for sale, etc.
And for the record, this state spends a lot on education- nearly half the state budget. The whole thing needs to be torn down and rebuilt from the foundations. Hell, you probably want to dynamite the foundations as well. But the political brain trust will just throw more money down the black hole, and they'll sit and wonder why it didn't help, and throw some more because doing anything else is ideological heresy. Rinse and repeat until the sate declares bankruptcy or armed insurrection occurs.
Have we entered a new era where plagiarism is not just tolerated, but seen as normal?
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way.
Yeah, good luck with that. Most of the kids I went to school with could barely handle putting on their socks *before* their shoes, and this was at a high school considered to be "academically elite" for the whole state. From the teachers I know, I see little to indicate the situation has improved.
The scariest kind of graduate is one who has been taught only to
parrot, and to conform to orthodoxy, and who does not know how to question.
And why would the sociopathic pigs in government want anything other than that?
Aw, don't cry. It'll be OK.
always wondered, would a laser be defeated if you gave the missile a mirror paint coat?
Did you ever bother to look up an answer? I know people who work on weapon systems. The first thing they do is consider potential countermeasures.
There's no such thing as a perfectly reflecting mirror. *Some* energy will be absorbed, and with no place to go, will vaporize the mirror coating, probably within a fraction of a second at these power levels.
But if the enemy wants to coat their missile with a bright, shiny (read: easily tracked) coating, I wouldn't complain. Hell, I'd sell them the paint.
Queen and Guns&Roses are considered heavy metal now? And this is "science" is it?
that "the most annoying sound" his colleague, Reagan McGuire, "could think of was Rush Limbaugh or rock music."
Pfft. Clearly an Abba fan. Or he sits around with his nose in the air as he listens to his collection of "thinking man's music" on reel to reel tape or his $2500 oil balanced, laser tracked turntable.
The Hercules beetle video *was* cool, though.