I dunno. I generally don't like the terms geek and nerd and use them only sparingly. I know the community has tried to embrace them, but they were endless insults for me growing up, and I still consider them as such.
the public perception of scientists as white coat-wearing boffins with pipes and tweed jackets is more the fault of the media than the scientists themselves.
Well, they used to be in the days of flubber. Now they are depicted as remote and cold academics who inadvertently release one apocalypse or another upon the Earth.;-) I cringed at the beginning of I am Legend where anti-cancer research via repurposed viruses was blamed. In the book the virus was a natural event.
I work with people who have titles like "Chief Scientist". Some of them, sure, I'd vote for them for some office or another because I've seen them handle things like management and budget (this is the private sector after all) and how it pertains to pushing the edges of R&D. Concepts like "We can afford *this* cool breakthrough this year. Put *that* even cooler idea in your top drawer, and we'll explore it next year when we'll have more budget, but put hooks into your current design here and here for it so we can leverage the hardware we build this year."
Others, if they were in charge, well, let's just say I'm not a violent person, but I'd personally lead the rebel army that took them down.
Scientists are just people. The geekverse needs to let go of this scientist worship. Yes, this country needs to appreciate math and science more and yada yada and all that. I grok that and support it wholeheartedly. I'm ever considering writing a book to reach segments of our society previously written off for such things. But this idea that some here and elsewhere have that scientists are automatically these cool people dedicated to truth, justice and unbiased world views is pure fantasy. I can't even figure out where it came from other than as a reaction to all the religious loonery,
I do not have a personal entertainment player, I read books.
Why the false dichotomy? I have an iPod *and* I read many books.
I cannot drive and I use public transport. I am apathetic for motor vehicles.
I have a 2 seater convertible roadster that can go 140 mph. Does that make me bad?
I buy cheap clothes. A pair of jeans is jeans whatever way you look at it.
Actually, I'm finding inverse results there. I gave up on the more expensive Levis because they wear out quickly and they went to a single belt loop in the back a while ago. The $20 Lee jeans I buy online last three times as long.
Most people are hypnotized by branding.
[citation needed]
People are allowed to live their lives differently than you without deserving to be judged as "hypnotized"
This time I'll plan on the PC version over the console. The XBox 360 interface on the first DA was horribly hobbled and made the game very frustrating if you're a "I want to control every character's every move" player like me.
Also, if they bring back the battle scripting, just give me unlimited scripting slots (or some high number I'll never reach). Don't make me expend hard earned development points on opening script slots. Give me scriptable characters or not.
[1] People are not lazy enough. [2] States, counties and cities need *something* to do with all that excess revenue just lying around taking up space. [3] Profit!
They simply will not believe that Quiet Desperation is my real name. I invited them out to the Desperation compound to meet the rest of my family- Blind, Financial, Final and Raging- but to no avail.
Yeah, lights and transportation and warm shelter are so unwise. (facepalm)
Look, just because a Native American says something does not make it a universal truth. That attitude is just as woo as any religion or new age bullcrap.
Moral and intellectual bankruptcy happened years ago. Financial bankruptcy cannot happen soon enough to this steaming cesspit of gibbering whores we have for a state government.
Yes, when they are spent in a tidy and efficient manner and not on teetering, skyscraping gigaton piles of bullshit. We have a bit of a bullshit problem these days, so it makes people upset about paying any taxes.
It also doesn't help that the free education seems to suck balls and the only solution the alleged big brains in charge can devise is to just throw more quatloos at it, or they come up with feel good crap that even preteens chuckle at. And the road management, at least in my neck of the world, is incomprehensible. There's roads that get resealed even if they are fine, and others a block away that haven't been repaired in 20 years. None of it makes any sense, and when a reporter decides to actually do some journalism and asks why nothing makes sense, the people in charge babble incoherently like a mental patients.
That's what I don't get about people like you who spout such platitudes. Yes, the theory of taxes making for a good place to live is fine. I think the "limited government" advocates get that because they do not advocate "no government." Few people seriously advocate anarchy.
But are you really so completely blind to what goes on in the real world on a daily basis that gets people pissed off? Is it really that hard to comprehend the attitude of people who stayed in school, worked hard and played the game "correctly" and then see large chunks of their money take away and just tossed repeatedly into broken systems and political cesspits? Is it *really* that difficult?
I dunno, man. I have yet to see documented evidence that even the non-scholars thought the Earth was flat. Even the religious accepted the Church sanctioned geocentric view which was wrong but still involved orbiting spheres. I think you need to go back to the deep BC years to start finding significant flat earthers. I always figured most folks didn't even think about it, much like if you asked the average person today about about ekpyrotic versus chaotic inflation.
What? Arizona? I thought they were 1000 * Nazi_Germany() and stopping all the Einstein clones from crossing the border to build steel mills? I'm so confused. What's our stance on Eurasia now?
In my state you're supposed to report your out of state purchases with your income tax form but almost nobody does it.
Well, maybe if California (my state) didn't have a sales that that wasn't ten godamned percent in some cities we'd buy more locally. When I got my first HDTV I went to a local store, and the sales tax was $250. Fuck that scene. Never again.
There's always some self righteous sycophants who try to shame us into reporting out of state purchases. We usually just punch them in the crotch until they pass out and leave them naked in a WalMart parking lot because, seriously, that's all those wankers deserve.
You mean its not for the endless jokes about living in the basement, not having a girlfriend, no social life, or the strong usage of the soviet russia meme?
Yeah, well, the Soviet Russian meme living in your basement has a Beowulf cluster of girlfriends and, um......I got nothin...
Slashdot Mirror
A crisis! Quick! Throw $500 billion at it! There! Done!
I dunno. I generally don't like the terms geek and nerd and use them only sparingly. I know the community has tried to embrace them, but they were endless insults for me growing up, and I still consider them as such.
the public perception of scientists as white coat-wearing boffins with pipes and tweed jackets is more the fault of the media than the scientists themselves.
Well, they used to be in the days of flubber. Now they are depicted as remote and cold academics who inadvertently release one apocalypse or another upon the Earth. ;-) I cringed at the beginning of I am Legend where anti-cancer research via repurposed viruses was blamed. In the book the virus was a natural event.
I work with people who have titles like "Chief Scientist". Some of them, sure, I'd vote for them for some office or another because I've seen them handle things like management and budget (this is the private sector after all) and how it pertains to pushing the edges of R&D. Concepts like "We can afford *this* cool breakthrough this year. Put *that* even cooler idea in your top drawer, and we'll explore it next year when we'll have more budget, but put hooks into your current design here and here for it so we can leverage the hardware we build this year."
Others, if they were in charge, well, let's just say I'm not a violent person, but I'd personally lead the rebel army that took them down.
Scientists are just people. The geekverse needs to let go of this scientist worship. Yes, this country needs to appreciate math and science more and yada yada and all that. I grok that and support it wholeheartedly. I'm ever considering writing a book to reach segments of our society previously written off for such things. But this idea that some here and elsewhere have that scientists are automatically these cool people dedicated to truth, justice and unbiased world views is pure fantasy. I can't even figure out where it came from other than as a reaction to all the religious loonery,
And a million internet tubes cried out in pain.
"Holy fuck! How many pixels by how many! What? HOW MANY? WTF? o_O We're gonna need a bigger pipe!"
I'm very sorry that a can of Pepsi killed your mother and molested your dog
NO! The can molested my mother and killed my dog, you insensitive clod!
Then it ate my cat!
I'll get you, can!
CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!!!!!
I do not have a personal entertainment player, I read books.
Why the false dichotomy? I have an iPod *and* I read many books.
I cannot drive and I use public transport. I am apathetic for motor vehicles.
I have a 2 seater convertible roadster that can go 140 mph. Does that make me bad?
I buy cheap clothes. A pair of jeans is jeans whatever way you look at it.
Actually, I'm finding inverse results there. I gave up on the more expensive Levis because they wear out quickly and they went to a single belt loop in the back a while ago. The $20 Lee jeans I buy online last three times as long.
Most people are hypnotized by branding.
[citation needed]
People are allowed to live their lives differently than you without deserving to be judged as "hypnotized"
a company that's probably killing more people than Philip Morris ever did?"
[citation needed]
This time I'll plan on the PC version over the console. The XBox 360 interface on the first DA was horribly hobbled and made the game very frustrating if you're a "I want to control every character's every move" player like me.
Also, if they bring back the battle scripting, just give me unlimited scripting slots (or some high number I'll never reach). Don't make me expend hard earned development points on opening script slots. Give me scriptable characters or not.
Given that most of the major "pressing problems" (like genocide) can't easily be resolved with technology and need simple discussion and agreement
I have bad news. Simple discussion and agreement doesn't work, either. :-(
What might work is about five billion straitjackets, padded rooms and vast amounts of lithium.
Should Cities Install Moving Sidewalks?
Absolutely!
Three reasons:
[1] People are not lazy enough.
[2] States, counties and cities need *something* to do with all that excess revenue just lying around taking up space.
[3] Profit!
Go for it, futuristas!
In a related story, the copyright holders of the Akira Kurosawa film "Hidden Fortress" have demanded that LucasArts cease all sales of "Star Wars".
They simply will not believe that Quiet Desperation is my real name. I invited them out to the Desperation compound to meet the rest of my family- Blind, Financial, Final and Raging- but to no avail.
Pipeline to Jupiter.
Sheesh. Wake me when you have a *real* problem.
So what have you done? That is, other than post rants against something straight out of Amalgamated Stereotypes, Ltd?
Yeah, lights and transportation and warm shelter are so unwise. (facepalm)
Look, just because a Native American says something does not make it a universal truth. That attitude is just as woo as any religion or new age bullcrap.
Moral and intellectual bankruptcy happened years ago. Financial bankruptcy cannot happen soon enough to this steaming cesspit of gibbering whores we have for a state government.
Taxes are good.
Yes, when they are spent in a tidy and efficient manner and not on teetering, skyscraping gigaton piles of bullshit. We have a bit of a bullshit problem these days, so it makes people upset about paying any taxes.
It also doesn't help that the free education seems to suck balls and the only solution the alleged big brains in charge can devise is to just throw more quatloos at it, or they come up with feel good crap that even preteens chuckle at. And the road management, at least in my neck of the world, is incomprehensible. There's roads that get resealed even if they are fine, and others a block away that haven't been repaired in 20 years. None of it makes any sense, and when a reporter decides to actually do some journalism and asks why nothing makes sense, the people in charge babble incoherently like a mental patients.
That's what I don't get about people like you who spout such platitudes. Yes, the theory of taxes making for a good place to live is fine. I think the "limited government" advocates get that because they do not advocate "no government." Few people seriously advocate anarchy.
But are you really so completely blind to what goes on in the real world on a daily basis that gets people pissed off? Is it really that hard to comprehend the attitude of people who stayed in school, worked hard and played the game "correctly" and then see large chunks of their money take away and just tossed repeatedly into broken systems and political cesspits? Is it *really* that difficult?
How good are they at climate prediction. I'm just wonderin'...
While you can elect to avoid paying the tax by purchased out of state, you still owe the tax.
That's nice. You and this corrupt government or bought off whores are invited to collectively blow me.
I dunno, man. I have yet to see documented evidence that even the non-scholars thought the Earth was flat. Even the religious accepted the Church sanctioned geocentric view which was wrong but still involved orbiting spheres. I think you need to go back to the deep BC years to start finding significant flat earthers. I always figured most folks didn't even think about it, much like if you asked the average person today about about ekpyrotic versus chaotic inflation.
What? Arizona? I thought they were 1000 * Nazi_Germany() and stopping all the Einstein clones from crossing the border to build steel mills? I'm so confused. What's our stance on Eurasia now?
In my state you're supposed to report your out of state purchases with your income tax form but almost nobody does it.
Well, maybe if California (my state) didn't have a sales that that wasn't ten godamned percent in some cities we'd buy more locally. When I got my first HDTV I went to a local store, and the sales tax was $250. Fuck that scene. Never again.
There's always some self righteous sycophants who try to shame us into reporting out of state purchases. We usually just punch them in the crotch until they pass out and leave them naked in a WalMart parking lot because, seriously, that's all those wankers deserve.
Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat
Argh! No, they didn't.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth_myth
You mean its not for the endless jokes about living in the basement, not having a girlfriend, no social life, or the strong usage of the soviet russia meme?
Yeah, well, the Soviet Russian meme living in your basement has a Beowulf cluster of girlfriends and, um... ...I got nothin...