As a professional in my mid-twenties, I pay a large portion of my paycheck to social security benefits for an ever-increasing elderly population. While I understand that I have a civic duty to assist those in need, I often wonder if tomorrow's youth and government will be able and willing to help me in forty-some years when I need it. Do you believe that Social Security, in its current form, will be available for my generation, and if not, what specifically do you see wrong with it and how will you address it?
All the evidence these wackos need is the (R) after her name. That's when she became guilty to them -- despite the fact that these are often the same people who get up in arms about any trivial violation of privacy.
I ride a motorcycle to work every day in the name of fuel economy. When I changed jobs last and was no longer employed at the same place as my wife, I knew I needed a vehicle (we shared hers for a few years... it's amazing how well that works once you get over the initial bump).
Before long, I was looking at motorcycles. I had never ridden one, but I took the safety courses, got licensed, and purchased one all within a few weeks. I absolutely love it. Not only was the new bike cheaper than most used cars, my insurance is a measly $40/mo and I fill up my tank for about $9 every three or four weeks. My total transportation costs are negligible.
Fortunately, I live in a climate (southern California) where it's dry and warm enough to ride all year long. I also only have to travel a few miles each way using suburban roads (no highway). I feel as safe on my bike as I do driving a car... if not safer due to the added awareness and fewer distractions riding a motorcycle gives you.
(As a side note, my employer used to be about 12 miles away and recently moved much closer... had I known that was going to be the case, I would've simply gotten a bicycle, but alas... at least I can easily get around town for groceries and the like)
That's right, Mr. Claiming-To-Be-A-Liberal! How dare you say something critical of the party most closely identified with liberals! You better tow that party line if you want to hold onto that liberal card of yours!
Sheesh, some people just won't learn. I mean, for shame! He was critical of his own party!
The secret to YouTube is adding &fmt=18 at the end of the URL.
My fiance just put up her first professional music video, and the quality is pretty good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op11TX0ELIg&fmt=18. The benefits of ease-of-distribution, in my opinion, far outweigh the loss in quality.
Plus, as you hit the high levels of quality, you shut out more and more people as the speed increases.
Nice post. I'm so sick and tired of seeing your typical clueless idiot nerd-rage all over this site every time a slanted political summary shows its face. They're just a bunch of whiny children, as you rightly pointed out, just bitching to a safe audience (that's the important part... they only bitch to the ones that agree with the groupthink).
The GP is *exactly* the reason why we've become so complacent toward the atrocities that he himself is so upset over. I guarantee the full extent of his civil responsibility is crying on a website and maybe voting in a general election every four years for one of the two major parties.
Please, sir, leave the great state of Minnesota. Get out of this country if that's how you feel. Of course I know you never would because you love the comforts this great, yes I said great... not flawless, not perfect, but still great... country provides.
Again, how's that weather out there? Here in normal land, it's actually not that bad. Both candidates have some strong points and weaknesses, but neither is worthy of the vitriol you're overflowing with.
All I did was point out that you threw out baseless insults. Calling him senile due to not knowing how many houses he owns is an insult. In fact, senile is an incredibly insensitive word -- certainly more full of bigotry than the Celebrity ad you seem so hellbent on bringing up (for the record, I never once saw that as racist... and I still have a hard time connecting the dots as you did.. I guess I need to read more Kos).
You can definitely call him out of touch for not answering that question, but it's not something that McCain is unique with. Calling him senile implies that he is incapable of remembering. I think any reasonable person understands that he is simply not involved in his personal real estate. That may have its own implications, but to call him senile is an inaccurate, and quite frankly offensive, insult.
Hopefully one day you'll realize that speaking as you did in this thread does more harm to your cause. Reasonable people get turned off by your tone. If you have an argument to make, do so eloquently and respectfully and you'll be taken seriously.
The not so subtle undertone to the 'celebrity' ad was 'black men want to rape white women'
Wow, man, how's the weather way out there in left field?
And, perhaps strictly-speaking, you didn't provide ad hominen attacks, but you certainly weren't short on personal insults. Here's a few words you used: senile, out of touch, slime merchants, pathetic broken shell of a man, elected out of sympathy, poor vet, sob, and blubber.
Try to show a little more respect for people, and perhaps you won't come off as a loony moonbat. All I heard from your posts was childish name-calling and one attempt at a supporting fact that was lost in hyperbole.
And doesn't your post (or rather the grandparent post) make the unjustified assumption that the wars, lost culture, lost history, and suffering would not have happened without religion? It also assumes that people who are evil with religion would not be so without. The far simpler explanation is that the evil aspects of religion are simply reflective of preexisting evil parts of people, rather than the other way around.
"The corrupt, stupid thug/bullies know as the police..."
???
Excuse me?? Yes, of course there are stupid police, thug police, and corrupt police. But you forget that the vast majority of police (at least in developed nations) are regular people with husbands, wives, children, and parents trying to keep your ungrateful ass safe. If you think the police are the thugs and bullies, then you're living in an awfully sheltered world where the most you have to worry about is getting caught driving on an expired registration.
Go live in a city where the crime lords and drug gangs run the place. Then you can come back and talk to us about thugs and bullies.
It was a single example of a very complicated system that we clearly don't understand.
Beside, I'm just telling you what I saw on Nova on PBS -- not some right-wing propaganda. The researcher who coined the term global dimming has been researching this for fifty years. With his research and experiments, he came to the conclusion that global dimming, as caused by particulates in the air, currently causes a decrease in temperature. This is bad because it's offsetting global warming caused by greenhouse gases -- that could in fact be much worse than we're estimating... say if our temperature is +2 right now, it could actually be +4 caused by greenhouse gases and -2 caused by global dimming. He's not advocating that we continue polluting the air -- what he's saying is we better be damn careful about how we go about it to make sure we do in fact lower the temperature.
Either way, the point is that it's very complicated and we don't understand it. Your example to me has the striking flaw that, yes, if more sunlight entered more would be able to escape... but since not 100% escapes, any more that enters would cause a net increase in energy trapped. If it never enters in the first place, we don't have to worry about it being trapped.
Problem is, if you don't understand the root cause and the system well enough, you could make things much worse. Ever solve a bug that seemed pretty straightforward only to cause major data corruption later down the line?
This isn't just an analogy. It has only been until recently that we've recognized global dimming as a real phenomenon that we've pretty much undoubtedly caused ourselves from all the particulates we spew into the atmosphere. So let's say that to solve global warming we drastically cut down on air pollution from cars, factories, and power plants. Seems straightforward, right? Well, that cuts down on atmospheric particulates, which increases the amount of solar energy reaching the earth and causes a net INCREASE in temperature.
So it's not entirely Pascal's wager -- we do have something we could lose by being wrong.
Whether or not you remember them, the dreams still caused a physical reaction in your brain. So if you spent your night dreaming about Guitar Hero, whether or not you remember the dream, you'll find yourself playing better the next day because you still practiced it by playing through the simulation in your head all night. Your brain believed it had a real experience because it sent the real signals to the various parts of your brain/body (the brain stem blocked any motor signals, but the brain itself doesn't know that). This is all true even if your short-term memory cannot recall it.
This article is pretty timely for me, as I've been reading Head Trip by Jeff Warren over break. It provides a very interesting take on the various states of consciousness, with an early emphasis on the different kinds of dreaming states we have. I highly recommend it for anybody who's interested in the topic.
If I was uncontrollably pulled by gravity across the street, I probably wouldn't look both ways. My time would be better spent thinking of happy things than "OH MY GOD I'M GOING TO DIE!!!"
Modded Troll? Clearly the mods didn't read the article -- this was the first thing I thought of, too. The first half-page sounds more like Iron Chef than an article about games.
Slashdot Mirror
Are you sure people aren't defined by their physical characteristics?
As a professional in my mid-twenties, I pay a large portion of my paycheck to social security benefits for an ever-increasing elderly population. While I understand that I have a civic duty to assist those in need, I often wonder if tomorrow's youth and government will be able and willing to help me in forty-some years when I need it. Do you believe that Social Security, in its current form, will be available for my generation, and if not, what specifically do you see wrong with it and how will you address it?
All the evidence these wackos need is the (R) after her name. That's when she became guilty to them -- despite the fact that these are often the same people who get up in arms about any trivial violation of privacy.
I ride a motorcycle to work every day in the name of fuel economy. When I changed jobs last and was no longer employed at the same place as my wife, I knew I needed a vehicle (we shared hers for a few years... it's amazing how well that works once you get over the initial bump).
Before long, I was looking at motorcycles. I had never ridden one, but I took the safety courses, got licensed, and purchased one all within a few weeks. I absolutely love it. Not only was the new bike cheaper than most used cars, my insurance is a measly $40/mo and I fill up my tank for about $9 every three or four weeks. My total transportation costs are negligible.
Fortunately, I live in a climate (southern California) where it's dry and warm enough to ride all year long. I also only have to travel a few miles each way using suburban roads (no highway). I feel as safe on my bike as I do driving a car... if not safer due to the added awareness and fewer distractions riding a motorcycle gives you.
(As a side note, my employer used to be about 12 miles away and recently moved much closer... had I known that was going to be the case, I would've simply gotten a bicycle, but alas... at least I can easily get around town for groceries and the like)
You certainly don't sound like one.
That's right, Mr. Claiming-To-Be-A-Liberal! How dare you say something critical of the party most closely identified with liberals! You better tow that party line if you want to hold onto that liberal card of yours!
Sheesh, some people just won't learn. I mean, for shame! He was critical of his own party!
As I mentioned in a post above, you can embed and link to a high quality YouTube video by appending &fmt=18 to the end of the URL. For example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op11TX0ELIg&fmt=18
And, of course, by speed I meant time to download. Doh.
The secret to YouTube is adding &fmt=18 at the end of the URL.
My fiance just put up her first professional music video, and the quality is pretty good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op11TX0ELIg&fmt=18. The benefits of ease-of-distribution, in my opinion, far outweigh the loss in quality.
Plus, as you hit the high levels of quality, you shut out more and more people as the speed increases.
Nice post. I'm so sick and tired of seeing your typical clueless idiot nerd-rage all over this site every time a slanted political summary shows its face. They're just a bunch of whiny children, as you rightly pointed out, just bitching to a safe audience (that's the important part... they only bitch to the ones that agree with the groupthink).
The GP is *exactly* the reason why we've become so complacent toward the atrocities that he himself is so upset over. I guarantee the full extent of his civil responsibility is crying on a website and maybe voting in a general election every four years for one of the two major parties.
Please, sir, leave the great state of Minnesota. Get out of this country if that's how you feel. Of course I know you never would because you love the comforts this great, yes I said great... not flawless, not perfect, but still great... country provides.
Put up, shut up, or make a difference.
Again, how's that weather out there? Here in normal land, it's actually not that bad. Both candidates have some strong points and weaknesses, but neither is worthy of the vitriol you're overflowing with.
All I did was point out that you threw out baseless insults. Calling him senile due to not knowing how many houses he owns is an insult. In fact, senile is an incredibly insensitive word -- certainly more full of bigotry than the Celebrity ad you seem so hellbent on bringing up (for the record, I never once saw that as racist... and I still have a hard time connecting the dots as you did.. I guess I need to read more Kos).
You can definitely call him out of touch for not answering that question, but it's not something that McCain is unique with. Calling him senile implies that he is incapable of remembering. I think any reasonable person understands that he is simply not involved in his personal real estate. That may have its own implications, but to call him senile is an inaccurate, and quite frankly offensive, insult.
Hopefully one day you'll realize that speaking as you did in this thread does more harm to your cause. Reasonable people get turned off by your tone. If you have an argument to make, do so eloquently and respectfully and you'll be taken seriously.
The not so subtle undertone to the 'celebrity' ad was 'black men want to rape white women'
Wow, man, how's the weather way out there in left field?
And, perhaps strictly-speaking, you didn't provide ad hominen attacks, but you certainly weren't short on personal insults. Here's a few words you used: senile, out of touch, slime merchants, pathetic broken shell of a man, elected out of sympathy, poor vet, sob, and blubber.
Try to show a little more respect for people, and perhaps you won't come off as a loony moonbat. All I heard from your posts was childish name-calling and one attempt at a supporting fact that was lost in hyperbole.
And doesn't your post (or rather the grandparent post) make the unjustified assumption that the wars, lost culture, lost history, and suffering would not have happened without religion? It also assumes that people who are evil with religion would not be so without. The far simpler explanation is that the evil aspects of religion are simply reflective of preexisting evil parts of people, rather than the other way around.
No, don't you get it? If you die in Canada, you die in real life!
http://www.xkcd.com/180/
"I bet most of the participants are making objective predictions."
Is that an emotional bet or an objective bet?
"The corrupt, stupid thug/bullies know as the police..."
???
Excuse me?? Yes, of course there are stupid police, thug police, and corrupt police. But you forget that the vast majority of police (at least in developed nations) are regular people with husbands, wives, children, and parents trying to keep your ungrateful ass safe. If you think the police are the thugs and bullies, then you're living in an awfully sheltered world where the most you have to worry about is getting caught driving on an expired registration.
Go live in a city where the crime lords and drug gangs run the place. Then you can come back and talk to us about thugs and bullies.
It was a single example of a very complicated system that we clearly don't understand.
Beside, I'm just telling you what I saw on Nova on PBS -- not some right-wing propaganda. The researcher who coined the term global dimming has been researching this for fifty years. With his research and experiments, he came to the conclusion that global dimming, as caused by particulates in the air, currently causes a decrease in temperature. This is bad because it's offsetting global warming caused by greenhouse gases -- that could in fact be much worse than we're estimating... say if our temperature is +2 right now, it could actually be +4 caused by greenhouse gases and -2 caused by global dimming. He's not advocating that we continue polluting the air -- what he's saying is we better be damn careful about how we go about it to make sure we do in fact lower the temperature.
Either way, the point is that it's very complicated and we don't understand it. Your example to me has the striking flaw that, yes, if more sunlight entered more would be able to escape... but since not 100% escapes, any more that enters would cause a net increase in energy trapped. If it never enters in the first place, we don't have to worry about it being trapped.
Problem is, if you don't understand the root cause and the system well enough, you could make things much worse. Ever solve a bug that seemed pretty straightforward only to cause major data corruption later down the line?
This isn't just an analogy. It has only been until recently that we've recognized global dimming as a real phenomenon that we've pretty much undoubtedly caused ourselves from all the particulates we spew into the atmosphere. So let's say that to solve global warming we drastically cut down on air pollution from cars, factories, and power plants. Seems straightforward, right? Well, that cuts down on atmospheric particulates, which increases the amount of solar energy reaching the earth and causes a net INCREASE in temperature.
So it's not entirely Pascal's wager -- we do have something we could lose by being wrong.
But at least your Gameboy doesn't wet the carpet.
"No! Bad! Bad Rock! We do that outside!"
"Neurons that fire together, wire together."
Whether or not you remember them, the dreams still caused a physical reaction in your brain. So if you spent your night dreaming about Guitar Hero, whether or not you remember the dream, you'll find yourself playing better the next day because you still practiced it by playing through the simulation in your head all night. Your brain believed it had a real experience because it sent the real signals to the various parts of your brain/body (the brain stem blocked any motor signals, but the brain itself doesn't know that). This is all true even if your short-term memory cannot recall it.
This article is pretty timely for me, as I've been reading Head Trip by Jeff Warren over break. It provides a very interesting take on the various states of consciousness, with an early emphasis on the different kinds of dreaming states we have. I highly recommend it for anybody who's interested in the topic.
"WHY CAN'T I TURN YOU ON!?!"
If I was uncontrollably pulled by gravity across the street, I probably wouldn't look both ways. My time would be better spent thinking of happy things than "OH MY GOD I'M GOING TO DIE!!!"
Modded Troll? Clearly the mods didn't read the article -- this was the first thing I thought of, too. The first half-page sounds more like Iron Chef than an article about games.
It's about time we caught those guys. http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/03/23
But the +1 means it can hit incorporeal creatures, right?
I'm sitting idly waiting for my parent post to welcome me so that I can pass it on to my children posts.