rageahol

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• Commented on Heroes and sociopaths: behavioral twins?
  what lorq said. when you say "paper" i tend to think "peer-reviewed journal article." typically, the peer review system picks up little things like "their/there" misuse. this column was basically an argument from anecdote. incidentally, the writer of the column,...
• Commented on Viacom's top lawyer thinks lawsuits were "terrorism" - but he's learned nothing from the experience
  "Our movie industry will continue to get worse and worse--ten years from Saw XII and Harry Potter XXXVI will dominate the box office. Pretty soon, there will be no movies to steal in the first place. Same for the music...
• Commented on Snow Leopard ate my data
  "But then again, I got a Mac so I could stop worrying about stuff like that." Tell us more about what it feels like to be a toolbox. I am intrigued....
• Commented on Smart Bombs: Mark Dery, Steven Pinker on the Nature-Nurture Wars and the Politics of IQ
  "a deep thinker about linguistics and cognitive science who fishes where the two streams flow together" means that he cannot level the following criticism: "often from the academic left, he maintains, and typically from those in the humanities rather than...
• Commented on Jeff Bezos's Kindle apology: please tell us what the Kindle can do
  in the absence of observable behavior with which to evaluate the veracity of statements such as these, the words mean precisely fuck-all....
• Commented on Supreme Court declares strip search of 13-year-old student unconstitutional
  CONCERN TROLL IS CONCERNED :(...
• Commented on Exploring Your Own Backyard
  the two biggest pieces of technology that intermediate our children's interactions with the natural world are CARS and TELEVISION. all those other newfangled gadgets are problematic maybe, but start with the basics. drive less, bicycle more. turn off the tv....
• Commented on FBI terrorist interrogator on the uselessness of torture and the efficacy of cookies
  danmv: yes. you won this argument on the interwebs, and you are the dopest torture advocate that ever set finger to keyboard. you realize, of course, that claiming "theres a number of books on the subject, please read one or...
• Commented on FBI terrorist interrogator on the uselessness of torture and the efficacy of cookies
  danmv: i directed you to read something other than my own assertions. comment threads on a popular website are not well suited to scholarly arguments. if you need a starting point, i will recommend "Torture" by Edward Peters, http://www.amazon.com/Torture-Edward-Peters/dp/0812215990/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243726426&sr=1-1 as...
• Commented on FBI terrorist interrogator on the uselessness of torture and the efficacy of cookies
  anonymous @ 34: this also perfectly illustrates why the US imprisons more of its population than any other country, but also has a masssive recidivism problem....
• Commented on Young Conservative rappers explain Jesus, Ayn Rand, and ANWR drilling
  anachronismo: "@ #66 Rageahol: I'd rather grow up in foster care than never exist in the first place." that's a cute sentiment and all, but since children in the foster care system are at significantly increased risk for suicide attempts,...
• Commented on FBI terrorist interrogator on the uselessness of torture and the efficacy of cookies
  danmv @ 22: wrong. read some history. roman jurisprudence began to disallow testimony gained through coercive methods at the same time that those methods gained widespread adoption, specifically because it was known to be unreliable. evidence gained through the use...
• Commented on Young Conservative rappers explain Jesus, Ayn Rand, and ANWR drilling
  adoption is only "win-win-win" for the children that get adopted. the rest wind up in the foster care system. go have a look sometime at the adoption rate of minority children in the foster care system. go take a tour...
• Commented on FBI terrorist interrogator on the uselessness of torture and the efficacy of cookies
  confessions that result from coercive interrogations (i.e. torture) have been known to be unreliable (at best) at least as far back as the Roman Empire. let's apply the same underlying logic to medicine. if you know that, statistically, the chances...
• Commented on Greed is an Excuse, Not an Instinct
  thanks for posting this, i might just read the book now, assuming i can get it at the library. another book, orthoganal to but in regards to the happiness/basic needs issue, is "the health of nations" by kennedy and..Kawashi(?) upshot:...
• Commented on Review: A month with Ooma, the lifetime free VoIP system
  "lifetime service" ever heard of replayTV?...
• Commented on How to guilt trip software pirates
  #89 eicos: perhaps we're getting too meta here, but if someone, whether deliberately or out of ignorance, relies inordinately on a rhetorical fallacy like, in this case, appeal to tradition, then i'm perfectly fine having a bit of fun at...
• Commented on How to guilt trip software pirates
  ceronomus: you are the one relying on the axiom that copyright infringement is theft. you are the one "sticking your fingers in your ears" and relying on a definition rather than exploring the ways in which that definition is possibly...
• Commented on How to guilt trip software pirates
  like i said before: people who equate copyright infringement with theft are generally assholes....
• Commented on How to guilt trip software pirates
  i'd like to point out that criminalization of a widespread practice, like recreational drug use, sodomy, or filesharing, is an invitation to selevtive enforcement and thus, oppression of disliked minorities. law is not monolithic, but evolves in response to changing...
• Commented on How to guilt trip software pirates
  @joel: i dont make the argument in lieu of paying for software, unless "avoiding pay software entirely" qualifies. you might want to have that knee of yours checked out, it's jerking pretty fiercely....
• Commented on How to guilt trip software pirates
  @3 agies: i dunno. how about "hey, please donate!" instead of "U R A THEEF!" @4 chrisos: people who call copyright infringement "theft" are generally assholes....
• Commented on How to guilt trip software pirates
  waaaaah we cant be arsed to find a new business model, so we're going to whine at you, the end user, for being broke or lazy. this is why i became a linux nerd....
• Commented on Charles Platt on life in prison
  dequeued: punishment doesnt really seem to be working. in fact, behavioral science makes a pretty solid case that punishment is probably the worst way to modify someone's behavior. no, really. go look it up. i'll wait. if you can set...
• Commented on Where money comes from: fractional reserve and debts
  ZOMG! RON PAUL 2008!...
• Commented on Lawrence Lessig on McCain and the Keating Five scandal
  can we comment on Palin's connection to the treasanous (as defined in the constitution) Alaskan secessionist movement, of which there is plenty of documentary proof? how about her demonstrated connection to John Bircher Society nutballs? are those fair game?...
• Commented on Audiophile Releases of Classic Rock Albums: Get 'Em While You Can
  or you could also, you know, just download them. lots of people post SACD _lossless_encoded_ disc images on the n**sg***ps...
• Commented on Palin's Yahoo email account hacked, contents posted to Wikileaks
  the invasion of privacy argument is completely, 100% irrelevant. mrs. palin decided to consolidate her personal dealings and the dealings she did on the taxpayer dime. it should be pointed out that this is against the law, and that the...
• Commented on LOL Street: open thread on Lehman/Merrill/AIG/Dow/Fed/FUD/OMG/WTF
  t3knomanser #45: then why are developed nations, the ones with the highest levels of assurance of caloric intake and housing, the ones with generally lower birth rates? caloric intake and shelter for all would suggest that norway's birth rate should...
• Commented on LOL Street: open thread on Lehman/Merrill/AIG/Dow/Fed/FUD/OMG/WTF
  my retirement account is with AIG. am i screwed, or is this insured somehow?...