However, the entire idea is predicated on the idea that you have a right to pollute to the extent that you can pay for it, which effectively turns pollution into a privilege of the wealthy.

THANK YOU.

Does Al Gore's electric bill make a bit more sense, now?

#4-

I wonder what retro hipsters are going to do for material in 40 years? It's not like they're going to be able to go to a flea market and score a shoebox full of old LOLcats...

#15-

I don't know how you could tell the difference sabotage and run of the mill screw ups though...

All your fighters fall out of the sky, your ships sink, your missiles explode in their silos, and then the entire Chinese army comes pouring out of the ground using tunnels they've dug through the center of the earth.

That's how you'll know.

I...uh...

man.

Looks a bit like my Tokyo Flash Retrofit

http://ledwatchstop.com/store/images/retrofit_gb1.jpg

I guess that's what they meant when they said "inspired by" watches of the past.

Artificial sunspot cycle! Wheee!

#1-

Futurama. "Amazon Women in the Mood."

#26-

That's because the Dutch fish banana walrus stethoscope.

#13-

You weren't there, man! You don't know.

The wind in the shaft...the echoes...I can still hear the echoes...

#33-

I didn't say anything about promoting any particular value. Unless you're suggesting that the universal cultural tendency to promote some values and demote others is something we should avoid in general, I'm not following you.

All I meant was that the concept of cultures being defined by a hierarchy of values (from sacred to profane, basically) wasn't exactly an earth-shattering concept, as #31 seemed to be implying.

#34-

You can't possibly be serious.

#31-

Name one single culture in the entirety of human history that did not promote its core values (the "sacred") and denigrate certain things as unacceptable (the "taboo").

This is not a blockbuster proposition. It's so trivial that it's nearly tautological.

Utter nonsense.

Now, if the aircraft on 9/11 had managed to breach the inner wall of the Pentagon, thus releasing the demon imprisoned within, we'd be in some serious trouble.

#7-

So...you're calling "Shopped?" :-\

Also: subject-verb agreement is super keen!

#40:

Let me put it this way. The first and second comments in this thread has it exactly right. But the attitude Cory expressed apparently blinded him to the reality of the science presented by both Svensmark and Lancaster University, so he put up a headline that had nothing whatsoever to do with the research in question. Bluntly associating Svensmark's research with "deniers" instead of simply treating it as a piece of research that's been contradicted by further research cheapens and obfuscates the entire scientific process.

Non-scientists with poor understanding of the mechanics involved will jump all over the fact that global mean temperatures haven't risen since 1998, but that doesn't mean that this research isn't worth exploring further. Neither does the fact that people will no doubt misinterpret and abuse Miklós Zágoni's research.

The point is that a language of orthodoxy--which is exactly what "denialist" is--does not foster free debate. It is a language of suppression.

You may think that the word "moron" has a place in serious debate about important issues, but I don't. If such people are "not party" to the scientific debate...then why keep bringing them up with such casual frequency?

I'm impressed with the quality of most of the commentary here...particularly the immediate exposure of the religious nature of "denialism" and orthodoxy. There's a tendency that's repeatedly bugged me about certain BB posters over the years: on some issues it's all about rationality, reasoned debate, and science, until someone comes up with a counterpoint. At that point, emotionalism and name-calling kick in, and this hypocrisy, if noted at all, is defended as irony or Abbie Hoffmanesque japery.

Anyway.

I really just dropped by to issue a call for a massive, reckless geoengineering project. That'll fix everything. Yay Greg Benford! Or Monty Burns, your choice.

Ted Turner knows as much about climate change as Jane Fonda knows about geopolitics.

Foam at the mouth and fall over backwards. Is he foaming at the mouth to fall over backwards or falling over backwards to foam at the mouth. Tonight 'Spectrum' examines the whole question of frothing and falling, coughing and calling, screaming and bawling, walling and stalling, galling and mauling, palling and hauling, trawling and squalling and zalling. Zalling? Is there a word zalling? If there is what does it mean...if there isn't what does it mean? Perhaps both. Maybe neither. What do I mean by the word mean? What do I mean by the word word, what do I mean by what do I mean, what do I mean by do, and what do I do by mean? What do I do by do by do and what do I do by wasting your time like this? Goodnight.

This sort of thing happens at every financial institution. Everywhere. All the time.

I wrote technical documentation for a major insurance company, and one of the products I documented was the actuarial software used by account managers to make a "go/no go" on policy issuance. It involved complicated actuarial models, with mathematics that would've looked quite at home on any physicist's blackboard. I had to dig into the program at the formula level, with the assistance of the actuary who developed the mathematics.

Basically, the account manager plugs in a bunch of numbers, the program crunches them, and spits out a result that determines whether the policy is worth the risk. Along the way, the program populates various fields with intermediate results.

One day, while working with the actuary on the documentation, I noted that most of these intermediate results could be changed manually by the account manager, who, incidentally, received a commission on policy sales. This meant that if the program produced a "no go" result, the account manager could tweak the numbers here and there at his discretion until he got a "go" result. I looked at the actuary and said, "So...basically, you guys are just making this shit up?"

"Pretty much, yeah," he said.

I remembered that conversation a couple of years later, when the company was in the midst of an SEC investigation. Insurance companies are required to keep a certain amount of cash in reserve to cover potential payouts...and the company was suddenly $500 million short. Seems they had spent most of the late 90s issuing policies that were bad risks, and then floated those losses using a complicated scheme I couldn't even begin to understand.

Heads rolled, golden parachutes were deployed, and the company was absorbed into its European parent. I'm not at all surprised that Chase has techniques for gaming its own software. It'll bite them in the ass, there will be a flurry of righteous activity during which no one in authority will suffer any real or lasting consequences, and then in a few years the whole thing will start all over again.

Wheee! High finance!

Aerosolized versions will be deployed in certain clubs to make everyone sad and go home...

Oink.

#20-

Do you have any elderly members in your family with mobility issues? Or wheelchair-bound?

Try not to let your anti-military prejudice turn into technological myopia. Big Dog's potential civilian applications are astounding.

Am I missing something? "Peepzilla, King of All Marshmallows" doesn't seem to contain any...you know, Peeps.

I would like to see that in the middle of a black-tie gala...without the box around it.

Ah, good. No need to comment at all then.

Two words: personal autogyro.

I know my life's gotten a hell of a lot easier since I got mine.

I've read a bunch of his stuff, of course...but for some reason, "A Fall of Moondust" always stuck with me.

A moonbus (as seen, later, in 2001) sinks into lunar dust at the bottom of a crater. People are trapped on board. They have to figure out how to escape. Done. Just a simple tale, girded with accurate science plus a healthy dose of speculation. But I can still remember specific moments in the story, as though I'd seen it in a movie.

Only Bradbury's left, now. Fortunately, I got to meet him last year...

All, right, fine. I really didn't want to have to do this, because it's not like I don't have a job and a life, but whatever.

I'll count the fucking votes. Just FedEx them, I'll have them back in a week.

I swear, Union County can't do a goddamn thing for itself. Had do to its geometry homework all through 10th grade, too.

*ahem*

Ha-Haaa! Penis straw.

/Thank you.

Damn! I wish I'd known that was on the market.

I need a place for my cult.

#4-

Let me see your hands.

Boycott the Olympics? Hell no!

The country is going to be filled with the world's media and hundreds of thousands of spectators bearing all sorts of gadgety goodness. There's no way that the the Games are not going to expose all sorts of totalitarian nonsense. Watching the Government try to cover it up is going to be more entertaining than watching the athletes wheeze and compete!

#3-

Wow. I have absolutely no idea, and little interest in the answer other than really wanting to see if someone in this thread will actually have the answer.

I'd hit...half of them.

That's fantastasmdfv skl m c//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Folks who are interested in ravens, what they can do, and how they're studied, should check out Bernd Heinrich's Ravens In Winter.

Yeah, but will it play Crysis?

#9-
"Yes you're right, but this thing is not natural. The human parts, organs, cells, whatever, are "injected" intentionally to the rice. It's just......well, different, at least to me."

It seems like you're afraid of something about which you know very little. "Human parts, organs, cells, whatever?" "Injected?" Come on. Ignorance of the science involved is what fuels the fear-mongering "Frankenfood" movement.

You might feel better about it if you found out what's actually involved. Or, you might feel worse. But at least you'll have something more substantial to base your acceptance or rejection on than the equivalent of a gap-toothed, "That thar ain't natural!"

I used to argue on the Internet.

Now I just make random posts that have nothing to do with anything else in the thread, solely for my own amusement.

This one isn't funny, though.

We do not forgive. We do not forget.

Whoops...

Yeah, I was all over Radio Clyde...but not for 40 quatloos.

Just change the band name to Yoko's Twat and move on.

i got those once. once. the fries, they were a pristine example of Sog.

put me off them forever, i think, which is probably just as well.

#73-

And in Genoa, 'tis now the fashion to pin a live frog to the shoulder braid, stand on a bucket, and go "bibble" at passers-by.

www.pinkpistols.org

Local news is, without fail, witless and inane. This particular brand of witless inanity is just a reflection of the station management's view of the local market.

For example: here in Santa Barbara, local news thinks we're all afraid of a) fire c) mudslides and c) teenage Mexican hooligans. So each newscast typically starts with a story about a fire, an earthy deluge, or a stabbing, or, if none of those things has happened, a teaser about The New Danger: Teenage Self-Combusting Mexican Mud Thugs! But first, local traffic and weather.

So, in this Mississippi town, the Channel 3 managerial perception is that the populace is a'feared of the fake penises with their buzzing and their heathen promises of moist penetration.

*cough*

#5: Eliminate money, move to a subsistence economy, and that structure will return very quickly. (In my opinion, of course..)

Yeah. Never mind the corpses, they'll rot eventually.

I tanked last year at 35.

If that wasn't tanking...well, then, I'm taking some of you with me, goddammit.

Well, at least we know there won't be a standoff that ends in a gun battle as one man defends his home against the tyranny of the state.

Or, at least it didn't, until you said that...that word...

Forcible nun sex and canine neural snacking?

Makes sense to me.

Hillary '08!

I hope he cho-wait, what? Who are you people, and how did you make me want to type that?

#5: Yes, "The Government" stole the election. Way to go.

#6: So what? They didn't make the woman sitting next to Mr. Fazel ignorant, did they?

#7: So...if I choose not to suffer the company of fools, I'm uncivilized? I don't think do.

I'm disturbed by the idea that a government's role is to improve people. Where, exactly, are you going to find the paragons of virtue needed to run such a government? Who gets to decide what a "failing" is?

#3-

Why is the gov't responsible for the idiocy of the citizenry?

I've been skipping the middleman for about four months now, and living directly of of one quart per week of Mobil 1 Extended Performance 10W-30.

So far so good!

#19:

"IWood: 'I wonder if Mr. Allen believes in the bearded sky man as well? That requires the same quality of reasoning.'

Whether the gentlemen in question are reliable witnesses or not, this is probably the worst example of atheistic non-sequitor threadjacking I've seen in ages."

You might want to get out more. The common thread is the drawing of overly complicated certainties from simplistic and vague observations. Extraordinary claim, extraordinary proof, etc.

Observation: Separate lights spanning about a mile by half mile wide that reconfigure themselves.

Conclusion: A single, giant, invisible ship that can change shape.

I wonder if Mr. Allen believes in the bearded sky man as well? That requires the same quality of reasoning.

Ah, yes. Those pesky "internet bloggers."

Hey, Cow-

You know how Kirk found this post? Because I went to Jalopyjournal, joined, and sent him a PM asking him about the tats. Turns out they weren't his hands and, frankly, I didn't care enough to pursue the guy whose hands they were, and it wouldn't have been appropriate to demand that Kirk put me in touch with the man. But if I did get in touch with him, I would've done it the same way: in private, with no one involved but me and him. And I would've come back here afterwards, so that concerned citizens such as yourself could know what the deal was.

So, if you're "the same way in RL," should I assume that you speak loudly, publicly, and at great length about your convictions in familiar, friendly places?

Tat-boy might be a nazi. Kirk might be a homophobe. But you? You're a Pharisee, loudly and repeatedly proclaiming your own worth on the street corner so that everyone can see you while you righteously point out the sins of others.

Good for you! You think in the Approved Fashion, and now everyone knows it.

BB has the reputation of being a place populated by intelligent folks. So, maybe someone can help me out: there's a word for someone who assumes that something is true without doing everything they can to confirm or deny it...what is that word...fundamentalist? Dogmatic? Nah, that's not quite it. It'll come to me.

Anyway: if you're so sure about it, and so outraged, why don't you do what I did? Seek Kirk out. See if he'll put you in touch with his laceworking buddy. Then, by gum, you denounce that Nazi fucker! You can even blog about it afterwards.

Or are you just a wishy-washy pussy?

This is going to look amazing when it's unveiled...

And, #3:

Wow. I wish I could tell everything I need to know about a person just by looking at an old tattoo on the back of their hand. Convenience plus!

I agree. Verisimilitude demands it.

Although, honestly? The idea that an entire civilization on the other side of the galaxy decided to adopt the inefficient standard of cutting the corners off of all its paper is about as laughable as the idea that it also produced someone who just happened to write "All Along The Watchtower."

Sometimes a fist is just a fist.

And, hey: somebody make the tangential point that potable water is far more important than a free laptop to a child who doesn't have access to it.

Never mind, I'll do it.

#3-

Yeah, let's punish individual consumers for corporate malfeasance.

The first and only time I downloaded a digital version of a physical book from Amazon (D. Wegner's "White Bears and Other Unwanted Thoughts"), the file was crippled: it only let me print out one page at a time. I had already *ordered* the physical book, but I wanted to start it immediately. I thought I'd print out a chapter or two to tote around with me until the book came. Silly me.

I wrote Amazon and told that the file was useless to me. They refunded my purchase almost immediately. It was only $3.99, but still: I bought the damn thing, and wanted to be able to do what I wanted with the data I purchased.

Still, I suppose it's for the best. There is a vast black market for counterfeit psychology texts. I could've printed the whole book out, made photocopies, and sold thousands of copies of it.

Yay! I can share with myself!

I used to collect vintage oscilloscopes. At one point, through random knob tweaking, I was able to get my monstrous 1939 Dumont scope to display a rotating wireframe cylinder. I'm sure that this was partially due to the increasing flakiness of its components, but I was still impressed by it. So yeah, I'll call this legit.

Tyrell: Is this to be an empathy test? Capillary dilation of the so-called blush response? Fluctuation of the pupil? Involuntary dilation of the iris?

Deckard: We call it Voight-Kampff for short.