Sister Y
Some days are good days, some are not. Sometimes I take a contrary position because it interests me to do so. Sometimes I want people to refute a certain belief because it's something I'm worried about and sometimes I'm just cranky.

If I'm happy I don't say much because I don't really see the point. Mark and Cory post a lot of links to art that I really like. I rarely say anything about them because that just seems redundant to me.

You should agree with me more ya know, after all, I'm always right. ;)

"It is kinda quirky to read the phrase "playing God." Thus far, it has been impossible for a human to create something literally out of nothing."

Sadly, No.
Physicists Create Universe Smaller Than a Marble

Particles spontaneously pop into being all the time anyway. It's called the quantum flux, it's nothing special. We've also been making life (very simple proto cells) from non living amino acids and such for some time now.

You've go that backwards RacerX. When you bring children into this world you will suffer, for their own evil purposes.

"I think trying to pick apart the design of studies is a fun game."

Oh OK, that's fine. But so is being a grouchy contrarian. Which seems to be my forte. So... go with your strengths I say.

Vat raised meat isn't even food. Grass fed beef is superior to feedlot beef just as free range chickens are better than factory chickens. Better tasting and better for you. Vat grown meat will be even less flavorful and offer fewer nutrients than real food.

Eat only real food, mostly vegetables, and not so much. Never eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognized as food. It most likely isn't.

I'm sure that the scientists who conducted the studies are glad the Boingers are around to inform them how to properly design experimental protocols. "Doh! We completely forgot about a control group! And what is this strange thing you call RF interference?? Frankly, we were stumped until Boingboing comments showed us the way. Thanks BB!"

I'm pretty sure that the number of mentions in BB of "SteamPunk" is almost algorithmic from a year and a half ago too. Though I could be wrong, it might be a non-algorithmic curve ya know.

This is brilliant.

Dick Cheney on the other hand, does have a living leather jacket made from human flesh.

FEAR! FEAR! Run for your lives!

Pretty much everything Pipenta said I agree with.

I once got into an argument with a woman on Craig's list about Thomas Kinkade. She was going on and on about what a great artist he is and how we shouldn't criticize him because he is "the painter of light!!!". What really disgusted me was her constant complaint that we were persecuting her because she was a Christian (as if we were not) and that she was such a poor victim. Such a poor little white Christian persecuted minority. Not an exaggeration, she literally believed that.

"there can be no doubt that such art deeply impoverishes us as a society."

Perhaps, at least in America, society deserves to be impoverished. A shit culture deserves shit art. Very few things disgusted me more than the media's reaction to the murder of Jon Bennet. It really laid bare at least for me how sick our culture is. The media got off on her murder and pimped her better than any pedo could.

America loves shit. It's media and politicians serve up great steaming plates of shit to the American public and they just love it. They get out their spoons and gobble it up. They look up and they smile, shit oozes from their teeth and they lick those plates clean and beg for more shit. Well then give 'em what they want.

I must be odd because I think the impulse to shock is not an artistic impulse, it's political. I am certainly aware that there are art theorists who feel that shocking the bourgeoisie is what art should strive to do.

I don't buy it. I think that what happened is that people who wished to advance a political agenda saw that successful practicing artists produced works that at times shocked. They then convinced young artists that the route to greatness was the easy path of canning your own shit, putting it out on the gallery floor and selling it.

I think that what an artist produces is art. Even if it is shit on a stick. At the same time if some hack comes along and creates shit on a stick, it isn't art. I kind of think this fellow falls into the latter rather than the former category but I'll never know. I'm sure as hell not going to be seeing it.

Oh please. Hypersexualized female imagery from Coop? I never saw that coming. You know, there is probably someone still complaining about the BB hoodies. If you hurry you can still join in.

Wow, just wow.

It's hyperbole Kieran. Extravagant exaggeration meant to convey my frustration the Bush Mafia Family. I would never necklace anyone. My God, think of the carbon emissions!

CCTV cameras are not about crime prevention any more than torture is about collecting information. Their purpose is to terrorize the general population. To render you submissive while you are fitted for your chains.

"I trust my government to behave in a way that helps me."

Morons like you are usually the first to go when the crack down comes. And it will.

t's nc t s th sl flth t n frc stndng p fr bgtry nd rcsm.

The ANC set an important example"

Indeed, we could use some pointers. Tps n th fnr pnts f ncklcng trtrs r rgntly ndd.

Prostitution is not a victimless crime. Women do not chose to become prostitutes willingly. That should indicate ya'll got something wrong somewhere.

So far the arguments in favor of legalization have been of the "legalizing it will clean up the streets" type of reasoning. Which sort of misses the point of why we have laws.

Prostitution is the by-product of a culture that despises women and gives them second class citizenship at best. Change that, give women more economic power and choice in their lives on a par with men and you'll drastically reduce prostitution. I notice the same thing with male prostitution. It is always those on the bad end of the power dynamic that engage in it.

I think that if you made it so that women did not need to turn to prostitution in America you'd have some pretty sorry Republicans joansing for a fix. Reading Susannah Breslin's "John Diaries" it's clear to me that Johns create prostitution in order to salve their broken psyches.

That's sad I suppose but it also means that legalizing it will do nothing to address the central issue.

Always ready to be the apologist for empire huh Moon?

Tool.

Is there such a thing as prostitution in hunter gatherer cultures? I suspect not. If so then given that hunter gatherer is our natural state, I'd bet that the first prostitute went to work right after the first crop failure. Which would make it the second oldest profession, after farmer.

Eyes still wide shut.

People, people people. This is just business as usual.

Well, they are from somebody's future, not ours.

There may be a legitimate need for well trained emergency personnel but I see no reason for HS to be involved. I see no reason for Homeland Security to even exist frankly.

When I first saw this I read it as "Famous Monsters in Finland". I guess that would be a separate post.

Fascism, it's a growth industry!

Blackhole

Alex, what do I win?

ROSSINDETROIT, You are right, they look like Locust seed pods to me. Honey Locust pods are apparently edible while the Black Locust ones are toxic. They look very similar.

You could add some dried mushrooms for an accent. Or eat the 'shrooms and live inside the doll house. You could also get teeny tiny dolls and lop off their arms and legs and use them for coat racks inside. Then put the doll house under your full size doll arms and legs coat rack and place a doll's head lampshade next to them all for the trifecta. Win!100101!!

That is seriously creepy. Another thing you could do with the doll's head is make a lampshade out of it and put on your child's dresser. That should be good for twenty years of therapy right there.

I can't imagine Antinous. Why, that would be almost as narcissistic as writing about your self in your diary. ;)

Shouldn't be too hard to find a cat that looks like Mark or Xeni, David's gonna be tough to find though.

Homosexual seal? Is that like a GoodHousekeeping seal only with style?

Spoon, what on earth are you going on about? Apparently you want a different simulation, fine, build it and lets us all know how it goes. In the meantime, the Blind Watchmaker video by cdk007 is sufficent to refute the ID/creationst claim. If you wish to dispute that then do so.

Cripes!

Cripes!

Is that better? Fer cryin' out loud doanchaknow.

Michael, interesting hypothesis (wrong but interesting) but I think what you are actually detecting is a bit of trollish behavior on my part. Mea Culpa.

"this "chair" doesnt seem to be comfortable at all."

Again that's not the point. The point is to spend 6,000 dollars on something that's nearly useless but which is a signifier of your wealth and refined taste. The purpose of which is to elicit coos of envy among your friends.

"This whole designer furniture thing has gotten out of hand"

You're just jealous. Get your game on, get out there and get paid.

Your own acolytes aren't enough Takuan? Leave some table scraps for the lesser spirits.

Takuan?

"I should start selling these myself."

I think you're missing what is being sold here. It's the design idea that is really what this is about. And in this world being original trumps mindless copycats every time. It's a lot like haute couture ie bragging rights among people who don't need to worry about pragmatic realities. If you want to compete in that sphere then you need to create something truly original, unique, and in line with their current tastes in fashion.

Where's the "hit people who're dumb enough to buy this with a sledgehammer" model?

I see that once again we have people confusing high concept art & design with Ikea. I think it's brilliant and not at all practical and if I had that kind of money then yeah, I'd get one.

Get over yourselves. There are people who have more money than you'll ever dream of owning and they can afford things you will never be able to in multiple lifetimes at your current salary. Deal.

Some have trotted out the usual "evolution means I get to be a murderous sociopath" meme. It's true that those among us who pursue only their own narrow self interest and maybe this is adaptive in the short term. However altruism also exists and it is also adaptive only on a more long term scale.

A society composed entirely of individuals seeking only their own rational self interest would, I think, fall apart rather quickly. And one made exclusively of highly altruistic people would be easy pickings for a few ruthless sociopaths.

And so we have a mix of different strategies. Currently the sociopathic motherfuckers are on top, hopefully this too will change. I think we need to start thinking a little more long term.

Besides, isn't the view that society is composed of individuals seeking their rational self interest only precisely that promoted by the right? Why then give Ben Stein any support at all? If you are a consistent rightwinger shouldn't you denounce Ben Stein for his heresies and fully embrace your inner genocidal sociopath?

Here is how you get sensitive info past them. Create a new partition on your HD and move your private info to it. Delete the partition. At the border crossing co-operate with the border guard. If he does take a look there will be nothing suspicious to see. At home or in your hotel room use any standard disk utility to recover the deleted partition. Since you haven't saved any additional info on your machine it's very unlikely that you'll lose any data.

Another method would be to create a hidden partition using Norton Ghost or some other disk imaging utility. Back up your boot partition. Most people don't divide up their HD's into smaller partitions so I'm assuming that is true here too. Delete your sensitive information. Most disk imaging software will compress the data and give you the option to encrypt your back up. I'm sure the CPB could access this info if they wanted to but why would they? If you are so notorious that as soon as you try to cross the border they do a deep scan then you've got bigger problems than this. Again, once home simply recover your information using your preferred disk imager. I like Acronis, ymmv.

If it's really secret info that you must not get caught holding then you need to hire a mule.

Spoon
"It doesn't appear that new clock pieces ever evolve into different pieces (one of the major issues that they have from my limited reading of ID propaganda), the clocks seem to have been 'seeded' with pendulums, gears, springs, and hands"

Did you even watch the video spoon? He explains why he makes the choices that he does. The reason that the clock universe was seeded with gears and springs was because that is what clocks are made of. He pointedly does not attempt to demonstrate abiogenesis and says so in the video you.

"I'm sure if complexity (lots of it) was added to the program so that a gear was an incredibly complicated piece with a one in a billion chance of hundreds of the base pairs making a functional one (and all other chances making it horridly decremental) and with springs being another incredibly complex beast, and the hands also being complex, that the result would be the same but over a much longer period of time (or much faster with new methods of time keeping we haven't yet thought of!), but I'm looking for that added complexity :)"

This makes almost no sense at all. I have to wonder if you are putting us all on and really don't know what you are talking about. Gears aren't complicated, they are flat discs with teeth. Clock hands are thin rectangles. Same with springs.

There is no need to "add complexity". Indeed this shows that you don't understand what natural selection even is. cdk7000 has several videos, you should check them out. "How Evolution Causes an Increase in Information[complexity]" looks like it might answer that question.

Come on people. I know we can get this thread up to 300 comments too. If we just try.

Spoon
"how exactly does complexity arise in nature?"

Evolution IS a Blind Watchmaker

"In this video I deconstruct the broken watch straw man argument used by creationist / ID supporters to attack evolution."

"The basic premise of the argument is that a bunch of parts will never randomly assemble into the correct arrangement to form a properly functioning complex."

"Here I deconstruct their straw man argument. Basically, I simulate clocks as living organisms. Selective pressure is focused on their ability to accurately tell time. NO goal is imposed on the design (you can tell this because every simulation ends with a differently constructed clock). And it works. Clocks evolve through a series of transitional forms"

The program is written in MatLab and you can download the video as well as the program.

Clearly this is wonderful. Xeni saves boingboing from it's fark.com fate. Yea! I love the Q & A on Ebay too.

Q: "what informed your decision to mount the piece via spearing through the scrotum? Vicious statement on gender politics in the modern world?"

A: "Again, not sure of the reference to the genitalia. Although I have tackled those issues numerous times in some of my other work"

Q: "I can't tell but is the penis cashew circumsized or uncircumsized?"

A: "I don't understand why you bring up circumcision."

I've clearly got this art thing backwards.

Science is fundamentally amoral. Therefore, a person armed with only knowledge (science) and without morals would be a very dangerous person. Religious institutions lead by men without any moral center would also do terrible things, as they have.

There really is such a thing as moral/ethical thought and much of it does spring from spiritual traditions. Traditionally though science hasn't asked itself those kinds of questions. After the Manhattan Project people began wondering if that wasn't a mistake.

Trinity Broadcasting, that's one fucked up network. Especially that freak Jan Crouch.

It's pretty simple isn't it? Non-white = guilty.

These are quite beautiful. I never realize the Japanese did this level of realism that long ago. I've done a lot of anatomical drawings and I have to say that I like how in these the Japanese were so honest in depicting death. I like that better than the surreal nature of some western anatomical plates.

I used to draw quite a bit and often went into the Mayo Clinic's medical library to draw the real skeletons mounted and on display. They all had names, I always kept that in mind out of respect.

Can't I be grouchy once in a while? Scheesh. For my aperitif, mansinthe just might fit the bill.

Not wonderful and more evidence that BoingBoing is becoming Fark.com.

She should go with her first impulse.

Jesse M - thanks for expanding. My rant was already long enough. I don't really have a problem with the game so much as what it says about us. And Takuan as usual summed up everything I had to say in one or two sentences.

Paranoia the destraoyaaaaaaaa

dada dadum dee dadum

Reverse Cowgirl has been staring into the abyss too long.

"I was watching the video you can see for yourself here, and when the guy in the car with the commendable soul pole got what he wanted and then ran over the woman who gave it to him, you know what I did? I laughed. Because I thought it was funny."

You're sick then. No, seriously, that is a pathological response. You should probably seek out some professional help.

"this whole moronic outcry against what is nothing but an unabashed and unashamed articulation of Man's basest impulses run amok is nothing but hypocrisy. Here's a newsflash for you. This is the way people think. This is how things are. This is the way it is."

But it isn't how things should be. We should aspire to be better than our base impulses. Those of us who reject trash like this know full well that this is how the world is and we sure don't need to be lectured to by you. We are not content to wallow in filth. We want a better world for ourselves and for our children. This sure as hell ain't how we get there.

I repeat, this is not how we get there. This is not Buddha nature, this is not Christlike, this does not honor any religious, spiritual, humanistic, or philosophical tradition on the face of the earth now or in all of human history. This kind of filth represents the exact opposite and only serves to pull us all down into it's own cesspool of despair and degradation.

"here's a line from a letter I got from John 15: "My mom was nuts, and aside from the mental illness, loved her wine and valium... Sundays was a real carnival, and me being the eldest bore the brunt of her wrath." Oh, yeah--and, by the way, he's a state investigator."

"here's a line from a letter I got from John 30: "I would possibly seek companionship in this manner again, but honestly it was a frightening act of depravity fueled by a complete loss of morals related to my murder for hire status in the military."

And your point is what Susannah? Do you think we don't understand why people behave the way they do? I mean, really?

"The fact of the matter is that you cannot police the sexual fantasies of men. It isn't going to happen. You can't distill one man's desires into some reductionist understanding of 21st century America that posits women as the victims of men once again."

When I look at games like GTA and the boys who play them all I see are victims, the women and the men both. I don't believe games like this cause people to act out violently but I do think it is a giant red flag. A flag that says something is very wrong at a fundamental level.

"You can't continue to stick your head into the sand and refuse to believe that this isn't a part of how men really think and feel and fuck and want and love and hate and live. You just can't. To do so is insanity."

Because you know better huh? You know that this is how all men think and feel and fuck, right? Can we say confirmation bias? I think we can.

So what is your advice? It would appear from this rant of yours you feel society should simply accept that men are brutal rutting pigs and women are all whores. Is that the kind of life you'd like for your son or daughter? I sure don't.

No, you can't police the sexual fantasies of men or women. No one I know advocates that and certainly no feminists that I know do. You can however police behavior and I happen to think that is a good thing. It's sort one of the central ideas behind this thing we like to call civilization. Without some check on human behavior there would only be chaos.

So what should we do? Well, to begin with we instill some order in our society. Contrary to appearances we've had precious little of that recently. Oh I know, the right likes to pretend they are the law and order party, just like they like to pretend they stand for common decency and honor. We should all know by now what a lie that is.

We don't need this pretend order, we need the real thing. You know, where it doesn't matter who you know, or how much money you have, or what the color of your skin is, or what your gender or sexual orientation is that determines your guilt. We need the rule of law, which is the exact opposite of what we've been getting for the past eight years now.

Once we have established the rule of law then we can start to address the men you quote above. Those men are the true victims here. From that we set out to craft social policies that eliminate or reduce as much as possible the abusive home environments that created those men in the first place.

It may surprise you to learn that what I've sketched out above is something the majority of progressives and yes, even feminists, have been calling for for some time now. Which raises the question in my mind: "Who is this rant really addressed to?" Because it isn't us, your straw women bear little resemblance to anyone I know. So if not us, who is this really meant for? I think you know. I hope that someday, you'll be able to let that person know.

Spontaneous gorilla art installation piece?

Yeah, that's what bothers me about this project too Jeff. All I've seen are a couple of nice desktops by Greg Martin. It's beautiful work but that's all there is. Everything seems to revolve her, any videos I've seen only feature her, all she ever really talks about on her 'scrolls' is herself (or else she is guilt tripping people into donating). I've seen this scam before.

Is this real? It's been in concept stage for years.

I see that rule #34 is at work once again.

"Noen, I wouldn't have guessed you would respond like you seemingly have."

I don't have a problem with sex, I have a problem with sleaze. I don't know, maybe I over reacted, if I did I'm sorry about that.

I Boingboing becoming another shitty website that passes disgusting adolescent filth around? If so please let me know so I can delete you from my bookmarks.

No, I'm serious and I'd really like a reply. Is this the kind of filth I can expect from Boingboing Now? I'd like an answer please.

Tell us how the party was first Takuan.

Ayyyyyyyyy! Wassa madder? We're jest doin' bidness 'ere.

Takuan

Tenn, I don't really drink any more. Where I live I'm not permitted to keep alcohol in my apt. (it's part of my lease agreement and I don't mind anyway) I do however have to thank those who were worried last week when I disappeared for a bit. There were reasons for that. I'll shut up now.

Oh how I wish I could get this much attention from everyone, wow. Evidence is just leading you all on, you know that by now right?

ERA is partly correct in what he/she is saying or at least as far as I understand him to be saying. Epigenetic effects are quite real. The organism can and does switch certain genes on or off as it needs them. It is also true that heart disease and cancer were virtually unknown in some undeveloped countries. When they became wealthy and adopted a western diet their rates shot up.

The prevailing paradigm has been that genetic information flows in only one direction. The genotype rules all and determines what you will be. You are just a gametes way of making more gametes. This is no longer true but paradigms die a hard death.

Evidence
Think of every fossil you have seen. I would say the majority if not all of them fit the description "buried by sinking in mud, being buried in a sand storm, etc."

Sounds like a global flood to me.

Non sequitur. There was no global flood. We know that beyond a shadow of a doubt. Or do you seriously believe that every single continent was underwater and the whole earth was one ocean? If that is what you believe then your ignorance is truly massive and there is little point in arguing with you.

Lack of transitional fossils not fossils in general. Please tell me you understand what I am saying?

It isn't worth the time to discuss this with you because it appears you have made up your mind. There is nothing anyone could say that would convince you otherwise. There have been plenty of books written to explain all the questions you have asked but you either don't read them, can't understand them or have in other ways closed your mind. You are a Pastor and for you to change your mind on this issue would no doubt cost you your livelihood.

If you are really "serious and not playing" then read the books of those who have taken the time to answer your questions.

You're starting a new religion? Seems like it would be hard to really innovate in this field. Haven't all possible permutations been exhausted by now? Drugs, sex, power, money... they've all been throughly covered ad nauseam.

Tammy Fay? I saw her once when she was visiting her hubby in Minn. Tiny, tiny woman well over four feet tall I'd guess. Very nice too. I believe at the time her husband was seeing insect heads on the people around him. Must have been surrounded by Republicans. He's lucky they didn't eat him.

Jonesy needs another bottle of gin and a couple of bong hits 'till he can calm the fuck down, wow. Just hide the bottle in the toilet tank like everyone else and your mom will never find it. Plus you'll save water, win!110101!!

knifie_sp00nie
"Would that mean that whatever I wrote, wrong or right, has been more thought provoking or at least entertaining?"

Yes, that would be it. There was no animosity on my part. Hope you understand that I was just replying to someone who was WRONG on the internet. ;)

"Then I go maintain a household, maintain my body, and hope I have enough energy left over to do something more worthwhile than watch TV."

Meh... you have a body? Lucky you, all I have is this vat here and once in a while I can hear the bubbles as they gently massage my brain tissue. Bastard.

"I'm potentially just as good a writer or better than Cory Doctorow."

You are also potentially food for Cthulhu but I wouldn't go around saying that too loudly. He's bound to hear you and you could end up in a vat. You'll have to get one of your own, I've got no room in here for you.

Tom says:
"while there is a great deal of activity on the 'Net, there is very little cognitive activity."

Oh sure but how would us neurons know what the great hive mind is thinking? Oh wait... here comes another cascade.... hummm, maybe that was "hive mind can haz kitteh?"

"95% of everything is crap."

Should be changed to: 95% of everything is stuff I don't like. Since the universe only exists to serve me and my ego everything that I don't like but that you do is therefore crap.

On the other hand it is all one big time sink and I need to curtail the amount of time I spend surfing and do some productive stuff. Yeah, any day now I'll get to it.

#27 knifie_sp00nie

"Maybe we should spend some of that cognitive surplus trying to get over ourselves."

Indeed, you should take your own advice. I know that replying to something on BoingBoing by dripping it with cynicism is very tempting but it's no substitute for critical thought. I see this a lot here, BB posts something positive and then all the naysayers come out and piss all over it. It's tiresome.

"For every worthwhile blog post or discussion thread there's probably 50-100 inane posts about cat barf or flame wars."

You don't know that. (This is going to be a constant refrain of mine.) This is just your cynicism talking, it's your personal bias stepping in and inserting itself between you and your perceptions. True objectivity is very hard work because we all have our own personal agendas and biases. It is very easy for them to creep in and color our perceptions.

"And now you have this great sea of content and we have the same problem as TV- One thousand channels, maybe a dozen really good shows, and a whole lot of leftovers of varying quality. Then you add all the filtering mechanisms to only get the "good" content. You might as well be reading TV Guide."

This is just more of your pessimism creeping in. Have you seen the Battlestar Galactica wiki? Do you really think TV Guide even comes close? That's all fan content to BTW. In addition the internet is very unlike traditional media. It's searchable, it's customizable. It enables collaboration on a global scale. Even more, you can build intelligence into it.

I'm not saying, and I don't believe that Clay is saying that everyone will become content creators, but that many more will than would through traditional media. I don't know how old you are but I do remember when the only opinion or commentary available to me was through the local papers editorial pages or maybe the New Yorker. If I wanted to participate my only option was to write a letter to the editor.

There is no way I or most other people would want to return to that. I can barely listen to my local MPR station because... well, partly because they've been taken over by GOP filth but also because they don't really let me participate. All traditional media has this attitude where they are the holy priests who serve us unworthy masses our daily packet of official truth. That business model is dead and they know it.

ill lich - I think he is angling for a blind watch maker argument, it seems to be hovering in the back there. Though I can't think of any reason to continue, except out of shear boredom.

I don't paint with broad brushes, I do silver point. (Ok, not that much any more but I did try it for a while.)

Entropy is a known science. In simple terms the way I understand it it says . The universe is dying of heat loss and things left to themselves run down. (Correct me if this is wrong.)

This is correct, the second law of thermodynamics states that entropy, the amount of energy unavailable for work, tends to increase. Eventually all matter will decay, even protons.

Living things however actually increase entropy more than natural systems do.

Yet evolutions runs counter to this. Does not evolution say "Things left to themselves gain information and grow in complexity"?

Evolution doesn't say anything of the sort. Please don't confuse the second law with evolution. Evolution's only claim is that "species arise through descent with modification by means of natural selection" nothing more. Evolution doesn't even make any claims regarding the origin of life, only the origin of species.

Life is able to take advantage of available energy and to make use of it to increase complexity. Plants take the energy of the sun in the form of photons and are able to capture that energy and convert it into sugar through photosynthesis.

Why? No one knows. Science doesn't answer ultimate why questions. It only answers how questions. How do species arise? Through natural selection. How did life appear on Earth? We don't know for sure but we do know the oldest living things found so far are cyanobacteria fossils 3.4 billion years old. People have developed theories to explain this and they fit in with what we already know but we aren't totally sure yet.

I could take the population at the local Wal-mart at any given time, line them up from small to large and have more variation than these.

No, one could not. Just because you don't know something doesn't mean no one else does. Anatomy is well known and taught in every college. The differences between the skulls on the left and those on the right in that illustration are quite profound.

After millions of years of death shouldn’t we all hit one when we dig in the yard?

No, fossils only form under special circumstances.

Lining things up does not make it true. Lining up a spoon then a spork and then a fork is that science?

Yes, that is science. Much of what scientists do is systematically categorizing and organizing things. Conducting experiments and building models to explain what we find are very important too. But you can't have a theory if you don't know what exists in the world. That means someone has to go out, collect specimens and study them.

Would we not need DNA to show their relation to each other and that new information has been added?

No, we do not. One would have to be profoundly ignorant to believe that eating utensils were living things that reproduced or evolved. We know that a T. Rex fossil is related to other dinosaur fossils because we know that lizards reproduce sexually. They do not just magically appear out of nothing. If you wish to believe in magic that's fine, just don't call it science and don't force it on me.

"I guess I find problematic the idea of history and culture presented in Guns, Germs, and Steel--namely that culture is bounded and homogenous (is there a unified "American culture"?)"

It doesn't matter if our culture is strictly homogeneous or not. It is homogeneous enough that when it pushes up against an alien culture that it behaves in a consistent way. While I am sure there were some Conquistadors who were no where near as bloodthirsty and ruthless as most. In the end it didn't matter. The Aztecs were wiped off the map and their culture replaced by a foreign one.

It also doesn't matter that much to me if Jared is an anthropologist or not. I've never mistook his writing for science. He writes intelligently about interesting subjects. If there are places where academics might dispute a point here or there, well, so much the better. I don't have a problem with that.

It doesn't necessarily matter if there is a fire in the theater. The important thing is to not get crushed at the exits. Unless of course there really is a fire, and there is, in that case you have a choice, get crushed or burn alive. Pick one.

Knowledge is power. Is there enough food for everyone? What will the climate along the west coast eventually be? Will we be able to grow wheat? What are the chances that a category 4 hurricane will hit New York?

Those questions seem esoteric today but not too long ago simpler questions like: Is there a housing bubble? Should I sell my Bear Sterns stock? also seemed "silly". People who listened to the oh-so-reasonable advice of Cramer lost everything.

There's a storm coming. You can prepare or not, it's your choice.

Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World

"Many parts of America, long considered the breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable phenomenon: food rationing. Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks."

Call for global action to tackle food crisis

"The head of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) today called for global action to tackle the "silent tsunami" of the world food crisis.

Josette Sheeran, executive director of the WFP, said international action is needed to respond in the same way nations reacted to the boxing day tsunami in 2004. If nothing is done, 100 million people face being plunged into hunger, Sheeran warned."

Cowicide - Max Crumb is probably the better artist between the two and what he is doing is pretty traditional. I guess he'd be revered as a holy man in India but in the US he's a freak. Go figure.

Jimmy Justice is deliberately being a jerk. In fact I think his actions border on harassment. If he was really only concerned that the police follow the law then he would simply note the policewoman's badge and then report it. But he doesn't because he has an audience and a channel on YouTube so he escalates the situation.

The policewoman is of course wrong and so is the retired one. Sadly, for many terrorism = expanded police powers. That's wrong but it doesn't make Jimmy Justice's actions right either.

Maybe it's different here in Minn. because if I walk out my door I'm happy to see the police and I've never had problems with them.

"TSA swipes your stuff"

Infect your machine with a keylogger or whatever, that you control. TSA swipes your laptop. Later, you swipe the TSA thief's passwords or whatever other personal info he-she puts on it.

hmmm... is there anything so stupid that God could not do it?

Something has happened to PBS favorite "Charlie Rose."

PBS and NPR have been taken over by the howler monkeys from the right. They couldn't kill PBS outright so they just fill it with their shit. Like they do to everything.

Actually, you could just delete any sensitive files just before crossing the border and then undelete them after. Why go to the trouble of encrypting when all that does is put up a big sign that says "Please detain me for X hours"?

Or put everything on a thumbdrive and then hide that somewhere discretely. No, that would fail because hiding, again, says you have a reason to hide. Just delete the files off the thumbdrive and recover them later.

Or put the files on an extra SD disk (or whatever your camera uses) put a few pics on the disk but delete the files and recover them later.

WeightedCompanionCube, governments don't torture because there is any benefit, real or perceived. They torture in order to terrorize the greater population. Even in Latin America back in the 50's and 60's they knew that. Then, after a while torture develops it's own inertia and they torture because they torture. And of course there is the sexual aspect too. People can be taught to sexualize anything and guards are deliberately taught to get off on what they do.

Definately not a "wonderful thing".

Urea is urea isn't it? Why not human urine too? Then the cigarette companies could list all the pharmaceuticals as an added feature.

Imagine, we could build our cities out of our own shit and piss. What a wonderful world that would be.

It's almost like they want to undermine themselves. Is there a possible scenario where that makes any sense? I have a hard time believing they're this stupid.

Coward.

Looks like a picnic area to me. Come to Minnesota and I'll take you to the Boundary Waters. The mosquitoes are hatching as I type and they're hungry!

"I analyzed how LePine blamed feminism which is not the same as agreeing with him."

I didn't catch that, it really looked to me like you were justifying or making excuses. Sorry about leaping to that conclusion.

"I will admit that I have been abused. Are you telling me that I will do the same and I am only to blame? I have not done the same."

Nor have I, but there is an increased likely hood of continuing the cycle, so yes it's possible. My therapist would say that I suffer from ptsd, I suppose that is true though I can't see it. I am more... fragile... I guess. A little too short tempered sometimes, though I've been able to control that pretty well lately.

To understand LePine read Why They Kill or the book by the same author. I don't buy the brain damage BS, LePine made a choice. He knew what he was doing.

Asarian-host is a good resource for survivors. I know Mark, the sys admin and he genuinely cares. You can get free anonymous e-mail through them.

I understand that those who sat by and watched that horror play out were frightened. I don't blame them. On the other hand, just like with flight 93, if a few of these bits of human slime suddenly found themselves hanging from the nearest pole I bet there'd be a lot fewer cases like this. My guess is they respond well to direct incentives.

"Genetically distinct photoshop fetish discovered"

[citation needed]

I think that Moon is Moonbat (a former troll here) but I'm not sure. Regardless, s/he is clearly trolling.

#14 anangbhai
"she denounces capitalism and blames elitist cabals for most of the world's problems."

False. She denounces crony capitalism here and market capitalism elsewhere.

"Her husband got owned by Ayaan Hirsi Ali"

Hirsi Ali is a neocon.

"How about her fervent hatred for the free market while she herself uses capitalism and viral marketing to promote her own book?"

Criticizing the market economy does not equate to hatred of capitalism per se. Authoritarians often equate any criticism at all with "hate speech". I wonder if that is going on here?

"How about the contradiction in her statements that capitalism is forced upon people but there's nothing wrong with enlightened individuals like her imposing their beliefs on suffering nations?"

Naomi is not imposing her beliefs on anyone, she is promoting them. Again, authoritarians often do accuse those who merely promote their ideas with forcing those ideas on others. This is particularly true regarding homosexuality or, as in this case, any criticism at all of unrestrained market capitalism.

#29 desiredusername
"It's not easy to attempt to sympathize with a mass murderer"

But you're going to try.

"That in a nutshell I think is the problem that many men have with feminism as they have encountered it. Primarily suffering from violence but being accused of perpetrating it within simplified separatist feminist statements."

It is truly ugly to blame feminists for the Montreal Massacre. You disgust me. LePine was brutalized by his father and then as so often happens became an abuser himself. He is responsible, no one else.

Life changing books? Hummm... I'm not sure that any one book has been life changing for me. My introduction to PKD came too late to be truly life changing and I hated Dune, still do.

1. The Consequences of Pragmatism by Richard Rorty.

2. The Faith of a Heretic by Walter Kaufman.

3. The Laws of Form by G Spencer Brown.

I'm sure that if you ask nicely you'll get all your rights back. Or write a sternly worded letter. It's bound to work. You could vote too, you do have those don't you? I can't quite remember the last one but I'm sure you'll get another one, someday. Maybe if you beg? Put a little extra tongue in next time, I hear they like that.

"I think that violence is a failure strategy in the long run."

Seemed to work out pretty well in 1776.

I have to wonder if there is anyone left who would fight for freedom.

We have an administration that is far worse than Nixon's ever was. They have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. The war in Iraq and the soon to be nuclear war with Iran make Vietnam look like child's play.

Habeas is gone, privacy is gone, we torture, we spy on our own people and we have a "unitary" president who is just short of a dictator.

But people seem to think that if you just ask nicely despots and tyrants will just give your your freedom. I don't know, maybe we deserve what is about to happen to us. I do know that I have never loved my country more and appreciated the freedoms and rights I had than in the past few years under this petty tyrant. It is a gift you know, the gift of George Bush. I'm thankful for the privilege.

That Casa di Libri is pretty cool. Thanks.

"So maybe a line was crossed with this operation"

Sort of sums up the attitude of the past 8 years. A bit more than that perhaps. A crime may have been committed. It's illegal for the pentagon to do what they apparently did.

From the video:
Question: I'm an old intel guy and I can sum all of this up, unfortunately, with one word. The word is PsyOps. Now most people may hear that and they think oh my God, they're trying to brainwash --

Sec Rumsfeld: What are you some kind of a nut? You don't believe in the constitution? [Laughter].

Question: Well, he is. [Laughter].

Later Rumsfeld complains "Every time we try to do something someone says it's illegal or immoral."

Yeah, imagine that.

If you're interested take a look at HDRI news. That's where I saw the link to VRMag. The Tools page has a listing of commercial and open source software for HDRs, panos and others.

Ah.... obviously they are terrorists, that makes much more sense.

A related article on VRMag by Greg Downing.
Greg Downing shoots 270 Gigapixel Panoramas

That's 270 3-6 gigapixel images totalling 1.08 petapixels, not one single image that large.

"The post production requirement was substantial. We bought 36 terabytes of drives for RAIDs and backup, had 36 cores of CPU and upgraded the stitching farm network to gigabit Ethernet. In the field we used Karline Rodeon heads, 11" Vaio laptops, Canon 5D, 16 gig CF cards, with Epson 5000 digital wallets, and after seeing Ian Woods rig at the IVRPA conference we picked up a Zigview for buildings that had high parapets."

The Wiki Gods say the largest digital photo is of The Last Supper by HAL9000 at 16,118,035,591 pixels.

Could they just move an inch or two to get around the stupid law? I wish we had taco trucks in Minneapolis. Though we do have the Hispanic women selling Elote from grocery carts.

It's almost like you can't trust politicians and the media any more.

Trollin', trollin' trollin'
Keep those flamewars rollin'

Hey Doc, next time read the thread to find out if your rant has already been addressed or not. Kay?

Nonsense Pickles, you can't copyright "a bunch of ____ on a T-shirt". Besides, the Super 7 designs are of spaceships and monsters. The design isn't even close since the Super 7 T-shirts mirror the outlines horizontally. No design theft here. Chill.

Trolls take advantage of that sense of fairplay Coriander, then they run it and every discussion into the ground. You get bogged down in endless shifting semantic games, outright lies and a constant harangue of nutcase theories that make Ron Paul look sane.

Trolls are a bottomless pit of need. It isn't possible to have an honest discussion with them because they aren't looking for that.

Oh and for the lazy (I'm looking at you Takuan) here is the link to the architects for the above house.
Gianni Botsford Architects

"By coupling indigenous techniques and materials with modern design technologies and aesthetics GBA has created this intimate double pavilion for a writer in Costa Rica.

A main studio space, with library, writing desk and grand piano, is the writer’s daytime space. The pavilion’s wooden structure, sourced from local timber, sits on a simple foundation of wooden stilts on small concrete pad foundations. Roof beams of up to 10 m long and 355 mm deep allow for an interior with no vertical columns. The mono-pitched roof elevates towards the sea shore, while the interior is through ventilated via a completely louvred glazed end façade."

Budget $55,000

My oh my, Cory's going to have some serious book envy going on when he sees this.

Someone somewhere has constructed a house with books right? That would be rule 35? Hmmmm... what does the great Gazoogle have say... not much it seems but I did find this awesome wall of books, and a grand piano too! Cory has some work to do.

"Maybe it wasn't that what I said wasn't "on topic" so much as it was what I said that bothered you?"

Or maybe not. I know Antinous and Takuan. You I don't know. You appear to want to get into a discussion of contemporary politics and seem to be crying "Why can't we all get along?" This after the current administration, presumably your buddy, has taken a big steaming shit on the constitution. Crocodile tears Kevin, that's all they are.

Have you even read the book Kevin? What does pre-revolutionary schooling have to do with techno geeks. What does climate change have to do with anti-feminist hate mail? What does the fallergroggle have to do with a ferschnizzilator? We'd love to know.

trollin', trollin', trollin'
trollin', trollin', trollin'
trollin', trollin', trollin'
trollin', trollin', trollin'
Troll On!

trollin', trollin', trollin'
Though the post is swollen
Keep them flames a rollin'
Troll On!

Code Red and Cheetoos
fuel my libido
Wishin' my mom was by my side.
All the things I'm missin',
Outside of mom's basement,
Are waiting at the end of the line.

Troll 'em on, flame 'em out
Flame 'em out, troll 'em on
Troll 'em on, flame 'em out
Troll On!
Scam 'em out, reel 'em in
Reel 'em in, scam 'em out
Scam 'em out, reel 'em in
Troll On!

Keep flamein', flamein', flamein'
Though they're disapprovin'
Keep those flames a go-in
Troll on!
Don't try to understand 'em
Just flamebait and scam 'em
Soon we'll be living high and wide.
My hearts caculatin'
My true love will be waitin',
At an airport stall a waitin'
Wide stance!

I absolutely love this line:

"If your love for America were ice cream, what flavor would it be?"

Obsidian Wings is one of the great blogs, next to Crooked Timber and Orcinus. These are one, two and three in my must read lefty blog list. There are zero newspapers on that list.

"Public schools" as we understand them didn't exist in the 1700's. Until the 1840's education was for the wealthy only and varied locally. Free public education at the elementary level wasn't available for all children until the end of the 19th century. We owe a lot to Horace Mann. Jefferson believed that education should under the control of the government and free from religious bias. I like most of what he had to say but I doubt some people would really want that.

(this has been another episode of disjointed sentences smushed together into one paragraph in order to give the illusion of coherence. thank you for your time.)

Charlie Gibson is a useless tool.

ABC/Disney is run by foaming at the mouth Dominionists. These are the people that blamed 9-11 on Clinton. The same cult that Mike Huckabee belongs to. These people make Jerry Falwell look sane and rational.

#5 Nivalsj
You've got some hard life lessons ahead of you. I hope you're ready for that.

Cowicide - "A lot of trolls turn out to be conservative republicans"

Some of the personality traits do seem to co-inside with traditional trollish behavior. But I've met liberals who were just as narrow minded in their own ways. I'm liberal and I have trolled and flamebaited in my time. The gals at Feministing can be pretty harsh sometimes too.

Define "talent" Arkizzle. It seems circular to me and I suspect there is no such thing.

"If they have 18, you're right, they probably won't all survive. If they have two or three, they probably will."

Ah... but which two or three? People adopt r-selection when food is scarce and mortality high. It is a rational response under certain conditions. When they become more affluent and feel more secure (and well fed) they switch to K-selection.

Haiti is the poorest of the poor. They've never had much real control over their lives, the poor never do. I suspect that powerful forces want it that way.

My understanding is that the Chinese don't believe in this mystical notion of "talent". Perhaps that is true for many Asians, don't know. I tend to agree with them. There is no such thing.

It'll be interesting to see what these artists produce when left on their own. Hopefully this is a start.

"We should also refrain from having multiple offspring whilst living at starvation level existences."

One might think that, but then one would be wrong.

Reproductive Strategies

People seem quick to dismiss the article. It's almost as if they feel anxious and guilty. I wonder why that might be?

That's very sad.

"@ Noen: Not to piss on your problems, but that's not the question he asked."

Yes, thank you License Farm for being the biggest fucking ass you could be. I shared what I have. It's all I have, I have nothing else. I'm sorry it wasn't good enough for you.

"how many Boing Boing readers have relatives 107 or older?"

I don't have a family. After I transitioned my family disowned me. I haven't seen my children since 1995, I have a grand daughter that I have never seen and likely never will, none of my siblings nor my mother will speak one word to me. My maternal grandmother is still alive, I think, I don't know and have no way of finding out. The only member of my family that will even speak to me is my father. He is dying of cancer and I expect that I will never be told when he passes. Even if I were I would not be permitted to attend his funeral. My situation is not that unusual. Count your blessings.

They let you play with bears? Lucky. Humf.. we had to make our own bears and then put bacon around our necks to get them to play with us. Kids are so spoiled these days.

Of course if you run really fast you can lose your kids. Most adults can outrun a 4 year old. That's really handy sometimes. Especially up in the mountains, just ask Takuan.

Takuan, I have a better idea. A papercraft camera done to exact size. Carry it around and pretend to snap photos. Or use a real version of the same camera but carry a papercraft one on you. Produce the paper one when challenged.

I would write "text entered is correct" after session time out for the same effect.

Yes, Antinous, I am.

They can't possibly be this stupid. It simply isn't possible, I refuse to believe it.

Oh oh, someone is trying to break away from the carefully constructed cage we put them in. Time to amp up the fear level stat!

Fnarf, your slur against the dignity of monkeys cannot go unchallenged. Do you see monkeys master minding a candy store robbery with their zombified human owners? I think not. And there are plenty of human children shitting down the curtains, Gummo Bathtub.

Hmmmm, if I have time I'll make that into a flowchart or someone else may if they wish.

I recommend that boingboing require a commenter to preview their comment first before being permitted to post. That might help curb emotions a bit especially if there is a note that one should think first and reconsider what they have to say. Also, instead of sending people back to the original post, kick them to the front page automatically. Just a couple of suggestions.

How to comment on Boingboing:

1. Direct your browser to boingboing.net
2. Check the upper righthand side to see if you are logged in. If not this is the time to do so.
3. Select the post you wish to comment on and compose your witty, insightful or flame baiting comment now.
4. When you are done, select your entire comment and copy it to your clip board.
5. Click "preview", do not under any circumstance click "post".
6. If your post does not appear you probably need to login again because it's been three hours since you refreshed the page. Do this now and then paste the comment you have saved to your clipboard. You remembered to do that right?
7. Check your post for spelling or grammatical errors. This is also the time to reconsider calling Teresa a fascist pig, making fun of Cory because he enjoys steampunk or complaining about the Boingboing hoodies.
8. When you are satisfied click "post" now. If you are successful the system will offer to send you back to the original post. (If not hit the "back" button on your browser and try again.) Do not click that link if you wish to see your comment and admire your priceless contribution to humanity. It won't be there. Instead, go to either the Boingboing front page or some other site for a minute, then return to see your post and reassure to yourself that you still matter to the rest of the universe.
9. Repeat as needed.

Yeah, I wonder that same thing. It wouldn't surprise me if the older males were using them. The comments on the news site are pretty ugly. But ya know, I have to think a lot of crap like this isn't due to choices the society has made. Things like no health care for low income folk or the way our society simply has abandoned the developmentally disabled. They are simply left to fend for themselves and eventually end up in the legal system. There are too many mentally ill and disabled in our jails.

When will the left realize they are at war and adjust accordingly?

"This issue could have come out 4 years prior, but as soon as the movie is about to launch it releases."

Because there is an agenda. That agenda is to shape and direct mass opinion through all available media. This makes sense because we know that Bush41 has long had a goal of turning the US into a fascist state (this is public knowledge and BB reported it some time ago). If that is one's goal then what you do is you saturate mass media with the message you want. People en mass are easily controlled this way, it's been going on for a long time and it works very well.

I agree Jake, that error will probably be corrected soon enough anyway.

"this is what we English legal types refer to technically as "utter bollocks"."

Doesn't matter. All that matters is can you enforce it? I'm sure they'd be able to. This is also no doubt considered part of the US military's plan for total space dominance (at least, close to Earth).

I agree it is an interesting point, though I am still highly skeptical that transhumanism is "reality based". Still, the goal is to empower individuals and that is surely seen as a threat. As things are today you can't get good accurate information about things that really matter, like accurate health info.

Here is a simple fantasy that points this out. Imagine you had some nanites that were programed to monitor your health and correct a few simple diseases, synthesize meds as needed. You know, something plausible within the next generation or so. Problem is entire billion dollar industries would go poof over night.

You bet the transhumanist movement is a threat.

No no no Daemon, first you point out how much money you make, then you make a "donation" to the appropriate campaigns, the judge, the congressman ect. And finally you send the Milk Nymphos over for a "private screening". There has got to be a GOP Senator into that! Sheesh, get with the program, this is how government is done.

I have cred? Who knew? So where's my posse?

Not only does this government torture Vorple, George Bush signed off on it. We now have a memo, signed by Bush, approving torture. Memo Signed By Bush

Absolutely nothing will be done either. Though it wouldn't surprise me to see even Dems grandstanding over this porn bust. Something is deeply broken when we pursue stupid things like this but fully embrace torture.

That means digging them out of the boxes they're in, scanning and uploading. They also represent a time pre-homeless and are... strewn with emotional landmines. I've been fallow a long time.

Yeah I saw these the other day. They're ok, average but not outstanding. The drawings are a bit stiff if you ask me, but then I'm a little biased. I've done similar in the past though not directly pairing the news article with the subject.

Dominance displays aren't exactly the same as "sex". Though it does tell us a bit more about you Boreducator than perhaps we'd all like to know.

It's interesting WWEBoing, that the way you tell if you are on the right track or not depends on the reaction you get from liberals. It's almost like you look up to us. So I'll take that as a compliment.

Looks like he's in a row boat. The previous pic is of a fly fishing rod.

Funny how non traditional pratictioners always turn to real medicine in an emergency. Shouldn't he have allowed his morphic fields to spontateously re-generate his leg? Oh, yeah, he would have died otherwise, I forgot.

Risk: Class II
"This is a health hazard situation where there is a remote probability of adverse health consequences from the use of the product."

My guess is BSE. Remember, this administration thinks a little mercury or arsenic is ok. My further guess is that this admin has been allowing a lot more BSE into the food supply than we know. After all, if it will only affect poor people ten years from now it doesn't exist.

(Xodarap's claim: Something along the lines of logic being absolute.)

Nice to leave yourself some room for future equivocation.

Xodarap: You claim logic is just something we made up!

noen: No, I claim it is the language that we use to describe the world.

Xodarap: Is that true?

noen: What is truth? I think the word you're looking for is consistent. Is logic consistent? yes, it is. Is it contingent? Yes.

Xodarap: You reject the Law of the excluded Middle? Heresy!

noen: Yes, I reject it as axiomatic. That does not mean I accept it's negation however. Classical logic can be seen as a topos in which all topological sets are discrete spaces. But why should all domains be discrete? LEM should be abandoned since it is not unusual to consider continuous and discrete domains in other disciplines, why should mathematics be any different.

Xodarap: But my proof depends on the Law of the Excluded Middle. It is the essence of reductio ad absurdum.

noen: Indeed, tough luck there. Logic is just a tool created by humans. It's very powerful and allows us to achieve certain things but we should because so attached to one particular tool when there are better alternatives available.

Xodarap: But... but... you haven't made your case at all. You've proved nothing.

noen: Ok. Take the set 'D' to be a metric space and that the property 'P' is an open subset of 'D', 'notP' is the topological exterior of 'P' and 'U' is union. So is it true that P U notP covers all of D? It depends on P.

For example, let us suppose that 'D' is the set of Reals 'R' and that P = {x is an element of R; x is greater than 0} it follows that notP = {x is an element of R; x is less than 0}. Combining we get P U notP = R - {0}. However R - {0} does not equal R! The Law of the Excluded Middle is inoperative in this instance. On the other hand the set 'N' of Natural numbers has a discrete topology and in that case whatever P we choose it's exterior will cover N. Got all that?

Xodarap: No :(

noen: You will hun, you will.

McCain is just trying to get the Ron Paul vote.

Who is the artist that reproduces currency, then uses that currency at say a restaurant, then presents the record of the transaction as his art work? I'm forgetting his name but this reminds me of what he does.

Zikzak that's brilliant, I love it.

JGB - no, not trolling, just bitter sarcasm.

I don't know Tom, other people do not seem to share your optimism. Peter Watts does know a thing or two and his sense of growing alarm, no, strike that, his sense of despair is shared by many.

It's true that "hysterical responses won't increase our chances of survival" but it is a good start when there is an ocean liner bearing down on your little life raft. Your "everything is gonna be just fine if we wait it out" sort of glosses over the millions dying part.

Xodarap
"I may be an ass, but it is not by way of my expertise."

I think you underestimate yourself.

Huny. look. You are making an old mistake, one that was addressed long ago. You seem to think that logic is "Nature's own language". It isn't. That canard was refuted long ago and your childish little faux dialog does nothing for your case.

But by all means, prove the axiom of choice for me ok? For extra credit throw in the law of the excluded middle. I could use the laughs.

There is no reason to believe we won't eventually do this for every inch on the surface of the Earth. And then take it live. You'll be able to walk down the street and have detailed information on every object, man made or not, you encounter. The boundary between the real and the virtual will blur to where they are nearly inseparable from one another.

Of course, this will only be for the select few. The rest of us will be living in mud huts.

You can fetishize anything.

Well Karl, no therapist thinks that way or approaches his patients that way. "Sex addiction" like internet addiction is just the name we give to the behavior of those whose lives have become unmanagable because they masturbate 8 times a day every day or spend 16 hours a day online, every single day.

No decent therapist treats you by looking up your list of symptoms in the DSM and checking them off. It's very simple and people here have it backwards. A good therp finds out what parts of your life have become out of balance and then helps you get back to normal.

Over time the list of things in any single persons life that can be potentially out of balance grows to encompass most of the things that people do. But to then turn around and "See! they are being unscientific." is to miss the point.

Once again, don't blame the mark for falling for the con. And I reject the idea that Bush is some kind of bumbling fool, he isn't, he just plays one on TV. He has achieved all his objectives and then some.

Shouldn't we also be dropping the stupid label of "brain abnormalities"? A difference is not necessarily an abnormality.

Socrates was the first troll. ;)

This is still going on?

Why does every troll think his turds are the Gettysburg address?

dccarles - You are asking the wrong questions. In other words, you're framing your questions in such a way that it leads naturally to your desired result.

"The objection they are making is that biology, in this case, is destiny"

There is plenty of material in this thread, in the related thread as well as countless websites to help you understand. Please educate yourself.

"So the "biology determines your pronoun" crowd is barking up the wrong tree."

No, they are just being assholes. You can't call blacks ni**ers anymore so they have to pick on someone. The likes of unfunny et al, are hateful bigots and racists. They are trolls who do nothing more than troll, who seek nothing more than to flamebait and engage in endless rants, who's constantly shifting arguments never go beyond an atavistic hatred of the other.

They are filth.

I love Peter's rants:

Earth Hour
"Ninety percent of the world's charismatic megafauna is gone. Hormone disrupters are turning the fish off Lakeshore into hermaphrodites, if the tumors don't get them first. The Arctic is heading for ice-free status by 2030, the Wilkins Ice Shelf is a measly six kilometers away from disintegration, air pollution in this miserable dick-ass excuse for a country alone helps kill 16,000 people a year."

You've got to address the root of the problem: human psychology. We evolved in the moment, we evolved to recognize imminent and proximate threats: pestilence, predators, an alpha male coming at us with murder in his eyes. ...we never evolved to internalize graphs and columns of statistics. They may be real; they just don't feel that way.

So, you want to effect real change? You've got to make the threat matter to the ones who matter. You have to take the shit into their hallways until even they can smell it.

This is what you'd have to do: hunt down the Harpers and the Gordons and the Martins, the Roves and Cheneys, the Harrises and the Kleins and Bairds. ... Hunt down every pundit and commentator who, after years ridiculing the signposts, now shrugs and says Oh, well, I guess we fucked up the planet after all. Too late to fix it now, let's just adapt and make sure that economic growth doesn't drop below five percent... Take every family member who sided with any of them (most have); explain to them all the proximate nature of threat-perception in the human animal, and that you're going to motivate them only way you can.

Then kill half of them. Give the other half a year to fix things. Hold back their families in, as the publishers say, "reasonable amounts against returns".

That's probably what it would take to get these people to give a shit.

Sounds like a plan to me.

Because every despot needs mercenaries to his dirty work for him.

So the revolving toothbrush is cordless! Nothing ever changes does it?

All Xodarap has done Maddy, is prove that married bachelors are all gay. You'd think that was obvious.

The most well known Halocarbon is Dioxin, one of the most toxic substances known to man. There are plenty of others used in solvents, pesticides and so on. Trichloroethylene is extremely pervasive and carcinogenic.

Every living thing on Earth has some halocarbon in some form, PCBs, Dioxins, DDT, PFOAs, whatever, in their tissues.

"We have found on the bats we've examined so far, for instance, significant amounts of parasites."

Sounds familiar doesn't it?

"commercial beekeepers overwhelmingly believed that invertebrate pests (Varroa mites, honey bee tracheal mites, and/or small hive beetles) were the leading cause of colony mortality."

"A survey of beekeepers early in 2007 indicates that most hobbyist beekeepers believed that starvation was the leading cause of death in their colonies"

Just like the bats.

We spread poisons on the earth and then wonder why living things die.

Xodarap is a fool. It will be funny to watch his head explode when he discovers that logic is a human invention and not a feature of the universe.

Rep. Monique Davis is just grandstanding.

JGB
"something very far down the food chain is attacking the hosts above them."

Halocarbons are everywhere. But that's ok because industry can always bribe congress into looking the other way. After all, if you pass a law that says a substance is safe then it IS safe. That's called reality, right? Right?

Meico
"Maybe yours doesn't- which is why you would pass on such a silly meme... ;P"

Typical reaction from the wet pants crowd, just stick your fingers in your ears and go "lalalalalala I can't hear you! Lalalalalalala...." and all those icky thoughts will disappear.

The Mind Has No Firewall

"The human body, much like a computer, contains myriad data processors. They include, but are not limited to, the chemical-electrical activity of the brain, heart, and peripheral nervous system, the signals sent from the cortex region of the brain to other parts of our body, the tiny hair cells in the inner ear that process auditory signals, and the light-sensitive retina and cornea of the eye that process visual activity. We are on the threshold of an era in which these data processors of the human body may be manipulated or debilitated."

Opening Pandora's Box (562K PDF)

"In this paper I have asked whether innovations in wireless and neurotechnologies are not in danger of shifting human behaviour towards a psychocivilised society, where greater emphasis is placed upon forms of social control and pre-emptive strategies. What are the moral and ethical implications of using wireless scanning surveillance technologies for evaluating pre-emptive behaviour based on thoughts and intentions alone? Is this not a dangerous path towards psycho-terrorising the social public? As Thomas (1998) reminds us, the mind has no firewall, and is thus vulnerable to viruses, Trojan horses, and spam. It is also vulnerable to hackers, cyber-terrorists, and state surveillance. Whilst this may sound a little too far-out, they are reasonable questions to ask if technologies are racing ahead of us in order to better get into our heads."

Food for thought I should think.

The Mind Has No Firewall

Test, test, test.

Security cameras are reactionary. They don't really address the real problem of crime. If we saw to it that people of color had real hope that would be a big help. Universal health care, good public schools, really stopping drug abuse and putting an end to child abuse would all have far more positive effect than a few cameras.

Nick D
"No thanks. I'll pass."

So you would rather that government be less transparent and less accountable? Odd choice that.

"Why? Because someone might slip out from under the thumb of the corporate police state?"

I'm not advocating for that. I'm trying to go beyond the knee-jerk response typical of either the left or the right. Why? Because it's simply a fact that there is a greater need for security in densely populated are