Happy anniversary! Today marks year number 4 since you first became a Sifter and the community is better for having you. Thanks for your contributions!

Happy anniversary! Today marks year number 3 since you first became a Sifter and the community is better for having you. Thanks for your contributions!

That's right there is a lobby. They spend about $200,000 per year but typically less than that. They sure get their money's worth! It's not the mint but a factory in Greeneville, TN that makes the penny blanks. This factory generates pure profits of $1,000,000 per month but typically more. It is owned by a shadowy NY financial institution and protected by the steel worker's union for good measure. Fact: the penny is here to stay. Forever.

In reply to this comment by Ariane:
>> ^TheFreak:

There's no mention in this video of why the penny hasn't been abolished. There must be some lobby or special interest that benefits from this and prevents the mint from doing anything about it. It can't be as simple as merely doing away with the coin.

Actually there is a mention, when he said that pennies today are produced with 95% Zinc.

You guessed it. The Zinc producers of America are the principle force lobbying congress to continue to produce pennies. They even have a website: http://www.pennies.org/

Haha, interesting. Of course you realize, I must assume that because you admit you are a lazy programmer, this might not even be a comment by you, it might be some sort of sophisticated videosifting AI. (Not the lame kind like siftbot...)

I submit exhibit A: (a quote from your program.) "You: do you video sift?
Ariane: Yes I try to video sift as often as possible, do you?"

In reply to this comment by Ariane:
In reply to this comment by Peroxide:
I for one, would like to hear from a programmer who know the more intimate details of cleverbot's program.

For instance, the male lies calling himself a unicorn, and the female challenges his fib. Why? Are they programed to make minor mistakes/ not be entirely logical? What is the philosophy behind their programming...


As someone who has programmed a chatbot (not cleverbot, but one based on ALICE, mine can be found here) I can answer that for you.

The philosophy behind their programming is that it would take years of complicated programming to make them sound even remotely logical, and we are way too lazy to do that much work.

Happy anniversary! Today marks year number 2 since you first became a Sifter and the community is better for having you. Thanks for your contributions!

Congratulations! Your comment has just received enough votes from the community to earn you 1 Power Point. Thank you for your quality contribution to VideoSift.

This is a great response. Good on ya.

In reply to this comment by Ariane:
I consider myself an Atheist simply because of the fact that I am not a theist.

A theist cannot simply be someone who believes in God, because there are so many levels to the God question. I decided to take a pragmatical approach and ask "Does it matter if God exists?"

When you restate the question that way, most all speculative philosophies all end up on the NO side. If you believe there is an intelligence at work in the universe (pantheism), you probably will conclude that this intelligence is so foreign to human existence that this "intelligence" plays no role whatsoever in human lives. If you take the Buddhist approach and say "Everything is God", then there is no separate entity controlling existence.

Ultimately, the only philosophy where God really matters, is Anthropomorphic Theism = God is a separate entity with human characteristics that watches over us and cares what we say and do.

Conclusion: If you believe in an Anthropomorphic God, you are a theist. If your idea of God is anything else, it is for all intents and purposes the same as not believing in God at all.

I have a love of science. Understanding the true nature of the world around me fills me with awe and wonder. There are many mysteries to existence, some so difficult we humans may not be capable of answering them, yet we thinking humans are still driven to find those answers, while the unthinking ones are content with slapping the label "God" on it and calling it a day.