>> ^Hive13:

I'm sorry, but football is becoming a stupid joke. What a stupid fucking rule. Let him celebrate and talk shit. It is football FFS.
Are you afraid your little footieball players are going to get their feelings hurt by his outstretched arms?


Agreed. Hell I'll take it a step further. I'm no longer watching College football until this rule is eliminated. Fuck You NCAA!

I love Metric, Fantasies was a great album. Hurry up and finish your next!

>> ^Trancecoach:

The Top 1% also pays nearly 40% of the Federal Income Tax
>> ^ghark:
Some interesting facts about the top 1%:
The Top 1 Percent Of Americans Owns 40 Percent Of The Nation’s Wealth
The Top 1 Percent Of Americans Take Home 24 Percent Of National Income
The Top 1 Percent Of Americans Own Half Of The Country’s Stocks, Bonds, And Mutual Funds
The Top 1 Percent Of Americans Have Only 5 Percent Of The Nation’s Personal Debt
The Top 1 Percent Are Taking In More Of The Nation’s Income Than At Any Other Time Since The 1920s
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/10/03/334156/top-five
-wealthiest-one-percent/



Umm, no.

"The Internet is awash with statements that the top 1 percent pays, depending on the year, 38 percent or more than 40 percent of taxes.

It’s true that the top 1 percent of wage earners paid 38 percent of the federal income taxes in 2008 (the most recent year for which data is available). But people forget that the income tax is less than half of federal taxes and only one-fifth of taxes at all levels of government.

Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance taxes (known as payroll taxes) are paid mostly by the bottom 90 percent of wage earners. That’s because, once you reach $106,800 of income, you pay no more for Social Security, though the much smaller Medicare tax applies to all wages. Warren Buffett pays the exact same amount of Social Security taxes as someone who earns $106,800."
http://wweek.com/portland/article-17350-9_things_the_rich_dont_want_you_to_know_about_taxes.html

Sales taxes and other flat taxes are even more unfair. We low income people pretty much spend all the money we make and as a result pay (in my state) 8% of my income in sales taxes, while the top 1% only spend a small fraction of their wealth on items likely to collect sales tax, so I would not be surprised if the average top 1% pays even 1% on sales tax.

The top 20% earn 93% of the wealth, yet only pay 70% of the taxes, leaving the other 13% to the bottom 80% who only earn 7% of the wealth. THAT is what needs to be corrected.

>> ^quantumushroom:

Now now, I believe there are many lefty voices who STILL accuse the Tea party of being Fox/Murdoch-sponsored.
Say what you will about Cain, but he's right on this: what do these people want? What do they want to achieve?
Sorry to poop in the punch bowl, but if you take any of these hippies and swap them with the guys in the skyscraper, they'll act exactly the same way and do the same exact things as the originals.

>> ^Sagemind:
This idiot thinks these protesters are organized as a scheme by a political party? - These protesters are a spontaneous uprising. They aren't uprising because they are jealous, they are protesting because they and the public were and are being shafted over and over by the elite wealthy without concern for those they step on.



As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press. They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad. They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts. *

To the people of the world,

We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.

Join us and make your voices heard!

*These grievances are not all-inclusive.

http://nycga.cc/2011/09/30/declaration-of-the-occupation-of-new-york-city/

Awesome experiment. This would be a boring blur of a video except that the 60 frames a second taken by the camera matches the 60 cycles per second of the rotating blade. The sine wave distortions are the result of minute changes in the speed of the blade as it moves around.

I have seen distortion shapes like this experimenting with waves on oscilloscopes in a lab, but have never seen them mirrored in real life before.

>> ^quantumushroom:

Liberals are good at understanding "complexity"?
That must explain why they miss simple concepts like, "People work harder when allowed to keep more of what they earn" and "Private property rights are the foundation of freedom."

Probably because the first statement is false. Proof can be found on another video: http://videosift.com/video/What-motivates-us

As for "Private property = Freedom", apparently you forgot that this was the chief argument in favor of slavery.

>> ^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.

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.

It is funny that when Conservatives favor "deregulation" it is all about making their corporate masters more profitable. But when consumers ask for "deregulation" that will give them better service at cheaper prices, the Conservatives say "We cant do that!"

Did you know that Joss Whedon and Michael Bay were college roomates? They need to have a reunion. Bay's biggest weakness is that his scripts suck, and Joss does not have an eye for visuals like Bay does.

Every change they made from DAO to DA2 was bad. In DA2, Combat is a confusing mess. Crafting, runes, armor, and even weapon mods are all completely pointless, tacked on as an after thought, and you can easily complete the game without any of that stuff. The interface was overkill. The DA:O interface is as easy to use as wikipedia, the DA2 interface felt like someone wrote a crappy and unnecessary flash overlay for wikipedia.

The change most people seemed to enjoy the most was the fact that the player character has a voice in this game. And yet oddly, I am more satisfied with the lack of voice in DA:O, because it required some imagination on my part. I felt attached to my Warden, where as in DA2 I felt detached, like I was watching a fictional character play out a story. Worse yet there are no maps in DA2, even though all the locales are attached o one another. The lack of geography added to the detachment.

Which brings me to comparing stories. DA2 had a very linear story. There were no game changing decisions to be made until half way through act 3, where you have to decide on Mages vs Templars, and that would decide what ending you get. DAO had half a dozen major decisions, and a couple a dozen minor ones, and new story arcs always opened up depending on your choices. In DAO, I controlled the fate of Ferelden, and in DA2 I was forced to surrender to fate.

Bottom line, DA2 did not really feel like a true RPG. Its like they left the RP part out and I was playing just a G (video game). Had they kept the DAO engine, and DAO combat, and DAO crafting, and NPC customization, and just made some graphic improvements, the game would have been a hell of a lot more fun.

The first US bombardment of Libya actually happened in 1804 under President Jefferson, during the Battle of Derne. Of course we didn't bomb from planes, we bombed from ships.

I agree with what she is saying totally, and the scientists and researchers in "Positive Psychology" would agree. We have been led to believe that having a positive attitude will bring about positive change and there is no data to support that. Its a lie started in American theology called the "prosperity doctrine" and then secularized and adapted by the new agers.

If you want to learn what will really make us happy, start with Dan Gilbert, then move on to Dr Barry Schwartz and Dan Pink, and Carol Ryff. Their seemingly strange conclusions about what makes us really happy are backed up by scientific research. The conclusion that they draw is that the whole "American Dream" is a piece of fiction that will ultimately lead to misery.

What we need is a "meaningful purpose", and we need to work with others on that purpose. Our endeavors do not even have to succeed, as long as our purpose is clearly defined, we are able to see progress, and there is some hope for success, it will lead us to eudaemonia as Aristotle called it or lasting "well-being" and contentment.

Yeah, Star Wars is over. J.J. Abrams made Star Trek cool again.

>> ^quantumushroom:

The US has the 2nd highest corporate tax rate in the world. Japan has the highest and it's cutting it incrementally from 40% to 20%.
Sooner or later, socialism always fails. Learn the lesson.


Total bullcrap. Most of the Fortune 500 pay NO taxes at all because of overgenerous loopholes and tax havens. I bet if the corporate tax was calculated based on what corporations REALLY pay, the US would be one of the lowest.

Sooner or later CORPORATE PLUTOCRACY always fails. Learn the lesson.