You make good points. I think the intent of the prank makes all the difference.

Under normal circumstances, I would agree that if someone steals a piece of property that can be inherently dangerous, and gets hurt because the brakes don't work or because the chain on the stolen chainsaw was lose (or whatever), there's no one else who should be considered at fault. You take your chances when you do that, and the consequences are yours to bear.

However, we have video evidence of the sabotage, and the intent to hopefully injure someone for stealing. It's like entrapment combined with reckless endangerment combined with vigilantism.

It'd be nearly impossible to prove...unless you had video like this available as evidence.

In reply to this comment by Psychologic:

I loled

In reply to this comment by Psychologic:
>> ^longde:
That is the opposite of what peeves me about the video. Film guy went out of his way to tempt someone to steal and thereby create a crime. >> ^Psychologic:
If you are upset about this setup then you should:
-Keep your house's windows unlocked... if someone has to break the glass to steal your stuff then they might get hurt.
-Make sure your alarm is turned off... loud noises could damage their hearing.
-Keep your house orderly... and intruder could twist an ankle in the darkness.
-Ignore missing property... pressing charges could result in jail time and hurt feelings.



I'm tempting people to break into my house because I insist on having one. Hell, I even put it in plain sight near a road!

(edit: rewording)

I think they're idiots too, but that's the thing I'm more worried about -- Tancredo knew what he was doing, and people cheered him on without necessarily understanding the point, or the historical context of the idea.

I hate doing the Godwin thing, but people being whipped into a froth by scapegoating a racial minority for the troubles of the day has a lot of really uncomfortable historical parallels with that German guy with the distinctive mustache.

I'd hate for the liberal desire to take the high road doesn't chill people's ability to freely discuss their concerns about politicians playing with fire like that.

In reply to this comment by Psychologic:
Maddow was going out of her way to demonize them. She wants people to see them as being intentionally evil... I just think they're incompetant idiots.

My remarks weren't in defense of those at the convention. Maddow is very intelligent, but at times she colors her coverage of things in a way that makes me a little uncomfortable. It's fairly subtle though, and it only bothers me because I generally like her.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Ahhh yes. That's the problem. You're right though- the message is confusing.

In reply to this comment by Psychologic:
The embed that I pasted to the message was the same one I pasted to the submit form. Longde suggested that my "rank" may not be high enough to submit it. I had the same issue trying to submit the PeeWee iPad video, but it worked fine for him.

If it is a permission issue then I would rather the submit form say "you do not have permission to post this" rather than "the embed appears to be invalid". I spent over an hour trying to figure out what was wrong with that PeeWee iPad embed yesterday.


In reply to this comment by dag:
I just tried it and it worked fine for me:
http://videosift.com/video/test-39

Make sure that you've got a complete copy of the embed- if it's still not working for you, we'll escalate to Lucky.

Cheers

In reply to this comment by Psychologic:
Hey, I'm trying to submit a video but it keeps telling me that the embed is invalid. It works fine in comments, but the submit form won't accept it. The same thing happened with the PeeWee iPad video yesterday. =(

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

I just tried it and it worked fine for me:
http://videosift.com/video/test-39

Make sure that you've got a complete copy of the embed- if it's still not working for you, we'll escalate to Lucky.

Cheers

In reply to this comment by Psychologic:
Hey, I'm trying to submit a video but it keeps telling me that the embed is invalid. It works fine in comments, but the submit form won't accept it. The same thing happened with the PeeWee iPad video yesterday. =(

I think that once you reach higher levels (e.g., bronze, silver, gold), you are able post post more types of embeds. I would ask one of the senior members, though.

In reply to this comment by Psychologic:
Hey, how did you get the PeeWee video to embed? I never could get figure out why it told me that the embed was invalid.

I get the same error on another video I've been trying to embed (see below)... any suggestions?

(edit: wtf, why does it work here but won't let me submit it??)

Tedium's not so bad when you're working with good people, and you get some reasonable variety to your work. If a company puts you on a riveter all day, they're condemning you to some kind of repetitive stress disorder years down the line. A smart factory or jobsite would rotate your tasks during the day to prevent that from happening. At my old job, we'd frequently change our "position" between onloads and offloads of aircraft, and each task even had a lot of variety.

Most people don't do the things they know they should be doing. I guess there are some supermen and women out there that have no trouble fitting in their needed exercise, social contact, and intellectual challenge in every day of their lives (assuming they have the free time). But the majority of society does what their environment leads them to do, as bad as it may be. Using myself as an example, I know exactly how to eat right and how to exercise from the couple years I spent seeing a personal trainer twice a week, but now I'm always doing a poor job of staying in shape. I'm in-between remodeling projects right now and have tons of free time, but precious little of that time is spent being productive or doing something really beneficial.

This is similar to some of the discussions I've had about religion here on VS, because both religion and physical labor jobs offer you what your body is built for in complete packages. Surely a secularist can be part of a supportive social group, spend time quietly reflecting on his life, and be at peace with his environment; and someone with lots of free time could engage in communal activities, get regular physical exercise, and challenge themselves intellectually. It's just that doing all that stuff piecemeal is much more difficult for the average person, and it's more likely they'll play WoW and eat pizza instead. It's easier to get a job swinging a hammer and go to a church once a week to achieve all those same things. I think Eastern philosophies have been aware of this for a long time, because their religious scholars focus on things like maintaining gardens rather than sitting in comfy chairs and reading books.

I was out of work for about a year before I started my remodel project, and I remember telling an unemployed friend of mine how much more I could appreciate my free time when I spent 8 hours that day working. Work and accomplishment is a necessary part of life, and separating out the physical from the mental work is not the same as when the two are united. That's why I'm working on a house remodeling project instead of putting my degree to any use. I decided that if I have to choose between success and money or a fulfilled life, I'll choose the latter.

In reply to this comment by Psychologic:
I can't speak for chilaxe, but for me it's the tedium rather than the physicality I'd like to avoid. I can't see much of a health benefit from filling envelopes or scrubbing septic tanks. One could argue that it "builds character", but so does learning advanced physics or training for a marathon.

There are many jobs that people would rather not do if their livelihoods weren't dependent upon them, and many of those jobs could (or soon will) be performed by robots rather than people. I don't think that situation, in itself, is a bad thing. I'd rather spend my time improving myself both physically and intellectually, but I also have to eat so that means I need my jobs (I have three currently).

I do agree with you on the value of physical work, but if we end up in a world where people can choose their own methods rather than choosing those that pay well then I believe we will benefit from such a world both individually and societally.

Your video, Critical Thinking, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

You're welcome. I hope you get more votes this way!

In reply to this comment by Psychologic:
Thanks for the tag update. =)

In reply to this comment by gwiz665:
QualiaSoup is great at these basic ideas of reason. Good stuff.

Fun is nice, but...

http://www.videosift.com/video/The-most-ridiculous-water-transportation-device-ever-devised?loadcomm=1#comment-925149



In reply to this comment by Psychologic:
I can only imagine how much math went into that design. It actually sounds like a fun problem to solve... why does it have to be practical?

If they polished up the design so that it becomes a little more useful then I could definitely see the fitness crowd enjoying it. It's like a self-powered jet ski... like people who ride bicycles instead of motorcycles.

History is full of impractical devices that turned out to be great fun. Try snow skiing.

In reply to this comment by Psychologic:
...Perhaps a trend towards atheism is caused by stability?

Stability allows education and freedom of speech. If you live in a society that encourages you to express yourself freely, allows you to ask (awkward) questions and gives you the ability to spot flawed, illogical or poorly reasoned answers, your immunity to religion will be much greater.

Conversely if you live in a country that actively persecutes/executes non-believers (hence a poor peace index), you'll actively shout your love of whichever god you're forced to believe in.

Your video, Sarah Palin wins "Lie of the Year", has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

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.

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.

Sorry, I misinterpreted your post and did a snap downvote.

In reply to this comment by Psychologic:
Why the downvote?


http://www.videosift.com/video/Australian-Tribute-To-Michael-Jackson-Offends-American#comment-875482