>> ^Sagemind:
Hey You, Congratulations on becoming Comfortably Numb!
Here, Have a Cigar, and say Goodbye Cruel World, and then Run Like Hell and pretend you're Learning to Fly!
This leaves me completely Lost For Words, What Do You Want From Me, besides I'm sure glad you're video posts are filling all the Empty Spaces.
You are Fearless, Keep Talking and the Echos will triumph over the Dogs of War. And remember there are Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving With a Pict!



Best Comment EVER!

Hey You, Congratulations on becoming Comfortably Numb!
Here, Have a Cigar, and say Goodbye Cruel World, and then Run Like Hell and pretend you're Learning to Fly!

This leaves me completely Lost For Words, What Do You Want From Me, besides I'm sure glad you're video posts are filling all the Empty Spaces.

You are Fearless, Keep Talking and the Echos will triumph over the Dogs of War. And remember there are Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving With a Pict!

I can just see this radio signal reaching an alien world searching for signs of intelligence. After years of searching they find this signal and finally decode it and reproduce it. Plans are made to visit this new world, to study its inhabitants, tens of thousands of aliens volunteer to take the great journey.

Then at last the transmission is broadcast around the alien world, showing for the first time what the chosen few who were accepted would find after decades of travel through empty space.

... and the number of volunteers dropped to zero.

>> ^arvana:
Atheism is a belief too.


Atheism is a belief in much the same way that doubting a tiger is going to leap out of your toilet and devour your head is a belief. That doesn't mean that it can't possibly be true, it just means there is no evidence supporting it (at least none concerning my toilet).

Technically you could say anything is just a belief. It's just a belief that air is more than empty space. It's just a belief that you won't fall through solid ground.

The difference is testability. Scientific statements can be tested, but god(s) cannot. Some people choose not to actively believe in things that cannot be tested. Atheism is not a belief that no god(s) exist, it is an observation that no testable evidence shows that they exist.

Some of these are fuckin FREAKY:

***


SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?
Sealion

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Humph

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
White Light Generator

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
The Girls Want To Be With The Girls

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Apnoea

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Just The Way You Are

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
And The Glory Of The Lord

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?
Blank

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Dogs

WHAT IS 2+2?
Rapsody On A Theme Of Paganini: Variation XVII

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Empty Spaces

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
An Echo, A Stain

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Quiet

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Heat Miser

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Phrentrow

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Mother's Daughter

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Chameaux

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Stubbs the Zombie: The Soundtrack #02

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Yellow Landscape

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
First Movement: Sehr Langsam Beginnend

WHATS THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
Not Too Late

HOW WILL YOU DIE?
Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
That Teenage Feeling

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
Mozambique

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
North American Scum

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
April in Paris

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
Gloria In Excelsis

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
Lux Aurumque

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
Light & Magic

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
Love Me Back To Life

Whenever I listen to Sarah Palin talk, I find myself wondering if she knows that words are supposed to convey thoughts and ideas and not just fill the empty spaces between the interviewer's questions.

How stupid. This is not a hologram in the sense that they are presenting. The captured image is a hologram but they are faking the projection.

It's live compositing with remote camera matching. In reality Wolf is staring at an empty space. They could have made the "hologram" look more like the person was actually in the room but they stylized it to make it look as if it's projected into thin air.

All you need are a couple matched motion control camera setups synchronized between the two locations, a green screen at the remote location, and some video mixing software.

I'm impressed by the capture technology, but totally sickened by the attempt to misrepresent its potential as some type of thin-air, true 3D projected hologram.

>> ^BicycleRepairMan:
Half of what Turek was saying was how specially designed for life the Universe and the Earth are. It's so weird that I haven't heard the anthropic principle even be mentioned yet.
Hitchens , while perhaps not naming it, does use it, he explains how the universe is most dead, empty space and its moving apart at accelerating speeds, and how we well soon crash with Andromeda, "some Design" As he puts it. This easily lay in ruins any suggestion that the universe is "finely tuned". Anyone who suggests this is either ignorant or unable to see things in perspective. The universe, if designed, seems to be designed to be as hostile and unsuitable for life as physically possible. So far, we've only found one tiny suitable speck able to support life, and the only reason we found that one, is that we are standing on it.


The problem is, when Turek mentions arguments like:
Earth needs to be at exactly the right distance from the sun.
Earth needs to complete a spin near 24 hours.
Earth needs to have the right tilt.
Earth needs to be next to a Jupiter-like planet.

He's fully realizing that the vast majority of the rest of the planets in the universe cannot support life. That's his argument. Earth is so much more special than all those other planets! For some reason he actually thinks this is evidence FOR Earth being specially designed for us. It seems like he really needs a basic lesson on what the anthropic principle is.

Half of what Turek was saying was how specially designed for life the Universe and the Earth are. It's so weird that I haven't heard the anthropic principle even be mentioned yet.

Hitchens , while perhaps not naming it, does use it, he explains how the universe is most dead, empty space and its moving apart at accelerating speeds, and how we well soon crash with Andromeda, "some Design" As he puts it. This easily lay in ruins any suggestion that the universe is "finely tuned". Anyone who suggests this is either ignorant or unable to see things in perspective. The universe, if designed, seems to be designed to be as hostile and unsuitable for life as physically possible. So far, we've only found one tiny suitable speck able to support life, and the only reason we found that one, is that we are standing on it.

Hilariously, a news article on this new device claims it takes advantage of a psychological principle: "if there's a hole, people want to stick their finger in it."

If you read Japanese see: here for the actual quote that says that.

Also, apparently even though the box is completely empty there is an actual optical/physical illusion effect such that when you touch the little panda swinging on the vine (or one of the other characters the game comes with) you actually get the sensation in your finger as if you've touched something. But in reality there's nothing there and you're just wriggling your finger in empty space.

There's just an empty space alright. LOL

See what happens when we don't have someone to work the rude and insane end of things? We all try to fill the empty space.

*discard bitches!

Netrunner, you are biting off way more than I would ever try to. It might sound absurd, but it seems that geomoo's post on DailyKos isn't particulary concerned about 'facts' at all (Incidentally, I haven't even finished reading that article because it keeps spinning me off into separate Google searches, that's the problem with not knowing anything). If the conclusion of the article is anything like it's opening, then it isn't about facts at all. It seems to be about two concepts that result in these 'separate realities', where facts have lost meanings.

The article seems to assert that thought is flawed and is often just emotional response disguised as "thinking", and as a result "listening" isn't actually practiced. In an effort to counteract these short circuits, The article introduces Bohm's Principles":

"[A]ny method of conversation that claims to be based on the "principles of dialogue as established by David Bohm" can be considered to be a form of Bohm Dialogue. Those principles of "Bohm Dialogue" are:

1. The group agrees that no group-level decisions will be made in the conversation. "...In the dialogue group we are not going to decide what to do about anything. This is crucial. Otherwise we are not free. We must have an empty space where we are not obliged to anything, nor to come to any conclusions, nor to say anything or not say anything. It's open and free" (Bohm, "On Dialogue", p.18-19.)"

2. Each individual agrees to suspend judgement in the conversation. (Specifically, if the individual hears an idea he doesn't like, he does not attack that idea.) "...people in any group will bring to it assumptions, and as the group continues meeting, those assumptions will come up. What is called for is to suspend those assumptions, so that you neither carry them out nor suppress them. You don't believe them, nor do you disbelieve them; you don't judge them as good or bad...(Bohm, "On Dialogue", p. 22.)"

3. As these individuals "suspend judgement" they also simultaneously are as honest and transparent as possible. (Specifically, if the individual has a "good idea" that he might otherwise hold back from the group because it is too controversial, he will share that idea in this conversation.)

4. Individuals in the conversation try to build on other individuals' ideas in the conversation. (The group often comes up with ideas that are far beyond what any of the individuals thought possible before the conversation began.)

Usually, the goal of the various incarnations of "Bohm Dialogue" is to get the whole-group to have a better understanding of itself. In other words, Bohm Dialogue is used to inform all of the participants about the current state of the group they are in."

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/8/194945/7976/80/531805

That seems to be a lot to take on at once, but the poster submits a personal observation that addresses really important point:

My wife and I both observed that a certain manner of speaking could have a profound effect on the listening. The group might be droning along about ideas. I might find myself reacting with boredom or anger or a mental critique. Then a participant would begin speaking from the heart, offering a specific example of the universal experience of being human.

Of course if we follow these principles, we can forget about painting any walls anytime soon. Like I said, that's more than I'm willing to chew. I'm having a hard enough time with the first steps of suspending judgment and really listening.

Again, excellent excellent post. Thanks for bringing this to my attention, it's just what I was looking for.

^ I've heard good things about Mint too, though I haven't tried it myself.

If you want to create a dual-boot machine, you first need to shrink down your Vista installation to create a large enough empty space on your hard drive. Then when you install Linux, it will guide you to create the new partition(s) you need.

Here's a good guide: http://apcmag.com/how_to_dualboot_vista_with_linux_vista_installed_first.htm

The statement in the video about the speculated cause of the big bang is incorrect - the author is confusing two objects colliding with M-theory branes colliding in higher dimensional space, giving rise to a big bang.

The statement about Einstein's blunder is also incorrect, the blunder being referred to is Einstein's fudge of the cosmological constant - which was since proved wrong, then proved correct, then proved wrong again. 'Empty' space in the universe is in fact expanding exponentially.

The origin of the spin of galaxies (and all particles in nature) is inherited from the spinning of the entire universe - this is a controversial theory but can be demonstrated mathematically.

The domestication of the banana info is completely accurate!