Ok, I'll start with a few things that most people would probably agree with, but the police force currently would fight like hell to avoid. How about we decide to actually punish cops who break existing rules and laws. Use testing to weed out unbalanced power hungry or corrupt types from becoming cops. QUIT hiring COMBAT veterans to become PEACE officers. I'm sure there are many things that could be done to fix the problem with the police, its just that it's not being done because the police think the only problem is that we, the lowly people, dont always follow ALL commands,and sometimes we need to be put in our place. >> ^shveddy:
False dichotomy, among other things. There are innumerable intermediate steps between "allowing them to do whatever they want to you" and "shooting the motherfuckers." I'll admit that there is a point where armed resistance is warranted, but if you think that we have arrived anywhere near that point with enough frequency to warrant armed resistance, then you are crazy.
Yes, there are plenty of instances of people's rights being violated - but in 99.99% of those occasions, I think the problem can best be solved through other means.
Do I think that the students who got peppersprayed at UC Davis had their rights violated?
Yes, I do. But this guy seems to suggest that the proper response is for the students to pull guns and start a shoot-out. Let's imagine what that would look like for a second:
One of the students peers through the caustic mist with righteous fury and a wet t-shirt over his mouth. He can feel the comforting weight of his Barretta, held close to his heart in a chest holster, and he knows that this is the moment to act. He stands up tall despite the onslaught of bright orange asphyxiation, reaches for his piece and takes aim. Somewhat startled, the officer is suddenly defenseless with his canister and it is not long before he crumples to the ground in an ever expanding pool of blood. He basks in a brief moment of clarity before chaos reigns. His fellow students are quick to bear arms themselves, but the training, body armor and poise of the officers allows them a significant head start and the students suffer heavy casualties in this initial volley.
Not to be deterred by the deaths of their friends, the occupy movement takes up refuge in the life sciences building which, designed in the late sixties with a brutalist aesthetic, is mostly concrete and as such is a perfect fortress from which to outlast the ensuing siege and inspire innumerable citizens on the outside world to take up arms as well. Guerrilla warfare is the only tactic effective in such asymmetrical circumstances, and after a few weeks of violence the powers that be succumb to international pressure and agree to negotiate with the 99%...
...or we could launch an official investigation, fire the guy as a scapegoat after an admittedly long, expensive and cumbersome process, and let the public outrage that ensued lead to a more cautious approach to future student protests. Bloggers and editorialists collectively write millions of words on the subject, increasing awareness and generally shaming the agency that allowed it to happen.
Not perfect, but a whole hell of a lot more civilized.
Any time you use guns against a government entity in he US, you will eventually be caught and put in jail. Period. The only way to avoid this is to be a small part of a large popular movement that eventually overthrows the US government, and I don't see that ever happening with citizen gun-owners unless it involves guerrilla tactics. Imagine gunfights erupting at your local municipal buildings. Imagine pipe bombs at your local police station. People need to realize that this is what they are advocating when they argue for second amendment rights as a fourth check and balance.
If you disagree with that statement, feel free to fill in a reasonable sequence of events to span the gap between "guy whose fourth amendment rights are violated guns down cop" and "said guy is vindicated, and massive changes are made to our law enforcement policies." I suspect that we are far more likely to see a greater militarization of the police in response.
I humbly propose that we join the civilized world and come up with more creative ways to correct our problems.

False dichotomy, among other things. There are innumerable intermediate steps between "allowing them to do whatever they want to you" and "shooting the motherfuckers." I'll admit that there is a point where armed resistance is warranted, but if you think that we have arrived anywhere near that point with enough frequency to warrant armed resistance, then you are crazy.

Yes, there are plenty of instances of people's rights being violated - but in 99.99% of those occasions, I think the problem can best be solved through other means.

Do I think that the students who got peppersprayed at UC Davis had their rights violated?

Yes, I do. But this guy seems to suggest that the proper response is for the students to pull guns and start a shoot-out. Let's imagine what that would look like for a second:

One of the students peers through the caustic mist with righteous fury and a wet t-shirt over his mouth. He can feel the comforting weight of his Barretta, held close to his heart in a chest holster, and he knows that this is the moment to act. He stands up tall despite the onslaught of bright orange asphyxiation, reaches for his piece and takes aim. Somewhat startled, the officer is suddenly defenseless with his canister and it is not long before he crumples to the ground in an ever expanding pool of blood. He basks in a brief moment of clarity before chaos reigns. His fellow students are quick to bear arms themselves, but the training, body armor and poise of the officers allows them a significant head start and the students suffer heavy casualties in this initial volley.

Not to be deterred by the deaths of their friends, the occupy movement takes up refuge in the life sciences building which, designed in the late sixties with a brutalist aesthetic, is mostly concrete and as such is a perfect fortress from which to outlast the ensuing siege and inspire innumerable citizens on the outside world to take up arms as well. Guerrilla warfare is the only tactic effective in such asymmetrical circumstances, and after a few weeks of violence the powers that be succumb to international pressure and agree to negotiate with the 99%...

...or we could launch an official investigation, fire the guy as a scapegoat after an admittedly long, expensive and cumbersome process, and let the public outrage that ensued lead to a more cautious approach to future student protests. Bloggers and editorialists collectively write millions of words on the subject, increasing awareness and generally shaming the agency that allowed it to happen.

Not perfect, but a whole hell of a lot more civilized.

Any time you use guns against a government entity in he US, you will eventually be caught and put in jail. Period. The only way to avoid this is to be a small part of a large popular movement that eventually overthrows the US government, and I don't see that ever happening with citizen gun-owners unless it involves guerrilla tactics. Imagine gunfights erupting at your local municipal buildings. Imagine pipe bombs at your local police station. People need to realize that this is what they are advocating when they argue for second amendment rights as a fourth check and balance.

If you disagree with that statement, feel free to fill in a reasonable sequence of events to span the gap between "guy whose fourth amendment rights are violated guns down cop" and "said guy is vindicated, and massive changes are made to our law enforcement policies." I suspect that we are far more likely to see a greater militarization of the police in response.

I humbly propose that we join the civilized world and come up with more creative ways to correct our problems.

This was made more relevant the past couple weeks as the country ERUPTED in anger at the fact we have "Replacement Refs" making bad calls in NFL games. It was just shocking, I was seeing this shit reported up to the minute on the BBC. Every news channel and website was constantly harping on it, but that wasn't the worst part. THE WORST PART of this was the fans, the people in this country who's lives are being fucked over by the government and corporations. Their major concern was that some refs weren't doing a good enough job and the good refs were at home instead. It's ridiculous.

The American people deserve the country they have and the country they work for. I love sports, I'm a referee, it's my Job. But I understand better than most the difference between Sport and Life. Some people brag about a certain sport being their Life. Those people have never been foreclosed on, or had to watch their children walk to school with no breakfast. This country man, I'm just fucking sick every day.

A drunk walks into an upscale pub and, after a while, leans up against the bar.
"A snifter of Louis XIII," he slurs and drops three $100 bills on the bar.
The bartender, taken aback for a moment, looks the disheveled man up and down.
"Big spender!" the bartender says, pouring his drink.
"Life is good," the drunk replies, and promptly tosses back the cognac.
The bartender takes a second look at the man; his hair is a mess and his suit hasn't seen a dry cleaner in a while, and he swears the man smells faintly of urine. Hardly someone who can afford such a fine cognac.
"Inheritance?" the bartender presses.
The man looks up.
"No, no...I bet people. And I always win," the drunk smirks.
"What do you mean always?" the bartender asks.
The drunk takes a moment and looks around the bar.
"Here. You see that glass over there?" He points to a an empty mug of beer at the end of the bar, 20 feet away. "I'll bet you $100 I can piss in it from here."
Impossible! the bartender thinks. "You're on," the bartender says, shaking the drunk's hand (and quickly wiping it off on his apron).
Unsteadily, the drunk climbs up on top of the bar, pulls his dick out and begins peeing everywhere. He stumbles and steps in his own piss, causing him to slip and he plummets off the bar. The bartender looks over the railing and sees the man lying flat on his back, hands flailing, as his piss arcs up into the air and hits him directly in the face. The bartender erupts with laughter at the comical sight, slapping his hand on the bar in triumph.
Suddenly, across the room, a man shouts in anger and rushes the bar. "Are you fucking kidding me?!" he screams.
Surprised, the bartender says "What?! What?"
The angry man points down at the drunk and yells, "He just bet me a thousand dollars that he could piss all over your bar and you'd laugh about it!"

Link to kceatons1 vid http://videosift.com/video/Large-Filament-Eruption-On-the-Sun-8-31-Spectacular

>> ^jmd:

I love science

<glados>And science loves you.</glados>

Solar eruption causes music abruption?

>> ^zaust:

erm sorry couldn't be bothered to read lengthy posts but:
Looks like an evil lava ghost from mario or something!!!!


All over the world, scientists are wondering why it feels like a little part of them just died...

Seriously though, can you imagine the amount of energy require to eject what could be millions of tonnes of plasma that far, that fast...

Fucking astounding.

*brief Short, but great.

This truly is one of the most amazing CME or Filament eruptions I've ever seen. I personally think this is, literally, the BEST I've witnessed. It's mesmerizing and AMAZING to watch... Truly an amazing dance of high energy Physics with extremely powerful forces of Physics also at play, making this little dance all come together; much like the beautiful loops of plasma formed over sunspots as the plasma flows from the negative flow sunspot it's positive brother. This flow between these two areas create magnificent loops of plasma above the Sun's surface sometimes stable for awhile until there is a magnetic reconnection, which in turn creates the stunning filament that was created in the southeastern area (which now has rotated towards us and is more central southern area) of the Sun and then shooting off into space in many directions. All thanks to NASA's SDO satellite that took this amazing video (and photos; there is also a FAR bigger array of things that the little satellite got: scientific readings at several time increments, photos in every energy frequency you want basically, same with video, and other assorted stuff--it REALLY IS the little satellite that CAN do, it has shown time and time again that NASA knew what they were doing when they made it and they have lived up to their reputation of exceeding the standard of excellence that is expected of them--JUST LIKE the now infamous Curiosity rover; GO NASA).

P.S.- This is off-topic, but here it goes anyway... There is a great need for us to overhaul our education system, there have been so many examples lately that show the need for more science/engineering students from/in the United Sates. Which right now just isn't happening. The U.S. superiority complex is losing to ITSELF, mostly thanks to idiotic Bible-thumping Republicans/Tea-Party members. Just look at what NASA has done in the last 10 years with the small and ridiculous budget they have--the same people that once put men on the Moon and created a HUGE amount of new devices (like the MRI, just for a quick example; there's a huge list somewhere--NASA happens to be one of the only government agencies that uses its money, files patents, and then the U.S. creates a consumer version that makes quite a bit of money...). NASA has a PERFECT Curiosity landing, a landing that was extremely complicated and...well, awesome. A team like that would make use of EVERY PENNY, better than a bank could. Sadly our government is delusional along with the citizens who almost believe sometimes that NASA should just be zeroed out. BUT, I think NASA of course deserves 20 or 30 times the money it receives. We, in HOW we treat our own REMARKABLE, admired, and talked of world wide Space Program, make ourselves look like the idiots we are (atleast the ones that deserve that statement). If Obama wants to do something interesting he should raise NASA's budget by quite a bit, as Mitt has made it clear that he plans to just raise the military's already bloated beyond definition ("We're a hyperpower...") budget and to possibly engage in two wars, plus a second and brand-new Cold War with Putin's Russia.

3 more comments have been lost in the ether at this killed duplicate.

>> ^demon_ix:

Dupe, sadly.
http://www.videosift.com/video/Enormous-deep-sea-volcano-fil
med-by-OSU-researchers


*water *dupeof=http://www.videosift.com/video/Enormous-deep-sea-volcano-filmed-by-OSU-researchers

Bad news! This one looks to be a dupe!
(ReverendTed is not privileged to dupe.)

*promote

This is most likely the most AMAZING filament eruption to be caught on video. It is caused by a little process called magnetic reconnection. It's a little process that gives us our solar flares, these filaments, CMEs (Coronal Mass Ejections), auroras, and the possible potential for very dangerous radiation storms every few millennium--give or take a few. Basically, plasma flows along these field lines of magnetism. When things get out of hand, then those field lines distort and change and all of a sudden things get very dangerous (AND sometimes beautiful). The faster the magnetic field changes the faster the particles will travel making them more and more dangerous as the events unfold fast enough giving them more energy (kinetic & heat), which in turn if directed at us means it penetrates much further into our protective field and anything outside of the field, crispy--in the shredded DNA, cells, you name it sense.

Occasionally, Earth's magnetic field breaks down a bit (if I remember why correctly it was a certain "sequence" within our magnetic shield and it reacts badly with the Sun's--don't quote me though, I really need to look it back up again it was a very long time ago I remember this from), if a large solar flare directed towards Earth ever happened before Earth had enough time to fully build back it's strength we would be FAR more in trouble than usual, but this would be a rare event. Usually what happens is that the charged particles follow Earth's magnetic lines and go to the poles, which is the one place on Earth where you do suffer the most radiation from the Sun (basically wherever the poles are as the plasma follows the polarity or "field lines" of Earth's magnetic field). It's also why the closer you are to the poles the better your view is of the aurora as the particles streaming in, if there is a sufficient quantity moving very fast (the more energy, especially kinetic--speed, the farther the penetration into the atmosphere and the lower the aurora becomes visible), will enter the atmosphere and begin to be absorbed by various elements that our atmosphere is compromised of like Nitrogen.

Here's a quick explanation. Basically, the particles collide with atoms of molecules/elements or anything in the higher atmosphere, exciting their electrons into higher energy levels, which is known fundamentally in science as quantum leap/atomic transition/electron transition it's one of the atom's most fundamental abilities dealing with "extra energy" being pushed into a system that wants balance (this is a very common process that happens ALL DAY long, EVERYWHERE around you; it transfers photons essentially--pure energy--BUT, what is the energy in the form of as it's energy level makes it do very many different things; you could see things, what you consider the normal range of light--it's EXACTLY how light goes THROUGH a window--it doesn't go through the window it is transferred via the atoms from one side to the next, this is ALSO why people are trying to get invisibility to work as it just might; HEAT is another one that is transferred all the time--it literally radiates outwards from our bodies and then we are surrounded by excited electrons and the infrared range of light we are putting out, the heat of a human body...or any animal; this goes on and on, it happens everywhere and as I said ALL-THE-TIME, it's perhaps one of the most critical processes and abilities of the atom and how photons also transfer their energy between areas in a direction; a little off-topic information for those that don't realize how much is going on, everywhere, all the time, at any given second...it's a complicated, but beautiful world)), and making them give off light that we see when the charge they've taken on finally returns the molecule/element's electrons to their normal orbits in the electron shell; the color depends on what molecule/element was being bombarded and how much energy was involved from the particle that hit it). This of course transfers all the energy that those particles had and we get a nice light show.

/I thought I'd fill my promote with something useful; ...on why these happen...
//edit-For a little more clarity, grammar and a bit more information that I hope some will appreciate if it helps anyone learn something or atleast go look up some of this and learn some on their own; taking an interest in science, it's one of the most important things in the world that we have.
///Spreading science is just as important; it's the one literal thing we do/use that has ever allowed us to deal with the worst problems we have: fear, pain, death, disease, sorrow, despair, ignorance, etc... Science IS the light in the dark. It is our best hope for mankind's continued existence and a good life. It is the single most important activity we now do as a group; it's our savior from us and what's out there...

For a little more detail on the story here: Mike Bost, Lawmaker, Erupts Into Tirade During State Pension Debate

EDIT: Link wasn't showing properly

>> ^jwray:

If she does this regularly, somebody should have helped her get help. Ignoring and playing along with the insanity isn't helping.
>> ^skinnydaddy1:
Usually I end up with a strong dislike of city councils or groups like them in general. The viciousness and petty squabbles that erupt in these groups are often blown far out of proportions to the issues that instigated them.
That being said. I honestly am finding it strange that this city council has earned some respect from me.
They know of this lady's illness but continue to allow her to speak in front of them and do not hinder her in any way.
From the article,
"She usually speaks twice a month during the council's open mic sessions, where citizens can talk for up to five minutes on any topic. The council sits patiently until she is done."
Had she been doing this in Dallas Tx, or any of the surrounding cities I have no doubt that she would of been forcibly removed and banned from returning. More likely causing even more damage to her psyche by adding the idea that she is being prosecuted for her ideas and beliefs.
Hats off for this city councils understanding and patients.




Please read the article.

Now to point out one quote from it.

"He said her family has tried to get her help multiple times, but unless she harms herself or others, there's not much more they can do."


Being Ill does not remove a persons rights. Its easy to say "Get her Help or she needs help" but unless she is willing to receive it there is not much anyone can do. It's no so much as playing along as it is just being respectful.
It also does not hurt anyone just to be polite.