Wait, what is this? In the version I saw it was a meteor, not some giant guys finger.

Giant Meteor 2016!

That if is a mighty big if.

And the lessons you think they "need to learn" from this election are probably different from the lessons that the professional class (credit to Thomas Frank) thinks the Democrats need to learn. To them, it's not about getting a candidate that has a higher favorability rating than a meteor strike, but to find a candidate that maintains their status in society. They are the winners of "free trade" (see Rigged by Dean Baker) and globalisation, while a vast number of people have been thrown into debt peonage, wage slavery or worse.

Unless the Democratic Party emancipates itself from the donors and the professional class, I don't see them becoming a home to champions of the people. Look at how the DNC conspired with the Clinton campaign to crush the Sanders candidacy -- lots of juicy bits about that in the Podesta emails. Look at Corbyn, who is basically caught up in a civil war within Labour, despite overwhelming support by the party base.

The Third Way (Social-)Democrats have bought into neoliberalism at such a fundamental level that I just cannot see anyone turning them into a vessel for social equality without getting utterly corrupted or even crushed along the way.

The lesson they learn might be to not nominate a member of a dynasty with so much baggage attached to them. Yet even that depends on them actually recognising the baggage in the first place, which they seemed unwilling to during this election cycle. Everything was brushed off.

And then you're still stuck with a representative of a system that doesn't work for a lot of people. The situation of the rust belt is not a result of anything particular to the current or previous candidates, but of the Washington Consensus and the widespread acceptance of neoliberalism as gospel.

Without major outside pressure, I don't see the party changing its ways sufficiently enough to become a representative of the people again. Maybe a Trump presidency is enough to create such movements, maybe not. Occupy was promising, yet crushed by the establishment in bipartisan consensus.

I really like the meteor idea, but I'm still a sucker for the classics.
No Lives Matter 2016

Meteor 2016!!!

Damn...meteor...I would have said the same thing...fuck the poets.

So...I go to John Lewis if I'm an old man who wants to look at little girls through a telescope?


The Man in the Moon had silver shoon
And his beard was of silver thread;
He was girt with pure gold and inaureoled
With gold about his head.
Clad in silken robe in his great white globe
He opened an ivory door
With a crystal key, and in secrecy
He stole o'er a shadowy floor;

Down a filigree stair of spidery hair
He slipped in gleaming haste,
And laughing with glee to be merry and free
He swiftly earthward raced.
He was tired of his pearls and diamond twirls;
Of his pallid minaret
Dizzy and white at its lunar height
In a world of silver set;

And adventured this peril for ruby and beryl
And emerald and sapphire,
And all lustrous gems for new diadems,
Or to blazon his pale attire.
He was lonely too with nothing to do
But to stare at the golden world,
Or to strain at the hum that would distantly come
As it gaily past him whirled;

And at plenilune in his argent moon
He had wearily longed for Fire-
Not the limpid lights of wan selenites,
But a red terrestrial pyre
With impurpurate glows of crimson and rose
And leaping orange tongue;
For great seas of blues and the passionate hues
When a dancing dawn is young;

For the meadowy ways like chrysophrase
By winding Yare and Nen.
How he longed for the mirth of the populous Earth
And the sanguine blood of men;
And coveted song and laughter long
And viands hot and wine,
Eating pearly cakes of light snowflakes
And drinking thin moonshine.

He twinkled his feet as he thought of the meat,
Of the punch and the peppery brew,
Till he tripped unaware on his slanting stair,
And fell like meteors do;
As the whickering sparks in splashing arcs
Of stars blown down like rain
From his laddery path took a foaming bath
In the ocean of Almain;

And began to think, lest he melt and stink,
What in the moon to do,
When a Yarmouth boat found him far afloat,
To the mazement of the crew
Caught in their net all shimmering wet
In a phosphorescent sheen
Of bluey whites and opal lights
And delicate liquid green

With the morning fish — 'twas his regal wish —
They packed him to Norwich town,
To get warm on gin in a Norfolk inn,
And dry his watery gown.
Though St. Peter's knell waked many a bell
In the city's ringing towers
To shout the news of his lunatic cruise
In the early morning hours,

No hearths were laid, not a breakfast made,
And no one would sell him gems;
He found ashes for fire, and his gay desire
For choruses and brave anthems
Met snores instead with all Norfolk abed,
And his round heart nearly broke,
More empty and cold than above of old,
Till he bartered his fairy cloak

With a half waked cook for a kitchen nook,
And his belt of gold for a smile,
And a priceless jewel for a bowl of gruel,
A sample cold and vile
Of the proud plum porridge of Anglian Norwich —
He arrived much too soon
For unusual guests on adventurous quests
From the Mountains of the Moon.

Upvoted primarily for "meteoric rise, that's right, he's rising, you know, like meteors do".

Interesting info, but also kind of false/lame advertising.

How to break the Internet:
1) allow older hardware to keep running; can't really do anything to cause that
2) cut the cords; as he said, you couldn't cut enough to cause a problem
3) allow (?) a solar flare to happen and destroy our power grid; oh, shut up

How about:
4) wait for a huge meteor to collide with Earth and cause a mass extinction and all of mankind; boom, Internet is broken
5) wait for the next ice age

They aren't describing "how to break the Internet." It's just "things that could affect the Internet."

You see how your arguments don't hold water.

Yet you still refuse to concede that Anita is full of shit and a con-artist.

"But if?!"

What if Jesus came back. What if a meteor hit.

..What if that "good guy with gun vs. black bad guy with a gun" bullshit actually worked out.

Breaking News: 45 concealed carried Utah State students stopped an alleged gunmen who made childish threats during Sarkeesian lecture this afternoon.

Again, 4chan trolls are trolling you with a mind virus.

http://videosift.com/video/This-Video-Will-Make-You-Angry-CGP-Grey

Pretty sure I saw a movie about that... it came to earth inside a meteor.

@messenger excellently done. Two of my own additions:

- Billions of other observers? There is no evidence for that, and we'd seconds ago ruled out a multiverse for lack of evidence. We are only certain of our own observer status.

- An appeal to the plausibility of design (over 2 other choices) based on an argument for the implausibility of the constants? Is that a contradiction? It's some very tenuous reasoning at the very least. I think that is what some people have already said though, in my own words.

I also think @shinyblurry:

"3. You should not be surprised that you do not observe that you are dead,

nonetheless it is equally true that

4. You should be surprised that you do observe that you are alive."

I consider these to be unfaithful to the comparison. The meanings and language are entirely different. If you are sentenced to death then you assume that you will die accordingly, without considering the infinitesimal chance that, for example:
- last minute pardon
- everyone got distracted by a loud explosion
- small and precise meteor strikes on each of your gunmen
- and on
- and on
- and on

Here's my version:

3. If you <still exist>, then you should not be surprised that you do not observe conditions incompatible to your existence - i.e. you do not observe that all of the bullets hit you in the face, obviously.

4. If you <still exist>, you should not be surprised to observe conditions congruent to your existence - i.e. you do observe that none of the bullets hit you in the face, obviously.

My point there being that if you accurately create the principle with your own executed/executioner theme, you end up with the exact same principle because it still refers to perceived existence as opposed to nonexistence.

Confirmed in the second clip: it's a Meteor.

You don't put a muffler on a 1500HP (ish) Merlin/Meteor engine man, it's sacrilegious!

I'm sure that's one of the ten commandments.... (if not it was clearly an oversight on God's part)