Thank you for the promote and the kind words! Congrats on your gold star!

In reply to this comment by oritteropo:
*promote the knitted awesomeness : You find some cool vids Fusionaut.

The Simpsons has no laugh track. Amazing that nobody named it yet. I think it was the first US comedy in a long time not to use one. Maybe they got away with that because it's animated, though the Flintstones did have a laugh track. Similarly, other modern animated series don't use laugh tracks (American Dad, Family Guy, Ren and Stimpy, etc.).

Also MASH banned the laugh track from the operating room in a compromise between the show makers (who wanted no laugh track at all) and the network, who insisted on it for all other scenes.

The "Ripping Yarns" DVD set comes with an optional sound track with out laugh track. I thought I would prefer the pure version, but I must (grudgingly) admit that that show seems funnier with the laugh track. It has occurred to me that "Curb Your Enthusiasm" might actually seem funnier with a laugh track, but still I am glad they don't use one--more integrity.

I too yearn for the ``olden days'' of gaming, when a game was a stick and a length of yarn, and games didn't come with these newfangled ``graphics'' or ``rules'' and everything was 2D including your grandmother.

>> ^blankfist:
What backlash?
This comes to mind. I also suspect that if I looked back at every Siftquisition, there was no lack of people attacking the person making the complaint by saying that they need to "grow thick skin" with varying degrees of crudeness.

I can't really think of anyone who's ever stood up and said "X crossed the line when they did Y" and they didn't get subjected to a lot of ridicule, and an extended public debate about what a terrible crime it is for someone to get offended by something someone said.

We're supposedly all adults here, right? Maybe that should also mean that when people say something crossed the line, we shouldn't just reject that out of hand, and make a big stink about the tyranny of the "white knights" or "crybabies" or "whiners." That doesn't sound like adult behavior to me.

You yourself said there are lots of other places on the internet for people to go. You seem to want the people who're offended by racist commentary and/or personal attacks to be the ones to leave for someplace else.

Me, I want the people who do those things to find someplace else to be, or at least learn to live within our already lenient (and obscenely vague) limits.

>> ^blankfist:

I've been attacked personally for my difference of political beliefs, yet you don't hear me crying foul every damn time someone calls me a libertard or blankfuck or whatever. Sometimes I feel targeted by you, dft, and some other prominent Sifters, but I'm not going to hop on a soapbox and spin a yarn how I'm a victim. That would be disingenuous.


I don't think it would be, necessarily. I think (assuming it wasn't all a stunt just to make a point), this comment by @rottenseed really makes a very cogent argument for why even a first class troll (and I mean that in the nicest possible way) like him would be offended by being singled out and called a dumbass.

I think what he said about the way he conducts himself is true -- he makes incisive satire about the overall mood of the Sift without ever being mean spirited, and I can't recall seeing him make a personal attack.

I do think it'd be hard for you to make the case that (for example) me calling you a dumbass would be over the line. But that doesn't mean there are no limits on the kinds of things it's reasonable for me to say to you, either. If you feel hectored by me, you shouldn't be forced to either live with it or leave the Sift. You have a right to be here without being bullied. I also think you have a right to have it dealt with privately so you don't have to deal with the insensitive assholes who'd call you names for complaining in the first place...

>> ^NetRunner:

Not the comment itself, but the backlash that occurs against people who take action in response to it.
Anytime anyone says they're offended by something, they get a huge target on their back, and have to put up with a tremendous amount of derision aimed at them.
I'm cool with questioning whether an instaban is an appropriate punishment for this particular infraction. I don't think a permanent ban is warranted (and I don't, but I do think comments like that should result in something more serious than a mere response in comments.
Your comments indicate that your issue isn't just that the punishment is too severe, but that you object to the notion that racist speech should result in any kind of punishment at all. You even say nobody should've even taken offense in the first place. Then you go so far as to cast bobknight as the victim of some sort of conspiracy to silence political opposition, since obviously nobody could or should've really been offended!
This is nuts, and it happens anytime anyone offends someone else deeply enough for them to take action rather than just let it slide.
If this really was "liberalsift" there'd be some sort of consensus that being sensitive is a positive trait, and not one we should try to beat out of people with our policies and social conventions...


What backlash? You mean this discussion on my personal blog? Oh the poor people who are forced to read my blog and have zero other places to go on the internet.

And this: "Anytime anyone says they're offended by something, they get a huge target on their back, and have to put up with a tremendous amount of derision aimed at them."

Hilarious. Yes, there's a real movement on here to target people. I think I remember that time when bk33 rounded up all the black people and gassed them. What a tactless exaggeration, NR. I've been attacked personally for my difference of political beliefs, yet you don't hear me crying foul every damn time someone calls me a libertard or blankfuck or whatever. Sometimes I feel targeted by you, dft, and some other prominent Sifters, but I'm not going to hop on a soapbox and spin a yarn how I'm a victim. That would be disingenuous.

The bottom line is this. Bk33's comment was luke warm racism. I understand some people could've been really offended, and apparently that was the case, but some people are offended when I order meat or wear leather or use the Christian God's name in vain. I think we all need to relax and move on.

>> ^messenger:

I'd be interested to see if it's the whole thing climbing up, or if it's layering new liquid pulled from the bottom on top of the first stuff to get caught, like the yarn analogy. I'd like to see the current "top" place marked in red or something to see what happens to those particles. Actually, I think the red would be pulled to the bar and disappear under the stuff covering it next. In that case I'd like to see the liquid at the widest part at the base of the rod marked red so we could watch it climb, if the yarn effect is in fact what's happening.



If possible, do this in another liquid that will stay phased out and then color it; do your experiment. Hell, use light reflective particles and throw a 360 camera/computer capture around it. Good times and simulations too occur!

I'd be interested to see if it's the whole thing climbing up, or if it's layering new liquid pulled from the bottom on top of the first stuff to get caught, like the yarn analogy. I'd like to see the current "top" place marked in red or something to see what happens to those particles. Actually, I think the red would be pulled to the bar and disappear under the stuff covering it next. In that case I'd like to see the liquid at the widest part at the base of the rod marked red so we could watch it climb, if the yarn effect is in fact what's happening.

My understanding is that the effect has to do with long chain molecules being pulled taut around the spindle. Imagine doing something similar with a tangle of yarn, with one end of the yarn stuck to the spindle. At first, the yarn will make a coil around the spindle, but as the circumference of the coil is increased because of the yarn already coiled, the yarn will start to build up layers of coils vertically around the spindle. If instead you had lots of tiny pieces of yarn, it isn't hard to imagine that the effect wouldn't happen. In fact, you'd probably get something more like a vortex (with little bits of yarn being flung every which way creating a depression).

So it can't just be sticky, because then there will be nothing pulled taut. For example, honey apparently does not work well. Instead I think it needs to be somewhat sticky, as well as composed of long chain molecules that will be pulled tight by the rotation.

Copied from Youtube, someone's interpretation of what he said:

Oh, I know actually that I, um, enjoy the slow burn and then let the squirrel burn and open with its paw yarn. Ahahahahaha. Oh, did your dad call back with the fries? 'Cause he wanted the back paw word to poke his head. Eheh. Ahahahaha. Oh, you would call back with the pot burger on his head, call, pull her out. Oh, brought out for your head, don't give him the pot further than the throwback cook. Ahahaha. About, uh, twelve Beirut pot urn! Ahahaha. Ooh, that flower bird and that bow bad. Ahahaha. Oh, they've ordered that bird. Ohh!

Your video, Zero Punctuation: Kirby's Epic Yarn, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

This video has been seconded as a duplicate; transferring votes to the original video and killing this dupe - dupeof seconded with isdupe by chicchorea.

*isdupe
>> ^paul4dirt:

dupeof=http://videosift.com/video/Imaginative-Girl-Spins-A-Yarn

This video has been nominated as a duplicate of this video by paul4dirt. If this nomination is seconded with *isdupe, the video will be killed and its votes transferred to the original.

*dupeof=http://videosift.com/video/Imaginative-Girl-Spins-A-Yarn

it sucks to have to spoil this...but its a dupe http://videosift.com/video/Imaginative-Girl-Spins-A-Yarn (not duping right now to not spoil the promote for the moment)

btw: tshirts made by this girl are being sold for a good cause: http://skreened.com/capucine

"Welcome to "Capucine for Edurelief" T-shirt shop ! We have designed t-shirts with Capucine's original drawings and some of her favorite quotes. They are available in French or in English. All the proceeds from the sales go to Edurelief, a non profit organization who helps provide school books in Mongolia. So far, two libraries have opened in two schools, thanks to your support of Capucine's project. She says : "Merci" ! You can learn more about Edurelief here : www.edurelief.org"