No, I just believe that if you are going to take the time to do something, it should be done the best way possible.

All around the world people turned off their lights for an hour, but completely neglected the fact that power plants don't just turn off when people hit a light switch.

Nuclear, wind, hydroelectric, coal...these sources of power are constantly running according to peak demand, and cannot be turned off at 8:30 and then instantly brought back online at 9:30. Electricity is not stored, so when people don't use it...it just gets wasted. Thus, even if electricity demand slightly decreased during "Earth Hour"...electricity production, and thus emissions, stayed exactly the same -- and all the electricity which could have been spent on useful work lighting peoples rooms was just wasted as millions of people stared at computer screens in the dark. Add to that fact the millions of candles that were likely burned in the process.

If we are to raise awareness, how about we raise awareness about how electricity production works? Or if you really want to save the planet how about a "ride your bike to work day" or "form a carpool day" which would raise environmental awareness and make a real difference.

>> ^rougy

You're just being a contrarian.

There is this great scene in Oz (HBO Mini Series) where one of the main characters is having a conversation with a neo-nazi white supremacist type. They are talking about the bible. At one point the main character says something along the lines of, "So you think Jesus was white? He was most probably middle-eastern in terms of ethnicity."

The white-supremacist opens up his American edition of the bible and points to a "picture" of a blond-haired Aryan featured Jesus and says something like, "look at the picture you dumb fuck."

What I find so amusing about this little scene is that people think like this, extremely literally, all around the world. Those people in this discussion saying "oh you should read the bible" should be countered with, "Which bible?"

To think that any single bible edition is in any way like another is a HUGE sign of the ignorance of both the origins of the bible, as well as the ultimate game of "telephone" that it represent. The "bible" that thumping-middle-america seems to think was written by god himself is actually just product from some publisher, who in turn got his content from a long line of sources, all of which made small changes along the way.

And that is just the English version. You have to realize that the Bible was likely written in something like Aramaic or some other dead semitic language. From there it was translated to endless languages, Latin, Greek, etc. etc. losing and gaining meaning in the process.

You might also want to look into the Dead Sea Scrolls, some of the earliest (if not the earliest) versions of the bible in existence. What's the problem? Well, they contain extra content which the Christian church leaders just decided to leave out. Are we to think that ever edition of the bible is correct and that every editor is "inspired by god" in his editorial management of the text? If it was just one line of bibles that ended in one "definitive" version, I could kind of see the logic there. The problem is that there are a gazillion (that is a technical term) version. Again, which is the "right" bible?

Personally, I think the Indian bible is the correct one. Look up that one. They are fairly certain that Jesus spent his "missing years" in India and there is a whole tradition based on that. I like it and I'm going with that one. Anyone who doesn't agree with me is unfortunately going to hell.

By the way, why aren't you guys voting on my video of the Rise and Fall of Nazi Dinosaurs. Yes, it is a shameless plug, but I really feel that video should be doing better than it is!!

Bankers, politicians and the Police... the only jobs that are "secure" in a recession. They are the same all around the world.

my 3 yr old seems quite skeptical of Santa and his magical powers as she questioned how Santa gets into houses with no fireplaces, how he gets all around the world in one night, or how he got into our house when she knows there is a cover at the top of the chimney to protect it from rainwater. While I personally don't want to encourage the Santa lie(myth), the wife see's no problem in it, so I told my daughter those were good questions and asked her questions back to her to answer what she thought. In the end I told her i didn't know but that her reasoning sounded plausible. My wife would say "it's magic"

I try to raise my kid to question things (how they work and why) and be skeptical and inquisitive. I think she'll apply those skills in time to the mythology that we pass onto our kids as truth (Santa, Easter Bunny). Part of my fear is that since kids are so easily indoctrinated and I don't want her buying into the mythology that is religion (I'm hopefully preparing her critical thinking for when her grandparents try to push their belief of their god and magical jesus on her - when I'm not around)

None of this has squelched her creativity or imagination as she plays and talks about unicorns, pegasus's, fairies, monsters, etc... all the while knowing those are all imaginary things. It's kind of like giving her the knowledge that santa isn't real without telling her directly.

In the end every parent deals with it differently and there is no right or wrong way.

LOL. One in 365 sounds about right.

Happy harping! I can barely manage an F chord on the guitar so I'm not even going to try to veer past the traditional in the musical instrument department.

In reply to this comment by Ornthoron:
You're welcome. I have one at home, and it's quite hard to do something that actually sounds musical without hurting your teeth. But it's really fun to try.

And hey, I just noticed that we have birthday on the same day! That must be like ... 1 in 365 chance!

In reply to this comment by blahpook:
Thanks for your help! Good to know.


In reply to this comment by Ornthoron:
"What sounds like a didgeridoo" is actually a mouth harp, which is used in folk music all around the world. This guy is damn good at playing it.

You're welcome. I have one at home, and it's quite hard to do something that actually sounds musical without hurting your teeth. But it's really fun to try.

And hey, I just noticed that we have birthday on the same day! That must be like ... 1 in 365 chance!

In reply to this comment by blahpook:
Thanks for your help! Good to know.


In reply to this comment by Ornthoron:
"What sounds like a didgeridoo" is actually a mouth harp, which is used in folk music all around the world. This guy is damn good at playing it.

Thanks for your help! Good to know.


In reply to this comment by Ornthoron:
"What sounds like a didgeridoo" is actually a mouth harp, which is used in folk music all around the world. This guy is damn good at playing it.

"What sounds like a didgeridoo" is actually a mouth harp, which is used in folk music all around the world. This guy is damn good at playing it.

>> ^chilaxe:
^Austrian economics occupies a fringe position in the marketplace of ideas. If they're really such geniuses, they should be able to find a way into a more central position. That would be the proactive course of action, rather than just railing against economics "dumbasses".
Your argument is supposed to be that unregulated markets are more efficient, but you're conflating that argument with your moral advocacy of small government and low taxes, thereby limiting the appeal of your efficiency argument to people who agree with your moral argument.


But that's exactly what's going to happen. Why assume that this should have happened already? One thing that the Keynesians had in their favor and made it look like their ideas were working was that the dollar retained its reserve currency status in 1971 despite severing from what got it there. For 30 years, our now fiat government could build up these excesses because we had the unique position of being able to export our inflation all around the world. Now, though, the market is getting saturated with paper, but not with goods. You have massive emerging economies like China and India that have happily taken our factories and debt in exchange for a lengthy consumption binge. Now they control the source of the world's wealth and will stop buying our paper. They've already got 2 trillion of our money in reserves, they just announced a stimulus plan where they may use some of it on this rally.

Did you really think this trend could go on forever, where we become 100% service based and foreign producers continually loan us their savings to consume their products so that they can go without them and have bigger reserves of our paper?

Your argument is supposed to be that unregulated markets are more efficient, but you're conflating that argument with your moral advocacy of small government and low taxes, thereby limiting the appeal of your efficiency argument to people who agree with your moral argument.

It's not just moral, it's factual and rational. Nobody spends money with more thrift than its earner, thus you want to limit the amount of money non-earners are controlling to duties which truly lead to more benefits than costs. Also, I love the term regulation. Very popular these days, that's how socialism keeps building on itself. Socialist program causing a problem? Good, shift the blame on spontaneous human evolution into becoming more greedy, and create another socialist program to address it. Rinse and repeat. For example, the predatory lending would have never gotten to the extreme that it did had interest rates not been price fixed far lower than the market would have set them. That false signal caused people to make all kinds of malinvestments that they otherwise would not have. Market got drunk, socialist central bank spiked the punch. Who's to blame? According to socialists, the lack of a designated driver program. Um no, that's not it, the problem was that the 5th plank of the communist manifesto is spiking the punch.

Love it! I saw this great video on SF Iam where the reporter goes to Seattle to try and track down Internet and You Tube sensation Matt Harding of Where the Hell is Matt.com? Fame:

http://www.sanfranciscoiam.com/videos/cb1dfa714335

Find out the origins of Matt Harding’s fancy dance that has become a global InterWeb craze. Man, this guy has been fancy dancing all around the world for 5 years now, spreading happiness!

Also, SF Iam has a lot of other great videos you should check out.

>> ^imstellar28:
if the price rises, supply will be expanded to meet demand, and the price will fall. to force a person to a accept a higher or lower price is to walk into a supermarket with a gun, and force them to pay $8 for a gallon of milk--just because you think it is worth that much. maybe i dont even like milk, or enjoy milk but only at a reasonable price--say $2 a gallon?
the beauty of the free market is that the price of milk, for example, is set by the millions of "votes" made every second worldwide. when someone buys milk, or doesn't buy it, or buys less or more, they are transmitting how much milk is worth to them. to bypass this process, is to turn a democratic system into an autocratic one--instead of a million votes from people all around the world--you have one person, or a small group telling everyone how much milk should be worth. if you believe in democracy, how can you not believe in the free market? even worse, when you have a small group, say a bureaucracy, dictating the prices of a commodity you hide really important information--if the price is fixed, how can a business know when to increase supply to meet demand? or to reduce supply as a result of reduced demand? furthermore, in a free market the price changes on a daily basis based on an incomprehensible amount of data--to reduce this price adjustment to once a year, or once a quarter--and to think that one person can possibly improve on this process is ludicrous. that is why the free market will always be the best solution.

To quote Wikipedia on a commodity: A commodity is anything for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market.

Education isn't a commodity. It's a service, with a ton of "qualitative differentiation across the market".

Also, education is not elastic, like milk. If milk costs $8/gal, I'll probably cut back on it, or stop buying it. If sending my hypothetical kids to grade school cost me %50 or more of my income, I'd find a way to do it, but you can be damn sure I wouldn't be voting for a Libertarian in the next election.

There's probably some price elasticity in education, though I hope there aren't many parents telling their kids "sorry, even though I can afford to send you to MIT, your future isn't worth enough to me, how about a nice state school?" Student loans create a different situation, with kids having to decide how much individual debt they're willing to take on, but is that really superior to a system that places students in colleges based on desire & ability, with the costs spread amongst the society in the form of progressive taxes?

Also, a free market isn't a democracy. In any form of democracy I'm familiar with, everyone gets an equal number of votes (generally speaking, just 1). I'm pretty sure I have a smaller number of dollar-votes than Bill Gates.

As for taking a gun and forcing people to pay $8 for milk, it's more like taking a gun to people and saying "provide your share to the community or else," though usually they just send paperwork in the mail and say "we already took your share out of your paycheck, fill this out to make sure we got the right amount."

The "or else" is only implied to people who think of law as something imposed by a gang of thugs called "the government" or "the Police", forcing people to bow to their will through violence. Then it's "don't kill people, or else", "don't steal, or else", and all kinds of other democratically created circumscriptions on your freedom imposed artificially by others, tragic as that is.

if i choose to home school my children, or pay a private tutor, or use online education such as dvds and video lectures in order to reduce the cost and/or increase the quality of education my child receives--who are you to tell me otherwise?

I agree with you there, you should have the right to choose those things, I just don't think it excuses you from having to contribute to the education of people who can't afford those choices.

As someone said, sarcastically, you're part of the village that's needed to raise the kid -- and part of the economic system the kid's future works will help drive.

^MaxWilder

you are not demonstrating a clear understanding of market forces, nor are you demonstrating a clear understanding of our educational system.

currently the bulk of our educational system is paid for by state property taxes. the argument in this thread is about relinquishing federal control--namely over curricula and standards. if federal regulation and funding were dropped--we wouldn't incinerate the existing infrastructure--the states would simply take over control and your property taxes would rise and your income taxes would fall. no matter what you do, the money has to come from somewhere-whether it is federal taxes, state taxes, or private donations/tuition makes no difference on the quality of education received.

when you leave it to the market, you let people determine how much education is worth for them--if its worth a lot, they will pay a higher price. if the price rises, supply will be expanded to meet demand, and the price will fall. to force a person to a accept a higher or lower price is to walk into a supermarket with a gun, and force them to pay $8 for a gallon of milk--just because you think it is worth that much. maybe i dont even like milk, or enjoy milk but only at a reasonable price--say $2 a gallon?

the beauty of the free market is that the price of milk, for example, is set by the millions of "votes" made every second worldwide. when someone buys milk, or doesn't buy it, or buys less or more, they are transmitting how much milk is worth to them. to bypass this process, is to turn a democratic system into an autocratic one--instead of a million votes from people all around the world--you have one person, or a small group telling everyone how much milk should be worth. if you believe in democracy, how can you not believe in the free market? even worse, when you have a small group, say a bureaucracy, dictating the prices of a commodity you hide really important information--if the price is fixed, how can a business know when to increase supply to meet demand? or to reduce supply as a result of reduced demand? furthermore, in a free market the price changes on a daily basis based on an incomprehensible amount of data--to reduce this price adjustment to once a year, or once a quarter--and to think that one person can possibly improve on this process is ludicrous. that is why the free market will always be the best solution.

if i choose to home school my children, or pay a private tutor, or use online education such as dvds and video lectures in order to reduce the cost and/or increase the quality of education my child receives--who are you to tell me otherwise?

OK, first of all, since when is a Sift Roast a charity event? I mean, for fuck's sakes, this guy is so pathetic, making fun of people named Biggus Dickus is more challenging. Besides, I'm fairly certain we'll have exceed the total sum of all his lifetime verbal conversations ("Hi..." "Piss off!" x 237) in this thread by noon tomorrow.

I mean, the hardest thing is to decide where to start.

This man is so utterly lonely he tries to pass himself off as a geek, and fails spectacularly. I mean, how does one fail at GEEK, the one label losers like me and you all around the world use to comfort ourselves that there might be a community somewhere that accepts and appreciates us?
For one, he's boasting how he's at the computer all round the clock as if it's some WoW achievement (if it is, I say it's discriminatory, as it effectively singles out people with no lives). Take a look at his hobbies (#23) - I mean, wow, it takes some serious effort to exclusively come up with ones you only do on a computer. And come on, he added a fucking ® to both Photoshop© and Adobe™ (same exotic symbol twice in a row, loser), because everybody cares about indicating trademarks on the Series Of Tubes. It's serious business!

His 'picture', if one is blasphemous enough of photography by calling it that:
Apart from the fact that he might as well be Jessica Alba (we'll never know, his shaky camera skills are effing l33t), it's additionally cropped to show off pixelation and camera noise, there's a shitload of unnecessary blur and even a fucking lens flare effect for goodness' sakes! And did I mention how hip it is to take photos of yourself in outstretched hands? LONELYPHAIL15, man. By the way, when you say you wouldn't like to be Fart-Man, I urge you reconsider. There's advantages - you'd be more likely to score ladies than you are now, for one. Also, cops/people on the street might mistake you for an entertainer or a mascot every once in a while.

And I don't mean to nit-pick here, but what the hell is this guy doing here anyway? Obviously, he's implying that out of the 33 boring videos he's sifted (I suggest you go downvote all of them so that he doesn't get his hopes up), he's yet to enjoy any of them, as this remains his ultimate goal (#30). He mentions another, "self-entertainment", which is followed by "lol". Congratulations on achieving that second goal on such short notice. Although I do immensely pity karkarlee if you're equally easy to satisfy in other areas.

Finally,
>> ^karkarlee:
^ 32. What made you pick Obsidianfire as a username?
I mean look at it: obsidian fire. Imagine black fire, that's fucking awesome emo.

Here's an image of black fire for you. Since it's obviously the most awesomest thing ever for you, I hope you experience your very first orgasm over it. Then you might actually not feel too guilty while reassuring karkarlee for the hundredth time that you're very experienced in this secksing business.

Other roasters: here's your dessert.

All around the world escalator repairmen salute you oxdottir. Their jobs are secure for at least the next few years.

joedirt:
Read my comments again and then read my last one very carefully. I know very well where criticism starts and ends. I also know where anti-americanism starts (dunno where it ends yet). I say again that you should visit some german news sites. Whats going on there has nothing to do with criticism anymore.
Questions about Guantanamo are valid and they should be asked. How they are asked is a different question, because most of the time I only hear stuff like "Those fucking americans kill children all around the world, killed more people on this earth than all countries on the earth together, started more wars alone than every nation on the globe together since there is humankind, blew up their own people at 9/11, let Japan knowingly attack their country so they could invade it with a good reason, and now they even have what nazi-germany had in WWII with Guantanamo. When will finally someone bomb THEM to hell?" Comments like that get upvotes to high heaven, and when you say something against that comment (even with valid facts), you get downvoted to hell......
THAT IS CRITICISM???? Thats sounds more like some islamic fundamentalist crap. People gotta be a special kind of idiot to see that as criticism...