I'm re-reading Frederik Pohl's Gateway series right now because it's so hard to find good, new science fiction.

But I do recommend Robert Sawyer's new series, WWW (Wake, Watch, and Wonder are the three book titles). The heroine is a 15 year old blind girl who is the only person in the world who communicates with the newly conscious internet. (The plot doesn't sound as good as he writes it.)

I had ZooBooks when I was kid, my gateway drug into science and non-belief

>> ^Boise_Lib:

>> ^conan:
his plan won't work as he's only charged with minor theft and not bank robbery. so he'll be out pretty quick.

If at first you don't succeed...


Yeah he could get a reputation as the Dollar Bill Bandit. Slowly increase his time in jail each time he robs a bank of a dollar while he sits on the chair waiting for the cops. Maybe he'll move on to hardcore bills because everyone knows dollar bills are just gateway bills to the harder stuff.

>> ^Sagemind:

I had a mother bear with three cubs living in my back yard a few years ago. I first noticed the bears as I walked into the back yard after dark with my dog on a leash. I went through the gateway, into the back yard, next to a tree. The three cubs were in the tree (up higher) and the mother was in the tree about four feet above my head. The bear slid in the tree, scratching the bark - that's the only way we know it was there.

Sounds very similar to the common Drop Bear attacks here in Australia. Only difference is, you'd be instantly dead

I had a mother bear with three cubs living in my back yard a few years ago. I first noticed the bears as I walked into the back yard after dark with my dog on a leash. I went through the gateway, into the back yard, next to a tree. The three cubs were in the tree (up higher) and the mother was in the tree about four feet above my head. The bear slid in the tree, scratching the bark - that's the only way we know it was there. It was coming down as I flashed the flashlight at it. I think the flash of light stalled it enough for me to run back to the front door.
I'll tell you - you don't stop to think. You just get out of there. Where do you go when there is no house to hide in? He mentions just being a short way off from camp and I suspect a vehicle which would be the next best bet.
The bear at my place, then came around to the back sliding glass door and and watched our every move for the next two hours. They stayed for a week feeding the cubs on our apple trees.

My dog slept outside every night before that but hasn't since.
There's much more to the story but it get's long so I'll leave it at that.

Phew, I didn't know what I was going to do while drinking my coffee!

In reply to this comment by lucky760:
It's good now. I was making one final fix that caused the server to hang. Because it was only for a few minutes, I didn't want to put the site back into Razzleberry mode.

In reply to this comment by spoco2:
Oh oh, more Gateway time outs at the moment (6:50am Australian Eastern time)... that server isn't dying again is it?

It's good now. I was making one final fix that caused the server to hang. Because it was only for a few minutes, I didn't want to put the site back into Razzleberry mode.

In reply to this comment by spoco2:
Oh oh, more Gateway time outs at the moment (6:50am Australian Eastern time)... that server isn't dying again is it?

Oh oh, more Gateway time outs at the moment (6:50am Australian Eastern time)... that server isn't dying again is it?

>> ^Sagemind:

Move on already..., My daughter just finished reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy now so I'm hoping to get her moving on to other stuff - Many never will read another book series ...


I agree that Hitchhikers should be considered a gateway book because reading it after reading some seriously good Science Fiction is disappointing...kinda like Snow Crash. Yeah I said it.

--> @kceaton1
--> @peggedbea

The only reason I upvote these is that I think it's good for discourse. It's more useful for the lurkers on this site than really the involved members. I knew I would be bringing up a very neutral standpoint as I am on the fence; especially, recently as more biological evidence has direct implications on who you may be later in life. That is VERY important to remember for everyone reading. You have to remember that your brain collects and stores information and then processes it through "filters" before it is distilled into what you would say. Biologically you may be far more likely to be an atheist than a believer (the study makes no distinction religion wise; so they are talking about Islam, Christianity, Norse, Greek, Roman, Buddhist, Hinduism, etc...).

We need a table that we can (we, as in, the religious versus non-theist) talk at. More importantly logical minds and compassion MUST prevail for society to remain intact. If Richard Dawkins (maybe I'm thinking of Hitchens) really can't talk with creationists then he is as much a problem as the creationists themselves (of course one of these parties ARE correct, but the lack of civility is extremely annoying--from both sides).

If you want others to learn sometimes you need to act just like Mormon, Catholic, Evangelical, missionaries. You must expect the vitriol and swearing that usually comes out as highly defensive "maneuvering" or hate; the same that the missionaries get day in and day out. Sorry, "my brethren", but answering the door to purposefully create an unnecessary rude or hateful situation comes off as hate/bigotry speech or dismissive attitudes which is just as bad. This is morally corrupt behavior in my eyes. I suggest answering the door and being able to identify to them issues you have strongly opposed views of and why compared to what they do and about what they say. You have to hope, in this day of the Internet, that people will take ONE aspect of what you said and learn more about it.

I had Mormon seminary teachers that taught creationism, but creationism is extremely limited in acceptance within the Mormon church. For crying out loud BYU (Mormon based university for those that don't know; just south of Salt Lake City) accepts evolution WITHOUT ANY hesitation. They are very active in the sciences as well which is why they do believe; furthermore they are huge researchers when it comes to genealogy which eventually loops into evolution. In many situations the Bible is a work of allegory and followers that take it literal are the uneducated Mormons; even unto their own religion.

So when I have these seminary teachers it truly makes me wonder how they got to their position as they seem to follow their own set of tenets which ends up creating Mormons like Glenn Beck who literally don't stand for church beliefs as I knew them (and again why hasn't he been excommunicated--this actually bothers me a lot as he only hurts the churches standing; which is poor to begin with and is nothing like the Mormons I know). Science was always taught to be incredibly important; if not the most important as it was a way to "uncover even more of Gods truths"; plus it is the applicable "science". That is that it gives us our modern day of living and quality of life (like airplanes, microwaves, TV, energy, etc...). I may not believe in any religion now. But, I appreciate that sentiment; as I think it's a very healthy objectivity to have if in a religion: adaptability.

/ I have to agree somewhat with @gwiz665 as religion (like all things) from an atheists vantage point looks a lot like fear manipulation. I love the Golden Rule as it truly does incorporate perhaps the easiest summary of what it is to be good. But, I know religious people use this to their own ends, including what we see in Libya or on Fox News. To them, people and their beliefs are a joke and they abuse it. It often makes me wonder if these CEOs are truly religious (the ones that say they are) or just using it as a gateway--who knows. Which goes back to my first point. It's entirely possible that we as a species have a tendency to vote "sociopathic" or likewise people into office as they themselves, much like drug seeking personalities (like bi-polar) seek out these positions. The abuse of these positions are partially hard wired into their makeup. All this means is that we must be more diligent. We've come too far as atheists and the religious to let this civilization slip away out of our hands.

//If this is tl;dr, to you, go watch a monkey flinging poop on youtube.

>> ^rottenseed:

Let's not forget 2 things:
1) Calling pi by anything other than π (pi), is unnecessary and imprecise and in most senses, mathematically irresponsible (ie, multiplying it out instead of leaving a number in terms of pi itself)
2) The attributes and relationships of pi are far overshadowed, by the sheer brilliance of the irrational number represented by the letter "e" (the base of natural log)


Pi's easier to get into though, as a gateway to e..

My brother acted a lot like him. Drug use and bipolar disorder. They can answer a question and it might sound like they actually believe it or mean it. As the conversation continues, their viewpoint/excuse/answer will change to similar questions and when you point it out to them you don't understand. But if you just let them talk and don't show any kind of opinion or show any kind of agenda or direction in your questions, they will just keep on answering your questions with what you might think is a smartass response until you look at them all and see the insanity and at best circular logic if any logic can be applied.

And the drug use switch on/off.......my brother totally did that. Also claimed he wasn't addicted, even though he talks about marijuana and how good it is for you even now. If you listen to him, most diseases would be cured by it, car accidents would never happen, you think more clearly, it doesn't have any negative side effects on your lungs or health, you can't die from it or do something that could cause your death while under the effects of it, people would never lace it with anything, etc etc. Basically your standard miracle cure all, never suffer from anything ever if you had it whether it be food shortage or money issues. Never mind the fact that the stuff pretty much fucked his world sideways on multiple occasions because he couldn't moderate his usage. It was all in all the time, or never touch the stuff.....until he couldn't stand it anymore and back into all in. Oh and it's not a gateway drug ever for anyone, despite the fact that he moved into other "stuff" every single time.

And now that he's more like an actual human being, he talks about how the drugs that bring him back to human status make him feel bad. Because when you're bipolar, you go from feeling super amped can accomplish anything in 2 hours or less to feeling like doing anything at all is a major task and will probably kill you. I mean you could see him flip from one to the other, and even now on script drugs still see it.

The problem with the disease in general is that only the naturally violent ones actually get treatment forced on them. Unless you do something or say something that would indicate you might harm others police typically don't do anything, and when it comes to yourself..they only seem to act if you say you're going to kill yourself. And often times even if they do act and put you on a medical hold, the doctors at the facilities can hold you for 72 hours and release you at any time unless they find cause to show you might be off the deep end, no possible way you could function in society kind of insane.

Gateway to the Amero. They had a GoToMeeting about it.

Doornography is a gateway to worse things.

From the description, I thought this was going to about about how the MMM ball (Marauders/Marines/Medivacs) > everything, with way less micro(Attack Move basically) and resources required than the other race's counters.

Roche is quite gullible and a bad SC player at that. The reason Roche didn't check for the Command Center before plopping down the Gateway was because he was attempting a common Starcraft/Warcraft "all-in" cheese tactic, akin to tower rushes. These types of tactics are one-trick ponies and only work against unassuming newbs who don't properly scout.

He basically just got outclassed in the cheese department, in part due to his own stupidity.