I gotta squirrel story.
So when I lived in Mountain View, for Christ only knows what reason, the idiots in charge of power put this big-ass transformer thing on the corner of my property. The thing hummed with menace and I knew that shit wasn't right. But I didn't worry none because there was a big green metal cover over it that provided the same protection against horrendous death that a box of Kleenex would have provided the World Trade Center on 9/11.
One day, I'm standing on my balcony and drinking a beer. I mighta been stoned, too, only there's no 'mighta' that day. I'm watching the whorehouse across the street (really) and generally buzzing when I see a squirrel on the lawn. I hate squirrels. A motherfucking squirrel ate my bar fridge and fucked me outta the $50 I was selling it for on Craigslist (really).
Anyway, I got this longneck of Bud in hand and I'm working out whether I can brain the goddamn rodent with it when the neighbor's cat come rippin' ass from under the balcony and goes after Skippy.
Well here's some amusement!
The squirrel is running for it's pointless life and the cat is banking like a F-16 chasing an Iraqi MIG and I've already got $10 down on the kitty with a $3 over/under. I already know how this was gonna end and I was rootin' for it every step of the way.
Only it didn't.
The goddamn squirrel found the ONE way to get under that green metal cover I mentioned previously. The cat stops in amazement and I'm all pissed because I've been gypped outta Wild Kingdom's money shot.
A second later there's a flash like Ivy Mike going off from under the cover and an a concussive BOOM!! The fucking cover blasts off like a Space-X project gone horribly wrong -- or, in this case, delightfully right.
The cat jumps like 5 feet in the air and an arc of turds flies outta its butt, the cover returns to earth as a traffic hazard in the middle of Latham St., and the squirrel is basically vaporized. And now I'm the happiest motherfucker in Mountain View because dude, that shit was AWESOME!
I call out, "Babe! You won't believe what just happened!" 'cause you gotta totally share shit like that.
Then I realized everything is TOTALLY silent, like Little House on the Fucking Prairie silent.
"The power's out," my wife responds.
And it STAYED out for like two goddamn days while the putzes from the power company had to rewire pretty much everything that blew up.
Honey Badger didn't give a shit because Honey Badger'd copped an oz right before this shit happened. And as Fat Freddy taught us, "Dope will get you through times of no power better than power will get you through times of no dope." Or some shit like that. I dunno, I'm totally fucking baked right now.

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No they wouldn't. They just have to be synchronized properly with controllers/switches. Completely separate from the electricity. Maybe timers or some kind of wi fi control programmed switches(not at all my field of expertise) , Not really sure but ill bet my lunch money each house was electrically wired up to there own power. Can you imagine the load that would put on one house. Would i think have to rewire the electrical to accommodate the amperage of the total of all that (the amperage from the audio alone would be insane). I however leave open the possibility i am wrong about much of this

I've had the fake phone vibration thing, I just assumed it was a muscle twitch. Weird to think it's actually a mental rewiring!

Well, I think they're ugly as hell, and way too big.
I still don't understand the fuse part either. You still need a fuse box. the fuse box lets you do rewiring without shutting off a master switch and screwing all the clocks in your house or your computer.

The pretense of the captioning is petty, foolish and lays bare the crass motivations of the idiot who wrote it. Everyone knows the only ones who are killing Bald Eagles these days are Barack Obama and his environmentally hostile interior department. http://www.kcet.org/news/rewire/wind/biologist-eagle-deaths-at-turbines-widespread-undercounted.html

You make a fine point. I only wish we could be curious AND remove moral judgement about it all (so much of the gender classification talk falls into this trap it seems). Me? I'm more fascinated by how this guy thinks he's found the perfect mate....she/he could be a dolphin for all I care. I don't think I'm completely alone in that more singular fascination...it just somehow seems to be perverted by questions that don't really have any relevance to the subjects of such matters...the anatomy of his chosen partner is largely moot...to him it seems and to me. I was expressing a desire for it to become so for everyone else.

>> ^dag:

Unless we rewire our brains at a limbic level - I don't think we'll ever stop thinking and talking about this stuff - because it involves sexuality. That's what we're here for. We've evolved to find sex endlessly fascinating.>> ^bigbikeman:
shrug . Can't wait til nobody feels the need to figure it out. We're well past the point where prolific and abundant reproduction is a necessary part of our survival as a species...and....we have other problems.
They're happy with each other. Unless you want to drag some kind of puritanical/biblical morals into it, that's pretty much a wrap imho.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Unless we rewire our brains at a limbic level - I don't think we'll ever stop thinking and talking about this stuff - because it involves sexuality. That's what we're here for. We've evolved to find sex endlessly fascinating.>> ^bigbikeman:

shrug . Can't wait til nobody feels the need to figure it out. We're well past the point where prolific and abundant reproduction is a necessary part of our survival as a species...and....we have other problems.
They're happy with each other. Unless you want to drag some kind of puritanical/biblical morals into it, that's pretty much a wrap imho.

Eric3579 somehow got the lyrics:

When I was in the 3rd grade
I thought that I was gay
Cause I could draw, my uncle was
And I kept my room straight
I told my mom, tears rushing down my face
She's like, "Ben you've loved girls since before pre-K"
Trippin', yeah, I guess she had a point, didn't she
A bunch of stereotypes all in my head
I remember doing the math like
"Yeah, I'm good a little league"
A pre-conceived idea of what it all meant
For those who like the same sex had the characteristics
The right-wing conservatives think its a decision
And you can be cured with some treatment and religion
Man-made, rewiring of a pre-disposition
Playing God
Ahh nah, here we go
America the brave
Still fears what we don't know
And God loves all His childrenIs somehow forgotten
But we paraphrase a book written
3,500 hundred years ago
I don't know

[Hook: Mary Lambert]
And I can't change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
And I can't change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
My love, my love, my love
She keeps me warm [x4]

[Verse 2: Macklemore]
If I was gay
I would think hip-hop hates me
Have you read the YouTube comments lately
"Man that's gay"
Gets dropped on the daily
We've become so numb to what we're sayin'
Our culture founded from oppression
Yeah, we don't have acceptance for 'em
Call each other faggots
Behind the keys of a message board
A word routed in hate
Yet our genre still ignores it
Gay is synonymous with the lesser
It's the same hate that's caused wars from religion
Gender to skin color
Complexion of your pigment
The same fight that lead people to walk-outs and sit-ins
Human rights for everybody
There is no difference
Live on! And be yourself!
When I was in church
They taught me something else
If you preach hate at the service
Those words aren't anointed
And that Holy Water
That you soak in
Is then poisoned
When everyone else
Is more comfortable
Remaining voiceless
Rather than fighting for humans
That have had their rights stolen
I might not be the same
But that's not important
No freedom 'til we're equal
Damn right I support it
[Trombone]
I don't know

[Hook: Mary Lambert]

[Verse 3: Macklemore]
We press play
Don't press pause
Progress, march on!
With a veil over our eyes
We turn our back on the cause
'Till the day
That my uncles can united by law
Kids are walkin' around the hallway
Plagued by pain in their heart
A world so hateful
Someone would rather die
Than be who they are
And a certificate on paper
Isn't gonna solve it all
But it's a damn good place to start
No law's gonna change us
We have to change us
Whatever god you believe in
We come from the same one
Strip away the fear
Underneath it's all the same love
About time that we raised up

[Hook: Mary Lambert]

[Outro: Mary Lambert]
Love is patient, love is kind
Love is patient (not cryin' on Sundays)
Love is kind (not crying on Sundays)

When I was in the 3rd grade
I thought that I was gay
Cause I could draw, my uncle was
And I kept my room straight
I told my mom, tears rushing down my face
She's like, "Ben you've loved girls since before pre-K"
Trippin', yeah, I guess she had a point, didn't she
A bunch of stereotypes all in my head
I remember doing the math like
"Yeah, I'm good a little league"
A pre-conceived idea of what it all meant
For those who like the same sex had the characteristics
The right-wing conservatives think its a decision
And you can be cured with some treatment and religion
Man-made, rewiring of a pre-disposition
Playing God
Ahh nah, here we go
America the brave
Still fears what we don't know
And God loves all His childrenIs somehow forgotten
But we paraphrase a book written
3,500 hundred years ago
I don't know

[Hook: Mary Lambert]
And I can't change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
And I can't change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to
My love, my love, my love
She keeps me warm [x4]

[Verse 2: Macklemore]
If I was gay
I would think hip-hop hates me
Have you read the YouTube comments lately
"Man that's gay"
Gets dropped on the daily
We've become so numb to what we're sayin'
Our culture founded from oppression
Yeah, we don't have acceptance for 'em
Call each other faggots
Behind the keys of a message board
A word routed in hate
Yet our genre still ignores it
Gay is synonymous with the lesser
It's the same hate that's caused wars from religion
Gender to skin color
Complexion of your pigment
The same fight that lead people to walk-outs and sit-ins
Human rights for everybody
There is no difference
Live on! And be yourself!
When I was in church
They taught me something else
If you preach hate at the service
Those words aren't anointed
And that Holy Water
That you soak in
Is then poisoned
When everyone else
Is more comfortable
Remaining voiceless
Rather than fighting for humans
That have had their rights stolen
I might not be the same
But that's not important
No freedom 'til we're equal
Damn right I support it
[Trombone]
I don't know

[Hook: Mary Lambert]

[Verse 3: Macklemore]
We press play
Don't press pause
Progress, march on!
With a veil over our eyes
We turn our back on the cause
'Till the day
That my uncles can united by law
Kids are walkin' around the hallway
Plagued by pain in their heart
A world so hateful
Someone would rather die
Than be who they are
And a certificate on paper
Isn't gonna solve it all
But it's a damn good place to start
No law's gonna change us
We have to change us
Whatever god you believe in
We come from the same one
Strip away the fear
Underneath it's all the same love
About time that we raised up

[Hook: Mary Lambert]

[Outro: Mary Lambert]
Love is patient, love is kind
Love is patient (not cryin' on Sundays)
Love is kind (not crying on Sundays)

I am asking, and this is my main point, which you need to address, can parents make any decisions related to cosmetics? Or is it limited to what you and I use as our subjective standards? For example, can a parent have the earlobe removed because it will make the baby more beautiful/handsome to the parent? It is, after all, reasonable to point out that both are harmless cosmetic adjustments. (And why note that a parent has a right to have one cosmetic surgery but be a hypocrite and say that the same parent does not have the right to have another.)

Can a parent have a harmless lip-reduction done on a child? Or how about removing the nipples on boys? I ask because some parents do have these surgeries done... and it seems you are fine with them...because they do not leave trauma.

Also, we can speculate a bit on the extent of damage, but damage to the body does rewire the brain. You blind a man, you just don't take his sight, his brain rewires to the physical trauma...

Some studies suggest that ripping an infant's dick skin off creates aggressive tendencies later in life. Do I "have an idea of" how far that damage or violence caused might be. No. But we all DO know that physical trauma does propagate violence.

And removing some of the earlobe is not like removing all of the foreskin. All the earlobe and all the foreskin. Just because you leave actual dick skin, that doesn't equate to the foreskin...

>> ^SDGundamX:

@<a rel="nofollow" href="http://videosift.com/member/Lawdeedaw" title="member since May 3rd, 2010" class="profilelink">Lawdeedaw
Read the link I posted if you'd like to know how to get rid of your scar. It explains the procedure pretty clearly (and is apparently painless).
I understand that you don't believe ear piercing and male circumcision are equivalent. That doesn't mean they aren't equivalent, though. You just don't agree with me, just as I don't agree with you that circumcision is akin to chopping off earlobes. I'd say shaving the earlobes a little bit would be a better comparison and I suppose it is just a quirk of fate that such a cosmetic change is not considered aesthetically pleasing by any particular cultural group. So, on that point I think we're pretty much at a draw.
As to your second point, it doesn't matter that "you have no idea what happens" to the brain during a circumcision. The medical consensus is that it isn't harmful physiologically or psychologically to children. If there's no evidence, how can you legislate against it? You have no idea if eating apples causes cancer, do you? There's no medical evidence for it. Do you see my point here? Saying "you have no idea what happens" isn't a defensible argument in any way.
My primary concern is the medical consequences of the procedure. If there are none (and there don't appear to be so far--who knows what they'll find in the future) and if the process is reversible (which, if you read the link I posted apparently it is) then I don't see the need to legislate against it other than because of someone's Don Quixotic profound interest in interfering with how other people live their lives. There are far better and more serious issues to campaign for than this.

A helmet's a pretty good idea even if there were no cars at all. It really doesn't take much of a blow to the head to kill you or rewire your brains wrong.

>> ^Payback:

Most of you keep talking about how the road needs to be perfectly flat. Well, they don't. Otherwise the concrete pads of the interstates would need to be perfectly flat. These are 3x3 squares. Every video game character you play is made up of squares and triangles. A spiked ridge between the LED/P-V "pucks" would take care of any water caused splipping.
Just because you can find fault with the guy's "ultimate" roadway, a ton of the ideas could be implemented without full conversion.
How about using those LED/P-V pucks on highways to merely to show where the lanes are at night? They could "pave" the centre and shoulder areas to provide power for streetlights and not affect the traffic surface.


You could also have dynamic road deployment and redeployment. Need to rewire your entire highways system for an evacuation? No problem, reconfigure all signage and postings to make all available roads outgoing only, now, short of the likely bottlenecks, you have doubled your outbound traffic ability. Really, the sky is the limit. Any level of smartness to the roads brings with in untold innovation. The physical problems seem very manageable and knowable, but the benefits are easily hidden and largely unrealized. The potential is mind blowing though. Solar powered streets and buildings just makes to much since not to try and make work. So much free energy in these already used places, we just need the means to effectively harvest it, and this seems like a great idea, in any final form it takes. It is worth mentioning that glass is non-crystalline. Meaning it can flex and bend over time. Look at any old house and the windows are thicker on the bottom then the top. So it can deal with gradual gradient changes, how well is a matter of engineering.

One argument that he deconstructs is the "cells are replaced so we're not even the same body" argument. Surprisingly, he doesn't mention that brain cells have traditionally been held NOT to do so, though this may have been an abandoned argument in light of recent studies that suggest some regrowth\repair may be possible.

Cells are indeed replaced quite quickly at the periphery of our body, like the limbs, the stomach/intestine (remember that they technically face the exterior!!), but cells in mission critical organs like the brain and the heart are not repaired when they die, most of the time. Yes, in the brain cells are replaced and pathways are rewired, although with inevitable change, but the heart remains mostly the same, always beating. Thus even a minor heart problem can be crippling and irreversible. That's also why bypass surgery is sometimes the only solution when an artery attached to the heart becomes clogged (a recent study showed 40% regeneration of heart tissue over 70 years, while we thought 0% some years ago).

It's also been suggested that consciousness is all post-hoc. That everything we experience has already happened, even if it's fractions of the second later. That we "feel" like we've made decisions but really we're just experiencing the machinations of the brain's processes after the fact. This works pretty well for dualism, because then you no longer have to account for influence on the process. (However, it blows a hole through the theories of most dualists, who are arguing for a soul and the free will that accompanies it.)

If we look closely, we can see it cannot be otherwise. What you call "consciousness" here is really "conscious awareness", the intertwining of consciousness and awareness. Consciousness is intentional, though not really causal, and awareness is plainly passive. Consciousness is really like a recursive loop program, which has a variable (the object that is aimed at) which can refer to any kind of object in the world, be it the mental world or the perceptual, outside world. Consciousness cannot then be said to be responsible of the actions that follow it aiming at an object, nor can it be said strictly to be choosing what to aim at, but what we know is that this is where our illusion of freedom comes from: the selecting of objects to be aimed at intentionally. No doubt part of it is unconscious, like when you turn your head after seeing something move on your peripheral vision, but since consciousness is recursive, it must be able to change the reference of its own variable. That does not mean it has absolute freedom in choosing the new reference, in fact it can't be since we're not omnipotent, but it must have a means to do so, otherwise the very existence of self-awareness would be useless. If consciousness was strictly determined by the "outside" i.e. by external processes from elsewhere in the brain, then consciousness + awareness would not give rise to the kind of self-awareness that is evident in higher mammals. As we know, evolution does not do things for no reason, i.e. it must have a purpose, which gives an adaptation benefit. Here the adaptation benefit could be that by doing this we can reflect on some of our own thought processes and can influence their course (by "concentrating" on them, making them the aim of our intentional consciousness). It may also be that we can broaden our intentional objects to things which are not in our immediate senses/memory, i.e. imagination.

You are right though that dualism is not that easily dismissed, but it is always in the end shown to be either naïve, unfounded or plainly superfluous (i.e. useless per Ockham's razor).