Hey Net, I agree with you and am in pretty much the same area as you... I would like, however, to point out what runs your opponents' mindset. Fear. Now, remember, fear is natural and is even necessary to survival. We are running into the problem of a world with finate resources, and that world is getting ever smaller. America is losing its once mighty grip on the things we have had for so long we assumed we were entitled to the wealth.

Now, blame is thrown all around except back at those who hurried along the process to begin with (Voters and their demands for low taxes and high services... Humans and their undending need to consume, etcetera...) So, social security has been raided to pay, money borrowed, etcetera. The Oceans overfished. Dead zones. Farm land is being compacted... Our debt is soaring... And the piper has to be paid at some point.

We must realize all our blank checks were foolish. This cannot be blamed on the half-black president--though he is a reasonable target. This must be blamed on our grandparents and parents and so on and so forth. And of course--us! Most of our generation does not undersand why things happen the way they do and yet, they are all about fixes... Sad...

>> ^NetRunner:
@<A rel="nofollow" class=profilelink title="member since June 27th, 2008" href="http://videosift.com/member/Winstonfield_Pennypacker">Winstonfield_Pennypacker, @<A rel="nofollow" class=profilelink title="member since August 1st, 2008" href="http://videosift.com/member/GeeSussFreeK">GeeSussFreeK, if the President asks for something from someone, and they voluntarily agree to it, how is it some sort of breach of executive power? He didn't exert any legal authority at all.
For example, BP's own press release says they agreed to establish the fund.
Now, if you guys have some sort of actual evidence that BP was resistant until Obama threatened them, making this a coercive agreement, bring it forth.
Otherwise you're just making bullshit accusations based on your own misguided ideas of who Obama is, based on lies trumped up by the propaganda arms of the corporate overlords (i.e. conservative media) to make it seem like BP is some sort of victim in all this.

...well there you go "trickle downers", you've been given the ability to open your wings and soar, allowing you to bring the rest of America with you, yet it seems the only trickle down we've received is a white turd on our blue collars...

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Swimwear, brazilian model, laura soares, maxim, playboy, sexy, lalatinmodel, bik' to 'banned, redacted' - edited by burdturgler

And THAT folks, is the caliber of person, who can bring a major institution, of a major goverment, to a halt, ponder, and pray, on a good reason. Mr. Kennedy is soarly missed in my state. The guy filling his shoes, isn't even one billionth, the man, Mr. Kennedy was on his bad days, let alone his good ones. He would have been very happy to see that bill passed. And I've no doubt, Heaven smiled upon our great nation when it did.

I can't believe I just watched the whole video. I was mesmerized.
Videos like these always make me so appreciative of technology.
That amazing winged metal giant soaring is truly beautiful.

obamarx escalated the war in Afghanistan, didn't get gay marriage in the military, didn't close gitmo, didn't get communist health care passed. He's also had both the deficit and unemployment soar under his flopsweat reign. So I guess not everyone on the left gets what they want from their elected officials, either, do they?

Union-shill Grayson is up for reelection this year. I'll be sure to send $$$ to whomever is running against him, even if it's the Great Pumpkin, who has a smaller head.


press release
Statement Regarding Pat Robertson's Comments on Haiti

CBN.com – VIRGINIA BEACH, Va., January 13, 2010 -- On today’s The 700 Club, during a segment about the devastation, suffering and humanitarian effort that is needed in Haiti, Dr. Robertson also spoke about Haiti’s history. His comments were based on the widely-discussed 1791 slave rebellion led by Boukman Dutty at Bois Caiman, where the slaves allegedly made a famous pact with the devil in exchange for victory over the French. This history, combined with the horrible state of the country, has led countless scholars and religious figures over the centuries to believe the country is cursed. Dr. Robertson never stated that the earthquake was God’s wrath. If you watch the entire video segment, Dr. Robertson’s compassion for the people of Haiti is clear. He called for prayer for them. His humanitarian arm has been working to help thousands of people in Haiti over the last year, and they are currently launching a major relief and recovery effort to help the victims of this disaster. They have sent a shipment of millions of dollars worth of medications that is now in Haiti, and their disaster team leaders are expected to arrive tomorrow and begin operations to ease the suffering.

Chris Roslan
Spokesman for CBN

Well,

d = vi t + 1/2 a t^2
828 = (0)t + 1/2(9.81)t^2
1656 = 9.81t^2
168.80733945 = t^2
t = 12.992587866

So yes, without drag, it would take about 13 seconds to fall that distance. (http://xkcd.com/669/)

However, BASE jumpers deal with a lot of drag. From http://www.stealingaltitude.com/BASE_JumpingFAQ.htm#13 :

"On average, a normally clothed average-weighted BASE jumper freefalling from a 500 foot building will impact in about 6 seconds. In this scenario most jumpers I knew would take a "delay" of two or three seconds before opening the parachute.

According to BASEjumper.com the current unofficial record is a two minute freefall made by Yuri Kuznetsov in the summer of 2005. He used a wingsuit to achieve this incredible feat, I don't know where the jump was or how high the jump started.

The development of the wingsuit (originally intended for skydiving) in the 1990s brought a freefall revolution in BASE jumping. The wingsuit allows jumpers to make incredibly long freefall descents along sloping mountains and cliffs, soaring like birds of prey, falling at half the normal terminal velocity. For reference, consider this: prior to the wingsuit, jumpers making outlaw leaps off of Half Dome could freefall for just under ten seconds before opening very low, near impact, over the rocky, sloping talos. Today, an experienced wingsuit flyer leaping from Half Dome can soar over 50 seconds, maneuvering over the talos and down mountainside itself until reaching the valley below. NOTE: parachuting in Yosemite National Park is strictly illegal and heavily enforced."

>> ^jbaber:
Cecil Adams' take on it.


That is an incredibly small minded, limited view of things. It's virtually quoting exactly what suntzu said - if we're not getting a jam banana why are we there?

God i despair of people that argue that we SHOULDN'T expand, shouldn't reach out, shouldn't shoot, quite literally, for the fucking stars. The one thing that marks our generation to make it stand out above all other generations is our fucking apathy towards everything. Depression levels soar. We're all content to be working 40 hours a week in an officeblock as another faceless tool lining someone's pocket - who, we will never know. I feel like we insult our evolutionary forefathers with our lack of desire to try, to excell and to strive.

This cunt says "It will take 5000 years to reach other solar systems with next generation propulsion systems due to the limitations of the universe." And then he says "But never say never, we may find a way to circumvent them - but not in a rickety space bucket."

It's a self defeating idea. Don't go into space until we can conquer all of space. And then how will we learn how to conquer space? AGAIN historically, if we had said "Well i've made a boat, but it'd take me a year to sail around the world in it, so forget it, destroy the boat and don't bother with it anymore until we have a cruise liner that can carry millions of tonnes around the planet in days."

How does this douche milkshake think we get from something that is inadequate to something that exceeds all expectations? By sitting there with our thumbs up our arses? Or is it by trial, error, experimentation, understanding, observation, refinement, followed by a brilliant idea on how to improve it?

>> ^longde:
Everytime I think the Japanese have reached the pinnacles of objectification of women, they soar to new heights.


Of note, that isn't a woman. Was the pokey face of mario 64 intro an objectification of superhero plumbers?

Everytime I think the Japanese have reached the pinnacles of objectification of women, they soar to new heights.

[wind noises]

If I could sample the wind, I would loop it

And let my life poem flow over its sacred beats.

Using Kilimanjaro as my djembe I would drum rainbows out of the moonlight and use them as hooks in between verses; verses of little girls spinning ropes in opposite directions, waiting for an opening to jump in.

As the world turns, double dutch, I jump, double time over oceans and back; the water waves and I wave back.

Rippling echoes of "sunshii-ii-iine" - folks get ground in the "sunshii-ii-iine."

But the lightning flaaash three times and its time for the chorus which includes corn bread, candy yams, and all that good stuff, which black folks on Saturn are made of.

As we approach the second verse the roots of trees are plucked from bass lines, which resonate and shake the earth -- devastating everything that's not built in harmony in it.

The second verse is a journey through the ruins of ruined souls; that valued all that was nothing, and nothing of the all-knowing ever flowing wind - which is the undercurrent of this current blowing, the funky drummer from here to eternity.

But even as ruined souls backspin, the wind mills forward and rocks steady 'till the sun hits the fader and the chorus kicks in; then the moon yells "Go!" and we all backspin -- ZULU! As the moonlight shines true blue silvery indigo light my spirit takes flight - because the moonlight is my indigo; indigo ON, to the break of dawn, I rock rock steady steady 'till the early morn, word is bond I'm talking about seeing your nature in nature innate in your nature - New York states of mind did not create ya.

Not until you listen to Rakim on a rocky mountain top have you heard hip-hop.

Extract the urban element that created it and let an open wide countryside let us illustrate it.

Riding in a freight train listening to Coltrane and my reality went insane and I think I saw Jesus; he was playing hop-scotch with Betty Carter who was cursing him out in a scat-like-gibberish for not saying "Butterfingers."

And like the grains of sand, like the seeds of time, the pains of Man, the frames of mind which built these frames which is the structure of my urban superstructure. The trains and planes can corrupt and obstruct your train of thought so that you forget how to walk through the woods which ain't good, 'cause if you never walked through the trees listening to 'Nobody Beats The Biz' you ain't never heard hip-hop.. and you don't stop, and you don't stop, and you don't...

STOP lettin' cities define you, confine you to that which is cement and brick.

We are not a hard peoples, our domes have been crowned with the likes of steeples. That which is our being soars with the eagles, and the Jonathon Livingston seagulls - Yes - I got wings, you got wings, we all got to got wings!

So let's widen the circumference of our nest, and escape this urban incubator -

You see, the wind plays the world like an instrument; blows through trees like flutes but trees don't grow in cement. And as heartbeats bring percussion, fallen trees bring repercussions; cities play upon our souls like broken drums, we drum the essence of creation from city slums - but city slums mute our drums and our drums become humdrum, 'cause city slums have never been where our drums are from - just the place where our daughters and sons become, off-beat heartbeats, slaves to city streets, where hearts get broken and heart beats stop - broken heart beats become break beats for niggas to rhyme on top, but they rhyme about... NOTHIN'.

You don't got nothin' to rhyme about 'cause you've never seen the moon, your styles can't be universal if you're not in tune, with the... [wind noises]

Didn't he say in the Wolf Blizter interview that the balloon managed to get loose and soar up with no one around? Also, wouldn't it have been obvious if a kid was in the balloon as it went up? That thing looks flimsy as heck.

"Automatically soaring penis"?

This thread is all about people who can deal with complexity and nuance, and those who can't.

Was there ever a cop-out so easy to make and so devoid of pith? I trow not. It is ever so when those pesky, nasty, mean old facts and logic end up troubling the counsels of the followers of a pied piper. The persons unable to grasp nuance and complexity in this debate are the ones who are blindly following Obama, and taking everything he says at face value. Obama is in trouble. His numbers are dropping horribly. He's lost the support of the public, and his own party is wobbling.

Last night was not a speech for the public (who he's lost). Not was it a request for Republican cooperation (which he doesn't need). Last night was a warning shot at democrats who are getting nervous at how much the public is against this vague, undefined, secretive, expensive, socialistic bill.

"The time for bickering is over..." That was aimed smack dab at his own party to shut their pie-holes, line up, ignore their angry constituants, and goose-step where he tells them to go. Obama is telling the eroding Democrats in his party anything/everything he thinks he needs to say in order to give them just enough CYA to cram his bill through over the objections of the people. In doing so he's trying to get the entire country to ignore the details. He's trying to soar his bill through with rhetoric alone, and he's hoping there are enough Obama-zombies out there to make it work without too much political blowback.

Obama's claim that the bills do not cover illegals is window dressing. There is more than enough evidence and historical precedent to lend credence to the accusation that the bill will end up covering illegals as sure as the sun rises. I'm sure Obama really BELEVES that just because it 'says it' in the bill then that means the issue has been dealt with. Actually taking the time and effort to make his bogus claims reality is for his minions and flunkies to deal with at some unknown future time...

That was the best part of a great concert. Much love for Wil Wheaton. Gamers couldn't ask for a better spokesman, unofficial or otherwise.

I just hope he didn't catch the H1Nerd1 virus.