Sorry, I've tasted vegetarian bacon and it simply doesn't measure up. Even the seitan fake bacon, which is close, lacks the proper crispness and flavor.

I fully support anyone's choice to make the sacrifice to their lifestyle by skipping animal products, but even the best fake meat alternatives do not completely measure up to the real ones in taste and texture.

Everything dies and, outside of the 'civilized' food chain, most every creature dies from old age or by being eaten (sometimes while still alive). If I were to go into a cage full of lions, I don't think they would have a crisis of conscience over my level of sentience in deciding whether or not to eat me.

The one's in the 40's that were in line behind the last person allowed in each year based on the numbers they allow in per country were too late. Yes.
I think most Jews that illegally immigrated to Palestine in the 30's didn't come from Germany.
Yes. Those that fled in the 30's were only fleeing fear, not actual attack. Those that fled in the late 30's and 40's were mostly fleeing actual attack. It is somewhat shameful that we didn't recognize what was happening and let more in, but that has little to do with Israel.
Before the massive illegal immigration of the 30's, Arab and Jewish Palestinians treated each other equally well. After the influx of millions of Jews, illegally, against protest by the non Jewish populations, there were problems created by both sides, but the Jewish side was the invader side, the Palestinian side was the 'native' side. And, as you say, the Invading Jewish Palestinians were the minority, but took all the power in the area, by force. They had far more money than the Palestinian side, and more access to weapons, and took advantage of those advantages.
Again, Holocaust survivors are only owed something from GERMANY. The Palestinians did NOTHING to them, yet they are the one's who've had their land and autonomy taken, and have been forced to live in a walled off refugee camp for decades by the invaders.
Yes, the surrounding countries banded together because they saw the invaders would continue to invade and expand into their territory, they were 100% right. Sadly, the US supported Israel and made it a one sided fight in favor of the invaders.
The Nazis were not fighting invaders, they were invaders, fighting a 'race' (more than one really) at home and fighting an expansionist war of aggression...sounds familliar.
Not taking up arms and invading would have seen Jews still alive and well in the area, but not in absolute control, not expanding their control, and not in such numbers. They had been there for centuries. Only when the millions more invaded and seized power to create an exclusionary religious state and displace and subjugate the locals was there a problem.

The Jews were not fleeing anything but fear in the 30s...or came too late and missed the cutoff.

So, the Jews that fled in the 30s weren't legitimately fleeing anything but fear, and the Jews that fled after the 30s weren't legitimate because they waited until too late. Gotcha.

Perhaps you came closer to summarizing your position earlier:
Perhaps if those Jews were still in Europe fighting against the Nazis, they wouldn't have made it out of Germany.

Historically, there is a zero percent chance that more Jewish fighters in Europe could've kept the Nazi's from making it out of Germany. Worse, the ambiguity of your sentence also suggests that maybe your suggesting that if the Jews had stayed in Europe fighting, it was them that wouldn't have made it out of Germany, which would be quite correct.

You are making it very difficult to interpret your view in any kind of positive light. Despite the fact that one of the greatest genocides in history was about to hit them and their children, you insist that Jews fleeing in 30s were fleeing "nothing but fear". More over, you seem adamant in defending the notion that as the holocaust survivors landed in Palestine and were being looked after by existing Jewish Palestinians, it is they and they alone that were the aggressors in Palestine. It is well established history that BOTH Arab and Jewish Palestinians treated each other equally poorly through the 30s and 40s. More over, the Jewish Palestinians remained the minority. I'm inclined to lend a bit of understanding to an aggressive response from holocaust survivors yet again facing repression and saying NO! Doubly so when upon accepting a 2 state solution, all the surrounding nations of the middle east jointly declared war upon them with the declared intent of driving the Jews into the sea. It was only 2 years prior that the whole of Europe was controlled by Nazis trying to do the same thing. What can be realistically expected of the Jewish refugees in Palestine? Fighting kept them alive, in Palestine and I find it hard to fathom an alternate history were laying down arms would've seen any Jews still alive in the area,

I bow to your superior knowledge.



Which doesn't have to be much, as I know less than Jon Snow even when he was still alive.

The camper van we rented in Brisbane to drive to Darwin had a bull bar and a downward deflecting heavy screen just along the bottom of the windshield. We wondered why until we got to the other side of Longreach and saw the aftermath of a big red kangaroo going through the windshield of a panel van, still alive and kicking - kicking enough in its panic to kill the driver as it thrashed about trying to get away from it's predicament. The down angled heavy screen is to 'deflect' the road vermin down away from the cab and windshield. Not as much fun as hitting a moose, but fun nontheless.

Still alive after four days of too much info to process and too little sleep. So I'll just dump a list of talks here that might interest you:

- Richard Stallman: Freedom in your computer and in the net
- Jake Appelbaum/Laura Poitras: Assassination lists, planetary surveillance
- Tobias Engel/Karsten Nohl: SS7, the backbone of mobile networks, is fucked beyond repair (two talks, same topic: one, two)
- Laura Poitras and others: cryptography for high-profile journalists
- Bill Scannel: Inside Field Station Berlin Teufelsberg (NSA spy post - wierd talk)
- internet of toilets
- What Ever Happened to Nuclear Weapons?

"Burning behind me is eight and a half tonnes of heroin, opium, hashish and other narcotics which have been stolen from their rightful owners and destroyed in an act of vandalism so tremendous it amounts to a crime against humanity.

In this much larger pyre lie the smouldering corpses of those responsible. After witnessing the execution of their spouses and children, their skin was carefully flayed from their bodies, their eyes and genitals were removed and their bones were slowly ground into powder."

(Cut to footage of thousands of terrified people being herded toward a gigantic concrete pit. Bulldozers force them over the edge as the narration continues:)

"Those who enter first die quickly. Eventually their bodies cushion the fall of those behind, who are suffocated and crushed in their turn by the weight of ever more flesh."

(Cut to the pit being capped and sealed, the cries of those still alive inside are abruptly silenced. Zoom out to reveal dozens more exactly alike beside it; further to show the vast complex of huts and barbed wire fences, train lines and guard towers built to accommodate the multitude who pour in every day.)

"Each pit has a capacity of one million. There are sixty here and this is the correction centre of just one minor country. Thousands more are under construction worldwide."

Maybe he got so high he saw a better world. Of course he couldn't stop giggling.

For the anthropic principle to be a legitimate way of dealing with fine tuning, there needs to be a multiverse, but there is no evidence for a multiverse. Even if there was a multiverse, as the video pointed out, the Universe generator would be even more finely tuned than this one. You would have to explain the fine tuning of the Universe generator before you could dismiss the fine tuning in this Universe. Even still, the anthropic principle is not adequate to rule out design to begin with. I found an argument which explains why it is not adequate. The anthropic principle has a couple of basic principles in it:

1. we should not be surprised that we do not observe features of the universe which are incompatible with our own existence.

2. We should not be surprised that we do observe features of the universe which are compatible with our existence.

For although the object of surprise in (2) might at first blush appear to be simply the contrapositive of the object of surprise in (1), this is mistaken. This can be clearly seen by means of an illustration (borrowed from John Leslie): suppose you are dragged before a firing squad of 100 trained marksmen, all of them with rifles aimed at your heart, to be executed. The command is given; you hear the deafening sound of the guns. And you observe that you are still alive, that all of the 100 marksmen missed! Now while it is true that

3. You should not be surprised that you do not observe that you are dead,

nonetheless it is equally true that

4. You should be surprised that you do observe that you are alive.

Since the firing squad's missing you altogether is extremely improbable, the surprise expressed in (4) is wholly appropriate, though you are not surprised that you do not observe that you are dead, since if you were dead you could not observe it. Similarly, while we should not be surprised that we do not observe features of the universe which are incompatible with our existence, it is nevertheless true that

5. We should be surprised that we do observe features of the universe which are compatible with our existence

O wow, long time no sift, sorry. Once my account got locked at work, I just never visited anymore.

But I got to head out to the rocket center for the random acts of intelligence show, it was pretty awesome. All the video here is just from one of the 2 building...so ya, worth a trip!

The Saturn was more amazing than I had imagined. I always knew it was big, but seeing it sprawled out on the ceiling is indescribable. Imagine a 30 story building filled with explosives, lit on fire and hurling itself into space...because that is what this is. I have lots of pictures if people want to see, I will surely share them.

Glad to see sift is still alive and well. The sift, specifically a video by @dag, basically changed the course of my life and I am now pursing a degree in nuclear engineering, so thanks for that. Anyway, if I can figure out a way to change my name, perhaps I can once again partake of some sift action.

it's been a really bad week for my back and lots of meds have been needed, which impairs my math skills. My mistake there...and I've retracted that....and I apologize.

It's no problem. It's completely understandable for what you're going through over there. I'll say a prayer for you and your family. Hopefully some pain free days are coming your way soon.

Doing the math correctly, I see you ARE right that it's about 400 times the distance.
But they (and so you) are wrong that it's 400 times the "size". You are right that the radiuses/diameters are a ratio of 400-1. That's different from size, even 2d size.
It may seem semantical, but to me it's an important distinction. This is what I took issue with mostly, since I was CERTAIN the actual "size" (in 3D) is no where near a ratio of 400-1, but closer to 64 million -1. Even in 2D it's nothing like 400-1.

Point taken..you were just trying to be accurate in the way the terms were defined.

Also, I'm not intentionally ignoring your point, it is an interesting fact that the ratios are close, but only coincidental IMO, certainly not 'proof' of anything supernatural.
EDIT: even if they were a perfect ratio, it would only suggest a physical law of motion we don't know or fully understand yet.
I would be interested to see a list of other planets and their moons to see if any other planet/moon (or combination of moons) in our solar system shows the same ratios. Neither answer would make me think anything supernatural however, it's just not that kind of question in my eyes.

Taken by itself, it is an extraordinary coincidence if you deem it as such. Yet, when you pile on the many other factors that have to line up for us to have life here, I find coincidence isn't the appropiate word. Now, some say that because it is such a huge Universe, there are bound to be planets like these (which isn't proven, btw)..and we shouldn't be surprised to find ourselves on one of them because we would expect to find conditions which allow for our existence, given that we exist. I don't think that is a persausive argument.

There is a good analogy about this that I borrowed from the net:

"Suppose you are to be executed by a firing squad of 100 trained marksmen, all of them aiming rifles at your heart. You are blindfolded; the command is given; you hear the deafening roar of the rifles. And you observe that you are still alive. The 100 marksmen missed!"

Taking off the blindfold, you do not observe that you are dead. No surprise there: you could not observe that you are dead. Nonetheless, you should be astonished to observe that you are alive. The entire firing squad missed you altogether! Surprise at that extremely improbable fact is wholly justified - and that calls for an explanation. You would immediately suspect that they missed you on purpose, by design."

Your video, Actual Cannibal Shia LeBeouf ~ Live... and Still Alive!, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

You may get a kick out of Shia LeBeouf Live
http://videosift.com/video/Actual-Cannibal-Shia-LeBeouf-Live-and-Still-Alive

Oh man, that moment when the board starts to wiggle.. Scary feeling and you can't stop that vibration once it starts, you know it's bail time.

I had to once bail from 50km/h back in the eighties, the moment my feet touched the ground on that speed, man... I took two strides and went over ten meters with each and they HURT, "BLAM, BLAM".. But staid upright, small scrapes from tunnel wall and very very sore soles. Didn't go for top speed after that one. Speed was measured as there were a very busy roadway parallel and the minimum speed is 50km/h in that point, usually more.. And we were passing cars... No helmets, no kneepads, just fingerless gloves, t-shirt and jeans. It is a small miracle i'm still alive.

Do you hear yourself? " If I disagree with something a BLACK person does, how come I'm a racist"

Maybe because you keep referring to them as black as a negative.

Maybe they're just people and not black people. You say we're playing the race card, but we're not the one making sweeping generalizations about how the looters were young black males, you did that.

Not to mention the desperate need by you to conflate the shooting and the looting as a single event. The shooting and the looting are two separate events, sure one is happening because of the other but they are still separate events. The inference by the racists is that apparently only black people loot and never other people and we know this to not be true.

You're picking and choosing which evidence you believe to be reliable and if what you claim is true and you're a cop so you're anything but unbiased. Hell even Bob of all people admitted that not all the facts are in and that some of the evidence doesn't look favorable for the shooter. If even Bob can admit it, why can't you? Because you're biased that's why. It's standard "I want it to be true, therefore it is true" mentality.

All the "leftists" (another term used with negative connotations) are saying is that racism exists and is still alive and well. Even if this shooting turns out to not be racially motivated. It still highlights the underlying problem. People don't trust cops and as you are so fond of saying, that trust and respect has to be earned, not mandated. I know you wouldn't begrudge the population taking possibly violent measures against an organization that is perceived to be tyrannical, now would you. Because otherwise you'd be a hypocrite and we wouldn't want that now would we.

But hey, don't take my word for it, just keep hurling insults and sweeping generalizations when people don't agree with you and you get mad and go into sour grapes mode and change your argument and use other distractions. It's worked out for you so well so far.

Physics works and I'm still alive.