You'd need to have either the right types of atom or electron energy level transitions that correspond to ... well, how many colours do we want? I can't be bothered putting in the work to find out if that's true about air.

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

Wow, pretty Scifi stuff. I didn't think a screenless display would be possible without fog or droplets or something. Neat. Don't see how they could ever do colour though.

"People are going not for a drug high, but for real healing"

Really? 'cos I saw a bunch of people getting high.

I have no problem with people getting high*, but don't lie to yourself and call it "healing". Just say "I want to get fucked up and see pretty colours", and I'll say "that's cool, man. go fucking nuts".

But there was nothing in this video that showed anyones life being changed or addiction being healed.

* with the usual caveats of consenting adult, not driving or doing anything that depends on making clear headed decisions, etc.

Burden or gridlock. Those are subjective terms that connote a desire to catch up. Catching up helps no one involved in law enforcement.

They terms you should look for are "Artifacts and metrics".

Every department must spend more than it did last year. This year's funding is what it is because of what was spent last year. Next year's funding depends on what will be spent this year.

A lack of funding leads to downsizing and furloughs. Best way to secure funding for next year is to spend this year.

Money has colours. You get different charge codes for different actions.
Some charge codes are considered low pri / overhead. Others are considered necessary. If you're charging mostly overhead, and very little necessary, you have bad metrics. If you charge mostly towards necessary and little to overhead, you have good metrics.

Police have to arrest/charge people to look productive. That generates metrics showing that police are needed. If they can make sure to spend at least as much money on enforcement this year as last year, their jobs are secured. A department that's mostly sitting around, is a department that is not critical, and can get a budgetary cut.
So long as police are employed, they will find people to arrest/charge/ticket/whatever. Even if they have to stretch for it.

The same situation applies in court. Prosecutors are looking to maximize their convictions metrics. Their job is to get people convicted. It's not that they /want/ to convict people. That's simply how they charge their time, and how they get good metrics.

Judges don't necessarily care how a case goes. They simply want to charge as much time to judging as possible.

Actually "catching up" serves the interests of no one. And it's not that people are sitting down saying "Hey, how can I make myself look necessary". Some people do, sure. But most people are simply thinking "I gotta stay/look busy".

The "system" takes care of getting things to run amok.
Everyone stays busy so they can charge productive looking time codes, so they don't get scolded by management or downsized.
Departments spend all their allocated money so they don't get under funded.
Analytically, it looks like they are saturated, so they get more funding, and bring on more people.
The new people need to stay busy, and the cycle repeats.
The beast grows.

In effect, burden and gridlock are the food that keeps the beast fed.

This isn't simply a law enforcement issue. It's how government works. Every program makes it a goal to spend all of their funding, and look as busy as possible. No one wants to be cut, and looking like you're not busy is an easy way to be 'it' when there is a cut.

Rememer : All money is spent on payroll.
You don't pay the earth for anything.
If you buy materials, that's simply paying the payroll for the material supplier.
The entire cost of anything, is the total cost of all employees.
The only way to ever reduce costs, is to reduce how much someone makes.
Either by cutting the amount paid, or by cutting jobs.
Every year there's talk of reigning in government spending.
That means that every year, there's talk of cutting jobs.

TBH, newtboy, I don't know your background, or how much experience you have around government crap. I donno if this all sounds like a joke, but it really is this stupid.

-scheherazade

@lucky760 The issue I take with what Harris is doing is that whenever he wants to use an example of something that is 'bad', he tends to use an example of something done in the 'muslim world'. There's no argument that there are plenty of bad ideas coming from Islam (which Cenk states several times), but Harris is biased in how he uses his examples (he always seems to dip from the same well), so it seems very clear that he has an agenda. Whether that agenda is to sell books, or for some other reason I don't know.

To understand him better, I would recommend watching more of his video's, you will see what I mean.

The other thing going on here is that Maher has already made up his mind about Islam/Muslims being extrememists before anything is said. You can easily tell this by watching who he interrupts. Ben gets constantly interrupted whenever he tries to say anything - Harris does not - it's just like watching Fox. He's not interesting in listening to reason, he has decided what he believes and if any guest tries to disagree with him then good luck trying to get a full sentence out.

@JiggaJonson are you sure about your definitions? Try reading article 4 of the United Nations Human Rights "International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination". I'll put the important part of their definition of racial descrimination here for you.

it includes "all propaganda and all organizations which are based on ideas or theories of superiority of one race or group of persons of one colour or ethnic origin"

The important part there is that it includes ethnicity, and there is no distinction between the two. So in essence, those trying to call out @billpayer for using the term incorrectly... have not educated themselves on what the term means.

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CERD.aspx

He didn't say all...

He said, and I quote "these pieces of shit", pretty clearly meaning 'police officers who abuse their position of power similar to the guy in the video clip'...

Then you had to turn it in to a racist issue. Because criminality is simply because of the colour of ones skin, not due to socio-economic factors or prejudices that still exist in US society against black people. /drippingwithsarcasm

I find it incredibly disturbing that a white Australian has a better idea of how things work than a US (ex?) police officer. It goes a long way to explaining how 'incidents' like the one shown in the video occur...

And yes, it is awesome that the proliferation of cheap recording devices constantly catches these pieces of shit out. Or do you want to keep criminals on the force?

No lumping of racists was done.
I suggested that as a member of a group you can be complicit in racist attitudes (ever made a remark about asian's being good at math for example?)
It can be incredibly subtle, I'll admit I've done that sort of micro aggression shit before, I'm no angel.
As per my last response, if you are more upset by the phrase "white people often treat black people badly" because it implies that as a white person, you might often treat black people badly then I've got great news, you aren't a racist! But you do seem to care more about implicit, quite general remarks to your character than actual racial injustice, (ie: job discrimination and police brutality on the basis on skin colour) which might be food for thought.

Straight up yes, just because your skin colour is white, doesn't mean you will be treated as a prince, I never intended to insinuate that at all, just look at the position of women throughout history, oppression works through many levels, class, sex, race, nationality, the list goes on, and I was only referring to race, and I should have really been writing in a manner which acknowledges intersections of oppression, so my bad, and good job chaos engine for calling out this failing.
This next thing is what bothers me, despite the anger and the vitriol expressed in this thread, all seem to agree with my central thesis of "don't diminish oppression which you don't experience" and "don't get your underwear in a twist when someone generalises about an oppressive group"

for example, I am English, and I will never try to diminish the perception of oppression that Irish faced, and still face today at the hands of the English. What's more if an Irish person says to me that the English treat them terribly, I would have to agree, throughout history and now, we have.

And this is the real crux: if an oppressed group says that another group that you belong to is oppressive, the proper reaction isn't go "OH I'M NOT LIKE THE OTHERS, PLEASE GIVE ME A GOLD STAR MR. OPPRESSED, ALSO SAYING THAT IS ACTUALLY RACIST/NATIONALIST/WHATEVER". The proper response is listen, so you can treat that person better, and hey if you are one of the good guys that stands up for oppressed groups good for you!, be happy with the notion that you are a good person, and not unhappy because you didn't get a pat on the back from said oppressed groups

Sup.
A lot of assumptions going on here, while I initially drew on the near constant slaying of black men and women in America, in my closing remarks I wasn't just drawing on the struggle of black people in America, but on the struggles of people of colour throughout history, (In particular I had the Chinese railworkers in mind, along with the British colonial attitudes to Indians when I was writing my comment)

And furthermore there is alot of merit to the responses to my original comment, which I will discuss in a further comment.

"I'm so upset by the relentless state mandated murder of black Americans, that I'm actually somehow more angry and personally hurt about the implication that I may actually be complicit in perpetuating racism and racist attitudes, than the actual problem!"

Racism is institutional first and foremost. Come back to me when white people have a history as being treated as slaves, come back to me when you are considered dirty on mass just for the colour of your skin, come back to me when you struggle to find a job just about anywhere, come back to me when the picture printed of you in a newspaper is one that depicts you as a victim at fault.
Come back to me after you've sat your arse down and listened to the lived experiences of people of colour.
Then you might realise that white people don't have all the answers, and we should shut the fuck up, sit the hell down and listen.

Prejudice is not racism. It's "pre-judging" usually based on facts not in evidence. Racism is a form of prejudice.

Thinking 5 males of South American descent, in a lowered '64 Impala, dressed in similar colours -including bandannas and hoodies- listening to heavy Spanish-influenced gangsta rap, may be police officers going to a masquerade ball, but most people's prejudice would label them as probably gang-related.

Do all of your family talk a lot of empty meaningless crap?

This very vague comment could be applied to literally every arbitrarily selected set of a group - both you and i would be seriously fucked if everyone "stopped caring" about us as we'd have to survive off foraged and grown food/drink and self-built shelter in non-private wild areas. Every day would be a constant struggle to shelter, heat and feed ourselves. That's why we have society where people work with other people for a greater level of overall comfort. Did i really have to explain any of that? (Now imagine you don't get the same share of the overall produce of the society you're in because you've got different coloured hair..... just nevermind)

I love how unspecific the promise of the threat is. There's going to be .... a wake-up call. There's going to be some serious alarm bells people, so just ... just watch out, that's all i'm saying. Cos when this wake-up call happens, everyone will then be awoken, and there's no going back to bed, no lie-ins. But it'll only happen when people in the country "stop caring" about black people - as opposed to every other day when black people are a primary care concern for everyone. Let me point out the obvious that they are only different in their skin colour, they don't radiate psychic concern-potential; you can care about them as much or as little as every other white person you know... unless you're racist.

In what way was i wrong? I said that you made a bias speculation, and you reply with "Wrong again! I actually made a speculation." - Well, that confirms what i said, sans the word bias, obviously because from your point of view you aren't biased. But your ...colourful language betrays you.

The stand-your-ground nonsense doesn't fly in what i consider (that's MY bias, my opinion) more civilised areas. Zimmerman wanted a fight, chased and got the fight he wanted, got out of his depth and killed a man all in the name of self defence. That is absolutely insane to me, but i respect any people's right to self determination; it's why i don't live somewhere that has laws which allow someone to pursue and kill without repercussions. I think you'll find that the law is contentious at best, and is only seen as a shining beacon of justice by racists. Those of us with less bias on those particular matters see it as a tragedy that could have been avoided if a certain person hadn't willingly pursued someone out of a desperate desire to be some kind of rentacop.

I can't quite see the case for why this death is so outrageous. He's a big guy who it appears was physically assaulting an armed police officer. That is never going to end in a discussion and mutual agreement.

Seems like the community overreacted because colours, then the cops massively overreacted in return and demonstrated they have far too large a budget for soldier toys.

Not at all convinced by the ID here. The spider in the video doesn't look a lot like a brazilian wandering spider. The video is from brazil it seems, but they have a lot of other spiders there too.

Wandering spiders are proportionally very different to the spider in this video, and colouration is different too. The one in the video above seems a uniform dark brown/black colour, without any of the bands on the legs that would help ID a wandering spider.

Have a look at this video of an actual wandering spider:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noLn2gK3fzY#t=50