I'm almost never in Sift Talk, but I noticed this too. Used to be that to make the top 15 a video would have to get well over the 10-vote generic "sifted" status, but recently I've seen several occasions when there aren't enough videos with 10+ votes to even fill out the top 15 completely.

I'm not an extremely long-time sifter, I've had an account here for 8 years and lurked for probably a couple before that. But in general, the main reasons that I actually joined the community here when I rarely do anything more than lurk (no facebook / reddit / whatever for me) still apply:

Standard YouTube isn't a community, it is a toxic wasteland. Trolls are the rule, not the exception. By far.

On the Sift, I rarely participate by actually posting videos, but the comments sections on videos here are a massive breath of fresh air compared to other sites (particularly YouTube). That's what drew me here and has kept me here.


That being said, I think we've been losing some of the openness to different opinions that has been a real strength of the sift community. With such a divisive US President, I'm sure some of that is inevitable. But, while we've always been better about that than elsewhere on the internet, I think we're losing some of that advantage.

I think the sift leans left -- not extreme, but noticeably. I used to lean moderately right, although generally more in the middle on social issues. My time on the sift (and also NOT living in the US) has pushed me more to the left, again particularly on social issues, but even on the meat-and-potatoes stuff that I think actually belongs in the realm of government. I'm still to the right of sift average, but closer than I was. Credit for that shift in my viewpoints is definitely in part due to the sane, open-minded, and accommodating debates in comments here.

I recognize that it is hard to be accommodating to some of the sifters that are further to the right than I ever was. A certain basketball coach comes to mind. But even when viewpoints from sources like that veer into territory that we find intolerable, I think we here at the sift used to be better about rationally but firmly voicing disagreement without sort of ... picking a fight. If that makes sense.

Just speaking for myself, I think I've probably been upvoting videos less because a higher percentage of what is being sifted is political, and I get fatigued with the volume of that. That's very much tied in to the current situation and media environment, so there isn't necessarily anything to be done about it, but I'd wager that is partially responsible for the lower traffic beyond just myself.

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."

Yes...you are correct....I either did my distance-math backwards, or missed a button entering the distance to the moon into my calculator...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.
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.

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.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'tortoise, giant tortoise, qi, quite interesting, stephen fry, david mitchell' to 'tortoise, giant, but closer, qi, quite interesting, stephen fry, david mitchell' - edited by calvados

You lost that on Godwin rules.

But seriously I was raised in this so called ideology you claim is so dangerous. Am not practicing muslim and I haven't met anyone who cared if I was or not so far, even though they can act all superior if they are themselves but thats besides the point.

My main complaint is that westerners are claiming Islam is so 'dangerous' without really understanding the people and the faith of close to a billion people in the world. The fastest and largest growing faith on the planet.

This 'dangerous' religion only came under the microscope now after 9/11 where a radical terrorist groups and their originating faith became suddenly a singular group. That's bullshit, its like saying Timothy McVeigh represents Christian Terrorists. No one connected Islam the faith and the radical terrorists before 9/11, but they were there in the first Trade center attack, in Israel, in PLO attacks of the 60s, in Egypt and countless other terrorist attacks.

The faith doesn't have anything to do with it, its being used just as fear is being used through films like that to cut down dialog between people, to incite fear and misunderstanding. Are you really surprised that faith based language is being used to incite conflict? What did George Bush say? Its God that told him to invade Afghanistan and Iraq. He used Christian based language countless times. What do you think those terrorists do? Same shit different words and God. They are simply using the faith as a vehicle to further their own ideas and power, the Taliban is a perfect example of this, they claim to be Islamic, but closer inspection shows that they don't know shit about Islam and impose their own hard line interpretation with Pashtun tribal overtones.

How many innocent Muslims were attacked post 9/11 for being simply Muslim? Since when is Osama Bin Laden or any of those crazy imams representative of the Islamic faith?

Its all about power and pushing people into taking complex topics to basic levels. Wilders only wants to incite hatred and division in Netherlands and gain political momentum off peoples fears, its xenophobia parallel to blaming all the problems of Germany circa 1930s and WW1 on the Jews.

Its so much easier to say its the evil Muslims!!!111 then saying perhaps our foreign policy with regards to Saudi Arabia, Israel, Palestine, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq is and was deeply flawed. You look at the middle east with a western slant without thinking about what people in this side of the world have seen and witnessed from the great western powers, arm sales and unconditional support for Israel to kill Palestinians, support of ISI and Mujahedin to attack the USSR in Afghanistan, support for corrupt and oppressive Saudi Royal Family, support for Egypt that is 20 years under emergency dictatorship rule, support for Central Asian despots who now imprison and vilify Islam so they can rule for ever, sale of arms to Iraq and Iran. Tanks and troops spreading freedom across Iraq and Afghanistan. People don't forget.

But you people like it simple and easy to disgust and process back through "Its the faith" I guess. Islam is evil. Bush is right. War for ever against a strategy and a religion.

For people who claim a diversity of opinion you enter intellectual lock down pretty quickly.

TAYTV would act as more of an affiliate site, rather than as a collective or channel within the Sift... this could of course not just apply to TAYTV, with some kind of set up like this in place, the sift lords could then also have the opportunity to take on other affiliates, if they felt that it would help them gain more traffic or whatever it is that sustains the site. I'm just saying, that TAYTV, or any other such user that is essentially merging an existing site or blog to the sift, operates for different motives than the regular users of the sift that there should be some sort of seperation... sort of like how neatorama is an affiliate, but closer to home.