Yeah, I refuse to pay a premium for a placebo, Not because I feel I am immune to all that subconscious fuckery, but because I'd hate to think I am in any way subsidising wine snobbery.

Also, Champagne vs sparkling wine. They both stink. Idk how anybody puts their nose in a glass of either, regardless of price.

You tell me how this is racist...

Actual racist: "Black people can't be leaders."
Obama overhears it and responds: "Yeah, f'ing Obama!"

I'm pretty sure that despite Obama "playing around with" language that could be construed as racist, what he said would not be considered racist by pretty much anyone. It would be pretty damn funny actually because clearly Obama wouldn't sincerely say that about himself, nor black people, and it also pokes fun at that racist statement by pointing out there's a black person who is President of the United States, so clearly black people can be leaders.

Change Obama to David Duke, and yeah, it's now probably racist, and it's not funny at all.

Or this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gHz-l40FNQ

Louis CK is saying that in response to Patrice O'Neal's factual account for the origin of a racial slur against Jewish people. Louis CK was very good friends with the late O'Neal, and he's not racist. O'Neal knew that. If you listen to the video, as soon as Louis CK starts his bit before anything that's faux-racist comes out, everyone is immediately laughing, including O'Neal, because they know he's about to insincerely say something horrifically racist to the face of a black person that had he been sincere, it would have been absolutely horrifying, but that's the point - he's absolutely not sincere. That's why it's absolutely hilarious and not racist because everybody knows Louis CK doesn't actually mean that at all.

Intent and context means a lot. When you take that context away, (other things said in that conversation, who is saying it, your knowledge about what they believe, previous conversations that might be references, etc.), the words can appear to be extremely racist, even when they're not.

How do I react when someone jokes about something that involves race? It completely depends on the context, and what I interpret the intent of it is. If I'm joking around generally with my friends like the above, and they say something like, "You know why black people smell? So blind people can hate them, too." We're in a situation we're joking, we already have had actual sincere conversations about race, I know he isn't racist, I know he actually believes that's 100% not true. How do I react? If I found the joke funny, I'd laugh because I'm taking it to mean he's making fun of what some racists believe because I know for a fact he doesn't believe that.

My father-in-law is a different story, because I know the guy, I know he's like a 5-6 on the racist scale, so I don't know if he actually believes black people generally stink or not, and generally inclined to believe he actually believes most or all black people smell. At the very least, I'm uneasy. I'm certainly not going to laugh at it. I'd probably show some kind of disapproval at the least. Completely different context because now, and here's the key, that may have been intended as an actual racist statement about black people. Once you go there, that's not funny.

So, if you consider me slightly racist because I make ironic racist statements as jokes, which I mean as mocking towards racists themselves, rock on. But you better be consistent in your outrage when someone exaggerates they're gonna kill someone when they get frustrated over something insignificant as an example. After all, that's playing around with words that are murderous and violent, so they must be a psychopath or homicidal!

Please note, that was sarcasm.

Deaf and blind... and albino?

Cute dog. Doesn't look at all like it stinks.

Is it though? Is it teh shit? I hope it is. I've been burned before by supposed spiritual successors that were equally well reviewed.

But some of the screenshots in these reviews though - it looks exactly like Baldur's Gate. I want to be playing it right now. But then, these classes look a little funky, and I can't help but detect the stink of MMO mechanics seeping in here and there, the way they've poisoned so much that was once good in gaming.

I don't know; I'm scared, Zawash.

Very interesting...

I'm one of those people who is highly sensitive to perfumes / scents, which is sometimes called "multiple chemical sensitivity". I know that it isn't technically an "allergy", but other than that I honestly have no idea whether this whole thing is psychosomatic (all in my head), "real" but with a lot of additional input from mental/emotional states, completely real and tied in some way to the smells themselves, or completely real and tied in some way to the actual "chemicals" (in a chemistry sense) in the air. All I know is that there are a LOT of triggers for me where I can get one small whiff of something and know that I'm going to get a pounding headache.

Aggravation with that has often caused me to wonder if it would be possible to surgically or pharmacologically destroy or impair my olfaction senses, like what happened to the woman in the video, and cure the headache triggers. If the smells themselves are the triggers, it seems like that could work. If it is largely or completely psychosomatic, it could still work because I wouldn't know that I was being exposed to the smell triggers; one thing that I've considered is that I also get very angry if I'm in a private place like my home or otherwise trying to avoid triggers and somebody wanders in wearing some nasty shit and compromises the integrity of my safe zone. In public I know that I can't control what other people wear so I just try to get away very quickly from trigger smells, but in my own home I get ultra pissed if somebody comes in and stinks it up. I have wondered if that anger exacerbates or maybe even in some cases is the actual primary source of the headache symptoms. But anyway, even if that was the case, being able to cap or cut off my sense of smell would solve the problem.

The only way that the problem could persist AFTER surgically eliminating my sense of smell would be if the reaction is really to the chemicals themselves in the air. And then, that would be worse because I wouldn't have the warning system of smell telling me to get the hell away from perfume counters, ladies wearing the stuff, dudebros wearing shit like Axe, etc.

All in all, I don't actually think it would be worth the downsides. BUT, I must say I've really wondered about it when I've got a pounding headache after simply walking by somebody wearing perfume in line at a grocery store or whatever...

I understand your discomfort with my phrasing. My beef is with the electoral college system.

While I was getting my degree, I took some really good American History and Government classes at college. The prof in the Govt. class really went into depth explaining the electoral college to us, and to me the shittiness of that system was just shocking. For example: (none of this is news to a truly informed voter or an interested person with an internet connection, but it WAS news to me when I was ~20 years old, and I think it still would be news to a really high percentage of US voters)

* First is the very idea of an electoral college. The only way to become president of the US is to win the most electoral votes. But voters don't cast electoral votes, the people of the electoral college do. OK, the electoral college is supposed to follow the votes/will of their state/constituents (more on that next), but the fact remains that literally/practically, our votes as citizens don't matter. Only the electoral votes count. So yes, in the most literal sense ... NONE of our votes "matter".

* In general, the "electors" (the people on the electoral college) are supposed to cast their electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote in their state / district. I think 2 states (Nebraska and Maine?) divide up their suggested electoral votes to be as close as possible to the actual proportions of the popular vote, but that's a whole other issue. Anyway, in general the electors are supposed to cast their vote for the popular vote winner in their state. BUT, that process isn't automatic. The votes that actually matter, the electoral votes, are cast by fallible human beings -- and they might "go rogue" and vote against what they are "supposed to" do. That is called a "faithless elector". That would be bad enough if it was just some weird loophole that technically exists but has never actually happened in practice, but actually faithless electors happen fairly frequently. The only upside is that they haven't ever changed the outcome of an election. Yet.

* When we're young and in civics type classes in school, we're brainwashedtaught about Democracy as a very simple, will of the public, one man one vote system. The electoral college shits all over that. One can win the popular vote but lose on electoral votes, and that actually has happened multiple times (not just to Al Gore). In my opinion, the electoral college creates a laundry list of problems (swing states are the only ones that matter, so campaign there and ignore everybody else, etc. etc. etc.), has very few benefits (any supposed benefits of the system are tenuous at best), and is completely contrary to the core concepts of Democracy.


Without the electoral college, a blue vote in Kansas would matter, as would a red vote in Massachusetts. Or a vote for a 3rd party or independent, anywhere. With the electoral college, edge cases like any of those can be safely and easily ignored by candidates.

I think it is unlikely that Kansas would turn blue, even if all of the democrats voted. That being said, we're not a complete LOCK for red; heck, out of the 10 most recent Governors we've had before we turned into Brownbackistan it is an even split between Democrats and Republicans with 5 each. And actually the Democrats had significantly longer total number of years in the office.

So basically, I don't actually think that a vote cast on a losing candidate is "pointless", I just think that the electoral college system does a really good job of making sure that some votes are more pointless than others. It amazes me that there wasn't a MUCH bigger stink made about it when Gore "lost" in 2000, but I guess voter apathy can overcome any challenge to the system.

That's pretty stinking cool.

*augmentedreality

*promote

I've never heard of this, but it sounds an awful lot like stinky tofu, which made me dry heave, and I have a pretty solid iron stomach when it comes to external forces (smells, sights, ideas).

I'd like to see them give the kids durian because it stinks something awful, but doesn't taste like it smells.

So interesting that I cannot help but hold the breath in my nose so as not to smell what I imagine the stink to be of that gelatinous mess.

Now is that the same result you could expect from a dead mouse just being in liquid and not specifically Mtn. Dew? I imagine that'd be the case.

Pretty bad video composition with a horribly long intro, but the payoff was interesting.

Btw, @haki, you know you can vote for your own videos, right?

Oh great ... now it stinks *promote smoke breaks

Crows and ravens are so stinking incredibly smart. They're going to be a big help once the robots become self-aware.

Side note: If you're unaware, groups of those birds are called a murder of crows and a nightmare of ravens.

I love that.

I'd bet dogs smell better in the snow.

Cold suppresses stink.

Plus I think dogs with very short hair (like @newtboy's) are generally less stinky anyway.

Not all kids are dirty and smelly, at least not as you seem to think they are. Mine have thick 'curly' fur but doesn't hold dirt or smells, and I wash them at least twice monthly (more if they pee their pants) so they have little smell. What smell they do have, I enjoy... maybe too much. Their teeth are good and some are still coming in, so their breath doesn't stink...yet. They still have new baby smell, even though they're 2 and 4. I'm sure some people hate that smell, but I'm not one of those people. I do however strongly dislike the smell of unwashed, slobbery, oily, sweaty, stinky, poo-butted dogs, especially when wet! I mean that literally!

Kids stink and are filthy animals...much much worse than most dogs. I don't understand how people live with them. I mean that literally. Lately I've been trying to understand. Do people really just let their kids, all smelly and dirty climb into bed, couches, car seats, laps, public places, etc. without ever cleaning them first? It just seems like such a filthy way to live, tracking dirt, germs, and kid smell all over everything everywhere they go.

I asked my wife about it and she just tells me people love their kids, so they aren't bothered by it. Is that really all it comes down to, ignoring it? The answer I wish to be true is that they somehow aren't as dirty or smelly as I believe they are, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

;-)

(That said...not all dogs are dirty and smelly, at least not as you seem to think they are. Mine has short 'teflon' fur that doesn't hold dirt or smells, and I wash her at least twice monthly (more if she gets into something stinky) so she has little smell. What smell she does have, I enjoy. Her teeth are good, so her breath doesn't stink...yet. She still has puppy smell, even though she's 3. I'm sure some people hate that smell, but I'm not one of those people. I do however strongly dislike the smell of unwashed, snot nosed/handed, Cheetos covered, poo pants children! I mean that literally!) ;-)

Dogs stink and are filthy animals. I don't understand how people live with them. I mean that literally. Lately I've been trying to understand. Do people really just let their dogs all smelly and dirty climb into bed, couches, car seats, etc. without ever cleaning them first? It just seems like such a filthy way to live, tracking dirt and dog smell all over everything everywhere they go.

I asked my wife about it and she just tells me people love their dogs, so they aren't bothered by it. Is that really all it comes down to, ignoring it? The answer I wish to be true is that they somehow aren't as dirty or smelly as I believe they are, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

So it's clear, I don't dislike dogs, just can't comprehend the logistics of how one can actually live with those creatures with cleanliness and lack of odor.