Yes, thank you, you put it so much simpler than I do!
In reply to this comment by Thumper:
Your views are inconsistent because you're suggesting her obesity is somehow impactful on others. If it's not that then your suggesting you're concerned for her health. If you're so concerned for her health (or others) then what about her mental health (or ours)? Arguably the most important form of health. You already admitted there is no polite way to tell a stranger that is probably already aware, that their weight is a health concern. I don't see how promoting forwardness with disregard to one's reaction/ feelings is any bit healthier. Not to mention the whole bully awareness month - which this is just a guess, but, doesn't that specifically entail "we" as a society passing stronger consideration for others feelings?

This is where we need to draw the line on the whole obesity/ drug addict comparison. There is NO NEED to throw tough love at an overweight person. Even if you succeed in pushing them to lose weight - you're changing the very foundation of personal relationships. Where does the bully draw the line at school? "Stop being so dorky?". Oh and I'm not a fan of letting our children carry such moral burdens. Their parents should lead by example. Lets not build a world where people push one another into choices even if they are good for them. Let's let freewill be freewill. If you really want to make a difference - befriend them, get close to them, within the "YOU can say that to me" walls. Actually give a shit about the person and not the idea of people. Stop treating that woman like an negative average in a large container and more like a PERSON.

Problem solved. Become their friend - follow time-tested relationship rules and then, and only then, can you relay such private and impactful information to them.

>> ^scannex:

I am not sure how my argument is nihilistic at all.
I am not sure what mold you think I am promoting, aside from not being in a state which has been, by all available science, deemed to be u healthy. (read: not obese)
I am happy to address where you think my view is inconsistent, can you please elaborate?
Re feeling: I think that is fair, to a point. But to me, the spectacle this woman made of herself for someone writing her a private communique over the internet does not warrant ANYWHERE near this attention.
She chose to shine a spotlight on something perfectly hidden, for the purpose of, I don't know... you tell me? To stop imaginary bullying (in her case explicitly here)? To not feel bad about being overweight? I really don't know anymore. Its a bizarre reaction to wantonly make a spectacle of someone suggesting you lose weight.
You pretend to care for the health of others yet there is a perverse nihilistic undertone to your entire argument. The only thing in this for you is to point out that "people" should fit a mold that you and your constituents have deemed appropriate. Which furthers strengthens the overall bizarre and inconsistent view you're slinging. Shouldn't your dismissal of common morals/ sensibilities completely free you up from trying to impress or coincide with a particular group? The thing that bugs me the most is that you seem to completely ignore this person's feelings. It's as if, for the purposes of your argument having a body you have obfuscated her feelings or anyone else's for that matter.

Your views are inconsistent because you're suggesting her obesity is somehow impactful on others. If it's not that then your suggesting you're concerned for her health. If you're so concerned for her health (or others) then what about her mental health (or ours)? Arguably the most important form of health. You already admitted there is no polite way to tell a stranger that is probably already aware, that their weight is a health concern. I don't see how promoting forwardness with disregard to one's reaction/ feelings is any bit healthier. Not to mention the whole bully awareness month - which this is just a guess, but, doesn't that specifically entail "we" as a society passing stronger consideration for others feelings?

This is where we need to draw the line on the whole obesity/ drug addict comparison. There is NO NEED to throw tough love at an overweight person. Even if you succeed in pushing them to lose weight - you're changing the very foundation of personal relationships. Where does the bully draw the line at school? "Stop being so dorky?". Oh and I'm not a fan of letting our children carry such moral burdens. Their parents should lead by example. Lets not build a world where people push one another into choices even if they are good for them. Let's let freewill be freewill. If you really want to make a difference - befriend them, get close to them, within the "YOU can say that to me" walls. Actually give a shit about the person and not the idea of people. Stop treating that woman like an negative average in a large container and more like a PERSON.

Problem solved. Become their friend - follow time-tested relationship rules and then, and only then, can you relay such private and impactful information to them.

>> ^scannex:

I am not sure how my argument is nihilistic at all.
I am not sure what mold you think I am promoting, aside from not being in a state which has been, by all available science, deemed to be u healthy. (read: not obese)
I am happy to address where you think my view is inconsistent, can you please elaborate?
Re feeling: I think that is fair, to a point. But to me, the spectacle this woman made of herself for someone writing her a private communique over the internet does not warrant ANYWHERE near this attention.
She chose to shine a spotlight on something perfectly hidden, for the purpose of, I don't know... you tell me? To stop imaginary bullying (in her case explicitly here)? To not feel bad about being overweight? I really don't know anymore. Its a bizarre reaction to wantonly make a spectacle of someone suggesting you lose weight.
You pretend to care for the health of others yet there is a perverse nihilistic undertone to your entire argument. The only thing in this for you is to point out that "people" should fit a mold that you and your constituents have deemed appropriate. Which furthers strengthens the overall bizarre and inconsistent view you're slinging. Shouldn't your dismissal of common morals/ sensibilities completely free you up from trying to impress or coincide with a particular group? The thing that bugs me the most is that you seem to completely ignore this person's feelings. It's as if, for the purposes of your argument having a body you have obfuscated her feelings or anyone else's for that matter.

I am not sure how my argument is nihilistic at all.
I am not sure what mold you think I am promoting, aside from not being in a state which has been, by all available science, deemed to be u healthy. (read: not obese)

I am happy to address where you think my view is inconsistent, can you please elaborate?

Re feeling: I think that is fair, to a point. But to me, the spectacle this woman made of herself for someone writing her a private communique over the internet does not warrant ANYWHERE near this attention.
She chose to shine a spotlight on something perfectly hidden, for the purpose of, I don't know... you tell me? To stop imaginary bullying (in her case explicitly here)? To not feel bad about being overweight? I really don't know anymore. Its a bizarre reaction to wantonly make a spectacle of someone suggesting you lose weight.

You pretend to care for the health of others yet there is a perverse nihilistic undertone to your entire argument. The only thing in this for you is to point out that "people" should fit a mold that you and your constituents have deemed appropriate. Which furthers strengthens the overall bizarre and inconsistent view you're slinging. Shouldn't your dismissal of common morals/ sensibilities completely free you up from trying to impress or coincide with a particular group? The thing that bugs me the most is that you seem to completely ignore this person's feelings. It's as if, for the purposes of your argument having a body you have obfuscated her feelings or anyone else's for that matter.

You pretend to care for the health of others yet there is a perverse nihilistic undertone to your entire argument. The only thing in this for you is to point out that "people" should fit a mold that you and your constituents have deemed appropriate. Which furthers strengthens the overall bizarre and inconsistent view you're slinging. Shouldn't your dismissal of common morals/ sensibilities completely free you up from trying to impress or coincide with a particular group? The thing that bugs me the most is that you seem to completely ignore this person's feelings. It's as if, for the purposes of your argument having a body you have obfuscated her feelings or anyone else's for that matter. >> ^scannex:

To be fair and clarify, I want to directly address your comparison too.
You say obesity is not like smoking because, unlike smoking you cannot simply inhibit being obese in an instant.
That is not a reasonable qualification for a behavior.
By that logic, a person with a meth addiction who simply doesn't smoke meth while on camera, but exhibits all the tell tale physical signs of smoking meth would be exempt from ridicule because he cannot 'stop looking like a meth addict'. That is not reasonable.
Smoking meth in this case is a behavior. One he does not do in the public eye. The behavior of smoking has a repercussion on his appearance after he stops smoking. Similarly the behavior of overeating/being idle (I have coined this state as a behavior leading to obesity in my argument) is similar in that way.
Hopefully that clears up my analogy for you.
The ability to stop doing, or being, a given way in an instant is not a measure of what constitutes a behavior.
>> ^hpqp:
3) Obesity is not like smoking. Yes, they are both health problems, but unlike smoking, being obese is not a behaviour. It can be caused/aggravated by certain behaviour, among many other factors. But while a behaviour can be inhibited while in front of others (e.g. not smoking in front of kids/a camera), you cannot "stop being obese". This brings out another distinction, namely that, while seeing people smoke can entice impressionable minds to do the same, seeing someone who is fat will not make one want to be fat as well. Seeing an overweight person on TV having a job or living a normal life might, on the other hand, give hope to people who are mocked and discriminated against for their weight issues, something which does not undermine in the slightest the struggle against obesity.
/rant

What a couplea Kochs!

All for publicizing the horror of programming that public education in America has been molded into and nurtured with tweaks over the decades. All for more and more private schools with academics above all else as core values.....fat chance.

Public schools in the U.S.rest on the real-estate of agenda and part of that seems to crank out more and more functionless imbeciles every year.

Go check out some of Charlotte Iserbyt's ramblings.....I'd trust her before I'd trust my own take on the state of education in the United States.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Thomson_

Trailer is a metaphor for the ever static and unmoving MMOG genre and how GW2 breaks out of the mold and brings something fresh to MMOG gaming.

I wouldn't say I love the trailer, but I am rather amazed how few 'got it'.

I'm surprised I've never heard of Barnays, it seems he's had a huge influence on modern society. But then again he predicted I wouldn't. In his 1928 book Propaganda he wrote:

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ...We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4612464

The slime mold has expanded the routes horizons =oD

I think it's more of a statement on the nature of intelligence. Many of the behaviors we view to be intelligence are really just emergent properties of iterative algorithms implemented by simple machines. We shouldn't assume intelligence holds some privileged status.

There was a fun paper a while back on how this could be explained by the use of memristors in a dynamically stable circuit. >> ^Sagemind:

So, does that prove intelligence or just the will to survive?!

Slime mold is pretty cool, look at this and this.

A few key pictures seem to be missing...

The Napalm Girl picture, which just turned 40 last month.

The KSU Shooting picture of Mary Ann Vecchio.

The V-J Day in Times Square kiss.

The National Geographic picture of Sharbat Gula, although that might not fit the mold the rest of them do, that one is just great photo and not so much a moment caught the way the others are.

Of course I guess we could all point to pictures that caught a moment that we think should have been added to the list...

So what happened to testing for 1+1=? .....why the fuck do we care about internal vs external locust of control? Molding personality is NOT the role of education, thats some borderline religious bullshit there.

In reply to this comment by Morganth:
I'm sorry that Shinyblurry doesn't fit into the VideoSift mold, but this argument is no longer a discussion; it's bullying and harassment and needs to stop. Now.


i agree.
i may disagree with shiny and may even get frustrated with him from time to time but he is not a bad dude.
not a bad dude at all.

>> ^Morganth:

I'm sorry that Shinyblurry doesn't fit into the VideoSift mold, but this argument is no longer a discussion; it's bullying and harassment and needs to stop. Now.


I only see one side threatening the other with eternal torture.