What's unsettling is to see that their parents allow it. Even with girls who aren't so little.

In other news, it's completely legal for women to go topless here in Canada, but I'll be damned if I ever see it in action. Perhaps if this event were to take place in the summer...

>> ^Aniatario:

I wouldn't want my sister sashaying around like that and I sure as hell wouldn't want her looking like that by herself, Downtown TO. That's just stupid.
Whats more, Its unsettling that you see so many little girls living up to this image, wearing clothes that're completely distasteful for their age.

I wouldn't want my sister sashaying around like that and I sure as hell wouldn't want her looking like that by herself, Downtown TO. That's just stupid.

Whats more, Its unsettling that you see so many little girls living up to this image, wearing clothes that're completely distasteful for their age.

There was something unsettling about his use of that knife, as though it had also helped "cut away all those impurities".

The 'lick' part is SO unsettling. I Love this flick.

It would be quite a twist to see a nice clown...I think I would feel a bit unsettled all day waiting for the other (clown) shoe to drop. I agree, that clowns face is just too creepy-real.

I don't have any badges yet, so I like your idea very much! Heh.
Thank you for the dp!
In reply to this comment by NicoleBee:
Just once I'd like to see something like this where the creepy, extremely evil looking/acting clown is actually helpful and nice in the end just to shake things up.


Still, there should be an achievement here for "Most power points suckered from NicoleBee." That is some excellent facial animation/expressions there on the clown!!

*doublepromote

I have the unsettling feeling that they'll spend all of their time on the cgi sequences, leaving the rest of the game to suffer.

*promote murakami's work. tony takitani was a great adaptation, and hopefully this film will do justice to his strange, beautiful, and unsettling writing.

does it make anyone else unsettled to hear kids laughing about rape?

It's nice that fans of this show like the one that posted this video explain the ending of the show, but looking at the comments for people who haven't seen the show I think this is a focus on one of the show's weaker points, that being the explanation, or lack thereof, of it's mythology. It can be argued either way that certain plot devices were left unsettled (cough* Waaaaalt *cough) but it may be a better thing because people with imagination can fill in the plot holes. Many of the things explained were only revealed in the last season of the show. The show's strong point was it's character development and the knowledge that no one was completely safe from dying. Any of the main characters could die at any time and every death was always heartfelt.
I challenge anyone who has not seen Lost who read this post to go to google abc's free tv episode viewer and watch the first 5 episodes of Lost and see what they think.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who found this more than a little unsettling.

Maybe in the fully drawn out theory in the book it sounds a little less scary, but I got the distinct impression that this was yet another person traipsing down the path toward saying "I'm the one who understands morality, so do what I say".

I would agree with the basic premise that there do seem to be right and wrong answers to moral questions, but that's because we've got existing moral viewpoints, and none of us truly feel that our morals are subjective.

I think the worst suffering in the world has happened when a group of people got it into their head that they knew with absolute certainty what's right and what's wrong.

He really, really sounded like what he wanted to do was say to people "we're right, Islam is wrong, so let's go liberate these people from their wrongheaded beliefs!"

I think for the word "science" to really come into play there has to be some level at which you can make observations, develop hypotheses, and then test them. He didn't really give us a hint as to how you would actually work on developing scientific mores, he mostly just gave us a litany of examples where A is something we agree is good, and B is something we agree is bad, and then said that therefore there are absolute right and wrong answers to moral questions because we all instinctively agreed on which was good and which was bad.

"We" of course meaning the kind of people who watch TED talks...

>> ^budzos:
Yeah once you get accustomed to the voice there is actually some fun content here. I for one LOVE First Contact despite the many flaws in the story. The borg queen was a really stupid idea, if you ask me. The faceless, personality free borg as force of nature is much more awe-inspiring.



I've always thought that too. The way I think of it there were two distinct versions of the borg, the grey borg (the original), and the green borg (this movie plus all the crap that happened in voyager).

What made the borg scary in the first place was not just that they were powerful mechano-corpse people, but that they were inscrutable. There is something unsettling about an emotionless and relentless enemy that cannot be reasoned with or manipulated. And you couldn't easily define them as evil, since they weren't vengeful or malicious, just devoted to their own form of logic. With this movie they got rid of everything that was distinctive or interesting about the borg. And just turned them into cyber-zombies at the command of some slimey lich queen.

As I've said before on VS, I'm somewhat religious. I go to church a couple times a year and I pray once in awhile. Fundies would probably call me a "cafeteria Christian" with derision in mind but, to quote a video* here on the Sift, I rather like that label. For the record and to keep things brief I'll note that I'm in agreement with Dag on the things he listed above.

Anyway I have a buddy who is vocally atheistic (it seems to me he's quite proud of that as well). He's a clever conversationalist and with our different perspectives I think we could have some really good talks about, say, Creationism and its associated movement in the US, something that both of us find unsettling -- except that he scorns the religious moderate (e.g., me) just as much as he does the extremist (e.g., a former roommate who turned out to be a non-evolution-believing fundie who seriously wore shirts that said in big letters ABSTINENCE IS AWESOME), so that is not happening. I am sure that a large part of his loud atheism is obnoxious shtick for the sake of those watching, an excuse to say jackassed things about believers and seem edgy.

Oh yes: when he was about to go to a dangerous place, he told me that he had become a "receptive agnostic" and stopped being beaky and snidey about religion and faith and believers and so on. When he came safe home, he cranked up the outspoken douchey belligerent atheism to a level as high as ever. I always thought that was really weak. He's smart enough to think so too, I'm sure, somewhere in there.

* http://www.videosift.com/video/AJ-Jacobs-My-year-of-living-biblically

It disturbs >> ^davidraine:
>> ^FlowersInHisHair:
As a side issue, may I add that online gaming is possibly the hardest place to come out as gay, and the choice of insults by these wankers is testament to why. I've come out to my family, my school, my university, my friends, to the first girl who told me she loved me... the place I've got the worst reaction was online gaming. Seriously.

Sounds like someone's unfamiliar with John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/


I am familiar with it... but it makes things that bit more unsettling. That these people would never call me a faggot to my face is perhaps true, but if we take it that (perceived) anonymity is all that it takes for them unveil their antisocial/homophobic tendencies, then they must have these tendencies in the first place. I don't believe that Internet anonymity makes people express opinions and attitudes that they don't already have. The strip you linked to is based on the premise that these are ordinary people - and that's disturbing too.

>> ^RhesusMonk:
Someday I'm going to write a long treatise here about why this song and this story have very little to do with god's grace and being connected through JC. This is about awe and gratitude. Christians believe there is some force that is doling out goodwill and that we are unwitting and undeserving of this goodwill, unless we respond in a Christian way.

I read a great quote recently: "Christian is a wonderful noun, but a terrible adjective." I have to agree. I think the feeling you're describing, the feeling hinted at by Phipps, is transcendental. As Newton emerged from his cabin that day, and heard the dirge rising up from the hold, something in his brain clicked. No doubt, "Unknown" was sold into bondage exactly on schedule, and so the song did not save him in a meaningful way, but unbeknownst to him, that song did have an effect. Newton began to reconsider his role in things, and left the slave trade. He was a vocal proponent of abolition in England. It would be many, many years before he would put pen to paper and write out Amazing Grace (he experienced his conversion moment in 1748, and composed AG between 1760 and 1770) but nevertheless, the wordless song never truly left him. He chose to share its melody with those who'd never set foot on a slave ship, and found that, somehow, the effect was sustained.

Now everything I've just mentioned can be looked at in a non-Christian context, and it would remain true. It should be said, though, that the presence of Christianity and its memes made it easier for Newton to become aware of just how far he'd strayed in his life. Given the number of unrepentant slave captains who called themselves Christians, it does not necessarily follow that Newton's salvation was due to his turn to Christianity, but it certainly helped. And it also helped all the slaves who would have found passage in the hold of his ship, but did not, thanks to his conversion. Again, Christianity didn't do it, but it was a 'hook' upon which Newton could hang this unsettling feeling in his belly.

Kurt Vonnegut notes much the same in a speech he gave at Clowes Hall in 2007. He starts by pointing out that, while Marx said that 'religion was the opium of the lower classes', he should have been taken literally. Opiates were a wonderful class of drug that numbed the pain, and who knew pain better than the working classes? He continues, "The most spiritually splendid phenomenon of my lifetime is how African-American citizens have maintained their dignity and self-respect, despite their having been treated by white Americans, both in and out of government, and simply because of their skin color, as though they were contemptible and loathsome, and even diseased. Their churches have surely helped them to do that. So there's Karl Marx again. There's Jesus again."

I guess the question is, could John Newton have composed Amazing Grace without believing in the Magic Man Who Lives in the Sky? Maybe. Probably. But it certainly helped.

>> ^westy:
The Forza franchise is an incredibley pore simulator im sure if you played some of the leading pc sims you would have allot more enjoyment.
The best simulatoins at the moment are I racing, Richard burns rally , R factor , Gtr Evo , LFS , netcar pro
non of the Forza games have come close to these.

I'm not 100% certain on this but this guys driving style seems a bit jerky and forced unsettling the car before corners Faster more talented drivers tend to be allot smoother.


it's Toshio Suzuki. he's 54 and one of the official Nissan R35 test drivers. you're right, he wouldn't be world class in terms of talent, his speed would come mostly from his knowledge of the car.