wdiaz03

Thank you for your reply and explanation, This does not apply to me personally but to a friend in this situation. What you said resonates because there seems to be emotional manipulation from a previous breakup andI think it might have been the result of not being direct and honest and of somehow trying to provide a soft landing for the other person. We are picking up on those signs and hopefully this time around will go a lot better. Thanks again.

Thank you for sharing what you have learned. I would like your opinion on what to tell someone that you have been dating that they are not the right person. Do you recommend explaining why they are not the right person if they ask? Person A: I don't think you are the right person for me. Person B: why not?, I think you are great, I like you. Person A: I'm looking for someone with more self knowledge and curiosity. Will this be acceptable? I can see where person A might try to manage person B's emotions and not be honest about the reasons. or say something like "It just doesn't feel right" "My heart is not in it" "Its not you, its me"...etc. Thoughts?

...Meanwhile those motorists that do not care to obey the law, drive around without insurance. Quite common really. My friend was in an accident with an uninsured motorist. Damage to my friends car $2000. Since his car was worth about that much its a total lost. Other driver was driving a new pickup truck. Officer gave him a citation for expired tag and no insurance, and guy drove away. He has made no effort to pay for the damages and the only option is small claims court which is like $200 to file the case. Then good luck trying to collect. Friend has been driving car as is for a few months now. Win win. (for the government and the scums)

Nice chatting with you earlier Phil. To reiterate my point. "memes" that's the ticket. If you imagine an anarchist society comprise of the people of today, one will have a hard time imagining it working. People of today don't have the right memes. Just like 500 years ago most people didn't have the right memes to oppose slavery. to illustrate my point imagine generations of people being raised with peaceful parenting. asking "What is stopping them from starting to hit their children?" To those people the idea of hitting their children would be incomprehensible. Just like the idea of kidnapping someone and making them your slave would be to you today (hopefully) I believe we as humans are not even close to ready yet, it will take generations for the right memes to spread enough to make a difference. I hope that helps. Would love to hear what you think or of you have any counterpoints.

Is it a racial issue? or a smart people issue? Maybe more intelligent people are having less kids regardless of race. like the movie "Idiocracy". Maybe we are at a time were the pendulum is swinging to the side were the dumb take over and things implode, then it will swing to the other side where the smarter learn from that and try to avoid another swing. I think blacks got caught up in the handouts, just like native americans did. Those circumstances creating fertile ground for stagnating their society. What created the swing to the "R side"? maybe the constitution? it left too many holes open and allowed the momentum to build up to have we have today. Maybe next time there will be no constitution, and no government.

I wonder if one can accomplish spreading ones message like that. If people ignore your voice, can't they just as easy ignore what they see? after all, "There's no worse blind person than those who refuse to see" or along those lines the saying goes. Your analogy with clothing is interesting but there are differences. Clothes are not permanent, and they don't hurt the body. A better comparison would be temporary tattoos. or stickers. How many people would mark their bodies temporarily? I would say a lot more than those who get tattoos. fashions change, and so do tastes in closing. Even if we remove the deliberate damage to the body. say we had permanent ink that we could spray on the body and get a permanent tattoo. I would think about it twice. It seems like a permanent tattoo is an attempt to freeze in time some concept that we hold, but life is ever hanging, we are ever changing. I feel I will not be the person that got that tattoo in the future and it will not hold the same meaning. I have drawn or marked by body before, but when that ink wears off, so those that aspect of my life.

Thank you all for your replies, I just wish Stef would explain it a little better, just like you have. He seems to be talking about the genes, but it could be my interpretation. Thanks again.

On the podcasts when a caller will not reproduce I have heard Stef say several times something along the lines of "6 millions years of evolution of your genes and it will stop with you" Is this a valid statement? As I understand it, we only pass along half of our genes to our kids, and the combinations are rearranged. Also there is nothing unique about our individual genetic material since those genes are carried by many other people. even if we carry a unique mutation that gets passed along to our kids, the fact that it occurred means that it is likely to happen on the same gene others carry. Its like we each are a unique book. but since when we reproduce we can only create a different unique book....we are not passing anything unique to us that a close relative can't pass along. say a sentence or two. The words get passed but their arrangement is likely to change and even re-occur on someone else. I see no net loss for the genes if an individual does not reproduce. thinking along the lines of Dawkins "the Selfish Gene" Thoughts? Thanks in advance.

The bird seems to be a mockingbird, I live in south Florida and these are fairly common in my area, in fact several live in the trees around my house and have made nests there. These birds are extremely territorial, I have seen them harass cats, and much bigger crows and even people if they get to close.

One thing that I have not seen so far is a chart comparison of different vehicles. How does the true emissions numbers of these VW vehicles compares to similar size engines and V6 and V8 vehicles. I fair comparison would be for the amount of emissions to be per mile. since diesel engines are more efficient they require less fuel per mile. I had several people at work jokingly call me a polluter, yet they drive big trucks and cars that are on the 20mpg range, and also have a longer commute.

Thanks, For the record, a high pressure pump failure on these cars is catastrophic. the way it is designed it recirculates metal particles to the entire fuel system, requiring deep cleaning of all hoses/pipes, injectors, fuel tank. etc. the cost is several thousand dollars. if not done properly and metal particles make it to the pump again it self destructs again. well documented on TDI specific forums http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=299854 yikes

I'm the owner of an affected vehicle, a 2009 Jetta TDI. I can say these cars have/had potential. I've been able to get high 40's on the highway. http://www.fuelly.com/car/volkswagen/jetta/2009/wdiaz03/26395 Love the way it drives and the torque. Love that if you hypermile the car rewards you nicely. I have never seen black smoke out of the tailpipe or the smell of fumes. Its sad that the EPA goes after these vehicles while big pickup truck owners bypass their emission system and install 5" tail pipes and then produce a black cloud of smoke when they drive. I like diesel technology but the emission regulations are making it almost not worth the trouble, diesel engines of old were known to last for hundreds of thousands of miles but now days with all the equipment needed to keep emissions down is likely this is no longer possible, I wonder how long will the particulate filter will last on my car? of the high pressure diesel pump? I'm sitting back waiting to see what will come of this, I will not be lining up at the dealer to get whatever tune they provide to fix this, I'll wait a year or so and see what others report. Shirgall makes excellent points,why not provide a "mode" for this so call "low emissions"? a button with a green leaf or something. or are the parameters so aggressive that they could not run the engines on this mode for long periods of time? can you trust VW and this fix? what is the incentive to ensure that all this vehicles, many out of warranty, remain functioning for many years to come? I myself would rather go hybrid next time, never seen any reports of prius batteries going bad, and they have been out for years now.

That's because it is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Lions His point was that just like in the movie, people are supported to accommodate views they disagree with. So Ahmed (no reference to this Ahmed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFijMqKeX48) should be allowed to take a box with electronics in it to school and people should not overreact. Just like a young black man should be allowed to wear a chrome BB gun sticking out the back of his baggy pants and police should not overreact.

I think you are right, this doesn't look like be soldered electronic components together and programmed some IC to make the clock, it looks like an alarm clock that he took apart and reboxed. And no one is questioning this? You can see the transformer, backup battery plug, ribbon cables to LED display. what a joke!

In an article on Skeptic Magazine by Shawn Dawson the term agnosticism is attributed to T. H. Huxley: "Agnosticism is not a creed but a method, the essence of which lies in the vigorous application of a single principle. Positively, the principle may be expressed as in matters of intellect, follow your reason as far as it can take you without other considerations. And negatively, in matters of the intellect, do not pretend that matters are certain that are not demonstrated or demonstrable. It is wrong for a man to say he is certain of the objective truth of a proposition unless he can produce evidence which logically justifies that certainty" -- "Agnosticism", 1889 For the purpose of his article he calls this "method" wide agnosticism which is no different than being a skeptic. When he applies agnosticism to the question of god's existence he calls is narrow agnosticism. To answer your questions one can be agnostic about many things including the question of the existence of a god.

After I heard about the Michael Shermer and David Cole incident I have my reservations about Shermer. http://www.countercontempt.com/archives/5297

Any argument is probably unsuitable for a religious person. Are you trying to use rational arguments with religious people? why? "Not saying whether you should or shouldn't just curious of why you are doing it.

I couldn't press the play button, didn't want to see a slap!

I have enjoyed Stephen West podcasts at http://www.philosophizethis.org/

Your Political Compass Economic Left/Right: 9.75 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.38 But What I want to know is how one gets 10 and -10

Be aware of passive talk, "lack of time" almost seems like you had less than 24h in a day. Is it more like you chose to spend that time on other things? Did the stress force you into comfort food? You had choices, I say this with all sympathy. but work on the psychology of these choices first and the exercise and dieting will be easier to adopt and sustain. Best of luck

This I can understand, but not what the OP is talking about. Thanks for the clarification,

I have a stupid question. What is the benefit of having humans verify a house number that a computer already knows? What I mean is that the USPS already knows the location of all the addresses in the country. Private homes are ALREADY cataloged. I don't understand what is the gain here or what the concern is .

I would ask your current employer if he expects you to stay and for how long. Maybe you can ask in the case that you go, that you would be willing to pay him back at a reasonable rate.

...Nah! I'm super smart.