shirgall

Statements which have been challenged and not resolved should include qualifiers like "I think" or even "I assert". An important part of strengthening arguments is challenging assumptions and making better statements. If you say "Oranges are purple" and I say, "Odd, their color appears to be between red and yellow and not between blue and red" you should come back with "Oranges are purple because I did x test and got y verification."

If you want lasting effects, look at the use of the 1812 Overture which celebrates the defeat of our allies, the French, by our enemies at the time, the Russians... and we commonly use it as the finale of celebrating our independence from the English! We have a bigger "Cinco de Mayo" celebration in the United States than they do in Mexico, and it commemorates yet another specific defeat of the French by Mexico caused by the aftermath of our own war with the Mexicans. (Mexican independence day is actually coming up, September 16th). The only reason Cinco de Mayo was important to the United States is that it stymied the Confederacy gaining a strong ally in the French at the time. It's incredibly strange to see what cultural events had lasting effects that Americans plainly do not care to look into. My point is that Mexicans have plenty of believed grievances to act upon, and them being real or just plain ancient has no bearing on "whipping up" jingoistic fervor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican%E2%80%93American_War

Be aware that this guy is in the Seattle housing market, which is freaking insane right now. It could be that he's calling the bubble and bailing now rather than being forced out of his house. I wish the bubble would pop, I'm renting right now.

Definitely, I was just amused by the quote and I felt compelled to share it.

Objective morality makes no distinction between people, AI systems indistinguishable from people, or the people that make AI systems, whether or not they know of any distinction among them. The principles posited are universal.

Both Finnish Sauna and Steam Rooms will make you sweat, but the mechanism is different. Sauna is 90C and 10% humidity, Steam Rooms are 50C and much higher humidity. http://www.sauna-talk.com/sauna-temperature.html

That sounds *very* intense. What temperature are you maintaining? The traditional Finnish sauna is 90C, but what you are describing sounds like no more than 50C or you'd be bacon like me.

"I don't make the rules... I just think them up and write them down."

I am familiar that iatrogenic disease kills a lot of people. But it saves far more people than it kills, so we accept it. I do take it seriously, especially since my wife is a emergency room nurse.

I'm going to have to stick up for role-playing games here, too, as they can get children interested in an unfolding narrative, life decisions, etc, let alone instilling empathy by wearing a lot of different people's shoes. Bonus points for funny voices, colorful miniatures and maps, and a game master that spends more time on the story than rolling the dice.

http://thefederalist.com/2015/09/01/4-things-you-didnt-know-about-school-supplies/ Lotsa other nuggets in the article, including an indictment of "Big Crayon"... It foes seem like we buy a lot of stuff that doesn't get used, and I certainly remember getting some things that were going into a communal pool, like tissues and the like.

If "anarchy" means what it should--which is "no rulers" and not "no rules"--there is no one to "declare" anarchy. You have to dismantle the bureaucracy to have no rulers, not just have a change in figurehead.

Financial advisers are primarily salespeople, not economists or philosophers. A lot of what they say comes from talking points in their sales book, not an assessment of current events.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/religion/carbon-dating-suggests-early-quran-is-older-than-muhammad/article/442550

Indeed, but the caution I was giving was about losing too much of weight from muscle mass. Admittedly I am emerging from a crash diet myself, lost 70 pounds in the last year.

Acquire items of lasting actual value and secure them close to your home (friends, food, etc.) or have a plan to get to them and abandon or divest yourself of other items of no lasting or intrinsic value.

During significant weight loss it's arguably better to focus on keeping the lean muscle you have rather than worrying about putting more muscle on. Tone tone tone.

And I'm fairly certain that the life on Earth now is some of the most adaptable life that has ever existed on this planet.

Kinda arbitrary. We're part of nature, everything we make uses ingredients we find in nature, so why is it what we make suddenly not "natural"? Arbitrary distinction. Gaia made us because it had no easier way to produce styrofoam for itself, and when we stopped making it, She got angry and made it warmer and the oceans deeper.

Yeah, a study that considers BMI important is questionable on its face. It's an extremely poor metric.

Knowledge and good will are both of value to the participants and have to be added to the balance.

Seattle area traffic is indeed problematic, but I found my niche. I avoid downtown Seattle itself like the plague. I live in the deep east side, and work on the east side too.

Does it help to know that the business tax and the income tax were both temporary measures to pay for the Civil War, and were promised to never both be active at the same time? Social Security and the Payroll Tax came later under FDR... The whole reason that a ton of benefits are offered by companies instead of raw cash is those things as well as a wage freeze during World War II. Etc. etc. etc. The deeper you dig the more insane it gets.