Carl Green

This new profile seems like an example of what you're talking about. I interpreted this as you having a profile before but this is a new different one, free from everyone's previous opinions about your old one. What do you think the first step of the first step of all the hard work ahead is? What's the end goal? What benefits will be achieved after completing the work? I think having in your head the answers to those questions will help in getting to it.

That's relative to him and his beliefs. What are his current general views on freedom/politics/family? The Story of Your Enslavement has been cited by many as the video that "showed them what's up".

Feeling like it *is* a reason. Your desires alone are valid enough to do something. Just keep reason along for the ride to make sure it's remaining in your best interest.

I've checked it out and agree with your first impression of Diaspora. carl_green(at)diaspora.punkbeer.me

Can you comment a little on your user experience with diaspora? Does it seem active or is it, at least currently, a gimmicky thing that people check out and forget about 10 minutes later?

I think you're right about using assume in different senses causing the difference in perspectives. Perhaps when similar conversations end up like this you can just switch to talking about how the two different "approaches" would apply to your lives in a practical sense. No 'major truths' will be unveiled but if there isn't an agreement about reality, at least it will keep the convo going.

I'll share a possible tip that might help with discussing the procedure with kids. If you can get them to experience a similar level of pain from a source they're familiar with you might be able to ease their uncertainty of how much the needle's going to hurt. So, if you say something along the lines of "pinch the skin on your arm until it starts to hurt. I assure you, this needle isn't going to hurt any more than that." they will have an idea of what's about to go down so they hopefully won't be as afraid of it. I'm glad you get to be a positive experience in these children's lives. Even if only for a brief moment. At least they're being exposed to the idea that there's a world out there that has a least some nice people and it's not all like it is in their house everywhere all the time. The abusive mother you gave as an example is the best that child has available to her, as far as she knows. From the girls perspective it's either take what little bit of compassion she can get from her mother, or get none at all from anyone.

. just enough....

I'm no behaviorologist but it seems like how you receive criticism has a lot to do with your knowledge of the subject. Only when we're ignorant do we put weight on the opinions of those we think might know more. The particle physicist isn't gonna care much about criticism of his paper from a layman, but his peers/superiors will be able to influence them.

My point is that your belief (as in what you believe to be true which is that free will doesn't exist at all) is based on something you don't know for certain. Perhaps I'm interpreting your statements incorrectly though. My life experiences have made me determine that it's best that I know something before I believe it to be true. Personally, I don't believe either to be the truth yet, because I don't know. So I go with what makes the most sense to me as being the most likely situation while keeping in mind that it's not necessarily true.

Is the reason you believe either side, (and with this I'm not trying to convince you of either) based on the idea that "minds are like complex machinery". If that's the case, and you don't have a good idea of what that means, what's the reason for your belief either way?

What exactly do you mean by "like ... machinery" and how has this been scientifically proven to your satisfaction?

Ah okay, you're talking about construction management as in what the company does. Yeah, we're a subcontractor, and don't worry about taking up my time, I'm responding on the clock so I'm gettin' paid to do it. Okay so I can see what you're talking about with the process management and you're right, people are just a part of it. They're the actuators of all things involved though (unless you guys got some kick ass robots up there) so the advice on being able to interact with many different personality types still applies of course. You wanna flesh out your issue with the financing of the education though, right? And the issue is that the company you're now integrated with contractually has some ...less than stellar people in charge? Skype is also an option for me if ya wanna do a voice call or something about it. My id is carl.h.bartelt

Got any 'tangible' info on which is greenest out of all of them given their total impact to the environment throughout their life cycle? (I feel this is a rhetorical question as it's impossible to tell what all this would be like without gubmint and subsidies involved in everything) I've watched a few doc.s on nuclear (both for and against) so I'm practically an expert. Scalability is a factor (for what's currently available as far as I know) so we'd still need something a single home or tiny village could use in a remote area. As usual in reality, there's no one universal best for all.

According to these metrics, what's the most green method of power generation with all these things considered? Coal/Oil fired plants are still even worse, right?

Hydroelectric might not cause pollution but it's far from friendly to the environment (according to the doc. linked below at least). http://damnationfilm.com/

Why not just respect the clearly emphasized request of the original post? Either debate under the terms of determinism OR DON'T. (not trying to say either way with that, just pointing out that the request should be granted)

If someone did me wrong, I'd appreciate a direct apology/retribution attempt. So at least in some cases, I'd say no (it doesn't merit merit ). That only refers to a certain set of the total things that someone could be confessing for, though.

I agree, you're not going to be able to connect on the necessary level through the empathy constricting medium of a message board.

This might help shed some light on the topic. ( VSauce video)

Surely if everyone else chipped in to pay off all their debts, without requiring them to do anything, they'll take the money, magically be imbibed with the knowledge of how to not let it happen again, and all will be right in the world of Greece for the rest of time.... If you read the Indiegogo page, it's pretty clear the guy knows even less than me about economics, which is to say not at all.

Harris is a big fan of WBC. They "have great intentions...".... Thanks for the link, btccoach! Really interesting interview. Great to get such a perspective on it.

Question 2 could use a "rarely" option, or replace once a year with rarely. I've been more than once, but only go maybe once a year if that. And question 3 could use a "lack of access" like you're saying. The closest one for me is about an hour away, so I'll only go if I know it'll be worth it. If the club was only a few minutes away I'd go check out random acts, but not gonna risk an hour drive for little payoff.

While "Health & Fitness" parses out "Science & Tech." yet further, the question would be, is it worth it to do so. Just as there's a "Philosphy" and "Libertarianism, Anarchism and Economics" subforum. Seems to me like it would be worth it. And if it doesn't pan out, all the stuff there could easily be moved to the S&T subforum.