JamesP

What is "god" in your paper? It cannot be the Judeo-Christian god as described in the bible as that one violates the conservation of matter & energy. If the definition was in your above post, my apologies. I'm on mobile right now, not the easiest device to read long posts on.

There is a series on YouTube, Epic Rap Battles of History. It's been a while since I've watched any of them (and maybe they are already passé) but the thought struck me: Historically Accurate Epic Rap Battles It might be fun to do a couple of them (without having any concept of what it would take to produce one), and I'm sure it would be very entertaining to the audience

With a google chrome extension, he did the best he could with the tools available. Also, I implemented a solution which does just that anyway. Also, the chat is only available for registered users, except during the call in shows, so that observation also wouldn't apply in this case.

Hey, I just integrated the user settings for "Ignore chat" into the chat room so that now you can ignore users without having to use Chrome. Make sure you're using the correct language or the text might be a little confusing. You should see "English (USA)" instead of "English (USA) -- obsolete" I also fixed the position of the menu that pops up when you click on a user.

This will be my last word on this as I'm getting pretty bored with this discussion. Nearly all the points you are bringing up were considered in the implementation of this system. Being new here, you wouldn't know that the current system was a vast improvement over the previous system. There was no built-in mechanism for community feedback on a user. You also might not know that currently, only donators are allowed to up or down vote posts. Somebody who donates has found the show valuable and wants to see it succeed, so granting reputation is a perk given to them. It's also about trust--I trust that the people who have shown that they care about the show have good judgment when it comes to whether a post is valuable. The best predictor of future behavior is relevant past behavior. I don't necessarily disagree that per-reputation feedback might be even more helpful, but I really don't think it is absolutely necessary. I also KNOW that people will still complain about it being bad or insufficient... and it just gets really, really boring.

Oh no no no, I think I see where the confusion might be coming from. Those numbers aren't per post. They are from all of the reputation assigned to that user. I hope that clears things up a bit.

I think there is a significant difference between people who react emotionally to the reputation system and the reasoned requests for improvement. Also, maybe I missed it, but where did anyone say that requiring a reason for a downvote would be a bad thing? The only real obstacle to that request is technical, though I will admit I have not yet been sufficiently motivated so as to investigate whether this is feasible.

How come y'all keep engaging with the uber-negative-rep dude?

Hey, I missed this thread, so very sorry! I was in contact with kmt's boyfriend and gave him some tips about neighborhoods and getting around without a car (which I did for 6 months, so I know a couple things about it). mtnman, I'll ping ya via PM. I'm guessing you're already in the area, so maybe you don't need an intro to the area... But yes! Nate C and I have been getting together at 2pm on Sundays at Stella's CoffeeHaus in Denver, just south of I-25. It's very accessible via transit and isn't too terrible to drive to if you're not far from downtown.

The failure of the Libertarian Party would not be a failure of philosophy.

The reputation system is not a tool for determining the truth value of a post. It is a way for the invested community to provide feedback on the content of users' posts.Long-term users have by and large expressed their approval of this system, which was newly installed in the middle of 2013. The only tool prior to the upgrade of the board was a ban. Now, we have reputation and the ability for users to ignore other users' posts in addition to the standard admin tools. This lowers the need for admins, which is a great thing as the board community grows. It is also much easier on the admins if the community is the one to say, "We don't care for what this person is saying." The concept of reputation is also very much in keeping with the concept of a free society. It helps tell you if the person that is posting is considered by others to post good/helpful posts, or bad/unhelpful posts. Lastly, I have not yet observed massive downvotes on posters which make good arguments but contravene some accepted conclusion. In this, I think you have jumped to a conclusion. I may not say it enough, but if anyone thinks that a person is being downvoted unfairly, please let me or MMD know. So far, I have only heard from one person who thought so and my judgment was that it was fair.

I am no longer a ballet dancer.

You keep asserting that they are rooted in "human nature" without actually demonstrating it, or defining "human nature," or having answered my question about what would happen to me if I did not wish to participate in nationalism/socialism.

You need to be far more rigorous than appealing to your perspective if you are going to advocate social systems for people to follow. It also does not matter if you think that the ideals were hijacked. The fact is that people in power violently inflicted these systems on the populace with devastating effects. If I did not agree to be subjected to your system, what would happen to me?

Thanks for that code snippet, Carter. I might be able to integrate that into the code for the chatroom. I will also probably submit it as a patch to the originators of the software. And Robin is right, there is currently no way to ignore people in the chat, you can only block them from initiating private chats.

Nationalism and socialism were and are violently inflicted on people. That would indicate that it is NOT human nature.

The position of the menu is a problem that I haven't gotten to fixing... adding friends is something you can do from people's profile pages. I've never seen the ability to do it from the chat room. I don't think there are any special integrations with friends and chat.

James, you say you have only one thing to say but I think you forgot to say it.

I am flying in to Maui today and will be around until 12/31 (early flight out on 1/1), if anyone wants to hang out for a coffee or something.

That makes sense to me, and is what one would expect with the current understanding of evolutionary theory. Do some research on canines, chickens, cows, wheat, carrots, bananas… not to mention bacteria! Pretty much every species we have come in contact with has been affected by and has affected our species. Consider the presence of alcohol and lactose tolerance in humans. These things are not universal and are evidence of natural selection at work.

I'm not sure what this example is meant to illustrate. Could you provide sources for the studies you cite?This experiment sounds dubious (not to mention cruel), but assuming this was done, it sounds like a very early experiment done before the present day understanding of genes. That said, a man who lost his legs in an accident does not produce legless children. I'm pretty sure that this would be understood without having to resort to slicing off mouse tails.You can see evolution in action with domesticated animals and crops that are grown for food. It's been happening for tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of years.

I think the most general answer is that some information is preserved, some is gained, and some is lost. Information that is essential to the survival of the species is most likely to be preserved or gained, whereas information that is benign or detrimental is likely to be lost. I'm not sure I understand the argument put forward by creation.com. It is certainly wrong to state that evolution has a direction. It makes sense that a religious organization would have this belief, and it is a difficult belief to abandon when evaluating other ideas. Being 100% wrong in a premise means that the whole argument falls down. It's their train that is heading into the deep blue ocean of history, not science.

Stef has held my feet to the fires of responsibility when I've done things that are against my stated values. He knows quite a lot about my history, but he also knows that the proper ownership of responsibility is a precious thing. It sucks, but I'd rather have my toes singed than my soul entombed.

You do not understand what negotiation is. The definition of negotiation is: discussion aimed at reaching an agreement. There was no discussion here. What the father offered that boy was this: compliance or punishment. The boy chose to be punished, possibly because he thought he could call his father's bluff. That man's mealy-mouthed excuse for his behavior was "you get nervous about rewarding bad behavior." He wished he had complied with his son's demands rather than attempting to enforce his own. This is just not good parenting by any stretch.

Are there any resident Hawaiians on the board that will be available from around 12/22-1/3? I'm currently making plans and so far, I'm pretty fluid. I have a couple things I want to do but most of it will be sunny sun sun and fruity fruit fruit.