ParanoiA

See, this is why you are but a mere quark. Guess again... Of course, now that you mention it, would Michael Jackson get the axe? I mean, hell I was just born white as it was out of my control. But MJ's white on purpose.

Amen. Not to mention, whether anyone here wants to admit it or not, alot of these issues don't have a solution that will not yield negatives. Come on, how could Iraq have been handled that would result in zero negative consequences for all involved? In international politics, particularly conflicts, the best solution still hurts somebody, somewhere. Read about your country's history and you'll see what I mean Ndi.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,235279,00.html I don't know if anyone is really interested in stirring this subject up, but watching the video that goes along with this article reminded me of that nagging question I've never received a satisfactory answer for...Why did the UN choose that particular stretch of land we know as Israel? Why did the UN decide that palestinians shall pay the price and force them to move? Why don't we understand how that would be unacceptable and would likely be militarily rejected by most of the powers involved in that process if it was imposed on them? Ok...I guess that's three questions. But the first one is the most burning.

Yes. Not because I approve, but because it makes it look even worse when you don't talk to them. This is why I would like someone to start a news on news show. I would love to see one of these investigative journalists have to deal with some idiot jumping him in the parking lot with a camera and a microphone busting out demands for a response to something he did years ago or answer for something a family member has done. I would love to see a news program reporting on the inaccuracy and bias of other news outlets. Both of the times I've been involved in a local news event, it has been grossly misrepresented. Playing back audio of answers to questions that weren't asked. Summarizing long discussions with one sentence. Ridiculous editing. Anyone can see that one. Almost no one interviewed ever says a complete sentence - they always cut into their dialogue and chop everything up. But you never see these news anchors and reporters get covered on anything....hmmm I think a brilliant thinker once said..."everybody's got something to hide, except for me and my monkey".

Actually, we have some incitement laws of our own, but I'm not sure how they're designed. The thing is, these kinds of people are few and far between compared to the big picture. I don't want laws restricting speech on everyone when it's just a few idiots using their rights irresponsibly. I'd rather maintain the simplicity and nobility of a free speech society - as free as possible, anyway. Incidentally, I just watched a follow up clip of Fox news confronting this professor in front of his bookstore "Blacknificent", or something like that. It's your typical investigative journalist method of springing up on someone and thrusting your lights and cameras in their face in a rage of righteousness. Anyway, the professor wouldn't say anything, much less defend his remarks or elaborate on them. Despite the media bully tactic, I still have a lack of respect for him since he won't stand up and defend himself.

I hope this isn't viewed as a spam plug. But I received this from a friend in my Email: I verified this at Snopes.com, and it appears much of the text above comes directly from them. Personally, I'm impressed with capitalists that can discipline their greed enough to do things like this. Couldn't we all use a break from Wal-mart? At least buy something from Sears. At least they give something back, which is more than I can say for Wal-mart, which is the retail business equivalent of a black hole.

It's not a crime here though. And I prefer it that way. Incite hatred? Hatred to you is religion for someone else. Hatred to the government, one day, could be civil rights liberation for someone else. I prefer to keep "hatred" as a judgement individuals make rather than my government. Besides, I have the right to counter that hatred. All of us have the right to free speech. That's arguably the most fundamental necessity of the check and balance system of our government. There is some minor clapping, approx 4 or 5 people. One of those links has the video, but there's a better one that covers more after he says that.

That's about where I'm at too. Everybody seems to conflict with everybody else. No one's numbers are accurate or trustworthy.

Slow news day? Perhaps they thought this was relevant now since Richards got in trouble using racial slurs. I'm naturally suspicious of corporate news as it is. Do I detect a tone of plurality in your assessment of his treatment if he were in the UK? I would fight for him to have the right to hate me.

They're more free in the country we fled from...

How about bigfoot? Mister Hand from southpark? ( Hey, Mr Garrison talks to him like a person...)

No kidding. I love bacon, so I only allow the minor indulgence on Friday's. During the week I stick with fruits and egg whites - that sort of thing. The regular bacon eaters around here are the nicotine puffing lizard skinned cough-aholics that have a soda in their possession at all times.

Here's the PDF file: http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/iraq_study_group_report.pdf I have to admit that the number of attacks and persistant violence there is much worse than I thought. What do you all think of this report?

Wow, how disgusting. I hope my kids never get to use this lazy method of writing and typing in school. Honestly, I can't get myself to use these short cuts when I'm text messaging either. I spell out everything, or use intuitive abbreviations. "LOL" becomes "funny". Particularly since I very rarely actually laugh out loud. 'L8R' ? I don't get it. That saves you two letters in a 5 letter word. That's freaking lazy. Is this brought on perhaps by lack of typing skills? This text format is cute for license plate phrasing, but in any other context I find it lazy and repulsive.

Excellent point. I'm short for a dude and that doesn't bother me, but I'd look at you funny if you referred to me as "vertically challenged" rather than "short". Vertically challenged avoids the word "short" but sounds so much worse - it sounds like the person is actually trying to offend rather than reference.

A hopelessly misguided attempt to end *prejudice* - not just racism - all kinds of ism's... The term "Political Correctness" may be invented and used by the right, but the concept was invented and used by the left. I'm not even really sure the right invented the term, but to refer to this concept in any discussion requires a label of some sort. Your example of the politician declaring his faith being a requirement is THE perfect example of why the term is in circulation. Political correctness is plastics, cosmetics, euphamisms that hide the truth -whether it was meant to or not. We cover the proverbial terd with a layer of flower petals. This is sick and should be rejected by any sincere scientific mind. It goes against science's rigid, clinical view of things. To call a cripple person physically challenged is not entirely accurate. Yes they are physically challenged, but that description is vague. Are they physically challenged because they are obese? Are they physically challenged because they can't run more than a mile? Are they physically challenged because they have a 100 lb tumor growing out of their ass? However, "crippled" is more descriptive. I know it's not obesity nor an unsightly tumor. Granted, it still has it's own set of unknowns - like how exactly is this person crippled and so on, but it's more clinical than "physically challenged". Any further description is unnecessary and too narrow to apply practically in real life, otherwise we would go more descriptive than "crippled". Physically challenged is a positive statement that implies an attitude a crippled person should ascribe to, to help them move on and find happiness. However, it's not an accurate label. Liberals are more concerned with the "feelings" and "emotions" of labels and such rather than the pragmatic application and necessity of labels in society. Not to mention, Political Correctness is quite an appropriate term to use on politicians since they ALL do whatever superficial, symbolic gestures are required by their constituents. The right has their own political correctness BS - like playing up religion, family values...blah blah blah. So, maybe it isn't just a leftist thing anymore???

Thanks ajb. I'm currently reading "Elegant Universe", albeit slow - deliberately. I'm trying to understand the concepts as I go along - taking the time to make silly posts here and looking up info on the net - rather than rushing through it. It will likely be a while before I finish it if I keep at this current pace. If it doesn't include harmonics, I will certainly give your suggestions a try. Meanwhile, I would still like to know if we know anything about Harmonics of String vibration yet. I thought it was still an unknown at this point.

Well, I think he means in terms of public outcry. No one is getting bent out of shape and hiring lawyers like Gloria Allred and demanding apologies lined with cash settlements...and what about the "injury" and the "healing"? How am I supposed to heal from this??? Nice point. I hope that's exactly what it is, and not because the public sees whitey as a traditional oppressor who deserves this treatment. Those oppressors are dead, and have been for a long, long time. This is what I meant by curve balls, Phi. The golden skin tone, the disease elimination, increased intelligence - these are what we romanticize homogenization to be. This is how we would write a fiction story about it and how Hollywood would put it on the big screen, but not necessarily the truth. Although, I don't know what the true result would be, I don't believe it would be so obvious and nice as this.

Yeah, I went through a Mythbuster's phase and watched their show for a couple of weeks, but I had the same problem. I'm not even a scientist and I don't know much of the criteria required, but intuitively I can see that their ideas of testing are flawed most of the time. I figured you scientists would really give them a bad grade...

Well, now that we've failed to prevent one person from coming up with this idea - now that it's out of the bag - I guess we can get rid of the retina scans, racial profiling and the DNA banks. After all...what else would we use them for?

I would love to believe that's true. Sounds a little romantic and idealized to be a reality though. Nature always throws curve balls...

This is a short clip of a former university professor, Dr. Kamau Kambon of North Carolina State University, explaining the "solution" to the problems faced by black folks is to exterminate white people. This took place at a Pro-Black Media Forum http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=8063 And here's an article for further reading: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46992 This is why we tend to see "pro-black" as anti-white. Just like most would cite pro-white as anti-black. Just semantics? I don't know. But I do know that supposed "pro-<insert race here>" events or institutions foster racism. This race based exclusivity is practicing prejudice. It doesn't matter how nice or how well intended you want it to be - exclusivity based on race is wrong. I'm glad the organizer denounced these statements, but there was some applause and I doubt those people would denounce any of this. There's a great interview on Fox news with Rev Jesse Lee Peterson worth watching too. I don't know how to link to the video, but it's on the right side of the page. http://www.foxnews.com/

I thought about it, but it sounded like a scaled down version of 4400. The 4400 has been a let down, even though the plot and storyline have a lot going for it, I think.

In contemplating what little (and I do mean little) I've learned so far about string theory, I was wondering about the harmonics of the vibrating strings. Do we know what these harmonics do? Do we even know of any specific vibration patterns that create mass? light? anything? I'm working on a science fiction piece and I'm curious about using harmonics, such as 1st, 3rd, 5th and etc.

I thought I was the only one that did that. In fact, I've been somewhat embarrassed about it because I've almost forgotten how to write in longhand. When I try, it looks soooo horrible, and I have to stop and think about how to write some of the letters. I've damn near untrained myself in cursive at this point.