Phi for All

I'm very curious, how would Texas handle the matter, EdEarl?

I think we just have some sleepers, bot accounts that got in while the filters were off but didn't post any spam right away. The filters are back in place, but they're already members. The filter's probably only protecting us from spammers joining.

Does God have to be omnipotent? If God created the physical laws of the universe but can change them at his whim, does anything have any meaning? Omnipotence seems unnecessary. I would posit that either there is no God, or that what we think of as God is just a being that can do much more than we can and simply seems all-powerful. Like you would seem to an ant. Since I see no evidence of a being like that, and so far everything seems to have a very natural explanation for it, I'm going to go with there is no God. As primitives we imagined lions in the shadows and it helped us survive, so we imagined a bunch of other stuff we couldn't see and it just stuck, like gum on your shoe. It's comforting to have a magic Sky Father who will protect us with his all-powerfulness. Until you realize none of it really makes sense. "No God" is not only a possibility, I think it's the highest probability.

! Moderator Note Yes, we can.

"Sshh, dear, don't cause a fuss. I'll have your spam. I love it. I'm having spam spam spam spam spam spam spam beaked beans spam spam spam and spam!" - Monty Python

I can see I phrased that badly. What I meant was that while our pols bravely stand against the inroads of Socialism and Communism in favor of American Democracy®, the public perception is that we'll never succumb to anti-Democratic rule. It's the perfect way to give us a false confidence and ignore all the things that are eroding our Democracy. Whichever group with a sympathetic charismaniac that decides the time is ripe will find us already whipped, fearful of reprisals and listening to whatever hope is being scripted from our corporate owned news broadcasts.

Yay, dave! Thanks very much!

Bob goes out and buys a parrot. The first day, he teaches the bird to say, "Who is it?" whenever the apartment doorbell rings. He's so pleased, he tells the bird he's going to go back to the pet store and get the bird a nice treat. While Bob is gone, the bird hears the doorbell ring and says, "Who is it?" A voice from the other side of the door says, "It's the plumber. The landlord said your faucets were leaking and I'm here to fix them." The bird repeats, "Who is it?" "IT'S THE PLUMBER! I'm here to fix the leaks!" the man insists. "Who is it?" The man begins screaming. "IT'S THE PLUMBER! YOU CALLED TO HAVE YOUR LEAKY FAUCETS FIXED AND I'M HERE! PLEASE LET ME IN!" Predictably, the bird asks, "Who is it?" The plumber loses his cool and starts jumping up and down. "FOR CHRIST'S SAKE, I'VE TOLD YOU THREE GODDAMN TIMES, IT'S THE PLUMBER!!!" Suddenly, the man grabs his chest and keels over right there in the hall. When Bob gets back, he sees the dead stranger in front of his apartment door. He drops his bags and kneels down, exclaiming, "Oh my God, who is it?" From inside the apartment, he hears the bird say, "IT'S THE PLUMBER!"

I would object but I'm reminded of all the shallow outrage that's generated by our politicians whenever socialism or communism are mentioned. They adamantly state that Communism will never happen here, and indeed the public seems confident they won't allow it to. Perfect way to set the stage for a fait accompli we'll never see coming.

The skirt helps contain and increase the air pressure, focusing it downward only, so it lifts the whole craft a bit higher, including the skirt which is attached. That's the way I read it.

Slippery Slope, like many logical fallacies, is not wrong in and of itself. It's only a fallacy when it's used to make general assumptions ("If you start eating sweets, you'll never stop until it kills you"). In certain cases, like burning books, it can actually be a very real concern. As with most fallacies, you err when you use them to automatically conclude something based solely on the fallacy. Each instance needs evaluation, especially if lives are involved. And not to nitpick, but assuming someone is going to be the next Hitler just because of something they said, and then "silencing them" for it sounds like Fascism at its best.

! Moderator Note I checked into this, for all concerned. The vast majority of negative rep points for everyone in this thread seems to be for condescending personal remarks rather than simple disagreement. Yet another piece of evidence that sniping and uncivil behavior don't help anyone or anything, and often cause further problems. EVERYONE needs to stop it.

Very disappointing for an administration that preaches change. I think iNow's toothpaste analogy is appropriate, but I'm not really sure there's a good way to brush with this kind of toothpaste. Which is more insidious, a terrorist attack that might kill hundreds, or the crushing bondage of knowing that your rights are being compromised yet again by the government who's supposed to represent you, and the millions it affects? I'm no longer convinced that good people have nothing to fear from tactics like this. This is a net that's sure to grab more dolphins than barracudas. We've allowed a wall to be built separating us from our representative government, and each time this kind of thing happens, effective democracy and those it hopes to represent are pushed farther apart. Because it's the NSA making the calls. The cruise is to Guantanamo.

Personal appearance marketing really isn't aimed at making you feel substandard, although it can easily look that way. It's really aimed at forming a perception that the products being marketed are capable of solving your beauty problems. You don't have to be ugly to want to look better. Branding attempts to manage gaps in perception between what the company wants as its image and how the customers perceive that image. It doesn't help them to make you feel bad. What they assume is that you already perceive a need to look better, so they show you what could be possible. If an advertisement makes you feel inferior, you are NOT going to do business with that company. In other words, your feelings of being substandard are not created by the advertisers, they existed before that and are simply being manipulated by the marketing. I'm not trying to defend modern marketing, I find it deceptively influential, underestimated in its effect by the majority and detrimental in many ways. But I wanted to correct this concept of "these quite expensive images are meant to make us feel substandard so that we go out and by the eyeliner, or the clothing, or the shampoo, or whatever". You already feel a certain way, already have a certain ideal of beauty, already have a perception about the various companies trying to get you to use them. Managing your perceptions is what they want, and they can't be effective if they're the ones who made you feel bad about your looks in the first place.

We're very sorry for the lapse in our spam filter coverage. We've been banning them on sight but they are relentless. Thanks for everyone's help in reporting them, and again, we're sorry for any inconvenience and hope to have the problem remedied shortly. The relevant Admin is being prodded with a bovine taser as we speak.

From my experience, douchebaggery is often used successfully to make other people look bad by annoying them to the point of flipping out. It's like the kid in school who flicked your ear and caused YOU to make a huge scene while he looks on innocently shrugging. It could be a very efficient way to expend a little energy to get an enemy/opponent/rival to expend a LOT of energy in retaliation. I'm reminded of the 9/11 attacks and the global military response (after the initial attack, a few video tapes kept alive a multi-trillion dollar retaliation). Maybe it's a holdover from pack hunting tactics, nipping at hamstrings while your opponent has to wheel and charge you to get you to stop. Wears him out with minimal effort from you.

Oort Cloud. An orc cloud is what signals an attack from invading RPG armies.

! Moderator Note Duplicate thread locked.

You have to take them to a university to be tested. AFAIK, there have never been any lunar meteorite finds in North America. Every state in the US has a moon rock sample from the Apollo missions to compare, iirc, and Houston has the Lyndon B Johnson Space Center where most of the moon rocks are stored.

We can help you solve it, but don't give solutions as a general rule. What have you got so far?

How would you steer a car that was levitating? Aren't you talking about a lot of retrofit controls for a vehicle that was meant for friction-based maneuvering? They have a motorcycle that turns into a helicopter that sells for about $280K. Flying cars sounds interesting but I always think of them in terms of I'm-the-only-person-that-has-one. I say goodbye to the sluggish traffic, fire up my VTOL and wave at all the envious, angry commuters beneath me. But can you imagine what the skies would be like if there were as many flying cars as ground cars?

! Moderator Note Duplicate of this thread in Homework Help. I'm closing this one to avoid confusion.

jelowry87, are you talking about 195° Fahrenheit or Celsius?

Since you know so much about what God has done, can you tell me if he's omnipotent? Can he circumvent the physical laws you claim he created?

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