Phi for All

I would wonder why something that could create the whole universe would want my worship. As a father I don't even want that kind of blind, unquestioning adoration from my child. Does worship fuel his godly power cells or something, and is there a synthetic alternative?

"Not appropriated very wisely"? Seriously, you're playing the hindsight card on how the funding was allocated? Republican Jason Chaffetz, congressman from UT, member of both the Budget Committee and the committee on Oversight and Government Reform, when asked if he voted to reduce funding for embassy security, had this to say: http://transcripts.c...0/10/sp.01.html Since there is only supposition and "maybes" and arguments from incredulity to support some kind of coverup on the part of the Obama administration, I think it's equally likely that House Republicans are using this blame-game to take the heat from their austerity measures and budget cutting. Why aren't Republicans outraged that their control of the House led to cutting security budgets that resulted in the deaths of four Americans? None of the coverup scenarios smeared on the Obama administration pass the stink test as well as covering up underfunding of security that leads to American deaths.

I think crowd-funding could be advantageous (not advertised here, of course), but I'd like the JOBS Act to set up stricter regulations. They should have these soon, and then I think you'll see more people embrace the concept. I would not support it if it turns out to be an attempt to loosen the regulations surrounding such transactions. It could end up being a repeat of the financial sector problems that we're still dealing with.

I just forgot it was here.

! Moderator Note This thread has failed to show any relevance to mainstream scientific knowledge and the OP continues to argue against a stance none of the replies seems to take. Since many students come to the main fora for help with school, I'm moving this to our Speculations section.

Really? That's the way you think it works? Is this to give Republicans something else to test out their new mountain-making equipment on? So that when something happens they can blame Obama for downsizing one of the busiest embassies in the world? At this point, you're just playing a nice game of hindsight.

! Moderator Note chandragupta, you are failing to address the individual points in the replies of others, choosing instead to simply repeat what you have asserted before, which you've also failed to adequately support. This is evident from all the replies you've gotten and simply brushed aside. This is known as preaching or soapboxing, and is against the rules you agreed to when you joined. It's a very frustrating style of discourse and fails to be actual discussion since you are clearly ignoring anything others are discussing. Please address the issues others have included in this discussion so as to make it more productive for all. As always, if you have a problem with this modnote, please report it or PM another moderator. Do NOT further derail the thread by discussing the modnote here.

rigney, there's a Tastykake program that can help you with the Twinkie withdrawals and the Ho-Ho jonesing. You need professional help, man.

http://articles.cnn....doherty-tripoli What further objectives do you feel were missed? I see what you did there. If your scout reveals that aggressive action would be unproductive, NOT risking more lives is hardly ignoring the intel. Nice that you can really get inside the president's head like that. Does your mind-reading ability tell you why he would want that, knowing it would come out anyway, and also knowing that dealing with a terrorist threat in a swift, commanding way would have done his campaign much more good than lying about it for no reason or benefit? In your opinion, are these people really that stupid?

Like many things, it's the mistakes we make, the bad times we have, the stupidity that gets pointed out that seems to motivate us to change, in addition to adopting the right perspective on our goals. We saw a surge of national interest in electric cars when gas hit $5 a gallon. We didn't need this last election to show us that things need fixing. But I agree that there's a vested interest out there that wants us to keep viewing the problem as insurmountable rather than just agreeing to fix it. With every system you're going to have people who've found ways to make it work very well for themselves and don't want it to change no matter how much it could improves life for everyone else.

I started to write a book about this, but I forgot where I put my notes and then just lost interest. I'm very interested to see if recent legalization attempts can produce more legitimate studies on the effects of marijuana as a medicine, as well as how it compares recreationally with alcohol, and how hemp products will effect commerce. One aspect that will be crucial, imo, is the effect on a patient who needs to operate a vehicle. Is there a testable amount of cannabis that can be used that provides the known medical effects but doesn't exceed a limit recognized by law enforcement as unsafe?

What aspect of "Truth" are you seeking to defend with regard to science? The posts I quoted quite clearly reference Truth as something obvious and undeniable, like it comes complete with a beacon attached that shines in a part of the spectrum only the few Truly intelligent can discern. Truth, like proof, are not goals science should concern itself with; always seeking the better explanation, the explanation with the most evidence to support it, is a more objective, meaningful, trustworthy goal. The minute you think you've found The Truth, everything else is cast off, but seeking the best explanation forces us to continually refine our theories. To me, Truth is related to faith, belief in things you can't know with certainty. Trust is more related to the natural world, the scientific world, and is belief in the best explanations using sound methodology.

I use this guideline as well. We get so many students that come to discuss science and the last thing we'd want to do is mess up their grades by having explanations that are outside accepted science in the main fora, where they expect to find mainstream answers. When they check out Speculations, they know they shouldn't be using any of the answers there on next week's test.

This is SO wrong. Because "Truth" with a capital T is actually subjective and varies from person to person, the very thing that science tries so studiously to avoid. The kinds of bias that go into any single person's vision of what Truth is is anathema to science. Science is NOT the quest for Truth, because once you think you've found "The Truth", you stop looking for a better explanation. Science is the quest for a better explanation. Again, science strives to remove what is human and not objective in order to remain free of the taint of error and bias. You may think this strips science of its humanity, but that's what this tool is for. Adding human weakness into science would be like wrapping the head of a hammer in bubble wrap so it doesn't hurt you if you hit your finger. A very human idea, but it ruins the tool for its intended purpose.

Copy that. That's my dinner side for tomorrow night. I'll let you know how it turned out.

We always carve pumpkins for Halloween and roast the seeds. Three pumpkins gives us several hundred seeds, and they're very tasty but it's pretty messy getting them. Personally, the pumpkin itself doesn't thrill me much to eat, since it's flavor usually has to be enhanced by other stuff that's not so good for you. I prefer butternut squash, but there again I tend to need butter on it to make it taste right. I saw some Boston Marrow Squashes this year, very red and even bigger than most pumpkins I've seen.

Stop letting the liars at FOX News fix your lunch.

This sounds like big corporate influence. The same influence that preaches leaving the free market free of regulation and restraints, but also supports subsidies, no-bid contracts and special interest legislation designed to give advantage to one company over the other. Big corporate stood to save a lot of money if Romney got elected, which means favoring all the underhanded yet legal tactics that kept Democrats from the voting machines.

I didn't mean to scare him so bad he blanked his whole opener. I just don't think he realized he was calling for an invasion of a small country with big allies. I was hoping to talk about some of his less aggressive ideas, like how to spruce up the old phosphate mines and make them tourist attractions (maybe some kind of hide and seek theme park for the kids?). An island where Australians send their worst criminals? I'd rather visit the island where the porn industry sends women for sex training. Great minds... . No. You both watch too much reality TV.. Uh-uh. Now that I think about it, I've never seen the two of you in the same room....

Your post #9 mentioned that cinnamon causes arousal in men, then your post #12 mentioned that onions induce sexual desire, John C related that to a side story about melons, which I thought was a clever double entendre, and zapatos was saying that just being awake induces sexual desire in men. The rest of it was a misunderstanding on your part. No psychopaths here, no one ardently supporting melon or pumpkin sex. Let's squash that idea.

Labels that are specific help to define what we mean and where we stand, for our own and other's benefit. What you probably hate are generalizations that are used as labels, like "liberal" and "dropout" and "suburbanite". These are too broad and allow people to assume too much about you.

! Moderator Note Since your assertions here do NOT reflect the reality of the situation, and numerous posters have cited plenty of evidence to refute your assertions, and since you are NOT addressing posts that clearly point to evidence, in your own links, that fails to support your stance, I can only conclude that you're choosing to troll this thread to evoke harsh and unproductive responses. This is against the rules you agreed to when you joined and if you continue you will be suspended or banned. If you have a problem with this modnote, do not further derail the thread by responding to it here. PM another mod or report this post and other staff members will deal with it.

So of course you listen when FOX News does a story on someone who's caught abusing the system, and they of course relate that to the guy on the other side of the country who got caught doing the same thing, and pretty soon they've made it look like an epidemic. You want to know what the real problem is? Most welfare fraud (some studies show 93%) is perpetrated by the vendors who hold government contracts to provide welfare services, not by the welfare recipients themselves. It's the doctors, dentists, child care facilities, shop owners and other private businesses, the ones who are screaming about unfair taxes, that are scamming the system.

This has always been a big part of the problem. Ultra-conservatives make many assumptions that they are the hard-working righteous ones, and everyone they don't know wants something for nothing, has their hands in the pockets of the rich, has wanton unprotected sex and abortions every month, refuses to work, is probably doing something illegal right now, supports evil presidents who lie about killing their ambassadors and are as offal. They refuse to see the huge amount of good because they just know there is some bad out there somewhere.

Amen to that! Too many people jumped on that wagon without checking credentials every time the driver changed. They thought this was finally some representation that differed from the major parties while still being Republican and shifted their identities, which made it difficult to stop defending the crazy as it got even more crazy. The people I know who claimed Tea Party affiliation two years ago just don't want to talk about it now, like survivors of a hostage situation. The religious right are going to be a bit more difficult to dump. They're going to have to ease away without offending a base that seems determined to block all progress and hamstring US development. That's going to hurt us every time we try to compete globally, and since the religious right tends to dismiss what happens in other countries, I see isolationism in our future if the Republicans don't try to remove the most extreme from their leadership.