ydoaPs

It's Opening Post or Opening Poster, typically.

You're forgetting about Smarch and its lousy weather.

You don't see it until it's pointed out and then it's so obvious. [imath]\tau[/imath] is much more elegant and feels ever so more natural.

No, I like it. We haven't observed God, so the concept of the deity is impossible.

Just like a number line. -r is r units away from zero just like r is, but it is rotated 180 degrees.

You don't seem to even know how science says evolution happens. Really? Not even the ability to digest nylon(a man made substance)?

This makes a lot of sense. [imath]e^{i\tau}=1[/imath] does seem more elegant than [imath]e^{i\pi}+1=0[/imath].

Unless one deactivates it, the forum will notify you if a post of yours is quoted. Thus quoting an OP will alert the OP to the fact that a conversation has begun in his or her thread.

I don't think the GINI data can tell you if a country is a plutocracy. One person could theoretically have 98% of the wealth, but not care at all about politics.

If religiosity made the world a better place, would it not offset the effect of poverty on societal health problems in religious countries? I didn't say that religiosity caused societal health problems; I said the correlation needed for religiosity to make the world a better place does not exist.

It was more of a 'no.' There is an inverse correlation between societal health and religiosity of a nation. Since the more secular nations are more societally healthy, we can say that religion does not make the world a better place.

I think MI just sealed it. They're pushing through legislation which gives the governor the power to appoint an 'emergency manager' to take over all financial operations of a local government should they be deemed to be in a 'financial emergency'. If this manager decides that the local government isn't doing a good enough job of doing its bidding, then "the emergency manager, in addition to other remedies provided in this act, may prohibit the official or employee from access to the local government's office facilities, electronic mail, and internal information systems." That effectively gives the manager the power to remove the elected local government from power. The manager also can take "Any other actions considered necessary by the emergency manager in the emergency manager's discretion to achieve the objectives of the financial and operating plan, alleviate the financial emergency, and remove the local government from receivership." So, not only as we have seen above, does the manager have the ability to effectively remove the local elected government from office, it also has the power to do anything it wants as long as it can claim that it fits in with alleviating the financial emergency. The manager does not need to "receive public approval before he or she implements the plan or any modification of the plan", which means the manager doesn't even need to consider protests or public opinion. The manager can "Make, approve, or disapprove any appropriation, contract, expenditure, or loan, the creation of any new position, or the filling of any vacancy in a permanent position by any appointing authority", "Reject, modify, or terminate 1 or more terms and conditions of an existing contract." at the "manager's sole discretion and judgment". Since the manager may "Act as sole agent of the local government in collective bargaining with employees or representatives and approve any contract or agreement" and the decision is at the "manager's sole discretion and judgment", the manager can effectively silence the unions as well as the general public. Going on in the bill, we can see that the manager can do a bit more than keep the government from doing its job. The manager can "consolidate or eliminate departments of the local government." That's right, the manager can straight up eliminate entire departments. While able to eliminate entire departments, the manager is not able to remove an elected official from office (though, as we have seen above, the manager can keep said official from performing his or her duties). But that's alright, because "Take any other action or exercise any power or authority of any officer, employee, department, board, commission, or other similar entity of the local government, whether elected or appointed, relating to the operation of the local government." You might think it's ok because it only has the power of the mayor rather than the actual office-the actual mayor can still do his or her job. If that's what you think, you might want to think again, because "The power of the emergency manager shall be superior to and supersede the power of any of the foregoing entities." Think the school board or city council have any power? Think again, because the manager can "Remove, replace, appoint, or confirm the appointments to any board, commission, authority, or other entity which is a component unit of the local government." At least all of those government employees are getting paid something, right? Nope. "Immediately upon the local government being placed in receivership under section 15 and during the pendency of the receivership, the salary or other compensation, including the accrual of postemployment benefits, and other benefits of the chief administrative officer and members of the governing body of the local government shall be eliminated." If you think the governor being able to replace entire local governments with effective dictators isn't that bad, read section 5 subsection c. That's right, the new dictator of the local government can be a company. A company set in charge of making all government contracts that is given the power to completely replace the existing government and do what it wants. What happened to democracy? Can you imagine the outrage if Congress passed a bill allowing Obama to do this to state governments?

plu·toc·ra·cy [ploo-tok-ruh-see] –noun, plural -cies. The rule or power of wealth or of the wealthy. A government or state in which the wealthy class rules. A class or group ruling, or exercizing power or influence, by virtue of its wealth. Now, you might think I'm crazy to even suggest the possibility. I mean, we elect our representatives, right? So, they act in the interest of the People rather than those that paid to get them into office, right? Let's take a look and see whether American politics is for the People or the wealthy 2% and the corporations. Cutting teacher training, job training, and help for the poor in favour of help for oil companies that trash our shores, companies who send their work overseas because it's cheaper than hiring US workers, and the top 2% income? That's a bit suspicious. Perhaps we should look at other programs that were cut or in serious danger of being cut. Blocking legislation that would raise liability for causing billions of dollars in damages and attempting to block subpoena power to investigate should a company actually cause such damages? Hmm...That's a bit suspicious too. They blocked taxes on companies that send jobs overseas, tried to block legislation that would spur local small business, and attempted to block legislation that would give companies incentive to hire new people. Next time a Republican asks "Where are the jobs?" point them to where they killed them. This too is awfully suspicious of a plutocracy. Tax breaks to corporations that don't need them(and send American jobs overseas) but try to block help for local small businesses that could actually use the help? That's REALLY suspicious. Let's take a moment to see how the People balance the budget vs the allegedly bought politicians. Now, let's look at what is perhaps the most blatantly obvious example of our government being more influenced by the rich and the corporations than the People. Governor Walker of Wisconsin and his crusade against the middle class. Despite what the people of Wisconsin want, what the people of the US want, and despite the fact that Walker's proposal actually costs money, Walker is beating on with his fight. By the way, Wisconsin isn't even really broke. FOX "News" has taken up his cause and used its standard tactics of dishonest footage and outright lies to do so. If FOX is on your side, you're probably on the wrong one. FOX even had a reporter claim to have been punched by a protester. Luckily, protesters have cameras and proved that as a lie. After FOX posted footage of a violent protest during a discussion of Wisconsin, the protesters took it in stride and brought inflatable palm trees so FOX could still use that dishonest footage. 3% raise in taxes on the top 2% is just too much, but a 10% pay cut for those making $50,000 is justifiable? And now there is legislation to block college students from voting because they're "voting as a liberal. That's what kids do". In Georgia, this bill cuts taxes on overseas corporations, raises taxes on gasoline, and makes food subject to sales tax. This one seems like blatantly padding the wallets of the super-rich at the expense of the poor and the middle class. So, have I caught the Glenn Beck crazies, or is there something to this?

Yeah, THAT's why you kill threads.... </sarcasm>

Do you think FOX will actually fire Beck?

So, you've never been pepper sprayed OR tazered. Good to know. Perhaps it is YOU who is not taking this seriously.

It should be noted that all of these intermediate eyes are found in nature.

Well, the most religious countries are the ones with the most societal health issues, if that helps.

I'm not an expert, but I'll give it a shot. Why would they change if there was no pressure? A relatively stable environment would yield a relatively stable niche. Irreducible complexity was a prediction of evolution long before it was declared a problem by Behe. It's called the Müllerian Two Step. Step 1: Add a component; Step 2: Make it necessary. Indeed, Müller introduced this concept way back in 1918, and did so in the following scientific paper: Genetic Variability, Twin Hybrids and Constant Hybrids in a Case of Balanced Lethal Factors by Hermann Joseph Müller, Genetics, 3(5): 422-499 (1918) Why must it be either or? In fact, we can tell which shared traits are from common ancestry and which are from convergent evolution. I'm going to go ahead and say you're either blatantly lying, or never actually tried to learn about evolution as you appear completely ignorant of even the basics. Try giving learning a go. Below are some useful links.What is evolution? Introduction to Evolutionary Biology Index to Creationist Claims

Zombies, because they're hungry. Or maybe Obama because he wants to take your guns. It might even be the .

I'm not sure how much of this can be bias from the polling source, because one of the polls is in a paper owned by Murdoch.

After that, the Bearodactyl

How about tractor beam powered bumper cars?

http://arxiv.org/pdf/1102.4905v1 How feasible would it be to make a large scale tractor beam? Would it be useful as a propulsion mechanism(pulling the moon toward it, but the moon has enough inertia to not really move) to sort of slingshot rocket payloads into space to ease the fuel needed to attain orbit?

Some people actually like Iraq. They might say Detroit doesn't seem like a very nice place. In case you don't get it, grab a Bible and look at the map below.