fauxlaw

Compared to editing video, editing words on a page, even digital on monitor, is far more difficult. Yes, a picture is worth a thousand words, and video just expands that, but you're able to edit in mass pixels in a stroke, while I must do it a pixel at a time.

In the 60s, a professor of communications at Fordham University, Marshall McCluhan, wrote two books entitled, "Understanding Media: the Extensions of Man" [1964], and "The Medium is the Massage" [1967] in which he said in the first, and demonstrated in the second, that, near as I can remember [both books are across my library's far wall and I'm too lazy to get up to fetch them], "Our children are surrounded by live radio and television, and are then confused when they enter the nineteenth century structure of the classroom." I grew up in that conflicting environment. 60 years later, the surround is literally the world in your hand and pocket, live and alarming, yet we stall have that 19th century classroom.

Further, the content of that education is so poorly preparing our children for the responsibilities of our 21st century world, and they value their education so cheaply, they demand that it be free, and are apparently succeeding in convincing my generation, which paid ever penny of our education, and gen-xers, and milennnials, that education must be free and entitled.  McCluhan described our 60s world as a "global village," because we were beginning to know everything about everyone. Man, did he have his finger on the pulse, or what?

I'll spell it out in simple terms so you're sure to understand: Only in a free society can one individual so change his paradigm of uselessness, poverty, and worthlessness as to prosper and enjoy the blessed rights of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The government of personal liberty has not limits set upon it. No, there is no "there comes a time when you have made enough money," and no, there is no "you didn't build that," as the party in the person of Oba'a propsed as the way things are. Biden is another confirmation of that limiting philosophy. Trump is its antithesis. These are abrupt limitations, and you are free, as Richard Bach said, to "argue for your limitations; they are yours."

What are your stats to back-up that statement, or did it come from where the sun doesn't shine?

Meanwhile, I performed a statistical study of the past four presidential elections; 2016, 2012, 2008, 2004. I'm a statistical professional with a certified Six Sigma Black Belt. Look it up. I know what I'm doing. The studies consisted of analysis of total votes for the two major-party candidates in each election, state by state, compared to the total populations of each state. You might be surprised by the result.

It is said that without the Electoral College, the total votes for the president elected would be achieved by the total popular votes in just a few large-populated states, like CA, TX, FL, and NY, the current largest populated states in the Union. Not entirely so.

Once I collected the data, I created two separate columns of data; one by popular vote in each state, and one by electoral college vote in each state. The popular vote column arranged the states in descending order, most to least by state population. The electoral college vote column arranged the states in ascending order, least to most by state population.

My intent was to find how many of the most populated states did it take to elect the president in that year, and conversely, how many of the least populated states did it take to elect the president in the same years. With me so far?

On average, considering all four elections, it required an average of 23 most populated states to elect the president if popular vote was the election mode.

Conversely, it required an average of 41 of the least populated states to elect the president by the electoral college mode.

So, which mode appears to you to be the most representative of the whole of American citizens? Isn't that what you are really after in presidential elections, after all? Or, is it just because the media tells you that a national popular vote total is the easiest measure of who is elected? I'd rather have a most representative vote than the easiest vote. Wouldn't you? Besides, tell me which elections in the total of 58 presidential elections in US history were corrupted by a contrary electoral college result. Tell me why in 91% of those 58 elections, the electoral college and popular vote totals were in sync. You're chasing a red herring just to corrupt the Constitution, because changing that is going to be required to have your popular vote..

While we are horrified by the mounting number of deaths from Covid-19, are we ignoring that we are still senselessly killing 37,000 per year in highway deaths per year because somebody is not paying attention? I remember the first car my father bought equipped with seat belts in the 60s. That was supposed to curtail that death rate, but there are still people on the road who can't be bothered, and you want Covid-19 to go away? How badly?

How about that, according to the CDC, 80% of diabetes patients, and 60% of cancer and heart disease patient deaths would be eliminated simply by controlling what we put in our pie holes? Those percentages are applied against the respective totals of 83,000, 600,000, and 647,000 annually, for a grand total of 815,000 pie hole-caused deaths annually. And you want Covid-19 to go away? How badly.

So you complain that we are inconvenienced a little right now with social distancing and wearing a mask if you must violate staying home for a few months? I'll wager that when Covid-19 is eliminated, we'll still be stupid about seat belts and controlling what goes in the pie hole. Just how much do you think we really do not control in our lives to waste them so senselessly?

Sure, the math doesn't work if you consider the USA a single entity. Constitutionally, we are a collection of states, United States [get it] and their populations, independent of one another, vote for and elect the President. It is an election by count of states, not an election by count of the entire national populace. Who makes you think the way you do? The media, of course, by their insistence to count by national numbers. The @#%@$@#% media, as usual, screws everything that moves, and usually messes it up. Helps to read and understands the Constitution, instead. I read it every month, and have for ten years. I'm still just scratching the surface of that most unique of American documents. Try it, sometime.

All, a mix but varied in quantity of both. I'm not arguing that point, but there are other cultural demographics, which also vary by state.

I'm a boomer. I spent my life preparing for this moment in life when I am virtually self-sufficient, I own my 2 homes, I live in relative isolation at 7500 feet on 10 acres, I can interrupt a revenue stream and survive for the balance of my life. I have food and supplies to survive this, and most issues of closures of one sort or another. I did not accomplish this by sitting on my ass waiting for the parade of entitlements I could advantage myself with them, but why should I apply? I am the fly in your soup. I don't need your soup; I can make my own. So, just what kind of singularity have you to refute that? If I died tomorrow, my passing will not cost you a cent of any color. I've had this advantage for the last 40 years. You?

Culture is only partially affected by politics. You have a unique set of combined features of culture in each state. Tell, me, what, exactly, is your experience in each state of the Union? Been in a few, a lot, in one, or all? I've lived in a few states that even have multiple distinctive cultures, so, expecting an equivalent politic in each state is absurd. We are, be design, mind you, for being the 3rd largest country in the world, the largest major country by diversity.

Progressive attitudes:

If you were born alive, you're a pandemic

If you are a human, you're a racist against other animals.

If you are not a victim, you're no friend of ours.

If someone tells you to take off your clothes,  you do it.

I'm thinking Ramdatt is a secondary cipher to bump debate wins by forfeiture.

If God really did punish us for our repeated stupidity, we would be black and blue, at least. Evidence that He allows our free agency, even if it is used to be stupid, like holding spring break in FL amid a pandemic.

Not that it means a hill of beans, but I'll take my cheap thrills where I can get them. I do not have your youth [except in my head, where it's mostly useless!] so thrills must come from ordinary places. No, I didn't mean that. That's still workin' just great!

Spot on! Some here maintain, for example, relevant to presidential politics, and relevant to the point that they are political entities, either Dem or GOP, that States are red or blue and ne'er the twain shall meet. However, not one of the 50 has ever been just red, or blue. The whole of them have been one and the other.

Ahhh, dawns the light! I'm missing the intended possessive apostrophe. Thanks for the enlightenment. Also, as an aside, thanks for the mention - I've just earned my fist gold medal!

Discussion point aside, all I see is s launch of a Forum topic with a string of posts to pad the count, a measured item. Why not combine all those thoughts registered in 8 minutes in one post?

To the topic: I found DDO literally 6 weeks ago, and found it completely unresponsive to queries about its operation

before joining DART 5 weeks ago, and discovering DDO was dead. So, why isn't it buried?

Opinions? What's the Forum? An attempt to replace Plato's Republic?

Polls? Unless scientifically conducted with unbiased questions, a targeted response group, a calculated margin of error and confidence level, what good are they? Leave them to the media to conduct poorly; we do not need to add to their idiocy.

Supas? What do Indonesian trees have to do with it?

By not ignoring who is responsible for root cause of the incident of pregnancy. In either case, male or female, when, not if, the aggressor has failed to practice abstention, the aggressor is the root cause of pregnancy, not the victim of the aggression. The aggressor is always the one who has failed to respect the agency, the value, and the chaste innocence of the victim. No implication; that flew right over your head.

So, blow the whole idea off? How does anyone control what someone else does to them? You're being absurd, dreaming up scenarios that affect a small percentage of us. 

>>RationalMadman

Condom use:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2940206/.  Even when used correctly, as you specify, condoms have a 3% failure rate. If they are used repeatedly [more than once without discard], it's failure rate is 20%. 

Tubal ligation [tie]: while the surgery of ligation appears to be permanent, https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/treatment-tests-and-therapies/tubal-ligation and it can be reversed, but with only 50 to 80% effectivity of pregnancy after reopening the tubes. However, a poor job of initial ligation results in 0.037%of ligated females become pregnant. 

Vasectomy: The failure rate of vasectomies is 0.15%. http://www.malehealthcenter.com/c_vasectomy.html

Yes these are all small failure rates, but they still fail. Meanwhile, 100% abstinence is 100% successful in avoiding pegnancy. IOW: keep it ziped.

Nope. Virtually all my investments are in a no-loss mode - they stay level in a loss, but I gain when it grows. My risk, and reward, is less, but I can, at this point, afford that. I do have one stock that I allow to float, and it's loss was significant, but it did not affect my overall stability. And, I'm still earning income by freelance work though retired. And I have a net worth in the high 7 figures, mostly by real estate. Sue me; I read the Art of the Deal when younger, and I believed the guy who wrote it. Worked for me...

Sorry to burst the bubble, but my wealth has increased 51% since Trump was elected, and I've not lost squat by the recent Covid-19 effect. Hell, yeah, I'm voting for him again. If you're just working for money rather than the other way around, that's on y'all. I prefer to make my money work for me. 

Ye of little faith. Who said you cannot use your homes as chapels and sing to your heart's content, and read scriptures, and discuss matters with your family? You do remember what that is, right? Maybe it's something that never should have been abandoned as irrelevant to our modern, "enlightened" culture, yeah? My home is my castle, my chapel, if need be, my refuge, as need be, my family, as always.

The results of the test of the Chinese Room say otherwise. I suggest you read my source.

Our annual trade imbalance, negative export/import ratio, for the last 40 years, because China not only fudges shipping volumes [personal repeated experience with this issue], but fudge their currency value erratically, and without regard to international trade and currency manipulation law [also personal repeated experience].

Smacks of an authoritarian state. No thanks. Besides, just as with STDs, the answer is not digital contraceptives; it is abstinence. Those who do their part in social distancing, including just staying home, have a high percentage  to 100% chance of avoiding infection, thus curtailing spread of the virus. Those who don't... well, you have the percentage of protection of physical contraceptives, and none are 100% effective; not even vasectomy and tube-ties. look it up.

Good posit!

1. No. Morality is a construct of proper comportment where, otherwise, life and freedom are threatened. There is no condition in your posit that gives life to the digital AIs. And there is no indication by your posit that the AIs have freedom; they are restricted to existence in servers. Offering "full sentience" to AIs does not imply that they have life, or freedom.

2. No, for the same reasons as listed above.

3. No, since any added, externally-given morals have no effect on the restriction of action only within, and affecting the server.

4. No, for the same reasons as listed in [1].

5. n/a.

6. If Ais are allowed egress from the servers, all bets are off, and the scientist is punished. Severity to be determined. 

7. If AI's are given freedom to affect any system having cause and effect external to the server, all bets are off, and the scientist is punished, severity tbd.

8. As a fail-safe, the scientist must retain the ability to sever the AIs from any action whatsoever within or without the server. If incapacity of the scientist ever occurs, the Mayor of the city in which the scientist's lab is located has direct emergency power and facility to act in the name of the scientist. Yes, this gives a political entity conditional power over science, but is that any different than now? 

Nope. Not remotely like that. God, being omnipotent, and, being our literal father of our spirit, about which a physical body was wrapped by, well, an intersection of a man and woman [sorry, no alphabet soup here], organized a plan be which we experience the above process of obtaining a physical body for the purpose of experiencing mortality, fraught with opportunities to make choices. Along the way, we have signposts, both good and bad, both either urging, without coercion, or imposing, by coercion, to choose their separate paths.

Your Russells and Matthews, are prophets, called of God to guide. They are literate. God already knows this, and can tell them what to write. But they are human. Sometimes, they don't entirely get it right, but their intentions are good and proper, and devoted to God.

Worse, there are others, lets call them Jack and Shyte, and these are also literate men, and they come along hundreds of years later and interpret what was written by Russell and Matthew, and either by ignorance, or willful, malevolent intent, alter what R & M wrote. The problem is compounded when J & S don't natively speak the language of R & M's native tongue, but think they do because they have a dictionary, but nary a clue about R & M's culture. Without understanding culture, you have transliteration, not translation. You have a comparative dictionary to dictionary transliteration. But languages do not always have, and seldom do, word-to-word identical comparisons. Add the centuries between us and R & M, and you compound the problem with generations of even well-meaning Js & Ss.

Result: what J & S write may have a semblance of what R & M wrote, but changes are inevitable.

The dilemma's solution for us is so simple, it escapes most people who read and throw up their hands in the apparent impossibility of understanding J & S., let alone R & M. The solution? Since this is supposed to be inspired text, holy writ as it were, ask the Inspirator. With dedicated study of "the word." Sincerely. With real intent to know. With humility. With lack of doubt. With faith in Christ. The truth will be revealed.

The world, or a country? Not remotely a chance. While a machine can "think" of a sort, it is, at present, and perhaps indefinitely, incapable of reason, and the deduction of separate entities of justice and mercy.

A good source to distinguish these higher abilities than the construct of a "thinking machine" is the Chinese Room posit. See: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/chinese-room/

Conservatorship, as I understand the law [and it may vary state to state] is applied, only by the decision of a court, due to physical or mental impairment such that decisions, mainly financial, made by the conservatee [you] need management by an appointee [anyone the plaintiff - your parents - designates,] and is approved by the court. However, theirs is the burden of proof that your condition and actions merit the judgment of conservatorship. Age of the conservatee is of no consequence.

Sounds to me their concern may be only the time spent in your activities, to the detriment of an education. Be prepared on that score to demonstrate your prudent division of activity. Don't count on a judge's determination that time spent on facebook/DART is an education. After all, they are formally educated, your potential attitude about a higher education notwithstanding.

This is a caring, and hopefully objective grandfather to a grandson.

As if China is telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in regard to their specific numbers of death. That I should believe a shark saying, "Don't mind my teeth; I'm a vegan."

Not to mention that this outbreak, become a pandemic, is the failed policy of that shark to manage while still within his border.

Macbeth not relative? Well, yes, he spoke to nothing regarding running, so the interpretative variance, notwithstanding, happens to be true. From there, it goes downhill.

My reply, sir, to your three points was Macbeth [now repeated]: they signify nothing, as the tragic king concluded regarding lighted candles in the fury of an idiot's story regarding Macbeth's grief at the loss of his queen. Your apparent misunderstanding of English literature at its finest best not be exemplary of yours regarding biblical verse. Remains to be seen. So, having answered your question, though not in the fashion you expected - but that's not your call, is it? - I note by rebuttal that you've said naught regarding men's nipples. It's a serious question my friend, and likely that the Bible is your salvation in response. Simple, yeah?

Or do I hold a mirror's face to your accusation that I do not respond?

Second question: Is Bible Slapping the purpose for which it was made? You don't need to appeal to Ragnar for that answer, do you?

Why address what is not there? 

bring it

Thanks. It is my favorite novel of all time. Plus, I've been top many of the places Eco takes us.

Yes, it takes several reads for just the text. The chapter headings are a great challenge, and I'm fluent in Italian, and French, but the rest I just ignore. Eco was a trie linguist. I had a professor once who taught ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs grammar who was like that. Lectured in English, French Italian, Greek, German, Spanish, Arabic... and expected we understood his seamless dialogue.

Well, BrotherBelbo, aren't we ignorant of Italian dialects. From Turin, if you must know. Must read Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum to find it's most ardent user.

Must also find a synonym for 'ignorant,' It's getting old.

Glad you can make note of something because you can put a cork in your singing, friar.

Ma gavte la nata

blah, blah, blah. Tell it to someone who actually cares about your mirror through which you see everyone else, but not so well.

Don't need to know, I'd invest the $100 and call it good.

My choice, not yours. Sorry to poke yet another wish balloon. 

Predisposition. Hmmm..."A genetic predisposition (sometimes also called genetic susceptibility) is an increased likelihood of developing a particular disease based on a person's genetic makeup."https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/mutationsanddisorders/predisposition

Does that mean predisposition compels? Nope. I guess that means there may be other sources of spirituality, or not, than some bloody gene, particularly since thoughts and attitudes can completely change over a lifetime, such as being spiritually inclined, and then giving it the heave-ho. Happens, my friend. What of genetic predisposition, then?

Using an argument is a fish? I take it your diet is not comprised of much fish. 

And I was completely unaware that the clothing I choose to wear may bear false witness. Of what, that I wear a tux to a beach party?

I accord Jesus exactly and entirely the same privilege. You can give him the red herring, and he will multiply it, because he can do that, too.

>ATroubledMan: Was your John 7 reference supposed to be an example of Jesus lying? The matter is one of bearing false witness, not merely lying. There is a difference., but, actually, Jesus did neither. He said he was not going to the feast, and he only went in disguise, not as himself. And he stated why he was doing so, but his disciples did not understand. Is disguising one's self a sin? Well, some disguises are illegal, but that's quite another matter, and the record does not tell us if Jesus was pretending to be some official. Or if he was, it mayh ave been like a Halloween costume. In disguise, he can attend the feast, as he should being an obedient Jew.

>BrotherDThomas: I doubt Jesus is tired of us. He did atone for us. He may be disappointed in us at times, but tired of us? Nope. You can go ahead on your own and be tired, that's okay.

Yeah. A time of such ignorance, that the Great Pyramid had already been built, to a time when Romans had already figured out how to cure concrete underwater, and we "enlightened moderns" did not know how to make concrete, period, until 1820, and that was not yet underwater. And we still argue what the Great Pyramid was built to accomplish. I am constantly amazed by this "Ancient Aliens" culture which constantly sells the ancients short. Bad precedent.

Are you talking about a time when people were obsessing about numerology, astrology, psychics, and such? Consumers of the "highly superstitious and fanciful stories? Hate to burst your wish balloon on that. Today, that entire industry exceeds an annual net worth, combined, of nearly $5B, and growing. And who are the biggest all-day suckers of it? Those who expound their "free access to mountains of reliable, credible information." Sure. Every generation assumes they are more sophisticated than the last, but the psychic industry proves more suckers in each generation than the last.

And take a guess what the Bible has to say about such suckers?

No, there's more than that, and your string is from the Declaration, not the Constitution. You have a bill [meaning they have been allowed by Congress as binding on them] of 10 rights, and some of those enumerate more than one right, and the 9A allows for still more presently unenumerated.

What is that? A soy base? Never heard of it. I'm just a little tired of vegans telling me I have to give up my steak when rice paddies and other cultivated and wild wetlands, and rivers, lakes and oceans release more methane into the atmosphere than cows. Eat your rice. I'll have both rice and steak, thanks.

Life is what you make it. Very little of what happens to us is not due to our own choices. My mantra is simple, and anyone can do it. Be ambitious, make a plan, and execute the plan. Repeat. And repeat again. Yeah, 90% of the world doesn't doesn't do that. Why? That's on them. Stop the pessimism and reaction. Act for yourself. Be responsible for what you put in your own pie hole. That goes for just about everything else. Why must I reconcile all the suffering that goes on? I reconcile my own life. I give 20% of my increase to charity. I used to volunteer time, and will again. Reconcile? my life is  the only one I can.

Wiki says it is less reliable for the reasons it gave. Sorry, just quoting their own self-assessment. No problem starting with wiki, but it should not be the end of the search.

Life is precious. It is worth living even in isolation. I love the outdoors. I've been in the summit of Whitney, where I made chicken and dumplings for dinner, and peach cobbler for dessert, deep in a Thai jungle where I suddenly realized I was no longer at the top of the food chain, scuba diving off the coast of Thailand, on the floor of Death Valley four days following the summit of Whitney, in 30+ countries. But, I am just as happy in a big chair before a roaring fire, reading a great book from a great library that is within hand's reach right now. [No fire, I do cold pretty well and it is spring]

As some of you know, I have been storing food, water, and supplies, and have maintained that practice for at least 20 years. Four years ago, I bought a freeze dryer, the most effective appliance I've ever owned. It paid for itself in two years. Show me an appliance that can do that. I have fruit trees and maintain a veggie garden every year. Without the freeze dryer, I wasted some of the produce because we could not consume it all. We canned a lot, and still do, but5 now, we can freeze dry entrees, fruits and vegetables, ice cream, just about anything you can imagine. Currently, my food storage exceeds 3 years for my wife and I, 1 year of water, and a little more than 1 year in supplies. I have not dipped into it, yet, because I also have two refrigerator/freezers and two freezers, for fresh food, two large pantries, along with 2 kitchens. 

I prepared for these conditions long ago. There's nothing like these kinds of preparations when you don't need them so they'er available when you do. Some of you scoff at such as us. "Survivalists" you call us. Well, who in hell do you think will survive? LOL all you want, I'm not laughing, but I am virtually self sufficient, even if I lose power [I have a 39-panel array of solar panels on my roof. I pay an average of $7 per month for  power. Next summer, I plan to have another 2,500 gallon water cistern installed underground in my yard. No, I don't buy boats and skidoos and off-road vehicles or RV's. They can all be rented.