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fnxtr



Posts: 3504
Joined: June 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 05 2012,18:21   

Looks like GinGout has some competition in the virtual reality market.

--------------
"[A] book said there were 5 trillion witnesses. Who am I supposed to believe, 5 trillion witnesses or you? That shit's, like, ironclad. " -- stevestory

"Wow, you must be retarded. I said that CO2 does not trap heat. If it did then it would not cool down at night."  Joe G

  
Henry J



Posts: 5787
Joined: Mar. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 06 2012,10:27   

There's a market for virtual reality? But isn't it sort of an oxymoron?

  
fnxtr



Posts: 3504
Joined: June 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 06 2012,11:00   

Yes. It's a huge market niche.

--------------
"[A] book said there were 5 trillion witnesses. Who am I supposed to believe, 5 trillion witnesses or you? That shit's, like, ironclad. " -- stevestory

"Wow, you must be retarded. I said that CO2 does not trap heat. If it did then it would not cool down at night."  Joe G

  
Kristine



Posts: 3061
Joined: Sep. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 09 2012,12:31   

The moral cowardice of the Republican Party destroys what very well could be Bob Dole's last cause.
Here's Rick Santorum:
Quote
[The treaty] gives too much power to the U.N., and the unelected, unaccountable committee tasked with overseeing its implementation, while taking power and responsibility away from our elected representatives and, more important, from parents and caregivers of disabled persons. … Finally, the treaty doesn’t accomplish the principle purpose that its advocates say it will. Supporters of [the treaty] argue that the United States needed to ratify this treaty in order to give our nation a seat at the table in advocating for the plight of the disabled abroad. … However, the United States passing this treaty would do nothing to force any foreign government to change their laws or to spend resources on the disabled. That is for those governments to decide.

So in other words, the treaty is so powerful because it lacks any power? Right, is that sort of like the "Darwinian establishment" is so powerful because the theory of evolution is about to collapse at any second? (Or in four years, a la Dembski?) However, this treaty (negotiated by GW Bush) simply would have spread our ADA requirements (signed into law by HW Bush) to other countries. Now, Republicans hate our own culture so much, they want to destroy it from within, like the Taliban.

Oh, but don't forget, it was evolution that lead to the persecution of the disabled!
Quote
One by one, Senators of both parties approached [Dole], with former colleagues gently resting their hands on his shoulder or reaching out to his left hand. … Then, one by one, after Dole was wheeled off the floor, most Republicans voted against the measure. Many members did not register their “nay” votes verbally, instead whispering their opposition directly to the clerk or gesturing their hands from their chairs.

What a bunch of worthless cowards! Really. Really, really. Unbelievable.  :angry:

--------------
Which came first: the shimmy, or the hip?

AtBC Poet Laureate

"I happen to think that this prerequisite criterion of empirical evidence is itself not empirical." - Clive

"Damn you. This means a trip to the library. Again." -- fnxtr

  
stevestory



Posts: 13407
Joined: Oct. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 09 2012,15:23   

The transformation of the GOP has been amazing. Every GOP official, no matter how conservative, lives in fear of being primaried by an even bigger tea-bag. Moderates have nearly all been driven out.

Seeing Santorum emerge as the GOP front runner in 2016 really wouldn't surprise me at this point.

   
Erasmus, FCD



Posts: 6349
Joined: June 2007

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 09 2012,16:34   

and that is why, if laughter is the best medicine, we shall be immortal!

--------------
You're obviously illiterate as hell. Peach, bro.-FtK

Finding something hard to believe based on the evidence, is science.-JoeG

the odds of getting some loathsome taint are low-- Gordon E Mullings Manjack Heights Montserrat

I work on molecular systems with pathway charts and such.-Giggles

  
OgreMkV



Posts: 3668
Joined: Oct. 2009

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 10 2012,11:02   

AAAAUUUUGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

$%W&*  %#*&%*  %(#&@#% *#%^@&%

That is all.

Thank you for your attention.

--------------
Ignored by those who can't provide evidence for their claims.

http://skepticink.com/smilodo....retreat

   
Ftk



Posts: 2239
Joined: Mar. 2007

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 10 2012,15:45   

Hey peoplez,

Just wondering if any of you know someone who is a pro at blogger.  My blog has been seriously fugged up for some time now, and I don't have the time or energy to deal with it.  I thought I should fix it though in case I ever want to start posting again.  ;P  (maybe when I retire).  

Anywhooo, I know I should contact blogger, but that is a long drawn up process as well.  I just want someone to fix the darn thing and be done with it.

--------------
"Evolution is a creationism and just as illogical [as] the other pantheistic creation myths"  -forastero

  
OgreMkV



Posts: 3668
Joined: Oct. 2009

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 10 2012,22:30   

Knows how to kill a forum huh?

--------------
Ignored by those who can't provide evidence for their claims.

http://skepticink.com/smilodo....retreat

   
JohnW



Posts: 3217
Joined: Aug. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 11 2012,00:14   

Quote (Ftk @ Dec. 10 2012,13:45)
...but that is a long drawn up process as well.  

What is it with creationists and the English language?

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Math is just a language of reality. Its a waste of time to know it. - Robert Byers

There isn't any probability that the letter d is in the word "mathematics"...  The correct answer would be "not even 0" - JoeG

  
blipey



Posts: 2061
Joined: June 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 11 2012,00:18   

Quote (JohnW @ Dec. 11 2012,00:14)
Quote (Ftk @ Dec. 10 2012,13:45)
...but that is a long drawn up process as well.  

What is it with creationists and the English language?

Homeschooling?  Not in and of itself, but as it relates to the rather small circle of educators involved in each student's case.

--------------
But I get the trick question- there isn't any such thing as one molecule of water. -JoeG

And scientists rarely test theories. -Gary Gaulin

   
Kristine



Posts: 3061
Joined: Sep. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 11 2012,08:38   

Wesley, holy cow, how long has this been brewing?

Fingerprinting Faculty Proposed at Florida Gulf Coast University

Wha-?  :O And for what? NO. Unconstitutional and out of the question!

--------------
Which came first: the shimmy, or the hip?

AtBC Poet Laureate

"I happen to think that this prerequisite criterion of empirical evidence is itself not empirical." - Clive

"Damn you. This means a trip to the library. Again." -- fnxtr

  
midwifetoad



Posts: 4003
Joined: Mar. 2008

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 11 2012,09:12   

Quote (Kristine @ Dec. 11 2012,08:38)
Wesley, holy cow, how long has this been brewing?

Fingerprinting Faculty Proposed at Florida Gulf Coast University

Wha-?  :O And for what? NO. Unconstitutional and out of the question!

I was fingerprinted before being allowed to do substitute teaching at a high school. I'm guessing that the younger the kids being taught, the more important it is to do a police records check.

Edit for spelling

Edited by midwifetoad on Dec. 11 2012,09:17

--------------
Any version of ID consistent with all the evidence is indistinguishable from evolution.

  
OgreMkV



Posts: 3668
Joined: Oct. 2009

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 11 2012,09:14   

Quote (Kristine @ Dec. 11 2012,08:38)
Wesley, holy cow, how long has this been brewing?

Fingerprinting Faculty Proposed at Florida Gulf Coast University

Wha-?  :O And for what? NO. Unconstitutional and out of the question!

That's nuts... not the fingerprinting.  That's pretty standard in Texas for any person who works with minors.

But they are only talking about faculty.  That makes me mad that they are singling out one group within the university to test, ignoring the hundreds of other employees who have direct contact (and sometimes access to) students (including minors) at all hours.  What about the records clerk who has access to every student social security number, address, photo, and transcript?

If an organization is going to do something like this, then it must do so to everyone or no one.

--------------
Ignored by those who can't provide evidence for their claims.

http://skepticink.com/smilodo....retreat

   
Kristine



Posts: 3061
Joined: Sep. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 11 2012,11:54   

Quote (midwifetoad @ Dec. 11 2012,09:12)
Quote (Kristine @ Dec. 11 2012,08:38)
Wesley, holy cow, how long has this been brewing?

Fingerprinting Faculty Proposed at Florida Gulf Coast University

Wha-?  :O And for what? NO. Unconstitutional and out of the question!

I was fingerprinted before being allowed to do substitute teaching at a high school. I'm guessing that the younger the kids being taught, the more important it is to do a police records check.

Edit for spelling

I have been fingerprinted twice: for clearance to work in a bank, and for my Smithsonian internship. I accepted those, but university faculty members? How about we start with the trustees?

And what, exactly, does fingerprinting really do? The Board of Trustees in this case mentioned Sandusky. Would having Sandusky's fingerprints have done anything?

What about we librarians? We (well, not me so much) work with minors. What about social workers? Most kids are victimized by someone they know, so what about parents, friends of parents, and relatives of parents? This is overkill.

--------------
Which came first: the shimmy, or the hip?

AtBC Poet Laureate

"I happen to think that this prerequisite criterion of empirical evidence is itself not empirical." - Clive

"Damn you. This means a trip to the library. Again." -- fnxtr

  
George



Posts: 316
Joined: Feb. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 12 2012,00:39   

I've had police clearance and child clearance checks in different jurisdictions, and only one required fingerprints.  Obviously records checks don't require fingerprints, which makes me wonder why they want them?  Would they be run against prints collected in unsolved cases?  If your prints did show up at some old crime scene, what then?

  
Henry J



Posts: 5787
Joined: Mar. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 12 2012,09:07   

Why, then you'd be fingered for whatever it was!  :p

  
stevestory



Posts: 13407
Joined: Oct. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 12 2012,16:04   

There's an article at Pandasthumb about some crackhead's "ID article" in Bio-Complexity. It's a few pages about where to put each of the 64 codons of DNA on a tetrahedron. Why? Does something interesting occur? Does this arrangement of items suggest a mysterious order among the items, like the periodic table did?

Here's the conclusion of the 'paper':

Quote
With the current representation of the genetic code having
now been described, I return briefly to the question of its possible
significance. Many different representations of the genetic
code will continue to find use in multiple applications. That
being so, the suitability of any particular representation has
to be judged in relation to the needs at hand. Even when those
needs are clear, the choice of which code representation to use
has an element of subjectivity. Real properties of the code and
of the encoded amino acids were drawn upon to construct the
representation described here, but that exercise also depended
on subjective decisions regarding both the choice of organizing
principles and the details of their implementation. The final tetrahedral
representation presented here is therefore offered not as
a demonstration of any new facts, but rather as an application
of existing facts, the potential significance being that this way
of organizing them may provide new insights.


Shorter: "I arranged these things on a triangly-dealy. Maybe somebody can find something interesting about it cause I can't."

The Nobels are no doubt en route.

   
Soapy Sam



Posts: 659
Joined: Jan. 2012

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 13 2012,07:19   

Oh, you poor people! The rest of us are fingerprinted at the US port of entry just for being foreign! Think I'll go to Canada; they like me there.

(The check for working with minors is obviously so they can tell who actually laid a hand on the kids ... ?).

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SoapySam is a pathetic asswiper. Joe G

BTW, when you make little jabs like “I thought basic logic was one thing UDers could handle,†you come off looking especially silly when you turn out to be wrong. - Barry Arrington

  
Wesley R. Elsberry



Posts: 4991
Joined: May 2002

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 13 2012,08:34   

Quote (Kristine @ Dec. 11 2012,11:54)
Quote (midwifetoad @ Dec. 11 2012,09:12)
 
Quote (Kristine @ Dec. 11 2012,08:38)
Wesley, holy cow, how long has this been brewing?

Fingerprinting Faculty Proposed at Florida Gulf Coast University

Wha-?  :O And for what? NO. Unconstitutional and out of the question!

I was fingerprinted before being allowed to do substitute teaching at a high school. I'm guessing that the younger the kids being taught, the more important it is to do a police records check.

Edit for spelling

I have been fingerprinted twice: for clearance to work in a bank, and for my Smithsonian internship. I accepted those, but university faculty members? How about we start with the trustees?

And what, exactly, does fingerprinting really do? The Board of Trustees in this case mentioned Sandusky. Would having Sandusky's fingerprints have done anything?

What about we librarians? We (well, not me so much) work with minors. What about social workers? Most kids are victimized by someone they know, so what about parents, friends of parents, and relatives of parents? This is overkill.

It isn't just the faculty. The first item in the policy document:

Quote


Current employees and applicants for positions of employment will be subject to a criminal background check, which will include, as a condition of employment and continued employment, fingerprinting. As appropriate, the Assistant Vice President and Director of Human Resources will designate the positions which require security and background checks based on the special trust, responsibility or location of the positions, and designate such within each applicable position description.



It's everybody. The counter-proposal is to take fingerprints only for more sensitive positions, but to take background checks on everybody.

I had to have fingerprints taken for my security clearance when I contracted to the Navy.

--------------
"You can't teach an old dogma new tricks." - Dorothy Parker

    
midwifetoad



Posts: 4003
Joined: Mar. 2008

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 13 2012,09:31   

The rationale seems to be protection of students. The undercurrent seems to be a fishing expedition. There's software attempting to do the same thing with faces.

One problem with fishing for prints is that you get occasional false positives on partial prints.

--------------
Any version of ID consistent with all the evidence is indistinguishable from evolution.

  
Kristine



Posts: 3061
Joined: Sep. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 13 2012,11:33   

Quote (stevestory @ Dec. 12 2012,16:04)
There's an article at Pandasthumb about some crackhead's "ID article" in Bio-Complexity. It's a few pages about where to put each of the 64 codons of DNA on a tetrahedron. Why? Does something interesting occur? Does this arrangement of items suggest a mysterious order among the items, like the periodic table did?

Here's the conclusion of the 'paper':

 
Quote
With the current representation of the genetic code having
now been described, I return briefly to the question of its possible
significance. Many different representations of the genetic
code will continue to find use in multiple applications. That
being so, the suitability of any particular representation has
to be judged in relation to the needs at hand. Even when those
needs are clear, the choice of which code representation to use
has an element of subjectivity. Real properties of the code and
of the encoded amino acids were drawn upon to construct the
representation described here, but that exercise also depended
on subjective decisions regarding both the choice of organizing
principles and the details of their implementation. The final tetrahedral
representation presented here is therefore offered not as
a demonstration of any new facts, but rather as an application
of existing facts, the potential significance being that this way
of organizing them may provide new insights.


Shorter: "I arranged these things on a triangly-dealy. Maybe somebody can find something interesting about it cause I can't."

The Nobels are no doubt en route.

And the ultimately irony is that we are left with the question: who will "use," "judge," and determine "needs," in this hideous mishmash of passive verbs? Wow, looks like somebody is trying very hard to hide the designer of this lousy paragraph!

This reads like the crappy "scholarly" papers in Communication Studies in the 1990s that left me and other scratching our heads.

--------------
Which came first: the shimmy, or the hip?

AtBC Poet Laureate

"I happen to think that this prerequisite criterion of empirical evidence is itself not empirical." - Clive

"Damn you. This means a trip to the library. Again." -- fnxtr

  
JohnW



Posts: 3217
Joined: Aug. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 13 2012,11:47   

Quote (Kristine @ Dec. 13 2012,09:33)
Quote (stevestory @ Dec. 12 2012,16:04)
There's an article at Pandasthumb about some crackhead's "ID article" in Bio-Complexity. It's a few pages about where to put each of the 64 codons of DNA on a tetrahedron. Why? Does something interesting occur? Does this arrangement of items suggest a mysterious order among the items, like the periodic table did?

Here's the conclusion of the 'paper':

 
Quote
With the current representation of the genetic code having
now been described, I return briefly to the question of its possible
significance. Many different representations of the genetic
code will continue to find use in multiple applications. That
being so, the suitability of any particular representation has
to be judged in relation to the needs at hand. Even when those
needs are clear, the choice of which code representation to use
has an element of subjectivity. Real properties of the code and
of the encoded amino acids were drawn upon to construct the
representation described here, but that exercise also depended
on subjective decisions regarding both the choice of organizing
principles and the details of their implementation. The final tetrahedral
representation presented here is therefore offered not as
a demonstration of any new facts, but rather as an application
of existing facts, the potential significance being that this way
of organizing them may provide new insights.


Shorter: "I arranged these things on a triangly-dealy. Maybe somebody can find something interesting about it cause I can't."

The Nobels are no doubt en route.

And the ultimately irony is that we are left with the question: who will "use," "judge," and determine "needs," in this hideous mishmash of passive verbs? Wow, looks like somebody is trying very hard to hide the designer of this lousy paragraph!

This reads like the crappy "scholarly" papers in Communication Studies in the 1990s that left me and other scratching our heads.

Cargo-cult science.

--------------
Math is just a language of reality. Its a waste of time to know it. - Robert Byers

There isn't any probability that the letter d is in the word "mathematics"...  The correct answer would be "not even 0" - JoeG

  
stevestory



Posts: 13407
Joined: Oct. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 13 2012,12:13   

I'm not familiar with the particular papers you mention, but Communications Studies taught me useful things. Framing, identifying your audience's values, when adding more detail is counterproductive, etc.

Nobody has ever learned anything interesting from ID, excepting the anthropology aspects of the participants.

   
stevestory



Posts: 13407
Joined: Oct. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 14 2012,11:01   

Could somebody who is bored or has no life give me a run-down on what's going on mheah?

I can't watch vid-joes for the next few hrs and wonder what's up. Something about PZM not being a feminist? I can't tell, there's no transcriptin' happenin'.

   
Richardthughes



Posts: 11178
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 14 2012,16:55   

Quote (stevestory @ Dec. 14 2012,11:01)
Could somebody who is bored or has no life give me a run-down on what's going on mheah?

I can't watch vid-joes for the next few hrs and wonder what's up. Something about PZM not being a feminist? I can't tell, there's no transcriptin' happenin'.

It all goes back to elevatorgate:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki....ncident

I think that was during your sabattical.

--------------
"Richardthughes, you magnificent bastard, I stand in awe of you..." : Arden Chatfield
"You magnificent bastard! " : Louis
"ATBC poster child", "I have to agree with Rich.." : DaveTard
"I bow to your superior skills" : deadman_932
"...it was Richardthughes making me lie in bed.." : Kristine

  
Ftk



Posts: 2239
Joined: Mar. 2007

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 14 2012,17:05   

Quote (stevestory @ Dec. 14 2012,11:01)
Could somebody who is bored or has no life give me a run-down on what's going on mheah?

I can't watch vid-joes for the next few hrs and wonder what's up. Something about PZM not being a feminist? I can't tell, there's no transcriptin' happenin'.

Just watched PZ in the clip on that blog.  A guy who is such a big mouth about supporting feminism talking like that??!  I still have no idea how so many atheists follow this guy with such blind adoration.  

My second thought was how the liberal sites would light up like the 4th of July if a conservative made comments like that.  The feminists would be busting blood vessels over that performance.  

Vox Day has no love for feminists, but I can't imagine him ever making comments like those PZ made in the clip.  

Just WoW.  Such hypocrisy.  I guess hypocrisy doesn't exist only in the church.  O.o

--------------
"Evolution is a creationism and just as illogical [as] the other pantheistic creation myths"  -forastero

  
stevestory



Posts: 13407
Joined: Oct. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 14 2012,17:15   

I have only a vague outline of what happened there, but--and if I'm wrong, let me know--my impression was that Dawkins totally failed to understand the scenario.

The benefit of white guy privilege is you can just be totally oblivious to a lot of shit. I know I am.

   
stevestory



Posts: 13407
Joined: Oct. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 14 2012,17:29   

Quote (Ftk @ Dec. 14 2012,18:05)
Vox Day has no love for feminists, but I can't imagine him ever making comments like those PZ made in the clip.  

PJ was clueless, Vox is an asshole. Vox Day is a hyperdouche, and much worse than PZ by a country mile. He is also a liar.

Around 2003 he said the market (DJIA and Nasdaq) was going to crash any day now. We made a bet for a troy ounce of gold, me taking the side that it wouldn't, anytime in the next 2 years.

It didn't.

On 10/15/2005 I emailed him that I hadn't seen that ounce in the mail yet.

On 10/16/2005 he apologized and told me he'd call his guy again.

On 10/21/2005 he asked for my address again. I responded the same day, telling him I'm sure he was an honorable guy, and giving him my address, which was a house a mile south of NCSU at the time.

Never saw that ounce. Never heard from him again. I still have the emails. Never made it public, because I was never in it for the money or the public humiliation. I just wanted him to stop being such a belligerent asshole. It didn't work, he never sent the gold, and I never heard from him again.

I still have the emails.

   
stevestory



Posts: 13407
Joined: Oct. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 14 2012,17:33   

Looking through the emails now, I take that back. I did hear from him again. On 5/12/06 I moved to Durham, and sent him my new address in case he ever wanted to make good. He replied the next day "I'm sorry, I thought I did.  I certainly gave instructions after our last exchange... which obviously weren't followed." We exchanged another comment or two, Then I never heard from him again.

And of course, he never made good on the bet.

   
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