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stevestory



Posts: 13407
Joined: Oct. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: Nov. 14 2014,17:23   

Quote
Americans revere athletic excellence, competitive success, and it’s more than lip service we pay; we vote with our wallets. We’ll pay large sums to watch a truly great athlete; we’ll reward him with celebrity and adulation and will even go so far as to buy products and services he endorses.

But it’s better for us not to know the kinds of sacrifices the professional-grade athlete has made to get so very good at one particular thing. Oh, we’ll invoke lush clichés about the lonely heroism of Olympic athletes, the pain and analgesia of football, the early rising and hours of practice and restricted diets, the preflight celibacy, et cetera. But the actual facts of the sacrifices repel us when we see them: basketball geniuses who cannot read, sprinters who dope themselves, defensive tackles who shoot up with bovine hormones until they collapse or explode. We prefer not to consider closely the shockingly vapid and primitive comments uttered by athletes in postcontest interviews or to consider what impoverishments in one’s mental life would allow people actually to think the way great athletes seem to think. Note the way “up close and personal” profiles of professional athletes strain so hard to find evidence of a rounded human life -- outside interests and activities, values beyond the sport. We ignore what’s obvious, that most of this straining is farce. It’s farce because the realities of top-level athletics today require an early and total commitment to one area of excellence. An ascetic focus. A subsumption of almost all other features of human life to one chosen talent and pursuit. A consent to live in a world that, like a child’s world, is very small.


-david foster wallace

   
The whole truth



Posts: 1554
Joined: Jan. 2012

(Permalink) Posted: Nov. 14 2014,17:23   

Quote (Timothy McDougald @ Nov. 14 2014,15:14)
LOL
I guess we can close up shop now, Curt Schilling proved us all wrong  :D

Is that the ex-baseball player Curt Schilling?

--------------
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. - Jesus in Matthew 10:34

But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me. -Jesus in Luke 19:27

   
JohnW



Posts: 3217
Joined: Aug. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Nov. 14 2014,17:32   

Quote (The whole truth @ Nov. 14 2014,15:23)
Quote (Timothy McDougald @ Nov. 14 2014,15:14)
LOL
I guess we can close up shop now, Curt Schilling proved us all wrong  :D

Is that the ex-baseball player Curt Schilling?

Seems to be.

--------------
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: Nov. 14 2014,17:33   

if it isn't, my comment sure isn't terribly relevant  :p

   
stevestory



Posts: 13407
Joined: Oct. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: Nov. 14 2014,17:35   

he used the devastating 'how come no monkey's still turning into no humans?' line of argument. Thousands of scientists can be expected to resign within days and go on long, soul-searching benders.

   
The whole truth



Posts: 1554
Joined: Jan. 2012

(Permalink) Posted: Nov. 14 2014,17:41   

Quote (stevestory @ Nov. 14 2014,15:33)
if it isn't, my comment sure isn't terribly relevant  :p

Based on the link John W provided it must be that Curt Schillng. Sheesh, what a maroon he is. I wonder if he was hit in the head by a 100 mph fastball, or maybe he slipped on some spit and fell and hit his head REAL hard in a dugout?

--------------
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. - Jesus in Matthew 10:34

But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me. -Jesus in Luke 19:27

   
The whole truth



Posts: 1554
Joined: Jan. 2012

(Permalink) Posted: Nov. 14 2014,17:45   

Quote (stevestory @ Nov. 14 2014,15:35)
he used the devastating 'how come no monkey's still turning into no humans?' line of argument. Thousands of scientists can be expected to resign within days and go on long, soul-searching benders.

What about humans who turn into monkeys? That could explain the existence of IDiots.

Oh wait, that's an insult to monkeys. I extend my profound apologies to all monkeys everywhere.

--------------
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. - Jesus in Matthew 10:34

But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me. -Jesus in Luke 19:27

   
The whole truth



Posts: 1554
Joined: Jan. 2012

(Permalink) Posted: Nov. 14 2014,17:53   

If anyone here at AtBC is "centrestream" at UD, please send me a PM. Thanks.

--------------
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. - Jesus in Matthew 10:34

But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me. -Jesus in Luke 19:27

   
Bob O'H



Posts: 2564
Joined: Oct. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: Nov. 15 2014,05:58   

Quote (The whole truth @ Nov. 14 2014,17:53)
If anyone here at AtBC is "centrestream" at UD, please send me a PM. Thanks.

What do you mean by centrestream? Is it something to do with baseball?

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It is fun to dip into the various threads to watch cluelessness at work in the hands of the confident exponent. - Soapy Sam (so say we all)

   
The whole truth



Posts: 1554
Joined: Jan. 2012

(Permalink) Posted: Nov. 15 2014,12:54   

Quote (Bob O'H @ Nov. 15 2014,03:58)
Quote (The whole truth @ Nov. 14 2014,17:53)
If anyone here at AtBC is "centrestream" at UD, please send me a PM. Thanks.

What do you mean by centrestream? Is it something to do with baseball?

"centrestream" is someone's user name at UD. I should have been more clear on that. I'm sorry for any confusion I caused.

--------------
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. - Jesus in Matthew 10:34

But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me. -Jesus in Luke 19:27

   
Acartia_Bogart



Posts: 2927
Joined: Sep. 2014

(Permalink) Posted: Nov. 15 2014,13:27   

Quote (The whole truth @ Nov. 15 2014,12:54)
Quote (Bob O'H @ Nov. 15 2014,03:58)
Quote (The whole truth @ Nov. 14 2014,17:53)
If anyone here at AtBC is "centrestream" at UD, please send me a PM. Thanks.

What do you mean by centrestream? Is it something to do with baseball?

"centrestream" is someone's user name at UD. I should have been more clear on that. I'm sorry for any confusion I caused.

Centrestream is a one of the many names that I have had to use because I have a habit of pissing off Barry and/or Gordo. Maybe it's because I keep using Gord's deal name.

  
sparc



Posts: 2088
Joined: April 2007

(Permalink) Posted: Nov. 16 2014,00:02   

Quote (Acartia_Bogart @ Nov. 15 2014,13:27)
Quote (The whole truth @ Nov. 15 2014,12:54)
Quote (Bob O'H @ Nov. 15 2014,03:58)
 
Quote (The whole truth @ Nov. 14 2014,17:53)
If anyone here at AtBC is "centrestream" at UD, please send me a PM. Thanks.

What do you mean by centrestream? Is it something to do with baseball?

"centrestream" is someone's user name at UD. I should have been more clear on that. I'm sorry for any confusion I caused.

Centrestream is a one of the many names that I have had to use because I have a habit of pissing off Barry and/or Gordo. Maybe it's because I keep using Gord's deal name.

But what about baseball?

--------------
"[...] the type of information we find in living systems is beyond the creative means of purely material processes [...] Who or what is such an ultimate source of information? [...] from a theistic perspective, such an information source would presumably have to be God."

- William Dembski -

   
Acartia_Bogart



Posts: 2927
Joined: Sep. 2014

(Permalink) Posted: Nov. 16 2014,09:05   

Quote (sparc @ Nov. 16 2014,00:02)
Quote (Acartia_Bogart @ Nov. 15 2014,13:27)
Quote (The whole truth @ Nov. 15 2014,12:54)
 
Quote (Bob O'H @ Nov. 15 2014,03:58)
 
Quote (The whole truth @ Nov. 14 2014,17:53)
If anyone here at AtBC is "centrestream" at UD, please send me a PM. Thanks.

What do you mean by centrestream? Is it something to do with baseball?

"centrestream" is someone's user name at UD. I should have been more clear on that. I'm sorry for any confusion I caused.

Centrestream is a one of the many names that I have had to use because I have a habit of pissing off Barry and/or Gordo. Maybe it's because I keep using Gord's deal name.

But what about baseball?

Sorry, no baseball reference. Just a variation on my last name.

  
OgreMkV



Posts: 3668
Joined: Oct. 2009

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 24 2014,14:50   

To All,

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Now, get off the internet and go spend time with your loved ones.

--------------
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. 29 2014,14:12   

Hey, kids - I'm asking for some advice from people who have been to TAM and/or Skepticon - I've never been, and I have not attended an atheist conference since American Atheists in 2008...

Are they worth going to? I've been rather turned off by the wank-wanking about, shall we say, elevators not reaching the coffee shop. IOW, I'm not turned off by the men who will be attending; I fear being turned off by the women.

Plus, I have been going to professional conferences only in the past six years (ALA, SAA, ASI, etc.), and don't want to waste my time with atheist conference politics and fighting - which I have been avoiding - when I could instead attend a conference like ASIS&T.

Worth it to go? Not? What say you? Thanks.

--------------
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

  
OgreMkV



Posts: 3668
Joined: Oct. 2009

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 29 2014,15:31   

Quote (Kristine @ Dec. 29 2014,14:12)
Hey, kids - I'm asking for some advice from people who have been to TAM and/or Skepticon - I've never been, and I have not attended an atheist conference since American Atheists in 2008...

Are they worth going to? I've been rather turned off by the wank-wanking about, shall we say, elevators not reaching the coffee shop. IOW, I'm not turned off by the men who will be attending; I fear being turned off by the women.

Plus, I have been going to professional conferences only in the past six years (ALA, SAA, ASI, etc.), and don't want to waste my time with atheist conference politics and fighting - which I have been avoiding - when I could instead attend a conference like ASIS&T.

Worth it to go? Not? What say you? Thanks.

I've never been to one and honestly have no interest in going to one. Part of this is my own introvert nature.

TAM is something that everyone I've talked to has said is excellent and my blog network has attended enmass. However, there have been some rather political shakeups at the JREF (the primary sponsor of TAM) and these have soured me on their ideas and mission.

Regardless of all that, I have no interest in sitting through lecture after lecture when I can read the majority of the thoughts on-line in a few hours.

This is just my opinion though. Your mileage may vary.

--------------
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. 29 2014,16:33   

Thanks. Not remembering who was teh Capulets and who was teh Montagues (I really have been out of touch), I just looked at Skepticon's "policies."
 
Quote
"Maybe" means no.

:O I think I'll take that to mean a big* no for Skepticon, then! Geez. :(

Actually, I really just want to see Richard again.

*omitted the word "fat" because r'arr, fft, fft! [cat's howl]

--------------
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

  
OgreMkV



Posts: 3668
Joined: Oct. 2009

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 29 2014,17:15   

Quote (Kristine @ Dec. 29 2014,16:33)
Thanks. Not remembering who was teh Capulets and who was teh Montagues (I really have been out of touch), I just looked at Skepticon's "policies."
 
Quote
"Maybe" means no.

:O I think I'll take that to mean a big* no for Skepticon, then! Geez. :(

Actually, I really just want to see Richard again.

*omitted the word "fat" because r'arr, fft, fft! [cat's howl]

It seems to me that a minuscule fringe group has convinced the vast majority of the population that they are incapable of adult decisions.

--------------
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. 29 2014,17:30   

Quote (OgreMkV @ Dec. 29 2014,17:15)
 
Quote (Kristine @ Dec. 29 2014,16:33)
Thanks. Not remembering who was teh Capulets and who was teh Montagues (I really have been out of touch), I just looked at Skepticon's "policies."
     
Quote
"Maybe" means no.

:O I think I'll take that to mean a big* no for Skepticon, then! Geez. :(

Actually, I really just want to see Richard again.

*omitted the word "fat" because r'arr, fft, fft! [cat's howl]

It seems to me that a minuscule fringe group has convinced the vast majority of the population that they are incapable of adult decisions.

Well, that's what it's all about, isn't it? Power and control thru emotional blackmail. Not "equality." I was an angry feminist like that when I was young - then a (guilty white male) friend handed me Feminism Unmodified and reading it was like aversion therapy.

--------------
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

  
Amadan



Posts: 1337
Joined: Jan. 2007

(Permalink) Posted: Dec. 31 2014,19:33   

HNY youse lot!

(Still a few hours ahead of the Yanks, anyway!)

--------------
"People are always looking for natural selection to generate random mutations" - Densye  4-4-2011
JoeG BTW dumbass- some variations help ensure reproductive fitness so they cannot be random wrt it.

   
Woodbine



Posts: 1218
Joined: June 2007

(Permalink) Posted: Jan. 01 2015,08:20   

Happy New Orbit!

(and not a single resolution)

  
fnxtr



Posts: 3504
Joined: June 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Jan. 01 2015,12:37   

Quote (Kristine @ Dec. 29 2014,15:30)
Quote (OgreMkV @ Dec. 29 2014,17:15)
 
Quote (Kristine @ Dec. 29 2014,16:33)
Thanks. Not remembering who was teh Capulets and who was teh Montagues (I really have been out of touch), I just looked at Skepticon's "policies."
     
Quote
"Maybe" means no.

:O I think I'll take that to mean a big* no for Skepticon, then! Geez. :(

Actually, I really just want to see Richard again.

*omitted the word "fat" because r'arr, fft, fft! [cat's howl]

It seems to me that a minuscule fringe group has convinced the vast majority of the population that they are incapable of adult decisions.

Well, that's what it's all about, isn't it? Power and control thru emotional blackmail. Not "equality." I was an angry feminist like that when I was young - then a (guilty white male) friend handed me Feminism Unmodified and reading it was like aversion therapy.

(shrug) Some of us aren't good at unwritten laws or social cues and need things spelled out. Just sayin'.

--------------
"[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

  
fnxtr



Posts: 3504
Joined: June 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Jan. 01 2015,15:30   

btw I find it amusing that Louis and William Wallace share a birthday.

--------------
"[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

  
khan



Posts: 1554
Joined: May 2007

(Permalink) Posted: Jan. 01 2015,17:19   

Happy New Year.

I've been retired for 10 years.

--------------
"It's as if all those words, in their hurry to escape from the loony, have fallen over each other, forming scrambled heaps of meaninglessness." -damitall

That's so fucking stupid it merits a wing in the museum of stupid. -midwifetoad

Frequency is just the plural of wavelength...
-JoeG

  
midwifetoad



Posts: 4003
Joined: Mar. 2008

(Permalink) Posted: Jan. 01 2015,22:27   

I look forward to retirement in about ten years, just before my 80th.

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

  
Kristine



Posts: 3061
Joined: Sep. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Jan. 02 2015,19:28   

Quote (fnxtr @ Jan. 01 2015,12:37)
 
Quote (Kristine @ Dec. 29 2014,15:30)
 
Quote (OgreMkV @ Dec. 29 2014,17:15)
     
Quote (Kristine @ Dec. 29 2014,16:33)
Thanks. Not remembering who was teh Capulets and who was teh Montagues (I really have been out of touch), I just looked at Skepticon's "policies."
         
Quote
"Maybe" means no.

:O I think I'll take that to mean a big* no for Skepticon, then! Geez. :(

Actually, I really just want to see Richard again.

*omitted the word "fat" because r'arr, fft, fft! [cat's howl]

It seems to me that a minuscule fringe group has convinced the vast majority of the population that they are incapable of adult decisions.

Well, that's what it's all about, isn't it? Power and control thru emotional blackmail. Not "equality." I was an angry feminist like that when I was young - then a (guilty white male) friend handed me Feminism Unmodified and reading it was like aversion therapy.

(shrug) Some of us aren't good at unwritten laws or social cues and need things spelled out. Just sayin'.

Yes, but there is existing boilerplate that they could use. I, for example, work in HR now and have plenty of policies to know and articulate - but they have to be very general. Getting so specific as they did at Skepticon is not a good idea.

But whatever. I've decided that I could be peacemaker and try to take us all forward. I'm working on that.

--------------
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

  
QED



Posts: 41
Joined: July 2008

(Permalink) Posted: Jan. 13 2015,14:40   

Has anyone participated in National Geographic's Genographic project? From cheep swabs it offers genetic testing for both mitochondrial and Y chromosome DNA (for males), and results for deep history geographic roots, and Neanderthat/Denisovan ancestry. The kit was a Christmas present from my wife. Just curious about opinions or experience here...

  
Quack



Posts: 1961
Joined: May 2007

(Permalink) Posted: Jan. 14 2015,12:58   

Anyone heard this claim/question before: "How could the first protein come to exist when the existence of the first protein requires that at least 60 proteins already exist?"

--------------
Rocks have no biology.
              Robert Byers.

  
midwifetoad



Posts: 4003
Joined: Mar. 2008

(Permalink) Posted: Jan. 14 2015,14:02   

Quote (Quack @ Jan. 14 2015,12:58)
Anyone heard this claim/question before: "How could the first protein come to exist when the existence of the first protein requires that at least 60 proteins already exist?"

That would be gpuccio, or one of his minions.

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

  
OgreMkV



Posts: 3668
Joined: Oct. 2009

(Permalink) Posted: Jan. 14 2015,15:15   

Quote (Quack @ Jan. 14 2015,12:58)
Anyone heard this claim/question before: "How could the first protein come to exist when the existence of the first protein requires that at least 60 proteins already exist?"

Because the first proteins weren't the modern proteins.

Can anyone imagine how the motor vehicle came into existence when you have to use motor vehicles to get oil to the processing plants?

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

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

   
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