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Kiwis ban virtual drugs in General
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Profile #13
quote:
We have a set of laws which, by and large, we are happy with and which work for us. In what way is that unfortunate?

(Disclaimer: I'm a utilitarian and don't believe in natural human rights, so don't try a natural-rights argument on me. I've heard 'em all before.)

The reasonable unconditional fear of government leads to an avoidable reduction in quality of life, which presents a system of sub-optimal utility.

Many positive rights have no exact gradient: for instance, within freedom of speech, at some point the difference between harmful speech and acceptable speech is very muddy.

In fact, 'harmful speech' can extend to almost all speech under certain circumstances: patent nonsense like 'everybody loves nickel' could, theoretically, drive someone with a deathly fear of the metal to suicide under some conditions.

Speech, or at least some manner of communication, is a common factor of humanity, and in fact one of the driving components of social interaction.

One can infer from that that if any speech is restricted for reasons of utility, all speech is potentially restricted.

If all speech is potentially restricted, it is reasonable to fear government intercession in response to any speech.

As speech is a basic factor of survival in human society, the fear of government intercession in any incident of speech can be considered essentially unconditional: people can no sooner cease communicating than they can cease eating.

The result of restrictions on free expression is a reasonable, unconditional state of fear by the public of the government, which results in a reduced quality of life and thus a state of sub-optimal utility.

And before you pose the fear of the nickel-phobe as a factor of countervailing utility, bear in mind that the nickel-phobe is a subset of the population capable of expression, and thus will always always be a smaller proportion of the population than those capable of expression.

And for the record, the concept of natural rights demonstrates a presence of universal fear, which ties perfectly into utilitarianism; refusing to prioritize the 'natural rights' results in a system of sub-optimal utility. Just because the value of a thing cannot be measured precisely does not render it valueless.

(And also worthy of consideration: if you can't live with the idea of 'natural rights' at all, they're not necessary for the line of argument here; just consider the basically arbitrary restriction of a necessary factor of human life and recognize that it is difficult to build a system of optimal utility around that.)

[ Wednesday, November 02, 2005 19:13: Message edited by: Belisarius ]
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
God Stuff (Antichrist! You better spell it right! ) in General
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Member # 6388
Profile #74
Ladies and gents, forgive the humble secularist for butting in, but I'm afraid you've wound up with a relatively impenetrable and unuseful argument.

To wit:
I am uncertain as to the basic value of a 'debate' entirely between different strains of Christian fundamentalist to begin with;
Certainly the presumptions wandered into left field in the topic's nascent days (everything in the framework of main-line Christianity - this so-called 'god stuff' wouldn't even allow a Jew to have his say);
One of the posters seems to be hell-bent on drowning the discussion, and won't stay put long enough for a meaningful dialogue to take place (bouncing from the nature of the Christ to numerology somehow);
And furthermore, even accepting the logical presumptions at face value, the factual content of posts tends to be specious (I've seen pointed out two separate posters mangling fact - one misinterpreting Scripture, another misrepresenting symbiology), which suggests a good portion of the population herein assembled is either without the knowledge to competently debate or willing to engage in charlatanry to prove a point.

I don't want to labor my general point on methods of knowledge any further than it already has been, but to summarize, watching intuitivists attempt to engage in a logical debate is not particularly unlike watching kittens attempt to mate: either sickening or amusing, but not particularly enlightening.

[ Wednesday, November 02, 2005 18:48: Message edited by: Belisarius ]
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Kiwis ban virtual drugs in General
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Member # 6388
Profile #3
The Commonwealth in general has a very weak and narrow concept of free speech; it is not at all uncommon in countries like Australia and New Zealand to ban or limit by law some manner of expression, speech, assembly, etc. on the basis of it being generally offensive or posing a social harm.

The unfortunate thing is that this seems to be the accepted state of affairs there, and the number of people who would consider US-style freedoms either desirable or acceptable are minimal.

[ Wednesday, November 02, 2005 13:11: Message edited by: Belisarius ]
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Naming Your Muscles (a stupid guy thread) in General
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Member # 6388
Profile #11
quote:
Originally written by Ash Lael:

You need to get some actual friends. You know, people or even things that are not a subset of yourself. Even a pet rock would be an improvement.
What he said.
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Death of an Empire RP in General
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Member # 6388
Profile #17
As the day began to darken under the first tendrils of dusk, Petalion's heart was warmed by the probability that Melastes was already dead. His plan was working splendidly: the inept conscripts Melastes had ruined with endless, needless dress drills were dying off. Any survivors would wise up and join his force in the forest.

Something in Petalion rebelled at the idea of being this far from control. Almost all of the forces at work were beyond his grasp: now he was waiting for the engineering corps to arrive, for the scattered few survivors to quit the former encampment, for the wyverns to make a dumb move and open themselves up for attack.

"You're a legend at Black River, sir." The air was silent. "They say you're the best they've ever seen. That you came up with stuff to do with muskets they never dreamed of. That your tenure there advanced the state of Union tactics by a generation. That your time at the war college is why we are where we are today."

"They never said it to me." Petalion had heard idle compliments before, and he never bought them. "I do my job. I expect nothing more than others do the same."

Elliot grinned. "I know. I respect that, sir. I've been assigned to some gesticulating idiots. We all have, I think. Must have been hell working for Melastes."

Petalion grinned. "Between you and me - yes. When the other side kills him, they'll be doing us a favor. He's a fat old fool who undermined the war effort. Who made what you see now possible. I can turn it around, but it'll take me a while."

The olive-skinned man coughed. "Well, sir, I hope you don't think I was blowing smoke here. What I was trying to tell you was - they believe in you. They think you're the best thing that ever happened to us. That's why you're a snake colonel at the age you are."

Petalion glanced askew at Babarech. "You've got my rank wrong."

Babarech smiled. "It was supposed to be one of two surprises when the majority of the corps got here. You want to know the other?"

"Go ahead." I'm not the type for surprises, Petalion meant to say.

"You've got the entire engineering corps on the way. All of the new whiz-bangs, our best sappers and spies, Brigade Zero, everything. They figure by the time you're done, the other side's capital will be ashes and nightmares and we'll be princes of the earth."

Petalion shrugged. "I'll do what I must." He grinned widely. "And I'll enjoy the hell out of it, too."

The two men watched the carnage in the valley below. It had been a long day.
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Wouldn't it be cool..... in General
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Member # 6388
Profile #2
Isn't doing a little -- line a little excessive, considering your signature is already festooned with your likeness?

To answer your question: I've seen 3D done with computers before, and the result was not particularly impressive. It's very hard on the eyes; and it'd take someone with specific training to create 'variable' 3d (instead of just making it look like the entire screen was offset from its actual position by a few degrees).

It could possibly be done with BoA, but I doubt well or to a partiuclarly breathtaking end.
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Death of an Empire RP in General
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
Profile #14
Melastes chuckled nervously and rubbed on his ring.

"They... they told us they'd have more engineers, didn't they? There's only two dozen of you."

"Machines got bogged down." The engineer's florid accent was a clear sign of the benefits of the new blood the Union was bringing in. "We went on ahead. Remainder of the company's back there with them."

"So, Petalion. I guess that, uh, makes you in charge here?"

"Yes." Georgios tried not to sound too eager. "Yes it does. You're the leader of the corps, right?"

"This detachment, sir." Elliot Babarech: lieutenant, RDU engineers' corps. An unnecessarily burly and vital man, given his status. Georgios almost would have trusted a pudgy egghead more: almost, because from their initial debriefing, he got the impression Babarech shared his opinion on nonsense.

"Good. Then order your men - such as they are - to assist any elements of the army seeking out saltpeter."

General Melastes gave a sudden croak, like a frog surprised at his own fart.

"General Melastes, sir?"

"Yes, about that. I hadn't drawn up any orders to seek out saltpeter. Don't want the men getting too far out of dress orders, you know?"

Petalion gave his superior officer a hard look: this was one of the few moments protocol found incumbent he dress down the impotent old fool, and he was going to take joy in it. "General Melastes, as important as I am certain you find dressing up our troops in lace and string like little goddamn toy soldiers, it is far more important they have AMMUNITION. Your priorities are out of order with those of the modern army. Sir."

"Ah, the lot of the old romantic, eh? We're a dying breed." Melastes smiled at Petalion, who felt genuinely ill. "I... I guess I'm going to have to send out the orders, then?"

Petalion sighed. "Don't bother. The grunts are only going to slow down the engineers at this point. You know what? You've had a lot to do lately. Why don't you take a load off? I'll make sure everything gets run properly for you."

"Oh, would you? Bless you, Georgios. I don't know what I'd do without you." He ran to his tent like a schoolchild shirking his work.

"Right. Investigate the water table. There's no way they're getting all of the saltpeter without a nearby set of caverns; the only question is where, and where the deposits are. Right now that's the only advantage they have over us."

Babarech blinked. "We're to search for saltpeter here, sir? It had not occurred to command that there is a source in the area. In fact, in our initial debriefing, we were informed the general opinion in the corps was that the Wyvernish forces were working on stockpiles from the Sazamec lode, recently captured, or perhaps converted piss."

Petalion shook his head. "I oversaw the post-Sazamec campaign, and their supply train was usually as small as they could get away with. Any saltpeter they looted from that miserable desert has already been used. They're working on fresh supply."

"Sir, have you communicated this to headquarters?"

"I assumed headquarters knew. I'll write a memorandum and have it sent up."

...

Quadrant II was relatively inactive; having reached a strategic impasse long before the remainder of the army could draw into similar range, much of the time before Petalion assumed direct command was spent idling or searching for necessary resources. However, the arrival of new projects from home would soon shake up the tactical situation across the board.

[ Saturday, October 29, 2005 23:48: Message edited by: Belisarius ]
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Death of an Empire RP in General
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
Profile #10
Melastes let out an angry hiss, and uncomfortably fiddled with his officer's ring - a coiled snake with bejewelled eyes - as was his habit when nervous.

Melastes was a member of the old order, from back when it was the United Kingdom of Skanon rather than - well, what it is now. The polyglot colossus. So far as Petalion was concerned, he and his kind were the enemy here, not the mewling Wyvernists. The Wyvernists, they were weak, incompetent - they respected the bourgeois protocols of war, lived by them - and died as readily by them.

That was their problem. They were evolving, of course. Some of the cleverer commanders were getting inspiredly nasty; that was happening too slow to save them. The captial would fall. Most of the royalty was already dead; all it would take was the strongmen keeping the doddering empire together and it would be another glorious province.

He was where he was because he was doing his duty for his countrymen. Melastes was fighting because his daddy forced him to - it was his duty as the second-youngest son of an aristocrat - and now he was only in his position of power because he had not actively screwed up yet. He had been demoted twice; Petalion hoped each time Melastes realized how little use he was in an army of patriots.

The man he grudgingly acknowledged as his commanding officer coughed. "So what are we going to do, Petalion? They've got us held down pretty efficiently, and the machines they've promised us aren't here yet."

"They'll get here with the corps of engineers they assigned me to, and then we'll see how much we can rely on them. For now, General Melastes, we're going to have to relax. The towers say that we'll be at a huge wind disadvantage to host any glider action in our quadrant for another few days, our saltpeter supply is fair, and the Wyvernish forces are inferior enough that we have time and power sufficient to suss out the source of theirs while we're waiting."

"So we shouldn't be bothering with orders of battle, then? What a relie--"

"No, General Melastes. We're going to need to draw up a few skirmishes to keep the enemy on their toes. We are a wing in a general offensive. If the enemy builds up a counteroffensive, or withdraws into the city proper, without us finding out, we're going to have the blood of our countrymen on our hands."

"Oh. All right. I'll get on that, then?"

"...I wouldn't mind having a look, sir. Skirmish battle was my speciality at Black River, after all."

"Oh, Petalion, you are a lifesaver. Thank you. If you need me, you know where my quarters are."

"Certainly do." And by all rights, they should be a thousand miles away where you couldn't hurt the war effort from them, Petalion thought icily. His day will come. And so will mine.

And so will mine.


...

For your consideration:
the story of Georgios Petalion
a Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Democratic Union
being 29 years of age
of average height & build
and a tactical officer,
with some skill regardless in hand-to-hand combat;

a strategian of exceptional skill
on the rise in an increasingly meritocratic RDU,
and a specialist in unusual weapons and tactics
with a practical focus in light-order battle;

afflicted with poor eyesight and a middling constitution; able to ride a wyvern or horse, but neither particularly long or well, and to shoot a musket well enough to kill a man at spitting range,

by deeds in the Holstoff Campaign known to be among the brilliantest and wickedest men ever born.

Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Resistance is futile! in General
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Member # 6388
Profile #5
Now, at long last, Bacillus cereus no longer has to endure the shame of nudity.
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Explore Mars now in General
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Member # 6388
Profile #42
If what you say about pressure holds true, small cuts would probably lead to skin cracks pretty readily: clots are not particularly tough to begin with.
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Explore Mars now in General
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
Profile #38
Doesn't all of this ignore the fact that a planet which had a 100% atmopsheric oxygen content would be continuously on fire?

EDIT: Well, that and the fact that you'd need something to shield your soft tissues anyway; exposing your innards to 0.2atm conditions would hardly be a constructive activity (if it is 0.2atm - I recall it being closer to 0.05 or so), which would mean it'd be more economical to, assuming that the human body could withstand the low pressure if acclimatized (not 100% sure on that one), fit everyone with rebreathers or something.

[ Wednesday, October 26, 2005 15:17: Message edited by: Belisarius ]
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Calling all "Piss Heads" in General
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Member # 6388
Profile #52
Am I the only person who, coming from a country in which 'piss' is an uncommon way to refer to beer, finds the name of this topic astoundingly funny?
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
God Stuff (Antichrist! You better spell it right! ) in General
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
Profile #11
Don't flood a topic if you expect a germane response.

There's a basic dichotomy between rationalist philosophy and intuitivist philosophy. I get along with rationalists pretty well, and I find intuitivism frustrating.

Doesn't matter if they're intuitivists who believe in any particular God, intuitivist pagans, intuitivist atheists, whatever. It's irritating to deal with someone whose principles are entirely self-moored.
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Explore Mars now in General
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
Profile #9
quote:
Originally written by Lt. Sullust:

Mars has less gravity than Earth, and is further out in the solar system. This would make it perfect as a future launching site...
Interplanetary space has less gravity than either (which allows for a wide range of scientific inquiry), and if we wanted to build a remote exoterran launch site for no better reason than gravity, why not the moon instead?
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Explore Mars now in General
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
Profile #5
Mars is basically a wash; for a smaller price and to likely greater benefit we could establish permanent colonies in high earth orbit.

I mean: nothing we could do on Mars we couldn't do on Earth for less money. Exploration of the planet is definitely worth doing - expand the knowledge base and all that - but colonization? Not really worth the expense.

[ Sunday, October 23, 2005 11:19: Message edited by: Belisarius ]
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Explore Mars now in General
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
Profile #3
Mars rich in iron? How deliciously redundant. Now if only you could pretend to be Chinese or something.
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
the golf coast in General
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Member # 6388
Profile #24
Uh oh! Someone's a bigot.
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
the golf coast in General
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
Profile #13
quote:
Originally written by Zeviz:

If I am not mistaken, a common interpretation of the Bible in XIXth and early XXth centuries said that after the flood, Noah's arc came to rest on top of Mount Ararat in Caucases and that is where one of Noah's sons stayed, founding the Caucasian race. (With the other son going south to start Black race and the third one going east to start the Asian race.)
The origin actually refers to the hare-brained idea that the 'original' humans originated in the Caucasus Mountains - not necessarily related to the Bible, more a new and innovative way of calling people racially inferior.

EDIT: Irak is also standard in Spanish, along with 'huracan' for the natural phoenomenon.

[ Thursday, October 20, 2005 20:56: Message edited by: Belisarius ]
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Came back from Holland to find that most of my best friends are bi. in General
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Member # 6388
Profile #20
Oh, that's brilliant. So what connection to Christmas did you see in the current meaning of 'gay', exactly?

quote:
Originally written by Root negative i squared:

Often, the words "an historical" are used. Why? I've never been able to figure it out. Is it because H is considered such a non-sound that it doesn't mask the consonant? You'd never say "an happy guy," would you?
It's a relatively odd Britticism which probably stems from a close relationship to French, where h is silent and treated as a vowel.

[ Thursday, October 20, 2005 18:40: Message edited by: Belisarius ]
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Came back from Holland to find that most of my best friends are bi. in General
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Member # 6388
Profile #17
Christmas is among the gayest days of the year - in the older sense of the word - which is what makes it clever.

Christ, you people are literal-minded.
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
the golf coast in General
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Member # 6388
Profile #6
Irak is standard spelling in French.

Wilma isn't looking to damage the gulf coast too much - the projected path is actually up the eastern seaboard, which actually could cause more damage than otherwise. (Bush seems hell-bent on delegating responsibility for storm-handling to the states, and Georgia through New York don't have to deal with a lot of category 4 or 5s).

This is the worst possible administration to run into a 2005-esque hurricane season under - a loose coalition of shameless profiteers, small-government fanatics, and bloody-minded ideologues - but what can you do.
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Came back from Holland to find that most of my best friends are bi. in General
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Member # 6388
Profile #4
I have never encountered "gay as Christmas" before, but it's pretty clever.

Friends who push you out of their lives are jerks, and I'm sorry to hear about that.
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
I am... was 827,707,741 seconds old. in General
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Member # 6388
Profile #15
quote:
Originally written by Synergy67:

Belisarius, the degree of affect invoked by the topic for you is curious to me. Is it a hot button for you?
Nah, not really. It's just my all-encompassing hatred for ignorance talking.

quote:
Originally written by Jumpin' Salmon:


*this message sponsored by the hairy fishnuts*

I'm the only person any younger than either of you who gets this, just so you know.

[ Wednesday, October 19, 2005 21:32: Message edited by: Belisarius ]
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
I am... was 827,707,741 seconds old. in General
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Member # 6388
Profile #5
Fun fact: In Japan, they have the same absurd, baseless superstitions as we do about utterly arbitrary factors in a person's background influencing their personality.
Only instead of birthdays, they use blood types.

That's all I'm really inspired to say.

EDIT: Eh, I'm not being exactly charitable, so here's how you could be scientific about it: write down 10-15 characteristics you would associate with yourself (which is a lot, considering most horoscopes give 4-5), vet them with your friends and family (e.g. if you think you're peace-loving and it turns out everyone else thinks of you as an acrimonious SOB, well.), then try and see how many of those SPECIFIC characteristics show up in the horiscope. Treat any which do not show up as a direct miss, and any false positives (e.g. it says you're forgiving and you didn't feel it meet to note that on the list beforehand) as a miss as well. Be generous and accept synonyms (we can't expect the horoscope people to be psychic, can we...?).

Reduce the number that have no business showing up (if it offers 7 attributes and you've got 10 written down, reduce the miss score by 3), and I'd be very surprised if the average predictive accuracy were above 50%.

You see, birth-signing, unlike a lot of our other damnedably stupid superstitions, can be put through a fairly rigorous testing process. That there's no freaking reason for birth-signing to happen (the gravitational influence of faraway stars could be mitigated by a small child in the same room) doesn't matter as such.

...

Just so no one thinks I'm only here to be a wet blanket: the stuff grounded in reality - esp. the candle thing - is actually pretty neat.

[ Wednesday, October 19, 2005 19:13: Message edited by: Belisarius ]
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Fuainarufantashii Shichi: Otozure no Kodomo-tachi in General
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Member # 6388
Profile #4
Well, aren't you a repulsive excuse.

Afraid to try new things? Buying into cultural racism?

[ Tuesday, October 18, 2005 22:44: Message edited by: Belisarius ]
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00

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