Lurker > luigi13579

Well, I'm against the death penalty for a number of reasons (not least because it's barbaric and something IS do themselves). If they are somehow tried in a court of law, then they should go away for a long time.

If they die in the conflict in Syria though? My sympathy would be zero basically.

Or Gorka, given his past associations...

Well, in the sense that races contain a wide variety of people such that you can't really pigeon-hole them, sort of.

I could sort of see someone saying that they haven't yet been attracted to anyone of a particular race, but to tar them all with the same brush... eh.

Mal_Fet posted...

The only places where society regresses invariably happens in places where only certain viewpoints are tolerated and the rest are harshly penalized. See: Iran after Khomeni, The Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Post-Ottoman Middle East, etc etc etc.

I don't disagree, but it could be argued that it's a sort of chicken and egg thing.

To take Nazi Germany as an example: did certain viewpoints being cracked down on lead to society regressing or were certain viewpoints cracked down on *because* society had regressed (as a result of hateful viewpoints being given room to grow)? I'd argue that it was the latter.

The Nazi viewpoints spread when they were tolerated, *then* came the crackdown on speech. As certain people were seen as sub-human (under Nazism), their views were not seen as equal, and any views going against that were policed.

So although I agree with you for the most part, I can see why people would be wary of allowing these views to be spread, as they fear the marginalization of certain corners of society (and *their* views being cracked down on).

Speech, sure. Freedom from any consequences stemming from that (including having their identity disclosed if they air those views in public, like at a rally)? No.

One thing I'll take issue with though: the word "nurtured" in the second option. Speech is one thing, but nurturing goes beyond that. To me, it sort of implies that you can't challenge those views, try to prevent them from spreading (not by physically preventing speech, but by counter-protesting, disclosing their identity, even firing them if they tarnish a company's reputation for example, etc.).

If I'm being totally honest, I wasn't that enamoured with it myself.

This review touches on some of my complaints, although even I think it's too harsh on the movie: https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2017/jul/26/bloodless-boring-empty-christopher-nolan-dunkirk-left-me-cold

I agree with them that the scale was a bit disappointing and that it could have benefited from more CGI. Movies often do overuse it, but there was a place for it here.

Also, I found this part of the review to be spot on and quite funny at the same time:

In the skies, fighter pilots conduct what seems like an endlessly repeated dogfight. One plane runs out of fuel, although not as quickly as audiences might have hoped. And that’s sort of it.

Ah, the good old British humour. :P

Bolt did has hammy in.

Gold for the Brits, yay. They've been a disaster so far.

chill02 posted...

explain it to me like I'm the average Youtube video commenter

It was used to determine the rates for loan repayments and governed $350 trillion worth of transactions. According to the first article, 60% of mortgages in the US were based on it.

NadYobWoc posted...

but when there is a right wing attack on a mosque, it's ignored

Celebrated, even, albeit for a worse reason: because they think the victims deserved it.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/taibbi-is-libor-crucial-financial-benchmark-a-lie-w497305
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-27/libor-s-uncertain-succession-gives-debt-markets-a-headache
http://www.businessinsider.com/libor-often-completely-made-up-2013-2?IR=T

Holy shit. I think we've reached peak capitalism now. Not only was the LIBOR rate being manipulated, as we've known for a number of years now, but it was bullshit to begin with.

I doubt we'll see much more coverage of this in the media. It has flown under the radar thanks to the North Korea situation and the Charlottesville rally.

@Darkman124

Reminds me of this: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/05/14/upshot/if-americans-can-find-north-korea-on-a-map-theyre-more-likely-to-prefer-diplomacy.html

When asked in April which policies the United States should pursue regarding North Korea, Americans diverged on their views depending in part on whether they knew where it was.

An experiment led by Kyle Dropp of Morning Consult from April 27-29, conducted at the request of The New York Times, shows that respondents who could correctly identify North Korea tended to view diplomatic and nonmilitary strategies more favorably than those who could not. These strategies included imposing further economic sanctions, increasing pressure on China to influence North Korea and conducting cyberattacks against military targets in North Korea.

They also viewed direct military engagement – in particular, sending ground troops – much less favorably than those who failed to locate North Korea.

The largest difference between the groups was the simplest: Those who could find North Korea were much more likely to disagree with the proposition that the United States should do nothing about North Korea.

Not really surprising. I did find this part quite surprising, admittedly:

What drives these differences? Simple partisanship is one possibility. On average, Republicans – and Republican men in particular – were more likely to correctly locate North Korea than Democratic men. And Republicans were more likely to be in favor of almost all the diplomatic solutions posed by the researchers. (Women tended to find North Korea at similar rates, regardless of party.)

I'm not sure how strong the methodology was, but it's interesting nonetheless.

Rika_Furude posted...

ads are just internet traffic. i can block any ad or traffic I want, when I want, for whatever reason I want, and nobody has the right to tell me no.

Exactly.

Now, if websites want to / need to start charging a subscription fee, then they can do so. Trying to ban / circumvent adblockers through nefarious means though? They can fuck off.

In a way, ad companies have brought this on themselves with all the intrusive ads, tracking, malware, etc. and the massively inflated page sizes that eat up your bandwidth. You'd have to be crazy not to use an ad blocker these days tbqh.

ISPs too, with shit like: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/03/five-ways-cybersecurity-will-suffer-if-congress-repeals-fcc-privacy-rules

ssj3vegeta_ posted...

Man u fan?

Nah. I'm a Celtic fan, which naturally means I hate Mourinho lol. But I can't deny that he's a great manager and the best in the prem at the moment. I think with his management and the addition of Lukaku, Man U will be tough to beat (especially if they ditch that tit Fellaini). Mourinho generally wins the league in his second season, and I think it'll happen again this time.

Mal_Fet posted...

What's the difference between blaspheming Islam and being "bigoted" towards Islam?

What I meant with "bigotry" was insulting / harassing people for their faith (e.g. "you filthy Muslim, go back to your own country," or similar), as opposed to criticizing the faith / their beliefs (e.g. "Islam is incompatible with western values"). I don't think you should get locked up for either (unless, as mentioned before, it's constant abuse that adversely affects someone's life in obvious ways), although I'm sure people have been for the former (which I disagree with), but I wouldn't call it blasphemy to be honest. Hell, the latter isn't even blasphemy either I don't think. What Salman Rushdie did certainly was.

I won't.

I'll practice fighting with sticks for World War 4 though.

Calwyn posted...

I think the recent Pokemon games (6th and 7th gen especially) were still really good, but I agree that they did do a little too much hand-holding.

I agree. I loved the selection of Pokemon on offer in X/Y along with the gameplay features. Lumiose City was a big offender in terms of restricting your movements though.

The relative freedom in R/B/Y was great. Also, some of the glitches were a lot of fun to mess around with too. The recently discovered "Mew trick" is awesome.

judasmaiden15 posted...

This is why noscript is superior

uBlock Origin + Privacy Badger + HTTPS Everywhere

Avoid Ghostery.

I thought it was going to be this: https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/support-ublock-origin/6746/451

Firefox FTW.

Also, that Instart Logic thing that was mentioned: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instart_Logic

The company also offers an ad-blocker circumvention service that replaces advertisement URLs with different URLs, which are subsequently translated by Instart Logic's servers, so that ad blockers cannot filter them.

Top
Man U
Man City
Chelsea
Spurs

Relegation
Stoke (either them or Swansea)
Brighton
Huddersfield

Top scorer: Lukaku

POTY: Dunno... Lukaku again

Gonna be an interesting season. :)

Also, I'm terrible at predictions. Although I did predict Chelsea last season...

UnfairRepresent posted...

And criticism isn't illegal.

In fact on that note the most successful religious critics and authors of the past 100 years have been from the UK.

That reminds me of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_Rushdie and the whole hoo-ha with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_Rushdie#The_Satanic_Verses_and_the_fatw.C4.81

Vindris_SNH posted...

Do they not have freedom of speech in the UK?

Not completely, no. I think it's what's known as a "qualified right". We've had some issues with free speech recently, to be frank. As I alluded to before, I can understand a small punishment for the very worst sustained harassment. Other than that? Nope.

Mal_Fet posted...

What do you call a law that makes it illegal to offend of speak sacrilegiously about a religion?

There have been people arrested for online harassment and bigotry, rightly or wrongly, but merely for criticising religion/Islam? I'm not so sure about that.

Receiving a slap on the wrist for online harassment I can sort of understand. For bigotry alone, not so much. For "blasphemy", definitely not.

1-4 are great (9/10). Haven't played 5.

My own 5:

5. Metal Gear Solid 3
4. Super Metroid
3. Metroid Prime
2. Diablo II
1. Deus Ex

spikethedevil posted...

Believe me the last thing we want is the tories having more power.

Pretty much.

I can sympathize with the "democracy" argument a little (although I don't think first past the post is particularly democratic myself), but looking purely at what would give us the best protection against laws like this, staying in the EU would be the better option.

And to be fair, Labour's record on civil liberties in recent years isn't great either. Corbyn is probably better than Blair in that regard though, but that's not saying much.

I'd take what the Moggies are saying with a pinch of salt tbqh. At least, we're only seeing half of the story. What exactly is the content in question, for example? If it's genuine criticism of Islam, then fair enough.

Mal_Fet posted...

Not only does the UK have blasphemy laws that only apply to Islam, they also devote time and energy towards tracking down the home addresses of people who blaspheme Islam.

I'm pretty sure blasphemy laws in the UK have been scrapped for a number of years now.

Mal_Fet posted...

Brexit couldn't have come soon enough, it seems.

Would this not be an argument against Brexit? It basically hands more power to those in government enacting these laws (censorship laws / ill-advised technology laws in general, that is). The EU is pretty much our only protection against this at the moment. See https://www.theguardian.com/law/2016/dec/21/eus-highest-court-delivers-blow-to-uk-snoopers-charter for example.

NeonOctopus posted...

I only what a yukata is cuz of persona lol

Hah, same.

I can't be that up on my Japanese words/terms then. :P

Ivynn posted...

How do you know it wasn't a bathrobe

That's Ricky Tan?

Sounds like something out of Persona lol.

If they think they're paying too much, they can give some money to poor people to enable them to pay more. Didn't think so, huh?

trollface.jpg

On a more serious note though, the poor (and middle earners) can't pay what they don't have. If earnings weren't so skewed, maybe the taxes wouldn't be either. I'm just a filthy commie though. :P

Digital distribution.

__Cam__ posted...

There's literally no reason for physical PC releases other than nostalgia.

That's mostly true. The only thing I will say is that boxes sometimes contained goodies, like maps, instruction manuals, artbooks, etc.

Although to be honest, I'd rather have a cheaper game than those things.

Transcendentia posted...

The same type of incentive system exists in socialized healthcare where the government needs to employ a ton of doctors and nurses and hospital staff. If people get healthier and stop going to the doctor, that sector of the economy tanks.

B-but, socialism!

Seriously though, I sort of see what you're saying, but I'm not sure I agree. Basically, your argument is that as people get healthier, less doctors and nurses are needed, therefore there are less people paying taxes, which means lower tax receipts for the government and less for them to spend, right?

My contention with this argument is that:

1. These changes don't occur overnight. They happen over a long period and can be anticipated in advance to a certain extent. You don't just fire a bunch of doctors and nurses that go on to unemployment. What happens instead is that you tweak your training policies. OK, we're not going to need as many nurses, so let's train fewer (although I doubt that's the case in many places at the moment).
2. The economy is not static. Other sectors can expand or contract as needed. Again, these things don't happen overnight and can be anticipated by government, businesses and individuals and affected by government policy.

Also, there are obviously benefits to a healthier populace that can cancel this out at the very least. Admittedly, there are potential issues too (e.g. with people living longer, you need to provide more of end-of-life care), but I think having a healthier populace is a good "problem" to have.

Another argument against UHC that I can sympathize with a bit more is that when people's healthcare is being paid for, they have less incentive to take responsibility for their health. However, when you look at the health of the US population compared to other countries with UHC, I'm not sure that holds much water either. I think there are a lot of other factors there, e.g. attitudes to health in a society, poverty, lack of education, etc.

I haven't played it myself, but I definitely don't think it's necessary. Even 2, as great as it is, has some annoyances compared to the later games, so I can't imagine what 1 is like in that regard. I'd just stick with the others.

Also, if you're playing 5, go with Double Team DS. It's a much better version and worth playing over the original.

I haven't played the Starforce games myself, but I know there's one that people tend to like the best. I think it's either 2 or 3.

The past couple of days have been decent in Glasgow, but the summer has been shit for the most part, probably even worse than in England. That's not unusual for Scotland lol.

Bring on the Indian summer! I won't hold my breath though...

mustachedmystic posted...

If They attacked us or one of our allies, we'd have no choice. Luckily I don't see that happening.

Pretty much. It should remain an absolute last resort.

Very few outside the US see the Democrats as leftist (rightly so IMO). It's even more laughable when you consider some of the criticisms that were levelled at Hillary Clinton (and Obama for that matter). I mean, she was commonly called 'Shillary' for fuck's sake and accused of being a 'war hawk'. That should tell you all you need to know.

Bernie is one of the few modern-day Democrats that could be accused of being a leftist, and shockingly, he supports legalizing marijuana at the federal level at the very least.

Theresa May (the UK prime minister and famous leftist...not) has a great solution: ban all "psychoactive substances" and then exempt alcohol, cigarettes, etc. /s just in case. :(

That's a tough one.

Assuming ones in "single city/town" games don't count, maybe Vivec in Morrowind. Probably a strange one given the confusing layout, but I've played the game that much that I know it well.

TommyG663513 posted...

CE seems to be handling this significantly better than the Facebook comment sections. That usually happens to be true, but it is more surprising with this topic.

I'm not that surprised, honestly. Facebook comments are on a completely different level. It shows that anonymity doesn't really make *that* much difference. When emotions are running high, arguments will happen regardless.

Garioshi posted...

This actually brings me to an interesting question. Will there ever be a new console generation? We're getting to a point where technical limits are being hit.

I think there will be another couple, then consoles will cease to exist (in their current form at least) in the not-so-distant future (as in, there'll be no new gens).

RIP Michael Winner.

Probably the 4th.

I did play the 3rd gen consoles, albeit a few years after they came out, but I played the 4th at the time and loved it.

Transcendentia posted...

https://web.archive.org/web/20170808013732/http://quillette.com/2017/08/07/google-memo-four-scientists-respond

The opinion of the second scientist pretty much echoes my reading of the arguments made around biological differences.

The key part is this:

But it is not clear to me how such sex differences are relevant to the Google workplace. And even if sex differences in negative emotionality were relevant to occupational performance (e.g., not being able to handle stressful assignments), the size of these negative emotion sex differences is not very large (typically, ranging between “small” to “moderate” in statistical effect size terminology; accounting for less than 10% of the variance). So, using someone’s biological sex to essentialize an entire group of people’s personality would be like operating with an axe. Not precise enough to do much good, probably will cause a lot of harm. Moreover, men are more emotional than women in certain ways, too. Sex differences in emotion depend on the type of emotion, how it is measured, where it is expressed, when it is expressed, and lots of other contextual factors.

As to sex differences in mate preferences and status-seeking, these topics also have been heavily researched across cultures (for a review, see here). Again, though, most of these sex differences are moderate in size and in my view are unlikely to be all that relevant to the Google workplace (accounting for, perhaps, a few percentage points of the variability between men’s and women’s performances). Sex differences in occupational interests, personal values, and certain cognitive abilities are a bit larger in size (see here), but most psychological sex differences are only small to moderate in size, and rather than grouping men and women into dichotomous groups, I think sex and sex differences are best thought of scientifically as multidimensional dials, anyway (see here.)

I don't think many would argue against the existence of biological differences (and those that do are wrong, quite frankly), but they can't, on their own, be used to explain gender representation in the field. The differences are typically small to moderate and not enough to make one gender ill suited to tech jobs. Past history shows this is not the case (at least with regard to programming, which was once largely a female profession).

And then the final paragraph:

Now, treating people as dichotomous sexes is exactly what many affirmative action policies do. As this is not my area of expertise, I can only offer my non-expert opinion on this issue, which is this: There have been (and likely will continue to be) many socio-structural barriers to women working in technological jobs. These include culturally-embedded gender stereotypes, biased socialization practices, in some cultures explicit employment discrimination, and a certain degree of masculinization of technological workplaces. Within this sea of gender bias, should Google use various practices (affirmative action is not just one thing) to especially encourage capable women of joining (and enjoying) the Google workplace? I vote yes. At the same time, should we be able to openly discuss and be informed by some of the real psychological sex differences that might account for variation in men’s and women’s workplace performance? In the right context, I vote yes to that, too.

Here he agrees that there are "socio-structural" barriers to women working in tech, but that affirmative action is a bit of a blunt instrument that doesn't tackle these issues, and that there are other things that Google can do to tackle them.

To be fair to the manifesto writer, he makes many of these contentions, e.g.: "differences are small... overlap between men and women... can't say anything about an individual given these population level distributions."

I'd release it, but I'd be a bit conflicted on what to say about its origin. The path of least resistance would probably be to downplay / invent its origin. People would want to know its origin for obvious reasons, so probably the latter. Once people verify it works, they won't care so much.

A lot of people suffered to produce it, so I guess you could argue that they would have suffered in vain if you ditch it.

Also, to be clear, there was very little scientific value to any "research" done by the Nazis IRL. Much of it was racism / other bigotry disguised as research (e.g. sterilizing certain sections of the population), the methods used and reporting done were slap-dash, there was no scientific basis to much of it (e.g. the famous twin research), etc.

gr8 b8

http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/Rich-SF-residents-get-a-shock-Someone-bought-11738236.php

Thanks to a little-noticed auction sale, a South Bay couple are the proud owners of one of the most exclusive streets in San Francisco — and they’re looking for ways to make their purchase pay.

Tina Lam and Michael Cheng snatched up Presidio Terrace — the block-long, private oval street lined by 35 megamillion-dollar mansions — for $90,000 and change in a city-run auction stemming from an unpaid tax bill. They outlasted several other bidders.

Now they’re looking to cash in — maybe by charging the residents of those mansions to park on their own private street.

[...]

The couple’s purchase appears to be the culmination of a comedy of errors involving a $14-a-year property tax bill that the homeowners association failed to pay for three decades. It’s something that the owners of all 181 private streets in San Francisco are obliged to do.

In a letter to the city last month, Scott Emblidge, the attorney for the Presidio Homeowners Association, said the group had failed to pay up because its tax bill was being mailed to the Kearny Street address used by an accountant who hadn’t worked for the homeowners since the 1980s.

Two years ago, the city’s tax office put the property up for sale in an online auction, seeking to recover $994 in unpaid back taxes, penalties and interest. Cheng and Lam, trawling for real estate opportunities in the city, pounced on the offer — snatching up the parcel with a $90,100 bid, sight unseen.

[...]

There’s a bit of irony in the couple’s purchase. Until a 1948 U.S. Supreme Court ruling banning the enforcement of racial covenants, homes in Presidio Terrace could be purchased only by whites.

Fair, next, or complete bullshit?

I'm a leg man. :P

Tales of Phantasia, Star Ocean, Seiken Densetsu 3, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together and Front Mission: Gun Hazard have fan translations.

I'm not sure if Bahamut Lagoon does. Super Robot Taisen 4 has a partial translation.

Right-wingers are so oppressed, so they're just redressing the balance. They deserve a safe space approximately the size of planet earth.

Asherlee10 posted...

I wonder what information they are basing this notion that the pay gap exists.

From what I've read, I have not come across information that shows it's a real thing.

Pretty much. There are maybe some specific instances you could find out there, but overall, there certainly isn't an 18% pay gap for those of opposite genders that do the same job in developed western nations.

From what I've seen, these figures often come from calculating the overall ratio of male to female pay without consideration for the many factors that could contribute to it, such the exact job, hours worked / overtime, seniority, etc. It's an issue, sure, but it's not automatically an issue of sexism.

Gender representation in certain fields is a similarly complex issue. Like in the tech sector. I don't agree with the "biological differences" argument. Sure, they do exist, but does that mean that women "can't code" or have an innate dislike for coding? Of course not. Past history flies in the face of that (i.e. when programming was seen as a woman's job and working with hardware was the opposite). It's more to do with society, among other things.

Lonestar2000 posted...

Really far off.

Looks like Alpha Protocol.

I thought this was a myth? Not that I've ever done that anyway.

Is this like a comedy reference or something? Lol.