RationalWiki:Saloon bar

From RationalWiki
(Difference between revisions)
Jump to: navigation, search
(Curiosity Rover Landing)
(Yet another shootout)
Line 98: Line 98:
 
:::::::{{Good post}} [[User:Proxima Centauri|Proxima Centauri]] ([[User talk:Proxima Centauri|talk]]) 07:45, 6 August 2012 (UTC)
 
:::::::{{Good post}} [[User:Proxima Centauri|Proxima Centauri]] ([[User talk:Proxima Centauri|talk]]) 07:45, 6 August 2012 (UTC)
 
In the UK random shootings like this happen once every decade if we're '''un'''lucky.  Random attacks with weapons like knives and machetes that criminals can easily get are more frequent.  I'm sure easy availability of [[gun]]s is part of the problem. [[User:Proxima Centauri|Proxima Centauri]] ([[User talk:Proxima Centauri|talk]])
 
In the UK random shootings like this happen once every decade if we're '''un'''lucky.  Random attacks with weapons like knives and machetes that criminals can easily get are more frequent.  I'm sure easy availability of [[gun]]s is part of the problem. [[User:Proxima Centauri|Proxima Centauri]] ([[User talk:Proxima Centauri|talk]])
 +
:This section probably would have gone over better had you not started it off with the gun control line prox. just saying. --[[User:Mikal|<span style="color:#006600">Mikal</span>]] <sup>[[User_Talk:Mikal|<span style="color:#CC0000">Harass</span>]] [[Special:Contributions/Mikal|<span style="color:#000099">Follow</span>]]</sup> 09:15, 6 August 2012 (UTC)
  
 
== Curiosity Rover Landing ==
 
== Curiosity Rover Landing ==

Revision as of 09:15, 6 August 2012

Saloon bar
WIGO Bar colour.png

This is a place for general chit-chat about virtually anything that doesn't fit anywhere else.
Friends.gif For previous conversations see the automagic barchives. Beer.gif

What is going on?

The Bar
(talk) (talk) (talk) (talk) (hic)

RationalWiki:Forum
  1. Is there an article for "they mocked other scientists, so mocking me must mean I'm right" (23:58, 18 Jun 2013)
  2. Future direction of RationalWiki and incidental professionalism (07:31, 11 Jun 2013)
  3. Recommend Smart Action/Sci-Fi Novels (02:26, 10 Jun 2013)
  4. What's wrong with the Captcha? (00:33, 30 May 2013)
  5. Can I get a 3rd party review? (15:04, 23 May 2013)
  6. Questions concerning Raw milk (13:51, 15 May 2013)
To do list

Contents


Your regular dose of Ark Park schadenfreude

Actually, probably not schadenfreude, because I don't feel in the least guilty about laughing at those fuckers at AiG. It turns out that the Ark Park that was supposed to have started construction last year is still 40 odd million dollars away from so much as rolling an excavator on to the site.

In one of my earlier updates, I said that the additional phases of the park would never be built. That seems like a pretty safe bet, I know a scaling back of ambitions when I see one. But now I'm calling it. Not only will the extra phases never be built, the Ark Park will never be built at all. I just hope their irate investors find some way to sue the AiG mothership for mis-selling this monstrosity to them and the resulting litigation bankrupts them. I also look forward to excuses as to why god punished them for attempting to "do his will." --JeevesMkII The gentleman's gentleman at the other site 23:58, 1 August 2012 (UTC)

We can hope, though I think you're probably right. It's all gay marriage's fault. Peter This is not my first temporal anomaly 00:58, 2 August 2012 (UTC)
Hang on a second - didn't Kentucky vote a whole bunch of tax cuts for the park, and divert funds from education to build roads to the park? I know we're talking fundies here, but surely if construction doesn't start soon, somebody in an office somewhere is going to say "Hey, about all those millions you've been given..." --Psygremlin (talk) 12:12, 2 August 2012 (UTC)
Feh -- those would be liberals who hate God, apple pie, Donald Trump, and Chick-Fil-A. MDB (the MD is for Maryland, the B is for Bear) 12:31, 2 August 2012 (UTC)
I doubt even Kentucky is stupid enough to actually start the work promised until it's obvious the ark park will open. I shouldn't worry that any public money will ever be spent. --JeevesMkII The gentleman's gentleman at the other site 12:33, 2 August 2012 (UTC)
Well their 2012 has already cut education spending, with tax breaks for the park, so some public money is going somewhere. --Psygremlin (talk) 12:42, 2 August 2012 (UTC)
The park got a $43 million tax break. And they still can't make enough to get started. rpeh •TCE 12:54, 2 August 2012 (UTC)
It doesn't look like you'll be seeing any rides at the Ark Park, but here's seven rides you probably won't find even if they do build it. MDB (the MD is for Maryland, the B is for Bear) 13:10, 2 August 2012 (UTC)
If the Ark Park ever does open, I demand a RW day trip where we all go in period costume and stone Mikalos with nerf rocks for being a disobedient child. --JeevesMkII The gentleman's gentleman at the other site 21:45, 2 August 2012 (UTC)
Yeah, Jeeves hits the nail on the head. Road improvements will happen when there's a Park for people (like us, apparently?) to visit and not before. The tax break is on sales tax for the attraction. No attraction? No sales tax, no tax break. It's an automatic tax break for attractions that bring in a lot of money from out-of-state, the only controversy was whether somehow the state was obliged to withhold it from AiG, and they decided (no surprise) that they weren't. If Kentucky cut money for schools, or eliminated a program that gives people adorable kittens that's got nothing to do with AiG's silly park, blame your elected representatives instead.
Also we shouldn't start crowing too soon. The park was never scheduled to open before 2014. That's a lot of time for a "rescuer" to come along and make things happen. The sure signs it's screwed would be if the land gets sold (especially at a knock-down price), if AiG begins talking about a much smaller project (e.g. another museum) or if it opens but the crowds never come. It does not matter if the crowds are laughing at them, money is still money. 82.69.171.94 (talk) 08:34, 3 August 2012 (UTC)
if AiG begins talking about a much smaller project... Frankly, I'm really excited about seeing Noah's Rowboat. VOXHUMANA 10:23, 3 August 2012 (UTC)
If they're really strapped for cash, perhaps they can open next year as Noah's Shipyard, helpfully explaining to the true believers how Noah founded the JCB company and invented the internal combustion engine especially for building the ark. Using blueprints supplied by god of course. --JeevesMkII The gentleman's gentleman at the other site 13:43, 3 August 2012 (UTC)
In a documentary on myth making, some generic scholar was discussing the likelihood that Noah is an archaic story of a real dude who was living on a small land locked inlet, that flooded when a rain storm made a natural levee break to allow the sea into the isolate. "ancient-dude" probably built himself a raft and saved his family and some animals. 1000's of years later, "noah" and "god" and "40 days of rain" were born. They could probably pull of that project!Green mowse.pngGodotL'important c'est d'aimer 13:49, 3 August 2012 (UTC)
If the Black Sea deluge theory is correct then that would have sparked an enormous amount of flood stories at around about the right sort of time (OK, stretching it but...) I think it's reasonable to suggest that big floods create big myths. Bad Faith (talk) 14:04, 3 August 2012 (UTC)
They should have followed North Carolina's lead, and just outlawed flooding! Green mowse.pngGodotL'important c'est d'aimer 14:12, 3 August 2012 (UTC)
This one guy on a raft with a cow flood archetype stories have always struck me as a bunch of cobblers. Since when did people need a true archetype to invent stories? It's like insisting that all the various why did the chicken cross the road jokes have their origin in a real incident of a chicken crossing the road. --JeevesMkII The gentleman's gentleman at the other site 16:30, 5 August 2012 (UTC)

Vices of our tribe

Ian Pollock has an excellent essay up at Rationally Speaking on atheism/skepticism. (Just a nitpick, but he glosses over the evidence for the evolution of a "moral sense": [1], [2]) Nebuchadnezzar (talk) 06:23, 5 August 2012 (UTC)

Goat Man

I know we all love the site's unofficial mascot, but this guy is taking things a bit far. rpeh •TCE 12:34, 5 August 2012 (UTC)

Didn't CSI have an episode about this? Vulpius (talk) 13:38, 5 August 2012 (UTC)
CSI:RationalWiki? i must have missed that one. SophieWilder 14:46, 5 August 2012 (UTC)
That was the spinoff where all the characters showed up at the precinct office hung over, told bad jokes and insulted each other over trivial stuff, then wandered home at the end of the day. There weren't many episodes. Doctor Dark (talk) 03:49, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

Happy birthday... I think

I saw a headline in our local paper saying "The Internet Turns 21!" and I thought that was nice, because now it can get married and vote and buy beer and stuff. So I typed 'internet turns 21' into Google, to find a story to post here... and now I'm confused. You see, Google came up with:

  • The Internet Turns 21 @ The Weekly Review (Dated 17-6-2010)
  • Happy 20th Birthday for the Internet | PCWorld (dated 2 Jan 2003)
  • The Web Turns 21 | Globe Magazine (dated 4 Jul 2011)
  • The Web turns 20 (dated 13 Mar 2009)
  • 'Dot Com' Internet Domain Name Turns 25 (dated 15 Mar 2010)

and finally

  • The World Wide Web, Not The Internet, Turns 20 Today - PC Magazine (6 Aug 2011)

So happy birthday WWW! --PsyGremlinParla! 13:41, 5 August 2012 (UTC)

Our internet got married at 16 and has been drinking legally for three years now. VOXHUMANA 13:46, 5 August 2012 (UTC)

Yet another shootout

How long before you Americans do anything about that largely defensive weapon of gun?

Proxima Centauri (talk) 19:10, 5 August 2012 (UTC)

More importantly, how long until Rob comes back to blame this on Obama? Theory of Practice "Trampoline" is an Olympic sport now? 19:34, 5 August 2012 (UTC)
(aside: You know, while I'm against private gun ownership of anything but hunting guns, i find it largely upsetting that anyone talks about politics before people even get a chance to take in shock and grieve. Right or left. have come class, please.)
This really looks like a targeted attack against "muslims" (yes, i know sikh's aren't muslims) rather than just some random nut job. In my mind, right or wrong, this is so much worse. to have to fear because of how you dress to acknowledge your religion (or gender, or political position or skin color - any attack against a class as domestic terrorism). Green mowse.pngGodotL'important c'est d'aimer 19:54, 5 August 2012 (UTC)
It wouldn't surprise me if this was meant to target Muslims. A Sikh temple in MI was the target of anti-Islamic vandalism a few months back. Now there's a shining example of the ignorance of bigotry. Nebuchadnezzar (talk) 20:16, 5 August 2012 (UTC)
There's no proof of anything yet, and with the shooter dead, it'll take longer for the truth to come out. During the meanwhile, please people, don't be the bottom half of the internet. SophieWilder
"It wouldn't surprise me if this was meant to target Muslims." How is this speculation any better than CP speculating that the incident would not have occurred if people had guns? Same thing happened with Toulouse. And so much for not politicialising issues, calling for gun control is the same as CP calling for less gun control, this is no better than what Andy does... 124.183.107.243 (talk) 23:32, 5 August 2012 (UTC)
Sorry if I'm being dense here, but what makes the gun control aspect 'politics' and the Sikh/Muslim/terrorism speculation not? Looks like I was beaten to the punch by that BoN Q0 (talk) 23:35, 5 August 2012 (UTC)
Because imho an issue cannot be politicalised before the basic facts are known. It is known this was committed with a gun, thus it opens the debate about gun control. However, to insinuate that gun control would have prevented such a tragedy before these people have been buried is disrespectful. As for the motive, we don't know if the shooter was targeting Muslims (opening up debate about racism), an estranged father (opening up the debate about custody and childcare) or if they were a mentally unstable member of the temple (opening up the debate about mental healthcare). To push one line of speculation before any facts are released and before time has been allowed for grieving is again disrespectful. It's the same thing as what CP does (and gets criticised for doing). I'm not saying that these things should not be debated, but at least give it a bit of time and let the facts be known. 124.183.107.243 (talk) 23:54, 5 August 2012 (UTC)
"americans need to remove guns" bs. "what might be motives, reasons, or targets. Could this be part of a bigger attack", etc. very different.Green mowse.pngGodotL'important c'est d'aimer 01:21, 6 August 2012 (UTC)
And now you're getting to the heart of things. It's not really that it's something political; it's that you disagree with the usual argument. I mean, if I speak out about how bombing in Afghanistan should be ended whenever an American jet blows up some Afghan kids, are you going to tell me I'm exploiting their loss for political reasons? Am I not allowed to be upset that it happened, wish it would end, and take the most reasonable approach to stop it? I'm not being political, I'm being empathetic. It's the same with 'letting the family grieve'. Should I wait to comment on the bombings until the Afghan family grieves as well? How long should I wait? A day? A week? A month? I don't think "Oh hey, remember that tragedy a while back? Yeah, that one. I think it's finally time we do something about that!" is an effective way to actually work for change.
The main reason we get upset when the resident idiots over at CP comment immediately on these things is that they're reactionary, irrational, and wrong. For most of us, it's: bad thing happens -> try to find out what went wrong so we can stop it from happening again. For CP it's: bad thing happens -> try to find some obscure evidence that fits your previously held belief or conspiracy theory and shout it to the world. So, the moment any news story mentions liberals/gays/video games/Obama/etc, the connection is made, and they're off to the races!
In this case, you may not want to talk about guns, but what other facts can you even bring into play at this point? Speculation on the Sikh/Muslim thing is just that - speculation. I happen to agree it's the most likely scenario, and am more than willing to talk about it, but that doesn't change the fact that it's no better than discussing gun control. Q0 (talk) 03:04, 6 August 2012 (UTC)
Goodpost.gif Proxima Centauri (talk) 07:45, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

In the UK random shootings like this happen once every decade if we're unlucky. Random attacks with weapons like knives and machetes that criminals can easily get are more frequent. I'm sure easy availability of guns is part of the problem. Proxima Centauri (talk)

This section probably would have gone over better had you not started it off with the gun control line prox. just saying. --Mikal Harass Follow 09:15, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

Curiosity Rover Landing

Less than two hours until the "Seven Minutes OF HELL." NASA TV is doing a preshow right now talking about educating kids... including will.i.am for some reason. --CoyoteSans (talk) 03:43, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

The Curiosity Mars rover will attempt landing within the hour. You can watch a live stream here. If you don't know what this is or why it's exciting, watch this video.--ADtalkModerator 03:45, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

Whoot! AceThe Rep Grows Bigger 03:48, 6 August 2012 (UTC)
I concede defeat. Though, in my defense, I can't see the "Add new topic" link anymore. To atone for my weak wiki-fu, please accept this stream of actual scientists talking about the landing. --CoyoteSans (talk) 03:54, 6 August 2012 (UTC)
I didn't see your topic when I started, sorry! Merged into yours.--ADtalkModerator 03:57, 6 August 2012 (UTC)
Peak oil deceleration! Peter This is not my first temporal anomaly 05:14, 6 August 2012 (UTC)
I think. Maybe not. Peter This is not my first temporal anomaly 05:15, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

WTF, "tones", what is it? C®ackeЯ

And everything was seven minutes ago, right? It's down. 05:35, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

Rover is down. Everything went successfully, and images are coming in, bouncing off of Odyssey.--ADtalkModerator 05:40, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

That was a pitch perfect landing. It even sent us a couple pictures! --CoyoteSans (talk) 05:42, 6 August 2012 (UTC)
And here they are! --CoyoteSans (talk) 05:44, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

Here's the first image: First image from Curiosity. Amazing.--ADtalkModerator 05:47, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

Can you imagine being in that room, 6-7 years of your life working on some part of the project, scared to death something goes wrong and 6 years is down the drain...to see it land! Green mowse.pngGodotL'important c'est d'aimer 05:49, 6 August 2012 (UTC)
Well, that's the thing, whatever happened had already happened, you just didn't know about it until the data got home. No sense in worrying about it, kind of like life but slower and moar! excurciating. C®ackeЯ 05:58, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

More pics here when the server stops over heating, ( Try C&P this for use at a later time http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/ ). C®ackeЯ 06:07, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

Meh. A cheap webcam does much better than that. --2.34.113.53 (talk) 09:00, 6 August 2012 (UTC)
Do you have a webcam on Mars? Redchuck.gif ГенгисevolvingModerator 09:07, 6 August 2012 (UTC)
Personal tools
Namespaces

Variants
Actions
Navigation
Community
Toolbox
support