RationalWiki:Saloon bar/Archive73

If I left Rationalwiki at this very moment, would anyone miss me?
Well... would you? --Idiot number 58 (talk) 06:34, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I would. This place needs more pottery! 06:49, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Goonie said he would miss me
 * I think he heard my plea
 * And knows I'm no MC


 * Writing good pottery is no lottery
 * It's quite a thrill and needs your skills


 * --Idiot number 57 (talk) 07:47, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I'd be a little cut up but would probably get over it pretty quickly. AceX-102 09:44, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Allow me to express my sentiments with an EddyP-style haiku.
 * "Wiki of wankers,"
 * Oh, Blithering Idiot,
 * Why are you still here? 16:23, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I thought your comments in the bar to Superhamster were rather rude. Ey's a youngen, ain't ey? Reap what you sow. Other than that I wouldn't want you to go. ~ Lumenos (talk) 23:38, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * He even called me a monstrous pervert, just because I have a hamster sex-doll that has very masculine attributes. He's a very mean person. ~Super Hamster  Talk 01:59, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I miss Idiot Number 59. 02:54, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Ey is just getting chummy with you. If you lie still until ey has eir moment, ey will think you are good people after that. Just be sure to use the hot water for the laundry. ~ Lumenos (talk) 03:58, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I never waste the energy to use hot water for laundry. 04:09, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * You either waste soap, energy, incense, or you can wear your pure yeti aroma with pride. It rather limits your options for friends/partners but that can be a good thing. ~ Lumenos (talk) 05:15, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Cold water works fine, I don't know why you don't realize this. It's actually easier on the clothes, too.  05:21, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Being easier on clothes means getting them less "clean". Washing machines use heat, soap, and agitation to emulsify oils and move "dirt" from fabric to water. As far as sanitation, heat is more effective than most disinfectants. You don't mean using water without soap, do you? Making soap requires energy and other natural resources. If you have a natural gas water heater, agitation requires electricity which costs more than gas and usually would seem to cause more pollution. Solar water heaters are common in some places. I'm just saying it is all relative; less heat means more soap, more agitation, or less "clean".
 * By the way, I rarely do laundry or dishes. I use a microwave for nearly everything and lick plates and utensils clean. After a crap I wash me bunghole with soap and water so I don't stink up me trousers. I have dry skin so I don't tend to get much skin oil on sheets and clothes but the more skin oil is on these fabrics, the less moisturizer I need. I deal with fungal infections with vinegar or baking soda. Odor isn't a big problem since I have windows open most of the year and the swap cooler constantly brings in fresh air. This'this'this HUMAN is going to lecture the yeti master crapsman on frugal/appropriate technology? If I am unable to make another post please call the mortuary, for I have died laughing. ~ Lumenos (talk) 08:16, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * That was very lumenating. I run my clothes washer on cold water, with about 4 oz of modern washing soap.  The clothes come out clean.  I wash my bunghole after pooping with lumenwipes.  They work well.  08:34, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * The problem with cold washes is that they can lead to a build up of mould and grease (YMMV) which then comes off on the laundry (it's always the heavy white towels) so either run an occasional hot wash or make sure you wipe down round the soap dispenser, rubber seals and drum lip. This may not be such an issue with vertical drums where there might be better ventilation of the innards. 09:16, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Thank you. I should also say that having longer hair/beard keeps pillow slips and sheets cleaner as the body excretes hair grease from the glands in the skin/scalp. It takes more soap to wash the hair but it doesn't seem to require more frequent washing, only brushing. I soak brushes in large cup of soapy water, rinse and let them dry before reusing. Periodically I pull the hair off the brush with a fork and compost it. I should compost everything sanitary, if I don't recycle it (paper), feed it to chickens/muscovies, soldier grubs or redworms.
 * You might experiment with less soap, less agitating cycle with more soaking, and warm water. However, soap is probably better to keep yar pipes from clogging (although you can also use living cultures to clear slow drains) and you are limited to the options on your washer. Are you sure you are not mistaking a more distributed "dirt" and a floral fragrance for "clean"? You can "clean" everything in your room/house with incense that smells more interesting than flowers. Cold probably won't kill parasitic roundworm eggs. Itchy funguses which feed on grease or skin will return to any grease or skin remaining. I figure, if I am going to use the electricity, I may as well get it very clean.
 * There are no lumenwipes, you lumeposer! Lumenists do not use lumelogisms without linking to definitions! Are they flushables or unflushables? If unflushable, what do you do with them? ~ Lumenos (talk) 19:58, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

Fuck me, Ray Bradbury
So. Many. Levels. Of. Special... Also, am I the only one who genuinely rolled on the floor for the final line? 09:41, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Probably. This was more of a drooler for me and Ray. What would be funny is if he obediently went to her house with a camera crew and Viagra. ~ Lumenos (talk) 04:08, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Made of win! And I just love the old codger's expression. Must admit, I didn't even know he was still alive. -- PsyGremlin  15:16, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Of course, saying he's the greatest SF writer in history merely demonstrates that you don't have the intelligence to appreciate Asimov. 15:22, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * She's got nice boobs, I'll forgive her that oversight. On the subject of UTube - I love XKCD -- PsyGremlin  17:17, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Asimov doesn't rhyme with history. 22:54, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * or anything else. Totnesmartin (talk) 10:00, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Actually, it does, but all other examples I can think of in the moment are other Slavic surnames. So, yes, effectively it doesn't, unless you think of a way to work in Admiral Nakhimov...--ZooGuard (talk) 10:10, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Maybe it's not an issue of thinking Bradbury is a better writer than Asimov, but that having the same song about ol' Isaac would be necrophilia?  15:10, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * What about any of the "off" euphemisms? You'd have to tinker with the lyrics a bit but "Get me off, Isaac Asimov" could be a replacement. Suck, jerk and whack are all one syllable and could be preceded with "I wanna" and followed by "you" so as to pay homage and not be derogatory. The rest of the structure is a mystery to me, though. The Foxhole Atheist (talk) 14:11, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

Opportunity Knocks
Someone ought to do something about this. DogP Marmite Patrol 09:43, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * It's because nobody's read YTMND since 2007. Totnesmartin (talk) 10:05, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * This reminds me of the back-and-forth between RW and CP. We're the monkey, I think.   DogP Marmite Patrol 15:26, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

Stubbot
Can I ask who set Stubbot away to remove wpa and wp links? In places it has left ref tags that are empty and in other places removed quite legit uses of linking to Wikipedia. 13:59, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * It is Trent's bot. I think this is one of Human's pet hates. 14:30, 23 August 2010 (UTC)


 * wp going is one thing (thank you Trent), wpa shoulda stayed. Hey, it's a wiki, everything is reversible! ... after a slog - David Gerard (talk) 15:08, 23 August 2010 (UTC)


 * I didn't realize wpa existed, therefore a reg exp matching something like also matched . tmtoulouse 15:53, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I fucking hate regular expressions. tmtoulouse 16:19, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I kind of like wp, although only in certain circumstances. It should be placed in the "see also" section, because of course, it's a "see also" not a "we're too lazy to write our own, go here instead". 17:12, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

I'm moving
w00t, I'm leaving for Denver on the first. I'm excited.

I'm currently in San Diego, where no jobs exist, the state government is falling apart, and the gays are supposedly destroying society. I get to live in downtown Denver for free for a few months. Also, Beer fest starts Sept 10th.--MJMelcher (talk) 19:26, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

Fucksake
I recommend watching the latest Channel 4 Dispatches program on first-cousin marriages. Just fast-forward to the part about half way through where the presenter interviews a Pakistani community leader on the subject. Turns out it's not just creationism where people can be extremely dense about acknowledging evidence. 19:49, 23 August 2010 (UTC)


 * First noted in the press a coupla years ago. I pontificated. - David Gerard (talk) 19:57, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

Another cover article, oh my golly gosh
Cryonics appears to have no objections to being gold-brained. I'm surprised and pleased. Since this comes pretty soon after the previous one, I'm just jumping up and down here in case there are any objections. Shrubbery requests here - David Gerard (talk) 20:13, 23 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Oh, and I've just discovered this which is marvellously useful for dealing with this area of science woo - David Gerard (talk) 20:16, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

I have seen the face of the enemy...
The court rulings on Prop 8 brought the gay marriage issue to the forefront of my mind. So I brought up the subject in an email with my friend, who's about as conservative and Christian as they come. I used a simple 14th Amendment argument in favor of gay marriage, which probably didn't take more than a few minutes to read. The main point of her response was this: "There is a difference between truth and man's interpretation. Man is sinful by nature, yes? If this is true, then us twisting the truth to our logic or will isn't really truth at all." So there it is. Human logic is twisted. I didn't realize it until now, but I think that the concept illustrated in that quote is the scariest thing I have ever read. Of course, I pointed out the hypocrisy of her words (like how much she has benefited from society and science based on logic) and she backpedaled a little, but the fact that she was capable of typing that out (apparently, without thinking) leads me to believe I have just seen the elusive root of everything that is wrong with the world. Feel free to ignore this altogether, but I felt like I had to type this out somewhere. -- JArneal   20:50, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm surprised that she didn't capitalize "truth". But yeah, that's a very nice illustration of how the fundie mindset operates - don't trust in your own reasoning ability, all the answers you'll ever need can be found in a single book. And if the message isn't clear, ask your local priest to tell you what to do. Röstigraben (talk) 21:02, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * The fact that people have that mindset ironically proves that human logic is flawed. -- 21:27, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * She didn't say she was attempting "logic". She indicates she doesn't trust "logic" and I see no reason to disbelieve this. ~ Lumenos (talk) 03:19, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * The lady should be informed, using small English words, that the laws of logic are self-validating, which is why Christians had no problem using logic that had been codified by pagan philosophers.
 * The real problem here, of course, is that she is under the delusion that there are no contradictions between the U.S. Constitution and the Bible. 06:05, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I had a disagreement with a church group leader at one point. I came out to them, and the husband (the group leader) was upset, and rejecting.  His wife acknowledged that she would find it easier to just accept me, but that "Jesus calls us to follow the harder path."  I wanted to point out to her that her husband was following his easy path, so what made his easy path ok, and hers wrong?  The situation is one where "if you can use logic to prove me wrong, then logic must be flawed." -- 22:02, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Or as a wise man once said "you can't reason people out of things they didn't reason themselves into". I'd drop the "logic" sort of thing. It won't take. As far as anyone is concerned in this sort of thing, they're right and rational and doing a perfectly normal and good thing. Granted, those opposed to allowing gay people to marry are certainly in the wrong with their cherry picking and restriction of basic rights of others (almost almost definitely hypocrisy to boot) but they certainly won't think that's what they're doing. 22:21, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * What the fuck is this shit all about anyway? Homosexual men have the right to marry a women just as heterosexual men have the right to marry a women.  Job done.  Sorted.  It's called equality; everyone is treated the same.  Heterosexuals and homosexuals are treated exactly the same. Happy days.   01:46, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * But magic prophet heal the blind and told us homo is bad! We will never talk sense into these people. Mostly it's only the youth who are not yet set in their ways, as many of us are here because we realized we were brainwashed with all this religious mumbo jumbo. Religious people don't debate much, they procreate, and look at how many of the crazy bastards are running around. ~ Lumenos (talk) 03:19, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Well, if they reproduce more, that ultimately means that they win, right? -- JArneal   05:26, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * It is not the reproduction per se, it is the chance to indoctrinate that comes with raising them. I'm just saying, it seems people make more believers that way, than by debate. I saw some stats that suggested that a very high percentage of people stick to whatever (non)religion they are brought up with. ~ Lumenos (talk) 05:54, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * It was supposed to be a jest referring to survival of the fittest, but you make a good point. -- JArneal   08:10, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I supposed that would also be getting into memetics too. Indoctrination is a very happy meme for reproducing and sticking around - obviously - so combine this with a propensity for such family groups to shun contraception and have larger than average families, well... 11:09, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

The Overton Window
I'm 30 pages (1/10) in and I'm ready to smash my head. (must...not...retreat...to Persona3Portable.) Sneak Peak of my review: Beck lumping Tea Parties with anti-Semites.--Thanatos (talk) 22:08, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Keep going. Be strong! 11:10, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I just started reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo on the subway to work this morning. After 25 pages, I'm very impressed, though I haven't read enough to decide if it lives up to the hype.


 * I look forward to your review of Glenn Beck's ghost writer's book. MDB (talk) 11:30, 24 August 2010 (UTC)


 * That reminded me, I ordered P3P for import from the US.. cause apparently the tentative plan is that it may get released in Europe somewhere in march 2011. Pisses me off, since it's even available on the online playstation store for download! --GTac (talk) 13:02, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I think we should review more books! Really, we got so far with Ray Comfort's You Can Lead... but never got it finished, probably because the only person (I forget who) with a usable copy had an aneurysm. I know I'm keen to perhaps to The Greatest Show on Earth at some point, not to mention getting back into reviewing Penn & Teller's Bullshit. 16:23, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * A few of us wound up with free signed copies. And, yes, brain damage every time we tried to read more than two or three sentences.  19:21, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Well, I'm just stuck with the Google Books preview... Not sure I got much from it apart from Hitler Hitler  Hitler  Hitler  Hitler  Hitler  Hitler,  Hitler  Hitler  Hitler ,  Hitler  Hitler  ... Hitler  Hitler ?  Hitler  Hitler  Hitler  Hitler .  Hitler  Hitler  Hitler !!!  13:23, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

Ineffectiveness of charity donations and Africa
I have mentioned a few times about my friend who spent 2 years in Uganda as a Peace Corp worker. He has a blog at http://mediaforsocialchange.org which I think is worth following but wanted to bring up his latest post here where he goes into depth about the corruption and scams run on charities and by charities. The completion funds scam was particularly interesting I thought, never really hear much about this end of the charity business.

There is also a close link between these Uganda middle men pocketing the funds and all the fundamentalist churches, hopefully my friend elaborates more on this at some point. But he talked about how some of the local churches gave this guy tons of money not just to feed the poor but as part of a larger and violent persecution of homosexuals. tmtoulouse 22:39, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Like this? AceX-102 22:44, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Oh no...not that video... -- JArneal   23:10, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I wonder if the health risks of eating African shit is worse than taking African dick in the ass. I've never heard of anyone getting HIV from feces, at least. ~ Lumenos (talk) 05:37, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Video is blocked in my country "on copyright grounds". 09:30, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Then your hordes must conquer Youtube and raze its cities to the ground! Totnesmartin (talk) 10:01, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * If I could be the slightest bit bothered, then I might. 10:32, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

programming question
are you supposed to feel like a complete pussy when you use an IDE? Occasionaluse (talk) 23:34, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * It's called an IED, and yes, that's what a pussy uses. A real soldier looks his enemy in the eyes and stabs him in the chest. DickTurpis (talk) 23:45, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Get yersel an assembler and learn to code. 01:47, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * what language ? some are very much easier in an IDE and theres nothing wrong with that. Unless its a code generator, they can be nasty. What if your enemy is very short ? kneel down to stab him ? I prefered shooting from as great a distance as I could manage. Hamster (talk) 03:55, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * To feel like a man, you have to turn off all the intelli-crap type features and just use it as a text editor that knows how deep you want the next line indented. -- 07:57, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Do whatever works for you. That's what technology is for. 09:32, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

Real programmers write binaries directly. None of this wussy "programming language" stuff. Even hexadecimal is for the weak.

Seriously, as long as it's an aid you use to make good code better, and not a crutch you depend on to write any code at all, an IDE is just fine. MDB (talk) 11:37, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

Oh, and as far as proper methods of killing goes... some friends of mine would not let their son have toy guns, because they did not believe in owning guns. They did, however, let him have toy swords. They had two reasons:
 * They're fencers, and collect medieval style weaponry, so they thought it would be hypocritical to forbid him to have toy swords when they play with swords themselves.
 * They believe that, if you were going to kill someone, you should do it up close and personal.

They're fun people. MDB (talk) 11:44, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I'd use an IDE for larger projects, but tend to use vi or BBEdit if it's a quick modification or a relatively small amount of source in a single file. It'd be a pain to manually manage source and resources without an IDE, and it's useful to have API references without needing to run off to a book or a browser. Concernedresident  omg!!! ponies!!! 11:52, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * IDEs are all for lesser languages like C++ and Java. The proper languages let you write everything in 20 lines of code. With cat. 15:18, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * It's true! I'm typing this from a custom SSH script, 17 lines long.  I browse all the web with it.  I even have Flash.  It's awesome.  But on topic, I have to agree with CR.  I use IDE's to manage projects, but often find myself firing up a simple text editor to do simple modifications, then compiling by hand.   15:32, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm on VS2010 now. Me likey :) 15:35, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I have no idea what you are talking about but I'm sure it is preposterous. How can a web browser be in network protocol script 17 lines long? ~ Lumenos (talk) 18:43, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * With modern programming techniques such as forking, extremely powerful objective-centric overlength scripts can be produce to run SSH(II) style environments. Don't you have an article about such on your excellent wiki? 18:48, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Pssh. My entire OS is 100 lines of certified Coq extracted to Haskell! 19:11, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Eaaruum, give me hint, is it the goblin takeover article or browser exploits? If this is my punishment for writing about philosophical nuerolinguistic programs, which are far beyond your comprehension, I suggest a truce. From now on I will humbly agree to patiently instruct you in ethics and the purpose of your life, while you teach me geek magik. ~ Lumenos (talk) 20:52, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

Moar church coverups
12:02, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * It's almost a relief that they're only covering up murders, not child abuse this time. -- 13:24, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * It's Willy Whitelaw I'm angry about. So much for "We will never do deals with terrorists." Jack Hughes (talk) 13:31, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Got to love how the church gets to handle allegations of criminal activities as internal matters: "Furthermore, the Church subsequently reported back to the secretary of state the outcome of its questioning of Fr Chesney into his alleged activities." I wonder if I can rob a bank and ask that my manager handle the enquiry? CR. 62.40.36.14 (talk) 13:55, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

Edmund Burke
Nobody responded on the the talk page so I decided to post here to get a bigger audience. Any chance we could bring it back? MarcusCicero (talk) 14:37, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

Forum is broke
RationalWiki:Forum ~ Lumenos (talk) 18:33, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * If there were ever forums here I would have known about it. Occasionaluse (talk) 18:36, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Must be a dpl bug... 18:48, 24 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Lies! tmtoulouse 18:51, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm moving this thread to the forum. Occasionaluse (talk) 19:43, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Thank you for turn my truth to lie. ~ Lumenos (talk) 20:08, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * While we're on the subject of broke things, whatever happened to RationalWikiWikiWiki? It's vanished without a trace, no record in the deletion logs or anything.  I can only assume this conspiracy goes to the highest levels.  -- 20:11, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * The dive bar is gone too. 20:15, 24 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Prove it! tmtoulouse 20:17, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Don't make me get my pitchforks out We want the  Dive Bar back!  -- 21:29, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Yeah, it's my fault the Forum's broke. I overcooked my pasta earlier on and so hit it with a big stick to let out my anger. Sorry. 21:38, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Proof that Crundy is a geek #36: I read "overcooked" as "overclocked". Did your pasta run faster but overheat? 10:17, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I actually didn't overcook it, I just cooked it in a small pot, so after I added the tomato sauce and stirred it in, pasta kept falling out, leading me to say "fuck" and "shit" under my breath every few seconds. In fact, I ended up eating most of my dinner off the kitchen floor. 11:48, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Ha ha, you're even a n00b at cookery.--Little Bobby Tables (talk) 13:22, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

/b/
Just took a look. Load of old crap. Totnesmartin (talk) 19:13, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Don't say that. We'll have all those uncle fuckers here to troll us. -- 19:43, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Anything good and mostly legal that comes out of /b/ will probably be found at Encyclopedia Dramatica. I mostly like politically incorrect artworks/comedy and pics of girlvinyl in native habitat. ~ Lumenos (talk) 20:18, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I should probably add that me security apparatus has shown exploit "attempts" at ED but Google doesn't list them as malware. I think I also recall some "virus" warnings at a chan but not sure. ~ Lumenos (talk) 20:27, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Back in my trolling days I was contacted by several leading /b/astards. Needless to say I had no time for their means, or their methods. I summarily dismissed the contacts, with a stern warning. MarcusCicero (talk) 22:05, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * My eyes! It's like early MySpace but with more dicks on show. Concernedresident  omg!!! ponies!!! 23:04, 24 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I think you need to be 22, overweight, stuck in your mother's basement, wearing a KFC stained Hello Kitty t-shirt and basically have no appreciable prospects of genuine social contact to truly appreciate /b/ - so it seems strange that regular RW users don't! [[image:Banana.gif]] 00:33, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * That's because I just turned 25. 22 was, like, so 3 years ago. 03:16, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Meh. I spend most of my time on /wg/ and /tg/, but I make an occasional forray to /b/. I like 7chan's /b/ better. 4chan's /b/ is mostly cancer nowadays, 2 hours just clicking random article on ED has made me pretty unflappable. Most of the guys I  know who spend time on /b/ are 20, underweight, and wear nothing but Puma apparel. Have to check these elsewhere obviously, with LSU's surveillance and my Mom's constant router log checking.Tyrannis (talk) 00:25, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

the machines
there are machines after me created super by you evil agenda. TRENT has plan to destroy universe using satan device and i will stop him without knowing it according to decive prophcy MACHINE [your main evil weapon is a BRAIN COMPUTER CHIP device that YOU can USE to delete thoughts from my brain!! Its obvously more complex then that but thats the whole simple thing, you want to kill me? then slow tortue by deleting my every last thought!] the music i have on RIGHT NAO is really soundwaves programming with power to slowly transform me into walking slave. OF YOUR DEMANDS after period of insanity programmed on purpose in order to discredict the truth about god.

thats what you want eh? FINE! i won't stand for it anymore! I will not allow you to program my brain device!



aww, look at that! :')


 * Is that what passes for Cube Truth these days? Sad. Sad indeed. DickTurpis (talk) 00:07, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I want not approve on it. I think nonsensical post. 11:49, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

Why Karma is bullshit
Today my other half was complaining about getting gyped. She asked me, more herself, what had she done to give her such bad karma. She was speaking rhetorically and not actually expressing value in the mystical idea of a grand settler of scores but it got me thinking...The person that gyped her may not have been repaying bad karma back to her but perhaps was setting himself up to receive bad karma himself in the future by ripping of a good person. And perhaps, by doing something bad to someone else, you are not securing bad karma yourself but merely acting as a personification, a delivery agent, for someone elses bad karma. You are the personification for someone elses bad karma therefore are not actually commiting a bad karmic act yourself. Hence, it's logically bullshit. AceX-102 08:59, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * You could say the same about the Old Testament when God punishes the Israelites by having the Assyrians come in and conquer them, then they sin and get conquered by someone else, and so on. Makes no sense from an objective point of view - it's just an attempt by individuals to rationalise what happens to them without considering anyone else.-- 09:06, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Thinking too hard about the logic of karma is why I gave up being a Buddhist. Totnesmartin (talk) 10:25, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I think it's been proved that we make our own "luck". Those who are naturally more optimistic tend to shrug off the bad things while the perpetual pessimist dwells on the shit that the world throws at them. Shit happens, so you have to deal with it. As they say, "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade". 11:32, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * And when life gives you demons, make Flavor-Aid? 20:05, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Most people who bitch about life don't even know what sort of a bitch life can really be. Bad karma because someone has been horrible at work or their lap-top crashed? Tell that to the poor suckers with dystentery, malaria, leishmaniasis, tape worms, cholera, beri-beri, loa loa filariasis, Cushing's syndrome, premature senility etc. Not to mention the poor fuckers who have lost mutiple limbs through land-mines or attrocities in civil wars. 20:28, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

Not always right
One of Andy's students calls to cancel  11:14, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Crundy. 11:33, 25 August 2010 (UTC) TerrySmall.png [[Image:Toast s.png|alt=Toast|text-bottom|20px|link=User talk:SusanG]]
 * Oh dear, another timewasting site. I looked at the most popular and near the top I see:


 * Me: “Hi, is your daughter interested in [college]?”
 * Alum: “I’m an alum. Class of ‘83.”
 * Me: “Fantastic! I’m Class of ‘04. Can I answer any questions for you?”
 * Alum: “I won’t be letting my daughter look here. I have some issues with how [college] is being run. God is not happy with you, and neither am I.”
 * Me: “I’m sorry to hear that, ma’am. If you’d like, I’d be happy to take your comment back to the Vice President of-”
 * Alum: “Are you aware that you let in students with liberal views and speakers with socialist leanings?”
 * Me: “Ma’am, we have a great deal of speakers on campus with a variety of view points.”
 * Alum: “The school has gone downhill since we let in those people! So I’ve stopped giving money. You can take that back to them. You’ll no longer see my $25 a year.”
 * Me: “Ma’am, as an alum myself, I’m proud to have graduated from a school that encourages both freedom of thought and speech in our students and speakers.”
 * Alum: “You don’t need freedom of speech if you let Jesus think for you.”


 * 11:47, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Yup I saw that too: DIDN'T YOU CLICK MY LINK GENGHIS???!!! 12:31, 25 August 2010 (UTC) TerrySmall.png [[Image:Toast s.png|alt=Toast|text-bottom|20px|link=User talk:SusanG]]
 * No! I'm having serial senior moments. 12:54, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Well, that's my afternoon gone up in a cloud of internet... 14:15, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * WHAT THE FARK? 14:18, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

What an idiot.
Bill Orielly is such an ass! 94.246.126.226 (talk) 20:18, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Being a spoilsport, I can't refrain from pointing out that this is a rickroll.--ZooGuard (talk) 20:41, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * A rickroll that you fell for. 94.246.126.226 (talk) 20:44, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * But nobody else from now on. Honestly, when people can't spell the guy's name correctly then it puts me off even thinking about clicking on the link. Enjoy your small-minded pleasure while you can BoN, because one day you'll grow up. 20:50, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Rickroll, really? That was old and unfunny two years ago, try to at least keep up to date with your internet "jokes". 01:04, 26 August 2010 (UTC)
 * People still rickroll? AceX-102 01:25, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

ShockofGod and the Magic Sandwich
DonExodus2 (one of the "good guys") shows the utter fail of Shocks proof and evidence "question"...Hi-larious! AceX-102 04:42, 26 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Oh yeah, the video description linked to Shocks fail and how DonExodus was on skype with DPRJones and was being bothered by TruthfulChristian. So DonExodus took TC's call to ask him for "Proof and Evidence for his disbelief in magic Sandwich". Very funny. AceX-102 04:48, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

Chillis
Got my first consignment of chillis from Peppers by Post today. Dorset Nagas and some very mild habaneros called "Apricot". Now to think of something to cook the nagas in that won't burn my face off. 11:43, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Ha, you buy chilis? At Khantacres we grow our own. 11:49, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I grow my own scotch bonnets and mild habaneros, but nagas are notoriously hard to grow properly. 12:02, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * That's more like it. 12:05, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Ha ha! And I live in Africa, where we have Nali hot sauce - guaranteed to make your eyes bleed. -- PsyGremlin  12:12, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I bought some Dragon's Blood pepper sauce at the good food show a couple of years ago. We tried a sample at the stand (dipped a small bit of water biscuit into a tiny tiny dab of it) and we had to go and get an ice cream from a stall nearby. Didn't stop burning for an hour. 12:43, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I've always understood that bread is one of the best things for alleviating chilli mouth rather than cold things. It's not physical heat you're trying to get rid of. 16:46, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Anything fatty / oily works best, as capsaicin is oil soluble. Full fat milk and yoghurt are the best. 19:45, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * So full fat ice-cream would be OK. Stay away from the skimmed or light stuff. 19:58, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm all about Yucateco right now, especially this stuff. The Caribbean Habanero is so good I can't hang onto a bottle for more than a week. Occasionaluse (talk) 12:59, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I've been a fan of El Yucateco for years. That or Cholula, which has nationally popular since they started bringing it across the border at Laredo in panel trucks in the late 80's, get used in my cooking nearly everyday. Hey Psy, that Nali video made my day! [[file:Nuttysexpistols.png|60px|link=User:Nutty Roux|Nutty Roux]][[file:Nuttytalk.png|35px|link=User_talk:Nutty_Roux|never mind]] 14:24, 25 August 2010 (UTC)


 * I've got some stuff from New Orleans which is rated at >1,000,000 Scoville units. The instructions were to apply with a toothpick. 18:54, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Cholula was my favorite for years. Good stuff. Occasionaluse (talk) 20:35, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

Recipe space
What happened to it? 13:55, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Yeah... it's gone. Including my potentially lethal sous vide exploits. 13:58, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Oh noes! My soopha wasabi icecream recipe... gone! And just as I was writing a recipe for chicken walkie-talkies, just for Totnes... I smell a conspiracy here... -- PsyGremlin  14:15, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * @Armond: How do you keep your sous vide waterbath at the right temperature (or did you buy an actual proper sous vide waterbath with a thermostat)?
 * The HUMANITY. And she's a chemist, so can presumably get at fancy water baths to abuse. Anyway, first RWWW, now this? A CONSPIRACY IS AFOOT. 14:44, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * RWWW is still there. In the fun space as always. And I don't really do it properly, hence the "potentially lethal" comment above. 14:45, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Strange indeed. 20:41, 25 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Trent must've disabled the recipe namespace, and now these pages are trapped in the Phantom Zone. -- Nx  / talk 06:04, 26 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Booo!!!!!1 I loved the Recipe space! It was one of the most unique parts of the site. 06:13, 26 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I miss my trilobites in aspic!!! 06:16, 26 August 2010 (UTC)
 * It appears to be back... spooky. 00:20, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

WTF?
happened? 17:28, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

. tmtoulouse 17:30, 26 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Nothing to do with me calling /b/ a load of old crap, then? Totnesmartin (talk) 17:46, 26 August 2010 (UTC)
 * No, ISP issues. tmtoulouse 18:17, 26 August 2010 (UTC)
 * You never know... they're everywhere, they are legion, etc. etc. 23:59, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

What fucker said that?
Totnesmartin (talk) 19:00, 26 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I don't know, but I'm glad someone finally said it. Occasionaluse (talk) 19:10, 26 August 2010 (UTC)
 * HA! Quality. Wasn't me though, I don't watch the world. 20:16, 26 August 2010 (UTC)
 * [[File:Smiley-face-whistle-2.gif]]  20:38, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

Fish spa
WTF? Just spoke to my mum who had the above done today. Basically you go somewhere to soak your feet in warm water to soften your skin, then you dunk your feet in a fish tank in order to let loads of little fish chew off your hard skin. Nice. Worth an article? 19:15, 26 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Well, if the fish actually do as advertised then it isn't really woo, is it. Just something odd people do, so probably not on mission. Now if they claimed the fish were giving reiki massage or something... -- 19:25, 26 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I thought I remember seeing something about this having some legitimate uses for skin disorders...like the maggots and rotting flesh....data is needed. tmtoulouse 19:35, 26 August 2010 (UTC)


 * wp:Doctor fish - no science listed, though it does note the practice is banned in some places (rationale not given). Some advocates call it "fish spa therapy". I can't see any actual claims that it does more than make you feel better - David Gerard (talk) 20:02, 26 August 2010 (UTC)


 * I wasn't necessarily suggesting it was woo, but it is quite an odd (and interesting) alternative therapy which is surely worth an article? 20:15, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

Why is nobody saying anything about those poor fish? The fish are forced to clean dirty old human feet and are treated like slaves.
 * Indeed, and apparently to make them eat skin they have feed them sparsely and erratically, which can't be pleasant for them. 20:40, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

Bloody hell!
Just used this new interwebs thingy to look up a friend of mine from middle school, only to find out he's become one of them!! I'm not going to have any friends left at this rate. 22:13, 26 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I am surprised you have any friends at all. AceX-102 22:17, 26 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Well, I don't. They've all become irritating yoga-obsessed Chopra-worshipping assholes who love nothing more than to bore the bollocks off anyone in earshot about the mysteries of the universe and some shit using the word "spiritual" several times in every sentence. Instead I'm stuck listening to you cunts. 22:20, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

Hey, as an aside, why do yoga / Chopra fans have such a massive problem with website management? They all seem to use badly-made CMS systems with odd picture captions, missing text, and bad grammar / spelling. Just me who's noticed that? 22:22, 26 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I don't know why but as an aside to that my job forces me to maintain a badly made Drupal CMS. I hate it. AceX-102 22:26, 26 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Needs moar FUCKING PAPYRUS - David Gerard (talk) 22:27, 26 August 2010 (UTC)


 * extremely greatfull... yeah, in particular his grammar is. --79.50.93.196 (talk) 22:54, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

Course Project
At LSU, Software System's Development is a service learning course. So I have to choose one of the following organizations to help. Help Me RWians! for they all seem to be worthy causes. (Oh, personal note, I am now published. Yipee!)

1. BR Sickle-cell Anemia Foundation

2. LA Food and Drug unit.

3. Habitat for Humanity

4. Women's Community Rehabilitation Center

5. Key Foundation

6. Prevent Child Abuse LA

7. Wordplay Teen Writing project.

Help me RW, you are my only hope. Tyrannis (talk) 15:33, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * 7. 15:41, 25 August 2010 (UTC) TerrySmall.png [[Image:Toast s.png|alt=Toast|text-bottom|20px|link=User talk:SusanG]]
 * Yeah, I'd agree with Toast. But that's just because that's what I would choose. -- PsyGremlin  15:47, 25 August 2010 (UTC)


 * I'd pick Habitat for Humanity, but that's because two people I greatly admire (my Dad and Jimmy Carter) volunteer for them. MDB (talk) 16:12, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

Maybe it'll help if I tell you what they need.

1. New website & database

2. They desperately need a new DB, their old one has no delete function, won't allow dates after 2005, and calculates fees wrong.

3. They need also need a database, as they are still using paper records

4. They need a website, and a database.

5. They want a better website

6. Again, a better website

7. yet again, a better website.

Tyrannis (talk) 16:16, 25 August 2010 (UTC)


 * I would actually pick a small charity as you can probably work with them better and they would have probably less resources to finance it in the first place. An American colleague of mine used to work for Habitat during his vacations but with Jimmy Carter behind it it will attract more names and command more attention than some smaller outfit. If you do a good job with your design then it could make an enormous difference to a small outfit.  16:43, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Is that apostrophe correct? I can possibly see how it could be construed that the title is refering to the development of a single software system, and is thus possessive, but surely not.  17:05, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Sorry. Was a typo on the syllabus. Tyrannis (talk) 17:40, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Choose something with a database, and for a smaller organization. You'll learn more, and will make more of a difference. (My opinion only of course). — Pietrow   ☏  18:22, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Choosing one with a database will mean it will likely make very little sense and be unwieldy if the website (or anything else) needs to use it; one without will involve talking to everyone and going over records to figure out what needs to be recorded how, then actually implementing it in some way (depending on how much you're actually expected to do). Both are useful experiences in different ways, and both are quite frustrating...I recommend just picking based on which causes you find interesting. 20:50, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Everything is full but the Food and drug unit. Which is the smallest organisation on the list. Well, time to go learn SQL. Tyrannis (talk) 12:52, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

New Zealand FTW!
07:38, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Great stuff! I'm going to get me some of those t-shirts!  12:51, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

My poor eyes
Checking my inbox I find that I've been receiving emails from www.life-enthusiast.com, formatted as you see in the image. How can they expect anyone to read this? Investigating further at their woo mine website I discover Ausome water which, amongst other things, is apparently Vegan. 08:22, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Apparently, it happened in 1994. We are soooooooooooooooo over 1994.  Ignore it.  08:37, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

The Demon Haunted Comfort
Ray Comfort relives the Satanic Panic. Hilarity ensues.

My favourite comment:

While I was the speaker at a church youth camp, an eighteen-year-old named John stepped into my cabin late at night and told me he was having problems. Bow-chicka-wow-wow.

Classic. -- 09:29, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

What about these fucking idiots...
Burger King ad "offensive to vegetarians". Luckily reason won out. AceX-102 10:58, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Why do you people keep insulting me & my brothers # 57 and # 59? --Idiot number 58 (talk) 11:56, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Bloody hell, we're surrounded by veggies. 13:07, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

EDL v UAF
Oh dear. There are going to be EDL and UAF marches in Bradford of all places tomorrow. Best to stay the hell away for a few days. For those of you not in the know, the EDL are the group that the people who are too violent, racist and mental to join the BNP join. 12:30, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Should be a good game; both are very strong teams, although I think the EDL have the attacking edge, but UAF normally have some strong coppers on the bench to bring on if needs be. I think Bradford is the right place to stage the match, as it is a town with a good sporting heritage, both in football and rugby league.  (PS. UAF are a bunch of idiots too, and they really need to read up on the definition of fascism)  12:43, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Yeah, UAF are a bunch of morons as well. Hopefully they'll all end up wiping each other out. 12:49, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * We even have an article on the EDL :) 13:09, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I went to high school with someone who is now in the EDL. He was never a real dick to anyone when we were in school, and I was in the pub with him a few weeks ago and he's the same guy I remember him being. Surprising where some people wind up. 17:25, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Hopefully the place won't end up on fire again like last time. Can't they sit down, shut the fuck up and go get a curry? -- 17:43, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

Analyzing Glenn Beck through the Window
How much do you think a person can gather of Beck's mind while reading his "thriller"? To those have seen my thoughts on the first hundred-some pages on the subject, I believe Glenn is trying to distance himself from the teaparty and his former antics. Also, there is an invisible PR campaign to explain everything in America he does not like and that America should have two parties that have the exact same values. One character, a youtube celebrity, revolutionist conservative who sounds like the Beck of old, is said to have taken drugs in the past, is cold turkey now, and to have had two suicide attempts. One was serious, one was a cry for help. Beck has contemplated suicide before (after he had a hemorrhoid or something removed), yet has chased that away with his current rantings much like the same character, Danny Bailey. Any thoughts? I am saying, this book has convinced me Beck needs help more than ever.

P.S. How often does one truly recover from suicidal tendencies?--Thanatos (talk) 00:16, 28 August 2010 (UTC)
 * None. He didn't write it. Glen Beck is a media personality. That is all.--MasterOfYourDomain (talk) 01:26, 28 August 2010 (UTC)
 * suicidal tendencies were a great band... 01:29, 28 August 2010 (UTC)

Evolutionary odds
I have recently been suckered into board games, and particularly, Yahtzee. Now, anyone unfamiliar with the game can just shove it into Google, but generally, you have to roll 5 dice and add up the scores and get different points for different combinations that are not totally unlike Poker hands. Anyway, the highest scoring combination is all dice being the same. The odds of rolling 5 dice and them all coming up the same are about 1 in 1296, so that's all 1s or all 3s in just a single roll - almost impossible in a game that consists of a few dozen rolls at most! However, in the game - and this is where the analogy to natural selection begins - you get three rolls and choose to keep the dice you want. Again, as natural selection weeds out unwanted or unsuitable genetic combinations, the player weeds out unwanted dice, selecting for that high scoring combination. This process then remarkably drops the odds of you rolling 5 of the same in your turn from 1 in 1296 in one roll (or 1 in 432 for three rolls) to a mere 1 in 22 for three. And of course, if you added more rolls, and more chances for selection, this would drop further. Add as many rolls as you like it wouldn't just become probable but ultimately inevitable that you'd get the combination you want, and far quicker than without the selection procedure! I just thought it was an interesting analogy to natural selection should anyone encounter a creationist playing the "incredible odds" gambit. The fact you only need three goes, or "generations" to improve your odds so dramatically I thought was quite startling and suddenly all this "it's one in billions of billions" looks like quite poor reasoning. 00:16, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * That could be a very useful analogy to help the uninitiated understand evolution. I would be careful, though, because Yahtzee is player-driven, so it might be a bit confusing. 01:52, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * "Intelligently designed" even. And for those odds, are you considering that 1's, 2's, 3's..  are acceptable?  is 1 in 1296 for only 1's (say) or is it for 5 of any number?   02:01, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Cripes, you roll a pair or better, and reload the rest. No pair, keep the highest and roll the rest. It's not "intelligent", it's simple logic.  09:42, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Try the maths. To get 5 of a specified number it's 6x6x6x6x6 which is ca. 1 in 7776. If you choose any number, there are 6 combinations, each at odds of 1 in 7776, so your odds of any non-specified group of 5 are 6 in 7776, which cancels to the 1 in 1296 figure. The trouble with it being "intelligently" driven is really not an issue, there's no intelligence involved as you can run it, as Human describes, with a simple algorithm that requires no thinking, just a series of conditions to follow. In ID, you have a specified design that you want to make, so the ID analogy would be taking each die individually and rotating them to the number you want, rather than just repeating an series of logic driven moves.  14:27, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Hence, ID = "cheating". Nice one! 01:39, 28 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Hmmm... true. I suppose the analogy is still good because all divine intervention would be "cheating", i.e., breaking the rules/laws of the universe/physics. But ultimately, it's still detectable, isn't it? You can still detect a change from five dice that read 4, 4, 4, 4, 6 to 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 even if you didn't see the last one roll or move. ID proponents see the change, but attribute it to God fiddling with the last die, rather than nature rolling it and just coming up trumps. And in principle, we know when the dice have been rolled, rather than just "magically" twisted about, so we can detect the difference between the intelligently designed Yahtzee and the naturally selected Yahtzee. 10:55, 28 August 2010 (UTC)

So, this is a saloon, right?
Is it okay if I come in here and bitch to all and sundry about my relationship problems? MDB (talk) 11:31, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Well I can't speak for all, but as a sundry I don't mind if you do, I however can't promise to reply. 11:34, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * It's happened before. 11:41, 27 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Basically, it boils down to my partner wants commitment, but I want certain issues to be worked out before I'm willing to make a commitment. And at least part of things I want are things I've brought up plenty of times, and he's never really done anything to provide what I want (and has gotten worse in at least one regard.) I'm essentially trying to decide whether it's worth continuing or not. And it sucks, big time, because we've been together for ten going on eleven years now. I kind of feel like an ass for even thinking of it, because his Mom died three months ago, and I don't want to add more emotional baggage to him right now, because I do really care about him.


 * Feh, sorry if this is all maudlin or whatever. I just needed to vent a little in a place that's anonymous but still friendly, y'know? MDB (talk) 11:43, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Hmmm, sounds really heavy. I can't see how you can truly commit to a relationship you aren't getting everything you want out of it. I suspect his interest in committing now is connected to his mother dying (wanting more stability in his life etc.) 11:50, 27 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Interesting point. I hadn't thought of that. He's only got two family members left, really, and one is his ninety three year old grandmother, and the other is his brother, to whom he's not close at all (they had been estranged for years until their mother passed, and they've only barely re-established contact.) I'm close to the only "family" he has left. MDB (talk) 12:13, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Can't you just say "I can't commit unless you sort out x, y, and z"? 12:50, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Many of the issues are ones I've brought up before. I'm also a wuss when it comes to confrontation. MDB (talk) 13:06, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * If you can't face up to things now before you commit then it will be worse aftwards. In my experience people are much more easy going when they are in the pre-commitment phase and will overlook minor shortcomings; after they have commited they become more demanding about having their expectations met. Hell, they've committed so why won't the other person fulfill their part of the bargain? You need to have things straightened before you enter any legal partneship, and don't sign up to anything you might regret if it all falls apart. 13:22, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Neither of us lives in a state where a legal partnership is possible -- hell, he's in Virginia which has one of the strictest "no gay marriage" laws in the country. I think he just wants something like "settling down together", but part of the difficulty with that is one or both of us would have to change jobs. MDB (talk) 13:31, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * You didn't specify what committing entailed but I assumed that it had to be someone making a sacrifice somewhere. I've no idea of your arrangements but property ownership/accommodation could be a major heartbreak if things go sour. 14:40, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

That may be part of the problem. I don't think either of us is sure what he wants. I've asked him before "what is it I'm not providing you" and he can't answer. (And for what it's worth, we came very close to splitting up about a year ago. He admitted, and I did not disagree, that most of the problems were his fault.) MDB (talk) 14:46, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Have you considered that - at least in the last few years anyway - concerns about his mother and the attention she may have needed (was it a long illness?) have probably taken his eye very much off the ball of your relationship, unintentionally?  He simply may not have been able to do anything about the issues in the past few years as he's been worrying about his Mum?   Just sayin'.    DogP Marmite Patrol 15:42, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * A lot of the problems were there before his mother was diagnosed with cancer (she lived about eighteen months afterwards.) One of the reasons I didn't break up with him last year is that I wanted to wait until the stress of his mother's illness and some other things that were troubling him were over with. MDB (talk) 16:03, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Ummm ... Having read this thread I'm sort of wondering ... well ... why you are even thinking about more commitment. It would mean a big risk for one you moving to another area. You seem to have a number of unresolved issues which don't sound like they will be resolved by more commitment - indeed they could get worse. Your partner is going through a tough time but that is not the best time (for either of you) to make long-term decisions. You recently only decided to stay with him becasue of the problems he was having. I don't think this is a difficult call to make.--BobSpring is sprung! 20:15, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * It's not that I'm thinking about more commitment; it's that I'm trying to decide whether it's worth trying to keep working at getting to the point making this more "official" is worth it. MDB (talk) 00:28, 28 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Dude, not to be flippant, but being "together" for over ten years sounds to me a lot like "commitment". Although I guess I see what you actually mean when you brought up one of you moving.  01:06, 28 August 2010 (UTC)
 * No. It's not worth it. It'll be difficult and you both won't really get full satisfaction out of a "committed relationship" because those sorts of relationships are born not made and you'll end up fighting all the time and though the make-up sex will be great you'll still never know "what might have been" had you opted out and went looking for your heart's desire.
 * "Worth it"? Jebus B Christus: Love is NEVER EVER "worth it".
 * But it's the best you get.
 * 01:47, 28 August 2010 (UTC) C ® ackeЯ
 * A couple I knew had lived together since they were students, they had two kids together but the man's parents were never really happy with the situation. Eventually, after fourteen years together they decided to "make it official". Needless to say the parents were overjoyed - "you're one of the family now". Two years later they were divorced and split up completely. 11:07, 28 August 2010 (UTC)

Saturday
is Read Comics in Public Day. So you know what to do, right? -- PsyGremlin  15:07, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm not a nerd. --Idiot number 59 (talk) 15:09, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Actually I'm a Christian. --Idiot number 59 (talk) 15:09, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Aren't Christians the rational & social equivalent of D&D nerds who believe that their source books are real? That sounds pretty nerdy to me. Sen (talk) 18:03, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I suggest that you read a Chick tract in public then. 19:28, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * What do you mean my Player's Handbook isn't real? MDB (talk) 19:29, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Yeah, it's totally unrealistic. No way does a golden dragon have +6 to resist fire. -- 20:21, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Serves you right for memorising just fireballs and scorching rays. Sen (talk) 17:49, 28 August 2010 (UTC)

Homosexuality and stuff
A few months ago my best friend went through something of a breakdown when he suddenly came out of the closet to me. While I don't care about his sexuality, it was a massive surprise to me, as I've known him for well over ten years, growing up together, and such. He's relatively comfortable with who he is now which is good, but he's still uncomfortable when I get drunk and blurt it out to our other friends who don't yet know, even though he posts a lot of incredibly gay things on his Facebook page (i.e. "I'm gay."). Anyhoo, we were out drinking last night with old school friends, about half of whom knew about him being gay, and I told one or two of them who asked me, and blurted it out drunkenly to one or two others. On the walk home my friend told me he's always fancied me somewhat and hoped that we could still be friends. I'm not gay, so I told him that as long as he didn't actually try and fuck me, everything would be fine. I'm interested to see what happens with his love life in the future, and I'm fairly uncomfortable that my best friend fancies me, although I'm fairly sure it's just a small crush. Anyone here been through anything similar? 10:43, 28 August 2010 (UTC)
 * But due to high levels of frape, saying "I'm gay" on Facebook is a completely useless way of coming out of the closet. 11:23, 28 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I have wanted to "be friends" with you for quite some time now, yes. 13:18, 28 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I've always known, Human. Rest assured, if I were gay and attracted to men old enough to be my father with beard's to rival Albus Dumbledore's, you'd be the first one I'd go to. 13:24, 28 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Just for you two dreamboats. -- PsyGremlin  14:09, 28 August 2010 (UTC)
 * So long as you don't catch teh ghey you should be fine. MarcusCicero (talk) 10:45, 28 August 2010 (UTC)
 * No, I know a few people are are in and out at the same time (Schroedinger's Closet?) so the whether to out them in front of certain groups is tricky, but have never been in that situation exactly. One of these semi-open bi girls I know is a bit in love with a straight (I'm wondering if "only bi at parties" counts as a sexuality?) girl so could be a similar situation. Although I'm not completely in the loop with that situation, I'm aware that it's quite awkward at times. It depends on how big the "crush" actually is, I suppose. If it's big, it could be crippling, and it's a double-whammy with the gay/straight divide because not only is the attraction not reciprocated, but it never can be because it crosses a sexuality boundary that can't be forced. 10:50, 28 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Especially for you, Josh. And on a serious note, I have gay and bi friends, but it's a live and let live thing. They know I'm straight and they're cool with the fact that even if I was their type (short, podgy and hairy tend to be gay turn offs I hear :) ) I'm not taking one for the team. -- PsyGremlin  11:00, 28 August 2010 (UTC)
 * FFS man, why do you feel the need to tell everybody else about someone else's sexual identity when you're drunk? Are you sure that you're really comfortable with them being gay? He obviously told you because he thought that he could trust you, no wonder he's "uncomfortable". 11:14, 28 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Josh, there is only way of resolving this. You're going to have to take one for the team. MarcusCicero (talk) 11:34, 28 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Yeah, that would do it. 11:36, 28 August 2010 (UTC)

When I first came out years ago, I was telling everyone who would listen. That said, considering the homophobic environment that I was living and working in, I knew better than to bring up my orientation in certain places and to certain people. It was certainly not appreciated when I was in a pub, my friend's local populated with his head case scaffolder chums, when my friend outed me to his leary scaffolder mates. Their first response was 'So you are a faggot then'. I left shortly after. It is not so much about being comfortable or uncomfortable with being gay, it is more of the fact that I don't wish to meet with a violent death that I was not happy with my friend outting me. As for straight folk with gay friends fancying them - take it as a compliment and don't let them get you pissed.--AMassiveGay (talk) 11:52, 28 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I hardly stood up in the pub and shouted it to everyone. One or two people had noticed he'd changed and asked me, and I said yes. I mentioned it to about one person after that. This was a combination of me being a dick and being helpful, being a dick because it pisses me off when people use Facebook to write things like that and say, "oh, no one looks at it anyway," when it's obviously just a ploy to get attention, and helpful because bandying it about like I do is a much more straightforward, no-bullshit way to go about it. My friend didn't really care that much anyway, he just said don't do it again, even though all I was doing was trying to bridge the gap between Facebook and reality. Or something like that. I don't know, I was drunk.
 * Also, I'm not a team player. 13:08, 28 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Careful now, if you don't let your friend fuck you up the arse you could end up being accused of being a homophobic bigot and discriminating against homosexuals. That's progress.  19:02, 29 August 2010 (UTC)

The Bristol Stool Scale
and other interesting things. Just in time for supper too. -- PsyGremlin  17:06, 29 August 2010 (UTC)
 * See my junk drawer. 18:16, 29 August 2010 (UTC)

Fucking science woo AAAAAAAAA
I should know better. I'm arguing in comments with a singularitarian who thinks Ray Kurzweil's blatant nutritional woo-pushing is not an embarrassment, enthusiastically lists testimonials, and then starts listing the best places to get your resveratrol. THESE ARE PEOPLE WHO TALK ABOUT SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. Like wrestling a pig to teach it to sing. Or something - David Gerard (talk) 17:44, 29 August 2010 (UTC)
 * You should know better indeed. Ironically, the first thing I could think of was this. Ah well. 17:56, 29 August 2010 (UTC)
 * And now he says "Of course testimonials count if they're really good testimonials. Besides, Bush stopped stem cell research, therefore FDA approval is too slow." This is in answer to me asking if he actually understands why testimonials are not science yet and it takes proper trials. I cannot think of any answer to this that isn't incoherent rage. At least others aren't joining in and agreeing with him - David Gerard (talk) 19:40, 29 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Ask him if he knows about Bayes's theorem. 19:46, 29 August 2010 (UTC)
 * (splutter) No, I'll leave that one for you. (Bayes appears to be a LessWrong thing; Kurzweilians seem not to be that into it.) There is now one followup talking about what an inspiring public speaker Ray is, so never mind little imperfections like being a blatant alt-med woomeister. And one from someone who I honestly thought was writing word-salad parody, but then I looked at his site. Just imagine: in a million years, all that's left of humanity being computer copies of these people - David Gerard (talk) 22:18, 29 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I honestly have no idea what he is talking about on there. Did you understand any of it? 00:51, 30 August 2010 (UTC)

I have a brilliant idea for a book
It will be called "The last Christian". It is about a man who is the last Christian in the world, the direct descendant of the last Pope (Pope didn't have sex, but in a mysterious way his sperm contacted with an egg cell). The last Pope was murdered about 100 years ago by Susan Garlic, the founder of a movement that was meant to eliminate all forms Christianity. They succeeded in doing that, but one Christian survived the massacre. The book is all about how Susan Garlic's direct descendant Susan Gutter is haunting the last Christian. She manages to track him down and she takes her knife and is about to stab the last Christian, but then clouds fall apart and God shouts in anger: "I actually exist, but I take only this one fine man to my place in heaven. I give others a chance to change themselves, but you, Susan, will go directly to the hands of Satan," and Susan falls down, dead.

Do you think I will see my book in the list of bestsellers? --Idiot number 58 (talk) 06:34, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Sounds good to me. 08:00, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * No. --GTac (talk) 12:43, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I've already written the first 3 pages. --Idiot number 59 (talk) 15:03, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Sounds great! I can proofread/copyedit for you if you wish.  18:52, 29 August 2010 (UTC)


 * The book title already exists.  14:43, 30 August 2010 (UTC)

Primary
Due to my extreme laziness, I am still registered republican. I ask the mob a question, which primary canidate shpuld I vote for? Vitter, The Ultraconservative Taylor, or the other guy who no one seems to know anything about. Voter turnout is only going to be ~13%. Tyrannis (talk) 13:05, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I'd be tempted to voted for the extreme right-winger; on the hope that most people in the centre wouldn't then vote for such a wingnut. 15:56, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * (cough)Reagan!(cough) Totnesmartin (talk) 16:44, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * As the old saying goes, "be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it." MDB (talk) 17:22, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Vote for the guy you actually like, none if you don't like anyone, or against the guy you most dislike. Simples. Sen (talk) 17:48, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Well, if you have a vote and voter turnout is expected to be low, that makes your vote more powerful than usual. So I suggest that, whatever you do, you don't waste it. Bearing in mind, of course, that I consider spoiling ballot papers by drawing cocks on them emphatically not wasting the vote. If only RON was an option... 19:04, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * In BR, we use voting machines instead of ballots. Vitter is well known. Taylor is an ultraconservsative judge. Dr. Accardo's(MD) entire platform seemingly to "reduce federal spending", "act like a grown up", and increase the tax on the oil companies. SRSLY, that's it. He doesn't even have a website, or campaign literature. Tyrannis (talk) 21:42, 27 August 2010 (UTC)
 * BR? Oh, I get it, never mind, Baton Rouge?  01:36, 28 August 2010 (UTC)
 * That's it? ...democracy just doesn't work. 10:24, 30 August 2010 (UTC)

If arsebook was around (many) years ago
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=60283&id=1665303095

Some is the funny. I object to not being able to spell "Titanic", though. Could not find the "edit" button to fix... 07:36, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I lol'ed. 07:51, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * How did we survive websites before the invention of the edit button?? 10:21, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Good stuff, typos aside. I particularly like the church's comment to Galileo "YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH. YOU SHUT IT RIGHT NOW."  12:36, 30 August 2010 (UTC)

All I see is a login page. Haha. --79.44.99.34 (talk) 16:18, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Login page in "not that amusing" internet scandal.  DogP Marmite Patrol 22:19, 30 August 2010 (UTC)

R.I.P. Satoshi Kon
They always say the good die young and he's died far too young. I'm sure there was still a lot he had to offer. -- PsyGremlin  11:49, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * who dat? &#42;too lazy to click on link while in class&#42; 14:36, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I guess it's an "either you know him or you don't" thing - director of Millenium Actress, Perfect Blue, Paprika, Tokyo Godfathers, etc, etc. -- PsyGremlin  14:57, 30 August 2010 (UTC)

There is a hell...
... and it's teaching my 70+ old man how to use his new cell phone. -- PsyGremlin  14:57, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Am I older than he? Cos I... I can use my cell phone. --Idiot number 59 (talk) 14:58, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I couldn't agree more. My mother just bought herself a fancy touch-screen phone, yet she didn't even know how to use her old cell phone. 15:11, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I feel your pain. I remember when BT finally phased out pulse dialling altogether and my grandparents had to get a push button phone. Drama. -- 21:15, 30 August 2010 (UTC)

You betcha!
I tried to watch Sarah Palin's speech from Glenn Beck's I have a nightmare rally. I think I managed 3 minutes before the pain got too much, and I think some of that was the martial music and her walking to the podium. Please, please let her run for president in 2012. The epic, epic failure will live forever. Unless, you know, she actually wins in which case I demand a time machine and a sniper rifle. -- 22:26, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Viewing this from safe old NZ as much as I don't want to win, if she did win I'd wouldn't mind so much so I could watch it all go downhill and say "We told you so". AceX-102 22:30, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I want her to run just so I can get a good idea of just how much of the population is genuinely totally out-of-it. ~Super Hamster  Talk 22:51, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I don't want her to run because I don't want to know how much of the population is genuinely out-of-it. 23:07, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * "I have a nightmare" LOL, surprised I hadn't heard that earlier. 00:39, 31 August 2010 (UTC)


 * At least 27%. - David Gerard (talk) 10:36, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

Another Country Heard From
about attacks on religion. Wanker!22:55, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * What a fucking knob. Surely talking about Jesus and Mohammed as if they were both prophets is a de facto contradiction - bible-bashers and koran-bashers can't both be right, Tone!

And I am continually staggered by the arrogance of people who oppose secularism (the "aggressive attack from secularism" as Blair puts it), secularism isn't anti-religion, it simply means that no-one's religion has any say in public or political matters. For fuck's sake the original secularists were religionists themselves! 10:26, 31 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I did respect him a little for keeping quiet on the subject while in power, but now he's just taking the piss most of the time. No, Tony, we don't "think you're a nutter" if you discuss religion in parliament, we just realise it's damn well out of place. 19:52, 31 August 2010 (UTC)
 * He's on t'telly tomorrow night BBC2 @ 7 20:04, 31 August 2010 (UTC) TerrySmall.png [[Image:Toast s.png|alt=Toast|text-bottom|20px|link=User talk:SusanG]]
 * Thanks for the warning. I could have flicked in accidentally while channel-hopping and thrown up my dinner. Qwertyuiop (talk) 17:25, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

I loved "atheists who scorn God". If we said "Now that God guy is a real prick" that would be scorn. But simply not finding any evidence for existence? Qwertyuiop (talk) 17:21, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * John Crace at the Grauniad likes his book (NOT) anyhoo. 18:47, 1 September 2010 (UTC) TerrySmall.png [[Image:Toast s.png|alt=Toast|text-bottom|20px|link=User talk:SusanG]]
 * I have had the Andrew Marr interview recommended to me, but I couldn't tell if it was a sincere recommendation or not; I don't really think anyone can use the phrase "Tony Blair is ace" and mean it with a straight face. But still, it might be worth it if it shows the beginning of his descent into Kool Aid drinking madness. 23:58, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

How can this be?
We don't have an article on the Landover Baptist Church? I realize they're a parody so they're not as on-mission as they'd be if they weren't, but it still seems like something we should cover. A Facebook friend pasted something about them, believing they were real, and I was thinking "Here's a good chance to set him straight and plug RW at the same time. I'll give him a link to our article." Had to link to boring old WP instead (though I could have sent him to CP, I guess). DickTurpis (talk) 23:32, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Here's the Wikipedia article.206.130.173.55 (talk) 19:33, 31 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Almost content-free stub written, do please expand - David Gerard (talk) 10:43, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

I will just leave this here:
http://www.thebible-onlinegame.com/ &mdash; Unsigned, by: Sen / talk / contribs
 * Members so far: 2 admins, 2 mods. Busy, it ain't. 10:00, 31 August 2010 (UTC) TerrySmall.png [[Image:Toast s.png|alt=Toast|text-bottom|20px|link=User talk:SusanG]]
 * Well, I'm sure that someone's come up with a Biblical D&D setting, so it was only a matter of time until the game itself came out. -- 20:59, 31 August 2010 (UTC)
 * A guy from Texas I used to work with started this up. Oddly it didn't go anywhere. 21:03, 31 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Nice one. "The end is nigh, so please invest in this long-term project!" Röstigraben (talk) 11:53, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Biblical D&D setting. I have a copy. It's actually pretty well done. MDB (talk) 10:58, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

The Spirit Level
Has anybody here read The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger. It was recommended to me a week ago by a friend but last Friday I heard a discussion about it on Radio 4's More or Less with Tim Harford questioning some of the statistics. I also understand that the right-wing blogs in the USA have been heavily knocking it and see it has even spawned The Spirit Level Delusion: Fact-checking the Left's new theory of everything. 10:27, 31 August 2010 (UTC)

More Euro-commie trash. If the Good Lord mean' us ter be equal he'd a made us all 5 foot 10. Qwertyuiop (talk) 17:44, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

I actually reviewed it for Amazon. I liked it, and the book seemed generally pretty on-target, but their data presentation (at least in the preprint copy I had) was terrible -- at least a couple of the graphs were gibberish. However, I give them major credit for showing their work -- whatever you can say about their conclusions, they give you more than enough to follow their logic. EVDebs (talk) 22:37, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

Vanitas Vanitatis
(moved to Conservapedia Talk:What is going on at CP?) 06:06, 3 September 2010 (UTC)

Americans and Soccer
I can't find it the barchives, but Josh posted the Sun paper front page when they were making fun of the 'mercans attitude towards soccer. Then, while clicking random Mary Whitehouse Experience links I stumbled across this little lost gem which I'd forgotten about:

Enjoy. 20:53, 31 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Linky. Limeys and Yanks are never supposed to understand one another's sports. It's a science fact. 17:31, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Did you ever see the Budweiser adverts where they "Americanised" football by doing stuff like changing team names and having monster truck based half-time entertainment? 10:21, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Those Bud ads were pretty good actually, my favourite was "overtime multi-ball" (pronounced mull-tie of course). 10:29, 2 September 2010 (UTC)

Don't sit: squat!
21:41, 31 August 2010 (UTC)
 * The new building at my university was built with both traditional western toilets and squat pans. They have had trouble with the squat ones not flushing properly and being hard to clean, I don't think they have been in order for more than a day. 22:21, 31 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the tip, I'm squatting now, much better. (I can adjust keyboard/monitor height because they are on Ergotron arms.) We have also espionaged advanced Muslim dental technology. Allah trembles. ~ Lumenos (talk) 23:26, 31 August 2010 (UTC)
 * IIRC, Gillian McKeith advocates squatting. Specifically getting a stool to prop your legs up with, not a particularly comfortable maneuver, I imagine. 23:47, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * "Specifically getting a stool to prop your legs up with" - that could be somewhat confusing in this context, resulting in some strange and unhygienic situations. 08:37, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Well, the section heading for that piece of advice was "get a stool for your stool". I think it must just be a scatological fetish coming to the surface in a more controlled way. 10:53, 2 September 2010 (UTC)

Another timewaster
Here you go, lose your afternoon in a cloud of internets. 13:35, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I see you, and raise you a Postsecret. -- PsyGremlin  14:05, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I'll raise you a Grouphug.  <font color="#6CC417">DogP <font color="#993300">Marmite Patrol 10:41, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Fucking hell lads, those sites are gay as fuck. What a load of soppy self-pitying shite. Man up! 10:45, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * /sits on couch in underwear, scratching and grunting. (manly enough?) -- PsyGremlin  10:53, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I dunno, I thought this was comedy gold myself. <font color="#6CC417">DogP <font color="#993300">Marmite Patrol 10:56, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Psy - Good effort mate, crack open a tin of lager and stick SkySportsNews on and you're sorted. Dogster - that is a top notch confession!  10:59, 2 September 2010 (UTC)

It costs how much?
The passenger side headlight in my 2005 Prius needs to be replaced.

Cost? 315 USD. For a freakin' light bulb.

The service consultant at the dealership was almost apologetic. I suspect he gets a lot of "$315 for a light bulb?!?!" from Prius owners.

And then there's the $500+ to replace the headlight auto-leveling system I didn't even know I had until I got a warning message about it. I'm not even bothering to get that fixed.

I swear to the FSM, there's a transmitter at Toyota headquarters that sent out an "it's paid off, time for a malfunction" signal to my car about two weeks ago.

MDB (talk) 14:13, 1 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Let me explain why it cost so much: Prius. 14:20, 1 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Why can't I pay for it with sense of smug self-satisfaction I get from driving it? MDB (talk) 14:32, 1 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Official dealerships are extortionate for all manufacturers. My car (an Audi) needed replacement wiper blades (i.e. just the rubber bit), and as a company car needed doing at the official dealership. The damage for that: £140. I was glad that I wasn't the one paying for it. Bondurant (talk) 14:36, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Do NOT, under any circumstances, loose your car keys unless you have had a recent lottery win. Jack Hughes (talk) 14:48, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Get yersel a decent motor my son. 16:25, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Dealerships are the biggest rip off. I was quoted R3 000 for new brake pads - R1500 ea pads & labour. Went to spares shop and bought pads, had mechanic buddy fit them - total cost R400 & a case of beers. -- PsyGremlin  16:36, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * That comes back to my point about car keys - you have to get them from the dealership. Well, you do with Mercs anyway. Jack Hughes (talk) 16:40, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * 2001 Audi High Intensity Discharge bulb = $110. HID igniter = $487. [[file:Nuttysexpistols.png|60px|link=User:Nutty Roux|Nutty Roux]][[file:Nuttytalk.png|35px|link=User_talk:Nutty_Roux|never mind]] 17:16, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * For some reason I suspect that if someone buys a new car. And the breaks down said car and sell every bit of it as spare parts at those prices, in the end he is going to have enough money to buy two cars. Sen (talk) 18:22, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * 1978 Chebby truck: Brake master cylinder, $18. 1988 Audi: spare parts in boxes and on displaced spare car. Back to OP, that probably includes labor, and modern cars' headlights are notoriously hard to replace.  It's an HID like Nutty's, right?  00:03, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Or any Toyota Hilux, as they appear to be functionally immortal. 00:06, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Ah yes, the classic Top Gear segment where they tried, and failed, to destroy a Hilux. Bondurant (talk) 08:14, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * OK, that was pretty cool. I take back some of my criticisms above about Top Gear (the Ennio Morricone soundtrack was a nice touch too). Not quite sure if it compares to a small car I saw at a demolition derby last week. DickTurpis (talk) 11:35, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * There was a follow-up too, where they put the Hilux on top of a tower block that was then demolished. (Concluded here.) They gave up after that failed to kill it. Bondurant (talk) 12:22, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I now share your pain, MDB. Just had my 20 year old Volvo fail its MoT test (annual safety/roadworthiness inspection) due to two blown bulbs.  It's just cost me 98pence for new bulbs (admittedly not headlight ones) and took it took me three minutes to replace them.  Life's a bitch eh?  16:37, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Lol at DeltaStar. As far as the Hilux thing, yeah it was funny, but speaking as a "car guy" they didn't try very hard.  I coulda killed it in a half hour with one spanner.  02:45, 3 September 2010 (UTC)

Homeopathic webcomic
19:13, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

. -- 20:54, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * A clever homeopathic response. 23:40, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * if you find it funny does this mean that homeopathy works or is it the placebo effect? Sen (talk) 14:36, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Lol @ Sen. 02:39, 3 September 2010 (UTC)

SMBC
Ha! 00:10, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * A naked guy with a fig leaf, don't you know that due to prudent conservative principles Adam and Eve certainly never exposed their genitalia? 08:58, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Well actually they did. It's only after eating fruit from the forbidden tree that they realised their nakedness and crafted herbaceous underwear. 09:18, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * At least until god got mad and conjured up some rawhide lingerie for them, Raquel Welch style. -- 09:56, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Surely that's just liberal fiction inserted into the Bible? 10:17, 2 September 2010 (UTC)

Prophecy Fulfilled.
A little while ago, I said this. And lo and behold, it has come to pass. I know I said within a week, but I actually meant within a week of the founding of the modern state of Israel. Or something.

I love the continuing theme of "these things could be just 100 million years old, therefore the earth and everything on it was created 6000 years ago." They're such a bunch of dishonest arses. -- 09:48, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Heh, lunacy indeed. Far worse is such lunacy seems to be accepted by a sizeable proportion of the US population.  10:15, 2 September 2010 (UTC)

Your left pointer finger...
IS A GUN THAT JUST WENT OFF! How messed up are you? 16:01, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Quite a lot, I was scratching my ear. Totnesmartin (talk) 16:09, 2 September 2010 (UTC)

Explosion on production platform in Gulf of Mexico
Anyone got any more info? Most reports I've read are fucking useless. 19:39, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Maybe that's because nobody knows anything yet. All I know is, if this is just like the last one, there's going to be more then oil in the water. -- 19:44, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Why did Obama lie to us about rigs not causing problems??? Occasionaluse (talk) 19:58, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Because he's a socialist and a communist. -- 20:04, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * And a Muslim atheist. Ajkgordon (talk) 20:14, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Don't worry. The last one was a deepwater Semi-Submersible drilling rig (a MODU - Mobile Offshore Drilling Rig) - this is a production platform (I don't think its even got a rig on it).  All the wells will have downhole safety valves, so the wells will be shut-in as soon as owt goes wrong. (besides, a completed well can't blow out) It's still Obama's fault though, eh Rob?  20:37, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Actually...I agree with Rob in the sense that it is Obama's fault for not being tighter with regulations. But Rob et al. are being extremely hypocritical in that nearly all of the Republicans today are Big Oil lackeys. 21:57, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Finally I've found a decent source - the fucking blaze. According to their commenters, liberals blew up the platform (as they did to the Deepwater Horizon) in order to...erm...some evil liberal plan or other... Fuck me, some people are so dumb.

My theory – the Obama Admin doesn’t like offshore drilling. They couldn’t just shut existing rigs down. SO sabotage those existing rigs, make people fearful of off shore rigs and there you have it - no more American Oil.

Just what our country needs – more dependence on foreign oil and more incentive to “go green”. BS if you ask me. 21:58, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Wait, wait, let me try to parse that: Obama doesn't like drilling, therefore it is his fault that the rigs are breaking? Huh???? 22:02, 2 September 2010 (UTC)

"And, of course, the Squirrels"
Deadliest catch of the day. This rant would be like the funniest parody I've read in a while, except the guy who wrote it was involved in some late unpleasantness yesterday at the Discovery Channel building. It's no parody. "MAKE IT INTERESTING SO PEOPLE WATCH AND APPLY SOLUTIONS!!!!...All human procreation and farming must cease!...INVENT, DAMN YOU!!...The planet does not need humans." Why? It's for (of course) "the Squirrels". Couldn't he have just said think of the kittens or something? Secret Squirrel (talk) 01:23, 3 September 2010 (UTC)

Conditional donations
I'm considering offering donations for certain changes in the bylaws. To make any donation (to RationalWiki Foundation) the bylaws would have to be held by a government agency, and be legally enforceable. They must be public records which I could access. Is that possible? ~ Lumenos (your talk page) - ("my" talk page) 17:52, 20 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Unless we are talking the establishment of a very large endowment, I am not really interested in "conditional" donations. The idea behind donations is that you believe in the project, want to and can support it, and trust me and the other board members to manage it. So the quid pro quo thing is out the window. However, I can address your points regardless of monetary attachment to them. First, the New Mexico Secretary of State and the Public Regulation Commission are the governing body over incorporating in New Mexico. They specifically make a clause that states that they do not keep bylaws of corporations. However, once approve by the board the bylaws are legally binding, though changeable. A copy of the bylaws must be kept at our registered agent's office in New Mexico and available for review or copies by anyone. tmtoulouse 17:58, 20 July 2010 (UTC)
 * That will do.
 * I trust you wholeheartedly Trent...eeaaruum, although I must admit I sometimes wonder about your right-hand man. I'm hopefully kidding but (once you are gone) there doesn't seem to be any legal barrier to prevent three [two] Trustees from deciding to change the bylaws, to make themselves rulers for life. So the other two essential conditions for me would be that the voting procedures could only be changed by majority vote of the community (although the Trustees could have veto power) and the same thing with the RationalWiki Copyright, to ensure that the "right" to fork (as you call it), would not be quietly de-righted, as we sleep one night. ~ Lumenos (your talk page) - ("my" talk page) 19:05, 20 July 2010 (UTC)
 * The right to fork cannot be taken away. The licence for existing work cannot arbitrarily be changed.  The Angband delicensing efforts are a nice example of how complicated that is.  Concernedresident  omg!!! ponies!!! 19:38, 20 July 2010 (UTC)
 * I doubt anyone would try to make themselves "rulers for life". Not least because trying to find enough people among the type of person RW attacts to agree long enough to put together such a conspiracy and get elected as a Trustee is unlikely. If anything that stupid was tried, it's likely the community would vote with their feet, as most projects do when that sort of thing happens. Cf. the exodus from ScienceBlogs over giving Pepsi a blog. Still, these are hypothetical scenarios on par with aliens invading and proclaiming ownership of the site, what do you intend on amending the laws to to take that into account? 20:03, 20 July 2010 (UTC)
 * If editors have to vote with their feet, the bylaws have failed (democratically). I'm suggesting writing them so that editors can vote with their vote. ~ Lumenos (your talk page) - ("my" talk page) 20:34, 20 July 2010 (UTC)
 * An example of a change to the license would be, that it begin to specify how the work should be attributed (as is actually required by the Creative Commons license). Does the copied text have to be attributed to rationalwiki.org? Does every page that is copied have to be individually attributed to the page at rationalwiki.org? If the forked wiki is at a new domain, could they claim that they don't need to attribute anything to the rationalwiki.org because they have "moved" the wiki and the wiki at rationalwiki.org is no longer the "real" RationalWiki? ~ Lumenos (your talk page) - ("my" talk page) 20:34, 20 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Iteresting, but I agree with Arm. You're overthinking thus. If Trent goes insane then we just fork and make the attributions to the "official RW". based on how this works, and how I believe it will continue to work, what you describe is highly unlikely, and our bypass will become too complicTed if we try to cover every eventuality. Overly complex rules invite loopholes. Excuse my typing. iPhone browser is being odd, so I can't see what I write.  Concernedresident  omg!!! ponies!!! 20:41, 20 July 2010 (UTC)
 * there are copies of by-laws on the web. Its worth checking if you are required to include one to allow them to be changed. Getting that wrong could be a problem. How meetings are conducted should probably be specified in terms of what comprises a quorum and what vote wins, simple majority, unanimous etc. It may put trustee names into public record. Hamster (talk) 22:09, 20 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Copies of what bylaws? Include one what? Trent said they have to make the bylaws publicly available but I don't see how any of it can be enforced against the Trustees if they can change anything at anytime!
 * "A quorum shall consist of a least the majority of Trustees." "(1) Action required or permitted to be taken at a board of directors' meeting may be taken without a meeting if the action receives the affirmative vote of the majority of the board members." ~ Lumenos (your talk page) - ("my" talk page) 00:22, 21 July 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm not worried about Trent going crazy. We are talking about Trent handing over 'absolute control of this website, to the Trustees. They will never give it back. Everyone says, if they are bad, we will just leave. Sure you can leave, but why would you object to a proposal to allow you to vote instead of leave?!?!? You people confuse me. I don't really think the problem is that it is "complicated"... ~ Lumenos (your talk page) - ("my" talk page) 00:27, 21 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Gawd you are so confused. The first motion I will be introducing will be to add a section describing a recall/impeachment process.  00:55, 21 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Ooow that was something I was gonna stick money in your g-string for. But in the year 8323 the Board could just erase it for some good reason. Please unconfuse me further, if possible. ~ Lumenos (your talk page) - ("my" talk page) 01:14, 21 July 2010 (UTC)
 * The scenarios you are describing seem to situations were good will and amicable agreements are no longer possible and the environment on and off the wiki are so toxic that there is no possible reconcilable option. In which case we might as well pack it in because even if we can find away through the place will be dead any way. 12:22, 21 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Conservapedia isn't "dead" but it seems it fails democratically. ~ Lumenos 12:30, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

I'm considering offering donations for certain changes in the bylaws. I will double what ever Lumenos offers in exchange for a bylaw saying he may not participate in this process. 23:19, 20 July 2010 (UTC)
 * I'll give 50 dollars if Pi posts a recording of him singing You are my sunshine. I also support his motion. Concernedresident  omg!!! ponies!!! 00:17, 21 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Once heard, it can not be unheard. It would be like the audio equivalent of two girls, one cup. 00:24, 21 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Thirding Pi's motion. 00:55, 21 July 2010 (UTC)
 * After the two girls, one cup reference I'd rather that we didn't have any more motions. 09:53, 21 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Be careful what you wish for, you may get the opposite. Perhaps this is why the reference was made. You know I'm supposedly responsible for all this. ~ Lumenos 05:07, 27 July 2010 (UTC)

Now that this section has an amusing header, RW did once take a "slightly" conditional donation. It resulted in the creation of the most dead-in-the-water thing we ever built here. All details suppressed to protect the privacy of the donor and the clumsy acolytes who built it. No one came. 01:49, 21 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Do I remember that? 10:55, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

For RationalWikiWiki
Pardon me. I just need to put this here so that I will have a source for the article on me at RationalWikiWiki.

Lumenos contends that: Trustees would seem to have the power to name bureaucrats and settle their disputes. The bylaws seem to include nothing to prevent Trustees from making themselves absolute rulers of the domain names rationalwiki.org, rationalwiki.com, rationalwiki.net. They could take away the "right to fork" and if RationalWikian's move content they created to a new domain name (without consent of all who have edited their articles after the copyright changes have been made) the new host may be convinced to take down the wiki or the new wiki could be vulnerable to a lawsuit, AFAIK. ~ Lunemowse 21:43, 26 July 2010 (UTC)
 * The right to fork cannot be taken away. You cannot retroactively change the copyright of the material on this wiki to prevent reuse. That is guaranteed by the license. -- Nx  / talk 14:41, 27 July 2010 (UTC)
 * I didn't say retroactively.
 * To move an entire wiki, you would need to know how to backup the most recent version before the date of a copyright change, unless you happen to make a backup before many changes were made at the original wiki location.
 * BTW the main falsehood in the RWW article about me, is that they claim I am opposed to the formation of the RationalWiki Foundation. I think it should be a democratizing move, but remember that Hitler was elected and prior to that time Germany was at the height of Western culture, with functioning democratic systems (according to Chomsky). ~ Lumenos 21:48, 28 July 2010 (UTC)
 * That's interesting, apparently I'm too biased to write about what my opinion is. Theemperor refers to this as "whitewashing" but perhaps that is only because he is trying to defend the rule. (21:46, 26 July 2010 Theemperor (Talk | contribs) blocked Lumenos (Talk | contribs) with an expiry time of 1 hour (account creation disabled) ‎ (RationalWikian whitewashing own article: What bit about "Don't edit your article" is not clear?). ~ Lumenos 14:37, 27 July 2010 (UTC)

Hawking & g0d
"Instead M-theory predicts that a great many universes were created out of nothing. Their creation does not require the intervention of some supernatural being or god." 16:58, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * See also: this. 14:48, 3 September 2010 (UTC)

I would like some help Re: Glenn Beck
So, Glenn Beck is going to be spending September 11th in Alaska trying to tie Sarah Palin in to the popular 9/11 patriotism thing. One of my friends (not a Beck fan) has a chance to meet him, but only if he can win this contest. Decided in the most democratic and fair way known to man, an internet poll. this one does require registration a fake email address will do and probably make up a 907 number.

Thanks for letting me shill and abuse Rational wiki --Opcn (talk) 05:08, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I assume 'Greg' is your friend? 11:14, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
 * If Anonymous gets wind of this, which I'm sure they will, I can be pretty sure your friend has no chance (unless he somehow gets the backing of Anonymous) ONE / TALK 11:29, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Actually it is a team of three, and I went to highschool with one of them (Drew). I'm pretty sure he has a Guy Fawkes mask, and I've seen him rail on scientology, but that of course does not buy you an in with Anonymous. --Opcn (talk) 19:38, 3 September 2010 (UTC)

The Wingnuts Are Revolting.
My favourite lunatic conspiracy theorist of the week, Brannon Howse tells me that Glenn Beck's Mormonberg Rally was to "set the stage for Christians to accept paganism". Don't you just love wingnut on wingnut violence? -- 18:31, 3 September 2010 (UTC)

Pretty Picture
I think this is pretty. 20:45, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * As you presented it in the upload log as a bit o' braggin' I hope you won't feel too hurt if I offer a couple of suggestions. While it is quite a pretty scene the sky is a bit washed out, I'd have used a circular polariser or adjusted the levels. The house is a little too central and there's too much of the concrete garage on the right. Also there is something intruding in the bottom left - I tried cloning that out in PShop. 21:18, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I don't like 'shopping photos. Just a crop of 20 px on the left & a few more on the right would have done the trick. It was more the rarity of getting the ace reflection - not often is there no wind. The sky's almost dead right as it stands - accurate if not pretty. 21:29, 1 September 2010 (UTC) TerrySmall.png [[Image:Toast s.png|alt=Toast|text-bottom|20px|link=User talk:SusanG]]
 * Unfortunately cropping the left corner impinges on the lock above. I admit that it's always better to get it right in camera but I wasn't taking the pic. Because digital sensors have different characteristics they often reproduce the same scene differently so it is perfectly acceptable to adjust the lighting levels or compensate for a colour cast in an image editor. The camera does some of this for you before it saves the jpeg but if you shoot in RAW then you usually have to make adjustments after you download the images. If you were using film stock then the colour adjustment would be done at the enlargment stage (that's why I usually carry my old Kodak 18% grey card if I'm taking a specific scene). 21:49, 1 September 2010
 * I would have cropped it to only the reflection (or shot it that way). Free impressionism!  And, yeah, the blues seem washed out a bit, but maybe that's what they looked like.  23:57, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * You mean like this? 10:16, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I normally just do small changes like this to keep the photo as original as possible. 10:26, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * It is a pretty picture.-- 11:43, 2 September 2010 (UTC)

This is much bettah. <font color="#6CC417">DogP <font color="#993300">Marmite Patrol 14:31, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Bloody hell! Picky or what? Speaking as a completely amateur cameraman who points the camera and hopes a nice picture comes out the other end I think it's a great picture.--BobSpring is sprung! 16:48, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Huw, I'm assuming this pic was taken in the UK, where that is probably as blue as the sky gets. Occasionaluse (talk) 17:46, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * [[image:Soapbox.gif]]Yes, because the optical properties of a mixture of ~70% 80% N2, ~30% 20% O2 and trace gases change dramatically along artificial political borders.... [[image:Plotting.gif]] 18:41, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Well they must do Armond, because there sure ain't 30% O2 here in Blighty. It was 20.9% today (according to the gas analyser at the MoT test garage)  19:24, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Armond, that's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. Water/pollution in the air doesn't make the sky appear less blue? Occasionaluse (talk) 19:54, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * No, it's actually dilithium crystals in the air that reflect the light off the ocean. 23:39, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * STFU, n00b. Everyone knows that dilithium is a rare and valuable substance. If it was just floating around in the air, don't you think we'd be using it to regulate our warp drives? Occasionaluse (talk) 23:51, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Presumably the UK, being all located in the same place (this doesn't include commonwealth nations right?) would have somewhat more consistant climatological factors that would regulate the relative blueness of the sky. --Opcn (talk) 05:56, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
 * The Sky Blueness Regulatory Body was a quango set up under the previous administration as part of their march towards the nanny state. Anyone with any basic knowledge of Constable can tell that the sky was bluer back in the good old days when left to self regulate. As such the quango is due to be disbanded in the near future as a cost saving exercise. Jack Hughes (talk) 12:10, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
 * In all seriousness, the sky is less blue in the UK because it's further north than it seems (the mainland is almost entirely north of the 49th parallel) so it gets relatively less sun than other places with a similar climate. 12:57, 4 September 2010 (UTC)



the "portal" template thing we use has grave errors
See http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/User:Human/sandbox2 and especially edit it to remove my closing comments and preview. We are using some poorly-written basic templates that should be cleaned up, I think. 02:28, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Yeah, it was missing several closing font tags in the headers. Have fun tracking down all the copypastas and fixing them. -- Nx  / talk 06:10, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks! I'll look at the diffs of what you did and see if I can chase them all down.  17:07, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Oh, you did it all, double thanks! This is what I was building.  18:37, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Pretty. What's it do? --151.82.51.94 (talk) 21:41, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
 * It's kind of a portal portal. It might be a nice way to say "here is all our cool stuff".  03:51, 4 September 2010 (UTC)
 * You RWians seem to enjoy recursion. You should make a RationalWikiWikiWiki Portal Portal Portal next.
 * Also, I wanted to ask, is a grave error something like a typo on a tombstone? --151.82.51.94 (talk) 07:46, 4 September 2010 (UTC)
 * "You RWians?" What do you mean, "you RWians?" And - yes, of course. 08:01, 4 September 2010 (UTC)
 * What do you mean, "what do you mean?" How would I know? And why are you suddenly using a different username? --151.82.51.94 (talk) 09:46, 4 September 2010 (UTC)

Sausage suggestions
Due to a faulty gene inherited from my mother, namely the "if something's on offer in the supermarket buy it even though you probably aren't going to use it all gene", I have an inordinate amount of top-quality pork sausages in the fridge. I used some up on the barbie over the weekend, then had sausage and cous cous for tea last night, but has anyone got any good sausage-based recipes? (Hopefully more than sausage and _______") Owing to the subject matter, Finbarr Saunders type suggestions are welcome.  12:26, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Toad in t'ole 12:37, 30 August 2010 (UTC) TerrySmall.png [[Image:Toast s.png|alt=Toast|text-bottom|20px|link=User talk:SusanG]]
 * Honey and mustard sausages. Fairly straightforward, pan fry sausages with some cut up onions, add honey and mustard in about a 3:1 measure. Add stir-fry like vegetables if you like. 12:40, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I set the Curse of a Thousand Camels upon you, Susan, for stealing my idea. That said, if you can't fine something here then I dunno.-- PsyGremlin  12:59, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Toad int'hole sounds delicious, but I'm looking for something a bit healthier. I might try the honey and mustard one night, it sound good too.  Some good stuff on that link Psy, gave me some good ideas.  I think I might try cutting them up, stir-frying with onion and peppers, add a few spices, then serving in chapatis.  13:21, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * tummy rumbling sound* careful, anymore food talk, and I'll be camping on your doorstep. Especially as I'm have bubble 'n' squeak tonight. -- PsyGremlin  13:30, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Bubble 'n' squeak! Used to dream of bubble 'n' squeak. Delicious with brown bits and a drop of HP sauce on the side. One of my favourites. 13:43, 30 August 2010 (UTC) TerrySmall.png [[Image:Toast s.png|alt=Toast|text-bottom|20px|link=User talk:SusanG]]
 * And a dash of pepper. mmmmmmmmmm! Totnesmartin (talk) 20:21, 31 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Bangers & mash, dumbass! 20:27, 31 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I went with some weird kind of stir-fry thing in the end. Onion, garlic, peppers, chillis, pasata, paprika and cumin. It was pretty good! (could only get pathetically small chapatis though) SausageStuff.jpg  19:05, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Sausage pizza. Grill them, then cut them up into little slices, and either put them on a homemade pizza with cheeses or just add them to a store-bought pizza. ONE / TALK 11:11, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Also sausage omelets. And sausage chili...  18:28, 5 September 2010 (UTC)

And the Stig is...
James May according to Breakfast on the BBC. 08:36, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Well, a friend here says they were together when they were doing a 24-hour endurance race in a diesel BMW. 08:50, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Yes, I'm sure they have been on screen together many times. I've never understood why there is such a fuss about keeping Stig's identity secret. Bondurant (talk) 11:01, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * It's to make the whole thing (someone driving a car around a racetrack) interesting. Totnesmartin (talk) 11:06, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * What the hell are you goddamn Brits babbling on about now? DickTurpis (talk) 11:25, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * This. 11:53, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * It's Ben Collins, everyone knows that! 11:41, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * No, it's Phil Collins, everyone knows that!-- 15:02, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * That would certainly be against all odds. DickTurpis (talk) 15:12, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Dick, talk to me. You never talk to me. It seems that I can speak, but I can hear my voice shouting out. But there's no reply at all. [[file:Nuttysexpistols.png|60px|link=User:Nutty Roux|Nutty Roux]][[file:Nuttytalk.png|35px|link=User_talk:Nutty_Roux|never mind]] 17:27, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Very good, Dick. 17:31, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I assume they'll kill him off like they did with Black Stig. Still, it leaves the question of the identity of The Stig's various cousins. 23:44, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

This "Stig" fellow of yours must be a big deal indeed; his identity even made the news over here. Frankly I'm shocked that one of the most popular programs on the BBC is a show about driving cars very fast. Aren't you guys supposed to be better than that? We're supposed to be the hacks utterly devoid of culture! That's our shtick! DickTurpis (talk) 08:39, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Top Gear is very much the high end of the market when you put it next to prolefeed like The Jeremy Kyle Show and Big Brother. 10:56, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Oh, that's right Big Brother is one of your creations you sent over to us, then we kicked it in the nuts and sent it back. I never heard of the Jeremy Kyle Show, but from its Wikipedia article it sounds like your version of Jerry Springer. You're welcome to it. What ever happened to those quality shows you guys used to make? Brass Eye, Look Around You, The Office, etc. Oh, and our public TV is quite through with Are You Being Served?, please feel free to come by and pick it up any time you like. DickTurpis (talk) 11:19, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * BB was Dutch in origin, actually. And if my research is correct, there are more US series of it than UK ones... [[image:Piratesmiley.gif]] And yeah, Jeremy Kyle is basically Jerry Springer without the pro-wrestling license and the situations are less forced, I was pondering Jeremy Kyle the Opera as an indirect sequel to JS:TO, featuring a DNA test to determine who Jesus' father was with the results revealed after the break. Kyle really deserves a RW article for a combination of the prolefeed aspects and the heavy use of lie detectors in it. But do pick up Sherlock if you get the chance. 11:26, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I knew Big Brother's longevity over here was pretty strong (though I was unaware we had more than you did) but I had the impression it was more of an institution over there. I don't think you could ever reference the people on the show and expect most people to have any idea what you're talking about the way you can with something like American Idol (another of yours, isn't it?). Actually, I thought the show was canceled years ago, and was shocked to see not only that it's still on but is apparently more popular than it was. Then again, it seems to run in the off-season, competing against either reruns or plain crap. Oh, and if Kyle is into polygraphs he sounds more like Maury Povich, who is all about lie detectors and paternity tests. DickTurpis (talk) 12:06, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe Skip to about 6:15 for the Jeremy Kyle bit. There is another segment about him on Screenwipe but I can't find it. But Big Brother wise, it has now been properly cancelled and Channel 4 are going to have (when they finally lose the license to re-run Friends six times a day) about 4 months solid of blank space in their schedules to fill. It's declining in popularity, but it did reach the point (just when I was starting University, no less) where the first thing people would ever say to you when they introduced themselves was something about Big Brother - fucksake, I spent my entire first three weeks drinking heavily and walking away from people because of that. Yep, the whole Pop Idol idea is British, Simon Cowell is a genius at making money, shame he's irreparably damaged music forever in the process (that said, I hear the US version winners tend to actually have careers that last more than 5 seconds afterwards) but Idol has almost entirely been replaced by The X Factor, which is pretty much the same but marginally different and notably more annoying. 18:51, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Ah, here it is. The rest of it is just a running joke throughout the whole of Screenwipe. 18:56, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I was overjoyed to see that Big Brother was finally ending, and then I saw an advert on channel 4 for "Come Dine With Me: Big Brother Winners". Which just Come Dine With Me, only the contestants are all previous big brother winners. And now I have this terrifying vision of the future where TV execs are coming to terms with the fact that reality and talent shows aren't doing so well any more... so they're going to mix it up by putting the winners of x show into a special edition of y show. BIG BROTHER: POP IDOL. BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT: THE APPRENTICE and just oh god I think I just depressed myself X Stickman (talk) 02:30, 4 September 2010 (UTC)
 * This is why I don't have a telly. by the start of this year there was one programme I watched regularly (Doctor Who) and when that stuck its head up its own arse I gave up. Totnesmartin (talk) 21:39, 5 September 2010 (UTC)

I am lucky to be alive...
So last night I was drinking with my brother till late then I had half a sleeping pill before bed. 2 hours later, I got up and started sleepwalking. I got dressed, packed my bag with a bottle of whisky and a few supplies, jumped into the car and drove, while still asleep, up the road, round the corner and into a parked car at about 60 - 70kmh. I wrote the car off (my fiancees car I might add) and was then taken, again still sleeping, to the police station. They then sent me free and I wandered off to the wreckers which is where I came to. Fucking freaking. Be careful of these little fuckers. AceX-102 09:57, 4 September 2010 (UTC)
 * So yeah, I'll use that defense when I go to court. AceX-102 10:30, 4 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Shit Ace, you are lucky. By the way, I heard Christchurch had an earthquake. Hoping all is well down there. -- PsyGremlin  10:58, 4 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Yeah they had a big ass shake that's for sure. AceX-102 11:22, 4 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Shit dude, sorry to hear that. And that was only half a pill. I imagine if you had a whole one you would have smashed a few windows or punched a sheep or something. I thought my night was weird. I went to a house party, got drunk, then woke up an hour ago (11 hours later and I'm still a little drunk) with my clothes soaked through and stinking of dope. Did the police not notice that you weren't in a right state of mind? 12:01, 4 September 2010 (UTC)
 * The cops probably just thought I was drunk however, interestingly, they haven't served me a drunk driving notice. I did elect for blood though (For some reason I remember thinking this was highly sneaky) and it'll show what I had in my blood stream which will make my case stronger. But I tell you - this morning when I came to I was highly agitated and sobbing because I had no idea what was going on. AceX-102 12:19, 4 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I imagine anyone else'd be much the same way. Let us know what happens with the case. 12:24, 4 September 2010 (UTC)
 * When I came around I was actually staring at the side of the car, a huge hole had been gouged out of it and one of the wheels had been bent right around. Fucked pretty much. I am not sure why, possibly because I had broken in (?) but I was then rudely grabbed and thrown into the street. AceX-102 12:42, 4 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Was it Zolpidem? If so then I sympathise. I lost many friends at uni due to me taking those while a little squiffy. Zolpidem and alcohol do NOT mix. P.S. Alcohol plus zolpidem (ambien) is what caused REM's guitarist to go batshit crazy on a plane. Daysleeper indeed. 20:50, 5 September 2010 (UTC)
 * If the police do decide to prosecute you, then I'd tell your lawyer that you had taken a sleeping pill as well (brand/generic name would be helpful). He can then get your second sample checked for its presence; assuming that the police need to keep some of the blood for the defence to independently test. With a little luck you'll get away with an admonishment not to to mix your legal drugs again. BTW how long was it you taking the pill and the police taking your sample? assuming you can recall when both events occurred. CS Miller (talk) 21:29, 5 September 2010 (UTC)
 * @Crundy - yes it was Ambien
 * @CSMiller - I don't remember. AceX-102 21:31, 5 September 2010 (UTC)

TED Talks
Dunno how many here subscribe, but here' a good lecture on the danger of science denial. -- PsyGremlin  17:25, 5 September 2010 (UTC)
 * My favorite line: "The truth won't set you free." 19:05, 5 September 2010 (UTC)

So, this is a saloon, right? (revisited)
You may remember that a couple of weeks ago, I was discussing my concerns about my relationship with my partner.

We discussed things last night.

We decided, pretty much mutually, to end it.

We want to remain friends and I think we can, though it will be weird for a while.

MDB (talk) 12:33, 5 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Good luck. Hope it wasn't too painful. 14:13, 5 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Yes, best of luck indeed. And I hope you do succeed in remaining friends, after all this time together.  18:22, 5 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Good luck. Did you sneak in a quick bit of sex0r first? 20:48, 5 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Haha, I thought it, but you typed it! 04:24, 6 September 2010 (UTC)
 * We talked again last night. It was odd, which was to be expected, but it was still friendly. As for sex... all I'll say is that was one of the major issues. MDB (talk) 10:10, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Well, he would say that, wouldn't he?
 [Catholic  Archbishop says UK taxpayer should help fund Pope visit.] 18:15, 5 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Didn't Jesus go around on a donkey or something? These guys fail even as Christians. Sen (talk) 20:39, 5 September 2010 (UTC)

Well that sounds like a good idea, tax the general population to pay for a visit from a religious leader that represents less then 10% of a nation's population. The Pope could probably pay for the trip himself. -- 20:44, 5 September 2010 (UTC)
 * the thing is, is he visiting as head of state of the Vatican or as head of a religious body? If the latter, the Catholic Church should pay; if he's only going to meet the Queen, prime minister etc and discuss current affairs then it's a state visit and we pay. However his itinerary includes purely religious events in Glasgow and Birmingham - who pays for those? Totnesmartin (talk) 21:35, 5 September 2010 (UTC)
 * That's the problem Tots, Gordon Brown invited the pope as a head of state - so it is a state visit funded by the taxpayer. 21:43, 5 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Well, it's dubious whether the Vatican is a state in the same way that Italy, France, Germany or the US are states and we happily accept their heads on visits. There's also the question of purpose, we've got fuck all trade links with the Vatican and arguments that Catholics everywhere count as their citizens is just horseshit - and would shift the argument back onto religious rather than state grounds. Also, there's the fact that other heads of state would not be allowed to lecture parliament on matters such as the UK's attitude towards homosexuality and birth control, which he is expected to do. A state visit should be there for leaders to discuss state-like things, not just so the Pope can get a free tour.  22:46, 5 September 2010 (UTC)
 * We've discussed this before ad nauseam. If the Pope was just having bi-lateral talks with the Government and maybe lunch at the Palace it wouldn't be too bad but he's largely turning the visit into a pastoral one. While the UK taxpayer isn't paying for the events it is the security which is the big cost. This guy is so loved that he needs to be ferried around in a bulletproof capsule. As to the Pope's position as head of state I doubt that it involves anything that is not specifically religious. Also the Vatican is hardly a democratic country, the Pope is only voted in by a mysterious cabal of foreigners known as 'the Cardinals'. If the head of state of any other country was imposed from outside there would be resolutions at the UN. Hell, the Pope isn't even a Vaticanian, he's a German. I even wonder what the birth-rate of Vaticania is; there are probably no native Vaticanians. (There sounds like good idea for a book in that.) There is no way that the Vatican can be considered a country in the same way that Monaco or San Marino is. 03:08, 6 September 2010 (UTC)
 * The Vatican has always been a special case. If we don't think it should count as a country, we should withdraw our ambassador, not have state visits, not accept its passports (if has any), and so on. But we should make that decision when it's logical to make that decision, not just now because we're annoyed at having to pay for a state visit.
 * Plus I'd rather have the Pope visit than the Prince of Monaco. What has that guy ever done?-- 14:15, 6 September 2010 (UTC)
 * As far as I'm aware, the Prince of Monaco has not actively covered-up paedophilia, which puts him above the pope in my books. 14:25, 6 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Neither have I, but no one's inviting me for a state visit.-- 14:36, 6 September 2010 (UTC)
 * But you are (again, as far as I'm aware) not a head of state. If you were, and I was in a position to do so, I would invite you for a state visit.  (To congratulate you on your sterling work on Record Breakers)  14:39, 6 September 2010 (UTC)
 * As to having an Ambassador: "The UK Embassy to the Vatican City State is co-located with the UK Embassy to the Republic of Italy at Via XX Settembre in Rome. This follows the closing of the UK's Embassy to the Holy See's rented building in 2006 which led to protests from the Vatican "that senior Holy See officials cannot be expected to go to Villa Wolkonsky (the UK Embassy to the Italian Republic)". So not so keen, really? 14:55, 6 September 2010 (UTC) TerrySmall.png [[Image:Toast s.png|alt=Toast|text-bottom|20px|link=User talk:SusanG]]
 * Can't they just take the subway or a cab or something? 18:35, 6 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Hell, it's really just a nice walk! 18:38, 6 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Nice one, H. It's a lot nearer than The Holy See place is to Downing street in London. 18:58, 6 September 2010 (UTC) TerrySmall.png [[Image:Toast s.png|alt=Toast|text-bottom|20px|link=User talk:SusanG]]

I want you!!!!
To join the RationalWiki Pat on the Back Society!!! To join, simply read through what we do, and then add the associated category to your userpage. That is all. 01:57, 6 September 2010 (UTC)


 * I took my 3yo daughter to the playground the other week. When the other kids did a particularly good slide down the big slide? She'd shout to them "WELL DONE!" and clap her hands. I am ridiculously proud of this. Encouragement, it's in the genes - David Gerard (talk) 16:03, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

SEO is breaking the web
Good article on how SEOing is messing around with Google. Maybe somebody should tell Ken. -- PsyGremlin  12:24, 6 September 2010 (UTC)
 * So according to this article SEO is destroying the internet and the only way to save it is to use controlled, monitored platforms and throw the "anarchic, chaotic experiment that was the web" into the dustbin? I don't think that is the best article on the subject of SEO spammers. -- 13:51, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

How much can a large G&T cost
Feeling in medical need of some alcohol tonight I went to one of my locals and had a large G&T, ice and slice. And how much did it cost me, bearing in mind that I live in the South Wales Valleys and it hasn't been that long since the turnip was a legit form of currency? £5.10. Five frigging pounds and ten pence. That's US$7.88, NZ$10.93, AUS$8.59, 56.61 Rand, or €6.12. I'm feeling a tad shafted, especially as a ¾ litre bottle of Gordons is only £16.-- 22:48, 4 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I used to take a flask of gin (Gloags for preference) & buy a small tonic w ice & slice and sneakily add the one to the other. 23:15, 4 September 2010 (UTC)m TerrySmall.png [[Image:Toast s.png|alt=Toast|text-bottom|20px|link=User talk:SusanG]]
 * Well, you did say Large. Sounds reasonable unless it's made with rotgut.  There was a place around here that used to serve huge Cosmos, I think they ran about $8 or so.  They were easily doubles or triples.  Remember you are also paying for a congenial environment in which to get, um, medical treatment.  And why did I know that was Toastie as soon as I got to "flask"?  00:43, 5 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Let me see, £1.30 for a tonic (mixers are always overpriced in pubs) and two measures of gin at £1.90 each, free ice and lemon, doesn't sound that exorbitant to me. 02:15, 5 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Yislaaik! R56.61 for a G&T?? Admittedly I haven't had a G&T in yonks, but given a double brandy & coke will set you back about R15 - you've been royally shafted. It's the BOHIC sales method - Bend Over, Here It Comes. -- PsyGremlin  08:59, 5 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Try living in London mate, the further in you go the prices go up. Lager (what I drink) is about £2.20-£2.60 in pubs here. That's why I'm moving to Ireland when I'm older. Cheaper booze. at least that's my theory anyway... 09:42, 5 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Maybe it's the lime that's expensice. They do give you a lime wedge, right?  sterile 11:23, 5 September 2010 (UTC)
 * "Remember you are also paying for a congenial environment." Ha, two people supping a pint a congenial atmosphere does not make.  And yeah, £5 for a large G&T in London I'd expect (or a train station for that matter), but when you can still get a pint (which is the equivalent number of units) for a couple of quid in the same pub&hellip;
 * A pint is not the same "number of units" as a "large" G&T, surely? 18:25, 5 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Yeah, two units each, assuming 35ml a shot and excluding speciality brews-- 23:33, 5 September 2010 (UTC)
 * If a pint is equal in potency to a "large" G&T, what the hell are you people putting in your beer? Surely "large" means more than one shot? 04:25, 6 September 2010 (UTC)
 * A pint of beer (British pint) is about 2 to 2.5 units of alcohol, depending on the strength. A 25 ml shot of spirits (at 40% volume) is exactly one unit.  Some pubs now sell 35ml shots instead, so that would be more.  Some pubs give you a better deal if you're buying a double (e.g. only an extra £1 for the second shot) but these tend to be the clubbier type of bars.  In a more traditional pub, you're more likely to be charged the rate for two singles, which can make it pretty expensive.   06:52, 6 September 2010 (UTC)
 * That is far too complicated for me to understand. 07:45, 6 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Yeah.  I don't really dig the "bar" atmosphere.  So I just don't go to bars.  I buy a couple bottles of whatever strikes my fancy, and I go home.  But I have been with my wife since I was like, 18 or something.  I also keep a very well stocked liqueur cabinet.  Which is running low, due to not having a job right now.   14:04, 6 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I remember when I was getting the drinks in one time, and only person wanted a drink: "Double vodka and coke please" and a pint for me. "Umm, excuse me barman, There seems to be some mistake. I ordered a double vodka and coke and a pint of lager and now I have no money left?" 13:14, 7 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Meh. I recently visited Stockholm, where it costs equivalent to £6 or £7 for a 330ml glass of beer.   17:57, 7 September 2010 (UTC)