Leaderboard

For the sake of transparency, we have decided to announce who has been added to the groups mentioned in the OP. Currently, they are as follows: 0-point (aka Curmudgeon) xyzt (now banned) et pet TED888 Conjurer (added Feb 8 2020) 2-point (aka Malcontent) Itoero John Harmonic (now banned) I will continue to update this post as necessary.

That's a value judgement. If Musk thinks it's worth the effort just because he can't think of anything better to do then it's worth the effort for him. Some people climb mountains just to say they've been to the top, or because they enjoy the journey. More power to them.

John Harmonic has been banned for an egregiously inappropriate response to moderator feedback, on top of his failure to embrace the concept of this site.

I've always been extremely strong compared to my peers. At school I could lift much bigger weights, and beat nearly everyone at arm wrestling. But I was always rubbish at running, and throwing. My build is typical Neanderthal. Long body, short arms and legs. Short limbs means that you have better leverage for lifting and pushing, but much worse for running and throwing. It's horses for courses. People who are less powerful when it comes to sheer force have other advantages. Big muscles run out of energy quickly. You don't see heavily muscled people winning marathons.

More anecdote, but my uncles used to talk about a guy they grew up with who worked as a fireman on a steam locomotive. He stoked the boiler with coal, and he had to be able to do it all day long. He was a small guy, and didn't have bulky muscles, but he was scary strong. I think a big part of the strong-but-doesn't-look-it story is the surprise factor. Small guys with a burst of muscular strength can be startling, and seem much stronger because you underestimated them, and then have to justify why you're on the ground and they aren't.

In previous threads, staff have mentioned that we have on occasion curtailed or removed the ability for people to use the reputation system. In previous versions of the forum software we were able to limit positive or negative reputation limits separately. This meant that the impact of people who wished to use the reputation system to target specific members was always low, and staff could easily reverse it. This no longer being the case means that the system is more open to being abused by people wishing to use it as a form of personal attack. Thankfully, we have had very few cases where staff have had to intervene. For those cases where we have had to do something, admin have created two new member groups with reputation point limits set to either 0 or 2, which limits the use of both positive and negative rep points.

If you and JC are smart enough to include qualifiers like "in my opinion", "I think", "from my experience", "it appears", and so on I would say that you 2 do deserve more respect. I don't think falsehoods or highly disputable conclusions should be stated as fact. I feel those who do not know the difference between their own opinions and facts should receive down votes. As iNow pointed out we have all received them.

If you can choose any point as a start, then it doesn't have a start. For example, you could say that the book I am reading starts at page 127 but that would be silly. Well, the universe might be one such example, we don't know. This is the "black swan" fallacy. That is not very convincing. Once upon a time people thought all swans were white. For thousands of years no one had seen anything but white swans. But they were wrong. So your personal experience doesn't have much value as evidence. Please show the premises and logical steps that lead to that conclusion. Unless by "logical" you mean "well, it makes sense to me". In which case we can ignore it, This is the fallacy of begging the question. Is it? Please show your working. Otherwise this looks like a baseless assertion. That is not a counter example because (1) the concept of "start" applied to infinity is meaningless and (2) infinity does exist. Again, begging the question. You could equally validly say: There are real things without a start and the universe is real so it follows in didn't have a start; both logically and empirically. You have no empirical evidence that the universe had a start. So this is dishonest as well as fallacious. It might be. But there is zero evidence for that.

The BB is regarded as the start of an epoch in the ongoing evolution of the universe, not the beginning of the universe itself. Time, as we know it, could have emerged with this epoch.

Well, obviously the ability to compete or adapt is entirely independent on complexity (if that is what is implied with primitive). Rather obviously "primitive" bacteria will be the last survivors long after everything else has died out. Again, it depends on the ecological situation, the available niches, the ability of the organisms to adapt to said niches and in cases of direct competition, the relative ability to utilize the niche. Also note that these are not necessarily stable conditions. For example a species can outcompete another one in a particular niche by extremely effective adaptation. However, that niche may vanish and with it the adaptive advantage. Evolution is best not seen as simply a competitive survival experiment. Probably something like adaptivity.

The pedigree system is just a classification system to categorize dogs. I've been to two dogsleddingfarms and It was pretty clear people care more for the validity of a dog then it's pedigree. There is nothing wrong with this system. There is something wrong with the way many dogs are bred, but that's not necessary related to this system. I payed 'a lot of money' for a dog free of known/predictable genetic defects. If people care for the dogs they breed then they try to diminish the chance of genetic defects.

When I speak of an intelligent owner, I'm speaking of someone who can and does give plenty of TLC to his or her dog, along with a firm hand and appropriate discipline, irrespective of pedigree or lack thereof. I have had two Rottweilers, a generally known large breed with an undeserved aggressive nature, and have never once had any problem with that supposed aggression with any person or other dog because they saw me as the "Alpha". At the same time both would never let anyone unknown enter our property until I had given the OK...a great deterrent for the wandering seven day adventists and AGers that sometimes walk our streets preaching and handing out their watch tower magazines. No pet of mine was ever "wacked" for any misbehaviour, rather a change in ones voice that reflects displeasure along with no pats or acts of TLC for a few moments. Get's back to my intelligent owner argument. BTW, my second Rotty lived to be 13.5 years old, and ended up having to be put down due to bone cancer. One of the miniature Dachsunds my parents bread, lived to 15 years and secumbed for the same reasons....cancer. OK, I accept that. Which is why with some care, preventive action is needed.

I dont know if this will answer whatever problem you see with Pedigree Registries or not, but people sometimes are after a specific dog with specific traits. My two dogs at this time are Miniature smooth haired Dachsunds. Why did I chose that breed? Because I was after a recognised house dog and a dog/s that did not or at least had minimal doggy smell. Reason for that, My Mrs suffers from Asthma. I also wanted a fearless breed that could in some ways act as a watch dog. Dachsunds are fearless breeds, sometimes to a fault, particulalry with some much larger version of a dog! My parents also bred Miniature Dachsunds hence my familiarity with them. Faults?? They are sometimes prone to hips Dysplacia and should be controlled as much as possible from jumping up and down of chairs/beds etc. They also make very good feet warmers in the Winter in bed! Other dogs I have had....Two Rottweilers, German Shepard, and a Labrador. My favourite all time best breed?? The old Rotty...Great dog, intelligent, fearsome look, fearless persona, great watch dog, although both the Rotty's I had at different times, were great big bloody sooks! The most important aspect with any dog breed, pedigree or otherwise, is an intelligent owner who is able to administer plenty of TLC, along with firmness in training the animal. I have never had any problem with any dog I have ever had.

I think the reality which we find ourselves in right now requires less need for the girl from the video to have a chaperone or a companion compared say, to NYC in the 80’s or the middle ages or any previous era. Plus theres really nothing condenscending or diminishing about a woman requiring a companion or a chaperone and her complaining about it in the song is just only a level short of pouring bleach on men spreading their legs on the subway.

But I want iNow to hold my hand and empower me to pull through these difficult times. Who knows, maybe I'll record a song of my own when I break the chains of my trauma.