Phi for All

Here's our Genetics section.

People who are happy with a product aren't as likely to praise it publicly as those who are unhappy with it will complain about it. For every person who complains publicly there are tens of thousands of people who experience no problems, generally. Please understand that comments about why you're questioning established products IN NO WAY mean we're questioning why you want to learn to read labeled ingredients. You're being smart about that part. The questions are because you seem to be putting a lot of significance on a few vocal complaints and ignoring the fact that these products are still being purchased by a large enough customer base to keep these companies profitable. Market economics suggests these products are not dangerous to a very large amount of those who use them.

The FDA only requires testing if you're making a medical claim or trying to use an ingredient that hasn't already been tested as safe. This is a cunning piece of marketing mendacity, because soaps using known ingredients don't have to go through the approval process, yet they make it sound like the manufacturers are deliberately putting harmful ingredients into their products and the FDA is ignoring it. In reality, if a manufacturer made any money from a product that hurt people, they'd lose it and more in the lawsuits that would follow. Longer shelf life or cheaper ingredients won't help you if no one will buy your product because it's harmful.

Drownings, floods, burst pipes....

"Harmful" needs to be defined. And some people are more sensitive to certain ingredients than others. I know they used to use Dimethicone to fill silicone breast implants but the industry switched to saline for safety reasons. Dimethicone is an approved ingredient in many products used on skin. I wouldn't think a skin care company would last long using ingredients that were dangerous to a significant portion of their customers. Are you experiencing any adverse effects from this skin care product?

PainwithoutLove has been banned for vulgar and abusive posting. May have caught the crazy from STeve555.

Often it just takes time to figure out that the way we're saying something isn't coming across the way we really mean it. You don't have to change yourself to get good reputation, sometimes you just have to realize how badly you're sounding to everyone else. It happens, and like me I'll bet you took a hard look at what you said and it made you realize mistakes in either content, tone or accuracy. It takes a mature mind to take the bad on board with the good and move on.

Do you mean because they like being good repped or because they like that they can see if someone's posts have been bad repped a lot by other members?

That's the part that's beyond our software. We can't force people to post an explanation when they give any kind of rep point. We could go with a Facebook type of "Like" system, but I think that's already been sneered at by many members already. We've had this discussion many times, and it always falls into a couple of camps. One side wants a level playing field where longevity doesn't matter, the other side resents having something they've worked hard to build threatened.

You're way beyond the capabilities of the software with that one. But I can tell you that when I run across a -1 that doesn't seem justified, I give it a +1 to void it out. In fact, I did the same thing with the last election when I heard you voted for Romney, rigney.

Discussion forums shouldn't be so black and white, devoid of emotion and opinion, even science discussion forums. We're humans with personalities, and it's only normal to let those show through. The best teachers I ever had were passionate about the subjects they were talking about, science especially. The worst teacher I ever had was Dean of the Philosophy department. The 101 course sounded very interesting but one semester of that man's monotone voice, dispassionately cranking out the nuts and bolts of Decartes, Hume, Whitehead and others convinced me philosophy was just boring, and I really feel cheated by that now. Our reputation system seems to do well at rewarding those that reward us with a bit more insight than the nuts and bolts typically give. I will say I'm not happy about some of the neg rep. Vendetta's get noticed by the staff, and we will deal with those who abuse the system. I dislike it when our maths experts get marked down by some of the members who argue that math isn't necessary in forming a good theory (these folks are typically very bad at maths, coincidentally). When I see a negative mark on a perfectly good answer, I offset it by up-voting it. I would encourage everyone to correct any injustices you see on individual posts. And let me reiterate what michel123456 said above (+1). It's against the rules to attack the person in your posts with your words, and we actively encourage members to attack the ideas instead. But we don't always feel the need to post a response to rudeness and the rep system gives us a quick way to show our displeasure with something the person has posted. And the same holds true when someone affects us positively with their post.

There are thousands of people who will help you make these if your plan is good. Alas, we see nothing but promises. It breaks the heart.

Wrong on so many levels. More limited thinking from the anti-abortion crowd. With so many in the GOP who support poorly-thought-out kneejerk legislation, it's no wonder we have such a hard time keeping spending down and working on worthwhile long-range investments in our country.

iwasbitten has been permanently banned since there is really nothing we can do online for someone who desperately needs professional help but refuses to seek it despite the urgings of most of the respondents, and also because his/her posts were attracting too much ridicule. The Staff hopes iwasbitten can get the help he/she needs as soon as possible.

Congratulations to all of you who still continue to post here and work on ideas. If this gets done, it will be one of you guys who does it and not all the people who posted once and then left.

Arnaud Antoine Andrieu has been suspended for one week for repeated thread hijacking (diverting discussion to his own speculative ideas).

STeve555 is suspended for a week for losing his mind and ranting with his vulgar filters off in multiple threads. We hope he feels better soon.

"Hi, my name is Phi, and I'm an orcaholic."

I have binders full of dragons from my D&D days.

Iptest banned as a sockpuppet of EquisDeXD. One has to wonder at what motivates such an individual.

Well, I called it, and now we see what the magician was doing with the hand you couldn't see.... http://www.forbes.co...causes-concern/ http://www.sciencefo...513#entry709513

So one one hand you argue that liberal intellectuals don't like separation of powers in government, but on the other hand you claim that supporting a separation of church and state makes them afraid? I find this type of cherry-picking very typical of Republicans. You want every embryo protected but don't want your taxes to support all the unwanted children once they're born. You want your right to bear arms and then scream that we need more police and prisons but we have to stop growing the government. You want less regulations that stop businesses from harmful practices and more regulations that bar citizens from suing businesses when they're harmed. You want less taxes so you can create jobs for America and then you create those jobs overseas. And the big deal is not some quick mention of literal Biblical interpretation, the big deal is that some of these ultra-conservative, Republican parents want evolution and a great deal more removed from the curricula because higher order thinking is causing their children to question what these parents hold sacred, and that seems un-American to them. Progress, intelligence and knowledge are becoming anathema in this country thanks to your "What is the big deal" attitude.

Some of this crap is SOOOOOOO inane that it makes you wonder if it's not some kind of magician's hand-waiving to hide what they're really doing, like messing with voter registration and voting hours while waiving the Constitution around and claiming the president isn't a citizen. Is this just to distract from more fraudulent efforts to manipulate the voting process and get Mitt elected at ANY cost? Are we going to see more 2000/2004 close-call ballot box deceit?

I think it's partially that, and also that so many Americans have this fantasy vision of what this country is all about. We brag about our freedoms and lifestyles and economic superiority, but to some that means never questioning that superiority in any way, like we'll break it if we look too closely. Like you're only patriotic if you just accept it all and don't try to make things better. Considering that we spend more than any other country in the world on health care, why do we have more deaths per capita from birth complications that Kuwait, Bulgaria and South Korea? And what do you think fanciful attitudes like Rep. Walsh's do to help us improve those numbers? How can he justify his party's attitude that 47% of the people are completely dependent on the government when he's completely dependent on the concept that you "can't find one instance" where a woman could die from birth complications because modern technology will save them? Has he or anyone from his office bothered to read the statistics that say birth complications nationwide have more than doubled in the last 20 years?

Um, I'm pretty sure he's not bragging about anything he hasn't fulfilled, just the ones he has. You continue to ignore all his accomplishments, despite having them laid out before you multiple times. And if this is your metric, why do you think Bush 2.0 is better? I won't even go back to "Mission Accomplished, Gee I can't think of three mistakes I made in my first four years" GW Bush's unjustified bragging. Let's take Mitt's bragging about how much his mandated health plan in Massachusetts cares about people, about how much empathy it has with the working class, when he basically wants to repeal Obama's mandated health reform for the whole country, replacing all the best parts with... nothing. No protection for pre-existing conditions, no protection from unscrupulous health insurers, nothing. Bush 2.0 constantly talks about how he helped Massachusetts, but he will repeal that same help just because it came from Obama. Why don't you have a problem with THAT, rigney? Here's Mitt bragging about his decision to use Chinese labor while at Bain Capital: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/10/1129902/-Mitt-Romney-admits-using-Chinese-slave-labor-Bain