Phi for All

2:25 in the morning a few miles from Area 51? Hmmm, I got nothing. But now I have to add aliens to the list of people who are interested in my trash....

This is what we can't let you get away with. Why do you feel it's not a natural feature, because it *looks* designed? You are drawing a conclusion with which no scientist would feel comfortable, and stating it as fact. Tell us why you think the face was designed. No Arguments from Incredulity ("I can't believe you can't see it!") or circular logic ("It looks man-made, therefore it must be man-made") allowed.

So how would *you* go about starting a boycott? I'd take a page from Gladwell's The Tipping Point and talk to every Connector, Maven and Salesman I know. If I was using this Walmart example I'd work up a single page treatise on the cause and its goal. Start the rumblings and then turn it over to the bloggers after I've set up a website to link to. I think it would be a good idea to let everyone know that this is an experiment, and that if we're successful we'll use this constituency to affect how our representatives in government view the power of the people. I'd truly love to symbolically urinate on the phrase, "You can't fight City Hall".

But there was ample precedent there to make boycotting the Olympics futile. I still wouldn't mind seeing Americans come together for just about anything they feel passionate about, even if it was a boycott of the Olympics. I wouldn't be all that hopeful of its effect on China, but it would sure show some much needed solidarity over here. I think we're assuming that any boycott would be a national one. I agree its the hardest part but I think a true boycott, well-staged and organized, would scare the living crap out of not just Walmart, but every mega-corp with questionable practices. We might even show our reps that we're getting close to boiling on the healthcare issue as well. So how would you go about putting together an effective national boycott?

Walmart doesn't want to set a precedent but they'd better think about what this will do to their health plan as well as how their national image will suffer. They should take the Disney approach and keep this out of the courts, take care of the woman and move on. I would like to see a well-organized national boycott take off in the US, just to prove to ourselves that a) it's effective, b) we have a stern economic message for other corporate giants, and c) we can pull together as a country when it's important. We keep forgetting the power of "We, the people" because it's now a race, us vs them, and not about representative government and aware consumerism.

Scriptupuncture?! Believe me, if the Gideon Bible were capable of healing most motel rooms would look a lot better. Interesting that fancy bibles don't work. I can hear all those monks with their gold-leaf calligraphy saying, "Doh!"

Isn't that the Soylent Green slogan?

Over there by that table full of condoms and oven mitts. Once you've signed the non-compete, just put on 20 of the condoms and 3 pairs of oven mitts (no no, the mitts go on your hands) and you'll be ready for the sex-without-touch experiment.

Sucked you in with the passive posts, didn't he? The aggressive post earned him an infraction. Thanks for not stooping to the same level.

Coolness is a wave. If you do something that happens to be cool, it spreads to everyone. If you do something because you think it's cool, your observation makes the cool state collapse and you're left looking like you missed the point.

I think taste *is* important. It's what makes eating pleasurable, and it drives us toward variety. Eating without taste would be like sex without touch. I think it's more important than convenience, which we value so highly we often give up many benefits to get it.

Note to self: Fire cryptographer. Ground-Up Threads will explore many areas and treat each subject from the ground up. Don't panic, be patient. We're building anticipation. You'll go absolutely mental when the first interview shows up after you've clicked the link a few thousand times. Funny story, actually, but it has nothing to do with whatever it is you're on about here. My advice? I don't give advice but a links bar sounds perfectly decadent. Cheers! Not sure if I like this whole "thinking" trend, but I'm willing to go along with it temporarily.

I've never heard of this before and it's resonating with me this morning for some reason. What if the "cover" is a political and sociological one? I think most Western leaders would view bombing Mecca as an attack on *all* Islam, even if the enemy is only a small faction within the whole religion. Does the Quran also have provisions for what the faithful should do if Mecca is attacked, or is the "cover" so impenetrable that it's a moot point?

I see where Physia believes it would be relevant, but religions are amazingly flexible about interpretations of their holy writings when they are proven unsound. If Mecca were bombed I'm sure the Quran could produce a scripture which explained why it was suddenly possible (and why we were evil to do it in the first place). I agree with Cap'n though. I think bombing Mecca wouldn't make muslims question the validity of Islam, it would just give them a reason to hate if they hadn't already decided to travel that road. As evidence we have the Iraq invasion; we've created more Al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq by invading than there were in the first place. I do agree with Physia that moderate Islam needs to be more outspoken in their denial of terrorism. Moderates *everywhere* need to be more vocal about *everything* they see as wrong. Part of the problem is that being loud about what you advocate is often seen as radical. Moderates need to be shown that passion isn't always extremism.

Worse. Critical examination and death by blog!

What a hoot! Obviously they couldn't see the forest for the trees. It probably never occurred to them that two of the people on their not-wanted list would be together. Thick-skulled, myopic creationists!

Please. It's always helpful to know how far you've gotten.

If you actually ruled the world your military dictatorship would have been established long ago. So are you asking 1) how you would go about ruling the world or 2) what you would do with it once you already ruled it?

Too bad SFN wasn't around during the Clinton administration. I could point to some balancing posts so you'd stop calling me politically correct. I've come a long way in four years since my 4-part "Mask of Terror" story in the Horror Story Thread.

Maybe that's why you don't understand QM.

Cap'n is a big GWB fan-boy. I'm talking posters in his room, commemorative plates on the wall ("Mission Accomplished!"), and even a decoder ring that translates Bushisms into real English. He's a mite touchy when it comes to poking the POTUS.

That *is* simple. Simple-minded, I mean. I can assure you, if radical Islam becomes *all* of Islam, the solution becomes much simpler. It is the moderates that give Islam a humanitarian image with the rest of the world. Lose that image and it will be an easy decision to eliminate the threat *completely*.

Man didn't evolve from monkeys. The fact that creationists have developed a skull so thick that they continue to use this argument despite our insistence that apes and man evolved from a common ancestor is one of the best arguments *for* evolution.

I chose #3. I think of a penguin as a cold creature who sees everything in black and white, lives in fear of unseen predators, is surrounded by other creatures who feel the same way, and who sinks down to his belly often to avoid standing upright all the time. GWB is a really big penguin. A tae kwan do sensei once told me that the advantage an unarmed man has over a man with a gun is that the man with the gun won't think about talking, won't think about using any of his other less deadly but still effective weapons (knees, hands, feet, etc), and will only think about bringing that big gun to bear on his opponent. I think GWB likes guns. I *know* the gun manufacturers love *him*.

Why are you responding to a two-year-old homework question? This kid probably graduated high school by now.