Phi for All

We'd all like to think we would be the first ones not to be affected by the absolute power. We'd end the corruption and the pork barrel practices and the elitism. Then the reality of 230 years of Beltway brawls runs up hard against your measly 4-year term. Sorry, my 10-foot pole is in the shop. One president can't make the changes necessary. Maybe we should give the psych test to all the people who don't vote but get hurt by a system they feel powerless to change. Or the voters who really care about an independent candidate but don't vote for him/her because they don't want to throw their vote away. They're the real whackos.

Is he expecting you to squawk about the 60% commission so it will prod you into negotiating with him? "Well, if you'll send $10,00 to cover some expenses of mine, I'll cut my fee to 30%". I also love: it takes 2 weeks to bury your relative, there's no mention of who your relative was, local expenses on processing a will are going to be $2.3M!

Perhaps it came about from the concept of borrowing. If you have 5 apples but borrow 10 to make pies, you have -5 apples. This, of course, lead directly to deficit spending and politics.

And they rarely have any concept of proper accessorizing. It's always taffeta, stiletto heels and a beaded clutch. Gah. This is the really unfortunate truth of our present system. I think the only solution is mandatory service, with psych test, based on qualifications chosen by representatives who are also forced to serve. The best leaders wouldn't touch politics without such a system.

I think a psych test would be new grounds for mudslinging and smear tactics. They can imply things that any political strategist would manipulate and take out of context. Good idea in theory, bad idea in practice, imo. Are you thinking of J. Edgar Hoover? He was Director of the FBI. And he didn't have the figure for a really nice ball gown. Not a backless one anyway.

Personally, I think women in general have a more strategic, long-range focus when it comes to most things. Men, as hunters, were looking for the animal that made the tracks they were currently stalking. Theirs is a much more tactical focus. Their early role as gatherers equipped women to look at everything all at once and see how it relates to their lives. Gatherers have to find not only ripe berries, but also firewood, medicinal plants, tool stones, keep an eye on the kids, ad infinitum.This may naturally lead them to think more about future needs, leading also to things spiritual. Indeed, women played a much bigger part in early religious leadership than they do now.

My wife and I raise our daughter using the Love and Logic approach. I tried spanking, when she was about three, for safety issues and it just made her angry and made me feel like crap. Love and Logic tells you you don't ever let them see you out of control, yelling or flying off the handle. You calmly take things away, you pick them up if they won't walk voluntarily, you put them in their room, you come up with consequences for inappropriate actions. You commiserate with them on how their behavior has affected their freedom and you say, "What a bummer!" a LOT. You should never let them get away with bad behavior, but hitting them is not good, imo. I know you get an immediate response from spanking, but I think fear as discipline can teach them to avoid YOU rather than avoiding bad behavior. Above all you want a child who associates natural consequences from doing the wrong thing. When a child sees you lose it they love it, but secretly it makes them uncomfortable too. If they learn that there are logical consequences for bad behavior, they move away from that behavior. It takes more time to master than spanking, but it has the benefit of not teaching them to hit to solve problems.

(emphasis mine) Your chronology doesn't match up here with regards to your buddy. You met him just over a year ago, knew him for six months before the accident, which was almost a year ago. It took the wife two months to move. How long has his wife been widowed? As you have stated, she's moved back, she's very strong, you are married, you'd like to continue being a big brother-type. I would start by emphasizing this in your emails ("I enjoy my big brother role in your life as long as I can be of help"). Keep in mind that she has a small child to raise on her own and if she's too attached to you for help she may not look very hard for another, healthier relationship. You mention that you feel emotionally distanced from your wife. Could it be that it is easier for you to be the third party observer in someone else's life and have a harder time drawing your wife into discussions that involve the two of you directly? You want you and your wife to discuss things the way you discuss things with this other woman, but realistically the topics would be much more personal and maybe a bit more emotional. Helping others allows you to maintain a certain emotional distance; helping your own marriage is much more intimate and potentially scary. My two cents, also from a non-professional stance. I'm also curious as to why you joined a scientific community to bring this up.

You can attach bmp, doc, gif, jpe, jpeg, jpg, pdf, png, psd, txt & zip docs via Additional Options --> Attach Files --> Manage Attachments below each Reply to Thread when you post. I forget what the limit is, maybe one of the Admins will chime in tomorrow on this.

RedAlert, have you given any thought to running time? I think anything over about three minutes would be too ambitious. Also, how much plot are you looking for? Is the idea of SFN members doing verbal and physical battle with various trolls enough or are you looking for more? Should we wait till after Memorial Day for everyone who wants a character to post? I would like the cast set before scripting. Does everyone remember these likenesses are going to be very simple, ala South Park? Do you still think that style is the way to go? I thought it best since I have no idea how good flash animation can get, or how good our people are. I've seen some people going way beyond the basic facial features descriptions, mentioning height, multiple weapons, etc. I think we'll want to put some limits on detail so we don't get too bogged down. There have been a novel and a musical that didn't get past the planning stages, probably because they tried to go way overboard on details from many ideas put forward and were faced with the monumental task of incorporating them all. Lots of people have lots of ideas about what they'd like to see, but in the end it's going to be just a few people putting it all together. Can we set up some kind of org chart so we know who's doing what and when? Who can do the drawings? We need continuity between the character styles so it would be great to pick one and have all the artists duplicate it. Who can do the flash stuff? Can more than one person work on that or is it better for one? That's enough to answer for now but I have more questions.

That's globalistic thinking, just as it's nationalistic to want all the tax money to stay in your country until all it's problems are fixed before spending money on foreign countries. It sounds good but isn't in practice. Firstly, what should all the people who are experts in space propulsion do? The astrophysicists? Are the astronomers just supposed to theorize with no proof? People will go where their talents and visions lie, and others will fund those visions. Secondly, you are placing the problems like pollution ahead of the profits gained by polluting. While I agree with you that we should take care of our environment, it is necessary in market economies for the people who make profits to see profit in being responsible. Recycling never caught on until someone found a way to make it profitable. If you agreed to only buy goods packaged in recyced materials and you got millions to agree to do it with you, profiteers would only make them that way. If politicians knew that you and millions of others wouldn't vote for them unless they supported green initiatives, they would suddeenly become environmentalists. It is the apathy of the consumers and the voters that keeps us in our present predicament. We're too busy working hard enough to afford our leisure to care about the future.

Search checks post content as well as titles. Look further and you will see your search word highlighted in red. Strawman is very common, but easy to spot. When you make a point and your opponent sidesteps that point and raises a similar but non-applicable point and then refutes the new point, he is strawmanning. It's easy to avoid strawmanning. Refute or concede your opponent's point before you move on to other arguments. What makes Straw Man so insidious is that it's impossible to debate someone progressively who won't admit you may have a good point.

Validate this for me, please.

Reference, please?

You have 5 minutes to edit your posts. After that, script will appear at the bottom of your post saying that it has been edited, by whom and at what time (you also have the option to give a reason for editing). After 6 hours, all editing abilities go away entirely and the post is locked. So no, nothing was changed in the opening post.

All bananas used to have seeds, but they have been slowly bred out of the most popular varieties by planters wanting a seedless fruit. The darkened center is where the seeds used to be. The #1 export variety, the Cavendish, is in danger of being wiped out by a disease it is particularly susceptible to. Growers spend up to 25% of the total cost of growing trying to fight this disease. http://www.biotech-info.net/extinction.html

Giving up on finding ways to overcome obstacles most humans have been struggling successfully against for thousands of years will make you weak, and that much more likely to justify technology that doesn't allow you to grow as a person. For women who couldn't give birth without an artificial womb, I might relent in my opinion on a case by case basis. For men who don't want to face the challenges and pressures of dealing with relationships and think that raising children will be easier, I say definitely NOT.

Oh, goody! A sudden sharp rise in the gene pool of men who can't relate to women, who fear to discuss prenatal manipulation with them, and consider them hags if they don't just fall head over heels in love with a single look. I think this is a bad idea. Have you ever considered that things which are difficult (pregnancy, relationships, etc) provide the most satisfaction when they're experienced fully and successfully? Take away the obstacles and the lack of challenges will make us weak.

Why don't people use the Search feature? No one can ever give me a definite answer.

Sounds like the kind of tubes they put in old landfill sites they cover up and forest over. The tubes vent methane buildup from the organic garbage way below.

Seriously, everyone needs some sort of weapon to wield as well as a physical description. Do you want to reserve the lightsaber or should the artists start working on a monkey with a whisk? Or do you prefer "heavy weaponry", as you put it earlier? And I apologize if the button remark sounded patronizing. You know I would never willingly risk your wrath for a cheap joke.

Like I would forget you! We're still looking for a t-shirt that's tight, clingy and has room for your name while still having a neckline that plunges to your navel. Also no sleeves so you can swing a lightsaber. It would be easier if you would agree to just wearing two small buttons, one says "Azure", the other says, "Phoenix".

The bait to catch the trolls, with a pun on "debate". You got it, that's what I had in mind. I was thinking more along the lines of a zoom or a slow dolly/zoom (as long as it doesn't give the impression of a third party sneaking up behind the person). The door should open up smoothly, simply showing that you are entering a room with a person at a computer. Enough time should be given before the alarms to establish that the person is typing/posting (maybe muttering under his breath). Why would he put up BRB if no one will see it? I'm not wedded to this, and I was actually thinking of what he might take with him, but this became too character specific (if he takes his katana is it supposed to be Sayo?). The sign was a way to indicate that the person knew they'd be gone for a while. How about the sign says, "DO NOT SHUT DOWN!"?