The serious stuff. Debates and discussions on politics, religion, etc.
Richard Curtis, the comic writer of Blackadder was commissioned to create a movie short about global warning, called 10-10. It had a host of stars and celebrated everyone who is tackling Carbon Emissions... ...by blowing up those who don't. ...
Presidents in the US seem to be very divisive individuals. IIRC Reagan won re-election by a landslide in '84 but he always had vociferous critics. Has any US President ever come close to being universally liked, that is by the majority of...
So who's surprised? The results of this poll synch up nicely with my real-life experiences. Not to say that there aren't religiously-knowledgeable believers in the world, but I can recall a number of times I've referenced a bible story in a...
Russell Brand was recently arrested at the airport after a hitting paparazzi who decided to try and get upskirt shots of his fiancee Katy Perry. Now I don't like Russell Brand much, but can quite happily sympathise with his actions and would say...
Following on from the current revelations about Tiger Woods or the England Football team, something was pointed out. As long as they perform and keep winning, the fans would probably forgive any behaviour, no matter how sordid they were. So how...
41 Year old Teresa Lewis pleaded guilty and was convicted of getting two men to kill her husband and stepson to cash in on their life insurance policy. The two hitman have both been jailed for life, but were not sentenced to death. The main...
I came upon this on one of my usual Youtube tangent-hopping forays and couldn't help but wondering what went on afterwards? (For those unable to watch, the video shows a US soldier giving a motivational speech to a group of Iraqi policeman, and...
While it varies regionally within both the US and Western Europe it seems overall that the United States has a more religious society than Western Europe's. Curiously, the US has the separation of church and state enshrined constitutionally yet...
Judging from the newspapers it appears that the Tea Party candidates did a lot better than expected than the conventional Republican candidates in the primaries. How much of an impact is that going to have. Will the Republican Party swing behind...
For most weights and measures there are both Imperial and Metric equivalents, pounds and kilos, litres and gallons, but I can't think of an equivalent for time itself. Seconds may get divided into milliseconds and nanoseconds as orders of ten,...
I have a question I was pondering earlier today -- what makes someone "mixed race"? The easiest comparison is between Colin Powell and Barack Obama. I'm so used to hearing about Obama being "mixed race" (often by people with a race-baiting agenda)...
When evaluating a work of art, should the character or backstory of the artist be taken into account, or should the work itself stand on its own merit? For instance, take a piece of music, which, on its own, seems a mediocre work (the question of...
The way most of us think of this term is in regards to what gender(s) we're romantically interested in. But of course anyone who has been on the internet for more than 5 minutes knows there are more "lifestyles" (for lack of a better term) than you...
Not a global warming debate, just a "What the fuck is going on?" thread. Something's wrong, we can agree on that, right?
I was reading a pro-life vs. pro-choice discussion on another board, and a couple different posters said basically what I said in the quotes in my thread title. Another couple posters protested that you never know if the person you are talking to...
Read off the back of a newspaper today. There is no proof either way that a god does or does not exist. So you cannot say for certain that a god does or does not exist. Seeing as it is an act of faith to say that a god exists, it means that...
The last US combat troops in Iraq have finally left with the remaining troops limited to an advisory or training capacity in assisting the local Iraqi police and army. The Second Gulf war is effectively over, although the work in Iraq still...
Over on messageboards like the Straightdope and the James Randi Educational Forum, if you want to comment on 9/11, you are immediately referred to a 10,000 page NIST Bible and other important works that you are meant to have read, in order for your...
It seems to be fairly commonly accepted that when serving dinner to someone with dietary restrictions you should try to have an option that they can eat. But what about the other way around? If vegetarians are going to be hosting a party, should...
Loki had suggested I do something on AI theory. I wasn't really sure where to go with this, especially since I don't know how all up in this everybody else is, so I figured I'd go with something fairly basic. Strong AI is an artificial...
This rather comely looking German pop star* is being charged with aggravated assault for having unprotected sex with three men without disclosing that she is HIV positive. Ok now look, I'm not going to say this isn't a morally dubious thing to...
China has recently overtaken Japan to become the world's second largest economy and is predicted to overtake the USA in 20 years or so at the same rate of growth. What is the impact on the world likely to be if/when China does become the World's...
I wandered by a Target today and saw a guy sitting outside, registering people to vote. Target hasa policy for a while to provide what they call "distraction-free shopping" to their customers. Basically no person or group, regardless of reason or...
There's an interesting article in the New York Times today about Barnes and Noble, and whether or not they can survive the onslaught of e-books. Now personally, I have to hand it to them for developing a good e-reader, and highlighting it in their...
Calm down, all you lawyer-types; it's only a hypothetical. Anyhoo, wat do now? We have a legal system to dismantle, law enforcement officers to re-employ and a lot of judges to keep in hookers and blow. You are wondering how this happened?...
This is something I've been thinking about for a while, but Stephen Fry's recent blog post really brought it to the forefront of my mind (scroll down to "The Pink List"). The Independent on Sunday posted "The Pink List", which was a celebration...
I was in a discussion about raising children without a particular religion, with the thought that they should be allowed to choose when they are old enough. There was some discussion about the difference between raising them neutral and raising...
TIME article WUT. I don't understand why people think being politically aware and active gives someone the qualifications necessary to actually RUN a country. Especially one in a dire crisis.
Summary of debate: Booster Gold - smart type guy or stupid idea guy? So for those of you with "lives" and "friends" and who enjoy going "outside", I should explain: Booster Gold is a DC superhero from the future who steals future tech, travels...
In a heart-breaking case in Seattle a criminal court refused to issue an injunction that would have removed an infant from her mother as soon as she was born. No matter how draconian that may sound, at first glance, I can't help but feel that...
It always seems to be something that really really mattered to all Americans that they had to have pristine perfectly straight pearly white teeth. We get plenty of imported shows showing kids going through all kinds of operations to make sure they...
Wikileaks has released several thousand documents from the war in Afghanistan showing what occured from 2004 - 2009. They were released to three newspapers at once, The New York Times in the USA, The Guardian in the UK and Der Spiegel in Germany,...
Net neutrality in its most basic form means that all internet traffic is equal no matter where it comes from. No request has any greater priority over any other request. However, talks are being held between Google and Verizon to discuss how...
I've often wondered about that 'je ne sais quoi' aspect, commonly referred to as the 'soul'. And the synomyms: mind, heart, spirit, psyche... A song I like has the lyric: '... rise and fix my BROKEN soul'. Another song I like features: '...your...
I'm somewhat of an amateur history buff, specifically the tumult of Irish history but also other places. Several things fascinate me, how much there is always left to know, even of events you thought yourself perfectly familiar with, and also the...
This follows on from the new that World of Warcraft will be forcing people to use their real names when posting into any of their forums. The idea being that because you cannot hide who you are, you are more likely to be polite and constructive. One...
So the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a lobbying group that aims to encourage healthy eating -- and for laws to support it -- is suing McDonalds. As background information, the CSPI has lobbied for soda taxes, better disclosure of...
The Roman Republic was broken in many ways by the time that Gaius Julius Caesar came along, but it was based on a constitution, checks and balances of power, and the votes of the people of Rome. If someone took on the role of dictator--a sort of...
On one LGBT-related blog that I regularly read, there is currently a debate about whether people in that community should withhold donations from the DNC and HRC due to the relative lack of progress on queer issue since Obama took office with a...
I recently had a conversation with some friends, when the topic turned to dowsing. I explained how I'd (with a very cynical outlook) tried this, and suceeded, and had it backed up empirically. One guy agreed that it works. The rest just scoffed and...
Fed up with the obstructionism facing his family in his native Austria. Otto von Hapsburg, the current heir to the Hapsburg* titles and lands, has decided that instead of continuing to work towards being allowed in his own person (or that of his...
On a recent trip to Europe, a family of three generations (a Holocaust survivor, his daughter and his grandchildren) dance to Gloria Gaynor's pop song - 'I Will Survive' at concentration camps and memorials throughout Europe. ... This dance is...
The peace protesters campaigning on Parliament Square have lost their legal challenge against eviction. Their camp was set up to protest against the various wars and called for World Peace and was based in Parliament Square right outside the Houses...
The French parliament has recommended a partial ban on women wearing full face veils. This ban will be in effect in hospitals, schools and public transport. Effectively, if you wear a full face veil, don't go out into public. The French are saying...
This thread is a bit of a continuation of a topic I'd discussed in chat a couple of days ago, when it first appeared that Abby Sunderland's Wild Eyes had gone down in heavy seas east of Madagascar. While I don't feel that it's quite proper to...
It looks as though having rich, powerful and influential friends is always a bonus. The Swiss have decided against extraditing Roman Polanski to the US and turned down their request on technical grounds, so he is now free to do what ever he...
Yesterday there was a significant victory for gay marriage advocates. As some of you may be aware, the state of Massachusetts (led by our Attorney General, Martha Coakley) sued the US government last year over the constitutionality of DOMA (The...
In other words, did the world change more between 1914 and 1918 or between 1939 and 1945?
In the UK, the Times newspaper has thrown a paywall around its online presence. If you want to read any of its articles of comment pieces, you need to subscribe. You can visit the front page, but if you click on any of the links it takes you to a...
A simple question, really. When someone is sentenced to a jail term, especially something with an indeterminate sentence, like 25-to-life, is paroling the offender a requirement, provided they meet the requirements to be eligible for parole? ...
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