The serious stuff. Debates and discussions on politics, religion, etc.
... but separate from the federal institutions? I am also interested in answers about other countries with federal systems. For example, in Germany education and culture are (with very limited exceptions) state responsibilities. Nevertheless...
The collective "you", that is. What is, at the fundamental level, ownership? Do you own material possessions - does the fact that physical possessions can transfer ownership through simple acts like stealing count against it. Can you claim ownership...
So, there you are sat in a restaurant with a group of friends all eating different food. One of them asks if they can have a taste of the dish you ordered, just a small bit to see what it is like. Do you give them a taste, and if so, do you pass...
So much panic, so much hysteria and obvious wrongness all over the streets and the web, that I don't know if the protesters actually have a point anymore. Do arctic seals provide a food source or are they killed for their fur only? Does this even...
Taxes on junk food, or at least on certain types of junk food, have been suggested in a lot of jurisdictions lately. I haven't heard of any place actually implementing it, but I'm expecting it to show up in California or New York sometime pretty...
Gary Mckinnon, the UK hacker who broke into the Pentagon system is to be extradited. He says he was looking for Proof of Extra Terrestrials, they say he caused several hundreds of thousands of pounds of damage. Will he get a fair trial in...
There are a large number of philosophical schools of thought on the nature of consciousness, many of which are built on the concept of there being qualia, which are subjective ideas that are not able to be described mathematically and therefor...
Looks like things are going to be getting a lot warmer around here.Less than a quarter of the proven fossil fuel reserves can be burnt and emitted between now and 2050, if global warming is to be limited to two degrees Celsius (2 °C), according to a...
I understand the basic reasons for why there is a license fee: to offset the initial costs of setting up the network and new developments in broadcasting, and financing programming, but couldn't this have all been done much easier if the BBC had...
Technologically, they're pretty similar. Feudal Japan has a bit of an edge in the metallurgical department and the use of stirrups, but ancient Roman armies had massive seige weapons and were used to fielding tens of thousands, if not hundreds of...
Cruising through the Giraffe Boards and came upon a thread which purported to ask that question, but the responses were staggeringly, mindnumbingly ill-informed and just out and out stupid. That being said, it's quite clear having done not even the...
I'm not sure how many people will be interested in this, but I was just encouraging OneCentStamp to start an "Ask the Ex-Mormon" thread, and we already have an "Ask the Pagan" thread, so I thought, why not have a theme? As an advance warning,...
It seems that a drunk Briton in Crete decided to get over amorous with one of the locals. First by dropping his trousers at her and acting obscenely, then by forcefully fondling the lady in question. So she poured Sambuca over his privates. When...
So, two US journalists stray across the border into North Korea while reporting on the refugee situation and are convicted of illegal border crossing and unspecified crime. As a result they are both sentenced to 12 years hard labour. Interestingly,...
Who won? The US, UK and/or Canada? Why did we fight? Notable things and oddities of the War? How good were the United States Class Frigates? (includes the USS Constitution) Who wanted the war and why? Did you know Canada kicked the US...
In many respects things are better than they have ever been, better medical care and the like, but there seems to be something fundamentally wrong with our society, nobody has respect for anyone anymore, there is a general air of rudeness and an...
I was playing around with an ex-Sufi friend and some scarves last night, and it occurred to me that I really think hijab (scarves draped around the head and neck framing the face) are very pretty. AND, yesterday I was listening to a report on NPR...
The first in 15 years, apparently. Shall we all say, "Awwwwwww!" or "Fucking serves you right, you dumb piece of shit!"?
Watch this video from about 7 minutes onwards. In fact, watch the whole of the video, it's pretty remarkable. Hans Rosling claims 30 years ago East Asia had the most people residing in absolute poverty. However, over the last 30 years, the...
In your opinion, hopefully and unhopefully. Hopeful: religion is a distant memory in a few people's minds by 2100. unhopeful: there is no one left to remember anything
So in his final media appearance before the summer recess from Parliament David Cameron, the likely next Prime Minister of Britain, appears on a breakfast radio show and lets slip with a couple of minor expletives. If you don't know about it, the...
Usually there's a few huge events that come to represent a period when looking back. The Eighteenth Century was dominated by the Englightenment and the industrial revolution, the Nineteenth Century saw the British empire at its apogee, the rise of...
According to Western Intelligance services, all that's stopping Iran from building a nuclear bomb is the agreement of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. About a year after that, they will have the capacity to drop it on anywhere in the...
(Open ended argument/debate) I heard on the news his numbers are down and down because of the recession and the deficit. Now the deficit seems to be a legit worry, but I think he has done a good job of getting us out of this recession and keeping...
Per this story, here. To summarize - provided Vick keeps his nose clean the commissioner may be willing to allow him to start playing as soon as week six of this season. This leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. I am hugely cynical and...
What do you think of it? It seems kinda dumb to me. With the brands (three different ones!) of their planned single round of beer ("Really? I flew to D.C. for this?") already announced, could this be any more forced or fake? If I were Gates or...
Suppose a major Western nation suddenly decided to switch from a fiat currency to one backed by gold. This idea is the darling of a large number of libertarians, but what exactly would happen? I presume it would be a disaster (and that's why it...
Ban The Burkha Come on you feminists, you're letting the side down!
I absolutely do not want to offend anyone but this came up among a small group of white friends a few weeks ago and I am really curious to see what people think/feel. This guy was saying that a younger white female coworker of his referred to...
So, at the latest By-Election in Norwich North, there has been a 16% swing from Labour to the Conservatives resulting in yet another loss. This is still a stunning loss for them, despite this being the first poll since the Expenses scandal. Votes...
Here's one, share yours! Fla. death row inmate sues to get victims' Chevy AP: TAMPA, Fla. – A Florida death row inmate is suing to get a vintage Chevy pickup owned by the couple he is convicted of killing. William Deparvine was sentenced...
Sarahfeena's fascinating thread here about one's insanely cheap Depression-baby parents has made some of us, including Yours Truly, consider whether we too have some of these traits, and whether we wish to eradicate them. It has been suggested that...
Doesn't happen often. Usually Krauthammer and I are on opposite sides of issues such as invading countries. But in this piece about the Moon he exactly expresses my thoughts. Creepy. We took a dip in the ocean, then retreated to the tidal pool...
Welcome to Summer in the English countryside as the crops grow and drunk students try out their latest art/maths project under the influence of several galloons of cider. Now this is what I call a Crop Circle, a 600ft jellyfish in an Oxfordshire...
By now you've probably all heard the story of the black day camp children getting booted from the the lily white facilities of The Valley Swim Club even though their camp had paid to use the facilities, because they were told they might change the...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31726640/ns ... _politics/ (link may not be permanent) Sarah Palin announced Friday she plans to resign as governor of Alaska in a few weeks, saying she will try to "affect positive change" from outside government. ...
Anyone know about this annual festival of jingoism? The Freedom Concert has been pitched as a charity event for years now, but according to this: http://theprogressiveperspective.blogsp ... -scam.html not so much. I don't know who pays...
Should this guy really be at the top of the US's 'enemy of the state to be punished' lists, or should he be getting a pat on the back for exposing what a joke US computer security used to be?
Short version of the question: 1) When Americans in 2009 say "that's so gay," what exactly do they mean? 2) Is this insulting to homosexuals, or is it something gay and straight alike can say without exhibiting prejudice? Longer version of...
Primary school children read to dogs in class 'as they won't laugh at mistakes' Reading this after hearing an item on the radio today about the UK being the nation most likely to laugh at other's misfortunes, and least likely to laugh at...
A central postulate of quantum mechanics, the theoretical framework concerning the behavior of principally microscopic entities, introduced to undergraduate students as physics majors is the Wave-Particle Duality. The Duality states quantum...
With advances in genetics and genetic screening, and the spread of reproductive rights and sexual ethics, it may be time to reconsider social attitudes towards eugenics. It is important to distinguish between the two broad classes of eugenics:...
Gay marriage bans = more HIV. Bans on same-sex marriage can be tied to a rise in the rate of HIV infection, a new study by two Emory economists has found. In the first study of the impact of social tolerance levels toward gays in the United...
Eugenics with a good PR team, or some kind-hearted rich dudes with the best of intentions? You decide!
The time is approaching, ladies and gentlemen, where our very way of life will be threatened. The threat is dire and very real, with one obvious and immediate solution. We must destroy Mars and Venus, before they destroy us! Of course, that is...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31667236/ns ... pitol_hill The Minnesota High Court rules unanimously that he is the winner. The earliest Franken would be seated is next week because the Senate is out of session for the July 4 holiday, said Jim...
Truth is, none of us asked to be here in this world, obliged to obey its pre-defined rules, made by the strong, not-so-wise and mostly self-interested. We are all victims of circumstance, although it can be said that the fortunate few are actually...
Remind yourself of things like this story, about the replacement Presidential Helo program: Objections to VH-71 Cancellation Growing. The key quote from the article, to my mind, comes here: Primary among the complaints is that the Pentagon...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 152941.htm
How hard would it be to to have prisoners under 24 hour video surveillance? The amount of contraband that winds up in prisons means that at some point prison guards are even involved, and I'm not even taking in to account the amount of inmate on...
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