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News Briefs 20-08-2012

Rolling Stone op/ed: Guitarist Tom Morello explains what Rage Against the Machine rages against.

Quote of the Day:

Greetings, intelligent alien life forms. I am Stephen Colbert and I come to you with an important message on behalf of all the peoples of the Earth. We are not delicious. In fact, we’re kind of gamey, and we get stuck in your teeth. It’s really embarrassing at a job interview. If you want something good to munch on, go to the nearby Crab nebula. And bring a bib. Seriously, all you can eat.

Stephen Colbert’s ‘WOW! Alien Signal’ response.

  1. dogs
    they may be able to shake off 70% water but they can’t shake off that smell, especially after a romp in the ocean. my dog is the definition of “drowned rat” when he comes out of the tub 😛

  2. ebay
    first i think they should ban the sale of chicken nuggets that look like george washington. then again it did bring the seller over $5000………….

    ………..excuse me I need to go to McDonald’s…….

      1. quack cures?
        maybe they are banning them because they fell that they are exploiting people, especially as the video said, for $9000+, for what they would call a “quack cure.” I don’t think that orgonite fits into that category, but not sure. I don’t think they should ban all items that fit into this area though. Some market an item as “witchcraft” and “occult” but can be used as something completely different. Do you know how hard it will be for theaters needing a skull for Hamlet to get a skull? Even if it’s a fake?? I think they should crack down on the ones who are overpricing things and are exploiting people, but not everything. Of course that would be a hard market to judge, since only those who buy those objects know the value. I say if you want to fork over a grand for some healing stones, let them, it’s not my money and not my business.

        1. Just need a Shovel
          [quote=LastLoup] Do you know how hard it will be for theaters needing a skull for Hamlet to get a skull? [/quote]

          Of course, we could simply rephrase: Do you know how hard it will be for theatres to find a prop master willing to do a little grave robbing?

          1. What business would it be of
            What business would it be of Ebay’s to start policing for gullible people with more money than sense? This is not how democracies are supposed to work not that this one is functioning as democracy anymore anyway.

            Speaking of skulls there is a brisk business on Ebay in crystal skulls masterfully carved in China – I have a few myself. Now would this be a “paranormal” item? Well, it would depend on the sales pitch now wouldn’t it? Yet the items would be identical no matter the sales pitch. I think this move of Ebay’s is really stupid and discriminatory. There is no way they can enforce this ban fairly or clearly.

            http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_nkw=crystal%20skull&_sop=3

          2. Gullible people

            What business would it be of Ebay’s to start policing for gullible people with more money than sense? This is not how democracies are supposed to work not that this one is functioning as democracy anymore anyway.

            So, if in a democracy a gullible people should be entitled to lose all their money buying snake oil, should we also allow Ponzy schemes & Pyramid systems run unchecked?

            We decry Goldman Sachs and all those Wall Street corporations who made an obscene profit taking advantage of common folks’ gullibility, but someone selling some cockamamie ‘potion’ on eBay —which could very well be nothing but olive oil or oxygenated water— should have our blessing?

          3. the theory of “you can’t fix stupid”
            [quote=emlong]What business would it be of Ebay’s to start policing for gullible people with more money than sense?[/quote]

            Sometimes you can’t control it, this is why I said if they want to fork over a grand, let them, it’s not my money and not my business. Sure I pity those who spend frivolously. I personally think they should stop people from selling kidney stones first, but what can you do. I think this is a stupid thing for ebay to do when there are so many things that fall into this category. What about old Ouija boards? Or antiques from the Spiritualist age. S%$& they better not stop selling books that border on “New Age.” It’s sad to think that 90% of my personal collection I worked years to collect could count as part of the banned.

          4. There is pile of difference
            There is pile of difference between an elixir and a stock certificate. A formal investment guarantees that certain fiscal proprieties be honored and executed. The reason those Ponzi schemes got so out of hand is that the policing action of the SEC had been obliterated during the Bush years. There was no one auditing or checking the integrity of the transactions.
            People lose money every day in the stock market because they have been promised one thing or another that has not panned out. I doubt you will see the stock market being banned because it is unfairly taking advantage of people, nor will you see chemotherapy being banned because it does not statistically lengthen life. Attempting to ban “paranormal” stuff is just ludicrous. It is the latest extension of the nanny state zeroing in on stuff it considers quackish when in fact life is a maze of quackishness that adults get to wade through, and don’t even get me started about stuff once considered quackish that turned out not to be. Most people brandish their favorite biases like a mad kid waving a sword, and that is exactly what Ebay is attempting to do here.

          5. Guarantees
            It’s amazing how you can’t see the blatant contradiction between your latest argument, and what you previously wrote.

            You yourself are using the words ‘guarantees’, ‘auditing’, ‘checking integrity’. Which is precisely the problem with all the people selling dubious alternative remedies –dare I say it? QUACKERY— without one singe iota of guarantee given to the people making the transaction, and no regulating authority checking the veracity of their remedies’ efficacy.

            A fraud is a fraud. It doesn’t matter whether you rob 100 dollars on eBay, or 100 million on derivatives. The difference lies only in the scope.

          6. You are mistaking a technical
            You are mistaking a technical audit of a quantitative transaction such as an investment for the far more epehemeral audit of things that cannot really be audited, and even if an attempt is made. In your world everything would be audited. The problem is that those sorts of audits yield varying results according to the biases of the auditors. The scientific procedure always always has its place, but in a world that is an ongoing project adhering strictly to the scientific procedure in all things there is a drastic reduction of innovation and creativity and discovery. In your world Eisntein would never have gotten as far as he did ultimately. In the strictest application of “what is known” the scientific community of his time was censoring him. They were auditing him and finding that he failed their audit.
            There should always be a tension between conservative and liberal. If you shut down liberalism then you come to a screeching halt. It is called “sovietization.” In the example of the investments market if there were not losers and “greater fools” there would be no market at all. Certainly one needs ground rules, but you can rule a thing into non-existence and dysfunction if the rules are made supreme.

            “Five famous Scientists Who Were First Considered Morons:
            http://www.cracked.com/article_18822_5-famous-scientists-dismissed-as-morons-in-their-time.html

            And how timely and pertinent is this link on the TDG home page:

            http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/aug/19/thomas-kuhn-structure-scientific-revolutions

          7. Indulgences

            You are mistaking a technical audit of a quantitative transaction such as an investment for the far more epehemeral audit of things that cannot really be audited, and even if an attempt is made

            Gee, that sounds to me like what the Church used to do when selling plenary indulgences so the rich could buy their entrance into heaven. You could never really prove it didn't work, right?

             

            In the example of the investments market if there were not losers and "greater fools" there would be no market at all.

             

             

             

             

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