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Messages - More Than Mortal

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13081
The Flood / based adam smith
« on: September 15, 2014, 04:22:30 PM »
Quote
Smith was described by several of his contemporaries and biographers as comically absent-minded, with peculiar habits of speech and gait, and a smile of "inexpressible benignity".[51] He was known to talk to himself,[45] a habit that began during his childhood when he would smile in rapt conversation with invisible companions.[52] He also had occasional spells of imaginary illness,[45] and he is reported to have had books and papers placed in tall stacks in his study.[52] According to one story, Smith took Charles Townshend on a tour of a tanning factory, and while discussing free trade, Smith walked into a huge tanning pit from which he needed help to escape.[53] He is also said to have put bread and butter into a teapot, drunk the concoction, and declared it to be the worst cup of tea he ever had. According to another account, Smith distractedly went out walking in his nightgown and ended up 15 miles (24 km) outside of town, before nearby church bells brought him back to reality.[52][53]

James Boswell who was a student of Smith's at Glasgow University, and later knew him at the Literary Club, says that Smith thought that speaking about his ideas in conversation might reduce the sale of his books, and so his conversation was unimpressive. According to Boswell, he once told Sir Joshua Reynolds that 'he made it a rule when in company never to talk of what he understood'.

13082
The Flood / Give money to charity, but with no actual cost to yourself
« on: September 15, 2014, 04:04:21 PM »
http://www.tabforacause.org/

It donates a little bit of money every time you open a new tab.

13083
News / Re: Slow site is a known issue
« on: September 15, 2014, 04:02:10 PM »
Tell Cameron he's a sprightly fellow.

13084
The Flood / Anyone else keep getting this error?
« on: September 15, 2014, 03:08:53 PM »

Fix it, Cheat.

You cunt.

13085
Serious / Re: Atheists...
« on: September 15, 2014, 01:20:26 PM »
Requesting this be moved to the flood, it's just a shitpost.
snip
I'm not saying it's a shitpost because he's religious, I'm saying it's a shitpost because that's what it is.
What kind of question is this? It's like asking "Theists, do you believe in god?"
The answer is pretty much standardized and he should know it already.

Not to mention the simple wording, and the fact that in a later post he specified "souls".

This topic is hardly serious.
Which is why I added the last paragraph.

13086
Serious / Re: Atheists...
« on: September 15, 2014, 01:08:06 PM »
Requesting this be moved to the flood, it's just a shitpost.
I disagree.

I have to say, one of the biggest problems with intellectual discourse is the demonisation which occurs. The idea among liberals that conservatives are just racist, bought and paid for or otherwise somehow disingenuous. That, somehow, the other side simply can't be genuine at best or, at worst, is actively immoral.

It's the same with religion. I don't know if PSU's a troll - I'm inclined to say no, but I'm sure he fucks about occasionally - but regardless, people genuinely hold the opinions he does, and that's absolutely fine. You aren't going to make any progress on the matter by calling it a shitpost or approaching it from a hostile viewpoint.

By no means am I accusing you of these things, of course, I don't doubt your intellectual capacity; just seemed like your post was a decent jumping-off point to make such a proclamation.

13087
Serious / Re: Atheists...
« on: September 15, 2014, 12:50:56 PM »
lol its just like you guys to over think everything.

Where does their soul go?
There's no such thing.

13088
Serious / Re: Atheists...
« on: September 15, 2014, 12:23:34 PM »
. . .

They. . . don't?

They just die.

13089
The Flood / Teacher kicked me out for raising my eyebrows
« on: September 15, 2014, 12:08:10 PM »
I'm not even kidding. A teacher came out to ask us what we were doing, and as I looked back down at my computer I apparently raised my eyebrows and he started having a go at me.

Like proper shouting and then kicked me off the computer cluster.

What the fuck?

13090
The Flood / Re: How do you pronounce Sep7agon??
« on: September 15, 2014, 12:01:22 PM »
Who the fuck would pronounce the number?

13091
The Flood / Re: Dude
« on: September 15, 2014, 11:42:10 AM »

13092
The Flood / I dreamt about you nearly every night this week
« on: September 15, 2014, 11:39:21 AM »
YouTube


Do you ever get that feeling that you can't shift the tide?
That sticks around like something's in your teeth.
Are them some aces up your sleeves,
I had no idea you're in deep,
I dreamt about you nearly every night this week.
How many secrets can you keep?
'Cause there's this tune I found,
That makes me think of you somehow,
When I play it on repeat.
Until I fall asleep,
Spilling drinks on my settee.

DO I WANNA KNOW?

13093
The Flood / Re: Dude
« on: September 15, 2014, 11:31:48 AM »
Get that fucking cock out of your throat, then.

13094
Serious / Re: English Nanny State gone wrong.
« on: September 15, 2014, 11:04:16 AM »
We have a fingerprint system in our school.

It really is quite good.

13095
The Flood / Re: How does personal statement write? (UCAS)
« on: September 15, 2014, 10:58:26 AM »
I wrote a personal statement based around PPE. Apparently it was very good, but a bit verbose.

13096
Serious / Re: Is this immoral?
« on: September 15, 2014, 10:56:52 AM »
More like because rape is immoral no matter what.
That's literally what I just said.

Anyway, that's not a view I take myself, but that's fair enough.

13097
Serious / Re: Is this immoral?
« on: September 15, 2014, 10:53:10 AM »
Quote
Well, there's nothing to suggest that rape is inherently immoral.

>mfw
Spoiler
Would it be immoral for a raging father to rape the paedophile who just fucked and murdered his son?
Uh...yes?
Well, is that because the act of sex without consent is, in itself, wrong?

13098
Serious / Re: Is this immoral?
« on: September 15, 2014, 10:13:20 AM »
I'd prefer if he tortured or killed him, but hey whatever floats your boat.
Well, I imagine rape is a sort of torture.

13099
Serious / Re: Is this immoral?
« on: September 15, 2014, 10:11:33 AM »
It's not about legality, it's just plain wrong.
Well, I'm not going to offer a moral position on this myself.

13100
Serious / Re: Is this immoral?
« on: September 15, 2014, 10:10:54 AM »
Quote
Well, there's nothing to suggest that rape is inherently immoral.

>mfw
Spoiler
Would it be immoral for a raging father to rape the paedophile who just fucked and murdered his son?

13101
Serious / Re: Is this immoral?
« on: September 15, 2014, 10:07:11 AM »
The fact is it's wrong to take away all that from a person (especially your own daughter) and then on top of that rape her.

Come on now. That's just plain wrong.
I'm not offering my own position on the matter, merely performing an experiment.

I'm not sure I'd call it immoral, but it'd certainly be illegal.

13102
The Flood / Re: The deal with Doom DH.
« on: September 15, 2014, 10:05:28 AM »
Do me next.

13103
Serious / Re: Is this immoral?
« on: September 15, 2014, 09:57:51 AM »
Its not consensual sex. It's rape.
Well, there's nothing to suggest that rape is inherently immoral.

The point is the consent is irrelevant; she has never been aware of anything and can't, under any circumstances, ever give or withhold consent. There is no consciousness or reasoning happening. I'd imagine a large part of why rape is frowned upon is precisely because of the relationship between consent and an active withdrawal of it.

Like having free speech but choosing to keep certain things private.


13104
Friends of the Earth's shift on nuclear should be celebrated, not denied

Quote
Nuclear power in the UK has turned out much safer than environmentalists worried it would be.

Friends of the Earth, which feared the threat of a catastrophic Chernobyl-style meltdown in the UK, is now less concerned. Fear of nuclear armageddon was a driving force for the green movement in the UK – Greenpeace has its name for a reason.

But Friends of the Earth have revealed that their old ideological opposition to nuclear has crumbled, to be replaced by a new pragmatic opposition based on cost and build time.

In the old days nuclear was fought because of the health threat; now it’s opposed because it’s the wrong option in an energy system designed to tackle climate change.

The group denies that its position has shifted – but to me this looks a huge and significant shift – and especially controversial if you work for the UK nuclear industry and have been told for decades that your operations are a clear and present danger to the public.

The new position was expressed in an interview with Friends of the Earth’s campaigns director Craig Bennett on Radio 4’s Today Programme on Wednesday.

When the presenter asked him to explain the group’s opposition to nuclear power stations he got this reply: “The biggest risk of nuclear power is that it takes far too long to build, it’s far too costly, and distorts the national grid by creating an old model of centralised power generation.”

I sat up in bed. Friends of the Earth says the biggest risks of nuclear are that it’s too slow to build; it’s too dear, and would you believe it… it even distorts the grid!

The presenter Justin Rowlatt interrupted, sounding surprised: “You’re not worried about the risks from radiation?”

Bennett replied:

Of course, there are real concerns about radiation, particularly around nuclear waste… but I think it is important how this debate has shifted down the years.

The real concern now is how we get on fast with de-carbonising our electricity supply. It’s very clear that nuclear can’t deliver big changes fast.

That’s a huge risk if we’re trying to tackle climate change. With renewable technologies and with energy efficiency we could be making a difference within three or four years.

So, presented with a free hit against the risk of a nuclear accident, Friends of the Earth’s green warrior swiped at build-time, cost and grid disruption. Further prompted on safety he swiftly shifted to the intractable problem of waste, and did not mention accidents at all.

Does that mean if nuclear stations were cheap and quick to build and we could bury the waste somewhere, nuclear would become respectable? Well, the group told me later they were just as concerned about accidents as ever – but the cat was out of the green bag.

Friends of the Earth’s shift was signalled in a little-reported policy paper last year which included an independent assessment that coal and maybe even gas generation presented more health risks than nuclear. I have not heard the shift so strikingly articulated before this week.

The group’s phones started ringing after I broadcast a news item on their policy shift on Wednesday morning.

The matter is highly delicate: the group is locked in an internal battle: some members want it to accept nuclear’s role in the UK’s low-carbon energy mix, whilst others are as passionately anti-nuclear as in the old days of the cold war and nuclear armageddon.

Andy Atkins, its director, said on its website: “Friends of the Earth is certainly not now pro-nuclear, we have not changed our position.”

Now, I have been tracking the environment movement for 25 years, but to confirm my memory on Friends of the Earth’s historic position I phoned its former director, Tony Juniper. He told me: “In the UK the (nuclear) safety record has been pretty good, so the safety dimension has diminished - and the emphasis in Friends of the Earth has changed.”

He said in the early days of the green movement, campaigners opposed the nexus of civilian and military nuclear, but the cold war ended and old accidents at Dounreay in 1977 and Windscale in 1957 receded into memory.

Bennett later told me:

Perhaps in the past our opposition to nuclear was gut instinct.

Our position has now been “refreshed”. We don’t want to close down the UK nuclear industry right away – that would create far too many problems for energy supply over coming decades. But we still very much oppose nuclear new-build. The biggest issue is cost.

Bennett told me Friends of the Earth had always deployed a suite of arguments against nuclear power, with the emphasis shifting over time.

He was supported by Tom Burke, another former head of Friends of the Earth, who remains strongly anti-nuclear. He says the group’s fundamental opposition to nuclear through the decades has not changed - he says the main thrust of Friends of the Earth’s attack against the industry has fluctuated as different priorities emerged.

Other environmentalists, though, have been happy to credit the UK nuclear industry with its safety record – even in some cases to reluctantly embrace the previously hated industry as an ally in the fight against climate change.

Stephen Tindale, former Friends of the Earth campaigner and former head of Greenpeace, is a nuclear convert. He told me Friends of the Earth’s position had inarguably changed:

Friends of the Earth campaigned to get existing nuclear stations closed down, on safety grounds, as well as opposing new nuclear stations. So the current Friends of the Earth line is a change from the past. And the reason for opposing new nuclear is now cost rather than safety.

A change of emphasis, which Tony Juniper accepts has happened, is a change in the campaign. Refreshing a campaign, to use Craig’s word, is a change in the campaign - no point in “refreshing” but leaving it just the same. Friends of the Earth is not pro-nuclear now, but it is less strongly anti-nuclear and on different grounds.

I’m still nuke agnostic but for years I have considered nuclear economics more controversial than nuclear safety in the UK, so I’m happy to see the debate move to that ground. Friends of the Earth’s opposition is now less ideological and more functional and that marks a maturing of the green movement which should be celebrated by Friends of the Earth, not denied.

I suggest a new rallying cry: “No nuclear new-build – it distorts the National Grid!”

13105
Serious / Re: Is this immoral?
« on: September 15, 2014, 09:43:15 AM »
He's manipulating things and taking advantage of his own daughter and raping her.
How are any of those things applicable when absolutely no harm is being done to anybody? The daughter was never even really alive; never capable of cognition or (dis)pleasure of emotion.


13106
Serious / Re: A death penalty discussion
« on: September 15, 2014, 09:39:22 AM »
ITT: Kinder doesn't acknowledge the existence of institutionalisation.

13107
Serious / Re: I do not think going into Iraq a third time is a good idea.
« on: September 15, 2014, 02:27:42 AM »
This topic was about foreign oil, pal. You know, the entire reason these countries probably hate us in the first place.
They hate us for nation-building and policing them.

Not for buying their oil.

13108
The Flood / Re: What would you do if you were at a dance and you saw this?
« on: September 15, 2014, 02:21:01 AM »

13109
Serious / Re: I do not think going into Iraq a third time is a good idea.
« on: September 15, 2014, 02:19:24 AM »
The destruction of ISIS has been one of the most persuasive justification we've had in recent years.

At the absolute least we need a combination of air support, military advice and special forces on the ground in order to get this done.
Or we just fuck off from other people's lands and become self sufficient.
Sorry, what?

13110
Serious / Re: A death penalty discussion
« on: September 15, 2014, 02:13:24 AM »
The death penalty is wrong, anyone who supports it is just a cunt. End off.
"Soldiers and pretty much all Americans need to die".

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