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Messages - Turkey
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7381
« on: December 30, 2014, 08:27:51 PM »
You're welcome to leave or live somewhere isolated, but until then your taxes are perfectly justified by roads, schools, police, firemen, military, and tons of other services.
7382
« on: December 30, 2014, 08:02:57 PM »
Damn, you called my bluff. Okay, I guess I gotta actually write some stuff about it then. So, first things first, why did the building collapse?  One reason, with several causes: failure of structural columns due to unmitigated fire. Causes? Debris from WTC 1 that ignited fires on numerous floors which were allowed to spread because of the failure of the fire suppression system on several floors. But fire can't melt steel, can it? No, it generally can't, and in this case, it didn't. Steel doesn't need to melt to fail, just like water doesn't need to boil to cause burns. Normally, steel is fairly resistant to heat (after all, extreme heat is what helps make structural steel strong). But the issue is that when metal is heat-treated, it becomes progressively weaker when heat is reapplied to it. The fires throughout the building were allowed to burn for several hours, and this caused expansion in all of the supports. Expansion is bad because that weakens the integrity of the steel and makes them more prone to failure. Another critical problem was the massive damage that was caused by the debris from WTC 1. A building is designed to overlap support, meaning each part of the building helps keep up the rest; you can't have one part be destroyed and expect the rest to not be damaged. Isn't WTC the only steel highrise building to ever collapse from fire? Yes, but there has never been a disaster like WTC 7. In typical cases, fires start from one point and slowly burn throughout the building, being stopped or delayed by fire suppression systems. That wasn't the case here. The fire began simultaneously on several floors with significant ventilation, lending itself to the spread of the fire. How do you explain that WTC 7 fell in a free-fall pattern? Simply put: it didn't free-fall. It fell nearly 50% slower than free-fall, and the interior of the building did suffer from a progressive fall, which means that when one part began to collapse, adjacent sections began as well. The exterior only appeared to fall symmetrically because it happened after the interior had almost entirely collapsed. Is it even remotely possible that any of 9/11 was a controlled demolition? No, it's simply not feasible for that to be the explanation. A controlled demolition would have taken weeks of setup with dozens of people working extensively throughout the building. It could not be done quietly or quickly. In addition, there's no video or audio evidence of blasts or explosions occurring in the buildings. What about thermite? Nope. Thermite isn't a demolition tool because it makes really sloppy holes and is extremely inefficient. There's also zero evidence of its use. I'd be happy to address any specific concerns. I also appreciate the skepticism; if there's something you don't understand, you should definitely not just accept what the news tells you, and uncover it yourself or remain ambivalent. What really sold the debunking articles for me was my experience in a materials engineering course specifically about the behavior of metals (particularly steel). Yeah, the world trade center towers were all "plane proof". But there's really no way to make any building "plane proof". Though, I personally think that the buildings didn't fail at all. I think they succeeded to an astounding degree. The planes took out the central ring (square, actually) of support columns 2/3 of the way up the building, and it didn't immediately collapse? Holy shit! That's some remarkable engineering. The fact that the towers stood up long enough for 15,000 people to evacuate from inside the buildings? A miracle of modern architecture and engineering.
7383
« on: December 30, 2014, 07:11:57 PM »
Benatar's argument against suicide is equally flimsy. If the cumulative badness of existence outweighs the good, then there's no way you can argue that the bad of continuing existence doesn't outweigh the good, too. Umm... Explain.
Benatar says reproduction is bad because Suffering > Goodness, but that suicide isn't recommended because the goodness may be worth continuing living. This doesn't make sense; either it may be possible for the goodness of life to outweigh the suffering and make life worth living, or life is just so full of suffering that it can't possibly be worth living and therefore procreation is evil. If anything, Benetar's arguments only support the acceptance of suicide in society as a way to end suffering in a simple, painless, maybe even enjoyable way (like in Soylent Green, for example.
7384
« on: December 30, 2014, 06:43:33 PM »
I think folks should go to marriage counseling regardless of whether divorce is on the table.
Of course divorce should be an option, though.
7385
« on: December 30, 2014, 06:34:44 PM »
I've always thought the consent argument was really silly, and Benatar's basic definitions of what is good and bad is flimsy and circular. Absence of bad is good regardless of whether an object of the good exist, but absence of good is bad only if there is an object for that badness, but there's no quantifiable way to measure these, and it's profoundly evident that the perceived goodness of existence is greater than the badness in the fact that only .1% of the population chooses to opt out of life via suicide.
You get this sort of wishy washy 'good' and 'bad' in a lot of western philosophies, but here it's even worse in that it assumes the mere existence of suffering is universally bad. Ironically enough, you recently argued against applying a constraint to 100% of cases; if it's demonstrable that one case of "suffering" (again, loosely defined) is beneficial to someone, then it may be demonstrable that there are two cases, and so on.
Benatar's argument against suicide is equally flimsy. If the cumulative badness of existence outweighs the good, then there's no way you can argue that the bad of continuing existence doesn't outweigh the good, too.
If anything, the argument of suffering lends itself towards altruism, charity, and to rush to the inevitability of singularity.
7386
« on: December 29, 2014, 11:41:48 PM »
Why shouldn't engineers vote on economy? Engineers are the best at everything.
7387
« on: December 29, 2014, 11:40:12 PM »
From the gameplay footage I'd prefer Hotline Miami.
7388
« on: December 29, 2014, 10:49:25 PM »
I know there's at least one trans user on here, but I have no idea who it is. I just default to 'he'.
If you know someone's transgender and purposefully use the wrong verbiage, you're just being petty.
7389
« on: December 29, 2014, 10:47:25 PM »
That's pretty cool.
7390
« on: December 29, 2014, 10:06:36 PM »
I completely bought everything that was sort of...presented by the news and general word of mouth for several years. But then I learned about the building 7 collapse and...it's really fishy.
I'm not completely sure what happened and I'm not one of those completely paranoid conspiracy theorists, but it's clear to me that a lot of information about that day was covered up or is just plain stupidly wrong.
Once I'm on my computer I'd love to explain why Tower 7's collapse made sense, but the long and short of it is that dropping a huge chunk of a building from hundreds of feet up onto another building is not conducive to its structural integrity, and burning jet fuel can and will drastically weaken steel.
7391
« on: December 29, 2014, 09:14:55 PM »
Of course, golfing is open to all personnel and does in fact cost money. This is a remarkably petty complaint.
7392
« on: December 29, 2014, 06:01:39 PM »
Why the fuck are you all so caught up on the golf course? Tons of bases have them. Are you under the impression that bases are how they are in video games and movies where everyone lives in bunk beds in a giant hangar and you carry a gun everywhere? Families live there. There are usually several grocery stores, parks, bars, and yes, recreational facilities like bowling, golf, or movie theaters.
Holy crap, guys. Marines are people too; they like the same dumb shit you do.
7393
« on: December 29, 2014, 12:14:34 PM »
The Stanley Parable is 70% off for $4.50. Go buy it if you don't have shit taste in games.
7394
« on: December 29, 2014, 12:10:10 PM »
My sister is bipolar and I think she's pretty cool. But no, mental illness sucks; I think people may be curious about it, though. I wouldn't mistake interest for envy.
7395
« on: December 29, 2014, 11:54:51 AM »
If you spend $250 on a game you're a dumb-dumb.
7396
« on: December 28, 2014, 09:46:47 PM »
You can take whatever you can carry, basically equivalent to what you can get on a flight: the clothes on your back, a backpack or ruck, and another bag (large duffel or even a rolling suitcase if you prefer). You can fill your pockets with anything, wear anything within reason (budget <$5,000), and take any piece of technology you choose. You can take precious stones or metals assuming they're within a reasonable budget, you can take any weapon you choose with the only restriction being that you have to carry whatever ammunition you bring. You can even bring an animal, including a horse or a dog, with the assumption that it's trained.
Because this is a fantasy world, you can assume you'll be involved in some epic quest soon after arriving.
No need to go into too much detail with this, though you're welcome to justify your selections.
A few important things I'd bring are:
-Small caliber handgun with a couple hundred rounds of loose ammunition and several extra magazines
-Binoculars
-Sunglasses
-Sturdy solar-powered watch
-Kevlar clothing
-Lighter with extra fuel
-Flashlight
-Small solar panel for charging flashlight
-Water bottle with filter and extra filters
-Decent boots and spare boot socks
7397
« on: December 28, 2014, 04:44:51 PM »
I don't think people disagrees with Saddam meeting Mr. Mayhem, they're just disgusted that Bush trumpeted a grief-stricken, suddenly Uber patriotic post 9/11 country into war in Iraq under the pretense that Osama was hiding in Sadam 's bedroom and that he had a huge cache of WMDs.
You've got a really poor understanding of what started the Iraq war. 9/11 had nothing to do with it, and there's definitive proof that Saddam had (and used) weapons of mass destruction.
I've always been confused by where the discrepancy lies here. The Butler Report in our country essentially showed that Blair's government lied and covered things up to make it seem like Saddam had WMDs. . . But he did, he used them on the fucking Kurds.
Are people just conflating WMDs with nukes?
Yeah, I guess. But the sanctions and investigations were always for chemical weapons, since they were trying to prevent another massacre.
7398
« on: December 28, 2014, 04:33:12 PM »
The only hope is that Destiny 2 is allowed to be what they originally intended.
7399
« on: December 28, 2014, 04:29:42 PM »
I don't think people disagrees with Saddam meeting Mr. Mayhem, they're just disgusted that Bush trumpeted a grief-stricken, suddenly Uber patriotic post 9/11 country into war in Iraq under the pretense that Osama was hiding in Sadam 's bedroom and that he had a huge cache of WMDs.
You've got a really poor understanding of what started the Iraq war. 9/11 had nothing to do with it, and there's definitive proof that Saddam had (and used) weapons of mass destruction.
7400
« on: December 28, 2014, 11:36:09 AM »
Take the iron sword because luck and holy water aren't gonna do jack shit against the huge-ass monster guarding the exit.
7401
« on: December 28, 2014, 11:29:04 AM »
From what I've seen, it was more the lack of a build up to that. Up until the ending, the entire relationship was "Asami gives good advice, good friends who both like the same guy". The suddenly, they love each other. With Aang and Korra, the build was more obvious and I also understand that certain factors limited the producers ability to build a homosexual relationship with the titular character. But a little more build instead of just "they are in love" in an already ambiguous ending would have smoothed out all this commotion.
Hell, the fact that they had to go out and declare it after the show ended supports the fact that it's "how", not "what" that people are upset about.
Yeah, this is what I'm talking about. It's not the fact that they're bi or lesbians, it's that until the creator came out and said it, they were just hard-and-fast friends that competed over love interests and later became a great duo. If they had developed the romance between them, that would've have been great. Korra blushing at Asami complimenting her new hairstyle isn't romantic development. Personally, I'm glad they eschewed all romantic relationships in the last season, because it felt like the previous ones were just bogged down by it.
7402
« on: December 28, 2014, 11:23:02 AM »
He blames his inefficacy on everyone but himself.
7403
« on: December 27, 2014, 11:26:03 AM »
Immediate investment in viable alternate energy sources, particularly in nuclear.
7404
« on: December 27, 2014, 12:59:34 AM »
How do you mean? Like I wouldn't kill myself (theoretically) because of certain factors?
If free will is true, you could commit suicide of your own choice.
If determinism is true, your suicide would have been already decided before you even thought of the act.
What's even more interesting is that if the universe were deterministic, your suicide would have been decided at the moment the universe came into existence. And with sensitive enough means of measurement, one could examine your suicide to understand literally every piece of information in existence.
Yup. While I believe space is too chaotic for determinism to exist except possibly to an extent on a large scale, I prefer the concept of determinism. It may sound weak-willed, but the concept of every action you make already being written in history (past and present) makes it a lot easier to not overly dwell on mistakes.
Bet it sucked for Hitler to be the one asshole stuck with exterminating a shitload of ethnic people.
7405
« on: December 27, 2014, 12:58:06 AM »
after saying this it got into an argument that pretty much ended up with me being grounded for about a couple months just because I thought it was not right. :s
So you politely told her you don't want to go to church, and suddenly you're grounded for two months and have your possessions demolished? Or you started an argument with your folks that was likely disrespectful and childish and were subsequently punished? Because I really doubt it's the former, and that this is anywhere close to the full story.
7406
« on: December 27, 2014, 12:46:45 AM »
How do you mean? Like I wouldn't kill myself (theoretically) because of certain factors?
If free will is true, you could commit suicide of your own choice.
If determinism is true, your suicide would have been already decided before you even thought of the act.
What's even more interesting is that if the universe were deterministic, your suicide would have been decided at the moment the universe came into existence. And with sensitive enough means of measurement, one could examine your suicide to understand literally every piece of information in existence.
7407
« on: December 27, 2014, 12:36:02 AM »
Quantum indeterminance is a thing. The building blocks of reality follow an uncertain, stochastic, probability distribution and cannot be described deterministically. The basis of our memories and reactions to stimuli are electrons (energy) flowing through our nervous system; these are the very same particles that carry an inherent uncertainty. Maybe this uncertainty leads to a Schrodinger's-cat-type situation whenever a decision is needed, and some mechanism allows us to override data and conditions that would otherwise lead to a predetermined outcome.
I dunno. Thats a super interesting line of discussion, to me. Too often these conversations are wrought with free will being relegated to the unscientific or the religious, when the reality is that the idea of a purely deterministic universe is outdated as far as hundred years since the first inklings of errors in quantum mechanics.
7408
« on: December 27, 2014, 12:06:28 AM »
Was the mother planning to keep the baby? Then the family should respect her intent and see the pregnancy through. It seems like terminating the pregnancy would be very disrespectful to her memory.
7409
« on: December 27, 2014, 12:00:36 AM »
Words are funny. Those all may be disorders in the sense that, as far as we understand, males and females have defined roles in the evolutionary process and deviation from that is biologically wrong in a sense, but the air of negativity and parallel to mental disorders that is drawn isn't very useful. This is why in any research paper you'll typically find how the author defines certain words placed front and center at the beginning.
But yeah, obviously gender identity and such predispositions are genetic, and I'd go further to say that nothing is a purely social construct and everything is grounded in genetics.
7410
« on: December 26, 2014, 02:14:06 PM »
Why does everyone kick up a fuss when homosexual characters are introduced? Can you not just chalk it up to poor characterization if you take such an issue with it?
Did you read the OP? Poor characterization is the complaint, not bisexual characters.
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