samedi 31 mars 2018

Social media leads children to violence claim. Any evidence?

The chief of the Metropolitan Police has claimed "social media sites "rev people up" and make street violence "more likely"."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43603080

"Ms Dick says she believes social media "makes it harder for people to cool down", adding: "I'm sure it does rev people up."
"There's definitely something about the impact of social media in terms of people being able to go from slightly angry with each other to 'fight' very quickly," she said.
A trivial disagreement could escalate into violence "within minutes", Ms Dick added, with disputes on sites such as YouTube identified by detectives as partly to blame.
Linking the "incredibly abusive" language online to street violence, she said: "I think it certainly makes it more likely, it makes it faster... it allows a conversation of a 'show off' sort that involves violence."
Ms Dick also told the paper that gangs who post on social media or share videos provoking rivals can glamorise violence."

Is there any evidence to back her up? Is it not that already violent youths and gangs are just also posting on social media?


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vendredi 30 mars 2018

AMD Ryzen line

Anybody had any real world experience with them yet?

So the cost of anything that even resembles a halfway decent gaming GPU skyrockets while availability of them even at the inflated prices continues to plunge with no end in sight.

But my ancient mid-range Asus laptop (Intel i7 at 2.40, 8 gigs of 800mhz DDR 3, two 500 gig 5400 rpm hard drives and a 2 gig NVIDIA GeForce GT 635M) is reaching the end of it's practical life as a gaming machine (and is starting to develop a worrying crack on the bezel near the hinge and several pieces broken off the vent on the side where the heat from the video card is vented) and while I've gotten fairly good at wringing halfway decent performance out of it (I'm a not much of graphics or framerate snob within reason) it's finally starting to come up against games it literally can't run at all. So before too long I need to slap together something.

And while I can always just go the easy route of buying a cheap Dell or HP off off Ebay and slapping a low profile GPU in it and getting something that's at least technically functional, that's a short term solution and even crappy GPUs are over priced right now.

So AMD has a new line of CPUs with integrated APUs that they claim can give halfway decent performance. They aren't miracle workers but several hobbyist online have built sub-500 or 400 dollar machines that benchmark to the same level as a very low budget (GT 1030 or so) GPU build.

I'm toying with the idea of dropping 400-500 bucks on build using this architecture.

Now I am not trying to build some sort of blow the doors off, PC Master Race, 4K at 60 FPS on 3 monitors at once while streaming post-singularity ultimate liquid cooled, gaming PC.

I want to build a decent gaming PC that will physically just play the new release Triple-A titles for a few years until this stupid mining craze finally bursts or something else happens to stabilize the video card market back down to something resembling sanity. I'm completely fine with Lowest settings, 720P, 30 FPS for now if it means I can at least play all the stuff that comes out.

Here's what I'm leaning toward building something like the one shown in this* article. Basically a solid budget Micro-ATX case, a Ryzen 5 2400G, a fairly large while still being affordable SSD, a motherboard, two 4 gig sticks of DDR4, and a power supply with enough juice left over for future expansion. Several builds online have done this in various price ranges around this ballpark.

I've still got a legal Windows 10 Key sitting around from a previous project and can use one of the generic keyboards, mice, and monitors I have sitting around for now.

That should give me something that's functional enough for now without wasting any money on a bunch of temporary compromise parts I'll wind up replacing down the line.

Then as time goes on I can add a couple of big multi-terabyte 7200 RPM mechanical drives for storage, add some more RAM, and/or some better peripherals as they go on sale or whatever and if through some miracle a decent legit non-shady deal on a proper high end video card I can add it to the system without having to rebuild the whole thing from scratch or wasting the parts I've already invested in it.

*https://www.forbes.com/sites/antonyl.../#25f5658e3c1d


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Isn't the 'evidence" usually offered for god a form of circular reasoning?

I have been told the Bible is true- because it says so in the Bible. Isn't that a form of circular reasoning, or is it an argument from authority? Religious people can never offer me evidence to support their claims of the existence of their respective gods other than quoting vague passages from their religious books- which isn't exactly evidence.


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Is the Virgin Mary in fact a new face and name for an older Roman goddess?

I was having an interesting debate with a fundamentalist Christian coworker who rejected my claim that many of the beliefs and rituals in Christianity were lifted wholesale from other older pagan religions. The concept of the trinity is one, plus the wreaths, tree and eggs at Christmas and easter.

In Catholicism particulalry in parts of Italy the Virgin Mary has practically been elevated to goddess status. Didn't Mary simply replace a Roman goddess when Christianity was spread throughout Italy?


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Illinois Nazi Wins GOP Nomination...

for real:

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/21/neo-...nal-seat-.html

Where are Jake and Elwood when you need them?


The Illinois GOP is getting hell from the NRC for letting this happen;conventional wisdom is you run a candidate in every district, including those you know are a hopeless cause in November just to prevent something like this from happening.

Guaranteed, the Dems are very happy about all the coverage this loon will get when the campaign starts in September...


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Is it rare or common for conspiracy theorists to resort to harassment and stalking?

I was reading a rather disturbing account of conspiracy theorists stalking family members of people killed in the mass shooting in the church in Sutherland Springs TX:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...rists-arrested

I've always believed most conspiracy theorists who make their conspiracy theory center of their lives to be mentally ill. Paranoia is certainly a sign.
I thought most of them are nuts, but harmless. Could many of the conspiracy theorists be dangerous? Some conspiracy theorists though are hucksters, and push theories they know to be BS just to make $$.

How often do conspiracy theorists actually lash out at survivors and confront them? Conspiracy theorists have a strange ease in dismissing the very humanity of the victims. 9/11 no planers regard the people on the planes as fictional, or at least as an inconveniences they just choose to ignore. Sandy Hook shooting deniers think many children who died were in fact fictional .
If they believe the deaths are fake- then they believe the grieving families are part of the conspiracy. I've heard conspiracy theorists argue that all the blood and the Boston Marathon bombing was fake and everyone a crisis actor. I have to assume if that is what they believe- they must see all the people who were there as an enemy of part of the black helicopter brigade they imagine is coming after them.
Is the case in the link of conspiracy theorists actually harassing and threatening people rare behavior or the norm?


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Secret Service report on mass attacks 2017

The US Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center has released a report on the mass attacks in public spaces that occurred in 2017. News outlets have written on the various statistics and findings from the report.


Report: Warning signs usually precede mass violence events

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Mercury News
The attacks have taken on a numbing familiarity in recent years: Five shot to death at an airport in south Florida. Twenty-six slain at a church in Texas. Five killed by a gunman rampaging through northern California.

These violent outbursts last year, and others like them, had key things in common. Chief among them: Long before the violence, the people identified as attackers had elicited concerns from those who encountered them, red flags that littered their paths to wreaking havoc on unsuspecting strangers.

This is a common thread in most of the mass attacks carried out in public spaces last year, the majority of which were preceded by behavior that worried other people, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center.

“Regardless of whether these attacks were acts of workplace violence, domestic violence, school-based violence or terrorism, similar themes were observed in the backgrounds of the perpetrators,” the report stated.

Every person blamed for a mass attack was a man, the report said. All of them “had at least one significant stressor within the last five years, and over half had indications of financial instability in that time frame,” the report found.

That included issues with family relationships, being fired or suspended from work and facing unstable living situations. More than half of them had histories of mental health issues, criminal charges and substance abuse, the report said. And nearly half were fueled by some kind of personal grievance. Half of the attackers had patterns of making threats, while a third made specific threats to their eventual targets, the report found...

https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/03/...iolence-events

The Secret Service Report (pdf): https://www.secretservice.gov/data/p...paces-2017.pdf


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Twitter oddity question

Although I very rarely use it, I have a twitter account for the very, very few occasions I want to reply to something someone else has said on twitter. Today I read a post on a feed I had a question about, so logged in, tweeted my question in a reply, and then logged out again.

I checked back to see if I'd had a reply, and couldn't see my tweet. Following up on a hunch, I logged back in and, having done so, I could see my tweet. Logging back out again, and I couldn't see it again.

My question is twofold. First - why? Secondly, will the person I tweeted at be able to see the tweet?


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Church Leader Mauled By Lion

Church Leader Mauled By Lion After Trying To Prove God Would Intervene

A Christian church leader tried to prove that the Lord would step forward and come to his rescue and save him recently when he went up against a lion. Things did not go as planned and the church leader had is buttocks and arm mauled by the lion when he ran towards the pride to try to prove that the Lord had power over animals in the wild.


https://www.disclose.tv/church-leade...tervene-329108


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jeudi 29 mars 2018

Republicans are fighting back against Pennsylvania's new congressional map.

They want (need) to bring the subject to the Supreme Court of the U.S.A.

Spanky tweeted

Quote:

«Hope Republicans in the Great State of Pennsylvania challenge the new “pushed” Congressional Map, all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary. Your Original was correct! Don’t let the Dems take elections away from you so that they can raise taxes & waste money!»
The reason is: With the death of Louise Slaughter, Democrats are 27 seats away of a majority in the House of Representatives. The new map alone provides them with 2 to 5 seats should they keep the same votes they got in 2016.

Think that with a shift from Republicans to Democrats of only 3 points, they may get around 12 more representatives. From then on, it's increasingly difficult to defeat gerrymandering, but 2 to 5 automatic seats would make it easier, and more worrying -from a GOP point of view-, perhaps achievable.

So, this legal battle is going to be rough (dirty?). Stay tuned.


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The future of bike sharing, with amazing pix..

Quote:

Last year, bike sharing took off in China, with dozens of bike-share companies quickly flooding city streets with millions of brightly colored rental bicycles. However, the rapid growth vastly outpaced immediate demand and overwhelmed Chinese cities, where infrastructure and regulations were not prepared to handle a sudden flood of millions of shared bicycles. Riders would park bikes anywhere, or just abandon them, resulting in bicycles piling up and blocking already-crowded streets and pathways. As cities impounded derelict bikes by the thousands, they moved quickly to cap growth and regulate the industry. Vast piles of impounded, abandoned, and broken bicycles have become a familiar sight in many big cities.
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/20...cycles/556268/


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mercredi 28 mars 2018

Microsoft - eh? Agree? What ?

From an email from MS tonight -

"You can read the entire Microsoft Services Agreement here. You can also learn more about these updates on our FAQ page here, including a summary of the most notable changes. The updates to the Microsoft Services Agreement will take effect on May 1, 2018. If you continue to use our products and services on or after May 1, 2018, you are agreeing to the updated Microsoft Services Agreement. "

The 'updated services agreement' is here and amounts to a few minutes of random, mindless scrolling or an hour of actual reading.

A gem:

"10. Contracting Entity, Choice of Law and Place to Resolve Disputes.
a. For Skype-branded Services. For use of cost-free and paid consumer Skype-branded software and Services, you're contracting with, and all references to "Microsoft" in these Terms mean, Skype Communications S.à.r.l, 23 – 29 Rives de Clausen, L-2165 Luxembourg. These Terms shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with the laws of Luxembourg but, if you live in Europe ... "

ffs

I agree to all this unknown drivel by continuing to use MS products ? Luxembourg ???


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Julian Assange has his internet access removed

The Ecuadorian embassy has removed Assange's internet:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/hayesbrown/...uk#.juZJ6Re6Xk

This actually is more interesting than it sounds. Without the internet, he literally has nothing to do all day. I wonder if this is what it will take to get him to walk out the front door. Kim Dotcom has called for a mass protest outside, but as far as I have learned, protesters gathered outside the embassy currently number zero.


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Dark matter or no dark matter? That is the question

In 2016, astronomers at Mauna Kea's Keck Observatory and the Gemini North telescope, discovered a distant galaxy composed almost entirely of dark matter...

https://phys.org/news/2016-08-scient...laxy.html#nRlv

Now, that same group of astronomers have discovered another distant galaxy, this time, almost entirely devoid of dark matter

https://phys.org/news/2018-03-dark-galaxy.html#nRlv

I mean, WT actual F? This seems to poke a rather large hole in the current theory of how galaxies form, i.e from blobs of dark matter.

When taken together, what are the implications of these two discoveries?


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Galaxy found without any dark matter

https://www.theguardian.com/science/...es-astronomers

Quote:

A distant galaxy that appears completely devoid of dark matter has baffled astronomers and deepened the mystery of the universe’s most elusive substance.

The absence of dark matter from a small patch of sky might appear to be a non-problem, given that astronomers have never directly observed dark matter anywhere. However, most current theories of the universe suggest that everywhere that ordinary matter is found, dark matter ought to be lurking too, making the newly observed galaxy an odd exception.

“Something like this has never been seen,” said Prof Pieter van Dokkum, of Yale University, the study’s senior author. “It challenges the standard ideas of how we think galaxies form.”
My first guess was that the dark matter had got separated out somehow, reading on that's one of the speculations.

This is an interesting point:

Quote:

Paradoxically, the authors said the discovery of a galaxy without dark matter counts as evidence that it probably does exist. A competing explanation for the fast-orbiting stars is that the way gravity drops off with distance has been misunderstood – but if this were the case, all galaxies should follow the same pattern.


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Self help guru coerced women into sex, branded initials on his 'slaves'

Kieth Raniere, leader of the MLM structured seminar and self help organization NXIVM has been arrested by the FBI on charges of sex trafficking.

Federal investigators say that in recent years Mr Raniere, 57, set up a secret sorority within the group known as Dominus Obsequious Sororium (DOS), meaning Master Over the Slave Women.

An affidavit filed as part of the FBI's criminal complaint says that NXIVM operated as a "pyramid" group where self-help workshops cost members thousands of dollars.

"Smallville" actress Allison Mack, a member of the organization since 2006, has been named as one of the primary "recruiters" for the inner group of women and is expected to face charges soon.

Links:
http://www.newsweek.com/nxivm-keith-...i-level-861293

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43550908

https://artvoice.com/2018/03/27/alli...arrested-next/


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James Webb Telescope

https://phys.org/news/2018-03-nasa-n...telescope.html

I think we should all march if there is any further delay to the launch. Mankind depends on the results of James Webb and our escape to the stars, because American politicians cannot be relied on to do their duty as protectors of Earth.


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mardi 27 mars 2018

Seth Rich's brother sues right-wing activists & Washington Times

http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/27/medi...mes/index.html

What are the chances of this action succeeding in the US? My belief is that First Amendment issues give it very little chance, but I really have very little idea.


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Question on a notice for a horse race, 1838

Looking for some help on understanding a few parts of this notice



Question on the second paragraph, 2 line

I presume 'Arabs' means Arabian horses, 2 miles the length of the race, 9 stone for 'jockey' weight perhaps? (9 stone equals 126 lbs), 20 G.M. Entrance P.P.

Does anyone know what G.M. might stand for? or 'Entrance P.P.

Thanks!


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The existence of cold water ice covered worlds is proof God doesn't like us much

Thee are several moons and planets and planetoids that are covered with water ice. I will focus on just Pluto. The small planet-like body of land is covered in mountains of ice. H2O ice. So if a kind just loving god existed why is Pluto not where our moon is? Our Moon is a dry desolate wasteland.


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The Other Steele Report

His report seems makes more sense the Justice Department position that Lesin got drunk alone in his room and bludgeoned himself to death.

Quote:

The FBI possesses a secret report asserting that Vladimir Putin’s former media czar was beaten to death by hired thugs in Washington, DC — directly contradicting the US government’s official finding that Mikhail Lesin died by accident.

The report, according to four sources who have read all or parts of it, was written by the former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, who also wrote the famous dossier alleging that Russia had been “cultivating, supporting and assisting” Donald Trump. The bureau received his report while it was helping the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department investigate the Russian media baron’s death, the sources said.

...

The new revelations come as concerns about Russia’s meddling in the West have intensified to a pitch not seen since the Cold War. Both the UK and the US have blamed the Kremlin for poisoning former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England this month, using a rare nerve agent that endangered bystanders. (Russia has denied it was behind the poisoning.) In the wake of that attack, the British government has opened a review of all 14 suspicious deaths linked to Russia that a BuzzFeed News investigation exposed last year.

The BuzzFeed News series also revealed new details about Lesin — including that he died on the eve of a scheduled meeting with US Justice Department officials. They had planned to interview Lesin about the inner workings of RT, the Kremlin-funded network that he founded.


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Arizona's 8th congressional district special election

April 24th (now we're just four weeks away)

Main candidates: Republican Debbie Lesko (she is a state senator and was a state representative), Democratic Hiral Tipirneni (she is a newcomer in the political arena, born in India, an emergency room physician)

Trump won by 21 points in this congressional district.

This district includes many of the suburbs north and west of Phoenix.

The only poll available to date is from Lake Research Partners (pro Dem). These are their main findings:
  • Trump's positive image measures 59%.
  • 51% of likely voters are registered Republicans
  • 46% support Lesko, 34% support Tipirneni
  • 23% of registered Republicans are undecided of voting Tipirneni
  • 70% of registered Republicans think that Republicans in the US Congress are doing a poor job or a just fair job (78% when all the voters are included)
  • 32% say Lesko is doing a good or excellent job in the state congress; 44% think she's doing a just fair or poor job.


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Racism is contextual

I think the thread title is self-evident and propose a real world example:

I recently had occasion to overhear an event producer on a phone call to book talent: "No, the dancers can't be white. I need them to be black."

This sounds racist. Without further context, I'd agree. Why are you refusing to hire white people?

Some context: This event is taking place in South Africa. Is it still racist? Maybe.

More context: its a corporate event for a european multi-national and the event is for the entire African region. Is it starting to look more like sound pr rather than straight up racism yet? I hope so.

More context: The whole show is 2 dancers and an industrial robot. A troupe of 50 would be a different story.

Your thoughts? Got any good examples to share?


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lundi 26 mars 2018

Pro-gun posters: What regulations do you want?

I think that in light of recent events, it is fair that the Pro-Gun side be allowed a platform to explain what their ideal regulation system would be for dealing with gun crime.


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Does god exist?

Now, after reading this forum and speaking to some people here. I am going to answer everybody in this one post. Now, because I know how people are, there are going to be certain people here as well, that do not look into what I am saying and starting replying without looking at the evidence provided. Some may even say, what evidence? Others, will view and not reply at all. Others will not even read this whole message and reply with off point comments.

What you need to understand is. God is NOT a human being. Not in anyway. Any many people, also Christians, have gotten it all wrong. One of the most important things they got wrong is the beginning of the old testament. It states, Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning, god created the HEAVENS and the earth. That is the correct translation. Never did god say to people there was a heaven. The heavens is a reference to the universe this planet is in. Secondly, because many Christians did not read the old testament or if they did, did not understand what was said at the beginning. It clearly states: God said... And then it happened. In other words, God has the power of speaking. He says, then it happens. It was not meant as God telling people what he had done with a toolbox. God does not sit around calculating mathematics and other things. That is the thinking of human beings. This environment you are in, was not created by mathematics. The universe/multiverse was created by mathematics, but is just a subset of the complete environment.

Now, once again. I am going to show people something here. It is a pattern, created by God, to prove who he is, in this reality. This pattern I am going to show you is impossible. It extends from the message into a series of videos, 43 to be exact. They show impossible matches, with things set by God himself. Before I do that, I would like to show you something else, in the case you are not aware of these things.

The light speed:
299,792,458 m/s. It ends in 58
Approx. 186000 Miles/s. 186

The first 12 numbers of Pi(Referenced in the videos):
3.14159265358. Ends in 58.

Now, you may wonder, what does that have to do with anything? Well, Why is the light speed the light speed? Because God said so. Why does it calculate to miles/s like that? Because God said so. People might think they do everything themselves, but it should have been clear, reading biblical texts, that god can instruct, put things in peoples minds. People are not smarter or more capable than god. People are a creation.

It is very simple. In this pattern that I am going to show you, the number 58 is mentioned. So is the number 186. It is mentioned in this message and the videos, how that is linked. What is shown here, is impossible. People with real intelligence should realize that.

I am not going to view nor read the replies I get to this, because, usually, they are only insults or people that do not understand nor look at the videos anyway. It really does not interest me, what you have to say with your negativity. Some of you claim to be researchers, but replying without looking with negative comments, just shows you are a blind fool. I have seen it many times. So, now I will post the proof, the proof that god exists:

Hi! So , I am going to be as clear as possible. The creator/god/Jesus Christ is already here. Now, some explanation that is missing from the message I will be pasting, I will add here. As you can read in the message, GOD(3 letters)=7+15+4=26(letters in the real alphabet)=2+6=8, 38. But there is only 1 master number, 11. 3+8=11. JESUS=10+5+19+21+19=74=7+4=11. So, that says with mathematics god=Jesus right? Now, Jesus is depicted in blue, red and gold in proper art. Look at what happens: GOLD=7+15+12+4=38! 3+8=11! BLUE=2+12+21+5=40=4+0=4, RED=18+5+4=27=2+7=9, 49! LOGAN=12+15+7+1+14=49! You see? Was there the whole time already, people just had not figured it out. How about I explain the connection with the Epic, mentioned in video 1,2 and 3 of my playlist as well? Here we go:

As you can read in the e-mail I am sending you, my birthday is 121280, It clearly states the position in the number Pi, which is 3 and an infinite number, infinity symbol on its side is the symbol 8, as in 38, 194238.. Now, 19, Yeah, is the number I was living on, De rungraaf 19 in Eindhoven. 42, which is also mentioned in my videos, in combination with a woman named Miss K8, 42 is also mentioned in HitCHhikers' guide to the galaxy, CH, Because her name is Kateryna=8 Kremko=6 Kremko has life path 1, so her numbers are 1,8,6.. My name, is Logan=5 van=3 Engelen=7 birthday 12, 3,5,7 and 12.. 1+8+6+3+5+7+12=42.. My address, de rungraaf 19, is also in 77 numbers of phi. 77, is the number my supposed mother lived on in her life, it also 1977, when Close encounters of the 3rd kind was released, the movie, and Eindhoven, yeah, has the evoluon, a giant UFO shaped building, that is 77 meters across. The 5 notes or tones of the movie Close encounters of the 3rd kind, can be found in the number Pi, as shown in my videos. They give a reference to a place called the Epic in Tilburg, where I went to meet Kateryna and Kimberly, a friend of hers. Do you see both names start with K? Hey, did you know this yet? JESUS=10+5+19+21+19=74 7+4=11.. 11 is the only master number. Wanna see what happens when we look up those notes in the number pi? They are D E C C G.. 45337.. So, fine, here we go.. We do it in 2 iterations, as that is how I created it.. First, the first ten matches. Then eleven. You can check this yourself at:
http://www.angio.net/pi/
Just remember to add 1 right? The index is from the beginning.. We are going to numerology these indexes, because if you would have looked at my videos, you would have understood, I purposely use numerology.
1: 51591=5+1+5+9+1=21=2+1=3

2: 112322=1+1+2+3+2+2=11

3: 183368=1+8+3+3+6+8=29=2+9=11

4: 238861=2+3+8+8+6+1=28=2+8=10=1+0=1

5: 460261=4+6+0+2+6+1=19=1+9=10=1+0=1

6: 569265=5+6+9+2+6+5=33=3+3=6

7: 644728=6+4+4+7+2+8=31=3+1=4

8: 873608=8+7+3+6+0+8=32=3+2=5

9: 970334=9+7+0+3+3+4=26=2+6=8

10: 987977=9+8+7+9+7+7=47=4+7=11

11: 1116243=1+1+1+6+2+4+3=18=1+8=9

So, you now going complain about the reorder I do with this or what? I put it like that on purpose, because of the number 58, as the sky phenomenon in Sweden was at a ski resort with the number 58 and it was not a sun dog or sky angel or whatever else you stupid fake scientists make up about it. I did that. For christ sake. So, 10 iterations.

3 11 11 1 1 6 4 5 8 11

You see the 58? Reorder..

5 3 8 11 11 1 1 6 4 11

Now, you can not get 0 with numerology, can you understand that or what?

The address of the Epic in Tilburg is:

Heuvelring 116
5038 CL

Heuvelring=8+5+21+22+5+12+18+9+14+7=121=1+2+1=4.

So, we got the 116 in there right? Hey, and the numerology value of Heuvelring, which is 4 also right? So, we got left:

538 11 11 11

Well, how about we look at it this way? Kateryna, who was there, K=11, Kimberly, who was there, K=11, I was there, Jesus=11.. But, if you split that (there are pictures in my videos proving I was there and those women as well) we get 111, 111.. 1+1+1=3=C, 1+11=12=L.. So you get the full postal code of the Epic.. If you read my E-mail, you would know, 538 is in my name chart.. How about we do 11 iterations now huh?

3 11 11 1 1 6 4 5 8 11 9

Do you see it? You do not? How about this? EPIC, E=5, P=16, I=9, C=3.. So, we remove those values:

11 11 1 4 8 11

148?
Logan=12+15+7+1+14=49
Van=22+1+14=37
Engelen=5+14+7+5+12+5+14=62
49+37+62=148.

So, here is the rest of the message. You going to look into this now or what? Would be nice you know:

Does God Exist? I have read many times, that people say Nobody has proof god exists. Now, what if I say, I have proof God exists? Would people be willing to look at what I want to explain to them/show them? It is all about, what you think the creator/god is correct? Now, lets say, the creator/god, creates an existence, actually for himself, to walk around here and interact with people, would people think that is actually possible? Now, how would he go about proving, he is actually the creator/god? Would people think, it would be possible for him to create a puzzle, a pattern, that Nobody could solve? And by solving it, proving who he really is? Do people think he would be able to do something like that? Well. There is such a puzzle/pattern. I have understood, some people have noticed some of it, but brushed it off as coincidence correct? I will start explaining it, but, if you really want to come up with a conclusion of what I am about to show you, you will have to look at all that is presented, as others, in the past, have failed to do so. The puzzle, has to do with numbers, colors, numerology and symbology. I will start at the beginning:

GOD(3 letter word)=7+15+4=26 2+6=8, 38. The 8 can be seen as the infinity symbol on its side, which is sometimes also used as the symbol for a paradox.

Are people aware of the Illuminati symbolism? It is on the dollar bill correct? It says, ‘In god we trust” right? It then says, in the seal, Novus Ordo Seclorum, which has been falsely used as New world Order, because it actually means, New order of the Ages.

The symbol is a triangle and an EYE. Triangle=3, EYE=5+25+5=8, 38.

In science, every atom is made out of protons, correct? A proton is made out of 3 Quarks(QU=17 21=83, 38 backwards) which exchange 8 gluons, 38.

The weight/mass of a proton is 938 Mev/c. 938 in alphabet is ICH. ICH comes from the old greek word ICHTHUS, in which ICH, I=Jesus, CH=Christ.

CH=38.

CHristianity. CHurCH. And in chuRCH, with numerology, R=18=1+8=9, so it also says 938.

In Chemistry, CH is very common.

Light takes approx 8.3 minutes to get from the sun to the earth, 38 backwards.

The moon is receding at 3.8 cm a year from the earth, 38.

The earth is the 3rd of 8 planets, 38.

DNA, when written like this, says C G A T, correct? C=3, G=7, A=1, T=20=2+0=2. Could we agree that you could see that as 3, 7, 12? This will be shown later.

Can people imagine that, the creator/god could have put ideas into peoples minds, 1000s of years ago, that would actually predict or match him? Are people here aware of many of the biblical stories?

How about this:

My supposed father was born on the 26st of August, star sign, Virgo, depicted as the Virgin.

I later in my life, moved to a place called Helmond, the Netherlands. Translated to English, that means the Mouth of Hell. A lot of people wanted to fight me, hurt me etc. in that place.

I later moved back to Eindhoven, to the Heilige Geestraat, in English that means, Holy Ghost street. It is between, the Paradijslaan, English, Paradise lane, and the Edenstraat or Edenstreet.

I eventually ended up at a workplace, getting into a big fight with some Jewish people, that did not seem to agree with what I said about the money system. They then threatened to kill me, my family and even crucify me.

Now, the word CREATOR=3+18+5+1+20+15+18=80 and of course 8+0=8, which is also infinity on its side, but 80. My birthday is the 12th of the 12th 1980. 12 is a common biblical number correct?

To make it even more interesting, the number pi, is 3 and an infinite number behind the . or , correct? Can you then see it symbolically, if you turn infinity back on its side as 38?

If you look up the number 121280, in the number pi, you will find this index: 194238. It ends in 38. It is followed by 839 or 938 backwards.

My name, seems to have a hidden element. First off, my last name, van Engelen, means ‘of Angels’ in English. Besides that:

Logan=5 letters, van=3 letters, Engelen=5+14+7+5+12+5+14=62 6+2=8. So it says 538.

Now, to make it even more interesting, I have a video series here, that explains the rest of this pattern combining people, locations, music track lyrics, CDs, the numbers pi, tau(2 times pi), phi, Fibonacci, colors, numbers, numerology, symbology etc. all into a single pattern, also showing the number 38.

I have been showing this for quite sometime and what is also interesting, is that somebody named Joseph, found it necessary to come and insult me. Later on, somebody named Matthew also thought that was somehow necessary.

I will tell you this last thing, after staying in the Netherlands, I decided to leave and go to Lloret de mar, Spain, which some people have called like Babylon. In this place, I eventually got introduced to another woman, for a cheaper place to stay, this woman's last name ended in CH. In this new place, I ended up in a room, next to another woman, also staying at that place, named Maria.

I will explain one last thing before I post the video playlist. I end up going to a place, called Epic. I show, in the videos, how the postal code, address and name are in the number pi. It also show a reference to the number 58, linking it back to me and 2 other women that I met there.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...yryL1xzHR7-ZqU

The word Epic, a user name ending in CH are visible in the following video. It also seems to have been shot in vemdalen sweden, where there is a ski resort at number 58.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4cRY51yW9k


I would like to add some extra details to the explanation, as I do not think people even think of this, when they watch the playlist I added here. In the first video, I mention CHarles Manson. I also mention the matrix movie, which was directed by the WaCHowski's starring Keanu CHarles Reeves as Neo.

To make it even more interesting, I will add a video, illustrating a puzzle, that links back certain band names and track titles, to the puzzles shown in the first video of the playlist. It also features a track by Deep Purple, CHasing shadows. People should know/remember Deep purple featured people like John Lord and RitCHie Blackmore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFIeFGYJGbw

I will also add another puzzle, that uses a track title and information, more anagrams etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCwN8E7p4HA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM20jzNEufs

I would also like to add that the first video of the 'Here is your proof' playlist, is part of a longer set of videos, linking more stuff together with a set of music mixes called the 3rd testament.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...SbGpG1Z0hWlw6S

The 3rd testament mixes are not on soundcloud anymore, but can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...R03SOfCqpuTkiE

I would also like to add, I "predicted" the position of a certain female DJ in the top 100 twice, in the video series. Miss K8, Kateryna Kremko. As you can see in the first video, the number 88 is clearly visible in the properties of the document I gave her. It is later referenced again, in the video 88 in the playlist.

Her position in 2016 was 88:

https://djmag.com/top-100-djs/poll-2016-miss-k8

Her position in 2017 was 58 and 58 was mentioned in the second video, was it not?:

https://djmag.com/top-100-djs/poll-2017-miss-k8

Lastly, I would like to add, I arrived in Lloret de mar, Spain, early this year. There was a referendum for the Independence of Catalonia. You check the vote count for independence yourself, as it ends in 38:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catala...ferendum,_2017

Oh, one last thing. I spent some time chasing this DJ, Miss K8 around. I did. She played in Switzerland, Basel. Following her there, I end up getting the number 38 again on my boarding pass and some other things, which I show in the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DA9lX6wC1A

Now, are you people going to understand what I showed you here?

Well ,that is very nice. Have a look at all of that then and I hope to hear from you!

Merry CHristmas!

Have a nice day!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now... I have made it very, very clear, that because people have ignored me, not made me known, hardly spoken about me, for 2 years, people now have less than 2 months on this planet, before I leave and destroy everything and it is judgement day. That is what my later videos on my youtube are about. People can still do something about that. Are you people going to understand the seriousness of this matter then? Because it really is serious.

You should understand, the explanation in this e-mail. Things in biblical texts were written down incorrectly. People were told, people are made out of matter(clay), Atoms(Adam), Electrons(Eva). Every Atom is made out of protons. the mass, mentioned in this e-mail is 938. ICH, I=Jesus CH=Christ. That is why it says in biblical texts: 2 corinthians 13:5 - Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?

Now, there would be a sign in the sky correct? It is not my fault people make things up when they write them down. This sign is shown in the video included in this e-mail, the video shot in vemdalen sweden.

Now, as you may or may not know, I have contacted many, many churches, tv stations, news papers etc. etc. etc. around the world about this. If nothing is done, it is peoples own fault and you will all be judged accordingly.

You have your opportunity to do something about this.

Have a nice day!


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Skeptics in the Pub: Trivia Night! (Syracuse, NY)

Skeptics in the Pub: Trivia Night!

Wednesday, April 18, 2018 from 8:00 PM - 10:00 PM

The Distillery

3112 Erie Blvd E, Syracuse, New York 13214 USA

Join CNY Skeptics for a Skeptics in the Pub: Trivia Night event for April 18th! This month, we will be at The Distillery on Erie Boulevard in Dewitt, NY, courtesy of the Syracuse Trivia Company! Come and test your trivia knowledge! No cover charge, but you must pay for your own drinks and food.

Please contact 1-315-636-6533 or email info@cnyskeptics.org for more information.

Central New York Skeptics (CNY Skeptics) is a community organization dedicated to the promotion of science and reason, the investigation of paranormal and fringe-science claims, and the improvement of standards for science education and critical-thinking skills.

Attached Images
File Type: jpg 15616139-standard.jpg (45.1 KB)


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Screw Loose Change and other documentaries

Hey!

When I was younger I watched the video "screw Loose change" and loved it and I want to watch it again but it seems to have completely vanished from the internet. All I can find is a translated version, so does anyone have it downloaded that I can torrent.

Also are there any other debunking conspiracy videos at the same caliber as screw Loose change?


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dimanche 25 mars 2018

Why is Africa less developed than Europe & Asia?

European & Asian cultures developed advanced civilizations, philisophies, architecture.

Sub-Saharan Africa appears to have developed none of this.

I have read many theories as to why this is, some suggesting that the warm climate year-round did not push cultures to struggle survive like the cold winters of Europe and Asia did, and this somehow inadvertantly caused Euros and Asians who develop more sophisticated societies than those areas where climate did not force people to think hard or die.

Is there anything to this?

I am not knocking native cultures, just trying to understand why things are the way they are.


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What deaths (injuries, accidents) will be unavoidable for self-driving cars?

One of the big pluses for self-driving cars (AVs), eventually, is a dramatic reduction in deaths (etc), by taking all-too-fallible humans out from behind the wheel.

I vaguely recall numbers like 5% as the number of unavoidable deaths etc, though not a detailed breakdown of the reasons.

So what could be the causes of unavoidable deaths etc for AVs? Assume each is on its own, and can’t get near real-time info from nearby AVs; here are some that I thought of (AVs may turn near certain deaths to “mere” injuries, etc):

Freeway pileups, e.g. in dense fog, or on icy roads.

Landslides, rock slides, avalanches, etc. Perhaps flash floods belong here too.

Catastrophic equipment failure, especially at high speed.

Auto equivalent of what caused the Concorde crash.

Bridge, tunnel, roadway, etc collapse (my fave horror: sinkholes :))

Large animals suddenly trying to cross a (narrow) road.

And lots of highly unlikely causes, e.g. being hit by space junk, or an engine which fell off a plane.

More?


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Self-Driving Uber Car Kills Arizona Pedestrian

Quote:

Originally Posted by steenkh (Post 12231676)
Yes, and no. Failures are expected, but fatal crashes where the detection systems apparently do not detect anything, are not expected.

Why is this not expected? Tesla had a fatal crash where it failed to detect a sideways on trailer. Did people assume Tesla were incompetent? I get the impression people think the auto breaking systems in conventional cars are 100% effective. Are they?

Quote:

Originally Posted by steenkh (Post 12231676)
It has been stressed several times that human intervention is impossible because of the reaction times involved. The human will have to wait for the reaction of the self drive system before deciding to intervene. Humans are really only useful in situations where fast reaction is not necessary, like when the car gets into an unexpected situation at slow speed.

Why is the car driving in such a way that human reaction times are not able to cope? They don't have to, surely? Humans have to intervene in self drive in slow moving situations, so the assumption is surely that the computer will screw up at least as much when driving quickly.

Every day humans deal with other humans slowly crossing the street ahead of them and generally don't hit them. Its not like she was concealed behind a parked car and leapt out at the last minute.

Quote:

Originally Posted by steenkh (Post 12231676)
I do not have a driver's license, and I am looking forward to be able to having my own car drive me wherever I want without me needing a license. Besides, I can get out of the car, and it will park the car afterwards. The safety needs not to be maximized, but it should at least be as safe as if I drove the car myself (after having learned how to do it).

That and commoditising cars so you don't own one and some company has an Amazon like monopoly is the reason for self drive.

Sent from my Vodafone Smart ultra 6 using Tapatalk


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Trail of tears.

Was the death toll of the trail of tears really exaggerated?
tomato bubble.com/site/trail_of_tears_myth.html
First off this guy does an inverted appeal to motive: ie they didn’t mean to hurt anyone and such.
Second they rely on the work of one William R. Higginbotham who claims to have see documents proving it wasn’t so bad but gives no evidence. Any thoughts?


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Higher education and student debt: the next great scandal

A critique of the college loan and higher education industries, and who benefits from them and who suffers.
Quote:

The education industry as a whole is a con. In fact, since the mortgage business blew up in 2008, education and student debt is probably our reigning unexposed nation-wide scam.

It's a multiparty affair, what shakedown artists call a "big store scheme," like in the movie The Sting: a complex deception requiring a big cast to string the mark along every step of the way. In higher education, every party you meet, from the moment you first set foot on campus, is in on the game.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politic...windle-w510880


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samedi 24 mars 2018

Is addiction a disease?

Is addiction a disease?


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UK authorities raid Cambridge Analytica

NB: Although there has been some discussion of Cambridge Analytica in the Trump thread, the company has also been implicated in Brexit campaigning, and thus spans both UK and US politics.

BBC News: Cambridge Analytica offices searched over data storage

"The London offices of Cambridge Analytica have been searched by enforcement officers from the UK's information commissioner.

The High Court granted the data watchdog a warrant amid claims the firm amassed information about millions of people without their consent, based on a 2014 quiz on Facebook.

The seven-hour search finished in the early hours of Saturday.

Both Cambridge Analytica and Facebook deny any wrongdoing.

A group of people, some wearing ICO enforcement jackets, entered the building housing Cambridge Analytica's London headquarters at 20:00 GMT on Friday - less than an hour after a High Court judge granted the warrant.

Several hours later members of the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) were seen leaving the offices and a van - thought to be carrying gathered evidence - was driven away from the rear of the building.

The ICO applied for the warrant to access the databases and servers of Cambridge Analytica.

The search is part of a wider investigation into political campaigning.

Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham has said she was looking at whether personal data was acquired in "an unauthorised way", whether there was sufficient consent to share the data, what was done to safeguard it and whether Facebook acted robustly when it found out about the loss of the data.

Cambridge Analytica's acting chief executive, Alexander Tayler, said the company has been in touch with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) since February 2017 and it remained committed to helping the investigation.

In a statement, he said checks in 2015 showed all the Facebook data had been deleted but the company was now undertaking an independent third-party audit to verify none remained.

Cambridge Analytica chief executive Alexander Nix was suspended on Tuesday after footage broadcast on Channel 4 appeared to show him suggesting tactics his company could use to discredit politicians online.

Claims over whether Cambridge Analytica used the personal data of millions of Facebook users to sway the outcome of the US 2016 presidential election and the UK Brexit referendum have also been raised."

Speaking as someone whose day job is exactly what my username says, it strikes me that the inherent problem is that CA was using data they shouldn't have access to within the context of UK law, and/or that they were using data in a way that is illegal in the UK, regardless of whether the application of it was within the UK or not. In essence, either they were doing something without checking whether it was legal or not; or they knew it was illegal, but did it anyway. A company such as CA cannot reasonably claim to be unaware of their obligations under the Data Protection Act, at a minimum.


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Re-inventing the solar system

Those nice folks at cluesforum don't like NASA. They don't particularly like anyone, but NASA and anyone who has ever been anywhere near them are automatically bad people out to defraud and hide the true nature of the universe and its workings in order to..erm..something something dark side.

In order to free the world from the tyranny of science, knowledge, facts and education, the forum owner has left his sock puppets in charge and worked on a new model of the solar system. The background and discussion is here

http://www.cluesforum.info/viewforum.php?f=34

and the model itself here

http://www.tychos.info/

By new, he means "heavily borrowed from an old model that was modified and supplanted when new knowledge came along".

He has been asked some tricky questions, and his answers are mostly "I don't know, but I'm right, so shut up".

They have asked NASA to comment. NASA won't bother so this will fuel their fire even more.

I am not an astrophysicist, so I am not in a position to comment on it, but perhaps people here might have fun with it :)


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vendredi 23 mars 2018

Weird conspiracy theory on Wikipedia

Since I was stoned and bored but my account here was suspended, I went and wandered around on Wikipedia a bit and somehow ended up on the article of the plane that never stops giving, the Su-25. On the talk page I noticed a recent discussion (start reading from about 1/3rd of the way through, starting with the 10 feb 2018 reply by user Santamoly and the resulting discussion) and the theory being peddled on it by the admins (Acroterion et al).

Santamoly asks why the flight ceiling has been lowered in the article from 10km to 7km when plenty of believable sources support the original figure. The admins then come up with bizarre theories about how the ceiling was actually "raised ex post facto" by the Russians after a July 2014 crash to "manipulate Wikipedia". Yep, you heard that right, apparently the Russians traveled back in time to raise the ceiling retroactively.

What happened next was pretty revealing, after Santamoly asked for some support for the theory of the ceiling being raised ex post facto, the admins started to threaten Santamoly with sanctions and blocks if he disputes or discusses their theory any further. The user was then indeed blocked for disputing it.[*] What's interesting is that the admins claimed to be doing all this on the authority of the Arbitration Committee, the highest level of Wikipedia. I then brought it up on the notice boards and was quickly blocked for disputing the theory there. Especially the combination of how bizarre the CT is (Russians traveling back in time to "raise the ceiling ex post facto") combined with ArbCom authorizing the blocking of anyone disputing the theory, either on the article's talk page or on the dispute resolution boards, makes for a really interesting situation. So I started digging, and it turns out that comments actually debunking the theory are simply removed from the talk page altogether and various other eyebrow-raising issues.

I've sent an email to the ArbCom mailing list informing them of the situation. My money is on that they'll stick to their "time traveling Russians did it" theory and the blocking and/or removing comments of anyone disputing, let alone debunking, it. I wonder why they're so quiet about it though, I'd have thought this would be a historic occasion: The first discovery of a Russian time agent.

The article has always had a flight ceiling of 7,000 meters and 23,000 feet, we have always been at war with Eurasia.

* ETA, as one of the admins supporting the block there said: "You only have to look at the entire history of the Su25 article, and then what happened after July 2014, to see exactly what the problem is." Remember kids, always call their bluff ;)


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Free Range Parenting Law in Utah.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/cont...203114763.html
There have been stories in the media about parents charged with child abuse or losing custody of their kids for allowing them to be alone at home or walking alone to/from school or a park. Utah is passed a bill that clarifies some things.
Quote:

As outlined in the bill, the following situations would not qualify as neglect: traveling to and from school or recreational facilities by walking, running, or biking, playing outside, or sitting in a car unattended, provided the child is at least 9 years old and in reasonably safe conditions.
When I grew up in rural Minnesota in the 70's, I along with my brother and sister were alone at home at times while our parents worked. We frequently were out of the house/yard (but nearby) unsupervised at ages ten and up. I kept a tighter rain on my own kids in the 90's when they were young, but we were in Pearl City Hawaii then.

Ranb


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Spending Bill

The wailing and gnashing of teeth over at Breitbart is truly something to behold. I don't know how the Dems pulled this off, but they made sure the GOP has nothing to campaign on for the midterms, other than huge deficits and trade wars (and with Bolton in, maybe actual wars).


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War With Iran inevitable now?

Given National Security Advisors Bolton's obsession with Iran, and his devout belief that Military induced regime change is the only answer, I say yes. All he has to do is convince Trump that going to war with Iran would make him look "Tough" and off we go.
And It will be Vietnam on steroids.


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Can Dogs "Fake" Limps?

My mother thinks her wiener dog may be faking a limp to avoid exercise. She googled and found a bunch of pet owners making claims about fake limps. I did some google-fu myself, and while I did indeed find pages of such claims, none of them seemed to come from any scientific source that I could recognize. Mostly, I just found people on forums insisting that their dogs do this.

It's not that I think dogs are too dumb to concoct a ruse. My skeptic muscles have simply been set a-twitchin'. I wondered if anyone on here had any information about this "phenomenon," or if it's realistically possible.

I want to make sure her dog is okay too, because he is my favorite dog in the world.


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ISIS guy killing hostages in Trebes France

Happening now in a supermarket...

Quote:

Originally Posted by BBC News
A gunman is believed to have killed at least one person during a hostage-taking at a supermarket in Trèbes, southern France.

Elite police have rushed to the Super U shop, and there are unconfirmed reports of another death.

A prosecutor says the gunman, who remains in the supermarket, claims to be in the Islamic State group...


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43512791


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Other Losses - The Film

Some people just can't learn!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAgLaF6Wd8c

In spite of getting proven thoroughly and entirely wrong, Bacque is still pushing his thesis. And as it is on YouTube, people will consider it authoritatively true. They don't have to judge it, it comes pre-resolved.

Naturally, it was heralded by Charles Burris on LewRockwell.com.

:blackcat:


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jeudi 22 mars 2018

Paris sex doll "brothel" not a brothel, after all....

BBC News: Sex doll 'brothel' - Xdolls escapes Paris council censure

"Paris councillors have rejected a motion targeting a business where clients are charged €89 ($109; £78) to spend an hour with a silicone sex doll.

Communist councillors and feminist groups had called on the Council of Paris - the body responsible for governing the city - to study the possibilities of closing Xdolls.

They argued it was demeaning to women - and effectively a brothel.

Owning or operating a brothel is illegal in France.

But police visited the establishment before the council meeting and declared no laws were being broken."


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The clintons have an open marriage says long-time Clinton pollster

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ster-says.html

"Mark Penn, who served as a pollster for Bill Clinton in the 1990s and chief strategist for Hillary's 2008 presidential campaign, says that the political couple's open marriage was possibly 'not by choice'.

He even references Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright's characters on the hit political drama House of Cards, where the fictional first couple, Frank and Claire Underwood, 'have numerous partners, including one who sleeps at the White House'."


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Tribal Police "kidnap" infant from Miami Hospital

Miccosukee tribal police remove newborn from Miami hospital. Apparently the tribal police were enforcing a tribal judge's court order. This all allegedly occurred off reservation. The parents are calling this a kidnapping. If the facts are what the story suggests, I think kidnapping is not too strong a word.

Quote:

"The order was not signed by a Florida judge, but by a tribal court judge on a reservation 32 miles away in the heart of the Everglades. The cops were from the Miccosukee police force, a department whose jurisdiction covers mainly the reservation and properties owned by the tribe"


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Libertarian Tipping

How much do you tip a libertarian?

A. A stingy five gradians.
B. A modest but decent fifteen gradians.
C. A very generous twenty five gradians.
D. None of the above.


Obviously, D.

Since the Trump administration wants to change the rules on tipping.


Quote:


The Trump Administration Wants To Let Bosses Keep Their Workers’ Tips by Alexia Fernández Campbell


The new rule would allow restaurant owners to do two things in particular.

First, it would let employers collect the servers’ tips into a pool that would
be shared with back-of-the-house workers — dishwashers, cooks, etc. —
who have to be paid the regular minimum wage and aren’t typically tipped.

Restaurant owners say that back-of-the-house workers should get a share
of the tips because they contribute to a customer’s overall experience, but
labor rights groups and servers argue that restaurant owners should just
pay those workers better, instead of using servers’ tips to subsidize their pay.

But the second way employers could use the tips goes even further than
expanding this type of tip pooling. The rule lists examples of how else
employers could use a worker’s gratuities: to renovate their restaurants,
lower menu prices, or hire more workers.

In other words, it allows restaurant owners to keep the tips for themselves.


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Who would win a fist fight between Donald Trump and Joe Biden?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.8f70f16c60a8

Trump and Biden are both openly fantasizing about who would win in a fistfight

My money would be on Biden.


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[Continuation] The Trump Presidency VI

Mod InfoThis thread is a continuation from here.
Posted By:Loss Leader




Did Trump just challenge Joe Biden to a bout of fisticuffs?


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All beliefs are factually correct

Definition:

The referents of a belief are the circumstances that stimulate its assertion.

Premise:

All beliefs have physical referents.

Implication:

The referents of all beliefs exist.

Conclusion:

All beliefs are factually correct.


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Take $800 million from investors get fined $140K

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-2...llapse/9576418

There is something wrong if people can be jailed for stealing a lot less money than that. "Storm Financial" was pretty much a ponzi scheme that made a lot of money for its' owners. A lot of lives were ruined. Something wrong with justice there.

The sales tactics were very high pressure and often depended on people going into a huge amount of debt, often using mortgages, to speculate on the stock exchange. That all ended in tears with the Global Financial Crises.

Quote:

Emmanuel and Julie Cassimatis, the husband and wife founders of collapsed company Storm Financial — which left more than 3,000 clients destitute — are facing fines of $70,000 each under a Federal Court ruling.
The couple copped the penalty for giving inappropriate financial advice to vulnerable cash-strapped investors and have also been banned from managing corporations for seven years.
During Federal Court hearings in 2016, it was determined the pair had breached the civil, not criminal, duties of directors stemming from the Corporations Act.
But the fine is seen as a slap in the face to their former clients, who lost more than $800 million when the company went under.
Vietnam war veteran Stephen Reynolds was one of them, with the 70-year-old losing his house in Townsville after being left with a $1.2 million debt.
At the time he signed up for a Storm Financial margin lending loan he earned just $800 a fortnight.
"Is this fine enough? Because my legal bill trying to recover money from that was lent by dodgy banks was almost $80,000," Mr Reynolds said.
"This does not make sense to me, this is a fine of only $70,000 when it appears it could just be pocket money for Mr and Mrs Cassimatis.
"Ten years on, with many families destroyed, marriage break-ups, suicides and lots of lots of stress, I cannot see after 10 years this amount of money is enough — it is a slap in the face.


Not to mention the "reputable" banks that were in on the scheme.


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mercredi 21 mars 2018

Why Are so Many Americans Self-Medicating?

I brought this up in the opioid threat, but nobody wanted to talk about. That's strange. We're in the middle of our worst-ever drug epidemic. Why? What is it about this society that has so many people turning to drugs and alcohol?


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Could Marsupials ever evolved into an intelligent being?

Many Marsupials in Australia are bipedal so could they have evolved self-aware intelligence perhaps genius?


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Dr. ApponMyPhone

Good day,
What a strange world we live in.
Two of my coworkers are devout christians, and really are the kind of people who are kind and polite to everyone.

The last six months there has been a lot of discussion of essential oils. This seems to be acceptable in their world view which I am fine with. They don't bug me about it but they discuss them daily.

Yesterday and today they were discussing one of the medical issues that one is having. One asked what oils they might be using, the other said "Well, I looked at this app I have on my phone".

Modern hoodoo


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Christianity as a default is gone. The rise of a non-religious Europe.

I've taken the headline virtually directly from an article in The Gradiaun.

Quote:

Europe’s march towards a post-Christian society has been starkly illustrated by research showing a majority of young people in a dozen countries do not follow a religion.

The survey of 16- to 29-year-olds found the Czech Republic is the least religious country in Europe, with 91% of that age group saying they have no religious affiliation. Between 70% and 80% of young adults in Estonia, Sweden and the Netherlands also categorise themselves as non-religious.
Quote:

The figures are published in a report, Europe’s Young Adults and Religion, by Stephen Bullivant, a professor of theology and the sociology of religion at St Mary’s University in London. They are based on data from the European social survey 2014-16.

Religion was “moribund”, he said. “With some notable exceptions, young adults increasingly are not identifying with or practising religion.”

The trajectory was likely to become more marked. “Christianity as a default, as a norm, is gone, and probably gone for good
There are some striking graphs and plenty more figures in the report, which makes for great reading. Here's a nice little snippet:

Quote:

In the UK, only 7% of young adults identify as Anglican, fewer than the 10% who categorise themselves as Catholic. Young Muslims, at 6%, are on the brink of overtaking those who consider themselves part of the country’s established church.

The figures for the UK were partly explained by high immigration, he added. One in five Catholics in the UK were not born in the UK.


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Bernie Sanders town hall feat. Elizabeth Warren, Michael Moore

...Drew over 1.7 million views.

Link.
Quote:

Three co-hosts aided Sanders in his efforts: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), New School economist Darrick Hamilton and filmmaker Michael Moore.

Together they interviewed three guests with specialized knowledge of the economic and political structures suppressing economic mobility and funneling wealth upward. Catherine Coleman Flowers, a founder of the anti-poverty Alabama Center for Rural Enterprise Community Development Corp., spoke about the destitute poverty of the rural black community in Lowndes County, Alabama, where exposure to untreated sewage prompted a rare outbreak of hookworm.

Cindy Estrada, a vice president of the United Auto Workers, addressed the role of organized labor in raising living standards ― and how its decline has lowered them. And Gordon Lafer, a political scientist from the University of Oregon, explained how corporate interests neutralized public opposition through campaign donations and massive lobbying efforts.
You can watch the video here:

[yt]pb2ZZ_iqi3w[/yt]


What's interesting is Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, if they run again, may be better served supporting each other in light of these cooperative events. I don't think they will run against each other.


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mardi 20 mars 2018

Evolution of voting styles

Just a query I can't find a lot of information on throughout the net:

How did people vote in the early years of democracy? In the Roman Republic, for example, how did people physically vote on election day? Did they actually cast ballots that had candidate names on? How about when Adams and Jefferson squared off? If I was a white middle class male, would i receive my ballot in the post and then go down to a church hall?


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How not to get gun control supporters to support the NRA

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/ken...hallenged-nra/

A former Secret Service agent running for Secretary of State "threatened" to shoot the current guy through his "F" button that he wears to signify his F rating from the NRA. I put "threaten" in quotes because who knows what he meant, but he did talk about using the SoS like target practice.

I'm wondering, do pro-gun people really think that if you threaten to shoot a gun-control supporter, it will make them change their mind about gun control?

I am reminded of an on-line discussion I had once where I told a guy he was an *******. He was like, "Say that to my face and I'll kick your ass!" I was like, yeah, you probably would, but it won't do much to convince me that you aren't an *******!


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Teach Dog to Nazi Salute - Hate Crime

Man who taught pet pug to give Nazi salutes and posted footage on Youtube found guilty of a hate crime

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-a8265301.html

Quote:

A man who taught his girlfriend's pet pug to give Nazi salutes and then posted the footage on YouTube, has been found guilty of a hate crime.

Mark Meechan, of Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, will be sentenced in April after a Scottish court found him guilty of communicating a "grossly offensive" video.

The 30-year-old taught his girlfriend's pug to react to the words "gas the Jews", which he repeated 23 times in the short video that he uploaded to his YouTube channel last year.
People got offended; no surprise there.

Quote:

He found Meechan guilty of sending by "means of a public electronic communications network a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character".
I hesitate to watch youtube videos at work which are deemed offensive (by youtube) so I have to ask if anyone else has seen it.

While I presume hearing a person chant "gas the jews" is offensive, I can't really see how a little dog responding to it with a salute is going to be actually threatening.

Ranb


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Scottish Youtuber faces hatecrime charge over video of pug trained to do Nazi salute

Quote:

A man is facing jail after he was convicted of a hate crime for uploading a video of him teaching his girlfriend’s dog to give a Nazi Sieg Heil salute and respond excitedly to the phrase "gas the Jews."
Newsweek: http://www.newsweek.com/youtuber-cou...e-crime-853470


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Help on understand some Victorian religious concepts

Folks

In the past you have been very helpful in clearing up my understanding of these issues.

What I'm trying to clarify is what would have been an early Victorian's (1840's) view of a middle class person in society holding one of the following positions on religion:

1. Misotheist
2. Theodicy
3. Dystheism
4. Anthropodicy

Now my present understanding is that misotheist would be viewed with great hostility, theodicy and dystheism would be viewed as alarming and reprehensible and anthropodicy less so. Would this be correct?

Thanks


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Today's school shooting 3-20-18

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/maryland-h...opstories.html


Maryland high school locked down after several people shot, but 'event is contained'


White kid? Mentally ill
Black kid? Angry at the whites - possibly has a manifesto
Immigrant? Upset with Trump voters - posiblemente tiene los manifestos
Brown? TERRORIST!


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Will the Republican party stand for the rule of law or for Trump?

I am increasingly skeptical that republicans will care when Trump fired Mueller and pardons everyone charged in that investigation who has not plead guilty in a plea deal. The groundwork has been laid a long time for them to be able to justify all this.


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Influence

Believe me, this book has made me not only a better prepared consumer, but a better prepared person when it comes to being manipulated. Sometimes you can tell you are being manipulated but you can't put your finger on it so you might let it go. Not after you read this book. You will be able to articulate the technique used on you (and there are only 6). This book is a fun read and arms you against unethical (and maybe even ethical) persuasion.

I stumbled on this book at the library one day knowing nothing about it. I was dumbfounded how much I learned and later I discovered this is the classic book on the subject.

I just looked up Cialdini and he has written much since this book. I haven't vetted them. I'm only vouching for this one.


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lundi 19 mars 2018

There is now a ban all automatic weapons. What next?

It has been decided that automatic weapons in civilian hands is not a good idea. Laws have been passed such that the state and federal governments all over the USA have agreed, no automatic weapons in civilian hands. What next?

No one has any idea how many automatic weapons are in the USA.
No one has much of an idea who has them.
Gangs are unlikely to cooperate and disarm voluntarily.
Militias are definitely not going to cooperate and disarm voluntarily.
Actually, lots of people are going to fight to keep their guns. Others may just hide them and play dumb.
The police are not going to be happy about the battles they face as they try and seize guns.
The manufacturers I presume can still make such guns, but only for the military and police and to sell abroad.
What about smuggling, as all the guns that went to Mexico start to head back to the USA?

Does anyone think that it would be possible to remove automatic weapons from civilian hands? If so, how?


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Hitler and Stalin: Who really killed more?

So there's a truism that Stalin killed more than Hitler, having killed 20 million.

However, according to historian Tim Snyder...

Quote:

Today, after two decades of access to Eastern European archives, and thanks to the work of German, Russian, Israeli, and other scholars, we can resolve the question of numbers. The total number of noncombatants killed by the Germans—about 11 million—is roughly what we had thought. The total number of civilians killed by the Soviets, however, is considerably less than we had believed. We know now that the Germans killed more people than the Soviets did.....
He goes on....

Quote:

The total figure of civilians deliberately killed under Stalinism, around six million, is of course horribly high. But it is far lower than the estimates of twenty million or more made before we had access to Soviet sources.
and finally.

Quote:

All in all, the Germans deliberately killed about 11 million noncombatants, a figure that rises to more than 12 million if foreseeable deaths from deportation, hunger, and sentences in concentration camps are included. For the Soviets during the Stalin period, the analogous figures are approximately six million and nine million. These figures are of course subject to revision, but it is very unlikely that the consensus will change again as radically as it has since the opening of Eastern European archives in the 1990s.
http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2011/01...who-was-worse/

I have heard from other sources that the death figures given for Stalin have gone down since 1991. Though there are questions as to how complete the Soviet archives are. In addition, we know that the Soviets released prisoners that were in poor condition or were on the brink of death. Their death toll has not been recorded.


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Political Thriller in Norway - Over a Facebook Post

Quote:

A social media post by Norway’s justice minister accusing the opposition Labour party of putting terrorists’ rights above national security has triggered a no-confidence vote that could bring down the country’s minority government.

Five centre-left parties have said they aim to oust Sylvi Listhaug, of the populist, anti-immigration Progress party in the parliamentary vote on Tuesday, following widespread outrage at the Facebook post, which she has since deleted.

“Labour thinks the rights of terrorists are more important than the nation’s security. Like and share,” the minister wrote on 9 March beneath a photo of masked Islamist fighters dressed in combat fatigues, black scarves and ammunition belts.

The rightwing extremist Anders Behring Breivik shot dead 69 mainly young people at a summer camp run by the youth wing of the Norwegian Labour party on Utøya island in July 2011. Eight more were killed by a car bomb in central Oslo.

Listhaug’s post, which coincided with the Oslo premiere of a film about the Utøya killings, the country’s worst peacetime massacre, unleashed a political furore and she was eventually forced to apologise eight times in parliament last week.
Quote:

The minister took six days to take the post down and faced further criticism when her initial apology to MPs referred to a “communications” error rather than the offensive content of the post. She eventually made an unconditional apology, saying “of course it is not the case” that Labour was a threat to national security.
A bit of nuance is gone here. Parliament majority was ready to vote on strong criticism of Listhaug, while only the single representative of the fringe Red (Communist Party) had called for a vote of no confidence.

However, when Listhaug came to Parliament to make a public apology for her Facebook post, she made a mess of it.

She probably thought she could get away with a half-apology, and apologized for people feeling hurt.

This outraged Parliament, making her return to make a second apology.

Which was not much better, making her return to make a third apology.

Parliament was still not pleased, and she returned a fourth time where she finally apologized also for the content of her post, saying that of course Labour cares about the security of the nation.

The result of the apology made Labour, the Socialist Left Partyand the Greens immediately declare that they will now support Red's vote of no confidence. Later the Center Party also joined in, leaving the Christian Democrats - who is needed to gain majority.

Quote:

The opposition Centre party on Friday joined several leftwing groups that had already said they would support the no-confidence vote, in effect leaving the fate of the justice minister – unless she resigns – to the Christian Democratic party, which was meeting on Monday to decide how it would vote.

“The polarising rhetoric and behaviour must end,” the party’s leader, Knut Arild Hareide, said before the talks started. “The conclusion has not been reached.”
The Christian Democrats have a good relationship with the coalition's Conservative Party and Liberal Party, but has a bad history with the Progress Party. Especially with Listhaug, who has previously claimed in a televised debate that Christian Democrat leader Hareide "licks the back of imams" - i.e. does anything and everything he can to please them.

Their meeting ended earlier today, and the Christian Democrats have decided that no, they don't have confidence in the Minister of Justice.

The vote is tomorrow.

Quote:

Norwegian media reported over the weekend that the government would stand by Listhaug and resign if the Christian Democrats – who, while supporting Solberg as prime minister since 2013, have refused to join her coalition mainly because of their dislike of Listhaug and the Progress party – backed the motion.
This is tradition in Norway. A cabinet stands and falls together. No confidence against one minister is no confidence against the PM and the entire cabinet.

That's why the PM will most likely go before Parliament and tell them that if the vote of no confidence passes, she will resign and leave Norway without an executive branch. That might force the Christian Democrats to hold their noses and not vote yes.

I don't know how dramatic this sounds to a non-Norwegian, but it's the biggest political thriller in my lifetime. The whole nation is holding its breath, waiting for what happens in Parliament tomorrow.

Source from The Guardian.


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