11/6/09

Carl Sagan was an idiot

Reasons to agree:
  1. Carl Sagan said, "It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English -- up to 50 words used in correct context -- no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese‎." This is stupid.
  2. Sagan erroneously predicted in January 1991 that so much smoke from the Kuwaiti oil fires "might get so high as to disrupt agriculture in much of South Asia…"
  3. In 1994, Apple Computer began developing the Power Macintosh 7100. They chose the internal code name "Carl Sagan", the overt reference that the mid-range PowerMac 7100 should make Apple "billions and billions."[3] Behind the scenes, however, it was intended as a scathing criticism of Sagan and his brand of science.[citation needed] Though the internal project name was never used in public marketing, it did come up in Usenet postings and news of the name grew from there. When Sagan learned of this he sued Apple Computer to force the use of a different project name. Other models released conjointly had code names such as "Cold fusion" and "Piltdown Man". This was intentional as Apple engineers had used the names from what they felt were the three greatest science frauds of the twentieth century.[citation needed] Unaware of the true motive behind the code names Sagan was still displeased being associated with what he considered pseudoscience, as he was at the time writing a book discrediting pseudoscience. Though Sagan lost the lawsuit Apple management complied with his demands anyway and renamed the project "BHA" (for Butt-Head Astronomer). Sagan promptly sued Apple for libel over the new name, claiming that it subjected him to contempt and ridicule, but he lost this lawsuit as well. Still, the 7100 saw another name change: it was finally referred to internally as "LAW" (Lawyers Are Wimps).[30][31]
  4. In 1966, Sagan was asked to contribute an interview about the possibility of extraterrestrials to a proposed introduction to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Sagan reportedly asked for control and a percentage of the film's box office receipts in return; these terms were rejected.[15]
  1. Everyone does idiotic things. Sagan was very smart, of course.
  2. Sagan was very concerned about humans not destroying ourselves. That is a good idea.
  1. Criticizing Sagan, because he was an agnostic.
  1. Defending Sagan, because he was an agnostic.

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11/1/09

Sanctions do not harm the rulers of a bad country

Reasons to agree (explanation):
  1. Sanctions just harm those who are out of power. If the rulers are bad, they will ensure that they will never be harmed, no matter how bad the country gets.
  1. Sanctions are the only way to punish a country without war. War is bad. Sanctions are less bad than war.
  2. Sanctions may make political reform more likely. People don't change their political systems when things are going good. Sanctions make things go less good in a country. Sanctions make the news. Sanctions make people think that the rest of the world dissaproves their countrie's leador's actions.
  3. We deserve the right to determine the minimum set of ethical standards for people to meet in order for our country to do business with them.
0 comments

We should spend at lest 4% of GDB on defense

Reasons to agree
  1. This kind of investment will make up for critical gaps in the modernization of our equipment, personnel and health care efforts.
  2. We have typically spent about 4% of GDP on defense.
  3. 4% is a good amount, given our challenges.
  4. Most countries spend about 4% of their GDP. Sometimes people try to make a big deal about how we spend more than other countries, but that is just because our economy is so much bigger than most other countries. Indonesia spends a higher percent of GDP, so does China. Saudi Arabia spend about twice as much as we do. We have a lot of land. Our people are spread out over a large distance. Everyone wants to take out the big dog. We are the protectors of the free world from despotic, tyrannical countries that want to rule the world, and are willing to kill others to be in charge... We would like it if other democracies carried their portion of the responsibilities, but because they won't, we have to protect them.
  5. Our GDP is 13.84 Trillion dollars. 4% of that is 553.6 Billion. The US population is 304,059,724 people. So 553.6 billion dollars per 304 million people is $1,820 per year. That is not too much to for each citizen to pay our government to protect us. That is really the only purpose of government.
Webpages that agree
Webpages that disagree
  1. ?
  1. Mitt Romney
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Prestigious schools should grade on a curve to stop grade inflation

Reasons to agree:
  1. Right now you can buy prestige for your kids. It is not difficult to get into Harvard, you just have to have a lot of money, if you don't have a scholarship. Once into Harvard grade inflation ensures that almost anyone gets good grades. And so when businesses hire you, they are either paying you a lot of money because you are smart, or because your daddy has rich friends. You can't give the best jobs to the best students, if everyone at a school has A's. Harvard gives everyone A's.
  2. In order for people or organizations to make the best decisions, they need to have access to the most amount of information.
  3. According to an American Academy of Arts and Sciences 2002 study, in 1966, 22% of all grades given to Harvard undergraduates were A's. That grew to 46% in 1996.
  1. It is in Harvard's best interest to give everyone who goes to their school good grades. Some of their students are brilliant, and get into Harvard because of their good grades, or scores on standardized test. Harvard gives these students an excellent education, by giving them the best teachers and access to the best equipment. The way Harvard is able to do this is because all the rich parents that pay the full price to send their kids to Harvard. The expensive price for a Harvard, and grade inflation keeps rich parents who are paying for prestige happy, which keeps the whole thing going.
  1. No one wants to pay $100,000 a year for their kid to go to school and get bad grades.
  1. The desire to be able to tell your kids that life is fair.
0 comments

10/24/09

We should take Ahmadinejad at his word.

We should take Ahmadinejad at his word.

Reasons to agree:

  1. No one took Hitler seriously, but he tried to do all the crazy stuff he said he would, about trying to kill all the Jews, and take over the world.
  2. Thursday, August 3, 2006 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the solution to the Middle East crisis is to destroy Israel (The Associated Press, By SEAN YOONG).
  3. "It is no longer acceptable that a small minority would dominate the politics, economy and culture of major parts of the world by its complicated networks, and establish a new form of slavery, and harm the reputation of other nations, even European nations and the U.S., to attain its racist ambitions, (Speech at UN by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, 24/09/2009)
  4. Ahmadinejad denied the murder of 6 million Jews. This is serious stuff.
  5. Ahmadinejad's speeches are a cry for truth from a Holocaust denier, a cry for democracy from a leader who shoots freedom seeking protestors, and a cry for peace from the word's biggest sponsor of terror, who aspires to annihilate a UN member nation.
  6. Ahmadinejad says the Jews are a small and greedy minority that controls the world through slavery. That's classic anti-Semitism which exposed the true face of that regime, to anyone who still in doubt.
  7. Ahmadinejad tortures his own people and represses citizen protest he has the courage to say Israel was committing genocide

Reasons to agree:

  1. Ahmadinejad doesn't really doubt the Holocaust, he just has to say stupid stuff like that in order for his stupid population to re-elect him.
  2. Ahmadinejad doesn't really care about the Palestinians. He just uses them to distract his people from their own crappy lives under his rulership. The Palestinians are refugies from the 6-day war that the Muslim nations started. If Iran cared so much about them, they could let them live in Iran. When you start a war, and loose it, you loose territory. Israil ganed land from the Palestinians when the Muslims lost the 6 day war, and the Palistinians have been bitching about it ever sense. That is what happens when you loose a war that you start: you loose property, you loose your homes, you loose your homeland. It is your own dumb fault for starting the war. The Palestinians should blame the Aarabs for starting the war, and loosing it so profoundly. They shouldn't blame the victim of the war (Israil) for winning it, and then taking some extra land after the end of the war. Ahmadinejad knows all this, but the Aarabs don't want to be told that the Palestinian's problems are their fault, and so he tells them what they want to hear, and what gives him more power. But we should never assume he is so stupid to believe his own words.

Interest of those who agree:

  1. Preventing the people with the most hate and anger in the world (Arabs) from attacking their "enemies" the Jews.
  2. The desire to avoid the mistakes of the past.
  3. Economic prosperity as a result of peace
  4. Ahmadinejad wants to be taken at his word, so what are his interest?

Interest of those who disagree:

  1. Feeling like they are smarter than those who use words to communicate.

Do you know a lot about the Arab Israil conflict? I just made all this stuff from what I hear on the news, but I would love your help.

0 comments

10/23/09

We must not allow a nuclear 9-11 (an attack on America)




  1. 9/11 caused thousands of Deaths. A nuclear 9/11 could kill millions.
  2. Most practical sacrifices being proposed, that supposedly limit our privacy, are worth the price. It's easy to make childish theoretical arguments that sound good on paper, about never invading people's privacy. But you don't have a right to privacy in public places.
  3. It is cowardly to attack citizens.
  4. Reasons that Muslims should agree: A nuclear 9-11 would not cause America to withdraw from the world stage. We would destroy any country that has people in it that smiled on the day that America was attacked, the wrest of the world would support us in any vengeance that we wanted, and our culture would not be the one that would go up in flames afterword. A nuclear 9-11 would not stop the spread of western culture. A nuclear 9-11 would not stop the spread of womans rights, or gay rights. A nuclear 9-11 would not stop the spread of democracy. A nuclear 9-11 would not accomplish any of the goals of the Muslim community.
  5. We will prevent one country from invading another country. You don't need to worry, Iran, that someone will attack you if you don't have a nuclear weapon. A nuclear weapon will make you less secure, not more secure.

  1. Once my website is up and running people will be able to post bad things, and I don't think they should be removed, you should just be able to post reasons to disagree. But for now I am not going to try and brainstorm or address stupid things.
  1. The environment.
  2. Mankind
  3. Preventing Human suffering
  4. Preventing the cycle of violence that would result when America demanded vengeance
  5. Fear of terrorist attacks

  1. Freedom from government monitoring, from those who are resisting CIA and FBI expansion of powers
  2. Freedom from other countries telling them to not build bombs, from countries like Iran that is seeking nuclear powers.
  3. Revenge for perceived wrongs, from religious Muslims who want a nuclear 9-11 in America
  4. Stopping the spread of Western Culture, from religious Muslims who want a nuclear 9-11 in America and think a nuclear 9-11 would cause America to withdraw from the world stage.
  5. Stopping the spread of women's rights, from religious Muslims who want a nuclear 9-11 in America and think a nuclear 9-11 would cause America to withdraw from the world stage.
  6. Stopping the spread of sexual freedom, from religious Muslims who want a nuclear 9-11 in America and think a nuclear 9-11 would cause America to withdraw from the world stage.
  7. Stopping the spread of the right to divorce, from religious Muslims who want a nuclear 9-11 in America and think a nuclear 9-11 would cause America to withdraw from the world stage.
  8. Stopping the spread of homosexual rights, from religious Muslims who want a nuclear 9-11 in America and think a nuclear 9-11 would cause America to withdraw from the world stage.
  9. Fear that someone would attack, if they don't have a bomb to scare them away.
Common Interest between those who agree and disagree
  1. Prevention of the loss of innocent life.
  2. Prevention of injustice.
  3. Fear that things could get out of hand, or would not go according to plan. 

Opposing Interest between those who agree and disagree
  1. The spread of American culture 
  2. The spread of Islam
  3. National pride 
  4. The spread of perceived sinfulness
  5. Jealousy (if your older brother has a BB gun you want one too)
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Its not my fault that I got laid-off from my first 2 jobs out of college

Reasons to agree:
  1. It's not my fault my 1st employer went out of business.
  2. My first employer hired me when they were thinking they would get some big projects. When they did not get the projects, I ended up spending a lot of time just sitting around and reading the national electric code. After a while they had to let me go. I saw the writing on the wall, and so when they let me go on a Friday, I started work for my 2nd job on a Monday.
  1. In the big picture, it was my fault. If I had done better at school, I could have gotten better companies to hire me, that were more financial stable, and wouldn't have had to let me go after such a short amount of time.

It was a tough economy in 2003, in Boise, when I graduated. My first job closed their doors . Its not my fault that the business failed. I was let go twice when I first got out of college. The economy was bad in 2003 especially in Boise, for consulting electrical engineers. My first company I went I was let go from my first job because, like I say, the economy was bad and there wasn't enough for me to do. I took jobs that other people warned me against taking, because those jobs were the only jobs available in the Boise area, and I had to stay in the Boise area while my wife finished her masters. Other people who graduated with me from BSU in electrical engineering could not find any electrical engineering jobs, and one guy I knew kept his job as a delivery man for a music company. My first company let me go because they were a 4 person company, and they didn't have enough for me to do. They went out of business shortly after they let me go (Apex Consulting Engineering in Boise). My second job that I went to after college hired me because they thought they were going to get some big projects. They let me go when they ran out of stuff for me to do. I was never fired, I was only laid off.


  1. Self delusion
  2. Self promotion
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There is no such thing as a stupid question

Reasons to agree:
  1. If you don't know something important, you will be found out. It is better to ask a question that someone will call stupid, than to make a big mistake.
  2. If people are busy, they should be able to tell you to come back later.
  3. If people people are busy, and don't think you need to know the answer they can tell you that they are not going to teach you. 
  1. Asking someone who is busy a question that you could figure out yourself, is a stupid question.
  2. Asking someone who is busy a question with an answer that you don't need to know in order to perform your job is a stupid question.
  3. You are paid money because a company thinks you know something, are capable of learning something, or doing something. If you ask too many questions, it will make your employer question if you are really capable of doing those things. And so from a self preservation standpoint, you don't want to appear stupid, or like you don't know things, if you think you can eventually figure them out.
  4. From a business standpoint the only judge is money. Everyone's time is worth money. Businesses pay you to work. You ask questions when you are no longer are able to make progress. So a business would want you to ask a question if there was no way for you to find the answer yourself. However, only a moron could never find the answer themselves. If you and your co worker make the same amount of money, the question is the process of asking them the question will result in less time devoted to the question. However if your coworker makes twice as much money as you, you should be willing to spend twice as much time trying to figure out the question yourself, instead of spending 1/2 the time bugging them.
  5. From a personal standpoint, if you value a relationship with a coworker it depends on if they like answering questions. Also your approach effects the equation. If they like talking, and they are not in the middle of something, asking the question may help your relationship. So a stupid question is one that annoys your coworker, and makes them not want to help you in the future.
  1. Laziness
  2. The desire to learn.
  3. The desire to talk.
  1. The desire for solitude.
  2. The desire to keep their knowledge that gives them a competitive advantage to themselves.
  3. The desire to use their time efficiently, and not constantly entertain inquisitive idiots.
Possible common interest:
  1. The desire to use the company's time wisely.
  2. The desire for the company to do well.
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It is better to spend time on the internet than watching TV

Reasons to agree:
  1. TV has commercials.
  2. "You can teach an old brain new technology tricks," said Dr. Gary Small, a psychiatry professor at the Semel Institute for Neuroscienceand Human Behavior at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the author of iBrain. With people who had little Internet experience, "we found that after just a week of practice, there was a much greater extent of activity particularly in the areas of the brain that make decisions, the thinking brain -- which makes sense because, when you're searching online, you're making a lot of decisions," he said. "It's interactive."
  1. It depends what you would be watching, or would be doing on the internet. Talking about pointless things going on in your life on the internet, with stupid people on Facebook is probably a bigger waste of time than watching intelligent programing on TV, but if you are discussing ideas, or creating something of your own on the internet, it is usually better to express yourself than watch the result of when other people expressed themselves, unless you are stupid... if your stupid, it is probably better you don't express yourself.
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9/24/09

The political campaign of the future

This is the way I think it should be.
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9/19/09

Line Item Veto Term Limits, and Speeches before congress

Click here for my latest rant about the Line Item Veto Term Limits, and Speeches before congress.
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Explanation of Idea Stock Exchange

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Re: The Real Romney?

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Politicians should wear lie detectors

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9/17/09

Never Again-is what you swore-the time before

video
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9/15/09

Just Sin Taxes

Republicans have good principles, but they rarely follow them. One of the good principals that republicans talk about, but never seem to follow threw is the principle of rewarding good behavior and punishing bad behavior. We should lose taxes that tax good behavior, like income tax and vastly increase sin taxes.

The Republican Party is typically seen as your father’s party. The democrats are like your mom. They care about your feelings, but the republicans have tough love, and tell you to stop feeling sorry for yourself, and get to work. Parents tend to learn, that if you do stuff for their kids all the time, the kid will never learn to act by themselves. Sure, the government can help people who need help, but do you really deserve help from the government if you skipped class, didn’t do your homework, and never graduated from high school? Our compassionate side says yes, but our republican side says that to some point help is a reward for bad behavior.

It should be self evident, and even democrats should realize that if you reward bad behavior, you are going to get more of it. But what are some practical ways that we can reward good behavior and punish bad behavior? Can we really raise the cost of cigarettes and booze any higher?

I think there are lots of “sins” that we could tax. But I don’t want people like me choosing those sins. I think economist should, or just the city clerk should determine the true cost of government services. This might not be a practical idea, but it is something we deal with every day and serves as a good example : what if the garbage man charged you buy how many bags of garbage you left? What if someone walked around and charged every home $20 that didn’t have a compost pile? What if we replaced the income tax with increased energy taxes? That would put steroids on any motivation there was to insulate your home.

WE SHOULD ELIMINATE THE INCOME TAX.

Whatever you tax, you punish. Why would you punish people for working and making money?

Remember that I am not saying that the government should collect any more money. Just that we should eliminate the income tax. In order to replace the revenue loss each city, and state will have to decide which usage fees, and "sin taxes" they will use to replace the income tax.

POSSIBLE "GREEN" SIN TAXES

No compost pile.
Too much pavement.
Too much garbage.
Not enough trees.
No solar panels.
No wind turbine.

POSSIBLE HEALTH SIN TAXES:

Smoking (charged per pack)
Drinking (charged per can)
Marijuana (charged per lb.)
Prostitution (you know how it is collected)
Being over weight

POSSIBLE EDUCATIONAL SIN TAXES

Not knowing geography
Not knowing math
Not knowing specifics about those running for office.
Not knowing a 2nd language
Not having a college degree

POSSIBLE FAMILY SIN TAXES

Not visiting your kids
Not paying child support
Your kids doing poorly in school 
0 comments

8/27/09

Math in our culture


MP3
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Move washington change the culture and term limits


mp3
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The Birds

Movie idea for the Birds:
A remake with an environmental theme. The original doesn't address why the birds do it at all. So you just put in a couple of minutes and explain that they have run out of their primary bird source from some stupid mistake we made.

This link is so iTunes can make a podcast out of my mp3.
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8/20/09

Obama IS the change we need

Obama is the change we need.

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