701. Evangelically Serious Science

Comment #228194 by Sciros on August 11, 2008 at 3:39 pm

Bwahhahaha this is just too good. Teratornis there should be another definition for "epic fail" in the urban dictionary and it should be you.

Automobiles have allowed urban sprawl, and it's hard to phase them out unless you either kill urban sprawl or you create networks of cheap, efficient public transportation (electric trains).

Automobiles depend overwhelmingly on fuel from petroleum. We know petroleum is a finite resource. Which means we know it won't last forever. Phasing out automobiles is not going to be hard. What will be hard is finding something to fuel automobiles with once the cheap petroleum is gone.

Next time *read with comprehension,* Mister Closer-to-perfection. (Oh yeah poetry.) I said how automobiles *could* be phased out, so you are either ignoring that and going with your insane "replace them all with bicycles" idea claiming it's easy, or saying that stopping and cutting back urban sprawl is easy, or maybe putting in cheap, efficient public transportation over the entire US is easy.

People who are qualified to consider the problem find it completely plausible that the rate at which humans can suck petroleum out of the ground may fall increasingly short of the rate at which humans would like to burn it. If that happens, and if the shortfall increases faster than people can invent superbattery cars or whatever and scale up their production, then automobiles will phase themselves out, much like the Mayans phased out their civilization, for whatever reasons did them in.

And be replaced with? And be replaced with? Just say it: "Cars will all be replaced by ________!" Alternately, "replacing cars won't even be necessary because people will no longer need to cover large distances in the US to make a living -- this will be accomplished by ______!"

Seriously, *think* for a second about the kinds of cities where using a bicycle for personal transportation makes sense. Is that what most cities in the US are like? Obviously not.

I've spent 30 years seriously thinking about this. My conclusion is that bicycles work fine wherever there aren't many automobiles.

It took you 30 years to come up with a faulty conclusion? EPIC FAIL right there! Bicycles work fine where automobiles are hardly more practical. Where individual transportation does not need to cover large distances.

Oh and there's your answer about Teratornis's age, guys... actually he says 50 at some point here, too.

Bikes are good and all, but for most of the US population going from car to bike is horrendously impractical. More sensible solutions are needed.

It's only impractical to be the first to switch.

Ok I'll make this really clear for you: some people live FAR AWAY FROM WORK. I live somewhat close to work but many people here live over 40 miles away. You are telling me it isn't impractical to have these people bike 80 miles per day just to make a living?

At some point it will be as easy to bicycle in much of the U.S. as it is in Copenhagen.

Yeah, after all they're almost the same size.

Even the earliest horseless carriages outcompeted crippled horses. Similarly, porn is already outcompeting the least desirable women.

Outcompeting them for what, exactly? If not for porn they would all get pregnant? I'm not sure humanity's ever worked that way. Sexual selection isn't exactly "porn vs woman."

It's common for elderly women to outlive their husbands by several years, and not many of them get much action while they wait to die. Lots of guys are downloading porn when they could be hitting on elderly women.

HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH oh man good thing it's late in the day or everyone in the hall would have heard me as I burst out laughing. Hitting on elderly women (who have little to no sex drive, for your information)? Seriously that's like saying porn competes with dogs. Guys could be doing their dogs in the ass but instead there's porn, boohoo for the dogs.

As porn technology improves, it will compete with real women who are farther up the sexual market scale. (Incidentally, porn is an attempt to create artificial forms of sex, so we could view sex robots as an extension of porn rather than competing with it.)

Incidentally, porn is NOT an attempt to create artificial forms of sex. A blow-up doll is not porn. Man, look up the meaning of the word "pornography" (there's a hint in there for you) if you don't know it but seriously stop making shit up.

I'm not going to talk about sex bots further because to make them work according to Teratornis's fantasy they'll have to basically be synthetic people, and that's way out there in sci-fi land for now so you'll excuse me if I'm not going to bother taking it seriously quite yet.

702. Gerin Oil

Comment #226733 by Sciros on August 8, 2008 at 2:51 pm

Ohh, so it's SCIENCE's fault that non-theocratic oppressive regimes are oppressive. You're a moron.

Allow me to borrow a quote from the left-hand side of this website:

"(Religion) With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion"

Steven Weinberg

You can start from there.

703. Evangelically Serious Science

Comment #226731 by Sciros on August 8, 2008 at 2:49 pm

The first one that comes to mind for me is homosexuality and the sexbots.

Hmmm... how about having sex with a robot version of your younger (kid) sibling? I suppose that does count as pedophilia and does not count as incest. Also, will robots malfunction and rape people?

Actually this whole discussion is retarded. If you can make robot versions of people that are SOPHISTICATED ENOUGH to actually compete with human SEX PARTNERS, then you can fucking bet your last dime that those questions will be the tip of the iceberg. What would keep someone from sending a robot version of someone they don't like to rob a person's house and kill their dog? Suicide bombers will no longer be people. This can get to be a very long and unnerving list.

704. Gerin Oil

Comment #226723 by Sciros on August 8, 2008 at 2:41 pm

... realize that humans can use science for evil just as well as they can use religion

If you ask the question "which of those two, science and religion, encourages evil as we see it?" the answer will be "only religion."

The philosophy bit is completely off-topic and pretty pointless. If Richard didn't buy into some "good" ideas because they were obscured from him by what he saw as a lot of rubbish, that's honestly the philosophers' problem and no-one else's. If every good idea Richard had were also buried under a lot of crap such as "thinking about thought" or whatever, you might have something to discuss but as it stands this is all hardly worth "ranting" over.

705. Evangelically Serious Science

Comment #226713 by Sciros on August 8, 2008 at 2:30 pm

I wonder if the number of interesting/funny ethical questions regarding this ridiculous topic number in the 100s or 1000s.

706. Gerin Oil

Comment #226704 by Sciros on August 8, 2008 at 2:23 pm

You didn't even read the article, dumbass. You joined just to post about some bullshit strawman that is wholly off-topic to boot. Either contribute something meaningful or shove off, there's no shortage of idiot trolls to replace you.

EDIT: steve beat me to it

707. Gerin Oil

Comment #226692 by Sciros on August 8, 2008 at 2:09 pm

WTF hey buddy the bridge called it needs its troll back.

EDIT: this troll was also a necropost. Ignore and move on...

708. Evangelically Serious Science

Comment #226684 by Sciros on August 8, 2008 at 1:58 pm

Any way the guy said that in the future we will be having sex, falling in love, and even marrying robots.

He might. Some people aren't playing with a full deck, after all. People marry stuffed animals sometimes, etc. But to say that will apply to "us" as a whole is pretty damn crazy.

Teratornis and like-minded folks can marry all the robots they want. More real women for me, I guess.

709. Evangelically Serious Science

Comment #226671 by Sciros on August 8, 2008 at 1:42 pm

Does Teratornis think that everyone will just abandon their suburban homes and move into apartment complexes close to the center of town? Automobiles have allowed urban sprawl, and it's hard to phase them out unless you either kill urban sprawl or you create networks of cheap, efficient public transportation (electric trains).

Seriously, *think* for a second about the kinds of cities where using a bicycle for personal transportation makes sense. Is that what most cities in the US are like? Obviously not.

Bikes are good and all, but for most of the US population going from car to bike is horrendously impractical. More sensible solutions are needed.

Sex robots. Uh-huh. Whatever floats your boat, I guess. If you think people don't actually have a need for a real *emotional response* I guess you'll be able to solve everyone's... problem... of... not having a sex robot or something. Sex robots might compete with porn, but not with real women.

When sex robots start to become competitive with human sex partners, I wonder who will die out first? The botbangers, who weren't getting real sex anyway, or the people who are getting real sex, and therefore also getting AIDS and whatever pleasure plagues come after AIDS?

HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA dude seriously! Don't apply for a job any time soon they might ask you for a drug test.

710. Why Islam Is Unfunny for a Cartoonist

Comment #226591 by Sciros on August 8, 2008 at 11:31 am

Population of East Timor: 1,115,000. How many killed by indonesia? 50,000 (roughly). That is 22% of the population (roughly).

22% of 1,115,000 is 245,300 or something isn't it? (did it in my head, may be off...) way more than 50,000. 50,000 is under 5% of the population.

711. Why Islam Is Unfunny for a Cartoonist

Comment #225787 by Sciros on August 7, 2008 at 11:30 am

Martial arts practice swors are often red oak. Very strong, and they're made to smack people around.

712. Why Islam Is Unfunny for a Cartoonist

Comment #225754 by Sciros on August 7, 2008 at 10:54 am

I make typos all the time, too. But for some reason the word "barnoculars" makes me laugh every time I see it, and "barnboculars" was just over the top. ^_^

713. Why Islam Is Unfunny for a Cartoonist

Comment #225740 by Sciros on August 7, 2008 at 10:23 am

Yeah heh I know it's not a real word, but it reads even funnier with typos and I was just amused at how Al was sneaking those typos in there. If you noticed I didn't quote "barnoculars" there. ^^

714. Why Islam Is Unfunny for a Cartoonist

Comment #225732 by Sciros on August 7, 2008 at 9:59 am

Barnbocular futures

barnonculars are a class act

They are also the hardest word to spell, evar.

715. Why Islam Is Unfunny for a Cartoonist

Comment #225694 by Sciros on August 7, 2008 at 8:14 am

Sci,

Bonzai is from Hong Kong I think he knows what he is talking about.... :)

I'm from Russia but that doesn't make me an expert on Sambo. Anyway I'm just trying to get more details, I'm not trying to contradict Bonzai in any way.

Also, I think you're the first to call me "Sci" on these forums. Works for me, most folks online call me that.

But yeah, Bak Mei practiced Bak Mei :-P I'm just trying to figure out who his teachers were and what styles they practiced, and what "branch" of kung fu Bak Mei usually gets placed into. One page on the art said it's a fusion of Taoist and Shaolin styles. The monk himself was Taoist, but he clearly had ties to the Shaolin temple.

716. Why Islam Is Unfunny for a Cartoonist

Comment #225683 by Sciros on August 7, 2008 at 7:50 am

Bonzai, can you point me to where Bak Mei's style is linked to Wudang because I decided to do some poking around and it seems like Bak Mei practiced his own style... from what one page says, Bak Mei incorporated both Taoist and Shaolin styles.

717. Why Islam Is Unfunny for a Cartoonist

Comment #225515 by Sciros on August 6, 2008 at 5:07 pm

There are different styles of kung fu. In the case of Bak Mei I suppose it would be the style taught at the Shaolin. I'm not terribly knowledgeable about kung fu styles so your Wikipedia browsing would be about as good as mine on this.

718. Why Islam Is Unfunny for a Cartoonist

Comment #225508 by Sciros on August 6, 2008 at 4:40 pm

WhitePearl, that would be kung fu. In movies, probably "wire fu," heh.

719. Praying for health

Comment #225505 by Sciros on August 6, 2008 at 4:38 pm

In the US the word "randy" is, I think, only known from British slang in the first place. It's not a part of common American speech.

720. Why Islam Is Unfunny for a Cartoonist

Comment #225485 by Sciros on August 6, 2008 at 4:10 pm

J Mac,

My school is part of the World TSD Association led by Grandmaster Jae C. Shin, and he comes from the Moo Duk Kwan school (multi-language redundancy ftw hehe). So, Moo Duk Kwan.

I'm probably going to continue with my Tae Kwon Do training shortly, though, since I don't feel like repeating everything from white belt onwards when I already have a 3rd Dan in virtually the same thing. Plus, my instructor currently is an American (though good) who has been taught by an American who in turn was taught by Grandmaster Shin. The TKD school I plan on returning to, on the other hand, allows me to learn directly from a Korean grandmaster.

But for now I'm enjoying TSD immensely.

721. Why Islam Is Unfunny for a Cartoonist

Comment #225476 by Sciros on August 6, 2008 at 3:54 pm

Al, WhitePearl

I am trying to get into fighting. Not sure if I want to do MMA, but I do want to get started.

I had a fighter I work out with tell me to get going with Chinese Kick Boxing, but I also hear other forms are better.

Any thoughts?

I currently am doing Tang Soo Do (sleeper white belt; I have a 3rd Dan Black in Tae Kwon Do which is very nearly the same thing because I came from a very traditional TKD school that is close in teaching to TSD).

I've been practicing martial arts in total for 17 years, so maybe I can give you some suggestions, Al, but you'll need to tell me exactly what you're looking to get out of the practice.

If you're out to kick people's asses on the street, then I recommend investing long-term in a striking art (Tae Kwon Do, Karate, Muay Thai) as well as learning at least basic ground fighting (Jiujiutsu). Some people will put more stress on the ground fighting but it really depends a lot on the fighter. (If you naturally find yourself wanting to go to the ground with an opponent then Jiujiutsu will pay off more than something like Karate.)

Muay Thai is praised by many as the ultimate in eastern combat arts because of its pretty good record in competition vs other styles, but I think a large part of that is the dedication and mentality of the fighters. It's not the kind of art that turns people into badasses overnight; more like over a couple of decades.

There's also options like Krav Maga and Sambo, but they are a different animal entirely in that I see their benefit as being purely self-defense whereas the eastern arts stress many other aspects such as discipline, focus, etc. that seem to pay off more in everyday life.

An important piece of information: all striking arts have essentially the SAME fundamentals, and so do all ground fighting arts. If a martial arts practitioner denies this, then he/she doesn't understand what he/she is doing on a fundamental level, and that probably means you should not seek training from him/her. What this means is that experience in one martial art will help immensely in picking up another one, because the basics will be similar. The longer one practices, the more this becomes evident. It also means that if you are a smart, resourceful fighter by nature, it doesn't matter whether you practiced TKD, Karate, Gung Fu, Muay Thai, etc. because your "arsenal" of techniques will be very comparable and all that truly matters will be your speed, power, experience, choice of move, etc.

So, if you are going to decide on a martial art and you're picking between styles, do NOT do it "on paper." Visit your local schools and find which one has the best instructors, which one has the most respected master/grandmaster, etc. If you're especially looking for the "intangibles" that practicing martial arts can give you such as discipline and what-not, the closer to the tradition your training can get, the better in my opinion. (That is, go with a Korean master for Tae Kwon Do, or a Thai master in Muay Thai, et cetera, over an American master in whatever martial art.)

Anyway, if you have more specific goals/questions, feel free to PM me or whatever. I'll do my best to give you a useful answer.

722. Call to teach biblical creation as science

Comment #225442 by Sciros on August 6, 2008 at 3:15 pm

Do all Protestant denominations go by that "born into sin" thing?

723. Why Islam Is Unfunny for a Cartoonist

Comment #225436 by Sciros on August 6, 2008 at 3:10 pm

WhitePearl: cool! I enjoy dance. I did latin ballroom dance for a while. Right now it's on hold as I concentrate more on martial arts. I've had trouble doing both at the same time with any real focus.

724. Why Islam Is Unfunny for a Cartoonist

Comment #225418 by Sciros on August 6, 2008 at 2:45 pm

:runs back:

WhitePearl: what kind of dance class?

725. Why Islam Is Unfunny for a Cartoonist

Comment #225416 by Sciros on August 6, 2008 at 2:42 pm

Peak Oil is a myth

Much like the Catholic church's theory of Peak Jizz.

:runs away:

726. [UPDATED] Venomous Snakes, Slippery Eels and Harun Yahya

Comment #225339 by Sciros on August 6, 2008 at 1:15 pm

Cloud Strife vs. Zack Fair

Cage match.

Who wins?

727. Why Islam Is Unfunny for a Cartoonist

Comment #224730 by Sciros on August 5, 2008 at 12:56 pm

Fanusi,

Sciros I'll happily concede your other points, if you'll take this one on board: an area doesn't need to become fully Islamicized for it to become re-primitivized.

Well, I don't know what exactly it means for a country to be "fully Islamicized." Do you mean be a theocracy akin to Iran? If so, I will agree that it's not a necessary one for a country to become "more primitive." Certainly the Russian Orthodox church, among many others, is capable of that if it gains enough followers among rulers. If the residents of any nation are eager to go retarded, any old religion would be happy to oblige.

But I have no data to plot on a sort of "Islamic influence vs re-primitivization," so I don't know at what point any practical thresholds are reached. (I do expect the data to ultimately be positively correlated, though.)

If a country were to descend into a *primitive Islamic theocracy* when partially Islamicized, then I would for one question the definition of "partially." If a country descends into stupidity/irrationality/etc. of another flavor, then whether it is partially Islamic might only be a small factor, or even a symptom of a different core problem.

As for whether Russia's "immune" from the Islamic juggernaut, well, I'd say it's more so than all the Euro countries which are bending over backwards to accomodate every whim of every Muslim within their border. Russia's government is, at worst, indifferent. As for its populace, well, there in an increasing number of hate crimes perpetrated against Muslims. Definitely a *bad* thing, but of an entirely different sort from what worries you.

728. [UPDATED] Venomous Snakes, Slippery Eels and Harun Yahya

Comment #224665 by Sciros on August 5, 2008 at 10:20 am

Why is anyone still replying on this thread??

I'm tired of logging in and seeing "latest comments" ALL being on this retarded thread. This is way, way past beating a dead horse. This is beating a fossilized horse.

Just let that waste of air post here however much he wants without the dignity of a single post from anyone else. Eventually he may notice that nobody even bothers to check what he wrote anymore, and will hopefully stop "contributing" for real.

This way, things just won't end and every day there will be a 3 hour frame in which this place is basically spammed to death. Let's all agree to actually make it end.

729. Why Islam Is Unfunny for a Cartoonist

Comment #224595 by Sciros on August 5, 2008 at 7:52 am

Just some minor corrections/comments...

Turn northwards to the largest country in the world, Russia. Now, Nairb has - unlike certain people - provided me with some facts that suggest that things aren't as dire for Europe as I'd feared, though there is still a very real threat of Islamization, but Russia is a different matter. The UN says that it's population will decrease by 145 million (source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Russia#Population_data).

What you mean to say is it's projected to decrease by 1/3 of 145 million (142 to be more accurate) by 2050. A lot can happen in 42 years so I'm not sure how valuable that prediction is in any context.

Given that and given Putin's assertion that Russia will always be a staunch friend of Islam, that's not particularly nice.

By "friend of Islam" he probably means "provider of firearms for cashola." Russia is yet to actually do anything but try to undermine US anti-Islam efforts *politically* which is consistent with its decades-long strategy of playing all sides and making money in the process. There's no way Putin actually gives a shit about Islam or any other religion for that matter.

Also, Pravda says that it will be majority Muslim by 2050 (http://english.pravda.ru/russia/history/21-07-2008/105837-russia-islam-0)

You totally misread that my man. There's no way you'd think that by 2050 Russia will be something like 50 million Muslim and 45 million Russian/other. Here's what it actually said:

Islam is likely to become the primary religion in the Russian Federation by 2050

Russia is so far from 100% religious (and in fact there aren't any reliable numbers on how many *are*, though it's clear that it's a small minority) that such a prediction is utterly meaningless. How could you possibly interpret it the way you did and not have your bullshit meter max out?

Sometimes Fanusi bro you remind me of Space Ghost after he watches that Chambraigne commercial and says to himself "I believe every word that man said, because it's exactly what I wanted to hear." :-P Well not quite, I just like that joke, but really you gotta go back and re-read some stuff if it at first sounds way too crazy, because you may just have misread it.

Bottom line, at this point predicting that Russia will ever become predominately Islamic is a joke.

730. Embracing goodness, without God

Comment #224372 by Sciros on August 4, 2008 at 2:20 pm

I'm glad to see so many of our fellows here who otherwise embrace *rationality* discuss how they know that cats are smarter than dogs :rolleyes:

Their intelligence is notoriously difficult to compare, and even dog breeds are difficult to rate in intelligence compared to one another, as they are often bred for very different [mental] strengths. Seeing-eye dogs vs rescue dogs vs hunting dogs, for example.

731. Why Islam Is Unfunny for a Cartoonist

Comment #224226 by Sciros on August 4, 2008 at 10:41 am

Al,

Totally, rational solutions. My plan happens to be jumping into the way of various particle experiments at every opportunity so that I can maybe get super powers, and hopefully they'll be awesome enough that I can just fly over to Iran, etc. and pwn all the n00bs I need to within a couple of minutes. It's a good plan. Keep an eye out for radioactive spiders and/or gamma ray blasts; let me know if you find any. Alternately if you run into several billion dollars I can try to go in the Batman direction but that takes almost too much work.

732. Embracing goodness, without God

Comment #224216 by Sciros on August 4, 2008 at 10:27 am

Hate cats. Like dogs.

733. [UPDATED] Venomous Snakes, Slippery Eels and Harun Yahya

Comment #224196 by Sciros on August 4, 2008 at 9:36 am

Joe would bury her in dirt and stone her to death if that were the case.

734. Why Islam Is Unfunny for a Cartoonist

Comment #224192 by Sciros on August 4, 2008 at 9:31 am

Al, you're right. Though I do want to say that if there's anyone I wouldn't trust to *not use* something like a nuke, it's an Islamic state (some less than others). Though that's probably a no-brainer.

735. [UPDATED] Venomous Snakes, Slippery Eels and Harun Yahya

Comment #224188 by Sciros on August 4, 2008 at 9:28 am

He says he's married.

736. Why Islam Is Unfunny for a Cartoonist

Comment #224184 by Sciros on August 4, 2008 at 9:25 am

I suspect self preservation will ultimately outweigh their fanaticism.

It most definitely doesn't for suicide bombers, though... so those "true", crazy-ass fanatics, the ones Fanusi is probably talking about, do exist...

737. Faith is not the answer

Comment #221525 by Sciros on July 29, 2008 at 5:43 pm

Triumph TR6 for sale, mimosa yellow, lightly modified. 1973 model, so it is the nominally 125BHP CR model.

Save it for the next time Clarkson and gang are looking for a cheap POS for a "rubbish car challenge" ^^

738. A third of Muslim students back killings

Comment #221487 by Sciros on July 29, 2008 at 4:58 pm

If you're game for an enlightening discussion, I'm all for it, though this thread might be the wrong venue (I'll PM you my AIM sn).

I know my share of stuff about manga/anime, and at some point interviewed the nat'l sales manager of Tokyopop when doing a paper on manga's spread and popularity in the US. So maybe we can both learn something.

739. A third of Muslim students back killings

Comment #221419 by Sciros on July 29, 2008 at 3:49 pm

That is why superman is stupid.

Now now, that's why *most Superman comics are stupid.* Good writers do great things with him. Check out Mark Waid's and Alex Ross's "Kingdom Come" for a pretty interesting treatment of the character.

I really don't think that people look at pictures and call it "anime" they at least would need it to be animated wouldn't they?I've never heard anyone refer to a drawing as "anime" before. In my example of "Avatar" I was refering to an animation.

Not from my experience :-/ And yeah I know Avatar's a cartoon.

Also, the word "manga" means the art style, but it is just used as a blanket term for comic in Japan by laymen, that doesn't make the word any less referential to the specific art style.

There is no need to equivocate the meaning. We do just fine with the word "theory" after all. We don't need to rename a scientific theory all because laymen use the word differently.

Fair enough, I don't really care and I rarely talk about art style with "laypeople" anyway.

Just look at FFAC and the new FFXIII trailers (I need to learn Japanese soon, I just found out they won't be releasing it in the west for quite some time, until they finish an Xbox version. Bah. So I'll need to get the Japanese version. When it comes out. It will probably help me a long way in learning the language anyway. I basically learned to read playing FF. So it is only appropriate that it helps my Japanese learning as well.)

FFXIII might be better in English, you never know. The localization of FFXII was pretty fantastic, what with Gideon Emery's Balthier. Also, I imagine the Japanese used in the game will be rather sophisticated so you're not gonna have an easy time playing an imported copy; I think it might take away from a lot of the fun of sitting back and enjoying the cutscenes. I know enough Japanese to get by, but even I would hesitate to import FFXIII, even if it looked good enough to dethrone Ocarina for me.

If you don't think that manga is detailed...then I don't know what to say. You must not watch fantasy and action anime, or read the manga.

I never said it's not detailed. I said it's easy to draw compared to "traditional, Western styles," which I will maintain because I've yet to run into a case where what *makes* the style "manga style" in the first place makes it any more difficult than had it been "Western style." The detail is not in the faces, it's in the eyes (super easy and formulaic) and in everything else, everything else rarely being specific to a style you can classify as "manga." What makes something look like manga is mostly the doll-like faces (other things being largely inconsistent among manga if you ask me), and those allow for consistency with few lines, at the cost of realism and detail.

I was talking about a reason the style was widely adopted in Japan.

The scenery and, detail to clothing and bodies is amazing. The only think that lacks a lot of detail is faces, and it is so that they can get a wide range of expresses. It's very emotive.

I won't dispute detail on stuff other than faces, and I never claimed the contrary. The detail in hair is, in some cases, also there (Fujishima comes to mind). As for the range of expressions, I call BS. Miyamoto's justification of Toon Link never flew with me. The closer to a realistic face, the more subtle emotions the viewer is capable of discerning. In fact the doll-like faces of anime force artists to exaggerate emotion in order to get it across, allowing for a SMALLER range. So, don't let that argument fool you, bro. It's just plain wrong.

There is of course levels of detail, depending on the artist, but the highest level ones are bar none the most detailed there are.

Highest level artists are the most detailed? Maybe... but probably not. It's hard to tell the skill level of an artist by how much detail is in the work, since the latter depends on so much more than just skill, time being the #1 reason.

740. Faith is not the answer

Comment #221399 by Sciros on July 29, 2008 at 3:26 pm

Peak oil looks sure to reduce motorized travel

Let me just throw some thoughts out here...

The US has a lot of motorized travel in large part because of urban sprawl. This has sort-of been covered before... maybe not on this forum. Anyway, "peak oil" will not reduce motorized travel. It might reduce the amount of internal combustion engines powering transportation, private/public, but you're not going to have people walking/biking to work in most cities in the US given the amount of urban sprawl there is.

So, people will still sit on their arses a lot, getting from point A to point B. The mode of transportation might change, but it'll be motorized and use energy other than human. That much I'm certain of.

Definitely, walking to the bus/train station is better than walking to your garage, exercise-wise. So that might have *some* effect. But another huge one to consider is general diet. It's just not that good in the US...

741. A third of Muslim students back killings

Comment #221387 by Sciros on July 29, 2008 at 3:11 pm

Pfft, please. Not even worth responding to. Tien could own superman, and batman's superpower is wealth.

I've read enough comics to know that Superman is about as powerful as he needs to be given the situation, for the sake of "writing." So sometimes he is hit in the face by a missile and it hurts, and sometimes he takes a dump inside a star and pushes around a black hole. Anyway this isn't supposed to be a discussion of hypothetical power battles. It is about who has done more for humanity than Jesus. And in the world of the DCU, Supes and Bats put Jesus to shame. Bad. Now join my Church of Batman, heathen!

And seriously, saying something like "Batman's superpower is wealth" .. there should be a law that prevents you from ever buying a single manga/comic ever again for saying that. Not only is it wrong on several levels, but you gotta show 1930s characters who still rank way higher on the "cool scale" than basically every other comic character some respect :-P

Actually the art style is refered to as manga, not anime (the word manga directly refers to the art form). Which is something I am attempting to learn right now. Still going throw my "manga for dumbies" book.

I'm talking about the perspective of the "layman." Show most Americans a picture of Sousuke and Chidori (random example) and ask them what style they're drawn in, and the majority will say "anime." So, that's currently a part of the word's definition as far as its use in the US goes. I agree that a more appropriate term for the art style is "manga art style" but I'd probably take that a bit further and say that more precisely it's "Japanese comic art style" since, as you said, manga just means "comic" for real.

A lot of people really call it by the manga style of the art. Avatar borrows heavily from manga and is often called "anime" by people that don't know any better.

Yep, exactly. "Anime."

Also, if you watched the "gotham knight" short cartoons, you will see that two of them also borrow heavily from a manga art style.

I haven't seen those shorts, but if I'm not mistaken they were produced mostly in Japan and the art directors were all Japanese. I'm not surprised at all, given that Bruce Timm's cartoons have slowly drifted from his own art style to that preferred by Glen Murakami, who has been the art director on those shows since The Adventures of Superman (though I haven't seen him credited for anything since Teen Titans; maybe he's moved on or is still working on that franchise). Murakami is obviously Japanese, and his style is definitely more like "usual" anime than it is like Timm's more fluid, curved style.

I'm fairly confident that it will eventually completely dominate as the major style used (it is already, but only because Japan produces so much, I mean dominate everywhere).

It's competing with CG, and within CG there are competing styles as well. It'll be interesting to see what ends up on top.

It is the best, after all.

It's been widely adopted because it's easy to draw. It's pretty formulaic and lets you get consistency with few lines (at the expense of detail and realism). Good deal for animation studios and comic book companies.

742. A third of Muslim students back killings

Comment #221352 by Sciros on July 29, 2008 at 2:29 pm

Mitchell,

Goku fails compared to Superman & Batman, though. So there. Now join my Church of Batman!

Good explanation of anime/manga there. I want to also add that in the US the term "anime" also refers to the *art style,* not just the origin of an animation. Many cartoons were/are outsourced to Korea and Japan for the actual artwork, but the style being "American," they were never considered "anime."

I wonder whether a cartoon that came out of Japan and looks exactly like, say, Batman: TAS would be consdered "anime" by most folks...

743. A third of Muslim students back killings

Comment #221084 by Sciros on July 29, 2008 at 10:25 am

TWP, H4D, wouldn't your different experiences still point at one commonality -- that CPS people simply don't really give a shit? (Hyperbole, but meh.)

EDIT: mordacious1's "too many caseloads" bit is understandable too, but understaffing is probably still not the only issue. Improvements in process probably can't hurt.

744. A third of Muslim students back killings

Comment #221032 by Sciros on July 29, 2008 at 9:31 am

No, I understand the trichotomy, but failing to remove the child immediately is risking the childs welfare. Removing them as soon as you have cause, is favorable because it removes the children from risk of harm. Then whether the risk is real or not can be evaluated.

So, what qualifies as "cause"? That's the focus here, I think. I happen to feel that the cause needs to be more substantial than it happens to be in many cases.

Also, I should point out that removing a child from its parents when there is no real risk is *also* risking the child's welfare, to what degree I can only speculate.

By the way I'm also fairly sure that the real, bad cases of abuse (the ones you envision being "worst cases") aren't ever going to be false negatives because one would think the grounds to remove the child[ren] would be solid early on. (Lack of evidence means the children are returned anyway...)

As for comparing "worst cases" of false positives vs. false negatives, well I have a pretty vivid imagination and can go to town coming up with some, but really we both would do well to have someone qualified contribute to the discussion regarding this. Children with special needs, children with psychological problems -- removing them from their parents can probably have irreversible traumatic effects.

I'm just asking for a bit more diligence on the part of those who make it their business to take children away from parents. It's pretty irresponsible to say "we'll just sort it out later."

745. A third of Muslim students back killings

Comment #221017 by Sciros on July 29, 2008 at 9:17 am

There is no posibility of a child being injured. If they neglect to remove the children from a possibly dangerous home then they could be seriously harmed, or killed. I think that false positives are far better.

I get the feeling you're working with two alternatives: keep child in home indefinitely, or take child out right away and then sort things out. How about "first do your diligent homework, then act appropriately" as a third alternative?

We're not talking about false negatives (which still happen), we're talking about first getting more confidence that there is a problem.

I can probably cite some pretty bad false positives, especially having to do with children who require special care, if I took even a slight look around.

746. A third of Muslim students back killings

Comment #221005 by Sciros on July 29, 2008 at 9:07 am

Mitchell, I imagine it really ought to be more than that, because some teachers are whackjobs and are no more reliable than a drunk dog dragging its ass on an ouija board.

Probably the complaint would need to be evaluated pretty fully before children are actually *taken away*... hopefully in as great a degree of confidence as possible because these sorts of things have a way of tainting community standing, etc.

747. A third of Muslim students back killings

Comment #220995 by Sciros on July 29, 2008 at 8:58 am

I don't agree. An unwarrented removal of children from thir home is definitely traumatic, but failing to remove children from a violent home is potentially far worse.

In the former case, the child welfare services still has to make their case and prove it in court or your children will be returned to you. The latter case, it's too late.

I'd rather safe than sorry.

I think they should just take everyone's children away, and then decide which ones they should give back. Better safe than sorry.

Or, you know, they can come up with warrants or some sort of legitimate court order and reduce the amount of false positives.

748. A third of Muslim students back killings

Comment #220679 by Sciros on July 28, 2008 at 9:25 pm

How can there be a threat of violence for infractions of the law unless the penalties involve violent reprisals?

So for the last time, the link isn't *direct*, but if there were none we wouldn't be having this discussion in the first place because there would be no penalties for any felony, period. Force enforces the "reprisals."

You keep repeating the exact same shit, the exact same meaningless point the scope of which has nothing to do with the real world. I never said violence was the threat directly for the infraction. I said that if *that's* your point, it's worthless and completely outside of any relevant context. Because penalties for infractions, if they're not backed by force themselves, are meaningless.

749. A third of Muslim students back killings

Comment #220604 by Sciros on July 28, 2008 at 4:44 pm

You can assert it all you like. You must demonstrate a link. I have shown why it cannot logically follow that there is a threat of violent for an infraction itself or the repisals would necessarily involve violence. Saying "nope, nope. They do" is less than convincing.

You win the retard award for July 28 2008 congratulations. The threat is for not submitting to the penalties that are given for the infraction. The penalty is used to enforce the law. The threat of force is used to enforce the penalty. *Given that* (care to refute?), there is an indirect threat of force used to enforce the law. I've said it ten times. The *penalty* for an infraction is not violent, but the penalty is backed by threat of force. Without this threat of force, the penalty for a crime would be unenforceable, meaningless, and would most likely not exist altogether.

You said "demonstrate a link." Between what, threat of force and the infraction of a law (or are you completely misunderstanding what I'm writing)? Ever heard of escaped convicts? Are they sent a stern letter requesting them to return to prison?

So you keep saying "for the infraction itself" as if the threat of force is not involved at all. Trying to limit your scope to the point that you're taking the situation out of the context of the real world, just so your pathetic, meaningless point is logically sound. Well, your "logical" proposal that if threat of force were involved (you do not state whether directly or not), violence would be the penalty, is nonsense. Violence involved in a way other than as the penalty. It's involved as what backs the penalty.

750. A third of Muslim students back killings

Comment #220584 by Sciros on July 28, 2008 at 4:03 pm

So there is a threat of violence for the infraction of laws? If this is true then an infraction of a law would necessarily involve a violent reprisal.

There is a threat; it's simply indirect. It's what makes the non-violent penalties compelling. Anyway this is at this point purely a semantic argument so I'm leaving alone. Moving on...

Tifa vs Ayane?? What is that, exactly?