On the Nature of Things | Forum

In honor of the wonders and beauties, the horrors and anxieties of our present times and the rest of this decade, may I (again) present to everyone here one of the most perfect songs ever made for that regard:

Y-ndxvOoFx4

A relevant article: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/02/a-year-after-the-egyptian-revolution-10-of-its-social-media-documentation-is-already-gone/253163/ In April, OR Books published Tweets from Tahrir, a book of tweets sent from Ground Zero of the democratic revolution that played...

...Again, could have done it with a hammer. ..or chained the exits shut and set the place on fire. I know. He could have carted off those heavy petrol canisters into those classrooms while recess is in session(when no one will be looking!), then surreptiously shut down both ends of the exits to the...

Your right Mr Perfect. As we all know, for example, if the concept of concealed carry had existed in Colorado, James Holmes would have been stopped by a valiant defender inside those cinemas. Oh wait, it looks like you just stepped on the dick of your own argument again. Please stop with the ignora...

Azreal Don't usually do reductio ad absurdum, but yes, I do support keeping WMDs illegal. Primarily because they aren't individual arms in even the most inflated sense the framers of the constitution could have meant. Also, because they aren't legitimate weapons of war. Their primary use is to degr...

Not much reason to parse the words of someone who believes the primary responsibility for protection of me and my family lies with the state. Here, I'll help you out here with a cogent translation of that Coates piece in case you no longer want to do anymore critical reading: http://www.theamerican...

Not much reason to parse the words of someone who believes the primary responsibility for protection of me and my family lies with the state. Here, I'll help you out here with a cogent translation of that Coates piece in case you no longer want to do anymore critical reading: http://www.theamerican...

So apparently gun control now = weed control now = cell phone control. And on the other side we have mourning for gun victims = hypocrisy for not mourning Pakistani drone victims.

Pater Deo. This stuff really does bring the froth and foam from people's mouths.

It is not an essential service of government to provide protection. It is an essential function of the government to execute justice. It is the responsibility of each citizens to protect himself. Only a cowed and effeminate citzenry would say something like that(although I suspect women understand ...

http://www.theatlantic.com/ta-nehisi-coates/ As I've said before I really don't have anything against self-defense. (My Pops is veteran of both the Vietnam War and the Black Panther party.) But I'm not sure that, in America, people lack the capacity to defend themselves. As Jeff's own reporting show...

Using Berserk's logic about the coming social-cultural apocalypse as a baseline, which apparently some here have already adopted, then what we had the past 4-5 years (VTech, GiffordLoughner, HolmesColorado, and now LanzaConn.) are going to be mere drops in the bucket. We're talking about McVeigh sty...

what am i meant to say ? just exactly how childish and entitled do you have to be to chuck hissy fits about the horror of making yourself useful to your community and living within the means of your income ? I don't expect you to say anything in particular. I'm sure you mean well and everyone will ...

To be honest, Krugman has undeniably been late to this discussion. After all, the first time he bother to even speculate on this matter was a mere.......16 years ago. http://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/29/magazine/white-collars-turn-blue.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm In a special futurespective for the...

you cant do anything about automation and globalisation and you cant tell middle class westerners they live in illusion thats fast falling apart, they call you nasty names and laugh at you. house prices always go up, higher education always gets you high wages and a stable job. amen. Careful noddy....

i worked at a brick factory a 15 years ago and it employed 1000 people, if i had of gone back a decade earlier it employed 10,000 people and if i went their now it employs a couple of hundred people... all through automation and every factory has gone through this process. i recently helped a kitch...

If Hillary runs, then the election automatically defaults to a Republican win. There are significant segments of the Democratic and leftwing base that do not want anything to do with her, and will most likely nominate their own alternative left candidate should she win the Dem primaries.

For hyped bands of the Aughts, Radiohead and Arcade Fire

http://www.mediaite.com/online/gangnam-style-singer-psys-vitriolic-anti-american-past-revealed-outrage-ensues/ He has the most-watched YouTube video of all-time, an international phenomenon of a mega-hit in “Gangnam Style,” has made appearances on nearly every American morning talk show under the su...

As of 1321 PST, 901,946,453 viewsa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

only 3 weeks till 1 billion

Simple Minded, True to your moniker, you've stated something so elementary, obvious, and at the same time so very superficial and tangential. The "human nature" you've wrote about has always existed, 50-60, 100 years ago, if not since time immemorial. Yet in certain periods of time, and as...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/30/nyregion/fast-food-workers-in-new-york-city-rally-for-higher-wages.html The biggest wave of job actions in the history of America’s fast-food industry began at 6:30 a.m. on Thursday at a McDonald’s at Madison Avenue and 40th Street, with several dozen protesters cha...

Sounds like the wonders and magic of austerity are not being practiced faithfully. More dollops will be needed, and painful yet cheerful adjustment prescribed. Otherwise, who knows what kind of collapse would occur?

It things are so dire and breathtakingly hopeless, why not choose the most direct and clearest way out? Put your gun(s) where they really belong if you really mean it. I meant of course, to your own temple.

Otherwise, it's just effeminate excuse for prima donna-ism.

In this 76 pages no one has yet brought up how this election merely a replay of 2004? http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/11/08/the_case_of_the_missing_white_voters_116106-2.html The flip flopping, plutocratic New Englander with suspected liberal tendencies and a deadbeat persona to boot....

The whole gay marriage issue reminds me of painting legs onto a snake (social liberals/gay activists) and confusion of cause/effect/symptom/disease (theo-and social cons).