DiabloFans

Bill O'Riley is the best troll I've ever seen.

Quote from WishedHeHadBeta

was what i was looking for. lolol

That wasn't what you asked for though. You asked me what I "believed," about the origin of the universe. I don't believe anything about it. I have some certain bits of knowledge about various parts of what (current science) has assumed to be the original epoch of our universe, but even of that small part I (as is the rest of humanity) am currently still filling in blanks as theory and data form more knowledge.

I don't and do not have to believe in Quantum theory or BB Theory. They're plausible and rational explanations of observable phenomena that are backed up by empirical evidence. Assuming more empirical data were gathered that overturned both theories, I wouldn't place any stock in them. If I held beliefs in either theory, it would require me to consider them valid regardless of the data. That is completely irrational and counter to my nature.

Quote from Umpa

Huckster god?

Quote from EmilB

Skyrim didn't live up to my expectations

Figured we were due for another Umpa relativist drive-by.

HGL was bad and you should feel bad for making me read this again. =/

Those who paid 3x the going rate were those would could afford it, not those in the middle class who currently shoulder a greater burden compared to growth and wealth. I think you should educate yourself about how our tax system works:

Wikipedia is your friend.

Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes

Also, I should congratulate you for completely avoiding the rest of my points. Well done.

Quote from Sabvre

Thats the thing though proletaria... you are all hard over big government. I'm not :D.

This is where you're mistaken and woefully so. It doesn't take a "big," government to do what they should be doing. There are plenty of useless tripe programs and departments to be trimmed and eliminated. What the government should do (ie. provide adequate infrastructure, defense, educaiton, and healthcare for citizens to get a chance at their own success story) is something they've never had a chance to do because of right-wingers demonizing the entire concept of federal government. Meanwhile, the ever-helpful lefties have sought to pass anything that might be psudo-progressive in nature and have concocted us a nightmare of addons we never needed.

It's as though the country always needed glasses, but the right said it was too expensive. So we've augmented EVERY other sensory organ except the eyes to try and make up for it. History has shown us, that simply won't do.

Some people in this country believe that they would need to pony up all but the shirt on their backs to have these things. Overwhelming numbers of examples in Europe have proved this isn't so. Economists know that this isn't so. Politicians who aren't bought out by plutocrats know this isn't so. And yet, the same tired crap the right has been parroting since the 1800's is still with us today.

I got my PhD in US History and began teaching long before any of this Reganomical junk ever made it into the system. I remember the days when wealthy CONSERVATIVES were perfectly content to pay 3x and more the present rate in federal income tax and capital gains, admired the government for building the roads, bridges, funding police, fire fighters, the postal service, military, etc. They felt that their politicians compromising for pragmatic goals was noble and even the most die-hard repubs I met in the 70s couldn't deny the greatness of Apollo 11 for all of humanity.

Today the "center," has shifted hard-right. The economic crash is, in no uncertain terms, a construct of Reganomic policy and the capitulation of the left (the Clinton admin killed glass steagall). I can't say how long the trend will continue, but it's quite apparent that nobody on the left is satisfied with this status quo. What remains to be seen is just how satisfied (or complacent) the independent middle-ground is. Given the projections of healthcare costs, the projections for economic (and thus job) growth, and the prospect of a new generation of vets coming home: I doubt we can continue to hear about this big-gub'mint bogeyman much longer without seeing past the farce.

The case can be made for the government getting OUT of a lot of things, but that kind of argument should start from the basis of what can be realistically privatized, not a bog-standard "the government is too big," statment that lends absolutely no credential what-so-ever to what might be justly cut and cropped. Blanket statements like that simply allow the corrupt and the corrupting influences that be to take a wild stab ay everything that doesn't make them a profit.

It's funny because his personality is shit?

Quote from LinkX

I'm personally not voting for somebody who will cause me to wake up in the middle of the night for the next four years in a cold sweat checking to see if America is gone, or if we are in World War 3, or some other crazy shit, just so we can get out of the middle east and stop harassing civilians for smoking pot.

Considering how rabid both parties are, I don't know there is any such candidate who DOESN'T fit those criteria. Bad qualities in a short list:

1. Libertarians:


-No safty net of any kind
-No regulation to keep corporations from becoming the plutocratic dictators we already accuse them of being
-No foreign policy outside of non-intervention
-LOLGOLDSTANDARD
-Many, many, lunatics support this party.
-Did I mention the lolgoldstandard?

2. Democrats:


-Can't tell granny that medicare and social security are going to make the young broke, but don't have the balls to nationalize healthcare.
-Clearly bent on forging ahead with green energy even though North American fossil fuel reserves are an easy ticket out of the poor house.
-Can't seem to end wars that republicans start.
-Won't tell Sharpton and Pelosi to shut up.
-Obvious Corruption
-DRONES

3. Republicans:


-Haven't had an original idea since Regan was in office and still have a fetish for his drug war
-Want to hand over healthcare to private companies (retail price for a kidney, inc)
-Actively seek to denegrate the rights of Gays, Women, non-christians, and people of lower socio-economic status.
-Are not willing to compromise on taxes and have insane tax reform ideas (see: 999).
-Fillibuster everything just because they can.
-Obvious Corruption
-WAR

Lesser of evils? I'm having a hard time seeing one. You know shits hitting the fan when the gay liberal progressive can't decide who is worse.

Yet, you came back to a D3 forum and posted about it when you've said you've moved on? Riiiiiight.

Quote from Zyfoh

Trust me, the end-game in Diablo 2 was much richer.

First world problems.

i did the boss yesterday, and your guide to diablo was very usefull!
Thanks mate.

I have very little health (6k) and very little defence(30% armor reduc, 35% resistace 15% dodge ), so I just tired not to die! lol

You have to remember that any game that has a player base of 6 million people is going to have a vocal minority that hates everything.

Quote from AnathemicOne

Omnipotence and omnipresence have no affect on "fate" I believe the term your looking for is beneficence which deems God will use said omnipotence and omnipresence to care for his creations yes?

Going more into your point, Catholics/Christians deem that God has a "Grand Plan" for everything, there is no dispute to this. They believe even though he shows apathy today, even though he's omnipotent, omnipresent, and beneficent, everything still is in accordance with his "Grand Plan." Basically, God knows all but he doesn't dictate what people do in how they die. If a person dies by lightning bolt God knows, if that same person instead gets shot by a gun God knows. This is what Catholics/Christians refer to as "God cannot be understood by mere humans/mortals."

i just dont think you understand the concept of free will. and its not just the christian god either, its any religion that empowers those traits on a deity.

Quote from AnathemicOne

You're still not understanding how free will works.

Everyone has free will, we both agree on this.

Free will is the ability to make conscious decisions or voluntary decisions. If another person uses free will to harm or constrain you this does not override your free will. If someone points a gun at me and tells me not to move or I'll die, I still have free will in deciding to move or not. Sure one choice wouldn't be the most prudent one but I still have the option to do so.

Let's go back to the police/citizen example. If the police arrest me and I'm pinned down to be handcuffed, I still possess free will in deciding whether to fight back defensively (IE move around alot) or just stay still and wait to be handcuffed.

Free will is constant not variable.

put it this way

so God is: omnipotent, omnipresent, and beneficent.

if he truly is omnipotent and omnipresent, then there is no such thing as free will. everything is decided by fate, because he knows what will happen and has the power to change it on a whim or for some greater purpose.

io9

I've stumbled upon this site a couple of weeks back, has some interesting articles regarding anything science-y. It's mostly short articles about recent article-worthy-developments in the science world, so it's not tiring to read (I can't read anything of great length, even some of the posts on these forums, but if its interesting I'll read it). Anyway, here are a couple of random space related news:

1 - High-Res Map of our Moon (Source).

The following is just the Highest-Resolution Map of our moon to date created by some NASA team at Arizona State University. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has created this with the intention to better plan moon-related-missions. In fact, it's so HD that it can distinguish features only 3 meters wide, and with a pixel scale if 100m. So with this logic you be able to see all the lunar landing sites.

This image however only uses the first year of stereo data collected from the LRO. If they add the second year's stereo data, the current image will be even more accurate, filling in the small gaps of the current map.

So do you think they'll let conspiracy theorists take a look at these to see if the 1969 moon landing was real? I'll keep my tinfoil hat on and guess not, NASA don't make any ground breaking news public imo.





2 - Infographic of our earth-to-mars-missions. (Source):

I'm just basically gonna sum up what's on the pic.

1964 - Mariner 4 - First successful flyby (just orbiting around Mars). Returned with 21 images.

1671 - Mars 3 - First successful landing on Mars. But only captured 20 seconds of data.

2003 - Mars Express - Completed it's primary mission on Nov 2005 and is still in orbit today.

2007 - Dawn - Completed Mars flyby in Feb 2009.