Toadfish Monastery

What processor is in it? I still have an Athlon 3000 (1800GHz) with a Radeon 9600 and it still runs nicely. Pity the back light is done so is now used as a desktop...  

This morning I woke up with Wagner in my head (the classic choir from Tannhäuser) and was thinking on how I like that particular piece and at the same time how awful person Wagner was.

How can you reconcile that a racist @$$hole made some* wonderful music?

* I refer here a quote from Rossini who said in a letter: Monsieur Wagner has good moments, but awful quarters of an hour!

This guy is in the news all over, first due to his involvement in several leaks, and now due to the charges of sexual assault in Sweden.

On one end while the charges are murky they may be plausible, on the other the timing of the charges and subsequent hunt of the man are suspect to say the least.

So what it is, that a man who is (understandably) paranoid of different governments, who moves frequently and travels light, actually 'raped'* two women, or that the case is just part of a witch hunt to shut him and wikileaks down?

*in the Swedish legal definition, read the charges.

I think I've seen this claim before:

http://www.techeye.net/science/us-nukes-switched-off-by-ufos

Quote from: articleA group of former US soldiers have claimed that the US' nuclear weapons were regularly being switched off by UFOs.

Who knows, perhaps the aliens have our best interest at heart. 

I was driving the other day when I heard this story:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129528196

Quote from: NPRThrough the lens of evolution, a belief in God serves a very important purpose: Religious belief set us on the path to modern life by stopping cheaters and promoting the social good.

The argument seems logic enough although it makes me think if empathy alone wouldn't achieve the same or if the two are related.

Didn't we have one of these already?
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Today's conspiracy comes from me: remember the guy who asked a cab driver in NY if he was muslim and then proceeded to slash his neck?

I was thinking, the guy was a film student who went to Afghanistan to make a documentary on PTSD and also a volunteer with an interfaith organization, and suddenly, without warning, without any hint of racism in his writings, he proceeds to commit an apparent hate crime. At this point the only possible explanation is that the guy was supposedly intoxicated at the time of the incident (some people claim that he had a problem with alcohol).

How exactly a person who volunteers at an interfaith organization goes on a racial rampage after a few drinks?

Was he a "sleeper cell" unable to control himself due to alcohol (cue Mel Gibson here), or was he exposed to something (experience, substance) during his time in Afghanistan?

Any plausible theories?

Reading one tech site I found this pearl: a study says that internet trolls may die sooner than average people.

I guess the trick is feeding them without getting mad at their rabble... 

I've been reading this dumb book my mother gave me, and once again I found this -to me- contradictory statement arguing that god's omniscience doesn't preclude free will.

Perhaps I'm preaching to the choir but unless I'm missing something, omniscience implies knowing the future, thereby suggesting that every supposed "decision" I take now was already contemplated, which by itself would eliminate free will (ie, I never had the chance to take a different decision).

Is that a correct assumption? Is there any other theological (or other) explanation for said assertion?

Reading the HuPo I found this story which has become a regular case of notoriety every time it happens, that is, when a female teacher makes advances on a high school boy. In this particular case a 42 y/o teacher sent sexually revealing text and picture messages to a 15 y/o student.

Now, the opposite [meaning a male teacher to a female student, not a student sexting a teacher ) happens from time to time but usually there is no controversy about it, it's generally considered a big offense and teacher would be seen as a pervert deserving several years in jail for indecent exposure, etc, etc.

The question is: is it different if an older woman makes sexual advances to a teenage boy than when an older man makes sexual advances to a teenage girl? Is this a discussion limited to the age of consent (which rarely is below 18 and never below 16 in the States)?, or the position of authority from the teacher makes it worse (and if the student was above the age of consent)?, or the fact that is a woman making advances on a man make it inherently less problematic?

OK, for those of you not having the pleasure of witnessing the American Culture Wars^TM up close, there is this famously deranged individual that makes the most absurd claims with a straight face in the mouthpiece of the party, that celebrated Faux Newts Network. Obviously I'm talking about Glenn Beck who seems to be in a quest to outdone himself everyday. Among his multiple "qualities" is the comparison to everything he doesn't like (and there are lots and lots of people and things he doesn't like) with Hitler.

Considering that one of the rules of debate is that the first to invoke Hitler loses I was thinking on doing a game of comparison using our favorite monsters as a point of reference. To play you must compare your target to a bonafide genocidal maniac, be it Attila or Pol Pot or Nero, etc. The comparison has to point a number of similarities with the monster in question and defending the choice from those pointing out why he isn't a good comparison.

Any public figure from the recent history is fair game.

Any takers?

I knew about Möller's AirCar but this one is a bit different, the Terrafugia Transition:
[youtube=625,350]aeQL-dUjlOg[/youtube]
They expect to sell it next year for $150k+

http://www.terrafugia.com/

After this thread you would think that all has been said, but now the opposite has been found:

Quotesignificantly higher emotional empathy levels were recorded for the oxytocin group than for the placebo group
.
.
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The administration of oxytocin simply had the effect of enhancing the ability to experience fellow-feeling. The males in the test achieved levels which would normally only be expected in women.

I wonder what is the effect on borderline socio/psychopaths.

Well, a broadly written law that basically allows the police to harass any person that they deem illegal "looking", and regular citizens to harass the police so it in turn harasses suspected illegal immigrants was just signed by the governor of Arizona:

http://www.salon.com/wires/us/2010/04/23/D9F908LG0_us_immigration_enforcement/index.html

Fundamentally, it means that if you look Hispanic (or Arabic, or Indian, or Native or, well, non-white) you can be stopped by the police and asked for a proof of residency in the state of Arizona (a valid Driver's license from a different state doesn't work).

Needless to say, as a Hispanic I'm not setting foot in AZ in the foreseeable future, nor anyone in my family.

This is one of my pet peeves and I was thinking that we may have a thread to place news, articles or related information on animal intelligence. To start let's use a BBC article about crows able to solve a particularly difficult test:

Quote from: BBCThe birds were presented with some out-of reach food; a long tool, which could be used to extract the food, but which was also out of reach, tucked behind the bars of a box; and a short tool, which could be used to extract the long tool, but which was attached to the end of a dangling piece of string tied to the crow's perch.

There is a video of the bird solving the problem on the article page.

Coming from the hunting debate and reading some stuff in other forum I thought that this is an interesting debate:

Is man at the center the natural world (anthropocentrism)? Do other beings deserve being perceived with human characteristics (anthropomorfism)?

Care to take a side?

In our Last Post thread Aggie made the following post related with clubbing baby seals:

Quote from: Aggie on April 12, 2010, 04:56:28 PM
I think it has more to do with commercial viability, actually.

I'm not actually much of a supporter of the hunt, but bristle at the misinformation presented by protesters and how much of the protests are based on 'cute factor'. 

Last _{why is it morally more or less acceptable to kill anything based on age? why is a hakapik to kill a seal worse than a bolt gun to kill a cow?} Post

So, who's ready for a debate and who wants to defend the hunt?

For a while I read about some American intelligence services trying to shutdown Wikileaks for a video of what I think can safely be called a senseless massacre. Today they finally released the video (below) with all it's gory details.
[youtube=425,350]5rXPrfnU3G0[/youtube]
The apparent justification for this "engagement" is the use of a large telephoto on a corner, which you can actually see in the footage, supposedly confused for a RPG. Perhaps my knowledge on weapons is low but the RPGs I've seen in TV, movies and games don't look like that although the lens certainly looks suspicious. The obvious detail is that everyone looks relaxed and pretty much "normal" and even during the shooting never looked (to me) trying to "engage" anyone. To top it off the guy who had the brilliant idea to help someone shot in the ground gets killed and his daughters wounded.

Beyond the obvious anger after watching the video, I wonder how many incidents like this happen in so called 'theatres of war' and how many people will attempt retribution after them (like the Moscow hits last week).

Life seems to be as cheap as the bullets used to extinguish it.

I don't know if this classifies as serious but it certainly is politics: lo and behold, the Labservative Party:
[youtube=625,350]weWe-bsZDQY[/youtube]

I was reading 538 and found about this magnificent movement:

Quote from: CoffeePartyCoffee Party USA aims to reinvigorate the public sphere, drawing from diverse backgrounds and diverse perspectives, with the goal of expanding the influence of the People in America's political arena. We do not require nor adhere to any preexisting ideology.  We encourage deliberation guided by reason amongst the many viewpoints held by our members. We see our diversity as a strength, not a weakness, because we believe that faithful deliberation from multiple vantage points is the best way to achieve the common good.  It is in the responsible and reasonable practice of deliberation that we hope to contribute to society.

About time someone shows that not only the cookies live in this country.

Reading one of my webcomics I came across this pearl:

http://www.myspace.com/ratfishbrothers

The music is quite cool and take notice to the lyrics of the songs, even the titles (Rocks don't lie, Time travel with a shovel, etc).