Sense of the World

The Obamacare myth about small business

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:04:16 -0400

The Obamacare myth about small business:

Here are some nice facts for the detractors. Stop trying to repeal this already—it’s actually good for the country.

S.E. CUPP VS. MICHAEL MOORE ON GUNS: ‘I JUST HAPPEN TO BE INFORMED’

Mon, 20 May 2013 01:18:49 -0400

S.E. CUPP VS. MICHAEL MOORE ON GUNS: ‘I JUST HAPPEN TO BE INFORMED’:

TheBlaze’s S.E. Cupp battled liberal filmmaker Michael Moore on the gun issue Friday, arguing against gun restrictions and schooling him on basic statistics on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.”

Cupp, contending with boos from the “Real Time” audience, said the problem with a gun registry is that “it treats law-abiding citizens as if they are guilty until proven innocent.”

She went on, “The problem with background checks, five-day waiting periods, they assume that I have criminal intent to use my gun to pursue my Second Amendment rights…I go to get a background check, ‘Prove to me you’re not a criminal.’ I go to get a gun, ‘Prove to me you don’t want to use it in the heat of passion right now, wait five days, you need to cool off.’ That’s not fair — the government is not in the business of intimidating me away from my Second Amendment rights. It’s an abuse of power, and it seeps into the culture — it’s why newspapers think they can publish gun owners’ addresses, as if they are pariahs. It’s not appropriate.”

Moore countered, “You have a dangerous device that can kill 20 schoolchildren, I want to know where that device is. You can have it — ”

“You do not have that right,” Cupp said.

Moore then said he wanted the Second Amendment altered to spell out the Founding Fathers’ intention: that it covers muskets.

Maher pointed out that he is a gun owner himself and would never give his guns up. He said he goes to the shooting range a few times a year, which Moore said wasn’t enough — he wouldn’t be effective against an intruder if he were just coming out of a deep sleep.

“As opposed to what, just getting mowed down?” Maher asked.

The conversation shifted to crime statistics, with Maher raising the question: Why have gun homicides gone down in an age of less gun control?

Moore made the point that all crime has gone down, and Cupp said mass shootings are also down — causing Moore to throw up his hands in laughter.

“Less school shootings since Columbine, let me ponder that for a second,” he said sarcastically.

“There have been fewer mass shootings over the past 30 years, that’s just a fact,” Cupp said. “It’s an inconvenient truth I know, but it’s a fact.”

Moore referenced “the bubble” that gun owners live in.

“There’s no bubble. I am a gun owner, I have lived and breathed this issue personally for a decade,” Cupp shot back. “It’s not a bubble, I just happen to be informed on gun issues, unlike those people who talk about them.”

Get him girl! Facts and rational thought win the day again.

Very rational indeed! ….except for this part:

“She went on, “The problem with background checks, five-day waiting periods, they assume that I have criminal intent to use my gun to pursue my Second Amendment rights…I go to get a background check, ‘Prove to me you’re not a criminal.’ I go to get a gun, ‘Prove to me you don’t want to use it in the heat of passion right now, wait five days, you need to cool off.’ That’s not fair — the government is not in the business of intimidating me away from my Second Amendment rights. It’s an abuse of power, and it seeps into the culture — it’s why newspapers think they can publish gun owners’ addresses, as if they are pariahs. It’s not appropriate.””

That is not rational at all. It is, in fact, an opinion that was not given any basis in fact. And the “bubble” that Michael Moore points out that she’s living in is that most American believe that yes, proving that you are not a criminal or not planning to use a lethal weapon in a fit of emotion IS actually a good idea.

There is actually no factual argument that can prove that the reason behind these desired changes to gun purchasing regulations is there because the people who want them assume you are a criminal until proven innocent. That single statement involves so many assumptions that there’s no way to prove short of every single person who wants these gun control measures signing a document saying that’s exactly what they want.

Here’s another possibility: the people who want these gun control measure are perfectly fine with people like S.E. Cupp having guns if they want them. However, they also feel that, since guns are indeed dangerous, making sure people who AREN’T like S.E. Cupp and who DO want to use them for illicit purposes can’t get them. They are in fact NOT accusing anyone of being a criminal or mentally unstable, they are simply asking for precautions to make sure that ACTUAL criminals and mentally unstable people cannot buy guns, but non-criminal and mentally stable people can go ahead and do so to their hearts’ content.

Personally, I am willing to bet that people who want more gun regulation agree more with the paragraph above than with the notion that the government should try to intimidate good people out of getting guns. Frankly, I have no idea where Cupp actually came up with or developed that notion.

She is certainly right in the sentiment that “The government is not in the business of intimidating me away from my Second Amendment rights.” But, her belief that the government is trying to intimidate her out of her rights by asking for stricter policies on gun purchasing is 100%, entirely, an opinion. It’s an emotion, a reaction: she feels intimidated by these laws. I wonder if she’s asked herself why that is. Or furthermore, I wonder if she’s asked herself if it’s a wise policy to legislate based on whether her feelings get irked by such a policy or whether one should try to separate the emotional responses from the rational decisions. I would actually guess that she HAS thought about it, because she’s clearly an intelligent and informed person….which makes me extra confused on why she still feels this way.

Moore said that all crime has gone down since the Clinton administration. I certainly hope that gun crimes have gone down in as big of a proportion as other kinds of crime in this larger crime-reduced time period. But if they haven’t, there’s even less validity to Cupp’s counterpoint. I wonder if someone has those statistics somewhere.

Lastly, if gun crime rates have gone down, that’s great, but gun crimes also do still happen. If we want to make it harder for criminals and unstable people to get guns, why does the fact that you personally choose to let the fact that you feel intimidated by such an idea overrule a rational approach to the concept win out? Whether you feel intimidated by being asked for a background check is irrelevant, and in the end, if you are a non-criminal, mentally stable person like Cupp, you’ll get your guns. But if you are a criminal/unstable and you ARE looking to commit a crime, now you can’t get a gun. I can’t think of a rational argument against that, and Cupp’s only counterpoint to this argument seems to be that she doesn’t like the way it makes her feel.

did-you-kno: Source …and they went RIGHT into the Dark...

Thu, 16 May 2013 01:12:12 -0400

did-you-kno:

Source

…and they went RIGHT into the Dark One’s prison….and all hell broke loose until the Dragon Reborn came around circa November, 2008.

klaatu: Lauren Cooper and Doctor Who clash in class - Classic...

Mon, 13 May 2013 17:03:00 -0400

klaatu:

Lauren Cooper and Doctor Who clash in class - Classic Comic Relief (by Comic Relief)

BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!!!

This is why Donna Noble might have been the best of them all. Talk about on-screen chemistry (not romantic in nature)…these two could just, well, act together all friggin day. And I could watch them together just as long.

Love it!

thecyberwolf: Steampunk Portal Series by Lisa...

Mon, 13 May 2013 02:37:08 -0400

thecyberwolf:

Steampunk Portal Series

by Lisa Rye (Risachantag)

Deviant Art - Website - Tumblr - Facebook

Reblogging for sheer brilliance of imagery. And I’m kinda a sucker for Steampunk art, on occasion.

Remote Reconnaissance of Another Solar System

Mon, 13 May 2013 02:00:33 -0400

Remote Reconnaissance of Another Solar System:

This visualization, produced using the Hayden Planetarium’s Digital Universe—the most comprehensive and scientifically accurate, three-dimensional map of th…

This is a beautiful video that not only shows the spectra of a star and its four confirmed exoplanets, but shows you the spread and locations of many other confirmed exoplanets relative to our own solar system in a way that’s true to real proportions.

I found myself smiling with wonder at this video, much more than I thought I would. When it pointed out that every blue circle is a star with a confirmed exoplanet, I literally whispered to myself “there’re so many.” It was a beautiful realization: planets are indeed more the norm than not, around stars. That’s an amazing fact of science. I hope it affects you all the same way it affected me.

did-you-kno: Source This is fantastic and hilarious. And...

Sun, 12 May 2013 01:30:59 -0400

did-you-kno:

Source

This is fantastic and hilarious. And amazing. And fantastic.

Easter-egg-style story lines like this always elevate a show or movie to another level for me.

Elizabeth Warren: Give Students Same Loan Rate As Big Banks

Sat, 11 May 2013 02:10:27 -0400

Elizabeth Warren: Give Students Same Loan Rate As Big Banks:

WASHINGTON — Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) unveiled her first bill Wednesday, designed to set student loan interest rates at the same level the Federal Reserve offers to big banks. With some student loan rates set to double on July 1 — from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent — Warren’s bill would reduce student loan interest rates to 0.75 percent, opening the Fed’s discount window to students.

Please please please let this bill pass. Not because I have crazy student loan debt (I have none), but because it’s the right thing to do.

Also, on another note, I would vote for Elizabeth Warren for President right now if I could.

…although maybe she’d actually get more accomplished in the legislature for a while.

becomingbrey: senseoftheworld: discoverynews: Navy Ship...

Fri, 10 May 2013 11:20:55 -0400

becomingbrey:

senseoftheworld:

discoverynews:

Navy Ship Shoots Down Drone With Laser Blaster

Star Wars fanatics who’ve longed for the days of fleets of laser-equipped vessels blasting enemies out of the sky and sea, your ship has quite literally come in.

So it costs $31 or $32 million dollars to install one laser weapon unit, yet they brag about it costing about $1 to fire? That firing cost rate is great and all…but someone still needs an economics lesson.

Still, this is a pretty nifty weapon that has multiple uses. And one would HOPE it could limit collateral damage. I’d much prefer the precision of a laser to the ridiculousness that’s going on with drones these days.

Well its a prototype of course its expensive, and you’ve gotta have a pretty strong beam to be effective from such a great distance when taking scattering into effect, but you have to remember that the earliest computers cost ridiculous amounts of money, and while they seem to have had maybe more impact potential than a big ship mounted laser, you never know where the tech will take us. Plus, being a prototype you’re also paying some of the R&D costs, which i assume were substantial as there’s been a fair share of attempts at this which failed

Very good points. Another friend pointed out, too, that both missile and AA bullet/gun costs are waaaay higher than I remember them being (seriously, last time I checked was like 1995 in Desert Storm 1 :D). If this laser weapon can last a while without breaking, it would most likely be more economical in the long run.

discoverynews: Navy Ship Shoots Down Drone With Laser...

Thu, 09 May 2013 21:24:15 -0400

discoverynews:

Navy Ship Shoots Down Drone With Laser Blaster

Star Wars fanatics who’ve longed for the days of fleets of laser-equipped vessels blasting enemies out of the sky and sea, your ship has quite literally come in.

So it costs $31 or $32 million dollars to install one laser weapon unit, yet they brag about it costing about $1 to fire? That firing cost rate is great and all…but someone still needs an economics lesson.

Still, this is a pretty nifty weapon that has multiple uses. And one would HOPE it could limit collateral damage. I’d much prefer the precision of a laser to the ridiculousness that’s going on with drones these days.

fuckyeahcrushertopicard: trekordie: teroknortailor: Riker...

Thu, 09 May 2013 00:28:51 -0400

fuckyeahcrushertopicard:

trekordie:

teroknortailor:

Riker sits down (by WeirdHat)

HE DOES IT EVERY SINGLE TIME

WHY

He’s got so much swag that it affects him in strange ways…

** it’s because he’s asserting his sexual superiority!

Hahaha, teabag that chair! TEABAG IT!!!

I can’t believe I never really noticed this before.

NewsDaily: East about to be overrun by billions of cicadas

Thu, 09 May 2013 00:20:29 -0400

NewsDaily: East about to be overrun by billions of cicadas :

Bugged by the billions: East Coast about to see power of big numbers in coming cicada invasion WASHINGTON (AP) — Any day now, billions of cicadas with bulging red eyes will crawl out of the earth after 17 years underground and overrun the East Coast. The insects will arrive in such numbers that people from North Carolina to Connecticut will be outnumbered roughly 600-to-1. Maybe more. Scientists even have a horror-movie name for the infestation: Brood II. But as…

Well then…I guess we will probably see a cicada or two in the near future. :)

When I go home to CT for work, my house is essentially in the woods, and every night you can’t not hear the wildlife that lives there. If my house is on a hotbed of these new guys, I’m gonna have to invest in some quality earplugs.

…or not, maybe. I like white noise in the background anyway and usually sleep with something doing that, but 90+ decibels? That’s another story. This’ll be interesting.

I wonder if I can feed cicadas to my pet turtle. Anyone got any suggestions there?

section9: evangotlib: perzadook: popculturebrain: Poster:...

Wed, 08 May 2013 21:32:51 -0400

section9:

evangotlib:

perzadook:

popculturebrain:

Poster: ‘Gravity’ | TotalFilm

This is Alfonso Cuaron’s first feature since Children of Men. It’s rumored that there is a seventeen minute unbroken shot to open the movie. That would be something.

Children of Men has a few scenes that are long, including one insanely complex shot inside a car, but this 6:18 take is the longest (and most spectacular imo). Spoilers in the video.

I am…excited.

The ex hated Children of Men. I should have known right then and there….

Ever read the book (Children of Men)? It was fucking terrible. One of the few instances I can think of where the movie was far, far, FAR superior to the book. The book was filled with stupid characters making insanely irrational choices, and was essentially a thinly-blanketed work of Christian propaganda. It was borderline disgusting.

For those who don’t quite get why Leonard Nimoy is singing...

Wed, 08 May 2013 13:36:04 -0400

For those who don’t quite get why Leonard Nimoy is singing about Bilbo Baggins in the previous Spock vs. Spock video. Equally amazing, probably for entirely different (hippie-related) reasons.

dreaminpng: scopeguardpony: dreaminpng: speakerwiggin: GOOOOO...

Wed, 08 May 2013 10:26:27 -0400

dreaminpng:

scopeguardpony:

dreaminpng:

speakerwiggin:

GOOOOO BILBO! lololol

Spock vs Spock Audi Commercial

BEST COMMERCIAL EVER!

Words cannot describe. :D

IKR!? I died when he starting singing along to Bilbo Baggins.

Holy shit this is utterly amazing.

Boosting 'cellular garbage disposal' can delay the aging process

Tue, 07 May 2013 12:21:00 -0400

Boosting 'cellular garbage disposal' can delay the aging process:

Biologists have identified a gene, previously implicated in Parkinson’s disease, that can delay the onset of aging and extend the healthy life span of fruit flies. This research has important potential implications for aging and disease in humans. The gene, Parkin, serves at least two vital functions. By increasing Parkin activity, the scientists extended the lifespan of the flies by more than 25 percent.

This is very cool! One single gene can not only extend the lifespan of fruit flies, but also the “health span,” which, in my opinion, is just as cool—if not cooler. They were healthier and more fertile for longer periods of time. Additionally, the gene, called parkin, can prevent aging-related disorders like (you guessed it) Parkinson’s disease.

Personally, one of my greatest fears in life is losing my mind—that is, losing my memories as I get older, and losing my ability to recall the ups and downs, the joys and sorrows, that make me me. If you removed all the memories from my head, you’d be left with my basic personality but none of my developed characteristics that come from my experiences.

I saw my grandfather descend into dementia and Alzheimer’s after several strokes before he passed away when I was a teenager. While it was nice to have him in my life until almost the end of high school, he wasn’t really “in my life” the way that he himself might have said so. For the last several years of his life, he barely even recognized his own family and had very little idea what was going on. In many ways, this was harder to deal with than if he had died from his very first serious stroke.

Transporting this scenario to me, I would much rather have more years of healthy living, especially for mental capacity, than just living longer. What’s living an extra ten years if I don’t even know who I am any more?

The key to aging isn’t just living longer, it’s living better for longer. If we can achieve both by affecting simply one gene, imagine the benefits. That, to me, sounds like an incredible breakthrough.

Principal fires security guards to hire art teachers — and transforms elementary school

Thu, 02 May 2013 11:31:35 -0400

Principal fires security guards to hire art teachers — and transforms elementary school:

By Katy Tur, Correspondent, NBC News ROXBURY, Mass.

Snake arms and crystal legs: Artificial limbs push boundaries of art

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 01:52:10 -0400

Snake arms and crystal legs: Artificial limbs push boundaries of art:

From crystal legs to arms covered in feathers, a pioneering designer is reinventing the way we see artificial limbs.

This is very cool. Some of these limbs are really fascinating in design and overall look. I particularly like how some of the amputees talk about them almost as a fashion accessory, with one saying that she should go to more parties so she could wear her floral-pattern leg more often.

This reminds me of something out of a Gibson story mixed with a more visceral artistic angle. It’s like a bionic limb with more than just the purpose of functionality. In Gibson, things are described as enhanced functionally—sunglasses might also be a way of connecting to remote networks. Here, the multi-functionality is on the level of presentation, as opposed to flat-out function (which in turn give it an entirely new kind of function). The limb acts as a limb, but also as a piece of wearable art. Thus the hyperfunctionality is artistic, instead of technical, in nature.

I wonder what this means for the future of bionics and artificial limbs? What happens when multiple functions do get mixed in to artificial limbs AND presentation? One can let the imagination run wild here, and the results seem like they would be quite fun.

nooby-banana: upperstories: rubitrightintomyeyes: duckysantono...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:25:29 -0400

nooby-banana:

upperstories:

rubitrightintomyeyes:

duckysantonoff:

IM ON THE FREEWAY AND I LOOK OUT AND THIS SASSY MOTHERFUCKER IS JUST WAITING FOR ME TO FUMBLR MY PHONE OUT AND TAKE A PICTURE

That is a companion cube on a Jurassic Park jeep.

When science literally goes too far.

living the dream

This is just too much awesome to not reblog.

Also, I finally got around to getting Portal 2 this week. Finished it in two days. I must say, Valve stepped it up on so many levels for this game, I was continually wide-eyed. And laughing. A lot.

My one complaint is that some of the “behind the scenes” puzzles (as in, not part of any Aperture Science designed tests) were made very obvious and telegraphed. Like, putting exactly one panel of portal-conducting wall in a certain place, instead of making the whole wall conductable but letting you have to figure out the one spot that will work. A little disappointing, but completely overshadowed by how awesome the game is anyway.

Also, J.K. Simmons and Ellen McLain are my voice acting heroes.

My new Futurism-meets-Philosophy site!

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 20:28:50 -0400

My new Futurism-meets-Philosophy site!:

Hey guys!

I started a new blog to focus on my science/futurism ideas a little more exclusively. I made the blog over at WordPress, which I think is far superior to Tumblr in terms of generating public discussion and commentary (as in, you CAN’T on Tumblr and you very easily can on WordPress). Please check it out!

I’ll try to have as much overlap with this blog as I can, but I doubt it will be perfect. I highly encourage you all to follow both if you’re into my science-y side.

It’s called Humanity Going. Check it out!