• Climate Change (General Discussion)
    No i didn't.AmadeusD
    Ok!

    The problem is with what they didn't say.Agree-to-Disagree
    Ok and what is that?
    . I am pointing out that there is more information that is relevant to the claim and that the meteorologist has not mentioned it.Agree-to-Disagree

    Ok but why would he leave it out? Do you think it’s deliberate and what would the motive be?
  • Climate Change (General Discussion)
    Is climate change funny because of one person’s posts?
    — John McMannis

    You're not reading very clearly, it seems. No one said climate change is funny.
    AmadeusD

    You said when you stop laughing you’ll take the claim that climate deniers are braindead seriously. You’ll “bother” with it. I guess I was giving more credit than deserved in assuming your post had any connection to climate change. What you’re really doing is being immature, which according to your post history you often criticize others for. I guess that’s my fault.
    But GW/CC fanatics don't want to let the facts get in the way of a good story that they want to hear.Agree-to-Disagree

    You’ve been given the facts by many people here. It’s clear to me who wants to follow a story, and it’s you. The story of an outsider battling the “fanatics”. But they’re not fanatical. There’s nothing they’ve said that’s inaccurate. If the number of days over 50C has tripled since 2000, as was pointed out, then that by itself appears significant. Again I ask what motivates a person to go on like this? What about this subject makes you take a position you wouldn’t hold with other subjects, like geophysics or string theory? Sorry but this subject is important to me as my family is from an island nation.
  • Climate Change (General Discussion)
    It arouses my humour mechanisms.AmadeusD
    Ya but why? I look at the news of extreme heat and floods and stuff like that and it doesn’t seem funny.

    Have you tracked Mikie's posts through this thread? Several attempts have been made to catalogue his inane, insulting tirades that he seems to take pride it.
    HIlarious he's a mod.
    AmadeusD
    I have read some. It seems he’s put you on ignore and you don’t like it? Maybe you’re making it personal. I don’t mind if people are a little insulting if I can learn from them, and I’ve learned a lot from him….also he’s not a mod.

    But what does Mikie have to do with my question? Is climate change funny because of one person’s posts?
  • Rational thinking: animals and humans
    Do they?
    I have personally witnessed it in dogs, cats, crows, raccoons and rats and goats.
    In scientific experimentation, the subjects have been predominantly apes, dolphins, canines, rodents, parrots and corvids.
    I would be very interested to hear of other examples, and how the assessment was made.
    Vera Mont

    Maybe not all animals. But I guess it depends on what’s considered problem solving. Saying animals can do rational thinking sounds wrong though. I think it’s projecting maybe but I’m not smart enough to clearly define where the line is.
  • Climate Change (General Discussion)


    I think you’re in over your head here mate. Why do you go on like this?
  • Climate Change (General Discussion)


    That was interesting, thanks. Kind of scary that so many don’t think about it. I’m one of them until recently and it reminded me of stuff like pandemics and nuclear weaponry.

    The day I come in here, and don't laughAmadeusD

    Weird. What’s funny about it?
  • What are you listening to right now?
    Noah Kahan, Stick Season.
  • Rational thinking: animals and humans
    How can you assess rational thought, except through problem-solving?Vera Mont

    But wouldn’t that mean that all animals have rational thought? They all problem solve in some ways.
  • US Election 2024 (All general discussion)
    I don’t follow politics that much but it’s everywhere right now. I think it’s important. There’s no way I’m voting Trump but I don’t love the other side either, although Walz seems like a good guy. RFK jr. has interesting stuff to say but is a little strange. The whole bear story and stuff like that. Are other people on the fence? Where are you all leaning?
  • Climate Change (General Discussion)


    Interesting take, thank you.
  • Is the real world fair and just?
    Do either of you think that we can make the world fairer? Do you think we ought?Banno

    YesI think we can. I think it’s up to us though to first decide what’s unfair or unjust. Most of us can agree though so that’s good.
  • Is the real world fair and just?


    I don’t think the world is fair or just. I think we humans make up those ideas and apply them to nature. To say everything happens for a reason is kind of true, but not for some big plan or something. Things just happen and it’s mostly luck. That’s my view anyways
  • Climate Change (General Discussion)
    At what point do you land the plane?Echarmion

    Should be right away! Good analogy
  • Climate Change (General Discussion)
    As far as I can tell, "We do something about the environment" is generally the most rational (re)action, at least if caring about our children's children.jorndoe

    Yeah. It’s strange that we wouldn’t take their word for it on such a complex subject. Everyone seems to think they’re an expert or that it’s ok to have a strong opinion about climate change, but they wouldn’t do the same thing with microbiology or biochemistry or astrophysics or something. Someone brought up this point before and I agree. I think there’s always a chance things are wrong but when there’s such broad agreement, I tend to go with that. Especially when it’s important. Like the ozone was years ago. Countries came together to solve that problem and they succeeded. But with this one, for some reason it has become partisan. Like people think it’s a political thing, like a left wing issue. I don’t know who came up with that like if it was the left wing pundits or the right wingers but that’s how it was framed in people’s minds.

    @Mikie I read some of that book and the parallels between this and tobacco industry \ smoking - cancer is very interesting. Companies like Exxon use some of the same PR people as Philip Morris! My thing is; don’t the ceos of these companies have kids and family? I mean they must know what they’re saying is bs but they still do it for the buck. Just weird to me. I guess they must have convinced themselves. Anyway, thanks for the recommendation!
  • Climate Change (General Discussion)
    But like most trolls, he just moves on to the next crappy denial line after the previous one has been thoroughly debunked. Utter waste of time. Might as well be talking to a bot.Mikie

    Well i talk to everyone but I see your point
  • Climate Change (General Discussion)
    The reason that most of my posts downplay the risks is that I believe that most of the posts from many other people exaggerate the risks.Agree-to-Disagree

    Where? I don’t see much exaggeration. If it is exaggerated, how certain are you that it is? Isn’t it better to assume some of the worst case scenarios, given the harm it might do? Are you a climate scientist? From those I read and hear from, this all seems like a very serious thing. It might not be the end of the world, but that’s a Straw Man argument to me. I’m not a scientist but I know they’ve been talking about this since the early 90s at least, and I can see evidence all around me that the world is warming, and though that may be good in some ways its bad in far more ways.

    Here is an example. People are concerned about an increase in the global average temperature of 1.5 or 2.0 degrees Celsius. But most places on Earth have a difference in temperature between winter and summer of 20 to 30 degrees Celsius. Which do you prefer, winter or summer?Agree-to-Disagree

    But this is just silly my friend. Even I know that just because the number is low doesn’t mean it can’t have big impacts. If these are the thought provoking things you mention, you can’t be angry at people from dismissing you as unserious.
  • Climate Change (General Discussion)
    Mikie has no idea what he is talking about, and doesn't realize how foolish he is.Agree-to-Disagree

    From reading this thread and the conversations with you, that’s not how it appears to me. He’s also not the only one that’s called you out on your biases. Whether or not you’re a climate denier I don’t know, but every post of yours indicates a slant towards downplaying the risks. But you seem like a nice enough guy!
    (Sorry Mikie for quoting people you ignore lol)
  • Climate Change (General Discussion)
    just put them on the ignore list like I do.Mikie

    What ignore list? I don’t see that option. Who do you have on yours? Can it be anyone? Does it block everything they post or just some?
  • Climate Change (General Discussion)
    See Naomi Orestes, for one: Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming.Mikie

    Thanks, I will.
  • What are you listening to right now?
    I’ve been listening to a lot of Sinatra lately. Makes me happy.
  • US Election 2024 (All general discussion)
    Wow I don’t normally follow politics that much but this is big news. Are there really enough people that want Trump back in office? He already got a chance and now seems like old news.
  • The essence of religion
    I simply ask, what IS it that is beyond oneself? Turns out to be a fascinating question in phenomenology.Constance

    Hmmm I would say maybe anything we can’t know?
  • Banno's Game.
    The square root of 2 is now 1.5. Nice and easy lol
  • Climate Change (General Discussion)


    Seems weird that anyone would want to harm the planet deliberately. They’re not stupid, they must know it will hurt them too? I wonder if something else is going on. The evidence does seem convincing at this point. Is it really money or what?
  • What Are You Watching Right Now?
    I just finished watching the two Dune movies. Not bad.
  • Are actions universals?
    Are actions in general (such as buying, walking, flying etc.) considered universals?SEP lineolata

    Hmm. My first thought is that no, they are particulars but that the idea of any action is a universal. But good question.
  • The essence of religion


    I think the essence of religion is belief in something beyond yourself and what you can see. A simple idea I know but it has always served me well. Good post.
  • The problem with "Materialism"
    Yeah because "Kant wasn't good at philosophy" is a greeeaaat argument. lol you're like the dumbest poster here.
  • The problem with "Materialism"
    That's why Kant was not very good at this philosophy thing.Garrett Travers
    The problem with children like you is that you pretend to know things.God, no wonder Rand devotees have such a bad name. Yuck.

    Gotta be pretty careful about “what Kant is getting at”.Mww

    Yeah you're right.

    We conceive of the world.....what way? Conceive of the world in a material way?

    Care to elaborate on what you’re asking about conceiving the world and what Kant was getting at?
    Mww

    Yeah I mean that materialism, or I guess material, is just a concept is it not? It's just a word. It's a way of interpreting the world. So if matter is representation, or a way of representing the world, then isn't it just another belief? Just another interpretation? If matter is all that exists, then what about the person or thing that says/thinks it's all that exists? Is this belief in matter also material?
    I guess I mean, isn't it another interpretation??
  • POLL: Why is the murder rate in the United States almost 5 times that of the United Kingdom?
    a valuable return : GAIN
    2: the excess of returns over expenditure in a transaction or series of transactions
    especially : the excess of the selling price of goods over their cost
    3: net income usually for a given period of time
    4: the ratio of profit for a given year to the amount of capital invested or to the value of sales
    5: the compensation accruing to entrepreneurs for the assumption of risk in business enterprise as distinguished from wages or rent

    to be of service or advantage : AVAIL
    2: to derive benefit : GAIN
    3: to make a profi

    Understand now how language works? Or, is it too idiosyncratic to apprehend?
    Garrett Travers

    Uh, most of those definitions pertain to money. So yeah, I think choosing one of them and claiming it's the REAL definition and then expecting everyone to know what you're talking about is just stupid.

    But you're clearly a child, so I'll leave you to it.

    Which you decided to injected yourself into, invoking your own preferred definition of "profit = gain of any kind." Disingenuous at best. But mostly just confused.Xtrix

    :fire: :100:
  • POLL: Why is the murder rate in the United States almost 5 times that of the United Kingdom?
    I tend to agree with Xtrix here. You seem to have your own idiosyncratic way of defining these terms. I mean, profits are what motivate living things? Not food and water and sex and shelter? Seems strange that an ant gives a damn about money. But obviously you're meaning profit in some other way. But why not just say that?
    Maybe I'm missing something!
  • POLL: Why is the murder rate in the United States almost 5 times that of the United Kingdom?
    The US has far more guns than nearly any other country, per capita. The gun manufacturing industry, with their propaganda and lobbying, is behind it. Which only means, as usual, the valuing of profits over people is at the core of this rot.Xtrix

    :100: I agree. There are endless examples. Even after Sandyhook, the gun manufacturers still lobbied strongly against regulations that over 90% of Americans were in favor of. It comes down to valuing money and livelihood over human life. Really sad.
  • POLL: Why is the murder rate in the United States almost 5 times that of the United Kingdom?
    I think it's because the U.S. has too many guns. Way too many. The more guns available, the more you have issues. In other countries, less guns means less shootings. Seems kind of obvious.
  • The problem with "Materialism"
    If matter is all that exists, what about the fact that we conceive of the world this way? Isn't this what Kant is getting at?
  • What is Philosophy?
    Given the word philosophy is in the very title of this forum, it seems like a fairly straightforward question, "What is philosophy?"

    The term itself, as we know, means "love of wisdom" from the Greek. But that doesn't help much until we know what "wisdom" means.
    Xtrix

    I was just asking this on another thread! I'll have to read through the responses....
  • What Constitutes A Philosopher?
    As a newbie, here's my opinions on the stuff offered so far.....

    The study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially when considered as an academic discipline.Garrett Travers

    I like this and it is what I have in mind most of the time, and my friends.

    you usually have to be dead to be a great philosopher._db

    I get this, and often feel this way too. But there have to be philosophers around now too, don't you think?

    A philosopher is a person who loves wisdom and seeks wisdom.ZzzoneiroCosm

    Does anyone know what the greeks meant by wisdom? What are they loving?

    I think philosophy, and therefore philosophers, is simply the asking of certain questions.Xtrix

    Woa. This is very general but I actually think I like it the most! Haven't come across this way of putting it that much. Do you consider YOURSELF a philosopher by this definition? What about others on the forum?
  • I'm really rich, what should I do?
    I have an idea! Give like 0.01% of it to me! You'll be a hero to a ton of people! :blush:
  • what the hell should I do with my life?
    Thanks. I'll check it out.

    I've made some changes lately and its been going pretty well. Still don't wake up every day very enthused or fulfilled, but I'm getting there. I'd like to wake up enthused and end the day exhausted in a good way. I would like to take more risks and be more active and work even harder, but I have no direction. I guess I'm one of those people who are just followers and not leaders, and require the guidance of others. Which makes me hate myself. I should have just gone into the military or something like that.