Doom Shepherd

If school were to be thought of like a conscription and a discipline why should it differ from an army. I think that's a terrible way to look at education. It helps assimilate the children OR seperate the assimilated from the rest. Assimilation is for these guys:

Exactly. That's why I advocate capitalism. Meh. I don't think I'd have received any better education from a corporation which was at least as concerned with its quarterly profits as it was with my educational well-being. If I had my druthers, I might advocate something like the old apprenticeship system. I don't see how anything could beat one-on-one, specialized learning from accomplished professionals. But we could really improve the educational environment just by getting rid of all the jerks who don't want to learn. Gotta have somebody to clean the sewers and conduct human trials for drugs on...

Unless you reproduce by splitting in two and making a genetically identical copy of yourself, that's not what "asexual" means. What IS the word for it, then? I have the same problem... I have a phobia of water... and I want to use the term for it... but "hydrophobia" is RABIES. On the other hand... according to my dictionary, sometime words have *GASP!!!* multiple meanings.

On what planet is it THAT easy to switch schools? Also, in what century is "lie back, close your eyes and think of [England]" still considered an acceptable solution to a problem? In reality school uniforms don't do anything to improve the learning environment that a dress code doesn't do. You can still tell who the poor kids are, and who the rich kids are, and anything else that clothing says about a person. It's all still there. Except that uniforms titillate the freakazoids. [/rant] Funny true story... I used to have a propensity for wearing dark blue slacks and light blue shirts to work in the library I used to work at. I just like blue. This ended when I, at 25, was mistaken for a student at the Catholic School next door, because dark blue slacks and a light blue shirt was the boys' "uniform" there.

So basically she was a politician like any other. Only the sex appeal is beyond the norm for politicians.

All of life in a nutshell. Humans are wonderfully self-contradicting.

You guys really need another hot blonde lady with glasses running things.

Don't confuse self-sacrifice for altruism. Self-sacrifice doesn't necessarily mean doing something for no tangible or intangible benefit to yourself. Altruism, however, does.

But, as you put more energy into something (accelerating it), it gains mass because it has more (kinetic) energy. At light speed, mass becomes infinite. The object you accellerated usually collapses into a black hole some time before that. At infinite mass, you'd re-collapse the universe.

I agree with Alyxx. If you're going to keep it, make people give decent reasons, at least for -rep.

It might also mean that if we can find a way to manipulate Neutrinos, there might be a way to communicate at FTL speeds, which at the very least would make things like interplanetary and even interstellar probes much more efficient. Say we sent a probe to Alpha Centauri. While it still might take, say, 43 years to get there (at .1 c), if communication time with the probe were reduced from 4.3 years between transmission and reception to something much smaller, It would greatly improve the odds of mission success, giving scientists and engineers a chance to react to problems and changes much faster than they otherwise could. And who knows... maybe that's what the Galactic Alliance is waiting for us to figure out. In fact, I remember a SF story where the (accidental) discovery of the Interstellar FTL Mail system was the condition for being considered "ready" to join the rest of the galaxy.

There is no option for "the very thought of it makes me want to claw out my own eyes, but only after completing a several-hour-long vivisection of whoever thought of it in the first place."

The phrase "really compelling documentary" should NEVER be used in conjunction with a YouTube video.

Speaking of Dark Energy... It may all be an illusion

My absolute, bar-none favorite food EVER is a kind of crusted "Pumpkin cake" that only my ma has ever made to my satisfaction. Also: Snap peas, raw right out of the pod. Hardee's' old Monster Burger, before they switched to Angus. Vanilla Creme doughnuts. Cinnamon rolls "City chicken" - actually breaded spiced pork bits on a skewer Mashed potatoes and beef gravy BACON!!! Strawberry anything.

I forgot, and must add: Etymology - word origins, Fascinating stuff. Maps, especially of places that never existed (fantasy worlds, or places that only existed on paper like the US States of Franklin and Jefferson) places that don't exist anymore (short-lived nations like Tannu Tuva, old empires and nations) and places that could have existed (maps of alternate worlds/nations/states.)

I read. Extensively. I build models. Usually starships. Some kitbashing. I've been known to run and master several tabletop role-playing games.

There's a reason they call it "self-destructive behavior."

But not solely.

Okay, so I think I'm one. Nope, I'm much more dragon fan. Call me scally. If you REALLY identified as a Dragon, you'd be Otherkin. Also, don't people use Wikipedia anymore? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otherkin

Okay, comment. Marvel in wonder and confusion at the atheist who writes about angels and hope and stuff.

Do you know that this is unacceptable, because I need minions?

Granted, but this means that Jayne is also real, and he steals all your nice things. I wish there was an affordable diabeetus treatment that wasn't bad for you.

Banned because, for no rational reason, your name makes me think of Jar-Jar Binks.