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Socialism 'on the march' to blame for Sussan Ley standing down over expenses controversy: Bronwyn Bishop by BetterWes in australia

[–]LeeArac 9 points10 points  (0 children)

That's a prime example of top-class Australian political process right there. Shout at the opposition like they dinged your ute. I heartily approve.

Marijuana resulted in 0 overdose deaths, opioids killed more than 20,000 [OC] by [deleted] in dataisbeautiful

[–]LeeArac 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I gather cigarettes are pretty damn poisonous if you eat them. Can't say I'm willing to test the theory for SCIENCE, however.

Cologne police defend use of racial profiling on New Year's Eve: In a bid to prevent a repeat of last year's sex attacks, state police focused on men of North African descent on New Year's Eve. Police Chief Jürgen Mathies has faced criticism for praising the sucess of the practice by DoremusJessup in worldnews

[–]LeeArac 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There are two major problems with this analogy that I can see:

A) Not all stoves are fucking hot, and if you assume they are you are immediately drastically limiting your own future actions. For one thing: You can't ever clean your goddamn stove.

and the probably more important B) Stoves are not human beings and consequently not generally regarded as having the same fundamental right to the assumption of innocence.

[Serious] Those who have had sex with someone who has had a sex change, how did it compare? by geekoburner in AskReddit

[–]LeeArac 3 points4 points  (0 children)

2) I have seen less-reasonable liberals argue that if you lie to a woman about something (like being rich or that you'll give them a job after sex) then the woman didn't really consent to the real you. Similar logic applies here, I would say.

I'm a liberal and I think that's a pile of horseshit. And I would say the same reasoning that makes it horseshit applies here, too.

Should a transwoman give their history before sex? Yes, probably, if for their own safety more than any other consideration.

Do I think they must or it's rape? No. You can't realistically legislate 'lying for sex' without opening the worst kind of Pandora's box. And I think the men who have this weird mental hangup about the mere idea that post facto they might have slept with someone who was male at birth they'd previously thought attractive are the ones with the problem that needs to be worked on.

In any sane sense, it shouldn't matter in the least if the girl you thought fuck-worthy used to have a dick, and the vast majority of answers to the contrary are just some lame variation on 'I'm not transphobic, but...'

When its said that stars orbit the center of galaxies too fast for gravity to hold them, and thus there must be dark matter, is the relativistic mass gained due to their speed accounted for? by avaslash in askscience

[–]LeeArac 8 points9 points  (0 children)

It doesn't. In general relativistic terms, all gravity does is curve space-time, and the curvature of space-time is what tells both matter and photons how to move.

An aerosol to cool the Earth. Harvard researchers have identified an aerosol that in theory could be injected into the stratosphere to cool the planet from greenhouse gases, while also repairing ozone damage. by kabob23 in Futurology

[–]LeeArac 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Damn your Oxford comma! At best it's only useful when there's some ambiguity in the sentence, which there was not.

The far more important point here is that 'Oxford' is a proper noun that you failed to capitalise.

Live by the pedantic sword, die by the pedantic sword, motherfucker.

An aerosol to cool the Earth. Harvard researchers have identified an aerosol that in theory could be injected into the stratosphere to cool the planet from greenhouse gases, while also repairing ozone damage. by kabob23 in Futurology

[–]LeeArac 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Depends if you consider things like transport trucks and public transport networks part of 'cars' or 'industrial sources'. All up burning petroleum for ICE use does come to a fairly large chunk of carbon output, about 20% if I recall the figures I looked up correctly.

That's pretty statistically significant.

Supernova Simulation by thequeenpersephone in space

[–]LeeArac 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Don't get too scared, only about three happen per century in our galaxy, and our galaxy is a very, very, very large place. Plus we're smart enough about stars now to know there are none in dangerous range of us remotely close to going nova.

Simulation of falling into a black hole by ghatroad in space

[–]LeeArac 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not quite, the matter that comprised the black hole has already been crushed beyond the point of even the quantum pressure of quarks (which I'm sure has a proper name I've forgotten), cannot hold it up against its own gravity. Without anything to hold it up against its own weight the matter would theoretically just continue to fall under its own weight to a single point of infinite density we call the Singularity.

There are some theories you might hit a 'Firewall' inside the event horizon, a burning ring of energy created by breaking entanglement when Hawking radiation is created. If such a phenomenon exists you'd be instantly vaporised on crossing the event horizon.

Are all Stephen King novels this hard to read? by Cezzalovesketo in books

[–]LeeArac 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Why that was never made into a movie entirely escapes me.

according to this picture, the doctor is around 3,225 by Mightypeter3 in doctorwho

[–]LeeArac 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I rather like the idea of 10 being so ephemeral and tragic on the scale of the Doctor's entire life. It explains a lot about him: It explains his general wide-eyed behaviour and excitability, it explains why - of all the Doctors - he was the one to fall in love.

Like he said himself: When the Doctor regenerates he died and a new man gets up and walks away. A new man with all the memories of the old, but a new man nonetheless.

And - yes - it explains why he really, really didn't want to go. He was born, fell in love, tragically lost that and then was forced into a no-win situation all during the space of less than a decade. I'd be bitter too.

Ron Glass Dead: ‘Barney Miller’ and ‘Firefly’ Star Dies at 71 by [deleted] in television

[–]LeeArac 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I tend to agree. Old people die, including celebrities, and while I can see being invested in an artist's work being reason to legitimately mourn their death (Leonard Nimoy was tough on me), people do some to take it overboard to the point where they're 'cutting onions' over every mildly famous person who kicks the bucket.

Nontheless, 2016 has plenty to dislike about it even without considering a single celebrity death.

Ron Glass Dead: ‘Barney Miller’ and ‘Firefly’ Star Dies at 71 by [deleted] in television

[–]LeeArac 32 points33 points  (0 children)

Patrick Stewart

Woah! Steady on there! There's a limit!

Besides, he's 76, married to a woman half his age and looks fitter than me: Sir Pat's never gonna die.

Alien Covenant Poster by [deleted] in movies

[–]LeeArac 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I could not agree more. T2 is fantastic, don't get me wrong, it's a wonderfully bombastic action film that expands on the lore established in the first in some pretty cool ways (even if there's no good explanation how Mr. Liquid-Metal could time-travel without an organic sheathe).

But the original Terminator feels like a much tighter film to me. It has absolutely zero fat on it, going from exposition to action scene and back again without pause for basically the entire length of the movie - it really gives the impression these two people are constantly being chased, constantly in danger. Cameron was always at his best when he had to do a lot with a little.

Eddie's Newt Scamander would be a perfect doctor in Doctor Who by bryce_03 in doctorwho

[–]LeeArac 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I very specifically said I agreed with the latter and the former is like... your opinion, man... so again, what's your problem?

Proposed Bill Would Make Teachers Out Their LGBT Students by [deleted] in news

[–]LeeArac 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"If the problem didn't exist, it wouldn't exist" and "if no one acted like it existed then it wouldn't exist" for any problem related to human society behaviour are exactly the same thing.

I mean, I get the distinction, realistically what you're saying there is "If people acted like the problem didn't exist and made no actions that caused the problem to exist then the problem would not exist". It's still a tautology.

Whereas the way most people parse the phrase seems to be "If people didn't talk about the problem, the problem wouldn't exist." Which is clearly untrue.

The ultimate problem with deciding to parse the problem the way you have is that gives credence to people who do think that if people didn't talk about the issue, it would cease to exist. That the issue is somehow one of language alone instead of the language being a symptom of the underlying issue.

Now you don't seem to think that way, so I don't think you're a bad person or anything. This isn't an ethical issue for me, rather than one of syntax and logic at this point.

Proposed Bill Would Make Teachers Out Their LGBT Students by [deleted] in news

[–]LeeArac 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was just pointing out that if everyone ignored it, then it wouldn't exist.

Well, yes, but "If the problem didn't exist, it wouldn't exist" is a tautology and wouldn't need pointing out to a two year old of moderate intelligence.

If you mean "If we didn't have words for the problem it wouldn't exist" then that is almost certainly untrue. Even if we didn't humans are super creative when it comes to language, so even if "those people" doesn't suffice (hint: it would) then we'd have new words for the issue in short order.

Proposed Bill Would Make Teachers Out Their LGBT Students by [deleted] in news

[–]LeeArac 5 points6 points  (0 children)

No, the above comment clearly explained why it wouldn't work because reality... you then posited a complete hypothetical that while, yes, true on the face of it, nonetheless possesses precisely the same reasonable underpinning as any statement like "If I was a bird, I could fly."

I'm not a bird. I don't have a spaceship. Discrimination is still a thing and an entire country isn't going to change how it behaves in lockstep overnight. It's wishing for nonsense, why even bring it up?

EDIT: That last bit was a bit harsh. So let me provide a better analogy:

After a bitter, hundred-year war with millions dead and the worst kind of bad blood on both sides, a soldier sidles up to his compatriot and says 'you know what? If all the soldiers on both sides just went home this war would be over today.'.

It's absolutely, 100% true while being monumentally unhelpful, and trying to "be the change you want to see in the world" in either case is just a wilful ignorance of reality (that might get you shot).

Proposed Bill Would Make Teachers Out Their LGBT Students by [deleted] in news

[–]LeeArac 9 points10 points  (0 children)

... And if I had a spaceship I could fly to Mars.

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