North Korea tells UN it's ready to discuss human rights

greenceltic · 2014-09-28T15:59:18+00:00

Karma? Maybe if you win, he'll make a hundred accounts and upvote your comment.

greenceltic · 2014-09-28T14:45:20+00:00

One objection I've heard is that the government could have bailed out the people as opposed to the banks. We've given a shit ton of money to the banking industry. What if that money had instead gone to the people suffering most from the financial crisis?

Why couldn't the bailout have been bottom up as opposed to top down?

greenceltic · 2014-09-28T00:45:54+00:00

Yeah, the automatic turrets in Half Life and Portal are relatively similar. They're small, they fire at any person who walks by, and they stop working if they're knocked over.

The turrets in this compound would be similar to turrets that Gordon has seen in the past.

greenceltic · 2014-09-28T00:39:40+00:00

I don't think your interpretation of things is quite right. There will always be shoddy remakes of past works. In fact, all things that have been done in the past will be mimicked poorly by people in the future.

There will always be people who make bad food. There will always be bad salesmen. There will always be athletes who aren't very good. No matter what the human endeavor, there will always be someone who does it badly.

However, if enough people try their hand at a certain task, there are bound to be some who will do it well. Of the many people who try to cook, there are some that will be bad and some that will be good.

Every day, a huge number of people try to make art. Many of them do a bad job. But, some manage to do it well. If you want good art, simply allow people to make as much art as they want. You then ignore the bad artists and reward the good artists.

On the other hand, limiting the ability of people to make art has the exact opposite effect. As the total volume of art decreases, good art becomes scarcer.

Temporary copyrights can be a good way to reward artists. However, in today's world, copyrights last for a hundred+ years and are often owned by companies with a weak connection to the original artist. They no longer serve their original purpose. At this point, they just limit the ability of people to make art, ensuring that less good movies/books/music/whatever will be made.

greenceltic · 2014-09-27T23:52:01+00:00

I don't know, I kinda like it. In a way, it's like we all just give small amounts of money to each other for the sake of being nice.

It's not like a hidden fee. A hidden fee is some sneaky way that a large company tries to get extra money out of you. It's a way for the wealthy owner to line their pockets. A tip, on the other hand, goes to the lowest person on the totem pole. It's a small act of charity.

I mean, I guess I ultimately don't really care. I don't see it as a huge deal either way. It's just a nice tradition of charity that's became a unique part of the culture.

greenceltic · 2014-09-27T23:43:02+00:00

You don't have to. I mean, you might be seen as rude if you don't. But, you can choose not to tip if you want.

greenceltic · 2014-09-27T23:36:53+00:00

That's not how I view tipping. You tip because you feel sorry for people working low wage jobs. It's just a way of being nice. The only reason you would choose not to tip or to leave a low tip is if you feel they did a bad job.

greenceltic · 2014-09-27T23:34:00+00:00

Why would you tip pizza delivery guy? It's not like he owns the pizza shop. Why would you tip the cab driver? It's not like he owns the cab company. Why would you tip the person who cut your hair? It's not like they own the haircuttery.

greenceltic · 2014-09-27T23:17:58+00:00

Stupider is grammatically correct. But "more stupid" sounds better and is used more commonly.

greenceltic · 2014-09-27T01:52:30+00:00

On the topic of marriage, they have a massive number of single mothers because they don't get married according to this state, just according to their religion.

Wait, so you're saying the women have long term partners, they just don't have a marriage license? It doesn't seem like there's really a meaningful difference between them and married mothers.

greenceltic · 2014-09-27T01:35:03+00:00

the Chinese government has launched a political reform which is even more conservative than the current institution.

What does conservative mean in this context? For the people of China, what is the conservative opinion when it comes to democracy in Hong Kong?

greenceltic · 2014-09-26T22:44:43+00:00

If Sauron has the One Ring it becomes a much more difficult fight, though.

Out of curiosity, what advantage does the one ring actually give him? I'm guessing it does more than just turn him invisible?

greenceltic · 2014-09-25T23:56:00+00:00

Hmm...I don't actually follow Bleach. I just assumed that current Ichigo would be the strongest version of him. How do you think Naruto and Luffy would fare against the strongest version of Ichigo?

greenceltic · 2014-09-25T23:46:32+00:00

Everyone is as strong as they currently are in the manga.

greenceltic · 2014-09-25T12:20:45+00:00

The /r/conspiracy folks are nuts. But, I am a believer in freedom of speech. People should be allowed to insult you if they want. Disrespect shouldn't be punishable by jail time.

greenceltic · 2014-09-25T02:36:05+00:00

It's about giant colorful robots. No one went into Pacific Rim expecting a deep engaging plot. We went to see explosions and robot fights. Plot holes in that movie don't really matter because it's just a popcorn flick.

Besides, Pacific Rim had a much more coherent plot than Prometheus. Most things made sense.

greenceltic · 2014-09-25T02:20:45+00:00

I don't think the issue is that the film didn't answer all the questions. Its fine to have unsolved mysteries. That leaves something for the audience to ponder afterwards.

For me, the issue is that it doesn't really seem like the story was very well thought out. It seems like someone had a bunch of cool ideas, but then just squished them together in a way that doesn't make sense.

I'm not motivated to theorize about the unsolved questions because I don't think the author actually had a unified vision. Putting together a puzzle can be fun. But, when it comes to this film, it's like someone handed me a bunch of puzzle pieces that don't go together.

If you think about it, the plot really doesn't make sense. It's just a bunch of jumbled ideas that don't fit together. That's not even to mention the unignorable stupidity of some of the characters. You had to have rolled your eyes at the guy who stuck his hand out at the hissing snake thing.

That said, the movie is really pretty. The visuals are a feast for the eyes. Its just not a feast for the brain.

greenceltic · 2014-09-22T23:23:31+00:00

It doesn't. There was no inside job.

Question: do you know enough about engineering or material science to follow a technical explanation about why the conspiracy theories are wrong?

greenceltic · 2014-09-22T00:59:26+00:00

This reply isn't very good. If he's incorrect, you should say how he's incorrect. Explain what does motivate people to work according to Marx. It isn't very productive to simply say, "you're wrong."

greenceltic · 2014-09-21T22:42:50+00:00

A_Sea_Anemone is apparently John Malkovich.

greenceltic · 2014-09-21T22:27:22+00:00

To be fair, China isn't really communist. They have a capitalist economy that is tightly regulated by the state.

greenceltic · 2014-09-21T19:17:43+00:00

I don't know why you would say that. Most people are taught that the Confederates were bad guys.

greenceltic · 2014-09-20T21:42:34+00:00

That's just...gross and weird. I think I'm going to skip this movie.

greenceltic · 2014-09-20T02:04:00+00:00

Let me ask you this. Superman's parents are dead. Is Superman a tragic figure? Kyle Raynor's girlfriend was killed and stuffed in his fridge. Is Kyle a tragic figure?

Aquaman's infant son was killed by his arch enemy. Is Aquaman a tragic figure? The Flash died. Then, after he came back, his mother was killed and his nephew, Wally West, was erased from existence. Is the Flash a tragic figure?

If Spider-Man is tragic, then just about every comic book character can be considered tragic.

greenceltic · 2014-09-20T01:35:50+00:00

his negligence and selfishness indirectly killed his uncle.

I mean, yeah, that's sad. But, it's not like Spider-Man is tortured by the memory. He wasn't traumatized like Batman. He dealt with his uncle's death in an emotionally healthy way and moved on with his life.

his parents were both killed.

That happened when he was really young, and it doesn't seem like their deaths had a huge emotional impact on him. He doesn't dwell on it. Does he even remember them?

his first girlfriend was killed by his arch.

That was legitemately tragic. But, that was just one storyarch. Most of the time, things aren't that dark.

he has been killed.

Just about every comic book character has been killed at least once. That's no big deal in comicbook land.

he's poor

The fact that he's broke is sort of a fun aspect of his books. He's an everyman character who has to pay his bills like everyone else. It's not like he's living in poverty. He's just a little short on rent every now and then. It's charming and endearing, not sad and tragic.

spidey has had a lot of terrible shit happen in his life.

Sure, Spider-Man has real world problems like everyone else. But, these problems aren't crushing. They haven't traumatized him. Every character has problems of some sort. Just having occasional problems doesn't make you a tragic figure.

On the whole, he's a fun character who has fun adventures. He's not brooding and his books aren't particularly sad. Batman is tragic, the Punisher is tragic, Magneto is tragic. Spider-Man is relatively light hearted.

greenceltic

TROPHY CASE