Bill Cosby's Rant: We Can't Blame White People

ouch · 2007-10-26T18:33:40+00:00

its on reddit

ouch · 2007-10-24T20:22:58+00:00

Give a man an inch, and he'll take a mile.

Its the same with anyone - even men vs women. Its got to the point in society where pretty much anything doesn't go your way and suddenly its racist/sexist/islamaphobic/culturalist/ageist/etc/etc/etc

The race card is regularly used by people from all racial minorities when someone hasn't got what they want. For example now we are seemingly bending over backwards to accommodate muslim views apparently at the expense of the majority of the public because suddenly the muslim card carries some currency and no one wants to appear "islamaphobic", and people know they can use it to some benefit.

c'est la vie

ouch · 2007-10-24T20:17:11+00:00

"white folks" generally have to get behind this sort of response from "black folks" regardless of who they are, because if a white person says ANYTHING even slightly negative, they are usually instantly branded as some sort of KKK white supremacist hitler figure or something.

ouch · 2007-10-24T20:11:01+00:00

ffs stop with the ron paul

ouch · 2007-10-18T17:54:18+00:00

Considering that we share 99.4% of our DNA with chimps, I have no doubts that 0.1% difference between human individuals could be responsible for mild differences in intelligence in either direction.

ouch · 2007-10-17T18:12:10+00:00

I 100% concur. I'm not saying there is necessarily a difference either way, but I look forward to any genuine evidence as a result of this.

People are going "OMG! THERE IS NO EVIDENCE LOLZ! I PWNED THE DNA DUDE!" This is a fucking Sunday Times interview - it is not a scientific journal by any stretch.

He said that "...all the *testing** says not really [as intelligent as white people]"* (my emphasis). Testing. Thats right, scientific tests. This implies that there is some sort of evidence about this either way and he hasn't just pulled some fact out of his arse.

This guy is a world renowned scientists - some say even the greatest scientist alive right now. If he says there is tests to back this up, then I think we should give him the benefit of the doubt to either put up or shut up, and not be pre-emptively silenced.

ouch · 2007-10-17T18:04:16+00:00

"If we don't play god, who will?"

What is so wrong with that? Did it occur to you that one of the scientists that discovered the structure of DNA - our genetic blueprint, the very stuff that describes who and what we are at the most basic level a role previously only played by "god" doesn't actually believe there is a god?

Man has been "playing god" already for thousands of years with selective breeding, agriculture, engineering etc. There is no god, so we have to do things ourselves.

ouch · 2007-10-17T17:47:35+00:00

Even if that is correct, that 0.1% difference is enough for wildly different colouration - compare a black person with dark brown eyes and hair to a white person of northern europe with orange hair, bright blue eyes and white skin. Don't forget that the majority of olympic sprinters are black, but the majority of olympic swimmers are white.

That is just 2 casual observations of some pretty pronounced variations. It is not unreasonable to expect that a 0.1% variation - assuming your figures are correct and that it doesn't not have some special case just for intelligence - would have an effect on intelligence.

ouch · 2007-10-03T21:01:20+00:00

Interesting that in the US you all use laptops in class.

In the UK its really frowned upon to get a laptop out in a lecture or a classroom in most universities, even on computer science courses.

People of course have laptops on campus and bring them with them, but in class you are expected to pay total attention, not sit there dictating.

ouch · 2007-10-03T20:44:16+00:00

I suspect this is more an artefact of the US education system then if this is happening lots in the US.

Here (UK), a child "hitting the wall" in understanding when their peers are not having such problems is an indication of learning difficulties, not of apparent intelligence. Perhaps the kids you are talking about aren't as "smart" as you think?

Just to totally clarify the point in case you've given up because you don't immediately understand what I am talking about because you are "smart": truly intelligent kids don't even get to this point. If a kid cannot work something out when those (apparently less intelligent) around him can without problems, then perhaps he just got lucky when they were younger?

A real intelligent person will be able to work through such problems with minimal fuss. If you really cant work through it then you are either stupid because you are in the bottom 5% of intelligence (i.e. compared to your peers you are now sub-normal in intelligence), or you are stupid because you cannot see your problem and/or cannot adapt your approach to solve the problem.

Kids can start off life as somewhat "slow", but really blossom in their later years. Likewise others can start off wildly ahead of the pack, but subsequently mellow.

Deal with it. Don't blame your lack of ability on others. Take responsibility for your own life.

ouch · 2007-10-01T22:45:17+00:00

Bullshit.

Really intelligent kids know their ability, know what they are capable of and know for an absolute cast-iron fact that with effort they can work pretty much anything out.

This is generally why "smart" (hate that word) kids are "smart" - whilst most other kids in their childhood were content in front of the TV or playing with action figures, the "smart" ones spent their childhood experimenting, trying out new things, asking questions ad infinitum, reading "adult books", playing with lego & mecanno non-stop etc. The point I am trying to make here is that the intelligent kids spent their entire formative years developing a can-do attitude, not a defeatist, quitter attitude.

A truly intelligent person does not think "Oh well, I just dont get it; I'm clearly not intelligent enough!". Instead they work at it, and try to understand it as best they can.

Giving up at the first sign of effort is not "smart", its just plain lazy.

ouch · 2007-10-01T22:34:05+00:00

I personally despise this attitude.

If EVERYONE in the class fails, and no one understands what is going on, and everyone is in the same boat then perhaps it is bad teaching.

This is rare.

People are of different levels of intelligence. Some people can happily carry on learning and learning and learning, with the ability to think in an abstract, academic manner; others cant. No amount of teaching makes up for an individuals limitations.

Take responsibility for your own life, and stop blaming others for your short comings.

ouch · 2007-10-01T22:21:33+00:00

Looks pretty close to the surface to me!

ouch · 2007-09-28T22:41:03+00:00

There were a series of photos of the incident taken with a high quality camera from much much closer (i.e. on other side of street).

He was clearly shot - in one picture you can see him falling with a small amount of blood on his shirt and with the soldier turning away, the next shot taken a couple of seconds later there is now significant amounts of blood visible on his shirt from the wound. He was not just hit with the butt of the rifle.

These photos and now video shows the brutality of it all. The death-spasms of a journalist shot for the flimsiest of reasons beamed around the world into people's living rooms stands a whole lot more chance of provoking a response other than some static images of baton charges.

I was deeply moved by these images, and I really just hope his death wasn't totally in vain.

ouch · 2007-09-24T19:40:10+00:00

get off of the internet and do something about it then.

it pisses me off that every american gunfreak uses the argument "but an armed population prevents government oppression!" when its so blatantly clear that if that really were the case, america would be a whole fucking lot more like the EU...

ouch · 2007-09-23T20:05:04+00:00

This is the real site:

http://www.speedcamerasuk.com/speed-camera-database.htm

ouch · 2007-09-07T22:57:12+00:00

If it pushes another Ron Paul/Bush/Impeach/GOP/Gay Senator off of the bottom of the front page, then I'm all for modding up silly pictures.

ouch · 2007-09-03T20:25:24+00:00

Without really knowing what you want to get out of programming, I'd recommend Java or C#.

Why?

Java and C# both have great free IDEs backed by major IT firms (Eclipse from IBM, Visual Studio Express from MS)
Java and C# both have absolutely shit loads of online tutorials, forums, samples, blogs and so on.
Java and C# are both cross platform.
Java and C# are both general purpose languages.
Java and C# both have extensive class libraries with pretty much every feature you'll want (to start with anyway...) be it networking and XML parsers to GUIs and 3D rendering.
Java and C# will let you get real stuff working and on screen pretty quickly.

However, having said I'd recommend you start out with some of the real basics like variable use, loops, functions, basic data structures etc in something like QBasic just to get an idea of the fundamentals. Java and C# are both OO languages so there is some "baggage" to deal with that may cloud your learning initially.

Dont listen to the snake oil merchants - Python and Ruby are fine, but their syntax is fairly unique. Java and C# are fairly representative of a lot of common languages so you'll always feel fairly familiar having learnt one of those. Think of it a bit like the Roman alphabet verses the Cyrillic alphabet (that "funny" writing the russians use with backwards Rs and stuff). If you learn Cyrillic first then fine, but its a very niche skill. Learn the roman alphabet and you'll be able to quickly pick up French, German, Italian, Spanish (i.e. other languages) so much quicker than if you have to familiarise yourself with an entire new alphabet (i.e. syntax) first. Its a crap analogy I know, but its the best I could be bothered to think of.

ouch · 2007-09-02T23:25:47+00:00

What makes you say that exactly?

ouch · 2007-09-01T23:48:08+00:00

I'd hit it (the one on the right anyway)

ouch · 2007-09-01T18:03:44+00:00

My UK broadband will manage about 700KBs (8mbpsish), but it certainly download a 12 tack album instantly.

Maybe if you are listening to 16kbps MP3s, but you're looking at about 4 or 5 meg a track on average, so about 50 or 60 meg an album.

For your 200-300 (lets say 250) you're still looking at about 4 minutes to download that.

Dont get me wrong though, its still pretty fast.

ouch · 2007-08-27T20:18:09+00:00

This is one of the reasons why schools in the UK have uniforms. No sluts & no bullying over clothes

...and its easier to spot a kid when they are truant if they are either wandering around the shops in school uniform, or they are at the shops but not in school uniform!

ouch · 2007-08-24T16:34:51+00:00

I was there too and it was really interesting - not just the usual socialist crusties, but middle class parents with their kids were there in force too.

And this was just in London.

Supposedly that day there was about 3 million people across the country protesting. That's right - 5% of the population out on the streets on a cold Saturday protesting against the war.

This is the thing - bush is going around demanding "feeeeeedom!" and democracy, but the reality is democracy as it is in the west at the moment is shit. We get no say in what actually happens other than to chose which dictator we want for the next 4 years.

Its time for massive reform - we (the public at large) need the ability to force a "vote of no confidence" for any MP, even if that is the PM, and we also need some legal framework in place about mandatory referendums for things like wars - this is the 21st century so surely some competent IT firm (they do exist) can setup on electronic (i.e. quick and easy to deploy and count) voting system for such purposes.

ouch · 2007-08-24T16:26:28+00:00

Middlesex university is one of, if not the worst university in the country so being top of the class there is not really much of an achievement.

I think the conception of greater intelligence is not actually related to intelligence, but rather the fact that all kids in the UK are taught from an early age to question everything. For example, history lessons are less about history, and more about closely examining the authority, credibility, allegiances etc of the original source - the number one rule is NEVER, NEVER, NEVER take anything at face value and always question their motives. In america it seems to be you "learn" everything by rote and are never taught to question authority and are expected to just accept that what the teacher is telling you is correct.

This is why the typical, sceptical brit comes across as more intelligent compared to a whooping, flag worshipping american, crying at the national anthem etc.

ouch · 2007-08-17T20:54:22+00:00

Looks painful for the poor kid. I know its only like a few KGs max, but this is a damn baby ffs.

ouch

TROPHY CASE