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[ { "body": "For what you need to do, the $99 3e kit will be just fine but I should warn you that, at the moment, you're probably biting off more than you can chew. \n\nStart with OpenCores.org to get your USB and perhaps some system interconnect as well. Design your register map (how you'll control your filters). Audio is low-frequency. With a 10kHz clock, you can make all the analog waves you want. The chip should synthesize, place, and route in no time at all with that clock frequency. The USB clock will need to be significantly higher, however. \n\nQuick and dirty: you could generate PWM signals that are output to an RC circuit before being properly amplified for audio out. Alternatively, you could send out parallel digital data to a DAC before being properly amplified for audio out. I'm not sure what the 3e kit supports. \n\nGood luck and have fun!\n\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "All of this could vary based on platform, what exactly you're writing, etc, etc, but I've done work on a fair few levels of this sort of stuff so I'll cough up what I hope are generally helpful tips first, if you want anything more specific just ask. :)\n\nAnyway, if you're already comfortable with C then grab an emulator for a simple, relevant processor / instruction set and get some basic C code running on it then start mixing in inline assembly. \n\nYou could try some x86 tutorials if you liked, just be aware they tend to be massively horrible and ugly, most real embedded systems are actually a lot *easier* to work on at a really low level.\n\nThe other (Perhaps more important?) thing is to get into a mindset of thinking about things like memory and storage requirements of the algorithms you're going to be using, so you can develop some skill at ballparking estimates for them off the top of your head. \n\nWith higher-level development being what it is these days, most people ignore memory (or storage in particular) and focus on processing or I/O overhead, if any thinking about efficiency is done at all; while things may be changing this just isn't true yet in the embedded world.\n\nThe other thing is the code, deploy, debug/test cycle can be a little odd if you've been working strictly with regular PC-based stuff; much like anything in the real world you often won't even be given the proper gear you need and end up forced to test direct on final hardware, etc. So basically you need to be a little more careful that things are going to run first time, as the cost of errors/testing can be higher (*much* higher in some cases) than with higher-level work.\n\n**TL;DR:** Like most coding, just grab a basic, relevant environment and start dicking around. But focus on embedded *habits* while you do, ie. start thinking about efficiency and \"getting things right\"", "score": 3 }, { "body": "If you're doing more low level stuff:\n\n* bitwise operators (why does 10<<1 = 20, how to twiddle bits)\n* modulus (great for keeping a variable within a valid range, amongst many other uses...)\n* unions (weird, and little used, but useful when memory is tight)\n* global data and static memory allocation (malloc is generally a bad idea)\n* struct pointers (for decoding binary protocols, etc... )\n* understand volatile!\n\nBasically every little trick they tell you not to do in school, \"except in some cases\". Embedded is generally the \"some cases\" they were talking about. :)", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "I have to say LSD made me a better person. Gives you a pretty unique perspective on your past/present. Ive found the people that freak out and don't gain anything are the people that wont face whatever comes up from this subconscious while tripping. Overall I have had a pretty fucked up life and LSD has gotten me over many bad experiences that I never thought I would deal with. ", "score": 18 }, { "body": "Same here. I've never for a moment regretted my first experimentation with this stuff. Or my continued experimentation with it.", "score": 10 }, { "body": "Psychedelics are powerful tools for self-transformation. They can also be \"fun\".. but it is probably a bad idea to disregard the potential for harm. You can make positive changes during a trip, and you can make changes that you won't want later. A few of my friends (likely with the genetic predisposition) had serious mental illnesses that were triggered by bad trips. So.. moral of the story: *be careful, kids.. especially if you have crazy relatives*!", "score": 8 }, { "body": "Yes, absolutely. \n\nI once had a vision on psychedelics (mushrooms) that changed the way I view other people, my life, and the idea of belief and searching for truth. I'll try to summarize it.\n\nI saw a highway along which all people were walking. Children walked with their parents, some walked alone, others in great groups. All of these people were looking for one thing: Truth, Meaning, Happiness, Peace. You know, The Thing, That Thing that makes a life well lived. Some of them, for sure, just sat in the road or along the side of it, defeated, for the moment at least.\n\nAlong the highway were signs, exits. One of them for instance said **GOD**, in great bold letters, and just underneath that, an arrow. **TRUTH**, **JOY**, all these signs.\n\nBut the funny thing was the way that some of the people behaved when they came upon a sign. They just stopped at the sign.\n\nAt the **GOD** sign for instance (but it was true of most of them), some of the people were standing around throwing tomatoes at the sign. Others stood in front of the sign, arms raised high to obscure the arrow, pontificating and passing around baskets for money. Most people just sat down, looking uncomfortable and disappointed, in front of the sign, mistaking the *sign* for the *thing they sought*. The vast majority of people in this vision were just sitting in front of signs, or wandering aimlessly from sign to sign.\n\nBut some of the people got up, without really looking back, and walked away from the signs. And they went off by themselves, in all different directions, and they themselves left signs, little handwritten signs like books or poems or songs, pointing the way to truth/God/peace/etc to those who came behind them. Instead of mistaking the sign for the thing, they went off themselves to search for the thing. \n\nThey were mostly off the beaten path, making their way through woods and forests, sometimes coming back to pave the way for others but most often just leaving their little, not-so-obvious signs. \n\nAnd so we go looking for truth. But there are so many different exits, so many signs pointing different ways.\n\nAs a person looking at this chaos (if there was order it was order of *process*, of leaving signs in likely places), I understood what was expected of me as twofold.\n\n First, don't mistake a word and an arrow, a road sign, for the thing sought for. Of course the god damn sign isn't God. Of course God isn't standing there, it's just a sign. Your tomatoes don't matter to anyone, they're just dead veggies on a road sign. That's not God, defending it isn't defending God, knocking it down does nothing but leave a road unlabeled. *You have to walk*, you have to *go looking*. \n\nSecondly everyone is just looking for truth. There's no point in tomato'ing someone's sign. If that's not my truth, go find a different sign. If no signs point to my truth, I'd better buy a pair of hedge clippers and get to making a new path. \n\n", "score": 8 }, { "body": "Life changing, yes, spiritually beneficial, no. The last one I met my ex-wife on, thank god thats over. ", "score": 6 }, { "body": "Most definitely. Seriously got me to relax and not take life so seriously. I was pretty uptight before the trip. Afterwards it was like I felt like a new man. Not to mention that it was my first drug experience ever (had not done weed at that point). It was like a barrier falling down in front of me, and I realized that all these walls and lines that I was told existed for good reason, didn't.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "I tried psilocybin in college. I've never, ever habitually used any substances, except for alcohol on occasion and an unfortunate nicotine habit that I picked up a few months ago. So, I'm not a stoner or a recreational drug user. However, ingesting mushrooms was a wonderful experience, one that I'm very glad to have made, and one that definitely changed the way that I thought about things. I'd go so far as to say that it made me \"smarter,\" in the sense that my critical thinking abilities, which were already good, became better (I was able to solve problems in less conventional ways). This is good for any student, whether in the sciences or in the humanities.\r\n\r\nThat said, one or two experiences was enough for me. I got what I needed from it, and I'll never forget it. I don't need to do it again. Also, when I did it, I was in a controlled environment with very close friends. The great thing about psilocybin was that, for me at least, although I was \"tripping,\" I was still completely rational and in control of the situation. I never for a moment didn't think that I was hallucinating or didn't have control over what I chose to hallucinate; I would describe it as a waking dream that you know is not real, and which you also know is superimposed over a reality that is in fact very real -- so you don't do anything stupid, in other words.\r\n\r\nOne of the more amusing moments during my trip was when I bumped into an obnoxious hipster-type person who lived in my building, and asked him why he didn't kill himself since he had already tried everything and since everything was therefore so *passé*. Then I realized that, since he had already tried everything, then obviously he had already killed himself, and was in fact a ghost, a collective figment of everybody's imagination. He was not very happy by my telling him all of this. I knew that it was silly (and obvious sophistry), but also that it was a clever insult (which was what I was going for), and it made me laugh.\r\n\r\nThat's my experience, at least.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "My friends and I* (not recreational drug users) took mushrooms years ago and had another (sober) friend transcribe the experience. It was on July 1, before the Independence Day celebrations. This is the transcription; judge for yourself:\r\n\r\nTOM: I need someone who can understand paper, and that's me. When I can understand paper, then I'll be tripping. This cigarette's beginning to understand me.\r\n\r\nJOE: The trip... it's when you're the most yourself.\r\n\r\nHARRY: The sky will open up to us, and then we'll be there.\r\n\r\nJOE: I love this guy's laugh, it's melody.\r\n\r\nBOB: I have five different wills going on at once.\r\n\r\nSTEVE: What are you not killing?\r\n\r\nTOM: My cigarette is a fucked up cock, why?\r\n\r\nSTEVE: The truth is part being wrong. What we need is Castlevania.\r\n\r\nBOB: I burp up cities. I like having cities coming out of me.\r\n\r\nJOE: The perception of a problem is itself the problem.\r\n\r\nTOM: My PDA is so analogous to something else.\r\n\r\nSTEVE: I didn't mean to not spill this water, because there are no mistakes. I'm watching the tablecloth breathe; I'll look away in a second, but I'm fascinated. It's an ego thing. I can't get away from the fact that everything you say is something *you're* saying.\r\n\r\nBOB: (On HARRY) He's the salamander. (On JOE) He's like a monkey insect; you can't reason with him.\r\n\r\nJOE: It's all archetypes, we're all ringleaders. I'd like to listen to my own symphony.\r\n\r\n\"Make the guitar sound different.\"\r\n\r\n\"He picked up the guitar and became TOM TOM again.\"\r\n\r\nI'm trying to read sense.\r\n\r\nWe're all writing... and this is a unique epoch in world history -- we have discovered creation. We have created creation.\r\n\r\nSTEVE: This iron is the universal solvent/sovereign.\r\n\r\nTOM: Who understands that nothing matters -- why is there water all over me? You can't write this down. TRANSCRIBER, write this down. Write that down.\r\n\r\nJOE: The writer's the character and we're all better characters.\r\n\r\nTOM: Skills don't matter. Skills are meaningless, just like everything else.\r\n\r\nI hate talking about drugs when we're on drugs.\r\n\r\nBOB: Who gets drugs and restrings their guitar? It's like getting high and saying, \"Let's reshingle the roof.\" Get the phone.\r\n\r\nTOM: I don't want to talk to it.\r\n\r\nBOB: I am talking to it.\r\n\r\nTOM: You're just a sound effect right now.\r\n\r\nJOE: Life sounds like a symphony. There is no time, but it's 10:18. Most other times, there is no time.\r\n\r\nTOM: Sandwich is a theme. TRANSCRIBER's hogging the sandwhiches. Don't steal my lunch, I'm waiting for dinner.\r\n\r\nTASK\r\nMANAGER\r\n\r\nTOM: Everything is trying to happen at the same time, can you explain it.\r\n\r\nSTEVE: It's all about ego. I was the one that said it first. No one is mad, we're just always suggesting.\r\n\r\n(All leave to see the fireworks across the harbor.)\r\n\r\nTOM: The backyard is walking around me. Does everything have to be important.\r\n\r\nJOE: I have nothing else to say, there is no time. There are fireworks. I'm a walking cobweb.\r\n\r\nSTEVE: My cig is out, out out, it started out out.\r\n\r\nJOE: You can't write this, it's the symphony of a July evening. We're nowhere and never have been. I see faces. I keep seeing faces.\r\n\r\nBOB: Silence is liberating.\r\n\r\nJOE: That experience has been experienced before, that's the problem with experience.\r\n\r\nBOB: His very experience is the anti-experience.\r\n\r\nSTEVE: Understanding is complete.\r\n\r\nTOM: Everything's perfect right now, because there are no mistakes.\r\n\r\nRANDOM PERSON: Is this an interview?\r\n\r\nTRANSCRIBER: No, it's an interrogation.\r\n\r\nBOB: We're full of domineering arrogance.\r\n\r\n*Names changed for professional reasons.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "Definitely. The whole understanding of the possibility of reaching different levels of consciousness and experience are completely unique to the psychedelic experience and meditation. My interest in the brain, and the future, and emerging tech, all stem from this foundational understanding of the ability of the human brain to work better, faster, and more pleasurably.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "The first time I used mushrooms, it was for fun. Afterwards, I realized they could be used as a tool...\n\nI was always a shy, mildly artistic, introverted person. I had a few close friends, but not many.\nOne summer, I had 3 or 4 high dosage trips on mushrooms, and I've never been the same since then.\nOn those trips, I saw how others see me, as a shy and quiet person, and I realized I didn't want to be like that. I saw the Me that I wanted to become. I wanted to get out and meet people, have friends, have a life, maybe even meet someone I could marry. So I did that!\nI felt more confident about myself. I started to realize when I was withdrawing from crowds and forced myself to get back out there.\nI started creating some insane puzzles for others to solve for Geocaching, and they ended up being a hit and putting me in the center of attention for a while, which was pretty nice :)\nI met the girl of my dreams and married her. We've done shrooms together a few times, and it's really strengthened the bond between us.\n\nI really can't imagine my life turning out the way it did if I hadn't taken mushrooms. For me, they were the best anti-depression / anti-anxiety / anti-introvert medication ever.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I saw and felt some really cool shit. Didn't know the brain could do that. Hopefully your ride was also an enjoyable one.\n\nNow get a grip on yourself.\n\nIt's just your hardware, and you're just growing into it. Assuming that you've experienced puberty, this isn't the first time you've discovered \"additional features\" of certain aspects of your body. Those features aren't \"God\", they aren't anybody else's god, and they certainly don't *require* drugs. Drugs are just one of the many conveniences the modern world provides us, just as potent, just as ultimately shallow and expedient as the microwave oven and the airplane. Pleasant results? Yes … but not the most wholesome means of \"getting there\". I've certainly done better.\n\nYou'll have to excuse some hollow mock profundity. Mea culpa. Whenever I hear devoted acid-heads waxing philosophical about their hobby, i get the same bitter taste as when I hear some enlightened bull-moose testorone-dependent Cassanova piously drooling couplets about the Church of the Big O. Not pleasant.\n\n\"The more you think you know, the farther you've got to go.\"\n", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I was sitting on the bathroom floor tripping out when a spider came crawling by. Normally I would have been freaked out by this size of spider, but because of the state I was in curiosity won out over fear so I carefully scooped it up. While I was studying the spider I realized that spiders are just strange looking creatures that are mostly harmless, so there was no reason to fear them the way I did.\n\nThis was something I'd been told before but I didn't really understand how true this was until that moment. I'm still not fond of touching spiders but they no longer bother me the way they once did.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "After reading a reddit article about LSD being used to treat cluster headaches, my friend ingested four hits of LSD over the course of 2 months. He originally suffered from migraines that would send him to the hospital, vomiting his own bile, crying in the most agonizing pain I've ever seen. This was over a year ago and he's been migraine free, hosptial free.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I have. Years ago one summer, there was talk about a batch of shrooms that was going around, and I was eager to try them since I never had before. One of my friends, who had tried them said humoursly \"Shrooms will find you, you will not find shrooms.\"\r\n\r\nI've also been a shy, somewhat introverted person. Since my teens, I have always been spritially inclined, but have always kept it very private.\r\n\r\nAnyway, one night near the end of that summer the shrooms found me. I ran into the most beautiful girl, seemingly randomly, while I was walking with some friends very very late that night after a party. She was the procurer of the candy treats I had heard about, and had been biking through the same neighborhood, making her way home. She knew my friends already, so she stopped to chat with us. She asked if everyone had tried her candies, and everyone said yes but me. I hestitated, and then I told her that I hadn't, but that I would like to try one. She examined me a moment and then said \"well I just found this at the bottom of my bag, so you can have it. It must be the last one.\"\r\n\r\nAfter I ate the candy I waited for awhile and nothing happened. Slowly, I started to feel different, and then I noticed that various patterns overlaid my field of vision. They didn't obstruct my normal sight, but they just seemed to complement it, and I thought they meant something, but I didn't really know what.\r\n\r\nSuddenly everything around me and in my mind became surprisingly animated. For example, as I was having a conversation with my friends, colored bands would begin to intertwine between our bodies, and would then collect into an energy form between us. As the conversation continued, I could see that we both contributed something to this energy of the conversation - which was now a physical orb between us, almost likely it was living!!! Words, symbols, and even unsaid things and nuances all had physical forms that contributed to the shape, color, dimensions, and vitality of the orb between us. And even the orb itself wasn't always stationary. It would grow, fade out, and even scatter like bats as topics of conversation came and went. As three - instead of two - of us began to participate in conversation, the animation increased even more dramatically. Spheres of color would twist and gyrate through all three of us, and multiple orbs of color began to grow and transmute with all of the things that were being said, not said, held back, and even inexpressable.\r\n\r\nI was very overcome at this point, and when I did talk, I don't remember anything that was said.\r\n\r\nHowever, one of the last very vivid things I remember very clearly is that I said something and then my friend looked and me a moment before saying very seriously to me \"Oh, you like to play mind games, do you?\" \r\n\r\nOf coure he was just teasing me.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I was 14 the first time, and I dont do it any more, but when ever I think of it there is always one phrase that comes to mind. My friend says to me just before I drop \"You will never look at life the same again\". He was right, so right. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "If by life changing you mean the last time I ate mushrooms I went to see a movie, had a panic attack, took off all my clothes and ran out of the theater in the middle of the movie, then yes. It changed my life. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Spirituality != Believing in god or the supernatural\n\nFor example: Seeing and acknowledging the profound connectedness of all things, Seeing and acknowledging the extreme lack of, and need for, more human empathy, are both things I would consider \"highly spiritual\" but not in any way based on the \"supernatural\".\n\nAlso, realizing that all our social customs / beliefs are so internalized within us... even though they are largely arbitrary, is, to me, a spiritual revelation.\n\nOf course I put all this within the context of human experience (ie, I have a \"spirit\" that I perceive, even though I might not technically believe in souls and all that)", "score": 3 }, { "body": "i am an artist & designer. i have used marijuana, mushrooms and windowpane. all three can be challenging in different ways. speaking for myself, my intent when taking these of substances is in large part what determined the outcome. all three have been helpful to my life in both a creative and self-awareness context. acid is something i am glad i did once and have no wish to repeat. \n\ni have also had life-changing experiences and insights without recourse to any drugs whatsoever. \n\nin my opinion these drugs have played a positive role in my life.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "mushrooms made me realize that every persons body is their own temple through which energy can flow if channeled correctly.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Had some really good ones that opened me up. Had some really tough ones that curled me into a ball. They sure did show me how little I had known about the world of consciousness and existence as a sentient being. Not that I know more now, exactly, but I'm aware of how little I know.\r\n\r\nPeeled enough of my brain back to sense that while it seems to me that there either is or isn't a god, exclusively, maybe they're both true at once and then some.\r\n\r\n\r\nThe universe and consciousness are fucking wild, and LSD will really drive that point home for you.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I continue to have life changing experiences using psychedelics though it is a lot less frequent these days.\n\nLSD was the first drug I ever experimented with and it really made me question the way I think and perceive. I spent about a year painting, writing and engaging in philosophical discussion with friends while under the effects of LSD. Everything was documented, reviewed and discussed in between sessions. I believe that this has made me a better person, one that is more compassionate, patient and above all, creative.\n\nI have little interest in alcohol and street drugs (E, H, Speed etc) and now only occasional take mescaline (or DMT if I can get my hands on it). It saddens me to think that society is so apprehensive about psychedelics yet is so accepting of things like alcohol. There is too much to be gained from the use of psychedelics (in a safe and controlled environment) to simply palm them off as dangerous recreational drugs.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I had some amazing experiences with LSD. It brought about some productive philosophical thought that lasted long after the trip ended.\n\nFor me, tripping was meant for reading the Tao Teh Ching, watching sunsets, or pondering the size of the universe while picking out constellations. Sometimes I was humbled by the power of my own mind while watching multidimensional shapes dance behind my eyelids.\nSure, it made for some fun parties sometimes, but that's **not** what you should be taking out of it.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I arrived late at this thread. I would love to contribute and share but i fear I would be lost in the ocean of comments. So I'll just write that this thread is extremely confirming and that it makes me very happy that other people have discovered the beneficial use of psycedelics too", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I met the devil once while high on glue as a kid. Never did glue again, that's for fuckin' sure. Maybe it sounds funny, but it was very scary and very profound.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "[FamilySearch.org](http://www.familysearch.org)\n\nProbably the greatest contribution of Mormons to society. They do reserve the right to baptize your ancestors into the Mormon Church if you list them there, but I honestly don't give a fuck.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Start talking to your grandparents, that will get you a good start. Show them old photographs and ask who each person is (good idea anyways)", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Everytime you want to light one up, think about this:\r\n\r\n- cigarettes cost -a lot- of money [and you have better things that you can use that money for]\r\n\r\n- you -will- get sick sooner or later. Imagine yourself having to fight for every breath once your lungs have turned black and how shockingly painful it must be when breathing starts to hurt. [and how much all of that will cost, and how people will shrug and say \"he knew and he still did it. good riddance\"]\r\n\r\n- smoking stinks. It really does. It's not that I mind people smoking because I want to take away their freedom to smoke, it's that the stink is awful, thanks for not ruining my meal.\r\n\r\n- you will smell and taste better. Maybe you don't care about the taste of food, that's your prerogative, but you're reducing your pallet by smoking.\r\n\r\n- Kissing a smoker is a challenge. Me: \"wow, nice woman\". She: \"Hmm, reasonable chap\". We kiss, she tastes like ashtray. Big turn off.\r\n\r\n- There is no benefit to smoking that you can't get from other, far more benign means.\r\n\r\n- I've seen the composition of a cigarette. Half of it is waste, smoking is among the worst user experiences ever.\r\n\r\n- one of my co-workers was diagnosed with cancer of the mouth [started smoking when he was in his teens]. I'm not judging him, I'm nobody, but having part of your face cut away, with more to come, let me tell you: it's not sexy. And you don't walk around with a happy smile on your face afterwards despite being 'cured'.\r\n\r\nYou'll do as you please but you really want to stop smoking.\r\n\r\nGood luck!", "score": 36 }, { "body": "Good for you!\n\nI quit cold turkey a few years ago. If you really want to quit, cold turkey is the way. Using patches, gum, drugs, etc. don't necessarily make it easier, they only prolong the withdrawal period. \n\nWhen you have your last smoke, you will go through those two weeks of withdrawal no matter what aids you used to step down your usage, so why put it off for a week or two weeks or a month? Save your money, grit your teeth and just get those two weeks out of the way. \n\nFor the first couple days it was like having someone shouting \"cigarette!\" in my brain every few minutes. After a couple days, it was a constant chatter of \"cigarette\" in my brain every few minutes. After a week, it was a constant whisper. \n\nAfter two weeks it was a whisper every 20 minutes or so. After that the whispering mostly stopped, but was always just under the surface, waiting. After a month, the whispering went away entirely. \n\nAnd so it went for me. Get through 10 minutes at a time, then 20, then 30, then an hour. Then four hours, then eight, then a day. It will get better after the first week, but it will be slow going.\n\nA tip that worked for me: Whenever the urge was almost too strong, I unscrewed the top part of a click ball point pen, put a tiny, lose wad of paper in the wide end, adjusted the paper until sucking on it matched the feeling of inhaling a real cigarette and would suck deeply on it just like the real thing. Getting the physical feeling of sucking on/inhaling a cigarette when cravings were bad helped me to \"misdirect\" my brain in a way. Much more helpful for me than gum.\n\nWhen you're alone, keep yourself occupied--read a book, magazine, take a walk. Paint your walls, clean your house, organize closets, take extra junk to Goodwill. Anything that is low stress, positive and time consuming. \n\nMake quitting your only goal. Don't start a new exercise routine and a new diet and try to quit all at the same time. Your body/mind can only handle so much stress/change at one time.\n\nBest of luck, truly. Quitting smoking sucked for sure, but while going through it I could think of much worse things to go through.\n\n\n\n", "score": 27 }, { "body": "I smoked for forty years and quit two years ago. I found it best to not avoid my triggers; beer,coffee etc. Just will your way through them. ", "score": 15 }, { "body": "When you get a craving, chug a whole glass of water. You'll get the mental boost you used to get from cigarettes, and the craving will go away. I got through the first 3 days this way, and its been pretty smooth sailing ever since. Now I've gone 5 months without the little demon sticks, and I dont even think about smoking any more.\n\nAlso, if you want to quit but your mind isnt quite there yet, I recommend reading The Easy Way to Quit Smoking by Allen Carr. This book is really what helped me quit the most. Just read the reviews on amazon if you need convincing. \n\nGood luck! Its really not as hard as you might think.", "score": 10 }, { "body": "Decide if you are a smoker or a non-smoker, and be that person. \n\nIf you are a smoker, keep smoking. \n\nIf you are non-smoker, your life is unfortunately going to suck for the next week. Do whatever you need to do to get through the next day or so especially, which is the hardest part. Take sedatives, yell at loved-ones, beat some baby seals, whatever. \n\n[After you get over this hump, though, your life will improve every day. You will have more energy, food will taste better, your blood pressure will drop, your lungs will clear out, all kinds of great things.](http://www.blisstree.com/healthbolt/files/2007/06/smoking_timeline_2070x1530.gif)\n\n(smoke free since 1992!)", "score": 9 }, { "body": "Here's the thing: you'll always miss them, but like an ex-girlfriend, after a certain amount of time you'll try one again and it will disgust you. Just know that the next two weeks are gonna suck. Just drink a lot of water and try to avoid things that you traditionally enjoy with cigarettes (beer, coffee, etc), and you'll be just fine. I've successfully quit (with a one-week relapse to get through law-school mid-terms) for over a year now, and I never thought I would be able to quit. Just wait until you get your full senses of taste and smell back. That's a great sensation.\n\nGood luck.\n\nEDIT: I went a little comma-crazy. Had to fix it.", "score": 8 }, { "body": "I quit two years ago after smoking a pack a day for over 8 years! Here’s some advice: buy yourself non-smoking presents. Figuring cigarettes are $4 a pack at the end of the month you’ll have about $100. If you get discouraged after a week or two remind yourself that you have $25/$50. My boyfriend kept my total on a white board in our kitchen, I got up to $300 after 2 months and he took me to Florida. It really helps to realize how much money you’re saving. ", "score": 8 }, { "body": "The nicotine gum was the tool that finally got me over the top.\n\nWhen you tell fiends that you've stopped smoking, *never ever* say \"I'm quitting\". You say \"I don't smoke anymore\". Say it often and say it boldly... you are trying to convince yourself of this fact while the nicotine cravings are trying to do the opposite.\n\nIt astounds me how many people ask \"Are you quitting *cold turkey*?\" the answer is yes. Anyone who has ever quit, at some point laid down their last cigarette and never picked up another one. Quitting is quitting and anything less than *cold turkey* is NOT quitting.\n\nThe first 4 weeks are rough, but every day gets easier. By six weeks you'll feel like a million bucks and wonder why you ever used those awful things.", "score": 7 }, { "body": "I'm a smoker as well, quit successfully for a little more then 3 yrs. Back again though. Never heavy, a pack would last about a week maybe less if I'm drinking, but the ONLY way I found I could control my habit was to just NOT quit. I have one smoke at the end of my day, usually at night and that's only if I fee like it. It sounds stupid but really, the biggest problem I had trying to quit before is that I didn't ever wanna quit. I LOVE smoking. It makes me look cool, it gives me something to do while I'm standing in the frigid Canadian winters and gives me that extra rasp in my voice that makes me stick out from my warmer friends waiting inside. So I just accept it now. The end result I can tell you is that I can breathe normally now and don't feel like i'm addicted to them even though I suppose I kind of still am. \n\n1 a day man, that's the key, it's something to look forward too at the end of the night and it's a bonus if you don't smoke one day. ", "score": 6 }, { "body": "I had my last one at 11.30AM this morning during my coffee break. I've read Alan Carr's book twice over the past month, and I have nicotine lozenges. Let's do it. \n\nMy reasons: \n\n-I want the girlfriend to be the live-in girlfriend.\n\n-I hate spending so much money on a car just to have it smell like a bar.\n\n-Where did my sense of smell go? \n\n-I am tired of being out of breath and feeling lethargic. \n\nSo, I'm going to say it again and mean it:\n\nFuck. This. Shit. ", "score": 6 }, { "body": "I have started down the same road this year as well. The one thing that seems to give me strength and I hope that it helps you as well is; The fact that the physical addiction only lasts for 48 hours. After that time you are fighting your own mind and the habits that you have created. Last time I quit for 5 years before going back after my divorce reminding myself of this. Good Luck to all that are trying!", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Something I recommended to someone else - collect a bunch of cig butts in a jar. Fill the jar with water and seal it. Every time you get the urge to smoke, open the jar and take a good sniff. It will smell *HORRIBLE*. Soon your body will associate that smoking urge with the smell. It will be a lot easier to resist the urge then.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Smokers are jokers.\r\n\r\nBut seriously, wear a rubber band around your wrist (or better yet, forehead) and whenever you feel the urge to smoke, pull it as tight as you can and snap it. Every time! Eventually you'll create a pavlov's dog-like reaction against the urge to smoke.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "There are two reasons to quit smoking:\n\n* __The reason to quit smoking.__ You probably have found it already. It's the easy one: new girlfriend/boyfriend who ain't a smoker, health, dare, whatever. It's the reason you throw your \"last\" cigarette away and tells yourself you'll \"never come back\".\n\n* __The reason to not smoke again.__ That's the hardest one. It's the reason that will keep you going. You might not remember it everytime you feel the urge, but it will be the only thing that will help you resist it. It can be a new-born child health, seeing another quitter keep it up, etc. It might even be the same as the reason you quit in the first place.\n\nMost people I know who've stopped smoking and restarted failed at finding a real significant reason not to smoke again. Once the urge came back, they didn't have the willpower.\n\nFind that second one and you'll see it's easy. For me, I've quitted for myself, decided the date by calendar (january 1st, 2008) and kept on because of my girlfriend. I'm not with her since september but I didn't start back, but that's because I think I've succeeded. I've smoked a couple in the last year, but always on occasions and mostly cigars.\n\nBTW, I've quitted about 15 times in the last 10 years. Don't force too much and lose hope if you start again; it's hard.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "The #1 thing that helped me through was the knowledge that the ONLY WAY I could prevent feeling that shitty again was to NOT SMOKE. If you crack and light up, you've suffered in vain and guaranteed that you will suffer again. The first three days are the worst. I smoked a pack a day for 25 years, 2/3 of my life and I quit cold turkey a year ago. If I can do it you can do it. ", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I've also quit cigarettes, however I started with cloves and graduated to Marlboro Reds while I was fighting fire, so when I was done fighting fire it was rather easy to quit since I was out of that environment (where everyone and everything smoked).\n\nIt gets better. Once you've been off them for a few weeks the smell alone might be the biggest deterrent. When you smell others smoking, you will be repulsed by it.\n\nThe biggest thing is to keep yourself out of situations where you used to smoke. Out with friends drinking? On break at work? Do your best to skip those things for awhile. Try to find things to occupy yourself while you are \"jonesing\". \n\nGood luck! You (and your family) won't regret it.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Good luck bro. Ill soon be joining you in 4 months (after college graduation). Just make sure you break up your routine and just stop going outside. And Reddit recommends this book to help\nThe Only Way To Stop Smoking Permanently by Allan Carr", "score": 4 }, { "body": "My father smoked for 50 years. He is now ending his life in respiratory failure and requires oxygen 24/7. I am not sure whether he would have been better off if he had developed lung cancer and died quickly.\n\nNeed more encouragement?", "score": 4 }, { "body": "My uncle smoked for most of his life. He quit when it was too late. He spent his last years using an oxygen tank. He was taken to hospital many times gasping for breath. The last time they revived him he asked them not to do that again. Life had become insufferable and in the end they respected his wishes. He was a good man done in by a bad habit. Please don't end your life this way.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Boo-ya join the club. I quit on new years and haven't had one in 4 days. It's all about your will power. You DON'T need a cig. Whenever I get the craving I exercise. This has been the most effective for me. Go for a jog or hit the gym and have an intense workout. Get active. You won't want to smoke after a good workout.", "score": 4 }, { "body": " ┌─ │ │ ┌─┐ ││ │ ┌┐ │ ┌─┐ ┌─┐ ─┬─ ┌─┐ ┌─┐\n ├─ │ │ │ ├┴┐ │ │└┐│ │ ┐ └─┐ │ │ │ ├─┘\n │ └─┘ └─┘ │ │ │ │ └┘ └─┘ └─┘ │ └─┘ │ (motherfucker)", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Just think about the fact that cigarettes are one of the only products on which the ingredients are not on the box...\n\nGood Luck, from one quitter to another :P", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Stick with it. Don't give up. If you fall off the wagon, throw away any cigs and start again as soon as you can. It gets better, but it takes time.\n\nIt will be 5 years for me on the 15th. :)\n\n-Ozy\n", "score": 3 }, { "body": "for starters, stop hoping the cravings will get easier. they might, but just use them as opportunities to insist you will be stronger. every time. also, displace them, find something to do when they hit, like learn some easy stretches, breathing exercises, relaxations.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Try to remember that nicotine withdrawal peaks really quickly - you're probably over the worst of it already!\n\nIf you're feeling really down and irritable, it's more likely to be dehydration/low blood sugar. So try drinking some juice. Oh don't eat whenever you want a cigarette, I've only just got rid of the weight from quitting.\n\nGood luck!", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Keep at it, brother. I kicked nicotine almost four years ago. If you get past two weeks, you're in the clear. You may \"yearn\" for a smoke or even \"miss it\" in certain situations, but you're extending your life and improving your quality of life.\n\nChew gum, keep toothpicks on you...whatever it takes.\n\nGood luck!", "score": 3 }, { "body": "It gets easier everyday. Soon you will think other smokers smell bad and putting one in your mouth will make you want to vomit. Plus, you will get to like waking up in the morning without a cough.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "[Quitmeter](http://www.quitmeter.com/)\r\n\r\nMy girlfriend stopped three years ago using nicotine replacements like lozenges or patches. It's now been roughly a year since she ingested any nicotine at all and the cravings are only just mild enough that she can totally ignore them. But we're now living on one wage instead of two, and are as well-off, if not better off, than we were before. She can taste food and drinks properly, she doesn't smell horrible, and she announced to me the other day: \"OMG my snot is white, what's wrong with me?\". She told me it had always been brown before, so it looks like her nasal mucosa are no longer tainted by cig-stains!\r\n\r\nBe strong. If you fall off the wagon get back on it. If you break and have a smoke don't give in, don't feel like a failure.\r\n\r\nGood luck.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "You can do it!! The longer you go without, the better you'll be feeling! Set small goals, and slowly grow them. First say you're not going to have one this week, and then you're not going to smoke for the rest of the month. Give yourself a reward every time you reach a goal, and before you know it, you'll be another 6 months (and more!) free of cigs!! You can do it!! Keep us posted!", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I smoked for almost twenty years. I quit in less than a month when I started using Chintix (w/no side effects that I can recall) and I've not smoked again in the last three years. If you don't think you're gonna make it cold turkey, go w/the chemicals.\n\nGood luck.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "i've been on and off the last 10 years, i'm currently off for the last 5 months. i've even been out drinking with friends who smoke and had the will power to abstain.\n\nwhat really did it for me this time was my mother falling ill and nearly dying. her illness had nothing to do with smoking. however, it really made me consider how i was seriously damaging my own health.\n\ngood luck, it is tough, but as you can see from the comments here, it is possible. i hope i can stay off for good myself.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Good luck, friend! I would suggest always accentuating the positive about what you're doing. I suggest checking [this list](http://www.highlighthealth.com/diseases-and-conditions/smoking-cessation-timeline-what-happens-when-you-quit/#s-article) out, and focusing on getting to the next 'benchmark' when you get a craving.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "1) don't eat.\n2) don't have sex\n3) don't drive\n4) don't work\nhttp://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/akvcq/to_the_redditors_who_smoke_when_is_a_cigarette/c0i3qdd", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Look at pictures of smokers lungs and stuff like that. Let it sink in. Imagine thats yours, truly imagine it. Worked for me :)", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I stopped. The ladies like the non-pollution more. I like myself more. My wallet gets to venture toward better technology, and i never have to stand out in the cold for a fix. Good luck. Buy some suckers", "score": 3 }, { "body": "http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs004.snc1/4409_547175923144_24302537_32363528_2886393_n.jpg\n\nThis is a picture of my four sisters, my mom, and my dad. My dad passed away in March from lung cancer, having only been 53. I hope this helps you quit, because god doesn't give any of us enough time as it is, why shorten it?\n", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Hey buddy, stick with it. You know it's for the best. I'm on day 4 of the patch and it's going really well. I'll tell ya, if you're not trying to cold-turkey your ass into withdrawal, I highly recommend the patch. I was skeptical, but it is quite strong and I feel like if I were to smoke while having this on, I would probably OD/get sick. At first I thought the gum would be best since I could get a burst of nicotine more like smoking a cig, but then you still have to deal with the up and down levels in your system and the cravings. The patch keeps a nice steady level so you can break the actual habit of physically smoking. After that, you just taper down the level until you are free at last. Boy do my lungs feel better. I'm glad I'm doing it and I am going to stick with it. Hope you do too. Best of luck, my friend!", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I'm quitting today too (again), I have one cigarette left at home and trying *VERY* hard to just not think about smoking (which was an awesome way to quit last time), and stay away from smokers!", "score": 3 }, { "body": "After hundreds of attempts, it finally stuck, and it was two years without a cigarette on Jan. 1. Two damn years. While I still miss it sometimes, it does get better. The cravings lessen. I am able now to stand around outside with other smokers -- what I initially missed the most about it was the camaraderie. The smokers' club. It was such a powerful social lubricant. I put one of those dumb little quit-counter things on my computer, the ones that tell you how many cigarettes you haven't smoked and how much money you've saved. It helped a lot, for some reason. At any rate, please don't give up. For all the pain and misery of quitting smoking, it's totally worth it.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Read Allen Carr! The easy way to quit smoking!\nI read it, girlfriend read it, best friend and many others I know. \nEveryone is now smoke free in our group of friends, and best of all we did not change our daily routine or habits. \n\nThe best bit of advice I remember from the book is that smoking is like wearing shoes all day and night that are 2-3 sizes too small, just so you can look forward to a few minutes that you can take them off.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I always told my grandma \"six minutes\" whenever she lit up. That's how many minutes of life you lose for every cigarette you smoke. She has emphysema now. I did the same to my uncle, who never quit and died of throat cancer. Quit. Go through with it. You can do it. As much as your brain may tell you that your body *needs* to smoke, you don't. Use the patch, take a pill, or use psychology - every time you get the urge to smoke, eat an apple instead. Something like that. Turn the bad habit into a healthy one. \n\n**Do not fail me.**\n\nLove,\ncloud7", "score": 3 }, { "body": "One thing I is to quit in two stages. F\n\n* Quit TOBACCO. \nUse various cigarette replacement products (Gum, Patch, E-cigarette) to help with the psychological need for cigarettes, but you won't have to deal with the physical withdrawal from nicotine yet- but don't ever go back to tobacco.\n\n* Quit NICOTINE\nOnce your lungs clear out and you no longer have the urge to light up, gradually taper off whatever tobacco replacement therapy you use.\n\nThis obviously is a lot easier said then done, but if you look at it in two stages (Quit the psychological addiction to smoking, then the physical addiction to nicotine) I think you will have a much higher chance of success.\n\nThat being said, good luck, ever day will be a battle, but it will start to get easier and easier :-)", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Good luck. Quitting sucks. I agree with others here that cold turkey is best. \n\nThe thing that keeps me quit is the fact that quitting sucks, and I didn't want to do it again. The further away from it you are, the easier it gets. It took me a few years before I didn't jones all the time. \n\nAlso, I found that golf pencils are a good surrogate for the \"something to chew on\" part of the habit. About the same size and weight as a half smoked cigarette. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I smoked a pack and a half every day for 8 years. Quit 18 months ago. I started running every day. Half a mile at first was all I could do before it felt like a heart attack was coming on, now I run 3 miles daily without much trouble. After running, I showered and then cooked a meal using recipes I found on the food network website. I was a shitty cook when I started and so it would take a few hours to put a meal together but it would keep my mind off cigarettes and by the time I was done eating it was late and I could read a book or watch TV and go to bed. \n\nLooking back I can tell you that quitting and adding exercise makes everything better. You feel infinitely better when you wake up in the morning, you take solid shits, sex is better, you sweat less, food tastes better (and if you did what I did you learn to cook pretty damn well), sleep is more satisfying and consistent, you think more clearly, you get sick far less and for shorter periods of time, confidence rises and that's just what I can think of off the top of my head. \n\nAs much as I loved smoking there's no way I'd ever consider going back after now realizing how much of my physical/mental prime was wasted/damaged as a result of that one habit. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I think David Sedaris has put it better than I could ever hope to:\nhttp://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/05/080505fa_fact_sedaris?currentPage=all", "score": 3 }, { "body": " Sure, it gets easier after the first few days. But most people start again later. Why is that? It's because people don't realize they are still at war with cigarettes. \r\nCigarettes are a not necessarily a powerful opponent, but they are deceitful, and they understand your weaknesses and vulnerability. Once you think you've beaten them, cigarettes will send envoys, waving white flags, suing for peace. They'll say, 'you've clearly defeated us. You are much stronger than we are. Why don't we call an end to this awful struggle? And why don't we celebrate this peace with.. a cigarette?'\r\nDon't listen to cigarettes' envoys. Do not discuss 'conditions' or 'terms' of surrender. Kill them on sight. \r\nThen put their heads on stakes. Show no mercy. This is war, and there are no truces, bargains, deals. \r\nThis 'militant' attitude, which I learned from a radio character named 'Unlce Val' on CBC 20 years ago, has helped me never light up again. \r\nGood luck. And remember: no mercy. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "You can do it. I quit several times before I made it. Don't listen to the addiction, you can't be disgusted and miss them at the same time. You need to be disgusted by them all the time. Hate them, hate the smell, the thought of them. Hate the hurt they have done to you. \nDon't give up. This may be the hardest thing you will ever do. But you can do it.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Oh jeez, I know way too many professional dancers that have no options when they get injured or stop dancing. Remember that she wants to work in the arts; your statement about \"not wanting to see her have to make a choice between what she loves doing and worrying about putting food on the table one day\" is something ALL of us in the arts field worry about all the time, even if we're currently doing well.\n\nPlease relate to your sister that it is extremely important for her to get a traditional education as well, as even an extremely successful ballet career will not be *that* lucrative and it *will* be short. If she wants to remain in dance for a full career she will have to either teach, choreograph, or work in administration. \n\nThat being said. If dancing is her true love, then specific high school classes aren't really that important. If her goal is to get into a professional company, it's just important for her continue her education. \n\nEDIT: Grammar ", "score": 8 } ]

[ { "body": "It is I, Frank West of Eastern Frank Westia.\n\nThe utopia will always live on in the face of all smiling babies.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Our village was a grand one. The ideal was a feat to achieve, and was short-lived at that. But alas, perhaps by chance we shall meet again, and partake in a game of stick and ball while reminiscing over our village that once was.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "I had the same exact problem and it was right around the time I was in college when I stopped. It's gonna require some persistence on your part though because you're going to take your ass to the closest Korean nail salon you can find and you're going to ask them for extensions. You need extensions your first time because you have no nail to work with so they need to \"build\" you a nail. Basically they wrap your nail in silk and put glue and some sort of powder over the nail and then they smooth and buff it out. Great! Now you have long nails! Have fun trying to bite your extensions off. You'll break your teeth or cry from such severe pain you'll wish you were dead because your nails are now \"strong like bull.\" Quite honestly, this is the only thing that helped me and it does take a bit of an investement (around $60 your first time and then $20 every two weeks to have them filled in). It took about 4 months for mine to start healing and looking good but to this day, I still get wraps because they look nice and prevent me from ever putting my nails near my mouth.", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "Boston is full of students, which means Boston Craigslist is full of furniture. Just make sure anything cloth you buy new to avoid bed bugs.\n\nIf you're not already aware, learn the signs of mouse problems before you go apartment hunting (what mouse droppings look like, what kind of wall damage to look for along floor boards, etc). Mice are a pain in the ass, and a huge problem in many cheaper apartments - you will probably not find a place where you'll never have a mouse, but you can find a place that's not overrun by them. This is harder in the Back Bay. \n\nMA has good tenant laws. Know them. Use them. For the love of God, when you move in, make a checklist of existing issues and take pictures. [This](http://www.masslegalhelp.org/housing/legal-tactics1) is an excellent resource, and has things like printable move-in checklists, security deposit receipt forms, and the like, so you can do everything in your power to protect yourself. [This](http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/gl-186-toc.htm) is the full text of the MA General Law on tenacy, and [this pdf](http://www.mass.gov/Eeohhs2/docs/dph/regs/105cmr410.pdf) is the sanitary code. DO NOT assume your landlord will be a responsible, upstanding, code-compliant individual. Assume he/she won't be....I've never known someone who lives in a fully compliant apartment. Often it's due to ignorance, so don't be a jerk, just be prepared. \n\nDepending on where you're living, decent produce can be hard/expensive to come by, organic doubly so. [Boston Organics](http://www.bostonorganics.com/index.html) is awesome if you've got at least one other person to split it with. \n\nAvoid Whole Foods and corner markets...unlike in NYC, most corner markets in Boston, at least in college areas, are way overpriced. Go to Star Market/Stop & Shop/Trader Joe's/other grocery stores. \n\nMany schools have programs that allow you to buy discounted T passes. You'll save a lot. Many local places also give student discounts if you show your school ID - movies, restaurants, museums, etc. Many of the local museums also have certain times of the month/week when they're open for free for an afternoon.\n\nInvest in a good pair of winter boots before you ruin your regular shoes. \n\nFind out when you shop for apartments what utilities they're wired for. Many buildings are only set up for one phone company & one cable company, so if your choices for internet service may be limited. If you want any tv at all, you'll need cable or satellite, because in many areas of Boston the buildings block antenna reception. Also, plug your TV into the cable line before you sign up for the service. Sometimes the units aren't wired completely separately. \n\nSet a budget. Keep track of your expenses. If you have a car, or sign up for zipcar, budget in parking tickets. You will get them sometimes, even if you try not to park illegally. Boston fails at decent signage (always check the meters...some end at 6. some end at 8.). Get a FastLane pass.\n\nIf you can get to one, BJ's/Costco are good for some items, particularly frozen meat/fish and paper goods. Check the circulars online at your grocery store's website and shop sales.\n\nYou can sometimes find small local stores with really good prices on household supplies. City Housewares on Harvard Street in Brookline is one. The Economy TrueValue chain usually is not.\n\nGet a drying rack for your apartment. The laundromat driers will be expensive and will shrink your clothes.\n\nIf something happens with your partner, find a roommate. Or two. A two-bedroom apartment split between two people is a lot cheaper than a one-bed or even a studio alone. A three-bedroom with three people is even cheaper. \n\nBeing on a not-Sept.-1st lease is a blessing and a curse - inventory is lower, but so is competition (and moving truck prices). If you find yourself needing to switch to a Sept. 1st lease, you'll need to start looking in March. Sept. 1st is also an excellent day for getting new furniture. People leave perfectly good furniture in alleys and near dumpsters cuz it won't fit in their new place, and they know someone will take it long before the trash gets picked up. I once had 4 chairs I needed to unexpectedly get rid of on moving day, Sept. 1. I put them next to the dumpster behind my building, and they were gone in a hour. \n\nAvoid taxis. Boston taxis are ABSURD. ", "score": 22 }, { "body": "If heat is not included in your rent: Try to find an apartment with Natural Gas heat. Prices are superior to oil heat. You're moving in winter so you can see if the place is well insulated or if you'll be throwing hundreds out the window each week.\n\nBuy a bike on Craigslist: For about $100 you can have superior transportation around the city. 10-20 mins to anywhere, no hills, no traffic, no subway (the Green Line can be quite slow; if you have to switch trains it can easily take over an hour to get somewhere). Note: This may be inapplicable until the snow melts!\n\nIf you're buying something for the home, check Craigslist first!\n\nJoin a Freecycle list (Boston, Cambridge, Arlington, Brookline, etc) : http://www.freecycle.org/group/United%20States/Massachusetts/Boston\n\nThat's about it for now... don't own a car! :)\n\nEdit: Make sure you get a U-Lock for your bike - cable locks alone will get it stolen! (h/t pupupeepeehuhuheehee)", "score": 13 }, { "body": "As jgarfink said, learn to cook. Plan your meals for the week ahead, buy just what you need for those meals, then prepare those meals and freeze/refrigerate. I do this generally on Sunday starting with shopping Sunday morning, then preparing the meals Sunday afternoon or evening. It is only my suppers for the week as breakfast is cereal and I'm not home for lunch (pack or skip). It sounds like an all-day endeavor, but it's not. I mostly stir fry, so it's not time intensive. Also, invest in a crock pot! The smaller ones are, I think, still about $20.00, maybe cheaper. You really don't even have to know much about cooking to make a fantastic, inexpensive meal in a crock pot. Throw in some meat, some veggies, some salt, some pepper, a little water, set on low, and voila! 5-6 hours later (even a little longer if you have to), food! ", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Don't be discouraged if you find out the weather is not the only thing cold in New England. That said, try to get a second floor place or third for highter. You'll spend less to stay warm, and, in the summer you will get a bit more breeze. ", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Buy furniture as you **need** it, rather than buying a whole lot of stuff you think you'll need later. Chances are, you won't.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Make friends, don't buy a lot of shit, you don't need it, live light, worst case you didn't spend anything and you can move quickly.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Live in Allston. Cheap. Full of students. One of the safer places to live. Always a short walk to the T. Great bar scene. If you are going to have a car, live in Waltham. Same deal just not the easiest T access.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I'm in the same situation, different city. You can unplug your electronics when not using them or put them on a switch. Many devices still use a small amount of power when 'off' so that they can receive signals from remotes. Also, turn the heat down at night and when you're not home. Make sure the refrigerator temp is set to a minimum necessity and wash the coils in the back to improve its efficiency by 3-5%. And, if the neighbors are going to beam out an unsecured internet signal... who likes watching Hulu all night?\n\nAnd spend more time at school and use their utilities. Your grades will be better, you might meet some new people, and you won't have to wear a sweater while studying in dim light. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "If you have a car now, sell it. That saves a lot in maintenance, gas, parking and insurance. The city has decent public transportation and parking is a nightmare. Like somebody else said, buy a bike. Between that and the T, you should be fine for your transportation needs. \n\nFind a place with a main boiler and radiators for heat. That means you won't pay for hot water or heating. Since you'll need to use the T, find some place close by. Make sure you're near a grocery store with decent prices as well. \n\nAnd of course apply any other basic frugalities on top (cook you own meals, turn off lights, unplug stuff, etc).", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "> I'll be looking at the angle and distance the picture was taken from. Centering is also important. Bonus points if picture is taken just as the flaming guy dies. \n\nTeam Fortress 2 meets Pokemon Snap!", "score": 58 }, { "body": "How will we know it's actually you and not a set-up scenario where someone changes their name on a private server?", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "I received a key as well, and didn't really care for it. But at the time I was also very heavily stressed so plan to give it a more fair shot later. ", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "nak won for korean, thai arroy for thai, tapas teatro for spanish, matsuri for sushi, petit louis for french, chicken rico for Peruvian, mekong delta for pho, clementine for American, Helmand for Afghan, Mt. Washington pizza & subs for indian (Ambassador is too pricey, but I love the porch)\n\nWe need a dim sum place in Baltimore!\n\n(Also, [here is my yelp profile](http://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=HNx2SgcVN5nJCtt3b2x-Ew). Post yours if you yelp!)", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Hi, I am an old person, so don't take this wrong, but who is watching music videos these days? How do they figure in the promotion of a single? \n\nIn my day (adjusts onion on belt) we watched them on TV right after school on channels dedicated entirely to music videos. Currently, TV seems to be for geriatrics, poor people, and shut-ins.", "score": 162 }, { "body": "Edit: I see now that you've answered some of these questions, so obviously just ignore those.\n\nI directed videos in the 1990s, though not for anyone as high-profile as Lady Gaga. I had a few videos on various video shows all over the world, though only two on MTV proper: one on MTV's [120 Minutes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/120_Minutes) and one on regular MTV.\n\n• When I was doing it, the director's fee was 10% of budget. Is this still the case? \n• What are the typical budgets now? \n\n(My most expensive one was $100k, my least expensive was $5k. At the time I did the $100k video, I heard from people I worked with that the typical cost had been about $250k, but was already dropping, and then for a while it was at $50k. Like this was some sort of turn-key fee that record companies were willing to pay.)\n\n• Why do you have to sign non-disclosure forms? I never signed anything. Maybe the bands I worked with were boring? The labels I worked with were labels like Polygram/Sony/Universal and some indies. \n• I got my first gig because I was friends with the band and had made some short films; were you friends with her beforehand? \n\nBack in my time, the only goal was MTV. MTV had Monday meetings when they would watch videos and pick. So you had to get the video there by Monday. Since there's no FedEx on Sunday, often people would courier them to NY from wherever you were at (I was in LA and SF) since we'd be editing right into Sunday evening.\n\n• Today, what is the record company's goal with the video, since MTV doesn't play a lot of videos? How do they measure the success? Still MTV, or if it gets a lot of hits on YouTube, etc.? \n\n\n\n", "score": 154 }, { "body": "How is Lady Gaga in real life? She comes off as incomprehensible and oddly aloof in interviews and stuff.\n", "score": 133 }, { "body": "What is your favorite kind of sandwich? Have you ever shared a sandwich, or some other delicious food item with Lady Gaga? What kind of sandwiches does she like?", "score": 130 }, { "body": "I went to the same school that Lady Gaga went to at NYU, and have a few friends in her specific program (CAP-21 which is now under financial and departmental trouble). In my position as a student in such a program, I see a lot of people who mock pop culture and the idea of being glamorous and famous. I see her roots and often think of her as a person who is making fun of people who think that \"just dancing\" is the way to make things \"be okay.\"\n\nIs she sarcastic? Is she making fun of glam culture?\n\nAlso, did you go to NYU?", "score": 68 }, { "body": "Second Post: How much footage do you need to cut the final video on average? (I have always been interested in post production which is why I ask)", "score": 40 }, { "body": "Can you discuss cameras and lenses used for this video?\n\nAlso, have you tried any video with the Canon 5dMii DSLR? (like Axel Gimenez's [video?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvT0btzqosY))", "score": 36 }, { "body": "this is probably a dumb question, but do people actually refer to her in person as lady gaga, or does she just go by steph or stephanie?\n\nps: great job on the video.\n\npps: there's BOOBIES in there! :D", "score": 30 }, { "body": "I don't know how the music industry works, so this may be a stupid question, but:\n\n- Was there stuff Lady Gaga wouldn't or couldn't do?\n- Did the record company/managers/agents/whatever interfere much in the process of making the video, because they want to create a certain image of Lady Gaga in her first music video?\n\nIn other words, did you have total freedom?\n\nThanks!\n", "score": 21 }, { "body": "How much creative control does Lady GaGa have over her videos? What exactly does and doesn't she contribute? What about other pop stars? I kind of assume there are tons of other people coming up with and implementing ideas, and she's just a face. It would really restore\nsome of my faith in humanity to know pop artists aren't all just teams of producers. ", "score": 20 }, { "body": "How did you get your job? I'm in the movie trailer industry \"but what I really want to do is direct.\" I've made short films on my own time, but how do you go from amateur to professional? Is it a matter of working for free (or very low budget) for undiscovered artists, and hoping that they make it big (like GaGa)? Do tell. :)", "score": 19 }, { "body": "Would you provide a list of videos you've directed (just your personal favourite top 5 or so if it's extensive)? I'd love to check them out.\n", "score": 16 }, { "body": "As an insider in the entertainment industry, can you comment on the esoteric themes and motifs that artists such as Lady GaGa, BEP's, Jay-Z utilize in their videos/performances? \n\nExample one: first shot of this video, GaGa is covering her left eye. She does this often. That symbolism alludes to the Great Seal, the Eye of Horus. A few shots later the words read \"the greatest story ever told,\" a catch phrase that again alludes to Horus, the Sun God. EDIT:Who decided that the opening sequence happens that way? GaGa? Director? You? \n\nExample two: 2009 MTV VMAs GaGa's performance ended with her hanging limp covered in blood, AKA a blood sacrifice. Very symbolic ritual. Also, Jack Black lead everyone in a prayer to Satan(supposedly funny) on national television. (Watched the Pick of Destiny last night, JB wears a shirt in one scene with a large Great Seal that is very prominently displayed)\n\nI'm curious what an insider has to say about these hidden knowledge type things. I notice these type of things on a daily basis, but sometimes I feel like I'm crazy because nobody else notices/cares/understands what the entertainment industry(among other things) is giving us. \n\nI hope that the practice of broadcasting esoteric symbology to millions of people is just an inside joke for rich famous people. I don't think its very funny if it is. If you(average redditor/person) don't understand what I'm talking about, its not your fault. We are kept in the dark on purpose. That's what the internet is for!\n", "score": 12 }, { "body": "Lady GaGa seems to be aware of and playing the modern music/media game well, and enjoying the ride. Is she on a type of Andy Kaufman or Warhol level? \n\n(A note to commenters at the bottom of this thread: Do you honestly believe that? You are being played.)", "score": 11 }, { "body": "How do you feel about the music video industry nowadays? Back in the 90's music videos were all the rage and could push sales, but it seems today that you're lucky if one video by an American Idol star sees 30seconds of play at 6AM. \n\nI suppose i'm wondering if you think that music videos are going to start becoming a dying form.", "score": 10 }, { "body": "Come On Guys ! People here sound like Lady GaGa is the only women in the world. My Question\n\n* When making music videos , do you collaborate with the singer for the theme or just tell your ideas? Basically who gets the upper hand, you or the singer?\n\n* When making videos , do you try to reinforce the typical meaning of the lyrics? Or make a whole new story-line, separate from what the people would generally think?", "score": 9 }, { "body": "Not really into Lady Gaga, and can't come up with any related questions so here goes...\n\nDo you fly solo or are you working for a Production company? How did you get in the business?", "score": 9 }, { "body": "I'm a young director just starting out - in your opinion is there any point trying to get into music videos these days or is it all about commercials?", "score": 8 }, { "body": "You may or may not be able to answer this, and this isn't about Lady Gaga or your work specifically, it's about the editing of the video. I'm in the music promotion business. I get hundreds of videos a day. \n \nOn the lower budget video that we get in there are obvious mistakes in the editing. Unintentional Flash frames, lip sync issues and missing effects on last frame of a shot. However these same issues show up on high budget videos too. Not every video is bad, but a perfect example is Pitbull. He raps so fast sometime (or he can't lipsync) that I can understand why the lips might not line up. However, there are some areas of the video where shifting it just slightly will make the clip line up better. \n \nSo my question is, doesn't the editor see this? As the director, don't you review the video before it is sent to the dub house? Do you not see these errors? \n \nWe have a team dedicated to fixing these problems in each video. Usually by the end of the process the video looks better, and really we didn't do anything but line up the lip syncs or removed extra frames that were missed. \n \nAgain, this is not directed specifically at your work. Thanks!", "score": 8 }, { "body": "I have always wondered about a technical aspect of making music videos. \n\nWhen shooting the video, I assume you have the song playing in the background (for lip syncing purposes), then cut out the audio, and replace it with the actual recording directly.\n\nMost of the lip syncing in music videos is perfect. How does the editor align the timing of the footage with the final audio? ", "score": 7 }, { "body": "Sorry if this post seems sheltered and semi-unrelated but I have to ask somewhere: Why over the last month or so have I heard 'Lady GaGa' more than any other time in my life, and why should I care.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "how'd you break in? what kinds of work do you want to be doing in the future? what other artists have you made videos for?", "score": 5 }, { "body": ":O Wow. I've been waiting forever for someone like you to do an AMA. Well, I was wondering - someone said you edit your own videos? What software do you use? Avid? FCP? \n\nAny advice for a 16 year old trying to break her way into this industry? (film editing) I make music videos with my friends, would it be ok for me to PM you an example and tell me if you think I have any potential?", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I like this. Sure, it doesn't have the fluff of a big-money production, but you did a great job of demonstrating what she can do as a performer and how well she works in front of a camera.\n\nIt's also badass that her style didn't change from the time of your shoot to the time when the money and support came in. She didn't change who she is for the label, it seems.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Do you ever feel like you are part of the problem? You know, the whole terrible fucking music nowadays thing?", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Out of curiosity I just googled Lady Gaga's 'Poker Face' cause everyone keeps mentioning it. It sounds *exactly* like everything else on those radio stations I don't listen to. Am I missing something? Am I about to be downvoted into oblivion? Am I having my first 'out-of-touch-with-pop culture-cause-I'm-getting-old' moment?? Damnit!", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Hi there. I must say that the video was fantastic in accomplishing the mega house party feel if that is in fact what you were going for and I do like the song as well. What are your most encountered difficulties when directing a video? Lady Gaga appears to have natural ability when it comes to dancing and looking all around sexy, what do you do if an artist is not so naturally gifted? Thanks. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "How did you get into the music video field? I hope to do the same some day and was wondering if you had any tips or pointers you would share.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Do you only direct and produce music videos or do you also do, lets say, commercials also? Also, who was your favorite artist to work with?", "score": 3 }, { "body": "What's your experience in using a band in videos? A lot of time the band has to \"lip-synch\" to the track on a video, and often times it comes off as canned - the drummer playing the hi-hat when there are cymbals audible, using two sax players instead of a full horn section - are most of these budget and time issues, or is it (in regards to the drumming) using clips recorded at different sections of the song?", "score": 3 }, { "body": "A lot of directors have found their way to directing movies through music videoes. Why is this the case; do they do it because the audience allows going nuts artistically and avoiding constraints; is it easier to get the gigs; etc.?", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Hey, so before I wanted to be a pilot in the military, I wanted to make music videos. I am currently a Senior in IB Film Higher, so as far as film education, that is where I am now. Is it really fun and interesting making music videos, or does it got boring after a while. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Ah! I believe I was one of the people who requested you make this IAmA. I again, would like to ask what (if anything) has or will happen to the song played in the very beginning of the video. Fooled Me Again (Honest Eyes) I know she must have recorded it for the video..Perhaps you could ask her on behalf of her fans to release it for us to buy. I've been listening to versions of it on youtube from when she had a radio interview but I'd really enjoy having it on my ipod or something. I was even hoping against hope it would be a b side for The Fame Monster..but Retro Dance Queen was chosen instead. \nAny info on the release of the song would be appreciated.\nI'm also dying for a release of Future Love but I hear she will only sing that at her live shows (which I've yet to see unfortunately)\n\nAs for the video..were the girls friends of hers? I hear she has been loyal to her friends from before she got famous. I think the one dancer is a friend named Gina as seen [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpyKNLYmqVc)\n\nWas her disco stick created specifically for the video or did she already have one made? \n\nThank you for doing this! I hope you'll see my question! ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Do you get depressed that the majority of musical influence/popularity in the mainstream is devoid of intelligent lyrics and of creative thought?", "score": 3 }, { "body": "What's with the 2 second rule? Why can't shots last for more than 2 seconds before we need to change. I personally like to watch people dance, yet it always looks likes you get people in pose A, move them to pose B, and then cut, stitch them together and then call that dancing.\nAm I wrong?\n\n", "score": 3 }, { "body": "For other artists, entertainers, performers out there. What do you think is a sure fire way to get ahead and have a chance to reach some real masses? Is it knowing the right people, being talented and true to your craft, getting a tour under your belt, making original music, sticking with a major city and building yourself up there?\n\nWas lady gaga discovered or did she just reach out to the right people in the right way?", "score": 3 }, { "body": "My friend and I are some of those stupid people trying to break into music videos professionally-- not because there's any good money in it (we're starting to realize), but because we love making music videos. We made [this video](http://vimeo.com/5595328) for no pay-- actually at a cost of around $200 to ourselves-- about six months ago, thinking it would help get our foot in a door somewhere, but like you said, it's ugly out there. Here's my question-- we were hoping to do some sort of marketing blitz targeting mid-size indie labels, just trying to make some contacts or get a reply or something. So... \n\n1. Are we wasting our time even going after smaller indie artists/labels? \n2. Do you usually get a music video job by having a contact with the \n band, or with someone from a label?\n3. If we sent labels a press kit, would they actually look at it, or would \n they just urinate on it?\n\nAny insight you could give me would be useful, besides the obvious 'don't go into music videos.' Thanks for doing this AMA. I've been a reddit lurker for a long time, and finally broke down and created an account to ask you this.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "And if you are in japan, anime means everything animated. Up is considered imported anime. I had to tell some people that outside of japan, anime is the label for japanese produced animation. \n\nI would say that anime is still just material that is produced in Japan or produced from japanese source materials. They usually follow japanese cultural themes - or portray other cultures through the thick lens of their opinion of that culture (as we all do to others). \n\nAnimation done by others that looks like anime rarely has any kind of cultural material from japan in it. I would called these anime styled animations, as the style is the onlythighg they have incorporated from anime. \n\nAnime is a big tent, and will always include shows like pokemon up to shows like Eva and Cowboy Bebop. Just as the label of \"movie\" applies to the latest Disney kids move and to Alien or Blade Runner. All are movies, so one should just accept that anime covers all of the animations that Japan produces, including the incipid crap aimed at kids - just like every other category of enertainment. \n", "score": 13 }, { "body": "Since anime is a loan word taken from a loan word it's much like taking a piece of our own culture through a black box filter device. We are still working on what it really means to us as you are most plainly showing.\n\nFor the most part, everything that you've brought to the fore is what I have to accept it as. Since that's going to be the scope that it's currently referred to by many parts of the fanbase. The first being from the few productions that were made hand in hand between companies like Transformers. With production taking place mostly overseas but the characters and dialog coming domestically until after the second season. Now that the dubbing companies are working hand in hand with the animation companies overseas for new properties that's reinforcing the distinction.\n\nThe second being a distant, clinical definition that the fans taking a more heavy stance to believe the animation to be different and distinct even as the art continues evolve and exchange with our own domestic brands. Since there are anime and manga that are pushing new styles that don't hold those descriptions to be true if they take hold in popularity will we have to come up with a new term that deals with the style or will they simply be moved into the fold?\n\nThe serious undertones and so on are not specific to Japanese animation. Many French and American independents have made very serious or more philosophically deep productions. The Japanese companies just found a niche market share that is willing to accept drama from the specific medium. Whereas our and other country's creative talent doesn't know how to make it a self sustaining production cycle when doing the same. So it's one of the few distinctions that I find to not encapsulate a special trait of the art. Though I still go to anime for that reason.\n\nI would put forward that anime is more or less non-Disney based art talent production but that's been ripped apart ever since Fireball and other productions started coming out of Disney Japan.\n\nReally there's so homage and parody happening on both sides that the art is continuing to change itself on both extreme sides of the spectrum.\n\nSo my definition is whatever everyone else is using since I personally only use it to refer to what we as a fandom collectively decide it to mean. As it's the people and the good stories I love out of the category rather than were I need to draw the line. Good question, I will look forward to the answers.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "It opens up with a minimalist light green screen with a single question poised above a text box:\n\n Nicolai, what is it?\n\nI could type in anything: \"How the fuck do I do this problem?\", \"What's that song with the different bits of good advice spoken by an oldish guy to a beat?\", \"Dude, my head hurts. Why does it hurt?\"\n\nAfter calculating for a second, it would return its answer:\n\n Nicolai, all that stuff is boring. Don't you really just want celery with peanut butter on it?\n\nI would reply in confusion, torn between my previous inquiries and new-found longing for celery with peanut butter on it. \"Website, yes I do, but I don't know what song that is and it's annoying me because 'brush your teeth' brings up that rap song which isn't the one I'm thinking of\". \n\n Nicolai, nein. Nein nein nein. You want peanut butter on celery. \n\n Imagine how cool and refreshing it would be. Your room is stuffy, the kitchen is airy. \n\n Go get some celery with peanut butter on it.\n\nA single image of celery with peanut butter on it, [this one](http://feedingkids.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/peanutbutter.jpg), would show up above the answer prompt. It would have a \":]\" face under it to let me know that it's okay to love. I'd begin to reply, but the face would change to a \">:l\" halfway through my sentence and the screen would go blank. The answer prompt would reappear.\n\n Nicolai, would some hardcore pornography convince you that you want peanut butter on celery?\n\nThat would be it. That would be the end of internet. Not only would it suggest what I really want, but it would subdue me with XXX kryptonite and render me helpless. I'd attempt to reply, but upon sensing my fingers touching the keys hardcore pornography would appear on the screen. A \":]\" face underneath would reassure me that the best course of action, the solution to all of my most pressing issues, lies within the crisper drawer. The big black beautiful bouncing bitches would only confirm this. ", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "That clearly says, \"I know you don't know Arabic, but I'm dotting it with a heart so that you'll know I'm flirting with you. Stop being a jackass and ask me out, already. I'm single, I'm lonely, and I want you to take me to dinner. But no, you just smile and leave. Next time you come in, ask me, 'Hey, when do you get off work?' I'll then promptly respond, '9.' After which, you *must* respond, 'I'll see you then. Like Italian?' And thence shall begin our romance.\"\n\n...Arabic's a pretty concise language.", "score": 7 } ]

[ { "body": "I'm affraid I can't help you, but just be careful who you send your mother's information to on the internet - it'll be everything needed for identity theft.", "score": 16 }, { "body": "PM me. We'll see if we can find you a tax attorney in Virginia who might want to burn some pro bono hours. No promises. ", "score": 10 }, { "body": "The IRS - going after debts that *matter*.\n\nMy Stepdad worked for them for a while, I'll see if he's got any info.", "score": 9 }, { "body": "Not to slap wrists, but the IRS doesn't pursue litigation without a lot of warning first. She was most certainly informed of her situation and her options long before they opted to sue her. Why did it get to this point? I can only assume she just ignored them after a while.\n\nAre you sure you're getting the whole truth from your mom here? The IRS *always* wants to work out a solution; it's *much* less expensive for them to formulate a payment plan on a reduced debt than to involve the courts. The only real exception is if they can prove you're deliberately evading your taxes.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "You said the magic words in no assets, if she truly has no attached assets, then the IRS really can't do much, even if they win. Even if the IRS wins they legally can't take anything if she has nothing.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Cheapest 500 email addresses I ever bought!\n\nPS: pm me if you need cheap V1A6RA to strengthen your manlyness!", "score": 60 }, { "body": "Not using the BCC field - DOH! classic blunder. \n\nI like how it followed a predictable pattern: \n\n\"Downvoted\"\n\n\"HEY PEOPLE Stop Replying All!\" (replied to all, notes irony in message)\n\n[Spam Message]\n\n\"Here's how you create a filter in Gmail\" (With helpful pics, even!)\n\n\"Here's a pic of my cat\" \n\n\"HEY EVERYONE, STOP REPLYING ALL!\" (Replied to all) \n\n\"Here's a Pic of a Narhwal\" \n\nEtc... etc.. \n\n.. The only thing we haven't had yet is the inevitable puns. *evil smile*\n\nI <heart> Reddit. \n\n", "score": 36 }, { "body": "I've only gotten 17 reply-all emails in the past 50 minutes.\r\n\r\nHow bad could it POSSIBLY get?\r\n\r\n:-O", "score": 31 }, { "body": "Mystery solved - the P in P-Dub stands for [\"Perez\"](http://blog.yestosafesex.com/wp-content/themes/bodyshop/images/perez.jpg)!", "score": 19 }, { "body": "I really don't get how people can get so pissed off because of that.\nIt's funny for a moment but then it will get old and die off in a few hours.\n\nEDIT: Ok, the guy sending the goatse img is an ass", "score": 13 }, { "body": "Some people seem to be pressing Reply All. Expect random emails for a while.\n\nEDIT: LOL at the \"Downvoted!\" email.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "I think it's awesome - not only do I get to help someone out, but I get free cat and narwhal photos in my email! Win-win!", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I'm really glad I used my Yahoo address and not one I actually care about. Do your worst, spammers!", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Thankfully I used an old e-mail address that is now dedicated to SPAM. The entire first page is replies from random redditors now, though.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "can someone please fill me in on the P-Dub backstory? i seem to have missed it. thanks in advance redditers.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Throwing up at the GABF. I'm not so embarassed that it happened (4 hours of unlimited beer? What do you expect), but how it happened. It's getting late, and I know I'm downright drunk, so I decide to lay off for a while. But then, last call happens. I can't resist trying one more triple IPA, can I? Of course not.\n\nDown it goes, and up it comes. Everything is in my mouth, and I can't find a trash can. I run around, finally can't hold it in any more, and throw up all over myself and the floor. Dozens of beer snobs are staring at me and muttering under their breath. Quite embarrassing overall.", "score": 7 }, { "body": "A really expensive batch DIPA I was making exploded. My basement had hops, beer, and shards of glass the size of pinheads all over the place. You couldn't even tell the glass came from bottles the pieces were so minuscule. Had to get some oven mitts and ghetto rig some bomb disposal gear out of spare Ikea boards and purposefully pop the rest of the bottles in my back yard so they wouldn't explode unexpectedly.", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "Partially, yes. But you are understating the importance of an interview. Even if the person isn't actively being considered for the job, it gives him both experience and a resume item. Being able to apply saying \"I've been given interviews with X, Y, and Z\" is important in receiving consideration.\n\nThe Rooney Rule wasn't solely instituted to get more direct hires, it was also to get more eventual prospects started in the process.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "Do they have a Rooney rule for players?\n\nYou know since the NFL is 85% black do they make teams interview a white player at the draft combine or a white free agent before just singing a Black player?", "score": 4 }, { "body": ">The Redskins are already cleared to make a swift hire. The Fritz Pollard Alliance, which oversees the NFL's so-called \"Rooney Rule\" that requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate for head coaching and top-level front office positions, said last month that current secondary coach Jerry Gray, an African American, has already interviewed for Zorn's job. The alliance, therefore, believes the Redskins have complied with the rule, and no further interviews would be necessary.\n\nFrom [here](http://voices.washingtonpost.com/redskinsinsider/redskins-fire-zorn-after-2-sea.html). Seems like an example that the Rule is being complied with only superficially.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Haven't gotten past \"Dead Beat\" yet so I have an irrelevant comment.\n\n**ZOMBIE T-REX!!!!** YYYEEEEEHHHAAAA!!!\n", "score": 13 }, { "body": "It is one of the few series that I thought started weaker and got better. The TV show was a joke, but that is how I got interested in the books.", "score": 9 }, { "body": "I typically dislike first person narrative. I have a hard time losing myself in most stories written this way. Dresden Files however is one of the few exceptions. \r\n\r\n", "score": 6 }, { "body": "I've read and re-read and even bought James Marsters' audio versions. Here's my questions:\n\n* Is his mother still alive, and is she Mab? Mab's been *really* kind to Dresden. Seems to me she's got a very long term plan going on.\n* What's his mother's involvement w/ Black Council? Her involvement with the White Court cannot be a coincidence. \n* With the recent death in Turn Coat, who's Merlin new attack dog?\n* With 2 swords in his keeping, why isn't Merlin and the rest of the council asking questions about Dresden? Wouldn't most of them recognize divine providence? \n* Yeah, eventually Murphy will get a sword - but which one?\n* What are the headaches about? Does it have to do with Demonreach?\n* So... when does Harry get to slay a dragon?\n* When Mr. Butcher gonna drop this Alera nonsense and finish the other 10 Dresden books? :D\n", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I really love this series, one of my biggest pet peeves is how incredibly inaccurate the Chicago geography can be, a Wal-Mart in Wrigleyville??\nI have a feeling changes is going to blow everything wide open.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "As far as the swords, I think Marcone is going to end up with one of the swords. (Seriously, that's my prediction.)\n\nRecall the business about how it seems the Swords end up in the hands of kings or their descendants... Marcone is now a lord of sorts under the Accords, (or is he simply on his way to setting that up? I don't remember. He needed three signatories to sign off on it, but I don't remember if he got a third one.)\n\nAnyways, that's my hunch. (not really Turn Coat specific, I guess, but still)", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Return of the Jedi originally had Obi-Wan telling luke of the fight between him and Vader and that was why Vader was in the suit.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "I read it in the Photo Book of the Galactic Empire, or whatever it's called, when I was about 9. It's by Scholastic Books, I'm pretty sure.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I remember reading it on the back of one of the action figures when I was younger, before the prequels came out. \n\nIn the wiki it says: \"In an interview with Rolling Stone in August 1977, he(Lucas) said that he wanted his friends to each take a turn at directing the films and giving unique interpretations on the series. He also said that the backstory where Darth Vader turns to the dark side, kills Luke's father and fights Ben Kenobi on a volcano as the Galactic Republic falls would make an excellent sequel.\"\n\nSo that may be a source, too.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Your inquiry sent me on a long search of the Internets. I wondered this, too. I always thought it was something in a Timothy Zahn novel, and maybe that's true. But, I also found this link, which includes a (non canon) quote from Mark Hamill: http://www.theforce.net/swtc/injuries.html \n\n> In an interview in Starlog in 1980, Mark Hamill recounts a background story which he had been told:\n> \n> \"I remember very early on asking who my parents were and being told that my father and Obi Wan met Vader on the edge of a volcano and they had a duel. My father and Darth Vader fell into the crater and my father was instantly killed. Vader crawled out horribly scarred, and at that point the Emperor landed and Obi Wan ran into the forest, never to be seen again.\"", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "This has been discussed here before. I remember 'asafoetida' being mentioned. No idea if it works or not, barely know what it is, I just liked the word. Hopefully the person who brought it up last time will weigh in.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "This is why I'm not on Facebook. I know all the people who tout how great it is for staying in touch with people blah blah blah. But my thing is, if I wanted to be in touch with you, you'd already be in my blackberry. I don't need to know what someone from pre-k is up to these days. I don't think I even remember anyone from pre-k. The fact is, you don't owe this person anything. You don't even know each other anymore. I would just ignore this person and I'm not sure how facebook works but if there's a way to ignore her or block her, I would do it.\r\n\r\nEDITED to fix the misspelling.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "> I just hate hurting others.\r\n\r\nSorry, anything you say or do that results in ending contact with her will hurt her. She is clingy, and now is emotionally dependent on regular contact with you. The healthiest thing to do for her and the best thing to do for you is to just tell her in plain english not to contact her.\r\n\r\nThough that won't actually make her stop.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I've found that rarely is there an awkward social situation which was not previously explored by [Seinfeld](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-uWZ9MhzrM)", "score": 5 }, { "body": "You know, if you were a woman posting this about a guy everyone would be accusing you of leading him on.\n\nOn a side note I've had this happen and understand it's difficult to be mean. My avoidant way of dealing with it (which I don't use anymore because I think it's kind of shitty) is I just act pissed off at drama in my life and become an unpleasant person to talk about. I bring up topics that make the other person uncomfortable...in essence subtly making them not want to hang out with me.\n\nNow I'm more honest. With your instance I would just tell her I have a lot of things going on right now, I don't dislike her at all but I just don't have time to develop a friendship. On top of this it is overwhelming to get so many messages so frequently from so many different routes so I'd like her to cut it down to just messaging on facebook if she still wants to talk to me. I generally make it sound like I don't hate her but I also don't want to talk to her as much. Oftentimes this ends up cutting ties with the person, it sucks to be the bad guy but it's better then leading her on forever. Sometimes the person will back off and you can just keep in contact with them over a while.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Search for the URL, and the stories it was submitted for will show up. So, either I'm misunderstanding you, it already works that way, or the admins are ridiculously fast now.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "I do think your AMA is interesting, but if you're going to link to your online store it would be nice to give a Redit coupon. Just sayin'.", "score": 18 }, { "body": "How difficult (labor intensive, risk, disease) is growing kona? Do you grow all year? Are your neighbors also kona farmers?\r\n\r\nHah, I'm fairly sure I own that exact chipper you're using (Liberty brand or something). Mine is proving to be a piece of shit. The set screws which secure the location of the shaft and therefore the blade refuse to stay in place so the blade slides and hits the chopping plate. This then puts strain on the tractor PTO and breaks the safety bolts. Having trouble with yours?\r\n\r\nI've also got an older Deere lawn tractor leaking hydrolic fluid from the rear diff too for at least a couple years. Fill it up and forget about it, denial is a powerful force.\r\n\r\nFarming does suck. Good luck to you!", "score": 5 }, { "body": "* So, how did you first get started?\n\n* How much was the initial cost of the land?\n\n* What's an average week on the farm like?\n\n* What's an average profit for a good harvest?\n\n* What did you do to set up the farm?\n\n* What made you choose growing coffee as your new career choice?", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I am seriously considering a career change myself, to commercial mushroom cultivation. This makes you a bit of an inspiration to me.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "For the love of god, please stop hitting 'Reply All'.\n\nIt was a mistake. I saw what had happened as soon as she clicked 'send', and I literally dived for the computer to exit the window and stop the action, but I was too late.\n\nPlease, just delete that whole email, block it, and pretend it didn't happen.\n\nI sent a second one that was fixed.\n\nEdit: Damn I hate that picture so much. Oh well...", "score": 39 } ]

[ { "body": "I know this may sound weird, but in my experience the more parents try to 'control' their kids, the more the kids try to break free from that 'control.' I don't know how to stop that cycle once it begins, though.", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "Well, the facts can never go away. \n\nBut the unfortunate truth is that there are many rich influential people battling to get evolution belittled in the school curriculum, which would have a terrible impact on how those facts are viewed by future generations. That's why Dawkins wrote the book - because, like it or not, we *do* have to struggle to keep intellectual honesty and scientific rigour in the schooling system, to ensure that it keeps producing \"rational honest people\". ", "score": 7 }, { "body": "I'm about halfway through 'The Solomon Key' and am more and more convinced that people will always believe stupid things. ", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "> Which would (in many cases) equally apropos in /r/worldnews or /r/politics or /r/WTF. It's the tone...they just tend to be a notch more frothy.\n\nYou can't be serious. Sure, you have some frothy titled in /r/libertarian, but compare that to the COUNTLESS and UNENDING stream of \"Fuck you, Fox News!\" and \"How can (X politician unpopular on Reddit) be this fucking stupid?\" and \"FUCK YOU BECK/HANNITY/LIMBAUGH\" links that cross through /r/politics.\n\nThe easiest way you can tell what is in /r/libertarian is to see if the headline goes against the progressive political grain. If it does, it comes from here... otherwise, 49 times out of 50 it would have received negative karma and never have been seen by anyone but the \"bell weathers\" hanging out on the \"new\" stream.", "score": 7 }, { "body": "Yes, there are a significant number of posts that emanate from the birther-esque fringe as we, on occasion, will attract conspiracy theorists who will latch-on to anything.\n\nThere are also quite a few posts from non-Libertarian folks on the Right (conservative/Republican/religious) who are trying to push an agenda here.\n\nBut by the same token, you will always find headlines discussing true Libertarian ideals... personal liberty and freedom.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "From Merriam-Webster:\n> frothy\n> Pronunciation: \\ˈfrȯ-thē, -thē\\\n> Function: adjective\n> Inflected Form(s): froth·i·er; froth·i·est\n> Date: 15th century\n>\n> 1 : full of or consisting of froth\n> 2 a : gaily frivolous or light in content or treatment : insubstantial <a frothy comedy> b : made of light thin material\n>\n\n\nI don't see what you mean?\nIf anything the stories are LESS frothy and often more serious in content than those in r/politics.\n\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "I haven't. But I really fucking need a job. \n\nSo my new strategy is to offer my first week's paycheck in cash to whoever gets me hooked up with the interview that gets me hired (trying not to make it sound like a bribe). Seems to be working a little bit, I posted the ad on Craigslist and in the past month got two interviews (I'll be finding out if I got one of them sometime today, actually, wish me luck). ", "score": 29 }, { "body": "I basically have the same concern -- I would have already happily posted several jobs to the reddit board if I was certain I'd get the right value for my money, but with no way of knowing how likely I am to find the right candidate for such a steep price, I just can't justify it. On the other hand, from reading the thoughtful replies of a certain redditor I've already hired one person directly from reddit and it didn't cost me a dime. (And it's working out fabulously, thankyouforasking!)", "score": 18 }, { "body": "What methods does your boss use today? \n\nIf you are paying external recruiters to find candidates for you, then $300 to experiment with redditjobs is likely a tiny fraction of the amount you are paying a recruiter if/when they place someone.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Seems like this is a trend that Joel Spolsky popularized in some articles he wrote about his own job board - charge a high price to make the customers value the board more, basically. Here's [one such article](http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/09/05b.html), although I think the one I'm thinking of was a later analysis of the approach.\n", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Someone really needs to setup a site that works like a dating site, except for jobs. Matching people on personality and such. It would be weird.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "As nice as it might be to toke up before you go in, you may end up regretting it. The hospital can be kind of a nerve wracking place, so going in high may not be the best idea. Perhaps save the herb until you get home?", "score": 7 } ]

[ { "body": "Regardless of it latin root, which indeed denotes something which does not exist, it is wrong to dismiss utopia. Instead of denoting a veritable place, utopia is an idea, something to strive for in our daily lives and through all our actions. While our very nature makes perfection unattainable, working towards improving all our lives and making the world around us a better place is perhaps the most worthy of pursuits.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "I don't think so. There will always be greedy people. Not to mention that different people will have a different idea of what a \"utopia\" is supposed to be. We retain separate values from one culture to the next.", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "> (which is ok since its now a manual transmission)\n\nWhat kind of thieves steal a car and change out the transmission???", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I say do away with the damn thing a just use a switch and a push-button for the starter. Hide a separate kill switch somewhere else. If you don't like that idea, head to the junkyard and get one for a couple bucks.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Go to Rockauto.com and look up part number US497 - Cost is $139.79 Here's a picture of it: http://info.rockauto.com/SMP/US497_FULL.jpg\n\nand stop dealing with parts store monkeys :)", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Thank you everyone for your help. The best priced quote I could find was $550 for parts and install. Now thanks to your efforts, it will cost me less than $200, a beer, and an hour of my time futzin with my car (which I love to do anyway). ", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "\"Everything seems easy enough but I have no idea how to do [it]\"\n\nWhy do non technical people always say things like this about anything technical?", "score": 24 }, { "body": "In the words of Don Draper, \"This is my profession, what do you want me to do?\"\n\nPolitely tell them \"my hourly rate is ___.\" No one works for free. The problem is you don't want to be a dick, but you have no problem with them being a dick to you (whether they realize it or not). If you're not offended, you should be.\n\nYou'll never get any respect or anything decent in return if you work for free. You'll only be known as that nice guy that does work for food/free.\n\nI once had a woman tell me she was going to send me food after I did some minor bit of work for her. She thought she was being clever. I still invoiced her. Turns out I got the check, but never got the food. I still do work for her to this day. \n\nPersonally, I'd avoid trade. If you want an easy way out, tell them you're too busy or that you're not doing any more charity work until this economy turns around. Otherwise, just tell them you're not interested. If they're a friend, they'll understand. If not, who the fuck cares? You're only upsetting someone who completely insulted you in the first place.", "score": 15 }, { "body": "Some how these types of requests have actually cost me money rather than make any money. I will sign up someone for a host/domain/merchant account/cert/etc and end up never getting paid. And I'm sorry a meal isn't payment. I got asked to do two porn sites for strippers and I still would only accept cash as payment. $$ upfront is what I require. Now I'm stuck with the awkward situation of telling this person that I don't want to help them.\n\n\nI think I may bring my taxes with me and tell them they can either use blogspot and choose a template or they can pay me or do my taxes while I work...", "score": 7 } ]

[ { "body": "Are you willing and able to assemble a PC from components? If so you could probably build a sub 300 dollar AMD machine if you already have the Graphics card and all the Peripherals. ", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "Even with all its downfalls, I still love this game. Fighting in zero-gravity is the most amazing thing.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "I missed the 5$ sale with 7 minutes... Guess I will get it when the servers start working properly...", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "It's called \"subvocalization\". Both of the two books on reading that I'm currently reading claim that subvocalization can be eliminated (mostly). Losing subvocalization is an almost inevitable result of reading faster than you can speak. I now only subvocalize the unfamiliar words when I'm pushing my reading speed.\n\nFor reference:\n\n * [Breakthrough Rapid Reading](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/073520019X?ie=UTF8&tag=aspiringbum-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=073520019X)\n * [How to Read a Book](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671212095?ie=UTF8&tag=aspiringbum-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0671212095)\n", "score": 60 }, { "body": "It is entirely possible to not use words when reading. \r\n\r\nLet me give you a real world example:\r\n\r\nAt one point, I counted money for a job all the time. Money when sent to the bank regularly comes in batches of 50. So over time, since I could actually shuffle the money faster than I could say it (video games consoles FTW), the \"number\" of the count began to take on meaning, without words. I could then translate that meaning back to a number in the classical sense if needed. Basically I had a base 50 system, with no names, just concepts/ideas. People could spout numbers at me all day while I was counting, and I would never lose count because those where not the \"numbers\" I was using. Oddly enough, making me stop, and translate the number sometimes threw me off when I went back to counting. All of that was done with no internal \"vocalization\", just the concept of the proper number, since vocalization would have been entirely too slow.\r\n\r\nWhen I read really fast, I skip over some words, translating them directly to concepts, images, or actions. It is the same idea, but takes longer to become familiar with so many words, as opposed to just 50 numbers. If you really think about it, you probably do it, too. Do you really vocalize \"the\" or \"a\"? Or how about \"I\"? Are those not concepts that have moved way beyond what can be contained by a simple word?", "score": 30 }, { "body": "I seem to be able to get over this by reciting the alphabet internally vocalized while reading. This keeps the vocalization part of my brain busy while I can still retain information while reading. If the alphabet alone doesn't work, you may be able to recite 2 things internally while reading.. The alphabet and some other word like \"watermelon\" etc.\n\nThere are also programs and websites that allow you to enter in a paragraph and only 3-6 words at a time are flashed in front of you at a certain rate. The idea is that you don't possibly have time to read aloud in your head but you still will be able to retain the information up to a certain speed. This is also a trainable skill.", "score": 18 }, { "body": "I don't imagine the deaf would use internal narration. Though perhaps they substitute it with something analogous.", "score": 14 }, { "body": "Read faster. You'll find that you're outpacing the mental recitation quite easily. I find if I finish what I'm reading and just stop, my mental recitation does catch up (though it skips a bunch of words too), but if I continue on reading something else it never catches up and I end up only mentally reciting the odd word here and there.", "score": 12 }, { "body": "Never have subvocalized. I didn't even realize other people did until I was in my teens - I still find it kind of bizarre. Is anyone else who doesn't subvocalize horrific at pronunciation? I tend to encounter some words usually as written, and only rarely come accross them aurally:\n\nExamples: melee, Bono", "score": 8 }, { "body": "It wasn't too long ago that you were considered a genius if you could read *without* [speaking aloud](http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/1665189/posts).", "score": 8 }, { "body": "Non linguist answer\n\nYeah, I speed read I guess. I kinda 'absorb' the text. I can pick out the main arguments, points of interest and key/trigger words and dump the functional grammar constructs. \n\nTo truly achieve full comprehension I do read word for word (with no subvocalisation). \nBasically what aspiringBum said - I read waaaaaaaay faster than I speak. \n\nExample - I'm a nightmare on those quiz machines you get in pubs and bars. I will read the questions AND answers, and reach for my selection faster than most my friends read the question. I couldn't read the question out that fast and select from the answers. And I sometimes make simple comprehension mistakes - I guess its a function of doing it that fast, trading accuracy for speed. ", "score": 7 }, { "body": "It's debatable. According to the expertise model, you can eventually. A lot of academic linguists claim they don't hear a voice. \n\nWhich begs the question: are they still engaging the phonological loop, according to Baddley's model?", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I always narrate internally. I was taught to read by my nanny when I was very young; she read to me a lot. I suspect that is why I speedread as well as I do. My untrained guess is that somehow, the auditory processing portion of my brain is assisting in the reading comprehension process.\n\nAs an aside, I have always remembered oddly spelled words by memorizing the literal pronunciation: fry-end for friend, etc. Perhaps that is a by-product of the \"auditory assist\".", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I learnt to speed-read on my own when I was a kid figuring out to read. I have never subvocalized familiar words. I have to stop and try to figure it out when I encounter a non-English or very obscure word, but otherwise? Nope.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "No you don't have to, a lot of speed reading techniques involves getting rid of your subvocalizing. It's just very common because of the way we are taught to read.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I find it impossible to read without internal vocalization...I feel so stupid.\nDoes anyone have any free tutorials about learning to eliminate the internal voice? ", "score": 4 }, { "body": "It's got to be possible. Deaf people who have never learned spoken English certainly aren't sub-vocalizing when they read.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I do that too, and choosing a nice reading voice helps with not getting pissed off at peoples stupid utterings.\n\nBut I know a lot of people that read a lot faster then I can. They do not seem to use voicing it to understand meanings.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "This is normal because the lexical input stream undergoes processing in upper levels of the auditory processing pathway, in the temporal lobe. The easiest way to read is to map words onto sounds which are then mapped onto lexical items (words). One reason that this is inefficient is that most words are not pronounced phonetically and so the lexically determined pronunciation must be determined at an earlier level anyway.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Check out http://spreeder.com/ -- Copy in something long and play it at about 500 wpm. Soon, your brain will skip the subvocalization and instead you just get scenes, images of meaning flashing by your eyes.\n\nFor a better experience, try it while high or tripping.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Try repeating \"one, two, three, four\" out loud while reading for a while. it tends to suppress the urge to move your larynx and works for me, probably not for everybody.\n\n\nAlso do not start over while practicing this or try to understand everything, the key is to try to keep the reading pace so fast that you cant go back to vocalizing, it gets easier eventually.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "It depends on how a person's dominant method of recall, maintenance or retention is developed for memory. Tactile, audio and visual inputs can share dominance per occasion of event, but there is a tendency for audio or visual dominance for acquisition/recall for most sighted people. Blind people have different type of condition, where audio or tactile based acquisition/recall is totally dependent on whether they were once sighted.\n\nMost of that research was done in the late 1970's and early 1980's.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Are we just talking about reading English/prose? Because for me, reading source code while I write computer programs is almost entirely visual.\n\nWhen working on a computer program I'm familiar with, I regularly glance at a page of source code, then go to a different file in the program, and figure out how the two pieces work together (for example to figure to where a bug is). While reading English/prose, I need to consciousness read each word sequentially left-to-right to understand what the sentence is about. With code it just happens all at once without any sort of subvocalization or need to read in a sequential order. More often then not I read/scan vertically than left-to-right.\n\nThough when reading code I didn't write, its a completely different story. In that case I usually need to read the code sequentially once or twice through, and consciously think about what each step of the program does. Though in that case I still don't really subvocalize, probably because it takes way to long to pronounce all of the \"left parenthesis right parenthesis semicolon\" etc.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "My reading comprehension goes down when I don't have the voice, but there are a good number of times when I don't have avoice usually for words and names I can't prononce I'm able to recognize them and can continue when I'm reading with the voice those words are muted/ack and I go on.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Yeah. This chant is fucking stupid. Why did we need a \"NEW\" chant anyways? Whats wrong with \"Go Canada Go\" or \"Let's Go Canada!\" or \"Ca-Na-Da!!!\"? Motherfuckers can't just leave well enough alone.", "score": 31 }, { "body": "It's terrible but it would have been even worse if they had settled on \"C-A-N-A-D-A, WE SAY, GO CANADA GO!\"\n\n*shudder* I still have nightmares about that cheer. Fuck Pepsi for ruining the World Juniors and the Olympics. This is seriously the most obnoxious advertising campaign I've ever come across.", "score": 10 }, { "body": "I was following the game yesterday on thescore.com's live blog and everrrryone was complaining about it.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Agreed. I was going to suggest \"Pep-si, I won't do what you tell me!\" as a replacement but that would just give Pepsi the attention they want, so I'll stick with \"Let's Go Canada!\".", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I think it's ridculous, however the fact that they're offering up the chance to have your name in the hockey hall of fame and only 77 thousand people have signed up so far says the majority of canadians have decided to just ignore this.\n\nThe worst thing is how long it took me to realize what they were trying to get me to yell.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I don't mind the actual chant, I just resent that a sugar water company is telling me how to cheer for my country.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "It seems to me that every person who writes sonnets begins with the same mistakes (myself included). Don't use old English (extendeth) or uncommon contractions (quiv'ring). Study the sonnets of famous folks, and practice using both enjambment and end-stopping; you will soon learn when to use each to better express what you're trying to say (or not say). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enjambment", "score": 6 }, { "body": "There is something confusing about the logic of the middle section, quasi-quoting (\"as if to say\") the flower. The word \"Although\" tells the reader that the follow statement is contrary to or in some way opposed to either a preceding or following statement. Your use of the comma before \"Although\" suggests that it is somehow suppose to be in opposition to \"My life extendeth here for but an hour\" -- and I don't really understand how those statements are in opposition in this context. However, you seem to try to have it both ways with your semi-colon which may (if only loosely) allow the reader to see \"Although\" in opposition to what follows. That doesn't appear to make clear sense either.\n\nThen, you begin with \"yet\" which, like *although*, is also an opposition word. What follows is a series of prepositional phrases that, in my capacity as a reader, appear to have no clear subject. \"yet by my body stay / And down beside my panting petals lay\"\" (is *you*, the speaker, the understood subject here?). \"And with your soul encompass me a bower\" so, \"you\" (the understood \"you\") and \"your soul\" shelter the flower. This brings to mind the question the referent of \"My love\" (depending on what is signified here, the sense of the poem can be interpreted a couple different ways). Is the poem about the speaker's feeling *of* love or is the speaker's \"love\" an actual person? (the \"delicious moan\" leads me to think love=person *and* that the type of love referred to in the poem is romantic/sensual love rather than some other variety, which could have very well been the case given the ambiguous context of the rest of the poem.)\n\nGiven that the poem appears to be about a person-love rather than an emotion-love, it comes across as mildly patronizing (that is, unless the person-love is on her deathbed or in some other capacity near death-- which even so, in that context, the \"delicious moan\" line could be read with a morbid aura to it).\n\nParting words: Just because the sonnet is a *form* doesn't mean your syntax and diction need to be overly formal (nor are antiquated grammatical forms, such as \"extendeth\", particularly called for). I would suggest writing more *in your time*, so to speak.\n\nYou may want to check out [Edna St. Vincent Millay](http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/160). Here are a few of her [sonnets](http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/millay/sonnets.html).\n\nAll the best. Keep on writing.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Get a 20\" barrel, +3 mag extension (or +2 if you go with a 18.5\" barrel), and a LIGHT.\n\nCall it a day- anything else is just bullshit that will trip you up in the night.", "score": 9 }, { "body": "I really like the Knoxx Stocks. They have a pistol grip, are adjustable, and have recoil reducing springs in them. Plus, the butt is just like the standard butt for AR's, so you can get a nice sling (I like the [Wilderness Giles Sling](http://store.thewilderness.com/index.php?cPath=72_1_9)). A sling is very important for reloading. That way, you're able to keep your shotgun aimed at the threat while stuffing more shells in. Plus, a good sling will also distribute the weight across your back and shoulder.\n\nSurefire makes foregrips with a light attached.\n\nYou can add on a shell holder as well, if you wish. I went with the [Mesa Tactical SureShell](http://www.mesatactical.com/index.php?id=56) mainly because it could hold shells upside down without them falling out. Useful if you want to keep a mix of shells.\n\nFinally, if you want to stick with the bead sight (ghost rings are nicer), take it off and paint it a fluorescent or even a glow in the dark color. Better acquisition of the sight. Bead sights, I've found, tend to make you shoot a few inches higher. So, aim low!", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "The divorce is probably still a bit fresh for her and she isn't really ready for you yet, but she wants you. If you think she is worth the wait, give her some more time, but don't wait around forever.", "score": 9 }, { "body": "Is it possible that she's just enjoying the attention? I don't mean to pass judgement on her unduly - but she's getting a lot of your attention without really having to meet you half way it all. It might be comforting to her - and hurtful to you.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Oklahoma City is a bustling metropolis with plenty to see and do. You'll be rather surprised. There's an NBA team there, now, and they've got the University of Oklahoma just outside the city in Norman. It's not a center of culture or anything, but that doesn't mean that the city is a bunch of hicks that you won't understand.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I'm the resident Oklahoma City authority on Reddit I'm pretty sure. I've lived here most of my life. \n\nThe people are really friendly and it's laid back. There's hardly any crime. There's a decent downtown but it's small. \n\nThe food is really great here as long as you aren't a seafood fan. I suggest the barbeque if you haven't tried it yet. Oklahoma City and Dallas have the best bbq in the country, and I've been all over the US many times. \n\nYou'll probably end up in Midwest City, which is the suburb surrounding the base. It's very working class blue collar. \n\nThe best part of Oklahoma City is the traffic. There isn't much. You can get anywhere any time in a short amount of time. \n\nI would NOT recommend living in Norman simply because it happens to be the only traffic choke point heading to base. The city of Norman itself is really nice to live in though. It's a college town, but full of beautiful people. Edmond is the same, but on the opposite (north) side of town (Norman is South). You'll be on the East side of the city if you're near base.\n\nTinker AFB is pretty nice, everyone is friendly. There are a ton of easily accessible gates.\n\nIf you want to have fun in Oklahoma, I suggest the outdoors. They have a TON of AMAZING lakes surrounding you. They are all top notch nice campgrounds, great water, friendly people. You can camp, boat, jetski, fish. There are great hiking trails, great bike paths, etc.\n\nAlso, you're in cowboy country. Lots of horse riding, roping, country line dancing clubs. They are fun. \n\nYou say you are an introvert, which will serve you well here. People go out of their way to be friendly, talk to you, and include you. \n\nThe only real downsides are that it's not very pretty physically (flat, dry, boring), the cops are obnoxiously oppressive (you will get more speeding tickets and traffic violations that you ever have before in your life for basically doing nothing), and the Christian church has total domination over the culture. \n\nIf you crave a big city experience, remember that Dallas is only three hours away due south. If you want a romantic bed and breakfast in the mountains, Eastern Arkansas is three hours East and it's BEAUTIFUL.\n\nIf you have liberal political or religious views, simply keep them to yourself and you'll have no problems. In fact, just don't talk about politics at all, period. Ever. I mean it. Really. \n\nAnd learn the contraction \"Ya'll\". You'll be using it A LOT.\n\nGood luck! - S", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "I use SitRep as a part of my anti-aircraft stinger setup. Not that it helps with shooting down helicopters, but that kit is kind of my throw away setup. I go to it when I need to shoot something out of the sky or when there is a sniper somewhere and I can't pinpoint him. \n\nMore often then not a sniper will have C4 or an insertion beacon nearby and those light up and can be seen through walls and other cover. ", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "No discussion of bike ownership is complete without a link to [Bike Registry](http://www.bikeregistry.com/). \n\nI am the proud owner of two bikes: a GT Series 2 and a Surly Long Haul Trucker.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "6 bikes plus a random frame or two kicking around.\n\n* K2 Merge - Road/Commuter bike for nice weather riding and weekend road rides.\n\n* Puch Odyssey - Old ten speed with full fenders for rainy/snowy weather\n\n* Matsuri conversion - Can't remember the model but it's my janky fixed gear for cruising round the city\n\n* World Traveler - Another old ten speed I got for ten bucks at a yard sale. Stripped it down to a low geared single speed for polo\n\n* GT Vertigo - BMX bike from when I was a kid, been meaning to work on my street riding and find some dirt jumps for a while now\n\n* Tall Bike - couple old shitty road frames welded one on top of the other for when I feel like being an attention whore =D\n\nEven with these six I'm still thinking of welding something else together and looking forward to the spring/summer yard sales to see what else I can dig up. If I had the money I'd love to put together a nice track bike that I can use to get into track racing, but for the time being my beater conversion on the street will have to do. It is nice riding a shitty bike in the city though, never care if it gets banged up and never worry about it getting stolen. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "2010 Trek 2.3 54cm Road\n\n1995 Speciaized M2 Custom Road\n\n2009 Raleigh Rush Hour (set up as fixie)\n\n2002 Klein Attitude MTN\n\n2007 Kink Transition BMX\n\nAll have been ridden within the last 90 days.\nAll are in my one room apartment.\nI'm 36", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Anarchism.\n\nThe fundamental premise of anarchism is consent and equality. Equality among human persons seemed hollow if there was inequality between human persons and non-human persons.\n\nThat's how I knew I inevitably had to one day become vegan, at least. I didn't start being vegetarian and then vegan until my non-monogamous long-term partner took the plunge.", "score": 8 }, { "body": "Ethics. Veganism is the morally right thing to do. \n\n\"If nonviolence means anything, it means we cannot justify suffering and death for reasons of pleasure, amusement or convenience.\"--Gary Francione", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I was actually at a Rise Against concert sophomore year of college. Me and some kids I met an a concert earlier that month had gotten in, but were waiting inside before the show started. You know, that weird time period in a concert before any of the warm-up bands are playing and everyone at the venue is trying to find friends or checking out the merch.\n\nAnyways, there was a TV set up next to the merch booth for some reason so I went over to watch. They were playing Meet Your Meat and I started watching it out of a morbid curiosity. When they got to the part where they showed a cow being castrated I couldn't take anymore. I started cringing and just walked away and forgot about it.\n\nAt the end of what was an awesome show, Tim McIlrath left me with some words I remember till this day - \"Remember, at the end of the day it's not the government who tells you what to do, it's not your parents who tell you what to do. Fuck, it's not even us who tells you what to do. Your life is in your own fucking hands.\"\n\nAnd so I was like, screw it. Ima be vegan. And I was the the next day. And I have been for over two years now.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "While I was a vegetarian I got tired of finding out my food had animal parts / potential meat in it. So, as a measure against uncertainty I decided to be safe and be vegan. My girlfriend and I actually felt the same way and came to the same conclusion. What pushed me over the hill was when I found out guiness and some wines are processed with fish oils ): That was the last straw and I've been vegan since...for about 4 months now. (:", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "http://dcblogs.com/ \n\nGives you a \"best of\" other blogs each day, has an extensive blog roll, and a \"live feed\" that gives you the most recent posts of all the blogs on its roll.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "http://greatergreaterwashington.org/ http://www.welovedc.com/ http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/ occasionally has dc related posts", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "livemocha.com has a chat feature that will connect you with native speakers of other languages. It's not random like Omegle though. ", "score": 8 }, { "body": "Actually, there exists a site exactly like that! It's called [My Language Exchange](http://www.mylanguageexchange.com/). I've never used it myself, but if it really works as they describe, then it may be just the thing you're looking for!\n\nGood luck with your language-learning!", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Respect bro, I come from the Flint area, which (as you probably well know) is terrible with the amount of people that are out of work from the auto-makers.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "IAmA person who isn't a manufacturing worker in Michigan and I've ALSO seen the recession firsthand... just like pretty much everyone else", "score": 6 }, { "body": "I live on the other side of the state, but we're getting hit pretty hard too. Our General Motors plant got shut down and Steelcase is laying people off. I personally know six or seven people who have been laid off because of the recession.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I used to live just south of Troy in Clawson. I moved out of there in 2004. Is Royal Oak still popular and is BD's Mongolian Bar-B-Q still in business? \nWhere do you live?\nDo you own your home or are you renting? I know the housing market has been hammered there. \n", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Check out Record. It is similar to Reason, but you can record stuff in it. And if you have Reason installed, you can use Reason patches within Record too (without ReWire).\nDemo and video: http://www.propellerheads.se/products/record/", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "By racking instead of pouring, you may not have enough oxygen in the wort for the yeast to start working. From my (limited) knowledge, I believe oxygenating the wort is key for fermentation to begin. A hard pour from the kettle usually aerates enough, but racking seems like it might not. I think they sell little plastic things that go on the end of the tubing to aerate while you rack.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Those vials say that they are good for five gallons of wort, which they are, but fermentation is always going to take 48 hrs or so, unless you make a starter. Making a starter is essentially a way to increase the cell count of the vial that you bought. You boil up some DME, cool it, then pitch the vial. Use an Erlenmeyer flask, available at your local HB store. Let it go for a day or so at typical fermentation temperatures. You'll notice a mini yeast cake (like what you see after primary fermentation) in the flask. On brew day, pour off the majority of the excess liquid, swirl it around and pitch the starter. Fermentation will take off like a shot.\n\nBut since you didn't do that, just chill for a day or so. Things will kick off.", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "Buy one of those board games called Mousetrap. Spray paint it black. Go get high with your friends. Worked for me. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I built a couple of these as part of a team in high school (15 years ago). A few of pieces of general advice would be:\n\n* Design within reason. The initial planning stage has a tendency to include a lot of \"wow, it would be really cool if it did X\" without any regards to how difficult to implement feature X would be. We had to scale back our designs during construction every time.\n* Bargain shops like the dollar store can be a great place to pick up items on the cheap. I would often do what I called engineering by walking around. I would just go browse and find items with which I could make novel energy transfers.\n* If there are any rules, read them carefully. The devil is in the details.\n* Avoid fire unless you are really sure what you are doing. If you are using fire, make sure to have a fire extinguisher close to the device.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "This is the mother-lode for Rube Goldberg contraptions- [incredible machine](http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=3163263343187879320)", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Hey I did this last month in my class.\r\n\r\nLots of dominoes, yes yes. We had a huge tech section in ours too-\r\nA ball rolled off a table and hit \"Call\" on skype. It called my cell, which then vibrated and fell off the table onto a dvd remote, which ejected its tray, which pulled the tray of the xbox below it attatched to a string. This knocked down a series of different sized marbles that went down a track and fell through at different times. The marbles landed on a thin Mac keyboard with garageband open, and it played a scale.\r\n\r\nIt was badass.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "How 'bout we just turn the tables: *if you're so concerned about child pornography, stop dressing your kids so damn sexy*\n\nNo, no, wait...that might not work. ", "score": 19 }, { "body": "Just tell them if they'd *stop* thinking of the children, we wouldn't need that sort of filtering . . .", "score": 9 }, { "body": "We already have one:\n\n>First Amendment to the United States Constitution\n\n>Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "We should get rid of all roads surrounding schools. You never know if a pedophile will use one of those roads to drive by the school and look at the kids. Just to be completely safe, we should probably put kids in boxes and wheel them around so no pedophile has a chance to glance at them in an unsavory way.\n\n", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "I like apple, and I use apple cider instead of water. Works great with chicken and turkey, bet it would with pork too.", "score": 11 }, { "body": "My current favorite are the [Jack Daniels shredded whiskey barrels](http://www.amazon.com/Daniels-Tennessee-Whiskey-Barrel-2-25lb/dp/B000QI9VM4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1262632518&sr=8-3). My hardware store stocks them at about $5 for 2 pounds.\n\nI believe they are oak and they leave a nice whiskey flavor behind - not overpowering at all, but a nice touch.\n\nEdit: sorry, didn't see you are looking for non-purchased. ", "score": 7 }, { "body": "I'm a huge fan of fruit tree wood. I'm particularly fond of cherry, especially for ribs, but each tree adds a unique flavor to whatever I'm smoking.\n\n\nOak is great too. Here in California it's popular to cook tri-tip over oak. I smoke it for an hour or 2 and then sear it directly over the oak coals, this is especially popular for guests.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "It depends greatly on the flavor of Buddhism you're talking about. I like Buddhism in general, but I'm not an adherent. I don't believe, barring singularity, that enlightenment as described by most Buddhist sects is possible.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "The US federal government in the early days of the republic was a lot more limited than it is today. Certainly not a completely stateless society, but a lot closer to libertarian ideals than what we've become. *Edit: s/that/than/*\n\nIt should also be said that although many of us are ideologically, say, minarchists, many also realize that that ideal might never be attained, and thus employ practical politics just trying to swing the pendulum in the correct direction.\n\nI think Ron Paul is like that. He tends to call himself a Constitutionalist rather than a libertarian. Although the US Constitution has some un-libertarian things about it (it was quite a compromise), getting the federal government back to the smaller, strictly limited state allowed by the Constitution would still be a huge win over what we have today.", "score": 36 }, { "body": "There has never been a perfect incarnation of Libertarian ideology. However, there have been several nations that have explicitly tried to accomplish this, with some degree of success. Both the American and French revolutions were devoted directly to the cause of building a government that works only for the people's security from crime and not in any way for its own advancement. Many people consider Singapore and Hong Kong to be very economically free states, although others point out that they have authoritarian policies on a personal level. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Estonia adopted a long-term plan explicitly dedicated to the privatization of almost all sectors of the economy and the gradual increasing of freedoms of the people, with significant success. Switzerland does not heavily emphasize personal freedoms but has always taken a very, very rigid isolationist foreign policy stance. They rarely consider alliances of any kind and won't fork over money for some hippie international project.", "score": 25 }, { "body": ">I would say I'm pretty moderate\n\nWhile libertarianism is a radical departure from the status quo in terms of actual policy, it wouldn't be in rhetoric as most Americans readily gloat about their freedom and liberty.\n\nIt would also be coherent to call libertarianism a moderate ideology in many respects. The Statist/Authoritarian (non-libertarian) position involves the subsidy or the prohibition of certain activities. Ron Paul brought up this example: one side wants to prohibit stem cell research, the other side wants to subsidize it. Instead of letting people voluntarily invest or contribute to such research, the nonlibertarian proposal is to force people to adhere to their own strictures. So libertarianism is truly about tolerance and cooperation even if also individualist.\n\n> is there an actual libertarian country? \n\nUnfortunately no. But 5000 years ago there was no democratic country either. Progress takes time and experimentation. Read [this](http://weighingalternatives.blogspot.com/2009/09/myth-that-free-markets-have-not-worked.html).\n\n> Has this method of government been successful anywhere?\n\nTo a degree, the USA. Though not libertarian proper, the USA in the 19th century was somewhat close after the civil war. It was also a period of some of the fastest real economic growth the world has ever seen.", "score": 21 }, { "body": "The [Amish](http://www.lewrockwell.com/anderson/anderson53.html) are an interesting case study that rarely gets mentioned.", "score": 9 }, { "body": "I can think of two *broad* aspects of libertarianism that should should be thought of first. Minarchist limited government types, and market anarchist types. Minarchists are then divided into (US) Constitutional and other influences, and market anarchists into Hoppian-type ethical groundings, Rothbardian natural law roots, and (other, like Friedman the younger and his emergent courts rather than Rothbard's pre-agreed upon systems).\n\nSo, there are a couple flavors in play, and there are a few answers depending on the answerer. Some here have already pointed to the beginnings of the US union, and the more anarchist societies ... but the nature of small comments here won't cover a real answer, aside from the \"no, never completely\" which is still just perspective. Many people here would call the same examples, \"good examples of libertarian societies\". \n\nIf you had a couple spare hours over the next week or so, I can think of a few ways to really familiarize yourself with some historical practice, and theory in example. These come to mind:\n\nFor a modern and moderate take on libertarian history and it's relation to current issues, Cato just put up a good video with Tom Palmer and Tyler Cowan. [Realizing Freedom: Libertarian Theory, History, and Practice](http://www.cato.org/event.php?eventid=6567)\n\nFor a more market anarchist view on historical example, and applicable theoretical example, there is Practical Anarchy, which goes through a lot of history in it. [Here is a direct to mp3 audiobook link](http://www.freedomainradio.com/free/books/FDR_5_Practical_Anarchy_Audiobook_LOW_QUALITY.mp3)\n\nFor constitutional history and knowledge regarding early American libertarianism, there's Badnarik's Constitution Class. It's available all kinds of ways, from Google video/Youtube to ogg and wma downloads on archive.org or divx/avi torrents: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=badnarik+constitution+class\n\nEDIT: If you watch those, you'll know more than most anyone about libertarians and libertarian history. Even most people at reddit. :)", "score": 8 }, { "body": "The closest to it was what our forefathers did here over 200 years ago, but it's been perverted by greed that flourishes in a nation of apathetic citizens who have been fooled into thinking they have a democracy, when our forefathers have been known to say such things as \"democracy is the most vile form of government\".", "score": 7 }, { "body": "The best way I have heard it expressed is take the economic freedom that republicans believe, and the civil liberties that democrats believe then actually stand for them!", "score": 4 }, { "body": "The United States was a fairly Libertarian country up until the Civil War. And mostly after. FDR's \"New Deal\" was a huge step to Socialism. GWB presided over the latest huge push towards Socialism.\r\n\r\nThe big no-no's were slavery, foreign interventions, and the alien and sedition acts.\r\n\r\nThomas Jefferson was arguably the best Libertarian who ever lived. Unfortunately he was not the only person in the US government and people were fighting for a return to Serfdom almost from day 1.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "> is there an actual libertarian country? Has this method of government been successful anywhere?\n\nNot that I'm aware of. Various nations have embraced the concept to one degree or another, but none currently to any great degree. I don't like the very old historical examples, every time one of those idiots brings up how Iceland was a good example 1000 years ago, it just deepens the perception of libertarianism as a new form of barbarism.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Funny question. Libertarianism as a system of government and philosophy is not about what is good for the masses - it's about what is good for the individual; severing all people from each other in responsibility and demanding they make their own choice and accept their own consequences. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I've made a similar post in other similar topics here on /Libetarian. I think it is very important to understand the growth of libertarianism, and in order to chart this evolution, one must start at the beginning: \n\nLibertarianism started within the halls of philosophy, as one of the 'solutions' to the great problem of determinism. The libertarian answer created special objects (beings, usually) for which the laws of causality did not apply. These special objects are known as 'agents', and have the uncanny ability to create action (otherwise known as cause) without this action being hinged on a direct and previous cause (which would instead make this cause just another link of effect in the long chain of causality). Human beings are among these 'agents', and by definition, are able to independently make decisions separately from previous cause. With this ability to create cause comes responsibility for one's actions. This responsibility is the foundation for both the philosophical and political libertarians.\n\nIt has been mentioned here several times, but the US Constitution was in theory, as well as in conception, a very libertarian leaning document. The preamble itself is a rally cry not for a new government, or a new military, but instead a cry for \" *liberty to ourselves* \". Read through the Constitution, its very short, and should arm you with basic markers of what a libertarian government is *supposed* to do.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "One step further than libertarianism:\n\nAncient Ireland was stateless for many centuries. Rothbard talks about it in several works as do some other libertarian thinkers.\n\nStarting on page 286:\nhttp://books.google.com/books?id=B65ic_7bfFEC&pg=PA287&lpg=PA287&dq=ireland+anarchism+rothbard+for+a+new+liberty&source=bl&ots=tw7WDXk52D&sig=WgtXzC4je3jjYoijt5SRiGx84iM&hl=en&ei=ZGlCS7vTINTS8QajstSaBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Actually, someone attempted to answer this question with the [State of World Liberty index](http://stateofworldliberty.org/report/results.html) attempted to answer this question. He used a few existing indexes of economic and social freedom and combined them on a weighted basis, to get a more general \"freedom index.\"\n\nThe top 10 [rankings](http://stateofworldliberty.org/report/rankings.html) in 2006 were:\n\n* Estonia\n* Ireland\n* Canada\n* Switzerland\n* Iceland\n* Bahamas\n* United Kingdom\n* United States\n* Cyprus\n* New Zealand\n\nNo country is perfect, the index isn't perfect, and the rankings have likely shifted some since the index was done in 2006, but this should give you a general idea of what libertarianish countries look like: in general lower taxes, more freedoms, less manipulation of the economy, less corruption and more self and community reliance.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "This philosophy (I wouldn't say \"method of government\") has absolutely been successful. And closer to home than you think. I'm talking about your everyday life.\n\nEvery time you interact voluntarily with someone else, you make libertarianism successful. Going to work, buying something from a store, helping a friend...these are all voluntary (non-coerced) actions you execute dozens, if not hundreds, of times a day. \n\nSociety is naturally libertarian.\n\nNow imagine a society where a group of people with guns were watching your every move and had rules and regulations on how you have to help that friend, or what you have to buy at that store (and what store to buy from)...and it's all for your own good. You don't need an acute imagination.\n\nThis is the immoral coercion and tyranny that libertarians reject.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Two very cool ex-girlfriends became pals...and spontaneously jumped me one night for an awesome, awesome, awesome threesome.", "score": 75 }, { "body": "My boyfriend always notices things without me telling him (ie. the type of gum I chew, the kind of apples I like, and any issue I am having that he can solve). I have a bendable lighter because he saw me struggling to light candles that were almost gone, I have a Costco size box with 12 packs of the gum I chew, I now have shower curtain hooks with rolling balls that help me slide the curtain over easier, I have a pink can of pepper spray (breast cancer awareness cover) because I run past sunset, I acquired at Contigo coffee mug that has an auto-seal on it (so it won't spill even if I hold it upside down), he gave me his old PC so that I could play games at my place (mine couldn't support online gaming), I also have a wireless mouse, and sometimes he even comes over with flowers for no reason. I just adore him and it means so much to me that he notices things without me saying anything to him. No wonder I want to jump his bones whenever possible! ", "score": 67 }, { "body": "My ex took me to India ( Goa) one year by pretending that we were catching a flight to go and see my sister in Scotland for Christmas and New Year. She'd taken care of everything, from informing my mates, everyone I worked with and my family to sorting my visa and malaria meds, she even sent my shorts and t-shirts ahead with a bunch of English friends we met up with when we arrived. \n\nUp until we checked in, I had absolutely no idea. \n\n3 weeks of sunshine bliss when I thought I was going to be freezing my arse off in Edinburgh. Pretty cool of her to do all that really.", "score": 45 }, { "body": "The year was 1982. I was a freshman in high school, and my annual birthday celebration was being held in the basement. Velvet posters and black lights set the mood for [KISS Alive II](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alive_II) -- the music I inherited from my brother while my own tastes were still forming.\n\nShe was slender as a rail, pierced, and shaven-headed. She wore leopard skin. SHE WAS A SENIOR. And she had come to my birthday party.\n\nWith her boyfriend. Who was a really cool guy and looked like [Pete Farndon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Farndon). But anyway, two punk rockers -- two **seniors** -- were at my little freshman birthday party. And there I was, with my [Dumpy the Pumpkin ice cream cake](http://www.retrojunk.com/details_commercial/8110/), feeling like a baby.\n\nThey stayed a while. They appeared to enjoy themselves. But most importantly, they had brought music. They put [Black Flag's *Damaged*](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damaged_(Black_Flag_album)) on the turntable.\n\nThat record changed my life. I had found my music, and more, it was the first step in becoming a producer, rather than merely a consumer, of music. Within six months of that party -- before I knew how to play an instrument -- I was asked to be in a local punk band. Now, every time I play a gig, I think of her.", "score": 44 }, { "body": "My friends (all women) went in together to buy me a guitar for my 20th birthday. I'll be honest; I wept. It remains my most prized possession.", "score": 32 }, { "body": "I once mentioned to a boyfriend that I'd never seen a shooting star, and he was stunned. He said that he used to see them all the time, and I kinda didn't believe him.\n\nOne night a while after that, we left a restaurant and he started driving a weird way...out of town and into the mountains. I asked several times where we were going, and he wouldn't tell me. Finally we stopped at random parking lot, pretty high up in elevation. He opened up the sunroof, grabbed a blanket from the backseat (it was winter) and we sat looking for shooting stars, not speaking much, for a couple of hours.\n\nI saw more than I could count.", "score": 31 }, { "body": "I was in a very upset mood one night after a breakup, on the phone with a good friend. He said, let me call in 10 minutes. Ten minutes later, he told me to go to the bottom of the driveway. He was there waiting with ice cream, and french fries. :) Cheered me up right away, and we laid out and watched the stars for hours while talking...saw a couple shooting stars, too. :) He was such a sweet person. Did anything in his power to make someone else happy. We dated for a couple of months, but then he moved away, and shortly took his life after. RIP, good friend.", "score": 29 }, { "body": "my boyfriend (now my spouse of 8 years) used to make sure he always had my favorite gummi bears on hand. haribo gold bears, to be precise. it was my favorite snack when i was high. he made sure he always had some. this probably isn't the very nicest thing ever, but it's up there with why he's now the spouse. thoughtful, kind, caring.\r\n\r\nsomewhere on the list is the ex-boyfriend now friend who sends me care packages every few months: gobs and gobs of cds he's made, full of music he knows i might like. they arrive without warning and are always excellent. \r\n\r\nboys can be really awesome.", "score": 25 }, { "body": "I like this question, because it is making me think of all the great things men have brought to my life. It's hard to choose just one answer, but I feel I have to say, my dad who paid for my college education. He was determined that my sister and I would graduate with NO student loans. For that, I think the world of him.\r\n\r\nA close second would be Ricky. When we were in high school, I turned him down a few times, but he stayed by my side. He made sure my boyfriends were good to me, defended me when I was clearly being stupid, and was there for me even though he thought I’d never be more than his friend. After graduation a friend of ours convinced me to go on a date with him... it was the best date of my life. That was 6 years ago, and this Christmas he proposed to me in front of the Alamo (I said yes). Though, through all that has happened since then, I still think the nicest thing he has ever done for me was that he never gave up. \r\n", "score": 24 }, { "body": "Number one would be my mother raising me, but that's obvious so I'll skip that one.\n\nNumber two would also be my mother. When my first girlfriend broke up with me I took it pretty rough at first. Looking back I have no idea why. I guess it was just me getting through my first relationship. Anyway, she broke up with me at her house and I went straight home after that. My mom took one look at me and immediately knew what had happened. She gave me a big hug and told me to go downstairs and watch some TV. Soon after she came down with the best plate of food I have ever eaten. She made me cheese eggs, a ham sandwich with swiss cheese and extra mayo, a mixture of pineapple and strawberries, a [fudge round](http://www.littledebbie.com/products/FudgeRounds.asp), and a can of Coke. All of those things are my absolute favorite things to eat, and she obviously knew that. After that she went to the video store and rented Cool Runnings for me to watch. I watched that movie at least 30-40 time when I was a kid and loved every second of it. It was a huge part of my childhood. It was the most thoughtful thing that anybody has ever done for me, and honestly it's going to be pretty tough to beat.", "score": 23 }, { "body": "A girl spontaneously baked me some cookies. Completely out of nowhere. They were the best cookies ever.\n\nI'd marry her if she didn't turn out to be a total bitch.", "score": 17 }, { "body": "He took a ring my mom had given me and had it restored. It cost less than 100$, but it was so thoughtful that he did this for me. \n\nI said I liked a certain picture by a certain popular artist - he went and got a signed painting by them. He did this 8 months after my offhand comment about the picture being my favorite. I was impressed because not only did I have an awesome picture, but I also knew that he was listening to me when I talked!\n\nBest of all, he is raising, with all the care and love in the world, a daughter that isn't his biologically, and he is happy to do so.", "score": 16 }, { "body": "ex-gf threw me a surprise Star Wars themed birthday party, upon learning that I never had had a birthday party before (weren't a big deal with my family). I was turning 22.\n\nIt was awesome. ", "score": 15 }, { "body": "My boyfriend and I did the long-distance thing for a little while in our relationship. At one point in November of 2007 he came to see me over a long weekend, and on a Sunday he would leave to go back home. On this one occasion, he left and I drove home crying like I always did. An hour or so later, he called me and told me that he missed his train, and could not make it back to his state. He said he also called his boss to tell him that he could not make it to work on Monday, and asked if I'd be willing to pick him up again. Obviously I said yes, and I was so happy! As it turns out, my boyfriend never missed his train -- he just didn't want to go home. I still almost cry thinking about it because he chose me over everything else at a time that I would never expect him to do anything like that (work the next day, other responsibilities, etc). It was very sweet and I still thank him for doing that.", "score": 13 }, { "body": "Ex-GF fulfilled some of my weirder sexual fantasies. It's been 6 years and I still haven't found a girl like her.", "score": 11 }, { "body": "My girlfriend at the time bought me a brand spankin new Beretta 92FS pistol for my 21st birthday. I miss being spoiled :(", "score": 10 }, { "body": "A friend of a friend who we ran into in the mall told me I was attractive and gave me a dum-dum pop. It was so unexpected and sudden the way he announced it, and the simple lollipop gift was so random and sweet. I never saw him after that, but it completely made my day. \n\nI can't think of anything nicer than this, but then I hold this in ridiculously high regard. It was way better than any extravagant picnics and shopping trips boyfriends have planned for me. I just want a surprise lollipop. ", "score": 9 }, { "body": "* one girlfriend painted I LOVE YOU, ura1a on tunnel wall for valentines day\n* an ex did the cardboard thing from [\"Love Actually\"](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Actually) (Juliet, Peter and Mark) to get me back\n* 3 girls drove 200 miles just to pick me up and drive me back to their city for the weekend. ", "score": 7 }, { "body": "It's not any one thing for me. My husband treats me nicer than anyone else ever has every day of my life. All the \"little\" things add up.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "Well, some guys at school tease me about being a bit of a feminist, and always ask me to make them sandwiches. Once, one of them made me a sandwich when I was having a really shitty day. I appreciated it. ", "score": 6 }, { "body": "My friend stopped me from committing suicide several times. She's currently helping me through bi-polar disorder, clinical depression, coming out, and some other, more stuff that I'd rather not talk about.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "She asked me to dance.\n\nIt was, oh, 7-8 years ago. I was awkward, 100 pounds heavier than I am now, a geek (still am!) and - very unlike me - at a party. I'd always liked her - she was sweet, smart and pretty, though perhaps not in the conventional sense. She even liked Jazz like me! I thought she was fantastic. :) \nUnfortunately, she also had a boyfriend (not that I had a shot anyway). \n\nToo bad I didn't have the balls to say yes.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Being the homosexual that I was, I find it nice that a straight female friend introduced me to \"straight sex.\" \n\nThis reminds me of the song \"I kiss a girl and I like it,\" ... We slept together for few days and nights, and eventually broke up for personal reasons. \n\nWe remained friends. It was weird and funny to think, that I slept with someone of the opposite sex. But, I have no regrets. \n\nI think I was converted to something else. ", "score": 5 }, { "body": "While in college, my girlfriend of 1-2 years at the time broke up with me. I carried a pretty good face in public, but a fellow student at my job noticed that something was bothering me. She never asked what was wrong, but one day I came in and she had baked brownies for me.\n\nIt's not a story where we eventually fell in love or even really became close friends, she just gave me a pick-me-up one day when I needed it more than I admitted.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "What type of game is it? RPG? Zelda-like? For some reason Ogre Battle is popping up, but that doesn't seem close enough.", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "[This comment](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/acdy7/i_have_everything_i_could_reasonably_ask_for_and/c0gvt51) saved my life. I explain the story [here](http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/alpyt/thank_you_reddit_you_have_saved_my_life).", "score": 741 }, { "body": "acegibson, [Monty Python sketch](http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/89kto/student_finds_cellphone_turns_it_into_police/c08ml3e)", "score": 460 }, { "body": "\"Teehee! They're probably brother and sister or something, making it nonsexual and silly.\" - Bozarking. 4150 points.\nhttp://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/afr4p/shyness/c0hcmui\n\nSorry Bozarking...\n\nOk. As a writer, I have to say I like the Monty Python one better. I would feel bad deleting this and ruining all of your guys' upvotes and I don't want to influence this too much but I think white knights are idiots and need to learn how to stop depending on relationships to define their lives, you guys might actually find out what happiness is then.\n\n I think religion is necessary to society as certain humans legitimately need it to find purpose in their lives and that its not religion, but people that have caused problems in the world. Thus people are idiots to say \"religion is the cause of our problems\" as if religion is some mythical force out to get them. Demagoguery is actually to blame, as leaders use religion as just another tool to control the masses, but it would take too much thought to actually find a solution to that. Much easier to say \"religion did it!\" Then everyone will feel incredibly stupid when religion is gone and leaders just use something else like political parties to control the masses. Oh and Chrono Cross is just as good as Chrono Trigger. \n\nOh and I agree with Gabe Newell's sagacious statement that \"A product is late for a while, but a product will suck forever\" and will gladly wait another year for Episode 3. (all of my comments that have been downvoted into oblivion, I'm giving this my all)\n", "score": 359 }, { "body": "nraustinii, [This isn't Twitter](http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/8eyy3/heres_the_christain_douchebag_chad_farnan_who_is/c092j8m?context=1)", "score": 339 }, { "body": "flossdaily's excellent comments in this thread\nhttp://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/ajsxd/my_girlsfriend_tells_me_i_can_have_some_sex_then/c0hxpmi", "score": 335 }, { "body": "typower, [21st century syndrome](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/93yaq/anyone_else_here_feel_like_theyre_never_fully/c0bcp8m)", "score": 205 }, { "body": "look\\_of\\_disapproval, [look\\_of\\_disapproval's greatest look ever](http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/8p5sn/if_you_want_to_buy_a_drink_you_must_stand_in_a/c0a0020)", "score": 174 }, { "body": "[Why people really sag their pants](http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/9qzsp/i_cant_believe_people_still_think_this_is_cool_pic/c0e1ez4)", "score": 173 }, { "body": "[This is the most attended fucking bag in the airport!](http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/87slx/airport_security_sir_luggage_must_be_attended_at/c08hke7)", "score": 153 }, { "body": "This is a string of comments so I'm not sure if this qualifies but...\n\n[xkcd - Apple vs. Microsoft](http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/91lji/fuck_you_apple_it_was_totally_ok_when_you_dissed/c0b4ccs?sort=top)", "score": 124 }, { "body": "[A sad yet touching story](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/9ygcy/im_a_former_disneyland_cast_member_i_was_alice_in/c0f0wpi)", "score": 118 }, { "body": "cook_of_disapproval, [Who puts soup on their hands before they wash?](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/acwgy/who_puts_soup_on_their_hands_before_they_wash/c0gyreq)", "score": 99 }, { "body": "CaspianX2, [CD Wonders Why Nobody Wants To Buy It Anymore](http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/8sopu/to_sum_up_the_music_industrys_future_pic/c0abkbl)", "score": 87 }, { "body": "[facetheglue](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/adyqg/iam_the_hiv_guy_i_tested_negative_heres_what/c0h3hwp)", "score": 75 }, { "body": "The whole [geraffe bit.](http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/8aqjh/awww_this_is_just_too_sad_pic/c08pp5z) I crack up every time I read it.\n\nI think he deleted his account though.", "score": 75 }, { "body": "These awards are always horribly biased towards recent submissions, but the *clear* winner is from back in March:\n\nMarlonBain, [The Man-Raptor Comment](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/87e37/how_do_i_go_about_starting_a_romantic/c08g6oi).", "score": 68 }, { "body": "SuperStalin, [This was to be expected](http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/8mruy/iran_blocks_access_to_facebook/c09s2by)", "score": 62 }, { "body": "oldfashionedguy, [Awkward...](http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/9h520/my_wife_made_me_a_reddit_alien_birthday_cake_it/c0cr92f?context=1)", "score": 59 }, { "body": "introduction to cuils\n\nhttp://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/7da5i/police_raids_reveal_baby_farms/c06cqxb", "score": 44 }, { "body": "Tallon, [Games Stop Dedicated Servers](http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/a2qbp/so_im_in_line_for_the_midnight_release_of_mw2_an/c0fkw6r)", "score": 42 }, { "body": "ifiwasntintherapgame, [Couldn't you just have made something ridiculous up for us?](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/9z2nq/who_was_the_first_person_you_were_ever_attracted/c0f3wrw?context=4)", "score": 25 }, { "body": "KeyboardHero, [Dear Diary](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/a99qa/what_is_the_most_infuriating_thing_about_reddit/c0gg422)\n", "score": 20 }, { "body": "paulmclaughlin, [I think there's a song about that](http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/9i0dk/superhydrophobic_coating_is_coming_this_one_might/c0cv2of?context=2)", "score": 16 }, { "body": "[*Here, let me save the economy.*](http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/abnzv/dont_worry_be_happy_the_state_of_the_american/c0gs71p)", "score": 16 }, { "body": "[\"Zoe isn't mine.\" Whisper's summary of the current legal landscape.](http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/7x78v/what_do_modern_men_want_in_women/c07omtc?context=1)\n\nI feel kind of out of place posting this, being that most of the other nominations are humorous in nature, but it's one of the best comments I've seen on Reddit.", "score": 15 }, { "body": "Eleglac's [Response to not wanting to throw flaming kittens at a baby](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/8hiu5/does_everyone_have_their_price_what_would_you/c09awav)", "score": 14 }, { "body": "\"The movie was that bad?\" 2690 points.\n\nhttp://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/8tpx3/10_year_old_girl_with_cancer_too_sick_to_see_up/c0aebis", "score": 14 }, { "body": "[No one liked my idea of calling the \"pandemic\" a \"hamdemic\" . . . well, I'm drunks and I hope you all die in the Aporkalypse](http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/8gy3k/no_one_liked_my_idea_of_calling_the_pandemic_a/)", "score": 13 }, { "body": "[Best pun ever](http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/a9g79/i_moved_away_3_months_ago_my_gf_sent_me_an_email/c0gh0ws).\r\n\r\nFrom: [I moved away 3 months ago. My gf sent me an email with the subject, \"I miss you so much Ive started wearing some of the clothes you left behind.\" With this pic attached.](http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/a9g79/i_moved_away_3_months_ago_my_gf_sent_me_an_email/)", "score": 12 }, { "body": "[His name is Raul.](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/aeqkd/you_meet_a_girl_or_guy_and_you_are_really_liking/c0h7s7p)", "score": 11 }, { "body": "[That was a great Thanksgiving](http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/9dhts/magic_tricks_performed_on_chimp_chimp_acts_like/c0ccqg0) - If not the best it wins for best first post ever.", "score": 10 }, { "body": "abjurer, [reply to \"I just fucking hate Tom Arnold\"](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/8op72/askreddit_what_is_the_story_behind_your_reddit/c09ygrr?context=1)", "score": 8 }, { "body": "[AndreTI shares his unconventional method of killing mosquitoes, and describes the consequences of his technique.](http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/9nohw/kill_10000_flies_with_a_super_fly_trap_pickle_jar/c0dkhvz)", "score": 8 }, { "body": "[Celebrity Gossip in our culture](http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/a9i32/if_its_not_about_golf_tiger_woods_owes_us_no/c0ghfsd) by Subtextual", "score": 8 }, { "body": "me, [self-referential comment submitted too late for the \"best of 2008\" awards](http://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/7okg7/reddit_awards_best_comment_of_2008_comment_here_w/c06xkwe)", "score": 7 }, { "body": "greg_lw, [no need to thank me](http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/al84i/odd_sms_conversation_with_my_brother/c0i68vc)", "score": 6 }, { "body": "http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/alae8/warning_potentially_disturbing_question_sexy/c0i6kuh", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I liked [EULA in a Nutshell](http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/abnit/ehmwhy_yes_of_course_ive_read_it_i_mean_come_on/c0gs2m1)", "score": 5 }, { "body": "[Don't ask reddit for a dare](http://www.reddit.com/r/gonewild/comments/ajrlw/male_will_post_a_pic_in_48_hours_will_be_first/c0hxlzm)", "score": 5 }, { "body": "danth, [Epic Metric Pun](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/a8wgt/i_am_curious_how_many_americans_would_support_th/c0ge43g?context=1)", "score": 4 }, { "body": "[I bought a 48 pack of frozen burger patties from Safeway along with a 24 pack of Coke cans, 48 sesame seed buns, two packs of frozen bacon, and a 48 pack of processed cheese.](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/9q7qk/whats_the_most_bachelor_thing_you_have_ever_done/c0dx990) by kmad", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Bozarking for [this comment.](http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/afr4p/shyness/c0hcmui) And here is [another one of his comments](http://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/aay1v/i_take_two_jars_of_jam_and_empty_them_into/c0gor3y) that was deleted, and reposted by another user, not sure if it still counts.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "herminator, [what brits are taught about the american revolution](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/8g1gd/brits_how_do_your_schools_teach_about_the/c095yne)", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "The same reason people try to let go of a full open gas pump right on the .00 mark - it's a game. \n\nThe object of the peeing one though is to time it exactly so that the stream runs out when the bowl flush bottoms out but before it starts to refill.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "Agree with roland, definitely a timing game. Except sometimes, with a really powerful stream, I try to reverse the whirlpool.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "For the exact same reason we scream like banshees while smearing feces all over the walls of the rest room.", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "I would like to nominate [redGPz](http://www.reddit.com/user/redGPz) for all the work she does helping people in [/r/SuicideWatch/](http://www.reddit.com/r/SuicideWatch/)\n\nIf I could I would nominate all the active posters there, they are saving lives every day.\n\nEdit: Changed he to she, sorry!", "score": 219 }, { "body": "karmanaut.\n\nHe's gained a record 115,949 comment karma in just nine months, and been extremely funny and a really nice guy. He has dozens of imitatory novelty accounts. I'm shocked he hasn't been mentioned yet.", "score": 194 }, { "body": "I know he's not going to win because he wasn't here for long and there are other powerhitters, namely karmanaut, but my vote goes to Necrophiliac.\n\nHe started when karmanaut did, and maybe he's still around in an alt account, but he was witty and informative.\n\nReally, he/she was a great redditor, and those who were here while Necrophiliac was still with us, may he rest with a boner, know this.\n\n", "score": 47 }, { "body": "[subtextual](http://www.reddit.com/user/subtextual/). If I'm not mistaken, she's a neuropsychologist who wades into arguments about psychology and sets the record straight.", "score": 26 }, { "body": "kickme444- The secret santa was amazing and he organized it so well.\r\n\r\n**EDIT** disregard my post, vote for him [here](http://www.reddit.com/r/bestof2009/comments/algys/nominate_community_of_the_year/c0i77lf)", "score": 20 }, { "body": "I'd nominate [insomniaclyric](http://reddit.com/user/insomniaclyric). Although he's not a household name (read: not karmanaut), he posts some really great thought-provoking comments, and is an all-around nice guy.", "score": 7 }, { "body": "[jdfong](http://www.reddit.com/user/jdfong/)\n\n\n\nhttp://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/97smz/zero_punctuation_call_of_juarez_bound_in_blood/c0bq1cl", "score": 6 }, { "body": "[WarToad](http://www.reddit.com/user/WarToad), Reddit's own [unsung hero](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ahg8x/what_is_the_nicest_thing_youve_ever_done_that_no/c0hkuyq), as per pzycho's reasoning found [here](http://www.reddit.com/r/bestof2009/comments/algv1/nominate_comment_of_the_year/c0i8nlt?context=1).\n\n> The thing with Wartoad is that he deserves to be the person of the year, though I'm not really sure this deserves to be the comment of the year.\n\n> He's done something truly wonderful and retold the story in a very clean manner, though it wasn't something that was fabricated purely for a reddit comment. The reason people love this isn't because of the comment itself, but rather the act that he is describing. I'd have to say something like the Monty Python comment might deserve this particular award a bit more simply because it exists only as a reddit comment. It was born as a comment and lived it's life as a comment. Wartoad's story is a great humanitarian act that was simply brought to light via comment.\n\nAs well, he has loads of comment karma while being only a member of the 1 year club. So Reddit already organically thinks he writes great comments. Plus the whole \"1 year\" thing fits great with a \"Commenter of the Year\" award.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "[CaspianX2](http://www.reddit.com/user/CaspianX2)\n\nA good quality commenter that's completely underrated.", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "[10 years from now I am a scientist working at the Large Hadron Collider.](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/9z4d5/10_years_from_now_i_am_a_scientist_working_at_the/), submitted by DrMartyMcFly AKA boli99 \n\n\n*Edited to add submitter name.", "score": 764 }, { "body": "[My Gift to Reddit: I created an image hosting service that doesn't suck. What do you think](http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/7zlyd/my_gift_to_reddit_i_created_an_image_hosting/)\n\nsubmitted by MrGrim.", "score": 732 }, { "body": "[What's the most bachelor thing you have ever done?](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/9q7qk/whats_the_most_bachelor_thing_you_have_ever_done/)\r\n\r\nThread was one of the more hilarious and horrifying things I've ever come across on the internet.", "score": 173 }, { "body": "[Pixar flies advanced copy of up to girl dying of cancer](http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/8tpx3/10_year_old_girl_with_cancer_too_sick_to_see_up/).\n\nHeart wrenching, my friends. Heart wrenching.", "score": 119 }, { "body": "[When you reach max level, you stop leveling](http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/9btvn/when_you_reach_max_levelyou_stop_leveling/)\n\nMy personal fav.", "score": 86 }, { "body": "[What is the official name for those mirror disco balls, if there is one?](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/a8a2v/what_is_the_official_name_for_those_mirror_disco/)", "score": 82 }, { "body": "[In case you missed it: TV host Mike Rowe ('Dirty Jobs') responding to a redditor's request that he stop sleeping with his wife in her dreams.](http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/abp4a/in_case_you_missed_it_tv_host_mike_rowe_dirty/)", "score": 62 }, { "body": "[Would anyone be interested in a reddit gift exchange (secret santa)?](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/a2xy8/would_anyone_be_interested_in_a_reddit_gift/) by kickme444 \n\nIt made me realize reddit is a community and not just a bunch of links. ", "score": 58 }, { "body": "[IAMA Little Hard to explain. Designed part of the Space Shuttle, Wrote \"Apple Writer\", Retired at 35, and sailed Solo Around the World](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/9xgnd/iama_little_difficult_to_describe_designed_part/)", "score": 39 }, { "body": "I would like to nominate the submission: [Just to break the monotony, here is a [self.pics] submission for a change. Open your front door. Take a picture of what you see and comment with your location and time.](http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/8y47f/just_to_break_the_monotony_here_is_a_selfpics/).\n\n\nOver 2192 comments with Redditors all over the world posting pics of what it looks like out their front door. I lost about 8 hours in that thread. If you haven't seen it, check it out.", "score": 31 }, { "body": "[I can't believe people still think this is cool](http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/9qzsp/i_cant_believe_people_still_think_this_is_cool_pic/)\n\n\nEspecially for the [great explanation](http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/9qzsp/i_cant_believe_people_still_think_this_is_cool_pic/c0e1ez4) ([pic](http://i.imgur.com/uG5Y5.jpg)) that came out of it.", "score": 29 }, { "body": "[THAG KNOW HE NOVELTY ACCOUNT, BUT TRY TO MAKE BEST OF SITUATION HE SEE.](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/9ggfy/thag_see_problem_in_reddit/)", "score": 23 }, { "body": "[Give the world the best Christmas present of all: Awareness of Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors and the resulting energy abundance.](http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/aijbb/give_the_world_the_best_christmas_present_of_all/)", "score": 12 }, { "body": "[After too long a wait, the Reddit vs. Digg war finally continues, and holy fuck, is it awesome!](http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/afv9x/after_too_long_a_wait_the_reddit_vs_digg_war/)", "score": 12 }, { "body": "[Reddit saves a Redditor's little sister from a sexual predator; everything goes better than expected.](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ak2b8/update_my_sister_is_now_out_of_the_hospital_and/)", "score": 12 }, { "body": "My favorite:\r\n\r\n[I nearly lost it when I realized I was wearing orange under my sweater. No one else cared. \\[pic.\\]](http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/a90cz/i_nearly_lost_it_when_i_realized_i_was_wearing/)", "score": 12 }, { "body": "It's pretty hard to compete with imgur, but I think [LOLalice](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/9ygcy/im_a_former_disneyland_cast_member_i_was_alice_in/) deserves some recognition for an awesome AMA.", "score": 10 }, { "body": "[IAMA Flight Attendant. AMA.](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/abqyk/iama_flight_attendant_ama/)", "score": 8 }, { "body": "gfixler's [Sears hack](http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/9cefy/before_i_show_friends_things_im_considering/).", "score": 8 }, { "body": "[I am a has-been rock star who sold 5 million+ records and lost twice at the Grammys.](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/9wqtu/iama_hasbeen_rock_star_who_sold_5_million_records/)", "score": 6 }, { "body": "[Holy crap, I never realized I was peeling a banana wrong my entire life](http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/8zf9d/holy_crap_i_never_realized_i_was_peeling_a_banana/)", "score": 6 }, { "body": "GiantBatFart, [Dear Reddit: This is how you get promoted to the front page](http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/9f6wi/dear_reddit_this_is_how_you_get_promoted_to_the/)", "score": 5 }, { "body": "[AksReddit: What's the grossest/nastiest thing that's happened to you in a sexual encounter?](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/9wcte/reddit_whats_the_grossestnastiest_thing_thats/)\n\n(Be warned, all who dare enter)", "score": 4 }, { "body": "[Reddit, I'm drunk. Let's argue about Pokemon.](http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/a6mib/reddit_im_drunk_lets_argue_about_pokemon/)\n\nSubmitted by Railroadmonster.\nThe only one that instantly sprung to mind, and thus the best (LOGIC!)", "score": 4 }, { "body": "[Which Redditor took a pic of me while I was blackout drunk at the bar this weekend?](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/9tppp/which_redditor_took_a_pic_of_me_while_i_was/ \"PS GO BRONCOS! Suck it TCU\")\n\nTwo unacquainted Redditors met at a bar, then found each other on Reddit by way of drunk pic.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "From a woman's point of view:\n\nWaiting *months*? What The Fuck??? If there is no sexual chemistry, she knows it by the 2nd date, 3rd maybe if she's slow. If I feel sexual chemistry with a guy, if I'm interested in him and we haven't had sex by the 3rd or 4th time seeing each other, we're never going to. I'm either going to realize he's gay or he's just not that into me and I move on. Why waste my time? Why are any of these guys wasting time seeing a woman for *months* when it's clear the situation isn't going anywhere?", "score": 32 }, { "body": "Great post, maelp, I'd like to add one other thing:\n\nOne mistake guys make, and one I've made myself, is to hold off on leading to sex with girls we **really like** in order to build a connection, etc. This is a bad idea, because a few good bang sessions will do more to build a connection than months of platonic hanging out.\n\nSo yeah, along those lines, escalate to sex ASAP.", "score": 26 }, { "body": "Absolutely true and the best advice you can get if you're an insecure guy. \n\nIt took me many mistakes and lots of frustration and frikkin years but came to the same conclusions... Then saw that it was readily available on the net, it was just somehow stigmatized to search for such things. \n\nIf you're a guy who needs advice in this area, don't be afraid to search for it! Others were through the same, you'd be a fool not to learn from their experience!", "score": 11 }, { "body": "You lost me at \"if she's with holding sex\". \n\nPersonally I like to get to know a person before I share my body with them and see if they are serious about a relationship or not. That can take awhile. As you said men should not be expectant of sex therefore it's not really with holding anything at all.\n\nIt's a decision process not hoarding. Is a guy worthy or not. Most aren't.\n\n>The role of men is to lead sex.\n\nI don't think so. That is why there are so many men are NOT getting laid and the pick up community is making so much money by lying to people.\n\n>First I'm not saying women cannot help\n\nAre you fucking serious? Sex is between two people not a master and servant. Get over yourself this is absolutely infuriating. You should be ashamed for spreading misinformation and dubbing it as fact.\n\nHorrible, horrible. Your ass backwards on a lot of this and I think it terrible that young men are falling for this game. That's all it is a sick fucking game.\n\nSeriously it seems that mostly only men in the U.S. have problems with women. ", "score": 11 }, { "body": "This biggest problem I see with all this \"be confident with women\" and \"be comfortable with sex\" is how the fuck do you get to that state in the first place when you're not getting either?\r\n\r\nI'm a confident guy. I've skydived for a decade, been invited on world records, manage people at work, can chat up complete strangers, etc etc, but it's sort of hard to get comfy with the ladies when you know you're gonna be all awkward and shit in the sack due to lack of experience. That's not a big deal when you're in your teens, but it's embarrassing as hell when you're in your 30's.\r\n\r\n", "score": 11 }, { "body": "I've realized over the last year and a half of being single that having sex with someone is one of the best ways to get to know them. I've come to think that it's actually important for me to have sex with someone I'm interested in before deciding what kind of relationship I want to pursue with them. This can happen sooner (like the first night I've know them) or later (after a few dates), but it needs to happen for me to really be able to tell what kind of relationship I want to have with them - just friendship, friendship with openness to sex, romantic relationship, etc. \n\nThat said I've only once ever ended a relationship out of frustration at lack of sex, and it was more because I could tell that she wanted to have sex with me (after several times sharing a bed and getting 3/4 of the way there) but was uncomfortable with herself or with sex in general and at the time I wasn't ready to make the commitment it would have taken to get her to open up. ", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Thank you for outlining all of this maelp. You've done a good job explaining what goes on with me (as a woman) in these situations.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Here's where you lost me entirely:\n\n>I hear the ugly feminist (or nice-guy) rearing its head.\n\nWhy is said feminist who is rearing their head ugly?\n\nDo you believe all feminists are ugly? Just ones who disagree with you? Just ones who disagree with you on this issue? Just the arbitrary feminist you're imagining in your head here?\n\nNote: This is not to say I agree with you on other issues, just that i don't care to debate the other issues.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "You weren't harshly criticized because you worded things badly.\n\nYou were harshly criticized because this is a site of AFC's.\n*bricked", "score": 4 }, { "body": "if you want it, don't feel guilty or pushy. if she doesn't want it, just accept it's gonna be that way with her, for who knows how long. especially if you've talked about it (which you should have before an entire month passed). so, no sex within one month? move one, because you're not the same kind of people.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "What would you say to a relationship in which the two people have sex every day for several years, and abruptly the girl cuts off the frequency? What would your reaction be, then?", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Am I the only one who read this with Tom Cruise's voice-over in my head (e.g. Tom Cruise's character from Magnolia)??\n\nBut that aside, I generally agree with the major points of your thesis maelp, that is, that sex is important in a relationship and that many women desire it as much or more than men. I don't like how you generalize that women are biologically-engineered to be passive however; I think that understates certain cultural mores. I've also read (on this reddit I think!) that a common fantasy of both men and women is to be dominated, but I digress.\n\nRegardless, I appreciate your sex-positive attitude. Preach! :)", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Shouldn't [qgyh2](http://www.reddit.com/user/qgyh2/) win this by default?\n\nEdit: I'd also like to point out that while the category is not here, Kickme444 should get \"Redditor of the Year\"", "score": 119 }, { "body": "I vote for [metsrulesonearth](http://www.reddit.com/user/metsrulesonearth). I love the fact that this guy posts pics of big trucks and nothing else. ", "score": 89 }, { "body": "So, here's a request. Can you guys explain why you're submitting these people? Aside from CarlH and the spam filter, at this moment there are almost no explanations for those of us without the time to read through each of their submission pages.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "[r/anarchism](http://www.reddit.com/r/Anarchism) For successfully applying [anarchist principles](http://www.reddit.com/r/Anarchism/comments/94lan/there_seems_to_be_an_agreement_among_most_in_this/) to the moderation system. 49 Moderators and growing.\n", "score": 88 }, { "body": "[/r/BDSMcommunity](http://www.reddit.com/r/BDSMcommunity)\n\nPossibly a strange suggestion, but it's got a marvelously strong community feel, and everyone is quite friendly.", "score": 32 }, { "body": "- [r/TwoXChromosomes](http://www.reddit.com/r/TwoXChromosomes/) Think of the calendar for charity. There are almost 4K subs in less than six months. Don't know if that is good or bad or not.\n\n- [r/aww](http://www.reddit.com/r/ass/) Who doesn't love puppies and kitties and duckies and bunnies?", "score": 9 }, { "body": "I Took a Picture, great photography subreddit:\n[r/itookapicture](http://www.reddit.com/r/itookapicture/)", "score": 8 }, { "body": "I know I may or may not be on the board of directors of this subreddit/community, but I'd have to nominate [/r/Etab](http://reddit.com/r/Etab). The natives are friendly, the water is clean, and there are 266 people reading and talking about *me*!", "score": 6 }, { "body": "Can I nominate the reddit community in general? \r\n\r\nIn 2009, reddit [propped up a foundering soap company](http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/8sepg/a_thank_you_from_soapier_to_reddit/), [gave a boost to a regional sauce manufacturer](http://www.reddit.com/r/iama/comments/aff1u), helped [P-Dub's mom](http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/ajyd7/an_email_from_pdubs_mom/) and [boosted the spirits of a redditor with cancer](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/9m24f/)\r\n\r\nAnd that's not even counting the myriad things I've probably left out. \r\n\r\nThe sub-communities are great, but when everyone works together, we've accomplished some awesome things.", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "How about this one I did really quick (Portlandia): http://imgur.com/Uh6Kh\nI could try some other ideas...", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "I heard a quote from someone a while ago. I can't remember exactly how it goes, or who said it (I think it was Neil deGrasse Tyson), but I think it answers your question.\n\n> We don't know what we're looking for, so we're looking for what we know.\n\nThink of it like this: we are on the search for fire, so we are looking for smoke. Where there is smoke, there's fire, right? It's the same thing with planets and life. We know that life can exist on planets with earth-like conditions, so that's what we're looking for.\n\nPlus, there is also the idea of colonization. It'd be much easier for us to live on a planet like Earth, than it would be to live on a planet like Venus.", "score": 25 }, { "body": "I thought the whole point of looking for Earth-like planets was so that we could colonize them later. \n\nGenociding an alien race is just gravy .. ", "score": 10 }, { "body": "How exactly would we go about finding something we can't even imagine?\n\nYou've mostly got the right idea. Life which is easiest to recognize will be the most similar to us and that means it will have been fostered in similar conditions. In a sense, the manifestation of life is not much different than our understanding of reality as a whole. Life seems to be an inevitability under the right conditions - just as hydrogen fusing into helium. All variables of an environment which propagates life are not known but a planet's size, composition, and orbit are good places to start.\n\nIt's important to keep in mind that even with all of this technology and the knowledge and insight it brings, we still have extremely broad, fickle, and self-serving definitions of the words *intelligence* and *life*.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "I'm not formally educated in this, so someone will respond with a better answer, but if we're talking about biological organisms (rather than more esoteric possible life forms) [this great writeup](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothetical_types_of_biochemistry) goes into other possible forms of life, but scientists, when looking across the table of elements, still consider carbon to be the best building block for life, and water to be the best solvent used to perform biochemical reactions. So, scientists look for planets similar to Earth in that you are more likely to find carbon and water.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Possibly. But we *know* that life can exist on Earth-like planets, so those are currently the best place to look for life. And if life similar to Earth's exists on another planet, we know what to look for. We have no idea how to identify any other kinds of life on extrasolar planets.\n\nAnyway, what makes you think we are filtering out non-earth-like planets? We have found over 400 of those so far. No one's censoring those discoveries. In fact, there have been proposals to search for life in Europa's oceans.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I'm not certain the quest for Earth-like planets is only about looking for life, but in any case, if you have limited resources to look for life, the logical thing to do first is to look for life forms similar to the ones we know. Also, while perhaps radically different forms of life may be possible (I don't know, I'm not a biologist), it seems likely that since the Sun is a common star and the elemental abundances must be quite common, so chemistry must be very similar in other solar systems, which makes it likely that life would also be based on a similar chemistry, allowing for variations due to each particular environment. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Just think of it - if we find life on an Earth-life planet, we'd know their weaknesses straight away. For, they must be biologically close to some of the species already known to us. And if the natives are not friendly out there, we can quick-respond. ", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "My organization uses Constant Contact, which seems to have all the big features like custom list imports, exports, managing unsubs, complaints. They host images, have lots of templates, and pretty good customer service.\n\nFor personal use, I use MailChimp because it's pretty. And I think it does all of the above, and it's free for up to 500 unique emails and 2000 messages/month.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "My wife was a package deal, her plus a kid. Worked out well enough (12 years and going).\n\nIf you're young and still consider yourself *numero uno* in your life's priorities, then having kids in a relationship from ground zero will cause some grief. How you handle it will determine how well things will go.\n\nI speak from experience. I never had that 100% her-and-me period on our relationship, which I sometimes regret. There was *always* a child in the mix, and that ruled out some level of spontaneity as well as selfish decadence sometimes enjoyed by young couples.\n\nStill, I wouldn't trade my past for another one. I love her first offspring as I do my own.", "score": 8 }, { "body": "No opinion to give, just want to point out some [relevant discussion](http://www.reddit.com/r/relationship_advice/comments/al4iz/men_of_reddit_i_am_a_hot_single_female_im_smart/) over at /r/relationship_advice.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Yes, I did. She had 3x, I had none. It's an acid test from the get go that isn't for the weak. It isn't a relationship for anyone just looking to party and screw. Because you're not just dating her/him, you also have to work on relationships with every one of those kids. Activies will frequently not be going out to nice restraunts. smart movies, adult activies, there'll be Chuck E. Cheese, Sponge Bob, and Hi Ho Cherry-O. There'll be a LOT of night's they're just too tired to get into sex, kid cock-blocks, frustrations and irritations and general FFFFFFFUUUUUUU moments.\r\n\r\nAnd oddly, in a way it's really nice. You much more quickly cut through the BS and get to what's real between you and them. \"Is it worth it\" gets laid out pretty quickly and you have to search yourself for the answer.\r\n\r\nI ended up marrying her and *we* now have 4x kids. :-)", "score": 3 }, { "body": "other side prospective here.\nI have a kid. As for dating, no one meets the kid till after awhile of knowing each other, I do what I can to get out when I can, its healthy. If it is a one night stand or fuck buddy thats fine. If its going to turn into something serious then maybe its time to go somewhere with my kid, a movie, chuck e cheese or whatever although I keep that to a minimum as I don't need people coming into my kids life then just leaving over and over. It may be a challenge for someone to have a serious relationship with me I suppose as there are a few extra hoops to jump through to protect my kid.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Could easily be semantic. We're all 'children of God', after all. Jesus could have been just as much a son of God as John the Baptist was, but this label doesn't necessarily import divinity by itself, making it a possible third option.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "The Trinitarian view is that God is three persons in one substance/essence/hypostasis. In order to describe the interrelationship of the Triune persons, we reference them as \"individuals\" Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But we also refer to those \"particular\" persons as God each because, sharing hypostasis, they aren't *actually* individual or particular.\n\nThis confusing nomenclature (a product of the fact that persons sharing hypostasis is confusing) yields oddly worded phrases. The fact that we use God as shorthand to refer to \"individual\" persons of the Trinity means we find ourselves with paradoxes like, \"The Son of God is God.\" But like paradoxes \"When I am weak, then I am strong\" and \"I know that I know nothing,\" the resolution is to hook with brevity, but explain with verbosity.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Christians use the argument \"Lunatic, Liar, or Lord.\" They say that based on Jesus's own words, we must conclude that he is one of those three. \r\n\r\nOf course there is a fourth choice: that he never even existed. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": ">there remain only two options about his relationship to the creator of the universe.\r\n\r\nThird option: He *was* the son of god both human and divine . . . and so is everyone else.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "It's just like any of your other favorite cigarettes (drinking, after meals, driving etc.), it'll hurt a little extra at first but fairly quickly it will no longer be the massive reality skip it is now. I would say go ahead and blaze but be prepared to win against the inevitable craving. ", "score": 5 }, { "body": "i do both and I just quit cigarettes this new year. Lighting a cigarette after smoking weed is just a learned behavior. You need to separate this connection like you would smoking after a drink.\n\nThe reason that cigarettes feel so good after smoking weed is because the nicotine constricts blood vessels to heighten the high (so I've heard). this might sound crazy but its worth a shot, try smoking out of some sort of glassware instead of a joint. I think a joint might be too close to a cigarette and might just reinforce the negative behavior. Just an idea, good luck quitting!", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I do both and quit smoking, while doing both, after 23 years, of, doing both, ha ha.\n\nThe bottom line, as far as im concerned, is that if one makes you do the other your just making excuses and deep down you really don't want to quit. This is just my opinion though but you will find with people who successfully quit smoking and you ask how they did it, more often than not you will hear them tell you that they 'were ready to quit.' \n\nYou have to want to quit to quit. You cant quit because you think you should or you know its best. None of that matters. You need to want to and be resolute to. If you don't do that you will never really quit. You may go some time but you will go back to it. \n\nOnce you are resolute that you don't want to smoke anymore you will find that the smoking of pot doesn't matter.\n\nBut, to go all out like i did, i suggest buying a vaporizer because my doc told me that quitting smoking but smoking pot isnt doing you any favors due to some of the results from the act of burning anything and putting that smoke into your lungs. If you are concerned about your lungs and not just getting rid of smoking do yourself a favor and get a vaporizer.\n\n\n*edit: I never stopped smoking/vaporizing weed. Just cigarettes.\n\n*edit 2: If you do get a vap make sure you research whatever heating element it uses as some of them are as bad as smoking.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": " http://www.streaming-madness.net/2010/01/02/richard-feynman-no-ordinary-genius-1992/\n\nhttp://www.museumsyndicate.com/artist.php?artist=380", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "this is really an open question that doesn't have any real answers i'm afraid. i could say, just run out and buy a 4-track cassette recorder, or a portable stereo field recorder (ala zoom or something) and you'd be all set... or i could recommend investing in a trident 80b console and a radar 24 track digital recorder... the real question isn't about \"stuff\" i mean, does it really matter what stuff you use to make your music? \n\ni've found over the years it doesn't. or sure, there's crap out there that is \"bad\" but then again, someone doing something else with said crap can make crap sound awesome. \n\nso its difficult to answer this question. my gut says, get an mbox, try out pro tools (some hate it, some love it, i like it) and go from there. \n\nthe \"what stuff should i use\" usually sorts itself out as you figure out how you want to make your music. yeah this isn't terribly helpful, i guess the most helpful thing is... start small/minimal and work your way up. because how you work now, is not how you will work a year from now.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I wouldn't junk any of it. Guitar pedals -- you won't believe the number of people coming from a software/electronic/dance music background who suddenly discover the tactile / 'characterful' alternative of using guitar pedals for fx, and go nuts about it. The cable, well, might be handy. The U-20 I just googled, no idea of its capabilities but it seems to be a decent sized keyboard so even if it's shit at everything else it'll make a fine controller. I don't know anything about the crappy guitar but even if it's utterly crappy you can scrape the strings on the frets into some reverb for spooky foley etc. \n\nSo that only leaves the software. Again I know nothing about it really, my instinct is to see \"Cakewalk\" (rather than \"Sonar\") and thus assume it's probably very dated and thus fairly useless and needing replacement. But this may not be fair. I use a sequencer from nearly 10 years ago myself. Depending on your workflow you may not need Melodyne or Ableton style \"elastic audio\" features, or similar more recent innovations in sequencers/DAWs.\n\nHowever the \"home studio\" part makes me think it may not exactly shine in the area of video syncing, timecodes and so on? Which I expect would be important for your desired line of work. So you probably will need something else for that reason alone?\n\nAs for all new purchases I would say the #1 thing for you would be broad coverage of 'bread and butter' sounds. ie to be able to do a fair emulation of the whole orchestra plus \"staple\" instruments of non-classical styles (electric guitar, steel drums, etc). Of course, you can't model/imitate all these things _perfectly_ for any money, and on a more realistic personal budget, you can't even model all these things all that well, but you can get a more or less passable stab at it with multisamplers and ROMplers, and you're going to have to. For low budget work it might be a case of \"I know it doesn't sound like a real orchestra, but I can't afford that, here's your $500, do your best\". For higher budget stuff you would probably still need your multisamples/etc, to submit the mock-up to win the contract to get given a real orchestra to play with.\n\nAnyway, in the past people would turn to modules of 'rompler', 'S&S', 'workstation' type from the likes of Roland, Korg etc, which have all those endless patches for strings, clarinet, etc. You can also get this sort of concept as a VSTi. For greater accuracy people now buy 10-of-gigs multisamples for a single instrument (family), Vienna Symphonic Strings and so on, as johninbigd mentions.\n\nSound on Sound have a 9 part series [Making A Living From Music For Picture](http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec05/articles/musicforpicture.htm), of course some things will have changed in the last 4-5 years, but lots of things won't. I suggest searching their site somewhat thoroughly for sync music stuff because I was actually trying to find a different article I remember reading, which gave a more concise primer on choosing equipment for TV & film work. Found that one instead and don't feel like staying around searching forever, it's your problem after all, but I'm sure it's there somewhere ;)", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I wouldn't junk any of it. You never know when you could use a guitar pedal for an interesting effect in mixing.\n\nAlso, a lot depends on your budget, as someone has said before Vienna Instruments are some of the best sounding samples ever, you might want to get BFD for drums.\n\nDAW wise, it depends. For composition, Logic (8 or 9) is great, but for mixing and editing audio I find Pro Tools to be superior.\n\nYou'll probably want to invest in a decent midi controller keyboard as well\n\nIf your going to just be working on your own, a mixing console might not be 100% but you should consider it.\n\nDecent monitors and basic acoustic treatment of your studio room are a important however. It will be difficult to making a decent mix if you can't hear what your doing properly.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "That's the whole reason why I confirmed an unrecieved gift. My santa fell on hard times and couldn't afford to get me a gift and from the sounds of it rent as well. He offered to get me one when he was on better financial footing but I didn't think that was necessary so to save him from being a bad santa when he was really just a shit luck santa I confirmed a gift. ", "score": 9 }, { "body": "You should repost this with a title of:\n\n\"DO NOT CONFIRM GIFTS AS RECEIVED IN THE GALLERY UNLESS YOU PHYSICALLY HAVE THE GIFTS IN YOUR POSSESSION\"\n\nYes, in all-caps. It's the only way to be heard on the internet.", "score": 8 } ]

[ { "body": "[Elinor Ostrom](http://www.elinorostrom.com) co-won the Nobel Memorial Prize in economics. Anyhow, she is considered to be the leading scholar in \"Common Pool Resources\" From the very little that I know of her, her work seems anarchistic, though she is not. \n\nShe has a book called, [\"Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action\"](http://books.google.com/books?id=v4A39158MUQC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false) in which, I am told, she briefly argues for an 8 hour work week. I haven't read it, so don't quote me. If anyone has a link to a free ebook, I would be grateful.\n\nHere is a video of her discussing [Sustainable Development](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByXM47Ri1Kc)", "score": 5 }, { "body": "As much as I'd love to tackle this one, I'd have to see the original argument, to determine what numbers they're using, and also to see how they're defining 'minimum' for food, water, shelter.\n\nMy gut feeling is that, depending on definitions, this is correct, with the caveat that it also depends on what they mean by 'work'. If they mean 'hours engaged in standard employable work', that's very different from 'hours engaged in maintaining one's life', which includes cooking, cleaning, vet trips, etc. I work about 7-8 hours a day according to the first definition, and close to 11 according to the second.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "I get tired of people being pretentious. \"WHAT YOU SAY IT Q-PON, WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?!\" It's idiotic. \n\nPeople say words differently, people need to get over it.", "score": 7 }, { "body": "I'd say that as long as you can understand what a person is referring to when they say a certain word, you can't call it \"incorrect pronunciation\".", "score": 6 }, { "body": "I got in a huge argument with an Englishman over the pronunciation of the word 'garage'. \n\nIn this argument, he basically called every Canadian a worthless piece of shit because they don't pronounce it \"The English Way\". The worst part about it is that we had this argument *in* Canada.\n\nI guess \"When in Rome\" means nothing to him.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "ugh try moving to New England with a Texan accent. I can't say more than three words without being corrected on at least two.\r\n\r\nThat and mispronouncing names. People get so bent out of shape if I pronounce the silent \"t\" in their names, it's like it's a personal attack. Look, I have a very common last name and people butcher it all the time. Doesn't bother me at all. I just don't fucking get that.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Drives me to distraction. And I usually respond by copping the most distorted accent I can and rubbing it in their face, because i am a mature person who uses reason to solve my problems. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Yes, I find it a very odd kind of hostility. I think it reflects latent ethnocentrism. \n\nI also loathe grammar/spelling nazism. I used to be the same way until I worked as a professional editor, and also, grew up.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "It would still be really cool, though, if you could click on an envelope icon in your menubar and it could show you your most recent comments and submissions with accompanying karma. ", "score": 8 } ]

[ { "body": "One thing about Confederacy of Dunces. If you get through the first couple chapters and don't like it, then you can safely stop. It doesn't get any, uh, different later on. Same insanity throughout.\n\nI love that book.", "score": 7 }, { "body": "House of Leaves is an amazing piece of work, somewhat difficult to read but certainly worth it as well as being incredibly unique.", "score": 6 }, { "body": "Siddartha or Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (surprisingly, two of my favorite books)...but I suggest you don't read them back to back.\n\n/Om", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "interesting. jumping a few years ahead is a possibility the producer mentioned, also she said there may be some focus on a Dexter as a suspect in his wife's death. its gonna get weird.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "I like this and I could definitely see the show playing this out. My thought is that Deb will be the only staple to his sanity and normalcy. Before every time I thought about him going crazy or getting caught it would devastate Rita and I that held him back. if down the road Deb is removed from the picture either death or a fight between them there would be very little (harrison) to keep him from going off the deep end.\n\nI like your harry-son idea, even if it means nothing, I like it.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "[DrMartyMcFly](http://www.reddit.com/user/DrMartyMcFly)\n\n10k comment karma in 24 hours.\n\nBest post/comments I've ever seen on reddit.\n\nedit: corrected the link", "score": 204 }, { "body": "[cook_of_disapproval](http://www.reddit.com/user/cook_of_disapproval)\n\n[supporting evidence](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/acwgy/who_puts_soup_on_their_hands_before_they_wash/c0gyreq)", "score": 111 }, { "body": "[NoveltyAccountSWAT](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/af9qr/whats_your_mild_superpower/c0haxfv?context=5)", "score": 52 }, { "body": "[joke-explainer](http://www.reddit.com/user/Joke-Explainer) as opposed to \"JokeExplainer\" the knockoff account.\n\n(Reposting as top-level comment from GlueBoy's nomination [here](http://www.reddit.com/r/bestof2009/comments/alhh3/nominate_novelty_account_of_the_year/c0i7d25))", "score": 33 }, { "body": "[p3do](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/8i5k6/how_do_i_report_an_entire_subreddit/c09d11l)", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "Backdoor your way into a Top Secret Military computer that controls the Nukes. Start a game and then wait for the military to ask you to fix it. \n\nHonestly, absorb as much info as you can on everything. Certifications aren't nearly as important out of the box as knowledge and experience. Get in on the ground floor in a mid-sized company (help desk, desktop support, junior sysadmin/netadmin), and work your way up.\n\nCISSP is a broad security standard. \nCCNA is a good network standard.\n\nEDIT: There's some pretty good tips in [here](http://www.reddit.com/r/netsec/comments/aliab/how_do_i_learn_about_network_security/).\n\nAnd lastly, I'd suggest getting active in your local [DefCon group](http://www.defcon.org/html/defcon-groups/dc-groups.html)", "score": 7 }, { "body": "When you don't have the experience, certifications can be a good way to stand out from the rest of the crowd. They show that you are interested in the subject enough that you'll take it upon yourself to expand your knowledge.\n\nI usually recommend starting out by getting at least 2 of the basic 3 certifications: Linux+, Network+, Security+. Once you complete a couple of these, figure out what exactly you're interesting in regarding security as it's such a broad subject. Do you want to manage firewalls (CCSA, CCSE)? Do you want to work in incident response (GCIH)? How about penetration testing (CEH, OSCP)? There are also a couple more broad certifications such as SSCP or CISSP.\n\nIt really depends on what you're interesting in. I recommend visiting techexams.net if you're interested in learning which certifications can do what for you. A lot of people ask questions like yours there.\n\nBest of luck mate!", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I recently took my CCNA Security exam (the level in between plain CCNA and CCSP). I'm shooting for CCSP since it's more security-focused than CCNP. Maybe one day if I'm feeling ambitious I'll try for the CCIE. I thought the CCNA Security was a good get-your-feet-wet cert that gave a lot of the basics of network security.\n\nGood luck to you--I got my degrees in biology/marine ecology. If I can make it into network security with little to no experience, you can definitely do it with the CS background that you have. :)", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Nice work.\n\nI suspect if you are ready to quit that is the difference. There is a different mentality between wanting to quit and being ready to quit.", "score": 4 }, { "body": "Good job, keep it up. It seems quite rare that anyone successfully quits for anyone else (children maybe the only exception?) so its good that you are quitting for yourself. ", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "[Here is a short list of commands I use to improve my graphics](http://www.reddit.com/r/tf2/comments/9vfc4/the_hidden_ultra_high_settings/c0emx4w).\n\n[Quantum has a high quality config](http://www.dieall.de/da2008/index.php?mod=articles&action=view&id=60), too.", "score": 7 } ]

[ { "body": "YEA. I WANT TO GIVE AN INTERNET STRANGER MY HOME ADDRESS, IN THE HOPE THAT HE WILL MAIL ME A BOX OF STRANGE BROWN STUFF, WHICH I WILL THEN EAT.", "score": 19 }, { "body": "http://bethesdamission.org/main/\r\n\r\nBethesda Mission\r\n\r\nMen’s Shelter\r\n\r\n611 Reily Street\r\n\r\nHarrisburg, PA 17102", "score": 12 }, { "body": "When December winds blow cold,\n\nAnd winter sky turns solemn shade\n\nOf blue, when leaves on trees grow old\n\nAnd Autumn splendor starts to fade,\n\nResolutions for the new year will be made\n\nAnd soon forgot, like water rolling over stone.\n\nBut thou art not forgotten, O taste that bade\n\nMe try to gain this stranger's fudge, for gone\n\nAre inhibitions when I think perchance anon\n\nThou wilt grace my palate, darkness sweet,\n\nthe beating heart of reddit won\n\nAnd sent to my humble hearth this treat.\n\nGentlemen and Gentlewomen, with your mouse\n\nI beseech you guide this treasure to my house.\n\n", "score": 5 } ]

[ { "body": "Drinking water is a critical issue for many in the world. Find a group dealing in water quality issues in a way you like. Many groups provide well digging others sanitation improvements to protect water supplies. Another possibility is funding solar cooking stoves which reduces the demand on wood gathering which reduces deforestation and land erosion. ", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Become more consistent. Play more hours each month. Hit 25nl by June and be a 50nl reg by end of year. Run good.\r\n\r\nI don't know if that's optimistic or pessimistic. I hope to move up to 25nl much sooner than June but we will see.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Find a meaningful way to avoid tilt or learn to walk away when I'm tilting.\n\nPlay more cash games, fewer SnGs and MTTs.\n\nMove up to 25NL by the end of the year.\n\nNot go busto. \n\nWin a r/poker tournament.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "My friend has the entire series. He put it on during a party once and everyone in the house eventually sat captivated in front of the TV. Every single brush stroke was followed by our yells of disbelief, along the lines of \"HOLY FUCKING SHIT, HOW DOES HE DO THAT!?\"", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "If you're interested, my company is a RIM partner and I can talk to our RIM sales contacts. Let me know. ", "score": 25 }, { "body": "(I don't have current keys, but here's my 2c);\n\nYou're asking someone to hand you their keys -- you'll probably never find that, at least if they understand their liability under the dev agreement :).\n\nYou /might/ get someone to sign your code, but you probably won't get them to handover keys.", "score": 16 }, { "body": "I've got to tell you that this all sounds a bit off to me. How have you been testing the application's functionality without keys? Solely on the emulators? And the contractor doesn't have keys? \n\nMy keys came very quickly -- within a week if I remember correctly. I even needed new keys issued and emailed them on a Friday and had new keys by the following Monday.\n\nNo offence -- this may in fact be a totally legit request -- but it certainly doesn't sound like it at all.", "score": 6 } ]

[ { "body": "Let it go. You've helped her take the first step. She needs to take the next step on her own. Otherwise, it'd be no different than forcing a religion at her.\n\nIf you push it, you'll seem \"preachy\"...and we know how it feels to be on the receiving end of that.", "score": 18 }, { "body": "The response I got from the last person I told was: \"well, where do you think your father is right now?\" (he died about 4 years ago). I replied that I don't think he is anywhere, that he just isn't anymore. She asked if I didn't want him to be in heaven with god (with a tone that suggested that he wouldn't be if I didn't). My reply to that was \"while that would be a really comforting thought, there's no evidence to suggest there really is any such thing.\" She opened and closed her mouth a couple times and did the eyes darting left and right a couple times thing, and didn't talk much to me the rest of the evening.", "score": 10 }, { "body": "Drunken arguments about religion get nowhere. If you're drunk, you're not coherent. If the other party is drunk, they are neither coherent nor capable of remembering anything about your reasoning or arguments other than \"Don't believe in god.\"\n\nWait until sober - if they won't want to talk, don't push it.", "score": 4 }, { "body": ">She kind of laughed a bit and said, well of course you believe in God.\r\n\r\nA statement of this sort was an early indication that she was in for a disappointment. This statement is usually followed by a sagging of the face, and the ever-so depressing look of, \"No... don't let it be!\"\r\n\r\nAs previously mentioned by other individuals, you're kindly presented your foundation, and it is entirely up to her to present any formal questions to you as they come along. If the friendship is proceeding as normal without any moments of silence and awkwardness, I wouldn't revive the subject. No need to have an emotional cataclysm if it isn't necessary", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I was talking to a dude at work, pretty intelligent guy, kinda stubborn and mind-set, somehow got onto talking about evolution and how the Earth is billions of years old... then he starts flat out denying it, saying 'how can they prove it's billions of years old?'\n\n\"Well... with radio carbon dating...\" I say.\n\n\"But how do they know that works and is accurate?\"\n\n\"Well..... because they're fucking geniuses who study this shit.\"\n\n\"no no no I dont' believe that\"\n\n\"So you think the Earth is a few thousand years old?\"\n\n\"Well you say it's billions of years old but nobody can show me any proof\"\n\n\"... well... fossils.... radio carbon dating of rocks.... what more proof do you need?\"\n\n\"No I don't believe in all that.\"\n\n*mental facepalm* *\"How the fuck do i respond to that other than with a blank stare?\"\n\n", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "When I was a young boy I went to my room to put on a hoodie because I was cold. At the moment I was using my shirt as a makeshift holder for all my toys. I set my toys down on top the dresser, opened the drawer, and donned my hoodie. I then shoved all the toys in the front pocket of the sweatshirt. \n\nThe pocket wasn't large enough so I had to use both my hands to keep toys from falling out. \n\nBecause my hands were occupied, I used my pelvis to slam shut the drawer. And then promptly slammed my dick inside. I started to scream. I'm not sure why (didn't want to drop my toys?) but I opted to *yank* out my dick instead of opening the drawer. \n\nIt was black and blue for over a week. It functions and looks fine now. No hooks, joints, or cock elbow. That's a near-death experience, yes?", "score": 6 }, { "body": "So here's a little background, I'm trained in several forms of combat, and self defense, which saved my life and the life of a dear friend. This is by far the most harrowing moment of my entire life.\r\n\r\nSo Torrie and I are walking home from a movie. It's not dark out, but the sun is starting to set. About half way to her house this guy jumps out of nowhere and in a flash has Torrie in a death grip with a knife to her neck. He says some stupid thing about how she has to pay for something or another. \r\n\r\nHere's a tip for all you would be murderer's. The longer you spend telling the victim things, the better chance they have of fucking you over. \r\n\r\nSo in a split second Torrie slams her head as hard as she can against the guy's face and rips herself out of his grip, however in a blind rage the guy makes a stab and hits Torrie right in the eye as she's wheeling backwards. I am still astounded that she didn't even flinch when it happened. Anyway, he let's go of the knife and torrie manages to yank it out without yelping. So we figure this is it, we've both got knives, we're trained on how to use them, and torrie sacrificed her eye to disarm a now bloody nosed killer. \r\n\r\nLife is never that easy. \r\n\r\nMr. Whackjob pulls out a gun. Torrie's collapsed against a tree clutching her face in one hand and the knife in the other, it had finally kicked in as to what had happened and she's shivering pretty bad. Now as I said before, we're trained on how to use knives, and I'm real skeptical on why this guy all of a sudden pulls out a gun after nearly killing us with a knife. With my life hanging in the balance, I go for a bluff, I think the gun is empty, I rush him with the knife and he shoves the barrel of the gun into my stomach as I get close, my knife is maybe a few inches from stabbing his jugular. We stood like that for what seemed an eternity, there's no lie there. When you're life is being determined by who has the balls to strike first, every second is an hour. I still think the gun isn't loaded, but hey now is not exactly the best time to think *\"What if?\"*\r\n\r\n So Whackjob and I are staring each other down, our faces about a foot apart, wondering which one of us is going to decide to end it. A few seconds may have passed before the guy goes lurching to one side and while he doesn't really \"fly\" he definately goes down about a foot away. In the instance where he and I were locked, Torrie had taken the chance to deliver a quite potent kick to his head. He drops the gun as he goes down and she picks it up and points it at him, still one hand over her eye. Her other eye is so wide I was surprised it didn't pop out, I'd never seen her look so... feral in my entire life. So whackjob is on the ground cowering because there's now a very angry woman weilding a gun at him, by his reaction and pleading, I can tell- the gun is loaded or he wouldn't be so terrified. She's threatening him, she wants to shoot him, her voice is shakey and coarse but the rest of her body is rigid. She really was going to shoot the guy. \r\n\r\nIn the nick of time, the cops show up. Some idiot walking through the woods saw the whole thing and called the cops. Took him long enough. Turns out there was a single bullet in the chamber, he was planning on knifing torrie and shooting himself. As the cops show up torrie pulls the trigger and saysbang,\" the guy screams. Nothing happens, she'd turned the saftey on before pointing it at him. She starts laughing hysterically and the guy is fucking dumbfounded. So the cops arrest him, Torrie now wears an eyepatch. I asked her after the incident how she was able to manage that through the loss of her eye nd she just looked at me and said *\"Adrenaline is a powerful thing when the one you love is about to die.\"*\r\n\r\nTo this day she credits me with saving her life, and to this day I wonder what would have happened if Whackjob had decided to use his one bullet on me. It's now our customary thing for me to kiss her on her eye patch.\r\n\r\n**TL;DR:** A friend of mine was attacked and lost her eye, I risked my life to save her and we subdued her would be murderer.", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country. - Kurt Vonnegut", "score": 136 }, { "body": "We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. -Plato", "score": 115 }, { "body": "When I was a kid, I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord doesn't work that way. So I stole one and prayed for forgiveness.\n\n-Emo Phillips", "score": 106 }, { "body": "\"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.\" - George Bernard Shaw", "score": 79 }, { "body": "Bessie Braddock: Winston, you are drunk, and what's more, you are disgustingly drunk.\n\nWinston Churchill: Bessie, my dear, you are ugly, and what's more, you are disgustingly ugly. But tomorrow I shall be sober and you will still be disgustingly ugly.", "score": 63 }, { "body": "I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.\nDouglas Adams\nEnglish humorist & science fiction novelist (1952 - 2001)\n", "score": 48 }, { "body": "\"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.\" - Sagan\n\n\"Time…Line? Time is not made out of lines, it is made of circles. That is why clocks are round.\" - Caboose\n", "score": 45 }, { "body": "\"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones\" - Albert Einstien\n\n\"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge\" - Charles Darwin\n\n\"What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof.\" - Christopher Hitchens\n\n\"The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to the presence of those who think they've found it.\" – Terry Pratchett\n\nIs anyone else just copying these from their facebook page? Heh.", "score": 44 }, { "body": "There is a Taoist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit.\r\n\r\n\"Such bad luck,\" they said sympathetically.\r\n\r\n\"We'll see,\" the farmer replied.\r\n\r\nThe next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses.\r\n\r\n\"How wonderful,\" the neighbors exclaimed.\r\n\r\n\"We'll see,\" replied the old man.\r\n\r\nThe following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune.\r\n\r\n\"We'll see,\" answered the farmer.\r\n\r\nThe day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out.\r\n\r\n\"We'll see\" said the farmer.\r\n", "score": 39 }, { "body": "\"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.\" -- [Hanlon's Razor](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon's_razor)", "score": 34 }, { "body": "“Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever ’til the end of time! But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He’s all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can’t handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, talk about a good bullshit story. Holy Shit!” -George Carlin. RIP.", "score": 28 }, { "body": "\"Horrifying... Dr. Barron, your report describes how rational these people are. Millennia ago, they abandoned their belief in the supernatural. Now you are asking me to sabotage that achievement, to send them back into the dark ages of superstition and ignorance and fear? No!\"\n\n - Picard ", "score": 28 }, { "body": "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.\n-Ghandi\n", "score": 26 }, { "body": "\"Never judge a man until you've walked a mile in his shoes. Then, when you do judge him, what the hell can he do about it? He's a mile away, and he's barefoot.\" -- Unknown.", "score": 25 }, { "body": "“There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. Some kind of high powered mutant never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.”\n-Hunter Thompson", "score": 23 }, { "body": "\"I'm gonna share with you a vision that I had, 'cause I love you. And you feel it. You know all that money we spend on nuclear weapons and defense each year, trillions of dollars, correct? Instead -- just play with this -- if we spent that money feeding and clothing the poor of the world -- and it would pay for it many times over, not one human being excluded -- we can explore space together, both inner and outer, forever in peace. Thank you very much. You've been great, I hope you enjoyed it.\"\n\n-Bill Hicks", "score": 21 }, { "body": "You can always trust a dishonest man to be dishonest, it's the honest people you have to watch out for, honestly.\r\n\r\n~Capt. Jack Sparrow~", "score": 20 }, { "body": "My ultimate favorite:\r\n\r\n\"Life is no less funny when someone dies than it is less serious when someone laughs\" -- George Bernard Shaw\r\n\r\nI'm also fond of:\r\n\r\n\"Censorship is telling a man he can't eat steak because a baby can't chew it.\" -- Mark Twain", "score": 19 }, { "body": "This is one of mine.\n\n\"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own - a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty.\"\n-Albert Einstein", "score": 16 }, { "body": "**“They’ve done studies, you know. 60% of the time it works, every time.”** from the movie \"Anchorman\"... kinda reminds me of certain Fox news...", "score": 16 }, { "body": "\"In an ideal world, all of my digits would be on my left hand, so my right hand was just for punching.\" Dwight from the office.", "score": 16 }, { "body": "\"Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things that I can; and wisdom to always know the difference.\"", "score": 15 }, { "body": "The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. -- Bertrand Russell", "score": 15 }, { "body": "\"Time and tide wait for no man.\" \n\nNot too sure what the origins of it are, but it's just a nice reminder.\n\n*edit* - remembered another one\n\n“Holding a resentment is like drinking poison and hoping it will kill your enemy.” - Nelson Mandela \n", "score": 13 }, { "body": "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect.\r\n- Mark Twain\r\n\r\n\r\nTwenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.\r\n- Mark Twain\r\n\r\n\r\n\"The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.\" \r\n-Jack London\r\n\r\n*edit: Formatting", "score": 12 }, { "body": "Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? \n\nThen he is not omnipotent.\n\nIs He able, but not willing?\n\nThen he is malevolent.\n\nIs He both able, and willing?\n\nThen whence cometh evil?\n\nIs He neither able, nor willing?\n\nThen why call Him God?\n\n- Epicurus.", "score": 12 }, { "body": "\"Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in the world. If I moved to a martial-arts monastery in China and studied really hard for ten years. If my family was wiped out by Columbian drug dealers and I swore myself to revenge. If I got a fatal disease, had one year to live, devoted it to wiping out street crime. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to being bad. \n\nHiro used to feel that way, too, but then he ran into Raven. In a way, this is liberating. He no longer has to worry about being the baddest motherfucker in the world. The position is taken. The crowning touch, the one thing that really puts true world class badmotherfuckerdom totally out of reach, of course, is the hydrogen bomb. If it wasn't for the hydrogen bomb, a man could still aspire. Maybe find Raven's Achilles' heel. Sneak up, get a drop, slip a mickey, pull a fast one. But Raven's nuclear umbrella kind of puts the world title out of reach. \n\nWhich is okay. Sometimes it's all right just to be a little bad. To know your limitations. Make due with what you've got.\"\n\n-Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash", "score": 12 }, { "body": "sooo many favorites; but some of the best -\n\n\"apres moi, le deluge\" - louis xv\n\n\"Here lies one whose name was writ in water.\" - John Keats\n\n\"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come.\" - Matt Groening", "score": 11 }, { "body": "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.\n\n-Robert A. Heinlein", "score": 11 }, { "body": "To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded - Ralph Waldo Emerson\r\n", "score": 10 }, { "body": "\"love is like a rhino, so short sighted and hasty, if it can't find a way, it will make a way\" - crash of rhinos, magic the gathering. (ok, fucking cheesy, but, well, what the fuck).", "score": 9 }, { "body": "\"What was said drunk, was thought sober\"\n\nThis quote has served me well. You can tell a lot about a person by the way they act when they are over their threshold. People say as an excuse \"but I was drunk etc\". Being drunk may explain their actions but it does not excuse them.", "score": 9 }, { "body": "Una volta che il gioco è finito, il re e il pedone tornare nella stessa casella.\n\nor in English...\n\nOnce the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.", "score": 9 }, { "body": "**\"If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.\"**\n- *Jack Handey*", "score": 9 }, { "body": "\"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me.\" Hunter S Thompson", "score": 7 }, { "body": "\"What luck for rulers that men do not think.\" \r\nAdolf Hitler\r\n\r\nBessie Braddock British MP: Winston, you're drunk.\r\nWinston Churchill: Bessie, you're ugly and tomorrow I shall be sober.\r\n\r\nThe illegal we do immediately, the unconstitutional takes a little longer.\r\nHenry Kissinger\r\n\r\nI would not like to be a Russian leader, they never know when they're being taped.\r\nRichard Nixon", "score": 7 }, { "body": "Not sure where this came from but: \"Don't fret about the world ending tomorrow, for it's already tomorrow in Australia.\"", "score": 7 }, { "body": "I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when my fear is gone I will turn and face fear's path, and only I will remain. ", "score": 7 }, { "body": "\"Saying 'I notice you're a nerd' is like saying, 'Hey, I notice that you'd rather be intelligent than be stupid, that you'd rather be thoughtful than be vapid, that you believe that there are things that matter more than the arrest record of Lindsay Lohan. Why is that?' In fact, it seems to me that most contemporary insults are pretty lame. Even 'lame' is kind of lame. Saying 'You're lame' is like saying 'You walk with a limp.' Yeah, whatever, so does 50 Cent, and he's done all right for himself.\" \n— John Green", "score": 7 }, { "body": "\"Every morning when I wake up, I experience an exquisite joy — the joy of being Salvador Dalí.\" - Salvador Dalí", "score": 7 }, { "body": "\"You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It's their mistake, not my failing.\"\n\n— Richard P. Feynman", "score": 7 }, { "body": "One of mine, from a song lyric:\n\"Someday you will die and somehow someone's going to steal your carbon.\" - Modest Mouse\n\nPretty much sums up life for me. \n\nedit: Lyric is actually \"Someday you will die and somehow, something's gonna steal your carbon\" but it's essentially the same. ", "score": 6 }, { "body": "It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him with the words: \"And this, too, shall pass away.\" How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!\n\n-Abraham Lincoln", "score": 6 }, { "body": "Total abstinence is so excellent a thing that it cannot be carried to too great an extent. In my passion for it I even carry it so far as to totally abstain from total abstinence itself.\n-Mark Twain", "score": 6 }, { "body": "> The great source of both the misery and disorders of human life, seems to arise from over-rating the difference between one permanent situation and another. Avarice over-rates the difference between poverty and riches: ambition, that between a private and a public station: vain-glory, that between obscurity and extensive reputation. The person under the influence of any of those extravagant passions, is not only miserable in his actual situation, but is often disposed to disturb the peace of society, in order to arrive at that which he so foolishly admires. The slightest observation, however, might satisfy him, that, in all the ordinary situations of human life, a well-disposed mind may be equally calm, equally cheerful, and equally contented. Some of those situations may, no doubt, deserve to be preferred to others: but none of them can deserve to be pursued with that passionate ardour which drives us to violate the rules either of prudence or of justice; or to corrupt the future tranquillity of our minds, either by shame from the remembrance of our own folly, or by remorse from the horror of our own injustice.\n\n* Adam Smith\n\ntl;dr: Don't worry (about that other dude), be happy. ", "score": 6 }, { "body": "\"I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know?” - Ernest Hemingway.", "score": 6 }, { "body": ">Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats. -H.L. Menken", "score": 6 }, { "body": "\"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose. Nothin' don't mean nothin', honey, if it ain't free.\" -- Janis Joplin", "score": 6 }, { "body": "politicians and diapers are things that have to be changed from time to time, for the same reason...", "score": 6 }, { "body": "\"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.\" - Frank Zappa", "score": 6 }, { "body": "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. ~Aristotle", "score": 6 }, { "body": "\"The best thing about posting anonymously on the internet is you can attribute a quote to anyone\" -Adolf Hitler", "score": 6 }, { "body": "\"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. \"\r\n\r\nSir Winston Churchill, November 1942 re: Battle of Britian and German bombings.\r\n", "score": 5 }, { "body": "\"\"It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone's fault. If it was Us, what did that make Me? After all, I'm one of Us. I must be. I've certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. No One ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We're always one of Us. It's Them that do the bad things.\" -Terry Prachett", "score": 5 }, { "body": "\"It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand. \" Mark Twain", "score": 4 }, { "body": "If gold shall ruste, what shal iren do?\n\tCanterbury Tales – Prologue, ll. 500\n\nTo be able to say how much you love is to love little.\n\tPetrarch\n\nTell her the joyous time wil not be staid\nUnlesse she doe him by the forelock take.\n\tSonnet #70 – Edmund Spenser\n\nTeach me to feel another’s woe,\n To hide the fault I see,\nThat mercy I to others show,\n That mercy show to me.\n\tAlexander Pope\n\nIt’s a damn poor mind that can spell a word only one way.\n\tAndrew Jackson\n\nThe hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways – I to die and you to live. Which is the better, God only knows.\n\tThe Apology – Socrates\n\nThere are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,\nThan are dreamt of in your philosophy.\n\tHamlet: I, 5 – Shakespeare\n\nThe world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.\n\tHorace Walpole", "score": 4 }, { "body": "The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww! \n\n-Jack Kerouac", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I don't think I have one favourite, I have a few.\n\n'There is no greater naivety than the belief in the patriotism of capital.\nA capitalist may be a patriot, capital is not.\nVictor Cambon, 1913' \n\n'The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.\nGeorge Washington' \n\n'In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then beleive them to be true. \nBuddha' \n\n'Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.\nAlbert Einstein'\n\n'\"Abandon your animosities and make your sons Americans.\" \nRobert E. Lee, 1865'\n\n\"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.\" \n\"The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.\"\nJoseph Goebbels' \n\n\"Why of course the people don't want war ... But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship ...Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.\"\nHermann Goering\n\n\"No one starts a war--or rather, no one in his senses ought to do so--without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by that war and how he intends to conduct it.\"\nvon Clausewitz", "score": 3 }, { "body": "\"I am really much more afraid of those people who have so great a fear of the devil, than I am of the devil himself.\" - Saint Theresa of Avila", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Several lines from \"A Beautiful Mind\":\n\n\"I have respect for beer. I have respect for beer!\"\n\n\"What's the point of being nuts if you can't have a little fun?\"\n\n\"I don't exactly know what I am required to say in order for you to have intercourse with me. But could we assume that I said all that. I mean essentially we are talking about fluid exchange right? So could we go just straight to the sex.\"\n\nAlso,\n\n\"I reject your reality and substitute my own.\"", "score": 3 }, { "body": "> However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.\n\nKubrick, from [this much longer but still worth reading Playboy interview](http://1.media.tumblr.com/tNzpvQVUdq5btqgjqLQTBINio1_500.png)\n\n> Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.\n\nBeckett", "score": 3 }, { "body": "“Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all, those who live without love.\" - Albus Dumbledore", "score": 3 }, { "body": "\"His capacity for love was like a piano string. Most of the time it lied dormant yet taut, almost to its breaking point, from apathy and underuse. But when struck correctly and held gracefully, he was capable of producing more than any of us ever could. Only certain women in his life had ever found that sweet spot, that fraction of an inch that freed the perfect, unique manifestation of all that resided within him. She had found that spot. The rich, sonorous, complicated love poured out of him, just as that string reverberates and resonates a piercing note throughout a room, simultaneously filling those who experience it with a sense of awe and sadness, as if they realize at its inception that something that beautifully wrought cannot last forever. And their reaction being correct, his vibrations of effort and energy eventually expended, he returned to his taut, tightly wound existence, only to produce a richer yet ultimately sadder note the next time--for with each increasingly infrequent strike, the nearer came the inevitability of the string snapping on impact. But, until that point, each successive, although exponentially rarer and rarer, strike produced in him a product less and less likely to ever be reproduced—for the last note played before the string breaks is the most beautiful it ever produces—tragic and triumphant.\" -BCS", "score": 3 }, { "body": ">I have Dalinian thought: the one thing the world will never have enough of is the outrageous. \n\n-Salvador Dali\n\nIt has had a profound influence on me, my work, and my choices in life. ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Bernard Shaw's final words. He had been sick for a long time, and a nurse came in to check on him.\n\n\"You're looking much better today, Mr. Shaw.\"\n\"On the contrary!\"", "score": 3 }, { "body": "\"The way I see it, I'm a big bag of chemical reactions. When they reach equilibrium, I die.\"\n\n- My chemistry professor", "score": 3 }, { "body": "\"This is not a book to be tossed lightly aside, but to be thrown with great force.\" -- Dorothy Parker", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Bessie, my dear, you are ugly, and what's more, you are disgustingly ugly. But tomorrow I shall be sober and you will still be disgustingly ugly.\n\n- Churchill", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "First off, that isn't long. I'll show you long ;)\n\n> Wish I could start all over.\n\n> after reading various types of philosophy and religion, some kind of spirituality has awoken in me\n\nMaybe this discussion will help you:\n\n-------------\n\nJoseph CAMPBELL: The New Testament teaches dying to one's self, literally suffering the pain of death to the world and its values. **This is the vocabulary of the mystics. Now, suicide is also a symbolic act. It casts off the psychological posture that you happen to be in at the time, so that you may come into a better one. You die to your current life in order to come to another of some kind. But, as Jung says, you'd better not get caught in a symbolic situation. You don't have to die, really, physically. All you have to do is die spiritually and be reborn to a larger way of living.**\n\nBill MOYERS: But it seems so foreign to our experience today. Religion is easy. You put it on as if you are putting on a coat and going out to the movies.\n\nJoseph CAMPBELL: Yes, most churches are for nice social gatherings. You like the people there, they are respectable people, they are old friends, and the family has known them for a long time.\n\nBill MOYERS: What has happened to this mythic idea of the self-sacrificing savior in our culture today?\n\nJoseph CAMPBELL: During the Vietnam War, I remember seeing on the television young men in helicopters going out to rescue one or another of their companions, at great risk to themselves. They didn't have to rescue that greatly endangered young man. And so there I saw this same thing working, **the same willingness of which Schopenhauer wrote, of sacrificing one's own life for another. Men sometimes confess they love war because it puts them in touch with the experience of being alive. In going to the office every day, you don't get that experience, but suddenly, in war, you are ripped back into being alive. Life is pain; life is suffering; and life is horror -- but, by God, you are alive.** Those young men in Vietnam were truly alive in braving death for their fellows.\n\nBill MOYERS: But a man said to me once after years of standing on the platform of the subway, \"I die a little bit down there every day, but I know I am doing so for my family.\" **There are small acts of heroism, too, that occur without regard to the notoriety that you attract for it.** For example, a mother does it by the isolation she endures on behalf of the family.\n\nJoseph CAMPBELL: Motherhood is a sacrifice. On our veranda in Hawaii the birds come to feed. Each year there have been one or two mother birds. When you see a mother bird, plagued by her progeny for food, with five baby birds, some of them bigger than she is, flopping all over her -- \"Well,\" you think, \"this is the symbol of motherhood, this giving of your substance and every damn thing to your progeny.\" That is why the mother becomes the symbol of Mother Earth. She is the one who has given birth to us and on whom we live and on whose body we find our food.\n\nBill MOYERS: As you talk, I think of another figure in The Way of the Animal Powers that struck me as Christlike. Do you remember that savior figure from the creation **legend of the Pima Indians**?\n\nJoseph CAMPBELL: Yes. It is an instructive story. He is the classic savior figure who brings life to mankind, and **mankind then tears him to pieces. You know the old saying: Save a man's life and make an enemy for life.**\n\nJoseph MOYERS: When the world is created, he emerges from the center of the earth and later leads his people from underground, but they turn against him, killing him not once but several times --\n\nJoseph CAMPBELL: -- even pulverizing him.\n\nBill MOYERS: But he always returns to life. At last he goes into the mountains where the trails become so confused, no one can follow him. Now, that is a Christlike figure, isn't it?\n\nJoseph CAMPBELL: Yes, it is. And here also is the labyrinth motif. **The trails are deliberately confused**, but if you know the secret of the labyrinth, you can go and pay its inhabitant a visit.\n\nBill MOYERS: And if you have faith, you can follow Jesus.\n\nJoseph CAMPBELL: You can. Very often one of the things that one learns as a member of the mystery religions is that the labyrinth, which blocks, is at the same time the way to eternal life. **This is the final secret of myth -- to teach you how to penetrate the labyrinth of life in such a way that its spiritual values come through.**\n\nThat is the problem of Dante's Divine Comedy, too. **The crisis comes in the \"middle of the way of our life,\"** when the body is beginning to fade, and another whole constellation of themes comes breaking into your dream world. Dante says that, in the middle year of his life, he was lost in a dangerous wood. And **he was threatened there by three animals, symbolizing pride, desire, and fear. Then Virgil, the personification of poetic insight,** appeared and conducted him through the labyrinth of hell, which is the place of those fixed to their desires and fears, who can't pass through to eternity. Dante was carried through to the beatific vision of God. **On a smaller scale, in this Pima Indian story, we have the same mythological image. The Pima Indians were among the simplest Indian cultures in North America.** And here they have, in their own way, made use of this highly sophisticated image, which matches Dante.\n\n\n-------------\n\n.\n\n> I once had a car (bought by my father) and a driver's license but lost them after few months due to DUI. And will probably never have one again since the epileptic attacks have increased in the recent years.\n\nThat kind of thing can seem to suck on the surface... but turn it upside down, to your advantage. perhaps you can build relationships around your limitations of driving. \n\n> I'm almost penniless, I have no school diplomas, so finding any kind of job is very difficult. In the nights I search the dumpsters of nearby supermarkets, scavenging any edible food I can find. \n\nYou write well; you clearly must like reading if you use reddit. What is it you want to do, maybe people here can help you improve this situation. What city are you in, maybe we can hook you up with more self-respecting ways to gather your food? We do care, and we can help with tracking down options, information on jobs, etc. That's the kind of things that redditors can do well, so give us a chance, but you know not to entirely *count on us*, but give us a chance...\n\n> In my age, my parents were building their first own house while I cannot afford a pair of shoes. It's embarassing, and I know it hurts my parents, especially my mother who is a sensitive person.\n\nYou sound like a sensitive person. Which is cool, most seem to be taught to suppress it. \n\n------------\n\nJoseph CAMPBELL: The big moment in the medieval myth is **the awakening of the heart to compassion, the transformation of passion into compassion.** That is the whole problem of the Grail stories, compassion for the wounded king. And out of that you also get the notion that Abelard offered as an explanation of the crucifixion: that the Son of God came down into this world to be crucified to awaken our hearts to compassion, and **thus to turn our minds from the gross concerns of raw life in the world to the specifically human values of self-giving in shared suffering.** In that sense the wounded king, the maimed king of the Grail legend, is a counterpart of the Christ. He is there to evoke compassion and thus bring a dead wasteland to life. There is a mystical notion there of the spiritual function of suffering in this world. The one who suffers is, as it were, the Christ, come before us **to evoke the one thing that turns the human beast of prey into a valid human being. That one thing is compassion. This is the theme that James Joyce takes over and develops in Ulysses -- the awakening of his hero, Stephen Dedalus, to manhood through a shared compassion with Leopold Bloom. That was the awakening of his heart to love and the opening of the way.**\n\n-------------\n\n.\n\nIf I'm connecting with you, please respond. Otherwise other redditors will jump in here shortly. And there are others yet who are reading our conversation who can probably relate entirely to your situation - and are being helped by your very sharing of your problems. Chin up, you are working on it (your life).... help join in the party of helping others.", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Thank you for sharing with us :). It sounds like youre a very intelligent individual who is a self taught multi-linguist, programmer, and musician, and who has made some poor choices in their life. We all fuck up though.\n\nYou are a very smart person, and despite adversity you're still here and trying, and so you should be proud of yourself for this. What religion/philosophy are you beginning to ascribe to? Maybe theres a way you can become more involved in this, and use it to better your life?", "score": 5 }, { "body": "“Anyone desperate enough for suicide...should be desperate enough to go to creative extremes to solve problems: elope at midnight, stow away on the boat to New Zealand and start over, do what they always wanted to do but were afraid to try.”-Richard Bach\n\nStart over, and learn the value of life(with or without religion) know that flesh is more valuable than gold, know that pain starts in your thoughts and ends in your thoughts. Know that its never to late to say FUCK OFF to your diseases. This diseases has the power to end you and power build you. Just because your born does not entitle you to a life(unfortunately kids die of hunger every minute of the day) your life is not that hard. Know that sometimes life feels like god gave you lemons to make orange juice. And because of your past, youll at least have stories of survival to tell your grandchildren.\n\n Nice video about consciousness creates the universe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9bVd3BspIQ\n\nStop disrespecting yourself, your friends, and your parents with the threat of suicide. You are more than that. Start thinking positive and positive changes shall begin. Notice the similarities in all these posts and how they tend to dwell on misfortune, negativity. I recommend you change your name to JustAnotherGuy. I wish you the best, and believe that happiness will one day come", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "Just do it! Veganism is easier than you think!\n\nIf you really want to see footage from slaughterhouses etc, then look up the movie 'Earthlings', you can watch it for free on Google Video and it can be downloaded elsewhere.\n\nCan I also recommend getting your hands on a copy of the book 'Vegan Freak: Living Vegan in a Non-Vegan World' - this is the book I wish I had when I first went vegan. Its basically a how-to guide for all aspects of living life as a vegan. Its pretty funny too.", "score": 7 } ]

[ { "body": "Traffic is way up today. Apparently none of you work when you come back from a vacation.\n\nWe're working on some fixes that we've been working on for a while now. Hopefully we'll have them out shortly.", "score": 250 }, { "body": "yyyyyy---.......eesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss iiiiiiiiitttt-t-t-t-t-t sssss slllllowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww", "score": 15 }, { "body": "It's been terrible all day. I thought it was just me, so I feel a little better.\r\n\r\nEDIT: I restarted my comp due to other problems, and reddit is moving considerably quicker.\r\n\r\nEDIT2: I take previous edit back. =[", "score": 6 }, { "body": "ping dirt \r\n\r\nPing request could not find host dirt. Please check the name and try again.\r\n \r\n\r\n\r\nping reddit.com\r\n\r\nRequest timed out.\r\n\r\n\r\nLooks about the same from my end", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "I've worked on two games for the Wii, three for Xbox 360, two or three for the PC (depending on what you count as a game) and am about to release [my first on the iPhone](http://www.cogsgame.com). With that list of platforms, I've used quite a few engines and I've written code in Python, Lua, Objective C, ActionScript, UnrealScript and HLSL leveraging graphics APIs that include OpenGL, DirectX, Flash and GX (for the Wii). But with all of that diversity in engines and APIs, every project I've ever worked on has something in common -- 90 to 95% of the code is written in C/C++. Admittedly, C++ is a verbose language, so it's not necessarily the best for illustrating concepts and pseudocode may be a better alternative for some examples. But if you really want to teach a skill set for employable programmers, C++ is what they'll be using in the real world.", "score": 14 }, { "body": "I **used to be in** the game industry until I **went on a killing spree** and I think the examples should be in **romulan.**", "score": 13 } ]

[ { "body": "I can't help but make a derisive and completely unhelpful letter for you. I tried *so* hard to resist the urge, but I'm weak.\n\n\"Dear Gravy-Sucking Federal Greaseballs,\n\nI, a law-abiding, tax-paying citizen, am writing to request that you give me some information. Specifically, I want to know which religious groups are exempted from paying portions of the federal tax code pertaining to Social Security and Medicare. I'd also ask you tell me why I'm *not* tax exempt, but I suspect all I'd get is a smarmy form letter and a late-night visit from the Paramecium Brothers, Anthony and Victor, wherein I'd be subjected to a forty-five second speech regarding social contracts, and fifteen minutes of state-sanctioned Assault With A Deadly Pipe Wrench.\n\nI recognize that all federal offices, departments, and employees are generally loath to give away anything more valuable than navel lint, lest their tiny kingdoms be laid low at some point in the future due to a shortage of resources. To that end, I'm willing to compromise; as long as the information was originally *produced* in Modern English, I will accept it, regardless of the quality of the medium upon which it is delivered, the convoluted sentence structure enshrining the information (lest it be understood by a mere plebeian citizen), or the asinine level of redaction applied to the information.\n\nPlease Throw Yourself Into the Nearest Spike-Filled Pit,\nJohn Q. Taxpayer\"", "score": 10 } ]

[ { "body": "Seymour Duncan JB for the bridge\r\n\r\nSeymour Duncan Jazz for the neck\r\n\r\nReally great pickups that can cover basically any style.", "score": 7 }, { "body": "that guitar looks awesome!. unfortunately, pickups worth purchasing as an upgrade will cost close to about the price of your guitar.\nCeramic pickups like the ones that seem to be included in your guitar are generally higher output, but are not as versatile in clean or low gain (threshold of breaking up) situations.\n\n\nGibson 498t (i think this is the model number, whatever the les paul studio's come with), or seymour duncan JB for the bridge are pretty versatile rock guitar pickups. These both sound similar (they are both \"hot\" alnico magnets) and well priced. (80-90 USD).\n\nA lot of people with basswood body guitars like EMG active pickups. I can't comment, as i don't own a guitar made of basswood.\n\n\nIf you want something a little more vintage sounding, seymour duncan pearly gates are pretty cool. To be honest, you can't go wrong with any pickup in the $80+ USD range, as they will most likely all be a significant improvement over what's in there now. I wouldn't get too caught up in trying to decide what to get. There are just too many choices out there, and almost all of them are good.\n\nAs far as installation, it shouldn't be too hard, even if you have little to no soldering experience. There are plenty of great videos online that demonstrate what you need to know.\n\nGood luck!\n\nEDIT: you may also consider changing the volume and tone pots if they're crummy. pickup MFGer, or online community boards can recommend some.\n", "score": 5 }, { "body": "Having had a couple of the Rondo guitars, they are nice. Never had one of the douglas, models but I assume they are similar to the SX stuff.... \n\nBasically, GiantStonedBot is correct, get a set of Alnico magnet pickups....\n\nSeymour Duncans, gibsons, hell any of them will most likely be a huge improvement\n\nThese are cheap, and decent, [GuitarFetish](http://store.guitarfetish.com/pickups.html) I have a vintage FAT PAF in a Agile 335 mockoff that I leave at the practice room, sounds pretty darn good.\n\nInstalling: \n1. do you have any idea how to soldier? Or, Are you mechanically inclined?\n1a. Are you good at following directions?\n\nIf yes to both, then you need a couple tools. screwdriver, pliers, and a soldering iron. [A pencil type](http://www.amazon.com/Soldering-Iron-Solder-Pencil-Craft/dp/B001KVW7CC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1262637464&sr=8-1) and a little bit of solder, resin core type. \n\nThis is a very simple job. There are [tons](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=installing+guitar+pickups&aq=f&aqi=&oq=&emsg=NCSR&ei=RlJCS4nzHo3sMdbSqKIF) of [quality](http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/choosing-installing/installing-pick/) resources online.\n\nTo do this: \n1: before you unsolder anything, draw a detailed diagram of how it is. make sure you know what is gonna go where on the new pickups.\n\nHumbuckers will have 2 or 4 wires, if you just want humbuckers and no split coil you then solder 2 of the wires together, so now it is all have 2 wires. So really you are talking 4 wires to solder, 12 screws (4 per pickup frame, 2 per pickup mount x 2) this is an easy job, really, google up a storm. \n\nAlso there are reviews out the YingYang at [Harmony Central](http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Electric+Guitar+Pickup) ", "score": 3 }, { "body": "One further note, A vintage Hot pickup is hot enough to do some metal type stuff and mellow enough to do clean stuff, and you go down in output, the extreme performance generally goes down, and as you go down in output, the hot performance goes down... these are general rules.\n\nI have a MIJ 62 Strat with Rio Grandes, which will do 80's thrash with single coils and sounds stupendous clean and amazing everywhere in between. It will not do Extreme Metal.\n\n\nPickups will customize the sound of a solid body electric about as much as anything you can do, have fun, but every choice is a compromise.\n", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I'd check out that Fat PAF from Guitarfetish as well. If you know which end of a soldiering iron to hold, you can install pickups. \n\nAlso, check out http://www.agileguitarforum.com -- there's a great community of shadetree luthiers there that are fairly OCD about Rondo guitars. They'll help you out in a pinch.", "score": 3 }, { "body": "I've built many, many electric guitars looking for the right sound. I was barking up the wrong tree. It's the amplifier. You are not going to get the sound you are looking for with those amps no matter what you spend on pickups. If you really must go that way, let me know and I'll mail you some spares for nothing. You'll need a soldering iron and be fairly handy with tools though.\n\nLikely what you are getting from your amp is microphonic feedback from the pickup. Many pickups are dipped in hot wax so that the coils cannot reverberate. The ones on your guitar, maybe not so much. Back off on the highs or stand further away from the amp.\n\nIf you are looking for a distorted sound, maybe you should go tube. I bought a 1 watt Blackheart Ant from Amazon for like $129. It's great for slide practice because you can turn it all the way up for full on distortion and it's no louder than TV volume.\n\nGood luck, and you're welcome to the pickups if you want them.", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "A photon is not a \"something\", it's a \"doing\". It has no mass, it is only energy. \n\n\"Speed of light\" is a bit of a confusion, it should really be \"propagation rate of electromagnetic radiation\" as it applies to any EM flux, not just visible light. \n\n\"Photon\" is a quantum mechanical short-hand for a unit of EM radiation. It isn't really a particle (nor is it really a wave). It is a quanta of EM energy.\n\n\"c\" is the EM radiation propagation limit in a special circumstance (flat space & vacuum) EM radiation actually has a lower velocities (propagation rates) in other media (air, glass, water, etc.). This is why you hear of recent experiments where they have slowed light to a few km/hr in Bose-Einstein condensates.\n\nSince a photon is energy, it is it's own impetus. Being massless it has no inertia to overcome and propagates onward as close to \"c\" as its environment will allow.\n", "score": 42 }, { "body": "Imagine if an electron were suddenly snapped so that the snap shook the electron's electric field free. It only has enough energy to move a short distance to move away from the electron. But then we bring in Maxwell, and Maxwell tells us that a moving electric current creates a magnetic field. As the electric charge moves away from the electron, it's forward momentum gets converted into magnetic field surrounding it. But now that the forward momentum is gone, the magnetic field collapses. A moving magnetic field creates an electric current, so as the magnetic field collapses the electric current continues forward. It's an oscillation, the speed of which is determined by the electric and magnetic constants, respectively. C = sqrt( 1 / (E0*M0))", "score": 16 }, { "body": "In this context, it's probably better to think of light as a wave instead of a particle. The fact that it *exists* gives it it's motion. Think of sound waves. Its not possible to say something to your friend and have it reach his ears at different speeds, because if *sound* exists, it travels at the *speed of sound*.\n\nNote: not a physicist, correct me if this is wrong", "score": 4 } ]

[ { "body": "Whaaa horde whaa alliance, don't be douche bags, just come join us, we have 90+ people that have joined the guild so far. ", "score": 4 }, { "body": "I am all for this, despite my reddit username. I love the idea of a reddit guild, but I love my Cow Druid more. ", "score": 3 } ]

[ { "body": "WTF is a 'think tank', besides being a hack piece of jargon in Newspeak? Let's start speaking plain English again, please. I have a hunch that plain speaking is a lot closer to the Libertarian cause than another funded group of quasi-academics spewing paper. (No insult to their project intended.)\r\n\r\nSo please, explain what it is your friend is up to that doesn't have me picture an aquarium full of brains. . .", "score": 3 }, { "body": "Leonard Read started it all. Furthermore, he wrote down how he did it. Read Leonard Read. Some of his harder to find books may be acquired from the Foundation for Economic Education. I was a Research Fellow there. I would be happy to answer any questions. Don't look for money in order to put an idea into action. That will be fruitless. Get the idea down. Then, get the money. Let me know how I can help. ", "score": 3 } ]