SkepDoc 2.0

I was a first time attendee at TAM 6 and plan to go this year as well.

It would be interesting to meet some of the Y!A skeptics from this board

http://s.wsj.net/article/SB123024234651134037.html

In "The rooftops of Athens" level near the beginning, after taking out the archers and putting down the ramp, you backwards jump from the 3 pillars. I can't get from the 3rd pillar to the ledge.

Is there a 'sweet spot' for launching or just a cheat to get past this annoyance. I've played this 30 second sequence too often and it's getting frustrating.

Why is the American ideal of "rugged individualism" better?

What is wrong with a society looking after all its citizens?

Why does one system have to be "better", can't they both exist?

Do you want to privatize the post office, military, teachers, police, fire department, civil service etc?

I'm interested in thoughts on this from the left, the right, and non US citizens as well.

Lets try to keep it polite and avoid the demagogy, rants and ideological slurs for a change of pace.

discuss intelligently if possible.

The theory is this. The GOP knew that they were doomed to lose this election after the failures of the Bush administration. They didn't want to waste one of their good candidates, so they allowed McCain to get the nomination. He's not really a Republican anyway, so this way they can hang the anchor around his neck for losing the election, and come back in 4 years with Mitt Romney and a re-organized party.

because it all sounded like discombobulated gibberish to me.

I've been popping in to this board for a couple months now, and my impression is that if you believe in one weird thing, you seem to be equally accepting of all weird things.

I've noticed this phenomena in my usual hangout in Alternative Medicine, but NOT in Religion and Spirituality. (the religious seem to only believe deeply in the weird things about their specific deity, but not bigfoot or PK)

Discuss

There's the (apocryphal) story of a basketball game...in desperation, the losing team has somebody go down on all fours and start barking like a dog. While everyone is distracted by this insane diversion, the losers take the ball and score the winning basket unopposed.

Discuss

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nsaum/1527437234/

I installed them when we reno'd the kitchen 4 years ago. Worked fine until a few months ago when they started to go on an off intermittently. I thought it was a faulty switch, because they would come back on when I jiggled it. I replaced the switch, and it seemed to work at first, but a day later, they are cutting out again.

The connection to the transformer is above the cabinets in a well ventilated area.

Any ideas?

The film claims that people who make baseless claims without physical evidence are being "discriminated" against.

Discuss.

Here's a clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiNGK3y5Ypg&feature...

NO SCIENCE DEBATE: CANDIDATES WILL DEBATE JESUS.

It seemed to be going well for efforts to arrange a debate on science issues. The National Academies, the Council for Competitiveness and the AAAS had agreed to serve as official cosponsors; the plan was endorsed by

all major research universities and scientific societies.

However, in a world faced with the threat of global warming, dwindling fossil fuel, continuous warfare, disease and starvation on the rise in Africa, spiraling food prices world wide, the candidates must focus on "solutions." They have therefore chosen to attend "The Compassion Forum" instead, a "wide ranging and probing discussion of policies related

to moral issues." It will be held at Messiah College somewhere in central Pennsylvania. Founded by the Brethren in Christ Church in 1909; Messiah’s motto is "Christ Preeminent."

I'm going to post this in both R&S and Politics

Read this from Robert Parks weekly science update first.

"NO SCIENCE DEBATE: CANDIDATES WILL DEBATE JESUS.

It seemed to be going well for efforts to arrange a debate on science issues. The National Academies, the Council for Competitiveness and the AAAS had agreed to serve as official cosponsors; the plan was endorsed by all major research universities and scientific societies.

However, in a world faced with the threat of global warming, dwindling fossil fuel, continuous warfare, disease and starvation on the rise in Africa, spiraling food prices world wide, the candidates must focus on "solutions." They have therefore chosen to attend "The Compassion Forum" instead, a "wide ranging and probing discussion of policies related

to moral issues." It will be held at Messiah College somewhere in central Pennsylvania. Founded by the Brethren in Christ Church in 1909; Messiah’s motto is "Christ Preeminent."

By my calculations, my Best Answer percentage has been been 13-14% in recent weeks, but Y!A never shows me above 11%.

Anybody else find themselves being short-changed?

I used to be a Christian but I never got around to being baptized before I became an atheist. Yes I came from a full immersion fundamentalist sect., but I could never get a reasonable explanation of why...what is the point. I know all about "getting right with God" and "following Jesus footsteps" and "because Jesus commanded" and all that.

But, since the only requirement to get into heaven is to accept Jesus Christ into your heart as your personal saviour and believe that he died for your sins....then what EXTRA is gained by being baptized?

Do the non-baptized Christians get assigned to "the housing projects" in heaven, or only limited amount of time chatting with God?

In spite of some of the sarcasm above, this is actually a serious question to Christians. What

I'm a part-time ER doctor. Last night I had a 40's man come in who had broken his hip in a basketball game. He was in a lot of pain of course. As I was taking his history, it turns out he is a practicing homeopath, takes nothing but homeopathic "medicine", some odd naturopathic diet, and was very proud he hadn't even taken an Aspirin in 20 years.

Since homeopaths believe substances get more powerful the more you dilute them, I offered to water down the morphine for him. He insisted on full dose morphine, and lots of it.

Isn't that hypocritical?

Seriously...Xians make a big deal about the "sacrifice" Jesus made for our "sins". But all he did was suffer for a few hours, then went back to sitting at the right hand of God, according to Xian mythology.

Wouldn't it have been more of a sacrifice if he had volunteered to go to Hell on our behalf? Now that's a god I could believe in.

We legally restrict underage driving, drinking, sex,/pornography or joining the military etc. We don't allow people to hold public office under a certain age.

since religious ideas are so complex, contradictory, and dangerous in the wrong hands.....why should we not restrict it until a certain age.?

And by this I don't mean "teaching" atheism. They are free to think for themselves about gods or the lack of gods.

Why do so many right wingers have angry looking Avatars?

I'm not generalizing to the majority, but I was struck by how many of the really "out there" Limbaugh and O'reilly disciples have angry, scowling avatars.

You've had it your way for the last 7 years, why are you so angry?