Comments by annabanana

751. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #112875 by annabanana on January 18, 2008 at 7:58 am

Scooter, I wasn't trying to put you on the defensive or really even trying to offend you. I was only trying to point out the error of your ways so that maybe this could turn into a rational discussion.

752. Gigantic fossil rodent discovered

Comment #112864 by annabanana on January 18, 2008 at 7:44 am

Lol! It's the new pony! "Daddy, I want a Josephoartigasia monesi for my birthday! Please!!!!!"

753. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #112862 by annabanana on January 18, 2008 at 7:39 am

Scooter, I think it is also a very defining characteristic that you refuse to try and accept any argument that anyone has made here that doesn't align with what you've decided is right. If you can't look at yourself critically, you're just as bad as the next creationist.

754. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #112859 by annabanana on January 18, 2008 at 7:37 am

Diacanu, thanks, I'm feeling particularly volatile at the moment...I'm not normally that feisty.

755. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #112855 by annabanana on January 18, 2008 at 7:35 am

To take the drug is STILL A CHOICE. It doesn't matter how the recidivism rate goes.

This means no one is allowed to make a mistake. Ever. You must've made a mistake or two in your life. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Scooter, I think you've gone to far to prove your point.

756. Huckabee Wants A 'Faith-based' Constitution

Comment #112831 by annabanana on January 18, 2008 at 6:42 am

*cries*

I've shed a lot of tears over this election...

757. Gigantic fossil rodent discovered

Comment #112823 by annabanana on January 18, 2008 at 6:28 am

*hits forehead on desk*

Now the creationists have something else to depict alongside the humans in the new Creationism museum...they thought it was complete...[/sarcasm]

758. Ben Stein Bribing Schools to See His Anti-Evolution Movie 'Expelled'

Comment #112813 by annabanana on January 18, 2008 at 6:05 am

I'm not feeling very serious today, so I'd just like to say that if they want to promote the Bible and creationism in school, I'd be ok with it as long as it's the LOLBible...

For all of you who are not familiar with Ben Stein, he was the teacher on the tv show "The Wonder Years", he's in those "clear eyes" commercials, he was the host of the show "win Ben Stein's Money" (which was why I liked him before all of this crap), and the most recent thing "America's Most Smartest Model" (on VH1, and no it wasn't a very serious show)...

759. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #112809 by annabanana on January 18, 2008 at 5:53 am

Really? Then that must mean all the millions of addicts who HAVE made decisions to become accountable and responsible and who live a life of sobriety are then forfeit of this idea.

Scooter, you've missed the point. Most addicts who successfully are able to quit have failed many many times before. The drugs become first priority in the hierarchy of needs.

Also, not to be a complete b@!$%, but if you're ever trapped in a burning building, remind me not to save you, since you wouldn't have it any other way...

760. Ben Stein Bribing Schools to See His Anti-Evolution Movie 'Expelled'

Comment #112555 by annabanana on January 17, 2008 at 12:58 pm

Ashton,

Yes, I think this only applies to private schools. If this occurred in public schools, I'm sure it would go to court. There'd have to be at least one intelligent parent that wouldn't have it. I think it would probably also be unconstitutional.

761. Ben Stein Bribing Schools to See His Anti-Evolution Movie 'Expelled'

Comment #112527 by annabanana on January 17, 2008 at 12:31 pm

These people are nothing but dishonest. First, they misrepresent what the film's intention is, now this. It's pathetic that they have to be so dishonest and use bribery to promote their film.

762. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #112486 by annabanana on January 17, 2008 at 9:22 am

It would be interesting to know if humans are becoming more empathetic over time (where time is on an evolutionary scale).

I also thought about this when I was pondering the issue. I did see a program on the discovery channel about australopithecus (like "lucy") and the way these hominids were being depicted was empathetic, but I think many of the programs are highly speculative and take creative license in order to make it entertaining, so I'm not sure of the validity of this or even if there would be any way of knowing.

but rather they are the groups where the individuals behave with a balanced mix of selfishness and unselfishness (drawn on empathy and other factors.)

This makes sense to me. Middle of the road makes sense to me in many situations, actually (this isn't to say that what I think is always correct).

763. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #112480 by annabanana on January 17, 2008 at 9:00 am

That is, those that won't help themselves out of a bad situation are not desirable in the gene pool. Likewise, those that find themselves in a bad situation through no fault of their own could be viewed as not being well adapted to their environment and a detriment to survival of the species.

Ok, I'll buy that. I will say, though, that just because someone isn't a fully functional member of the population does not mean that they don't have something to offer to the society. Stephen Hawking, for example, isn't exactly "fit", but he's offered a good bit to the field of physics/cosmology and contributed greatly to the general public's knowledge of the field. Should we feel no empathy for these people when this is the case? I think it would be more prudent to continue to empathize and carry the lesser people in the hope that they might have something significant to contribute.

764. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #112474 by annabanana on January 17, 2008 at 8:40 am

I still feel as if I'm missing something. From a biological standpoint, it is beneficial to our species and to our ultimate survival to help one another and to feel empathy. A good portion of the population of our species, I would venture, is a functional part of this population and we all benefit by helping the less fortunate so that our species can be successful. Please tell me if I'm completely missing the point here.

765. Science, Evolution, and Creationism

Comment #112172 by annabanana on January 16, 2008 at 1:52 pm

This is true, I was just watching the Blue Planet about it the other night...do we have a good record of how much they have evolved?

766. Science, Evolution, and Creationism

Comment #112164 by annabanana on January 16, 2008 at 1:42 pm

How do we describe the result of that stronger selection pressure?

This is an interesting question to contemplate. It also brings up issues such as that there are pressure to stay the same as well as pressures to change. Although, I suppose you could look at pressure to stay the same as non-pressure. It also depends on how specialized an organism is. If an organism has evolved to be particularly specialized to live in a certain environment such as some of the "worms" found around the hot vents in the oceans, then it will benefit the organism not to change very much. Maybe it's tied to mobility. At the present (without having done any sort of research, just thinking) it seems that the more mobile the organism, the more pressures there are to be able to adapt to different environments and develop a number of survival mechanisms.

767. Dinesh D'Souza: Winner of the 2007 Bad Faith Award

Comment #112161 by annabanana on January 16, 2008 at 1:34 pm

Dinesh especially irritates me because he knows just enough about science to sound as if he knows what he's talking about to the general layman when he makes all of these horribly distorted claims. I could totally see how the things he says would make sense if you didn't know any better. Of course, we all do, but there are a good many who don't.

That being said, I think Ann Coulter would have been a good recipient as well. She contributes about as much to our society as a tapeworm to an intestine. What a waste of a human.

768. Science, Evolution, and Creationism

Comment #112155 by annabanana on January 16, 2008 at 1:23 pm

No nihilism here.

769. Science, Evolution, and Creationism

Comment #112140 by annabanana on January 16, 2008 at 12:32 pm

No, no, superiority complexes are widespread as it is. No need to try and spread them any further. Not to mention, if who's to say that we are superior yet? If we continue on the way we have been and eventually squander all of our resources, eventually leading to our extinction, we couldn't be considered superior then. I suppose superiority is only relative anyway.

770. Canadian fossil makes waves in Huckabee's presidential run

Comment #112080 by annabanana on January 16, 2008 at 9:30 am

I suppose I'm lucky that my mother wasn't very encouraging of religion. I was raised in the church, but at home it definitely wasn't reinforced, probably the opposite actually.

This is very problematic, though. I think the most frustrating thing is that there isn't an easy solution or even really a good idea for a solution.

771. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #112073 by annabanana on January 16, 2008 at 9:23 am

Hahahaha! Now I'm blushing!

Come to think of it, though, Dawkins Dating Agency rolls off the tongue quite nicely...

Back to the article...here's another article by Shermer that's related if anyone's interested:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=evonomics-skeptic-january-2008

772. Huckabee Wants A 'Faith-based' Constitution

Comment #112068 by annabanana on January 16, 2008 at 9:15 am

I'm trying to remain optimistic and hope that the American people have had enough shenanigans with Bush and will make the right (or not theocratic, at least) decision this time. But we did put Bush in office once (I don't count the first time since he manipulated his way into office).

*cries* Do not want!

773. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #112062 by annabanana on January 16, 2008 at 9:10 am

Dawkins dating agency

LOL

Yes, back on the "market", so to speak. I knew you'd find some way to include economics into it!

I think maybe scooter went a little too far in trying to make his point...either that or I've missed something like I said before.

774. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #112059 by annabanana on January 16, 2008 at 8:58 am

Not to completely butt in since I left yesterday before the real debate got started, but empathy totally benefits society/our species. I may be a bit late on this as Steve and Diacanu have already deconstructed Scooter's argument, but I can't understand how he's seriously making that argument. Did I miss something somewhere?

Off topic:

Diacanu, not to worry, there is one less deist economist dating an atheist...

775. Huckabee Wants A 'Faith-based' Constitution

Comment #111995 by annabanana on January 16, 2008 at 7:00 am

Right on Skepticon. He was pro-choice up until he decided to run for president. He also instituted the first "universal" health care plan in Mass. (which by the way is exceeding it's budget already). I think Romney's just pandering while Huckabee is genuine (in his religious bs at least).

776. Canadian fossil makes waves in Huckabee's presidential run

Comment #111989 by annabanana on January 16, 2008 at 6:43 am

Jaffas85, I really really really hope you're right!

777. Huckabee Wants A 'Faith-based' Constitution

Comment #111988 by annabanana on January 16, 2008 at 6:42 am

I don't think Romney is worse than Huckabee, whoever said that...He seemed to be fairly secular when he was governor of Mass. He seems to be more paying lipservice to his religion than Huckabee is. Does the GRE count in the U.K. for applying to grad school? Does anyone know? Looks like I'll be moving...

778. Canadian fossil makes waves in Huckabee's presidential run

Comment #111984 by annabanana on January 16, 2008 at 6:24 am

I'm sincerely hoping that Mike Huckabee doesn't win the Republican nomination and especially not the general election. I just don't know what I'll do if we have another creationist president. I just want to make them all have the genetics and zoology classes that I had in college (from my wonderful professor who's a fan of TGD) and I just know they'll change their minds. (ok, probably not, but it's worth a try) I just get so frustrated. How does the populace ignore such staggering evidence? And how/why do they think they know better than many many years of what research has told us?

779. George Scales, War Hero and Generous Friend of RDFRS

Comment #111713 by annabanana on January 15, 2008 at 1:51 pm

Thank you, George, for being such a generous man. I know that I and many others have taken much solace in knowing that the RDFRS exists and that there are generous benefactors such as you who care enough to make such a contribution.

I hope that your operation goes well and that your road to recovery is a speedy one!

Thanks,

Anna

780. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #111712 by annabanana on January 15, 2008 at 1:46 pm

As for the EPA, being the state's version, I work with them a bit and they get incredibly bad press, especially over the 9/11 aftermath. I'm not saying they're perfect, but they've done a lot to improve things such as the horrible state of air quality since say the 1960's. I think most places could "use some work". No one (or agency/company/etc.) is perfect.

781. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #111710 by annabanana on January 15, 2008 at 1:43 pm

I will also note that you added yourself into the equation after I made my first comment. The U.S. government has sources of income besides tax payer money. So I won't say that they know how to spend YOUR money better than you do, but that what they have done with the money they have hasn't been ALL bad.

782. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #111708 by annabanana on January 15, 2008 at 1:33 pm

What has the govt. done to suggest to you that they are suited to manage my money better than I do?

The government has started programs such as NASA, agencies such as the EPA, NIH, etc. which have all benefited us in many ways. They've done some quite stupid things like spend bazillions of dollars to go to a ridiculous war and created fiasco agencies like FEMA, but there's usually bad with the good...

783. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #111704 by annabanana on January 15, 2008 at 1:27 pm

There is nothing in the history of the United States that suggests to me that they know how to spend money appropriately.

Surely you are using hyperbole...there are a couple of things...although, I would agree that at the present they aren't doing a very good job.

784. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #111702 by annabanana on January 15, 2008 at 1:23 pm

al-rawandi,

You take me too seriously. Next time I'll remember to include [sarcasm]...[/sarcasm].

I considered writing at the end of the post "*waits to get bashed by one of the frequent economist posters*"

I don't think taxing luxury items sounds like a bad idea, though, because rich people wouldn't quit buying the luxury items just because they had some sort of a "charity" tax. It would actually probably be a good marketing ploy for manufacturers of these luxury items.

By the way, you forgot to say "end Bush's tax cuts for those who make at least $250,000 per year"

785. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #111694 by annabanana on January 15, 2008 at 1:04 pm

Rtambree:

Or alternatively, one could tax luxury goods with an "Africa Tax" or something like that: private jets, cars over $50,000 in value, etc.

I think this sounds like a good idea. If they don't want to be charitable, we'll make them! Hahaha! Those evil humanitarians...taxing the rich and such...

786. Fish out of water: Your Inner Fish

Comment #111693 by annabanana on January 15, 2008 at 1:00 pm

I agree that fish may not be relatively as ill-adapted/evolved as we are, but as you have pointed out, this, by no means, makes them perfect. The point is that it is relative. That being said, I think it would be difficult to actually quantify the level of adaptedness or evolvedness on an objective scale.

787. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #111670 by annabanana on January 15, 2008 at 11:54 am

I suppose a more accurate way to do it would to be to group the results based on certain things like current income level, size of household (and/or number of persons supported by this income), etc. Then if the results were the same across the board, the broader generalization would be acceptable.

788. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #111666 by annabanana on January 15, 2008 at 11:36 am

Oh, I understand that it is above the average for a household and above the poverty level, but I was just stating that depending on certain factors, that may not be enough and you can hardly convince someone to leave out their personal history in considering answering the question which makes the variables innumerable and important.

789. Fish out of water: Your Inner Fish

Comment #111663 by annabanana on January 15, 2008 at 11:25 am

The thing that annoys me about this mostly fascinating article is that it inadvertently sounds as if fish are perfectly adapted/evolved while we are not. So what now? Fish were the ones that were intelligently designed? Most organisms are ill-adapted/evolved in some fashion or another.

790. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #111659 by annabanana on January 15, 2008 at 10:58 am

I know I'm jumping in the conversation a bit late, but I agree with MagratGarlick on the first example given by Shermer. I can't imagine what I would answer because the concept that prices are immune to change is just unfathomable to me. Not to mention, even if I could somehow be convinced that prices would stay the same, considering the cost of living as it is now (even in S.C. where it is relatively low), the first option would barely be enough to get by on depending on things like how many people you are financially responsible for, possible health problems that require frequent maintenance, etc. There are far too many variables IMO for this to be a viable example.

791. Two Ex-Jehovah Witnesses to Tell Why They Became Atheists

Comment #109995 by annabanana on January 10, 2008 at 9:05 am

I remember being in elementary school with twins who were JW. They were always really irritated with it because they could never participate in any of the parties or even receive birthday presents from their friends. I'm pretty sure both of them left the church sometime around high school, although, I'm not sure because they moved away. It seems like that would be enough to make kids stray away from it when their friends are all eating cookies and cupcakes and getting cool presents for their birthdays.

792. US 'doomed' if creationist president elected: scientists

Comment #109640 by annabanana on January 9, 2008 at 10:54 am

She kept it b/c she thought it was funny/awesome/cool/whatever other adjective you'd like to use.

793. The Mind of the Market

Comment #109639 by annabanana on January 9, 2008 at 10:52 am

I'm gonna need you to send that 'single, hot, atheist' my way, if you'd be so kind.

I've unknowingly turned myself into the one-woman atheist dating service...I wonder if my roommate will let me pimp her out...j/k (that was in poor taste, but I just couldn't help it)

794. Did mozzies, not a meteor, do for the dinosaurs?

Comment #109625 by annabanana on January 9, 2008 at 9:35 am

ok, sweet, will check them out...

795. The Mind of the Market

Comment #109621 by annabanana on January 9, 2008 at 9:30 am

Wedding?!? I'm laughing so hard I'm crying...

(I wasn't trying to be rude...just laughing at the thought of marriage entering into my life at any time during the near future)

796. Did mozzies, not a meteor, do for the dinosaurs?

Comment #109613 by annabanana on January 9, 2008 at 9:17 am

Violence doesn't generally bother me. I sometimes enjoy it when it's obviously fictional. The kind in "Sweeney Todd" was absolutely fabulous.

And more on my weird and twisted side, I enjoy things like "salad fingers" by David Firth. Have you seen those?

797. Could there be a Darwinian Account of Human Creativity?

Comment #109610 by annabanana on January 9, 2008 at 9:10 am

Oh! Is this Clue? I want to play...

1. wooter
2. with the comment generator
3. some non-english speaking country
4. just a while ago
5. to be as annoying as humanly possible
6. without God of course...

798. The Mind of the Market

Comment #109609 by annabanana on January 9, 2008 at 9:08 am

This is somewhat related:

http://www.forbes.com/business/2008/01/08/health-republican-plans-oped-cx_ybr_0108health.html

I hated it, although, I know some of you may agree with it.

799. Did mozzies, not a meteor, do for the dinosaurs?

Comment #109596 by annabanana on January 9, 2008 at 8:49 am

Recommendations are good, although, seeing as how the pile of books I have to read is constantly increasing (like with the Shermer book), and I'm constantly working and constantly training...I may or may not find time for them...but, I'll try and find time in my crazy schedule...

800. Did mozzies, not a meteor, do for the dinosaurs?

Comment #109595 by annabanana on January 9, 2008 at 8:47 am

Ha! Why didn't you create a hot, single, atheist just itching to date you?

*creates a hot, single, atheist for Diacanu's entertainment...*

There.