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Post by donavan on Feb 24, 2018 23:05:35 GMT
I've been arguing with idiots about gun control. Sometimes I can't bring myself to even try to address the absolutely chillingly stupid things people write. What's the stupidest argument ever posted on the old porch? Somebody thinking a Colin song is better than one of Andy's? A kinder, gentler stupid. Come home. youtu.be/jZJgvaZ0Joo
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Post by miles on Feb 25, 2018 18:28:08 GMT
I've been arguing with idiots about gun control. Sometimes I can't bring myself to even try to address the absolutely chillingly stupid things people write. What's the stupidest argument ever posted on the old porch? Somebody thinking a Colin song is better than one of Andy's? A kinder, gentler stupid. Wait a minute, I'm pretty sure I posted stupider things than that Seriously, Facebook, Youtube and Twitter are neutral about the destruction of civilized society. We are just data points and clicks, whether people want to share pictures of the family reunion or start up a racist militia to kill those hoarding all the melanin, it feeds them either way. In terms of arguing with idiots, I have tried and found ineffective: facts, logic, emotional appeals and common sense.
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Post by donavan on Feb 25, 2018 20:26:54 GMT
We are all idiots, when we forget that is when the real shit starts. Trouble is we all forget that all too readily.
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Post by donavan on Feb 26, 2018 8:04:27 GMT
We are all idiots, when we forget that is when the real shit starts. Trouble is we all forget that all too readily. Is that stupid enough?
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Post by sticksman1 on Feb 26, 2018 14:37:16 GMT
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Post by miles on Feb 27, 2018 18:22:08 GMT
We are all idiots, when we forget that is when the real shit starts. Trouble is we all forget that all too readily. We all have our blind spots and gaps in knowledge, but about 1/3 of our country does not believe in evolution, science, or that the earth is round. Much of this is supported by religion, "all you need to know is the bible." So I think there is a difference between the usual garden variety of idiot, myself included, and the mutant strain that has developed here. You can't reason with them, you can only vote their leaders out, and hope the next generation will not accept things as they are.
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Post by donavan on Feb 28, 2018 7:29:17 GMT
Probably the same everywhere. But because you are so much bigger you have more of them. But when you have poor people rejecting free health care on the grounds that it is communism then you really are up against it. It's the same over here. Lots of people make no connection between who they vote for and the consequences. Like turkeys voting for Christmas. Ho ho ho! Although it's not funny.
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Post by miles on Mar 20, 2018 22:12:46 GMT
If you notice people with smug, inexplicable smiles, it is likely they resisted all the societal pressure to "go on" Facebook. Yes we are insufferable.
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Post by donavan on Mar 20, 2018 23:15:56 GMT
I wouldn't touch it with a shitty stick.
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Post by Dr Hugbine on Mar 22, 2018 15:32:57 GMT
I wouldn't touch it with a shitty stick. I admire the purity of your e-footprint.
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Post by donavan on Mar 22, 2018 19:10:23 GMT
I wouldn't touch it with a shitty stick. I admire the purity of your e-footprint. If only.
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Post by Nonsuch Ned on Apr 24, 2018 2:43:57 GMT
Can't say on FB because it isn't public yet but the people who are concerned don't visit here. Fascinating story.
So... my father is a family genealogist. Quite an expert and becoming more interested in the genetics part of family study these days. To better understand where the families branch he has had his and my mother's DNA tested and has worked with aunts and uncles on different sides of the family to also get them tested, often through both of the big testing companies and smaller ones
Now, there's an interesting feature on one of the sites that will track how close your DNA matches with other test takers and you can find your family members connected to you. it's one that neither of my parents got results from, but other family did. So, my father opens up my aunt's page, his sister-in-law, and he finds an unexpected result. She has a "first cousin" now linked on her page, we'll call her "Jane", that he has never heard of before. It's strange, but he doesn't want to ask about it too quickly, he wants to be careful not to delve into what could be a family issue that maybe people don't want revealed. But the next day he goes back to the site and looks up my uncle's page, HIS brother, and finds that Jane is now listed as HIS first cousin as well.
What the hell?
well, knowing what he does, and how these tests work, he realizes that there are other relations that are "equal" to first cousin and in the case of an uncle and aunt on different sides of the family being equally related to the same woman then that relation equals... grand niece... the child of a shared nephew (in our case). Yes, by accident and genetic test, my father discovered that he was unknowingly a grandfather 10 years earlier than he thought. Looking at the year and location of her birth I and my oldest brother were eliminated from consideration so the call was made. After contacting Jane and determining that she was adopted and was just seeking her genetic family for health reasons my parents made the call. "Son, are you sitting down? Did you know you had a baby daughter in 1988?"
Yes, turns out he did. During his lost year of flunking out of college (he later earned a double degree with honors), he got his girlfriend pregnant. They considered keeping her but the girlfriend's parents convinced her to give the baby up for adoption at birth. They set up an adoption with well-off adoptive parents. My brother decided to avoid judgement from us and our much more judgemental extended family and kept it a secret. Part of me wonders if he told my other brother. Probably not. After that year my brother got a now more understandable independence streak- he decided all he'd accomplish he'd do it on his own.
You might think it a family scandal that would shock my parents but they know their kids, they know what he was like and how he continued to be. He has two other children by two other mothers (but shares custody). My mother stated her disappointment a couple times that he didn't tell them but both parents admit that his decision was not a bad one.
The secret niece is a doctor with ties to Mayo Clinic.
It is a weird world.
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Post by longinglook on Apr 27, 2018 1:59:07 GMT
Ill bet there are lots of stories coming to light these days with the proliferation of genetic tests on the market. I'm glad your family is handling the news so well, Ned.
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Post by Nonsuch Ned on Apr 27, 2018 20:42:29 GMT
As far as I can tell, the Golden State Killer was tracked down with this general method. They uploaded the DNA from evidence to the site and discovered distant relatives. Talked to a few, narrowed it down further, surveiled him and took his direct DNA from a discarded item to make the complete match.
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Post by donavan on May 7, 2018 16:12:42 GMT
The longer I live I realise messed up is the norm. And I mean that in a nice way. Because who isn't messed up? And what is normal? Live and let live. We will all be happier when the walls come tumbling down. So don't be building any more fences. But even if you do we'll get over it.
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