2012 Off topic thread(basketball,movies,etc whatever)

[Svino]

I have only gotten through the introduction on that one so far, so I have just barely started it. I have heard a lot of good things, though.

Speaking of Pre-Columbian voyages, what do you think of the theory that the Chinese reached America 70 years prior to Columbus?

I'd say it's not even worth calling a "theory". There's basically no evidence to suggest that it happened. It's really all from one book by an author who just likes to make stuff up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_Menzies

[Mr. IWS]

^^^^^Nice man. Watch out for this guy though.



They had one of those jawns here and it got shut down a month or so ago.

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=8671023

[poopoo333]

They have been around here for awhile...they tried to shut them down here but it didn't work out. They did shut a bunch of them down north of here in Tampa area I think.

[SPX]

What why?

Good question.

He subs McKray and then loses two spirited decisions to Ellenberger and Pierce and he gets cut? Bad decision.

[SPX]

I just got a 2nd job...at a casino.

Sort of. It's a place where there are games on computers kind of like slots...they have keno, bingo, etc. You put $ on a phone card, swipe the phonecard in the machines, and play. Pays out cash. Kind of a loophole in the gambling system. I train on Saturday and Sunday. Start at $8 an hour, then after three months it's $9, then 6+ it's $10...not bad. There is also a tip jar that usually gets kind of full when they are busy/when people are winning so it's going to be pretty good for me.

Three things. . .

1. That's weird. Why is it s PHONE card? And how is that even a loophole?

2. What exactly are you going to be doing?

3. It's weird that you mention gambling loopholes with phone cards actually. The last time I was in Mississippi I noticed a gas station that sold these things that looked suspiciously like scratch-off tickets. But MS does not have a lottery. Upon closer observation, I noticed that they were 5 minute phone cards with some scratch off bonus game where you could win money.

I'm not even sure what to think of that shit.

[SPX]

I'd say it's not even worth calling a "theory". There's basically no evidence to suggest that it happened. It's really all from one book by an author who just likes to make stuff up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_Menzies

I have heard Menzies on the radio and he had some interesting things to say.

Regarding the evidence, he certainly claims that he has plenty. I guess in all fairness I would need to hear the claims of his detractors and then Menzies' rebuttals and so on and so forth.

One thing I do believe though is that tomorrow's accepted truth's are often discovered or postulated by today's heretics.

It brings to mind that quote from Arthur Schopenhauer:

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. And third, it is accepted as self-evident."

Are you familiar at all with Immanuel Velikovsky?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velikovsky

He was BADLY ridiculed by the scientific community when his book "Worlds in Collision" was first released, but more and more astronomical discoveries are supporting his theory that Venus is in fact the result of a large impact on Jupiter. Some, though not many, mainstream scientists are beginning to give him at least some credit now many years later.

[poopoo333]

Three things. . .

1. That's weird. Why is it s PHONE card? And how is that even a loophole?

2. What exactly are you going to be doing?

3. It's weird that you mention gambling loopholes with phone cards actually. The last time I was in Mississippi I noticed a gas station that sold these things that looked suspiciously like scratch-off tickets. But MS does not have a lottery. Upon closer observation, I noticed that they were 5 minute phone cards with some scratch off bonus game where you could win money.

I'm not even sure what to think of that shit.

1. I don't know. It's fairly popular here.

2. Standing behind a counter and taking money, putting it in a drawer, swiping the phone card, and putting the amount of $ in it that they deposited.

3. No lottery? Weird.

[SPX]

3. No lottery? Weird.

Actually, most states that I've lived in didn't have a lottery. Mississippi has never had one. Tennessee only authorized it after I moved away.

Texas and Minnesota did, apparently, but I wasn't paying any attention then and only learned that by doing a quick search.

Utah does not and probably never will.

[SPX]

1. I don't know. It's fairly popular here.

Why not just a card, though? Like one of those prepaid debit cards? Why a PHONE card? I assume there's gotta be something about a phone card specifically, legally speaking, that lets them get away with all this. Look into it and report back.

[poopoo333]

I think it's because you are buying "minutes". And then on the computer you are playing a "sweepstakes".

Here, they go over what these are in this article

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/07/us/07sweepstakes.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

[SPX]

I think it's because you are buying "minutes". And then on the computer you are playing a "sweepstakes".

Here, they go over what these are in this article

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/07/us...pagewanted=all

Hmm, that's pretty interesting. Thanks for the link. It's obviously just a casino getting by on a technicality, but I think gambling should be legal, so I applaud their ingenuity.

I guess the scratch off phone card things that I saw were basically operating the same kind of way.

[Svino]

One thing I do believe though is that tomorrow's accepted truth's are often discovered or postulated by today's heretics.

It brings to mind that quote from Arthur Schopenhauer:

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. And third, it is accepted as self-evident."

I think the most common reaction by far to a new discovery is swift acceptance. The quote might apply more to significant scientific controversies (which are certainly not the most common mode of operation for science), but even then, I'm a bit hard pressed to come up examples of accepted ideas that spent a long time in the first two stages. Maybe plate tectonics would qualify, and there could be some others, but it is not the case in general that credited science goes through a period where it "looks like" fringe science before it is eventually accepted.

Are you familiar at all with Immanuel Velikovsky?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velikovsky

He was BADLY ridiculed by the scientific community when his book "Worlds in Collision" was first released, but more and more astronomical discoveries are supporting his theory that Venus is in fact the result of a large impact on Jupiter. Some, though not many, mainstream scientists are beginning to give him at least some credit now many years later.

I hadn't heard of him. Based solely on my reading of the Wikipedia article, I'd say it's pretty clear that he is also just a nut making stuff up, but in this case, he hasn't even bothered to limit himself to the physically possible. Furthermore, he doesn't even seem to know the meanings of the words he uses. (Saturn is not like anything that could go "nova". The composition of Venus is nothing like that of a "comet".) He is claiming that Venus was in orbit around Jupiter sometime within the last few thousand years. I guarantee that no reputable astronomer is giving any credence to this theory. If he was right about any particular detail, it's just one of those "stopped clock" effects.

I don't know if I should be encouraging this, but if you're interested in Russians with unconventional ideas about history, there's always Anatoly Fomenko. He's a Russian mathematician who thinks real human history is only about a thousand years old. Jesus lived in the 12th century, and all history that supposedly happened before then is people just making up stories to reflect events that happened in the middle ages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoly_Fomenko

[Svino]

I think it's because you are buying "minutes". And then on the computer you are playing a "sweepstakes".

Here, they go over what these are in this article

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/07/us...pagewanted=all

Looks like you might be called upon to gun down some robbers as well. Just remember, it's Florida so you have a right to Stand Your Ground (TM).

[poopoo333]

I ain't scared, homie.

[MMA_scientist]

Man people are some degenerates. They will do whatever they have to do to lose their money on an unbeateable game requiring no skill. They love it.

Don't take the job poopoo, the stupididy will run off on you. Keno? Isn't that basically bingo?