News that makes us laugh, cry, or both

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 3:27 am

I can understand it some.

The earth's surface isn't a perfect sphere, and the continental plates aren't particularly sphere-like. That earthquake was the result of one plate being thrust big-time under another one--sort of like a stuck door suddenly giving way. They're basing it on where the mass is centered and how much it moved during the quake. If that quake smoothed out a big enough wrinkle, it could very well have pulled enough mass in to make the rotation speed it up--sort of like how when you were a kid and spinning in a swing, tucking your legs under and sitting up straight made you spin faster than leaning back and sticking your legs out.

So it's comparison and mathematics. Using some really big numbers, but it fits.

RobbyPants · Post by **RobbyPants** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 4:36 pm

It might. Even with the reported 1.26 microsecond change, it would take us over 2100 years to even lose a second relative to our calendar.

shadzar · Post by **shadzar** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 4:45 pm

there is also another factor in the change, that the axis of the earth has tilted agian, and if it continues with such earthquakes, will we be spinning on our side, and what will that do to the poles, and what happens when the wobble it taken out of sync after all these years to indigenous life?

so while the microsecond may not be a big thing, there are other factors in it that could add up.

i know leap year adds a day in order to adjust for all those built up microseconds.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 5:20 pm

Parthenon wrote:I've heard of the earth's day being shortened by microseconds before, but I always wonder "And?". Doesn't the day change by microseconds anyway throughout the year or something?

1) I want to be very clear that earth day changes by microseconds matter shit all. But I just want to mock you for having a stupid reason for not caring.

2) "I've heard of the Earth's temperature increasing by degrees before, but I always wonder "And?". Doesn't the temperature change by degrees throughout the year or something?"

Psychic Robot · Post by **Psychic Robot** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 5:39 pm

Is that some more abortion news?

WASHINGTON – A congressman who has played a key role in the long-running health care debate says he and 11 other Democrats will vote against the overhaul unless a provision subsidizing abortion is removed.

Rep. Bart Stupak argued Thursday that the provision in the Senate-passed version has language that would permit the federal government to "directly subsidize abortions."

The Michigan Democrat said he supports health care change, but he said several Democrats who voted for it the House would oppose it next time around in the absence of change. Stupak said on ABC's "Good Morning America" that "we're not going to bypass some principles that we believe strongly about." The administration argues that Obama's bill would retain existing restrictions on federally-financed abortions.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A congressman who has played a key role in the long-running health care bill debate says he and 11 other Democrats will vote against the overhaul bill unless a provision subsidizing abortion is removed.

Rep. Bart Stupak argued Thursday that the provision in the Senate-passed version has language that would permit the federal government to "directly subsidize abortions."

The Michigan Democrat said he supports health care change, but he said several Democrats who voted for it the House would oppose it next time around in the absence of change. Stupak told CBS's "The Early Show" that "we're not going to bypass some principles that we believe strongly about." The administration argues that Obama's bill would retain existing restrictions on federally-financed abortions.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 6:31 pm

Really? Federal subzidization of health care might possibly subsidize a medical procedure?

FUCK! That's not intended at fucking all.

RobbyPants · Post by **RobbyPants** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 7:10 pm

Yeah, but they see it as a back door way to block abortion (or at least slow it down).

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 9:44 pm

There is no there, there. The current bill is restricted by already existing laws to not fund abortion procedures. There is no way for federal funds under the bill to fund an abortion.

Basically, the newscasters should be laughing at these guys, not reporting them with a straight face. And yet, they do...

-Crissa

Psychic Robot · Post by **Psychic Robot** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 11:29 pm

What happens when Stormfront meets TalkLeft? I call it America: The Forum.

ANSWER ME REPFAGS
IF RONALD REAGAN WAS SO SMART THEN WHY IS HE DEAD?

Homophobic and Transphobic Comments by Dave Chappelle at New Parish-Oakland

He began with a story of being in San Francisco and being approached by a "man" with "titty balls" and how weird that was and began to mock a gay male voice. He said he was trying to not look at this "man with titties." He talked about how he was uncomfortable and how he was worried about "US Weekly catching them together." He even said "I thought I was gonna walk away without his gayness offending me." He then talked about how the trans individual asked him out to lunch and he reacted angrily.

People were laughing. The environment was hostile and unsafe.

I told him "I came to hear you talk about politics and race and instead what you are saying is fucked up." He told me but you have "real titties." I told him I was a lesbian and was offended. He said "I love lesbians." I was gonna tell him to fuck off more (I probably got to angry to be clear) but by then I had security guards around me. My baby and I stated we were leaving.

UPDATE: SFist talked to a staff member at New Parrish who confirms what happened. "People have reactions and everyone is entitled to them," he explained to us, going on to say that the angry women in question "stood up about five or seven minutes into the show and yelled out at David," and then after heckling him said, "Fuck this, I'm leaving." Also, according to New Parrish, "she and her partner left by choice; they were not kicked out."

How would you have to deal with social security workers if you weren't leeching off of tax payer dollars?
Get a job, deadbeat.

People who are against taxes are spoiled brats unable to balance their checkbooks or spend/consume wisely, and need tax cuts as a handicap to compensate for their decadence and poor planning

Anyone else long for the days of the cold war?

A snowman created in the vision of famous ancient Greek sculpture 'Venus de Milo', created in New Jersey, USA by Elisa Gonzalez and her children, was the subject of a complaint from her neighbour who was seemingly offended by its depiction of the naked body.

Police told Gonzalez to cover it up or knock it down so they fitted 'Venus' with this fetching bikini top and sarong combo.

hey quick question about blue dogs: soo theyre fiscally conservative democrats right?

....wouldnt that just make them libertarians then?

>implying you understand anything and don't have down syndrome

Google it, retard. Calling "SOURCE SOURCE SOURCE" is essentially a "last resort" argument. Morons do it after losing an argument. They try to get the last laugh by convincing the winner to waste time looking up redundant graphs.

It's...beautiful.

Data Vampire · Post by **Data Vampire** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 1:04 am

A nonproverbial fox in the hen house.

Parthenon · Post by **Parthenon** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 2:54 am

Kaelik wrote: "I've heard of the Earth's temperature increasing by degrees before, but I always wonder "And?". Doesn't the temperature change by degrees throughout the year or something?"

Heh. I see what you're getting at. But it's like the temperature for around me varies between 270 and 300 K, so an extra degree or two is a reasonable fraction of the max and min and can have a large effect. Whereas for time the number of seconds in a day varies between 86400 and 86400, so an extra 1.26 milliseconds could feasibly mean fuck all.

I'm just wondering if there is an actual reason to care in this case, and if so what it is.

Parthenon · Post by **Parthenon** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 2:55 am

Weird double post.

Data Vampire · Post by **Data Vampire** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 3:15 am

Crissa wrote:There is no there, there. The current bill is restricted by already existing laws to not fund abortion procedures. There is no way for federal funds under the bill to fund an abortion.

Well there is a dirty trick that politicians do that can be used for this as well. Basically you take the funds and use them for something that is already funded. Then you take the money for the other thing and spend that money on the whatever as barred from using the other money on.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 3:39 am

Parthenon wrote:Heh. I see what you're getting at. But it's like the temperature for around me varies between 270 and 300 K, so an extra degree or two is a reasonable fraction of the max and min and can have a large effect. Whereas for time the number of seconds in a day varies between 86400 and 86400, so an extra 1.26 milliseconds could feasibly mean fuck all.

Indeed, and the fact that microseconds is such a tremendously small fraction of a day is a reason to not care.

But "it changes over the course of a year" so "why does average yearly change matter?" is a fucking retarded thing to say.

Orion · Post by **Orion** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 5:25 am

Yeah, imagine if the length of the day had changed by a MINUTE. That wouldn't be noticeable under most conditions, and it's noise against the variations in day length due to seasons. But of course the *entire range* has been shifted, so errors in accounting would appear and just aggregate over time.

One year late, everyone's clocks would be 6 hours off. Every 4 years you'd lose a *day*.

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 8:53 am

Data Vampire wrote:Well there is a dirty trick that politicians do that can be used for this as well. Basically you take the funds and use them for something that is already funded. Then you take the money for the other thing and spend that money on the whatever as barred from using the other money on.

So, you think it's a 'trick' when I spend the money I get as a subsidy on healthcare, then spend my own money on an excluded procedure?

WTF, man.

-Crissa

erik · Post by **erik** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 12:00 pm

http://www.csmonitor.com/CSM-Photo-Gall ... earthquake

Some pictures of the aftermath of the Chile earthquakes. Yikes. It is easy to see how so many people died, and hard to imagine how so few people died.

It puts Haiti in stark contrast with its much weaker quakes and lack of tsunami aftermath, yet greater devastation due to ubiquitous shoddy infrastructure.

Parthenon · Post by **Parthenon** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 9:43 pm

I was astounded and terrified by this story: Judges refusing evidence proving people innocent

It's just... aaaaaarrrgghhhh! The blatant disregard for common sense, ethics and... everything in that they know that the DNA evidence is terrible, they know they're lying to the jury about the statistics, but they're still using it to try to solve cold cases. And then not letting the defence refer to any of the problems with the evidence or that there are other suspects with a lot more evidence against them.

How can anyone get away with this.... just AAAAARRGHH!!

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 2:20 am

Depends on the specific method, but yes. They do this with fingerprinting as well... You probably don't remember the Portland man held for six months after the shoe-bomber because his name and fingerprints were five-point matched to KSM's fake identity by the FBI, who then refused to hear any statements exonerating the poor guy.

-Crissa

mean_liar · Post by **mean_liar** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 3:30 am

It seems that until there's a mountain of research evidence on the statistical reliability of the FBI's markers then little will happen, and even then it looks like a Supreme Court-level decision.

Psychic Robot · Post by **Psychic Robot** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 9:10 pm

Sean Penn again proves he is retarded.

"Every day, this elected leader is called a dictator here, and we just accept it, and accept it" said Penn, winner of two Best Actor Academy Awards. "And this is mainstream media, who should -- truly, there should be a bar by which one goes to prison for these kinds of lies."

It was just the beginning of a busy weekend for Penn. When asked on CBS' "Sunday Morning" about those who question his motives for his humanitarian work in Haiti, he said:

"Do I hope that those people die screaming of rectal cancer? Yeah. You know, but I'm not going to spend a lot of energy on it."

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 9:51 pm

I fail to see how that is retarded?

Libel and Slander laws already exist. And I wish you would die screaming of rectal cancer, preferably soon.

Is he maybe, not the best at expressing exactly what he means? Sure. But I don't think it's retarded to expect libel and slander laws to exist, even if he draws the line differently than I might.

Psychic Robot · Post by **Psychic Robot** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 10:38 pm

Sean Penn again proves he is retarded.

"Every day, this elected leader is called a dictator here, and we just accept it, and accept it" said Penn, winner of two Best Actor Academy Awards. "And this is mainstream media, who should -- truly, there should be a bar by which one goes to prison for these kinds of lies."

It was just the beginning of a busy weekend for Penn. When asked on CBS' "Sunday Morning" about those who question his motives for his humanitarian work in Haiti, he said:

"Do I hope that those people die screaming of rectal cancer? Yeah. You know, but I'm not going to spend a lot of energy on it."

Psychic Robot · Post by **Psychic Robot** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 10:41 pm

Sean Penn again proves he is retarded.

"Every day, this elected leader is called a dictator here, and we just accept it, and accept it" said Penn, winner of two Best Actor Academy Awards. "And this is mainstream media, who should -- truly, there should be a bar by which one goes to prison for these kinds of lies."

It was just the beginning of a busy weekend for Penn. When asked on CBS' "Sunday Morning" about those who question his motives for his humanitarian work in Haiti, he said:

"Do I hope that those people die screaming of rectal cancer? Yeah. You know, but I'm not going to spend a lot of energy on it."

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 11:05 pm

Hey PR, instead of reposting it twice, how about you explain why thinking that libel should be illegal is retarded?