Miscellaneous Discussion Thread

Audrey Hepburn, for some reason.

Barbi Benton is right up there, though. Good choice.

Beauty is definitely biased by culture and upbringing, not to mention advertising. I expect a lot of different answers on this one.

And yes, Bardot is lovely. Not that fond of her mouth, so not most beautiful to me. But very nice.

A young Drew Barrymore, she’s still attractive now. Her facial features always caught my eye.

Quote: PokerGrinder

A young Drew Barrymore, she’s still attractive now. Her facial features always caught my eye.

Drew and Kirsten dunst are my whatever you call it when you can cheat on wife

Quote: PokerGrinder

A young Drew Barrymore, she’s still attractive now. Her facial features always caught my eye.

Fire Starter when she looked like a little boy eh?

You sure make this

my earlier pic of Sophia didn't do her justice - here you go

famous wrestler dies in ring match - recorded on youtube - restricted video - you have to sign in to a google account to see it - incredible -

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/12/world/europe/silver-king-wrestler-lucha-libre.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKfPL-C47Mg&feature=youtu.be

VERY SAD NEWS.

I'm not some big cat lover freak, but I did love Grumpy Cat.

Grumpy Cat, the face of thousands of internet memes, has died
https://www.cnbc.com/.../grumpy-cat-the-face-of-thousands-of-internet-memes-has-died...

Quote: AxelWolf

Fire Starter when she looked like a little boy eh?

You sure make this

Your mind is just always in the gutter.

Quote: mcallister3200

Has anyone went back to using a flip phone after using a smart phone?

Yes. It's great. My phone bill is like $10 a month, the phone itself was $15, and it will never accidentally pocket dial 911 which happened with my smartphone on multiple occasions. No fuss, no muss. I still have my old smartphone that I use at home for wifi when I need to jump on the internet real quick.

Smartphones are one of the most amazing yet needless inventions ever.

Quote: PokerGrinder

A young Drew Barrymore, she’s still attractive now. Her facial features always caught my eye.

There was something about Drew Barrymore I never liked,I never found her attractive.

Quote: PokerGrinder

Quote: AxelWolf

Fire Starter when she looked like a little boy eh?

You sure make this

Your mind is just always in the gutter.

And just to think, It took you 5 days to come up with that. You should probably stick with matching your wits with people that have similar talent as you...here ya go.... https://wizardofvegas.com/member/nathan/

Who is sexier? Heather or Megan?

Quote: gordonm888

Who is sexier? Heather or Megan?

Megan without a doubt. If compare both of their best pictures, it's not even close at that point, its Megan all the way.

Quote: gordonm888

Who is sexier? Heather or Megan?

I'd go with Megan Fox in this matchup.

2ND only to my wife of course.

this is almost perfection.

Megan Fox.
If all the immigrants that wanted to come to the USA looked like this, I would tear down the boarder myself.

Based on those pictures, Heather. They are both flawless. But there's a lot more life behind the eyes with Heather.

Also, we already know that she maintained for an incredible amount of time.

Quote: Rigondeaux

Based on those pictures, Heather. They are both flawless. But there's a lot more life behind the eyes with Heather.

Also, we already know that she maintained for an incredible amount of time.

Quote: AxelWolf

VERY SAD NEWS.

I'm not some big cat lover freak, but I did love Grumpy Cat.

Grumpy Cat, the face of thousands of internet memes, has died
https://www.cnbc.com/.../grumpy-cat-the-face-of-thousands-of-internet-memes-has-died...

This is a date which will live in infamy.

I’m in the Megan and not close camp. Heather is hot but I guess white blondes are one of the least likely combinations I’m naturally attracted to.

Quote: AxelWolf

2ND only to my wife of course.

this is almost perfection.

Megan Fox.
If all the immigrants that wanted to come to the USA looked like this, I would tear down the boarder myself.

Hell, If all the immigrants looked like that, Trump would tear down the wall.

I wouldn't put her in the same category, but I give Raquel Welch honorable mention. Or honorable dimensions.

Quote: AxelWolf

Quote: PokerGrinder

Quote: AxelWolf

Fire Starter when she looked like a little boy eh?

You sure make this

Your mind is just always in the gutter.

And just to think, It took you 5 days to come up with that. You should probably stick with matching your wits with people that have similar talent as you...here ya go.... https://wizardofvegas.com/member/nathan/

That’s a personal insult to me if I’ve ever seen one. I know we are friends but I still feel you should get 3 days lol.

Btw I only check this thread every week or so. I enjoy reading it in bunches.

I thought a couple years back I could say after being on the Internet for so long, I had seen everything, or imagined everything. I guess not.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX0Ced3G5eg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gell-Mann_amnesia_effect

"You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories"

Quote: gordonm888

Who is sexier? Heather or Megan?

Nadal.

Quote: petroglyph

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gell-Mann_amnesia_effect

"You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories"

I didn't know there was a name for this. But that's useful.

There aren't really many professions I have less respect for than journalist. I think one cause is a high level of intellectual laziness. It has to begin in college. You could choose to learn about any number of subjects. Instead you major in spouting off without learning.

Quote: Rigondeaux

I didn't know there was a name for this. But that's useful.

There aren't really many professions I have less respect for than journalist. I think one cause is a high level of intellectual laziness. It has to begin in college. You could choose to learn about any number of subjects. Instead you major in spouting off without learning.

Straight news can't bring in the dollars generated by hype, and editorializing. Whose fault is that?

I don't think you need to know everything to report news, you just need to not make assumptions/conclusions beyond your actual knowledge. A kid can report news if he follows that basic idea.

Quote: Rigondeaux

I didn't know there was a name for this. But that's useful.

There aren't really many professions I have less respect for than journalist. I think one cause is a high level of intellectual laziness. It has to begin in college. You could choose to learn about any number of subjects. Instead you major in spouting off without learning.

"“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

― Upton Sinclair,

Quote: rxwine

Straight news can't bring in the dollars generated by hype, and editorializing. Whose fault is that?

I don't think you need to know everything to report news, you just need to not make assumptions/conclusions beyond your actual knowledge. A kid can report news if he follows that basic idea.

Straight up reporting has its place, for sure. Journalists should understand that they don't understand and just say, "this guy said this. Then this happened. Here is what an expert says about it." Problem is that they rarely do that. Few journalists perform any kind of serious research. The level of laziness is amazing. The point of the OP is that, when you understand a subject, this really hits you over the head. You'll see that journalists almost never get even the basics right on a subject you understand, eve though they could have easily discovered them. But then we think they get it right on subjects we don't understand.

For example, a lot of FP journalists simply regurgitate whatever Washington tells them. This was a big part of how we got into the Iraq war, when anybody who invested 3-4 hours in researching the subject could see that everything the government was saying was a lie. For example, it was an easily discovered fact that Sadaam and Islamists were dire enemies and that each hated each other far more than the U.S. That it was Saudis, not Iraq, who did 9/11. That there was no evidence Iraq had nukes or was anywhere close to having them, and it was extremely unlikely they had the capacity to make them. Or that lumping poison gas used in world war 1, and ICBMs together as "WMDs" was like lumping a Swiss army knife and an M-60 together. Or that "dirty bombs" were a complete fiction and would never work in real life.

So I guess there is some tension there. Because now reporters are contradicting the nominal experts. However, I think they could have simply reported the facts in the manner described. Not, "Washington is lying about Iraq." But, "Washington says X. I talked to several independent experts on the ME and they said Y. I talked to 4 scientists, all of whom said "dirty bombs" would not work."

But that gets to what Petro said. People who contradict DC dogma are likely to wind up without a job. "Liberal" MSNBC fired Donahue for opposing the war and reporting facts.

Alternatively, Fox, CNN, MSNBC, NYT, etc. could simply use content creators who actually have an understanding of the issue. Obviously, they just don't want to.

The fact that doing the wrong thing at an important job is more profitable isn't much of an excuse. Long ago, people took ethics fairly seriously. They still do in some professions. A doctor could make more money by exploiting a hypochondriac, but I think most of them would choose not to. If they did, they would be condemned. We wouldn't blame the hypochondriac for the doctor's behavior.

Journalism is a field that has almost totally abandoned eithics. I blame them for their own behavior.

Quote: rxwine

Straight news can't bring in the dollars generated by hype, and editorializing. Whose fault is that?

I don't think you need to know everything to report news, you just need to not make assumptions/conclusions beyond your actual knowledge. A kid can report news if he follows that basic idea.

My opinion, which I'm sure many will disagree with, is freedom of speech should be limited insofar you can't freely, for a lack of better words, spout fake news.

Quote: RS

My opinion, which I'm sure many will disagree with, is freedom of speech should be limited insofar you can't freely, for a lack of better words, spout fake news.

A lot of people define Fake News as news that is factually honest, but that they don't like. That is exactly what freedom of speech is needed to protect.

Some of the "news" that is truly dishonest can be fought against through libel laws. Unfortunately, most people pushing out that crap don't have any money, so virtually never worth any civil judgement. Criminal charges against the people on Facebook shouting that vaccines cause AIDS or that everyone at Sandyhook and Parkland were crisis actors would be both awesome and crazy.

Quote: RS

My opinion, which I'm sure many will disagree with, is freedom of speech should be limited insofar you can't freely, for a lack of better words, spout fake news.

The only way I could see doing this, is setting up legal entrapments.

For instance, an agency will be assigned to put out some fake news through secondary sources. The fake news will always be desirable to one side and undesirable to some other side. There will be several ways to fact check it, if you're willing to do so. Failure to do so, and willful spreading of fake news will get you picked up and administered a series of electric shocks to your private parts.

Eventually people will be very very careful about spreading false information. We'll simply train the population to stick to verifiable news as much as possible. People will get closer to spreading information closer to the things like the sun rising than taking a chance on spreading false information.

I'm getting it put in the Constitution ASAP.

The genius of freedom is that things tend to work themselves out over time. Sure, your grandpa believed anything he read in a chain e-mail. Your mom believes everything posted on facebook. But I think younger people are probably a bit more savvy and becoming more so.

The term fake news was first used to describe sites that just made up stuff to get clicks. For example, reporting that a living celebrity was dead. Then more political stuff. It might have had a bad short term impact, but in the long term I think it probably accelerated the process of people realizing that you can't believe anything you read online, even when it is official looking, or when a relatively reputable company like FB or Google is promoting it.

It's true that the internet creates little echo chambers where nutters can gather and reinforce the alternative realities in which they live. Where, before, they'd have less validation and certainty. This probably contributes to some really bad stuff, like when one of them shoots a bunch of innocent people. Or when a bunch of ditzy housewives think they know better than pediatricians.

On the other hand, the spell of the MSM is largely broken. Politicians and media cooperated to push lies and propaganda on a number of issues and were effective for decades. One very clear example is marijuana. Virtually nobody who came up in the digital age believes all the lies about pot. Why? Because the evidence is just overwhelmingly one sided and they can access it themselves.

When Chelsea Clinton tried to justify jailing people for pot with the same old lies, the entire world dunked on her and she had to wriggle back under her rock for a while. I would guess part of the reason Trump/Sessions plans to jail people for pot never really came to fruition is that someone told them that nobody under 50 believes this BS anymore, and it would be disastrous. They'll have to find some other way to throw harmless people in cages.

Quote: Rigondeaux

The genius of freedom is that things tend to work themselves out over time.

In a dictatorship, you tell people what to think, whereas in my scenario I don't tell anyone what to think, I just set traps to catch people spreading known fabricated lies in order to reduce that problem altogether.

Of course, I wouldn't use shocks. Probably just waterboard them or something.

I was just looking at booking a trip to Vegas in September. Anybody know why rates are CHEAPER during Labor Day week than the rest of the month? I would think that would be the most expensive week in September...

Quote: TigerWu

I was just looking at booking a trip to Vegas in September. Anybody know why rates are CHEAPER during Labor Day week than the rest of the month? I would think that would be the most expensive week in September...

Just a guess

They may have many flights available and are showing fewer than expected tickets sold

Dont question it. Just grab

I assume you mean airline rates, but if you mean room rates check that web site that lists conventions and trade shows. That might reveal a reason.

Quote: FleaStiff

I assume you mean airline rates, but if you mean room rates check that web site that lists conventions and trade shows. That might reveal a reason.

Sorry, I was talking about room rates. I didn't think to check about conventions...

In my circles, Labor Day isn't a travel weekend. It's the end of summer, start of the school year. One last clambake before school and school activities dominate the next nine months.

Quote: billryan

In my circles, Labor Day isn't a travel weekend. It's the end of summer, start of the school year. One last clambake before school and school activities dominate the next nine months.

What is a “clambake.”

Quote: mcallister3200

What is a “clambake.”

Put on your clam diggers, grab your spade and bucket, and head to the grass flats. Dig in muck to locate clam. Put clam in bucket. Repeat until full. Make a fire, put a rack on it, put the clams on the rack. Burn until they open, crack em, add hotsauce, then hand it to your uncle. Them s#$%s is gross, you don't want it.

Alternatively, roll a 6g blunt, find a '98 Hyundai Accent and four friends, enter the car, roll up the windows, light the blunt, and hand it to me. Them s#$%s is gross, you don't want it.

Quote: mcallister3200

What is a “clambake.”

Lol!,showing my age....

It's an East Coast beach party from early-mid 1900s, (cooking them like that probably goes back centuries) where people go dig clams out of the surf, then bury them with hot coals in the sand until they're baked, then feast. Usually involved a lot of alcohol, because baked/steamed clams are kind of strong-tasting and slimy IMO. Think rubbery, smaller oysters, if you've had those.

Anyway, it became a generic term for any gathering of like-minded people.

Clambake is a 1967 American musical film starring Elvis Presley, Shelley Fabares, and Bill Bixby

Quote: Face

Put on your clam diggers, grab your spade and bucket, and head to the grass flats. Dig in muck to locate clam. Put clam in bucket. Repeat until full. Make a fire, put a rack on it, put the clams on the rack. Burn until they open, crack em, add hotsauce, then hand it to your uncle. Them s#$%s is gross, you don't want it.

Face, you literally mad me LOL! This perfectly describes the last time I went clamming (maybe 15 years or so ago). It's all fun and games until you actually eat the clams!

Quote: rxwine

Clambake is a 1967 American musical film starring Elvis Presley, Shelley Fabares, and Bill Bixby

and
Operation Clambake is an anti scientology site http://www.xenu.net/

Long Island clams mature in mid to late August, so clambakes signify the end of summer. They were bittersweet as teenagers. We'd look forward to them but they also meant we'd be going our separate ways and be back in school soon.

You are messing with the wrong kind of clams. Steamers are good, but razors....ahhh, the kind. Big fat razor, milking, would get you to put down that blunt and try to eat your weight in double crackered, pan fried clams.

What are you trying to chew out that way, some big old horse clams, or pink necks? Not geoducks?

Quote: petroglyph

You are messing with the wrong kind of clams. Steamers are good, but razors....ahhh, the kind. Big fat razor, milking, would get you to put down that blunt and try to eat your weight in double crackered, pan fried clams.

What are you trying to chew out that way, some big old horse clams, or pink necks? Not geoducks?

I think we only have quahogs here in FL.

We had some Italian neighbors who had the whole baked clams thing down to a t. Most of my family were into steamers but baked is the only way I go. I've never found clams seasoned the way they did. Theirs were more garlicky than the usual fare.

Speaking of seafood, I had lobster ravioli the other day.

Not impressed. Tasted just like regular ravioli.