h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I am sitting in a library ... next to me is this asian guy with tatoos all over him and multiple piercings and dude ... he smells really really bad ... I'm going to totally have to move to another computer ...
Nerd42

... really, really, tough call...
*Shrugs*
Good idea.

yeah .. I don't smoke and I don't dislike smokers or anything ... I just can't breathe around them, that's all. *cough cough*

What's obnoxious is I live in a part of SV that's probably chock-full of homeless bums who are also (turns out to be) perv-hackers and they "loudly" comment on the porn & stuff that they are watching ... "through" the filter - in the library. Whiole doing so.
I have to admit though,- the look of shocked disbelief on the security guards' faces is pretty classic/priceless.
*Shrugs a somewhat demonic shrug*

yeah, the crazy thing about online filters is that they always manage to block stuff that is supposed to be perfectly OK to do and look at but you still end up running into all kindsa restricted junk BY ACCIDENT

...
Language barriers to the blockers from a year or two (or so) ago, for example...
For some reason most filters dislike trying to take a peek at "The Darwin Awards." I suppose it's because they think the dark humor (bordering on creul streak?) might be in poor taste.
Freedom of the press... in a post-modern and paranoid society? Ha. *repeats himself*
Ha ha.
, ...

Well, I dunno, I don't see what's wrong with some limited internet filtering if it actually WORKS. I, for example, don't ever want to run into gay porn. Ever. But the trouble with internet filters is:
A. They don't work.
and
B. They slow down getting work done. (taking up memory and unintentionally blocking perfectly acceptable material)
Nerd42

Exactly...
Which is why they strike some people (such as myself) as very,- almost _ bureaucratic in a way.

Yeah, but you see, I just wanted to make it clear that I'm not against censoring porn.
Nerd42

Oh but of course. Not every part of the bottom most dregs within society ought to be thoroughly expressed everywhere... I had not stated that I thought otherwise...


I was just riffing on information control groups because I don't like them very much (for the most part).

"Information control groups"?

I am NOT arguing with you here, OK, especially because this may reveal to me that I may have absolutely no idea what I am talking about on this issue, when previously I thought I did, and that is because I have never heard the term "information control groups" before and I don't know to what or whom it applies.

Wikipedia doesn't have an entry on "information control groups" and neither does h2g2 so could you please explain to me what an "information control group" is?

This is NOT sarcasm OK, I'm just confused.
Nerd42

Certain extremely zealous groups of people find themsdelves rampaging their stances on issues down other people's throats. Or, more often than not, they do not actually "find" themselves doing it (I suspect this may be due to them being completely and totally utterly brainwashed). Scary, huh?
They try to entirely take out certain things from the media and limit access to *somewhat controversial* albeit not really so much *Dangerous and the like* types of stuff... such as the people who think listening to metal backwards may subliminally insert satanic messages into people's minds, etc.

Umm ... whatever

Exactly.. that's howw most people first react. But then (when/once those folks are finally in charge of things... big things)
*All of a sudden Thorn ridiculously feels like a conspiracy theororist*

No, they aren't called "Information control groups"
that's just what I personally refer to them as.
"Media control advocates" maybe?
The point is though,- is that when they are in charge of stuff (like Gov't) then start taking things away. Wait, what [do] you mean, they already take things away, and that [that] is a perfectly fine & normal thing for most governments to do already, anyway?

Well ... in my opinion, censorship is not all bad. It depends on what is being censored, from whom and why. The First Ammendment doesn't guarantee the "rights" of pornographers to exploit children. So ... regulating certain forms of "free speech" is not only a good thing but a nesscesity for maintaining a civilized society.
Nerd42

Well duh; I'd meant people like the ones who try to bar teaching evolution in public schools or the ones who think removing any violence from all the media, so that there never is any... is par okay.
*Shrugs*
I guess it's all just in a question of relative-proportion then, maybe?

well yeah ... I don't know of any reasonable person who wants to ban teaching evolution in public schools. I'm a creationist, and I want public schools to maintain a neutral point of view, allowing students to make up their own minds on contraversial issues like that.
Nerd42

Yeah, I think that's just it!

I guess you could say that I'm a "evolutionist" if you want because I'm studying medicine so as to become a or a later on in life, but both outlooks have their own uses, etc.

The fact that different people with "opposing" viewpoints actually can and do sometimes get along okay Online or in RL is something for the most part that places like Berkely have managed to fail to grasp.

*Enters into the realm of "Idiot politics" but would rather not to*

Have they no modicum of decency???

The and neat/interesting thing about creationism and evolution theory is that if you look at the history of the two, thay are each thoroughly entrenched in one another in a dualistic sort of a way.
They both make progress by being able to point out flaws in the other.
For example: Early evolutionary theororists (say, Lamarck) : "Zee individuals evolve!"
Creationists: "Um, Lamarck, that's just plain stupid."
Lamarck:

Darwin: "Descent through modification..."
Creationists: "Well, what sort of modification, then?"

E: Fossils...
C: Those might just be chunks of rock that are shaped, y'know...
E: Hmm, good point *go off to develop a 'more convincing' argument*

E: "But we have found a line of animals that seem to have evolved from a common ancestor!"
C: "Well, where is that one, then... you still have your 'missing' link."

Both ways of thought still make better sense than the spontaneous generation theories of the Dark ages though.

yeah ... I'm involved in this long drawn-out debate with an h2g2 researcher named "Ste" - you'll see that thread in my recent postings under the heading "hi Ste" if you'd care to join us
Nerd42