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General Discussion / The State of the U.S. Economy

« on: May 10, 2010, 11:29:54 pm »

The Dow Jones Average in the past five years: click to see.

Obama was inaugurated on January 20, 2009. He signed the stimulus package in February 2009. Within one month of signing the stimulus package, the Dow Jones average started to rise steadily for the first time in six months. Now, in May 2010, the Dow Jones average is nearing what it was before the recession, and is even slightly above what it was in 2005.

Come on you staunch Republicans. Let's give the man some credit. The stimulus package got the job done. Obama fixed our economy.

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Ender's Book Club / Are you interested in canonical literature?

« on: April 30, 2010, 12:28:58 am »

I am curious if anyone here is interested in the discussion of canonical literature - what one might call the "classics", from Greek antiquity to the present. I would like to start a discussion here. I think the best way to go about this is if people just post about a classic work that they have read and enjoyed, or perhaps read and despised, and why they enjoy or despise this work.

I will start. One of my favorite books is Lolita, and Nabokov one of my favorite authors. The narration is simply breathtaking - impassioned wordplay, lyrical prose, inescapable laughter. The narrator gets you laughing on a subject you never thought you'd laugh at. Quite an experience. I highly recommend it. In the history of prose stylists, Nabokov is a high point.

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General Discussion / Lack of interesting threads / Reinstate Politics

« on: April 29, 2010, 11:59:49 pm »

There are no more interesting threads on this forum. We need a politics / international news forum. We need to reinstate it. Reinstate politics! What else are we going to talk about?

I mean seriously. We all have pretty divergent interests right now. Politics is the one thing that could revive activity...

If we had good moderators, then we could create good discussion. I volunteer myself as a moderator. I understand that my history of trolling here would make me an undesirable candidate to many. However, to allay these fears, I submit myself to a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to the evaluation of my moderation - the first time I "troll" or abuse privileges, it is to be understood that the admins will strip my privileges.

What will be my strategy in moderation? I will only move posts to the trash can if they contain ad hominem attacks, personal insults, or trolling. If a post is mostly substantive, but meets the above criteria in small portion, I will send a PM warning the poster to edit out the offending portion, or else I will do it for him.

I will not trash a post if it is inane, though I may respectfully point out that it is inane in a reply to that post. As I said, I will only trash posts if they meet the criteria I stated above.

So - may we please reinstate the politics board? And may I please be moderator, under the conditions stated?

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General Discussion / Health Care Reform

« on: March 25, 2010, 03:25:40 pm »

Of course everyone knows the bill passed. What are your thoughts on this? I personally am not very informed on the details of the bill, so I am not too qualified to state my opinion on whether it will be effective, however I do believe that insurance companies do some nasty things with health care, and I'm glad that something is being done to remedy this problem.

Also, since I don't think affording health insurance will be a problem for me personally, it doesn't have any bad impact on my life. It can only do good, and in the worst case scenario it is ineffective but it does nothing to really affect me. On the chance that it will be effective, I support it.

That's my reasoning/opinion, what's yours?

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General Discussion / Google leaves China

« on: March 24, 2010, 01:29:10 am »

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8583006.stm

I think this is great! I have held China's government in much disdain for a long time now, since I have long viewed it to be terribly corrupt. They are constantly bribing each other to get kids into the best schools and colleges, to get graduates in the best jobs. They censor their nation. Families are afraid to speak out against politicians even in the safety of their own homes.

China sucks. They're fucked up and there is tyranny and corruption. It's great that Google is leaving China.

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General Discussion / Funny site

« on: March 12, 2010, 02:01:39 pm »

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Did-You-Know-How-Insignificant-the-Earth-Really-Is-in-the-Universe-59306.shtml

Whatcha think?

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General Discussion / x86 irc channel?

« on: February 26, 2010, 06:38:10 pm »

do we have one?

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General Discussion / Good IRC Channels?

« on: February 22, 2010, 11:59:31 pm »

Anyone know any good IRC channels? I'm mostly interested in channels regarding OS X, C, programming, battle.net, etc.

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General Discussion / Favorite TV Shows?

« on: February 15, 2010, 01:07:58 am »

Mine are White Collar and Spartacus. What are yours?

(Rules: no anime allowed. also no star trek)

By the way, I ask because I'm looking to get into more TV shows. And I'm not sure what's good. It's my opinion that most TV shows suck.

(of more help: i really like shows about criminals, con artists, etc.)

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