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11/3/2009 4:49:00 PM
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natipal
Posts 468
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I found this highly interesting volcanic event, which I never even heard of before. A volcano erupted in Ethiopia, and subsequently caused a 35 mile rift in both directions from the volcano.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,571347,00.html
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11/3/2009 6:50:17 PM
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Marian
Posts 2178
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Quite interesting, Natipal. The Great Rift Valley in Africa has been known http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/Great_Rift_Valley/ but this seems even more interesting.
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"Know the truth and the truth shall make you odd."
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11/3/2009 8:31:51 PM
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gdozois
Posts 3110
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I thought from the thread title that this was a political thread about crack cocaine trafficking in Africa.
Reminds me of one of my favorite newspaper headlines: "POLICE FIND CRACK IN AUSTRALIA." Alarming! Hope it doesn't break! (This time it was the other way around, though, being about drugs rather than tectonic movements.)
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11/4/2009 12:19:25 AM
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Byron Bailey
Posts 2413
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A 35-mile rift in the desert of Ethiopia will eventually become a new ocean or sea, researchers now confirm.
I can't help but notice that the article is from FOX News. Considering some of the stuff I've heard on FOX News like creationists saying the most blatant lies unchallenged like there has never been a transitional species found in the fossil record, I can't help but wonder if this event is real or is merely FOX News's suggested policy in regards to Africa: let it drown.
edited by Byron Bailey on 11/4/2009
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Yes, I do weigh 800 pounds, but I'm not a gorilla. I'm just a grossly obese bonobo. Really.
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11/4/2009 8:50:06 AM
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Dave_Truesdale
Posts 417
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I can't help but wonder if this event is real or is merely FOX News's suggested policy in regards to Africa: let it drown.
Please, gimme a break.
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"When any category of science fiction writing has become dull and repetitive, there is always a brilliant story waiting to be written by giving up the assumptions that made the story easy to write." --Damon Knight
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11/4/2009 9:16:28 AM
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Lukas Jackson
Posts 525
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This thread isn't about what I thought it would be at all. It sounds like the subject line of one of the interracial pr0n spam e-mails I regularly get in my inbox.
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http://darkerblogistan.livejournal.com
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11/4/2009 9:18:33 AM
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Madison
Posts 142
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I thought this thread was about a certain other African drug. The one you don't want to think about.
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The next statement is true.
The previous statement was false.
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11/4/2009 10:26:14 AM
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Bill Moonroe
Posts 3308
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I thought it was about the deleted scene from "District 9" where, as the aliens are threatening to go on rampage, Johannesburg collectively drops trou in a final act of defiance.
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11/4/2009 10:34:59 AM
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Byron Bailey
Posts 2413
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Dave_Truesdale wrote:
I can't help but wonder if this event is real or is merely FOX News's suggested policy in regards to Africa: let it drown.
Please, gimme a break.
Did you see Glen Beck getting all teary eyed about health care workers in the US being required to get the swine flu vaccine? I did.
edited by Byron Bailey on 11/4/2009
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Yes, I do weigh 800 pounds, but I'm not a gorilla. I'm just a grossly obese bonobo. Really.
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11/4/2009 7:14:19 PM
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Dave_Truesdale
Posts 417
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Glenn Beck does get a little too teary-eyed for me sometimes, Byron, but what he's exposing on his show every night is priceless and beyond valuable (the family tree of who's in the Obama White House/administration, and their direct verbal or written statements extolling their love for Mao or Marxism or Socialism, etc. If Beck weeps a bit on occasion, I'll certainly forgive him that). Helluva lot more indisputably factual than what Keith Doberman rants and raves about on his lowest rated cable network--which only about three people are watching. A lot of people watch Beck faithfully, including democrats and independents, not just republicans or conservatives. This is why his show sometimes beats (at his much earlier, non-prime time slot) both PMSNBC and CNN combined during their prime time slots.
This should probably go into the basement if we want to continue on a political note (which I don't). But since I didn't open the door with the first political comment, the least I could do was even it out with a response. How you got from a crack in African plate tectonics (or whatever) to Glenn Beck weeping is beyond me. I suggest we just leave it where it is, okay? :-)
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"When any category of science fiction writing has become dull and repetitive, there is always a brilliant story waiting to be written by giving up the assumptions that made the story easy to write." --Damon Knight
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11/4/2009 7:48:57 PM
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Byron Bailey
Posts 2413
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How you got from a crack in African plate tectonics (or whatever) to Glenn Beck weeping is beyond me. I suggest we just leave it where it is, okay?
It's what Glen was weeping about, in this case that health care workers should have to take sensible, scientificaly based precautions so as not to put themselves who are in a highly vulnerable position and those they care for who who are also in highly vulnerable position at great risk. It's another example like with the evolution example I gave of those on FOX news being insanely anti-scientific. My point about Africa is admittedly a little exaggerated, but I think it's highly reflective of a trend I see in FOX News of challenging basic science in order to cater to big government paranoia and religious fundamentalism or some other right wing cause. But yeah, the other News Networks have serious problems and FOX News does give you a perspective you don't get elsewhere. I don't agree with that perspective, but I can't say I agree with anyone else's. I do hold particular spite for those who blatantly cater to scientific ignorance, though, and that's what I've seen. Not a lot, but certainly enough to highly annoy me. Call it personal. Other networks have their own serious flaws. FOX News does a particularly good job of pressing my personal buttons, though.
Btw, I didn't know we weren't in the basement. I rarely use the forum in a way that I know anymore. With the new forum, I really don't know where I'm at except by guessing based on context. Sometimes I guess wrong. *shrug*
edited by Byron Bailey on 11/4/2009
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Yes, I do weigh 800 pounds, but I'm not a gorilla. I'm just a grossly obese bonobo. Really.
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11/4/2009 9:00:02 PM
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Dave_Truesdale
Posts 417
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I watch Fox News regularly, and you should separate their opinion shows from their news shows. Beck, O'Reilly, and Hannity are all opinion shows. As an atheist, whenever Glenn or Sean speak of their deeply held religious beliefs and how it informs their view of certain political issues, I let it go in one ear and out the other. OTOH, both of them (especially Glenn) on non-religious issues arm themselves with well-researched facts. Again, especially Glenn (what he's been doing the past several months is amazing). The White House accused him of making stuff up, so he installed a red phone right in the studio with a direct line to the appropriate person in the White House who accused him of distortions, making stuff up, etc. He's dared them to call with any inaccuracies. The phone has yet to ring.
I don't agree with everything Glenn, Sean, or O'Reilly have to say. Hardly. But as long as they have facts to back up their assertions on major investigative stuff, they offer me something far above and far more important than what MSNBC used to provide me when I tried to watch them. Fox News cable channel--overall--is doing the job of the investigative press far, far better than either MSNBC, CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, the LA Times, etc., etc. So if Glenn or Sean on their opinion shows mention God or Life Begins at Conception or whatever it may be along those lines, I take it with a grain of salt and it doesn't really bother me. The other stuff they're doing--watch-dogging the gummint--is far and away the vast percentage of their individual shows anyway, and strikes me as being refreshingly different from the lapdogs over at MSNBC, and to a lesser but still notable extent, CNN.
I think it's highly reflective of a trend I see in FOX News of challenging basic science in order to cater to big government paranoia and religious fundamentalism or some other right wing cause.
As I said above, I watch Fox all the time (except during the day), and I really haven't noticed what you're referring to, Byron. Oh, sure, there may have been one or two isolated comments made over a long period of time, but I really haven't noticed any challenging of basic science in order to promulgate big gummint paranoia. I think, rather, that the origin of such stems more from an antipathy toward big gummint trying to tell us what to do all the time, rather than from any religious dogma. I happen to think it's a good idea (if the H1N1 virus is as officially stated) that healthcare workers of all stripe be inoculated for the obvious reasons. In general, I find the objectionable positions, or parts of argument on various subjects I happen to disagree with, aren't nearly as obnoxious at Fox as those put forward by say, Keith Oberman, who is downright hateful and nasty much of the time. He really is just unapologetically vicious and mean-spirited, which, while you'll find true passion at Fox, nothing of the low-level sort like Oberman's nutso rants. He should stick to Sunday Night Football where he started. :-)
And we're not in the "basement" here. The basement is the Political/Religious discussion forum. The "basement" is just a euphemism, O Great Cthulhu. :-)
edited by Dave_Truesdale on 11/4/2009
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"When any category of science fiction writing has become dull and repetitive, there is always a brilliant story waiting to be written by giving up the assumptions that made the story easy to write." --Damon Knight
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11/4/2009 9:18:57 PM
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Madison
Posts 142
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You mean Fox News isn't satirical?
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The next statement is true.
The previous statement was false.
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11/4/2009 10:23:45 PM
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Thomas R
Posts 2725
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Byron Bailey wrote:
Did you see Glen Beck getting all teary eyed about health care workers in the US being required to get the swine flu vaccine? I did.
Glenn Beck is pretty weird IMO, but that doesn't mean everything from Fox is automatically suspect. Or even that everything Beck says is false. It's not my favorite news channel or anything, but many to most of their stories are legitimate/real news stories. Unless the article were titled "Giant Crack opens in Africa reveals Obama's Kenyan birth certificate" it's probably real.
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To God be humble, to thy friend be kind, and with thy neighbors gladly lend and borrow His chance is tonight it might be thine tomorrow - William Dunbar
I don't lend money to eight-year-olds, at least not anymore. And if you see Billy tell him I'm looking for him - Coach McGuirk
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11/4/2009 11:26:53 PM
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Byron Bailey
Posts 2413
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Glenn Beck is pretty weird IMO, but that doesn't mean everything from Fox is automatically suspect. Or even that everything Beck says is false. It's not my favorite news channel or anything, but many to most of their stories are legitimate/real news stories. Unless the article were titled "Giant Crack opens in Africa reveals Obama's Kenyan birth certificate" it's probably real.
I've seen enough not to trustr them on scientific issues that are likely to bruise religious or ideological egos.
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Yes, I do weigh 800 pounds, but I'm not a gorilla. I'm just a grossly obese bonobo. Really.
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11/4/2009 11:34:48 PM
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Thomas R
Posts 2725
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Okay. Still you can try this from New Scientist about the story.
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To God be humble, to thy friend be kind, and with thy neighbors gladly lend and borrow His chance is tonight it might be thine tomorrow - William Dunbar
I don't lend money to eight-year-olds, at least not anymore. And if you see Billy tell him I'm looking for him - Coach McGuirk
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11/5/2009 4:18:08 AM
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natipal
Posts 468
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My bad, I honestly didn't think about your perceptions of the what the thread was about. Sorry! Anyway, I found another article with a picture of a absolutely huge rift pretty close to Dabbahu. I'll see if I can find it. The picture shows the rift with people in it for scale, and the people look like ants compared to the rift, and the rift is very very deep. It appears to be about as deep as it is wide.
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11/5/2009 4:30:59 AM
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natipal
Posts 468
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Does anybody know if Admin would be willing to edit the title? I'd really appreciate if someone could let me know. I absolutely meant no slight towards Africans. I just didn't think about how I titled it is all. Egads.   
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11/5/2009 10:41:45 AM
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Alex
Posts 942
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There's nothing wrong with the thread title. It's certainly accurately descriptive.
The real problem is with the sick, twisted minds which read it.
(My first thought was, "They make cocaine in africa?!?" )
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Because, anything worth doing is worth overdoing
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11/5/2009 12:23:42 PM
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natipal
Posts 468
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Alex, that may be true, but you know, sometimes a title just begs to be changed. I wouldn't mind changing it if I could.
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