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Posts by HassanBenSobar

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  • Whoopi Calls On Sharpton To Apologize To Duke Players

    10/10/2007 10:52:32 AM PDT · 4 of 57
    HassanBenSobar to montag813

    I don’t really care if Sharpton apologizes or not. The Group of 88 needs to—unequivocally.

    But they never will.

  • Do Disappearing Bees Have (Bee) AIDS?

    04/27/2007 10:15:52 AM PDT · 15 of 93
    HassanBenSobar to canuck_conservative

    Believe it or not, insects do have a ‘blood’ system, though they are not warm-blooded. Something has to get the oxygen to their tissues, too. They even have a blood-brain barrier (helps them fight off toxins).

    Biology can be quite surprising.

  • Right-Of-Center Bloggers Select Their Favorite People On The Right

    08/07/2006 9:24:28 AM PDT · 10 of 14
    HassanBenSobar to MinnesotaLibertarian

    Try listening to Larry Elder. He's far and away the best.

  • The tall story we Europeans now tell ourselves about Israel

    07/28/2006 7:07:24 PM PDT · 10 of 10
    HassanBenSobar to saquin

    BTTT!

  • Computers learn common sense

    07/12/2006 9:33:14 PM PDT · 19 of 35
    HassanBenSobar to rbg81

    how refreshing to hear a fact-based, thoroughly accurate technical discussion here. AI is a field that has struggled to little avail, making only incremental progress over the years. Not that people shouldn't keep trying...

    I'm all in favor of darpa but the current head (Tony Tether) knows nothing about AI and up til now has been extremely reluctant to fund anything like this whatsoever--good judgement up to this point. Not sure what changed, though there's been all sorts of darpa programs for advanced AI development during his tenure that never even got funded in the last several years. Tether has a cold-war mindset and micromanages darpa; most program managers dislike him for it, but as far as AI goes, he's probably doing taxpayers a favor.

    I agree w/Steely Tom: this project will go the way of so many that came before it--utter obscurity. Shame.

  • Let them Hate Us (INTERVIEW WITH A DIXIE CHICK)

    07/11/2006 9:03:31 PM PDT · 74 of 98
    HassanBenSobar to Huck

    Why on earth not?

  • Let them Hate Us (INTERVIEW WITH A DIXIE CHICK)

    07/11/2006 9:03:30 PM PDT · 73 of 98
    HassanBenSobar to Huck

    Why on earth not?

  • Journalists and 'Leakers' Feel Heat (An AP Kook's Interpretation)

    07/01/2006 6:13:24 PM PDT · 2 of 7
    HassanBenSobar to new yorker 77

    Barf alert, please.

  • Let's Move Medicine Into the Information Age

    06/29/2006 10:04:10 PM PDT · 6 of 20
    HassanBenSobar to goodnesswins

    Good to have *minimal* govt involvement in health care, so while Frist's ideas have enormous merit, the govt should serve only as a broker/facilitator/test-bed funder of the best ideas toward making this vision happen.

    Beyond proof of concept, the dollars ought to be spent by the private sector only. I think there is a place for govt to fund high risk/high reward ideas that industry might not otherwise; this seems like a prime example. (But let me stress that, unlike the space program, I'd like to see the dollars spent limited by ORDERS of magnitude! Proof-of-concept needs to be carefully circumscribed...)

    The govt can also be helpful by assisting with various indemnifications and tort reform--isn't this the point? The structural defect in healthcare torts should be obvious to one and all: countless people suffer because of stone-age healthcare IT record-keeping and information coordination, yet tort lawyers have no deep pockets to punish, so they can do nothing to fix the problem. (Yes, I know, GAG, shows just how despicable the tort leeches are).

    What I'd most hate to see is that this vision becomes the sugar that speeds universal health care (cough, rationing, cough) down the throats of the american people. Wasn't the revolutionary cry 'give me LIBERTY or give me death'? Yammering for govt control of healthcare is kind of like saying, Give me SLAVERY (to crappy healthcare), or in other words, death!

    Hmmm, not a bad tagline...

  • Police: Man May Have Preyed On Boys At O'Hare (Illegal Alien Minister)

    06/26/2006 7:20:26 PM PDT · 7 of 17
    HassanBenSobar to Extremely Extreme Extremist

    This is less about illegals than it is about JWs and sex abuse due to the authoritarian and secretive nature of the JW cult itself. (Though of course, if on top of it all the authorities are dealing with an illegal, both he AND the cult need a serious a$$-kicking, and of course the lax policies of our govt in dealing with illegals are beyond the pale).

    But to all you freepers who care to dig deeper (not the shallow snide commentators)--the JWs are very deceptive, 'wolves in sheeps clothing', especially when it comes to child sex abuse. The catholic church is saintly in comparison. For more, check out silentlambs.com. This is *not* about some random bad apple simply acting on his own--nor is it some crazy conspiracy theory--but rather, the policies and rigidly-enforced teachings of this cult create an environment that enables child abuse to an horrific degree. Though I am not surprised to see that the lazy idiot presstitutes who wrote the article made no such connection and dug no deeper. Guardians of the public interest, yeah right.

  • AP Sets Up N.Korea Bureau

    06/12/2006 1:14:04 PM PDT · 13 of 21
    HassanBenSobar to Recovering_Democrat

    While they are at it, they might as well move their headquarters there.

  • Part III: The Road to Perversion Is Paved With Pornography

    04/29/2006 9:42:10 PM PDT · 48 of 58
    HassanBenSobar to wagglebee

    As if this weren't enough, the second sexual revolution is about to blindside all of you. It's called, 'cheap, anonymous, real-time multiplex molecular diagnostics'.

    Translation: if you could check yourself, and your partner, using off the shelf technology, for ALL STDs within say 30 minutes or less and costing about 20 bucks, well?

    You know what birth control did for sex, and then there was the internet and the porn explosion. Next--quick, cheap, easy and reliable pre-screens for ALL disease. So what if it's only 99% reliable? Same with birth control. It's 3-4 years out, max. And yes, I am in a position to know.

    Go on trying to stop porn. You're fighting yesterday's war. The genie is so far out of the bottle now, you have no idea. I don't say that with a voice of laughter, either--as a society, we better adjust in a big big hurry to technological change. But hey, barely 100 years ago, people got married off in many societies just out of childhood or earlier--not that that's a good thing in our society, but past societies only did that because people back then understood, and key point: *accommodated* the realities of human sexuality.

    Flame away. You're wasting your time.

  • Battle Brews As Porn Moves Into Mainstream

    04/01/2006 10:15:45 PM PST · 123 of 305
    HassanBenSobar to Celtjew Libertarian

    LOL.

    Yeah, like *population* is a huge problem in Japan. Aging, maybe, but sheesh. If porn is limiting Japan's population growth, then boy, have we ever got a solution for China. (What's worse, porn or abortion? Bwahahaha--yeah, AS IF porn really gets censored in China, right. Certainly not the 'porn' some here are so up in arms about.)

    If adults can consent to sex, then they can consent to being photographed in the act*. If children cannot consent to sex (and I fully agree they cannot), then they should also not be photographed or SEE photos of sex--and I'm 100% on board with that. But just because people can find a way, through technology or other means, to get around such prohibitions, doesn't mean you can take away the extremely simple adult consents I just outlined. Sure, you can come up with special cases all day long, when various acts get more extreme or when 'consent' gets blurred, but that doesn't negate the basic situation. Analogies to drugs, guns, etc are specious.

    *You may disagree with my premise, but in this day and age, it's utterly impossible, except in a police state, to regulate how people use cameras, video equipment, etc., in the privacy of their own homes, and even harder policing who they share such information with. But the practical difficulties in banning or even restraining porn don't seem to matter to it's diehard opponents. Nor the unintended consequences: if porn were as hard to come by in the US as it is in, say, Saudi Arabia, TONS of people would see a significant money-making opportunity. Hmmm, just like, ummm, prohibition? And then how bad would illegal porn and all its offshoot social problems become? But nevermind, it's all about brain damage.

    Right.

  • Is Bacterial Resistance to Antibiotics an Appropriate Example of Evolutionary Change?

    03/28/2006 3:02:47 PM PST · 11 of 87
    HassanBenSobar to longtermmemmory

    Yep. Two words: Intellectual dishonesty.

  • Venezuela Challenges US with 2M Voluntary Soldiers

    03/06/2006 5:20:29 PM PST · 6 of 80
    HassanBenSobar to proud_yank

    It's ok. We have more, and bigger, bombs.

  • Palestinians face financial collapse: envoy

    02/27/2006 11:41:46 AM PST · 8 of 35
    HassanBenSobar to NormsRevenge

    Faster, please!

  • Intimate kissing raises teen's risk of meningitis

    02/10/2006 9:39:20 PM PST · 17 of 31
    HassanBenSobar to andie74

    Ooooh, imagine that. Vaccinations help reduce the risk, too.

    This also just in: Moon NOT made of green cheese!!!!

    Thank you, Capt. Obvious for that public service announcement. And now for a healthy shot of thimoserol...

  • DARPA's Cutting-Edge Programs Revolutionize Prosthetics

    02/08/2006 5:44:25 PM PST · 3 of 5
    HassanBenSobar to SandRat

    DARPA may be on the right track--finally--, but they are a bunch of dumb F*&^s when it comes to getting things done. This is not new and they are way behind in terms of what they COULD have done to accelerate such research. There was a program a few years ago meant to accomplish the same thing that got scrapped for idiotic reasons. Tony Tether, the head of DARPA, is long overdue for replacement and is soley responsible for the delays.

    Yes, amazing advances in prosthetics--and much more--are on the horizon. Darpa trying to claim the glory is a joke.

  • Why some see colours in numbers

    01/14/2006 10:02:19 AM PST · 21 of 63
    HassanBenSobar to Cicero

    Thanks for that, very much enjoyed it.

    For those of you who've posted claiming to have synesthesia, listen to the music of Alexander Scriabin.

    You'll 'see' what I mean.

    For those who aren't, it's still quite a treat.

  • Groups target bosses to deter illegal hiring

    12/12/2005 11:56:36 AM PST · 3 of 3
    HassanBenSobar to JZelle

    I live in Lake Forest and this is completely true.

    A couple years ago I needed to rent a moving truck--as I pulled into the rental agency my car was absolutely swarmed by illegals. I freaked, because they were trying to pull open my door and were jumping on the hood of the car--I peeled out of there. I didn't know if they were fighting to get a job helping my move stuff or if they were about to pull me out of my car, beat the sh** out of me and drive away.

    It's disgraceful. Lake Forest is beautiful, safe and generally quite wealthy but here and there you see these guys loitering and it's scary. If it can happen here....