So this may seem a bit morbid, but I was thinking about this today and I was wondering what others thought:
... more inside ...

Is Google Making Us Stupid? (by Nicholas Carr)
"[The advantages of the Internet come] at a price. As the media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles."

Would love to hear what you think about this article.

In honor of my recent anniversary here at VideoSift, I have decided to submit an amazing video entitled "Barack Obama vs. Pennsylvania". I expect it to be lavished with lots of * quality and * promote tags, and I also believe it will change lives in the process. This will probably break upvote records here on the Sift, I'm just being realistic.

It has also come to my attention that I am up for an NAACP/PETA/ACLU Online Image Award for the 2007/2008 internet year. This is a great honor, and I'm ecstatic to be nominated. There are many people to thank for making this possible: George W Bush, for being the greatest President of this century; Hillary Clinton, for standing by her principles and dodging gunfire in the name of her country; Barack Obama, for showing us that church can unite us all; and finally, to Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, for showing exceptional moral leadership in these trying times of recession and depression.

Finally, I'd like to thank all my followers here on VideoSift for their daily fanmail, thoughts, and prayers. You all keep me humble and grounded. I will now and forever be, BillOreilly: Defender of Freedom, Purveyor of Truth, Master of the Obvious, King of My Own Little World.

Thank you, and goodnight.

...I was pondering a question I had asked myself. To me the answer was fairly easy, but the pondering came in when I thought about what other people's answer would be.

The question: If you had to live with a roommate in a regular two bedroom house who would you rather live with, a cop by profession or a weed/XTC/prescription drug dealer? For sake of argument let's say the rent isn't a factor.

(no the cop isn't a hot stripper cop and no you don't get free drugs from the drug dealer)

Please state your answer and reasons why.

This started as one of my comments on one of the (more embarassing) scientology protest videos, delivered me a couple of comments on my profile, and got me to thinking what my real views on this subject are.

It is my intent to have a dialogue with all of you honestly, openly and with no personal malice or prejudice. Let's get this whole subject out in the open with everyone's thoughts and feelings so that we can look at it in the light of day and see if we can all evolve our understanding of the problems, the benefits, and each other.

>>>>
I am not wishing ill on those that protest an evil organisation, I am Ripping The Shit out of the mindless vegetoid slugs in this particular video who are devaluing and embarassing one of the most important social/internet phenomena of the 21st Century, which is a movement against a cult disguised as a religion.

I hold the same disgust toward scientology as I do toward judeo-christianity, which has delivered us the most violent century in ALL of human history, the 20th.

Whilst attacking the cult is commendable and to be wholeheartedly encouraged, the underlying social issues and problems created by consumerism and materialism that lead vast numbers of people to seek some kind of meaning in all manner of religions, cults and fads are being completely missed by everyone involved.

In many ways, the movement against scientology is the same type of beast as a religious cult, with the vegetoid masses signing up to feel part of something noble and larger than life.

So who do we blame for all of this? Well let's start with all of those organisations preaching religious tolerance. Religious tolerance has ALWAYS created a smokescreen for hideousness. It's about time that was said by the way.

What do we do about it? Remove the smokescreen of religious tolerance and all of the nastiness born from organised religion will suddenly spring into the light of day. Think about if *your* religion would survive such a removal of the Smokescreen of Religious Tolerance.

What about real spirtuality and the belief that under the cloak we are in fact divine and spirtual beings? People will always seek out this truth for themselves, as they have done for more than ten thousand years *without* the presence of corrupting religions and labels.

I'm not preaching existentialism. Since the industrial era rationalism and science have tried to remove the magic and the sheer weirdness of reality, yet all along every single one of us KNOWS from our own experiences that life isn't rational and reducible, that there is an ever present 'other' and irrationality to reality. In fact this is the brick wall that science has been banging its head against now for 50 years, the latest attempt at rationalism being to remove Time itself from the equations.

Let's move this to sift talk and get everyone's thoughts. If people want to attack scientology then they better be ready to face the really hard questions and the bigger picture.



In reply to this comment by QuadraPixel:
Then why do you wish such ill on those that protest an evil organization, that you have no association with?

In reply to this comment by Irishman:
As I said before Kommie, I'm an eschatologist, not a scientologist.

In reply to this comment by QuadraPixel:
Wow, now that's a little harsh, but not when it comes from a SCIENTOLOGIST.
http://www.videosift.com/video/Busted-for-Interbulating-a-scientology-party
http://www.videosift.com/video/Cult-of-Scientology-takes-over-Clearwater-Police-Dept

In reply to this comment by Irishman:
Personally I'd like to see every single person in that video joining a suicide death cult as soon as possible.

Dag spelled backwards is Gad...

which if you are from Boston sounds an awful lot like 'God'. Maybe Dag really thinks he is a Deity. Maybe he is a megalomaniac...

That is all.

In response to the clip
http://philosophy.videosift.com/video/What-is-your-function-in-life
(and others http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22survive+style%22&search=Search )

Let's ask our selves the question:
What is your function in life?
As a human being, now, on this blue planet.

I'd say to spread genes and ideas, respectively few (we are 6.7 billion already) and as much as possible - this videosift talk being one of them. Let's continue...

I absolutely get sick of commenting about this religious crap.
1.First of all, evolution is not a theory, it is a fact. Look up the definition (that being that organisms change over time) and try to deny it.
2.There is no internal war in the scientific community about evolution. There are scientists who have a FAITH in god and even those who have a FAITH in creation, but there is no PROOF of it. And not a single one of them Would say otherwise But the vast majority of intelligent educated people the world over read through evolution and come to the same conclusion. No wonder America is at the bottom of the heap in terms of science education.
3. There are tons of missing links, just read about them
4. If you flood the whole world with fresh water to a depth greater than the highest mountain (although for the life of me I'd like to know where it all went)then------>all salt water fish die, all land and water dwelling microorganisms die, all fresh water fish die, all plants die(with the exception of mangroves), all aquatic mammals die, and all of the organisms outside of a certain regional area die. (or maybe they picked up the DODO on their way to White Castle)
5. Genetics has allowed us to map the progression of species from a PROBABLE common ancestor.
6. Moreover, and I love this one, yes great apes have 24 pairs of chromosomes and we have 23? Check out Robertsonian
translocation nitwits
7. Law of Entropy does not equal "Law of EVERYTHING fall APART without an influx of energy"= it means that all matter will head toward an an energetically favorable state under certain circumstances (ie temp and Pressure) God doesn't have to be present for a salt cube to form. Also, if I must, LIFE does use energy to maintain itself...... ie food
8. Selection of the fittest (my personal favorite) can be translated into whichever organism is most capable of utilizing available resources gets to survive, it is evident in everything
9. There are plenty of speciation events recorded and even created in the lab.
10. You want to bring probability into the equation?? OOOK, take whatever probability formula you want and plug in "almighty, all-knowing, all-powerful, single being that created itself and everything else" NOW THAT's what I call low probability.
11. And please, creationists....quit hiding behind words. Double talk only confuses the issue. If you took 2 people who couldn't speak and ask them to show proof of evolution or creationism; the evolutionist would show rock layers and textbooks of interpretations and speciation events galore; the creationist would simply either bang on the bible or spin in a circle like a drooling idiot in an attempt to show that god encompasses everything.
12. There are no societal woes due to evolution. Evolution is just a definition. More people have died and killed and raped and lied etc etc due to a belief in God than anything else. You say "We are an enlightened culture and we won't"? Black people are still hung because of a belief in racial superiority based on a twisted view of the bible.
13. I would be more inclined to accept the original translation of the bible. The modern condensed King James Version is just an Americanized version of an English Kings translation of a Catholic translation of a Catholic translation (ad nauseum) of a Latin text of an Aramaic account of what some disciples report that Jesus purportedly said 100 years after he died. (that's right). And before this becomes a problem, all christians need to go back to being jews. The bible, the same old testament with the creation fable, has already stated that the "JEWS are the chosen people of GOD".

OK, now I'm bored,

Part 1 - Part 3



James Burke is a science historian, all of his programs are available on youtube, I am asking the Philosophical Society of the sift to help develop descriptions and research for each clip on youtube. To contribute simply philosophize and research the content of the clip and post your thoughts/findings below.

Description None Yet

Research
Locations Featured:
- Ionian Islands, Greece.
Wikipedia
People Featured:
- Thales of Miletus
Wikipedia

I know there are a lot of fans of James Burke and no doubt you already know that a user on Youtube uploaded every single James Burke segment earlier this year, yet none have descriptions and I fear they will be taken down. In the spirit of "Connections"; and the "Knowlege web." I challenge sifters to be interested in helping create encyclopedic like descriptions for each James Burke segment, starting with "The Day the Universe Changed." Here is the first 10 minutes segment that needs a description, watch it, then post a description and/or related links.

Part 2


"The universe essentially only exists as you perceive it; therefore, if you change your perception of the universe, you have changed the universe itself." - The Day the Universe Changed.

I am putting this in the Philosophy forum because I'm intrigued to read responses to James Burke's work that are comprised of philosophical thought, we all know the Sift is full of intriguing minds of varying interests and expertise and I hope to read a verity of thought processes that were encountered while watching this clip.

In addition to the needed description, research is also needed, so even if you don't feel like writing you can still help by researching the clip and posting links that would be useful for a first time watcher. Even if they aren't useful to the first time user, post what you found and let us know why you found it. When the smoke clears hopefully we will have created something useful for the first time viewer who encounters these epic clips on youtube.

Description: None yet
Research:
Location Featured: Cheyenne Mountain