Obama Taking Brief Vacation Break, 'Please Delete This Email' Writes White House Official, The Sexbots Are Coming: P.M. Links

• 

  New Line Cinema

  President Obama is still at Martha's Vineyard, but on Sunday he's making a trip back in D.C. that is "shrouded in mystery," and will be back on vacation on Tuesday.

• The Ferguson Police Department this afternoon released the name of the officer who shot Michael Brown: Darren Wilson. The shooting and subsequent protests are a "turning point" in race relations and police action, "and we must learn from it," says Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.).
• "Please delete this email," begins a message uncovered from a top Obama administration health official, and House Republicans want to know why.
• Ukraine claims that it partially "destroyed" a column of Russian military vehicles that crossed the border after nightfall. Russia denies having sent the convoy, but a few journalists say they saw it.
• Iraq's Sunni minority is eager to work with the new prime minister and end political deadlock.
• Jeb Bush doesn't want medical marijuana to be legalized in Florida. Sounds like he doesn't want to ever get elected president, either.
• Distraught by low voter turnout, Los Angeles is considering giving out cash prizes for casting ballots.
• A new FBI statistic suggests that 80 percent of law enforcement officials throughout the U.S. are overweight. Put the donut down and back away slowly.
• The saddest who-said-it quiz all week pits Hillary Clinton against John McCain.
• You'll be boning a robot by 2025 says one team of optimistic, frisky researchers.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

"Please delete this email," begins a message uncovered from a top Obama administration health official, and House Republicans want to know why.

"We have to delete the email to not find out what's in it."

[Tonio]

Most transparent administration ever.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

You found out about it, didn't you?

[Tonio]

Good one.

[Pro Libertate]

How is that not facially illegal? They're legally required to retain communications.

[Fist of Etiquette]

She was worried users would be over their mailbox size limits.

[Tonio]

Attorney-client privilege? Executive privilege? FYTW?

[Pro Libertate]

Those are only grounds for not turning over documents, not for not retaining them. Of course, destroying evidence during investigations is only criminal for little people.

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

FYTW, come on Pro you've been here long enough to know that.

[Pathogen]

You're thinking like a lawyer.. Try thinking about it like a feckless bureaucrat (sociopath)..

[Pro Libertate]

I'm thinking like a fucking American citizen. J'accuse! J'accuse!

[Pathogen]

That is why you fail..

[Marshall Gill]

J'accuse! J'accuse!

From what I hear, this passes as "evidence" more and more often in our courtrooms.

[CE]

The feckless modifier isn't needed.

[Bam!]

A simple instruction and the government bureaucrat couldn't follow it. No wonder ObamaCare is so screwed up.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Maybe "please delete this email" is just her standard message greeting and not an instruction. Did you ever think of that?

[JEP]

All of her e-mails are like the mission assignments in Mission Impossible.

[PD Scott]

So that's why Lerner's hard drive failed!

[Sidd Finch v2.01]

Well, "established by the State under Section 1311" is just a typo. Who's to say "please delete this email" isn't?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

"A new FBI statistic suggests that 80 percent of law enforcement officials throughout the U.S. are overweight."

Question is...what will Michelle do about it? Healthy gluten free, rice doughnut snacks?

[Fist of Etiquette]

A new FBI statistic suggests that 80 percent of law enforcement officials throughout the U.S. are overweight.

More cushion for the STOP RESISTING.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

The details are vague, but the campus police once sent an officer to unscrewing a bolt with a large wrench or some such task (It's been a while).

The guy just stood on it and the bolt was out. He was *huge,* and he turned that to good account.

If he jumped on a suspect, all that would be left of the suspect would be a human-shaped pancake on the road.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...but on Sunday he's making a trip back in D.C. that is "shrouded in mystery," and will be back on vacation on Tuesday.

They found a 19th hole at Andrews.

[MJGreen]

Jesus, Fist, give others a chance.

...But good one.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Jeb Bush doesn't want medical marijuana to be legalized in Florida.

Well, he is the smart one.

[Libertarian]

Being the smartest Bush is like being the tallest building in Sopchoppy, Florida.

[Scarecrow Repair]

Wholly shit Batman, there really is a city called Sopchoppy.

Learn something every day on HyR.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...Los Angeles is considering giving out cash prizes for casting ballots.

The old reverse poll tax.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Which is also illegal.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

What could possibly go wrong?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I thought they already paid people for voting - subsidies, free shit, you know.

[Winston]

I paying people for their votes is illegal? Don't the Brits call it "treating"?

[CE]

How about a lottery where the Libertarian wins sometimes?

[VG Zaytsev]

Maybe they should try holding their elections on election day instead of some weird date in the spring that no one knows about.

[New West Republic]

You'll be boning a robot by 2025

But, but, Popular Mechanics promised me this by 1980. Also, where the fuck's my flying car?

[Pro Libertate]

And they were right. You just have to build it yourself.

[New West Republic]

But I can't even build a birdhouse. Isn't there supposed to be some kind of division of labor thing at work, so I can exchange my dollars or other goods or in-kind value for a slutbot built by someone else?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

I can't wait for the Ikea drawing assembly instructions.....

[Dweebston]

And the migraine-inducing assembly?

[Pro Libertate]

First, buy some PVC pipe, two wigs, and some 10w-30 oil.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Two wigs? What is this, the 70's?!?

[Pro Libertate]

This is your project. Make it your own.

[Ted S.]

I got mine from Heathkit.

[Pro Libertate]

My dad built a Heathkit TV when I was a kid. The back of it was in a closet in his study, and the front was in the wall in our living room.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hover car!

I've been saving money since 1987 to get one.

[New West Republic]

So you've got a nice little retirement nest-egg, which I hope you won't waste on the Alice Monroebot.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Right.

/looks away nervously.

[CE]

Terrafugia.com. Flying cars are here, so stop complaining.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You'll be boning a robot by 2025 says one team of optimistic, frisky researchers.

So women won't be engaging in robosexual relations?

[Invisible Finger]

As opposed to the corpse I'm boning today?

[mr lizard]

I didn't know Steve Smith listed his cave on AirBNB?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

So I can hack my neighbor's sexbot over wifi and have it kill him? Koooool.

[JEP]

Death by Snu-Snu!

[Longtorso, Johnny]

I can reprogram Suki-bot to shout out the wrong name, just to torture John.

[Invisible Finger]

Good lord. That means someone will actually make a fatty-bot because there is a market demand.

[Invisible Finger]

Does the robot have to be 18 years old before it can be boned?

[PD Scott]

It's... AN EXPANDING MARKET!

[Pi Guy]

So Rule 34 of Robots. Midget Asian Tranny robots will be all the rage by 2035, I tells ya

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Great, Warty will be their justification for the robot uprising of '26.

[flye]

If my Roomba didn't want to get boned, it should dress less provocatively.

[CE]

Women already are. Search for, well, it's obvious.

[Bam!]

You'll be boning a robot by 2025 says one team of optimistic, frisky researchers.

Neat-o! A Marilyn Monroebot!

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Adrienne Barbobot

[Ted S.]

Jean Harlowbot.

[Obama's Buttplug]

Jessica Albot

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Bender Rodriguez

[New West Republic]

+1s and 0s

[New West Republic]

Brigitte Bardotbot

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Lucy LuBot.

[Pi Guy]

DON'T TALK ABOUT LUCY!

[Brandon]

Bea ArthurBot?

[New West Republic]

NO

[Root Boy]

yes, ban him...unfortunately like the fatbots there will be demand.

[db]

With chainsaw hands!

[MJGreen]

DON'T DATE ROBOTS

[Drake]

Date? If it can cook, dating will come to an end.

[Invisible Finger]

Distraught by low voter turnout, Los Angeles is considering giving out cash prizes for casting ballots.

One man, one vote, one purchase.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The saddest who-said-it quiz all week pits Hillary Clinton against John McCain.

And the sexual tension was palpable.

[Invisible Finger]

I can't tell them apart.

[Pro Libertate]

They were split during a bizarre experiment by Vietnamese torturers/molecular biologists.

[Fist of Etiquette]

That's hot.

[CE]

Hillary's the one with the Henry Kissinger glasses.

[Max Power]

Damn, 7 link jokes in 5 minutes? Impressive.

[Fist of Etiquette]

My girlfriend tells me I'm the quickest!

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

"Distraught by low voter turnout, Los Angeles is considering giving out cash prizes for casting ballots."

How about canceling the elections and letting the positions go unfilled?

Even my HOA requires a quorum before casting votes.

[Invisible Finger]

If the choices were

A) Joe Blow - Democrat
B) John Doe - Republican
C) Abolish the position

you'd see voter turnout skyrocket.

[Corning]

I am still in favor of:

D) Typical bastard picked randomly from the phonebook.

http://www.anyclip.com/movies/.....phonebook/

[Pathogen]

Why cant the voters vote for a dead guy, instead of vice-versa.. to mix it up a bit..

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Bacon-powered motorcycle by Hormel criss-crossing the States, smelling delicious

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

That's an unacceptable use of bacon fat. Give it to me.

[Bam!]

That's a waste of perfectly good bacon.

[Invisible Finger]

You could put your lips around the exhaust pipe.

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

That's what she said.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The shooting and subsequent protests are a "turning point" in race relations and police action, "and we must learn from it," says Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.).

I can't imagine one single lesson anyone will learn from this.

[Furburguesa]

The Keystone Cops relocated to Ferguson?

[MJGreen]

We need to abolish the 22nd amendment and re-elect Obama, as penance for this sin.

[Root Boy]

It may not be the right lesson but didn't Cummings say declare martial law because the cops were being too hardass?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Let's poll them and find out.

Are Millennials Compatible With U.S. Military Culture?

[Root Boy]

Doubt the author is anywhere near qualified to write about this or find out.

I don't know if they are millenials, but the people who fought in Iraq and AFG had no problems and mostly kicked ass. Of course .gov only needs about 150K per year of recruits out of how many millions turning 18 each year?

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

Yah... The you g soldiers I was fortunate enough to lead were quite good, thankee.

[Virginian]

You know, dating back to the fucking Persian Empire, the line is that the spoiled children of free societies will be outmatched on the battlefield by the hard, tough men produced by autocracies. Yet time and time again, the Xerxes and Hitlers of the world end up being consigned to the ash heap of history, thrown there by spoiled children.

[Free Society]

Generally with states at war, the one in possession of a more liberalized host society is going to be the victor. Freedom is strength.

[Virginian]

It's io9...what could be the most worthless non Jezbel Gawker site.

[T]

There's a difference? I can't tell most days.

[PD Scott]

New Hampshire declares state of emergency over synthetic drug.
The state of emergency authorizes public health officials to investigate stores and quarantine the product, and (Gov) Hassan directed the officials to work with local police departments to do so.
"These products pose a serious threat to public health, especially to young people, and it is our responsibility to do whatever we can* to combat the recent rash of overdoses," Hassan said in a statement.
The overdoses, none of which have been fatal...

*Does not include legalizing actual mostly-harmless cannabis

[Pope Jimbo]

They probably have jail envy because we here in Sunny Minnesoda just sentenced a head shop owner to 17 years in the slammer for breaking secret laws.

http://www.mprnews.org/story/2.....-sentenced

Carlson sold the drugs from early 2010 until his shop was closed by a judge's order in 2013. He did not think he was selling anything illegal, said his attorney, Randall Tigue.

"The DEA secretly determined that a number of these were controlled substance analogues, told absolutely no one about it, didn't put it on the website, and first told Mr. Carlson about it the day he was indicted," Tigue said. "It's prosecution by ambush, and it's absolutely unconscionable."

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Steve Smith Details Exactly How He'd Bully You At Lunch
...and then he proceeded to share his precise methods of bullying. Steve Smith will take your juice box. Steve Smith will take your applesauce. Steve Smith will break your spork....

[Pathogen]

Fuck your "spork".. you don't get one..

[Wasteland Wanderer]

STEVE SMITH KNOW ONLY RAPE.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Web Trolls Winning As Incivility Increases

[mr lizard]

If digital incivility results in a more peaceful meatspace then I will trade violent crime for a rise in keyboard warriors.

[Michael S. Langston]

The link seems to be about some book where someone thinks media is being exploited by trolls.... I?m interested in seeing if there are any studies about overall incivility on the internet, but this isn?t it.

& based upon what I read, I doubt it?s even true, as the point of the book doesn?t seem to be the study of incivility on the internet so much as it is a theoretical warning about how trolls can exploit the media and how they are getting better at it.

Tangential thought - is everyone a victim these days? Huge media conglomerates are being harassed and exploited by trolls? Really? Maybe we should setup a victim?s fund.

After all, the stress it must cause large corporations at having to deal with anonymous internet posts has to be comparable to like a near-death experience, right?

[Knarf Yenrab!]

Distraught by low voter turnout, Los Angeles is considering giving out cash prizes for casting ballots.

I wonder what sorts of politicians would stand to benefit most by using small cash gifts to incentivize low-turnout, low-information voters?

On the plus side, this will encourage us all to hold hands and sing the virtues of democracy like it's 2008 again.

[Free Society]

Don't you know? This is a new America! We are post-partisan and post-race now. I hope it's 2008 forever!!!

[Invisible Finger]

I don't want a voting lottery, I want actual cash money for my vote. Anything less is fraud.

I have an idea for an auction, but ebay's no fun anymore.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I got four, maybe five comments in before any of you idiots even showed up. This is why reason dumps their worst links on a Friday afternoon.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I had to take my mother out for some last second vacation shopping. The old lady likes Delaware tomatoes.

[Fist of Etiquette]

She should throw those tomatoes at you.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

You musta had a cold, hard child hood.

[Ted S.]

You're a much better son than I am.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I don't get the tomato-vacation connection.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

PM, my mother sometimes cooks during these family junkets and takes back home some local foods as I do. She likes their bottled tomatoes for the sauce.

Ted, I took my father out to buy alcohol yesterday! I had to convince him he's only allowed 2 bottles to take back from the 10 he had in the carriage.

He wasn't very pleased.

[Obama's Buttplug]

You travel in a fucking carriage?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Carriage is Canadian for shopping cart. Or, trolley, if you happen to be British.

[Ted S.]

We just don't give a shit about any of your comments any longer.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Your very reply says otherwise.

[Ted S.]

Somebody had to let you know.

[Marshall Gill]

I got four, maybe five comments in before any of you idiots even showed up.

You amuse me. You are a clown to me.

I could post first any day of the week. I just do not want to be the one who takes the only think in life that you have away from you.

[Pi Guy]

...the only think in life...

That there is some quality Baltimoronese.

[Obama's Buttplug]

You'll be boning a robot by 2025 says one team of optimistic, frisky researchers.

2025? I'm boning one now.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Now as in today, or now as in as you type your comment?

[Obama's Buttplug]

Precisely!

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Laptop docking station between the shoulder blades?

[PD Scott]

Report: CDC scientist kept quiet about flu blunder
A government scientist kept silent about a potentially dangerous lab blunder and revealed it only after workers in another lab noticed something fishy, according to an internal investigation.
The accident happened in January at the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. A lab scientist accidently mixed a deadly strain of bird flu with a tamer strain, and sent the mix to another CDC lab and to an outside lab in Athens, Georgia.
No one was sickened by bird flu. But unsuspecting scientists worked with the viral mix for months before it was discovered.

[PD Scott]

"We all feel horrible this happened," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, who oversees the CDC's Influenza Division ? which includes the lab where the bird flu accident took place.

Because of employee privacy rules, she said she could not name the lab scientist or the leader of the scientist's team, who were both faulted in the investigation report released Friday. She said disciplinary actions are taking place, but she did not provide any details.

According to the report, the lab scientist was doing work with both bird flu strains ? the deadly form and a tamer version. Lab rules call for them to be handled separately, and the tasks should take at least 90 minutes.
The CDC investigation found the work was completed in 51 minutes. That's a clear indication the scientist took short-cuts, Schuchat said.

[Ted S.]

"We all feel horrible this happened," said Dr. Anne Schuchat,

I think that's the bird flu virus talking.

[Root Boy]

Same people who lost the anthrax?

No wonder Walking Dead is set in Georgia.

[Ted S.]

Most transparent administration ever!

[Tonio]

But there is absolutely no chance whatsoever that ebola patients or their medical waste could be mishandled.

Yes, I know that the ebola patients are being treated at Emory U. Hospital by real (as in practicing) doctors and that the sample problems have all occurred at CDC (guessing non-practicing doctors, PhD's, etc). But, still...

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Wait, the apple juice is still in the refrigerator! I must have had the Anthrax Cocktail for lunch!"

[Stormy Dragon]

Free Range Kids?

A Swedish father has come under fire for taking his two sons on a trip to Israel, the West Bank and occupied Syria in order to teach them the reality of war

[Root Boy]

Not my idea of free range, plus they are with the dad.

Any news on the two aid workers who were kidnapped in Syria -- I think they just went to help out and are now probably enjoying some burkha-clad vacation.

[MegaloMonocle]

No.

Hard to say, but it looks like they were legit aid workers. Criminally stupid and na?ve, but well-meaning.

As opposed to jihadi-bunnies like that idiot who jumped in front of that Israeli bulldozer awhile back.

A colleague of mine had a daughter who went to Egypt, twice, after the Arab Spring. Stayed in a hotel right on Tahrir Square, and insisted on mingling with the locals. Its a freaking miracle she's still in one piece. I don't know how he stood it.

[Old Man With Candy]

"come under fire" Har!

[VG Zaytsev]

Besides, where else can you let your kid play with a decapitated human head?

[db]

You'll be boning a robot by 2025 says one team of optimistic, frisky researchers.

Quite frankly, this will be utterly useless until the sexbots are able to bathe themselves.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

A warm bath brings them up to room temp. Just sayin'.

[Andrew S.]

I don't think I want to know how you know this.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

basic physics

[Invisible Finger]

It'll be like one of those self-cleaning litter boxes.

[Invisible Finger]

Or at least douche themselves.

[New West Republic]

They will have dishwasher safe, umm, receptacles. What do you think this is, 2050?

[db]

My point is that I don't want to be the one cleaning them out. If I have to spend precious minutes cleaning them up afterward, I'll just get my satisfaction the old fashioned way: hands on.

[New West Republic]

Bitch please. Once you've heard the whining of the servomotors grinding on you and the robotic voice monotonically saying "Fuck me, db, oh God fuck me" you'll never be able to go back to the manual override.

[Invisible Finger]

Strap on a toilet brush and go at it again!

[Brandon]

Detachable V's?

[cavalier973]

Dishwasher safe!

[Jayburd]

The point is they will do then dishes while you are boning them. Old Whirlpool parts combined with something like a Shihatsu massager at about counter height. And definitely a self-cleaning cycle.

[The DerpRider]

Let the weekend begin with 72 oz of 10.1 ABV! Going to enjoy some Bell's Mars tonight!

[Ted S.]

13 glasses of weak wine?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I got talked into pear cider. At least until the sun sets.

[robc]

My local was limiting to two bottles per customer.

My wife gave me them as a B-day gift. Im going to partake in a bomber of RuinTen tonight but should get around to my Mars soon.

[ant1sthenes]

Distraught by low voter turnout, Los Angeles is considering giving out cash prizes for casting ballots.

They should just give out the offices as a prize, then they could encourage turnout and improve the quality of governance at the same time.

[Root Boy]

This either means dedicated libertarian voters could vote Playa onto the city council or Sandra Fluke becomes mayor.

[Max Power]

You'll be boning a robot by 2025 says one team of optimistic, frisky researchers.

So misogynist. What about getting boned by a robot?

[Pathogen]

The IEEE spec for version 2.0 should be bi-directional, after they work out all the kinks..

[mr lizard]

I see what you did there. Almost missed it because of the damn squrls

[db]

What good are sexbots without kinks?

[Pi Guy]

Kinky.

/That's Heddy!

[Corning]

Women in vast numbers are already getting boned by robots.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

If it takes an energizer battery.....

[PD Scott]

A funny-ish story with useful advice.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I'll take the aa lady, please.

[PD Scott]

The important thing is to keep on going, and going, and going...

[Corning]

Why not just get a generator and one you can plug in.

Lots of advantages:

1. loud to cover your orgasm screams.
2. If it breaks you can just rub yourself against the generator.
3. You won't freeze to death, starve to death or thirst to death cuz a generator can be hooked to a heater/stove for heating cooking and boiling water.

[Corning]

You'll be boning a robot by 2025

Now that is just mean.

Epi's mom will just lay there but you should not dehumanize her for that.

[Juice]

Mom arrested for swearing in front of her kids

[lap83]

As long as the sexbots give enthusiastic consent, but will they care if we do?

[Pathogen]

#RapeCulturez

[New West Republic]

Isn't giving enthusiastic consent the first law of robotics, and caring if we do the second?

[Stormy Dragon]

Quite the opposite. Numerous studies have shown that sex is necessary for own own mental health and well being. Thus under the "or through innaction allowing harm" clause of the First Law, sexbots would be compelled to ravish us whether we wanted it or not, for our own good.

[New West Republic]

Best we all stock up on Jesse's 50-gallon lube drums then.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

The best part being that you can age your illegal home-distilled moonshine in them when they're empty!

[Corning]

The robot in these stories IS a bit rapey:

http://www.amazon.com/Sex-Husb.....B008LHYUD2

[Free Society]

Distraught by low voter turnout, Los Angeles is considering giving out cash prizes for casting ballots.

#DemocracyWin

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Iphone 6

Meh.

[Root Boy]

As long as it sells and gooses my Apple stock, I'm happy.

[Corning]

I am calling bullshit:

The owner of the phone says the smuggler is his friend -- an ex-employee -- who worked in Foxconn's hardware department designing the outer casing for the new model.

Foxconn's hardware department did not design the case of Apple's iPhone 6.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

That jumped out at me too. But, TMZ, regardless of how sleazy they are, has an outstanding legal department that does it's homework.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Bah. Too many typos. You get the gist.

[Stormy Dragon]

First trailer for Atlas Shrugged Part III released:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSILZjEmIzs

[ant1sthenes]

As a traveler from the future, let me just say that the trilogy of prequels starting in 2019 ruined the original trilogy for me.

[Fluffy]

The Chinese government felt the need to fight a Chinese internet rumor by issuing an official statement declaring that the Ebola outbreak's victims have NOT been rising from the dead to feast on the living.

From which I conclude that the Ebola outbreak's victims HAVE, in fact, been rising from the dead to feast on the living.

So it's now officially zombie fortress time.

[Virginian]

I read that book already.

[Stormy Dragon]

I read it more that currently when China disappears someone, they tell the family that it happened because whomever it was had contracted ebola.

[Marshall Gill]

So it's now officially zombie fortress time.

I scoffed at the "anti-zombie" ammo and so now I am fucked.

[AuH20]

Hey, HM, as the resident linguist...

What language learning software would you recommend to get me started with Spanish?

Fluenz, Rosetta Stone, Living Language? I know it won't teach me everything but it would be a start.

[Max Power]

I'm not a linguist nor do I have any kind of professional or informed opinion but I've been doing Rosetta Stone spanish. I feel like I'm learning things and it's not too tedious. I figure I'll finish all of that and then go take spanish lessons with a person.

[Max Power]

But I'd be interested in HM's advice also.

[robc]

As would I.

I have some professional reasons to have a reading ability in German.

[INFORG]

6 months in a Mexican jail is a guaranteed 90% fluency rate.

[Stormy Dragon]

I'm assuming he wants to talk about things besides anal rape.

[Max Power]

yo no quiero ser violada

[Mock-star]

Well, theres pot. I think that covers all the bases...

[JEP]

The word "no" is the same in both languages.

[Max Power]

I think I'll stick with rosetta stone

[Michael S. Langston]

Have we met? Colorado, mid 1990s?

[Jordan]

Check out OpenLanguage.

I use ChinesePod for learning Chinese, which is very similar. Rosetta Stone is garbage.

[Heroic Mulatto]

A lot of people seem to be satisfied with Rosetta Stone. I like that they try to incorporate all 4 skills; listening, reading, writing, and speaking. If you're starting from ground zero, I'd also recommend Influent, which is a language learning game developed by a Japanese university. There are different language packs available. What I like about it is that it mirrors how people learn language naturally, it focuses on vocabulary acquisition and pronunciation. When learning a new language, in a way, you're doing the same thing you did as an infant when you were soaking up everything you heard your parents saying and observing what they called the things they pointed at.

[Plopper]

I personally think Rosetta stone is terrible for Asian languages if you want to learn how to actually read/write the language and not just speak/understand it.

But I only tried a very old version, so maybe it's better now.

For example, if I'm trying to learn Japanese... how am I supposed to know which group of kana or which particular kanji is a particular word without having even learned the syllabary before hand?

When I learned to read I learned by memorizing phonics charts in kindergarten, not staring at strings of text that are subtitles of what someone is saying. I learned which group of letters meant a particular sound.

If they could work some sort of phonics type thing into Rosetta Stone I might actually like it.

Again though, maybe I gave up on it too soon, but that was because I was more interested in learning how to read it, not speak it.

[BardMetal]

Ich mag Rosetta Stone German

[MegaloMonocle]

Fluenz is pretty good. I haven't tried the others, so I can't give you any comparisons.

[Tony]

Take away sex, and for good measure the economic and mental-laziness factors that go into people sticking together, and how many would truly choose to spend their homes and lives with another human person? Especially heteros, who seem to have this weird intellectual and personality imbalance that they're perfectly OK with (recently heard from an intelligent friend: "My wife isn't what you'd call a deep thinker"). I think the inevitable future of any intelligent technological species is sex with robots, leading to a massive drop in reproductive rates and eventual extinction (sex with robots is always going to come along sooner than immortality). Thus the Fermi paradox is solved.

[paranoid android]

Especially heteros, who seem to have this weird intellectual and personality imbalance that they're perfectly OK with (recently heard from an intelligent friend: "My wife isn't what you'd call a deep thinker")

Well, he's friends with you, so obviously he's fine with intellectual and personality imbalances with other acquaintances as well.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

He really set himself up for that.

[JEP]

Yeah, Tony's evaluation of "intelligence" and characteristics he would want in a friend doesn't lead me to believe his anecdote is worth much.

Also, I think sexbots would be treated just like masturbation. It's fun for a while, but the novelty wears off and you eventually want someone you can legitimately interact with.

[trshmnster the terrible]

That all depends on the versatility of the bots, the ability to mimic human interaction, and how "real" it feels. If you get a bot that can do you any way imaginable and then it'll make you a sandwich and discuss the merits of the battle of shiloh with you, I could see the human race going extinct in 2 generations.

[Invisible Finger]

The novelty wears off? Shit man, how much have you jacked off?

[MegaloMonocle]

The novelty wears off?

Sure, after about 70 years. Maybe 80.

[Tony]

I'm the smarter one.

[Marshall Gill]

I'm the smarter one.

Citation needed.

[New West Republic]

Also global warmings and immigrants taking our jerbz. Robosexualism is win-win no matter where you stand politically.

[Juice]

how many would truly choose to spend their homes and lives with another human person?

Deep into the mind of Tony.

[JEP]

Actually, I'm not surprised to find that it's the statist troll that is making the argument based on the premise that sexual partners are just using each other objects.

[trshmnster the terrible]

Shockingly, the one who advocates treating people like cogs in a machine has empathy issues.

[Tony]

L'enfer, c'est les autres.

[Corning]

mental-laziness

Yeah cuz having an ally in your life is mental laziness.

I am not into marriage myself but you are an idiot.

Thus the Fermi paradox is solved.

Why would there be any chance that intelligent life that evolved on a different planet have anything that even remotely resembled human sexual reproduction? Let alone every planet that ever evolved intelligent life.

[Tony]

The apparent genetic advantage (and near 100% ubiquity) of sexual reproduction among complex organisms on earth might suggest that it's just as necessary elsewhere. One could conjecture that in intelligent species it would tend to be associated with some analogue to pleasure. Thus, sex robots.

[Corning]

One could conjecture that in intelligent species it would tend to be associated with some analogue to pleasure.

Actually getting pleasure from nurturing and raising children would be more efficient design. And that is just off the top of my head. The possibilities that can occur via natural selection are near infinite.

[Stormy Dragon]

That would just result in a species that loves kidnapping. Why wait months to enjoy nurturing and raising children when you could just take someone else's and start nurturing and raising them RIGHT NOW!!!

[Fluffy]

Actually getting pleasure from nurturing and raising children would be more efficient design.

Humans have both that AND orgasms and our birth rate will drop below replacement species-wide some time this century.

[Invisible Finger]

Compared to other planets or galaxies, organisms on earth may be simplistic in comparison. So simplistic that we (being simplistic) couldn't even recognize a more complex organism as a life form.

[Michael S. Langston]

Sure, but asexual reproduction (such as cell division) has a problem where is can only pass on the genes it contains..... forever.

Whereas sexual reproduction, allows the gene pool to be mixed, allowing the more dominant traits of a few to be shared by many (after several generations anyway).

So while intelligent life certainly may not have ?sex? as we think about it, it would likely have some form of mating to allow the spread of dominant genes to more hosts allowing for a greater chance of survival for the species.

[Tony]

Also, no matter how complex an organism, it would have passed through stages of lower complexity.

[Corning]

Another question:

Why has this not already happened?

With women there are already numerous sex robots a woman can choose from and they have near ubiquitous use and cultural acceptance.

Hell in this very thread there are women joking about the size of batteries they use for their sex bots...and there is exactly zero negative responses to their jokes...despite that fact that nearly all the posters here are evil white male umber-mysogonists

Yet women still seem to be getting married and having kids.

Also dudes can just jerk off...yet they are sill getting married and having kids.

[Invisible Finger]

And jerking off.

[Pi Guy]

umber-mysogonists

Once you've had brown you never go back... To women?

[ant1sthenes]

Doubtful, and not just because masturbation already disproves your hypothesis.

There's likely to be some contingent of people with cultural values or genetic traits that cause them to view sex with robots as revolting. If the human obsession with robofucking is so impactful as to be an existential threat, then future generations will be solely descended from them and/or steeped in their ideas, leading to a world where the notion of sex with robots is considered slightly more terrible than pedophilia.

[Tony]

I did leave something out: the sexbots would be human replacements, capable of realistically mimicking what we like from human interaction and presumably lacking the negative stuff (e.g., unwanted pregnancy!).

[Jayburd]

That's why there are electric sheep. Their called The Love Ewes.

[Obama's Buttplug]

German security recorded Clinton conversation: media

[Karl Hungus]

The soldier/Marine who caused an international furor when he made wee-wee on a dead Taliban fighter has died:

http://news.yahoo.com/marine-u.....37744.html

[Libertymike]

This murderer's attorney insists that we should not let an isolated departure from discipline ruin his reputation.

Okay.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I have no problem with what he did.

[Libertymike]

He was a parasite pissing upon a corpse.

He was the ultimate loser.

Typical military trash.

[Michael S. Langston]

You seem upset.

Were you related to the corpse?

Or do you just have serious corpse-like fetishes, which even though you?re working very, very hard to ignore, just keep getting louder and louder in your mind?

[Knarf Yenrab!]

Killing people is the acceptable norm of war, but don't you dare piss on an unfeeling corpse in anger! What a bizarre species we are.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I would say that a live enemy is dangerous and a dead one generally isn't (with exceptions like contagious disease or a corpse outfitted with bombs, neither of which situations can be resolved with urination, AFAIK).

[MegaloMonocle]

A week of KP should have been the sum total of the consequences for pissing on the corpse.

Funny, isn't it, that an armed agent of the state pissing on a corpse in a war zone is treated more harshly than an armed agent of the state shooting down a citizen in their own home.

[CE]

Robot already hitch-hiking across Canada:

http://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech.....-1.1955312