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The One Year Thread 2015: The Forum Awakens


Keyan Farlander

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No... :dozey:

 

Don't let the President of the United States fool you! That three person raid by heavily-armed middle-easterners in San Bernardino was no 'workplace violence' or lone nut-job with guns like we usually see.

 

That was an armed jihadi raid on American soil. If anyone tries to tell you it was more evidence we need gun control, kick them right in the nuts.

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No! Then we'll get shoe control...
Have you been on a commercial flight lately? We already have shoe control... at least in airports.

 

Thanks, attempted shoe-bomber guy.

 

But I guess it's better than the government having nuts control... :dozey:

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with the forum cleanup, there are fewer places for them to post.

 

So, they're concentrating more then invading.

You should see it from my point of view as an admin. There are hundreds of spambots that are trying to post in areas that they can't post any more. So they spend an hour there looking at error messages and then finally give up.

 

We've managed to cut down the spam posts by a huge amount and herd them into places where we can more easily cut them down.

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I replaced the tubes in my Vox AC30 today. They sound great, better than the Chinese tubes it came with.

 

But every time I do something like this, I agonize over whether something went wrong. When I turn the standby off, there is a slight hum, even if there is no guitar plugged into the amp. I can't even hear it when I play. But...was it there before? I can't remember. Should it be there? Tube amps should probably hum a little. I spent the rest of the day watching YouTube videos of people playing this amp, trying to hear if it's there. I think it is? Maybe. I don't know. Sigh...

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lol, do that all the time. Though not with tubes. I just got to a point where I realized there was nothing I could do about past mistakes, and moved on. It made things much easier.

 

And I've never seen the point of view of an admin. Can you really tell how long someone spent looking at an error message?

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I replaced the tubes in my Vox AC30 today. They sound great, better than the Chinese tubes it came with.

 

But every time I do something like this, I agonize over whether something went wrong. When I turn the standby off, there is a slight hum, even if there is no guitar plugged into the amp. I can't even hear it when I play. But...was it there before? I can't remember. Should it be there? Tube amps should probably hum a little. I spent the rest of the day watching YouTube videos of people playing this amp, trying to hear if it's there. I think it is? Maybe. I don't know. Sigh...

It could be a bias setting thing... When you change tubes to a different make, sometimes the bias gets slightly off.

 

But I've never encountered an all tube amp that was perfectly silent. At best, you can still hear some hissing from the tubes themselves, and if there's a spring reverb, those always add some noise.

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It could be a bias setting thing... When you change tubes to a different make, sometimes the bias gets slightly off.

 

But I've never encountered an all tube amp that was perfectly silent. At best, you can still hear some hissing from the tubes themselves, and if there's a spring reverb, those always add some noise.

 

Yeah, there is a spring reverb, and it's always hissed like a damn waterfall when it's cranked. That's expected, and the hiss would be totally inaudible when actually playing it at that volume (which would probably destroy every window in my house and bring the SWAT team by for a visit).

 

It's just a low volume 60 Hz hum that I'm wondering about. It only gets a little louder when I crank the volume and bass on the top boost channel. It's much quieter than the hiss, and it would also be totally inaudible while playing. So it's not a practical problem. It may have always been there, and I figured it was the "amp is running" sound. I can't remember.

 

But it just makes me worry it's a problem with the new tubes or something I did when I put them in, even though they were carefully tested and broken in before they were even sent to me. Every time I do anything to a piece of gear, a computer, or a household appliance, I start wondering about every sound afterward. It's probably nothing. Maybe.

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You know those tricky smart phone apps that let you see the night sky, in whichever direction it's pointing?

 

If you set the phone on your desk with the night sky turned on as you're winding down every night...after a year, you will have a reckoning of time and its relation to space.

 

Yoink!

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My older brother (half brother, same mom) posted an article on FB about how the recent vote by congress to defund planned parenthood was a good thing. The article lost it's legitimacy when it claimed "Experts" didn't find any tapering with the undercover video that tried to show PP was into baby organ harvesting.. which it wasn't

 

besides the point... Suffice it to say my brother is a very strong conservative, and I am more moderate, leaning liberal.

 

I replied to his article posted to inform him, that OUR mother while she had MY brother as an infant was having trouble keeping his weight up. She went to PP to get advice and help. Also, before she had me, she went to PP for pre-natal care to I would be healthy at birth. My Mom and I had many conversations about this topic before she passed away 5 years ago. I went on to tell my brother that were are healthier and better off because of PP.

 

The next day my brother sends a text to my wife, that she is welcome to visit. But my brother doesn't want to see me anymore, or have me in his life anymore because of all my political post, and commentary.

 

Merry Christmas? I really have no clue what to do... as it seems i have lost my brother, and there is nothing I can do about it

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I've pretty much stopped discussing politics with family and friends... even when I agree with them, and I'm barely on Facebook anymore because 90% of what is actually there these days seems to be extremist political screeds of one stripe or another, and most of the fun has really gone out of the experience for me. (The remaining 10% seems to be mostly a mix of self-promotion and viral videos that I've only seen a hundred thousand times...)

 

I'm hoping once we get through this next election cycle, people will learn to be tolerant, or at the very least civil, about differences in political opinion once again... but I'm guessing that Pandora's box has been fully opened on that one, and that the fracturing of America into different camps, (or tribes, if you will...) based on ideology is now the new normal as far as the eye can see.

 

I have no advice, except to give it time, and the hope that blood proves stronger than the box of affiliation one checks off in the voting booth...

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Well...this isn't just a matter of prudential judgment like whether tax money should be used to widen a certain road or even whether going to war in a specific situation is just. This touches on the deepest and most serious matters there are - philosophical matters. No one can (or should) tolerate all philosophies. ed is right in that these differences between us are becoming more serious, but I don't think it has anything to do with the election cycle, because it's not a contest of mere politics, but of philosophies, with classical Western philosophy on one side and very different modern philosophies on the other. It's a contest that has been heating up for more than half a century, and I don't think it's going to cool down any time soon.

 

It does seem a little odd that your brother would not want to see you even on this basis, though, unless he feels you would be a corrupting influence on his family. Or perhaps he felt it was the manner in which you presented your arguments that was the problem - having these kinds of discussions in a text format can lead to some misunderstandings, after all.

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Yeah... but if we dig in so far on the important issues we feel strongly about to the point where we refuse to even have contact with anyone with a differing point of view, even family members, then it's doubtful that anything will ever get done, and the division will only grow and get more toxic.

 

Understanding, acceptance, compromise, and change doesn't happen when we shut each other out from the conversation, and vilify anyone who disagrees with us. Or at least that is if we are all working under the assumption that we are living in a democratic republic. One where we all have an equal say in how we want to live our lives, and are forced to hammer out the spots where we don't agree, and find a working compromise that isn't exactly 100% what either side's extreme elements wants, but one that most of the population can kinda live with.

 

If either side suddenly says: "We have this whole 'human existence' totally figured out, and the other side has it 100% wrong, so at this point we will no longer accept any input from them, and everybody will from this moment on have to live the way we say or face the consequences!" then we are now talking about a completely different form of government.

 

One that a frightening number of people I see, on both sides, more and more seem to be implying every day that perhaps we should make a leap to.

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Yeah... but if we dig in so far on the important issues we feel strongly about to the point where we refuse to even have contact with anyone with a differing point of view, even family members, then it's doubtful that anything will ever get done, and the division will only grow and get more toxic.

 

And if we don't, what will happen? Will they change their minds? Will the division lessen? And if we do, what will it matter if there is no contact? I'm not saying cutting off contact with a family member is not a drastic step of last resort, or that that was the right thing to do in this case. I'm just saying that, in general, the philosophical differences are now so vast that they really cannot coexist, and that is inevitably going to mean some divisions.

 

Understanding, acceptance, compromise, and change doesn't happen when we shut each other out from the conversation, and vilify anyone who disagrees with us. Or at least that is if we are all working under the assumption that we are living in a democratic republic. One where we all have an equal say in how we want to live our lives, and are forced to hammer out the spots where we don't agree, and find a working compromise that isn't exactly 100% what either side's extreme elements wants, but one that most of the population can kinda live with.

 

In my opinion, we have passed the point where a compromise everyone can live with is possible. A society can only work that way if most of the people share a common view of the important questions. Even lesser questions can be enough to cause problems. I think the people of Europe are starting to realize this, considering France's first round of regional elections this weekend, and the way things are looking in Germany.

 

If either side suddenly says: "We have this whole 'human existence' totally figured out, and the other side has it 100% wrong, so at this point we will no longer accept any input from them, and everybody will from this moment on have to live the way we say or face the consequences!" then we are now talking about a completely different form of government.

 

That is simply begging the question against any fundamental position that has enough content to disqualify another fundamental position, which is most of them. Also, I think it is a parody of the argument - one position does not have to claim absolute and perfect knowledge to claim sufficient knowledge of some things, nor does it have to claim an opposing position is completely wrong in order to identify aspects of it that are in fundamental contradiction with the essentials of what it holds.

 

One that a frightening number of people I see, on both sides, more and more seem to be implying every day that perhaps we should make a leap to.

 

I think the question of government is secondary, though. Even if a government allows anything and everything, that will not fix the rupture in society. And if it holds one position very strongly, it will only work if there is enough agreement among the people to enforce it (unless it has the power the coerce the majority against their will).

 

It may sound pessimistic, and I hate to say it, but I think as long as this deep philosophical rift exists, our society is doomed, and these divisions within families are just the first signs of it.

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Government exists because not everyone can agree.

 

So it seems to me almost anarchist to shut someone out that doesn't agree with you and just live in an echo chamber with only people who agree with you, that you almost instantly think of someone as a non-conformist when they disagree.

 

Some of my best discussions i have ever had were with someone who actually wanted to discuss their opposing viewpoint with me, and wasn't afraid to be proven wrong. often in the end it comes to "I see why you feel that way, and I understand your point of view"

 

But to end all contact, because "That was the last straw" with no warning, or chance to apologize. It seems to me he just wants to stay safe in his bubble and doesn't want to have to justify it

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To me it's about respect. Do you need to agree with someone's positions on everything to respect the fact that they have the right to an opinion, and that perhaps that they feel as strongly about it as you do?

 

If you truly respect someone, you will listen to what they have to say, and try to see why they feel so very strongly about it, and then say: "Well, I see things as X... you see things as Y. Here's where we have overlap, and here's all the places we differ. OK... so how do we move forward from here?"

 

At best, you can come to an understanding and a solution. At worst, you will have to agree to disagree, and stay away from that subject in the future. But I also think a lot of people need to start realizing that nobody gets things their way all the time... at least when you are talking about the issues that affect millions of people.

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Government exists because not everyone can agree.

 

So it seems to me almost anarchist to shut someone out that doesn't agree with you and just live in an echo chamber with only people who agree with you, that you almost instantly think of someone as a non-conformist when they disagree.

 

This is what has essentially been born in the 21st century. The 24 hour news cycle changed things, and with Fox News, worked very hard to bring in a certain viewer base, creating an echo chamber for those who didn't agree with the other news outlets.

 

And now we have the internet. You can isolate yourself, but your own volition, into an echo chamber so impenetrable that nothing can change your mind.

 

It's kinda sad. The progress we've made to make communication easier, has, in a way, started to make it harder.

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