"2)"believe in Angels". The stidues that I saw for for angel belief in the USA vary from 55 to 75%. So, from a half to a fourth don't have this belief."

55-75% of the population of the United States believes in imaginary and invisible fairies who serve an all-powerful invisible mega fairy. The mega fairy supposedly conveyed messages to illiterate ancient people's indicating that you will suffer for all eternity in the afterlife if you don't choose to believe in the mega fairy by proxy his normal human messengers without any evidence whatsoever but must have "faith." The lack of any evidence or sign is to assist you with believing without any basis for belief aka "faith." Oh, and those messengers want to dedicate their lives to spreading his message, so if you have faith you must give them a certain percentage of the annual income you work for so they can avoid doing any work. Oh and they shouldn't pay taxes because they are dedicated to the big fairy. Oh but you get something in exchange! If you confess all your blackmail material to them, they will forgive you for all your wrongdoings on the magical fairie's behalf so you don't have to feel bad about the horrible things you've done that have hurt others.

Seriously? You don't see ANYTHING wrong with that? There is more evidence for alien abduction and crop circles than any organized religion. That isn't a prejudice it's sanity. And while money grabbing is inflammatory phrasing it is an accurate assessment of what is happening. Even if the person asking for the money is legitimately one of the 55-75% who have somehow gotten this odd idea any of that could be rational or sane that only relegates him to the same rank as the crazy bum begging in the subway.

I don't know, there seems to be a pack of corrupt scientists behind every company with a powerful lobby. Lead was believed to be harmless for years because oil companies paid for biased results from scientists to keep lead gasoline flowing. We've seen the same kind of profit related corruption with tobacco, religion, pharmaceuticals, pharmaceuticals, pharmaceuticals, anti-drug (pharmaceuticals), addiction (in this industry is the doctors who profit from the rehab pushing it, along with DEA sludge funds AND pharmaceuticals). Not to mention smaller one offs like product safety, studies to support a product's efficacy, etc.

Generally speaking, it isn't the actual data being published that is compromised directly, but the spin on the data being published. A study on e-cig vapor paid for by an anti-smoking lobby (or the tobacco lobby) will highlight everything found in the vapor, will point out how potentially dangerous some of the chemicals can be. The same study paid for by supporters of e-cigs will point out that the chemicals found in e-cig vapors generally aren't undergoing a chemical change, are present in such low levels that there might be more of them in the air you are breathing anyway, and that you are probably breathing and ingesting more of these substances in a trip to starbucks than being immersed in "secondhand" vape for years. Both will have the same data but the money is definitely influencing the message.

Additionally, reports are coming out all the thing about scientists fabricating findings altogether and how it is becoming a large issue where scientists go down an avenue of research based on published papers that are dead ends.

I know you are really talking about climate change and I'm talking about science across the board. I also know that all scientists have ideas of what constitutes a "real" scientist. If they employee the scientific method and publish in journals I'm calling them scientists. We can't get so focused on defending climatologists that we turn a blind eye to real corruption and problems. To suggest that scientists are immune to corruption is both naive and ridiculous. A scientist is exactly 0% less likely to sell out or lie for profit when (s)he feels (s)he can get away with it than any other person.

In a place as corrupt as the US, you shouldn't trust anyone or anything.

I could burn it in the streets to get rid of it, I suppose.

I already paid the city garbage man to come over here and get it once via my taxes and he didn't do the job... I'm not going to pay a second person to do it.

If you instruct the garbage man to leave the garbage in the streets, you'll have to deal with garbage in the streets. Pretty simple. I'm not keeping it in my house.

So, garbage men in Seattle now have the authority to issue people tickets.

Here in Vancouver, they just leave the garbage there in the street in front of your house, I've recently learned.

God, I hate west coast culture.

I chose to respond by going out at night and spreading my garbage up and down the streets.

Fuckers wanna play passive aggressive games? I can play them too.

In science fiction, you generally have some quantified differences from the real physical world, and then you play within the boundaries of the ramifications of that.

In fantasy, you don't bother with any of that.

Many of the great science fiction classics were written to criticize the world we live in without being straightforward enough to be censored, and pitch different social structured and value structures.

Heinlein and Gordon R Dickson come to mind immediately.

You should read Niven. I recommend Neutron Star, Ringworld and The Integral Trees.

Well, lets take an example. I think most people who are well read in the genre would agree that Larry Niven writes "Hard" SF. So... Ringworld.

Ringworld, at it's core, was about "What if we had access to an impossibly strong substance. How might that change everything."

The setting was an extrapolation on that one question. But, it's not about the possibilities of technology, because there is no such substance. It's an impossible technology, a technology based on an ever so slightly different set of universal rules.

But the story was a human story.

Science fiction has never been about predicting future technology.

Science fiction is about considering and exploring the human ramifications when certain aspects of reality are changed.

You can only watch Corner Gas a few hundred times before it gets boring.
 
We have Just for Laughs. Canadian comedy is the best on the planet. Why would we need anything Americans make?

I disagree. I think the problem is that there are women in the workforce serving the needs of rich old bastards instead of taking care of their husband and children.

There are zero women in my workplace. I love it.

You know, it's only flamebait or troll if it's a fake position crafted to instigate. It doesn't matter if you hate what I think, if I genuinely believe what I say, I'm not trolling.

I'm not trolling.

Sure the theory's wrong, but we don't know how yet, and our guesses are just so much better than they were a decade ago.
 
Of course, in the entire history of the human race, we've never once actually confirmed or refuted a single predictions if this nature. This is where "faith" comes in.

"On the other hand who owns Alibaba's 120 billion? Americans now. If the congress sicks their dogs on ALibaba it's the same as pilfering 120 billion from investors."

Sorry, no pity toward those investors. They knowingly invested in a criminal venture. They deserve not only to lose their money but to be in prison.

I don't know about universal remote brand but I've heard RTI have a dramatically inferior database and require you to "learn" most functions on remotes. For example, the harmony remote I use in the living room controls an xbox 360, fios cable box with dvr, an onkyo receiver, a samsung blu-ray player, a wd live, and a viewsonic projector. All of this purchased as near gear in the last year with the exception of the xbox. I had to "learn" one button (the DVR button to access the DVR portion of the cable box). Everything else worked with the profiles provided. After searching for each device, running a wizard for each activity (watch tv, watch a movie, play music, play a game) where I set the viewing device and which device to switch inputs on, and a quick once over of a picture of the remote to make sure all the critical buttons were assigned correctly I was good to go.

That is actually pretty simple. My only issue is that it's too simple. For instance, the first time I programmed the remote with this projector it didn't shut the projector off correctly because the projector needs power pressed twice. The old interface let me specify the power off sequence with presses and delays. The "simplified" new interface does not. When I programmed the remote again a month or two ago due to a new blu-ray player suddenly the remote handled the projector correctly.

Also the RTI are missing critical buttons like the back button. Exit and back are two different buttons.

Otherwise it looks like a solid contender.

The only remotes I'm finding searching for "big button remote" are the normal crappy "universal" remotes that support no custom buttons and couldn't even change inputs on a TV, let alone control the DVR functions of a cable box or be smart enough for volume up to be the volume control on your SRS receiver when watching a blu-ray or playing a video game without making you switch between button sets with a device button.