Heheh. Okay re the humility thing.

We disagree, then. But I think your attitude is an act of faith.

I would agree that Qi is not physical, but that doesn't mean it's not real. That it can't be detected by any known scientific instruments should not surprise us, as scientific instruments are designed to detect only physical things. So for instance, scientific instruments detect the physical correlates of consciousness but not consciousness itself -- and, thus influenced, some schools posited that mental states (e.g. emotions) aren't real.

But, like nonphysical but nevertheless real mental states, Qi can be detected and affirmed by your own experience. You can conduct scientific experiments into this sort of thing. You can do the practice as the experiment, and you can experience the results. You can retain your rationality and your skepticism throughout, and have experiences that are most accurately and comprehensively explained by a "Qi" model.

No worries. Keep it surreal.

Interesting, thank you tygerstripes -- I'm now a lot less ignorant :)

Nonexistent in your humble opinion, nomadic. If you were inclined to spend a few months doing Qi Gong or some other practice, you might have experiences that would change your opinion.

And just for interest's sake, people confuse the real with the fictional all the time. For instance, many people think there is a real, unitary, unchanging self behind all of their experiences, like a little homonculus just behind the eyes. That's about as real as it gets for most people, but that kind of self doesn't exist at all.

Since the word Qi is already used to describe something rather different, it is a pretty idiotic name for this idea. It merely accords with the co-opting of all sorts of Eastern concepts for marketing Western stuffs, in the footsteps of 'Zen' which nowadays stands for just about anything you'd want in a product.

This is only due to the wording of the poll, not Slashdotters' representations. If we're short of "astoundingly good" but still pretty good, we have the words "above average" put in our mouths.

If you think you'll be able to get over the withdrawal symptoms of kicking your News Corp dripfeed, you could always try

http://www.guardian.co.uk/

Parent is so concise and accurate that it deserves +6.

I agree with you *almost* entirely, Darkness404, but in the UK press alone you can see that the military career option is still glorified and being a soldier still positioned as a Good Thing To Do -- and they're fighting in Afghanistan. The idea of being a soldier not as unpopular or short of street cred as we might like it to be. On the contrary, it has unfortunately retained a significant degree of 'residual manliness' from the days of nationalism. The nationalism is still there, but weaker (thankfully) and subtler. I suspect the situation is similar if not broadly identical in much of the USA's media.

In astrology, Jupiter is considered the "greater benefic," the planet that bestows fortune, luck, and positive benefits.

Just sayin'.

China can fuck right off.

Can someone tell me what's wrong with this idea?

Blizzard can get the best of both worlds like this:

1. Player buys Starcraft 2
2. Player logs on to Battle.net ONCE, and authenticates
3. Having authenticated, Player can play on LAN. Without authentication, LAN play is unavailable.

This way, Blizzard gets the best of both worlds, and so do we. There's no need to exclude LAN support altogether, since its inclusion in this model carries no penalties for anyone. Or am I missing something massive?