Recent content by BrassButtons

That last bit is where culture can come into it. For instance, our culture tends to spread the message "no means no," but this means if someone doesn't say "no" then it isn't really rape. There's a blogger I read (and would link to if I could find the relevant post, but she recently switched...

I don't really care if someone I dislike (I don't hate anyone) gets a huge windfall, so that part of the equation doesn't matter. I'm not going to skip trying to win the money myself because it might go to someone else instead. That would be ridiculously petty.

I say, if she insists that you're a Muslim despite you telling her otherwise, you should start insisting that she's a Hindu. Maybe then she'll realize that you can't tell other people what their beliefs are.

Awesome. One word of warning with compound bows, though: pay very close attention when they show you the proper way to draw it back. If you twist the string it can come out of alignment, and you will get a very painful (and probably expensive) lesson. I hope you have lots of fun. It's a...

I just read the book within the last few months, so it's pretty fresh in my mind. Especially since the ending pissed me off so much :D And I'm telling you (with citation, no less) that your understanding is incorrect. If Ender failed the Third Invasion failed as well. Thus taking risks...

I'm going to disagree with the people telling you to look into the higher-quality violins. To start with go ahead and look into the cheaper ones (either to rent or to own, depending on your situation). You'll still be able to start learning the basics, and (more importantly) you'll be able to...

Baseball: the ball is a hand grenade Volleyball: the ball is a bowling ball European Football: the ball is a cannonball American Football: the ball is a beehive

Even if you're right about it having a small chance of helping him, the risks FAR outweighed the benefits, because they DIDN'T have plenty of time. It is repeatedly said (during the conversations between the adults, where they presumably aren't lying) that time is running out, and they've...

Except he didn't NEED that kind of mental preparation. He thought he was playing a video game. You don't need years of isolation from your peers and emotional trauma to play a game. Their mistreatment of him had a very high chance of permanently screwing him up and impeding his ability to...

I enjoyed Ender's Game well enough, but I felt pretty cheated at the end. I kept seeing things throughout the book that seemed kinda dumb and didn't make much sense, but I knew there was a twist ending and figured it would make everything fit together. Nope. The ending actually made the...

First, I am speaking to you with respect. Second, no, don't trust me. If you look up a little ways on this page you'll see where I posted a link to a good place to start learning about the evidence. Evolution isn't a position of faith. You don't need to trust in the people saying it's...

What crusade? Other than the existence of a movement that tries to discredit it via misinformation and lies, how is evolution different than every other scientific discipline? Would you say that there's an effort to get every last person in this country to acknowledge atomic theory as the one...

Here's a good place to start: http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/lines_01 Evolution is an ongoing process, which means it's not just about the past or present, but the future as well. And it is pretty dang important for out future, although unless you're in a relevant...

No, it's just one of the definitions. [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/day]

So long as you exclude translation issues, language evolution, and poetic language.