Human origins

[exchemist]

I wouldn't mind but I would like to visit the states, I am not hating on the US, the people (all of them) or the country.
We've got got big gang/ knife problem here, if he points that out I say yeah, it's a problem.

I would not visit the USA at the moment. It's not safe for foreigners. Business people are visiting with burner phones, in case uncomplimentary comments about Trump they may have made in emails or on social media are picked up by immigration officials, and they get banged up and sent to a prison in Texas for months.

 

[Pinball1970]

I was thinking more of machetes.

Machetes? I live in Manchester UK not Colima Mexico.

 

[Wizard of Whatever]

Machetes? I live in Manchester UK not Colima Mexico.

It's just one story I read from the UK.

 

[TheVat]

I would not visit the USA at the moment. It's not safe for foreigners. Business people are visiting with burner phones, in case uncomplimentary comments about Trump they may have made in emails or on social media are picked up by immigration officials, and they get banged up and sent to a prison in Texas for months.

Don't blame you. It's a sad time to be a Yank and think our friendly and welcoming ways have been subverted. The burner is a smart move. I was raised where winters were harsh and this fostered a culture of welcoming and helping strangers - makes this hard to watch.

 

[exchemist]

Don't blame you. It's a sad time to be a Yank and think our friendly and welcoming ways have been subverted. The burner is a smart move. I was raised where winters were harsh and this fostered a culture of welcoming and helping strangers - makes this hard to watch.

I know. I lived in the US for a couple of years myself. But there have been too many horror stories now. And it has happened to ordinary, respectable people, too. The worst of it is the difficulty of making your voice heard from one of these detention centres, in order to make representations to get out. It’s a gulag.

 

[Wizard of Whatever]

I know. I lived in the US for a couple of years myself. But there have been too many horror stories now. And it has happened to ordinary, respectable people, too. The worst of it is the difficulty of making your voice heard from one of these detention centres, in order to make representations to get out. It’s a gulag.

There are many no-go areas in the US and they are increasing. Places I would have gone years ago I would not step even near now.

However, I would guess there are many such areas in the UK, also.

 

[exchemist]

There are many no-go areas in the US and they are increasing. Places I would have gone years ago I would not step even near now.

However, I would guess there are many such areas in the UK, also.

This doesn’t seem to have any connection to what we were talking about, which is the risk of someone like me being seized and detained by ICE, without due process, because of rude remarks about Trump I may have made in the private life before visiting the USA.

By the way, I am unaware of any no-go areas in Britain. They seem to be a myth, put about by Alt Right podcasters based in the US who have never set foot in the UK - and credulously repeated by such intellectual giants as Marjorie Taylor Greene. Sure, there are places I would not go late at night, which is true of just about any big city, but actual no-go areas? Nope.

 

[Wizard of Whatever]

This doesn’t seem to have any connection to what we were talking about, which is the risk of someone like me being seized and detained by ICE, without due process, because of rude remarks about Trump I may have made in the private life before visiting the USA.

By the way, I am unaware of any no-go areas in Britain. They seem to be a myth, put about by Alt Right podcasters based in the US who have never set foot in the UK - and credulously repeated by such intellectual giants as Marjorie Taylor Greene. Sure, there are places I would not go late at night, which is true of just about any big city, but actual no-go areas? Nope.

Checked some references and although there are areas in the UK with much higher rates of crime and violence, they are not usually considered no go.

 

[exchemist]

Checked some references and although there are areas in the UK with much higher rates of crime and violence, they are not usually considered no go.

Yes that sounds about right.

The “no-go” canard is put about by Vancy people with an islamophobic agenda, I think, sometimes accompanied by absurd lies about “sharia law” and so on. People like the Mayor of London get pretty annoyed about that. As do Londoners.

 

[Pinball1970]

Yes that sounds about right.

The “no-go” canard is put about by Vancy people with an islamophobic agenda, I think, sometimes accompanied by absurd lies about “sharia law” and so on. People like the Mayor of London get pretty annoyed about that. As do Londoners.

Crime too, there are plenty of inner city areas I would not want to walk around.

 

[exchemist]

Crime too, there are plenty of inner city areas I would not want to walk around.

Yeah but would you really feel a threat of physical violence, during daytime when there are plenty of people about? I don't think I've ever been somewhere like that in Britain.

 

[Pinball1970]

Yeah but would you really feel a threat of physical violence, during daytime when there are plenty of people about? I don't think I've ever been somewhere like that in Britain.

Unfortunately in Manchester yes.

 

[Olga]

Unfortunately in Manchester yes.

Пин, неужели это правда? У вас такая преступность в Англии? Это связано с мигрантами из мусульманских стран, или это всегда так было?

 

[TheVat]

I recall walking, ~ age 20, through some neighborhoods in London where the streets consisted mainly of drunks dropping bottles and cheerfully calling each other stuff like "fat titty" or "wankboy." I was never bothered by anyone. OTOH, we had an angry drunk walk into our house in a smallish college town (where people often didn't bother to lock doors) rousing us from sleep. After he'd managed to communicate that he was going kill somebody who he thought lived there, I was able to explain that his object of wrath didn't live there and that he would have to go do his killing somewhere else. This latter turn of phrase caused my wife to snort with laughter, which didn't really help matters, and the angry drunk started calling her names so I fetched a bat from under our bed and showed it to him, saying "time to go." He left.

 

[exchemist]

I recall walking, ~ age 20, through some neighborhoods in London where the streets consisted mainly of drunks dropping bottles and cheerfully calling each other stuff like "fat titty" or "wankboy." I was never bothered by anyone. OTOH, we had an angry drunk walk into our house in a smallish college town (where people often didn't bother to lock doors) rousing us from sleep. After he'd managed to communicate that he was going kill somebody who he thought lived there, I was able to explain that his object of wrath didn't live there and that he would have to go do his killing somewhere else. This latter turn of phrase caused my wife to snort with laughter, which didn't really help matters, and the angry drunk started calling her names so I fetched a bat from under our bed and showed it to him, saying "time to go." He left.

Cricket or baseball?

 

[James R]

All my truth is based on observation and experience. That's objective enough for me.

All your truth is based on your observations and experience? That sounds incredibly limiting to me.

Also, by definition, that makes your truth purely subjective. If you claim that is "objective enough" for you, then you're telling us that "not objective at all" is objective enough for you. Or, in other words, forget objectivity; just go with whatever feels right to you, personally.

Not a great method for getting to what's true, if you ask me (and that's an understatement).

I also accept a lot of science, but not all.

So what? Is any of the stuff you reject important to the current discussion, or to the general question of what is true? If so, maybe you should talk about the specifics.

True life after death is highly probable considering my own expierience.

It has a probability of 100%, based solely on your own experience, as far as I can tell.

But I'm guessing that your experiences don't include being dead, which means that there's actually nothing in your direct experience to justify your confidence that "true" life after death is even possible, let alone highly probable.

Moreover, as I have already mentioned, the single data point of your own existence is a really lousy way to start trying to estimate probabilities. What you need for a reliable probability estimate is a lot of independent data points.

Since nobody can confirm that they have experienced life after death, the probability that life after death is real is going to come out at a very low number, if you do your data analysis properly. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean there is no life after death, because even highly improbable things can happen from time to time.

The point is: there's no good objective evidence to support the conclusion that life after death happens, and the subjective evidence we get from people is similarly unpersuasive to those who are willing to take an unbiased look at the data.

 

[James R]

If you don't believe me, all well and good. I don't care.

Why did you come to a Science discussion forum, of all places, then?

You could just a start a blog, or start a youtube channel where you talk for hours about all the things you believe. You wouldn't have to read the commentary, or get any feedback, or be exposed to criticisms of your ideas. I think you might be happier with that.

Why a discussion forum, if you don't care what people think of you? And why a science discussion forum with a healthy set of critical thinkers who will call you on your bullshit?

What did you expect would happen?

I don't exist to serve your needs for more information.

Your posts are mostly free of information, Wizard of Whatever. A lot of opinions; very few facts.

You talk a lot about yourself. Maybe you should consider widening your horizons. Find out what else is out there, rather than just assuming you already know everything.

What do you think of that suggestion?

 

[Pinball1970]

Пин, неужели это правда? У вас такая преступность в Англии? Это связано с мигрантами из мусульманских стран, или это всегда так было?

The violence I encountered as a kid was at the hands of Irish gangs mainly. It was not something you for get in a hurry.
They would have have come over in the 50s after the war, as did my father and his family. Looking for the work, a void created by those killed between 1939-45.
The area I grew up in is still a complete shit hole, all the good families moved away decades ago.
A new type of violence there now, the sticks, stones boots and fists have been replaced by guns, knives and drugs.

 

[Olga]

The violence I encountered as a kid was at the hands of Irish gangs mainly. It was not something you for get in a hurry.
They would have have come over in the 50s after the war, as did my father and his family. Looking for the work, a void created by those killed between 1939-45.
The area I grew up in is still a complete shit hole, all the good families moved away decades ago.
A new type of violence there now, the sticks, stones boots and fists have been replaced by guns, knives and drugs.

А куда же смотрит полиция? Почему она не наводит порядок в этих районах?

 

[TheVat]

Cricket or baseball?

This was in the land of béisbol. A cricket bat would pack more of a wallop, I'd guess. They look heavy.

This was Oregon, where it seemed to us there was more of the dramatic acting out of emotions by essentially harmless people. We had an old guy in a town just south of us who would get depressed a couple times a month or so, strip naked and lie down on Main St. declaring that he wanted to die. The police had assigned one cruiser to him, they always had a bathrobe his size, would show up and gently pick him up, robe him, and take him to the drunk tank. No one took it seriously and I gather it was seen mostly as street theater.