Recent posts by vikaTae on Kongregate

Topic: Serious Discussion / Gene Patents

Bumping this back up, after the US Supreme Court ruled on this same matter yesterday.

Under the ruling, you are not permitted to patent a gene if it already exists in nature. Nature DOES count as ‘prior art’. It is not an ideal decision, but is far better than the status quo as it was.

Farmers and wildlife populations can still get into trouble from horizontal gene transfer between synthetic organisms and their own plants / animal life. However, they no-longer have the right to patent for example, the grene causing ovarian cancer, and charge extortionate amounts and a monopoly on tests to detect the presence of the gene, or gene therapy to deactivate it – that right of corporations has now gone.

Topic: Serious Discussion / AX:You are now the dictator of a small European country

Will this dictator not be limited by their country being in Europe? This presumably means they are subject to the will of the European Union.

Its a bit like trying to be the dictator of a US state, with the federal government looking over your shoulder. There are going to be certain limits to what they will permit you to do.

Topic: Serious Discussion / What webgames predated and inspired Hog, CoG and Wartunes?

The problem with posting this in serious discussion, is that many of the regulars here are not gamers. SD draws a different interest group to the flash gaming side of kong more often than not, so you may be wasting your time posting such a topic here.

Try the General Gaming forum. That’s set up with gamers and gaming in mind.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Hacker

Send an email to support@kongregate.com.

Honestly, its like these people don’t read the support docs, as well as not reading forum names before posting in them.

Topic: Serious Discussion / The "fat acceptance" movement and why people are so apt to defend an unhealthy lifestyle

Originally posted by Jantonaitis:

You whiteknight for vika often enough. Should we assume you two are fucking too?

Why not? I certainly wouldn’t mind. He has that attribute I find rather appealing after all: A good brain, and the wherewithall to use it. A muscle-bound stud is all well and good, but nothing but tofu between the ears is seriously repulsive.

But I don’t even think he’s whiteknighting. Just doing the same as I do. Taking a point made by another, and running with it in a new direction. Expanding on the definition they made. He certainly doesn’t do it with my posts alone.

What I quite like, is he often unearths something useful, even if we don’t exactly always see eye to eye (to put it mildly).

Topic: Serious Discussion / Excessive cursing

Pulsaris. We may just have to agree to disagree. You state yourself, you don’t see people; just walking sterotypes, and you treat people how you believe the stereotype deserves to be treated.

I don’t do that, and never have. I see individuals. I approach them as such and treat them how I would wish to be treated, until they give me reason to believe they should be treated otherwise.

Of course, I’ve also got Scot heritage, which has expressed itself in the usual way: I tend to call a spade a spade, and tell it how it is. Take me as you see me, cos that be all you are getting.

Some don’t like that, others do. Doesn’t particularly bother me either way. So long as I’m giving what I’d like to receive, it all works out. I don’t believe in stereotypes either, and can get a bit pissy if someone’s trying to shoehorn me into one.

Topic: Serious Discussion / The world and our perception

Originally posted by livingrival:

Further questions:

6. Does knowing that you are eventually going to die influence your decisions and thoughts on life?

Sort of. I’ll be 35 in a couple of months, and yet if I follow the same trend as my mother, her mother, and her mother’s mother, I’ll have a good 40-45 years of good health ahead of me, followed by a gradual, and not entirely dignified decline into senility.

I intend to work all of those years. That gives me a lot to play with, when you consuider that I do not believe my answer to question five was at all unrealistic. It is definitely doable.

In turn, that means that even though death is likely a long, long way off, it also doesn’t have to be. I, or some part of me will survive through the exact same tech I spend my workdays developing, providing it is far enough along in half a century, to make use of it in that way.

Knowing we are close to conquering death, and that my work contributes directly to that end as a side-effect of increasingly interfacing ever more intimately between organic and technological parts, does change things for me, yes. If anything, it makes me more driven, not less.

I don’t know what my home and private life will be like in half a century, and I can only hope it is a happy one, but even if not, my work provides reason enough to keep going well beyond the organic limits. Conquering death wouldn’t even be the ultimate end after all; that’s when things are just getting started.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Excessive cursing

Originally posted by Pulsaris:

My father works in a company where he must deal with both lowly workers and government officials. I see so many times when he switch from a full-on vulgar style to a gentleman register. Of course, swearing would not give officials a vertigo.

In your father’s factory, all the workers are male, whilst all the government officers are female. That’s the only way your analogy makes sense. All females have absolute authority over your father, whilst all other males are below him and answer to his authority.

Otherwise you’re again making blanket statements (as dd790 points out – thank you) about all women based on anatomy, rather than who we are.

Topic: Serious Discussion / The government can now take your DNA without a warrant!

Originally posted by Pulsaris:

vika, a crime is not a crime when it’s not found by the police.

Its still a crime regardless of whether the police are aware of it. Kidnapping a child for example, is still an action of criminal intent whether or not the authorities are involved. Stealing groceries from a shop without paying for them is still a crime, even if you convince the clerk at gunpoint not to call the cops.

It is a crime when you willingly break the laws of your society. Whether you are caught doing it is irrelevant.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Excessive cursing

Its more the other way around,. He’s saying we cannot handle swearing. That we are fragile, delicate china dolls who will faint away or snap brittly should we be exposed to a strong manly cuss word. Men can handle being sworn at, or sworn around, but us delicate creatures cannot…

You seriously don’t see the sexism in that point of view?

You don’t swear at individuals, I don’t swear at individuals. His blanket statement about women not being able to handle being sworn at is what I find umbridge with.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Other Country Money Uses

Originally posted by mew4:

what? but this is serious to me if its not my fault this is not be looked over and over i really don’t care this problem to me is 100% urgent

then post it in the forum I linked to. Otherwise I can near 100% guarantee the Kongregate staff will never see it as they DON’T. COME. HERE.

Topic: Serious Discussion / The "fat acceptance" movement and why people are so apt to defend an unhealthy lifestyle

Originally posted by FullMeasureZam:

That’s all they need. Treadmills, bikes, arm bikes, rowing machines, vibrator stations, medicine balls, and something to build muscle strength – for which dumbells are ideal.

To lose weight maybe.

Which would be the whole point of such cheap gymnasiums, to help people who wish to lose the weight, but cannot afford the usual high price of gymnasiums. Plus, I would rather suspect it would be offputting to walk into one if you know you’re overweight and be surrounded by only skinny people. So a weight-loss orientated gym would really help on that front as well, since there would likely be a majority of members trying to lose weight.

Rowing Machines

They’re not being used to bodybuild in the case of losing weight. Rather they’re being used as a form of aerobic exercise that works the upper and lower body simultaneously.

Vibrator Stations

They are quite common in modern gymnasiums, at least the ones I have been to. I don’t know if they have a proper name, but they’re like oversized TENS machines, that you can stand on, kneel on, or press a part of your body to the surface of. Then set a vibration strength and a time. The entire surface vibrates at high speed, greatly easing circulation and working the tension out of the muscles of the body-part pressed to them.

Like a TENS machine they are strongly recommended to anyone recovering from an injury to that part of the body, or to generally destress after a workout.

Medicine Balls

The same as you’ll find these in every hospital’s physio therapy department, you’ll find these in the gym. For the exact same reason. Great for exercising the hips and thighs. Get one sized to you, ideally so you can sit on it with your heels just resting on the floor. They are wonderful for the inner thigh and for improving balance. Try sitting on one for half an hour, and moving your upper body whilst trying to keep balanced with just your legs. If your leg muscles had started to atrophy, this will reverse the process.

Since physio therapy departments are booked solid for fairly obvious reasons, having access to the same equipment outside of the hospital environment is a great asset.

Dumbells

Dumbells are fine for building muscle strength. Even you admit so, despite stating other equipment might be superior. So long as access to the gym is affordably priced, it does not matter if other equipment is superior. Dedicated bodybuilders can always take their moans and complaints and go to another gym.

So long as they do their job, and help stretch and work the muscles, they are working in partnership with the aerobic exercise, and increasing the general level of fitness.

Whether the problem is an obese body, or muscle atrophy from extended periods confined to a chair, any equipment that can help rebuild muscle strength is ideal.

The most commonly used equipment isn’t even dumbells. Its weights strapped directly behind the wrists or above the ankles, used in combination with a resistance band of the proper color (they’re color-coded to indicate the strength required to stretch them).

By this simple method, you can greatly improve circulation and strengthen the musclature over time, ready for more intense forms of exercise. Does need proper assessment to use them though. No point giving a blue band to an elderly lady with rhumatism. That’ll damage her leg further if she tries to work with it. A yellow would work far better, as it requires only slight movements to stretch, yet is still doing her the world of good.

That’s why you need someone qualified in such gyms; able to assess the disability of the individual, and their state of health, and determine which equipment and what type of exercise would be best for them, as well as how long they should maintain it at a stretch.

To you, five minutes max on the exercise bike every hour might not seem worthwhile, but to someone recovering from a hamstring op, it makes the world of difference. The same applies when they’re overweight. In their initial keenness to lose weight they risk overassessing what they themselves are capable of, and damaging their musculature. Better to keep it to little and often in a supervised environment, increasing the resistance and time alotment slowly, than to leave them to their own devices and risk a torn ligament from over-exertion of someone not used to this type of exercise.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Other Country Money Uses

Well, first off, congratulations for picking quite probably the only forum on Kongregate pretty much guaranteed to NOT be frequented by the Kongregate staff. They barely ever come here, so you are posting where they will never see your request. Well done on that part of your plan.

How you came to SD without seeing the dedicated forum solely for Kongregate issues that you had to scroll past the link for to get here, beggars belief. Especially since it’s at the top of the page with a separate header highlighting the two forums for anything Kongregate-related, whereas we are way down at the bottom of the page as a forum to talk about politics and world events.

You could try putting a little thought into which forum would be appropriate for your needs, next time. That is if you actually wish your question to be addressed.

Topic: Serious Discussion / The government can now take your DNA without a warrant!

Originally posted by OmegaDoom:

hmm…and that assumes they won’t bend the rules on what they share and what they don’t share. i mean we know CIA is authorized to do things that are illegal. that’s exactly what the NCS exists for. and they can also simply change the rules at any time.

The CIA and NIS are not Norwegian. You won’t haqve to worry about them. Whilst in your country they have to operate by your country’s rules or they can be taken to task by your court system. Even if your country changes the laws after an incident, they are still bound by them at the time the incident took place, and you as a citizen, can drum up plenty of support to raise awareness of and oppose new laws.

plus, they can also simply make an excuse for why they look into police data.

It had better be a good one, else you can take them to court either in your own country or through the EU’s court of human rights. The EU court is a definite option if your own government is being silly.

i really do fear for our future. i honestly really do.

There are some future possibilities I’m concerned about, but access to identity documentation is not one of them. If you really need to do something extremely illegal, you can bypass the checks easily enough. Just takes a little lateral thinking, and an awareness of how they work – once again, education of the individual is critical.

Most of the plausible uses for identity checking are to ensure your safety, not ursurp it. Some of the new biometrics really help with fire safety, evacuation protocols and intruder tracking. There’s no reason why you cannot employ them yourself, either.

Perhaps then you’ll see that all the fearmongering is really pointless – once you understand the limitations of what these detection methods can and cannot do.

Topic: Serious Discussion / The world and our perception

1. We presently do not fully understand where intelligence is located in the cortex. However, your intelligence does not necessarily restrict you, as it is a combination of how you view the world around you and your pattern matching/problem solving speed. A person with a very low IQ can still achieve the same results as a person with a high IQ, say an IQ of 80 compared to an IQ of 180.

The difference is the person with the lower IQ will take a great deal longer to reach the same conclusions, and the conclusion the higher IQ individual reached first, will almost-certainly not be the first conclusion the lower IQ person reached.

In addition previous experiences play a firm role in our ability to problem-solve; in the route taken to solve an issue. The nurture then has a definite role to play in the manner in which it forms our memory associations, and even base processing language of the brain’s higher functions, in the case of the spoken language learnt.

2. Depends on the context in which jealousy is used. Like all negative emotions it can serve as an impetuous to self-improve, just as much as it may serve as an impetuous to sabotage or enter a fugue state. It all depends on how the individuals mindset handles it, and what external support is available should their jealousy find root in personal insecurity.

3. Yes, I am. Each person’s thought process is affected by their brain’s genetic-based internal wiring, the experience-based wiring laid down first by the internalisation of the language(s) learnt in early childhood, forming the basis of the internal logical structure for all future pathways to follow. Secondly the experience-based wiring is affected by what experiences that person has had, and which of those experiences has been laid down in long-term memory. These memories will form associations with other memories based on the direction new experiences push their thought patterns in, and then those associations will govern how that mind approaches new experiences, in turn changing how future associations are laid down.

The end result is a unique individual, who becomes more unique as new experiences continually build upon and alter the foundation laid by older experiences.

4. Money doesn’t control any emotions. The person’s mindset controls their emotions. It affects which emotions will be triggered when. In the case of money, previous experiences relating to it or the lack of it will trigger emotional states based on the previous experiences that mind has had, and modified in some cases by that individual’s conscious will.

5. Not sure where this fits into the other questions. My overall aim is to eliminate the stupid situation whereby an individual has no real control over the functionality of their body, or even its basic form. Eliminate physical disability and allow embodiment into the form of that particular mind’s choice, basically.

Topic: Serious Discussion / The government can now take your DNA without a warrant!

Well, evidence will only be used by the law enforcement agencies. It won’t be shared by other departments, and there are laws in place to enforce that. If you feel DNA evidence was planted at the scene of some crime or another, then it is up to you to prove it was a plant, which you should be able to achieve, as your DNA cannot currently be fabricated from a computer record alone.

Ask for a full genome sequence to be carried out, and offer a strand of hair to be compared against it, via an independent genome sequence. Will take about a week. Will be enough to prove it was not you at the scene of the crime, if you were in fact not present.

Prints, DNA, gait identification, brainwave maps, all are forms of biometric identification. If you were nowhere near the area in question at the time, it doesn’t matter what identification technologies are rolled out; they will still be incapable of placing you somewhere you did not go.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Excessive cursing

Originally posted by jhco50:

Vika, a lot of women still like to be treated with respect.

You seem to be laboring under the false impression that men are somehow different in this regard. As illustrated by your stated tendency to not swear when women are around, implying you’ll swear when men are around.

As far as children and young people go, tv is one thing but a parents teachings are another. My son-in-law joined the army and of course being a man had to use the jargon common in the military. Now that he has two kids, the language went.

His kids. His choice. I don’t see any reason to hide your language from them. Saying Sugar instead of Shit only works if you plan on using it everywhere. Otherwise, be yourself. If you don’t feel your language is appropriate in front of your own kin, maybe you should reevaluate using it in front of others as well.

Topic: Serious Discussion / The "fat acceptance" movement and why people are so apt to defend an unhealthy lifestyle

Originally posted by Trickymist98:

Planet fitness is by and large the worst gym in the country as of now. You’re paying 10 dollars a month for treadmills and dumbells.

That’s all they need. Treadmills, bikes, arm bikes, rowing machines, vibrator stations, medicine balls, and something to build muscle strength – for which dumbells are ideal.

All the sorts of machines the poorer or more heavily disabled individuals cannot afford or find space for in their own homes.

Add in a NHS-trained assessor with referral access to your medical records (as happens now), and you’re well away.

Originally posted by Pulsaris:

Now, another point, the issue to me is, “hey, I don’t care for my body, but it’s fine as long as the government cares for it.” Those occasional articles about breaking house walls to get a fatball to a hospital really illustrate my point.

Let’s not forget the fun of extra wide and reinforced wheelchairs, making doorways and in some cases corridors extra wide to support the access of these wide chairs, special trolleys (beds on wheels) that have been reinforced to hold heavier patients, and the deficient immune systems these patients have…

But in order to have the right to moan about these people, as a health service, we have to ensure these people have full access to services to help keep their weight down, and the education to understand how to deal with their problems themselves. If we provide neither, or insufficient levels of such help, then we have nobody to blame but ourselves when the number of obese patients continues to grow, and we must bear the burden of caring for them due to our own lack of willingness to prevent the problem.

If we have provided sufficent resources in a wide range of manners, and provided transportation to get to these facilities, and the person is still overweight, with no medical evidence of an underlying condition, then they are wholly to blame themselves, and absolutely should shoulder the cost of their burden on the service.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Excessive cursing

Originally posted by OmegaDoom:

and i dont intentionally curse excessively in front of women/children

how did gender get into this?

Its the old ideal of chivalry, Omega. Women are supposed to be incapable of cussing, or faint when we hear foul language. You know how delicate we are supposed to be. You don’t swear in front of children because you don’t want them picking up the words and using them – despite the fact they’ll hear them on TV or used by their peers anyway.

Topic: Serious Discussion / International Media And Gezi Protests

Rolby, a pure democracy is a communist state. A proper communist state, not one in name-only. It would be extremely difficult to pull off given the human condition, but if achieved, it would indeed be the ultimate democracy.

Topic: Serious Discussion / The "fat acceptance" movement and why people are so apt to defend an unhealthy lifestyle

Originally posted by karmakoolkid:

BUT, as vika is quick to point out in most scenarios like this,,,
the real solution for the problem simply comes down to: EDUCATION

Cheap access to gymnasiums would help too. My closest NHS-sponsored one charges £46 a month. NHS-sponsoring brings that down to £14, providing they attend at least 7 hours each week (no max cap on how long they may attend per session. A NHS-trained assessor takes a look at their body, their medical problems, and determines the best course of exercise for their individual problem).

However, the NHS-sponsorship only lasts for one month. After that it shoots back up to £46. Walking around town is not going to provide the same exercise, nor the required variety to exercise the range of muscles necessary. So for the poorest clients, those who are on the bottom end of things and have to decide between eating cheaply and paying the rent, or eating healthily and not being able to afford the rent, there is a problem there.

We need more cheap-access gymnasiums. Perhaps ideally, entirely NHS-sponsored. That way they’ll help those in most need of regular, medically-monitored exercise, to ensure they are excersising the right medical groups. At the same time, they’ll be within the price range of the poorest individuals, helping them lose weight so they can be more productive and get out of the economic rut they’ve landed in.

I know its not a politically popular choice right now, but if we want these people to lose the weight, and stop draining healthcare funds because of their obesity, we’re going to have to spend more on prevention and treatment of the obesity problem than we spend now, rather than spending it all on modifications to hospital equipment to deal with heavier and wider patients.

Topic: Serious Discussion / The "fat acceptance" movement and why people are so apt to defend an unhealthy lifestyle

Originally posted by karmakoolkid:

The ugly truth about being around such ppl,,,
this is what a huge percentage (of course, to varying degrees) of ppl in my area are,,,
they can give one a veeerrrrryyyy interesting perspective on what being an American is all about.

This is one of the blessings of being Faaar away from the whole mess, Karma. You can watch the utter debacle, and general backslide into childishness from the relative safety of land controlled by a completely separate government, with few critical resources running through the States.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Game design help

Originally posted by TheBSG:

I’ll be honest and say I only really want to know what grade you got on this so I can say that “I told you so.”

If rmalex has anything better than a barely-scraped pass I will be very, very surprised.

A fail grade would not surprise me however. There was just no organisation, no real interest there. No understanding of just what is possible and why.

Topic: Serious Discussion / The government can now take your DNA without a warrant!

Originally posted by Ceasar:

They CLAIM it’s to identify the suspect. Except, as I said before, they don’t actually USE it for identification. For example, if they already have your DNA, they won’t take it a second time. That proves beyond anything that they are not using it to identify you.

Then the problem is in their methodology and constraints on how they use it, not in the concept itself. As a crimefighting tool it is brilliant; however the temptation to use DNA for other things is something that really needs stamping down on. It is the sort of information that really needs to be destroyed once it has been run through the database and checked for similar results. I realise they don’t cross-check the entire genome, as that would take far too long and too costly to check against even a handful of others, and that they use key sequences instead.

However, that is still far too much information about the individual’s genomics to be safe unless it is well regulated and access is tightly controlled. Indeed if the suspect is ultimately ruled innocent of any crime, it should be destroyed. As it stands, it likely is not being destoryed.

Yeah, obviously I’m arguing the other side because I’m a serial killer, and not because I’m worried about the fourth amendment or constitutional rights in general.

The poster I was replying to, has posted before about an incident he had of which he was proud, where he pursuaded a pair of quad bikers to leave his neighborhood with their quads, by calmly walking out of his house with his gun levelled at their chests, and calmly offering to shoot them if they didn’t leave as his granddaughter was playing in the street not 600 yards away, and he didn’t trust them not to endanger her with their recklessness.

He was committing assault with a deadly weapon just by his actions in that case, so I can understand why he in particular would be utterly against such an identification system, as he has committed acts himself which could quite easily have landed him serious jailtime, and increased ability to identify him and verify the incident might impede his ability to do so again with impunity.

Topic: Serious Discussion / Excessive cursing

Sounds like that’s a great house to buy, Twilight. Purchase it, buy $100 worth of wood and masonry paint, spend a weekend painting and tidying it and put it back on the market successfully for $5,000 more than you paid for it :)

But yea, I have found in the past that those who like your friend, simply cannot stop swearing all the time, are really not thinking clearly. She sounds like she’s either really angry all the time, or lazy as hell, just from that wording. There’s a character flaw there, and it is running deep.