Jump to content

ecoli

Moderators
  • Posts

    8639
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by ecoli

  1. Background on the munich massacre. 40 years later, IOC president, Jacque Rogge says this: Um.. what better time or place could there be to remember the murder of olympic athletes. I know anything to do with Israel is going to be politically controversial, and the IOC doesn't want to appear to be taking a stand. But to me the politics couldn't be more blatant... On the other hand, it could just be the IOC playing it safe and trying to avoid a similar situation during this year's olympic games.
  2. Cloud cons: influx of atmosphere/weather jokes in mainstream articles about computing
  3. Yes. The new Gimp 2.8 has all the functionality of photoshop (at least for my amateur needs). I'm pretty sure this is independent of the OS. Depends on what you're using for, there are utilities like this for linux. http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/ http://axel.alioth.debian.org/ Mine worked out of the box with Ubuntu 12.04 & Lenovo thinkpad x220.
  4. sorry, but replacing "products" for "promoted" doesn't make sense either.
  5. sri - If you're asking for specific computer help, you should put it in a new thread and give plenty of details about your computer/laptop, especially regards to the operating system.
  6. I'm not quite sure what you mean. I never said anything about apps being promoted.
  7. I think part of the difficulty in assessing is to separate placebo effects from true treatment. How do you give someone a placebo chiropractic treatment?
  8. Just webmail, yes. I wish I could use my work email in pine, or I'd just go with that. But for wordprocessing, these days I actually mostly use google docs. http://www.gimp.org/
  9. Many open-source initiatives turn into commercial products, so there's not necessarily competition between the two ideas. Overall, I think it makes the world more productive so everyone benefits. But also there will be some products that need commercial support, depending on the application and scale of use.
  10. I've found Libreoffice to be a more stable alternative to OO. Its the default in new ubuntu releases anyway. Don't use email applications anyway.
  11. Yeah sure. I was commenting more on the fact that what's reported is usually the rates, rather than how much people are actually paying. In general, I support a flat tax where the "effective" rate is the actual rate that you pay. I'm not sure how this exemption business got started but its blown completely out of control. That's how someone making $200k can bring home half of that, while if you're rich enough to afford good accountants and lawyers, your rates are much, much lower.
  12. What more evidence is needed... how about causal evidence?
  13. It's not that Natural selection is incompatible with God creating humans, its just that natural selection works independently of any personal ideas about God. There's no evidence that a God exists, so there's no reason to put it into a scientific theory.
  14. And that doesn't even include his many, many blog posts. Champion! No active member even comes close: http://www.scienceforums.net/members/page__sort_key__members_display_name__sort_order__asc__max_results__20__sort_key__posts__sort_order__desc
  15. The tax rate doesn't necessarily tell you about the overall tax burden
  16. padren - your point is well taken, but I think that the class issue comes up because its still such a deciding factor. Paying the bills is essential, but how big a bill can we afford is the real question. Pawning yet more of our bills off on "rich people" is an option, but is it a viable one and does it provide the most benefit for the most people? And what does it really mean to be rich in this country, anyway. Luckily, these are empirical questions and we don't have to resort to name-calling or judgments.
  17. I agree inasmuch that hatred is too strong of a word. But how often do you here people say things like: "well he's rich he can afford it." Those kinds of statements, to me, are equally poisonous. Firstly, income is not necessarily deterministic of net worth, and where does the voting populace get off making normative judgments about someone based on their income? I think what paranoiA was saying is if we care about people and poverty and if poor people need jobs, it should be irrelevant if that poor person happens to live in the US. Exporting jobs is one of the most humane things we can do, therefore. But isn't that the characterization that paranoiA is objecting to? You're making a normative judgement based on someone's income. It's just a statistic that doesn't say much about the person it applies to. Money can be speech, but does the 200k dividing line make sense to 'counteract' this effect with taxes? Consider that someone making $200,000 in New York could have the same lifestyle as someone making $115,000 in Cleveland. http://www.bestplaces.net/col
  18. ! Moderator Note Athena - you've made your position on God quite clear already. As noted by others, this position has nothing to do with the topic at hand. If you have nothing new to contribute, feel free to refrain from posting. Thank You.
  19. If I understand you correctly, the procedure is to the find which row in the matrix has the largest sum, and the problem is that however you're implementing it now is too slow for large matrices? Generally with programming questions, its best to write out the minimum necessary code (and language) along with the example otherwise it is difficult to understand what the problem is. There's also a kind of art to asking a good statistics question.
  20. Well you're probably lying about over hearing this, since this exact text shows up all over the internet. But anyway, I fixed the story for you: Professor : You are a Christian, aren’t you, son ? Student : Yes, sir. Professor: So, you believe in Fluffy pink elephants ? Student : Absolutely, sir. Professor : Are Fluffy pink elephants good ? Student : Sure. Professor: Are Fluffy pink elephants all powerful ? Student : Yes. Professor: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to Fluffy pink elephants to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But Fluffy pink elephants didn’t. How is thAre Fluffy pink elephants good then? Hmm? (Student was silent.) Professor: You can’t answer, can you ? Let’s start again, young fella. Are Fluffy pink elephants good? Student : Yes. Professor: Is the Easter Bunny good ? Student : No. Professor: Where does the Easter Bunny come from ? Student : From … Fluffy pink elephants … Professor: That’s right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world? Student : Yes. Professor: Evil is everywhere, isn’t it ? And Fluffy pink elephants did make everything. Correct? Student : Yes. Professor: So who created evil ? (Student did not answer.) Professor: Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the world, don’t they? Student : Yes, sir. Professor: So, who created them ? (Student had no answer.) Professor: Science says you have 5 Senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Tell me, son, have you ever seen Fluffy pink elephants? Student : No, sir. Professor: Tell us if you have ever heard your Fluffy pink elephants? Student : No , sir. Professor: Have you ever felt your Fluffy pink elephants, tasted your Fluffy pink elephants, smelt your Fluffy pink elephants? Have you ever had any sensory perception of Fluffy pink elephants for that matter? Student : No, sir. I’m afraid I haven’t. Professor: Yet you still believe in Him? Student : Yes. Professor : According to Empirical, Testable, Demonstrable Protocol, Science says your Fluffy pink elephants doesn’t exist. What do you say to that, son? Student : Nothing. I only have my faith. Professor: Yes, faith. And that is the problem Science has. Student : Professor, is there such a thing as heat? Professor: Yes. Student : And is there such a thing as cold? Professor: Yes. Student : No, sir. There isn’t. (The lecture theater became very quiet with this turn of events.) Student : Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat. But we don’t have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can’t go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it. (There was pin-drop silence in the lecture theater.) Student : What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness? Professor: Yes. What is night if there isn’t darkness? Student : You’re wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light. But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and its called darkness, isn’t it? In reality, darkness isn’t. If it is, well you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn’t you? Professor: So what is the point you are making, young man ? Student : Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed. Professor: Flawed ? Can you explain how? Student : Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good Fluffy pink elephants and a bad Fluffy pink elephants. You are viewing the concept of Fluffy pink elephants as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, Science can’t even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it. Now tell me, Professor, do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey? Professor: If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do. Student : Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir? (The Professor shook his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argument was going.) Student : Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor. Are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a preacher? (The class was in uproar.) Student : Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor’s brain? (The class broke out into laughter. ) Student : Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor’s brain, felt it, touched or smelt it? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established Rules of Empirical, Stable, Demonstrable Protocol, Science says that you have no brain, sir. With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures, sir? (The room was silent. The Professor stared at the student, his face unfathomable.) Professor: I guess you’ll have to take them on science, son. Student : That is it sir … Exactly ! The link between man & Fluffy pink elephants is FAITH. That is all that keeps things alive and moving.
  21. this is sweet! now if only i had a tree
  22. I'm not really an E. coli either and I'm assuming you aren't the architect of the Matrix. Don't be so sensitive, I was only joking.
  23. If you were thinking that typing this would clear up any confusion, you're sadly mistaken. What's a "demonsionally sound values"? Sounds like something that would come out of a guitar being played by the Pick of destiny
  24. nothing to it: [math] x = \sqrt{92y^{2} + 1}[/math] for any y
  25. ! Moderator Note this thread may require a split. The OP is about Allen West.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.