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ecoli

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Posts posted by ecoli

  1.  

     

    Again, though. It's a needless distraction from the central topic. I think we can just accept that some people feel they need guns in case Hitler ever takes over america and tries to come take their twinkies away.

    Or Obama

  2. It depends on the application and cost. The ability to customize code trumps all else, particularly for statistical libraries, etc. But I'm not going to become an expert in optimization or code vectorization when there are free libraries that are readily adaptable (for example, numpy, scipy and many free libraries in R). Some combination is surely the sweet spot, but it's highly variable for your needs.

  3. So I invented a turn-based board game with some buddies based on monopoly and I'd like to implement a version that's playable online, since we're no longer all living in the same town. I'm thinking I could implement the back-end in Python, or possibly java, but i'd need user accounts, some way to restrict timing for user-turns, do in-game auctions, display pieces moving across a simple game board. A simple user-interface would be perfect - my goal is to have a feel somewhat similar to this version of Diplomacy: http://webdiplomacy.net/

     

    I have programming experience but have never created a game and haven't done much web-based stuff besides for static html pages.

     

    Any advice on how to get started?

  4. Just so you know, iNow, a true gold-thumping Austrian would refute a lot of those points about gold being responsible for those bubbles. For example, the big national banks do, at least, coincide with the bubbles you refer to and its possible to inflate the money supply even when tied to a physical standard by fractional reserve backing. And indeed modern proposals for a gold standard don't look like the gold standards in the inter-war periods (which was high inflationary).

     

    You might be interested in Rothbard's book on the subject (even just to read what the 'opposition' is reading). mises.org/books/historyofmoney.pdf

     

    I'm divided about the issue myself.

  5. But that's a somewhat different dynamic. If you had zero growth you'd nominally have a steady state population and a fixed ratio of ages. The baby boom created a variable ratio of young/old, in which a static system won't work. When the number of workers was high relative to retirees, the burden was relatively small, but when it levels out, you have a higher burden per worker. The increasing life span of retirees over time only makes this worse.

     

     

    Though you could theoretically have a negative growth rate offset by an opposite but equally large economic growth and still be able to support everyone with fewer youngsters. Though in practice, this hasn't happened yet and productivity gains aren't likely to be decoupled from population growth anytime soon.

  6. Caucasian by all accounts, but not lily white. Middle and last name are Armenian.

    How ironic. Since the Caucasus mountains actually go through Armenia you likely actually are Caucasian, even though the majority of people from white europeans are not.

     

    Two other voters that appeared at the provisional desk before I left were black and asian... no joke. Asian guy was super mad, but I didn't listen in on his issue because i did not feel it was my business. Huge voting issues in the neighboring county. Multiple voters who had registered did not show up in the rolls.

    Not surprised and these blips happen all the time so I'm hesitant to accuse any side of conspiratorial foul play. However, I'm glad in NY id is not required to vote after the first time. I mean honestly what the worst that happens... a couple of illegal immigrants get to have input on representation? Really this is a non-existent problem.

  7. Bingo!

     

    They even said it themselves as they were wiping away the tears after Romney's concession speech. Literally within minutes! Unfortunately, this will do nothing to rip them from the grips of the fundamentalists.

     

    There will be selection effects, though. Fundamentalist ideas can't survive if those ideas are in the minority, nationally. Republicans can't ignore urban areas anymore. I expect Marco Rubio could be a contender for 2016 P or VP pick.

  8. I would love to see that.

     

    I was actually thinking about reviving this thread myself, since my state voted to draft a proposition limiting campaign contributions by corporations. Montana went even further and established a policy that denies corporate personhood based on the Citizens United ruling because corporations are NOT people.

    I don't mind if corporations are considered people... In fact, polygamists should incorporate themselves, that way any arbitrary number of people would be reduced to a single personhood and they can marry an abitrary number of incorporated people, reincorporate, ad naseum. I haven't read the legislation, but if this is a legitimate hack it would drive conservatives crazy.

  9. If they got the Congressional approval needed to become a state with this Congress, I may have to change my trousers. Puerto Rico is overwhelmingly blue, and their statehood would mean 2 Senators, 5 or 6 Congressmen, and 7 or 8 Electoral College votes. There's no way this Congress will allow such a shift into the blue; far too few of the people that made this the most obstructionist Congress in US history have been removed from office.

     

    I'm not so sure... many latin americans are conservative christian on social issues and the Republicans are probably now realizing they can't win national elections without courting minority voters. Anyway, it seems likely that the issue won't come up in the current congress.

  10. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/puerto-rico-votes-on-whether-to-change-relationship-with-us-elects-governor-and-legislators/2012/11/06/d87278ae-288b-11e2-aaa5-ac786110c486_story.html

     

    Honestly, I think this is probably bigger news than Obama getting re-elected.

     

    Puerto Rico has long been a US territory but has been deserving of statehood for some time and it seems as though the popular vote has finally swung that way as well. Obviously the measure has to be submitted and approved by congress before statehood is granted and internal politics will no doubt slow things down. I wonder if they'll be any opposition at here. Probably many Americans don't even realize that Puerto Ricans are already US citizens, they like the idea of 50 states thanks to the nice, round number and many are xenophobic particular to the latin american world.

     

    Anyway, congratulations to PR

  11. What does "hurricane relief R us" do in between major storms?

    This is somewhat misinformed. There are, for example, private EMS firms. Here's one getting ready for Hurricane Sandy:

     

    So your premise is somewhat flawed. Though from what I understand, this particular company is acting under contract from some gov't body.

  12. Even I think this is ridiculous. Emergency disaster relief is something the federal gov't can and should be doing - though the scope and balance of responsibility between federal/state is certainly debatable.

     

    To be fair though, when Romney made those remarks, the only people FEMA seemed like they were helping out was poor blacks in Louisiana (and therefore not worth the money). Now that the Financial District and Greenwich Village need a hand I'm sure he'll be back-pedaling on this [actually it looks like he's ignoring the issue completely].

  13.  

    And I apologize for the Nazi comment. It was meant to be a little funny but not that little.

     

    It's cool, I come from the Mel Brooks school of Nazi jokes philosophy.

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