Slashdot Mirror
Domain: amazon.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to amazon.com.
Comments · 40,271
-
Re:Let's resolve to keep our freedom.What makes this irrational reaction so much worse is that we're selling our rights down the river for a false sense of security. Even more frightening, is that nobody seems to recognize that rights are slipping away and replaced with what is being shaped into a dictatorial state. The bureaucrats who dream this crap up also make it unavailable to the citizens. You can't know you're on the list until it bites you, and there's no way to get off of it.
Naomi Wolf has a great book which touches on the dangers of the watch list and what it could mean to us. The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot. She recently appeared with Stephen Colbert, but he's not serious about news, only serious about licking Bill O'Reillys boots. -
You misunderstand how import duties work.Surely if I live in the UK and buy something from Amazon.Fr then its up to Amazon to make sure that I pay any import/export duty and any relevant taxes that may be due. I have no idea why you would think this. Why should that be their responsibility? It's purely a UK domestic issue, between you and your taxman, basically. They're just selling something and handing it over to a common carrier for shipment. After that, they wash their hands of it. You can even read Amazon's official stance: "Your packages may be subject to the customs fees and import duties of the country to which you have your order shipped. These charges are always the recipient's responsibility." (Emph. mine)
What would happen, if they didn't let you prepay the import duty as a convenience feature, would be that they would take your money, they would load the goods into a box, hand that box to the common carrier, and then that carrier would hold the box at their local office on your end, until you paid up the required import duties. If you didn't pay, it wouldn't be released to you.
Now, perhaps there is some sort of bilateral agreement between E.U. states such as the U.K. and France, agreeing not to ship things to each other's countries without first ensuring the correct tax has been paid at the point of origin, but if so, that's just something they've gotten together and done for convenience and to make intra-E.U. business easier.
Other countries, like the U.S. (which does not, as a general rule, care what other countries' laws are), do not require such things. However, as a convenience, companies that do a lot of international business will precompute import duties on many goods, roll it into the total cost, and allow/force you to prepay it, just so that you don't have to worry about it getting held up on the receiving end. (Amazon US does this with international customers.) And many shippers may require that the duties are prepaid before they will accept a package for shipment, because they don't want to deal with problems going through Customs. But there's nothing forcing them to do it, besides a desire to make international commerce as painless as possible -- it's merely a service to the recipient, who ultimately has responsibility for whatever they're importing.
I can quite easily put something in the mail (from the U.S.) to you in the U.K., mark it with some absurdly high value, and let you decide whether you want to pay the import duty in order to pick it up and find out what's inside. (Ever read the Saga of the P-P-Powerbook?) Your duties, your country, your problem.
Anyway, this is all offtopic to the main thrust, which is that an internet site operating in one country, should not have to worry about breaking the laws of a lot of other countries simply because it's possible for someone in that other country to access the site. There are countries where pornography is illegal, but you don't hear about people who run porn sites in civilized, porn-loving countries being extradited to Saudi Arabia for trial, or having obscenity judgments from foreign courts enforced against them. So I think the entire concept was a ridiculous threat.
Unfortunately, it was a ridiculous threat being made by a megacorporation with more than enough resources to crush and ruin a single person's life a thousand times over, so it's no surprise that the poor guy just didn't want to get involved. Sadly, that is how injustice usually happens. -
Re:What about...
Neither gamut is a strict subspace of the other. However, if you want to work in one of them, you generally don't want to work in the other. Different representations for different, erm, representations.
Not necessarily. I'm a photographer (or so I'd like to believe). I work in RGB, LAB and, very occasionally, CMYK. Dan Margulis makes a pretty strong case for using all three color spaces on a routine basis. He also points out that using CMYK for professional level printing is complicated and difficult - a complexity that would be compounded by a photographer or graphics editor having to get used to whatever quirks a GIMP CMYK implementation would bring.
So, for GIMP to replace Photoshop for professional level applications will take a long, long time. And for professionals, the price tag for Photoshop is just a drop in the bucket.
I may look into this release myself since the lack of color profiles and layers has been the big hindrance for what I do. I'd still miss using LAB though...
-
Re:What a pile of carp
You should read Kevin Mitnick's book on the human element of security. There's a lot more reasons beyond laziness why security fails in a lot of circumstances. His book covers physical as well as abstract security.
-
Competition on the way
At the moment this is the only introduction to jQuery, but in a couple of months Manning will release jQuery in Action . It is a pity that the writer of this review didn't wait until both were available to tell which is the better.
-
Spore is finished.
Pre-order now at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FKBCX4/.
-
A New Kind of Science
I remember the discussion here five years ago when Wolfram released his book A New Kind of Science . Many claimed that it was hogwash and (as it was apparently not peer-reviewed) irresponsible, but at least the movement he has tried to spark is finally showing some results.
-
Re:Great start
Human beings may react badly to an anthropomorphic robot walking around the house and doing all sorts of stuff. Isaac Asimov may have focused on quantity more than quality, but his vision of a future where people ban robots out of fear ( The Caves of Steel ) is thought-provoking. Perhaps it would be better to have a number of small robots each focusing on a different task.
-
Re:Wha?
Excuse me. But Amazon patented:
http://www.amazon.com/-/SomePlace which directs to literally SomePlace.html (or whatever extension they use).
working differently from
http://www.amazon.com/SomePlace which directs to a search for "Some+Place".
They haven't patented the use of the search term or the use of the
Either way, this is not at all novel, original, or Amazon created. -
Re:Wha?
Excuse me. But Amazon patented:
http://www.amazon.com/-/SomePlace which directs to literally SomePlace.html (or whatever extension they use).
working differently from
http://www.amazon.com/SomePlace which directs to a search for "Some+Place".
They haven't patented the use of the search term or the use of the
Either way, this is not at all novel, original, or Amazon created. -
Re:Lead
Is anyone else reminded of Freakonomics ? In this book, the same drop in crime in the nineties is explained by Roe vs. Wade leading to less unwanted children being born.
-
Re:Why?
I don't think that the environmental impact of me flushing my toilet is quite as great as the production of an iphone. TFA refers to a Greenpeace article in which certain hazardous substances, which other cellphone manufacturers have stopped using, were found in the iPhone. My latest turd, on the other hand, is comprised entirely of recycled Twizzlers, which contain none of these hazardous substances. The 1.6 gallons of water used by the toilet ends up getting re-used to irrigate a nearby park.
There are a number of studies which find that Roundup is both persistent in the environment and toxic to humans. The EPA calls it "extremely persistent under typical application conditions" and epidemiological studies have linked it to miscarriages, premature birth, and lymphoma. A number of these studies are summarized in a Journal of Pesticide Reform article reprinted here. I'd prefer to see us grow crops less densely on more land using fewer poisons, and stop exporting so much subsidized food that we're destroying the third world's ability to feed itself through local agriculture.
I agree that next-generation nuclear electricity generation could be much cleaner than using fossil fuels. As long as we're getting all the electricity we can from renewable resources like solar and wind, there's no reason to let nuclear's past keep us from giving it a shot in the future. Greenpeace are being fuddy-duddies on this issue and should open their minds to the possibility that the right kind of nuclear power can be better than the oil power it could replace. -
"How to Use (And Misuse) Statistics"
http://www.amazon.com/How-Misuse-Statistics-Gregory-Kimble/dp/0134361962
Written by my favorite Psych professor but so good that it used to be required reading in Statistics classes.
Some of the examples used to hammer home that correlation != causation make it entertaining to read. -
Re:Count at least TWO who don't.
*sigh* More FUD
2007 Office, Student and Home
The price you quoted is the Ultimate edition; or do you think you need that one to get Word? -
Bike lock tips from AmsterdamIn Amsterdam, you easily pay more on locks than on your bike, since no matter what quality your bike, it is worth a default price for the junkies that use them as a source of income, it used to be about 25-50 euro when I left.
All locks can be opened if enough effort is spent. But that is an important "if": you can make your bike the least likely to get stolen by increasing the effort needed to open all the locks on your lock. In general:
* Use at least 3 locks, as different as possible. Thieves specialize in one of them, using different ones will mean a lot more time to be spent opening them. Also, just the view of the sheer amount of locks on your bike might scare potential thieves away.
* Always make sure both your frame and front wheel are locked. If one of them is not bound to either an other part of the bike or to a pole, that part is likely to get stolen. Most thieves just detach unlocked frames and front wheels from separate bikes, and combine them afterwards. That way they don't even need to break open any lock. If you have an expensive saddle, try to lock it as well.
* Locks with cylindrical keys are an easy goal for the infamous BIC pen trick.
* Something similar counts for coiled cable locks. No matter how thick these coils are, they consist of tiny metal cables, each of which can be cut with household scissors. "Armored" versions of these locks exist, with a metal shell around the coil, but this just means that you don't know how thick the actual coil is. These locks look impressive, but the metal shell can be bent, and you yourself probably even don't know how thin the metal coil is inside the shell.
* Popular in Amsterdam at the moment are the good old chain locks. And for city bikes the frame locks. (The latter will probably not fit on mountain- and sports bikes).
* If you are in a city with a known bike-theft problem, don't leave 2000 euro bikes on the street, no matter what kind of locks you use. Make sure you have a boring bike that looks worn out, for your daily use.
I had a bike in Utrecht and a bike in Amsterdam, both protected in the same way and both of them didn't get stolen. The bike in Utrecht was parked next to the central station, and left at the same spot over the weekends even.
-
Re:Pirated version?
I'm not speaking for the granparent as to why that quote is there but I'll tell you it's from the classic Dr Seuss ABC book. And if I thought for a little while I could probably recite most of it.
A A A, what beings with A? Aunt Annie's Alligator, A A A! -
In other news ...
Amazon.Com patents selling things on-line.
-
homebrew in Afghanistan
The book Ghost Wars, by Steve Coll, tells the story of the CIA, which was supporting the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan against the Taliban. The Alliance was flying helicopters out of a foreign base (in Tajikistan, IIRC). The CIA rode along from time to time. But the Soviet copter they were flying in made them nervous, so they dispatched a CIA mechanic to have a look inside. He opens it up and finds an Indian-made helicopter engine wired up somehow to drive the Soviet chopper. He carefully closes it up, backs away, and the CIA never goes near that machine again. They bought their own Russian surplus helicopter and hired their own paid staff to maintain it.
-
Re:I miss Visor
That's an interesting angle. It might be nice if there were a resurgence of the PDA from the likes of Sharp and Casio selling something for $60. In fact I had recently been considering something like that in a wristwatch. It does have Outlook connectivity, which is a hard requirement for me. I'm afraid it's too big for a wristwatch and too small for a PDA, but I haven't seen one in person so who knows.
-
Well, it actually really is back.
You're being ironic, but the funny thing is that you're right. I just bought Undercover (not yet out in the US, so linking to amazon.de) and Touch Detective 2 1/2 for my DS, adding to a number of point-and-click adventures I already own for that system.
There's an actuall point-and-click adventure revival going on on the Nintendo DS. If you haven't already, check out Trace Memory, Touch Detective 1, Hotel Dusk: Room 215, or any of the Phoenix Wright games for the DS. Have fun -
Re:ALREADY HAPPENED (maybe)
It is not a question of "decent amount of energy". It is a question of where do you put it.
While it is a sci-fi book (and an old one to boot), it gets this topic perfectly right:
http://www.amazon.com/Weather-Makers-Ben-Bova/dp/045105329X/ref=sr_1_88/102-9788775-0435313?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193034359&sr=1-88 -
Wikipedia is not a reference source
Do not use it as a citation.
I was basing my assertion on claims made in Guns, Germs, and Steel. -
Reality catches up to fiction
Interesting how reality is finally catching up to fiction.
Now we just need for them to start building a giant dome over New York City... -
Re:Permanently genetically modified organismsit's the National Resource for Molecular Biology Information, NCBI
Established in 1988 as a national resource for molecular biology information, NCBI creates public databases, conducts research in computational biology, develops software tools for analyzing genome data, and disseminates biomedical information - all for the better understanding of molecular processes affecting human health and disease
Basically if you publish any peer reviewed scientific papers on gentics, or protiens the sequences have to be entered into the database so just run down to the book store, pickup a copy of "Bioinformatics for Dummies" and have at it. -
Re:I recently went to see "Postcards From Mars"
I prefer Postcards from Pluto...
(Yes, I'm joking) -
The book, too
I'm sure the DVD has some advantages in showing the personal aspects, but I was probably equally moved by the book, which I'd bet went into more technical detail (I haven't seen the DVD) and is still very personal. Much of it is Dr. Squyres' personal notes from when the mission was developing and unfolding. It was obviously quite the emotional roller coaster for the mission team.
Unfortunately, the saga cuts off two years ago. Those robotic drama queens kept writing the story long after the book ends.
A little known fact I learned from the book is that the subcontractor that built the rock abrasion tool is located in New York, within sight of the World Trade Center. They were in the middle of design on September 11, 2001. The covers on the rock abrasion tools were commemoratively made from pieces of aluminum recovered from the towers and painstakingly pounded and machined flat by the mechanics, then adorned with an American flag. -
Read "Roving Mars"(disclaimer: Steve Squyres was a favorite professor of mine in undergrad)
If you want to know just how amazing these machines are, you *must* read Roving Mars. It is amazing how on several occasions, one person made the difference between utter failure and spectacular success. And often these decisions were against NASA brass, scientist's opinions, and conventional wisdom.
In fact, I have to admit that once the book gets to the point where the Rovers actually land, it gets a little less exciting. The excitement is all in the planning/construction stages, and how it almost didn't work (even though you know it does in the end, it's still exciting). Like, a month before launch, they realize that the parachute doesn't work, or that Opportunity shorted out. Very exciting stuff. -
Space Elevator SciFi
For a blue-sky vision of a future with a functional space elevator, I'd recommend reading Arthur C Clarke's Foundations of Paradise novel.
-
Re:Anyone who gives NASA a bad rap...
and here IS that story; very good it is, too. I defy anyone not to be moved by the scenes at JPL when the first pictures from from Eagle crater came down from Opportunity. I get a little bit choked up myself every time I see it
-
Tchaikovsky, please; he used cannons
There's one thing that the record companies provide that you can't typically get on your own, and that's publicity.
Yeah? You can get it from a Spammer, too.
More importantly, record companies used to serve an editorial function, and indicate a level of quality as well. If someone figures out how to incorporate (a) reliable distribution, (b) editorial judgment, (c) a way to get about 5% of what all of the bands take in as profits, and achieve (d) a little word of mouth, the Internet will beat a route to their servers. The hardest part is designing part (a) so that the operation can fully scale from the first local band you hand a Benjamin to so they try you out, to the day you drive the last of the current RIAA members into bankruptcy because every Big Talent (and little talent) and customer on the planet prefers doing business with you — no matter how fast you move from one to the other.
I'd be surprised if someone at Google isn't working on this as their side project; it's an obvious opportunity to make an honest gigabuck or two.
"Think big; win small." -- Darius Regulo, in Charles Scheffield's The Web Between the Worlds.
-
Re:One hit wonder - you're kidding, right?
Wozniak was the "first out of the gate" and also came up with the idea that a microcomputer should have something more than a cassette tape mass storage device. There were several innovations in the Apple II that Commodore in fact "copied" from Apple, including the graphics capabilities and disc controllers.
This, I think was his biggest engineering accomplishment. He was good enough to design a cheap, elegant floppy interface. He in fact beat Commodore to it despite Commodore having much more financial resource. Both were working very hard on a floppy controller for CES 1977.
There is an interesting antidote in this book about Peddle's relationship with Woz and their personal interactions. It's evident that Woz owes a great deal to the man.
I highly recommend that book. It gives you much perspective beyond the Apple I&II centric history of PC's.
I would not say there was stealing. Peddle knew very well what the Apple gang was doing, and he saw the development of a PC as inevitable. These were smart visionary people, and it was no secret that the PC would happen. The whole point of making the 6502 was to put microprocessor power into the hands of the masses, and Peddle envisioned a PC as one of the first applications, perhaps years before the two Steve's. If Woz did steal a few things from Peddle, I would never blame him anyway. Business is ruthless, nice guys finish last, and if this is the only stealing Woz did, he's much better then the rest of them. -
Wisdom of crowds?
Here's a counterpoint. While this is not really a "wisdom of crowds" application (being rather just a mass data aggregation scheme), it's worth noting that crowds are prone to fads and other mistaken behavior. Mass decision-making seems to work best with unconscious decisions, choices that everyone makes but does not think about a whole lot.
I could see this system working, though, at least reasonably well. If I see a lot of GPS units going to a particular area, and then slowing down and stopping, I might want to avoid that area. Unless, of course, I'm on the way to a football game or something like that. -
Alexis de Tocqueville
I wish we in the US could return to when authority was more decentralized, when the "states" were worthy of the title and counties (not countries but counties) actually had some authority. Now it's pretty much one President governing 300,000,000 people, with Congress occasionally doing something which may or may not be vetoed.
Do you ever suggest people read Alexis de Tocqueville's "Democracy in America"? I suggest it some, it's a good read on how people in the USA used to govern and take care of themselves instead depending on big government.
Falcon -
If you want to play it now
If you missed it when it came around, you can still get it for less than $8. Follow it up with Dreamfall and you are all set. For the rest you'll have to wait on Dreamfall Chapters
-
If you want to play it now
If you missed it when it came around, you can still get it for less than $8. Follow it up with Dreamfall and you are all set. For the rest you'll have to wait on Dreamfall Chapters
-
It's not all crap
As was briefly touched on in TFS, the stories of the bounty hunters from ESB actually make for an interesting read. Skip all of the "Expanded" crap, and take a look here:
Tales of the Bounty Hunters
ISBN-10: 0553568167
ISBN-13: 978-0553568165 -
Right...
and my PS3 has a $500 Blu-ray player, $249 media server, $109 wireless adaptor, $67 Upscaling DVD player, a $65 60GB 2.5" harddrive, a $30 bluetooth adapter, a $23 multi flash card reader, a $5 web browser, and a game console for free. It's amazing everyone doesn't have one. That's well over $1000 in value for only $600... no, $400!
Question, if I sit on it, can I claim an another $25 value as a butt warmer? -
Right...
and my PS3 has a $500 Blu-ray player, $249 media server, $109 wireless adaptor, $67 Upscaling DVD player, a $65 60GB 2.5" harddrive, a $30 bluetooth adapter, a $23 multi flash card reader, a $5 web browser, and a game console for free. It's amazing everyone doesn't have one. That's well over $1000 in value for only $600... no, $400!
Question, if I sit on it, can I claim an another $25 value as a butt warmer? -
Right...
and my PS3 has a $500 Blu-ray player, $249 media server, $109 wireless adaptor, $67 Upscaling DVD player, a $65 60GB 2.5" harddrive, a $30 bluetooth adapter, a $23 multi flash card reader, a $5 web browser, and a game console for free. It's amazing everyone doesn't have one. That's well over $1000 in value for only $600... no, $400!
Question, if I sit on it, can I claim an another $25 value as a butt warmer? -
Right...
and my PS3 has a $500 Blu-ray player, $249 media server, $109 wireless adaptor, $67 Upscaling DVD player, a $65 60GB 2.5" harddrive, a $30 bluetooth adapter, a $23 multi flash card reader, a $5 web browser, and a game console for free. It's amazing everyone doesn't have one. That's well over $1000 in value for only $600... no, $400!
Question, if I sit on it, can I claim an another $25 value as a butt warmer? -
coincidence.
75-year-old Mona "The Hammer" Shaw took her claw hammer back to the customer service center and bludgeoned the office equipment into tiny plastic pieces.
Funny story, Tom Delay got his nickname the same way. -
Re:How do you pronounce Ryu anyways?
http://www.amazon.com/Zakennayo-Philip-J-Cunningham/dp/0452275067/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-0218988-8356053?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192763964&sr=8-1
I have a copy laying around somewhere.
It's not so much a book of swear words, as it is insults. -
Re:Why can't I buy a digital-to-NTSC set-top box?
Googling ATSC tuner, then going to the cheaper alternative listed from Amazon found this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NW7A2G
Under $100 standalone ATSC tuner. -
Re:GAH!
Don't feel bad, the N800 is a fine device, and at $258 on Amazon, it's a steal!
-
Re:computer?
A better approximation can be achieved by modeling the level of rationality of the individual and assigning probabilities based on that.
And yet even this approach has serious problems; normal probability models fail miserably when applied to numerous areas where humans have an influence. Check out Dr. Taleb's The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable or at a minimum, check out Dr. Taleb's website for more details.
Taleb's conjecture (which is supported by many others in the fields of behavioral finance & economics) is that models based on normal distributions (the primary model in Taleb's "mediocristan") fail when they encounter conditions often found with human behavior that seriously violate the prerequisites for such a distribution. For example, a normal distribution requires that each flip of a coin be an independent event and have no outcome bias from previous heads or tails. Unfortunately, many human events tend to violate this precondition. Winners tend to win more, and losers lose more, in human situations possibly due to herding behavior (e.g. people feel they will be safer from harm by being around a winner, thereby assigning more resources to the winner and allowing them to win even more). This condition alone damages normal distribution models and tends to yield what is called a fractal distribution (also known as a "power law" distribution).
Other conditions, such as bimodal and multimodal models, further distort the use of normal distribution approaches in forecasting events. Some suggest the economy is bimodal, having a "good economy" ruleset and a "bad economy" ruleset based on the majority perception. A friend who manages a multi-billion dollar mutual fund has conjectured that U.S. financial markets are multi-modal, with its behavior corresponding to the financial belief system of the dominant participants. E.g. the dot-com boom was driven by non-technical investors who believed in the rule of capital appreciation (and totally ignored models like dividend discount model and such for equity valuation). Following that bust and their departure from the market, those who remained in the market were mostly those educated in classical financial analysis methods, and subsequently the market tended to behave following their rules for a few years (mostly 2002-2004). When technical analysis investors tend to get active, you'll find equities of interest to the TAs tend to start following the TA rules - mostly because those who are interacting with it daily believe in them. This goes on until a different dominant force influences the mode, often due to opportunities being discovered by users of other models that are missed in the current one. This approach was also heavily practiced by George Soros, who would raid an investment target when the current mode carried it way out of line, creating unique risks (such as liquidity risks) which the current model didn't recognize. Multi-modal distributions cause normal distribution approaches to fail miserably as the modes tend to be organic and have considerable influence from exogenous events.
Then again, it's not terribly surprising that grants such as these are given. Most of our financial and risk analysts are trained in classical models and are constantly shocked when the real world doesn't behave as such. If you're interested in this kind of stuff, or find amusement in the failure of supposedly smart people to predict stuff, check out "Why Most Things Fail" by Paul Ormerod, -
Re:computer?
A better approximation can be achieved by modeling the level of rationality of the individual and assigning probabilities based on that.
And yet even this approach has serious problems; normal probability models fail miserably when applied to numerous areas where humans have an influence. Check out Dr. Taleb's The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable or at a minimum, check out Dr. Taleb's website for more details.
Taleb's conjecture (which is supported by many others in the fields of behavioral finance & economics) is that models based on normal distributions (the primary model in Taleb's "mediocristan") fail when they encounter conditions often found with human behavior that seriously violate the prerequisites for such a distribution. For example, a normal distribution requires that each flip of a coin be an independent event and have no outcome bias from previous heads or tails. Unfortunately, many human events tend to violate this precondition. Winners tend to win more, and losers lose more, in human situations possibly due to herding behavior (e.g. people feel they will be safer from harm by being around a winner, thereby assigning more resources to the winner and allowing them to win even more). This condition alone damages normal distribution models and tends to yield what is called a fractal distribution (also known as a "power law" distribution).
Other conditions, such as bimodal and multimodal models, further distort the use of normal distribution approaches in forecasting events. Some suggest the economy is bimodal, having a "good economy" ruleset and a "bad economy" ruleset based on the majority perception. A friend who manages a multi-billion dollar mutual fund has conjectured that U.S. financial markets are multi-modal, with its behavior corresponding to the financial belief system of the dominant participants. E.g. the dot-com boom was driven by non-technical investors who believed in the rule of capital appreciation (and totally ignored models like dividend discount model and such for equity valuation). Following that bust and their departure from the market, those who remained in the market were mostly those educated in classical financial analysis methods, and subsequently the market tended to behave following their rules for a few years (mostly 2002-2004). When technical analysis investors tend to get active, you'll find equities of interest to the TAs tend to start following the TA rules - mostly because those who are interacting with it daily believe in them. This goes on until a different dominant force influences the mode, often due to opportunities being discovered by users of other models that are missed in the current one. This approach was also heavily practiced by George Soros, who would raid an investment target when the current mode carried it way out of line, creating unique risks (such as liquidity risks) which the current model didn't recognize. Multi-modal distributions cause normal distribution approaches to fail miserably as the modes tend to be organic and have considerable influence from exogenous events.
Then again, it's not terribly surprising that grants such as these are given. Most of our financial and risk analysts are trained in classical models and are constantly shocked when the real world doesn't behave as such. If you're interested in this kind of stuff, or find amusement in the failure of supposedly smart people to predict stuff, check out "Why Most Things Fail" by Paul Ormerod, -
A Good Thing (tm)It is not new, and not ever going to change: The government agencies responsible for knowing what people are planning to do domestically and abroad must be able to gather information. Where is the info? How is it transmitted? Who owns the network?
They will do it anyway they can, and have been doing it for over 60 years. It's just now, when we are so digitally integrated, that is has become so much easier for them.
You either trust your government or you dont. If you dont trust the current admin, elect a new one.
I recommend reading "A Man Called Intrepid". It details the beginning of the spy game, and how it dramatically turned the second world war around. The burden on our intelligence forces is great. The responsibility even greater. Have you elected the government you trust to use this intelligence infrastructure properly? Don't blame the telcos, blame those who are abusing the info.
-
Re:but... but...Swinburne's Is There a God? (Oxford University Press, 1996) is probably the easiest to find,
Pffft. Swinburne is for community college drop-outs and pedophiles. You want a real treatise on the subject? Check out Blume's Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret." That book will knock your fucking socks off. Not wearing socks? Get some fucking socks, man; you want to catch a cold?
-
Re:but... but...
God's role has always been understood as sustaining the existence of Creation. That God ultimately controls health, weather, and so forth followed from that and still does, and there's no moving target here. I'd recommend reading an introduction the philosophy of religion before you try to assert things further about a field you evidently have no training in. Swinburne's Is There a God? (Oxford University Press, 1996) is probably the easiest to find, though the writer is a theist you may want to supplement it with Mackie or early Flew for the non-theist side.
-
To alloplasty before transplants
It's interesting to think that in Larry Niven's "Gil 'The Arm' Hamilton" stories (collected in Flatlander ) and other Known Space books organ transplants were supposed to be the rage, before eventually being supplanted by alloplasty, "gadgets instead of organs", long after. At the rate science is progressing, viable artificial solutions are going to be found for many things before transplantation would be possible.
What I wonder, though, is whether these artificial solutions will be allowed to be so much better than the original human part. If you have to replace someone's arm, why not do it with a space-age fiber that would allow him to lift hundreds of pounds single-handedly?