I would love to see every law on the books thoroughly enforced. Maybe then people would start paying attention to what goes on in the government instead of choosing blissful ignorance. You can bet that within a week of a law like this going into effect the speed limits will be raised.
Remember: Governments only do what people let them do.
The people *never* get any sort of reasonable payout from these sorts of lawsuits. I don't know why anyone even signs on. Is there a way to file suit against class action lawyers for abusing their clients?
While I'm sure that the people recommending GEB and Hawking have your best interests at heart, they're answering the wrong question. If you want to learn math, you're going to have to start at the beginning and work your way up. "Popular" math and science books won't help you with the basics.
What you'll want to do instead is what they do in school. Start with some basic number theory(nothing fancy, maybe just enough to know the difference between integer/real/rational/etc). After that, assuming you understand how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide, you're going to want to get into some basic algebra, then calculus, then geometry or whatever else you want. Unfortunately, I learned algebra way back in middle school so I don't have a textbook to name, but I do have some advice that applies at all levels:
* Do the problems in the book. Then do some more. Then do even more, just for good measure. Some of the other posters have complained about doing problems. Ignore them. Nothing will give you a better feel for how algebra and calculus work than actualy *doing* them.
* Understand each piece of information before you move on and how it relates to the whole. Any decent textbook should offer problems that use both new and previously gained knowledge. Make sure your textbook of choice has lots of examples and that those examples are worked out well. Never underestimate the value of a fully worked out problem. It may be worth it to get multiple textbooks, look them over, and then return the ones you don't want.
* Be persistant. Children learn math by doing it every(other) day for years. You're an adult. You can learn faster and better, but that doesn't mean you get to be lazy. Do a bit every day, even if it's just working one or two problems. Daily practice will ingrain concepts in your brain and also make it easier to pick up a book and start on something new.
* Don't get too formal. Wanting to know "why" is great, but "why" must often take a backseat to what is being learned. Often, the reason for doing something may not be obvious until you already know how to do it.
* Have I mentioned doing problems?
Now I do have one actual book to name, and that's:
Calculus by Larson, Hostetler, and Edwards
This book has tons of examples and illustrations, as well as excellent problems. It even features a two chapter algebra/pre-calc review!
Some people have mentioned the calc book by Stewart. We use that book at my college, and given the number of people who seem to have problems with it I cannot recommend it for self-teaching.
Even if what you say about legal requirements were true(and according to the other posts it's not) there's nothing preventing the Treasury from making an exception for online cash. It's not like the constitution mandates that everyone must accept all forms of government currency.
What a bunch of fools. The article implies that most of the gaming is taking place in cafes, so these measures might actually have a chance of succeeding, but is that really a good thing? It's better to learn the dangers of MMORPG addiction when you're 12 than when you're 20.
Besides, I can't imagine that the number of "addicted" players is anything like what they're making it out to be.
Harry Potter is a children's story set in an adult world. As you go farther along, you begin to see that the HP universe is actually a very frightening place, where very bad things can happen to very nice people.
Also, the characters tend to be far more realistic than you would expect in children's literature. Not all the good guys are nice, and not all the bad guys are mean.
As I recall, the work function measures the distance from the vacuum energy(the energy where electrons are freed from the metal) to the conduction band(the energy level where electrons conduct). Changing the location of the metal conduction band relative to the semiconductor conduction band changes the characteristics of the semiconductor.
Regarding the first part of your post, I didn't mean to imply that the situation was in any way cut and dried, merely that this is a situation where government intervention may, at some level, be warranted.
The majority of people in the South wanted segregation to continue. Just because the majority wants something doesn't mean they want something good.
Nor does it mean they want something bad, either, but I see your point.
Here are the problems with your statement:
1. How do we know that the government solution will be the best one? 2. How can we prevent abuse?
1. We don't, but if the status quo and the grass roots approach aren't doing anything, I'm willing to give the government a try.(Note: *If*) 2. We can never totally prevent abuse, but at some point the danger of abuse may be outweighed by the dangers of the status quo.
I don't believe that government power is any more inherently bad than corporate power or 501(C)(3) power or any other kind of power. People tend to take a more pessimistic outlook towards the government(which only lets it get worse) but individuals and corporations have certainly caused their fair share of problems. However, at its root, the government is an organization dedicated to keeping people happy enough to get their vote. As such, I find it's motives more likely to do good in thise case than the alternatives(read: corporations).
And, naturally, Leftists think that they are the only ones who are smart and wise enough to govern what is "best for society" (translated: best for everyone). People can't be left to their own whims, they have to be told what to do by the wise and all-knowing Leftists!
...
I do not believe that individualism allows such actions that deprive others of life, liberty, or property. Humans are social creatures, and our society suffers if actions that deprive others of life, liberty, and property are allowed.
So in once sentence you say that people shouldn't be told what to do, yet in another you're perfectly willing to tell them what to do for the good of society? Everyone has their own perspective on what's good enough for society. That's where democracy and the bill of rights come in. Some rights are inviolate, others can be modified by law.
Should people be "allowed" to solve this problem on their own, as free individuals, or should the almighty government force them to adopt its will and whim?
Both solutions are equivalent, as far as I'm concerned. Either it's easy enough for people to adopt the solution on their own, or it's more difficult and requires a nudge. Either way, I don't see how regularly spewing fumes around is desirable afterwards.
Of course, the above requires that the proposed solution is a good one, but that should go without saying.
Do you really think that cars cause traffic, accidents, and drunk driving? Do you believe in any individual responsibility in any of those three things?
I most certainly do. Allow me to rephrase:
Due to the fact that people aren't perfect, sometimes an individual will use their car in such a way that it causes a problem. If a lot of people drive cars, there will be a lot of problems.
Better? Consider also that it is quite often in an individual's best interest to drive a car as opposed to traveling by alternative means, due to the way our towns and cities are set up.
So typical of Leftists: "what do 'most' people think?"
As opposed to "What do 'most leftists' think?"
I am not concerned with what the majority wants
That's nice. Pity the majority is.
I am concerned with protecting freedom, and that means protecting individual rights.
That's not a bad thing at all, but I'm talking about stuff that actually affects other people. Given the problems with cars(especially the fact that most of them involve hurting other people too), I don't think it's at all unreasonable to force some people to move to a better solution if they're not going to do it on their own.
I guess we just have a difference of opinion on that one.
Ignoring the fact that "left", "right", "conservative", and "liberal" no longer have any meaning...
Leftists don't hate individualism, but they do understand that people acting as individuals will not always act in a way that is productive to society. This is not a stretch at all; see for instance the outlawing of murder, theft, rape, etc.(Note: I'm not comparing driving a car to murder. That would be silly.)
Now the question here is not "is individualism bad", the question is "should people be allowed to use cars if a less harmful alternative is easily available". The answer to that question depends on how harmful having lots of cars is and how harmful having lots of the alternative is, as well as the actual cost of switching over. Anyone who lives in a large city will tell you that cars cause problems(traffic, pollution, accidents, drunk driving...). Whether the article's solution is good enough or not is by no means certain, but at least they're trying.
Given all that, do you really believe that "most" people hate cars because of some silly power trip, or because they've experienced first hand the downside of having millions of them crammed in a small space?
What are you smoking? The whole point of Noir was that it was supposed to be a more artistic portrayel of violence. There was no gore because the creators chose to make it that way, not because of some sort of arbitrary restriction.
Would anyone really be worse off if Microsoft took the "my" off of "My Computer", "My Documents", etc? I already *know* that they're mine! Do people really like their computers to talk down to them like that?
For individual pieces of hardware I recommend newegg.com. They are very well known on the net as a reliable organization. An added bonus is that they use super-cheap FedEx Saver shipping and gets a package from CA to NY in two days. Their prices are always near the bottom of what pricewatch.com lists.
Well, the major advantage of the 89/92 line over the older series is that it can do advanced Algebra and Calculus functions. Mine does derivatives, integrals(definite *and* indefinite -- very nice), series, limits, and so forth. Also, the newer ones have the capability to handle calculations involving infinity, and will also give exact answers: for example, lim x-> infinity of (1 + 1/n)^n comes out as e, which is more useful than the decimal form. The interface on the 89/92 is also improved, with a menu system supplementing the traditional pushbuttons. I wouldn't be without my 89 when doing "real" math(higher level calc, physics), but I think it's a bit overkill for the high school level.
> Does not allow the use of information collected on Americans by foreign governments when that information was collected in
> violation of the U.S. Constitution
Does this reduce the power of the Echelon system? It certainly seems like a large part of the use of such a system would be removed with this bill.
Of course a representative isn't going to listen to you if you're not from their state. Why would they? You're not one of their constituents. The job of a state representative is to listen to the people of their district. If they listen to you instead, it's worse than not responding at all, because then the rep is acting contrary to the interests of his people.
If you want to influence the government, write, call, etc *your* representative.
You haven't used a quicktime player lately, have you? Even the slow, bloated, WMP 7 is better than *that*. I'm running WMP 6 right now and it takes me less than 2 seconds to go from double-click to start of movie. Quicktime takes longer than that just to *load*, and the quality is almost invariably worse.
Actually, Orrin Hatch was on CNN talking about the need for better *human* intelligence, and the need to better understand the motivations of the people involved in these attacks. Here's holding out hope that we buy more spies instead of more cameras.
Read your citation again. The NSA is *one segment* of the intelligence funding group. From the same page:
There are 13 federal organizations in the Intelligence Community. They
are:
National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS);
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA);
National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA);
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI);
Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA);
National Reconnaissance Office (NRO);
Department of Energy (DoE);
Army Intelligence;
Air Force Intelligence;
Navy Intelligence;
Marine Corps Intelligence;
Department of Treasury;
The $26 billion would have been split among the intelligence activities of all 13 of these groups.
In your preferences, you have the ability to choose which categories turn up on your front page. Simply disable the Anime category and you'll never have to see it again.
Slashdot Mirror
I would love to see every law on the books thoroughly enforced. Maybe then people would start paying attention to what goes on in the government instead of choosing blissful ignorance. You can bet that within a week of a law like this going into effect the speed limits will be raised.
Remember: Governments only do what people let them do.
If you're giving out credit, give some to Action Quake 2. CS's "realism" is directly derived from AQ2(they were even made by the same people!).
The people *never* get any sort of reasonable payout from these sorts of lawsuits. I don't know why anyone even signs on. Is there a way to file suit against class action lawyers for abusing their clients?
While I'm sure that the people recommending GEB and Hawking have your best interests at heart, they're answering the wrong question. If you want to learn math, you're going to have to start at the beginning and work your way up. "Popular" math and science books won't help you with the basics.
What you'll want to do instead is what they do in school. Start with some basic number theory(nothing fancy, maybe just enough to know the difference between integer/real/rational/etc). After that, assuming you understand how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide, you're going to want to get into some basic algebra, then calculus, then geometry or whatever else you want. Unfortunately, I learned algebra way back in middle school so I don't have a textbook to name, but I do have some advice that applies at all levels:
* Do the problems in the book. Then do some more. Then do even more, just for good measure. Some of the other posters have complained about doing problems. Ignore them. Nothing will give you a better feel for how algebra and calculus work than actualy *doing* them.
* Understand each piece of information before you move on and how it relates to the whole. Any decent textbook should offer problems that use both new and previously gained knowledge. Make sure your textbook of choice has lots of examples and that those examples are worked out well. Never underestimate the value of a fully worked out problem. It may be worth it to get multiple textbooks, look them over, and then return the ones you don't want.
* Be persistant. Children learn math by doing it every(other) day for years. You're an adult. You can learn faster and better, but that doesn't mean you get to be lazy. Do a bit every day, even if it's just working one or two problems. Daily practice will ingrain concepts in your brain and also make it easier to pick up a book and start on something new.
* Don't get too formal. Wanting to know "why" is great, but "why" must often take a backseat to what is being learned. Often, the reason for doing something may not be obvious until you already know how to do it.
* Have I mentioned doing problems?
Now I do have one actual book to name, and that's:
Calculus by Larson, Hostetler, and Edwards
This book has tons of examples and illustrations, as well as excellent problems. It even features a two chapter algebra/pre-calc review!
Some people have mentioned the calc book by Stewart. We use that book at my college, and given the number of people who seem to have problems with it I cannot recommend it for self-teaching.
Good luck!
Even if what you say about legal requirements were true(and according to the other posts it's not) there's nothing preventing the Treasury from making an exception for online cash. It's not like the constitution mandates that everyone must accept all forms of government currency.
What a bunch of fools. The article implies that most of the gaming is taking place in cafes, so these measures might actually have a chance of succeeding, but is that really a good thing? It's better to learn the dangers of MMORPG addiction when you're 12 than when you're 20.
Besides, I can't imagine that the number of "addicted" players is anything like what they're making it out to be.
Harry Potter is a children's story set in an adult world. As you go farther along, you begin to see that the HP universe is actually a very frightening place, where very bad things can happen to very nice people.
Also, the characters tend to be far more realistic than you would expect in children's literature. Not all the good guys are nice, and not all the bad guys are mean.
Summary: It's just a good story. Read more.
As I recall, the work function measures the distance from the vacuum energy(the energy where electrons are freed from the metal) to the conduction band(the energy level where electrons conduct). Changing the location of the metal conduction band relative to the semiconductor conduction band changes the characteristics of the semiconductor.
Regarding the first part of your post, I didn't mean to imply that the situation was in any way cut and dried, merely that this is a situation where government intervention may, at some level, be warranted.
The majority of people in the South wanted segregation to continue. Just because the majority wants something doesn't mean they want something good.
Nor does it mean they want something bad, either, but I see your point.
Here are the problems with your statement:
1. How do we know that the government solution will be the best one?
2. How can we prevent abuse?
1. We don't, but if the status quo and the grass roots approach aren't doing anything, I'm willing to give the government a try.(Note: *If*)
2. We can never totally prevent abuse, but at some point the danger of abuse may be outweighed by the dangers of the status quo.
I don't believe that government power is any more inherently bad than corporate power or 501(C)(3) power or any other kind of power. People tend to take a more pessimistic outlook towards the government(which only lets it get worse) but individuals and corporations have certainly caused their fair share of problems. However, at its root, the government is an organization dedicated to keeping people happy enough to get their vote. As such, I find it's motives more likely to do good in thise case than the alternatives(read: corporations).
I do not believe that individualism allows such actions that deprive others of life, liberty, or property. Humans are social creatures, and our society suffers if actions that deprive others of life, liberty, and property are allowed.
So in once sentence you say that people shouldn't be told what to do, yet in another you're perfectly willing to tell them what to do for the good of society? Everyone has their own perspective on what's good enough for society. That's where democracy and the bill of rights come in. Some rights are inviolate, others can be modified by law.
Should people be "allowed" to solve this problem on their own, as free individuals, or should the almighty government force them to adopt its will and whim?
Both solutions are equivalent, as far as I'm concerned. Either it's easy enough for people to adopt the solution on their own, or it's more difficult and requires a nudge. Either way, I don't see how regularly spewing fumes around is desirable afterwards.
Of course, the above requires that the proposed solution is a good one, but that should go without saying.
Do you really think that cars cause traffic, accidents, and drunk driving? Do you believe in any individual responsibility in any of those three things?
I most certainly do. Allow me to rephrase:
Due to the fact that people aren't perfect, sometimes an individual will use their car in such a way that it causes a problem. If a lot of people drive cars, there will be a lot of problems.
Better? Consider also that it is quite often in an individual's best interest to drive a car as opposed to traveling by alternative means, due to the way our towns and cities are set up.
So typical of Leftists: "what do 'most' people think?"
As opposed to "What do 'most leftists' think?"
I am not concerned with what the majority wants
That's nice. Pity the majority is.
I am concerned with protecting freedom, and that means protecting individual rights.
That's not a bad thing at all, but I'm talking about stuff that actually affects other people. Given the problems with cars(especially the fact that most of them involve hurting other people too), I don't think it's at all unreasonable to force some people to move to a better solution if they're not going to do it on their own.
I guess we just have a difference of opinion on that one.
Ignoring the fact that "left", "right", "conservative", and "liberal" no longer have any meaning...
Leftists don't hate individualism, but they do understand that people acting as individuals will not always act in a way that is productive to society. This is not a stretch at all; see for instance the outlawing of murder, theft, rape, etc.(Note: I'm not comparing driving a car to murder. That would be silly.)
Now the question here is not "is individualism bad", the question is "should people be allowed to use cars if a less harmful alternative is easily available". The answer to that question depends on how harmful having lots of cars is and how harmful having lots of the alternative is, as well as the actual cost of switching over. Anyone who lives in a large city will tell you that cars cause problems(traffic, pollution, accidents, drunk driving...). Whether the article's solution is good enough or not is by no means certain, but at least they're trying.
Given all that, do you really believe that "most" people hate cars because of some silly power trip, or because they've experienced first hand the downside of having millions of them crammed in a small space?
Er, excuse me. Card Captor Sakura is a very good show, whether or not you like it personally. Please don't lump it in with the nonstop fanservice set.
If you want, you can just run the gnome panel and use something else as the actual window manager.
What are you smoking? The whole point of Noir was that it was supposed to be a more artistic portrayel of violence. There was no gore because the creators chose to make it that way, not because of some sort of arbitrary restriction.
I install a copy of sendmail on my computer and use it to spam a hundred thousand people.
Who charges me? Mail is just TCP/IP traffic.
Would anyone really be worse off if Microsoft took the "my" off of "My Computer", "My Documents", etc? I already *know* that they're mine! Do people really like their computers to talk down to them like that?
For individual pieces of hardware I recommend newegg.com. They are very well known on the net as a reliable organization. An added bonus is that they use super-cheap FedEx Saver shipping and gets a package from CA to NY in two days. Their prices are always near the bottom of what pricewatch.com lists.
I asked this question once myself. Here's one of the more useful answers I got:
y /B lackHoles/black_gravity.html
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativit
Slashdot is for some reason putting a space in the "BlackHoles" segment of the URL. There should not be one there.
Well, the major advantage of the 89/92 line over the older series is that it can do advanced Algebra and Calculus functions. Mine does derivatives, integrals(definite *and* indefinite -- very nice), series, limits, and so forth. Also, the newer ones have the capability to handle calculations involving infinity, and will also give exact answers: for example, lim x-> infinity of (1 + 1/n)^n comes out as e, which is more useful than the decimal form. The interface on the 89/92 is also improved, with a menu system supplementing the traditional pushbuttons. I wouldn't be without my 89 when doing "real" math(higher level calc, physics), but I think it's a bit overkill for the high school level.
> Does not allow the use of information collected on Americans by foreign governments when that information was collected in
> violation of the U.S. Constitution
Does this reduce the power of the Echelon system? It certainly seems like a large part of the use of such a system would be removed with this bill.
Of course a representative isn't going to listen to you if you're not from their state. Why would they? You're not one of their constituents. The job of a state representative is to listen to the people of their district. If they listen to you instead, it's worse than not responding at all, because then the rep is acting contrary to the interests of his people.
If you want to influence the government, write, call, etc *your* representative.
You haven't used a quicktime player lately, have you? Even the slow, bloated, WMP 7 is better than *that*. I'm running WMP 6 right now and it takes me less than 2 seconds to go from double-click to start of movie. Quicktime takes longer than that just to *load*, and the quality is almost invariably worse.
Actually, Orrin Hatch was on CNN talking about the need for better *human* intelligence, and the need to better understand the motivations of the people involved in these attacks. Here's holding out hope that we buy more spies instead of more cameras.
> Aw.. poor NSA only gets $26 Billion dollars
Read your citation again. The NSA is *one segment* of the intelligence funding group. From the same page:
There are 13 federal organizations in the Intelligence Community. They
are:
National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS);
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA);
National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA);
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI);
Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA);
National Reconnaissance Office (NRO);
Department of Energy (DoE);
Army Intelligence;
Air Force Intelligence;
Navy Intelligence;
Marine Corps Intelligence;
Department of Treasury;
The $26 billion would have been split among the intelligence activities of all 13 of these groups.
In your preferences, you have the ability to choose which categories turn up on your front page. Simply disable the Anime category and you'll never have to see it again.