Cecil is happy to say he has heard from the originator of the Monty Hall question, Steve Selvin, a UCal-Berkeley prof (cf American Statistician, February 1975). Cecil is happy because he can now track Steve down and have him assassinated, as he richly deserves for all the grief he has caused.
Next year, can we please build an insanely complicated machine which will beat the entire membership of the Phi Chapter of Theta Tau with the Naughty Web Designer Stick? After being exposed to their Flash Monstrosity that's something I would like to see happen over and over again.
Once Doris bows to the will of the Canadian people, then I will start to believe in Uwe Boll. And the Tooth Fairy. And the Easter Bunny. And all that other stuff that Doris believes in.
Sure, first you reduce every song to a sequence of twelve standard notes. Then you start applying regular expressions to match the patterns, and before long it's meloncholy elephants everywhere.
Silly me. Here I thought it was "All warfare is based on deception."
As in, "When able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him. If he is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected."
But maybe I just read that on the back of a cereal box.
Abuse of words like "unique" is commonplace in these days of grammar ignorance, but this article really does excel. The trouble is, I can't decide if it was deliberate irony on behalf of the author, or just plain ignorance.
Is that the same kind of ignorance that comes from not knowing what a word means, or were you trying to win some kind of award for creative use of the term irony?
My nuts stand tall they never fall
Ripe and yes always on the ball
FDA fresh and they are the best
A winner of every damn taste test
Eat em for pleasure or at your leisure
a taste that all the girls do treasure
Never illin but chillin
Never stealin but dealin
my peanuts are what you're feelin
I take em to the beach, I take em to the park
I takem to your mothers house after dark
They ain't like no nuts from Jimmy Carter
I know my nuts rock you harder
My peanuts!
"Many commentators have objected to the comparison or modification (as by somewhat or very) of unique, often asserting that a thing is either unique or it is not. Objections are based chiefly on the assumption that unique has but a single absolute sense, an assumption contradicted by information readily available in a dictionary. [...] In modern use both comparison and modification are widespread and standard [...]"
Uh I thought it was because it's a computer that has no way to shed heat other than to bleed it out into the air / someone's face.
It doesn't "bleed" heat, it "radiates" it.
As in "Radiation". Your cell phone, like all electric devices, is radiating trillions and trillions of electron volts of radiation directly into your body every time you use it.
Even if you don't use a cell phone you are still exposed to thousands if different sources of radiation every day. Wrapping yourself in tin-foil won't help -- most of the radiation out there is of a type that can be absorbed by tin-foil and then re-emitted out the other side. Not even living in a cave will prevent you from being exposed to so much radiation every single day that your body has become a significant source of radiation itself.
Let's face it. If you believe that radiation is a problem then there's nothing you can do to avoid it.
What I didn't realize was that other art people were looking over my shoulder and nodding at every single thing I was saying. I had the weird hair and the odd jacket. And nothing I was saying was making sense. Since it was all zooming over their heads, they erred on the side of caution and assumed I was a genius. And I had improved their day with my "insight", which was nothing more than half-drunken babbling.
Your mind reading abilities are impressive.
Did I ever tell you about the time that I went out to the Met and saw some guy doing his best Steve Martin impression in front of the modern art display? He was clearly babbling about nothing in particular but I was entertained by his display of street theatre. I smiled and nodded when he quoted a line from 'LA Story' and made no effort to move away when I saw that we were taking the same path through the museum. The funny thing is that I never did figure out whether he was trying to make some sort of wry criticism of artists who try to make a virtue out of inaccessibility or if he really was just a drunken lout who had no idea what he was looking at and wanted to be funny for his girlfriend.
But I was reminded of something important:
Just because you don't understand something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Lots of people have no idea how gravitation works but that doesn't keep them from sticking to the ground.
Absolutely. Why would Rogers, whose major business is in selling cable TV services, and Bell, who sell the same content via satellite, _not_ want to provide their Internet customers with high speed free access to TV programs that they would otherwise have to, um, pay for.
That is, pay the big Cable and Satellite providers for.
Slashdot Mirror
I think I'm going to have to agree with Cecil Adams on this one.
Wow, is it an election year again already?
You're right. Lennon was from the UK.
Do you have any other insight into the history of the Beatles you would like to share with us?
Are you trying to Lennon-roll us with that video?
Next year, can we please build an insanely complicated machine which will beat the entire membership of the Phi Chapter of Theta Tau with the Naughty Web Designer Stick? After being exposed to their Flash Monstrosity that's something I would like to see happen over and over again.
Don't you mean T-Magenta(tm)?
I'm still waiting for the referendum to legally change Stockwell Day's name to Doris.
Once Doris bows to the will of the Canadian people, then I will start to believe in Uwe Boll. And the Tooth Fairy. And the Easter Bunny. And all that other stuff that Doris believes in.
Sure, first you reduce every song to a sequence of twelve standard notes. Then you start applying regular expressions to match the patterns, and before long it's meloncholy elephants everywhere.
What's an "article"? Is it something you're supposed to read before commenting?
Silly me. Here I thought it was "All warfare is based on deception."
As in, "When able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him. If he is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected."
But maybe I just read that on the back of a cereal box.
I blame George Carlin for the confusion. For the past thirty years he has been encouraging us all to "Make f---, not kill!"
Is that the same kind of ignorance that comes from not knowing what a word means, or were you trying to win some kind of award for creative use of the term irony?
Okay...
My nuts stand tall they never fall
Ripe and yes always on the ball
FDA fresh and they are the best
A winner of every damn taste test
Eat em for pleasure or at your leisure
a taste that all the girls do treasure
Never illin but chillin
Never stealin but dealin
my peanuts are what you're feelin
I take em to the beach, I take em to the park
I takem to your mothers house after dark
They ain't like no nuts from Jimmy Carter
I know my nuts rock you harder
My peanuts!
I'm puzzled by the thought that it should be.
Let's see what my old friends George and Charles Merriam and Noah Webster have to say on the subject:
That's slander sir, and we have it on tape.
Well, what do _you_ think that hordes of undead flesh-eating zombies do? Save you 15% on your insurance?
I have a "concept model" of a dual screen laptop. It fits in my hand and can play Mario Bros.
It doesn't "bleed" heat, it "radiates" it.
As in "Radiation". Your cell phone, like all electric devices, is radiating trillions and trillions of electron volts of radiation directly into your body every time you use it.
Even if you don't use a cell phone you are still exposed to thousands if different sources of radiation every day. Wrapping yourself in tin-foil won't help -- most of the radiation out there is of a type that can be absorbed by tin-foil and then re-emitted out the other side. Not even living in a cave will prevent you from being exposed to so much radiation every single day that your body has become a significant source of radiation itself.
Let's face it. If you believe that radiation is a problem then there's nothing you can do to avoid it.
"Shut up! The US didn't lose 1812. It was a tie."
"I'm tellin' you baby, they kicked your little ass there. Boy, they whooped yer hide real good!"
"Garage"? Hey, fellas, it's the "ga-rage".
Well, ooh la-dee-da, Mr. Frenchman. Around here, we call it a car hole.
Because you just can't discuss regular expressions without bringing up this quote:
Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular expressions."
Now they have two problems.
-- Jamie Zawinski, 1997, in alt.religion.emacs
Your mind reading abilities are impressive.
Did I ever tell you about the time that I went out to the Met and saw some guy doing his best Steve Martin impression in front of the modern art display? He was clearly babbling about nothing in particular but I was entertained by his display of street theatre. I smiled and nodded when he quoted a line from 'LA Story' and made no effort to move away when I saw that we were taking the same path through the museum. The funny thing is that I never did figure out whether he was trying to make some sort of wry criticism of artists who try to make a virtue out of inaccessibility or if he really was just a drunken lout who had no idea what he was looking at and wanted to be funny for his girlfriend.
But I was reminded of something important:
Just because you don't understand something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Lots of people have no idea how gravitation works but that doesn't keep them from sticking to the ground.
The radiation story is just a cover. I heard that the cat knew where the bucket was.
Okay. "Google is working on ways to read your mind."
It's part of their plan for world domination, but in an evil-free way.
Absolutely. Why would Rogers, whose major business is in selling cable TV services, and Bell, who sell the same content via satellite, _not_ want to provide their Internet customers with high speed free access to TV programs that they would otherwise have to, um, pay for.
That is, pay the big Cable and Satellite providers for.
You know, have to pay Rogers and Bell for.
Wait. Why is this a good idea for them again?