However, there is something more relevant to this thread - SPEND TIME WITH YOUR KIDS. KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING. GET INVOLVED.
Raising kids with TV and video games instead of parenting is just wrong... and I don't care how busy you are as a family with both parents having full time jobs. Kids are a responsibility greater than trying to afford a new SUV (or for the low-income bracket, a DVD player or whatever).
Be careful. If schizophrenia develops into paranoid schizophrenia, be afraid.
I once worked with a guy who heard voices - we only figured it out when it got bad enough that he would continue conversations with them (the voices) after the real people had finished and walked away. As his illness progressed, he became paranoid, and decided that one of his coworkers was trying to plant a chip in his head to get his bank account information for the RCMP.
I'm not saying don't care, I'm not saying stop loving them, but be aware that you can NEVER trust a schizophrenic to be rational and safe to be around... you can never be sure they haven't decided to stop taking their meds, you can never be sure they haven't become paranoid.
Wasn't a 'party night' schedule (along with horrid season three scripts) part of what killed the original series? Wow, even sci-fi fans can have lives...
Actually, you could have their speed controlled by a central office... then they could be adjusted for weather & road conditions, along with LCD speed limit signs.
Imagine, a road that automatically lowered its speed limit because there was a foggy patch around the next curve...
If I'm going to die six months from now, it'd be nice to have $60m to play with until then, instead of continuing to work off debt.
$60m could probably get me a nice house, servants, guards, and a good-sized harem... so if you see any inbound asteroids, please put me in line for bribing!
My group is full of people who enjoy arguments so much that they don't care if they're right or not - just if they win.
So, plenty of good-spirited arguments which eventually are stopped with, "OK, let's just let the DM rule however she wants and get on with playing".
The US government is also using breathable air to support the war effort, along with food and water. I therefore suggest that everyone resign from the "Respirating Animals Group" and furthermore that all farmers, food inspectors, grocery store employees and consumers of food immediately cease and desist their support and use of food as they are contributing to the war effort in Iraq.
Wasn't there some guy a year or so ago who made a map of all the critical infrastructure points in the U.S.A.?
I think he said there were less than a half dozen easily identified, poorly protected sites that you could blow up with fairly small explosives and totally trash the data and power grids. After all, the only way to be certain that data flow stops is to destroy the physical conduit, right?
If someone managed to even partially pull that off it would be both horrible and fascinating.
Get the probe to refuel itself with material avaiable in the solar system that can be accessed without entering a significant gravity well.
Get the probe to push a decent-sized asteroid VERY close to a planet along a trajectory that causes them to trade energy and alter the planet's orbit an infintesimal amount.
Return to the second step unless the planet is in the desired new orbit.
So far, humanity can manage the first step, just barely.
I'd be much more interested in knocking asteroids and comets into Mars until it has the same mass and average chemical content as Earth.
While I generally listen to random tracks, I have to say that they're only semi-random... I tend to (like most people, I'm sure) listen to randomized playlists so that I'm listening to music that fits my mood. Of course, when I listen to 'The Wall', it's from start to finish.
Listening to random tracks from my entire MP3 collection would be very weird, since I have a smattering of many different kinds of music.
Yeah - I was thinking something along the lines of a giant piston, so that as the head of the missile hit, it shoved the powder out a series of vents at the back aimed 45 degrees high... but only covering a circle of about 80 degrees or so and using a very reflective yellow powder.
I've only ever seen one ad campaign I liked - and that was where a company buried an option to hear a duck quack in their phone system.
I think almost everyone in North America phoned that 1-800 to hear the quack, and every bit of it was voluntary.
If you're familiar with the Prisoner's Dilema, you can understand ad agencies... if only one ad out there is intrusive, it will bore its way into the conciousness of a huge number of people. If they all do it, people get irritated or just filter it out.
So, if everyone plays nice ads are modestly effective. If one person plays dirty, they win by a good margin. If everyone plays dirty, ads are less than modestly effective. Human nature being what it is, nobody wants to play nice if the guy playing dirty will beat them... so everyone plays dirty and everyone loses.
Also, ad agencies don't care if they ruin the quality of everything their campaigns touch, so long as the client sees enough effect from the effort to pay for the next campaign. They get their souls from the same place as most lawyers, and Darl.
Actually, I'd say that in practical terms science is about coming up with a theory to describe an incompletely understood phenomenon - then making sure your theory doesn't miss anything that renders it invalid, then DEFENDING it against the harsh criticism of your peers, who work like the Devil himself to prove you wrong.
Sometimes, peers trying to prove you wrong love your theory so much, they unwittingly do a poor job of checking your theory and allow something incomplete or downright wrong to make its way into the general body of scientific knowledge... at least until someone notices the problem and the cycle starts again.
THAT is science. It's at least as much about finding support for a theory as it is to refute it.
I once used P2P to download MP3s of everything I owned because my connection was faster than my processor - I could download faster than I could rip and compress.
I then used P2P to download some obscure stuff you can't find for sale.
Since then I have yet to hear something on the radio I bothered to remember the name of, nevermind download or buy.
Let's scale it down a bit for comparison: say you have a room in your house you're not using, and you like to accomodate people who need a place to stay but can't afford a home of their own... you nicely let a couple of people in. Very good.
Now, assume your neighbour tells you he has reason to believe your guests are actually theives casing his house, and all he asks is that you do a background check for a criminal history... something almost all landlords do anyway.
You don't do the check, your neighbour's house gets robbed. Do you owe an apology now?
We've already found Al Queda cells in Canada, and had one (luckily foolish) guy try to drive a carload of explosives across the border. We've still got our collective head in the sand.
So I say that *YES*, we owe an appology to our neighbours. More than that, we need to shape up. I'm not saying we should be the scary police state that I see the US becoming, but we need to at least start enforcing some basic security policies.
It has nothing to do with feeling inferior (I don't) to the US because we have 1/10 the population, far less economic clout, and have trouble enjoying our own culture as it is drowned out by the flood coming northward. I'm reasonably happy to be a Canadian, and don't particularly want to move, thank you very much.
You're wrong on a couple of counts.
Canada DOES have a terrorist problem. We have plenty of terrorist cells here that the RCMP and CSIS rather bluntly told the PM about, and his response was to go to Pakistan to free one of their members from prison.
Canada has been explicitly mentioned by Al Qaeda as an enemy. Not a high priority one, perhaps, but we're on the list. Because we're not an Islamic country. Because we're in the West.
The reason we're not higher on the list is that we're a great staging area to attack the US - we let anyone in, allow Muslim clerics to preach hatred pretty much untouched (most don't, but that's not the point), and we have a lovely, long, undefended border with the U.S. if you're bright enough not to cross through customs.
Muslims may think Canada is a nice place, but Islamic terrorists hate it and its citizenry even as they use and abuse its hospitality.
There is no need to fear evil Canadians. There is a very significant need to fear apathetic Canadians.
Our politicians still don't think we have a terrorist problem. Our politicians think the Americans are the cause of all their terrorist problems. Our politicians think that if the Americans would just be nice to everyone all the time, everything would be just fine.
So, while we raise taxes for 'anti-terrorism' the money actually goes into a big pot and is spent on anything but solutions that the government finds unnecessary.
I'd ask anyone outside our borders who actually cares to forgive the average Canadian - we currently don't have a viable center or right-of-center party for whom to vote. Ostriches on the left, and book-burning, bible-thumping fanatics on the right.
In the meantime, the US shouldn't trust any person or vehicle coming across their northern border.
During the Great North West Blackout, my UPS kept my home server running for almost 10 hours; an old UPS with no functioning data connection to the server, the server didn't know to shut down and I forgot.
I'd plugged an extension cord in and was using it to play DVDs on my laptop when the 'low battery' alarm went off. I missed the end of 'Spaced Invaders' and had to sit in the candle-banished darkness with the rest of the shmoes.
So, in some cases, a UPS *can* be a backup power supply, but only if the admin isn't an idiot!
If you've ever had the misfortune of keeping a server up and running while there is major construction going on nearby, you know you can get multiple blackouts of varying duration.
I like to use a UPS to support a server to the last safe second with enough time for an orderly shutdown... but I can't, because I need to know the UPS will last through at least two consecutive blackouts without time to recharge.
Now, with a 30 second recharge, servers under my care could survive twice the blackout duration without increasing the risk of a sudden shutdown.
The original anti-evolution statement is (roughly) 'Something as complex as an eye could not have evolved via the tiny increments evolutionary theory describes'.
The rebuttal is, 'Yes it can, here are the steps, here is why each step is consistent with evolutionary theory, and here are actual (multiple) examples from nature'.
You can deny evolution all you want, it just makes you either stupid or willfully ignorant.
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Amen brudder.
However, there is something more relevant to this thread - SPEND TIME WITH YOUR KIDS. KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING. GET INVOLVED.
Raising kids with TV and video games instead of parenting is just wrong... and I don't care how busy you are as a family with both parents having full time jobs. Kids are a responsibility greater than trying to afford a new SUV (or for the low-income bracket, a DVD player or whatever).
Be careful. If schizophrenia develops into paranoid schizophrenia, be afraid.
I once worked with a guy who heard voices - we only figured it out when it got bad enough that he would continue conversations with them (the voices) after the real people had finished and walked away. As his illness progressed, he became paranoid, and decided that one of his coworkers was trying to plant a chip in his head to get his bank account information for the RCMP.
I'm not saying don't care, I'm not saying stop loving them, but be aware that you can NEVER trust a schizophrenic to be rational and safe to be around... you can never be sure they haven't decided to stop taking their meds, you can never be sure they haven't become paranoid.
Wasn't a 'party night' schedule (along with horrid season three scripts) part of what killed the original series? Wow, even sci-fi fans can have lives...
Actually, you could have their speed controlled by a central office... then they could be adjusted for weather & road conditions, along with LCD speed limit signs. Imagine, a road that automatically lowered its speed limit because there was a foggy patch around the next curve...
If I'm going to die six months from now, it'd be nice to have $60m to play with until then, instead of continuing to work off debt.
$60m could probably get me a nice house, servants, guards, and a good-sized harem... so if you see any inbound asteroids, please put me in line for bribing!
It's easy to imagine throwing asteroids and comets at Mars to terraform it... but I've never heard any ideas on how to modify Venus.
How does one dump massive amounts of unwanted atmosphere?
My group is full of people who enjoy arguments so much that they don't care if they're right or not - just if they win. So, plenty of good-spirited arguments which eventually are stopped with, "OK, let's just let the DM rule however she wants and get on with playing".
what a complete asshat.
The US government is also using breathable air to support the war effort, along with food and water. I therefore suggest that everyone resign from the "Respirating Animals Group" and furthermore that all farmers, food inspectors, grocery store employees and consumers of food immediately cease and desist their support and use of food as they are contributing to the war effort in Iraq.
That is all.
Wasn't there some guy a year or so ago who made a map of all the critical infrastructure points in the U.S.A.?
I think he said there were less than a half dozen easily identified, poorly protected sites that you could blow up with fairly small explosives and totally trash the data and power grids. After all, the only way to be certain that data flow stops is to destroy the physical conduit, right?
If someone managed to even partially pull that off it would be both horrible and fascinating.
So far, humanity can manage the first step, just barely.
I'd be much more interested in knocking asteroids and comets into Mars until it has the same mass and average chemical content as Earth.
While I generally listen to random tracks, I have to say that they're only semi-random... I tend to (like most people, I'm sure) listen to randomized playlists so that I'm listening to music that fits my mood. Of course, when I listen to 'The Wall', it's from start to finish.
Listening to random tracks from my entire MP3 collection would be very weird, since I have a smattering of many different kinds of music.
Yeah - I was thinking something along the lines of a giant piston, so that as the head of the missile hit, it shoved the powder out a series of vents at the back aimed 45 degrees high... but only covering a circle of about 80 degrees or so and using a very reflective yellow powder.
PAC-MAN FOREVER!
I've only ever seen one ad campaign I liked - and that was where a company buried an option to hear a duck quack in their phone system. I think almost everyone in North America phoned that 1-800 to hear the quack, and every bit of it was voluntary.
Dear God. Everyone involved from the guy who came up with the idea to the tech who installed it should be beaten to within an inch of their life.
I seriously thought your post was a joke until I followed the link. That's just sick.
If you're familiar with the Prisoner's Dilema, you can understand ad agencies... if only one ad out there is intrusive, it will bore its way into the conciousness of a huge number of people. If they all do it, people get irritated or just filter it out.
So, if everyone plays nice ads are modestly effective. If one person plays dirty, they win by a good margin. If everyone plays dirty, ads are less than modestly effective. Human nature being what it is, nobody wants to play nice if the guy playing dirty will beat them... so everyone plays dirty and everyone loses.
Also, ad agencies don't care if they ruin the quality of everything their campaigns touch, so long as the client sees enough effect from the effort to pay for the next campaign. They get their souls from the same place as most lawyers, and Darl.
Actually, I'd say that in practical terms science is about coming up with a theory to describe an incompletely understood phenomenon - then making sure your theory doesn't miss anything that renders it invalid, then DEFENDING it against the harsh criticism of your peers, who work like the Devil himself to prove you wrong.
Sometimes, peers trying to prove you wrong love your theory so much, they unwittingly do a poor job of checking your theory and allow something incomplete or downright wrong to make its way into the general body of scientific knowledge... at least until someone notices the problem and the cycle starts again.
THAT is science. It's at least as much about finding support for a theory as it is to refute it.
Wow; a complete and total ass who thinks he's right AND funny. Never seen that before.
I once used P2P to download MP3s of everything I owned because my connection was faster than my processor - I could download faster than I could rip and compress.
I then used P2P to download some obscure stuff you can't find for sale.
Since then I have yet to hear something on the radio I bothered to remember the name of, nevermind download or buy.
Let's scale it down a bit for comparison: say you have a room in your house you're not using, and you like to accomodate people who need a place to stay but can't afford a home of their own... you nicely let a couple of people in. Very good.
Now, assume your neighbour tells you he has reason to believe your guests are actually theives casing his house, and all he asks is that you do a background check for a criminal history... something almost all landlords do anyway.
You don't do the check, your neighbour's house gets robbed. Do you owe an apology now?
We've already found Al Queda cells in Canada, and had one (luckily foolish) guy try to drive a carload of explosives across the border. We've still got our collective head in the sand.
So I say that *YES*, we owe an appology to our neighbours. More than that, we need to shape up. I'm not saying we should be the scary police state that I see the US becoming, but we need to at least start enforcing some basic security policies.
It has nothing to do with feeling inferior (I don't) to the US because we have 1/10 the population, far less economic clout, and have trouble enjoying our own culture as it is drowned out by the flood coming northward. I'm reasonably happy to be a Canadian, and don't particularly want to move, thank you very much.
You're wrong on a couple of counts. Canada DOES have a terrorist problem. We have plenty of terrorist cells here that the RCMP and CSIS rather bluntly told the PM about, and his response was to go to Pakistan to free one of their members from prison. Canada has been explicitly mentioned by Al Qaeda as an enemy. Not a high priority one, perhaps, but we're on the list. Because we're not an Islamic country. Because we're in the West. The reason we're not higher on the list is that we're a great staging area to attack the US - we let anyone in, allow Muslim clerics to preach hatred pretty much untouched (most don't, but that's not the point), and we have a lovely, long, undefended border with the U.S. if you're bright enough not to cross through customs. Muslims may think Canada is a nice place, but Islamic terrorists hate it and its citizenry even as they use and abuse its hospitality.
There is no need to fear evil Canadians. There is a very significant need to fear apathetic Canadians.
Our politicians still don't think we have a terrorist problem. Our politicians think the Americans are the cause of all their terrorist problems. Our politicians think that if the Americans would just be nice to everyone all the time, everything would be just fine.
So, while we raise taxes for 'anti-terrorism' the money actually goes into a big pot and is spent on anything but solutions that the government finds unnecessary.
I'd ask anyone outside our borders who actually cares to forgive the average Canadian - we currently don't have a viable center or right-of-center party for whom to vote. Ostriches on the left, and book-burning, bible-thumping fanatics on the right.
In the meantime, the US shouldn't trust any person or vehicle coming across their northern border.
During the Great North West Blackout, my UPS kept my home server running for almost 10 hours; an old UPS with no functioning data connection to the server, the server didn't know to shut down and I forgot.
I'd plugged an extension cord in and was using it to play DVDs on my laptop when the 'low battery' alarm went off. I missed the end of 'Spaced Invaders' and had to sit in the candle-banished darkness with the rest of the shmoes.
So, in some cases, a UPS *can* be a backup power supply, but only if the admin isn't an idiot!
It's not that I'm trying to get a specific length of time out of a given UPS, but that I'm trying to get the *maximum* time out of *any* UPS.
Having to use only 1/2 the runtime against the possiblity of consecutive blackouts bugs me.
If you've ever had the misfortune of keeping a server up and running while there is major construction going on nearby, you know you can get multiple blackouts of varying duration.
I like to use a UPS to support a server to the last safe second with enough time for an orderly shutdown... but I can't, because I need to know the UPS will last through at least two consecutive blackouts without time to recharge.
Now, with a 30 second recharge, servers under my care could survive twice the blackout duration without increasing the risk of a sudden shutdown.
It is not a circular argument at all.
The original anti-evolution statement is (roughly) 'Something as complex as an eye could not have evolved via the tiny increments evolutionary theory describes'.
The rebuttal is, 'Yes it can, here are the steps, here is why each step is consistent with evolutionary theory, and here are actual (multiple) examples from nature'.
You can deny evolution all you want, it just makes you either stupid or willfully ignorant.