One issue that nobody seems to have brought up yet and that could turn out to become very, very important is that William Rehnquist is currently unable to work. He was recently diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and underwent a tracheotomy. If we require a supreme court decision before he can come back, the court may very well be split 4-4 along party lines.
There is no way to resolve a tie within the supreme court. So, if this election comes down to a Supreme Court decision, we could be waiting for a long time to get that decision.
or are these guys basically real-world trolls? I mean, I don't like Bush either, but projecting an image of his face with "loser" across the forehead isn't really going to change anyone's mind, or inspire any intelligent discussion... it's just going to piss people off.
Since Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican to be elected president, and the two main parties at the time were the Democrats and the Whigs (who had recently broken up due to conflict over slavery), he could technically be considered a third-party candidate. Remember that he won only because the Democrats divided themselves among 2 candidates, and Lincoln only received 40% of the vote.
Here is an excellent Prisoner's Dilemma book that deals not only with the Prisoner's Dilemma itself but with all of mathematical game theory, and connects it all to real-world situations in fascinating ways. It really changed the way I look at these things... now I can see Prisoner's Dilemmas everywhere.
For example: Some of my teachers at school favor a lenient teaching style, going easy on actual work, giving troublemakers benefit of the doubt, and so on. This could be seen as "cooperation", where other teachers "defect" by assuming that kids are always trying to do the least work for the most benefit and get away with it, and so are strict and give lots of work. The students "cooperate" by not taking advantage of the curriculum, not cutting corners, doing work thoroughly, not cheating on tests, participating more in class, etc. They "defect" by trying to get away by doing as little work as possible.
Now, the greatest benefit for all involved is mutual cooperation; a lenient teaching style combined with students who won't take advantage of that lenience. However, I've noticed that most teachers (primarily the young, naïve ones) choose to cooperate, and the kids respond by defecting; given an opportunity, they'll slack. Older, more experienced teachers defect by being strict from the start, and students who cooperate by doing work thoughtfully and thoroughly get screwed and fall behind those who cut corners and cheat (the defectors).
It's not an exact parallel, since you can generally tell what the other side is doing, but it's close, and reasonable too.
but I never really "got" the whole ILoveBees.com thing. Went there once or twice, said, "what the hell?" and forgot about it. What exactly does it have to do with Halo 2, or for that matter, anything?
What about William Gibson's coinage of the term "cyberspace" in his 1984 novel, Neuromancer, which referred to a massive cooperative hallucination, often also called a "matrix" of data?
...is wicked cool. Interesting that the clusters are around Seattle, L. A., Chicago, the Twin Cities, NYC, Boston, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, and Raleigh, NC.
I once had some "issues" with computer games, namely StarCraft in the 6th-7th grade. I got it for my birthday and immediately became obsessed with it. I would spend 3-4 hours a day on weekdays and 8-10 hours on weekends playing. I hated doing ANYTHING when i felt that i could be playing starcraft then. One incident that comes to mind is one day when my dad and I were doing yard work. After an hour or so, he said, "let's take a five minute break." I immediately ran upstairs and started playing starcraft.
I was helped because my parents really loved me and made me stop using the computer entirely for 3 weeks. During that time I remembered all the stuff I used to love to do, like read and go bike riding.
Was I "addicted"? Maybe. I personally think that the term is too ambiguous; there's no distinction between mental addiction, physical addiction, or simple compulsion. All I know is that you don't need any therapy or psychologists to help you get over this kind of stuff... you just need parents (or if you're not living at home, very good friends) who are willing to pull the plug on you.
Come on, parents. Take some responsibility for your kids and don't let psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, counselors, etc. do your job for you.
My friend was obsessed with The Sims, and had a family into which she poured her hopes and dreams... then her brother, using his family, invited them over, trapped them in a room, and set them on fire.
I seem to recall an Onion article in the wake of the 2000 election with the headline, "Syria to deploy peacekeeping troops to U. S. to restore order after chaotic election".
Professor Skaggs said the penalty for failing to enter the voting booth, which would be done on the honor system, would probably be "a failure to be generous" on her part when it comes time to issue grades and "an inclination to round fractions down."
So, if you don't complete this external activity, she'll have a slight bias against you for the rest of the year? The problem is that it's so subjective you have really no way of knowing how fair she's being in this.
I've held this opinion of lawns for some time; grass serves very little useful purpose. The problem is that it's what's expected of everyone to have. I hope that you never have to sell your house; your yard situation will discourage quite a few potential clients. I've even heard of places where neighborhood communities complained about somebody's non-standard lawn arrangements to the appropriate town council and forced a change.
Alternative lawns are awesome. But if you're ever planning on selling your house...
Adium's great, but its support of Direct Connections and file transfers is abysmal; I always have to open up iChat or AIM to transfer files. It's great in almost all other respects; why'd they have to go and screw up that one critical aspect?
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One issue that nobody seems to have brought up yet and that could turn out to become very, very important is that William Rehnquist is currently unable to work. He was recently diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and underwent a tracheotomy. If we require a supreme court decision before he can come back, the court may very well be split 4-4 along party lines.
There is no way to resolve a tie within the supreme court. So, if this election comes down to a Supreme Court decision, we could be waiting for a long time to get that decision.
Any comments?
or are these guys basically real-world trolls? I mean, I don't like Bush either, but projecting an image of his face with "loser" across the forehead isn't really going to change anyone's mind, or inspire any intelligent discussion... it's just going to piss people off.
Which is probably what this group is aiming for.
We will have to wait to see if this will be true, will we not?
Ahh, now I'll never get elected.
Isn't the current world record for bandwidth held by pigeons?
Everyone who's getting so worked up about this, for any reason:
See the foot? It stands for "It's funny. Laugh."
Do it.
There have been newtons per square meter for much longer than 30 years...
*ducks*
Am i the only one who read that as "Super Sex Bot"?
I sense a disturbance in the force... as if millions of voices cried out in terror, and then were suddenly silenced.
Homer: It will have the loyalty of a cat, and the cleanliness of a dog!
Since Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican to be elected president, and the two main parties at the time were the Democrats and the Whigs (who had recently broken up due to conflict over slavery), he could technically be considered a third-party candidate. Remember that he won only because the Democrats divided themselves among 2 candidates, and Lincoln only received 40% of the vote.
Here is an excellent Prisoner's Dilemma book that deals not only with the Prisoner's Dilemma itself but with all of mathematical game theory, and connects it all to real-world situations in fascinating ways. It really changed the way I look at these things... now I can see Prisoner's Dilemmas everywhere.
For example: Some of my teachers at school favor a lenient teaching style, going easy on actual work, giving troublemakers benefit of the doubt, and so on. This could be seen as "cooperation", where other teachers "defect" by assuming that kids are always trying to do the least work for the most benefit and get away with it, and so are strict and give lots of work. The students "cooperate" by not taking advantage of the curriculum, not cutting corners, doing work thoroughly, not cheating on tests, participating more in class, etc. They "defect" by trying to get away by doing as little work as possible.
Now, the greatest benefit for all involved is mutual cooperation; a lenient teaching style combined with students who won't take advantage of that lenience. However, I've noticed that most teachers (primarily the young, naïve ones) choose to cooperate, and the kids respond by defecting; given an opportunity, they'll slack. Older, more experienced teachers defect by being strict from the start, and students who cooperate by doing work thoughtfully and thoroughly get screwed and fall behind those who cut corners and cheat (the defectors).
It's not an exact parallel, since you can generally tell what the other side is doing, but it's close, and reasonable too.
So the point is, read the book. It's good.
I heard that this Arben Kryeziu fellow started marketing this application called "386to486.exe"...
but I never really "got" the whole ILoveBees.com thing. Went there once or twice, said, "what the hell?" and forgot about it. What exactly does it have to do with Halo 2, or for that matter, anything?
Trebek: This is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow.
You: African or European variety?
Trebek: Well, I don't know that... AAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!
What about William Gibson's coinage of the term "cyberspace" in his 1984 novel, Neuromancer, which referred to a massive cooperative hallucination, often also called a "matrix" of data?
I'm pretty sure that "popular" and "BloodRayne" don't belong in the same paragraph, much less the same sentence.
...is wicked cool. Interesting that the clusters are around Seattle, L. A., Chicago, the Twin Cities, NYC, Boston, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, and Raleigh, NC.
I once had some "issues" with computer games, namely StarCraft in the 6th-7th grade. I got it for my birthday and immediately became obsessed with it. I would spend 3-4 hours a day on weekdays and 8-10 hours on weekends playing. I hated doing ANYTHING when i felt that i could be playing starcraft then. One incident that comes to mind is one day when my dad and I were doing yard work. After an hour or so, he said, "let's take a five minute break." I immediately ran upstairs and started playing starcraft.
I was helped because my parents really loved me and made me stop using the computer entirely for 3 weeks. During that time I remembered all the stuff I used to love to do, like read and go bike riding.
Was I "addicted"? Maybe. I personally think that the term is too ambiguous; there's no distinction between mental addiction, physical addiction, or simple compulsion. All I know is that you don't need any therapy or psychologists to help you get over this kind of stuff... you just need parents (or if you're not living at home, very good friends) who are willing to pull the plug on you.
Come on, parents. Take some responsibility for your kids and don't let psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, counselors, etc. do your job for you.
Try not to mention any of the Illuminati connections... that would be rather uncouth.
The potential choice of Kevin Smith makes "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" oddly prophetic...
My friend was obsessed with The Sims, and had a family into which she poured her hopes and dreams... then her brother, using his family, invited them over, trapped them in a room, and set them on fire.
I seem to recall an Onion article in the wake of the 2000 election with the headline, "Syria to deploy peacekeeping troops to U. S. to restore order after chaotic election".
Finally, it's coming true.
To me, this is the weirdest part of the article:
Professor Skaggs said the penalty for failing to enter the voting booth, which would be done on the honor system, would probably be "a failure to be generous" on her part when it comes time to issue grades and "an inclination to round fractions down."
So, if you don't complete this external activity, she'll have a slight bias against you for the rest of the year? The problem is that it's so subjective you have really no way of knowing how fair she's being in this.
Just weird.
I've held this opinion of lawns for some time; grass serves very little useful purpose. The problem is that it's what's expected of everyone to have. I hope that you never have to sell your house; your yard situation will discourage quite a few potential clients. I've even heard of places where neighborhood communities complained about somebody's non-standard lawn arrangements to the appropriate town council and forced a change.
Alternative lawns are awesome. But if you're ever planning on selling your house...
Adium's great, but its support of Direct Connections and file transfers is abysmal; I always have to open up iChat or AIM to transfer files. It's great in almost all other respects; why'd they have to go and screw up that one critical aspect?