I think this would be an good time to ask for clarification on what, exactly, you mean by "free will". If you mean "the absence of determinism", then free will and determinism are mutually exclusive by definition.
(Of course, that's not quite the same as your original statement. Science does not assume that all systems must be deterministic, although it does tentatively make that assumption for pragmatic reasons.)
I think this would be an good time to ask for clarification on what, exactly, you mean by "free will". If you mean "the absense of determinism", then free will and determinism are mutually exclusive by definition.
(Of course, that's not quite the same as your original statement. Science assumes that things are deterministic "by default" because science lacks the tools for dealing with non-deterministic systems. Science does not assume that all systems must be deterministic, but the "best bet" for figuring out somthing about a system is to tentatively make that assumption.)
"Your acts are certainly in accordance with the laws of nature, but to say they are determined by the laws of nature creates a totally misleading psychological image which is that your will could somehow be in conflict with the laws of nature and that the latter is somehow more powerful than you, and could 'determine' your acts whether you liked it or not. But it is simply impossible for your will to ever conflict with natural law. You and natural law are really one and the same."
I'd agree that Wikipedia is a first source. It's great for getting introduced to a topic, but not right for citing in a research paper. Reading Wikipedia helps you do a better job of figuring out what "real" sources to get if you need to do further research. However, I'd say that about any general reference encyclopedia, if one is planning on going into any sort of depth on the topic in question.
Maybe. But the gas was gone by the time Mal and crew arrived (as a result of the air purification plants going down after everyone died), and there's no indication that anyone not on Miranda was exposed. (The Reavers were just affected permanently.)
The Reaver traits aren't genetic, so far as anyone knows. Furthermore, the Reavers are probably sterile, what with flying around on starships with no core containment on the reactors. Those raped by the Reavers don't survive. Even people who just witness such an attack (themselves escaping detection) tend to go insane (the usual manifestation of this insanity is for them to start acting like Reavers themselves, so the Reavers may get a few new "recruits this way, but it can't be more than a handful). More relevantly, the Reavers have only existed for 12 years, and there were 30,000 of them, so they haven't died off yet.
As far as operating starships and so on, Reavers are still intelligent. They're just insanely aggesive towards anyone who's not a Reaver.
Prices will dip a bit, probably, but $35 within the year seems pretty ridiculous.
"Furthermore, this whole $3.00/gallon thing has probably woken a lot of people up and demand will likely be going down."
I certainly hope so, but I don't think this has had a huge effect. If prices dip (even a little), people forget quickly.
"I sure know I didn't fill up my tank at $3.00/gallon. I'll wait a week or two 'til it's down to $2.50 again."
Could be longer than that. I've heard some reports that it will take a month or two to get those refineries back online.
At any rate, thanks for correcting my misconception about oil futures.
If you are trying to prevent investors from panicking, you only have to keep investors calm. It doesn't matter what the general population understands.
At any rate, they're risking millions at any price. There are a lot of events that could cause oil prices to explode, with supply so tight.
But hey, maybe the oil companies do have a (gigantic) ace up their sleeve that will allow them to bring prices down...
Really? What advantage are the oil companies getting from selling them, then? Demand is high, and prices are going to rise (if for no other reason, just due to inflation).
The futures market will always have a trend that is lower than the expected trend of prices (as long as there is economic growth). That's how futures work.
When you buy an oil future, you're paying in advance for something that hasn't been produced yet. Because the oil company gets the money in advance, they can go ahead and invest it.
Effectively, a futures contract is a loan that is paid back in product. The discount on that product is effectively interest on that loan, so the farther in the future you get, the larger that discount will be.
Also, oil companies have more of an incentive to boost future sales than ever (by offering lower prices), as they need the money for investing in projects like the one mentioned in the OP, projects that are only profitable now that oil prices are so high.
Well, you can calculate the value of c from the permittivity and permeability constants (although those are measured) using Maxwell's equations.
I had to do that for my physics final...
Slashdot Mirror
I think this would be an good time to ask for clarification on what, exactly, you mean by "free will". If you mean "the absence of determinism", then free will and determinism are mutually exclusive by definition.
(Of course, that's not quite the same as your original statement. Science does not assume that all systems must be deterministic, although it does tentatively make that assumption for pragmatic reasons.)
I think this would be an good time to ask for clarification on what, exactly, you mean by "free will". If you mean "the absense of determinism", then free will and determinism are mutually exclusive by definition. (Of course, that's not quite the same as your original statement. Science assumes that things are deterministic "by default" because science lacks the tools for dealing with non-deterministic systems. Science does not assume that all systems must be deterministic, but the "best bet" for figuring out somthing about a system is to tentatively make that assumption.)
I know I do. I think Smullyan puts it best:
"Your acts are certainly in accordance with the laws of nature, but to say they are determined by the laws of nature creates a totally misleading psychological image which is that your will could somehow be in conflict with the laws of nature and that the latter is somehow more powerful than you, and could 'determine' your acts whether you liked it or not. But it is simply impossible for your will to ever conflict with natural law. You and natural law are really one and the same."
History URLs on Wikipedia are indeed stable.
I'd agree that Wikipedia is a first source. It's great for getting introduced to a topic, but not right for citing in a research paper. Reading Wikipedia helps you do a better job of figuring out what "real" sources to get if you need to do further research. However, I'd say that about any general reference encyclopedia, if one is planning on going into any sort of depth on the topic in question.
Maybe. But the gas was gone by the time Mal and crew arrived (as a result of the air purification plants going down after everyone died), and there's no indication that anyone not on Miranda was exposed. (The Reavers were just affected permanently.)
The possibility is open, though...
The Reaver traits aren't genetic, so far as anyone knows. Furthermore, the Reavers are probably sterile, what with flying around on starships with no core containment on the reactors. Those raped by the Reavers don't survive. Even people who just witness such an attack (themselves escaping detection) tend to go insane (the usual manifestation of this insanity is for them to start acting like Reavers themselves, so the Reavers may get a few new "recruits this way, but it can't be more than a handful). More relevantly, the Reavers have only existed for 12 years, and there were 30,000 of them, so they haven't died off yet.
As far as operating starships and so on, Reavers are still intelligent. They're just insanely aggesive towards anyone who's not a Reaver.
Prices will dip a bit, probably, but $35 within the year seems pretty ridiculous. "Furthermore, this whole $3.00/gallon thing has probably woken a lot of people up and demand will likely be going down." I certainly hope so, but I don't think this has had a huge effect. If prices dip (even a little), people forget quickly. "I sure know I didn't fill up my tank at $3.00/gallon. I'll wait a week or two 'til it's down to $2.50 again." Could be longer than that. I've heard some reports that it will take a month or two to get those refineries back online. At any rate, thanks for correcting my misconception about oil futures.
If you are trying to prevent investors from panicking, you only have to keep investors calm. It doesn't matter what the general population understands. At any rate, they're risking millions at any price. There are a lot of events that could cause oil prices to explode, with supply so tight. But hey, maybe the oil companies do have a (gigantic) ace up their sleeve that will allow them to bring prices down...
Or the ones creating the futures contracts could be trying to make things look more optimistic than they actually are.
Really? What advantage are the oil companies getting from selling them, then? Demand is high, and prices are going to rise (if for no other reason, just due to inflation).
The futures market will always have a trend that is lower than the expected trend of prices (as long as there is economic growth). That's how futures work.
When you buy an oil future, you're paying in advance for something that hasn't been produced yet. Because the oil company gets the money in advance, they can go ahead and invest it.
Effectively, a futures contract is a loan that is paid back in product. The discount on that product is effectively interest on that loan, so the farther in the future you get, the larger that discount will be.
Also, oil companies have more of an incentive to boost future sales than ever (by offering lower prices), as they need the money for investing in projects like the one mentioned in the OP, projects that are only profitable now that oil prices are so high.
Well, you can calculate the value of c from the permittivity and permeability constants (although those are measured) using Maxwell's equations. I had to do that for my physics final...