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[2011-05-24 14:42:57] - Aaron: Since it was the Senate, I think it was Rand Paul that voted Nay, but either way I think he counts as a Republican... even if the party might sometimes wish he wasn't. -Paul
[2011-05-24 14:22:53] - vinnie: my favorite comment off that was a star trek fan lamenting that they were going to have to rename their takei pride parade
- aaron[2011-05-24 14:18:38] - paul: that's assuming you count ron paul as a republican, but yeah i know, i hope the republicans can find some way to shame the dems over it in the next election, without being totally hypocritical - aaron
[2011-05-24 13:25:26] - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRkIWB3HIEs george takei is pretty awesome - vinnie
[2011-05-24 13:23:57] - http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2011/05/illegal-war-congress-doesnt-care An opinion piece which somewhat addresses the War Powers Resolution issue. Sounds like Obama basically ignored it and congress largely allowed him to. -Paul
[2011-05-24 13:19:30] - Daniel: That's definitely the White House's view. It's not without legal merit, but it's a hole you could drive a truck through. - Stephen
[2011-05-24 13:08:51] - g: vote to cloture I believe means "vote to end debate". - mig
[2011-05-24 13:06:52] - It sounds like I misread the vote but the link appeared to be the vote on whether extending the patriot act should be voted on or debated more to me... ~g
[2011-05-24 12:50:20] - I thought I heard somewhere (don't remember where) that because Libya was a NATO action they didn't need Congress to do anything? Something like that? I'm not sure though. -Daniel
[2011-05-24 12:43:59] - Xpovos: If you thought things were intense when the POTUS called out the SCOTUS at the SOTU, then you just have to see it when the POTUS tells the SCOTUS to STFU on the WPA affecting the KMA in Libya! -Paul
[2011-05-24 12:41:43] - Stephen: It's amusing on one hand, but also sobering that there appears to be no "centrist" or moderate support for repealing the Patriot Act. -Paul
[2011-05-24 12:40:04] - a: It probably should have been, but Congress was more willing to authorize things for Bush then they have been for Obama. -- Xpovos
[2011-05-24 12:39:55] - a: No idea. I don't recall hearing about it (not that I've heard much about it with regards to Libya), but I wouldn't be too surprised if it was an issue at least once. I feel like congress generally kept on authorizing things for most of Bush's terms at least. -Paul
[2011-05-24 12:38:51] - It's ultimately the Supreme Court that'll need to determine if Obama's admin and their interpretation of the War Powers Act is within the scope of the law. If it isn't they order the President to halt activity... and if history is any guide Obama tells them to STFU. -- Xpovos
[2011-05-24 12:37:29] - Paul: I do like how it's basically a "coalition" of Tea Partiers and liberal Dems voting against (or mostly "Not Voting") the Patriot Act. It's often the moderates who don't believe in any restrictions on government power. - Stephen
[2011-05-24 12:37:15] - mig: Congress' response is limited to impeachment at this point, if I'm understanding my separation of powers properly. Though obviously that's not the only option, they could vote to defund the military entirely in response to it's perceived unlawful use by the CiC. That could be fun. -- Xpovos
[2011-05-24 12:36:02] - aaron: NPR hasn't mentioned the war powers act with regard to Libya this week, at least not during my commute. - Stephen
[2011-05-24 12:30:27] - paul: i know, right? especially when less than 10% of democrats favor the patriot act. i wonder if there's a backstory to that vote. ~a
[2011-05-24 12:26:31] - wasn't the warpowers act an issue with iraq? twice? ~a
[2011-05-24 12:22:04] - Aaron: Yeah, I think it's pretty sad for the supposed party of civil rights that they only had one more Nay vote against the Patriot Act than the Republicans did. -Paul
[2011-05-24 12:13:41] - xpovos: no suit is needed, really. Congress just needs to take some fucking responsibility for once. - mig
[2011-05-24 12:11:02] - Paul: Last I heard on that was Obama's team claiming that because the U.S. role in Libya was narrowly defined and minimal it wasn't subject to the War Powers Act. Now someone needs to bring suit, but that someone needs standing. It's gonna be a long and drawn-out process. -- Xpovos
[2011-05-24 12:10:26] - paul: hey yeah! weren't we supposed to find out about that on friday? i haven't turned on NPR since then. maybe everybody forgot! - aaron
[2011-05-24 12:09:55] - paul: although, i guess if that were the case and they wanted to "have their cake and eat it too" i'd expect there to be like 20-30 other democrats voting against it in the senate to get closer to the magic 3/5 ratio. so, i don't know. maybe there's something more complicated going on - aaron
[2011-05-24 12:08:37] - paul: either that, or maybe democrats in the senate really like the patriot act, and democrats in the house don't like it at all! ha ha! no, i think you're right. it looks like it was political theater, so they could say "look how hard we tried to stop this from happening" without actually making anything happen. - aaron
[2011-05-24 12:08:27] - Anybody here know if there was any news on the whole War Powers Act issue? From what I can tell, it looks like Obama basically ignored the expiration date, but I haven't heard much about it. -Paul
[2011-05-24 12:06:08] - Aaron: So... this shows that they were only voting against it as "political theater"? It looks like the majority of democrats in the senate voted for it this time around. -Paul
[2011-05-24 12:05:37] - a: my understanding of what you posted was the vote to end discussions on it and get on to the voting. Not necessarily the vote to extend the patriot act. (I had to look up cloture though) ~g
[2011-05-24 11:58:35] - http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=112&session=1&vote=00075 here's the patriot act voting record from yesterday, for anybody who thought the democrats were only voting against it in the house as "political theater" back in february - aaron
[2011-05-24 11:54:30] - The way I heard it described was that they got the lead for the first time in the game with an absurdly small amount of time left in overtime. Given how back and forth basketball is, that's impressive. Heck, it's impressive regardless. I mean, it was clearly tied at the end of regulation (hence overtime) but to have never held a lead and force overtime? -- Xpovos
[2011-05-24 11:14:45] - g: from what i heard, they overcame a 7-point deficit in the last 2 minutes to tie it up, and then they won in overtime 105 to 102 - aaron
[2011-05-24 11:14:12] - im guessing the mavs won? ~g
[2011-05-24 10:53:06] - vinnie: wow that's a really unfortunate time to turn that game off - aaron
[2011-05-24 10:52:42] - Vinnie: I was keeping track of the game on the internet. I closed the window at practically the same point you guys did, but decided to go back a couple of minutes later. Dirk was unstoppable the last few minutes. -Paul
[2011-05-24 10:01:06] - holy shiz Amy and I were watching the Mavs/Thunder game last night and turned it off in frustration with 5 minutes left, when the Mavs were down 15. I guess the Mavs must do awesome when we don't watch
- vinnie[2011-05-23 16:31:40] - No Paul Essen, 2012 - Mayans
[2011-05-23 15:48:41] - subtitle: no, PAUL ESSEN twenty twelve! ~a
[2011-05-23 12:34:36] - http://mdlabs.se/sleepcycle/ an iOS app which uses the accelerometer in the iPhone to wake you up "on cycle" - aaron
[2011-05-23 11:27:11] - a: Not necessarily. Even with a dividends tontine, stick it in a 10-yr treasury ladder and it'd do pretty well. -- Xpovos
[2011-05-23 10:52:28] - we'd probably also have to invest the money in a high-yield something. that could get complicated. ~a
[2011-05-23 10:51:17] - xpovos: exactly. and you could even make it MORE complicated by having payouts relative to buy-ins. ~a
[2011-05-23 10:20:46] - a: Like a percentage? E.g. the last 10 people get a payout from the group of 100? -- Xpovos
[2011-05-23 09:57:03] - xpovos: i'm up for a tontine, however it'd be better if we could allow payout after no more than N people were still living. and N would be based on how many people were in the group. ~a
[2011-05-22 15:57:22] - a: ahh that's too bad, sorry. it was kind of haphazardly organized - aaron
[2011-05-21 20:40:30] - aaron: oops i missed your message. wasn't sure if/when things were happening. ~a
[2011-05-21 19:38:08] - aaron: We'll all probably be dead in 2115. Who's for a tontine? -- Xpovos
[2011-05-21 18:06:48] - when do you guys want to start coming over? like 8:00? - aaron
[2011-05-21 17:43:17] - i laughed really hard at the thought of going back to school in 104 years. then i realized, ohhh. we'll all be dead in 2115. huh. i've never really thought about that before. - aaron
[2011-05-21 14:26:26] - vinnie: The Pen15 club is forever. Like diamonds. -- Xpovos
[2011-05-21 02:36:48] - a: c'mon, this is like Halley's comet, it probably won't happen again in my lifetime. who knows, in 2115 that joke might not even make sense anymore - vinnie
[2011-05-20 19:34:06] - vinnie: you're joking? ~a
[2011-05-20 17:11:56] - g: almost makes me want to go back to school - vinnie
[2011-05-20 16:35:40] - aaron: that makes more sense than I thought.. Freshman will graduate in 2015... I bet a lot of freshman want that shirt. ~g
[2011-05-20 16:32:56] - xpovos/aaron: i especially love that it's a woman's shirt. ~a
[2011-05-20 16:25:13] - aaron: I laughed. Is that juvenile? -- Xpovos
[2011-05-20 16:22:09] - aaron: both of the guys that were involved in the site are white kids that converted to radical islam and supported bin laden. The 25 year kid is 21 yrs old and was sentanced last year, the other guy is just having charges filed now. ~g
[2011-05-20 16:20:58] - a: yes I meant aaron... sigh. ~g
[2011-05-20 15:52:28] - so who is the 25 years guy then? ~a
[2011-05-20 15:48:14] - g: ah okay. yeah i remember when that frenzy was going on, there was some kid from chantilly VA (or somewhere nearby) who was just some white kid with a regular background and he converted to the more radical side of islam and condemned/threatened matt + trey, but i guess this is a different guy - aaron
[2011-05-20 15:45:29] - g: uhh, you mean aaron? ~a
[2011-05-20 15:39:00] - a: The article I read is about the second guy who is being charged who is from NY, however the charges were filed in VA. Not sure where the sentanced guy was from... ~g
[2011-05-20 15:15:29] - http://imgur.com/W0dJ9 apparently some freshmen at UPenn are distributing these shirts - aaron
[2011-05-20 15:10:19] - g: iirc, wasn't that just some white kid from northern VA who converted to islam in his late teens? - aaron
[2011-05-20 14:47:45] - Did you know that the guy who threatened south park creators' for the episode with Mohammad in it got sentanced to 25 years? ~g
[2011-05-20 14:15:01] - g: Gotta use that degree somehow! -- Xpovos
[2011-05-20 14:11:44] - xpovos: I like your use of alchemy ~g
[2011-05-20 13:48:44] - g: Sorry, I'm caught up in some fun para-work statistical analysis. I'm seeing what alchemy I can do with Excel. -- Xpovos
[2011-05-20 13:40:43] - i might be free in the evening. ~a
[2011-05-20 13:15:12] - vinnie: I might be up for it, Ill need to confirm with Paul though. ~g
[2011-05-20 13:13:07] - are people interested in dinner/board games/hanging out tomorrow? we were thinking get dinner somewhere than go back to Aaron/Amy's place for games - vinnie
[2011-05-20 13:00:45] - dear msg board - why are you boring today? ~g
[2011-05-19 15:04:22] - paul/aaron: sent. ~a
[2011-05-19 12:38:17] - paul: you'll be fine. you should come if the regular TJVT game doesn't happen. last week there were about 6 glenn-level-players and about 18 human-level-players. yes it was a silly huge game, it's apparently not usually that big - aaron
[2011-05-19 12:15:01] - Aaron: I feel like that game would be contested at too high of a skill for me.
-Paul[2011-05-19 11:58:23] - i'll send out an email in a few hours. ~a
[2011-05-19 11:48:01] - paul: i played ultfris with glenn and a bunch of his students/friends at chantilly HS last sunday, if you want an ultimate frisbee game to join you should come to that one - aaron
[2011-05-19 11:25:00] - \we could go biking. ~a
[2011-05-19 11:10:19] - a: We don't have to, I'm just really itching for some cardio since I've missed frisbee and basketball for what seems like months. -Paul
[2011-05-19 10:19:24] - The base causes for this are obvious (and multiple), but the result is still interesting. http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/number-of-long-lasting-marriages-in-us-has-risen-census-bureau-reports/2011/05/18/AFO8dW6G_story.html -- Xpovos
[2011-05-19 10:14:03] - ummm, sure. ~a
[2011-05-19 09:49:36] - a: Frisbee this weekend? -Paul
[2011-05-19 09:18:53] - Stephen: I read a very similar article recently. I would say it will be interesting to see how it pans out, but I'm guesing Congress is going to be spineless so I don't hold out much hope that anything is going to happen. -Paul
[2011-05-18 16:51:06] - stephen: that's a pretty interesting article though, i guess we'll see what happens on friday - aaron
[2011-05-18 16:38:25] - stephen: http://www.theonion.com/articles/fritolaysia-cuts-off-chiplomatic-relations-with-sn,1846/ possibly related, fritolaysia cuts off chiplomatic relations with snakistan - aaron
[2011-05-18 15:50:09] - Interesting piece on Obama, Libya, and the lack of any legal authority to keep bombing - http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/death-of-the-war-powers-act/2011/05/17/AF3Jh35G_story.html - Stephen
[2011-05-18 14:10:57] - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13273348 BIONIC .... hand. - mig
[2011-05-17 18:13:53] - yeah, it's surprising to me that there's (literally) an endless supply of primes, but it's so very hard to find them! ~a
[2011-05-17 18:01:30] - http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/hdff0/i_told_this_joke_to_someone_in_my_dream_last/c1ukmbh Q: what's the best thing about road head? - aaron
[2011-05-17 17:58:21] - a: yeah you're right, there are infinitely many primes. well so much for my idea - aaron
[2011-05-17 17:57:27] - a: ohh. okay. i thought maybe there was a largest prime number. i didn't know if anyone had proven there were infinite primes, i just thought it was one of those people really really hoped was true or it would mess up a lot of things about math (like if pi turned out to start repeating itself after 1.845 × 10361 digits or something) - aaron
[2011-05-17 17:22:28] - so . . . uhh, you were joking about 97. but i'm not sure if you were joking about "largest prime number". ~a
[2011-05-17 16:08:59] - aaron: there's no such "largest prime number" there are infinitely many prime numbers. that much is proven. ~a
[2011-05-17 15:47:36] - or... 196 rather (2 * 97 + 2). well i still insist math is easy! multiplication is hard but that doesn't count - aaron
[2011-05-17 15:46:59] - 97 is the biggest prime i know off the top of my head. ergo 186 can't be represented as the sum of two primes. this math stuff is really easy!! - aaron
[2011-05-17 15:44:48] - a: hey wait, if there's theoretically a largest prime number N, wouldn't the number 2*N disprove goldbach's conjecture? i know some pretty big prime numbers, i bet i can come up with that - aaron
[2011-05-17 15:42:25] - a: geez, well obviously it's false for 1.845 × 10361. i'm surprised that's not the first number he tried! - aaron
[2011-05-17 15:26:58] - it's true for the first 10^8. but not so much, when you get into the 10^9 range.
(link) ~a[2011-05-17 15:26:15] - "beyond that, it's hard to imagine a number having only 1,000 ways to be expressed as a sum of primes. definitely not 0 ways" haha, lots of times these seemingly correct statements have absurdly large counterexamples. one such statement: more than 50% of the natural numbers less than any given number have an odd number of prime factors. ~a
[2011-05-17 13:58:36] - paul: Eh I think its hard to blame the guy for endangering the public, that was done by cops who overreacted and their lack of training. If the article is to be believed then I dont think he did anything wrong. Its possible that it was poorly thought out, but you cant account for all other factors, and if you want change to be brought about then its a risk. ~g
[2011-05-17 13:44:29] - aaron: Probably, though you have two different categories of nerds working on things like this. Theoretical nerds and engineers. At this point I think it's just the theoretical nerds left. -- Xpovos
[2011-05-17 13:32:29] - I learned most of that from the Goldbach's_conjecture page on wikipedia, which is very thorough (i guess this is something nerds think about frequently) - aaron
[2011-05-17 13:31:01] - xpovos: there's no widely accepted proof, although it's been demonstrated that as X increases, the number of ways to represent X as the sum of two primes increases linearly as well. they've brute forced values up to like 10^14, and beyond that, it's hard to imagine a number having only 1,000 ways to be expressed as a sum of primes. definitely not 0 ways - aaron
[2011-05-17 13:28:01] - g: the title is unproven. it's a conjecture. no counterexamples exist though. ~a
[2011-05-17 13:19:33] - Xpovos: Fair enough. I think I would be easier on him even if it was proven that he was trying to provoke something (I place more blame on the police not just over-reacting, but over-reacting to something that isn't even illegal), but I'm perfectly willing to believe he is guilty of having ulterior motives. -Paul
[2011-05-17 12:58:58] - g: I gave up after a sufficiently large number of examples were tested as true. I believe it to be true. But I ain't gonna bother to pull up a mathematical proof on it. -- Xpovos
[2011-05-17 12:56:07] - Paul: Clearly he's not guilty of doing anything illegal. But that doesn't mean I condone his actions. I'm sure he has reasons, but unless I hear them I'm going to remain suspicious of this. Unlike, say, your Arizona story which you posted via Google Reader. That one's just plain bad police behavior. -- Xpovos
[2011-05-17 12:52:01] - argh... sum...
and is that true? It doesnt seem possible... ~g[2011-05-17 12:40:37] - Xpovos: So would you fall on the side of him being guilty of something? -Paul
[2011-05-17 12:13:41] - So, I'm saying that if this was an effort to make a point, raise publicity, etc., it came with a lot of risk to him personally. Which means, in my view of the psychology, that it was motivated more than just by his politics of 2nd amendment rights. -- Xpovos
[2011-05-17 12:12:29] - Paul: He went overboard on the politeness. That's a clear sign to me that he was aware he was recording the situation and was baiting the officers further. It seems likely it was a trap, and a somewhat dangerous one. The cops responded inappropriately, but it could've been worse. They could have assaulted him, or even shot and killed him. -- Xpovos
[2011-05-17 11:51:42] - a: Perhaps more importantly: Even if he was trying to "trap" the cops, is that illegal? It seems to me like he is innocent of doing anything illegal. -Paul
[2011-05-17 11:50:19] - a: Depends on what you mean. Was he trying to trap the police? It seems really suspicious that he has his recorder on, but was his plan really to just walk around until he was accosted? -Paul
[2011-05-17 11:33:21] - paul: do you wonder: was he completely innocent? ~a
[2011-05-17 11:15:45] - g:
-Title[2011-05-17 10:58:34] - g: 3+5 -- Xpovos
[2011-05-17 10:41:43] - g: 5 and 3? -Paul
[2011-05-17 10:29:49] - title: 8? ~g
[2011-05-17 10:28:58] - um kinda a mix i guess... I started adding things and currently have notalwaysright, xkcd, and cnn justice. ~g
[2011-05-17 10:19:41] - g: What kind of stuff are you looking for? News? Politics? Humor? Technology? -Paul
[2011-05-17 10:18:27] - http://m.philly.com/phillycom/db_/contentdetail.htm;jsessionid=E19932C05D3DEA8C9997279DC1434DED?contentguid=v8rDTw2r&full=true I'm surprised that the cops didn't confiscate his recorder and/or delete the recording. -Paul
[2011-05-17 10:11:38] - g: I can send you an e-mail. I don't think I could fit them all on here. -- Xpovos
[2011-05-17 10:01:11] - for people who use google reader what do you subscribe to? Or what websites do people regularly check that might be interesting to see in a daily feed? ~g
[2011-05-17 10:00:19] - Im too proud of being vegetarian and living in a country that is supposed to accept me for who I am... ~g
[2011-05-17 09:59:51] - Matt: that really wouldnt work on me... I mean maybe if the CIA were questioning me in a threatening manner Id make my food favorites more generic but not non vegetarian.... And even then I dont know that I would. ~g
[2011-05-16 22:27:57] - your mind powers will not work on her, boy. that is only successful against the weak-minded. ~a
[2011-05-16 18:23:55] - g: http://science.slashdot.org/story/11/05/16/2138244/Think-Im-Not-American-Pass-the-Hamburgers I think I've found a way to get you to eat meat... -Matt
[2011-05-16 15:10:15] - a: Right, I was trying to figure out how it made sense at all and couldn't figure it out. -Paul
[2011-05-16 15:09:40] - http://wac.0873.edgecastcdn.net/800873/blog/wp-content/uploads/Vizzini-for-President1-261x300.jpg I got a chuckle out of this. -Paul
[2011-05-16 15:05:18] - oh and to answer your question: i do not watch tv over the air. almost never anyways. i did flip to it accidentally very late on may 1st, which surprised me. ~a
[2011-05-16 14:59:51] - yeah, i have paid versions of hulu, netflix, and pandora and a device that can play all of them out of my tv. ~a
[2011-05-16 14:55:34] - a: Do you get any TV over-the-air, or are you completely TV-less and reliant on internet services like hulu or YouTube? (Or just TV/video-less). I've tried to ditch cable a few times, and have been more or less successful. My least successful moments come when we realize that it's $60 for internet service we want, or $65 for internet we want + cable. -- Xpovos
[2011-05-16 14:25:27] - "I thought maybe there was such a thing as a set of numbers which were only divisible by 2 and itself" pretty sure nothing fits that definition since all numbers are divisible by 1. i set up the proposition as a joke, but maybe you mean numbers divisible by 1, 2, and itself? my guess is the only numbers that would fit that definition would be 2 and 4. ~a
[2011-05-16 14:22:54] - from your link: "The number 1 is by definition not prime" ~a
[2011-05-16 14:22:01] - g: For the record, here are the other updates for the Republican nomination: Trump and Huckabee are out, Gingrich is in. -Paul
[2011-05-16 14:13:18] - a: Right, I knew about 2 (1 isn't prime, though, right? Or is it?), but I thought maybe there was such a thing as a set of numbers which were only divisible by 2 and itself (like you said). It didn't make any sense to me, though. -Paul
[2011-05-16 14:11:49] - a: No, I was legitimately confused.
I realized there were other incorrect things, but I didn't see what was funny about the comment about 8, so I assumed it must be some obscure thing that I didn't know about. -Paul[2011-05-16 14:09:05] - paul: oh also, yes. there is such a thing as an even prime. 2 is prime and even. ~a
[2011-05-16 14:06:58] - xpovos: yes, i have lots of experience with mythtv. i no longer use it since i no longer have cable. i should mention that it's still not terribly easy to use. i had high hopes for mythtv before i decided that cable is probably going to die out eventually. ~a
[2011-05-16 14:05:04] - Xpovos: I think you know my answer: No. How do we change it? Honestly, I don't know if it's going to voluntarily happen in a democracy. Nobody wants to vote away their own benefits. I think it's going to take something drastic like a monetary or fiscal crises before significant action is taken. -paul
[2011-05-16 14:04:51] - paul: "I must be confused here" haha, i thought we were joking around. there are a lot of obviously incorrect things on that comic. no, 8 is not prime. 1-0.999...=0 (exactly). and most of the others aren't even facts, but lame jokes. ~a
[2011-05-16 14:03:50] - aaron: Ok, so you'd (hypothetically here, and obviously ignoring a lot of the other factors) be content having a government where the two main roles were insurance and an army (which might be called diplomacy insurance). -- Xpovos
[2011-05-16 14:03:48] - g: Yeah, he announced sometime last week. -paul
[2011-05-16 13:50:50] - i mean you hear enough sob stories about cities that have opt-in fire departments, there's a good reason why no cities have opt-in hospitals. it's inhumane - aaron
[2011-05-16 13:49:50] - i think it's totally valid point that our army is too big or our insurance programs like medicare are too big, so they should be pulled back. but i think the government should provide, at a minimum, some stripped-down version of those two institutions - aaron
[2011-05-16 13:48:43] - i don't think there's inherently anything broken with a government that is "basically an insurance company with an army". some people are too stupid to understand why insurance can be good, and some people are too stupid to understand why an army can be good. i think some things like that need to be mandatory to override people's stupidity. - aaron
[2011-05-16 13:48:04] - I didnt realize Ron Paul had announced his candidacy for president this year... http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/13/breaking-rep-ron-paul-announces-third-bid-for-presidency/?iref=obnetwork ~g
[2011-05-16 13:47:10] - we've discussed this point a few times but i think if the government is going to require its citizens to (indirectly) fund emergency care for hospitals, it also needs its citizens to (indirectly) fund a comparable level of health insurance (or non emergency care) otherwise people will rely on emergency care which drives up costs - aaron
[2011-05-16 13:45:50] - xpovos: i think some conservatives have been discussing a smart approach towards dismantling medicare, which is basically to change it into a voucher system where you get $xxx.xx/yr to spend on medical expenses, and then either decrease the amount steadily, or let inflation decrease the value of the voucher over time - aaron
[2011-05-16 13:39:23] - If not, how did we let it get to this state, and how do we change it into something else, given the prohibitive efforts of taking away entitlements? -- Xpovos
[2011-05-16 13:38:36] - [T]he federal government is basically an insurance company with an army. Is that what we really want out of our federal government? It's a point I don't disagree with (much) but my question stands. It's not what I want out of a gov't, of course, but is it what we collectively want? -- Xpovos
[2011-05-16 13:11:25] - Paul: 2 is an even prime, but it's the only one. - Stephen
[2011-05-16 12:59:23] - a: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime I must be confused here, is there such a thing as an even prime? I thought prime numbers were ones only divisible by 1 and itself... -Paul
[2011-05-16 12:17:49] - I'm impressed with my own inability to type my handle. Dang. -- Xpovos
[2011-05-16 12:16:58] - a: You use or have experience with MythTV, right? -- Xpovso
[2011-05-16 09:54:36] - exactly. ~a
[2011-05-16 09:53:43] - a: 4 doesn't count because the other divisor is 2? -Paul
[2011-05-16 09:47:07] - paul: yep. it's only divisible by 2 and itself. ~a
[2011-05-16 09:12:10] - http://xkcd.com/899/ Wait... 8 is a prime number? -Paul
[2011-05-15 22:50:07] - I'm pretty sure every single one of those pitches counts as a balk. -- Xpovos
[2011-05-15 20:54:03] - this is exactly why i find baseball boring to watch. ~a
[2011-05-15 19:51:38] - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gjfZABX8Kw&feature=feedf wow, modern baseball video games have gotten very realistic!! - aaron
[2011-05-13 17:36:02] - a: Yeah. But the steady paycheck isn't even necessarily commensurate with the risks taken on (by the person, or by the person on behalf of others) in addition to some of the other issues. Engineers at least usually do make a decent salary, though. -- Xpovos
[2011-05-13 16:54:23] - xpovos: is that the true path to job security? heh. well anyways, i doubt it's specific to engineers. it is true about many many many jobs where the compensation is just a steady paycheck. ~a
[2011-05-13 16:32:55] - Enginners: Do your job right and you get a nice certificate in a plastic frame. Do your job wrong and perhaps thousands of people die. -- Xpovos
[2011-05-13 15:07:48] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupper%27s_self-referential_formula after i realized exactly what this was, it was a little less cool than i thought it was. but it's still pretty cool; a mathematical formula that's capable of representing itself - aaron
[2011-05-13 15:03:20] - mig: yeah i get annoyed by that too. a server gets hacked into, and people say stuff like, "i hope that system admin gets fired". some people's jobs are just higher consequence/higher visibility than other people's. it doesn't mean they should get fired just because they happen to make a mistake with extreme consequences or high visibility - aaron
[2011-05-13 14:49:06] - mig: is it the amount that surprises you, or that he re-signed, or something else? ~g
[2011-05-13 14:25:17] - celtics_fans: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AsaypyMM1x_dn5tOAEwOfAa8vLYF?slug=aw-wojnarowski_doc_rivers_celtics_contract_051311 rather surprising news, at least to me anyways. - mig
[2011-05-13 13:23:27] - paul: agreed, I do think it's poor form to advocate someone losing their job, even if it's somewhat justified. - mig
[2011-05-13 13:20:01] - Aaron: I was wondering if maybe the SEALs had any video equipment, especially when I saw the picture of the president and his team apparently watching something on a television. -Paul
[2011-05-13 13:17:54] - mig: Fair enough. I wouldn't be outraged if he was fired, I just don't feel comfortable with this other guy advocating his firing. Sports analysis in the shadow of real-life tragedy happens all the time. This guy just happened to present it really poorly. -Paul
[2011-05-13 13:09:32] - paul: and while I might personally just reprimand this guy if I was his boss, if there's a bunch of angry alabama fans threatening to pull their subscriptions over this, I think they have no choice but to fire him. - mig
[2011-05-13 12:53:41] - http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/12/eveningnews/main20062410.shtml?tag=cbsContent%3BcbsCarousel helmet cam captured killing of bin laden apparently? well i guess that resolves any ambiguity as far as who was shot at and who was threatening and stuff - aaron
[2011-05-13 12:42:39] - mig: Yikes, thats pretty bad. -Daniel
[2011-05-13 12:32:09] - paul: noted, but I think the timing just makes it really bad. Maybe if this was 2-3 weeks afterwords, it doesn't seem so awful. - mig
[2011-05-13 12:03:15] - mig: I don't know if he needs to lose his job over this. I mean, it obviously could've been worded better, but the guy did mention that it was "far from the most important result of this development". -Paul
[2011-05-13 11:21:34] - paul: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/ESPN-Insider-demonstrates-how-not-to-report-a-?urn=ncaaf-wp1491 it gets more ludicrous, believe it or not. - mig
[2011-05-13 11:17:53] - mig: Wow. -Paul
[2011-05-13 10:48:52] - http://mit.zenfs.com/214/2011/05/Shocker-at-LT-Paywall.jpg a lesson in how not to break a news story. - mig
[2011-05-13 10:12:25] - ew.
~a[2011-05-13 08:31:27] - a: pretty accurate except for the robot butlers! well, we have roombas i suppose, that's kind of the same thing. oh, i heard a pretty funny roomba story yesterday. apparently if you don't have your dogs 100% housetrained, you need to be very very careful about scheduling your roombas for automated cleaning - aaron
[2011-05-12 20:41:27] - aaron: pretty accurate for 2011. not very accurate for 1989 though. ~a
[2011-05-12 16:56:11] - http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/h9x61/by_request_we_are_the_woot_writers_amaa/ i don't know if any of you guys ever shop at woot but their writers did an AMA at reddit, with a lot of funny questions/answers - aaron
[2011-05-12 14:20:43] - Mig: Yeah I think autopsies aren't done generally. I think I heard on npr at some point that one of the best increases we could do for medical science would be to autopsy as many people as we could since so much stuff goes undiagnosed in people or is hard to tell if the diagnoses was 100% right w/o one. -Daniel
[2011-05-12 14:00:25] - Paul: Texas blows the bad air down to Mexico? Seriously, I think it's factor of the size of the state. And large chunks of it are still very rural. Remember, it's ~65% bigger than CA, but has ~2/3rd as much population. -- Xpovos
[2011-05-12 13:58:07] - When talking about California and energy it's important to remember that they buy a very large portion of their electricity across state lines. They still produce more than they buy, but they buy more than any other state by a substantial amount, even factoring for population. -- Xpovos
[2011-05-12 13:40:31] - http://sharerimg.com/p/14142.html 1979 living room of the future - aaron
[2011-05-12 13:19:49] - a: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_VyTCyizqrHs/Swx_dTzbAHI/AAAAAAAAFsE/tpIhyEBlzxM/s1600/coalbadair7.jpg Assuming this is accurate, it could help describe California, although it begs the question of why Texas isn't worse then. -Paul
[2011-05-12 13:09:21] - a: maybe in some of those death cases but all of them? I thought autopsies were only really performed in cases where the cause of death was a mystery or in homicides. Moreover, I think you need family permission to do perform an autopsy on someone unless it's part of a criminal inverstigation. - mig
[2011-05-12 12:54:10] - involved? ~a
[2011-05-12 12:52:56] - if i had to guess, they probably envolved autopsies. otherwise causation impossible i think. ~a
[2011-05-12 12:20:58] - aaron: yeah now i am curious. you two should ping aba. ~a
[2011-05-12 12:13:24] - its environmental differences. like more sun, fewer trees, different landscape, and different weather patterns. ~a
[2011-05-12 11:09:07] - aaron: Yeah, it's the population density of California vs the supposed number of pollution deaths which has me confused. Why is California supposedly so much better at creating power without it leading to pollution deaths? -Paul
[2011-05-12 11:05:42] - a: You're right, I haven't ever been to LA, but I live in VA and I haven't noticed the air quality being any worse than when I have been on the west coast. I just find it surprising that there is such a stark difference and wonder why that difference exists. -Paul
[2011-05-12 11:00:52] - Even if you don't find fault with the very hard to pin down numbers of pollution related deaths, there's a lot of reason to use coal for the forseeable future. Mostly the number of potential deaths (necessarily a nebulous number, but quantifiable) if we don't have [enough] electricity. -- Xpovos
[2011-05-12 11:00:24] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USA-2000-population-density.gif the "coal deaths per capita" graph looks kind of similar to a population density graph of the USA, with some notable exceptions in florida and california - aaron
[2011-05-12 10:57:19] - also i guess northern virginia's mortality rate is better than southern virginia, which makes sense, maybe that's why the data is unintuitive. i don't know. overall i guess i just don't really know how to interpret the data. it's obvious how they want us to interpret the data, that the west coast is leading the way in alternative energy, or something like that - aaron
[2011-05-12 10:54:10] - i'm not saying i think they're trying to mislead us deliberately, but the data could represent a lot of things. maybe the data is self-reported. maybe california is better at lying. maybe virginia is better at collecting data. i mean, if those kinds of things were the case, i'd expect the data to follow state lines, which it's not doing - aaron
[2011-05-12 10:49:32] - a: i, like paul, am curious how they attribute deaths to pollution. someone could die 20 miles away from an asthma attack or something and it would be related to pollution. or a chain smoker who works in a coal plant could die from a lung-related illness which was also caused by coal pollution. it seems really really hard to trace. - aaron
[2011-05-12 10:48:16] - paul: yes, "wasnt". ie, wasnt la the poster child for smog in the 80s? i'm not sure if you have been to la recently. ~a
[2011-05-12 10:00:05] - a: I guess I'm wondering why areas like Ohio and Pennslyvania have 4 times as many deaths as California. Doesn't California use power? Wasnt LA the poster child for smog? -Paul
[2011-05-12 09:35:29] - hmm, i'm not sure what's so suspicious about it. ~a
[2011-05-12 09:34:06] - paul: virginia coal plants. also you can see where the plants are in various states by clicking on the state. for example california coal plants ~a ~a
[2011-05-12 09:20:04] - a: I would be interested in learning how they attribute deaths to pollution. I'm also curious to see a map of where power plants are. The map just seems suspicious to me, what with the relative lack of deaths in the west. -Paul
[2011-05-11 19:16:08] - ewww, virginia is pretty bad, although i'll admit that 647 deaths (and 1400 admitted to hospital / heart attacks) in virginia per year seems low. maybe virginia has fewer people in it than i thought. ~a
[2011-05-11 19:13:47] - xpovos: everything about the site and the parody is really funny, mostly because the humor is incredibly subtle. i liked the part about how concentrated solar towers could burn an entire village to death (if the village were located at the focal point) and how the ladders on wind turbines could provide a suicide risk - aaron
[2011-05-11 19:09:13] - xpovos: yeah it was put up by a group called Koal... err... Coal is Killing Kids (the CKK) - aaron
[2011-05-11 19:01:35] - 70k birds per year? omg! i understand the site is fake, but is that number real? as a rabid liberal, i'm not sure which i "value" greater: 6 birds or 1 human
~a[2011-05-11 18:34:44] - Let's try that (those) link again. Below is for the announcement of a Syrup movie. Cool, but unrelated. http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/energy/blogs/coal-cares-brings-biting-satire-to-clean-energy-debate is the "Coal Cares". And again from a more reputable source: http://blogs.forbes.com/oshadavidson/2011/05/10/peabody-punked-by-fake-coal-cares-asthma-site -- Xpovos
[2011-05-11 18:31:23] - Ok... there we go. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118036658. It is a hoax. Ballsy hoax essentially copyrighting the material under the hoaxed and purporting it as their material. I know 1st amendment protections for satire, but this one might see a lawsuit. -- Xpovos
[2011-05-11 18:24:00] - I mean, seriously, the facts chosen are pure Onion. "In just 30 minutes, a human absorbs 2.5M joules of energy from the sun. Enough, for most people, to cause sunburn." Or the illustration of the obese man next to the wind turbine while talking about the unknown risks of "alternative" energy. If it were an Onion piece it'd be hilarious. -- Xpovos
[2011-05-11 18:21:54] - aaron: Holy crap. I totally thought that was a tongue-in-cheek page, ala the Onion... the humor comes from playing it straight. Copyright Peabody Coal... who's that? A subsidiary of publicly traded energy company Peaboady Energy (BTU). I'm losing my faith in marketing. -- Xpovos
[2011-05-11 18:08:24] - http://www.coalcares.com/cleanenergy.html wind turbines can kill up to 70,000 birds per year, or 4.27 birds per turbine per year. coal particulate pollution, on the other hand, kills fewer than 13,000 people per year - aaron
[2011-05-11 12:47:04] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Phosphorus#Use_in_Iraq_.282004.29 i was reading up on white phosphorus and this just struck me as another case where government officials had situation awareness issues. i don't feel like it's anything new, or anything specific to the bin laden assassination. the government always acts a little mysterious! that's why it's cool - aaron
[2011-05-11 12:38:13] - Daniel: I think Stephen was also getting at the need for people to be constantly medicated, and its possible when he heard what meds I was on he figured I was one of those people... But I think I would have been happy with the diagnosis and one prescription rather than 2... Also its possible he thought I was in that 10%, or he figured he should treat all possibilities. ~g
[2011-05-11 11:52:44] - Even if you have viral bronchitis it doesn't preclude the possibility of other bacterial infections. And if you happened to be immuno-compromised then your illness would invite other issues more readily. In your case, it's likely overkill. But if you complete the dosage as prescribed your increase on the possibility of antibiotic resistant pathogens is minimal. -- Xpovos
[2011-05-11 11:44:54] - -Daniel
[2011-05-11 11:44:51] - g: You could call / ask the doc about it? Maybe they were able to tell you are in the 10%? Or its possible he's just trying to give you something to make you happy / placebo affect. I believe in medical science but my faith in any particular doctor I think skews low. They know a lot but seem to not really take / dont have the time to carefully apply the knowledge.
[2011-05-11 11:35:49] - eh caused by bacteria not by antibiotics ~g
[2011-05-11 11:35:25] - vinnie: yea I was curious about what bronchitis was and how it affects people around me... like whether I am contagious... the wiki article said something like less than 10% is caused by antibiotics... Or something like that. ~g
[2011-05-11 11:28:26] - g: when I had bronchitis earlier this year I think I was prescribed antibiotics too. I know that bronchitis can be caused by bacteria though. I guess I didn't question it - vinnie
[2011-05-11 11:22:32] - Stephen: he prescribed a bunch of things not just that... Also he apparently chose to prescribe the most expensive antibiotic available... According to the pharmacist. I was surprised when it was 50 bucks with insurance, apparently some of the stuff that is usually prescribed to me is 44 without insurance. ~g
[2011-05-11 11:20:30] - g: Doctors constantly prescribe antibiotics for infections which are likely to be viral. It's one of the reasons that drug-resistant bacteria strains are becoming more common. It's not entirely their fault, though - patients demand medicine, regardless of whether or not it will help, and doctors are worried about being sued if they happen to make a mistake. - Stephen
[2011-05-11 11:18:25] - I went to the doctor yesterday, they said I have bronchitis and prescribed an antibiotic... I went to Wikipedia today to see what Bronchitis means and it says "As most cases of acute bronchitis are caused by viruses, antibiotics should not be used, since they are effective only against bacteria." Would you believe wiki or the doc? ~g
[2011-05-10 19:38:28] - i'm not surprised. sa is hard. especially given the circumstances. ~a
[2011-05-10 14:19:57] - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110506/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_bin_laden the bin laden raid story keeps on changing... - mig
[2011-05-10 11:34:17] - aaron: My thought is a lot depends on where inflation goes (and I thought that was another possible explanation for some of the spike in oil prices... signs of inflation) and how the government debt issues pan out. I feel the like fear of a monetary collapse is what's driving a lot of the gold prices right now. -Paul
[2011-05-10 10:50:49] - paul: i think you're right, i think we'll see a rather dramatic oil bust and probably a comparable gold bust within the next 10 years... maybe 20 years max - aaron
[2011-05-10 10:25:39] - a: I suppose not, but how likely is it that the speculators get out slowly once oil prices start to decline steadily? I would think most would want to cut their losses as soon as the writing is on the wall. -Paul
[2011-05-10 10:05:44] - unless the speculators get out slowly. there doesnt have to be a bust for every boom. ~a
[2011-05-10 10:02:41] - Aaron: Could be true. If it is, though, then presumably we will eventually see a corresponding bust to the oil speculation boom, right? -Paul
[2011-05-10 09:57:20] - Stephen: Yeah, very disappointing game. Celtics were in control for almost all of the game and Pierce had a shot to win it in regulation. What a terrible time for Garnett to have a clunker of a game as well. I don't see any way the Celtics come back from this, and it might be safe to say that the window on the big three has closed. -Paul
[2011-05-10 07:45:31] - http://blogs.forbes.com/johntharvey/2011/04/26/why-you-are-paying-so-much-for-gas/ john t harvey's theory on why oil/gas prices are high. he thinks it's not related to oil companies deliberately gouging people, but on speculators driving up the prices of oil futures. which i guess would also explain why oil companies would be making more money - aaron
[2011-05-10 07:33:15] - http://imgur.com/zftSe pakistanis cheering on america - aaron
[2011-05-09 21:56:06] - Paul: Go Heat (at least until the Eastern Conference finals)! - Stephen
[2011-05-09 15:58:22] - a: Sigh, yes. I could've sworn I mis-typed that at first and then went back to fix it. I guess I "fixed" it by making the same mistake again. -Paul
[2011-05-09 15:54:58] - paul: you mean portal 1 i assume. ~a
[2011-05-09 15:51:42] - a: that's about right, i remember someone on twin galaxies offering $100 to anybody who could beat GTA San Andreas in 1 life - people would typically mail in VHS tapes for stuff like that, but a speedrun of GTA:SA was too long to fit on one cassette so there were logistical problems in providing proof - aaron
[2011-05-09 15:46:27] - a: Portal 2 also wasn't really a complete game. At first, it was only sold in a bundle with a bunch of other things (Half Life 2, Half Life 2: Episode 1, Team Fortress 2). -Paul
[2011-05-09 15:35:05] - haha, speedrun of portal was 44 minutes and speedrun of gta4 was 12 hours
~a[2011-05-09 15:33:54] - a: i think that's only the single-player campaign. that's exactly how long the single player took me for portal 2. i think if you combine the single/multiplayer campaign it's probably 14 hours - aaron
[2011-05-09 15:32:54] - aaron: oh that's cool. so portal 2 is much longer than portal 1 (2x-3x)? i guess that doesn't surprise me too much, i remember portal 1 being pretty short. ~a
[2011-05-09 15:10:55] - vinnie: i'm willing to bet a lot of that is mandatory level grinding. - mig
[2011-05-09 15:08:55] - aaron: jeez 100 hours to beat the main story of Dragon Warrior 7. ridiculous. almost makes me want to play it just to see how a story can be sustained so long - vinnie
[2011-05-09 14:59:26] - it looks like they intelligently omit certain games like "marvel vs capcom" and (for the most part) "dance dance revolution", since those kinds of games don't make much sense. but it seems like a useful site if you want to know (for example) if a certain game is long enough to justify the $50 price tag - aaron
[2011-05-09 14:55:23] - http://howlongtobeat.com/ - list of lengths for games. seems pretty accurate to me, looked over a few of the pokemon games (~30 hours), portal 1/2 (~3/7 hours) and disgaea 3 (~900 hours) - aaron
[2011-05-09 10:29:49] - paul: yeah, you might have forgotten. pretty much the last third of the portal 1 was trying to figure out which surfaces were portable. but there was a lot more "noise" imho (bright colors and weird textures) making it more challenging. i agree though, some of the sections in between levels in portal 2 were frustrating - aaron
[2011-05-09 10:28:27] - Aaron: Having said that, I was glad they moved past the sterile test environments, because I don't think I would've been satisfied with just a repeat of the first game, where most of it was just seemingly endless puzzle stages. -Paul
[2011-05-09 10:22:21] - Aaron: Maybe Portal 1 had it and I've forgotten, but fully a third of the sequel didn't feel like a puzzle at all, but just exercises in frustration as I shot everything in sight with the portal gun until I found something it stuck to. -Paul
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