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[2016-06-22 11:40:29] - daniel: "know it when you see it kind of thing" i never liked that phrase. the fact that it came from a supreme court justice about a united states law is particularly concerning to me. subjectivity means that thoughtful people can disagree about what applies and what does not. the common-man has no hope of following such rules. repeal these laws please? ~a
[2016-06-22 11:39:56] - mig: Sorry, you're right. My fingers got ahead of my brain here. I do mean assault weapons. -Paul
[2016-06-22 11:39:06] - the new hotness political term I'm starting to see now is "Weapon of War". It started with the President throwing it around at one of his SOTU speeches, but I'm starting to see that term starting to supplant "assault weapon". - mig
[2016-06-22 11:38:45] - Daniel: The PotUS himself has even made a direct connection between "assault rifle" and "automatic weapon" which is basically just flat out wrong. Automatic weapons are heavily regulated and basically banned for civilian use and have been for a long time. -Paul
[2016-06-22 11:37:57] - paul: you're thinking of "assault weapons", which is the nebulous political term. Assault Rifle is a valid gun term as it specifies a very specific type of firearm. - mig
[2016-06-22 11:37:14] - Daniel: "no one else has come up with the answer either" And that's something that frustrates me (again, even as a non "gun" person). People like to throw the term "assault rifle" around when I'll bet 95% don't even know what it means, but they assume it's somehow more lethal or powerful. -Paul
[2016-06-22 11:37:09] - I don't think getting rid of McD's would solve things but if the country made fast food illegal (also tricky to define!) would the country end up healthier over time? I'm not sure but I think maybe. Would it solve all instances of people being overweight. Clearly not. -Daniel
[2016-06-22 11:35:54] - of crimes (much less going on murderous rampages). - mig
[2016-06-22 11:35:48] - Maybe like art/porn its a know it when you see it kind of thing. Don't know. -Daniel
[2016-06-22 11:35:38] - Daniel: To me, it's a little bit like blaming McDonalds for people getting fat. Sure, eating lots of McDonalds food is a good way to get fat, and it's a way a lot of people do it, but even if McDonalds disappeared tomorrow, people would still get fat by eating twinkies or ice cream or whatever. -Paul
[2016-06-22 11:35:32] - Paul: Also true and fair, I think its basically made up as well. I think long rifled weapons by definition would be more lethal as they have bigger bullets, more power, and more accuracy. I don't have a great answer as to what constitutes one and it seems to be tricky given that no one else has come up with the answer either. -Daniel
[2016-06-22 11:35:32] - daniel: sure I can submit that something like an AR-15 is probably capable of more legality than most handguns. Is that a reason to consider a ban on that model though? It is I believe one of the more popular models of rifles in the country, and I'm not going on off a limb here, the overwhelming vast majority of owners don't use those rifles to commit any sort ....
[2016-06-22 11:32:48] - Daniel: And that's a good point, but I think guns often get over-blamed for murders because they are one of the more efficient methods of carrying out murders and there is this thinking that if guns were magically to disappear, then those murders wouldn't happen. -Paul
[2016-06-22 11:28:51] - Daniel: "I think its almost by definition that an assault rifle is more lethal." I would ask you, then, what is your definition of an assault rifle? Because from everything I've read, it's basically a made up term created by gun control advocates to make some guns sound scary. -Paul
[2016-06-22 11:27:21] - Paul: I think thats a very reasonable point. I think the difference would be most of those are accidental or self inflicted in some capacity. Whereas things like Orlando etc are someone else choosing. That said I would probably agree that putting effort elsewhere would end up saving more lives. -Daniel
[2016-06-22 11:26:36] - Daniel: And that's even including suicides, which are roughly 2/3rds of "firearm deaths" and which I've always thought should be treated differently. If you remove suicides, then even more "benign" things that people often don't think about are higher. -Paul
[2016-06-22 11:24:14] - Daniel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preventable_causes_of_death#United_States And are gun deaths such an epidemic that they deserve this disproportionate amount of attention? Even in America where we have a high rate of gun violence relative to the rest of the world, the number is still below auto collisions, alcohol, preventable cancers... -Paul
[2016-06-22 11:22:21] - Paul: Yeah I'm not sure more background checks solves any issues either. I don't know that its a bad thing but I don't know that I think it solves things either. -Daniel
[2016-06-22 11:21:00] - Paul: You don't think an assault rifle is a more lethal weapon than a pistol? Sure a pistol can be very lethal but I think its almost by definition that an assault rifle is more lethal. -Daniel
[2016-06-22 11:20:22] - Daniel: Will more background checks do any good in response to shootings where the vast majority of perpetrators either passed a background check or stole their guns? -Paul
[2016-06-22 11:16:46] - Daniel: So when I look at these things, it's not a molon labe kind of thing. I look at it more from a perspective of if the laws make any sense. Does it make sense to obsessively focus on "assault rifles" and pistol grips and other things that don't really cause the gun to be any more lethal when most murders are caused by handguns? Probably not. -Paul
[2016-06-22 11:13:30] - Daniel: Heh, yeah, on both sides. Here's the thing. I'm not a "gun person" at all. Don't own any. Don't particularly want to own any. I've gone shooting maybe three times in my life and enjoyed it, but once a decade is probably plenty for me. I don't get why people want to own dozens of guns anymore than I get why people like restoring cars from decades ago... -Paul
[2016-06-22 10:59:19] - Paul: "guns hold this weird emotional hold on people" - On that we agree 100%. -Daniel
[2016-06-22 10:54:49] - Daniel: this time around with people (including many liberals/democrats) wanting to deny due process and civil rights to people who are largely of a certain ethnicity/religion (the whole deal with denying guns to people on no-fly lists). -Paul
[2016-06-22 10:53:42] - Daniel: And for some reason, guns hold this weird emotional hold on people where certain appeals to emotion seem to work better. Many of the appeals for stricter gun control regulation could be turned around and used to justify crazy stuff like locking up Muslims or keeping them out of the country. In fact, those two viewpoints have intersected some... -Paul
[2016-06-22 10:49:16] - Daniel: And I'm not necessarily suggesting a waiting period, just that people be aware that the whole "We need to pass law X because of event Y" association is... bad? meaningless? I don't know what word I want. Basically, that using these shootings to justify a mostly unrelated law is bad logic. -Paul
[2016-06-22 10:46:35] - Paul: I would agree that emotional times are not a great time to make laws. I'm not sure we should wait some x amount of time in order to make new laws though given that the shootings keep coming. -Daniel
[2016-06-22 10:45:19] - but to try to disassociate their emotional response to the tragedy from their call for more laws, because I'm a believer that many times laws created in immediate response to tragedies are often a bad idea (see the Patriot Act, for example). -Paul
[2016-06-22 10:44:35] - Daniel: For example, if I see somebody decrying that Republicans refuse to back "common sense gun laws" in response to whatever shooting, I'll often point out that those gun laws wouldn't have prevented the shooting in question at all. My goal isn't trying to convince the person to do a 180 on gun laws... -Paul
[2016-06-22 10:42:00] - Daniel: I definitely try to pick and choose my battles. Mostly, I try to interject myself in areas where either I see something factually wrong that I can hopefully easily convince the other person is wrong and give him the correct information, or places where I feel like I can sway opinion a little bit, even if I'm not changing it completely. -Paul
[2016-06-22 10:41:39] - daniel: agreed. i vary rarely debate on facebook. i think i've done it once or twice ever. it's just a bad forum for political debate. ~a
[2016-06-22 10:37:45] - Paul: I'm not sure I've ever had a political debate on facebook. I'm not sure its ever seemed worth it. -Daniel
[2016-06-22 10:36:26] - a: Although, frankly, it's not even that I mind seeing those posts, it's just that I want to respond to every. single. one. And I just don't have the time to do that anymore. I barely have enough time to go back and forth with Ethical Matt (Herndon) about one topic at a time.
-Paul[2016-06-22 10:34:00] - a: Eh, it's one "meh" post to me out of dozens (hundreds?). It's easy enough for me to just skip past. I would be much more interested in some sort of mute button so that I can mute wide swaths of my friends every time there is a mass shooting. The first 20 posts whining about the NRA and "assault rifles" didn't change my mind but I'm sure the 21st will! -Paul
[2016-06-22 10:33:41] - actually, make that now 3 people I've unfollowed just now. I'm not even friends with this person, but his spam keeps showing up on my wall for some reason. - mig
[2016-06-22 10:05:23] - ricky graduated the same year as some of us at tj and vt. the viewpoints he puts on facebook are usually very logical . . . but often are very political or religious in nature. ~a
[2016-06-22 09:56:57] - ricky? -Daniel
[2016-06-22 09:55:46] - dark magic isn't real. neither is witchcraft. and that's not even close to what actually bothered me about his text: he made this all about *him*. this had nothing to do with him and he made it all about himself. ~a
[2016-06-22 09:45:50] - a: eh I usually don't bother with that unless people start getting really spamm-y (and religious stuff doesn't raise my ire as much as it used to). I think I've only done it twice and believe it or not it wasn't over political subject matter. - mig
[2016-06-22 09:34:32] - . . . time to unfollow ricky again. one wonders why i put myself through the un-un-following every few years. ~a
[2016-06-20 21:14:44] - a: Sorry, I made my one attempt for the year.
I'm actually out of town from June 24th to July 4th. -Paul[2016-06-20 15:59:47] - paul: ultimate this week? ~a
[2016-06-20 14:26:42] - a: I would say I have a 5% chance or so. -Paul
[2016-06-20 14:26:20] - mig: "Does the performance of the Cavs in the Finals so far change your mind any?" A little. 3 wins to 4 losses is better than 2 wins and 5 losses. It doesn't fundamentally change my point, though. LeBron would need to win a few more championships first to do that. -Paul
[2016-06-20 12:25:26] - http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/20/politics/corey-lewandowski-out-as-trump-campaign-manager/index.html wow, looks like Trump is starting to take the anti-trumpers a bit more seriously now. - mig
[2016-06-20 12:24:29] - whoops I have the # wrong, was thinking about the dem primary delegate count. He's at more like 1400 bound delegates (needing 1237 to clinch nomination). - mig
[2016-06-20 12:22:15] - a: from my understanding of the current rules, the 2300+ delegates pledged to Trump are bound to vote for him on the 1st nomination ballot. Only after that ballot should Trump somehow not have necessary delegates would they then become unbound on the 2nd ballot and free to vote their conscience. - mig
[2016-06-20 11:28:09] - "rewrite the rules unbinding delegates" how so? i thought the rules about "moral objections" allowed them to basically vote for whoever they wanted. i'm not sure where i read that. ~a
[2016-06-20 10:19:37] - It's basically the same problem the anti-trumpers have had this entire primary process. They all agree they dislike trump, but can't seem to agree on anything else. - mig
[2016-06-20 10:17:35] - Cruz seems like an obvious choice, but it seems that the anti-trumpers dislike him almost as much or even more than Trump (something that blows my mind). If not Cruz, then who? - mig
[2016-06-20 10:16:28] - It would take a majority of the delegates to essentially rewrite the rules unbinding delegates. Then that must deny Trump the delegates he needs to win an outright majority (who knows what the delegates will do after that). Then the delegates need to settle on a non-Trump candidate (which might be the most difficult part). - mig
[2016-06-20 10:12:37] - a: I think it's getting to be a possibility. Many potential hurdles to it though. But the first steps are in place to at least open up the possibility that Trump's nomination could be .... "trumped" (lolz). - mig
[2016-06-20 10:03:53] - paul: how much of a chance? i think i'm still pretty safe, but i'll concede that it's not over yet. ~a
[2016-06-20 09:21:20] - paul: "Does the performance of the Cavs in the Finals so far change your mind any?" - mig
[2016-06-19 23:12:19] - http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/06/dozens-of-gop-delegates-are-planning-a-coup.html There's still a chance for my bet! -Paul
[2016-06-17 16:18:35] - http://www.trueachievements.com/gamerblogcomment.aspx?gamerblogid=64595 -- Xpovos
[2016-06-17 16:18:31] - Paul: Since I write on the TA site I try to link most of my content back to games at some point, but a number of them end up being "bigger" than just gaming. So I've blogged about stuff like internet advertising, guns, privacy, etc. Some of my favorite "big" blogs: http://www.trueachievements.com/gamerblogcomment.aspx?gamerblogid=65430 and ...
[2016-06-17 16:01:10] - a: lol awww i was all excited to figure out what candy they came up with starting with N. my money's still on nougat or maybe nutella - aaron
[2016-06-17 14:56:40] - a: i clicked through a couple of mike diva's other videos, yeah, great stuff! - aaron
[2016-06-17 14:10:07] - Google seems to have named the new Android N ~a
[2016-06-17 12:33:31] - a: Sad. Okay. Probably going to be one or two people short. I've seen his blog, but I admit to not reading it too much since I'm not as into the meta-gaming of getting achievements.
-Paul[2016-06-17 12:03:38] - paul: yep. ~a
[2016-06-17 12:03:32] - paul: i'm actually moving saturday! i was hoping i'd be moving in the morning, and that i would be free in the afternoon, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. i've updated the calendar. ~a
[2016-06-17 07:33:51] - a: Are you talking about his (Xpovos) trueachievements blog? -Paul
[2016-06-17 07:32:08] - a: Just wanted to make sure you got my ultimate frisbee invite, since you haven't responded... -Paul
[2016-06-16 23:36:35] - omfg, aaron, mike diva has a ton of great videos. have you seen some of his other things? ~a
[2016-06-16 17:57:38] - paul: i'll read your blog!
i assume you've seen xpovos's gaming blog. he's very active there. i did a few short chronicles of my time in afghanistan in '11, but i wasn't there long. ~a[2016-06-16 17:35:57] - Anybody here have any experience blogging? I haven't done it since college, which is a lot longer ago than I like to think about. I'm thinking of starting up a blog. -Paul
[2016-06-16 14:24:46] - I'm disappointed that searching for images/.png files titled or tagged "yby" that there are so few lolcats. -- Xpovos
[2016-06-16 13:28:17] - paul: unless something happens that brings it back into the news, i agree. ~a
[2016-06-16 12:56:34] - And not suffer much in public opinion over it. -Paul
[2016-06-16 12:56:24] - Quick re-visit to the vacant Supreme Court seat, but I don't recall hearing much about it at all for the past few weeks. Looks like the Republicans are going to stall until the election (because nominees from Hillary or Donald are going to be so much better)... -Paul
[2016-06-16 00:42:51] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbM6WbUw7Bs trumpo! 2016 - aaron
[2016-06-15 15:58:54] - a: Nice! Where is your new place? Glad he worked out for you. I was happy with him when I used him. Hopefully there weren't any hard feelings with him about not using him to sell my townhouse and buy our current place. -Paul
[2016-06-15 15:11:14] - paul: rick really came through for us. we closed today, woo! ~a
[2016-06-15 15:10:56] - paul: to go one step further, here's something i posted elsewhere about it "If there is any sign that the halving isn't turning out to be an up-day for bitcoin, there will be literally millions of BTC mined 2009-2016 up for sale. The 2000, instead of the usual 4000, bitcoin mined that day will just be noise." ~a
[2016-06-15 15:10:25] - paul: your parenthetical gets to the heart of the issue. everybody knows it's coming, so it's priced in. ~a
[2016-06-15 13:28:57] - a: What is the reason the halving would cause a drop in price? I could see an increase since the supply is getting "smaller" (although it sounds like everybody should know it's coming). -Paul
[2016-06-15 11:46:08] - correct. correct. yes. ~a
[2016-06-15 10:54:56] - a: Wait, let me get some clarification. The number of bitcoins in the world isn't decreasing, right? It's the increase in new bitcoins that is decreasing. Right? -Paul
[2016-06-15 10:36:19] - paul: about four years ago, on 2012-11-28, we went from getting 50btc every block to 25btc every block. on 2016-06-10 (approximately) we will go from getting 25btc every block to 12.5btc every block. the supply will be decreased by half (thus halving). i predict volitility (up or down overall i can't say for sure). ~a
[2016-06-15 10:35:23] - paul: no, it's different than that completely. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Controlled_supply the short verrsion is: the number of bitcoins that get sent out to the world is slowly decreasing. the decreasing happens in discrete events every four years or so! ~a
[2016-06-15 10:25:31] - a: I don't even know what the halving is. Sounds like a horror movie. Does that have to do with the "problem" with the blockchain or whatever that is imminent? -Paul
[2016-06-15 10:13:09] - july 20th? that's after the halving. ~a
[2016-06-15 09:57:44] - a: I think I'll just settle for buying some from you when the time comes.
-Paul[2016-06-14 16:29:05] - of course you couldn't actually use bitcoins as a down-payment unless you found a settlement company that was ok accepting bitcoins. they probably actually exist. or, in extreme cases, you could probably find a seller that was willing to both accept bitcoins and sell their house without a settlement company. ~a
[2016-06-14 16:27:24] - daniel: yeah, but some people *have* used bitcoins as part of "proof of funds" for a mortgage down-payment before. (basically, the way around this is to do the bitcoin-sale more than two months before approval. i didn't do this, but it's something you can do) they must have gotten lucky though, because i imagine lots of heads would explode in these situations. ~a
[2016-06-14 14:07:45] - Daniel: I haven't watched the John Oliver piece about retirement, but I've heard that he has a similar message to the Fool in terms of trying to keep your fees low. -Paul
[2016-06-14 13:44:24] - https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/4nuwac/has_john_oliver_got_you_worried_about_investment/ -Daniel
[2016-06-14 13:08:44] - a: Ah, too bad for my daydreams! I wonder if you tried to buy a house using bitcoin if a banker's head would explode. -Daniel
[2016-06-14 12:38:46] - mig: I love it when he goes "over the line" and makes comments about the "master race" or says "nigger" and Moynihan just mumbles "Jesus". It'a already happened a few times in the few episodes they've had. -Paul
[2016-06-14 11:49:57] - paul: Indeed, Kmele is probably right now my favorite libertarian personality. - mig
[2016-06-14 11:40:18] - mig: I liked the 5th column from last week (a few days ago? the one where Matt was sick and on the phone). I just end up liking Kmele more and more. His comment about creating a "master race" made me laugh out loud and I thought his connection between Trump and Sotomayor was very insightful. -Paul
[2016-06-14 11:29:54] - daniel: percentage wise? it varies. 5% is probably close to my average, the past few years, when i'm not trying to get a mortgage. sorry, i didn't have to explain bitcoin to mortgage people: i knew (because i've gotten a mortgage before) that they'd be all anal about stuff, so i turned off my bitcoin stuff months in advance of pre-approval. ~a
[2016-06-14 11:23:19] - paul: easy? nah. very very hard. but, you know, i'm a fanatic, so i do what it takes. i've used "bitwage" and "coinbase" recently (neither of those are technically exchanges btw). ~a
[2016-06-14 10:38:10] - a: You buy bitcoin every paycheck? How much do you put into bitcoin percentage wise? Also I wish I was there when you had to explain it to mortgage people. Somehow I think I would have found it a funny conversation. -Daniel
[2016-06-14 10:33:07] - a: Dollar cost averaging, eh? Is it easy to buy through an exchange? I'm still only about 5% understanding how the Celium wallet works. -Paul
[2016-06-14 10:15:57] - paul: just buy a little? most exchanges use a % fee instead of a flat fee, so it doesn't matter how often you buy. . . . now that i have a mortgage again, (and i don't have to explain shit to nosey mortgage people) i'm back to buying every paycheck. ~a
[2016-06-14 10:00:21] - a: I've got my fingers crossed for another correction so I have another chance to buy some. -Paul
[2016-06-13 19:03:26] - i think the price run-up is because of the "halving" which i can say with confidence will increase the volatility for a while. i expect a major correction. *but* if that correction brings us to a lower or higher price than the current one, i can't possibly know that or i'd be rich
~a[2016-06-13 19:00:43] - paul: why you haven't heard about it, i can't say. i think media outlets are tired of reporting on it? i've still been reading about it every day. honestly, though, other than the price doubling, i'm not sure if anything interesting (imo) has happened in the past month. the issues with scalability have not gotten better. ~a
[2016-06-13 17:06:03] - a: So, why haven't I heard anything about the big run up of bitcoin over the past month or so? Did they finally get that whole forking mess fixed? -Paul
[2016-06-13 14:41:49] - Actually, scratch that, I had sold some shares at $217, so that cost basis isn't right. -Paul
[2016-06-13 10:56:56] - Microsoft is buying LinkedIn for $196 a share ($61 more than it's previous price). Hurray for being a LinkedIn shareholder! Boo for having an average cost basis of $198.
-Paul[2016-06-11 17:17:19] - a: hmmm yeah. maybe the word doesn't exist. i thought there was a word. - aaron
[2016-06-11 17:16:31] - http://nedroid.com/comics/2011-08-22-beartato-swords.png that's not how you pronounce sword - aaron
[2016-06-11 01:13:38] - "spoiler" not the right word but it fits. Also I think minimax suggests going for the stalemate (say "random" in dixit) when the win isn't reachable. ~a
[2016-06-11 01:06:38] - aaron: i don't know that word. "pathological" is sometimes used to describe similar situations. I tried googling stuff like "game theory player that tries to make everyone lose" and I got stuff like "prisoners dilemma" and "no win scenario". Those seem like different concepts. ~a
[2016-06-11 00:53:20] - mig: what could possibly go wrong? ~a
[2016-06-10 13:24:46] - aaron: humans life > mosquitoes. Fuck em. - mig
[2016-06-10 13:12:51] - so i think there's a word like, "dominant strategy" but more pejorative, "regressive strategy" or something like that which describes the idea that there's a strategy which completely defeats the game - aaron
[2016-06-10 13:11:33] - i've forgotten a word. what's the word for a strategy which makes a game unplayable? like we might be playing dixit, a game where you try to guess which card a player puts down based on an ambiguous clue. but then a player realizes instead of giving an actual ambiguous clue, they can win just by saying "random" as their clue and putting down a random card- aaron
[2016-06-10 12:46:43] - daniel: I saw some quotes from him along the lines of "working with people against Donald Trump" kind of signaled to me as him sort of giving up. Yes, officially, his campaign is still going on, but I'm not so sure he takes it all the way to the convention now. - mig
[2016-06-10 11:51:02] - mig: ?? They were talking about him this morning on NPR and it didn't sound like he had given up. It sounded like he should / Dem leaders wanted him to soon but that so far he hadn't. I don't think he will before the DC primary but maybe after that. -Daniel
[2016-06-10 11:27:28] - http://www.theguardian.com/global/2016/feb/10/should-we-wipe-mosquitoes-off-the-face-of-the-earth should we wipe mosquitos off the face of the earth? - aaron
[2016-06-10 10:11:04] - So, Sanders looks like he's out? He's not suspending his campaign but it kind of sounds like he's pretty much given up. - mig
[2016-06-09 15:57:03] - aaron: I just looked at the first page. I didn't realize there were that many requests coming in.
-Paul[2016-06-09 15:56:17] - paul: i see a lot of unanswered questions from the past few hours, but a lot of answered questions from the past few days. i think it sometimes takes them a few hours or days to come up with a response - aaron
[2016-06-09 15:46:04] - Also, hope to see you guys online tonight at 9pm for some HotS. I'll try not to be late. -Paul
[2016-06-09 15:45:39] - There are a lot of un-answered questions there. -Paul
[2016-06-09 15:24:31] - aaron: lol. paul go to aaron's link!
~a[2016-06-09 15:21:47] - Paul: It does seem odd. -Daniel
[2016-06-09 15:02:35] - paul: https://www.reddit.com/r/identifythisfont/
- aaron[2016-06-09 14:09:11] - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chuck-grassley-trump-sotomayor_us_57586354e4b0e39a28ac402a The editor's note at the end of this seems a little odd. Is there any reason for that to be in there other than to allow the editor to express his opinions on Trump? -Paul
[2016-06-09 14:08:11] - a: Thanks. I'm thinking I might just overwrite all the text in a picture I have instead of trying to match what is there. -Paul
[2016-06-09 13:00:03] - paul: a . . . way. ask a professional. like a graphic designer. maybe vinnie? i think he can identify comic-sans really well. ~a
[2016-06-09 12:57:15] - Is there an easy way to identify a font? Maybe some online image scanning service? -Paul
[2016-06-08 13:56:35] - Today my three-year-old saw me performing a task normally done with a knife by using a spoon instead. She giggles and looks at me intently as she says, "That's not a knife; that's a spoon!" -- Xpovos
[2016-06-08 13:16:44] - I saw the news it's particularly exciting because XCOM is GwG in about a week, so I'll finally get to play that. -- Xpovos
[2016-06-08 11:38:54] - Oh, there's also the Johnson affect. The demographics breakdowns of polls where he's included should probably concern democrats. - mig
[2016-06-08 11:23:06] - http://www.gamespot.com/articles/formerly-a-pc-exclusive-xcom-2-heads-to-ps4-and-xb/1100-6440514/ This is mostly for Andrew, but I now know exactly how it feels to want to buy a second copy of a game for no real good reason. -Paul
[2016-06-08 11:01:59] - http://theweek.com/speedreads/628460/samantha-bee-insane-interview-libertarian-candidate-gary-johnson Btw, apparently Gary Johnson had a fairly goofy interview on Samantha Bee's show.-Paul
[2016-06-08 11:01:15] - If Gary Johnson can't have a surprisingly good showing, I think the best thing that could happen is if Clinton absolutely destroys Trump, and as a result, the Republican party gets destroyed (or at least splits). -Paul
[2016-06-08 10:57:23] - mig:
-Paul[2016-06-08 10:51:19] - a: I'll put up my probable winnings from Paul up for it. - mig
[2016-06-08 10:46:53] - a: Nah, no bets just throwing out predictions
-Daniel[2016-06-08 10:46:16] - http://www.270towin.com/maps/MRzBm Something like this? Though whats interesting is this one http://www.270towin.com/maps/5nz6v -Daniel
[2016-06-08 10:45:13] - a: It's not official yet! I can still hope for a complete insurrection by the Republican establishment. -Paul
[2016-06-08 10:44:17] - daniel/mig/daniel: any bets? paul's $100 is burning a hole in my pocket. ~a
[2016-06-08 10:41:01] - I'm not sure what the popular vote numbers look like but I would bet on a electoral drubbing with Clinton winning. With the same caveats that I might look foolish at some point. -Daniel
[2016-06-08 10:27:41] - Daniel: And I still maintain that Clinton is a terrible candidate. She always seems to find a way to take sure wins and turn them into upset losses or nail-biter victories. -Paul
[2016-06-08 10:26:51] - Daniel: As for the general election...? It makes zero sense, but I guess I'll hitch my wagon to Trump. I can't think of a worse candidate (in terms of being electable AND in terms of representing my views), but he's defied everybody who said he was going to crash and burn. I don't see what stops him now. -Paul
[2016-06-08 10:25:32] - Daniel: I think Bernie sticks around to the convention. There's really not much of a point of him dropping out now, after insisting he's going to the convention. He's also not technically a democrat, so he doesn't have to take marching orders from anybody.
-Paul[2016-06-08 10:23:35] - And obviously, this could make me look foolish later today, but I think Bernie may take the full bitterness route and take his campaign all the way to the convention and make it a circus. - mig
[2016-06-08 10:23:03] - daniel: under normal circumstances, I think Trump would get decimated. However, these aren't normal circumstances. I think combined with Clinton's unlike-ability, and the Dem's overreaction to Trump potentially turning off independents (he's worse than Hitler!), Trump could very well take the general. - mig
[2016-06-08 09:53:47] - daniel: i think it will be hillary vs trump, and trump will pull through because for whatever reason republicans seem to do better in those kinds of elections where people unilaterally dislike both candidates - aaron
[2016-06-08 08:42:27] - Hillary vs Trump? Anyone want to make any more predictions about the general? Predictions about when Bernie hangs it up? I think Obama tries to talk him into it - apparently Bernie is meeting with him tomorrow - but I don't know if it will work. -Daniel
[2016-06-07 14:39:44] - Daniel: Having said all that, I'm not at all convinced that putting up huge stats on a last place team is an extremely valuable skill when it comes to helping a good team win. I think we're seeing that now with Love. -Paul
[2016-06-07 14:38:32] - Daniel: I'm basically saying if you dump Love on a crappy team (Minnesota), he can put up crazy numbers and be a star. Same thing with Kyrie (Cleveland). I don't know if you put Draymond or Klay in similar situations if they can do that. -Paul
[2016-06-07 14:37:18] - Daniel: I think I know what you're saying, and I might even agree. I think a lot of times people get obsessed with putting superstars together on a team and figuring they'll make a super team, when really it's usually better to just get good guys who can play well together (Pistons vs Lakers from a decade or whatever ago). -Paul
[2016-06-07 14:26:16] - Love vs Draymond is tricky. Maybe Love is a bigger additive number than Draymond in a vacuum (maybe...) but Draymond is a better multiplier than Love. If that random math analogy makes any sense. -Daniel
[2016-06-07 14:25:41] - Paul: Hmm I think I see what you are saying. Howver Klay was 3rd Team All NBA so that seems to vote for him in top 15. Draymond was 2nd Team All NBA. Kyrie / Love not in those at all. I think Klay is definitely better than Kyrie. -Daniel
[2016-06-07 14:15:17] - Daniel: So I agree the Warriors are the better team. I guess what I'm specifically saying is that the Cavs probably have 3 top... 10? 15? Guys in LeBron, Love and Kyrie, whereas I don't know if Golden State has more than one. Curry is obvious, but is Klay or Draymond really top 10-15? I don't think I could put them that high. -Paul
[2016-06-07 14:10:52] - Daniel: But very rarely have they ever had multiple top 10 talents on their team at the same time. On the flip side, the Thunder are the perfect example of an extremely talented team (Durant and Westbrook are arguably top 5 players and they once had Harden too) but never the best team in the league. -Paul
[2016-06-07 14:09:26] - Daniel: Oh, I definitely agree the Warriors are the better team (possibly even way better). I think better team and more talented team is very different, though. I think of the Spurs as the perfect example of a great team that is usually not the most talented. Sure, Duncan is usually great and Kawhi and Parker/Manu are often very good... -Paul
[2016-06-07 13:58:09] - Paul: Top post seems to agree with the idea that the Warriors are way better than the Cavs and its from a Cavs fan: https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/4mtlyc/next_day_thread_the_golden_state_warriors_defeat/ -Daniel
[2016-06-07 13:21:31] - It reminds me of that scene in Cabin in the Woods where the girl makes out with... is it a deer head? Bear head? Something. -Paul
[2016-06-07 13:19:06] - daniel: it's crazy that it wasn't photoshopped!! augh - aaron
[2016-06-07 12:45:18] - aaron: The lady and the squirrel picture is kinda crazy. -Daniel
[2016-06-07 12:20:54] - https://www.pixsy.com/where-do-all-those-wtf-stock-photos-come-from/ interview with a couple people who make stock photos about why they choose such unusual subjects sometimes - aaron
[2016-06-07 10:07:56] - a: Yeah, I'm not 100% certain what he does, but programmer / leader of other programmers sounds about right. We do use a lot of python at the Fool. -Paul
[2016-06-07 09:58:44] - to answer your question anyways . . . it sounded like he was a programmer but also a manager. and it seemed like he is starting a new position managing a shit-ton of people. he seemed to be a fan of python. although i'm also a fan of python, i'm willing to discuss its many problems. he didn't seem to like discussions of its problems
~a[2016-06-07 09:54:52] - yeah, sometimes when i think something starts with a certain letter i'm right . . . and sometimes i'm wrong
~a[2016-06-07 09:52:01] - a: Ah, yes, he does spell his name with a silent M in the front.
-Paul[2016-06-07 08:01:33] - Eli. That was it! ~a
[2016-06-06 23:20:36] - a: Any idea what the person does at the Fool? -Paul
[2016-06-06 23:20:15] - a: On boarding buddy? That could refer to a couple different people. Lauren was the new BI Fool who started the same day as me. Eli was my Fool "buddy". Michael was my first coach. -Paul
[2016-06-06 23:18:47] - a: Nina's friend was (is?) Dayana Yochim. -Paul
[2016-06-06 18:45:22] - paul: another name i can't ever seem to remember is nina's friend who worked at tmf as a staff writer. diana? something like that. anyways . . . names! ~a
[2016-06-06 18:44:37] - paul: i bumped into somebody who works for the tmf and says he knew who you were. i totally forget his name even though my coworker told me today again what his name was! (like lots of people, i'm really bad with names, but i'm especially bad with them) it started with an "m"? mishew? anyways, he said he was like your on-boarding-buddy when you started. ~a
[2016-06-06 14:00:12] - Daniel: I suppose the argument could also be made that Magic helped with some of those championships. So many variables. Pretty sure we can all agree the Rockets championship was a fluke, though.
-Paul[2016-06-06 13:53:15] - Also probably they think he could have gone 8-0. Though clearly thats false as the Rockets won those two in the middle and would have squashed Jordan like a bug! -Daniel
[2016-06-06 13:53:10] - paul: well as you've said before, sports can be certainly irrational. I mean look at the 90s Bills teams who are generally mocked as the ultimate losers, even we would normally consider a team making 2 super bowls (especially these days) an incredibly impressive feat, let alone 4 in a row. - mig
[2016-06-06 13:52:41] - Paul: MJ also was a better defensive player. He won DPOY. Was on more all nba first team defense. I think MJ was such a great two way player in a way so few are. Most people are better on one end of the floor or the other. -Daniel
[2016-06-06 13:44:06] - mig: I guess because people assume he could've gone 8-0 had he not left to pursue baseball in his prime? -Paul
[2016-06-06 13:43:47] - mig: Yeah, that's a hard comparison because Curry isn't on the same level as LeBron in terms of lifetime achievements yet. Maybe a more apt comparison would be Jordan (6-0) and Kareem (6-4?). Both are top 5 guys and both have 6 championships. Should Kareem's 4 losses count against him? I don't think so, but then why is Jordan universally considered better? -Paul
[2016-06-06 13:41:18] - Daniel: Sorry, meant Bird over LeBron. -Paul
[2016-06-06 13:40:03] - Daniel: I think even Bill Simmons agrees on LeBron over Bird at this point. I also would have LeBron over Bird, but there's a chance I would have Duncan jump him. I believe Duncan has more regular season AND post-season success than LeBron along with crazy longevity. -Paul
[2016-06-06 13:39:02] - let me clarify about what I mean by calling "finals record" a meaningless stat. total championships is a valid metric. But in the hypothetical that James and Curry both never make the finals again ever, if you try to argue with me that Curry > James because he was 2-0 in the finals and James was 2-6, I'm going to consider that a very poor argument. - mig
[2016-06-06 13:32:23] - Paul: I think its fair to ding Lebron on the GOAT ranking because of his finals record. However I don't think finals record is the only input. I think Lebron's other achievements and qualifications would still have him very high up on my list. I'd have to think and do some thinking but I would probably say longevity alone would put Lebron over Bird for me. -Daniel
[2016-06-06 13:25:44] - mig: Because he's the only guy in this discussion that has done it? -Paul
[2016-06-06 13:25:12] - I would have a hard time ever putting LeBron higher than Wilt, barring a run of championships late in his career, because Wilt can match LeBron in terms of putting up crazy statistics and being a great player, but both just couldn't consistently win championships like the guys in the top 5 (or even some below, like Duncan). -Paul
[2016-06-06 13:23:20] - paul: sure it can be advantageous. But any player or GM who's serious about winning a championship is going to look for any advantage they think they can get. Because winning a championship is really fucking hard to do. Again, why single out James for this? - mig
[2016-06-06 13:23:12] - Looking at Bill Simmons' list of top ten NBA players I believe validates what I'm saying. His #1 is Jordan (6-0 in Finals?). His #2 is Bill Russell (11-1?). #3 is Kareem (6-4?). #4 is Magic (5-4?). #5 is Bird (3-4?). Only after those top 5 do we start seeing great players with bad Finals records (Wilt, West, etc). -Paul
[2016-06-06 13:17:35] - mig: Because call me crazy, but I think that would've made it more likely that Kobe went to more NBA Finals. I actually just realized my example was flawed, because I gave two Western Conference teams as examples when I probably should've made them Eastern Conference teams. -Paul
[2016-06-06 13:16:19] - mig: If Kobe left LA when Shaq left to join with Carmelo in and Jason Kidd in Denver, and then a few years later left to join with Chris Paul and Blake Griffin withe the Clippers, you don't think that would be a little more helpful to his prospects of making the Finals vs him staying with the Lakers with Metta World Peace and Swaggy P? -Paul
[2016-06-06 13:14:20] - mig: And I don't know why you keep trying to turn this into some bizarre moral issue. It has nothing to do with morals from my perspective. You seriously don't see any kind of advantage to a player leaving a team and joining up in free agency with a bunch of other superstars? -Paul
[2016-06-06 13:12:21] - mig: It has little to do with this series (I believed this a few months ago if you recall), and I refuse to be held liable for what the "punditry" says. -Paul
[2016-06-06 13:11:09] - paul: Why is James (and apparently only James, since Jordan/Magic/Bird/etc have all played with their fare share of superstars), morally obligated to play with lesser talent to be considered "great"? - mig
[2016-06-06 13:07:24] - And if he does somehow pull the upset, people will retcon their predictions and say "well he should have won anyways." - mig
[2016-06-06 13:04:40] - paul: I think it's silly for punditry to before the series go on and on how it's fait accompli that the Warriors will win this series (some said handily) and then rip James afterwords for not pulling the upset no one was expecting him to pull. - mig
[2016-06-06 13:04:03] - I'll try to distill my points to short statements: (1) LeBron is definitely one of the top 10 NBA players of all time but (2) His record in the NBA Finals is a mark against him (3) It's a little impressive that he made it to so many Finals in a row but (4) His tendency to jump ship to other teams and bring in superstars is a mark against that achievement. -Paul
[2016-06-06 13:01:33] - How many times were the Heat/Cavs NOT favored to win the East? Maybe once or twice early on when the Celtics still had their big three? -Paul
[2016-06-06 13:00:49] - Daniel: I agree about it being a major accomplishment, but I don't buy it as the counter to "Why didn't LeBron win more championships?", which is sometimes sounds like Miguel is trying to say. Also, to come back around to another argument Miguel made about how many times was LeBron favored in the Finals... -Paul
[2016-06-06 12:58:46] - Daniel: Also I think it's important to note that LeBron over Iggy is a much bigger gap than, say, Curry over Kyrie. -Paul
[2016-06-06 12:58:00] - Daniel: You mean Warriors vs Cavs? Maybe? I think Love is probably better than Draymond, but I'm willing to admit I might be wrong there. Draymond definitely is a very versatile and important player for the Warriors. -Paul
[2016-06-06 12:57:51] - -Daniel
[2016-06-06 12:57:48] - I think it might be fair to ding him in the GOAT rankings for not winning more championships, but I'm not sure I understand the other part. I think him making the finals so many times is still crazy and is probably one of the greatest streaks in modern sports regardless of the fact that its the East and that he manufactures things. Getting to the finals isn't easy.
[2016-06-06 12:55:28] - Daniel: In the weaker conference and bringing along superstars at every step, I think it would be disappointing if you DIDN'T make the NBA Finals. -Paul
[2016-06-06 12:54:55] - Daniel: I'm saying LeBron's ranking in terms of greatest NBA players of all time gets dinged in my mind because of his lack of NBA finals success and I'm not particular sympathetic to the argument that he made the Finals so many times because when you're the best player and jumping from team to team... -Paul
[2016-06-06 12:54:25] - Paul: Do you disagree with any of my specific player comparisons below? -Daniel
[2016-06-06 12:53:11] - Daniel: I'm willing to entertain that the Warriors might be a little more talented than the Cavs, but I totally disagree that they are WAY more talented. I think a lot of their success is based on them being put into a great system, playing well as a team, and fulfilling their roles, all things which I think the Cavs struggle with. -Paul
[2016-06-06 12:51:04] - Paul: I'm still trying to figure out your argument. You think Lebron should be docked as his career is more "manufactured" than someone like Kobe/Magic because their career was more organic? -Daniel
[2016-06-06 12:50:33] - mig: And essentially creating an all-star team wherever he goes? It doesn't have to do with whether it's morally right or wrong or whether I dislike LeBron or not, I just think there's something advantageous to that. -Paul
[2016-06-06 12:48:49] - mig: As much as you seem to want it to be all about me personally disliking a player, it doesn't have to do with that. I personally disliked (in a sports way) Kobe as well. You don't think there is any kind of advantage to having the best player in the league jumping from team to team to whatever seems like the best situation... -Paul
[2016-06-06 12:46:37] - Also what points are each side trying to make? Paul you think Lebron should be docked somehow in the greatest player ever conversation for not winning more championships? Is that correct? -Daniel
[2016-06-06 12:45:53] - I'm late to this conversation but I would say the Warriors are WAY more talented than the Cavs. Steph > Kyrie, Draymond > Love. Bogut > Thompson. Klay > JR. Livingston > Delly. Lebron > Iggy but Iggy does about as good a job as you can on Lebron. -Daniel
[2016-06-06 12:38:37] - Or is it only when you just don't like a certain player? - mig
[2016-06-06 12:38:21] - paul: and the warriors and spurs stack the deck in their own ways. So, what? Is it some sort of moral failing to do so? - mig
[2016-06-06 12:34:17] - mig: So if anything, that puts more blame on him. -Paul
[2016-06-06 12:34:01] - mig: "i'm not making that argument". Completely fair, and I wasn't trying to set up a straw-man. Just saying that in many ways, LeBron has stacked the deck in his favor as much as any superstar ever has in terms of bolting to other, more talented teams and hand-picking players and coaches... -Paul
[2016-06-06 12:32:18] - mig: "is making the finals and not winning worse than not making the finals at all?" No, but I'm arguing that winning the NBA Finals DOES matter, while it sounds to me like you are almost saying it doesn't. -Paul
[2016-06-06 12:31:54] - paul: ok, but i'm not making that argument. - mig
[2016-06-06 12:31:10] - mig: I think LeBron has had more "help" than the superstars on the opposing teams for the past 5-6 NBA Finals match-ups. -Paul
[2016-06-06 12:30:40] - mig: I didn't mean to criticize the composition of the Cavs. Quite the opposite. I'm saying a lot of the time LeBron defenders claim he lost in the Finals because he has no help. That's a hard argument to make for his Finals appearances since he went to Miami. Outside of the OKC Finals... -Paul
[2016-06-06 12:30:09] - paul: question - is making the finals and not winning worse than not making the finals at all? - mig
[2016-06-06 12:29:03] - paul: I'm not sure all star appearances are really a good barometer of measuring talent. - mig
[2016-06-06 12:28:53] - mig: Magic lost some Finals (4, I think, which is less than James has lost) but he also won more (I believe 5, which is more than he lost AND more than twice what James has won). LeBron would need a miracle twilight of his career (Robert Horry-ish?) to end up with more Finals wins than losses like Magic. -Paul
[2016-06-06 12:27:31] - mig: Maybe silly to say, but I think LeBron alone has more all-star appearances than the entire Warriors team. Even if you take out LeBron, Love (3) and Kyrie (3) almost have as many appearances as the Warriors (I counted 7 between Curry, Klay, Iguodala and Draymond). -Paul
[2016-06-06 12:26:24] - Kevin Love is usually the first easy target, and possibly Tristan Thompson, and maybe there's something to that, but who should they have gotten instead? What other players were available? - mig
[2016-06-06 12:25:10] - And if you are going to criticize the team building aspect, I want to know what the Cavs should be doing instead? There's plenty to criticize about the Heat since they went so top heavy with pretty marginal bench, but I think this current incarnation of the Cavs is actually pretty well constructed. - mig
[2016-06-06 12:22:26] - You know Magic lost his fair share of finals apperances, right? - mig
[2016-06-06 12:21:03] - paul: I don't think that's a fair characterization of the current Cavs team (it was true that the Heat were very top heavy). And I think it's silly to think the Warriors are the "lesser talented" team. - mig
[2016-06-06 12:20:26] - mig: I guess we'll never see eye-to-eye on this, but I'm just thinking more and more that LeBron is more like Wilt Chamberlain (great player who disappointingly didn't win more championships) than players like Magic or Kareem (great players who also found ways to win). -Paul
[2016-06-06 12:18:18] - mig: Heck, his teams have probably had 3 of the top 4 or 5 players in the Finals for each of the past 6 match-ups. Who would go above LeBron/Bosh/Wade/Love/Kyrie? Dirk/Duncan/Steph? Only the Thunder possibly had superior talent (Durant/Westbrook/Harden) and they lost. -Paul
[2016-06-06 12:16:04] - mig: Ever since LeBron went to Miami, I can't think of a Finals match-up (and this is, what, the 6th?) where his team didn't have the better talent (and that was always the excuse in his first round in Cleveland, that he didn't have talent around him). -Paul
[2016-06-06 12:14:56] - mig: I don't know, but I almost think that's besides the point. It seems like his teams often haven't been favored because they often seem like collections of all-stars that don't fit well together playing against lesser talented teams that play well as a team. Doesn't some of that have to land at Lebron's feet as their best player? -Paul
[2016-06-06 12:14:17] - And a majority of the complaints made about James are still pretty fucking petty and pretty fucking stupid. - mig
[2016-06-06 12:12:46] - aside from the finals where they played OKC and Dallas, I don't think the James's teams were the favorites in any of the series they played. - mig
[2016-06-06 12:11:43] - paul: is the amount of championships won disappointing. I suppose it is. But how many of those finals were his teams actually favored in. - mig
[2016-06-06 12:07:49] - mig: Again, I'm not saying LeBron sucks, and I admit he's one of the best players of all time (maybe top 5, definitely top 10) and the string of making the Finals is remarkable, but considering how much he's bounced around and tried to team up with other super stars, isn't the number of championships he has and Finals won disappointing? -Paul
[2016-06-06 12:07:47] - "record in the finals" is a stat that means nothing to me. - mig
[2016-06-06 12:07:03] - paul: short answer: no. - mig
[2016-06-06 12:06:33] - mig: He has his hand-picked coach, and basically a hand-picked team of all-stars (after jumping from his previous hand-picked team of all-stars) and yet it looks like he's about to lose his third Finals in a row and bring his Finals record to 2-6. -Paul
[2016-06-06 12:04:38] - mig: Curious to revisit our discussion about LeBron James from before. Does the performance of the Cavs in the Finals so far change your mind any? He's had a relatively healthy team (and I think it's hard to argue that their team is less talented than the Warriors) and yet they've been blown out in back-to-back games. -Paul
[2016-06-06 09:46:14] - Elon Musk tweeted out his recommendation of Overwatch over the weekend. He also retweeted a Motley Fool article.
-Paul[2016-06-04 17:58:26] - mig: I also have an Xbone. -- Xpovos
[2016-06-03 13:40:48] - paul: also, considering I don't think any of us has xbone except for you... - mig
[2016-06-03 12:56:37] - If I do eventually get Overwatch, it'll be on PC. - mig
[2016-06-03 12:56:21] - paul: I don't know if you've taken a look at them, but PBS's Point Taken has made for some interesting discussion topics, with some fifth column/reason people showing up from time to time. - mig
[2016-06-03 12:01:06] - Daniel: I'm in the same boat, but it sounds like PC is the leader so far. -Paul
[2016-06-03 11:45:44] - I don't own the game and I'm unclear whether I will purchase it or not so this vote should be discounted but I would vote PC. -Daniel
[2016-06-03 11:35:51] - One vote for PC. Where is the poll functionality?
-Paul[2016-06-01 16:59:45] - paul: PC, I don't really like playing FPSes on console... The mouse is just much more accurate, console play feels like a handicap - aaron
[2016-06-01 16:52:46] - mig: So no cross platform play. For those who might be interested in playing, what platforms are you considering getting it on? -Paul
[2016-06-01 15:53:21] - daniel: tranquilizers are a bad idea in that situation. They don't work instantaneously and animals can go crazy from getting shot at and while in the process of succumbing to the tranquilizer: case in point. - mig
[2016-06-01 15:49:45] - Yeah seems like it sucks that gorilla had to get shot - maybe you can tranq it? But honestly if a gorilla was standing over Alex I would have 0 problems capping it to make sure Alex was ok. None. -Daniel
[2016-06-01 14:59:01] - mig: Yeah, I don't know if it's because I have kids close to that age or because I just don't value gorilla life as much as some people, but unless there was some clear signs of negligence, this seems crazy to me (and even then, I would be hesitant). -Paul
[2016-06-01 14:56:08] - http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/01/us/gorilla-shot-harambe/ this is getting quite disturbing police are looking at charging this mother based on the urging of the social media lynch mob. Having observed you guy's children and how agile they are I don't know how aside from keeping a child on a leash was the mother supposed to intuitively prevent what happened. - mig
[2016-06-01 14:51:19] - paul: no cross platform play. - mig
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