Mauro Diotallevi wrote:
On Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 8:07 PM, Rceebergerrceeber...@comcast.net wrote:
I'm in the middle of The Bridge by Banks. Just finished The Algebraist
and Matter by the same with the M.
I really really liked Matter. It has I think supplanted Excession as my
favorite
Dan wrote:
There is something fundamental going on here, IMHO.
A free market economy has its limits? The goals of a free market economy
aren't necessarily aligned with the best interests of the species?
Doug
___
John wrote:
On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 7:39 PM, Doug Pensingerbrig...@zo.com wrote:
A free market economy has its limits? The goals of a free market economy
aren't necessarily aligned with the best interests of the species?
Huh? Best interest of the species? How many starving or sick
Mauro wrote:
That's Gord in the middle; which person are you? Thanks for sharing
the picture, by the way.
I'm on the right.
And here's Gord's website http://www.gordseller.com
That's http://www.gordsellar.com/ (a in the last sylable of his last
name).
Doh! Thanks for the
Charlie wrote:
On 14/07/2009, at 2:51 PM, Matt Grimaldi wrote:
That name's a blast from the past,
Was fortunate enough he came to my wedding. :-)
He mentioned that _he_ was fortunate enough to go to your wedding. He has
met several list members (brin and culture) all over the world.
Dan M wrote:
None, once it's out there. IIRC, it's a small wind turbine that cools
collectors in it, and desert air is often humid even if it doesn't
rain much.
If the collectors are cooled, there _has to be_ a source of energy that is
being used. If not, then we've just found an
Julia wrote:
Reply:
I get no more than 1 in 500 false positives.
I get no more than 1 in 1000 false negatives.
It was more than that early on in my use of Gmail, I got one account in
2004, IIRC, and another in 2007. The more recent one, most of the false
positives were from one mailing
I thought some of the old timers might be interested that I visited with our
old list mate and recent Campbell award nominee in San Francisco on Friday.
Gord is doing very well it seems; he is close to being tenured at the
Korean university where he teaches English and has had several short
Charlie Wrote
...and Google already have one. It's called Android, plus there's gOS which
Google had hefty input into. And there are miriad other Linuces and BSDs to
try, up to and including Darwin/OSX. So I'm with Will (you can pick
yourselves up at your leisure). Don't see the point of
Andrew wrote:
The spam filter on Pegaus Mail works fine for me, and it's mine
rather then being in the control of a company which is going to scan
my emails. I've yet to find (and this includes gmail) another filter
which is more than 90% accurate for me.
I'd estimate the efficiency of my
On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 8:48 PM, John Williams jwilliams4...@gmail.comwrote:
On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 9:11 PM, Doug Pensingerbrig...@zo.com wrote:
I'd estimate the efficiency of my gmail filter is 99% or better.
That is a particularly uninformative statistic.
Much more interesting would be
Mauro wrote:
So, any early adopters planning on switching over when it ships? I'm
willing to at least give it a hard drive partition.
Me too. I refuse to use Explorer and would jump on a new OS from Google
especially.
Doug
Chrome maru
___
xponent
Matter Maru
rob
Or Anathem, eh?
Doug
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Alberto wrote:
Cat is the worst possible First Heinlein to read. It makes too
many references to other books, it should be Heinlein's _last_.
Cat wasn't my first Heinlein, I'd read a few others including Stranger in a
Strange Land which I enjoyed.
[The Moon is a Harsh Mistress]
The story
Dan wrote:
Things do not look overly promising for the protesters, but if they
manage
to make it through tomorrow without their heads being cracked Iranian
public sentiment may swing decisively in their direction. It really
depends on how hard the Supreme Ayatollah swings back at
I'm currently reading the Andrew Jackson Biography American Lion, have
recently finished Dan Simmons' Terror and listened to the audio books The
Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Angels and Demons. Terror was decent; long but
well written and researched. I'm not a big fan of monster stories (I
Alberto wrote:
Probably that's when they destroyed the german copy of the Necronomicon,
therefore cutting out the information that would enable time-travel.
History
and Meta-History was preserved because a few gifted people retain memory
of what-should-be, and this memory is enhanced with
Dave wrote:
Also, from time to time, I believe that pink unicorns have been discussed.
Invisible Pink Unicorns, that is. IPUs.
Doug
Clarity maru
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Alberto wrote:
The move was transparent to me - as far as receiving goes. OTOH,
it seems that the list now encourages html-e-mail, and this
is an evil thing that should be eradicated.
Why is it evil, out of curiosity?
Doug
___
Where's the Preparation H?
I like Zappa's version.
Doug
On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 1:46 PM, Rceeberger rceeber...@comcast.net wrote:
On 3/18/2009 6:00:38 AM, Charlie Bell (char...@culturelist.org) wrote:
On 18/03/2009, at 1:07 PM, William T Goodall wrote:
since the Taliban imposed
Ray wrote:
Hopefully the fire season is over for this year, and it's good to get the
first real rain for the year to refill our water tank. Just for something
different, we had an earthquake here last night, magnitude 4.7 which is not
that impressive for areas used to them, but large by local
George wrote:
I just received my Kindle 2 from Amazon. I notice there are only two
Brin book available for the Kindle, “Foundation’s Triumph” and “Kiln
People.” Any change of getting more made available for the Kindle? I’d love
to the have the Uplift books on my Kindle.
Hi George. I don't
Charlie wrote:
It did. It rained. We had a couple of mils. It helped with the containment
of the fires.
We've spent much of the day wondering whether the fire at Daylesford will
skip containment lines, and burn down Claire's folks' cottage. But, you
know. Money. Jobs. So on. Real stuff like
On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 12:48 PM, Jo Anne evens...@hevanet.com wrote:
Doug -- what a fascinating account! I think your brother-in-law ought to
write a book. So few of us ever experience that kind of thing.
Freight trains certainly get a bad rap in the noise department. The
Engineer's
Charlie wrote:
Or give something to your local volunteer fire service. In a few
months, it'll be the northern hemisphere on fire.
So true. There were two fires in Santa Cruz county last June which, prior
to that, had been known as asbestos county because of the lack of
wildfires over the
Dan M wrote:
Which scientists? Are they the same ones who are skeptical about
evolution?
:-)
I don't believe that The Big Bang Theory is on as sound a footing as
evolution do you?
Doug
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Dan wrote:
Sorry, I made my last post prior to reading this one.
The actual process of nucleosynthesis is though to have stopped 20 minutes
after the big bang. We know that the inflationary period had to end after
densities were below those sufficient to produce magnetic monopoles.
So, if
Dan wrote:
If you really believe that, then you would throw most of evolutionary
theory out, beause we've only been making good scientific measurements over
a very limited scope of time, say the last 150-200 years.
The difference in limits of scope between evolution on earth and universal
Ronn! wrote:
Seen the back cover of the latest (Feb.) issue of _Astronomy_?
(There's at least one more ad inside.)
Null Physics?
Doug
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Alberto wrote:
I would laugh, if this was not sad. All this assumes that Mengele had
_any_ competence either as a physician or as a scientist. What's next?
That Mengele cloned his own bones, found the longetivity drug, and
is planning to take the world?
I think I've seen that movie!
Doug
Bruce wrote:
Based on the account of the reliable authority in question, yeah, be
very glad. I think she said something along the lines of I don't
ever, ever, EVER want to have to go through that again..
I can tell you a few places I'd rather not get poison ivy on again...
Doug
Dan wrote:
Even really revolutionary data, like the data that suggests dark energy, are
written up in such a way that it implies that the big bang is now in
question. That drives me crazy in the same way.
Yea, god forbid scientists that are skeptical about the bing bang!
Doug
Dan wrote:
I googled for that and found nothing that hinted at that. Given China's
only two priorities:
1) The government keeps total control
2) The economy keeps expanding
Excellent points Dan, but what you fail to see is how requiring electric
vehicles would accomplish both more
David Brin wrote:
The new president did not have to mention it. But he did. And it shows
that he wants not only to preside and rule. He wants to learn.
Yes, the word curious did stand out as something not usually mentioned in
that line of reasoning, but I think curiosity more than
On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 1:08 PM, Gary Nunn garyn...@newpacifica.net wrote:
D Brin wrote:
Thanks Alberto.
Hoping the world will soon be proud of us!
d
Bumper sticker sighted yesterday:
1-20-09, The End of an Error
Did yo ever see the one:
Frodo Failed! Bush has the ring!?
Doug
Dan M wrote:
Sure, it's been argued for a long time that Americans can do with a lot
less. Let's say we do. The problem is that this argument doesn't hold for
the Chinese, who are now the leading emitter of greenhouse gasses. My view
was that the West had the money to buy a home run,
Dan wrote:
But, let's just take 30. At $1.50/gal, that's 5 cents/mile. Lets say
these
cars are kept for 150k, which is on the high side...that's 7.5k for gas.
The break even point, assuming CDs pay zero, with the MSRP discount, is
close to $6.00/gal. And, that's comparing with a smaller
IIRC Charlie Bell has something to do with that list, and is on this
list? Hello? Help?
Yea, Charlie's the guy to talk to. I could be wrong but I don't think that
there has been any list traffic for over a day, so you haven't missed
anything.
Doug
Alberto
Clearly, the only solution is for the US to mount a massive attack on
all the countries listed in the article at once.
It's surprising that not a single piece of the future-former-USA went
to Israel. Those conspiracy theorists are getting unimaginative.
Sheesh, don't you
Dan M wrote:
So, can anyone argue me out of this pessimistic viewpoint? I honestly hope
so, even though I'll argue hard for this pointit's one argument I'd
love
to lose.
Well, note that there has never been the kind of tacit support for Israel
from moderate Arab states such as
Julia wrote:
(I live on a ridge. There seems to be no such thing as no wind at my
house. If I went to the ravine on our property, I might find no wind,
but I'm a little nervous about critters. If there's a vorpal bunny
anywhere in the area, it's going to be there.)
What, you don't have
Speaking of wind, I ran across an odd phenomenon while backpacking in
the Sierra Nevada something close to twenty years ago. The wind
actually came in waves; it would start out at a low velocity and
continue to build over a period of something like 30 seconds at which
point it was howling. Then
http://www.slate.com/id/2202489/
excerpt:
The best thing you can say about libertarians is that, because their
views derive from abstract theory, they tend to be principled and
rigorous in their logic. Those outside of government at places like
the CATO Institute and Reason magazine are just as
Julia wrote:
I'm not Doug, but I think treating yourself to a copy is an excellent
idea!
I'll defer to Julia as she's finished it and I'm still working on the
first half, but if you liked Cryptonomicon and the Baroque Cycle I'm
pretty sure you'll like this one.
Welcome to the list!
Doug
John Williams wrote:
On Sun, Dec 7, 2008 at 1:06 PM, Euan Ritchie [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I still have to build something with my understanding and it doesn't
help for people to keep saying 'let it sort itself out' because hammers,
wood and nails won't, no matter how much I will value the
On Sun, Dec 7, 2008 at 6:58 PM, Doug Pensinger [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
John Williams wrote:
On Sun, Dec 7, 2008 at 1:06 PM, Euan Ritchie [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I still have to build something with my understanding and it doesn't
help for people to keep saying 'let it sort itself out
So has any one finished?
I'm about 250 in and so far; very good.
Doug
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Dan wrote:
I understand that sentiment, and I admit that there are far more enjoyable
places to live than Houston. When Teri gets her call, I hope to move to
one of them.
Cool, I know you were reluctant to move there in the first place.
But, LA isn't much better than Houston or Dallas.
Dan wrote:
http://www.paloaltoonline.com/com_info/by_the_numbers.php
we see that the median home price in 2006 was 1.4 million. With one of
those fancy 0% down mortgages and 6% interest (that combination won't be
seen again for a while), this results in 84k per year in interest payments.
Jphn W. wrote:
I think that heroin addicts should use drugs responsibly. I think
anybody does. Let's give the addicts a plentiful suppy of heroin and
hope they behave!
Now that's a good idea! At once we have heroin addicts that aren't
going to be stealing stuff to get their fix and we cut
I mean John W. wrote, sorry.
On Sat, Nov 15, 2008 at 6:08 PM, Doug Pensinger [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Jphn W. wrote:
I think that heroin addicts should use drugs responsibly. I think
anybody does. Let's give the addicts a plentiful suppy of heroin and
hope they behave!
Now that's a good
Dan wrote:
But, being called a looser on an internet list, that I might analyze, but
not really have any emotional reaction to.
Excellent attitude, Dan; attack the argument ignore the puerile
aspects of the communication and don't take anything too personally.
Doug
I'd like to make a few comments on the state of the discourse on the
list. I'm not a conservative, far from it, but I wouldn't for a
second try to get someone to shut up and go away because they were
more conservative (or libertarian or whatever) than I was. I wouldn't
call anyone names because
Ronn! wrote:
So what do you do if the present system is badly flawed but the only
proposed alternative does not seem any better?
(e.g., the named in the previous subject line)
If you're talking about heath care, maybe having tried the one system
and pretty much universally come to the
John Williams
How happy are you on a scale of 1 to 10? No, I don't think
I'd trust my answers on that. Compared to what? Myself
in the past? That would be hard to judge. Other people I
know? Even worse (how do I know how happy they are?).
And how to know how much of the happiness is due to
John Williams wrote:
Drug development is an industry with high fixed costs. Once those fixed,
or sunk, costs have been committed, the drugs are sold for the price that
the market will bear. According to the expert who wrote the article, the
more socialized markets settle on a lower price than
John Williams wrote:
If less government regulation is better, why do are national health
systems prevalent in many parts of the world?
Why are wars prevalent in many parts of the world?
Why do women love shoes?
Doug
non sequiturs r us
___
John Williams wrote:
1) Why trust the government with measuring something as abstract as
happiness, if it can be measured at all? I don't think I'd trust even my
closest friends and family to measure my happiness.
Not even if they asked and you told them?
Doug
On Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 11:25 AM, John Williams
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
And sent unemployment to nearly 25%. Good intentions are no substitute for
good
decisions. Roosevelt's policies were disastrous for the poor.
Cite please. I'm pretty sure that unemployment hit 25% during his
first year
John Williams wrote:
If the participants are chosen randomly. Not so if the additional
participant is a high risk of an expensive health problem. Health
insurance is an extraordinarily complicated problem.
One that would become much simpler with a single payer.
Assuming your actuaries are
Dan M wrote:
After selling my house and resettling, I'm finally back to the point where I
can finish answers to old posts that the list (sorta) returned too.
So have you left the Houston area?
Doug
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John wrote
I think it is highly likely that a McCain with a Democrat dominated
Congress will spend less than a Obama with a Democrat dominated
Congress.
This might be a valid argument for me if there weren't more important
factors to take into consideration. More important to me than
John wrote:
Force does not equal choice.
Whose money is McCain going to use to pay all those bad mortgages he
promised to take care of?
Doug
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Jon wrote:
it would be great if all inequites could be addressed without regard to race,
sex, ethnicity, etc. however, cases where a minority is given preference
over a white male, who may even be more qualified, to satisfy quotas are less
of a concern to me than the reverse. when the
Bruce Bostwick wrote:
It is not offensive to me is because it would
address the inequity in proportionate representation
between white men and minority women in government...
Jon
If they're qualified for the job (which I fully believe many are,
possibly much more than they're commonly
William wrote:
I really don't think you are fit to be list manager. You should do the
decent thing and quit.
Are you volunteering your time and equipment?
Doug
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Nick wrote:
I'll stop feeding him now and perhaps ponder just how much disruption the
list managers should tolerate. A lot, of course, but sheesh...
Excellent idea. There is as much or even more disruption in the
tumultuous replies than there were in the original messages.
Doug
Just roll
Charlie Bell wrote:
And then we find out if the US will continue its slide into theocracy
and demagoguery, or if there's at least a glimmer of hope in turning
what should be one of the world's great citizen nations back from the
brink.
I think that the only things that can stop Obama now
Deborah wrote:
LOL
I'm gonna haf ta pass this'un on to my friends...
But in real life that's awfully unfair to the turtle.
Yes, I'm sure both of us would stop the car, take the turtle down and
send it back to wherever it came from.
Doug
___
While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75 year old rancher, who's hand
was caught in the gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a
conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to
Palin and her bid.
The old rancher said, Well, ya know, Palin is a 'Post Turtle'.
Not being
John wrote:
So, what do you all think?
Nixon vs Bush (the son). Which was worse?
Bush is the worst by far. Nixon had a few positive things going on
(detente, China), he appointed moderate judges and he inherited Viet Nam.
Bush has nothing, absolutely nothing positive to tout unless you're
Rich wrote:
Doug said:
But you must have read thousands of pages of history!
About sixty thousand pages of history, I'd estimate. Not nearly
enough, anyway.
Well that sounds like a hell of a lot to me. I've read a bit of American
history, especially the Civil War, but I don't have the
Jon wrote:
You are Eric Reuter and I demand my 10 bucks.
Who are you, John, who is Eric Reuter, and why does he owe you 10 clams?
Eric is a former Brin-ler, a libertarian, and he didn't pull any verbal
punches. He told by Dr. Brin to leave the list (or he would) after a
heated exchange.
I'd like to say that I appreciate the civil tone Guatam has maintained in
the recent Wall Street Meltdown thread. I'm not sure he's right, I'm not
sure if anyone is. One thing I'm pretty sure is true is that many of those
people that in good times both in the government and the private sector
Just my opinion, but while I find J.W.s sarcasm a bit sophomoric, nothing
that he's said or done comes close to what I would consider cause for
moderation. I wish he'd tone it down a bit and address the argument rather
than the individual making it; I think he's got an interesting and informed
Richard
Rich, who has some enthusiasm for reading the Baroque Cycle, but that
enthusiasm is outweighed by being intimidated by the sheer number of
pages.
But you must have read thousands of pages of history! The Baroque Cycle
seems to be very well researched, and its recreations of 18th
rob wrote:
You are Eric Reuter and I demand my 10 bucks.
I wondered when that comparison was going to surface...
I actually miss Eric, and JDG and other contrarians.
Doug
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Dan, I hope that You and yours and your home are OK. I heard that half of
the Houston area is still without power, if you're home I hope you're among
the lucky half.
Dan wrote:
Well, I guess it depends on what you base your understanding of evidence
on,
and to what degree you accept
Ticia wrote:
Briefly delurking from a beyond-hectic life to announce that I also
gave birth to second-pregnancy twins 4 months ago!
Hi Ticia, good to hear from you! Congrats on the twins. My two grandsons
are less than a year and a half apart and they're getting to be quite a
handful. I
Charlie wrote:
CP is great. My favourite is PoG, but I think Excession's probably the
best. Use of Weapons is regarded as the best by many, but I don't
think it stands up to a re-read as well as E, CP or PoG. Inversions I
liked a lot better on my recent pre-Matter re-read of the whole lot
Jon wrote:
recently, i've been reading a lot of british authors; lain banks, peter
hamilton, ian mcdonald, ian r. and ken macleod, alastair reynolds, bob shaw,
chas stross...
i mostly read hi tech,, cutting edge, near future hard sf, some urban
fantasy and alt history.
rhys hughes is on
John Williams wrote:
I read it when it came out, but I seem to have forgotten most of it. I
remember slogging through long descriptive passages wondering when the
action would start, and when it finally did (at the very end) the ending
did
not seem worth the trouble. I think the only
Hang in, Rob, keep us informed
Doug
Rceeberger wrote:
On 9/12/2008 11:28:25 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
-- Original message --
From: Julia Thompson [EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Fri, 12 Sep 2008, Jon Louis Mann wrote:
OK,
I'm going to do one more
A few links Stephenson fans might be interested in:
http://www.longnow.org/anathem/
and
[
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/stations/AuthorsOnAir/TheBeyond/2008/09/04/Discussion-with-Neal-Stephenson
]
Doug
___
I'm trying to figure out what the two laws of god that Dan referred to in
his reply to my last post. The only thing I found on the net is love god
and love thy neighbor which I can't imagine is what he means. Can you help
me out here Dan? Anyone?
Doug
Dan M wrote:
No, actually, I believe that there exists truth apart from us.
Which, with the absence of any evidence, is akin to magic, but you missed my
point entirely.
That we have
partial understanding of that truth. That the Critique of Pure Reason did
a
good job defining and a
Bruce wrote:
A good indicator of how much environmental impact there would be is
the drilling currently taking place on the North Slope. Everything
needed to support the drilling crews and equipment -- and I mean
everything, food, living supplies, drilling mud, logging/analysis
equipment,
Ronn! wrote:
The 4% inflation is unacceptable statement was the Democrat's
ridicule of Ford's Whip Inflation Now! campaign and it's WIN
buttons. I'm sure they picked the worst figure they could find, just
as whoever from the other side who came up with the Carter said 4%
inflation was
Dan M wrote:
The two clear views are these: morality, better, worse, etc. are based on
axioms that are posited (i.e. taken on faith) or they are just tools of
politics.
Taken on faith from what? The Bible? The Koran? A cereal box? That
doesn't work at all for me, Dan. For one thing it
John wrote:
So who can we blame for poor leadership and the complete lack of a
comprehensive energy policy?
The same one we blame for poor humanity leadership and complete lack
of a comprehensive intelligent-design policy?
Sorry for the sarcasm, but is blame so important?
Not if I'm
Jon wrote:
What is really scary is there are several Supreme Court justices older than
Mc Cain...
Ah, been watching Real Time eh?
Doug
Gnu Rulz Maru
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Dan M
With all due respect, so what? Most people prefer drilling everywhere over
$4.00 gasoline. And, the Republicans are winning that argument...the polls
show a massive preference now to drill to bring down the prices.
Honestly, what _short-term_ effect will drilling in Anwar and on
Ronn! wrote:
Or just remember the Carter administration.
He Said During The Campaign That Four Percent Inflation Was
Unacceptable So When He Got Into Office He Made It Twenty-Plus Percent Maru
Cite?
Doug
___
Ronn! wrote:
Being there.
A faulty memory is a poor cite. Not only wasn't inflation anywhere near
20% during the Carter administration, it wasn't anywhere near 4% immediately
prior to his election.
Here's another cite to go with the ones already posted:
Did anyone catch The Speech? I was inspired and I think against all odds
that he has a chance. What a watershed moment in the history of humanity
that would be.
Doug
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Charlie wrote:
I could be wrong, but doesn't the rule have something to do with the
adverse
effect of the extreme amount of stress on a young, developing body?
If the
rule was arbitrary, why don't they have it for other sports?
They do. Divers, 14. Fencers, 17. And so on.
That's
Ronn! wrote:
What do you do when several times each year in your town kids get
shot dead in the park, walking down the street, standing on the
balcony outside their apartment door, or when a bullet comes through
the window or wall (all of them being collateral damage rather than
the target
Jon wrote:
They whine because they can't prove the Chinese gymnists lied about their
age. Who cares what age they are; that is an arbitrary rule that should be
eliminated.
I could be wrong, but doesn't the rule have something to do with the adverse
effect of the extreme amount of stress on
William wrote:
Why should the white farmers who were born in Zimbabwe from several
generations of people born in Zimbabwe have their property and
livelihoods confiscated either directly or through taxation just
because they are white? That's racism isn't it?
Sure, and it was Racism when,
John wrote:
I am generally in favor of politicians who demonstrate a record of less
government spending and smaller government.
You mean like Clinton?
Doug
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