Re: Brïn: basic is evil, why it must be eradicated
At 10:01 PM Friday 9/22/2006, maru dubshinki wrote: On 9/22/06, Alberto Monteiro [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: . The Wikipedia entry for R is under GNU-S :-) Alberto Monteiro I hate to play the pedantic resident Wikipedia expert here, but it's actually at [[R (programming language)]] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_%28programming_language%29), like it should (since programming languages' whose name are ambiguous are supposed to be disambiguated rather than be at [[R programming language]], which could be misleading). Now, [[GNU S]] and [[GNU-S]] do indeed redirect to the actual article, but that's not the same thing as the article being at those names... Oh, boy, a whole new language to learn . . . :):):) -- Ronn! :) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Week 3 NFL Picks
I'm a halfway decent 21-11 so far this year, but when my Dad is 24-8, halfway decent just isn't good enough. ;-)Here's my attempt to close the gap this week, and keep the 2-0 upset special on track: Chicago at Minnesota - Its hard to believe that Minnesota is 2-0 with Brad Johnson and Chester Taylor. I have to think that Chicago brings them back to earth this week, even on the road. Pick: BEARS Cincinnati at Pittsburgh - The Steelers have to feel embarrassed by getting shut out on Monday night, so they'll find a way to get it done against an injury-riddled Cincinnati team. Pick: STEELERS NY Jets at Buffalo - The Bills were just one play away from upsetting New England on the road in Week 1, in which case they'd be the talk of the NFL right now. Pick: BILLS Carolina at Tampa Bay - Who would have imagined that these two teams, both in the playoffs last year, would be both 0-2 in this matchup. Ordinarily you would take the home team in this scenario, but I think that there is something seriously wrong with Chris Simms in Tampa. Pick: PANTHERS Green Bay at Detroit - The Packers had their shot against the Saints last week, and blew it. I think that the Lions team that held the Seahawks to 9 points in Week 1, not the one that was carved up by the Bears in Week 2 shows up. Pick: LIONS Washington at Houston - Easiest pick of the week.The Redskins have too much talent to go 0-3, and the Texans are very much still the Texans. Pick: REDSKINS Jacksonville at Indianapolis - The Jaguars play the Colts twice a year, and aren't scared of Peyton Manning. With that defense looking very good against the Steelers on Monday night, and the Colts still adjusting to life after Edgerrin James, I smell an upset. Pick: JAGUARS UPSET SPECIAL Tennessee at Miami - As bad as Daunte Culpepper has been this year for Miami, whomever the Titans have tossed out at QB - Billy Volek, Kerry Collins, Vince Young, (is Vince Evans next?) has been worse. Pick: DOLPHINS Baltimore at Cleveland - We already know the Ravens' defense is back, next thing you know, Jamal Lewis will rush for 200 yards against the Browns again. Pick: RAVENS St. Louis at Arizona - The Rams proved their Week 1 upset of the Broncos was a fluke in San Francisco last week, now they have to go into the desert. Pick: CARDINALS Philadelphia at San Francisco - The Eagles only lost last week after the Giants converted a fumble-rooski play, got a bizarre penalty, and then went on to score first in overtime.They're a 2-0 team in terms of talent, even if the record doesn't show it. Pick: EAGLES NY Giants at Seattle - The Giants are on the other side of that equation. Pick: SEAHAWKS Denver at New England - The Broncos are 1-1, and that only after beating a Damon Huard-led Chiefs 9-6.There's some serious problems here. Pick: PATRIOTS Atlanta at New Orleans - Atlanta is the much better team by my book, but I can't resist the sympathy pick - first game back in the Crescent City in two years. Pick: SAINTS MARCHIN' BACK IN ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Whose Ox is Gored?
--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], Nick Arnett [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On the eve of the 2004 election, a liberal Christian pastor in Pasadena preached (what is reportedly) a highly political anti-war and anti-poverty sermon with the result that the IRS is threatening to take away the church's tax-exempt status. I haven't read the entire sermon, but it is available on the NPR web site for anyone who is interested. The text of the sermon is here: http://www.allsaints-pas.org/pdf/(10-31-04)%20If%20Jesus%20Debated.pdf#s\ earch=%22regas%20sermon%22 http://www.allsaints-pas.org/pdf/(10-31-04)%20If%20Jesus%20Debated.pdf#\ search=%22regas%20sermon%22 It looks like Dave Land may have spoken too soon. In my first glance at this speech, I see a speech that might get close to the existing legal lines, but does not, in my estimation cross over them. The speech is a little in the gray area, because despite some rhetorical flourishes that attempt to appear to criticize both Kerry and Bush, the speech is, in fact, a systematic knock-down of much of Bush's platform. Nevertheless, I think that expressing opinions on specific issues - even if those positions align with those of a specific candidate - should be permissible for tax-exempt religious organizations. With that being said, I don't understand how the pastor can imagine Jesus saying that the State has no right to impose its view of when human life begins on other people, that there can never be a just law requiring uniformity of behavior on the abortion issue, but that the State has a moral imperative to take other people's property and give it to others. It seems to be that that is getting it exactly backwards - surely if the State can intervene on behalf of property it can intervene on human life. So, I don't find much to like in this sermon - its lofic seems completely fuzzy and faulty, but with that being said, I don't find anything here to jeopardize its tax-exempt status. JDG ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: basic is evil, why it must be eradicated
Maru wrote: The Wikipedia entry for R is under GNU-S :-) I hate to play the pedantic resident Wikipedia expert here, marudubinski, I presume :-) but it's actually at [[R (programming language)]] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_%28programming_language%29), like it should (since programming languages' whose name are ambiguous are supposed to be disambiguated rather than be at [[R programming language]], which could be misleading). Now, [[GNU S]] and [[GNU-S]] do indeed redirect to the actual article, but that's not the same thing as the article being at those names... Ok, but if we want to use the search engine from the initial page, it's much simpler to search for GNU-S then to search for R :-P Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Bïrn: basic is evil, why it must be eradicated
Ronn Blankenship wrote: So we now have R which comes from S, and C which comes from B. Anyone starting to miss the good old days when the name of a programming language actually stood for something? It makes it very hard to google search for help in anything. For example, if I want to know which perl [or python, or haskell, or intercal] function displays the current working directory, I can google for language directory or [if I know the C-equivalent] language getwd. But those idiotic names don't let me do it. What about whitespace? It's a pity that the filename extension is .ws instead of . . Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brïn: basic is evil, why it must be eradicated
Ronn Blankenship wrote: I hate to play the pedantic resident Wikipedia expert here, but it's actually at [[R (programming language)]] (...) Oh, boy, a whole new language to learn . . . :):):) R is so simple that any computer geek that knows C can get the basics in 10 minutes - after reading a quick tutorial. Unfortunately, I didn't have this quick tutorial, so - in the spirit of Wikipedia - I wrote one :-) Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Whose Ox is Gored?
On Sep 23, 2006, at 6:05 AM, jdiebremse wrote: ... With that being said, I don't understand how the pastor can imagine Jesus saying that the State has no right to impose its view of when human life begins on other people, that there can never be a just law requiring uniformity of behavior on the abortion issue, but that the State has a moral imperative to take other people's property and give it to others. It seems to be that that is getting it exactly backwards - surely if the State can intervene on behalf of property it can intervene on human life. ... JDG Would that be an equation of property to life, then? - Jonathan - ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: 9/11 conspiracies (WAS RE: What should we believe when there is no reliable information?)
On Sep 16, 2006, at 1:12 PM, Dave Land wrote: After watching the Pyroclastic video that WTG pointed to, I realized that I'd been giving way too much credence to Just-So Stories about what might possibly have happened. It's not that this particular video was all that bad (it was utterly unconvincing to me, but that's beside the point), it just highlighted for me how much I'd been accepting the coulda beens and shouldna beens that are the stock in trade of conspiracy theories. I know it's not easy to back away from an ardently-defended point of view. I'm glad, though, that the light of reason broke at last. -- Warren Ockrassa Blog | http://indigestible.nightwares.com/ Books | http://books.nightwares.com/ Web | http://www.nightwares.com/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: 9/11 conspiracies (WAS RE: What should we believe when there is no reliable information?)
On Sep 19, 2006, at 8:01 AM, Nick Arnett wrote: On 9/18/06, Charlie Bell [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: ...'cause there's no such thing as something that is so well supported it can be considered a fact. Like gravity. Just a theory. I'm fairly certain that gravity is a fact. I occasionally say that evolution is a theory in much the same way that gravity is. How it works is a theory. Kind of a mystery, too, which is pretty cool when you think about it. -- Warren Ockrassa Blog | http://indigestible.nightwares.com/ Books | http://books.nightwares.com/ Web | http://www.nightwares.com/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: The Morality of Killing Babies
On Sep 19, 2006, at 9:48 AM, Julia Thompson wrote: Charlie Bell wrote: On 08/09/2006, at 7:16 AM, Warren Ockrassa wrote: Probably you haven't asked the right person. I base my ethical decisions on my ability to empathize. If I know a given action would cause me misery, I know that it's an action I shouldn't perpetrate upon another. ...unless you've asked first. While do unto others is a reasonable first approximation, it can also be arrogance to assume that what we want is what others want. But it's a starting point. On that note, I recommend http://www.autismstreet.org/weblog/?p=17 Important excerpt: The Platinum Rule is: Do unto others as they would have you do unto them. Does that also apply to mega-hot schoolteachers in their 20s and their fourteen-year-old students? Just tossing in a monkey-wrench. ;) -- Warren Ockrassa Blog | http://indigestible.nightwares.com/ Books | http://books.nightwares.com/ Web | http://www.nightwares.com/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Researchers Identify Human Skin Color Gene
On Sep 21, 2006, at 3:40 PM, Ronn!Blankenship wrote: Old, but found while looking up something else: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=0002E7CA-F27B-13A1- AFAA83414B7FFE9F Oh good. Soon we'll be able to cure blackness as well as homosexuality. Let's hear it for progress! -- Warren Ockrassa Blog | http://indigestible.nightwares.com/ Books | http://books.nightwares.com/ Web | http://www.nightwares.com/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: What should we believe when there is no reliable information?
John W Redelfs wrote: On 9/13/06, Gibson Jonathan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Thanks Dan, I guess I missed that message in the bustle of my life. As another after word, every single one of my Archt schoolmates contacted in no way buys the official story. Every one of them cited the pile-up of those vertical support beams should have tipped the building, any building, off to one side or another. None could think of examples of a zero footprint implosion w/o demolition. Confusion over the complete sell-off of all material that could be studied was a mystery that baffles many The same sort of thing baffled me after the fire that destroyed the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. How can anyone conduct an arson investigation to see who started the fire if the mess is cleaned up before the ashes are even warm? Isn't that called destroying evidence or something like that? What's really sad is when the law enforcement officials in charge of the investigation are the ones messing up the evidence. (I had a friend who was there at the site, observing the investigation; my understanding is that DPS was in charge, and they were totally messing up the area, much to the dismay of the FBI folks who were there. And no, I can't ask that friend about it now, because she died of cancer since then.) Julia ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Researchers Identify Human Skin Color Gene
Warren Ockrassa wrote: Oh good. Soon we'll be able to cure blackness as well as homosexuality. Let's hear it for progress! If the destruction of the ozone layer is not a myth, maybe it's time to seriously consider curing _whiteness_. Here in the tropics, just going for lunch at noon is enough to tan the skin. Alberto Monteiro the melanine challenged ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Researchers Identify Human Skin Color Gene
On Sep 23, 2006, at 10:12 AM, Alberto Vieira Ferreira Monteiro wrote: Warren Ockrassa wrote: Oh good. Soon we'll be able to cure blackness as well as homosexuality. Let's hear it for progress! If the destruction of the ozone layer is not a myth, It's not. maybe it's time to seriously consider curing _whiteness_. Here in the tropics, just going for lunch at noon is enough to tan the skin. An interesting idea -- but what do we do to protect the other hundred million or so nonhuman species? -- Warren Ockrassa Blog | http://indigestible.nightwares.com/ Books | http://books.nightwares.com/ Web | http://www.nightwares.com/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: The Fertility Gap
--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], J.D. Giorgis [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: A thought-provoking article about the implications of differing fertility rates based on political ideology in the US: http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008831 JDG Here's a similarly interesting article on how the Democrats are actually falling even further behind in the God gap since 20004 - Iraq war and all... http://www.slate.com/id/2148547/ JDG ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Researchers Identify Human Skin Color Gene
On 23 Sep 2006, at 6:23PM, Warren Ockrassa wrote: On Sep 23, 2006, at 10:12 AM, Alberto Vieira Ferreira Monteiro wrote: Warren Ockrassa wrote: Oh good. Soon we'll be able to cure blackness as well as homosexuality. Let's hear it for progress! If the destruction of the ozone layer is not a myth, It's not. maybe it's time to seriously consider curing _whiteness_. Here in the tropics, just going for lunch at noon is enough to tan the skin. An interesting idea -- but what do we do to protect the other hundred million or so nonhuman species? Little parasols. -- William T Goodall Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/ Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it. -- Donald E. Knuth ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Researchers Identify Human Skin Color Gene
William said: Little parasols. Why don't we just put a big parasol at the Earth-Sun L1 point? Rich ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Researchers Identify Human Skin Color Gene
On Sep 23, 2006, at 11:01 AM, Richard Baker wrote: William said: Little parasols. Why don't we just put a big parasol at the Earth-Sun L1 point? Or do as Mr. Burns tried to do! Woot! He's not a rapacious money-grubbing monster -- he's an environmentalist! -- Warren Ockrassa Blog | http://indigestible.nightwares.com/ Books | http://books.nightwares.com/ Web | http://www.nightwares.com/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brïn: basic is evil, why it must be eradicated
At 08:58 AM Saturday 9/23/2006, Alberto Vieira Ferreira Monteiro wrote: Ronn Blankenship wrote: So we now have R which comes from S, and C which comes from B. Anyone starting to miss the good old days when the name of a programming language actually stood for something? It makes it very hard to google search for help in anything. For example, if I want to know which perl [or python, or haskell, or intercal] function displays the current working directory, I can google for language directory or [if I know the C-equivalent] language getwd. But those idiotic names don't let me do it. What about whitespace? It's a pity that the filename extension is .ws instead of . . And if you searched for , presumably you would probably get every page indexed by Google . . . -- Ronn! :) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brïn: basic is evil, why it must be eradicated
At 09:00 AM Saturday 9/23/2006, Alberto Vieira Ferreira Monteiro wrote: Ronn Blankenship wrote: I hate to play the pedantic resident Wikipedia expert here, but it's actually at [[R (programming language)]] (...) Oh, boy, a whole new language to learn . . . :):):) R is so simple that any computer geek that knows C can get the basics in 10 minutes - after reading a quick tutorial. Unfortunately, I didn't have this quick tutorial, so - in the spirit of Wikipedia - I wrote one :-) Is it available? (I downloaded R last night.) -- Ronn! :) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Whose Ox is Gored?
At 11:03 AM Saturday 9/23/2006, Gibson Jonathan wrote: On Sep 23, 2006, at 6:05 AM, jdiebremse wrote: ... With that being said, I don't understand how the pastor can imagine Jesus saying that the State has no right to impose its view of when human life begins on other people, that there can never be a just law requiring uniformity of behavior on the abortion issue, but that the State has a moral imperative to take other people's property and give it to others. It seems to be that that is getting it exactly backwards - surely if the State can intervene on behalf of property it can intervene on human life. ... JDG Would that be an equation of property to life, then? Is your living body your property? -- Ronn! :) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Strange New Planet Baffles Astronomers
Ronn!Blankenship wrote: The scientists will continue observing HAT-P-1 to see if such an explanation could hold in this case, but until we can find an explanation for both of these swollen planets, they remain a great mystery, Sasselov said. I hear swollen planet and I'm thinking bruising. :) Then again, I've been badly bruised this month, and I'm still pretty tender in spots (and those spots feel swollen, as well). :P Julia ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brïn: basic is evil, why it must be eradicated
Ronn Blankenship wrote: R is so simple that any computer geek that knows C can get the basics in 10 minutes - after reading a quick tutorial. Unfortunately, I didn't have this quick tutorial, so - in the spirit of Wikipedia - I wrote one :-) Is it available? (I downloaded R last night.) It's in the Wikipedia page - just a few starter commands, and the rest is available by the help method of the language. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Strange New Planet Baffles Astronomers
I say it's a dyson sphere and to hell with calling it a planet. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: 9/11 conspiracies (WAS RE: What should we believe when there is no reliable information?)
On 24/09/2006, at 2:58 AM, Warren Ockrassa wrote: On Sep 19, 2006, at 8:01 AM, Nick Arnett wrote: On 9/18/06, Charlie Bell [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: ...'cause there's no such thing as something that is so well supported it can be considered a fact. Like gravity. Just a theory. I'm fairly certain that gravity is a fact. I occasionally say that evolution is a theory in much the same way that gravity is. How it works is a theory. Kind of a mystery, too, which is pretty cool when you think about it. Very cool indeed. Mysteries are what science is all about. Charlie ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Researchers Identify Human Skin Color Gene
On 24/09/2006, at 3:12 AM, Alberto Vieira Ferreira Monteiro wrote: Warren Ockrassa wrote: Oh good. Soon we'll be able to cure blackness as well as homosexuality. Let's hear it for progress! If the destruction of the ozone layer is not a myth, maybe it's time to seriously consider curing _whiteness_. Here in the tropics, just going for lunch at noon is enough to tan the skin. Here in Melbourne, 15 minutes of early morning winter sun is enough to cause a mild sunburn. It's worse in Hobart, where the ozone hole has reached, and southern Chile is under the hole too. Charlie ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Using single-letter names for programming languages is evil, why it must be eradicated
At 08:58 AM Saturday 9/23/2006, Alberto Vieira Ferreira Monteiro wrote: Ronn Blankenship wrote: So we now have R which comes from S, and C which comes from B. Anyone starting to miss the good old days when the name of a programming language actually stood for something? It makes it very hard to google search for help in anything. For example, if I want to know which perl [or python, or haskell, or intercal] function displays the current working directory, I can google for language directory or [if I know the C-equivalent] language getwd. But those idiotic names don't let me do it. What about whitespace? It's a pity that the filename extension is .ws instead of . . I was doing some more searching and came across more of them, frex A+, J, and K all being some sort of follow-on version of APL (some of which use ASCII, some the original character set . . . ) Quotequad Maru -- Ronn! :) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
