Re: Prisoner Status
On 7/12/05, Dan Minette [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote a bunch of stuff. I will slowly get to it. PBS Frontline had an excellent show tonight on the Europeans fighting terrorists. Some of what I thought were highlights. A big split between how the Europeans are handling terrorism and America. Europe does primarily treat it as a police problem and has been pretty successful, despite the major bombings including London. Sixty-eight plots had been stopped, some bigger than 9/11. (Several people complained about Bush and the lack of cooperation with America but I will ignore Bush, he is now just an ineffective incompetent lame duck.) Spain has a policy of holding terrorists up to four years without charges because of the need to keep this web of virus-like cells from operating and the difficulty in making some cases. Complaints of the Americans still having an 80's model of terrorists with a more formal structure. A major terrorist in Germany on trial will probably win because the US will not provide Gitmo prisoners to testify against him. Even if they were provided their testimony may be ruled inadmissible because of the possibility of torture. Someone from the CIA noted that since the 90's - starting with Clinton, the CIA had to decide how to treat terrorists because there has been no direction from the White House. The CIA decided they had a preventative role, primarily adopting the policy of shipping captives to countries most likely to keep them locked up and provide more information through interrogation. The biggest threat may not be directly al Qaeda but an Egyptian inspired group which advises not following the Koran or Muslim teachings. They have a theory of special dispensation because of the mission they are on where it is more important to blend in to strike at enemies. Nearly all terrorists are not very religious but have been radicalized students and young professionals, often engineers. This is a political extremist movement but they want to create a Muslim religious network of states. Does this make it a religious movement? I don't think so but am not sure - we have such a blending and blurring of the lines between political and religious fundamentalist groups now, not only within Islam but with American Dominionists and Indian fundamentalist Hindus. Europeans seem to hold that the terrorists are seeking to reestablish the Great Caliphate when Arabs were the major political and intellectual Empire. This is similar to the view expressed by many others here but not expressed by officials on the program were the racial and religious bigotry I normally hear by those writing or speaking of this. More directly to Dan: Interesting contradiction in the Weekly Standard: I can't ignore the irony of calling Gitmo kind which is only possible by the comparison to secret CIA facilities. But neither the CIA facilities, nor the far more open, regulated, and by most accounts kind Guantanamo jail, are likely to have made us less safe by boosting the recruitment of holy warriors. It's possible that the humiliating image of these prisons is somewhere in the cauldron that makes for death-wish holy warriors. Not enough time has passed to allow us to know for sure one way or the other. But then it argues: However, it is far more reasonable to suppose, given the history of al Qaeda and of the first generation of holy warriors, that the prison's closure would be seen on Islamic extremist websites--the ones *New York Times* columnist Thomas Friedman is rightly terrified of--as an enormous boon to militants. Somehow it misses the point that both views are true - now that we have it and the world knows about our vaulted democracy and rule of law and semi-torture it is a recruitment tool and when we close it it will be seen as a victory. I have expressed my opinions of Friedman and the fearful supporters of the view expressed here before. The article does seem to avoid the point that Gitmo sole reason for being was to avoid US or another nation's or arguably international laws. I agree when they write this: The administration should also consider challenging Congress to make membership in several Islamic extremist groups punishable by death or life imprisonment. and this The administration should demand of itself very high intelligence standards for ascertaining whether someone belongs to al Qaeda, or Algeria's vicious and al Qaeda-aligned Armed Islamic Group, or just the often intellectually ugly but nonlethal Tabligh fundamentalist movement. I disagree in a number of places and don't think he is arguing for the rule of law and not vengeance and I believe he is arguing for the establishment of some more imperial state that I would. Particularly when he concludes The Bush administration should minimize the possible intrusion of the courts into the strategy and tactics of the war on terror... I disagree with his outlook for Iraq and the Middle
Re: Local car heat-related child death
On Jul 12, 2005, at 6:46 PM, Ronn!Blankenship wrote: I think those men consider babies that issue from their sexual escalades While some of them probably do drive Cadillacs, I think the word you want here might be escapades . . . :P Actually, the word I wanted was escalades, an intentional misspelling of escapades, intended to bring to mind a vehicle I associate with selfish males. Dave They were all in one accord Maru ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
The Hunting of Liberals
David Neiwert had a review of the propaganda campaign being waged against liberals from the White House on down. Notably he finds related propaganda campaigns earlier in our nation's history and even very similar joke signs and where they led.. http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2005/06/hunting-of-liberals.html Noted this after rechecking his site after replying to Dan on the war against terrorism. -- Gary Denton http://www.apollocon.org June 23-25, 2006 Easter Lemming Blogs http://elemming.blogspot.com http://elemming2.blogspot.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Local car heat-related child death
At 01:44 AM Wednesday 7/13/2005, Dave Land wrote: They were all in one accord Maru Send in the Clowns? -- Ronn! :) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: They were For it before they were Against it
Jeanne D'Arc discovered that the Cardinal developed this Op-Ed with the Discovery Institute - the Protestant Creationist unthink tank that is pushing Intelligent Design. One of the comments mentions an internal document that was leaked from the Discovery Institute that advocated using ID as a wedge issue and getting major religious groups to start attacking evolution in favor of ID. http://bodyandsoul.typepad.com/blog/2005/07/come_back_siste.html http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/2437/wedge.html Cardinal was simply used by the fundies as part of their campaign to turn the US into an ignorant and God-fearing nation. -- Gary Denton http://www.apollocon.org June 23-25, 2006 Easter Lemming Blogs http://elemming.blogspot.com http://elemming2.blogspot.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: They were For it before they were Against it
Gary Denton wrote: Jeanne D'Arc discovered that the Cardinal developed this Op-Ed with the Discovery Institute - the Protestant Creationist unthink tank that is pushing Intelligent Design. One of the comments mentions an internal document that was leaked from the Discovery Institute that advocated using ID as a wedge issue and getting major religious groups to start attacking evolution in favor of ID. http://bodyandsoul.typepad.com/blog/2005/07/come_back_siste.html http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/2437/wedge.html Cardinal was simply used by the fundies as part of their campaign to turn the US into an ignorant and God-fearing nation. I doubt he says anything without pope Rats permission. Remember kids, Dont do pope! ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Weekly Chat Reminder
As Steve said, The Brin-L weekly chat has been a list tradition for over six years. Way back on 27 May, 1998, Marco Maisenhelder first set up a chatroom for the list, and on the next day, he established a weekly chat time. We've been through several servers, chat technologies, and even casts of regulars over the years, but the chat goes on... and we want more recruits! Whether you're an active poster or a lurker, whether you've been a member of the list from the beginning or just joined today, we would really like for you to join us. We have less politics, more Uplift talk, and more light-hearted discussion. We're non-fattening and 100% environmentally friendly... -(_() Though sometimes marshmallows do get thrown. The Weekly Brin-L chat is scheduled for Wednesday 3 PM Eastern/2 PM Central time in the US, or 7 PM Greenwich time. There's usually somebody there to talk to for at least eight hours after the start time. If you want to attend, it's really easy now. All you have to do is send your web browser to: http://wtgab.demon.co.uk/~brinl/mud/ ..And you can connect directly from William's new web interface! My instruction page tells you how to log on, and how to talk when you get in: http://www.brin-l.org/brinmud.html It also gives a list of commands to use when you're in there. In addition, it tells you how to connect through a MUD client, which is more complicated to set up initially, but easier and more reliable than the web interface once you do get it set up. -- William T Goodall Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/ This message was sent automatically using cron. But even if WTG is away on holiday, at least it shows the server is still up. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Local car heat-related child death
Dave Land wrote: On Jul 12, 2005, at 6:46 PM, Ronn!Blankenship wrote: I think those men consider babies that issue from their sexual escalades While some of them probably do drive Cadillacs, I think the word you want here might be escapades . . . :P Actually, the word I wanted was escalades, an intentional misspelling of escapades, intended to bring to mind a vehicle I associate with selfish males. Dave They were all in one accord Maru How many? Were there enough seatbelts for all of them? :) Julia ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Biblical Humor (was: Re: Local car heat-related child death)
On Jul 13, 2005, at 11:09 AM, Julia Thompson wrote: Dave Land wrote: They were all in one accord Maru How many? Were there enough seatbelts for all of them? :) Yes. And there were twelve basketfuls of seatbelts left over afterwards. For those who don't know, They were all in one accord is part of the answer to the question When is a car first mentioned in the Bible? The rest of the answer is Acts 2:1. There is a whole batch of When is X first mentioned in the Bible? jokes. Baseball: In the BIG INNING. Tennis: When Joseph served in Pharaoh's court. and so forth Dave ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Irregulars question: excel
I have two columns - let's call them A and Z - and I want to calculate what would in any decent programming language be the sum of f(A[i], Z[i]) [where f is a given function]. Is there any way I can do this? Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Irregulars question: excel
- Original Message - From: Alberto Monteiro [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Killer Bs Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2005 5:16 PM Subject: Irregulars question: excel I have two columns - let's call them A and Z - and I want to calculate what would in any decent programming language be the sum of f(A[i], Z[i]) [where f is a given function]. Is there any way I can do this? Alberto Monteiro Define AA[1]=f(A[1],Z[1]) go to the lower right corner, left click on it and drag it down to AA[n}, where n is the last row then, go to AAn+2, and say =sum(aa1:aan) and that's your answer. Dan M. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Irregulars question: excel
At 05:16 PM Wednesday 7/13/2005, Alberto Monteiro wrote: I have two columns - let's call them A and Z - and I want to calculate what would in any decent programming language be the sum of f(A[i], Z[i]) [where f is a given function]. Is there any way I can do this? The simplest and most obvious way which comes to mind is to do it in two steps: (1) Create a third column, which we'll call B, which contains the results of the function applied to the elements in each row, i.e., B[i] = f(A[i], Z[i]). (2) Use the SUM function (Insert Function Math Trig) to sum the desired range of elements in column B. Frex, if the range of i is from i=5 to i=20, SUM(B5:B20) will sum those elements. Depending on the exact nature of your function f, you may find useful information in the Help entries for SUMPRODUCT, SERIESSUM, etc . . . In particular, there a number of built-in functions which do the kinds of sums often encountered in statistics, e.g., the sum of X[i]^2, the sum of X[i]*Y[i], etc, as well as things like SUMIF, which sums only those elements in the range which meet a given conditional. HTH. -- Ronn! :) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Irregulars question: excel
I wrote... I have two columns - let's call them A and Z - and I want to calculate what would in any decent programming language be the sum of f(A[i], Z[i]) [where f is a given function]. Is there any way I can do this? ... and now I regret for the oversimplification. The precise thing that I want makes it not viable to create a new column, because _f_ will not remain a function, but a _series_ of functions - and creating one new column for each _f_ is not adequate. Namely: there is a table with values A[i] and Z[i]. There is another table with values F[j] [and here I use different indexes on purpose]. I want to make column G[j] as... G[j] = sum over i ( function of (F[j], A[i] and Z[i])) So, the extra-column solution won't work. I would like something like: G[j] = SUM( etc etc F[j] etc etc A1:A1000 etc etc Z1:Z1000) but somehow this construct does not work. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Irregulars question: excel
On 14 Jul 2005, at 1:34 am, Alberto Monteiro wrote: I wrote... I have two columns - let's call them A and Z - and I want to calculate what would in any decent programming language be the sum of f(A[i], Z[i]) [where f is a given function]. Is there any way I can do this? ... and now I regret for the oversimplification. The precise thing that I want makes it not viable to create a new column, because _f_ will not remain a function, but a _series_ of functions - and creating one new column for each _f_ is not adequate. You don't want to keep the intermediate results then? Namely: there is a table with values A[i] and Z[i]. There is another table with values F[j] [and here I use different indexes on purpose]. I want to make column G[j] as... G[j] = sum over i ( function of (F[j], A[i] and Z[i])) So, the extra-column solution won't work. I would like something like: G[j] = SUM( etc etc F[j] etc etc A1:A1000 etc etc Z1:Z1000) but somehow this construct does not work. VBA? -- William T Goodall Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/ Mac OS X is a rock-solid system that's beautifully designed. I much prefer it to Linux. - Bill Joy. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Irregulars question: excel
William T Goodall wrote: I would like something like: G[j] = SUM( etc etc F[j] etc etc A1:A1000 etc etc Z1:Z1000) but somehow this construct does not work. VBA? I will try to use PivotTables. If this doesn't work, I will forget Excel and redo everything using a decent tool. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Are You a Science-Fiction Scholar? (Quiz)
http://encarta.msn.com/quiz_168/Are_You_a_Science-Fiction_Scholar.html Everybody knows that Klingons are crabby and that Jedis use the Force. But how much do you really know about science fiction? Take a tour through science-fiction history and see how you measure up. *** -Twavis You got 7/11 correct Edmunds _ Take charge with a pop-up guard built on patented Microsoft® SmartScreen Technology http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-capage=byoa/premxAPID=1994DI=1034SU=http://hotmail.com/encaHL=Market_MSNIS_Taglines Start enjoying all the benefits of MSN® Premium right now and get the first two months FREE*. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Are You a Science-Fiction Scholar? (Quiz)
Travis Edmunds wrote: http://encarta.msn.com/quiz_168/Are_You_a_Science-Fiction_Scholar.html Everybody knows that Klingons are crabby and that Jedis use the Force. But how much do you really know about science fiction? Take a tour through science-fiction history and see how you measure up. I'm embarrassed to say that I got only 10/11 right. I somehow guessed the right answer for the obscure Kirk question, and yet I confused the Bene Gesserit chant with the Mentat chant. __ Steve Sloan . Huntsville, Alabama = [EMAIL PROTECTED] Brin-L list pages .. http://www.brin-l.org Science Fiction-themed online store . http://www.sloan3d.com/store Chmeee's 3D Objects http://www.sloan3d.com/chmeee 3D and Drawing Galleries .. http://www.sloansteady.com Software Science Fiction, Science, and Computer Links Science fiction scans . http://www.sloan3d.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Are You a Science-Fiction Scholar? (Quiz)
Steve wrote: I'm embarrassed to say that I got only 10/11 right. I somehow guessed the right answer for the obscure Kirk question, and yet I confused the Bene Gesserit chant with the Mentat chant. Much better than me, I missed two - and I got a couple of wild guesses right. I'm pretty happy with 9 of 11. -- Doug ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Are You a Science-Fiction Scholar? (Quiz)
Travis Edmunds wrote: http://encarta.msn.com/quiz_168/Are_You_a_Science-Fiction_Scholar.html Everybody knows that Klingons are crabby and that Jedis use the Force. But how much do you really know about science fiction? Take a tour through science-fiction history and see how you measure up. *** -Twavis You got 7/11 correct Edmunds Oh, man. Should I be ashamed or proud? 11/11 Julia ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Irregulars question: excel
At 07:34 PM Wednesday 7/13/2005, Alberto Monteiro wrote: I wrote... I have two columns - let's call them A and Z - and I want to calculate what would in any decent programming language be the sum of f(A[i], Z[i]) [where f is a given function]. Is there any way I can do this? ... and now I regret for the oversimplification. Perhaps you could be a little more specific about what you're trying to do and someone may be able to figure out a way to do it, even if no one has a suggestion of how to solve the general problem you posed in a satisfactory manner . . . (IOW, what is f?) -- Ronn! :) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Are You a Science-Fiction Scholar? (Quiz)
On Jul 13, 2005, at 8:15 PM, Julia Thompson wrote: Travis Edmunds wrote: http://encarta.msn.com/quiz_168/Are_You_a_Science-Fiction_Scholar.html Everybody knows that Klingons are crabby and that Jedis use the Force. But how much do you really know about science fiction? Take a tour through science-fiction history and see how you measure up. *** -Twavis You got 7/11 correct Edmunds Oh, man. Should I be ashamed or proud? 11/11 I felt that my 8/11 (involving some wild [and, as it turns out, incorrect] guessing about H. G. Wells' name, slight cheating about fear, the mind killer [I saw Steve's mention of the Bene Gesserit] and a failed attempt to get it wrong with the Princess of Helium) was respectable both from a SF street cred standpoint (barely passing, but passing nonetheless) and a still has a life standpoint (11/11 is just sad). Then minus about 100 still has a life points for thinking that there is even a difference between having a life and being an SF fan. I found it excusable that I failed to recognize that Deep Thought was from HHGG because they failed to name the answer completely: it is not the Ultimate Answer, but the Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything, but I suppose that would have been just giving it away. Dave Life? Don't talk to me about life. Maru ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
