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Soth

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  1. I misunderstood you. Sorry I did not mean to derail the thread.
  2. Israel is currently too busy releasing 1027 prisoners in exchange for one kidnapped Israeli soldier to notice USA's weak (non)response to the terrorist attempt by the Iran regime. I don't think it's a great mystery what kind of 'reaction' you'll see coming out of Israel to the Iranian terrorist plot.
  3. Why are such liberty dollars desirable? Wouldn't it be a lot easier to just use precious metals and I owe yous of precious metals for the same purpose? That way you avoid the risk of fraud charges, and the overhead of paying someone to mint the coins and generally run the whole business.
  4. Unfortunately the computer had a great advantage over the human players. It was able to beat them to the buzzer almost constantly. If you watch the videos, you'll notice that the human players tried to buzz but came second, and the computer got the correct answer. Not wanting to detract from the achievement of IBM in building a super computer that can understand tricky textual questions and come up with the correct answer, but the score difference between the computer and the human should not be taken to represent true difference in knowledge quantity, only advantage in buzzing ability. Consider this imaginary situation: All the questions are extremely easy (say, math questions). In this case no one would be surprised that a computer can beat a human champion in Jeopardy match. For all we know, the human players knew the correct answers to more questions than the computer did, but lost simply due to buzzing ability. I am excited to see a computer that can come up with the answers to the questions Watson did, but this whole 'computer beats human champions' thing is a sham from IBM. They're blowing dust in the eyes of tv viewers. Edit: For those of you unaware, in Jeopardy you can not buzz until the host has finished reading the question. That means as a human player if you know the answer, you can either buzz frequently (not entirely sure if this does not get punished by a delay) or wait until the host has finished reading the question. Furthermore, Watson received an electronic signal telling it when buzzing became 'enabled'. This enabled the computer to beat the humans to the buzzer in situations when they both knew the answers.
  5. You have both missed and didn't miss something together. You will remain in this state until an outside observer collapses your probability space. To OP: I was waiting for you to fill the post =/
  6. I may not be a physicist, but the negative temperature concept did not convince me. It appears they are rigging the system to sorta match what a reverse temperature (negative temp) would behave like, but they aren't doing so by manipulating temperatures.
  7. I think it's also partially because we're taught it's not nice to brag, that each person is good in his own way, that we aren't better than anyone else, etc etc. Accepting that you're guilty of something is an extension of this. You aren't claiming to be guiltless, are you? What kind of arrogant individualist are you to claim innocence? By claiming unearned guilt you immediately put yourself near the bottom of the pile, thus immune to criticism from those around you.
  8. Yes. You're in school to get education, not as a servant or a slave. The fact that they have the nerve to tell you in your face it's your duty to serve them, and then try and make you feel like you're the one who's wrong to disagree, is unforgivable. I can only wish you that you'll be out of there soon.
  9. Tomer, the school is very unjust towards you. Mechuyavut Ishit is BS.
  10. Sad indeed. If seeing how Hitchens does not repent now that he has cancer will get some religious people thinking, then perhaps there is some good that may yet come out of this.
  11. Soth

    Korea

    The article was mildly amusing read. I especially enjoyed Obama's non realistic actions in that story. 'The end is coming' isn't anything new. I for one hope that SK will retaliate with a full scale attack and destroy NK. There will be many casualties and it is unfortunate. There will be more casualties if they attack today than if they did 10 years ago. There will probably be still even more casualties if they wait for another 5-10 years. Even if they do not attack, I hope this will convince them to cease all humanitarian aid to NK and all diplomatic activities. These do nothing but strengthen the totalitarian NK regime. I hope the rest of the world does the same. That is, help eliminate NK, and fully morally and otherwise back up South Korea in it's just cause. I suspect NK will lose it's will to fight sooner than people think, since I expect most of it's population and army is already against the regime. Though if NK has nukes, it will probably use them. But I can see no way around that. Perhaps an overwhelming opening attack with outside help can devastate their nuclear capabilities before they can launch them? I can only hope. Edit: Here's one of my favourite photos, because it illustrates the results of ideas and philosophy so well:
  12. I'm 26 and do not have children of my own yet. Having said that, my parents never physically punished me. I feel tremendous respect towards them, and I honestly feel safe in saying I don't believe I would feel the same respect had they beat me when I was a child. In fact, I'm fairly sure I would resent it greatly. Perhaps I would have been able to overcome it, but I would most certainly feel that it were wrong of them to use physical punishments.
  13. After going through the information in this thread and the various links, I've come to the conclusion that the 'scan or pat down' alternatives are unnecessary. I have realized that the TSA is unable to wield this power responsibly, that it does not prevent passengers from getting knives on board airplanes, that it represents an unprecedented action by the government directed at law abiding citizens, that there are better ways to go about increasing aerial security, I now feel certain that I am right in rejecting this. I hope this new power grab will be abolished soon. The fact that they've waited until after the elections is revealing, indeed.
  14. Quick, we must give the government more funding to solve this crisis!
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