LaVache

When I was young I collected Baseball Cards, not as means to profit although that collection I have stashed is probably worth something, but as an end in and of itself. I would research the players, study the stats, watch old baseball games, study the history and rules of the game and spend hours looking through my collection. Autographed cards with documentation were a collectible step up from non-autographed cards and I found it interesting to look at the actual signatures. Everyone signs their name differently and it was a curiosity to me at the time. I was never hugely into that aspect as it was either expensive or travel intensive to build a large collection of autographed cards and I had very limited resources since I was so young. Still, I did derive some pleasure out of attaining the small number of autographed cards that I did. So for me the personal pleasure I got was the end and I found it quite rewarding. *EDIT* Hank Aaron and Bob Gibson were my favorite players if anyone cares. My Grandfather was always a big fan of Mickey Mantle's play and recently got a very handsome autographed photo to hang on his wall. It serves as art and a reminder of bygone days.

The arm chair quarterback in me wants to say that I would unequivocally choose to save my own life, but I can't deny the possibility that when faced with the horror of killing an innocent person I might come to the conclusion that the act itself might have such a damaging effect on me that I would rather die than live with my actions. Option three is right out and might even be immoral.

I wouldn't get too excited. The Press Release is from last year, and Multiverse doesn't have anything about a Firefly MMO in their Upcoming Games page. I loved the show, but I think that Joss is pretty much done with anything Firefly related. He hasn't even come out with a sequal to the Firefly comic (which was the best selling comic the month it came out and has a 1 on the side implying that more were supposed to come). I can't blame Joss, if that is the case. He poured a lot of himself into the show, which died, and then several years later poured a lot of himself into the movie, which didn't do very well in the box office.

Seems like most colleges require you to know Java before you can transfer into their CS programs or require you to take Java as a freshman. So if you're interested in getting a head start for that, you could give Java a try.

I enjoyed his posts a lot and would like to offer my condolences.

They might have VERY mild cases, but I doubt it. Both are brutally honest in social situations, past what many would consider polite, and both seem trouble understanding why people act the way they do in some social interactions. Rearden is extremely out of place at a party and I doubt very much that he has any idea why anybody enjoys them. Both also have focal interests, Architecture and Metalurgy. The time that they spend on these interests is beyond the norm, but not unhealthy in any way that I can see. It is much easier for someone with Aspergers to socialize if they are either in small groups or talking about their focal interest, but they do seem to act much more naturally with each other than would be expected. It would be more accurate to say thay Rearden and Roark act superficially like someone with a very mild case of Aspergers, but without much of the deficits. Here's a little info on the genetic portion of Asperger's (it's a mild form of Autism, which the article points out about 2/3s of the way down) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17630334/wid/11915773?GT1=9145 .

I have Asperger's (extensive psychological testing was done at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign) and I make do socially. I don't tend to go out and meet new people, but I have a few friends and I'm both comfortable and happy with that. I tend to hyperfocus on things (World of Warcraft among others), but all it takes is a little nudge (dude, you've been at that for a while) to get me headed in more productive directions where that very same focus can give me an edge. *nutshell* Like most things, Asperger's isn't the end of the world and you'll adapt to it with time, and if you have it you've probably done a great deal of adapting already.

I'm not suprised at all by the claim that the global mean temp is politically driven, so much else in the global warming debate is, I just wish they would have put a little more of his argument in that teaser exerpt.

That'd be because I didn't have any sources nearby (didn't feel like rolling around in internet Al Gore type propoganda...but I guess I will next time to avoid the village idiot role) and couldn't remember what kind of timeline. *EDIT* Thanks for the awesome info Thales, I really appreciate that and will try to dig it up on my own next time.

AFAIK the question as to whether or not the average global temperature has been increasing over the last decade is not in question, which seems to be the very definition of global warming (short term). What we don't know is why. Many scientists claim that it is because of our use of fossil fuels. I think that they are evading the reality that the global climate has flucuated from much colder than now to much warmer than now before fossil fuels were widely used. *EDIT* This doesn't mean that fossil fuels don't play a role in global warming, but we can't pretend we know how large of a role until we better understand carbon absorbtion by the environment and the warming effects of cosmic rays. I've heard that roughly 18% of greenhous gases are the result of domestic animal's digestion (I've heard this number multiple times, but I don't have a link to the study...so consider yourself warned), so I doubt that SUVs will turn out to be the big bad wolf in the global warming scenario.

I can understand, to a certain extent, why Miss Rand would spend her time perfecting her philosophy instead of formulating part of it and then spending huge amounts of time with peer-reviews, but are there any current plans to present her ideas and defend them in a peer-reviewed format (or is this already being done by the people you linked to in your post?)? I saw that Tara Smith has published some works, but are these peer-reviewed or in the vein of Miss Rands non-fiction?

Aren't collective nouns treated as singular if the members of the group are acting individually?

DavidOdden, could you suggest a good grammar text? I'm a bit rusty on some of the fine points and would like to brush up.

Sorry, I meant to write "industrialist hero." I'll go edit that now *EDIT* I can't edit, it's been too long.

The same rights as anyone else (I assume retarded in this sense means having a low IQ, and not being a vegetable or something). What they wouldn't have is the right to force you to support them.

Henry Ford was successful in his productive endevours to such a degree that they should be recorded in the history books. He was a second rate antisemite, and couldn't hold a candle to those that devoted their entire lives to undermining and destroying Jews. History books are no place for listing every second rate accomplishment, and it wouldn't be possible to anyway. He would be a more perfect example of a human being if he wasn't antisemitc, but that doesn't make him any less of a hero.

I agree that Iran is out of control and must be stopped, but would nuking Tehran solve our Iranian problem or would we need to nuke the entire country?

I play WoW as well, Bbrevus-Paladin-Argent Dawn (RP-PvE). This is a bit off topic, but do any of you WoW guys wonder if playing is even worth it? I mean the game is pretty fun...the first few times you do Dungeon/Raid X, but it quickly degenerates into doing the same thing over and over again in the hope that you might just get Item Y. Don't get me wrong, even Molten Core can be made bearable if you have the right set of guys joking with each other over Vent, but I could just as easily go hang out with some guys in person and joke around without doing the same boring Dungeon I've done who knows how many times before.

That and you could possibly poison/kill your neighbors/their animals depending on what kind of pollution we are talking about here.

As far as I know the Many-Worlds theories and other extremely off the wall interpretations of QM are not taken very seriously in the scientific world, because of a staggering lack of evidence.

But, you can't troll as well that way.

Same here, I think you may have happened upon some malware Mweiss.

I'm going to stick to my statement that even if a calculator was impractically expensive (they were once, for most people at least) that many people still wanted one. Does the lowering of price somehow increase your desire of the product, or must the price simply be lowered to equal your level of desire (yes this may be a messy way of saying it, and no I don't have a formula for converting apples to oranges or cash to desire. However, if you have no desire for a product you won't buy it no matter how low the price goes, even if they're giving it away "I don't need that piece of worthless crud taking up space in my house." *I know that desire and want are two different words, and neither word is demand, but I think you all get my meaning. If not ask and I will clarify to the best of my ability...when I log on next. Point taken, we do seem to be using different definitions. I believe that the man that invented the calculator definitely wanted something easier to use/more powerful than a slide rule (is slide rule two words? If so I apologize, I actually have one and should probably be able to spell it). The "there is no problem" assumes that human beings have no imagination, which is false. While I may not be able to imagine exactly what something more powerful/easier to use than a calculator would be, I absolute do not accept that the calculator is the absolute pinnacle of man made personal computational devices...and quite frankly I would like something better. And when I get it I'll want something even better, and my (and others's) desire will help insure that we continue progressing technological and do not become complacent because "there is no problem."

If people are currently using sliderules and datatables for computation, believe you me they want a calculator! If you have ever used a product and thought, "That did make my task easier, but is it possible for something else to help me more?" then you have wanted something that doesn't exist. People don't randomly invent things and hope that there is a market, they search out current market areas that they think they can improve, and invent something to do so.

Interesting questions, especially about the poker. The way I see it you wouldn't be a drain on the economy at all, it would be quite the opposite since you would be making money and spending it. I'm not exactly sure how to answer the "not adding any kind of value to society" part of the question, but that is itself becoming less of a factor since some of the major tournaments are televised, and folks at home will be able to derive entertainment from your play. I would guess that something similiar would happen on an individual basis with your opponents. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you were a true poker afficianado wouldn't you be able to derrive some value from playing and losing to a superior player? The implicit agreement involving the free widget is that you will try their product, so I'd say that it would be wrong to get the widget without giving them a fair shake. I'd say that if your had no interest in their product, but did try it out and ultimately returned it you wouldn't be doing anything wrong. For your root question I assume that you are asking if it would be ethical for someone to essentially sell another person the rights to do something that would normally be considered a rights violation (signing a contract that allows another person to beat you daily for a set weekly payment). I would say that fulfilling such a contract would likely demean you as a person, lower your self-esteem, and basically be immoral. As long as no one was coersed or forced into signing the contract, such an agreement should be legal.