jeudi 30 novembre 2017

Advice on Samsung Tab A

Several years ago I bought a rather inexpensive tablet, in order to find out whether I would use one and how. I bought one with a 10.1" screen, after experimenting in a store with that size and the smaller screens. The model I got came with a cover that had a Bluetooth keyboard built into it.

I discovered that the tablet worked just fine for both those purposes and for others as I got more apps, and it became even more useful after I started using the Overdrive app to read e-books from the public library.

Now the screen has become either unresponsive or too responsive, the zoom feature is not stable, the keyboard doesn't want to charge, and the cover is becoming worn. I am looking for a new tablet.

The Samsung Tab A is available through Best Buy for about $280 and through Costco for about $270.

Does anyone have any advice, feedback, opinion, experience with this specific model of tablet? I would not be buying a keyboard for it; I have found that if I am going to use it to type more than a few lines, it's better to plug in a full-size USB keyboard.

ETA, since my cataract surgery, I find that I need a higher-resolution screen than previously, and also that the screen brightness needs to be pretty high.


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Not guilty verdict in Kate Steinle murder

http://ift.tt/2kcPnxK

Convicted for possession of a firearm, not guilty of 2nd degree murder.

When I saw how the city immediately sought to minimize the act itself I had a bad feeling that this was going to be the result.

Within 48 hours of the crime the DA's office had already decided that this wasn't a first degree murder case due to the shooters statement that "he didn't mean to kill the lady."


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Not guilty verdict in Kate Steinle muder

deleted


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Marco Rubio spills beans about cutting Social Security and Medicare

http://ift.tt/2AMomIr

Quote:

Asked by interviewers Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman how to address the federal deficit, he replied: “We have to do two things. We have to generate economic growth which generates revenue, while reducing spending. That will mean instituting structural changes to Social Security and Medicare for the future.”
Hopefully they will do this before the mid-term elections so they can see how well it's going to go over.


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do you really exist or not? according to Allan Watts you are an illusion

What you guys think about it, about Jim Carrey recent interviews saying he believes you don't actually exist or if you exist you don't matter, and we are all impersonal tetrahedrons and forms of consciousness of "god", I don't know what he means by that anyways, since I don't believe in god. Also there are many videos from a philosopher called "Allan Watts" on youtube, and some other "gurus", saying they can actually proves it. I know the concept of existence they don't define it,

I think therefore I am, is that true?

watch?v=vNKOUhx-7qk
watch?v=_eqdoyzfQJo
watch?v=Px54l5dJZz8
watch?v=Px54l5dJZz8


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Russell murders, new suspect.

News that Levi Bellfield, already convicted murderer, has made a confession to killing Lin and Megan Russell in Kent in 1996. The admission, to another prisoner, allegedly contains details only the killer would know.

Then there is also a witness who says she reported seeing a man, who she now identifies as Bellfield near the scene of the murder. Apparently she made the initial report on the day of the murder. When she later saw Bellfield in publicity for a later trial, she is sure it was him.

The conviction of Michael Stone for the murder was primarily on a supposed admission he made. There was no forensic evidence linking him, which is odd considering the ferocity of the attack with a hammer, that also killed the dog the Russells had with them.

The MO is also like Bellfield, who killed Amelie Delagrange with strikes from a blunt instrument.

http://ift.tt/2AgQX7Z

Initially this looks pretty compelling Stone is the wrong man for the murders. The sad thing is that despite the evidence, this will likely take a long time, as the justice system hates to admit it has made a mistake with a conviction.


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Cognitive Theory: Ongoing Progress, part 2

Lately, I've been investigating ways of breaking causality in Turing derivative devices (like computers). I remembered that years ago I wrote a non-recursive solution to Towers of Hanoi that wasn't sensitive to the initial state. In other words, it could begin with any legal positioning of the disks and solve in the least number of moves. So, it occurred to me that if the program didn't rely on the previous state for a solution then this would imply a causal break. And it would seem that randomness in the environment would do the same thing. This wasn't a new idea. I was well aware that Hofstadter said the same thing almost forty years ago.

The next thing to consider was whether this appears in living organisms. The example that came to mind was stereotypical behavior of zoo animals. For example, bears will pace for hours at a time. In the documentaries I'd seen on this the treatment was to make the bear's environment more random. So, it looks like we have confirmation of degraded behavior when environmental entropy is lacking, and an improvement of behavior when environmental entropy is restored. To be honest, the idea that something as intelligent as a bear is so dependent on environmental entropy was quite surprising to me.

This could mean that animals have been more dependent on environmental entropy than I suspected. This would also suggest that animal consciousness would be more constrained. However humans don't seem to have this severe reliance on environmental entropy. Why? The next question is if this is seen with great apes which are closer in brain structure to humans. Since I'm not very knowledgeable about this, I need more information from people who are.

How Abnormal Is the Behaviour of Captive, Zoo-Living Chimpanzees?

Our overall finding was that abnormal behaviour was present in all sampled individuals across six independent groups of zoo-living chimpanzees, despite the differences between these groups in size, composition, housing, etc. We found substantial variation between individuals in the frequency and duration of abnormal behaviour, but all individuals engaged in at least some abnormal behaviour, and variation across individuals could not be explained by sex, age, rearing history or background (defined as prior housing conditions).
So, this wouldn't rule it out. However, it doesn't have information about treatment. In the one experiment that I can recall that specifically sought to make the environment of zoo chimpanzees less predictable, the new elements only seemed to be noticed by juvenile chimps. Mature chimps didn't seem to pay any attention.

Stereotypic Behavior in Nonhuman Primates as a Model for the Human Condition

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder whose central features include impaired social interaction and communication as well as stereotyped patterns of behavior
This is of perhaps more interest to me because my nephew has Asperger Syndrome and he does have stereotypical behavior.

in a study of 210 residents of a facility for individuals with intellectual disability, 60.9% were reported to exhibit stereotypies
So, it appears that this behavior in humans is seen with some type of brain disorder. This would suggest that there is a distinct difference between, say, chimp and human cognition. But then we have treatment:

In rhesus macaques, stereotypies have been associated with environmental restriction such as single housing; those housed singly exhibited more repetitive locomotion, stereotypy, and self-directed behavior than did monkeys housed in social groups. Similarly, chimpanzees removed from their social group and placed in individual cages also showed an increase in stereotyped behaviors
In older animals, additional environmental enhancements such as foraging opportunities can also promote an improvement in behavior. For example, the provisioning of straw, food puzzles, and forage materials reduced abnormal behavior in chimpanzees and rhesus macaques; as foraging increased, abnormal behaviors, including stereotypies, decreased.
Now that is quite interesting to me since the chimpanzees are responding to entropy in a way similar to bears. And, this would explain why the older chimps didn't pay attention in the experiment that I was familiar with. And then:

As with nonhuman primates, environmental enrichment also reduced stereotyped behavior in both children and adults with autism and intellectual disabilities

when institutionalized intellectually disabled adults were presented with pictures to look at or objects to manipulate, allowing for an alternate activity, they showed reduced levels of stereotypies.

Similarly, when 13 autistic children were provided with multiple sensorimotor stimuli, including olfactory enrichment, music enrichment, and exposure to different textures and toys, they showed a significant reduction in autism severity scores in comparison with the control group that did not receive the enrichment, and there was also a significant increase in the number of parents reporting an improvement in autism symptoms

This does seem to refute Hofstadter's suggestion that environmental entropy alone could be enough for human level cognition. And, it points to a direction for more investigation. One more piece of the consciousness puzzle.


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Doctor fighting anti-vaxxers wins prize

Japanese physician wins prize for publicly battling anti-vaxxers:
http://ift.tt/2ALiEGH
(I hope this is not behind a paywall).

Dr. Riko Muranaka has been fighting to reverse an anti-HPV vaccine campaign in Japan that reduced rates of vaccination from 70% to less than 1% based on junk science. This battle has been costly personally to her.

Wonderful that she has now been recognized by receiving the 2017 John Maddox Prize for promoting science and evidence on a matter of public interest despite facing hostility etc.


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Harassment Tsunami

It appears that a long pent up tsunami of harassment allegations have started to land and that this is only the beginning. After being ignored and dismissed for pretty much all of recorded history, such allegations are finally being taken seriously with serious repercussions. Will society go too far the other way? With something as serious as harassment finally comes to the forefront, will the reaction be 'zero tolerance'. Will accusations be enough?

I've reflected on my own career and wondered if I could be accused. I'm a male in my mid-50's and have worked mostly in technical companies where there haven't been many females. I can think of a few times where I lusted in my heart about some of my female co-workers.

If I had been a little more brazen I might have attempted something with a subordinate more than once (see below). Looking back if I had done something and I was not resisted I would have thought the feeling was mutual, not because the subordinate was afraid of me. I've never been a vindictive boss, never one to hold a grudge and never have I attempted to exact retribution for wrongs real or imagined.

However, given what has been publicized lately, I'm not sure.

My 'cool story bro':

I can think of one time when I did try to 'put a move on' a co-worker who worked under me. I was on the company softball team and a lot of co-workers came to our games and we would go out to a bar afterward. This one time I had been celebrating and started chatting with a female co-worker who indirectly worked for me, she reported to one of my reports. We talked and drank for a long time. Closing time, I walked her to her car. Long story short, I hinted (not very subtly) at going to her place and she just kind of tried to change the subject until finally I got the hint. I guess the difference between me and the Matt Lauers of the world is that that was the end of it for me. No kiss, no nothing, I never touched her. We just said good night. By the way, I am married and was married at the time. That's about the closest I've ever come to cheating.

If I was public figure, she could come forward now and tell the truth: "he was married and he tried to get me into bed and I wasn't sure how to get out of it" and possibly "I was afraid of him" and given today's environment, I could face repercussions because companies will adopt a 'no tolerance' policy in response to the new environment.

While I think the re-balancing of the scales is long overdue, I hope it doesn't go too far the other way, though I can see that happening.


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GOP Tax Reform - How To Profit From It?

By most accounts the tax plan is pretty awful.

Assuming it is awful, that it passes, and that it hurts the economy or causes a recession, in what ways could you profit from it?

Sell stocks, wait for a crash, then buy back at the lower cost?

Invest in areas that perform well during an economic downturn? What would those be?


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Tax bill prelude to catastrophe....

A historian contends that the GOP tax bill headed for passage re-creates the conditions that preceded the Great Depression:
Quote:

The party is now trying to pass a scam that throws a few crumbs to the middle class (temporarily — millions of middle-class Americans will soon see a tax hike if the bill is enacted) while heaping benefits on the super-rich, multiplying the national debt and endangering the American economy.
http://ift.tt/2AuGQwJ


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NHS England defunds homeopathy. Finally

NHS England votes to defund homepathy, finally.

'The decision to end primary care prescriptions for homeopathy means that homeopathy funding is now restricted purely to some NHS Trusts clinics in Scotland, London, and South West England.'

Hopefully the rest will follow soon.

http://ift.tt/2i6JVrW


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All about Tonks! Errr...Tanks!

So since the other thread was supposed to be about Generals preparing for the last war but sidled up to a discussion about tanks its probably a good idea to make a thread about WW1 & WW2 tank design. I'm sure we'll end up talking about modern tanks as well if this gets going.

Subjects may include:
  • Tanks that never were
  • Why certain tanks sucked or were awesome or were bizarre
  • "What were they thinking?" odd moments in tank design.
  • .etc. No point in me limiting topics

So for Tanks that Never Were (at least not in production) I like to look at the US Medium Tank M7. This was supposed to be a light tank that could carry a Sherman level 75mm but quickly bloated into a 29 ton Medium tank that held no advantage over the Sherman - yet tons of money was still spent on its development. Eventually the M24 would become the US Light Tank.


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January 2018 CNY Skeptics Meeting: ""Facts Don’t Count (For Much)"

"Facts Don’t Count (For Much): What, If Anything Can Rational Citizens Do About It"

Presentation by Professor Don Siegel, Department of Earth Sciences, Syracuse University

Sponsored by CNY Skeptics

Time: Wednesday, January 17, 2018, 7:00 PM

Where: Manlius Library, One Arkie Albanese Ave, Manlius, NY, 13104, USA

Event is Free and Open to the Public

Light refreshments will be served

Please contact 1-315-636-6533 or email info@cnyskeptics.org for more information

Presentation Summary:

Professor Don Siegel (Syracuse University, Earth Sciences) will discuss why facts and reasonably rational discourse are no longer in vogue in America because of a return to regional and social tribalism of the past, coupled to prominence of digital media and entertainment and a decline of traditional American education. To avoid sounding like an older guy crying for the past, Siegel will offer one possible way to try and ameliorate this state of affairs, with the hope that over time things might change.

Presenter Bio:

Professor Emeritus Donald Siegel’s science career spans over 45 years doing research, consulting and teaching on problems related the aqueous geochemistry and hydrogeology of natural and contaminated waters. He earned his BS in Geology from the University of Rhode Island, an MS in Geology at Penn State University and PhD in Hydrogeology from the University of Minnesota. Siegel joined Syracuse University in 1982 where he was employed from 1982-2017.

Professor Siegel is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, American Geophysical Union, and American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has served on numerous scientific panels of the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences and also as its Chair of the Water Science and Technology Board.

Central New York Skeptics (CNY Skeptics) is a community organization dedicated to the promotion of science and reason, the investigation of paranormal and fringe-science claims, and the improvement of standards for science education and critical-thinking skills.

Attached Images
File Type: jpg Siegel Formal portrait 2017.jpg (52.8 KB)


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Garrison Keillor fired for inappropriate behavior

Minnesota Public Radio Fires Garrison Keillor for Alleged Inappropriate Behavior

Quote:

Mr. Keillor retired from the music-and-variety show last year after creating it and hosting since 1974, and Chris Thile replaced him as host. Minnesota Public Radio said Wednesday it plans to change the name of Mr. Thile’s show and has ended its contracts with Mr. Keillor, who still hosted “The Writer’s Almanac,” a daily poetry and writing feature. The station will also end its rebroadcasts of old episodes of “A Prairie Home Companion.”

Minnesota Public Radio said it notified its board immediately after learning of the allegations and retained a law firm to conduct an independent investigation.
Fire the accused...and then do an investigation to find out what happened.

Right, I feel vindicated that about a year ago I decided I'd had enough. I limit interactions with people, remain several feet away at all times, stare at the floor, and all statements more than 4 or 5 words long only happen through emails after running it past my lawyer first.


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Bald ? You'll die of a heart attack !

As someone who looks more like a cue ball than he'd like to, this is a kick in the gentleman's area :(

Quote:

Male pattern baldness and premature greying are more of a risk factor for heart disease than obesity in men under 40, new research suggests.

A study of more than 2,000 young men in India showed more who had coronary artery disease were prematurely bald or grey than men with a full head of hair.
May as well get fat and start smoking again - the die is cast :(

Quote:

The heart condition group were also more likely to have male pattern baldness - 49% against 27% of those in the healthy group - a 5.6 times greater risk.

Yet obesity was associated with only a fourfold increased risk of the disease.


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mercredi 29 novembre 2017

Who are these bots

It seems like every site on the internet where you can have an account for that website there's always some fake accounts dedicating to doing one task. And these bots are very easy to spot. And there appears to be thousands of these new bot accounts created every day. Whether its Facebook or Twitter or a news site that allows comments you'll always find them My question is who is creating them, and are they even real people creating numerous accounts or automated computer operation.


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Nazi sympathizer profiled by NY Times says he lost his job and — soon — his home

This is really sad story. Someone should start a GoFundme page for him or something. ;) (Hell, it's probably already happened)

Nazi sympathizer profiled by the New York Times says he lost his job and — soon — his home

Quote:

Tony Hovater, the white nationalist and Nazi sympathizer featured in a controversial New York Times article this weekend, said he lost his job and would soon lose his home following a swift backlash over the article.

Hovater, a 29-year-old Ohio resident, told The Washington Post on Wednesday that he has been fired from his job and that he and his wife, Maria, are in the process of moving out of their home in New Carlisle, Ohio, for financial and safety reasons. They could no longer afford to pay the rent, he said, and somebody had published their home address online.
So sad.


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Should not vaccinating your child be a criminal offence?

There is a lot of misinformation on the internet that references “studies” that have been debunked my science. There is also the fact that science isn’t infallible and has history has shown what science believe to be good for you today, could later turn out to be bad for you. I believe in this case vaccines have proven they work, and they are good science, but their effectiveness means that the risk is much lower to be exposed and therefore need the vaccine is lower as well.

We’ve recently seen cases of preventable illness come back into America after years without a case. I’m a supporter of freedom, but I want what’s best for our society as well. Laws about seatbelts statistically save lives, but this is forcing people to do things against their will for society and their own “good”. How can we call it freedom if we don’t have the choice to make bad decisions? Freedom isn’t defined by a Stepford wife following along because she’s programed to, freedom is defined by doing things like drinking, smoking, gambling, etc that many disagree with. Where is the line in the sand on freedom?

Many public schools require immunization of children or they won’t accept them. These people are paying their taxes for services they cannot use. Should they get a tax break? Is that fair? Is it ethical to take away services paid for simply because you don’t agree with the way the person using it acts? And if it’s based more on the danger the unimmunized child presents what’s the liability?

Should we charge anti-vaxxer parents with assault or murder if they cause an outbreak? They generally live in communities, is the whole community to blame? How do we decide (if we agree there should be punishment) who and how much is justified? And what about their own children?

Is it moral to punish a parent for doing what they believe will help even if the end result hurts their child? I don’t know of a single parent who hasn’t felt like they’ve made some bad decisions in raising their children. It’s not like we received a handbook, and even if we did no one would have time to read it. As it requires more and more time to simply “get by” economically, how much of this is societies fault, and how much is simply a case of not having the time and money to do your due diligence?


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Gal Gadot Is A Mossad Spy....

http://ift.tt/2j2tUUN

Wow, she is not only Wonder Woman, she is The Black Widow as well....

Like her better then ever now....


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Bosnian Croat war criminal dies after taking poison in UN courtroom

What do the forum think? Should taking poison be an option for all serious war crime offenders?

Quote:

A former Bosnian Croat general has died after drinking a phial of poison while standing in the dock at a UN tribunal in The Hague, where his war crimes sentence of 20 years was upheld.

Seconds after the judges had delivered their decision at the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Wednesday, Slobodan Praljak shouted out angrily: “Praljak is not a criminal. I reject your verdict.”

The 72-year-old then raised a small brown bottle to his lips, and drank it in full view of the cameras filming the hearing. “I just drank poison,” he said. “I am not a war criminal. I oppose this conviction.”


As court officials surrounded the white-haired and bearded Praljak, the presiding judge, Carmel Agius, immediately ordered the proceedings to be suspended. The curtains screening the courtroom were abruptly closed to the public.
<snip>

Quote:

raljak was charged with ordering the destruction of Mostar’s 16th-century bridge in November 1993, which judges in the first trial had said “caused disproportionate damage to the Muslim civilian population”.

A symbol of Bosnia’s devastation in the war, the Ottoman-era bridge was later rebuilt. The city experienced some of the worst of the Croat-Muslim clashes, with nearly 80% of its eastern area destroyed in the fighting.

In their ruling, the judges allowed part of Praljak’s appeal, saying the bridge had been a legitimate military target during the conflict. They also overturned some of his convictions but refused to reduce his overall sentence.
Unfairly sentenced, an act of honour or a despicable act of cowardice to evade justice?


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Where have all the journalists gone, long time passing?

Where have all the journalists gone, long time passing?
Where have all the journalists gone, long time ago?
Where have all the journalists gone, gone to bad police shootings, every one.

When will we ever learn?

Where have all the bad police shootings gone, long time passing?
Where have all the bad police shootings gone, long time ago?
Where have all the bad police shootings gone, gone to election fraud, every one.

When will we ever learn?

Where has all the election fraud gone, long time passing?
Where has all the election fraud gone, long time ago?
Where has all the election fraud gone, gone to hate crimes, every one.

When will we ever learn?

Where have all the hate crimes gone, long time passing?
Where have all the hate crimes gone, long time ago?
Where have all the hate crimes gone, gone to Nazis, every one.

When will we ever learn?

Where have all the Nazis gone, long time passing?
Where have all the Nazis gone, long time ago?
Where have all the Nazis gone, gone to Antifa, every one.

When will we ever learn?

Where have all the Antifa gone, long time passing?
Where have all the Antifa gone, long time ago?
Where have all the Antifa gone, gone to offensive statues, every one.

When will we ever learn?

Where have all the offensive statues gone, long time passing?
Where have all the offensive statues gone, long time ago?
Where have all the offensive statues gone, gone to transsexual bathroom issues, every one.

When will we ever learn?

Where have all the transsexual bathroom issues gone, long time passing?
Where have as all the transsexual bathroom issues gone, long time ago?
Where have all the transsexual bathroom issues gone, gone to sex scandals, every one.

When will we ever learn?

Where have all the sex scandals gone, long time passing?
Where have all the sex scandals gone, long time ago?
Where have all the sex scandals gone, gone to journalists, every one.

When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?


Some real quality news we've been getting. They stir up a bunch of crap looking for outrage and we eat it up, yum yum! What's on the menu for next week? I predict it will be full of fat and highly processed. By the way I made up this stupid prose so no rule violations.

Reading the news is just a big blur for me. Glazed eyes, scanning the BS headlines. It's too much to sort through. Too much drama. It makes the important stuff, if you can find it, seem like just more noise. News is all about what's trending. Twitter is a source of news for gawdssake!

I get a lot of my US news from outside the US right now. Fox and CNN are embarrassing.


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Characteristics of Fascism: Where are we now?

From: http://ift.tt/1viyEFN

(my comments in bold)

Quote:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

Check. Trump's ongoing war with the NFL, et al over athletes kneeling during the pledge. MAGA as a patriotic slogan.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

Check in theory if not yet in application. Example: Trump's approving tweets about the harshness of the Chinese legal system.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

Check

4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

Check


5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

Check, though it's a work in progress

6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

Check. See recent the actions of various Press Secretaries and spokespersons, FCC actions, Koch's helping buy Time, also see Sinclair Media

7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

Check

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

Check

9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

Check

10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

Check, work in progress

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.

Check

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

Partial check

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

Check

14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

Can we award multiple checks on one point?
Can any honest person say we are not well down the path of fascism?


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High Sierra admin login without password

Normally I'd assume that people found this themselves, but this "can" be a big deal for some people. I just found this, and it's a flaw in the current operating system. I believe the filevault is turned on by default, so it might not affect that many people, but something to look out for:

Quote:

The bypass works by putting the word "root" (without the quotes) in the user name field of a login window, moving the cursor into the password field, and then hitting enter button with the password field empty. With that—after a few tries in some cases—the latest version of Apple's operating system logs the user in with root privileges. Ars reporters were able to replicate the behavior multiple times on three Macs. The flaw isn't present on previous macOS versions.
Source


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Matt Lauer fired



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What's Been Happening since 2014?

Back in 2013 and 2014, I used to post a lot on the 9/11 forum. I'm sure that many people here know this because it's all the same people posting about the same things. This thing by the guy from the University of Alaska is new, but it doesn't seem to be saying anything that's different.

From an historical point, I can see that it's interesting to understand the 9/11 Truth idea, but what's going on here now? Surely very few people are left believing - at least publicly - that bombs blew up the World Trade Center buildings, that no plane hit the Pentagon and any of that other crazy Truther stuff. The people who are left over are so full of cognitive dissonance that they can't possibly change their minds. So what's going on with this forum? What's its purpose? What argument is left in the Truth movement?


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mardi 28 novembre 2017

National debt

What does that even mean to the average American?

I go to work, get paid and go home, regardless.


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[Split Thread] "Grid Gardens"

Mod InfoThis thread is split from Help Debunking Nazca Lines Linked With Angkor Wat.
Posted By:Loss Leader




Quote:

Originally Posted by SusanB-M1 (Post 12092752)
Another thing that makes me wince is the term 'sacred geometry'. :) This too crops up at regular intervals on GH!

How do you feel about the term "grid gardens"...?

Attached Images
File Type: jpg home.jpg (43.9 KB)


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A good refutation of parmenides?

parmenides-of-elea(dot)net

His central argument

"What is opposed to being does not exist.

Becoming is opposed to being.

Becoming does not exist."

_

According to Parmenides, existing cosmic space is not unlimited but is an enormous sphere.
It is entirely filled by “Being”. “Being” is the only and homogeneous substance that, permeating all things (including human beings and the air) that our senses perceive in the cosmos, constitutes the cosmos itself. In fact, in the “vision” of the eleatic philosopher the cosmos is not composed of numerous entities – planets, stars, people, animals, trees, flowers, houses, mountains, clouds, etc., of different appearance and color, capable of transformation, movement, birth and death – that appear daily before our eyes, but consists of Being, which is an eternal, not generated, one, huge, limited, spherical, motionless substance, not becoming but always equal to itself, homogeneous, of the same density everywhere, not divided into multiple “things” but continuous.
So: only Being exists. This Being, which is one, is perceived by humans as “broken” in many things, all the things that our deceptive sight daily sees:
“To this One so many names will be assigned
as many are the things that mortals proposed, believing that they were true,
that they were born and perish, that they exist and do not exist,
that they changed the place and their bright color” (8,38-41)
Literal translation:
"It will have for name all things,
how many the mortals proposed, believing that they were true,
that they were born and perish, that they exist and do not [exist],
that they changed the place and their bright color" (8,38-41)


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John Conyers Allegations

John Conyers, who is the current "dean" of the House of Representatives, having served in that body since 1965, and who was until these allegations, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, is now under investigation for allegations of sexual harassment.

Quote:

Documents from the complaint obtained by BuzzFeed News include four signed affidavits, three of which are notarized, from former staff members who allege that Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the powerful House Judiciary Committee, repeatedly made sexual advances to female staff that included requests for sex acts, contacting and transporting other women with whom they believed Conyers was having affairs, caressing their hands sexually, and rubbing their legs and backs in public. Four people involved with the case verified the documents are authentic.
CNN reports on another victim:

Quote:

Maher says she considered telling her story over the years, but never went on the record with it until now. The Detroit-News first published her allegations Tuesday based on a 2013 interview with her. She told CNN last week that the societal moment of reckoning on issues of sexual harassment and abuse of power across the country that gave her the confidence that she would finally be believed.
Don't you love that little tidbit about how the Detroit News had that little tidbit about Conyers 4 years ago, but apparently didn't publish it until today?


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North Korea launches another missile towards japan

http://ift.tt/2j1fnsq

North Korea fired what the US military believes to be an intercontinental ballistic missile on Tuesday as the Pentagon confirmed that it detected and tracked a single North Korean projectile at 1:17 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

"The missile was launched from Sain Ni, North Korea, and traveled about 1,000 kilometers before splashing down in the Sea of Japan, within Japan's Economic Exclusion Zone," according to Pentagon spokesperson Col. Rob Manning. "We are working with our interagency partners on a more detailed assessment of the launch."


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Evacuating nuclear disaster areas can waste time and money

Evacuating nuclear disaster areas can waste time and money

Quote:

Over 110,000 people were moved from their homes following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in March 2011. Another 50,000 left of their own will, and 85,000 had still not returned four-and-a-half years later.

While this might seem like an obvious way of keeping people safe, my colleagues and I have just completed research that shows this kind of mass evacuation is unnecessary, and can even do more harm than good. We calculated that the Fukushima evacuation extended the population’s average life expectancy by less than three months.


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A challenge to freemen on the land

I challenge all freemen on the land to embrace the freedom of all people and reject the anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim propaganda voiced by a few of the self-proclaimed leaders of the freeman movement.

A movement which purports to support the natural rights of all men and women should stand for the natural rights to travel, immigrate, and worship as one sees fit.

I call upon real freemen to:

1. Not engage in the in any activity that threatens the natural rights of others.
2. Cease all support for and contributions to freeman leaders who propagate anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim propaganda.
3. Call out any freeman who use Facebook or a discussion forum to spread anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim propaganda.
4. Walk the freeman walk and openly support the right of all people to travel, immigrate and worship as they see fit.

Surely real freemen stand for the freedom to immigrate and worship, or not worship, as one pleases.

-- Austin Rayder


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Clinton's legacy in Africa: Slave Markets in Libya

http://ift.tt/2AjI7E7

So much for R2P and how it was supposed to improve people's lives.


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Is the Sun Conscious?

I am having a debate with a guy who believes there is scientific evidence that some suns demonstrate consciousness.

Here is his evidence...

http://ift.tt/2zyHMfP

http://ift.tt/2zyHNjT

The theory is that some stars move too fast to explained by theories on gravity and that these stars have simple molecules at their edges which could carry consciousness. ergo the advanced speeds of these stars are due to volition.

what do you think?


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Terrorist attack stopped in Melbourne

Werribee man charged with terrorism offences over alleged Federation Square massacre plot

Quote:

A man has faced court charged with terrorism offences after allegedly trying to get a gun and plotting to "shoot as many people as he could" on New Year's Eve.

Ali Khalif Shire Ali, 20, from Werribee, was arrested at a home in Melbourne's south-west just before 3:00pm on Monday.

He appeared before Melbourne Magistrates' Court this afternoon charged with preparing to commit a terrorist attack and gathering documents to facilitate a terrorist act.
Quote:

Police said they moved in today because he had been having face-to-face meetings about getting a gun.

Mr Ali, who police said was connected to other extremists, did not manage to obtain one, Deputy Commissioner Patton said.
The man could not obtain a gun. Think about that for just a moment.

In Parliament today, the Justice Minister Michael Keenan had this to say:

Quote:

This is the 14th time that our authorities have stopped an attack from occurring in Australia since 2014. That hasn’t happened because of luck, that’s happened because our agencies are very, very good at what they do.


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lundi 27 novembre 2017

James O'Keefe and Project Veritas strike again!

Sadly, I suspect many of the Fox News crowd will still eat this crap right up.

A woman approached The Post with dramatic — and false — tale about Roy Moore

Quote:

A woman who falsely claimed to The Washington Post that Roy Moore, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Alabama, impregnated her as a teenager appears to work with an organization that uses deceptive tactics to secretly record conversations in an effort to embarrass its targets.

In a series of interviews over two weeks, the woman shared a dramatic story about an alleged sexual relationship with Moore in 1992 that led to an abortion when she was 15. During the interviews, she repeatedly pressed Post reporters to give their opinions on the effects that her claims could have on Moore’s candidacy if she went public.

The Post did not publish an article based on her unsubstantiated account. When Post reporters confronted her with inconsistencies in her story and an Internet posting that raised doubts about her motivations, she insisted that she was not working with any organization that targets journalists.

But on Monday morning, Post reporters saw her walking into the New York offices of Project Veritas, an organization that targets the mainstream news media and left-leaning groups. The organization sets up undercover “stings” that involve using false cover stories and covert video recordings meant to expose what the group says is media bias.


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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director?

Showdown over top post at key watchdog agency

Dems say that the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (2010) allows the outgoing director to name a temporary sucessor who will be the acting director until a new director is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

President Trump says that he can appoint an acting director, who will immediately be active, even before Senate Confirmation. He says the authority to do this comes from the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998.

I have always been under the impression that if two acts are passed that appear to conflict with each other but the newer one does not specifically state it supersedes the older law , then the newer one is assumed to supersede the older one, unless the older one has greater specificity in some circumstances, in which case the newer law may apply in more general circumstances, with the older law still having application in more narrow circumstances. in the case, the Consumer Protection Act is more recent and more specific (pertaining to a single agency) than the Federal Vacancies Reform Act.

Am I incorrect?

This seems a simple matter, and it would appear that Trump is in the wrong.

What am I missing? (Looking for legalistic explanations, not political opinion.)


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Windows Media Player for Windows 10

I don't like Windows 10. I don't have a good reason - I just don't like change (I'm tech illiterate), don't like every freaking thing connected to the internet, and am plainly very happy with Windows 7. However, my laptop running Windows 7 has finally succumbed to whatever the hell was wrong with it. Luckily, I had all my important files neatly backed up on an external drive.

Trouble is, until I can either get a new laptop or fix the one I've got, I have to use a shared desktop computer which runs Windows 10. I'm adapting fine EXCEPT for when it comes to my music library. Windows Media Player does not seem to be installed on the machine. The app which is there (Groove music) is unacceptable to me. I'm VERY anal about the layout of my music library, and the view in Windows Media Player has always been perfect. The Groove layout options offer nothing I want. It's simply no good. (Why must Microsoft always fix what isn't broken?)

So a bit of googling showed me that there is a Windows Media Player which runs on Windows 10 - it is called WMP 12. It promises a bunch of new features - that's what worries me. For example, I don't like when media programs automatically download and update tags for content, because I meticulously go into the file data and tag them myself the way I want them tagged before I add them to the library. (I do this using Mp3Tag, a lovely program which never changes significantly.) And I don't want a different layout, as I've already stressed.

So now that I have explained my craziness, my question is twofold: Is WMP 12 basically similar to previous incarnations of WMP? And what IS the oldest version of WMP that will run on Windows 10 without serious bugging, because I probably just want that. I always prefer to stick with what I'm used to!

Thanks for any guidance. I hope my explanation makes sense.

ETA - The reason I'm asking instead of just downloading the program and trying it out is because I'm dealing with a shared desktop computer. So I don't want to be installing and uninstalling crap more than necessary. It's not my computer.


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Help debunking Nazca lines linked with Angkor Wat

There is apparently somebody called Jim Allison who has produced maps of global rings which show all sorts of ancient places linked within a band of narrow width. My heart sinks! Could someone please help me find suitable rational information to counter thisstuff. The proposer of this is convinced of its veracity, but at least I must make sure that other readers do not think we all think that it is so.

Thank you.


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Women can sexually abuse women too...

Quote:

Now, a former female soccer player from Southern Sweden chooses to tell for the first time how she has been exposed to sexual comments by fellow and opponent as a young player, how at one point she was sexually exploited by a well-known opponent and that she should also have been drugged and raped by a teammate.

It started when Emma got up into the club's A team. She says that she already knew that she liked women and it was a little exciting to spend time with adult women who were open to knowing that. Emma tells her that she heard comments like "nice ass" from some teammates in the dressing room and noticed how some players looked at her in a sexual manner. At team parties, older players offered alcohol so she became really inebriated and pushed their bodies against her. At one point some teammates kissed her on her throat.
"It was something I appreciated when I felt I was not really part of the group, but now I realize how strange and sick it was," Emma explains.
- Afterwards, I realized that some of the players were quite actively trying to make me feel like i wasn't part of the group so that they could make use of me to do things to "be allowed" to join them. I do not know otherwise why you should bully a young player.

In damallsvenskan, Emma's football dream evolved into a nightmare when the sexual harassment became all the more widespread.
She tells a match that she had six afterwards with a well-known opponent.
- She took me on my ass during a match when it was corner and said "You're mine after the match". Then she stood waiting for me after I had showered. Without anyone actually reacting to it, I followed her into a changing room and we had sex. I just think I was so shocked. After all, she has been an idol for me because she has been so good for so long. At the same time, you felt a little chosen.

Since the merited player was waiting for Emma after the match, she felt partially forced to go with sex. Afterwards, Emma wonders why no one else in the vicinity or someone in her own team reacted or even asked how she felt afterwards.
"The only logical explanation is that it was so common that there was no question asked.
http://ift.tt/2i9VMc6

Is it lesbians and bisexual women's turn to face the same kind of public scrutiny that gay and bisexual men have faced? Something must be done!


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Tony Hall is back in the classroom

In several previous threads, it was noted that a professor of Global Studies at the University of Lethbridge, Tony Hall, had been suspended because of his connection to Holocaust denial. During his suspension, Tony teamed up with another infamous Canadian Holocaust denier

Mysterious posters pop up around town
http://ift.tt/2n595wl

Apparently, Tony has been reinstated by the University of Lethbridge and will be back in the classroom by September teaching about 9/11 Truth and the role of Israel.

Alberta Professor Who Thinks Jews ‘Behind 9/11’ Allowed to Return to Teaching
http://ift.tt/2n597nX


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dimanche 26 novembre 2017

Trump Strikes a Blow for ISIS!

I didn't see a thread on this, but thought it was pretty important given his gas bagging about how he knew how to get rid of ISIS and his going on about Terrorism.

In a move to appease another dictator, Trump has struck a massive blow for ISIS in Syrian by bowing to Turkey and declaring he was withdrawing aid for the YPG, the Syrian Kurdish Fighter Group People's Protection Units, also considered by many to be the most effective force in fighting ISIS in Syria.

They were previously the mainstays of the Siege of Kobani and along with the rest of the SDF, which they helped to found under the US's urging and guidance, they were also a major part of the Raqqa campaign, were they took what had been the ISIS Capital.

And now Trump is abandoning them. Yay Trump!


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New York Shootings in Mall?

Reports of a shooting in a New York mall. 2 injured so far by the claims.... Hope this is brought under control quickly, and isn't another crazed shooter going after the big Thanksgiving Day shopping crowds.


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Predict Time's "Person of the Year"!

On December 6th, Time will announce 2017's "Person of the Year". Trump tweeted the other day that they told him he'll be it a second year in a row, and that he declined. Time informed him that he is mistaken.

So who will it be? Remember that this is not the Nobel Prize for greatness, nor a polularity contest. Here is a list of all past PotY: http://ift.tt/2A9n1ul

You will see that often the US President-elect is chosen - this happened with Trump in 2016, but also Obama (2008 and 2012), Bush II (2000 and 2004), Clinton (1992), Reagan (1980), Carter (1976) - obviously not in response to great achievements as President but merely for having won the election.

You will also see that it isn't always the nicest person who wins - Hitler (1938), Stalin (1939 and 1942) and Khomeini (1979) all were PotY, as well as dictators such as Haile Selassie, Nikita Khrushchev, Anwar Sadat, Deng Xiaoping, Yuri Andropov or Vladimir Putin.

Also three Popes.

Sometimes, they elect groups, some of them rather unspecific/unnamed, such as "The Peacemakers" (1993), "The Whistleblowers" (2002), "You" (i.e. everybody who contributes content to the internet, 2006), "The Protester" (2011), "The Ebola Fighters" (2014).


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Asteroid 3200 Phaethon - 0.07 AU from Earth 2017 DEC 16

Chicken Littles may dub this the Doomsday Planet X. Actually there is no need to worry for now. ;)

Asteroid 3200 Phaethon is expected to pass only 0.0689 AU (10.3 million km – 6.4 million miles) from Earth on 2017 DEC 16 at 17 hr CST (23 hr UT). This should be preceded by maximum brilliance at magnitude +10.7 on DEC 14, which will require a telescope to be seen.

Phaethon is about 5 km in diameter. Its highly elliptical orbit and material composition suggest it may have started life as a comet. Debris from Phaethon is thought to be the source of the annual Geminid Meteor Shower, which is expected to peak this year during the night of DEC 13-14.

I’ve created two charts and an ephemeris. Due to the format I’ve placed them on my Comets webpage: http://ift.tt/1YQ1wAu

Photos and descriptions of Phaethon would be welcome additions to this thread.


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Normalizing ignorance, self-deception & failure

We often ask how freeman/sovcit sub-culture can make any sense.

Many recognize that "the movement"is on it's last legs. See this quote from Burnaby49 over on Quatloos:

Quote:

The freeman movement is almost totally dead. There are no current leaders of consequence.
To the rational the of failures of the freeman gun class (Menard, Clifford, Lentz, Belanger) are proof of a seriously misguided thought process. Indeed, we see these folks as crazy. But to the freeman/sovcit culture the failures are proof of a vast governmental conspiracy to reject what the gurus float as the true law.

Since the freeman/sovcit culture sees these failure as successes, the subculture’s gurus who get poleaxed in court are seen as leaders of the delusional clan. All these “leaders” have to do to gain the awe of the subculture is to declare that they somehow took the court to task for following the law (or not following the law as they see it)

To the reasonable among us this makes no sense. But in the arse backwards world of the freeman/sovcit the fantasy of thumbing your nose at the man as he puts you in jail is the only tit the rank and file have to suck on.

If you listen to the web radio interviews, recorded lectures and Youtubes of the freeman/sovcit guru class you’ll hear them bragging about being such "successful" failures since childhood.

How can this be, you ask. It's simple. . .it’s a subculture that normalizes ignorance, self-deception and failure.


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samedi 25 novembre 2017

The grasshopper conundrum

A seemingly simple mathematical question has complex possibilities. I have nothing really to add, but the animation of the computer solving the problem is remarkable.

http://ift.tt/2An3s2t


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Weird YouTube kid videos - anything substantial to this?

I think even people who only watch YouTube videos when other people have linked them by now have heard about this phenomenon, of the "kids content" area of YouTube being flooded with thousands of videos of the same type - extremely low-quality, seemingly machine-assembled animations of ripped-off pop culture characters singing nursery rhymes, lately supplemented by videos featuring live actors essentially reenacting the most popular animation videos. In case this is complete news to you, here is some background:

[yt]LKp2gikIkD8[/yt]

What that video only hints at but doesn't dwell on, though, is the highly disturbing subject matter that has leaked into these videos as of late - with the characters now doing things like defecating on or mutilating each other, smoking, giving birth (or having abortions). It's become enough of a problem now that YouTube is starting to lose advertisers again, so soon after the last exodus (unrelated, involving extremist content).

The video I linked above is even-keeled, although admittedly some people discussing this issue on the internet have a shadowy-cult-conspiracy-minded take on it all.

Disregarding those, is this situation something that justifies concern? I would argue it does, but I'm interested in others' opinions.


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How Deterministic Is Determinism?

This post has me wondering.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jt512 (Post 12088738)
A coin toss is deterministic.


Without question, everything that goes into a coin flip is physical and measurable - force, air currents, uneven weight of the sides, etc. In theory, it could all be modeled. Could we do it in practice? Is it foreseeable that we would ever be able to measure all of the factors precisely enough to predict the coin with 95% accuracy or greater? Or, in practice, are coin tosses unpredictable enough to be called random?

I tried Googling this and got either gibberish or what I assumed to be gibberish.


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Lunar X - Saturday Evening 2017 NOV 25

UFOlogists may may view this as a signal from ET. The rest of us can simply appreciate the natural art. ;)

The Lunar X should be seen by telescopic observers in the Americas during the evening of Saturday 2017 NOV 25 for an approximately four-hour period centered on 20:22 CST (NOV 26 at 02:22 UT). The X should appear as the Sun rises on the clustered rims of the craters Blanchinus, La Caille and Purbach, while a waxing nearly Half Moon graces the sky.

This is something to check-off from your astronomical “to-do” list. It is the last good opportunity for those in the Americas until 2018 DEC 14. Photos and descriptions of the Lunar X would be welcome additions to this thread.

My timetable for when the lunar terminator will be crossing select lunar features including rayed craters can be found at http://ift.tt/1bRmQEg


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3G mobile wifi dongle

We're spending two weeks in a wifi-free zone and absolutely needed to be on line. The neighbour's efforts to let us piggyback his wifi didn't work, so I bought a Vodafone 3G dongle.

It has 4 gig of data capability and i'm wondering how much that really is. We're doing a lot of email, checking the web for local services and addresses and the like, plus a little general surfing of news websites, a little ISF and so on. We're avoiding video and sound like the plague.

7 days in and so far so good - is 4gig plenty or should I get a top-up in case?


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Windows 10 is great, but its networking is crap

I hated Windows 8 (and the indecent haste with which MS superceded it with Win 10 is a pretty sure admission that the users who hated it were right)

I like Windows 10 but I am having a LOT of trouble getting two computers to communicate. I'll explain my problem and ask if any of the computer savvy members here can spot anything I haven't thought of.

I am trying to network two computers

A Desktop Win 10 Home, 32 bit - Computer Name HOME.
A Laptop Win 10 Home 64 bit - Computer name LAPTOP.
Both computers are on WORKGROUP

Both are connected via a Wifi Router using network cables

I have set the following sharing settings on both computers in Control Panel>Networks and Sharing Centre>Change Advanced Sharing Setting

Network Discovery (Private, Guest and Public) - ON
File and Printer sharing (Private, Guest and Public) - ON
Allow Windows to manage Homegroup connctions - ON
128 Bit encryption - ON
Password Protected Sharing - OFF

Also, I have shared one drive with the same settings on each computer, and set all the user permission to full access for everyone.

I should also point out that NO passwords of any kind have ever been set up on either computer... you switch them on, they start up, bypassing all login screens and go straight to the desktop.

I have literally pulled the pants down on both computers, yet every attempt to access one computer from the other fails. I use a shortcut with a target of \\HOME from the Laptop (or \\LAPTOP from the Desktop) and I can see the computer and its shared drives on the network, but as soon as I double-click on the shared drive, I get this...



Any suggestions would be appreciated.


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vendredi 24 novembre 2017

The news cycle today is a lot like the Hotel California...

You can check out any time you like....


...but you can never leave.
:boxedin:


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NY hunter kills woman he thought was a deer

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Buffalo News
Thomas B. Jadlowski, 34, of Cornish Street, thought he saw a deer in the field and fired his pistol, according to the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office. Then he heard a scream, sheriff's officials said.

Jadlowski told investigators he found Rosemary Billquist about 200 yards away. He called 911 and applied pressure to her wound...

He may have been hunting after sunset which is illegal.


http://ift.tt/2i3OmqQ


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Hundreds dead in Egyptian Mosque attack

Quote:

At least 235 people were killed and another 109 injured in an attack on a Sufi mosque in Egypt's North Sinai region on Friday, Egyptian state-run media reported, in what appears to be the deadliest terror attack on Egyptian soil.

After at least two explosions, gunmen who were waiting outside the mosque opened fire at worshipers as they fled Friday prayers, state-owned Ahram Online said.
http://ift.tt/2A2e06l

Jeebus, one would think we'd get tired of needless killing.


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Another attack in London?

I'm hearing reports of "an incident" in Oxford Circus. Panic in the streets, people running for their lives, etc. Reports of gunshots, a lorry hitting pedestrians, explosions, you name it.


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Egypt mosque attack: At least 155 killed in Sinai

Quote:

Suspected militants have launched a bomb and gun attack on a mosque in Egypt's North Sinai province, killing 155 people, state media report.

Witnesses say the al-Rawda mosque in the town of Bir al-Abed, near al-Arish, was targeted during Friday prayers.

Local police said men in four off-road vehicles opened fire on worshippers, AP reported.

Egypt has been fighting an Islamist insurgency in the region, which has intensified since 2013.

More than 100 people were also wounded in the attack, reports say.
Link

Horrific attack, presumably by ISIS - or their affiliates.


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Trump's plan to wreck the federal courts.

Trump (more likely his handlers) plans to restructure the entire federal judiciary.
Quote:

Almost overnight, the judicial branch would come to consist of almost equal parts judges picked by nine presidents combined — Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43 and Obama — and judges picked by one: Donald J. Trump. The effect on our civil rights and liberties would be astounding.
.....
Calabresi has also proposed that Congress abolish 158 administrative law judgeships in federal regulatory agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Drug Administration, Federal Communications Commission, and Securities and Exchange Commission, and replace these impartial fact-finders with a new corps of 158 Trump-selected judges who — unlike current administrative law judges — would serve for life. These new Trump administrative law judges would have vast power over environmental, health and safety, fair competition, communications, labor, financial and consumer regulation for decades. Unlike the existing administrative law judges, selected as nonpartisan members of the civil service, Calabresi’s replacement corps would all be picked in a single year, by a single man: Donald J. Trump.
http://ift.tt/2i0cRFu


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We are the greatest!



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Why Greens are calling for new suburb name to be scrapped

This makes me very angry, Lynch is an Irish surname (Wikipedia) and now we have members of the 'hypersensitivity generation' freaking out over it.

Quote:

The suburb, called Lynch, is named after Jim Lynch, a highly respected former Mayor of Blacktown, but some say the name is offensive to indigenous Australians.


The Greens say the new name will remind Aboriginal people of racial hate crimes.


Jim Lynch's son Peter says that trying to make a connection between his father's name and racial injustice is just "not on."
http://ift.tt/2A4IS5Z


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jeudi 23 novembre 2017

Dual Monitors Suddenly Stopped Working

Hello,

One of my monitors (#1) suddenly stopped working. I turned it off and on. Nothing. I tried monkeying with the display settings -- nothing. I switched the cables so that it would use HDMI, and suddenly it came on. I tried plugging the other cable into monitor #2 -- nothing. I switched everything back to normal and then rebooted. Both now display, but they have identical displays. Now they're both #1, and attempts to recognize a second display have proven futile. Without a #2, I cannot extend the displays, which is what I need, need, need to happen.

I don't think I've installed anything new. Any (potentially useful) thoughts?


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Proof of Immortality, VII

Mod InfoYet another segment of the immortal thread. As per usual, the position of the thread split was arbitrary. The previous segment is here.
Posted By:jsfisher

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jabba (Post 12087340)
- Hopefully, we're getting down to the "nitty gritties" of our disagreement. Again, my objective right now is to nail down our different basic disagreements.
- There is at least two issues in this 'one' disagreement:#1. How many potential loaves of bread are there -- i.e., how many different loaves of bread could we make if we never ran out of time or the necessary conditions?

Suppose, for the sake of argument, one were to make an exact copy of Jabba. There would be thus Jabba the original and jabba the copy both identical. So far so good?

Jabba the copy must perforce be an exact copy of Jabba the original in every respect, else it would not be a copy.

Therefore , Jabba-1 is exactly the same as Jabba-2. Jabba the first must perforce be exactly the same as Jabba the second, right? Perforce, they must be identical. Else, Jabba-2 must not be an exact copy of Jabba-1, right? If Jabba-2 is in any way different from Jabba-1, then Jabba-2 is not a copy in any way. Do you grok that?


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I stand with the Untied Way

http://ift.tt/2zuAzkD

"What is the Untied Way? The word has not reached everyone; some people are sincerely confused. But the business model is easy to learn and easy to understand.

An Untied Way volunteer, who has achieved this lofty position merely by smiling and nodding and blinking uneasily, goes to the ATM of his or her choice. I would suggest an ATM that doesn’t tack on extra fees, but again, the choice is not mine. Do as you will.

From this ATM, take out a lot of $20 bills. Take as many as you feel comfortable with, and then take a little more. It’s good if you feel a twinge; that means you’re doing it right.

Then you take the bills to wherever there are people asking for money. Sadly, these people are easy to find. If you don’t have any in your hometown, San Francisco has plenty. Make a day of it! Visit Fisherman’s Wharf and Coit Tower, and then take a walk around the Tenderloin."


I'm getting ready to go out and follow Jon Carroll's lead.


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US school bullying: Mother charged over hidden recording

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"A mother in the US who equipped her daughter with a hidden digital recorder at school to catch alleged incidents of bullying has been charged by police and faces five years in jail.

Sarah Sims is accused of wrongfully using the device to intercept oral communication.

She is also accused of "contributing towards the delinquency of a minor"."


This intrigues me. The school are protesting that they have "Stringent anti-bullying rules on its website".

Absent any other information and being aware of how prepared and willing schools often seem to be to tackle bullying (i.e. not at all) I'm inclined to believe the mother when she says she was just trying to look after her kid.


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The Americans fighting the gay agenda and abortion worldwide

Quote:

WASHINGTON — The details were spare when the event appeared this summer on Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s*public schedule. He would speak on religious liberty to a group called Alliance Defending Freedom. No exact location was specified. No news media would be allowed in.

Only after an outcry over such secrecy — and the anti-gay rights positions of its sponsor — did a transcript of Mr. Sessions’s remarks emerge*on a conservative website. “Many Americans have felt that their freedom to practice their faith has been under attack,” he told the gathering in Orange County, Calif. “The challenges our nation faces today concerning our historic First Amendment right to the ‘free exercise’ of our faith have become acute.”

Mr. Sessions’s focus was not an accident. The First Amendment has become the most powerful weapon of social conservatives fighting to limit the separation of church and state and to roll back laws on same-sex marriage and abortion rights.

Few groups have done more to advance this body of legal thinking than the Alliance Defending Freedom, which has more than 3,000 lawyers working on behalf of its causes around the world and brought in $51.5 million in revenue for the 2015-16 tax year, more than the*American Civil Liberties Union.

...

“We think that in a free society people who believe that marriage is between a man and a woman shouldn’t be coerced by the government to promote a different view of marriage,” said Jeremy Tedesco, a senior counsel and vice president of United States advocacy for the group, which is based in Scottsdale, Ariz. “We have to figure out how to live in a society with pluralistic and diverse views.”

...

If there is a battle somewhere to restrict protections for gay men, lesbians or transgender people, chances are the alliance is there fighting it. The alliance has defended the owners of a wedding chapel in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, who did not want to perform same-sex ceremonies. It has tried to stop a Charlotte, N.C., law that gave transgender people the*right to use the bathroom of their choice. It backed the failed attempt by the Arizona legislature in 2014 to allow businesses to cite religious freedom in turning away same-sex couples.

...

One of those goals was to defend laws that criminalized gay and lesbian sexual conduct.

In a*brief*the alliance filed urging the Supreme Court not to overturn a Texas law that made homosexual activity illegal, its lawyers described gay men as diseased and as public health risks. The court decided 6 to 3 that the law was unconstitutional.

The United States is not the only place the group has been active. Before Belize’s highest court struck down a law last year that banned “carnal intercourse against the order of nature,” the group sent activists there to work with local lawyers who were trying to keep the prohibition in place. In India, an Alliance Defending Freedom-affiliated lawyer was part of the legal team that has defended a similar law in the country’s Supreme Court. That law remains in place, though the Indian court*recently signaled*that it may revisit the issue.

And when*Russia approved*a law in 2013 that imposed a fine for what it called propagandizing “nontraditional” sexual relationships among minors — a move that led for calls to boycott the 2014 Olympics there — Alliance Defending Freedom produced a*nine-page memo*in support of the law, saying its aim was to safeguard “the psychological or physical well-being of minors.”

Mr. Tedesco said the group had never supported the criminalization of homosexual activity. In Belize and India, he noted, the laws the group supported applied to heterosexual sodomy as well. He described the alliance’s involvement in both countries as “a small group of attorneys” who wanted “to resist the foreign activists that were trying to challenge their public health law.”

Asked if he and other alliance lawyers believed gay men and lesbians were immoral, Mr. Tedesco said, “I’m not going to get into what the Bible says or teaches about homosexuality.”

Alliance leaders have not always been so reticent.

Alan Sears, one of the founders of the group and its longtime president until recently, wrote a*book*in 2003 with Craig Osten titled “The Homosexual Agenda” in which they described possible consequences of same-sex marriage. “Why not two men and three women, or two men, one woman, and a dog and a chimpanzee?” the book said. “This means marriage will be no better than anonymous sodomy in a bathhouse.”

How the alliance is approaching the case of the Colorado baker, Jack Phillips, is an illustration of its evolving public relations strategy. Gone are the fiery denunciations of gay men and lesbians as sinners and reprobates.
http://ift.tt/2mV6ogS

I think these people are active in Sweden too. They were trying to help some nurse who refused to perform abortions. They lost the case in the Swedish courts and are now trying their luck in the ECHR.


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mercredi 22 novembre 2017

Could this "Smart [tooth]brush" work?

While I'm waiting for Skarp laser razors to hit the stores, I thought I'd check out the latest developments in personal care products.

So, here's the Kickstarter for the Smartbrush. It's one of those things I've been expecting someone to invent for as long as I can remember: an electric toothbrush that's actually multiple moving brushes arranged in a mouthpiece. You cram it into your mouth and it brushes all your teeth at once.

But, looking at the info in the Kickstarter, I don't think the device, as prototyped, can work. Here are the problems I see:

1. The round rotating brushes appear to be fixed in place in the mouthpiece. What about the (geometrically necessary) gaps between the brushes? Those would appear to represent tooth surfaces that the brush will miss, the same places with each use.

2. Given that it has somewhere between sixteen and thirty brush heads instead of one, each of which has to do what a normal electric tooth brush head does when pressed against the teeth and gums, all operating at the same time, it would appear to need many times the motor power of a normal electric toothbrush.

3. The power distribution, between the motor and the multiple brushes, is via rubber belts running around the mouthpiece from brush to brush. How well is that going to work, especially when the whole thing is full of saliva and toothpaste?

4. There's nothing about sizing or shaping the mouthpiece to actually fit in any given person's mouth. For the brushes to make proper contact, wouldn't custom shaping be needed?

5. There's no video or photos of anyone actually using the thing to clean their teeth. There's a three-second (poorly lit and out of focus) video of the brushes spinning, with nothing to offer any resistance.

Yet according to their timeline they expect to start shipping in three months. This does not appear realistic.

I don't think I'll be backing this one. Am I wrong?


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JFK Died 11-22-63

Anyone recollect that day?

I was in first grade. They dismissed school, but no one told me why, until the next day.


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Flat Earth Detective

I've not noticed a post on this yet, but Mike Hughes is going to be powering himself into space this weekend (25 Nov 2017).

Should be a laugh. The link is informative :)

First up, steam powered rocket??

:jaw-dropp


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Drug that makes a straight guy gay

I read this years ago in some magazine. In France, there was a drug used to treat certain emotional problems similar to but it wasn't Prozac.

Several of its users said that they started having an attraction for their same sex. All of the people complaining were men.

Is this a true story or an urban legend?


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Interesting footage of North Korean defector crossing DMZ

Some footage of the North Korean soldier who defected to the ROK has been released. The video shows him driving to the DMZ, and fleeing from soldiers who shoot at him and wound him, then being rescued by ROK troops.

[yt]jYlm9Df1UKE[/yt]


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Water dowsing

Not sure if this is the right place for it (mods please move if needed) or not.
Ten out of twelve water companies in the UK (when I looked) are using divining rods to find leaks, more here.

FFS


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Man plans to launch himself in a home-made rocket....

To prove that the Earth is flat.

According to the Washington Post article:

“Seeking to prove that a conspiracy of astronauts fabricated the shape of the Earth, a California man intends to launch himself 1,800 feet high on Saturday in a rocket he built from scrap metal.

Assuming the 500-mph, mile-long flight through the Mojave Desert does not kill him, Mike Hughes told the Associated Press, his journey into the atmosflat will mark the first phase of his ambitious flat-Earth space program.”

Apparently this self-taught rocket scientist plans a steam-powered rocked ala’ Evel Knievel, and a first flight of only a few miles...

Sure hope he gets it all on YouTube.

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Joint security area

Those blue huts on the JSA. I was wondering, who pays for the lighting, water? Who touches up the paint on the outside? Who does the plumbing etc?


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Recommend some Atonal Music

I was asked to recommend some atonal music.

The perpetrator of the request was a large white canine, approximately 6 foot 5 and weighing 120 pounds, prominent belly, with sagging jowls and red hair. I heard him say his destination was "sometimes". On foot.



This first version is off the top of my head only! Maybe to be followed by revised and amended list.

-------------------------------


Let's begin before atonality, and cover the transition.

Heh. Bach. Some fugues are so chromatic that they're almost atonal

Mozart -- Dissonance quartet intro, fugue in Jupiter, other chromatic moments, multiple bands at once in Don G.

Wagner
Bruckner
--------------------
Mahler -- last works verge on atonality at times
Hugo Wolf -- so chromatic and extreme that he's almost atonal

Schoenberg 1 -- Up to Gurrelieder

(but not Liszt, who was always a show-off)

Scriabin, his piano music but not his orchestral music, which sounds bombastic

Szymanowski wrote the orchestral music that Scriabin seemed to be going for,
and it too is often extremely bombastic. Wagner with his silk underwear removed, plunged into vast panerotic orgies. Sometimes magic, sometimes overwritten. Amphibious -- half in, half out.

Shostakovich -- the preludes and fugues for piano, the string quartets (mostly astringent and elusive but very good and very unique)

Sibelius

Not Max Reger, who is merely overstuffed, overelaborate, like a lesser William James


Ives tonal

Bartok tonal

Stravinsky tonal

Samuel Barber tonal

Copland tonal

Messiaen tonal (maybe one piece out of four or five)

Carter tonal -- imo never had the ear of a Copland or an Ives, but had a sense of design and a work-ethic. Many of his early pieces are sort-of tonal.


Brits: Tippett, B. Britten, Walton
=================================

(Atonal Side, or composer's atonal)

Schoenberg atonal
Berg (both Berg and Webern apprenticed with tonal works)
Webern

Ives atonal

Bartok atonal

Stravinsky atonal

Samuel Barber atonal

Carter atonal -- Variations for Orch. more accessible than Piano Concerto


Varese


Dallopiccola

Peter Lieberson

Mario Davidovsky

Boulez -- try Repons, other pieces from this (fairly late) period


===================================
Rock and Jazz

The canine individual already knows these cats

Zappa
Eric Kloss
Pat Martino
Miles Davis
Coltrane
Mcoy Tyner
Jarrett
Jaki Byard
Hermeto

some recent fave pianists who can play out if they choose: Billy Childs, Stephen Scott,


Heh. Bill Evans. Give the man enough cocaine and enough chord changes, and he could approach atonality through sheer gabbiness

Hiromi (just so that varwoche doesn't have to så¥ it)


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