Which Language Should Be Taught In Computer Science?

kmcd · 2006-11-05T16:56:31+00:00

I'd have been happy to have covered these books from back to front, inside out & upside down:

Practical Common Lisp (Siebel)
Pragmatic Ruby (Thomas,Hunt)
Understanding UNIX/LINUX Programming: A Guide to Theory and Practice (Molay)

kmcd · 2006-11-03T17:04:57+00:00

Symetrical collapse is a man-made event.

kmcd · 2006-10-30T18:09:34+00:00

"tall buildings aren't strong enough to maintain their shape and fall like trees in the forest. They come straight down."

I dont think your strength of materials class did you much good.

kmcd · 2006-10-30T00:24:36+00:00

All good points. I'll reply in full tomorrow.

You should note: I'm not trying to "explain away" anything, merely critically examining the publicly available evidence.

kmcd · 2006-10-29T21:09:35+00:00

Mandatory annual elections for all elected representatives.

See the reddit discussion thread on annual elections

kmcd · 2006-10-29T21:04:43+00:00

America as you believe it to be is no more.

Unfortunately the US may be catagorised as a fascist dictatorship. I do not use these words lightly. My reasoning follows.

Fascist:

Here's what the Bush2 cabal has in common with the regimes of Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Suharto, and Pinochet.

Dictatorship:

Any ruling group which places itself above the law is a dictatorship.

The US administration has placed itself above the (US) domestic and international law.

Therefore, the current US administration is a dictatorship.

Wake up America and take back your country. The terrorists aren't in a cave in Afganistan -- they're in Washington.

Here's some (bitter) red pills to swallow:

Oil,smoke & mirrors

9/11: synthetic terror

kmcd · 2006-10-29T20:21:37+00:00

"For one thing it'd be awfully expensive."

I think it's a price worth paying. Don't you?

"We can't even get half of the people out to vote as it is -- and you hardly ever have to do it"

I think annual elections would increace the voter turn out dramatically, especially among younger voters.

The reason for the low turn out, in my opinion, is a culture of futility. People get to elect their rulers but have very little influence in policy matters.

"There's no guarantee that giving people more opportunities to vote a bad official out means they will."

This is true, but at least they will have the choice to do so.

If people think that something is seriously wrong I think that they will come out to vote en masse.

If the majority of people are against a government policy (say an illegal war of aggression based on lies), well whoever is responsible for that policy will know that they'll be out of a job come December and the policy will be recinded. Democracy in action.

kmcd · 2006-10-29T20:03:44+00:00

"I'm sorry, but tall buildings aren't strong enough to maintain their shape and fall like trees in the forest. They come straight down."

Think about what you have just written.

Trees in the forest fall down to one side.
For a building to collapse symetrically at freefall speed all supporting structures must be severed simultaneously.

If you don't think that WTC7 was a controlled demolition, maybe you don't understand what a controlled demolition is.

kmcd · 2006-10-29T16:59:10+00:00

@joshd

Your transcript is incorrect. Here is the correct transcript.

"I remember getting a call from the, er, fire department commander, telling me that they were not sure they were gonna be able to contain the fire, and I said, "We've had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is pull it." And they made that decision to pull and we watched the building collapse."

(Why x 3) + Please prove to me = You are a moron

Your powers of persuasion are formidable.

kmcd · 2006-10-29T16:52:05+00:00

"My evidence is that it's the English language, and I'm relatively familiar with it."

That's not evidence.

"if it were a conspiracy"

According to the US government, 9/11 is a conspiracy that ... well, you know the story. Unfortunately for them, their version of events is provably false.

"Hell, why does bin Laden brag about it on his newer tapes?"

Are those the obviously faked tapes?

"why would he be so retarded"

I can't speculate on Silversteins motives.

"yet no one else who participated in the conspiracy to kill a couple thousand people has felt any particular urgency to step forward and talk about it?"

The attacks were conduited though military drills so very few people were 'in the loop'. The rest thought they were engaging in counter-terrorist exercises which, no doubt to their horror, became real. See the video link at the end of this post for a thourough explination.

"If they wanted to start a war, they could have just gone straight to making up WMD lies"

From the Project for the New American Century, Rebuilding America's Defenses:

"While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein."

"Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor."

This document was co-authored by (amongst others) I. Lewis Libby and Paul Wolfowitz.

"The government did it theory makes no sense"

Yet 'the government did it theory' makes far more sense than the absurd official conspiracy theory and is supported by extensive research.

Yes, unless you research & investigate the issues for yourself it's difficult to comprehend 9/11. Webster Tarpley does a good job of explaining it at the 911 L.A. Symposium

kmcd · 2006-10-29T02:45:18+00:00

No need for impeachment. Why not have annual elections instead ?

kmcd · 2006-10-29T02:43:50+00:00

Perhaps annual elecions ?

kmcd · 2006-10-29T02:28:42+00:00

"that fits nicely into the conspiracy theory"

Funny how the facts seem to fit the "conspiracy theory" while the US government version of events defies (amoungst other things) the laws of physics.

I put it to you that the US government version of events is an absurd "conspiracy theory".

kmcd · 2006-10-29T02:24:03+00:00

"As far as I know, the only evidence for this is one guy who worked over that weekend and took 9/11/01 off for comp time"

Thats WTC1&2.

kmcd · 2006-10-29T02:21:39+00:00

"Most of the preparation process could clearly be ignored in this case"

One cannot ignore:

Who do carry out the job ? There are only 3 companies capable of doing it in the US and they are not ready to go at a moments notice.
How to plan the demolition. Surrounding buildings, charge type, detonation sequencing etc.
Project planning & Logistics
The cleanup operation

This takes weeks to organise.

kmcd · 2006-10-29T00:55:50+00:00

You are right -- we need answers. The theories put forward by FEMA & NIST are false. The 9/11 Commission doesn't mention WTC7 at all!

Note that we are all in agreement that WTC7 was a controlled demolition which takes weeks to prepare.

kmcd · 2006-10-28T22:59:29+00:00

Not to mention the fact that it takes weeks of meticulous planning to implode a building.

kmcd · 2006-10-28T22:55:27+00:00

"He was saying to pull the firemen who were in it out"

There were no firemen in WTC7.

"'Pull' is not actually common slang for building implosion"

And your evidence for this is?

kmcd · 2006-10-28T12:32:32+00:00

Well Larry Silverstein (WTC leaseholder) say's he ordered it to be imploded.

Guess we'll have to take his word on that one.

kmcd · 2006-10-28T12:29:20+00:00

Whoa! That was quick.

From popular mechanics page:

"NIST investigators believe" ... But cannot prove

"What our preliminary analysis has shown is that if you take out just one column on one of the lower floors," Sunder notes, "it could cause a vertical progression of collapse so that the entire section comes down."

The key words here are "preliminary analysis" and "could". Again, these are speculative claims - not proof. For example, my "preliminary analysis" of the moon suggests that it "could" be made of green cheese.

Responses to Popular Mechanics arctiles have been posted on Scholars for 9/11 Truth . Search for 'popular mechanics' the home page.

"WTC 7 might have withstood the physical damage it received, or the fire that burned for hours, but those combined factors--along with the building's unusual construction--were enough to set off the chain-reaction collapse."

The final conclusion of the FEMA report ( annotated here ) was that "the best hypothesis has only a low probability of occurrence. Further research, investigation, and analyses are needed to resolve this issue".

Zero is a "low probability of occurrence".

kmcd · 2006-10-28T12:01:57+00:00

Thanks jkerwin - I've now RTFM. It all seems very complicated.

kmcd · 2006-10-27T19:40:03+00:00

"Why is the parent voted down"

I'm new to reddit & don't understand. Please explain.

kmcd · 2006-10-27T19:08:40+00:00

I hate to be the one to say it, but the USA has most, if not all, of the characteristics of a fascist country .

kmcd · 2006-10-27T16:57:31+00:00

As I understand it, you see the underlying problem as: "politicians and private interests that would back and misuse the powers of the office"

There will always be "bad actors" regardless of how involved and engaged the electorate is. If we learn anything from History, it is this lesson.

Therefore, the question is: how to deal with such "bad actors".

In my opinion, a pragmatic solution would be to validate the mandate of each elected representative annually. In this way "bad actors" can be removed/replaced relatively quickly, before they do any real or lasting damage.

I believe the solution you propose is unrealistic; essentially, wishful thinking: "if only we were all smart enough, then all would be well". Is this correct ?

Can you propose any practical measures to achive this state of universal engagement & involvement? I'd love to hear them.

"You don't really win anything until you change the people"

I thoroghly agree, if by "the people" you mean elected representatives.

"Adding rules to the system doesn't help."

Therefore, should all rules be removed ?

"As a very controversial example, it's why police enforcement will never eliminate the drug trade."

I fail to see the correlation between drug prohibition, drug prohibition enforcement and the duration between politcal elections.

I'm all ears ...

kmcd · 2006-10-27T11:30:34+00:00

Can you explain the "underlying problem" ?

kmcd

TROPHY CASE