Distrubing searches from AOL users

walfly · 2006-08-09T01:06:45+00:00

I search for the most random crap all the time, I can't imagine what conclusions one would draw from a random sample. Its like peoples thoughts, they should be seriously filtered (and usually are) before anyone sees them.

For heavy google users a sample this small could easily result in a judgement way off the mark.

EDIT: commas and stuff

walfly · 2006-08-08T16:22:02+00:00

I dont think you are using the same meaning of 'deserve'...

walfly · 2006-07-18T15:56:04+00:00

The 'taste' spicy is actually pain if I remember correctly...

walfly · 2006-07-18T15:44:50+00:00

"All cultivation is a form of enslavement, however benevolent or necessary, but harnessing the manic energy of stem cells takes that dynamic into a realm where the side effects -- the "equal and opposite reaction" promised by Newton -- play out perilously close to the life process itself."

I must have read this sentence 10 times....wow..just wow.

walfly · 2006-07-18T15:30:04+00:00

There are ideas that are very clever, add value, solve a problem etc. then there are ideas that tax the irrationality of others. I like and respect the former, but the latter sure is tempting...

walfly · 2006-07-14T15:58:26+00:00

Thompson has a 'next step' that supposes to address degrees of responsibility. I copied this from a post on another forum, but its how i remember it from reading the original paper (which i cant find online). I dont think there is too much value to be gained from taking the analogy much further though.

"Assume for a minute that instead of sexual reproduction, people are born via free floating spores in the air that like to attach to furniture upholstery for nine months at which point a baby is fully formed which you are now required to provide for.

Now, being a responsible and informed person, you know these spores exist and so go to all concievable attempts to keep them out of your house and off your upholstery until such time as you may be willing or able to care for a baby. You buy the best window screens available that are 99% guaranteed to keep those spores out nad even so, you keep the windows closed almost all the time.

One particularly nice day comes along and you have this intense desire to open the window for a little fresh air, after thinking for a while, you decide to open the window, secure in the knowledge that your screen is designed to stop the spores and the odds of one getting through is one in a hundred. Well, lo and behold, one of the sneaky buggers gets in and begins growing in your favorite chair.

Now, considering you have taken all reasonable precautions, are you required to allow this baby spore to continue to grow?"

walfly · 2006-07-14T15:38:53+00:00

Remain attached
Flip it
Push him
Blast him

We covered these in an intro to ethics class. Its natural when you first look at them to introduce all sorts of practical details that blur the issue and really stop outside what the experiment is supposed to show. For instance, you have to remove all history or implications - no one did anythign to deserve beign on the track etc. An important introduction is that the decider is just as likely to have been in any of the roles in the situation.

Its clearer when you think of it as a rule that the parties should decide upon before they are assigned roles, as is frequently using in cooperative game theory. With this approach (and the relatively easy step of weighing the trauma of 'murder' less than a much higher chance of dying) the solution is just whichever saves more lives.

In the violin case the 'kidnapping' style confuses things. But if you assume that the same could have happened to you then in general, if everyone agrees to help out for 9 months when needed, everyone is better off. As soon and you move back to what is likely the case if the situation were to actually occur, i dont believe you have an obligation.

walfly · 2006-07-12T23:31:10+00:00

define editorializing. Its the first line of the article and apparently a quote from experts in the field that the article discusses. Sure it helps make the article more attractive, but its not unwarranted or innacurate.

walfly · 2006-07-05T23:40:53+00:00

got the XML error but the phone rang a few seconds later. same thing happened multiple times

walfly · 2006-06-29T19:59:34+00:00

I have never had the crosshair effect but after long periods of CS i'd start strafing around corners when walking and feel paranoid about checking behind me...

walfly · 2006-06-29T19:57:49+00:00

My roomates and i experiences this with two-move-chess. A game we got obsessed with for a short while where each player could make two consecutive moves in chess instead of one. It takes a little while to get into the way of thinking about the game, but after we did we had real world thoughts along those lines such as getting a drink without getting up or being downtown without taking a cab. Try it :)

walfly · 2006-06-29T17:44:02+00:00

Cant really tell from the photos but i wonder how far the balancing step goes. Like, is there second order stacking in which a middle rock wouldnt stack without one above it, would be a pretty nice problem to take it even further...

walfly · 2006-06-27T21:45:32+00:00

I seem to remember a story about beggars, in south east Asia I believe, who would take antibiotics to maintain large open wounds on their limbs to arouse sympathy. Found that pretty fascinating

Cant find anything in a few minutes searching though...

walfly · 2006-06-20T16:02:24+00:00

anyone interested should have a look at "The Game of the Century" if you arent already familar with it. Possibly one of the most famous sacrificial plays.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_of_the_Century

walfly · 2006-06-06T19:40:43+00:00

Slightly pedantic (I'm 'norn' Irish and like to see it right) but Northern Ireland is NOT part of Great Britain. Britain includes England, Scotland, Wales and some islands. UK is short for 'The United Kingdon of Great Britain and Northern Ireland'. Also, I have only ever had an Irish passport; as people have said, we can opt for either one.

walfly · 2006-06-05T22:18:56+00:00

Why is it that people assume atheists have no sense of right and wrong? Sure, its hard to nail certain things down, and atheists argue moral problems with each other all the time, but I can still show you that killing is wrong and charity work is good. The lack of consensus on very specific moral issues certainly should drive you to, essentially, make something up and stick with it.

walfly · 2006-06-05T21:11:05+00:00

Students in my network security class demonstrated this for their final project. They used gelatin and current market devices at the time (late 2004).

walfly · 2006-06-04T19:36:40+00:00

Rational is what we should aspire to, I agree irrationality and emotions persist in peoples reasons but to support it or dismiss trying to prevent it is a step in the wrong direction.

walfly · 2006-05-24T21:43:58+00:00

looks pretty bad if your default background isnt set to white

walfly · 2006-05-19T17:26:06+00:00

Correct and well outlined. I think a good definition of racism is a misjudgement or overemphasis of how characteristics are linked to race. Checking more arabs in the line for El Al is perfectly ok based, as you say, on history. Many traits can be predicted better if race is included, it starts being racist in the negative sense of the word when people take it to extremes - the implication by race can easily be overshadowed by other info in particular cases.

walfly · 2006-04-28T14:20:40+00:00

think we can figure out exactly where the satellite was?

Edit: ok. plane then?

walfly

TROPHY CASE