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2005/1/3-4 [Recreation/Food] UID:35517 Activity:high |
1/3 Traditional Chili = American version of beef curry. Comments? \_ No, they're completely different. \_ I'm not really sure what you're getting at. Are you trying to say that every culture has some hot dish that is vaugely equvilent to beef curry? \_ I am not a huge indian food expert, but isn't beef curry a sin against nature? -- ilyas \_ Tastewise, not really. Culturally, see a Weblog on beef in India: http://csua.org/u/ak5 \- this says some suspect things. i think the south in many ways is more conservative, not less. bangalore may now be an exception. muslims have lots of beef dishes, like beef kabobs, or nihari beef. steak is not really a native dish, as far as i know. whether or not muslims restaurants serve beef probably depends on the area it is embedded in. even in the muslim parts of Kolkata i only see egg/chicken/mutton/fish rolls. goat meat is also very common. --psb \_ Partha, post-British Empire, how many foods eaten today and recognised as Indian are truly native dishes? \- i have no answer to this inquiry. \_ What does truly native mean? Is that like Hitler's 'true Aryan.'? -- ilyas \_ There are Thai curry and Indonesian curry, as well as Chinese and Japanese versions of Indian curry. |
2005/1/3 [Recreation/Media] UID:35518 Activity:nil |
1/2 English lesson for crebbs (I'm only going to bother with one sentence):: "because fox viewer's estimation of actors opinions are the same as tom's evident opinion of published author's opinions." "Fox viewer's estimation" is wrong. Either it needs an article ("a fox viewer's estimation") or it should be plural ("fox viewers' estimation"). "actors opinions" is possessive; possessives require an apostrophe. You have "estimation," your subject, as singular, and "are," your verb, as plural; pick one. I won't bother getting into the content or the phrasing, both of which could use work. Try to do better in threads where you are questioning someone else's knowledge of the English language. -tom \_ 1st, as if you cared, the statements above were made *before* the conversation degenerated into said questioning. 2nd, our disagreement was one of vocabulary, not syntax. Quite different areas, and just because you are wrong about one, after making such a big point of it, hardly warrants this childish posting on the other. Finally, I tend not to proof, or care much about the syntax of, my offhanded, meant to be anonymous (thank you very much), throw away responses to the motd (which this was). Yet Another reason to post anonymously is not having to deal with morons who think pointing out errors of syntax/typos gives them points. -crebbs |
2005/1/3 [Uncategorized] UID:35519 Activity:nil |
1/2 What's the best way to destroy a DVD? \_ for some definition of best, burn it or nuke it. \_ stick it in a microwave for a couple minutes. I have no idea how safe this is, but it'll destroy the dvd. |
2005/1/3-4 [Health/Dental] UID:35520 Activity:high 50%like:33673 |
1/2 What is a good way to find out which doctor or dentist is "good"? I have a list of doctors/dentists from my PPO, but I'd like to find out which one(s) people have had good experiences with. TIA. \_ Ask your friends. \_ As above, but narrow the field some by creating a list of the five closest to your house and the five closest to your work. Even the best doctor in the world isn't worth driving 20 miles. \_ Also narrow the field by eliminating denstist that are part \_ Also narrow the field by eliminating denstists that are part of a big chain. I can particularly warn against Aspen Dental, although I've heard similiar stories from other big chains. Basically, Aspen Dental will tell you that you have a lot of cavities you don't have. \_ first of all realize that most of the dentists will do unnecessary tasks just to get insurance money. http://csua.com/Health/Dental \_ I once had a dentist try to foist a gold crown off on me, and no, I'm not a pirate or a hiphop artist. The hell do I need gold? \_ You're not a pirate? Really? That dentist knew damn well you didn't pay for that copy of photoshop. \_ That dentist is a damned liar. \_ I used 1-800-dentist to find mine and she is awesome. -smurf \_ I wonder what this means.... \_ It means he gave his dentist an oral exam with his tool and she was awesome. |
2005/1/3-4 [Politics/Domestic/SocialSecurity] UID:35521 Activity:high |
1/3 so is SSI broken or not? i can't figure it out. \_ If you ask anyone in the media, yes. If you ask anyone who actually knows economics and pays attention to the subject, no. \_ i'm not sure. i have read that the bush/norquist and co. want to break soc. security to allow the government to not have to pay back all the money it borrowed from the ssi trust. not sure, maybe someone smarter than me can write a report for the class. http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/004327.php - danh \_ you're an idiot. -tom \_ More to the point, BushCo want to let people invest their SSI payments in the market; has he never heard of the stock market crashes of 1929, 1987, and the DotCom Bust of 2000? \_ Do better research, even including the crashes, over the long term a well diversified portfolio out performed "safe" investments. \_ Genuinely curious: how diversified do you have to be? If you put 1% each in 100 Dow Jones listed companies, you'd still be down 10% from the pre-DotBomb days. \_ DJIA @ 1/2/81 = 963.99 DJIA @ 1/2/91 = 2633.66 DJIA @ 1/2/01 = 10790.92 DJIA @ 1/3/05 = 10729.43 Please refer to subsequent post about the lack of historical perspective and the over-emphasis on current and short-term trends. \_ I really do appreciate the amazing jump made between 91 and 01, but now what? \_ The data is trivially available. I assumed it was sufficient to give the long term trend, and that you would be able to fill in points in between. Mea culpa. BTW, the question is not whether the Dow performs well over the long-term (it does). The question you should be bright enough to ask (with that fancy cal education and all) is really how long would it take you to recover if you had the misfortune to buy at a peak. DJIA @ 9/3/29 = 380.33, and @ 12/1/55 = 386.77. DJIA @ 10/1/87 = 2596.28, and @ 8/1/89 = 2660.66. DJIA @ 9/1/00 = 11219.54, and it's 10729.43 today, down 4.3% from 9/1/00. \_ SSI is broken simply because people are living longer and having fewer children. \_ today's nytimes editorial says "if you extrapolate to INFINITY, the amount of money you owe is greater than getting payed(paid, learn to spell, damn you) in, if you extrapolate to something more reasonable, it's not broken." who do you believe? - danh \_ Agreed: the argument that we're going to run out of money in SSI any time soon is based on an ad infinitum fallacy. \_ From the same NYT editorial, " sticking to the traditional 75-year time horizon [...] Social Security's shortfall is estimated by the Congressional Budget Office at $2 trillion and by the Social Security trustees at $3.7 trillion, a manageable sliver of the economy in each case. If the shortfall is on the low side, Social Security will be in the black until 2052, when it will be able to pay out 80 percent of the promised benefits. If it is on the high side, the system will pay full benefits until 2042, when it will cover 70 percent." Whether this is considered broken depends on your politics, but certainly this is less broken than if you projected out to infinity. GDP today (in today's dollar) is ~ $12T. Assuming a growth of 3%, GDP in 2042 will be $37T in today dollars. Would a SSI deficit of 10% of GDP in 2042 (assuming worst case deficit of $3.7T is in 2004 dollars) be considered broken? Remember, the current budget deficit is "only" 2.7% of the GDP. \_ At the end of 1993, According to Al Martin, "The total national debt of the United States on a fully realized basis, inclusive of federal, state, county and local debt stood at a record $20.613 trillion (83.73% of said debt having been created from 1981-92 and from 2001 to present.) The total public and private indebtedness of the United States ended the year 2003 at $39.384 trillion. The total public and private assets of the United States ended the year 2003 at $26.134 trillion. Thus, the United States by the end of 2003 has a negative net worth of approximately $13 trillion. The total debt service of the United States ended the year 2003 at 309.4% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product). These are numbers never before seen. \_ What? "end of 1993", "created from 2001 to present"? \_ There might be some surpluses in there, so that means no new debt created? The point is that betting on the long-term viability of the US might be unwise. When you add in other liabilities like SSI and Medicare, the numbers go beyond $80 Trillion, but then of course we don't *have* to pay those. \_ The national debt by itself is "merely" $7.5T, which is 62.4% of the GDP. We had national debts of 64.1% to 63.5% of GDP from 1992 to 1998. Unfortunately, the OMB estimates the debt will go up to 72% of GDP in 2009. |
2005/1/3-4 [Science/Disaster] UID:35522 Activity:very high |
1/3 Why do people call this tsunami, with est. 150k dead, the worst natural disaster in known human history? The Tang San (sp?) earthquake in China killed 650k people. \_ the only differences is that this particular disaster, a lot of Europeans fell victim as well. If this tsunami happened in the April, as cruel as it may sound, no one is going to give much thought. \_ i think soviet union uzbekistan have giant quake in 1966 that leveled a city and killed several hundred thousand people too \_ I'm still waiting for some of you Christians to start talking about the Flood. \_ A plague of locusts in early December, snow in the UAE at Xmas; these are pretty clear signs. Another Flood, however, is right out, as G_d promised us the Fire Next Time. \_ The Black Plague killed 25 million people, is that not considered a natural disaster? \_ Criminy! Does it make a difference? Just cough up some dough to help the people out and worry about this crap when it's actually important. \_ I haven't heard worst. I've heard most expensive and I've heard really bad, but I haven't heard "worst." \_ Probably because they're ignorant. I, BTW, have not heard anyone say that. I heard one person ask and get told there was a typhoon that kill 250K, so this couldn't be the worst. \_ china has not exactly publisized the giant killer quake from the 70s. \_ It is publicized internally and the anniversary was still remembered. It was also well known internationally (depending on whom you ask, of course) but no assistance was requested or given. \_ Ummm.. Actually, I didn't know about the quake in China, I was just pointing out that since there is at least one worse disater in recorded history the tsunami couldn't possibly be "the worst." In general, I would consider it ignorant for anyone to make a superlative statment like "the worst in recorded history" without some serious research to back it up. \_ i think you're just splitting hairs and everyone can agree the christmas day tsunami is going to be is pretty bad. you can be the annoying guy at the party who points out that 1 million people died from anti bacterial infections in ww1 if you want. \_ Now you're just being stupid. Yes, I probably wouldn't bother correcting someone at a party. Do you just have no sense of context or something? \_ Are you Chinese? Do you have any idea the effect of the earthquake on China? \_ You've obviously never served. \_ you're an idiot. -tom \_ Stupid?!? I know you are, but what am I? \_ well, i wouldn't expect joe six-pack to know about the chinese quake. i would expect a media newsreader to be backed up by relatively complete research, rather/cbs not withstanding. \_ Then you're an idiot. \_ apparently you don't understand what "expect" means. i would say that i am an idealist if anything. \_ If you expect anything remotely like fact checking from any media figures, you haven't paid attention over the last decade.. \_ i've often heard people describe it as *one of* the worst. at 150k dead, i'm ok with that description. i don't think i've heard it described as the unqualified "the worst", which would clearly be unjustified, as you pointed out. that said, i've noticed that people tend to have a weak grasp of history and would protray their current calamities as unprecedented, when they might be even somewhat trivial in a historical context. \- in terms of deaths, this disaster is not even close to the worst in history. or even since 1900. however for "one day" events, it is pretty high [so, not include famines and other political disasters [collectivization], wars [verdun] and epidemics, and genocides [rwanda]. it is also very high in terms of non-death casaulties ... particularly, the number of people whose economic prospects are wiped out. --psb |
2005/1/3 [Reference/Tax] UID:35523 Activity:very high |
1/3 I propose a way to compare who's more generous in aiding the tsunami victims: calculate the govt and private donations of a country as a percentage of its GDP, then rank the countries. \_ I propose ranking generosity of people, not governments. -- ilyas \_ But then it's hard to compare low-tax countries to high-tax ones. \_ Why do you want to compare countries? -- ilyas \_ Wow! You're a genius! I wonder why no one has thought of that before? \_ Maybe because the result might not be that pleasing. \_ The sarcasm just flew right by ya' there didn't it? \_ How much is are the Saudis giving to the relief effort? |
2005/1/3-4 [Computer/SW/OS/OsX] UID:35524 Activity:nil |
1/3 do mp3s/wav files burned to an audio disc with whatever is built into winxp intentionally sound worse than if i used another tool like roxio or a mac? |
2005/1/3 [Uncategorized] UID:35525 Activity:nil |
1/3 Where is the love ewe that we demanded for njh? He is lonely! - root |
2005/1/3-4 [Computer/Networking] UID:35526 Activity:nil |
1/3 Is there a way to get Dish or Cable with just the channels I want? I don't need the Shopping or Religious channels, and I don't want to pay for them. \_ Get a cable splitter, go to your neighbor's cable box... you should be smart enough to figure out the rest. - jvarga, troll for the day \_ You're a baaad man, jvarga, but yr point is well-taken. |
2005/1/3-4 [Reference/Languages, Politics/Domestic/President] UID:35527 Activity:high |
1/3 The Jaime Kennedy show is COOL! You should've seen Penelope Cruz's face when Jaime (pretending to be a reporter) asked her if she was a Mexican, and when she said she was Spaniard, he asked "What is that? Is that like an European Mexican?" \_ Hahahaha, I can imagine... \_ Jaime Kennedy, the great latin entertainer? perhaps you mean Jamie. \_ "The great latin entertainer? Is that like an entertainer that speaks Latin?" \_ Oh the hilarity! |
2005/1/3 [Health/Disease/General, Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:35528 Activity:very high |
1/3 New (substantiated?) rumor that the bulge on Bush's back is a LifeVest defibrillator. Apparently has atrial fibrillation, and suffered a mini-stroke (2002 Pretzel incident). Any thoughts? \_ More detailed discussion of the defibrillator theory: http://colombia.indymedia.org/news/2004/12/20636.php \_ You know, it's crap usage like this that makes people talk about "theory" vs. fact. It's not a theory, it's a steaming pile of random speculation. \_ "Conspiracy theory" is a pretty commonly used term, and most conspiracy theories are pretty much exactly what you describe. I am using the word "theory" in an identical context here. If you don't like the way the English language has developed, please fuck off and cry to someone else about it. \_ Go read "Interface" by Stephen Bury (a pen name for Neal Stephenson) at once. \_ Sometimes a suit is just a suit. \_ I doubt it. If he does in fact have a heart problem that requires a defibrillator, he'd have an implantable one like every patient with the problem. \_ you're an idiot. -tom \_ Almost by definition, you have shown that he is not. |
2005/1/3-4 [Politics/Domestic/California, Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:35529 Activity:high |
1/3 Where does all the money go that people donate? Who distributes it and who buys stuff with it? Does it go directly to the area governments? \_ Short answer: it depends on where people donate the money. \_ ok assume Red Cross since that seems to be the big thing here. \_ similar question (I'm not the op), what % of the money I donate to Red Cross/Salvation/Good Will goes to admins and what % actually gets distributed to the needy? \_ Heh. Good question. -- ilyas \_ How much research funding for ilyas' group goes to support to his motd habbit? \_ None. I work far more hours than I am paid for. There is also the notion that certain kinds of work cannot be adequately measured by hourly rates anyways. Like, say, programming or research. There is also the matter that you are an idiot. -- ilyas \_ I see. You're underpaid, so that's the justification for a libertarian living off the taxpayers' nickel. \_ Are you dense? Didn't we have this conversation already? Do you not understand that the only people on whom this complaint does NOT work are those who are perfectly happy with the way our current society is. Because you know, if you happened to NOT like something about society, you almost certainly are benefitting from this feature you don't like in some way, somewhere. You hypocrite bastard. Too little taxation = more business investment, too much taxation = more public good, etc. etc. Do you think people who conceived of western secular liberalism did not benefit from the fucked up societies they had the misfortune to be born into? Were they hypocrites to believe in what they did? You are a pretty sad case even for the motd. -- ilyas \_ I think op is just saying you should practice what you preach. \_ I d be happy to, if ever I am elected into public office. Wouldn't everybody? And at any rate, where are the complaints against environmentalists taking advantage of the benefits provided by the evil soulless oil companies? Liberals pocketing Bush tax cuts? Practice what you preach, bitch! -- ilyas \_ http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/comics.php \_ Stop bothering me, can't you see I have a deadline! -- ilyas \_ My tax cut went straight back to the DNC. Stick to talking about things you know something about, hypocrite. \_ Except it shouldn't go to the DNC, Aaron. It should go back to the state. I _wish_ I could spend my taxes how I want politically. Dumbass. -- ilyas \_ It's about reinvesting the money into the state rather than actually spending the money on myself. Get a clue, doofus. \_ So the DNC = the State now? Wtf? Also, who says libertarians spend money on themselves? -- ilyas \_ Who cares if they spend money on themselves? What are you babbling about? The issue is your willing use of state money to coast along, despite your prolific and long winded posts about your libertarian Utopian ideals. Hello? Earth to ilyas? I'm not libertarian but you're being dumb. _/ He was pointing out that a libertarian can choose to invest in the state if he wants, rather than being taxed for it (in theory). \_ He's also being dumb by not answering the other objections: DNC != State, environmentalists driving cars, shopping at republican donor businesses, etc. Probably not actually dumb, but playing dumb for trolling purposes. -- ilyas \_ heh, 3 ilyas points, but I still lost the bet. well, shucks. \_ What were the terms of the bet? -- ilyas Would you prefer my default reaction to motd posts be outright dismissal and derision? -- ilyas \_ don't you think it's amusing to be a hardcore libertarian AND a grad student at the largest public university in the world? i see a lot of humor in that.\ i think you belong at Pepperdine with ben stein. - danh university in the world? i see a lot of humor in that. i think you belong at Pepperdine with ben stein. - danh \_ I find it no more amusing than seeing you employed at some soul-sucking corp you probably hate. Actually, I find it quite sad. And I am not a 'hardcore' libertarian. I am actually fairly moderate. Unless it's one of those obligatory adjectives, like 'cold-blooded killer.' -- ilyas \_ 'Cold-blooded libertarian' has a nice ring to it, though. \_ That was the insinuation, yes. -- ilyas \_ I remember the Red Cross ranks #1 in this regard. I don't remember the actual numbers though. \_ $0.19 to raise $1.00. 9.9% overhead, 91.9% goes to programs. http://csua.org/u/ak9 \_ Dont donate to the United Way. They are terrible. \_ On a more positive note, I read in the Economist that each dollar spent on charity results in a > 1 dollar net economic benefit. That is, 1 dollar spent in helping someone get back to her feet, etc. eventually results in a > 1 dollar return (eg. she starts contributing to society again). Don't ask me how the Economist did its calculations. \-why does this come as a surprise? it is more or less axiomatic. charity goes to those with very little and it is just the law of diminishing marginal returns. if you want to spend your money to go from having no fishing net to having a finshing net obviously that has a bigger return than going from gold to platinum jewelry. --psb \_ Fishing nets won't get you laid; platinum jewelry will. \_ Fishing nets catch fish which can be sold for money which can be used to buy platinum which can get you laid. \- suffering from amoebic dysentary probably wont either --psb |
2005/1/3-4 [Finance/CC] UID:35530 Activity:nil |
1/3 Do most sites that require credit cards accept anonymous debit cards? \_ How can debit/credit cards be anonymous? \_ MasterCard: http://csua.org/u/ak7 \_ so gift card == anonymous debit card? Is ther any fee associated with it? \_ yes, there's an activation fee. it's not terribly cost- effective (unless you buy in quantity), but you can buy a card with cash and it's about as anonymous as you can get. |
2005/1/3-5 [Computer/Networking] UID:35531 Activity:kinda low |
1/3 So I installed Debian (Sarge) on a home server for various reasons (including learning about Apache 2) and have a question: how do I get all the useful information about my machine that I get in Windows with ipconfig /all? And how do I turn DHCP on or off? Set the host name/ip? \_ ifconfig, man ifconfig for full details. ifup/ifdown to turn on/off seperate ethernet controllers. dhcpd is the \_ dhcpcd \_ It's dhcpd on my linux box. Is it somehow different on yours?? dhcp daemon, think it's been replaced by dhclient. To turn it on and off you need to follow the ifup/ifdown scripts and locate the file that pertains to your controller, and there will be very obvious commands within that file, i.e. dhcp=on/off, onboot=on/off, wifi=on/off etc. Setting the \_ /etc/network/interfaces... I think you are thinking of redhat. hostname and ip is done through /etc/hosts, first line in the file will indicate the name of the localhost, add in consecutive lines to set the ip address, etc. If you don't want to hack stuff manually I believe that debian does support a minimal ncurses gui for this, can't remember the name at the moment, someone else fill in the blanks. Think it was netconfig, see if you can do a bash expansion on it. |
2005/1/3-4 [Industry/Jobs, Politics/Domestic/SocialSecurity] UID:35532 Activity:moderate |
1/3 I have a better question. What % of tay payer money actually reaches it target for expenditure. For example, for Medicare / Medicaid, welfare, education, this is pennies on the dollar. \_ I think you need to define your terms more. And not to be pedantic, but 'pennies on the dollar' includes everything short of 100%. As far as 'reaches its target', what counts? If medicare spends $100 on a prescription, should you count $100, or the retail price of the drug, or the wholesale price, or the manufacturer's cost? Education is even stickier. Do you count teacher's salaries? Do you count money spent on building maintainance? What about a principal or superintendant's salary? Or perhaps you're just trying to start some flamewar on "the government's wasting MY money!" \_ you're an idiot. -tom \_ How about asking the question in terms of staff per customer served? For schools, that would be (# students)/(# persons drawing a salary at the state and local level). \_ For CA, the ratio seems to be (10 students)/(1 salary drawer). Just teachers alone the ratio is (21.2 students)/ (1 teacher), so the other staff:teacher ratio is almost 1:1. |
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