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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. |
| 3/17 |