1/6     Watch or hear interviews of Freeman Dysan, John Maynard Smith, etc.
        http://www.meaningoflife.tv

1/6     Very cool Open Source Turn-Based Strategy game. Supports online multiplayer.
        http://www.wesnoth.org
        \_ VERY cool, thanks for the link!  Blew Saturday playing it...

1/7     I was looking at Mine Safety and Health Administration statisics,
        and it seems reality is exactly the opposite of media portrayal from
        the last week.
        http://www.msha.gov/MSHAINFO/FactSheets/MSHAFCT10.HTM table titled
        "Coal Mine Safety and Health".  The fatal injury rate for miners has
        dropped from 2000 to 2004, from 0.0393 to 0.0273.  All injury rate
        has dropped also, from 6.64 in 2000 to 5.00 in 2004.  It is true that
        the percentage of citations and orders has dropped from 42% to 41%
        (from 2000 to 2004, and dipping to 38% in 2002).  However, the number
        of coal mines has dropped from 2000 to 2004, from 2124 mines to 2008.
        While the number of mines has decreased, the number of miners has
        slightly increased from 108.1K to 108.5K.  This is explained by the
        number of smaller mines that have closed (the number of small mines
        dropped from 571 in 2000 to 560 in 2004).  On-site inspection hours
        per mine has increased from 215.7 in 2000 to 219.2 in 2004.
        The lower citation rate may well be because larger mines are
        somewhat better run and therefore slightly less prone to citations.
        \_ I was the only one who reported that some Clinton-era official
           said that mine citations were "way down", and cited the LA Times.
           My bad -- I can't seem to find anything at all like this now on
           that site or others.  I will be more careful next time.
           Anyway, apart from my mistake, the media is reporting that
           citation penalty amounts are down along with criminal convictions.
           http://www.sltrib.com/ci_3379597?source=rss
           -jctwu
           \_ According the the MSHA, penalty assessed (in $million) was
              18.4 in 1995, 12.0 in 2000, and 17.0 in 2004.  Bear in mind
              though that there were 2946 coal mines in 1995 and only 2008
              in 2004.  The amount penalty per mine actually went from
              $6.2K in 1995 to $8.5K in 2004.  The number of citations
              per mine also went from 27.9 in 1995 to 32.2 in 2004.  (I know
              citations != convictions, but unfortunately the MSHA site
              does not list convictions.)  It's deceptive to look at raw
              numbers, which did decrease from 1995 to 2004, because the
              number of mines dropped from 2946 to 2008 in the same period.
              The claims in the article you quoted are also deceptive in the
              same way, since the number of mines also decreased from 2001
              to 2004 (and the decrease in number of major fines is roughly
              similar to the decrease in the number of mines).  The other
              charges are somewhat difficult to answer since the article
              does not provide enough information (re penalty payment
              rate, for example, the article does not say what the non-Bush
              payment rate is).  As usual, I find the reporting to be sadly
              lacking and outright deceptive in this case.
        \_ http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/attytood/archives/002620.html
           \_ Accusations are cheap; show me some numbes.  From the MSHA, it
              looks like injury rate is down, fines are up, citations are up,
              and on-site inspection hours are up.  No one is arguing
              Sago is a well-run mine.  It is disheartening how low their fines
              have been.  But is that a recent thing, or have fines always been
              low?  According to the MSHA, the $ fine per mine has gone up
              since 1995 (from $6.2K to $8.5K in 2004).  What metric are you
              using to show that the industry is deteriorating or the regulatory
              body is doing a worse job?  I've listed mine and its source.
              Now please show us yours.  And hard numbers please; we're
              engineers here.
              \_ Nah, I don't have time to do the kind of research it would
                 require to prove this one way or another. One thing though,
                 did you pull out strip mines from your numbers? Strip
                 mines are much safer than shaft mines and most of the
                 newer mines are all strip mines.

1/7     Can anyone give me a hint on the easiest way to rip/copy a DVD
        to a Mac and watch it?  The OSX player bitches about no copy
        protection being present.  -John
        \_ Why is it that you are not using Mplayer?
        \- Why is it that you are not using Mplayer? ok tnx.
           \_ I am now, thanks :-)  -John
        \_ MacTheRipper. A very respectable backup program.

1/7     How do options work?  If you own calls which expire 'in-the-money'
        do you have to exercise the option and and then have the option of
        selling the stock, or do you simply get cash equivalent to the closing
        value of the option?
        \_ You either sell the option or buy the stock. Most options never
           get exercised, though. By the way, if they expire it's too late.
           \_ Won't most brokers exercise them for you though, assuming you have
              the available cash or margin and they are in the money?
           \_ options that are >= $0.25 in the money are automatically
              exercised. and options on cash-settled indices (e.g. oex)
              are automatically exercised if they are >= $0.01 in the money
              and you get the cash equivalent
        \_ i think the actual term is "above water."
           \_ No that is for company issued options. He is referring to calls
              and puts.

1/7     I have an .eps file generated from Illustrator that is all vector
        graphics, and it's about 300k.  I need to get it to be as small as
        possible to upload it to an archive where they're anal about image
        file size.  What can I do to shrink the file besides zipping?  I already
        tried zipping, and it's still bigger than the 50 k they want for .gz
        files.
        \_ Sometimes you can reduce the line count at the expense of detail
           (a.k.a. "smoothing")
        \_ Convert it to png.   -tom

1/6     Interviews of Freeman Dyson, John Maynard Smith, etc.
        http://www.meaningoflife.tv
        \_ thanks, some really interesting stuff. the following quote is
           pretty funny:
           "hint: unlike most physicists, he's a priest"