Displaying comments 1 to 50 of 335
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Where are all my forecasters at?
The Democrats probably aren't going to win sixty Senate seats, and even if they do, they probably won't have the unity required to actually stick together. Which means that the Republicans will continue to use the same two-pronged strategy they've been using ever since the 2006 midterms:- Record-breaking levels of obstruction, causing absolutely nothing to get done;
- Blame the Democrats for the fact that absolutely nothing gets done.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 11:08 PM on October 6, 2008
Ask post:
I can haz Mozart too?
I didn't really start listening to classical music much till my late teens. I had had only a modicum of musical training. I soon noticed that I could, with reasonable accuracy, predict where classical pieces were going (not just Mozart).
I don't/didn't claim that this was definitely real. I understand/understood that I could have just been fooling myself. But it definitely seemed real.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 4:32 PM on September 23, 2008
The thing is that if you live in the West, you are exposed to Western classical music all the time even if you don't actively seek it outYes, of course I was exposed to classical music. I'm not sure what that has to do with the question - the questioner is explicitly also talking about people who fit in the same category that you're pointing out.
So unless you're suggesting that I could predict most specific pieces because I had... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 4:45 PM on September 23, 2008
Ask post:
Solving the hyper-inflation problem in Zimbabwe
Weimar Germany introduced a new (temporary) currency based on hard assets - land mortgaged off and such.
Bolivia (in the 1980s) dramatically raised the domestic price of gas, which meant less Bolivians bought it, which meant more of Bolivia's oil was available for sale in foreign markets, which brought an influx of non-Bolivian currency to the country.
Japan (after WWII) started exporting stuff on a large scale, which again brought foreign cash... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 8:20 PM on September 16, 2008
Ask post:
Let's Do This!
I'm sorry that this is not an answer to your question, but have you considered the possibility that avoiding sleep in preparation for a mental activity is an extremely bad idea?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 3:02 PM on September 15, 2008
Ask post:
Are there natural disasters in the deep ocean?
Well, I think volcanoes count as "near the floor". It's not like a volcano blows and suddenly an island shoots up from out of nowhere; rather, the island has been growing for a long time, as a result of many eruptions, and at some point breaks the surface.
Perhaps undersea volcanoes have significant effects far above themselves, though, due to dispersed gasses and such?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 5:07 PM on August 30, 2008
Perhaps I shouldn't have said "deep ocean" in the title. I'm talking about the part of the ocean that is nowhere near anything but water.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 5:24 PM on August 30, 2008
Ask post:
What Makes a Dubya 2000 Vote an Understandable Decision?
I know exactly one person who I know (A) voted for Bush, and (B) told me his reason for doing so. It was this, and this is a direct quote, fully describing the entire reason that he told me:
"I don't know."
As far as I am aware, he intends to vote Republican in the coming election. Angrily.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 1:19 PM on August 25, 2008
A little more detail: The person I mentioned is not going to vote for Obama, because, and I quote, "Sounds like he's from Pakistan."
I think it's admirable and perhaps useful to try to understand the reasons why people make decisions like this, rather than immediately resorting to mockery. But the sad truth is that at least some of these people deserve mockery for the reasoning behind their decisions.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 1:31 PM on August 25, 2008
Ask post:
MySQL joins
Assuming that you mean "either a match in table 2 or 3 or both":
select t1.x, t1.y from t1, t2, t3 where (t1.x = t2.x) or (t1.y = t3.y);
If you mean "... and not both", then:
select t1.x, t1.y from t1, t2, t3 where ((t1.x = t2.x) or (t1.y = t3.y)) and ((t1.x != t2.x) or (t1.y != t3.y));
I make no guarantees that these are optimally efficient or even near so.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 10:20 PM on August 21, 2008
And flunkie, take a closer look at your where clause.
Which one, and what about it?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 10:39 PM on August 21, 2008
Could you please explicitly say what you believe is wrong with my answer?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 10:44 PM on August 21, 2008
Ask post:
Humorous Army Songs?
Nothing too deep, nothing that might make her dwell on the possibility of being killedJust to make sure you know this: One of your examples, "Arthur McBride", typically contains a line saying something like "You'll send us off to France, where we'll get shot without warning".
Anyway, if you're OK with "Arthur McBride", another with the same humorous anti-recruiting theme is "The Recruiting Sergeant" (and it... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 10:51 AM on August 21, 2008
Ask post:
Is the amount of matter in the universe infinite?
No actually, you were onto the right idea, I think. Show that one infinte set can be a subset of the other.Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you're going for here, but:
Just because one infinite set is a subset of another does not mean that it's of smaller cardinality.
For example, the set of even integers is an infinite set. It is a subset of the set of integers, which is also an infinite set.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 9:36 AM on August 20, 2008
Ask post:
What to do now to improve the human race in the long term?
I hate to be a downer, but... nothing.
Millions of years is an absurdly long time. There is nothing that you can do that will have any effect noticable that long down the line, except for things that someone else would have done anyway even if you hadn't.
For example, if Einstein didn't exist, there were dozens of other physicists, contemporaries of his, who could have and would have discovered relativity. The data was there, and was begging... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 11:52 AM on August 19, 2008
Ask post:
How long can you tread water?
Roughly, a person is, oh, I don't know, 50 kilograms (on average, taking into account that a bunch of people are children of various sizes).
Roughly, a person is the density of water, i.e. 1 gram per cubic centimeter.
Hence, a person is roughly 50,000 cubic centimeters.
Roughly, "up to your neck" is "completely submerged", so let's say 50,000 cubic centimeters of displacement per person.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 8:54 PM on August 18, 2008
I think most of the preceding calculations are incorrect. People float, so our displacement is only a function of our weight, not our volume.First of all, people are basically as dense as water. The degree to which we are different from water is utterly insignificant with respect to this calculation, just as is the difference between the world's population and "6 billion", or between the average mass of a human and "70 kg", or between the percentage of... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 12:52 AM on August 19, 2008
Ask post:
Please don't let me live in a box!
I don't know if this will be helpful or not, but have you looked at the "Off-Campus Housing" page on McGill's website? I know you said you've "scoured the McGill off campus housing", but I'm not completely sure that means the same thing.
And if it gets down to it, you might want to reconsider your "need" for a stove and such. Take what you can get, see if you can get it on a monthly lease, and search for a better place at leisure. You can... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 11:34 AM on August 18, 2008
Ask post:
Should I pop this fine French red?
You're seriously considering throwing away a twenty-one year plan at bonding with your son in favor of hoping that something might taste better twenty years from now?
Of course you should drink it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 3:56 PM on August 16, 2008
Ask post:
My slightly scandalous past has come back to haunt me. Help!
You've done nothing wrong, and it sounds like your boss is a good guy. Why not just let the jerk be a jerk if he so chooses, and not worry about it?
And if you want, next time that he makes some veiled threat, make it clear to him that you're just going to let him be a jerk if he so chooses.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 8:48 PM on August 8, 2008
I might have phrased that a little ambiguously:
By "let the jerk be a jerk", I meant regarding his threats of going to your boss. Let him go to your boss, and let him see what happens if he does.
I didn't mean anything like "don't stand up for yourself when he acts inappropriately towards you".
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 8:52 PM on August 8, 2008
Ask post:
american airlines ate my summer vacation
american airlines delivered us 41 hours late to our destination.
The vast majority of which was because of a volcano? Which, before any other delay or other problem occurred, immediately made you think "I should be compensated"?what else can i do?
You can be reasonable.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 5:26 PM on August 5, 2008
Ask post:
Is Atlas Shrugged meant to be Ironic?
If that crap was meant, in any way, to any degree, to be humorous, then Ayn Rand was the greatest troll ever.
Ever.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 11:34 AM on August 4, 2008
For those struggling to connect thermodyanmics with economic theory (...)
Translating science into English aphorisms ("you can't win" etc.) is at best inaccurate, and more typically fundamentally misleading.
But then translating science into English aphorisms and then into conclusions about sociology, economics, and politics? Uh, let's say I wouldn't suggest relying on any conclusions that you draw in that manner.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 11:37 AM on August 4, 2008
Ask post:
A nowhere continuous derivative?
If it is differentiable at a point, then it is also continuous at said point.
But its derivative is not necessarily continuous at that point - there are definitely functions that are differentiable but whose derivatives are not continuous.
He's asking if there are differentiable functions whose derivatives are nowhere continuous, not if there are differentiable functions that are nowhere continuous.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 8:32 PM on August 1, 2008
From the geometric interpretation of a derivative it seems intuitively that the derivative must be continuous at least from one direction where it is defined.That's incorrect.(Of course intuition and mathematics can often collide.)That's correct.
The classic example is the function f where:
f(0) = 0
f(x<>0) = x^2 * sin ( 1 / x )
This function has a derivative at all... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 12:03 AM on August 2, 2008
Ask post:
How strange is this guy's name?
I'm sorry - part of what I said is not true. It's not 1000 girls per year - it's that the rank of "Unique" is near 1000 each year.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 9:51 PM on July 28, 2008
Which is still hundreds of girls per year.
The point is, give it a shot. OK, I'll shut up now.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 9:52 PM on July 28, 2008
I only know him by a nickname as he says that his full name is too embarrassing to reveal.
Ummm... huh?
Then what information could we possibly have given you which could have helped you determine the answer to your question?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 3:01 PM on July 29, 2008
Yeah, my question is how such a list would help you with what you told us you wanted to do:he said that he is the only person with a social security number who has his first name. I get the feeling that this guy likes to fib a little and I would love to figure out if this claim is true.I'm not asking you to share his nickname. I'm asking you how you expect a list of uncommon names would help you figure out whether his name is unique, when you don't even know his name.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Flunkie
at 6:46 PM on July 29, 2008
