Retech

Fortress-ruining flood averted. [hide] [/hide] Why did the DF thread have to be moved outta here? :(

At this stage, we should assume evolution is true and go from there, waiting for someone to prove that it is false in some form or another.

Murder = Unlawful killing with malice aforethought (In common law countries, which includes the US and probaly the UK) Death penalty = Killing sanctioned by law, therefore not murder

Right, so my plan for reducing the federal deficit, reducing trade deficit with China, and solve overcrowding in prisons, is to stick the prisoners in factories and tell them to make thousands of products before they are released. A uniquely capitalistic way of doing things. However, in this system, no one should be executed. Life imprisonment should be equal to like 70-80 years of work, and death should equal a hundred. If they don't work a baseline amount to pay for their housing/feeding, they don't get fed. If they can't work, then we treat that as a disability and wouldn't require that, instead allowing them to opt for a system involving time served in prison. It's basically the same as Chinese factories, except they are safer. The work is for penance instead of pay. :thumbup: --- Not me.

Indeed, that poses a problem. On the other hand, criminals should not be able to get a free living in jail. Therefore, I have three solutions: Prison food and drink is charged for, as is the housing (Flaw being that the poor cannot afford to pay for 50 years of food and drink) or All assets of the prisoner are seized, and the prisoner must perform labor at no wage. (Prisoner doesn't want to work and the prisoner cannot rejoin society afterwards) or Instead of having a time, like 50 years of imprisonment, we have... work in a prison factory for 150,000 hours for no pay. This is approximately 8 hours a day for 50 years. (Might be cruel and unusual punishment and quality/speed could suffer. A change could be finding out a reasonable output for an hour, and make the length of the term based on number of products created) ^ Puts prisoners to good use and makes money for the state. We might be able to churn out goods even cheaper than Chinese factories, because we'd have free labor.

If fact b is true for Capital punishment, then there is no reason in my view to have the death penalty. If there was a way to make it much cheaper, then there might be a difference. Our legal system is too expensive, which is why we have to start training more lawyers!

They are making it better, in Japan. My method was actually just more direct. In Japan, they have a shortage of people being janitors and garbagemen because so many people are educated, no one wants to be those. Since the wages then go up, they find more incentive to use robots. A plutocracy is a good thing, if people are being paid based on productivity. Our society cannot survive without having people work where they are needed to work. If a job is no longer needed, then market forces should insure that it isn't available. Our society is terribly flawed in some respects. If robots are more efficient and more cost-effective, robots should be used. The economy should correct itself if it is healthy, and it definitely isn't healthy at this point. The standard of living for some will increase and for many will decrease, which would encourage them to find oppertunities further up the education scale. Otherwise, they can find other jobs. In the end, the economy can only improve. Temporarily the standard of living might suffer, but after 5-10 years, the US economy would be among the most competitive and efficient economies in the world.

To Paul, I don't believe my logic is flawed. US productivity would not decline, since robots are performing the work instead of a human. The money would be funneled to the robot scientists and corporations, which could continue the road to a mechanized economy. Therefore, the people who have been displaced would find work, in a different field or up the ladder. It would improve the market efficiency, instead of being stuck with an economy where we are uncompetitive with the world. What we could do is that we have two-year vocational schools, which would be cheaper and provide a middle level of education. Making voter turnout suffer does not matter. This is not the times of old where everyone is involved with the political process.

Well-educated = Less likely to be mislead College would be free (or subsidized, so that it was affordable). I would personally adopt the Japanese system, where basically everyone has to graduate high school and 50%+ finish college. Move towards a technologically advanced economy, by replacing as many jobs as possible with robots (which would undoubtly become cheaper as a result of more engineers and scientists available for that). This would lead to the temporary loss of jobs further down the scale, which would ripple to adults going back to college and finding jobs further up the education ladder. Make education the primary desirability in the media and change our culture, so that dropping out of high school is a greater shame than any other, except for violent crime. Encourage people to retake high school (or take it for more years) until they pass.

People should have to take a test to vote. And have a college diploma, which does not include clown college.

I think a regime based on taxation would be awesome. Think of it as cap and trade for all kinds of stuff. Of course it would need a dictator to make it happen.

The problem itself or the summing of infinite series? If it's the latter, practical applications would probaly be in engineering and architecture, where they would use mathematics to model/design eyepleasing structures. If that fails, then it makes people better at math, which is always a good thing.

Okay, here's the solution. The sum of all the reciprocals can be represented by a simple multiplication. (1 + 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 + 1/32...) x (1 + 1/3 + 1/9 + 1/27 + 1/81 + 1/243 + 1/729...) This is because every reciprocal we are using has a certain number of 2s and a certain number of 3s. It is easy to see that as infinite series, we can choose any number of 2s from the first column and any number of 3s from the second column. Through summing of infinite series, we have the following 2 x 3/2 3 However, there was a slight glitch in our expression. If we multiply the reciprocal of 1 and the reciprocal of 1, the result is not divisible by 2 or 3. The answer is merely 1. That means we must subtract one from our total to get the correct answer, which is 2. Another way would be to sum the individual infinite series. First we have (1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8...) which sums to 1. Then we do it for a few more. (1/3 + 1/9 + 1/27 + 1/81...) = 1/2 (1/6 + 1/12 + 1/24 + 1/48...) = 1/3 (...) = 1/4 (...) = 1/5 This continues on, but I don't remember the infinite series I used. Anyhow, the infinite series forms another infinite series! We end up with... (1 + 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 + 1/32...) Which sums to 2! Yay, wasn't that fun?!?!

Jen heals Isabel, while Elisa charges a beacon of light into her staff (so that it looks epic). Then Isabel tries to raise a raccoon corpse from the dead (zombie raccoon) while Jen adds an axe blade to her polemace. So it can crush and slash.

Jen puts her hand on the demon's head and tries to give it brain freeze. (Literally freezing its brain) Elisa and Isabel do the same thing as before.

Jen smashes the back of the demon's head, while Elisa and Isabel return to fire their respective spells. Isabel tries to bind the demon to the floor with the tentacles, and Elisa fires beams of light.

Jen prepares some ice shards, while Elisa charges beams of light from her staff. Isabel forms some shadow tentacles. Jen also makes new ice spikes to replace the old ones, facing outwards. They wait for the growling.

Stork gets a cookie...for effort! The answer is actually 2. I'll write up an explanation tomorrow. :)

A warrior? He is heathen to our ways! Jen makes Isabel a regular magical ice polemace (basically so it doesn't break), while Grim melts the ice spikes with his halberd. (Last use of Grim :)) Then Jen attempts to make the spikes outward, and the peoples prepare with their traditional spells.

Well what we could do is have my original party, and then Grim can lead the other party with you. Then maybe we can try and recruit an NPC with the magic opposite from yours. I dunno if there's an opposite for allomancy, so maybe consider geomancy (opposite being air)

Okay. Keep in mind it's the sum, and that there are an infinite number of numbers. :thumbup: Basically all the numbers with only 2s and 3s as factors. Why do Brits call it "maths"?

I don't understand what you mean by "up to 36." You don't need to use a calculator though.

Infinite. You can use the reciprocals of as many numbers as you want, provided that they meet the rule stated in the problem. The answer is not infinite btw.

(Oh, I was just playing this like group Dungeoneering. Jen is my main anyhow, and it seemed simpler to fight enemies with a party than each person doing their thing) Isabel enchants her staff, so that it becomes a polemace as well. However, the goal is that it can form and reform like the darkness, so that it can bypass a parry and then reform to inflict the wound. Grim also enchants his staff, so that it becomes a flaming polemace kinda thing. Jen's polemace is hopefully one that can change forms, while Elisa can hopefully use her staff to control the alligator. (So each of them has a nice ability) Then Jen makes ice spikes (keep in mind they're pointed outwards, so they should be easy to get out of). They use their respective attack styles (Ice shards, fire balls, light beams, tentacles of darkness) and then their polemaces for close range when the enemies get near.

If I recall, anything multiplied by zero is zero. Here's a math problem for everyone (mainly for people taking calculus) Sum the reciprocals of all numbers which are divisible by 2 and/or 3, but not another prime number. Express as a whole number or as a simplified fraction. Cookie for anyone who solves. If no one figures it out (with a decent reasoning on how you solve it!) then I'll eat the cookie myself. :-X Think hard! :-k :-k :-k