das1330

I thought it was a good book. While rather long and plodding it is certainly better then the drivel most other similar (contemporary) philosophers have published. Personally I am currently reading On the Origin of Species and the Koran. Both are proving to be quite...enlightening; each in their own way.

Your sample in this case is biased. These ads are posted on TIF specifically because they make no sense - most address the issues to some extent.

I love the Dale Peterson ad. We need more rifles in American political ads.

Weird? Not really, but certainly interesting.

Have fun with not understanding math when you get into practically any technically related (IE valuable) field. Understanding math is critical to understanding the systems that underlay everything from the stock market to the computer you used to type that post; math, together with language, are the most basic subjects from which all others are derived. You don't ever find yourself using math in physics classes? Curious, where did the money for locker rooms come from? I know that at my high school the administration never used any school money for athletics - renovations to the pool, locker rooms, football field etc were all paid for through fundraisers held for that purpose. Since the money was not tax money in the first place, I didn't have a problem with it. The inevitable problem with such a program is that many of the most valuable positions after high school are essentially academic in nature - scientists, bankers, engineers, business administrators and similar positions all require strong academic training which a trade school cannot provide. Personally, school was fairly useless until about ~10th grade or so. After that AP classes, then college classes proved to be very intellectually stimulating.

It is worth noting that hard drive failures are essentially random and never the fault of the computer manufacturer - only three companies make them and they all fail at roughly equal rates. Further, a sample size of three is hardly representative; your likely just had a string of bad luck because, as said above, dell has improved their quality controls considerably in recent times. OP: That laptop looks decent, but what do you intend on doing with it?

A gun doesn't scare a criminal away. See: Use all the "reason" and "logic" you want; the statistics don't lie. Incidentially, swimming pools are statistically around 15 times more dangerous then guns in terms of accidential deaths.

Do you have any justification for banning guns other then that "you don't need one"? While guns do have numerous legitimate uses, as mentioned above, even if we assume they don't have any use this reasoning is still illogical. You don't "need" runescape. You don't "need" the internet, or fast cars, or a television, or nearly all the other objects you interact with on a daily basis. Is lack of direct use reason enough to ban something?

It worked. A lot of thing work or occur. It doesn't mean is was the best/most civil/most peaceful option. Well how do you absolutely know what the best option is without having to try everyone of them? It worked, a more civilized approach may not have. But should we not approach all situations with a peaceful and civil mindset though, even if we know that civility will fail? Maybe. At the time the olive branch petition was considered to have a reasonable chance of success. The colonists legitimately thought that only parliament was out to get them; in their eyes the king was their friend, and they thought that by appealing to him they might find a peaceful solution to the problem. In reality the situation was reversed - the king was unreasonable, and parliament was willing to work with the colonies (though terribly inept at doing so)

To my knowledge there is no easy way to absolutely determine with certainty if a CMOS battery is dead, though what you described is typical for failing batteries.Given that a replacement battery costs no more then a dollar or two, I would replace it and see what happens.

The best teachers are generally highly intelligent, displaying complete mastery of their subject (which is why many professors are so good). Good teachers don't just think their subject is mildly interesting, for them, it is their world - they breathe it and they obviously enjoy teaching it. Furthermore, truly excellent teachers both work hard to prepare good lectures and are excellent public speakers, delivering information in an interesting manner. Perhaps the best teacher I have ever had was an economics professor at Harvard. The man was able to keep me mesmerized for three hours straight of lectures -that is a good teacher.

You are a non practicing board certified dentist? There's a fairly big shortage of dentists. Personally I am a student.

Unless you have a PhD in Electrical Engineering, it is practically impossible to do.

How is the particular implement used to commit a crime in any way relevant to a discussion of gun availability? It doesn't matter if you are shot or stabbed, you are still dead. It's completely relevant - your graph shows violent crime rates making no mention of guns whatsoever. Felix's graphs show quite clearly that gun related offenses are far higher in the US then they are anywhere else, which is data relevant to the current topic. http://upload.wikime...desbyweapon.svg http://www.cdc.gov/m...es/00001168.gif Reposted his links. Relevant to the current topic only if one somehow holds crimes where a gun was used to be worse then other identical crimes without such an object - which is irrational, since it implies fear of the object itself. What is relevant is overall crime statistics; which show that no connection between guns and crime likely exists since many of those countries without guns report high rates of similarly violent crime, in the form of stabbings and similar such things. ember - for one such connection between bans and crime, look at the chart I posted above. The last major gun-banning bill passed in Britain was ratified in 1997. See anything interesting about 1998?

How is the particular implement used to commit a crime in any way relevant to a discussion of gun availability? It doesn't matter if you are shot or stabbed, you are still dead.

There are. See the graph below, compiled by the Australian home office. The US has relatively lax gun laws, while Britain and Australia are restrictive. Notice anything?

This article has reminded me once again of the problems with American gun laws in prosecuting the innocent and allowing the guilty to go free. What is your opinion of gun laws around the world?

Pedophilia is a mental disorder, and no evidence exists to suggest virtual materials would encourage violence against children. Rather then rehashing the entire argument myself, below is an excerpt from the court decision in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition. It explains why exactly virtual child porn should be legal far more elegantly then I can.

Just because it is a executive priority does not mean it will pass. In fact, in this case, I very much doubt anything will happen. Still, it clearly demonstrates the corrupting effect that lobbyists have on Washington.

It's just a simple admission by one of the last truly communist countries in the world that socialism fails. While that fact is not news to the rest of the world, it is still good to see that Cuba is finally advancing after so many years under a broken and useless system.

The United States did nearly get split up into multiple small, Europe-like countries. Had the north lost the civil war, its' doubtful that the confederacy would have been able to hold the southern states together, so a general breakup would have likely occurred. Overall, it would make the whole world quite a bit more boring - when no one country has any real power nothing happens easily. Look at any European project, for example.

It is worth noting that only the Maya, Inca and Aztecs had any developed concept of a state; all other tribes were just that - tiny, primitive and disorganized. Violence is human nature and these were simply the only Native Americans with the organization necessary to effectively carry out violent actions.

The TI-83/84 is standard issue for most math until you get to higher levels where the TI-89 takes over - but that's quite a bit beyond precalc. If you want a very powerful calculator that requires little thinking look for a TI Nspire CAS calculator; CAS stands for computer algebra system and it allows you to put full equations into the calculator for it to solve. To sum up, TI-84 or Nspire for your needs. I can honestly say that I have never seen anyone use anything other then a Texas instruments graphing calculator.

If different disks work basically randomly, there is a chance that the drive is broken - the lasers tend to get knocked off their optimal positioning, damaging disk read performance. Try holding the laptop at different angles as it reads disks and see what happens - sometimes that will help to realign the laser.

Its awful that grocery stores charge money for food that keeps you alive... It's a little different. I just find it upsetting that you can need to go to a hospital because you've been in an accident, and you can't be treated because you can't afford it. Hospitals treat any emergency ailments regardless of ability to pay - if you get in a car crash they will still fix you up.