chrissandvick

I have a folder on my computer filled with emails and posts from Stephen on physics and philosophy going to years back. I hoped, some day, that I would meet him and ask him to explain to this non-physicist what some of them meant. Now I'll never have that chance. Even though I never met him, he was an inspiration. I'm so sorry Betsy.

It looks like Smartsuite is still actively being supported as there was a patch released for it as recently as 12/1/2006. Between the dominance of MS Office and a good free competitor in Open Office, it is a losing proposition to spend anything marketing to the public right now.

It doesn't help that the risks of being imprisoned seem to be pretty low. The back of my left eye socket has been completely replaced with plastic due to an attack by a man who was armed with nothing more than his fist from the 15th of last month. Despite that I'm pressing charges on “Felony Aggravated Assault” and “Impersonating a Police Officer” no arrests have been made even though all they have to do to get the name of the guy impersonating the cop is to ask the apartment complex for his name (and they won't give me it until the cops talk to them). They may be dealing with the fear that I will recognize them one day and call the police on them. Or maybe they don't even think about it. Certainly anybody stupid enough to impersonate a cop is neither thinking long term or likely to be impressed the increased time he may be adding to his incarceration due to his actions.

I just bought my first handgun a couple of weeks ago. In Arizona the background check takes a few minutes; it is a series of database lookups. I've often heard of the argument for a long waiting period not being so much for the background check but as a "cooling off" period. In either case I don't have an objection. I also do not have any objection to open carry of firearms in Arizona but I would argue that how people react is very regional. I grew up in Wyoming where open carry was very common. Seeing a pistol on a hip was not an implied threat of force, if you noticed it at all. In Arizona open carry is legal but it is fairly rare, at least in the Phoenix Metro area. When I see someone armed it is interesting to watch the reaction of others in the area. There is always someone who seems to be very surprised and maybe even frightened by the open display of a holstered weapon. Now if the weapon is carried in the hand it becomes "brandishing" and is illegal. I imagine a group of New Yorkers might see a grizzled old Wyoming cowboy with his holstered 6 shooter as an immediate threat of murder. If New York wants to restrict open carry I think that's fine, as long as the recognize the right to self-defense to legally be able to carry a concealed weapon.

We agree on this.

What is the % of Ivy minted degree's in CEO's of large companies? As an outsider your experience tells me that the skill set of an officer below Brigadier General doesn't translate well into the higher ranks. I have no idea whether that is for good or bad reasons. I do know that the US has historically often had political generals that needed to be cleared out (or not as the case may be) before somebody competent was found to fight the actual war. I don't know if that's the case now or not. I do know that the doctrine that this war is based on is the result of professionals looking very seriously at history and the experience gained in the last 5 years of fighting. What they are missing is more fundamental than military doctrine...

I have every moral right to demand that my government's military go fight a war to protect myself and my fellow Americans. And I have every right to demand that despite the closest I've come to violence is a couple of fist-fights. The counter-insurgency doctrine cited by Jack is the creation of military men and combat experience in small wars over a couple of centuries, not war nerds. The arguments being presented to the President by his military advisor's are far closer to Jacks then Ray's. So knocking Jack for being a civilian is absurd. He's the one who is presenting current military thought and theory here, not Ray. Much as I agree more with Ray then Jack, telling Jack to go sign up for some first hand experience is a cheap shot. There's a heck of a lot of people out there with the first hand experience that agree with Jack.

Same here, I'd love to be 18 again just to have *that* as my curriculum. The best thing I can say about the one I actually went through was that my student job pointed to the career I love.

excerpt from the article: SAN FRANCISCO California said Wednesday that it was suing six of the world's largest automakers, including General Motors and Toyota Motor, over global warming, charging that greenhouse gases from their vehicles have caused billions of dollars in damages. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California, was the first of its kind to seek to hold manufacturers liable for the damages caused by their vehicles' emissions, Bill Lockyer, the state attorney general, said. The lawsuit also names Ford Motor, Chrysler Motors, which is the U.S. arm of DaimlerChrysler of Germany, and the North American units of Honda Motor and Nissan Motor of Japan. Lockyer said that he would seek "tens or hundreds of millions of dollars" from the automakers. The suit seeks damages related to pollution, beach erosion and reduced water supplies as a result of the past, ongoing and future contributions by the companies to global warming. It is the latest action by California to push businesses and the U.S. government to address the issue....

Works for me in Safari.

Bush personally approved Khatami's visit. Why? "I was interested to hear what he had to say," Mr. Bush responds without hesitation. "I'm interested in learning more about the Iranian government, how they think, what people think within the government. My hope is that diplomacy will work in convincing the Iranians to give up their nuclear weapons ambitions. And in order for diplomacy to work, it's important to hear voices other than [current President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad's."

Your arguments just seem wrong to me. Repeating them doesn't address the criticism I think I'm making. Retreating to the castle to fort up is only an analogy that makes sense to me if you realize much of the town and the supporting infrastructure is outside the castle walls. What does fighting defensively mean? To me it means reaction, a need for perfection, and sacrifice. It also assumes an abundance of time, which I don't believe we have. It IS a surrender, a surrender to the enemy of the initiative and the battlefield which Iraq is a whole lot closer too than the United States (Afghanistan is a sideshow we should exit asap). To torture the analogy even further, imagine staring from the castle walls while the fields burn around you and the enemy roams at will, taunting you and welding the allegiance of your neighbors to them. It isn't just galling but life threatening. You are losing what makes your life inside the fortress possible. And while the barbarians don't (yet) have the force to storm the walls, you've received disturbing news that Sultan Mehmed II is making cannon... Having made my point I agree that we are probably not going to budge each others position and let it go at this. It's been an interesting last couple of months of conversation though. If the topic wasn't so grim I'd say I can't wait to see what's next.

Well since the Vulcans and the Romulans were separated early in their history a properly trained Romulan could probably do the mind meld on a human. Though Mike Wallace's physical appearance suggests he is more a Pakled instead of a human being, meaning he's probably too stupid to actually be influenced by mind melding....err.. I mean.. Star Trek. What's that?

I agree.

I'm much closer to you on this than to Capitalism Forever. It's nearly impossible to tell what a politician will do when they are actually in office by what they say, at least for me. The concern with Democrats is the party has been captured by the left. But what will the man do after being elected? Who knows. I will make my decision when the time comes based on whose running. Not by the party affiliation.