Author Topic: Humorless Politics Thread  (Read 853752 times)

erika

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #375 on: September 28, 2008, 12:27:38 AM »
If given the opportunity, I would totally dig into a barrel of pork. bbq.
from the land of pleasant living

Gilly

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #376 on: September 28, 2008, 02:30:37 AM »
Just make sure it's not actually Arby-Q. Because those are gross.

Fido

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #377 on: September 28, 2008, 02:37:44 AM »
The Dems might lose if McCain can change the subject from the economy. Something like this, from the LA Times, might just do the trick:

* * * * *

UCLA mathematicians discover a 13-million-digit prime number

The mathematicians have found the first verified Mersenne prime number with more than 10 million digits, putting them in line to win a six-digit prize from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
By Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 27, 2008
UCLA mathematicians appear to have won a $100,000 prize from the Electronic Frontier Foundation for discovering a 13-million-digit prime number that has long been sought by computer users.

While the prize money is nothing special, the bragging rights for discovering the 46th known Mersenne prime are huge.

"We're delighted," said UCLA's Edson Smith, leader of the effort. "Now we're looking for the next one, despite the odds," which are thought to be about one in 150,000 that any number tested will be a Mersenne prime.

Prime numbers are those, like three, seven and 11, that are divisible only by themselves and one. Mersenne primes, named after the 17th century French mathematician Marin Mersenne, who discovered them, take the form 2P - 1, where P is also a prime number.

In the new UCLA prime, P = 43,112,609.

Thousands of people around the world have been participating in the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, or GIMPS, in which underused computing power is harnessed to perform the complex and tedious calculations needed to find and verify Mersenne primes. The prize is being offered for finding the first Mersenne prime with more than 10 million digits.

Smith and his UCLA colleagues have, since last fall, harnessed the power of the 75 machines in the university's Program in Computing/Math Computer Lab, which is used by students for computer projects. Smith, a system administrator, realized that the lab was using only a fraction of its available CPU power. Rather than let it go to waste, he and his colleagues decided to use it for the GIMPS project.

The new Mersenne prime was discovered Aug. 23 on a Dell Optiplex 745 running Windows XP. The number was verified by a different computer system running a different algorithm.

The new prime is the eighth Mersenne prime discovered at UCLA. In 1952, mathematician Raphael Robinson found five of them using UCLA's Standards Western Automatic Computer. They were the 13th through 17th Mersenne primes discovered, the first ones found in more than 75 years, and the first to be discovered using a digital computer. Each had a few hundred digits.

In 1961, mathematician Alexander Hurwitz discovered two more, each with more than 1,200 digits, on the university's IBM 7090 mainframe.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is an activist group supporting individual rights on the Web. The group established a series of prizes in 1999 to promote cooperative computing on the Web.

The prize will be awarded when the new prime is published, probably next year. By prearrangement, half of the money will go to UCLA, a quarter of it will go to charity and the rest will go to other GIMPS participants and the organization itself.


Sarah

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #378 on: September 28, 2008, 06:29:17 AM »
That discovery caused riots in the streets of Lubec.

<<<<<

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #379 on: September 28, 2008, 08:06:50 AM »
Also liked that Obama said "orgy," and that McCain said "existential."

I'm sure it's a total egghead move, but McCain's use of the word existential rubbed me the wrong way.  Existential crisis is a spiritual crisis of meaning, so to say Israel's enemies pose a "crisis of meaning" seemed like a complete misappropriation of the term, when what he really meant to say is that they want to physically destroy them.

/nerd

Fido

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #380 on: September 28, 2008, 07:07:39 PM »
I heard that CalTech was completely up in arms that this discovery took place at UCLA. Cars were turned over and set on fire. There were riots that had to be disbanded by a battalion of National Guard forces, who teargassed and violently beat back the angry, nihilistic mathematicians. It's a sad tragedy when such an important discovery is met with violence, destruction and mayhem. I also heard that Rodney King was interviewed, and reiterated his famous question, "Why can't we all just get along?"

Shaggy 2 Grote

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #381 on: September 28, 2008, 08:20:17 PM »
I liked how much taller Obama was than McCain, and I liked running into Jason Grote on the street today.

I liked running into you, too - and I totally noticed that height thing.  I was bothered by the fact that I could see the top of McCain's podium but not Obama's.  Clearly, the only fair solution would be to shoot both candidates from the same height, so that McCain would have a few more inches of blue background over his head than Obama, and the network logo would be placed over McCain's chin and lower lip.  How else are Americans supposed to decide?

Also liked that Obama said "orgy," and that McCain said "existential."

I'm sure it's a total egghead move, but McCain's use of the word existential rubbed me the wrong way.  Existential crisis is a spiritual crisis of meaning, so to say Israel's enemies pose a "crisis of meaning" seemed like a complete misappropriation of the term, when what he really meant to say is that they want to physically destroy them.

/nerd

Allow me to way out-nerd you.  In diplomatic-speak, an "existential threat" is one where an entire state might get wiped out.  It has nothing to do with Sartre and Camus.
Oh, good heavens. I didn’t realize. I send my condolences out to the rest of the O’Connor family.

Come on, Jason

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #382 on: September 28, 2008, 09:09:09 PM »
Joe Biden misuses the word "literally" literally everytime I hear him speak.  Drives me nuts.  Come on, Joe.

Fido

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #383 on: September 28, 2008, 09:11:00 PM »
Well, I thought of Sartre and Camus, and it really threw me off my game at that point in the debate.

Phantom Hugger

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #384 on: September 28, 2008, 11:13:00 PM »
Also liked that Obama said "orgy," and that McCain said "existential."

I'm sure it's a total egghead move, but McCain's use of the word existential rubbed me the wrong way.  Existential crisis is a spiritual crisis of meaning, so to say Israel's enemies pose a "crisis of meaning" seemed like a complete misappropriation of the term, when what he really meant to say is that they want to physically destroy them.

/nerd

It seemed to me that he wanted to say 'external' or some such derivative.

Andy

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #385 on: September 29, 2008, 12:36:34 AM »
did it?
Breakfast- I'm havin' a time
Wheelies- I'm havin' a time
Headlocks- I'm havin' a time
Drunk Tank- not so much a time
George St.- I'm havin' a time
Brenda- I'm havin' a time
Bingo- I'm havin' a time
House Arrest- I'm still havin' a time

todd

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #386 on: September 29, 2008, 02:19:55 AM »
Also liked that Obama said "orgy," and that McCain said "existential."

I'm sure it's a total egghead move, but McCain's use of the word existential rubbed me the wrong way.  Existential crisis is a spiritual crisis of meaning, so to say Israel's enemies pose a "crisis of meaning" seemed like a complete misappropriation of the term, when what he really meant to say is that they want to physically destroy them.

/nerd

It seemed to me that he wanted to say 'external' or some such derivative.

No, he meant existential, which makes perfect sense in the way he used it. It's a very common term and is used like this all the time, not sure why you guys are so confused by it.

daveB from Oakland

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #387 on: September 29, 2008, 02:25:11 AM »
Joe Biden misuses the word "literally" literally everytime I hear him speak.  Drives me nuts.  Come on, Joe.

I know! He's literally done that, like, a hundred thousand times!
"He didn't sound like a human when I was talking to him ... he sounded like a shape ... what's that shape of that building ... you know, where the Army lives?" -- Bryce, 11/24/2009

dave from knoxville

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #388 on: September 29, 2008, 10:33:06 AM »
I thought it was a draw and was quite surprised that they didn't go into extra time or sudden death penalties.

Pistols at dawn.

Chris L

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Re: Why The Dems Might Lose
« Reply #389 on: September 29, 2008, 10:35:06 AM »
Quote
“She's very skilled and she'll be well-prepared,” said Barack Obama’s chief strategist David Axelrod Sunday night, flying with Biden back to Delaware to help him get ready.

“As you saw at the convention she can be very good. So, I think it would be foolish to assume that this isn’t going to be a really challenging debate. We're preparing for that, on that assumption.”

Taking it one step farther, Biden spokesman David Wade later added, “He's going in here to debate a leviathan of forensics, who has debated five times and she's undefeated.”

Literally!