The Question Thread

[Rillion]

Mine's rather warped from being rolled up for a long time:




That silver on the bag is part of a stamp from when the leather was cut....I liked it, so left it on.  

There are obviously a lot of improvements that could be made with the next one.  

[Diogenes The Cynic]

We had a bunch of French and Mexican students transfer into the school recently, and it makes me wonder:

Why are foreigners so faggy?

[Stoker]

We had a bunch of French and Mexican students transfer into the school recently, and it makes me wonder:

Why are foreigners so faggy?

They are probably just trying to fit in with American society.

[Diogenes The Cynic]

obviously you havent watched the philosophy of liberty video
http://www.isil.org/resources/philosophy-of-liberty-english.swf

Well, duh.

Saw it. Still have some reservations about it. Not what I would call a scholarly work either.

Maybe this subject needs its own thread.

I apologize, in advance, for coming of mean here, but here goes anyway.

It sounds a bit pretentious to call for "scholarly work". If you really care about the topic of liberty, I'm sure you will find plenty of sources from which to read, study and perform exegesis (exegesi?). If you want to discuss particular weaknesses in an argument then do so, but appeals to authority are unnecessary.

Not initiating force is simple. Not indicates the negative. Initiation means to produce the beginning or cause of action. Force is the only portion that really admits of ambiguity. I would say that it would be best to refer to force as causing action upon another that is unwelcome.

The other week, I was reading Nietzsche, and when he started on slave mentality, I got mad at myself. I have had zero accidents, and one ticket in 7 years of driving, and in every way I read myself into the part about the whole slave thought thing. I jumped into my car, and drove home from the cafe at double the speed limit, blowing every stop sign on the way. Man was I pissed.

Same books mentions Schopenhauer and how he too was an anarchist. I'll read him when I find the time.

I'll also start a thread on this later.

[avshae]

Which is faster electricity or light?

I think it depends on the medium.

Blackie is correct. Light and electricity both travel as electromagnetic waves. Therefore in a void they would both travel at the speed of light C=300,000Km/sec. Through materials they travel slower, depending on the electrical properties of the medium. For example on a stock PCB (printed circuit board), electricity travels at around C/3.

[Stoker]

Which is faster electricity or light?

I think it depends on the medium.

Blackie is correct. Light and electricity both travel as electromagnetic waves. Therefore in a void they would both travel at the speed of light C=300,000Km/sec. Through materials they travel slower, depending on the electrical properties of the medium. For example on a stock PCB (printed circuit board), electricity travels at around C/3.

The Speed of Light as currently defined is based on circular reasoning and assumptions. There is no proof that this is the highest attainable speed, or if it is, exactly what that speed might be. The approximate speed you are quoting is a fairly accurate empirical observational measurement relating to our very limited perspective. It is quite possible that Light (and other radiations) behave completely differently in different conditions, many of which we cannot duplicate or even observe. There are new observations and experiments showing that the currently stated Speed of Light is either wrong, or that it is not the highest attainable speed.

[Diogenes The Cynic]

Which is faster electricity or light?

I think it depends on the medium.

Blackie is correct. Light and electricity both travel as electromagnetic waves. Therefore in a void they would both travel at the speed of light C=300,000Km/sec. Through materials they travel slower, depending on the electrical properties of the medium. For example on a stock PCB (printed circuit board), electricity travels at around C/3.

The Speed of Light as currently defined is based on circular reasoning and assumptions. There is no proof that this is the highest attainable speed, or if it is, exactly what that speed might be. The approximate speed you are quoting is a fairly accurate empirical observational measurement relating to our very limited perspective. It is quite possible that Light (and other radiations) behave completely differently in different conditions, many of which we cannot duplicate or even observe. There are new observations and experiments showing that the currently stated Speed of Light is either wrong, or that it is not the highest attainable speed.

I remember reading an article a decade ago where they were able to "slow down" light to about 39 mph.

Avshae, any chance we will see fiber-optic circuit boards in the future?

[avshae]

Avshae, any chance we will see fiber-optic circuit boards in the future?

Currently network information typically travels over a medium such as copper or fiber, (or electromagnetic waves in the air, which is a different story), until it reaches a network node such as a switch or end-point, such as your modem at home. There it is converted into digital electrical signals for processing, which is done on a system which resides on a circuit board. From there it might be reconverted and retransmitted over fiber/copper/wireless.

So, you are asking, will it be possible to skip the conversion to electrical and do the entire processing optically. Well there are definitely people working on it, but it'll take years of research before computation in optics will be able to do what transistor-based processors are able to do today. MEMS (Microelectromechanical systems) might be the key. MEMS researchers try to do stuff like fabricate miniaturized motorized directional mirrors on a silicon die, to do computation in optics. Fascinating stuff for your PhD research.

[mrapplecastle]

Do farts have lumps? 

[TimeLady Victorious]

Do farts have lumps? 

only the stinkiest ones

[BonerJoe]

I imagined as a kid some farts coming out like blowing a bubble, with a semi-opaque pearlescent brown sheen to them.

[Diogenes The Cynic]

I imagined as a kid some farts coming out like blowing a bubble, with a semi-opaque pearlescent brown sheen to them.

Holy crap me too.

[TimeLady Victorious]

So, currently in VirtualBox I have WinXP, Win7, and Mythbuntu VMs.

What's some interesting crap I can screw around with? Interesting OSes?

Libman seemed to be extremely wet for DragonFlyBSD so I'm gonna check that out, I also remember talking with some people who swore that BeOS was *the* OS for them.

[YixilTesiphon]

I imagined as a kid some farts coming out like blowing a bubble, with a semi-opaque pearlescent brown sheen to them.

Holy crap me too.

Odd, me too. Apparently that's the intuitive way children imagine farts.

[Rillion]

I imagined as a kid some farts coming out like blowing a bubble, with a semi-opaque pearlescent brown sheen to them.

I once farted at my mother while naked (at age 4 or something, shaddup) and asked her if that was the case.  When she said no, I was very disappointed.