Posts Made By: Paul Kammueller

Ray Medhurst said:
BTW, The Chinese hold $200 BILLION in Treasury notes.

Pffft. That's less than 3% of our national debt.

I was wondering if anyone else had done this. Seen ads for cooool telescopes at an impressionable age, and spent time dreaming "boy if I had that..." without any hope of ever assembling enough money to do so?

As a 12-year-old I remember dreaming of a big orange Celestron C-14, but at $5,280 it wasn't gonna happen.

A few years later in high school I read an article in Astronomy where somebody optimized a 6" f/8 newt for planetary viewing and that became a model for my next 'dream scope', a 10" f/8 newt that I finally built 15-20 years later.

I never did get a C-14. But I have been working on a 16" cassegrain (anybody know where I can get a can of 'Celestron Orange' paint? )

C'mon, what were your 'dream scopes' and did you ever realize them?

With a topic as charged as this it would be very hard to have a single impartial moderator. How about a Triumvirate, consisting of 3 of the forum's "Founding Fathers":

Chris N. representing "The Believers"
Bill B. representing "The Fence-Sitters"
Gary P. representing "The Atheists"

Majority 2/3 vote rules in resolving situations. If one voter is "on the fence", so to speak, then dispute is resolved by rock-paper-scissors via webcam.

Bill Burghardt said:
We do have a good group, let's show Herb that we can control ourselves.

Right. Now, let's draw straws to see who gets to be the first moderator to smite someone.

8)

Notice the yield on the long bond is going DOWWWWWNNN...

While the Fed continues to push the short rates up, up, UP...

While oil and other commodities are rallying again...

This combination of conditions seems terribly unnatural to me and I am at odds to explain it. The commodities market sees inflation, but the bond market isn't buying the story. Maybe the bond market thinks the commodity prices are going to choke the global economy, or that fed policy will eventually choke the commodity rally?? I dunno. But one of these indicators has got to give in to the other at some point. Greenspan's "conundrum" speech doesn't even do the situation justice. It's just plain weird.

Check it out: IBM is starting a project to simulate a column of the neocortex, and, ultimately, extend this to create a working digital model of the ENTIRE human brain. A simulation running at the molecular/cellular level, the neurons, the chemical reactions, everything.

Questions to ponder:

1) They're going to be running this model to learn about not just the brain per se, but also thought and consiousness itself. If these are fundamentally informational events, then at what point does a simulation of a thing become a thing? Could the simulation itself become 'conscious' in some sense? Could we unwittingly give birth to a disembodied human mind trapped in a digital world?

2) If a thing can be simulated, then it can, in principle, be built. Given that the task of physical completion is not as simple as asking a supercomputer to run a simulation, once it is correctly modeled how long would it be before we likely literally build a mechanical brain?

3) What if it decides to get smarter and starts writing all sorts of expansion packs for itself, adding hardware upgrades and evolving into some sort of hyper-intelligent being? Will we be out-evolved, out-moded? Or would it revere humanity as its 'creator'?

http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/pr.nsf/pages/news.20050606_CognitiveIntelligence.html

Not sure if this is really political, but I can't figure out where else to put it. With gas hitting $3/gal how many of you are actually thinking about commuting by a different means, or doing so already? What means are you considering? I'm not talking solar cars I'm talking about what options are available to you right here and now --

1) Motorcycle
2) Scooter/moped
3) Bicycle
4) Walking
5) Borrowing wife/girlfriend's smaller car
6) Buying a more efficient gas car
7) Buying a hybrid
8) Resorting to mass transit
9) Other?

The question cannot be answered without knowing what the punishment is, for one must know whether the punishment is appropriate in order to give an answer that makes sense.

For instance, if the punishment for breaking the glass is death, eternal torment, or banishment from the house and disownment from the family, or being severely beaten nearly to the point of death, then I think we would all agree that this is far too severe given the crime and the father is too irrational and intolerant and indeed unfit to be a parent.

If the punishment is picking up the broken glass, assisting in the re-installation of a new window, and taking some of the expense out of his allowance, then the punishment is appropriate and the father is simply being a good parent.

The father in this latter case has taught his child that there are certain consequenses to be realized from certain actions. Of course, in this particular instance it is not so much a lesson in right vs. wrong as it is a lesson in disobedience.

Noticing now after two BIG down days, following a big months-long blow-off rally, the energy sector index appears as though it may have just formed a classic double-top. Opinions?

Sandy Stubblefield said:
I've met more people than not who say they 'never' dream but, I think they just don't remember them or, take them seriously.

They don't remember them. I think it's been scientifically demonstrated that everyone dreams, multiple times in a night.