Search found 1694 matches
- Tue Oct 03, 2017 10:58 am
- Forum: Other Discussions
- Topic: Bed/Frame Shopping Hacks
- Replies: 35
- Views: 22505
Re: Bed/Frame Shopping Hacks
Years ago, I found a recipe on the internet for building your own Tempurpedic, and I did exactly that. It was precisely what Cortopassi described: a 5-inch-thick base layer of high-density foam (the density is important) topped with a separate 5-inch-thick piece of memory form. As I recall, the auth...
- Tue Oct 03, 2017 9:59 am
- Forum: Other Discussions
- Topic: Are you as smart as the smartest woman on earth? (A Probability Problem)
- Replies: 26
- Views: 16164
Re: Are you as smart as the smartest woman on earth? (A Probability Problem)
That's right. It's totally counter-intuitive. The correct result still doesn't set well with me, and the only way I was able to reason my way through the problem was by knowing in advance what the correct answer was and working backwards. It's interesting that this problem tripped up even the mathem...
- Mon Oct 02, 2017 9:06 pm
- Forum: Other Discussions
- Topic: Are you as smart as the smartest woman on earth? (A Probability Problem)
- Replies: 26
- Views: 16164
Re: Are you as smart as the smartest woman on earth? (A Probability Problem)
Seriously, Maddy, you figure this stuff out when you can't sleep at night? Not only that, I got out of bed and went to the computer to write it down while it was still fresh in my head. That's more than a little OCD, wouldn't you say? I really need some sleep tonight, so I shouldn't even be thinkin...
- Mon Oct 02, 2017 6:57 pm
- Forum: Other Discussions
- Topic: Are you as smart as the smartest woman on earth? (A Probability Problem)
- Replies: 26
- Views: 16164
Re: Are you as smart as the smartest woman on earth? (A Probability Problem)
If you like this kind of stuff, there's a very neat book out there called "The Drunkard's Walk." I began reading it probably two years ago but got sidetracked with other things, always intending to pick it up again. It examined a large number of similarly counter-intuitive probability-rela...
- Mon Oct 02, 2017 2:06 pm
- Forum: Other Discussions
- Topic: Are you as smart as the smartest woman on earth? (A Probability Problem)
- Replies: 26
- Views: 16164
Re: Are you as smart as the smartest woman on earth? (A Probability Problem)
The article didn't provide an explanation that made any sense to me. Nor, apparently, did it make sense to the majority of readers who commented on the article and who continue to insist that when Door 3 is eliminated, the probabilities become 50/50 that the car is behind either of the two remaining...
- Sun Oct 01, 2017 9:51 pm
- Forum: Other Discussions
- Topic: Are you as smart as the smartest woman on earth? (A Probability Problem)
- Replies: 26
- Views: 16164
Are you as smart as the smartest woman on earth? (A Probability Problem)
In memory of Monty Hall, who died yesterday, I give you the following: Imagine that you’re on a television game show and the host presents you with three closed doors. Behind one of them, sits a sparkling, brand-new Lincoln Continental; behind the other two, are smelly old goats. The host implores y...
- Fri Sep 29, 2017 9:26 pm
- Forum: Other Discussions
- Topic: Young people can't operate a radio
- Replies: 45
- Views: 22123
Re: Young people can't operate a radio
. . . And old people can't operate Facebook.
- Fri Sep 29, 2017 9:25 pm
- Forum: Other Discussions
- Topic: It's all about China
- Replies: 123
- Views: 64957
Re: It's all about China
This was the first time I had read this thread, and what a wonderful post! Thank you!
- Tue Sep 26, 2017 12:30 pm
- Forum: Other Discussions
- Topic: Re: Federal debt ceiling
- Replies: 52
- Views: 31216
Re: Federal debt ceiling
Really? Is it your position that the ONLY thing that could cause a systemic collapse is "unsustainable" national debt? But you're not even able to articulate exactly how it's even a problem. Off the top of my head, here are some things: * War * Famine * Plague * Demographic problems (see ...
- Tue Sep 26, 2017 10:57 am
- Forum: Other Discussions
- Topic: Re: Federal debt ceiling
- Replies: 52
- Views: 31216
Re: Federal debt ceiling
I'm not saying that a collapse would be a result of the debt. I'm saying precisely the opposite: there may be a collapse, but it won't be because of the debt. It'll be because of actual, structural problems with the real economy, and will occur regardless of whether there's debt or not. Help me to ...
- Tue Sep 26, 2017 9:19 am
- Forum: Other Discussions
- Topic: Re: Federal debt ceiling
- Replies: 52
- Views: 31216
Re: Federal debt ceiling
Xan's initial post in this thread summarizes things as well: The key difference between this and the "simple, old-fashioned way of seeing things" is that dollars are completely disconnected from gold, and from anything else. As Moda used to say, they're like points on a scoreboard. Watchi...
- Mon Sep 25, 2017 10:45 pm
- Forum: Other Discussions
- Topic: Re: Federal debt ceiling
- Replies: 52
- Views: 31216
Re: Federal debt ceiling
On the one hand, you think federal government debt is bad. But when presented with a scenario under which the debt is paid off [by creating the money out of thin air], you don't like that either. That makes absolutely no sense. Debt has consequences. Debt bad because consequences bad. You know, the...
- Mon Sep 25, 2017 6:04 pm
- Forum: Other Discussions
- Topic: Re: Federal debt ceiling
- Replies: 52
- Views: 31216
Re: Federal debt ceiling
You guys have lost me.Xan wrote:It sounds like everyone just agreed that the national debt doesn't matter, then.
I'd just as soon the red bell pepper that they wanted $4.25 for yesterday (I put it back) didn't go up to $6.25 next year.
- Mon Sep 25, 2017 5:29 pm
- Forum: Other Discussions
- Topic: Re: Federal debt ceiling
- Replies: 52
- Views: 31216
Re: Federal debt ceiling
How, exactly? Suppose the Mint did create twenty 1-trillion-dollar coins and gave them to the Treasury. The national debt would suddenly be zero. Nothing in real life would change. If things are the same, regardless of whether the national debt is twenty trillion dollars or zero, then it seems like...
- Mon Sep 25, 2017 4:30 pm
- Forum: Other Discussions
- Topic: Re: Federal debt ceiling
- Replies: 52
- Views: 31216
Re: Federal debt ceiling
To you and me: Hell yes How, exactly? Suppose the Mint did create twenty 1-trillion-dollar coins and gave them to the Treasury. The national debt would suddenly be zero. Nothing in real life would change. If things are the same, regardless of whether the national debt is twenty trillion dollars or ...
- Mon Sep 25, 2017 1:47 pm
- Forum: Other Discussions
- Topic: Re: Federal debt ceiling
- Replies: 52
- Views: 31216
Re: Federal debt ceiling
So the answer to the question "Does the debt matter?" is. . . [drumroll]. . .
To the government itself: No
To the multinational corporate monopolies that run this country and to their whores in Congress: No
To you and me: Hell yes
To the government itself: No
To the multinational corporate monopolies that run this country and to their whores in Congress: No
To you and me: Hell yes
- Sat Sep 23, 2017 8:04 pm
- Forum: Other Discussions
- Topic: Re: Federal debt ceiling
- Replies: 52
- Views: 31216
Re: Federal debt ceiling
There must be a limit to this process, but I don't think we're anywhere close to it yet. I'd like to think that we could see it coming, but considering how things are interconnected, especially through derivatives, it's hard to say what might set things off. The spark could come from the most unlik...
- Sat Sep 23, 2017 7:23 pm
- Forum: Other Discussions
- Topic: Equifax hack
- Replies: 57
- Views: 30334
Re: Equifax hack
If you're relying upon the "freezing" of your credit report to protect you, consider this: The "unfreezing" of a credit report requires no verification of identity other than knowledge of the very same information that was released in the security breach. https://krebsonsecurity...
- Sat Sep 23, 2017 4:14 pm
- Forum: Other Discussions
- Topic: Re: Federal debt ceiling
- Replies: 52
- Views: 31216
Re: Federal debt ceiling
Money doesn't represent a claim on hard assets. At least, dollars don't. They used to be backed by gold, at least in theory, but now they're not. Dollars are valuable because a) people believe them to be valuable, and b) because taxes must be paid in dollars. Maybe not literally, but ultimately mon...
- Sat Sep 23, 2017 3:45 pm
- Forum: Other Discussions
- Topic: Re: Federal debt ceiling
- Replies: 52
- Views: 31216
Re: Federal debt ceiling
There's no doubt that there are many ways for the government to print its way out of its debt, but that can't change the fact that there is a finite limit to the hard assets upon which all this money represents a claim. The game works so long as everybody closes their eyes and pretends that there's ...
- Sat Sep 23, 2017 8:25 am
- Forum: Other Discussions
- Topic: Equifax hack
- Replies: 57
- Views: 30334
Re: Equifax hack
If you're relying upon the "freezing" of your credit report to protect you, consider this: The "unfreezing" of a credit report requires no verification of identity other than knowledge of the very same information that was released in the security breach. https://krebsonsecurity....
- Fri Sep 22, 2017 9:01 pm
- Forum: Other Discussions
- Topic: Re: Federal debt ceiling
- Replies: 52
- Views: 31216
Re: Federal debt ceiling
So, I would say, yes, the Fed is always there to buy. And the Fed *creates* the cash to pay for them? That strikes me as an entirely fictional market, and I'm not sure why it should inspire confidence on the part of any ordinary investor who is required to assume that the Fed will be there to buy t...
- Fri Sep 22, 2017 7:43 am
- Forum: Other Discussions
- Topic: Re: Federal debt ceiling
- Replies: 52
- Views: 31216
Re: Federal debt ceiling
Tenn, I gather you're implying that you now (six years later) think differently about the question whether exponentially-increasing government debt is sustainable? What, in particular, changed your view? Again, I'm speaking as someone who is about as economically illiterate as they come. I simply do...
- Thu Sep 21, 2017 9:33 pm
- Forum: Gold
- Topic: The GOLD scream room
- Replies: 3693
- Views: 1772106
Re: The GOLD scream room
Learned helplessness. You know, the reaction of the laboratory rat that gets shocked regardless of whether he presses the bar. I'm feeling that way about damned near everything these days.Libertarian666 wrote: Maybe I'm just getting too old to get excited about anything?
- Thu Sep 21, 2017 6:14 pm
- Forum: Other Discussions
- Topic: Re: Federal debt ceiling
- Replies: 52
- Views: 31216
Re: Federal debt ceiling
I see it this way... You've got this very complicated system (the government, its spending, its budgeting process, its borrowing, etc.). In the absence of a constraint, there is no catastrophic reaction. However, if you add a constraint, there *is* a catastrophic reaction. To me, that says that the...