Author Topic: The Small Rants Thread IX: Leaping into the Well of Darkness  (Read 165862 times)

Offline Jackinthegreen

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Re: The Small Rants Thread IX: Leaping into the Well of Darkness
« Reply #500 on: December 03, 2014, 08:13:14 PM »
I wish I knew enough programming to be able to automate it, and I also wish I could have more accuracy for pi than just what Excel 2003 allows, which is somewhere between 10 and 15 digits I think?

This might be of some help to you:
http://precisioncalc.com/What_is_xlPrecision.html

Excel complies to the IEEE 754 standard which requires precision up to 15 digits. Sucks to be sure but not much can be done about it at this point. (excel 2010 and 2013 also have this issue I think)

This will really be helpful, once I manage to get it working right...  I've downloaded it and installed it several times but it isn't working properly.  I wonder if I might have to reinstall my OS using different settings.

There's also an issue of how many entries I have that might benefit from the tool.  In the documentation it mentions popups that come up every 3 uses of an xlp calculation.  I could easily have over 1,000 entries with the equations and such in it.  @_@

That IEEE standard is indeed still kicking around even though it's fairly outdated now considering computer speeds nowadays.

Offline altpersona

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Re: The Small Rants Thread IX: Leaping into the Well of Darkness
« Reply #501 on: December 03, 2014, 08:28:40 PM »
A rock that's well shaped would be considered a true projectile.  But, I bet that you could not take a random object and throw it 50 feet and have it be effective.  Do remember that the range increment is the representation of how far a weapon is effective.
Yeah, I've actually thrown a chair at somebody from about 20 feet (don't ask) ..... fairly ineffective, to be sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xaV-u7-pTA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgefT5_t62A

however long that video is, i laughed that plus 2 minutes
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Offline brujon

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Re: The Small Rants Thread IX: Leaping into the Well of Darkness
« Reply #502 on: December 04, 2014, 10:58:21 AM »
>Be me
>Be chilling in my birthday
>Ex-fianceé rolls in to bring kid
>Gets in to greet me
>Have been actively avoiding her for past 3~4 months.
>Suddenly, black dragon bile in my stomach
>Leave son there, projectile vomit into toilet


I did everything i could to hold it in long enough to get to the toilet, too.

Goddamnit. I still love her, don't i? Fuck.
"All the pride and pleasure of the world, mirrored in the dull consciousness of a fool, are poor indeed compared with the imagination of Cervantes writing his Don Quixote in a miserable prison" - Schopenhauer, Aphorisms: The Wisdom of Life

Offline trappedslider

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Re: The Small Rants Thread IX: Leaping into the Well of Darkness
« Reply #503 on: December 04, 2014, 01:02:59 PM »
Feels a lot like what happened here last year, except it was nationwide and for different reasons...

It wouldn't be so bad for them to discuss what's going on but it's more like they want whites to say sorry for being white and for the actions of other whites and both of them are white

Offline Kuroimaken

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Re: The Small Rants Thread IX: Leaping into the Well of Darkness
« Reply #504 on: December 04, 2014, 01:17:16 PM »
I was mostly referring to the senseless, moronic rioting. Around here the split was on whether the protesters were doing any good.

A friend of mine has been really upset about it.

We had a similar incident a few months back, before the elections. A cop shot a guy who went for his gun. The whole thing felt staged to me, mostly due to the timing of the shot itself. Skin color was hardly even taken into account (it's worth noting that we have people from so many different countries of origin here that you pretty much can't tell a black guy and a white guy apart most of the time) - the fact that a cop would SHOOT and KILL someone who was GOING FOR HIS GUN while he was going about his duty of arresting a CRIMINAL, that was the kicker.

I mean, the audacity of it all.  :rolleyes

The arguments I keep hearing on both sides of the Ferguson incident sound ludicrous, however. Whole thing is being blown WAY out of proportion.
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Offline Amechra

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Re: The Small Rants Thread IX: Leaping into the Well of Darkness
« Reply #505 on: December 04, 2014, 02:16:18 PM »
I felt the rioting was ridiculous; it's like people had already made up their mind that Michael Brown was a saint, and that his killer was guilty.

So when the grand jury disagreed with them, they began rioting.

I mean, yes, the cop probably shouldn't have shot him (don't they carry tasers for that very reason?), but we don't know if he just up and shot him, or if he had just made a terrible decision when trying to bring him in under legitimate charges.

Now, Ferguson’s police force made poor decisions when they reacted to the initial riots, but they were scared.

Heck, both sides are scared, and the black guys are scared and sick of what they see (justly or not) as prejudice.

And scared people are stupid. Dangerously so.



We had a "Justice for Michael Brown" rally at my college on Monday; a bunch of people paraded around the buildings chanting slogans and such. It frankly pissed me off for a few reasons:

  • I had a migraine headache that day. Selfish, I know, but valid.
  • 11.4% of our student body can't even vote in this country, thanks to not being American (largely Chinese and Turks).
  • Ranting and rallying doesn't solve anything, because it makes you look irrational. Solve your problems like adults, people.
  • What's so important about Michael Brown? Why not the last ?innocent? guy who got shot by the cops? Why not the next? This happens all the time, because human beings aren't rational actors.
"There is happiness for those who accept their fate, there is glory for those that defy it."

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Offline Amechra

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Re: The Small Rants Thread IX: Leaping into the Well of Darkness
« Reply #506 on: December 04, 2014, 02:21:37 PM »
Oh, right, my actual rant.

My TA for ProbStat is an opinionated SOB who is mostly blind to his own faults.

We had a rather vocal argument with him today about how to calculate confidence intervals; he wanted us to use the student's t-test for everything.

"But the table in the book only goes up to 30!"
"Well, then you use R."
"But we can't use R on the exam!"
"Well then ask the professor."
"But the professor says that we should use the Z-test when our sample size is 30 or greater!"
"That doesn't sound right."
"The book and the first 6 websites that come up when we Google it say the exact same thing!"
"Well then they're wrong. Use R!"

 :banghead :banghead :banghead :banghead

ACCEPT THAT YOU ARE BLATANTLY WRONG, YOU BLOWHARD! THE CENTRAL LIMIT THEOREM TELLS US THAT YOU ARE BLATANTLY WRONG!
"There is happiness for those who accept their fate, there is glory for those that defy it."

"Now that everyone's so happy, this is probably a good time to tell you I ate your parents."


Offline altpersona

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Re: The Small Rants Thread IX: Leaping into the Well of Darkness
« Reply #508 on: December 04, 2014, 02:43:30 PM »
I hate statistics.

i dont know that we have enough data to know if that is true or not.
The goal of power is power. - 1984
We are not descended from fearful men. - Murrow
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Anim-manga still sux.

Offline Frogman55

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Re: The Small Rants Thread IX: Leaping into the Well of Darkness
« Reply #509 on: December 04, 2014, 03:05:24 PM »
I hate statistics.

i dont know that we have enough data to know if that is true or not.
:lmao
I felt the rioting was ridiculous; it's like people had already made up their mind that Michael Brown was a saint, and that his killer was guilty.

So when the grand jury disagreed with them, they began rioting.
My problem with the lack of indictment isn't that I think Brown was a saint, or that the cop was evil. Same goes for Garner in NY. (Actually, NY is more egregious, as it the evidence makes it entirely clear that the killing was unjustified. By evidence I'm referring both to the video and the ME report; Staten Island will never close that homicide).  The problem is that the only reason there isn't an indictment is because the prosecutor doesn't want one. This 'I gave all the evidence, but the grand jury decided there wasn't evidence' is just chicken shit.

The [local] government is just trying to pretend that they care about citizens rights while protecting their own.

Offline SorO_Lost

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Re: The Small Rants Thread IX: Leaping into the Well of Darkness
« Reply #510 on: December 04, 2014, 03:39:36 PM »
Goddamnit. I still love her, don't i? Fuck.
No, your need to vomit is your white cells activity rejecting her and attempting to attack her with kamikaze attacks through your mouth.

Offline brujon

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Re: The Small Rants Thread IX: Leaping into the Well of Darkness
« Reply #511 on: December 04, 2014, 04:50:49 PM »
Goddamnit. I still love her, don't i? Fuck.
No, your need to vomit is your white cells activity rejecting her and attempting to attack her with kamikaze attacks through your mouth.

I gave a hearty chuckle. I needed it.
"All the pride and pleasure of the world, mirrored in the dull consciousness of a fool, are poor indeed compared with the imagination of Cervantes writing his Don Quixote in a miserable prison" - Schopenhauer, Aphorisms: The Wisdom of Life

Offline bhu

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Re: The Small Rants Thread IX: Leaping into the Well of Darkness
« Reply #512 on: December 04, 2014, 05:26:45 PM »

    What's so important about Michael Brown? Why not the last ?innocent? guy who got shot by the cops? Why not the next? This happens all the time, because human beings aren't rational actors.[/li][/list]


    In their defense a great deal of the story isn't being covered by the media, who have opted for a racial narrative.  Unnoticed by much of the tv press was an article researching the Ferguson police department, stating the following claim: When you add the number of warrants/fines together and divide them by the number of households in Ferguson, it averages out to 1 warrant served and 315 dollars in fines per household, per year, for at least a decade consistently.  The police there apparently have a long, sordid history of abuse of power, excessive use of force, and shaking down citizens for money/property.  Michael Brown wasn't the cause of the riots, he was the final straw in a long series of events that finally broke the local populaces mind.  If I had to worry about being arrested or having my property forcibly seized "because I looked funny, or you were available when we were pissed", I'd burn shit down too eventually.  If you do everything by the rules, and nothing works, nothing changes, and you're still shit on, violence is always the go to second option for the human species.  I can't condemn them for that because I realize that given the right circumstances the only thing separating any of us from them is one really bad day.

    Add that to the fact that there have been multiple high profile cases in recent years in which an unarmed black person was killed by an armed white, who was subsequently given a pass because "he felt afraid."  Then look at the same situation in reverse and see how many couldn't see how the killing was possibly justified despite that person also being afraid.  Peek through the news and you can find an average of 2-4 such cases per month in the US easily.  It allows the media to construct a narrative of "Welcome to America, the kill a nigger for free state.  We don't mind how much you abuse them, or how many you kill,  because after all, they're just a nigger, and no one cares what happens to them."  Which pisses off the local white people, who swiftly feel the need to deny they're racist, by doing everything in their power to justify the aforementioned narrative being true.  That over-reaction creates an ever-escalating series of events until you have either riots, or someone steps in to separate people and calm them down.  We don't really pursue that second option in America.  We let it run it's course hoping it will die down eventually, or the people in charge are corrupt and responsible for it happening in the first place.


    It's a con game that were post-racial because overt racism isn't allowed much anymore.  Maybe it's that I live in a small midwestern town, but there are plenty of people here who commonly say something like "I can't be racist, I don't use racial slurs" while in the same breath stating "You know we only have so much of their kind in town because the county welfare office is here, and they flock to those like flies to shit."  Just because overt racism is frowned upon doesn't mean that all those people who were racist suddenly stopped being racist because it's no longer welcomed, and it doesn't mean they don't fuck with people.  It just means they're less open about it.  Where I live, it was common to for african-americans to be called 'nigger' instead of their name well into the late 80's, and they had no choice but to accept that.  In high school I considered dating a black girl but was told by my own father "If her parents don't kill you, you're on your own.  You can leave my house, because I'm not going to defend you when they or the local cops hang you from a fucking tree."  In the 90's it was still pretty common to be arrested for 'driving or walking while black'.  In a nearby small town you are still, to this day, required to be a member of the KKK if you want to set up a business in their town.  If you refuse you get chased from town, or your business somehow catches fire in the night.  There was a recent kerfluffle about a registered sex offender who was listed as white, because he was biracial, and local law still requires anyone who is even one quarter black to be listed as black, regardless of appearance , WHEN BIRACIAL IS AN OPTION ON THE GODDAMN FORM.

    For us to talk about a post racial society you need two things to happen: The Silent Generation (which currently makes up much of the electorate that shows up to vote) has to die off, as well as the Boomers.  Both generations grew up when racism was considered normal and acceptable, and until their gone you have no real hope of it going away.  I might even go so far as to extend that to Generation X, because most of us were raised by the aforementioned generations and are still poisoned by them because of it. 

    Offline awaken_D_M_golem

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    Re: The Small Rants Thread IX: Leaping into the Well of Darkness
    « Reply #513 on: December 04, 2014, 05:46:45 PM »
    I forgot my reading glasses.

    example:  Bhu looks Blue or Blur or Bro or 8no, now I can't even tell that much ...

    Your codpiece is a mimic.

    Offline bhu

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    Re: The Small Rants Thread IX: Leaping into the Well of Darkness
    « Reply #514 on: December 04, 2014, 05:52:17 PM »
    I forgot my reading glasses.

    example:  Bhu looks Blue or Blur or Bro or 8no, now I can't even tell that much ...

    My apologies for the wall of text.

    Offline brujon

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    Re: The Small Rants Thread IX: Leaping into the Well of Darkness
    « Reply #515 on: December 04, 2014, 05:58:32 PM »
    Easily the best and most level-headed analysis of the situation i've seen since shit hit the fan.
    "All the pride and pleasure of the world, mirrored in the dull consciousness of a fool, are poor indeed compared with the imagination of Cervantes writing his Don Quixote in a miserable prison" - Schopenhauer, Aphorisms: The Wisdom of Life

    Offline Frogman55

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    Re: The Small Rants Thread IX: Leaping into the Well of Darkness
    « Reply #516 on: December 04, 2014, 06:19:42 PM »
    Maybe it's that I live in a small midwestern town, but there are plenty of people here who commonly say something like "I can't be racist, I don't use racial slurs" while in the same breath stating "You know we only have so much of their kind in town because the county welfare office is here, and they flock to those like flies to shit."  Just because overt racism is frowned upon doesn't mean that all those people who were racist suddenly stopped being racist because it's no longer welcomed, and it doesn't mean they don't fuck with people.  It just means they're less open about it.  Where I live, it was common to for african-americans to be called 'nigger' instead of their name well into the late 80's, and they had no choice but to accept that.  In high school I considered dating a black girl but was told by my own father "If her parents don't kill you, you're on your own.  You can leave my house, because I'm not going to defend you when they or the local cops hang you from a fucking tree."  In the 90's it was still pretty common to be arrested for 'driving or walking while black'.  In a nearby small town you are still, to this day, required to be a member of the KKK if you want to set up a business in their town.  If you refuse you get chased from town, or your business somehow catches fire in the night.  There was a recent kerfluffle about a registered sex offender who was listed as white, because he was biracial, and local law still requires anyone who is even one quarter black to be listed as black, regardless of appearance , WHEN BIRACIAL IS AN OPTION ON THE GODDAMN FORM.

    The weird thing is that I miss living in Ohio.

    Offline SorO_Lost

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    Re: The Small Rants Thread IX: Leaping into the Well of Darkness
    « Reply #517 on: December 04, 2014, 06:36:48 PM »
    Easily the best and most level-headed analysis of the situation i've seen since shit hit the fan.
    Except for the fact that many of the people participating in the riots are from out of town wanting to act crazy and steal shit, fully encouraging chaos in order to meet their own personal goals. :p

    Anyway, the problem is they are all fucking retarded at the end of the day, no matter how you attempt to slice it. If the people of Ferguson wanted to end racism they wouldn't be propagating it. Racism only ends when you ignore it and not by forcing people to pick sides, acting against police force is why it's there in the first place, setting shit on fire and stealing only proves how much of a violent thieving nigger you are, and instead of getting pissed off over your opinion you formed from facebook and twitter posts when the grand jury was given all the evidence with persuasive arguments form both sides and 12 people somehow had to come together agree on something some how came up with their answer you should have asked how as a means to better understand the real situation and better your self through it rather than remaining ignorant and speaking falsehoods.

    They all need to contract Ebola if they want some real sympathy from me. All we,, at least the riots are racist. Since they are primarily majority-populated (news calls the minority) in that area they are happier than heck to burn a black man's business down. Ironically making the successful owner just another poor black man. It's really lose-lose all around.
    « Last Edit: December 04, 2014, 06:39:53 PM by SorO_Lost »

    Offline brujon

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    Re: The Small Rants Thread IX: Leaping into the Well of Darkness
    « Reply #518 on: December 04, 2014, 06:52:45 PM »
    My only contribution to this discussion, is that i think we need to start holding media more responsible for this kind of shit. I'm just saying, if the media didn't spin the yarn as black v. white, people wouldn't have reacted so strongly.
    "All the pride and pleasure of the world, mirrored in the dull consciousness of a fool, are poor indeed compared with the imagination of Cervantes writing his Don Quixote in a miserable prison" - Schopenhauer, Aphorisms: The Wisdom of Life

    Offline altpersona

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    Re: The Small Rants Thread IX: Leaping into the Well of Darkness
    « Reply #519 on: December 04, 2014, 06:55:02 PM »
    Maybe it's that I live in a small midwestern town, but there are plenty of people here who commonly say something like "I can't be racist, I don't use racial slurs" while in the same breath stating "You know we only have so much of their kind in town because the county welfare office is here, and they flock to those like flies to shit."  Just because overt racism is frowned upon doesn't mean that all those people who were racist suddenly stopped being racist because it's no longer welcomed, and it doesn't mean they don't fuck with people.  It just means they're less open about it.  Where I live, it was common to for african-americans to be called 'nigger' instead of their name well into the late 80's, and they had no choice but to accept that.  In high school I considered dating a black girl but was told by my own father "If her parents don't kill you, you're on your own.  You can leave my house, because I'm not going to defend you when they or the local cops hang you from a fucking tree."  In the 90's it was still pretty common to be arrested for 'driving or walking while black'.  In a nearby small town you are still, to this day, required to be a member of the KKK if you want to set up a business in their town.  If you refuse you get chased from town, or your business somehow catches fire in the night.  There was a recent kerfluffle about a registered sex offender who was listed as white, because he was biracial, and local law still requires anyone who is even one quarter black to be listed as black, regardless of appearance , WHEN BIRACIAL IS AN OPTION ON THE GODDAMN FORM.

    The weird thing is that I miss living in Ohio.


    i dont even like living next to it  :rolleyes   :P
    The goal of power is power. - 1984
    We are not descended from fearful men. - Murrow
    The Final Countdown is now stuck in your head.

    Anim-manga still sux.