The unimportant news thread

[Brian]

Unimportant personal news: the NY Times Book Review is going to run a letter I sent them, this Sunday.

[Karl Henning]

Hey, nice!

[Todd]

Yes, the Obama Administration has been different from its predecessors.

[Todd]

Note to self: Do not follow up with that Ashley Madison contact in Herat.

[Todd]

Yes, yes, yes!!!

[Todd]

I'm no Dylan fan, but this is just all kinds of stupid.  And here I thought Yurpeans were all smart 'n' sophisticated and such.

[North Star]

I'm not expecting that the Finnish council of Uusimaa will be getting Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for their bright ideas

[Todd]

Obscene.

[knight66]

Obscene.

I agree. Is there scope in the system to revisit the sentence? The court is basically reinforcing the lack of guidelines the parents provided.

Mike

[Todd]

Is there scope in the system to revisit the sentence?

I don't think so, but I could be wrong.  The parents may face some civil wrongful death suits.

[Karl Henning]

"Affluenza" niffs of The Onion....

[Brian]

Obscene.

I also think the prosecution's request for a 20-year sentence is obscene, but the USA has such a proud tradition of obscene sentencing that we're used to it.

[ibanezmonster]

From last year:


Physicists test to see if the universe is a computer simulation


Can't really find much about how the tests went or if they have even been conducted yet. I never thought about it, but it seems very likely. Not sure if you could call the creator of this universe "God" or not, though.

[Todd]

Physicists test to see if the universe is a computer simulation

Looks like someone took too much peyote.

[ibanezmonster]

Looks like someone took too much peyote.

When you think about it it doesn't sound too far-fetched, especially if you are one who believes in God.

Humans have created visual simulations for a while, albeit 2D (The Sims, Sim City, etc.). In the future, there may be AI which is as intelligent as people to include in these simulations.

When will humans be able to create something such as a 3D version of The Sims, but with intelligent life? If the intelligent life, planets, etc. were very much microscopic and our invented universe in a large room, it would be eerily like our own universe.

[Todd]

When you think about it it doesn't sound too far-fetched, especially if you are one who believes in God.

Humans have created visual simulations for a while, albeit 2D (The Sims, Sim City, etc.). In the future, there may be AI which is as intelligent as people to include in these simulations.

When will humans be able to create something such as a 3D version of The Sims, but with intelligent life? If the intelligent life, planets, etc. were very much microscopic and our invented universe in a large room, it would be eerily like our own universe.

Somehow, I'm not surprised that you of all posters put what you think is serious thought into this.

[kishnevi]

Somehow, I'm not surprised that you of all posters put what you think is serious thought into this.

I've seen this idea before somewhere (I want to say Bryson or Ferris, but I can't remember which book I saw it in), as a general discussion of the idea of multiverses.   Of course, the conclusion there was that we'd never be able to tell if we were part of a simulation.  Doomsday would be whenver the being in charge of the simulation pulled the plug on it all, of course

[Todd]

I've seen this idea before somewhere (I want to say Bryson or Ferris, but I can't remember which book I saw it in), as a general discussion of the idea of multiverses.

I see.  I wonder what type of evidence the previously cited researchers will gather, and if they referred to The Sims in their grant proposals.

[Karl Henning]

snypsss was right all along!

In terms of the presidency, many conservatives believe that the GOP has not nominated a true and authentic conservative for the job since Ronald Reagan. (Whether Reagan could win his party's nomination today, given his gubernatorial record of raising taxes and expanding access to abortion, is another matter.)

(I never doubted it . . . .)

[Karl Henning]

CD 104 of the Stockhausen Complete Edition