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metadigital

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Posts posted by metadigital

    A farewell Thread

    in Way Off-Topic

    Posted

    Hey, that silk scarf idea is pretty good. :)

    Also, dental floss.

    I also recommend a small quantity of washing powder, to do your smalls every night, for use in the basin of your hotel room, though you might need to keep a set of three, so that there is time for the damp set to dry whilst one is being worn (ambient humidity and wind velocity within same being critical correlates).

    These days it is equally unpopular when people leave three suitcases and an articulated rucksack unsupervised in the Hauptbahnhof. Odds are the bomb squad will run away with it before a thief gets to it.

    Um, I wouldn't recommend leaving ANY belongings unattended ANYWHERE (that's why travelling in pluralities gives one options) ... if they're not valuable they aren't worth taking in the first place, and if they're valuable then they will be absent when you return.

    Just travel light, carry the rucksack only.

    Not everyone seems to think that far ahead when planning their packing. :)

    Let's learn something new

    in Way Off-Topic

    Posted

    I guess the big-ticket achievement of Special Relativity is the codification of the speed of light as a finite, knowable and predictably static value irrelative to any other factor (okay, the medium through which light travels does affect its velocity, but generally people talk about the speed through a vacuum).

    on the notion of correlation and causation

    in Way Off-Topic

    Posted

    What's so funny about it meta?

    Arguing Hume is pointless (even Bertrand Russell opines, in History of Western Philosophy, that he created his own cul de sac in which to disappear: an unreachable redoubt of logic). Why? I'm glad you asked.

     

    If you read the discussion you will see it plainly, too. If we agree with the assumption that causation MUST be proved before we can make use of it, then all the scientists will start packing up their equipment and looking for a new hobby/career. There is no way to "prove" causation. So what then? In the meantime, as taks pointed out, people use the models that science gives us (based in reality, taken from observable fact, and repeatable by anyone who wishes to confirm the relevant details) to PREDICT the behaviour of all sorts of useful things.

     

    It may be impossible to prove that putting a swath of cotton in a hot oven sets the scene for the hot flames to CAUSE the cotton to ignite, but -- because we can reliably predict that it WILL, every time -- what does that actually mean?

     

    If the argument has to go ANYWHERE, it should attack the notion of proof vis a vis cause-and-effect.

     

    Hume was criticised by Russell, not for inventing a novel and unarguable epistemological argument, but for creating a side-show. The problem is not that causality is not reliable, it is that humanity has no way of proving causality from direct observation. Hence the problem isn't that there is no causality (try and provide a better model!), it is that we are insufficiently able to prove it (at this time). A semantic argument. The Mother of All semantic arguments.

    The Black Hound FAQ

    in Computer and Console

    Posted

    That does sound pretty damn cool.

     

    I might actually end up taking feats in weapon focus/specialization then. As it is, I kinda find them over-specialized since I never quite know what specific weapon I'll find. This way, you can just worry about using a certain class of weaponry. Sounds great. :sorcerer:

    ditto

     

    Typically (if my PC is a fighter class) I have to rely on my super-meta-clairvoyance (+3) to choose the correct specialization early on. :ermm:

    A farewell Thread

    in Way Off-Topic

    Posted

    It's good to travel with a friend, too. This allows the travellers to take a break (read: go to the toilet) without having to watch the luggage, which is something one has to do when travelling alone (no-one likes it when some guy invades the public toilet at the Hauptbahnhof with three suitcases and an articulated rucksack ...)

    Mask of the Betrayer

    in Computer and Console

    Posted

    I think you're missing the point, my dyslexically illiterate co-dependent; it's not that Bok is some sort of special-purpose reserve for the Basketball Hi-Res shoot-out, but more that the world will enter into shadow once Bok gains an MBA for rendered output ..! :ermm:

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