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Comment Re:I'll be first to say WTF (Score 1) 700

You can represent the same number with different glyphs. It's better said that 1 and 0.999... represent the same number. Just like how 1/3 and 0.333... are different representations of the same number. Or how 1000 and 8 are different representations of the same number.

Numbers are abstract concepts. We represent them with a standardized system, sure. But at the end of the day, we can represent them however we want. It just happens that the most useful representation is a standardized one.

Comment Re:declining oil production (Score 0, Troll) 710

Except for the fact that Israel is accountable to the free world.

The United States has never threatened to yank the Israeli Defense Fund, and if it did so, it would be an empty threat. They enjoy an accountability-free existence. Sure, Europe pisses and moans, but the United States' veto power on the UN Security Council virtually guarantees that there will never be any UN sanctions on Israel.

Oh, and interesting factoid. No Israeli soldier has ever been prosecuted for the deaths of Palestinian civilians. Ever.

Comment Re:The problem is not an efficient algorithm (Score 1) 421

Even science has some untestable working assumptions.
1) There is no old guy with a beard in the sky who arbitrarily changes the rules.

Before science came along, most people actually did assume that there was an Old Man in the Sky changing the rules around. That's why they developed rituals to please the Old Man in the Sky, based on patterns they thought they observed. Whenever the patterns were disrupted, they assumed that the Old Man in the Sky had changed his mood and tried something else.

How far did that model get us for the thousands of years it prevailed? How far has science gotten us in the past hundred?

2) Humans have enough intelligence and sensory input to build a consistent model of the world.

Actually, it's fundamental to modern science that humans don't have enough sensory input to model the universe. That's why we have things like electron microscopes. As to the intelligence angle, I'll refer you to Einstein's quote regarding infinite stupidity and an infinite universe.

Comment Re:Experience from academia (Score 1) 1259

It's even worse than that. They factor in how much your parents made the year before, which is the available tax data. I wound up being denied for a FAFSA loan in 2003 because my dad was employed in 2002 but lost his job after that. So because my parents had a large combined income the year before, I had to get a loan from ShittyBank and pay it back at a variable interest rate. But I put a bunch of money toward it per month and paid the sucker off within 2 1/2 years after graduating. And then, six months after I'd settled my debt, my tax dollars went to ShittyBank to bail them out of bankruptcy caused by their own sheer recklessness.

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Doubt isn't the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith. - Paul Tillich, German theologian and historian

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