Posts by Brent Jackson
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The sun set at 7.07 p.m on the day I was born don't you know.
Umm. Doesn't that actually depend on where you were born ? Since W|A doesn't know where you were born it cannot have provided the right answer. It's answer was kinda incomplete - it didn't say where the sun set at 7:07pm.
I had a play and found it very frustrating. For example "area country Europe", it doesn't understand, although "area country" gives areas of countries, and "country Europe" lists the countries in Europe. Moreover "largest area country Europe" lists the 5 countries in Europe with the largest areas. BUT (and its a big but), "smallest area country Europe" gives an answer of "Lammefjord,-7 m (Denmark)" which it claims is the lowest point in Europe. However, W|A knows that the shore of the Caspian Sea is 28m below mean sea level, which you can find out if you use "Europe with Russia" or "Europe with Turkey and Russia". Presumably this is because the underlying categorisation is unable to split a country between two continents.
= FAIL.
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I'd second the Topp Twins movie recommendation.
Because it documents them through their songs, which often have political/protest messages in them, it is a great overview of the big issues in New Zealand in the last quarter of the last century. The cinematography and directing was really good as well, blending the archive footage with current interviews.
Oh, and it also contains a few LOLs as well.
Cheers,
Brent. -
Hmmm. Perhaps Keith was in a hurry...
The discrepancy I noticed was that the "When it's actually ..." figures for Labour, double in the next graph "Total impact of packages 2008-2011", even though the axes appear to have the same measures. I'm not sure of the significance of the x-axis change of "Income per year" to "Individual annual income" - perhaps the second graph is for a couple earning the same amount each ?
Possibly the problem is the y-axis, which should have "per year" removed from the second graph (since the title says it is the Total impact ... 2008-2011).
There is definitely something wrong with it, because it is not clear what it is actually saying.
Cheers,
Brent. -
Another example of how pathetic our media is. The article starts with :
New Zealand now has six confirmed cases of swine flu with a further 11 "probable" cases, health officials say.
but then later on quotes verbatim some other story which says :
The following countries have reported laboratory confirmed cases with no deaths - ... New Zealand (4), ...
Pathetic ! Don't they actually read what they write.
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But surely they could spell Auckland correctly, and find out where the Waikato is !
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WS wrote:
I heard a guy once on some sports talkback program bemoaning the amount of car racing and asking why other sports weren't covered - he was followed by someone from motor racing NZ ( or something) who said " well if you want to pay as much as we do for coverage then you can have equal air time " .
Is that how it works ?I always thought it was because Sky bought the rights to any interesting sports, so TV1 and TV3 end up with the dross.
But perhaps there is a bit more to it - ie Motorsport NZ may have made the decision to avoid Sky's (probably superior) offer, in order to allow their product to reach a wider audience. If this is the case then good on them. Other sports could also get long term benefits from staying on the free-to-air channels.
Cheers,
Brent. -
Oh, and Graeme, you've missed James' point.
Light is both a wave and a particle, a wave packet if you will.
You asked:
Why choose one scientific theory over another?
There aren't two conflicting scientific theories here, just some quantum weirdness.
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In case people missed it in Emma's MIssionary Position, here is a link to an interesting article in New Scientist magazine, which discusses a theory that, because humans are very good at relating causes to effects, they tend to come up with fallacious explanations when they do not what the real cause is. This pre-supposes us to belief in supernatural causes.
Obviously it is not easily measured (or shown to be falsifiable), but I found it interesting. It has helped to allay my bewilderment at why so many people believe in god.
Cheers,
Brent. -
I've just read an interesting article in New Scientist magazine (here), which discusses a theory that, because humans are very good at relating causes to effects, they tend to come up with fallacious explanations when they do not what the real cause is. This pre-supposes us to belief in supernatural causes.
(I love the example of a question put to kids of "Why do rivers exist ?", answer "So that boats have somewhere to float").
So, as Bart stated earlier, by the time people become adults they have a reasonably fixed world view. If it contains fate, luck, que sera, gods, or whatever, then those things are likely to stay part of their world view.
(Well, I found the article illuminating, anyway ...)
Cheers,
Brent. -
O, is Poneke's site now permanantly behind a Wordpress log-in? Pity.
It is not that it is hidden - it is more that it is gone. This is the third time it's happened. But hopefully it'll be back soon.
So don't bother getting a login, to try and find it, because it'll be a waste of time.