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Magere Hein

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Posts posted by Magere Hein

  3. Posted · Edited by Magere Hein
    Handrejka added

    The competition period of MHDP starts on 20 March 2016 04:30 UTC, that is less than a day and a half from now.

    Competitors are:

    Registered by forum:

    • The Unknown Man
    • Deathray’s I can’t believe it’s not The Unknown Man’s team team
    • ImNotHades

    Registered by PM

    • Bibliogryphon
    • gcreptile
    • JiroemonKimura
    • msc
    • maryportfuncity
    • Youwanticewiththat
    • RoverAndOut
    • Death Impends
    • RadGuy
    • Switch
    • Magere Hein
    • Handrejka
    • Toast

    Registration is still open.

     

    I intend to post a master lists on Sunday afternoon.

    • Like 2

  4. Posted

     

     

    A construction worker on his second day on the job died after falling from the 53rd floor of the Wilshire Grand Center tower and landing on a passing car in downtown L.A. early Thursday afternoon.

    His body landed on a car that was traveling on Wilshire Boulevard. The female driver of the white hatchback was being evaluated at the scene by LAFD personnel, and it was unknown whether she was injured. The worker's body had landed on the back end of the car.

     

    [and the best line....]

    A Los Angeles Times staff photographer was on assignment on the buildings 71st floor when he heard a loud thump and saw the man's body below.

    "It sounded like a bag of cement fell off the edge of the building," photographer Mel Melcon said.

     

    So now we have an idea what that sounds like. I already had an idea what it looks like.

    Nasty, I imagine.

     

    For reasons I can only guess, this incident was reported on Dutch morning TV news.

     

    And is now amongst the most popular on the bbc news website for what must be some similarly obscure reason.

     

    "Officials from the construction company said the man was not supposed to be above the third floor and had removed his hard hat."

     

    The utter fool, no hard hat....

     

    But such nasty things will never happen to you, boys and girls, for you always wear your hard hat when on a building site, particularly above the third floor.

    • Like 1

  5. Posted

     

     

     

    That's interesting, I was just thinking of a great great grandfather who's name appears spelt differently on his marriage and the census then the next census and great grandfathers birth certificate. Possibly clerical errors, but it's definitely the same family.

    Spelling wasn't really fixed until there was near-universal literacy. People wrote things down as they heard them, or how they thought they should be spelt.

     

    People still do.

     

    Anyway, the Netherlands have had a civil registry since the early 1800s. That effectively froze the spelling of Dutch family names, but not completely. There's a branch of my own family that has a spelling variant introduced by a clerical error at the civil registry. My brother has a first name different from what my parents intended, due to a civil registrar´s bloody-mindedness.

     

     

    Surely you have a equivelant of the deed poll, so he could go by a common name (the one his parents intended) and adopt it officially as a teenager.

     

    In the Netherlands it involves some red tape, several EUR 100s in costs and a court order, but yes, it could be set right. In his teens my brother did the reverse and adopted the, shorter, version the registrar chose. My parents, in a break with tradition, decided to give their children a single first name. My brother has a middle name.

  7. Posted

    Forgot that I had something to say about her canonisation: I think it would be wise for the Roman-Catholic church to stick that file in a drawer and sleep on it for a century, but I suppose that'll be difficult to explain after the previous hurry. It's also good to remember that Saints are for internal church use only. I have no obligation to believe anything the church asserts. She won't be the first evil person to be canonised (Charles I, anyone? ;)) and she won't be the last.

    • Like 1

  8. Posted

    Thanks guys. I will do some research on her. As I said, I was aware Hitchens criticised her but I was never sure if his complaints had a firm foundation or if he was just having a bit of a whinge.

     

    Do you think many people will speak out/protest against her canonisation?

    The Missionary Position is well researched and documents the dark side of Teresa and her supporters in full colour, but it's not a particularly good read. Hitchens' anger shines through and gives the book a rant-like taste. I'm not fond of that, nor of Hitchens' writing,

    • Like 1

  9. Posted

    I think losing Philip would hasten her own decline immeasurably. I'm not saying she'd be dead within a year, but I could see her suffering a more steady decline in the years after. Say he went this year, I'd be greatly surprised if she saw 2020. If he (somehow) gets to 100, then I think she'll still be in pretty decent health all things being equal.

    That makes me wonder: would the Greek follow her in the grave soon, should she die first? I suppose she won't, but she might, say, get run over by a bus.

  11. Posted

    A construction worker on his second day on the job died after falling from the 53rd floor of the Wilshire Grand Center tower and landing on a passing car in downtown L.A. early Thursday afternoon.

    His body landed on a car that was traveling on Wilshire Boulevard. The female driver of the white hatchback was being evaluated at the scene by LAFD personnel, and it was unknown whether she was injured. The worker's body had landed on the back end of the car.

     

    [and the best line....]

    A Los Angeles Times staff photographer was on assignment on the building’s 71st floor when he heard a loud thump and saw the man's body below.

    "It sounded like a bag of cement fell off the edge of the building," photographer Mel Melcon said.

     

    So now we have an idea what that sounds like. I already had an idea what it looks like.

     

    Nasty, I imagine.

     

    For reasons I can only guess, this incident was reported on Dutch morning TV news.

  12. Posted

    In 2002, Abernathy was arrested on parole violations and charged with theft by deception after fellow inmates said he promised to secure early releases for them in exchange for money.

    Abernathy was 57 years old.

     

    Rather a dim bunch, those fellow inmates. Trusting a politician, tsk. tsk.

    • Like 1

  13. Posted

     

     

     

    Announces that Mother Theresa will become a Saint on September 4th

    *all the leftists who were dumb enough to think Francis would be some kind of liberal even though he's an 80 year old fucking priest start freaking out*

     

    I don't know about that. I do know that she was intended to become Saint Witch well before Francis became pope.

     

    Normally I'm the one savvy to Catholic machinations but I have to ask what has Theresa done to earn the epithet "Saint Witch"? I know Christopher Hitchens critiqued her heavily but is there anything else?

     

     

    For me she is, and will be forever, the Witch of Calcutta. Extracting large sums of money, quite a bit of it gained through crime, ostentatiously to help dying poor people but rather let them rot and use the money for private expense is such an evil that witch is a relatively mild appellation. It´s a shame there´s no hell, it should be invented for her.

    • Like 1

  15. Posted · Edited by Magere Hein
    Question added

    interesting point.

     

    My feeling is that with 'few' it comes down to sample size. (Sample size of, say, a dozen, a few could be any number between 3,4,5 or even six - beyond that you're into 'most' territory. Sample size in the millions, a few could number in the thousands).

    Several (to me) just implies an amount greater than one, but less than the whole sample. i.e. 'some'.

     

    So generally, none < few <= several <= most < all.

    Your point I agree with, my pedant nature woke up from the bolded usage. Statisticians use that word for the size of an actual sample, rather than the population size, i.e. the size of the group from which the sample is taken.

     

    Ah, that was good.

     

    ETA: where in that unequality does 'many' fit?

  17. Posted

     

     

     

     

    If still open mine is

    You´re in. Good luck.

     

    I think he's just trolling. His team is an exact replica of The Unknown Man's, and it even has fucking Feek and Crowe.

     

    Indeed.

     

    Not sure there is anything in the rules that prohibits me from submitting a team identical to that of another player?

     

    None of the rules I posted forbid it, I didn't notice the problem (didn't read it all, actually) and wrote:

    You´re in. Good luck.

    so it looks like I painted myself in the corner here. If Deathray wants to play this team I cannot kick him out. For revenge I will not use subs on the team, though.

    • Like 2

  20. Posted

     

    Announces that Mother Theresa will become a Saint on September 4th

    *all the leftists who were dumb enough to think Francis would be some kind of liberal even though he's an 80 year old fucking priest start freaking out*

     

    I don't know about that. I do know that she was intended to become Saint Witch well before Francis became pope.

    • Like 1

  22. Posted

     

     

    If still open mine is

    You´re in. Good luck.

     

    I think he's just trolling. His team is an exact replica of The Unknown Man's, and it even has fucking Feek and Crowe.

     

    Indeed.

  25. Posted

    Hilary Putnam, philosopher, computer scientist and mathematician dead at 89:

     

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martha-c-nussbaum/hilary-putnam-1926-2016_b_9457774.html

     

    Few obits so far, which is surprising because a couple of his thought experiments are very well-known, for example the "brain-in-a-vat" scenario or his idea about how to get the piece of the cake you really want.

     

    I know of Putnam's existence, I even read a few snippets of his work,. but I have the feeling I should have known more of it. Well, I don't, so I quess celebrity and philosopher don't go well together.

    • Like 1
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