On the Nature of Things | Forum

In the discussion above, we have considered the relationship between Islamic theology and science — especially by looking at the work of Al-Ghazali whose status in Sunni Islam parallels that of Shankara in the Hindu world and Chu Hsi in the Chinese world. It is often supposed that Al-Ghazali demoli...

Doesn't the IRS seize property from time to time to cover unpaid tax bills? I would imagine sometimes the owners of said property react violently on the day of seizure from time to time. The article also indicates that the enforcement division also deals with drug trafficking. I hear those folks ten...

Atlantic | How Toronto's Muslim Community Uncovered the Would-Be Train Bombers Same as the previous "Toronto 18 plot." Looks like there are some benefits to this "promoting multiculturalism" thing. I think that the majority of Muslims in the US have been on watch for extremism. ...

It differs from manufacturer to manufacturer. I had to help my parents out with this a few weeks back (one of their cats did it), but couldn't recreate the issue on my own laptop.

^That's not a new feature though.

What is the problem? If you don't like the tiles and new style apps and such, you can just live in desktop view and, voila, you already have Windows 7, but with improved performance. Why would you downgrade? Pin your most commonly needed programs to taskbar or add desktop shortcuts, and you never ha...

Swing and a miss. Jesus never used sin to teach righteousness. If investing were sinful he wouldn't have used it in parable. There was no parable of the pimp and the hooker. Investing is life. The argument isn't that "investing is sinful." The argument is that the parable wasn't about inv...

Typhoon wrote:lXY8Szhz42M

Wow. 4K video at 60 fps at 10 Mbps? That's pretty solid. That's the sort of thing that'll need to happen for 4k to go more mainstream.

Apparently it is not too early for the speculations to start . . . Speaking of elections . . . during the next Canadian Parliamentary election, do you think Justin Trudeau (or whomever becomes leader of the Liberals) has a good shot, or are the Conservatives will bury them again? Will Thomas Mulcai...

Azrael wrote:Only eight more months until 2020 Olympics host is chosen.

Istanbul would be a cool choice.

Another perspective on this: http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/02/01/february_jobs_report_157_000_new_jobs.html The headline number out of today's BLS jobs report is 157,000 new jobs. Not bad, but not great. As ever, the better information is in the revisions to past months. Here we have Nove...

If I were travelling to the US soon and if I were to buy a tablet during my time there, then which one should I buy? Excluding maxi and mini iPads. From the subset of the Android and Windows 8 systems. Depends on your budget. If you're ready to go up to $1100, I'd recommend the MS Surface Pro 128 G...

if you donated 12 gauge riot shotguns to the eldery and bedridden in europe they could waste the f*ckers coming to turn their life support off. maybe bono could do a charity concert. cannabis sativa, i think mr p is in favour of not giving the power of decision about who lives and dies to the gover...

^That's an ambitious idea. Anyone with specialized knowledge about the physiology in terms of the number of different types of "lego blocks" of cells needed to make different organs? How many different cell types would you need to make, say, a liver? Is there a continuous gradient of types...

There is no imaginable rational combination of labor, equipment, supplies, and drugs costs that would justify anywhere close to $500,000 for a single procedure.

I've read very conflicting info on this issue and am confused: 1/ New tech, including fracking, will make the US self sufficient in oil and gas energy as per the IEA report; or 2/ The amount of accessible reserves has been wildly exaggerated; the rate of depletion in such wells is very rapid as com...

http://money.cnn.com/2012/11/12/news/economy/us-oil-production-energy/index.html?iid=HP_LN&hpt=hp_t1 The United States will overtake Saudi Arabia to become the world's biggest oil producer before 2020, and will be energy independent 10 years later, according to a new forecast by the Internationa...

Hoosiernorm wrote:Maybe they could compromise and give one of the northers states to Canada or something...

I drove through Maine a few years back and it was just beautiful. It would fit in great as a new Atlantic province.

Interestingly, the wealth disparity is not so big as might be thought. It would be the poorest; according to this Wiki page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico), their GDP per capita is $26,588. That's poorer than, but in the same ballpark as Mississippi, $32,967. With the federal dollars per...

Interestingly, the wealth disparity is not so big as might be thought. It would be the poorest; according to this Wiki page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico), their GDP per capita is $26,588. That's poorer than, but in the same ballpark as Mississippi, $32,967. With the federal dollars perk...

Wow. Yeah. How does that work, legally, adding states to the union? Does the Constitution have a procedure for that? I forget.

Well, the only real question was whether we were in for a smooth adjustment or for a rough adjustment. That question has been answered by the will of the American people. They decided they like it rough. Obama and the Fed has been trying to paper over a massive depression by pulling growth forward....

Speaking of shamans, Silver's blog has Obama winning by another three EC votes every time I've looked at it, well over 300 now. Polling would strongly suggest basically this: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/2012_elections_electoral_college_map_no_toss_ups.html Florida is pret...

Okay. Enough horsing around. Anyone man (or woman) enough to put up an electoral vote prediction? Me, I'm a coward. The fact the the polls are all in Obama's favor would seem to indicate his winning by a large margin. On the other hand, any analysis of the electorate and mobilization by likely vote...

I don't know what you're on about about +7 or +8, Are you serious? Yes. +7 what? but, frankly, these folks have way more credibility than you do, to be honest. They have a record, they have professional experience in this; this is their day job. We'll see how things turn out on Tuesday, but I don't...