The Off Topic Topic

[Eddie Teach]

3.99 shipping per the article. 

[Eddie Teach]

Is there a way to do a search within an individual thread?

[Josquius]

on my way home after an afternoon in Akihabara. Nowhere else in the world packs the amazingly awesome aspects of a country, and the stuff which is so bad it revokes said country's right to exist, into one  small area

[Admiral Yi]

Excellent new edition of The Atlantic so far.

First article I read was a partial retraction by an economics journal editor of an op-ed piece he wrote for the WSJ in which he used survey data to demonstrate that the left is much stupider about economics than the right.  Later he came to the realization that the survey questions he based his conclusions on were all closely held beliefs of the left, so naturally the left respondents would respond the way they did and the right respondents as well.  So he redid the survey, with sacred cows from both ends of the spectrum, and found that both sides are stupid.

Second article I'm reading is about the US-Pakistani relationship.  Haven't really learned anything new (except that five ISI agents were killed by the cruise missiles Bubba launched against AQ training sites) but it is a very good overview of the situation.

On a related note: Throbby, have you been living up to our bargain?

[Razgovory]

I bought a savings bond for my niece for her birthday, 100 bucks.  Should come in handy when she's older.

[Admiral Yi]

I bought a savings bond for my niece for her birthday, 100 bucks.  Should come in handy when she's older.

What rate is the bond paying Raz?

[Razgovory]

I bought a savings bond for my niece for her birthday, 100 bucks.  Should come in handy when she's older.

What rate is the bond paying Raz?

I dunno.

[Ideologue]

First article I read was a partial retraction by an economics journal editor of an op-ed piece he wrote for the WSJ in which he used survey data to demonstrate that the left is much stupider about economics than the right.  Later he came to the realization that the survey questions he based his conclusions on were all closely held beliefs of the left, so naturally the left respondents would respond the way they did and the right respondents as well.  So he redid the survey, with sacred cows from both ends of the spectrum, and found that both sides are stupid.

Ugh.  Centrism.

[Admiral Yi]

Ugh.  Centrism.

Some of like to describe that as "thinking."

[Sheilbh]

Some of like to describe that as "thinking."

It sounds like an absence of it to be honest.  'Let's call the whole thing off' isn't thinking. 

I don't know if this is centrism though.

[Admiral Yi]

It sounds like an absence of it to be honest.  'Let's call the whole thing off' isn't thinking. 

How in the world is the author saying "let's call the whole thing off?"  He had an academic question he wanted to know the answer to and he answered it empirically.  He didn't start from some kind of first premise such as "both extremes are equally bad."  Some times both sides are equally bad, as a matter of fact not of supposition.

[Sheilbh]

How in the world is the author saying "let's call the whole thing off?"  He had an academic question he wanted to know the answer to and he answered it empirically.  He didn't start from some kind of first premise such as "both extremes are equally bad."  Some times both sides are equally bad, as a matter of fact not of supposition.

I've not read the article so I can't judge in all honesty.  I'll read it at some point.

I think that there's a sort-of abdication of thinking in an easy split the difference centrism.  It's lazy.

[sbr]

A flawed research method that proves something decisively is better than a proper one that ends up looking like "centrism"?

[citizen k]

Only zealots and idealogical true-believers feel threatened by centrism.

[DGuller]

Ugh.  Centrism.

Some of like to describe that as "thinking."

There is nothing thoughtful about taking the middle ground for the sake of taking the middle ground.  Computers can do that.