cp702

No, what's crazy is the library internet speed - the bottleneck on my speedtest is the wiring in my building; where there's gigabit Ethernet, it can be over 600 Mb/s download.

From my dorm room (wired connection; wireless is obviously a bunch slower): (note: this is campus internet, and the ISP is the school I go to, and the server has my rough location, which is why they are blurred out) My dorm is wired with 100 Mb/s Ethernet; the libraries have gigabit ethernet, so I'll run a test there tomorrow and post the result from that (I *have* gotten over 600 Mb/s, but that may have been a fluke)

I think it's under New -> Import openFormats.

*sigh* Perez's grammar has even less to do with the topic of this thread than the things that spurred me to write the above post. Posts hidden.

Based on the link, you mixed up latitude and longitude. The equations are: Lat = 82.33224782018947 + 0.0012411918012966094 Y Long = -154.78609580837022 + 0.009937143825312363 X These numbers have ludicrous precision; you could probably lop off a number of digits and it'd be more accurately reflecting the precision of the input, but I don't feel like working out what precision they should have.

Polynomial fitting needs more data points - whatever degree polynomial turns out to match the data, you want at least two more points. This is because there is *always* a degree-n polynomial fitting any n+1 points; the fact that it does so doesn't mean anything about fitting the rest of the data. 3 points works if it's linear (normally a decent assumption, but you still want to check), but these 3 points aren't linear. You could fit a quadratic to them, but that means nothing - there's no reason to suspect it'd have anything to do with any other points.

Your Google coordinates cannot possibly be correct. Latitude cannot be outside [-90, 90]; any system in which a latitude is outside that range does not qualify for the term "latitude", and is not a model of a sphere.

You don't need to use ELS *now*; many people don't.

Nope. We don't close threads because the OP asks us to; we only close if there are rules violations. This is a good thing to keep in mind for all wars, not just any particular one. There is no such thing as a simple war.

Cut out the side discussion; this has nothing at all to do with the Navy SEALs.

NB: If the purpose of drug laws is to help those who need help and wouldn't get it any other way, why do they send you to prison instead of to treatment? Mandatory counseling, maybe (though mandatory medical care raises a whole lot of ethical questions), but why prison?

Nor can you be commissioned as an officer without an American citizenship; like the SEALs, it requires qualifying for a Secret clearance. Also, I'm not sure how being an officer in a foreign military affects clearances (it looks like it might be fine if your service happened before renouncing Irish citizenship, but it'd be something to ask about). What I've read about recruiters is that basically, the only thing to believe is what you get on paper in your contract - any promises that don't get put in your actual written contract that you sign aren't worth much.

The Navy's official special warfare recruiting site (sealswcc.com; it's legit, it's linked from the Navy's main navy.com recruiting page) has a SEAL FAQ. You do have to be in the Navy; Marines aren't accepted for training, and a Marine who wants to become a SEAL has to transfer from the Marines to the Navy before being considered for SEAL training (funnily enough, the Coast Guard actually *did* send a few people to BUD/S, but they've now canceled that program). Also, note: You have to be a US citizen to be a SEAL, as it requires being able to get a Secret security clearance; in addition, dual nationality is not permitted (I don't think that rules out a Secret clearance, but the SEALs in particular require you to renounce all non-US citizenship). After you become a permanent resident (non-permanent resident non-citizens generally can't join; there are exceptions for healthcare professionals and experts in certain languages and cultures, but those are special cases), you can get accelerated citizenship through military service -- if I'm reading USCIS right, *any* length of time of military service right now qualifies a permanent resident for the citizenship process. Once that's completed, *then* you could apply to be a SEAL.

"Natural" and "not harmful" are entirely unrelated categories. Arsenic is natural; so is the influenza virus; so are plenty of deadly poisons. On the other hand, plenty of prescription drugs are natural - penicillin is derived from a natural toxin produced by certain species of fungus; Botox is a neurotoxin produced by a few species of bacteria. Likewise, some artifical things (e.g. agriculture) are essential to supporting a significant human population; were it not for agriculture, you would not be alive. I mention this because one of the arguments for marijuana being harmless is that it's natural; being natural is irrelevant. -------------------------------------------------- I've hidden a number of posts for being essentially personal attacks. There is no call for personal attack, period. I don't care how near and dear this is to your heart; that doesn't mean you should be screaming about how stupid people are because they disagree with you. If this thread continues to attract personal attacks, it will be closed.

Topic moved to Politics; debate tag added. MODERATOR NOTICE READ THIS BEFORE POSTING. Like the previous marijuana topic, this topic is attracting extremely aggressive responses. This ends now. From this post forward, any posts attacking anyone as a "sheeple", as a "loser drug addict", as a "waste of time", or any other insult will be removed. If you do not want to address someone's points, you can do so - there is no need to call attention to the fact that you are doing so. In addition, posts which use gigantic text, massive formatting, etc., to virtually shout, will be removed. Two posts made in the time it took me to write this note have already been removed for personal attacks.

The Bermuda Triangle actually doesn't have a disproportionately high number of incidents - its reputation is basically due to confirmation bias.

You can't eliminate pursuits; deleting the entries in the config just means LCPDFR uses default values for those settings.

In the near future: Yes, there will be French. Right now: No, there is not French.

Probably because they weren't sure if there was a gas leak or not. In that case, it's better for the police to check out the scene first to preserve any evidence, and only if it's clear there was no foul play is it turned over to others to deal with. IIRC, it's standard procedure to check every fire/explosion for signs of arson/intentional explosions.

Poe's law at work: unless you explicitly say you're joking, no position you can express is so extreme that it couldn't be confused for a legitimate belief. On-topic: The issue with tailoring terrorism based on where has low security is that terrorism is inherently political - what purpose is served by blowing up a Malaysian plane? Is there a group angry at and fighting the Malaysian government?

People don't always pay attention to where they're going and who's in their way; I don't think they bumped you because they decided not to care, but because they didn't even notice you. If you then pushed them away, they probably left thinking you were being a jerk (not saying it's unreasonable to want to keep people away from you when you're carrying a large sum of money and have an openly carried gun that someone might try to steal; I'm saying that people just don't care about who you are or what your needs are). I don't know about others, but I certainly wouldn't have known that it's a big deal getting between an armored truck guard and the wall. You have experience as a guard and know the proper etiquette, but most people don't. Rather, the default assumption is that 3 feet is a decent amount of space, and that there's no particular reason not to walk through that gap. If you yell at someone for doing so, they might just be confused at why there's an issue. Things that you have reason to be concerned about are normally perfectly acceptable behaviors (walking with hands in pockets isn't unusual; nor is looking at the person doing something mildly interesting; nor is walking between a gap between a person and the wall. Signs saying "stay back" might well mean "don't come right behind me in a car, because I need room to move around", not "don't come near me because it's a security risk". That's if someone even read the sign; people tend not to do that.

I think a rapid crash into the sea is more likely than an airplane going into low earth orbit.

Wouldn't matter: there's a standard "hijacking" transponder code - even if it's only shown for a moment, it triggers a response (pilots have to be warned *not* to dial past emergency codes when changing transponder code - e.g. if going from 1900 to 5500, they don't set the second digit to 5 and then dial the first back 1-7-6-5: that passes through 7500, an emergency code, which triggers a response). Not to mention that airline pilots now know about hijacking and to resist it - before 9/11, hijacking was essentially hostage taking (hence a lack of resistance - it was better to let the hijackers order the plane onto the ground, where they could be given ransom or the plane could be stormed); now, people are much, much less likely to go down without a fight, and a fight means there's time to radio a message.

First off, MODERATOR NOTICE Everyone calm down. Please. Thank you. On-topic: @Slimory: Microwave ovens produce non-ionizing radiation, just like cell phones do. Furthermore, the oven itself is generally a Faraday cage, trapping *all* the radiation anyways. The microwave radiation literally cannot contribute to cancer in any way, shape, or form. @those saying pot isn't a drug: It is. There's no point saying it isn't, because it clearly is. Now, "drug" != "bad" - all a drug is is something that affects your body and isn't a food. Medication consists of drugs. If you've *ever* been sick and had antibiotics? Drugs. Aspirin, Advil, Tylenol, etc.? Yup, all drugs. Likewise, "it's natural so it's not an issue" is total bullshit. Arsenic is natural. Nightshade is a plant. Natural things can be fatal pretty easily. "Natural" vs. "artificial" is only a distinction in how it's made; it has literally nothing at all to do with safety. If you go around consuming everything natural you can find, you'll probably be dead within a week from disease or poisoning.

IIRC, DARE doesn't qualify for federal funds because the evidence suggests it's counterproductive. For starters, people who smoke pot the first time realize that the "one time and you're hooked" thing they learned in DARE is total bullshit, and so the program then has no credibility. Part of the risk with relying on the administration not enforcing federal marijuana laws is that it's in no way an official guarantee - a future president, or attorney general, or for that matter a local federal prosecutor, can just decide that your case is special and prosecute you, and there's not a lot you can do about that. If a new president decides to enforce federal marijuana laws, it requires no act of Congress, no official bureaucratic process, no notice period - he's literally just doing his job. For that matter, you could be prosecuted for offenses happening *before* the new policy takes place - the rule against ex post facto laws doesn't apply, as the criminal laws in question predated the crime. It's really risky to rely on a prosecutor's discretion, because it's not in any way a legal guarantee that you won't be criminally charged. Also, even if the Justice Department isn't prosecuting marijuana trafficking, legal businesses get hit HARD by the IRS - the tax laws specifically say that business expenses incurred as part of the business of buying and selling drugs illegally (under *federal* law) are not deductible. That means that unlike most businesses, marijuana sellers pay taxes on *gross* income, not *net* income [fun fact: other illegal businesses do not have this provision; the general rule is that unless Congress explicitly says so, the tax code does not penalize illegal acts. You have to pay taxes on illegal income, but you can deduct the business costs associated with it - for example, a mafioso could legally deduct bribes from his taxes. The requirement to pay taxes on illegal income is why Capone was nabbed for tax evasion] That said: The notion that possession and use of marijuana can be illegal at the federal level is stupid. I get restricting trafficking in drugs federally, as markets tend to expand in size, but the whole point of having 50 sovereign states is that states can try their own policies, and see how they work. Right now, Colorado and Washington can show other states what would happen if marijuana is legal; other states can then adjust their laws accordingly. @XBR The hemp thing smacks of total bullshit; pot was banned at the same time as a whole lot of other recreational drugs. While I agree with most of your post, the notion that the whole thing is because hemp is *so great* doesn't match up with the history (where marijuana was already considered a recreational drug, and was banned with other such drugs).