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Links
Kevin Drum (formerly Calpundit)
Matt Yglesias
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Headline:
Al-Qaida No. 2 says 9/11 theory propagated by Iran
Details:Osama bin Laden's chief deputy in an audiotape Tuesday accused Shiite Iran of trying to discredit the Sunni al-Qaida terror network by spreading the conspiracy theory that Israel was behind the Sept. 11 attacks.
...
"The purpose of this lie is clear -- (to suggest) that there are no heroes among the Sunnis who can hurt America as no else did in history. Iranian media snapped up this lie and repeated it," he said.
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Convincing un-math from a Slashdot poster!
I read one of Marilyn Vos Savant's books, and in it she listed 9 as a prime...But there's a more-than-50% chance that 9 is prime!
I test primeness by dividing the test-number by all integers, from 2 through the test-number's square root, looking for a zero remainder. So, first, I divided 9 by 2. I worked on this for a while, and ended up with a nonzero remainder. So far, 9 looks prime, and I've already tested half of the potential divisors! In fact, there's just one more potential divisor to try: the number 3. I'm almost done, and everything rides on this final calculation. There's a lot of uncertainty here.
What are the chances that 9 is just going to happen to be divisible by the very last potential divisor that I try? I'll grant you that the chances are non-zero; there really are some composite numbers out there. But the chances aren't one, either. For example, when I was testing 17 for primeness, the last potential divisor I tried was 4, and it didn't work. This last calculation could go either way.
So here we are, having tested half of the possible divisors, and so far 9 is looking prime and there's just one more divisor to test against. So, I ask you: do you want to bet 9's primeness/compositeness on this last calculation? I'll make it easier for you: I tell you right now, that 9 is just like 17, in that it is not divisible by 4. And then, I'll even give you an option: we can finish the calculation by dividing 9 by 3, or you can change your candidate divisor to 5, now that you know 4 doesn't work. Well.. what'll it be?
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Here's a screen grab from a commercial for the current #1 movie, "21", about the MIT students who won a lot at blackjack.
The voice-over confirms it: "Entertainment Weekly raves: 'A Card-Sharp Thriller!' "
That's true. The review is even fairly positive. But as you'd see at the link, "Card-Sharp Thriller" is -- obviously -- a purely descriptive term, like "War Movie!" Nevertheless, with the word "sharp" in there, it sure sounds like a compliment, doesn't it?
Related: Even the book that the movie is a blurry copy of isn't mostly true.
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