Toadfish Monastery

Quote from: Agujjim on June 18, 2007, 09:10:53 PM
I almost did just before you did.  I know that personally I will only answer when I feel I can give a relevant answer, and also only when I feel like thinking up new questions.

Ditto

Why is there air?

Because some compounds are too ornery to hang out in groups, and would rather slamdance. 

Bah, chemistry, schmemistry;  it's all Physics 

A combination of  Nucleosynthesis and the fact we haven't been hit by anything big enough to tear the atmosphere away. Yet.

They did think the Hydrogen bomb might trigger atmospheric ignition but Edward Teller did a few calculations which suggested it wouldn't.  Time well spent one feels...

Quote from: beagle on June 27, 2007, 05:52:21 PM
Bah, chemistry, schmemistry;  it's all Physics 

Well, perhaps physics most accurately describes why we have air; I was explaining gas I think.
Then again, it's usually biology (and microbi, at that) which most accurately describes why I have gas. 

But, aren't physicists fond of saying that chemistry is a subset of physics?

yes....  as biology is a rather specialized subset of chemistry, and the entire scope of the Arts are very specialized subset of biology. 

It's all just applied mathematics if you zoom out far enough, anyways.  But the calculations involved in theoretically determining the absolute best recipe for a particular dish take much longer to perform than simply getting a feel for the taste and adding a dash of this, pinch of that... 

That goes back to the 'Universe as a computer simulation' scenario. Let's hope they have good power protection for the mainframe doing the calculations...

Bill Gates as the Creator?

NOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!

*ties knot in trunk in desperate attempt to escape this being even remotely possible*

Not remotely. Have you noticed what happen to most of MS systems running for a while? (even servers need to be rebooted periodically). We would start to do everything slowly until suddenly all goes blue.


The question is what kind of OS should you use on a quantum computer (the most likely platform for that kind of calculation, no? Then again D. Adams may have been onto something with the idea of a planet as a supercomputer...)

Quote3. If archeologists were to on cover your home a thousand years from now, what do you think they'd think you were?

A filthy pig.  Gotta clean up this weekend. 

Quote from: Sibling Zono (anon1mat0) on July 11, 2007, 07:19:27 PM
Not remotely. Have you noticed what happen to most of MS systems running for a while? (even servers need to be rebooted periodically). We would start to do everything slowly until suddenly all goes blue.

But from where I sit, most of my field of view is filled with a blue sky and a big blue lake... Ack!  It's already started!  Quick, call Doctor Watson!   

Beware of a plane in a sunny day writing in the sky:

Fatal exception in address block FF0A62B:03......

Quote from: Chatty3. What is in your opinion the best place to buy real state now?

Investment or use? Future investment or something income producing NOW?

Housing prices are plummeting daily in most markets. There will be a residential glut that will rebound horribly on the US economy as the repossessions rise. NOW is not the time, you should wait and plan for the bottom of the market for residential purchases, either  for investment or for a residence.

Long term, you look for an undervalued area that has growth potential. (Someone you know bought a classic Craftman cottage on 2/3 of an acre, needs cosmetic work, has original stained glass in the front windows...outbuildings, big trees--about 3 years ago, for under $30K. It's already worth about twice what it cost, with no improvements.)

In my area, the "escape from Houston's rat race" people are having to pay huge premiums for the closer in areas. The extra 13 miles from Brenham to Somerville cut prices precipitously, and as the pricier areas are starting to suffer, our prices in 'town' here are rising.
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Investment property to be income producing? if you're planning on putting some money into the investment, look for older multi-family housing with 3 and 4 BR units. As houses are repo'd, there will be family groups that will need multiple bedrooms (kids) and can meet a fairly large monthly, but not keep up payments on a growing ARM. Buy older units, refurb and rent them. A friend in Atlanta took a complex of older 2BR/2BA rental units and took the basic floorplan apart and refurb'ed it all into three and four BR units (2 with 5 BRs) with larger kitchens, etc. and some of the baths made into laundry rooms. He bought it with the idea of catering to displaced ARM families, but he's actually got applications for more units than he'll have based on the fact that it's 3 or more bedrooms within a reasonable distance of the 'main part' of the city, instead of a 45 minute to 2 hour commute.
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Across the board, housing in Texas has always been less expensive that most places.

What kind of real estate ya want? (Don't get me started on commercial...)

Actually I wouldn't consider buying real state here in the states for a while. On one side the market hasn't touched bottom yet, on the other getting credit is becoming much harder, so it becomes inviable right now.

But we have been considering the idea outside the US. In Colombia real state is in a good appreciating trend and unless there is a very serious internal* market crash there is a good chance for the trend to remain. I wonder if there is any other market in which real state may be viable.

In any case thank you for your response, it makes a lot of sense.

* The Colombian market is somewhat unique, the economy has been able to survive the inherent instability of the conflict plus the fact that the disturbance rarely touches the large urban areas, makes it very resilient. The price of doing business hasn't changed much in this past years (in fact the probability of things getting better is higher when the perception is on the bottom ). The economy would need a very bad global crash to feel an immediate dip, in fact the market has managed to remain stable even after the crazy stunts of our 2nd biggest export partner, Venezuela (the 1st is the US) which has closed the border a couple times, raised tariffs when treaties had removed them etc, etc.

 

we're interviewing victims officer candidates today

- I love to torture them, I get to be the one that has them fill out their fingerprint cards and then run them through ACIC, I like to make funny faces and snigger and it makes them squirm "What did she find?" sort of thing.


wait do we really stay on topic somewhere- like 100% of the time and all?