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Name: Flip
User type: Adminestrone
User ID: 6
User since: January 06, 2004
User last visit: 04:00PM on April 18
Homepage: http://alkalineearth.com/
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mrflip has posted 991 links and 2111 comments on Alkaline Earth since January 06, 2004.

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2010 Apr 12 11:11 (#4205.12749):
I actually own the 'Boners' book.
Illustrated by Dr. Seuss!

It's Dr. Seuss drawings of funny errors from (purportedly) schoolkids' essays. What's great is you'll see those same errors sent around in "our education system is failing look at how dumb students are today" screeds.

2010 Mar 26 10:41 (#4204.12731):
Scroll to the right to see winning scenarios.

gmcd -- -- -- k st ky wva duke -- | -- -- ky -- | -- ky | -- 60 k st, wva, duke don't advance; ky doesn't win flip -- -- -- k st ky wva duke -- | -- -- ky duke | -- ky | -- 55 ky, duke advance; ky doesn't win jarvis -- -- -- k st ky wva duke -- | -- k st ky -- | -- ky | -- 55 kst advances, duke and wva don't, ky doesn't win jtgeek -- -- -- k st ky wva duke -- | -- -- ky duke | -- ky | ky 54 ky gets to finals carl -- -- -- -- ky -- duke -- | -- -- ky duke | -- duke | -- 48 duke gets to finals jason -- -- -- -- ky wva -- -- | -- -- WVa -- | -- wva | -- 46 wva gets to finals soku -- -- -- k st ky wva duke -- | -- -- ky -- | -- ky | -- 58 nano -- -- -- -- ky wva -- -- | -- -- ky -- | -- -- | -- 48 nate -- -- -- k st ky wva -- -- | -- -- ky -- | -- -- | -- 46 | | | actual niowa tenn butl k st ky wva duke bayl | ?? ?? ?? ?? | ?? ?? | ?? 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 8 8 8 8 16 16 32 mist butl ky duke tenn kans wva baylor

2010 Mar 22 03:21 (#4204.12730):
GO BIG RED

They're taking out your Kentuck next, Jonthegeek

2009 Dec 18 12:28 (#4198.12715):
Maybe you like lowest-common-denominator blooper reels. Maybe you should go to this youtube clip:

2009 Dec 13 10:17 (#4191.12712):
Javelina?

2009 Dec 08 04:25 (#4196.12709):
I was thinking about this the other day -- Perry does deserve some cred for the fact that Texas is coming through the recession far better than almost all states.

If you click to select the top several economies by GDP (CA, TX, FL, NY, IL) in this chart of unemployment over time, you'll see that Texas has well outperformed the other top economic states, staying in the 6-8% range. It's also kept pace against baselines for its region.

Here's a chart of Gross State Product over Perry's duration for the top 8 economies; Texas does the best by far, and with much lower state spending. (yes, this invites the question of what more spending would do -- or spending reallocated from abstinence education -- but still.)

So he may be a social policy douchenozzle, as amply documented in the article -- but to whatever extent the governor acts as steward of the economy, he's done a decent job.

public $ gross st prod population All states combined $2,645.2 $13,715.7 300.8 California $385.3 $1,801.8 36.8 Texas $170.3 $1,148.5 23.5 New York $247.9 $1,105.0 19.3 Florida $147.3 $741.9 18.2 Illinois $107.8 $617.4 12.8 Pennsylvania $108.3 $533.2 12.5 Ohio $99.8 $462.5 11.5 New Jersey $86.4 $461.3 8.9

2009 Nov 28 01:29 (#4191.12702):
*hug*

2009 Nov 21 01:29 (#4191.12700):
Oughtn't it be the putative but singular "Largest Graffito in the World"?

2009 Nov 21 01:28 (#4192.12699):
More neat-o art

translations:

1) Christ: idea; Romans: focus
group.
2) James Dean: idea; Car: deadline for the work's publishing.
3) Little Red Hood: idea; Bad Wolf: new marketing director.
4) Whale: idea; Harpoon men: accounts for idea's presenting.
5) Amy Winehouse: idea; Drugs: brand's international guidelines.
6) Seal: idea; Hunters: changings on the briefing.
7) The Beatles: idea; Yoko Ono: equal idea on archive.
8) Couple: idea; Jason: a client who thinks he's creative.
9) Indian: idea; Colonizers: scouter's association.
10) Iulius Caesar: idea; Brutus and the traitors: inputs from the creative criativo.
11) Titanic: idea; iceberg: client's juridical department
12) Mary Antoinette: idea; Guillotine: budget.

The message below the "Showoff" logo means: "because there are already many ways to kill your idea".

2009 Nov 16 02:01 (#4191.12695):

Our old friend LUECKE is about 2.4 miles long

Nazca Lines -- more here. "The largest are over 200 metres (660 ft) across."

More Giant Figures visible from Google Earth

...plus a Pink Bunny

...and many more in these old AE threads on Google Sightseeing and Google TomPeeping

2009 Nov 16 01:51 (#4189.12693):
Only two thumbs up for stripical? weaksauce.

I've submitted definitions for bargle:

To use a smartphone to resolve the factual matter of a subject under debate while out at a bar with friends. From "bar" and "google" via "bargain".

If bargling shows you are wrong, you have been iPwned.

Barney: "England's greatest Prime Minister was Lord Palmerston!"
Wade: "Pitt the Elder!"
Lenny: "Hold on, let me bargle for which had the more salutary effect on British foreign policy and domestic weal."

and iPwned:

To be proven wrong in a dispute according to factual information retrieved on an iPhone or other internet-connected device.
If one of your friends bargles something you said and disproves your claim, you have been iPwned.

Chico from the Magnificent Seven was played by Horst Buchholz, not James Dean. iPwned! Bam!

but they'll take a day or so to come through. Warning: you won't like the existing alternative definitions.

2009 Nov 16 12:50 (#4190.12690):
More shockers: Obama doesn't personally operate his Twitter account, and Malcom Gladwell isn't an instant expert on everything from the IQ to the "igon value".

2009 Oct 30 01:29 (#4089.12681):
A nice Ricardo Montalban anecdote.

Is there a website where folks like MrBun can record "This star is actually a [really cool person|flaming dickhole waste of skin]"?

2009 Oct 07 12:39 (#4073.12674):
That will always make me laugh.

Especially the 'double ew double ew double ew dot jay oh en e es BIGASSTruckRentalAndStorage dot com'

2009 Oct 07 12:37 (#4184.12673):
Your latter story is completely consistent with the claim that he is a well-regarded mathematician.

2009 Oct 07 12:36 (#3863.12672):
eBay auction: I'm selling my wife's box, my cock won't fit (SFW)

2009 Sep 16 06:20 (#4184.12664):
I have a Greater Bacon Number of 4:

Flip Kromer was on It's Academic with Mac McGarry;
It's Academic (the longest-running Quiz Show program in history) was spun off to a NYC-area network, where it was hosted by Art James.
Art James appeared as a game show host in the film Mallrats, which also featured Michael Rooker, who was in JFK with the Bacon.

Art James ALSO appeared in .... THE STAR WARS MOTHERFUCKING CHRISTMAS SPECIAL!!!! .... with James Earl Jones, magic 7, Bacon

2009 Sep 11 03:23 (#4183.12641):
Do I even need to say how much I like this?

2009 Sep 11 01:58 (#4181.12639):
For more like this: Foodpolitics at the Faster Times, as edited by my cousin Hannah!

2009 Aug 26 08:13 (#4152.12634):
would you like to wash that down with a photo catalog of single soft drink cans spanning more than a century? Soda USA.

2009 Aug 26 07:10 (#4152.12633):
Tab Cola -- I have no idea what fraction of this article is bullshit but it sure was interesting.

2009 Aug 12 10:22 (#4181.12624):
For decent fast food: Can you do potatoes? Wendy's baked potato + broccoli - cheese + barbecue sauce = decent meal for almost nothing.

My biggest concern is the environmental load meat imposes; this is the chief reason I'm a vegetarian.

...

I assume "So the food industry is also to blame for making all yummy, bad for you food so cheap and easily available" is tongue in cheek -- but see this old post for the astonishing figures on how much value modern agriculture has added to our lives. The typical US family spends half as much on a percentage basis -- from 20% in 1950 to under 10% now -- for food, and only 5.6% of its budget on food eaten at home. Against the striking increase in BMI, consider that the mean height has increased by an inch since 1960 and about four inches this century: there are significant but subtle improvements in health to weigh against the increase in obesity. On a national and global scale, hunger and malnutrition are now effectively political, not economic, problems.

-----

In that light, I'm disappointed by this author's failure to distinguish between cooking as a bourgeois leisure pasttime vs. cooking as a survival necessity with socially regressive opportunity costs.

The statement that "food companies [persuade] Americans to let them do the cooking" is silver-spooned bullshit. And worse yet:

"Today the average American spends a mere 27 minutes a day on food preparation (another four minutes cleaning up); that’s less than half the time that we spent cooking and cleaning up when Julia arrived on our television screens."

To this I say thank freaking goodness: in addition to the aforementioned marginal addition to my household budget, that's 30 minutes a day -- 2.7% of my waking day, about $3500/year in opportunity cost for a median earner.

"It’s generally assumed that the entrance of women into the work force is responsible for the collapse of home cooking, but that turns out to be only part of the story."

I assume nothing of the kind -- I think the liberation from food preparation duties is one of many factors that allowed women to enter the work force; or at the very least that the causality runs both ways.

So what are we doing with the time we save by outsourcing our food preparation to corporations and 16-year-old burger flippers? Working, commuting to work, surfing the Internet and, perhaps most curiously of all, watching other people cook on television.

"What are we doing with time formerly spent on [task that people demonstrably exchange money to avoid]? Just [things that people have always done and whose time value is profitably exchanged for the former task, which profit is spent in leisure activity: for example, one that is new and therefore suspect; and another, cherry-picked as ironic straw man]."

2009 Jul 16 09:32 (#3863.12606):
Vague Science. I'm in, where do I send my subscription form?

2009 Jul 12 09:30 (#4170.12595):
I'm on record: I gladly trade 35F and slushy for a 100F and scorchy any time you ask. You have not heard me complain about this weather, only report the facts, since my pissing and moaning budget is reserved for the dozen or so days it dunks below 50F here.

Austin FTW.

(And fellow Austinites: there's no better reason for a phone call to your friend up north than one of those random 75deg mid-January days, amirite? "Oh, hey, I just put on shorts and grilled out today, what are you up to? Oh, digging your car out from 7 inches of snow? Wow, that must suck. OK gotta run, I'm meeting some friends for ice cream.")

2009 Jul 11 01:55 (#4170.12593):
I pulled the NCDC weather for Austin from 1948-present (see infochimps.org link for details) and got my Tufte on.

This temperature cycle is hotter than but comparable to the 1950-1965 era. I've got no idea if it's global warming or the peak of a cycle. The fundamental conclusion -- that this year so far, 2000 and 2008 were damn hot -- stands up well.

The first plot is a year-on-year time series similar to the one in the link. It shows degrees over 100F, for days where the temperature exceeded 100F. Each year's baseline is one grid cell higher than the previous, with bars above 106F allowed to overlap (this results in a darker cell on the few occasions they do):

Check that Indian summer in 2005!

This next one shows a histogram of temperature by four-year group: the vertical scale shows temperature in 2.5 degF blocks, and the inner scale shows #days with that temperature. Gridlines show 100,95,90 (red) and 45,40,35 (blue). The last four years and 1996-2001 were unusually hot, but the intervening four years were mild against the 30-year block. Keep in mind the last (2006-2009) block is incomplete.

Did you know that Austin temperatures are far more likely to be in the 70s -or- 90s than they are to be 83-90 degrees?

Here's that last chart but year-by-year; click to see it in size ginormous:

2009 Jul 09 06:51 (#4163.12591):
Language Log's Rebuttal

2009 Jul 06 01:16 (#4168.12587):
Man, great AE/gooreader outpouring... It's like someone airlifted Ziggy 20 miles offshore and locked him in a metal box where he can only surf the internet but can't rub one out. That's too unlikely a scenario, though...

2009 Jul 04 02:53 (#4165.12584):
If it makes you feel better, for any given person of somewhat similar racial stock either a) you almost certainly share an ancestor or b) one or both of you have incestuous family trees.

Ignoring your West Virginian origins, you have ~8k ancestors at the 13 generation mark (~390 yrs, 30 yr/generation). If on average each couple raises three offspring to reproducing age, those 4,000 couples would have 4.3 billion descendants. This is clearly too high -- the incest assumption can't strictly hold. (A 17-generation tree with no overlap and no generational population growth -- 2 kids per couple -- has 65k ancestors and 8.5B descendants. Requiring no overlap is what makes the tree explode.) Still, accounting for some incest and limited mobility, if you and another person have even one geographic region of ancestry in common you should only have to go back a dozen or so generations for a shared relative.

2009 Jun 28 12:54 (#4163.12582):
Finally finished the DFW essay -- fantastic. Contrapuntal to The Phenomenology of Error, linked to earlier.

2009 Jun 21 11:01 (#4161.12580):
Alternate links to Harper's article (and no, the UT Library doesn't have it, or at least it was not within the ambit of my recent Escheresque deathmarch through its unusable faceted search interfaces):

* http://billtotten.blogspot.com/2009/04/infinite-debt.html
* http://forums.tunk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=19739

2009 Jun 06 10:54 (#4156.12565):
Via the author's blog, a Grand Unified Theory of Schwartzenegger.

2009 Jun 06 09:49 (#4022.12564):
Someone took up the gauntlet and made Literal Eclipse of the Heart -- and it's certainly the best of the lot, with a killer barrage of pop-culture references starting at the 1/3 mark.

2009 Jun 01 11:11 (#4082.12563):
Another turd in the internet utopia: sites like Facebook, Youtube, etc throttle server traffic to low-income countries because they pay out with low ad revenue.

2009 Jun 01 10:36 (#4151.12562):
Tyson's metro? Should be interesting.

2009 Apr 24 07:53 (#4141.12538):
@jonthegeek -- I gave half-credit on the conspiracy question, for his tepid indictment of the Scientific Establishment (TM) on the crime of Ageism.

2009 Apr 21 05:23 (#4141.12528):
Scoring that comment against the Crackpot Index:
1. A -5 point starting credit. (-5)
2. 1 point for every statement that is widely agreed on to be false. ( 2)
3. 2 points for every statement that is clearly vacuous. ( 3)
6. 5 points for using a thought experiment that contradicts the results of a widely accepted real experiment. ( 5)
7. 5 points for each word in all capital letters (except for those with defective keyboards). ( 5)
9. 10 points for each claim that quantum mechanics is fundamentally misguided (without good evidence). (10)
18. 10 points for each favorable comparison of yourself to Einstein, or claim that special or general relativity are fundamentally misguided (without good evidence). ( 5, half credit: Susan Boyle)
24. 20 points for defending yourself by bringing up (real or imagined) ridicule accorded to your past theories. (20)
34. 40 points for claiming that the "scientific establishment" is engaged in a "conspiracy" to prevent your work from gaining its well-deserved fame, or suchlike. (20)
37. 50 points for claiming you have a revolutionary theory but giving no concrete testable predictions. (50)

Total: 115. I tried to err on the side of generosity (lower crackpot index).

I haven't scored the video, someone else want to get on that?

2009 Apr 21 08:40 (#4140.12524):
OK, that's good -- I'd include a few of the efficient recurrences for e, pi, important functions.

But calculating those requires a lot of multiplication, and for that you want an actual log table.

2009 Apr 21 08:17 (#4141.12523):
LENR = low energy nuclear reaction aka Cold Fusion.

2009 Apr 11 09:56 (#4137.12516):
A couple head-scratchers among the other pitches: esp 4th from left on top row, 2nd from right on bottom row -- no, the iPhone does not work like that.

2009 Apr 07 10:45 (#4125.12515):
Congrats GMcD and Javelina!

2009 Apr 01 01:22 (#4134.12503):
last_visited count(*) 2009-04 4 2009-03 15 2009-02 2 2009-01 1 2008-12 3 2008-11 2 2008-10 2 2008-07 2 2008-04 2 2008-03 1 2008-01 1 2007 17 2006 56 2005 36 2004 23 [never] 18

Most of the '05 and '06 users are spam I think.

2009 Mar 31 04:12 (#4125.12493):
Yes, yes, that is why I said "...while I still can".

2009 Mar 31 03:57 (#4134.12492):
I feel 4chan loved.

@pablo -- we did some user stats a while ago, I'm too lazy to look them up but maybe you will.

2009 Mar 31 01:40 (#4125.12485):
Posting this eCard while I still can...

2009 Mar 28 11:44 (#4125.12483):
-- Final 4 -- | -- Semis -- | -Final- | Score Max Remain Max Possible mrflip . MchSt x Pitt . UNC . UConn | MchSt x Pitt | x Pitt | 94 16 110 Sivraj x Wake x Pitt . UNC . UConn | UConn UNC | UNC | 81 64 145 gilliss x Louis x Pitt . UNC . UConn | x Louis UNC | UNC | 85 48 133 saucy x Louis . Vill . Cuse x Memph | x Louis Vill | Vill | 82 48 130 Natedogg . MchSt x Pitt x OK . UConn | UConn x OK | UConn | 81 48 129 --eliminated-- JonTehGeek x Louis x Pitt . UNC x Memph | x Louis UNC | UNC | 75 48 123 BarackObama ND2 x Louis x Pitt . UNC x Memph | x Louis UNC | UNC | 75 48 123 doncarlo x Kans x Xavr . UNC . UConn | x Kans UNC | x Kans | 83 16 99 habcous x Wake x Pitt . UNC . UConn | UConn x Pitt | x Pitt | 75 16 91 WestIsOKIGuess x Louis x Pitt . UNC x Memph | x Memph x Pitt | x Pitt | 72 0 72 javelina x Dayt x Xavr x Mich x CSNor | x Dayt x Mich | x Mich | 37 0 37 beckto x Wake x TX x Cuse x TxA&M | x TxA&M x TX | x TX | 27 0 27 doncarlo x USC x Minn x SFAus x Corn | x Corn x Minn | x Minn | 13 0 13

MchSt Vill MchSt flip MchSt UNC MchSt flip UConn Vill UConn nate UConn UNC UConn nate MchSt Vill Vill soku UConn Vill Vill soku MchSt UNC UNC GMcD UConn UNC UNC ~tom

2009 Mar 28 10:56 (#4125.12482):
Dominated: JonBama (by gilliss), doncarlo (by everyone)

2009 Mar 27 11:23 (#4125.12479):
-- Final 4 -- | -- Semis -- | -Final- | Score Max Remain Max Possible mrflip MchSt Pitt UNC UConn | MchSt Pitt | Pitt | 70 96 166 gilliss Louis Pitt UNC UConn | Louis UNC | UNC | 69 96 165 Natedogg MchSt Pitt OK UConn | UConn OK | UConn | 65 96 161 saucy Louis Vill x Cuse x Memph | Louis Vill | Vill | 74 80 154 Sivraj x Wake Pitt UNC UConn | UConn UNC | UNC | 65 88 153 habcous x Wake Pitt UNC UConn | UConn Pitt | Pitt | 59 88 147 WestIsOKIGuess Louis Pitt UNC x Memph | x Memph Pitt | Pitt | 64 72 136 --eliminated-- JonTehGeek Louis Pitt UNC x Memph | Louis UNC | UNC | 67 88 155 BarackObama ND2 Louis Pitt UNC x Memph | Louis UNC | UNC | 67 88 155 doncarlo x Kans x Xavr UNC UConn | x Kans UNC | x Kans | 67 32 99 javelina x Dayt x Xavr x Mich x CSNor | x Dayt x Mich | x Mich | 37 0 37 beckto x Wake x TX x Cuse x TxA&M | x TxA&M x TX | x TX | 27 0 27 doncarlo x USC x Minn x SFAus x Corn | x Corn x Minn | x Minn | 13 0 13

Becky: you lost. Ben: You win. Consult the PhD degree on your wall for more details.

2009 Mar 25 03:02 (#4125.12470):
The 2d-to-last prize is Beckto's UNLESS ((Syracuse wins both its next two games) AND (Xavier does not win both its next two games)).

notthomas -- Is it true you can edit brackets? If so you could repair MsC's bracket, if you both cared to.

-- Final 4 -- | -- Semis -- | -Final- | Last 3 pts mrflip MchSt Pitt UNC UConn | MchSt Pitt | Pitt | 96 WestIsOKIGuess Louis Pitt UNC Memph | Memph Pitt | Pitt | 96 BarackObama ND2 Louis Pitt UNC Memph | Louis UNC | UNC | 96 JonTehGeek Louis Pitt UNC Memph | Louis UNC | UNC | 96 gilliss Louis Pitt UNC UConn | Louis UNC | UNC | 96 Sivraj x Wake Pitt UNC UConn | UConn UNC | UNC | 88 habcous x Wake Pitt UNC UConn | UConn Pitt | Pitt | 88 Natedogg MchSt Pitt OK UConn | UConn OK | UConn | 96 doncarlo Kans Xavr UNC UConn | Kans UNC | Kans | 96 saucy Louis Vill Cuse Memph | Louis Vill | Vill | 96 beckto x Wake x TX Cuse x TxA&M | x TxA&M x TX | x TX | 8 javelina x Dayt Xavr x Mich x CSNor | x Dayt x Mich | x Mich | 8 doncarlo x USC x Minn x SFAus x Corn | x Corn x Minn | x Minn | 0

2009 Mar 21 05:49 (#4125.12457):
Holding a Wake for your bracket?

-- Final 4 -- | -- Semis -- | -Final- | Last 3 pts mrflip MchSt Pitt UNC UConn | MchSt Pitt | Pitt | 96 WestIsOKIGuess Louis Pitt UNC Memph | Memph Pitt | Pitt | 96 BarackObama ND2 Louis Pitt UNC Memph | Louis UNC | UNC | 96 JonTehGeek Louis Pitt UNC Memph | Louis UNC | UNC | 96 gilliss Louis Pitt UNC UConn | Louis UNC | UNC | 96 Sivraj x Wake Pitt UNC UConn | UConn UNC | UNC | 88 habcous x Wake Pitt UNC UConn | UConn Pitt | Pitt | 88 Natedogg MchSt Pitt OK UConn | UConn OK | UConn | 96 doncarlo Kans Xavr UNC UConn | Kans UNC | Kans | 96 saucy Louis Vill Cuse Memph | Louis Vill | Vill | 96 beckto x Wake TX Cuse TxA&M | TxA&M TX | TX | 88 javelina Dayt Xavr Mich x CSNor | Dayt Mich | Mich | 88 doncarlo USC x Minn SFAus Corn | Corn x Minn | x Minn | 40

2009 Mar 19 04:05 (#4125.12445):
Here's the final four and beyond matchups. I'm not going to calculate the max-points-remaining until we get to the final four; right now the last column is round-4,5,6-max-points. I went ahead and put it in likely finishing order, with me at the top, beckto, doncarlo and javelina at the bottom, and you also-rans grouped.

-- Final 4 -- | -- Semis -- | -Final- | Last 3 pts mrflip MchSt Pitt UNC UConn | MchSt Pitt | Pitt | 96 habcous Wake Pitt UNC UConn | UConn Pitt | Pitt | 96 WestIsOKIGuess Louis Pitt UNC Memph | Memph Pitt | Pitt | 96 Barack Obama ND2 Louis Pitt UNC Memph | Louis UNC | UNC | 96 JonTehGeek Louis Pitt UNC Memph | Louis UNC | UNC | 96 gilliss Louis Pitt UNC UConn | Louis UNC | UNC | 96 Sivraj Wake Pitt UNC UConn | UConn UNC | UNC | 96 Natedogg MchSt Pitt OK UConn | UConn OK | UConn | 96 doncarlo Kans Xavr UNC UConn | Kans UNC | Kans | 96 saucy Louis Vill Cuse Memph | Louis Vill | Vill | 96 beckto Wake TX Cuse TxA&M | TxA&M TX | TX | 96 javelina Dayt Xavr Mich x CSNor | Dayt Mich | Mich | 88 doncarlo USC x Minn SFAus Corn | Corn x Minn | x Minn | 40

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