If placebos were statistical background noise, they wouldn't all be in one direction. They make things better. They almost never make things worse. If placebos didn't work, we could simply test against doing nothing.

No placebos do not work. They are the very definition of not working. There is a reason we use placebos as the control group when doing double blind tests.

That reason being that placebos work. It is necessary to separate out the placebo effect from the actual function of the drug.

Well, you're fighting against the people whose opinion is, "God, I just want my program to compile and run so I can go home! Who cares if it gives stupidly incorrect answers!"

Well in Java, integer div by zero causes an ArithmeticException, whereas div by a floating-point zero results in +/-Infinity but no exception. Why should only integer code generate exceptions and not floating point code? Do floating point errors not matter?

Because while 0/0 is undefined and an error everywhere, 1/0 is indeed infinity. Floating point has a representation for infinity, so you get that back. Integer types have no representation for infinity, so you get back an error instead. INT_MAX and INT_MIN are not infinity and would be dangerous incorrect to treat them as such, no matter how large their magnitude.

Yes. It. Is. Different. f(x)/g(x) is undefined if f(x) and g(x) are both zero, and pretending it can ever be anything else is going to get you in a lot of hot water very fast. Now, then L'Hopital's Rule can help you find the limit as a approaches x of f(a)/g(a), but that is something different, and you have to be aware it's different.

I can also add that *all* multicolor angels count white as one of their colors.

How much did Apple pay for this article?

Well, he phrased it poorly. There are multicolored Angels that include Green (they're all also white, which has always been the preferred Angel color). There are no mono-colored Green Angels; there are three in black (and last seen with the reprint of Fallen Angel in Eighth Edition), and one in red (Akroma, Angel of Wrath) and one in blue (Illusory Angel). White, meanwhile, has *84* mono-colored angels.

Model planes owners do this, though not with projectiles. You attach a streamer to the tail of each model/drone and the first one who can clip off the opponents with his prop wins.

Our great-grandparents would be baffled.

Actually, our great-grandparents often tended to be meticulous about sending (and acknowledging) invitations.

The problem comes when you talk about implementing it. Old fashioned phone switches--that was specialized hardware and the client would generally get what the implementer recommended. VOIP *should* use proper hardware as well--but all too often the client says, "It runs on computers? Great! We have a PC down the hall we're not using. We can put it on that."

The point here is that the backdoor could be a second key instead of a way to break your key. Assuming that second key is also resistant to breaking then you haven't introduced any vulnerabilities to an outsider--assuming that the second key is kept secure. And that, it must be admitted, is a pretty damn big if.

The so-called "STEM shortage" is pretty much bullshit. If you take a look at the degrees that pay the best you find that standard STEM degrees dominate.

Um, I'm not saying one way or the other, but doesn't that piece of evidence support the conclusion that there's a STEM shortage?

None of the linked articles seem to say....

He was confident enough about his dates to put money on it. He lost very, very badly. Sorry, the business about not meaning those exact dates are just alibis from a guy who missed very badly.