It's pretty naive to put so much faith in Bayes.

Why are geeks often below average when it comes to ball-related sports if they supposedly have higher spatial intelligence. Besides lacking hand eye coordination they also seem to be poor or average at spatial intelligence when it comes to dynamic situations i.e. anticipation over where the ball is going to be or how it is going to behave in terms of trajectory, bounce etc. (This is gross generalization based on anecdotal observations. I'm a geek who is reasonably good at racket sports)

Ha, please. Temperatures in the Rub' al Khali (Empty Quarter/desert) in the Arabian Peninsula have probably easily topped these records in the past few summers, if there were ever accurate official numbers published. I am an expat in the U.A.E. right now. Officially, the government does not broadcast temperatures over about 48 degrees C ever, even for its major cities which are cooler, since there would be justified calls for public holidays due to health concerns. My own personal thermometers as well as friends and colleagues have recorded temperatures well over 50 C several days in succession during afternoons even in coastal area where I live which are cooler than the inland desert areas. However - could my fellow slashdot users kindly advise me on the best methodology to be used so I can make my temperature measurements more 'official'. I'd like to take desert and coastal temperature measurements next summer and post these online along with my methodology and pictures of the measurement set up and display itself as well as proof of the time and location. Thanks !

Hi - I have tried this versus a multinational company and it has worked ! I got all my money owed at the time. As a small business, I was the primary author of the contract. It was a case of the client at the local level not being broke but just not caring. The clients goals are always met, so there is no reason to fire my firm. Now, I am always paid on time. :-) Well what I did was classify my inaction as being due to lack of payment not deliberate - I stated that I did not have the resources to continue working on their project without pay, which has some truth to it. Viola, a perfectly viable excuse brought up at a perfectly bad time, that's all. You do have a point, review your contract before you try this.

I feel your pain. Solution: Pretend to be on good terms with them. Get yourself involved in a critical new project, then halt abruptly right when they need your work the most. Offer them an ultimatum - either pay up all the outstanding money or you are walking. After a brief round of bluffing, you will be surprised at how fast your bill gets paid.