I have decent set of Sennheiser headphones, and decent set of Shure earbuds. The earbuds have these triple-flange things, and completely seal off the earduct. I have to say, that the earbuds are fantastic; even the low part of the spectrum comes through great. I dare say (and I never did any extensive tests) that the buds actually provide a more colourful sound than the headphones.. Once the seal breaks, though, the sound is as flat as that from a cheap portable radio speaker. They're also great for flying, since the seal greatly reduces surrounding noise.

Downside of the buds is that you have to get used to hearing yourself breathing...

What you say makes no sense. I'm against police states and Big Brother as much as the next /.'er, but once a threat, any type of threat, has been made in connection with an airport, government building or anything else of importance, it *must* be investigated. I wouldn't be surprised if the police, during their investigation, already suspected it was just a joke. Nevertheless, they have to do their job (and yes, without violating any rights etc.).

It would be a sad state of affairs if the police were to receive a tip on a potential crime and would not even investigate, just because "how can anyone think this is serious"? Even sadder is, that this actually does happen...

Dude, I'm Dutch. I'm saying you're using arguments that are out of the scope of the discussion.

Your examples don't mean anything in either this discussion, or the ones that you are having with your American friends. That is, unless you wish to defend anarchy, the ultimate form of freedom, as a viable form of running a society.

The freedom they talk about here is entirely different. E.g. try starting a small company in the Netherlands, and one in the US. Then you'll understand why they consider the US to be more "free" and the Netherlands to be almost Communist. All in all, I think there is no point in discussing which of these two countries is more "free".

Besides, when using modules like numpy, the numerically intensive functions are written in C or Fortran anyway (e.g. LAPACK, ODEPACK). Python then becomes the glue to tie all those high-performance routines together, without the need for malloc, common blocks or whatever time-consuming things there may be in the compiled languages.

Else, just use lisp :)

Well, quoting Stephen King definately matches the level for this article...

That one was awesome! It would be pretty psychedelic to film it without giving the actual point of view away. Done well (as animation perhaps?) it could really be good!

Total Recall is still relatively good when watching it when you're older. Not many people I know who saw this movie recognized that at the end, you still don't know if it is the virtual vacation you are watching and if he needs to be lobotomized after this, or not; everything that happens in the story is exactly what he wanted from his vacation. With that in mind, the red pill scene is pretty interesting, where the rekall team tries to give him a way out without damaging his brain, but he chooses to remain in his dreams instead.

The good thing of that movie is that it is filmed such that you don't have to think about it and enjoy it as an above average action film, but you _can_, and it makes it a bit more interesting.

I think that there is a hint of PKD's depth in that film if you bother to look for it. I didn't really notice this in Paycheck, for instance.

And stores selling sensitive or expensive items, that supervise my manner of eating messy subs, are excercising censorship!

Not to mention toy stores not selling adult toys...

Why don't they file for injunctions against those idiots who play their MP3 players too loudly in the bus?

So before deciding on what to believe in, you read all relevant texts of all other religions (and also scientific models on life), all the arguments for and against, before settling on some form of Christianity? Wow, that's great, I'd like to shake your hand!

But theoretically, free will could be demonstrated. If there is something that you really don't want to do, and have already firmly decided not to do, and you still go ahead and do it anyway, that would prove you possess free will.

However, this would be too difficult an experiment to perform. Namely, one could argue that you decided to do this anyway merely to prove the existence of free will, which you would perceive as a gain in your life. This, by itself could be the ("external") stimulus to perform the action.

Maybe someone could think up a proper experiment in a closed environment. But I generally don't trust these type of behaviour experiments, nor their outcomes...

I admit, I also thought Republic Commando was quite fun, although a bit short.