Cohen

Let me get this straight, you're trying to pick holes in a fantasy film about a guy who has radioactive blood and can perform superhuman feats including climbing sheer walls? I mean, I can understand it in a science oriented film like say Pi or Cube but Spiderman? Bit like shooting fish in a barrel don't you think considering they don't really go out of their way to make it accurate but (by definition) fantastic.

This has got to be just one big wind up.

I'm well aware that he is a Catholic, but a devout one? If my understanding of Catholic theology and the definition of devout is correct then how can somebody proclaim to be Catholic and pro-abortion? It does strike me that a devout Catholic would pay heed to the most vocal protests of his own religion! As long as they have a majority then in practise they won't. For democracy no, however for a democracy based on a majoritarian electoral system then yes, it would have to be. Otherwise it would become an oligarchy (which just as point of interest is closer to what the US and UK systems are). Remember democracy is governance by the people, as in the entire people. Ruling of the few is an oligarchy. Let's say we have a hypothetical country using FPTP where the only condition to win Government is to have a majority of the vote. It would be possible for a party to win with say only 30% of the vote. This is not democratic as only that 30% are being represented, the other 70% are separated by divisions amongst other parties. Even if these other parties were to form a coalition to form a majority of the vote then they would have to dilute their policies to suit the vague consensus, hence reducing representation. This is also true. Then a two party state? One with an electoral system based on proportional representation rather then a majoritarian based system, although still not pure democracy it gives much greater representation of the people so in terms of degrees of democracy it is better. If a state is to have a diverse mix of viewpoints and cultures within it's borders it must adopt a system that is capable of representing them rather then the two biggest contestants.

Yeah, the manifesto reads more like a criticism of Capitalism then an advocate of Communism. One has to read the writings of the Lenin's, Mao's, Trotsky's etc for any actual advice on how to apply the philosophy.

Although there hasn't been a non Conservative or Labour Government since 1916 with the demise of the Liberals. Although there are several parties only two of them have ever gained power for almost a century now, at the Westminster level Britain is essentially a two party state. The other smaller parties such as the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru, Scottish Nationalist Party, Green Party, United Kingdom Independence Party etc have only had any real success in institutions which use a proportional representation electoral system such as the European or Scottish elections. Majoritarian electoral systems such as First Past The Post will ultimately become two party as for any party to be successfull they must first become a large party, to become a large party they must become successfull, hence the catch. PR systems encourage smaller parties and give a more accurate reflection of distribution of results, hence by their very nature are more democratic. France I believe uses a hybrid system rather then pure PR. Indeed, but just think how America is split into so many categories. First you have ethnic and cultural splits, I'm not even going to bother listing how many different ethnicities there are in America but their backgrounds (parents, culture, public regard etc) will most certainly have an influence on their ideologies. Then there are religious differences, Methodists, Mormons, Presbytarians, Evangalists, Catholics, non-denoms and that's just the Christians! Factor in then Budhists, Jews, Muslims, then agnostics and athiests. Can all of those defining traits be summed up in either Bush or Kerry? At best the majority opposites can be represented. Having to pick a candidate who simply "as close as you can get" to ones own political beliefs is not democratic in the least. To cite an example, the Catholic vote. For a devout Catholic Kerry immediately represents opposition due to his acceptance of abortion and other life issues, Which leaves Bush, an advocate of the free market (a concept heavily criticised by the Church for it causing companies to regard profit and capital with more importance then human welfare) and responsible for slashing welfare budgets which can be argued acts as a catalyst for the social causes of abortion. Were a Catholic presented with Bush and Kerry then neither candidate would truly represent their ideologies, although in all liklihood would probably vote for Bush as a concession. I would hardly call America a country united under one identity and so the democratic process suffers.

Except where proportional representation has been applied, states that employ PR tend to have a wide range of parties representing much more diverse ideologies.

The little graph plotted in Paint is a nice touch.

A good page on them: http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~lss/NNIntro/InvSlides.html From the above source: Neural networks are being used: in investment analysis: to attempt to predict the movement of stocks currencies etc., from previous data. There, they are replacing earlier simpler linear models. in signature analysis: as a mechanism for comparing signatures made (e.g. in a bank) with those stored. This is one of the first large-scale applications of neural networks in the USA, and is also one of the first to use a neural network chip. in process control: there are clearly applications to be made here: most processes cannot be determined as computable algorithms. Newcastle University Chemical Engineering Department is working with industrial partners (such as Zeneca and BP) in this area. in monitoring: networks have been used to monitor the state of aircraft engines. By monitoring vibration levels and sound, early warning of engine problems can be given. British Rail have also been testing a similar application monitoring diesel engines. in marketing: networks have been used to improve marketing mailshots. One technique is to run a test mailshot, and look at the pattern of returns from this. The idea is to find a predictive mapping from the data known about the clients to how they have responded. This mapping is then used to direct further mailshots.

And make sure it's from a reliable source like http://www.linuxiso.org

Yes.

How bumpy do you mind it being? I mean if you're not too concerned about it bumping it's way up then these robots used by the military use those two spokes with their own tracks to haul themselves up stairs http://www.packbot.com/products/default.asp For a smoother ride you would probably want to employ a robot with lots of legs to slowly ascend stairs the old fashioned way. Would it be defeating the purpose to make a kind of customised track like used for stairlifts? The three wheel idea is a good one but would only be suited to one set of stairs without having to customise it again (perhaps putting the wheels on extendable and retractable 'legs'?), it would also face the problem of going head over heels if the grip on the wheel wasn't good enough. Perhaps that could be solved by extending a kind of brake leg so when all the weight is put on the front set of wheels it'll be a bit more sturdy.

Already answered that in another of your threads. http://www.scienceforums.net/forums/showthread.php?t=4707 All the platforms it'll run on are listed here: http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/ and all the supported hardware here: http://www.netbsd.org/Hardware/

No driver.

That depends, how good is your C?

Hehe, Slackware is called "slack"-ware for a reason. It is bundled with the bare essentials (at least compared to other distros) and has poor hardware support, if you had difficulty getting Mandrake to install just wait until you see the old skool text based installer and fdisk. It is a good distro for tweaking and it's entirely developed by volunteers so I like it a lot, however I doubt you'll have much fun with it. Wait until you're on a bit more surer footing with Linux before giving that a try. I haven't tried FreeBSD so I couldn't compare but if it has a graphical installer then it's head and shoulders above Slackware in terms of ease of use. Personal preference, ease of use, hardware issues, company loyalty, there are any number of reasons but they are all down to individual factors rather then any sweeping single reason.