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They are of some use in predicting election results but need to be reviewed carefully to be understood. The article is based on my limited understanding as a layman, so please take it for whatever it may be worth. Sample composition Lunatic asylum Public opinion polling is based on a sample of the relevant population as a whole within a given survey area, with margin of error calculations of the degree to which the sample size approaches perfect randomness. Polls attempting to predict how many will vote for one presidential candidate versus another use party affiliation as one means of...

The letter she wrote to her family before the birth of Trig gives us a glimpse into the soul of the penultimate "NON-quitter." In her email Palin imagines a letter from God to the family about to launch on its challenging child-rearing experience together. "Then, I put the idea in your hearts that his name should be 'Trig', because it's so fitting, with two Norse meanings: "True" and "Brave Victory"." "I've given Trig's mom and dad peace and joy as they wait to meet their new son. I gave them a happy anticipation because they asked me for that.I'll give...

While Honda and Toyota still dominate in reliability, General Motors has improved considerably in our latest predicted-reliability Ratings. Those are the findings of our 2010 Annual Auto Survey, based on subscribers' experiences with 1.3 million vehicles. While some GM nameplates had been among the least reliable brands in past years, they now rank above some major European competitors. But as a company, GM is still far from tops in reliability. Across GM brands (Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC), 69 percent of models had average or better reliability. Cadillac improved the most, rising seven places from last year's ranking. Chevrolet had...

After-sale warranty firm says 17% of Apple's laptops fail within three years Apple's line of laptops ranked fourth in a multi-year reliability survey of nine notebook makers, according to a study of 30,000 portable computers published today by a company that provides after-sale warranties. SquareTrade, which broke out the warranty claims of its customers by manufacturers, said that Apple took the No. 4 spot, behind ASUS, Toshiba and Sony, which held No. 1 through No. 3, respectively.

2009 J.D. Power & Associates releases list of cars with the highest initial reliability. Initial reliability measures any problems within the first three-months of ownership. This list contains the top three cars in each class for initial reliability. View the list of reliable cars...

Gospel Dates and Reliability MH from Taiwan writes about Lita Cosner’s article over this year’s Resurrection Weekend, The Resurrection and Genesis, asking about how we know the dates of the New Testament books. The author explains...

Nuclear Weapon Personnel Reliability Program: Cocaine History a Disqualifier I blew a few smoke rings, remembering those years. Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack, though… (Barack Obama, “Dreams From My Father,” page 93, paperback edition. http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/streetterms/ByAlpha.asp?strTerm=B, “Blow” = “Cocaine; to inhale cocaine; to smoke marijuana; to inject heroin”) The Obama campaign at least sanctions (and may promote actively) the spread of rumors to the effect that John McCain has a neurodegenerative disease, usually by citing age as a risk factor for such diseases. Dozens of posts to this nature appear...

Militant, fundamentalist atheists have been coming out of the woodwork lately, attacking Christianity. Granted, they are still using the same old, tired and shallow agruments that have been refuted over and over again. But here’s some stellar resources I have found perfect for refuting their vain attacks, which are sure to increase with Christmas approaching: The Case for the Real JesusFormer atheist Lee Strobel, who wrote The Case for Faith, The Case For a Creator and The Case for Christ, returns with a powerful volume that refutes the shallow attacks on the Bible’s authenticity and the attempts of skeptics to...

Return to the Article October 06, 2007Archaeology and John's Gospel: Is skepticism chic passé?By James Arlandson John is known as the spiritual Gospel because, among other reasons, it has extended metaphorical discourses, such as the bread of heaven (6:25-59), and a long, one-on-one dialogue with the religious leader Nicodemus about deep truths (3:1-15). Until recently, much scholarship did not take seriously the topographical or historical details in John's Gospel. Scholars ignored them or preferred to see them as symbolic because surely John was not concerned with mundane matters. The more skeptical said that it was wrong in many cases....

the Power Mac G5's 17% first-year failure rate remains far higher than the industry average of 5% (see Gartner's recent report on PC hardware reliability, linked below). If Apple is to maintain its premium pricing, it should provide premium reliability. As things stand, high Power Mac prices must include high warranty service costs built-in. With an overall failure rate of 23%, a quarter of which occur outside of Apple's 1-year warranty, and an average of 1.29 repairs per affected unit implying repeat problems, Power Macs are neither cheap for Apple to service after the sale, nor cheap for buyers. Power...

Friends - as someone who likes to dig deeper into the US elections (I mean the technicalities, my interest always was great, and I am European) I would like to ask the following: if one looks into the poll predictions concerning the election of next week, one at first is confronted with a bewildering array of names and predictions. The latter may vary quite a lot, in that one poll gives Dubya an advantage of 4 procent points (raise a toast!), and then another seems to predict something of a draw, a photo finish. Then there is the meta-poll math,...

Engineering's reliability theory explains human agingCHILDHOOD IS A SPECIAL TIME INDEED. If only we could maintain our body functions as they are at age 10, we could expect to live about 5000 years on average. Unfortunately, from age 11 on, it's all downhill! The problem is that our bodies deteriorate with age. For most of our lives, the risk of death is increasing exponentially, doubling every eight years. So, why do we fall apart, and what can we do about it?Many scientists now believe that, for the first time in human history, we have developed a sophisticated enough understanding of...

Monday’s Notable Events: From 2323-2345 PST the CFE was separated from the CISO and the Western Interconnection when the Miguel-Tijuana 230-kV Line relayed. The Imperial Valley-Rosita 230-kV line was out of service for scheduled work. Cause was unknown. Fault was on CISO side of the line and SDGE reported fog in the area. There was no customer outage.

<p>SAN JOSE, Calif.(AP) - As the space shuttle program took shape in the late 1960s, engineers had to find technology that could withstand the heat of re-entry without being too heavy, unreliable or costly.</p> <p>They settled on the small silica tiles that brought shuttles home safely more than 100 times, but have fallen under suspicion in Saturday's loss of Columbia as it descended over Texas.</p>

The CMRC reported the following outages for today (12/17 Daily Report): Due to multiple Transmission outages in the ISO Control area they have declared a Restricted Maintenance Operation from 0600-2159 PST today. Other Comments: The Pinto Phase Shifter is out of service due to possible oil leaks with no ETR. Monday’s Notable Events: At 0800 MST the Laramie River-DJ 230-kV Line relayed to permanent fault. At 1905 MST the line was back in service. At 1042 PST the Midway-Vincent #3 500-kV Line relayed with the Midway-Vincent #1 line out of service for scheduled work. At 1125 the Midway-Vincent #1 Line...