Comment McDonalds Brouhaha Aside... (Score 1) 627
From TFA:
"Google-glass like computer eyepiece".
No, you're doing it wrong - it is the other way around
Submission + - Wine Users banned from Diablo 3 (battle.net) 2
caranha writes: Wine users have reported being banned from the Diablo 3 game, by being flagged as "using cheating programs". Replies from blizzard support so far have upheld these bans.
Comment I was in your shoes last year (Score 1) 265
Dear Anonymous Poster,
Last year I was responsible for a class on elementary statistics for physical therapy students.
The first thing you have to keep in mind is: your students will be asking themselves from the get go: "Why is this useful to me?". Many of them may have enrolled in "soft" sciences to get away from maths in the first place. You have to provide these answers to your students - if not directly, then indirectly, by providing plenty of examples on where the subject will be useful in their work - this is quite easy with statistics. Also, whenever possible, skip too elaborate proofs, and go instead for more intuitive or example based explanations of why these concepts work.
If you provide me with some sort of contact details, I can give you my lecture notes. Cheers!
Comment Re:An episode of Penn & Teller's Bullshit says (Score 1) 668
It can be even worse.
Not exactly the same thing, but related, I have recently done the research to tell my Work's mailing list that a hoax someone had forwarded was a hoax. I was called "prepotent", because the person who spread the hoax was obviously a well meaning person, who sent the message because "he cares for us", and "it is not totally implausible, even if not true".
So people not only don't care about doing the research. They resent those who do.
Comment Re:Statistical pro (Score 1) 487
If we only had developed statistical tests that calculate how likely it is that a given cluster appeared randomly based on previous data...
Comment Re:I call BS (Score 1) 352
Still, all you need is one (or a couple) of alphas to make a good script, and a bunch of mindless drones to follow it.
Google Lobbies Nevada To Allow Self-Driving Cars 275
b0bby writes "The NY Times reports that Google is quietly lobbying for legislation that would make Nevada the first state in which self-driving cars could be legally operated on public roads. 'The two bills, which have received little attention outside Nevada's capitol, are being introduced less than a year after the giant search engine company acknowledged that it was developing cars that could be safely driven without human intervention.'"
Comment Re:A Twitter feed? (Score 1) 313
Seriously. I have been following many reporters in Japan on Twitter, and some "serious" news outlet. The twitter feeds have been doing a much better job in posting up-to-date news and commentaries, and fighting the spread of rumors. I used not to take twitter seriously either, until it became my main source of info for this disaster.
It is all about who you follow.
Comment NHK reports no tsunami alert anymore. (Score 1) 313
Tsunami alert has been called off.
7.4-Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Off Japan; Tsunami Alert Issued 313
There is breaking news that a 7.4 Magnitude Quake has hit off the coast of Japan, and a Tsuanmi warning has been made. Please post updates in the comments.
Comment Re:How many members in this cult? (Score 1) 474
Actually, the story was repeated as true in some media outlets in Brazil. The original blog's admins even went around posting "Thanks for believing in us!" in some of these.
USB Is the Devil's Connection 474
Jamie handed us Satan's Data Connection. You see, sane and rational human being, the
USB logo is actually in the shape of a trident, and the obvious action to Evangelical Christians in Brazil is to ban its use. Hopefully they don't mispronounce SCSI and find themselves lusting after their PCs.
Comment Wrong (Score 1) 103
The linked article does not actually refers to the Scientific article (why not?), so I went and did some digging.
http://frontiersin.org/neuroscience/behavioralneuroscience/paper/10.3389/fnbeh.2010.00031/
Nothing like "monkeys like to watch TV". The experiment only measure the activity of the monkey's brain when it is watching the movie, but not when it is NOT watching the movie or when it is watching something else. Actually the paper is more about this new brain wave sensor that they are developing than about monkeys and TVs. Like a previous commenter said - if you have a monkey stuck into a chair, with a bunch of probes dug into its brain, in a dark room, it will get interested in a movie shown in front of him. Duh! (and, according to the article, at least 60% of the trials where thrown away because the monkey did not actually look at the movie).
Comment Re:What was the email? (Score 1) 306
Way to fail by not RTFA'ing.
StarCraft II Closed Beta Begins 268
Blizzard announced today that the multiplayer beta test for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is now underway. The client downloader is available through Battle.net for people who have received invites, and the system requirements have been posted as well. A list of known issues is up on the official forums. StarCraft II and the revamped Battle.net are planned for release "in the first half of 2010."
