I know one local station here, immediately after the Governor said that this was "unexpected", ran down a list of exact times over the previous 24 hours where they reported it would be bad. It took about 2 mins to make it through the list, while she had a wry smile on her face the entire time.

The news today commented that we could have 5,000 plows and sand trucks, but even that would be useless if they aren't cranked up in time.

I'm an Atlanta native and yes, we aren't used to driving on ice, but from what I've been reading from people in Northern states over the past few days, they even say driving on ice is dangerous. First, Chicago is relatively flat, but Atlanta grew up in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Yes, our government failed us, but how are the residents supposed to drive up our hilly terrain when the roads weren't even pre-treated and covered with 1/4" inch of solid ice. None of us have winter tires, mainly because it would be a waste to buy them to use one or two weeks in a decade. If you tried to buy them inside the city, you will get odd looks and a few chuckles, because no place I know of even sells them. If it was just snow, we would have been fine, because we're used to driving in heavy summer rains. So, just don't get pissed when we laugh at you for saying 85 is "too hot".

It doesn't happen. No place that I know of in the city even keeps them in stock.

I think that would only apply to gerkins..

That's the big argument with many pieces of tech these days.

I felt more free in Thailand during the 2010 uprising than I do in America today. As a side note: To the NSA agent reading this, would you email me and tell me where I put my Stargate DVD set? I can't find it anywhere.

She is one of the reasons why I argue to limit Congress to 2 terms.

Did anyone see this and immediately think of the Alcubierre drive warp bubble graphic?

I don't feel bad about not having the money to go shopping...

Thanks for the links. Saved both of them and going to give them a good read through when I have the time.

Sounds like someone's on their way to thereg..

Agree fully. At first I thought *-search (pick your flavor) was just an odd mathematical quirk when it was introduced, until I was told it is used in the GPS system you have in your car. You start to see how each incremental step leads to ever greater things.

It's probably not very useful for a simple problem such as this, but imagine the space station being in a situation where every second counts to protect the life of the crew, such as a rupture that vents oxygen. It may have a n-length list of commands it can run, each with certain percentage chance of working in a particular situation and may need to run a quick simulation to guess which one has the greatest chance of saving the life of the crew. It would probably use some combo of min-max as well as quicksorting to find the one command with the greatest probability of survival in a minimal amount of time.

I agree with you fully. Sure, you have to wade through some stories, but occasionally, you stumble upon a fascinating debate such as this. I'm interested in AI and the possibilities for the future it can bring.