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Comment Idiocracy (Score 5, Insightful) 620

by Mr_Blank (#34637666) Attached to: Electric Cars May Be Made Noisier By Law

As Green Car Reports notes, the legislation would allow for a common set of standards, rather than than a motley crew of approaches attempted by various automakers.

Brilliant. Legislate away the possibilities for innovation before the new market has a chance to solve the problem. Is it only in America that "leaders" push science and math and the entrepreneurial spirit, and then quickly make it illegal to innovate lest anyone gets hurt? sheesh

What this country needs is a good five cent nickel.
Cellphones

Exposing the Link Between Cell Phones and Fertility 112

Posted by timothy from the social-network dept.
ApharmdB writes "We frequently gripe about the poor quality of science reporting by the media. A Guardian blogger from the mathematics department at Queen Mary, University of London has made a honeypot press release to see how bad it can get. (Or maybe to have some fun trolling the media?) The statistic used is the strong link between the number of mobile phone masts in an area and the number of live births. Of course, there is no causal link because they are both instead based on a 3rd variable, the local population size. Slashdot readers can keep on eye on news sources over the weekend to see just how much traction the story gets and watch the train wreck in real-time!"
Businesses

America's Cubicles Are Shrinking 484

Posted by CmdrTaco from the everyone-moo-together dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "In the 1970s, American corporations typically thought they needed 500 to 700 square feet per employee to build an effective office, but the LA Times reports that today's average is a little more than 200 square feet per person, and the space allocation could hit a mere 50 square feet by 2015. 'We're at a very interesting inflection point in real estate history,' says Peter Miscovich, who studies workplace trends. 'The next 10 years will be very different than the last 30.' Although cubicles have shrunk from an average of 64 feet to 49 feet in recent years, companies are looking for more ways to compress their real estate footprint with offices that squeeze together workstations while setting aside a few rooms where employees can conduct meetings or have private phone conversations. 'Younger workers' lives are all integrated, not segregated,' says Larry Rivard. 'They have learned to work anywhere — at a kitchen table or wherever.'"

Comment The Other Potty Mouth (Score 1) 449

by Mr_Blank (#33665070) Attached to: Today's Children Are Officially Potty Mouths

PVP Online makes comedy out of the discomfort some people feel in the presence of a potty mouth.

Personally, my belief in free speech is strong enough that I do not care what words a person uses to express ideas. However, there are ramifications for how a person expresses those ideas; similar to how there are consequences for how society reacts to the clothes a person wears.
Privacy

Blizzard Backs Down On Real Names For Forums 432

Posted by Soulskill from the now-about-that-lan-feature dept.
Ashe Tyrael writes "Earlier this week, Blizzard announced that they were going to be implementing changes in their official forums (for StarCraft II when it launched, and for WoW prior to Cataclysm) that would require users to post under their real names, as part of the Real ID system. After perusing nearly 14,000 European and 50,000 US forum posts, the majority of which decried this move with various levels of vehemence, it looks like Blizzard has given in to the pressure. From the official statement: 'We've been constantly monitoring the feedback you've given us, as well as internally discussing your concerns about the use of real names on our forums. As a result of those discussions, we've decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums.' Not that this doesn't leave room for them to re-implement this at a later date, but that's a pretty definite 'no.' It was clear they were going to take criticism, but the size of the backlash was impressive. It seems likely Blizzard simply wasn't expecting that level of antipathy toward their new policy.
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Quant AI Better than Human (crossingwallstreet.com)

Submitted by Mr_Blank
Mr_Blank writes: From Technology Review: The ability to predict the stock market is, as any Wall Street quantitative trader (or quant) will tell you, a license to print money. So it should be of no small interest to anyone who likes money that a new system that works in a radically different way than previous automated trading schemes appears to be able to beat Wall Street's best quantitative mutual funds at their own game. It's called the Arizona Financial Text system, or AZFinText, and it works by ingesting large quantities of financial news stories (in initial tests, from Yahoo Finance) along with minute-by-minute stock price data, and then using the former to figure out how to predict the latter. Then it buys, or shorts, every stock it believes will move more than 1% of its current price in the next 20 minutes — and it never holds a stock for longer.
The Media

FTC Staff Discuss a Tax on Electronics To Support the News Business 381

Posted by timothy from the now-that's-what-I-call-top-down-management dept.
dptalia links to this piece describing a staff discussion draft from the Federal Trade Commission, writing "The FTC is concerned about the death of the 'news.' Specifically newspapers. Rather than look to how old media models can be adapted to the Internet, they instead suggest taxing consumer electronics to support a huge newspaper bailout. Additionally, they suggest making facts 'proprietary' and allowing news organizations to copyright them." Note, though, "The good news in all this is that the FTC's bureaucrats try hard to recommend little. They just discuss. And much of what the agency staff ponders are political impossibilities."

Comment An Example From Ohio (Score 1) 1138

by Mr_Blank (#32212206) Attached to: Too Many College Graduates?

Nobody funded my college degree.

Most students get help and do not even realize it. Many States use money from the tax coffers to make higher education more affordable. Even people who beg, borrow, or steal the money to "pay their own way" through a university in these states are getting help from all tax payers.

Citation: Ohio's Office Of Budget Management Budget Highlights

Making Higher Education More Affordable

State Share of Instruction
To supplement the general operation of the state's 13 four-year universities, 24 regional branch campuses, one free standing medical college, 15 community colleges, and eight technical colleges, H.B. 119 appropriates over $3.5 billion in the fiscal years 2008-2009 biennium for unrestricted operating subsidies through the State Share of Instruction (SSI) line item. ....

Comment Re:A better, more old fashioned solution (Score 1) 286

by Mr_Blank (#32076386) Attached to: Church Turns To Facebook To Find Priests

From Catholics in Crises

Are there any bright spots?
Yes--Africa and Asia. The African church has grown from 55 million in 1978 to 150 million today. "The church has provided, in many cases, the voice that stands on behalf of the voiceless," says the Rev. Emmanuel Katongole, a leader in the Ugandan church. In Asia, church membership increased 80 percent since 1978, while the number of priests rose 74 percent. In fact, Africa and Asia now supply priests to the rest of the world, with about 300 coming to U.S. parishes every year. But the church faces problems in the developing world, too. Evangelical Protestantism is making inroads, and many African priests live openly with wives and children, in defiance of the Vatican's celibacy requirement.

Image

FAA Says No More Minesweeper Or Solitaire In Cockpit Screenshot-sm 342

Posted by samzenpus from the keep-your-eyes-on-the-skies dept.
If you like to pass the time playing minesweeper, or checking your Facebook updates while piloting a 900,000-pound aircraft 400 mph, you won't like the latest FAA decision. The agency has asked airlines to create policies to minimize cockpit distractions, including pilots' use of personal electronic devices. "There is no room for distraction when your job is to get people safely to their destinations," said DOT Secretary Ray LaHood. "The traveling public expects professional pilots to focus on flying and on safety at all times."
Biotech

Colleague Comes Forward To Defend Anthrax Suspect 164

Posted by kdawson from the take-a-deep-breath dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times writes about Henry S. Heine, a former Army microbiologist who worked for years with Bruce E. Ivins, whom the FBI has blamed for the anthrax letter attacks that killed five people in 2001. Heine told a 16-member National Academy of Sciences panel reviewing the FBI's scientific work on the investigation that he believes it is impossible that the deadly spores could have been produced undetected in Ivins's laboratory, as the FBI asserts. Heine told the panel that producing the quantity of spores in the letters would have taken at least a year of intensive work using the equipment at the army lab, an effort that would not have escaped colleagues' notice. Lab technicians who worked closely with Ivins have told Heine they saw no such work. Heine adds that, in addition, the biological containment measures where Ivins worked were inadequate to prevent the spores from floating out of the laboratory into animal cages and offices. 'You'd have had dead animals or dead people.' Asked why he is speaking out now, almost two years after Ivins's suicide, Heine says that Army officials had prohibited comment on the case, silencing him until he left the government laboratory. Although Heine does not dispute that there was a genetic link between the spores in the letters and the anthrax in Ivins's flask, Heine says samples from the flask were widely shared. 'Whoever did this is still running around out there. I truly believe that.'"

Comment It could be easier (Score 4, Interesting) 277

by Mr_Blank (#31858924) Attached to: Crunch Time For IRS Data Centers

... if it were simpler. Why is the Federal Tax Code 3.7 million words? If the tax code were simpler, then those servers would have a much easier time of it.

      Scanning today's news turns up a lot of good examples for how the code could be simplified.

The five dumbest parts of the U.S. tax code

1) Ethanol credits increase the price of food, and give paper manufacturers more money in credits than they make from selling paper.
2) Exemption for inherited stock-gains.
3) Mortgage-interest deduction encourages people to buy as much house as they can afford, and encourages owning over renting to the detriment of other investments.
4) Exemption on employer-provided health insurance encourages employers to give more health insurance instead of wage increases, and discourages health insurers from competing on price.
5) Municipal-bond-interest exclusion gives more benefit to rich bond owners than it does to the municipalities that issue the bonds.

Congressman Wyden leads effort to simplify tax code

Taxes: There is a Better Way by U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg

Comment The AP Story (Score 1) 703

by Mr_Blank (#31769696) Attached to: Wisconsin DA Threatens Arrests Over Sex Ed

The Associated Press Story is a bit more informative than the USA Today blog entry in TFA.

  This is the part that boggles me...

Southworth also argued that teaching contraceptive use encourages sexual behavior among children, which equates to sexual assault because minors can't legally have sex in Wisconsin.

  The arbitrary line between "minors" and "adults" having sex is strange enough. Any law forbidding consenting adults is completely ridiculous. Saying that two "minors" can't go at it truly boggles because who's going to know, who's going to care, and what punishment could be worse than NOT fulfilling the biological urge with someone else who has that urge? ... I figure that is how many teens are looking at it, anyhow.

    I wonder if the law also intends that minors can not legally have solo-sex? Craziness...

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