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Comment Re:Maybe they should ... (Score 1) 211

There are no statistics that indicate a push for coders is a good idea.

Sure, but if in this example, you are Arkansas, it would be to your advantage to fill as many of the coding jobs with Arkansans as humanly possible.

Statistically, a negligible number of students could be affected in a positive way, but they have the tools trhey need to start learning from home.

The rest of the effort is just a an appeasement to the tax payers in a state rated 44th overall.

Coding will not save the Arkansas school system.

The propensity to describe the number of students affected as negligible is in direct proportion to previously held belief sets.

Comment Learning trumps instincts (Score 3, Insightful) 77

Even for the often flawed human drivers, this rings true. It seems one of the more common single vehicle highway accidents is the slight drift off the road followed by the panicked, aggressive over-correction... experience teaches us to gradually bring the vehicle back in line by fighting the gut-reaction to hurry.

Comment Protocols ignored in a Reston-like manner (Score 3, Insightful) 21

As with all things security, the human element is the weakest link.

Whether we're talking about handling level 4 agents, following protocol in a nuclear reactor, or paying attention working on a 14,400 volt transmission line, we always get complacent and stupidly comfortable.

After doing a dangerous thing enough times, humans lose that life-preserving fear reflex. That's one reason robots will be needed for space travel.

Comment Re:Yes he's right (Score 1) 214

Theres a difference between being *right* and *having people agree with you*.

Absolutely. It's just that being right without the ability to convince people of it seldom leads to earthshaking revolution... you run the risk of losing out to someone who is clearly wrong, yet charismatic and convincing.

This is often the World we live in today, suffering because the person who thought up the head tax couldn't debate as proficiently as the proponent of the metered gas mask.

Comment Re:How about Linux? (Score 2) 127

The study measured browsers used, regardless of machine.

Aside from that, it seems likely studies such as this will be (and probably already are) used to make decisions the facts are unqualified to support.

"Yes it true. According to our studies, people hired on Thursday will take more crap than your average employee."

Submission + - $56,000 Speeding Ticket Issued Under Finland's System of Fines Based on Income

HughPickens.com writes: Joe Pinsker writes at The Atlantic that Finish businessman Reima Kuisla was recently caught going 65 miles per hour in a 50 zone in his home country and ended up paying a fine of $56,000. The fine was so extreme because in Finland, some traffic fines, as well as fines for shoplifting and violating securities-exchange laws, are assessed based on earnings—and Kuisla's declared income was €6.5 million per year. Several years ago another executive was fined the equivalent of $103,000 for going 45 in a 30 zone on his motorcycle. Finland’s system for calculating fines is relatively simple: It starts with an estimate of the amount of spending money a Finn has for one day, and then divides that by two—the resulting number is considered a reasonable amount of spending money to deprive the offender of. Then, based on the severity of the crime, the system has rules for how many days the offender must go without that money. Going about 15 mph over the speed limit gets you a multiplier of 12 days, and going 25 mph over carries a 22-day multiplier. Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria, France, and Switzerland also have some sliding-scale fines, or “day-fines,” in place, but in America, flat-rate fines are the norm. Since the late 80s, when day-fines were first seriously tested in the U.S., they have remained unusual and even exotic.

Should such a system be used in the United States? After all, wealthier people have been shown to drive more recklessly than those who make less money. For example Steve Jobs was known to park in handicapped spots and drive around without license plates. But more importantly, day-fines could introduce some fairness to a legal system that many have convincingly shown to be biased against the poor. Last week, the Department of Justice released a comprehensive report on how fines have been doled out in Ferguson, Missouri. "Ferguson’s law enforcement practices are shaped by the City’s focus on revenue rather than by public safety needs," it concluded. The first day-fine ever in the U.S. was given in 1988, and about 70 percent of Staten Island’s fines in the following year were day-fines. A similar program was started in Milwaukee, and a few other cities implemented the day-fine idea and according to Judith Greene, who founded Justice Strategies, a nonprofit research organization, all of these initiatives were effective in making the justice system fairer for poor people. “When considering a proportion of their income,people are at least constantly risk-averse. This means that the worst that would happen is that the deterrent effect of fines would be the same across wealth or income levels,” says Casey Mulligan. "We should start small—say, only speeding tickets—and see what happens."

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One of the chief duties of the mathematician in acting as an advisor... is to discourage... from expecting too much from mathematics. -- N. Wiener

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