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Comment Re:If by "decreeses" you mean "increases", then ye (Score 1) 300

"but it also reduces the public's access to information"

A) What information does it supposedly reduce? I'm pretty sure you can tell me that something happened without showing me a video. Did you know that there was a 3 car pileup on route 3? Why no I don't because I haven't seen a video of it!

It's a video. It's a lot harder to lie or twist or exaggerate an event that is on video, so it is of value as trustworthy information.
(Not to be confused with how it is much easier to lie or confuse with in-person, video, or audio, than with text)

B) Removing the video caused the information to proliferate more due to the Streisand Effect. I literally hadn't heard about the incident until all the fuss was raised about the removal of the video.

Each time censorship happens, less and less fuss will be made about it. How many billions of headlines per day do you hear about censorship in China?

Comment Wrong (but still the brain's fault) (Score 2) 128

If it is the brain stealing calories that slows development, how come when you feed a child a high-calorie diet he becomes a fat child rather than a young adult?

How about this: if we took only three years (or less!) to reach adulthood like some animals, you'd have toddler with an adult body. I'm pretty sure it's actually an advantage that our young are easily restrained. It's actually rather common for more intelligent creatures to take longer to mature. Taking longer to prune the excess synaptic connections seems to allow for greater learning at the cost of slower development. In the case of humans, we're also born with an especially undeveloped brain and a squishy skull, for which your mother is probably grateful.

Comment Re:Evolution... (Score 1) 281

The trouble with this is that after fatty food their attractiveness as mates declines. That's where beer comes in. Don't forget the beer.

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.

Comment Diet guaranteed to prevent age-related diseases (Score 4, Funny) 281

There is a simple, easy to follow diet that will prevent you from developing any age-related diseases. Just eat as much as you like of whatever you like, plus a lethal dose of poison when you turn ~30. You will not get any of the age-related diseases, much like people in the old days when hardly anyone died from age-related causes. If you want to be even healthier, get rid of all the devices that save you physical labor and grow/hunt your own food, plus if you don't cheat by using fertilizers and irrigation you'll automatically go on a year-long diet every so often.

Or, you could avoid foods that are low on fiber or high in fructose, and occasionally exercise.

Comment Is there context? (Score 1) 421

Mandatory panic! Alert the police! Search EVERYTHING! Connect the dots! Personally, I blame the teacher for not sufficiently explaining the limits of the assignment.

doubt very much the reaction would have been the same if he'd written that he did it with bow & arrow.

Maybe he had previously been complaining that his neighbor's pet dinosaur was barking too loudly? (Just made that up, to show what a difference context can make)

Comment Re:Turn it around: (Score 3, Funny) 130

- Campus Christian Ministry decides to start spamming the entire campus with pro-life messages.
- Young Republicans club start spamming the entire campus with messages calling for the impeachment of Pres. Obama.
- ROTC program starts spamming the entire campus with messages encouraging students to sign up for military service.

Where's your unfettered free speech now?

In my spam folder?

Comment Reality is limited by probability (+consequences) (Score 1) 173

In a simulation you can have people do all kinds of crazy shit you wouldn't see in thousands of on-the-road miles. You can simulate malfunctioning equipment that you wouldn't get without years of wear and tear. You can test modifications to the AI without real-world consequences. You can test the human-ai interaction on average drivers without liability problems. I could totally see a simulation being superior to reality for testing purposes.

But you could also have a broken simulation, which could make the whole thing near worthless.

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