Comment Re:Parents choose their baby's name (Score 1) 902
The truth is that names hardly matter that much compared to your child's physiology and anatomy.
Tell that to the Boy named Sue.
Comment Re:what if (Score 1) 229
Well, it would mean that the whole science of genetics and molecular biology is completely wrong. It would be the same as if someone would discover that electricity doesn't exist.
Comment Re:I like the way the government thinks (Score 1) 196
A classic example of keming.
Comment Re:Half a dimension (Score 1) 534
I think you just described bowling.
Comment Re:Is this....legal? (Score 2, Interesting) 595
Of course, lots of people are killed every day by cars. Why not ban them as well?
A knife is a tool. Used daily, by millions of people, for perfectly peaceful reasons. Like a car, a hammer, a screwdriver or a paperweight. It can be used to kill someone on purpose or kill someone accidentally. Ban useful tools and the result is a kindergarten, not a society. The problem is not with the tools.
I guess I have to edit my sig...
A knife is a tool. Used daily, by millions of people, for perfectly peaceful reasons. Like a car, a hammer, a screwdriver or a paperweight. It can be used to kill someone on purpose or kill someone accidentally. Ban useful tools and the result is a kindergarten, not a society. The problem is not with the tools.
I guess I have to edit my sig...
Comment Re:bake him some cookies he'll get over it (Score 1) 251
Die Eier von Satan? You forgot the Turkish hashish.
Comment Re:Quite a letdown... (Score 1) 297
Yeah, reminds me of the time I did some viral pathology research on sheep. After the experiment was finished, we ate the negative controls.
Comment Re:Been playing violent games since I was 3... (Score 1) 78
...and the 1000 people who turned into crazy murderers after playing tetris are to embarrassed to speak up
And where all those violent tetris players? In Afghanistan?
Algorithm Names Powell 'Ideal' Vice President Candidate 543
CWmike writes "Turns out the ideal vice presidential candidate for Sen. John McCain is the same person as the ideal vice presidential candidate for Sen. Barack Obama, according to a sophisticated online survey based on technology developed at MIT. Mr. Ideal? Colin Powell, a former U.S. Army general and former secretary of state. Affinnova's survey methods doesn't use the typical polling method of asking respondents to pick a name from a list. Instead, it gives respondents larger concepts, including photos, biographical information and possible first-term priorities. Affinnova calls this algorithm 'evolutionary optimization.' Steve Lamoureaux, the company's chief innovation officer, said of the VP finding: 'We never imagined that the same candidate would show up for both parties.'"
Inside The Twisted Mind of Bruce Schneier 208
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Bruce Schneier has an essay on the mind of security professionals like himself, and why it's something that can't easily be taught. Many people simply don't see security threats or the potential ways in which things can be abused because they don't intend to abuse them. But security pros, even those who don't abuse what they find, have a different way of looking at things. They always try to figure out all the angles or how someone could beat the system. In one of his examples, Bruce talks about how, after buying one of Uncle Milton's Ant Farms, he was enamored with the idea that they would mail a tube of live ants to anyone you asked them to. Schneier's article was inspired by a University of Washington course in which the professor is attempting to teach the 'security mindset.' Students taking the course have been encouraged to post security reviews on a class blog."
Feed Exploring 'Junk DNA' In The Genome (sciencedaily.com)
"Junk DNA" is what biologists used to call heterochromatin, the highly repetitive, gene-poor DNA concentrated near the centromeres and telomeres of chromosomes. With the publication of version 5.1 of the genome of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster the term "junk" will be heard less often. Heterochromatin, it appears, is crucial to genome maintenance and cell biology.
Journal Journal: AIM bots invade user's buddy lists
The folks at AOL are at it again. If you've signed on to AOL Instant Messenger, or any meta contact messenger like Trillian or Pidgin within the last day, you have undoubtedly noticed several new AOL bots.
The Myth of the Superhacker 305
mlimber writes "University of Colorado Law School professor Paul Ohm, a specialist in computer crime law, criminal procedure, intellectual property, and information privacy, writes about the excessive fretting over the Superhacker (or Superuser, as Ohm calls him), who steals identities, software, and media and sows chaos with viruses etc., and how the fear of these powerful users inordinately shapes laws and policy related to privacy and digital rights."
Revisiting the Physics of Buckaroo Banzai 163
serutan writes "Shortly before the release of 'The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension' in 1984, physicist Carl Sneider of U.C. Berkeley wrote a surprisingly interesting essay on the physics behind the movie. Since the essay is not widely available on the web and I could only find it in plain text, I posted a more readable HTML version on my site. Among the more interesting points Sneider makes are that the oscillation overthruster is the result of decades of research instead of the usual laboratory accident, and its development corresponds surprisingly well with the evolution of particle physics from the 1930s to the 80s."
Professor Comes Up With a Way to Divide by Zero 1090
54mc writes "The BBC reports that Dr. James Anderson, of the University of Reading, has finally conquered the problem of dividing by zero. His new number, which he calls "nullity" solves the 1200 year old problem that niether Newton nor Pythagoras could solve, the problem of zero to the zero power. Story features video (Real Player only) of Dr. Anderson explaining the "simple" concept."
