Good thing Gollum didn't have one of these; he would have won the riddle game!

Damn. I'm in trouble then.

I can only speak for myself, but I think a lot of others may fall into the same category. Most everything I know about GG is spillover in slashdot discussions. I know there's accusations of journalistic impropriety, and accusations of misogyny, and a lot of harassment, and a huge heaping pile of arguments. But it's such a mess that I still don't even know what someone means when they say they're "anti-GG" for instance, because I don't know which side of which issue that actually means. And frankly, just based on the generally incoherent and overheated arguments that have spilled over here, I'd rather not investigate further.

I know I'm against harassment (of all kinds, against all types). I know I'm against unethical journalism. I'm also disinclined to insert myself into situations of histrionic drama where I'm unlikely to be able to make a difference. So I don't really know what sides of what parts of what sub-issues that puts me in relation to GG, and I don't care to find out. So I'm agnostic, or neutral, or maybe willfully ignorant of enough details to be able to say more. It doesn't seem such an unreasonable stance to take.

It's like those phone numbers where they use a word with more than 10 letters. The mnemonic can be extra long. Just fill in the blanks until you run out of blanks, whether that's 3, 4, or 6 of them. You definitely don't want to get caught with a mnemonic that's too short, or you're really in trouble.

Who really wins these lotteries? The advertising firms designing every new scratch off ticket. Every week there's another new "game" that has a million advertising spots on radio, TV, billboards, etc. If it were about income for the state (tax on the math challenged), then they'd just need a few scratch offs that never change style and a big lottery for the dreamers. There would be little to no need to advertise (or to have a hushed, sped-up voice admonish listeners to "play responsibly"). This is about funneling money to the advertisers, and using the advertisers to grab (or create) as many gambling addicts as they can get. That's a sick thing for government to do.

I'm trying to parse this in a way that isn't just a tautology. Wouldn't working until retirement age be the norm?

What do I have to be logged in as to get info on Barry Bonds? Or all the actors who have played James Bond?

See RenderMan

Single 39.6% tax threshold: $41320
Married 39.6% tax threshold: $46850

In order for this to be a tax ADVANTAGE for two earners, the 39.6% threshold would have to be at least $82640. This is actually a penalty, since if both spouses make $40k, before they married their taxes each would have been below 39.6%, now that they're married, nearly all of the second spouse's income is taxed at the higher rate.

No. Robotic surgery is not the clear winner. For many procedures, robot surgery has a higher complication rate than the same procedures done without a robot.

Here's one example: http://www.wsj.com/articles/ro...

Especially the % for "things dropped into the body". How often do human surgeons drop something in the body? My guess is that the issue in the robot case, the surgery has to be paused while a human scrubs in to fish the object out.

I use neural networks on a daily basis based on a very old design. There have been a few tweaks along the way, but still basically in continuous use: http://scienceblogs.com/neurop...

That's 600 Mya.

Interesting. I think it was Belle with the map. Her kingdom does have some French influence, though of course they do all speak and write English in the American movies and books. It seems weird they'd insert a little authenticity into the map and nothing else. I also *think* it was a zero and not even an O, but that's kind of hard to tell sometimes.

This is intended to create cancer with frickin' lasers. Cancer sucks enough already.

I hope the Ministry of Silly Walks is conducting a full investigation.