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The Internet

Submission + - How the Internet Makes the Improbable Into the New Normal 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "A burglar gets stuck in a chimney, a truck driver in a head on collision is thrown out the front window and lands on his feet, walks away; a wild antelope knocks a man off his bike; a candle at a wedding sets the bride's hair on fire; someone fishing off a backyard dock catches a huge man-size shark. Now Kevin Kelly writes that in former times these unlikely events would be private, known only as rumors, stories a friend of a friend told, easily doubted and not really believed but today they are on YouTube, seen by millions. "Every minute a new impossible thing is uploaded to the internet and that improbable event becomes just one of hundreds of extraordinary events that we'll see or hear about today," writes Kelly. "As long as we are online — which is almost all day many days — we are illuminated by this compressed extraordinariness. It is the new normal." But when the improbable dominates the archive to the point that it seems as if the library contains only the impossible, then the "black swans" don't feel as improbable. "To the uninformed, the increased prevalence of improbable events will make it easier to believe in impossible things," concludes Kelly. "A steady diet of coincidences makes it easy to believe they are more than just coincidences.""

Comment source? (Score 1) 134

by mandginguero (#42576517) Attached to: Why Do Entrepreneurs Innovate Better Than Managers?

Has anyone else tried to pull the original source material? I can't find the MIT release, and this paper linked to from the bottom of the networkworld article* doesn't seem to have the information I'm looking for. The skeptic in me wanted to find out 1.) what they chose for 'risk' model behavior - the 4 arm bandit choice between 4 slot machines with different pay out ratios; 2.) how they operationalized risk - 'explorative' behavior was when they chose a different slot machine from the previous trial, and 'exploitative' when they chose the same slot machine as the previous trial; and perhaps most important to me 3.) how they classified a manager vs an entrepreneur. Could not find anything about that in the methods section. A keyword search for 'entrepreneur' returns the first hit in the analysis section when they describe performing a (presumably post-hoc) test on the locus coeruleus in entrepreneurs. No real justification, or qualifications......

Also of concern is that their subject pool was drawn from managerial experience in the diverse fields of "marketing, human resources, production, R&D, or finance." As a scientist, I'm not well versed in the business world, but how similar do y'all think decision making in these fields might be?

*http://www.croma.unibocconi.it/wps/wcm/connect/3e3146804cadaef7a443fc0f7bdc7be0/laureiro_12-02.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&useDefaultText=0&useDefaultDesc=0

Comment Re:arXiv-like site? (Score 2) 67

If that's the case, why not just publish at an open-access site?

Because that site isn't peer reviewed. As we can see, peer review isn't the unblemished pillar we hold it up to be. But as a grad student whose adviser doesn't often check my work, peer review can be the only thing standing between me publishing a mistake and actually catching it. That being said, there are several open access sites that are peer reviewed. And in support of open access, the University of California, San Diego recently started a fund for researchers where it will pay for the fees for one open access submission per year.
Education

Submission + - Introducing students to rigor 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: As an engineer who studied in Asia for most of my life, my first exposure to real mathematics was when I arrived at graduate school in the United States. While I did take and enjoy some basic courses in mathematics (like real and functional analysis, measure theory and probability), I had a tough time because I found myself having to train myself in making rigorous proofs/arguments, compared to the engineering approach. I also found that training invaluable in helping me in other aspects of my life (including my engineering job). Now that I am back in my home country with children of my own, I see that the curriculum and approach in mathematics hasn't really changed. Rather than getting them used to thinking and making concrete arguments, they are taught formulae and most of their homework and exams focus on number crunching. So I'd like to ask slashdotters: What books/activities would you recommend for students in the 5th-12th grades (or even earlier) that might get them to appreciate rigor and critical thinking?
Earth

Submission + - A Trio of Oil Companies Now Fracking the Nile

Submitted by derekmead
derekmead writes: Some 97% of Egyptians get their drinking water from the Nile, a little north-flowing river in Africa that is also probably the most famous body of water in the world. Without the Nile, civilization in water-scarce, rainfall-allergic Egypt isn’t possible. No wonder, then, that some of the nation’s 90 million citizens are incensed by the growing number of oil and gas fracking operations popping up a little too close to its lifeblood.

At least three major companies — the Dutch oil giant Shell, the American oil and gas corporation Apache, and the United Arab Emirates-based Dana Gas — have launched major hydraulic fracturing operations in Egypt. Apache and Dana have been fracking directly in the Nile valley.

Dana just announced a brand new natural gas discovery yesterday: between 4 and 6 billion cubic feet lie below the Nile Delta, where it plans to frack. According to the Egypt Independent, Apache has a fracking operation “in the Western Desert near important aquifers.”

Shell is the latest to the game; it’s using a new waterless technique, foam fracking, to tap into gas reserves previously thought unreachable. In August, it began drilling 65 exploratory wells, and hopes to ramp natural gas production up from 0.5 million cubic feet a day to 5 million cf/d.
Japan

Submission + - No blackouts due to lack of nuclear in Japan this summer (japantimes.co.jp)

Submitted by
AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: "Despite dire warnings of blackouts this summer Japan has survived without them. Many on Slashdot predicted widespread power problems due to the shutdown of nuclear power plants, with only one or two operating for most of the summer months when demand is highest.

Japan was completely nuclear-free for almost two months during the peak power demand period after the country’s reactors were closed in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster. Plans for rolling blackouts in the Kansai, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku regions were never needed as the country met its power-saving targets, with growing consumer demand for energy efficient products."

Submission + - Most Citizens of the Star Wars Galaxy are Functionally Illiterate (tor.com)

Submitted by iluvcapra
iluvcapra writes: Ryan Britt at Tor.com makes a bit of analysis that I think we'd have some fun with, in agreement or otherwise:

Not once in any Star Wars movie does someone pick up a book or newspaper, magazine, literary journal, or chapbook handmade by an aspiring Jawa poet. [...]As early as the 1990s-era expanded Star Wars books and comic books, we’re introduced to ancient Jedi “texts” called holocrons, which are basically talking holographic video recordings. Just how long has the Star Wars universe been reliant on fancy technology to transfer information as opposed to the written word? Is it possible that a good number of people in Star Wars are completely illiterate?

Read the whole thing,
AI

Submission + - Google Puts Souped-up Neural Networks to Work (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by holy_calamity
holy_calamity writes: A machine learning breakthrough from Google researchers that grabbed headlines this summer is now being put to work improving the company's products. The company revealed in June that it had built neural networks that run on 16,000 processors simultaneously, enough power that they could learn to recognize cats just by watching YouTube. Those neural nets have now made Google's speech recognition for US English 25 percent better, and are set to be used in other products, such as image search.
Transportation

Submission + - We Don't Need More Highways

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "When it comes to infrastructure, politicians usually prefer shiny new projects over humdrum repairs. A brand-new highway is exciting: There’s a ribbon-cutting, and there’s less need to clog up existing lanes with orange cones and repair crews. So it’s not surprising that 57 percent of all state highway funding goes toward new construction, often stretching out to the suburbs, even though new roads represent just 1.3 percent of the overall system. Now Brad Plumer writes in the Washington Post that many transportation reformers think this is a wrong-headed approach and that we should focus our dollars on fixing and upgrading existing infrastructure rather than continuing to build sprawling new roads). UCLA economist Matthew Kahn and the University of Minnesota’s David Levinson made a more detailed case for a “fix-it first” strategy. They noted that, at the moment, federal highway spending doesn’t get subjected to strict cost-benefit analysis, and governments often build new roads when they arguably shouldn’t (PDF). And that’s to say nothing of data suggesting that poor road conditions are a “significant factor” in one-third of all fatal crashes, and cause extra wear and tear on cars. "When a highway gets clogged, states find it more palatable to simply build new lanes rather than, say, put in place congestion fees — even though research has found that widening highways does little to alleviate traffic jams," concludes Plumer. "There’s a strong policy case that we could stand to build fewer new highways out to the suburbs, at least for the time being.""
Science

Submission + - Glass shape influences how quickly we drink alcohol

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In the category of science you can use, a recent paper in PLOS One reports on the affect of glass shape on the speed of consumption of alcoholic beverages. Drinkers consumed alcoholic beverage from a straight glass 60% more slowly than from a curved glass. This effect was only observed for a full glass and not a half-full glass, and it was not observed for a non-alcoholic beverage. Not surprisingly, there was a positive association between total drinking time and mis-estimation of the amount of alcohol consumption.
Google

Submission + - Google Ads can no longer be visually identified from search results. (google.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I don't know if this has been covered already, but, as of today, i can no longer identify which results are ads in the main google page. In the beginning, they appeared in the side, in a clearly identified box, later, they appeared at the top of the results, with different font, later, only separated by a small line, which changed colors fading over time, but now there is no way i can distinguish between ads (they are appearing, there's no mistake in there) at least we know there are because of the still lingering "Why this ads?" question, but there is simply no way to identify which results are ads, this is a very deceptive practice, and i urge everyone to question if this is the way it should be. What about a class action lawsuit?
Science

Submission + - Robot brings patch-clamping to the masses (nature.com)

Submitted by scibri
scibri writes: Robots designed to perform whole-cell patch-clamping, a difficult but powerful method that allows neuroscientists to access neurons' internal electrical workings, could make the tricky technique commonplace.

Scientists from MIT have designed a robot that can record electrical currents in up to 4 neurons in the brains of anaesthetized mice at once, and they hope to extend it to up to 100 at a time. The robot finds its target on the basis of characteristic changes in the electrical environment near neurons. Then, the device nicks the cell’s membrane and seals itself around the tiny hole to access the neuron's contents.

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