Comment And for those lonely nights... (Score 1) 239
... she can fire up Otto.
Comment Game theory does just fine here (Score 5, Insightful) 128
IAAGT (I am a game theorist)
I looked (briefly) but did not find the PNAS article, as I suspect that the medical daily article gets it wrong, and that Prof. Eshel Ben-Jacob doesn't bash game theory tools. The Med Daily reporter probably misinterpreted the Prof.'s comments about groups of bacteria versus groups of people.
Why don't all the cells go into 'survival mode'? It's not the best for the colony, and there are many real world examples of altruistic behavior towards one's family / colony / species.
One game theoretical model for this looks through an evolutionary lens: the players are species of bacteria and choose species wide traits. One strategy is 'everybody goes into survival mode', the other strategy is '10% go into survival mode'. Through random mutation, chance, whatever... a species picks its strategy, nature makes its move, and the game goes to the next round.
Comment Appropriate for that evening, 20 years in advance. (Score 1) 133
That's no moon!
Comment Beverly Stayart? Pfffft. (Score 4, Funny) 173
Let's just hope that Bobbie Goatse never googles herself.
Submission + - US Military Prepares Dead Mouse Paratroopers to Fi (stripes.com)
bobdotorg writes: World War II transport ships introduced snakes to Guam, and by the 1980's the island was overrun by them. This led to the extinction of native species. To combat this, drugged, dead, glider outfitted mice are being dropped into the jungle.
"The airdrop was a test of the newest weapon against one of the island’s most stubborn enemies — the invasive brown tree snake." "Each mouse was attached to two squares of cardboard and a streamer of green paper. The streamer could be dropped from a low-flying helicopter and would catch in the upper tree branches of the jungle. About 200 of the baits and some radio transmitters were dropped from a helicopter on 20 acres of Naval Base Guam on Wednesday as a first test of the system, Vice said."
"The airdrop was a test of the newest weapon against one of the island’s most stubborn enemies — the invasive brown tree snake." "Each mouse was attached to two squares of cardboard and a streamer of green paper. The streamer could be dropped from a low-flying helicopter and would catch in the upper tree branches of the jungle. About 200 of the baits and some radio transmitters were dropped from a helicopter on 20 acres of Naval Base Guam on Wednesday as a first test of the system, Vice said."
Comment Money well spent (Score 5, Interesting) 322
This is money well spent, at least on busier intersections, and exits from limited access highways.
Drivers can read / recognize mixed case from further distance than all caps.
It's not a great leap to conclude that with this change, drivers will make fewer last second swerves, or stop short less often. TFA alludes to this.
Safety increases ever so slightly, but for millions of people, and for many years.
Though if I were a NY tax payer I would prefer that they replace them through attrition. The fact that it will take until 2018 makes this seem to be partially the case.
Comment Kids today are coddled pussies. (Score 3, Insightful) 446
The only reason we have safe laboratories today is because in the 1970's, science kits killed the careless ones.
Hell, even our playgrounds weeded out the stupid.
Comment Proper attire (Score 1) 66
Woot! capes.
Especially if they're flying, screaming guard monkeys.
Comment Does transitivity hold? (Score 4, Funny) 324
If I put Linux on my tablet.
And put my tablet on the desktop.
Would that make 2011 the year of Linux on the desktop?
Comment Pity the slow typer... (Score 5, Funny) 408
... who gets most of the way through a search for goatseller
Comment Re:Go Stephen! (Score 1) 703
As of right now, their [Vietnam's] economy is doing quite a bit better than ours. Funny how it was capitalism that imploded recently, not socialism.
No.
By any measure other than growth, Vietnam's economy trails every G7 economy, even when measured in PPP (purchasing power parity).
If you're going to look at growth (as opposed to per-capita levels), then by your logic some Sub-Saharan African economies are, "...doing quite a bit better than ours."
An analogous example is the USSR economy under Nikita Kruschev not 'crushing us'.
Comment Re:But what created the law of gravity? (Score 1) 1328
Things don't magically pop in and out of existence
You appear to be unfamiliar with ninjas. Space ninjas.
Comment Re:Not sure how I feel (Score 1) 148
At least it wasn't Oracle...
:p
Comment This chip snickers at my 6502... (Score 3, Insightful) 292
The chip uses 1,079 different instructions
Can't even imagine writing in assembly code for this monster. I miss dinking around with a nice 6502 system.
Comment What this discussion need... (Score 1) 830
... is a car analogy:
Ray Kurzweil does not understand how to parallel park.
