The thing to note here is that value remains subjective. The actual test didn't show subjects diamond rings or big houses. It showed them simple images of neutral value that then paid off in varying amounts when selected. It was the amount of the payoff that influenced the subject's perception of the object. An object that paid off at $10 generated a stronger response than an item that had paid off at $0.10.

So the concept of a diamond ring registering more highly than junk depends on the "eye of the beholder." The images in the study were associated with receiving a reward. So a guy might not associate a diamond ring with a rewaed, but might see a pile of junk and think of all the fun he could have by building neat stuff with it.

They talk about how this research may give insight into addiction, but I really think it's just a sorting mechanism. It's our way of training ourselves from experience how to pick the most likely target from the herd, sort the best fruits from the pile, etc., in the shortest possible time.

I just need to be the first to patent two mirrors facing each other...

Just don't get a witch between them (read Terry Pratchett's "Witches Abroad" if you don't understand).

Wow, they've figured out how to store photons for about as long as my three-year-old obeys a command to stop fidgeting.

From TFA: What they did was "find a way to trap a photon in a collection of 10 million neodymium atoms embedded in an yttrium orthovanadate crystal". Now say that 10 times fast. :-)

Not everything has to be a conspiracy. Aircraft do crash.

I'm glad somebody is being reasonable here.

Yes, but when there's someone on them who has information that could expose a lot of fraud by powerful people, you have to entertain the possibility that it wasn't merely coincidence that this particular person died.

Airplanes crash, people have heart attacks, and good samaritans really do pick up hitchhiking transvetite prostitutes out of the goodness of their hearts. Doesn't mean that the version of the story you're told is how it really happened.

<tinfoil-hat>Does anyone really think this was an accident?</tinfoil-hat>

But seriously, if anyone knew "too much," this guy could qualify.

With that said, how it got a Hugo nomination I have no idea. It must have been a bad year for Sci Fi. Then again overall most of the Hugo nominations for 08 weren't as good as novels in previous years.

You know, when I was a kid, a novelist had to walk twenty miles in the snow to win a Hugo Award. You kids with your rock and roll hootchie koos. We read space opera and liked it!

What I wonder about though is what happens if you lose your dongle? It would seem you've basically bricked your hackintosh until you can get another one. Leave it in a hotel room on a multi-stop business trip and you're f*cked. I'd think the true price for many of us is a dongle for everyday use and then a back-up dongle for emergencies.