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Wikipedia

Submission + - Statisticians Investigate Political Bias on Wikipedia

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "The Global Economic Intersection reports on a project to statistically measure political bias on Wikipedia. The team first identified 1,000 political phrases based on the number of times these phrases appeared in the text of the 2005 Congressional Record and applied statistical methods to identify the phrases that separated Democratic representatives from Republican representatives, under the model that each group speaks to its respective constituents with a distinct set of coded language. Then the team identified 111,000 Wikipedia articles that include “republican” or “democrat” as keywords and analyzed them to determine whether a given Wikipedia article used phrases favored more by Republican members or by Democratic members of Congress. The results may surprise you. "The average old political article in Wikipedia leans Democratic" but gradually, Wikipedia’s articles have lost the disproportionate use of Democratic phrases and moved to nearly equivalent use of words from both parties (PDF), akin to an NPOV [neutral point of view] on average. Interestingly some articles like civil rights tend to have a Democrat slant, while others like trade tend to have a Republican slant while at the same time many seemingly controversial topics such as foreign policy, war and peace, and abortion have no net slant. "Most articles arrive with a slant, and most articles change only mildly from their initial slant. The overall slant changes due to the entry of articles with opposite slants, leading toward neutrality for many topics, not necessarily within specific articles.""
NASA

Submission + - Chief Scientist at NASA supports new energy source (nasa.gov) 2

Submitted by dickweis
dickweis writes: What if we could stop burning fossil fuels and still have all the energy we need at less cost? Dennis Bushnell, Chief Scientist at NASA Langley, reveals that NASA has been studying low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR) as a propulsion source for several years. "we now have over two decades of hundreds of experiments worldwide indicating heat and transmutations with minimal radiation and low energy input. By any rational measure, this evidence indicates something real is occurring. [snip] 1% of the nickel mined on the planet each year could produce the world's energy requirements at the order of 25% the cost of coal." A 2-min video briefly describes a new LENR theory that is different from cold fusion and does not violate known physics. Is it time to start taking this stuff more seriously?
Open Source

Submission + - Open Source Projects for Beginning Coders?

Submitted by pyrosoft
pyrosoft writes: After many years of using open-source software and system administration, I want to move from writing simple bash scripts to actually learning real programming skills and contributing back to the community. What are your suggestions for getting started? How do you pick a project that will welcome your (possibly amateurish) help? With a fairly limited skill set, how do you find a request that you can handle? What are common newbie mistakes to avoid?

Comment Don't travel abroad if License Plate Scanning ... (Score 1) 295

Don't travel abroad if License Plate Scanning bothers you. Google it, boys. Most countries now do it on all their borders, in the least. Users (countries) don't always advertise it but the makers of License Plate Scanning systems are all over the web. You guys need to travel more. Welcome to the rest of the world.

Comment Re:Online needs to change (Score 2) 60

by Cragen (#39871405) Attached to: MIT And Harvard Start New Online Education Partnership
I think learning SHOULD be more like RPG's. The step by step approach in MMORPG's keeps me going. :) At least for the first few years of a subject. There used to be a reading program like that back in the 60's for 10-11 year olds in Ohio that used short stories. (don't remember the name) It had a range of reading comprehension where the level of comprehension was color-coded. I was SO worked up to become a PURPLE reader.

Comment Re:LOL (Score 1) 79

by Cragen (#39868713) Attached to: Pakistani Court Rules On Internet Censorship: Unconstitutional
Your reply leads me to suspect that you probably have never stepped foot out of your own city, much less country. You have no idea how few rights people in most of the world have and how repressive the governments of countries like Pakistan, China, Iran, etc., are. I have to just laugh at your real ignorance of the rest of the world's situation. While the US has its problems, reporters aren't being shot down in "broad daylight" as in Brazil, Mexico, etc. I really do suggest you go spend a few years in just about any country not in NATO. Heck, even Europe is quite a bit more repressive than the US. Mouth-off to an EU policeman and he or SHE will beat the living crap out of you in public with no fear of reprisal. So, walk down the street when you want, yelling your hatred, and feel safe. This is the ONLY country (so far) in you can fairly safely do that. Go ahead. And have a nice day.

No, really. You should move. Besides it clearing the air considerably here, you really do need to go see that if you spout that silliness in a non-NATO country (and also IN some NATO countries) that you will not need a fair trial because the local police or military will have killed you in plain site of everyone. And all the witnesses will just walk away. It's sad, but true. So, good luck.

Comment Re:Now even the Pope hates the truth? (Score 1) 286

by Cragen (#39810749) Attached to: Opus Dei To Hunt Down Vatican Whistle-Blowers
No, sorry, Your statement is akin to saying "Why hate on Ford (or GM), dudes?"

And, for the record, the dictionary definition of the word "cult" is simply any section of a genre of any religion. Only here in America have people mis-used the word to indicate what they regards as "whackos". So, , by definition, Catholicism is definitely a cult of Christianity. (And generally a group of "whackos" who have drank their own brand of kool-aid, their own completely unsubstantited "beliefs", which are no more substantiated than the belief in spaceships flying in the wake of comets. Just more "believed". Good grief.

Have a nice day.
Government

Submission + - FTC Privacy Report Draws Praise From Activists (securityweek.com)

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes: Privacy advocates are largely giving the thumbs up to a report from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) calling for Congress to enact privacy, data security and breach notification laws.

The report, entitled “Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change: Recommendations For Businesses and Policymakers,” also lays out best practices for businesses for protecting the privacy of American consumers. Building upon a report from December 2010, the updated report calls on corporations to enact the following recommendations: Privacy by Design, Simplified Choice for Businesses and Consumers, and Greater Transparency.

“In general, we’re pleased by the new privacy framework set forth by the Commission,” blogged Rainey Reitman, activism director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). “We hope Congress, the Commerce Department, and industry figures will turn to it as they continue crafting policy around user data in coming years.”

In particular, Reitman expressed the EFF’s support on the FTC’s stance regarding a Do-Not-Track mechanism as well as the agency’s support of the HTTPS Everywhere Firefox Add-on and its articulation of the problems with data brokers.

The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) also largely praised the FTC report for providing a baseline for best practices for protecting consumer privacy.

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