snorb - Slashdot User

Scientists Say a Dirty Child Is a Healthy Child 331

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday November 24, 2009 @07:07PM from the snack-is-going-to-be-on-the-floor-today dept.

Researchers from the School of Medicine at the University of California have shown that the more germs a child is exposed to, the better their immune system in later life. Their study found that keeping a child's skin too clean impaired the skin's ability to heal itself. From the article: "'These germs are actually good for us,' said Professor Richard Gallo, who led the research. Common bacterial species, known as staphylococci, which can cause inflammation when under the skin, are 'good bacteria' when on the surface, where they can reduce inflammation."

Submission + - http://math.rejecta.org/

Submitted by snorb on Thursday July 23, 2009 @01:36AM

snorb writes: Rejecta Mathematica is an open access, online journal that publishes only papers that have been rejected from peer-reviewed journals (or conferences with comparable review standards) in the mathematical sciences. The inaugural issue is now available. It includes minor or traditionally unpublishable results, non-traditional ideas and proof techniques, misunderstood genius, results based on questionable assumptions, and controversial papers and open letters.

Comment Re:It's about n-dimensional tic-tac-toe. (Score 3, Informative) 60

by snorb on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @05:23PM (#27247873) Attached to: Massive Open Collaboration In Math Declared a Success

That's the Hales-Jewett theorem. The density Hales-Jewett(3) is a little different. Suppose you're putting X's on a 3x3x...x3 (n-dimensional) grid. Such a grid has 3^n points. What the theorem says is that if you've put X's on at least, say, 1% of the 3^n points, then you must have made a line somewhere if n is large enough. You can replace the 1% with whatever fraction you please, but that will change how large n has to be. No, the theorem doesn't state exactly how large n has to be, but already it's a challenging problem.

Comment Re:halp! (Score 2, Informative) 60

by snorb on Wednesday March 18, 2009 @04:48PM (#27247375) Attached to: Massive Open Collaboration In Math Declared a Success

Terry tao's blog has an explanation that's about as simple as you're going to find. (At least one that actually explains the math without handwaving).

http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2009/02/05/upper-and-lower-bounds-for-the-density-hales-jewett-problem/

Sony Bringing RMT To Vanguard 39

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday March 15, 2009 @01:54AM from the saga-of-ka-ching dept.

Eurogamer reports that Sony Online Entertainment will be adding the ability to do real money trading to at least some of their Vanguard: Saga of Heroes servers. It's the same service they opened for a pair of Everquest II servers a while back. Quoting: "The service, offered by Live Gamer, allows players to sell items, currency and characters for real cash through a secure channel, authorised by the game operator. Most real-money trading in MMOs is a 'grey' market that doesn't have the operator's consent. ... Sony Online Entertainment recently said that it had no intention to bring its other real-money trading initiative — the Station Cash item shop — to Vanguard."

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