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Comment Plenty of flawed studies with flawed conclusions (Score 1) 333

This might be one of those many flawed studies.

How many times did they shock themselves? If it was just once and then they sat there without doing it again then perhaps it was more of curiosity than not being able to be alone and deprived of stimuli.

Many people are very curious about stuff.

And some are stupid or rebellious - if you tell them don't push a button many of them will push the button without trying to find out why not e.g. they might ask "You mean this button?" and then push it...

Comment Re:I smell a rat. (Score 1) 115

But that's why this "vulnerability" should be fixed:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubu...

Imagine if by default if you don't uncheck a checkbox a popular distro has full disk encryption enabled and/or creates an encrypted container.

Then they can't use the "wrench" on everyone that happens to have that distro, because it really is very plausible that the person doesn't have the keys to the container.

As for the arguments against it - if you're in a country where they are still willing to use the "wrench" on someone who is likely to not have the keys, you're screwed already. In such countries if they're not happy with you, you're in big trouble whether you use crypto or not.

Comment Re:What about pedestrians? (Score 1) 235

Granted, it wouldn't work for the little moppets that run between parked SUVs, so it wouldn't be a perfect solution...

That's why I have been proposing that for robot cars they also have cameras/sensors/radars/lidars at bumper height. It's often easier to spot (from a distance) people/animals obscured by vehicles from bumper level than it is to spot them from driver or roof level. But I'm no car or robot car engineer, so someone else will have to actually do it.

You might be able to do something like this for "kiddie" sensors mounted on bicycles/motorcycles, but given the front wheel of those vehicles is movable it's probably a bit trickier :).

Comment Re:Haha, nobody will do this. (Score 1) 208

But as responsible consumers, people need to stop preordering games. All that does is make it easier for publishers to give you crap, since you already paid them up front. Make the companies earn your money!

Does that apply to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Some of the prices here look kinda steep: https://robertsspaceindustries... :)

Comment Re:They hate our freedom (Score 1) 404

It's more like hoarding: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

A feature of hoarding is that it leads to an inefficient distribution of scarce resources, making the scarcity even more of a problem

It's in the interests of the city to have parking spaces that are used for only as long as they are needed.

Allowing this "auctioning" thing causes parking spaces to be held longer than otherwise just so that someone can try to make money from it.

There is no significant increase in efficiency if parking spaces are in great demand - the moment you leave your spot, someone else is likely to take it. And even if there is some inefficiency there are other ways of solving it without this auctioning.

Comment Re:They hate our freedom (Score 2) 404

As long as voters can still vote and elections aren't terribly rigged/diebolded, I don't really consider protests that hold public spaces hostage a good thing. It's fine if they rented out a public space (stadium or field) for their "event".

If you want to protest publicly you could wear a particular hat, shirt, colored item, etc as a sign of protest and move about without preventing others from going about their normal daily lives. Causing massive disruption does not endear me to your cause. If you let random bunch of people start disrupting stuff, you cause problems for everyone else - and another bunch of people might start to do similar or _worse_ things if they disagree with the first bunch.

There are additional/alternative ways of communicating and spreading your message. Many people claim social media is useless -tweets, facebook shares, etc. But there are a number of governments that don't think so: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
And looking at various "campaigns" social media can actually be useful.

It's a different case if people don't have other options- they can't vote and communications are blocked/censored.

Comment Re:What about statistics vs calculus (Score 2) 155

Yeah. Teaching people to detect bullshit and think scientifically would be good.

As for getting a problem and finding a solution, it's still good to teach students to think and solve problems, rather than be an inferior "Google" and regurgitate memorized solutions or follow very specific memorized processes. Because I actually know adults who can't do basic problem solving- say there's a problem with something, their default is getting stuck. They don't go - it could be caused by A, B, C, D and perhaps other stuff I don't know yet. If it's A and we do X, Y should happen. OK lets try doing X. OK Y didn't happen, so it's not A. Let's see if 's B now, and so on. Or let me use Google to get a list of possible causes and then figure out one by one which it might be. Being able to finding possible answers that way is more important than being able to memorize and retrieve answers.

Comment Re:low carb and low PUFA vs high Omega-3? (Score 1) 166

I'm not saying you should eat stinking fish oil tablets, but them stinking should not affect their effect on the body.

Citation please? What makes you so confident that's true? Fish oil oxidizes easily.

The smell is at least partly due to oxidation: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu...

Effects of oxidized fish oil:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu... (affects lipid profile)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu... (but does not affect oxidative stress markers)
See also:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu... (fish oil easily oxidized)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu...

Comment Re:So after years of panic... (Score 1) 250

Might not even be procrastination. From the perspective of some ISPs especially those that have strong ties to media companies the increased scarcity of IPv4 addresses and limitations of carrier NAT might be considered an opportunity and a feature.

Carrier NAT would make P2P protocols less efficient. Conventional media companies may prefer a world where "publishing/broadcasting" to many is restricted to those with $$$$$.

Comment Re:low carb and low PUFA vs high Omega-3? (Score 3, Interesting) 166

I take vitamins because they are relatively cheap, but I'm not sure I see the point of fish-oil capsules, especially with the bad breath and indigestion that comes with them.

If you're getting bad breath from your fish-oil capsules, it may be that they contain oil that's _rancid_ or oxidized.

Bust open a capsule, if it stinks, it's rancid and you shouldn't be eating it anymore than you should be eating rotten fish. Or expecting it to convey health benefits anymore than rotten fish would. Fresh fish doesn't stink - might just have a mild fish smell. Same goes for fresh fish oil. If you eat sashimi or ikura you'd know what I mean.

The big problem is it seems that rancid/oxidized fish oil is not that rare. That's why I don't have that much confidence in those fish oil studies - I don't see much checking on the oxidation/rancidity of the oil.

So it may be that fish oil is good for you, but only if it hasn't gone bad.

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