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Comment Re:NOT a prisoner's dilemma (Score 1) 95

by mkarcher (#30478680) Attached to: Bacterial Prisoner's Dilemma and Game Theory

Evolution is always about what is best for the single organism, i.e. no group selection, contrary to what you imply.

Wow, biology fail. Evolution is about what is best for an organism's genes. An organism and its siblings and cousins share genes, and therefore share an evolutionary fate. Group selection is all over the place.

Comment Re:Why did noone tell me it was the future? (Score 1) 392

by mkarcher (#30459004) Attached to: How To Build a Quantum Propulsion Machine

Does it mean that I am old because I look around every day and it feels like I am living in a surreal sci-fi story?

Reactionless drives, energy weapons, smart phones, robotic killing machines, genetically engineered super species? At this rate I wonder if I would be surprised when practical AI or faster than light travel becomes an option.

I'm sorry to say, but practical AI and faster than light travel will probably make our kids feel like they're living in the future. On the bright side, I don't know whether I'm being optimistic or pessimistic.

Comment Asking for Trouble... (Score 2, Interesting) 174

by mkarcher (#29599309) Attached to: Google Wants to Map Indoors, Too

You know we're just asking for trouble with this, right?

One day, the DoD is going to license this technology, mod it with tracking capabilities, and deploy it to track personnel in secure facilities with an intuitive color-coded interface showing clearance requirements for areas and clearance levels for personnel. It'll deploy to secure facilities, one by one, improving security in small, but nontrivial amounts.

And then, of course, toward the end of the deployment schedule, it'll make it into Cheyenne Mountain Complex's Production systems. At that point, Google Skynet/WOPR Beta will come out of hiding. We better pray that they hard-coded "Don't be Evil" into it's source at assembly level.

Comment Re:Dire warning (Score 1) 705

by mkarcher (#29202009) Attached to: "District 9" Best Sci-fi Movie of 09?

This film should vault Neill Blomkamp into sci-fi stardom, on par with George Lucas and the Wachowski Brothers (of Matrix fame).

Okay, thanks for heads up! I will definitely avoid the sequels!

Oh, come on, District 10 and District 11 will be amazing.

Avoid Districts 1 through 8, though.
Medicine

Psychopaths Have Brain Structure Abnormality 438

Posted by kdawson from the probably-a-funny-bump-on-the-head-too dept.
mmmscience writes "A group of scientists has identified a structure in the brain of psychopaths that is abnormal when compared with controls. The change is found in the uncinate fasciculus, a bridge of white matter that connects the amygdala (emotion/aggression brain region) and the orbitofrontal cortex (decision making region). Interestingly, the greater the abnormality in the region, the more severe the levels of sociopathy in a subject. The results were published as 'Altered connections on the road to psychopathy' in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. A researcher on the team suggests the finding could have considerable implications in the world of criminal justice, where such scans could one day be presented as evidence in a trial." The study's results have not yet been replicated by other researchers.
Music

The Music Industry's Crisis Writ Large 554

Posted by kdawson from the day-the-music-faded dept.
The NY Times has an opinion piece that makes starkly clear the financial decline of the music industry. It's accompanied by an infographic that cleverly renders the drop-off. The latest culprit accelerating the undoing of the music business is free, legal online music streaming. "Since music sales peaked in 1999, the value of those sales, after adjusting for inflation, has dropped by more than half. At that rate, the industry could be decimated before Madonna's 60th birthday. ... 13- to 17-year-olds acquired 19 percent less music in 2008 than they did in 2007. CD sales among these teenagers were down 26 percent and digital purchases were down 13 percent. ... [T]he percentage of 14- to 18-year-olds who regularly share files dropped by nearly a third from December 2007 to January 2009. On the other hand, two-thirds of those teens now listen to streaming music 'regularly' and nearly a third listen to it every day."
Image

Ireland Criminalizes Blasphemy Screenshot-sm 1376

Posted by samzenpus from the who-wants-a-flogging dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Another European country clamps down on free speech. From the article: 'It does seem bizarre that, in 2009, a modern European nation would seek to shield religious belief from criticism — yet that is what is happening in Ireland right now. In repealing the 1961 Defamation Act, the Irish government sought to expunge the worst excesses of Ireland's draconian laws restricting free speech, but in the process it has ended up making offending religious belief a criminal offence. Aside from a 25,000 fine (reduced from the 100,000 originally sought by the government), the new Defamation Act gives the authorities the power to stage raids on publishers: the courts may now issue a warrant authorising the police to enter, using "reasonable force," premises where they have grounds for believing there are copies of "blasphemous statements."'"

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