Comment Re:Fun stuff in the China Desert (Score 1) 412
Yeah, you just follow the roads and find all kinds of weird stuff: http://g.co/maps/xwk8j
Comment Re:Possible use... (Score 4, Interesting) 412
This one (the first image in the Wired article) seems to be exactly the same dimensions as the image tiles - zoom out until you see different "vintage" images and you'll see what I mean. Could just be an artifact. The others look real though.
This is a nice tool for viewing the cross section (altitude) of an arbitrary path drawn on a google map:
http://www.geocontext.org/publ/2010/04/profiler/en/
Comment hanging and immigration (Score 1) 1
One response on Twitter was that the masses would vote for hanging, and other kneejerk responses.
Maybe that's democracy. Maybe there are workarounds. You could have to show some basic knowledge and understanding of a subject before voting (like clicking through a EULA...).
Submission + - Could crowd-sourced democracy be made to work? (google.com) 1
maccallr writes: The Occupy Movement is getting everyone talking about how to fix the world's economic (and social, environmental...) problems. It is even trialling new forms of "open" democracy. Trouble is, it's easy to criticise the physical occupiers for being unrepresentative of the general population — and much of their debating time is spent on practical rather than policy issues. Well-meaning but naive occupiers could be susceptible to exploitation by the political establishment and vested interests. In the UK, virtual occupiers are using Google Moderator to propose and debate policy in the comfort of their homes (where, presumably, it is easier to find out stuff you didn't know). Could something like this be done on a massive scale (national or global) to reach consensus on what needs to be done? How do you maximise participation by "normal folk" on complex issues? What level of participation could be considered quorate? How do you deal with block votes? What can we learn from e-petitions and Iceland's crowd-sourced constitution? Is the "Occupy" branding appropriate? What other pitfalls are there? Or are existing models of democracy and dictatorship fit for purpose?
Submission + - 'Dump Your Bank Day' appears to catch on (cnn.com) 3
suraj.sun writes: Customers are dumping their banks in droves ahead of the nationwide "Move Your Money" and "Bank Transfer Day" movements this Saturday. Given the recent spotlight on attempts — and ultimate failures — by some of the nation's biggest banks to tack on new debit card fees, thousands of disgruntled consumers have already either left or pledged to leave their current bank for a community bank or credit union, which are known for having fewer and/or lower bank account fees.
At least 650,000 consumers have already joined credit unions since Sept. 29, the day Bank of America announced plans to impose its controversial $5 debit card fee, according to a nationwide survey of credit unions by the Credit Union National Association. And while Bank of America and other banks have since backpedaled on imposing the fees, consumers are making it clear they are still fed up. More than 4 in every 5 credit unions said new customers cited days like "Bank Transfer Day" and new fees imposed by their banks as reasons for opening accounts.
CNN: http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/03/pf/move_your_money_day/index.htm
At least 650,000 consumers have already joined credit unions since Sept. 29, the day Bank of America announced plans to impose its controversial $5 debit card fee, according to a nationwide survey of credit unions by the Credit Union National Association. And while Bank of America and other banks have since backpedaled on imposing the fees, consumers are making it clear they are still fed up. More than 4 in every 5 credit unions said new customers cited days like "Bank Transfer Day" and new fees imposed by their banks as reasons for opening accounts.
CNN: http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/03/pf/move_your_money_day/index.htm
Comment A tribute in triangles (from 2008) (Score 1) 725
Comment Re:Prof is a compleat idiot (Score 1) 693
Totally agree, apart from the beating to death bit!
200 Students Admit Cheating After Professor's Online Rant 693
Over 200 University of Central Florida students admitted to cheating on a midterm exam after their professor figured out at least a third of his class had cheated. In a lecture posted on YouTube, Professor Richard Quinn told the students that he had done a statistical analysis of the grades and was using other methods to identify the cheats, but instead of turning the list over to the university authorities he offered the following deal: "I don't want to have to explain to your parents why you didn't graduate, so I went to the Dean and I made a deal. The deal is you can either wait it out and hope that we don't identify you, or you can identify yourself to your lab instructor and you can complete the rest of the course and the grade you get in the course is the grade you earned in the course."
Comment Re:Better idea: (Score 1) 214
C'mon gman003. You can watch the whole video, surely, before posting?
Comment and lava lamps (Score 2, Informative) 557
The heating effect is important here too.
Comment CSI (Score 1) 874
While on the subject of CSI, don't you love the way they just happen to have a custom spinny-roundy 3D database for just about anything you can care to think of.
That, and the rather optimistic natural language queries they type into the aforementioned databases.
Cooling the Planet With a Bubble Bath 219
cremeglace writes "A Harvard University physicist has come up with a new way to cool parts of the planet: pump vast swarms of tiny bubbles into the sea to increase its reflectivity and lower water temperatures. 'Since water covers most of the earth, don't dim the sun,' says the scientist, Russell Seitz, speaking from an international meeting on geoengineering research. 'Brighten the water.' From ScienceNOW: 'Computer simulations show that tiny bubbles could have a profound cooling effect. Using a model that simulates how light, water, and air interact, Seitz found that microbubbles could double the reflectivity of water at a concentration of only one part per million by volume. When Seitz plugged that data into a climate model, he found that the microbubble strategy could cool the planet by up to 3C. He has submitted a paper on the concept he calls “Bright Water" to the journal Climatic Change.'"
Comment Re:Google V China (Score 4, Insightful) 115
Well personally I'd wait and see if they "do no evil" with regard to their blatantly obvious software patent for using geolocation info to target ads.
Comment bibtex (Score 2, Informative) 260
think he means bibtex (a LaTeX bibliography tool/format)
OpenOffice 3.2 Released 260
harmonise writes "Version 3.2 of the OpenOffice.org office suite is now available. This marks the tenth anniversary year of the office suite, with over three hundred million downloads recorded in total. The new features include faster start up times; improved compatibility with open standard (ODF) and proprietary file formats; improvements to all components, particularly the Calc spreadsheet, with over a dozen new or enhanced features; and the Chart module (usable throughout OpenOffice.org) has had a usability makeover as well as offering new chart types."
