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Submission + - Swedish fare dodgers taking grounds against transportation authorities (nytimes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Every transit network has its fare beaters, the riders who view payment as either optional or prohibitively expensive. Many cities, most notably New York, view turnstile-jumpers as a top policing priority, reasoning that scofflaws might graduate to more serious crimes if left alone.

But in Stockholm, the offenders seem to have defeated the system.

Comment Here in milwaukee... (Score 3, Insightful) 76

by Alien7 (#46966625) Attached to: Milwaukee City Council Proposal Would Pave Way For Uber, Lyft

I've lived here in Milwaukee on and off for the last decade or so, and I can tell you right now this is the right decision for our town. Milwaukee is a city whose economy is entirely based on alcohol, that being said we have had awful cab service for as long as I've lived here. All summer long drunks flood the street for this festival and that festival, and every weekend the wait for a cab is frequently over an hour, sometimes it takes 20 or 30 minutes just to get on the phone with a dispatcher. Seeing as how the underfunded and overpriced bus system stops running an hour before bar close what we end up with is a plague of drunk drivers. Our cab companies have failed to provide us with the proper service we need (presumably because of the cost of keeping up an unused fleet in the winter months) , Uber gave the city an alternative and we made sure nothing would impede the solution to our problems.

Submission + - Is there a place for me in this world?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I'm mildly autistic and in my mid 30s. I know I'm not the smartest person ever — not even close — but I'm pretty smart: perfect scores on SAT, etc., way back in high school and a PhD from a private research university you've heard of. I don't consider intelligence a virtue (in contrast to, say, ethical living); it's just what I have, and that's that. There are plenty of things I lack. Anyway, I've made myself very good at applied math and scientific computing. For years, without ever tiring, I've worked approximately 6.5 days a week all but approximately 4 of my waking hours per day. I work at a research university as research staff, and my focus is on producing high-quality, efficient, relevant scientific software. But funding is tough. I'm terrible at selling myself. I have a hard time writing proposals because when I work on mushy tasks, I become depressed and generally bent out of shape. My question: Is it possible to find a place where I can do exactly what I do best and keeps me stable — analyze and develop mathematical algorithms and software — without ever having to do other stuff and, in particular, without being good at presenting myself? I don't care about salary beyond keeping up my frugal lifestyle and saving a sufficient amount to maintain that frugal lifestyle until I die. Ideas? Or do we simply live in a world where we all have to sell what we do no matter what? Thanks for your thoughts.

Submission + - An Adaptation From 'Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt,' by Michael Lewis (nytimes.com)

Submitted by Lasrick
Lasrick writes: This NYT adaptation from the book provides an in-depth and infuriating look at how the stock market is rigged. Brad Katsuyama of the Royal Bank of Canada couldn't understand why stock he was trying to buy would suddenly vanish: 'Before RBC acquired this supposed state-of-the-art electronic-trading firm, Katsuyama’s computers worked as he expected them to. Suddenly they didn’t. It used to be that when his trading screens showed 10,000 shares of Intel offered at $22 a share, it meant that he could buy 10,000 shares of Intel for $22 a share. He had only to push a button. By the spring of 2007, however, when he pushed the button to complete a trade, the offers would vanish.' The ensuing investigation by Katsuyama led him to design a program that actually slowed down the trades. But Katsuyama's investigation revealed so much about how the system is rigged. Great read.

Comment Angry homebrewer corrects Angry homebrewer (Score 1) 157

by Alien7 (#45529599) Attached to: Beer Drinking Networks In Amazon Tribe Help Explain Altruism

' in which yeast eat the sugar and excrete ethanol.'.

This is not exactly correct either, the yeast do not 'eat sugar and poop alcohol', in actuality the yeast, after running out of oxygen in the air (or without access to air in the case of bottom fermenting yeast) 'breath' the exposed oxygen off of the sugar molecule, what's left behind is alcohol.

Comment Fine by me (Score 1) 409

by Alien7 (#45468967) Attached to: Boston Cops Outraged Over Plans to Watch Their Movements Using GPS

Think of the implications when criminals and everyday citizens get ahold of the police GPS data. How convenient would it be to have a map of the city with a little blip showing the position of each cop car if you were say, trying to plan a murder, or smuggling methamphetamine. You could track the rounds each squad car takes over the course of weeks and plan the perfect route to avoid any intervention. Not to mention the end of speed traps as we know it.

Comment Thwart telecomm companies (Score 1) 2

The free point to point mesh internet needs to become a reality. The internet will never be free and open if it is controlled by massive telecommunications conglomerates, we need an internet that relies on a P2P network of high powered wireless devices. The original computer networking relied on direct ham radio connections between points, if this method could be improved with higher bandwidth and disseminated on citizens band frequencies so the FCC couldn't touch it we could make the internet as untraceable as a Tor network. This is a challenge for engineers concerned with the direction internet regulation is going. With private space travel becoming a reality one could even foresee a network that relies on private satellites outside the jurisdiction of any nation, and the only cost to access it would be that of the devices you use to connect.

Submission + - Schneier: The US government has betrayed the internet. We need to take it back. (theguardian.com) 2

Submitted by wabrandsma
wabrandsma writes: Quoting Bruce Schneier in the Guardian:

The NSA has undermined a fundamental social contract. We engineers built the internet – and now we have to fix it

Government and industry have betrayed the internet, and us. This is not the internet the world needs, or the internet its creators envisioned. We need to take it back. And by we, I mean the engineering community.

Yes, this is primarily a political problem, a policy matter that requires political intervention. But this is also an engineering problem, and there are several things engineers can – and should – do.

Submission + - The Chromochord: Biotech's First Musical Instrument Plays Proteins Like A Piano (scientificamerican.com)

Submitted by Josiah Zayner
Josiah Zayner writes: The Chromochord allows a musician to vibrate proteins quantum mechanically with light just like they would a piano string. The basis of the Chromochord is the engineered Light-Oxygen-Voltage protein domain from Avena sativa(Oat). Absorption of light causes the chromophore in the protein to undergo a quantum mechanical energy transition that reversibly changes the absorption spectra and whose measurement modulates the pitch of notes being played. Josiah Zayner, the inventor of the Chromochord, has been working with the composer Francisco Castillo Trigueros to create complex musical compositions based on this protein nanotechnology.

Submission + - Universal Genome Sequencing at Birth? (sciencemag.org) 1

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: In a few years, all new parents may go home from the hospital with not just a bundle of joy, but with something else—the complete sequence of their baby’s DNA. A new research program funded at $25 million over 5 years by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will explore the promise—and ethical challenges—of sequencing every newborn’s genome.

Submission + - Are Young Adults Getting Over Weed? (vice.com)

Submitted by Daniel_Stuckey
Daniel_Stuckey writes: For the first time in four decades of polling, a national survey showed that a 52 percent of Americans want to legalize the sticky stuff. With 20 states already having approved medical marijuana, another sixteen states decriminalizing possession, and two states, Colorado and Washington, legalizing bud outright for recreational use, the US is going greener and greener country as we roll out of first decade of the new millennium. But another national poll conducted this summer hints at a cultural trend seemingly at odds with this mass population shift towards drug love. A Gallup report published at the beginning of August says that while general support of cannabis has been increasing, experimentation and use among 18- to 29-year-olds is actually decreasing.

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