I haven't read the article (shock), so I'm not arguing with those who say this isn't interesting, but it reminded me of Douglas Hofstadter in GEB:

"I was talking one day with two systems programmers for the computer I was using. They mentioned that the operating system seemed to be able to handle up to about thirty-five users with great comfort, but at about thirty-five users or so, the response time all of a sudden shot up, getting so slow that you might as well log off and go home and wait until later. Jokingly I said, "Well, that's simple to fix -- just find the place in the operating system where the number '35' is stored, and change it to '60'!" Everyone laughed. The point is, of course, that there is no such place. Where, then, does the critical number -- 35 users -- come from? The answer is: It is a visible consequence of the overall system organization -- an "epiphenomenon".

Similarly, you might ask about a sprinter, "Where is the '9.3' stored, that makes him be able to run 100 yards in 9.3 seconds?" Obviously, it is not stored anywhere. His time is a result of how he is built, what his reaction time is, a million factors all interacting when he runs. The time is quite reproducible, but it is not stored in his body anywhere. It is spread around among all the cells of his body and only manifests itself in the act of the sprint itself.

Epiphenomena abound. In the game of "Go", there is the feature that "two eyes live". It is not built into the rules, but it is a consequence of the rules. In the human brain, there is gullibility. How gullible are you? Is your gullibility located in some "gullibility center" in your brain? Could a neurosurgeon reach in and perform some delicate operation to lower your gullibility, otherwise leaving you alone? If you believe this, you are pretty gullible, and should perhaps consider such an operation".

I don't think it would be more difficult, because If you are flying, a straight line is always the minimum path. It doesn't add a whole lot (if it adds anything at all) to the complexity of the problem. You're right though, it also wouldn't be less difficult. And of course, if some expert bees can collect nectar as they fly by, the baseball paths from a previous story could apply.

Yeah, there was an old saying about books, something like: "Never lend books. Give them instead. The effect is the same and you'll look nicer".

My Acer Aspire One included a recovery CD, and the computer doesn't have a CD drive. Then again, I spent 250€ on that laptop, so it's understandable that they would cut costs wherever possible. It can be a hassle if you don't have an external drive, but it's not absurd.

If he were from New Zealand I would say it's a binary solo, but being from Canada I'm not sure.

Ah, the joys of using Debian stable. If this DDoS update is released months down the road, it will probably be detected in the year and a half before my next update.

Fortunately for the U.S., only the battleships were in port. I don't think that the U.S. could have been as successful in the Pacific if it had lost carriers during this attack.

That doesn't seem to be the case, unless the carriers were of vital importance immediately. Quoting Churchill in The Second World War:

In the autumn of 1942, only three American aircraft-carriers were afloat; a year later there were fifty; by the end of the war there were more than a hundred.

I'm using Firefox and I simply reject all cookies. For the sites that need it (for login purposes, in my case), I add exceptions. You can even add exceptions forever or just for the session. This method may be too restrictive for some, but if, like me, you only absolutely need cookies in a handful of sites that very seldom change, it works well.

Funnily enough, that can be accomplished through evolution, if we come up with a good system of rewards and punishment.

"If you're in a war, instead of throwing a hand grenade at the enemy, throw one of those small pumpkins. Maybe it'll make everyone think how stupid war is, and while they are thinking, you can throw a real grenade at them."