Comment Supermassive Diet (Score 1) 102
I tried a supermassive diet, but it didn't work out so well. Turns out metabolism doesn't work that way.
Comment Re:Not that much (Score 1) 121
That depends on whether the plastic in the oceans retains heat. It could count as an assist.
The Algorithm That 'Sees' Beauty In Photographic Portraits 76
KentuckyFC (1144503) writes "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But what if the beholder is a machine? Scientists from Yahoo Labs in Barcelona have trained a machine learning algorithm to pick out beautiful photographic portraits from a collection of not-so-beautiful ones. They began with a set of 10,000 portraits that have been rated by humans and then allowed the algorithm to "learn" the difference by taking into account personal factors such as the age, sex and race of the subject as well as technical factors such as the sharpness of the image, the exposure and the contrast between the face and the background and so on. The trained algorithm was then able to reliably pick out the most beautiful portraits. Curiously, the algorithm does this by ignoring personal details such as age, sex, race, eye colour and so on and instead focuses only on technical details such as sharpness, exposure and contrast. The team say this suggests that any subject can be part of a stunning portrait regardless of their looks. It also suggests that "perfect portrait" algorithms could be built in to the next generation of cameras, rather like the smile-capturing algorithms of today."
Submission + - What Are the Rational Pros and Cons of Homeschooling 1
VorpalRodent writes: I went to a private school for about 6 years, then completed my education at the local public school, going on to get a couple undergraduate degrees and a postgraduate degree. My wife dropped out of high school and got her equivalency many years later. Now, she wants to homeschool our son.
There is a significant body of literature which indicates that homeschoolers outperform their traditionally schooled counterparts academically, regardless of the level of education of the parent, and she certainly cares more now that she's older. I don't like anecdotes, but I certainly haven't seen the research borne out in any of the people that I know who were homeschooled, and more importantly, it seems like the only reason my wife wants to homeschool is because she doesn't want to let go.
Our son would be going into Kindergarten this coming year. I'm interested in some rational discussion on this, since it seems like the only viewpoints I've ever seen on the matter are "Better academics" vs. "Social interaction", both of which are gross oversimplifications. It doesn't help that I can't find any statistical information on post-schooling outcomes.
There is a significant body of literature which indicates that homeschoolers outperform their traditionally schooled counterparts academically, regardless of the level of education of the parent, and she certainly cares more now that she's older. I don't like anecdotes, but I certainly haven't seen the research borne out in any of the people that I know who were homeschooled, and more importantly, it seems like the only reason my wife wants to homeschool is because she doesn't want to let go.
Our son would be going into Kindergarten this coming year. I'm interested in some rational discussion on this, since it seems like the only viewpoints I've ever seen on the matter are "Better academics" vs. "Social interaction", both of which are gross oversimplifications. It doesn't help that I can't find any statistical information on post-schooling outcomes.
Comment Re:A matter of love (Score 4, Funny) 132
It's just different grammar than you're used to.
Apple and Blackberry at Tanagra. Darmok and Jalad, their cellphones wide.
Comment Diseases? (Score 5, Funny) 42
Does it also simulate how viruses propagate amongst passengers? Can you simulate the scenario where all the toilets clog and the decks are awash with filth?
I demand realism from my simulators!
Comment Re:Moot argument (Score 1) 417
Which is exactly why Batman would win.
Comment Hmm... (Score 0) 417
I call conspiracy. This all sounds like what the intelligent computer overlords would want us to think.
I for one welcome them.
Comment Re:soo.... (Score 2) 327
This may not be what you intended, but I really like the idea of a modular solar farm. I pay up front for one or more solar panels to be installed in a desert somewhere, managed by a third party, then get dividends from the power that is produced and sold. I'm not directly affecting my local power bill, but I'm contributing to a solution and offsetting my bill from the power generated. It would work a whole lot better than trying to capture sunlight during my 6 months of winter (or fighting the neighborhood covenant that believes all solar power is an eyesore).
Comment Re:there is an end to the halting problem (Score 1) 335
Notably, depending upon how HCF is implemented on any given hardware, this also addresses the underlying question of whether the robot could decide to kill the human. In this case, we apparently default to true.
Comment Where's Bennett? (Score 1) 55
Based on his prolific works on Slashdot, I'm wondering where frequent contributor Bennett Haselton is on the list?
Big Talk About Small Samples 246
Bennett Haselton writes: My last article garnered some objections from readers saying that the sample sizes were too
small to draw meaningful conclusions. (36 out of 47 survey-takers, or 77%, said that a picture
of a black woman breast-feeding was inappropriate; while in a different group,
38 out of 54 survey-takers, or 70%, said
that a picture of a white woman breast-feeding was inappropriate in the same context.)
My conclusion was that, even on the basis of a relatively small sample, the evidence was
strongly against a "huge" gap in the rates at which the surveyed population would consider
the two pictures to be inappropriate. I stand by that, but it's worth presenting
the math to support that conclusion, because I think the surveys are valuable tools when
you understand what you can and cannot demonstrate with a small sample. (Basically,
a small sample can present only weak evidence as to what the population average is,
but you can confidently demonstrate what it is not.)
Keep reading to see what Bennett has to say.
Comment Recipe for Success (Score 1) 107
1. Make bad game
2. Add landfill waste
3. Simmer on low heat for 30 years
4. ???
5. Excavate and sell to collectors (Profit!)
2. Add landfill waste
3. Simmer on low heat for 30 years
4. ???
5. Excavate and sell to collectors (Profit!)
Comment Nifty Overview (Score 4, Interesting) 37
Questions about government overreach and whatnot aside, the analyst's manual is quite a nice read on how mundane intelligence analysis can be. They've apparently got a very nice application for establishing persons of interest and automatically creating a directed graph of who knows whom based on address books / calendars, but the rest is still human analysis. I particularly liked the pictures which clearly showed location information as being "somewhere in this two block radius".
Comment Old Physics Joke (Score 4, Funny) 144
So, the punchline is now reality? "Assume a spherical driver."
