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Bloomberg: Steve Jobs Behind NYC Crime Wave 311

Posted by timothy from the well-of-course-he-was-duh dept.
theodp writes "Rudy Giuliani had John Gotti to worry about; Mike Bloomberg has Steve Jobs. Despite all-time lows for the city in homicides and shootings, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg said overall crime in New York City was up 3.3% in 2012 due to iPhone, iPad and other Apple device thefts, which have increased by 3,890 this year. 'If you just took away the jump in Apple, we'd be down for the year,' explained Marc La Vorgna, the mayor's press secretary. 'The proliferation of people carrying expensive devices around is so great,' La Vorgna added. 'It's something that's never had to be dealt with before.' Bloomberg also took to the radio, urging New Yorkers who didn't want to become a crime statistic to keep their iDevices in an interior, hard-to-reach pocket: 'Put it in a pocket in sort of a more body-fitting, tighter clothes, that you can feel if it was — if somebody put their hand in your pocket, not just an outside coat pocket.' But it seems the best way to fight the iCrime Wave might be to slash the $699 price of an iPhone (unactivated), which costs an estimated $207 to make. The U.S. phone subsidy model reportedly adds $400+ to the price of an iPhone. So, is offering unlocked alternatives at much more reasonable prices than an iPhone — like the $299 Nexus 4, for starters — the real key to taking a bite out of cellphone crime? After all, didn't dramatic price cuts pretty much kill car stereo theft?"

Comment Re:Video games have been doing this for years (Score 1) 599

by deuterium (#42291565) Attached to: Why <em>The Hobbit's</em> 48fps Is a Good Thing

I agree with this for games, but I think it's because you're actually controlling it instead of merely viewing it. It's satisfying to have more immediate feedback to your inputs. Watching a mouse cursor move at 24fps (say, in an instructional screen captured video) isn't as frustrating as operating a cursor at that rate. Feedback is always better when it's faster.
Wikipedia

Let the Campaign Edit Wars Begin 571

Posted by samzenpus from the history-goes-to-the-victor dept.
Hugh Pickens writes writes "Megan Garber writes that in high school, Paul Ryan's classmates voted him as his class's 'biggest brown noser,' a juicy tidbit that is a source of delight for his political opponents but considered an irrelevant piece of youthful trivia to his supporters. 'But it's also a tension that will play out, repeatedly, in the most comprehensive narrative we have about Paul Ryan as a person and a politician and a policy-maker: his Wikipedia page,' writes Garber. Late Friday night, just as news of the Ryan choice leaked in the political press — the first substantial edit to that page removed the 'brown noser' mention which had been on the page since June 16. The Wikipedia deletion has given rise to a whole discussion of whether the mention is a partisan attack, whether 'brown noser' is a pejorative, and whether an old high school opinion survey is notable or relevant. As of this writing, 'brown noser' stands as does a maybe-mitigating piece of Ryan-as-high-schooler trivia: that he was also voted prom king. But that equilibrium could change, again, in an instant. 'Today is the glory day for the Paul Ryan Wikipedia page,' writes Garber. 'Yesterday, it saw just 10 [edits]. Today, however — early on a Saturday morning, East Coast time — it's already received hundreds of revisions. And the official news of the Ryan selection, of course, is just over an hour old.' Now Ryan's page is ready to host debates about biographical details and their epistemological relevance. 'Like so many before it, will be a place of debate and dissent and derision. But it will also be a place where people can come together to discuss information and policy and the intersection between the two — a town square for the digital age.'"

Comment Re:Willing to bet.. (Score 1) 1706

While the initiator is to blame for the situation each individual holds their own responsibility for how they respond.

Certainly not. If someone starst a fire in a theater, and a panic leads to a stampede, the only person responsible for anything that results is the arsonist - period.

Think of it this way, if a gunman entered a crowded room and shot some people, would it be acceptable to take him out with a grenade?

If he has body armor and is heavily armed, certainly. The context determines what the valid response should be.

Comment Re:Willing to bet.. (Score 1) 1706

You are completely disregarding the effect that a society free of gun laws and fear of guns has on the decision-making of these sorts of people. Would he have bothered getting off his couch if he knew that many of the people in the theater were likely armed?

So no, you aren't arming yourself for an unlikely event, but helping make the event unlikely by arming yourself - in addition to promoting the easement of gun laws, and spreading gun education to reduce irrational fear of guns.

Comment Re:Willing to bet.. (Score 2) 1706

In short, would I want to spend every waking moment surrounded by people who are armed to the teeth for the highly unlikely offchance that I happen to be in a situation like this one at some point, and then hope that amateurs take him down without hitting even more innocent people in the smoke, darkness, and chaos?

You are discounting the effect that a society free of gun laws and fear of guns has on the decision-making of these sorts of people. Would he have bothered getting off his couch if he knew that many of the people in the theater were likely armed?

So no, you aren't arming yourself for an unlikely event, but helping make the event unlikely by arming yourself - in addition to promoting the easement of gun laws, and spreading gun education to reduce irrational fear of guns.

Submission + - Oregon State University Fires Climate Change Skeptic (foxnews.com) 2

Submitted by
brian0918
brian0918 writes: "With finals approaching, Oregon State University chemistry professor Nicholas Drapela was fired without warning. Three weeks later, he has still been given no reason for the university’s decision to 'not renew his contract'. Drapela, an outspoken critic of man-made climate change, worked at the university for 10 years and was well-liked by students. Oregon physicist Gordon J. Fulks, another critic of anthropogenic climate change, has circulated a letter in defense of Drapela."

Comment Some issues (Score 1) 205

by brian0918 (#40234711) Attached to: Coffee Consumption Strongly Linked To Preventing Alzheimer's
Besides correlation != causation, did they actually determine that those individuals with reduced Alzheimer's risk were actually consuming more caffeine? Higher blood caffeine levels does not necessarily indicate higher caffeine intake, any more than a person with high blood alcohol levels - who happens have to have slow alcohol metabolism - can be said to be drinking more alcohol than others.

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