Comment Re:I counted almost 30 with no "computers" (Score 1) 559
Still less than 10 here. I must be a philistine.
Comment Jevons Paradox (Score 1) 561
"And one of the big problems we’re working on today is car safety and efficiency."
Regarding efficiency, they are clearly oblivious to Jevons Paradox. I''d say this development is more likely to increase car use than decrease it, even if it increases car sharing.
I'd love to have one though.
Regarding efficiency, they are clearly oblivious to Jevons Paradox. I''d say this development is more likely to increase car use than decrease it, even if it increases car sharing.
I'd love to have one though.
Comment Re:Here's hoping they can track down peanut allerg (Score 1) 177
I didn't have an overly clean childhood. I am a very sensitive to gluten. Does my anecdotal evidence disprove your position?
Why You Never Ask the Designers For a Favor 238
Usually there is nothing funny about a missing pet, but the tale of Missy the lost cat is hilarious. It serves as an example of just how clueless your fellow employees can be, and why you should never ask the designers to drop what they're doing, and help with a personal matter.
Comment Re:Oh really? (Score 1) 274
I recognize what raw human desire, greed and ambition can drive people to do -- anything.
Human psychology is much more complex than that. The reason it tends towards this at the moment is very much a part of the environment of the social structure we find ourselves in. For example, if you look at many tribal systems, you find that people tend to be much more co-operative, with a gift economy being the main means of exchange of value.
Black Hole Emits a 1,000-Light-Year-Wide Gas Bubble 145
PhrostyMcByte writes "12 million light-years away, in the outer spiral of galaxy NGC 7793, a bubble of hot gas approximately 1,000 light-years in diameter can be found shooting out of a black hole — one of the most powerful jets of energy ever seen. (Abstract available at Nature.) The bubble has been growing for approximately 200,000 years, and is expanding at around 1,000,000 kilometers per hour."
Comment Re:Well, just you just keep on driving (Score 3, Interesting) 327
Wrong. They would be drilling in both.
Comment challenging the fabric of a meritocratic society (Score 1) 390
The free distribution of information on the internet is challenging the fabric of a meritocratic society. This is why the copyright question is so difficult to answer.
The judge makes perfect sense from a meritocratic perspective, but do we want that? I would prefer we moved towards a new set of values (probably peer based anarchism), but this would ultimately involve overhauling our entire politico economic system, pretty much in the same way that the renaissance and scientific enlightenment moved us from an autocratic/monarchist system to the meritocratic one we have today.
Judge Thinks Linking To Copyrighted Material Should Be Illegal 390
An article at TechCrunch discusses a blog post from Richard Posner, a US Court of Appeals judge, about the struggling newspaper industry. Posner explains why he thinks the newspapers will continue to struggle, and then comes to a rather unusual conclusion: "Expanding copyright law to bar online access to copyrighted materials without the copyright holder's consent, or to bar linking to or paraphrasing copyrighted materials without the copyright holder's consent, might be necessary to keep free riding on content financed by online newspapers from so impairing the incentive to create costly news-gathering operations that news services like Reuters and the Associated Press would become the only professional, nongovernmental sources of news and opinion."
Comment Re:An easier way to make democracy more effective (Score 1) 202
That is the position I started from.
But does everyone really need or want to be involved in the nitty gritty details of creating new laws.
The problem with the current system is that MPs are not held accountable. However I think that having specialists who study the implications of new laws is a good thing.
But does everyone really need or want to be involved in the nitty gritty details of creating new laws.
The problem with the current system is that MPs are not held accountable. However I think that having specialists who study the implications of new laws is a good thing.
Comment An easier way to make democracy more effective (Score 4, Interesting) 202
Describing this for the UK but it can be adapted for anywhere.
After the election which took place as normal. Every member of parliament gets a vote that is proportionate to the number of constituents that are eligible to vote.
Everyone who is eligible to vote can change who represents them to any of the sitting MPs, once every 3 moths or so. This takes a vote away from their MP and gives it to the MP they want to have it. (Suggest that libraries are used for this purpose).
This process has the following effects.
1. It does not disenfranchise those who don't want to do more than they already do.
2. It maintains an element of local representation.
3. It makes MPs do what they say they will do, because if they don't people will stop supporting them a lot more quickly.
4. It allows for a far greater degree of representation. Out of the several hundred sitting MPs it is likely that at least one will closely represent your views.
After the election which took place as normal. Every member of parliament gets a vote that is proportionate to the number of constituents that are eligible to vote.
Everyone who is eligible to vote can change who represents them to any of the sitting MPs, once every 3 moths or so. This takes a vote away from their MP and gives it to the MP they want to have it. (Suggest that libraries are used for this purpose).
This process has the following effects.
1. It does not disenfranchise those who don't want to do more than they already do.
2. It maintains an element of local representation.
3. It makes MPs do what they say they will do, because if they don't people will stop supporting them a lot more quickly.
4. It allows for a far greater degree of representation. Out of the several hundred sitting MPs it is likely that at least one will closely represent your views.
