Comment Re:Random does not neet to be a random walk (Score 1) 184
I think Mandelbrot came up with this decades ago.
Yeah, but most economists never read Mandelbrot. His economic research is very interesting but pretty much unheard of.
Comment Completely random? (Score 1) 184
Various economists argue that the efficiency of a market ought to be clearly evident in the returns it produces. They say that the more efficient it is, the more random its returns will be and a perfect market should be completely random.
I'd really like to see a citation for this. I've studied a fair deal of economics in my day, and I don't remember anything even like a claim that a perfect market is completely random. Maybe I just studied the wrong (or maybe right, in this case) economics, but I can't think of any theoretical foundation for that.
If anyone can point me in the direction of real research on this, I'm very interested.
Comment Let me get this straight... (Score 1) 629
People's beliefs hinge on their world-view.
In other words, people's beliefs are determined by their beliefs.
How come I don't get paid the big bucks to do this research? I could've saved them a lot of time.
In other words, people's beliefs are determined by their beliefs.
How come I don't get paid the big bucks to do this research? I could've saved them a lot of time.
Comment Re:Worth checking out, but not spectacular... (Score 1) 326
This reminds me of one of my favourite (accidental) strategies in Alien Crossfire many moons ago.
Half way through a game, I realized that there was an entire continent that had not been inhabited at all, as the Pirates (most powerful faction by far) controlled all the water around it, so no transports could get in. I created airborne colony pods, which were badass enough, but after I had begun to settle the continent needed a way to get units back and forth. I created a clean air transport, which I named the "Air Bitch", and it served my purposes very well.
Here's where it gets good: later on, one of the AI factions took over one of my cities with mind control, and that city had a handful of Air Bitches sitting there. The AI must have thought Air Bitches were the best thing since sliced bread, because for the rest of the game they produced nothing else by way of military units. As other AIs ran into the Air Bitch, they got the same idea. I ended up winning the game solely because all the AIs were too stupified to actually build combat units, and this remained a strategy I kept up my sleeve for when things really started going south.
Half way through a game, I realized that there was an entire continent that had not been inhabited at all, as the Pirates (most powerful faction by far) controlled all the water around it, so no transports could get in. I created airborne colony pods, which were badass enough, but after I had begun to settle the continent needed a way to get units back and forth. I created a clean air transport, which I named the "Air Bitch", and it served my purposes very well.
Here's where it gets good: later on, one of the AI factions took over one of my cities with mind control, and that city had a handful of Air Bitches sitting there. The AI must have thought Air Bitches were the best thing since sliced bread, because for the rest of the game they produced nothing else by way of military units. As other AIs ran into the Air Bitch, they got the same idea. I ended up winning the game solely because all the AIs were too stupified to actually build combat units, and this remained a strategy I kept up my sleeve for when things really started going south.
Comment Re:Bad summary (Score 1) 677
... and Feb 7 was a Sunday, not a Saturday.
Submission + - Canadian Prime Minister loses to Onion Ring (facebook.com) 2
An anonymous reader writes: On February 2nd, a group was started entitled "Can this Onion Ring get more fans than Stephen Harper?", and just a few days later, the group has almost triple as many fans as the Canadian Prime Minister. The group has over 86,000 fans at the time of this writing, and Stephen Harper has only 30,000. This is just another example of how much Canadian youth disapproves of the elected leader. My contrast, Barack Obama has over 7 million fans — over 200 the amount of Harper — when the population of the USA is approximately 10 times that of Canada. Canada also has proportionally many more Facebook users, which pushes the disparity even further.
"Tube Map" Created For the Milky Way 142
astroengine writes "Assuming you had an interstellar spaceship, how would you navigate around the galaxy? For starters, you'd probably need a map. But there's billions of stars out there — how complex would that map need to be? Actually, Samuel Arbesman, a research fellow from Harvard, has come up with a fun solution. He created the 'Milky Way Transit Authority (MWTA),' a simple transit system in the style of the iconic London Underground 'Tube Map.' (Travel Tip: Don't spend too much time loitering around the station at Carina, there's some demolition work underway.)"
Comment Re:The next line states... (Score 1) 360
You're completely right. It wouldn't be Slashdot if my correction to a comment did not itself require a correction.
My reply took for granted that we were dealing with cross-sectional data, rather than time-series data. So not an increase for one person, but an increase from person to person across a population.
By way of a pithy excuse for my sloppy thinking, my background in stats comes from economics; economists love to confuse cross-sectional and time-series data.
My reply took for granted that we were dealing with cross-sectional data, rather than time-series data. So not an increase for one person, but an increase from person to person across a population.
By way of a pithy excuse for my sloppy thinking, my background in stats comes from economics; economists love to confuse cross-sectional and time-series data.
Submission + - Study: 73% use bank passwords everywhere 1
shmG writes: Most security experts would recommend not using the same password across multiple websites, especially those used on sensitive financial information, but a new study is showing that the majority of Internet users are ignoring that advise. Security researcher Trusteer reported that 73 percent of bank customers use their banking password on multiple websites.
Comment Re:The next line states... (Score 3, Informative) 360
All they are saying is that they noted Correlation, not implying causation.
Yet the summary is written as such. Such a shock for a
No, it doesn't. The summary says "more likely"; that is, as internet use increases, the probability of depression increases. That is the definition of correlation. Implying causation would be using a word like "cause". (I know, tricky concept) Which the summary doesn't.
Submission + - Bing overtakes Yahoo as new No.2 with 16% market s (blogspot.com) 1
supergota writes: http://toptechwire.blogspot.com/2009/06/bing-overtakes-yahoo-as-new-no2-with-16.html
On Thursday June 4th, the day after Bing officially debuted, the search market share of bing skyrockets to a whopping 16%. Does this mean Bing has won the battle against Yahoo?
Submission + - Perils of DRM: When Content Providers Die 1
An anonymous reader writes: If you purchase music or movies online, what happens if the vendor goes out of business? Will you have trouble accessing your content? The question came up recently after HDGiants — provider of high-quality audio and video downloads — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. A consumer says his content became locked inside his PC. Walmart customers suffered a similar fate last year when the retailer shut down its DRM servers. And if Vudu dies? Your content may be locked in a proprietary box forever. Time to start buying discs again?
