Good time to cancel the special parking permits for Nobel Prize winners

  * http://www.berkeleyside.com/2011/10/04/new-nobel-winner-gets-real-prize-a-special-parking-permit/
  * http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113883274

"Nobel Prize winner Saul Perlmutter joked that the “only reason to win a Nobel Prize” was to receive the famous Nobel laureate (NL) parking permit, reserved for laureates on the Berkeley campus."

Authors can generate their own unique id: keyword UUID (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universally_unique_identifier)

So no central database is needed. Just some conventions.

S

I think using "efficient" in this context is kind of a joke.

I have lived in places with populations of a few hundred and a few thousand without problems. In fact, smaller places make things a lot easier.

Basic economics that economists forget to look into.

Why did your parents choose to isolate themselves?

S

Pretty funny: all those "advantages" can already be had by using public transportation. Cheaper too. Kind of easy to overlook nowadays.

S

http://arxiv.org/abs/1111.3328v2

http://arxiv.org/pdf/1111.3328v2.pdf

Actually, the article does point out: "From the records they had, the researchers could not tell which traits were being selected for ..." http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/04/natural-selection-is-still-with-.html

This sentence already assumes the conclusion of the whole article, namely that *some* traits where in fact being selected for.

So kind of weak.

Thanks for pointing that out; had overlooked that for my reply.

However, it would be good to check with the original report.

The science-mag article says "the variation in the number of offspring—from zero to 17—indicates there was a large opportunity for selection to occur."

However, whether this "opportunity" resulted in any actual change is not mentioned. For example, if they found some feature change that correlated with the number of offspring, then you might say that is evidence that evolution is happening, but even only then if the correlation corresponds to some environmental pressures. Do they have statistics about traits at the beginning of their study period, and comparison with the statistics at the end?

Does the report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences have more details? Can't access it.

Fun: "The authors declare no conflict of interest." see http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/04/24/1118174109.abstract

S

The title of the linked article is "Organic farming is rarely enough". But it is difficult to back up that "producing the bulk of the globe's diet will still require chemical fertilizers and pesticides", and so they simply skip that.

Reference again, http://www.nature.com/news/organic-farming-is-rarely-enough-1.10519

S

I think its fair to assume you use such a system when full rebuilds are not needed.

Such a system will work only with some software. For other software you would use a different system, or none at all. Software is just such a vast category.

I've been using the frank gem with Ruby to see / explore effects of code changes in the browser.

The browser becomes a high-end output device (through frank's Auto-Refresh) for my text inputs.

Thanks sounds good. I don't quite see your list as being authoritative, however there seem to be cases where planning isn't required.

You have a pointer for "what first degree murder is"? I don't readily see a mismatch.