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Comment Free lottery weighted by karma? (Score 2) 404

by OGmofo (#47308041) Attached to: San Francisco Bans Parking Spot Auctioning App

One massive problem with scarce parking and no smart system to distribute it is that a lot of vehicles spend a lot of time driving in circles looking/waiting for a spot to turn over. If there were a system that was essentially a free lottery, it could avoid a lot of wasted time and pollution. You'd have to incentivize the occupant somehow though.

something like this:

1. Occupant is about to leave and sends an alert of near term availability.
2. N subscribers get the alert and enter the lottery, lottery executes, winner is selected, and winner is notified that they get the spot, no charge. The lottery could be weighted by karma, say the number of times that lottery participant has yielded a spot to others.
3. Occupant yields their spot to winner, and receives parking karma for next lotto.
4. Society benefits by less traffic, pollution.

Comment *At least* a quarter... (Score 4, Interesting) 77

by OGmofo (#38752838) Attached to: Genes About a Quarter of the Secret To Staying Smart

The study only sampled a subset of the genome (certain SNPs), there could be other variations in the genome that contribute even more. We simply can't tell from the study. All we can say is that this study suggests at least a quarter of the variation is explained by the subset of the genotype they have sampled.
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Julian Assange's Online Dating Profile Leaked 334

Posted by samzenpus from the leaker-love dept.
Ponca City writes "The Telegraph reports that an online dating profile created by Julian Assange in 2006 has been unearthed from OKCupid disclosing that the WikiLeaks editor sought 'spirited, erotic' women 'from countries that have sustained political turmoil.' Writing under the pseudonym of British science fiction author Harry Harrison, Assange described himself as a 'passionate, and often pig headed activist intellectual.' Assange said he was seeking a 'siren for [a] love affair, children and occasional criminal conspiracy' adding that he was 'directing a consuming, dangerous human rights project which is, as you might expect, male dominated' and added enigmatically: 'I am DANGER, ACHTUNG.' Among Assange's listed interests were the 'structure of reality' and 'chopping up human brains' – although he added the caveat '(neuroscience background)' lest the latter put off potential admirers. 'I like women from countries that have sustained political turmoil,' Assange wrote. 'Western culture seems to forge women that are valueless and inane. OK. Not only women!'"
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Old People Enjoy Reading Negative Stories About Young 122

Posted by samzenpus from the stupid-kids dept.
A study by Dr. Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick and co-author Matthias Hastall suggests that your grandma's self-esteem gets a boost when she hears about the stupid things young people do. "Living in a youth centered culture, they may appreciate a boost in self-esteem. That's why they prefer the negative stories about younger people, who are seen as having a higher status in our society," said Dr. Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick. From the article: "All the adults in the study were shown what they were led to believe was a test version of a new online news magazine. They were also given a limited time to look over either a negative and positive version of 10 pre-selected articles. Each story was also paired with a photograph depicting someone of either the younger or the older age group. The researchers found that older people were more likely to choose to read negative articles about those younger than themselves. They also tended to show less interest in articles about older people, whether negative or positive."
Biotech

First 'Malaria-Proof' Mosquito Created 261

Posted by timothy from the what-about-a-really-good-egg-cream dept.
Gisg writes "The University of Arizona team reported that their genetically modified mosquitoes are immune to the malaria-causing parasite, a single-cell organism called Plasmodium. Riehle and his colleagues tested their genetically-altered mosquitoes by feeding them malaria-infested blood. Not even one mosquito became infected with the malaria parasite."

Comment Re:Not really (Score 1) 335

by OGmofo (#31365428) Attached to: Venezuela Bans Hostile Videogames and Toys

No matter how "legitimate" it might look, whenever the highest executive in a country's government somehow manages to remove term limits, he has become a de facto dictator.

The higher you go in government the more important the concept of term limits become. Executives must have reason to fear that at some point they will have to answer for their actions to someone with the same level of authority they currently enjoy.

Chavez can crap roses and turn water into wine...as long as he maneuvers or succeeds in removing term limits...he's a dictator.
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Scientists Discover Booze That Won't Give You a Hangover 334

Posted by samzenpus from the go-ahead-and-have-another dept.
Kwang-il Kwon and Hye Gwang Jeong of Chungnam National University have discovered that drinking alcohol with oxygen bubbles added leads to fewer hangovers and a shorter sobering up time. People drinking the bubbly booze sobered up 20-30 minutes faster and had less severe and fewer hangovers than people who drank the non-fizzy stuff. Kwon said: "The oxygen-enriched alcohol beverage reduces plasma alcohol concentrations faster than a normal dissolved-oxygen alcohol beverage does. This could provide both clinical and real-life significance. The oxygen-enriched alcohol beverage would allow individuals to become sober faster, and reduce the side effects of acetaldehyde without a significant difference in alcohol's effects. Furthermore, the reduced time to a lower BAC may reduce alcohol-related accidents."

Comment will this select for more virulent HIV in CCR5null (Score 1) 263

by OGmofo (#26721789) Attached to: Doctors Will Test Gene Editing On HIV Patients

So these HIV patients will simultaneously be hosting HIV in CCR5wt cells providing a steady stream mutant HIV particles to try their luck at cracking CCR5null T cells.

Hopefully CCR5null is a real deal breaker for HIV or we might be creating the perfect situation for HIV to maximize its chances of overcoming that hurdle.

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