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Comment Re:Well of course (Score -1) 31

Because shiftiness and dishonesty are built into the Chinese psyche. We have measured the Asiatic brainpan with calipers and found that it lacks the capacity of the white brain. Why is it the more socially progressive the account, the more viciously racist it is? Has anyone figured this out?

Comment Re:Weird quotes (Score 1) 145

It's not the public, but insurance companies that matter. At least in sane societies that do not have the notion of punitive damages,
Once it is clear that robo-taxis, or self-driving cars, are safer than human-driven vehicles, insurance companies will take note and lower premiums for self-driving cars even if the operators are held responsible for whatever mayhem they are causing. In such a scenario, it is likely that your insurance premium will go up by a fair bit, if you insist on having a steering wheel and gear shift fitted to your new car.

Comment Re:Monopolism [solution approach] (Score 1) 56

I always thought that should be the case: if a company grows beyond a certain market share, additional rules should kick in. Perhaps extra taxes, but certainly rules against them buying up more competitors in the same space. Grow even further, and they might be deemed a public utility subject to strict price and access regulations.

Companies have been broken up in the past, with good results. A company might split itself to get around antitrust laws, which is fine if it results in actual competition. If not, that's what we call collusion, and that is already illegal.

Comment Re:Monopolism (Score 4, Insightful) 56

That's kind of what that (tired and overused term) "late stage capitalism" is: monopolies, oligopolies, and lack of competition. Companies seem to naturally gravitate towards cornering markets or collusion. The sad thing is that both in the US and the EU (and elsewhere too probably), antitrust laws have become a joke in practice. Capitalism needs checks and balances, and keeping the free market working is the most important one even for the more laissez-faire minded. That means strict rules around market share. a free market cannot function without meaningful competition.

Comment AI software that i am looking for (Score 1) 63

Given many views inside a house, such as all the frames of a walk around video, i want software that can build a set of images of each wall, floor, and ceiling, in that house. Then i want software that can produce new views inside, at new designated angles that were not previously shot. If the input is fully complete, then the output should be, as well. most of the AI would be in scanning the input image frames to "understand" how each frame is shot. I have done this before, manually, a couple times, and merged the images. I think AI should be able to do this, to the extent the input covers.

Submission + - MIT physicists just found a way to see inside atoms (sciencedaily.com)

alternative_right writes: MIT researchers have devised a new molecular technique that lets electrons probe inside atomic nuclei, replacing massive particle accelerators with a tabletop setup. By studying radium monofluoride, they detected energy shifts showing electrons interacting within the nucleus. This breakthrough could help reveal why matter dominates over antimatter in the universe.

Submission + - Bay Area tech CEO says test project likely struck United flight at 36,000 feet (sfgate.com)

joshuark writes: The mystery object that struck a plane at 36,000 feet is likely not space debris, as some speculated, but rather a Silicon Valley test project gone wrong.

WindBorne Systems, a Palo Alto startup that uses atmospheric balloons to collect weather data for AI-based forecast models, has come forward to say that they believe they may be responsible for the object that hit the windshield.

“Yes, I think this was a WindBorne balloon. We learned about UA1093 and the potential that it was related to one of our balloons at 11pm PT on Sunday and immediately looked into it,” WindBorne CEO John Dean posted on social media. “At 6am PT, we sent our preliminary investigation to both NTSB and FAA, and are working with both of them to investigate further.”

The National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement released on social media on Sunday that the windscreen was being sent to their lab for testing, using “radar, weather, flight recorder data” to determine the cause of the incident.
WindBorne said the company has launched more than 4,000 balloons and that it coordinates with the Federal Aviation Administration for every launch. After presenting one of its balloons as a possible cause of the collision, the company said in a statement on its website that it “immediately rolled out changes to minimize time spent between 30,000 and 40,000 feet.”

Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for a comment about the structural integrity of the windshields on its 737 Max planes.

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