Comment Franklin, Jefferson, and Washington pushed metric (Score 1) 2288
Without the influence of great leaders from the USA there would be no metric system. http://metricationmatters.com/docs/USAMetricSystemHistory.pdf (PDF)
Comment Learning the joy of programming in less than 1hr (Score 1) 709
I've taught five groups of 8 to 15 "work experience" kids from local high schools, year 10 to year 12 (15 to 18yo), using http://squeakland.org/ Etoys. Most of them hate computing classes they do in school: learn how to use Office. I tell them the visual language isn't designed for them but kids 6yo and up. Then I teach them the simple car (turtle-like), the car with a connected steering wheel (functional programming), and then the car staying on track by sensing fences in about 40 minutes. Zero programming experience (in most cases) to environment sensing (I call it AI) programming in less than an hour.
One bright kid figured out how to spawn cars and managed to create a race.
Comment Re:Cosmic rays, my ass. Occam's Razor time. (Score 1) 277
Great post, but date was it posted? 02-07-05 could be 2002-07-05, 2002-05-07, 2005-07-02 or 2005-02-07? Please read http://w3.org/QA/Tips/iso-date
Scientists Discover Booze That Won't Give You a Hangover 334
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."
Game Devs Migrating Toward iPhone, Away From Wii 143
A new report by Game Developer Research reveals that the number of developers working on games for the iPhone continues to rise, roughly doubling in number from last year. At the same time, the amount of work done on games for Nintendo's Wii dropped significantly:
"Just over 70 percent of developers said they were developing at least one game for PC or Mac (including browser and social games), rising slightly from last year; 41 percent reported working on console games. Within that latter group, Xbox 360 was the most popular system with 69 percent of console developers targeting it, followed by 61 percent for PlayStation 3. While those console figures stayed within a few percent of last year's results, the change in Wii adoption was much more significant: reported developer support for the system dropped from 42 percent to 30 percent of console developers, supporting numerous publishers' claims of a recent softening of the Wii market."
Comment Re:There is a pattern to accidental discoveries! (Score 1) 174
Like with many discoveries Fleming wasn't the first to notice the effect. He just had a better sense of publicity. The interesting thing about its use was that during WWII western governments suspected the patents various drug companies had and forced the mass production for military use. Copyrights, patents etc are not natural rights.
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