Comment The article looks fishy (Score 4, Informative) 154
âoeBut for now, thereâ(TM)s only so much data you can put in front of the pilotâ(TM)s eyes before it all merges, especially at night. He or she has got to take in information about their speed, altitude, dive and climb angles, and manage their fuel levels and weapons systems. Add images of the surrounding airspace and it all becomes too much. Essentially, the pilots were being blinded.â
The reporter seems to take the phrase "green glow" literally, rather than figuratively. The blinding referred to in the quote is information overload. The 1,000 mph figure seems merely illustrative, rather than a point at which the helmets suddenly malfunctioned. Information overload is a serious problem for pilots and must be considered in aircraft design, but this appears to be a case of poor design rather than the display failing in mid flight. Perhaps someone out there has better information.
Comment Re:Genetic Roullette (Score 2) 358
The use of the spinach gene to give bacterial resistance to orange trees mentioned in the aricle does not have these issues. The article notes that this bacterial resistance gene is widespread, existing in variants in many plants and animals. Also, having orange trees with this gene would allow for reduced use of pesticides, which the article notes have tripled in response to the encroachment of the insect which carries the bacterium responsible for the destruction of the orange trees.
I would argue not for a ban on genetically modified organisms, but for careful scientific review on a case-by-case basis whether a modification carries a net benefit, not just on whether a particular crop is safe to consume. A serious problem with previous approvals is that they ignored effects like evolution of resistant organisms and incentives to use more pesticides.
Comment Re:OMG, John is that you? (Score 5, Insightful) 331
Comment Re:More than 20, but I don't code. (Score 1) 190
<shameless plug>
It's a simple, clean weather app. (US only). Has NOAA feed for week's forecast + wind speed and direction. It's on the Amazon AppStoreand Google Play. ($1)
</shameless plug>
Comment Re:Pedaling (Score 1) 187
Comment Re:What if the person is innocent? (Score 2) 643
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/12-207
"(2) The processing of respondent's DNA sample's CODIS loci also did not intrude on his privacy in a way that would make his DNA identification unconstitutional. Those loci came from noncoding DNA parts that do not reveal an arrestee's genetic traits and are unlikely to reveal any private medical information. Even if they could provide such information, they are not in fact tested for that end. Finally, the Act provides statutory protections to guard against such invasions of privacy. Pp. 26-28."
Comment Re:Pedaling (Score 1) 187
Comment Re:Pedaling (Score 1) 187
Comment Re:Pedaling (Score 1) 187
Comment Re:Pedaling (Score 1) 187
Comment Pedaling (Score 4, Interesting) 187
Pedaling across the US - east to west. I've been planning to do it since high school. Finishing grad school seems to be the perfect time.
Starting: Provincetown, MA. Ending: San Francisco.
Approximate route: https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Province+Lands+Rd&daddr=42.3496063,-71.0758567+to:43.2323393,-86.2590757+to:40.0115442,-105.2775582+to:38.2089812,-122.1499352+to:Lincoln+Way&hl=en&ll=38.548165,-85.605469&spn=35.448818,53.569336&sll=42.346365,-71.07605&sspn=1.977165,4.22699&geocode=FRRwgQIdnuHQ-w%3BFSY0hgId8HfD-ykzi83tDHrjiTHLREkIFo1TAw%3BFVOskwIdfcrb-im_C56q1dcbiDEFG_kDTpKEyg%3BFRiHYgIdipe5-SmJTX78L-xrhzEx8CFuKjriCw%3BFdUFRwId0SO4-Ckt6RIZRhKFgDHoJI0yGuN3vg%3BFec7QAIdnKSy-A&t=h&dirflg=b&mra=mrv&via=1,2,3,4&lci=bike&z=5/
Departure: Early July
Arrival: End of August.
Mileage: ~60/day (97 km / day)
Style: Mostly camping. Some friends and hostels along route.
Anyone, including you, is welcome to join me for a stretch. jon caplan a_t ] g-mail dot kom
Also welcome are your tales of similar trips as well as advice. (I've done some one week tours before.)
Comment Utter nonsense (Score 2) 393
1. It is not possible to simulate a system when you don't know the rules of the system. We don't know how neurons work. Sure, we know much about neurons and we can set up small networks that seem to give interesting results, but there is a vast amount about real neurons that is unknown. We don't even know what all the types of ion channels are, let alone the varied states of modulation (phosphorylation of proteins and binding of various neuromodulators). We know little about how the brain learns. We have some knowledge about how a neuron might maintain a mean firing rate over time or how certain connections may vary in fairly artificial stimulus regimes (pairs of spikes with varied timing) in slices of brain tissue (typically hippocampus) in vitro. We have only basic understanding of how the brain is wired up on a microscopic scale (e.g. cortical columns). At this point people are still making fundamental discoveries about how the retina works.
2. Throwing a supercomputer at the problem would be orders of magnitude too weak, even given huge simplifying assumptions, such as using "integrate and fire" neurons.
Anyone attempting to do whole brain simulations at this point is simply wasting their time and a lot of electricity. When they promote the idea they waste other people's time. A perfect example of this is the fool who claimed that he had simulated a cat visual cortex, which though only a presentation at a conference, not a published paper, got attention here on Slashdot. He included one equation and randomly connected his network and then simulated on a large compute cluster. His "chief scientific conclusion" was that he could replicate the propagation speed of data through the layers of the network - a feat that could have been accomplished with paper and pencil in less time.