Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror

Comment Re:Bitcoin is only version 1.0! (Score 2) 691

by mindsofpsi (#45736599) Attached to: Why Charles Stross Wants Bitcoin To Die In a Fire

Every time there are arguments made like this I remember something I read in the late 90s. It was a scholarly book by a broadcaster (I believe it was about HD TV) that had a section about why Internet video wasn't going to take off. It stated things like "postage stamp-sized video," jumpyness, bad audio... all those problems that were inherent in the early versions of Quicktime and MPEG.

The flaw in the argument comes in the unspoken assumption that what they are looking at is a final version. I personally don't think bitcoin will ever "replace" monetary systems across the world and there is a lot of reasons to hope that it doesn't, but a lot of these arguments make the assumption that no adjustments will ever be made and the ideas and tech. will never improve. And that just *doesn't* happen.

Sure, but Stross isn't criticizing all cryptocurrency, just Bitcoin. (Check out the ninth comment on his blog) . To use your metaphor he is criticizing 'realmedia' not internet video.

Comment Mutually Assured Destruction (Score 1) 158

by mindsofpsi (#44391563) Attached to: Mozilla Labs Experiment Distills Your History Into Interests
Does the twisted logic behind this remind anyone else of MAD? I.e. Disarmament leads to war; nuclear buildup leads to peace. I actually think this a good idea. Your average person (outside of slashdot) thinks that ads are a great trade off for free websites, and no amount of nagging them about the panopticon society is going to change that. With this proposal, a least you get to keep most of your privacy. And, hey, no world war since the bomb. Unintuitive sometimes works.
Science

Submission + - America's Real Criminal Element: Lead (motherjones.com) 1

Submitted by 2muchcoffeeman
2muchcoffeeman writes: The cause of the great increase in violent crime that started in the 1960s and peaked in the 1990s may have been isolated: lead (chemical symbol Pb). This leads directly to the reason for the sharp decline in violent crime since then: lead abatement programs and especially the ban of tetraethyl lead as an anti-knock agent in gasoline starting in 1996.

There are three reasons why this makes sense. First, the statistics correlate almost perfectly. Second, it holds true worldwide with no exceptions. Every country studied has shown this same strong correlation between leaded gasoline and violent crime rates. Third, the chemistry and neuroscience of lead gives us good reason to believe the connection. Decades of research has shown that lead poisoning causes significant and probably irreversible damage to the brain. Not only does lead degrade cognitive abilities and lower intelligence, it also degrades a person’s ability to make decisions by damaging areas of the brain responsible for emotional regulation, impulse control, attention, verbal reasoning, and mental flexibility.

Another thing that stands out: if you overlay a map showing areas with higher incidence of violent crime with one showing lead contamination, there's a strikingly high correlation.

Slashdot Top Deals

The first version always gets thrown away.

Close