Comment Re:There's no point in shame (Score 1) 256
Having done a good deal of research into crime and punishment...
Please share some links to your research or the sources you found. Sounds interesting.
Comment Attribution of blame and psychology class (Score 1) 559
The discussions reminded of an exercise we went through in a college psychology class, in which a story is told about a woman who was killed, and the students in the class must rank the culpability of all of the characters in the story. I googled "psychology class story about who is responsible for murder of woman on ferry".
The first google result was an academic paper about how that exercise is used and interpreted by some psychology professor somewhere.
The second google result was Mark Zuckerberg's wikipedia page. I wonder if that would have happened before the news of this suicide had come out.
Comment Re:In a nutshell: (Score 1) 725
Unlike in some countries, the US Constitution does not allow for National Holidays that are binding on everybody, or even binding on state governments. We have Federal Holidays, which are specifically binding only on employees of Federal agencies. Private businesses (and the State govts) are not obligated to close, or grant any sort of day off (or pay benefits) on Federal Holidays, though almost all choose to do so.
Comment Re:Wait, what? (Score 2) 376
during "rolldown week," the expected return of playing the game is positive. This is just as true for people who spend $3 as for people who spend $300,000.
The article said otherwise:
Mark Kon, a professor of math and statistics at Boston University, calculated that a bettor buying even $10,000 worth of tickets would run a significant risk of losing more than they won during the July rolldown week. But someone who invested $100,000 in Cash WinFall tickets had a 72 percent chance of winning
Microsoft Reportedly Working On TV Service For Xbox 360 121
tekgoblin writes "It seems that Microsoft may be in talks with media companies to license TV shows and movies for a new streaming service. With the addition of ESPN to the Xbox 360 over Xbox Live, Microsoft may be in a position to do the same for different content providers and charge a subscription fee for them separately. The idea is to better personalize content and only pay for what you want to watch instead of paying cable companies for all the channels you don't watch. Microsoft is looking into duplicating what they have done with ESPN to include channels such as Showtime or HBO and possibly Disney."
The World's Smallest Legible Font 280
hasanabbas1987 writes "From the article: 'Well 'technically' they aren't the smallest fonts in the world as if they were you wouldn't be able to read even a single letter, but, you should be able to read the entire paragraph in the picture given above... we did. A Computer science professor called Ken Perlin designed these tiny fonts and you can fit 500 reasonable words in a resolution of 320 x 240 space. There are at the moment the smallest legible fonts in the world.'"
1928 Time Traveler Caught On Film? 685
Many of you have submitted a story about Irish filmmaker George Clarke, who claims to have found a person using a cellphone in the "unused footage" section of the DVD The Circus, a Charlie Chaplin movie filmed in 1928. To me the bigger mystery is how someone who appears to be the offspring of Ram-Man and The Penguin got into a movie in the first place, especially if they were talking to a little metal box on set. Watch the video and decide for yourself.
The Home-Built Dark Knight Batmobile 87
ElectricSteve writes "RM Auctions recently declared James Bond's Aston Martin DB5 to be 'the world's most famous car,' but there's no doubt that there is another contender for that title — the Batmobile. One thing that muddies the waters a bit is the fact that the term 'Batmobile' actually describes at least three different vehicles: the modified Lincoln Futura concept car from the '60s TV series, the vaguely Corvette-shaped 1989-and-beyond movie cars, and now the car from the most recent two movies, the military-spec Tumbler. Michigan-based movie props artist Bob Dullam really likes the Tumbler, so he did what any of us would do in his position — he built one of his own from scratch."
New York To Spend $27.5 Million Uncapitalizing Street Signs 322
250,000 street signs in New York City feature street names in capital letters only, which is not the national standard. Having no other issues on the table, The New York City Department of Transportation has decided to fix the problem and put up proper signs featuring both capital and lower-case letters at a cost of $27.5 million. The Transportation Department hopes to have the job completed by 2018 with 11,000 of the most important improperly capitaled signs fixed by the end of the year. Catastrophe averted.
Comment Re:It should be: 4+3+2=x+2 (Solve for x) (Score 1) 1268
Oops. Of course I meant to say there's more than one way to express 9.
4+3+2 and 7+2 are "equally" valid ways to represent 9.
Comment Re:It should be: 4+3+2=x+2 (Solve for x) (Score 2, Interesting) 1268
Yes, my 3rd grader is given that kind of problem, but with a longish underscore instead of the parentheses. Sometimes it's a box, but the underscore is better, because it's a familiar holdover from learning to read, where a drawing of a feline is accompanied by "__at" and they're told to fill in the blank. I agree that using parentheses would be as poor a choice as "()at" when you want them to produce the three letter synonym for feline.
The mathematical pedagogy is fine; they're trying to develop numeracy (numeric literacy) by instilling the idea that there's more than one way to "express" 7, but they don't (yet) want to muddy the waters more by mixing letters and numbers and using phrases like "solve for"
Man Put On "No-Fly List" While In Air To NYC 300
An unnamed man flying from Nigeria to New York City found out he was added to a no-fly list somewhere above the Atlantic Ocean, when the plane stopped to refuel in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Officials won't say what he did or why he was added to the list after he had already boarded a flight. He was not immediately charged with a crime and Customs and Border Protection will only say that he is a "potential person of interest." From the article: "The man, a citizen of Gambia, was not on the no-fly list when he boarded the aircraft in Dakar, Senegal, said a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly."
Seinfeld's Good Samaritan Law Now Reality? 735
e3m4n writes "The fictitious 'good samaritan' law from the final episode of Seinfeld (the one that landed them in jail for a year) appears to be headed toward reality for California residents after the house passed this bill. There are some differences, such as direct action is not required, but the concept of guilt by association for not doing the right thing is still on the face of the bill."
Comment Re:Cue that eco-maniacs (Score 0) 280
Tuna comes pre-breaded now? Talk about a time saver!
If memory serves, (no pun intended), Michael Keaton's character in some movie or other already had the idea of feeding the tuna a diet high in mayonnaise in order to save time in the production of tuna salad.
Comment Re:Already have wireless power.... (Score 0) 184
....it's called 'using batteries'
With this form of wireless power, you don't have to remember to replace the batteries, and you don't have to interrupt the device from working while the batteries are being replaced.
....With wireless power, would each device need some kind of special wireless receiver/transformer?
Yes, just like wireless phones, which each need a special wireless receiver/transformer.
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