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User: peter303

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  1. alcoholism fries livers too on St. Patrick's Day, March Madness, and Steve Jobs' Liver · · Score: 1

    So does Hep-C and Nyquil overdoes.

  2. a gifted child educates themself on The Poor Neglected Gifted Child · · Score: 1

    Curiostity is just too strong not to. I grew up before the internet, but read nearly every non-fiction book in the local library. I built a "science laboratory" in the basement, ham radio, learning painting, taught myself several musical instruments, and annoyed the local college computer room in later years. I think this sense of "initiative" was what they were looking for when I was offered admission to MIT with scholarship.

    Most of my nieces and nephews are smart and do well in structured educational settings. But only one has intiiative and is in his 3rd startup company now.

    I feel the same way in the large company I am working now. most of my coworkers display little curiosity about new technologies, books or conferences. They will only go to these things if the management orders and pays them to do so. It is so sad to be around dull people.

  3. done already in 1997 by Stanford seismologist on The Earth As a Gravitational Wave Detector · · Score: 2

    Here is the null result. I presume there are new analytical techniques every few years.

  4. pi is first letter in greek periphereia on Happy Pi Day · · Score: 1

    Means a circular line. Root of English word periphery. Mathematicians used the word peripheria, then abbreviated its first letter to describe the length of a circle.

  5. sounds like an OCD hoarding issue on How Do You Backup 20TB of Data? · · Score: 1

    Who is going to revisted 20,000+ hours of viedo and music?

  6. 5% who passed first MIT MOOC course on How St. Louis Is Bootstrapping Hundreds of Programmers · · Score: 1

    Essentially doubled the number of people who had ever passed that course- versus 50 years of the slow way.

  7. the web was "hijacked" from Tim on As the Web Turns 25, Sir Tim Berners-Lee Calls For A Web Magna Carta · · Score: 3, Funny

    Once Jim Clarke and Bill Gates had their "broswers wars", orderly development of web was thrown out of the window by the money chase. This may not have been bad. You now had hundreds of thousands trying out new ideas. Even though 99% there were some gems in the successful 1%.

  8. I was doing some of this before the Web on As the Web Turns 25, Sir Tim Berners-Lee Calls For A Web Magna Carta · · Score: 1

    As USENET and WELL junkie (hell no AOL).
    The Web made it easier for services and users.

  9. either everyone's ancester or nobodys on How Tutankhamun's DNA Became a Battleground · · Score: 2

    Genetic statisticians have figured out that in as little as 8 centuries either your had died out or has contributed to everybody. This a variant of the problem that after 30 generations you should have more ancestors than the population of Earth. But there always is a degree of inbreeding for most marriages- as little as 2nd cousins for some village traditions, to most US spouses are at least 10th cousins or closer. I.E. another variant that Obama is related to almost half of the other presidents through generations in the USA history (12 generations or less). A significant fraction of Middle proudly trace their hertitage to Mohammed; Chinese to some empreror. Genetic studies hint a tenth of Asia has markers from Genghis Khan. If Jesus had had children (unclear) then much of the world could be descendents.

    Conversely, even if Charlemagne is your proven ancestor, you may have no genes from him. You have about 42,000 genes, duplicate copies from each parent. After 16 generations, some ancestor must drop off the list of contributing genes. Probably much sooner because meiotic (germ cell)recombination appears operate on blocks of genes, not individual genes.

  10. when its 1000s of years old on Can Science Ever Be "Settled?" · · Score: 1

    I could see if some result is not repudiated in thousands of years or more, then it becomes settled for all practical purposes. The scientific method is still very young - only a half millennia with a few spurts in earlier civilizations. A hundred thousand years from know it could be different.

  11. Newsweek report is naive on Satoshi Nakamoto Found? Not So Fast · · Score: 1

    If they believe that was the real name of bitcoin inventor(s). Of course there are some people in the world with that name unfortunately.

  12. I hope some of these pan out on Sulfur Polymers Could Enable Long-Lasting, High-Capacity Batteries · · Score: 1

    Telsa and others have shown the interesting kind of electric vehicles you can build. Batteries still limit cost and distance. Another factor of 2-5 performance cost will clinch it.

  13. plus slice-dice services on MtGox Files For Bankruptcy Protection · · Score: 1

    Kind of like torrent works. Some services will split bticointransactionsin many small transactions and scatter them among intermediate computers. This makes noticing them and tacking them more difficult.

  14. Re:Not a shock on MtGox Files For Bankruptcy Protection · · Score: 1

    Gox has been stalling redemptions for several months. "server problems", "algortihm flaws', and other excuses. I think they suspected ALL thier accounts had been compromised, but hadnt proved it nor figured out how to handle it.

  15. Re:Falkvinge et all investigaton suggests inside j on MtGox Files For Bankruptcy Protection · · Score: 1

    Blockchain is one of the core algorithms of bitcoin to eliminate multiple spending of the same bitcoin id. Otherwise some clever person could simultaneously spend a billion copies of the same bitcoin id file and succeed.

  16. bitcoins have characteristic of a security on MtGox Files For Bankruptcy Protection · · Score: 1

    If all you are doing with them is exchanging in and out of other currencies currencies for a profit. That would be a loophole for regualtion. Many bitcoin owners are using them this way.

    If a currency was only being traded for goods and services, then it would not be a security. Some bitcoiner owners only do that.

  17. danger of water hugging skin on How An Astronaut Nearly Drowned During a Space Walk · · Score: 2

    Due to surface tension, water will flow along and hug a surface unless disrupted. So it does not have to fill the helmet, but just start crawling along the face into the nose and mouth. I've seen the micro-gravity video of someone slowly squeeze a water-full washcloth and the sheet of water crawl up his arm.

  18. Re:Paralysis by Analysis on The Rescue Plan That Could Have Saved Space Shuttle Columbia · · Score: 1

    Apollo 13 is a counter example when put to the task.

  19. they initially hoped for a 2-month refurbish cycle on The Rescue Plan That Could Have Saved Space Shuttle Columbia · · Score: 1

    And a launch every two weeks with four shuttles. Complexity and need greatly slowed that down. Maybe a future design will do this.

  20. ISS orbit precesses too on The Rescue Plan That Could Have Saved Space Shuttle Columbia · · Score: 1

    So there is an optimum week of the month for Canaveral launches, and another for Kazakstan.

  21. you know we are in a tech bubble on Why We Need To Teach Hacking In High School · · Score: 1

    When we read silly things like everyone must learn programming and this.

  22. does mass-layoff law apply? on IBM Begins Layoffs, Questions Arise About Pact With New York · · Score: 1

    The law says over 49 people at one site.

  23. cameraphones no longer banned in locker rooms on Woman Attacked In San Francisco Bar For Wearing Google Glass · · Score: 1

    There was abuse by users and paranoia by patrons several years ago.
    I dont think the abuse has ended, but the paronoia has.

  24. most my MIT classmates are in software w/o CS on Do We Really Have a Shortage of STEM Workers? · · Score: 1

    We have biology, physics, EE, philosphy, music degrees from MIT. None of us majored in CS (6-3). Most of the current languages and techniques were invented after we graduated, so we picked them up along the way.

  25. 20 offerings for every looker in Denver on Do We Really Have a Shortage of STEM Workers? · · Score: 1

    I attend user groups to hear new technologies (really the free pizza). The recruiters buy us pizza, beer, snacks. They seem to have 10-20 jobs for anyone looking. Most positions are "trendy" web-services or mobile. My company does vertical scientific outsourcing for the Fortune-20. Not much HR activity there.