Real life does not work that way. In the real world social cues and conventions are important. A face-to-face conversation follows a very different arc than a similar online chat does. Both have their uses, but one cannot replace the other.
You are thinking of the sample standard deviation of one point, which is undefined, or infinite depending on one's taste. The sample standard deviation of two points (x1, x2) is sqrt(0.5 * (x1 + x2)^2 - x1^2 * x2^2).
If one assumes that Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics are correct, and there is no observational evidence that they are not, then Yang-Mills theory, or something very much like it, is inevitable. It arises from the need for conservation of the various charges each force.
If someone has to sit behind the wheel pretending to drive then self-driving cars will never catch on. However, the goal is to have vehicles that do not need someone waiting to take over at a moment's notice. Once true self-driving cars are available I suspect that they will catch on very fast. Most driving is tedious. Vehicle that allows people to do something constructive while their vehicle takes them wherever they need to go will probably be quite popular. And then there is the aging population that wants to stay mobile even after they are unable to operate a vehicle safely. If these vehicles can be made truly self-driving the transition to self-driving cars may happen quite fast.
The liability will probably end up being rolled into the insurance system. Automated vehicles will have black boxes and record everything that happens, so there will be none of the my word against his word that happens in so many crashes now. It will be quite easy to determine who or what was at fault. The growing use of dashboard cameras is already a step in this direction, and some US insurance companies already offer discounts if the driver installs a data recorder. If the problem is truly technical and not driver error then what will probably happen is that once the cause is determined the car-owner's insurance company will work out the issue with the manufacturer. We may even see fine print in vehicle sales contracts requiring that the owner handle any liability issues through the appropriate insurance companies. And, if liability does become too much of a problem in the US then the self-driving car industry will simply move to countries where it is not. If the US cripples the industry with lawsuits it is possible that China or Europe will end up leading the way to autonomous vehicles.
> Sorry if this may seem ignorant, but how can we be sure it might be the biggest volcano in the solar system if we only just discovered this one on *our* planet?
This is not an ignorant question at all. We are not sure if it is the largest volcano in the Solar System, we just know that it is the largest that we know of on Earth, and one of the largest that we know of in the Solar System. We will not be sure until we have completely explored the entire ocean floor, under the Antarctic and Greenland ice caps, and the surfaces of every rocky planet and moon in the Solar System. We need to get busy.
Pyraf is a Python module that wraps IRAF. It allows one to write scripts and use all of the power of Python and its packages when doing photometry. It is far easier to do complex analysis using Pyraf than using the IRAF cl. I still sometimes use IRAF scripts from years ago, but I have not written a new one in a long time.
IRAF has a very steep (and unforgiving) learning curve, and thus tends to be beyond most non-technical types. And the technical types are migrating to Pyraf.
There are several difficulties that someone has to overcome in order to make observations with high enough quality to be able to detect exoplanets. First, they need a reasonably large telescope with good optics and a dark site to use it. Second, they need a reliable and well-understood detector. Fortunately CCD detectors have become fairly cheap and easy to use over the past decade, so these are well within reach of a serious amateur astronomer. Third, they need to understand what types of observations are needed to detect exoplanets. It is a little more complex than just pointing the telescope at a star and taking a few exposures. Finally, they need software that can turn their raw data into useful data, and that is not as easy as it sounds. This is where this new software comes in. Photometry software has become much smarter and much more automated since the olden days when DAOPhot ruled the roost back in the late 1980s. However, a photometry software package is only as good as the data that one puts into it. The observations must (must, must, must) be of high quality or the results will will not be. Also, the detector has to be well understood because photometry software needs to be able to correct for instrumental effects (such as slight differences in sensitivity in different parts of the detector, the amount of noise added by the detector [which also varies across the detector], and the length of time it takes to open and close the shutter, amongst other things). So, improved software is an important step forward, but it is unlikely that this new photometry package alone is going to lead to a renaissance in citizen planet hunting.
In the US, if you live in a Stand Your Ground state, just shoot drivers who refuse to yield when you are crossing the road. Be sure to tell the police immediately afterwards and let them know that you were crossing legally and in fear for your life.
No, that is a myth. Traffic jams occur when the available road space is not being used efficiently. For example, it oly takes one car to enter an interaction when there is no room to exit on the other side and the entire intersection can become locked, even if the total traffic volume is low. Traffic jams occur in many different traffic situation, not just when when the volume is high.
The Cold War was a terrifying time. It is not surprising that the Baby Boomers, who grew up during the worst of it, are such a screwed up generation. However, half the planet did not live like North Korea. North Korea has always been an extreme case. Much of the communist world, while far worse off than the west was, was better off than much of the third world at the time. That is one of the reasons that communism was appealing to many people in the third world. As hard as it may be to imagine, it was an improvement.
Actually, there is considerable evidence that the safety benefits of poorly designed illumination are not real, and that badly though out illumination can actually cause more harm than good. Well lit is not the same thing as brightly lit.
Slashdot Mirror
Real life does not work that way. In the real world social cues and conventions are important. A face-to-face conversation follows a very different arc than a similar online chat does. Both have their uses, but one cannot replace the other.
Probably, but when people are going to attack someone else over trivial language issues they really should proofread their posts first.
Don't you love it when grammar nazis make spelling errors?
You are thinking of the sample standard deviation of one point, which is undefined, or infinite depending on one's taste. The sample standard deviation of two points (x1, x2) is sqrt(0.5 * (x1 + x2)^2 - x1^2 * x2^2).
If one assumes that Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics are correct, and there is no observational evidence that they are not, then Yang-Mills theory, or something very much like it, is inevitable. It arises from the need for conservation of the various charges each force.
Wow! I expected to modded into oblivion over my post. Good to see that people have a sense of humour.
The letters refer to the demographic they are being sold to.
S - suckers
C - chumps
If someone has to sit behind the wheel pretending to drive then self-driving cars will never catch on. However, the goal is to have vehicles that do not need someone waiting to take over at a moment's notice. Once true self-driving cars are available I suspect that they will catch on very fast. Most driving is tedious. Vehicle that allows people to do something constructive while their vehicle takes them wherever they need to go will probably be quite popular. And then there is the aging population that wants to stay mobile even after they are unable to operate a vehicle safely. If these vehicles can be made truly self-driving the transition to self-driving cars may happen quite fast.
The liability will probably end up being rolled into the insurance system. Automated vehicles will have black boxes and record everything that happens, so there will be none of the my word against his word that happens in so many crashes now. It will be quite easy to determine who or what was at fault. The growing use of dashboard cameras is already a step in this direction, and some US insurance companies already offer discounts if the driver installs a data recorder. If the problem is truly technical and not driver error then what will probably happen is that once the cause is determined the car-owner's insurance company will work out the issue with the manufacturer. We may even see fine print in vehicle sales contracts requiring that the owner handle any liability issues through the appropriate insurance companies. And, if liability does become too much of a problem in the US then the self-driving car industry will simply move to countries where it is not. If the US cripples the industry with lawsuits it is possible that China or Europe will end up leading the way to autonomous vehicles.
We will need a very large Sudafed capsule to calm down the Deep One.
> Sorry if this may seem ignorant, but how can we be sure it might be the biggest volcano in the solar system if we only just discovered this one on *our* planet?
This is not an ignorant question at all. We are not sure if it is the largest volcano in the Solar System, we just know that it is the largest that we know of on Earth, and one of the largest that we know of in the Solar System. We will not be sure until we have completely explored the entire ocean floor, under the Antarctic and Greenland ice caps, and the surfaces of every rocky planet and moon in the Solar System. We need to get busy.
Some of it dark and terrible...
Pyraf is a Python module that wraps IRAF. It allows one to write scripts and use all of the power of Python and its packages when doing photometry. It is far easier to do complex analysis using Pyraf than using the IRAF cl. I still sometimes use IRAF scripts from years ago, but I have not written a new one in a long time.
IRAF has a very steep (and unforgiving) learning curve, and thus tends to be beyond most non-technical types. And the technical types are migrating to Pyraf.
There are several difficulties that someone has to overcome in order to make observations with high enough quality to be able to detect exoplanets. First, they need a reasonably large telescope with good optics and a dark site to use it. Second, they need a reliable and well-understood detector. Fortunately CCD detectors have become fairly cheap and easy to use over the past decade, so these are well within reach of a serious amateur astronomer. Third, they need to understand what types of observations are needed to detect exoplanets. It is a little more complex than just pointing the telescope at a star and taking a few exposures. Finally, they need software that can turn their raw data into useful data, and that is not as easy as it sounds. This is where this new software comes in. Photometry software has become much smarter and much more automated since the olden days when DAOPhot ruled the roost back in the late 1980s. However, a photometry software package is only as good as the data that one puts into it. The observations must (must, must, must) be of high quality or the results will will not be. Also, the detector has to be well understood because photometry software needs to be able to correct for instrumental effects (such as slight differences in sensitivity in different parts of the detector, the amount of noise added by the detector [which also varies across the detector], and the length of time it takes to open and close the shutter, amongst other things). So, improved software is an important step forward, but it is unlikely that this new photometry package alone is going to lead to a renaissance in citizen planet hunting.
In the US, if you live in a Stand Your Ground state, just shoot drivers who refuse to yield when you are crossing the road. Be sure to tell the police immediately afterwards and let them know that you were crossing legally and in fear for your life.
We usually blame the victim when someone runs into a pedestrian.
No, that is a myth. Traffic jams occur when the available road space is not being used efficiently. For example, it oly takes one car to enter an interaction when there is no room to exit on the other side and the entire intersection can become locked, even if the total traffic volume is low. Traffic jams occur in many different traffic situation, not just when when the volume is high.
The Cold War was a terrifying time. It is not surprising that the Baby Boomers, who grew up during the worst of it, are such a screwed up generation. However, half the planet did not live like North Korea. North Korea has always been an extreme case. Much of the communist world, while far worse off than the west was, was better off than much of the third world at the time. That is one of the reasons that communism was appealing to many people in the third world. As hard as it may be to imagine, it was an improvement.
I could have sworn that I already posted a clever reply to this story.
Actually, there is considerable evidence that the safety benefits of poorly designed illumination are not real, and that badly though out illumination can actually cause more harm than good. Well lit is not the same thing as brightly lit.
You haven't been to an American public school lately, have you? They are nothing like how you described them.
Not news. Anyone is perfectly willing to demonize and sacrifice anyone in society if it serves any need they perceive.
Fixed that for you.
Bus drivers will become something akin to security guards.
> Out system best performs when it is socially liberal, fiscally conservative, basically Libertarian.
Actually, our system performs best when it is run the way that I think that it should be run.