The cry "Correlation != causation" is now the official Slashdot signal for someone who doesn't know what they're talking about, and probably didn't read the article.
(1) This research is done on a computer model of each possible behavior. It's a designed experiment. Neil A. Weiss, Introductory Statistics p. 22: "In a designed experiment, researchers impose treatments and controls and then observe charactersitics and take measurements. Observational studies can reveal only association, whereas designed experiments can help establish causation." (Emphasis his.)
(2) The issue of slack between cars is not overlooked, it's *included as a major component of the reasearch*. FTA: "However, there is one rule you shouldn't break, according to a new analysis of how high-volume traffic flows along a highway. Cecile Appert-Rolland, a physicist at the University of Paris-Sud, looked at the tailing distances between cars traveling on a busy two-lane expressway in the suburbs of Paris. Most people have heard of the 'three-second rule' for following distances; after the car ahead of you passes a point on the road, count to three. If you pass the same object before you get to three, you're following too closely...
I'll one up that: Based on my experience in several software engineering companies (video games), my policy is now to find a new job ASAP when your company gets bought out, even if they DO say they want to keep you! (That being standard operating procedure -- not hearing that is the equivalent of an immediate pink slip.)
Engineers can only really advance by switching companies. Definitely best to jump ship when some people are talking about you and you have some leverage, no doubt about it.
FTA (NY Times) there's also this: "In response to one Facebook user who voiced disagreement, Ms. Landor referred to Professor Gates using a vulgarity and added, 'And racial profiling does exist, but for good reason. Take a look at this country's jails: who makes up the majority of inmates? Exactly.'"
Methinks there's a lot of protesting-too-much these days.
Coouple interesting things: (1) It's not an individual landlord doing this, it's a large real estate company. Hey, companies do stupid things. (2) Read the following proud quote and hope the die by their own sword:
"How much damage can a Tweet do? According to property management company Horizon Realty, $50,000 worth... Horizon's Jeffrey Michael is quoted in the Sun-Times as saying 'The statements are obviously false, and it's our intention to prove that', adding that Horizon has a good reputation to protect. Bonnen wasn't contacted before the suit was filed or asked to remove the Tweet, he said: 'We're a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organization'."
Consider this headline: "Blackboard Breakdown: CUNY in a 'Very Difficult Box to Get Out of' After Online Centralization Plan Backfires". (CUNY, City University of New York, third-largest university system in the US, 21 campuses).
"Blackboard 8 had never been used at a university close to the size of CUNY, where it has 130,000 users including 8,000 faculty members. When the semester started, Blackboard buckled under the load, which peaked at 35,000 users every three hours during peak activity. Sporadic Blackboard service during the first weeks of the semester meant many students could not submit their assignments, take quizzes or stay in contact with their instructors."
There's a lot of bull being thrown around in that interview. In response to the first question about whether the US market can accept micro-transaction games:
"I think a great example of that is Rock Band. That game is based wholly on micro-transactions and has a really high cost of entry, you know? With Rock Band you're not just buying the game, you're buying all of the peripherals and equipment... World of Warcraft has micro-transactions and people don't even think about it. Their micro-transactions are fairly steep at times - like $25 to move your character to another realm - and that's account-wide micro-transactions."
If an item is "really high cost" and/or "fairly steep", then it's not a micro-transaction, duh. And look, our game is comparable to both Rock Band and WOW, right.
"TBD is better than the answers you get for coal:"
Nonsense. You can't say that TBD is better or worse than anything; it's TBD. When evaluating "NAN < CoalCost", the answer is FALSE.
In all likelihood, future generations will wind up paying more for cleanup than the value we get out of the power today. It's one of the very examples of an "externality" in the article here.
"I grew up watching this stuff as a kid. The America we had back then is a far cry from that we have today. Gone is the self reliant take responsibility for one's self and actions. Now we have the wealth envy its not fair someone who works harder has more stuff crowd that can only relive the accomplishments of past generations because all they have nothing to show for themselves (mainly because it would require DOING SOMETHING)"
Just the opposite -- I think the main problem is that nowadays we no longer feel it necessary to PAY our fair share for our DEBTS.
Indeed, let's return to those halcyon days of our youth. Let's re-establish the top income tax rate at 77% as it was in 1969 (instead of today's pittance 35%). That will solve many of our problems, as it did for our parent's and grandparent's generations, who were not such belly-achers as we.
"I can see how this could be made to work. Have a 'better' photo for use on wikipedia.org, and point to an alternate free copy for use e.g. when other sites re-use wikipedia."
So then I cannot (technically within the law) just print out a Wikipedia page and hand it to somebody else. I have to go check licenses and re-mix with secondary images, etc. Far too much hassle.
You answered as you did because you didn't want to fulfill your civic obligation, not because you are truthful.
That is very much not the case. I had no way of knowing in advance that that would get me booted off the jury pool. I was very much surprised and distressed because of it afterwards.
Like I said above, none of the nullification advocates ever point out in these discussions that you have to keep it a secret. The fact that belief in nullification is grounds for removal in most states is even less well publicized than nullification itself.
That said, in the future I am not willing to lie to get on a jury. Trying to call my truth-telling a lie is shockingly Orwellian.
All happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
That's interesting. I think just yesterday I said exactly the opposite.
Everyone I know who's furiously pusued the American married-with-2-kids nuclear family ideal is miserable. Everyone I know who has some alternative-y lifestyle (without marriage, kids, lucrative job, white picket fence, or some combination) seems a lot happier.
No, you can't tell the judge you believe in Nullification. Judges and most lawyers are against the very idea of nullification. You can still legally implement it though. But if a judge even gets a hint that your trying before the verdict is read, your out.
That's nice and is never brought up in these discussions. Note that the judge in my case actually asked the jury pool (something like): "Does everyone agree that you have to follow all of the judge's instructions on legal issues?"
Assuming that's common, then I actually have to set out to lie in order to get on a jury, and frankly, I don't even want to be there that bad.
The jury does not have to follow the judges rule or of the law as applied to the trial. The wit, if the jury believes a law to be wrong or a bad law they can disregard the law and rule against it.
I actually said that to a judge in Boston when I had jury duty in a criminal case about 4 years ago. I was instantaneously booted from the jury pool. (Yay, I guess?)
I'm not opposed to religion, but I strongly feel that its teachings should only be used in a philosophical context, and not -- for example -- for informing our actions w.r.t. the physical/natural world.
Bone to pick: Religion is equally worthless in discussing philosophical subjects.
I know that it's a popular rhetorical device to try and "fence in" religion to a limited domain of non-scientific topics such as ethics (as published most widely by Stephen J. Gould). But as someone who has degrees in both philosophy and mathematics, I've got to say this: belief in fictional, mythological spirits can only be damaging to serious discussions about any subject area.
"If my Comcast service stops working, and is still not working after the usual sanity checks (restart Firefox, ping google, reset modem and router, etc.), I, uh, call Comcast."
The difference is that you can recognize the connection is Comcast's responsibility. Think of all the slobs who are calling Dell, or Microsoft, or GoDaddy, or Best Buy, or their personal web designer when their ISP goes down.
Slashdot Mirror
That's exactly what I said the other day (and got slammed for) in the "first new nuke plant in US" story that was so widely cheered here.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1310417&cid=28775389
The cry "Correlation != causation" is now the official Slashdot signal for someone who doesn't know what they're talking about, and probably didn't read the article.
(1) This research is done on a computer model of each possible behavior. It's a designed experiment. Neil A. Weiss, Introductory Statistics p. 22: "In a designed experiment, researchers impose treatments and controls and then observe charactersitics and take measurements. Observational studies can reveal only association, whereas designed experiments can help establish causation." (Emphasis his.)
(2) The issue of slack between cars is not overlooked, it's *included as a major component of the reasearch*. FTA: "However, there is one rule you shouldn't break, according to a new analysis of how high-volume traffic flows along a highway. Cecile Appert-Rolland, a physicist at the University of Paris-Sud, looked at the tailing distances between cars traveling on a busy two-lane expressway in the suburbs of Paris. Most people have heard of the 'three-second rule' for following distances; after the car ahead of you passes a point on the road, count to three. If you pass the same object before you get to three, you're following too closely...
I'll one up that: Based on my experience in several software engineering companies (video games), my policy is now to find a new job ASAP when your company gets bought out, even if they DO say they want to keep you! (That being standard operating procedure -- not hearing that is the equivalent of an immediate pink slip.)
Engineers can only really advance by switching companies. Definitely best to jump ship when some people are talking about you and you have some leverage, no doubt about it.
FTA (NY Times) there's also this: "In response to one Facebook user who voiced disagreement, Ms. Landor referred to Professor Gates using a vulgarity and added, 'And racial profiling does exist, but for good reason. Take a look at this country's jails: who makes up the majority of inmates? Exactly.'"
Methinks there's a lot of protesting-too-much these days.
Coouple interesting things: (1) It's not an individual landlord doing this, it's a large real estate company. Hey, companies do stupid things. (2) Read the following proud quote and hope the die by their own sword:
"How much damage can a Tweet do? According to property management company Horizon Realty, $50,000 worth... Horizon's Jeffrey Michael is quoted in the Sun-Times as saying 'The statements are obviously false, and it's our intention to prove that', adding that Horizon has a good reputation to protect. Bonnen wasn't contacted before the suit was filed or asked to remove the Tweet, he said: 'We're a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organization'."
http://mashable.com/2009/07/28/woman-sued-tweet/
Consider this headline: "Blackboard Breakdown: CUNY in a 'Very Difficult Box to Get Out of' After Online Centralization Plan Backfires". (CUNY, City University of New York, third-largest university system in the US, 21 campuses).
"Blackboard 8 had never been used at a university close to the size of CUNY, where it has 130,000 users including 8,000 faculty members. When the semester started, Blackboard buckled under the load, which peaked at 35,000 users every three hours during peak activity. Sporadic Blackboard service during the first weeks of the semester meant many students could not submit their assignments, take quizzes or stay in contact with their instructors."
http://www.indypendent.org/2009/06/12/blackboard_breakdown/
This is a beautiful, well-written essay. One of the best linked from Slashdot in my memory.
"Automotive stories are few and far between on Slashdot..."
What? Slashdot is like the information superhighway itself, where every story that passes by is expressed in terms of a car analogy.
There's a lot of bull being thrown around in that interview. In response to the first question about whether the US market can accept micro-transaction games:
"I think a great example of that is Rock Band. That game is based wholly on micro-transactions and has a really high cost of entry, you know? With Rock Band you're not just buying the game, you're buying all of the peripherals and equipment... World of Warcraft has micro-transactions and people don't even think about it. Their micro-transactions are fairly steep at times - like $25 to move your character to another realm - and that's account-wide micro-transactions."
If an item is "really high cost" and/or "fairly steep", then it's not a micro-transaction, duh. And look, our game is comparable to both Rock Band and WOW, right.
"TBD is better than the answers you get for coal:"
Nonsense. You can't say that TBD is better or worse than anything; it's TBD. When evaluating "NAN < CoalCost", the answer is FALSE.
In all likelihood, future generations will wind up paying more for cleanup than the value we get out of the power today. It's one of the very examples of an "externality" in the article here.
"The waste is owned by the DOE, and is not the property or responsibility of the utilities."
Precisely, an "externality". We will end up paying more for it in the future.
"TVA's board decided in 2007 to finish the reactor because it is projected to provide cheaper, no carbon-emitting power..."
Where does the waste go? (TBD) What is the cost of waste disposal? (TBD) Have they factored that cost into their calculations? (No)
"Vanish is meant to protect communication between two trusted parties, researchers say."
That doesn't make any sense. Just use regular encryption for that.
"I grew up watching this stuff as a kid. The America we had back then is a far cry from that we have today. Gone is the self reliant take responsibility for one's self and actions. Now we have the wealth envy its not fair someone who works harder has more stuff crowd that can only relive the accomplishments of past generations because all they have nothing to show for themselves (mainly because it would require DOING SOMETHING)"
Just the opposite -- I think the main problem is that nowadays we no longer feel it necessary to PAY our fair share for our DEBTS.
Indeed, let's return to those halcyon days of our youth. Let's re-establish the top income tax rate at 77% as it was in 1969 (instead of today's pittance 35%). That will solve many of our problems, as it did for our parent's and grandparent's generations, who were not such belly-achers as we.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_tax_in_the_United_States#Tax_rates_in_history
"I can see how this could be made to work. Have a 'better' photo for use on wikipedia.org, and point to an alternate free copy for use e.g. when other sites re-use wikipedia."
So then I cannot (technically within the law) just print out a Wikipedia page and hand it to somebody else. I have to go check licenses and re-mix with secondary images, etc. Far too much hassle.
Wikipedia becomes "Look, but don't touch".
You answered as you did because you didn't want to fulfill your civic obligation, not because you are truthful.
That is very much not the case. I had no way of knowing in advance that that would get me booted off the jury pool. I was very much surprised and distressed because of it afterwards.
Like I said above, none of the nullification advocates ever point out in these discussions that you have to keep it a secret. The fact that belief in nullification is grounds for removal in most states is even less well publicized than nullification itself.
That said, in the future I am not willing to lie to get on a jury. Trying to call my truth-telling a lie is shockingly Orwellian.
All happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
That's interesting. I think just yesterday I said exactly the opposite.
Everyone I know who's furiously pusued the American married-with-2-kids nuclear family ideal is miserable. Everyone I know who has some alternative-y lifestyle (without marriage, kids, lucrative job, white picket fence, or some combination) seems a lot happier.
No, you can't tell the judge you believe in Nullification. Judges and most lawyers are against the very idea of nullification. You can still legally implement it though. But if a judge even gets a hint that your trying before the verdict is read, your out.
That's nice and is never brought up in these discussions. Note that the judge in my case actually asked the jury pool (something like): "Does everyone agree that you have to follow all of the judge's instructions on legal issues?"
Assuming that's common, then I actually have to set out to lie in order to get on a jury, and frankly, I don't even want to be there that bad.
The jury does not have to follow the judges rule or of the law as applied to the trial. The wit, if the jury believes a law to be wrong or a bad law they can disregard the law and rule against it.
I actually said that to a judge in Boston when I had jury duty in a criminal case about 4 years ago. I was instantaneously booted from the jury pool. (Yay, I guess?)
Clean air, clean water, clean land. These are things no one is going to argue with.
This is untrue (among several things in your post). My own father argues that it is too expensive and tax-intrusive to act on these issues.
I'm not opposed to religion, but I strongly feel that its teachings should only be used in a philosophical context, and not -- for example -- for informing our actions w.r.t. the physical/natural world.
Bone to pick: Religion is equally worthless in discussing philosophical subjects.
I know that it's a popular rhetorical device to try and "fence in" religion to a limited domain of non-scientific topics such as ethics (as published most widely by Stephen J. Gould). But as someone who has degrees in both philosophy and mathematics, I've got to say this: belief in fictional, mythological spirits can only be damaging to serious discussions about any subject area.
You don't get to get pissy when a store's security cameras capture your image.
Bullshit. I get to be pissy about whatever the hell I feel like. Especially 1984-esque encroaching omni-surveillence.
In fact, cameras in stores and venues are indeed one of the factors I use in deciding whether to return there for future business.
Actually, union rules would have forbidden him from touching the plane in the U.S. even if were an American in that union.
Skeptical. Reference?
"If my Comcast service stops working, and is still not working after the usual sanity checks (restart Firefox, ping google, reset modem and router, etc.), I, uh, call Comcast."
The difference is that you can recognize the connection is Comcast's responsibility. Think of all the slobs who are calling Dell, or Microsoft, or GoDaddy, or Best Buy, or their personal web designer when their ISP goes down.
"What I am saying is: given adequate support, libraries can stay open indefinitely."
Given adequate support, websites can also stay open indefinitely.
What I am saying is: That's a pretty big "given".