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User: BlueCoder

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  1. Fat causing baldness? on Potential New Cure Found For Baldness (bbc.com) · · Score: 1

    I remember several articles years back talking about how the fat in the scalp produces chemicals or an enzyme which produces baldness. Specifically it kills/starves the follicles.

    Also not sure about how well skin fat survives grafting. But theoretically if you could clone these fat cells and transplant them to areas before they become bald the hair would survive. If they also learn to clone hair follicles in the scalp along with regrowing the right fat cells it would be a cure for baldness.

    Decades away but a nice thought. I think in vitro test tube gene editing with be approved far before we develop the above technique.

    One thing I don't like about hair transplants is the way it leaves you head scared up. You may want hair but you also might want to go bald from time to time.

  2. TLDR; Buy the stock now on Tesla Stock Plunged After Elon Musk's 'Bizarre' Conference Call (wired.com) · · Score: 2

    The stock was over valued. Either buy now or bash on it with you friends and hope for more of a sell off and then buy it.

    It's a good feeling stock. To be frank, Musk doesn't want to run the company anymore and would gladly hand over the reigns to anyone competent but the market doesn't want anyone but him. No one has created a car company in years. He rushed the model X to market following the standard big 3 car model of recalls... which was a disaster. He is being badgered from all sides from workers that want to unionize and the big 3 funding them to the lack of quality lithium-ion batteries at a low enough price. Lots of behind the curtain politics. The problem is it's a bet and the stock is over valued. When everything does come together he will be sitting on a solid foundation. He can't just wave a magic wand.

  3. Suspicious - A new Aaron Swartz? on 'Biohacker' Who Injected Himself With DIY Herpes Treatment Found Dead (livescience.com) · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The title implies that he died from his treatment. He would have continuously been tested since injection in multiple sites across his body as well as blood work. Herpes itself is not fatal. A preliminary examination on the scene would be more informative. If it was his treatment I would have expected him to have been admitted to the hospital for weeks before death.

    It sounds to me like depression and maybe a suicide. The FDA probably came down on him and told him he was blacklisted and no company he was associated with would ever get anything approved.

    Could this be another Aaron Swartz?

  4. Rebar is the problem. on Can We Live Without Concrete? (cnn.com) · · Score: 1

    What is needed is an alternative to steel. Building have a life span maybe up to 100 years. More commonly only 30. Concrete is pourous and invariably water gets absorbed even if it's just water vapor in the air. This rusts the rebar and slowly buildings deteriorate. Structures made without rebar CAN last thousands of years provided there are no earth quakes and they are thicker. But rebar buildings are vastly stronger and more flexable and allows less concrete to be used. If buildings last longer then they won't need to be replaced and more concrete would not be needed.

    So the answer is using more expensive composites that can replace steel but do not deteriorate over time.

  5. The golden age of youtube is over. on YouTube Is Removing Some Nootropics Channels (vice.com) · · Score: 2

    More than likely we need to move over to a torrent style video system and nas boxes with quick erase functions in case of raids. We will undoubtedly be labeled terrorists for wanting to watch non approved content.

    I'm still waiting for the next gen torrents with anonymous cloud storage and with soloman tech and xor pieces such there is no content unless you have all the pieces. And pieces are shared among torrents of different content. It's all split across opaque cloud storage. (Imagine you xor a video of barney the dinosaur with a video on hacking an xbox.) In exchange for you donating storage and bandwidth you get to upvote content.

  6. The price did come down but hardly enough. on GPU Prices Are Falling (venturebeat.com) · · Score: 2

    I'm interested in AMD RX 64 since I invested in a freesync monitor. The price right now is around $800. That is $300 more than the MSRP of $500 at release. This is more than 6 months later so right now the second revision and or custom vendor versions should be coming out and the original card should be going for around $450. By my calculation that is far from being on par.

  7. A 20% increase but still not that bad on PSA: Amazon Will Increase Price of Prime To $119 (cnbc.com) · · Score: 1

    I use to wait til I had the 50-60 minimum to qualify for free shipping. They would sit on it almost two weeks and then ship it in 2 days anyway. Overall the prices are good on amazon. I tried it during the an xmas season one year and did the same the next and I was hooked. I had a bunch of bigger items I wanted to buy and it really was cheaper so I just let it continue. It is really convenient to not have to think about shipping costs. I buy more online because of it. I don't have to do shopping lists, buy multiple items or shop around and with prime it's there in a few days. The "2 day shipping" use to be true; but it's more like 4 days now.

    Now I do have wish lists on amazon, but they are more for things I don't necessarily need. When I need something I buy it and then throw in a couple items from my wish lists.

    $120 is totally worth it.

  8. If you don't know you need it then you don't. on 8K TVs Are Coming, But Don't Buy the Hype (engadget.com) · · Score: 1

    This is for early adopters and content creators. Compression formats are not linear. You can get some extra contrast from existing films on such a display. If your a content creator then you want to see how a particular compression format and it's options will display on future TV's. You want to be able to see artifacts. You might not be able to detect the difference between two sets of options unless you see compare them at a higher resolution. Furthermore displays like this are very useful for medical imaging right now.

  9. Re:This is the economic system... on Doctors Tried To Lower $148K Cancer Drug Cost; Makers Tripled Its Price (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 0

    Here here.

    You understand economics obviously.

    The market was willing to pay 4x and then the doctors learned to use the drug more efficiently. Guess what... the consumers are still willing to pay the same amount of money. Supply was never an issue. The drug company isn't making more money now vs then. It's making the same constant return on investment it's always demanded for developing the drug.

  10. Re:Couple these farms to data centers. on Can We Build Indoor 'Vertical Farms' Near The World's Major Cities? (vox.com) · · Score: 1

    I do believe they were talking about pure LED farms. No windows. No light conduits. Easier to just cover the building with solar cells and produce just the frequencies of light you need specialized for each plant.

  11. It's all about water on Can We Build Indoor 'Vertical Farms' Near The World's Major Cities? (vox.com) · · Score: 1

    People really have no idea about how big a business farming really is and how dependent it is on clean cheap water and sunshine. These people are talking about hydroponics. With the LED's they can grow any plant they want, any time of the year. As far as number of workers; they can ship whole plants to factories to be processed if really needed. But I have seen the trend in grocery stores where with compact plants they sell them with the root ball still intact.

    Further since they are so compact and use less water in growing they can afford to desalinate and recycle their water and chemical nutrients. And AI is sufficient enough to create robot harvesters and pruners over the next 20 years. But the issue here is the buildings. These are not standard reusable buildings. They are three dimensional warehouses. Building laws will need to get changed. Lots of industrial elevators and very few offices and windows.

    But the interesting thing is that should there be a nuclear holocaust in the future these building will be able to keep humans species going.

  12. It's all about the water stupid. on Investor Tim Draper Pushes Ballot Measure Splitting California Into 3 States (sfgate.com) · · Score: 1

    I am generally for splitting up California and have believed so for 30 years. But I have since learned about what stands in it's way.

    On the federal side Senators would be voting to weaken their own votes.

    And probably #1 would be interstate water. Southern California depends on northern California's water. I am in Los Angeles. You hear all about droughts here which is 90% BS. The truth is California has a tremendous farming economy. Cheap water is money here and the farms are squeezing the cities. (I personally believe the big cities should be desalinating ocean water by now and just get out of that game.) And it's only become worse with all the environmental protection laws here which took away something like 30% of the water. If you split up the state your opening up the can of worms that is the all the water contracts and agreements; many of which existed before California was a state. Lawsuit city. All the money behind farming will fight this tooth and nail.

  13. The tech solution... on Schools Are Giving Up on Smartphone Bans (gizmodo.com) · · Score: 0

    Simply jam cell frequencies in the school except maybe at certain times of the day.

    Second install cell phone towers on school property; increases the number of ways you can spy on the kids and over parent them.

    Third make the teens (and school employees) buy special school cell phones which operate on a different frequency and whose software you can lock down.

    The cost would be approximately $150 per child. Alternatively you could buy tablets instead of phones for actual school use (ebooks and digital homework) which could be used as phones in a pinch but not without being noticed. Calls and messages from parents could be allowed and texts between students could be limited and monitored.

  14. I hope the market doesn't throw up again on Tesla Issues Its Largest Recall Ever Voluntarily Over Faulty Model S Steering (theverge.com) · · Score: 1

    I personally think most investors are idiots. Most of Tesla's cars are required to be serviced in their shops. Their motivation isn't for "profit" but rather because it's a new platform and they are looking to spot problems like this. Your required to take your Tesla into the shop something like every six months. So this factory recall probably affects 200 owners that refuse to get their cars serviced for good or bad reasons.

  15. Potentially just as bad on ACLU Urges Cities To Build Public Broadband To Protect Net Neutrality (thehill.com) · · Score: 1

    We don't need cities to become ISP's... what is specifically needed is Last Mile + VPN's as service providers so we can go back to choice like when we had modems and ISP's to choose from. We need VPN's least state and federal governments use them for spying which they will.

  16. Re:Except rotation speeds have already been explai on Galaxy Without Any Dark Matter Baffles Astronomers (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm more surprised this hasn't happened before. To me I believe it's simple. And YES a BELIEF. Gravity spans dimensions. I am more surprised it hasn't been observed before. My question has always been what does that neutrino look like from a different angle.... It's taken us this long simply to detect them. It is really so hard to postulate particles in other dimensions which we can detect through gravity. It it really so hard to believe that Plato couldn't have been partially right?

  17. I couldn't agree more on Facebook is Being Sued Over Housing Discrimination (fastcompany.com) · · Score: 1

    Facebook did little more than do the equivalent of providing a platform like classified ads. It's the people the improperly use it that are in violation.

    Furthermore I think FB should not be required to police their customers.

    P.S. And I don't even like FB but they did nothing wrong.

  18. Destroying the internet on Craigslist Personals, Some Subreddits Disappear After FOSTA Passage (arstechnica.com) · · Score: 2

    I remember when CL revolved the escorts section. I said then that they would move to casual encounters- the did; all be it slowing over a couple years. Now this... which only means they are either going to adopt another forum or just spam all the forums. I can't wait for this to reach the supreme court to be struck down for being overreaching and and an overburden.

    All forums all over the internet are going to be setup with bogus adds by unscrupulous attorneys. I can see many companies coming together showing all the money spent to censor this stuff but it only becoming more prevalent because attorneys can profit from inflating the problem. You are absolutely going to see adds all over big companies forums.

    Hey politicians in congress.... you just screwed over big business and speech at the same time.

  19. I think ST solved this in an unsaid way. on Ask Slashdot: Is Beaming Down In Star Trek a Death Sentence? · · Score: 2

    Specifically there are three "places" you are simultaneously; or maybe two and two. In ST you have a thing called the buffer which is not a computer simulation. It's more a pocket universe. The beaming process involves duplicating you such that you identically exist in two places at once. You more than quantum entangled (you get misreads with quantum entanglement) but rather totally entangled. Almost like a mathematical transformation. You continue to exist alive somewhat constricted by a force field. You exist in real universe and the buffer universe simultaneously while particles in each are synchronized. There is one you in two places then possibly three once once you start to beam to your destination. The magic part is this is happening without measurement but rather magical entanglement on a three dimensional scale. You are one person (information down to the quantum level) existing in multiple places at once to varying degrees in the process in a quasi time.

    Can this be done? Probably not. Let us not forget it was a plot device to speed up the stories rather than spending so much time in shuttles. What can definitely be done is in the relatively new sci-fi drama "Dark Matter". Where your consciousness and memories can be transferred to another body over distance; either a clone of you or possibly a generic body. Then your prime body goes into a deep coma. When the trip is done the new memories are copied back. Now this is really more of the metaphysical conundrum than Star Trek is. One could download to other bodies quite easily which could be a form of immortality as well as take backup of our minds. Traveling to other planets we could download to bodies developed for the environment (like avatar but actually downloaded rather than piloting). At what point could we become so comfortable having multiple bodies that we have no issues destroying the original rather than bear the cost of storage considering we could re-clone if we wanted our original forms?

  20. The singularity is coming. on Machine Learning Spots Treasure Trove of Elusive Viruses (nature.com) · · Score: 1

    Looks like someone beat me to the punch at bring up the question of "AI" or pseudo intelligence.

    Many smart people are shouting the dangers of AI at the moment when we couldn't be further from it. First of all your have to define what intelligence is with whom you start having a discussion first. For instance an I.Q. test can easily be passed by a knowledge engine with a high score but it's hardly a "mind".

    To me a "mind" is one that is capable of doing all the things a human mind can do. A human mind is capable of emotion, confusion, and going crazy as well as logic and intuitive reasoning. There is a structure of neural networks that we are born with. We as of yet have little control over the "wetware".

    But the time is coming for when the brain and artificial neutral networks will combine.Think of it as a smartphone in your head at first. We will have a classic microchip in our head and we will be able to program it as such. Anytime you try to add it's automatically rerouted to the chip which can do it much faster. Similarly we will be able to create and manage massive databases within our minds. It will be much faster than wetware.Then we get into artificial neural chips which we will similarly be able to program. They may start out as very tiny chips but eventually they will become three dimensional. It could at some point reach the size of a golf ball and it will be inside your brain. After that all mental growth will be through external computers we network with.

    The singularity is the point when after you are implanted you don't need to be taught how to use it or how to do anything for that matter. There still will be natural aptitude and the physical knowledge like playing a piano or a guitar but one will be able to pick it up exponentially faster.

    There will be no war with "AI" per say. It will be enhanced "evolving" humans verses natural humans (luddies). There is no skynet.

  21. It does make sense. A good fit. on Amazon Buys Smart Doorbell Maker Ring For a Reported $1 Billion (cnbc.com) · · Score: 1

    Huge installed base. With their money they could sell it for $50. The number one reason I think they want it is delivery confirmation. Both regular and groceries. It would reduce primarily Fraud and secondarily people stealing from doorsteps. That alone is worth the investment. But I hope their either get rid of the cloud video BS and let you store locally or make it totally free.

    If they expand to security cameras and resell security patrols.... (think plain clothes and plenty of cameras) talk about Big Brother. Huge market. They could track theifs by their cell phones and know when they are entering ares they victimize. They can then send patrols into those areas and or put out bulletins to those already there such as regular police. Since they have no direct idea what a person looks like they can profile with less recrimination as to racial profiling and more as to crime statistically increasing when certain people are around. Amazon could totally dominate the security industry.

  22. Looking forward to the new beachfront property on Antarctica Is Losing Ice Faster Every Year (qz.com) · · Score: 2

    I honestly looked this up two weeks ago. I live in Los Angeles and if all the ice north and south melts it really doesn't look all that much different here. To be honest most places do not have the nice warm weather we have here but it looks like that will change and there will actually be more ideal weather in higher northern latitudes. So it suggests to me I should get off my butt and save for some northern real estate. Northern California here I come.

  23. Re:gut biome? on Matching DNA To a Diet Doesn't Work (statnews.com) · · Score: 1

    There is a very complex interaction between the digestive system and the gut biome. Everything suggests that there are various genetic and hormone switches both in both human cells lining the gut, the neverous system, and the constituents of a persons gut biome.

    Simply scanning DNA is unlikely to yield clear indicators. I would argue each person has their own simple neural program (matrix) which they kind of sort of inherit in their DNA along with some random seed input that then interacts with breast milk from their mother as an epigenetic cheat sheet. A baby's body then must then negotiate (nervous system and brain) to cultivate a biome to it's own liking. Some people within the same family might be able to transplant biomes but others may not and would require more extensive and longer term retraining of their body.

  24. Truly a fan of BSD but this PC stuff is disgusting on FreeBSD's New Code of Conduct (freebsd.org) · · Score: 1

    And just like everything it's the people that speak out and perform and lead the community that really matter no matter if you believe it or not. Those you are seeking to passify may be dysfunctional but they are the doers. I am not against a community code of conduct but it has to work socially. Coding and working on tools does not and should not require everyone to have the same morals or creed. I may not personally like an ex Nazi filmmaker but I can respect his artistic contributions for themselves which have nothing to do with a past political creed. I may criticize but I leave judgement to God.

  25. I remember looking into AI in the early 90's on Amazon Is Designing Custom AI Chips For Alexa (theverge.com) · · Score: 1

    I was inspired by TV program showing the "Perceptron". A neural net. It could reasonably identify male vs female faces. This was invented in the 1970. I couldn't find anyone doing anything with it back in '94 and I was baffled as to why not. Why weren't there chips with neural networks...