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User: penguinoid

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  1. Did they forgive his sins while they're at it? on Cell Transplant Allows Paralyzed Man To Walk · · Score: 1

    Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”

    At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!”

    Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” Then the man got up and went home. When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to man.
    --Matthew 9:2-8

    I would totally have told this guy his sins were forgiven.

  2. I smell a fake on The Bogus Batoid Submarine is Wooden, not Yellow (Video) · · Score: 1

    There's something fishy about those subs...

  3. Re:Easy to solve - calibrate them to overestimate on Speed Cameras In Chicago Earn $50M Less Than Expected · · Score: 2

    Overbearing or unsafe traffic policies whose intent is to raise revenue rather than increase safety, are a tax on drivers. Worse than a tax, if they decrease safety.

  4. Re:Oh, another one on Security Company Tries To Hide Flaws By Threatening Infringement Suit · · Score: 1

    Can't say I've ever heard of IClass before. Nor security by litigation. Now I have something to remember them for :-)

  5. Re:Overly broad? on Soda Pop Damages Your Cells' Telomeres · · Score: 1

    Well I would definitely be interested in the mechanism that causes drinkers of fruit juice to have longer telomers, drinkers of soda to have shorter telomers, and doesn't affect drinkers of diet soda and non-carbonated non-juice sweet beverages. However, my suspicion is that the mechanism will be that these people's diet reflects their choice of beverage.

  6. Can't deduce anything from it being a law. on Manga Images Depicting Children Lead to Conviction in UK · · Score: 1

    broke the law plain and simple

    Not all laws are legal. For example, in the US various state constitutions have laws prohibiting atheists from holding public office, but those laws are themselves illegal because the US Constitution declares no such test may be made. Also, not all laws are moral. For example, Nazi Germany. Finally, not all laws are effective toward their supposed objective. For example, drug prohibition laws and the absurd amount of money they funnel to criminals, so you're not safer than without said laws.

  7. Re:Overly broad? on Soda Pop Damages Your Cells' Telomeres · · Score: 1

    OK Mr Anonymous Unverifiable PhD, what if you do a different study? In this new study, thousands of studies are done, and show results with p-values p-1, p-2, p-3, .... However, the results of most of these studies mysteriously vanish, lets say a bunch of them aren't reported by the researcher, and a bunch more are not accepted by any journal of note, and vanish into obscurity. The vanishing studies aren't random, but the vast majority of them are ones where the null hypothesis were not rejected. Besides this, the journals select for the most "interesting" studies, which for this example let's say it means that the results were surprising and in contradiction with either conventional wisdom or previous studies. Let's call the remaining p-values tainted-p-1, tainted-p-2, tainted-p-3. These p-values are nothing new, but rather a subset of the original set. Let's say only 8% (the acceptance rate of Nature) of the original studies make it to this second group, biased towards the more "interesting" studies with mostly positive results.

    So my question to you is, are you equally as confident in the hypotheses from the smaller subset of studies as you are in the hypotheses from the second set? And what, if any, is your mathematical reasoning behind this answer?

  8. Re:Overly broad? on Soda Pop Damages Your Cells' Telomeres · · Score: 1

    The p-value does not measure the confidence people have that the hypothesis is true. The p-value is the probability that the given results support the hypothesis merely as a result of random chance. This means that every sane person considers the probability of the hypothesis being false as higher than the p-value, sometimes several times higher, depending on circumstances.

    For example, if someone tested 20 hypotheses with the same dataset, and only reported one with a p-value of 4%, it is almost certain that the results are meaningless, as per the linked comic. When you factor in the bias toward reporting interesting experiments with statistically significant support for the result, both on behalf of the researcher and the publishing journal, some would consider it generous to have even 20% confidence in an "interesting" result with 4% p-value.

    A p-value of 5% is the absolute minimum allowed in most scientific professions, although several require an even smaller p-value. The only reason p-values that large are even allowed, is because of the economics (and sometimes ethics) of performing experiments. Eg it is more worthwhile to do 10 studies with sample size 100, and then 1 study with sample size 1000 to verify the most interesting result, than to do a single study with sample size 2000.

  9. Re: a quick search on No More Lee-Enfield: Canada's Rangers To Get a Tech Upgrade · · Score: 1

    I should like to hear your proposal for gun parts made in anything other than 3 dimensions.

    Also note he said a 3D scanner, not a 3D printer, although I'm fairly certain that merely knowing the shape is not sufficient since how it got that shape lends a lot to its mechanical properties.

  10. Re:Yeah yeah on Florida Supreme Court: Police Can't Grab Cell Tower Data Without a Warrant · · Score: 1

    Ignorance of the law has never been an excuse, in tradition dating back thousands of years. Though nowadays everyone including the judge and lawyers are ignorant of the law an it is not humanly possible to know all the law. Anyhow, who ever heard of a thief getting off because he claims he didn't know *stealing jewelry while wearing a tuxedo* was illegal (the law never mentions jewelry specifically nor tuxedos, does it?), and promised from now on he won't do exactly that? That's about as believable as those cops claiming that stealing *people's private communications using Stingray towers* was not illegal, and then being told OK but don't do it again. I mean, they might have some sort of case if it weren't for the towers impersonating real ones.

  11. Re:Yeah yeah on Florida Supreme Court: Police Can't Grab Cell Tower Data Without a Warrant · · Score: 1

    Geez, and I was so hoping they'd be recycled as homeless shelters.

    That was one of the uses for prisons while they were still open, though they were more exclusive (ie, required applicants to commit some sort of crime to be allowed in).

  12. Re:Yeah yeah on Florida Supreme Court: Police Can't Grab Cell Tower Data Without a Warrant · · Score: 1

    I guess you didn't understand which criminals I was talking about. Hint: police can commit crimes. And this article is about an illegal activity police have been committing.

  13. Re:Yeah yeah on Florida Supreme Court: Police Can't Grab Cell Tower Data Without a Warrant · · Score: 1

    That reminds me, there was a recent article about a prisoner shortage. As a bonus, putting these criminals in jail will also most likely stop all this complaining about a prisoner shortage.

  14. Yeah yeah on Florida Supreme Court: Police Can't Grab Cell Tower Data Without a Warrant · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Florida Supreme Court rules that a bunch of criminals who broke the most sacred laws of the land, won't get punished for their previous crimes.

  15. Disaster: Facebook abusing your info on Facebook 'Safety Check' Lets Friends Know You're OK After a Major Disaster · · Score: 1

    Facebook comment: don't worry, I'm OK!

  16. Re:Heavier than air flight is impossible on The Physics of Why Cold Fusion Isn't Real · · Score: 1

    Cool -- recursively self-insulting.

  17. Re:Insurance on White House Wants Ideas For "Bootstrapping a Solar System Civilization" · · Score: 1

    This is rocket science. People are supposed to go "tits up".

  18. Re:You want an idea? How about we fund NASA? on White House Wants Ideas For "Bootstrapping a Solar System Civilization" · · Score: 1

    First organization to establish a manned colony for one year owns wherever that colony is, up to an area of 10 million square miles.

    I think you mean, first person to set up space snipers to ward off the competition, gets all the space territory they want.

  19. Re:Baby steps on White House Wants Ideas For "Bootstrapping a Solar System Civilization" · · Score: 1

    How do you know their strategy isn't "Convince the US to give up research so they won't be 'losers'. Then we can finally get ahead of them."? After all, why else declassify that strategy given its not complete?

  20. Re:One word: on White House Wants Ideas For "Bootstrapping a Solar System Civilization" · · Score: 1

    Aren't you supposed to earn awards before you receive them?

    When the Nobel Peace Prize Committee consulted with their time-traveling division, they were told: OK, this guy is going to start a bunch of wars, which will be embarrassing at first. But he'll also finally put us on a path toward space colonization, which will forever change the face of war -- not only will it change the "us vs them" dynamic, but it will also make offensive wars prohibitively costly compared to defensive. Yup, give him the prize.

  21. But is it worth doing? on How Curved Spacetime Can Be Created In a Quantum Optics Lab · · Score: 1

    OK, so they found something that, according to their models, is a model for curved spacetime. Why not just use the original model?

  22. Re:No Brainer on As Prison Population Sinks, Jails Are a Steal · · Score: 1

    Hotels! You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave...

  23. Someone called you out on having moldy bags of cereal, and you're pretending that it is cutting edge research. Like anyone's going to fall for that!

  24. Re:One word: on White House Wants Ideas For "Bootstrapping a Solar System Civilization" · · Score: 1

    To qualify my comment, this is probably the only way he has left, to actually earn that Nobel Peace Prize. Set aside a few piles of money for research, and for engineering/manufacturing, related to colonization. Inspire the public -- make space colonization the top priority even above those scary terr'ists, and above bombing the Middle East (again), even above the economy. It would be a far more popular way to spend our money than on yet another unpopular war.

  25. The one area where patents have reasonable terms on Trans-Pacific Partnership May Endanger World Health, Newly Leaked Chapter Shows · · Score: 2

    As I understand it, pharmaceuticals are the one area where the duration of patents is about right to offset the massive delays and costs of development (due to more stringent testing requirements than the average product). On the other hand, it also means people die because they can't afford the patented medication. Quite the conundrum.