Indeed. I listened to a podcast a while back in which Robert Krulwich (RadioLab?) discussed randomness with a researcher and how we think about randomness.
A scientist he interviewed stated that she assigned tasks to several different teams. For one team, she instructed them to flip a coin some fixed number of times (perhaps 100) and to then report the sequence of heads and tails (H H T H T T H T T T etc). For the second team, she instructed them to NOT flip a coin, but to simply write down a sequence that they think might be produced by the flipping of the coin. The teams each present their report, and she is not told which list was generated by which means.
However, she said it was easy to spot the "human" generated list, because it rarely contained a sequence of more than a few sequential entries of H H H H, for example. Whereas the truly random list might have even up to NINE sequential heads or tails. The average human just couldn't fathom such a "random" sequence [mathematicians excluded, naturally].
For all of 5 days. Then it became a cringe-making hell for me.
Unless you were one of the uber-elite of gamers out there who knew how to level to demi-godhood on the servers, you were their prey.
The game became less and less fun the more I tried to simply to do something...anything to get better than a lowbie character, the more frustrating it became. I tried mining, and was frequently killed for my hard work. Logging, anything...I was a target for players who wanted nothing more than to kill and enjoy the sweat off of their victim's brow. I couldn't earn money, couldn't advance...
I was a hardcore UO gamer in the beginning, way back when they were making major changes to the karma/reputation system. When starting out as some kind of "laborer" character, your best bet was to be in/near one of the major cities, such as Britain. Here, there were a few places you could practice your skills like lumberjacking, etc within the confines of the guarded city. But once you wanted to leave, well, most of us learned that the "Hiding" skill was something you should learn. If not that, then wear brown/green clothing and learn to stand directly behind a tree in the hopes that any pursuer might not get close enough to spot you.
Later on, I'd play with a few friends. We had horses, decent armor and swords, and we'd sweep through the first two or three levels of a popular dungeon on a frequent basis. It was good fun. Then the Player-Killer tank mages would enter, and you had to use your hiding skill to cower like a little girl, because these "reds" could drop you with a single fireball. Or maybe there was a bug with archery that week which they exploited, instead of the latest magic bug. It was always something.
So between the PKs and the various bugs they would exploit while UO was seemingly in perpetual beta, there's lots of us that felt the way you do. It was unfortunate, yet I still played for nearly a year before I burnt out.
I've got a stone which myself and family have long thought could be a tool. Essentially it's a "flattened golf ball" sized pebble stone with a 1/4"-diameter depression approx 1/2" deep in one flattened side. Everything looks smooth, though, with no visible grooves/striations. Tool (like a spindle handle), or just a coincidence of erosion, etc? I tried looking online for comparisons but found nothing like it. Got any references for tools of this nature?
The best part of it all was I got a job on campus as a math tutor. So here I was when i was 17ish teaching Calculus to a bunch of idiots 10 years my senior. It was funny when the girls asked me out only to find out I was way younger than they, that happened frequently.
(emphasis mine)
I bet even if they could get past the apparent issue of your age, they wouldn't last long once they uncovered your superiority complex. Has it served you well?
I always shake may head in amazement at the evolutionary naysayers. I have found that asking them how antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria have come about so quickly usually shuts them up.
That question will only shut up some of them. You need to prepare your argument when confronted with a creationist who gives you their definitions of micro- and macro-evolution; e.g. bacteria may become resistant, but that's a small change, and macro-evolution doesn't happen ("We didn't come from monkeys!")
Don't you remember the 80's and 90's when there was the big push to get your children's registered -- just in case they were abducted. What do you think happened to THOSE databases.
I've no idea what might have happened to those databases. However, these days there are simpler methods to the same end. My wife got some swabs for a kind of kit which you use to swab the inner cheek of each child, put that swab into a tube, sealed, and then put that tube in your own freezer. Boom, you've got DNA samples for your kids, but they're in YOUR control. Nobody analyzes or uses them unless it's needed. Kind of nice alternative, I think.
Re:But will it get you high when you snort it?
on
Spray-On Liquid Glass
·
· Score: 1
Thank you! This is one of the many reasons why I read Slashdot. For all the loudmouth and/or uninformed comments one can find on this site, it's worth it when I can read the offhand opinions of people familiar with the science of... well, whatever the topic happens to be... Geology, Rocket Science, Brain Surgery, Law, etc.
I work for a large international bicycle company. We've got an in-house team that designs cycling apparel. And I've always been put off looking at our online catalog, wondering why I have to look like a billboard on wheels. The truth is that I don't like all the high-graphic jerseys at all. However, if you are a distance commuter or otherwise undertaking a longer ride, it makes sense to get some of the right kind of clothing (frequently lycra, yes) to wick away sweat and also for freedom of motion & comfort. That being said, I try to wear some kind of loose-fitting poly-blend over any lycra. Nobody needs or wants to see that level of detail on me (hey, I'm a slashdotter).
Obviously the solution is for the NFL to wrangle a trademark for the phrase "Big Game" as it relates to the Super Bowl. Do you think they share any legal resources with the Olympic (TM) (R) (C) committee?
Not only is it possibly harmful to send XHTML (xml) as text/html, all your style and script blocks need to be wrapped in all kinds of comment / (P)CDATA silliness to truly validate correctly, etc. Read the article and you may decide that HTML 4 (strict) is the way to go.
On the other hand, if someone would like to refute the points in the link above, I'd welcome an alternate perspective.
I guess my point is that if you're looking at the business-end of a gun, there are plenty of.22 pistols that look very similar to larger-caliber guns.
Not unless you're in panic-mode. A.22 is so much smaller than any other pistol caliber (except.25, which is also a weeny round) that it can't be mistaken for much else from the front.
And yet, police shoot-to-kill when confronted with something that only vaguely looks like a firearm (squirtgun? cellphone? keys?). It can't always be easy-peasy, can it?
OK, I didn't pay enough attention to my google-fu details... I guess my point is that if you're looking at the business-end of a gun, there are plenty of.22 pistols that look very similar to larger-caliber guns.
And if you're being threatened with one, you may not really be paying enough attention to determine the caliber, aside from the fact that it could be a deadly encounter, regardless.
I know you're joking, but the truth is that a.22 round is more than capable of killing. Years ago, some people used to use them for deer hunting in some areas, but that smaller caliber was banned for deer hunting here in WI -- just not quite lethal ENOUGH (slow death bleeding out) with (frequently) no exit wound.
And unless you're a gun expert, can you tell the difference between this.22 and this 9mm? If you believe that simply holding a functional weapon is a deterrent, your enemy probably isn't going to have time to inspect the details...
I also envision a slew of YouTube videos of drunk-ass morons popping their friends with these to see what it feels like.
This is also how I've felt about concealed carry laws... that drunk morons will hurt/kill themselves or people around them. But when it comes right down to it, drunk morons seem perfectly capable of hurting themselves or others even without guns (of any kind).
Y'know, I love my netbook, but there are some times that it really just doesn't do it for me. Like in a yaris, at night, while someone else is driving down a gravel road. The position you're in is uncomfortable. The keyboard is awkward. The trackpad is tiny and useless when you're bouncing around.
That seems like a pretty high bar. Tiny uncomfortable vehicle, at night, on a bumpy gravel road? It could be that this is one of those times that a person puts the computing devices away. Under those conditions, it may also be difficult to even read a paperback.
I decided to go ahead, and I know exactly why I made that choice based on scientific data. If someone else is informed of the scientific data and chooses against circumcision, I fully respect that and have no problem with it.
I am struggling with this decision for my son; can you please provide the scientific data?
Having viewed the circumcision video posted elsethread, right now I'm thinking no.
...Stu
The procedure is by no means a pleasant thing to view, but that video is far from the truth I witnessed twice. That video DOES in fact look pretty barbaric. I think I might have throttled that doctor myself if I'd been there. It's no wonder the anti-circ crowd wants to use THAT as their propaganda. You want a run-down of the procedure itself?
Diaper removal. Doc hands me a small creamer-sized container of sugar water, into which I intermittently dip my (gloved) pinky, and my son happily sucks/drinks the sweetness. Puts him at ease a bit, during which time the pediatrician uses a small needle to administer an anesthetic nerve block on the groin area once on each side of the base of the penis.
Give a minute or two for the nerve block to do its thing, while giving sugar water. Baby sucks/drinks, but never cries (neither of them did). See the last paragraph of this section: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumcision#Pain%20and%20pain%20relief It describes exactly what procedure my sons received. Maximum pain relief possible. And the procedure my boys had looks a whole LOT more like what you can see here: http://newborns.stanford.edu/Gomco.html
Keep in mind that I had a very experienced pediatrician who's done hundreds in the duration of his practice, and each procedure was less than 10min.
As for the science, you can ask your pediatrician or doctor about the benefits in terms of infections and STD compared with those of uncircumsized individuals. I can't quote numbers, because it's been 4yrs since I had that discussion with my pediatrician and can't recite the data from memory. For us, it was also a matter of the boys feeling confident in themselves when they know they look "the same as daddy" (I expect all who have never made this decision to balk at the thought).
I definitely won't tell you what to do. Get a doc that you trust. Ask for his professional input to make your own decision. Whatever you decide, you're the boss, don't forget it. Best of luck to you!
Slashdot Mirror
Even today I can't stand the Für Elise melody...
I can hardly stand that melody myself, and that's just because of an annoying association with a 20yr old McDonald's commercial of a piano recital.
Indeed. I listened to a podcast a while back in which Robert Krulwich (RadioLab?) discussed randomness with a researcher and how we think about randomness.
A scientist he interviewed stated that she assigned tasks to several different teams. For one team, she instructed them to flip a coin some fixed number of times (perhaps 100) and to then report the sequence of heads and tails (H H T H T T H T T T etc). For the second team, she instructed them to NOT flip a coin, but to simply write down a sequence that they think might be produced by the flipping of the coin. The teams each present their report, and she is not told which list was generated by which means.
However, she said it was easy to spot the "human" generated list, because it rarely contained a sequence of more than a few sequential entries of H H H H, for example. Whereas the truly random list might have even up to NINE sequential heads or tails. The average human just couldn't fathom such a "random" sequence [mathematicians excluded, naturally].
Years ago, I played UO and enjoyed it.
For all of 5 days. Then it became a cringe-making hell for me.
Unless you were one of the uber-elite of gamers out there who knew how to level to demi-godhood on the servers, you were their prey.
The game became less and less fun the more I tried to simply to do something...anything to get better than a lowbie character, the more frustrating it became. I tried mining, and was frequently killed for my hard work. Logging, anything...I was a target for players who wanted nothing more than to kill and enjoy the sweat off of their victim's brow. I couldn't earn money, couldn't advance...
I was a hardcore UO gamer in the beginning, way back when they were making major changes to the karma/reputation system. When starting out as some kind of "laborer" character, your best bet was to be in/near one of the major cities, such as Britain. Here, there were a few places you could practice your skills like lumberjacking, etc within the confines of the guarded city. But once you wanted to leave, well, most of us learned that the "Hiding" skill was something you should learn. If not that, then wear brown/green clothing and learn to stand directly behind a tree in the hopes that any pursuer might not get close enough to spot you.
Later on, I'd play with a few friends. We had horses, decent armor and swords, and we'd sweep through the first two or three levels of a popular dungeon on a frequent basis. It was good fun. Then the Player-Killer tank mages would enter, and you had to use your hiding skill to cower like a little girl, because these "reds" could drop you with a single fireball. Or maybe there was a bug with archery that week which they exploited, instead of the latest magic bug. It was always something.
So between the PKs and the various bugs they would exploit while UO was seemingly in perpetual beta, there's lots of us that felt the way you do. It was unfortunate, yet I still played for nearly a year before I burnt out.
I've got a stone which myself and family have long thought could be a tool. Essentially it's a "flattened golf ball" sized pebble stone with a 1/4"-diameter depression approx 1/2" deep in one flattened side. Everything looks smooth, though, with no visible grooves/striations. Tool (like a spindle handle), or just a coincidence of erosion, etc? I tried looking online for comparisons but found nothing like it. Got any references for tools of this nature?
The best part of it all was I got a job on campus as a math tutor. So here I was when i was 17ish teaching Calculus to a bunch of idiots 10 years my senior. It was funny when the girls asked me out only to find out I was way younger than they, that happened frequently.
(emphasis mine)
I bet even if they could get past the apparent issue of your age, they wouldn't last long once they uncovered your superiority complex. Has it served you well?
I always shake may head in amazement at the evolutionary naysayers. I have found that asking them how antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria have come about so quickly usually shuts them up.
That question will only shut up some of them. You need to prepare your argument when confronted with a creationist who gives you their definitions of micro- and macro-evolution; e.g. bacteria may become resistant, but that's a small change, and macro-evolution doesn't happen ("We didn't come from monkeys!")
Probably port 9001.
It's over 9000!
I think she was in that bath for about 2 hours. I could do no wrong for months afterwords.
Lucky guy. Good for you. My wife would forget all about the bath the very first time I leave a sock on the floor.
Don't you remember the 80's and 90's when there was the big push to get your children's registered -- just in case they were abducted. What do you think happened to THOSE databases.
I've no idea what might have happened to those databases. However, these days there are simpler methods to the same end. My wife got some swabs for a kind of kit which you use to swab the inner cheek of each child, put that swab into a tube, sealed, and then put that tube in your own freezer. Boom, you've got DNA samples for your kids, but they're in YOUR control. Nobody analyzes or uses them unless it's needed. Kind of nice alternative, I think.
You write for CSI and NUMB3RS, don't you!?
on a HP Pavilion...
Well, HERE'S yer problem...
Thank you! This is one of the many reasons why I read Slashdot. For all the loudmouth and/or uninformed comments one can find on this site, it's worth it when I can read the offhand opinions of people familiar with the science of... well, whatever the topic happens to be... Geology, Rocket Science, Brain Surgery, Law, etc.
I work for a large international bicycle company. We've got an in-house team that designs cycling apparel. And I've always been put off looking at our online catalog, wondering why I have to look like a billboard on wheels. The truth is that I don't like all the high-graphic jerseys at all. However, if you are a distance commuter or otherwise undertaking a longer ride, it makes sense to get some of the right kind of clothing (frequently lycra, yes) to wick away sweat and also for freedom of motion & comfort. That being said, I try to wear some kind of loose-fitting poly-blend over any lycra. Nobody needs or wants to see that level of detail on me (hey, I'm a slashdotter).
Obviously the solution is for the NFL to wrangle a trademark for the phrase "Big Game" as it relates to the Super Bowl. Do you think they share any legal resources with the Olympic (TM) (R) (C) committee?
A case against XHTML
Not only is it possibly harmful to send XHTML (xml) as text/html, all your style and script blocks need to be wrapped in all kinds of comment / (P)CDATA silliness to truly validate correctly, etc. Read the article and you may decide that HTML 4 (strict) is the way to go.
On the other hand, if someone would like to refute the points in the link above, I'd welcome an alternate perspective.
I guess I'd assumed most people had seen it before, but it's actually here:
http://www.angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif
"Parmesan comma"? That's brilliant. Love it! I also enjoy pointing people to the "Bob the Angry Flower" comic regarding apostrophe usage.
It's too bad you thought the girls were impressed. ;)
Not unless you're in panic-mode. A .22 is so much smaller than any other pistol caliber (except .25, which is also a weeny round) that it can't be mistaken for much else from the front.
And yet, police shoot-to-kill when confronted with something that only vaguely looks like a firearm (squirtgun? cellphone? keys?). It can't always be easy-peasy, can it?
OK, I didn't pay enough attention to my google-fu details... I guess my point is that if you're looking at the business-end of a gun, there are plenty of .22 pistols that look very similar to larger-caliber guns.
And if you're being threatened with one, you may not really be paying enough attention to determine the caliber, aside from the fact that it could be a deadly encounter, regardless.
I know you're joking, but the truth is that a .22 round is more than capable of killing. Years ago, some people used to use them for deer hunting in some areas, but that smaller caliber was banned for deer hunting here in WI -- just not quite lethal ENOUGH (slow death bleeding out) with (frequently) no exit wound.
And unless you're a gun expert, can you tell the difference between this .22 and this 9mm? If you believe that simply holding a functional weapon is a deterrent, your enemy probably isn't going to have time to inspect the details...
I also envision a slew of YouTube videos of drunk-ass morons popping their friends with these to see what it feels like.
This is also how I've felt about concealed carry laws... that drunk morons will hurt/kill themselves or people around them. But when it comes right down to it, drunk morons seem perfectly capable of hurting themselves or others even without guns (of any kind).
wut.
Y'know, I love my netbook, but there are some times that it really just doesn't do it for me. Like in a yaris, at night, while someone else is driving down a gravel road. The position you're in is uncomfortable. The keyboard is awkward. The trackpad is tiny and useless when you're bouncing around.
That seems like a pretty high bar. Tiny uncomfortable vehicle, at night, on a bumpy gravel road? It could be that this is one of those times that a person puts the computing devices away. Under those conditions, it may also be difficult to even read a paperback.
I decided to go ahead, and I know exactly why I made that choice based on scientific data. If someone else is informed of the scientific data and chooses against circumcision, I fully respect that and have no problem with it.
I am struggling with this decision for my son; can you please provide the scientific data?
Having viewed the circumcision video posted elsethread, right now I'm thinking no.
...Stu
The procedure is by no means a pleasant thing to view, but that video is far from the truth I witnessed twice. That video DOES in fact look pretty barbaric. I think I might have throttled that doctor myself if I'd been there. It's no wonder the anti-circ crowd wants to use THAT as their propaganda. You want a run-down of the procedure itself?
Diaper removal. Doc hands me a small creamer-sized container of sugar water, into which I intermittently dip my (gloved) pinky, and my son happily sucks/drinks the sweetness. Puts him at ease a bit, during which time the pediatrician uses a small needle to administer an anesthetic nerve block on the groin area once on each side of the base of the penis.
Give a minute or two for the nerve block to do its thing, while giving sugar water. Baby sucks/drinks, but never cries (neither of them did). See the last paragraph of this section:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumcision#Pain%20and%20pain%20relief
It describes exactly what procedure my sons received. Maximum pain relief possible. And the procedure my boys had looks a whole LOT more like what you can see here:
http://newborns.stanford.edu/Gomco.html
Keep in mind that I had a very experienced pediatrician who's done hundreds in the duration of his practice, and each procedure was less than 10min.
As for the science, you can ask your pediatrician or doctor about the benefits in terms of infections and STD compared with those of uncircumsized individuals. I can't quote numbers, because it's been 4yrs since I had that discussion with my pediatrician and can't recite the data from memory. For us, it was also a matter of the boys feeling confident in themselves when they know they look "the same as daddy" (I expect all who have never made this decision to balk at the thought).
I definitely won't tell you what to do. Get a doc that you trust. Ask for his professional input to make your own decision. Whatever you decide, you're the boss, don't forget it. Best of luck to you!